News

This message is to provide staff with updates on Print Services offerings and related information, and specifically to correct misinformation circulating throughout the system.

Paper Supply
Regarding paper supply, there is no paper shortage on printer/copier paper. Through discussions this spring and summer with vendors and additional purchases, HCPSS staff were able to ensure sufficient paper for all staff/school printing needs for the entirety of the school year. 

There are no limits on 8.5 x 11 white paper a school can receive. High schools may order 40 cases of paper at a time, with no limit on additional requests. Middle and elementary schools can order 20 cases per request.

Schools in need of standard white paper can order via Workday, choosing catalog item #64500017 Paper White, 8-1/2 X 11. When placing your order, please use the following worktags.

• Cost Center: Procurement (0205)
• Program: Procurement (0205)
• Location: General
• State Category: 04
• Ship to: School location
• (spend category is not needed)

Offices in need of white paper can place an order from the Print Services Office by emailing Sue Williams.

Schools may order color paper via ODP Business Solutions and may contact the HCPSS Purchasing Office with any questions.

Printing in Schools
At no time this year has there been a directive that staff may not print in schools and offices. Staff are encouraged to utilize Print Services when possible for larger requests, which yields a significant savings to the school system. Details on placing a print order and other Print Services information can be found online.

When staff print in schools/offices, the use of Sharp MFDs is preferred over a desktop printer, when possible. Utilizing the MFDs provides a more than 60% savings over the desktop printers. 

Additionally, due to continued increased costs and demand, staff are asked to restrict color printing to instructional items that require it. Staff who request color copies via Prisma web-to-print should include justification for color copies in the remarks/notes field.
 

Print Services Turnaround Time
Expected turnaround for print requests is 10 business days, and may be less or more depending on the request and additional system priorities.

Questions about paper and/or Print Services can be emailed to printservices@hcpss.org.

Do you have a staff member/team or know a colleague who has achieved excellence in areas of diversity, equity and inclusion; innovation; instruction; operations; stakeholder engagement; staff support; and/or student support? Nominate that person for an HCPSS Staff Excellence Award, issued throughout the school year.

Use this form to nominate another staff member. If the nominee is selected to receive an HCPSS Staff Excellence Award, an HCPSS leader will surprise the selected staff member—in coordination with their supervisor—and present them with a certificate to celebrate them for their outstanding service. 

Additional information and opportunities for staff recognition can be found in the HCPSS Employee Well-Being Canvas community.

Thank you for your active participation during Cybersecurity Awareness Month! To continue improving our cybersecurity awareness, we encourage all staff members to explore the below new resources. You can access them by navigating to the Staff Hub > Services > KnowBe4 Cybersecurity Resources > Library.

•  Pretexting: Setting You Up for the Scam - This module identifies the main elements of effective pretexting and provides best practices for reducing the likelihood of falling victim to one of these scams. ‎
•  Micro-module - Social Engineering - This module defines social engineering and describes what criminals are after. It covers the three main areas of attack: digital attacks, in-person attacks, and phone attacks. ‎

Employees are encouraged to forward any suspected phishing emails to abuse@hcpss.org, and then delete the email. If assistance is still needed, contact the Technology Support at TechSupport@hcpss.org.

Thank you for your active participation during Cybersecurity Awareness Month! Remember to stay vigilant year-round, protecting our organization is an ongoing effort. Two new resources from KnowBe4 have been added to your library:

• Staying Safe in the Cloud
• Mobile Device Security 

To continue improving our cybersecurity awareness, we encourage all staff members to explore these new resources at their earliest opportunity. You can access them by navigating to the Staff Hub > Services > KnowBe4 Cybersecurity Resources > Library.

Employees are encouraged to forward any suspected phishing emails to abuse@hcpss.org, and then delete the email. If assistance is still needed, contact the Technology Support at TechSupport@hcpss.org.

