MCCPTA 2020-2021 advocacy priority draft

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MCCPTA 2020-2021 advocacy priority draft

This draft is a work in progress and was sent to us anonymously.

Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA) comprises 193 local PT(S)As advocating for students, parents, family members, teachers, staff and administrators of Montgomery County Public Schools. MCCPTA’s priority is to ensure a world-class education for every student, and ensure that every student feels safe, welcome, and valued for being exactly who they are.

ACCESS TO EQUITABLE OPPORTUNITIES 

MCPS should:  

  1. Audit every MCPS school and their individual budgets to identify and reduce disparities in courses offered and access to academic resources. This audit should identify existing resources in MCPS and best practices.
  2. Implement a plan to address inequities, within and between schools, in access to academic and extracurricular opportunities, especially for historically disadvantaged groups. This plan should highlight partnerships with community-based organizations, increase transportation options for specific and targeted programs, and identify distance learning opportunities.
  3. Provide additional resources in underperforming cohorts that have been identified in each school’s Equity Accountability Model. Create clear and transparent processes that are specific, measurable, accessible, realistic, and time-oriented to identify and enroll students of color in accelerated courses. 
  4. Provide more consistent, appropriate support for students with special needs and their families that would enhance their participation in academic, extracurricular, and social programs and activities. Provide training for teachers to understand their students’ disabilities and how to implement the required IEP/504 plan accommodations. Ensure that education plans are fully met during distance learning.
  5. Provide adequate equipment to students and teachers, including options in digital deserts, during the COVID-19  emergency. 
  6. Move quickly to explore in-person opportunities that can be offered safely prioritizing populations with particular programmatic needs, such as special education and ESOL, and children who are experiencing barriers to effective online learning.  

CAPITAL FUNDS AND FACILITIES 

Legislators should: 

  1. Increase the State and County capital budgets to reduce overcrowding and maintain and improve existing infrastructure. 
  2. Update the Growth Policy to ensure school infrastructure matches ongoing development. The policy should ensure that the county and MCPS planning departments collaborate to develop a comprehensive strategy to serve both immediate and long-term MCPS needs. 
  3. Direct additional funds to schools to provide a healthy environment during the COVID-19 emergency.

MCPS should: 

  1. Engage students, staff, and school communities when gathering KFI (Key Facility Indicator) data so that it transparently reflects the school experience. Include MCCPTA in meetings with the MCPS while preparing the Superintendent’s proposed Capital Budget.
  2. When prioritizing construction projects, consider the socioeconomic makeup of the school population as a factor, while acknowledging the condition and overutilization of the building as the main factors, as outlined in policy FAA (G)(a)
  3. Explore alternative calculations of student generation to better project student enrollment. 
  4. Reduce disparities in the utilization of school facilities by engaging with MCCPTA and school communities to consider all available options, including adjacent capacity.
  5. Audit existing HVAC systems and update to increase ventilation and filtration in order to reduce exposure to Covid-19. Regularly test air quality to guide remediation. 
  6. Continue efforts to have no traceable lead in drinking water and encourage use of reusable water bottles by expanding access to filtered water filling stations with UV disinfectant enhancement, especially to schools whose PTA’s cannot afford to provide these stations. 
  7. Ensure safety of children during outdoor activities by providing school fields and play areas that are properly installed, maintained, and tested for hardness, abrasiveness, and certain known harmful substances such as lead.

TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY 

MCPS should:

  1. Install an Independent Ombudsman whose sole purpose is to serve as a family advocate in matters involving the school system.
  2. Provide Open Data in a downloadable, searchable, sortable format (such as Excel), and share on all MCPS platforms to make data more accessible to school communities.

COMMUNICATION

MCPS should: 

  1. Partner with MCCPTA and community organizations to prioritize interpersonal outreach, especially to diverse families in communities with limited internet access and where language, cultural differences, or work schedules could be barriers to participation in more traditional forms of outreach to families. Implement more in person and virtual outreach campaigns, parent and student focus groups, morning/weekend informational gatherings, targeted personal phone calls to families, and text alerts. 
  2. Encourage direct relationships between families and teachers/staff beyond Back to School Nights and parent-teacher conferences.  Clearly articulate this expectation to principals and ensure compliance. Require second semester parent-teacher (virtual or in-person) conferences in order to ensure clear communication throughout the year. 
  3. Strive to offer all print/online resources in multiple languages and in accessible formats. 
  4. Expand availability of interpreters for both in-person and video conference meetings, and work with schools with high language need populations to ensure they have equipment for in-person family engagement opportunities.
  5. When implementing a major program, curriculum, or when considering district-wide changes, provide a minimum of 60 days’ notice to families, reserving 50% of all related meetings for parent and student feedback. 

