Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the luxurious 7th floor of the Council Office building. This is the Joint Education and Culture and Planning and Housing and Parks Committee. Today we're going to be reviewing the two items. We're going to flip the order here. We're going to start with recreation and school-based programs and out of time. And then we will also talk about our historical activities in D.A., which is mostly contained within Montgomery history, which is our great organization that chronicles our history. I'm here with my co-chair, Chair Freetson, and with members of both committees. I have the pleasure of being on both committees. And I want to thank recreation can come up, but I'll turn to my co-share to see if he has any comments. Sure, well thank you. Glad to be here. Love this joint committee. It's one of the best times we get to talk about our after-school programs and the great partnerships that we have. And just want to thank the Department of Recreation in particular for stepping up and stepping into the significant needs that we have. And we'll also know as I have before that I really got involved in local county issues when Councilmember Albernaz and I were on the collaboration council together and both served as chair. In fact, it was Excel Beyond the Bell that got me involved. Someone who had been involved in Excel Beyond the Bell had then been connected to collaboration council, then recommended to me that I get involved in collaboration council. And here I am. And here we are. So this is something that is near and dear to me personally. And I was also near and dear to so many of us who care very deeply about our after-school programs, our out of school time in general, and boy do we need it now more than ever with the crisis facing our young people. So looking forward to the conversation and appreciate the fact that we're here together. Amen to that. And just Mr. Logan, we just flopped the switch the order, but you don't worry, we're still going to hear from you. And we'll just say it was mentioned actually in a PHP earlier this week. I often talk about being a destination capable of decision-kid. I was fortunate to have us somewhere to go after school and some of my friends, many didn't. And out of school time, whether it be after school or on the weekends, is so, so important for our kids. And so it's really, we're really glad to talk about it. So I'm going to turn it over to Miss Cummings to walk us through the packet and we will get into the specific issues. Thank you so much. So this afternoon, we did touch on Recreation's Budget budget yesterday But today we will specifically focus on the out of school time programs For budgetary considerations. We have the excel beyond the bell increases We will also be joined today By the collaboration council to receive an update on the out of school time system coordination progress and MCPS on their out of school initiatives as well. And I will... Sorry. You will keep going. It looks like... I will keep going. If our partners here from Collaboration Council are here, Oh, thank you so much. Hi, Sydney. It's nice to see you. We'll get started with our presentation there. Wonderful. Why don't we just real quick introduce ourselves that the panel will start with Collaboration Council. Good afternoon. My name is Sydney Wilson Hunter. I am the Director of Edgicle Time Programs at the council. Good afternoon, Carmen, Buryos, Martinez, Department of Recreation. Adrien Clutter, Division Chief, Recreation. Robin Riley, Recreation Department. Charlotte Keys, Business Services Manager, Recreation. Alicia Singh, Physical Policy Analyst, Office of Management and Budget. Awesome. You all said in the exact same seats that you're in last time. All right, so, yeah, exactly. So I think we're going to turn it over. Are you doing this presentation? All right, let's get going. Let's talk about how we're coordinating for our kids. Yes, thank you. So a year ago, maybe this week, we sat in front of your committee and we were, we accepted the recommendations to begin building a system, doing system level coordination, expanding seats and funding, and leveraging the LNB and the OST network. And so I'm excited to share with you all today just the progress that we've made with those efforts. last fiscal year my team and I have focused on our three C's which is commitment communication and coordination And with that we focused on mobilizing and activating the network Within those activities we have launched the network advisory group with the commitment to community driven Thank Thank you. A community driven structure. And so we have county agencies represented in this advisory group. We have community members and we are actively engaging the community to also include parent and youth voice as well. The collaboration council's community engagement department is supporting the engagement of families and youth to make sure that we are having the appropriate representation throughout the advisory group. In October of 2024, we launched the OST provider survey, membership survey, and as of today we have 23 organizations and businesses across the county that have committed to the network and the strategic planning activities. Over the last year, we have tracked the expansion of available OST seats for the county with highlights with expanding seats in EBB middle school and through MCPS, we've seen inspiring growth with high quality programming aligned with academic and social emotional outcomes. Over the last year, the OST, local OST system here has also been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education's Engage Every Student Act and also every hour counts. We focused on our four priority areas, which are sustainability, accessibility, quality, and equity. And in sustainability, we have supported early data collection to ensure fiscal opportunities for mapping and investment tracking. My team has been central in creating a reporting document that will allow us to have a centralized OST budget report and so throughout that we have been able to collect just how much investment is happening throughout the county and also highlight how many young people we are able to serve with that investment As members of an in partnership with the Maryland out of school time network We're also able to track the OST opportunities at the state and federal levels as well and Our partners at most will continue to create a plan to make sure that we are securing supports for after school and summer learning through this next state legislative session. In terms of quality and alignment with our quality priority areas, the collaboration council has been inducted into the Every Hour counts network. And this membership has allowed us to further leverage the best practices and networking amongst OST intermediaries across the county of concert country, excuse me. Over this past year, we've also partnered with the most network and we coordinated a statewide OST quality summit, which allowed us to come together with organizations, LNBs, across the state, and talk about what we want to do to align ourselves in terms of best practices for high quality programming. My team has also facilitated professional developments around improved program quality frameworks and also tools for local OST providers. And we've also begun coordinating with such projects, such as the U Safety Initiative and the proposed Office of Youth Resiliency to also support the initiatives and seek further collaboration. In terms of accessibility, the OST network has also supported FY26 budget recommendations for the county that have come from the African-American advisory group and also the end-level ACP's parent council to request additional funds allocated for at a school time resources. And in terms of equity, we again continue to strive to provide strategies to share participant data across the network so that we can support better tracking of impact and reallocate resources and also attract resources. Again, we are continuing the efforts to further recruit families and youth to the OST Network Advisory Group. Next slide, is it? You can listen next slide. I think this. Yep. This is an example of, again, where you're trying to go in terms of what coordination can do for Montgomery County. And then the next slide. And these are some of the, this is what was reported from their centralized budgeting report as of FY24. And if you go to the slide it'll show you Where we are in terms of FY 25 and what has been proposed for FY 26 So we can see the amount of investment in the county and also the number of young people served so just to be clear the We want I see those are big jumps and so 3 million to 14 million. This is just what we are collecting like what what what so yes what we've been able to collect by who has been participating. So I take that to mean that in FY25 there were more but you just didn't have the collection or is that a is that apples comparison? Like there were only four million kids that did out of school. You that were served through county funded out of school time investments. And then in the next year, we had more than 10 million more served. That just means that we had more people reporting to us. And these and these are not obviously into it because we only have a million people in the county and then like 200,000-ish kids. So I'm assuming this is like, what is this number? These numbers are dollars. Okay, that's the both sides, but it says in orange that it's number of youth served. The orange numbers are youth served, yes. And there might be duplicates because these are programs that are... That's what I mean. It's like more than one interaction I'm assuming. Yes. every time a kid shows up even if it's the same kid two or two something. Yes. Okay. Okay. programs that are. That's what I mean. It's like more than one interaction I'm assuming. Yes. So is that every time a kid shows up, even if it's the same kid, two something? Yes. Okay. Okay. But yeah, help me understand like what? Because this is the whole thing as far as I'm concerned. And I'm one of the people that was like, we need a plan. Every kid who needs it needs an out of school time. We need to ramp up to it, so I'm glad that that work is happening. But I just want to, so we can actually track it. What is, I just want to so we can actually track it what is I just want to make sure we really understand what this means yeah so what this means is from the agencies and the provider that we have participating in the network this is what the investment so based on what their budgets look like and what they want their budget to look like or the money that they've either applied for or are seeking in the next fiscal year, that is what the higher number is showing. And the number of youth is just the number of youth have participated. So it might be one provider who submitted the number of youth that participated with them. That same young person might be participating with someone else and they're counting that young person as well. So in 25, because that's past, or what's happening now, and then in 26, so in 25, just under four million youth reserved, there's duplicates obviously in there. And that was $195 million that went to organizations kind of whoever was serving them. Is that correct? And then the projected for 26 is what they would hope to serve? What they know that they're, yes, what they know that they're