Category: Board of Education

Prince George’s Group Offers Support for Parents of Students with Health Needs

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The support group Parents of Students with Health Needs recently held a listening session with board of education member Verjeana Jacobs and other PGCPS officials, so that parents could share their experiences.

The excerpt below is from the Gazette, reporter Jamie Anfenson-Comeau, published May 20, 2015.

For the complete story, go here.

Beth McCracken-Harness of Cheverly said that the three years her son spent in and out of school while being treated for a major illness were some of the most difficult experiences in her life.

“There was a time when I couldn’t go to the doctor right across the street without getting a call that my son’s heart monitor was going off,” McCracken-Harness recalled. “It was very isolating. Thank God for the Home and Hospitals teachers who came by.”

Continue reading at the Gazette.

Maryland State Board of Education’s Newest Members Support Charters, Vouchers, High-Stakes Testing

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by Genevieve Demos Kelley

Update on May 22, 2015: The post has been edited to reflect clarification received in response to a query about Bellwether Education Partners.

100_3383The Maryland State Department of Education has announced the appointment of two new members to the Maryland State Board of Education. Governor Hogan has selected Chester E. Finn, Jr., Ed.D. of Montgomery County and Andy Smarick of Queen Anne’s County to replace Charlene M. Dukes and Donna Hill Staton, whose terms ended last year.

Chester Finn is Chairman of the K-12 Education Task Force of Stanford University’s Hoover Institute. According to the Hoover Institute’s website, the Education Task Force promotes “systematic reform options such as vouchers, charter schools, and testing.” Click here to find analyses that Finn wrote for the Hoover Institute, generally avowing the importance of “results-based accountability” and testing. Finn is also President Emeritus of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a think tank with ties to the Gates Foundation that supports education reforms such as the Common Core State Standards, school choice, and accountability testing.

In January, Finn wrote an article for the New York Daily News praising Governor Cuomo’s education-reform agenda, calling it “awesome” and “union-unfriendly.” Cuomo’s agenda included “revamped (and tougher) teacher evaluations, more charters, a state-level version of the Dream Act,” but the item that Finn singles out for special attention is a tax-credit scholarship program for families to send their children to private schools. Praising the governor’s proposed voucher program, Finn writes that “school-choice advocates — and those who care more about the education of children than the interests of adults — should celebrate and applaud.”

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A Dozen Years of Changes in PGCPS Governance Structure

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by Amy Alford

Over the last dozen years, the PGCPS Board of Education has been structured in several different ways. Each time, the change occurred as the result of an act of the Maryland General Assembly.

The governance of PGCPS is unusual compared to school districts across the country. Nationwide, 90% of school districts are termed “Independent School Districts” which means that the elected school board has taxing authority. In Prince George’s County (and in Maryland in general), the school board depends on the county government to partially fund its budget (other money comes from the state and federal government). ([12])

In 2003, the elected board of education was replaced by a board appointed by the county executive (Wayne Curry at the time), and the governor. At the same time, the superintendent position was renamed the CEO, forcing Iris Metts, the superintendent at the time, to reapply for her job. ([1], [2]) She was rehired, but did not seek a new contract in 2003. The dissolution of the school board was in part caused by an attempt by the board to fire Metts. After Metts left, the appointed board hired Andre Hornsby, who resigned in 2005 during a federal investigation that ended with his conviction. ([3]). Howard Burnett served as acting CEO until John Deasy was hired in 2006.

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One Member’s Experience Testifying at a PG County Board of Education Meeting

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The following is a first person account from a Prince George’s county resident who recently elected to testify at a board of education (BOE) meeting. If you would like to testify about an issue you feel needs attention, check the website pgcps.org/board for more information, and call 301-952-6115 to register.

Mold in my son’s classroom has been an ongoing concern this school year. On March 26th, another parent suggested that it might be worth testifying before the board of education about the issue.

I learned there was a board of education meeting scheduled that night at Suitland High School. I looked up how to testify before the board of education and found out that you only needed to call 2.5 hours in advance. Even disorganized me could manage that! I called a friend to ask if she’d accompany me, and then called to register. The woman who answered took down my name, contact information, and the topic I wanted to speak about.

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Why You Should Consider Attending the May 7 or May 11 Board of Education Community Discussion

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BOE Invest in PGCPS Flyer

by Genevieve Demos Kelley

If you have questions and concerns about the Board of Education’s requested operating budget for FY 2016, consider attending either the May 7 or May 11 community discussion with the Board of Education. (For locations and more details, see the flyer.) I attended the first in the series of three meetings on April 27, and I was pleased with how worthwhile it turned out to be.

First, let me qualify my enthusiasm just a bit: Not every moment was a valuable use of my time. The meeting was in two parts. It started with at least 30 minutes of vague generalities about the school system’s core values and mission, and comments about the need for full funding of the FY2016 budget. The substantive information gleaned from this portion of the meeting could have been easily squeezed into five minutes. (Fortunately, I had brought my hard copy of the requested operating budget, so I had material to study when my attention waned.)

We heard about the CEO’s plans to spend the additional $91.7 million requested in the amended budget, but they were so vague that they were essentially meaningless. Here’s how he wants to spend the money:

  • Academic Excellence
  • High-performing workforce
  • Safe and Supportive Environments
  • Family and Community Engagement
  • Additional Priorities

See what I mean?

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The Amended Requested FY2016 Budget: Where Are the Additional 91.7 Million Dollars Going?

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IMG_6355by Genevieve Demos Kelley

The Board of Education’s requested operating budget is $1.93 billion. That’s an increase of $135.7 million or 7.6% over the Fiscal Year 2015 approved operating budget. Moreover, this amended budget exceeds the CEO’s original proposed budget for FY2016 by $91.7 million. How will the additional $91.7 million be spent? The CEO has outlined four areas that will absorb the additional funding, should the requested budget be approved — Academic Excellence, High-Performing Workforce, Family and Community Engagement, Safe and Supportive Environments — plus an assortment of “additional priorities.” In a March 17, 2015 presentation to the County Council, those areas were broken down into subcategories with specific dollar amounts attached to each. Continue reading →

Board of Education Violates Open Meetings Act

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From the Sentinel, by reporter Holden Wilen, published on April 15, 2015.

For the complete story, go here.

UPPER MARLBORO – The Prince George’s County Board of Education will announce at its next meeting it violated the Open Meetings Act after the Open Meetings Compliance Board (OMCB) ruled the Board’s staff failed to provide copies of minutes to a county resident.

Thea Scarato, an activist who opposes cell phone towers, said she was attempting to track the history of the school system’s cell phone tower policy by making open records requests and looking through minutes of meetings by the school board and its subsidiary committees.

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Laurel HS Teacher Testifies at Board of Education about PARCC Testing

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The following was presented as a public comment at the Prince George’s County Board of Education meeting on March 26, 2015. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Prince George’s County Advocates for Better Schools.


Good evening. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak tonight.

I am Cheryl Davis and have been involved in education for over 25 years.  I am an English teacher at Laurel High School (with 13 years of experience teaching Advanced Placement English); I have been a business writing consultant; I have been an adjunct professor; and I have even been a home and hospital teacher. This year and last, I have seen more disruption in the education of my students–caused by  poor Common Core Standards implementation and unreasonable testing requirements–than I have in over two decades  of teaching. Continue reading →