001It's great to have you. Well, thank you to be here. It's a lot of fun. It's good to leave the cold temperature in Milwaukee behind. You're going to love this guy. He's a Ravens fan born and you don't even have to train him to be. Every day across the world, city school students make their mark, shaping their communities, pursuing their passions, and building their futures. Take Jason Newton, a trusted anchor and reporter for WB TV, bringing the stories that matter to Baltimore. But journalism wasn't always part of his plan. Like so many City Schools graduates, Jason's path took unexpected turns. He credits his teachers for helping him find his way, guiding him, inspiring him, and opening doors to new possibilities. This was not where I was supposed to end up. I I wanted to be
002a doctor, and I went to the University of Maryland. I studied biology, and I was a horrible biology student. I was a great college student as far as going to basketball games and football games. Uh, but organic chemistry uh taught me that that wasn't going to be my thing. You know, I I've been fortunate that I ran into a lot of teachers that were really good teachers who were able to connect with us. So, if you're talking about Roland Park, I'll never forget Mr. Rappa, uh, the math teacher who just made things fun or like Miss Ray was another math teacher again who sort of brought it home to you. Um, and there's so many there at city. Um, I think Mr. Henderson. I will always say their names because they taught me that I
003could do things. Um, and journalism ended up being what I could do. Welcome to 11TV Hill. The birds, they're back in town and rebuild in full swing. Even though reading and writing is now a major part of his career, Jason once found English class to be a challenge. But during school, he found the love of reading, a skill he relies on every day, helping him craft a compelling new stories that inform and inspire his community. of all the classes, I think English became the hardest. I don't know why. Uh I think that I just was not a good reader, believe it or not, growing up. I just didn't know how to read for fun. Um and so that became a challenge to me. Um in I think high school, Miss Gyra, I think that in
004that class we had to read The Great Gatsby. And that may have been the first book that I read uh cover to cover. And I felt like, oh, I now I get it. I understand why this is such a thing. My parents are huge readers. Uh, and so it changed the conversation at the dinner table. All of a sudden, dad reads the newspaper every day. Still does. Does a cross word puzzle every day. Uh, and so now I find myself in a job where I am constantly consuming or just being a student of what's going on around you. Thank you both for coming by. Good to see you both. Jason has this advice for current city school students. My advice would be to try things. Uh, if I have a regret in life, it was
005hanging on to the side of the pool too much. Um, try things and see what works and see what you like. Do internships and you might know that you want to be a news anchor and then you get in a newsroom and think there's no way in the world I want to do this. Or you might be a news anchor, you see how a producer works and maybe producing is my thing. Or maybe get in the building is just not your thing. Uh, but you don't know until you give it a shot. Even if it's something that seems like it isn't cool or isn't something that your friends are doing, that might make it even sweeter. So, I guess my advice would be to try it. Jason reminds us that the lessons that shape us
006most aren't just about subjects. They're about relationships, like the relationships we build between students and teachers. Education is finding confidence in our voices, strength in our stories, and purpose in our paths. And that's what City Schools is all about, helping students uncover their potential, one lesson at a time. We're proud of the many amazing graduates of City Schools and the impact they make on the world every day. Hi, I'm Jason Newton, anchor and reporter at WB TV and I am city schools. All right, I think we're in a good space to get started this evening. Um, I'd like to take a moment to welcome each and every one of you guys here online, in person, our families, our students. Um, I also want to take an opportunity to recognize that we have city councilman Mark
007Parker joining us this evening. We really appreciate you joining us here in person. Um, it's a great opportunity tonight. We have got a pretty um, robust slate and one we'll be talking about the budget. I'll talk about that a little bit more in detail this evening um, as we get going. But just for some of our formalities, we want to make sure that um everybody online has their phone muted. Um anyone who does not have their phone muted may be moderated uh muted by the call moderator or removed from the call. And additionally, if you're not a board member of the CEO and our staff, we ask that you please turn off your video. I'll now read a roll call of the board to identify who's on the call. Please identify yourself first before speaking
008for the record, and I'll go through a roll call for each vote this evening. Uh, Vice Chair Parker, Commissioner Ames Messenger, Ames Messenger, present. Welcome, Commissioner Koy. Commissioner Koy present. Thank you. Commissioner Espazito, Commissioner Espazito, present. Thank you, Commissioner Kinyatta Bay. Commissioner Kinyatta Bay, present. Welcome, Commissioner Muhammad. Muhammad, present. Welcome, Commissioner Reading Lawinger. Commissioner Reading Lawinger, present. Welcome, Commissioner Rooks. Commissioner Rooks, present. Everybody's moved. This is why I'm looking different directions this evening. Uh, Commissioner Simmons not here this evening. Commissioner Slater Harrington not here. Let's see. Oh, and I am also present. Um, is there a motion to reopen the meeting? So moved. Espazito. Thank you, Commissioner Espazito. Is there a second? Second. Kinyatta Bay. I'll take Commissioner Kinyatta Bay. All in favor? Uh, Commissioner Ames Messenger? Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Koy. Yes. Thank you,
009Commissioner Espazito. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Kinyatabay. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Muhammad. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Reading Lawinger. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Rooks. Yes. Thank you. And I'm in favor. This motion passes. So, in recognition of the JRTC from Benjamin Franklin High School, we'll join for our opening this evening. I said, everybody stand. [Music] March left turn arms first sergeant Alvin Garrison from veteran Franklin High School request permission to post Mr. Grant. Thank you sir. Order March. Ice flag of the United States of America. Ready, cut. You join me in a round of applause for our close. Thank you so much to JRTC over at Ben Franklin. We appreciate uh their service and their commitment and their time this evening. Is there a motion to approve the prior open session summaries? So move Kinyatta Bay. Thank
010you, Commissioner Kinyata Bay. Is there a second? Second. I'll take Commissioner Rooks. Uh, all in favor? Vice Chair, excuse me, Commissioner Ames Messenger? Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Koy. Yes. Commissioner Espazito. Yes. Commissioner Kinyata Bay. Yes. Commissioner Muhammad. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Reading Lawinger. Yes. Commissioner Rooks. Yes. And I am in favor. This motion passes. Is there a motion to approve the closed session summaries? Ames messengers moved. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Espazito. Thank you. Commissioner Espazito. All in favor? Commissioner Ames Messenger? Yes. Commissioner Koy. Yes. Commissioner Espazito. Yes. Commissioner Kenyat Bay. Yes. Commissioner Muhammed. Yes. Commissioner Regalinger. Yes. Commissioner Rooks. Yes. And I'm in favor. This motion passes. So, tonight on the docket, um, a couple things. So, I just want to acknowledge first that we have a new, um, commissioner joining, the
011Baltimore City Board of School Commissioner. Earlier today, the mayor welcomed Commissioner Larry Simmons as our newest commissioner. He's unable to join us this evening, but we're really excited for his contributions that he's going to add to the board. Um, Commissioner Simmons comes from West Baltimore, has had a rich history of service here in the community, as well as serving as the former president of PCAP, um, as well as on numerous boards here in the city. So, we're excited to welcome him. He'll join us at the following board meeting to tell his story, um, for a proper introduction to our community. So, thank you for in advance for welcoming him. um and his city schools email will be up and going soon. So you can feel free to email him um with thoughts that you may
012have. Um in addition um just want to make sure that our public is aware that we are looking for one additional commissioner to join the Baltimore City Board. Um we'll be hosting an information session later this month. We'll have details on our website on how to join um what the information session will look like. We encourage all of you to spread the word because we need representation from um parents. We need uh representation from our business leaders um as many folks as possible as well as educators to join the board. Um tonight in general, we are going to um spend some time looking at the school board budget. Um want to make sure that our public is aware that this is perhaps one of the most important things that the board can do in terms
013of our responsibilities of being good stewards of city resources, of state resources, and federal resources as well. Um I want to make sure that our public has an opportunity to get involved um with the board's work. So, from now until uh from excuse me, from January until now, the district has completed several steps within the budget development process for school year 25 and 26, the district has held several meetings with students, parents, multilingual families, staff, and community partners to hear feedback about the district's spending plans for next year. In the midst of the process, last week, uh the district notified our city schools committee about the US Department of Education and the rescending of pandemic era recovery funds. The abrupt decision significantly impacts our district causing us to make um unwelcome and painful choices to
014level set. After the abrupt decision earlier today, the year-to- date financial summary of fiscal year 2025, quarter 2 was presented to the board. Um this information is also um going to be made available to the public. The summary outlines the district's current general fund revenues and expenditures. to view the presentation. We um ask that you access the board docs um which will have more details for you. As we get closer to the final phase in the budget development process, it's important that everyone affected by the school board budget makes their voices heard. U this budget is one of the board's most important responsibility because it ensures that the best uses of our resources that are critical to preparing students for higher education, life sustaining careers. Um tonight we are going to welcome our public to
015make um more extended comments. We recognize that this will be the first time that the public has an opportunity to look at the coming year's budget. So, we will be taking written comment as well as extending in our next board meeting additional time for comments once that our public has had an opportunity to review the budget in detail. See what else that I'm going to pause on the rest of our updates for now so that we can move through our agenda this evening. Um actually want to take an opportunity um to lift up an additional set of funding that's available to city schools. Um this is the Strawburg Committee that is chaired by Commissioner Kenyatta Bay. Like to turn it over to Commissioner Kinyata Bay for just a few words about the fund that's available
016to city schools yearly. Uh sorry. Thank you. First of all, we're in great appreciation of the funding um that was offered um to the Strawburg uh committee uh operations and um a group of students because this is what Strawburg represents, student voice. This is a group of videographers, storytellers, uh visionaries that come together. They're picked from our schools uh and they are they are people who want to be able to tell their point of view is one of the most powerful things that can happen. The Strawburg is actually fund about a third I do believe of the total operations of what they do. But there's nothing more important than to hear the voice of our students because they're going to tell us the story of not only what's happening to them, but the story of
017our tomorrow. So, I want to express my deep appreciation for that input into our efforts. Thank you, Commissioner Kinyatta Bay. Uh the board also acknowledges a monetary donation of $25,000 from the AWalt family charitable fund to Digital Harbor to be used as needed. Um as well um as we mentioned earlier, the FY just want to make sure we double down on that. The FY25 quarter to to date budget and expenditures are available as a written update for our board commissioners to review. Um as per today's agenda, we'll now move into the approval of our personnel, employment, and payroll. Is there a motion to approve the PEP agenda? So moved, Espazito. Thank you, Commissioner Esposito. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Reallinger. All in favor? Commissioner Ames Messenger? Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Koi. Yes.
