. Welcome to the November 17th Policy Committee meeting. Before we begin, let's have my colleagues introduce themselves. Good afternoon. A new student,
member of the board. Good afternoon, Brenda Wolff, district five. And I'm Julie Yang, district three. And I would like the staff introduce themselves. I'm Sally Davis, supervisor of policy and regulations in the Division of
Legal Services. Good afternoon. Lesley Turner Percival, legal director in the Division of Legal Services. And one more. Hi, I'm Kat Melchert, executive director for district operations. All right. Thank
you. Thank you, everyone, for being here. Got an emergency call. Go ahead, go ahead. Let's just jump right in and Miss Silvestre can't join us today. But she has sent in her
questions, so we will be asking her questions along the way. Okay, now we call this additional meeting of the Policy Management Committee primary to review the feedback with regard to the school year calendar. And that's being
developed for the next school year. And after we complete that review, we will receive the annual report required by policy. Child Abuse and Neglect and review technical amendment to policy ECA Sustainability
and policy framework and structure of early childhood elementary education. Now, so that is the overview of what we will be doing today. Now are there any questions or initial questions from my committee
members? Can we get started? Okay. Please get started. Good afternoon. I'm Kat Malchiodi, executive director for district operations. We are delighted to return to Policy Management
Committee to discuss the 2026 2027 school year calendar development process. In this meeting, we are going to review the timeline, acknowledge the work of our committees and community feedback. Share some
highlights from our traditional school year drafts, and have a discussion about those drafts and what that would look like going into our next meeting. In terms of rank ordering. Okay,
our calendar development process aligns with goals one, two, and three in our strategic plan. And again, this is our second Policy Management Committee meeting. We are very excited to return. And we will
be back at the table on Thursday for an additional board meeting, as well as adoption of the calendar on December 11th. Before we talk a little bit about phase two, I just wanted to take a moment to
acknowledge the work of our calendar committees. This is my third year doing the development process. And so the the committees have expanded and really grown over time. I have some who are still members from the first year I started.
I have some who joined because they had a certain level of advocacy or passion for something. And then this year we expanded to include all of the representatives for community partnerships for the county. And just I just really wanted to take a minute to say
thank you to everyone who is a part of that work, because it's a lot of work and there's a lot of things to think about, and a lot of different types of advocacy, and everyone just really shows up and comes and is ready to work and ready to share. And I just really want to acknowledge that because you can't do this yourself, you
really need, you know, voices and people in spaces to support it. So I just wanted to take a moment to do that because it is it's really important. And I'm very proud of that part of this work. As we move into phase two, some of the things that were
important from looking at, you know, sort of our first set of drafts to bringing drafts to you today included a few different topics. One was alignment to neighboring districts. We heard this a lot, a lot of staff who live in Frederick County. And so really
thinking about winter break and spring break and aligning in any ways that we can, that would really not create operational challenges. The next one, which is sort of related to that, is a conversation that we had at the most recent board meeting about
winter break and December 23rd. And so we'll talk about that in a second. The other one, which is more challenging in general, is attendance considerations. When we have interrupted weeks. One of the things that I asked
the committees to do was after that board meeting was to sit with the drafts that we had and go through them, and we ended up having about 6 or 7 different drafts based on those discussions and that feedback from both of the committees, and then actually went back to
both committees, and I asked them to look at those drafts that we had done again, to get more feedback to bring you the ones that we're bringing today. So I'm really proud of that work, because it took a lot of extra work for them to meet and sit and talk about some of
these pieces, as well as then once I gave them drafts again to go back and give more feedback. But I really feel like what we brought forward represents as many of the different considerations as we can in the best way that we can.
