Meeting of the Baltimore County Board of Education - February 25, 2025

001e e e good afternoon this is chairwoman Jane lter I call to order the meeting of the Board of Education of Balmer County for Tuesday February 25th 2025 this evening's Board of Education meeting is being broadcast through the BCPS online live meeting broadcast and on BCPS TV Xfinity channel 73 and Verizon FiOS channel 34 in order to efficiently conduct this meeting all voting items this evening will be done by roll call vote May I have a motion to go into closed session as permitted by the open meetings act as found in the annotated code of Maryland General Provisions article 3-35 B1 and B7 to discuss the appointment employment assign promotion discipline demotion compensation removal resignation or performance evaluation of appointees employees or officials over whom it has jurisdiction or any other Personnel matter that affects

002one or more specific individuals and consult with Council to obtain legal advice thank you is there a second second thank you may I have a roll call vote please miss h Miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss chulu yes Miss delaski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss domanowski yes thank you the next item is the approval of close whoops sorry Miss Lor yes oops oh yes okay tell me when we're ready e e e I got a bang okay good evening this is chairwoman Jane lter and I now call to order the meeting of the Board of Education of Baltimore County for Tuesday February 25th 20125 I invite you to recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag to be led by Miss

003chikao we will then have a moment of silence and recognition of those who have served education in Baltimore County Al flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands thank you before we start I just would like to um thank everybody for their patience and apologize for the delay we really truly try to start on time but um tonight we needed a longer closed session so thank you for your patience tonight's Board of Education meeting is being broadcast through the BCPS online live meeting broadcast and on BCPS Comcast Xfinity channel 73 and Verizon FiOS channel 34 in order to efficiently conduct this meeting all voting items this evening will be done by roll call vote the first item are you watching and listening at the same time the first item

004on the agenda genda is the consideration of the February 25th agenda Dr Rogers are there any additions or changes to tonight's agenda I am unaware of any additions or changes to this evening's agenda Madam chair yes I would like to invite a motion to amend the agenda to add an item to propose a resolution regarding immigration enforcement in Baltimore County public is there a second okay thank you Mr McMillian may we have a roll call vote please to for the additional agenda item Miss Rong yes Miss Boer DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss Chik Kulu yes mrki yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss Lor yes thank you what's so we can place it before um information before J as new J so the additional

005agenda item will become J and then information will become K and so forth um I'm sorry was there any we didn't do a discussion on the additional agenda item now miss burey said I can't is there any I guess I really can't um okay the revised agenda is approved period okay all right the next item on the agenda is personel matters and for that I call Mr mcau Good chair Lor Vice chair Harvey superintendent Dr Rogers and members of the board like the board consent for the following Personnel matters we have retirements resignations and certificated appointments do I have a motion to approve the Personnel matters as presented in exhibits D1 through D3 so move stesy thank you do I have a second second thank you any discussion may I have a roll call vote

006please miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss CH Kulu yes Miss Del yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss Lor yes thank you I I going back one agenda item for those of you who are following closely I skipped um closed session earlier this evening the board met in closed session pursuant to the open meetings act for the following reasons to discuss the appointment employment assignment promotion discipline demotion compensation removal resignation or performance evaluation of appointees employees or officials over whom it has jurisdiction or any other Personnel matter that affects one or more specific individuals and consult with councel to obtain legal advice the closed session summary and the Open Session information summary can be found on board dos under this

007board meeting agenda the next item on the agenda is Administrative appointments and for that I call on Dr Rogers thank you Madame chair Lor Vice chair Harvey and members of the board I'm bringing forward the following administrative appointments for your approval principal Marsa State Elementary School and specialist research Department of research accountability and assessment do I have a motion to approve the Personnel matters as presented in exhibit E1 so move py thank you do I have a second second from Pa thank you any discussion may I have a roll call vote please hello Miss H yes rang yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss Chik K yes Miss delusi yes Dr sooy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss Lor yes thank you thank you Dr

008Rogers oh sorry thank you our first appointment this evening is Shelby bardoff Shelby please stand to be recognized Shelby is attending with her father Sam and is being appointed as the principal please Ry sir thank you and is being appointed as the principal at Mars Estates Elementary School with TW with 22 years of experience with Baltimore County Public Schools Shelby's prior experiences include classroom teacher at Scotts Branch Elementary glenar elementary and dundock elementary schools and assistant principal at Hawthorne Elementary and Shady Spring elementary schools and she's joined by both principles this evening congratulations so [Applause] Jo our final appointment for this evening is Dr Brock Brock couch please stand Brock is attending with his significant other Chris scrier and is being appointed as the specialist research in the department of research accountability and assessment Brock's

009experiences include Center of acoustic research education stem assessment advisor at the University of New Hampshire and assistant teaching professor at lyola University congratulations and welcome to BCPS and congratulations to both of our pointees I do have a special um congratulations for Shelby I was able to watch her um Journey as an AP and I'm thrilled for you in your new role as principal of moris Estates so congrats our next item is public comment this is one of the opportunities the board provides to hear the views and receive the advice of community members if not selected to address the board members of the public May submit their comments to the board members via email at Boe bcps.org the Baltimore County Police Department's Homeland Security unit and office of school safety has recommended Safety and Security protocols

010which are posted in the boardroom and available in board docs and on the board's participation by the public website while we encourage public input on policy programs and practices within the purview of this board and this school system this is not the proper form to address specific student or employee matters or to comment on matters that do not relate Rel 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 content of this meeting are out of order and will not be tolerated persons who otherwise disrupt or disturb this meeting will not be allowed to continue their remarks and will be escorted from the meeting please OB observe the 3em minute clock which will let you know

011when your time is up the microphone will be turned off at the end of your time or prior to that time at the discretion of the board chair we'll begin with our school system Affiliated groups and the first one is um Victoria rarin I'm sure I botched that up um and she is with the special education citizens advisory committee oh good evening the Overflow oh overflow uh oh um can you just pronounce your last name for me Ram nine Ram nine okay thank you well good evening everyone my name is Victory and I am a co-chair of the Baltimore County Special Education citizens advisory committee and the mom of an an autistic seven-year-old student who attends school here in Baltimore County you recently learned about my son in December as I shared his story of

012playing in his first piano recital and how he's starting to have his first many conversations with me and I shared how crucial his current Special Education team is to his progress as a student here I wanted to give you a bit of an update this past weekend my seven-year-old insisted on giving a congratulatory speech at my niece's sweet 16 and my face still hurts from like smiling so hard about it while I like to take credit for his microphone skills I can also credit his in school speech therapy for helping to build his speaking skills my son was also recently accepted for two piano pieces at his school's talent show and while I credit his piano lessons I credit his IEP required Occupational Therapy Services as where that's where he works on his fine motor

013skills he also continues to increase in his conversation ability while I credit our work at home I am quite confident that his BCPS teacher created weekly Lunch Bunch groups have helped him to develop his conversation skills as well tonight there'll be a vote on the budget so it feels imperative to remind you that the proposed budget prioritizes funding for special education which includes critical related services such as speech and occupational therapy as well as special Educators but the conversation doesn't end there we need extra training for these individuals who interact with all of our students we need programming but we also need accountability and IEP facilitators whose only job is to facilitate and if you'd like to learn more I'd like to invite you to attend a monthly CAC meeting just a few years ago

014my son was diagnosed as severely autistic I didn't know if he'd ever speak I didn't know if we'd ever attend typical school with typical peers but without a doubt his team is working hard to includ to ensure inclusion confidence development and overall skill development and all of their efforts trickle over and have an effect on his daily life voting for the budget ensures that kids like my son have a chance to not just survive but also to thrive voting for the budget ensures that kids like my son have access to adult professionals par professionals adult assistants and special Educators who can drastically change their lives and I know there's so many things that we can spend funding on but we cannot allow special education to Fall by the wayside while I know that our special

015education experience is not Universal I also know that every student should have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential regardless of their diagnosis or abilities and that starts here with a fully funded fully supported BCPS Special Education team and school so vote Yes for the proposed budget vote Yes for these life-changing services and please vote Yes for my son thank you so much thank you our next speaker is Edwin Perez from the Baltimore County PTA Council good evening good evening Dr Rogers and members of the board my name is Edwin Perez and I'm the chairperson of the multilingual Community Partnership a subcommittee of the family school and Community Partnerships Committee of the Baltimore County PTA Council the Baltimore County PTA Council has been closely tracking recent policy changes and potential legislation I'm here to share

