The attendance area adjustments approved by the Howard County Board of Education on November 21, 2019 are well underway. Prior to the school closure on March 16, 2020, HCPSS had already set in motion all of the actions necessary to ensure a smooth transition for the adopted school boundaries being implemented for the next school year.
Starting Monday, April 27, 2020, teachers at all levels began documenting student attendance during Continuity of Learning using a point system based on student participation in learning activities each week. Students earning the required minimum number of points will be marked “Present” for the week; those earning fewer points will be marked “Absent.” Staff will monitor each student’s level of participation, and will reach out to families to provide additional support for students frequently marked “Absent.”
Parents/guardians who wish to withdraw a student during the 2019-2020 school year should email the school principal with the following information: your child’s name, date of birth, the name and address of the new school where your child is moving to, and the withdrawal date. Contact information for each school can be found online.
All public hearings during the COVID-related closures will be conducted virtually. At this time, community members wishing to testify at public hearings must pre-register via online form 48 hours prior to the meeting. An email address is required in order for the community member to participate and provide testimony during a public hearing. Specific directions will be emailed to each registrant prior to the public hearing.
Public Forum during Board of Education meetings follows a modified procedure during COVID-related closures. Community members may sign up for a public forum by emailing their written comments to Board of Education Administrator Kathy Hanks (khanks@hcpss.org). Registration will be on a first-come, first-serve basis, determined by the order in which emails are received. The first 10 emails received will be registered: five for the afternoon session and five for the evening session.
The Howard County Board of Education is currently in a hybrid board meeting format, with some Board members and staff participating in person while others continue participating remotely.
Any time of year, HCPSS provides phone referral services for families with questions and concerns related to school matters. Parents may call the International Call Center and leave messages in their native language.
Additional information in Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Chin can be found online.
The Maryland Recovery Plan for Education requires increased cleaning and disinfection for buses. For each route bus, the school system will provide one spray bottle of cleaning solution for use on high touch areas. Further description of the cleaning process outlined below: After each morning, noon, and afternoon route, the driver will clean high touch areas of the bus, following the manufacturer's instructions for the cleaning product being used. These include:
The directive to clean and disinfect schools was mandated by the State of Maryland, and HCPSS has ensured the products being used to clean and disinfect are not hazardous to our staff. HCPSS Operations are utilizing staff members from the offices of Custodial, Grounds and Maintenance clean and disinfect of the schools, in accordance with guidelines provided by the Howard County Health Department and Maryland State Department of Education.
To date, Custodial Services has successfully implemented and maintained daily cleaning and disinfection protocols to support small group instruction, student assessments and daycare programs. Additionally, to minimize the chance of infectious transmission, all custodial staff follow the HCPSS COVID-19 Work Practices guidelines, which emphasize hand washing, social distancing, wearing face coverings, and refraining from sharing equipment and tools. Staff will continue to uphold these enhanced cleaning and disinfection protocols as HCPSS transitions to a hybrid learning model.
