BOE

PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES FOR THE 2024 SESSION

PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES FOR THE 2024 SESSION

  1. Blueprint – Adequate Funding
  2. Blueprint – Phased Implementation
  3. Recruitment & Retention
  4. Transportation – Adequate Funding
  5. Lagging Per Pupil Indicators
  6. Capital Funding – Local Match
  7. Mitigating Development Impact
  8. Universal Student Meals
  9. Menstrual Hygiene Product Funding
  10. School Calendar Flexibility
  11. Board of Education Elections Study
  12. Board of Education Salaries
2024-Legislative-Priorities-for-Delegation-Mtg-FINALDownload

Ranked–Choice Voting for Howard County – Board of Education Elections –

Howard County – Board of Education Elections – Ranked–Choice Voting

Here is the bill:

HoCo16.23Download

Primer of Ranked Choice Voting

Our team created a four-page PowerPoint slides to explain ranked choice voting.

HoCo-BOE_-Ranked-Choice-VotingDownload

Here is an article by Frank Hecker which talks about RCV.

A better way to elect the Howard County Board of Education – FrankHecker.com

Chao Wu BOE Farewell Speech

Chao Wu BOE Farewell Speech

Thursday, 2022-11-17

It has been my great honor and pleasure to serve on the Howard County Board of Education since 2018. I enjoyed the past four years’ experience, along with my colleagues on the board, the superintendent and school staff, working together for our students, teachers, staff and parents. 

First and foremost, I would like to thank my family, my wife, my daughter, and my son. They have shouldered the burdens because of my public service. It is indeed very challenging to serve on BOE while having another professional job with two young children. 

I would like to thank many community members for your support along the way, and for your continued support to the future. 

We  have achieved a lot during the last four years:

  1. eliminated more than 50 million dollars’ health fund deficit,
  2. Keep fighting for better APFO and revealed problems in the currently used, decade-long allocation formula, and proposed a new formula,
  3. Finished redistricting twice and helped relieve school overcrowding,
  4. constructed and renovated three schools and purchased and negotiated two new school sites
  5. supported and upheld school safety, and maintained safe operations,
  6. reoriented greater support for reading proficiency, dyslexia intervention, and continuous support for special education,
  7. expanded high school career academy to more than 20 programs,
  8. improved high school graduation rate to 94% in 2021, which exceeds the Maryland average of 87% and the highest rate since 2011,
  9. Working on a concrete plan to start high school later in 2023,
  10. reformed board operations to be more efficient and effective,
  11. listened to students, teachers, parents and communities, and appreciated their inputs all the time.

There are some other issues that I wanted to address and have not finished them:

  1. Improve the lunch time for our students and add more recess time. I don’t think 10:30 am is a good time for lunch. I believe more recess time will improve the learning efficiency and student mental health.
  2. Address staff shortage and diversify staff and leadership team.
  3. Improve reading proficiency.
  4. Find innovative ways to serve special education, through collaboration with other school systems and stakeholders. 
  5. Have a robust remote learning channel for students who are in need.

I hope the next board will work together, keep an open mind, find solutions for the most general populations and tailored solutions for specificity, and be practical and visionary. 

What lies in front of us is full of challenges and opportunities. Through collaboration and teamwork, I believe HCPSS will continue the path to provide quality education to all students. 

I wholeheartedly thank the voters for your trust and for giving me the opportunity to serve you. 

Thank you. 谢谢。

2022-9-22 BOE board meeting recap

SMOB report

Superintendent report

  • appointment: Judith Jones, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Jennifer Hlavka, Coordinator of National Board Certification and Teacher Career Pathways, Dee Lake, Coordinator of Assessment.
  • update on the e-ticket GoVan system.
  • filled 99% certified positions.
  • working on improving hiring process.

HECA presentation

CAC report

Administrative Agenda:

  • Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Completion Plan
  • OBRC
  • Naming of High School #13 Charter
  • Policy 8020- Grading and Reporting: Middle & High School
    • “Beginning with students who were in grade 9 in school year 2021 – 2022, to be promoted to grade 12, students must have at least fourteen credits including two English credits and two mathematics credits, have successfully passed Health I and Lifetime Fitness, and have three years of high school attendance.”

*Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2024 Capital Budget & FY 2025-2029 Capital Improvement Program

2022-09-08 BOE board meeting recap

SMOB report

Superintendent Report

  • Promotion: Brian Wallace, David Klotz, Allison McCoy, Emma Bullock
  • Updating Sporting Event Security Protocols
  • Updating Electronic Ticketing
  • School Meals Program & Salad Bars
  • Bright Minds Foundation Staff & Teacher Grants

Appointment

HCEA

Administrative Agenda

  1. Proclamation: National Hispanic Heritage Month
  2. Board of Education Legislative Program
  3. Virtual Instructional Day Plan 
    1. Synchronous instruction on each virtual day will be a minimum of four hours
    2. No more than a total of eight virtual days of which three may be asynchronous can be used
    3. Attendance will be taken for all students and teachers during the virtual day
    4. Virtual days will not negatively impact a student’s grade; meaningful opportunities are provided for students to make up work outside of virtual learning
    5. No employee’s pay will be negatively impacted due to a virtual day decision
  4. Reading Opens Doors, Inc. Charter School Application Evaluation

Policy

Policy 10020 Use of Schools Facilities

*Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2024 Capital Budget & FY 2025-2029 Capital Improvement Program
09-08-22-Capital-Budget-BOE-FY-2024-Capital-Budget-Super-Prop-PPDownload

Clarksville Youth Care Group (Arthur Wang, Amanda Wang and Wendy Gu) with HCPSS superintendent Dr. Martirano and myself after they delivered self-care kits to the central office.

BOE meeting recap 2022-5-26

Public forum

bring police back to school, tighten covid response, transportation policy

Superintendent Report

  1. Condolence to Texas School shooting victims
  2. Protests around our schools recently
  3. Centennial High School earned top honors at the 15th regional U.S. Chinese-Bridge Proficiency Competition for High School Students of Non-Native Speakers. Thanks to Ms. Hui Liang
  4. Wilde Lake High School Spanish Teacher Maria Romano-Sweitzer and her students in Wilde Lake’s Spanish Honor Society won the 2022 Chapter Activity of the Year Award from the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese’s National Spanish Honor Society Region II Director.
  5. Beginning in July, students and families must complete a free and reduced-priced meals application form to receive meals at a reduced price or for free.
  6. The COVID positivity rate in Howard County continues to increase and it is in the high community transmission level according to the CDC.
    1. One, when a school or cohort has an outbreak, all students, visitors at the outbreak school will be strongly encouraged to remain masked at all times while indoors, except when eating or drinking. Students who are directly impacted by the outbreak will be required to mask for 10 days. Masks will be available at school for anybody who needs one.
    2. Two, we will encourage increased testing for all individuals who are part of an outbreak or who have been identified as a close contact.
    3. Effective immediately, any student or staff member who is identified as a close contact in an outbreak setting and is asymptomatic should be tested on day 1 after they are identified as a close contact, again on day three, and then again on day five. As long as all tests are negative, the individual may continue to attend school and participate in extracurricular activities –including high school graduations and other end-of-year celebrations.
    4. Last week, the CDC expanded eligibility for boosters to include children ages 5 to 11.
  7. Graduation season is coming.
  8. discussed the importance of inclusion. A new LGBTQIA+ liaison position and work done by CARY.

Annual Sportsmanship Award

  • Present the 2022 Sportsmanship Cup Trophy to Hammond High School. Principal John DiPaula and Athletics Activities Manager Michael Lerner will accept the award for Hammond High School. Acknowledge Long Reach High School for first runner-up and Oakland Mills High School for second runner-up.

Music Educator of the Year Award

  • Winner: Mr. Joseph Fisher of Mount Hebron High School. Runup: Angela Pope from Thomas Viaduct MS

Policy 5200 Student Transportation 

05-26-2022-Policy-5200-Student-Transportation-PowerPointDownload

North Columbia Fire Station Location Land Request

  • Approved with amendment

School Resource Officer Program MOU

Approved.

05-26-2022-School-Resource-Officers-SRO-MOU-PowerPointDownload

Recommendations for Final Exams and Midterms

05-26-2022-BOE-Report-Recommendations-for-Final-Exams-and-Midterms-PowerPointDownload

Board meeting recap 2022-4-28

Public forum:

  • topics: SRO, student safety, special education

Reservoir High School Report

SMOB report

  • student leader meeting with the board ( three students from each school, ARL and Homewood)

Superintendent Report

  • Howard High is a new green school.
  • HCPSS is increasing mental health support for our students.
  • Covid data: uptick cases in schools, HoCo county and Maryland. Keep the current school operating practice.
  • Stabbing incident at Long Reach High School. Schools went into lockdown and modified lockdowns.

HCEA Appointment

HCASA(Association of Supervisors and Administrators)

Proclamation: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 

Proclamation: Mental Health Awareness Month

HCPSS is going to implement multi-factor authentication very soon as the board just approved the MFA purchase order.