018Commissioner Espazito, yes. Commissioner Kinyata Bay, yes. Commissioner Muhammad, yes. Commissioner Reading Lawinger, yes. And I'm in favor. This motion passes. Did we get Commissioner Muhammad? Okay. I'm sorry. There's you go through the motions and I want to make sure I get everybody. I'll now review the consent agenda. Board colleagues, please let me know if you'd like an item removed and please state your question for staff. Item 6.01, gifts and donations. Item 6.02, policy FKA, waiver for Digital Harbor High School. Item 6.03, policy JICJ, student use of portable electronic devices, second reader. Item 12.01, 01, the Maryland School for the Blind. Item 15.01, Plano Condan LLC. Item 15.02, Nichols Contracting LLC. Item 15.03, Chillmar Corporation. And item 15.04, also 15.04, 15.05, and 15.06 all belong to Chilmar Corporation. They're all separate procurements. Item 15.07, 07 Smolen
019EMR Iikovic Architects Incorporated. Item 15.08 Clyde Mckenry Incorporated. Item 15.09 Eornius Construction. Item 1510 TCA Architects LLC. Hearing none, we'll move into our public comment. Uh we'd like to first welcome um Special Education Citizens Advisory Committee Chair Sheila Bilips to the mic. Good evening, Dr. Santise, the board, those in the room, and those that are on call. I am here to talk about autism awareness month. I would like everyone to salute. You don't have to do it out loud, but in your heart, remember those who have autism. Um, I have a saying for those with autism, and it's called great minds. They learn differently, they think differently, they operate differently, but they are wonderful group of individuals. I know them from 90 say 50 down to 2 years old. and they I've learned so much
020from them. They can't come to us, but we can go to them. So, I want to acknowledge this month at Autism Month because we won't have a meeting. Remember those staff and those parents, caregivers, nurses, doctors, all who take care of those with autism. It's a great job, but it's a great reward when you see them produce and become progressive in their lives. That's all I have to say this evening. Thank you, Miss Phillips. I really appreciate it. Move forward in our agenda for our next I'm getting organized here. Uh BTU, we'd like to welcome Christina Evans to the mic. Hi there. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Sally, Vice Chair Parker, Board Commissioners, and CEO, Dr. Sanusis. I'm here this evening on behalf of the Baltimore Teachers Union
021to raise significant concerns about the current school-based budgeting process and the district's surplus and transfer practices. These two issues are deeply interconnected and both contribute to serious challenges around staff morale, school quality, employee and family engagement, and ultimately student success. Let's begin with school-based budgeting. During budget planning sessions, information is often presented to school communities as if it were absolute rather than as a set of options open for discussion or adjustment. Staff and families are asked to attend meetings that are not meaningfully participatory. There are no real opportunities to provide feedback and certainly no decision-making power. Worse, in many cases, notice about these meetings is given late and the sessions themselves are not always accessible to all stakeholders. While in some instances, school communities have productive and effective processes, the district fails to ensure quality
022control so that best practices are widespread and consistently upheld. The uneven quality of school level budget development contributes directly to low morale and disengagement. When educators and families feel that they have no voice in decisions that drastically impact their schools, staffing, programs, and supports, they begin to disengage. Teachers question whether their voices are valued. Families stop showing up, and school culture suffers. When school-based budgeting was introduced, it was promised to increase family and employee engagement by providing meaningful opportunities for participation. Instead, the process is actually having the opposite effect. and creating disappointment and disengagement. Why do schools make high stakes decisions before the district budget is finalized and before the state of Maryland has completed its budget? These premature decisions lead to instability and frequent shifts once city and state figures are confirmed. No other
023district in the state operates this way. It is a chaotic and disruptive process and our students and educators pay the price. On the issue of the surplus and transfer practices, we're seeing alarming developments. The surplus process is being expanded to include certification alignment reassignments without clear district-wide communication. This has led to confusion, frustration, and widespread uncertainty. Many employees have reported being notified that they are in surplus in unprofessional, unethical, and inappropriate ways. In some schools, surplusing is being used in what appears to be retaliatory ways. There is no transparent, accessible list of school level vacancies, and the online applicant tracking system remains difficult and clunky to navigate. Teachers who are already reeling from the news of their displacement are then asked to apply for new jobs in a system that is not userfriendly and lacks
024adequate support. This kind of disempowerment contributes directly to burnout and poor retention. We are especially concerned about the displacement of fine arts educators across the district. Many of these positions appear to be getting replaced appear to be uh replaced by vendors or contractors. This undermines the district's stated commitment to a well-rounded education and raises questions about long-term sustainability accountability and quality. The BTU has previously requested to meet with Sandy Jacobs or other district finance representatives to learn more about how supplemental funding will be approached now that there's a clearer understanding of the state budget. The district's largest budget costs, our personnel costs, and the BTU represents close to four and five city schools employees. Yet, our request to meet with district finance representatives has gone unanswered. We are again requesting a meeting with central office
025staff regarding the proposed budget. In some both the budgeting and surplus process are in urgent need of reform. They are undermining morale causing instability and leading to a loss of talented staff especially in a time when educator retention is more important than ever. We call on the district to increase transparency, expand genuine opportunities for staff and community input, and center equity and fairness in every staffing decision that is made. In conclusion, after 15 years of operating under the fair student funding model, the district has not been able to establish an orderly, efficient, and equitable process that strengthens family engagement or improve student outcomes. These persistent challenges have continued across multiple administrations, indicating that the issues are not tied to leadership, but are inherent to the structure of the funding model itself. It's time to critically
026reexamine this system and pursue alternatives that better serve our students, staff, and school communities. Thank you. Thank you, Christina. Thank you so much. We do welcome the comments from BTU. It's very helpful. Um, I'll now turn over to Dr. Jkins to manage our general public comment. Thank you. Our first public comment will be from Robin Bingham. She's teacher at Vanguard Collegiate Middle School and the topic will be school-based budgeting and fine arts. You'll have three minutes when you're ready. Hello. Is that better? Okay, a second. So, I um I'm really happy to hear uh Christina Duncan Evans talking about this because my situation um is directly exactly about what she's talking about. The theater program at Vanguard Middle School is only in a second year. Um I was really excited to go to Vanguard because
027I was offered this amazing theater that is in um Herring Run um building. Um, nobody knows about it because Herring Run's kind of run down, but it's a gorgeous theater. I, uh, my principal bought $27,000 worth of curtains for me and a $7,000 sound system, and I've got to work. Um, I have um I I was able to get a student into BSA um, last year. He is currently at um, the at at BSA doing well. He is one of the lead roles in Center Stage's current Achila and the Bee, which I'm really excited about. We should all be really proud of our our students. Um, but this spring, um, I being a theater teacher, I go try to go to all the budget meetings because theater is always on the line because budgets are
028always tight and budgets cut theater first. And when I went to I I our school did not follow the process for the budget. We um we had an input meeting where community was able to say what they were interested in. It was poorly attended but most of the people who were there were really excited about the arts and the sports at at Vanguard and how much this meant to our students. Um but then the very next meeting which was we missed two meetings. we didn't get what the middle two meetings um was the our principal presenting the budget in which he cut the fine arts department in half including cutting my position and when I found I said well can we have some input about this I was told that no that was already final
029it was it was submitted and that was it um and I started researching the budgeting process and it looks like that's really true like even though on on the web you have this um beautiful process process that we're supposed to be following where we have a community input meeting. Um we have several drafts of the budget which are presented to community. There's input at every level. If a principal decides not to follow that, they don't have to and their budget is final. And I I know there were a lot of difficult um decisions to be made this year, especially because of tight budgets. But at our school, there are a lot of um empty uh vacant positions. And I feel that we could have re reworked some of those positions to um maintain our fine
030arts department and our theater program. Um I I went and I got some quotes from my students um and parents who were really excited about my theater program. I'd like to read with them with you. Um Darnell, who's the student I was telling you about who is an Akquila and the Bee, his father told me that he's getting his footing academically at BSA. It's providing so many opportunities for him. He loves where he is right now in life. He's enjoying it. He's loving what he's doing right now. I'm proud that he even had the drama class for Miss Bingham to open the door for him for these type of things. He never would have been where he is today without it. Um I want to say that it wasn't easy to get Bar Darnell into
031BSA. It involves a lot a pretty involved audition. You have to memorize a monologue. You have to um be able to to present yourself well in an interview. They give you call back and you're supposed to do all this sort of improv stuff on stage which he which it was quite a bit of work to prepare him for that. And um I've been teaching theater for 19 years and for many years I didn't realize how soon you have to start preparing students for BSA auditions. you have to start um in September for a January audition. And Miss Bingham, thank you. It is time, but if you have additional comments, please send them to me and I'll make sure the board gets them. Okay. Thank you. I just want to say that I I really hope
032that the board will will resend this decision on the part of my principal because I want to I want to build a real program and you can't build an arts program at any school without the time and the relationships and the relationships take time. Um thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to extend just a thank you for just your service at Vanguard and working with our young people. So, thank you for the comments this evening. Our next public comment is from Nathan Frell. Teacher agenda topic is new higher salary placement chart and this will be a video. Good evening, commissioners. Nathan Frell, teacher BTU member. I request the board to direct human capital to standardize the new higher salary offer letter to include specific explanations for a salary offer based on the
033new higher salary placement chart in the BTU contract. In most offer letters to new teacher chapter hires, human capital does not provide rationale as to how the salary offer was determined. This results in incorrect salary offers, additional work for human capital staff, and harm to new hires who are placed on incorrect salaries. New hires under the BTU teacher contract should be offered a salary based on years of experience and highest degree. I've emailed every board member a sample offer letter and a copy of the BTU new hire salary placement. On the second page of the document I've sent you, please look at the first paragraph of the sample sample offer letter that says annual compensation for this position will be $79,37. There is no explanation as to how that offer was created or where to
034find the B2 negotiated new hireer salary replacement chart. An email address is provided if the applicant has questions, but emails often go unanswered beyond the 72-hour window of acceptance. Applicants reject incorrect offers and seek employment elsewhere. International educators accept incorrect salary offers because they have no context or guidance on what they should even be getting. Reminder, some international educators come from countries where there is a national standard for a salary, let's say $6,000 per year, irrespective of years of experience or degrees. Without providing clarity to the new hire, the district is creating more work for itself by a losing candidates during the salary offer process or b creating unnecessary compensation reviews to be requested. Incorrect salary offers harm workers. The BTU receives weekly pleas from newly hired educators to have their salaries amended since the
035offer was incorrect at the time of hire. The district's callous response of well, if they thought it was wrong, why did they accept it? Only highlights the need for transparency in this process. Please look at the first page of the sample salary letter that I've shared. An explanation of the salary offer using years of experience and highest degree that links to the BTU contract's new higher salary chart would be helpful for applicants and would support recruitment and retention goals. Including a specific email for compensation issues for a salary offer review would support the human capital team during a busy hiring season. Educators leave city schools after short tenures due to incorrect salary offers that are not remedied. Experienced educators reject incorrect offers and go to other districts. And international educators suffer financial hardship and exploitation
036when salary offers are not correct. We hope human capital will implement these common sense, nocost solutions to support recruitment and retention. Standardize the new hire offer letter to teacher chapter job title candidates to include specific reasons based on the new hire salary placement chart in the BTU contract. Thank you, Mr. Frell. We appreciate that. Thank you. Our next public comment is Jocelyn Providence, BCPSS teacher and be more member. Our agenda topic will be end of quarter grading policy and this will also be a video. Uh Tanisha, we do not have sound. Good afternoon. My name is Miss Providence, Joselyn Providence. Uh I'm here to speak to you about end of quarter grading. Uh so Baltimore City has recently changed their end of quarter grading report card grading policy so that teachers are unable to stop
037accepting work one or two days before the official end of the quarter. I understand the intent is to make things more equitable uh for students and give them the ability to turn in additional work that will be graded for the quarter. However, this makes that grading workload unmanageable for teachers and this does not properly prepare students. So, this is an example of work that I received the last day of quarter 3. And I was expected to grade all of this by close of business deadline. Uh, simply allowing teachers to have an additional three hours in a school day for an early release is not nearly enough for teachers to grade the amount of platework that we received during the last couple days of the quarter. This is why it was very productive to inform students
038that the deadline to receive work would be to be graded for the end of the quarter was two days prior to the actual end of the quarter. This allowed teachers to have all late work graded by the end of the quarter and adhere to the deadlines that the district sets for grading. Another option could always be to admit that teachers are asked to do an excessive amount of work outside of contract hours at the end of the quarter and pay it to our stipen rate for it. But since we're currently in a budget deficit, I don't see that happening. The current grading policy also does not properly prepare students. I had multiple students give me every homework assignment that I assigned for the entire quarter on the last day or the second to last day
039of the quarter. Two of those students were seniors. How can we say that we are properly preparing students for post-secary opportunities and success like college when we allow students to be able to wait until the last minute to turn in all of their homework without significant penalty. Also, when we allow this, we are making learning into a more transactional experience instead of a fluid and interconnected learning experience. I've been teaching for over a decade and I understand the importance of equity and being flexible for our students. However, I know that in order to properly prepare our students, it is important that we hold them accountable and set them up for success by maintaining strong expectations. I strongly encourage you all as the school board to reook at the grading policy to make sure that we
040are setting all students and teachers up for success in our learning endeavors. Our currently our current end of quarter grading policy does not do that. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much, Jocelyn. We appreciate it. That's our last public comment. members. I'm sorry, can't get it right today. Um, actually, let me say we do expect more extensive public comment um on the budget coming into next board meeting. Um, so this is just a preliminary. We know recognizing our normal course of business is infused in tonight. So, based on public comment, are there any additional items that any board members would like to pull from the consent agenda? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the remaining consent agenda? So moved. Espazito. Thank you. Commissioner Espazito. Is there a second? Ames Messenger second.
