001evening everyone and welcome to the September 24th public board meeting of the Baltimore City Board of school Commissioners I'm Ronald MCB and I have the pleasure of serving as chair of the Baltimore City Board of school Commissioners if you have not done so please mute your phone anyone who does not mute their phone um or silence their phone in our space may be muted by the call moderator or removed from the meeting additionally if you are not a board member or the CEO um and their staff please turn your video off I will now read a roll call of the board to identify who is present please identify yourself first before speaking for the record Vice chair Roberts Vice chair Roberts present thank you commissioner Ames messenger Ames messenger present thank you commissioner Coy commissioner
002Esposito commissioner Esposito present thank thank you commissioner kinat Bay kinat Bay present thank you commissioner Muhammed Muhammad present thank you commissioner Parker Parker present thank you commissioner Dr reading linger reading linger present commissioner Rooks commissioner Rooks present commissioner Sally commissioner Sally present commissioner Slater Harrington commissioner Slater Harrington present thank you I'm also present that is 11 present with one absent is there a motion to reopen the meeting the move Sally thank you commissioner Sally is there second second Kat Bay thank you commissioner kinat Bay I'm Readiness all in favor Vice chair yeah commissioner Ames messenger Ames messenger yes commissioner Coy excuse me commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinata Bay yes commissioner Mohammed yes commissioner Parker yes Dr Ring linger yes Rooks yesion Sally yes commissioner Slater Harington yes I'm also in favor that motion passes unanimously
003with the members who are present please join me in standing for the presentation of colors this evening presented by the junior Reserve officer training Corps at Patterson High School oh right peace good evening sir kette Captain Anastasio from Patterson High School Air Force JC MD 932 permission to post colors thank you sir out about peace God indivisible andice [Music] morning e thank you we have first lieutenant Jennifer Armstead we have CET Captain uh Rosio Pepin we have Cadet Captain Maria Castile we have Cadet Airman say Bia we'll have a moment of silence read by commissioner sler Harrington thank you chair I would like to take the time to recognize the passing of City Schools Employees these individuals were committed to supporting our students through their work the greater City Schools Community will finally remember these
004employees tonight we send our deepest condolences to the employees families and friends it is with deep regret that we inform you of the passing of Robert little Jr Mr little started his career with City schools on August 22nd 2011 where he served the staff and students for four years and 11 months at Monarch Academy as a par educator until August 2016 he returned to city schools in August 2018 as a par educator early literacy tutor for gardenville Elementary Mr little unfortunately departed on August 23rd 2024 and will be missed by his family friends and City Schools it is with deep regret we inform you of the passing of Denise lugan Bill Miss lugan Bill started her career with City schools on August 29th 2001 where she served the staff and students for 23 years at
005the William Paca elementary school as a par educator Miss lugan Bill unfortunately departed on August 11th 2024 and will be missed by her family friends and city school she was to retire August 31st 2024 it is with deep regret we inform you of the passing of Joan Crawford Thompson Miss Thompson was a Baltimore City school public school teacher for 27 years and retired in 1995 she also integrated Southern High School in the 1950s and graduated in 1957 there is a photo of her being walked to school by the Baltimore Police Department in the African-American history museum she was a graduate of copen State College in 1965 through all the indignities and struggles to achieve her education she accomplished this and was extremely proud to be a Baltimore City Public School teacher she was proud to
006teach and Mentor the many students and Junior teachers of the city of baltim thank you chair thank you all for that thank you commissioner for that is there a motion to approve the prior Open Session summaries so moved thank you commissioner Slater Harrington is there a second second can B the on Readiness all in favor byce chair yes commissioner Ames messenger yes commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner Muhammad yes Parker yes Dr reading linger yes yes Rooks yes Sally yes commissioner Slater Harington yes also in favor that motion passes unanimously with the members who are present is there a motion to approve the closed session summaries so moved messenger thank you commissioner am messenger is there second second esposo thank you commissioner Esposito any un Readiness Vice shair commission Ames messenger yes commission
007coy excuse me commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinata Bay yes commissioner Muhammad yes commissioner Parker yes Dr reading linger yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Sally yes commissioner s Harrington yes I'm also in favor that motion passes unanimously the members who are present before I go into um comments tonight I would like to just take a moment to um recognize and they may not be with us virtually or in the space but there are three individuals who um are retiring from City Schools um who've committed 30 years plus of service to City Schools can we just give that a round of applause there are some mile Milestone events that will be occurring and um thank you all for the invites to those events um but let's recognize these folks Miss Anne Carter started her employment with balore
008City schools on June 6 1994 as a custodial worker at various locations throughout the district some of those locations include facilities William lamel does anyone remember that school yeah Billy Holiday Elementary Baltimore Liberation diploma diploma plus high school and connections with communitybased our school Miss Carter served Baltimore City schools for 30 years and 3 months thank you for your service to our system Stacy Royster started her employment with Baltimore City Public Schools on September 9th 1991 as an assistant principal at Highland Town Middle School she was later assigned to barklay elementary middle on July 24th 2004 and then reassigned to Edmonson Westside High School on July 28th 2016 where she worked until her retirement M Royer served Baltimore City Public Schools for 30 3 years Ronald crotch started his employment with Baltimore City Public Schools
009on August 27th 2011 as an academic content liaison Mr so there's some time so I see 40 plus years here but I'm sure he started prior to 2011 so um hopefully that can be corrected in our minutes to know exactly well let's do the math he served 47 years what so he served 47 years so it wasn't August 27 2011 so whatever the date was we celebrate you um for the 47 years of service um that you've committed to Baltimore city schools can we give another round of applause to these folks want to also quickly share the recent changes made to the board's public comment intake process starting today all individuals who wish to share public comment at a board meeting whether in person or virtually must sign an agreement form the agreement details board
010policy b g the rules in that particular policy and regulation by signing the form um stakeholders confirm that they acknowledge the policy and will conduct themselves accordingly when giving public comment you must sign the agreement form for public uh board meetings and board committee meetings in addition to the agreement form the time frame to submit public comment has changed now all individuals are required to sign up for public comment from 4:30 to 3 to 5:30 p.m. 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on the day of the public board meeting for committee meetings you must sign up for public comment three business days before the date of the committee meeting any time between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. comments for public meetings will only be received during this time frame and accepted until 10 speaking opportunities have been
011submitted committee meetings will be accepted public comment sign up for committee meetings will be accepted until 5:00 p.m remember public comment can be submitted in person or virtually for public board meetings and only virtually for committee meetings to submit public comment in person please report to the re-engagement center that is near the Guilford Avenue entrance where represent reprentative of the CEO's um um budman's office will receive and record your requests they will have physical copies of the agreement form for you to sign to submit public comment virtually please email the school board for committee meetings and or the CEO's um budman's representative for public meetings and the email includes your name your address your email address your telephone number school or Community affiliation or just who you are who you represent and topic for comment
012in your email tell us the type of email submission you would like to make such as a Written Letter a video or request for live virtual comments once your request for public comment is sent please go to board meetings web page the board meetings web page on the city schools website to submit the agreement form for more details on how to submit public comment the agreement form and the new changes with time please visit our city schools website thank you very much the board acknowledges a donation of 26,4 7452 from Amazon for school supplies the board acknowledges a donation of $1 4,887 199 from wbal's Dr Tim Tuton and the Orioles to stuff the bus with school supplies the board acknowledges a donation of $16,100 from the Baltimore oils for game tickets to HBC un
013the board acknowledges a donation of $4,200 from the Baltimore orals for game tickets for international teachers is there a motion to approve the pep and quasa judicial matters so moved kenat Bay you commissioner kinat Bay is there second second Robert thank you Vice chair any on Readiness all in favor by Sher Roberts yes commissioner Ames messenger yes commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner Muhammed yes commissioner Parker yes Dr reading linger yes commissioner Sally yes missioner Slater Harrington yes I'm also in favor that motion passes unanimously with the members who are present and able to vote I'll now turn it over to Dr Santa Lisa for her CEO comments thank you chair good evening everyone um I want to begin this evening uh by recognizing an individual who has contributed more than 40 years