And so I just wanted to say that before we get started today, in terms of that, that was very important for us. And then always the diversity of our communities, we we live in such a wonderfully diverse place. And to be able to, you know, really think about that,
related to our support from our committees as well as our families, our staff, our students is something that's just very important and sort of always top of mind when we consider this work. Okay. So what we're going to do is take a look at the three drafts that
we are bringing forward for the traditional calendar. We are also working at the same time with Arcola Elementary School to align the work of their innovative calendar with this. And so they are always in our spaces, and then we go in their
spaces as well, so that we plan together. So we have three drafts for you to look at today. They are a little different than the ones that we brought to the board previously, because of some of the feedback that was provided to us, as well as some of the work of the committees and the feedback
from our surveys and just different types of feedback. So I'm just going to give you a few highlights of each, and then we'll go back to each one. So calendar A has us starting the week before Labor Day, which is a week later than Labor Day is this year. So this one is what we would call, you
know, the later start calendar. There was a lot of energy around this early on in this process this year, so I felt very strongly about including it as one of the options, because we had heard from people that, you know, just really had an interest in trying to stick to the later
start. The winter break is the 24th through the first. The spring break in all of these calendars is the same one. It is March 26th through April 2nd, and that aligns with Frederick County's spring break. And then the last day of schools for
students would be the 23rd for this one. They all have 181 days plus student transition day. But the major difference with this one is that later start. Miss. Sorry to interrupt.
June 23rd is Election day for that's this year though for the 26th right. For next. Oh this is 2027. I had that note because I remember you asked me that. Yeah. And then I went and checked to make sure our calendar wasn't. But that's important. Everyone needs to
sort of be checking those things. Right. Because then we can't open school. No. Exactly. And we'll be in trouble. No, we would be in a lot of trouble for sure. So this is be this calendar has the start that aligns more to the start of this school year, which has we
have an earlier Labor Day this year. So we start, you know, the week before. And so starting on the 24th of August for that student transition day and then ending the 15th for students in June spring break. Along those lines to Frederick,
the spring break is the same in every calendar. And the difference between this calendar and the next one that I'm going to show you is December 23rd. And this one, December 23rd, is not included in the next one. It is. And that is the only difference between those calendars. We tried to keep a lot of the
other days the same, even though sometimes the marking period days get a little bit funny for consistency. And then that way if we were not giving people too many confusing things to, you know, not to confuse too many people with things, and then calendar C is
the same as B, except we added in the 23rd. And so one of the things about this one is this calendar aligns with the number of days that we are going to be taking this year for winter break. It's that ten day versus
the 12 day discussion that we had last year. So I had been asked to sort of look at attendance for December 23rd for the past couple of years. Ironically, we haven't had school on December 23rd in the past couple of years. This year
we will. So that will see. Yeah, we will see. But in general, I did go back, I think about four years and just where it fell. It was always during or on the weekend. So I don't have that data from what the 23rd would
be. But we will have it for this current school year. And so those are the three calendars that we are bringing forward to you for discussion based on. Like I said, all of those discussions that we had
in policy management, the board meeting, the committees and the feedback. And just to kind of show you, before we begin that discussion, our internal and external committees meet basically the whole time throughout the development. Our phase one survey was just sort
of asking people about placement without looking at actual calendars, and that ran through the end of October. We had about 10,000 responses. We also have a second one open now that has the three calendars that you have in front of you
getting feedback on those and that will run. I think we come to the board on the 11th, so I'll probably run through the first week in December, and then during that time as well, we have social media campaigns and then additional engagement. And some of that is could be a phone call, it could be an
email, it could be in a space where someone says, hey, don't you do the calendar? Can I ask you a question about, you know, so it can be as informal as possible as well as more formal spaces. And so we just really want to take a minute to say thank you to everyone who gives us feedback, because it's really helpful when we look at
all of the different pieces that make up the calendar and trying to do the best we can to make it work for our whole county. Okay. And with that. I'm happy to take questions and kind of talk about this. All
right, Miss Wolff. Okay, I just have one question. I think you did a great job with trying to incorporate the comments that we had before. I was just curious about March the 9th in 2027. What why is that? Tuesday? I know you tried to make the
others on Monday so that the parents weren't interrupted. So it aligns with Eid al-Fitr. Okay, that's I thought that might be it, but I wasn't sure. So thank you for that. Yep. Okay, Miss Malone, I just want to say thank you for all the
work that you've put in. It's lovely to see. And I also wanted to get some student input with so I could formulate my own perspective on this. And I put out a poll and I got like around 2000 views on it. So for specifically December 23rd
through January 1st versus December 24th through January 1st, I got 529 votes, saying that they favored December 23rd through January 1st and 127 votes favoring December 24th through January 1st. Thank you. And I included the last date as
well, and I'll send this over to you too. I would love that. Thank you. I'd love to give them a shout out too, for sure. Wonderful. Since this, Miss Silvestre sent in a comment. Basically she is. She is
concerned about the late finish date for calendar A, but you know she can elaborate on that during our regular board meeting that you will bring this forward. All right. I don't have any questions. I want to thank you for your very
thorough work, and I look forward to the full board discussion. And and we will move this to the full board. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Miss Davis. All right.