041Thank you. All in favor? Commissioner Ames Messenger? Yes. Commissioner Koy? Yes. Commissioner Espazito? Yes. Commissioner Kinyatta Bay? Yes. Commissioner Muhammad? Yes. Thank you. Commissioner Reading Lawinger. Yes. Awesome. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Rooks. Yes. And I'm in favor. This motion passes. I will now turn over Sally. Can we make a can we make a brief comment about Yes, sure. Please. Um, just on the consent decree was or consent agenda was the cell phone policy and I just want to take a moment on the record to comment on how exciting this is for us as a district having friends and families and colleagues who are educators around the state and the country. Um this is something that just all educators everywhere are facing and I appreciate the work and the effort of um school staff and schools
042who have participated willingly in pilots to see what this is and I'm excited to see how the board can support this work and actually implementing it fully next year. Um but the commitment also of I guess not to leave off our legal office just looking at a comprehensive strategy about how we can best support kids. um given our technological day and age. So, thank you for your effort. Um I'm glad that it passed. Thank you. Any additional comments on anything on consents? So, just also want to echo the thanks from um myself too, from the city school staff that put a lot of time and effort into developing the policy and to making sure that the board understood um what the opportunity was in terms of um guardrails and ways to also enhance learning opportunities
043for all of our young people. So, we appreciate that consumer education as well as the public comment that we received from numerous educators, parents, um, policy makers around the city who really helped us to understand that opportunity. So, thank you. So, I'd like to turn over to Dr. Santaas for CEO comment this evening. Great. Thank you, Chair Sally. I'm going to invite um Chief Nielsen forward for this evening's um PEP agenda. That was skillful. Thank you, Dr. Santis. Good evening, board commissioners. If you are on tonight's PEP agenda and you're here in person, please stand up when I read your name so that we can recognize you. And if you're joining us online, please turn on your camera so we can recognize you. From the office of the chief academic officer an appointment recommended that
044Nissan Newborg currently literacy coach 12month at Augustell Savage Institute of Visual Arts High be appointed educational specialist to secondary literacy effective May 31st 2025 from the office of the chief of schools acting recommended that Michona English currently principal resident at Augustel Savage Institute of Visual Arts High School be appointed acting principal at Vanguard Collegiate Middle School effective April 19th 2025. Appointments recommended that Kandra Arrington, currently assistant principal at Morell Park Elementary Middle, be appointed principal at Sinclair Lane Elementary, effective June 28th, 2025. Recommended that Gregory Hines, currently teacher at District of Columbia Public Schools, be appointed assistant principal at Hazlewood Elementary Middle School, effective June 28th, 2025. recommended that Kerianne Malcolm, currently principal at Baltimore Monastery Public Charter, be appointed principal at Arendel Elementary, effective June 28, 2025. And recommended that Charmaine Turner, currently teacher
045lead at Frederick Elementary, be appointed assistant principal at Frederick Elementary effective June 28th, 2020. Congratulations on everyone to everyone on tonight's top agenda. Thank you, Chief Nielsen, and congratulations everyone. Um, I will continue uh my comments this evening by highlighting significant achievements by city school students and teachers. Uh, first, last Thursday, representatives from McDaniels College and Collegebound Foundation surprised five city school seniors with news that they had received full tuition scholarships for all four years at McDaniels College. And um as one who is charged with uh paying a a college tuition bill, I want to add that each of those scholarships is valued at approximately $200,000. The winning scholars are as follows. Malva Canales from Frederick Douglas High School Ace Foley EK from Baltimore Polytenic Institute. Sky Hammond from Western High School. Zoe Saunders from
046Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women. And I'm smiling on this one because she greets me every single time I visit Patterson High School. Jazzy Blesset from Patterson High School. Oh yes. And uh Chief High Cubard is reminding me that she is also um an ASCBC um officer. Correct. And member and she heads up her school's um student go government. Correct. Very good. Let's see good coaching class president. So since 2008, McDaniels College has partnered with Collegebound Foundation to provide full tuition scholarships to exceptional Baltimore City high school seniors. Our sincere thanks to them and our most enthusiastic congratulations to all five of our outstanding senior scholars. I am equally excited to recognize two outstanding city schools teachers. Last Monday, the Maryland State Department of Education announced that two mathematics teachers from Baltimore Polytenic Institute, Mr.
047Timothy Carter and Mr. Joshua Massie were nominated as finalists for the presidential awards for excellence in mathematics and science teaching. And for those of you who do not know, this is the nation's highest award for teaching in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Miss Yes, we should all uh Mr. Carter and Mr. Massie were two of only six teachers nominated in the state of Maryland and more than any other district in the state by a national committee of mathematicians, scientists, and teachers for this prestigious award which recognizes teachers who have both deep content knowledge and the ability to motivate and enable students to be successful. Hearty, heartfelt congratulations to both of our nominees. Mr. Carter, Mr. Massie, we are proud of you and proud of what you do on behalf of Baltimore City students. Congratulations. Um,
048and then finally this evening, um, I do just want to say a brief word, um, about, um, our pandemic relief funding. um that was provided by our federal government to help our students recover from the COVID pandemic. Now, although um we had detailed spending plans that were in fact approved and adhered to all guidelines, the US Department of Education recently decided to end the availability of these funds um reigging on their commitment to support students ongoing postpandemic needs. Um, city schools will not receive approximately 48 million in reimbursement for funds already spent or contractually um committed. Uh, today was the last day for tutoring programs at 25 schools. Um, I as a parent of a city schools uh high school sophomore uh received my own letter about um my child's school losing their mathematics tutor
049who had a case load of approximately 50 students uh was beloved and my daughter will attest um was amazing um at getting young people um to achieve at higher levels in mathematics. Um so these cuts are not without impact. Um we will indefinitely pause um some of our efforts to upgrade the door lock system until we can get a sense um of where we are with funding. But I think most importantly, um I want you to know that we will work to identify um other programming or projects um that can be cut or reduced to cover the $48 million gap. Um we're also providing vendors who will be impacted by this decision with direct communication. And as we prepare for the 2026 fiscal year budget, we are carefully assessing how to navigate this change to
050minimize its impact on students, staff, and schools. Now, most importantly, and what I will end with um is knowing that this is unexpected, clearly challenging and difficult. Um but I want you to know that city schools staff, teachers, um our central office finance team, our grants office, academics office, operations team, uh chief of staff's office. We are all working um to uh reduce the long-term impact on this cut um to our young people. Um we are committed still to maintaining the educational progress uh that we have been experiencing. Um and I do want to thank um the city schools larger community. ed other challenges. We will do it together. We will do it with a focus on what is best for young people and we will do it keeping our ultimate goal in mind. So
051I did want to end on that. Um, and I will also say this should not get in the way of everybody trying to get a restful spring break. Um, that seems particularly late this year. Um, but is absolutely well-earned. And with that, chair, I turn it back to you. Thank you so much. So, that will lead us into our presentation this evening on the FY26 budget. And so I want to make sure that we welcome up Chief Doherty and his team um to give us the fiscal budget overview this evening. Um so as Dr. Santis has highlighted in her comments this evening um those kind of trade-offs that we do have to make will be um somewhat felt near-term as well as more longer term. And so we do appreciate the very thoughtful um guidance
052uh by Chief Doerty, his team as well as a number of folks across city schools that has helped the board to understand what is to come. Thank you. Uh, board chair Sally, Vice Chair Parker, commissioners, Dr. Sanicis, my name is Chris Derty, the chief financial officer. I'm joined uh with several of my friends and colleagues in order to present to you the proposed FY26 budget. While that presentation gets up there, which it now has, um, we we have this delivered by a handful of of chiefs to give a sense of just how coordinated this effort is. It is in in one respect a dollars and cents presentation. At the same time, all those dollars and cents uh go towards our schools and our activities. So if this was only a um dollars and cents budget,
053we think we'd be shortch changing the discussion. Um so of course we start all presentations with how they connect to the strategic board priorities and because this is a budget for an entire year's activities, it touches on all uh all of them. A quick note on some of the key dates in this process. Uh tonight as chair Sally has mentioned is the initial uh board budget presentation. It kicks off really a more than month-long process during which all stakeholders can absorb uh this presentation the budget book that's coming and uh formulate questions that the next month is explicitly designed uh to entertain. It is hard to have all the questions or even impossible uh to information that is being presented to you and as much as we try to summarize it and to put in
054the key points, it's too much to expect that all questions might immediately uh occur to an interested uh listener. As I mentioned, April 11th is when the draft budget book will go to the board. The period of um back and forth questions, however uh the board or stakeholders uh would most like to do it, uh emails, phone calls, is from April 11th to May 13th where the board and other stakeholders review and consider the budget and ultimately um the schedule is that the board would render judgment on the presentation and the board the the budget presentation on May 13th. It's a little bit extra time this year compared to some other time other years and we're we're glad of that. Uh next slide please. Also, as uh has been mentioned indirectly, although this is the
055beginning of the final stage of the budget presentation and and consideration, we really are deep into our annual budget development process. the the graphic there gives uh some sense of of it being a October kind of a year-long process really and we are at the April in the month but this is a very decentralized process I I can't um I do want to just make general comment about um not everyone comes out of the budget process um delighted at the same time it is it is notable for its um rigor and its decentralization and because of the fair student funding model that we've employed for years and with the blueprint model now it is entirely school specific. Um no two schools are the same. That is a function of the blueprint. A 500 child school
056with one set of characteristics will look very different. As a result, the super important budget collaborative and budget development process is designed to ensure that there's not a cookie cutter approach that says 400 children school gets this, 500 children school gets that, etc. Um, it's also known for its back and forth. Um there the the blueprint formulas. There are notably 12 key formulas that essentially um assign funding streams based on not just individual children, which is the foundation, but whether those children are multilingual learners, whether they receive special education services, whether they're uh live in high poverty, all of all of which results in the allocation. That said, um hallmark of the budget collaborative process is the principal advocating to uh typically for her team and positions and it is very common to have uh
