The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County will hear and discuss the report from the Mental Health Task Force it created in May 2019 at its next regularly scheduled meeting, set for Wednesday, October 7, 2020.
The task force first met in September 2019 and has focused its work on four key areas established by the Board:
- identifying contributing factors to the increasing mental health needs of children.
- better coordinating services and communication between and among the school system, county government, and service providers.
- identifying proactive measures and best practices.
- making recommendations for improved delivery of services to children and families.
The task force’s full report will be available online at www.aacps.org/mhtaskforcereport following the meeting.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. and will held in the Board Room at the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis. It will be the Board’s first in-person meeting since March 4, 2020.
Due to physical distancing requirements, the public will not be allowed to attend the meeting in person. The meeting, however, will be broadcast live on AACPS-TV, which can be found on Channel 96 on Comcast and Broadstripe, and Channel 36 on Verizon. High definition broadcasts can be seen on Channel 996 on Comcast, Channel 496 on Broadstripe, and Channel 1961 on Verizon. It can also be viewed live on AACPS’ YouTube channel here.
To ensure the opportunity for public input during the public portion of the meeting, the Board will accept written public comment for those items that appear on the agenda. Comments can be sent via email to BoardOffice@aacps.org or dropped off at the Parham Building no later than noon on Tuesday, October 6, 2020.
Testimony on agenda items must be 250 words or less and must include the name and community of residence of the author as well as any pertinent group affiliation.
Testimony will be compiled and provided to Board members prior to the start of the meeting. It will also be posted online at www.aacps.org/boardtestimony. During the meeting, the Board and the public will be apprised of how many comments were received for each agenda item.
Concerns that are confidential, such as student-specific and personnel issues, cannot be published as part of public testimony.
Testimony that exceeds the 250-word limit will be trimmed to meet the criteria before being posted online. However, the full version will be provided to Board.
A complete agenda for the meeting accompanies this news release. More information on agenda items will be posted on the AACPS website in the Board Docs section under the Board of Education tab. The Board may choose to change the order in which agenda items are heard to meet the Board’s needs. Unless changed by the Board, items will be heard in the order in which they appear on the agenda.
The Board will meet in a virtual public session at 11:45 a.m. on October 7 for the sole purpose of voting to immediately go into a virtual closed session, during which time it will discuss confidential matters as permitted by the Maryland Open Meetings Act including, but not limited to, legal advice, personnel, and negotiations.
The public may listen to the open portion of the meeting, including the vote to go into closed session, by calling 425-436-6365 and entering access code 6084054 followed by the pound/hashtag symbol.
The closed session portion of the meeting is not open to the public. The public session of the meeting will resume at 6 p.m.