Good morning everyone. Welcome to a joint meeting of the Education and Culture Committee and Health and Human Services Committee. I'm joined by my co-chair, Council Member Arvonaz and Council Member Luki from the HHS Committee, Council Member Mank from the Education and Culture Committee. And Council Member Arvonaz gets to be on both committees today, which is great. It's also take your kid to work day and we're joined and this is the perfect session for many of our children to be at where we're going to be talking about programs in our schools and children, youth and families is here so I want to acknowledge my four children, Alia, Addison, Ava and William Isaiah, they're in the back there and Mateo is here. I'm sure Councilman Bromars would acknowledge him. Any other kids here? Yes. And we have Katrina in my office has heard two kids here, so you're welcome for the day off. And we're very, and we're really excited. I want to thank all the council staff that have put on a really cool, a lot of events today. I know there's a lot going on for kids that are going to be throughout the building, so we're excited about that. Do you want to say anything about that before I go into the other stuff? No it's just shout out to my tail. It's very exciting to be here today. This is one of the days I look forward to the most every year. Awesome. So we have two items that we're going to go over today. School-based services and partnerships like our linkages to learning programs and school health nurses. So kids when you see those nurses we're going to be talking about all the good work that they do today and we're going to talk about school-based health mental health services and obviously interrelated buckets of work here. We will take votes, these are budget sessions. We expect to take votes on budget related items that are going to be discussed by our great staff in a moment. And we had an overview of school-based wellness services back in February, the Joint Committee. So I'm excited to hear about some of those follow-ups and things we identified there. And we have leaders from Health and Human Services and OMB and MCPS here, which will be called up momentarily by Miss Rodriguez Hernandez, who's put together as always a great, great packet. And we also have Tara here as well. And so we're excited to have both of them. The last thing I just wanted to mention, we know this is an important set of issues that we're talking about. Our kids, all of us visit schools, all of us have kids up on this day. I think this might be the most these four council members have the most kids of any, I think there's 14 kids represented. Yeah, just just four people right here because we're all 4444 and then Kristen's the the underachiever we do. And none of my kids went to any of the fest they all went to school. There you go. So they're overachievers. They must want something. Yeah exactly.. But you know, all of us here in our own lives, but also kids that we interact with in the school system, mental health services, school-based health and wellness services are on the top of the list. They're just having one of my daughters was telling me they just had the debates for the SMOP and where they, where they, you, Mateo's taking his head, had they piped into the schools. Everyone made their live statements of what they were going to work on for all six to 12th graders who get to vote. These issues come up quite often. And whether it be, you know, access to Narcan or mental health services, these are topics that the SMOPs are talking about because it's so important to the kids. So I know we all know that, but I think it's also important to remind ourselves how critical these services are. So with that, I'll turn to my co-chair if he has any opening remarks. Okay. So then I'll, my kids, you can go if you want with Ms. Katrina. But, and then staff can take those seats. but I'll turn it over to Miss Rodriguez Hernandez to walk us through the packet. All righty good morning everyone. Yes today that joint EC and HHS committee will be reviewing a DHHS School-based Services and Partnerships along with Montgomery County Public Schools. And just for the record I wanted to note that this is the first of three sessions for our DHHS Children Youth and Family Partners here. Today we'll have the School-based Health and Wellness Services conversation and then on Monday April 28th the HHS Committee will be reviewing additional program areas under Children Youth and Families and then finally the EC and HHS Joint Committee will reconvene on May 2nd to review early care and education. So, I'll have a few different discussions around children, youth and families here in the county. And we'll also be discussing today the Lighthouse Initiative under Health and Human Services. The executives recommended increase includes $2.2 million in programmatic and staffing enhancements in the stated areas that we will be reviewing today, which are child and adolescent school and community and Community-Based Services, linkages to learning, positive youth development, and then school health services under the Public Health Services Service Area. We'll be walking through each of those individual enhancements later on in the session. The executives recommended decreases in programmatic staffing, equate to about $1 million, which we'll walk through as well. As noted, the Lighthouse Initiative has included one-time funding, which is about a $66,000 decrease from the one-time funding allotted last year. And that, during the DHHS' overview session, earlier this week, the committee had reviewed the compensation adjustments and the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice's operating budget equity tool analysis for the department there too. Council staff has identified several potential reductions for committee consideration. That was not included in the executive's recommended budget for the council president's budget approach this year, which total about $704,000. And then finally, the committee will also be reviewing the executive's amendments to the school wellness center and expanded wellness services project. Before we move forward through the packet today, the acting chief of Children, Youth and Families has a presentation for the committee as well. Let's go ahead. Welcome. Good morning. My name is Lori Garibayakino, acting chief for children, youth and families. Thank you for having me here today. I will just preface saying that I have a double ur infection right now, so it's hard to hear it a little bit. So if I ask you to repeat, please just bear with me. And for any questions after the presentation, I'll ask my team to come up to help field some of those as well. That's good. So thank you for your time this morning. I just want to kind of spend some time going through an overview of the school based partnership and services within CYF. Next slide. So within CYF, our school based services and partnerships are really broken out into two of our divisions. The first being our child at a lesson school and community-based services division, that includes our linkages to learning program, our bridge to wellness and our cluster projects. And then finally, our non-Semitic work within our high school wellness centers is housed within our positive youth development division. Next slide. So we'll first go through the programs within our child adolescents and school-based health services. I'm starting with linkages to learning. So our linkages to learning program is many of you probably already know. It's really a community school partnership. The focus here is on integrated health and providing both students and families the support and services that they need to support healthy outcomes in school and healthy community outcomes as well. So just a quick history on linkages to learning, the work for linkages to learning really goes back to the late 1980s, which seems like a very long time ago. And at that time, the county really took an interest in the well-being of a lot of the students in our school. We were seeing that a lot of our conditions, among our students, were becoming more serious and complex. And as a result of that, there was a consensus that a lot of the behaviors that were being exhibited by our students in school were really the result of things happening outside of the school building. So things happening in our communities and within their families. And as a result, the linkages to learning program was developed. So fast forward to the early 90s. There was the first linkages to learning pilot and these are the three schools listed here where the pilot occurred. So during this time, the goal here was really to assess and evaluate whether this linkages model could work. And of course, because of the great diversity within our county and among our schools, the linkages to learning pilot offered tailored cultural and linguistic services. So, fast forward to today, we saw that those three pilot sites were very successful and as a result there was a request to expand the linkages to learning program. The linkages to learning team did some strategic planning and pretty much came up with a model for how to expand the program which included looking at ever farms rates and doing a six-year strategic plan as well. Next slide. So today, the Lincoln Justice Learning Program serves 32 schools. This includes 24 elementary schools and eight middle schools. this very hard to read slide is just kind of a geographic representation of where all those schools and the linkages to learning programs are located within the county. As with most of our school-based programs, we work very closely with our partners at Montgomery County Public Schools, which is what this slide shows here. And we also partner with four service providers to provide the linkages to learning services in the different schools. So those include Shepard Pratt, the City of Rockville, every mind, and the YMCA. So when we look at some of our outcomes from last year in FY24, we see that a little over 80% of the families who participated in the Linkages to Learning Program experienced an increase in one or more domains of family self-sufficiency. And when we look at our therapy outcomes, about 80% of our clients either improved or stabilized their outcomes as it relates to therapy within six months of receiving those services. We also see high levels of satisfaction among our students and our families who participated in the linkages to learning program. So over 90% are satisfied with the services that they received. And we also see positive outcomes in our parents in terms of becoming more involved in their school community and more involved in their child's education as well. In FY24, there was about 1200 activities that were organized by our community school coordinators. And you can see the breakdown of the adults who participated in those and the youth who participated those as well across all of the 32 schools. And then kind of where we are right now in FY25, we have about 670 youth who have received mental health services within the linkages to learning program. We've served almost 3,000 household members comprising of 782 households and there have been 604 community school coordinated activities. So looking ahead in FY 26, we would like to expand the linkages to learning program at Green Castle Elementary School and Silver Spring International Middle School. These both include opening a new suite as part of a school renovation occurring within MCPS and this would also increase staffing to serve within that additional space. We're also looking to add a site at Burton Mills Elementary School to really address the increased needs of the student population there as well. And we have one proposed enhancement to increase funding for bilingual therapists to assist us in an effort to recruit and retain those needed services among those bilingual therapists. So we'll move ahead to Bridge to Wellness. Before you do that, so welcome. We've been joined by some of our youngest learners here. Welcome to the Joint Education and Culture and HHS Committee. We're talking about stuff to help you guys. Glad you're here. Perfect. So again just some brief history on our British Toulonis program. So British Toulonis was really a result of the county seeing that there were some distinct behavioral and mental health needs among our students after they're turned, returned to school from So the Bridge to Wellness pretty much serve students at high schools that do not already have a high school wellness center located at them. And the idea here is that the Bridge to Wellness Services would kind of take care of those more present, present, pressing needs while we wait for a more comprehensive high school wellness center adoption. of those more present pressing needs while we wait for a more comprehensive high school wellness center adoption among all schools in the future. So for the implementation and because we work to really get those services to our students in a quick manner, the bridge to wellness services were already, we're kind of put into contracts that were already in place. So these are the vendors that provided the mental health services and I continue to provide those mental health services. And then when we look in terms of the youth development piece, we have identity as the vendor for that as well. And in terms of the needed space to run a bridge to wellness program, it really is two offices and one conference room within the school building. So this essentially is the makeup of our bridge to wellness team. It includes a mental health therapist, a care manager, and a youth development specialist. And these are the 19 high schools that are currently served by the Bridge to Wellness Program. So the services include a stated earlier mental health support, and those are provided by a licensed mental health therapist. This includes assessment and diagnosis, individual, family and group therapy, and consultation with teachers and school staff as well. We also offer care management within the Bridge to Wellness program. Of course, this supports not only our families and our students, but our community as a whole. We include education about local resources and how to access those resources. And we really do link students and their families to available assistance and resources within the community. And when we look at our kind of youth development piece of it, these are the different activities that occur as a part of that youth development piece of the services provided within Birch to Wellness. So looking, it's probably hard to see here, but looking at the numbers served last year, we really see the highest number of students utilizing our care management services, follow-up our youth development and our intervention and mental health services. When we look at therapy outcomes, we see that a little under 90% of those receiving therapy services within Bridge to Amos were stabilized or improved their their mental health outcomes after six months of service. And then finally, when we look at our satisfaction, we also see high levels of satisfaction with our students and families who participate in Bridge to Elmas as well. So for FY26, looking ahead, we're looking to implement a new bridge to wellness contract, which would really combine all aspects of the services. So the mental health services and youth development piece would all be put into one RFP. And our schools were looking to kind of group them more closely in terms of their geography to one another. And those would be listed here in the different areas. So our final project within our child adolescent and school-based services division would be our cluster projects. So a brief history of the cluster projects, the concept for this goes back to 2007. And then following the timeline here, the first cluster started in 2009 with our Kennedy cluster, followed by our Watkins Mill cluster, and finally our paint branch spring brick cluster. So the purpose of the cluster projects is stated here. And really the goal is to improve stability for students whose families may be in crisis or have multiple needs as well. And here's just a breakdown of the school served in the different clusters. It is important to note that the cluster projects is not necessarily school-based, but