014of service to the family schools and students of city schools for the past four decades major Norman Coleman has Faithfully served our district as a proud member of the city schools police including three and a half years as acting chief of school police whatever his assignment major Coleman has performed his duties uh with vigilance and a sincere desire to protect our staff and students uh while building relationships with our young people and communities I would like to Now call major for uh major colan forward to receive a proclamation from the office of the mayor and token of our appreciation for his want to have him say something you want to say something now or you want to get your award now go ahead go ahead yes for for the record Major for the record justess
015press the green for so it turns thank you I appreciate it you know had a great time working with Baltimore city school system and I tell people all the time that you know this isn't a job where you're gonna get rich it's about helping the kids it's about interacting with people and you have to take this job if you want to make a difference in the lives of the students and it's been great and it's been good to me and my family thank if I may thank you major colan just very briefly you probably remember close to the time when I joined the board there was a student who was missing um and you immediately responded you are immediately supported under your direction so I just want to say thank you from the board sake
016um in addition to the CEO on behalf of All City Schools thank you for your commitment but your attention to care um and intentionality and being relentless about making sure that our young people are safe but particularly that that student was found and that she was safe and returned back to her to her family so that's a small anecdote say it again half the night we appreciate you major thank you so I do just want to say I want to read a mayoral salute is that okay can I do that officially on behalf of the S and this is from our mayor Brandon M Scott on behalf of the citizens of Baltimore I am pleased to salute major Norman Coleman in recognition of more than 40 Years of dedicated service to the Baltimore City School
017Police Department also in recognition for your tenure as acting chief of police where you displayed outstanding leadership and a firm commitment to the Safety and Security of Baltimore city schools while maintaining the rights and well-being of our students and families on behalf of the people of Baltimore I offer my sincere thanks for your commitment and unwavering dedication signed August 27th 2024 from mayor Brandon M Scott thank you you and this is um a piece to commemorate this service um from us and I'm sure um your wife will have a nice place to put it and she'll know where to put it um in the house but just again thank you again for your service for all that you did and for stepping in um in really important ways all right thank you major appreciate it
018thank you e e I would now like to take this opportunity to celebrate the work of our summer learning team for another outstanding summer program again this year we offered more than 19,000 seats across 168 programs including multilingual CTE and increased robotics programs staffed by 1,859 youth workers and more than 1,400 teachers social workers par professionals guidance counselors and food and nutrition workers students also earned more than 5200 credits enabling 387 seniors to participate in summer graduation ceremonies thank you so much to everyone involved in planning and implementing this complex highly successful program thank you everybody and finally this evening um some amazing news for City Schools um last week we received um the exciting news that City Schools teacher of the year fat loock Jones of Hamstead Hill Academy has been named a finalist
019for Maryland teacher of the year she is the ninth City School's teacher to be so honored in the past 10 years four of those finalists from Baltimore City have gone on to become Maryland teacher of the year more than any other District in the state of Maryland this year's award will be announced on Friday October 4th at the Maryland teacher of the year Gala and I am pleased really to extend to mlock Jones and for those of us who were in earlier there was a lovely um video commemoration of her work um there with her students at Hamstead Hill so we just want you to know um that that you have our best wishes and uh hopes that you will be the fifth teacher um to win this great honor in the past decade congratulations
020and now over to you board chair thank you very much I will now review the consent agenda board colleagues please let me know if you would like an item removed then please State your question for staff we have item 9.01 020304 those are gift and donations gifts and donations item 9.05 supplemental appropriation University Partners support at Health sues item 9.06 FY 26 Capital Improvement program CIP item 9.07 FY 25 comprehend comprehensive maintenance plan CMP you previously discussed in operations item 9.08 fy4 quarter 4 budget amendments item 19.0 one axon Enterprises thank you we'll now move into public comment and first we have uh from the Baltimore teachers union we have their president diamond Brown who will speak for five minutes good evening good evening Schoolboard Commissioners my name is Diamond T brown the president of
021the Baltimore teachers union and we represent a little under a thousand of City Schools Employees I want to start off by thanking you for providing us support and getting back pay for some of our members also for you being more attentive at meetings especially when the btu is giving comment since we represent so many of the employees here in city schools and for your engage engagement in some of the discussions I've had with some of you around a CEO search and look forward to the board publicly announcing that you will be initiating a public transparent National CEO search that includes some of the components that critical stakeholders are demanding we uh know that our CEO's contract will be up in a year and we're going to need to look for another CEO therefore we want
022to make certain that the board doesn't handle things the way they did last time we had a uh we brought in a new CEO which seemed to be private and unknown that a search had even happened at all um many people at that time actually didn't even think there was a national search and thought that Dr s was pre-selected and I could see that same sort of thing happening again I believe that a lessen the skepticism that Community stakeholders have that the board should initiate a public transparent National CEO search and also start giving some communication around the transition between the current CEO and a new CEO these uh whatever the transition plan is should be communicated to students parents and other stakeholders we're wondering what should we expect to happen between now and Dr
023essence's contract ending when are we looking for a new CEO to start what systems in PL do we have in place to ensure projects currently in progress won't just abruptly stop when new Administration comes in we want to make certain that there is a seamless of transition is possible and we do not want an interim CEO when will the board call and start a public National transparent search and when will it start and end will there be a final three aspect where the final three selected meet with parent groups BTU and other unions that represent City Schools Employees and the community more broadly we collected over a thousand signatures in a petition because we wanted to show you how important a national public CEO search is and the over 1,000 undersigned demand that the Baltimore
024City Public School Board Commissioners publicly announce and initiate a national public transparent search for the next CEO in bcpss we demand that the search include the following national and local candidates Community input in the selection process meetings listening sessions and other forms of Engagement with diverse Community groups across Baltimore including students parents and City School staff members the name of the search committee made public timeline Andor milestones for the search made public updates about the search made public clearly communicated ways for the public to be involved in the search and a long list and a short list of candidates given to certain stakeholders I urge the board to publicly state that you will initiate a national public transparent search and I thank you for hearing us out today have a good evening thank you president
025B Brown we now have um Christiana Diggs is Christiana with us chis yes we hear you good evening Christiana you have five minutes who um is Chana Diggs is the vice president of the associated student Congress of Baltimore City good evening everyone um my name is chrisan digs I attend Western High School and it is finally my senior year this is my second year serving as asc's vice president this weekend on September 21st Western High School and asbc hosted this year's facilitation training for Mass Maryland Association of student councils student student sorry student leaders from all across the state of Maryland attended this training to learn about effective facilitation respect and audience engagement most of all our eboard got certified to present at Mass board shops in the fall winter and spring students from digital
026poly Western and City also got certified we are excited that asbc members are taking on larger worlds within our state level organization by facilitating workshops for their peers across the state of Maryland we know that bore student leaders have a lot to contribute asbc will hold its fall general assembly on October 15th we have already been collecting input from our member schools to determine which issues we will present to all of our member schools for deeper discussion provisionally we expect to discuss school safety mental health awareness cell phone usage healthy school environments passionate School staff classroom engagement career-based guidance and communication between schools and families but we look forward to bringing our full issues platform to the board after October 15th our issues platform combines the voices of all students in Our member schools and
027it serves as a foundation of all of asc's advocacy efforts we invite the board and cabinet to join us as observers uh on October 15th and board chair mcfaden we look forward to you to your opening remarks the last effort I would like to share tonight is the work asbc has started with the city schools finance department in the youth budget form in the youth budget work groups kickoff meeting last week students did a deep dive into the budget process including how attendance affects School budgets which came as a surprise to me and other students in the group asbc has made it a priority for students to have deeper involvement in the budget process at their schools and at the district level if you are a student who would like to get involved with this