gonna receive also in terms of funding, what they know that we're gonna see even what they're hoping to receive plus What number of youth they would want to serve if they receive that funding? They received that money. Yes. Okay. Let me go to my co-chair and then I'll come to you councilman. Yeah, I appreciate I think what I'm Gleening from the questions from my co-chair that I also similar We have a chart It should be telling us a story and you know, we should be measuring something that matters that would be helpful for our policy making. I'm a little confused as to what this chart is telling us. So I think it would just be helpful to understand, like if we just take a step back and maybe the inputs need to be improved or the report needs to be better, we're kind of working that out. We're in the early iterative process of this centralized reporting, which we all want, which we think we need. If we're going to really do the work that we have talked about doing for several years, and we know is desperate need now more than ever. The number of youth served, you know, if you look at this, it seems odd that you would look at it and you would see. And I think I was hearing this from the coach here, going from four to 14, almost 15, really, million. So you're almost quadrupling the number of students serve, but you're marginally increasing the total budget. And so just confusing to understand what we're supposed to be, looking at as opposed to saying, if we serve 4,000 students, here's how much that total budget would look like, or what those requests would be. And if you want to double that, here's what that would look like. If you want to triple that, here's what that would look like. So if you could just help explain to us a little bit of what this is trying to tell us, and then we can decide what tweaks we need to make in order to make sure that it's accomplishing what you're hoping it's accomplishing and what we think we need in order to make better policies and funding decisions. Yeah I think what it is showing us right now is this is what we can do with what the level of coordination we are right now but there's opportunity for us to have better tracking and data like agreements so that we can have fully fresh out non-duplicate numbers. Okay, so the first question is, how do we have better data collections so that we can get unique youth served? Like, there's, when you're looking at data metrics on a website, there is like total number of visits, but some people visit the same website a hundred times a day. They just keep refreshing, or it's their homepage, or whatever the case may be. We're less concerned about that, and a real better indicator of how people are reaching is unique page visits. And so I usually don't even focus on the total page visits, kind of an irrelevant number. In this case, it's relevant because it's more hours that that student would be served and would be in an organized activity. But the number of students that we're reaching is probably the most relevant data point. So that's number one. We need to figure that out. I'm not sure we would capture that here or not, but we know that's a problem. So the second is, who is reporting here? Has everybody reported? Is it the same number of organizations reporting on the same number of activities between FY25 and FY26 or those completely different? And that's different because the network has grown. So that's another piece of it. The number of providers who have provided their information for F-25, there are different providers who are providing. There might be a change in the number of providers who are providing for F-26. So that also is the reason why the numbers are different. But to your point about data that's not duplicated, that is where we're trying to get to, but without data agreements, data share agreements, that's a beer that we are running into. Got it. Okay. And then the total budget, I would have thought that if your organizations are responsive one year versus another year that that would be reflecting the total budget, I'm guessing based on where the total budget is, that we're collecting that separately. That that's just the total amount of budgeted to public agencies and we know that number and that's a real number. And the orange number, the number of youth services is self-reported numbers. Is that why those don't correspond? Yes. Yes. So I think the problem with the chart and the way that this is lined up is it looks like a numerator and a denominator. It looks like we're supposed to look at these two numbers together. But the reality is these numbers actually have nothing to do with each other. That the two numbers that have to do with each other are the two blue total budgets of, This is how much we budgeted in one year, this how much we budgeted the next year. That's a completely separate conversation from the other orange piece, which is here's who self reported last year, here's to self reported this year, here's the problem with the self reporting that we have that we wanna fix. So I think maybe figuring out a way to set this up little bit differently would be helpful because I think if you read this chart we didn't have this conversation now, it would be telling a very different story which would be, boy we are really getting efficient with our dollars because we're almost quadrupling the number of youth that we're serving we barely had to spend any more money which is not the dynamic. I also think we should think about if it is self-reporting, either figuring out a way to get to unique youth served or think about a different metric. Like if that is an impossible thing to figure out or if that will take too long to figure out because that does seem like a level of coordination that we're not particularly close to at the moment. You could think about it differently like hours, for instance, because hours would be, it doesn't matter if it's unique or not. I mean, if we want to know the total number of hours and then we can ascertain that the average number of hours after school each day for the average student is four hours or whatever the amount of hours is, we can get a fairly accurate guesstimate on that but I think that would be a more useful tool than having no idea how much of these are duplicate students or not and the amount of hours that we're providing services is really what we're paying for in the end, right? Because whether you're serving one student in multiple programs for a number of hours or you're serving multiple students, it's the number of hours that you need the staff time and the activities and the facilities and all of that foreign, that's really with the budget decision. So just a few suggestions. I appreciate we're moving in this direction. I think the data collection, the presentation of the data could use quite a bit of work, but it's an iterative process and we're going to have to work our way through that. So, appreciate it. Yeah, great points. And then, just, I'm going to go to Councilor Macden, Alvernos, just one other point I want to make, so I don't forget. forget the blue, so the public agencies versus private providers. Just tell me who's in public agencies as defined by WREC? Like who's in that bucket? Yeah, so in that bucket. Those are the people we actually can control a little bit. So let's start with that. That would be, yes, public libraries, community use of public facilities, recreation. Is MCPS included in this? Yes. Okay, so like if there's an EBB program, where that's a hybrid, but if there's a, yeah, so there's a lot of reasons MCPS is used, their facilities are used, but they're reporting. Yeah, they're in that bucket or anything they provide themselves. That's all in that bucket. Yep. Okay. And are they reporting? So our own agency's got better, quote, in the last year, as far as the orange of saying of actually reporting, it looks, like more reported this year than last year. Yes. Okay, based on the coordination. Okay. I would love to see offline, like, you know, just the inputs into this, like, how we got here too, just to, because I think that would help us decide what we want to track, you know, is it how, I do think our goal should be to find about youth served. I want to know the hours but I want to know the individual youth serve because the issue is we have a lot of youth that you know aren't doing anything you know and so we want to be able to track that okay councilmember make thank thank covers most might can you hear me most of my, can you hear me? Most of my questions? Does that sounds weird? Okay. All right. So the dollar figures here are all, I think somebody already asked this, but to clarify, the dollar numbers here, those are all public dollars. Is that right? Or those are, when it's, where are those, where are those dollars coming from exactly? There's a sector that's public dollars and then we have the smaller chart that has private dollars. Public agencies and private providers but the dollar figures here who is spending those dollars? Are those the budgets of the providers, their full budgets, or are those how much do these dollars represent investments that the county has made towards this program towards this like for the private providers those dollar figures there are those dollar figures funding that we have that the county has moved to them or is that just there the budgets of those private providers those are the budgets of the private providers Okay. Do those, does that include, are some of them receiving county dollars? Yes. Okay. And is that reflected on a later slide? No. Okay. So the county dollars that the private providers use are reflected in the, in the public agencies, bouquet. Okay. Just another, that would be helpful also understanding where where the where the county dollars are exactly on this slide and then I'll just note also the you were very diplomatic when you mentioned data sharing but I will just say like MCPS we really really need a Clear data sharing agreement from MCPS in it and I know that it makes it very difficult for you all to try to track the level of detail that we would ideally have. In this case, you can't control that. But that's certainly something that I know that we've had this conversation with MCPS before. And I'm hopeful that that can be something that the current superintendant can make a priority to make sure that you all have the benefit of that level of partnership as well so that we can. And obviously there are very valid protections, right, that have to be put there and I totally respect that, but also finding some way to anonymize the data so that we can track and actually figure out which of our kids are being served and which are not. The value there is huge also. And again, I note that this is not with that. You don't have control of that, but hopefully that's something that we can get done soon as well. And let's see, are we gonna be bringing MCPS up as well? Yes, okay. Yes, and we can, you know, maybe OMB, we slide. We love you, but for a second. And I don't mean to like, I don't mean to disrupt the... No, no, no, we're fine. We just have two items here that on the EBB, and they're good, they need to be here for that too. And you didn't have that many more slides, right? That was that. I think that was in the microphone. Oh, okay, first. You know, are there any other presentations that was coming from MCPS? Okay, so it's a good time. You're doing my job there. Well, there you