Board of Education Operations, Budget & Fiscal Affairs Committee Meeting June 20, 2024

host me good evening the time is now 5:03 p.m. and I would like to call to own order the June 20th 2024 operations budget and fiscal Affairs committee meeting that was rescheduled from the June 12th 2024 meeting thank you welcome everyone my name is Shayla Adam Stafford I'm the chair of this committee and District 4 representative on the Prince geores County Board of Education we will now have introduction of committee members starting with board members Administration staff Board office staff and all other guests uh good evening I'm Judy mickens Mary chair of the board and also a voting member on this committee thank you good evening Dr Kenneth Harris district 7 representative for the Board of Education good evening everyone my name is Riva Forbes and I'm the 43rd student member of the board I also a voting member of this committee good evening Dr Zapora Miller I'm the board member for District 5 good evening my name is Lisa how I am the Chief Financial Officer of Prince jores County Public Schools good evening shasa Coleman Chief Operating Officer good evening Jason Washington associate superintendent of supporting services good evening I'm Janice Walter assemble I'm the internal audit supervisor good evening I'm Sam stefanelli director of Building Services good evening I'm Siobhan Smith uh director of budget and Management Services good evening I'm ke director of transportation and Central Garage Sean Matlock director of o OIP good evening I'm reval defit Patrick he him his I'm the director for the Prince geores County Board of Education I want to thank everyone for watching it home good evening my name is Mia Barton I'm administrative secretary in the board office thank you um Miss Barton will you please call the um I'm sorry tonight this committee will hear operation CIP and budget updates along with the third quarter report from the internal audit director Miss Barton will you please call the role absolutely Mrs Adam Stafford present Dr Kenneth Harris present Mrs J R Miss rain Rivera Forbes present Mrs Judy mckin Murray present we have a quorum present colleagues tonight there will be a slight change to the agenda we will be moving discussion 3.1 fiscal Affairs updates to before the public comment to accommodate Chief Lisa House schedule may have a motion to accept the June 20th 2024 meeting agenda as amended I move to accept the move the June 20th meeting as amended amended says amended second it has been moved and seconded to adopt the June 20th 2024 meeting agenda all in favor I I I okay oppose all right the motion passes the agenda is adopted may I have a motion to approve the May 15 2024 meeting minutes so move second it's been moved and seconded to approve the May 15 2024 um meeting minutes all in favor I okay approve all right the motion passes the agenda is adopted I will now recognize Chief Lisa how to give us fiscal Affairs updates thank you Chief how thank you board member Adam Stafford um good evening to the community just wanted to give a brief overview of where we are in the budget process um that was discussed in detail at the last board meeting um so as we've go as we're nearing the end of the reconciliation time frame we are taking into consideration the impact of all the changes coming out of the legislative session um coming out of the final decision from the county and the approval of our approval of the County's budget and our budget is included in that um as well as final Revenue numbers from uh msde based off of those updates um we know that we have a gap of around $48 million Administration has proceeded with um a path to close that Gap that we've previously shared with public and with constituents um first there were some adjustments that we had to add to that Gap that we had to add to the budget coming out of the legislative session that was not previously included in the requested budget so those updates have been made um but in an effort to close the budget G the adjustments primarily considered the reduction for the P3 payment that will now be made directly by the county on our behalf directly to the state P3 fund so that amount that was in our budget previously has been reduced during uh through a couple of series of Financial reviews that we've done over the last couple months we were able to identify savings that would allow us to pay some of our Lea purchase agreements early that were intended to be an obligation in 25 that we will be able to pay in 24 uh the Lea purchase Agreements are essentially a financing vehicle that's used to pay for the purchase of textbooks vehicles um both buses and non- buses as well as technology computers Chromebooks um for our students and so we were able to identify savings early to those items in 2024 to alleviate the impact on the budget in 2025 um we're delaying these some of the building maintenance and repairs that were planned for 2025 um and we're going to try to work within the budget that we have um in order to accomplish much of the work that was intended and then finally um most of the other adjustments are the result of program enhancements where positions have either been cut or enhancements have been delayed to be phased in over a two-year period so not necessarily doing all of the um enhancements in 2025 but spreading out over 25 and 26 we did do a scrubbing of what we have in our reserves as well so any well-developed budget includes centrally managed reserves that helps to to account for those unknown items that we don't know about as we get into the fiscal year of course we didn't cut them out completely because that would not be fiscally responsible um but we do have funds set aside we had funds set aside in the reserve for unknown items difficult to really estimate what the potential impact could be um but we skinny those down to a lower level that we felt comfortable with leaving an amount that we feel would be sufficient to get us through the next fiscal year and that we would obviously continue to re-evaluate as we are executing um the budget plan for 2025 and during the course of a typical financial review to the extent that there's savings that are identified we will utilize those savings to deal with unexpected or unplanned um expenditures um and other obligations that may arise um finally the other item that we also took a look at was summer school kits that intended for early awareness that we are planning to continue with for this summer 2024 but for summer of 2025 those expenditures or those budget items have been removed um with all those measures that have been taken there's still a gap of around s eight million um and we're going to close that Gap through a hiring freeze beginning the beginning of the starting beginning of the fiscal year even with all of the positions that we currently have in the budget that are vacant um whether they're existing positions or program enhancements they will still go through the hiring freeze process um and that hiring freeze is really going to focus on non-instructional non those positions that don't have a direct impact on students will be excluded from that freeze um as well as those positions that are essential to the operations of the school system all other positions will be held and we will be evaluating those requests on a case-by Case basis so that's not to say there's not going to be any hiring but it will be controlled hiring based off of the priorities of the school system to Ure we are adequately Staffing our schools and adequately addressing the critical positions that we need to support our operations going forward for 2025 so that is where we are in the current process um as I mentioned at the more meeting last week this is really a very temporary stop Gap measure to close the budget for 2025 we are dealing with permanent loss and revenue with the um removal or the re appropriation or realignment of the energy and Telecom Revenue that is now going towards the County's commitment to meet the blueprint requirement but it's not in addition to as it had been previously furthermore as a reminder in our 202 2 budget we have a substantial use of fund balance of $120 million um that was only intended to be a shortterm measure to help stabilize the impact of the negotiated agreements that we entered into a couple years ago and so we're going to be nearing the end of that phase very soon so the use of fund balance will dramatically be decreasing on a going forward basis so we really need to think about how our budgets going to be reset on a going forward basis with a um and making sure that our budget is in line with ongoing um revenue from the county state and federal level So to that end um it's not an easy exercise to be able to reset a three billion budget in just a matter of a few months um so we are going to continue the process that we've already started which is taking a very deep and going through re prioritizing the spend that we do have um as well as ensuring the spend is in alignment with the requirements that we must meet as it relates to blueprint so it'll be kind of a two-pronged exercise um and that will really serve as a foundation as we begin to rebuild the budget for fiscal year 2026 um and at the foundation as we move forward for future fiscal years as well so that is where we are in the current budget process thank thank you very much um at this time if my colleagues have any questions uh now you can feel free to ask those questions can raise your hand okay thank you um so we'll go with um Vice chair Walker um chair Judy Micks Murray and then Dr zort Miller thank you thank you so much for recognizing me I appreciate that I'm not on the committee but thank you so much I appreciate it um the question that I have um Miss Howell is have you I know at the last board meeting the board gave a number of different suggestions on some places to look now we're not looking at it with a fine tooth comb but I'm wondering if you've had the opportunity to kind of comb through any of those in order to help to reduce the deficit that we had well I know there suggestions on some of the cuts that they that board members were hopeful that they would not be considered for reduction um but in terms of specific recommendations um I don't recall that there were specific takeaways coming out of that conversation from last week but maybe I'm okay no no wor specific to what you might be referring to yeah I'll shoot you an email no problem thank you so much I'm done go ahead thank you uh chair Adam Stafford uh my first question is and um uh CFO Howell I don't know if this is the right time to ask this but with the next issue that we have there's a million doll uh increase is that included in your um reconciliation is that in that $7,000 that we need to reconcile do you which million doll increase are you referring to in theou when it comes to the commercial Clos deadline and I know we're doing it in the reverse but I need to know about the money because you're gonna leave I'll recognize Jason I think you're referring to um the mou that's tied to the yes I am yes please that there is there is no money tied to theou the million dollars that you are speaking to is specifically for the exclusive negotiating agreement period that if we fail to close that is when that money will be due that is what that is it's extending that time to do the deal it's separate in a part it's not tied to theou it's not tied to our budget that is uh tied to specifically uh the uh the terms of the P3 agreement and uh the ability to um uh close the deal um in the allotted time that's there okay I'll process that and then I'll come back to you when we get to you in the next phase okay okay I appreciate that okay um Miss how one final question with the as you look at how to have economies of scale have you taken into consideration any of the salary and the caps for um the uh um the executive team was did you process any of that as you were looking at economies of scales for the um budget to reconcile that was not something that was booked on okay that's fine thank you thank you madam chair go ahead Dr Miller thank you chair uh Adam Stafford um Chief oh sorry Chief Howell I I I'm coming back to something a conversation that we started at the board but I wanted to um pose it here with um ensuring that our students psychological safety was um a priority and that being said I did have an opportunity to speak with um Chief Davis earlier today and what I did notice was um that that position was listed as a supervisor and didn't have to be it could have been an instructional specialist which is at a lower fiscal note um and looking for places in which we can consider because we know that the cuts across the board are going to be tough um so looking at uh putting since an instructional specialist is still a unit 2 and still a supervisory Authority so I I said to her that I would uh come back and recommend to look at doing that but also look looking across the board as you look at positions that were added you know there's a lot of data to support the need for wellness it's not just bullying it's Wellness across the board um however there's some new offices that are opening and I don't know what the