, everybody, and welcome to the O'Neill Board of Education room in Montgomery County. We are so excited to have you with us today. We started something new this school year where we are celebrating different
resolutions and different actions that the board has taken in recognition of special events that are happening each month. This is our opportunity to move from the words that get written into the resolutions, and move them into our hearts
as a community. This is really a super special occasion for us each month, and something that we all look forward to, and it's also a great opportunity for us to recognize a lot of the exceptional efforts that are going underway in our community. One of those
exceptional efforts is particularly near and dear to my heart. This is a special milestone today because we are going to celebrate the official opening of the Pat O'Neill student Art Gallery. Pat was a fierce advocate for the arts and for our students, and
there's no better way to honor her and her legacy than by showcasing the incredible creativity of our young artists. We are honored to have several of our talented students here today, and we are also honored to have Pat's husband, Rick
O'Neill, here. Now, what you don't know, students, is that Mr. O'Neill and met his wife in Montgomery County public Schools, and they they met actually at Walter Johnson and
students. You may not know this, but I also graduated from B-cc. So I thought it was I thought it was even more fitting that we showcased the exceptional talents of B-cc artists to open up the Pat O'Neill Art Gallery.
Just for you, Mr. O'Neill. And we're just delighted that you're here. Beyond the galleries opening today, February is also a profound month of reflection and celebration across our district. We are proud to recognize Black History Month, honoring the invaluable contributions of
Black Americans that have shaped our curriculum and our community today, with a number of celebrations at each of our schools and central offices. This is also a National School Counseling Week was actually celebrated a couple weeks ago.
It's a moment for us to thank our counselors for being the emotional and academic backbone of our schools. We we celebrated National School Counseling Week by canceling the whole week for snow. That was February 2nd through the sixth. We thought they needed
the break. They deserve it. And so we wanted to recognize that. Thank you for the weather assist. This is also Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, a very serious time for us to reflect ando reaffirm our commitment to student safety, dignity and healthy
relationships for every student. This is Career and Technical Education Month, an opportunity for us to celebrate the pathways that prepare our students for the high skilled, high wage careers of tomorrow. So to kick all of this off and with a formal program and an
official proclamation recognizing the Patricia B O'Neill student Art Gallery in the Pat O'Neill Board of Education Room, and to lead this presentation, it is my pleasure to introduce you to the Vice President of the Board
of Education, Brenda Wolff. Well, good afternoon. Good afternoon. We're thrilled. Thrilled to be here for the official opening of the Patricia B O'Neill Student Art
Gallery, right here in the board room of the Montgomery County Public Schools, where it will be seen by every visitor to the Board of Education. Today's proclamation honors both the opening of the gallery and the lasting legacy of
Patricia B O'Neill, whose dedication to M.C.P.S. and its students continues to inspire us. Pat O'Neill devoted 23 years of service to Montgomery County Public Schools, championed equity, opportunity
and excellence for every student. She believed deeply in the power of education to transform lives, and she understood that spaces like this, showcasing student voices and talents, are meaningful way
of honoring learning, creativity, and student achievement. The board is especially excited that the first installation comes from students at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School filling our boardroom with, do you have a
do you have a print here? Okay, we'll get one. Filling our boardroom with their creativity, perspective, and expression. I'd also like to share something a little personal about Pat. If you've ever heard me talk about her, you probably
heard this story before. But you know, when I joined the board, you know, you're kind of it's very different from what you actually expect. So Pat became a great mentor to me. The interesting thing is we talked almost every morning.
Every morning she would call Nancy King. First she'd call Judy Docca second, and she would call me third. And that third call usually came about 730 in the morning. So the day after Pat died, the phone rang,
my cell phone rang, and it said Patricia O'Neill. And I was like, oh Lord, she's calling me from heaven. So it was actually Rick calling. And it it sort of sent a message to me. It sent a message that she was looking
down, let me know everything was going to be okay. So to me, it also felt like a special greeting from Pat. And I know that if she were here today, she would be absolutely in awe of the extraordinary art
created by the students. The very first thing she would do is pick up the phone and call and tell me how unique every single piece in this gallery is, and how proud she is of each and every one of you. So at this time, I'm going to read
the proclamation. Now it looks kind of long, so bear with me. Whereas Montgomery County Public Schools has maintained robust art instruction and programs throughout the county,
offering instruction for a variety of different art media, including but not limited to visual arts, photography, film, dance and music. And Whereas, the Montgomery County Public Schools fine arts curriculum
aligns itself to the national Core Fine Arts standards and the State of Maryland's Fine Arts standards, which build 21st century concepts and skills and address the core competencies identified in the
Montgomery County Public Schools Strategic Framework. And Whereas, the mission for the Montgomery County Public Schools Fine Arts curriculum is to create artistically literate students who become actively
engaged in the fine arts as a lifelong learner. And whereas each student in the county has the opportunity to create their own artistic works as well as analyze, interpret, and
synthesize information and other artistic works, both in historical and contemporary contexts, enriching their media literacy and encouraging critical thinking. Now, therefore, be it resolved that
the members of the Montgomery County Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools hereby recognize the opening of the Patricia B O'Neill Student Art Gallery, showcasing art pieces and installations of
students in a community celebration of art and creativity. As the Montgomery County Board of Education values arts education throughout the county, giving endless opportunities for students to express their
unique voices and gain new skills. In pursuit of this expression. Signed this day of February in the year 2026. And
now I would like to invite the students of Bethesda, Chevy Chase High School and their principal, Kevin Yates, and the teachers Kathy Grove, Lisa Hayes, Carrie Ann Brown, Lewis,
Randa Gahima. I hope I pronounced that correctly. Roger Kirk and Anjali Wells to please join us at the front for a photo as we celebrate this special moment together. Come up and get a picture with you.
Aren't we behind the. Mr. O'Neill? We're going to put you in the middle. In the middle? I'm right there with you like
this. For you. One second. All right. Please hold on a second.
All right. Great. Oh, yeah. Okay, there we go. Here we go, guys. One, two, three and a
couple more, please. So. Yes. 123. Smile. Thank you, thank
you, thank you thank. They've
got their names. And. Three of the four. I'll just say thank
you all very much for being yeah I am. Okay. Can I say I'm the guy for you? That's why I can do it for you if you want. To come. I couldn't even draw a
straight line. But obviously you all have done exceptionally well. Just impressive. Oh, terrific. Thank you. Be sure. I
have. I've got I've got a great spot to put in. Thank you all very much. Just. All right. Who's up with. Are you up? You don't have to do it. No, I
think I think I think you're up. Okay. I have double duty today. It is time for us to do our Black History Month recognition. So, you know, Black History Month is often described as a
celebration, but it's also a reminder. A reminder of the legacy of black excellence that has been built and protected in a system that was never designed for our success. This month matters because while we
honor the past, we are still confronting structural inequities and systemic racism. Naming these realities is necessary if we want real change, not just symbolic
gestures. Black History Month calls on us to lead, advocate, and ensure equity and opportunity for every child in our schools and communities. Today, we honor leaders whose dedication and impact reflect
that very commitment to equity, education and community. Please join us as I call your name. Brandon Conway, president of the PTA at Burtonsville Elementary, whose leadership
strengthens family and community engagement in schools. Benjamin Lewis, come on up, Benjamin. Vice president of the PTA at Burtonsville elementary. And I'm proud to say those two
schools, that school district five. See, we're very active. Who's Nicholas Bassey? Paint branch. Nicholas, are you here? Well, I don't know if he's here in the room yet, but Nicholas is the cluster coordinator for
MCPs PTA, whose work bridges families, schools and the broader community to advance student success. And Monique Ashton, star of our video and mayor of Rockville, whose leadership demonstrates that
public service rooted in equity and inclusion benefits all the community. Recognizing them today is more important than ever, because staying silent is no longer an option, and celebrating excellence without
action is just not enough. Black History Month reminds us that black excellence is not just a legacy, it's a responsibility. Let us honor the work of these remarkable leaders by continuing to
advocate, lead, and ensure that every student has access to opportunities that they deserve. Together, we commit to building equity, celebrating achievement, and shaping a future where
excellence is accessible to all. Thank you and congratulations. Thank you. Jump in here. Yeah,
we all get Rockville. Elsewhere. Yeah. Okay, here we go. One.
Two. Three. Thank you. To. The
fourth one. Mr. Rivera-Oven. Do you want one as well? No, no, we're. We'll share, we'll share, we'll share. Okay. Thank you so
much. Go go go go. So we don't have Natalie. Do you have hers?
Yeah. Good afternoon. Today we also want to celebrate National School Counseling Week, which is usually recognized the first week in February. We honor the professionals who stand at the heart of our schools, our counselors. They are advocates,
leaders, listeners, problem solvers. They help students navigate academics, friendships, challenges, plans for the future. School counselors are often the steady voice and the champion behind the scenes, making sure every student feels
seen, supported, and successful. The board is proud to recognize four exceptional counselors and their director. I'd like to invite them to join me. Miss Deborah Velasquez, Miss Stephanie Powell, Miss Miriam Peska, Miss Jennifer Jones and
Doctor Karen Cruz, director of school Counseling Services. Please come forward. Let's give them a round of applause. All right. Let me tell you a little
bit about them. Miss Velasquez. Miss Velasquez is a counselor at Hoover Middle School and a district leader within M.c.p.s. She's a strong advocate for middle school counselors through her work on the Collaboration Council, making
sure their voices are heard and valued, she leads with collaboration and trust, and her impact reaches across the district. Miss Velasquez consistently goes above and beyond. She is a voice of reason and an extraordinary
leader. Another round of applause, please. Miss Stephanie Powell of Wheaton High School serves on the Instructional Leadership team and helps guide the School Improvement Plan. She led the
creation of an Amazing Race activity to strengthen student relationships and build connections. As leader of the student Well-Being team, she ensures students facing significant challenges, received timely, thoughtful support. She's known for her
sound judgment, strong problem solving skills, and deep commitment to student success. Another round of applause, please. Miss Miriam Pesca. Is she here? No. Okay, well, we'll
read her anyway. Of Wheaton Woods Elementary School is in her third year as a counselor and is a passionate is passionate about building strong relationships with students, teachers, and the community. She is proud of the student mentoring program she started, which pairs students with teachers to form long
lasting social connections that support the students throughout their time at the school. Let's give her a round of applause. Doctor Jennifer Jones of Lake Seneca Elementary began
M.C.P.S. in 1992 and became a counselor in 1999. She is passionate about supporting elementary students socially and emotionally to prepare them for future success. Doctor Jones became a teacher first in order to gain experience with different age groups, and has
been a strong advocate for lowering the counselor to student ratio. Don't we know it? Yes, she is passionate about the Stop and Think program, having been trained over 20 years ago. She then became a trainer for M.C.P.S. staff,
helping students to develop concrete strategies for navigating choices and building social skills. Let's give her a round of applause. And last but not least, Doctor Karen De Cruz, Director of School Counseling
Services, leads a team that supports over 500 counselors and college and career navigators across M.C.P.S. She works closely with schools to ensure every student has the guidance and resources they need to thrive. Doctor Cruz
also organizes one of the largest HBCU fairs in the state, helping students explore college opportunities and plan for the future. Known for her collaborative and thoughtful leadership, she is a trusted mentor to counselors and an advocate for students across
the district. Let's give her a round of applause. To all the counselors watching today. Please know that we are deeply grateful for the support you bring to our schools. Thank you for guiding our students and
helping them find solutions that troubles to the troubles that impact their lives. Your work matters and we see you. And now let's take a group picture to recognize their
great work. Oh! Thank you for your advocacy. Thank you to you. Up here. Thank you. This is the
one thing. One, two, three.
