Category: Board of Education

Board of Education Member Under Investigation for Falsifying Free Lunch Documentation

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From ABC7 News, July 20, 2015. To read the full story and watch the news broadcast, go here.

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (WJLA) – When Lyn Mundey was named by county executive Rushern Baker to fill a vacancy on the Prince George’s County school board in 2013 she was called “an advocate for public education.”
Now ABC 7 News has learned Mundey is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Prince George’s County state’s attorney into whether or not she lied about her income to qualify for free school lunch for her child. A prospect which doesn’t sit well with her constituents.

Continue reading at ABC7.

Your Questions Answered: Board Member Addresses School Breakfasts, Special Education, Literacy, and Other Topics

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On June 15, Board of Education member Lupi Grady hosted a listening session at Greenbelt Middle School for parents in District Two. Parents used index cards to jot down questions and comments covering a variety of topics. The cards were collected at the end of the meeting.
Attendees recently received a compilation of questions from the meeting (more than two dozen in all), along with answers gathered from multiple administrative departments. The questions and answers are posted here with permission. Scroll to the bottom of the post to see additional comments from parents.

Family & Community Engagement

  • Can the PGCPS Family Engagement committees publicize their plan (calendar) for engaging communities?

All Board committee meetings are publicly announced. As the dates are determined for the upcoming school year, those dates will be placed on the Board calendar, which is posted on the PGCPS website.

  • I would like to know how to become involved with the Parent Advisory Council.

Any interested parties should contact Sheila Jackson, Director of the Department of Family and Community Engagement.

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How to Find an Official PGCPS Policy or Procedure on Anything You Want

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by Genevieve Demos Kelley

Prince George’s County schools have an official administrative procedure on nearly everything — from employee use of social media, to homecoming IMG_6358bonfires, to controlling head lice  — and you can find them all at the Office of General Counsel’s web page. More than one hundred Administrative Procedures (each is usually at least two pages long) are detailed on the website, as well as dozens of separate Board Policies that tend to be shorter and deal with governing principles rather than procedural minutiae.

The policies and procedures make for fascinating reading. For example, here are a few interesting details:

  • The guidelines for selecting read-aloud books for the elementary classroom include prohibitions against books that promote stereotypes (e.g. racial, gender, etc.), books with reference to sex education issues, and books “with reference to the supernatural (i.e., devils).”  Administrative Procedure 6180.4, Guidelines for Selecting Read-Aloud Books
  • Bonfires are permitted at homecoming athletic events but at no other time during the school year. The bonfires are heavily regulated to ensure safety and must be supervised by the Fire Department. Administrative Procedure 6146, Bonfires for Homecoming Athletic Event
  • Under certain conditions, teachers and other school personnel may use exclusion to address a student’s behavior, but each period of exclusion may not exceed 30 minutes. “Exclusion” is defined as “removal of a student to a supervised area for a limited period of time during which the student has an opportunity to regain self-control and is not receiving instruction including special education, related services, or support.” Administrative Procedure 5062, Student Behavior Interventions
  • Students found to have lice are excluded from school at the end of the day and may be readmitted with proof of treatment (e.g. note from medical provider or “empty package or box top from an over the counter medication and receipt of recent purchase.” The school nurse should re-screen affected children 7-14 days after treatment. Administrative Procedure 5162, Pediculosis (Head Lice) Control in Schools

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Weekly News Roundup: Free Summer Lunches, Bitter Budget Debate at Board Meeting, Future of Forestville High, MUST Tests Suspended

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Free summer lunches for children 18 years and younger will be provided at several county schools from June 29 though August 7. No proof of income is required. See flyer for details. (PGCPS) News channel NBC Washington reports that the meals will also be available at a handful of libraries and provides a map. (NBC 4)

“The Prince George’s County Board of Education engaged in one of its most bitter battles in recent memory while giving approval to changes to the school system’s 2016 budget.” (Sentinel)

“To fill the vacancy created by the expiration of the term of Dr. Daniel Kaufman, County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III is now accepting applications from residents who are interested in serving as an At-Large appointed member of the Prince George’s County Board of Education.” (Prince George’s County Executive)

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Consulting Firm Recommends 29 School Closures and $8.5 Billion Over 20 Years in Capital Improvements

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by Genevieve Demos Kelley

Prince George’s County Public Schools should spend $8.5 billion over 20 years on capital improvement projects — including school construction, modernization, and renovation — according to recommendations made by the consulting firm Brailsford and Dunlavey. Recommendations also included 29 school closures.