data points were in terms of um academic achievement or culture and climate um were presented in those offices could those be phased in um as you look at those positions because they haven't been filled and there are program enhancements that are on the budget that I didn't see up for consideration there may be some positions on there that are you know um that are not necessarily in that category of at and I know that they're not at schools some of them are at the supervisory level so the one new office that is being added in 2025 that does not exist or that was not considered in our 24th budget um at the same level 25 is the um Integrity compliance um office position um when that legislation went into effect at the beginning of fiscal year 2024 we did have a baseline assumption what would be needed to support that office based off of the very vague guidance that was outlined in the legislation but now that we have an Ico in place and making the assessment of what's needed there is a higher fiscal note associ with building out that office and the legislation does say that we have to consider um the requests of what's needed for that office to be included in our budget um and so I know that that's something that was certainly considered in developing what was needed um for that submission process um but that is currently reflected in the budget based off of uh legislation um there were some new positions in existing offices um that are not school-based that were considered in Pro in the program enhancements um and those POs many of those positions were actually cut and so we did take a look at those roles um most of the positions that remain in terms of program enhancements are either related to um ongoing academic programs um or expansion of existing programs that we have in place um we did also take a look at some of our operational positions as well in terms of supporting some of the critical work that needs to continue and did look to see what we would be able to implement this year and possibly phase that in over a long longer period of time um within uh security as you recall there was a substantial enhancement as well that was certainly needed a key priority for um the community for the board members for the superintendent we were adding 59 conditions associated with that um and out of those 59 we're going to phase six of those in in fiscal year 26 still moving forward with what we prioritizing was needed for this year um but delaying some of those until 2026 same thing for the athletic trainers as well I'm not looking to completely eliminate that but phasing that in over a two-year period moving forward with what we know that we will be able to successfully recruit and hire for this year and then delaying the rest of that implementation until fiscal year 2026 and then some of the other positions I mean I can get a lot of different details but some of them are are geared towards supporting some of our programs so as an example you might see like a secretary and just wonder what what was help to support the execution of um all the work that's being done by the1 Community Schools right now there is no administrative support for them and that program has sced to a level that can't be sustained without that level of support so there was really consideration around being able to as that program continues to have that support in order to provide um the necessary um efforts from an administrative standpoint I know that during the proposed cycle that was one item that was recommended by um board member Walker and others to really kind of look at the positions that were being ped um and that was definitely a priority in terms of our focus and where we started when it came to being able to close the budget Gap and so while we I specifically identified certain positions that are either being cut or certain enhancements that are being delayed the remaining of closing this Bud budget Gap is going to be all around non-school-based non-essential positions that we're not going to move for even though the vacancy may be in the budget um on the backside of that that position will not necessarily be filled um during this hiring freeze process by far and large our biggest cost are people costs um so while we can look at contractual services and we can say you know minimizing travel and and you know all the things that we are looking at as well when you have an 8 million gap or so that remains biggest way to be able to control that is through your hiring and so making sure that we are going to support the instructional needs required at the school the mental health support needs that are required at the school um and looking what we can do from a central office standpoint for those for those positions that don't have a direct impact on students and delay those until later point in time through our controlled hiring process um and we do have some critical e Central Central office positions as well so I don't want to kind of draw the line in the sand thing everything central office is not essential because we do have some critical functions that if they are not fill whether it's some of our it security positions it would put us at a vulnerable state and so there's certain critical positions from a central office standpoint that we have prioritized as needing to move forward but the others that we view are important but not essential and will be part of the hiring fees the controlled hiring process and I appreciate all the hard work that goes into it but it's hard for me to consider when there are a lot of um parents and children who are in situations where um their psychological safety is um impeding them from performing and impacting others to not advocate for such a a place in in which if we continue doing what we're always doing the results don't change I know you mentioned new office you said I think I can't remember the name of the office that you said that was legisl was um was mandated by legislation but we also had the transformational leadership office I don't know how many positions there but there are program enhancements there and I'm not trying to say what should be done but just uh scrubbing through each one and then um looking at maybe not Staffing this at a a supervisor level but as an instructional specialist and chair Judy mckin Murray says and looking at some of the salaries at at the exact level to ensure that our our children have the supports that they need so if you can consider some of those it will be much appreciated thank you I'm um G to go to Dr Harris at this time and then I'll jump in for my first round and we'll go to um Vice chair Walker and then chair mck Murray thanks sh I'm Stafford and I apologize for not having my camera on tonight everyone um hey Miss how quick question for you if you can elaborate a bit for myself and the committee just talking through I know some of the reductions came from uh I don't have the exact number in front of me but for example reducing security staff from a certain amount to you know from value a to Value B um can you talk to committee about what it's like or when when we start to consider those dollars for redistribution if we don't end up hiring someone for those positions like at what point in the new year do we say well we've only actually reached 80% higher within this category this money could be better allocated here instead of here yeah so that's a great question um we will need to closely monit our budget um more so than we have in the past certainly uh Miss Howell you keep breaking up your your your voice or something there's a bad connection or something I try close to computer as possible I don't know if that's better my face is all in the screen but that's okay all right so um as we do with every uh fiscal year as the budget is being executed and as we're monitoring the spend associated with our budget particularly with our positions salary lap is our biggest savings that will certainly be an effort that we continue to look at and that we evaluate um not just on the instructional side but certainly for um all of the other areas as well even this past year as an example in 2024 we had salary of central office positions and we reallocated those funds in in an effort to help with some of our other priorities for 2024 so we will certainly be looking at this on a quarter by quarter basis um at a minimum um to see how the hiring is progressing to see where there's salary laps that's being realized um and then determining how we might want to pre reprioritize those funds for other needs that may come up during the year that we don't know about currently that's not currently reflected in our budget um but then also just determine where there's going to be savings that will fall to um the bottom line and help with building up our reserves as we move into the next fiscal year um but certainly this will definitely be a year different than others um when it comes to the realignment of that spin and then as part of that process certainly keeping the board informed of sa what that looks like like um and if there's going to be a need for a financial review then those conversations will be held at that point in time thank you and there's no expected timeline for when that financial review typically takes place is there we typically begin a fi we have typically have our First Financial review Once the first half of the fiscal year is complete when you think about the cyclical nature of our business you know the first few months of the fiscal year which is where we have um most of our staff are working um are at the schoolhouse the schools don't return until the August time frame and so it's that really that first quarter you're not going to see a whole lot that's going to be different from what you expected in terms of what you plan for in your budget we will have a better sense once we get through the first quarter of this year what our hiring looks like because we know that once we get through a certain point in time when it comes to hiring for our instructional staff that um it's going to level off after a certain point in time and you have a better sense of what that fi rate is going to look like for the remainder of the year so most of our hiring for the schoolhouse will happen between now and the first quarter of the fiscal year um and then we also will know at that point in time as well about the number of students who actually show up in the classrooms that's the other part of this whole budgeting exercise we build our budgets based off of projected enrollment but if there's any difference between projected enrollment and actual enrollment then we have to do a Reconciliation in the fall to ensure that we're maintaining the right level of Staffing in each of the schools in each of the different classrooms and so that's always our second sort of rebalancing exercise that we go through we build the budgets in the spring and we rebalance in the fall once the students actually show up and that also gives us a sense of where we have the opportunity to possibly rep prioritize um and really know where to redirect our resources depending on the students that show up understood thank you that concludes my questions CH thank you um so my questions are around some of the the cuts and the academic impact so uh I know that we're cutting the elementary summer school kits if I can here just sort of what is the plan for us to support students elementary students during the summer in place of what those kits provided um addition I know that you mentioned that se some of the cuts will uh be um based on Building Maintenance and and we'll be making some shift shifting priorities and so if you could perhaps if Mr Stephan ellan can talk a little bit more about how those decisions were made and where where we'll see some of those shifts and most importantly I'd like to know you know when are we going to start to realize some of the savings um from the climate action plan in our budget um specifically I'd like to know just where are we on track with solar panels specifically um in order to realize some cost savings um in maintenance thank you so I will start off with the um summer kits and I will do my best in a few seconds to summarize that I would certainly encourage you to Circle back with one of two things Dr White gave a more extensive answer at the last board meeting so it is recorded uh but you can certainly talk with her offline as well um but the summer kits um that were that are being provided for this Summer that are being considered for REM for next year um was basically providing like a road map of resources for parents to um have as an option to support our early Learners uh pre during the summer months of certain activities that they would be able to focus on during that time frame uh the kids are mailed out to the schools um so they would be available for pickup believe I believe before the end of the school year um so families would have them over the summer um she went through a pretty extensive presentation at the last board meeting that in addition to the summer kids there's also wealth of resources that have been developed online um to help support learning over the summer Interactive Learning over the summer as well um so um yeah