016our position on two concerns affecting our BCPS children youth amilies and staff first I'm providing an update on a national PTA position statement that addresses the change in guidance affecting immigration advocacy and the protection of our students rights the changeing guidance specifically addresses mixed status families what is a mixed status family according to the National Immigrant Law Center a mixed status family is a family whose members include people with different immigration statuses one example of a mixed status family is one in which the parents are undocumented and the children are us born citizens the PTA believes that all children regardless of their immigration status has the right of access to a quality public education school-aged children from immigrant and mixed status families May themselves be undocumented in various forms of immigration status legal permanent residents

017or US citizens they may live with family members and caregivers who are also varying types of immigration status policies that create additional barriers to accessing free k through2 public education premise on immigration status harm not only undocumented imig immigrant students but also students with legal immigration status and US citizen children in mixed status families we encourage the board to continue to work alongside the Baltimore County PTA Council and members of their local school community educator unions like tabco and immigrant advocacy groups like Casa to safeguard the rights and services for children immigrant and mixed status Families Our second concern addresses our position related to the healthy healthy school start times Bill a few years ago the PTA Council voting delegates adopted a position on supporting later school start times both the Free State PTA and

018the Baltimore County PTA Council support the healthy school start times Bill House Bill 1015 which had its hearing yesterday and Senate Bill 468 has a hearing on March 5th if passed the combined legislation require that beginning in the 2027 2028 school year each public middle school and each public high school begin instruction not earlier than 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. respectively according to the 20122 2023 Maryland youth risk behavior survey a major factor in chronics chronic sleep deprivation is the well-documented bi biological shift in adolescent sleep cycles resulting in youth falling asleep later and waking up later than adults and siblings data also show that teenager sleep wake schedule are misaligned with early school bell times which can negatively impact student health safety attendance performance and graduation rates in 2022 Anon County Public Schools transition

019to new school start times including later start times for elementary school this new start time were intended to improve student and staff Health we encourage the board to support the healthy school start time F to keep our BCBS students and staff healthy and safe and to improve student attendance and increase student academic performance thank you thank [Applause] you our next speaker is from our Union groups and that is Cindy seon from go good evening good evening chair Lor Vice chair Harvey Dr Rogers and members of the board thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and thank you also for the immigration enforcement crosswalk information we received yesterday as you have probably heard the tabka representative assembly our highest governing body held an emergency meeting on February 13th and put forward the directive to Advocate

020to the board of education of Baltimore County to adopt a safe School safe zones resolution and the Incorporated policy to protect schools as safe learning environments regardless of national origin or perceived national origin of our students there are tabco members here tonight in support of this request and of course of our students while the immigration enforcement crosswalk is invaluable codifying a policy shows the strongest commitment by the Board of Education as affirmed on the BCPS website a policy state is a statement of the vision goals and principles or position of the Board of Education to guide and direct the superintendent and the staff we ask you to adopt a policy as just one part of showing your commitment to all of our students regardless of their immigration status now part two is the budget uh

021and I just want to be crystal clear that yes our compens ation package is important we all stood together in celebration school system leadership the County government leadership and all five unions we did the hard work to get an agreement and we were are rightfully proud tabco has had speakers at all of the county Executives budget town halls with a possible exception of one due to illness board members are sharing during those meetings not only about the compensation but also the ongoing need for smaller class sizes more support for our newest educators especially those conditionally certified and special Educators our students need their Educators we must do all we can not only to honor the negotiate agreements but to be sure the supports are in place for our students and Educators so that the data

022continues to move in the direction we need it to go tabco members also went to Annapolis last night and we had many conversations with our legislators around funding on the state level while there were Educators from all the other count tabco by far had the most people there and they shared stories with what we need from our legislators to support our students and by extension our Educators we are in challenging times there is no doubt about that we must work together to get through this there is a proverb that says if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together let's work together go far together and get through these times focus on what is best for our students because as always they need us and they can't wait

023thank you thank [Applause] you our next group is nonprofit Community groups and the first speaker is Cali Deo Santos good evening good evening good evening share um and members of the board my name is CH and I am the director at Casa um for our Baltimore central Maryland office I am here join today with parents Educators our members of Tapco and most important students for Baltimore County um just to say that we need you guys to step up um and make sure that you guys do everything in your power to protect immigrant students most of you might already know about Casa but if you don't we are a nonprofit organization um National Organization with deep roots here in Maryland specifically in Baltimore City Baltimore County PG County um and other counties in the area um

024and we work every day to make sure that we fulfill and Empower our immigrant and workingclass families um to be the own leaders of their Liberation um immigrant students already face significant challenges when it comes to language barriers cultural adjustments and navigating A system that was not created thinking about their needs um on top of this they live in fear constant fear that their personal information might be shared with I which could endanger their safety and their family safety this is a burden that no students or family member should have to carry we've been working closely with a lot of Educators in Baltimore County um and administrators um across several schools providing your rights workshops resources um and creating Family Safety plans while many School staff and members are eager and ready to support the

025Immigrant Community we need to make sure that there is a strict guidelin guidance um for all Baltimore County public schools so that everyone knows how to support um and how to keep children safe in school we can't be in every school so we really rely on your leadership to make sure that every student has access to the resource that they need and it's time for the board to be proactive and not reactive and being honest this is already too late um for our students waiting for another incident is no longer an option we need to make sure that there are both actions ensuring that there is a resolution but also thinking about a policy that really it's built up into how we can support our students how every member of the school system knows how

026to support how to share resources with family and what to do in case eyes does show up in a school this is not just about making a choice tonight this is about fulfilling your leadership responsibility and protected our most valuable um uh members of the school Community which are our students and also making sure that students and family know that they're safe knowing what are the uh Protections in place to support uh to keep eyes out of school I'm here today again with um many students from Baltimore County and I hope that you guys get to to listen directly for them for me it's extremely important that students are also a voice in the table um I've asked I thank you thank [Applause] you our next category I mean we have one um person that

027has signed up for a nonprofit community group on the wait list and we have a space so the next speaker is ahasic danan Mr Don I apologize for the botched up name it's a little difficult thank you all thank you and Madam chair thank you and your colleagues for this moment to talk about our part our program City Ranch is a nonprofit program dividing using the ecoin industry to bring programs of stem career opportunities that are exist in the ecoin world the traumatic TR uh ability of the horses to bring about help bring about changes in the youth and adults too for that matter excuse me um and we found out that Livestock on the campus campuses of Baltimore county is not permitted and we want to take the necessary steps to make sure that

028this kind of uh activity is available for all of the students in Baltimore County in that said where we have the traumatic Services through the horses the stem program is in a function of uh horses the things that are involved in the developing the equipment the research that is done to for the medicine that the horses have to take for various conditions uh and also the the career Maryland is the second or third largest ecoin program horses in the country and the children are not getting exposed to it this is a way to get them exposed we bring programs and we have license we have insurance all of the necessary parameters that are important to make it happen we have doctors horses are vetted by the vet veterinarians so that they are sound and safe

029the individuals who are working with the children have been uh evaluated for their skill set as well as the being meeting all of the necessary uh positions that they uh Health they know what criminal background etc those kinds of things are checked out before the person can come and work on on the Bal on Baltimore County school to work with the children all of those things are in in process the and what we want to do is start the conversation of how do we get the door open so that we can make this sign of service available for the children in Baltimore County thank you thank you all thank you next are individual citizens and student groups and our first speaker is Mr Hopewell who is online virtually good evening superintendent Rogers chair Lor Vice

030Cher Harvey and board members my name is t Russell hell I'm a former teacher and principal in Baltimore County Public Schools I'm here today in full support of superintendent Rogers fiscal year 26 operating budget this budget supports critical areas of our school system in particular supporting hiring and retaining our teachers this budget also supports Community Schools which are a huge success invest in early childhood education special education and our growing Esau students this budget invests in our students future by providing essential resources needing to sustain recent academic gains and will ensure that we keep moving forward not backwards the recent State Board of Education report card on local schools saw BCPS made critical gains in our academics by closing the achievement Gap increasing our graduation rates and also increasing our star rating across the board

