The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board held its meeting virtually Thursday. Screenshot from AIB video.
The board overseeing implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan approved plans from another 15 school districts Thursday, allowing those schools to receive 25% of Blueprint funds that had been withheld from this year’s budget.
The unanimous approval by the Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) brings the total number of school districts that are in compliance with implementation schedules to 17, after the acceptance last month of Garrett and St. Mary’s counties plans.
But the seven districts that have yet to present acceptable plans include some of the state’s largest school systems: Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s and Talbot counties. Those districts have until Dec. 11 to submit updated plans to the board for approval.
“This is an awful lot of work, but we do have to make certain that we abide by the terms and conditions in our statute to make sure that we get compliance in a timely fashion,” said Isiah “Ike” Leggett, the former Montgomery County executive who serves as board chair. “But we also try to work very carefully with all of the jurisdictions to make sure that we are as responsive and responsible as possible to get to a positive outcome for everyone in terms of compliance.”
AIB Executive Director Rachel Hise said the two main updates needed for review from the jurisdictions that have not had their plans accepted are career ladder or career counseling plans. According to an AIB checklist, nothing was submitted in reference to career ladders from Baltimore City and Montgomery County.
The Blueprint board voted to send written warnings to those two school districts for “failure to not timely comply” after they missed the original Nov. 12 deadline for submitting any updated plan for career ladders for teachers and staff.
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The board, its staff and the Maryland Department of Education have spent much of this year reviewing local school districts’ plans, that included documents submitted in March that outlined challenges the school systems were facing in implementing the Blueprint, then follow-up documents filed two months later. The work is slated to continue through fiscal 2027.
The documents include literacy plans to boost student achievement and confirmation that teachers received a 10% salary increase between fiscal years 2019 and 2024. Salary increases are part of a state requirement for teachers in all 24 school districts to get an annual salary of at least $60,000 by July 1, 2026.
Sandi Jacobs, a Blueprint implementation coordinator for Baltimore City Public Schools, said during the board’s public comment period that the career ladder portion of the city’s school plan has been delayed by ongoing negotiations with the city’s teacher’s union.
Jacobs said a tentative agreement was reached with the union earlier this month. Once ratified by the union, which could happen by Friday, the city’s Board of School Commissioners can take up the entire Blueprint plan when it meets Dec. 10.
A representative with the teacher’s union confirmed that timeline Thursday afternoon.
Baltimore and the other six school districts still have until Dec. 11 to submit their updates, and the AIB has until Dec. 19 to approve them.
But if schools need more time, they can submit revisions by Jan. 16 for review at the board’s Jan. 30 meeting. And plans not approved by Feb. 1 can be appealed by school officials, but the AIB would withhold the next pot of Blueprint funding in that case.
“Hopefully they can meet these deadlines rather than to be subjected to further challenges as we go forward,” Leggett said. “This gives a little bit more time for some to work through it, but we anticipate and hope that all of them will have been resolved by the time these dates are before for us so that we can still take action.”