President's Corner

Greetings, school board colleagues!

If you were able to attend MABE Annual Conference 2024, I hope you gained as much from the experience as I did. The MABE team and I heard many unsolicited comments from school board members throughout the event, including it was the best MABE conference in recent memory, which speaks volumes. Thank you for making time in packed schedules for this important annual gathering, and please be sure to save the dates (Oct. 20-22, 2025) for next year's Annual Conference!

Speaking of our conference, this issue of The MABE Scoop brings you follow-up resources from this year's recent gathering, including interesting speaker presentations; a press release announcing details of MABE's new Board of Directors (appointed during the conference on Oct. 8); a fun conference photo album; and information on how attendees can share their conference feedback with us. You'll also find in this issue helpful details about our Blueprint for Maryland's Future MABE member survey in process; news of recent MSDE-related funding; useful hurricane- and budget planning-related Insurance Pool information; and timely headlines of interest.

MABE has really played an important role in my school board work through the years, and I'm honored to be a part of our collective efforts moving forward this coming year. It's sure to be a challenging time -- in no small part due to ongoing Blueprint implementation efforts -- but I know that collectively we'll be up to the task.

Thank you for all that you as dedicated school board members do each day. Your commitment, hard work and innovation during challenging times truly do benefit so many public education students throughout Maryland.

Sincerely,

Karin Bailey (St. Mary's County)

MABE President

MABE'S BLUEPRINT FOR MARYLAND'S FUTURE SURVEY

The insights and expertise of MABE membership and partner communities provide essential value to our statewide work.

Earlier this month, MABE drew upon our local public school partners to conduct our 2024 Blueprint for Maryland's Future Implementation Survey. This effort built upon a similar project last fall, when school board members and education officials shared perspectives about the Blueprint for what was our initial MABE survey on the Blueprint.

In this new and current round of data collection, MABE gathered Blueprint input from Superintendents, Accountability & Implementation Board (AIB) coordinators, local fiscal representatives, and school board members from each region of the state. Survey questions prompted participants to share impressions and ideas about each of the Blueprint's five pillars, and to note challenges or difficulties with implementation steps at the local level.

Additionally, and new for this year's survey, the format was expanded to encourage feedback on how local districts might wish to modify goals, timelines or fiscal components of the various initiatives outlined throughout the Blueprint. We expect to be able to use resulting common suggestions, or proposed improvements, as helpful guidelines to best inform MABE legislative priorities for the 2025 Legislative Session.

Regarding next steps, we will analyze and next month share collective findings (without identifying individual officials or school districts).

Please contact me if you would like more information about this project and its results as MABE seeks to make recommendations to state officials in the months ahead. We greatly appreciate your involvement.

MABE INSURANCE PROGRAMS ALERT

The Impact of U.S. & Global Catastrophe Losses

on the Property Market: Why You May See a Property Insurance Increase in Your School Board's Budget

Most Insurance Pools purchase "reinsurance." So what is reinsurance, exactly?

Reinsurance is insurance that an insurance company or Pool, such as the MABE Group Insurance Pool, purchases from another insurance company to insulate itself from the risk of a major claims event. With reinsurance, some part of the insurance company or Pool's liabilities are passed on to the other insurance.

With Hurricane Milton following closely on the heels of Hurricane Helene, the former will push global industry insured losses -- so far in 2024 -- to over $100 billion. This is the fifth consecutive year that losses have crossed this threshold, indicating that this growing level of catastrophic losses will likely limit any potential for rate declines in property insurance for several years to come.

The property market could see a hardening of premium rates depending on the ultimate Hurricane Milton losses, as well as the amount of additional catastrophe losses for the remainder of the year. (Keep in mind that we are not yet through the 2024 hurricane season.) Other weather and climate disasters that can also affect the property market include but are not limited to hail storms, heat waves and droughts, tornadoes, firestorms and extreme cold waves.

For these reasons which reflect the current climate and market, we at MABE feel it's important that this current information is on school systems' radars, in efforts to help school boards best plan related budget realities.

Please feel free to contact me with any related questions, and thank you for your continuing service!

IN THE NEWS

MABE Announces Association's Newly Elected Officers and Board of Directors

Karin Bailey (St. Mary's County) was sworn in Oct. 8 during MABE Annual Conference 2024 as MABE's new President. She is joined by MABE's newly elected officers and Board of Directors for the coming year. MABE President-Elect is Shebra Evans (Montgomery County); the association's new Treasurer is Cecil County's Diana Hawley; and its new Secretary is Charles County's Michael K. Lukas. In addition to its officers, MABE's incoming Board of Directors is comprised of 12 board members from 11 Maryland counties and Baltimore City.

To read more details please see MABE's related Oct. 15 press release.

Congratulations to all incoming MABE Board Members!



HEADLINES

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