that's kind of my that space yeah know I I was working with them on that summer passport work and I guess I'm wondering about for next year um if we're eliminating that what will we what will we do in place of of that yeah that I mean that really is part of the work that we will be doing for this year year coming when I mentioned about going through a deep dive of our budget because there's a lot that we do but we have to really evaluate the academic return on investment um and determine if where we're investing our dollars is having an impact a favorable impact on and to the extent that we're not having the return on academic achievement then reinvesting and rep prioritizing those dollars towards those items that are moving the needle in a in a favorable Direction um so that's going to be part of our ongoing exercise as we're preparing for 2026 to really have those deep conversations around rep prioritizing our spin to ensure that it's aggressively addressing those measures that will have an impact on improved academic performance yes and I would just encourage um to look at that list of software interventions that we're deploying in classrooms to determine you know which have been the most effective in moving student performance and and perhaps providing some type of report um this is what we ask and not specifically on user um Eng like engagement like in terms of usage but more so in terms of student outcomes and and that that was some of what the board asked for at the beginning of this year yep job with that now thank you and then I'll defer over to Dr Coleman and his team to address your questions about some savings that might be realized from our climate action change climate action change plan as well as um uh the referred maintenance and repairs thank you and we'll take it in in that order so with respect to uh the energy management piece because that really is where that falls under the climate change action plan our team is in the process of developing an overall Energy Management strategy uh of which one part uh it could be considered solar so we're exploring uh different Power purchase agreement op opportunities and options and options for um uh for example where to place solar in our in our suite of facilities whether it be on rooftops or in actual fields that we uh own as a part of the county um I know that director Stephan nelli can speak to in just a moment uh that he's working to establish an energy usage Baseline uh because it's going to be very important as a part of this process that we can accurately track our current energy usage uh and therefore be able to determine any um any cost savings that would come of it um so I'm going to defer to director stefanelli for that portion uh yes as far as that that goes one of the issues that we've uh been challenged with is determining our energy usage um we have several different vendors that we purchase uh Power from with Pepco bg& uh smco just in electricity and they don't all deliver information to us in the same manner some of them we don't even they they don't have electronic billing as of yet so we we we got a grant and Jamie alustin who's our Energy Management specialist is uh working with those companies to get us to the point where we can download and develop a baseline of energy usage so we can see our savings we've established that then we'll be a we will be able to show to show you the the savings we have from that Baseline but until we're able to establish that Baseline um that's very difficult to do and it's and it's ex more complicated than we thought it would be working in this it's taking it takes one person it's a full-time job just to take our utility bills decipher them and put the the information into a database in such a way that we can compare apples to apples um and Dr Coleman is right we are um you know C solar panels are a capital project this is not something that we're going to erect tomorrow or the next day this just takes time planning um U little issues that we have is is we'd like to put them on the roofs but our roofs are 15 20 years old you can't put solar panels on on an old roof we have to replace the roof underneath the solar panels prior to that happening and we're working on a plan that will help us get our roof replaced and provide solar panels for the schools at the same time um but we're working towards uh developing that Baseline so we can we can provide you that information and I think the second third part was about the maintenance reductions yes yes please thank you because the maintenance reductions we are starting as part of vent maintenance program uh we're starting to we have somebody that's now inspecting our roofs on an annual basis and inspecting our playgrounds on an annual basis um this is something that we've worked towards uh we phased in over um the last three years with different other parts of our department uh and one thing we looked at was our fire alarms about four years ago we bought in a third party to inspect our fire alarms the first year we spent for 9 million $900,000 repairing little things that they found the the money that was reduced the budget was our money to support those inspections uh we feel we added another position to our Roofing uh shop and we feel that we can uh maintain the roofs and do the work within our current budget but however we've had a conversation with the budget office that if something uh astronomical comes up that they are prepared to look at additional funding where needed this was that funding was to anticipate work that hasn't gotten here yet so to speak so now we're looking at doing as much as we can within our budget and we may have to uh ask for additional funding later in the year if if something comes up that we didn't didn't anticipate okay thank you and I'd like to um ask for a followup on two items the plan for the um um Baseline study around the energy bills um and consolidating those into one company or one or just just getting an understanding of sort of where that stands and then also a followup on um sort of your assessment of where the solar paneling will begin um in terms of roof age and other factors um okay I also see um colleague Pamela Boozer Str who has joined us here as a attendee if you like to move for over if she lik we move over to a panelist she can as well so I'm going to go now um I believe I saw um it was vice chair Walker um chair mck Murray then Dr Zora Miller and then Dr Kenneth Harris thank you thank you so much Adam before Vice chair Walker goif go just 30 seconds okay sure just to piggyback off what you were saying we're happy to also move um that those recommendation of those items through the climate change action plan implementation committee as well um while we don't have that as a u as an item for next week's meeting we will be releasing our our fouryear schedule as well as our target areas for each shortly after so we're happy to talk through that with you as okay thank you so much excellent thank you so much um doc uh Miss how thank you all for all of your work um what we're adding to is really just helping to try to uh reduce this seven to eight million that we're really looking at so I just had a couple of things for your consideration the first is um perhaps taking a look at our almost expired contracts and determining um looking at the funding looking at the need is it something that we still need are there other vendors that's available for those contracts that's one um and it would be good to kind of see that um the second thing I have a couple of things the second thing is um I recognize that we have unfunded mandates even some that just were passed this time as well but I do think given our deficit that we have that it it is okay for us to go back to the council and let them know that the $600,000 that's in right now for that department um which was unfunded now that we understand what the funds are attached to it you just can't pay what you can't afford and I just think that this is the time to really go back and take a look at those positions and really just ask for additional monies if they have monies that can help fund those roles what can we do in order to determine right sizing especially now the same things you all are doing with um realizing some of the costs now and maybe deferring some of um the people later I just think that's an opportunity to look for the $600,000 um I know I say it in a different form or fashion every single meeting but I'm just hoping we look at that and I don't think the answer is hey we have to do it we we have to close this seven to8 million gap as well um that's that piece right there um I think the ne the next is I'm excited that you all are going again with a fine- tooth comb on all levels of Staffing um I like Dr zapor Miller do think it would behoove us to go and take a look at you know levels are these the right levels are they to senior now I'm not trying to bring everybody down so people that's looking I'm not trying to say do more for Less what I'm just saying is now it's time for us to right siize where we are and we might be able to take a look at some of the positions that want that want to be upcoming at what the right level is uh for the execution of work that we need um and then the last thing is because we're not Revenue generating then I'm wondering if it makes sense to determine how we can take a look at Grants differently so how can we leverage grants grant writing to be able to uh bring some funds in to help us now I don't know if we have someone who is assigned to that but I think contractually we can get a contractor to be able to really focus on that and help us to generate some bring in some funds to help us with some of our programming so those are the four that I had um ideas for thanks yes and we're certainly leveraging um grants that we are getting are going to have access to for 2025 to help provide some of those support So as an example for some of the mental health work that was previously supported by Esser we've been able to get additional supports from different grants to allow for that work to continue in 2025 but certainly have that noted as an additional effort to continue to consider other opportunities to do that yes because um in the last piece I'm sorry is because this is a person that's actively um searching for Grants and um and we might have that in the system already so I love that you're trying to replace what we have so we don't lose that we need that because Sr funding is leaving but if there's someone who can really outright go I know chair mckin Murray I've sent some that's kind of come from um Congressman um Ivy I believe it is the most of them that I see anyway but thank you so much I appreciate that thank you chair Adam Stafford um Chief Howell I appreciate you're helping to manage our expectations and vice chair Walker yes there are people that write grants in the system there's a group focused on that and I think the system does a pretty good job with that um managing expectations around the Integrity officer I appreciate the fact that you made it its on line item so that the uh Council can see what those requirements are so that they understand the way I look at it is pass through they need to provide this system with all of the funds for that particular office that's how I look at that P and then as far as the strategies for the uh solar having solo on my house I know that takes a minute it does save you money but you might not see it to 2026 2027 but you need to start the work so I appreciate you managing on that piece for us too and then finally I understand the um the hiring frees and all of that that you put on the table so as I said at the board meeting I think you've done a good job uh pretty much with looking at a $48 million deficit getting it down to a$7 million deficit and having a plan to deal with that so I would re be remissed if I didn't say to you and your team in this particular instance I think you guys have done a mammoth job and I I trust that you will get the board and the system what they need to help the children because I know that you have to make decisions for a moment in time based on the situation at that moment in time so I appreciate all of that so I just wanted to thank you personally uh for what you've done thanks thank you I appreciate it and I am GNA have to sign off I'm just going to close with this I'll leave you guys in good hands with sioban uh Smith the budget director who will take any remaining notes um you know this is this is a Reconciliation effort e just so we can finalize the budget the work that we're doing to rightsize the budget is going to continue so all the different measures all the different suggestions all the different recommendations as I said before it requires work it's not something you can just react to and Implement in a short period of time and it's short I mean I know this whole conversation around the revenue and what that was going to look like was something that you know we didn't know about a year ago so we could have developed a very different budget um but it's not something that you can react to in a short period of time with so many other moving Parts as well so the hard work is going to has just started and it's