go. So, so why don't we let them do their, let me go to Councilor Arvindas, let them do their presentation, and then we'll come back to that. Well, yes, just, yeah. You can leave, but just to, after this, the please, after Councilor Bravenos, don't leave yet, because he has questions. Yeah, so let me go to him first. So I didn't see the slides in the packet, were they part of the presentation or were we seeing these in real time? Or? I don't know if it's the same one. Okay, your mic is in on, so it can be seen. The slides were not included in the packet. They're being seen in real time. Okay. I'm very confused and a little frustrated. So we have had multiple sessions discussing the development of this out of school time strategy. The issue of data sharing is not new and And quite frankly, it feels like we've taken some steps backward. The slide is diplomatically among my colleagues of all articulated, extremely confusing. And I'd love a follow-up session. I have a number of questions that we're not going to be able to answer today. But I know at one point we did have desegregated data. I know Excel beyond the bell in particular extensively tracks the outcome data that they produce. And I can't speak to the other public partners and exactly what information that they are tracking. But it should not be that difficult to ascertain within the existing data provided more information that helps us from a policy perspective make decisions. So acknowledging this is challenging. And you guys are the middle people trying to juggle a lot of different program services. And of course we have new changes in administrations and I get all of that. But I think what that slide was trying to say was unique visits, not obviously number of students served. But it would be helpful to better ascertain exactly what that means because there is a really important and awesome story to tell about the great work that's happening out not just provided by the Department of Recreation and MCPS but some of other public providers as well. And I don't feel like the slides that we were presented really helped tell that story as effectively as I think it needs to be told. We have some really difficult decisions to make in this particular operating budget, and they're only gonna get more difficult moving forward. And we have requests for the expansion of Excel beyond the bell, which I am 100% supportive of, because I and a number of people were on the ground in the development of that program. But we are trying to do our jobs and wrestle all of this among some really tough competing interests. And we, you know, although we've got a significant majority of the council between both committees, we're gonna have to tell the story to colleagues. And so, would love to follow up with you, really in short order, to get more clarity, to be able to tell that story a little bit more effectively. And I appreciate and respect the work that you all are doing in partnership with other partners in the state, the convening of meetings and the organization that's happening, that's all excellent, excellent. But we have to turn that into something more definitive and specific so we can tell that story. So we'll work with staff and work with you guys on some follow up questions probably in the next 24 hours that hopefully we can clarify so that by the time we get to full council we'll be in a better position to be able to tell that story. So but I appreciate you you know presenting and I think there's a lot of information that can be gleaned we just have to work through and make sure that we do that. I'd also like to suggest to both chairs that we meet as soon as we can post budget to get an update on issues such as the information sharing, which again are not new. We've heard sort of the same story and are excited about the development of this strategic plan, which is really an update of an existing strategic plan that we had a number of years ago that reflects the reality of the ground on the ground now and an update on where we are operationally. So those are mostly comments, but I will work through staff and of course our chairs on those follow-up questions subject to this session. Yeah, I appreciate that Council Member Arvindas. And the good news is the decision points today are related to EBB. They're not connected to any funding to fund this because I would have significant concerns too if we were having a funding request related to this data because I don't think it's at a place where I can even fully respond to it in that way. So I need, so I think you're hearing from everybody, we just want to get, we want to know what the impediments are, get behind the data, and then have a follow-up session non-budget to dig into that. So I think, yeah, Councilmember May. Go ahead. Just to add on, in terms of the data that we're looking for again, and I know that I've been requesting this for a couple of years now and that it's not easy to do but really what we really really need is a gap analysis that is very clear geographically who is being served and who is not being served and ideally and this is what makes it so difficult that is you know looking at the field in terms of both what's being what's available publicly and what's available privately for folks within certain income ranges. So I know obviously from experience on the ground with my constituents that there are huge gaps in East County and last year we funded EBB and one of those,, we didn't get both of them. We got one of them. There was a recognition of that by REC who worked to address that. And so I know that that type of analysis is being done, but where collaboration council has either purview to really be helpful there is to expand that field of information beyond REC together from you know all of the different partners and I know that I have seen a map where that was started to be iterated but the and I think I want to say that was like a year ago or so but the issue with that map is that every dot on there represents something very different so there's some of the dots represent an activity that's available only during the summer for two days a week. Some of the dots represent an activity that's available throughout the school year, five days a week. They all mean different things and there really wasn't a way to kind of sort, to really help understand what are the, who are the students and what age groups and in which areas who we have, they have somewhere to go after school. They have somewhere to go during the summer. there really wasn't a way to understand the data in a really functional way. So that's what I would love to see us, the progress of working towards getting towards that type of gap analysis. With just, I want to just seeing that body of data increasing and increasing over time. So I hope to will see you soon. Agreed. That's my freezing. Yeah, thank you. I absolutely agree and I think we should do a joint committee before breaking for August recess, sometime between when we get back from budget and August recess. So, Chair D'Want to talk offline and figure that out and work with staff on that. I do think prior to that, we need to have a really good sense. I don't think you should come to the meeting with this. I think you should send it in advance and let's work it out so we can have a much more productive conversation. But we need to make sure that we understand what the assignment is when it comes to the reporting. I agree that we want to ultimately get to the point of the gap analysis. Based on what we've seen here today, we are so far away from that as far as I can tell that we've got to get to a step before that of just understanding what we're collecting, why we're collecting it, what's the purpose of the data, what we're trying to measure. Because right now, just understanding what we're collecting, how we're collecting it, and how we're presenting it, is not in a format that is functional enough to inform decisions at this point. So I think we got to get to that point. That's step one. Step two then I think would be the gap analysis and the more advanced effort here, which would be instructive on our decisions moving forward in the implementation of a plan that we can actually execute. And so I just think really thinking through and making sure that we're all clear because it seems like somewhere along the line between last year when we're having these conversations, and now we've veered off into places that doesn't feel like we're all moving in the same direction. So I think prior to us reconvening, getting to that point, really understanding, what is the metric? What are the measurements? What is the format that we're looking for to have it be presentable and usable and functional so that everybody is all pulling the same direction? And then let's come back and say, okay, how are we going to use it? What's the next steps for it? How are we going to implement it? I think would be the most productive way for us to move forward. And Ms. Cummings, did you work on this item last year? I don't think so, right? Yeah, so the other, as we're preparing for that, I think just let's go back, Ms. Rodriguez and Ann, it's an hour talking about this the other day of around or today about like whatever the things we said we wanted last year. And I remember having I remember feeling a lot better about the conversation last year as far as where we were. So I think almost just going back to the tape and just making sure we share that with every colleague too, up that's up here, so that we can go into that next meeting to Chair Freed since point. No one what we wanna know, and knowing what we're asking you to come back with. So thank you for your efforts. I know there's been a lot work done, and that that one chart is not representative of it, but we really appreciate your time today. Okay, so MCPS. Hi everybody, good to see you. Thank you so much for inviting MCPS to the table today. And I especially wanna thank you for your advocacy last year because the advocacy of this team is what kept OST alive in MCPS. So I don't know if you know the gravity of that meeting a year ago, but it was everything. And to quantify it, it's probably 1,500 students that it's everything for. I am the Addis School Time Coordinator for the grant funded programs, tutoring, and some people. Oh, and it's Jennifer's trouble. And so you might remember that the program was ending, the grants were all ending in April, last year or in June, they were all going to end. So all of the programs that I'm going to talk to about today are grant funded, we were able to seek funding to keep a lot of OSD alive. Okay, so we leveraged the 21st century learning center funding to expand from two elementary programs to six. Each offers high dosage tutoring in either literacy or math before or after school and then they have partner activities offered through Roundhouse Theatre and Black Rock for the arts. And so this is currently at six schools. And then we expanded the high school program from two to three that grant ended, but I rewrote it to add an additional high school and these students work with mentors from identity to receive positive youth development, field trips, college planning, and they also get academic classes in algebra and literacy. So partners can write 21st century grants too, so MCPS can offer at a school time activities to students without having to be the grant writers. So we have four of those in Montgomery