serves families from specific schools. Those are listed here. So the services provided within our cluster program includes Care Court Nation and Behavioral Health Navigation for families and our students. I won't read into detail, but this is just a listing of exactly what those services consist of. And as with most of our school-based programs, it really is a multi-agency model. We partner very closely with MCPS, with some of our internal divisions within HHS, and with some of our sister agencies as well in both our community partners. So in FY24, we served a little under 300 families and that included 1100 household members. The cluster projects made 1200 referrals for benefits and services to meet the client's needs. And 83% of those served within the projects are the cluster projects had an improved family stability score in one or more domains at Case Closure. All right, so moving on to our Positive Youth Development Division and the non-Semitic piece of our high school wellness centers. So just a quick history, I'm sure everyone probably knows this, but our high school wellness centers date back to 2007. And includes both Sematic Health Services, which are provided by our Public Health Services colleagues at HHS. And our behavioral and emotional needs are non-Semitic health pieces, which is really housed within CIF. Currently, there are six high school bonus centers, both in the up county and down county areas, and those are listed here. So back in 2022, the scope of the services were expanded a bit again to really respond to our students returning to school after COVID. And as a result of that, we now offer therapeutic recreation, extended hours, and increased our care management and mental health services within the high school wellness centers. So within within our PID team and CYF, the staffing to provide those non-Semitic health services includes the roles listed here. So there's a manager, a site coordinator, a positive youth development specialist, program facilitators, care managers, and of course mental health specialists as well. And when we look at the space needed to kind of offer those services, it really includes just four offices and two conference rooms to provide those services within that one of the centers. So quickly just looking at the number served for last year, the slides provides an overview of our youth served. So about 400 to 500 students served by school with a breakdown of race and ethnicity, which is a little hard to see. So the, I got, oh, can we, my monitor just went out. Okay, so the orange line is Latino. The blue, the blue, I guess darker blue is black African American and the green is Asian and the light blue is white. Okay. Those are really hard to see. I'd love to see a bigger version of that, but I think I kind of got it. Yeah, okay. And then for the next last slide, the numbers here kind of represent where we are to date this fiscal year, which is kind of along the lines of where we were last year as well. And that concludes the quick overview for the CYF School-based services. Thank you. All right, well thank you for that overview. We're really appreciated. I know we've got to move through and make some decisions based on what the executive put forward, but also, and then we have the opportunity to ask some, should we ask questions? If there's any questions on this now, before we do that, does anyone have any questions? Councillor, Councillor, remember, Lukey. All right. All right. For the youth who are receiving mental health services in the program as part of the overview that you provided, what is the continuum of care plan for them during the summertime when school is not in session? Thank you for that. I don't want to miss speak so I'm going to ask my colleagues who really own this work to come up to answer those questions. Thank you. Good morning. I'm Kirsten Anderson so I'm the administrator for linkages to learning and bridge to wellness. So for those for linkages and bridge to wellness, the staff are year-round employees. And so for linkages, they have their dedicated suites in the schools, and so they just continue providing the services. It doesn't change. They do, are they are flexible? So they might be doing some virtual services. If the families just can't make it to the school or the family's traveling. If that is going to work better for the family to keep them engaged. Do you drop off a little bit just because families get busy? Right, but it is completely available to them for bridge to wellness. They're sort of embedded in the high school. Sometimes it's a little harder to access their office, but same thing. They can offer virtual services. They can meet someone in another location and so they will, and they're year round. So they will do whatever really need to, you know, stay in touch. The kid and provide as many services as the kid is comfortable with. Kids also high schoolers during the summer may not want to participate in therapy quite as much because they're on a school break. So, but yeah, the therapists remain engaged with them. Well, and then that was going to be my next question, which is based on last summer, right? knowing we've got summer coming up, what did you see your experience in terms of diminished participation? based on last summer, right? Knowing we've got summer coming up, what did you see your experience in terms of diminished participation in the summer? And what might you have learned from that in terms of other, I'm gonna use the term creative ways to engage the participants during the out of school time. So for linkages, yes, each summer we do have a bit of a drop off so the sessions may not be weekly, but you know, do they become it for the other week? Mm-hmm. Type thing. Therapists sometimes will run camps and so the goal in the summer is really, yes, to maintain the relationship and be available for them. So yes yes, camps, meeting the mouseware. So kind of the creativity is using the virtual sessions for bridge to wellness because we're actually in the middle of the RFP and the transitional happen this summer. I can't really speak to that because we don't know what the new contracts, we don't know who the new contractors are. So for future summers, definitely in learning from what we did is again, just being creative, working with maybe your youth development specialists to have activities that attract the kids, the therapists can be there as well. So you're providing kind of a mental wellness services and engaging them in activities that just, again, promote stress reduction, anxiety reduction, and teach good coping skills, that type of thing. So they can sort of, yeah, continue to see them, continue to provide services. Yes, we do encourage a lot of creativity and we encourage them to, especially for the high schools, to adjust their hours. Good things are not awake at night. No, they are not. So we have to adjust in your hours so maybe your day is starting at noon and going later when your kids are actually awake. Right, yes. A lot of life for teenagers and middle schoolers does not happen until afternoon, either on weekends or all summer long. So. Yes. So part of the new contract as well is very specifically sister and summer, adjusting your hours to best. Right. Is it the kids? Great. Doing that, 80 AM schedule anymore. And Mr. Cardona. Yes. Good morning, Luis Cardona, senior administrative positive development program. Same applies for the Walnut centers. I think we've been fortunate because of those additional funds that came through in 2022 that allowed us to always expand ours, not just during the weekends, but after school in the evening, which have been critical because many of the young people that were serving have financial responsibilities for their families. Sometimes they can't come to a program right immediately after school, but they can come back to the campus later on at night. So we've been very fortunate that the school administrators have been really open about allowing us to have those services during those later hours, and especially on the weekends as well. The other piece to it around the social emotional piece which happens a lot more during, not just during the summer, but extended school breaks, have been a lot of those non-clinical, more psychoeducational or therapeutic approaches that involve everything from gardening to more leisure activities. And that's something that a lot of the PYD staff take the lead on in terms of providing for the students. The other piece, though, beyond just the students remember in the wellness centers, that we serve the whole family. So if that child who is enrolled in that school has a younger sibling, of course, that child, if he or she does not have access to mental health services, they are able to access it there. The only thing is that they would not be able to participate in the PYD program because of the age differences, right? Same thing, same thing, host two for family members. The parental, the family, strengthening pieces, and all that. It's available there at that time. And then lastly, in the current reality, we're all living where folks are just scared to go anywhere right now. There is. there not in time. And then lastly, in the current reality, we're all living where folks are just scared to go anywhere right now. There's been an adjustment made to offer the virtual piece, but also pushed to get staffing out into the community to go to the homes as well, which I think in all in all, and even in PYID is a direction that we've moved on. Good. And then I noticed one of the slides talked about the positive outcome, no change, negative outcome. And then there was a subsequent slide that talked about satisfaction with the program. And obviously, it was like super high satisfaction with the program, but the high percentage of satisfied with the program didn't match the positive and or neutral outcome numbers. So I was wondering if you could speak to what the criteria are that are used to determine when there is a negative outcome. And then with respect to that, if 98% of folks are having a positive experience with the program, if even if there's a negative outcome, are they persisting in the program? Oh, put your... Yep, sorry. Thank you, Carol. So for the therapy services, we use a PSE 17, positive... No. Pediatric symptom checklists, 17 for our kids. And so they do it every month. And so in the end, when you're looking at the outcomes, you're looking at the first baseline versus the end. And so it's easy to get a validated measure to see what the change has been for those therapy clients during the time that they receive services. And so any therapy, you're never, I I mean, there's always gonna be kids in therapy who get worse. That's just, it happens. Sure. With that. So, and then the outcome measures the satisfaction surveys, they're administered to everyone. So if you're looking at a bridge to wellness or a linkage to learning, the outcome that we were looking at was just for therapy, but the satisfaction surveys, that family could have maybe just gotten case management or just the youth development services. So it's a different set. It's the broader picture for all of the services. In terms of if the kit is getting worse, we may make a determination that they need a higher level of care. So maybe you refer to something that's a little bit more intensive, then we can provide it linkages and bridge to wellness. We know our limitations. Sure. There. And so that may happen sometimes. I don't think there's necessarily them dropping out. Right. It might be if we determine that they need something higher. And so and for when you have those the need for higher level, you know, higher level of acuity with more specialized services, are you able to find appropriate referrals for them who can take them? Given the land, I mean, given we know the challenging landscape we're in and especially for higher acuity adolescent patients, it's really challenging to find the right folks. So we are able to access DHHS's, Child and Adelaide. We can be too have access to the psychiatry for that. So yes, there are places, and so if you have enough time, you can kind of navigate through the wait list. So we wouldn't discharge someone until they've been, until they have a landing spot. Yes. Okay. Okay. Yes, thank you. So it can be the recognition that yes, we know we're not the right level for you, but obviously we're going to keep hanging on to you and maintain you as much as possible till we can get you to the next place that can handle you a little bit better. Thank you for sharing that, because that's really critical because these systems are not easy to navigate at all. So I greatly appreciate that. They definitely will hold on to them. Unless if there's been a psychiatric hospitalization in the hospital recommending something to them, they'll follow something. But they may still even maintain them then. It gets you with the record. Or do a check-in or remain in you for this until you get to your next home. Great. Thank you so much. And just I had an RN in the Walnut centers, it's the same thing they would apply. The only difference being though, that in our contracts currently, in all the contracts, there is a requirement, like say for an example, if there's a wait list, so if there's a wait list for the behavioral health component, there's a protocol that within 24 hours, there must be a referral. We do have the strong connection where our behavioral health partners and to make sure they can respond immediately or help us find that resources as well. But then the other piece though is the role of the case manager to just work in there and ensuring that they're looking at ways. I mean, the one thing Kudos to the work identity is them because they've gone above and beyond kind of out of the box and their approach in recognizing that there is a shortage of what you talked about in this county. I think we all know this professionally and personally. So with that said, they've also been really smart about bringing on culturally based approaches. They provide at least a safe space for young people, maybe in a group setting to deal with some of those issues that they may be struggling with. That sometimes it may not be what you traditionally would say is like therapy, but it does therapeutic to you. Thank you for that and thank you. I think maybe it would be a great, sorry that was kids don't learn from me. That would be a great thing for us to do a joint session on in the fall so we can do sort of like a post summer wrap up and check in, I think would be great. So just to set context, I'm gonna go to my coach here. We're just gonna ask some general questions about what was presented, then we will get into the decision points starting with linkages. But first I'll turn to my coach here, Councillor Marrago and I. Thank you all very much. Every time I see the cluster project, I can't help but think of Fran Brennan, who's no longer with us, of course, but her legacy was extraordinary in establishing that program and a lot of other things too. So, a couple of general questions. I believe, if I'm correct, that the schools that have been presented for additions all have high number of refugee families and in a number of multinational families I just wanted to confirm that's accurate. So for the linkages, burnt meals, and then the Silver Spring International Middle School and Greencastle they were actually its OBI as part of the CIP process so not specifically specifically higher levels of refugees, but definitely the barmails. OK, yeah, that's helpful. And very relevant, because it's been the theme of all of the budget discussions we've had so far, and probably sadly over the next couple of years. The world has changed in the last few months. And the need for these additional support services have taken on a new light. And the connectivity that families are feeling with these schools and the staff who see them, who take care of them, is even more relevant. So if you could just talk briefly about, for example, at the beginning of this school here, the concern that families had about misinformation and about showing up for school in the first place. I would assume that there's, as there always has been in the past, a strong partnership between linkages, the wellness centers, and the school administration to holistically reach out to families to alleviate any potential concerns they have or potential misinformation that's in the community. But can you talk briefly about that coordination of communication between these incredible support services and the school administration? So from the one lesson of perspective, that is something that they really took off running on that piece. I mean, again, the relationship said, the one-off center staff and the coordinators have had with the administrators, but even which other case folks in central office has been really critical as well to respond to it, because one thing is to correct information, but then the other thing is doing it so in a way where you provide a space that is safe, that helps to address the immediate trauma that the families are going through. And so, kudos to that level of work, that little collaborative partnership that's been extremely helpful. And we hope that that continues on as we continue in this madness. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I think moving forward at a macro level tracking school attendance records is going to be an important part of this story because I would assume as has been in the past these kinds of relationships make it more likely that a student will actually come to class and to receive these support services, but also because they feel more comfortable and secure. So all the more reason why it would be difficult to scale back particularly now, because the ramifications of us not providing these support services, especially in light of all of the additional challenges that these families are facing will have even more negative impacts. So it's an even wiser investment than it was before. I will pause there and I have specific questions regarding some of the budget line items as we go through, but just wanted to set that context. Sounds good. Yep. And I also wanted to mention, and I'll say this again as we go through the items. We know, and I ask you to just say a little bit about caseloads, just so we set the context of, you know, when we make the decisions later, you know, each, whether it's linkages or bridge to wellness, you know, you've got the therapist, the case manager. Let's just do bridge to wellness. You've got therapists, the case manager, and the youth development specialist at the 19 high schools. What are those caseloads looking like? So for therapy, we generally always have full caseloads for that. I mean, it might take a minute. Whole defined as. Yes, it's not together. So the contract is a 19, so minimum of 19. So they may have more on there. Maybe they have a kid who's not showing up all the time. And so just having more so you can have kind of fill in spaces for it. But it's about 19 for a therapist. For the youth. You can individual clients. Thank you. Yes. And do they stop at that point? It will depend, again, on how frequently they're seeing the kid. So again, if you have a kid who's maybe missing school or having a little trouble with their trouble seeing them weekly, they may be up to like a 23 because they can fill in some other kid for that week that maybe they didn't see that client or they couldn't reschedule them to get them in there. So yeah, so 19 is supposed to be the minimum. And again, we'll be based on how frequently they're able to have the sessions with the clients that they have if you're doing. If every kid is there and doing it weekly, then you're kind of at a 19 to 20. If they're not there every week, then you can go a little bit higher. And that's a function of the contract or the function of the need? Oh, the need's always going to be way higher's just limits to how many therapy sessions you can do. Right. So that's what I'm trying to get at. I just think you're all the time. There's some people just they don't even, higher from students, I don't even try to go because I just, I can't get, there's no point in me going. Yes. The need is always higher. So yes. So yeah, a therapist, a one therapist at a school who can serve 19 kids. They made you a group, so maybe they have, 17 kids on their case load and they're running a group with like eight kids or something like that. I mean, that's another way to see more kids there, but you think about a school that has 2000 kids. Bridge to wellness, the therapy clients are prioritized to those who have no insurance or cannot access their insurance or access therapy. So for kids who can see a therapist through their insurance, that's not who bridged a wellness or linkages is seen. We are there to catch all the people who just cannot get it, who cannot get the thing anywhere else. I would love to have a better sense and this is, you know, we can do this outside of budget, but of how we are tracking that population, right? so we're trying to target it for folks who don't have insurance, who need the services. I'd like to have a better sense of what that need is school by school and how we're dealing with the referrals or how we're triaging in that. That's one level of triage, right? Like kids that have insurance for a stone. But then even within that group, how are we having a full assessment of the need and then triaging through that? Does that make sense? Yeah, I mean, we definitely do that. We know we've opened it up if there's a really long waiting list for they have insurance, but there's a long waiting list. We'll see them for some brief treatment until they can access their private insurance, carry your three months later or something like that. So yes, we do have them go through and identify what the barrier is for it and why they can't access it. So is it language? Is it income? Is it a transportation? That type of thing. And you document that? Yes, our partners do provide that to us of why yeah, we can dig into it Just so you know, I'm coming at this Okay, I want to get a better assessment of where we are so that we because I think it's really important We're gonna talk about things in a minute where to we do reductions this we're scraping the surface here in my view and so That's a part of the context, great. Yeah, and just from the well-incent of perspective It's typically caseloads around 20, maximum. You are talking about two full-time behavioral health practitioners in there, but again, don't lose sight. And I think all you've been hearing me talk about this is the pandemic, right? This is why when you and Hanhant had funded that third-p-per-recuration component, it was so critical because we knew for one, like Council Member Huki said, there is a lack of those practitioners in this county. And so we weren't going to Twitter our thumbs and just hope they went away. We had to figure something out. And so providers stepped up and said, okay, well, let's go with other best practices. If they're saying that gardening works very well to address trauma, let's figure out how we push that. If we see that this fitness model, whether it's club 480 or rec mode or doing it, let's feed into that because that in itself might be what gets those young people the support that they need. But we also do acknowledge that there are some young people that need some very serious help, medication, other things of that nature. And so that's when that triage and act of labor effort, it's important. I'll add that the other piece though, is that the need is huge. Even we can't forget about those kids who are in short. Right. And then the fact that in our systems, and this is something that Raymond Crawl used to talk about all the time that our behavior health system in this county is very westernized. And so it has for many years lack cultural proficiency to really meet our constituencies or where we're at what MoCo looks like in 2025.. And so in essence that requires us to think outside the box and not necessarily go with solely a model that is about the clinical piece. Not to say that we don't need it, but it's like we need to, yeah, to make sure we expand that and we don't forget even those young people who are in short because they need that as well. Well, it's one of the reasons I've so bullish on the African American health program where they are having folks with insurance and the most, the number one thing they provide is mental health services with providers that are culturally that are African American in that count context to your point. So, I just something to flag to come back to. Council member make and then we'll move on. Thanks very much. These programs are so important. This is some of what are, are constituents not even just to the parents, but the kids are asking for more of all the time on a regular basis. So two questions from the inspired by that presentation. One on slide 152 for on mental health support. And that's at Permeral and State Law. Students 12 and older can consent for therapy services without the knowledge of their parent or guardian. That is so critically important. So I'm glad that we're able to make that happen. It also says that the therapist is not required to provide therapy to the youth without parent or guardian consent. Could you talk a little bit about that? Yes, so Marilyn state law. So the therapist needs to assess if the youth is at a place where they can sort of fully consent for what they are asking for. So they're going to assess that kit. Are they mature enough? Basically, to say, yes, I want to, I want these therapy services without my parent knowing. I know what I'm kind of getting into. So that's why the therapist needs to do an assessment of the youth before determining, yes, we're going to take, we're going to see this kid without the parent knowledge and having the youth provide the consent. So just wanted to put it in there. So it's just not an automatic. A 12 year old says, hey, I want to. we're going to see this kid without the parent knowledge and having the youth provide the consent. So just wanted to put it in there. So it's just not an automatic. A 12 year old says, hey, I want therapy. The therapist actually needs to assess what that situation is because there's a lot of implications for not informing a parent that a kid is in therapy. So the therapist is going to do a full assessment of it and kind of see does this make sense? Is there a need for it? you know, what is it? Is it just the kid I just don't want to tell my parents? Or, you know, you know, that's how I'm putting it. There might be dire consequences. does this make sense? Is there a need for it? What is it? Is it just the kid I just don't want to tell my parents? Or, you know, you know, that's a component. There might be dire consequences if they did tell their parents, but they need the mental health support. Is that component also part of state law that, yes, that's a therapist is not required? Nothing we could do for that on the county level. Yes, so that, okay. Yes, so that's the interpretation of the state law. So got it. The state law. You did your job. OK, I will just like I have some concerns about that because you know. But, yeah, so that's the interpretation of the state law. So that was the state law. You did your job. Got it. OK. I will just, like, I have some concerns about that because, you know, what if you have a kid who is not, doesn't feel safe and comfortable offering that information up to a therapist until they have met several times and built that relationship and they're not going to have the opportunity to build that relationship and reveal that difficult information, what they're going to just be left with as the experience of being rejected for therapy. It is very tricky and nuanced to try and balance the needs of the youth and the parent guardian in those situations. So yes, I absolutely agree with you. Really critical to have the right people in place here. Yeah. And that's the key to the wellness centers in particular, because the bread and butter is not necessarily the behavioral health case. It's who that PYD practitioner is, and how they're going to engage with the student or his family or her family. I mean, it's about the relationships that have built there. And at the end of the day is what's going to be most critical. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Okay. Thank you. And then on the page about the history of the health and wellness centers, we have there some of the history of the wellness centers. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about them, some of the history of the somatic component and the health center component. I think that's 168, this8, 169 is where that's kind of laid out. So I'm going to come up here, but to his benefit, having been around since the concept, in its conceptions, the one on center model, It was both the Sematic Health side and then the PYD administration did a series of assessments and went to Prince George's County. Look, they're what their Wendell Centers were doing. And then at that time, one of the council members, Mike, Sovan had tasked us to say, okay, that's nice, but what can we do differently? And hence, that's what brought about this combination of PYD services with the Sematic Health Service. Thank you. Yeah. Becauguesa, Senior Administrator for School Health Services. I'm happy to provide the slide information for the history, but just like I mentioned earlier, that was the main reason with the history, but the exact dates, I'm happy to provide later on with the slides. So those were introduced and then where have we kind of gone from there and where are we going? Yes, so it's a collaboration work. You know, it's a teamwork with the other programs with the CYF programs for the wellness center. So because what I'm seeing is we've got, we've have six of them, right? And we have the schools that have the full high school wellness centers, also have the full health centers. And then, and I think the vision had been to have, as was noted, to have centers, full centers at all of our high schools. And I thought that the vision had been to have full health and wellness centers at all high schools. But it sounds like now the vision is to be moving towards just full wellness centers and not health and wellness centers. So if we could talk a little bit about that just I mean obviously like we don't have unlimited funds it's like this but I just want to make sure that we're really clear and transparent about what's happening and why. So when we were here for the SIP, I think we had talked about we were going to, we had done a prioritization study to really identify using the data, which schools and communities, given the limited resources, would benefit the most from a school-based health and wellness center. So we are actually in the process of- Did you self as well? Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Hi. Hi. Hi. Yes. Nina Ashford, Chief of Public Health Services. So we're actually in the process of restarting that, so that we can look at the updated data, taken to consideration some of the upcoming boundary studies, some of the new facilities that are going to be open, collaborate with the SIP process. And so we're just beginning that process now. The team has a meeting in the next couple of weeks. So we are happy to come back to you guys, to share that information once we have it available as far as kind of what would the recommendation be. I think really at the end of the day, the school-based health and wellness centers offer a great opportunity to be able to see kids in school and keep them in school and not have to, you know, it's also a great benefit for parents as you guys know our care for kids. Clients are assigned there as well. We just changed the criteria eligibility criteria because before you could only receive services at the school in which you were enrolled. We've actually made that a little bit more expansive so there's more flexibility for kids to see care at other school-based health and wellness centers. But all of that to say we're in the midst of doing that updated analysis and our happy to bring that back to you. Great. Yeah. we'd love to dive into that in more detail. I know we've talked about this kind of on an ongoing basis. And as budgets are in flux, these conversations are going to continue to be in flux. There are just so many, there's like so many different variations as we try to figure out from a fiscal perspective how to make as many services as possible as available to as many kids as possible. We have so many iterations here. It would be great to have some kind of comprehensive layout of, I mean we've got we're gonna talk more about this but you know we've got the wellness center and bridges and connections and and then we've got the health center you know no health center etc. It would just be great to be able to have something that has not only the breakdown of, and this packet is starting to get there, but it would be great when we have more time outside budget to go in even more detail, where we also have the outcomes side-by-side for each of those and the cost, so that we can just really make some, understand how those decisions are being made and to include, as I think Chair Almanos alluded to, also absenteeism as some of the outcomes because we know that all of these things even though they're tangentially related to, for example, academic outcomes, for example, we know that they're related, that they're having an impact. And so if having, say, a full health and wellness center is having a huge impact, positive impact on our absenteeism rates, and we can then presume on our academic outcome rates as well, versus having a wellness center, then maybe that's an investment that we want to think about making making and that's probably why you would then ask for funding for that, right? So for us to be able to understand that full picture or like the wellness center versus bridges as we're thinking about on the CIP side, what how much space we're gonna build in and all that, we've talked about this so much, but I feel like we just have not gotten all the information in one place to be able to really side by side it and compare the cost at the same time. Agreed and I think that's something good to follow up with that we've had I always have deja vu appear but especially during budget because we kind of talk about everything that we've talked about the whole year. So Councilor Rabunas. Yeah, just really quickly. I appreciate the point. Totally correct. We had a session in February before HHS where we talked about not all of the components you mentioned, Council Member Ming, but I think it's, we were planning on having a follow-up session, post budget, and we'll make sure that it's at a time available for everybody who's interested. And I appreciate your interest in this very important topic. Did you have something you want to say? I see your hand reaching. I just wanted to make sure the question was answered. I think Chief Ashford did a great job, but if there was any else standing question about the methodology behind the decision and council's justification last year, I was happy to provide other detail, but sounds like your question was answered. For now. Yeah, happy to circle back. Sounds good. Thank you so much. All right. Mr. Rodriguez Hernandez, back to you. Probably longer than you thought but. No, it was perfect. Okay. It was amazing. Programmatic information and updates and background to many of the budget discussion items the committee will be reviewing now. So very important to have and thank you all for the information you've provided. So digging into the county executive's recommendations for the proposed changes in the service areas and program areas that we will be reviewing today, we are starting with linkages to learning. So there are three enhancements that the executive has recommended and we'll walk through each one of them for the committee's review and you'll also note that council staff per the council president's memo has provided potential reductions to add to the reconciliation list based on what has been proposed. We received the great background on the linkages to learning program and understand the need and the services they provide. And the first program, as mentioned by the acting chief Garibay Aquino is the transition of part time linkages to learning programs at Green Castle Elementary School and Silver Spring International Middle School to full time services, that is as mentioned as well, associated with the transition of having the linkages to learning suites available at MCPS that for to be able to hold full time services. Council staff will note that as of February, there was the expectation that both of the full-time suites would be prepared and available by August 2025, but just wanted to recommend to have an update on that in case there have been any changes since that conversation in February as well. For Green Castle Elementary School, the transition to full-time is about100,000 increase. And that would add an additional full time family care manager where it is expected to be able to serve now from 30 families a month or student a month. And then the second is a full time child family therapist that would be able to serve from 10 to 20 clients a month as well. And the associated increases in operating and supervisory time. And then for Silver Spring International Middle School, it's about $114,000, which would add a full-time family care manager, which would help serve from 15 to 30 families a month, and then a community school coordinator, which is expected to double the number of classes, workshops, and services provided to the school community and the associated operating and supervisory time as well. So as mentioned before, per the council president's budget approach, council staff recommends for consideration, tranching the enhancement proposed by the executive, one for each school, so $100,000 for the transition to full-time linkages to learning at Green Castle Elementary and then about $114,000 for the transition to full-time at Silver Spring International Middle School. And again, we just also invite MCPS to come up to see if there's any additional status updates on the full-time sweet spell about those schools. Yeah, appreciate that. So I think this is a good first start here. And I think the first order of businesses to hear an update from our MCPS partners about the August 2025, and just where we are when status on that, and let's start with that, so please introduce yourself. DJ Kahnley, Capital Budget Manager, MCPS. And Adnan Mahmoud, Chief Operations Officer for MCPS. So yeah, thanks for the opportunity to give an update this morning. For the Green Castle Elementary School, we have the addition project over there ongoing and its on track and for it to get opened on time. For the Silver Spring on track meaning next in the fall. I'll go to the Tony Tony. For the Silver Spring International Middle School, the scope for the project was divided into two parts, mainly one addition that's under construction right right now, and then we had the interior renovation, which included the expansion of the linkages to learning. The existing portion of the building, we have had some challenges with unforeseen conditions because of the fact that that building was built decades ago and had additions over multiple decades. So as far as the schedule is concerned, the good news is the addition is going to complete on time and be available for August of 2025. For the interior renovations, we have gotten into some challenges because of the existing conditions we had to do some additional investigation just to come up with a design because there are some changes to the building codes that has been, you know, been challenging to meet. And we have recently received a proposal for the IntraRenovation, which is, you know, exceeding our, you know, anticipated budget for the projects. So we're in the process of evaluating right now. We don't have a timeline for that completion of the project at this point. What we can commit to doing is providing an update to the council in the next two to three weeks, where we see the timeline for that, you know, interior renovation is going to take place. What we can do in the meantime is also work with the school administration to potentially work on identifying some temporary spaces that can allow for the linkages and learning program to take place in the temporary basis while we, you know, work on what we work on coming up with the timeline and and a plan for the interior renovation for the decision. Just so we're 100% clear green castle and metric will be done and ready to go August 2025. That is correct. Sims, Silver Spring International Middle School, you're having challenges you don't a timeline, you'll come back to us in a couple of weeks, but you think you're gonna try to work with them to figure out another space in the building, so it could start on time. Is that fair characterization of what you're doing? That is correct. So we would have to talk work with the, you know, the school administration in order for us to locate some temporary spaces. I know that it won't be the band room because the ceiling fell in yesterday there, and that school has some serious challenges. I just saw the video this morning. I know there's facilities out there today. I think you're aware of that. That's something that had been a problem. Thankfully, no student was served, but it was a pretty scary video. It felt right on top of people. So just I'm so the reason I bring that up is because in the context of these potential reductions and if when we're trying to save money, it seems like green castles ready to go, Sims might not be not that there's not the need, but that just the physical space might not be ready to go. Is that a fair character? Yes, correct. Okay. Yes. So I'm going to let me go to my coach here and then I'll go to the district council member for at least one of these schools. Councilor Murrana. So I think all of us are probably pretty familiar with Silver Spring International Middle School. In fact, when I was a Whitman, that Blair was there. And so it's been there really. In fact, my dad graduated from there. So I'm skeptical that we'll be able to accommodate the space needed to be able to implement a program with fidelity, acknowledging the space limitations that already exist within the school and how many students are already enrolled. And so I fully appreciate and respect the challenges architecturally and from a construction perspective that that building brings. So I do not at all fault you guys for having these challenges, but I also think we need to be realistic and set everybody up for success here. And also the school administration, which on a good day is trying to, you know, juggle all of the myriad of different programs and services both in and out of school. So I'd love to hear from my colleagues in DHHS, just operationally hearing that you may not have the space that you would need and is identified, would it make sense to hold off on implementation until that space is available, or do you feel otherwise? So yeah, programmatic updates. So currently at Sims, they have two offices, which is again why we just have, we have one full-time therapist, and we have one staff who does community school coordination and family care management. So, because they just have the two space. So we do have that space in Sims right now. So yes, in order to expand, we would need the additional space and so it would make sense to wait until we actually have the linkages sweet. So it's then making it a full-time family care manager and a full-time community school coordinator. So we do still have a full-time therapist there. So yes, it does make sense to wait on that because there's just basically not the space that we current that we have in the building right now. It can be very difficult to find space because we do want space that's all together. If we're going to expand the community school coordination, you want some sort of external facing space where community members can come in and do group activities and things like that. So for SIMs, for green castle, again, if you're looking at budget stuff. So green castle actually Has been able to increase their family care manager and therapist and so I would say there's Less if you're looking for places. There's less priority for the additional funds again. OBI funds are you know planned How many years in advance? So They do they are at a full-time status already. So if you are looking for places, green castle, the funds could be used to add an additional full-time staff. But right now, they actually do have a full-time therapist and full-time care manager there at green castle. I hope that answered your question. So just to, it sounded like you said, probably makes sense to wait at Sims. In green castle you think they have what they need based right now. Yes, so the additional would be. Yeah, well, I'm characterizing, but you can correct me. Again, I started that they no one has what they need because there's need that exceeds but they have a full-time therapist. So maybe just restate which is it because I felt like I heard you say the cautiously stating things. And I know you got to get the kind executive budget. The budget as introduced includes additional money for green castle. How would that money be utilized? Through right now, it would be utilized to look and see if there's a third position that would be needed at green castle. The green castle does have a full-time therapist and a full-time family care manager. So it would be assessing if a third position could be used there, but there's a chance it may not need to be used. So the money would be used to assess if a third position? No, sorry. This would be the third position. It would be the third position. So the assessment hasn't. So why would we have a recommendation to add something if we're not assessed? If it's a old OBI, I will. I will own it. So. OK. Yeah. So I'm going to turn to the district council member, but I mean I just think if there's not an assessment of whether it's needed we shouldn't be adding the money. I mean, you know, you could always come back with the stuff. I don't know if this if once you do the assessment. So all right, but let me turn to councilor Mc. All right. Well, sorry. No, I mean, I, money is we get we need money for stuff if it's not needed. I just, this is a very high-need school as we all know. And so, and you know, we all saw that map with that dot at Green Castle. Can we go back to that map? Yes. Right. And the services that are provided to these students through linkages often impact, have a positive impact on the whole family beyond that one student, right? And so again, we've got that dot hanging out there all by itself up in Upper East County up there. And so to ask for one more person there, to me that asked me a lot of sense. And we need to be responsible with the funds. So I'm really disappointed that there was not an adequate assessment as to whether this should be a top priority. But again, it would not surprise me if it was. I mean, this is what 80, 50, 60, 87% farms at this school. This is one of the areas where we're seeing, I mean, which has continued to the need is increasing. We can expect that to continue increasing at a more rapid clip than it has in other areas. And so, I mean, I, so I'm concerned about, I'm concerned about putting this, putting this position on a cut list when I would not be that all surprised if an assessment came back to say that we could use one more person in this part of the county here serving this community. And we'll talk about Burmels in a second also. So I would ask if we do decide to put this on the rec list, if we can try to get some more information, yeah, before we get to full council. Great, okay. I'm getting the renewal process right now and so we're working with the agency to make sure that I can back to you by the end of the week. Okay, great, thank you. And then in regards to SIMS, if they're not gonna have the space, then they're not gonna have the space. If we could also, though, just get an update from the administration at that school, as well, just to confirm that they wouldn't be able to do that because the last thing that we need is another way in which that school community feels under-invested in. Yeah, I agree and I think given this I'll suggest to my colleagues that we put both on the rec list the the as you recommended and then we get the information I agree with the councilman make like when I saw that it seemed to me that I would came into it saying well, we should expand a green castle, but because of just knowing the community and the schools and that it's out there on an island and who's there. But we should do it based on actual information. And so I just want to make sure that the recommendation was to take, was to tronch it, and to, what was the recommendation? Yep, it was the option for the committee to place both or either school onto the reconciliation list. So the 100,000 for Green Castle and or the 114,000 for Silver Spring and Ja, I think, so I think separating it makes sense because they're in different situations. And so we might end up doing one and not the other. If there's a way that we can just make sure we note for colleagues as we get this new information, what the reason is, then we can discuss it obviously, because we could always take it back off when we get to full council. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. The Sims one, again, I think space is space. I'm looking'm looking again at that dot, and I just, I'm really concerned that we're gonna, that I think it's likely that we come back and that we hear that it is more than reasonable to add a person there, because if we look at this just a little bit broader than the dot, and maybe there's already two people on that dot, but there's also two people in a much larger area than that, right? And so I think not having that holistic view when these are clusters, it does, I don't think that that makes a lot of sense and is equitable. So I would actually request that if that we instead not put that on the rec list, but we can still, but still return and get an update for it at full council. We can still at that time and if there's not adequate need for it then there's not we can still we can still when we receive that that update we can still make a motion we can still make a motion to pull that out of the budget and I would be supportive of that if there's really not the adequate need there. But I'm very concerned, and I see it as really a serious equity issue to leave that, to fight itself, to fight out with other stuff on the reckless by default. Yeah, and just to be clear, this is kind of a different exercise. Normally, we don't, we're talking about the cut list, really. That shouldn't be really even saying the rec list in the sense that these items are both included in the kind of executive's budget as presented. So that what the recommendation from staff was to remove them and put them on a recommended reduction list. So that, so what council member makes that I think I feel like we can take care of ZIMS. Does everyone agree that we remove that and put that one on a recommended cut list? So we'll do that. So the discussion now is whether we just... Pending update, right? Pending update, yeah, pending update, whether we maintain the green castle on and get the information and then make a decision as opposed to preemptively putting it on the cut list. And I think Council Member Mink can correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't I ask for this in a sort of We had an issue in public safety the other day where I said this needs an asterisk next to it because it was really that we were waiting for more information so we were not Saying this is a reckless item as in a cut list But we did it was an unresolved issue and so they said they would put an asterisk next to it to distinguish it from the other items, but that way, procedurally, it comes up before full council, which was the sidebar I was having here. And I did want to ask and affirm my steps unattended green castle elementary. And so having been there at the school a lot before the pandemic happened, the needs were pretty significant before the pandemic. And having taught to teachers and support staff there recently, more recently during Ramadan, they've lost a significant number of seasoned teachers at that school because of the challenges. So one, we're not meeting the needs of the children and their families. And two, we're not able to keep our teachers in that building, our experienced teachers who are going to be able to make the most impact with that population of kids who have significant needs. And so I just wanted to make sure that the staff and teachers support staff, everyone is included in that evaluation as you're making that assessment with respect to that school because it impacts everyone in the building. Thank you. Great point. Councilor Arles. Yeah, and just, you know, there is a third door. I agree with the approach. But I think if we're not able to and don't have sufficient information to be able to move forward, because we have a lot of difficult decisions we're going to make. There's one of many Chair Council Vice President Chawanda mentioned, you know, supplemental can come through. And so we want we want it to go forward, but if it can't for some reason this is not the only bite at the apple. And it takes a while to hire these positions and bring them on anyways to reflect the reality on the ground. But I concur with Councilmember Minks' recommendation. Okay, so just as I understand the recommendation for our staff is that we will put Sims on the recommendation for a reduction list and not in me. Reconciliation list. No, it's a reduction list, right? Reconciliation reduction. What are you calling it? I mean, whatever, as a potential. The reconciliation list, as a potential reduction. Okay, it's probably the right way to put it. And then we will maintain green castle in the budget. We won't put that on the recommendation list. Just quickly, I will say it is the position of HHS that we do support green castle. So we we would advocate for that funding. I hope you support your budget. I hope so. You're you guys the ones that made us a little unsure here. Just need to clarify. Okay, I appreciate that. So and then we can we will get this information and share that and then let's make sure that's just in a packet any that you would be writing. So as we go over that in budget, which is, I don't know what day, but we'll figure that out and we'll make sure it comes up. And also for our MCPS partners along with at Sims, let us know. I mean, you heard about the contiguous space issue. We want to make sure it's not just a building on the other side. And to Councillor Alvin, I was just point, my step to add look to Blair too when it was Blair. And that building is like, it's like kind of like this. It's like a hodgepodge of very long buildings. And so we want to make sure that it would not just any office, but it would be something that actually makes sense to the mission of the, and if you get that back, bring that back too, and we could reconsider that at the time as well. But yes, go ahead. I think if I press Sim, so again, for Sims also, definitely advocate for it to receive the services. So if it's not in FY26, just ensuring that it, depending on what the building and the space issue is, because it does absolutely need it. That increased services, and really the only reason that they do have the part time, is there's just this space issue. They literally don't have the space to do more there. So once they do get the suite at Sims, then they can do more. So just making sure that at some point in the future, that it does get included that Sims can do. Well, and that would be a supplemental, If we don't, or next year's budget, but yes, absolutely. Of course there's the need. Councilor M. May. Yeah, first just wanna triple confirm that the green castle is not gonna require another vote of full council to keep it in the budget. Yes, thank you. The way we're pushing this thing in it, it would require someone to motion to remove it. Okay. It's going to stay in right now. Thank you for the quadruple confer. Appreciate it. And then for SINS, you know, if it turns out that if you are able to get the schedule or get the estimate by some miracle by full council and it says it's going to be ready in, you know, October or, you know, or whatever the case may be. I think like if we have a date and a plan that's realistic and or even, you know, we could consider if it's going to be January then putting like a reduced amount of the funding, you know, for that position to to to parade it to start in January, that's something that we can maybe consider as well. So that as soon as the space is ready, that you all make sure that you have the funding to be able to do the hiring in advance, that would be great. I know that timing is probably tight to get that plan done, but if we're able to do that, that would be great. Obviously. that you all make sure that you have the funding to be able to do the hiring in advance. That would be great. I know that timing is probably tight to get that plan done, but if we're able to do that, that would be great. Obviously, we just want to make sure that we stand up that position to be ready as soon as well aligned with the readiness to have the space as well. And if the admin does have a plan for an adequate space solution, that would also be very welcome news. Great. All right. So I think we're done with 1.1. Item 1.1 in our packet. So hopefully we will be a little more efficient going for it. But that was great. You want to move to the next item. So the second item is also for Link just to learning services. And this is for brand new services at Burt Mills Elementary School, totaling $200,000. Burnt Mills has approximately 766 students with an effective farms rate of 87.2%. And a DHS notes that Burnt Mills Elementary School was selected for a new program due to the significant increase of students participating in farms, which was last year at 81.4%. And DHS notes that MCPS will provide the linkages to learning suite suitable for full-time services at no cost, and you can see the current health and wellness services provided at the school here on page 12. And specifically, the funding will provide a full-time family care manager, a full-time child family therapist, and the associated operating supervisor cost to assist approximately 20 students a month in therapy services and 32 families a month in case management services. And similarly, per the council president's proposed budget approach, council staff recommends for consideration, placing either the following tranches onto executives recommended of the executives recommended enhancement onto the reconciliation list. So the first is opening, similar to Green Castle and Silver Spring, which is sweet related, you know, to the size of the suite, but in example of $100,000 for a part time program at Brent Mills, or to postpone the expansion to Brent Mills Elementary School to the full $200,000 for linkages to learning services at that site. All right, well why don't we hear from first from the team and what your assessment of why this was included in the budget and any comment on the issues that were just raised related to space or timing and staffing? So a tiny bit of history in Brent Mills, so Brent Mills is in a brand new building. And so when the construction was planned, burnt mills farmstreet was much lower. So we know the demographics of burnt mills has changed a lot. So it was not designed with the linkages suite to it, but we know that their needs have increased greatly recently. And so they've been advocating for a linkages. It's a school that absolutely needs it based on the changes in the demographics and the populations that they're serving. I went and visited the school. They have a beautiful space available for us. The principal is completely on board and definitely wants the linkages services there. And so it would work very well to bring those services. The school already has a MCPS community school liaison, which is why it just a therapist and a care manager but we would work with that person related to the outreach and the services that can be provided there. So ready to go have the space could implement it. This is obviously one of the schools chair Alvin was mentioned this earlier where we've had a huge influx of refugees and there's the needs of change very quickly. District Council member, council member May. Okay, appreciate being able to keep the short on this one. So, yeah, needs of, of course, really increased that I got a text from the principal this morning. I got a text from my parent at the school this morning. I got a text from Action and Montgomery this morning. The needs are high here, and this was something that actually, during last year's budget process, I was very frustrated that we didn't have funding for linkages at burnt mills. And it is because of the, you know, that there's don't have a construction project coming up. So they weren't even in the list. And what I asked for at that time was a plan for how we were going to get services to schools that don't have a major construction project coming up. Because we are now a county where we are seeing a lot of these dramatic changes in population and it does change kind of how we need to look at the scheduling. And so I was really grateful to see that the work that was put into this by this team as well as by the school to come up with that plan that is a plan that is before us and I look forward to making sure that this is funded in the budget. All right any comments from colleagues? Okay so I think I agree with the district council member so I think we want to leave this in and not put anything for reduction. So without objection, let's go to the next one. The final enhancement for linkages to learning is related to pay differentials for bilingual or multilingual therapists. The executive is recommending $65,000 to help increase the current pay differential provided by the vendors who oversee the contractors who provide therapy services through Lignages to Learning. So DHHS estimates the increase would provide an additional about $4,300 to $6,500,000 per year per therapist for 10 to 15 therapists. And that's on top of the current $2,500 to $6,500 pay differential provided on average to the bilingual and multilingual therapist. Council stuff would also like to note that in fiscal year 25 the executives recommended budget included up $150,000 increased for pay differentials and at that committee session it was explained that the true need was actually $300,000 but unfortunately the council was unable to approve any of those increases last year. So council staff in correlation with the council president's proposed budget approach recommends placing similar to the previous two, two tranches related to the pay differential. So the first is $30,000, which would provide approximately seven bilingual therapists with a supplemental pay differential. So about seven therapists would not be receiving it or the $65,000, which is the entire amount, so maintaining the existing current pay differentials for all bilingual therapists as provided by the vendors. So. All right. Thank you so much. I'll turn my colleague. I'll just I'll save my view is that we would maintain the C's recommendation. These are folks that we cannot afford to lose. There's not enough of them. And they we've seen the charts. Those in the NC Committee and probably other colleagues of how fastly our EML population is rising to trajectory wise. And I think this we want to hang on to these folks in higher more but oh any councilmember uh Lukey is there any hope or plan that instead of using contractors in the future we would hire them to be counting employees or not you know linkages is entirely contractors so it's the full linkages contract Gotcha. Okay, thank you. Call. Councilor Marie. You know linkages is entirely contractors. So it's the full linkages contract. Gotcha Okay, thank you Councilor me Just noting that I know that there's efforts to diversify the language is that you're seeking for those bilingual therapists as well And so we just we need these tools. I know that's why that's in the request. I also support keeping it in. All right, so we'll, without objection, we'll maintain the county's executive's recommendation. All right, so moving now on to our school health nursing staff under the public health services area in DHHS. The first recommendation is to include $1,496,275 for 11 new community schools, school nurses. So as noted, the blueprint for Maryland's future requires a dedicated nurse in every designated community school. And on the bottom of page 13, you can see those 11 elementary schools that will be receiving