Good afternoon and welcome to the May 22nd, 2025 Board Business Meeting. Welcome to our board members, M.c.p.s. Staff, community members and those who are joining us online. And let's begin by standing for the Pledge
of Allegiance. I pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you, board members. I will now ask you to introduce yourself to establish a quorum for O'Neill Suvarna student member of the board and my second to last board business meeting. Good
afternoon, Natalie Zimmerman representing district two. Buenas tardes. Good afternoon. Carla Silvestre, school board member at large. Good afternoon. Buenas tardes. Grace Rivera oven representing district one. Good afternoon, Brenda Wolff,
district five. Good afternoon. Rita montoya, board member at large. Good afternoon, Laura Stewart for district four. Good afternoon, Julie Yang, district three. Now, may I have a motion
to approve the agenda? So moved. Second. All in favor, please raise your hand. And that's unanimous. Doctor Taylor, I actually very excited. We moved the recognition up one step today. Let's start with our
recognition. Thank you, Madam President. We have several recognitions that we're thrilled to recommend to the board for consideration today. The first is a resolution recognizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Queer Pride Month. Whereas the lesbian, Gay,
bisexual, transgender and Queer Pride Month presents all of us with the opportunity to raise awareness of challenges that face the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community. And Whereas Respect and Equity are two of Montgomery County Public Schools core values
embodying our commitment to eliminating institutional barriers to student success and ensuring equitable practices across classrooms and workspaces. To serve, support and include all students. And Whereas 2025 marks the 55th
anniversary of the first Pride Parade, which was held on June 28th of 1970 to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots. The event, considered to be the birth of the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer
movement, and Whe all high schools and middle schools in Montgomery County public schools have an actor, active Gender and Sexual Sexuality Alliance, including 15 elementary schools supporting rainbow clubs to promote respect and inclusivity
throughout the school, including students organized to create the district wide Montgomery County Pride Student Association to coalesce lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and all ally voices. And Whereas, the
Pride Alliance has been developed as a collaborative with broad stakeholder groups entrusted to implement a comprehensive, district wide action plan that aligns the vision, actions and interests of
our students, staff, and community with all aspects of work involving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer matters. And Whereas, all Montgomery County Public Schools staff, teachers, specialists, administrators and support
professionals are expected to foster a supportive, inclusive environment that serves all of our students and families with care, compassion and professionalism. And Whereas Montgomery County Public Schools is committed to a safe, inclusive school environment where all students are engaged
and learning with appropriate instructional materials and are active participants in the school community because they feel accepted and valued. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Montgomery County Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools hereby declare the
month of June 2025 to be recognized as the as the annual observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and Queer Pride Month in Montgomery County Public Schools. Move for approval. Second, all in favor,
please raise your hand. Thank you. That's unanimous. Thank you, Madam President. The second recognition for today is a scholarship recipient recognition. And there is a resolution that corresponds with this. And it is for the League
of Educators of Asian American Progress Scholarship. This is also a Pi Heritage Month, and we are delighted to make this recognition today. Whereas in honor and in recognition of
Asian American Heritage Month, the League of Educators of Asian American Progress awarded a $3,000 scholarship to Montgomery County Public Schools, graduating senior of Asian descent who is planning to pursue a degree in the field of
education and therefore, be it resolved that the Montgomery County Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools hereby recognize and congratulate the recipient of this year's League of Educators for Asian American Progress Scholarship Award. This year's award recipient is Frances
Paloma of Richard Montgomery High School. Can you please stand up? May I have a motion? I'm very grateful to have known Frances since our freshman year
together. And I'll move this forward for approval. Second, all in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you so much, everyone. Unanimous. Congratulations. Congratulations, Frances. And at
this time, I'd also like to ask if there are any members of Leap or the League of Educators for Asian American Progress to please stand to be recognized at this time. I see we've got our two co-presidents and a couple other officers here today as
well. Thank you. The last staff recognition to bring forward to the board for consideration is the superintendent's annual Mark Mann Excellence and Harmony Award. The superintendent recommends that the Board of Education extend congratulations
to the to the recipient of the Superintendent's annual Mark Mann Excellence and Harmony Award, whereas the Superintendent's Annual Mark Mann Excellence and Harmony Award was established in 1991 to honor the highest qualities and most significant accomplishments
of the late doctor Mark Mann, a former principal at parkland, then junior high. And Whereas, the award is presented annually to a Montgomery County Public Schools principal who has shown exceptional performance in promoting academic excellence,
positive human relations and community outreach. And Whereas, Mister Joshua s fine, principal at Flower Hill Elementary School, was selected as the recipient of the 2025 Mark Mann Excellence and Harmony Award for his dedication to providing a
challenging academic program for every student. And Whereas Mister Fine has set a clear vision of excellence for all students, his vision for research based school improvement has garnered some of the most significant gains in both literacy and mathematics for students in Montgomery
County. And now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Montgomery County Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools congratulate Mr. Josh s fine on his accomplishment and receiving the 2025 Mark Mann Excellence
and Harmony Award. Is Doctor Fine here? I'm trying to look. That's why I was trying to look. Okay. I don't see Doctor Fine in the audience, but we'll still. So I'll move that forward for approval. I second that. All in
favor, raise your hand. That's unanimous. Congratulations to doctor. Fine. Thank you, Madam President. And I think that there's one more recognition from the board, but that's it for staff recognitions. Yes. Thank you so much. Today's final recognition is the Board of Education. Student recognition,
for which board members will read the proclamation beginning with Mr. Whereas Samantha Ross, a high school student at Montgomery Blair High School,har school's community and student leadership and has advanced many
advocacy initiatives through throughout Montgomery County Public Schools. And Whereas, Miss Ross has made positive contributions through her participation in Montgomery Blair's Latin dance team, Blair Crew, M.C.P.S. Gymnastics, and district wide contributions.
Through her work in the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association. And Whereas, Miss Ross has actively engaged in M.C.P.S. Internship programs, serving as an intern in both the office of the Chief of Staff and the
office of the Deputy Superintendent. And Whereas, Miss Ross has also served as an apprentice for the Division of pre K through 12 curriculum, where she brought student voice and perspective to changes in Board of Education Policy and
M.C.P.S. Regulations. And Whereas, Miss Ross has been an active and accomplished student leader, and she was a finalist for the student member of the Board of Education, chief of Staff to the student member of the Board Advisory Council, and a finalist for the Student Service Award. And Whereas, Miss
Ross will maintain her commitment to serving M.c.p.s. As a member of the Board Advisory Committee on Communication and Community Engagement, and Whereas, Miss Ross has testified at public board meetings 14 times within the past two years and has served as a role model and
mentor for many students in her community, encouraging them to become involved in student leadership positions and opportunities, and therefore, be it declared that the Board of Education and Montgomery County Public School honor Samantha Ross as a student advocate and
contributor to the work of Montgomery County Public Schools, her work has had a significant impact on elevating student voice and improving student leaders. Congratulations, Sam. And
whereas is Sam here? Thank you. Sam. Sam. Stand up. Don't be shy. Where are you? Why don't you come to the front? Let's give you this. Shall we? Shall
we? Shall we? Let's go down the whole board. All right. I just
technically don't ask me if I got it. Okay? So right here.
Right? Okay. Congratulations. You know, my staff reminded me that to make it really official, like, more official than that
piece of paper. Let's vote on it. All right. Can we have a motion? Oh, we have a motion. Can you can with your motion. So you move. We have a I'll move that for approval. Okay. I second that. All in favor, raise
your hand. There we go. Thank you everyone. Thank you everyone. Okay, doctor Taylor, now is the next. Very exciting. Recommended appointment. Yes,
madam president, I am thrilled to offer a slate of outstanding administrators for the board's consideration. But very first, we would like to start with a member of the board staff. And I am actually going to defer to you for this first appointment
recommendation for change this time, our we have a small and mighty staff at the board office. One of the functions we do that some a lot of people don't know is that we actually have an internal audit unit. That house that's housed in the
Board of Education office. So our appointment is on that position. So first appointment for consideration today is Mr. Marvin A Phillips for the position of Supervisor of Internal Audit Unit with the
office of the Board of Education. Mr. Phillips is joined today by his daughter Mayumi, a sophomore at Northwest High School. Mr. Phillips is a United States Air Force veteran who has served with the Department of Veterans Affairs
for 16 years as an internal auditor, chief accountant and chief financial officer with the Veterans Canteen Service. He currently serves as the Director of Franchise Fund Oversight, overseeing the VA's primary care
services providers. Mr. Phillips looks forward to bringing his experience and dedication to the Montgomery County Board of Education as the Internal Audit Supervisor, where he is eager to serve the community he calls home. Thank you for your
service, Mr. Phillips, and I'll move this forward for approval, and I'll second that. All in favor, please raise your hand. Unanimous. Welcome to the Board of Education. Thank you, Madam
President. Members of the board. Tis the season for appointments. I have a number of appointments to bring forward. And first, I would like to introduce miss Bay, Susan Chen, for the position of controller and the department of the controller in our financial services office.
Mrs. Chen has been employed with M.C.P.S. For 23 years as a Senior Accountant, Senior Assistant Comptroller, Acting Comptroller and most recently as the controller in the Division of Comptroller and the office of the Chief Financial Officer. And
we're delighted to move her appointment forward for consideration. Move for approval. Second, all in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Congratulations. And
it is an active evening for financial appointments tonight. It's my pleasure to introduce Miss Carly M Thompson for the position of executive director in the Division of Financial Management. Joining her today is her husband, Shane Price. Twins,
Carson and Cameron Price. Her parents, Will and Carol Thompson. Miss Thompson has been with M.C.P.S. For 12 years as a bookkeeper. Accounts payable, assistant management and budget specialist, team leader coordinator and most recently as
the Acting Director of the Division of Budget and Management in the office of the Chief Financial Officer. She is excited for the opportunity to serve M.C.P.S. In a broader capacity, and looks forward to continuing to support the district's strategies and goals
to ensure that all students achieve academic excellence and are successful in their future endeavors. Move for approval. Second, all in favor, please raise your hand. That's
unanimous. Congratulations. Switching gears a little bit to operations, it's my pleasure to introduce Mr. Joel S Smetanka for the position of supervisor
of Systems Engineering and Integrations in the Department of Instructional Technology in the Division of Technology. Joining him today is his wife, Lori. Mr. Smetanka has been employed with M.C.P.S. For 28 years as a teacher, instructional specialist,
supervisor, director and most recently as Operations Development Manager in the Department of Digital Innovation. He looks forward to joining the Systems Integration Team, providing leadership in the integration and interoperability of learning of
the Learning Management system and the enterprise systems that we have. Move for approval. Second, all in favor, raise your hand. Unanimous. Congratulations. Next up for a
principal position, Doctor Irina Lagrange, for the position of principal at Quince Orchard High School. Joining her today is her husband, Doctor Ricardo Lagrange, her daughter Ella, and son Noah. Doctor Lagrange has been employed with M.C.P.S. For
22 years as a teacher, assistant school administrator, assistant principal, principal, and most recently as the director in the Department of College and Career Readiness and district wide programs in the Office of Curriculum and Instruction. Doctor Lagrange is honored and
humbled to serve as the principal at Quince Orchard High School and to serve the Quince Orchard community. Shout outs to Miss Niki Hazel, doctor Mike Zarqan, Miss Cameron Lockhart, and Doctor Sean Bulson for their support, guidance and along her
professional journey, move for approval Second, all in favor, please raise your hand. That's six opposed. Two. Thank you
everyone. Congratulations. Next up on our principal list is Mr. Damon, a monteleone for the position of principal at
Montgomery Blair High School. Joining him today is his partner, Patricia Taylor. Mr. Monteleone has been employed with M.C.P.S. For 29 years as a special education teacher, social studies teacher, resource teacher, assistant principal,
principal, and most recently as the Associate Superintendent in the Office of Wellbeing and Student Services. Mr. Monteleone is honored to join the storied Montgomery Blair High School community and thrilled to return to the most important work in
the district. The principalship shout outs to his sons. Leonardo, a graduate of Richard Montgomery High School. Paolo, a rising senior at Rockville High School. And to his parents, Tom and Natalie, who are watching online. And check out that tie.
Very nice tie. Move forward for approval. I second. All in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Congratulations. Next for the
board's consideration. Is Miss Shanna a Sneed for the position of principal at North Bethesda middle school. Joining her today is her sister, Jamila Moore. And friends and colleagues Betty Pierre, Saint Walla, doctor
Carla McNeil and Doctor Christine Handy. Miss Sneed has been employed with MCPs for 11 years as a teacher, assistant principal, principal intern and most recently as the principal at James Hubert Blake High School. She looks forward to
joining the North Bethesda middle school community in partnership to support the growth, academic achievement and wellness of children, staff and community. Shout outs to her loving family who are watching online from Delaware. Move for
approval. Second, all in favor, raise your hand. That's unanimous. Congratulations. Next
up for consideration is Mrs. Alejandro. Oliveras Olavarrieta. Marietta, I'm sorry I butchered that. I apologize, Alejandro, for the position of principal at Summit Hall Elementary School. Joining her today is her
husband, Franklin, and son, Adrian. Miss Olavarria of. Marietta. I apologize yet again. Has been employed with M.C.P.S. For 15 years as a substitute teacher, teacher, English
language development teacher, assistant school administrator, and most recently as an assistant principal at Watkins Mill Elementary School. She is thrilled to join the Summit Hall community to support student learning, foster an inclusive and welcoming environment, and
to collaborate with staff and families to ensure success for all. Students. Move for approval. Second, all in favor, raise your hand. That's unanimous. Congratulations. Next
for consideration is Miss Lisa m Rosado for the position of principal at South Lake Elementary School. Joining her today are Melanie Jude Ware and Irene Rosado. Miss Rosado brings to M.C.P.S. More than 21 years
of educational experience as a teacher and an administrator. She looks forward to joining the South Lake community, and she joins us from DC Public Schools. Move for approval. Second, all in favor, raise your hand.
That's unanimous. Congratulations. Welcome to M.C.P.S. And our last recommendation for the board's consideration this evening is a big one, because we just had a very special event at this at
this school, we did a groundbreaking at Burtonsville Elementary School, and along with the new school building will come a new principal. And it is my delight to recommend for the board's consideration. Mrs. Loretta a woods for the
position of principal at Burtonsville Elementary School. Joining her today is her husband, Timothy, her mentor Doctor Deanne Collins, and her best friend and colleague, Doctor Davina Griffith. Miss woods has been employed with
MCPs for 20 years as a teacher, staff development teacher, instructional specialist, assistant principal, principal intern and most recently as the principal at Whetstone Elementary School. She looks forward to serving, supporting and uplifting the beloved
Burtonsville community. Shout outs to her parents, Steve and Mary Hood, who are watching online move for approval. Second, all in favor, raise your hand. That's unanimous.
Congratulations. Madam President. That concludes administrative recommendations for this evening. Thank you, Doctor Taylor. This is a wonderful time of the year. Not only we have a lot of celebrations in the schools for the achievement of students and
the hard work of our staff. We're doing a lot of appointments. Okay. The next session is public comments. I'm going to give the room a minute
as we are in transition. It's a large group. It's a lot of people. Well, I have some verbiage to read through about public comment. Maybe this is
the perfect time to do so. The next item on the agenda is public comment. While the board encourages public input on policy, program and practices and will consider comments received, is not the board's practice during its business
meetings to respond to questions, provide comments or take actions on the issue raised. This is a public meetin, and the board expects the conduct of all speakers and members of the audience to be within bounds of proper etiquette. Inappropriate
personal remarks, rude, restored or other such behavior is out of order and will not be tolerated. Those who demonstrate disruptive or disrespectful behavior during public comments may be asked to leave the room. In addition,
public comment is not the proper avenue to address specific student or employee matters. Such matters should be directed through the complaints or the 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
light and a repeating beats signals that time has expired. Once you have finished speaking, press the same button to turn off the microphone. Following the live testimony, the audio and video testimony will be
played. Copies of testimonies are posted with the other materials for this meeting. On the board docs, I'm going to call the first six public commenters to come to the front. I will appreciate you feel the
top from my left hand to the right hand side. Samantha Ross. Bronwyn Philbeck Ella one. David Stein, Katie Herman, Laura
Oldroyd I think that's the last one. Laura, are you here? Yeah. Sam, you may begin. Good
afternoon. Members of the board and Doctor Taylor. My name is Sam Ross. And for just one more day, I'm a proud senior at Montgomery Blair High School. Today, I would like to address something that has been increasingly concerning to me, the diminishing emphasis on student voice within M.c.p.s. For many students, this concern is most evident in the way we
sometimes hear students discussed in this very room hearing phrases like quote unquote MCPs in their grades can be disheartening. Just last week, I was honored to receive the Governor's Merit Award for being in the top 5% of my graduating class. When I hear that kind of comment, I can't help but wonder, am I part of what's being criticized? Are my
efforts being discounted? And if not me, then who? This kind of language and mindset sends a discouraging message. It makes us question whether our experiences are truly valued. When diverse student input was gathered for the grading and reporting regulation updates, it was disappointing to see so little of the feedback reflected
in the draft. Similarly, when Mr. Suvarna raised concerns, his input, while respectfully acknowledged, appeared to ultimately be set aside not because of its content, but because of his age. As students, we are the ones directly impacted by every policy and regulation passed. We live the outcomes of these decisions
every day in our classrooms. Our age gives us a fresh and honest perspective. It's a strength, not a limitation. Before I close, I'd also like to express concern about how some staff members have been treated during recent meetings. M.c.p.s. Staff members work tirelessly to support students and improve our
system. We are all on the same team working towards a better future for students. Thank you for your time and for the work you do on behalf of our school system. I hope that as I continue to follow board meetings in the future, I'll see an even stronger commitment to mutual respect and partnership for everyone. It has been the
honor of a lifetime to advocate in, front of and be recognized by this board, and I am so excited for your future, as just as I hope you are for mine. Thank you. Bronwyn. Good afternoon. My name is Bronwyn Philbeck and I'm an eighth grader at Argyle Middle School.