057post postformulaic decisions made as well. So it's not just the application of one formula and again that's that's where we are now. We've we've been past all that and what we're presenting here is the overall FY26 budget and we're proud to present it to the board for their consideration. We think it continues to focus on our key investments and best meet the needs of our students and educators. We the the year-over-year increase in this um general fund budget is about 6%. Um, importantly, and you'll hear this at a few other times, we have been working on this budget and putting together the budget book even as the general assembly has been working on uh the final budget. And as you can expect with the state representing by far our biggest funer in the high 60s
058uh percent typically, the city comes in in the low 20s and the rest is federal and other sources. Uh we have been well um Dana Sturret and Melissa Broom have been literally living at the general assembly and providing updates uh not just for the CEO but for the budget team on what it might mean for the budget book. And without getting too much into the specifics, late last night, uh, decisions were made that put a little bit more money back into our coffers for FY26. So, the numbers that you will see in this presentation and in the board book are what the school's budget and the offic's budgets were built on. We made the prudent decision not to estimate what we thought would happen at late at night in the general assembly. So, the school
059budgets that we have do not reflect the about $22 million in last night's decisions. Now, even that $22 million, which we're we're confident in that number, those are our own internal numbers. We have not yet received the updated state aid file. And the reason we proceeded the way we did is if we hadn't and things had gone a different way last night, we would be in the really uncomfortable position of pulling funds back from schools who have literally built their budgets based on those numbers. That was such an unattractive scenario that we opted for the more prudent one. But that said, there are certain numbers in here that um do not reflect yet. They will by the time you get the final budget presentation, uh but they don't reflect the 22 million in good news
060last night. Um, yes. And also I don't I don't uh think more needs to be said on the unexpected FY25 federal recision at the because this is the FY26 budget. But at the same time, right now, we're glad we took the more prudent approach uh because the $48 million uh unexpected surprise um is definitely a part of our fourth quarter FY25 reality. Now, um so I think I think we've covered this. Um one other one last point if we can go back to the yes so the impact of the federal actions I think has been um well covered at the same time one part of this bears mention and that is this again from late last night and we're not experts on this but the state of Maryland is putting in certain economic hardship triggers
061that would reopen They're not yet really even closed uh FY26 budget because the governor hasn't signed it yet. But in there um they have triggers that say if unexpected federal activities were to occur that had a net impact of X million, they're notifying the public that they will reopen their FY26 budget. And because they are our majority funer, 68 69% um we want to highlight to our board that if the state of Maryland were to do that and it would be a very public thing that they would give lots of notice for or as much as they could, we would have to reopen our FY26 budget. Um so that's that's about all we have on that. And when when they finalize what those economic trigger thresholds are, we will immediately make them uh known to
062the CEO, her senior staff, and the board. Um we don't know how likely that is. There is the additional wrinkle that the blueprint funding is its own separate category. So it's possible that it's more insulated than the rest of the budget. But um but but it's a possibility. Um now we want to move to uh some more of the content and chief of staff Allison Perkins Cohen will take it from here. Great. Thank you Chris. Um so happy to be here to talk about the budget. As um Chris mentioned and um and as Dr. Santis mentioned in her remarks earlier, there is a lot of flux right now in terms of um in terms of what's going on with the budget and what's going on nationally. Um and a budget um is always a reflection
063of not just um numbers, but it's a reflection of our vision and our values. And so at times when there's uncertainty, I think it's particularly important that we really ground the budget in our um our strategies and our principles, our values and and particularly in staying focused um uh trying to provide some sustainable if we want to see sustainable change then I think it's really important that we continue to focus on the things that we know that works and I think we've tried to do that in our budget as well as gr grounding in our key values. Um so the boards one of the other key um kind of points that we organize our budget around is um what we're working to achieve. So the board's uh four goals always guide our work and you
064can see investments in the budget that reflect our commitment to these goals. So things like investments in early literacy, um expansion of college and career pathways, mental health supports, and investments in staff development and retention are important things that we try to do in order to make sure that we're um that we're supporting and moving towards these goals that we've identified. Another key um thing that we're always focused on is our portrait of a graduate. Um this is our strategic vision for what students need to succeed academically, socially and emotionally. Um so we always want to make sure that we have investments that support that. So one thing you'll see with regards to academics is the literacy and math coaching is a strategy that we know has helped improved our our students reading. Um we've
065seen significant growth as a result of those investments. So we wanted to keep those investments going. Um, we're also maintaining the invest. So, we're we're you'll see about a $30 million investment in maintaining that co that coaching because we've we've seen the efficacy of it. Um, also under wholeness, we wanted to see that our schools um are opportunities for our students and that they have opportunities that they may not otherwise have had or access to services they may not have otherwise have. So, you'll see our investments are continuing in things like middle school athletics to make sure that there's more of a pipeline um coming to our high schools. Um when students come to our high schools that they have had the opportunity to play some of the uh sports that that many of our
066students historically didn't have access to. In other counties, other students have access to to many more opportunities than than we've seen for our middle school students. So, we wanted to make sure that that was there. things like robotics. We've invested in um school-based mental health um providers, making sure our students have access to those supports that again in other places students may may have access to in other ways, but we want to make sure it's provided through schools. So, as an example, we're including almost $50 million towards mental health workers to to continue that investment in our student uh mental health. Another key thing in the leadership category is a youth voice and professional um professional learning for our students I mean for our staff. Um student government is growing as we heard earlier by
067about Jazzy Blesset from Patterson um is one of many students who are participating in ASCBC. Um we have a had over 150 ASCBC students um in our delegation and it was not only the largest at this year's state's convention but the largest in ASBC history that we had that many students there. So that investment that we've been making the last few tiers has grown, few years has grown very quickly and is really paying off in terms of opportunities uh to see our students really um have opportunities to share their voice and and their important feedback with us. Um and then also for professional learning, we have job embedded coaching that you'll see in here, leadership development programs, career pip our new career pipeline that's in our contract. We're going to pilot um that in the
068next uh year in 10 schools as we try to think about how to effectively use that to emulate the countries that consistently outperform us by creating opportunities for teachers to not just be great in their own classroom, but also to help mentor other teachers and help be experts in instruction. Um so, and then you'll see $2.6 million in supports for our new educators and professional learning for them, of which my son will be one next year. So, I'm excited for that. Um uh and then also for our budget priorities uh you'll see uh we're ensuring alignment with the most pressing needs and the biggest opportunities for student success. So in literacy and math um we we're investing in things like whole group instruction, small group instruction, personalized learning um and and and making sure we
069have supports to to support each student's unique learning needs. Um we're improving um work on in wholeness. We're looking at things like attendance and continuing the efforts we've made to really in increase student attendance and address chronic absence. Um and the re and continuing the work of the re-engagement center where we're making sure that we're um getting students to come back to school who maybe have become disengaged or who we hadn't served well enough the first time. And so we need to get them back in so we can serve them better the the second time. Um, and then for community feedback, um, I think we really do try to make sure that we get community feedback in the development of this budget. It's much better. It becomes much more robust when we have opportunities to
070hear back from our community. So, we had four district-wide events um about to engage families and um and uh parents and community partners. Um, about 250 people attended those events. Uh we also did polls which is a great innovation that Tina Tina Chief Hike Hubard has led to help make sure we have quick ways we can get responses from families and students and that's been 9,000 responses we got through the posit poll. Um we what we heard from the community was consistent with what was in the board goals and what's in the portrait of graduate. So, it was kind of confirming to hear that we're we're focusing on things that the community values as well. Um, and I think that's it. And then with that, I'm going to turn it back to Chris to get
071into the details. Thank you. Um, to go back now to some of the numbers uh now that we've gotten a some sense of of the priorities and then after that we'll dive even deeper into certain highlights of the actual of activities. So first when you take a look at our FY26 revenue for all funds, this is the total budget including the general funds which we'll talk about in more depth at 1.5 billion. Uh special fund also called special revenue of just under 300 million and the enterprise fund sometimes uh referred to as the food and nutrition um uh fund uh at 71 million. I want to talk a little bit about some of those before we dive into the general fund. You can go you can go back. Thanks. Um first the just under 300
072million special fund um that represents federal funding and it is primarily or overwhelmingly made up um of the concentrations of poverty grant which although it we feed it into our schools and a lot like general funds the fact is it's a special fund category but the the well-known um CPG funds for community schools coming in at 166 million for FY26 6 makes up a big part of that. Title one part A at 71 a.5 million. Uh IDA at just under 27 million and also other um programs like TSI at almost 6 million and third party billing. That's what that orange slice represents. Um often called federal or special funer revenue. Last year that was 276 million. So you see it's gone up um 26 million. Most of that is in the CPG increase which went
073up about 30 million uh from 25 to 26. The smaller sliver uh is the enterprise fund or our food nutrition fund. That's actually down from about 73 million in FY25 and that's the result of explicit efforts to economize as much as possible in food and nutrition. um where we've had we we eliminated some positions and we also uh are predicting a savings on uh certain inputs which is particularly difficult because we really haven't left the post pandemic post pandemic super high cost of food uh situation. Um the cost of food has dramatically increased and that is of course a big um input for food nutrition's budget. But I wanted to call out that uh from 25 to 26, our enterprise fund is down um on purpose uh $2 million in a belt tightening effort. And
