y is October 16th, 2025. Welcome to the Board of Education work session. Let's all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. The flag is in the back. 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 a all. And now I'm going t of
the Good afternoon, Natalie Zimmerman, representing district two. Buenas tardes. Good afternoon. Karla Silvestre, school board member at large. Good afternoon. Buenas tardes. Rivera-Oven representing district one. Good afternoon, Brenda Wolff. District five.
Good afternoon, Rita montoya, board member at larged today is Domestic Violence Awareness Day. And that's why I'm wearing purple. Good afternoon, Laura Stewart from district four. Good afternoon, Julie Yang, district three. Now,
can we have a motion to approve the revised agenda? Motion? Second. All right. There's a motion and a second. All in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Thank you
everyone. The first item on our agenda is future closed session resolution. Are there any questions? Oh, we need to approve it. We need to approve it. All right, so is there a motion to approve our future
and closed session resolution? And any report of previous closed session report? Motion second. Thank you. I like the high participation from my board members today. Wonderful. There's a motion and a second.
All in favor, raise your hand. That's unanimous. Thank you everyone. And the next item is appointment Doctor Taylor. Thank you, Madam President. I am delighted to bring forward
one name for consideration for appointment today. And when I call your name, if you could please stand while I say some nice things about you. And the board considers your appointment to be introduced. Today is Doctor Mario Navarro for the position of Supervisor of Applied Research and
Evaluation and the Department of Shared Accountability. Accountability in the Division of Equity and Organizational Development. Joining him today is his wife, Sylvia. Doctor Navarro brings to Montgomery County more than 11 years of research experience. He looks forward to applying his research expertise as a member
of the Applied Research and Evaluation Team, and we're excited to welcome him to Montgomery County. Well good timing. Today we are talking about program evaluation for next year. All right. We have appointment. Do I have a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Okay.
All in favor please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Congratulations, sir. Okay. Thank you, Madam President. This concludes administrative appointments for today. Thank you. It's a light day for
appointments. Next is public comments. The reason revised board handbooks give us a new process for doing a revised process to doing public comments. We now have three slots reserved for our union
associations and then 20 slots for the public. So. So in reality, we increase three spots for public comments. And we also have simplified the process and first come first serve. Except if you have
commented in the previous 30 days. So we hope this will encourage more public participation. We'd like to see you in the board room, so I will ask any designee or from
our association. Please come to the front and and let's get started. So we have MC here today. Please introduce yourself. Hi I'm Susie G and I'm representing MC. I'm on the
board of directors as the non-school based director. Welcome, Susie. Please proceed. Good afternoon, superintendent Taylor, president Yang and members of the board. My name is Susie. As I said, I'm a
speech language pathologist and a member of the board of directors. The message I come with today is simple. We are facing a crisis. M.C.P.S. related service providers have waited entirely too long for relief from untenable workloads, and it is directly impacting
the future of our vulnerable students, those in special education. Our contract has a ratio chart with SLPs listed at one per 57 students. That ratio is not even a requirement, but quote a goal that the Board of Ed would like to attain where
practicable, possible, and practical. In our last contract bargaining, M.C.P.S. was not even willing to discuss the goal, much less address the reality that many SLPs have caseloads far exceeding 1 to 57 and workloads that are drowning
them. MCPs SLPs are saying enough is enough and leaving us. For several years now, we have been unable to obtain enough direct hires and have relied on increasing numbers of contractors, including virtual SLPs, whose lack of presence in the school building is a
difficult obstacle. The existing. The existing staffing standards for related service providers means our students are receiving services from burnt out educators, who are often skipping lunches and missing out on their contractual planning time because there just is not enough time in the day. It
means our students are being pulled in larger and larger groups, reducing the time each student actually gets to work on their unique goals transparently. It means the related services that M.c.p.s is currently providing are woefully inadequate. Through no
fault of the providers. In every crisis, there is an opportunity to do something different and the time has come for a change. We need to see meaningful changes to the existing staffing standards for related service providers that will allow us to do our jobs and to do them well. Please
don't let our students and their families continue to suffer the effects of a lack of prioritization of related service providers in the budget. Make decisions that show M.C.P.S. special education community that you value our students and you want them to have truly individualized
service provision. Thank you, thank you Susie. Next, I'm going to call the public to come to the frontd I have a bit of message. This is standard verbiage I have to read, so bear with me. So the
Board of Education encourage public input on policy, program and practices and will consider the comments received. However, this public comment is not the right revenue to respond to the
personnel matters and that can be directed through the complaint or appeal process. Each speaker has two minutes to deliver comments. When your name is called, press the button and speak clearly into the microphone. A yellow light
and a single B indicate you have 30s remaining. A red line and repeating beats signal that time has expired. Once you finish speaking, press the same button to turn off the microphone. Following the live testimony, audio and video
testimony will be provided. Copies of the testimony are posted with the other materials for the meeting. On board docks. I'm calling the first six community members to come forward. Michael Franklin,
Victoria. Hoffman. Dir. Darren. Vira. Veera Hayden. Cook, Lucy. Liu, Shan Zhang, Joseph
Shashaty. Mr. Franklin, you may proceed. Good afternoon. My name is Mikey Franklin. I'm the parent of a first grader and a fourth grader at Woodland
Elementary School, where I'm now in the fourth year of what was supposed to be a one year term on the PTA board. I am also the proud husband of an M.c.p.s teacher. In her 16th year of service, I would like to speak briefly about the Woodward Boundary study, though. Please let me be clear. I'm speaking only for myself. As
part of this study, you board members have a once in a generation opportunity to make real the promise of integrated education for thousands more children in our county. You can ensure that children whose parents drive BMWs go to school with children whose parents drive for Uber. Several of the
initial proposals in the Woodward boundary study did just that, adding new communities to some of our wealthiest schools and asking those in our county who have the most to share a little more, and then, predictably, those wealthiest in our county mobilized to hoard their resources and to demand that their schools remain enclaves
of privilege. And it appears as though you board members are backing down in the face of their pressure. I urge you not to. I know from our own experience at woodland just how valuable it is to have a socioeconomically mixed cohort of families. 40% of our students receive free or
reduced meal service, but our catchment area also includes several much wealthier neighborhoods. And so families like mine, with time and money to spare to support our community, aren't only lifting up those who already have plenty and those children who have plenty, like my own
children, benefit deeply from knowing that not every child is taking foreign holidays, or taking ballet lessons, or riding a brand new bicycle each year, ensuring that English language learners go to school alongside native English speakers doesn't just help the language learners, it builds empathy and resilience and creativity in the native
English speakers, too. When students who get their lunch for free eat next to students who don't, both sets of students are better for it. In my day job, I'm the director of a small synagogue and a trainee rabbi. Yesterday I was in synagogue for the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah, and we read in the book of Joshua the
exhortation to be strong and of good courage, making an affirmative decision to desegregate and diversify our wealthier schools will be hard. The backlash may yet be fierce. Be strong and of good courage, and do it anyway. Thank you.
Thank you. Miss Hofer. I am here today in my role as a proud Westland Middle School and B-cc cluster parent. In 2019, M.c.p.s. Conducted an analysis to understand the degree to which school boundaries facilitate equitable
and optimal outcomes throughout the county. The study's final report clearly showed that our schools are deeply divided by utilization, diversity, and proximity. Traditionally, underrepresented groups strongly support regularly assessing boundaries to ensure
balanced school utilization and to promote diversity. The report called for intentional, data driven action to reduce disparities and share resources more fairly. The original Woodward boundary study priorities took those goals seriously. They weren't perfect,
but they shared responsibility, spread opportunity, and created a path toward progress. The revised maps, however, abandon that progress. They fail to address longstanding inequities and instead prioritize so-called regional program
lines. These lines protect existing boundaries for the most affluent schools, including my own, while shifting disruption and instability onto East County families. Equity cannot be achieved through words alone, it requires courageous action,
a willingness to correct patterns of exclusion and not reinforce them. I also want to speak directly to my fellow B-cc cluster parents. If we say we value equity and diversity, we must back it up when it
counts. Our comfort zones, our property values, our boundaries. Those cannot define what is right. When East County schools and families are destabilized so that ours remain untouched. We are part of the problem.
Let's look beyond what we think we might lose and focus on what we all stand to gain. A county where every child has access to strong, diverse and well-resourced schools. I urge the board superintendent in my community to reject these
revised maps and restore process that better reflects our county's values of fairness, transparency, and shared responsibility. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Viera. Thank you.
My name is Darren Viera, and I'm the parent of a first grader at Woodland Woodland Elementary School in the Montgomery County Public Schools. I appreciate the opportunity to speak here today about the boundary study. I know that you serve on the board, and you all do your best to look out for the well-being
of all the students across our county, and I'm grateful for that. I know my daughter will benefit from the careful decision making this board makes, and she'll do so for the next 11 years. I appreciate the board's efforts to consider diversity and equal access to educational opportunities for poorer students and minority students in formulating these
redistricting plans, as codified in regulation FAA, but it's surprising how far the recently released boundary proposals diverge from this. From that objective, the board's own districtwide boundary analysis from 2019 found that our schools are becoming increasingly
segregated by race and income, with schools in wealthier areas having access to fewer minority students and fewer students receiving free and reduced price meals. The board's first round boundary proposals in the spring boldly faced this problem head on and strove to improve equitable access to the
schools and three of those four proposals students from economically and racially diverse neighborhoods in Silver Spring would have attended Bethesda-chevy Chase High School, helping the county move towards more racially and economically balanced student bodies at its schools throughout the county. The proposal marked real progress in the county's efforts to
ensure equitable access and educational opportunities. However, the recently revised boundary options appear to have been strategically designed to concentrate lower income households and minority students, and a small number of its schools in less wealthy neighborhoods. For example, high schools and neighborhoods
such as Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Whitman, and Walter Johnson, which already have the lowest percentage of students receiving farms, will see those numbers stay the same or even drop significantly. The new boundary proposals emphasize geography at the expense of equitable access to schools.
For the kids who live in Montgomery County, these newest proposals present a Hobson's choice because they all needlessly translate our county's racial and economic housing segregation into racially and economically segregated schools. The board should reject all of the current proposals in favor of the spring 2020 proposals that emphasized balancing
demographic characteristics of its students. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Cook. My name is Hayden Cook and I'm an M.c.p.s. Parent. I want to take this
opportunity to express my deep concern about the revised Woodward boundary study options that were presented last week. At the beginning of this process, M.C.P.S. stated, as part of their guiding principles for the study, that boundary options should be quote, especially especially strive to create a diverse
student body in each of the afflicted schools in alignment with board policy. End quote. Recognizing that there are currently clear divides in socioeconomic status in academic performance between southeast and southwest sides of the county, all four initial
options presented in May incorporated this guiding principle. Additionally, all four initial boundary options were fairly different from each other, and each initial boundary option made changes to all existing high school boundaries so that all existing
clusters shared in the proposal's impact. Then, significant changes were made. When the revised options were released last week, it was clear that major changes were made to eliminate all considerations of equity. The farms percentage discrepancy between the southeast and
southwestern sides of the county increased, and all four revised options have the B-cc in Whitman boundaries identical to the current boundaries. The initial boundary options were based on data and reflected the values stated in M.C.P.S. and
the and the board, not based on political pressure and influence from wealthy neighborhoods. By entertaining these revised boundary options, the board sends a clear message that equity can be compromised when power and privilege knock at the door. I urge you to
reject all of the revised proposals. Do not be complicit in a process that prioritizes affluence over fairness. Reconsider the boundary proposal. Reconsider the boundary proposal to make them fair and equitable. Like the initial boundary study options
that were presented in May. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Dong. My name is Lucy Liu. Xiang Zhang, I'm here to express my deep concerns about the planned regional model for
m.c.p.s secondary programs. The proposed model would decrease equitable access to magnet programs rather than increase it as M.c.p.s claims. Try and exercise. Suppose you have a child who excels in Stem like we do, and ask yourself which
region you would rather live in. Region one where that child will be able to apply to the nationally recognized magnet with experience and well-loved teachers, or region three, where your child will only have access to a new Stem program
put together in a rush. I think the answer is clear that's not equity. Students in three of the six regions will still be able to apply to established, strong programs, and students in the other three regions will only be able to apply to new programs and existing
struggling programs. That's not equity. At the county council meeting last week, M.c.p.s shockingly admitted that they don't really know how to measure equity or understand the causes of inequity in public magnet school access.
How can they address inequity if they don't even know all the factors that contribute to it? If M.c.p.s wants to actually improve equity and access, they should do it right. Start by understanding which areas are currently underserved, what and
what their needs are. Determine what goes into a great program. Focus on establishing new, great programs in underserved areas and give them the time, the resources, and the proper attention to actually succeed. Please keep the existing top
magnet programs countywide since they have worked so well. Please don't create a system wide regional model with lots of new programs and no viable plan to make them excel. These changes will hurt equity and do not direct our county's resources to where they're
needed the most. Thank you, thank you. Mr. Shashaty. Thanks. I wish I could speak more to Sims, a 26 year old can that may be kicked another five years down the road, unless we
see the long standing community needs addressed in the interim. Please add that to the capital request or to the needs of advanced learners. Fidelity is inconsistent across the system with considerable inequities, and the policy already questionably followed is decades old or to many other
things. But I really want to talk about bigger picture things like mission excellence with equity. It may require a moonshot or three operations, boundaries and programs. Capital projects. They're all intertwined, to be sure. But if
that is going, if we're going with that vision, we need to see the road that gets us there, like with Sims, in order to get our buy in. That's where the stakeholder rubber hits, and that requires trust. But that
requires either results. And we haven't really seen results that comport with community interests a lot, or great transparency. And we haven't seen any of that. We don't get direct answers when we ask the
questions. We get a fake or something. The BOE doesn't get answers. If there are ideas that they have the the back and forth that they would have to do over months in order to get clarity would totally blow up
any of the timelines that we're talking about. Can we preserve the academic gems and expand equity? Maybe a Stem and arts magnet should be by regional. We'll never know. Are we to perpetuate inequity with local set asides that are
disproportionate board members? If you don't get the necessary engagement to represent us, change your policies or suspend the rules. We need to get to a place where needs are both well identified and equitably met. The quality of educational
experience for students, teachers, families and communities should not be significantly variable based on ZIP code. Thank you. Please return to your seats. I'm calling the next six community member forward Steven Barker.
Horn. Horn. Lamb. Viera. Laura. Eleanor. Joanna. Wagner. Hillary. Woodward. And. Darren
Himes. Mr. Baker, Mr. barker, please proceed. Okay. Friends, colleagues, you can turn on the mic, please. Thank you. That
will help the. That will help the million audience out there. Yes. Friends, colleagues, advocates for our children. I, Stephen Barker, stand before you today as president of the Maryland Theater Education Association and as a passionate advocate for every child in
Montgomery County Public schools. I urge this board to take a bold step, a step that will define our commitment to a truly future focused education. Embrace the Msde revised K through 12 theater certification and adopt a plan
that expands expands classroom theater programs into every public school in our county. Every child, regardless of their neighborhood or background, deserves regular, high quality arts instruction, especially in theater. Theater
in the classroom is not a luxury. It is an essential vehicle for developing the social, emotional, and civic capacities that our democracy desperately needs. Think about the outcomes, deeper empathy and perspective, taking stronger collaboration and
problem solving, clearer communication and critical thinking, richer civic dialog, literacy and democratic practice. Conolly kinder schoolwide climates and inclusive spaces. Expanding classroom theater to every
school is an equity first strategy. Arts magnet programs are short term valuable. They concentrate resources and opportunities, often serving those with existing advantages while also draining local areas of inspiring talent and
community pride. Investing in universal classroom theater is a guaranteed return in stronger schools, fair opportunities, and a more resilient democracy. Prioritize schools with the greatest barriers to access first, and commit to annual public reporting on access,
staffing and student outcomes. To make this a reality, I call upon you today to adopt a countywide plan that phases in full time, standard aligned classroom theater programs in every school. Democracy is dialog. Dialog is democracy,
and theater is both. Thank you. Today we have a clapping for public comment. We don't usually see that. All right. So next, Miss Lamb Viera. Hi. Thanks for having me. I am a
woodland Silver Spring parent. The current boundary options don't address really any of the core issues facing our education system and instead reinforces socioeconomic segregation and by default, racial segregation while still underutilizing our capital
resources. The plans address overcrowding, mostly by reshuffling students in higher need poverty clusters, which concentrates needs instead of balancing it. Frankly, it's containment. While affluent West side schools such as Whitman and BCC remain
relatively unchanged, a system that allows schools one school to sit at 6% farms and another at 60% is not equitable. The boundaries do not utilize our transit options. The Purple Line, which is estimated to cost $10 billion and runs right
through South Woodland catchment area that includes Woodside and Lyttonsville and ends blocks from BCC. Yet options A through D don't realign boundaries to rail. We keep sending kids on long bus rides instead of creating rail aligned school paths. This is
particularly disturbing to Silver Spring families that have endured years of Purple Line construction. I've run the data. Even one simple move that utilizes the Purple Line would better address equity, access and crowding more evenly. First,
abandon the arbitrary region constraints, changing the articulation of woodland south of Georgia to Westland or and BCC High School directly leverages the Purple Line to Bethesda, changing woodland north to schools like Odessa and Walter Johnson. Students
get shorter trips while using available school capacity. This enables BCC and Walter Johnson to finally participate. Einstein is relieved of farms needs rather than further loaded. We see real
overcrowding relief to Sligo and Einstein at Western. Sorry, and transportation aligns with high capacity rail, which cuts miles and time. Student cohorts have clear elementary middle school pathways. Your boundaries show your values and
segregation by any other name is still segregation, so I hope you reconsider. Miss Eleanor. Yeah. Go ahead. Hi. I am a mom of three kids in middle school
and high school, and a pediatric nurse. When Superintendent Taylor joined M.c.p.s. His entry plan promised community engagement, transparency and trust. Referring to his own experiences at B-cc High School as a B-cc High School student
in the 1990s, Doctor Taylor acknowledged that inequalities within M.c.p.s still persist today and that when it comes to exciting programing and adequate facilities, there has not been a lot of love for the east side of the county. Both
Doctor Taylor and M.c.p.s have had the opportunity to provide leadership for our entire community, particularly those that are less loved. But in each recent endeavor, they have neglected their promises of trust, transparency and community engagement. Mislabeling. The Woodward
Boundary Study directly deterred large portions of the eastern side of the county from engagement. Despite feedback from you guys, MCPs refused to pivot on the survey name or the communication approach. Was it repeated lack of oversight or
just deliberate deception? MCPs is now choosing to fast track a radical overhaul of academic programing without meaningful community engagement and very limited inclusion of academy coordinators. The regional model dissolves the DCC and
extremely impactful detail that has been refused to be declared for months. In this model, M.c.p.s. Has unilaterally identified assets to redistribute to choosing which communities it will continue to bolster, in which it will
continue to leave behind. Furthering distrust, M.C.P.S. is now tethered to this regional programing model to the boundary study, and suggested that the board of Ed may not even be needed to approve this jumbo package. And last but not least, the CIP.
Despite years of engagement from the community on the unacceptable condition of our building, there is no CIP allocations for the current critical safety issues, the ongoing roof leaks, the active mold in my child's classroom, the asbestos exposure, the
unsafe stairwells, the lack of emergency egress planned. We are asking you to hold M.c.p.s accountable. You are our elected officials. Please govern for your community.
Thank you. Miss Wilson Wiesner. Yes, Wiesner. Thank you. Hello. My name is Joanna Wiesner and I am a Damascus cluster coordinator. Firstly, we were thrilled this week to learn that Damascus High School is recommended for a new school
replacement project. Thank you Doctor Taylor and M.C.P.S. staff for listening to our community and our advocacy over all these decades. However, we have been here before with a major CIP project recommendation, only to have it dropped and delayed after years
of work. Please don't toy with us again. We need to know that M.C.P.S. is fully committed to this project to see it through to the end. On the timeline provided. Secondly, caution, the canary is chirping in my ear when I think about the timing of the high school
replacement project and the boundary study. The boundary study is set to be finalized March 2026 and expands Damascus High School by over 700 students starting in 2027. The CIP budget isn't final until
May 2026. It is imperative that the CIP budget be approved with the Damascus High School project in order to accommodate the 700 students. Additionally, the boundary study goes into effect four years before the expanded new school will be
complete. What is the plan for handling the added headcount while the school is under construction? We need these details to have confidence in M.C.P.S. during this time of upheaval and changes. Please ensure the design and construction teams stay engaged with the community to share
plans, processes, timelines and effects on the students during this time. Finally, while the regional program model sounds like a good solution to provide additional opportunities for students, there are many details we need before anyone should vote to approve this
plan. Damascus is a good example of a remote school, where local programs need to remain in place for our students. Most students will not attend a regional program, but they will take advantage of programs offered at their own school. The future school plans
should include keeping current local programs that Damascus offers that are popular and generate excellent outcomes. Thank you, thank you, Miss Woodward. Hi, my name is Hilary Woodward. I'm the parent of a
seventh grader at Newport Mill Middle School and a fifth grader at Oakland Terrace. I'm here today to urge M.c.p.s to slow down the timeline for the implementation of the program analysis. We all want more programs and more access, but M.c.p.s. Is moving too quickly to do this right? I only learned about M.c.p.s proposal
to change program access across the county. In August, I went to a parents meeting at Einstein, our home high school, and was shocked to find out that my seventh grader is scheduled to be in the first class enrolled in these proposed new programs. He would apply a year from now, but what would he be applying for? It's hard to say, especially because
m.c.p.s. Is planning to remove student choice in their proposed regional model. So far, M.c.p.s hasn't shared anything beyond a list of regions and hypothetical programs. They're calling this a program analysis. But where is the analysis? There's been no impact study, no budget shared, and no answers to questions about
staffing, transportation, or how they'll address shifts in enrollment that could undermine existing and long standing programs at our schools. Most parents in the county have no idea this is even happening, because MCPs has barely communicated about it. I know when there are changes, someone has to go first. Someone has to
be in the first class. But M.c.p.s has a responsibility to make sure every student in that class and the grades after receives an equitable education, and they have a responsibility to follow regulations, policies and their own procedures for launching new programs. Our kids deserve trained teachers, diverse schools, classrooms with the right resources and
facilities, and busses and rails that will go safely and efficiently to get to get them to whichever school they go to. M.c.p.s. At this point, has no way to guarantee any of that will happen. We're being asked to trust that this will all work out, but our kids, including my own seventh grader,
only have one chance at high school. I'm urging M.c.p.s to slow down, do their homework, and get this right for all of our children. Thank you. Mr. Hines. Hello. First, I just
want to give a disclaimer. My testimony is of my own and does not represent any of the organizations or groups that I belong to in the county. Who we've been having the wrong conversation. Good afternoon,
ladies of the board and Superintendent Doctor Taylor, my name is Darren Himes, and I represent a group of concerned parents. It's an honor to speak with you today. Last week, Essie McGuire said, we have a once in a generation opportunity to get this right. She's right, but it's the wrong narrative. None of these
regional programs address the world our children live in. I'm speaking of LM generative AI and coding, which has transformed the world we live in and business as we know it. WL, DL, ML, and generative AI degrees are now in the future.
CBS news, September 18th. College graduates age of AI green pool graduated with a marketing degree from University of Arizona in May. She's applied to over 200 jobs. Quote I feel like a lot of my professors were aware of AI and how it is integrating into the workplace, but never did they
mention it would be taking over what we were supposed to be doing right after college. As of last month, all kids in China grades one through 12 have AI curriculum in their education. The UAE has the same for all children K through 12. As of mid 2025, 28 states have
published or adopted guidance on AI curriculum K through 12th April 2025 white House Executive Order Advancing AI education for American Youth, emphasizing the importance of integrating AI into K through 12 education next Door, Virginia. Their motto leading
the charge in AI education as AI continues to transform industries and daily life, the Virginia Department of Education has taken significant steps to prepare students with the knowledge and skills necessary. Where does this leave our kids in two, three years, five years, ten years? Baltimore and Dorchester County
launched their Conmigo AI pilot programs in 2024, so we're behind. Even in Maryland, Baltimore County saw reading growth of 22% in its first year. Maryland State Department of Education AI guidance policy for K through 12 is coming in December. There's a five alarm
fire burning in Moco, and it's the absence of AI curriculum. Thank you. I'm going to call the next 123, four community members come forward and then we'll play the videos. So next
will be Kareem Flashner, Amber Lesnevich, Jean Kim. Brittany Frassetto. Okay. Miss Flashner,
go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is Karen Flessner and I'm a parent in the Down County consortium. In 2019, M.C.P.S. own boundary study made it clear our schools are segregated by race and income, and this segregation harms all students. That report was meant
to guide future decisions, to build balance and opportunity for every child under the current boundary. Options boundaries for wealthier schools remain largely unchanged, with low farms rates. Meanwhile, schools that already serve our highest need students in the DCC would see their
farms rates rise. In some cases over 61%. This plan risks deepening segregation and leaving communities behind. And how can MCPs justify including Silver Spring International Middle School in a boundary study while simultaneously
planning to close it? The DCC serves immigrant families in many from low income households. These students carry responsibilities far beyond academics working after school, caring for siblings, facing food insecurity, and even the fear of deportation. Yet when given opportunity, they rise
and succeed. Under M.C.P.S. proposal, numerous flagship programs and resources would move from their current schools, in some cases to schools that already have strong reputations and abundant extracurricular opportunities. MCPs has acknowledged that students in
Silver Spring don't have the same opportunities yet. Instead of building opportunities here in Silver Spring, the solution seems to be bussing our kids to wealthier areas, new magnet programs, and especially those with prestige like IB and world language should be added to DCC schools, not to schools that
already have high graduation grades and SAT scores. We don't need equal distribution. We need targeted investment in the schools that need it most, built on current thriving magnet and academies, and create new ones to draw students from wealthier areas into Silver Spring, not away
from it. There's too much at stake to rush this. No responsible organization would restructure its workforce and redesign its product line at the same time. Please make equity a priority. Not every parent has a loud voice, but our Silver Spring kids deserve the same commitment and need
opportunities to thrive at their local schools. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Lesnevich. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for having me here today. As a
teacher for Albert Einstein High School, I wanted to speak on behalf of my students and for my colleagues. This is a little on the fly as I've been listening to folks and listening to my students, but I wanted to really say that I've been inspired by how my students will be affected by
the programs and boundary analysis. Yesterday, when I told my seventh period that I would not be here today because I was going to be speaking to the Board of Education about the programs, my student Julisa said, wait, Vapa might go away. That's me. And then that got me
thinking about all of my students who will be affected by these programs. My VAC students and the rest of the Montgomery County who will no longer have access to Miss Harris and Miss Hanisch's expertise and skills for the past 50 years of the VAC, my
student who is I've taught from the time he was a newcomer here in the United States to now in my IB psychology program, he is able to take IB psychology because he can take the test in his native language. If we lose our IB program at Einstein, he cannot take the AP test because
they have no accommodations for language learners on AP exams. I think of my students saying, who is the best writer I have ever taught in my 20 years in education? Now he must choose should he follow his passions of education and learning and
go to the IB program, or should he follow his interests and go to Northwoods Theater program? I think of my student Eli, who described the culture of our school as artistic and diverse and welcoming and poor. Our students know that we have less
than other people in this district. They have built these strong relationships with teachers. Our band program had a errors of Mr. Casement Spirit Day because they are so invested with their programs. Miss Petito, one of our art teachers, has been listed as a
trusted adult for many of our students, our counselors. What is going to happen to them when our demographic shift and they have the highest need students? Do they lose their minds or do our students lose our services? So I urge you to please consider doing the hard thing
and doing what's right for our students, and not the easy thing of keeping things as ours. Thank you, thank you. Mr. Kim.
