Notes from Board of Education Meeting, 12/14/21

The Board of Education Meeting on Tuesday, December 14, 2021 was streamed live on ccboe.com and aired live on Comcast Channel 96 and Verizon FiOs Channel 12.  The meeting 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.

Executive session – 11 a.m.

Call to order – 1 p.m.  

• Special recognition

Superintendent’s update - Report

Board Member correspondence

• Lukas - Blueprint Subcommittee; MABE Legislative Committee; Winter Sports Attendance; McDonough It's Academic Achievement; MACO Conference panel member in Cambridge; Help those less fortunate
• Abell - MABE budget committee - budget approved with a 4.5% increase in dues.  I was a dissenting vote.  The committee has requested a breakdown of the salaries for the past 3 years and still has not received it.  Without this information, I cannot approve of the budget. Bueprint Subcommittee Area 4 for Resources, looking for outside the box ideas and needs.
• Herd - Secondary school visits; State Supt Board Member tour Charles County; All County Chorus; Its Academic McDonough Victory
• Brown - Dr. Brown visit; JP Ryon visit African American program for black males, please volunteer.
• Battle-Lockhart - CTE Advisory Council; Chorus Concert
• Hancock - Teachers overworked; be kind; students think twice before making false statements and alarms.  Parents get tough on student behavior.
• McGraw - MABE panel for state regarding mask mandates; Educational Equity Committee handbook almost done; All County Chorus; It's Academic!  McDonough congratulations.
• Wilson - More information coming on Blueprint; MABE Board Service Academy; numerous sporting events; JP Ryon African American male program.

Education Association of Charles County (EACC) update - Report

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) update

Expanding access to advanced coursework in high schools (equal opportunity schools) update

• Report
• Herd - leveraging role models is key
• Abell - Could enrollment be down due to COVID?  How does our enrollment numbers compare to surrounding counties, state and national?  Are all decreasing?  Have college waiver numbers gone down during the same time period?  Concern about pushing enrollment to students that may not be at the level and therefore slowing down the curriculum for others in the class.  Lowndes - will get me the data requested.
• Lukas - Are we identifying kids in the elementary school for accelerated programs?
• Battle-Lockhart - Barriers currently in Charlotte?  Need adult encouragement.

Virtual program and other learning options for school year 2022-2023

• Report
• Lukas - I like what i see.
• Hancock - Expand virtual academy next year, criteria?  Lowndes - attendance
• McGraw - COVID opened the door to expand our virtual options.

Project status update

• Report
• 75% projected funding received from IAC and we expect to receive $6.9M for CIP out of request of $46M.  Down significantly from previous years.  An additional $1.7M from another fund.  

Bus stop camera enforcement program update

• Report
• Abell - March 2019 the board agreed to move forward with Vera Mobility.  Now we are with Bus Patrol.  2018 Bus Patrol in MCPS was under internal audit for missing citation fees, CEO pled guilty to fraud, IG report in 2019 indicated scheme and fraud.  July 2020, Baltimore rejected the contract after reading the IG report on the scheme at MCPS.  Contract is with CCSO and MOU with CCPS.  60% of fees go to Bus Patrol and 40% goes to county.
• McGraw - 471 warning citations in 15 days; camera ticket will be $250 whereas if an officer pulls you over, it's $500.

Unfinished business - None

New business - None

Future agenda items

• Lukas - Policy 2000 & 7000 is ready to come before the board in January
• Hancock - Mask mandate, statistics and metrics needed to move away from masks?
• Wilson - Fights and disruption in the classroom

Recognition – 4:30 p.m.

• Students
• Martin Spinner, Grade 12, Academic Achievement, North Point High School, Principal: Daniel Kaple
• Demitri Hicks, Grade 8, Academic Achievement, Mattawoman Middle School, Principal: Sonia Blue
• Jace Williams, Grade 5, Personal Responsibility, Walter J. Mitchell Elementary School, Principal: Nicholas Adam
• Lewis Benton, Grade 5, Career Readiness, Mary B. Neal Elementary School, Principal: Deborah Brown
• Staff
• Sherry Mistry, instructional assistant, North Point
• Mildred Alexander-Moses, pupil personal worker, Matthew Henson Middle School
• Joseph Evans, science teacher, Mattawoman
• Logan Berchtold, counselor, Mitchell
• Beverly Gaskins, special education instructional assistant, Neal

Public forum – 6 p.m. - Preregistered speakers only

• Melissa Carpenter - Teacher CCPS; 1 of 20 schools surveyed has been fully staffed since the start of this school year.  Special Ed IA's are leaving.  Special Ed teachers are overwhelmed. Resignations are astronomical.  Staff burning out.  Start a conversation with teachers not about us.
• Josh Torres - Teacher at John Hanson.  Asked for the boards transparency on COVID protocol on masks and vaccine mandates.  State and Federal inconsistencies in protocols.  What happens when data is manipulated to push a political agenda?  How many teen suicides to pandemic?  How many deaths due to flu?  Omicron is not the big bad wolf, most doctors acknowledge that Omicron is not as bad as the Delta variant.  Hogan says just wear the damn mask and get the damn vaccine.  Is he going to come into my class and ensure everyone is abiding by the rules.  Our constitutional rights are being violated.

Action items

• Minutes

Motion to approve the 11/2/21 executive session minutes by McGraw; second by Abell

Yes = Abell, Battle-Lockhart, Brown, Hancock, Lukas, McGraw, Wilson

Motion to approve the 11/9/21 executive session minutes by Abell; second by Brown

Yes = Abell, Battle-Lockhart, Brown, Hancock, Lukas, McGraw, Wilson

Motion to approve 11/9/21 regular meeting minutes by Abell; second by Brown

Yes = Abell, Brown, Hancock, Herd, Lukas, McGraw, Wilson; Abstain = Battle-Lockhart

Motion to approve the 11/22/21 work session minutes by Brown; second by Hancock

Yes = Battle-Lockhart, Brown,  Hancock, Herd, Lukas, McGraw, Wilson; Abstain = Abell

• Personnel 

Motion to approve Personnel by Lukas; second by McGraw

Yes = Abell, Battle-Lockhart, Brown, Hancock, Lukas, McGraw, Wilson

Adjournment