Argyle was first built in 1971, 54 years ago, making it one of the oldest schools in the county. Not only does this make Argyle an old school, but many other schools have been built, torn down and rebuilt in this time. It is unfair that other schools receive these changes, but Argyle is left behind. Argyle is overcrowded and was not built to support the current
amount of students. Argyle was built for a capacity of 600 students, but today we have 861 students. The building also has very narrow hallways that we have to use to get to class in between periods. When these two problems combine, it constantly leads to see students all pushing and shoving against each other like a stampede. Steroids
and argyle are small and cramped, which creates a myriad of occasions where students push or bump up against one another and almost fall down the stairs. We are forced to deal with these dangerous situations every day, but it shouldn't be like this for us. What if it was your child having to deal with all of this? On top of everything else,
there is only one bathroom on the second floor shared by almost 200 girls. Even after all these factors, students are still expected to get to class in a timely manner. The gym and argyle is on the second floor with classes directly underneath it. This leads to noisy classrooms that are hard to focus in. Additionally, temperatures in the building vary drastically, from one classroom being freezing cold to
another being overwhelmingly hot. This makes it hard to focus as well as uncomfortable for students. We shouldn't have to adjust what we do just because the school has an old HVAC system. Short term solutions like fixing the roof or adding more learning cottages won't fix this problem. Argyle falls a block schedule, so I have my advisory class outside in the
learning colleges. First period inside, third period outside, and fifth period inside. This causes me and other students sharing similar schedules to have to run back and forth from class to class, just barely making it on time. This is inconvenient for us and it doesn't help our learning in the long run. Why should students want to show up to school with
all these conditions in mind? School's supposed to be a place that students can look forward to going to, but right now it is failing to do so. Argyle students deserve a new school that will positively impact their learning and will demonstrate real equity in M.C.P.S. Thank you for your time. Thank you Ella. Good afternoon members of the board
and Doctor Taylor. My name is Ella Wong and I'm an eighth grader at Neelsville Middle School. I'm here today to urge you to prioritize mental health support and resources as you move forward with the proposed return to rigor grading policy changes. I understand that the intent behind this change is to
encourage consistency, reflect real understanding, and make grades more precise. But for students, especially those of us juggling rigorous coursework, extracurriculars, jobs or family responsibilities, this change doesn't just bring rigor, it brings pressure while shifting
to percentage based average and reinstating summative assessments might sound logical on paper, it means higher stakes, fewer chances to recover from setbacks, and a lot more stress for students. For incoming ninth graders like myself who are already navigating a tough transition,
this adds yet another weight on our shoulders. All the while, mental health struggles among students are still rising, according to M.C.P.S. Own surveys, more than 40% of secondary students report feeling persistently sad or hopeless. We're asking for balance, not a rollback of
standards, but support that matches the increased demands. That means fully funding school based mental health professionals, expanding access to mental health spaces and resources, and embedding wellness periods into school schedules. If M.c.p.s is serious about rigor, then you must also
be serious about resilience, and that comes from supporting the whole student, not just their GPA. You can't raise expectations without also raising support. The same way. You wouldn't expect students to be pro athletes without proper training. So I urge you, please don't make students choose between their well-being and
their grades. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Stein. Good afternoon, Doctor Taylor, President Yang and members of the board. I'm David Stein, president of MCE. With today's official county council vote. This is a momentous day for all of us. It
is a culmination of a collaboration between M.c.p.s. This board, the community and the members of all three unions MCA, SEIU, local 500 and Macapp. Back in July, at the beginning of my presidency, I would not have anticipated that this working partnership would be so
seamless. After many years of frustration and angst today, I'm deeply pleased that together we have successfully secured nearly all the funding that MCPs presented to the County Council. This is worth celebrating. Thank you for your partnership and your collaboration. It doesn't mean we will agree on
everything, but it is essential to find common ground where possible. Our students and thousands of educators deserve nothing less. And speaking of Culminations, we are fast approaching the end of another school year. Students and educators are celebrating the successes of this past year and
reflecting on what lies ahead, as am I. We should all be prepared for the bigger battles that lie ahead. We will be fighting to address what thus far have been intractable challenges, staffing ratios and class size, amongst other thorny issues. We will need to have honest conversations sooner
rather than later about what it will take for this county to authentically commit to excellence for all of our students, and what it will take from all of us here in this room to make sure it happens. Our MCA members are ready for whatever lies ahead, as evidenced as the act of the actions. This past
year, we signed thousands of petitions, mailed thousands of postcards, hundreds of calls, joined multiple in-person rallies and actions focused on ensuring that this county lives up to its commitment to students and public education. And this is after hundreds of MCA members volunteered for Apple ballot
shifts during last year's election to elect Pro-public education leaders willing to fight for our schools, students and educators. I am ready, we are ready, and we are prepared to do whatever it takes to win for our schools and our students and ensure that they succeed and
flourish. Thank you, thank you, Miss Herman. Good afternoon. My name is Katie Herman. I come to you as both a proud parent of a graduating senior from the Richard Montgomery IB magnet and as a veteran educator with over
30 years of experience in public schools. I also just completed three years as board member and president of the Richard Montgomery IB Magnet Foundation. I've spent my career working to support students of all backgrounds. I deeply value equity and access, but I urge
you, don't mistake regional distribution for true opportunity. The countywide IB magnet at Richard Montgomery is an absolute gem and should continue as a flagship program for the county. Our MIB is a nationally recognized program that has served for nearly four
decades, highly motivated, intellectually curious students from every ZIP code in Montgomery County. The diversity of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds in this program is one of its greatest strengths. My son Asher has friends from Poolesville, Potomac, Gaithersburg, and Wheaton. And importantly, he has
many friends from the RM cluster who live in Rockville. This program is a model of what equity and excellence can look like when done right. Replacing countywide magnets with regional magnets or programs may sound equitable on paper, but in practice it risks diluting the
depth, rigor and resources that a single, cohesive countywide program can provide. Asher found challenge, belonging and a community of peers at MGH that would not have been possible in a more limited regional model. As a parent, I am profoundly grateful for this top quality
high school experience for my son. As an educator, I urge you not to dismantle what works, study and replicate it, add regional options, expand access. But don't take away one of the most successful academic programs the county has ever built. I've included data on the
back. We have both equity and excellence. We can have it, but only if we preserve what makes programs like IB magnet truly special. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Thank you miss. My name is Laura
Oldroyd. I'm a reading specialist at Wingate Elementary School, serving students across a range of reading levels and language backgrounds and learning needs. There's been a narrative circulating around that core knowledge language Arts, or CLA, does not serve our emergent multilingual learners or students who are academically
behind. With respect, I must challenge this claim and do so with both research and lived classroom experience behind me. As someone who works directly with both of these populations every day, I must tell you plainly this narrative is not only inaccurate, it's dangerous. The idea that emls are
struggling students can't access a content rich, knowledge building curriculum is exactly the kind of thinking that keeps achievement gaps alive. CLA is one of the few programs that takes takes this to heart to heart. It doesn't water down expectations for our most vulnerable learners. Instead, it
offers them structured phonics alongside rich oral language experiences, cumulative content knowledge, and academic vocabulary, all of which are critical for both language learners and students who are behind. CLA acknowledges that background knowledge is not the reward of reading, it's the
fuel. When we give students the knowledge and language they need, they rise to the occasion. I understand the concern behind this critique that students who are far behind need something different, but in my experience, supported by research, they don't need a different curriculum. They need more
support with the same high quality curriculum. They need scaffolds and supports, not substitutions. They need access, not exclusion. Customization is required for all curriculums. Are there implementation challenges? Of course, any program is only as strong as the
training and support behind it, but the answer to struggling readers or emls is not to throw out a knowledge building curriculum. The answer is to double down on equity by giving teachers the tools, professional learning and scaffolds to ensure every child can access this high
quality curriculum. Rejecting CLA because it doesn't work for emls or struggling students is frankly, a misunderstanding of what learners actually need. CLA works not because it's easy, but because it's right. Thank you for your time and your continued focus on doing what's best for
all students. Thank you. I'm going to ask the next six public commenter to come to the front. Thank you for your six public comment. Rebecca Jacobs, Amy Hastings, Ashley Delaney, Victor
Dill, Jennifer Todd and Laura for. Miss Jacobs. Please proceed. Good afternoon. For
over 25 years, I've worked with multilingual learners from LA to DC. I've seen how a lack of exposure to science, social studies and vocabulary stifles learning. Now, I teach developmental English at Montgomery College, working with
students who graduated from M.C.P.S. But still can't pass our basic placement tests. These are not Eld students, they are native English speakers, handed M.C.P.S. Diplomas without basic reading and writing skills. Why?
Because our English curriculum failed them. Johns Hopkins warned us in 2018 that our curriculum lacked rigor. It's now 2025. How much longer will we wait while students fall through the cracks? We are at a
crossroads with with middle school, English and elementary Eld curriculum. Yet research shows that a knowledge rich, challenging materials, close opportunity gaps regardless of zip codes. I understand your
concerns about reviewer representation and delaying. This means another year of a broken system. We need a rigorous, inclusive curriculum for grades six eight includes the Harlem Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the
Latino Experience in the U.S, and voices of the Holocaust. This content is challenging and empowering, but curriculum is not enough. Implementation matters. Schools are the units of change. Teachers need time and strong professional development. If we water it
down, we will fail again. We must train our teachers to use CLA embedded scaffolds for multilingual learners and students with IEPs. Leaders must guide the implementation clearly and not lower the expectations. This takes more than 1st July training. I started discussing
college students and I will end there. M.c.p.s. Is changing grading rules for juniors and seniors midstream just before college and scholarship applications. That's not fair. Please face the new grading policy with incoming freshmen.
Thank you. Miss Hasty. Good afternoon, President Yang and members of the Board of Education, doctor Taylor and M.c.p.s staff. My name is Amy Acker Berg Hastings. I am the parent of a Richard Montgomery High School junior and the Central Area vice president for
MCPs, PTA. I mentioned some staff appreciations in my written testimony, but my chief purpose today is to express concerns that I am hearing in the RM cluster about M.C.P.S. Apparent preference for replacing the current variegated system of high school programs
with an all regional model. In particular, the six regions strike us as yet another example of one size fits all thinking that is not equitable in the sense of meeting students where they are. In contrast, the countywide IB program at RM is a
success story of differentiated instruction for highly able students. Because the program draws from across the county, students are able to challenge each other and excel at higher levels than they would without these cohorts. The data in IB parent Katie Herman's testimony
shows that our students continue to significantly outperform students enrolled in the regional and local IB programs that were established a few years ago. Rather than take away these students ability to choose to take on Ms. Academic
challenges and to decide how to mitigate any transportation challenges that arise, M.C.P.S. Should offer additional types of opportunities that are suited to a wider range of students skills and interests. My written testimony lists several ideas that have come to mind as I have watched my own child and his
friends over the past 12 years. M.C.P.S. Students are not all the same, and decreasing the selectivity of countywide programs will worsen the experience of highly able students without improving daily life for the system's vast and neglected middle. Thank you for
your attention. Thank you, Miss Delaney. Good afternoon, Madam President. Miss Doctor Taylor and esteemed members of the board. My name is Miss Ashley Delaney, and I am an eighth grade advanced English teacher at a Mario Loiederman middle school in Silver Spring, Maryland. I promise I am not here about the HVAC concerns. My
concern today is in regards to the new middle school Ela curriculum and its timeline and approval for implementation. I've been teaching in Montgomery County for all eight years of my career. I grew up here and I spent grades one through 12 working my way through the teacher built M.c.p.s curriculum of the 90s and 2000. I remember
very well what it's like to learn from a challenging curriculum, given my time pre magnet through William and Mary and worldly wise at M.C.P.S. At the advice of my M.c.p.s. Teacher, Mr. Ornstein, I studied English Literature at the University of Maryland before attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for my master's in Secondary education.
It was my dream to return home to the county where I grew up, to teach the students that I knew since coming to work at M.c.p.s. As my mother did before me, I have experienced two different curricula at the middle school level, the first being the one I learned in seventh grade and study sync being the second. It is my understanding and experience
that study sync worked well for the time we had it in quarantine. Since then, study sync has lapsed in use both at my school and at others. It has continued to do a disservice to my ESL population, of which Letterman has not. Sorry has one of, if not the largest. I participated in the secondary literacy, the secondary literacy
offices curriculum audit. I asked several reading teachers who have gone through the year implementing it at the elementary level. I heard that the curriculum was challenging and engaging. I loved the idea that there would be consistent curriculum of use of Carla being used by M.C.P.S. From elementary and middle school with
familiarly designed assessments in part one, part two anchor bundles. Consistency, after all, is one of the keys of growth. When the curriculum was discussed at the May 8th meeting, I was disheartened to hear that the board needed further data to make a decision. It didn't bother me that the board wanted more performance data or testimony, but I was
disturbed that it delayed what middle school Ela teachers have wanted to know since discovering the expiration of study six license back in February. In short, it is the end of May and we do not yet know what we are teaching in three months in the new curriculum, approval must be decided on quickly so that we
can prepare for the transition and implementation. If we are to begin in August, we must be armed with knowledge of the curriculum. We must know which books are in our book. Rooms can be exchanged with new ones. The seventh grade curriculum calls for The Tempest, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Navajo code breakers. My school so much. We have your testimony. Thank you.
And Mr. Deal. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Victor Deal, and I'm a Montgomery County parent who, like many, moved here because I wanted more for my kids, more opportunity, more challenge, more preparation for the future. I grew up in a multilingual home
where academic conversations were rare for kids like me, and now for my own kids. Public school is the foundation. The process begins in kindergarten, starting with literacy. We need a rigorous English language arts curriculum for all students,
particularly those who are struggling or are multilingual learners. They don't need something different. They need access to the same rich knowledge, vocabulary, and cultural context as their peers. When discourse at home is limited, school becomes the only
place where kids learn about the world, and that world should come through texts that are both mirrors and windows mirrors to reflect who they are, and windows to explore the history, culture and ideas that have shaped America. This year, I've
seen what's possible with Kayla. In fifth grade, my daughter has come home talking about Michelangelo, Juneteenth, Native Americans. She even read Shakespeare with the organization and quality of the texts, the depth of discussion, and the vocabulary, she is
thriving. I've also seen what's missing in middle school due to the timing of the curriculum change. My eighth grade son, who is bright. He's curious. He hasn't had the same exposure to rigorous content or complex texts. If that continues, he will not be ready for the kind
of college he should attend. I say that as someone who left a comprehensive public high school like those in M.C.P.S. At the top of my class, but struggled to adjust to a competitive university, the preparation just wasn't there to meet the expectations, at least to me,
and the expectations were significantly different. I had the opportunity to review the proposed middle school text list, and I couldn't have picked a better foundation. That's why I'm urging you to adopt the curriculum that challenges, affirms, and prepares all students to thrive. Thanks for
your time. Thank you, Miss Todd. Good afternoon. My name is Doctor Jennifer Todd. I'm the proud mother of Bronwyn Philbeck and M.C.P.S. Student who spoke about Argyle Middle a few minutes ago. I am here to speak as a parent, but also as a
Doctor of Public health, about a matter of safety, health and social justice. As a public health expert, I am very concerned about the condition of the Argyle Building, including the fact that it is plagued by cockroaches, mice and rats and as you can see from the charts
which were distributed with my testimony but didn't get distributed to you, I have them here. Has significant air quality issues, which makes it an unsafe school. Argyle is a sick building. We know this
because faculty and staff and students have reported that after coming to Argyle, they experienced chronic sinus infections, chest infections, eye irritation, difficulty breathing and other chronic symptoms which clear up after holiday breaks and during the summer. This is evidence of sick
building syndrome. Please focus on the total numbers that are on here which you were not given VOC numbers in the chart, which is the measure of total volatile organic compounds like benzene,
formaldehyde, and DDT. VOCs can cause headaches, short term confusion, difficulty concentrating, asthma attacks, and nosebleeds. Longer term effects include cancer, hormonal disruption, liver, kidney, and neurological damage. Many of the
classrooms fall very far outside the safe levels of VOCs. This makes Argyle a dangerous school full stop. We should all be very concerned about the health consequences for our children that may become serious diseases after their time at Argyle. I
would like you to note that areas with high VOC levels have also disturbed asbestos as well, which I know. So it is recorded in these proceedings and will show you have been notified. This building is full of asbestos. All of the cells
highlighted in this handout have measured dangerous levels of VOCs. Would you want your child to be exposed to 36 times the safe levels of VOCs week after week, 36 times? Would you want
your child exposed to that? Think beyond these dangerous classes. We have your testimony in the doc might mean for a class action lawsuit, members of the board, a new building is the
much better option. Miss Finnerty, please go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is Laura, and I'm the Eld teacher at Wingate Elementary. I'm here to give a shout out to KLA, our new
reading curriculum with KLA. I've seen a huge jump in motivation and enthusiasm for reading among all students, particularly among boys whose passions often fall in nonfiction, history and science. Under KLA, the students
listening and note taking while listening are improving dramatically the language of science and the language of social studies are finally getting the attention that they deserve, which is having a triple payoff first in their reading class, second in their science and social studies class, and also third on the way
to access test, which always tests both of those domains. Anecdotally, my kids are blowing me away. Kindergartners Ms. This tree is deciduous, but that one is evergreen or my fourth grade beginner from Japan this week made a pro and con chart
comparing fossil fuels, wind energy, solar energy, and hydroelectric power. He didn't know his letters when he got here in September. Our weeder scores Dibels maps are looking good. No curriculum suits everybody all the time. That would be a unicorn. It's been
great for our intermediate emls. It's been great for our beginners. At the lower grades. We'll acknowledge that for our upper primary beginners, we could use more picture supports with newcomer sentence frames. I would love our Eld central office to do that. Also offer us
some shortened text with just the golden nuggets, maybe with audio versions. Again, I think our Eld office could do that, and finally give us some flexibility to meet with newcomers for more than 30 minutes a day, which is the given intervention block. Kids need to have some basic social
language. If I asked you. That's how was your weekend? If you can't answer that question, you're not going to get the Abbasid Caliphate. And that's fourth grade. So, you know, let us have more time with the kids. Let us have some picture support and some. Shortened versions of
the text for the upper grades, but otherwise it's been great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for the six public commenter. I'm going to call the remaining three in person, and then we will play the audio and video. Brian Cockrell, Doug
Ryan, Patty winters. Mr. Cottrell, you may begin. Good afternoon. I'm an Eld teacher at Kennedy. I am a graduate of and have a PhD in
anthropology. Two months ago I gave my students all emergent multilingual learners the progress check for level two, which constituted their evidence of learning for the third marking period, the Central Office emailed Eld teachers to share the progress check readings. When I previewed the text, I became concerned and wrote to the central office. One of the texts revolves around the
kidnaping of children and their indentured servitude and physical abuse. The other text asked students to determine the meaning of the word master, recognizing that M.C.P.S. Rightfully advocates for trauma informed teaching, I was disturbed that these were the topics included. While teaching the truth about slavery in the
U.S. Is vital, I worry that centering this topic on a test with no content warnings could negatively affect students well-being. My concerns go further the texts do not present these histories honestly. Instead, we encounter sentences such as the company worked me hard, but I also learned woodworking skills after gaining
freedom, another servant shares, apparently without irony. Now we have our own farm near Jamestown. I guess America is a land of opportunity after all. Let's be clear slavery and indentured servitude are unjustifiable. This text suggests otherwise. If there is anything positive to arise from this, it is that in their
essays, my students got to the heart of the matter. With their permission, I'm sharing their words. One student noted the hypocrisy of the enslavers. He is double faced. He was one person with some people and another person with his slaves. Another student commented on the discrepancy between the US quote, foundational documents and enslavers asking, in fact,
what is the meaning of independence? Reflecting on the system of servitude, one state, one student stated succinctly, that is not right. Finally, another student set out a basic rule to live by. Nobody has to be a servant for another, as if they are less than that person. Together, the reactions of these students, who represent peoples
of three different continents, constitute an international condemnation of slavery and servitude. How is it possible that these students were provided with texts that were not so morally clear? I feel it is imperative that, given the present failure of this country to grapple with the truth of its history, we must be morally
clear. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. Press the button. Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Doug Ryan. I'm the PTA president of Glen Haven Elementary School. I'm here today on behalf of our
school community to express the concerns before, before, before and after care provider selection process. Our PTA began working with our principal in spring of 2023 to find a new provider. After repeated failures by the current one, including days or when staff
showed up, when no staff showed up, and schools forcing school staff to cover services outside of their own, their contract hours. The program also experienced experienced high turnover and unprofessional behavior, creating serious concerns for families who depend
on safe and reliable childcare. Despite over two years of advocacy, we still don't know who the provider will be next year. We only learned a couple weeks ago that the decision has already been made without meaningful family input, and will not be announced until June 10th. The process has lacked
transparency, transparency and community involvement, and that's alarming to a school like Glen Haven. We are a walking school, so alternative options are not accessible to us. We are becoming a community school next year, making affordability, capacity and flexibility more
critical than ever. Parents received only one short survey with no room for real feedback. We were told that this would be a six year contract with a one year probationary period, which makes it seven years, which is
questionably unethical and possibly fraudulent. Will there be enough space for all the students? Can families appeal the decision? We don't know. We ask the board to examine this process, ensure parent voices are heard, and give our families the information they need before
a seven year contract is approved. Our children deserve better. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Winters. So good afternoon. Can you press the button? Thank you. Good afternoon.