Three, three. Thank you. Sorry. 123. Smile. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for
coming. Thank you. Appreciate it. Great. Oh, it's still not my turn yet. I can't wait to be
my turn. Yeah. This month we also are aware of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. A
time to shine a light on the importance of safety, of health and respectful relationships for our young people. Too many teens experience dating, abuse or unhealthy relationships, making education and prevention
more important than ever. Teen dating violence is more common than many realize. About 1 in 3 US teens will experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse in a relationship before
adulthood. So joining us today are three amazing advocates for our kids. And I have the honor to know a couple of them, especially one of them, were
celebrating almost four decades of friendship. This is a human being that has dedicated pretty much her entire life to advocating for juvenile justice change, for advocating for teens rights, and for doing right by our children to ensure
the prevention is part of our culture, prevention and intervention. Judge Muriel Bernard is a trailblazer, jurist and community leader, a
wonderful mom, a wonderful friend, but most importantly, Judge Bernard and I remember when this was just an idea. Marella started the Choose Respect Montgomery, a teen dating violence awareness
initiative to educate students about respect, consent and healthy relationships. And I remember actually with a small group that we started this in the city of Gaithersburg, and it has pretty much grown into an amazing program throughout
the years. Through her vision and leadership, she has helped equip countless teens with the tools to navigate relationships safely and responsibly. These are some of the unsung heroes you don't hear much about, but who do so much for our
community. And we also want to honor David Feinstein from the State's Attorney's Office, who is continuing the mission of the Choose Respect Montgomery. Debbie is fearless, but yet she
has a heart of gold. As chief of the Special Victims Division of Montgomery County, which is not an easy division to be in charge of. She has dedicated her entire career pretty much to prosecuting domestic
violence, sexual assault and child abuse cases while strengthening prevention and education efforts. These are sometimes the topics that we don't talk much about in our society, but that touched so many lives, and sometimes those
are the victims that are so unseen. But because of people like Judge Bernard and Debbie Feinstein, these victims sometimes get the respect and the justice they deserve. And I can honestly say that I can go to sleep at night knowing that we have incredible leaders
doing that kind of work to ensure that victims of violence, sexual abuse get their just that they deserve. And we also recognize Shannon Babe Thomas, executive director of Community
Bridges, a program that I, I love from the beginning and knew the original person who ran that program. And she's still a good friend of mine, Julissa. And this was just an idea, just like many of those ideas that are born around
coffee tables, among especially strong women who said, how can I make a difference for our young people today? So her work empowering teens, especially young girls through mentoring, leadership programs and holistic support her. Her
efforts help us to build confidence, resilience and the skills that our teens need, and also to help them develop safe relationships as they grow. So with that, I'd like to say thank you on behalf of this
board to Judge Bernard, Debbie Feinstein and Shannon Thomas to remind us that prevention is not just talk, but it takes action. Awareness needs to be inclusive and leadership. We all need to take leadership in
making sure that our children and our teens are safe. So as we honor their work, let's recommit to supporting our young people. Let's commit to listening to them, to educate them, and to ensuring that every child, every teen, has a
safety guidance, the love and respect that they deserve. Thank you ladies. And with that, please come up so we can recognize you and take a
picture.
This. Come on. Ashley is the current coordinator for the Domestic Violence Coordinator justice. So we just
ask you, thank you, thank you. That's a heavy duty work. Okay. Ready? Here we go. One. Two.
Three more. On three. One. Two. Three. 123. Okay. So. Thank you.
Get your picture. Thank you. Thank you ladies. Appreciate you. Finally my turn I've been waiting but we really have.
Yeah we are. We have so many things great things to celebrate. And we surely have saved one very important one to the last. So February is also Career and Technical Education
Month. And actually I have been going to different schools to their I think Thomas and I went to one to to talk to students about CTE education and internship and, and tomorrow, Friday I'm actually going to a
school. They have career fairs and and then we, we get to showcase different type of work. So I'm truly so happy to be here. And there are a lot of people we have to thank for this work. Like always,
education is teamwork, so I want to recognize some special people in the audience and later on I will invite them to come up. First, I want to thank some of our our big partners in the CTE Foundation. And and
they are our partners is president of the foundation Harold Redden. Can you give a wave? Thank you, sir. And and the next person is actually my rotary brother Brian vo for the IT Foundation. Thank you for
being here. And then no stranger to M.C.P.S. is Mr. David Child that it's the hospitality Foundation and and we have some special staff from B-cc High school principal
Kevin Yates is here. Mr. Brown, the internship coordinator is here. And also from our Quince Orchard High School. We have Mr. Lynch, the internship teacher, and also Mrs. Miss Castro. They are you have a
special title. Is it is it special for your high school? What is it? College career? Community community coordinator. And I did student focus group in these two high school about student internship. So when I
go to visit the schools later on, my my colleague Laura would share more light on the CTE foundations. I, I told the kids, I said, hey, look, when I came to this country with two
suitcases for graduate school, I have to work four different jobs to put myself through schools. I did. First job was vacuuming mainframe in the library. They all look at me like, oh, what is that? The
mainframe in the library. So that was cleaning and I did restaurant. I did answering the phone at the psychology department. You know how challenging it is when you speak English as a second language, when your language was wobbly, and then you try to
talk on the phone. So that helped me learn English really fast. And and so I say, you know what? Those different jobs really taught me a lot. Hustling how to work with other
people. And also nowadays, I kept referring back to the term servant leadership. So they have taught me something textbook can never, can never do. So that experience stay with me now, this many years
now CTE is not a backup plan. I view it as a launchpad. Now. Today our high schools are students, have incredible opportunities. They have different pathways in
internships, apprenticeships and industry certification. And you know we have IT pathways. We have medical profession, pathways, HVAC, you name it. We have so many. So what I'm
really saying is last year one of my most favorite event to attend was the graduation of our CTE students. So some of them will go directly to workforce, others will go to college with a much clearer
pathway or purpose, and some might even start their own business. They can start working. They might work at M.C.P.S. someday. Yes. We need we actually. Right. So so. But I think most of them, our program helped to make them
more prepared for their life. So I talk a lot about educate here, work here and live here. And I think CTE is how we can connect these dots. Laura, what do you think a I'm a okay with
that. And actually it's needed. We need these workers. We need skilled workers. Because a lot of these jobs AI can't do a lot of these jobs. So the Montgomery County Foundation's
office is a perfect example of what CTE can achieve. Deeply engaging, highly relevant and rooted in meaningful community partnerships, volunteer business leaders provide guidance, mentorship, and real
world content context, helping students operate enterprises that go far beyond the traditional classroom experience. And these programs, students don't just simulate work, they run actual businesses. In construction,
students design and build houses. I enjoyed taking a tour of one an automotive enterprise. They operate a licensed student run car dealership and technology services. They refurbish computers for resale
and in hospitality leadership. They plan to execute events at local restaurants and golf courses. And I just want to say that my family has benefited from CTE. My husband took automotive repair at his high
school over in Anne Arundel County, and guess what? He saved us thousands of dollars by working on our cars through the years. And he also went to technical school to fix computers. And guess what? We all have refurbished computers
in my household. And he also apprenticed with some construction companies, and he actually was able to redo our basement. So I think that is a lot of money we've saved through the years. And today he works in it. So these are
building blocks and actually skills that you can use for the rest of your life, even if you end up not doing that for your career. So these experiences immerse students in the challenges and rewards of real industry work, building skills, confidence and competence that
last a lifetime and might even contribute to their own household so that they too can have a lot of home built things. So thanks. So I'm going to invite these partners who help
us invest in career pathways, help us build a local workforce, and who are helping us to strengthen our economy, and who are helping us to give students real options to come on to the front. And let's take a big
picture together. All right. Let's do it. Please all come
forward. Okay. I'm an honors.
Kevin. Thank you so much. I'm David Brian.
You do it. I was rational because I saw probably not. So good job. Okay. All right. Just. Yeah, just slide
in wherever you are. Okay. Are we ready? Let's go. One. Two. Three. Four. Right here. All right. On three. One. Two.
Three. Thank you. Okay. Alright.
Thank you. Thank.
Good afternoon. My name is Grace Rivera-Oven and I'm the president of the Board of Education representing district one. Good to see everybody. We are joining us here today. And those who are watching this meeting via live stream. So
we're going to start by standing up. The flag is behind you and we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. Please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. I will now ask our board members to please introduce themselves and to establish a quorum. I will start on my right hand. Good afternoon,
Laura Stewart from district four. Good afternoon. Buenas tardes. Carla Silvestre, school board member at large. Good afternoon, Julie Yang, district three. Good to see everyone. Good afternoon, Brenda Wolff, district five. Good afternoon,
Rita montoya, Board of Education member at large. Good afternoon. Student member of the board. Thank you. And I would like to wish Miss Zimmerman, who's home sick. I hope she's getting better and taking a lot of fluids. Is
there a motion to approve the revised agenda? Motion? Second. Thank you. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. That is unanimous. And it carries. The next item on the
agenda is association. Comments. I will ask now at any designated representatives to to provide association comments. Mr. Davis. Thank you so much to please come up and thank you so
much for being here today. Good afternoon. It's been less than two weeks since one of our greatest fears came to pass yet again. Gun violence came to visit the campus of one of our schools. The shooting at Wooton High School has irreparably
changed the lives of Wootton students, educators and families and all of us in this room. No student, no educator, no one should have to experience this kind of violence and trauma. I know that while students like last week's remain rare in M.C.P.S. we know it is all too common in
schools across the country. As a union, M.K. remains steadfast in our commitment to advocate an organized to keep our schools safe and to remove the specter of gun violence from our communities. This includes continuing our work at the bargaining table and beyond to confront and eliminate the
threat of gun violence. Like all of you, I am angry that school shootings still happen during these crisis moments. It is tempting for many, including some of our elected officials, to turn to solutions that may make it appear that we're addressing the problem. But these easy solutions, while
appealing, don't always work and may actually exacerbate existing problems within our schools. The real solution to safer schools, but a harder one, is to significantly invest in mental health supports over the long term. This includes hiring enough counselors, social
workers, psychologists and PP, and integrating conflict resolution programing into schools in addition, of course, to passing sensible gun laws. Smaller class sizes can also help improve school safety. Smaller class sizes allow educators to increase the amount of one on one time they
spend, with each student, getting to know them and building stronger relationships. The way we improve school safety. School safety is ultimately through the strength of our relationships with one another. In moments like these, I am reminded of the strength of our collective resolve.
Students, educators, parents, and the greater Montgomery County community. Together, we will continue to support our students, care for one another, and work toward schools and communities where everyone feels safe and valued. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr.
Stein. Appreciate it. Our next item on the agenda is public comments. Public comment is one of our opportunities to hear the views and to receive the advice of community members. Board members will take your comments into consideration,
but it is not our practice to take action at this time on issues that are raised. We encourage public input on policy, program and practices. This is not the proper avenue to address specific student or
employee matters, so we encourage everyone to utilize existing avenues of redress for complaints. This is a public meeting, and we expect the conduct of all speakers and members of the audience to be within the bounds of proper etiquette. Inappropriate
personal remarks, rude retorts, or other such behavior is out of order and will not be tolerated. Those who demonstrate disruptive or disrespectful behavior during public comments may be asked to leave the room. Please check our website for information
about upcoming board meetings, hearings and work sessions. Including any changes to our meeting start times. We have 13 people signed up to provide in person testimony. Each speaker will receive two minutes for comments. When your name is called, please approach the table. Speak clearly and
directly into the microphone. 30s. Prior to the expiration of a speaker's time, a yellow light will go on and accompanied by a beep, a red light and a buzzer signals that your time has expired. Please push the flat button below the microphone to turn it on and
begin speaking. Push the same button once more at the sound of the buzzer to turn it off. In addition to our in person speakers, today, we have seven people signed up to provide video testimony. We will play the submissions once in the person. Testimonies have concluded. Copies of
testimonies can be found on board docks where they are posted with other materials for this meeting. Now we will start with the comments. If you hear your name, please come up to the table. Isaiah Rickard,
Ethan Baker, Charlene Simpson, Dorian Hoffman, Jason Alexander
and Samira Hussain. If Mr. Ricker can please start. Hello
everybody. I am Isaiah Richard and I'm the president of MSP at my school, North Chevy Chase elementary. MSP is a program for black and brown students that is spread all across m.c.p.s schools. MSP is available in some elementary schools and most middle and high schools. Our group meets
on Fridays at lunch in the Media center. Today I will be answering the question why MSP important in elementary school? Becoming a part of a community. Becoming a part of a community is super important. Growing up and MSP is just that. In this environment there is no
judgment or discrimination allowed. We don't bring each other down, we lift each other up and that can leave a mark in anybody's life. We do things as a team. For example, the video we made for the countywide film festival, we split the video into three groups food, clothing and hair. We showed
the experiences black and brown students may have involving disrespect. We shared our film on the school wide show for everyone to learn from. This community shows that we are all unique in our own way and that is what makes us stronger. African American history.
Learning history can be a fun topic, but not all history is happy. From 1619 to 1865, African American people were enslaved. They were forced to work in fields no matter the condition, even after slavery ended, we were still
discriminated against. That is when Martin Luther King Junior stepped in. MSP teaches you all about that stuff, like when we went to the African American History Museum last week. We also memorized the poem I too Sing America by Langston Hughes.
These topics are important to know and MSP teaches them. I can go on and on, but this sums up the reason why MSP is important in elementary school. Thank you so much, Mr. Baker.