028work please reach out via our Instagram we might no we meet the second Tuesday of each month from 4: to 5:00 pm I want to thank the finance department and especially budget director Stephanie Fay for proactively engaging students and I look forward to sharing future updates about our work to engage students in financial decision making at City Schools thank you thank you christana I'll now turn it over to our board executive officer for additional public comment thank you for those coming to provide public comment the board recognizes the importance of receiving public comment on matters of educational interest each speaker shall be granted three minutes official time will be kept and you'll receive an audible warning at 3 minutes please conclude your remarks no speaker may use the opportunity to Air employee grievances or make
029complaints on behalf of specific students speakers may stay on the agenda topic for which they signed up to speak it may not verbally or personally attack a school system employee sorry or board member should speakers stray from this guidance They will receive a warning to immediately redirect their comments and may have their microphone turned off and comment stricken from the public record thank you for again for your interest in participation in City Schools education we'll move to our first public comment which will be from Robert maranelli agenda topic will be school safety and be commenting live in person you'll have three minutes thank you all and good evening my name is Robert Marinelli I'm a 29-year veteran of Baltimore city schools I'm the proud parent of two graduates K through 12 Baltimore city schools the
030oldest of which is now in his second year of teaching and as you recognize the major for his commitment to Baltimore city schools I would like to say that my family is committed to Baltimore city schools and I'll be seeking a commitment from you I'd like to speak about school safety as we know in 2012 in Sandy Hook a number of young people lost their lives in a Slaughter and a commission was convened to examine what went wrong and what could be done it's a 256 page report I didn't bring the whole thing I brought the page that matters which is Page 24 the recommendations were laid out 12 of them the first recommend ation which is the most important reads the ssic report which is school safety infrastructure Council includes a standard requiring classroom
031and other Safe Haven areas to have doors that can be locked from the inside the commission cannot emphasize enough the importance of this recommendation and this is an italics for emphasis the testimony and other evidence presented to the commission reveals that there has never been an event in which an active shooter breached a locked classroom door accordingly the commission reiterates its commission recommendation that all classrooms in K12 schools should be equipped with locked doors that can be locked From the Inside by the classroom teacher or substitute I would like to add to that list students in Georgia the most recent shooting one classroom was protected from the shooter because a student was able to crawl to the classroom door and lock it from the inside the vast majority of classrooms in Baltimore city do not
032have this capability I have to step into the Hall when that shooting begins to lock my classroom door from outside my classroom with the key down the hall from me are three separate classrooms that have been Reed I have those three keys if there's a substitute in any classroom they don't have the keys I am imploring you I'm looking for a commitment from you that you will take this one step to put me in safety and more importantly put our students in safety thank you thank you our next public comment is from Nathan frell agenda topic was language access and this will be a video good evening Nathan frell speaking on the issue of language access for multilingual families I'm a Spanish teacher and a member of the alliance to reclaim our schools Baltimore or
033AOS and we are a group of Educators parents and students who fight for the schools we deserve Aeros multilingual families represent over 30 schools in Baltimore and our AOS parent power cohort members represent communities from Carrol park over West all the way to Highland town and Beyond currently one in five Baltimore city school students comes from a home where Spanish is spoken this will undoubtedly increase to 1 in four in the coming years multilingual families across schools and communities are desperate for improved systems of language access for themselves their students and their communities this past month Aros Spanish speaking families held two Community meetings on language access in Spanish with the mayor's office office of immigrant Affairs Mima we had over 50 Spanish speaking families attend language access means providing limited English proficient people with
034reasonable access to the same Services as English-speaking individuals City Schools violate civil rights by not having an adequate language access plan in place or the necessary accountability and enforcement structures to ensure that limited English proficient people have reasonable access to the same services as English-speaking individuals the Spanish speaking families of AOS have three demands one usage data for axi the telephone interpretation service City Schools should make public axi usage data on The phone-based Interpreter service for each School site this data can be used to Target education training and signage to increase access for families and Educators to actually use this valuable service we've already asked for this data from City schools and from axi directly and we've not gotten it two a plan to improve language access including updates on the RFP the current RFP
035for a landscape analysis our families the directly impacted are demanding to be engaged in the development process of the language access plan we also encourage City Schools to take up the mayor's office of immigrant Affairs on their offer their generous offer of technical assistance to support City schools in the implementation of a language access plan three more multilingual Educators what is the plan to increase the number of multilingual staff and City Schools our families want a commitment to staff more multilingual individuals in the office of family and Community engagement that support those multilingual communities and to create Pathways for current bilingual and multilingual staff to become teachers as well as a pipeline for members particularly from theun Latina here in Baltimore to have a career opportunity in City Schools Commissioners please commit to these following
036few requests and we invite you to join the arrow parent power sessions this fall we look Hope forward to seeing you then thank you our next public comment is from Kim Knox the agenda topic is board priorities uh 4 and S and this will be an email it's read good evening bcpss Board of Commissioners I'm writing to share a progress update on the secondary virtual learning school svls from the perspective of a current parent of a scholar enrolled in bcpss Virtual learning since its Inception in syy 2122 last school year it was brought to your attention that the district's approach to the merger was not aligned with board priority 4 in the months since the school naming process has been used to check off this box as that process concludes this screen of stakeholder engagement
037dissipates revealing a concerning pattern of disregard for board priorities 4 and seven since the merger vote leaders have feigned Community engagement through performative measures and have engaged in oppressive acts towards community members for example the transition Committee of representatives from both VP communities was supposedly formed to facilitate shared decision-making with stakeholders however the focus was restricted to choosing a new name for for the school then earlier this month parents were invited to join in what was promoted as a community conversation at the end of back to school night parents expected to have a space to ask and discuss important matters related to this new school were in dismay as a conversation degenerated into a cland andan assessment in which SS's Community School Partners subjected parents to a series of questions to gather data for its
038funders also during back to school night fifth through e8th graders learned through a notation on a slide that they no longer have an sgaa now just this week the svls admin team announced to families via its parent newsletter that it has usurped control of a PTO founded by a group of parents after months of attempting to establish partnership in an overstep and gross abuse of power admin informed those founding founding parents that they could no longer be involved after they declined to acques to leadership's micromanagement it is important to note that as the SS admin team directs their efforts to control what is more appropriately a parent run body they continue to have no updates when asked about the status of the S FCC whether intentional or not the AF said illustrates more than mere
039Growing Pains it is a toxic environment that threatens the success of what I once considered to be the best experience bcpss has to offer please take steps to disrupt this disturbing pattern of stakehold suppression in the SVS Community thank you our next public comment is from Senate kri agenda topic attendance and commenting live in person and you'll have three minutes good evening how you doing um I'm speaking on attendance for B I'm a currently of balore City employee also speaking as a grandparent um I'm having an issue with this morning I woke up this morning to Baltimore City attendance issue and I just want to know when we going to start holding parents accountable for their students how how they're going to get to school I think we're giving our teachers putting too much on
040our teachers trying to figure out how they going to get a kid to school we need to go back to the old system it was a system where we work where we connected with social services and forms are supposed to be filled out for parents to receive benefits so when your child is not attending in school on a regular basis it's a form that need to be felt out so we keep giving throwing things back in the teachers lab in the office the office I just it's time that we start giving holding parents accountable so before decision is made how we gonna figure out how we get kids to school I drive 30 minutes 30 35 minutes of work every day and you got drop off two kids so at the end of the day
041I think we need to start holding parents accountable for what their Stu what these students are doing in school and how they going to get there everything we keep changing things that work to go to something that somebody else is using somewhere else and the things that work we stop doing forms are given to kids that receiving benefits of Social Services and we got to start connecting back to them because something happened to that kid that kid is not in school then who we fought back on the school again that's not an issue for the school that's a parent issue so we need to figure out how we going to get make the parents be held accountable for their student thank you thank you next public comment is Jocelyn Providence agenda topic AXA Equitable safety