074the big uh the big actor of course is the billion half dollars in the general fund. We'll take a little bit more. And again, um, just to kind of reinforce some key themes, our revenue situation is is not overly complicated. Even though there are in the full, uh, budgets, there are lots of smaller uh, entries, but for the most part, we have the state of Maryland at at nearly 70%, the city of Baltimore at low 20%, and I'm averaging across different years, and then all other sources. So, for example, the state of Maryland in FY25 for the general funds, which is our more our most flexible, um I wouldn't call them super flexible uh in the absolute sense, but in the relative sense, uh they are more flexible than uh bespoke federal grants for XYZ
075purpose. Uh we're going from 1.011 billion up to 1.077. And I don't want to become tiresome, but that's one of the entries where add $22 million to that if what we think has happened last night in Annapolis is enacted with the formulas that we believe they will be. So, think of 1.077/.099. The city of Baltimore um has gone up about 3 million and from 389 in change to 392 in change. You see that there's a little bit of TSI in there. This is the last FY26 will be the last year for the TSI uh grant. So, it'll all be um that they'll no longer have that that line item. You'll note that the city increase is entirely a function of the increase in student population. Um and that's because the city will of course fund
076the higher of the uh local share or maintenance of effort. And with our increase in student population, which is reflected down at the bottom, um that you'll if you did the math, you'd see that we have a 77% increase in children and that's why we have a 77% increase from the city of Baltimore. Um many districts are losing students and and and we are we are not uh that um uh we're quite proud of that and um obviously it's reflected in uh our funding sources. Other sources are just that there's there's relatively speaking a lot of uh entries in there, but think e-ate uh think JOTC money uh think Treasury bond subsidies and also investment earnings. And the decrease that you see there is um a reflection of our belief that the short days of
077high T bill rates that uh anybody with cash balances benefited from um is is over or at least we won't see like what we saw in 24 and early 25. So what does that all mean? It means that in the allimportant general fund we went from a billion437 up to a billion uh five. Um and next slide. So more on the blueprint. Our our general fund is essentially the blueprint. Um, the reason I say essentially is because of CPG and TSI living in other in the in the grant funding, but for the most part, our general fund is is the blueprint. The blueprint has fundamentally changed how schools in Maryland are funded. It begins to correct historical under underfunding uh especially in Baltimore City, but in other places as well. uh it allows funding to
078a particular child can be funded both for her uh her her very presence in the school as well as for her being a multilingual learner at receiving special education services and those stack on top of each other. Um and so as a result, the blueprint treats schools rather differently depending on who's in them. And it's important to note that that's that's a feature of the blueprint. It's not a bug and we're very grateful for it. At the same time, it does present some real challenges at the schools p most notably at the schools that you would think of smaller schools, schools with relatively fewer children receiving special education services, relatively fewer children in high poverty circumstances, and relatively fewer multi-ingual learners. It's it just it is a is a function of of the blueprint. Um
079we are in the fourth year uh forgive me FY26 will be the fourth year of blueprint funding. As a quick reminder I think it's worth pointing out FY23 was the first year of the blueprint. We realized a $200 million increase in funding and that was a real bonanza year for the blueprint for many folks. I think uh they thought that that was what that that was what the blueprint was like that was what was intended and a and a significant increase like 200 million was the was the new normal. It has not been the new normal. FY24 and we're very grateful for it had an $80 million increase. FY25 the year we're in as we spoke to the board last year is the leanest of the planned blueprint years. It was formulaically we saw an
080increase of $42 million for the year we're in, which is which is nice, but it's 2.2%. And with inputs costing what they cost, it it was a lean year even before some of the unexpected events that we've talked about. Where does 26 fall? At 96 million, which is what the uptick was before last night, uh we're at about 6 and 12% uptick from 25. when if and when we when the 22 million gets added back, we'll be more at the 7.5 7.6%. Um, again, we don't have the updated state file. We're delighted to have learned that the 22 million was added back and the 22 million only is a Baltimore City number. Like, no one else will think of it like that. what they'll what that you'll read in the press is that the um
081that the proposed cuts were added back. Importantly, FY26 is going to go back to what was envisioned, but there are cuts for FY27 and FY28. There's already a lot to talk about tonight with FY26, but it sure bears mentioning to the board that there are cuts for the planned FY27 and FY28. uh revenue and that's that's already one doesn't know what will happen in next year's session but um 27 and 28 will be lower than blueprint authorized and that and that has been envisioned um about the one last word about last night's good news um to give a sense of what that means for schools um the median amount of money that became payment available last night is $88,000 for a school. That's the median. The mean is $108,000. So absolutely um important and well
082well um appreciated. We we expect uh we will not be opening up the budgets of 160 schools now for amounts that are again between 88 and 108,000. Importantly though, in the fall where we have our normal enrollment adjustment period where we go into each school and we we take the pulse of the school based on how many children are actually in that school. Uh maybe they have 50 more than they thought, maybe they had 50 less than they thought. There's a normal process at which uh additional funds can be conveyed to schools in that manner. um a bit more on um on the blueprint. I've kind of uh I've said some of this already, but I I will say two things. So, we're in the 6 to 7% increase, and that's a I mean, that's
083it. The numbers are what they are. At the same time, I think schools by and large are certainly in a better position than they would be if they were facing cuts. Um, at the same time, FY26 is not I think this this is a generalization, but it's not all joy and rainbows at the school level for a couple of reasons. One, 6% is itself not gigantic. Um, and certain things that used to be paid for by ESSER, uh, we we tapered off ESSER according to plan. certain activities were kept. And if a school is benefiting from that, they they are now paying for certain things, their portion of only paying for what they're utilizing, but they're now paying for certain things that were previously paid for with budgets that weren't quote their budgets. So, they're
084feeling that. And then importantly, position costs have increased. And I think they've increased for macroeconomic reasons. Things are costing more. The cost of business has gone up. But it's also worth noting that there was kind of a um un non-intuitive aspect where the FY26 budget actually held within it two years two years worth of increases uh for most of our employees salaries. And very briefly, and the reason I'm adding this is because um if the board hears from or already has heard from folks who are saying sure doesn't feel like a 7% increase to me. Um, they're right. I mean, the math backs them up on that. Um, because in FY26, the negotiated contracts for, uh, our biggest collective bargaining units that were for 24 and 25 kicked in to the average salary. Um, when
085we have an average salary file, people pay the average salary for a teacher. And until that average salary file goes up, they they pay the previous average salary. So it's kind of a idiosyncratic in some way. But in FY26, two years worth of increases hit uh building principles. So yes, they got 7% more. Every school went up every So every school went up at least 2% on a year-over-year basis. That's pretty good. It doesn't pay for um it doesn't necessarily pay for position increases also and then I I swear we'll but fringe fringe is a big deal. Uh we we calculate our fringe rate every year with all the things that you would expect all the benefits package we use actuals and when fringe rates go up uh the cost of everybody goes up. Um
086we're proud of our rich benefit package to our employees. Um, rich benefit packages cost a lot. Uh, our medical's gone up 10 million in 26. Oury's gone up 10 million in 26. Um, and they're not going down um anytime soon. And so fringe is also um to give you percentages from 24 to 25 our fringe went up 17%. And then on top of that 17% increase from 25 to 26 it went up another 5% off the bigger number. Um so that's that's that decrease in buying power is being felt at certain schools even as their cash in hand is higher. Didn't want to belabor that but it is a part of the reality of at the school level. um blueprint sustainability if this hasn't already come through and I think it it has but um
087we're very pleased at what happened last night but but it absolutely underscores what the board knows and what the I've heard the board say which is the the blueprint funds are not guaranteed. They're not guaranteed at all. And so we're we're seeing that uh we we managed to get FY26 restored, but FY27 and 28 are already lower. Um and briefly the collaborative planning time pause um is in there for 2 years and um it's not clear what will happen to that after the collaborative planning time money was a part of foundation and as foundation r was meant to rise it increases some of the other categories as well. Well, they've hardcoded the increase in collaborative planning time such that the planned increase will not be as great. Um, concentrations of poverty um it's a big
088part of what we do. We we have an all funds approach where uh this these grant funds are used extremely well. The um governor had proposed uh freezing CPG funds. I'm bringing it up only because these were things that were were on the discussion table for cuts. Uh while it's temporarily been added back, uh it's already been discussed and it may come back for us. We're very happy. Uh we have 166 million in CPG funds, up from 136. Um Dr. Hoffman and her team uh manage that money down to the penny and it's an integral part of every school's budget. Every school is a community school. Every school gets CPG and those are crucial funds and we're delighted that FY26 uh came out unscathed and we just put a marker down for future that they
089are integral to the well-being of our schools in 27 and 28. Uh this chart looks pretty daunting. It's just meant to show what the 12 actually 13 for one more year before transitional supplemental instruction goes away. But these are the 1213 formulas that make up the blueprint. um the foundation one being the biggest one of course compensatory ed after that concentration of poverty is italicized because it's a grant funding and that's what makes up um our six or 7% increase from FY25 to FY26 um and there will be 22 million more dollars sprinkled in to the foundation compensatory ed and multilingual learners that you will have in your follow-up uh final briefing. One last word on end of Esser. Um FY26 is the first full year without ESSER. That's being underscored by the abrupt uh
090recision of the late liquidation funds that was talked about. We have been planning for years for the end of ESSER and we've tapered off ESSER activities almost from almost from the beginning when we got them. So this um this last the letter of March 28th with the recision was unexpected. At the same time it comes in the context of our having been planning methodically uh to use and then um taper off of Esser. So we we will be fine in that regard. We will solve that problem with FY25 funds and not FY26 funds. Um and we will successfully transfer off of ESSER. Um this pie chart uh classic uh finance presentation has to have at least one or two of these. This is meant to show actually more than just uh you know the exact
091information. But what we're proud of is that the purple wedge and the uh yellow golden rod wedge uh is school-based school-based money. Um we were we were kind of school-based before school-based was cool. Uh the the uh blueprint is absolutely money follows the child. Um we were doing fair student funding for years beforehand and that's where the money is. The money is at the schools. We have we have not um had undue difficulty uh adhering to the blueprints requirements that at least 75% of of the funding needs to go uh to the schools because we were already uh doing our own version of that. And this pie chart shows that 88% last year it was 87%. This year it's 88%. Why? because um um positions cost more and most positions are out in the schools.