Superintendent Taylor, president Yang, vice president, Rivera-Oven and members of the Board of Education. My name is Patty winters. I am the proud team leader of that rockin group of volunteers. Phoenix Rising Maryland Recovery school
advocates. Many people are not aware that Recovery Education was born in Montgomery County. When the Phoenix School opened in 1979, as documented in Doctor Finch's book that came out last fall and is highly recommended
for your summer reading. Think of rap as Phoenix 2.0. Unlike when rap opened in 2018, its ideal location was not a problem. Thanks to M.C.P.S. Is forging a partnership with
Sheppard Pratt, who agreed to house rap at their landing site. In addition to providing recovery services, Sheppard Pratt is among those providers sung youth mental health and substance use services that lost significant federal
funding, which forced them to cut many programs, including Rap. As of next month. Also, the decision to omit Rap from the FY 26 budget was made on the heels of efforts that were in progress
to open a downtown location, hire bilingual Spanish speaking teachers, and finally raise the principal's position to full time, all due to the growing need to have rap as part of these precious students
continued continuum of care. Thank you for not forgetting what rap does for our students who need it and their families as we proceed to the FY 27 budget discussions. Thank you,
Miss Winters. Can the M.C.P.S. Play a TV, played the two audio and three video testimony? Good evening. My name is Doctor Helen Bear. I'm a parent at East Silver Spring Elementary and the director of the Reading Clinic at DC Public Schools. We
specialize in teacher content, knowledge and skills to support struggling readers. I'm delighted that MCPs chose Carla for K-5. I used it as a teacher and found the materials supportive and engaging to my racially, linguistically and economically diverse students all year. This year, my second grader has reported what they're learning about a huge contrast
from last year. His homework helps us practice decoding grammar, punctuation, and spelling. I asked my son this week what he likes the most about CLA and he replied with zero hesitation, the domain tests. So apparently even those are appealing. For my professional experience. I know that an excellent curriculum is
an essential place to start, but more is required for good implementation, especially something new. Managing complex change across complex systems requires support and guidance across all roles within the organization. In DC, as we launched a new curricular program, school principals had two full days of professional learning over the summer as well
as monthly touchpoints during the year. We focused on content and implications for practice. Instructional coaches had monthly trainings and PLCs on top of the site visits the central office staff made regularly. We continued each summer with full days of learning for coaches and principals. That was three years
ago and we are still providing regular data analysis, support and targeted coaching of teachers and leaders in order for CLA to have the desired impact for all M.c.p.s students, we need to ensure that we support implementation fully. That includes Eld teachers and special educators. This curriculum will work for all
students if all teachers and their principals are supported effectively. I am delighted with the choice to adopt CLA in grades 6 to 8 and believe that it is the best option. That was reviewed in part because of the K to eight alignment offered. The experience of students in M.c.p.s will be coherent, rigorous, and engaging. Adoption
in middle school will take time, just as it will in elementary, but it will be for the long term benefit of students. In my professional opinion, and as a parent, there is nothing I would rather have in place for all M.c.p.s. Students. The middle school status quo is not an option, and I strongly encourage
adoption of CLA from 6 to 8. Hi, my name is Reg Montezemolo and I'm a seventh grader at Silver Creek Middle School. I'm here today to talk about something I feel strongly about change in the English curriculum. To be honest, I really don't like
studying. The texts are outdated and not very interesting and the platform is hard to use. We don't even do half of the readings that are on the list. It's way too easy. I love reading, I'm a total bookworm and I do well in English, but I have friends who struggle and
don't enjoy it and study sync doesn't help. It's kind of a one size fits all curriculum, which doesn't really work in real classrooms like ours, where everyone is at different levels. A better curriculum like CLA or match texts to students needs. For example, a teacher could
assign texts that are more challenging to the more advanced student and texts that are more manageable to students that need support. My little sister is in first grade and uses CLA. She comes home excited to talk about what she's learning, like ancient Mesopotamia. That's
something I didn't even get to until sixth grade. First graders can learn this kind of stuff and love it. Why can't we have something that will benefit the whole school too? I want middle school to use CLA because it has a wider range of interesting
topics, better stories and poems, and more diverse voices. We want something that challenges us and helps us grow, not something that meets only the bare minimum. I also hope that the teachers will have us read all of the texts in the curriculum, rather than some of
them. We are capable of so much more than what we are given right now. All in all, study sync isn't working for us. Let's invest in something better. Give us a curriculum that meets students where they are, inspires curiosity, and makes reading something to look
forward to. Thank you for hearing me out. I believe students learn best when they feel seen, supported and challenged. And I hope you will select CLA today to support that. Good afternoon. As you consider difficult budget
decisions, I hope you'll continue supporting the blended learning program for students who can't attend school in person, for reasons that may be medical or not. It remains their only viable option for public education. Without it, some children, including some of our youngest Montgomery County residents, are left with no
access at all. At the same time, we must acknowledge that the program in its current form does not yet meet the standard of an education promised to all Montgomery County students. Too much of the instruction, especially for middle and high school students, is asynchronous. That is catastrophic for their learning. We would never offer a schedule
of mostly self-paced, independent work to students in a physical school building, and we should not accept it for students who, through no fault of their own, cannot be there. There are already programs that exist to provide that type of learning to high school students who want it. We should not force it on any student because two
things can be true at once. MCPs may not be able or willing to accommodate those students needs in person, and those students may not be self-directed learners who can thrive with minimal live instruction. But the most important truth is this regardless of the reason that they can't attend in person, every student is still legally
and morally affirm the right to an education equal to their peers. How can we fulfill that promise to them without providing a school? Not necessarily a building, but a cohesive institution, fully staffed and funded, where they can receive the same level of instruction, interaction and opportunity as their classmates?
And we know it can be done because it already has. The Montgomery Virtual Academy delivered a full day of synchronous learning, built community, and met the needs of students who couldn't attend in person. It succeeded, and the approval remains active at the state. What's needed now is a
commitment to restore and build on that success, to transform the BLP into a virtual public school and request a school accountability code so it can be reliably funded and tracked, just like every other public school in Montgomery County. Thank you for what you've done to support these students so
far. I hope you'll show these students and their families that in Montgomery County, when we say all students matter, we mean it. Thank you. Esteemed members of the Board of Education. My name is Leslie Young, and I'm a proud parent within the M.c.p.s
community. Additionally, I'm a seventh grade English teacher and have been teaching for 19 years. I am also a published author and poet active in the children's literature community. I participated in the recent Ela curriculum review process, and I want to express my support for the Core Knowledge curriculum
for grades six through eight. My son is a fourth grader and was identified as an advanced reader in need of enrichment in language Arts with CLA. The rigor of the work he brings home is evident. I deeply appreciate the wide array of texts and genres he is engaging with in both reading and writing. A
highlight is that CLA includes well curated novel studies for middle grade students. I want this rigor to continue. I am excited for my child to read text like National Book Award winning author Erin Entrada Kelly's Hello Universe and Joseph Bruchac Code Talker, as
well as classics like The Iliad, Frankenstein and The narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. I hope he gets the chance to be so well read because of m.c.p.s. Finally, I want to underscore the fact that many middle school students are still actively developing their reading skills. CLA, with its
research based design, builds these skills while fostering empathy, citizenship, and intellectual growth and curiosity. I was impressed by the dedicated materials embedded within the CLA curriculum to provide targeted and relevant support for our English multilingual learners, a
priority community within M.c.p.s. My son has had the most wonderful teachers I've taught in some of the best private schools in the country, and I still believe my son's best education options are within our local community schools. Our teachers need to be supported and inspired, not limited by the
materials and tools we give them. CLA offers a well structured, rigorous and equitable approach to English language arts instruction that will benefit all our students and we should not delay its selection and implementation.
Thank you. Hello, my name is Evelyn Chung and I'm the VP of education for the MCPs to. Today we support the adoption of CLA compared to their current patchwork of study, Sync and MCPs created novel studies. CLA is more rigorous, coherent and
inclusive. It includes diverse full length plays and novels built in supports for multilingual learners, fewer digital distractions, and more transparency for parents and guardians. And it costs less, freeing up funds for implementation. At the same time, we continue to urge MCPs
to adopt a long term budget plan for instructional materials and professional development. This year, budget changes required a last minute pivot from middle school Ela RFP process to open source materials only. It also meant that after an extended process to select a new social studies K-2 curriculum, vendor,
MCPs has scrapped those plans and is starting from scratch. MCPs has no long term plan to fund science curricula or trainings or high school English. This is no way to run a system of this size. And even the best curriculum needs sustained year round training,
not just in the summer or in the first year of implementation. We need to prioritize curriculum and implementation in our budgeting. In addition, regarding grading and reporting, we support MCPs original plan of phasing in the new semester grade averaging policy, which
has been its approach to grade calculation changes in the past few years. MCPs can and has applied different grading formulas to different grades, even in mixed grade classes, such as when they change grading in life science and government classes, and how high school credit courses in middle school
were included in GPAs. They do this to avoid midstream shifts that could impact college admissions, scholarships, and athletic recruiting. Finally, we support MCPs audit of honors designations and urge them to establish clear expectations and curriculum standards for honors
courses. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you everyone. That was 20 public commenters for today. And I as the board, we really, truly appreciate everyone for coming in. And also in the past few
weeks. There are many users, teachers or parents have reached out to the board through emails. We appreciate everyone's feedback. It helps us shape our perspective. I'm going to open up this time for our board members for questions. I'm going
to go for one starting from Mr. Savannah. Yes. First of all, I just want to thank all the students for coming out, even our students online for talking about the things that we were discussing later today. I know we've heard a lot about Carla
today, so I'm excited to be able to hear that one more time and get some more detail on that. And then I also want to reiterate something that I heard from a couple of testimonies regarding the grading policy phase in. I mean, this is something that I've talked about before, but something I'll just
reiterate again in terms of making sure that we are being equitable to all of our students and not having midstream shifts. Mrs. Zimmerman, I just wanted to echo the sentiments of my colleagues and thank all of the really passionate advocates that spoke up and shared their
testimony today. It's really well received and appreciated by the board, so thank you. Miss Montoya. Thank you. I want to also thank everyone for coming out. And Miss Delaney, thank you for coming. We have the rest of your written testimony, so no
need to worry. I know the time constraints can be challenging for folks, but I appreciate everyone giving their thoughts. It really does help with our perspective. And I also just want to be clear for myself about my position on the grading policy. I have received inquiries and comments and suggestions and thoughts from
people of all different ages, from students to parents to I mean, you name it. And my disagreement with the idea of phasing in this grading policy has nothing to do with anyone's age. I disagree because I think
that it does a disservice to our students when we provide them with grades that do not reflect their actual content knowledge, as well as the logistical challenge. So that's it. Plain and simple. It has nothing to do with the person who's proposing the idea, the age of the person,
their situation or anything like that. So I just want to make sure that the community understands. Thank you. Thank you, miss. Mr. I want to remind board members this is not a time
for. Rebuttal or stay. It's comments and questions. Thank you Mr. First I want to thank everyone for coming out to give such thoughtful testimony. I can really hear the passion and the thought and the research that
went behind what we've been presented to here at the board. First of all, I just feel the need to address Samantha Ross's comment about feeling that some
of the comments either made to us or from here meant that efforts were discounted. I have seen so much effort from students here in this county, and they go on and do great
things, and I'm impressed every single day by our students. So I just want to lift our students up. I've had a couple students come through the system, and I've seen the hours and hours sometimes they put in after they came home. A lot of parents
don't come home with homework, but they would have a full day and then sometimes work five hours. And I appreciate all the work our students put in. And then I wanted to also. Just a
shout out to Ashley Delaney about bringing up worldly wise, just because I remember as a parent working with that book and it was a flashback from the past. So appreciate you bringing that into your testimony. And
then I appreciate Laura finishes. Good suggestions about making our curriculum even better, and I hope that our staff could look into some of those suggestions and see what's
workable. And I would also like to see staff follow up with Doug Ryan. I did receive some emails about Glen Haven and the process there for before and after school care. So I want to make sure that we have a really good
process that parents understand, and that nothing is a mystery as to how we make these decisions. And that's it. Thank you, Miss Silvestre. No, I just caught the tail end of that. So you're asking staff to look into Glen Haven, correct. To follow up
with the parents there and to see what the disconnect might have been. That was my concern as well. Exactly. Thank you, miss River. Evans. Yes, on the heels of that, that process is not as easy as one might think, because I think we have another agency that's involved in that,
which is cuff, and they have their own process as well. So sometimes that gets lost because people think it's M.C.P.S. Who runs the process. But I don't think it is. I think it's more conversation. So I think it
would be good actually, for everybody to understand how the process works. But I just want to say thank you to the students. The to Alan, I don't know if she's still here. Ellen Wong I really appreciate her
comments about mental health and how we're working with the subject. And I really loved rec Montezemolo's testimony. You know, there's nothing better than that of the mouth of babes.
And sometimes children, I think, are sometimes the best witnesses. And they tell you as it is and there's a lot of truth to her, and we are going to be, you know, our job here as board
members is to ensure that all voices are included. So I truly appreciate the voice of the students. Thank you. Thank you. I associate myself with the comment about Glen Haven, and I also want to thank Miss Winters for coming in. If she's still
here. And I know that this is an issue that we have, it's a budget issue impacting another agency that now has a consequence on the students we serve. So I hope the system is there an update? I see our chief
of operation right here. Yes. Good afternoon. So I heard several comments about the Glen Haven and the selection process for before and after care. So there are two distinct.
Facilities used for before and after care. One is that, you know, we have least providers so that, you know, that goes through. And then there's a term lease with the provider that is housed in some of our schools where their space, the one that
was under question is the before and after care providers that were selected. These are permitted through cuff and used to be in the past. That procurement process was also handled by cuff. Now this procurement process brought was
brought in-house to M.C.P.S. We went through the rigorous selection process and the RFP and wanted to clear some misconceptions. So there was a discussion about, you know, awarding the vendor and contract
for six years. These are actually one year term contracts with two annual reviews of their performances. And they will be permitted through cuff. So they will not be working directly with M.C.P.S. To receive the permit. But there will be, you
know, review process that both Cuff and M.C.P.S. Will conduct. And, you know, based on feedback from parents as well as, you know, and our inspections, that contract may not be renewed after after a year period. So these are not guaranteed for six
year term period for these vendors. And then there were surveys sent out to the communities. And we received those feedbacks. And we had selection committee that looked through all the vendors and looked at their capabilities. And then shortlisted and then
individual schools had a panel of members, and the principals and the administrators were included in the in that selection process as well. Thank you for your clarification on the Glen Haven. I will suggest you follow up with the school
and the community so we can have understanding. Can we just say what cuff is so people understand what it is? Because we do. But I don't know if the audience knows what acronyms. Yeah I apologize. So that's the Montgomery County's community use of public facilities. Yeah. Thank you. It's a county agency.