going to continue um so I appreciate all the feedback that I will certainly share with um uh superintendent house and the rest of the administration so thank you thank you and Dr Zapora Miller thank you so much uh chair Adam Stafford um this is a just um question regarding the online classroom and you may have answered it or um Chief how may have answered it when you say reduce online classroom Staffing the online campus still exists I that's my first question correct okay so this is not eliminating the online campus it's just reducing the Staffing but can it's so my next question was would it be able to still accommodate the um requests because students have chosen this path or parents have chosen this path for their children because they're thriving in that space just want to make sure that we still can continue servicing them with the Staffing available yes so the the students who are currently in on uh us utilizing the online campus will continue to be serviced um that won't change in any shape on the fashion this is just right sizing the assumption that we used um for grow purposes um that's all that particular cut is referring to okay thank you wel thank you and uh Mr stefanelli if you wouldn't mind also sending over as a followup that list of the playgrounds the status uh that you all have determined of the different playgrounds as you were mentioning sure um yeah the contract is for them to inspect every play ground in the county once a year for safety so but we have a list I can I can forward to you of all the playgrounds okay great thank you all right okay thank you everyone um if there are no further questions then we're going to move forward here so we're going to move on now to public comment and we have five registered speakers um uh we'll begin with um Sen Emanuel from Progressive Maryland climate policy analyst budget allocation reading clean energy in schools um so if s is here we can bring them over to speak at this time thank you thank you so much chair it's a pleasure to meet you all my name is S manual climate policy analyst Progressive Maryland and I really appreciate those on the school board who have demonstrated leadership on implementing the climate action plan and for the sake of the future and of our children I hope there will be more work done to invest in our schools while also taking care of our environment and I want to talk today about an opportunity to leverage Federal funding coming from the inflation reduction act so the school board currently spends $25 million a year on utilities to cool heat and illuminate our schools but we know that the school board is dealing with a $1.2 million annual increase on its utility bills all while grappling with a $7 million deficit the rules need to be replaced why not utilize tax credits that exist now thanks to the inflation reduction act to cover the cost of solar panels going on those roofs while we replace them these tax credits can cover 30 to 60% of the solar of the cost of solar panels along with providing an ongoing subsidy for any excess energy generated that is sold back to the grid communities want the board to invest more in clean energy that brings with it so many benefits and only investing $446,000 currently allocated in the budget towards soil and renewable energy is not sufficient thank you thank you very much tonai for your comments we're moving now to Anton Alin Progressive Maryland PG County organizer on budget updates andon is moving over right now hi there uh good evening board thank you chair Shayla Adam Stafford and the rest of the board for all your hard work um I'm just I wanted to uce myself my name is Anton I'm the Prince George's County organizer for Progressive Maryland I've knocked over 3,000 doors in South County on the ground and I've also met with some of the Schoolboard members responsible for implementing the climate change action plan and I'm here tonight to remark on the budget deficit and urge you all to consider solar panels as a way to help close that deficit you know just as a backstory i i i my family and my sisters we went through the public schools uh in Pennsylvania when uh covid hit and so we've seen firsthand uh what happens when schools are not given the resources to deal with the catastrophes and situations of our time so going that I I do feel there's an urgency you know between the financing options that are available that our climate policy analyst mentioned saai um not to mention the price of solar panels will only continue to increase as we move forward our goals are not to mention also our goals as Progressive Maryland community members in Oxen Hill and South and Prince George's are in alignment but those the School Board laid out in the climate change action plan and which is committed to renewable energy and I also want to remark on the importance of Oxen Hill as a place where this can be the the the grounds for moving forward in the Strategic plan the budget deficit is affecting us now and the reason Oxen Hill is a great place uh to act on the basis for these plans of enacting uh solar panels as a way to close the budget deficit is you know the some of the plans that Mr stefanelli was talking about right it has one school already that is utilizing solar panels it qualifies as a low-income Community for extra financing opportunities from these federal funds available right now from the infrastructure reduction act and it has various roof Replacements slated in the capital Improvement plan in the next couple years and so all of that said I'd ask that the budget committee seriously consider financing the solar panal project in Oxon Hill schools and showing up for our meeting this Saturday at Oxen Hill Library on the 22nd from 2 to 3:30 and we're getting the community together to show the type of support and initiatives that people want to see in the schools in Oxen Hill but also all of PG County so thank you so much for your time and uh thanks again thank you very much we'll move now to missa Parker on solar panels hi thank you for having me on today um I'm not going to go over um what my two comrades had said before um what I will reiterate is that princees county is a school system that has many challenges um in a in a community that has many challenges where we're asking for the solar panels to go actually we have just as a community fought to uh make sure that another level of destructive uh climate issues do not happen um they were trying to put uh battery operated panels that had a negative impact like we talked about this for years and they actually stopped it it was Pepco and they actually put it in like Montgomery okay you know what I'm talking about uh okay thank you m Walker so we actually talked about that for several years and so now we're trying to continue on this momentum of moving the community in that area on specifically climate Justice and climate action and to understand that there are about close to 200 schools in the state of Maryland that have solar panels and only about four of them are in Prince George's County and they're not really in South County is very interesting and it's also very telling of where our priorities are one of the reasons why we wanted to jump on this immediately and right now is because we really have the opportunity to take care of federal funding using that to really pay these things off before solar paneling on our schools becomes extremely more expensive this is something that Community wants particularly in regards to lowering electricity bills and putting more funding back into our schools and we' like to see um there to be funds really specifically focused on that um thank you for your time thank you very much we'll now hear from eron Eric Clark from Progressive Maryland we'll be speaking on clean energy Mrs Adam Safford I don't see Eric Clark as a attendee but we do have Shannon Reed thank you Miss re good evening my youngest child will be a senior next school year while she was in the seventh grade I reviewed the ELA mcap and math data for 26 schools with high school students in 2019 there were eight twar schools 14 three star schools three fourstar schools and one five-star School the ceiling for ELA mcap data for all eight two star schools never Rose above 20% between 2015 and 2019 most schools inconsistent Ela growth peaked at 10% the most recent data shows that several school years later the county has 17 two star schools six three star schools two fourstar schools and still one single five star school in every in 2019 every school struggle with math was evidenced by Algebra 1 data that was significantly worse than Ela data currently 20 of the 26% 20 of the 26 schools have 5% or fewer students with Proficiency in math data is everyone's business students always lose the most when dysfunctional practices condition systems and approaches persist in schools advocacy begins with knowledge parents are the first and best advocates for their children the transition to Synergy is an opportunity to provide parents and students with timely accurate and reliable data every student information system is equipped to provide individual historical or long range data for students if PGCPS uses its resources to enable parent students and teachers to see each student grades in relation to Benchmark and formal assessment data across students school years PGCPS demonstrates its commitment to transformation and transparency as it stands parents and teachers who are relationally closest to students have the least access to historical data that enables them to speak and act on their own behalf data is everyone's business advocacy begins with knowledge establishing functional ptsas and PTO in every school also empowers parents and students I noticed that Roosevelt and buoy have similar data patterns across many years years I suspect the pattern is in part a reflection of Parental involvement the sketch or overview that the equity dashboard provides becomes meaningful when supplemented with specific details that create a distinct picture about particular people processes and practices parents and the district would also benefit from examining classroom level data that allows them to be ask better questions while seeking to know who needs what students need quality lessons to develop their potential quality informed teach teachers deliver quality lessons we all need to learn that social emotional learning connected to academic realities makes sense hard places produce significant growth if one does the hard work of addressing complex realities instead of resorting to familiar approaches and easy answers thank you for your time and attention thank you very much Miss Reed for your comments okay that is the end of our public comment so I'm now going to move on to 3.2 blueprint schools program Phase 2 exclusive negotiation agreement Amendment I'm going to recognize Mr Jason Washington to give us updates on the blueprint schools program phase two exclusive negotiation agreement Amendment thank you Mr Washington you can speak at this time thank you uh thank you so much uh board member um yes we uh the exclusive negotiation agreement uh was approved by the board last September uh it allowed for the nine month negotiating period for us to uh finalize the uh project agreement and the uh memorandum of understanding and uh that literally laid out the uh the terms of our um uh uh agreement with um Progressive education Partners um and so what has happened because of theou delay uh the date in the ENA was for us to commence a deal by June 28th uh we will not commence a deal because the IAC does not vote until July 11 and so therefore uh the ENA Amendment uh before you today extends the uh the time for a month through July 25th for us to finalize the deal uh but the penalty uh and it is like a a change uh is an increase to what is known as the breakage fee so if we don't do a deal um the breakage fee uh becomes um uh $5 million instead of $4 million uh that is not uh contemplated it's not if we as long as we pass uh as long as it's approved and and the uh contract uh moves forward uh that is just um there um there's nothing we need to pay or anything of that sort uh but it is uh necessary for them to not uh leave the deal uh because we were we had agreed to finish by the end of June uh and that is uh the cost of the uh the state's delay uh on potential cost to the school system uh this was I think uh board member route asked us this question I think in May um and that was what I referenced at that time um uh to discuss that uh as of right now uh we finalized the moou the IAC signed off today uh on theou and so that has been uh approved uh it will be um uh placed on I believe board dos tomorrow uh for the uh 27th uh vote uh we have also um as of 22 minutes ago submitted the full package to the IAC for their review for their July 11th uh meeting uh which time they will review everything that's been submitted and will make a recommendation uh to uh the commission uh for their July 11th meeting uh so all of the obligations everything that uh PGCPS uh was required to do and the dates that we had uh Endeavor to meet we have met um and now uh this is moved over to to the state uh for their uh sign off uh any additional questions anything of that