Hello, members of the board and Superintendent Taylor. My name is Gene Kim. I'm the proud parent of children at Florida Senior Elementary School and Sligo Middle School. And I want to talk to you about the interaction of both all these changes, the CIP, the boundary
analysis and the regional program change. All of my children will be affected by by these changes. I understand the need for boundary analysis and many of the changes that are urgent. However, the process
for the program analysis has been rushed, has lacked input and has lacked transparency. If you want to know if that process has been communicative and engaging parents and receiving their input, I will
tell you from my perspective, the answer is no. That process receives a failing grade. My wife and I attended multiple sessions, and the first virtual session. Our our questions that we inputted were unanswered and ignored, and in later sessions,
they didn't even allow any questions to be answered. That is not a respectful, respectful, transparent process that builds trust. We're concerned that our resources are going to be moved to areas west and north of us,
and that will have an impact for our district, which is very diverse and has a lot of different needs and a lot of different learning types. So. I urge the board and M.c.p.s to
at least put a pause on the regional program analysis until after these other changes are done. These will have material impacts on all of our families, and we need to understand what changes the boundary impact and the CIP will have. So please at
least put a pause on the program analysis until a good process is put in place. Thank you very much. Thank you. Miss Frassetto. Hi, my name is
Brittany Frassetto and I am the proud mom of three students at Woodland Elementary School in Silver Spring. This is the first time I've felt compelled to testify to the board, because I'm deeply disappointed in the process and substance of M.c.p.s. Woody Woodward boundary study. When M.c.p.s
released the initial four proposals, I was pleasantly surprised because they generally allocated changes evenly across the affected schools and made an effort to start undoing the inequitable east west boundary lines that have been deeply entrenched in the county. I participated in the survey process, which I
assumed would result in one of the four proposals being selected. I was shocked and upset to see all of the new proposals completely undo all of the efforts from the initial ones, notably, the historically wealthy West County schools now face little to no change in their boundaries, even though they are benefiting from a
brand new high school. Instead, the East County faces severe disruption, seemingly for no reason. It's clear that m.c.p.s. Sought a more equitable path forward initially, but ultimately caved to pressure from the wealthiest voices. To add insult to injury, M.c.p.s. Is solidifying the east west divide and planning to
eliminate students ability to choose among the East County schools through the Down County consortium and disrupting our magnet programs. In addition, for woodland students in particular, every proposal moves them from Sligo Middle School to Silver Spring International, which is apparently so dangerous and untenable that M.c.p.s. Plans
to close it, notably M.c.p.s. Made this announcement a week after releasing the new Woodward boundary proposals, and after asking parents to provide feedback through information sessions and surveys, there are severe inequities in Montgomery County, and I'm disappointed that M.c.p.s. Is further entrenching them through the combination of
boundary studies, magnet program redesigns, and school construction projects that are happening in an opaque and rushed process. I urge the board to ask hard questions of M.c.p.s leadership to reject all four Woodward boundary proposals, and to demand a process and results that are
fair and equitable for all children in this county. Thank you, thank you. MCPs, TV. Please play the full video testimonies. Hi, my name is Joanna Fellows. I'm the drama
director at Seneca Valley High School where I've taught for 15 years. I'm deeply concerned about how the regional Hub program will impact performing arts programs like mine. Our program is entirely enrollment based and subject to administrative discretion. That means every single year,
theater teachers across the county are fighting to keep their programs alive between November and January. While we're teaching multiple preps, directing productions and running holiday events, we're also visiting middle schools to recruit students. We're having conversations with counselors, following up with individual
kids, schmoozing our admin, and praying that our numbers will hold and our jobs will be safe every year. For me, it comes down to seven kids. The difference between offering an advanced class or squeezing every theater prep into one section. Across this county, teachers are fighting just to
keep a single theater section open or teaching 40 kids in one period, because admin can't or won't staff another if another school is labeled the performing arts hub, that work becomes nearly impossible. Families will assume that's where the best opportunities
are. Enrollment will shift not necessarily because teaching is better, but because the county branding is louder. The results lower numbers, fewer sections, cuts to staffing, years of progress undone. Even with strong enrollment and active recruiting, it is always down
to the wire, and the hub model throws another wrench in. It will take kids out of our programs and displace them. And with more IB and CTE programs moving into Seneca, admin priorities will shift towards those named hub programs. The Regional Hub program doesn't
strengthen programs, it destabilizes them. The regional model will displace students who want and need access to theater, and it sends the message that excellence in the arts is only available in certain ZIP codes. The hub model doesn't broaden access,
it narrows it. Please protect the performing arts in every high school. Support us. Don't centralize us. Thank you. Hello. My name is Emily Freilich, and I'm a speech language pathologist at Bannockburn and
Somerset Elementary's. I am a product of M.C.P.S. and a proud graduate of B-cc. I am here today on behalf of SLPs and our large caseload size. We as SLPs are unable to help our students as much as they deserve. SLPs
structure sessions based on student goals. We find and often create our materials. We write and enter in a database a treatment note for each student and their session. We conduct and write evaluations and are tasked with what often seems
like a never ending list of paperwork in any school. SLP caseloads get big quickly, and increased caseload sizes lead to bigger therapy groups, meaning less opportunities for students to practice less
effective and less productive sessions. The MCE contract has a ratio of one SLP to 57 students. Many SLPs have caseloads well above this allocation, myself included. Last year, across my two
schools, my caseload was up to 64 students. My workload was immense, and I had to combine students in groups that caused behavior issues at times, resulting in aggressive manifestations. We are facing an issue. I urge the board to
think of our students and what they can accomplish with our support. SLPs want to help people communicate. It is in our blood, but every day we face a reality where we struggle to do that. By no fault of our own, we are unable
to provide the services that our students deserve. How are we as a district and a community supporting our students? What are we doing to make a change in their lives? MCPs can do better and must do better. It's time to make a
change. It's time to lower the SLP allocation and put our students needs first. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Eric. I am an alumni kindergarten teacher and a parent of two students at Damascus Elementary
School. I urge you to prioritize funding to renew and rebuild Damascus Elementary School and Damascus High School. Damascus Elementary School was built in 1934, nearly 100 years ago. The big project since then have been to fix issues that would prevent the school from operation, such as repairing a
leaking roof and the addition of a security vestibule. I can tell you with certainty that the main structure of the building has remained unchanged since my days as a student. Both schools are long overdue for comprehensive renovation and rebuilding. The schools are burdened by infrastructure deficiencies that negatively impact students, staff, and
families. Most notably, Damascus Elementary School faces layout issues that cause accessibility complications for our learning for independence and school community based learning programs. Damascus is the only school in the entire county that houses both of these programs. Students deserve facilities that fully
support their learning and physical needs, not buildings that impede their movement, access to resources, and participation in school life. I urge you to come spend a few hours volunteering in one of our classrooms to see just how the building impacts our students in every way. The renewal and reconstruction of
Damascus Elementary School and High School are not an overdue investments. They are moral and practical imperatives. Thank you. Hello. My name is Tessa Walker, and I'm the director of choral activities and adaptive
music at Seneca Valley High School, where I have taught for the last seven years. I'm speaking today to share my concerns about the proposed regional hub model. While I understand the intention is to expand opportunities, I believe this model could actually create inequities and harm existing programs that are
already thriving in our schools right now. It's unclear how certain schools were chosen as program hubs. The selection process feels arbitrary in some cases and doesn't seem to reflect which schools are actually strongest in those areas. By labeling one school as the hub, we risk implying
that other schools are somehow lesser even when they have excellent teachers, strong outcomes, and well-established programs. A simple label can change perception, and perception can affect enrollment, morale, and reputation. I'm also deeply concerned about equity. There's no clear plan yet for how
students would apply for a hub program, or how families will be informed. It's easy to see how this could advantage families with the time, resources and transportation to navigate the process and disadvantage those that do not. Without a clear, accessible system and transportation plan,
this model risks reinforcing existing inequities instead of removing them. Another major concern is how this model will pit schools against each other. Right now, colleagues across schools share ideas, resources and professional development that strengthen programs for everyone. But in a hub model
will be competing to keep students enrolled in our programs, even actively discouraging them from going elsewhere. That damages the professional relationships that make our schools stronger and ultimately will hurt our students. When programs move away from homeschools, we risk weakening the sense of
community and pride that make those schools strong in the first place. Before this plan moves forward, you need to consider the lack of transparency, the clear inequity, and the potential harm this model could cause. Let's strengthen the programs we already have. Rather than dividing schools through a label that doesn't reflect their true quality. Thank you
for considering these concerns. Thank you. I will ask the full members to return to your seat, and I'll open the dias for questions and comments from my fellow board members. I'm going to start from this side of the
dias, Miss Malone. First, I want to commend everyone for coming out and speaking today, and I want to especially highlight Miss Lucy's and Miss Woodward's testimonies. I want to emphasize their concerns about how imperative it is that in this process, we proceed
with caution and carefully consider all the factors that are included in our analysis. As a student in the magnet Stem program. Best friends from Sligo, Einstein, and so many other schools that parents came out to testify today, I can say that there are multitude of factors that contribute to a
successful program beyond what can simply be captured on paper. So I hope to see improved communication in the future about all factors considered in these studies. And I also want to shout out miss Amber and echo her words on how important teachers are towards a student's education. I am incredibly grateful to everyone
who has helped me and put me in this position in the first place. They've played a major role and I think it's an incredibly important factor to which goes on to these studies. Thank you, Miss Zimmerman. Thank you. I also want to thank all of the really engaged folks
that are here today. The passion is really palpable and very moving. I just that really touched me. How how many people are here and how deeply you care. It's it's just really wonderful to see and to hear from you. I also want to
address some of the staffing standards. I think that's something that we, as a system, need to be looking into and making sure that there's equity there. And then furthermore, as we're talking about other
staffing issues as we are, I would like for the system to us to share the offerings that will be available at all high schools should we choose to move forward with the program model, as well as staffing plans to keep access to
programs. An example would be a theater program in all of our schools. Thank you, Miss Silvestre. Yes, again, thank you for coming here today. Taking time out of your workday to give your perspective. I've said it before, we roll out a
lot of these programs, but it's super important to hear from the parents that are going to be most affected. And so thank you for coming to share the the your perspective on how how this looks from your point of things. It is a process. We I am also just digesting all of
this information. You know, you learned the first set of maps and then new ones come up. So it's a process and I ask you to walk with us. We're going to be spending some time this afternoon discussing this. And I know the board wants to see more community engagement
because we agree. I agree that this hasn't reached most of the parents in Montgomery County public schools, and it is a big decision. So so stay with us and we hear you. And it is an iterative process. So we are
not there yet. We have a long way to go. And thank you for your testimony, Miss Rivera. Evans. Thank you. Yeah. Just echo my colleagues. Thank you all for being here. I'm really delighted to hear that. Your main concern in this process is
to ensure that we have access for all, especially those kids who look like me and those parents who cannot be here, who look like it. So I appreciate the sincerity on how our
community wants to ensure that you know, that we're doing the right thing. I think, you know, opportunities when they're gone, they're gone. And with that, opportunities are gone for thousands and thousands of our kids. And I, I, I cannot
emphasize enough that. We need to ensure that every child has access to the programs that we offer in this county. So with
that, thank you. I just want to say thank you for for the care that you show up for our children. And Miss Woessner, I think she's still here. Hello, miss. Hello, Joanne. Nice to see you. You have some really
good points. I was just at Damascus this morning, celebrating with our wonderful young people. The celebration of Latinos in, in in our wonderful county. I don't know if Doctor Taylor would like to
say, but I know these were some really good points about it. I don't know if Doctor Taylor, if you just want to say, but also mine as well with the elementary school, Damascus Elementary School, we know Ada is a huge issue. You know that I have known that for even as my days on the Board of elections, that has been a
painful point. So I think we have some good news. So I'm going to let Doctor Taylor take the mic. I'll cover that during boundary because there's there's just very quickly some some great opportunities to explore for sure. Miss Wolff, I'd like to echo the comments
of my colleagues. Thank everyone for coming today. Clearly we could hear the passion from all of you. It is our intent to increase opportunities around the county and equalize the programs. That
doesn't mean that we're going to do this without real thought and real input. And we value your input. I'd also like to thank. I can't remember his name, but he was speaking about
the AI policy. Mr. Mr. Himes yes, I do think it's important that we start trying to ramp up and think seriously about how we're going to be able to use that, incorporate that into our curriculum, because, as he says,
we haven't spent as much time. Of course, we've been spending our time on boundaries and programs. Equally important. But I do think we have to consider that this is the future and get busy on it. Thank you. We do have AI policy.
I know we have a policy, but we don't have to curriculum. Yeah. Coming up today. All right. Miss Montoya, thank you so much. I appreciate everyone coming out. I know it's not easy to get here and move your schedule around. And so I do appreciate that as well as all of our
folks who submitted testimony via video, which is just as good as showing up. So please, if you can't make it physically here, it's okay to submit video. I do want to, before I speak about what most of you came here to talk about today. I do also want to thank Mr. Himes,
because I think this is a really important point that is getting lost. But it's here, right? AI is here. And if we don't teach our children how to navigate those spaces, then the internet will. And I have two young children and that is not who I want educating my
children on this topic. So I recognize we have that on the agenda today, but it doesn't really touch that area. And I do think that's something that is extremely important as someone who has school age children, but I want to. I just want to say, you know, just and
I believe it was Miss Lannes-vieira. Yes. Miss Lannes-vieira who said that boundaries are value statements and they are just like just like budgets, right? We hear that all the time. The county, the state. Right. This is a
value statement. And I take that very seriously. Again, as a current parent whose children will be impacted by every single thing we do for the next ten years, and you're correct that segregation by any other name is still segregation. It doesn't matter if we didn't mean to. It doesn't matter if
people had the best intentions. And just so everyone's clear, we did not get together and draw new maps, right? That's not we were not the ones, but nonetheless. Right. If that's what's being produced, then we have to call it what it is.
Right? And so I just want to echo the need for shared responsibility. Right. There is a lot going on. There's a lot of changes going on. And it should not fall on the shoulders of just certain groups of people who happen to
look more like me than they may like some other folks, right? Or who may not speak English, or who may not be able to afford to take time off today to be at this meeting, or know that they can submit something via video testimony. I take all of that very personally. When we are dumping the burden on
only certain groups. And so I just want to appreciate all of you for being here and let you know that I do not support segregation. And so I have heard you. Thank you, Miss Stewart. Hello. Past woodland
PTA president here. I see my people in the audience. Thank you so much for coming out. To give us your feedback on this. Feedback to me is so important
because if we don't get the feedback, we don't always see all the viewpoints, and we need that to make good decisions. So I do expect that we do a lot more engagement, and I plan on being out there. And believe me,
you will see me out in the community and getting your feedback. And from other communities. I've spent a day in Damascus getting their feedback, and I spent days at other parts of the county too.
I do want to talk about our the this part that was quoted to us today. That's in our policy that we are especially strive to create a diverse student body in each of the affected schools in alignment with board policy. And I take that
seriously. And we have to, you know, integration isn't just a nice thing to have. It's actually really good for our students and our community. Students in segregated and integrated schools have higher average test scores. They're
more likely to run college. They're less likely to drop out. They we reduce racial achievement gaps. All these are great things. Or even study done right in Montgomery County, where kids were randomly assigned from a more affordable
housing complex, and they did better in when they were able to go to schools that had more resources. Wow. I don't think that's a surprise, actually. So we need to look at these boundaries and look at them
seriously. And I plan on doing that. And thank you so much for being here today. Let's keep the conversation going. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. I also want to thank everyone for for coming in. At the risk of being
repetitive, miss Wisner, you asked two very good questions. Timeline and capacity, and also to everyone that's testifying on the boundary. And program
studies. The timeline is uneven for the boundary. Our first draft, first draft of Woodward Study School came out March 2023. Then the Scrap the Crown
come out March 2024. Then we have to do RFP. So we have a very long runway for the boundary study program study relatively has a very compressed timeline. We our first complete board discussion
here is in August this year. So I certainly understand your point of view. And and we we we are seeking more information and the community need more information. So thank you so much for coming in. We're going
to move on to our next agenda item. And before I do that, our next board meeting will be on October 30th. The sign up for public comment is open on
October, I believe 23rd at 6 p.m. So I encourage community members to share your opinions with us through video or audio or in the board office here.
Thank you very much. All right. So the next item is switching gears a little bit to talk about our school calendar. And may I have the staff come to the front. Thank you, Madam President. And just kicking off
the 2025 2026 school year. So of course we jump right in and talk about next school year and discuss the school calendar development process for 2627, which reflects input from students, staff, families and the community to create draft
calendars, which can be used to gain additional feedback from our stakeholders. This development process and the preliminary draft calendars we will discuss today aligned to goals one, two and three and the M.C.P.S. Futurity Strategic Plan. M.C.P.S. provides a
school calendar that allows for effective use of time for teaching and learning, for professional development opportunities, and for planning instructional strategies focused on improving student achievement while maintaining our lens on equity for students, for all students, and our
commitment to community engagement. There's a lot going on in our school calendar, and I can't wait for Miss Malchiodi to talk about it. So I'm going to pass things over to our Executive Director and the Division of Operations, Mrs. Kat Malchiodi, who will give today's presentation. Good
afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for having me. As I say often, this is like the biggest privilege that I have as a longtime educator in this county is to be a part of this development process. And
before I start, I, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who is a part of this process. I get texts and emails all the time, even about five minutes ago saying, I'm so excited for you. Thank you for representing
our voices in this work. And so I just want to take a moment to thank all of the people who participate in this process. This is my third year as part of the school Calendar development team, and it's just such an honor and a privilege to be able to be a part of this
work. Today, we are going to talk a little bit about the development process. We're going to benchmark with neighboring districts, and then we're going to preview some preliminary working drafts. As Doctor Taylor stated, this development process is aligned
to goals one, two and three and our amazing strategic plan. In terms of the calendar development process, we are aligned to the MSD standards and guidelines, as well as the standards in policy. Ida, which
is the school year calendar. We get a lot of questions about why this, why that. And oftentimes we go back to the policy and we sort of look at that and say, oh, you know, sort of this is why we do things in a certain way. And so I appreciate having that guide
because it is challenging to build a calendar. As Doctor Taylor reminds me, often, there's no perfect calendar. And, you know, sort of having some guidelines are very important. And we always want to think about the calendar in terms of the instructional
moves that support our students and our staff and how important it is. We are literally educating our future. And so I take that role very seriously when I think about calendar development, because it is such an important piece of the work
that we do as a county. Okay. So we are here for our first official board discussion on October 16th, and then we will go back to our communities and
continue to get feedback. We will meet with policy management again in anticipation of the adoption of our calendar on December 11th. Today we are going to take a look at four preliminary drafts.
As I said, you know, no perfect calendar and we have to balance things. You have four preliminary drafts in front of you, and they are a starting point. And so when we meet with our calendar committees and
when we start to put out, you know, sort of some of the early versions, we talk about some of the big pieces of work that go into our calendar. And so we have four preliminary drafts that we wanted to bring forward
for you to look at. The biggest differences are the beginning and end, which is one of the things I hear often in terms of feedback from people. If you're going to talk about the beginning of the calendar and the beginning of the school year, I want to talk about the
end. I want to see, you know, sort of where those pieces lie and then our breaks, because for a lot of the balancing of the calendar, those times matter in terms of how we build it. And so we'll be taking a look at those drafts in a few moments. I'm going to go back
to that, because I just want to talk a little bit about some of the other pieces of it. We benchmark with neighboring districts. This is something we take also very seriously in this work. We like to see what is going on in other parts of the county and nearby areas. And so we already we always
sort of take a look and say, hey, what are they doing? You know, what's going on here so that we can really see where we fit into that work. I have the privilege of working with the school year calendar, one of the development team members from Prince George's County who
used to actually have my job here. And so we often do a lot of work together. They are one of the ones that adopts after us. But a lot of the counties, as you can see, have already adopted their 27, 20, 26, 27 calendar. And so we like to use
that as a starting point. Okay. So one of my favorite things to do is to get feedback from people and sort of hear what's trending and what's what's sort of buzzing. In terms of calendar. We do a survey. We get a lot of feedback in the survey. But one of the things
that's really important is that's not the only way that we get feedback. We have several different calendar committees. I used to have them separate, but now it's more what time is convenient for you to be a part of this work? And so that's been actually a really big
benefit to sort of my third year in this role is to be able to make some of those shifts. One of the wonderful teachers who gave public testimony just a few minutes earlier is actually on my calendar committee because she reached out and asked a couple questions and I said, would you
like to join? I would love to hear your perspective. And so sometimes it happens like that. I get emails, I get phone calls, I get texts. We all zoom with people who just want to talk about a certain piece of the calendar. And for usually for a lot of people, that's something,
you know, it's just that one piece of it that they want to make sure that their voices are heard. And so I just want to take a moment to acknowledge some of the things that come up often, but have come up again this year as we think about pieces of the calendar. As I said earlier, a lot of people
are invested in the beginning and the end of the calendar. Some people like to start very early so they can end early. They feel that drag coming once we get past Memorial Day. Some people like to wait until after Labor Day to start the beginning of the school year
and have that as more of a priority than, you know, sort of thinking ahead to the end of the year. And there's every bit in between. Some people like to start late and hopefully end early. And, you know, our policy doesn't lend it to that
as easily. But I love that work because there's no right answer. It's just a matter of what works best for us at that time. And so I take that feedback very seriously. As I said, I, you know, have a new member of my committee who talked a little bit about the
agricultural fair and the impact of starting the school year so early. And, you know, I have some other people who have joined who have high school backgrounds and want to start earlier because of those AP and IB exams. And so, as I said, there's no right answer. It's
just making sure that everyone's voices are elevated so that we can make those decisions. A lot of people talk about benchmarking if they live in Frederick County or, you know, sort of aligning to their calendar as a parent so that it doesn't impact their their work.
Last year we talked a lot about those no work, no pay days for supporting services staff, and we talked about having the possibility of a longer winter break. And what we realized was that the impact on that's, you know, sort of huge piece of our staff was so significant that
the idea of having that longer break sounds great, but it had such an impact that we we felt like that was just too much. Inclement weather came up a lot last year. Our videos, our ice storms was the first year we had makeup days since before
Covid. And so for some people, that is something that's a little uncomfortable to kind of go back to. So we heard a lot about that. We always hear about days of commemoration and religious observances and obviously, you know, sort of looking at that in terms of
what our guidelines are in policy, but it's always important. One that came up a lot more so this year than I remember in the previous two years, is those early release days and attendance. And so the challenge from the school, as a former teacher, from the school
perspective, of hoping everyone will be there and hoping I could do my math lesson and impart wisdom and knowing that for a lot of people, those days may not be as serious in their mind, or they may be days where they're more likely to take off and the impact that that can
have. And also on families in terms of childcare, and then also thinking about the days leading up to and immediately following breaks, and how the attendance around those times can have an impact, and then always sort of those AP and IB, as I mentioned earlier, in
terms of thinking of our secondary staff and students and making sure that there is enough time for them to get that information because their AP and IB exams occur earlier than our exam schedule. And then every year people ask about, are we going to do a
multiyear calendar? We had talked about it last year. We had mostly a brand new board, mostly a brand new superintendent. And so we really wanted to wait a year until we all got to experience this process before we considered something like that. And so this is sort of what we've heard so far, even as
early as an hour ago, I got similar comments from people about some of these issues. And so I always like to elevate those because there's no wrong there's no wrong way to think about it, and there's no right way to think about it. But it's important for us to know what people are saying and, you know,
sort of what is trending. And every year I learn something new when I work on this calendar, something I haven't thought of, and someone will elevate something that we haven't discussed before. So with that, I just also wanted to say that we get a lot of help from our friends in the
Division of Communications in terms of how they help get this message out. We get a lot of help from our colleagues in terms of putting out this information. People definitely fill out surveys. People definitely feel free to email,
call, text, send messages and just a huge shout out to the calendar committees who really commit to this work. We meet about every other week, usually before and after the meetings, so that I can keep everyone updated and they can keep me updated. And then we just welcome any other opportunities.
Sometimes people will say, can you just come talk to these four people who have something they want you to know? Yes, we will, we would love to. And so just continuing sort of that work as we think about the calendar going into the next
step of this work, we really want to think about what calendars we would bring forward in terms of getting feedback and consideration. And so four is a lot in terms of, you know, sort of reaching out to people. But I bring this to you today to sort of have that
conversation about what, what what would you like to get feedback on from people now that we've heard, you know, preliminary feedback to build some of those drafts, like what what you would want to see next. And so I will turn it over to
you for that discussion. Thank you for that presentation. And I think it's on the board docs. The there are four different options right now being proposed. So are you recommending now it's going out for public comment for those four options? Okay. I want to
see if any board member have comments or questions. Let's keep it brief. We have heavy meaty topics today okay I'm going to go one round Mr. I see
I really like the benchmarking. Here. And I'm curious how, for instance, was Howard County able to start August 24th and end June 8th? Mr. thank you for
very brief comment and go straight to the question. Please answer. It's a great question. It's a great question. A lot of people ask it. And so some of it is related to days in between the first day and the last day that we either have non-instructional days, holidays, professional days. So
that comes up a lot. The school systems that are able to sort of condense their calendar. There are drawbacks in terms of the diversity of our county and how we sort of look at our days. But yes, that that has been noted before. I'm going to answer this very directly. They
do not take as many holidays or as many as professional learning days as we do in our calendar. Miss Montoya, I guess that was my question, because I see even some of the breaks are bigger. But I also wanted to ask when it comes to winter
break. I mean, it looks like really what we're having to decide here is just when school starts and what the parameters are for spring break. I mean, those are the only real decision points I can see here. And so I guess I'm wondering though, for winter break, the first day of winter break for
all four options is Thursday, December 24th. Now over a third of our population student population is Latino, and in the Latino community, most of us are actually big winter break holidays the day before Christmas, right, Christmas Eve.
