The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County will hear from Superintendent George Arlotto and members of his staff about details of a new student transportation opt-in registration program that will be in place for the 2022-2023 school year at its next meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6, 2022.
The program is being developed in response to a unanimous motion passed by the Board in August asking Dr. Arlotto and staff to examine the potential of an opt-in bus registration program to help increase efficiency in student transportation across the school system. The program would require families who wish for their transportation-eligible students to ride a bus at any point in the next school year to register to do so. Transportation eligibility would be determined by a student’s home address in accordance with Board of Education policies EA and EAA and administrative regulations EA-RA and EAA-RA. Homeless students and students whose Individualized Education Plan requires transportation would continue to receive it without having to register for the program.
Also at the meeting, the Board provide updates on the Superintendent search and the shift in school start and dismissal times for the 2022-2023 school year. It will also discuss and is scheduled to vote on educational specifications for a new Center of Applied Technology – North building and an addition to Park Elementary School. Educational specifications document the optimum teaching and learning environment, consistent with fiscal constraints, for the education of students in school systems facilities.
The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis. It is open to the public and subject to normal space limitations in the Board Room.
A complete agenda for the meeting can be found here. 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 will also meet in a public session at 4 p.m. for the sole purpose of voting to immediately go into 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. Closed session is not open to the public.
PROCESS FOR PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS
The Board will hear in-person and virtual public comment on agenda items from up to a total of 10 speakers per agenda item during a single section in the early portion of the meeting.
To provide the most equitable and orderly opportunity for speakers with a diversity of viewpoints and varying technology access, the Board will employ a randomized, computerized lottery to select the 10 speakers for any agenda item on which more than 10 people sign up to offer comment.
The link to register for virtual testimony at the meeting will be posted online here at 3 p.m. on the Friday prior to the meeting and will close at 11:59 p.m. on the Sunday prior to the meeting. Those wishing to provide either in-person or virtual testimony must register through that link. Speakers may sign up for no more than two agenda items.
For agenda items with more than 10 registered speakers, the lottery selection procedures will be as follows:
- If more than 10 people indicate their first choice for a specific agenda item, the lottery for that agenda item will be conducted among those registrants only. Those who indicate that agenda item as their second choice will not be considered and may provide written comment as outlined below.
- If fewer than 10 people indicate their first choice for a specific agenda item but a sufficient additional number of people indicate that agenda item as their second choice, spaces will be allocated to the first-choice registrants and a lottery will be conducted for remaining spaces.
Speakers who secure a slot to speak will be notified by email at the email address they provide when they register. All speakers will be allotted 2 minutes and must only address the topic on which they signed up to speak.
Written comments on agenda items can be submitted through an online form that can be found here beginning at 3 p.m. on the Friday prior to the meeting. Written comments must be no more than 250 words and must be submitted by noon on the day prior to the Board meeting. Comments can also be dropped off at the Parham Building by that time.
Comments on non-agenda items are only accepted in writing.
The complete process for registering to speak and submitting testimony in writing can be found here.
Those who require the services of an interpreter to offer comment to the Board or who need other accessibility accommodations for Board of Education meetings should call 410-222-5311 to make those arrangements.
The general session of Wednesday’s Board meeting 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.
The meeting can also be viewed live on AACPS’ YouTube channel.
Archived videos of Board meetings can be found online here.
UPCOMING COMMITTEE MEETINGS
The Board of Education’s committees will hold upcoming virtual meetings according to the following schedule. The meetings will not be broadcast, but those wishing to listen to the meetings can access them through the codes listed below.
- Policy Committee: 3:00 p.m., April 5, 2022. Call 301-960-3676, enter the Conference ID 514 823 893#.
- Equity Committee: 11:30 a.m., May 10, 2022. Call 301-960-3676, enter the Conference ID 543 790 787#.
- Budget Committee: noon, April 19, 2021. Call 301-960-3676, enter the Conference ID 978 132 221#.