092So our already high appropriately high 87% of our funds are either under the principal's control directly or are spent for um the principal the school by us because it makes more sense to pay utilities and other things that way. So that 87 number is now 88%. It's something that Dr. Sanisas pays uh a great deal of attention to um and the the ex exploded pie wedge of the school support budget etc gives a sense of what these things are transportation utilities uh certain contracts um the only back on slide 22 um another thing that Dr. San Elisas ensures we keep very close track of is how much of the money is spent on central office. Um in the last several years it's been in the six to 7% range. Um I think the six is
093probably pretty darn close to the irreducible lower end of it. Um and once again we're at six uh this year. And the school support budgeted centrally just gives a sense of um what central office is paying for on behalf of a school is almost universally what they want us to pay uh for on behalf of them and not taking away any of their uh control or decision-m power. And now for for some uh specific investment highlights, I'll turn it to Chief Academic Officer Joan Drosski. Thank you, Chief Doherty. Good evening. Uh Joan Drosski, chief academic officer. So, as Chief Doherty mentioned, we are going to um highlight some of our investments, but I just want to call um to our board commissioners and our public that these highlights don't represent an exhaustive list of the
094invest investments in each of the areas. Um we've just identified as Chief Dhisa mentioned uh some key district investments knowing that um with the end of ESSER our schools have assumed some of the key uh pieces of for example personalized learning and tutoring and yet we are still holding on to 10 a.5 million to invest in some district focused tutoring using the data that we've learned over the last three years about our own um homegrown tutoring model. Um, so that's again just an example. To go to the first one though, again, our ongoing work to ensure that every classroom has high quality instructional materials. You can see we're going to continue to invest in our math and prek. This builds off of the multi-million dollar investment we had in fiscal 25. We are going to
095continue to make sure that our uh schools have access to those materials um and that there's the support for them to use those materials well. And then as um was mentioned earlier, our ongoing investment in instructional coaching. So you can see there those are millions of dollars and those are um positions that the schools are funding to ensure that there is uh inschool support around literacy and math support for our teachers. If we go to the next slide, please. When we think about academics in this big umbrella of well-rounded education, we're going to I just want to highlight a few things here. um particularly around the arts. We will continue our investment in fine arts in city schools. I'm very proud of the work that we've done over the last four years. Uh when I
096first came to city schools, there were two um court there was a coordinator. Um we had then grew into two. We are now an office of four and as part of fiscal 26, we are asking for an additional FTE so that we can expand instrumental music into three more schools. So, we're very excited about the work that our office of fine arts continues to do to ensure that all of our students have access to fine arts programs. Um, our Judy Center expansions for our youngest learners, again, another um important body of work that we're excited and we're anticipating to be able to expand pending MSDE approval um into three more sites because we know the benefit of that. As Chief Dohy mentioned, we did have to do very um uh serious uh reductions in our
097areas of uh summer programming um that had uh really been heavily funded through our ESSER funds. But we are excited that we are still offering um a set of programs out for literacy, mathematics, and a whole range of enrichment opportunities. You can see it on our website. The registration is open. So, we're excited about that work continuing even if it's at a smaller scale. Um, this next item should actually say extended school year, not expended because this is the important work we do to help our students with disabilities make sure they receive the supports and services they need throughout the summer. So, again, continuing those important essential investments, our work for gifted and advanced learning and our advanced placement opportunities. And then the last item here on this one is about the work we do
098to ensure that our students with disability can fully access our curriculum. So we do that through specially designed instruction supports and now there's important legislation around our requirements to ensure that all of our digital tools are widely accessible. So again really important investments we're making there. Next slide please. In the area of secondary success and innovation again the important work we do to ensure our students are being supported um for their work uh for post-secary readiness whether that be in career or college. You can see here um our ongoing work for credit recovery. We've learned a lot about when and how those opportunities um go well for students. So we've got centralized opportunities. We've got afterchool opportunities and Saturday opportunities as well as school-based opportunities. So again, continuing that work. Uh opportunities for our young
099people to get dual enrollment, so college credit while taking high school courses. That continued investment. Very excited by our career coaching work with the mayor's office here. Again, a huge investment to ensure that our young people are getting coached in those um middle and high school opportunities around their opp what opportunities they want to pursue after high school. You can see here again our work-based learning, our on track to graduate. Uh there's a lot of work here in the secondary space that we are excited about. And a lot of these resources are out in our schools with positions that we've dedicated to do this work out in our high schools. So, we have OTG coordinators in our schools. We have post-secary adviserss in our schools and the work the team that has done this year
100is to ensure that those supports are well coordinated so there's coherence and how those um supports are are working in a school and how they're engaging with our young people so that all of our high school students have someone who's helping them guide and navigate them through the high school experience. And then of course our ongoing commitment to ensure our students have access to the PSAT and SAT will continue for fiscal 26. And I believe at this point at the next slide I'm going to turn it over to my chief colleague uh Dr. Stacy Place Jose. Good evening everyone. So we know success um extends beyond the classroom. So we've been really intentional about creating pathways for students who are overagged or have been disengaged from school for various reasons. That's why we've invested more
101than $3.4 million into our re-engagement center. And this isn't just about um bringing students back. It's about setting them up for lasting success through personalized support. And that support can include mentoring, mental health, job opportunities, and academic performance monitoring. We also know that students thrive when given flexibility. And that's where our 300,000 evening school investment comes in. This program offers alternative schedules and structures that work for students that are juggling life's complexities. Athletics and access to programming are vital for building connections, uh, school pride, and a strong sense of belonging. And that's why we made strategic investments in our athletics. So, we've dedicated 3 um 3 million to enhance high school sports, 1.2 million to expand middle school programs. We've increased our per student allocations for the schools um and also 2.2 for our athletic
102trainers. Um and this is to ensure all students have access to safe, meaningful and enriching athletic experiences. And then lastly on this slide, we've also um made a huge investment in our community school model where we're turning our schools into hubs where academic enrichment and family support all live under one roof, which is our schoolhouse. Next slide, please. So, climate and culture are built through intentional investment um and daily action. And that's why we've dedicated $5.3 million to place 58 wholeness specialists in schools. And this is also supported by centralized resources to ensure that they're well equipped and connected. Strong relationships are foundational to learning. So we've also allocated um $200,000 to our mentoring and adult-based connection programs because when students feel seen and they feel supported, everything can change for their life trajectory. We've
103also taken a holistic approach to safety, investing $10.8 million in our school police force for our 105 officers and staff. And this is not just for them to be present, but also to build trust and create safe and supportive environments in our schools. We're continuing to strengthen our community connections with dedicating funds to major events like our choice fair. um that was a $500,000 investment and also $200,000 for attendance efforts and home visits. So again, you know, attendance is everyone's business in city schools and even the greater community. So we want to ensure that families feel welcomed and engaged. So again, student wellness is central to the work that we're doing and we made a really large investment to ensure that every school has access to a full-time social worker and psychologist providing proactive care
104to students so they are emotionally ready to learn. Um we've had an additional $3.1 million for our support in our behavioral health partnerships. um expanding access to timely responsive services in schools. For our unhoused students, we've dedicated $1.4 million to ensure they have access to transportation, basic supplies, wraparound services. So, um home instability does not disrupt their learning. Um, and a night one that was always very important, we've invested um, $71 million in food and nutrition to ensure that every student receives healthy meals because learning cannot happen if our young people are hungry. And lastly on this one, our violence prevention work that we're doing. We're taking a healing centered approach to violence prevention. Um, and this looks like expanding our professional development, strengthen our school climates, um, and also invested in targeted interventions and
105our studentled programs. At this time, I'm going to pass it back over to Dr. Drowski. All right. So, um, as we've been talking, uh, in recent, uh, meetings of with our board around our increasing, uh, population of multilingual learners and families, we are very pleased by our investments here to make sure that our multilingual learners are set up to receive the very best uh, instruction and strategic support and English language development. So you can see here we are centrally providing supports. There are school-based supports and we are actually um working to take existing positions of school success liaison and intensifying sort of the the opportunity to make sure that all of our schools have the supports they need to support our multilingual learners. This also includes uh data platforms that help us monitor their progress,
106ensure that they're getting the instruction that they need. So again, these um investments really do represent our commitment. And it also starts with how we welcome our families in our multilingual enrollment service center. It's a very special place that we have here at city schools for all of our new families to come and get supports that they need as they're making this transition into city schools. And it is something that um we will continue to invest in because we know that it is important for those uh students and families to feel welcomed. Go to the next slide. When we talk about leadership and our blueprint 2.0, we think a lot about the leadership of our adults. So the investments we're making in professional learning. We've mentioned these before, but we have systemic days across the
107school calendar where we bring teachers together. We do institutes in the summer for our educators. We have a very special time for our newest educators during the induction and mentoring time. So, we're making again a $2.62 million investment to ensure that those teachers coming new to city schools are wellprepared to be set up for success. And then we're also thinking about how we develop our school leaders similarly to make sure that they are set up to be supported in their work as well. We go to the next slide. We also think about leadership through the lens of our young people. And so we think about where in our investments are we lifting up opportunities for youth voice. Again, we've all luded this evening about the important work that Chief High Cubard does and her team
108in this area of student government and ACBC A asbc um and the expansion of that work into over a 100 school sites. Uh the powerful opportunity for young people to serve on a CEO student cabinet, our youth ambassador program, our Be More Me conferences. Again, these are samples of um just the investments we make to ensure that our young people have opportunities to lead from the spaces where they are. And I believe I will be now turning this over to Chief Emily Nielsen. Thank you. We've worked hard with our union partners to negotiate contracts that invest in the compensation and rich benefits for our educators and other staff members. We also are imple implementing the investments in the blueprint in our educators with their new salaries and we're excited to begin the new teacher career
109ladder with the implementation of the instructional practice lead role on our teacher career ladder in the coming year. Next slide, please. And then we have a variety of leadership pipeline programs that we invest in. We have a couple for school leader development. So, we invest 1.2 million in 10 resident principal positions. This is supported with uh an additional investment in a educator development team uh currently known as our um educator pipeline with a director and four senior principal coaches who work with our assistant principles, our resident principles and our principles. There's additional programming for emerging leaders who are aspiring to be school leaders. And then we have a variety of pipeline programs into our teaching roles including the Baltimore City Teacher Residency, Teach for America, our newest program, Johns Hopkins Teaching Well, and a residency
110the city teaching alliance in addition to the work that we do with opportunity culture to help multiclassroom leaders expand their influence while staying in the classroom. Back to you, Chris. Thank you very much. So what what what that means taken together is our collective attempt to bring some life to these numbers and to remind the board and other listeners that on April 11th we'll be sending in the draft budget book. And the draft budget book will be a much more detailed manifestation of what we're describing here. Uh there'll be school by school information and the sum total will the sum totals of which and will also have summary tables in it will uh match the numbers that we've given you here. The period from April 11th to May 13th is therefore the um period of
111review, period for questions, period for clarifications. Um as as thick as the um budget book is, it doesn't mean that every possible question will be clear. Sometimes uh the type of questions we get is, you know, what is what's contained in this? Is this part of this? uh sometimes the names are self-explanatory and sometimes they're a little less so. So we we stand ready for all of those a and with an eye towards coming back to this body on May 13th. um uh at least the the tradition is to uh both answer questions in full or give the presentation again um if desired uh with once the board approves uh the budget whatever changes or whether it's approved as is uh then that becomes the adopted budget for FY26 and is published as such. Great.