And so that doesn't really leave time for travel or any of those things. So I was just wondering if you could speak to why every single winter break option is exactly the same. I'm so glad you asked that question. So to build the calendar, what
we have done is honored. What we have traditionally done in terms of days of commemoration and sort of balancing the calendar. One of the more exciting parts of this work is to be able to have questions like that elevated, where we
could do that. It's not a day that is in our policy. And so for me to put that in would imply that I was making a decision without sort of bringing it for discussion. And so that could be something that we could take in terms of a
preliminary calendar to the public. But I for me to make that decision means that I'm I'm making an assumption without having talked to the board first. But don't we do that with other days? Right. We just talked about other holidays and various things. I don't know, I'm just feeling a
little confused. Actually. The board has discretion over every day that's in the calendar. And the things to be sensitive to is that there are trade offs. So if you're going to add a day, you have to pull it from something else or extend the school year, but you have the
flexibility to make this look however you want it to look. Thank you, Miss Montoya. Miss Rivera Evans. Thank you. This is. And I just want to say this
year we got a lot of we got we got a lot of feedback about the agricultural fair, how a lot of our students, especially in the county, are very involved with agricultural fair. And and that really created an issue. So
doesn't seem like either of these dates is going to affect that the starting date. Because I think if and correct me if I'm wrong, but at least I know the agricultural fair next year is supposed to be between August 14th through the 22nd. A
little bit earlier, 12 to it's August 14th through the 22nd, and we're looking at starting. August 30th 1st or August 24th. So that's so good so far. But
going to miss Montoya's question about the 24th. That question. And I was just talking to my colleague Miss Silvestre. We have brought that question up. I mean, from my first meeting when we had it, I think that was one of the questions I said. And then I believe we asked for actually
absentee rates on that day from our schools because and I'm just going to be honest, I was one of those parents. And then I was one of those kids who did not go to school on the 24th because that's for us, a religious holiday. And we get
ready and and the 24th is, is, is a it's it's even bigger. It's more important. It has more significance than the 25th for, for for us. So I don't know, we can bring it up again
this year and and see. But I also know that we were told that there would be a trade off. You cannot. So we cannot have it all. So we will have to take, you know, to give a little we have to take from somewhere else and, but we'll bring it up again if we can look at it, you
know, look at that. And, but for me it would be really to look in the last 2 or 3 years what the rate of absenteeism was, you know, from our students. And then that way we can also be guided by data.
Right. So if we could do that, that would be great. Thank you. And I can just say too quickly for that. That was part of the big discussion last year about because we only had two days in a week, why we talked so much
about the two week winter break. And so a slight hesitation on my part was knowing that a two day week. Creates. So yeah, it's a little tricky. No, no, I understand, but but I think, you know, there's there's
feelings about it. And I think, you know, I'm just one of those people that if, if there's a significant absenteeism right, then I think we should truly consider it and look into it. Okay. Miss Silvestre, thank you.
I just wanted to bring our attention to the slide eight on calendar initial feedback themes. And these are all the things that you've already heard and you've tried to incorporate into the the four options. Correct. Yes. But I
always like to elevate them so that we can have a discussion if there's something that we're missing or something from one of those that we wanted to talk about. Yeah. And just my personal opinion, I've shared this on the policy committee is going late into June, is just
not good for teaching and learning. And so I, I encourage us to look at the earlier options because, you know, summer camps start, people start to take their travel plans and testing is a lot is over. And so just I just think
I don't think the quality of instruction at the end of middle of June is, is, is the same as at the beginning of the school year. And also highlighting what's on here about no work, no pay days for supporting services employees. It's not fair to schedule, you know, excessive days where
they're not getting paid. So I appreciate that being upheld in all of the options. Thank you. Miss Zimmermann. Thank you. I want to first echo Miss Silvestre's point about the no
work, no pay days. If it could even be outlined for us, the number of no work, no pay days in each option, that would be very helpful because that is a big decision point for us. Thank you. Similarly, with the benchmarking and aligning with neighboring districts, I'm sure
we all know that many of our staff members live outside of the county and thinking about their child care needs and things like that, I want to make sure that we're reaching out to staff about these options, even if there is an opportunity for us when we're reaching out to staff about the benchmarking in particular,
some of them might not be aware that their home counties have made decisions yet, or they get a say in the decisions that we make here that could be really helpful for us moving forward. Yeah. And as a former teacher, one of my favorite things about the calendar is that staff love to give feedback and participate because of that.
And so that's for me, that's really fun because they tend to reach out and say, like, can we talk about this? Perfect. Yeah. No, absolutely. I also just want to echo Miss Silvestre comments about extending the year into June. I mean, I'm sure you know, the student absentee rate as you get
further into June. So cautioning that and half days as well, even adding that as an extension near the end of the year, you tend to see less engagement through the student perspective. I associate myself with a lot of comments now, no decision is being made today.
This is just for the board to send it out for the public comment, and I encourage the public to participate. And I'm sure all these points will be reflected, and we'll look forward to see the refined
drafts. Thank you. Julie, I just have one more quick, quick point, because I have a lot of parents come to me with this issue. And as a parent of school aged children myself, it can be challenging and maybe we can't do anything about this, but to the extent possible,
when there are days in the week that there's no school, if they can be on a Monday or a Friday, I just think it makes everyone's life easier when it's like Wednesday or Tuesday. I mean, it's really challenging, especially when you have young kids or kids that are like in
the cusp where they there's no more childcare available, but they're not really old enough to stay home by themselves. And that's kind of where I'm at. So it just it really the logistics get really tricky. And childcare is also expensive. Thanks. Thank you. I would like
to thank you, miss McCauley. I think a lot of us are really looking forward to the next item on the agenda, which is boundary study and program analysis. And I think from today's public comment and what we have heard from the
communities that sense that. Doctor Taylor, that people want to understand, they want to understand and they want to contribute before any decision is made. So data transparency
time seems to be the element. I'm very glad we're having this conversation. It's our third full conversation on the program. And and so we look forward to this conversation. Thank you, Madam President. And I would like to echo your
comments and the comments of our community, and thank everybody for coming out for public comment. This is part of the process. It's critical that there's information presented, that there are reactions to that information, thought
exchange and ongoing dialog, and that's important. So I want to thank everybody for being a part of this. And I want to share one thing that I was completely struck by in a positive way by our comments today, is how aligned we are as
a community in our commitment to equity. Every boundary study carries with it a significant amount of emotion, and everybody wants to get it right. Our community wants us to get it right. The board wants us to get it right. Our staff wants
us to get this right as well. And so the feedback is absolutely critical, especially when maps change from one version to another version. It presents an opportunity for more feedback. So thank you for taking the time to be a part of
this process. It is really critical. We're excited to share some updates today on our progress on these two really significant undertakings. And I got to tell you, the magnitude of this doesn't get bigger than
us talking about these two things because of how it can shape what opportunities we have for the future. And to that end, I want to also commend our our speakers for public comment today because I think that everybody wants the
same thing. I think they really do. We want to have equitable and expanded access for young people, and we also want it to be really good. It needs to be excellent. It can't be terrible. It's got to be of high quality. And so I think that that's at
the heart of the efforts being made today in the conversation today. So the the one thing that I would ask in our community is please keep an open heart and please keep an open mind as we explore these topics, because I think the good news is, is that we have a lot of goal alignment and that
we really do want the same things. I think it's worth also pointing out that these two things are connected, and that when we talk about our programs and our school, it does influence the size of our boundaries, and it does
influence maps. And these parts of the process are connected. And so it doesn't mean that we can't amend processes and that we can't look at other opportunities. We absolutely can. But there is a there is an opportunity here that is worth
extending a little extra effort for us to think about how this all fits together in one big picture, and what this could look like in one big picture. So to that end, our goal is really simple. It's to design a system that works for the whole
that is equitable, efficient, and student centered on opportunities and expanding those opportunities for young people. And in that process, we might have to give a little to get a lot. In each step of the process. We are learning, we're
refining and improving. So what I hope folks see is a genuine effort for us to make this better. Today, the team will share where we are now and where we think that we're headed, and how this work will expand opportunities for every
child, the staff, and the community. Feedback continues to shape both the boundary studies and our program opportunities. This is thoughtful work. It's ongoing and it will take continued collaboration. And I got to tell you, I welcome that
continued feedback and that continued collaboration, something that I hear a lot is that a lot of these ideas are preconceived and that everything's already decided and everything's already made up, and that's one narrative and then another narrative that
I frequently hear is nobody knows what's going on, and you're making it up as you go along. Well, you can't have it both ways. So I hope what you see is that this is an iterative process, and that feedback is really being taken very seriously. So at the at
this the same time as all this is going on, there's a real sense of urgency. We've heard the calls to slow down. We take that very seriously as well. And we understand the instinct. This work is complex and important, but we also know that delays have a cost, and every year that we we push
something off as a year that we go without an opportunity. Every year that we wait, more students remain in a system where access and opportunity depends an awful lot on where you live and what you are willing to do versus what you have access to. And that's why
we must make a system that improves our standing and really does give more opportunities closer to home for more students not take anything away from anyone. So with that, we are moving with careful and due diligence
towards this purpose. The board had insisted, as we initiated this process, that we keep equity at the center of this work and that's exactly what we're doing. So we're going to talk about this in two parts. The first part is going to
address the boundary component and give an update on the status of where we are with that. And then we'll examine where we are in terms of the program work and program development part of our program analysis. So with that, it's my
pleasure to turn things over to our Chief Operations Officer, Adnan Mamoun, and our Chief Academic Officer, Mrs. Nikki Porter, to continue with the presentation for today. Good afternoon. Thank you, Doctor Taylor, as Doctor Taylor has already talked about what we're
going to be talking about today. We're talking about them together because they're definitely both the program study and the boundary study are linked. And then we will share with you the assumptions that are shaping both efforts and foundational structures.
And then we'll give you an update on the boundary and then program update, as well as talk a little bit about the process. Next slide please. So before we start today's update, I would like to acknowledge the the
tragic accident that happened last week involving one of our students. We would like to assure everyone that as we continue to develop our boundary options and continue our discussions about these boundary options, we're keeping students safety and safe routes
to school at the forefront of all the work that we do. As you know, we are wrapping up our October public information sessions where we have been sharing the new options. We are already getting a lot of feedback. We have had quite a few conversations at the
in-person sessions, and we're also noting the comments that we have heard from the public today. All of this is going to be valuable as we move forward with the boundary study process. So during the next few months, the feedback collected will be synthesized in order for us to
bring that feedback to Doctor Taylor, in order for us to develop the superintendent's recommendation that would be presented to the board in January. And there will be opportunities for the public to provide more feedback to the board during February and March before the board makes a
decision in March of 2026. Next slide please. So at our last boundary board presentation, we shared the working assumptions, which included the new boundary options aligned obviously always aligned to the board
policy factors that are listed in policy, FAA, and feedback that we received from the initial options phase and the regional programs model. So the the options that we have presented for both the Crown and Woodward boundaries do show
the proposed regional six region models. We also heard the comments that we have heard and incorporated into our boundary options include prioritizing proximity, minimize length of school bus rides, avoiding disproportionate split
articulation, and minimizing disruptions to communities who have experienced recent boundary changes and then facility utilization. Maintaining that 80 to 100% utilization as much as possible. And then obviously, considering cost of the resources with
transportation and other operational costs, that comes with boundary changes. Next slide please. So as you see we've highlighted just so we can give a plug for the last
meeting for this round. For now that we have planned that's going to happen tonight. That is a zoom session. We have had multiple zoom sessions last week for the Woodburn boundary study, and then we have multiple zoom sessions, as well
as in-person sessions for both the study period. And we went to the schools and, you know, had conversations with the folks and answered their questions and presented the information to make sure that everybody has the information so that they can review the options and understand the
impact. And then obviously, we shared with them the information about the survey, which is the most important part of this process, because we want to get that feedback from the community. So there is a meeting tonight and I'll share some additional options, additional information about future opportunities that are coming up for the public to
engage in this process. Next slide please. So we're working with many of our internal and external partners to share the information and gather feedback that may not be easily obtained from a traditional survey. We're being mindful of that. We
had a lot of folks that came up to the in-person meetings and provided feedback. We're collecting those, and then additional engagement opportunities are being scheduled, including Facebook Live in Spanish for each boundary study and smaller language specific engagement
sessions that are going to be hosted by our excellent family engagement specialists. And our engagement structures will align with the board policy, FAA as well as the board policy and community engagement. And we're going to continue to look for opportunities to engage and
make sure that we get the information out to every family as well as, you know, giving them an opportunity and information about, you know, filling out the survey so that we can get the feedback. Next slide please. So in our website
we do have this available to the public that can be accessed by anybody who visits our website in the you know, which will include which includes an options preview and interactive map which is very helpful. We have gotten good feedback about
that from the folks, because it allows folks to put in their address so that they're able to see the changes that are happening with each of the options. The website also includes data and charts, as well as maps that, you know, people can zoom in to to see the changes that are being
proposed for each of the options. And most importantly, again, there are links to the survey on our website that we do need everybody to go in and take the survey so we can get the feedback. Next slide please.
I'm sorry. So next steps in the boundary study process. As I said I've been saying we encourage all our community members, families and staff and students to provide feedback via the survey. After taking the time to review all the accompanying resources, we also would like to come back at a
future board meeting to provide a detailed transportation maps that are based on the both the program and the boundary options. We will share that information at the next next board meeting. And now I'll
pass it back on to Doctor Taylor. Thanks. If you could advance the slide I just want to take a second to talk about feedback regarding the Crown
boundary study. And this is a reflection of some changes in our circumstance. On Monday evening, I had the opportunity to present to the Board of Education a proposed capital improvement program. That's pretty ambitious and that
tackles a lot, not even close to all, but a lot of our facility needs and sets us on a path where, sadly, in two decades, we might be back to a place where we are maintaining our existing portfolio of schools. We really have found
ourselves in a very adverse situation in reviewing information tied to our capital improvement plan, we really identified a couple of really significant issues that do dovetail with this boundary study. One of the significant
issues is we have a couple of really big high school projects that are on the horizon that have a pain point, and those big high school projects are Magruder and Wootton that definitely need refresh and
significant renovations to to get up to a great state. And something else that we identified in that process is that we don't have any secondary holding schools in which to place those those schools. If we were to do that
work. Additionally, we also uncovered enrollment projections that show us going in a very different direction than what we are accustomed to. We're used to being a community of growth, and we're actually experiencing some decline. If you could advance the next
slide, please. So we have been taking that feedback in from our community. We've been looking at some of the split articulation that's been created. And as part of this crown boundary study, and we
would like to consider a another alternative for the board's consideration. So part of the confounding pieces that are tied to this is that when we made an agreement with the
city of Gaithersburg to have some land in exchange for the construction of a high school, we were in a very different place than we are today. We were in a place where enrollment was looking in a very different direction than
it is today. So consequently, and if you could advance the slide, what we would like to do is we would like to explore the idea of potentially making Crown a holding school for a few years while we continue to
assess our enrollment projections. And while we are working to construct some of these large high school projects, there's a desperate need in our county, both down county and up county, for us to have secondary holding
facilities for the purposes of school construction. We are experiencing an enrollment change, and to be responsive to that and make sure that we are fully utilizing our buildings to their highest and best value.
This makes a lot of sense. That being said, it can make a lot of sense and still be a terrible idea. We have plenty of those. To matter of fact, we kind of brand those sometimes in M.C.P.S. things that make a lot of sense, but still going to be terrible ideas. To that end, we'd still like to explore
this option. There's some work that we have to do with our partners at the state to make sure that that this is a project that's being funded the way that that it should, and so that we can optimize the dollars appropriately, both in
state and local revenue. And and if we were to go down this road, it would necessitate the board considering a change to the scope of its crown boundary study. And so we'd have to come back to the board for a whole new conversation about whether or not to amend your boundary
study scope to include this as a potential option. Some of the upsides that we've identified is that we could, instead of building Damascus on site while students were there, we could have Damascus housed in a holding facility, which would
be a lot safer and certainly would give our kids ample room in that facility and assuage a lot of the the boundary concerns, that of adding additional students. And it would also cue us up for the opportunity to have our
students offsite at Magruder while we were refreshing and also our students up at Wootton to be off site, while we were, we were doing construction. That being said, this, this requires a ton of community feedback. If we were going to
present this option. So we do need a couple of weeks to talk to our state partners before we would even be ready to bring this back to the board for consideration. And if it was something that the board wanted to explore through consideration, we would ask for a vote, and then we would put
it out to the community in the form of maps and some changes. This is a pretty significant adjustment and a pretty significant adjustment in the middle of a pretty, pretty protracted process. At the end of the day, we are talking
about things that will transpire two whole years from now. And there's there's more than ample time for us to make adjustments as we need to, but we also want to keep the board on schedule for your decision points, because it does it does
help us, and it does help our families in terms of how they think about next steps and and what happens next. So with that, I want to leave this here and pause for a moment. If you could advance the next slide and just say that this is
something that the board should consider and take a take a look at as to even if you want to go down this road. And if you do, you know, we're we're certainly looking for your comments and feedback. And this is also kind of the break point before we switch over to programs for you to ask questions of Mr. Mamoun
and the the operations team too. So, Madam President, I'm going to kick this back to you to to lead some board conversation and discussion. So, colleagues, we have a presentation of 95 slides. I'll ask you to keep
your comments very brief and direct. One round. I'm going to look to my left right now. Okay, Miss Rivera Elvis. Can I ask questions now. Yes. Okay. Well
none of them are asking questions, so I should be able to ask a couple for. So it's a 95 page. No, no I know, but I you have. Maybe you can answer later, but I just I have a duty
to ask the questions that the community has. So so I will do that. When would the in person. Meetings be for Kennedy High
School and for Wheaton? So we'll work on the schedule and we'll make it public and make sure everybody is aware of it. We haven't set those dates yet, but okay, I appreciate that because although I appreciate that you're having them at BCC, BCC is not changing pretty much
in these studies. So Kennedy and and and Wheaton are and I think it's important to have those in person with those communities. I know you had one in May, but there's a lot has happened since May. So if we can do that, I'm also looking at Clarksburg High School is not I don't see anything at
Clarksburg High School. I would like you to consider that because with what the superintendent just said there, there will be a lot of changes going on. So I just want to be conscious of that. And then when you said they will be,
they will be on page six in Spanish. I will also like to know when and how will families be notified on that as well. Yeah, those details we're still working on will definitely share it with the board and absolutely will advertise. And you know, all of our channels
to make sure we're informing all the families. I just want to say thank you for acknowledging the death of her students. That was very tragic for everyone. As somebody who also lost a young person in our community, in our county less than a year and a half ago, we
have lost three young people to horrible accidents in less than two years in this county. So the safe, the safe zones is part of this. And I don't I don't know the question to this, but who is in charge of the
safe walk zones within M.C.P.S. Is that under transportation? I know it is, but like who and is that? You know, and maybe this is a discussion for later on, but I think we seriously need to look at. Being on the same
page and having communication with the people in the county. Although I appreciate their efforts, I really don't see their efforts up county at all. I appreciate having the nice zebra and giving out the crayons, but I think there needs to be a little bit more
of coordination on safe walk zones for for our kids to go to school. It would be amazing if every principal before they started school, they will get a report on all the issues that happened in their area during that period, so they could share that with their community.
Because I as much as I want to believe that, you know, we all should be able to walk and and bike to school, I can tell you in our county that is really not really possible. Everybody's in a hurry. People really do not pay attention to pedestrians. It's just the
reality. So I would just, you know, just for the future. I know that's part of it, but I think we we need a bigger conversation. If you and you can let me know offline who that person is, because I think that's that's a very important part of our boundary study and ensuring that our kids are able
to walk to school safely. And if there are parts where they're not, I think we owe it to the public to let them know what areas those are and just work with our other partners in the in the county government to ensure they do become safe.
Thank you, Miss Montoya. Thank you. I'm really concerned about the lack of meaningful opportunities for some of our community members to engage about boundaries and other things, and some of our folks who came to testify today
highlighted some of those in the name of the study. If it's called a Woodward study, I'm not sure if I live way over here in East County that I would even think I need to pay attention, and I can appreciate all of the efforts that we have made. And I don't want to minimize those. And I know Miss
Garcia is not here, but she has also made a lot of efforts in the community and unique things as well. But it's not working. And so at some point, no matter what efforts we put in, even if we can check all these different boxes, we did the
social media or we did these, you know, messaging. No offense to anyone who showed up here today, but I don't see a lot of people coming to testify or give input that look like me or that look like Miss Wolff, or that look like Miss Rivera-Oven or Miss Silvestre or Miss Malu. And that is very concerning to
me. When I look at these map options, and I see that the communities that are going to be impacted do look like those of my colleagues that I just mentioned. And I also get concerned that we seem to be hyper focused on our high school students and families,
but it's actually the middle school families that are going to be the first families to bear the brunt of this. And I say this as a middle school family and who's talking to us and who's talking to our middle school students who have a lot to say. Right? And even our upper elementary school students. And so I get
concerned when I see that people from my community just get a Facebook Live. But we're having in-person sessions at a school that is not even going to be impacted like BCC and no slight to BCC. It's a great school, great place to host a
session, but not if it's not going to impact your community who can get there, especially at the times that they're happening during the week. In the evenings where parents are trying to get their kids to and from make dinner, some parents are working their second job, maybe, maybe their third. So I
can appreciate and I did request that we have some in-person sessions in that area. And I appreciate that you're looking into Kennedy and Wheaton, but we're kind of late to the game. Right on that. We're heading into the holidays. I mean, November, once November hits, right, everyone's kind of
like, right, the commune, in terms of the community, we're doing other things and there's a lot going on. And so I just I'm really going to be looking for what are we going to do there? Because there are a lot of families who don't even realize this is going to impact them, let alone. So, I mean, if
I was there, I wouldn't even pay attention to the message. What does that have to do with me? I don't even know that that has anything to do with me. Right? But it does. So I just I'm looking forward to that. And then I also want to echo about the idea of the safe walk zones. We've obviously had some
very tragic things happen to some of our students. And in addition to the student most recently, but we had a young a young teenager who was killed crossing the street in Kensington. Right. So sometimes when our county highlights what our safe walk zones are not, I
have to wonder what they're looking at, because I personally live on a street where my portion of the street has no sidewalk and people speed through there all the time, but there's just one block up. There is a sidewalk. So someone might say, well, that's fine, it's safe. Your
child can walk up the street to the local elementary school, which is only two blocks away, where they should be able to walk, but they can't because they can't even make it out my front door. So I just, you know, in terms of talking about what is a safe walk zone, understandably, we're going to be relying on information from the county or state partners
because also some states are state highways, some states are county, you know, roads and things like that. And that complicates things. And I know that. But just to make sure that when we're presenting to the community that this is a safe walk zone, what does that mean? Does that mean if there's
five blocks, at least two of them have sidewalks? But how do you get to the two sidewalk blocks if we can't get out the front door? So just so that we're very clear, and if there's nothing we can do about it, then there isn't. I mean, I've been through schools where we've had those safety roads
studies and they take forever. And then you have a meeting and I'm just going to say from my perspective as a parent, and I was on the PTA, then we're telling them, well, that's not totally accurate or well, actually, this is kind of how it works or okay, you put in the speed bumps or you put in
the crosswalk, but people are still flying down this road. And I can think of one in particular, because I see it happen all the time, even after they've done all of these improvements. So, Miss Montoya, you have a request for this. Yes. So my request is just to make sure that when we represent to the community what
we mean by safe walk zone, that we're clear about what that actually entails so that they don't have the wrong perception, understanding that we may not be the ones that define what safe walk zone is, right? That might be the county or the state, depending on the the locale. Thank you. Thank you.
Mr. I have a specific ask first because and this is a testimony that we just heard relates to this, but right now we have kids being in all four maps.
Redistricted to Silver Spring International Middle School. I think most of those kids actually go to Sligo Middle School. And then now we just said, oh, we we will probably be closing Silver Spring International Middle School and
rebuilding these other, other middle schools. So can we please take another look at the maps to see what we can do to stop so much disruption? So just really quick, not
dissimilar to the the, The Crown conversation that I just introduced. Would love to have included that as part of our timeline with the CIP. Unfortunately, the timelines didn't line up the way that we would like them to. Absolutely.
Is the short answer to that question. That's very pragmatic, and that's the great kind of commentary that we expect to hear from our community as well, and something that can be easily addressed. Okay, great. The other huge issue I see when
looking at this, and I associate myself with my colleague's comments about engagement, I do believe we need to do more engagement, and I don't even know if we could at some point, depending on the
direction we go and the roads we go, that we could have engagement. That included both boundaries and programs, and just to get more input, more back and forth. And like I said, it's a conversation also with the community. And so I'd like
to have that specifically, especially I expected to see it in this packet was the Spanish in-person opportunities that we just had for over. By the way, the Eastern Middle School, I thought Eastern Middle School
was actually a great place to pick for the boundary, since it does affect middle school students. And I don't know if we have I. I was expecting to see dates today. Is that coming very soon? Because this is what I saw. Because I went to the
map sessions, I was able to have conversations and parents would come up to me and have access and access to flow and access to staff. Do we have dates? Yes. Thank you. Yeah. No. So as soon as we have those dates sets, we will definitely
inform. Inform the board and the community. Okay. That's amazing. Thank you, thank you miss. The. When you have the dates, it is important to communicate with the board. But
I think it's more important to communicate with the principals, community groups in those areas. And parent organizations in the areas because they are the boots on the ground so that they can get their community
fully engaged in this important conversation. Thank you. Let's continue with the presentation. Yeah, I also wanted to make that point. Many parents only listen to what the principal says. They just don't tune out the system wide messages. So
please think about what communications you can send through the principals, because that is where you're going to capture the majority of parents in the system. Miss Zimmerman, thank you. I also want to thank
you for presenting us with some of that split articulation information that we asked for when this came out that was really helpful for us to look at. Then I have some questions to clarify. If we choose to go
forward with the new proposal with Crown, it's still our plan to build and complete Crown High School, correct? Yes, that is correct. Great. I don't want there to be misinformation that we're not planning to do that
anymore. And then we all know how that could go. Then. Will Crown still open as a high school once it is no longer being used as a holding facility during construction? Is that part of our our plan
should we choose to go forward with this? Correct? Great. Thank you for the clarifications and I hope that clarified. Any lingering questions for anyone? Thank you. I'll make a point that you didn't have a chance. Mr. I'll come back to you after the next session of presentation. Yeah,
I just want to add on to Miss Zimmerman's point, and that is if we choose to use Crown as a holding school, one of the advantages we'll have is that it is a comprehensive high school. So it will come with an
auditorium for the arts. It will come with a football field or an athletic field, which is one of the complaints we got by using Woodward as a holding school. It was incomplete. So from my perspective, that's
really something to consider. That's important because we also know that we received any number of complaints from the Poolesville community when we were constructing while the students were on site. And I'm not saying that they were wrong because I met with them. I went
up there and I understood what they were talking about. This will avoid a lot of those issues. Thanks. Thank you. And I know that our boundary study also include Damascus increased 700 seats that would not be
able to do the renovation at 700 students on your campus. That would not be possible. So let's continue with the next set of questions. Presentation.
Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, President Yang. Members of the board. We do have 80 more slides, but we promise we're not going to make this painful for you. We have a plan. Before I get started, I do want to introduce a few new faces that we have. You are all familiar
with Miss Jeannie Franklin, who is director of Consortia Choice Programs, and Angela McClain, who is an executive director. But we have two new faces at the end of the table Mrs. Ebony Langford Brown, who is the new director of academic programs.
Ando she is in week three of her job. And we also want to introduce Miss Nicola Richards Wright, who is a coordinator in the Department of College and Career Readiness. And so if you would advance the slides for me, please, we are almost there.
And today we are going to show you that the work that we've been doing is coming together and how we're moving from scarcity to abundance. We're moving from a system where opportunity is concentrated in
a few spaces in our district, where opportunities will now reach all of our students. I do think it's important to note, as we've heard feedback from community, that we are not starting from scratch with this work. We are building on what we know works. We are building
on lessons learned system assets and thoughtful feedback from our community, our families and our staff. So today you are going to hear more detail about our program models. They are improved, they're refined and shaped by
feedback. And while this is an iterative process, the conceptual foundation and the direction that we are moving is very sound and strong and the plan is taking shape nicely. One that balances innovation, equity and operational
feasibility. If you go to the next slide, please, we just want to take a moment to stop and remember why we are here. And we are really here to ensure that our programs are equitable and that our students have access. And an example
being that we have about 3000 of our students who apply to programs every year, and over 2000 of those students remain on a waiting list. And that is because there are simply not enough seats for our students. And we also have a lot of our
families who decide that programs are simply too far away from their homes, and they are not willing to to make that commitment. So our goal is to stop fighting for seats. There are more to go around in our proposal, and we want to make
sure that we are planning for both increased access and interest for our families. Next slide. So we know that there are highly able students and talented students in every corner of our school district,
and we want to ensure that the opportunity is not the privilege of a few of our students. I also want to pause before we get started with our presentation, to just acknowledge the fact and the reality that about 85% of our students choose to stay in
their local home schools, and they remain there because they believe in that strong home school model for for their for their families. So every student deserves strong academic foundation, grounded in rigorous curriculum,
effective instruction, and meaningful learning experiences. So we have heard that from our community, and we want to make sure that we let our community members know that we do value their voices throughout this process, and we do not want to lose sight of that. So while we
are building these strong programs, we're also ensuring that we have a plan for strong local schools as well. We aren't going to focus on that aspect today. We'll bring that back to you. But I did want to to acknowledge those voices in this process. Next slide please.
So I just want to take us through the timeline. Today. We are sharing with you more specifics about our programs and how they are fitting together. You heard lots of comments today from from our parents that they want more information. And so we'll be
sharing that today. We also, as we move into November, will be engaging more of our families and stakeholders just to continue to hear their feedback. We did tell you initially that we were going to bring our final plan to you in December,
but because we have heard so much from our communities about wanting a more comprehensive plan sooner, we are going to move forward our timeline to November. And in November, we will bring to you a finalized comprehensive program plan and
we will share with you our our budget, our professional learning, our staffing, resource needs and operational needs to ensure that we have a successful program. In December. We'll give you a break from our presenting to you, and we'll
continue to do some work behind the scenes. But in January, the superintendent will bring forward a combined boundary and program plan for your vote in March. We do want to also just
acknowledge that, assuming all goes well in the fall, our current seventh graders, who will be in eighth grade next year at this time next year, would be applying for a program to be in in their high school
year. So that is the the timeline that we are working under as we move forward. So at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Franklin to continue. Good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for having our team back so we can go to
the next slide. So this is a refresher of the five themes that were put forth by the design team, who use information from over 10,000 individual feedback submissions from students, staff, parents, and community members. These are the programs that all
students should have access to. There is an adjustment based on the feedback from the schools and our project team that in the orange section, where it used to say education, that is now part of public service, it still exists, but it's just now been absorbed by public service.
Go to the next slide. Here is an updated map of the six region model. This region model reflects the most recent recent change where Damascus and Quince Orchard High School switched regions. This was adjusted due to boundary needs, and this change also required a
realignment of the programs in the two school regions. Go to the next slide. So first happy National Principals Month to our principals. These are two pictures of our high school principals engaged in this work.
And in August when we were before you, we shared the initial the initial regional program placements for all 25 high schools, all 27 high schools. This placement was based on key data. First did not have information of feedback or the lived in
experience from the schools at the time. We brought this information to the principals in the early fall, we collected their feedback. We reviewed the community feedback thus far, and this informed the plan that you will see today. We want to
again thank the principals for their high interest, their high engagement in this process. We learned a lot from our principals as we knew we would, and we really valued the partnership. Next slide please. So before we share with you the
updated regional program proposals, let's walk through the changes that you will see. Changes have been made because of the high school swap in region five and six. Now that each high school will have a regional program in our current model, nine schools do not have
regional or countywide programs. We wanted to ensure that each school would have a criteria based program. Criteria based means that multiple measures will be considered for placement in a program, which could be academic performance
or portfolio feedback from the design team, and one team member in particular, elevated some new thinking about the performing arts. For this, we are very appreciative. As a result, the performing the performing arts was divided
into four sub strands dance and theater, and media and music. In some cases it is a standalone, but in most cases they are paired and due to long wait lists for both middle college programs at both Northwood and Northwest High School, we're proposing middle
college will now be available in all regions. I'd like to turn it over to miss McLean. Good afternoon. Just to orient you to the region slides, you'll see that they look similar to last time, but and
there's an additional column. And the additional column includes the local programs that will remain at the school. So these are the local pathways that will remain. And we can only fit a few on the slide. So you see a link to the M.C.P.S. program dashboard. That's the best resource to see all of the
local programs, click the link. Select a high school from each from the drop down menu and choose programs and you can see all the offerings, but there's some highlighted here. So region one already includes several established regional and countywide programs. So adjustments here were made thoughtfully and strategically.
Performing arts pathways are distributed between two schools. Einstein High School will build on its strong music program with a criteria based music pathway, and continue its Visual arts center, while Northwood will offer dance, theater and technical theater pathways. Einstein will also
continue to offer IB and their Visual and Performing Arts academy for local students, and add a medical science and healthcare theme. Building on an asset. IB courses will be integrated into the sequence in the addition of the IB career rated career related program is
proposed with access for both local and program students. Whitman High School will serve as the regional site for humanities, aligned with its leadership and social justice theme. Northwood High School will also be the regional access point for middle college, as it is now part of our proposed as part of our
proposed systemwide expansion of early college opportunities. Please note there's a placeholder in these slides. You'll see technology interest base throughout those pathways will be finalized in partnership with school leaders. Possible pathways include engineering, programing,
cybersecurity, or machine learning and data science, depending on each school's assets and focus. So region two the major changes to this region are that humanities and language will be located at Sherwood High School, and the
proposed addition of a middle college to Blake High School. In in region three at the new Woodward High School, you'll see the full suite of arts programs, along with the proposed addition of a middle college program at Wheaton High
School. The Stem program theme looks a little different than other regions. We think of it as stem m, adding the well-known science, math, and computer science program there, but also expanding on Wheaton's strong existing engineering and biomedical science programs.
You're going to hear more about region four later, but you will note that the arts programs are distributed across three schools in this region to make the best use of each school's strengths. We're also proposing a middle college at Rockville High School, offering students the chance to earn an
associate's degree in teaching within the Leadership and Public Service theme. Miss Yang, could we ask what? I don't think the whole audience knows what middle college means. Could you just. Oh, sure. It's it's a dual enrollment program
that is on a pathway to a degree. So it's why the students are in high school. They are able to get an associate degree and a high school degree at the same time. You're offering that one in every region. We're proposing that we offer one in each region. We have waitlists for
the programs at northwest, Northwood and Northwest. Thank you. All right. So we can't pass up on the opportunity to give a shout out to a partner to this. This is with Montgomery College and Montgomery College. The fact that it is such an attractive program, it's very high demand
and offers a great opportunity to kids who are really trying to accelerate in a handful of areas. Our previous student member of the board took advantage of dual enrollment programs through Montgomery College, and really benefited from that opportunity and the independence that it brought.
So we didn't want to miss the chance to include that in every region because it's the demand definitely calls for it, and it's a great financial help for families because you do get 120
college, college, you get 60 college degrees out of credits. Out of it. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Please continue. Sure. Okay. Region five. So program themes and region five and six
were realigned to reflect the switch of Quince Orchard and Damascus high schools between regions. Because of this change, these regions look a little bit different than the last time we brought them to you, and includes several new program placements. We're still working to incorporate all of the principal feedback, but here
are some highlights of what's in the current draft. Crown High School as the location for the Medical Science and Healthcare program. However, this may be adjusted given new updates. Gaithersburg High School hosting the science, math and Computer Science Regional program, Watkins Mill High School, the addition of
the Middle College program, in addition to the regional International Baccalaureate program, and Quince Orchard High School for the Humanities regional program. And just a reminder that the local programs that remain are listed on the right side of the slide.
Region six looks a little bit different to to the to the same realignment, and additional adjustments may follow as feedback continues. There's a little error on this slide. World languages is not shown, but as in other regions, we're typically aligning them with
humanities to allow students to complete the A world Language concentrator as part of the Humanities program. Poolesville High School continues to house three long standing, high demand criteria based programs, and Poolesville really illustrates how the boundary studies, facility utilization,
and program planning work together. The renovated building has capacity for additional students, but geographic barriers limit full enrollment. Expanding access to these Poolesville programs helps ensure that the building and these programs are fully utilized. Poolesville has a
record of excellence with these programs, and we want to build on that success as we strengthen regional access and opportunity. So over the years of supporting the programs and admission, we have tremendous learning about what not to do.
And at this historic moment and opportunity, we are certainly going to use these lessons before us to do this right. I just want to highlight a few key nonstarters to develop strong regional programs. We need to commit to regional fully. We learn from the past that maintaining a countywide
option while building regional programs dilutes resources and results in perception disparities. Countywide models at one time in our history were necessary, and at this time we were able to resource it because there were limited program options across the
county. Now, with more options, it is revealed that they require tremendous resources. Additionally, based on our student access data data, the composition of students are more reflective of regions, not countywide access. Additionally,
we have countywide programs with limited to no transportation. This is not equitable. Regional models are the way to go. They broaden opportunities. Central transportation can be allocated to all programs in this model, and students who were once squeezed out of the application
process because there really wasn't access, it was too far. It was there was just tremendous distance, or there were entrenched patterns of students and staff internalizing that their students were just going to be picked for a program, stopped
applying. In this regional model, these can now be realized. Students can reapply. We want to avoid an equitable resource distribution. This occurs in the absence of a system wide program implementation process. As
we've shared the programs we've been implementing over the past 50 years have been ad hoc, multi-layered, and they've been motivated by different efforts, different initiatives, and they occurred at different times, all well-intended but unintended outcomes such as
varied and inconsistent resource distribution, varied implementation practices, and a lack of a systems approach. We need to correct that. And one more item broader access. Recognizing that our students have aptitudes in other content
areas besides math and language, we want to expand the programmatic options into more arts world, language opportunities and more career and technical opportunities. We want more opportunities for our students to be engaged. Next
slide please. So we do know what works. Well. Here are a variety of elements. This is our recipe for success. I just want to triangulate three of the most student centered items a strong academic foundation, empowered educators, and
enriched experiences. These are the hallmarks of what our students tell us. Make for a rich program for which they want to attend. We want this for all of our students, whether they're in a regional program or in a local program. All the other elements a continuous improvement process, student access, equitable
resourcing, right tools and reliable access are all the supplements to these to these programs? Now back to miss McLean. So great regional
programs engage students in in-depth coursework aligned to both their interests and future opportunities, connecting what they love to learn with what they can do in the world. They provide opportunities to connect classroom learning to real world application, ensuring students gain the knowledge, skills, and
experiences needed to succeed in college, career and life and our great programs. Students can earn college credits, industry certifications, or other third party credentials including AP and IB exams, validating their readiness for next level learning and
employment. Great programs foster a supportive learning community where students are known, challenged, and encouraged to grow through mentorship, advising, and shared experiences. The world our students will enter is changing rapidly. To thrive, students need experiences that
prepare them for both higher education and a dynamic world of work. By blending academic rigor with career relevance, programs empower students to make informed choices about their future and to pursue personally and fulfilling post-secondary pathways in the
arts. For example, students can earn a technical credential while refining their craft and preparing for college level study, offering advanced math technology based courses such as cybersecurity with Critical Language Study Together will allow students to experience
academic rigor and develop the same skills professionals use in today's global economy. Participating in an internship in a leadership for Social Justice pathway will allow students to learn community engagement strategies from professionals in the field. Ultimately, our goal is to
ensure that every graduate leaves high school positioned for success, equipped with the confidence, experiences and credentials that open doors to the future they choose. And this applies not only to our programs, but to what makes a strong local high school. It's my pleasure to turn it over to our new director, Ebony
Langford Brown. Thank you. So what will the regional model look like for our students? Let's take a look at a an experience of a student in region four. As stated, region four includes four high schools Richard Montgomery, Rockville,
Churchill and Wootton. An eighth grade student in this region has many pathways to success. Let's talk about Anita. Anita is a rising ninth grade student whose home school is Churchill. In region four, she finds she has an abundance of choices, some at her home
school and others within a reasonable distance. At Churchill, Anita has access to meaningful learning experiences, including dual enrollment, broadcast media, and computer science. She also has access to the school's technology, engineering and math program.
Anita wants to be a doctor. She considers the signature program at her home school and the science, math, and computer science program at at Wootton, especially for the access to higher level science classes. She would like to pursue science classes with a medical
focus. She ultimately decides to apply to the Medical Science Regional Program at Rockville High School, because she likes that it's both college and career prep focused. She has the opportunity to take accelerated science courses and
earn an industry recognized credential, and she will still have access to classes with students in her program with similar interests and goals. In a moment, Mrs. Richards Wright will share additional information and details about
the program that Anita selected. Before that, I'd like to orient you to the many, many, many slides included in the presentation. Family, students, staff, school members, school leaders, and board members have
been asking for more details about the program. Pathways at each school in each region. Staff in the Division of Teaching and Learning have been working collaboratively with school based staff to develop comprehensive plans for each of the pathways program. Teams
visited schools to view the facility and work with staff in the existing programs to learn not only what programs consist of, but also what makes them special. Beyond the courses, the plans our teams have developed for each of these program themes and pathways
consist of eight components. The first component is a vision statement for each theme that outlines the focus and objectives. The second component are program goals for each of the themes, with specific goals in three categories first being knowledge and skills, the
second being on providing hands in real world, hands on and real world experiences, and the last area of fostering college, career and community pathways. Component one second. Yes,
there are many parts of this presentation. When is the next point that the board member can ask questions? I think that if we could hear from Miss
Richards. Right. And then after she presents, maybe we could stop or because we are not going to go through every slide. Right. Okay. So we are actually going to skip several. We just want her to give an example of what you will see in all of the
other slides. So then we can ask question about the regional programs. Then what will it look like for specific students. Those two parts. Yeah. So we can let's do that. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry for the interruption. No worries. Thank you. So the fourth component,
the third component for each of our plans identifies pathways that are criteria based and interest based. The fourth component of each plan includes the sequence, the course sequence for the pathway. The fifth component are the co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities
for students in that pathway, including things such as field trips, showcases, competitions, work based learning opportunities, etc. the sixth component of each plan includes the metrics that will be used to evaluate the success of the
program. The metrics include academic measures, enrollment, retention and completion data, alignment of third party validation such as industry recognized credentials, student and parent satisfaction surveys via surveys and exit interviews.
Feedback from teachers on a variety of factors, including professional learning needs. There are also metrics to determine the fidelity of implementation, including informal walkthroughs. Look for documents and rubrics included in each metric. Metric is the
frequency of monitoring and what question about the program quality the metric is intended to answer. As we continue development, the team will collect baseline data for each metric and set annual goals. The seventh component are cost
projections, which include estimates for supplies, curriculum development, textbooks, field trips, fees, licenses, and other related costs. And the last component are implementation plans, particularly as it relates to professional development and curriculum development. Next
slide. So let's start with our first school in region four. Rockville High School includes pathways in the medical science and health care theme. One pathway in this theme is biomedical science which is criteria based. The second
pathway in this theme is clinical is clinical health care which is interest based. They also have two pathways in the leadership and public service theme, including leadership and social justice, which is criteria based, and MC
squared, which is interest. Based on this slide, it lists leadership and social list, the leadership and social justice pathway at Rockville. This is an error. We will be finalizing the programs at Rockville and
after speaking more closely with the leadership and the building, Mrs. Richards, right, will now provide a detailed description of the medical science and health health care pathway plans. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Nicole Richards
Wright, coordinator with Career and Postsecondary Partnerships. As was mentioned, I will be sharing about the Medical Science and healthcare program at Rockville High School. And we want to start with the vision. The vision is to prepare students for healthcare
careers using curriculum that is equity driven and provides rigorous learning, while also providing students with hands on, real world experiences, which we believe will ultimately build their cultural
competency and positively impact the community. Next slide please. The program goals are structured around three main themes. The program is designed to help students build a strong foundation in science
and healthcare. The students are not just sitting in a classroom, they are immersed in their learning. So they're in labs doing simulations and even getting clinical experiences and or internships along the
way. They can earn certifications, take college level courses, network with professionals in the field. It is really all about giving students options after high school, whether that's college,
pursuing career in healthcare. It could be both and helping them make a real difference in their communities. Next slide please. We have developed two
sample pathways utilizing isting assets at the Rockville High School while aligning with our established and rigorous CTE program. So the first one that we're going to be looking at is the
biomedical science pathway, which is proposed to be criteria based, as we're looking at grades nine and ten, we see that students are cohorted for their biology and chemistry courses. In grade 11 and 12, we did speak about
using the asset map and utilizing the assets at the school. Rockville offers the IB program. As such, we are recommending that students do IB biology or IB physics in their 11th and 12th grade year
and also pursue the IB examination. We are also recommending that students complete one of the engineering courses for their ninth grade tech credit. This, along with the sciences we believe, will
provide the students with a great foundation and many opportunities to apply content mastery through coursework. But as we continue looking at the pathway, we'll realize that in the 10th grade, the students will do their biomedical one
course, 11th grade, their biomedical two course, and in their 12th grade, they have options so they could be doing their biomedical three course or be engaging in work based learning or taking a dual
enrollment course. Additionally, you will see that we were very intentional in the 11th and 12th grade where we have incorporated the IB personal and professional skills. We
believe this is important because students will have the opportunity to earn their Certificate of Professional Certificate for the IB program. Next slide please. The second
pathway looks at the clinical health. Actually the clinical health care pathway, which is interest based. And for this specific pathway you will see that the students or cohorted for their ninth grade biology
course. And for this specific course, we have integrated it with the foundations of medicine and structures. We believe this is important as it will prepare students with some of the prerequisite skills needed for success in the
Certified Clinical Medical Assistant pathway. But as we continue to look at the pathway, we see students in grade ten will be doing the Certified Clinical Medical Assistant one course. In grade 11, the Certified Medical Assistant two
course, and in grade 12. Again, they have options. So they could do the CCMA as it's called. Course three engage in work based learning or do a dual enrollment course. If you
look at that specific pathway, you'll realize that it provides students with a lot of flexibility as it relates to the level of their core academic subjects. Thus, students can do their math,
science, or social studies courses, whether at the UN level honors, AP or IB. Now, we want to also point out that both pathways are designed to
support the success of all students, including those receiving special education services and our emergent, multi-language learners. Thank you. Next slide please.
Students in either of these pathways benefit from a variety of meaningful opportunities. These include. They're able to earn the base certification that's for students in the biomed program or the CCMA
certification for those in the CCMA program. Students are able to participate in internships and or clinicals, and we have established partnerships with Holy Cross Hospital. They can also do their internships at the bioscience research labs,
whether it's at the NIH or the University of Maryland. Students are able to earn college credit, earn their IB Career Program certificate. There's also networking opportunities with industry professionals and or faculty
students who are also able to participate in competitions, and student organizations such as skills USA or hosts of future health professions. We know that these competitions and student organizations help to develop student leadership
capacity and other professional skills that we know are necessary for career success. Next slide please. To understand how well our programs are serving students.
We have built a set of metrics that will help us track demand, quality, student outcomes and overall impact. These will be measured annually, with some
starting as early as the first year of the rollout and others phasing in. As the program grows, we will look at enrollment and retention. And this is important. This is
important because we really want to know is the program actually in demand? Are students choosing it and are they choosing to remain in the program? Additionally, beginning in the 2829 academic
year, we will track students persistence in the program and this will be measured based upon their completion of the advanced specialized courses, which will be, in this case, BioMed or CCMA two. This will
help us to understand if students are staying engaged and how many of them are attempting the industry recognized credential, which we do know signifies career readiness. Starting in 2030 31,
we will track completion of final capstone projects. We actually are going to start by auditing interests during course registration to see if students are signing up for the full sequence. This will help
us to know if the students deem the program to relevant and valuable enough to finish. Additionally, Ercs will be measured yearly in Ercs as industry recognized credentials
beginning in in 2829. This will tell us if students are meeting industry standards and whether the curriculum aligns with workforce expectation. It's also important to note that a goal for blueprint for
Marylanders is that 45% of students need to earn an ERC, or apprenticeship upon graduation by the year 2030, AB scores will be collected annually to track content mastery and skill development.
As you're aware, the IB exam is an internationally based exam and so it does provide a global benchmark on which to measure student success. Students assessment will be measured yearly also for as it relates
to their language proficiency using the stamp assessment, which we know is critical for bilingual workforce readiness.
Also, students and parent exit surveys will be launched in 2030 to 2031. That will be the ending of our first cohort. They'll be completing the program and this will give us
direct feedback from families and students on their satisfaction with instruction, support, curriculum and their overall experience. This is really important information as
it can help us to identify what is working and where we can improve. Finally, in the early years, we will collect and refine data on students who apply, are accepted and remain
in the program. We will look at their GPA, their test scores, their demographics, and the home schools from which they are coming. We need this as this will answer important questions such as who are we
serving? And what is it that the students need to be successful in this program? Thank you. Thank you, Miss Richards. Right. We're going to stop you there. As you can see, she has thought very carefully about this particular program
theme, and I want to acknowledge the rest of our team back there who has done the same for the other themes. We wanted to give you an in-depth look at what one theme would would look like in your in the presentation are the other themes for this particular region, so that you
can see our intention was not to go through each of them. So we were going to skip about 30 slides so that you could just see what we have planned. We can stop here for questions. We just want to talk about our thinking around budget,
transportation and community engagement are the last three pieces, so I'll turn it to you. So it's good that we pause here because right now we're talking about program design and evaluation. And we can go into budget transportation and community engagement, all the
key components the board has been asking. I'm glad that you are tackling it. I am very pleased to see that you have evaluation criteria. And when you are talking about the CTE. I was a college and career
counselor and we always say, why is the yield rate so low? Right. People are taking courses but not finishing the whole pathway. How do we do better. So I'm glad to see this. So this is an important topic. I want to give board members a
lot of time to ask questions, but we are going to go a few rounds but be brief. Go direct to the questions so we can get as much information as possible, Miss Malone. All right, well, that was a lot, but thank you
so much. Clearly, we can see how much work has gone into this. And I'm obviously very excited to see what's going to happen in the future. With that being said, I do have a lot of questions, but try to keep it brief one at a time. Something I've asked like continuously in the past and with private
conversations I've had with Miss Franklin, is when we look at the amount of students, you said that there's 85% staying in our home school, in their home schools currently for the students that, for example, are put on the wait list that they apply to our MIB and they don't get in, they're on the waitlist. How many of those students
actually end up going to their regional IB after that? Is there a number that you guys have based on that? I have numbers and I can calculate that for you. Okay. Thank you. I actually think that's an important question to question. I wanted to know for the
students that were waitlisted for our MIB, for example, how many of them ended up going to their regional IB program after not getting in? Right. That tells us a lot. Thank you. Great question, Mr. Zimmerman. Thank you. I really enjoyed to
see the slide about engagement with principals and administrators. But I also think it's necessary to do the same with our educators. Some of the people are going to be executing those courses for us. Relatedly, I think some of the asset mapping and things that
we've done can, you know, that gives us one part of the picture. I think engaging further with our educators will give us a clearer picture, not just of who is certified to teach those, because being certified and being interested in teaching those courses are two very different things. So I
am looking forward to the outcomes from those conversations. Miss Zimmerman, so I want to understand your question. Your question is not only we want the data of how many staff is certified in that area, but are they really interested in teaching that
area? Correct, correct. So for example, I am certified to teach high school Eld, which is a great endeavor, but it's not personally my endeavor. And I commend those people who do it. I really prefer anyone that is ages nine and below. So even
though it would show up that I'm certified to teach that if for whatever reason with being voluntarily transferred or how that process might work based on how positions will shift. If I were told that was the position I was taking, I would
respectfully decline. So I don't want us to be stuck in that position where we have a lot of educators that are declining positions, that they're certified to teach because they're not interested in doing so. Thank you, Miss Rivera. I'll come back to you. You were coming. Yeah, yeah.
