Anne Arundel County Board of Education Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) met June 4.
Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:
Meeting was called to order by Chair Melonie Teichert at 7:07 pm, a quorum being present.
Approval of April 2018 Meeting Minutes:
Motion to approve April minutes made and seconded. Motion adopted.
Board of Education Update with Patricia Nalley, Board Member:
▪ Her seat was extended her seat for a year and a half due to elections, so she will be the longest serving school board member. Since she was also principal and teacher, she has served over 45 years in the county.
▪ Population has expanded and become increasingly diverse, and they saw the need to advocate for additional staffing. The county cannot add students without increasing infrastructure as well as counselors. Looking forward to seeing what County Council does on June 14.
▪ Very pleased the County Executive added funding for 3 elementary schools and Annapolis Middle School. The Board has a good relationship with the County Executive, and he listens to the Board, but he listens more to the public and citizens.
▪ The nationwide search for Dr. Arlotto’s position was important, especially community input. The Board stands by the Superintendent.
▪ Graduations are extremely successful. There are 2-3 Board members at every graduation. She has already attended 2 and has 3 more to go.
Policy Committee Update:
▪ Emergency evacuation plans are currently being evaluated.
▪ They are reviewing how to award high school courses taken by middle school students.
▪ Representative duties were discussed:
❖ Attend monthly meetings on the second Wednesday at 1pm in the afternoon.
❖ The schedule is sent out ahead of time via email with an attachment on what will be covered with track changes mode.
❖ There was discussion about nominating someone at the June meeting, but tabled so all incoming CAC members would have a chance to serve, even if in their first year.
Update on CAC initiatives/business:
▪ There is currently a 3-year CAC member term, with a 2-term limit.
▪ Big additions this year were creating the CAC Facebook page and introducing cluster emails. Thank you to Brandon Gulley for his work on these projects.
▪ Melonie thanked everyone for their service, with special appreciation to Secretary Greg Novak for his phenomenal minutes and Vice-chair Kelly Purnell as her sounding board.
▪ Each cluster’s turnover plan was discussed regarding which representatives were staying or leaving.
▪ Homeschooling representation was raised, since 8,000 students in the county are homeschooled. Since the CAC deals more with curriculum, it might not be the best fit. The Equity Committee addressed the question of groups that do not have PTAs for representation in their report.
2018-19 Officer Elections:
The following slate was presented for consideration:
Brandon Gulley, Chair (Broadneck)
Kelly Purnell, Vice-chair (South River)
Holly Slack, Secretary (Severna Park)
Motion to approve the slate made by James Knipple and seconded by Bill Atkinson. Motion adopted.
Committee Reports:
CAC Report presented to Board of Education at 6 Jun 18 meeting (41:23).
Overcrowding and Infrastructure Sub-Committee:
o This was a new area of emphasis for the CAC and the committee formed in response to the school system’s rapid population increase, largely due to real estate development, and the accompanying budget and infrastructure challenges. o The committee investigated sources of public information on school enrollment, population, and growth; creative overcrowding solutions implemented across the country; as well as recent County legislation and action regarding development.
o Findings And Recommendations:
▪ There are sources of contradictory information on school enrollment numbers and projections. For example, the Boundary/Feeder Overview pages on the AACPS website do not seem uniformly consistent with development population predictions.
• Recommend: Investigate and correct any discrepancies (see written report for further details).
▪ The Greater Severna Park Council (GSPC) issues a Watchlist monitoring local developments and plans.
• Recommend: Implement Watchlist county-wide and/or in other clusters. A list of instructions to do this is being generated.
▪ Recommend: Look closely at recent legislation to determine if more is needed to address concerns, and evaluate creative solutions to combat overcrowding.
Equity Sub-Committee:
o This long-standing committee continued to investigate issues affecting equity in our schools and strives to help engage community members in supporting AACPS’s equity efforts.
o We were pleased to have Dr. Maisha Gillins, Executive Director of Equity and Accelerated Student Achievement, speak at our April meeting about the Equity Office’s current initiatives, including professional education initiatives.
o Two primary Recommendations:
▪ CAC will appoint a representative to attend Equity Advisory Committee meetings and report back to the CAC. This will enable the CAC to have more consistent involvement with equity initiatives.
▪ Recommend: Ensure that families of students at alternative schools have a voice in the community (they have no PTA and no specific CAC representation).
Social Emotional Learning Sub-Committee:
o The written report is the culmination of 2 years of work by an outstanding group that includes mental health experts. The committee focus is timely as we’ve heard Dr. Arlotto express that some of our children are in crisis, and a focus on Social Emotional Wellness is paramount.
o Goals were to:
▪ Learn more about services and education offered by AACPS with respect to Social Emotional Learning as well as policies in place to support home-school partnerships and the consistency of Social Emotional Learning across schools.
▪ In addition, they investigated the assessment of and strategies to enhance school climate.
o The Director of Student Services, Ryan Voegtlin, presented at our November meeting, and committee members have had numerous interactions with board members and staff, whose time and efforts were very much appreciated.
o One of the committee’s primary goals was to increase communication to parents and families regarding Social Emotional Learning topics and resources. We have been impressed with the AACPS response including a new initiative to begin next year.
▪ Specifically, Stacy Pelligrin will work with CRASC students to produce short Social Emotional Learning topic videos that will begin airing at the start of the 2018-2019 school year.
o Key other Findings And Recommendations (more detail available in written report)
▪ Incorporate evidence-based models to enhance home-school communication efforts
▪ Quickly identify and communicate emerging and/or timely Social Emotional Learning topics, such as vaping
▪ Consider ways to provide health education before 6th grade
▪ Explore bus safety and its impact on overall school climate and safety
▪ Expand school based mental health services by contracting with additional community therapists who accept Medicaid and private insurances to ensure all children have equal access to such services. Contracting with community providers can help offset the limited funds allotted to mental health services in the upcoming budget.
Advocacy Sub-Committee:
o Spurred by overcrowding and budget concerns many CAC members became interested in how to effectively advocate on issues important to our schools.
o The committee consulted with Board President Hummer and Teresa Tudor to clarify the advisory role of CAC and appropriate advocacy roles, and also coordinated with a school lawyer on advocacy related to the budget.
o Relatedly the committee considered the most effective ways to enact 2-way communication with the Board of Ed and with the families in our clusters.
o Findings And Recommendations:
▪ The CAC will prioritize training and guidance for new members to be sure we disseminate best practices across clusters for how to best facilitate 2-way communication with families. Concrete templates have been created for use next year such as:
• a CAC representative informational brochure to distribute to parents,
• a “frequently asked questions” resource that could be hard-copy or electronic, and
• a list of contacts for common issues for which parents have questions.
▪ Recommend: Revisit the CAC member responsibilities with the Board of Ed to make sure we are reaching the Board’s goals for this committee.
▪ Recommend: Continue to work on improvements to the AACPS website (or perhaps to CAC social media) to help parents more easily find assistance they need. The committee’s “frequently asked questions” document may provide a start to this effort.
Announcements:
SECAC survey came out last week through Parent Connect. Kathy Flaherty, the current SECAC representative, worked as a parent volunteer in SECAC but will now be a part-time employee with Partners for Success, which is still in the development stages. Parents can contact them for guidance on the IEP process.
Public Participation:
Sixth grader and CRASC member Brenton Meade was in attendance and expressed his excitement about the CAC Social Emotional Committee work.
Adjournment:
Meeting adjourned at 9:10 pm. The next meeting will be in the Fall of 2018.
https://www.aacps.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=10224&dataid=26787&FileName=6.18%20Minutes.pdf
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