Thank you, Miss Boddy. And let us bring to the board Doctor Norman and Miss Boone, and they will be discussing the implementation of policy. JH okay, the child abuse and
neglect policy. Please introduce yourself again. Welcome to the board to the meeting. Thank you. My name is
Norman Coleman. Thank you. My name is Norman Coleman, director of student conduct and appeals. Good afternoon. My name is Jessica Boone. I am the director and the Department of Compliance and Investigations. Good afternoon. I'm Kathy Green,
I'm the coordinator and student welfare and appeals. Thank you. You may proceed. We want to first, thank you for this opportunity to speak to you about policy jhc child Abuse and neglect for the fiscal year
2025. It was first, we acknowledge the annual update on board policy. JH c Child Abuse and Neglect establishes board expectations of, approach to and desired outcomes for child abuse neglect prevention efforts in Montgomery County Public Schools, which you'll
see noted here, or five bullet points to highlight this policy. We're emphasize being consistent with federal, state, and local law. Provide a safe, engaging, and supportive environment for all students. Use utilize village and efforts to recognize, report, and prevent abuse and neglect of
children and vulnerable adults. Collaborate efficiently and effectively with county partner agencies. Investigate reports of suspected abuse and neglect, and support children who are the subject of reports of suspected abuse and neglect. A couple other things we would like to highlight as well,
related to the policy that it aligns with the board's commitment to safety, physical, mental and emotional well-being of all students, and it also ensures that all employees understand and are held accountable to the highest ethical standards for conduct reporting and preventing child
abuse in our schools. In today's presentation, we'll give you an update on the following topics. We're going to touch on staff training. Screening of employees. Screening of volunteers and contractors, and collaboration
with county partner agencies and the community. The total number of suspected cases, outcomes of CPS reports M.C.P.S. actions based on internal follow up investigations in fiscal year 2026. Considerations. We'll
first start off by giving you an overview of staff training. This district wide mandatory compliance training included recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect that all our employees take each and every year. We want to thank the board members for completing that training by setting
yourself forward first and being a model example for what you expect of employees in M.c.p.s. We also want to recognize that this continuous improvement of modules based on multi stakeholder feedback. We we believe that feedback helps us develop a product that is
engaging, that is relevant and meaningful to the stakeholders who are engaged in that process. It's also provided feedback through cross office external partners who help us develop this project to make sure it's current and relevant. Staff
training also includes mandated reporting requirements in Maryland law for recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect. There's enhanced training on sexual harassment and workplace bullying for all district administrators, additional site specific training for school administrators, school counselors, and designated student welfare liaisons.
