Board of Education Meeting, April 28, 2022

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4EcH7ow7qI

After the meeting opening, board prayer, and pledge of allegiance, the roll is taken. Murray and Thomas are absent.

The April 7 work session minutes are approved unanimously.

The news break is titled “The Magic of Reading” and focuses on a book vending machine sponsored by Geico that was installed at Bladensburg Elementary School and the “book fairy” teacher whose students have enjoyed the offerings.

The board then presents its “unsung hero” award to Delores Millhouse, a parent of two PGCPS students and staunch advocate for the county’s language immersion programs. She is in the audience that evening with her two children as they were also registered to speak during public comment and is surprised by this award.

Chair Miller congratulates two PGCPS finalists in the Washington Post teacher and principal of the year awards. They are music teacher Thomas Pierre from Thomas Pullen and Dr. Wanda Williams, principal of Oxon Hill Elementary School. The board has invited them to the meeting for public acknowledgement.

Next, Chair Miller introduces the newest appointed board member, Dr. Zipporah Miller, who is now filling the seat vacated by Raaheelah Ahmed. Z. Miller began her career as a science teacher in PGCPS and went on to serve in other leadership roles in PGCPS and in other education organizations. She is now the Director for Organizational Learning in the Anne Arundel County School system.

Chair Miller makes announcements regarding upcoming meetings, noting the May 25 meeting has been cancelled due to competing priorities for the administration during graduation season. She then turns to Adams-Stafford and Mickens-Murray to discuss the application process for Ethics Panel volunteers since the entire panel resigned on April 15. Adams-Stafford explains the announcement that applications will be open is going to be advertised this week. Applicants will be asked to submit a letter of interest and resume, which will be due no later than Tuesday, May 10 at 5 pm.

Dr. Goldson then presents her report, congratulating the two Washington Post finalists and the newest Maryland Green Schools. Five of the 16 new Green Schools are in this county. Twenty-six county schools were recertified. PGCPS has the largest number of Green Schools in the state at 135 or 65 percent. In other good news, the Crossland culinary arts school  students participated in the NASA challenge preparing food for space over spring break. They landed in the top 10 teams nationwide. The event took place at Kennedy Space Center. Crossland alumni donated money to finance the trip for the students. Finally pre-K and K registration is open.

Mickens-Murray presents the report of the Policy and Governance Committee. She also presents the Policy and Governance Committee recommendations regarding development of new and revised policies. Finally the end of session legislative update is presented. All documents are on BoardDocs.

Chair Miller then discusses Item 2.14, which is an update on board office restructuring. She explains that the Board discussed a restructuring of the board office at a closed session meeting on March 10. Since there was a question if that should have been done in the public, and out of an abundance of caution, it was added to the agenda as a public item and for a vote. In closed session, the proposal passed with one nay and one abstention. The motion is to move the day-to-day operations of the board office under the administration. Williams makes a motion and Mickens-Murray seconds. Adams-Stafford thanks board leadership for moving this item to the public. She argues this proposal is an anomaly in the state. She has not found another BOE whose office staff are under the oversight of the school system. If the board’s primary responsibility is to provide oversight this move undermines that mission. Further, she reads from an opinion in another case that did not find good reason to move a board to under the supervision of the school system administration.

Mickens-Murray believes that board staff having to report to fourteen people is not sustainable. They need just one supervisor with a clear reporting structure. The current structure puts the employees at risk. Chair Miller recognizes Thomas, surprised that he has requested to speak since he was not in attendance earlier. Thomas finds Miller’s acknowledgement inappropriate but goes on to state that board leadership is supposed to lead staff, in accordance with policy. The board has had so many challenges because of board leadership, citing instances when he tried to call special meetings and board leadership directed staff to not post meeting documents on BoardDocs or deleted information from BoardDocs. There is no trust that board leadership will act with fidelity. Although he supported this proposal in closed session, he will vote no upon further reflection.

Mickens-Murray responds that she can’t find policy or law that gives the board authority over staff.