And but I, I still want to say let's look into the wrap program and come up with a good plan to serve these students. This concludes our public comment. The board's next business meeting is Tuesday, June 10th. Online sign up for public
comment will open on Tuesday, June 3rd at 6 p.m. In addition to online sign ups, same day in-person sign ups are permitted when space allows with an audio on a first come, first serve basis in person. Sign ups will
close 15 minutes before the start of the open session or when all slots are filled. Additional information regarding the upcoming meeting can be found on the board's website. All right, the next is consent
item, item number six for today's discussion as we go forward. Board member, are there any items that you will wish to pull? Seeing? None. May I have a motion to move? Item 6.1 to 6.2
6.10 in block. So moved second. All in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Thank you everyone. We're going to move to item number seven which is has become the evergreen
topic on our board. On in the board meetings on around this table is secondary program analysis and boundary studies. Community engagement plan update. Doctor Taylor thank you, Madam President. And as we march
closer and closer to our timeline, conclusions on our boundary study and program analysis, the decision points that are in front of the board and the planning team become ever more pressing. So it is important that we have some
regular updates with the board. And I want to thank representatives of the community to come out and advocate for programs and priorities, because it is becoming ever more important that we hear from our community on this important topic, and we invite folks to
come out and share their thoughts at both community meetings and also at the board's table as well. I can honestly say that I'm thrilled to see some RM IB representation. I had two cousins go through the IB
program and had a great experience and can absolutely testify to their quality experience as well. Today's presentation will provide another update on the work of the boundary studies and community engagement and
secondary program analysis process at the May 8th meeting just a couple of weeks ago, I shared that we had reached a pivotal decision point in our ongoing program analysis. We presented two very oversimplified options for
consideration two potential paths to program access, one path to maintain our current structure with minor adjustments which would limit transportation, and a second option to establish regions with
parallel programs and provide an expanded transportation footprint. This did not include, of course, the infinite number of variations that could also be involved in each of those two options. In looking at existing programs and what those
placements might look like, it's really important that as we consider each path and we consider where we want to go next, that we look at pros and cons, because there are pros and cons to both as well. Me personally, I do believe that the second option, the regional
services model, does offer us the strongest path towards our goal of equitable access for all students. The regional model would provide program capacity at the level that our of our students interest, and we would be able to accommodate student interests more widely, reduce
the distance of some of our programs, and enable us to provide equitable transportation services to these programs, which is not something that we currently do. Initial feedback on the regional program model for program from the program analysis community and staff
design team, as well as from some of our community engagements has been positive, but there's a lot of questions and there should be questions at this point. And we aim to try to answer those during both the boundary studies and program analysis meetings, community
members have asked big questions about existing consortia in addition to long standing flagship programs, particularly the Down County consortium, and whether or not that's an idea that would remain in place, implementing cluster regions
across the district to increase program offerings would require us to make some adjustments to our current approach and of having limited consortia configurations, and would invite us to expand some of our approach moving forward. School
and program admissions processes would also need to be aligned across all service regions to provide clear and consistent access, expectations and experiences for all students and families. So this also invites us to take a look at our
approach and other aspects of our program. Setup. This aspect is one of many that will need to be considered carefully and evaluated carefully. As we build out a brand new framework for increasing access to robust secondary program offerings for
all children. At this time, I'd like to pass the presentation over to our Chief Operations Chief of Operations, Mr. Adnan Mamoon, and our Chief Academic
Officer, Niki Hazel. Okay. Next, please go ahead. Yes. So can we start with the first slide. So good afternoon. We are here to provide an update on the boundary studies. We will and
our community engagement meetings that are coming up. We're excited about that. And then we'll we will also hear about the program secondary program analysis. As Doctor Taylor already mentioned. So next slide please. So we are very excited to get started with
our second round of public engagement meetings. We had the first round in April where we went out to the communities and explained the process. The explain the process, and so that people are aware of what the
steps are going to be and what we will be coming back to them. When we do present the initial options, which these meetings will start next week. So just want to remind everybody, including, you know, the board members as well as the audience,
that this is an iterative process. This is what we have been explaining in the past few meetings that this is the first round of options that we will be taking to the public. So the first round of meetings next week would be both virtual and
in person for the Woodward Boundary study, where we will be presenting the initial options, and then following week, the week of June 2nd, we will be hosting virtual as well as in-person sessions for the boundary study. So these sessions will be structured in
one hour sessions, 60 minutes each, to review the process and alignment to the board policy FAA. And then we will review the initial options and key highlights from each of these options. And then the most important part for the public would be how to access the resources that they need to
understand and then more importantly, to give us feedback for these options, the virtual sessions will be recorded and language and interpretation services will be provided at the in-person sessions. We will also have dedicated space available
for those who wish to take a closer look at the maps in person and look at the data tables, and especially for those who already have attended the virtual session and would like to spend some time interacting with the larger size maps as well as they provide us feedback. And we are, we will be
there to answer their questions. I'm going to pass it over to Miss Moriarty, to take us through all the resources that are going to be available for the public for these sessions. Next slide please. Good evening.
So we're very excited for this. I will be carrying around my laptop for the next several weeks just to make sure that everything is perfect, but we are going to be launching a site that accompanies the initial options for each of the boundary studies. At the beginning of
when we sort of launch our our zoom day. And so next week when we start sharing the initial options for the Woodward boundary study, you are going to get a chance to see brief overview videos that are
available in all languages. I'm still trying to get someone else to record them, so you don't have to see my face every time you think. Boundary study and interactive GIS tool that allows you to type in an address and see current patterns of articulation and middle school
and high school assignments, as well as what could happen with each option. And so we're very excited about that part of the tool. There will be static paper maps as well as maps that can be downloaded digitally. There will be lots of data tables for those
of us who love, you know, sort of that sort of world of spreadsheets and articulation tables that really give you a different way to look at the same information. The GIS tool is, you can see, will be completely interactive, and
you'll just be abl to kind of type in as you go. And what we wanted to do was to give all of the resources in little packages so that people could interact with them as they wish and have time to explore them. And so
that was one of the things that was really important to us. This is so much information and so much to process that we didn't want to just assume everyone could come to a meeting and immediately know how to process that information and make good
sort of feedback, observations and, you know, give us input that would allow us to inform that next stage that Mr. Mamoon talked about where we would take all that feedback. You can also see there's the survey button. And so for each boundary study,
there will also be an accompanying survey where people will be able to give feedback on every option, what they like, what they don't like, as well as some information that lets us know where those responses are coming from. And so that's really helpful for us to know
where we have energy and where we need to gain further energy. We're also excited to continue to partner with some of our friends in family community engagement, as well as communications to make sure that the information is available to
everyone and accessible. And so we really look forward to this opportunity. We're kind of excited. And so we hope that you are as well. And we really hope that that gives you a chance to really spend some time with the options and give us all of that wonderful feedback, and we look
forward to it. I'm going to turn over to miss Hazel for the rest of the presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. So we are if you can go to the next slide, going to transition into talking about our programs analysis. And just a reminder that our
programs are focused on the entire school district and not a specific area of the county. We also just want to remind everyone that we are beginning phase one with just focusing on high school programs. And today
we're really going to focus on as Doctor Taylor shared, the regional concept and regional model and share with you some of the feedback that we are receiving from our community
and some from our design team and some emerging themes that are coming up based on that model. We also want to just share with you with our timeline that we have increased the amount of time that we want to
have community engagement. We that's another theme that continues to emerge as we are working with our community. And so we want to make sure that we have ongoing engagement. In fact, I just had a lengthy conversation with a community member who really wants to make sure that we are putting out
more information around programs after these meetings so that the community is clear about what's happening. So that is something we're going to continue to do. Our goal for secondary program recommendations is to have the design team and that work for
the recommendations at the end of June, and also the idea if we are going to continue with this idea of the regional programing, that we would come with some ideas around where those schools would be within a region. If you
go to the next slide, just want to remind you of our big goals for academic programs. First, being equitable access to programing for all of our students. The other is to make sure that we are really in tune
with the needs and des of our students in terms of programing, and we're also keeping in mind what the industry is saying about what's what's happening and keeping in mind the industry demand. And finally thinking about our resources, transportation, our buildings and all of those
things need to be considered so that we're maximizing our resources. Next slide please. Again, this was shared at the last meeting on May 8th. The two models. And we're going to focus
mainly on option two today. As we look at the regional services model. We do want to share with you that as we have been working with our our community and our
team, we have received a lot of positive feedback about this being a good option for equitable access to programs, less travel time for students, more flexibility for parents and students. But the one thing that continues to emerge as we
discuss this from our community is that the programs in each region must be of comparable quality, and that continues to emerge as a as a theme. And so as we talk about where we are in
this process, we want to make sure we're keeping that in mind. So I'm going to turn it over to Angela McClain, who is a part of our internal team, and Jeannie Franklyn, also part of our team. And we have some members sitting behind us as well, who are working regularly with our
community to get feedback. Angela, thank you. The next slide, please. The stars are there as we consider program distribution with a potential regional model option. There are
four major assumptions that are guiding our work. The first is our commitment to strong local schools. The four star four stars or more, including equitable access to advanced courses. This is really foundational and it has been echoed consistently with our design team. We would have
criteria based or magnet programs and high demand career technical programs that would be open to all students, and we think we need both to meet the needs of all of our students. Each school would have 1 to 2 programs that would be open to
students in the region, and all regional programs will be resourced equitably. Next slide please. So our design team is supportive of a region model, but they have also brought up a lot of questions. We brought some of those on May 8th, and
they would like us to understand that. They believe that geographic distribution and transportation do not make equitable access. It's very important that there's high quality instruction and high quality curriculum that's comparable in parallel programs. Facilities are comparable
resources. Staffing, staffing, credentials should all be comparable. They also talk a lot about the importance of broad and clear communication around programs, and how that's tied to access. So our students learn early in our families learn early what the programs are,
what the criteria is so they can plan for the future. Next slide please. So our design team has been working hard. They're meeting weekly. They're we ask a lot of them and we are really grateful for them. And they've
been working on the framework, the framework for what programs should be available to all students at a reasonable distance. They've been monitoring the results of the survey as well, the community survey. And we know that not all of our community members have participated in the survey or
are likely to. And so we're working on outreach around that. And it's important to understand the survey is not the only data point that the design team is looking at. The design team itself brings a great level of expertise and experience to our discussions. We've had student focus groups. We've had them at
Gaithersburg, Springbrook, Richard Montgomery, Damascus, Blake and Kennedy high schools, and at the Identity After School program at Watkins Mill. They've looked at an annual middle school career interest survey, that which I think 4000, just over 4000 of our students took
at 33 middle schools. And then they've looked at the data that we've brought around regional countywide admissions and enrollment, career and technical education, enrollment and completion of the advanced courses that students are picking. You know, whether it's AP or dual enrollment and labor
market trends. Next slide please. So our community outreach so far can be looked at in two categories. One is the targeted outreach around the survey. You know, the folks that we've asked to help us get the word out, one would be our
communications team, who has been very helpful in sending out those messages to the community and to target groups like high school students yesterday. And we've been contacting our community partners. We've asked religious organization leaders
to help us get it out there. Homeowners associations. We've just spread it widely in hopes of getting more folks involved in taking the survey. And our principals have been sending it home in weekly messages, and we've tied our excuse me, we've
contacted some targeted school staff, the counselors, the resource counselors, and the career advising folks. We've also done in-person engagement in addition to the design team, the student focus groups, we have reached out and attended in person meetings that are already
happening. So through our out of School Time program, we've been able to go to identity Parent meetings and bring paper copies of translated surveys with us, and then bring the results back, as well as parent meetings that our schools are having. So the survey closes at the end of this
month. We did an extension. The extension has been good for participation. Our design team recommended it and they were right. And after that, we hope to shift to another phase of engagement where we'll have more content. We'll have a framework for programs from our design team, and we can put that out there for feedback. And I'm
going to turn it over to Jeannie Franklyn to talk about some emerging themes. Thank you. Good to see everybody. Thank you for having me. And I'm really excited about this work. I've come before some of you many years ago. And so I'm not going
to say how many years ago, but as you may know, MCPs has been implementing programs for over 50 years. And so no, I haven't been here for 50 years. But for maybe a little over 20, I have had the just the honor of being
able to be part of the admission and implementation process. So I just feel that this is really a full time circle for me to come back and do this work. This is just a really great intersection with the boundary study at this time. f we can go to the
next slide. So what you see before you are three lists. And what's really been interesting about this work with our design team is that this is coming from them. So Angela talked a little bit about the data that we have
been reviewing. So some of the data, which is a lot of data, the design and school community teams have been looking at career and technical data, program enrollment data. They're looking at dual enrollment, AP, IB data, looking at all of that. But then in addition, we've had
the student focus groups that Angela talked about, which brought forward so much more information that helped us understand what the students are looking at. Then, in addition to that, we have the Parent Community Survey, which we now have a little over 10,000
responses, and we are still seeking more. So we're really excited about the options that have come forward. So what you see here on on the screen are a variety of different high level themes. And these are built from the national cluster themes. And
the first on the left, the first section is what the students are saying. The question is, what programs do you think that all students should have access to? So these are a great list of what the students said. And so that's available for you to look
at. In the middle are the community survey results. So we looked at those and we took the highest percentages of those lists. And what we also noticed is that even after week after week, day after day, that percentages haven't changed much. So we do think that
there's a theme we also recognize from our design team that they mentioned that some of these themes kind of overlap, and we recognize that as well. However, they still are major themes that pop up. So what our design team took, then they took the student survey, they took
our community survey, and then they also took the program data, which is not necessarily up here, but they looked at our 34 full time programs. They looked at the enrollment, the application data, and then they also got to send us their energy on what program themes that they
see would be available to all students. And so what you should take away from looking at all three is that they mirror one another. Lots of overlap. So there's lots of lots of consensus building already right here. That kind of suggests that
we're all looking at the same thing. We all want many of the same things, but this doesn't preclude local schools from doing unique things that their schools still. But we do have some great opportunity here. This is a great jumping off point. So we just wanted you to
have a look at this. Stem is clearly number one in the Parent community survey. You'll see humanities arts entertainment. And the great thing is we're doing many of these already. So this is a really good thing for us when we're talking about
minimal costs, facility building off of what we already do. Next slide please. So here is an example. And I want to just emphasize that this is just an example. So if we look at the left side of the chart we're first talking about the local school. So what was really
important from our design and school community team is that the local discussion as a thread throughout all of our discussions. So even though we were talking about regional and countywide programs that might be available, how are they showing up in our schools? They really wanted to talk about high
quality instruction, strong curriculum, fabulous teachers, available materials. So we totally agree. So we have on the left side an example of what every school should have. So we want advanced a AP or IB
courses. So that's advanced placement I heard the comments about acronyms earlier. So Advanced Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses including multivariable calculus and physics. Those are just examples. And then we wanted to look at dual enrollment options. Having that
available, having students earn their college degree before they earn their diploma. Work based learning is another way for students to start building their career and college skills, and then an education pathway, a career and technical education pathway for teaching, and then
obviously a core set of electives and languages. So these are the set of items that all schools should have. As an example, I'm going to say that again just as an example. Then if you look at the right side, this is taking an idea of the
regions. Now we will in 2027 have 27 high schools. Currently we have 25. But if we were to organize them this might be a region with five schools. And so in the five high schools, this is where we would take those
large themes that came from the design team, which is reflective of what the students and the community said. And then we would look at what kinds of programs we could put there at each one of the schools. And this is an example of criteria and interest based. And we would have 1 to 2 programs at each of
the schools. So that would be another example. This would be an example of what it could look like in a region. Okay. Next slide please. So what are our next steps. So we have three big efforts in addition to many other things. But these are the
three things we want to bring to your attention. So the first is an asset map where we really need to do an assessment of what we have to offer. And we have a lot to already offer students, but we definitely need to be able to look through that, look at it from an equity lens. So this is going to be a really
exciting time. It's also going to be challenging as we start looking at all of these offerings. We're going to look at staff credentials and expertise. And we're also going to look at facility capacities and features. An example might be when we look at culinary arts that's facility dependent. So
that might not be something we can replicate everywhere. So we need to think about that as a program. We have unique programs that are already established, long entrenched programs that are established. Want to take a look at those? Our next step is also looking at our continued outreach. Angela talked about
that. We're extending our deadline. We have additional focus groups that we want to do some mini town halls with some families. We want to make sure that families understand how this is going to impact them because unlike the boundary study, although it feels like it's going to impact the entire
county, the program analysis is going to impact all of our communities, and we want to make sure that they understand what's available to them and what feedback they can provide us. And then we are going to continue refining the program framework. We'll be coming back to you to talk about that. And in addition, behind the scenes,
we'll be working with our design team and also our project team with that work. Next slide please. And so we'd like to turn it over now to the board for some discussion. Thank you so much for the presentation. And
there's a reason this is an evergreen topic on every of our board meetings now because it's an important it's the biggest project. The system right now is doing. And it's a very complex
and have high interest from our communities. And we really I know the system and the board want to get this right and have a good process for everyone. And I'm going to open up for comments and questions. Let's
structure it into two parts. Let's first do the boundary study one, because if you have questions about the upcoming the information, just share the upcoming engagement. Now is the time. So I'm going to start with
Mr. Okay. Sorry, I was ready with the question for the second part, but let's do the boundary first, then we'll go back. So I'll hold because I wasn't quite ready for that. That's fine. I'll come back to you. No
worries. I'm going to look around the table. Oh, it looks like Mr. Alam is having it easy today. All right. Yeah. Ready? Oh, no. No. Okay, Mr. Silvestre, go ahead. Thank you for the presentation. We spoke earlier
today, so just looking forward to hearing more about how you will engage with our underserved communities. This is wonderfully sophisticated and you've done a great job kind of outlining ways
to access the website, interact, enter your own address. I find that a lot of fun. But having participated in boundary studies in the past, it can be very overwhelming. And so I'm really
looking for you all to think differently. How would you explain this to a neighbor? Not someone that has sat through the first session. The second session knows what boundary study means, so I don't think my
husband knows what it means. So I just really think differently and approach it from a parent, average parent and M.C.P.S. You're going to do a fabulous job to reach the PTA leadership. The people that tune in to board meetings. But really looking
forward to hear about how you're going to reach the average parent who is busy, who is multilingual, and this will impact them as well as it will impact most of the families in the county. So just wanted to
share that comment. I know you're working on it and looking forward to meeting with your team to learn more about those details. Thank you, Mr. Rivera-Oven. On the same lines, I know we had this conversation too earlier today a little bit,
and I know you're going to use Miss Garcia as part of your team to work on this. Correct. Which I'm delighted to hear. But one of the things I said is Elba is wonderful, but she's going to need the support of everybody.
