Notes from Board of Education Work Session, 4/26/21

 The Board of Education Work Session on Monday, April 26, 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.

Call to order – 6 p.m.

Public Forum – preregistered speakers only.

• Yolanda Coleman-Brown - twin boys at Henson and daughter at North Point.  more communication  between Stethem and home schools.  Revise who can attend North Point.  Recruit more teachers of color.  Revise Social Studies curriculum wants response from board at forum. 
• Desmond Rosier - Pres of NAACP Youth Council.  SRO's affect some negatively.  SRO's are to keep students safe.  #1 on MOU is enforce laws.  Why if #1 is to keep safe.  Didn't promote public forum enough.  Reconstruct SRO MOU.
• Dyothea Sweat - Pres NAACP support youth council and restructure of SRO MOU.  1969 right a wrong of receiving HS diplomas.  2019 Equity Tax Forces wants a seat at the table.
• Eric Valentine - LPHS student liaison work collaboratively to better serve all students.  Hard to reach SRO.  Don't know contact information.  Should be readily available to all.
• Mikal Gross - Public Defenders Office in Charkles County.  Mostly Juveniles, students of colors and disabilities.  SRO's shouldnt be inside schools, only outside.  Submitted letter with suggested changes.
• Ognwa McKenzie - Director Southern Maryland Racial Equality.  SRO program has harmed several students.  Advocate for parental community patroling.  SRO's make arrest for small infractions.  Submitting letter with additional recommendations to changes.
• Zion Officut - Freshman at Thomas Stone.  Talking from when ain MS and having suicidal thoughts.  SRO put her in handcuffs for fear of self harm.  Other studnets saw her and ridiculed.  This happened twice.
• Ryan Brown - Senior at St. Charles and student liaison.  Former SRO Cpl Mann passed away unexpectedly.  He wasnt just an officer; he was a part of our family.  SRO's build constructive relationship.

Work session

Charter school application - Superintendent Recommendation 

• Phoenix International School of the Arts. (PIOTA)
• Battle-Lockhart - how many seats reserved for Special Population?
• McGraw - Comprehensive application andcongratulations on the grant.  What would a typical day look like?
• Herd - Offered student prospective; all positive.  $900,000 in grant money already is phenomenal.
• Wilson - Page 88.  8th grade Math scores will be higher than the state average.  How?  Surrounds the total child engagement and professional development for our staff.

Motion to approve the Superintendent's Recommendation by Lukas; Second by Brown

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

Student Herd = Yes

Collaboration with Charles County delegation

• Lukas - More active role in delivering legislative issues to delegation.  Need someone watching legislation.
• Abell - We do have positions and vote on them prior to the breakfast.  We have two members on the legislation committee.
• Battle-Lockhart - Take advantage of work sessions to discuss positions before breakfast
• Hancock - Agree with Lukas.  Need to set a timeline leading up to breakfast.  Need to work together.
• Brown - Wants to meet with delegation before breakfast to discuss legislation and then showcase school system at breakfast.
• Battle-Lockhart - Attended NAACP forum.  Reason for election changes for districts and concerns of District 4 not having minority representation.
• McGraw - that should have been brought forward when questioned why.  Mr. Schwartz brings forth legislation and we do have discussion on legislation.  Likes Ms. Browns idea of having a "pre" meeting.  More frequent collaboration.
• Wilson - Liked Lukas idea of backing up the timeline.   Delegation should've come to us if they had concerns about the election of the board.  We were not included at the last breakfast.  They showed up with an agenda and pander to a small section of the community citizens.
• Hancock - being cordial and respectful we can hold up our end but it needs to be both ways.  If we a host a meeting, we need to control our meeting.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office

• Presentation
• Current MOU

Adjournment