Work Session Date: February 4, 2025
Board Members Present: Guessford, Beachley, Murray, Evans, McCusker, Zentmeyer
Student Representative: Wong
Board Members Absent: Burkett
Agenda Item / Topic #1
Overview of Climate and Culture of South Hagerstown High School
Presenter(s): Dr. Jennifer Webster, Associate Superintendent for Administration and Leadership, Mr. Rodney Gayman, Principal, South Hagerstown High School, Ms. Lauren DeWitt, Assistant Principal, South Hagerstown High School, Mrs. Danielle Streeter, science teacher, South Hagerstown High School
Summary
SHHS – The 4 Year Journey: Mr. Gayman shared a presentation.
In summary, post Covid, shifts were necessary to address the changed needs and behaviors of students. Students are now provided individualized support for alt-ed that had not been in place prior to the Covid closure. The largest challenge 4 years ago: students were not going to class; hundreds hanging in the hall post-Covid. Additional staff and collaborative efforts turned it around.
To view the details of the slides/presentation shared, click here.
Board Member Comments /Questions
McCusker – Appreciates the alternative options, but are we setting these kids up for failure in real life?
Gayman – Work and school are not the same. The bulk of these kids in Alt programs are not going to post-secondary options that are college based. The goal is to get them into work-based learning in internships so that we can help them get to full time employment post-seconday.
McCusker – Do you feel that with the tardy system that has helped in the communication with parents?
Gayman – Half of the parents are supportive of the effort at tardies, but parent communication doesn't resolve the issue.
Sovine – Two years ago, Gayman said he needed flexibility to address the issues of climate and culture. Can you expand on that?
Gayman – We needed to take the students who really didn’t want to be at school to be out of the hallways so that those who do want to be there is not impacted by the others.
OTHER NOTES: South developed its own blended option. For the creative solutions to happen at the school level, principals need the support of CES and the vision / big picture and then the people who can make that happen. Grade level teams are vital to the success of a large school like South. They are a community school so they can finance for two additional social workers next year. It's a lot of work to take care of all students at a home school rather than sending "problem students" somewhere else.
Guessford – What about grades?
Gayman – Even with all the ALT structures, we will have some students that drop out. But overall, the change are resulting in students earning credits and graduating. Many of the students in the ALT programs were behind for so long that they didn't want to be in the regular classes that would show their deficits.
Evans – Are the students learning transferrable skills?
Gayman – At the high school level, we love content, but we know that the goal for all students is not to love math like their math teachers love math. MCAP is important but far more important is how to take pride in what you do, own and recognize that you are going to make mistakes, learn how to work with others, etc.
Evans – Has a concern that for kids with anxiety who shut down, do we exacerbate that by leaving them in school with others. (?) And a question about "Classroom 180" - the PD book that SHHS has been using.
Agenda Item / Topic #2
BCBA Update (Board Certified Behavior Analysts)
Presenter(s): Dr. Jennifer Webster, Associate Superintendent for Administration and Leadership, Mr. Caleb Boswell – STEP Teacher, Bester Elementary, Ms. Maggie Capps – Board Certified Behavioral Analyst (BCBA), Ms. Casey Dawson – Lead Teacher, Rockland Woods Elementary, Ms. Nicole Geaney – 1st Grade Teacher, Bester Elementary, Ms. Genny Hammond – Principal, Paramount Elementary
Ms. Kelly Schindel – Teacher, Marshall Street School,
Summary
Staff provided details to explain the role and work of the Board Certified Behavior Analysts and how they interact with students and school staff to support student learning and student discipline.
The use of BCBAs in schools is in response to changes in state law related to Restraint and Seclusion of students as defined in COMAR and reported to MSDE. Since July 2022, seclusion is not allowed to be used as per law. As a result, the response of school staff to students who are dysregulated or in crisis had to change to be alignment.
Definitions include the following:
RESTRAINT: a personal restriction that immobilizes a student or reduces the ability of a student to move their torso, arms, legs, or head freely that occurs during school hours.