the new dedicated community school nurses. And as this is a requirement, there is no recommendation to place on the reconciliation list. We have to do it. We need our nurses and they should be there. So without objection. And then similarly, DHHS in the county executive is recommending 225 or proposing 225,444 for three new nurse managers to help oversee and supervise the school health staff including school health nurses and school health technicians. On page 14 you'll see a summary of the services that the nurse managers provide including the supervisory role but also provision of health services and compliance with the state and local professional requirements reporting and analyzing data and collaborating with partners. Currently there are 13 nurse managers and nurse administrators who oversee approximately 34 school nurses in health room technicians each, and that's a total of 384 merit school health staff. And just for the record, we wanted to note what the current policy is for school nurses. So one nurse per high school, one nurse per middle school, one nurse per every three elementary schools, and every community school requires that dedicated nurse staff and CPS has identified a total of 77 community schools for the upcoming school year. DHS also notes that the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Nursing recommends a nurse manager to nurse ratio of 1 to 8 and currently it's 1 to 34 and that DHS is moving to looking to hopefully advance and lower that ratio as the years move forward. And Council staff notes the new nurse manager positions include an FY26 six month lapse due to the hiring process and as mentioned in our DHHS overview session and other sessions that as other factors in the federal and state and local levels are impacting workforce that that could change potentially and DHHS has noted that they will be able to address any faster hiring than the six month laps. The Analyzation for Fiscal Year 27 would be $65,598 per nurse manager. And so, for the Council President's proposed budget for this year, the Council staff recommends adding three tranches onto the reconciliation list, this potential options, and that would be one for each nurse manager at $75,148. Appreciate that. So, not only any information just to start us off about how these folks would impact the system and what's currently happening with our nurses in our schools. Sure. So I'm happy to start and then turn it over to Becca. So I have been in this role for a little over a year. And one of the things that I did was really meet with the team, understand the day to day work. These are not just managers for the sake of management. They are actually providing clinical supervision and quality assurance. So this is actually an issue of clinical safety and clinical quality. Right now, each of these managers, as you saw, are managing about 34 staff, but they're also managing at least two programs. And I would like to just briefly share kind of what this looks like on the ground. So when nurses call out, their kids are sick or what have you and we don't have a sub. Not only is that nurse manager managing the staff, but they're now back filling for the school. On top of that, they're each managing one to two programs. So you have a Nurse Manager that is doing all of the supervision, but also overseeing the teen pregnancy prevention program, for example, which means that many of these programs, which are critical for supporting our students or ensuring licensure and things for other staff, it it's almost impossible to balance all of it. So you know, sometimes the nurse managers are running around just to make sure that they can get there to give the kids the insulin. They can't be there all day. The principals get frustrated with us because they're like, I have no one to cover our health room, but unfortunately we're not able to address that issue. So this request would be one step in getting us to a more not just equitable workload, but ensuring that we are able to provide safe and effective care, that we're able to provide that quality insurance, that we're able to meet the ever changing and increasing state mandates and regulations for all of the health requirements that continue to change for our health rooms as well. Becca, would you add anything? I just, if you could, as you answered, so there's three positions, right? Like, so one of the options is like, obviously you need help here. One in 34 is not great. What would each position do to the ratio? Like, would three positions take you down To where would that get you? What would two positions? Do you know what I mean? Just the context of if we had to put one on the list, what would that do for you? Yeah, so big car gets again from the Senior Administrator for School Health. So if we go by the recommendation, it's one to eight, one nurse supervisor to eight staff. However, that's not really ideal in our budget situation. So we tried to do it one to 15, one five, one supervisor to 15 staff. That's how we came up with 13 yes 13 13 like 1 3 Nerd supervisors will be needed but right now we are Understaffed with the nurse supervisor position However, you know if you if you look at the trend, you know over the years You know the number of students have been increasing and the number of nurses has been increasing like just like today you know, over the years, you know, the number of students have been increasing, and the number of nurses has been increasing, like just like today, you know, we added 11 more nurses. It has been happening for the past few years, but the supervisor position stayed flat. We know we haven't been increasing the number. But having, you know, three more, and then we already got two more previously having these three more nurse supervisors would significantly support the nurse supervisor to staff ratio, but we can do the math and I can provide the exact amount, I think. Yeah, each nurse manager would reduce the overall management load by like one person. So if we added three positions, it would bring the ratio down to 24. Sorry, that's what I said before. It's not correct. Not by one person. If we added three more nurse manager positions, it would bring the ratio down to 24 staff per nurse. One to 24. It would down 10 from... Correct, yes, thank you. It would be, but better than it is. Better than 34, 35. Okay, I'll just hear what my colleagues have to say, that Councilor Allen has. So we've come a long way with this conversation. Councilmember, do you want to know a little remember? In the 19th Council, we were shocked to learn that not every school had not every school had a school health nurse. And many of them were already being shared among multiple schools. And that, of course, didn't take into account when somebody called out sick. And we have all know and are familiar with the stories of all of the obligations that are put upon our school health nurses, especially now. And you draw a straight line between the special education conversations we've been having in the education and culture committee because that also brings additional support needed by our school health nurses. And, you know, this particular program I've always been very concerned about. I mean, I remember vividly having school health nurses literally in tears in my office, briefing me on the current situation and just feeling strongly that they're doing this out of a personal mission. And they could have been nurses anywhere, but they just felt that they needed to be here. So I think we need to continue, in my opinion, on this phasing in, providing the appropriate support structure that we should have had all along. So I will support, you know, having adding all three positions, because I know how critical they are, but I did want to ask, we continue to have challenges hiring for our nurse positions. How confident are you all that we will be able to fill these positions in light of the current hiring environment? We can, you know, I can say for sure, we should be able to hire, fill those positions. Eleven, it's in the process may take longer, but we should be able to fill those positions because we do have some substitute nurses who've been asking for merit status. We can easily switch those and then from outside also. We've been hearing actually lately that some nurses have been laid off from other departments because of what's happening right now. And that they may easily also come to us and we can easily hire them too. And I will note, we just closed a few months ago. I think it was 14 nurse positions. 14 nurse positions. And we were able to hire and make offers. Those are in various places because of the background checks and things of that nature. But yeah, I'm not saying that there is an abundance of nurses. We know that's not true, but I don't, I think we will be able to hire them. Thank you. Councillor, Councillor Loughy. So I just wanted to clarify because our enrollment numbers have kind of been, they had dipped and they've kind of stayed flat over the past few years within MCPS. But how long has the ratio been 34 to 1? I also want to just get to our stay dead. BIN 34 to 1. And I also want to just say that the ratio because Councillor Aron has given me PTSD. There's two issues. There's the ratio of nurse managers to staff, which is what we're talking about here. Right. Then there's the other ratio of nurses to schools. Yes. And I'm not talking about the ratio of the students to the total number of nurses. number of nurses to schools. Yes. And which is a different. I'm not talking about the ratio of the students to the total number of nurses and the elementary school rotation and that because that's a whole, we could spend a lot of time on that. But what I do wanna know is how long we've been in the situation where we've had one nurse manager per 34 nurses. So when I was, became a school nurse in 2001, my name is, thank you for asking. My name is Mark Hodg, I'm the chief operating officer and School Health Services historian. So when I became a school nurse in 2001, my super resident at the time had 40 employees that she oversaw. When I became a nurse manager and an intersubministrator in school services, I supervised 40, 45. So we kept, and that was a time when MCPS was growing exponentially. Right, right, right. And the number of nurse positions were increasing, but we didn't add any new school base or any new nurse managers to that to that compliment. As we started increasing the number of school based health and wellness centers we built into that for every six centers a new nurse manager was set we didn't do that school health, unfortunately. So about eight or so years ago, we started having the conversation with the kind executive and with OMB about adding nurse managers for every new school that came on board, but also that's when we started implementing the one nurse in every high school, which is extremely large, in general, our high school is one nurse in every middle school, and then one nurse for every large elementary school, which we flipped to community schools when that happened, when the community school started a few years ago. So now, knowing that we have all these extra nurses didn't, we still didn't build in the number of nurse managers to accommodate that. And then so the pressures have just built and built. So it was, I think at its highest, it was one to 45 or 46. We have added nurse managers, because of the Squabies Health Centers, which has helped us a little bit to now to the one to 35. But yeah, we've only dipped because we've added nurse managers, but a long history of large numbers of people. Thank you. That's very helpful. Okay. Well, Councilor Alunas suggested that we maintain. I'm comfortable with that if colleagues. I would prefer to put them in the Council's recommendation, just for further consideration and discussion, because it's not that we're not meeting a state requirement. I certainly understand the need. I also understand the need to balance with some other things we have going on and hearing that this has been almost 25 yearyear history that we thank you, Mr. Hodge, for reciting that. That we're going to have more nurse positions too that help needs certain needs. I'd rather tranche those and have a different discussion about that amongst the full council. Okay, so, councilor McKenzie, do you have a point of view? I mean, again, I have concerns about making cuts in this space because it's not the need. The need has grown as, yes, it's been going on for a long time, but the need has also accelerated. So I have concerns about that. It looks like your finger is reaching for a button. Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah. All right. Yeah, so just to get a sense of, I'm comfortable keeping it. I'm happy that you can reflect if you're OK 3-1 that we've kept it in and then Councillor Loughy would prefer to tranche it so that'll be reflected in the packet. All right thank you thank you so much. So we're going to move to the next item. Yes so the next items are all proposed reductions from the county executive and And so most of them are relating to either underperforming contracts or different scopes within it. So the first is for the lead for life contract, which is a reduction of $63,000, $726, where DHHS states the vendors unable to meet the minimum number of youth served and has been unable to fill a significant vacancy, limiting their ability to meet the scope of the contract. And fiscal year 2469 youths were served and in fiscal year 25 as of December, 62 youths were served and lead for life help staying reduced the number of youth and young adults entering the juvenile system out of home placements and the youth recidivism rate. All right, and so these are things that the county executive said to not fund. This one falls into who was managing this contract? Okay, anything you wanna add? So we don't anticipate any impact on it. So this is more of a kind of an outreach and finding the youth, but they're not actually providing any of the services to the youth. And so we are not anticipating any impact by eliminating this contract. That's our objection. The next is relating to the YMCA, Every Mind and Shippard Contract for therapeutic recreation services. And I will just clearly explain that for this contract, that it is not eliminating these services. In fact, DHHS is expanding them, and it's moving and transitioning to the title for therapeutic mentoring. And so that big paragraph in the middle on page 15 really dives deep into therapeutic mentoring and how its youth oriented, trauma-informed, culturally relevant, developmentally sound creative, and engaging approach for youth. However, the piece that is being reduced was not yet implemented of case management scope as part of that contract. However, DGIT just notes that they still provide case management through several programs, including 85 to 85 of the highest needs schools in the county through linkages to learning, high school on a centers, bridge to ones, and through the cluster projects. I appreciate that. And I know Mr. Cardona, I don't know if he's still here, or if he's back up. I saw him earlier. He mentioned these services that councilor, councilor Riemer and I put some money in the budget and the supplemental, I don't know, six, six or years ago or so to kick them off. They are super important because not everyone needs a full, you know, one-on-one therapist relationship, but can have it tied to something. So glad it's still happening, but certainly deferred to DHS on how it's implemented. Just gave you a shout out, Mr. Cardone. So anyone have a comment on that? So without objection. All right. The next is a $27,000 reduction for the therapeutic recreation contract with Playball Academy due to underperformance as well. And so this contract began during the COVID-19 pandemic and Playball Academy provides athletic training and development and baseball, softball, basketball, football, bachiball, and other sports. DHHS has determined that due to the poor enrollment and return to pre-pandemic extracurricular activity structures that the contract is no longer needed. And you can see at the top of page 16, the rate of student serve that the minimum was 1,000 families in the down county and east county communities. However, the max served was