County. The Boys and Girls Club is a good example because I was able to fund it with the COVID relief dollars in the past, but when that ended, they wrote the grant and then we were able to sustain it. So it's a great idea and way of being able to demonstrate sustainability. So I also looked at the data. I had a really small budget on the local budget and I was able to use educators to stay after school and do provide high-doseage tutoring to students. In many of the schools, we tried to pair it up with the EBB. So in all my OST programs, I try to ensure that they have some tutoring, but then some recreation arts sports or I'll say fun, although I think the tutoring's fun. When I go look at it, it's very fun for me. But the, so some of the schools that we offered the high dosage tutoring, we pulled the kids out of EBB or they come in the morning so that we can get them that extra dose of either reading or math. And then at no cost, I have some mentors that, through their own grants, are offering programs in the school and I'll highlight for 80 Club because that's one that many of you have heard of. And right now they have students from nine schools that are participating in football and college planning. And so we have buses and we have food and they come and then at night they're zooming with college advisors on college selections and what they need to do to be college ready. It's very cool and so last summer I expanded all of these grants to offer the same programs during this summer in addition to local high school programs which'm in charge of for the county, but not the topic for tonight. So last summer, we paired with identity, and we offered 126 multilingual students high school credits. And we were just surprised because 92% of them passed. And it was because of the partnership with identity. So in the morning, they went to summer school in the afternoon. They participated in really great field trips and positive youth development. There's like an art teacher, all kinds of fun things to do in the afternoon, along with food and transportation. So I'm going to be able to offer that at a smaller scale. I won't have 120 six seats this summer because I spent too much on my money. But I'll have a little bit of money and I'll be able to offer that also at Gatherer's Berg where the high school program is so we can pair it with the transportation to save that cost. And then same with the elementary schools that are doing high dosage tutoring, I'll be able to offer a smaller scale of that this summer at many not all of the elementary schools. So I'm excited to keep it going this summer. And then all of the programs will start back up in the fall. If I can write more grants, you know I will. And that's really it for the grant funded OSD work that I'm doing. But my colleague, Hope McGuire, can provide another update for you. OK. No, no, no, wait. We'll let you finish and then we'll do our questions. Thank you, though. That was nice of you. No problem. My name is Hope McGuire. I'm actually the supervisor of community schools. I'm here, though, to help maybe probably bring some coordination, because I can tell in the room, how about that? And so my former job was program manager, so I was the liaison with MCPS and Montgomery County RIP. And so one of the things I'm here today, and unfortunately I don't have a presentation, I was just notified about it, but I can come back to the next meeting to kind of clarify probably a lot without a school time. So I am working and we are at the finish line with the umbrella MOU between Montgomery County REC and Montgomery County Public Schools. MOU we've never had and I did not let go of. And so I need to put that out there so people will know it's not in my role but it was something I did not release from even from program manager when I was promoted in July to supervise a community schools. In that the past MOU's with Montgomery County was always with collaboration council. The expansion of all the work and the funding that has been given to Montgomery County REC, that allowed them to finally get services and protocols with their VARMOT information system, see I remember, which helps them collect the data needed for when our kid registers for Excel beyond the bill and their other programming. And so I went back to our Office of General Counsel at MCPS and said we have an MOU, that's an umbrella MOU, that is with DHHS. We should have the same thing with Montgomery County REC because they have so many programs within our schools. And so now this will be more than just Excel beyond the bill. This will cover REC's own REC extra soccer for change, camp REC, all schools that are present in any future schools. And it goes back to Council member Meeck discussing data. I did put a data portion in that. So right now we're just getting through the logistics of more of the forms that parents feel out making sure that we have the right information on those, putting everything together. Once we get all of those together, then that is sent to the legal team with Montgomery County Reg. But we should have that in place before we start next school year in July. So that is something that is coming that will provide a lot of information and clarity, I think, across both entities to finally have this umbrella MOU and then have that data agreement that actually starts tracking things from both sides where we can even look at the work that we did with Excel beyond the bail, the time that I've had with the impact studies and evaluations that we do on a regular basis. That will be something that we can do more often with all the programming. And then I know I work very closely with collaboration council, so that is something else that, as they are a part of that, we can mimic that and replicate that same data source of not having to duplicate and look at that data in a more succinct way about who is currently students, and then who are those non-students that are still using that when it comes to that. So that's one reason I'm here. And then the other reason I'm here also, I was told, because this is about your cell beyond a bell, and the person who is in that role is out on leave. So I've never really left. So at my foot is in both sides, because of the work that I love doing with Montgomery County Red. So I'm here for any questions around that as well. And they both are community schools. So I'm a perfect person to be here to help I'll bring this together so just want to clarify a couple things you said the the MOU that was mentioned by Councilman Mank and I was definitely going to ask about as well between R and MCPS will be done by July. Yes, that is correct. That includes a data sharing agreement. Yes. Great. And that would be for all the programs that Rec runs and that MCPS students participate in. Yes. Which is what's the N number on that? What's the, yeah, ballpark it. Yeah. In the last extensive study, it was over 20,000. Yes, and there's a big number. Okay. Go ahead. We're all going to use it. Okay, so 20,000. Then there are another, so I agree with you like that. Getting that right. We can use that for every other partner. If you get that one right, because it's a big enough sample size, there's enough kids doing it. You get the right data, you get it shared. And I think you said this, like then that could be used for community bridges or go down the list of for-profit or nonprofit partners, other programs. Is that kind of what you said? Yes, that is correct. And as them flipping to the other side, I'm also the supervisor of community schools. We have a lot of out of school time that is through community schools. So then I can come and do a presentation for you all about all of the services that we're doing and have done since I've taken over. I was interim last year appointed this year as supervisor. And how does that connect to Ms. Strogel's work? How do you all work together in that context? Very unique. We're kind of separated at moments and then collaborate across it other times. So we're feeling gaps a lot of times. So I was blessed to inherit that she had a wonderful RFP for out of school time. And so when her money ran out but they were still providers that were through her RFP, we had funds and so we continued to work with them and then just used that RFP on work. What I'm also working on right now is a massive scale community school RFP that will actually have more embedded into it instead of out of school time. So it would have extracurricular activity, athletics extracurricular activities, non-athletic family engagement, workshops and classes and professional learning for the 77 community schools that will have next year. Yeah, okay. So I want to go to councilmember Fen Gonzalez, but I think when we have the joint session, we should do it once the CMOU is done, so we can have in the July time, hopefully. So earlier in July, the better, if you know. Okay, all right, great, very. Council member Fannie Gonzalez. Thank you so much. Yeah, my question was really, And I think you answer what I was thinking, data collection. But also, when you come to us in July, I was going to say July, to help you hustle, to finish all your work. I'm also interested in knowing not just how many actual students are in the program versus how many times the student participates, but also, and look, I'm saying this with a perspective that I'm also a mom with kids going to a community school and who participate in EVV. And my kids are very outgoing. I talk not just with my kids but with their friends. So I have a lot of things to say here based on their input. I want to make sure that you are interviewing the children, the students, because they don't like to be called children, students. And getting their feedback about those activities are actually engaging and those activities that I know, although we have the money, they just shut down because the students are not interested in why that is. And I, so I want to get that data because if we're putting money out there, it has to be for programs that students are actually using and see the outcome from that, you know, what's happening. And who's using it? That's the other thing. Sometimes the kids who are going through some challenges are not the ones signing up for these programs. And that's a problem, huge problem. And for that type of information, you need to work with the principals of the schools. You need to work with the teachers and identify those kids. Otherwise, we're not moving forward. So I hope that data gets collected. The students who have challenges because of A, B, and C, what are we doing as a school, as a community, to engage in and have them participate in these programs? So to me, that's probably the number one thing that I wanna tackle. So I will share that I also participate in some of this as a county resident. And so I know for middle school, they do ask the students for feedback on whether or not they like it. So one of the conversations we had in our cross-collaborations meaning is how can we get this to the elementary and find out what they're really interested in because that would benefit us even more to know what are the service providers that are really needed in the elementary nowadays they like coding and they like legos robotics we really need to look at what are some of those interest to actually give them a sense of belonging and also build their skills at the same time. But I also need you to ask the students who are not participating, why don't they do it? Yes, so that would not just be for those that participate. We ask usually beforehand to see what providers we need for that particular location. I've been helping a little bit, sorry. Got a lot of feedback from Ovesa Shana Middle School. I'm just telling you. All right, okay. I think one of the unique things about Excel Beyond the Bell is it is referral based initially. And so we do work collaboratively with the schools. And I think that that's something special about the program to make sure that the most vulnerable kids have access to it prior to opening or expanding the registration to the remainder of the school. I was understanding how those programs compete with athletics. because sometimes right now they are in soccer season. And some kids want to do eBB, but they're in soccer, so they only do eBB on Mondays. And it's a challenge I think we need to talk about too. Okay, so. Another coordination challenge. Do council member Albernace? Next. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, most of our questions will be for the follow-up session, which I'm excited to hear. We're very close to finalizing the MOU and also excited to hear that MCPS has continued to designate staff who serve as point of references in contact for other public agencies and nonprofit organizations. We've spent a lot of time in the Education and Culture Committee recently getting an update on the cluster strategy that MCPS is using to provide more real-time support for schools in a variety of different ways. And that's sort of the evolution that our outer school time program needs to take to so that you all have additional support to leverage the resources and contacts that you have. I really appreciate Council Member Fondi Guinsalez bringing up those points. We'll obviously elaborate more on those when we meet. It's an ongoing challenge and it varies from school to school, which I know makes it tough to track this information as well for the collaboration council, because every school has a different perspective and approach to their support for out-of-school time programs. Some are a little bit more engaged, some are a little bit more proactive, others are more open to giving the organizations a longer runway, and then things change when a new principal comes on board so that all obviously has to be taken into account but I'm excited to hear that we remain having one point of contact which is great. You need help and it sounds like through our community schools work is being done there as well. But I look forward to that follow conversation. Council member, may. Thanks. Yeah, I think one of the big benefits of having somebody in MCPS that we had seen when you came before as previously or when the data that you shared came before as previously is the leveraging of those grant funds. And having, I mean, applying to grants is just, it takes a lot of time and effort and the more you put into it, the more money you get out of it. And we know that MCPS is a space where we are looking to leverage other dollars as much as is possible. And so the partnership with the county and with private providers, super important and being able to apply for other funds is super important. Could you just say a little bit more Mr. Oble about the how much grant funds you have been leveraging in order to provide more opportunities for the kids? Yeah so each of the grants is for approximately $400,000 and They're each for three years and there's four grants right now So that's 1.2 million dollars times three years and then I was able to for some of these other programs for example the 480 club I Used a grant called stronger stronger connections. It's like a hundred thousand all the other ones are like kind used a grant called Stronger Connections. It's like 100,000. All the other ones are kind of little. The biggest one is like 400. But usually I just go around begging people for money and I got it. That's awesome. I said that on TV. And the $1.2 million, those four grants, those are from where? The 21st century learning center. So the 21st century learning center. Yeah, so hopefully we'll have them next year we plan to. So that's great. So as we're looking at So the 21st century learning. Yeah, so hopefully we'll have them next year we plan to. So that's great. So as we're looking at just the investment and say, we're paying for the MCPS, paying for a salary position, and the amount of funding that you are bringing in using that time compared to that. And then the number of kids serve, like that's a kind of analysis. it's super helpful as we're looking at the MCPS budget, for example, an investment in out of the school time space. So thank you for that. And I'll note also that I got to go on a school visit with you to Green Castle Elementary to just get a look at some of the out of school time programming in action, but also what I was really interested in was understanding the type of quality analysis that you were doing and I think comes from a fan of a touch on this point. That part is super important, obviously. How much are the adults in the room really connecting with the kids? And I was really interested in the work that you were doing there because it wasn't just like how many kids are here and for how long your metrics included things like, was there evidence that the adults in the room knew the first names of all of the kids who were there in the way that they were relating to them. It was a lot of quantitative analysis of qualitative pieces that I think is super helpful. So thank you for the opportunity. I'd like to say that that tool that I use for quality was written by the collaboration council. That's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you for that. And thank you to the collaboration council and to everybody before us for the work that you're doing. Looking forward to talking more about it. Hey here, Council Member Freese. Thank you so much. Echo all of the comments. I'm glad we're coming back in July. look forward to reviewing a signed sealed MOU at that point. So be ready because we're going to schedule the meeting and we're not going to ask the progress of the MOU so you're against the clock. You only knew how long ago I've been working with. I know that it's not you that would be the hold-up just to be clear. We're trying to give you some ammo here to move through the bureaucracy, so to speak, and make sure that it gets signed and approved where it needs to. Part of that is about data sharing. My question is about what data we're collecting right now. So MCPS, as was noted earlier, really is the main data point here. You're the biggest player in this, you know, along with Department of Recreation, you know, as the primary, you know, partner with which county government operates in this space. What data are you collecting right now at MCPS? And we're talking about consolidating and having all the other programs that are not necessarily MCPS data so that we can have it all consolidated in one place. Because frankly, in out of school time program, the parents, the families, the kids, it doesn't really matter. The mentors, they don't care who's paying for it. They don't care who's budget. It's in they care what they can deliver for the students. and the student cares about where they're supposed to show up and is it something that they want to do and something they want to come back to and does it conflict with soccer maybe or cricket or baseball or whatever flag football, whatever the other activity. So what data are you collecting now? How are you presenting that data? What do you use that data for? So first of all, the soccer problem is real. Like there is no competing with soccer. Like it doesn't matter. But I have for each of my four grants, a external evaluator that does an evaluation. And so that's helpful because it's not me doing the evaluation. It's somebody from the outside. And so she does her own observations, her own surveys, and she surveys the students, the caregivers, and the teachers and the tutors. Additionally, for the state, we collect the attendance, we collect the test scores, and we collect the, like if they got suspended, we collect their behavioral data. And are we only collecting that based on the fact that they're grant funded and you have to prove your value on the grant funding, or are we collecting that on all programs? Like, you know, 480 clubs are a good example. That's a contract we all love the 480 club. Kid Museum is another example that has programs. Are we collecting the same level of data? Even though that's not a grant funded program. So I can't afford Kid Museum anymore. But when I had them on a grant, I did the exact same thing. I just didn't have an evaluator. So the Kid Museum sent out and wrecked this for me too. When I paid them, they sent out the surveys to the caregivers and they sent out surveys to the students. The Kid Museum offered programming on non-instructional days, so I did not look at, if it improved their attendance over time in school, I only looked at the attendance at the program, was the program filling up, was able to fill all the slots. Programs that are after school, I look at if their attendance in the program is helping their grades and if it's helping their test scores. But the one-offs that are just non-instructional days, I just want them to be filled and I want kids doing really cool stuff on their day off. I actually I actually think it would be interesting to look at even on non-instructional days because to me, you know, part of the benefit of these programs, whether it's after school or on a non-instructional day, is the presence of an adult mentor, is the camaraderie that has created the accountability that has created somebody knowing, you know, if you're not doing well, and noticing that you didn't show up for that program and checking in on you and the mental health and social emotional wellbeing dynamics. I mean, I understand why you would only collect certain data in certain cases, but I actually think it would be helpful. And, you know, I don't have any money to offer those programs anymore. So the only students that I pay for non-instructional activities are the ones on the grant who I'm already looking at their data. So if I have an opportunity to write a grant to serve students on a non-instructional day, I will definitely track the data and give it to you. I'm sure, and I appreciate that. I think the broader question for the future is not a U question, it's a system question, an MCPS question. I think it's great what you're doing. And I think it's awesome when we have a grant, it allows you and pushes you, or maybe allows you to push the school system, to collect the data that we would otherwise want in every program. What I am not sure about is whether or not we're collecting that level of data in non-grant funded programs. And we should be just as concerned about county budget and state funded programs that aren't necessarily grant funded. And we should hold ourselves at the same level of accountability. The reason why you're collecting that data is to prove the value to the foundation or to the funding source, the federal department that is providing it so that you can get more money or that you can continue the grant program. You can prove your value. That makes total sense. I hope that we get to the point and I am advocating now for us to get to the point that we view all