Hello. Honorable members of the Board of Education and Superintendent Doctor Taylor. My name is Jason Alexander, a longtime educator at M.C.P.S. and also SEIU local 500 member. This school year has given the opportunity to participate in Staffing Standards Workgroup as part of the workgroup on
associate myself with some of the comments board members asked during your February 2nd meeting all the way back on Monday, October 27th, 2025, during the first High School Staffing Standards Workgroup, we asked M.C.P.S. Central office staff how M.C.P.S. was currently performing regarding
the current staffing standards. I also want to associate myself with comments. Sorry, the testimony provided on February 2nd during the board operating hearing by SEIU local 500 Vice President Carlene Pruitt to expand her testimony at a high
school level. There are 12 L5 programs, 11 programs, three Tui programs, and three SES programs. That's not a comprehensive list, but it gives you an idea of the numbers we're talking about. Just imagine if you had an apples to apples comparison. Also, the proposed Paraeducator
staffing standards need some work. I don't know where the vast majority of educators fall within level three, level four, level five, and level six. Last spring, M.C.P.S. agreed to reclassify the job from one tier to a three tier job. The
three tiers are level one, two and three. Also, I want to thank the PTA cluster at Walter Jones. Sorry, the cluster PTAs for their continued advocacy and support of students. When. Key points at the Thursday,
September 11th MC sorry Montgomery County Council Culture and Education Committee work session, they listed a number of jobs that are filled soon. You should know how many of those educators successfully completed their six month probationary period. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon. My name is Charlene Simpson, and I'm a proud citizen of Gaithersburg and the Crown community. I want to thank the board for the work that you do and the tough decisions ahead. Thank you, Doctor Taylor, for your recommendation to open Crown
High School. As a resident of the Crown community, my child has been zoned for both an elementary and middle school that were not the closest to our house. We understand. We understood that this was necessary to balance the needs across the system. Watching the
new school being built has been exciting. We're so happy to attend a brand new school that was designed with safety in mind. A safe, functioning building is best for all students. Gaithersburg is a welcoming community and we are excited and hopeful about the
new friendships and partnerships we will forge in the years ahead. Thank you for this opportunity and your time. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Go ahead. Good afternoon. Members of the board. My name
is Dorian Hoffman and I'm a parent in the farmland and Tilden area. I am not speaking as a cluster coordinator today. Our community was blindsided by the superintendents boundary study recommendation. As you will hear more on Tuesday. Today I'm here to comment on the process, or lack thereof,
that got us here. We've waited for this boundary study for years as Woodward was delayed, turned into a holding school, RFP was delayed, staff changed, and contracts stalled. Finally, Flow Analytics was hired and over the course of a year, using a 1 million taxpayer
dollar budget, they developed 12 options for the public to consider. Now, the final map that the superintendent has developed is not one of those very costly 12 options. It is completely different and affects the new Woodward High School and surrounding communities in ways that were
never explored. The superintendent states that option B was preferred by the public, and this is a modified option B in reality, this is not close to option B for our region or for Woodward High School. The changes are consequential for multiple
communities and in all FAA factors, the recommendation increases. Utilization rates in a high development area would require new transportation routes, and longer bus commutes would affect programing and academic pathways, and results in a school that is more
dissimilar to Walter Johnson than any other option. The board has voiced concerns throughout this process, everything from the integrity of data to whether underserved communities have been given the chance to provide meaningful feedback. You know the answer
to these questions we all do when we look at the raw survey data, your concerns should be greater now more than ever with this new map. We urge the board to dig deeply into the recommendation recommendation and consider real changes to the boundaries based on the
hearings ahead. Unfortunately, you're in a difficult position, and we hope that you rise to the occasion and reject the recommendation. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Hussein. Good evening. Doctor. Doctor Taylor, miss Arvin,
board members. My name is Samir Hussein, and I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak today, and thank you for the time and the care that we're putting into this issue that I'm going to speak about tonight. I am a long time advocate for children's rights.
You know, I have four children who graduated, and I was just recently retired from CPS for over 30 years of service. Muslim Montgomery County are not the small emerging community. We are among the largest population in the country. We come from all
diverse backgrounds and different professions. For years, the Muslim Montgomery County worked respectfully with M.c.p.s. To have Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha recognized as holidays. And I thank Miss Kat for working with us very well.
That recognition was not about special treatment. It was about equal treatment for thousands of Muslim students and staff. We are living in a moment with anti-Muslim rhetoric is rising nationally. This week, one sitting congressman tweeted
that he prefers dogs over Muslims, and not a word from the administration condemned him. There is an anti-Muslim caucus in Congress being presented right now, with almost 10% of the elected body.
This is the level of hatred being fermented at national level, and M.C.P.S. chose to cancel Eid on the same time. I want to just to thank you again and also respectfully ask you
to reconsider the decision that was made. I we are more than happy to work with you on any issue and just thank you again and you have my testimony. Thank you so much, Mr. Baker.
Good evening. My name is Ethan Baker. I'm a parent of an eighth grader at Julius West and a kindergartner at Ritchie Park. I'm here today because this board has a recurring problem with gambling. Last year, you built a 181 day calendar with a single day off
of buffer for snow days. You bet against a Maryland winter and you lost. Now you're gambling with the equity of our religious communities. We can see the losses already. You've stripped our holiday off as a day off for students. Our families are now paying for the
makeup work tax to cover your bad bets. The real tragedy is that you're doubling down for next year again, providing only another one day buffer. You are knowingly planning for another crisis when the snow inevitably hits. Your contingency plan is to snatch back even more
holidays. This isn't just a calendar tweak, it's a bet you are placing with other people's faiths. You are treating a sacred time for our neighbors as a sacrificial insurance policy, because you refuse to build a realistic schedule. I've got copies here of
Gamblers Anonymous literature in case you're interested, because the first step is admitting you have a problem your addiction to gambling on our holidays and our students time is hurting families who can't afford the extra labor of teaching missed curriculum due to them taking off to celebrate their holidays as an excused
absence. Stop betting our kids time and stop gambling with the equity of our religious groups. Build five days buffer into every future calendar. It's time you stop praying for luck and start planning for reality. And in all seriousness, this is
Maryland. We have snowstorms. It happens a lot. I think one day just doesn't make any sense at all. Thank you so much. Thank you all for your testimony. I'll be calling the next six speakers. If you hear your name, please come up.
Deborah Burger Katiana Anglade. Unger, Bridget Bourdeau Latina Bobo. Paula. Shelby, Bonnie and
Sharon Moseley. Ramsey. Moseley. Charles. I'd like to start. Good afternoon. I'm Deborah
Kornbluth. Burger luxe, manor Citizens Association school chair representing 900 homes who strongly oppose the superintendent's plan, which creates disparity between the two local high schools that are one mile apart. We have repeatedly stated the
importance of parity and equity between Woodward and WJ. After spending over $1 million and soliciting community feedback, everyone felt blindsided as key components were not publicly discussed. The superintendent's plan violated policy. FAA
utilization is not being balanced. Demographics have disparity. Stability of school assignments will not be achieved. Woodward's utilization rate will be 91.2%, while only 77.7 at WJ, a 13.5%
difference. Woodward will not be able to absorb these schedule developments. North Bethesda Center 1200 unitsMorga. Tevis place 154 mpg. Loehmann's Plaza 680 units. White Flint
Mall, 6000 units. Rose village 2060 units, as well as the chimes, Tripoint Homes and North Bethesda Market. To these farm rates also are very different. Woodward has 35.7% farms and WJ only 15.3% farms.
Over 20% difference ML. Another FAA factor with disparity, Woodward will have 17.3%, while WJ is 5.4% and 11.9% difference. This week, 1508 voters signed
our petition opposing this plan. Sadly, the proposal has divided the WJ cluster into perceived winners and losers because of this disparity. Please reject the superintendent's plan, parity and equity. Thank you so
much. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Hello everybody. My name is Tina Bobo. I started the first chapter, the first elementary school chapter of
Minority Scholars. In 2019. We started our first program at Harmony Hills in 2019, right before the pandemic, after we saw the important and powerful impact of MSP at the secondary level, I was encouraged by the work that was being done by
Vilma Naha, by Mike Williams and Sharif Robinson. At that time. I recognized the need for this great program at the elementary school level. After attending the MSP retreat. We started in 2019 with just nine students. That first group of
nine students didn't stay in one place. The work continued as I moved to Glen Haven Elementary School, then Gateway Elementary School, and now Meadow Hall Elementary School. And with every transition, the program grew. Today, there are
25 elementary school chapters across our district, and we are very proud of the growth our scholars quickly began taking pride in belonging to something bigger than themselves. In 2019, they were recognized by the then superintendent, Doctor
Smith, as the first elementary school Minority Scholars chapter. Since then, students have spoken at the county council level, created photo campaigns addressing critical and addressing critical social issues. Sorry organized efforts
to help eliminate food insecurity in their communities, etc. with the guidance and encouragement of their elementary school sponsors. This growth did not happen because of funding. It happened because of belief. Belief that elementary school students have a seat at the table, and a
foundational responsibility in the critical issues of race and equity. Teachers in elementary schools who are already stretched have given their money, their time, and their mentorship to be able to support our programs, we're asking for a dedicated stipend
for all of our elementary schools, schools, our elementary school sponsors for MSP. Thank you. Hello, my name
is Sharon Moseley Ramsey and I am a proud MSP sponsor at North Chevy Chase Elementary School. Isaiah Ricard is my president. North Chevy Chase is home of the Bulldogs. This is year 42
for me. That's right. I said 42 for me and I am still going strong. I speak on behalf of elementary MSP sponsors across the county. Sponsors in the upper grades are compensated for the time they spend with
their MSP students. Elementary sponsors are not. Yet. The impact of our work begins long before high school. I first learned about MSP nearly ten years ago from students at B-cc High School that would come to
visit me when I asked them what they loved most about their school, they consistently said MSP. At the same time, my youngest son was at Blake High School, which did not have an MSP chapter. I encouraged him
to find a chapter sponsor, rather to start a chapter. That's exactly what he did. And Blake now has a thriving MSP group. When MSP expanded to elementary schools, I was all in our fifth graders meet lunch
at lunch weekly with my co-sponsor. We build leadership, confidence and belonging. Our students lead culture night displays. They present morning announcements, they create videos for school news, and we plan to all attend the retreat.
Even our youngest students are aware of race and culture. If MSP matters in high school, it matters just as much in elementary. If we truly believe MSP changes lives, then we must value and support the educators who begin that work in the
younger grades. Thank you. The M.C.P.S. Department of Athletics has canceled gymnastics in a highly unprofessional, dishonest, and unethical way. This does not reflect the M.C.P.S. raised values of respect, access, or
integrity. At our postseason meeting in May, Doctor Sullivan promised that the coaches would be warned before any movement on the future of gymnastics that did not happen. He also promised that there would be community forums for parents, gymnasts and stakeholders to be
heard. That also did not happen. Instead, the athletic directors, who are 73% male, met behind closed doors, behind our backs in secret and voted to cancel gymnastics. There is also a clear conflict of interest with the stunt program, because Doctor Sullivan's daughter does
cheer at Damascus, so he has now given her three seasons of cheer at the expense of one season of gymnastics. The athletics office has also cited gymnastics statistics that were inaccurate by over 25%, while simultaneously promoting Allied softball, which has a similar
number of schools participating. M.C.P.S. gymnastics grew 27% from 2024 to 2025. Did any other sports do that? We have a petition with well over a thousand signatures from stakeholders and taxpayers who are extremely upset at being
silenced and ignored. Clearly, this decision does not reflect M.C.P.S. values. We respectfully request the board appoint a neutral third party to mediate a resolution. We are asking for there to be mutually agreed upon Smart goals and tangible targets for progress for M.c.p.s. Gymnastics and for
accountability for any athletic directors, principals or county rules that try to prevent the growth of gymnastics in violation of title nine. Despite what they claim, we do have facilities, equipment and coaches for our gymnastics community. If we succeed, we show the girls that we stood up
for what was right, even in the face of adversity. And if we fail, at least we had a fair shot and did our best. Instead of being smothered and ignored and silenced. However, if they are able to make unethical decisions like this, what is this teaching our children? Is this the example we want M.c.p.s to set? Thank you so
much. And just for the record, can you state your name? Paula Shabani. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Montgomery County
school system model is all means all. Every community, family, school, including the Mega business, business Learning Institute MBA is within the all MBA offers a truly unique program for future
business owners and leaders. I thought M.c.p.s. Would partner with that equity focused pilot. Like us parents, we rearrange jobs, couples and family budgets to get children to and from school every school day.
Because we believe in this opportunity and we still do now, our children are wearing why would M.c.p.s. Close the only school that finally led us do exactly what we have dreamed of. You must weigh risks. Yes, we
know, but what about due process? Equity? Trust? Value name has central to the work of this board. Please give me the kind of improvement plan that other struggling schools receive before closure is even
considered. Have you truly heard from an engaged families whose children, education and dreams would be most affected by your decision? Other M.c.p.s students have programs to pursue careers as doctors,
engineer, lawyer where you invested overears. Allow the same chance to these future entrepreneurs. Please have you prepared as you are prepared to vote on whether MBA will be
revoked. Please, please, please think of the dream of student you were elected to defend. Dear member of the Board of Education, I'm not asking you to ignore problems, but to keep students at the center not in
the middle of institutional conflict. Please just allow MBA the to continue under an improvement plan. So these young people can keep pursuing their goals just like other
M.c.p.s. Students. So all will really means all. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much to everyone for the testimony. We have one more testimony in person. If Miss
Diana Avram can please come to the table and give her testimony. Yes. All eyes on me.