about 725 students during that time. Yeah, so not that again, not that these services aren't, but we've gone back to traditional things. There's other ways to serve any comments. You wanna make on this one, Mr. Cardone? You don't have to. All right, so without objection. All right, the next is $192,178 reduction to eliminate the expansion of positive youth development contract with the Latin American Youth Center, which is also no longer needed. Indeed, you just has stated that additional funding from Jules Sediment Funds will help provide additional services through the rec mode contract as well, which serves the same target population as the Latin American Youth Center, and that the Latin American Youth Center did not adequately meet the minimum number of youth served for this contract as well. Looking at between 75 to 143 youth served during the fiscal years. right, so let's talk about this one a little bit. I'll, I'll, Councillor Mank, you can ask the question, but I'd love, I'd love to. You can, why don't you start with your view and then I'll turn to Councillor Mank. Yes, just to clarify, as many of you became familiar, post-, we saw a dire need to serve younger populations. Okay, line. We constant conversations of middle schoolers in particular the middle school area, in the mid county area, Aspen Hill, Glenmont area, those particular clusters. And so glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses, glim So hence that was that was our intent of moving in this direction to a program that we saw offers a best practice that is doing an outstanding job engaging this population. And not just the middle school, I mean they're engaging elementary school children, families and whatnot. But that's really at the end of the day kind of where we went. We had conversations with the vendor. They had shared with us that they really did not have the skills that to work with that younger population. That was not what they were accustomed to doing. And so that's how we went in that direction. Okay. Councilor May. Appreciate that context. What I noticed here and that is giving me some heartburn and questions is that it seems clear that everybody agrees and has agreed for a number of years here that this work is important and making sure that we reach this group of kids is important and that this says for 2.4 here no longer needed and that's because it's being replaced, right? It's moving out LAYC because they're not serving as noted the population but it's not because we don't need to serve that population. So I'm confused as to why I'm concerned about that the replacement is one time funding so this is really amounting to a reduction in the operating budget and I don't see fiscally operationally why would want to do that. Because we know that this is going to be something that we are going to then want to return and have in the budget for the year after that. Does anybody from the, I'm excited, branch one? Is that an awkward question? To, just OMB, you want to speak to that? Or? I know that you don't want to speak on behalf of the committee. Is it, or maybe, yeah. Debra Lambert Office of Management and Budget. It is always possible that in the future year we may continue with rec mode. I mean, rec mode right now is a pilot to see how it works in the youth development space. If it works, then we will continue with rep mode. But right now we don't have that assessment. So the rep mode has just recently been added to the suite. And so for the year of fiscal year 26, we don't feel as though we need to have both. So well, when you say both, right, I understand that and I understand that that rec mode in particular that this will be their first year serving this particular, of course, not their first year working with population. It's comparable to this, but their first year feeling this particular role of replacing LAYC here. But is the intention to serve, right, the funding that has been in this space to serve this group of youth that has been there since, I mean, we have at least FY22 through now, the intention would be to continue to serve that population after next year. So I'm just, I'm wondering if it would make more sense for us to instead, instead of putting them on the dual settlement funds to instead say, look, we know that we want to continue this, they're wearing this group of youth. Having those funds in the operating budget, doing the RFP, having them apply through that, you know, if they don't work out, it could be somebody else the next year also. But I want to, I just want to make sure that in FY27 and following that those funds are still going to be there, that there's continuity. And so I don't know that it makes sense to move that bucket of funding out onto, unless the intention is to say maybe we're not going to continue funding this group of young people, but it looks like the intention has been and is continuing to be to do that. And so this seems like putting operating funds onto one time funding. So would that be logistically possible? If right now the plan is to put rec mode onto dual settlement funds, right? Have those funds already been? What's the process for that? Would it be possible to not do that? Or if there's a difference between the contract amount and this, would it be possible to keep these funds in the operating budget to do the RFP? What are the logistics here? To do the RFP, let REC mode apply. And then if they were the selected vendor through that process, then those dual settlement funds could be used for something else. We'd have to go back to the county executive and executive staff to determine, you know, what we would have to do to make that different. Okay, well I guess that would be my question then. I have concerns again about putting what is clearly ongoing, something that we want to fund on an ongoing basis, shifting them on to one time funds and I'm concerned that we're setting ourselves up to then have to fight for those funds if they're new funds again. When don't think that's anybody's intention here. Yeah, I mean, I think typically they, and I'm going to turn to Councilor Arboras, if the wreck, what is the wreck mode contract? Is it for this amount or how much is the wreck mode pilot? It's for 250,000. Because there's a little more 240, okay. So obviously, even though it's technically a one-time expense, it sounds like should it perform the way you would like it to see perform? It would be something that you'd come back for in future years. And should it be included in the budget in future years? I think for the purposes of budgeting, that would be considered not a change from the previous year. It wouldn't be considered necessarily new. What was last year? Yeah. That's a question. I think typically, you know, Councillor Aron has done 20 budgets. You know, my understanding is is that money's in there. We put it in. You're going to, the 240, you're going to do that program. If next year you come back with a similar amount, I would view that as continuing something that's already happening. No, because it's going to be on grant funds. That's TDA. Because you're using that, because you're using that through settlement, it's not our money. That's what I'm saying. Okay, so it would be new. It would be new. a new program and hasn't been and that's not the okay let me ask I skip councilor now as then I'll go to councilor Luke yeah so just come It would be new. It would be new. Even though it's not a new program, it hasn't been. That's not the... Okay. Let me ask you. I just skipped Councilor Nower. And then I'll go to Councilor Luke. Yeah. Good. So just a couple thoughts. I know that as we speak, the administration is in the process of implementing an enhanced positive development initiative. I know Dr. Davis has been facilitating many meetings with stakeholders both internally within the executive branch, sister county agencies, such as MCPS, but then also nonprofit organizations. So it's sort of the evolution of the positive youth development initiative that we started when I was working in the executive branch. So, and let me just make a point. I'm always hesitant, reluctant, when we talk about minimum numbers of kids served. Obviously, that's an important data point, but we also know that often times, the kids that are served have very complex needs and issues and require more time and attention by the staff, which may then, you know, kind of compete with the minimum number served. So because if the kids that are being served if deeper needs, you know, we just can't lose sight of the fact that there are youth being served. That often is a cross-section when having conversations such as this. Having said that, I know that I have a great deal of trust in the Department of Health and Human Services, and I know they don't reach these decisions lightly, but I also know that we're looking at strategies moving forward that are a little bit more holistic. So I am disappointed having LAYC being near and dear to my heart, but I also acknowledge and yield to the subject matter experts here who are on the ground, managing this contract, managing these programs. And I know that you wouldn't put these kids out. So having said that, I agree with the hesitation to move forward exclusively with the jewel funds, but Ms. Clemens Johnson, I'm actually going to phone a friend here. We did have a session about the jewel funds, and you may need to get back to us because I'm catching a flat footed here. But, and Councilmember Luki reminded me that this was among the conversations that we had during that session. And so, if we can come back to this issue specifically, I'm not sure that that changes my support for the executive branch's recommendation. But I would like more information so that we can better understand how this is going to be used within the jewel funds and especially other programs and services too. I do think there's been multiple instances in which, although last year's budget process left a lot to be desired candidly. And it was awkward too to be fair because there were a lot of programs that were funded with COVID funds that weren't technically new, but new to the county's budget. And so were treated as new. It got very awkward, and frankly some things slipped through the cracks that shouldn't have, and we want to avoid that here. But in this instance, I do think it's not inappropriate to use jewel funding, give this program a chance to breathe and get going. And then I do have confidence we will revisit this as part of this more broad strategy that Dr. Davis is working on putting together now and knowing this will be an important component of that. So that's how I'm feeling. Appreciate that you Council member, Luki. Thank you. Yes, and I'm remembering having the discussion with you all at the and Dr. Davis and thank you, Mr. Cardona, because I remember I had very specific questions at that hearing about the settlement funds for the dual settlement, you know, whether it had been blessed by council as being applicable to the types of activities that we were then going to be funding with the settlement funds and whether this program and there were, I think, two, and Luis, you can correct me if I'm wrong, there were two other youth engagement programs, I would say that were not, like, overtly health focused, but were health focused, if that makes sense, right? So it was the way to get at the kids in terms of healthy living and healthy choices, but without focusing it on this is about cessation, this is about not using jewel, right, or tobacco, or whatever else you want to juice. So we, I thought, had at that time gotten that full overview of the strategy of where you all were on tackling these issues and why you were trying different directions and different programmatic ways of engaging. And then of course when I read this and it's saying, you know, I get the whole issue about minimum number of youths and I appreciate Councilmember Albernol's points about that. But you know, it says outreach no longer aligns with current vision and community needs. Two really important things, right? Because the department has been doing this work. You are the ones delivering these programs. You're the ones overseeing these programs. And you're the ones figuring out what is it that needs to be adjusted or dealt with in order to best reach our target populations now? And the agency has made that choice. And it's not this program. So I'm comfortable with taking the recommendation that's in there, which is to say that this, you know, was not included in the budget and the reasoning why I respect your choices. I respect that the, the jewel funding I get is settlement funds that are one time funds and then there's going to be an assessment and you all are going to figure out what's working what's not working get rid of the things that aren't working readjust or try something new and you always have that right and every budget cycle will involve that because we shouldn't be keeping things that are stale or not needed and we should be adapting to the changing needs of our community and especially given the environment we have now and the budget situation we're in. One, needs are going to be evolving and we're going to have to continue assessing and adjusting and two, we shouldn't fund duplicative things that we're not gonna do. You're just not gonna have that contract. So I'm comfortable with as presented in the packet for item 2.4, thank you. Thank you. And I'll turn to Councilwoman Manquette just to be clear, the action here today is to just accept that reduction, the reasoning is that you're going to do the rec mode program with jewel funds. Now that, and so doing the rec mode program with jewel funds makes it a one-time expense. And as was discussed, if we didn't, and I know that seems like the majority doesn't want to do this, but if you didn't accept this cut, it would have any funding would have to go on to the reconciliation list for the purposes of rec-boat or whatever you were going to use it for. Is that correct? Just to be clear on process. Correct. Okay. Councillor M Mrenk, do you? Great. Come on. Yeah. Is the intention by PYD to continue funding a program like this, whether it's an L-A-Y-C or now rec mode or something else in the future, is this a gap that you intend to continue feeling programmatically after FY26 or is that a maybe only? We are referring to the rec mode program specifically. So the LAYC, the students that they serve, the population that they serve, right, which is being replaced by rec mode, is the intention to continue serving that gap. So one of the other contracts that we have is for the UFOP attorney center, the Down County UFOP attorney center. And as some of you may or may not be familiar with, we have also restructured that program to meet the needs of 2025, which is now the programs are going directly into the same targeted communities that many of these young people come from. So when we made that decision, we really did an analysis and said, okay, can those services feel the gap in? And that's how we came to the conclusion saying, okay, let's go in this direction. Okay, so there is potential. So if rec mode uses the dual funds for the coming year, then there is potential that you would not need anything in the operating budget for a program like that for the year following because you have reorganized and you're standing up these other programs. Well, the thing is that with the rec mode program in itself, we're trying to meet a huge need, not just in Mid-County, but even into the East County area now. And so it just came on good timing. And I just want to acknowledge Dr. Bridges, because he really said, look, let's tap into this. They've been doing work already around anti-vaping work. They've done several forms in the community, just a whole big thing. And many of us, I'm sure, heard of the tragedy of Dave Kennedy's son. And so he has really put a lot of passion and commitment to work on this arrangement. And part of my interest in this is because I know that RecM mode has expanded recently into East County. And that was through my request. We really had the need there. And they're based in Wheaton, right? But they have stood up partnerships with the county to be able to and thank you for your work on that, to be able to provide services