031and lowering chronic a appetising County Public Schools 66 BCPS schools earned a four or five star rating a significant improvement over the previous years is it is imperative that we fund this fiscal year 26 operating budget especially after receiving those noteworthy Maryland state test results BCPS is at a critical point in our school system history budgets are tight the state has A3 billion in structural deficit that makes it even more urgent for local school system to be fully funded we must not we must not Retreat now we must keep moving forward our future depends on what we do today in closing thank you superintendent Rogers thank you school board members for being good stewards of pcps by investing in our own precious assets our children have a good have a good evening do the right

032thing and fully fund this budget thank you thank you our next speaker is Miss Sharon sof okay good evening good evening long time no sick thank you for letting me speak tonight I want to give you a picture of what Dei is in the schoolhouse kind of inform you and give you food for thought I often hear in my profession following a 504 or an IEP is unfair to the rest of the class we need to change that mindset let me tell you what Dei actually means in the schoolhouse closed captions flexible class schedule I need to be in the schoolhouse half day or part in the morning and part in the afternoon extended time use of devic that includes cell phones for things like taking pictures of notes typing information audio books magnifying print

033organization of assignments communication when I'm not verbal accessible buildings and entrances I can't tell you how many times I'm late for an IEP meeting because I have to climb stairs from my hand cap parking space which by the way is also Dei stairlifts special Transportation diverse instruction and placement additional adult support my favorite realizing that individuals with disabilities are individuals first and not on a disabilities list and that's something I often hear they're not on the list therefore they can't have an IEP there is no list did you know that gifted students can also have disabilities and need an ie that's Dei leveling the playing field I shouldn't have to say that 40 years after or almost 50 now after after Ida first came into effect Dei is special education we need to be willing

034to communicate to parents how to find that education for their students and be transparent about it something that I was going to speak about when I wasn't able to get on public comment and hopefully I'll be able to speak about it next month when I have more information thank thank you our next speaker is Mr Ralph [Applause] jaffy for good evening let me know when to start you can start now all right first I W to make sure that I mention the following three people that's Tracy Gover and that's also Brenda Stiffler they been helpful however fact that there have been please board members please make notation of this there have been at least 126 different individuals who made a phone call to either uh the Border or to Dr Rogers saying one of two

035things they want this program adopted or they're saying they want Dr Rogers to meet with me the last person that called I was there a neurologist called up on Sunday night I was there when he made the phone call so yesterday I got a call at 4:30 from Bender a Stiffler saying Mr jaffy you don't have to get uh the superintendent's approval there's a process that you have to go through I said what's the process she said well you have to ask the person that's going to call you to today and I spoke to Susan H for an hour and a half one hour and a half I spent talking to her and she said to me she's going to have to get more information because she doesn't know what the process is uh what

036I think is it's a flawed process ladies and gentlemen this program is designed to take kids who need help and make them productive citizens so they don't like wind up being like a 15-year-old girl in Madison Wisconsin that shot two students and two and two three students and and wounded others but in order to do this you've got to understand what the program is it's designed to take these kids and give them something they've never had before real love giving it in other words we're not changing the curriculum would change their mindset their attitudes so they feel that I can become a productive person and this program isn't going to cost the taxpayers one penny and this has been going on for now more than over a year now and we still as far as

037I'm concerned not where we need to be I'm I'm going to say this for the last for hopefully the last time tonight heaven forbid if three months from today there's a horrible shooting one of the schools in bore County and this and and and this board has not done what they need to do to get this program moving before it's too late it's going to cost you any money it's going to save lives I can't understand why we can't get this done so I'm asking you again do you have any questions I I want to commend uh Miss Harvey she asked me a question last last I attended so where the roadblock thank you our next speaker is Heidi Owens hi everybody and good evening my name is Heidi Ellens just one second sorry about

038that I'm virtual because I'm at home with my prek kindergartner that's okay I work for Kelly Services I'm a substitute teacher but I just want to make it known that this is hiid Owen speaking I'm not speaking on behalf of my employer like this is just me speaking so I've had the privilege of going to basically almost every school in Baltimore County all the different zones and I'm an I'm an outsider looking in and what I see with these classrooms if you want to get down to the basics the classrooms need LED lights I am absolutely mortified at the fact that so many of these schools have the outdated fluorescent lights that hospitals and doctor offices don't even put up anymore I mean it's it's um you know it's LED light bulbs I think that

039is good in addition to that a lot of these schools they it's I mean this an endearing way but they're like a little gingerbread house a little cottage the windows are not very big in a lot of the schools natural light is one of the best if not the best for the learning environment okay okay and the teachers also need to adopt opening their blinds I've had teachers keep their blinds closed because they don't want the students to be distracted which doesn't make um sense to me because natural is very healthy okay so infrastructure definitely lights kids are always hungry and I know that Baltimore does its best to give snacks but not all grades are getting these snacks like the prek and the kindergarten get this next uh-uh high schoolers every single kid needs

040to be able to have a snack time not just because they're little um and I know because I see these kids they start getting irritated by like like two hours before dismissal is I like to call the chaos hour and I'm telling you the kids are hungry and so like come on snack not that hard and then the last thing I really want to get on on board with everybody changing the mindset so I am becoming a graduated silver method meditation um instructor okay so basically the silver method is a very simple technique that teaches kids as early as preschool how to close their eyes count backwards and Associate something in their brain that needs to be changed for the better actually the Eagles who won the Super Bowl this year they they actually thank

041you Miss Owens and I know you can't see it but a lot of our audience closed their eyes when you said close your eyes and count backwards so thank you for that that hint our next oh okay thank you our next speaker is Mr Lloyd Allen good evening good evening chair Lor Vice chair Harvey superintendent Rogers and members of the board thank you for your time I'm Lloyd Allen Heim special educator in mathematics speaking as an individual I began my career at a comprehensive school that had programs to serve several distinct populations one of those populations was students who are now referred to as multilingual Learners as an algebra teacher I was often a student's first English language math teacher some students already knew the math but learned classroom English and BCPS routines through my

042algebra as the symbols and content were already familiar to them the esol chair helped me to learn to slow down my sentences to separate my words this also helped students who were not identified as multilingual learners but who found my language of mathematics to be novel and difficult our students of Baltimore County are the future strength of Baltimore County all of them my students now are computer programmers College admissions officers Math teachers military police prek teachers bankers lawyers the persons who had been my students slice meat at the deli counter help customers to understand their prescriptions at the drugstore counter create and crack codes to keep our country safe and own businesses that keep the economy moving in order for today's students to become tomorrow Society they need to feel safe while they learn this

043applies to each student who walks through the doors of each and every classroom thank you Dr Rogers and administration for providing guidance over the course over the last month affirming that plyer Vio applies and that our students have the right to learn thank you Pro for providing and updating guidance about what action staff members should and should not take these emails and procedures are very important but emails sent now will not help staff hired in August our students need a resolution that they are valued and our future staff need policies and rules so that we know the actions that we take are backed by you our employer our board thank you for posting electronic resources so that we know that we have a place to point students with questions please require these resources in the

044policy thank you for reminding us of the procedures for protecting our students and their families through Safe Handling of appropriate information thank you for directing the leaders at our work sites to give us the procedures that we need to follow if there is an incident and in particular which Personnel are and are not involved in such incidents I hope that we never need to implement these procedures but I would note that model policies have been developed around the nation since at least 2017 this is not a new issue it's just something for which we're now feeling the urgency Bo I again as an individual look forward to your codified guidance and will appreciate your legacy on setting an appropriate resolution which is belief and policy to thank you next are public comments on board policy

0453160 review and approval of school sponsored activities and our first speaker is Miss Heidi Owens I think she may have signed up our next speaker for policy 3160 is um BOS Fon good evening good evening to all thank you all for your work I don't know if you can hear me um policy 3160 speaks about um the board prohibits activities identified as high risk that's line number so Madame chair PRC I'm just really asking my thought is the policy basically specific speically says about high risk how about medium risk right um does that mean medium risk doesn't really count so for me as a physician obviously the highest risk activities are the activities that could potentially lead to loss of life that's really high all right um medium activity may be injury for a hand

046or loss of a finger or something like that still it's not acceptable so the policy does not really specify anything in relation to that and it does exclude medium risk and lower risk um I don't know if the school system is covered for uh the amount of risk being high or medium or low I would assume so but I really hope somebody can uh shed their light on that and if you the school system have an activity that obviously could involve parents and outside uh persons my question to you do you the Board of Education um foot the whole bill or is it the people or the organizations that holds the activity uh with would pay some of the cost in relation to the risks so um I wonder if you can really opine on