You go. Go ahead. It's okay. Yeah. We're going the line. Thank you for the slide on page 23 or slide 23 where you outline the local pathways. Not an exhaustive list. I just want to emphasize my interest in
making sure that you don't have to leave your home school, that we have awesome options for kids at their neighborhood school. And so I appreciate the listing here. I also, I understand you talked about middle college, but at the in
the regional level, but doesn't every high school student also have access to college level classes at Montgomery College, no matter what school they go to? Yes, that is correct. So dual enrollment is available
regardless of school or program. And we when we start talking about our local programs, we are definitely going to highlight and elevate the dual with transportation. No no no no transportation for free. Do
they have to pay. So okay. So you'll you'll get into it. You'll get into it later. But I think you can answer. Answer I can answer that piece of it. As it relates to dual enrollment, we pay for the first two courses per semester for
students and for students who are in our degree programs, we pay the entire cost. Okay, so you have at every high school and the opportunity to do a dozen or more degree programs. If you do the full degree,
M.C.P.S. pays for the whole thing. That's correct. I just that just knocks me off my seat. That is a huge opportunity that we need to maybe publicize more so you don't have to leave your neighborhood school to have
access to maybe knock out the first two years of college and still be a student enrolled at your neighborhood school. So lots more questions, but I'll move on. So, Miss Silvestre, if I might just put some clarification there for the student who's doing the degree
program, then they'll be in our early college program or in one of our middle college programs, the middle college programs right now, we know are at two specific schools. Well, three, but we teach. But then when it comes to the early college
program, the students leave their high school premises and they go to the Montgomery College campus for their 11th and 12th grade year. Okay. So but is that available at every high school? But it is available to every high school
student. Yes it is. It's not a cohort model, but the middle college is available at every high school in Montgomery County Public Schools. Yes, two students at every high school in every. Yes. Dual enrollment options. Yes. Students at every
high school to all students. The very same with the early college program. But then there is a limited number of students. Yes. Could you just could I get a yes or no? Can every student in a high school in Montgomery County Public Schools access
dual enrollment? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Rivera. Yes, we get that. But in order to go into that program, you have to make that decision. Is it in eighth grade? You have to apply not for dual enrollment. No, no, no. Okay.
For the other program. Yes. Early college, early college. You have to you have to enroll. When is the latest you can enroll for either one. So for early college students enrolled in their ninth grade year. And
so they showed their express their interest, the classes actually start in their 11th grade year, but the application process is in their ninth grade year because there are some assessments and things that must be done in their 10th grade year. So that is when
they do apply for middle college. It's from middle school, middle school in eighth grade. In eighth grade because it's cohorted. Then they start from their ninth grade year from middle college. And I wanted to make that clarification because many of
our parents and students, this is not even a remote idea in eighth grade. So to make that decision or to even know that knowledge, that's that's, I think, where we get an addition. Right. But I'm just saying that's usually, you know, because I met many students who
they they find out about it in ninth grade or 10th grade, but it's too late for them to enroll in that unless they go to Northwest High School and then they can do the the middle college, which is great, that I so let me just say that I think that it's great that we are regionalizing that because it
is a great it is a great program. I'm very, very, very knowledgeable about. When Elisa Northwest High School involved with a lot of the students there. So thank you for that. What I just wanted to first, before I ask my question, a quick suggestion if when you
give these these examples, if you can also put that these this program like the one you did for Rockville that that is also that because it's going to be the same curriculum every school that you're going to offer that right that you put is also available at Clarksburg. I think the other one is around
and some others. Yeah. If we could just when you do those examples, just list the other high schools so people understand that my kid, when he goes into this, whether if I live in Rockville or if I live in Clarksburg, this is what they're going to get. They're
going to get the same instruction, the same level of expertise with with the teachers. This is exactly what they're going to get correct. Okay. So my question is and because I represent district, so we're going to go to region six because that's my district.
So I page. 2828 okay. So I just want to make sure that we have equitable distribution of access to these programs okay. So my hope is that when you are looking and assessing that you
looked at. Where these where the majority of the kids are coming to some of the programs at Poolesville High School, and you will find that a lot of them are coming from the Clarksburg cluster. Okay. So if the whole point is for us to
keep them in our high schools as a cohort and so on, my hope would be that you would look at that and see if you might want to offer something else at Clarksburg that the kids are going and traveling away from
to get. So engineering, for example, is a huge draw that our kids go from Clarksburg all the way to Poolesville. And I know my my own child decided not to do that commute and decided to do something else,
you know, in his home school. Because even though you think of the Up county, the county is big and the traveling can be, you know, with a new driver. I just did not want my kid driving through the country roads, especially in the winter. So my hope would be that we
kind of look at equitable access also within our districts. So we're not also taking kids who should be staying at their home schools because we're offering things that historically they wanted to take, but it's offered
somewhere else. Doctor Taylor Yeah, so this is actually a perfect example of how integrated the boundary analysis and the program analysis is. You take a look and actually, if you want to display MCPs TV, slide 28 so
that everybody can kind of see what we're we're looking at here. You're going to see a lot of programs loaded up at Poolesville. And there's a specific reason for that is that you've got a lot of capacity at Poolesville. And you also have the largest attendance zone in terms of
physical geography at the same time. So, you know, one of the benefits that that you're talking about is that there is actually opportunity to expand on exactly what you're saying, creating local pathways and maybe even thinking about the
alignment as an, as an, as an extension in, in terms of offering other things that that might have some interest. But one of the reasons why Poolesville has so many programs is tied to its boundary map. And the fact that
you have a lot of capacity in a in a building that was just rebuilt, that added a lot of additional seats. And, candidly, its attendance boundary, even though it's very geographically large, doesn't have a ton of students because it's largely rural. To fill those seats, you
you are filling them with programs. So the program relationship to the boundaries is, is a part of this conversation. So it does help drive some some of what you're talking about. But that's a that's a great suggestion and a great alignment. And it's
almost like taking a look at some of those historical patterns of, of where our kids are going and, and why they're choosing the programs that they're choosing and where they're from has to be a part of this conversation. Miss Wolff, well, I want to thank you for all this work that
you've done on this so far, because I want you to know that in my community, the black and brown families have been waiting for change. And this clearly represents some change. But I also want to say to the public and to you all, if we're
waiting for perfection, we'll be paralyzed. We'll never get it done. Now I just have one question. We heard today from any number of people that the farm's rate will increase at some schools. What kind of
supports are we thinking about when that happens for those particular schools? Are we thinking ahead about how we're going to handle that? I'll take that off of this this August
groups plate because they I'm sure, were prepared for other things today. Certainly, I think that one of the things that needs to be considered as part of the boundary study and its relationship to programs is what type of support you put in
place in terms of wraparound services, in addition to what are you looking for and in your student body to make sure that that we have not just diversity represented in these programs and a great balance of kids
both, you know, everything from racial and ethnic diversity to farms rate diversity to even having gender diversity in a lot of our programs that that historically have leaned one way or another. But but also,
what are we doing in place once our students are there so that the program retention reinforces our desired outcomes? And I think that there's a few things that we can do pretty smartly. And I think that this speaks to Miss Zimmerman's
point about getting great educators in the right space that really want to be there, but also educators that also represent that diversity and that are actively working to to recruit and retain kids and encourage them to to be a part
of of that process. I want to reemphasize one last point with this before moving on, is that every kid in M.c.p.s has access to robust mental health supports, and all too often we don't share or advertise that access and and how students can
access that on an ongoing basis. And that really needs to be kind of in the backdrop of this is, you know, what are the social emotional learning supports that that go with this co-curricular? We didn't spend an awful lot of time talking about this, but this is worth touching on. And and I love the
the health and medical science example. It's actually one of my favorite parts of this, because we have a community that has a lot of economic partners in that space. So one of the ways that we support that program is actually having extracurricular activities that
align to the programmatic offering, and what this does for students and what we know about secondary students in particular, is that if they're engaged in extracurricular activities, their attendance goes up, their interest level goes up. And so if you have a
Hosa club, coupled with your health and medical sciences academy, your retention, especially for students from historically marginalized communities, goes up because they find community. And so a part of this needs to be about
how we establish community within these programs, not just the academic side of this. The academic side is great. I mean, clearly there's a lot of work that's been done. These are great academic opportunities, but there needs to be the, the, the social component that couples along with it. And
that's been a miss for us. That's not something that we've done really well with in every program offering that we've done in the past, local or otherwise. Thank you. I just want to make a point that Miss Rivera-Oven made. You know, our middle schools need counseling.
The counselors need to know what to tell the students that they have available to them as they move on to high school multiple times. Yes, because, you know, they don't retain stuff like like they used to. But I think that has been a key
goal of mine to improve the counseling that goes on at middle schools, because many times they get even to the CTE programs, and they don't know that there was a point that they should have started earlier. Thank you, Miss Montoya. Thank you for teeing
that up. Miss Wolff. As a current new middle school parent, when upper elementary school parent as well, I see all of these basically prerequisites. Right. So if you didn't take world language in middle school now you might not get to take the whatever in high school or and I have to be
honest, sorry to all the educators in the room, but I told my middle school child, don't take a world language this year. You got all these cool options for electives. You can take that in high school if you need to. And now I'm like, well, wait a minute. Now, he might not even be able to do this program, which wouldn't
seem like it has anything to do with world languages or words. But if you didn't take it now, you might get shortchanged in this program that you really would might want to take. Right? So I get concerned, especially then for our current middle school students who may not be
on a path to get those prerequisites prior. So are we just leaving them out of the fold? We have kids that can't read or do math still, and so are they going to be able to have these options? If to do the music pathway, you also have to take a world language in middle school, right? So
that gets really concerning to me because which groups of students it is actually in one of the music, the music pathways it says you need to take start in ninth grade with World Language two, which means you need to take taken World Language one. My point is just I don't want this because I
like the model I support, just like Miss Wolff. Right? There are, quite frankly, a lot of black and Latino families and their children who are not accessing these programs already for a variety of reasons that you've already heard. And so but I want to make sure that we are not
accidentally perpetuating those inequities because our students didn't get the support they needed in elementary and middle. And so then when we go to do these all these great evaluations, and I appreciate that you have those set out, it's the it looks exactly the same as it does now just in six
regions instead of pockets. Right. So that's a serious, significant concern for me, which I would couple with perhaps on and off ramps for these programs. Maybe someone thinks they want to do biomedical and they're like, man, I just can't get this world language down, which is a great skill set. But I know a
lot of doctors who only speak one language also, so it's not necessary. Right? But if we're saying it's necessary for this pathway and for whatever reason, that language is just not their thing and they're not doing well, then are they just stuck. Right. And so just making sure you don't have to have the
answers now. Right. Those are things that we're going to get worked out as we go along. But just making sure that those are clear because some families might think, oh no, but if it doesn't work out well, then you're going to be stuck. You better just go to whatever. And I would hate to see kids losing opportunities where they could really succeed again, because
they're not really clear on the aspects. Right? So I also have a question about kind of Miss Silvestre and Miss Stewart, I believe, talked about like what's available at your home school. So I see that, for
example, regions two and three don't say theater anywhere. Well it says visual arts, performing arts, design communication. But then in some other ones, dance and theater are separated out and so is
music. So I just want to make sure. But then also to the point of some folks who came and testified today, if your child doesn't get into the criteria based arts program, and if we're only and I know this goes down to your budget, but it doesn't look like we're
allocating a lot of seats, in my opinion, for those programs across them. And so it could be that kids still don't get in even within their region. But if that's the only reason you go to school is because I just love theater. And yes, I have to get through math and science and all these things to be able
to do theater. Are you just out of luck? Same thing I could say for music or. Right, quite the opposite. So and this is whatever slide we're on right now 28 for. And you take a look at where the performing arts dance and theater and technical theater, the theater and
technical theater is interest based. So you do have seats at the home school and you have seats that that can be regionalized, for sure. And I think that the point made by several of the folks who who spoke today digitally as well
as in person, made a good one. It's like, how do you make sure you don't cannibalize the home schools program? And that we guarantee that there's a core curriculum at each school. So I think, I think that's on us. So and I just would include the higher level classes as well. I heard that mentioned. And in
looking at the pathway models, and I just want to make sure because some kids and I'm going to take a shot at our career assessments that we use, which I have some hard feelings about. Right? I don't want kids getting stuck in a box. Well, you took this career assessment
and risk says you're good at this thing. Well, maybe I am really good at math, but I also really love theater. And I'm. And so I just want to make sure that if they pick a school where they're going to, maybe they get into the criteria based some program, but they also still are really great at
math or science. Are they going to have access to those classes there as well? Because it's not fair, in my opinion, to especially at this young age. We used to do all this in college, right? But now apparently we do it in middle school and high school, which is mind blowing to me. My child just turned 11 before middle
school. I don't know that I really want him picking his career path right now, right. But so I just want to make sure that we're not sticking these kids in boxes that they can't get out of. So you're talking about a question about on ramp and off ramp. Yeah. So and also availability of other courses other than whatever pathway
they have. So so I just want to address that really quick because this is actually one of the best parts of this is that, is that the best thing that can happen is that a kid finds something that they're very passionate about, and they lean into it and they pursue it. The second best thing is that they
find something that they absolutely hate, and they save their parents a quarter of $1 million. So some of this is is helping kids find a path that that finds their interest. And in one of our earlier presentations, I want to say maybe earlier this fall, maybe
even in August, it was something we talked about was on ramps and off ramps and making sure that, you know, you're not sunk. If you get through ninth grade and you're like, oh, I thought I wanted to be a doctor or a nurse, but I just can't stand the sight of blood. Well, guess what? That's
not going to be a great fit for you. So let's find another opportunity for you that that there can be another opportunity, another swing at this, that, that you could try for another program or find something at a school that that does meet your interest. I think the, the, the fun part of
this is that puzzle piece of finding what really clicks with our students and what really inspires them at the next level, and we've got to have that off ramp. We've got to have additional on ramps that that don't. Just every every
decision can't be made in eighth grade. And that's it. You have to have another opportunity or another swing at this. When you find out that something either works or doesn't work. And so I'm sorry, are we going to have access to higher level academic classes at every school, irrespective of whether you're in IB or Stem
or. Absolutely. Okay, yes. Mr. one little housekeeping question. Will this when will this be available to the public? This right now. Right now. Okay. Someone just showed me it wasn't. Anyway, I just want to
make sure it is available in the public knows it will be available if not right now. Okay, great. Thank you. And now for my actual question. How about okay, I'm looking at the
working draft and I wanted to go to the VAC model that you have as the visual arts. I'm sorry 23. No, actually 72 I
think 72 okay. Am I am I? Yes. You're right. 72 okay. Thank you. 72 M.C.P.S. TV. Can we please put up slide 72 for all of the viewers that are
watching at home. Thank you. So my child went to the vac at Einstein. It is extremely successful in my opinion. They it is concentrating on fine
arts. Right. And I'm looking through this. And this model doesn't look exactly like what is at Einstein. And I'm curious, are you working with the Einstein teachers that have been so successful? As you know,
we just celebrated their anniversary and I think they got $9 million in scholarships just from that program. So can you talk through this? Thank you. Hi everyone. I'm Julie
Wells. I oversee visual art and dance in the curriculum office. Yes. This does not look exactly the same as what the VAC is currently doing. In conversations I've had with our amazing teachers in the VAC, we really drilled it down to what
were key components about what they're doing now that lead to the success of their students and what that end product is. Those scholarships, those career opportunities for students. And the things that those teachers shared with me was dedicated time within their content. So that's where you're
seeing these multiple blocks that are within content every year. The VAC in particular does double periods ninth grade through 12th grade. This model example dedicates double periods in 11th and 12th grade, but is expanding on that by
having multiple class periods within the arts and ninth and 10th grade, so that students could explore more media options. Currently, what the VAC app offers, which is amazing, is 2D studio portfolio based work. While they do have students who work in other
mediums in that program, the intention of this is to really provide that opportunity for students of other media to specialize and to explore those in more in depth. So what I am hoping you're seeing here is us taking the strengths that the
VAC has proven, tried and true over its 50 years, and expanding on that so that we can create wider access and variety for our students in visual arts and design. And so. But the goal is for this. I see
it as a fine arts, mainly fine arts pathway, although there is some expansion into more digital art. So what I'm putting here are really a lot of options, right? Because we will ultimately in the schools that these are stood up,
there's going to be some variance depending on what's happening at the school. So you're seeing a lot of options because we have a lot of different media within the arts and a lot of different assets at different schools in our county. So that's why you're seeing that. So it might not be
a carbon copy. No, the intention is not to have a complete replication. And the intention is also not to change what the VAC is doing. So my last question on this subject is but at the end, every in any region you are at, if you
participate in this, you would leave with an amazing portfolio that you would have at the end. So if you wanted to go to art school, you would have an amazing portfolio. Yeah, which is true at your local program as well and local programing too. So this is really showing is that dedicated time and
content, and every student in any program in high school for the arts can leave with the same things. We're taking what was really strong with the VAC and implementing that with this, with that extra time and content. Thank you. I have another strand of questioning. We're going to have another round. We're going to have
another round. I have a question about program, about language immersion programs. So if we look at slide 26 right now we have French immersion, Chinese immersion, Spanish immersion. Some are two way,
some are one way. And for the French and Maryville or Chinese Potomac or other schools, they have a program in the elementary school. But at the middle school kind of is just take a language course. And the
high school, I don't know what even happened in high school. So can you elaborate a little bit about the Faith of immersion program? A lot of parents are very concerned, and I also heard about the
articulation. Somehow after middle school, it's not going to happen. So I want to understand what are we doing with language immersion program. Introduce yourself first. Good afternoon. Vanden Plas pre-K 12 World languages. It's great to
be here and to talk about world languages here. A lot of energy. Let's keep it going. So immersion is alive and well. I want to frame it just a little bit because sometimes we use terms that are not always
correct. So we have one way immersion programs that are lottery based in seven elementary schools. Choice programs, Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish. We have two way immersion programs that are
whole school programs in six sites. At the middle school level, we have seven hubs. Continuation for Mandarin Chinese. At Hoover, we have French at Gaithersburg Middle
School and Silver Spring International. And then I don't have my notes with me, but I hope I'm not going to forgetting any any schools. We have Spanish at Sims, Spanish at Westland, Spanish at Gaithersburg Middle School, Spanish at Odessa, Odessa,
Shannon, and Spanish at Newport Mill. I hope I didn't forget anyone. Okay, at the high school level, students automatically enter into level four. That's the entry point.
That's what we have now. And they take one class of that target language. At the middle school level. They are taking two classes for French and Spanish. They have a French language acquisition class. It's not a French one. It's a
French immersion class level one. And then in seventh grade French immersion level two, French immersion level three. At the same time, they also take a social studies class in the same language. So it's two classes. That's the package
deal. In order to be in that continuation program, you must take those two classes. We have the same thing for Spanish. Mandarin Chinese is slightly different. It's only one class in sixth grade. This is program has been in place for many years. And as you said, we are
sometimes in different places because of changes from the community, changes in requests. I'm not quite understanding about what happened in high school. At the high school level, we have never had a
continuation immersion. We've never had that. So are you saying all the students in the immersion program and then they go to a middle school hub, and after the middle school hub, they should just go back to their to their local programs,
to their local high schools. Yes. To go back to their local high school for the language. What if the local high school don't have that language? Well, they could they could ask for a cosign, but most of them do for French. And Spanish is offered at every high school except for
French. We're we're getting back to Damascus High School. But that has never been an issue for Mandarin Chinese. They usually articulate from Hoover to Churchill. Okay. So program is really in elementary school. That is correct. So why
why does this list Winston Churchill as a language I what interest. So then that's not different from any other high school. Any other high school have language foreign language offer world language offer. Why does it make it a program in
listed in this program? Strength because of well this is one of the the asks for the programs correct. This is not an immersion continuation program. So every school has world language. What make this
a regional program? The language that we have up here when we presented it before, it's the less common languages. So it will maybe be Arabic, Amharic, Russian. So French and Spanish are common among all of our high schools. But because
those those are difficult to staff, but they are sorely desired by students, we want to have language options for less common languages in each of the regions. So that's why it's listed as a region. So we will clarify that because that's a
region might have different language offer. Correct? Okay. Thank you for that question. I'm going to go for second round Miss Maroon. All right. So I know we've had a very long conversation about high school programs, but we actually haven't noted what's going on
with middle school programs yet. And especially our K through eight pipeline. I think that if, for example, the data I requested earlier with my previous question does entail that students were actually choosing programs based on the school rather than the program
itself, then we need to look at what's going to happen. For if we add a Stem program in, for example, the neck consortium area, will the students actually truly want to attend that program, or did they simply want that program because it was at Blair?
Instead? It's a very important thing to look at. And especially in, for example, the DCC, right? We had Takoma Park, a program in that school that was purely based on bolstering and truly supporting students on the Stem field. And if that
does not exist in the neck area, then how can we ensure that our students in that area are truly represented and ready when the Stem program for high school does appear? So I think it's a great question. Our goal is to ensure that all of our middle
school students are well aware of all of the programs that are available to them in their region, and that we are providing all of our middle school students the rigorous opportunities so that they can access those programs. We are
not yet at a place where we're ready to talk about middle school programs and changes to middle school, but what we are definitely committed to doing is ensuring that they have some type of opportunity. We haven't quite designed it yet to learn
about all of the of the program themes, and so that when it's time for them to apply to those program themes, they are ready to do so. But we want to make sure that it really shouldn't matter what middle school you
go to, you are able to apply to any of the regional high schools in that area. No, and I truly do appreciate the idea of providing that opportunity and that access. But my biggest issue is right, I was lucky enough right when I got into
Blair Magnet, to have teachers in a community and a family that supported me, and even though I didn't come from a middle school program, that helped me, right. Or at least I had the access to that opportunity to adapt easily to the classes that are offered. What will happen to those
students in that area, especially if, again, if the data does reflect that students were trying to go to these schools based on the name of the school and not for the program itself to. The data that we have shows that there are students who want science,
math, computer science, and based on the the their address they had in Up county that they can apply to or the down county one they can apply to. So they applied to Blair if their address deemed it, or to the Poolesville site. So there may be other motivations why
students might go to want to go to these other schools. And we have learned from some of our students that sometimes it's not the program, it is the co-curriculars. It is the vibrancy of the opportunities at that school. But we are using the data that says that there are numbers of students
across the county that have applied to all the programs, a variety of different programs. Some of the students got invited, accepted. Some of the students are on waitlists. So that's the information that we're using to indicate to us that these are highly sought
after programs. So what we believe also that Miss Porter said earlier in her presentation is that this model, because we are reducing the barriers and we're creating opportunity, we anticipate an increased interest in the
applications. And so we plan after the March decision. If it's in favor of this process, to start with our grade seven families immediately to start talking about these opportunities, because we have enough data for years, 20 years
worth of data. Well, that's how long I've been in the office. But 20 years worth of data that indicates the trends and interests of families. Even when we've opened up new programs, we continue to see a very steady interest in math, science, computer science, humanities at Poolesville there,
just because those programs have been very entrenched in the community. I'm not. Am I getting to some of your I don't disagree that there's an interest I truly do believe, especially with I mean, what did you guys say, 800 students on the waitlist for any number of programs, right. That do not 2000 2000. Right. That's
obviously an absurd amount. But my biggest concern is just we haven't looked at the middle school programs, or at least the board hasn't seen any data on what's happening with that. And I think that as important as high school programs are, the K through eight pipelines are what matters more with supporting our students. That's where the inequities are truly
starting from. I mean, I Miss Montoya has echoed that and so is Miss Wolff and so is so many other so many of my colleagues as well, that that's what truly matters. And I really hope to see data on that soon. All right. I want to close this out really quick and kind of cut to the chase. I think the
objective here is to make sure that every middle school is adequately preparing students for these opportunities. I mean, that's really what the goal is. So you don't have to have a unique program at a middle school to feed into another program. As a matter of fact, when you look at our program
enrollments today, some are coming from unique programs and some are not. And there shouldn't be an advantage just because you're you're in a unique program in a middle school to access some of these programs. That's really the point. Follow up, Doctor Taylor,
clarify when you. Do your recommendation to the board for your secondary programing. Would that include middle school or it will just stay with high school? No, it definitely will include middle school for sure. And I think you'll be relieved to know that
it would involve a very few changes other than to shore up what we have in terms of scope and sequence, to make sure that everybody is prepared for the next step. Okay, Miss Zimmerman, thank you. And my question is actually really quite along the
same lines here. I think it would be helpful for us to see some of this data as we're talking about, like we have it, we know who's interested, but as we're talking about shifting it to a regional model, if we could see it geographically as
well, I think that will like if this is the move that we choose to make, being able to see in which regions we have this interest, that will help us be able to see that. I know we've talked about the data that we have. Do we have data? I know they're young in fourth through
seventh grade, but that's who's really going to be affected the most kind of in our first round by this. Do we have data for those students and their interests. And if we're able to get that data on their interests, I think that will also help us see if this
regional move will support their interests going forward. And I'm not saying we got to lock in a nine year old on what they have to do for the rest of their life, but if we're noticing that a lot of them are really interested in some of these programs, that that lets us know how we plan to move
forward. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Silvestre. Yeah, since we have Blair and Einstein parents here, if we could go to slide 23, region one. So could you
talk to me about seats? So again, I think that my kids should be able to stay in their neighborhood school and have awesome arts programing, awesome Stem programing, awesome humanities programing. But should we, you know, have an outlier that wants to do
something very specialized? Could you help me understand how the seat capacity is going to work and the difference between seats for the neighborhood school and seats for the region, and how and then the the is that going to
give more options, more seats than we currently have or fewer or the same. Thanks. All right. Before you guys jump in real quick, this is tiptoeing into the next section on budget. And I and I will say that this also
emphasizes the relationship between boundaries and programs. How many seats you offer directly impacts the size of your attendance zone. So that is a critical part of this, that we haven't spent an awful lot of time talking about. But some programs might lend
themselves to to have more seat capacity than others, but their attendance boundary might stretch their capacity. So we are selective and sensitive to that to make sure that we're we're not overstuffing a school, you need to look really no
further than Blair or or Walter Johnson to see that, you know, even with programmatic opportunities, that you have to be sensitive to the fact that you need to adjust the attendance boundaries so that you don't get a school that's overstuffed, like a couple of
the ones that we have. So. So I don't know if you want to add anything, but but we do have an example for region four because that was like we just picked a region to kind of showcase. But I don't know if it's worth talking through that. Now to answer, Miss Silvestri's, can
we go to slide 88? Well. That might be eight, eight 888. I know they're probably surprised I said 88. That's the budget page okay. I'll support. All
righty. This is a model budget. It illustrates projected year one costs for region four including student seats, personnel for program development materials and professional learning across all schools and pathways in the region. Individual program
costs will vary. This model reflects an estimated average in each category. The estimates are intentionally conservative and likely overstate total cost, as some items, such as teachers who have been trained for existing programs that are being elevated as regional,
they're already funded and operational within existing budgets. There are several caveats. Oh, there's several caveats here to consider when you're reviewing the budget, but a few key points to note.