112Thank you so much. I really appreciate the presentation um from all of you um leading on your expertise and so I want to open it up to my board colleagues who may have initial questions before we receive more detailed briefing books. Questions or comments? Mr. Koi? Yeah, I have three. Thank you for this uh preview and the start of the board's engagement uh as directly here in public as as this is. Um, and first off, I just want to my com one of my comments is to say thank you for discussing directly this uh the 6.6 to 7% increase at the school level being outpaced by the 12% increase in the average staffing cost being realized at the school level. uh because I I certainly have heard and I think even tonight we heard the
113uh the implications of that and the difficult position that principles certainly are in in managing uh that significant of an increase. And I I appreciate the direct uh and and more detailed explanation of what things contributed to that. And I I do think we owe that to our principles, to our community members to just be as clear and as direct as possible because it doesn't feel like they're getting increases uh in that condition. Um, you know, and and one of my questions, uh, one of my two questions for you is the dollar amounts that are projected with some of the current changes that are, you know, obviously, uh, very fresh that you referenced are potentially significant enough at some schools to mean a staff position. Uh, and I'm thinking forward to the approach that you
114outlined about adjusting those in the fall and wondering if we are setting up a staffing shortage. um scenario where schools start the year and then are scrambling to add positions partway through and wondering uh how to manage some of that um or or thoughts that you have on that. That's something you could you could come back as as we have these other meetings or curious if you have thoughts now uh on that and then I'll ask my second question and you can you can speak to which ones uh you would like now or or hold for later. My second question is while we have definitely and clearly as you outlined empowered principles in the budget decision decisionmaking process uh and it's obviously now state law that we are doing so what are we doing to
115support principles in the process of the thoughtful decision making in collaboration with community stakeholders and clear communication about those decisions like how are we supporting principles because they are certainly on that front line. Um and it is a difficult spot to be in. Uh you know all of us have our own home economics kitchen table conversations about the realities that we all each facing. Um and and I just feel like the principles are are in a position where they they are communicating the realities that they are facing and especially imagining new principles coming into that role. Um you know that that's a tough spot to be in under the under a microscope with tough realities. Um and so what are we doing to support them in that? Um, thank you. The on the on the
116very good question of how best to incorporate the last night's additional funds that um the median of which is 88,000, you know, to schools and the average is 108. Um first we actually um and this is kind of another part of the budget development process uh that is is kind of a formal part of it and that is a during and sometimes after the budget collaboratives where staff from central office with principles and and other key staff go person by person and position by position. And that is where, for example, a principal might say, I really think that I need X more positions and Y more dollars and here's why. Um, that process this year, for example, has yielded a great many additional funds for those schools. And in almost all cases, those additional funds
117were more than they stand to get from uh the 22 million. And while that's a normal part of the budget process this year, almost certainly because of the um increased position costs uh and the modest but not fantastic increases in dollars was there was more of that that happened. So in some cases schools I think have gotten to an equilibrium but not necessarily in all cases. One of the things that we plan to do is and we have a table as you might expect of schools schools that requested additional funds what they received and how you know and and where they stand. So I do think that this will these additional funds um once we get them confirmed by the state uh we will take a look at um not just but tweener cases where
118someone almost got you know x amount more and as you say um although in many cases it wouldn't be enough in some cases it would be so that is part of what we're going to be looking at in this next month Um although I mean in one respect most of that 22 million was already uh paid out to the schools from other funds. Um so not that it would be paid back dollar for dollar but um we will look at those for sure. I don't know whether on the um training of principles one did you talk to place to say? Sure. So, um there's multiple layers that go into um budgets and budget collaborative. So, prior to the budget season, um once funds are received, there's a pre-colab where it will mirror what a normal
119budget collab would look like. And that involves the school leader, the budget an analyst from finance. We have multiple people from all of the different offices, um the principal supervisor, the manager. So, they're there. They're helping them make decisions for what it is that they can and cannot do. And remember, because the money, all of the money goes to the school, majority of it in any way, they're buying everything from like positions to toilet paper. So, they have to really be strategic and think about how many students do we have in a class, how many teachers do we have, like what can we afford? So um we have so many meetings to help them be creative with their thinking and to use their money um as efficiently as possible. So that's the pre-colab. Once we
120have the budget meetings and you have to go back to the community um we have the support of the principal supervisors and with our early career we also have our principal coaches to support to like walk them through. They can also ask for the support of district leadership as well. And we've had um some seat leaders reach out to say, you know, I may be struggling with, you know, communicating this. I need some thoughts on how to communicate this to my um school community. Can you support me or give me some ideas? We also provide um a template to support too. And I did forget our family community engagement specialists are really big in supporting too. So it's a lot of you know people um and support that goes into it. Um but you know
121as earlier there are like a lot of difficult decisions that are made and um it's it could be rough. Um but there are a lot of layers of support to help school leaders get through it. If I could add one more thing and um and that and not not to sound like a like a budget guy or a finance guy, but especially for a principle perhaps who's who's relatively new and because I definitely feel what I described earlier and I kind of feel um what leads to a question like that. In 23 in FY23 we got 200 million more dollars than we had in FY22 and followed by 80 million more in 24 and then the modest 42 million. overwhelmingly what schools did with that a lot of great things and I mean and they
122hired a lot of people and they and that's their prerogative and their decision and they they're captains of their own ship and they hired a lot of people many of whom were not in the classroom. So for a principal who came in maybe in FY23 or 24 and this is the part that might sound like an unfeilling finance guy. They've gotten used to a certain level of staff and a certain level of non-classroom staff that that really was appropriate and wonderful but historically high and some amount of pairing back from those might be what's necessary. Now um principles can principles have a lot of autonomy over their budget. they they don't always have as much autonomy about the top line as they would like but they have a lot of autonomy within their budgets and
123you see different principles doing different things but yes I think that in in more than a few instances what's happening is that outofclassroom positions are being trimmed a bit from highs that were an appropriate reflection of the very large increases in 23 and afterwards No. Uh once again on the um principal aspect and I know that by law there is a certain autonomy that principles have um and but what I'm hearing is advisory. you know, how we're going to guide and help principles make good decisions, but uh are there any solid in this budget, solid guard rails that say, "Okay, no, we need to do this because I remember the discussion began with um a statement as to we have to stick by our core principles. what is working that where that really was the
124beginning of this discussion and um without hard guard rails what can be decided does not stick with the core principles of the overall mission. So I wanted to know are we incorporating stronger guidelines guard rails that say you can or you know you cannot do this or that you shouldn't do this or you shouldn't do that you know I mean because advice is nice and it can be taken or it can be tossed aside. So so I'll start with the um space of requirements in academics. So we are absolutely um clear on the musthaves in the academic guidance in terms of materials staffing for anything that is comar bound. So, we are very clear in our budget guidance, even though it's called guidance, there are the musthaves. Um, and I think within each of our
125respective offices, um, and I'll have Chief Jose speak more about that, there are very clear parameters. And this is where the collaborative the pre-colaborative uh experience is so important because if a principal might be wondering like I know I'm supposed to have this particular uh teacher for PE or health or fine arts. These are the ones that are sometimes the ones that kind of come up in these conversations. What do I have to do or what do I have to take away? And that's where the thought sort of partnering is important especially for a principal who's faced with having to make decisions that they have to make reductions elsewhere. there are certain places they cannot cut, they cannot reduce. So, um we do have that it is very robust. It is very thorough. Um and
126it's it is a lot of navigating through all of that especially for a principal who again may be faced with some reductions as chief dhy was aligning. Yeah. So an example we may say like you have to have x amount of money for student government. So it is very clear and then in the budget collaborative process each office's role is to make sure that school leaders are following the guidance and have what is in there and if it's not there then they will have to make an adjustment. That's why the pre-colaborative is so important because you know you don't want to have to make changes at the table because it could impact so many different things. Mr. Muhammad Good evening. So I have quite a few uh questions but I will uh try to keep
127it to two and two statements. So I'll start here and I tried to put it all put my thoughts together before I came to you. So I want to start with community uh where you start because this is a very important piece. I appreciate you starting there. uh you've had these engagement sessions and when I look at the dates I see that we had some uh however do we have or we probably should have more after the fact to be able to uh re-engage in a way where they feel heard because you heard them. But often uh when we don't re-engage after the fact, they don't know that their input was actually used in our process. And I think that because we are in the time that we're in today and looking at some of
128the shortfalls that our families are going to start feeling as soon as we come back from spring break that this would be an optimal time to stay in front of our families to say why. So I think that that's going to be very helpful. But as we go through through this um one thing stands out and this is more to the board uh then to staff but it's for all of us particularly for our principles that right now there is a need for principles moving forward to have flexibility in how they use their staff. And we have policies that sometimes restrict that. So we might want to take a look at our own policies to say that there our princip principles are being challenged with less resources. How can we look at our own policies
129as a board to help support them during this time of uh less particularly with how they use their staff in the buildings? We know this came up uh last year, but we probably should take a intentional look at that uh right now because we see that the board is going to have or the budget, excuse me, is going to have uh further impact. Now, uh, statement's over. And given the uncertainty around what we're hearing tonight, blueprint funding um and state level cuts in FY27 coup coupled with what we're experiencing now, the abrupt cut on our uh pandemic related reimbursements that uh we know will impact FY25 and FY26. Six. Can we elaborate on the strategy that we're going to use to hold on to those investments that we're talking about? We highlighted some investments. How
130are we going to hold on to those investments which includes teacher uh compensation made a strong investment there. We're making investments around mental health and of course academic interventions. Um so with that, is there a strategy uh to maintain our commitments that you highlighted tonight that are very important? Um because there are going to be gaps and maybe that strategy uh is comes outside of our budget and it may be partners, maybe that strategy is something else. But I think that we have a responsibility to make sure that our instructional rigor particularly uh stays strong for all of our students, but particularly those uh most vulnerable students in our district. So I know that was a lot, but I tried to just get it all in there so I won't have multiple questions. Thank you.
131um very uh important topics and you know we we normally don't um I mean we have been very open about the recent events and will continue to be and of of course Dr. analis can come in and um add to what I'm going to say, but from the finance point of view as the entire FY26 budget was developed with all the inputs that we described at the school level, the office level, all of that took place and manifests in the presentation you have and the and the budget book you will have with the additional 22 million. And none of that has changed because of the unexpected events of the federal recision. And as unexpected as it was and as big as 48 million is, we have every reason to believe that we will solve that
132FY25 problem with FY25 funds. And I don't know that that's a an obvious statement. That's why I'm spelling it out that it it will not necessitate uh going into the FY26 budget and saying some version of this less 5 million, this less 10 million, all to get the 48 million. Um what we're very keen to do through a variety of um belt tightening um and uh through probable use of some fund balance funds which are specifically um that which specifically exist for reasonably unexpected events so that you have those funds. So for those reasons, even though we don't have the exact outlines of of all the money that we can pull back from activities that we will not uh conduct, um we are confident that we will solve it in FY25 with FY25 funds. So
133as a result, I know it sounds too um categorical, but those events won't have an effect on FY26 activities. Now, it's always lovely when you can step out of a room and say the same thing with a camera in your face that your chief financial officer is saying in the room inside when you come back. And I think part of um the strength of what Chris is saying is due to um the board's leadership staff's work around the kind of financial discipline and processes that we have built over the years. So when Chief Doerty says this is an FY25 problem that we will deal with in FY25, ironically just outside I was saying the same thing that what it requires is for us to take a look internally. What are the things that we stopped?