042and water quality this will be a video good evening my name is Johson Province and I wanted to speak with youall about BTU member benefits safety procedures and water quality 11 years ago I was a first year teacher in Balmer City Public Schools as a child of a lifelong public school teacher I know the importance of preparing and saving towards retirement like my parents I plan to be a lifelong educator so I thought I was very fortunate when a as a first year teacher an employee from AXA equable came into our collaborative workspace during our planning period to speak with teachers about enrolling in AA Equitable many of yall might not know this but being a first year teacher is really really really hard so I was very excited that a vendor saved me time
043and came to me and recommended that I immediately sign up to start saving towards retirement however this vendor employee did not inform me about the state that I would be in 11 years later now myself and my husband because he's also a tene teacher in Baltimore City still have our money with AXA Equitable even though they have one of the highest fee funds and are faced with having to surrender and lose potentially tens of thousands of our hard-earned money that we put to the side to save towards our eventual retirement all because we want to move to another vendor that has lower fees this is unacceptable and it is unacceptable that Baler City continues to allow a predatory company like AXA Equitable to come into schools and seek out overwhelmed and underiner especially early career
044teachers like me and my husband were BTU members want to be involved in the selection process of vend we want bcpss to bargain on our behalf the way other counties in Maryland do for example Montgomery County only has Fidelity as a vendor and Fidelity offers lower fees and planed flexibility because they have access to a captive market like Baltimore like M Montgomery County Public School Employees um we can ensure that not occur for future Educators and we can honor our Working Families by engaging the workers in this vendor selection process on a quick note um I would like to ask what is the plan for Baltimore City to ensure that every school has classrooms where teachers and students can close and lock the doors at some of the recent very tragic school shootings many reported
045that this was a key safety issue that did and could prevent further harm this has also been an issue pushed by many BTU members and finally what is the process of Baltimore city employees when they are informed that amounts of lead have been found in the drinking water at their school it is unacceptable to only send an email during the summer to staff members to inform them that the water that they have been in contact with contains elevated levels of L are students and families also informed about this it is important that the district shows that they have the that they value the health and safety of all members of our community by keeping us updated thank you that's our last public comment thank you very much I'll now turn it over to our esteemed
046student commissioner Dylan Rooks for his comments this evening commissioner Rooks thank you chair good afternoon everyone and thank you for coming to our bottimore City Schools Board of Commissioners public meeting I just have one thing to say this afternoon it is with great pleasure to inform you that our safety and holess committee and I have came up with an idea of getting sgas around bmore City together to collaborate with each other and to give the opportunity to share their achievements and to give them the time to explain to explain to us what they need from the board us the board are here for you all not just you our children as well they are our main priority when it comes to our work and with that I will pass it back over to chair mcfaden
047thank you thank you commissioner Rooks and I think that's a perfect segue commissioner Muhammad um to go into the committee report from the safety and holess committee commissioner Muhammad appreciate it chair appreciate it commissioner Rooks this is a uh a statement that is charged by a collect collective request of our staff and our last board meeting we were able to review uh under safety and wholeness the police report card and the ADF policy around Wellness nutrition and physical activity but we were also able to review the behavioral threat assessment the Board of Commissioners remains deeply committed to the safety and well-being of our students staff leaders and school communities through our comprehensive behavioral assessment process we've outlined in board policy jlj we are taking proactive steps to identify manage identify and manage potential threats ensuring
048a safe and secure learning environment for all during 2023 2024 school year City Schools conduct conducted 1028 student threat threat assessments and that's up uh by a significant number I want to acknowledge the tremendous work that City Schools is doing to monitor and address behavioral threats and I want to commend their dedication to keeping our school safe the increase in reported threats reflects our success and enhanced trainings which has provided schools with Central teams and tools to do better work but more importantly to communicate the needs that we have around behavioral threat assess we are listening revising and continuing to improve our approach particularly in safety and wholeness and as times change we must adapt one of the next steps to further expand these efforts is to address behavioral threats from adults and in strengthening
049protocols to enhance the oversight around such while there is still work to do we are committed to diligently working with all stakeholders to ensure that our schools are safe and with that connected to the announcement of commissioner Rooks the safety and wholeness committee will be going to several schools will be going to several communities to be able to listen around needs of safety and how we can further support in making sure that our children that our teachers and staff and that our leaders are safe in their own environments thank you for the opportunity to share these words thank you uh commissioner hammed and thank you for your leadership um it's critically important as all of us know that the safety and homeness committee is our newest uh our newest Forum committee um and that committee's
050work is quite intentional um and so thank you for your leadership around that and your Innovation is there a committee report from the policy committee yes are you providing yeah okay commissioner Esposito thank you uh the policy committee met on September 17th and the meeting uh the committee engaged of framing conversation about the use of cell phones and social media within schools the focus was balancing student engagement with a need for a conducive learning environment uh discussions highlighted the potential implications of Technology on teaching and learning practices and for we had an update on um administrative regulations lc- and the update on the administrative regulations regarding research and data sharing was provided and we also had several compliance reports about non-discrimination sex-based discrimination for employees and third party reasonable accommodations nursing parents whistleblower policy and
051academic eligibility for intercol actic and intercol actic Athletics um some of the highlights from the policy committee were um uh around non-discrimination and accommodation policies continuous efforts to ensure that inclusive practices are established for all students and staff or The Whistleblower policy there's an emphasis on transparency and accountability within the school system and our next meeting is going to be on October 15th it's a virtual meeting and then the agenda will include discussions on academic eligibility for inter Scholastic and in Scholastic uh Athletics um academic oh sorry I think I might have that typo there uh sorry we have compliance reports for for incident reporting employee evaluations field trips volunteers access to public records data records and retention programs and we definitely encourage public participation and have several opportunities to give public comment so if
052you need more information about the policy committee you can visit the website thank you very much commissioner Esposito are there any questions for our committee chairs great is there a motion to approve the the consent agenda go moved thank you commissioner sah Harrington is their second second Ames messenger thank you commissioner Ames messenger any un Readiness rer Roberts yes commissioner Ames messenger yes commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner Muhammad yes commissioner Parker yes Dr reading linger yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Sally yes commissioner seder Harrington yes I'm also in favor that motion passes unanimously with the members who are present we are now ready for item 10. 01 non-discrimination policies uh ACA ACB jba jbb jic K this is the first reader and it looks like um s is here with some staff
053um there are a bunch of policies being revised and so you're going to give us that overview um this evening so thank you Chief s hi thank you Josh Sven Chief legal officer and I'm joined by quel Gomez director of fair practices just for the sake of the record um can you say that one more time please vanel Gomez director of fa practices thank you so um we seem to be back before the board each year on this set of policies if we flip to actually quickly to the third slide um in light of the fact that there have been numerous updates in federal and state law regarding Ing non-discrimination and we so we are trying to stay a breast of those and continue to make sure our policies align uh if the board recalls
054the most recent revisions of the policy were adopted in February 2024 and that round of revisions were initiated because the US Department of Education had said that they were going to adopt revisions to their Federal rules implementing Title 9 which is the federal proh prohibition against sex-based discrimination so the final rules there because of the extent of public comments were repeatedly delayed so we came to this board and said let's move forward with what we can now so we can get started on training which we want to give an update so that we can move forward so we move forward we adopt and if we go to the next slide um several months after we did that the US Department of Education uh moved forward and adopted their final rules which is good and that
055was in April uh responding to thousands of comments and they updated those rules to adjust them um those rules are effective in August of 2024 um they're separate from some other rule making that are going forward but we want to now move forward to incorporate those rules luckily we feel like and we're going to go into this we're in very good place because of the Amendments that we already made so this is really a cleanup action and that's why we're moving forward quickly on these rules because we've had all the public comments so if we go to the next slide uh just to update um one of the reasons you can see graphically here is we've moved from federal Administration to Federal Administration and key things have happened about the requirements for bullying and sexual
