February 27, 2025 School Board Meeting - On budgets and cell phones

February 27, 2025

Vol. 3 Issue 4

NOTICE: As of February, 2025, you will be receiving an additional monthly issue of the Newsletter, reporting on the meetings of the Howard County Board of Education

4 & 7 p.m. Budget Deliberations and Regular Meeting of the HowardCounty

Board of Education

Note: Black text is from the official Board Agenda; purple text is added context.

1. OPENING OF MEETING - 4 p.m.

A. Approval of Agenda

2. PUBLIC FORUM

A. PUBLIC FORUM –

3. *BUDGET DELIBERATIONS OF FY2026 OPERATING & CAPITAL BUDGETS AND FY27-31 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

A. FY26 Budget Deliberations (BOE)

Staff Presentation. Went over effect of Governor’s proposed changes. Want one line in the budget to be approved now - the $2.6 million increase for salaries, recognizing that the amount might increase pending negotiations). The current BOE proposed budget is $67 million. With expected state changes of $18 million, the updated budget request from BOE will be $85,291,211. The diagram to the right points out that to fund the entire $85 million would take all of the County's projected increase in revenues for the year.

[Note, However, that since this meeting, the legislature eliminated many of governor’s cuts]

There was a suggestion that the County may be willing to share the additional cost of employee retirement that the State is planning to put back onto the locals. However, the County has not indicated they are going to do so.

BOE Member Questions:

MCCOY: Wants to be sure that at least 4 new athletic trainers will be provided by either the school system or the county.

RICKS: Supporting McCoy. They want to make a motion to add it to the budget

RESPONSE: There are three new positions in the budget, which is what would actually fulfill the need.

Staff-recommended MOTIONS.

"Move to approve and direct staff to incorporate additional funding for elementary special education student assistants for schools with 500 or more special education weekly hours including 32 positions in the FY2026 Board of Education Requested Operating Budget in the amount of $1,533,386 and adjust the [MOE] request by $1,533,386." Approved 6-1, with MALLO voting no.
"Move to approve and direct staff to incorporate additional funding for middle school assistant principals including 8 positions in the FY2026 Board of Education Requested Operating Budget in the amount of $1,406,206 and adjust the [MOE] request by $1,406,206." Approved 6-1, with MALLO voting no.
"Move to add elementary school special education ITLs to schools with the Regional Programs." [17 schools]. Approved 7-0.

Board member Mallo explained her “no” votes as an effort to be fiscally responsible and to alert the community that that it is very unlikely we will get funding for everything we've asked for.

[UPDATE FROM STATE, since date of meeting: A key fiscal panel cut another $280 million from the state’s revenue projections Thursday, warning of an impending “unnecessary negative shock” to the state’s economy driven by expected federal budget and employment cuts.]

4. REPORTS

A. STUDENT BOARD MEMBER REPORT-None (Student Member was not present)

B. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT -

Here is a list of the topics in the order he covered them:

Middle School Counselor of the Year - Congratulated the HoCo Counselor who won
2025 HCPSS Spring HBCU College Fair – Announced.
Graduation Rates: 2024 - 93.54%; same as last year; 6 percentage points higher than state average
Howard County Federal Workers Job Fair: HCPSS HR workforce helped in the County event
Columbia Mall Shooting Update- Many HCPSS staff worked late Sat night & Sunday to provide communication and crisis intervention

MCCOY: Encouraged ALL students to participate in the HCBU event at Guilford Park

5. CONSENT AGENDA - (*Restricted) (These are items on which the Student Member is not permitted a vote, and are voted upon seperately.)