sort and so so that's a a combination both but they all flow together but that's what the ENA amendment is um if it is not approved um we uh don't have any agreement anymore so the developer can change their price they can leave the deal they can uh because they they were required to hold their pricing until June uh 28th and so now uh we they have agreed to hold their price until July 25 and so so that's what um that that's what it is and so I uh will see if there any questions or or anything uh on this issue thank you Mr Washington for your presentation uh colleagues we'll take questions now from the floor I I see chair mickens Murray first uh yes thank you so much um Vice chair Harris uh Mr Jason I appreciate everything and I understood everything my question is this the two dates that we that we are deleting April 11th and May 3rd we deleting those because PGCPS didn't do something in no yeah go go ahead I'm sorry I'll let you finish in other words did we take the action on April 15 versus versus April 11 or June 11 versus May 3rd I was just curious about that no so what what those dates represented were the initial dates when they needed to send us pricing information they needed to send us uh final uh proposals okay however since we were waiting on responses from uh both Maryland stadium Authority and IAC we provided extensions it didn't ma those weeks didn't matter because we had the information but that's what those dates represented they were Milestone dates that um everything has still been met we have everything that we needed and it was ajed to either accommodate them or accommodate us depending on what this what the issue was yeah I appreciate that and for my own curiosity could could the board have approved um this agreement the um the delivery date of commercial close deadline but we have approved it back on May 9th or were we obligated to work wait for the IAC we were obligated because we were waiting on the I's dat okay yeah that that I needed just some clarification around I don't have a problem with this and I will vote for it thank you sorry I couldn't get off mute thanks chair mckas Murray over to you Vice chair Walker thanks Dr Harris no problem we understand the technology um quick one Mr Washington I heard you can you just double back on the five million um I think what I heard you say was that we don't need to pay the five million it's on but you tell me again what it is so so it is called the breakage fee so what the the yeah the risk that the developer took is that they put all of their money in to get to closing at risk um so I think their number uh is close to they spent $20 million so far um if we fail to reach an agreement we are on the hook to pay them a portion of those feeds of $5 million it would be uh PGCPS however the I is well aware that this change is due to their delay like so so I mean I don't know if it matters but they are very clear that we're here because uh it was not voted on on the 13th um and so so so that's the you know that that's the rub of it um we uh to to put this in context uh they were asking uh when we first started this process for $20 million at the very beginning and uh we uh 4 million is is POL Tre they all CED complain and everything but they all still be so you know that that that's um that's just where it is uh but like I said this is this goes away as soon as there's an approval of the contract because they then can move forward to get their financing perfect thank you for that and then the second part of that you you um answered I think towards the beginning part so we are not at risk of not signing a contract we're on board we're doing our part um and we're coming to the table in good faith and we're we're ready to sign um well I'm saying that we've done our part there it sounds like they're holding on until the new date I W to ask you I want to ask you what happens if the new date not because of PGCPS but what happens if the new date them Falls because of a meeting where does that put us in our commitment with the five million um that puts us at risk because at that point the developer can can walk and so so that's that's what we have emphasized to uh to to the state is that you know we we are we are at risk um like so just be clear the state hasn't put in any money the county hasn't put in any money so if this uh fails to pass um we are on the hook because it's seen as our procurement and so so that that's the the risk that's here um we believe that we have mitigated all the concerns uh that have been voiced over the past year um with the uh the state and with the county um and so now like I said everything has been uh sent over uh I think close to 12,000 pages of stuff so uh we uh it's a it's it's been a a labor I can't say of love but it's been a Labor uh to get it there and so now uh we we will see if there are any additional questions or anything as we work through as they work through their process um so much to team yeah no well thank I just uh the the other piece that I want to just also lay out out for everybody just to be clear is that we sent an interim draft of all of this May 13 so what we're sending them today are any updates which I think out of all of those pages is maybe 50 pages so so we have uh done our part and and uh uh board member Micks Murray that was one of those dates that was there in terms of uh sending that information to them in an interim period thank you appreciate it all right colleagues seeing no other questions um Mr Washington thank you for your report um moving on Dr Harris can I say one thing I wanted to point out when we were talking about solar panels before uh to just make it clear that all of the phase one schools uh we are finalizing a PPA for the installation of rooftop solar on those six schools all of the eight new schools that are coming for phase two will have solar panels and I believe seven of the eight are anticipated to be Net Zero so not only just have solar panels but uh but geothermal and all uh other uh types of uh uh sustainability measures uh to reach Net Zero and we have two schools opening this fall uh new William wart uh and new uh Ooa I believe Ellen O choa was designed to be a net zero um and I and I know William work will have solar panels they both will have solar panels as well so uh taking that stock we have 16 schools within the next to well within by 2028 uh that will be added to our portfolio of solar um of solar so I just wanted to make sure that that we said uh that I provided that that context as well that's awesome thank you so much and I think uh thank you so much Vice chair Harris for taking over there um I I think what we as board members need to see is sort of some type of report or tracker that is explaining the cost savings um over time as the buildings are built um to support us and informing decisions um I'll go to Vice chair Harris at this time thank you thank you Mr Washington just want to follow up to the thought around Net Zero buildings in general how is the school system going about verifying the The Net Zero Performance of our potential buildings I assume you can't really know until after a year or two of performance but what's the what's the plan for knowing that they actually um are up to par they are required by contract uh to to deliver uh Net Zero schools and to meet our compliance standards so they will be on contract to continue to report out um the the designer that we have uh they've delivered two Net Zero schools in in DC um and so it's they're taking that same approach uh there is a uh they will have a um uh I want to say database but that's not it uh that they will have some type of dashboard that will allow us to to check and see uh for the performance of the schools as we start this process and uh the expectation is is that until we have verified uh Net Zero and that we are meeting uh providing no net carbon into the atmosphere uh that they will still be responsible for uh updating systems maintaining the skin Etc and so so that's how we are um I don't know uh for elen o choa uh what the um the vehicle is in place to ensure compliance but I'm almost certain it is still uh something similar to that uh with the uh with the architect uh to ensure uh that those schools meet the requirements that are there because that's what we're paying for we're paying for uh that that performance okay thank you and I don't know if my colleague board member um boo is still here but I think it would be interesting just to have the conversation around um the utilization of digital twins when it comes specifically to Net Zero buildings and and things of that nature because that can provide good either simulated data or really realistic data on how we um can better assess the buildings that we have but thank you for the response oh no problem thank you so much uh we're going to move now to a report from uh on operations from Dr Coleman Then followed by that uh we will have our um internal audit report thank you so much uh chair Adam Stafford are we going to vote now on theou or not are you coming back to it later give me one second okay thanks I think we vote on the 27 mck Murray I think I thought you wanted to vote it out a committee I know we vote on it but I thought you wanted to vote it out of committee okay so if I can have a motion to um approve the blueprint schools program phase two exclusive negotiation agement Amendment so moved all in favor I I all opposed okay seeing hearing none the motion passed thank you okay we'll now move on to Dr Coleman thank you thank you board committee chair Adam Stafford um we have with us uh director keba Baldwin uh we wanted to provide uh another update regarding our transportation Improvement plan uh as we recall from our last meeting uh we were asked to provide the board uh with a summer call to action or talking points that could be utilized by board members and other members of the public uh to help educate our families in preparation for fall of 2024-25 uh I don't know if the board staff can pull up the summer call to action document and if not I can share my screen yes I'll give you the ability to share your screen Dr Co thank you go ahead all right can you all see the two syy 2425 Transportation summer call to action yes we can okay great so at this time I'm going to turn it over to director Baldwin he's going to talk through the first three bullets and I'll talk through the second three bullets thank you Dr Coleman and good evening uh board members as you review this summer um call to actions document we are really looking for support to maintaining uh positive movement to um Implement our prioritize recommendations so I will start by just giv given notice of being ready and on the lookout for registering for the new student excuse me new Synergy parent view portal in July all parents and Guardians must sign up to see the student schedules the attendance grades and more second bullet uh the registration and enrollment for the 2425 school year reopens July 22nd families are encouraged to register as close to that date as possible for transportation scheduling and the third book is families who do not opt out of transportation for the 2425 school year and would like to have the opportunity to do so we'll be able to do that in the parent view of synergy so we're just um hoping to get more attention to the outou uh this is a two-fold step as mentioned by the data management team to also get contact information which helps my department in scheduling properly thank you director Baldwin and again in keeping uh we worked with our Communications Department to develop this flyer uh because we know that our school leaders board members uh really wanted a userfriendly very simple uh set of talking points to take out to the community and share uh so we can build momentum for the fall uh to that end the second three bullets are focused on stop finder uh we know that there's been a lot of energy uh around ensuring that stop finder is actually supporting our families uh as they move into US utilizing the buses uh and so we wanted to reiterate through these bullets that there are two key deliverables from the stop finder app as we look at enhancing our customer service uh for our families one is the stop finder app should be utilized to see the location of the bus and to receive notifications when the bus is servicing the child uh so that means picking up or dropping off uh and so we really want to make certain that uh families are clear uh when we talk about the functions of the app because when we talk about Apps for locating some people may think of uh ways some people may think of uh Uber or Lyft or Google Maps and so we really want to make certain that families have a clear line of sight on what the app actually is designed to do so it will allow families who sign up with the GE alert to receive the Bus location and also receive a notice when the bus passes through that Geo fence uh they'll receive the alert that could be for picking up the child at the bus stop as well as dropping them off at school and then vice versa picking them up from school and then dropping them back off at the stop so that's number one uh the second deliverable that we are really honing in on with regard to the stop finder