Effective today, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, the inner vestibule door hours for the main entrance to the Department of Education/Central Office building will change and will now be unlocked weekday from 8:30 a.m.­­-4:30 p.m. and during Board of Education meetings. 

Prior to and after those hours, employees will need to use their HCPSS badge or key fob to access the building. If employees are expecting guests outside of those hours, they will need to meet the guest in the lobby and escort them through the building.

The attached letter serves as notification, as required by law, of the availability for public review of Asbestos Management Plans for the Howard County Public School System.

For additional information, contact the Office of the Environment at 410-313-6699.

In allegiance with the 21st national Cybersecurity Awareness Month, HCPSS is focused on protecting our digital landscape and ensuring the safety of our data and communications. To strengthen our cybersecurity efforts, we will be conducting a series of email skill tests in the coming weeks.

What to Expect: These tests will simulate phishing attempts to assess our collective ability to identify and appropriately react to suspicious emails. Please note that these tests will be performed by our internal IT team and will not involve any actual threats to your accounts or sensitive information. Should you fall victim during the phishing simulation, you will receive an email that will direct you to a training module to help you better identify malicious emails. 

Why We Are Doing This: Phishing attacks continue to evolve and pose a significant threat to individuals and organizations worldwide. By proactively assessing our email skills, we can better promote targeted resources to build understanding across our school system and prevent potential security risks.

What You Can Do:

1. Be vigilant: Pay close attention to incoming emails, especially if they seem unusual or request sensitive information.
2. Report suspicious emails: If you receive an email that you believe may be a phishing attempt, please report it using the “Report Message” button in your email client and/or forward the message to abuse@hcpss.org.
3. Brush up your knowledge: Last week’s KnowBe4 Cybersecurity Resources are under the Library heading are still available to view and two new below resources have been added:
   • Links and Attachments: Think Before You Click
   • Safe Web Surfing Game
4. Review the Phishing Tip Sheet from the Department of Homeland Security for additional best practices to guard against phishing scams.

Your Participation Matters: We appreciate your cooperation and understanding as we work together to enhance our organization's cybersecurity. 

Employees are encouraged to forward any suspected phishing emails to abuse@hcpss.org, and then delete the email. If assistance is still needed, contact the Technology Support at TechSupport@hcpss.org.

The following information is being provided as a reminder to applicable teaching staff.

Background:
In 2021, the Maryland State Legislature passed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which raises the status of the teaching profession and encourages professional development through a performance-based Career Ladder with salaries comparable to those in other professional fields with similar education requirements. Through Blueprint, teacher salary progression and classroom performance will be linked to teacher achievement of National Board Certification (NBC).

Impacted Staff:
In partnership, HCPSS and HCEA have determined this includes all staff who have the following workflows in the Frontline Employee Management and Evaluation System:  

• Non-tenured teacher
• Tenured teacher
• Elementary library media specialist
• Infant and toddlers teacher

This includes all staff that have Student Learning Objectives.  

It does not include staff who have the following workflows:

• Alternative education teacher
• Central office leader
• Instructional specialist
• Pupil personnel worker
• Related service provider
• School counselor
• Secondary library media specialist
• Social Worker/Mental Health Therapist
• Support teacher

NBCT Pay Increase Details:
Teachers successfully completing the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification program (NBPTS), also known as National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs), who are not primarily responsible and accountable for teaching students in the classroom, shall receive an annual supplement of $2,000 each year their NBPTS certificate remains in good standing.  

In accordance with the Blueprint law, teachers successfully completing the NBPTS, who are primarily responsible and accountable for teaching students in the classroom, shall receive an annual supplement of $10,000 each year their NBPTS certificate remains in good standing. To view these scales see the Board of Education/HCEA Master Agreement, Appendix B. 

Additionally, NBCTs who teach at schools that are low performing, as defined by the Blueprint law, shall receive an additional annual supplement of $7,000. The NBCT will continue to receive these monies even if the school ceases to be low-performing while the teacher is at the school. 