The budget includes personnel to develop and manage pathways, as well as stipends for teachers leading after school program experiences. It also includes funds for student opportunities such as field trips, competition competition fees, those registration fees for student organizations, and additional tuition support for
middle college students. Again, this is a conservative model intended to illustrate the projected fiscal impact of launching programs in a six region model. Can we go back to slide 88? I want to get to your question, Miss Silvestre. So in
region four, this is an example. The seats that you see in the second column says projected year one seat. These are the minimums. So we are suggesting for grade nine while students are in grade eight that for Richard Montgomery High School we have the three pathways
you'll see in the program. So there's a total of 105 seats. So that means that the IB program would have we're proposing 60 seats. Dance would have 30, and theater may have 15 or 30. Sorry. So but it is a
total of 105. Can you differentiate between local seats and regional seats. Correct. Yeah. So this is a proposal just for out of area seats. So we wanted to make sure that that was clear in some of our current models with
our regional and countywide programs. Now we have some of our interest based programs that provide unlimited local access to some of our interest based programs. And then for some of our criteria based programs, we have local set asides. So those are what we're
examining for our criteria based. We are proposing to have a section of 25 to 30 local set asides for qualified students at their program at their school. So an example, Richard Montgomery High School for the
IB program, they would have 60 out of area grade nine seats. In addition, they would have 25 to 30 local set aside seats, such as our existing model, because we want to ensure that local students are not squeezed out of a program at their school. That's different from
the current that it's it's the same model, but the current model for seats at Richard Montgomery currently offers 100 seats, but it's because they pull from 25 high schools in this model. They're pulling from four. And so can you just say those numbers one more time?
So for Richard Montgomery High School's IB program, we're proposing 60 out of area seats for grade nine, with an additional section between 25 to 30. Set aside seats for local qualified students. Okay. So that number for year one is
per program, not for all three of those programs IB, dance and theater. So it would be about 105 for IB 105, no 105 for all three local students because that's not local. So about 30 students from the other schools for each one of those programs.
No not exactly. She gave a different split. But and this is only ninth grade. So you want to give the split again between IB dance and theater. As a as a minimum. I have my glasses on now, Miss Montoya.
So 60 out of area seats for the IB program. Then we'd have for the the dance program. That would be 30 seats out of area. And then for the theater technical, that would be 15
interest based seats out of area, because all four of those high schools, only 15 kids from the other, the other three high schools, only 15 kids from the other three high schools have a shot of getting into this program. At a minimum. This is a minimum number. And the
reason why we are proposing going with these conservative numbers at this point is because this is the first infrastructure we have with every single school having a regional program. We also have a commitment to not over
utilizing the buildings, and we also do not have trend data for some of our programs. We don't have trend data for performing arts. We don't have trend data for designing communication. We have a variety of different programs. So what happens,
which is really great in grade eight, is that when students apply, they apply in November. They get information. In January. We send out results in January. Now students sometimes apply up to 5 or 6 programs.
They can only accept one. So after they accept one, then we are able to offer additional seats to students. So we are able to fill all of the seats. But we don't have to do it all at one time because we want to
also see what the interest is for some of our programs. And then we also want to see what vacancies we have. And so the 15th May appear like a low number, but should we have continued interest and we have space at the building, we want to be able to send more students at the buildings. But
we want we know the community wants a number and so we need to commit to a number, but we don't want to over promise and then get into the same situation again with over utilizing the building. So I make sure my question gets answered after all this. Go ahead. I just wanted to maybe
take one step back and just outline that, you know, as Miss Franklin just said, we we have to start a model somewhere. And so we're starting it with some of the base information that we have, some of the trend and interest information that we have. But our ultimate goal is, as Doctor Taylor was saying,
that this be a minimum. We want the programs to be able to be responsive to student interests. So we have the interest based programs, we have the criteria based programs. And our goals really are to be flexible, responsive and respond to the
applications that we get and the student interest that we get. As we said, there's a lot that we are learning as we do this, and there will be a lot that we learn as we receive that first round of information and interest based sessions, and then we can scale up. I think the budget that we've
presented here is helpful to look at as a model of o scalable model, right. This gives us an indication of an order of magnitude of what this model would look like if we had a lot of applications for dance, and all of a sudden we needed to double the dance program,
then we would know what we would need to add in order to respond to that. So we wanted to present the information today again to show the elements of the analysis that we can work with to scale up. These are not final numbers in terms of this is the only number of seats we can have.
Thank you, Miss Stewart. Okay, hang with me. On page four. I think we talked about this was actually about the the boundaries. But this does intersect with this. So just
keep with me for a second. Page four. None of those. What you pulled from feedback, none of it included anything about demographics. Not one of those got into demographics. And now
with programing, you know, I think I don't know if that's going to be a consideration at all in the way our schools are going to be. Boundaried. Okay. So first of all, I, we just
heard from a big group of parents saying, yeah, we care about demographics. So as we look through this process of boundaries and programs, I would like to see if we do get
more input on demographics because more parents and more people are taking notice and there is more outreach, etc. So I would just like to be open to collecting more feedback data and maybe updating that slide at some point. We'll see. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe no one cares
about demographics, but I don't think that's correct. And I care about it. And as a board, guess what? We have to care about it because it's in our policy. Okay. So now that that's got that out of the way, let's talk about. Exactly this
same subject in our programing and how we are going to fill these program seats. So if we we can go back to. I don't know if I have the right page, but it's the one where you
introduce all the regions and what they're going to have in each region. And so. I think it's 28 is one of the pages,
but I will, I will look at. The region. 128 and so can you explain to me that how Bethesda, Chevy Chase, having the IB looking at the demographics
that are current IB program at Richard Montgomery, and supposedly these are going to be like at that very high level, will. And right now, Bethesda Chevy Chase High School pretty much has its same overall boundaries. And they do look it
looks a bit different than the neighboring schools. So how are we will this make this school less diverse with the IB program there? Or is there a way we can make it more diverse?
And so this kind of goes throughout. I'm sure there's other regions that have the same kind of this is going to be riddled with caveats, because this assumes quite a lot. And if you guys want to scale back to the region, one
okay. Very good. Thank you. You got a couple of things going on here for sure. If you assume boundary maps as they're presented, which is a big assumption. Okay then yes. What
you are likely to see from your out non-local school application pool would add diversity to that school. So yes. But that but that assumes a lot in that space. But yes
that there you're increasing your probability of diversity by offering a variety of programs at every school. It's just, you know, Bethesda Chevy Chase only has International Baccalaureate. So I want I mean, is that part of the calculus
when you're looking at applicants? We looked at school assets. We really focus on school assets. And then we did use information from our principals. We had a lot of
community feedback, and we used all of those pieces. We anticipate that all of our students just in our county have a very big interest in program programs, because we have 25% of our students
applying. And our current model where we have suggested that there are inequitable models and equitable practices. So we anticipate that number to go up. So I think you're asking, do we anticipate that we're going to see diversity in at B-cc as a result of the program
placements as an example. But when you are looking at program, how do you determine who will actually get those spots? Because I are you do you think that everyone who applies to IB will just go there? And then
how do you know what that pool is going to look at? And this is I've had people come up to me that say. Some of our students won't even be able to access this particular program at all, because we are scores
like in math especially. We need to see those scores go up so they could be ready for these programs. Right. And so I'm just I don't want to make our schools less diverse at the end of this process, because we
would actually be failing in our jobs if that happened. Point taken, Miss Stuart. Point taken. Thank you. I do want to just take a look at the BCS demographic actually is minority majority school. I, I
my question diversity economic good point good point I want to I want you to explain a little bit about criteria based and interest based. When you interest base is very easy to
understand, students like to do something and we want to nurture their interest. What's criteria? What does that provide us in school system? We
want to meet the we want to differentiate. We want to meet the needs of all students. So what what is your criteria base. So in our current model we have that visual arts center as an example. The visual arts center is portfolio based. So student
submissions would be a portfolio where a team of teachers or a team of staff would review and then make recommendations. Who would be a candidate for the program. So student student work criteria based for the humanities
program. That project lead the way program at Wheaton High School, the science, science, math, community computer science program at Blair and Poolesville. Those look at multiple academic measures. So we would look at grade seven
and eight grades. The courses that they participate in. We would also look at brief essay responses that they submit and also their math scores. Math scores, map and map are to create an academic profile, and then a rubric is used by a
trained team to look at all of the students. So if there are 900 students that apply, 900 students are evaluated and made recommendations on the degree of need they have for a program. So that's a model that we have currently, and we are investigating whether we need to grow that. And so we need to
benchmark with other systems. Thank you for explaining the selection process. But can you tell me once they are selected in a criteria program, are we meeting the needs of the above grade level? Are we teaching
above grade? Are we trying to aim at on grade? Are we? What are we doing? Criteria based programs are generally advanced level programs okay. So so that that is the curriculum offering. Thank you. I want you to finish
you still have more slides. So let's really let's really finish that part. We really just transportation okay. We really have two more slides I promise okay. So we talk about budget. We talk about the program offering. We talk about the evaluation. Now you're on
transportation and and community engagement okay. And then we will be we will wrap it up okay. Can we go to slide 89 please. Look at all the ones we
skipped. This is the one okay for this region in year one. Well actually year one through three we anticipate needing about four additional busses during the first three years as we transition between models. As we've shared in previous
presentations, there will be roughly a three year overlap, a time when some students are completing programs under the current model, while others are beginning the new one one grade at a time. This budget is a model designed to illustrate how costs may look during that transition period. A region
with five schools will naturally have higher costs. Overall, we estimate it will cost approximately $1 million per region for transportation, personnel, professional learning, and other start up expenses. Okay, let's advance
to slide 91. Hold on. Hang on a quick second. Oh, yeah. Just wanted to talk a little bit more about the transportation model. So this is obviously based on current information. And it is a conservative
estimate like miss McLean just said. So the one time cost for the additional busses, it does not take into account any potential reductions that we could see. As the countywide programs are phased out over time. However, I do would like
to point out that regardless of the model that we choose, there is going to be an increase in cost because of the grandfathering. So in the initial years there will be some additional additional costs. But as the grandfathering phases out, the
cost would be be reduced. We also do maintain a surplus number of busses that serve as substitute vehicles, so we could be able to leverage that some of those busses in order to reduce our transportation
cost for the region. Specifically, as miss McLean mentioned, we did anticipate needing four busses, and then we also assumed that, you know, some of the the assumptions that we based it on is that for program ridership, there would
be 95% ridership versus the local busses. That typically has a 70% ridership that we see. And so this is based on the difference. And, you know, obviously, as I said, you know, there will be some increased cost in the beginning because
of the grandfathering as part of the boundary studies. But as, as, you know, as the grandfathering slowly ends, you know, you're number two year number three, the cost should reduce. That's not reflected here. The grandfathering is not
reflected on the grandfather is not. This is not because your grandfathering is going to be reflective of whatever changes you make for boundary. So okay. Any more slides. Yes, ma'am. Let's go to slide 91. So we
have several community opportunities for engagement in October and November including informational sessions, sessions for all families and regional sessions for families of grade six and seven students. At these sessions, we'll share information about where we are
with the proposed model and pathways, as well as gather information, feedback and questions from families to further refine our work, we will have extensive outreach to the Spanish community via the news media and Facebook Live.
At each of our meetings and virtual sessions, we will have English, Spanish, and American Sign Language services. We will continue to meet with community partners and provide community updates via social media, email, text and newsletters. The next
slide gives more specific information on the informational sessions on the 22nd of October and the 27th of October. We have two sessions each of those days, one at 12 and one at six. We will be providing more information for
the locations and dates for the informational sessions for our families of grade seven, six and seven students. That information will come directly from our communications team. And I think we've come to the end. All right. We're going.
I'm sure there's more questions. I'm going to go. One more round of questions. Mr. sorry, but I didn't get oh, that's right, that's right before. And I've been very patient. Thank you. So thank you. Thank you so much for your presentation at the
council meeting last last week was it. And I didn't see I didn't see in this presentation you talked about online options. Can you elaborate on that a little bit. What what does that
mean. What does that look like? I thought that if there was not enough, if there was not enough enrollment, you would have an option for online. And I just want us to be very cautious with that, because we know historically from Covid that
not every child does well online. So I, I just I haven't heard that in this presentation. If you could just quickly because I think it is important. Yes. Thank you. During that presentation we shared the
feedback from the design team about what needed to happen in each of the local schools. And one of the things that the team raised was using digital learning platforms as a way to close access, to provide more access to students. And so in the event that a course, for
example, wasn't offered in a particular building, was there a way that we could digitally allow students to participate? And so that would be a model that would be different than what we'd have, we would have done in virtual learning. But that's something that we're investigating to see if that
will line up with some of the needs that we have moving forward. Okay. And then I appreciate Doctor Taylor's answer about this. The the six option where Clarksburg High School is, because I truly believe it would really trying
to tackle equity. And I know I understand that Poolesville High School will be under roll, but that's not enough reason to to you know, to say because if we're if we're looking at an equities, then I guess we're trying to get away from the
status quo. And if we don't do that, that's going to be part of the status quo. So I just would like us to be cautious about that. And am I hearing you right when. Because I think this needs to be clarified one more time. The reason why you're going to start with the 15 students and so on, because
you're being conservative, right? Because that would be your baseline. That is not actually what the final model will look like. That would be your baseline because we don't know yet. We still need to look at the boundary studies. We need to finalize it. So you'll then have a better idea later
on. But from from folks and including the council and others who want to have at least an idea of a budget, an idea of of a budget for transportation, this is where you're starting now as a very conservative measure. Yes, that
is correct. Okay. No. Thank you. I think that is that is important. And the last thing I'm going to I'm going to say when I look where was the last slide with everything you guys are going to do for outreach is that I really I would really
encourage you that when you're doing the boundary studies presentation that you have, the folks from the programs at the same meeting at the same time, because if the if we're truly talking about that, they go hand in hand. And I look at
this as a marriage. Right. And you want to you you need to have both parts so you can answer the questions of the, of the community. So because I am we are hearing, you know, that one got off the start a little bit faster than the others. So
we're kind of playing catch up that you have both components at these meetings so people can ask their questions and we can clarify it. And if there's a question because I know there was a question about there was a statement about Kennedy High School being under-enrolled by
60% at the council meeting last week. And I just want to, for the record, from talking that that was not accurate. So I think accurate information is really, really important in this dialog because when we don't clarify things, they
become facts. So I don't know if anybody wants to talk about that. Or maybe they meant the IB program, but but it just you know, when you say Kennedy High School is under enrolled by 60%, I started getting texts right
away. And so if we can please clarify for the public that that is not factual. So that so you're correct. That's not correct. That was a statement, you know, made by an official in the course of the discussion. And you're right, we weren't
able to correct that at the table. But it is Kennedy is not under enrolled anywhere near to that degree. And I think, you know, one, one, one important piece, I think, to keep in mind as we're talking through all of
these different dynamics, we do have a lot of data that we are learning from. We also know we have data. That is what we don't want to replicate. And so what we want to do is have opportunities and experiences at every school that will create that interest. And every
school will have interest from some students at in their local school. And it will have interest from some students in other schools. And and there will be flexibility in that respect. So the point to all of which is that I think if you some of the current enrollment patterns are not necessarily
going to be applicable as we move forward. And since we used the theaters and so on. I'm a theater mom, since we use a theater a lot as an example on a lot of these things like Richmond, Montgomery and so on. This is not to say that the theater program that Richard Montgomery has, like the local, you know, the local program
that many of us, you know, stay up till 10:00 with rehearsals and and all that good stuff. It's not going away. Correct. So I just also want that to be clarified to the community because they're thinking, well, they're going to bring this regional program. So that means
we're going to disappear or there's not going to be support for us. I think this these programs are for kids who are truly playing with the idea that this is a career pathway for them. Correct. But then you
have the other kids, like my kids who did baseball, but they also were amazing singers and they were part of the play, and that those opportunities are still there. And the last thing I'm going to say is this, that our at least my biggest dream
as a board member is that this also, you know, helps support schools that don't have the support. So our kids can be a level of English, math, you know, science. Right. And that we concentrate that in elementary school. And like
some of my other board members say middle school, the support that they need so they can actually take advantage of all these programs, that is at the core of everything we do. Right to bring back, to raise everyone up to a level of academics that 90% of our kids,
when they graduate, can read a level, can do math, a level can do science a level so they don't have to be taking remission. Classes are our local institutions. So that is my hope that this is also, you know, going to and the opportunities that come with it. So I thank you for your work.
And I know there will be a lot more questions. And I think the public engagement is so important. So thank you for coming out of the paradigm out of this, you know, and being able to to be able to present that to the community, make ourselves available for that conversation that is vital to
this process. Thank you. Mr. Sure. I just want to make sure I have the information about the Richard Montgomery applications. So of all the applications, not the ones that got in, but the applications,
do we have the demographic breakdown of that? There's an annual memo that the board received. I will go take a look. Thank you. And also I want to make sure that it is on the
record that I would like to see some kind of community engagement that maybe, I don't know if we call it a town hall or a special opportunity to
weigh in on this so they wouldn't have to vie for like the 20 seats here, but an opportunity to hear from the public in a more robust manner. Thank you, Miss Wolff. Thank
you again. I want to thank you for this presentation. It's been excellent. You really covered a lot of the the information that we've been seeking. But I just want to know one can I get a breakdown of your community conversations
in district five specifically, and whether or not they were boundary program evaluation or both? You got excuse me. I don't know what this is. The other thing is, on your community engagement slide, you know, people who have a white
collar job can be online at 12 to 1. But a lot of people in my community may not be able to be online from 12 to 1, but 6 to 7 is not a desirable time either. They need time to get home, get their kids fed and do that kind
of thing. So I wonder if you've ever considered that maybe you need to do that a little later. I noticed a lot of our PTAs do theirs at 8:00, and they seem to get pretty good attendance. I just don't think 6:00 is a desirable time for a virtual
session for families. Likewise, I think I understand why you say informational sessions for families of grade six and seven, because those are the students who are most likely going to start to be affected. But I don't think you should say that.
I mean, you could make it a subtext. I think informational sessions for families should be open to anybody who might have missed whatever other informational sessions you had. You might want to specifically say something about if your child is in sixth or seventh
grade, realize that they will be impacted. They will be the first level impacted by this, but I don't if you do it this way. A lot of my families, you know, they're going to say, okay, I don't have a kid in sixth or seventh grade, but yet they haven't heard anything else either, and they still
need the information. So thank youn I just break in? Because I'm so sorry, I forgot to say thank you. Thank you so much. This is amazing work, I appreciate it, I appreciate you, and maybe it doesn't always come off that way, but I think this is an amazing opportunity
to not have the status quo. One of our folks in the beginning said it's not okay to stay the same, and I agree it's not okay to stay the same. So thank you so much. I'm very excited to
see middle college program is duplicated in each region. It's a wonderful not only academic opportunity financially. I think it's a very big help to our families. I'm happy to see
medical science and health care is duplicated in each region. That is an education pipeline that serve our local medical industry, that they are short of these people and it provide
our students CTE opportunities, which is so important for us to do pathways for students who are looking for career after high school. Now, my question is on your budget. Your budget.
Give me give us a one year estimate. I appreciate that. I know that we have to make a lot of assumptions. No one should be should be like tied to this numbers. Right? But it gives us an idea if this is going to go
into four years because we are rolling out one year at a time, what are the is the personnel cost going to double for three more, duplicate three more times? Or we are only looking
at material or professional learning to be increasing. So there's a couple things in here that I'm just looking at right off the top that that you'll see some changes. Your your personnel costs are are going
to grow by 0.2 and per site in year two and 0.2 in year three. But then stay flat. So you're you're not you're not jacking up your personnel costs your materials costs. They're a little high, as they're stated
right here. Because this assumes like literally starting from scratch and we're not starting from scratch. The other thing that this assumes, too, is that they we actually put in tuition costs for middle college at, at at Rockville High School. And they don't
start tuition until 11th grade. So it's overinflated. But it's good for for like a benchmark. It's kind of good to know. I think the professional learning costs assume startup not ongoing. So I think you're going to see that drop as well. Okay. You you it is smart to to
think about your most expensive year and your most expensive years in anything is going to be your your first launch year. So this is a good benchmark to think about. And what you're, you're thinking about is, like all in ongoing costs is less
than than 1 million per region. And that's that's about that's about right. When you take into consideration transportation, ongoing expenses, and you take into consideration all of these other factors, I'd say that this probably accounts for 90
plus percent of the factors. And there's also opportunities for enhancements that we haven't thought of yet. Like there may be a school that wants to start a specialty robotics club or something like that, and that's not accounted for here or something along those lines. But but it's a
good starting place and, and I'd say a pretty accurate sample model that's very conservative with high numbers out of the gate, just so that folks can get an idea of it. I appreciate having the budget and transportation estimate.
Thank you. I think that will conclude. I know that very quickly, just very quickly. I just wanted to also say, because my my colleague Miss Montoya had to leave, she also wanted to convey how thankful she is for your work, and she appreciates all that. But like
many moms who juggle children and other things, she had to go get her kiddos. But she will be joining back in a little bit. So okay, thanks. I know that we will continue this conversation next month, and also look forward to receiving the middle
school. Any update about the middle school programs and. We will we will say again, really need to engage our staff administrator and community
member so that they can fully understand and contribute before we make final decisions. We also have the option to also have the option to hold public hearing in the spring. In terms
of boundary and program, I want the community to know that. Okay, I almost want to call it a day, but we have two more items on the agenda. I know that the staff has been at it for quite a bit. We'll take a
short five minute break and then come back for curriculum
update. Thank you everyone. We
are going to go on to our item 9.1, which is curriculum update. Doctor Taylor. Thank you, Madam President. Today's presentation will provide an overview of ongoing curriculum work across Montgomery County Public Schools. This is an essential
ingredient to high quality instruction. Today's presentation will also emphasize alignment with the new Maryland State Department of Education standards, instructional quality, and strategic coherence over multiple years. Our work continues to be guided by the
M.c.p.s. Future Strategic plan, ensuring that every curriculum decision directly supports student achievement, equity, and readiness for post-secondary success. And back at the table for another round is our Chief Academic Officer, Mrs. Nikki Porter. And
team. Thank you. Good afternoon. Today we will share an overview of how M.c.p.s. Is updating its core curriculum to align with state standards, while continuing to prioritize instructional excellence, equity, and accountability. This update reflects our
ongoing effort to ensure that every student in every classroom receives high quality, engaging instruction that prepares them for success. So this year's major updates include progress on our Ela curriculum, adoption, particularly at our middle
school level, our math policy implications, and the development of a new middle school social studies curriculum. And I do want to just acknowledge Mr. Himes, who gave testimony today about AI, even though that is not a part of our presentation today. I do want to acknowledge that that
is something that we are engaging in, having conversations with our technology office and our library media team to really talk about how we can begin that work for our students. Next slide. So as stated, the
curriculum updates are directly aligned to strategic plan goals one and two. Every curriculum decision is rooted in these goals, ensuring coherence between what students learn, how teachers teach, and how we measure growth. So I'm going to turn it over now to Miss Brandt
who will continue with the presentation. Good afternoon, Doctor Taylor. President Yang and members of the board. My name is Stephanie Brandt, director, curriculum, implementation and School Support in the Division of Teaching and Learning. The Maryland State Department of
Education has introduced several key updates to the Maryland college and career ready standards, including refinements to content area frameworks. These changes require districts to ensure that materials and instruction are fully aligned, not just in
content, but also in depth of knowledge and assessment readiness. We've developed a systematic process to review implications across grade levels, providing M.C.P.S. leaders and teachers with the necessary resources and professional learning for
smooth implementation. Our curriculum review process is guided by regulation Ifakara, which establishes a structured five year review cycle for all core content areas. As seen on
this slide, this cycle ensures that every subject receives a deep, comprehensive review on a regular basis, keeping our curriculum relevant, rigorous, and responsive. Each year. At least one area of the curriculum is reported to the
board for review and decision and discussion, allowing us to maintain transparency and alignment with district priorities. This long term approach strikes a balance between stability, providing teachers with consistent frameworks and innovation as we
continually update our content to reflect new standards, research, and student needs. This structured approach allows us to monitor implementation fidelity, resource quality, and alignment with both state standards and district
priorities. On this slide, you'll notice in elementary, our focus remains on early literacy acceleration through the continued implementation of Core Knowledge Language Arts, which we refer to as CLA. That
curriculum is in its second year. We're analyzing feedback from the field to ensure the rollout maintains both rigor and teacher support on the math side, through the upcoming grades. Kindergarten through eighth grade, math curriculum,
request for proposal or RFP. We're seeking high quality, research based instructional materials that align with updated state standards and reflect best practices in mathematics education. The RFP process includes from teachers, school leaders, and community
members to ensure that the curricular materials we select are not only effective, but also practical and engaging in the classroom. Lastly, we want to highlight year one of implementation for our kindergarten through grade 12
literacy interventions, which support our students receiving tier three intervention. The upcoming math request for proposal represents a significant step in modernizing our math curriculum to align
with the latest Msde standards and math policy, we are prioritizing open source materials that emphasize conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and problem solving, and are supported by both digital and print
resources. The process includes input from teachers, leaders, and the community to ensure both instructional quality and accessibility. Ultimately, we aim to provide a cohesive, vertically aligned math experience that supports every
learner, from foundational concepts in elementary school to advanced coursework in middle school. This slide reflects secondary changes which highlight the implementation of Core Knowledge Language Arts, or CLA
curriculum at the middle school level for the first year to align instruction for students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade and our new grade ten English Language Arts curriculum. At the secondary level, we're hopeful to advance
through the development of the grade six and seventh Social Studies curriculum, which is designed to deepen global awareness and critical thinking. This work includes complete alignment with the state's new framework and integration of inquiry based, culturally
responsive instruction. Additionally, our humanities curriculum review process will ensure compliance with the high quality instructional materials mandate and ensure coherence between English language arts and social studies instruction
in an interdisciplinary way. At Eastern and Martin Luther King Junior Middle Schools in their Humanities and Communication magnet programs. I'll now turn things over to Tracy Oliver Gary, the pre-K to 12th grade social studies supervisor. Good
afternoon, Doctor Taylor and board members. The proposed grade six and seven social studies curriculum development builds stronger geographic and global foundations connecting the world in which our students live to a broader world context.
The curriculum emphasizes critical thinking, civic engagement, and historical competency. Additionally, we will continue to include our financial literacy learning in grade seven as well. Approval of this development process
allows our team to begin the creation of the new curriculum. This revision is about helping students understand their place in an interconnected world. Lessons will be designed around compelling geographic questions
and inquiry based learning, using primary sources reflective of diverse perspectives. Students will examine global issues to understand how people of different backgrounds experience historical and current day events. Building skills essential for civic
literacy and global readiness, using their knowledge using excuse me and using the knowledge that they will gain, students will continue their learning from elementary on how to take informed action in their schools and communities. Today, within the provided
projected budget, we are seeking funds to pay an external consultant to host community listening sessions as part of our preparation to write new learning for grade seven students on the Middle East, in particular, regional conflicts, diplomacy efforts,
and how ongoing attempts at peace and cooperation define meaning and the status of Jerusalem within the region. This will continue. I mean, this will ensure that M.C.P.S. remains neutral as we engage with our community members. We
will we will be conducting a review process to select a new English language arts curriculum that supports critical and rigorous reading, writing and argumentation within authentic historical and cultural contexts. The curriculum selected will be
customized to support the interdisciplinary integration in the Humanities and Communications Magnet program to ensure students learn content and development, and develop analytical and expressive skills that carry across disciplines. And now I'll turn it over to Miss
Porter. Thank you. Excuse me. All of the curriculum work is anchored in our commitment to instructional excellence and equity. As we move forward, our
priority remains ensuring every classroom has access to rigorous, high quality and aligned curriculum materials. The alignment work represents not just compliance with state standards, but a shared vision of continuous improvement and student success. So at this
time, we will turn it over to you for questions. Thank you so much. I just want to say that Miss Wolff have to leave. She is not feeling well and Miss Silvestre has an important prior engagement, but we still
have quorum here, so whatever we need to do, we're still good. But we're all right. And thank you for the for the staff and board members for for hanging in here with us to discuss very important things. I will start
the question then I'll give it to my colleagues. So help me understand a little bit. I am trying to keep track. So we all understand that. Research base.
