Notes from Board of Education Community Town Hall, 10/28/19

The Board of Education Community Town Hall on Monday, October 28 will be re-broadcast on Comcast Channel 96, Verizon FIOS Channel 12 and is available via webstream at http://www.ccboe.com/ . To view the full agenda and the various reports, please visit BoardDocs .

The below notes are my personal notes and are not intended to be all-inclusive or official minutes for the Board of Education meetings and are provided as a request from my supporters and the general public in a personal effort to be more transparent. Although I have diligently tried to make these notes as unbiased and accurate as possible, I am only human and do make mistakes.  Individual names are spelled to the best of my ability.

The Future of Charles County Public Schools - Presentation

Main Policy Areas

• Provide early support and interventions for young children and their families, including free full-day prekindergarten for low income 3- and 4-year-olds.
• Support schools serving high concentrations of students living in poverty with before-and after-school and summer academic program and student access to needed health and social services, and increase support for English learner and special education students.
• Elevate the teaching profession to attract high -quality, diverse teachers and school leaders, who are compensated comparable to other fields.
• Provide benchmarked curriculum that enables most students to achieve “college - and career -ready” status by the end of 10th grade so they may pursue pathways that include early college, Advanced Placement courses and a rigorous technical education leading to industry -recognized credentials and high -paying jobs.
• Provide additional resources, supports, and services for students who need them to achieve the CCR standard, including English learners, students with disabilities, and students from low-income families with particular attention on students in schools with high concentration of poverty. 
• Adopt a strong accountability system with the authority to hold all entities accountable for implementing The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future effectively to ensure that all students are successful. 

Public Comments

1. Doug Sayers - Parent.  state balanced budget, legislative bodies, money does not solve county education issues such as discipline.  Don't increase class size.  Security and safety of our students and staff is more important.  Select one or two no to low cost recommendations before spending money.For example the path and career readiness would be a good start.avoid removing existing programs. Caution note on page 140 regarding IEP's.  Kirwan doesn't take into account inflation.
2. Amy Lang - 4H University of MD extension happy to support the county.
3. Brian Johnson - CSM experience as a student with the post 911 GI bill,  Give CSM a lot of credit and love their programs and professors..  Professor in the spring caused great concern because she repeatedly shared her own political position and ideology to the young impressionable minds,. It does not belong in public education.  Wants to know if CCPS allows this or condones it.  
• Battle-Lockhart - absolutely not
• Abell - absolutely not and we have a policy prohibiting such actions
4. Linda McLaughlin - EACC; thank you.  Questions on how CCPS is planning on expanding the CTE programs
• Dr. Hill - exposure to technical schools in middle school; field trips etc.  
• Hollstein - CASE program at McDonough High School (environmental science/agriculture); expanding cyber-security programs and offerings as well as healthcare.  Expanding apprenticeship programs.
5. Maureen Mears - Parent of McDonough student in the CASE program.    Kirwan recommendations are good.  more CTE.  CASE is new to CCPS but not to the state.  MSDE offers 53 courses statewide so continue to add.  exams need to be accessible to students with disabilities.  CTE offerings should be equal at each school.  Cooperation/collaboration at all schools. Reading and literacy.  Move away from the "wait to fail" option and move towards preventative. 
6. Robin Cooper - what is the boards position on initiating uniforms system wide and provide vouchers to the families that cannot afford.  Believes uniforms would help with discipline.
• Dr. Hill - Discipline review committee discussed uniforms and dress code at length.  No to uniforms but alterations were made to dress code. 
7. Robert Sondheimer - supports lower class sizes.  not a fan of common core but we should concentrate more on the basics in elementary schools.  For example multiplication facts, spelling and grammar.  students are coming to school with a lot of excess baggage (emotional) need more counselors in schools.
8. Brian Johnson - was able to mento a young neighborhood man who graduated this year.  He's doing well now.  Some students dont have the  parents with parenting knowledge.  Do schools now a days of courses like bachelor cooking, how to shake a hand, be a man etc.  we should add back in.
9. Lisa Ambers - Owns a non-profit (Beyond the Classroom) and recipient of "Be The Difference Award" working with several schools in the community.  Offer financial literacy, social skills, bullying, etiquette, etc.  Funding is an issue but would love to do more.  Applying for more grants.  Does the school have funding to help non-profit partners?  Would love to be a resource to help push information out to the community.  
10. Darrell Gray - Learned a lot today.  Keep up community forums.  thank you
11. Jocelyn Chaplin - two sons in high school.  .  Concerned with writing skills.  Noe enough focus on it or grammatical.  Need to work with students more so they can write an essay/letter, etc by the time they graduate.  
12. Dr. Drakeford and Alicia Walden - has a foundation (Eagle Life Learning) that focuses on the needs of African American and Latino males.  Helps them to be aware of how they learn and to advocate fgor themselves working on their strengths and not deficits.