SECLUSION: the confinement of a student alone in a room, an enclosure, or any other space from which the student is physically prevented from leaving during school hours.
Board Certified Behavioral Analysts (BCBA) are trained to:
● Support behavioral best practices to support learning for all students
● Identify evidence-based strategies for preventing challenging behaviors
● Conduct functional assessments of challenging behaviors
● Develop evidence-based interventions to decrease challenging behaviors through teaching a new safe and effective new behavior
● Provide ongoing monitoring, to support data-based decisions, to address challenging behaviors
● Train others to implement strategies to teach new student skills to address
challenging behaviors
The presentation also include a Special Programs Overview:
+ Connections: Grades 3-12
The CONNECTIONS program provides instruction for students who have been determined eligible through the IEP process, with parental consent, to be instructed with the alternate achievement standards. (i.e. non-diploma bound students)
+ RISE: Reaching Independence through Structured Environments (RISE) Program
The RISE program provides an academic and behavior support for students with multiple acute needs,
including impacts within sensory and executive functioning significantly impacting their progress in
the general education setting. (i.e. diploma bound students)
+ STEP is a diagnostic program for Grades K-2. The STEP program provides an intensive academic and behavioral environment for students with a combination of cognitive, adaptive behavior, communication, or behavioral needs.
+ Summit is a program provided at elementary, middle, and high schools. The SUMMIT program provides an intensive academic and therapeutic environment for students with an emotional disability or behaviors significantly impacting their progress in the general education setting. (i.e. - this program support students with emotional disabilities or behaviors that impact progress in the regular education setting.)
The presentation also included statistics related to the student enrollment in the special programs noted above.
The presentation included charts reporting the number of times students were either restrained or secluded from 2017-18 through 2023-2024. The use of BCBAs has dramatically impacted the numbers - going from 618 restraints in 20217-18 to 103 in 2023-2024, and from 327 instances of seclusion in 2017-18 to none in both 2022-23 and 2023-24.
For the slides/presentation, click here.
Board Member Comments /Questions
McCusker – Do you believe in consequences?
Yes – there are both positive and negative consequences (and reinforcement). But punishment consequences are not effective in changing student behaviors.
McCusker – What I am being told is that no consequences are what's causing even more problems. Little Bobby gets sent to the principals office with a prize. Then Little Johnny sees that and then misbehaves so he can get a prize, too. It feels that no one cares about the safety of the other children in the classrooms. McCusker says that she could have a panel of people who talk to her that would say the exact opposite about the BCBA programs. She heard on the campaign trail that the BCBA programs isn't working and that students' behaviors are not getting better.
Zentmeyer – having a part time BCBA is not as effective as a full time BCBA. And, I can get 2 paras for the price of 1 BCBA. Is it effective to have part time BCBAs?
Ms. Hammond (Parmount Principal) – Yes, it is. Extra hands in the building are always welcome but adding paras is like a band-aid for one child while a BCBA is helping to change the behavior. Kindergarten students don't understand "consequences" - punishments don’t mean anything to that age child. In middle school, punishments and consequences can be effective, but at the elementary level, we have to focus on what is going to change the behavior of the student. It is a slow process.
Staff noted that students are becoming more complex and we will need BCBAs. BCBAs work with the highest need students. Juggling multiple schools with one BCBA is a challenge. The background that they bring to the table, though, is valuable whether the BCBA is part time or full time.
Beachley - Once a person is trained to be a BCBA, is there additional training required?
Yes, continued ed credits are required every two years.
Zentmeyer thanked the group for their presentation noting that it is important for the board to hear from staff in this manner.
Agenda Item / Topic #3
Superintendent’s Recommended budget: Response to board member questions
Presenter(s): DR. DAVID SOVINE, Superintendent of Schools, JEFFREY PROULX, Chief Operating Officer, ERIC SISLER, Executive Director of Finance, KAMERON SHIVES, Budget and Financial Reporting Analyst
Summary
Staff provided details and statistics related to questions from the Board at the prior session, specifically around mileage reimbursements, positions added at CES, and the increase in population of multi-lingual students.