047on that uh again Madame chair I honestly don't mean to criticize anything I am um just reading it as an individual that basically thinks outside the box that is very short and um I hope you would answer me guess what you get to stay right there m and comment on our next policy 7240 School site selection and acquisition so next policy 7240 talks about establish procedures and the procedures must comply with the state and local laws and regul relations line number 23 so Madame chair I asked you this multiple times before and I've never really received any answer actually I don't really receive any answer to any of my emails and I don't know truly why um so the question is there's no federal written here so I'm asking you as a not as a

048lawyer I'm not really a lawyer but I'm playing The Devil's Advocate uh does that mean that the superintendent or the school system is allowed to violate federal law because it's not really mentioned there it's mentioned local which is the county and state which is the state of Maryland and of course my previous question is about why do you state the obvious um then you say in line 24 shall be responsible for recommending the site of acquisition um I I honestly don't like this language and I'm I'm just going to tell you how I feel about it um you have two responsibilities that the most important one is choosing the superintendent and one is the budget the rest is kind of here and there so you know what does that really say that you are saying

049about responsibility of the superintendent in a policy that is common sense you know why do you have to say the obvious um it's almost like um it's almost like when you are driving on 695 and it says put your wipers on when it is raining all right does that really make sense is there somebody that is foolish enough that it's raining and they don't put the wipers on I guess maybe there is but we have a very good and educated and capable superintendent and the policy I think is stating something that is Trivial in my opinion as a citizen looking from this side towards you um I don't know why you do that and I'm worried that there is no word Federal there I think uh you should have Federal if you have States and

050you have local you should have Federal I don't think you should be allowed to violate federal law thank you and the third policy for comment is 7310 design and construction costs policy 7310 says line 15 shall establish guidelines for the development of system for estimating the cost of individual capital projects and again it's similar to my critique before I mean do you really have to specify to the superintendent that he or she have to establish the guidelines you know for estimating the cost and it raises another question is if you specify something like this that is so common sense then why don't you specify other things that are common sense all right it's you know the job of superintendent in relation to financing acquisition Etc is not really just making guidelines it's it's much more

051uh too it especially we are a big system we are the 25th or 26th largest syst system in the United States uh the second or maybe the third in the state of Maryland so um in my less than a minute left uh Madame chair if you accept my criticism I ask lots of questions and I really don't get any answers and of course I come here and I take 3 minutes time three that's 9 minutes if you answer my questions what th by phone or text or email or in person hopefully with a handshake not with the security getting me out like last year um then it's solved you know there is no need to keep raising the same issue and you know when I go and and have a haircut I give $5 a

052tip and the person who did my haircut is really so happy with the $5 I'm giving you6 ,000 of County taxes I'm thousands of state and of course you don't get much of federal but I pay so much federal taxes it's it's it's noting and I really don't get any answer to any of the questions I have I think it's it's something that you might want to consider um councilman they answer uh um delegates they answer the president answer I mean everybody answer School Board don't I don't know why thank you thank you the next item on the agenda is unfinished business the superintendent's proposed FY 2026 operating budget and for that I call on Dr Rogers thank you good evening chair Lor Vice chair Harvey members of the board we have a PowerPoint oh

053and it's up thank you we can move to the next slide please all right it's working this evening want to review some important information regarding the fiscal year 2026 operating budget with um every one who is here and watching from home this slide again details the request to the budget the general fund as well as the special Revenue fund um account for the operating budget subtotal you also see other reporting categories including the internal service fund capital projects Debt Service and Enterprise fund important to note the capital projects fund as we've mentioned uh before is uh large due to several upcoming major capital projects uh several of those projects over the next five years are depicted on this slide including three high schools which this is the first time in BCPS history that we have

054built three high schools at one time lown high school talson high school and Delaney high school talson high school and Delaney High School um have a price tag of more than $250 million followed by landown High School for $24.7 million and two elementary schools Scott Branch and Deer Park Elementary School before we talk about the process and next steps um I think it would be appropriate to ground ourselves in why we are making this request on behalf of the 111,000 students that we serve um this slide depicts different external markers that account for our progress as a school system you have seen these measures before with the exception of graduation rate that was released today by the Maryland State Department of Education we are extremely proud of our students as well as all of our

055staff members who have worked so hard to ensure that for our second year in a row Baltimore County public schools has made progress in graduation rate but this year our progress almost doubled the rate of last year with specific information that we shared with our families and our communities around the schools and their um progress in graduation rate would want to call to everyone's attention some specific school highlights our top um High graduation rates for the class of 2024 were Western School of Technology followed by Eastern Tech and G George Washington Carver uh 12 high schools saw an increase in their graduation rate five high schools saw an increase in their graduation rate for two years in a row including owing Mills High School Patapsco High School Sparrow points High School Western Tech and woodlon

056high school Parkville owing Mill and woodlon high schools the three of them represented the greatest one-year decreases in four-year Dropout rates and for student groups receiving special services our foure graduation rate improved for students who were economically disadvantaged and multilingual Learners um our Hispanic students uh Hispanic Latino students reported the largest increase in graduation rate um with our multilingual at 6.69 percentage point and 8.31 um respectively and as I mentioned the top three increases were at Parksville high school we number one more than 9% followed by o Mills 5.13% followed by woodlon High School who made significant gains for the second year in a row their graduation rate increased by more than five percentage points as well and so we absolutely congratulate um our high schools and the schools that we mentioned for this uh

057increase uh across team BCPS but I think specifically related to the budget um this is why we are making the request on behalf of our 111,000 students we are seeing momentum uh across the board from the most important uh chronic absenteeism making sure that students are coming to school all the way to when students leave us to um pursue their uh postsecondary careers um and everything else in between we want to continue to move forward on behalf of all of our students who are counting on us us this proposed budget prioritizes two main things it prioritizes Recruitment and Retention by honoring year two of a three-year compensation package for every single member of team BCPS that's all 20,000 employees here um we shared the survey results that uh more than uh approximately 3,000 stakeholders responded

058to around the budget and whether you were a staff member whether you were a parent you were a student um everyone said Recruitment and Retention is the number one priority for our school system and part of that is uh compensation for staff members that we want to bring on board as well as staff members who are here making sure that they remain committed to our students and our investments in professional learning across the system are paying dividends for our students secondly class sizes we have heard um across the state of Maryland that class sizes have increased over the last several years in our proposed fiscal year 2026 budget we preserve and protect our current Staffing allocation formulas for all students from prek through grade 12 and so one of the things that I started sharing

059with members of team BCPS in um October was around the challenging fiscal landscape when we started to hear information regarding uh the governor and comments around blueprint I've provided updates to Board of Education provided updates at our press conferences and me uh messages directly to members of team BCPS it is absolutely correct to say that there is uncertainty in terms of the fiscal landscape uh everyone here knows that I have spent the greater part of the last four weeks um advocating on behalf of team BCPS locally as well as at the state level including testifying twice to different committees on bills that would impact the amount of funding that we would receive from the state um that work continues uh that advoc advocacy continues uh we do know that there will be um likely changes

060from our uh County in terms of what they can afford as well as uh perhaps the state and there is uncertainty at the federal level um it is important for everyone to note that this is a process this is step one of our budget process um as uh last week I met with the county executive I believe that was Tuesday um and this week on Thursday we have another meeting um scheduled with our budget teams we have met uh just about weekly um since the proposal of the budget uh January 14th and it is an iterative process where we will continue to meet and uh go back and forth I will answer questions I will testify um in front of her I will uh make a presentation in front of her team answer any questions

061that they have and we will continue to work through the process before uh they come up with a number it's also important to note as um we have received questions about what happens if we receive less money than what we proposed is that that is not atypical for Baltimore County Public Schools uh this slide right here shows you our fiscal year um proposed budgets from uh superintendent compared to the amount of funding that we've received from the county and in green you see the difference the difference between what we requested versus what we've received in nine out of the 11 fisc school years um depicted on this slide Baltimore County public schools has received less funding than what was requested from the county um those numbers range anything from uh if we're going 1% or

062above uh $15 million to $121 million less than what we've requested um this is not Uncharted Territory for us um you'll note also if you look at the second blue category um that we have asked for $100 million or more uh in the recent history starting with or near $100 million starting with fiscal year 2020 2021 uh followed by a request of 149 .7 million in 2023 and then this year the request uh for $10.3 million important in know in red and the green sections are those years that we received uh more than 5% less than what was requested in terms of how we go about the next steps um just as a reminder to everyone we receive most of our budget a majority from our Baltimore County the local Partners followed by the state