056harassment investigations as well as the standard for sexual harassment and if you go to the next slide uh one of the things that also we acutely aware of is that um and you've seen this in the news probably that multiple states and school districts across the country have filed lawsuits and they primarily challenge the interpretation of sex to include gender identity and the and the broader definition of sexual harassment by broad I mean that it's more protective of victims of sexual harassment and alleged victims so far in these uh cases there have been a number of orders enjoining which means preventing implementation in 26 States those don't include Maryland um the Supreme Court has been asked to stay those rulings it hasn't there are other cases still pending but the US Department of Education has
057made very clear in those States like Maryland where there are no injunctions in place were to move forward in implementation so that's what we're doing by making these rules in addition in Maryland we already have rules largely in terms of our state law and the already pre-existing interpretation of our court of appeals the US court of appeals for the fourth circuit consistent with these regul so the change the impact of the changes um are aligned with law so going forward to the next slide um these are the many policies that the chair mentioned that are impacted here so I'll just go quickly through the full list of policies and again one of the challenges of our work in policies is try to trying to align all of them those go through next slide and the
058next slide and then the slide after that um just or the slide after that one there more more policies um talks about so most of the changes that were in the final rule were consistent with the changes we already made so good job to us that we we flesh this and if we just click through the slide you can see some of the pieces so our policy already broadly prohibits sex-based discrimination including based on sex stereotype sexual characteristic pregnancy and parenting sexual orientation gender identity in addition if you cck through um we provide access to for students to bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity and if going on to the next slide just as a summary quickly of some of the key pieces here um we've already added a definition of discrimination
059based on parenting status we've also empowered the title9 coord coordinator to be the key focal point with schools about discriminate discrimination based on sex based discrimination and addressing those barriers we've also made it very clear the title 9 coordinator U which is which is quel here do director Gomez um is uh the focal point for pregnant and parenting students and works with our Hess office to make sure that um we are supporting pregnant and parenting students when they claims of discrimination and finally we've made we aligned our grievance procedures for all sex-based discrimination complaints and then a couple other pieces pieces just on this slide in terms of support measures uh um and then the next slide goes into what changes we have to make here in addition which are largely if you go on
060to the next slide and the next slide after that um some Cleanup in the regulations we actually came to the board and said last time around in April sorry in February and said here's what we're holding back and so now we're taking those ones that we took off the table and putting them back on the table and also making the changes that were aligned with the federal rules the rules are like hundreds of pages so it took a while to go through them but we've revised some definitions we've clarified some procedures especially around informal dispute resolution if you go to the next slide um we've clarified notice we've clarified what is a supportive measure we've also made very clear which was an important piece the alignment between the First Amendment and these Provisions uh We've
061also clarified the responsibilities providing uh support for pregnant and parenting students I think there's one more slide um one more set of slides so we've also updated and aligned with the training we've update and enhance for all staff uh thank you very much to uh chair mcfaden for being the introduction voice on those so uh We've rolled out for all staff uh this fall an updated and enhanced training and um we have made time thankful to the school's office for making time in pre- service for staff to do that so already the deadline is October 31st um but already 4,000 staff have fully completed their requirements there and many more have started that if you see on the next slide we have a number of modules so we have the core module of equal employment
062opportunity and then we've taken four key topics that are much in the news and have legal developments bullying harassment and intimidation supporting lgbtq students and employees and respecting religious diversity as topics that have we've gotten lots of questions from staff we've gotten very good feedback on these and one of the things we've done as we go went through the training and really parsed and and paired it down so that staff could focus we went back to the regulations and just made sure it was all lined so that was the final piece of what we've done and I think that's this is the field uh feedback and engagement largely we've gone out to the key groups and have not gotten feedback um yet we still have time for second reader but largely because we already telegraphed
063these changes when we were doing the last round of revisions so I think that's it if there are any questions but again thanks to the board for keeping up with us and the patience as we continue to update and onine beyond the training that is happening that is required for staff um how are we articulating this for um our stakeholders in general these updates and changes because folks don't track edits in legislation and edits in so how are we doing that as a system it's a great question so um in the in the preview as we were moving through we've also worked in our employee handbook in our student rights and responsibilities handbook uh in our family guide to reference and cross reference the the change the the rules and requirements overall and we've also
064tried to um in our in in all of these documents and for instance in the code of conduct really focus on the basic pieces of this and say that there are questions or concerns um we refer that to our office so so we and a lot of this is technical but we're not expecting staff to be experts on every part and that's why the work that uh Miss Gomez and her team and our collaboration with the equity office our collaboration with the school's office is really important but we're also going to continue to expand the training because we have the all staff training which is the 101 training but we also have the 2011 or maybe the 401 training that we do for principles and social workers in the lake so they're they have the
065expertise stakeholders for feedback um that we also just ask them like ways to best articulate this to their particular stakeholder groups or stakeholders in general yes the technical changes but also the policies in general um just getting some feedback particularly from our students I would be interested to hear some of that but also the equity advis just asress even though all of the groups um are absolutely um I think that could be helpful feedback for us to hear the board when it comes back to S and support the work of you all every day commissioner K yes first of all I want to thank you for pouring through and that's a lot to pour through these um these legal changes that are being made and um I do believe that Cher mcfaden is psycho I
066mean psychic because he asked the exact question that I how are we going to communicate this because this is a hot button issue how we treat each other in this Arena and and um I think our stakeholders our communities in particular want to know what our attitudes are is a BAL time in this subject matter so um in your process I think um you do need to really work specifying a plan of communicating oh I'm talking in my ti again so all right but that's basically what it was okay and you pretty much answered T MCB with the same question that I'm putting forward okay yes and I also encourage board members to look at the also the updated train training because I think that for staff um we've gotten really positive feedback about how
067we've communicated around and those those trainings also build in uh the key aspects so to Jeremy faden's point and to your point we're doing the education of the policy overall uh and the structure and the feedback there rest recognizing Al also that we want to make sure that it's digestible and key information about so the people grapple with the finer points you looking at using staff as your army of distribut distribution of information or I'll be looking at u a more targeted distribution of the information to our general public it has to be multifaceted so in addition to staff I mean we have uh Title 9 and bullying Liaisons at every school that are supporting parents but I think it has to be multifaceted thank you uh and thanks for your work on this I've
068been hearing good things um was wondering about specifically the language around informal dispute resolution and looking at that restorative practices and when you look at restorative practices within sexual violence like that's some controversial space but was also concerned that Maryland generally has been more resistant to that than other places is what people are telling me so I guess wondering kind of like what was the clarification that we as a district were providing around informal dispute and what's your vision for what that looks like for us as a district and then what are the partners that we're bringing in to help support that work so couple things uh rolled in there so the revisions were to align with what the federal requirements are so the federal requirements made clear the situations where you can involve informal
069dispute and you can't and that's been a topic that's gotten much Focus um in terms of so for instance there's non informal dispute when it's an and it's not just sexual harassment here it's all forms of discrimination when it's AA student allegation of sorry an allegation of misconduct by a staff member to a student not informal generally not informal dispute when it's a issue of SE sexual violence uh but the clarity is about the notice the clarity is to about making sure that the PE that the that the all parties involved agree to it and also the reminders that um and and we emphasized this actually in the training that informal dispute is not sitting down to students and asking them to work it out uh it's an organized process that's involved and that's a