What is the Master Plan Support Project?

In the fall of 2014, PGCPS began its Master Plan Support Project (MPSP), as part of an effort to optimize its capital improvements. The facilities planning and program management firm Brailsford and Dunlavey was hired to study facility conditions and make recommendations on prioritizing school construction and renovation projects.

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Parent Asks Board of Education for Longer Recess

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The following opinion was presented by Genevieve Demos Kelley, a member of Prince George’s County Advocates for Better Schools, in the public comment portion of the May 14, 2015 Board of Education meeting. Much of the content here is sourced from a post published on this blog that Kelley had written previously.

Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about an issue that has been the topic of countless playground conversations, PTA meetings, and gripe sessions among the parents in my community: the length of recess for elementary school students. According to PGCPS policy, elementary students may have as little as 15 minutes of recess per day. Among my circle of friends, this is a favorite complaint. One of my friends has even decided to start home-schooling her son, in part because he was not getting enough unstructured time in his kindergarten year.

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A Local Parent Raises Questions about Cell Tower Deal

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This piece is contributed by Theodora Scarato, a Prince George’s County parent who has helped to organize Safe Schools for Prince George’s County, an advocacy group that opposes cell towers on school grounds. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Prince George’s County Advcoates for Better Schools.

The Prince George’s County School Cell Tower Deal

Seventy-three Prince George’s County Schools are now available as cell tower sites by the Board of Education. Several towers are in the process of permitting and construction. Many parents hear about this plan and instinctively think that it’s a bad idea.

Over the last year, I have worked with parents, homeowner asociations, and community organizations that are opposed to these towers. Here is what I learned. I have more questions than answers.

The cell tower agreement is a no-bid deal. A Virginia-based company (not minority-owned), Milestone Communications, is the only company that has a leasing deal for towers with Prince George’s County Schools. This agreement was made without bids or RfPs for the best price. There was no competition considered. Why does only Milestone get the leases? How was this no-bid deal hatched?

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Board of Education Meeting Minutes Available Online

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by Genevieve Demos Kelley

The online location for minutes of past Board of Education meetings isn’t exactly intuitive. Try scrolling through BoardDocs, or try entering the phrase “minutes of board of education meetings” into the search bar at pgcps.org (with or without specifying a meeting date), and see if you can figure out where to find them.

The minutes, however, are easily accessible if you know precisely where to look. Go to the Board of Education page, and open BoardDocs. Scroll through to find the next Board of Education meeting after the one that you’re interested in. Open the agenda for that meeting, and scroll through to find the item, “Approval of Board Meeting Minutes.” Click on the icon to open the document.

For example, find the minutes for the April 16, 2015 System Oversight Board Meeting by looking in the May 14 Board Meeting agenda.

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Highlights of the 2015 MD General Assembly Legislative Session

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by Katherine McElhenny

Wondering what went on in the MD Assembly that pertains to PG Education? The 2015 Legislation page won’t help; it still hasn’t been updated! Check below for a video clip of highlights as well as a handy table of significant legislation.

The following is a MD State Legislative Update as provided to the PGCPS Board of Education on 4/16/15 by Ms. Demetria Tobias, Esq., Associate General Counsel.

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Eighth Grader Asks Maryland Board of Education for Less Standardized Testing

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A Prince George’s County eighth grader testified at a recent Maryland State Board of Education meeting, asking for a reduction in the amount of standardized testing for Maryland students. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Prince George’s County Public Schools or its members.

My name is Katherine Grace Harness. I am an 8th grader at Kenmoor Middle School. I have been taking standardized tests since second grade. They have become a way of life. However with the addition of the new PARCC test, people everywhere have woken up to the excessive 100_3370amount of standardized testing. We need to reduce the number of standardized tests. Fifty-five out of one hundred and eighty school days are taken up with standardized tests, not counting the unit tests each teacher may give. That means more than a quarter of the school year is taken up with testing. We take at least six different standardized tests.

Standardized tests are used for getting data. This data is not being used for improving student instruction; it merely says if students are on grade level or not. It does not diagnose the problems in the classroom students are having so that teachers can help them. It does not improve education.

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