Notes from the Board of Ed Meeting 6/23/22

It was an even fuller house this time around at the 4pm session of the BOE meeting.  Many were in attendance to honor the outgoing student member of the board, Peter Banyas, and to honor and recognize those who had been promoted to administrative leadership positions.  There were many family members in attendance, including kids of all ages getting the opportunity they might not have had in a long time of sitting quietly through a mostly boring to them meeting.  (It's hard when you can't see over the person in front of you!)  It was incredibly sweet to see so many proud family and friends.  

Public Forum topics included:
gratitude for HCPSS an Howard County library system partnership and materials representing all families
Healthy school start times- asking for robust communications plan, highlighting the benefits and need for school start time changes

Next up was the signing of the contract with American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

The SMOB gave his final report, recapping the highlights and accomplishments of his year on the board.  

The superintendent's report started with the recognition of many who were promoted.  He touched on summer programs that had already started and those that would be starting soon.  He mentioned the summer meals program, the availability of take home covid tests for those participating in summer programs, and the extension of the deadline to express interest in participating in virtual focus groups on redistricting.  (The new deadline is Friday, July 1, by 5pm.  The form is at the end of the feasiblity study survey.)

A report was presented on the program evaluation that was performed on Ukeru.  Ukeru, which means "receive" in Japanese, is a comforting and restraint free crisis management program.  It was being evaluated as an alternative to restraints.  Hanover Hills, Thunder Hill, and Waterloo Elementary schools were program implementation sites.  There were a lot of questions and discussion on this program, the currently used program, safety care, and what should be done going forward.  If you'd like to view the discussion in full, on this or any other item, you can go directly to that portion of the agenda in the meeting video by clicking on the agenda item (it's 8. A Program evaluation of Ukeru System).  

School Start Times Update
The consultants gave their update on the process and sought the board's direction on the transportation service model and technology improvements.  Here is the full report.  Here is the power point presentation.  The recommendations were approved.  

I did not attend the 7pm session in person, I instead headed over to Long Reach HS for the first redistricting community session, which I will comment on in my next post.  I did catch the 7pm session online at a later time and took these notes.  

There was no one signed up for public forum.

Bids and Contracts were approved.  The next quarterly agenda was approved with a discussion of cell phone usage at school to be added.   

The audit plan was also approved.  The Operating Budget Review Committee (OBRC) gave their final report for this school year.  The board did their evaluation of the OBRC and rechartered it for next year.  There was some discussion on what groups should be potentially added or removed from having a seat on the OBRC but no changes passed at this meeting.  

The final report of the night was on instructional use of technology.  There was a motion to look into the feasibility of not charging families for damage to chrome books which passed.