And like Miss Sylvester said, you know, there is this is very when you even when you put the stuff and you see all these different options, it's very data driven. It's just it's overwhelming just to even look
at it. And I will have it at a where even a fourth grader could understand a little bit of how that's going to affect them. These are, you know, communities, we say, no, they don't want to get involved. It's not that they don't want to get
involved. It is how you're going to be able to involve them. And it starts that with with communication. That is not up here, but it's at a level where they're going to be able to engage and feel comfortable. So that's what I'm hoping to see
because like Miss Sylvester said, you know, folks in the PTA, I have been through a couple boundaries myself. The county folks who are involved are going to be involved. They get it, they understand it. But we have a lot of new families, especially in the Up county
area. This is very, very new to them. Whether you speak English or you speak Amharic or you speak French or you speak Spanish, the complexity doesn't change it. Right? So I just, just would like to see that plan because I think the other folks are just going to be able to
understand what you need from them. And, you know, I'm used to the long surveys and, and all that. But I would like us to, to just ensure that we get voices that usually we don't reach. Thank you, Miss Stewart. Okay.
Now I'm ready. First, I want to make sure that we are messaging out what this these first sessions are going to be and what they're going to be seeing
because. I think you have communicated I don't I'm not sure if it's gotten truly out there that this these first options are really a starting point. It is not this is not the
end point. This is the very beginning, the discussion, the beginning of the discussion. So I hope that message gets out very widely because. There will be, of course, once maps come out and people put in their
address, they'll they're going to react thinking, oh my gosh, this is happening to my kid. But that's not probably going to happen to your kid because it it's an iterative process. So that was my one point. My other
is a question about the tools and everything that's coming out. When we do our initial sessions are one hour sessions. Right there is going there's going to be so many questions after that one hour session, and
some people will need some training on even knowing what they're seeing, knowing how to go through the site. And so I'm asking, are you planning to have sessions where you're actually not just presenting, but maybe
even office hours or something like that, where people can come in and say, hey, am I seeing this right? What am I looking at? And how do I navigate even through the site? Thank you for
that. So all very, very important things for us to consider. And so what we've been talking about a lot is how do you first present this and do two things. Make sure people understand what they're looking
at and then give them time to digest it. And so we're anticipating in those initial sessions that we'll get some technical questions that will be able to really sort of address immediately. We'll get some concern. Like you said, if
someone types something in and they're confused or frustrated, and then we'll get some really good questions that remind us that maybe we need to provide some clarity or we need to, you know, make sure people understand something. And so we're kind of anticipating all of those types of questions and
how we appropriately respond to them, because they're all different. And so we had a almost two hour meeting today kind of going through all of the stuff and saying, well, what if this happens? What if we do this? What if we need this in collaboration with our consultant and our communications department to
make sure that we're planning for all of that, and really also working with Miss Garcia and people who are going to give us opportunities to reach communities in different ways. And so sort of planning for all of the things, because we know
that we are going to have to really give people a chance to digest it, and also the opportunity to give feedback or get help with something. And so we're kind of planning for all of those things right now, because we're assuming that that's coming. And just trying
to be really mindful of how to support people through this process, not just put it out there and say, we gave this to you, now you do it now. It's like, okay, here it is, let's help you. And also in different languages. Yes, I think following up with more, like I
said, just we're here to help. Yeah. After the initial presentation because that way also you're they have time to even know what to ask and they might go home and then try to
look at something and then have a lot of questions. So anyway, thank you, Miss Wolff. I'm actually following up on Miss on Grace's thought about simplicity. You remember when
computers came out and they had this series of books called Excel for Dummies and Dos for dummies? Well, you're laughing, but it's got to be simplified because this is a very complex
subject to start with, and it's even more complex when you have, what is it, 23 high schools, 24 high schools, however many in it. So I'm just saying you've got to really think and you've got to test out the materials on
people because, you know, I looked at some of the stuff that you all provided to me, and I have an idea of what I'm looking at. But anybody out in the, in the public is not really going to understand that. So just
remember and go back. I even have some of those old books and you will see how they simplified it so that people could really understand it. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Miss Zimmerman. Yes. Thank you. I want to thank
you all for the work. And also, Cat, your excitement is really palpable and not many people get really excited about this kind of stuff. So I really appreciate that that about you. And I also, you're saying that you don't necessarily want to be the face of the boundary study, but I
think that you making those videos and making it seem more like a conversation and making it seem more personal, I actually think it's a really wonderful touch. So I, I would encourage you to, to be the face of the boundary study in that way. It would be nice to see
someone who's so excited. I love that I also just in that conversation and discussion, I think it's important that we reiterate that these are some of the options, you know, not the only options. But I also want to
point to some of the clarity in here with this portion being named like the Woodward High School Boundary Study. I think some folks will be confused that why is that affecting them when their kid doesn't go to Woodward? Granted, none of not really any kids do right now, but you kind of see my point
there that some people might not understand that it will affect them, that maybe we get a little bit more, I don't want to say creative, but just think about how that the naming of this might affect some of the folks and knowing their involvement.
But thank you. Thank you so much. We're going to move on to the next portion. I think many of you are eager to ask about the program analysis, secondary program analysis. We're going to open up for questions. I'm going
to start with Mr. Okay. I noticed on the slide that had the sample programs. Let me get this. Slide 12. Yes. Slide 12. I
didn't see the oh no, not slide 12. The next one. Yes. 13. Thank you. High school one, 234 and
five I don't see IB in here. I know it sounds. Is that where is it. Oh every school. So basically so either an AP or IB at every school. And that would
not be like a program. I mean in this vision I we're not there yet but I'm not there yet. This is just an example okay. We want to reiterate that as much as possible. This is just a sample.
So that could be feedback that we receive that that could be a part of a region. But we have it in this example as a part of every school okay. Got it doctor Taylor. Yeah it's noteworthy to also add we do have a lot of regional IB programs and a
county wide program. And so we're we're not there yet. But this does give you an example of what it could look like. So I'll I'll emphasize the example part of this on both the left and the right, just so that we know that there are our learners that
access learning in lots of different ways. The IB approach is very project based and is not for everybody. And advanced coursework through AP is also not for everybody, nor does it match their interests. So coming up with a variety does make a
lot of sense. And having robust dual enrollment options, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that just this past week, we had 300 students, including one sitting at this table, earn an associate's degree from Montgomery College in conjunction with some of those
programs. So trying to find that balance at, at at every school of what makes the most sense may look different at every school, but making sure that that's part of that portfolio. Also, as we work through looking at these
programs, are we also going to look at a timeline? I just can't imagine if we went this way, that the minute we, you know, are done and we open our new, our beautiful new high schools
that we're going to have, and if we had regions that we'd have everything in every region, like it's not a spigot you you could turn on, I don't think, but maybe it is. Is there are you looking at timelines different than. I think a lot of the
grading and reporting conversation. This does make a lot of sense, where we have students who are in existing programs, and although there's a great opportunity for us to preserve a lot of what what we have going on right now because it is very successful to
continue those those things as we as as it matches the footprint. But as we add new programs or we expand a footprint, or we even move a program from one place to another to allow for continuity for students to continue in that program as we are adding new new
students to a program. So for whatever it's worth, you've got students in grades nine, ten and 11 who would continue on because the graduating seniors have left. But instead of a new ninth grade cohort being added when those students matriculate, they
matriculate into a new setting. The easiest version of this looks like Crown and Woodward High School because they would be new schools. But what does it look like at other places? I think you're looking at gradually reducing enrollment
in, in a, in a place where we might make a move or a change and adding in the other locations, because I think that message probably should get out as well, because when kids sign up for a program, it's a huge
decision. And then to think, oh, is my program going to go away or is it going to move? Or we need to make this as easy as possible for kids mental health too, right. So and parents so
thank you, Miss Silvestri. Yes. Along the same lines on slide 14 for your short term next steps. Could you just walk us through that again. Just so what can we can expect in particular with
the. The design team. Like what would the design team would be doing. But what can we expect as as next steps. Can you go to the next slide for us so that we can see it? So we're meeting right
now with our design team weekly. We plan on which is our school and our community based staff. We're meeting with them weekly for feedback. And so now that we have shared this information about the six regions, and then we've also now shared the high level program themes, we're going to start discussing those.
And then with our project team, our M.C.P.S. Project team, we're going to start doing this asset map. So I'm not sure if that's going to be all summer. We have a lot of information already collected, so we just need to assemble it so that we can start using that information. So we
anticipate there will be a lot of work this summer in terms of the asset map. The continued outreach is ongoing. Yeah, that will continue. And then refining the program framework again, we're meeting with our meeting
back with our team when we come back in June. And we're going to be using feedback from this team, from the board here. We're going to be using more information from the community. So we feel like this is weekly that we're going to continue meeting, and then we're having it coincide with the boundary
study. So as key information comes forward from the boundary study, that will also drive us to share information. We do anticipate coming back to you June 24th with more information as well. Okay. So the asset map
includes what's offered in schools all over the county, staff credentials and expertise. Can you tell me more about what you mean by that? So one example is we have the Montgomery County
Middle College program at both Northwood and Northwest. And so we have those programs that were built already. They're they're there. They've been there for about eight years, 6 to 8 years. And so we want to assess how those programs are doing, what the enrollment is like. They're
solid programs. So we have staff that are already in them. We also have programs such as our regional IB and our countywide IB. So we would have that information kind of collected about staff credentials expertise expertise course offerings. So we would actually just have like a big map of. So
it's a lot of data. It's more data I know that came up before. But when we start to make recommendations and start to assess the regions, all of that information will intersect to determine what stays where, what goes, what gets expanded.
Certainly, we don't need to create disruption where we don't need to create disruption, but we want to certainly make sure that we're meeting our charge, that we are offering programs to students in all of the different regions with minimal cost and
short distance. And one of the pieces of feedback we got from the community survey is that folks really like the idea of 15 to 30 minutes. So the region model really speaks to that. That's how long folks want to travel, no longer than that amount of time. So that's another piece. Why the region
model kind of speaks to being able to address that need. So real quick I'm going to add to the asset map conversation. When we're talking about staff credentials and expertise, there are unique areas of certification that some staff have kind of want to know where
everybody is. So if we have an existing program like a dual enrollment program, which is a great example to be dual enrollment certified, you do typically need to have other credentials that most of our educator workforce might not have. You may have an advanced
degree in a content area versus an advanced degree in education. So that might be a differentiation point. And making sure that we know what we have in terms of both our our human capital, but also in some materials and supplies, we may have some piece of equipment
that's program specific that we can't move or is too expensive to move, or does it make sense for us to move? That may inform some of the decision points that they have moving forward. So we will have to be a living document because staff changes
all the time. Right. And are you looking at length of experience as well? Expertise. I remember early in our board tenure, we saw where our experienced teachers were. I think it was in the context of title one schools
and but are you looking at experience as well? No, that is not something that we had on our radar. We can can look at that. But that is not something currently that we have
considered. We have that data. So yeah. Okay. Thank you. I know Miss Wolff has to have a follow up to Carla's question, and it may not be appropriate here. So you can just say that. But on the asset map, are you looking at when you look at the programs
that exist. And you know, we have the regional IB programs, are you looking at how they were resourced when you were looking at differences in outcomes and expectations? Because I think that's very important. Yes. So that is not necessarily on
there. We have facility capacities, but we also do need to look at how they were resourced in terms of staffing and materials and other resources. So we can certainly add that to our training and training. Thank you, Mr. Savona.
Yes. Thank you. And I'm going to kind of build off that for a second as well. I mean, when we look at slide eight, under assumptions that all regional, regional programs will be resourced equitably, I mean, I think this I mean, not to harp on it, but I think this is really like the defining characteristic in telling
whether or not this will be successful or not. And so having some sort of metric or quantitative piece of data that we can look at to say, this is how your resourcing our programs equitably, and this is how we know that we are staffing it
equitably. This is how we know, like we are planning to replicate the success that we've had at other programs through this specific measure, like, I think that will be really important to see as a board to make sure that we can then hold the regional model accountable to, to that same level of
success, because we are now giving it the same resources. But I think having like qualitative and quantitative data to back that up will be really, really, incredibly important in making our decisions. Mr. Rivera-Oven.
Thank you. I'm going to go more backwards yet I want to go to page six because I, I just. Because really without this guidelines, I'm trying to so I'm trying to understand first of all, a reasonable distance could
mean one thing to me that is reasonable, another thing to different folks that is reasonable. So and who makes that decision in, in the when we're talking about equitable access. Right. Because one thing that we know today is that some of these distances are not
reasonable to most people. Then when I look at the align to community and industry needs, to me, this is so essential to do because there are some industries that were so relevant. But because of I and other things that have progress
through the years are no longer as relevant or are no longer a good area for us to focus anymore. Right? So it's to me it's like who who is going to be doing these evaluations to decide what is what are the
industry demands of today and to kind of look a little bit into the future. What are going to, you know, what do you see that are going to be some new areas of what is going to be needed in the future as well? And where we sit in Montgomery County, we're always a little bit futuristic
about things, and we sit in a place where we have a lot of biotechs, we have great industries and cybersecurity, so we're always at the edge of things. And I'm hoping that we are aligning with what we're seeing locally as well for the workforce that we're trying to
build. And the other thing is, I'm trying to understand the strategic placement of programs to honor school traditions while providing equitable access and foster innovation. What do you mean by that? I'm trying to
understand the essence of what that means. So I'll start and okay, my team can continue. So in terms of reasonable distance, that's a great question. And so that is actually a question we put in the survey. We want to
know from our families what they consider to be reasonable. So as Jenny mentioned 15 20 minutes is what we're seeing coming up in the survey for a lot of families. But that is something that we want to know as we consider regions and things of
that nature in terms of the. Honoring traditions and with the school programs, we do know that there are local school programs that have their own unique program that is just at their
school, and we are not saying in any way that we're trying to dismantle everything that's in schools and start completely from scratch. And so we do want to make sure that we are considering some of those local,
local offerings that schools have and, and honor them in some way. So those are things that we are considering and collecting the data on. And in terms of looking at industry demand, we've done some work with our with our group if you want to share what we've been doing. So
the design team has looked at the local labor market data and they've they've talked about the future as well, how how do we predict. But they bring in their expertise to the table. We have guidance from the state around a lot of our programs, particularly career technical
education programs, how they align to the labor market. And we are experiencing some upcoming changes in those as a result of that. And that's guiding the work as well. Okay. Thank you know, because I remember like when coding was just coming out, Montgomery County was one of the first
counties to jump on that wagon and said, you know, we think coding might be a good thing. And I think we started a Wheaton High School with, with, with a coding program. And it was very successful. And we were right. That was actually at the right time, at the right place that we
offer. And we went even, I think, to some middle schools. So I hear you on that. And I just want to say about and I'm glad I wanted to hear the explanation about the school honoring some of the school traditions, because there are some programs like Damascus, with their automotive program
that is part of their identity, is part of who they are. And I'm glad to hear that, you know, we're not here to dismantle, but even to probably duplicate some programs that might be down county, like the social,
emotional, social justice, justice, social justice program that I know, leadership program from Damascus. You know, they have to take seven busses to get there, to take the program. So I'm really glad that we're looking at it with a focus of
equity. But also, you know, evaluating some of these programs and, and, and evaluating whether, again, because of technology they are relevant to today and whether they be relevant to the future. So thank you. Thank you, Madam
President. If I could add a couple of things just really quickly, there's a great book that that's worth a read, and I may even turn this into a holiday gift personally, from me to the board about industries of the Future by Alec Ross. He was
an advisor to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, talking about just this exact issue and about what our approach should look like from an investment standpoint of how we prepare kids. And regardless
of the discrete programs that we offer. And we haven't really touched on this a whole lot, but it is something that is going to come up in your strategic planning conversation about beyond the programs, what type of durable skills are we also teaching our kids in terms of communication, their critical thinking, how they interact in
creative settings, how they collaborate with one another as also drivers so that that these programs can survive changes in the marketplace, so to speak, so that we're not investing in the VHS or Blu ray technology
program, which I think I'm pretty sure that that's gone out of style. I hope that's gone out of style. And around in 20 years, and we can be a little bit more cutting edge with robots and artificial intelligence and whatnot. But I think that there's more, more to
it that we can structure from a program standpoint that's not just about the topic, but is also about the skill set that we want every kid to have and how we weave those things into into the programs, regardless of the
topic. much. They might even value something else even more. So for that is one criteria, important criteria. But that might not be all the criteria. And that that is one comment and feedback has
validity. And I want to share that. Secondly, on page 12, I appreciate that this because we know that our decision can only
be better and strengthen when we hear staff or student voice and we base our decisions on data. Okay. So I appreciate this. During the discussion, I heard you mention enrollment data and application data. So my question
is for your enrollment data or application data, would you are you looking at the access point where these students come from? Right. Number one. Right. Those some programs are regional or
countywide. Second one I we are talking about the investment for the future. And we are also talking about the return of investment. We are a school system paying for all these programs. One of the Things that
matters, report pointed out, is as a system, we don't track student outcome. And now it's seven years later. We have done a lot of programs. Almost eight years later, Miss Franklin don't want Jeannie doesn't want me to say the years, but it has been
this many years. Are we tracking student data? Do we have student outcome data? It's important for us to look at the outcome data to say, hey, what program? We have a good completion rate, what programs we have good
access rate, where our students, where do our students come and where they're going after they leave our system? Are the programs doing what they are intended to do? So I would say the more transparent our data
is, the more we can share, the better our decision becomes, the better our communities understand the decisions. Okay. Thank you. I see more questions around Mr. Did I go for that one? Is this this time? I'm not
sure. I'm sorry. I'm not sure. Mr. Go ahead. So I wanted to talk about the culture at schools with certain programs. So for instance, we went to visit the 50th anniversary of
the VA at Einstein. So I do hear worry that the VA will be taken from Einstein. So that program is pretty integral to that school. So I think it's
important that we talk about that as we talk about these programs that. We would like. We want the school to have its own culture that is had. So and then
but I also talked to a girl that came up to me and told a student that said she travels every day from Clarksburg. Her mom drives her to Clarks, from Clarksburg
to Kensington, and then goes home and then does it again to pick her up. So I think that is about thrours in the car every day. This is what her mom does for her. I'm, I'm and
there's a waiting list at the VA. So to me, it does feel like we create scarcity when maybe that's not necessary to create scarcity. And we can learn from
the programs that have been here for a long time that are successful and try to create more opportunities, especially from I wouldn't want to see any parent have to spend three hours in a car every single day so their kid can attend the
program. That's right for them. Then I also wanted to talk about, because we heard a lot today about the Richard Montgomery IB program, which my son is a graduate of, and it's amazing program. Part of that makes that program amazing is,
again, the culture of the school. And also, as you said, the resource teachers. But the culture is you go in knowing that you want to come out with a diploma. And so we should, you
know, dig into that to talk about that other. And so the question and I just wanted to point out that when that IB program opened, it was a full county magnet. But it's served
between a half to 2 to 2 thirds of the kids we have today and the high school. So it has a 12.5% acceptance rate, 12.5%, again, a scarcity model. So I, I
don't actually have a question. I just wanted to make those points. Thank you, Miss Montoya. Thank you. Can we please put up slide 12. Thank you. So in
looking at this slide I also know at the bottom there's a note a need for access to programs such as cosmetology construction. Automotive. I don't explicitly see like entrepreneurial ship in here,
but I'm wondering if there's a space for it in some of our programs. For example, cosmetology, right. You're typically renting a space or you're going to start your own business. But do our students come out knowing in addition to knowing how to, you know, do nails or hair or whatever the
you know, a lot of times they like doing that, right? But do we also give them the foundations and business skills to be able to actually make a living, or are we putting them on a path to becoming someone else's low wage employee? And that's a concern I really have. And so I'm just wondering, while
it was not explicitly stated, if there's a space to try to weave that into some of these programs where we would see that students in those industries would likely be, you know, solo business owners or things like that. Thank you. Miss Mr. Silverman. Yes. Thank you. I'm going to
kind of come back to the point about how we sort of figure out some of the programs that we're looking at and then kind of go back to the idea of like industries of the future. Right? One thing that we know is we have a lot of talent in businesses across Montgomery
County, right? So like, if there's any way that we can start to, you know, weave in some business integration into some of our programs to be able to say, you know, we have a lot of up and coming like biotech, we have AstraZeneca based here and all of these other very, you
know, large, very successful companies in Montgomery County. Are there ways that we can start to incorporate pathways and work with them in partnership to really get a very, you know, clear pathway going for our students? So I just kind of
wanted to mention that. Thank you, Miss Silvestre, really quick. So just so that I'm understanding the boundary studies, they will finish January February of next year.