HCPSS Discipline Data (school suspension)

04-28-2022-Disproportionate-Discipline-Data-Board-PresentationDownload

FY 2023 Operating and Capital Budgets & FY 2024-28 Capital Improvement Program 

04-28-22-Board-Memo-FY23-Budget-Adoption-ScenariosDownload

For scenario 2, we assume the county will give us extra money by keeping(not decreasing) the HCPSS spending percentage(51%) in the total county spending, which is 14.5 million dollars. This now falls to the county council’s hand.

Board meeting recap 2022-3-24

Public forum:

Musgrove Farm HOA shared septic cost

Report:

Glenelg High School:

Two candidates for SMOB election: Oliver Song and Abisola Ayoola from Wilde Lake High School

Superintendent Report:

  • For Unvaccinated Staff and Volunteers, they will no longer be required to provide proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing. •Additionally, we announced that school visitors and volunteers will no longer be required to provide proof of vaccination before entering the school building.
  • The quarantine policy keeps the same.

Dr. Martirano will provide guidance on how to reduce screen time shortly.

Howard County Association of Supervisors and Administrators (HCASA)

3_24_22-HCASA-Board-Appt.-Download

Portable class room update

Approve the recommendations for installation of relocatable units for the school year 2022–2023. In total, there are 212 units, 255 class room spaces and 7650 seats for the portables.

Blueprint Local Flexibility – Low Performing Schools 

  • The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future requires the annual identification of schools with low performance to initiate $7,000 incentive pay for Nationally Board Certified (NBC) teachers at those schools. Schools selected would be designated as low performing for the 2022-2023 school year.
  • Elementary School: Cradlerock, Swansfield, Middle School: Harper’s Choice, Lake Elkhorn, Oakland Mills, Wild Lake, High School: Oakland Mils, and Homewood Center.

School Start Times Format/Template (Brian Nevin; Tom Platt, Decision Support Group LLC) – REPORT

03-24-2022-School-Start-Times-Decision-Briefing-BRDownload

Proposed Instructional Materials and Review Schedule

03-24-2022-Proposed-Instructional-Materials-and-Review-Schedule-BRDownload

Result from 2022 internal audit of COVID-19 relief fund’s usage

With such a big chunk of new money coming into the school system and to be used in a fixed time frame, we want to make sure HCPSS is using the money correctly. So we had an internal audit.

Summary: HCPSS has clearly defined planning and budgeting, accounting and reporting, and auditing processes for the use of relief funds. HCPSS recognizes the risk on operations when relief funds expire and is planning to use them in a manner which reduces or eliminates the risk to the extent practicable.

COVID-19-Relief-Funds-Letter29979Download

Board meeting recap 2022-3-10

Public forum:

  • home and hospital program

Student Representative Report: Centennial High School

Superintendent Report:

  • Promotion of Tammy Jones to principal, Lime Kiln Middle School
  • Covid update: none of the metrics the health department has been regularly tracking to inform COVID‐related decisions are in the red or danger zone.
  • Tents will come back to all elementary schools
  • Field trips: overnight and school‐to‐school field trips may now resume. One factor that may still result in a denial of an overnight field trip is if it is to an area of the country that has been identified as a COVID “hot spot”.
  • Student‐Athlete Vaccination and Testing: we are discontinuing the weekly testing requirement for student‐athletes who have not confirmed their vaccination status.
  • End of Year activities: Schools are planning in‐person end‐of year activities this spring. This includes celebration and promotional opportunities. Additionally, proms and graduations will be occurring in‐person

Appointment

  • Howard County Education Association

Incentive Pay Discussion for NBC teachers at Low Performing Schools

  • The board discussed $7,000 incentive pay for Nationally Board Certified (NBC) teachers at low performing schools, following Blueprint for Maryland legislation. The eight schools are: Cradlerock ES, Swansfield ES, Harper’s Choice MS, Lake Elkhorn MS, Oakland Mills MS, Wilde Lake MS, Oakland Mills HS, Homewood.

Portable Classroom Discussion

  • The board discussed portables for Bollman Bridge ES, West Friendship ES, Folly Quarter MS, Mount View MS . In total there are 212 units, 255 class room spaces, 7650 seats in HCPSS. The motion failed. We will have discussions in the next board meeting.

Policy Discussion:

  • Approved: Policy 6080 Sustainability
  • Approved: Policy 9400 Student Behavior Intervention
  • Approved: Policy 1060 Bullying, Cyberbulling, Harassment, or Intimidation
  • Approved: Policy 4070 Fund Balance
  • Report: Policy 1050 Tobacco-Free Environment
  • Report: Policy 9230 Alcohol, Other Drugs, Prescription Medication and Over the Counter Products 

Board meeting recap 2022-2-24

Board meeting recap 2022-2-24

Public Forum:

topics: Musgrove Farm share septic fee structure, cameras in self-contained classrooms, masking, political indoctrination

Administrative Appointment/Promotion 

Student Representative Report: Mt. Hebron High School.