063budget and a smaller percentage by federal and other sources um 83% of our budget is focused on salaries wages and benefits for all of our 20,000 employees it is a mathematical problem depending on what happens at the next step when we receive an actual number from our funding Partners that's what dictates our next steps if the number is smaller it doesn't necessarily um indicate a need to uh address compensation and wages however if it is a larger number because 83% of the budget is focused on salaries wages and benefits we will employ the same process that we have employed for the last nine out of 11 fiscal years which include okay not working can you advance the slide please which include proposing a budget a formal request to the county executive it's also important to

064note that in all five of our Master agreements it requires us um we have agreement it requires us to submit a full compensation request to our funding Partners um and so the next step would be to do that we would have that iterative process with the county executive and her team um following that the County Council would review the budget request and there would be an iterative process with them as well where they work with our budget team as well as meet with myself and um I answer any and all questions that they have any item regarding negotiated agreements or compensation uh would come back through our established processes our established processes regarding negotiation always include updates to our Board of Education en closed sessions Board of Education um provides feedback we take that back

065our chief negotiator takes that back to work with the unions any decisions that the Board of Education makes in Clos uh session those actions are then affirmed in Open Session and after the entire process is uh followed and we have final numbers from our funding partners then all um uh numbers and information are a part of our adopted budget and a part of the uh book the budget book that we post for everyone and so wanted to spend some time going through that uh process so everyone would understand what the next steps are making sure that everyone has factual information around what our obligations are as a school system what we've committed to to all five of our unions in terms of full comp compensation and um answer any questions that you might have so

066may I have a motion to approve the superintendent proposed FY 2026 operating budget so moved thank you is there a second second thank you discussion Miss Pumphrey can you go back to that I don't know if you can go back to that last slide is have a question about the steps in the process so you talked about the negotiating agreements other changes in the budget that have to be made is that brought forward to the board or how does the board find about find out about those changes if um we don't get the funds asked from the county so it all depends on whether or not um sometimes the county will identify uh the specific uh reductions um you know that that has happened in recent years and so we we all receive the information

067at the same time from them um and I I think there might be sometimes where there's opportunity to have convers ations and if there are those opportunities to have conversations we would be having updates in close session thank you other questions meski thank you just a follow-up question to that so if um the funding from for example the county changes would we then come back to um um would we then come back to approve based on amendments that need to be made because of the fiscal changes or would that just be negotiated between your budget team and the county executive and then we would just be um kept informed but not necessarily have to approve so you would have to approve um and it's it's a mathematical uh formula so it's based on the number

068uh of the reduction so any large number is going to uh require us to look at the largest part of our budget and we would go through our established processes for that okay so so we would go through the process again yeah so where uh Miss bilsky always comes and close she provides an update um gives you a status Union by Union uh Mr sarus would come forward along with Mr tant Liff cost things out um you would provide reaction and feedback to that they would go back it would be an iterative process enclosed uh you would uh take a position and whatever that position is would be affirmed and open great thank you s um yes Dr Rogers thank you um does the current budget include any reductions in school-based positions from 12 months

069to 11 or 10 months and if so can you share with us which ones and the cost Savings of each so I wouldn't be prepared to talk about um classifications are you speaking about reclassification reclassifications and I understand that this may be an issue that's in dispute and if can you speak to that no I wouldn't be able to um speak to that outside of uh negotiations around reclassification can you confirm that this is an issue that's um under negotiations just to confirm or or deny that that is since I don't have specific information to what you're speaking to I wouldn't be able to confirm that at this time are there any reclassifications in included in this budget that we're about to vote on of school-based positions okay we're going to take a pause findrow

070so at this point that may be a strategy considered but given that we have not notified any staff um we wouldn't be able to provide any additional information given depending on where we land with numbers that might be a strategy that we have to consider okay thank you so at this point the current budget does not include any reclassification of school BAS employees as it currently stands that may be a strategy we would have to consider thank you and my followup and you may or may not be able to answer this as well but are there any positions being eliminated that support new teachers and or conditional teachers and if so can you speak to which positions and how many are being eliminated no there are uh no positions being eliminated that support new teachers

071or uh conditionally supported teachers uh we are likely going to restructure how we provide that support maximizing grant funding uh but the statement about providing less uh support is not an accurate one okay and I have one last question Madam chair if I may um when you mentioned to the board that you met with principles to discuss the adjustments to their budgets based on the 10% reduction in per pupil allocations um and they mentioned that potential areas for savings um I'd like to know if you could share any more information about that and to give you an example one high school reported a reduction in its budget for extra Duty activities of 35,000 can you speak to whether that amount is average for a high school and how many Student Activities would be discontinued as

072a result of that reduction thank you for that question um I would like to again share on the that we have made no reductions to budgets for extra Duty activities um what we have shared and I believe we have this posted on budget 101 as part of the budget uh questions is uh you had a past practice where uh some people would overspend their budget allocation and people were asked to maintain their budget allocation as a matter of fact this budget includes a line item I believe it's $1.06 million which is a repeat from last year for mandatory edas so um schools all schools all 176 schools receive uh funding for three mandatory edas that they don't have to take out of their school specific allocation um that is additional in the budget for FY

07326 it was additional for FY 25 um and and there were no Cuts made to the formulas last year or proposed in the FY 26 budget um people schools were asked to adhere to the budget and not overspend by um I think you mentioned $35,000 um as that has an aggregate impact so no one should have to uh cut um if they're you know remaining within um the budget the extra duties allocation has a handbook that provides some guidance in terms of accountability in terms of um student participation meetings Etc all of that was uh re-shared uh I believe late summer and throughout the fall with all of our schools so just for the viewing public uh there were no Cuts made to Eda budgets there were additional funds uh provided this fiscal year as

074well as there's a line item for the upcoming fiscal year and and understandably that's up to the principal um in terms of their overall fund to elect to fund additional edas above the three that are centrally funded and mandated as you said so anything above the three are elective for that principle to fund what was cut was the overall pot of funding available to schools was reduced by 10% so it's up to principles to determine where those cuts are made so I'm what I'm asking is of that 35,000 that was cut by one school for extra Duty activities what would that equate to 1011 does that sound is that an accurate estimate based on 3500 3,300 per activity no I would disagree I would disagree with that statement because those are two very different budget

075line items edas are one budget line item which there's an established budget for that and then they get on top of their budget which is based on enrollment and level they received three funding for three additional edas that's very uh separate and and um we've posted that response as well to the 10% non-salary reduction um the process that I'll share for the public that we followed was meeting with all of our principal groups as a part of plld um to share with them that we knew we were going to have to tighten our belts we were going to have to bring in some savings as we moved into the FY 26 budget um they had an opportunity to speak with each other about um changes that they felt were reasonable that would not impact their

076programs um and then we had a whole group discussion we did this by level and uh by Zone in elementary where the 10% came from so the 10% um it has nothing to do with edas the 10% goes towards buying additional um things uh in some schools they they talk about they receive the message at the end of the year the fourth quarter that says you have to spend all of your funding and they just buy buy buy um and so that's how they came up with the uh 10% it could be um I don't know stickers it could be additional um cups additional printing things of that nature but one of the data points that we use was the quarterly spending for the last three fiscal years the budget compared to the actual expenditures

077to make that decision and so those two are very separate edas is a very SE separate line item um compared to the non-salary um School budgets that uh principals received and they were a part integral part of this process thank you and you answered the second part of my question which was thank you that was the second part of my question was what areas were they um did they seem realistic to cut and you mentioned some sub specific supplies were there any other areas that they mentioned that they would cut out of the 10% none that come to mind thank you other board members Mr Dom manowski yes thank you um first if it's okay with you I wanted to give you um an opportunity to clarify an answer to a question I incorrectly phrased

078at one of the last meetings in regards to College and Career Readiness the budget line item found on page 144 while it looks like a cut in budget when compared to the 2025 budget line item from 2. 6 which is found on 268 of 2025 to 1.2 in this proposed budget in fact it's not a cut but a transfer of charges to a different department and will not have any effect on the College and Career Readiness programs that BCPS has to offer our students that is correct no no more clar I wanted to give you a chance to to to no that is correct the AP exams were moved over to the department that administers the AP exams for the entire District thank you um and then if we could go to slide number four