No pressure. Thank you. Thank you. Members of the board. My name is Diana Avram and I am coming before you today as an MCPs parent and farmland PTA cluster rep, as well as your
neighbor. I have spent the past year educating my community about the boundary maps and the importance of giving feedback when reviewing previous options A through D, the utilization percentages for Woodward High School range from 74 to 86. All of these options were acceptable to our community, as
we have many new construction projects in our proposed boundary. 6157 units to be exact. Montgomery County passed a policy last year that will allow for additional multi-unit housing along the pike, and declares that a minimum percentage of workforce housing
units is required. This will, of course, make a substantial impact on Woodward High School utilization. We are very frustrated and upset to see that the new recommendation proposed has Woodward High School starting at a much higher utilization over 91%, which is the highest of all
schools in this option. Woodward High School was built to relieve overcrowding at Walter Johnson and Wheaton High School. This option will start the school close to capacity and lead to overcrowding when considering new development. To add to our frustration, the Walter Johnson PTA cluster has
been advocating for a year for parity between the two high schools. Really for years. More than a year that are one mile apart. Farmland. PTA believed all previously presented options that were created by a $1 million contracted company
were aligned with this promise. This new recommendation has the largest discrepancy in all four factors that were considered under your own policy. Members of the board, please reject this new recommendation as 1500 people have asked you to do so with a petition that has been
placed before you. We are not asking for special consideration. We ask that you go back to the original options and listen to the community's feedback. Please honor the entire county's voices as you are elected to be our
representatives. Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. The next seven testimonies will be by video. If we can please start. Hi, I'm Keisha and and I'm a student at the Mecca Business Learning Institute. Here is a quick
photo montage about our school year so far. You would not
believe your eyes if 10 million fireflies lit up the world. As I fell asleep. Cause they fill the open air and leave teardrops everywhere. You'd think me rude, but I would just
stand and stare I'd like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slow. It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake
when I'm asleep. Cause everything is never as it seems. Please consider letting us stay at this wonderful school. Thank
you. Heather Edgar Stauffer, parent of a sixth grade MBA student. Dear members of the Board of Education, we believe Mbly is becoming the kind of school our kids deserve. If it gets fair process and
independent oversight to improve, not be shut down. You're elected to focus on student outcomes, equity and opportunity, and to make sure every decision is careful, fair and grounded in evidence. Mbly is a startup school. There have been startup challenges. We know it's not perfect, but our
families chose Mbly because of its mission and curriculum, things we weren't getting anywhere else. Woman senses high, swishy Putonghua. That's exactly the kind of real world learning Maryland is asking for. So here's the question is this
a zero sum fight or a good faith positive sum solution for all students? This doesn't have to be M.C.P.S. versus mbly. It could be a win for everyone, a win for students and families. We stay in a school that fits us. A win for you. A tightly monitored pilot for career
connected learning that shows M.C.P.S. can innovate carefully and adapt, meet high standards and still defend strong, equitable public education. A win for Maryland a concrete example of the state's plans call to from Montgomery County, MD. Allies approach integrates
creative problem solving, financial literacy and practical business skills with strong academics and support, we're going to turn new ideas into new fields, jobs, and industries right here in our own community because the future isn't waiting for us. We're starting early. Everything here is
figureoutable. Please make your decision in good faith. We're advocating for fair due process with clear facts, independent oversight, and shared accountability. With Embley as a pilot, you can monitor,
improve and learn. Those will hold all of us to a higher standards. We look up to you. Let Embley be the pilot where students lift off and lead. My name is Doctor Robyn Miller,
and I've served as an educational audiologist for the deaf and hard of hearing program for 21 years. M.C.P.S. has never had a budget line item for an audiologist, and in result, my title defaulted to Instructional Specialist. However, this title does not reflect my licensure. My
responsibilities, nor the job I was hired to do. Per Comar, an educational audiologist is required to review medical documentation and determine eligibility at 504 IEP and revivals. In addition to this, my responsibilities include programing loaner hearing aids
for under and uninsured students, processing 215 plus referrals per year, programing 200 assistive technology devices across the county, supporting IEP and school based health teams, and most importantly, supporting parents on their journey. Birth through
21 Fairfax County has 18 audiologists and PG County has four. Their average caseload is 60 to 70 students. My caseload is 450 students, and growing students cannot access instruction without the services and technology
provided by an educational audiologist. Our program is getting gutted. Last year we lost our true instructional specialists and this year the proposal is to cut our supervisor. This leaves two instructional specialists by title that actually function as
educational audiologists, by licensure. Correcting my title of two educational audiologists aligns with my licensure, clarifies my responsibilities, and supports proper staffing. Continuing the misalignment of my title will add to our legal
vulnerability, litigation and overall losing money to lawsuits. An educational audiologist is required in M.C.P.S. I respectfully urge you to reclassify my position and reinstate the true Instructional specialist for deaf and hard of hearing. Thank
you. Hello, this is Susanna Montezemolo, chair of the MCPs Gifted Education Committee here today to talk to you about high school English. But first, I want to thank MCPs for its successful rollout of Kayla as
the English curriculum for grades six through eight. As a result of this curriculum and ongoing progress monitoring, students are successfully reading and analyzing complex works like The Iliad, The Tempest, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Unfortunately, that level of
rigor ends in eighth grade. The high school English curriculum is much weaker. I will talk about two urgent concerns. First is the use of below grade level texts and tasks. The homegrown ninth grade curriculum allows teachers to assign honors English students to graphic novels as their
anchor texts for the first semester. Graphic novels can be great for engagement and independent reading, but they do not provide the sustained, complex prose. Students need to build hi school reading, stamina, analytical reasoning, and academic writing skills. Second lack of oversight in
implementation, which means that classroom experiences vary widely. As just one example, last year, some families reported that students watched a film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet rather than reading the play, and earlier this year, parents testified before the BOE that their ninth graders
had read only one graphic novel in the first semester. To fix these problems, M.C.P.S. must first adopt an externally vetted, high quality high school English curriculum. Second, provide ongoing teacher training and implementation
oversight, which has made Kayla so successful at the middle school level. Third offer both on level and honors English courses in all schools with a separate scope and sequence for honors courses that make them meaningfully more challenging than the on grade level courses.
More detail can be found in my testimony. Thank you. Hello, Board of education members. My name is Hannah George, parent of an Nibley sixth grader.
Parents and students speaking on this table. Be sure the pages of the script we're going to give you what you're going to say so that you can practice it over here. You're going to be filming on the opposite side over here. We're going to send
you over there to film. Left to right. Okay, so wait, I messed
up. Oh my God. Okay. Sounds good, sounds good okay. Yeah.
All right, I got it. Do you have gloves? Can I get an Oscar, please? I'm ready. Okay, okay. We will get stronger. Okay. Here we go. Okay, okay, okay, okay. This one is the funny
thing. From an early age. Real blah blah, blah blah, blah, blah, blah blah. All right, with us, you get a local? No.
Okay. I love the arts. You don't have to rush through this. Okay? Take your time. Okay.
That is. Sorry. Hi. My name is Amanda michaelson. My daughter attends Fields Road Elementary School and I have two younger children that will as well. I grew up in Montgomery County, and after high school I left
the area, lived in various states across the country. And then five years ago, my husband and I decided to return to the area. Seeing this as an amazing place to raise a family, we chose to live in Washingtonian Woods because we were drawn to the strong sense of community neighbors who show up for one another, and the diversity that
makes this area so special. We wanted our three children to grow up in a place that reflects the real world, full of different perspectives. I support the superintendent's recommendation to open Crown High School, welcoming the Wootton community as well as Fields Road. Fields road is geographically closest to Crown High School, allowing these families to be present and
involved in the school. I recognize that no boundary study or decision will make everyone happy. Change is hard, but the recommendation creates a strong path forward because it focuses on providing quality education for every student while doing it in a fiscally responsible way. It allows Crown to open with balanced
enrollment, a diverse socioeconomic student body, and the resources necessary to support amic excellence. It expands access and strengthens equity so that opportunity is not concentrated in just a few schools, but shared more broadly across our community. My daughter is in first grade
at Fields Road, and because of her experience, she doesn't see differences as something to fear. There's something to appreciate and celebrate. She's learning empathy, and she's learning inclusion. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens when we intentionally build schools that are both academically strong and richly diverse. Diversity strengthens
education. It prepares our children not just for college, but for life, for workplaces, communities, and leadership roles in a world that is diverse and interconnected. This recommendation gives us the opportunity to build a new high school community rooted in equity and inclusion. We request the board votes in
favor of Doctor Taylor's recommendation. Thank you. My name is Sophia Artola, and I am the mother of a current student at the Meca Business Learning Institute Prize. Enjoy the video. This is a story about protecting kids and
strengthening the system, not shrinking it. We invested in a program that helps students become creative problem solvers, entrepreneurs, and ethical leaders while insisting on full compliance and equity. We believe that emboli fills a unique gap in M.C.P.S. portfolio that traditional
middle schools are not currently designed to meet. MBA will prepare students for real world economic participation from an early age, and we are learning practical business skills into worship and financial literacy. We are learning Mandarin, a primary
language used for managing international financial relations. With us. You get a concrete local model where middle schoolers build practical problem solving and business skills that prepare the future workforce and responsible citizens of Maryland deserves the same consideration and collaborative
oversight afforded to all other M.C.P.S. institutions. In a year where M.C.P.S. itself faced safety and administrative challenges, were advocating for fair oversight and due process over closure, closing a school after only four months just as it successfully moved into a
permanent home, is a premature response to startup challenges. This does not need to be M.C.P.S. versus emboli. It can be a true win win for all of us. Our community sees a board that fixes problems without pulling the rug out from under us. Kids
in the middle of the year. If Embley succeeds under a rigorous improvement plan, it will be because the board insisted on high standards and the school rose to meet them, which is exactly how public charter oversight is supposed to work and be alive in Montgomery County as a whole,
become a visible example of the state plans to set students up for success. We will get stronger. Please keep an eye open. Show us that students really are at the center of
your decision. Thank you for everyone for their testimony. This concludes public comment. The board's next meeting to receive public comment is on Thursday, March 26th. Online
signups will open on Thursday, March 19th at 6 p.m. in addition to online signups, same day in-person signups are permitted when space allows, with unallocated slots filled
on a first come, first served basis. In-person sign ups will close 15 minutes before the start of the open session. Coming events and meetings is on our board's website. With that, I'd like to open if any of my colleagues have any comments. I'll start with Miss
Stewart. Yes. The ninth grade reading testimony really resonated with me. I've been hearing about these issues for a few years, and I wanted to
know, can we get an update on where we are in acquiring curriculum for ninth grade? Especially sure, you have a budget before you tonight that includes secondary literacy in a couple of different avenues.
So assuming that that gets approved and gets funded, you will be looking at doing an RFP for high quality curriculum materials to address the testimony. Today. I will really look forward to having a presentation at some point on
that RFP process. If the budget passes. The other issue I wanted to ask about was this gymnastics being possibly, I guess, has been decommissioned.
Where can you explain that process? I think would probably be better off to have somebody from the athletics department come and talk to the board. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Miss Montoya. Thank you. I wanted to just second the request from Miss
Stewart about gymnastics. So I look forward to hearing about that. And I wanted to thank everyone for being here today. I know that it is raining, raining, raining outside. So thank you for coming down, especially to all of the kids. You had a full day of school today and you still came down here to do advocacy. I would
especially like to thank Mr. Ricard from North Chevy Chase elementary for advocating for elementary school M.C.P.S. which is the Minority Scholars program, as well as Miss Bobo and Miss Mosley. Ramsey, thank you again. Thank you very much, Miss Yang. Yeah. Thank you. I
would like to thank everyone for coming in. There are a lot of important issues raised today, and we have upcoming hearings and work sessions, and I hope we can address some of the concerns. And I also want
to associate myself with gymnastic comment what I would I know that with the school system, the athletic programs, can we just have some data to understand the the program
enrollment and the decision pain points? Thank you. Thank you so much. And with that I would like to add also just a clarity on how programs are eliminated in our schools. What
is the process for that? I think gymnastics is a pretty popular program. So I hear the the pain and and the parents voices and the kids. So it just it would be I just honestly don't don't really have an
understanding of it. So that would be a teaching moment for me. And I also want to thank the community for coming and for for the kiddos, for being here today and for your testimony. And I'd like to
thank. The very cheerful testimony about us gambling on on the weather. That was it was very well received. And to Miss Hussein for her testimony. And
I just wanted to let you know we heard we heard you loud and clear. With that, I think we're going to move on to the next meeting agenda. Thank you all for coming. We'll be moving to item number seven. Are there any consent items board members
would you like to request to be pulled for clarification? Hearing none. Is there a motion? Motion. Is there a second
second to approve the consent items? There is a motion and second to approve item 7.1 through 7.21 in block. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. And that is unanimous with all those
present. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. I do want to point out a couple of things that were highlighted in today's agenda. If we have a moment. Yes, please. First things first. We have been starting our board meetings a
half an hour early with some celebrations this school year. Today we had the privilege of opening an art gallery in the board room. You may notice that there are some pieces of art that on the walls, or displayed asome sculptures.