programs that way, and that you have the same sense of proof of effectiveness for county funded programs. And I really do think that that's where we need to head and it would be helpful for us to know exactly where that is and whether or not that's part of the thinking for every program. And I just wanted to speak to bring like maybe a point of clarity for some of the work. I report right now and always reported to Chief Peter Moran. Jennifer Strobel without a school time is under a different chief. So one of the things that might be beneficial, and I'm just putting it as point of clarity, is when we have these meetings for you to bring out a school time, we needed to say any out of school time program so all of us could be ready for you. Because I'm bothered that I don't have a presentation for you because I have a lot of this data already Through the community school side because we collected on a regular basis the community school liaison Have to do that as part of their job of what programs they have in those 53 schools that would then be 77 schools And so we can pull that together and work with our OSA and that is probably a lot like we have 35,000 students right now in those 53 schools that we can show you data around. And then I can work with the Office of Shared Accountability to take it to the level to show you the impact on attendance and their academic side, which we have seen in some schools like Arcola and different ones at board presentations. So I think one thing also is just to put out there that we are into different areas, but we would love to be able to collaborate. I think we just need to put out there for the record that we're into different offices and sometimes when they request for us to come to you guys. They only say out of school time and they just think of Jennifer when there's so many other programs and supports that are out of school time. I'm working with Excel beyond the bell because that was my heart when I started Here with MCPS and one of the reasons why I bought a condo in Montgomery County It's between Montgomery County Rick and DHHS and the work that I've done with those people and so we also do Excel beyond the Bell but the reason I didn't let go of that MOU is because I wanted all these other programs to be highlighted in the impact study So that's one of the things that I think just for clarity for the people who are watching and for you all. We're in the impact study. So that's one of the things that I think just for clarity, for the people who are watching and for you all, we're in different spaces and I think we're trying to align all of that with our new leadership and MCPS. So July, I'm very excited to come back even with a probably a brand new dress to tell you all about it. Well, first of all, we're glad that you bought your condom Montgomery County and your commitment to the work and to our community. Thank you for that. Second of all, we are collectively hereby requesting in July that you be prepared to come and to speak to that. I do think it should go without saying. I mean, I think that we need to get to a point where when it's requested, it's asked whether it's by the county council or the county executive or a member of the public that that's assumed and that you know regardless of it being in two different offices or departments within MCPS we have to get to a point where things are consolidated in a way that are you know easy to to to to addressing there should be one place for everybody to look and You know a report shouldn't have to be developed in the sense that that data should be available. We need to get to that point where whether it's grant funded or county funded or state funded, there is one place to look that shows the effectiveness of these programs and the outcomes because ultimately, those are internal distinctions but they're not external. Distinction, that even includes us as being an external player here. Oh, sorry. We, we, we looped you in the day that we heard from Creston. So you weren't delayed in the invitation and you know, I'm glad you have a chance in July to show a slide with all the amazing things that the community schools are doing for out of school time, but you didn't miss out on any time. No, presentation. Yes, so I was not asked to present. So I want to do that for you. And I want to let you guys know August 15th, all of the community schools will have their data aligned to our funds and our programming posted on the website at Perth State. My. Appreciate that and we did do and we did do a gap analysis something that when I was Council President I had requested the council had added to the work program to get a sense of all of the various reports state required and county required and federally required so we actually had one clearinghouse we'd ever done that before which I think is a step in the direction, but the ultimate goal is for this to be an ongoing process, and we need to be more coordinated. I mean, obviously some of this conversation with the collaboration council earlier is the coordination among all the outside entities. That's hard enough. If we're not even coordinated completely within our entities, within county government, within MCPS, among public agencies and within public agencies. It just shows that there's quite a bit of coordinating work here to do, not just data collection but actual coordination. So I look forward to coming back in the summer and to work out a lot of these issues and to understand how we're going to move forward. The data collection and reporting is important, but there are steps before the data collection that I think we need to work on as well. And then we can get to the point where we can figure out what do we do with the data, which is what I think all of us really want to do, that's the work that is most interesting to everybody. Thanks. Yeah, I appreciate it. We kind of went down the rabbit hole on, you know, with the first presentation, got us all the juices flowing of, okay, well, what's happening and where's the data coming from? We have had, oh, in the past, you know, I just want to be clear for, like I say, the millions watching at home. Like if there's a program at your school and it's being funded through MCPS, there are evaluation metrics. Peace. in the past, I just want to be clear for, like I say, the millions watching at home. Like if there's a program at your school and it's being funded through MCPS, there are evaluation metrics. It is looked at grants are extended or not because based on those outcomes, but the points to remains, this is one kid as a kid, as a kid, and if 160,000 of them, and we want everyone who needs it to have an out of school time opportunity whether it's you're going out and eating what you kill as far as getting grants or expanding EBB which we're going to talk about in a moment or some of our great private and nonprofit providers or the community schools work that is leveraging those providers in schools. So we will, and that was kind of the impetus of why we need the the coordinate, the structure to have the coordination. So we got work to do, that's clear, but there is a lot of work being done, but we just need to get a better handle on it. And I think staff kind of clear on the lack of clarity. Okay. But yeah, thank you. And we look forward to seeing the new dress. You don't have to, but if you want to, you're welcome to. Okay. So should we now move to the EBB discussion? All right. Thank you whoever is there anyone else who's come on be can come back I think sorry you never probably had to leave but welcome Come on back. Thank you, Mr. Oble. Miss Cummings? So for the enhancement of the Excel beyond the Bell Program, we have one enhancement in one addition and the Executive's proposed recreation budget. the item, which is on page five of the staff report, notes the expansion of Excel Beyond the Bell programming to Waters Landing and East Silver Spring Elementary schools in the amount of $688,246. We have some information within the packet about how these schools were kind of selected for the elementary expansion. And the second item that goes along with this is a petition of a program manager position. Council staff would note that the program manager, whether the committee should choose to recommend to tranche one expansion or move forward with both expansions, a program manager would be needed for at least one expansion. All right. And thank you to the Waters Landing Supports community in the back, pushing for the expansion of EBB. And I'm assuming those are all students and young people who wrote on there that thanking us, thank you, thank you to them as well. Miss Riley, do you want to speak to the, who would speak to this particular issue around just what this expansion would mean that the issue of needing the person so that it can just write low context for that? Absolutely, I can certainly try. I'd really. Don't benefit, miss something. Excel beyond the bill, like Mr. Halbert, Council Member Albernaz, and I have been around for a minute from the beginning, and it has just continued to grow. And it's for a reason. It's a high quality, amazing program. And I want to give a shout out to our manager, Maronda Williams, who's done an amazing job leading this really broad team of out of school time, whether it's Excel Beyond the Bell, Elementary, Middle, Rec Extra, High School Rec Zone, and all the other wrap around things that go with soccer for change and other programs. And it's just at a tipping point. We need that person, that support system for her, to help connect the dots. I think you just heard a lot about, you know, the need for connecting with the collaboration council, connecting with school system, connecting with the lunch program, connecting with the bus transportation. It takes such a workhorse to move all these pieces and components. I think we're at a tipping point. And I don't say that lightly. I respect that you have amazing, horrible decisions ahead of you that are going to be super challenging. And I just think that we're at a spot that we have to have that leadership role to help really leverage and make sure that the program is well connected and that we're doing all the right things for the young people and the families in our program. With the expansion of Excel beyond the belt elementary, we've done a really strategic job in really doing parent engagement. That's been a very deliberate and intentional effort on our part. And that staff person to help leverage those resources to make sure that 130 parents that come out for a family night have all the wraparound resources that they might need a library system, DHHS. Somebody else there to provide information and resources to them while they're gathered, having a family meal, and having a really great time. If you've never been to a parent engagement night at a site, I encourage you to do it. It's an amazing, really fun time seeing families have a meal and be connected with each other. So I think in saying all that I think for us to continue to grow, we just need another leadership position. And I don't ask that lightly. I know it's not an easy decision, but we're at that point that we just have to have it. And so even if we add just one site, I really believe we need that leadership position to help guide the team and making sure everything's successful. Did I miss anything? Yeah. Thank you so much. So the before decision point before us is to fund the