in East County that are tremendously valuable. And so, you know, a certainly when we have a contract that's not working as, you know, as Councilmember Luke described, I totally agree that we should not continue to fund that contract. And really, I appreciate that the public is able to see the analysis and the work in multiple categories that has gone through to reflect those reductions and that those deep dives are being done and I think it really reflects the responsible use of taxpayer dollars. I also, you know, for the other reductions that have been described, it is accompanied by an explanation of why either we don't need those services, that's not a gap that needs to be filled anymore, or how else in the budget those services are being provided because we know that that's still in need and we want to make this is the one this is different this is the one outlier where what we have is a situation where there is an underperforming or not the right fit contractor and so they're being cut appropriately but instead of being filled by something else that's in the budget they are being put on it's being who's put on one-time funds. So this is different from everything else that's in this list, which is why it stood out to me, because that concerns me, and I know that they serve a really very much in need, population, including in my district. And so while I am certainly comfortable cutting a contract that's not working. I am concerned about cutting the funds to a department that's going to be working to provide those to serve this population moving forward. So maybe what my ask here would be is if we can have another opportunity to I think we need more information and to dive into this and return to this conversation at full council with a better understanding of how we are going to ensure continuity of services. And so I would ask that we either reject this cut, except what I don't want to do is indicate that we're trying to keep funding LAYC for this, because I think even LAYC is indicating that they're not the appropriate vendor here. So maybe we accept the cut and I don't know how we want to indicate this but my intention would be to say we want to keep this funding in the budget or on the reckless for discussion about whether we actually do want to move forward with accepting the cut of this level of funding and ask for the executive branch to come back with a little more information. Again, about how we're going to assure continuity of services despite moving it onto one time funds or whether we don't need, you know. Yeah, I think in this instance, I think we should accept a cut. This is what, let me give you a counter proposal here. Yeah, say again. Yeah, we could defer what let me let's hear what Mr. Justice. I'm trying to figure out any clarification. So if the department needs to come back in front of the council that we can actually answer your question. So, so this is about the fact that a wise AC doesn't matter at this point as part of your conversation. This is about you wanting to guarantee that in FY27 there are funds available for rec mode or any other they don't go away. But they don't go away. The fact that they're part of jewel funding for FY26, there is a possibility that if the jewel funding dries up, well, we're going to get it for 11 years, I think. But if we choose to use it for a different reason, that will continue to use rec mode or somebody else to provide these services. Exactly. OK, so EC Chair, Dorando is correct. You could do that today by just putting it on the reconciliation list and putting it in the base budget yourself. And that means that we then have that $240,000 in jewel funds to use for something else. So you could do that today. There's nothing that we can share at full council that will change that fact. So if you're looking for some stability in that and the budget's new every year, we can offer that as a cut next year for the kind of executive if that doesn't work, if it ends up in the base budget. So that's really at this moment your choice about how you want to fund that for future years, whether it's the base budget or one time only. And I will note that because it was not included in your base budget, it would have to be in addition to this budget and we would have to find a comminsor cut from somewhere else. So for that reason, I'm not comfortable doing it and I think we should just accept the cut and note Councilmember Minks. And I think others interest in that this work is important in that however it's, going forward, we'll be looking at that throughout the year and next year's budget that we don't want to see a reduction in these services. I would agree with that sentiment, but I think from a budgeting standpoint, we should just accept the cut that would be my recommendation. I hear you. I think, I mean, I think that also that Coach Alvin has raised a good point about, if this was the gap that was being filled through other programs, I'd be comfortable with it too. But I just don't think that that case has actually been. Yeah, I mean, they made the determination to use jewel funds to fund the wreck mode. They made the determination to cut this. And it's obviously, we have final budget authority. We could say no, we don't. So we're not really saying we're happy in the sense that you're still funding the stuff, Councillor Micks point is, which I share the sentiment, we wanna make sure we keep funding it, but we can do that in the budget as we go forward. And I just... We're happy in the sense that you're still funding the stuff. Councilmember Mixpoint is, which I share the sentiment, we want to make sure we keep funding it, but we can do that in the budget as we go forward. And I just, Councilmember. Just to clarify, the HHS committee recommended the full council to approve the supplemental, the special appropriation for the jewel settlement back in January. So that was already done. And the jewel settlement funds, as Mr. Hodg noted, come in buckets over time. They're not paid out all at once. So. So that was already done and the dual settlement funds as Mr. Hodge noted come in buckets over time. They're not paid out all at once. So and they have specific criteria associated with them. This just happens to fit into a use that can be done with it. But that gives again, HHS that flexibility over time with each new arrival of those settlement funds as to how it wants to allocate it based on what worked, what didn't, and how things are going, and what the needs and expectations of the community are. So. Well, that's the will of the committee. No, it was a good discussion. I think we, with you in spirit, and I think, and it actually will be, it's good for you all to know going forward to next year's budget as part of the evaluation process. And I would associate myself with the comment that I don't think we need to be taking steps backwards in PYD funding. You know, and this is an example of that. So for now, do you want it to be noted? Yes, and I'm making a really good bet for the new. Sure, sure. Go ahead. Thanks. Yeah, if we could note that, again, I'm not trying to keep the LAWIC contract, trying to keep the gap filled. If we could change the language maybe, instead of saying no longer need and replace by to say something like that it's being replaced by one time funding with the rec mode contract or by grant funding for something like that. There's nothing to be noted in there. Like with intention to continue. So is the three one accepting the cut with the note that Councillor McKinnell was just concerned about the one time versus ongoing nature of dual funding? Does that make sense? Okay, great. Thank you. All right. All right. The final proposed executive reduction is the family intervention contract with YMCA noting that it began in 2022 to provide basic social service needs, fundamental life skills, and healthy choices for the students and families they were serving and that they had not been able to meet the minimum number of 40 families served nor fully utilizing the allocated funds and that shows in fiscal year 22 through 24 about 18 to 28 families and 86,237 dollars of unused funds per year depending. Okay great, it makes sense but where is this going, where is this to our previous conversation, what's happening with this proposed set of work? Where is it going, or is it going anywhere? Or is it just not going to happen? So as you learn often from pilots, sometimes there's a lot of good intention. We acknowledge the fact that we had support to fund a very important endeavor. Unfortunately, the program itself really struggled to do what it was intended to do. And when this whole pilot was developed, the intent was to kind of create a parallel to what the street outreach network does before the parents. And so, I'm not in, we're working to figure out in the future, and especially now with a lot of the recommendations that came out of the U.S.A.F. Army headed by Dr. Davis, is what is family strengthening going to look like moving forward? Because I think all of us can agree that that is one of the biggest gaps in our county is the work with families but we found that this this approach was not getting us to where we need to be. I do the drawing board trying to figure out what might be another approach in this area. Yes sir. Any comments you guys good? All right so without objection. Okay, thank you. And now if the chair agrees to skip forward to page 19 to discuss the CIP amendment before we loop back into the operating budget with Ms. Clemens Johnson. You're gonna come back to lighthouse at the end. Yes. Got it. Okay. Absolutely. All right. So the county executive has transmitted at a CIP amendment for the high school wellness center and expanded wellness services project. The adjustment specifically shifts $3.9 million out of fiscal year 26 and $2 million in fiscal year 27 and $1.9 million into fiscal year 28. And that is just to reflect the updated expenditure schedule to align with the actual expected three-year completion timeline for Springbrook High School's Wellness Center. Originally the total amount of $4.5 million was allocated in fiscal year 26 and so this will just reflect the true the true schedule to construct, to design, build and construct the Springbrook High School Wellness Center. We're excited about the Springbrook High School Wellness Center and it was just there for one of our budget forums, so they are all excited. So without objection. All right. Ms. Clemens Johnson. Thank you. Thank you. Final item. Yes, final item. We are discussing the Lighthouse Initiative. Initiative, excuse me, for $7,089,667 and 12 FTEs. This is a five year one time item. We just know that that's how it comes over in the budget, but this program, I will say, with five plus years as longstanding. This program provides, this program is a coordinated system of care, providing navigation, referrals and case management that respond to the needs of the county's immigrants community. The program is really foundationally supporting children, thus their families as well. I will highlight the page 17 that the budget is slightly less than last year. This reflects the reduction of a strategic planning item. And then also if you look at the details of the budget, there's a big shift in operating from Lighthouse Services to Lighthouse Program Administration. That just reflects moving some contractual items in more of the administration operations sections of the budget. There's detail in your packet about the vacancies. I will call attention to the mention of the grant application process that will begin soon. County staff wasn't provided details on what the grants would be, so the committee may want to learn more about what the grant programs, how much money will be provided to the community and maybe how many organizations may be eligible to access those funds. So council staff can curse with the county executive's recommendation of this five-year one-time item. Got it. Thank you. Good to see you. I'll turn to my co-chair councilor Aronas. No, I just at high level, I just want to acknowledge and thank the folks that are on the ground doing this work. That work has become much more difficult in the last four months. So this speaks very much to our county's values and our priorities and our commitment to welcoming everyone who resides in Montgomery County I'm proud of this initiative proud that I live in a county that supports initiatives like this and appreciate and respect the work Here here Yes, and Councillor Lucey Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Echoing. Councillor Member Albernol's statements and knowing how challenging things are at this time. Thank you for the table you put on page 19 that talks about the different categories of services that are being helped with. Understanding or knowing, you know, because there's not's not like a I am one person I need help with one thing ratio, right? Many of the folks who are being served are going to need more than one of these things and and and and everybody's needs assessment is going to be different depending on their circumstances. Not that I expect you to know this today, but at some point, could you just give us an update on the total number of people who are being served, recognizing that they may need services in more than one space in place that are being provided through Lighthouse? Good morning everyone, Dora Cuner-Zarian, HHS. Very happy to provide that information for consideration and you're absolutely right. Families come in with multiple needs and the numbers that we have here reflect a variety of needs being requested and provided to the families coming in through lighthouse. Our partners are very diligent in making referrals to the network of organizations inside HHS outside of HHS that are able to fill these needs. So we're more than happy to return with that information. Yeah and if you could give us family like number of families and also just number of people, we know that you know a The family could be two, a family could be like three out of four of us six or four, and that there's a lot of variety in there. And so when I look at a chart like this, it's not clear if one family member picks up the clothing and hygiene kit, how many people is it serving, because it may be for a large family. And we certainly would want to be able to see over time to what needs are growing. And especially, as we've talked multiple times in both this joint session or in HHS, children, right? And how many children are being affected? That helps us understand the relation to other services and needs that we at County Government can help provide. So thank you. Thank you so much, Councillor McKinnell. Thank you for doing this really vital work. The initiative was stood up with, right, it's like a three-way partnership with HHS and community partners and MCPS. Is that still the intention? What does that look like? Absolutely. So MCPS is most definitely at the table trusted partner within this base. A lot of the families coming in do have children in MCPS. very important that we work very closely together to make referrals so I identify the needs to connect individuals with services inside and outside the network. The faith-based community is assisting in huge ways, organizations that are budding nonprofits within the county as well have risen to the occasion to say we have capacity. We can provide housing support or food resources or clothing resources or assistance with accessing legal guidance slash consultation in order to assist with the navigation of the current landscape. So yes, we continue to work closely with nonprofits, sister agencies within the county, as well as MCPS, in order to provide the entirety of the ecosystem that is this integrated network. Great to hear, and I look forward to following up more at another time, but sometimes soon, because there's so much happening, you know, just to understand more about what that looks like. Thank you so much. I agree. Thank you for this work. It's super important, as my colleagues have said, and there's interest. But I think as you've heard without objection, we will support moving this forward or support the CES recommendation. And I think that that's it. So we'll give you four minutes back and have a great day. That we are adjourned.