This was part of the Patricia B O'Neill student Art Gallery opening that we had today, where we'll be rotating student art pieces throughout the board room throughout the years to come. We also recognize some folks as part of our ongoing
month long Black History Month celebration, as well as our National School Counselor Week, which we celebrated with a bunch of snow which was the first week of February. We also recognize the very serious and meaningful topic of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month,
and the hard working folks in our county government who are are helping us to support our teens to make some great choices as they go into their personal lives. And we also concluded today's presentation with a celebration of Career and Technical Education Month,
as this continues to be a centerpiece that we're all very proud of in Montgomery County Public Schools. But as part of today's consent agenda, the Board of Education just approved several recognitions of some very important people,
as well as some very important celebrations that will take place next month. First, the board recognized educators who had achieved and maintained national board certification. This not only honors their commitment and their accomplishments in the field of teaching and their professional
excellence, but it is also a centerpiece to the blueprint for Maryland's future. Second, the board recognized March as Women's History Month, affirming the vital contribution of women throughout history and especially locally. I am very
proud to be the superintendent of an all female Board of education. Our female leaders are excellent in Montgomery County and especially on the Board of Education. Third, the board approved Youth Arts Month celebrating the importance of
arts education and acknowledging the importance of creative opportunities. Fourth, the board recognized National School Social Work Week, highlighting the essential role that school social workers play in supporting student well-being. This is a also
highlighted in the work that our school counselors did and recognized this past month. Fifth, the Board of Education also proclaimed April as the month of the Military Child, honoring military connected students and recognizingresiliey
services across the nation. Last year, we recognized our very first Purple Star School. Meeting the criteria of providing additional supports for military families. And so we're very proud to to look at that recognition and hopefully
add to that this upcoming year. And finally, the board recognized National Student Leadership Week, celebrating the contributions of our student leaders who strengthen our schools through advocacy and engagement. These resolutions, approved by the Board of Education, will be
shared in a celebration next month. We hope that you'll join us just a few minutes before our regularly scheduled Board of Education business meeting on March 26th. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you very much, Doctor Taylor. Appreciate it. It is wonderful to celebrate
the wonderful art that we have from our students. We indeed have amazing artists among us. The next item on the agenda will be item 8.1. This is the recommendation to revoke Mecca Business Learning Institute
charter. Doctor Taylor. Thank you, Madam President. I'm not going to give a speech or additional comments other than what the board has already heard and the documents that the board has asked for and reviewed. I do want to offer up
the resolution as a and read the resolved for the board's consideration and see where the board wants to to take this from here. Thank you. Resolved, that the Mecca Business Learning Institute failed to remedy within the allotted time frame the special education
compliance violations identified by the superintendent, which constitutes material violations of I.d.e.a. And there's ae citation of 20 U.S.C. section 1400 and its implementing
regulations of 34 CFR part 300, section 504, and 29 U.S.C. subsection 794 and Comar 13, a 0.05.01.06, and the charter
agreement itself. Specifically article six Special Education and 504 and article seven, excuse me, article eight Student Support Services and article 22 compliance with statute and policy. And may it further be resolved that the
Board of Education finds the Mecca Business Learning Institute's failure to remedy the special education violations in is a failure to provide Mecca Business Learning Institute students access to legally compliant and
adequately supported educational programs. And may it further be resolved that the Board of Education concludes the revocation of Mecca Business Learning Institute's charter is necessary to protect the educational rights and welfare of the Mecca Business
Learning Institute students, and may further be resolved that the Board of Education hereby notifies Mecca Business Learning Institute that, pursuant to Mecca Business Learning Institute's Charter Agreement, article 26, part B, the Board of Education intends
to revoke its charter effective June 30th, 2026, and may it further be resolved that the superintendent shall develop a disillusionment Plan in accordance with article 27 of the Charter Agreement and present it to the Board of Education no later than April
30th, 2026. And may it further be resolved that, in accordance with the Charter Agreement, article 26, part B, Mecca Business Learning Institute may provide a response to this notice and provide a reasonably acceptable alternative no later than March 30th, 2026, for the
Board of Education's consideration, Mecca Business Learning Institute may also present evidence that it has remedied the special education compliance issues, as identified by the superintendent, no later than March 30th, 2026, for the Board of Education's consideration.
Thank you, Doctor Taylor. There is there a motion and a and a and a second. I would move to accept the recommendation of the superintendent to revoke the Mecca Business Learning Institute charter. Second,
there is a motion and a second, is there any discussion? Vice president Wolff. Okay. Under the charter agreement, the superintendents recommendation
would give me until March 30th to cure the special education violations and constitute substantive grounds for his recommendation. I believe that we should take a more holistic approach and look at all of the
standards under the policy, regulation and charter Agreement and use these standards to create a remediation plan. This would require me to meet the standards encompassed in our policy regulations and the charter agreement. We believe
in maintaining an education system designed to provide success for every student, and in delivering services through a variety of innovative programs designed to meet the needs of a diverse student body. Providing me with an additional
semester to demonstrate that they have a sustainable model. Complies with the policy, regulation and the charter agreement seems fair and equitable. Mali has had a troubling start, and there are
serious concerns. However, I believe a year and a half of data would better situate the board to make this serious decision. So based on these reasons, can we can we please let Miss Wolff? Can we please
let miss will finish her? Thank you. Please restrain from from clapping or cheering for now. Thank you. So based on these reasons, I move to amend the superintendent's resolution in the following way. So resolve that emboli failed to remedy
within the allotted time frame the special education compliance violations identified by the superintendent, which constitute material violations of I.d.e.a and its implementing regulations. I'm skipping some of that part because it's
exactly what you already said. Resolved, that the board finds the failure to remedy the special education violations is a failure to provide students access to a legally compliant and adequately supported
educational program. Resolved, that the board concludes that in order to protect the educational rights and welfare of students, a remediation plan is required. Resolved, that the board hereby notifies me that
pursuant to the Charter Agreement, article 26 B, the board intends to revoke its charter effective December 1st, 2026. If EMB fails to meet the standards set forth in the
remediation plan or any of the terms of the charter. Resolved, that the superintendent shall develop a remediation plan in accordance with the Charter Agreement and presented to the board no later than April 30th,
2026. A motion. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I'm so sorry. Thank you, Mr. Vice President Wolff Mr. Wolff has made a motion to amend the resolution. Is there a second? Second? There is a motion and there is
a second. Is there any discussion on Vice President of Wolff motion to amend the resolution, miss Montoya? Yes. Thank you. My concern at all times is the students in our school system, and no offense
to our staff, but it even includes you, right? I'm concerned about you as you relate to our students in the school system. So they know that that is always at the forefront of my mind and my decision making. And my primary concern here today is, yes, of course, the violations, including, quite frankly, the
leak to the Baltimore or the Montgomery County banner of student information to include special education information. And I'm grateful to our partners at the banner for being responsible stewards of that information and not further leaking it. But when I
think about whether or not I feel that these things can be cured, right. We've been dealing with these same issues since at least November, when they were brought to us, and still from November, December, January, February, right. We're in the middle of February, and we still have lingering issues
for what is actually a small subset of students. And so it shouldn't, in my opinion, be that hard to cure these issues over the past three and a half months. And so excuse me. And so when I look at this, as with all of the information, including all of the
information that was presented not only by M.C.P.S. and the superintendent, but also by MLI, including my visit to Embley, speaking to staff, speaking to families, speaking to students. Again, my overarching concern is the way that this impacts
our students. There seems to be a lack of planning and I'm very, very concerned about that lack of planning, whether it was planning before the school opened to now, as the school year has gone on and progressed, looking at the financial planning, the notice to
families, the things promised to families and staff that simply have not been met. And there's I can't tell that there's a plan to have them be met, right? I need to make sure that our students have stable, consistent spaces that they can go to, especially during these really important years. I know as a middle school parent,
right? I'm a sixth grade parent myself, and so I have grave concerns about whether or not we are basically setting our children up to be dragged along further without these issues actually being cured, and with no real indication to me that I
can hope to see them cured in the future. So while I do appreciate all of the work that our founders and staff and parents have put into this space, and I know that the founders have worked really hard for many years on this concept, not just here, but also in D.C. where they sought
a charter and did not receive one, and West Virginia, where they sought to also put this concept up as a charter. And I don't believe that that has worked out either. As a small business person, a nonprofit founder, I know how hard it is to run an entity in an organization. So my hat is off
to you for all the efforts that you've put in, because I know how hard you have worked. But I also know, as someone who has started a business and an organization, that we also have to know when to close, when it's not working out, and when the impact can be negative on the people that we are trying to serve. And so today, I have
to move to support the superintendent's recommendation to ensure that our students have the education that they need and deserve. Thank you, Miss Stewart. I'm so sorry, Miss Stewart. Thank you. I have
a question. The emboli and all of our schools have to put in an enrollment, a number that are enrolled in their school for funding on September 30th.
Correct. And so it seems that there was still significant drop off since then. So I just was wondering, those kids that left to go to other schools, then the money follow them
after September 30th? Or did it stay within emboli even though there's about, you know, 120 less students after that date? So the money did not follow the students at stated emboli.
Thank you. Okay, I have a question as well. I'm sorry, do we have a current like as of today, do we know how many students are currently enrolled? Because I know we got those numbers at the last ones, but. Yes, I believe it's 83 students.
Silvestre yes, I wanted to understand the final result. It says in accordance to the charter agreement article, Mecca Business Learning Institute may provide a response to this notice and
provide a reasonably acceptable alternative no later than March 30th, 2026 for the board's consideration. Mecca Business Learning Institute may also present evidence that it has remedied the special education compliance issues identified by the superintendent no later than March 30th, 2026. That's
that's the original result. But right now we're talking about the motion from itself. So sorry, just a point of order. Yes okay. Thank you. Thank you. So as we are discussing the motion for Miss Wolff, I'd like to also make a few comments. Not to drag too much, but I. I
have also visited your school. First, let me say thank you for for the wonderful welcome. The community that you have. And I know that you're also in in the plans of building together a
PTA. So I was very happy to hear that. I can see the the love that the kids have for the school and for each other and the staff and and that it is a community. So I'm just going to tell you where I stand. I, I do
support Mrs. Wolf's motion. I do believe that we should give us the school a chance to prove themselves. I also, as somebody who, you know, who's an ML
learner, who is an immigrant, and so on, I was given many chances to be who I today. I believe in opportunity and I believe in equity. And I think that is the way, you know, the
way we are in this wonderful country of ours, right, to, to to do that. There are some concerns and there are some legitimate concerns. And we have heard from from the staff and so on. And then the folks
in the school that, you know, that they are, that they want, they're working to remediate those concerns. So with that, I just want to say that we all believe and the student success for every student. But I personally believe also in
giving, giving this charter a fair and square chance to be able to do and prove themselves. So with that, if we don't have any further comments, we are going to be, to clarify, be
voting on the amendment that Miss Wolf made first. So all those in favor in supporting the amendment, Miss Wolf, which is really to give an extension to December of this year,
please raise your hand. That would be Miss Maloof, Miss Wolf and myself. Rivera-Oven. Thank you. That is not enough. Right. We need a vote for we need the opposed. Okay. Well, that was
very evident. Those who oppose Mrs. Wolf's motion, please raise your hand. That will be Miss Montoya. Miss Yang, Miss Silvestre and Miss Stewart. The motion fails. Correct. Okay, so
now we're going to go back to the original motion of Doctor Taylor. And we're going to vote on that motion. We would like to have some discussion. Okay,
miss Yang, yes I have the same question like Miss Silvestre for the last resolve that it says that to provide a reasonable, acceptable alternative, no later assembly
to provide may provide a response and a reasonable alternative no later than March 30th, 2026. Can you elaborate on that? Sure. So even with the board's action today. So hypothetically, if the board
were to approve the resolution, it's not final. There's still a lot of process that that that is still to come. One of the pieces of that process, as outlined in the charter and in law, is that that the charter
does have an opportunity to respond in writing. They have to provide this. Now it is up to the board to determine what is reasonable, acceptable, as the language implies, and that you need to be in receipt of
that by March 30th, and that I am owing you a disillusionment plan by April 30th, both of which you would have to rule on and approve to decide whether or not that was satisfactory. So you would have to decide.
And this is an if if the board were to approve the resolution, that Embly could respond and they would have to respond in writing, you would have to decide whether or not that response was satisfactory or not. And then I would come back
to you again and before April 30th, and have to give you a disillusionment plan. And you'd have to say either that is or isn't acceptable. And so you'd have to rule on that. So you have two more rulings that are tied to this. And, and then your your decision would be final as the condition to the,
the third to last resolved, which your third to last resolve is that it would be effective June 30th. So if those last two criteria had been met, your your your action today would take effect. So what you're saying is that
there's a chance for them to show their improvement or justification before our next board meeting or the March 30th deadline. There is yet one more additional opportunity for them to demonstrate that they've met
the criteria, and this is also following the process that's outlined in our charter agreement and our contract. So this is following the rules that are outlined. Silvestre miss Silvestre. No, that that
answered my question. I just was reading the the resolution on, on our website. And so it's clearly stated there the issues that the superintendent has brought forth that would have
to be remedied and addressed by the school. So that is available for everyone to see and understand. Thank you, Miss Stewart. Because of the last resolve that they have until
March 30th, I actually think that's very important because we don't want to go into a next school year without these resolved and without having to show that to the board.
Therefore, rolling into another year with maybe some of the same issues. So I think that I know the school has been working on to resolve these issues. And so I would actually
be very happy to see that they were resolved by that date among some of these other issues, because what we don't want to do is having kids, starting a school and leaving a school midway. It's just causes
a lot of disruption. So I think this still gives the school a chance. And also we're doing our fiduciary duty as well. Thank you. Miss Wolff. I got to
say, I'm I'm very disappointed in some of this discussion because we don't have all of our schools that are successful in our own system, and we don't give them three months to improve. Most of them have a
remediation plan, and that plan may be more than one year. I've been on this board several seven years, and some of these schools are still at the same point. So to me, this is a bigger issue. And I don't think March or whatever the date was
that's coming up is reasonable. I did think giving them to December would not result in the school being closed in the middle of the year, any more than this date does, because in December they would have to start a closed, a closed out
plan, just like you would in March, which would probably take you to June of 2027. I think this is just a bunch of bull. I am. So we're going to
take on Miss Montoya. Do you have one more addition? I do, I do. I really appreciate everyone's comments. All of my colleagues, however exasperated some might be at me personally.