CURRICULUM 

MCPS should: 

  1. Implement a curriculum that meets the needs of our diverse student population by including enrichment and appropriate challenges for all children.  The curriculum should include culturally-relevant teaching strategies, approaches for different types of learners, and hands-on experiential learning. This should be consistently delivered during distance learning.  
  2. Provide professional development for staff implementing existing and new curriculum.  Continue staff training for virtual delivery of content.
  3. Re-evaluate final exam policies that encourage college readiness. 
  4. Ensure students’ use of screens/digital media results in positive outcomes by examining the use of digital content in the classroom and through distance learning.
  5. Provide sufficient courses to meet the needs of all students, including on-level courses in all middle school and high schools in addition to Honors and AP Courses.    

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 

MCPS should:

  1. Identify goals beginning this school year, based on findings of the Anti-Racist System Audit report due in January and implement specific strategies to address each of the audit’s main focus areas: school culture, community relations and engagement, curriculum review, equity achievement framework, workforce diversity and workplace conditions. Provide staff with training and resources to help in curriculum planning in order to address the needs of students in a culturally-competent manner. 
  2. Ensure gender-neutral bathrooms are readily available to students in all newly-built and renovated schools.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS 

MCPS should: 

  1. Expand available wellness resources, implement Local School Wellness Councils, and increase staff to ensure that all MCPS students have access to appropriate physical and mental health support.  Students should have access to suicide prevention, addiction services, vaping education, and cessation programs in all secondary schools. 
  2. Expand the pilot program for extended recess in elementary schools when we return to school buildings. Include outdoor education when possible, within CDC guidelines, even when distance learning is in effect.  
  3. Implement training for trauma-informed practices among school staff, including the Handle With Care program. 
  4. Improve nutrition, quality, and access to school-provided meals and snacks that support the health of our children. Expand access by delivering food closer to student’s homes during the Covid-19 Emergency.
  5. Acknowledge the climate emergency and work with student leaders to identify and implement policies that will help address this emergency, such as those advocated by the National PTA and MoCo Students On Climate. 
  6. Use health-based metrics when deciding to re-open schools, with the health of  teachers, staff, students, administration, and the safety of the community prioritized. When in-person school resumes, provide each school with adequate PPE, cleaning supplies, maintenance staff, Covid-19 tests, and strict protocols when Covid-19 is detected. 
  7. Uphold compliance with MSDE’s Digital Best Practices in the Classroom so MCPS adheres to screen time guidelines. 
  8. Ensure that all in-class apps and extensions used by teachers are vetted/approved through MCPS’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer’s Online Digital Tools portal. This helps avoid federal FERPA, COPPA, and CIPA violations.

OPERATING FUNDS 

Legislators should:

  1. Override the Governor’s veto of the Kirwan Commission related bills and fund the recommendations of the Kirwan Commission (Maryland State Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education) in order to meet the needs of Montgomery County’s diverse population of learners.
  2. Appropriately fund the MCPS budget in order to hire more teachers and staff to achieve class size reduction and to provide more resources to historically disadvantaged populations. 

 MCPS should: 

  1. Use the Kirwan funds that were assigned to schools with high levels of poverty to fully implement the Commission’s recommended Community Schools model, which is intended to close persistent achievement and opportunity gaps by serving the whole child.
  2.  Assign more paraeducators, especially in elementary school, as a cost-effective means of providing students with greater individualized attention.

SCHOOL CLIMATE AND SAFETY 

MCPS should: 

  1. Improve security in all school buildings by providing secure vestibules by the end of this fiscal year and ensuring adequate security staff at all schools. 
  2. Provide prompt and transparent reporting of incidents to appropriate authorities and the school community, including incidents within schools, on school buses, in virtual settings and criminal activity near schools. 
  3. Reduce disproportionality in discipline by fully implementing  restorative practices in all schools.
  4. Prevent, address and track incidences of bias, discrimination, hate, bullying, and sexual harassment during and after school hours and on social media. Provide student and staff culturally-competent support and professional development to address the mental health outcomes due to incidences. 
  5. Review all walking routes and bus stops to ensure safe routes to school and safe school zones, with the goal of moving bus stops away from high-speed traffic and eliminating overcrowded buses. Implement a safe routes plan when building or renovating schools, using MCPS school buses in coordination with the Kids Ride Free program.
  6. Evaluate the need for School Resource Officers in MCPS schools, after reviewing the available data and seeking public input, including the feedback of students.