079um what are the safeguards if any in this budget that we are making to at the school level to ensure that these Staffing allocations are adhered to I can only speak from my personal experience from a teacher and from my own two students um who are in two separate classes in the same school building their second uh first graders and third graders all their classes are 26 or 27 students and and so um we have asked principles to not only engage with uh conversations with their leadership teams about priorities that if there's an internal decision that's made to um because they all receive one set of uh allocations if there's an internal decision that's made to maybe increase the sizes somewhere else and lower the sizes somewhere to have that conversation proactively with PTA as

080well as staff so there can be um understanding and mutual agreement about those decisions that are made in terms of how are we safeguarding this is the second year in a row we have created a staffing allocation memo um we have our expectations very very clearly defined in that memo we have um reporting dates that start in June and go through to August where we're going to pull Central um reports to uh check for adherence principales also have the tools where they can pull those reports uh internally the new St in allocation uh tool that we created to make sure that um there was uh that we were allocating according to the formula in schools provides a snapshot for every school to see and ensure that they receive uh the Staffing that they should but

081the guidelines that we've provided as well as monitoring and followup from uh the division of schools and if it's an allocation that comes from curriculum and instruction as there are many staff members um that are allocated from uh central office uh these are the two groups that will monitor throughout the summer to make sure uh that we're implementing with Fidelity and if there's a change that that's a conversation that happens um at the local level with the principal and the stakeholders I don't know if this is the same thing but just as a followup if a if a school building needs like a a special educator or a any special educator is that going to interfere with their school allocations as as far as the teachers in the classroom no no okay no um and

082then I think I only have one okay um have you considered no that's it um thank you for providing all those salaries uh the increases are these all the salary increases at all levels that BCPS will be creating any if you have the compensation agreements year two yeah yes so that there are any other positions um that will be receiving increases whether central office or in the school house so the compensation agreements speak to members of bargaining units and so um that covers including non-represented that go with case so it covers all 20,000 uh employees of the school system just the the the union the and non-represented they follow case but there was like the superintendence was posted in the chief operating off or chief academic officer I didn't know if there was other if

083there were other receiving um increases as well so anyone who's non-represented would be in um there's a line item that says non-represented and they follow the case agreement I just meant in central office yeah in central office you have people who are in case you have people who are in tab code peoplec that's what I'm asking all 20,000 employees yes thank you you're welcome Mr mcmillion I'm looking at the chart on page six the operating timeline budget time line please I try to help me understand this we're being asked tonight to vote on a three billion dollar budget and and the piece that I I I find a hard time putting together is once this believes us it goes to the county executive and the county executiv has already come out in the paper a

084week and a half ago and said that you know she's not going to honor X number of dollars you know we can expect less at what point point in time do we have the opportunity to address the difference uh you know and I I've seen it in past years that you know things have now you mentioned that the county executive might you know cut something or the County Council might cut something or you have the opportunity at times to negotiate things where are we in the that negotiation process so that that's what I uh pointed to earlier um that we bring that back through close session miss bilsky gives the updates as she's done in the in the past and so any time it's a large number it's going to um likely impact compensation and

085that's where negotiations happens okay so we vote on it tonight and then later at some point those numbers will be presented to us but we don't have an opportunity to will engage on on those topics I mean not a whole lot we can do at that point right I mean we we never do and it taking a look at the last 11 fiscal years nine out of the 11 fiscal years we receive less than we require than we've requested um and at least four of those 11 years four of those nine years are uh by significant numbers um you know there was a year that we received $121 million less than we requested we didn't even request $121 million uh from our funding Partners this year so I'm assuming that you already have a plan

086on if the money's Less on how you're going to adjust it I wouldn't say that I uh have a plan I would say that uh you know it's prudent to think about what kind of numbers would require us uh to talk about you know uh compensation and that those we would go through the process of negotiations with all of our Union Partners um so you know I don't have a number once they provide a number then then I'll have an idea of um what our next steps are thank you you're welcome Miss Harvey thank you madam chair uh just so I'm clear because I I I understand Our obligation to provide good governance for the budget we are submitting this budget based on the commitments that we made to our staff and our leaders uh

087our students uh and our families and and should the county decide that they're not going to fully fund it then the process is that whatever the difference is whatever the recommendations are they would come back to this board and this board would then have to approve it as the revised budget or the updated budget so there is no point in time where we would get we would submit the budget the county would say we're going to give you this much not what you asked and and then you submit a revised budget without the advice the approval uh the the feedback from this board that's correct thank you okay Miss Fong I just had a question about the um allocations so um on slide four where it talks about those Staffing allocations um it is it's

088a little bit different from Miss um dominowski but it does still deal with special education so not necessarily special Educators but do these numbers change at all if there are um for special education students who are in these classes but are still like they're not separated or self-contained they're it's inclusive so um they're in these classes as well do these numbers change at all yeah so um the way the Staffing allocations work um we count for every single student that's enrolled in the school whether you are um a multilingual learner which you know you have specialized classes El classes or you're a student receiving special education services um in our dashboard that we provided uh a snapshot of it even further delineates our special ed our students receiving special education services to students that are

089in the Continuum of services who are um included uh compared to our students that are in Regional programs and um I'm I'm looking out there to uh Allison to confirm many of the time are those students are in self-contained programs if you look at our uh Staffing allocation dashboard what every principal received it gives them the numbers on one side the enrollment and then on the second side is the allocation and for special education it breaks down every single position uh the positions that are for inclusion the positionals that are for regionalized programs um if there are positions for Behavior Support par Educators all of that is broken out based on the number of students that are enrolled and we account for our students to be included in um physical education class or in art

090class and so they they are accounted for in our general classroom allocation as well okay Dr SEO the most recent data reveals that Baltimore County schools is moving in the right direction and it underscores the need to fully support the budget that we have and even dealing with uh the graduation rates they're on the rise and I want to specifically speak to woodlon high school where they had the problem they had a big increase in graduation rates this year okay thank you you other questions okay may I have a roll call vote please so to approve the proposed FY 2026 to amend okay um go ahead okay um I motion to amend the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget to include appalls on all non representated non-instructional or School building related salaries until we receive a

091full fiscal impact of those scheduled salary increases can you repeat that do you want me to type it in the chat um for thank you than you for if you want me to speak to it I have to go through the of e that is there a second motion to the motion from Mr dominasi which is um written in the chat motion to amend the proposed FY 2026 budget to include a pause on all non-represented non-instructional or schoolhouse Rel ated salaries until a full fiscal impact of those scheduled salary increases can be presented to the full board may I have a second okay Mr McMillian second it okay now discussion M dominowski can you explain who you're referring to when you say Schoolhouse related salaries so essentially we are given um when you give us

092the budget book you we have the instructional salaries we have the school allocations but when you go through um each department level in uh Board of Education superintendent Chief of Staff chief of all the other ones all the other non-school non-school related instructional that we're not given the breakdown so I just want to know I don't need to know how many there are anything like that I just want to know what the fiscal impact is of those um FTE that we are not given the actual numbers of did you mean or non Schoolhouse because you have it as Schoolhouse so oh sorry did I not put non in front of that yeah or non Schoolhouse I did I I forgot a word non Schoolhouse I don't know if I can so so basically everything outside

093of appendix a so would you consider bus drivers non Schoolhouse and non- instructional because they are well they're Schoolhouse related they drive the students are you where would you put par educators school house secretar if they're inside of a if they're inside of a school building working directly with students they're a Schoolhouse related employee an instructional employee they drive the students to school I mean it's it's a small amount of It's a small amount but some of those salaries are quite large and I would like to know what the fiscal impact is of that that's all can I ask a clarify question um yes Miss teski so I'm just trying to understand it so would this be all all of the um employees for the system that are not part of a union yes is

094that they're not part of a union that we have are not part of the what we're committed to as far as tabco case um okay the all the union none of the it's the non non-represented employees yep thank you thank you Miss Booker dwire could you give me an example of a specific position that you are speaking of that you would not want a salary increase to go to because they are non-instructional or not Schoolhouse related I didn't say I didn't want them to get one I said I would like to see the fiscal impact of it that question so could you give me a specific position every position that does not is not represented by tab by the five main unions Dr Rogers is ready to respond okay yes thank you page 9 of

095the February 11th responses to board member questions at the top of page n we have a um chart that details by Union the FY 26 projected increases in millions the fourth item down is non-represented Staff um that is $700,000 they follow the case agreements and these are all salaries that are inside this build like inside Greenwood inside all outside school buildings all central office staff or is it just what what what does that include so non-representative staff um they might be outside of um a school building in terms of their location but depending on their job uh and I think we provided some reports where you have uh 60 to 80% of their time are spent in schools um and we have shared with the board and the public our uh monitoring tool for accountability