There's also, in addition to that training, there's coaching and consultation that happens daily between my office and this office to help school staff stay aware and updated on the current policies and expectations of the board and of M.C.P.S. There's also school
site visits that occur to to support schools and staff, to help them ensure that they're implementing the policy at the highest level of effectiveness. The next slide is going to talk about the screening of employees. We conduct multi point background checks,
including fingerprint based background checks for prospective employees. As you know, there's well over 25,000 employees in M.c.p.s who go through this process as we want to make sure we hire qualified, ethical and responsible employees who meet high expectations. Professionalism,
particularly when they're working with our students and engaging with our staff, we want to make sure that we have the highest level of professionals in our building. In addition, we want to make sure we comply with Maryland law and the Code of Maryland Education. Article six 113 dash
dot two Screener applicants child abuse and or sexual misconduct investigations and National Association of State Director of Teacher Education and Certification Clearinghouse Standards. This also does a little bit to elaborate on the
article. 6-1 13.2 this is a a process that ensures they look at ten years of an employee's interaction and employment with minors, so you have a historical understanding of their interaction in other school systems and other places of employment to ensure that we
have a background check that helps us stay in alignment with the expectations we have for employees. M.C.P.S. We also utilize the wrap back for ongoing status notifications of criminal history record information. This is a process that the FBI uses to keep a
person's fingerprints on file through their system, and it gives alerts and updates if there's any criminal changes or any matters of adjustment that we need to be aware of or noted. And the last bullet talks about require volunteers and contractors to complete the online training module,
recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect. This is something we want to ensure that we continue to move forward. So we want to welcome, welcome our volunteers and contractors into our building to be able to support and help our students and staff. The
next slide, we're going to talk about collaboration. This is this is a big component of of the work that we do between our two offices. We regularly collaborate with Montgomery County Police Department's Special Victims Investigation Division, State's Attorney's Office, Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services through a
multidisciplinary team meeting including unscheduled updates and consultations. We meet monthly every month on the third Thursday of each month. We use this as an opportunity to close gaps in communication or any cases, and just update each other on how we can best support our students and
families and staff within our school system. There's also an emergency communication center, which provides a direct line established between M.C.P.S. and MCP to provide more efficient and effective communication to best support our schools, students and
communities. The next slide here is just an overview of our screen of volunteers and contractors. You can see the data, how it has grown and improved over the course of the five year period. Here you can see most recently, 17,737
people have been screened through our volunteers and contractors process. If one thing to take note is every three years, they must review the steps for this process. The steps involved completing a volunteer form, completing an online training, and then
contacting the school to make sure you're clear and able to volunteer in a school. So an example would be if you completed it in 2223 school year, you would up be up this year for renewal for 2526. There's also different levels to the training as well. For
example, if you're just attending a large event and you're accompanied by M.C.P.S. M.C.P.S. staff, there is no training required. But if you're going to be in the school on an ongoing basis and you're accompanied by school staff, so you're like a student, teacher, teacher, intern, you're helping with lunch and
recess, you're a room parent. You will have to complete the child in a child child abuse and neglect training. And then also you would have to complete the child abuse and neglect training and fingerprints. If you're going to volunteer within a school system and have a moment where you may be unsupervised and you may be
unsupervised when you have access to students, that could be a volunteer coach or outdoor education. What happens within sixth grade? And on this next slide, we'ring to talk about the total number, total number of suspected cases
during fiscal year 2025, 3664 suspected incidents of child abuse and neglect were reported by M.C.P.S. staff, volunteers or contractors to Child Protective Services or Adult Protective Services. This is about 20 to 25% of the total files reported countywide to
CPS. And if you look at the numbers there, we look at online reports filed and paper reports filed that gives a total of 3664. There's a form of CPS form three 3544 which people can fill out with the staff member, community member.
And it's important to note, if it's an online form, it goes directly to our four partners, which would be CPS, Department of Health and Human Services. One copy goes to my office. Student conduct appeals, another copy goes to the State Attorney's office, and another copy goes to Special Victims
Investigations Division. If it's a paper copy, it's mailed to those four different areas versus electronic version, which comes directly to us in a Dropbox. And I'm going to turn it over to Miss Boone to continue. Thank you, Doctor
Coleman. Hello. So these are the outcomes from CPS reporting that come through DCI. So you may notice that the numbers are a lot higher than they were last year. That's attributed to us obtaining a new tracking system. So now every complaint
that comes in via phone email. Anywhere from the schools, they're all put into our new case tracking system so that we can more adequately track and streamline this process. We also reconcile with Doctor Coleman's office on a biweekly
basis on their CPS calls, and we reconcile daily with Department of School leadership and improvement on their memos that they send over to our office for incidents that are happening in the school base.