We are excellence, We are community, We are Hebron

Superintendent Report:

  • Howard County Public School System Class of 2021 achieved a graduation rate of 94.1 percent, which exceeds the Maryland average of 87.2 percent, and is up from 93.4 percent in 2020
  • The rates for students with Limited English Proficiency increased by 18.98 percentage points from 47.22 percent for the Class of 2019 to 66.21 percent for the Class of 2021.
  • The rates for African American, and Hispanic and Latino/Latina students, increased by 1.97 and 5.92 percentage points, respectively, from the Class of 2019 to the Class of 2021.
  • The rates for students receiving Free and Reduced Meals increased by 4.57 percentage points, from the Class of 2019 to the Class of 2021
  • And, Asian American, white, and students who identified as two or more races achieved graduation rates of 95 percent
  • As of yesterday, February 23rd, the positivity rate in Howard County was 3.32 percent and the 7-day average was 10.92 and continues to drop.
  • Also as of yesterday, our seven-day total of positive COVID cases among students was 62 and 17 among staff, and we had 112 students and 29 staff members in quarantine as of Tuesday, February 22nd. At the recent high point for the virus, our seven-day total of positive COVID cases among students was 945 and 108 among staff, and we had 6,142 students and 241 staff members in quarantine. We currently have 6 active outbreaks.
  • Mask mandate may be changed to “optional” if the Maryland General Assembly’s Administrative, Executive & Legislative Review committee votes to rescind the mask mandate tomorrow.

The board voted to make mask “optional” starting Tuesday, March 1st, 2022

English Language Arts Strategic Plan

02-24-2022-English-Language-Arts-Strategic-Plan-PowerPointDownload
Picture of the Day, HCPSS Kindergarten Art Work

BOE meeting recap 2022-1-13

BOE meeting recap 2022-1-13

Public forum:

  • topics include: environmental literacy, mask breaks, concerning about covid-19

Student Representative:

  • Homewood

Student Board Member (Peter Banyas) Report:

  • talked about the student townhall on covid, board virtual coffee hour, HCASC virtual general assembly.

Superintendent report:

  • promotions and transfers
  • Student Board Member Peter won the United States Senate forum in DC.
  • 25% salary increase for substitute teachers

Howard County Educator Association (HCEA) presentation

  • presentation from Prof. Meagan Fitzpatrick
HCPSS_BoE_FitzpatrickDownload

Policy

  • Policy 1025 Title IX Sexual Harassment, Report
  • Policy 2010 Student Representation, approved
  • Policy 4100 Investment, approved
  • Policy 4070 Fund Balance, deferred
  • Policy 9090 Wellness through Nutrition and Physical Activity, approved.

Public Forum Evening

topics included: reading strategic plan, covid-19 mitigation strategies and loss

Administrative Agenda

  • Bids and contracts
  • Class Size Report
  • School Start Times
  • Operating Budget Review Committee
01-13-2022-Class-Size-PowerPointDownload
  • 2022-2024 Proposed Academic Calendar

I am attaching some student’s art work hanging in the BOE central office.

HCPSS Seeks Members for Instructional Technology and Library Media Advisory Board, by Dec. 21, 2021

HCPSS Seeks Members for Instructional Technology and Library Media Advisory Board, by Dec. 21, 2021

Apply by Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021

HCPSS is currently seeking Howard County parents/guardians, community members and staff interested in joining the Instructional Technology and Library Media Advisory Board. Committee members share their expertise and exchange ideas to advise, support, and advocate for the continuous improvement of the instructional technology and library media program and support students in becoming college and career-ready.

The advisory board supports HCPSS staff in:

  • Establishing short and long range goals for services, resources, and technology integration
  • Maintaining a current collection policy/collection development plan
  • Implementing special program activities and celebrations
  • Advocating for the instructional technology and library media program by encouraging community support and funding

The committee will meet periodically during the school year, with the first meeting on Friday, Jan. 7 from 7:30-9 a.m., which will be held virtually. Future meeting dates will be determined at the Jan. 7 meeting.

Interested participants are asked to submit a statement of interest by Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021.

For more information, please contact the Office of Instructional Technology and Library Media at 410-313-7141 or email Melissa_Daggett@hcpss.org or Julie_Wray@hcpss.org.