Even if we follow that where there's a whole extra year and it's winding down at the second year. Now we have these students who started this space for part of their middle school career, and then they're going to be transitioning somewhere else. And quite frankly, I don't feel confident based on everything that I've seen,
everything that I've looked at, your prior proposals, I'm not looking at just this last school year, everything that came before it as well. Right. The whole context so that I could fully understand whether or not I believe that there is a that you'll be able to cure
these issues in such a way to include the financial issues, because those are very much underlying the ability to operate and function in this school. And I can appreciate that. But sometimes there's other things operating that are not quite apparent to everyone.
And so you might not quite understand everything that's going on in terms of the operations of your school. Right. If we have staffing issues because they can't be hired because of funding or because people are concerned that the school is going to close down. Right. If we have no books in the media center, which is what happened when I
went to visit, because there's no funding, right? We can't provide kids with the education that they deserve. And so my primary concern is to try to make this as least disruptive as possible so that the kids can get an education. And I can appreciate that. That might seem like, well, we can do that
by giving them a second year, but I'm not confident there's even going to be enough applicants for that to happen, right, based on what I'm seeing here. So I do like Miss Stewart said, excuse me, we don't take comments from the general public in that space like that.
Okay, Miss Kelly, thank you. So like miss, like Miss Stewart said, we have a we have an obligation to do good fiscal stewardship. That's one of the primary parts of our job. And it's something that we actually get yelled at a lot for not
doing. So that is really at the root of what I'm looking at here and making sure that our students can, in fact, get the education that they are legally entitled to. Thank you. I'm going to call for the vote. I, I know this is I know this is
this is very emotional. I understand that I do want to though, acknowledge the young people from from MLB that are here. And I want you to take
this as a teaching moment that you have whatever you end up going, you are learning about advocacy at its core, and I hope that you take that into your adulthood and you advocate
for what is right and your communities. At least that's what I want to take from this. I again, I would like to say I'm also disappointed and but it is what it is at this point. So we're going to call for the
vote. And this is on the superintendent's. Motion. So recommendation. So all those in favor please raise your hand.
Okay. That would be Miss Maloof, Miss Montoya, Miss Yang, Miss Silvestre and Miss Stewart, all those against Wolff and myself. Okay. The motion. The motion
carries. Do we. Discussion. Next. We will be going now into. Thank you, Miss Silvestre. We will be going now to item 8.3. This will be the technical
amendments to the adopted 2025 2026 school year calendars. I think we missed 8.2. Did we miss 8.20? I sure did miss 8.2. Okay, I'd like to apologize to
item 8.2 as nothing personal. So item 8.2 tentative adoption of the fiscal year 2027. Oh yeah. Maybe this is why. Maybe it was a little 2027 operating budget. I would like administration to please. Yeah.
Thank you, Madam President. We do have a few changes that we want to introduce today. But before we have our CFO and budget director walk you through those, this is normal as part of the budget process,
that there is a revenue change that is usually tied to the governor's budget. And the activities that are happening in Annapolis do have an influence on what happens locally. And so we make some adjustments. As you may recall, the budget was proposed
initially in the middle of December. That is now two whole months from today. And so even some other information has changed and we've been able to adjust and take into consideration the board's feedback and direction. And so
we've made some tweaks and adjustments to a couple of staffing standards, added some things back in, streamlined in a couple other areas, and we're happy to review those adjustments for the public and for you and offer our amended
proposed FY 27 operating budget. And so with that, I'll introduce Shannon, who's our Director of Budget and our Chief Financial officer, Yvonne Alfonso Windsor, to take it from here. Good afternoon. Members of the Board of
Education. So like Doctor Thomas said, this is the amended budget, you know, proposed for the board to vote on tentatively adopt it. So first we want to talk about some of those revenue assumptions that we're making as a result of the governor's
proposed budget. So this amended budget assumes that the governor's budget is going to pass, you know, as he proposed, additional part of that revenue assumptions is additional funding for community schools, increase in state aid based on
formulas. We got a little bit more than we were expecting this year due to increases in special education and and compensatory services, and we are also reducing as a result of that. We are reducing a little bit the request from our
local government for the final budget. So if we look at this table, it's going to break down for you the different revenue sources. So back in December, the recommended budget was
$2.518 billion that we were requesting from the county. And now it's about $2.518 million billion dollars. But the changes is a reduction of $331,161. So we're requesting a little bit over 300,000 from
less from the local government. The state increased by $10.4 million. The federal, the other sources and enterprise and special funds remain the same. There's no change there. So really our revenue increased by
10.10 million $65,724. So now we're going to look at the other side of the coin, which is our expenditures. And those were we're making some of the changes. So again we're looking at the governor's budget which includes funding state funding for three additional community
schools for FY 27 and required increases for our current schools. So when you become a community school, you get the funding and then you get also the per pupil grant. So that comes in in your second year. So that's why their increases on both the state side and the
local side, we made some adjustments based on feedback from board members. And then we also make some tweaks to the staffing standards at Doctor Taylor mentioned. And that was based on a lot of stakeholder feedback that we received as well. We continue through that process in January. So the
additional funding for community schools adds up to about $8.8 million, and that is $3.3 million from the state and then five point or 4.9, sorry, 3.2 million from the state and $5.1 million from the local
government. The adjustment to proposed staffing standards is a reduction of $863,000. And we'll go into those changes in the next few slides. We're also requesting 2 million, $2 million for professional development, for tier one instruction, for safety and
cultural proficiency across the district, and additional extracurricular activity stipends to expand minority scholars programs across our elementary schools. So all of that totals 10,065,724, which,
you know, it's equal to the amount additional revenue that we are receiving. So the adjustment to our proposed staffing standards, pupil personnel, workers, there's a reinstatement of nine of the ten positions that were originally submitted as a reduction in the superintendent's budget. And
that is we looked at the staffing standards and that is based on two pupil personnel, workers per cluster, one assigned to elementary schools, one assigned to secondary schools. Additionally, it's already in the budget, but our alternative programs also have
a peep that is assigned specifically to them. Then that leads us to our family engagement specialist. So we are reinstating two of the positions, one assigned to alternative programs to support their family engagement and work closely with their pupil, and one for the new Woodward's
cluster. The staffing standard is based on one position per cluster, and the positions are based at our high schools, and seven positions are already assigned to to for this year, three additional for next year to support central services and provide support to our schools
with the top language skills, two of them for Spanish. Two of them will be Spanish speakers because they already have one that's already. Additionally, there are changes to our special education education resource teachers staffing standards for next year. We redefined the staffing
standards to be more aligned with our blueprint and the minimum school funding. The schools with enrollment of 21 to 60 special education students and students with IEP will receive a 0.5 allocation. A schools with an enrollment of 61 or more special education
students will receive a 1.0 position. Additionally, all learning centers and all special schools will have a resource teacher, and this adjustment is really a reduction of 34.5 positions, or
$4.3 million. We also had to make a tweak to the middle school administrators. We received a lot of feedback when we introduced the staffing standards. So we are reinstating 11 administrative positions for FY 27 that we are going to delay the staffing
standards for the middle school administrators until FY 28, to coincide with staffing standards for testing coordinators. Because currently the assistant principals have a lot of those responsibilities. So we want to make sure that the schools have the supports they need to continue with their work. We really don't
want to impede that in any way. So those are the adjustments to the proposed staffing standards. And this is just a reminder, you know, where we are going to be reducing the county's request by $331,161. Our state funding increased by a little
bit over 10 million. So then our revenue change aligns with our expenditure change. And that's all I have for now. If you have any questions. So, Madam President, before you get to questions, I want to hover on this slide for a minute because this is a change. It is
actually less than what I had originally proposed for the board's consideration for local expenditure, even though the the bottom line figure is more because there's more state revenue. We're actually asking just a little bit less from our county partners as a part of
this. Okay. Thank you, Doctor Taylor. Miss Yang, yes, I want to clarify one slide. If you can go back and talk about the family engagement specialist. Okay. Let's let's stay here for
a moment. Seven positions assigned to Central Services with the top language skills. M.c.p.s have seven top languages. Can you say it out loud what they are and why is it seven position if there are
two for Spanish? So I'm going to need a little bit of help with that. I know Spanish is one of them. Somebody help! Can anyone in the back can help with this? Amharic. We have Mandarin French. So my concern
is here. Listen to me. You can go back and figure out what that seven languages is. Are. However, I want to preserve them. We need to have the language ability on our staff to serve the whole county.
Right. Number one. Number two, I also want to make it clear sometimes some language might tie. Okay. They both ran seven. Their cases might be 20 cases apart. So please use your
professional judgment. In that case they deliver a critical service for our students. I would like to see them remain okay. Thank you. Okay. So I'll go next. Keeping on that slide.
Trying to understand on the family engagement, the staffing standard based on one position per cluster. So tell me this is one human per cluster. Can you tell the public what a cluster
is? Sure. In M.C.P.S. we currently have 25 clusters and they're identified by the high school. Right. And so that's what we have. We have 25 clusters. Each cluster has one high school, 1 or 2 middle schools and then several elementary schools. Okay. So
could we agree that some clusters have more students than others? Sure. Okay. More needs. So I'll take a cluster in my in my district cases were high school. I should ask my alma mater. So I'll take my alma mater. There you go. So
okay, I'm a little biased towards Gaithersburg grew up in the city. I'm a city girl, so Gaithersburg high School could we agree? Gaithersburg High School has every program known to men in m.c.p.s pretty close. Okay. And how many? How many
schools with that cluster confirm of how many? How many? So you have cases or middle you have. I'm sorry. How many? How many in that cluster. In which cluster cases per high school I believe Gaithersburg has two middle schools. Yeah. Okay. So
we Gaithersburg middle and it's usually four. So no. Yeah. You're okay okay. You're usually right around ten schools per cluster ballpark depending on the cluster okay.
So we have 155,000 students right. So I'm trying to understand. The correlation of one family engagement specialist to serve a whole
cluster. And if if that is a feasible thing, if it's like a realistic thing for us to do under conditions where we have more issues with mental health,
with our young people, we have a very negative environment, environment or certain communities, and we want to ensure that we have family engaged. I mean, they're called family engagement specialists
for a reason, and that is so they can engage with parents. So I'm just trying to put myself in the shoes of a family engagement specialist that I'm assigned, either to Gaithersburg or the cluster or the Kennedy cluster, or the paint branch cluster, where I
will be able to do a decent job. If I'm running from school to school to school to school, because I'm also trying to understand the kind of situations they encounter and
what situation can take you all day at one school to be able to help a child? I can give you many, many, many, many examples because of the kind of work that I do with my nonprofit. We deal a lot with family engagement specialists, and even in the Damascus cluster, I
can tell you that it takes, you know, it takes one child who accidentally was taken off the medical, you know, blah, blah, blah, and doesn't have their asthma, you know, can I get their asthma medication? And now this family engagement specialist trying to to solve
that while there is another child who lost their mom, you know, waiting for help, you know, to be able. So there's all these different. So I'm trying to understand the cuts in these in these positions. But also I'm trying to
understand the impact that it's going to have on these workers and that emotional impact, but also the professional impact. Like, you know, as a school board member, this is supposed to be a part time job, but it's not okay. That's letting you
know. So that has an impact on on my life and my personal life and my professional life and so on. Right. But I do it because I care. And these are individuals who do their job because they care. So I just want us to be very mindful of
where we're asking these individuals to do. We're asking them to do a whole cluster. And the expectations that we have of them. I don't think they are realistic. And I'm very, very, very, very emphasis on very
concerned about this. So if anybody can speak to that, that'd be great. Sure. Similarly, our principal supervisor directors have two clusters a piece that they are also managing and shared workload is any better. No
doubt, no doubt. And there's there's certainly a lot of work that goes on the road. I think that that with all of our budget requests that there's aspirations to grow and that there's aspirations to to start somewhere where we can
establish a system and grow that system in a meaningful way that better aligns with what the board's goals are. This is by no means an ending point. I think this is a starting point, and I think that there's a lot that the board wants to get
accomplished in your strategic plan. I do think you have to start somewhere and it has to make sense. One of the things that I really respect, out of the the comments that the board received and that that you've echoed is, you know, tell us why, you know, we're reducing
by X number or tell us why we're we're rightsizing to this number and that number. Well, we need a system right now. We have no system. And so going from no system to a system, it you know, we have to start somewhere. And so I, I'm hearing you loud and clear that
in future budget priorities, grace Rivera-Oven is all about considering the workload of family engagement specialists and principal supervisor directors. I'm picking that up too, so I think that that needs to be a part of the conversation. How we manage
that. Thank you doctor, I appreciate it. I just cannot lose sight of our people who are wonderful. With the same token that we cannot stretch stretch them too thin to the point where they are. They cannot do you know, justice to
the work that they do. It is the most frustrating thing that when you want to help but you don't have enough hours to do it, but you're expected to do it. It's a hard place to be, Miss Stewart. Before we move on,
I wanted to there's I noted that the. The ISI is not. Being proposed to be changed in any way from your original proposal,
and I do worry a bit about transitioning to Esy for that school, that there will be some other entity to cover the hours that would have been covered that parents were counting on.