app is ensuring that families receive updates via the app and or School messenger uh when the bus is going to be significantly late um significantly late is defined as 15 minutes or greater uh and so that's where the contact information being updated uh uh in parent view is going to be vitally important not only will the this allow the transportation team to provide these regular updates but it will also allow families to see the students schedule be able to receive grade information on their child see attendance information as well as all the other functions that are going to be in parent view as a part of the Synergy student information system uh and so it's vital uh that moving into that third bullet that we have current contact information in Synergy parent view so that parents can optimize their experience uh with the stop finder app and with just interacting with the uh school system um uh in general um so I'm going to stop sharing my screen and open it up for any questions questions I have a comment uh yes and before you go uh Dr um Bo boair mckin Murray I just want to say thank you so much Dr Coleman for really being responsive to the requests of board members to have this um document to give out to our communities and we're going to really do our our part to partner with you this summer to help get as many families registered and connected um so I'm going to turn it over to chair mck Murr and then to Dr Miller after that thank you if I could just com if I could just comment and say thank you uh for that uh because we really are working hard to uh communicate with our families and we appreciate the board and board members for taking up the responsibility of helping to get the word out so thank you uh board member Adam Stafford thank you chair Adam Stafford um Dr Coleman and team thank you you put work in this we can see it you answered this call now we will need to execute so you have a plan no one can say we don't have a plan because you do thank you for the time the detail all of that is evident by this work so I just want to go on record to say I appreciate it and even though I won't be here but I will help you get the word out I promise you that and I will defend you because I believe you that you have done a great job so thank you so much board chair Micks Murray that means so much thank you so much for your ongoing support we'll go over to Dr sorry Dr I I think I Echo the sentiments of my colleagues in saying that this is really amazing that you've been able to bring us these updates and being very responsive to where we are and uh ditto to making sure we get the word out I have two questions one is actually thinking ahead um and one is now you know I I I really do thank you for clarifying at the last board meeting that even if parents don't sign up for C through that new system they will get Transportation so then the the follow-up question to that would be stop finder if they are do they need to sign up separately for stop finder because I can see how with this app if it's working that will alleviate parents being worried about where their kids are when they know what the where the bus is so that's part A Part well and you can answer in any order the second part of it is thinking now and thinking ahead in terms of levels of escalation there may be some parents or community members who would like to um who would like to sign up but just need some help so during the summer will there be some uh teams available to walk them through this so that they can sign up and then when we actually execute at the beginning of the year will there be teams available who can do some of the easy questions to answer and then the another you know being able to escalate up where there's some things that the that need a supervisory level to be able to answer so I said a lot I'm sorry no that's all right and and you can clarify for me if I'm I'm a little shaky on the second response I just want to make sure I answer the question uh but at the board me meeting as you uh mentioned uh board member Miller um director Balwin did a good job of laying out for the app itself that we need parents to partner with us in order to get the full functionality out of the app and so by that I mean uh we had 60,000 invites that were sent out to parents who were on buses their children were on buses they're ready to go we have their information we just needed them to so we send them an invitation to accept the app right download it and activate it 60,000 invitations went out only 24,000 of those families actually downloaded the app based on the invitation and then activated it so we already lost over half of the parents just from that first step and so when we talk about getting the word out that is what makes it so important you can we need that full partnership uh with our families to optimize the use of the app now to go even further director Baldwin shared that out of that 24,000 who downloaded and activated the app only five 5,000 actually created a Geo alert and the Geo alert because I've been following a a young person in fourth grade uh for since April um with my stop finder app and seeing the jail alerts I set up all of it so I could track and see does the app work and all we need them to do the families is to set up the GE alerts wherever they would like to see them I did one around the home stop and I did one around the school and once you do that you'll receive a push notification every time the bus passes through that Geo fence and that's where you're getting that every morning I was getting an alert for this fourth grade young person out of uh Heather Hills that their bus picked them up and the bus dropped them off and then the bus dropped them uh picked them up in the afternoon and then dropped them off back at the Home in the in the afternoon and I received those notifications multiple notifications daily and then if you tap on the notification the push notification that came you can actually see the bus on the map tracking through the route on the way to school and so that's the type of functionality that I believe people want but in order to get it they have to download the app activate the app set up the go alert and they'll be good to go then once they do that they don't have to touch it again and so we really that's why we've been sending out the video uh to families about how to set that up uh to your second question U it's a partnership right so we will be working with each of our schools just like we've been doing so uh this spring around signing up or getting good contact information in school max we're going to rely on our our school partners because our parents are used to interacting with their school teams we want to continue to empower the schools who are closest to our f amilies to educate them on how to maximize uh the use of the app uh and so that's one of those partnership areas that we're going to continue to focus on uh with the school teams to ensure that we can uh get our parents up to speed thank you so much Dr colan before I go to Vice chair Walker I just had an idea for all of us board members that have students that are in PGCPS could we go could we do a a tick tock live with you this summer or maybe a Instagram live and show us actually go through the steps of downloading the app and just and then way we can get it out to all of our groups and HOAs they can sort of skip go through it in real time and then I'll pass it to Vice chair Walker and our our smob Rene Rivera Force sure and and before you do board member um I know that the communications team they they teased at the last meeting that they're coming up with a set of vignettes kind of in the in the vein of what you just described U showing actually in bite-sized chunks 60 seconds 90 seconds um of how exactly what you describe how to download the app what the app functionality looks like and so we certainly are open to uh reaching and connecting with our families through any social media platform uh uh having live sessions whatever we need to do because once they're set up it's done it's set it and forget it and you'll have the functionality that you're looking for oh thank you so much chair Adam Stafford could we could I just ask as a this is prob not for Dr colan this is really Communications to the clarity in which you explain it to ensure the parents understand this this two things you want um accurate information and Synergy that's one thing right and you also want them to download this app activate and um set up the Geo settings in the app so that's two things so in communicating to be sure the parents understand that these are two different things that they need to do in order to ensure they're going to get Transportation but to ensure that you are actually sending the bus where the bus needs to be and then for them to be able to keep up so this may be a followup for communications to ensure Clarity in the messaging of the two things that need to happen over the summer thank you thank you Vice thank you so much yes I am so glad that um board member or chair Adam Stafford uh talked about how you can leverage the board because that's what I was thinking in my mind thank you so much for that the live Instagrams are so important because we do have followings on our social media and we are able to do it also um I like how you did the three that's so key so easy in a thumbnail for us to just be able to push out and talk through um one of the things I was gonna also say is if if we could be part of the test following somebody from Heather Hills or whatever then how great is that that then I go to my community and say guess what this is what I was able to do today I want you all to see that it's just value in the board member being able to share that with their community so if you put us and the peak member on there then that's already and it's smob on there that's already ways that you're coming from all angles you're coming from the parent view uh that's the peak in a community you're coming from the board member view which has some credibility inside of their districts and then you're also coming from the student perspective of why it's important that we know exactly where it is that they are so that's an opportunity as well um I love the summer work um but also we could we could be doing this thing ongoing one of the things I wanted to ask you specifically around parent view or Synergy so for instance I moved within the last school year so I had to physically go to the school in order to update my um address I couldn't do it online for um school max so I'm wondering if there are parents that's in that situation would you tell them to pause and wait until Synergy comes on where I'm assuming that they have that option to do that or would you say no follow the process and still go to the school think that's important and we can help communicate that too thanks sure so it it's going to be I would say register uh as soon as we can get families because I'm not sure if you're talking about a new registration or just a an address change well mine ended up having to be a whole new registration I don't know why but it was I'm just talking about just an address change so I had to take the deed and all of the things but it was an address change and it I needed to fill out all the paperwork I understand I would encourage families to go as soon as possible to the school and register uh we are in the midst of the blackout period until July ju system comes back up but that doesn't mean that the school can't collect the information verify everything and then it's just a matter of it being entered uh once the system comes back up and is live uh so I would encourage families to register early make the adjustments early certainly they're going to have have to touch parent view once it reopens uh we are going to be encouraging All Families to activate everyone's gonna have to activate parent view everyone so whether I'm a current registrant a new registrant everyone has to go in and touch parent view and that will give them the ability to opt out if they'd like to opt out if they haven't already or to see their child's schedule or to see grade information you know communicating with the with the teachers uh seeing attendance receiving the uh School messenger uh uh messages like all of those functions will be built into parent view but we need that activation in order for it to happen it's not automatic no problem and then two small um bites one is tonight we heard a comment on um functionality of um the the new system Synergy and if it would be possible you don't have to answer now but if you can look into it I actually thought it was a really good idea um to be able to see our testing information like over time what the mcap testing was for your specific child so if we have the ability to do that that would be phenomenal um that's one I'm I'm gonna have to defer that to uh it yeah and monitoring and accountability but certainly we can take that back um and just going back to your initial uh Point around the the focus group testing uh of the app uh that is definitely in the plan uh that was in the plan that we talked about with our board updates and so I actually received an email today uh from it uh looking for that first