070very critical piece to make sure we understand last part of that though is like in terms of like what's the supports both with inside the district and also from partners that are coming in to support that work um so so sorry we we coordinate closely with the wholeness office there and their restorative work and there are numbers of Partners and we could follow up in terms of that work but we're advised very carefully on our restorative work thank you all for the presentation this evening and we look forward to Second reading thank you we now ready for item 10.02 update to the general orders body warn cameras this is the first first reader good afternoon Commissioners Dr Santa Lisa Stacy to chief of schools and I'm joined by Major Coleman Sergeant Dia the Bri barns
071director of student and school operation support Nick Smith director of school police systems and Logistics hey today's presentation will focus on uh the updates to our school police St rule orders specifically regarding the body warn cameras this initiative is part of our ongoing efforts to enhance safety build trust and ensure the well-being of our school Community we'll cover aspects such as guidelines for usage privacy protections and the phase implementation plan um but before we dive into the updates I want to just give a quick overview of what a general order is a general order is a comprehensive directive that outlines the conduct duties and procedures for police officers to ensure consistent and lawful operations within the law enforcement agency so these orders are crucial for maintaining professionalism transparency and accountability within a force uh it
072is in alignment with board priorities four and five the updates to school police general orders regarding the body War cameras are designed to further uh the school police mission and vision by implementing body War cameras we aim to enhance safety accountability and transparency within our schools these updates will help us build stronger relationships with our school communities ensuring that all interaction interactions are conducted with equity and impartiality our school police in action our school police operate daily to support students administrators in the school Community allowing administrators to deescalate issues when possible while being ready to intervene when necessary the goal is to ensure a safe and supportive School environment uh we reinforce training focused on the escalation and restorative mindset ensuring serious situations are handled by school administrators or diversion programs and engage uh the
073school police officers are engaging in positive community events Beyond their daily deat as a reminder uh Roman numer rule 2 emotional safety and uh Roman rule three people structures that support safety were presented during the April safety and wholeness committee meeting so we will not be covering them today so overview of our timeline in September 2022 the board approve revisions to general orders 1037 marking the official start of a body warn camera Initiative for school police and it set the stage for a phase roll out aimed at enhancing security within Baltimore city schools by winter 2023 team members from Baltimore City Public Schools received specialized training from the Baltimore City Police Department ensuring Readiness for the integration of our body warn cameras um in Spring 2024 we began training school police officers on body warn
074camera usage and established pilot protocols which were shared publicly on a city schools website to maintain transparency uh currently we are in phase one of the pilot which will run from July to December 2024 and the focus is on patrol officers allowing us to gather uh data and refine our approach and then on August 28th we presented our draft revisions to the general orders 1037 to the policy committee with these revisions also made available online so for phase two of the pilot our hopes is to start in January 2025 or after board adoption expanding a body one cameras usage to all officers so that includes Patrol officers and school-based officers uh we are aiming for full implementation again um of body one cameras across all school police officers incorporating insights from the pilot and to
075ensure initiative uh our initiative supports our safety objectives um effectively so our current state we are operate operating under a limited pilot program for body1 cameras utilizing the policies and training procedures from the Baltimore City Police Department this pilot allows us to gather some initial data assess the effectiveness of the body one cameras and identify any areas that need adjustment before we move into full implementation according to the current general orders school police are explicitly instructed not to use body War cameras uh to examples of that would be when they're responding to calls for service including students within Baltimore City Public Schools during school hours and then also law enforcement activities related to school sponsored events both on and off of school properties these restrictions are in place until we have specific protocols in place
076um tail it to the school environment that are developed um and integrated into our general orders So currently we're actively revising the general orders to include detailed protocols and procedures for body War camera usage in schools these updates are essential for moving to phase two which will involve turning the cameras on for broader use the new protocols will also address the um unique circumstances of a school environment considering factors such as privacy the nature of school interactions and the presence of miners um moving forward the revised general orders will be informed by the data and the feedback from the pilot program best practices for other jurisdictions that we have been um utilizing a lot of their information and input from our school communities so implementing implementing these changes will ensure that the body born cameras
077aligns with our mission to create safe and supportive learning environments while also respecting the rights and privacy of our students so once the revisions are complete we'll transition to phase two where the cameras will be turned on for act abuse and a reminder the uh primary purpose of amending the general order 1037 is to prepare for implementation of the Maryland law that requires the deployment of body War cameras for all officers by July 2025 um these revisions will includ policies aligned with our federal and state laws as well as our board policies and the alignment is crucial for safeguarding student privacy and recognizing in the unique role of school police within School settings uh the r rise general orders will also provide detailed guidelines for when body warn cameras can be activated such as imminent
078threat to student or staff an active criminal investigation um but it'll also give uh instances where body one cameras should not be activated an example would be a routine task um or a contact with a confidential informant so we're benchmarking best practice from Baltimore City Public Schools John Hopkin University and some other jurisdictions um and this ensures that we adopt the most effective strategies and protocols for body one cameras in our schools um these guidelines and best practices are going to help us effectively Implement body War cameras across all of our schools ensuring safety transparency and accountability um once we have everything in place body War camera contribute significantly to the professionalism to the professionalism transparency and accountability by providing clear documentation of our officers interactions they play a crucial role in evidence collection um
079ensuring that the investigations and legal proceedings are based on accurate and objective information to maintain the Integrity of body War cameras strict guidelines are in place to prevent tampering and to secure body War camera data privacy protection Protocols are established to safeguard the privacy of students and staff ensuring that body War cameras are used responsibly comprehensive training will be provided to officers to proper you for the proper use of body cameras and relevant legal considerations additionally body warn cameras are instrumental and de-escalating situations as they encourage calm behaviors from both officers and individuals that they come in C come in contact with we are committed to the to continue L refine our policies and protocols based on the feedback and best practices this approach ensures our um a balance between maintaining transparency and respecting the
080privacy and rights of our students and individuals within our school communities this slide outlines this slide outlines the policies regarding the activation of bodyw warn cameras by school police officers for incidents that do not involve students but require investigations or enforcement related actions body War cameras must be activated immediately when responding to an inprocess call or activity that's likely to necessitate immediate criminal law enforcement action officers are required to activate the body War cameras without delay additionally for routine non-emergency calls for service the body War cameras should be activated immedately before arriving on scene these protocols ensure that all relevant encounters are documented maintaining transparency accountability and law of in all law enforcement activities the body warn camera should be activated in several critical situations to ensure proper documentation and accountability these situations include arrest
081interviews of of adults and any use of force case the camera must be activated when operating a vehicle in emergency response mode or when conducting a stop such as traffic bicycle pedestrian stop Additionally the body War camera should be turned on when transporting individuals on emergency petition or during encounters with public that becomes confrontational or when compli complaints are raised these Protocols are in place to maintain transparency and protect both the officer and the public when cting data body War cameras activation can be manual or also tied to a key event tagging and titling are tagging and titling of the events will be standardized for E of search and cataloging of data evidence.com is a cloud-based storage system provided by axon that control that currently provides our record management system retention perod can be built
082in or establish is needed ACC access to evidence.com is restricted to authorize users with certain privileges reserved for users based on their positions each case File access will generate an audit Trail to ensure the integrity and promote transparency within the department privacy and protecting students sensitive information are the Forefront of our policies our officers are trained and will continue to be trained on compliance with fura and Hippa while performing their duties in the school setting school police must carefully balance privacy and investigative concerns with the need for transparency while adhering to public disclosure laws there are situations where privacy and dignity should take precedence over Rec recording such as avoid and record individuals who are nude or when sensitive areas are exposed body War cameras should not be used in areas where there are reasonable