Yeah. Okay. So these are the actions taken through investigations. These are the outcomes that we've had for the FY 2025 school year. As you'll see where it's no action
warranted. Those were our unfounded investigations. The 265 are handled through school or office level. So that's going through the progressive discipline process at the lowest level possible. So that will be your summary of conferences, memos to the file,
reprimands that are done by direct supervisors, reprimands that come from central office would be reprimands that would come out of my office or from school. Leadership and improvement. Those were 65. So those were cases that were taken to full investigations.
And as a as a result of the investigation, they were given a reprimand from Central Office. We had four cases that received suspension without pay, and 36 employees were removed from employment. And then we have
substitutes, two received written correspondence and 23 were reprimanded from central office and two were removed from employment. And then we had three volunteers that were
removed from employment. Next slide. Thank you. So our fiscal year 2026 considerations are continued. Collaboration improvement efforts with our MDT team, which is our external
partners. We have those meetings monthly every third Thursday of the month to facilitate next level training on sexual harassment and workplace bullying. Also to implement a year long engagement plan with students on expectations including new culture and respect, and
student rights and responsibility modules this fall launch a district wide anti hate bias, bullying and harassment campaign and also provide schools with updates and resources from recent amendments from board policy,
akef, sexual misconduct and sexual harassment of students to comply with title nine, including and. Implications for sorry for investigations, and then provide enhanced training for all designated students,
welfare liaisons and school based critical staff. And then we turn it over to you for any questions. All right. Any questions, colleagues? No
questions. I really want to express appreciation for having a thorough tracking system. I think that is very helpful. And that's the level of transparency we want to have. And and, you know, for all of us to understand what's
happening and make sure every case is investigated, follow through. And and if actions needed are taken. My question is. M.C.P.S. CPS report the
teachers or school staff report cases to CPS. Okay, that's about the 20% or 25% volume that CPS gets. Do they just help us understand after we report? How do we work with CPS?
What are we entitled to know what we are not involved? How does that process work? You want to chime in? So at the end of the day, usually around like 4:00, CPS will send us their
either screenshots or screen ins. If they screen out a case, that means that they're not taking it for investigation. And they send a memo to my office letting me know this was reported from this office or this school. This was the incident, and we're screening this incident out or they'll send it. They will send us a
notification saying this was reported at this time from this school location or this office location, and we're screening it in and we're taking it for investigation. And then my office will connect with the school leaders or the office leaders in that department, whoever's the direct supervisor, to make them aware. And then we
talk through next steps, depending on if it's screened in or screened out. So it's a daily communication. One case is when when things are reported it's a same day communication. Yes I connect with CPS daily okay okay. So
Kathy Green student Welfare. So we oversee every single CPS report that comes in electronic or paper. The over 3000 and the 46 paper copies. So myself and our unit screen each report to
see if there's any follow up needed. So the reporting process is three step. It's oral. Make the oral report to CPS or to APS. Adult Protective Services. Do your online or written report and then let your supervisor know. So we also thoroughly read the
allegations to see if law enforcement needs to follow up to make sure the child is safe to go home, and if it involves a alleged staff member, then we give them the process to make sure that they notify Miss Spoon and the DCI coordinators
for next steps on what to do with the staff members. I work daily with the CPS workers as well the liaison for schools and for CPS. So if there's an issue where CPS comes into the school to remove a child for a court order removal or they
need to interview a child, I support them and schools on how to best manage the interview process to make the students comfortable and safe, so we oversee that daily as well. Thank you. Now, my last question. I just I think more
of a comment we are doing background screening right back processing. It's it's something we take as a school system and as the board. We take it very seriously and we want that to be done in a timely manner.
Done well. And I think we have shown our commitment that when there's a problem, we need to address it and address it quickly. And so thank you so much for this portion of the presentation. Let's move on.