See the Master Agreement, Notes: Article 20, Salary Schedules for complete details.

NBCTs Working at a Low Performing School (2024-2025)
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) created two categories of Low Performing School identification:  

• State Defined (Required) - schools identified as 1-star and 2-star schools in 2019 and 2022 accountability. HCPSS had no State Defined schools in 2022-2023 & 2023-2024.  
• Local Flexibility (Optional) - bottom 10% of local schools in the state accountability system.

The HCPSS schools designated as locally Low Performing Schools for the 2024-2025 school year are:  

• Cradlerock Elementary School (Continued Local Flexibility) 
• Harper’s Choice Middle School (State Defined) 
• Lake Elkhorn Middle School (State Defined) 
• Oakland Mills Middle School (Continued Local Flexibility) 
• Wilde Lake Middle School (Continued Local Flexibility 
• Long Reach High School (New Local Flexibility) 
• Oakland Mills High School (Continued Local Flexibility) 
• Homewood Center (Continued Local Flexibility)

More information on the HCPSS NBC program can be found on Canvas.

! Call to Action:  Staff should check their HCPSS email Junk mail folders for emails that possibly should have been delivered to their Inbox folders. 

For a short period of time around 9 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 7, an increased number of emails were sent to staff members’ Junk mail folders. It is suspected that some of these messages were valid and should have been sent to their Inbox folders. The issue has been resolved.  

Additionally, some staff email messages sent during this period failed to be delivered. Impacted staff will receive an additional email that notifies them of affected emails and that they need to be resent. The notification will include the email subject and recipients. 

Additional information on Junk Mail Management 

Email providers and their users are inundated with unsolicited email, typically commercial in nature. Email services use various strategies to try to help their users focus on the email that is most important to them, and to block or sort malicious and/or unwanted correspondences. 

One effective strategy is an automation that sorts messages that have a high likelihood of being spam into a Junk or Spam folder.  Staff are encouraged to periodically check their Junk folder for valid emails.Use the directions Managing Junk Email to learn how to mark emails as Junk or Not Junk. Over time the algorithm used will be more in tune with each user’s wishes. 

If assistance is still needed, contact Technology Support at TechSupport@hcpss.org.

The Get To Know series was created to help staff learn more about HCPSS leaders in schools and offices with whom they may not typically interact. HCPSS leaders answer a mix of personal and professional questions in an effort to let all employees get to know them better. Please use this form to nominate an HCPSS leader to be featured in the series.

Why did you choose to work in education?
I chose education because I saw the need for people like me in the field. In a country where less than 2% of public school teachers are Black men, there is no surprise that Black boys are also the group that is least likely to graduate from high school. I felt this firsthand. Throughout elementary, middle, and high school I struggled to find mentors that could relate to my struggle as a young Black male in a majority White setting. Combined with my love and passion for History, education was a no brainer for me. It has become my passion and I love educating and mentoring students from all walks of life.

What is the best professional advice you've ever received?
Keep your promises (or at least make a genuine attempt). Being a leader means you are responsible for answering to hundreds of students, staff, and family members. They rely and depend on you to be a man/woman of your word. Because of that, it is essential to be trustworthy and dependable. If you commit to be somewhere or to do something, you have to put forth the effort to put actions behind your words.

What is something you like a lot that would surprise people?
Thanks to my father, I am still a WWE fan. He and I watch Monday Night RAW every week and call each other to recap. This has been our tradition for years. Years from now, I hope to do the same with my son.

What is on your bucket list?
Learn how to play the piano (or any other instrument). If I've learned anything from the AMAZING Fine Arts department at OMHS, it is that music is a language that most people never get the opportunity to tap into.

What is the most interesting place you’ve ever been?
I was fortunate to travel to Cuba in 2017. If possible, I would recommend anyone to go to experience the culture and history, and learn, firsthand, what the country is all about.