083expectations of privacy like locker rooms thress rooms or restrooms importantly officers must maintain consent before recording interviews with victim sex offenses these guidelines ensure that students privacy and rights are respected while maintaining the Integrity of police work you next okay body War cameras are not intended for use during non-law enforcement activities this includes routine administrative task or conversations between officers and their supervises or discussions with teachers principles our city school staff students support our school-based disciplinary actions the primary purpose of body War cameras are to document law enforcement related activities ensuring the routine administrative interactions remain private and focus on the specific needs of the school community 37 and any subsequent policies or memos a short list of potential concerns may include the following six items that we've taken into consideration so privacy concerns um
084the body W cameras raise private uh concerns especially for minors and sensitive School settings recordings must comply with laws like the Marilyn juvenile Justice Reform Act and the Fourth Amendment for disproportionate surveillance and impact there are concerns about body on cameras being used disproportionately particularly with vulnerable student groups care will be taken to ensure footage does not Target specific groups unfairly the lack of transparency and accountability access to the footage will be controlled and reviewed but there might be there must be clear guidelines to prevent the perception that body War cameras reduce transparen npia requests will also be carefully managed special considerations for students with disabilities surveillance should not dis um disproportionately scrutinize students with disabilities and policies will ensure Equitable treatment of all students with body1 cameras monitoring consent and parental rights the need
085for parental consent is a potential issue stakeholders including parents will be informed about the use of body1 cameras and how our footage is handled and then lastly use and restorative justice or harm reduction body War cameras should complement a broader strategy focused on restorative justice and harm reduction ensuring their role in school Fosters accountability without overreliance on punitive measures in summary body one cameras May potentially enhance accountability in schools however there may be pointed civil rights concerns regarding privacy equity and potential discriminatory impacts uh Baltimore City police uh public schools and Baltimore city school police will carefully navigate these issues by involving stakeholders to ensure that our body one cameras do not exacerbate existence dispares or infringe on students and staff rights and then also to note um the Civil Rights potential issues and concerns
086are concerned um are addressed on pages four 5 9 16 and 20 of the draft of the general orders 1037 body warn cameras are not intended for use during non law enforcement activities this includes routine administrative tasks or conversations between officers and super supervisors or discussions with teachers principes or City School staff regard and student support or school-based disciplinary actions the primary purpose of the body War camera is to document law enforcement related activities ensuring the routine administrative interactions remain private and focus on specific needs of the school Community stakeholder engagement is a component of the body War camera program that allows the opportunity for students staff families and partners to have a platform to learn ask questions and provide feedback we have a that began this month and ends in mid December our key
087actions are inclusive of data collection analysis and making informed adjustments and recommendations we have also curated a representative sample of stakeholder groups from various facets of the city schools ecosystem this week we started our initial Community engagement kickoff meetings during this time participants will receive a macro overview of the body War camera program and a preview of the Eng engagement timeline the first round of community meetings and forums will be a more formal opportunity for participants to discuss dialogue ask questions and provide feedback the audience in these forums will be from the aforementioned stakeholder groups as we find forums or valuable tools for communication collaboration and information sharing we will take the finding from the forms and surveys and C ify them to identify Trends and themes this information will be presented in an executive
088summary we will formulate initial recommendations that will be provided to school police and any necessary adjustments will be made based on the analyzed feedback the cycle of round two is very similar to that of round one by beginning with a round of community meetings and forums data analysis followed by final recommendations to school police and adjustments and any necessary adjustments however at the conclusion of round two there will be additional training for school police officers and the development of educational materials our our policy timeline began August the 28th with the policy committee meeting which was followed by today's first reader presentation and then there will be a second reader on October the 2 second thank you for your time and attention and we open up for we are open for questions bless a question uh
089this work started um we're doing a lot of work around this last year and I'm just want to say appreciative I am that we moved slow we didn't jump into something and we made sure that we took the time and policies right uh there are a lot of legal issues uh that we can fall into with this work and uh seeing the way that it's moving forward uh from last school year to now I'm appreciative of the work that it's put in and uh look forward to the next reader thank you thank you for the presentation uh forgive me if I missed this how often will the um body cam footage be reviewed what is the impetus for it to be reviewed reviewed daily daily and um do people who are recorded um in that
090footage have access to it the individuals that that are recorded no thank using my principal voice thank you um is there a way to tell uh with the body one cameras that we are I see on the procurement um uh agenda here whether they are is there a light that identifies when they are recording or is there uh a um obligation to disclose that recording is happening or anything that lets someone know they're being recorded yes so there is an obligation to identify when you encounter the public that you are recording and what your name is also this camera is not on but if you look at the center circle the giant Circle there are three LED lights that turn red when they are being recorded there are also audible sounds every two minutes to
091let you know that you are still being recorded um there are times when um school police um city police work in coordination or have come together are they privy or are are they jurisdictionally restricted by those same uh restrictions that we would have for our city schools police and um how do we create an equity there because sometimes he really realize that um with City Schools Police versus City not versus but in in collaboration with Baltimore City police there is a little bit of uh um sometimes not the same training ground each agency has separate policies so even if the officers are working along with Baltimore City police they will still have still have to go about baltim City school police policies procedures yes correct I'm in a no Spirit tonight I'm joking commission SL
092I wasn't gonna do it is there a disincentive for officers to turn on their cameras what a disincentive why would an officer not turn on their camera is there something in the policy that would or is there oversight that says hey that's odd you haven't turned on your camera all year no any what I'm saying about the behavior and sting the behavior part the C the cameras they they do get audited periodically but there's also we do have a video um recording team or like a sergeant di he's in charge of that so he's constantly watching those officers that are on um on um on duty and he will ensure that if there's an anomaly like that we will definitely acire about it also there is a automatic audit Trail every action taken with this
093camera is recorded within the cloud at any time I can pull anybody's camera and determine what they've done with it whether they docked the camera when they turned it on when they turned it off how long it was recording if they've titled their video any action taken with the camera is recorded I think my concern is more so not coming off so that audit Trail helps to keep that in order so if you pull an audit trail and I see that you've gone to 10 calls and you've turned it on once then that will be passed on to the supervisor and the supervisor will instill whatever discipline is necessary thank you commissioner SBO and then we'll Circle back to commissioner K Bay I had a couple questions um cuz on the slide it said that
094the process was started in 2022 is there something that initiated that policy like a policy to for officers to wear body Waring cameras then I have like two other like just logistical questions State mandated oh 25 all offic across the state has to have body one cameras and cost wise like would that come out of the the city school's police budget or is it a separate yes okay and then um I know we heard a lot of testimony about like locked doors is there any conversations that you all are having like as a I guess like are you all like advocating for the same thing in addition to like the work that y'all are doing can you can you be more specific advocating for um our office raising the same issues about locks on doors
095like if there is like an incident like did is that something that they've identified too as a need for schools this facility is addressing the Lots head to the schools right now upgrading Lots oh I didn't know if there was another question sure yes was were you finished commissioner Esposito okay respectfully I want to chime in just in the bo with commissioner K Bay and then come back to commissioner Muhammad what is related to that when you wanted to raise okay commissioner can yeah real quick um uh last question that I have for you pardon me pardon me is evidentiary hierarchy um out the body warn camera footage that we get is that on held on the same level as any other evidences and therefore therefore having to be protected like any other evidence that