A. Bids and Contracts (Robert Bruce) - ACTION

B. Donations (Jen Robinson) - ACTION

C. FY2026 Capital Budget State Supplemental Projects (Cornell Brown)-ACTION

D. 02 19 25 Meeting Minutes - Closed Meeting Minutes - ACTION

E. 02 24 25 Meeting Minutes – Closed Meeting Minutes – ACTION

NO Discussion. APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY

6. CONSENT AGENDA

A. 2024-2025 School Year Calendar Adjustment (Brian Bassett) - ACTION

B. 02 13 25 Meeting Minutes – Regular Meeting Summary - ACTION

C. 02 20 25 Meeting Minutes Summary - Work Session IV - *Superintendent's Proposed FY 2026 Operating Budget – ACTION

NO Discussion. APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY

7. PROCLAMATIONS

A. Proclamation: Employee Appreciation Week (Allison Whitney) - ACTION

B. Proclamation: National Irish American Heritage Month (Judith Jones)-ACTION

C. Proclamation: National Women's History Month (Judith Jones) - ACTION

D. Proclamation: National School Breakfast Week (Brian Ralph) – ACTION

NO Discussion. APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY

8. DINNER RECESS

A. Dinner Recess

9. PUBLIC FORUM - 7 p.m.

A. PUBLIC FORUM –

10. APPOINTMENT -

A. Howard County Education Association (HCEA) – (Does not provide a written report.)

Redundant comments on the budget. Recommends more Special Ed positions. Recommends lessening 33 new security positions since High Schools already have them. More athletic trainers. More health nurses. Recommends a system-wide reorganization of Special Ed. HCEA has had a committee working on this and will present their results, shortly. Complained again about slow pace of contract negotiations. What about salary increases for employees who have reached the top of their pay tier? They will leave. Noted that the longer the bargaining goes on, the more time taken away from their primary duties. HCPSS is the largest employer in the county.

No questions.

11. ADMINISTRATIVE AGENDA

A. Legislative Report - 2025 General Assembly (Danielle Lueking) – ACTION

Discussed HB-1317- Superintendent’s contract, setting forth the specific compensation to be paid out upon terminating a Superintendent before the end of their contract.

WATTS: Does not support HB-1317 because local boards wants to retain local control. Apparently, the Board opposed a local bill, with the same provisions, in 2018, following the issue with FOOSE.

MALLO: Motion to OPPOSE HB1317. Believes it will reduce County’s ability to attract quality superintendents.

MCCOY: Where is the evidence that we couldn’t attract good candidates if we removed the health benefits provision. History show we have not done a good job in contract negotiations (answer was unavailable on replay).

MOTION TO OPPOSE CARRIED 5-2. Chen and McCoy opposed.

[Note The Board reviews the list of bills each meeting (there are now 30), generally discussing only the ones where a member disagrees with the Committee's recommendation. Otherwise, the Board has approved the positions taken by the Committee.]

B. Faulkner Ridge Center Early Childhood Center Design Development Report (Andrew Jinks) - ACTION

NOTE: Staff gave a status presentation, and the Board asked questions. If you are interested in seeing the diagrams and/or listening to the discussion, you can do so by going to the replay of the Feb. 27th meeting at this link, then scroll down to agenda item # 11, and click on it to take you directly to this agenda item

12. REPORTS (Continued)

A. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS

MCCOY: (1) Rescinded her vote to approve Cell policy. (2) Noted there is no mediation program for students who are being harassed or harmed by other students. Recommends the mentorship program be reestablished.

MALLO: Highlighted Black History Month and hoped everyone had an opportunity to participate. Talked about the imminent Ramadan Fest in the schools.

MOSELEY: Also unhappy about the cell phone policy (diabetes students who check their status on their phone).

BARNES. (Love him!). He pointed out how hard it is to implement a cell phone policy in high schools. Have to be careful about responding too quickly to complaints about a new program. It’s a slippery slope. Mentioned students can use the office phones for emergencies, or in presence of an authorized person. Said he would NOT undermine the Board’s policy by trying to allow workarounds. He also said that he was going to be sure that the permitted Walkouts are used properly, and not the way they have been done in the past.

MCCOY: I appreciate what you shared. But still thinks the cell phone policy is a mess. She didn’t want to leave things as they are, but realizes the new policy will be modified later, before the next school year. Noted that they didn’t use their typical process for developing or modifying Policies. What does that mean for future process on policies.

BARNES: Noted he still gets messages from teachers who appreciate the new policy.