And research based curriculum. Externally vested curriculum are effective. And and we also know that we have a lot of curriculums that we need to
update. So I understand for secondary English now we we did a we're in the RFP process to find a curriculum. Am I correct. We actually engaged last year to identify that core knowledge language arts. So Carla to
extend that for grades sixth, seventh and eighth. So now to high school then high school. We have a brand new 10th grade English language arts course. But that actually is something that our secondary Ela team has developed over the last couple
of years. So that is still our own self written curriculum. It is not internal research based curriculum. We did develop the curriculum, but we worked with Maryland State Department of
Education. They have reviewed it. They've given us feedback on our curriculum. We did go back and make changes based on their feedback. But yes, that is internal. What about ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade
students who are taking AP? I understand they go with AP, but we have a significant amount of students that are not doing AP. They're doing on grade level. So I, I'm concerned in that area and also tell me what
happened with our science curriculum secondary it says implementation implementation. Are we also writing our own curriculums in that space when we designate and I believe that was slide. It was the the
continuous curriculum plan slide. When we designate implementation, it just means that that year we're not doing anything new in that content area. Okay. And then when we do it next year in biology, that's we are doing we're writing our
own curriculum for biology. It is it's side five. I'm sorry, President Yang. Yeah. That is we'll focus on biology. So we're we're thinking about how those standards will change. I'm not sure exactly what we'll do with biology, but we we
developed this Long-Range Curriculum Plan based on Regulation Infra, which asks us to look at, you know, each subject or content within that five year scope. However, when the state changes standards, we might have to look at things a
little bit more often. And so biology is one that naturally comes up in that sequence. So don't we wasn't one of the recommendations for us to follow some kind of science standard, national science standard. And we are not there
yet. We are. We are following those national standards for science and technology. And this is just naturally where biology comes up. It might not be that we have to make any adjustments because those standards have not changed. Those have been standards that we have been implementing. But
this is just naturally where it would come up in our our regulation sequence. Okay. So this is still all these are still self written curriculums that we are using. I understand you say we're trying to align
with standards but these are self written. Can you elaborate on the the the sequence and the cycle. Obviously because we can't adopt new curriculum every year. So if you can elaborate on what that means for the board and for the public as to like why we scope
it out in different years. Absolutely. Yeah. So we actually have a ten year plan, but we just decided to share this, the five year plan with you so that we and our community members have an
understanding of what course or content area is up next in the cycle for review or revision, and we also try to align it with Maryland State Department of Ed. If they're making changes to their standards, we
we would note that as well. Math and literacy. At the primary level. And and now, well, elementary level. And now even with our middle school level, we have looked for
external sources to purchase. With our middle school. We use an open source resource. But we, you know, we had to pay for some material materials, fees and and professional development as we continue our work with social studies or
with our sciences, we are going to look for open source resources. So the open source just means that they are free resources, but they are evidence based resources. And so we are looking at a variety of resources that we can use
that are external to incorporate. So we may be developing it internally, but we're using other external sources to support that work. As we move forward. You can. Sure. And so for the case let's say for social studies. So with
the new frameworks give an example would be grades four and five. When we wrote that curriculum we look to see what vendor products were out there, what was out there that matched the new frameworks that the state put out, the state
frameworks for four and five were so different from most of the country because they shifted. When students studied different parts of U.S. history and the depth at which they studied it. So that necessitated us writing that curriculum. Additionally, many
of the vendor products or external products lack the level of rigor that we wanted to bring to social studies. So we wanted students. When we're talking about social studies skills, we wanted them to learn. By grade five, our students are learning how to source a
document to be able to identify the author, the bias, the intended audience. They're learning to corroborate documents or sources. They're learning to contextualize. Vendor products didn't have that level. And so we were able to write to that level of rigor
that we wanted them to have in order to prepare them for middle school. So the social studies frameworks for six and seven that the state put out, no one in the country has the curriculum that was just voted on. It's very different from
anything else in the country. And while vendors are trying to create things right now, the state also just approved, or they're going through a pilot phase where they're reviewing for the very first time vendor products to see if they meet
the high quality instructional materials, standards or expectations. That's all new for social studies. It has never existed before this, this year. Excuse me, this year, 2025. So as we're looking at vendor products for the expectations that we're having for our students, many times
they don't reach that level. Additionally, it's extremely important for us, for our students to study diverse perspectives or to use inquiry based learning. So while you may have a text, the idea is that the teacher isn't just telling the student what to to
know that students have a big question, they are looking at different sources to develop their own understanding of history. And unfortunately, many people don't teach history that way. And we're not teaching history through a textbook. So it's not read this
chapter or read these pages and answer these questions, which unfortunately is a very traditional way of teaching social studies. So sometimes the way that the curriculum or the frameworks are written at the state level may necessitate
us having to have a more hands on approach to make sure that that level of rigor is there. Additionally, it allows us the free resources do not have the supports that we need for emergent multilingual learners
and students who are receiving disability services. And so when we are able to craft those things in house, we can ensure that they're there. Okay, so I'm I'm glad to hear how thoughtful we are in terms of social studies curriculum. I'm
happy to see elementary school math and secondary math. We are in the RFP process, and I, I will continue to say I'm concerned about secondary English curriculum for evidence
based, research based, research vetted curriculums. Can I make a clarification for for grade nine and ten English? It's it's not totally in house. We are using a product called Odell,
which is also an open source resource, evidence based. And it fits under what you heard. Miss Oliver called high quality instructional material or Kim. It's what the state says we
must have. There are certain criteria that fit into high quality instructional material, and Odell resources fall into the Kim category. So we are using evidence based resources
for grades nine and ten in our Ela. Okay. I'm sorry to monopolize the conversation a little bit, folks. When you say we use Odell now for CLA, the roll out, every elementary school teacher get a training
when we rolled it out. Right. So when you say, okay, we are using an open source curriculum for ninth and 10th grade, what does that mean? Well, the so the curriculum you asked if we were using if we wrote our own curriculum. And so we did use
Odell resources that our high quality instructional materials to write the develop the curriculum. And so it's not just an internal internally developed curriculum that is not just a resource that you
use. You use it resource for teachers. If they are interested in using or not. So you actually use it to integrate it into your curriculum. It's a significant part of the the Ela curriculum for grade nine and ten. Okay.
All right. Mr. How long have you been using that? Nine and ten, just this last year or. This is the second year for ninth grade and the first year for 10th grade. However, we did have a group of schools who
rolled it out one year early. And just like Miss Porter shared, we made significant changes as a result of the feedback of those schools. With the first year of implementation, I want to let you know that one of the biggest feedback I get about
curriculum is especially ninth grade. Ela. So hopefully we can review that because it is a theme, especially some kids.
How often do they have to read a book, for instance, a full book? That seems to be a great concern because, you know, kids need to develop those muscles to be able to read a long text, right, and get through the book.
And I don't know if there's variance between classes or between schools, but this is something I'd like for us to look at, maybe at a later date, because it's something I hear consistently. And the other thing I remember, and please
correct me, and maybe I'm remembering wrong, or maybe it was just answered. I didn't realize it was answered, but I remember that we had, I think, middle school science curriculum we were going to buy and we said, no, let's take it
out of the budget because we need more input from the state. Was that math or okay, so the state changing the standard? Yes. So was it math? Okay. So where are we? Because secondary
science is not broken up between middle school and high school. Can you kind of tell me where we are in the secondary science curriculum, between the and separating middle school and high school today? Do you
have according to see if miss if if our supervisor for science is here today. Sorry she left. She didn't. So I will get back to you with that answer, okay? Okay. Thank you, Miss Rivera. Evans. Oh. Oh,
yeah. Thank you. So I would like to know the plan for a couple of things. So when we first purchased TKL for elementary school, we did not
purchase the materials for ML students. And I believe special education. So as we are putting RFP as well for math and others, I just want to be sure that those populations are not going
to be left out of you know, that we're not going to just be making lessons for them just to make out that they are actually, because I know for a fact that Carla actually has a whole because other other jurisdictions use it. They actually have a whole
curriculum for kids in ML and special ed and so on. So I just when you evaluate KCL, are you also going to evaluate those populations? Because I want to ensure that that's part of the the whole picture. Thank you
for that question. We will be and we have been working cross office with our special educators as well as our Eld teachers, to ensure that they do have the resources that they need to ensure success for those students. But when we are thinking specifically about the
new math request for for proposal, we will definitely be working with those offices to ensure that those students needs are considered. With the adoption of that curriculum. Okay. And just very quickly.
For the RFP for math, first, I want to I want to say that ninth grade and I, I concur with Miss Yang that I'm a little bit concerned. And it's mainly about the implementation. That is not true in every school, right? There's just too
much leeway on like Watkins Mill versus Montgomery or BCC. Right? There's not this uniformity of how it is implemented, which is, I think, why it's important to have a curriculum that can be followed and implemented in school. And
that's, I think, part of some of the issues that that we have. But with their RFP. If you only if you only get one person who applies, is that who we just go with? I mean, I just that's one
of my concerns that, you know, it's like, oh, only one, you know, this is and this is who we're going to go with. I just I think these are very important moments. We can make positive long term changes for our students and and to bring rigor, but also to be inclusive
of others. So you can answer that. We definitely would not just consider one curricular resource, but that is never a problem for us. We always have several to choose from. And so
that is something that not a problem that we have had. We do want to make sure of course, that the any vendor that comes to us has all of the components that we're looking for, particularly for students who
need require English language development services or special education services. So that is important. I do want to just clarify that we we did purchase materials for all of our students, regardless of service. It was just that we didn't
purchase one set of materials for every teacher. And that is where we had the issue last school year. But all of our students did receive the the curriculum materials that they that they needed. Okay. All I know is in my own district that
when I visited, maybe that's that's it because they did not have the material for those populations. And that is yeah, that creates a huge inequity when you have to ask teachers to, to be borrowing or be calling others. Can I make a I mean, that's that's just not
okay. And the other thing I'm noticing is a lot of implementation is going on in elementary school. So I'm a little bit concerned about that with, you know, because you're asking teachers to do an implementation of math and then
science and history all at the same time. And I'm a little bit concerned. Well, maybe our maybe this is good feedback. Maybe the this is not clear. So when we say implementation we
mean it's just a regular year happening okay. Because I'm just good to know. That's good. Heart palpitations. No for teachers because I'm like how are they going to be able to juggle it all okay. That's good feedback. Thank you for clarifying. I think that was I was confused too about science.
So that makes more sense. So sorry for that okay Miss Zimmerman thank you. I actually have questions about the memo. I know we're looking at the presentation, but as I was
looking at it, I saw, right like attachment A outlines like the how the state standards have shifted and the things there then beneath it in attachment B, it looks like the
curriculum overview for. Sixth and seventh grade and social studies. Correct. So my question is is this like what we're looking at in attachment B is this to show us the
changes that have been made or is this to show us like what we're currently using? Can you give us a little bit more context? Yes. And thank you for that question. So the state puts out a framework that is like the foundation that every local education agency or Lea
must base their curriculum, the curriculum that they develop or put out on the framework. Okay. So we wanted to show you here the state framework so that you can understand what the state is expecting us to teach. And then we develop our own
frameworks based off of that. And so you should see that our state, I mean, our local M.C.P.S. frameworks mirror the curriculum from the state. And that is to show that we are in alignment with the state's
expectations. Okay, so one more thing to add to that. We also have local curriculum where we've enhanced the state framework and have additional content. For example, I know that Miss Oliver has been working to integrate, for
example, our AAPI community. And so that that our kids can feel seen in the curriculum and enhance some of those materials. And so they've been worked into the framework. So our curriculum goes our curriculum frameworks go above and beyond what the state requires.
Exactly. Can I give another example of that? So one thing I'm really super excited about. So when for social studies, at least when we are able to be able to craft our curriculum, especially based on our local needs. So for grade three that
is being implemented this year, that is new. We have such an international population in M.c.p.s or in Montgomery County, such an international community. And so one of the things we wanted to do is students have to learn about culture, and
they have to learn about people around the world. And we were like, well, we have people here who represent different parts of the world. And so we were able to get staff members to talk about their home, their home countries and their cultures. And so students are able to see community members
in the curriculum. That is a perfect example of how we're able to localize and go above and beyond. Wonderful. This leads me to a couple other questions. One, with the like, I can see like the Middle Years
program connection with inquiry. There also tends to come like extra materials and other things. Will our educators who are not teaching specifically a middle years program, still have access to those, like inquiry based materials that they could choose to use them with their students? Or are
they still just for our middle years program? That one I am going to get clarity on for that specific question, because all of our curriculum materials should be open to anybody's teaching social studies. So we don't like Gatekeep for who has
access to them if somebody wants to use. I mean, I was even told that for like our modern world curriculum that some AP teachers use our curriculum, some of our curriculum materials for AP World history classes, so we don't gatekeep on who's able to use our our curriculum materials. Wonderful. All
teachers have access. Great. And I think that's great too, that then all of our students can have access to that as well. I had another follow up and I just forgot it for a moment. It came back to me as we are
updating curriculum and going through, I think then that calls upon probably some action up here to to think about grading and how it aligns with the way that we are grading our students and making sure that the curriculum that we're using
will match the way that we report back and how our students are doing. That's a good point. Yeah. Thank you. One last question. Over the years, we have heard about our middle school English. Parents
have brought concern that the books we use are not on grade level materials, and they're huge variances as what books teacher choose some choose on
grade level books, some choose below grade level books. So in our effort of doing secondary Ela or how are we addressing that concern? Thank you so much
for that question. So the curriculum is a continuation, you know, certainly of what was built knowledge wise in the elementary grades. But what I'm really excited to share with the board, and this is information that we can provide to you as we are doing an implementation study. And we've
been working with Tntp, and they provided actually all of our professional learning for our sixth, seventh and eighth grade teachers this past summer. But they're also doing instructional walkthroughs. And so we're going to look at that implementation. We're going to look at the materials. We're going to look at the instructional practices side by
side with them and have some really exciting information to share. Okay. Thank you. I think that concludes this discussion. Thank you so much for your work on this. We appreciate the update very much. And we're going to move to our next item
is oh my goodness. Fiscal year 2026 Program Evaluation Item 9.2 round two back again as Doctor Addison is getting settled, this should hopefully
draw a through line between some of the board's priorities and the blueprint for Maryland future, and that's going to be the the heavy focus of Doctor Addison's brief presentation. And and tee up a recommendation and a request for some feedback
from the board. Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon. And as Doctor Taylor shared round two, back at it once more and I'll see you once more. So this presentation is really designed for discussion purposes. It is
to allow you all to engage in a dialog, to think about which evaluation topics you most strongly align with that align not only to your priorities, but as Doctor Taylor queued up that also aligned to our strategic plan, the blueprint for Maryland's future, as well
as the fiscal realities that we are facing this year. And so by the end of our time together, our goal is to have agreement on the direction of the evaluation topics that will move forward during the October 30th meeting. When I see you again. So as a reminder to what
I lifted up during our previous conversation, program evaluation is more than a reporting function. It is our decision making tool and through rigorous and transparent evaluation, we are able to determine which programs are working, which
needs to be refined, and which may no longer be the best for use of our resources. And so each evaluation is intended to be tied to our strategic plan goals, ensuring alignment with those goals around academic excellence and preparing our
future ready graduates, as well as maintaining positive and effective learning environments. And so, with this year's plan, we want to continue to emphasize equity, measurable outcomes, and stewardship of our resources. And so our findings are always designed to
guide both instructional and fiscal decisions that lead to continuous improvement across the district. And so, again, the intent for today's discussion and your feedback is really to help shape the final list for approval later this month. Okay. And so as shared
last month, the evaluation agenda connects directly to our 2025 2030 strategic plan. Our evaluations are often structured around the four goals of the strategic plan that you see on this slide. So
what you see here listed is the initial list of proposed evaluation projects shared with you in September. And at that time, the list included a mix of evaluations requested for fiscal year 2025 and several
that were under consideration for fiscal year 2026. And so while the list generated meaningful dialog and discussion, several of you raised some important questions about which studies should be prioritized, particularly given
our fiscal constraints and the need to focus on high impact areas. And so our goal again, is to collaboratively refine this list, ensuring that what moves forward is in alignment with current board priorities, blueprint requirements, and areas of greatest potential
return on investment. So to bring a bit more structure and consistency to how we select evaluation topics, we're developing a formal framework based on your recommendation and a policy for prioritization based on your recommendation.
And so on September 16th, the Policy Management Committee began discussions on a new policy that will codify how studies are selected, reviewed, and approved. That draft policy is expected to come forward at that committee meeting by
December 5th. The Fiscal Management Committee also discussed embedding an academic return on investment framework, ensuring that we systematically assess the relationship between academic impact and financial investment, and as we review the potential FY 26 studies
this afternoon, I encourage you to think about these three questions. One is related to equity impact. Which programs most directly promote equitable outcomes for students? Strategic plan alignment which evaluations best support our goals of academic excellence
and preparing preparing future ready graduates. And then resource stewardship, which studies will give us the most useful information for making informed fiscal and programmatic decisions. This is good. So based on the feedback
from the September meeting and alignment with both your priorities and blueprint priorities and strategic plan what you see. Here are some recommended topics for consideration. And so you'll notice that this refined list balances both district priorities, like the Carla
implementation with board and state priorities such as AP, IB exam relief or CTE expansion and teacher workforce diversity. Also included are areas of national concern that are particularly relevant this year,
such as student mental health, school safety and the inclusion of students with disabilities in alternative pathways. And so, as you all discuss, we'll want to consider both the impact on student outcomes and the feasibility of conducting high quality evaluations within our
existing resources. Our objective is to come out of this conversation with clarity about which of these studies this board would like us to move forward for final approval later this month. Thank you. And so this is my last slide which goes back. But I'm going
to go backwards to this slide and leave it up and turn it over to you all for discussion. I'm going to see yes, Miss Zimmerman, thank you. I really appreciate the updated list. Based on feedback, I would like to add one small additional
piece of feedback as we're looking at Carla and its implementation. I was hoping that we could also include education for our gifted and talented students. What enrichment we're providing
there, have that be an element of that evaluation. So for my clarity, embedded in the Carla evaluation, examining how students who are identified are receiving that as well, along
with enriched instruction, because not all students that are identified as gifted and talented receive enriched instruction. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, that's really good. I would like to align myself with Miss Zimmerman's comments about that. And I also just want to add a brief comment that I'm very
happy to see that it's being proposed to look at funding relief for AP and IB exams. So many students have been incredibly concerned about what is going to happen in the future, and just everything about it in general. And as for student mental health and well-being supports, will we
also be looking at grading regulation along the lines of how that affected student mental health to we can we can add that. I see Doctor Taylor nodding. So yes. Awesome. Thank you, Miss Alvin. Just so I
don't forget my transfer with the well-being of our students with mental health. And so one of the things that we have not heard from, and I honestly don't have an answer, is the impact that our wellness centers have on that. And whether or not, you know, we we
use that as an evaluation tool, which I think should honestly be part of this. So we can do that. And then I. I also don't see anything about ML students
on this list. And that is also something I want to throw out there because they have, you know, the highest impact of low academic achievement and a lot of these areas. So I think it's important that we look at it.
In fact, we should be doing that for ML special education twice exceptional and all those anyway. But since ML make up a large part of our population and they made the largest growth in our school system for the last few years, and they are still outnumbered when it
comes to academic achievement as not doing as well. I think it's part of. And Doctor Taylor, you can correct me if I'm wrong. It's part of our strategic plan. Right. So so since they are part of a treatment plan, can we please, please put that in
there as well? Because I would like to see some data and some of that so it can help us guide I think. It's important to get data and not just anecdotal, but it's important to have the data. And I think we have that and it's a good base. So if we
can do the wellness centers, that and special education and how they they fit with all these, I would really appreciate it. Mr. So I don't know exactly what's the what
will you be evaluating in the early childhood education access and quality because. I mean, that is in the blueprint. I mean, we provide it today. We need to provide more. We know that. So will you be evaluating
the quality of each program, like what is in that scope of work? Sure. So we have an opportunity to further define it. We do have two requests from that title. One pre-K team that is in alignment with the
blueprint. That would be our priority focus in terms of how to address it, to ensure that we're in alignment. And I can definitely make sure you get that more detailed information on what the focus is. So I really don't want to add something separate to this, but I'm looking at the old list and
this list, and I think I've talked about it before, is the achievement focus extracurricular program. So my theme today is really equity. And we've talked about even
using some of our funds for more academic, you know, from blueprint funds into. Academics to help kids be successful that don't have resources. And I've
we know we have a tutoring gap, right? So like if there is any weakness in our curriculum, then the parents that can afford it can just hire tutors and they're just fine. And so I don't know if there's anything that's more so it wouldn't be a
huge lift, but something that we can do to see, to evaluate if kids have access to achievement focused extracurricular program. Again,
this is a large list. I understand if it doesn't make the cut, but it is an equity issue. So I wrote your question down, and it may not lend itself to being a program
evaluation study, because what I'm hearing and I kind of wrote down, to what extent do students have access to that might be we can we may be able to engage in a different type of data collection to answer that question. Sure. And maybe it can inform a future study, which I'm fine with that. I
just want to be sure that we're starting that work so we know exactly what is available to kids that can't afford the academic supports outside of school, outside of public
school, Miss Montoya. Yes, thank you so much, and I apologize. I'm literally trying to get the kids to and from. But I first, thank you so much for your presentation and for the discussion so far. One, I'm
having a little trouble trying to decide what I propose or agree with, because I don't even know the universe of options, and that has been a continuing request for me. But as to the ones that are proposed. One thing that
strikes me is concerning the AP and IB exams. And I'm sorry, I'm actually trying to pull my notes out so that I can look at what you all are looking at. We've gotten data on this, right? We know the breakdowns. We know who's using, who's taking the exams, who's not. We
know that, for example. And these are very general because I don't have the data in front of me, but that, for example, students who qualify for free and reduced meal meals are only taking one, maybe two, right? We know demographic breakdowns, etc. So I guess I'm just a
little confused as to that being part of this proposal. And I would also like to offer. Recently I had some families reach out, out of concern that their children who were in immersion programs in elementary now are not doing well on their English language
arts testing and things like that. And there's concern that maybe they're not being adequately prepared for that English language portion. So I just wonder if perhaps our immersion or language immersion programs might be considered, because perhaps they're in need of more support in those areas so that by the time our kids
get to middle school or high school, that they're still also adequately prepared to address English grammar and writing, etc. And then my last comment would just be, and I know we kind of talked about math curriculum. I was listening in online, and I know that we are
starting to have those conversations about what to do about math, but we have some serious problems in math. I mean, our proficiency rates are just really horrifying. And especially when we get to middle school. So I just wonder if math as a whole needs something more than just a new curriculum, right? We need to
figure out what's going on. What is the problem? Thank you. If I could quickly respond, particularly for your last to Miss Montoya, we not too long ago completed an evaluation and
examination on immersion so we can make sure you have that report that might support what your question was that you just raised. And then for math curriculum coming your way soon, we're wrapping up the program evaluation study of
illustrative math, which is being implemented at the middle school level. So that may also give you some insights to support kind of the conversation that's also forthcoming. Right. But that's curriculum. Right. And so that's great. And if we're going to get a new curriculum, I think it's the elementary
school curriculum that might be like a year overdue because we're waiting for the standards to come out, which totally makes sense. But I'm not sure that just looking and reviewing curriculum or looking at curriculum tells us what the actual problem is. So just right. Why are our kids? I apologize just for clarity in
that while it's the focus is the curriculum, we do have data on student outcomes as well as recommendations. So it is not only about the implementation of the curriculum, but I do think you will find it informative. That aligns with the questions you're raising.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Malone. Sorry. One more quick question. I wanted to ask for school safety and climate initiatives. It says that we're going to be evaluating strategies for prevention. Does that include substance abuse, like the modules that are played for students through trainings? If that is the
interest. So part of it was really to spark and hear that one was pulled. You know, I know as a district we have engaged in mental health supports and it's a national concern, but this is the opportunity to kind of way. Well, if it would be possible to look into that as well.
Thank you. I support that the things I, I would like to add, I would like to highlight here, I do want to take a look at our teacher workforce diversity and retention to see if our strategies are working and if
it's possible. Can that also promotion right. The career advancement, how we're doing in terms of strategy in that area, that will be that will be helpful. Want to keep folks
here and want to have a diverse workforce. So and one of my request is if you after this conversation, when you propose next time, can you also give us a little bit of a timeline due
date so that we know when to expect those reports? Miss Rivera, you have. Yes. I just excuse me. We've been at it all day, so I think I'm losing my voice again. Just just for
curiosity. Because I know we have a plethora of programs, so I'm just trying to get an idea. You know, I'm not telling you to tell me, but just an idea of how many programs we're talking about and what constitutes a program in M.C.P.S. language.
