Speak up About the Budget

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by Lori Morrow
 

100_3401The Prince George’s County Public Schools budget cycle began this past fall, with CEO Kevin Maxwell requesting public input in crafting the proposed Annual Operating Budget for fiscal year 2017. In a school system with nearly 129,000 students in 209 schools, the public submitted only 53 responses.

We all know that parents have opinions. We hear them at PTA meetings, school events, on social media, or from our friends and neighbors. However, sharing opinions with our friends is not enough. We must participate in the process. This year, the CEO is requesting an increase of $182.2Million over last year’s budget to support academic excellence, build a high-performing work force, and expand high-demand programs. After years of tight budgets, these are things our schools need to continue improving.

Getting involved may sound daunting and time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be:

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Writing Across the Curriculum: One Math Teacher’s Experience

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In December, the Washington Post published an article describing the new literacy program in Prince George’s County Public Schools that requires teachers of all subjects to teach literacy skills in the classroom. One middle school math teacher has shared with us her experience with the new program. She has asked to remain anonymous.

Last fall, I learned that my students would be required to complete a literacy assignment as part of the new county-wide literacy initiative. Previously, our focus had been on the Formative Assessment for Maryland Educators (FAME) tasks. These tasks combine math and literacy skills by having students solve real-life problems and explain their thinking. With the new program, in addition to completing the FAME tasks, students would write five-paragraph essays.

During a subsequent school-wide professional development meeting, I learned that each department across our school would be completing the same writing task, which mirrors the SAT essay. Social studies would complete the assignment in October, science in November, math in December, creative arts, health, and physical education in January, and language arts and world languages in March. The goal is for each department to conduct the same activity with the students to see if there is marked improvement in student reading and writing across content areas.

Every prompt is nearly identical. The basic task takes the form, “Write an essay in which you explain how the author builds an argument to persuade his audience that [insert author’s claim here].”

Here is the one used for my class:

writingPrompt

With each prompt is an essay for students to read and analyze.  For math students across the county in December, Grade 6 and 7 students read an excerpt from Math Doesn’t Suck, a book written by Danica McKellar and Grade 8 students read the article “Teaching Kids Why Math Matters” by Cindy Donaldson in order to complete the analysis of an argument writing prompts.

We are told to have the students complete this assignment in ten steps.

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Mary Kingston Roche is New Board of Education Member

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Hyattsville resident Mary Kingston Roche was sworn in Thursday as the newest member of the Prince George’s County Board of Education. Ms. Roche was appointed by County Executive Baker to fill the At-Large position vacated last summer by Dr. Daniel Kaufman.

Ms. Roche is Director of Public Policy for the Institute for Educational Leadership’s (IEL) Coalition for Community Schools. Community schools bring a wide range of services and supports to public schools, aiming to be both academic institutions and hubs of the community.

Read more about community schools on IEL’s Frequently Asked Questions page.

Read more on IEL’s website about Ms. Roche’s background experience and her role as advocate for community schools.

Read County Executive Baker’s news release.

Maryland Legislative Session: Healthier Food for Schools

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Healthy School Food Maryland is a statewide coalition lobbying for better cafeteria meals for Maryland schoolchildren. Coalition coordinator Lindsey Parsons recently met with Prince George’s County Advocates for Better Schools to talk about legislative goals for the current session. The coalition is working to pass two bills in the 2016 Maryland state legislative session:

  • The Sensible Sugar in Schools Act (SB 65, HB 528) will require school districts to work toward lowering sugar in meals to levels within the guidelines set by the American Heart Association.
  • The School Food Transparency Act (HB 109) will require schools to list à la carte items and snack foods on breakfast and lunch menus. Parents and teachers often find that kids spend their money on sugary snacks, instead of eating the protein and vegetables served at lunch. (Bonus: This bill is sponsored by Delegate Diana Fennell (D-47), who represents parts of Prince George’s County.)