Thank you, Doctor Coleman. Thank you, Miss Moon. Thank you, Miss Green. Joining us now at the table is Miss Andrea Sueoka, deputy chief of the Division of Facilities Maintenance. And
Miss Lynn Zarate from sustainability and compliance teams. Okay. I will turn it over to them to begin. Good afternoon, board members. I'm Andrea Sueoka, deputy chief of facility management. We are
here today for hopefully what our simple updates and happy to take any questions. Just a technical amendment to the ECA sustainability policy. So the Maryland law that required the board to originally amend the policy back in 2022 also
requires us to have current and historical data specifically on the school district's energy use, or often referred to as UI, sometimes by our square footage, and that can be seen on page. Let me get to the correct page
three as a footnote of that. And this data needs to be updated every three years, which is why we are here to you in 2025. So this is a very technical footnote in the policy. It'll outline again our energy use intensity, also
known as UI, measured in British thermal units or BTUs is another. So we are referencing the FY 24 information that is the most complete data set that we have at this time, and that has been fully validated. We are still working through the FY 25
validation. So we are proposing to include that information and update it to what was previously included, which was FY 19 through 20 data. I'm happy to answer any questions with that. Questions, colleagues. No questions. Oh,
one thing though, there is a advertisement from Miss Silvestre on December the 2nd. The Fiscal Management Committee meeting will have a written memo on an update on our sustainability work in M.c.p.s. So I guess we will see Miss
Lynn back here again for that committee meeting. All right. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. So we now request, Miss Yang that you recommend those technical amendments to policy ECA sustainability to
the full board for final action. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move it to any objection. We'll move it to the full board. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Yang. You need a motion and a second among your members for for that motion and a
second. So moved second. All in favor? Oh, do we need to vote? Yes we do. Okay. Thank you everyone. That's unanimous. All right. Next, please. Thank you.
Joining us now is Mrs. Nikki Porter, chief academic officer of the Division of Teaching and Learning. We are here today to request technical amendments to policy framework and structure of early Childhood and elementary education. The policy was substantially
redeveloped in 2007 and updated again in 2018. The technical amendments we are requesting today update references to policies referenced in policy IEA and updated by the board in years since. I can point those
out, the updates within IEA for you. So on page four, policy J was amended by the board in 2022. On page five you will see policy IO is referenced as it was amended by the board in
2024. Policy ABA on page nine was amended by the board in 2023, and policy ABC, also on page nine, was amended by the board in 2023. The additional technical amendments were
requesting is on page 11. Now, this sentence on implementation strategies in section D brings the policy into alignment with the structure of more recently enacted board policies. The Committee may recommend that the board adopt technical amendments to policies when the
proposed amendments are needed to bring the policy into alignment with more recently enacted board policies or update information. As in this draft policy, we now request that you recommend these technical amendments to policy. IEA Early Childhood and
Elementary Education to the full board for final action, and Mrs. Porter is available if there are questions. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Just a note to the staff right now on the board docs. The document
is not loading. So for the general public we we might we we need to fix that technical issue so that they can see the the changed. And we just have a comment. I think because we are
talking about early childhood elementary school education in recent years, and we have heard a lot about the issue about transition between pre-K programs to our kindergarten program in the special
education arena. And and that is not related to this policy, but we really would like to, you know, highlight that how important that transition work is and how we can do better in talking and working together to make sure these kind of
transition happen. Well, staff know what to you know what to expect, how we can help families and place the students in the right setting, you know, for for their kindergarten school year. All right. So
seeing no questions I need a motion and a second. So moved second. And all in favor of moving this to the board, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Thank you. Let's
move on to the next. Thank you both. Thank you. Thanks. Miss Yang. As you'll note in your agenda, nine regulations have been revised and published since your last committee meeting. We present those as items of information for your
review. Yeah, we don't have comments. And also we need to we need to is that one also. Is that one loading. Yeah that's good. That one's loading. Yes okay. Only one item has technical issues. So we don't
see any questions. All right. So. I'm trying to see have we finished a policy committee meeting in record time. Yeah okay okay. Do you need a motion.
This is the one that we added for, for for this year. Right. Just because how it is. So thank you everyone. And I think this concludes the Policy Management Committee's business for today. I'm anyone can move.
Do we need to move to adjourn. Okay. Someone just moved to adjourn. Let's just have it cover. Oh okay. Move to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor, raise your hand. Done. Thank you everyone. Thank you
for your work.