096and and um I I think the uh principles could speak to help uh that they're receiving in order for them to uh do their work in the school in order to ensure Fidelity of implementation of our investments around curriculum around um Quality teaching and learning uh that's the work uh that some of those people do and then you also have uh people on the operations side you have um supervisors who make sure that the buses show up to the right uh Depot you have uh you know um routing supervisors who do that work and sometimes they may get on a bus but if they are in um and and those might be the wrong positions to name but if they are in non represented the fiscal impact is $700,000 and that would include say your

097salary or anyone else is in this room salary yes the chief of staff chief of academic officer every that's it's only 700,000 for all those positions for every single non-represented position I'm not sure that I'm getting so you asked for the fiscal impact for FY 26 budget it's $700,000 so it includes Chiefs it include executive directors it includes directors it includes um executive assistants um anyone who's on the non- repesent presented list so it's 700,000 yes just for is the increase is the increase okay thank you so therefore your motion you have your answer so do you want to thank you for that okay thank you so I think oops we were at the roll call vote please for we had do we already have a motion and a yes Miss hen I have a

098motion to amend Madam chair okay go ahead I move to amend the FY 2026 budget by restoring the reduction in per pupil allocations to be offset by an equivalent reduction in non-school budget expenditures to be to be determined by the superintendent and to be approved by the board can you please put that in the chat sure for a minute don't cut the SKS and cut something no no so it's like the extra money get by little stuff was okay Miss hen's motion is in the chat she moves to amend the FY 2026 budget by restoring the reduction in per pupil allocations to be offset by an equivalent reduction in non-school budget expenditures to be determined by the superintendent and to be approved by the board is there a second second from Miss dominasi discussion Miss

099hen would you like to talk to your amendment I think my amendment is pretty straightforward um it's to restore school-based discretionary spending so that principes can use it for their highest priority student needs and gives the superintendent discretion to reduce um central office and administrative spending to offset the reduction um it also preserves approval um by the board so that we can have oversight into um and final approval over where that reduction ends up being okay thank you any other discussion M Miss Booker DWI was that a hand Okay so we've heard from several principles um to fully fund the budget as is um there was a whole video put out uh stating to fully fund the budget as is so um so I'm in support of what we have heard um to fully fund

100the budget as is uh without any amendments thank you further discussion so roll call vote on Miss hen's amended motion Amendment yes Miss frong no Miss Booker DWI no Miss Harvey I believe it premature to amend the Budget prior to getting official feedback from our County Partners and therefore I vote no Miss chulu no Mr tuski yes Dr seavoy No Mr Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young no Mr dominowski yes Miss lter no favors five okay so that Amendment doesn't pass so we are back to the original whoops the original motion so back two motions ago did I have a first and second on the motion to approve the superintendent's proposed fy20 20 I did okay roll call vote please on approval of the proposed FY 2026 operating budget roll call Vote Yes

101ma'am sorry Miss hen no Miss frong yes Miss Booker dwire yes Miss Harvey yes Miss chica Kulu yes Miss tuski yes Dr seavoy yes I'm Sorry Miss toleski yes Mr McMillian no Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski no Miss Lor yes favor is nine favors nine the proposed FY 2026 budget is passed thank you for everybody for their work on that okay where are we okay the next item on the agenda is action taken in Clos session and for that I call Mr Burns Madam chair Madam Vice chair members of the board Dr Rogers in closed session the board acted on two uh appeal took action on two appeals one uh was number um uh 25-0 10 I think you should do these separately because of the nature of the actions okay thank

102you may I have a motion to approve the action taken and close session on hearing examiners case haa 25-10 everybody's pres so Paul okay and then miss chica C second thank you may I have a roll call vote please miss hen abstain Miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss chulu yes Miss teski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss Lor yes thank you thank you may have a motion to approve the action taken in Clos session on hearing examiner case haa 25-7 so move thank you may I have a second second from Paul thank you thank you and any discussion may have a roll call vote please miss Han abstain Miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss

103CH K yes Miss tuski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Mr Young I'm Sorry Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss ler yes thank you thank you thank you Mr Burns the next item on the agenda is new business report on board policy policies this is the first reader for these policies and for that I call Miss Christina Pumphrey chair of the policy Review Committee thank you members of the board the policy Review Committee asks that the board accept this report of the committee's recommendation of proposed changes to 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

104thank you Miss pumfrey board members are there any separations requested may I have a mo 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 from the committee is there any discussion may I have a roll call vote please miss hen yes Miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss CH Kulu yes Miss tuski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss pomphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss Lector yes thank you thank you the next item added to the agenda earlier this evening is a proposed resolution on immigration enforcement in b County Public Schools and for that I call Miss Pumphrey thank you

105um I emailed excuse me one second board members you may have to refresh your um your board Ducks because this this information was added to it during the meeting after the request was made I'm sorry I just wanted them to be able to see the document no worries I was about to say I emailed it so I wasn't sure if it was included it's attached but you have to refresh okay thank you so this resolution was was adopted with input from both Casa and tabco um I greatly appreciate the guidelines and procedures that the superintendent H had has followed and that have been communicated to our schools many of the items you'll see in the resolution are the same or very similar to those guidelines however I believe that as a board we need to

106take a stand showing support of our students all of our students um during school visits in the last two weeks I've been told more than once that there's an increase in absenteeism of of our immigrant students students are scared to go to school and families are worried about sending them to school we know that we need our students present in present in class in order for them to learn educating each and every student is our number one priority as a board I have requested that our policy Review Committee discuss a possible policy however I do respect our process for adopting policy which is why I did not bring forward a policy this evening I believe it's important to adopt this resolution while we are moving through the process through the policy process and and so

107we discuss that as a as a committee thank you yeah let's take a couple minutes to allow you all to read it oh that's really cool is in here you know that should do let be it again Mr Burns would you mind joining us I know that you also have not had uh much time to um look at this resolution but can you just give us your early um thoughts and com thoughts and comments concerning the resolution as stated uh yes Madam chair uh members of the board Dr Rogers uh correct I I I saw this within the LA within the last hour hour and a half and just based on the board meeting haven't had a chance to do any sort of legal scrubbing I will say at first glance I'm just I'd be

108concerned that there are some non-m Maryland standard terms and verbiage in here that you certainly would not want to adopt a resolution that was not consistent in verbiage with Maryland law that's not to say it's illegal per se just that it's not standard verbiage um in no particular order I do think there's a couple Provisions including the furpa or uh Student Records related Provisions that may or may not be consistent with Maryland law Andor the school systems policies uh or state board bylaw so of course we have to look at that um I am concerned that at least one or two Provisions here could open the door to impermissible political speech to captive miners in the classroom um and there's a few others but I don't I think the best way to synopsize it because

109otherwise I'm doing what I shouldn't do which is you know shooting from the hip is to Simply say without adequate time to both myself and and and general counsel to review this that would be the timer going off uh review this I don't think I can give an opinion that would do justice to um you know to the issues that it raises and again that's not a substantive y or nay it's that's that's my opinion right now okay thank you for that um Dr Rogers would you like to provide any comments before I open up for board discussion afterwards okay okay right so there's do we need a motion first before we have the discussion okay I will go ahead happy I move to adopt the resolution presented in tonight's agenda regarding immigration policy thank

110you is there a second second still ask okay thank you now further discussion Miss hen thank you um I'm not comfortable supporting this for the reasons Mr Burns stated um I haven't had time to review it and um as Mr burn stated he has not either nor has general counsel there's some language here again i' had five minutes to review it but that um concerns me as well in regards to one one Clause specifically our requirements of our vendors I don't know that contractually we can bind them um to that language that was just one that jumped out at me again in a very um brief scan of the language so I I know I can't amend the motion on the floor it would be a different motion to postpone um or to table this

111this discussion until Council has had the opportunity to fully um review it and make recommendations in terms of modifications but that would be my concern that until we've had a full legal review so did you just make a motion I did not because I can't just okay I can't amend the motion on the floor but if the motion were withdrawn um I would support a motion to um postpone okay thank you Mr Young did you have Mr Young I was just thinking about what Miss h said because I wanted to uh and Mr Burns will uh correct me but I wanted to make a motion to table this until it's had an opportunity to be reviewed by both board and school system councel but is that permissible at this junct yes in fact that that