134It's part of why we did the painful communication we did to families um and to staff. Um it because it is painful. you do have to stop some things. It also means there are things that are delayed that we thought we're going to we were going to be able to do in FY25 that we may not be able to do in FY25. And I am glad that Chief Dary also queued up so that when um the board and when we come before the public and we have discussions about fund balance, this is what fund balance is for. It's why we don't go to fund balance all the time. It is why over the last nine years in this administration, we have focused on building back the fund balance and not having an emaciated anemic fund
135balance, but one that is robust enough to be able to help us weather this kind of unexpected. And truly, we all know it was unexpected. When you have two hours notice on a Friday, that 48 million you thought you were going to get, that's not something you plan for in a budget. But what it does mean is because of the steps we've taken over the years um we are very confident that with that combination of measures again as painful as some of them are um that we'll be able to resolve this in 25 so that it's not a lingering and the the final piece I will say on the kind of where we resolve it um is it is also I think really connected to what it means to have priorities um and That is
136the pri, you know, they're the priorities that the board sets. They're the priorities that we communicate around. They're the priorities that you'll see in the budget narrative. And long after, you know, I am gone, what will always be true is this, that a school district's budget communicates priorities just like a family's budget communicates priorities. And in my house, we love to have um you know, a vacation uh you know, a spring vacation that's out of the country, but there are some years you can't do it. And there are some years you say this year we can't do it because there are other things that take priority. So I do think that some of the dynamics even I think commissioner that you were alluding to in terms of how the community gets to weigh in. We've
137got to have discussions and we've really tried to be disciplined and I would encourage the district to continue along this path of saying that voicing priorities in your opinion does not mean you get everything you want. So when you that that's the whole definition of a priority, right? So again I relate everything back to what I do with my husband and my household and if everything is a priority you have no priorities. And so the hard work that we're doing now is in saying in line with the priorities that we've already expressed, what things get funded first, what things get more, and then what other things do we need to have conversations about? And I do think that the challenge in a large school system is making sure that that um that competency of being
138able to have those hard discussions but do it in a way that people can be part of the process is a skill and it is a skill that we need to develop at a similar heightened level across the district. But part of why frankly I'm very proud of where we are fiscally is because we've had those hard decisions. We've stopped promising everything to everybody that anytime a com, you know, an influential community person says this must happen, we no longer say yes and run around and try to figure out how to do it. We say no to people. We say you have to wait to people. We say you can't have everything when you want it. Come back to us in a year. And we have staff that does that. Kim Hoffman is not beloved
139by everyone because Kim Hoffman wave Kim says no and that that's part of the process. Now yes it is going to be tight and as I said and Chief Dy said there are impacts but I do think we have processes in place. they are not, you know, where we want them to be everywhere across the district, but it's part of why we can stand here and say we're going to be able to navigate this. But I would urge both the public, the board, and everyone to hold firm on that because there was a time when I came in where we said yes to anybody who called, you know, the mayor. And I'm going to shout out Mayor Brandon Scott. I don't get calls from the mayor anymore saying fund this person's pet project. This mayor
140does not do that. And so because of that, we have been able to hold firm. But if you start that back again where everybody gets to call with their little shingle and everybody gets, you know, a contract and nobody gets to do this, then yeah, then there won't be enough to go around. But when you have hard conversations, then when things like this happen, we're able to say the fund balance is not your personal kitty. When you go over budget, the fund balance is for what happened two to three, what was it last Friday? It's what happened last Friday. That's what you use fund balance for. You use it to help with that. It's not because somebody in the corner of the city wants a little diddy and calls somebody. You can tell them in
141my last 14 months because I can now say this councilman, but like let's have real conversations and that's not priorities and and that's not, you know, and I have hard conversations with community people. Just because you're part of a budget discussion doesn't mean your thing wins. It means you get a voice, you get to hear, and you get to be part of the process. And if that's not there, then absolutely we have to do that. But we I I urge everybody, let's not revert back to when we just said yes, cuz we got phone calls. We don't do that anymore. And it's about the budget. It's about staying in line. And after that first 120 million, I am very proud. When Allison and I came in, we had that 120 million. Courtney remembers there has
142not been another year since I have sat in this seat that we have had that issue because we budget now. and we have hard conversations and people who say no like Kim Hoffman are empowered to say no. So that's what it's going to take in my mind to continue in that same pattern. Thank you. I appreciate that insight and I'll say that uh in this we're aligned uh that we should be honest and we should let the community at large know what's a reality and what isn't. And my encouragement came from a place of let's plan and have that as a part of our plan because I see it early. Let's have it after the fact where we're having those conversations whether they're tough, whether they're agreeable, but let's have them because we want our
143community to be aware of the tough things and positions that as a district we're being put in because people will understand when we communicate. But when they don't hear from us, then they're left with the ability to have their own thoughts. So, we really want to make sure we put out a real effort to make sure the community at large is aware of the tough decisions that uh the district faces as a whole because it's it's going to be tough and they're going to feel it. So, I don't want it to be after the fact. Uh second question and this one is pretty easy. Can we in the uh next version with the priorities that you've highlighted where uh we made uh potentially some increases but we assured that the areas were remain strong. I'll
144say that. Can we highlight those areas with regards to FY 25 and FY24 so we can see as a board what fiscally we were able to sustain and if there are areas of increase that we can uh be fully aware of that because those priorities for us are really important as uh we have areas such as homeus that we've really spent some time on and if we made an increase or we are able to sustain everything and not lose anything, we really want to be aware of that. But particularly in our areas of instruction to asssure that our students with regards to math and reading have everything that they need and our budget reflects such. Thank you. pivot to Commissioner M's messenger. Um, I'll actually defer until we have the full budget book in front
145of us. Any additional? Um, I'm going to close out with just Oh, I'm sorry, Commissioner Espazito, please. Thank you. Um I guess like like I know we're not in that budget process yet, but um one of the things that I'm kind of like taking away from testimony today and uh just the investments is how we're looking at sustainability especially like around the arts cuz uh the testimony that we got today there was investments made into getting programs started. So I think I'm I'm trying to like disagregate like what are new investments for new programming and what are investments to sustain programming because if we start something new and we we don't really know what it's going to look like long term. Um I guess my fear is that uh programs will go away because they
146have to make those cuts. But also if they in the future they have to restart those programs and those are the same investments again. Um, so I'm wondering if there's a way at a school level for them to process. It's actually cost effective to sustain a program then, you know, pull completely away and then have to restart it again in the future. Right. I think that's I think that's right. I think that um that's one of the challenges I think that um that historically school districts experience is that you get increases and you get a certain amount of money for a period of time and then there's a budget constraint and the resources go down and so you have the unpredictability you're talking about. But I think as uh Dr. Dr. Santais was saying because
147we've had to make those difficult decisions about prioritization. I think we've been able to focus on some key areas we want to um we want to continue and I think um we've largely been able to do that. I will say one caveat to Commissioner Muhammad's question is that there are some areas where their priorities but things like ESSER dollars went away and so we did have to make hard decisions. It doesn't mean that everything is a straight line up, but I think because we've been clear clear about cleareyed about the um types of investments we want to make and then monitoring those investments to see how they're doing. So in an area like tutoring tutoring we did have to reduce the amount of tutoring but as as Chief Drowski said earlier we were able to
148do that in a strategic way where we're able to look at the um the tutoring programming and Julia Jalima Alisel is here who did a great job monitoring that programming so that we could look at which um which programs were most effective and and continue investments in those and then reduce investments in ones that were not not providing the same types of results. Um and um I think what we're trying to be as judicious be judicious about where we make investments to try to provide as much continuity as we can um and predictability as we can with all the caveats we've talked about in terms of you know escalating costs and things that are somewhat out of our control and and sorry no but I was just going to add specifically in fine arts that
149is a space where we actually are investing more so we've actually are in this proposal you'll see an added FTE centrally funded to support instrument instrumental music expansion. Again, listening to our community, listening to our schools, that continues to be a priority that we hear and want to make sure that our young people have experience with. So, we even in a space where we've had to make reductions in tutoring, in summer programming, we're making an increase in fine arts. It is, you know, it is this this very um sort of holistic approach of making sure we are um hearing and meeting the needs and the priorities. But these are the challenging decisions that we've made in terms of the way we had to make reductions in tutoring and um but maintaining again our investments in
150highquality literacy and math materials. So that doesn't change. So but I happily you know to can get more details for you to support that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the last comment that I had, like I know folks have mentioned uh the budget process at a school level and even from my own experience like if there is a way to make that more accessible especially when budget meetings like happen during school like during work hours or um making it more accessible for multilingual learner families and so I don't know if there's a possibility to make like an asynchronous participatory budgeting process so that there is more participation and buyin so that you know they can see these cuts or see these decisions real time. Um, yeah, I think that would be really helpful. We can do
151that. Thank you for the feedback. I'm going to round out this with just kind of two things I'm looking forward to learning in this process. So, um, one at a metal level, um, continuing to understand how we're focusing our resources, these limited resources that we have and stewarding them in a way in which we're addressing need and especially as our demographics change here in the city of Baltimore. What does that mean? What does that look like? What does that feel like at a large district level? these conversations and at the school level I think it's you know there's a lot of conversation here about like what are we learning about school-based budgeting is coming off of the pandemic how are we're supporting leaders in understanding what has worked well with those investments and what's worthwhile
152considering investing in how to balance that across a number of other kind of competing priorities in the building so I think the pandemic allowed us an opportunity to learn to pivot to innovate to do a number are different things. So, it'll be interesting to learn how we're supporting those leaders and learning what's worked in those communities in those buildings. So, to go in a different direction, actually, we want to thank the team um for this really thorough introduction. I want to remind our board colleagues that we'll have an opportunity once those budget books um come as an opportunity to continue to um talk to our colleagues here on the staff side to learn more um about the budget building process, to explore questions that we have in greater detail. I encourage our public um to
153continue to send us questions. We will all lot some additional time um out at our following board meeting and probably subsequent two meetings leading up to the vote. Um so those feedback points and those opportunities to get feedback from dig district staff will be vitally important. So thank you team for this tonight. As we round this out um I want to pivot in a different direction. uh we talked a little bit about this evening in terms of the really important uh role that student voice plays. And so I'd like to turn it over to our student commissioner, Commissioner Dylan Brooks, to give us a little bit of introduction of what's to come um for the rest of the school year and what we can look forward to going into school year 26. Thank you, Chair.
154Um good evening, everyone. Um, here are some updates I have for you about the 2025 2026 ASBC officers and student commissioner elections. So, elections for the 2025 2026 ASBC officers and student commissioner are progressing at a steady pla pace. As you know, the Associated Student Congress of Baltimore City, also known as ASBC and our student commissioner, represents Baltimore's youth and district level decision-m. They listen to the needs of fellow students around around the Baltimore city and evaluate their concerns to the school board. The student commissioner votes amongst the appointed and elected commissioners on most matters presented to the board. To keep you up to date, here are some quick recaps of what is happening regarding the election process. From February 18th to March 20th, the district accepted applications for candidates for the 2025 2026 student
155commissioner or an ASBC officer. Middle and high school students who are passionate about student advocacy or interest interested in having a direct role within governance were encouraged to apply. On March 24th, the ASCBC and city commissioner candidates held a mandatory candidate meeting where candidates learned additional information about the ASBC officer position they applied for and the required materials they must submit throughout the election process. Some election materials were submitted to the district by April 1st. Tomorrow, April 9th, candidates will attend the ASBC spring general assembly to participate in the nominating convention and legislative sessions. On April 10th, the candidate roster will be announced. In May, candidates will campaign for their respective ASBC officer or student commissioner positions. Informational posters will be distributed to schools and voter guide and candidate videos will be published on the
156ASBC website. All information about the election timeline on the 2025 2026 student commissioner and ASCBC elections can be found on the ASBC website. Thank you and I will turn it back to our board chair. Thank you so much, Commissioner Rook. So, um I'm excited. Um, every year, uh, we continue to see the participation of our young people in the elections increase and so excited to see how this year turns out. So, thank you. Thank you. Um, we do a lot of our work here on the board through committee. So, I want to make sure, um, the public is aware of some of the things that are transpiring coming up. I'm actually going to turn it over to Commissioner Muhammad first because we have a listening session um, transpiring in the next couple of weeks. So
157there will be a board community listening session focused on safety and wholeness. So, if you uh your little one or anyone else is concerned about the work that City Schools is doing around safety in and outside of our buildings or the wholeness of our children, ensuring that we are doing what we can to meet their needs. Uh, join us at Patterson High School on the 30th at 5:30. We look forward to having you there. Uh, our last listening session was a standing room only event. So, we encourage everyone to come out. This will be a listening session where the board will actually take the back seat and we will be listening to your concerns and this is the time where you can suggest this is what we see working and the board will follow up.
158We follow up to every concern that's addressed and the good thing is we eat well. So hopefully we'll see you at Patterson High School 5:30 on the 30th. Excellent. Thank you so much. Um, Commissioner Koy chairs our operations committee. I'm not sure if we have a report to share or any additional things you want to lift up this evening. No, no additional items since the last uh uh discussion on it. And noting that because of spring break this month, we will not be meeting until May for the operations committee meeting. Excellent. and Commissioner Espazito chairs our policy committee. I want to make sure that she has an opportunity to lift anything for the public. Yeah. So, we also won't be meeting until May. Um, but we als we still have our policy form on the
159website. So, if anyone wants to submit comments about upcoming uh policy agenda items, they can do so anytime. Great. And we'll have an update on teaching learning in our uh last board meeting of April. Um, our board members will be out and about in the public at a number of events. There's a ribbon cutting tomorrow over at Hamstead Hill. So, um, there will be some board uh, commissioners there. Um, so we'll look forward to seeing the public. Um, our next board meeting is going to be on April 22nd this time, uh, 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Uh, we've got a pretty full board meeting, uh, and rostering agenda for that evening, so we'll expect to engage pretty robustly. Um and lastly, I want to wish everybody here uh both um our students and scholars, our teachers,
160our staff, um everybody a wonderful spring break. Those folks who uh have that ability to step away and really lean into that um all next week. Um just a safe and wonderful spring break. So, thank you all, especially to our teachers and our schoolbased personnel for their commitment to our young people and our young people for their investment in their education. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Kenyatta Bay. Thank you, Commissioner Kenyatta Bay. Is there a second? Second. Espazito. All in favor signal by saying I. I. I. Thank you so much. We're journ for the evening. Thank you.