You  can find more details, including bill drafts and fact sheets, on the Healthy School Food Maryland website.

If you support these legislative goals, there are several ways to get involved:

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Budget Q & A on February 4th (Updated)

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Update: Due to the severe snowstorm, this event has been rescheduled for Thursday, February 4th.

PGCABS flyerBring your questions about the CEO’s proposed operating budget for Fiscal Year 2017 to the Greenbelt Community Center (Rm. 114) on Monday, January 25th Thursday, February 4th at 6 pm. Staff from the PGCPS Budget Office will be in attendance to answer questions.

As you are preparing your questions, keep the following in mind:

  • Be sure that your questions are clear and to the point. This is not the time to make speeches about the virtues or failings of the budget. Save those comments for the Board of Education‘s budget hearing on February 9th.
  • Questions should pertain specifically to the operating budget. This meeting is not focused on school construction and renovation projects; capital improvements have a separate budget.
  • If possible, email your questions in advance of the meeting to pgcabschools@gmail.com or enter them into this google form.
  • Here is the link to CEO Maxwell’s proposed budget.

Have more questions about the event? Email us at pgcabschools@gmail.com.

Here is a link to the Facebook event page.

Why I Left PGCPS and Learned to Love Home Schooling

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by Katy C.

homeschoolLast August, I withdrew my son from Prince George’s County Public Schools and began to home school him. This was a big step on many levels, impacting not only the environment of my child’s day-to-day life, but also my expectations for his future, our goals for his learning, and the financial security of my family. So why did I do this? From my perspective I had very little choice; it has turned out to be a very good decision.

My son’s elementary school treated him as a behavior problem that could not be solved. His behavior became more of a problem the more he struggled with his environment. He spent most of every day struggling with feeling overwhelmed. The school viewed him as extremely defiant and disorderly, but in fact he felt unsafe, overwhelmed, and incapable of learning. The message that he received from school is that he was a failure at learning and conforming. He became angry; his teachers became frustrated.

My son entered kindergarten in PGCPS with a recent diagnosis of a neurological processing issue. Although I brought the issue to the teacher’s attention before the first day of school, I waited until the end of kindergarten for a 504 plan.

The next year, things went downhill in terms of his behavior and learning. The school conducted a battery of tests, with some prompting from me subsequent to external visits to multiple doctors. The testing returned a wide variety of issues, including learning disabilities, sensory issues, processing problems, ADHD, and giftedness. After all of this, my son received an IEP in the last week of April his first grade year. He began to receive some supports for reading and behavior.

Great! Right?

I had some objections to the school’s approach, and I was told, “Don’t worry, let us try this. If it doesn’t work then we will adjust it.” So I trusted the school. I waited. When I got the notice for the next IEP meeting, the stated purpose was to review progress. That sounded right to me.

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Time to Pay Attention to the School Budget

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by Tommi Makila

It’s school budget time again. The CEO’s proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2017 is ambitious, so it is likely that we will again go through a spirited discussion about the school system and its funding level. So that your participatation in the discussion is more meaningful, I recommend doing the following three things:

1. Read the CEO’s proposed budget. The school system’s CEO presented his proposed operating budget to the Board of Education in early December. This proposed budget is available on the PGCPS website, on the Budget and Management Services webpage. Even if you don’t read the whole thing (the full document is over 300 pages), at least become familiar with the parts of the budget that interest you the most. Or read the introduction to the budget, a much shorter document that gives an overview of the budget.

2. Attend the budget Q&A session. Prince George’s County Advocates for Better Schools (PGCABS) is hosting a meeting so that interested residents can pose questions to the PGCPS budget office staff about the proposed budget. The Q&A session will be held on Monday, January 25 from 6 pm to 8 pm in Room 114 of the Greenbelt Community Center (15 Crescent Road, Greenbelt). To submit a question(s) in advance of the meeting, click here (or send an email to pgcabschools@gmail.com). Click here to submit questions about the budget . PGCPS budget staff will prepare answers in advance of the meeting. Emailed questions need to be submitted by Monday, January 18.