group of or that next group of parents uh that we want to utilize to um uh be that practice group with the app and we are going to recommend Peak uh to do that and we also are going to be looking for some board members uh so I think oafa would be makes a lot of sense uh uh we're starting with ourfa members if that's all right uh we'll recommend that as far as a group that can support that work thank you and then the last small piece was based on something that you said is um would you be able to send a communication to the schools just to let them know hey FYI in the event a parent does come to register we know the systems are down but please collect that information I don't know that um that they know that piece right there so that just will be um good that's it just to close the communication loop on that one I know it's a blackout period but I don't know if they're collecting information in the meantime they absolutely um I will I will confirm uh with monitoring and accountability because they work with our registrars but as a former principal for 14 years in our district we don't close we take registration uh when we when parents are available uh and from that point we then will enter it into the system but we're not going to allow a computer not being available to not have us interface with our families love it thank you so much thank you let's go over to our SM thank you Vice chair Harris I just wanted to Echo what the other board members said they kind of took away everything I was saying but um just to specifically put it towards the smob now working with the student member of the board the next one Jamal jongo to get that out there I definitely um can see the students getting more involved especially high school students because I see us downloading the app ourselves really and looking through it more than our parents so helping them through navigating it and also like the smob gives reports at the regional SGA meetings so just giving a report information for the smob to go through or you could go to those meetings yourself or send someone to report to the sgas that way they're taking that information back to students as well I think that would be very helpful with just spreading the information out and ensuring that all students have um access to it so thank you for all your hard work as well it is greatly appreciate it on the behalf of the students of PGCPS thank you for that board member Rivera Forbes all right colleagues seeing no further questions thank you for your um updates Dr Coleman and thank you for your questions uh both committee members and our visiting members I really appreciate everyone being here tonight for the robust discussion I'm going to now move on to item 3.3 third quarter internal audit report the floor is yours Miss uh walterson correct thank you Vice chair Harris um okay we have a presentation shared good evening everyone I am here on behalf of Mrs W Winston still to present the um third quarter report of internal audits activities can I have the next slide please okay this report is presented in part um fulfilling the requirement for our reporting requirement as outlined in our Charter next okay for the third quarter of this um fiscal year internal audit has conducted um a total 15 Audits and those are issued audit reports um we've also this included six operational six Student Activity funds and three investigations we've also um received and reviewed a total of 145 hotlines and um during this process we have reviewed $1.1 million in school activity funds next okay I here I'm going to just I guess briefly go over some of our operational Audits and the first one was the school emergency procedures operations follow-up audit and this audit um was a followup to a similar audit that was conducted in 2022 and um we have identified in that previous audit eight um we ate recommendations and during this audit we were able to determine that four of those recommendations were fully implemented two were partially implemented and two were not implemented we've also identified two additional findings um three sorry and but all of them were um concurred with by the audit and and um those were implemented or the implementation is ongoing next the other audit operational audit was assure ID a sure ID is an audit that um birthed out of an audit that was um per previously performed um of ID management and in this process we identified that assure ID was an application that was was a standalone up um application that was used by transportation services during the ID management audit we recommended that this process be included in the centralized process for issuing ID um ID badges and based on the follow-up audit that we did reviewing assure ID the assure ID application we were able to determine that this um recommendation was fully implemented um there was however two observations that we wanted to bring to your attention and one such is a is excessive delay in ID badge issuance to newly hired busot employees um management partially concurred with that observation and the second is the assure ID application has not been properly disposed of and management has concurred and has determined that an action would have been taken to address that next okay the other um operations audit was a red circle um fro or frozen depending on the union um review that was conducted and this audit was also a followup I know that we get questions often have you followed up to ensure that recommendations have been implemented and we have um followed up and noted that implementation has occurred in this case um the corrective action was taken um but in some cases four of the four recommendations two were fully implemented one was partially implemented and the other was undetermined and we noted an additional um finding and this is based on entering Personnel action we noted that the Personnel actions were not processed timely management has said they did not concur with this finding um so um I guess maybe well in our recommendation what we recommen recommended or how we uh recommended that management should have um address the issue management had a different way so the non-c concurrence was not that it did not occur it's just the approach in getting it done it differed from what internal audit recommended next school facility use and um feas analysis so this was an operational audit that was more of a continuous audit in nature where we reviewed facility use fees and um to determine how these um fees were well assessed and was Prince georgees County Public School getting the appro appropriate value for services of the um build build use of the buildings and we noted we a few observations here segregation of Duties and I must say management mostly concurred with this re the recommendations or the observations here in this audit this review we noticed the first one there was um inadequate segregation of Duty where most of the functions for performing the um administration of facility use was conducted by a single Pur staff member and um the there's a corrective action that was that scheduled to go in effect regarding that as of July 1 and they were unscheduled facility use management did agree with us on that um unpaid rental fee we were able to identify those um based on the data that we we got um inconsistent application of rental fees was another area and then the I guess the design of the system that houses information was not user friendly so that was another observation that we made management agreed and I think that um from what I recall there is a a process in place to um transition not transition to update the platform that's used to um get the information next there was another it audit trium Niagara application and this is an audit of the it um security and access controls that was conducted um this audit revealed a single finding and the finding was that standard operating procedures for trium niagar Access authorization um were not effective um so there was the access was not properly authorized in that sense so management concurred with that finding and um an action date was provided to us which has passed so by now I guess when we do the followup we'll see that they Implement timely next okay and here we are school activity funds followup audit so this was a continuous audit that was conducted to determine whether schools implemented the recommendations for school activity fund audits so the audits that were um the audit the school number of schools audited in this process was 64 saaf um for the period and we looked at all the um recommendations that were issued from that period and we selected all the schools that had four or more recommendations uh findings and then we review the recommendations associated with those findings to see whether management implemented um management has implemented in some cases and others management has not implemented um the recommendations that were made by um accounting we have since um submitted well recent that um review sometimes we did not in some cases we did not get responses so the instructional direct directors were requested to provide oversight in attaining principal's corrective actions for this period so we have received a significant amount we have not received all but we recent it it's in a the share a Google um Google form um Google sheet sorry and we're we've sent it there we' send reminders and providing updates to instructional directors and Associate superintendant and hopefully we can have um appropriate response on this and this is an audit that we plan to continue to do annual at least annually so that we can engage principls engage instructional director s and their supervisors to ensure that they're listening they're observing what is going on with the recommendations that we're making and they're taking the appropriate actions to ensure that um the schools are the principls and bookkeepers are addressing the recommendations and improvements are made next investigations the three investigations that we've um had or we conducted During the period one was for the um Lis Wilson senior facility building um employee improper payroll the other was for uh Charles flowers High School um 2023 funds and the third was Exel Academy grading practices so we've conducted these um investigations based on the complaints that we've received and and none of these were substantiated next okay for the Student Activity funds that we conducted this period we have um conduct the the six schools that we've reviewed uh resulted in a total of 23 audit findings um of and uh approximately 31 I think 31 recommendations of the recommendations that were provided to management or to admin School administrators the um they have concurred with all but three three and the three that they did not fully concur with were partially concurred with so um we've identified their regular findings of um delinquent deposits findings of um mismanagement of funds received mismanagement of disbursements the normal findings that we find dayto day but um management has responded positively and when we do the follow-up audit we'll see whether they've they've implemented um recommendations that they've concurred with next okay um this is just a summary of our hotlines the 145 hotlines that we've received and reviewed for the period and here we see our top I think from top four um was parent and community relations school and office management bullying and harassment and employee relations with employee relations being the highest in terms of frequency next okay the audits planned for our fourth quarter um we have these are operational audits we have already conducted the exit conference for our EJ Ward it audit um we've conducted exit conference for Tool allotment the skyline technology expenditure review is a continuous audit it does not require an exit conference um and the human resource audit is still wrapping up in the LA latent part of the fieldwork phase um we have since issued the tool allotment audit and we anticipate that the skyline Technologies expenditure review will be issued tomorrow and the EJ award report is to be issued soon also so um that's all the audits I think that the human resource certification process audit uh will not be issued until the next um fiscal year so that one crosses over and this brings me to the end end of the presentation for today um and I think I I must say thank you for your attention and um I am listening to hear whether you have any questions all right thank you so much Miss Walter sample I have a couple of quick questions if you yes ma'am slide number nine if you could share your screen again so you know i' I've had a constant sort of question regarding these um Student Activity funds and some of the challenges around them is there a way that you all could quantify sort of how much we're losing by the the mismanagement of these School activity funds just to put a dollar amount here and especially with these these actions not being implemented I mean it seems like there's over 80 actions that have not been implemented you know based on what I'm looking at here so that's my first question so to quantify we may not be able to assign um a specific dollar amount and the reason is that these there there's a potential for loss but