expansion and the manager. Correct. That's it which is included in the executive's budget. Yeah. Is there anyone who wants to speak to that or? Okay. Okay. Council member Arvina? Yeah. I mean, you know, not gonna come as a huge surprise, but fully support this request. And can speak in the first person about, you mentioned 20,000 students give or take are participating in Excel, which obviously is a tremendous, it's not easy to coordinate all of the moving pieces. And again, referring to Councilmember Fahni Gonzalez's point, making sure that programs are administered with fidelity so that there is follow-through with the MCPS staff and the community schools, takes a lot of onsite ongoing coordination. And because we do need to ask those students that are not participating, but if you don't have the right infrastructure and support, you're not going to be able to do that. And so it's not enough just to program. You have to have the right support and infrastructure for it to really be as effective and meet its full potential. So, and I also just have to know in the first person that recreation still has not yet fully recovered from a personnel and staffing standpoint. For more than 15 years. to have to know in the first person that recreation still has not yet fully recovered from a personnel and staffing standpoint for more than 15 years now. And we've added lots of programs that they are administering and all of our departments are excellent, but they make a dollar out of however many sense often. And I just appreciate their ongoing leadership and I will support these two recommendations laid forth by the county executive. Wonderful and just to remind you said a lot about EVB but just when our mind our folks 87% of folks that participate qualify for free and reduced launch, 62 percent are English language learners, 41 percent identifies black, African American, 41 percent identifies Latino, Hispanic, as far as just who's being served. So I think without objection, we will agree with the can executive and move that forward. And I also— Oh, you can clap, sure. And also shout out to the East Silver Spring Elementary, who's the other program. So we know what is landing in East Silver Spring right here. Is that that's it with Rick, right? I just want to take the personal privilege of thanking director Riley. This is her last budget committee session as director. Tomorrow. Last with me. There you go. Or do we have one with her tomorrow? Our same man. No, our same manies. So you're with me again. All right, last with some of these groups will be either last. And then we'll get you a full council. But just you are retiring at the end of July. End of May. End of May, I'll try to extend it. I tried to give you a little extra time. I'll try. But thank you for you. I mean, it's more will be said. But just, I'm glad you ended the way you did here as far as talking about EBB so passionately. It's hard to overstate. And I'm sure Councilor Avonis at the appropriate time will say more. but I just wanted to since I'm sharing this meeting to recognize you and all the great, great work you've done on behalf of all of our kids and students and families for many years, it's going to be greatly missed. Thank you very much. I have a great team, so it's not only the people behind me. Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to echo that as the coach I think we both got away in here, given how much work you've done. I'll speak more at a later date, but you have always amazed me by your ability, interest and willingness to take on the biggest and highest level challenges of leadership and also to do the most basic of work that is required in the department. And both are needed. It's what real leadership looks like. And you, in the quietest, most unassuming way possible, do it in a way that I think is inspiring to all of us. And I think it really makes your team want to follow you where you're going. So best of luck to you. Thank you for everything that you've done. I'll have much more to say later, but just wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you. We got a more opportunity to see your Council member over now. Yeah, I will hold off, because I'm gonna have extensive comments in short order, but I'm looking forward to those. I don't want her to follow her anywhere. You better stay. That's all. Councillor McEwan say anything. Sure. I got a lot to say but I'm going to hold also. you. And of course, classic to Councilmember Freason's point, classic you to just immediately defer to the team. I'm at your free-out in an event with Wreck. You're going to be picking up trash or moving something around and just servant leadership. But more to come, so get ready. This is just the appetizer. All right, so I think we're done with you all today. Thank you, we'll see you back in a couple of July. And thank you again, and then we'll move to our second and final item, which is our historical activities in D.A. and we'll welcome up Matt Logan and Deborah Lambert from OMB and anyone else who's here for that. Hey Matt. Good to see you. All right. So, Miss Cummings, do you want to T.S. up here? Absolutely. So, ten today's committee session. We have the recommended operating budget for the historical activities NDA. This NDA, it's recommended by the executive a 3% increase in the amount of $6,656 from the FY25 approved budget. I will note that while it is noted that there's two enhancements in the budget for this year, essentially is the same services budget. These items, the contributions towards the Black Resistance oral history initiative, and the County 250th anniversary project towards the unfinished revolution. The increases that were added last fiscal year were decreased in the recommendation for this year. So just to be clear, the money you received, there was one time funds that you still are expending. Is that correct? Correct. Okay, well go ahead, yeah. Correct. Okay. Sorry, Ms. Cummings. Go ahead. No worries. I would just also add that included in the packet. Mr. Logan shared with us some of the interviews that they've done so far for the Black Resistance or a history initiative. There's YouTube links there that you can access online. And there is also more information on how the allocation towards the finished revolution will be utilized, going forward into this next fiscal year on circles to the three of the staff report. Wonderful. Mr. Logan, good to see you. Anything you want to add and give us some color on how you spend the money, how things are going. Yeah, well, first thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure. And I learned a lesson about trying to multitask and eating up in the wrong room. So by the way, those seats are not very comfortable. Either of these. That's all right. Keeps meeting sure, I'm sure. Let me, I can give you a couple of highlights that are coming up, talk about the 250th and then sort of the big thing in our world right now is the development of Montgomery County History Center, a physical location. So, first thing we're working closely with legal women voters right now. A lot of concern about civic responsibility, civil discourse and so forth. We did a program recently with some constitutional scholars. The drew over a thousand people via Zoom. We have one coming up on June 5th on the 14th Amendment. Royce Hanson is writing a book on that. And he is offered to present his work for our audience, our joint audience. so we're excited about that. We're also in the planning stages of a Black History film festival that when we are in our new space, we would like to maybe make that one of the inaugural events that we do there. So we're pretty psyched about that. For the 250th I've been talking with Council President Stewart about the creation of a commission that would sort of help to organize and elevate the public awareness of the 250th. She was going to talk with some folks in the administration to see if there is a place that is a logical home for it to staff it and just bring the energy that would be needed. So that's potentially in the works. I know she's interested in getting something done during her term as president. In terms of the unfinished revolution, I guess we already touched on that a little bit. We've got some, and again, the idea behind that project is to update the county's history. It was done for the bicentennial, 50 years are left undone as well as correcting things that were absent. We recently added Glenn Orland is going to do a chapter on the history and the evolution of transportation in the county. I've got another researcher who just signed up up to do Jim Crow and KKK. There's a lot of content there and no one has done that yet. Legal women voters are going to be looking at fair housing legislation. The evolution of that Montgomery Parks have agreed the archaeologist there has agreed to do our prehistory looking at indigenous populations. So a lot of really interesting things. We have some gaps that we still need to fill, but to this point we're we're very pleased with the progress there. And then the other is the Black Resistance World History Initiative that I was able with the funds provided last year to hire Adodonna Aschembeer, who has done a fabulous job. She's interviewed folks from Littonsville, Damascus, Lincoln Park, Norbeck, Sandy Spring, and Scotland. She has two more Scotland residents scheduled. But she's also talking to folks in Martinburg, Clarksburg, and Chevy Chase. Through this, we've also identified a woman whose family, I believe it is for great, great uncle, was a member of a lynching party. It's a white woman who has found through diaries and conversations with family members where they openly discussed the lynching of Mr. Sydney Randolph in 1896. And you can imagine how upsetting that is for her and she's given testimony. I've seen her testimony on this before the State Commission, but we want to capture the entirety of that story. Because that's a very important perspective to be able to add to the Black Resistance project. So the two big things that have been keeping us busy are the acquisition of the farmers bank and trust building at Fort Courthouse Square. I was able to take Kristen on a tour and Deborah, if you're ever interested, and certainly all the council members would love to give you a tour. It's very cool, our deck of building. We'll be a walking tour for a minute. I'm sorry. Not very far away. It's a block away. You have no excuse. It needs a lot of work. And so I just got the initial cost estimates on Friday. And they're more than 100% more than what we had previously been told. How much of that is tariff and how much of that is cushion based on the uncertainty? It doesn't really matter. It's gonna be a big lift for us. We're also finalizing a lease on the top floor of the gray courthouse with the county. We are going to use that space. It used to be where the holding cells were for the people who were on the trial and the courtroom just below. When the building was renovated a few years ago, all those holding cells were removed and it's just vacant space and we're going to use that to store our artifacts. We've got about 10,000 artifacts that many are in Rockville. We have a lot in Manassas, in storage units and things like that. It shouldn't be that way. So we need to get them here under our care. And so we're going to be able to sort of create a new campus for ourselves in Right on the right on the lawn of the courthouse. So we're very excited about all that Thank you really appreciate that What's the timeline on the great court getting all the thing on the great courthouse? Yeah, getting the collection moved in there. I think about that a lot with stuff all over in various places. I know you, not more than you, I'm sure, but. Yeah. So, sort of depends. As I understand it, we've agreed to the final terms of the business terms of the lease. I don't know what additional steps are required on the counties. I think there's a couple more. But it's my understanding that we should be able to start construction by the fall and be in, hopefully, by the end of the calendar year or at least start the move. The move is, as you might imagine, moving artifacts and so forth, it's expensive and slow and painstaking, a lot of processing. But the idea with the four-court house square, if things sort of continue on the current path, we should be able to move in by next July, next June or July. So we very much like to complete them into the Fort Courthouse Square, where the library will be our offices will be exhibit space. And then what would happen to the great the materials stored in the Great Courthouse? You would just use that. That's over flow space or no that's for the artifacts. That would always be for the artifacts. Correct. Correct. That would maintain. Yeah, it's a 30-year term on the lease. Right. But you beat everything close. That's good. Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, the county's 250th is next September 6th. And so we want to be in and settled in, you know, so if we can move in next summer, that would be ideal. So we can show off everything. We can show off everything. We can have that Black History Film Festival. We've got some other ideas we're kicking around for, you know, to open the space. Great. Well, so I'll just on the decision point that I'll turn to colleagues if they have any comments. So there's really not really any decision point here. This is just an update. And so Mr. Lambert. Just to clarify, it's an additional one year of funding. So it was one year of funding requested in fiscal year 25 that was approved by Council. And given the fundraising that Mr. Logan needs to do for his new spaces, the county executives view was, yeah, we'll give them another one year of funding for both of these. They're not above last year, so it's nothing needs going on the recreation list. It's just in the budget as one other one year of funding. Correct. Got it. Well, I think without objection on that, I'll turn to Cochair Freetzin and then I'll come to you. Yeah, thank you. Certainly without objection and thank you for everything. I just know a few things. One very excited about the two new spaces that you're moving into. The... and then I'll come to you. Yeah, thank you. Certainly with that objection and thank you for everything. I just know a few things. One, very excited about the two new spaces that you're moving into, the space and place for the people and the space and the place for the artifacts, because both are important. We need people doing the work to capture the history and we need the artifacts and the structures and to preserve those, because they're a visceral part of how you tell the stories and how people can connect to those stories. So I'm just really excited about that. I'm really blown away by the work that you do on such a shoestring budget and the huge undertaking with the 250th coming up, a short timeline, even from now, much less from when you're planning to move in, which is a matter of a couple months, potentially, but really excited about the opportunity of that, which I think is going to be really important. The unfinished revolution, I think, is a really good way to frame it. many ways it ways, it's the more perfect union. This is our local version of moving towards that, recognizing that we still have work to do. And that the way that the history has been written is not necessarily as accurate as we would like. And as some are trying to rewrite history and try to erase history, the intentional work that you're doing and that we're doing here collectively, I think it's just so important. I think it's important to note, you mentioned Mr. Sidney Randolph and the work that you're doing to capture some of the ugly history of that. We work in this building on the site where he was abducted from, which was the Rockville jail, which is now the seat of the legislative body of government, so to be able to contextualize that and to make sure that we have all facets of that story as painful and as ugly as it may be is so important. So I just really appreciate that. And just the oral history work that you're doing, I've spoken with some folks who are involved in that on both sides and I just really impressed and amazed by that. And you know, earlier today we commemorated Yomashowa here at the council. And the same is true with this oral history work that you're doing. Every day that we're not doing that work, we've run the risk of losing someone who has the first hand account of what happened, who experienced it themselves, who sat at the feet of their parent or grandparent and heard it directly from them, the direct second hand account. Each day that we miss out on somebody as time goes by, we lose a little bit in the capturing and the accuracy of the history. So your work is immediate. History doesn't change, but our ability to capture it diminishes over time. And so I just really appreciate it, really excited about the work that you're doing and look forward to continue to support it along with all of our colleagues. Councillor Mellon. Thank you. This is really exciting and important work. And I'm so glad that we have you doing it. You know, making sure that we are amplifying the voices of those impacted and whose families were impacted so incredibly important. The centering of those voices, the oral histories, project, huge and wherever we have the opportunities for those voices to be taking the lead in the narrative. Really, really important. And so I know that you're working to have that be represented in, you know, with your speakers, at events, etc. I assume that the authors of the books are similarly vetted with similar eye, I would that be accurate. In terms of ensuring that the voices being amplified are those that are, you know, directly impacted or descended from those who are directly impacted from the impacted community, et cetera. Great. And then I think you said that parks is going to be presenting on the history of indigenous population in their work. Is that accurate? I'm sorry. I didn't catch that. There was a reference to that. There are going to be contributing a chapter on the sort of the archaeological evidence of pre-European contact. So I've seen some presentations on it and it's really fascinating what took place here and when they were here. Great. Noting also that we have, since we have many indigenous people who are still here who are still active in the community if you would like context to any of them that you might have some of the same ones that I do but I want to make sure that they have that they are also centered in those conversations also they may already be working directly with parks etc but just want to make sure that that is that is a big part of it. No, I would appreciate your assistance. We've made a lot of contact with folks in say the scat away community and so forth. But getting, you know, developing trust, they're in incredible demand, the ones that are sort of working with traditional organizations like ours. And so I know they're stretched in a lot of different directions, but your help might be able to get us to get their involvement nailed down. I'm going to guess that our contact's overlap, but maybe we can get one. That's fine. That's actually good. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thanks. Councilmember Abinas. Excuse me. So the 250th anniversary is quickly approaching. I know it's all hands on deck. I know you all are working with an army of volunteers and groups. Just state the obvious we stand ready to support and help in every way we can and leverage our resources and contacts to make sure we take full advantage of that opportunity. And I just curious as to your, your, any interactions with MCPS and your work with them, or are there opportunities for us to expand those partnerships and alliances to make sure our students are fully and there's there's a big line. Yeah, I know. Fully versed and you know understand this history as well. We've got excellent connections and relationships with MCPS both through Zawaman Tracee Oliver Gary who you probably know who is the coordinator of the social Studies curriculum. She's doing fabulous work. We served together on the commission and remembrance and reconciliation. And, you know, I've also been working with, you know, the Board of Education and others at MCPS to research school names which we may be looking in the future at McReeder High School, for instance, and others that have been named for in slavers. I think whether those names get changed or not, I think it's important that that history is shared and made widely known. And people can make their own decisions and move forward based on that. So, yeah, I think our relationships with MCPS are really, really good. But if you have suggestions for other ways we can get engaged with them, we obviously, I mean, it's really court of who we are is working with the younger generation. So great. Thank you. Yeah, you've done some great work already with them and the continued integration. I know that they're, you know, we're ahead of a lot of jurisdictions in that we actually integrate local history in their education blocks in MCPS about local historic figures and goodness, you know, and we've got more to do for sure, but we're not going in the wrong direction, like some places that are trying to erase our history. You know, and I saw the thing about the African-American History Museum, they're trying to take artifacts and change the history. There's a good bit of Montgomery County in that museum related to artifacts and history and so You know I'm curious you know there's no current plans to remove any of that I know some people have removed the things out of fear that things would be taken. Yeah, it's good point But it's something to just put on your radar as we Crazy environment that we're in I've been told that the the most visited African American home in the country is the one from Montgomery County that's on display. The post-mancipation home that's on display in the Museum of African American History and Culture, which the Jones Bridge. Yeah, and that's a source of pride, I think, for a lot of us in Montgomery County. And to see what's happening at the national level, just puts a greater responsibility and sense of duty to celebrate our 250th in a manner that elevates our values and tells the stories that we no need to be told. And to the extent we can make that widely seen and heard in other jurisdictions, I would welcome that too. to Councillor Rhaugh on this point, let us know how we can help. I think the position is a great idea. Well, perhaps this commission, if it gets off the ground, we can do it via that vehicle. Awesome. I look forward to the so ribbon cutting for the two spaces and so much work. That's speed. All right. So much. Thank you so much. With that we are adjourned. Thank you.