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Weekly News Roundup: School Bus Violence, Science Bowl, Literacy Program

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A cellphone video shows a sixth grader at Accokeek Academy being beaten on a school bus by other students (Fox32 and WTOP). The mother of one of the attackers claims that her daughter was acting in self-defense after being bullied, but the family of the alleged victim calls those claims “a complete farce” (Fox 5).

CEO Kevin Maxwell’s proposed $2 billion operating budget includes $43 million for teacher raises, $5 million for professional development and additional money for smaller class sizes, expanded prekindergarten, and math and literacy coaches. (Capital Gazette)

Prince George’s County’s science bowl for middle school and elementary school students is now in its 30th year. The Jeopardy-style competition is filmed in a professional television studio each fall and winter. Forty elementary schools and sixteen middle schools compete for spots in the final match-up which takes place in March. (Washington Post)

Hazel Ware, a fifteen-year-old senior at Flowers High School has been taking college classes since she was 13 years old and is currently enrolled at Prince George’s Community College through the Dual Enrollment program. She also founded the AP crusaders group at her school, a study program for students preparing for AP exams. (ABC7)

As part of PGCPS’s new literacy program, students at some high schools are analyzing articles and writing essays in all of their classes, including science and math. (Washington Post)

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One Parent’s Efforts to Bring Salad Bars to PG Schools

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by Kate McElhenny

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and various corporate sponsors are working together to bring salad bars to school cafeterias across the country in support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.

Several studies have shown that school children, given access to a salad bar at school, will consume more fruits and vegetables in their day and in a greater variety.

Saira Khan, a PGCPS parent (holding a PhD in nutrition), came across this broad public and private partnership and saw no reason why it could not and should not be implemented in her children’s schools, and in the Prince George’s County School District at large.

After a few weeks of discussing the matter with fellow Parkdale parents, students and teachers, Saira had inspired many of them to meet with a representative of the PGCPS Food Services Department to request sponsorship of this salad bar grant.  The application for this grant can only be submitted by the Food Services Director of a School District.

Despite over four thousand salad bars having already been donated through this program, some as near as the Montgomery County and Anne Arundel County School Districts, the initial meeting did not end with the hoped for sponsorship.  Instead, the enthusiastic group was met with questions and concerns.

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Weekly News Roundup: CEO Proposes $2 Billion Budget, ESSA Signed into Law

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Schools CEO Kevin Maxwell gave his yearly state of the schools address on Thursday, outlining a proposed operating budget of $2 billion, a 9.9% increase in spending over the current year. Among Maxwell’s priorities are reducing class sizes in the early grades, raising teacher salaries, and expanding pre-kindergarten.  (Washington Post)

Find the full version of the CEO’s proposed fiscal year 2017 operating budget on the Department of Budget and Management Services’ webpage.

Three community meetings will be held next week to discuss possible school closings and boundary changes. The three community discussions will be held at Accokeek Academy (Monday, December 14), Northwestern High School (Tuesday, December 15), and Andrew Jackson Academy (Wednesday, December 16). All meetings begin at 6:30 pm.  (PGCPS)

Several families have spoken to the Washington Post about corporal punishment at Dora Kennedy French Immersion School in Greenbelt (Washington Post). In October, we published one parent’s account here.

The PARCC results are in for elementary and high school students. Among PGCPS students in grades 3-8, about 25% of students taking the English Language Arts/Literacy assessment and 15% of students taking the mathematics assessment received a score of 4 or 5. Performance is graded on a five-point scale, with a score of 4 indicating that the student “met expectations” and a score of 5 indicating that expectations were exceeded. Read stories at pgcps.org, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and on this blog. Find detailed results for every county and school in Maryland at the Maryland Report Card.

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