um when we perform the audit we cannot quantify what that loss is for example let's say it's mismanagement of funds received and one of the issues there is that funds received by schools are not deposited timely or they're held by the teacher who collected the funds and they're not remitted to the bookkeeper so that they can get deposited on time there is a risk there that if the funds are left with the teacher funds can get stolen funds um Can funds can get lost um you know so there's a potential for loss that's the number I'd like to know you know I'd like to be able to say because of this mismanagement we could have had a potential loss of you know however many millions of dollars okay I think that is a number that we need to see that we can pass some policies that would stop that I mean we are only out 77 million now at this point and I'm looking for every penny basically and I feel like these this is a continual challenge for the system and this is an area that we as board members should pay closer attention to because this really is at the school level um where we're seeing these challenges and there perhaps needs to be a policy that can support in you know dealing with some of these challenges so some type of document that says like what are the potential losses I mean you could just choose one of the categories now but you know maybe in the future we could look at several categories but just in that example mismanagement of funds receives received we could have had a potential loss of how many million or how how how much money and then so before before you go on um yes sh um what we can do we can we can certainly try to capture this information um and present it to you in terms of dollar and cents um we can capture all of it cannot be Quantified but the ones that can be Quantified we can probably work on that and try to maybe have an add a slide to this pre presentation so that it provides you with that information so I'm going to take that one back and we can work to add a slide where we you know capture that information for your benefit thank you and then that will support us in our policy making um another question I have if you could go up to the school facility slide I believe was slide seven maybe you know I'd like to know um sort of where where are we in terms of um just sort of understanding where we are situated in the am the amount that we charge to use our facilities so locally you know are our fees less or more um are our fees less or more than the the um parks and wreck you know what maybe if you could help us to understand because perhaps there may be some opportunities there to either raise fees to cover some of the costs on the wear and tear on our schools or to cover some of our deficits or to you know charge different fees or to lower the fees so that we're more competitive and we get more people that want to use our facility um but essentially I just want to understand sort of you know what are we charging what is this on par with what's happening regionally and where is there room for us to improve here on school facility use cuz I know for for certain like in my district there are different um Community organizations that use schools you know the wear and tear on our schools week after week um that does add up that does have a financial you know burden that is passed on to us so maybe we need to when was the last time the fees were adjusted do you you know did May perhaps um Dr Coleman or um Mr stefanelli if someone from facilities can speak to that when was the last time our fees were you know observed or adjusted or anything okay um I'll I guess I'll defer um the response to Mr Stefan Al um or his team um but the purpose of this audit was to see okay are the fees that um we receiving are those accurately calculated are they consistently determined and you know that's what we were that was the objective here it they not you know Encompass all that um information regarding comparing the fee for um reasonableness compared to another um entity so um but that's something we can definitely consider for a future audit anyway I'll defer the rest of the response to Mr Stefan Ali and Dr so the facility use rate fees are actually reviewed by the board um I can't say the the the timeline around how often but I want to say annually uh but I would I would have to double check that I'm not certain of that board chair you're shaking your head no so please go ahead and clarify that yes uh I don't well I know it hasn't come before the board since I've been here and I've been here a year and a half so uh so that's not an accurate statement but what I was going to suggest is that now that the board has an audit committee that is chaired by Brandon Jackson maybe those kinds of things can become can be reviewed annually as they discover what they should be and maybe um Miss Walter sener can um simper yeah can meet with uh Mr Jackson and they have a meet and greet and discuss some of this as they're moving forward how the board's audit committee would interact with our audit team so thank you for that clarification I apologize for Miss speaking thank you the one thing that I would uh say also though is I'm glad that we would have a committee to look into it because it is a complex question um we have community members who rely on the utilization of our facilities uh and they have limited funds available uh by which to uh support whatever program they bring uh but at the same time there is you know when you use something it requires more maintenance it requires more upkeep and so there's that Push Pull of being a strong Community partner uh but at the same time ensuring that uh the facilities are ready for their core um uh purpose which is availability for instruction so um there's a lot of U discussion that needs to be had on both sides yes and we and you know we don't want to exclude community members from using this um I think we just need to we need to do a a more we just need to as a board take a look at sort of the usage the impact and the cost that's all I'm saying yeah thank you so much um any of my other colleagues have any action items here okay go ahead Dr Miller good thank you uh chadam Stafford this is a quick question there was a slide about the IDS um the bus drivers and the IDS the question um I guess would be the findings um saw and correct me if I'm wrong that there was a delay in getting the bus drivers's IDs so what is the impact on them starting work if they don't have their ID we need our staff to have IDs in order to move forward with their work so what we are trying to do or working to do in transportation is make certain that we're working with our HR Partners uh to streamline that part of the process so it doesn't become uh uh an impediment uh to drivers or bus attendants being able to move forward with their on boarding process is is there anything and don't have to answer it now Dr Coleman is there anything we can do as a board whether it's provide more equipment or to ensure that the bus drivers teams because I know that they are at different places and I don't want to blab a getting into the process but if you can think of there's anything we can do as a board to assist with that because we know that you have been working you and your team has been working feverishly to ensure that we have on time Bus arrival on time you know and it would ENT also the bus drive is starting on time as well yeah absolutely um I I would defer that to our chief of Human Resources Dr Baldwin uh but certainly what I can say is uh transportation and Human Resources uh have engaged in a series of meetings to look at just what you just described uh we have to be looking at this from really two pillars uh to get to where we need to go one is improving operational efficiency and effectiveness and two is Staffing and hiring and and retaining the staff that we have uh so we need both pillars in order to get to the types of Transportation improvements that we're looking towards uh and that's the goal so I would defer exactly how the board could could U support that work to her Dr Baldwin uh but I do know that we are coordinating uh uh now around um how to ensure we have that pipeline of staff thank you and you said Dr Baldwin as in Dr Baldwin HR correct that is correct Dr Christ Balwin yes ma'am okay okay well thank you so much for your attention to our presentation yes thank you so much for the presentation um I wanted to just take a quick moment before we close out for today and just shout out to rain Rivera Forbes um our student member of the board who has been an integral member of the oafa team um and I personally have just been so impressed with how you always keep keep us centered on students and how you have just been asking all the right questions at the right time so rain you will be sorely missed but I hope that you'll take your learnings from this experience and apply them uh up in talson right am I right on that tiger TS Tigers okay and I'm gonna um see if any other board members would like to say a few words to rain yes rain you know I love you right and since and since and since talson is an my grandson is a lum an Alum of thalson I'm gonna keep an eye on you because he knows people so we G we're gonna spy on you okay just know that go ahead board then Vice uh Dr Harris she's not m i mean she needs to unmute R she's trying but she can you hear me now yes okay hey rain I just wanted to say it was a pleasure serving with you on the board um you are so smart and um you know you really have paved the way for students to have a voice here on this board and I'm so thankful to have served along with you and looking forward to you um doing big things in your future in politics okay uh Dr haris I'm just gonna Echo our our colleagues here um rain it's been a pleasure to work with you very very proud of you of everything you've accomplished this year um and much success at tson you know it's not too far so come visit us at the board sometime and and I hope you have a great first year and uh coling success um any of the administration uh want to say if you'd like to you can feel free to as well rain I just want to say good luck to you you are an incredibly impressive young lady um and I know for a fact that you're going to do wonderful wonderful work in the future so uh will you just make us all PGCPS proud and I'm just looking forward to your exciting future great and Dr Miller I would say ditto rain you are incredible you are a thought partner and you brought a lot of Not Just Energy but a lot of invaluable um input to this board please continue to do what you're doing we know you're going to do great things and if there's anything that I can do to support you I am here all right wonderful okay well thank you so much oh rain sorry sorry I just wanted to respond if that was okay but um thank you everyone it has truly been an honor serving as the student member of the board and obviously I have my very long winded speech uh coming up next week but not too longwinded sharing is wor Mr Fish Patrick I promise it's not gonna be too longwinded but I have really greatly appreciated this experience and especially to be the first student member of the board to serve on this committee and to the first mob to vote on the budget it has truly been an honor to be able to leave by example and I'm so excited for the Legacy that's going to just continue from this position from the smops that have been here before me and the ones that will come after me and I thank you all for being able to give me the platform and encouraging me and everything I have done I have truly enjoyed working with you and I'm going to miss you all thank you all right thank you rain uh the followup items from our May 15 2024 committee meeting will be posted on board docs upon receipt again thank you everyone for a great meeting and a great year again we wish you so much uh just blessing and good luck reain in your your future endeavors and we're so thankful and happy for uh this team pressing forward uh with some of the great challenges we face with the budget um and additionally uh the new uh sort of era we're ushering in of the transportation change and thank you to all of the members of the administration for your diligence with all of our questions helping us to chart this path forward and also thank you to our board staff for all of your work and making sure that this committee runs smoothly and passing a record number of amendments this year um you all did a wonderful F job of helping keep us in line thank you to uh Vice chair Dr Harris uh for helping us run smoothly um to all of the members of the committee um board member Json route uh board member Micks Murray thank you all so much um for being here and being present at each meeting um may I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn and also thank you to chair Adam Stafford for her leadership oner this year great great job great job thank you so much okay it's been moved and seconded um to adjourn all in favor hi okay great the time is now 7:16 pm and we are adjourned have a great evening thank you everybody happy birthday Joselyn happy birthday happy birthday thank you I couldn't believe I saw her face joining us on her birthday well you know