Thomas responds that he was not done with his remarks when the chair recognizes Williams and states he is trying to maintain professionalism but he thinks it was inappropriate and disrespectful how the chair recognized him to speak. He has parents and family who watch the meetings. He just wants her to think about she would feel if someone spoke to her like that on the dais. He would like an apology but it’s “not really that deep” but it’s just frustrating you choose to acknowledge members in that manner.

Williams explains the board was “haphazardly” reorganized in December 2020 and as a result several at-will employees were terminated. At this time, they only have 1/3 of the staff left in the office. She further explains the duties of the staff and board office. In her opinion, board staff should be protected.

Murray has also arrived at some point and says that this idea does not make sense. He does not know of any other board office organized like this proposal. It would be like the county council turning over its staff to the county executive. Murray asks Nussbaum, the board attorney, if there is anything that precludes the board from having its own staff. Nussbaum replies they could do it either way. Murray continues he will vote no; there is no point in having a board if there is no board staff.

Adams-Stafford states the solution to the constraints on current board staff would be to hire a chief of staff. Why did board leadership not draft a hiring policy or add it to our handbook? This is a haphazard reorganization, which is why we are having it in the public now. She points out the current duties being advertised don’t fulfill the duties Williams just listed.

Valentine is recognized next and states he is not going to rehash how we got here, but his concern is potential disruption to existing staff who have gone above and beyond during these times.

Goldson replies that as she understands it, the board really wanted staff covered by a union. Current staff will have to apply for jobs because none of their positions are on any union pay scale. The administration has met with staff individually to walk them through the process. Some staff may choose to take positions in other areas of PGCPS and they will honor that request. The restructured positions will have comparable pay scales.

Adams-Stafford attempts to ask a question of legal counsel, but the chair states there are only two rounds and she has already gone twice.

The vote is taken to move the board office and day-to-day operations to the administration.

No: Adams-Stafford, Murray, Thomas

Abstain: Harris

Yes: Boozer-Strother, Lasalle Frazier, Mickens-Murray, Z. Miller, Valentine, Williams, J. Miller

Motion passes.

 

Public comment is next. Most are speaking in support of the Climate Change Action Plan.

The board then passes items 4.1 through 4.5, which are proclamations for various weeks in May as well as National Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. Item 4.6 is taken separately with Boozer-Strother and Ceron-Ruiz presenting the proclamation for the Observation of Pride Month in June.

 

The budget consent agenda items are next, with some discussion around the approval of Item 5.3: document control services for Capital Programs. The vendor has been scanning blueprints, drawings, and other construction documents for Capital Programs, which are stored on the cloud and searchable. The supervisor of Capital Programs explains this is for a 1-year continuation of their services: scanning, archiving, and maintaining the cloud. Adams-Stafford asks if this will be an annual fee, which is affirmatively answered. She would like to know if this will be turned over at some point to the school system. The supervisor responds that the Capital Programs office does not have the staff and equipment to do the work themselves. Chair Miller calls for the vote, and Adams-Stafford asks if it is too late to pull an item out from the budget consent, and it is determined that it is. As a result, Murray, Thomas, and Adams-Stafford abstain from voting, and the other members vote yes.

 

The items under governance (second reader/unfinished business) all pass. Highlights include Boozer-Strother introducing the Climate Change Action Plan Work Group Priority Recommendations (available on BoardDocs), the result of over a year of work with a diverse group of stakeholders that included students, parents, PGCPS staff, climate experts, and others. Board member Harris will be a leader in the next phase, which is adoption of the recommendations. Boozer-Strother also acknowledges the work of the steering committee and what a pleasure it has been to work with them. Adoption of the plan passes unanimously.

Some discussion also occurs around naming the new Adelphi Area MS to Adelphi MS (the new southern K-8 school will be named for Colin Powell), with Lasalle Frazier asking that in the future Latino leaders be considered for possible names. Goldson explains the process that occurred, which involved a community survey and voting on a list of names with Adelphi MS garnering the most votes. Boozer-Strother notes there is an opportunity to recognize community members in other ways, such as naming the media center after someone.

The new business includes a revised draft policy 5143: bullying, harassment, or intimidation, which passes unanimously.

Actions taken in executive session are confirmed

The meeting adjourns.