Right. Because a group can be two people, or it could be a thousand people, right? So I'm just, you know, what is what is a program? And and is this aligned with the majority of the bigger programs that we have. And then we have have
some programs, you know, forever. But I'm just I'm just curious to see what is what was the minimum of a program that we should be evaluating. So I first want to start with some clarity in terms of what we're
calling it a program evaluation study. It may not be specifically a program, right, in the sense of what we think about in terms of a program. And so part of the approach for this updated list was hearing
your feedback at that September meeting in terms of what broadly impacts a larger number of students. And so, for example, as you see on here, Carla is a curriculum. It's not necessarily a program, but we are going to engage in a program evaluation study. It's just kind of the nomenclature in terms of what the evaluation
is. And I'm intentional to put program evaluation instead of evaluation, so that there's not a misinterpretation that we're talking about evaluation of staff, for example. So the majority of these would impact large groups of our students. If you think about the CTE right. That's at the high
school level. It covers a large number of our students dual enrollment. So a number of these are intended to align with your interests as a board. That was shared in September. To really focus on a majority of groups in our school district. It's noteworthy to
add to the teacher diversity and retention study. Teacher diversity and retention is not necessarily a program. It's definitely a function that encompasses a lot of different strategies, but it does impact a lot of people. It impacts our
employee groups, but also impacts our students and our community. Thank you. Mr. Okay. One last request. Under dual enrollment and post-secondary partnerships, I'd like to see
for our kids that are getting associate's degree, what are their acceptance rate into different colleges after they get it? Especially University
of Maryland. College Park. Great. Thank you. All right. I think that concludes this portion of the presentation. Thank you. Doctor Edison. This is a new sort of new process this year. We appreciate your
collaboration. This is a team sport. And and you know, education is a team sport. And I think we'll be well served with the new proposal. Thank you. Item 10.1 next one is. All
around policy. So I'm going to ask Vice President Rivera Arvin to preside over this part of today's meeting. As I am the policy Committee chair, miss
Rivera, please. Thank you, President Yang. So this is item 10.1, I believe policy, I guess educational technology. Let me
just get that so I know where I can follow along, and I will turn it back over to Miss Yang as chair of the Policy Management Committee. Thank you. So on May, welcome to the staff will have a walk to the front and on May 15th, 2025, the
board's Policy Management Committee reviewed a draft amendment to policy, IGC Education Technology. The proposed changes update guiding principles to ensure the effective, appropriate and strategic integration of emerging technologies in
support of learning, including the use of and appropriate limitation around artificial intelligence. In school. Today, the Policy Management Committee is recommending that the board take tentative action on policy IGS so that it can be sent for
public comment, but first, staff will provide a short presentation regarding the proposed changes. Please go ahead and introduce yourself first. Good evening. Members of the board. Doctor Taylor, my name is Sally Davis. I am the
supervisor of Policy and Regulations in the Division of Legal Services, and I will encourmy colleagues to introduce themselves. Hello. My name is Holly Van Pembroke. I'm the supervisor for school libraries. Good evening.
Kimberly Fields, chief technology officer. Good evening, Joe Smetanka, supervisor, educational technology. All right. Can I have the next slide, please? So today we are bringing you policy, I guess, for tentative
action to consider the initial draft and give us approval to send it out for public comments. So the slide shows that we are at step two of five steps in the policy development process. The draft was previously reviewed at the May 15th Policy
Management Committee, and we presented a rationale for a refresh of this 2020 policy. So our recommendation was to change the title to Emerging Technologies in Education and to update the principles and priorities for assessing
whether and or how we would integrate any emerging technology into our operations and learning. So in May, the Policy Management Committee heard a compelling presentation from the Division of Technology Services about the many
technologies that are now commonplace in education. For a minute, let's think about the 1993 version of the policy, and I will go fast. But it actually used the words a new medium, the information superhighway.
And Doctor Trenkamp showed in that May presentation that each new technology introduced in the education sphere brought potential transformation, but also worries. In fact, she was showing that even chalk when it was introduced in the 1800s,
had people creating riots at Yale University, with people thinking it would alter the integrity and the rigor of instruction. And here in M.C.P.S. graphing calculators, email, internet, laptops and electronic signatures were all
new at one point. And so calculators there were many who thought that they would prevent students from learning to think mathematically without them. The internet challenged our thinking about accurate content, safe content, and the unapproved use of student data. In each case, we saw the
potential value, but also how educators before us engaged in conversations about how these emerging technologies technologies should be used safely and responsibly. So the phrase that kept coming up for us in this work was everything old was new once. Next slide
please. So during this presentation, the team will discuss the extensive stakeholder engagement that was completed prior to writing this first draft to identify the issues of concern to our stakeholders. So here you see the themes that you likely
anticipated as important to any guidance about. For example, artificial intelligence, ethical use and oversight, data privacy, academic integrity, equitable access and staff support, among others. So these
themes are also themes that are currently addressed in other policies, such as the equity and nondiscrimination policy, the grading and reporting policy, the behavior intervention policy. So at the conclusion of the presentation, there will be an opportunity for me to highlight the
principles in the draft. But at this point, let me just point you to one, and that is and you don't have to flip to the draft for this, but the purpose section on the first page of the policy talks about to establish the guiding principles for the integration of technology into teaching, learning and operations and
M.C.P.S. That's why the approach we recommended to policy management was to update policy IDs to emphasize the principles that M.C.P.S. will use to integrate any emerging technology into teaching and operations. Because the bones
for integrating something new, like artificial intelligence, were already there. So let me turn to Miss Fields. Next slide, please. Thank you, Miss Davis. As we know, technology is
constantly evolving within our society. With the update to the policy, we are going to include artificial intelligence, as this is an emerging technology that we need to address. Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, is when computer systems are designed to think and learn, like us, to assist in solving problems and or
providing solutions. It can power things such as speech recognition for accessibility, comprehending visual input, language learning, so student support to name a few. As we know, innovative technology in helping to support and improve evidence based teaching
practices. 90% of educators see the potential and are eager to use it to support tasks including planning, assessing, grading, analyzing how student data, and customizing learning how this is done with attention to data privacy, ethics, and
responsible use has been the focus of most of our feedback. To better understand the needs of the schools and community, we obtained rich and thoughtful stakeholder input that is currently assisting with developing the foundation for the process. When we look at educate, collaborate and collect process, how do we prepare? We create a process to
allow for us to obtain feedback from a variety of stakeholders. It is important for us to build a foundational, understanding, engaging teachers, school based administrators, community members, parents, guardians, students, and others in addition to attending K-12 events such as the consortium
for School Networking, better known as Coson, that promotes partnerships and awareness of emerging technologies amongst technology decision makers in K-12 in the United States and the Iste, the International Society for Technology in Education, which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on
accelerating innovation and education through the smart use of technology in education and Maryland State Department of Education and others. When we look at, analyze, and identify themes, it was critical to engage the various stakeholders to understand the concerns, challenges, needs, and positive
benefits. The results of the feedback is assisting in establishing a language being included in our emerging technologies. Education policy. When we discuss cross reference for policy alignment and working with the Division of Legal Services, it was important to know what we would
be impacted based upon the themes identified in the feedback which we will be sharing. And then our last item recommendations and next steps. We know we need to establish implementing procedures, and we know our staff, parents, guardians and students want best practices and guidelines.
In addition, we know that there is a need to have a comprehensive review of vetting processes and to provide professional learning. We want to establish further guidance and implementing procedures, which was a common theme in the feedback that we will be sharing. Next slide please.
Obtaining feedback from a variety of stakeholder groups we knew was going to be essential to knowing how to align the educational goals to educational operational resources for the use of AI tools and operational and stakeholder experiences were
important to provide critical insights for learning, engagement and classroom dynamics. This feedback will assist to identify whether the technology supports or hinders instructional practices, addresses diverse learner needs, and maintains equity, fairness,
and transparency. We are excited to share that we had 11,282 responses from a variety of stakeholder groups, different ethnic backgrounds and roles. We want to especially thank Miss Alba Garcia, Division of Family and Community Engagement, and Mr.
Everett Davis, Department of Family Engagement, for assisting us in gathering students and community to ensure we are teaching key stakeholders of those stakeholder groups. We were able to determine responses between the elementary, middle and high school levels. The Na means they did not identify a
level. We did facilitate in-person virtual sessions, in-person sessions, webinars, PTA meetings, work groups, social media and sent emails. Next slide please. What did we learn as we work through
updating this current policy? The continuous dialog will be key to making informed decisions, refining implementation, and maximizing the benefits of AI in addition to other emerging technology in the district. We understand that further collaboration with additional offices, based upon
the feedback that there were a variety of instructional methods and modalities in support of active, engaged, meaningful and socially interactive learning. Core themes identified are driving the conversations we are having today. As you can see in the
table, learning how to use the various tools efficiently is important based upon the use, concerns and challenges. Is the data privacy and using the AI tools ethically in reference to the needs request column, having the guidance and appropriate controls will
additionally be critical. Also, we have included a subset of feedback we received for review. Next slide please. So in further thinking through this the strategy and framework, it's important to create a strong foundation as we develop
the strategy and framework for integrating emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. The Division of Technology Services has been collaborating with teaching and learning, as well as human resources and talent management and legal services. We plan to expand our collaboration to include additional groups to gather
feedback on what is being developed. Our team has conducted extensive research and reviewing various state policies from across the United States. Various K-12 district regulations, higher education, and K-12 organizations such as
teach AI. We are currently in a process of building best practices tips that would be beneficial tools for use because this would be applicable to students, staff, and employees. Building the foundation for cross-functional workgroups is key to fostering meaningful and thoughtful collaboration. It is important
that the AI tools that are used responsibly, equitably and effectively, we understand the need to identify and monitor metrics that would that would need to be reviewed, such as learning gains, teacher feedback. Our goal is to define a consistent approach that
helps our staff align AI integration with the learning goals, curriculum standards, best practices while addressing critical concerns such as data privacy bias and digital literacy. A well-defined framework will guide enhancements, professional development, understanding
safeguards, ethical guidelines, operational guidelines, and communications. I will now turn it over to Mr. Joel Smetanka. Next slide, please. Thank you, Miss Fields. When we talk about data privacy and security, we mean how student data is
collected in platforms and then used. For example, does the platform use student data to train and improve itself? Does the platform share data with third parties or sell it to other companies? And finally, how does the platform secure
data to best safeguard against hacking and security breaches? All of these concerns and issues exist with other technologies we use as well, and are no different in AI platforms. Keeping information
safe is really important, especially when using websites, apps, and online tools. As we go through this process in partnership with our vendors, we are taking into consideration legal and regulation compliance with this policy. It will be important to
maintain the awareness of data security and encourage and promote guidelines for safe, legal and ethical use of digital information. We are wanting to maintain data safety and and to encourage
responsible use of digital tools. We also are going to continue to support ongoing training for staff and how to handle information safely, and use new technologies like artificial intelligence responsibly. In addition, we're working on improving the
process for reviewing and approving online digital tools, including products that are being updated to include AI features. To further assist our staff, we are going to continue collaborating with teaching and learning to encourage ongoing professional development and
providing additional resources and support. Miss Holly Van Pembroke will continue on the next slide. Thank you. The integration of AI and education offers transformative potential,
but its success depends on a thoughtful balance between innovation, ethics and the well-being of students and staff. Upholding academic and professional integrity in this context means aligning AI use with existing codes of conduct and expectations for academic
honesty. Fostering AI literacy, and providing guidance on how to cite AI tools when used. Upholding academic and professional integrity also includes protecting data privacy and promoting equitable access to AI resources. Most importantly, like all
educational technology tools, AI should serve as a support, not a replacement for human judgment. Educators, students, and administrators maintain responsibility for ethical and informed decision making. Ethical use of AI in education is where we want to have
alignment with board core values and responsible adherence to data privacy law. The board's grading and reporting policy, and M.C.P.S. Acceptable Use Regulation. As educators and students become AI literate, we want users to
continually learn how to think critically about AI outputs and recognize potential bias embedded in these tools. AI should enhance learning, not compromise equity, privacy, or professional standards. We understand that a commitment to student and staff safety is
important when evaluating tools. Having the ability to audit technology allows for us to better align with data privacy, learning, and education goals. We want to best serve our students and families. And now I'm going to turn it back to Miss Davis for our final slide.
Thank you, Miss Pembroke. So where do we go from here? Hopefully your action today will allow us to publicize the draft for public comment for a minimum of 21 days. Now, we say at least 21 days because the
board's current requirement is, in parliamentary speak, that the draft will lie on the table for a minimum of 21 days. We recommend a longer period, and here's why. First, emerging technologies impact just about
everyone. As our presenters discussed, we've heard from over 10,000 already, and with your approval, we'll request translation and post translations for public comment. But our translators need time. Second, we'd like to reach out
to participants from the first round to update them on the ongoing work, and I'll get back to that in just a second. Third, we anticipate a large number of comments, and we think it's important not to rush our stakeholders to comment, nor to
rush a thoughtful analysis of the comments we receive so that we can thoughtfully suggest updates in the next board's review. And third, while all that is going on, this team will continue to refine policy
implementation components already requested by our stakeholders. And here's the team's recommendation for how to prioritize their next task. First, the team recommends that they prioritize prioritize their ongoing and comprehensive
assessment of how AI product vetting processes are currently engaged to complete their analysis. To see how things are currently recommended and
approved for data privacy, security access, and curriculum relevance. This is a vital first step before they can identify improvements to implementing the board's principles with fidelity. Second, the team will continue their assessment of staff
support needed. AI professional development has been offered in the past and well attended, but with close to 26,000 M.C.P.S. employees, we need a comprehensive assessment of their needs before relevant and effective professional development. Professional
learning can be developed and successfully implemented. And of course, the team is keeping tabs on emerging practices and will continually benchmark, so there's much to do. So now, Miss Rivera will conclude this presentation and turn the discussion back. I'd be happy
to highlight some sections of the policy, if that's your preference. Otherwise, we'll await your discussion. Thank you. Okay. That we're. Oh, I'm
so sorry. Yeah. You know, I'm getting tired around this time. I forgot to turn my mic on. So thank you. So I'm just going to is there a motion from the committee to approve this item for compassion and submit a draft for public comment. So as
the chair. You like me to. All right. As the chair of the Policy management committee, I move that the board take tentative action on this policy and send it out for extended public comment period, as
detailed in the presentation. Thank you, President Yang. And with that motion of the chair of the committee, no second is required. So there is there is there any discussion. And I see my colleague Mrs. Montoya's
hand is up. And just quickly I'm going to make a comment on page nine out of ten. And I also discussed this with my colleague Miss Stewart. We see that it says evaluate and periodically report to the
board. So the word periodically could be in the next 32 years. Since this is this policy was proposed in 1993. So it's a little bit vague. So I would like us to be a little bit more specific. So we were thinking
that it should be annually annually okay. Or what else did you say, Miss Stewart? I just said like put an upper limit so annually at least. But if you want to come back earlier, if there's something, if something comes up that it makes us, you know, it's something comes up
if there's a hacking or something, you know, if there's like an emergency. But I think annually it's a very reasonable request if we could. And with that, I will turn it over to my colleague. Colleague, Miss Montoya, thank you so much. And
thank you for allowing me to go out of turn. I have pulled over so that I can make these comments. I really appreciate it. First, I just appreciate the committee's work and all of our staff's work on this policy, because there are emerging technologies that can be challenging. I also want to acknowledge that October is
Alternative and Augmentative Communication Month, and that was brought to my attention by our wonderful principal, Sarah Starr at Longview School. So I want to acknowledge that and all the wonderful technologies that help our students to thrive at Longview and in other spaces, as it regards the actual policy, I think that you
and Miss Stewart teed it up quite well. I just think that there's some spaces where we could be more clear about what these terms mean. When we do policies, we want to basically put people on notice as to what's okay and what's not okay. And so I think when we're looking at, for example,
section C, item number one dot a, the terms there say positive contribution and impact. What does that mean. Right. How is staff supposed to know or or evaluate that. Or how is staff supposed to evaluate it if someone complains about a
technology. So just really making sure that that's clear and measurable in C1-b we have the term, we have the clause original comma, authentic and active learning. And again I would just ask like what does that mean. Can it be evaluated.
Can it be measured? I'm also wondering if active learning is an educational term of art. If it is, then I think it creates a legal interpretation challenge when putting it in the same clause as original and authentic. And if it's not a
term of art, again, that's okay. But then I think we should define it the same for C1-b. We have limits or detect academic dishonesty, and I'm wondering
if that is in relation to some sort of technology industry minimum standards or and if it is, perhaps we should reference that and add it. Or again just defining it so that people know what's okay and what's not. So they don't inadvertently do something they're not supposed
to do in the let's see here the same. Subsection C1B, it says assess higher order thinking. And again, I'm wondering if higher order thinking is a term of art in education. And if so, either way I think we want to
define it. But if it is a term of art, then perhaps there's a way to kind of designate that as well. Those of us who are not in education may not know what that means. Sorry. Just bear with me here in section C
two, we do define right. So we define what generative AI is. But we start with for the purposes of this policy. And so I think that's kind of what I'm looking for with some of those other terms. As it relates to C-2a. I'm sorry to C2, I think that that definition of
generative AI should be its own standalone clause. However, you want to enumerate or alphabetize that in terms of structure of the policy is is fine, but I think that it needs to be separate from that
initial lead in sentence. For c2 c I would say the same in terms of. Student use. That that beginning that sentence perhaps should also be its own.
So perhaps C is teachers and staff etc. and then D is student use is subject to oversight, etc. and then move the D down to an E. Let me see here. It's I think and this is
an easy fix, but it looks like the items got missed ordered where it goes from C to E and then D follows after E. And I notice in some of our other policies that switched. So I would just want to be consistent across policies if
we want desired outcomes or implementation strategies, whichever order it makes sense to have that, but perhaps just make it consistent. There's some kind of grammar type things, but I'll send an email about that. There's no need to use time for that here. Let me
just give me one moment. And then in section F two, which is at the very end, and I believe this might be the case in the other policies we're going to review. Also, there's a related sources section and it includes
any like legal or policy references. But in F2 it says this policy will be reviewed in accordance with the Board of Education's policy review process. And perhaps that policy should be referenced as well, so that when folks are looking to see, well, what is that process, you know, what is
the timeline or however that works, that they're able to find it in the sources very easily. And again, I do have some kind of technical grammar type things, but I'll go ahead and send an email to that. So thank you. Thank you Miss Montoya. Are there any any
other comments or discussion from anyone else? Oh my God, I forgot again. There we go. Thank you. Thank you for whoever that little angel was who helped me out. Thank you. Any other discussion from anybody else? Miss Zimmerman
reminded me that this policy is older. Older than she is. That was not nice. So. And that's why we need to do it. And let's send it out for public comment. I could extend minimal time.
Okay. Wait a minute. You were born prior to 2020. I was born prior to 2020, but not prior to 1993. That was several editions before. Well thank goodness. Okay with that. Thank you, Miss
Montoya. I think some of her suggestions, especially putting the student part, I think that is a very good suggestion. I definitely think that that's that should you know, this is such an important policy and it really is time to to to deal
with it. So I'm glad it's going to go out for public comment. So with that, no further discussion. I'm just going to ask my colleagues who are here because we still have a quorum. All those in favor, please raise your hand. And I don't
see Miss Montoya. Oh, she she is raising her hand, right? Yes. Okay, so with that, thank you so much. That passes. You have to say it's unanimous with those present. It's unanimous with those present, including Miss Montoya who is on video.
Is that clear enough? Okay, good. So with that, this policy will now be sent out for public comment and return to the Policy Management Committee and the board for final review. And I guess it's important to highlight that is going to have
a longer period to be able to, because it's been so long and it's such an important topic to engage the community. And this then we'll be back next year to be able to achieve that. So with that, I just want to say thank you so much to all of you
for, for, for your work. And I know I will also be sending some edits to you, and I appreciate your work. And I'm going to give gladly the meeting back. They there are three more policies. Oh, there's three more. Oh, are they all does Miss Zimmerman
because this is getting very I'm getting more depressed by the minute here. I'm very youthful. Mr. Rivera-Oven okay. Oh that's right. Oh we have been a busy 10.2 you guys. Yeah. This policy committee is like
rocking right? Okay. So okay. So next item on the agenda will be 10.2 is policy Da which is fiscal responsibility. Hello Yvonne. And control I will turn it back now to Miss Yang. Thank
you so much. On May 15th, 2025, the board's Policy Management Committee, a very busy committee, reviewed the draft amendments to policy Da. The proposed changes update the processes used to safeguard the financial resources entrusted
to the board. Because the policy addresses fiscal fiscal responsibility. The proposed changes were also reviewed by the board's Fiscal Management Committee, and no changes were recommended as a result of that review. So today, the Policy
Management Committee is recommending that the board take tentative action on policy Da so that it can be sent out for public comment. But first, I will turn it to the staff to walk us through the recommended revisions. I'm just going to
say something very quickly, and I can either pull the slide back up. But but I think you'll remember the one of the slides you saw was a step down of where we are in a process. This is step two of five. So the three policies that we are recommending related to finance
are all at step two. We've got the yes, thank you very much. So we've got the next steps to go. Public comment back to policy management and then back to the board and the full business meeting. So I don't have a whole lot to say on the
next three policies. I'm just going to encourage my colleague to introduce herself and continue. Okay. Good afternoon. Excuse me. Good afternoon. Yvonne Alfonso Windsor Chief Financial Officer So I have three policies to bring for your consideration to move
forward. The first one is policy Da fiscal responsibility and control. This policy was last revised in 2002. Policy policy Da fiscal responsibility and control has been the subject of conversation with the Fiscal Management Committee, both in September of 2023 and
September of 2024. Additionally, in the Division of Financial Management have had consultations with the Budget Advisory Committee and the AD Hoc Policy Advisory Group to formulate the policy recommendations before you
today. As we all know, Maryland law requires county governments to adhere to a specific accounting procedures, and county boards of education are required to follow the established procedures of the county in which they are located. The suggested revisions to this policy include language references to
the M.C.P.S. Financial Procedures Manual. This manual was developed in 2007 and is updated regularly for technical changes such as M.C.P.S. organization and reporting structures, as well as any changes in law, policy and
procedures such as Comar or the hub plus payroll processes. The entire manual is currently under review, and I'm expecting that the revisions will be published by the end of November. That is why items detail in the remainder of the document have been redacted, as
they are redundant with law, county procedure, or fully addressed in the Financial Procedures Manual. In addition to the direct references to the manual, we are recommended updating language about financial monthly reports to the Board of Education. Now I turn it over to the board for
discussions on this policy. Motion. So. So as the chair of the Policy Management Committee, I move that the board take tentative action on this policy and send it out for public comment. Okay. With that motion
of the chair, no second is required. And I'm going to ask my colleagues if we have any discussion. Seeing none. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Miss Montoya. So
that is unanimous vote. So thank you so much. So the policy will now be sent out for public comment and return to the Policy Management Committee and the board for final review. Okay. Let's keep going. So the second policy in front of you
today is the Dig operating funds investments. This policy was last revised in 2011. The policy needed updates to bring it in line with current practice and to bring greater clarity to the document. The needed changes for this policy were discussed in September
2024 with the Fiscal Management Committee, and then in October with the County Finance Officers Association. This policy establishes the criteria for the investment of Unexpended appropriated operating funds and designates the Superintendent of Schools,
or designee, as investing the funds. Consistent with this policy, I also want to reiterate that this only applies to the operating funds. As stated in this policy, M.C.P.S. draws funds as needed and does not hold a substantial balance for long term
investments. Also, as stated in the policy, certain investment policy practices are prohibited in Maryland law, specifically borrowing money for the purpose of investment. M.C.P.S. fully complies with the Maryland law. M.C.P.S. makes only short term
investments, which, based on the magnitude of the operating funds, has produced modest returns over the last 2 or 3 years of approximately 5 to $7 million. Short term means that the terms of the agreement are less than a year, with the flexibility to cash in, cash out daily to avoid cash flow
issues and maximize our investments. New language states that the objective for investment activities and emphasize values of prudent judgment, discretion, and care, and foremost, maintaining the safety of the capital. I now turn it over to the members of
the board for discussion. But first we need a motion first before discussion. So as the chair of the Policy Management Committee, I move that the board takes tentative action on this policy and send it out for public comment. With the motion
of the chair, no second is required. Is there any discussion? I just want to quickly say. That these changes are actually very clear. And
how often are we supposed to review this policy? That's a great question. I love see, I'm still I'm still this is still working. So that is up to the policy management committee. They adopt the work plan every
year. Staff will identify some that are of particular interest. We often need to go with ones that have some kind of compliance issue. We do have to. We the agenda for moving things forward is really up to the
policy management committee to set that agenda. So that's a good point. Usually we have several buckets of things, either things that we are looking at, compliance issues we need to address immediately. And there are things that that
will guide our systems work like the AI policy is new. Like this year we are going to take a look at evaluation policy. Those are the things that we have identified holes in our system that we have decided to
take it on this year. And also there are periodical updates. We we base that on the public's feedback and staff feedback. And that's how and also what can be reasonably done within a
year's time frame. And that is how we develop our work plan for this year. Okay. Thank you. Because I know I'm on page two of three. You have a very detailed thing on how to conduct evaluation of the retiring pension at least every five years. So is that new
language correct? Under implementation strategies? That would be line 63 through 67. We're looking at the wrong thing. With other funding
retirement pension plan. Am I looking at is that the funding okay. Never mind. See I'm really tired now okay. So with that is there no more comments? No further discussion? Okay. So this policy so we we we need to
vote so that you can go all those all those in favor. Thank you Miss Montoya. And that would be unanimous with those present. So with this policy will now be sent out for public comment and return to the Policy Management Committee and the board for final review. Yes.
Okay. One more. The next item on the agenda for the last policy policy, gig funding, retirement pension system was last revised in 2009. In terms of summary of stakeholder engagement, the Fiscal
Management Committee's discussion of policy updates begun in 2023, then again in September 2024. Following that discussion, we sought recommendations in October from the Board of Investment Trustees and returning November 2024 to the Fiscal Management Committee for further
discussion. In addition, in February of 2025, we sought suggestions from the firm contracted to audit the retirement pension system. Those recommendations are what I'm presenting to you today. First of all, we want to make sure to make it as clear as
possible to the public that this policy simultaneously refers to two boards with two very separate spheres of responsibility. The first is the Board of Education and the intent and responsibility to provide retirement pension benefits to M.C.P.S. employees.
The second board is the Board of Investment Trustees, to whom the Board of Education delegates responsibility to oversee the investments of fund assets. The Board of Education delegates certain powers and duties to the trustees through the Trust agreement. The policy
also assigns to the Superintendent of Schools or designee certain responsibilities, which include contracting with a credential actuarial firm to prepare studies and reports required by the Board of Education, and further, to meet with the Fiscal Management Committee every year. To review findings
of this report and to make recommendations to the board. There is also redacted language in this policy that refers to terminology that we recommend be relocated to new regulatory language, which we're currently working on. And I'll turn it over to the board. Thank you.
Is there a motion from the chair? Yes. As the chair of the Policy Management Committee, I move that the board takes tentative action on this policy and send it out for public comment. With that motion of the chair, is there? No, no second is required. Is there
any discussion? Seeing none. Can we do a vote? All those in favor? And Miss Montoya online as unanimous. Thank you. This policy will now be sent out for public comment and return to
the Policy Management Committee and the board for final review. With that, I'm gladly return the gavel to Miss Yang. Thank you so much, and I want to thank staff for your work. We have four policy going out for public comment. Thank you so
much and thank you for the my colleagues on the policy Committee, for your for your dedication to this work. Okay. Last item of the day, item 11 adjournment. May I have a
motion for adjournment? Motion second. All in favor, please raise your hand. Hi. That's unanimous with those present. Thank you everybody. Thank you for joining us online. Good
night.