Baltimore County Public Schools

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August 23, 2023 Staff and Community Update: Highlights from the Superintendent's Back-to-School Conference

WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE

Dr. Myriam Rogers (Yarbrough) held a media availability to discuss the school system’s readiness for the opening of schools. BCPS will welcome more than 111,000 students on August 28, 2023, the first day of the 2023-2024 school year. Dr. Rogers provided updates on the following topics:

Fast Forward Transition Plan
Our core purpose is centered on increasing achievement for all students and providing a variety of pathways to prepare students for college and careers. Delivering on this commitment means prioritizing resources, investments, and supports in the following critical areas, to ensure success moving forward—

• Academic Achievement– Focused, data-driven, research based, instructionally sound resources, practices and tools that build teacher capacity, promote high levels of learning and increase student achievement. 
• Infrastructure–Efficient, effective, responsive and reliable systems that ensure smooth operations across Team BCPS.
• Safety and Climate– Clear expectations, consistent responses and shared accountability will protect and preserve safe learning environments. 
• Highly Effective Teachers, Leaders and Staff–Refining efforts to recruit and retain a highly-effective and diverse teacher, support staff, and leadership workforce.

Recruitment and Retention

• BCPS is nearly 100 percent staffed, with just 197.5 vacancies remaining as of August 21, 2023.
• For any vacancies the school system is unable to fill, schools will consider resource reallocations as well as other strategies to meet student needs and ensure every student has the same highly qualified teacher in the classroom every day. BCPS will also continue to work with Kelly Education to place qualified long-term substitutes in the classroom.
• The new compressed BCPS salary scale that went into effect on July 1 features:
   
• Increased starting salary that places BCPS second in the state.
• Standardized step increases.
• A 28-step scale (from 29) that increases career earnings and allows teachers to reach the top of the scale sooner.
   
• BCPS also provided incentives to new special education teachers and teachers who commit to work at select high needs schools. Teachers who agree to transfer to one of our designated high needs schools for a minimum of three years are receiving a one-time bonus of $4,000. Special educators who join Team BCPS, as well as current BCPS general education teachers with special education certification who apply to fill a special education vacancy at any BCPS school, will also receive a $4,000 signing bonus at the culmination of the first year of teaching.

Curriculum and Instruction

• BCPS is implementing a new English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum for the 2023-2024 school year and continuing its implementation of the Illustrative math curriculum.
• BCPS believes that the high-quality evidence-based HMH Into Reading ELA curriculum is key to raising student achievement in literacy. All schools have received their student and teacher materials.
• More than 2,500 teachers have received professional learning on the new curriculum and there is a robust professional learning plan in place to offer multiple opportunities to implement the curriculum with fidelity throughout the 2023-2024 school year.
• BCPS held its first Algebra 1 Summer Symposium. Over the course of the 5-day institute, Algebra 1 teachers engaged in rigorous professional learning beginning with the development of productive beliefs about the teaching and learning of mathematics, followed by a focus on math content and practice standards, and culminating in planning practices that foster mastery of the Illustrative Mathematics Curriculum for Algebra 1.  

Capital Planning

• Thanks to funding from state and county partners and with the support of the Board of Education, BCPS is investing in projects that will improve learning environments for children and working environments for staff. For this school year, this includes two major capital projects. BCPS is scheduled to open two schools in January 2024: Red House Run Elementary School with a State Rated Capacity of 775 and a size of 107,774 square feet and Summit Park Elementary School with a State Rated Capacity of 735 and a size of 100,441 square feet.
• These schools will include 21st century instructional capability at the highest level of performance, will incorporate educational flexibility supporting the current and future instructional program and will support the safety, comfort, and well-being for all the students at these two schools.  Both schools are designed to the LEED silver level for environmental design.

Safety and Social-Emotional/Mental Health Resources

• BCPS is committed to providing a safe and supportive learning environment for all students. This year, new efforts include providing students with additional access to mental health resources via the new Team BCPS Focus app and developing an updated Code of Conduct for students that provides an overview of discipline procedures and protocols, and the range of consequences students could face for violating various policies, regulations, and rules.
• Last year, BCPS implemented the new Safety Assistant program in all secondary schools. This year, the school system will have an elementary support model in place.
• BCPS is also leveraging new safety tools as part of its comprehensive approach to enhance school safety. One example of this is Omnilert. Omnilert is a weapons detection system that will utilize existing internal and external cameras to spot firearms.
• If a firearm is detected by the system, an alert will be sent to designated BCPS and Baltimore County Police Department personnel.
• Omnilert will be deployed in all schools during the 2023-24 school year beginning with high schools in September.

Transportation and Mobile Welcome Center

• BCPS is pleased to announce the county-wide implementation of the new parent transportation app, BusWhere! BusWhere is a location tracking software that allows subscribers to see bus locations in real time on a mobile phone or computer. Subscribers may opt to receive notifications as the bus is approaching a designated bus stop or if there is a significant issue causing a delay. Additional information will be shared with the Team BCPS community the week of September 25, 2023.
• The Board of Education adopted changes to Board Policy 3410, Transportation Services, in January 2023.  Revised transportation boundaries were created and became effective July 1, 2023.  For the 2023-2024 school year, transportation services will be provided for high school students who reside more than 1.75 miles from their home school. Changes to middle school transportation zones will not go into effect until the 2024-2025 school year. There are no changes to the elementary school transportation zones. Student transportation information is available in Focus.  Questions regarding this change can be directed to the Office of Transportation at 443-809-4321 or via email  [email protected]. Parents may also complete the Office of Transportation Bus Stop Request Form, located on the website: www.bcps.org/operations/transportation.
• The new Mobile Welcome Center provides services for families with students new to BCPS, who speak a language other than English. Staffed by members of the Office of ESOL, BCPS is leveraging this Mobile Welcome Center to provide direct services and support to schools,  multilingual learners, and their families.  

Baltimore County Public Schools