And I know we have a wonderful rec department. Are you working with them directly, working with them right now, or will be working with them to make sure that we have some kind of program there? Yeah, I think it's all dependent on what action the board takes. I mean,
this is your budget. You can certainly amend it however you want to amend it. You know, I think that that it is really pending what action the board wants to go. And us making plans based on the board's action. So what I'm hearing, if
the board action is to not amend your budget, that you would actively be working on getting. Working with partners to get someone, we would have
to. Yes. Thank you. So sorry. Is there, Madam President? I'll read the resolve for the board's consideration. No. They're finished. Yeah. They're finished. Yeah. Resolved that the board of Montgomery County
Board of Education approved the fiscal year 2027 special education staffing plan as outlined in fiscal year 2027 operating budget, and may further be resolved that upon the final approval of the fiscal year 2027 operating
budget in June of 2026, the Special Education Staffing Plan will be submitted to the Maryland Department of Education, and may it further be resolved that the Montgomery County Board of Education tentatively adopt the Superintendent of Schools
recommended, it should actually say amended recommended Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget, as amended. There you go. Totaling
$3,785,335,259 as follows. Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion? And second, there is a motion a second. Is there any discussion? I just want to give a comment. This has been Ms.
Yang. Oh go ahead. So I know you're very excited. Go ahead. Sorry. Okay, so it has been a couple of months and I really want to thank everyone that came to the hearing or role as
an email. A lot of things reflected in this budget, like the class size adjustments, has not been an advocacy of one year. It has been the advocacy of many years. And also there
are items in here like the robotics. There are items like here that address school cultures, like the Minority Scholars program. All these I think are really is it's
communities wish and that that I'm happy to see reflected in here. And I also I'm very grateful for the staff and for the board to be working together that our final ask,
even with the increase of community school, while we are strengthening community schools that our local asks is less and and that reflects our our responsible fiscal stewardship.
So I really appreciate the work everyone has put in. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Yeah, just just want to thank all the staff for the great work. Thank you for my colleagues, for great questions throughout the
process. I think this is probably one of the most transparent budgets that we've had in my tenure here at the school board. And also to remind everyone that this is the board's now the board's approved budget. If it gets approved with the final vote
and it still has to get funded. So we've had a lot of discussions about putting this in, taking this out, save this, save that. Remember, we still have to advocate strongly for our for our budget so that we get what we need for our
schools. And inevitably, we revisit these conversations again once we get our full appropriation. And so this is not the end, it's only the beginning. So thank you, everyone, for being here today, Miss Stewart. So this budget
for me was more difficult than last year's. I wish we didn't have to cut down on resources, for instance, but at least we do have a way to determine how.
The staff, based on some level of need. And I appreciate that way of looking at the budget, because it's less throwing spaghetti at the wall and actually having those staffing
standards make a difference, and then we can build on them in the future and also see if we need to make different choices. I, I really feel for the Arcola community, and I
will also be advocating to work with the staff and get them more summer hours, because they were counting on some of that. So whatever we can do to make this transition less painful, I
think we should go that extra mile. I appreciate Doctor Taylor's willingness to listen to all of us and come up with a plan that had the different concerns we had and put them
actually in this recommended budget, and I appreciate all the work staff also has put into this. And, you know, this job is not easy, but we signed up for it and we're here for it. So thank you, Miss Montoya. Thank you very briefly. Just
thank you, everyone for all of your work, including all of the families, students, staff and community members who came in to advocate for various aspects of the budget. I just want to also, I know that there was a lot of questions and concerns about the special education budget. As the chair of the Special Populations Committee, I spent a lot of time going
terally line by line, making sure that I could fully understand talking to many, many staff members, including miss Patty and Miss Alfonso Windsor. And so I am going to be working with Doctor Cage to help provide some greater clarity to the community so that you can understand. But I
feel very confident in the special education budget and the direction it's going in the reorganization and in Doctor Cage's vision. So thank you. Thank you very much. If there is no further discussion, all those in favor, please raise your hand. And that is
unanimous with all those present. Thank you very much. Okay. We're going to move now to item 8.3. Technical amendments to the adopted 2025 2026 school year calendars. Thank you, Madam President.
Just just just very briefly, this is the second technical amendment to a calendar that we've brought forward in 2026. Last month, we brought a technical amendment to next year's calendar to address an issue that we missed in the
calendar adoption process. And today, we're bringing a different technical amendment for our current calendar. And I got to tell you, this is definitely well reflected in the public comment earlier today about gambling with the weather. Snow days are fun for
exactly 24 hours, and then they stop being fun. And the the pain part of how we make up the lost. Learning how we address some of the challenges associated with an extended break, how we address the operational challenges and how
we also address the costs of repairing our calendar are a really significant challenge, and so much so that we've had to involve partners outside of Montgomery County in our state legislature to help us to
resolve this. And so I want to give a lot of credit to our state legislators as well, who are representatives of Montgomery County, because they really are carrying some water with us in the state House to address a bigger issue tied to our calendar. As you all know,
we experienced a severe snow and ice storm at the end of January that required us to close for multiple days. MC we got lucky with one of those days because one of them was already a non instructional day. Had had that not been a non instructional day, we would have been looking at six days
of closure. Really significant gap in learning. M.C.P.S. is a very large school system. As everyone knows, operating 211 active campuses, but over 230 total campuses of buildings that we supervise. The county
itself is very large, with over 5000 miles of roads and streets that must be cleared and treated in order for our staff, our students and our families to travel safely to and from school. We also have an extensive network of sidewalks
that nearly 20% of our students have to traverse to access school, because they are walkers. This is a really challenging landscape for us. We know that the decisions to close schools and offices have real impact on families that they have to manage child care,
supports, work and other outside responsibilities. And that's not easy when the school system has to close. But making these decisions, although difficult in nature and tied to weather forecast and there's never really a guarantee, is
actually pretty cut and dry for us because it all boils down to one issue safety. And whether or not we can get our children to school safely, whether or not we can get our staff to school safely, and whether or not we can actually open our buildings because the facilities are clear enough to
do so. To couple all of that, Maryland law requires us to meet two stringent instructional time requirements. One is for a minimum of 180 days, and the second one is a minimum number of hours, 1080
hours for elementary and middle school instruction, and 1170 hours for high school instruction. This is different than a lot of states, which have the requirement of either
180 days or ten 80 hours, or it's a pretty powerful word. It's either and or, or Maryland is an and state, not an or state. And so we've got a little bit of a challenge here. We far exceed the number of
instructional hours as required by Maryland, but fall short routinely on the number of days. We have one additional day built into our calendar, which brings our existing calendar as scheduled to 181 instructional days for the 2025 2026 school
year. This means that we have identified have to identify four makeup days in the remaining school year to meet the 180 day requirement. So here's the quick math for you. We missed five days of instruction due to snow. We had
one day that was actually built in. So now we have to make up for we currently have the instructional hours. As I mentioned, on February 9th, 2026, we applied for a waiver of the 180 day requirement from
Msde. Since this was a catastrophic weather event that affected every district, all 24 local education agencies in Maryland, and we requested up to four days of relief of that requirement because this was something that impacted the entire state, we felt justified
in doing so. We did receive a request the next day, on February 10th, that our request was denied. Our interest and intent is to celebrate and reflect the diversity of our community and the requirement of the minimum 180 days becomes
a real challenge when the majority of our non-instructional days are either required contractually, or our state or federal holidays, or are aligned to religious observances. It's not an accident. The days that we take off, and candidly, it's a
real challenge for us when the state does not move its end, of course assessments, but then also isn't willing to give a little on leeway for some of its requirements, which doesn't leave us a lot of room to wiggle. And candidly, we could
really benefit from the professional learning day that was scheduled for March 20th. And having that taken away from us is a real challenge. But given the limited options and that this was an identified snow makeup day, that's kind of
where we are scheduling these days as makeup days and instructional days make up instructional days not only causes operational and instructional challenges in terms of students and staff attendance, but they also create a direct conflict with our shared community interest
and values. And March 20th is a perfect example of that. The Code of Maryland Annotated Regulations, also commonly referred to as Comar, requires us to extend the school year by three additional days and modify the calendar within the school year. Within the school
year. This is an important provision requires us to modify the calendar within the school year in order to be eligible for a waiver. So for us to even consider issuing a waiver to the state, we had to use March
20th as an instructional makeup day. Extending the school year into the summer creates a new set of challenges with higher chronic absenteeism rates, limiting the time and resources to prepare for summer school, possible interruptions for
camps and recreational programs, delays to the summer facility improvement projects. So all of the backup of improvement projects that we need to make to HVAC, roofs and interiors of buildings. All of that gets delayed when we creep into summer time, and the costs
associated with operating schools is approximately $2.1 million per day every day that we have to make up a day. So it has real cost to the taxpayers, too. Given that all of those challenges are are really what we're contending with, we're
bringing a proposal for some technical amendments to the adopted 2025 2006 calendar by extending the school year by four days and removing March 20th as a makeup day. Since we were denied our waiver, and it
is aligned with our religious observance of Eid. Additionally, this provides a much needed professional learning day for our staff, and I want to introduce one more thing that is critically important. Right now. The state legislature is
contemplating an amendment to the law requiring Montgomery County to have 180 school days. I want to give a lot of praise to our state legislators who represent Montgomery County, because they recognize the burden that this has caused to
the taxpayers and to the system, and the hurt that this has caused to our Muslim students, staff members and families that we have really been put in a position to have to leverage something that is is not in our community's best interest in
order to meet an arbitrary and capricious requirement and all of that, without the movement of any state expected assessments and without the movement of any relief whatsoever. Real pain point for
us. So with that, Madam President, members of the board, since we have been denied our waiver and we are no longer bound to have the day reinstituted within the calendar year, we are recommending a modification, a technical adjustment to our
calendar, to extend the school year to something a little bit more meaningful, and to do our very best with this amended calendar. Due to our inclement weather. And I have miss McGuire here. If you want to read the resolved or if you
want to take questions, it's really up to the board. Any of my colleagues. I. Sorry. Correct. I think that's the best way. So thank you. And I
believe I've had a request to read some of the whereas that include the details. So bear with me. Thank you. Whereas the Montgomery County Public Schools 2025 2026 school year calendars have 181 instructional days, which exceed the Maryland State
Department of Education requirement for all Maryland local education agencies of 180 days of instruction, allowing the district to close for weather or other emergency conditions once while still meeting the minimum number of required instructional days.
And Whereas, due to inclement weather, Montgomery County Public Schools closed offices on Monday, January 26th, 2026, and schools and offices on Tuesday, January 27th. Wednesday, January 28th Thursday, January 29th, Friday,
January 30th and closed schools on Monday, February 1st, 2026. And whereas the closure on Monday, January 26th did not affect the calendar. However, the closures Wednesday, January 28th through Monday, February 2nd require Montgomery County
Public Schools to identify four designated makeup days. And Whereas on February 9th, 2026, Montgomery County Public Schools requested a waiver of the 180 instructional days requirement in accordance with Comar length of school for up
to four days of relief of this requirement. And Whereas, on February 10th, 2026, the Maryland State Department of Education denied the request for this waiver, and Whereas March 20th, 2026 was designated as a possible makeup date on the adopted Montgomery County
Public Schools, 2025 2026 school year calendars and a system wide professional development day for staff. And Whereas, March 20th, 2026 also falls on a day for religious observance, Eid al-Fitr and the Montgomery County community strongly opposes using this day
for a makeup day, and Montgomery County Public Schools anticipates operational and instructional impacts of opening schools on that day. And Whereas the Professional Development Day scheduled for March 20th, 2026 no longer will be designated as a makeup day
and will remain a non instructional day for professional development. And Whereas, the last day of school for students scheduled for June 17th, 2026, now will be June 25th, 2026, which uses June
18th, June 22nd, June 24th and June 25th, 2026 as the designated makeup days. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the adopted 2025 2026 school year calendars be amended based on these technical adjustments, and be it further resolved that
the Board of Education adopt the proposed technical amendments to the Montgomery County Public Schools, adopted 2025 2026 school year calendars. Madam president, I have one more comment to add. This does extend the school year almost
an entire week, and currently the legislature is contemplating a bill that as emergency legislation that, if passed during this session as emergency legislation, would provide enough relief for us to
end in the same week as originally scheduled. So we may even come back to you for yet one more technical adjustment, pending the outcome of the legislation and its process. So I just wanted to flag that for everybody. This will be a
challenge for our families to understand the yo yoing back and forth. It's a real pain point for us as well. We wish that it was a little bit more cut and dry. We'll do our very best in terms of communication, but as it stands right now, we cannot have a calendar that is
out of compliance. And so we bring forward this calendar that is in full compliance. Thank you, Doctor Taylor. There is is there a motion. Yeah. No but we still we have still have to move it. So is there a
motion. Car motion. Is there a second second. There is a motion and a second. Is there any discussion, Miss Stewart? Yes. First of all, I want to
thank you for bringing this to us. We really need to get that March 20th date back. And I know it was mentioned in testimony that the calendar we already passed for next year
also has a day designated as a makeup day that also coincides with Eid. And therefore I would like to revisit that as well in the future. And I want to thank
the advocacy. I heard it loud and clear, and I immediately went to look back at what we passed, and I realized that we don't want to be in that same situation. And our county is more diverse than ever. The Muslim population has grown by
leaps and bounds, I think tripled since the year 2000. So we really want to honor the our student body and also our staff so that everyone can
participate in their family rituals. So thank you. Silvestre. Yeah, just just so that we're all clear. So we're going to extend the school year
into mid June, June 25th. No, no, last late June, late June, June 25th. And that's because there's a couple holidays in there where we can't be in session because of voting, Election Day and primary day
and correct to run you through the the the changes and what our calendar looks like on June 17th, which is a Wednesday that was originally scheduled to be our last day, we would be extending one more day to June 18th. June 19th is a holiday,
Juneteenth. And so there's two days right there. Then we excuse me, there's one day. June 18th is the first day that we would be restoring. Then June 22nd, which is a Monday, June 23rd is election day. There is a primary. Election
day in our schools are used for polling locations, so we are not able to use June 23rd. Then we would use June 24th. That is the third day in June 25th, which is the fourth day. And those are our four makeup days. And then as you stated, there
is a bill that will give us flexibility in terms of number of hours of instruction versus days. Right now it's days. So currently we have to meet both an hours requirement and a days requirement. We currently far exceed the hours requirement,
and we would be able to remove two of actually three of three of the four days that we would be adding we could remove because we would have exceeded the hours requirement, and we could have our calendar conclude on June 18th, as that
week versus adding into the following third week of June or fourth week of June. Excuse me. So for families out there and staff, stay tuned because this may change and go back to the earlier week in June, which is my hope and desire is Yang. Yes.