096you get because it is at the same level as any prosecutorial evidence that may be come forward yes it's going to be cloud-based story for evidence.com through the same company as Axion they will be the ones who will be storing all of the evidence that's the company that runs the body want as well as the police reports okay I'm just asking because uh uh just a legal is there a legal delineation between any other evidence that we would have collect in the city schools versus any other evidence that would be going through that same sort of process because some may be held stronger or lesser or by one or organization than another you understand where I'm coming from there's a legal precedence there I want I'm I'm looking over at um not to put you
097on the spot Chief s but I'm g go to the lawyer for the answer to that I think to answer so um I think that U major Coleman mentioned that we are working with an entity evidence.com Aion which other police organizations use to make sure that we are tightly preserving access limiting access I think Sergeant dim mentioned that we have an audit log of everybody who uh interacts with that evidence we can use tools to redact the evidence which is important because under the public information act as you've seen with other law enforcement uh individuals can request and that uh evidence needs to be turned over except for in certain circumstances so we want to be able to maintain that tightly we want to be able to have an audit trail of those records and
098we want to be able to easily redact that information so we can get it out responsive to requests for prosecution or for defense whomever ask for it do we have any anecdotal information from other jurisdictions that you school systems that use um the body worn um cameras um I didn't I didn't hear as much of that in the presentation but do we have that information and are we ju opposing that with our pilot and what we're um looking to use as best practice practice in potential full implementation of of this um initiative um so we've we've went across data from about four to five different jurisdictions um no two jurisdiction are exactly alike we've looked at Coatsville PA they have a similar setup where they have school police within their District but they're much smaller
099they have 12 officers there we've looked at um the John Hopkins over their higher education um of course Baltimore PD because we work so closely with them and they're part of the community essentially and we've also looked at Birmingham Alabama but they use resource officers Vice police officers so we're kind of unique in what we do but evidence that we've gathered information that we've GA us from different research has definitely shown that body War cameras has proven to reduce um I would say confrontational situations um between Personnel that interact with police officers in different districts um there is a particular Police Department out of California can't recall exactly where I could always provide that to you at a later date that they've um done research that it has shown that there's been decreases in between
100interactions between those are that that department and individual that they come in contact with since officers started wear body one cameras I appreciate that context I I would like to I think it would be helpful to just hear a little bit more even if we're looking at um leas that use school resource offices right um even here in our own state are they using the body warn cameras how are they using them um the the research and the data I think that I mean it's it's given I'm I'm more so interested in the daytoday implementation of what it looks like how it it's being received potentially from student staff families the like um even if they're school resource officers yes we are unique right we have our own police uh Force different than just about
101most other school systems um but I would just be curious to know if we had some of that information to also incorporate if not now in a future reader or presentation just to hear from the ground how it's working in other systems to perhaps inform best practices as you all mentioned and how we implement this um I appreciate that though thank you for the feedback my final question is regarding um costs um so generally how much would how much is the pilot um costing and we may not have that now but I'm curious to know um what will the cost be for full implementation once we start the next phase in January and then full implementation in June um and then the cost of Maintenance right because we will need to be able to maintain
102the equipment and to also support training and so do we have that information um available tonight and if we don't hopefully we can receive that in an upcoming presentation for the second read yes we do have it um give us a second to pull it up great and while he's doing that I just would like to say although it's a small But Mighty group up here there has been a lot of support from um legal the chief of staff um have really pushed us the policy committee as well has pushed us um in our thinking so thank you so everyone's not up here um but it has been a lot of people who have um supported absolutely commissioner Parker um while you're looking I have a question will this policy um well you need new
103like administrative staff like who is going to review the um all of the video and log it seems like you will need new admin people um to do that well the cost of those staff people be included in the ca to this gentleman is going to share with us um so for the year the school police have a budget like a operating budget so the cost would come out of the operating budget and we've been looking at how to utilize the people that we currently have on the force to be able to review the camera so right now I'm like our goal is to have three staff to be able to do that we've um thought about having civilians ver uh versus police officers but then we thought that it was best to make sure
104that we had uh police officers because when reviewing the footage they would actually know what was and was not um acceptable versus a cilian which may not know all of the rules So currently we have Sergeant Zia who is one of the people who've been um reviewing the cameras and our goal is to make sure that he's training others um to be able at too because it is timec consuming when we've been spot checking just to see what's happening like little things as like when the camera goes on are they identifying themselves to the public just to make sure like people are following the routines and the procedures but it you know just for like a a routine stop it could be very timec consuming to look at the amount of time so did you
105want to add on okay I'm learning I'm learning yeah I just wanted to say I've done oversight of the Baltimore Police Department and once it gets in full implementation it's going to be overbearing so it's definitely something um to think about to make sure that that data is being reviewed in a timely matter it's going to be hard if you know if you feel like you already might be crunched with staff time when that data comes up it's going to be a lot so I think that's something to think about even to just kind ofing brainstorm like a job description how much it would cost um that kind of thing cuz I do believe in sometime you will need people thank you thank you got it so going back to your uh question um the
106initial year for so this first payment will be 366,924 175 $ the year following that would be $1 182,780 the year following that will be $9,844 197,50 121 total in over the 5year period 1,100 3,255 193 consist and that consist of all the equipment the cloud storage that's also two uh one Tech refresh meaning as our there's also warranties built in so we break things those are looked to be replaced at year three so it kind of ensures that by the end of the contract we will actually have new equipment versus being stuck with old Antiquated equipment on the back end of it so all that is also building as contingencies as we move forward do some things like that to kind of specify more of that but if it's slly different coming from a
107different funding stream that' be helpful for us to also now so we can plan for that because what I just heard was maybe five years um and so how is this going to come to us formally as far as resource allocation is concerned so this first uh payment um the procurement letter is actually um in process right now um but that's coming out of our general fund as far as school police is concerned and we're hoping that in the subsequent years we will definitely try to get grants to help to assist in um paying for some of these resources but the intention right now is is out of our general funds chair mcdad and it's going to come before on tonight agenda um so maybe a follow up on that thinking of genders uh you
108had mentioned in the axian proposal that that potentially could be something that the school um that the Maryland state safety fund could cover and I know that fund has historically had a bias towards paying for police rather than infrastructure but like what's the strategy of the District of because their deadlines coming up the 30th it's in like a week so like what's the strategy for using those other state funds around school safety other national resources and I guess like what's how do we leverage realizing that like this was kind of thrust as a priority on you from the state like this wasn't necessarily what you're choosing to do but how do we leverage those funds to use other monies I see this year we're just playing on pain lot in the moment yeah it is
109a lot and you know I'm listening to both sides so I could say I could say for this year the money is coming out of our operating budget that we have this year and we are looking into and thank you for that information some other ways to over the 5 years to be able to fund it without it being a hardship on um our budget fund has been had some issues with State Audits and is not done well so I think like there's also a lot of community support now we could support you in those efforts so let us know how we can be of assistant thank you thank you and I see this any additional questions thank you all for brief bement your work around this for your service to City Schools thank you
110all teaching and learning committee will meet on Tuesday October 1st at 3:30 p.m. um the board will meet in an exact session on Tuesday October 8th 3:30 p.m. and then in public that same day at 5:30 and we are celebrating a few birthdays on the board in the month of September so commissioner Coy's birthday was on the 6 commissioner kinat Bay was on the eth commissioner Ames messenger was on the 11th and we have a birthday coming up commissioner Muhammad's birthday is on the 28th so we want to wish all of our September I know the board the lot of the board was born in September um so happy birthday to each of you is there a motion to adjourn so move kyat Bay commissioner kinat Bay is there second second espito thank you is
111there any unreadiness all in favor please indicate by saying I I any opposed hearing none we are adjourned at 7:52 p.m. thank you I feel like Tina would be back