So the decisions scheduled for March of 26. Okay. But then the boundary I'm sorry. The program analysis that's kind of ongoing right. You will have some. When are you concluding? I'm just
trying to figure out the boundary study will finish and then the program study will overlap through a period of time until we get to an equitable distribution of programs in M.C.P.S. Am I understanding that
correctly? Yes. So our goal for the end of June is to come back with something a little more final than what we've shared today is just examples based on what we're seeing. The June 2026 is that five this, this June, this June, this to come. I'm
like, okay. Yes, okay. Yeah. But we're open to timeline. But that is our goal at this time. And then we would come with an actual plan for how we would
roll this out in January. So that would be our goal to be able to do that. And in June we would also if we are moving with the regions, that we would also come with recommended schools in
those regions, we would need to collaborate with transportation with our partners in operations in school, support to make those decisions. But our goal would be to come to you with some recommended options for that in
June. So it might be helpful to explain why it's critical that the program team makes some decisions early on in this process because of creating capacity for those programs in different high school sites will
drive what happens at the next phase of the boundary study. So in order, it is a little bit of a bottleneck in the sense that the boundary work will can't really continue until the program piece is decided.
Exactly. Thank you. That's helpful. And it's been said at least once before, but just wanted to say it again for the public that the options that are being put out there now are starting point. We just need something for you to reflect on,
to give us feedback. And nobody knows their neighborhoods like the families. Nobody knows how this highway affects that or the region, the traffic, like the families that will be impacted. And that's why it's good for you
to have something to react to. But we must. The board cannot know what the entire MCPs family community knows based on their lived experience. Right? So we need to hear from you families, how is this going to impact you? What are we not thinking about
so that we can then use that information through the survey to inform the next set of options, which will be presented in the fall. So just wanted to emphasize that these are just a starting point for you to react to. We want to hear from you because you're the experts on
your neighborhoods and your schools, and that will inform our next set of options. So thank you. So thank you, Doctor Taylor, for clarifying why the boundary, the program analysis need to have some preliminary
design in June because a student's experience in the building is really the actual enrollment number. You can talk about utilization rate, but the students and families experience actual enrollment. That's the way it is. So how it's really
important that they understand how many seats. You understand how many seats you would need to reserve for programs so that we can, at the best, help create that experience for students. Now, I do also want to give a
comment about I know we piggyback on the transportation right now. I know we have walkers and our distance has one mile, 1.5 mile or two mile and other consideration, right? We
use, I believe, Mcdot a lot of suggestions of how to do the worksheet. I would like to point out that when we do this, I know that there are many walk distance or zones that do not have sidewalks in the community,
right? All in the major roads. So for example, if you look at a community called windmill, they have to walk on Tuckerman Lane to get to get on to the Tilden Middle School. That's currently 1.4 mile. They are walkers, but
Tuckerman Lane is a pretty major road and it does not have sidewalks. So in this boundary study, maybe this is the opportunity for us to evaluate the safety of our walkers. And that is an important
consideration. I would urge the system to take a look at. Miss Stewart. I'm sorry. That just reminded me that I'd also urge us to look at our mix of bus,
fleet or vehicle fleet when we if we're as we're looking at providing more transportation, if we go the regional route because other systems use vans
and busses and there's a mix. So I'm hoping we're looking at our transportation choices. Thank you. Seeing no other lights. This concludes our discussion for today. I'm sure we'll see
you very soon. And thank you for all the work you are doing. And this we deeply appreciate. I know our communities appreciate this work. For the next item, we have a brief recess of 20
minutes and we'll be back at
630. Thank you everyone.
Good evening again, everyone. Welcome back to the hour. May 22nd, 2025 board meeting. This is the third portion of today's board meeting. All right. So we
are moving to item 9.1 Middle school English language arts and curriculum approval. We heard so many testimony Doctor Taylor today. And we also have received plenty of email on this subject. So we look forward to the presentation. Thank you, Madam
President. And like your first topic and a lot of our public comment to this afternoon and into this evening. I am thrilled that M.c.p.s. Is focused on instruction and making decisions about curriculum and making
decisions about what's happening in the classroom. And that really is the focus of our work. And I'm just thrilled that we get to return to that today. Which brings us to today. We are returning to our recommendation for a new middle school language
arts curriculum to be implemented. In the beginning this fall, we have reached the end of our agreement with McGraw Hill. Study sync Ela for the current curriculum. At our last board session, it became clear that we needed a deeper and more
representative engagement from stakeholders who reflect the full diversity of our student population. While engagement efforts were made for this review process since our last meeting, we fully acknowledged that a robust and inclusive engagement plan must be central
to any new curriculum review process moving forward. This is not just about participation, it is about ensuring that decisions are informed by the voices and experiences of the communities that we serve. The team has
engaged in a review of available open source curricula and a comprehensive evaluation process, which they'll detail today to arrive at a recommendation that we would like to reintroduce for the board's consideration. This recommendation is informed by
the research around the characteristics of effective Ela curriculum, the expectations of the State of Maryland for high quality instructional materials, and the input of a wide variety of district and community stakeholders whom we thank for their participation in the in
the process, and would also like to thank those who have written to the board and to our staff, as well as to some of our school leaders and our participating in that process as well. And now I'd like to turn things over to our chief academic officer. And
for the very first time, sitting at the table is our Chief of Student Support Services, Margaret Cage. Thank you, Doctor Taylor, and good evening, President Yang and members of the board. I am happy to return. If you can go to the next slide
to bring you an update on our engagement efforts around the proposed middle school Ela curriculum, and recommend the adoption of the Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum for grades six through eight. Our primary goal here today is really focused around improving
student achievement, and we want to do this with a more rigorous knowledge building curriculum that is aligned with the pre-K through eight model that CLA offers. If you go to the next
slide, I do want to just take a moment to thank you for the opportunity to revisit our processes and improve upon the areas we fell short when we first began to review this curriculum. We recognize that
when we do curriculum review and evaluation and we engage stakeholders, we are asking people to commit hours of their time. We are not just looking at one one product, we are looking at multiple, and we are looking at it through a very extensive
rubric. And people who do participate in the process give up a lot of their time. And unfortunately, because of the extensive rubric, there are some participants who were not able to complete the process. And in some cases, those were the voices that we really wanted to
hear, hear from. And so that is a lesson learned for us. And we know that in the future, we need to have multiple processes taking place. Obviously, the in-depth curriculum review is necessary, but we will also make sure that we have some shorter
focus groups and some other means for community members to give us their feedback and review. So since we last met, we had an opportunity to work with Albert Garcia with community engagement. We also want to
recognize John Landsman and Edwin Edwin Hernandez, who also helped us identify additional individuals to meet with us for focus groups, and so that you can see there you asked for a
breakdown of teachers and their specialty areas. And so you can see there that we did reach out to more, in addition to seeking other parents and staff who were more representative of the
district. We're not where we want to be. I want to put that out there in terms of our levels of participation, but we know that in the future we will continue to make sure that we have representation that looks very much like the district, but
we are very thankful for their feedback, and they did share with us that some good feedback. They want less digital platform. They want to see more paper, pencil and more of a balance, which this CLA does offer. They
appreciate being able to see themselves in the curriculum in terms of the diversity, but they also recognize they want their children to learn about other cultures as well. So that was very important. And they liked the foundational skills that were built in for supports for
students who were not reading on grade level. And they also appreciated there were unit pacing calendars, more for the teachers, but they could see how the units were paced, and they recommended that that be something shared with parents. So that was a good
recommendation that this second group of focus group members shared with us, that we think we can continue if this is adopted. So if you go to the next slide, just want to really highlight
and transition us into our why, where we are now and the challenge ahead of us, we know that our current student performance shows a need for change, and our data reflect stagnant or low proficiency
rates. The disproportionality by race and service group has persisted, both in M.C.P.S. On the left hand side you can see our our state data for literacy at the middle school level. And you can see also the national
trends for literacy. And so we know that there is an urgency for us to do more. And we believe that moving to a knowledge rich curriculum will help address some of these gaps. If you go to the next slide,
you'll also see that we have data from our teachers. Office of Shared Accountability conducted an evaluation that you have. And in that you can see some of the quotes from our teachers. But at the end of the
day, one of the themes that came out was the materials for K. I'm sorry, the materials for study sink are very difficult for the teachers to use, and the digital platform is difficult in terms
of providing scaffolds and things of that nature. For students who have any other learning needs or language needs. And it was really very much of a challenge for them. So there were very few percentage of teachers who recommended
continuing on with this curriculum. Next slide. So where we want to go, we have very much been looking at what the research says about how our students learn best. And we are
very clear that shifting to a knowledge building curriculum is really what the research says is helpful for our students. So we want to implement a pre-K to eight continuum that systematically builds students
knowledge over time. Research, including studies on middle how middle school students learn, shows that knowledge building curricula significantly improve proficiency, especially with historically underserved students. And so what does it
mean to be knowledge building? If you go to the next slide, we focus on what it means to be a knowledge building curriculum. It's curriculum where students learn important topics that are integrated, like science, history, literacy, arts,
starting at the youngest age. And then they're building that knowledge. As they get older, their topics are sequenced, so there's a very thoughtful order to how the students are learning certain topics. I think you
heard one of our students testify about that in in the video today. But for example, elementary there may be learning Greek mythology. And then when they get to sixth grade, they're learning about ancient Greece and Rome and reading the
Odyssey. So it's a building on one another. And they're also building their vocabulary as they go. And you heard testimony today about the rich vocabulary that students are coming home with. So that is a part of what we are talking about when we say
that we are looking for a knowledge building curriculum. I also want to emphasize, because this has been something you've heard frequently, is that there are only excerpts in our current curriculum and not novels. And so novels will be very much a
part of the curriculum for grades six through eight. If you go to the next slide, please. One of the other concerns that we hear. Is the challenge to
meet the needs of all of our students, emergent multilingual learners, students who receive special education services, and our students who are highly able learners. And so we want to point out this is just an
example from KLA for teachers that provide lessons on students who are on grade level and giving our teachers information about the types of questions to ask students. And then there are also challenge recommendations
for students who need more challenge. challenge doesn't mean more, but it really are very thoughtful discussions and assignments for students to consider. This one is on figurative language and so that is very helpful. They also provide pausing points for
teachers to allow them to reteach if needed, to differentiate if needed. And you can see at the bottom this example of small group instruction. So one of the things that we really like about this Ela curriculum for middle
school is that they are expecting small group instruction in middle school, and sometimes we are very familiar with more of a stand and deliver whole whole group model. And so this is really nice. This gives an example of what to do for students who are may need more scaffolding and
support. Yet staying at the grade level standard. And then for students who need more acceleration. So they are giving two examples for what to do for students in small group. We know from our teachers, and you heard it today that we could be doing
a little bit more for scaffolding for our students. And so we have committed to partnering with our Eld team in Central Office and our special education partners to make sure that we are working together to really study the lessons and
make sure that we have provided adequate scaffolds. I'm really excited that Doctor Cage is here today. She is actually coming with some experience with KLA for previous district, and so I asked her to make her debut to
share a little bit about KLA. Thank you, miss Hazel. Good afternoon, Madam President. Madam Vice president, members of the board, Doctor Taylor and staff. Thank you for having me today. Yes, I am making a debut.
A little nervous. It's been a couple of months since I've been before such a prestigious board. So thank you so much. I'm going to reiterate and reemphasize a lot of what miss Hazel shared with you. My extensive knowledge
of KLA began about 11 years ago when we implemented it, first in a former school district that I was in. It's definitely a curriculum that builds knowledge through explicit instruction, and that explicit instruction is
in reading, listening, writing and speaking all of the things that we need as we matriculate through school and then on into a college or career. Definitely. It's done through comprehension, vocabulary and also bringing
back background knowledge. But in most instances, it brings in new learning and knowledge of students in a very diverse way. By entering readings and conversations and discussions on other countries and practices.
And there are many rich conversations that extend from the classroom into the homes, which was our experiences in our surveys. So I'm just going to share with you briefly, because this is Miss Nicky's show and not mine. Just I had to go back
and pull from ten years ago, some survey data that we had from an old district. So just to let you know, our first three years of implementation, there is not much variation as what you've been hearing the last couple of board meetings. For
those on one side versus another, but the outcomes are definitely impacting impactful for our students and our families. So I can tell you in our year one initial implementation, some of the feedback that we received from teachers and support and
engagement, that there was a sense of an overwhelming feeling with bringing something new. Right. And that's normally with anything new when we first encounter it, we're just not sure. But I can tell you by the end of that first year teachers
noted that there was increased student engagement and deeper connections between the content and real world experiences, which goes right along with the state standards. Correct. So teachers observed that Clay's
design definitely emphasized listening comprehension and oral skills aligned with the state assessment. In year two, we expanded as what we're doing now in M.C.P.S, and we also refined those that we implemented in
year one. And teachers observed that students consistently achieved mastery on KLA domain assessments. Our kindergarten classes reported over 80% mastery, and vocabulary growth
was also evidence across our K-2 grades. Our curriculum integration, our educators then appreciated the integration of science and social studies content because we were able to take our English language arts
curriculum, and that was the foundation, and that's the way we delivered it through our implementation and all of those other core subject areas are what you stack on top of it to actually build the house. So the literacy experience provided all
of our Cross-curricular connections, which was really positive to see by the year. By the end of year two, we definitely had sustained student growth by year three. Teachers noted that with continuous
exposure to KLA, students showed improved reading comprehension phonics skills, and the expectations for higher test pass rates came in subsequent years. I just want to share with you some recent data. Of course,
I am speaking of a district in Louisiana, and if you know the historical achievement rates for Louisiana, we fought for first place for 49 and 50 for a very long time. We were 49 and 5049
then 50, right? Just recently, last year we came in nine, number nine on nape testing for English Language arts and reading proficiency. And that is
ten years of KLA. In February 2025 of this year. The district, the particular district that I was in was recognized as the number one school district in the country for making the biggest reading gains among amongst large and low income
school districts, according to the Educational Recovery Scorecard released by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth. So I just wanted to share with you that even though we may have some growing pains in and throughout, we are
committed to working together. Cabinet, our cabinet members, Thomas's team, the people he's put together. We're committed to ensuring transparency, inclusion and collaborative processes not just for KLA, but all of the
work that we have going forward. Thomas's team, we're going to get some t shirts made. I think I might have to spring for that myself. Thank you very much. And next slide, please. So
similarly, as we talk about collaborating with special education, also the same is true for our Eld team. English language development. We want to be really clear that our goal is
to have the core knowledge language arts curriculum serve as the core instructional curriculum for all of our students. I know that that there has been some some suggestion that maybe we do something different, but we believe that all of our students should have
access to this curriculum at grade level, and that we will, as we are listening to the teachers. We do want you to know, we hear the teachers that have been writing and who have testified previously about needing additional scaffolds and
needing additional supports. We hear that and we are talking about how we will address that at the elementary, and we're being proactive if we move into this curriculum for middle school, already working with our Eld team and our team to come up
with co-writers this summer to add additional scaffolds where needed in the curriculum so that it's already available for our teachers. So we also want to be able to tailor our professional learning this summer, having our Ela and our Eld teachers
together, and also having separate sessions to support their individual needs. So that will be something that we will be working on throughout this spring and throughout the summer and school year. So that is definitely something on our
radar. If you go to the next slide, please. We also want to talk about the text. We know we've heard a lot about texts in our current curriculum.