So I'm glad to see that we can reinstate March 20th as a non-instructional day, and I very much associate myself with Miss Stewart's comment to avoid future. Designation that day as
an instructional day. How holidays. Now you just share with us the days for students. I would like to know what is the last day for staff? We would likely do early releases
on the last two instructional days to provide staff and ample opportunity to complete grades, assignments, and pack up for the end of the year. We did something similar this past year. It's suboptimal. It's not what our staff want or need, but under the circumstances,
this this does have financial implications as well. This does have logistical challenges as well. We do need to clear the buildings as soon as humanly possible to start the summer renovation work that needs to take place. This is kind of
where seconds count. So for us operationally, we we do have some limitations and need to move very quickly. We also need to not have any future inclement weather days. So does that mean the 25th is also the last day for staff? Correct.
Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And just to be clear that it did get through committee that emergency bill and now is headed to to the floor. Correct. Okay. So we're going to keep our fingers crossed okay. There
is a motion. And a second. All those in favor please raise your hand. And that is unanimous. With those present the motion carries. Thank you, Doctor Taylor. And thank you to the staff. And we're glad that we're able to restore this very
important holiday. We're moving on to a point for legislative positions. I will turn it over now to our our wonderful staff member, coordinator of legislative Affairs Party
spring to bring us. The recommendations for our positions. Thank you. Good evening. President Rivera-Oven.
Members of the board. It is evening. You kind of get lost in this windowless dinner time crevice. But yes, it is. I am Patti Ursprung. I'm the coordinator of legislative affairs for the Board of Education, and I am here to ask for your positions on a couple
of bills that are working their way through the General Assembly. Like previous reports, this one has a few bills that I'm asking you to take positions on, as well as a section that shows the bills that fall under our platform and the position that the
platform dictates. Just kind of as an update, we are a little more than a third of the way through the session. At present, there have been 2581 bills filed. We are past both filing deadlines, so hopefully we will
not see many, many more. But some more are going to come March 23rd. A little more than a month away is crossover day, so that's when we really know what's kind of moving and what what probably is going to be kind of stagnant. So there are four bills I'm going to ask you
to take positions on today. The first one we're looking at is House Bill 494 and Senate Bill 311. This is a bill that has some revisions to the blueprint for Maryland's future. In short,
this bill make changes to a few areas of the blueprint for future. The few that I will highlight are the removal of an annual report on technology expenditures, an extension of the current formula used to calculate compensatory education funding, permission to use, concentration of
poverty, grant funds for fine arts programing indefinitely, the expansion of the definition of wraparound services. The extension of the current limit on the number of dual enrollment courses a student can take, the expansion of teacher licensing options, and
a delay and a delay to the requirement that principals be national board certified, and that delay would be for a period of five years. So just going through all of those with a little more detail as it concerns the reporting requirement. Right now, there is a technology report that is sent annually that details how
monies are spent. This bill removes that requirement, so it saves some administrative burden. The blueprint has a lot of reporting requirements. So any relief we can get there is a good thing in terms of funding. As I said, the current
method for calculating the compensatory education enrollment is being held is staying in place through 2028. There's an error in the bill that says 27, but it will be 28. This would extend the current formula we use, which would
prevent the potential for a drop in funding. The new formula is not as complete and thorough. So extending this until 20 FY 28 allows us to maintain funding at a higher level, which would be good. The
concentration of poverty grant currently can be used to fund fine arts education. There is a sunset on that. And this would repeal that sunset so that that permission would be indefinite. Also for the concentration of poverty grant, it broadens the
definition of wraparound services. And it would now include other evidence based academic interventions. This is not exactly what we asked for, but it's very close to one of the priorities this board had,
which was to provide more flexibility with the wraparound services, specifically as it concerns academic interventions. The next one is the teacher certification. This is going to expand some of the pathways. So hopefully it will mean that we
will have an increase in supply of licensed teachers, which is a good thing because we are currently forever trying to combat a shortage in that area. Where am I going next? It would extend the deadline by which a
principal has to have national board certification. It would extend it five years. This is actually a priority that Sam has had for the last couple years. The Superintendents Association National Board certification. Certification is an expense for districts, and it doesn't necessarily predict
effectiveness as a school leader. So this delay will allow additional time to explore what professional certification, if any, is most appropriate for school leaders. And if this requirement does remain, there is a cost associated with it. So it gives school boards a little bit more
time to figure out how to fund this requirement, kicking it back until 2034. And then finally it would extend. There's currently a limit on the number of dual enrollment courses that a student can take at the school system's expense.
That was set to end at the end of FY 27. So this would extend that limitation. So again, that helps curtail the costs associated with dual enrollment for the school system. So those
are the main main parts. It also deals with some CTE committee adjustments. But these were the ones that really impact the school system. And the other ones are not anything that we would be unhappy with. So the recommended position for the board on this piece of legislation is to support it in
its current form. Okay. Is there a motion? Motion. Second, there is a motion and a second, is there any discussion? Mike, I'm so sorry. No my my is on.
Oh they turned it on. Oh, you guys playing games with me? Is there any discussion on this bill? Nope. Okay. There is a motion and a second. All those in favor, please raise your hand. And that is unanimous
with those present. Thank you, thank you. The next bill is Senate Bill 646. And this is a. Bill that would have prohibited contract provisions as it
applies to public schools. So basically this is an extension of a bill that passed last year that explicitly prohibited contract provisions for some entities of the state, and one of them was the University System of Maryland. So contract terms that are prohibited under this bill would include things
like indemnification, language designation of a venue for disputes outside of the state of Maryland. It would prohibit automatic renewals, and it would prohibit including kind of click through agreements. You know, the technology, things that you have to say, I
accept and then click through before you can use the the service. So the hope is this bill will streamline contract negotiations with vendors by providing a legal citation for these prohibitions of these specific contract terms. It is
a Mab initiated bill. In researching the issue, they spoke with the Deputy General Counsel at the University of Maryland, who has had this provision in effect for approximately a year, and she has reported that the law has greatly streamlined the negotiation process and has resulted in significantly fewer
issues getting escalated to the general counsel's office. So the the department who's doing the contracts can handle the negotiations without involving general counsel. She explained that the provisions included in the bill were already in state law or attorney general opinions in different places,
so having them all in one place was just helpful. When they're entering into contracts. And she did specifically mention the the click through agreements. She said that they their office gets far fewer questions from staff asking,
can I do this. Can I can I accept these terms and conditions because they know that they would be void. So any that's the other thing. Any of these conditions, these terms that would be in a contract would automatically be void. So again, we're recommending that that the board support this
position or support this bill because we do believe that it will help streamline the contract negotiation process. Okay. Thank you. Is there a motion. Motion. Second there's a motion. And a second is there
any discussion seeing none. All those in favor, please raise your hand and the motion passes. Thank you, thank you. So the next bill is House Bill 936. This is a local bill. It deals with food procurement in
Montgomery County for Montgomery County Public Schools. It would require M.c.p.s. To identify the current amount of food purchased and served in our cafeterias by the Department of Food Nutritional Services from certified local farms and certified Chesapeake Invasive
Species Providers, we would then set goals to increase the use of these foods that fall within those categories over a period of ten years under the bill. M.c.p.s. Establishes the baseline, sets the minimum annual goal requirements, and develops the plan to meet those
goals. All of this information would be on MCPs website, so it would be transparent for the community to see. It's possible there would require some operational changes, but because everything is within our purview, we believe it will
be not overly burdensome. We are recommending that the board support this bill as it aims to bring local foods into our schools. Is there a motion? Motion. Second, there is a
motion and a second, is there any discussion? Miss Stewart, I'm very excited that we have a chance to support this bill. I love our right here in Montgomery that we have so much
local food that we can bring into our school. So anything to increase those partnerships and to develop those goals, I think that we could definitely bring more and fresher food, actually,
because it will have to travel less distance to our schools. And I think this is a great bill. So thank you so much for bringing it to us. Okay. Thank you. Seeing no other more discussion. All those in favor,
please raise your hand. That is unanimous of those present and the motion carries. Thank you, thank you. And then the final bill I have for you today is House Bill 1192 and Senate Bill 645. This is a bill that will
alter some portions of the Sign Language Interpreters Act. So what this does is set. Statewide licensure requirements for sign language interpreters. It specifically
says the criteria for the licensing needs to be finalized by December 31st, 2026, and the implementation would begin July 1st of 2027. M.C.P.S. supports this bill because it establishes a statewide statewide professional standards, which may strengthen
the quality and consistency of interpreting services, and it could enhance student access to qualified interpreters interpreters, which is of the utmost importance for these students who need these services in schools. That being said, there are some areas where we see some opportunity for improvement. One the bill
does not explicitly identify educational interpreters as a distinct workforce group, so there's a risk that it could overlook K-12 implementation realities and pipeline challenges. Licensure could, in fact, could effectively create a new minimum qualification, which would require revisions
to job descriptions, assignment practices, and possibly compensation. As a result, it could be an unfunded. They were done with me talking. It could
be an unfunded mandate on districts, and there could be a need for additional professional learning renewal compliance requirements that could require resource planning to avoid any workforce attrition. So our our recommendation on this one is to support it with amendments.
And I'm going to give you the amendments kind of in concept which would address those issues, which would be to explicitly establish an education specific licensure category for K-12 education. Interpreters include clear transition provisions and implementation timelines that protect current employees and
prevent service disruptions, provide flexibility in qualification equivalencies aligned with school based competencies. Allow sufficient implementation time and fiscal planning to mitigate recruitment and retention risks. And just to make sure that we're aligned with labor
frameworks and mandatory mandatory bargaining components so that that's not something that's overlooked when it comes time for implementation. That's all I have on that one. So I would like is there a motion?
Motion. Second there's a motion. And a second is there any discussion. Seeing none. All those in favor please raise your hand. And that motion carries unanimously with those present. Thank you. Thank you
so much. Like I said, the rest of the bill report has our platform bills. You can take a look at them at your leisure. Thank you. Thank you very much.
The next item on the agenda is. 9.1. Miss Malone. All right. So
I am very excited to be proposing my first resolution at the board. And with that being said, it's been a long meeting, so I'm just going to read the resolved. But this has been a long going process, and I'm excited for the students to see what we've been doing here.
Resolved, as the Superintendent of Schools is designing and implementing changes to the middle school schedules. He will also develop a plan for each middle school to have a weekly dedicated time of no less than 30 minutes for students to receive support, extend learning, or explore
interests. Each quarter, students must be provided with a schedule delineating the dedicated item for the quarter resolved, the superintendent will review the impact of this dedicated time on student outcomes and sense of belonging after one year of implementation, and if the
superintendent finds it has a positive impact, the regulation shall consider extending it to the high school level within one calendar year. Thank you. Thank you. Miss, is there a second? Second? Okay. There is
a motion and a second. Is there any discussion at this time? Okay. Seeing none. Do we. We don't we don't have to vote on this. Right. This lies for until March 26th. Correct. Okay. So there are no additional comments. The resolution will
lie on the table until the board business meeting on March 26th. Thank you. So we're going to move to item number ten. This is for informational items are included in the board's packet. No action is required by the board on this item. At this time there is no further
business. So may I have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Is there a second? I'll second that. Okay. Though there is a first and a second. All those in favor, please raise your hand. And that is unanimous. By those present. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. And have a
blessed evening.