Questions that were addressed:
How much money was spent on travel reimbursements
How many new positions were added to CES in the last 2 years
How many positions were added to the general fund from grants over the last 2 years
Additional information about our multi-lingual population
To review the details, click here to see the slides:
To review the FY2026 Superintendent's Recommended Budget Summary of Changes from FY2025 Budgeted Revenues & Expenditures, click here.
Board Member Comments /Questions
NOTE: This is a not a transcription of the comments/questions and represents in most cases a summary of discussion.
-Zentmeyer asked how many of the new positions are required by Blueprint.
-Proulx responded that the Blueprint doesn't explicitly require positions, but that to meet the requirements of the Blueprint, CES needed more support in several areas including the finance department that has to track expenditures in new ways.
-Zentmeyer then ask for details related to 2022-23. The presentation includes the 23-24 and 24-25 because that was the specific question. During the meeting, the number was located (it was 5).
Proulx also reviewed the grant funded positions added to the budget on the last 2 years. Some positions that are assigned as "CES" are out in different schools on a regular basis.
- Evans - What are supplmental teachers? I don't remember that one.
Proulx - These are middle and high school teachers who provide small group tutoring and support beyond what is provided by the classroom teachers. They are in schools that have more funding under the "75%" rule of Blueprint.
-Guessford - What grant funded positions are there now that may expire and then be needed to move into the General Fund?
Proulx: We would have to look at all of the grants to provide a good answer. One of the places that's on our list is the Title 1 grant. That is one area of concern moving forward.
-Evans shared that he has been doing a little bit of research to look at mileage and how much mileage adds up. (He shared a number of mileage examples.) "We reimbursed last year over $152,000. ...." After a series of examples, Evans noted that he thinks this is ridiculous and must involve some unnecessary travel. This is, in his opinion, overspending and he does not understand why travel reimbursement is allowed when WCPS has a fleet of cars to provide. He thinks the number should be at least half and that the district could hire at least 2 parapros with the funding spent on mileage.
Sovine thanked Evans for the feedback. He also shared that the budget process has included a request for a transportation router for the past two years. The transportation department has been able to creatively adjust a current vacant collision tech position to provide the funding for this position.
Evans - So it would be a wash? (Yes.)
McCusker - What does the collision tech do?
Proulx - That position would provide auto-body work to the WCPS fleet if needed.
Evans - We identified a possibility to move bus funding over to CIP. If we move that funding to the CIP budget to provide funding for salaries, how would that be made up in future years. His concern that since the county would not have to continue to funding that it would be a hardship moving forward to create significantly bigger cuts in future budget years.
Zentmeyer - Had another question related to the Innovated Learning Center. Proulx explained that the positions she questioned were the 8 ABLE positions that were funded under ESSER and that were moved into the general fund when ESSER funding was over.
Sovine also shared successes of the reading tutor apprenticeship program. It was grant funded for 2 years. Last year, that grant was going away, and we were able to secure one time funding for this current year (24-25). Initially, the plan was to move this into the general fund, but it may be that the state will have some available grant funding for this for FY 2026. Sovine noted that we could more than double the program for FY 2026 and since WCPS is an innovator in this area. If the grant funding does not come through, this is something that may need to be added to the general fund.
McCusker - I would like to see if there is a way to do this same kind of thing for math.
Sovine then shared that two letters from the superintendent's association related to Blueprint implementation, noting that he has shared the letters with members of the delegation, local business leaders, and is now sharing it with the Board once more. The letters contain the superintedents' recommendations with budget implications for the Blueprint moving forward.
Sovine also thanked the board of being favorable to becoming more collaborative with the county commissioners. There may be a joint meeting scheduled in late February or early March.