Instructional design is centered around rich, complex texts that are deliberately chosen for both academic rigor and the diverse perspectives they represent. Every lesson is built around deep engagement with content rich texts that challenge
students to think critically, to cite evidence, to build knowledge across disciplines. This curriculum strikes a purposeful balance between classic literature, contemporary works, historical nonfiction, and poetry, ensuring the students encounter a wide range
of genres and styles that challenge them intellectually. So we are really excited about the novels that we are seeing, and I know that was a strong highlight for those that had an opportunity to review the
curriculum. Next slide please. It's been said I just cannot reiterate it enough. A good curriculum will only get you so far. The implementation is really what is most important, and that is where we really want to make sure that we focus our
our energy. We know we did not get off to a good start with our current curriculum because there was a pandemic, and so it was just a huge interruption, and it was very difficult to really get off to a good smooth start. And so we want that for this curriculum. Our goal for this
spring is to provide training for central services staff so that they can begin to do the support for schools. Then we will move into the summertime. We begin in. We would like to begin in July with our tier one mandatory training for our teachers. And you can see all of
the different teacher types up there from general ed, special ed, all of our language development teachers that will be trained during the summer. But most importantly is the ongoing professional learning throughout the year with coaching and modeling and
helping support through planning. That's really where you get that job embedded training for teachers, that is really critical. And so you can see there that we have a plan for the next few years. Next slide please. So as we really
think about considerations, this curriculum is what we call open source. Open source simply means that it is a free curriculum that is available online. But what we want to make sure we don't want every teacher just
going on to a site and downloading curriculum, we want to package it for them. So we'll put it together in a package through our printing shop. We that we have all of our scope and sequence, or those pacing calendars for our teachers, so
that they're very clear about what units to be taught when. And then we also want to do the same for our assessments. So we'll package all of that for the teachers. So there's no guesswork there. And then we also want to work with a consultant for the training. So that's where the cost would come
in for training and to provide them for the summer. So that is our proposed option. The other option of course is to our current curriculum. You can see there the cost, but if we went with the current curriculum, then we would need to do a
renewal process for that. So at this time, if yoan go to the next slide, I believe it's that is it. We'd like to stop and see if you have questions. And I will likely have my experts
behind me come up if there are specific questions you have. Thank you for the presentation and welcome, Doctor Cage to the board discussion table. Presentation table I'm going to look at my colleagues for questions, Mr. Savona. Yes. So I
just want to say thank you for a very thorough, you know, slide deck and, you know, kind of coming back to us with, with a little bit more information. My question is around, you know, are highly able learners, right. So we talk about CLA. What what options do highly able learners
have in utilizing CLA. So highly able learners absolutely will benefit from CLA. I think that if we can certainly share the unit topics, but they are very much high interest, very
engaging, very rigorous text for our students. And as you can see, they have in their very specific lessons for students that need more challenge and those extension lessons. And so that is certainly available for
all of our students. Can I follow up or should should we? About the high. Yes. Okay. So I'm going to kind of continue off of that. So from what from what I'm kind of hearing it while I understand is all
students would be in a classroom together learning kind of the same curriculum with add ons versus, you know, having separated magnet classes or things along those lines, or am I misunderstanding? So the goal with this curriculum is not to
have a separate magnet class. It is. But however schools look at data, they make decisions about where students need instruction based on assessment data based on their planning tools. And so
yes, they can it within a classroom make decisions about how students are going to receive challenge questions and things of that nature. But the idea is not that this there would be a separate magnet curriculum. Got it. Thank you,
Miss Zimmerman. Thank you. And thank you for coming back to us with more information. I just wanted to bring up that Kayla's parent company, Standard Work, we brought up Natalie Wexler and her work. She's on the board of
directors of Standard Work, and I've taught Kayla in the elementary school. I completely agree that this is an upgrade from our current curriculum. I just want us to continue to stay aware of research. And, you
know, we talked about leaning on the experts that we have here, you know, continue to add scaffolds to the curriculum. And I just want us to continue to keep structured literacy and the science of reading at the core of all of that, because that is
where a lot of that good research lies. That's peer reviewed and backed. I would also like to encourage us as like a community to, when we have the opportunity to bring in other literacy experts outside of M.c.p.s and bring them before
the board, that we can all stay updated on that professional learning and that can help us as a team, guide students forward and make those decisions. You know, Avengers and everyone else. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Rivera. Evans. Nikki, I just
want to say thank you because I know last time we talked, we were a little disappointed with the cohort of how many people contributed to the and I just want you to understand and your
team where I'm coming from, although I know there's scientific so you know about Carla. Sometimes those groups are not representative of how our children in Montgomery County look. And that sometimes
can be a problem. So I took the time to go to classrooms to see, to talk to the teachers, to talk to. The principals who have implemented it. And I think part of it is that we need to own it,
is that when we implemented it in elementary school, we did not have all the materials to support the teachers to do an implementation. That was the true nature of what this program is. And I think there were a lot of bumps on the road because of
that, because one of the things that I heard repeatedly was that the program is great. It moves very fast, but without having the other support materials for kids who are EML, for kids who are special in needs. Without having that, a lot of teachers felt that they were, that the
program was moving too fast and they were leaving some kids behind, which is what you don't want to do. And some principals spoke up and said, we're going to slow down a little bit, be true to it, but we're going to slow down so we can bring everybody along. Because what
I'm thinking is, it makes sense that this cohort of kids who have been exposed to it, then go to a middle school with the same concept. I mean, that is just common sense. And my hesitation once before, and I think I feel very responsible for having
Margaret at the table because her and I had a very candid conversation about this, and she's the one that told me, you know, that she was very knowledgeable about this program and how it made such a difference in Louisiana in her community. But, you know, part
of the sharing was that they had bought all the materials needed, and the training was rigorous, and it was mandated that everybody got trained on it. Right? With all the different folks in, in the school. And
that for that put my mind at ease. So I just want to make sure and ask you again that that is going to be what's going to happen in the middle school implementation and that we're going to buy all the materials that are needed to make sure
that all our children have. Because just because you're in doesn't, doesn't mean you don't have the capacity. I think children need to be. We need to have high expectations. So your question is so my question is, are we you are we going to buy
the materials? Are we going to make sure that gets the training. And most importantly, are we going to make sure that we support our teachers when they have a classroom? Like Mrs. Verna said, the very high achievers towards the kids who are M.L. To their the kids that have that they have an IEP, are
we going to have all those concepts ready to go for implementation to make sure that our teachers are are successful? Yes, we will. We will have all of the materials for our teachers. We will absolutely make sure that that happens this
time around. So absolutely. And they will all be a part of the training. No thank you. Because I know what we have, I know is not working from being the end of somebody who was in middle school the last few years. I know that is not working. So I want us to make sure that our
children, let us see, is literally one of the basic things that we need to do as a system. And I know we're not doing well. So I just wanted that commitment. Miss Wolff, I just want to thank you for coming back and addressing some of the concerns that were raised
at the last meeting. I also heard one of our speakers today mention that we were not trying to provide the same level of rigor for our Ell students based on our questions before, but I want to assure everybody out there that that's not true. What
I wanted to do was to highlight the issues that the teachers were raising around applying the curriculum in the AML to AML students, and they felt that no one was hearing them. I think from listening to your
discussion today, you definitely heard them because their problem was not that it doesn't work for them, that there was no differentiation that they had been, I don't want to say taught how to teach this, but that they needed that kind of instruction
in order to be able to deliver a quality product. So I just don't want anybody to think that we were trying to differentiate rigor between, you know, different students. That's just not true. So thank you again. And Miss Cajun, I really liked
hearing about your experience because that really helped me to see and get an understanding of when the process might, you know, kick in. And we see some really great results start coming in. Thank you, Miss Montoya. Thank you. Yes, thank
you so much for your presentation and quite frankly, for mobilizing quickly. Right. We gave you quite a few tasks the last time we were here at the board. I appreciate that you heard us, and you came back and brought us the information that we were looking for and including Doctor Cage. And I want to just say thank you to everyone who sent us emails or
tried to talk to us about these, this curriculum and gave your thoughts. Teachers, staff, parents. We heard from some students today. I also appreciate that you included M.c.p.s staff who are also parents in your focus groups. That's a really unique perspective. And I just, you
know, that would be great to bring folks in. So that brings me to my question, which is related to Mr. Sivana's question. And I say this as an M.c.p.s parent as well. I see, you know, there's the options for small groups. And if you
have some kids who might need a little more support or some kid in a class of 30 students. And this is not to, you know, like a diss on any of our teachers or educators, just as a practical reality and as a parent. And that I've seen, I'm not sure how we should expect our staff, even
with all the tools and resources in the world, to be able to. And I think the term is differentiation, right? Really differentiate for the different needs that the students have without. I mean, when I read the slide about the groups, it felt
like, okay, are the highly abled learners and just off on a group to themselves kind of teaching themselves because then the teacher needs to provide support over here. And sometimes for some of our students, it can feel that way, right? Whether and because we of course want to make sure that our students are on grade level, it makes sense
to me that maybe, perhaps in some instances, our energy and efforts might be more devoted to our students who are not quite at grade level yet. Right? Because we need to get them there. Absolutely. But we are tasked with the goal of educating all of our students, furthering all of our students, including our highly abled
students. And so what I don't want in any curriculum at any grade level, that we have groups of students that because they are already at grade level or above that, then they're just kind of sitting there and they're like, I'm bored, right? Because then we're not we're not furthering them. And at some
point, maybe they're behind now because they didn't get that push and challenge and that brain development. So can you just talk to me about how this can meet that as a practical reality? Absolutely. I mean, that's the, the beauty and challenge of teaching is that they we are constantly planning
for the multiple learning needs that are in a classroom. And typically what happens is that there may be start off whole group with a concept that is that everyone is being taught,
and then the teacher will likely have students in, let's say, two groups for the purposes of that lesson. And they may be teaching one group, while another group may be working on an independent
assignment. And then once that group, that first group is on their way, then they will move to the other group to do some teaching. With that group, it is possible, then, that a teacher could push in to provide additional scaffolds for a group
of students or special education. Teacher can push in to do the same. So that's where you know, the planning and the scheduling of all of that really is needs to be really detailed so that everyone understands what the grade level standard
expectations are and then how we're going to scaffold for students or how we're going to provide some type of challenge or enrichment for students. Do you want to add to that? Can I just sorry, can I so and I hear you and I right. That's that's the idea. That's the plan.
Right. That this is how it should work in theory in, you know, whatever our plans are, this is how it's supposed to go. But and maybe I'm the only one in my experience, again, as a practical reality. And this is not anything about our staff
being unable or incapable or anything about their skill sets. Not at all. We have amazing staff and teachers, but when you are trying, we talk all often too, about these increasing needs that our students have, and sometimes they might be special education and AML or,
you know, right, there's all these different needs that our kids have. I'm just feeling concerned about how we're supposed to implement that model when we also then sometimes have not enough staffing or not enough, you know, various things. And it just seems like
there's going to be a group of students that might not be getting what they need at any given time. And so that gets concerning for me, again, at any grade level. Right. That I hear you, that the theory is that this is how we should do it. But and I'm not an educator, but I
know our educators try their best, but I'm not confident that they're always able to do that. Right. Thank you. Are there would you like to answer or. Yes. Just just briefly, because I have really seen this play ou. And theoretically I could see
where you could be confused, but I've actually seen it in action. One thing is true kids are resilient, right? They're going to move and shake and do whatever it is that you need them to do. So are educators. So when we implemented this program and miss Hazel and I have done a
lot of talking about it, and we've talked about some suggestions for training, even even for our leadership, because the leaders in the building are a part of this whole implementation process. It will take some strategic scheduling. Maybe we have a small group when
we go to specials or to computer lab or to whatever it is that we call it, but it's definitely functional, even with 30 students in the classroom, because somebody is always doing something based off of the scaffolding, where we are making sure that the Lexile levels,
that the rigor and everything is present for every student in the room, it's just a rotation either of the adult from group to group, or the students from station to station. So it's definitely going to be something that is we're capable of doing.
We're going to have pockets of exemplars, and that's how the rest of us learn. So if we identify a school or a set of schools that is doing it right or as close to right as we can get it in that moment, then we bring in those other schools to get a glimpse of how to create
their strategic scheduling models and to create their small groups. Miss Hazel also talked about the working groups that we'll have over the summer. A lot of that work is done during the summer and after school, where we bring in the experts that are doing it right to
create the models for those that need more support. Okay, so our teachers and staff will get support with the scheduling and those kinds of things to help them implement that model. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Maybe it will be helpful to bring us to see it once it's in practice,
miss Mr. First again, I also want to thank you. This follow up presentation really answered a lot of questions I had. I loved how we had the input broken down more so we could see
who exactly was giving input, and also the follow up since our last meeting. So thank you so much. It was really helpful. And also. I feel like I got some professional development today
from Doctor Cage. So thank you. I'd love to see more of that. So she I mean talking about using your resources, that's awesome that she was able to come in with such a deep experience. But
back to what Natalie mentioned earlier. I would love to see some of that now and then from outside the district when we're rolling out, you know, trying out something new to hear that
perspective really helps us as a board. So plus one for that. As far as back to the point about differentiation, and I think I feel I feel like we're a little
bit ahead of the game this time. Right. Because we have this experience with the younger grades and rolling that out and seeing where maybe some of the professional development could be shored up, right, or some of the extra resources that were
needed, like I took notes from the person who testified about having some scaffolding with pictures, etc. Mr. So yeah, the question is. Right now there's
co-teaching models in some of our classrooms. I mentioned that at the last board meeting, and so can you explain how you might be able to use that co-teaching model based on needs in the classroom? So yes, again, co-teaching is just one model.
We know that it is appropriate at times and maybe not in other times. And we know that every school doesn't have the staffing to do a full co-teaching teaching model in every space. So we certainly want to make
sure that our teachers and our special education teachers and our general education teachers are putting together resources, scaffolding resources as they plan for this summer. And also
our trained together this summer. And so when they plan, that is when they really determine whether or not a co-teaching model is appropriate for a particular lesson, whether or not those individuals are going to push into a class
lesson and teach a small group. And if it's appropriate to pull a group of students, usually for Eld, that probably is your, you know, your very beginning levels. But that is something that will need to be decided on a student by student basis about
what is appropriate based on the lesson, based on their learning needs. And so we don't want to just wholesale, say everybody co-teach. It's one model that can work when it's appropriate. I hope that answered your question. That does, because
I've seen that model in my own son's classroom and I saw where it was really helpful. So as long as there's like tools in the toolbox. Right. And so but then also how are we going to evaluate that this is actually
working with and with? Maybe you'll learn that one model works better than another model. How will that be evaluated. And maybe that's kind of in our strategic plan. But if you could just let us know. Yes. So this
curriculum does come with some assessments. I believe Doctor Cage mentioned mentioned them. And I know I think I heard a student say they enjoyed taking the assessments. And so that will be a part of what we will be reviewing. And obviously we
have other our our I believe we're still going to use our map assessments and then obviously our state assessment data. So those are the assessments that we will be using. Still the assessments that come with curriculum. And we also will be looking at just the observations
as we go into classrooms. We want to make sure we've got a set of look for whatever we're training you on this summer. We want to see that it's actually happening in the classroom. So working together, observing, coming back, having conversations about what we're
seeing and where we need to make upgrades. Thank you so much. Thank you. Clearly there's a lot of questions, and I think the board members want to make sure that no one particular group of students is left behind. Miss
Zimmerman has one more question. Thank you. I just want to speak to assessments as well, that we please ensure that there is enough time to give them. They take so long. There's so much writing, but relatedly, that the on the other end that the grading process for those is
really streamlined. It's really the platform. The way that it's set up right now is really difficult. It's hard to understand. There isn't like a grading sheet that you get to go along with it. The information on which questions you're assessing on sometimes isn't released until after you're almost done with the unit. So
even though you spent time on, for example, teaching kids how to alphabetize, then they're not going to be assessed on that, that that just increases frustration with the new curriculum. So anything that we can do on the front end to ease as much of that as possible, make that process go a lot
faster. That would be really useful for the classroom. Yes. Thank you everyone. And I want to remind that we typically do. We typically do a formal, system wide evaluation one year about implementation, three year about
outcome. Is that standard? Yes. That is absolutely correct. Thank you. That's that's very helpful. And then we also hope that if you have assessment data, it will have a short turnaround time for the board to be aware of them. Okay. If there's no further questions, doctor Taylor, can you read the
resolve portion? Thank you, Madam President, for the board's consideration. Resolved, that the Board of Education approve the adoption of the Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum for grades six through eight in English Language Arts. And may it
further be resolved that the president of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools be authorized to negotiate and execute agreements in the amount not to exceed 1.1. $2 million in the first year, and for the purchase of required instructional materials through
existing textbook providers and for professional learning services in support of core knowledge language arts implementation. And may it further be resolved that the Superintendent of Schools be authorized to execute all other documents and grant any approvals necessary for this
transaction? May I have a motion at last? For all those who waited so long, I move this forward for board approval and I second that motion. All in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Thank you. Staff. Thank you.