112could supersede the primary motion okay so are you making a motion making a motion okay so your motion is to table postpone postpone postpone adoption of the resolution until it's had an opportunity to be reviewed by board and school system legal counsel okay is there a second second okay second from Miss hen Madam chair just quick um did you mean adoption or consideration postpone consideration or adoption I'm just want to guard against a foregone conclusion being contained in have adoptive consideration thank you okay Miss um Miss G can you read the motion Mr Young can you reate the motion getting Silence from Miss cover um the motion to postpone consideration of the resolution until it has had an opportunity to be reviewed by board and school system legal counsel thank you and we already had

113the second now discussion um M domki I just wanted to say that I wanted to thank Miss Pumphrey for going to this trouble and it's something that we do need to discuss for sure and I appreciate all the hard work that you obviously put into this and all the input that you took I I I would like to discuss this further and it's not that I'm against it I just would like more time and I want just want to thank you for doing all that for us miss frong um I just wanted to ask so within the resolution did it take into account any of the existing policies that we already have so for example like with the student records and um bullying so we do have policies specifically for that so has the resolution

114already accounted for that I don't mind answering question however I'm not sure it's appropriate based upon the motion that's on the floor is to postpone and not to discuss the actual resolution although I do not mind answering your questions I concur okay okay Miss hen um I wanted to confirm with Mr Young And if I need to amend um his motion I will that what will be considered will be an amended version of the resolution if Council recommends amendments to that um that's what I'm assuming but if Mr Young has a different intent then I will make a motion to amend his motion to postpone my intent while um yes supporting what Miss pfre has done is to ensure that Council um is letting us know that what is there is um legal and appropriate

115to bring that back to us that this is a a more legal and appropriate way to handle what we are looking for May I Madam chair because this will help the board with probably similar questions if the board passes a motion to postpone you will have not taken any action and that will not stop someone the proponent or anyone else from bringing back a you know this resolution another version of the resolution or a completely different one at a future date as an agenda item you put off consideration of this one so are we good with the the amendment that's on the floor or were you amending the amendment I'm good okay all right we're still at discussion Miss Pumphrey did you have something yes I'm just gonna add that I I just think this

116is so important that it needs to be done immediately I know that no one has a chance to review it but I wanted to state that for the public that I do believe that this is important enough that we should make a decision on it this evening thank thank you Miss teski thank you and yes thank you Miss Pumphrey for initiating this I just want to take the time to recognize all of the community members that have emailed us with support for our immigration population and tasa as well for your Outreach thank you Miss Harvey thank you madam chair uh along with others I want to sincerely express my appreciation for Miss pumphrey's advocacy uh in making sure that we as a board express our um our agreement with protecting all of our students uh

117while they're in the school and making sure that schools are secure and safe and free from disruption I also want to make sure that the resolution has teeth and if there are parts of the resolution that are uh not legal that we cannot enforce then it becomes a a lesser document and I don't think well I'll speak for myself I don't want um us to pass a resolution that we can't enforce in any way that will likely not keep children protected but lead the community to believe so so I I agree this there's a sense of urgency I appreciate um the work that's been done if we could just get that legal opinion and adjust resolution if there are parts of it that don't meet legal sufficiency then I I would be in agreement it

118is important and we do need to address it thank you thank you Miss Booker DWI and and I agree with Miss Harvey I don't want to rush something that has no teeth I am all for being very clear how this board feels and ensuring that our immigrant students are protected and I'm also all for addressing this on a much larger level while it's great to have this sheet of paper um there's a bigger issue that needs to be addressed and and that's what I think that the energy needs to be put into because our students they cross different lines um they're not just balore County students they cross over into other school systems other states this is a much bigger issue that we are dealing with and um and that is what I think we

119really need to to look at so Baltimore County yes um but really there's a much bigger issue here um because it is impacting our students they have family and other places that is it's impacting their learning in our school buildings so that we have to address that so um this has to be done the right way so that it's not impacting our students learning and it's not imp acting our teachers ability to to have their full attention and to do their best teaching thank you I also you know while there is tremendous urgency for this I do want us to really get it right um so while I agree Miss Pumphrey that something needs to be done quickly I I agree with getting the teeth getting it right and making it so it can it

120can stick um but I do want to appreciate the ongoing communication that's coming from the superintendent's office it's coming fast it's coming constant it's clarifying so I do and I've heard from our staff that they do appreciate the messages and the guidance especially the crosswalk that was most recently put together um so I know we're going to get more guidance things will continue to change but I think the precedent that you started with making sure that we are informing as quickly as possible is is helping um I didn't know if you wanted to add anything no thank you I think this would just be the appropriate time to reaffirm our commitment to all students in BCPS uh regardless of immigration status we have said that uh before we will continue to say it um as

121you've alluded to we have provided uh ongoing guidance to our staff members ongoing uh information to our community we've created a web page with all of the uh resources and directions um so everyone would know what to expect if something like this were to happen we have already trained all of our principles and have a coordinated support team for our students with the hope that we never have to implement such a team into action um but I think it's important for everyone who's watching and particularly everyone who has um taken time out of your busy schedule to um sit here and Advocate on behalf of our students to know um that we're all advocating on their behalf we take this matter very seriously and we've already put in uh Place steps that were um guidance

122provided as suggestions there are things that we have already actualized on behalf of our school communities and we'll continue to work um across central office and across schools to make sure that our students have what they need and I am one of the uh few superintendents who sits on the state um level uh uh committee task force that was just um emerged a few weeks ago based on this issue to lend my voice um to what our students are needing right now what we're seeing in terms of attendance what our families are telling us and so this is a priority for us so um absolutely we will uh support making sure that we comply uh with laws and uh reaffirming our commitment but we remain committed to all of our students in Baltimore County thank

123you Dr Rogers if I am straight we now need a roll call vote on the amended motion do I have that right on the motion to postpone the motion to postpone okay okay roll call vote Miss Gober Miss H yes Miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss chica Kulu yes mrki yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey no Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss lter yes thank you thank you and thank you Miss Pumphrey the next item on the agenda is information and that is the financial report for the month ending December 2024 the report on students count 2024 and update on Key School legislation one second the next item on the agenda is agenda items for consideration before we do that I just want to give an

124update to previous requests Mr tuski requested information related to special education which will be provided in a March report um all the other requests are still under review and at this time board members please raise your hand if you have any items for future agendas Miss dominasi um yes just um moving forward I'd like to ask that all budget related items whether it's the B this you know financial report any audits that would have a fiscal impact um be categorized or listed as an agenda item for discussion for the full board so we have an opportunity to discuss and not be just an information item okay thank you other agenda items Mr McMillian Mr Burns please start my clock uh this is my third attempt to get the single audit year ending June 30th of

1252024 on the open Agenda Mr McAn my apologies that has been included in a March update too I should have said that along with Mr tusy thank you march agenda item thank you sorry do do you want your minute 40 or we are we okay okay um I didn't see any other hands right okay Miss Fang um for agenda item yes I'm not sure if it's um technically like a specific agenda item but I think something to look at is um when you think about out in Corporate America after there's been a big project that's been done you have like a Lessons Learned type of thing and so um as we continue to do the budget process um because I do think that um Dr Rogers has done a great job with that leadup and

126getting all of the input and feedback um leading up to it but just continue to have um I guess discussions about ways that we can um improve the budget process for everybody okay thank you Miss hen thank you and thank you to miss frong um for bringing that up I agree and would like to second that request as well as to invite um our peers from other boards that have Innovative budget processes um I'll mention Anna rondle County but there are others as well that have um quite the robust budget processes that run through their budget committees and I would like to invite them if they are willing to share their processes with us once they get through their process or through their budget season and things quiet down for for us and them I

127would like to invite them to share their processes with us so as Miss frong said I think that's a tremendous learning opportunity if they're willing to share thank you thank you okay the board will hold the next item is announcements the board will hold a public hearing on the northwest area Elementary School boundary whoops boundary recommendation to tomorrow February 26 2025 so I'll see everybody again tomorrow night 6:30 p.m. at Milford Mill Academy Auditorium speaker sign up begins at 5:30 through 6:25 so members of the public who wish to give us their input speaker sign up begins 5:30 and will end at 6:25 our next Board of Education meeting will be held on Tuesday March 11th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. thank you for joining us tonight and have a great evening the meeting is now

128adjourned e for