Congratulations for good work. Yes. So. Right. Long awaited. And now the teachers can can, thank goodness. Feel good that they know what they were going to use and to teach next year. All right. Wonderful. I really
want to thank all the advocates and all the staff for working on this. We are going to move to item 10.1. It's the fiscal year 2026 operation Budget work session. County Council adopted
a countywide budget for the fiscal year 2026, and that has some implications for our school system. Doctor Taylor, can you. Bring us up to date? Thank you, Madam President. It feels a little weird not having miss
Hazel at the table, but we'll we'll substitute Miss Alfonso Windsor here for an update in a moment. I do want to take just a moment to thank the Board of Education and to thank our County council counterparts and the executive for the investment
that they've made in working with us, not just the financial investment that they made in their budget. This was a budget process that began five months ago this week. And when you think about that, that the
public part of the process, it really almost took a half a year. And prior to the public part of the process, there was nearly five months of legwork that went in advance of even making the first budget proposal
in December. This is a process that consumes an enormous amount of our energy and time. But the output, of course, translates into what happens in the classroom and how we're able to serve our students. I appreciate our county council for
recognizing what our community and what our educators and this board have recognized, which is that we have very real needs that need to be addressed and that there is real urgency taking your advice and taking the advice of our funding partners. We have kept
adjustments to our final budget mix tight, and we have kept them to expansion and kept them away from the classroom, which was very important to this board and your direction to me, and to make sure that any reductions or
changes that we made in the final version of the budget to account for the final funding from County Council, that we kept those changes away from the classroom and that we kept them isolated to expansion. And this afternoon evening, we are going
to detail those for you and to also talk a little bit about changes in revenue, because a lot has changed in this budget process, both at the state and local level, including the creative funding solution that our, our council counterparts have come up with. So I'll just
conclude again by saying thank you to our County Council for the adoption of their budget. Thank you to our associations who were great partners during this budget process, truly great partners and to this board for
your discernment and direction throughout this process. Thank you. You may begin. Introduce yourself first. Thank you. Good afternoon. Members of the board. I'm Yvonne Alfonso Windsor, chief financial Officer. So yes,
as Doctor Taylor just mentioned, you know, this was a process that started about five months ago. And last time that we were in this setting, the board tentatively approved a budget without knowing what really was going to happen at the General Assembly and at the county
council. So we want to start by providing some updates of what happened since we were here last to discuss the budget. So since since the Board of Education tentatively adopted the budget, the General Council General Assembly made some decisions.
The governor had recommended a reduction. If you remember, in the collaborative planning time, it would be a reduction that would impact M.C.P.S. By almost $14.4 million. The General Assembly did not approve that reduction, so there's no decrease in collaborative planning time. They kept the
funding and allow for no expectation of collaborative planning time for FY 26. Even though M.c.p.s is and has been doing collaborative planning time for a while for FY 27 and 28, the funding level will remain the same, and then in FY
29, the funding that would have been received in 27, that increase, it will be received in FY 29, which means that they're not going to account for inflation at that point, at least right now. That's the expectation. The other action that the General Assembly took is they did approve the decrease
in the reimbursement for nonpublic, special education, nonpublic from 70% to 60%. That's an impact to us for next year of about $2.5 million. And then in FY 27, it will decrease further by another 10% and that increases a little bit higher.
It's probably going to be another 3 to $4 million. And then the pension shift that has been discussed many times, that was approved at the assembly level by the General Assembly as well. So we're shifting about $19.6 million of pension costs
from the state to the local. Since that took place following the General Assembly's actions, the Board of Education reduced their ask from the county council by $14.4 million. Since we were going to receive that from the state, and then the
county council approved a budget that was $8.4 million less. And we'll get to that point number than what the board tentatively approved in February. Now, since we created this presentation, there were some changes very
late yesterday. There were some reconciliation numbers taking place at county council and county executive yesterday. So we're going to see an additional reduction of $998,246. And we'll talk about how we're going to
account for that. So there was also there has also been a lot of discussions around Opeb. And as you all know, the county council made a decision to help us fund the budget through the use of $50 million from the OPEC
fund. And Opeb is other post-employment benefits, and it's a specific for retirees employee benefit plan. It is not to their pension. It's specifically to the employee benefit plan. And this is not really it is it's really an
actuarial risk management strategy because it's funding that is put into specifically for an M.C.P.S. By the county executive to fund. If there is a problem to fund future retirees employee benefit plan, it does
not impact current retirees or current employees, and hopefully it won't impact anything in the future. That would be strictly a risk management strategy. So the council has given us $50 million for transferring $50 million from what they would have put in the fund. They were planning to
put 56 million next year, so they still put almost $6 million, and then they split the funding. 25 million will receive this year and 25 million next year. And that allows us to use $40 million or $50 million of
next year's budget to fund other priorities that we that we have. So this are the revenue changes that we were talking about when the board tentatively adopt the budget. It was a $283 million request from the county, from
the county council. That has been decreased by $73.9 million. So we're receiving 210, exactly $210 million from the county council. The state aid was increased by the $14.4 million that we just discussed due to
collaborative planning time. And then we're getting a one time open funding of $50 million. And that's how we get to the reduction of $8.5 million. That now is going to be a little bit higher. So how is that $8.5
million broken down? And, you know, as Doctor Taylor mentioned, this is not a reduction of anything that we're currently doing. This is just a reduction of the request for next year. New items for next year, equity add on. We were originally budgeting $5.8 million. That has been reduced
by 3.2, so the schools will still receive an additional $2.5 million for next year. Special education teachers. An original request of 186. Now it's going to be 156. We're reducing it by 30 FTEs. Maintenance. This pay
as you go. My mistake. There's a error in the PowerPoint. It's not 7 million. Original request is 9 million. The reduction is 2.5 million. So it's going to be 6.5 million additional funding for pay as you go Stem curriculum. We are awaiting
further guidance from the state on the Stem curriculum. So $800,000 that was put in for next year, we're reducing that and will hold, you know, a review again in FY 27 Chromebook repairs. There's a reduction of 500,000. Again is a reduction
from the 3.7 million more that we were asking for last year. For next year, security assistance reduction to 45 instead of 52 is going to be 45. Additional security assistance. The academic program study we had originally requested
$250,000 for that review, but more of that is going to be done in-house. So we're not we're reducing that money so that the study is not going to go away. It's just it's going to be done more in-house. There's going to be a restoration of ten positions as we review the
budget at a cost of $1.3 million, and then an assessment of special education and talent management and some of those programs and structure, and that's at a cost of 600,000. Which brings us to the 8.5 million. The additional funding
that we discussed, we received our quote for next year for self-insurance. So we are reducing that. That is coming down by 160, $650,000. So that is a reduction that we're going to take. And then the other 200,000 is going to be from the
Opeb fund. I'm sorry, not opeb from the fund. It's about 250,000. And that will make up the $9.5 million that we have to reduce the budget by at this time, if you have any questions. So I want to circle back really
quick because our presentation that is 24 hours old is out of date. And the we're out of date by if you go back one more slide by $998,246. We're we are
closing that gap from a couple of sources. And that accounts for the variance that you see here. We're still feel very positive and very grateful for the position that we're in right now. Miss Alfonso Windsor will advance. One more slide. We are
happy to talk through some of these items. This is not up for the board's adoption tonight. This will come back before the board as an action item at your next meeting. We felt it was important to get this in front
of you and in front of the community for reaction and public comment. We feel very confident that this is a budget adjustment that's in line with the community's expectations and with the board's direction. Thank you for your presentation.
Like doctor mentioned today, there's no action for the board. Are there any questions? Mr. Savona? Yeah, I'll keep it quick. So one question I've heard from community members is does the $15 million from Opeb, now that it's instead of it
coming from council directly, does that now mean that it does not contribute to our maintenance of effort, which is for those who aren't aware, the funding that we receive year over year and the minimum amount that they can give us. That is a great question. And yes, so because it is a transfer from
the from the Opeb contribution to our OPEC fund, it is outside of our maintenance of effort for next year. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Silvestre. Yeah. The Opeb fund was a point of confusion
for me. So I want to make sure I understand it correctly. So it's 50 million. But what I didn't understand was that there's 25 million. That's being taken from this year's opeb dollars, and 25
million from next year's Opeb dollars. But it will all be used for our budget this year. Can you explain that better than I did? So no, no, I know it is confusing. So they're transferring normally. The county executive recommended
transferring $56 million to the OPEC fund for next year. So out of those 56 million, instead of transferring the 56 million, 25 of those they're providing to us, they're transferring to us for this year and 25 next year, because as soon as we get the
budget for Opeb, we actually transfer it into our fund, which is separate, you know, it's maintained separate. It's money that doesn't go away. So by giving it to us this year, they allow us to resolve some of our cash flow issues and then whatever is remaining in transfer for next year to
account for we had requested 40 million for next year. So they are giving us 50 million to help us, you know, maintain what we have planned, you know, for, for next year. Does that make sense? So I think I've heard you describe it as a savings account. So the Opeb, the Opeb
is a savings account. And the county executive, the local government contributes to that savings account every year. So right now the savings account has about $140 million. And you cannot withdraw from that from that savings account. You only contribute to that savings
account. We're taking some money from the contribution from the contribution fund, our current budget. Correct. So instead of contributing $56 million more next year, they're contributing almost, you know, they're contributing $6 million for next year. And there's nothing
stopping the county from. It's not like we've spent our money for next year. If they needed to, they could give additional or increase that number next year. For Opeb. Yes, the
contract would be up to the county executive. Yes, they can contribute as much as they want to. Thank you. Miss Rivera. Evans. And just a quick follow up to that. But then 6 million still going in from this year
into that account. Correct. If the 6 million for FY 26 are still going into the account, and can you just clarify because people are going to see the 30 minus on their special education teachers. And I just wanted to
be clear that those would have been the new hires, but not the current. If you could do that, I think you've done it for me. Okay. Miss Rivera-Oven, we were budgeting 686 new special education positions, 500 of
which were paraprofessional positions. We are keeping those in the budget. They they are absolutely essential to us fulfilling our staffing needs. The 186 classroom teacher positions that we were going to add is also critical for us. You
will see these 30 special education teachers and likely more in the FY 27 request that we bring forward. But these are positions that have not been hired yet. You are absolutely correct. And it is not a reduction of our current force, but but a reduced a reduction to
our request. Miss Montoya, thank you. And in a similar vein to Mr. Rivera's question about special education teachers for our security assistance, just to confirm that is also not we're not reducing who we have now. We're not hiring anybody. We're
just not going to hire as many people as we had planned. Correct. We are planning to hir. If this is approved by the board, we would plan to hire 45 security assistants, not 52. Thank you. Mr. Could you please
talk about the position restoration because that's an addition. Absolutely. And it is nice that when you have a chance to reevaluate at the end of a of a budget cycle what makes sense, and to list out your priorities
of what you would like to get accomplished. I think that aligning some of our staff to some of our strategic goals and objectives is critically important. We heard a lot from some of our students, even today, about the needs for connecting mental health resources to raised
expectations. And most of those positions, actually, eight of the ten are tied to our ESL therapeutic counselors. And putting restoration back to that employee class, which was reduced as part of central office reorganization. Those
folks are deployed out into the field pretty regularly, and so that would be a part of that portfolio, in addition to a couple other positions in the infrastructure, one tied to advanced assessment programing, our AP, IB, and then another
position in human resources. Thank you. That does align with our priorities. So I appreciate that explanation. Thank you so much. I think that concludes our discussion for this. The board will take tentative will take
final action on 26 FY 26 budget on our June 10th board meeting. We are going to move to item 11, Board of Education items. Can. May I have a motion to approve
item 11.1 and 11.2 in block. So moved second. All in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. Now turning now to item 11.3. It's the previous new business. I will turn it over to
Mr. Savona for introduction of his resolution on student access to procurement opportunities. Mr. Savona, thank you. So you all have heard the resolution from last time. I did want to make a quick amendment to that
resolution. So from previously board members have talked about, you know, what could the potential financial impacts be and how do we make sure that this is a system that is open to everyone and really does have a direct impact on students? And so the way that we kind of sort of came back to that is in the
second resolved, the new reading says, resolved, that the superintendent of schools will develop a process by which students can submit proposals for areas of need in their school. And then this is the change through through the form of an event like an innovation fair and the solutions the students have developed to
address those needs. So what that essentially is saying is instead of the funding that might have gone into evaluating all of them on the back end, we instead turn it into a very student centric, student focused teaching and learning experience where students can come and, you
know, have their ideas presented really just kind of centralizing. You know, a lot of schools do capstone projects and things along those lines. And so really giving everyone a chance to come in one spot and say, you know, I have an idea that will benefit M.C.P.S, you know, let me let me present it in a fair
format. And so giving giving us a chance to really centralize as an entire school district on, you know, one central location for, for some of those ideas. And so that's the resolution. I'll open it up for questions. Let's see. Are there any
questions? Miss Montoya, I think this is a great idea actually. And it's also like just the energy of it. Right. Something that they can get excited about. It's something where they can also work on like presentation skills and things like that, which is really wonderful skill building for our students. So I just really appreciate the
amendment. Thank you. Of course, Miss Rivera, and I just want to say that I appreciate you working on this, and I appreciate you listening and being open to friendly amendments. Absolutely. So that's the work of the board.
Yeah. Wonderful. Mr. I love this idea. Somehow just these few words just amplified this so much, and I think we will have we can work on the communication
to all of our schools, multiple languages, use the student Instagram account or whatever we need to do. So we get a lot of participation and really get all that entrepreneurial spirit of our young people out there. So thank you. Of course, Miss
Silvestre. Yeah, I think we spoke also that there's a variety of events that already take place with M.C.P.S. That could serve this purpose, maybe by enhancing them or making them more countywide so more students know about them and can
participate, and also, you know, we our students are the users, right? So they have all kinds of ideas and experiences that we can benefit from. But also what is the school system? What problems is the school system trying to solve. So you know, as
these as this event is developed, you know, say some parameters, you know, we really would love some innovative thinking around X, Y and Z to kind of focus. So it's a it's a win win for both students and their innovation. And also what
problems the system is trying to solve and getting those fresh brilliant minds to get to work on helping us come up with some solutions. So thank you. We always talk about hands on learning and this is one example of it. So I hope that we will be
able to tie in some existing events and also have some themes and, and that way make this as a learning experience and a potential for true impact experience for students. Exactly. I mean, I think about the business pitch competition
that we do, and that's really that's been more focused around high schools currently. But I also think about some of the Deca competitions that we have, which is like the business leadership competitions throughout the year and opening that up and bringing that into a space where we could, you know,
even set a theme each year as to what specific problems are we really looking to solve and really bringing that all together in one spot. But with that, I'll move this forward for board approval. Please go ahead. Is there a second? There is a motion to move this resolution
forward. Is there a second? Second? All in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Thank you so much. That deserve a round of applause. Yes. Let's do that. All right. We are going to go to
11. Item 11.4. Are there any new business items for the board to consider this evening? Yes. I have a resolution for the board to consider. Sure. Go ahead. The board. The resolution I would like to consider is on the subject of the establishment of a government affairs Committee.
It reads. Whereas the Board of Education shares the State of Maryland's long term commitment to enhancing K through 12 education, and whereas the Board of Education desires to enhance means of government affairs so as to increase the understanding of the impact of potential
legislation and policy on Montgomery County Public Schools. And Whereas the Board of Education desires the discussions at Board of Education business meetings to increasingly inform members, staff and the public of the impact of potential legislation and policy on Montgomery County
Public Schools, with due regard given to alignment with the with the strategic plan and pertinent matters of board governance and guiding policy. And Whereas, the Board of Education desires to more systematically approach means of government affairs now,
therefore, be it resolved, let's have a discussion that you read the resolved portion typically. Okay, I apologize people just so they know where we're going to. We will have board members ask questions or give comments. And after that you will read the
resolve portion. But today I'm just bringing it to the table. So I think don't we need to read the resolution. Yeah we can. Either way we have done it. We can have a discussion. Then you read the resolve and put it on the table. But if you want to go
ahead and do that first, I think so because I want to make sure you all have all of the information. Okay. Go ahead. Now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education, in furtherance of the Board of Education's responsibility to provide leadership and oversight of the school system, establish a three member Government
Affairs Committee whose membership and chair shall be voted upon by the members of the board. Perens. After soliciting interest from among the members close friends. And be it further resolved that the committee's mission is to work in coordination with board and
M.c.p.s staff, including the Legislative Affairs Coordinator, to enhance number one, the board's understanding of the impact of potential county and state legislation and policy on Montgomery County Public Schools. And number two, the
internal and external mechanisms of communications as needed to facilitate said understanding. Any questions, questions and comments I'm going to look around. Ms. Silvestre. Yeah, I
think that I appreciate you bringing this forward. I think you've raised got my thought, my brain, thinking about this topic. I would like to take a comprehensive look at our committees this summer during one of our retreats. I always
think that it's good to know you know, what committees we still need, and survey the board to see what committees people want to add. So I would like to have this discussion with this specific committee during one of
our summer retreats so that, like I said, we can evaluate what's what's needed, still, what needs to be revamped and find out interest from board members in terms of what they want to continue, what they want to discontinue. But just wanted
to share my thoughts. Any other questions or comment? Mr. Serv-on yeah, I'll just kind of echo those those that same kind of line of thinking of really doing a more formal analysis of the committees that we have, you know, post my time. But all right. So we have a motion. We
do need to have a second. This is a new business. We have a second. I'll second the motion table. Yeah. For the second to lay on the table. I don't think I ever made the formal motion though. Right. You need to have a motion. We used a motion a
second to lay on the table. So you have resolve. It's a it's your resolve. And then we need a motion. Okay. Mr. Is you have a comment or are you having motions? Either I since she
didn't make the motion I'll make the motion. Sure. So I'm making the motion okay. Second. So Mr. Move and Miss Rivera second. So this will stand on the table and
you will come back on June 10th for discussion and voting to take the vote on the motion. Oh, we have to take the vote. What time is it? Am I done? It's 10 to 8. All right. There is a motion and a second to put it on
the table. All in favor, please raise your hand. Okay. I was going to say point of parliamentary procedure. You don't need a vote to have it lay on the table. We are. It's okay at this point. You know, it's it was it was it was an eight hour meeting. You've done it anyway. You're good. It doesn't call for
the vote. Yes. It's on the table. Yeah. It's on the table. It's on the table to lay on the table. All right, so with that it has been a very long day, but it has been a very productive day. We talk about budget. We talk about boundary with our
program analysis. We talk about Carla. And we have appointed ten people recognized for different groups and individuals. And we have a motion passed. And we have a motion sitting on the table. Can I move to the last
item of the day? That is a meeting adjournment? Yes. With our with our one final audience member. Oh, wait. We cannot, we cannot. We even have a 12.1 information summary. There's no action. But item 13 them for
you. No thank you. We're okay. Thank you. Okay. Please. Item 13 are German. Yes. With our with our one audience member I move for adjournment. I second that. All in favor, raise your hand.
Thank you everyone. That's
unanimous.