News

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.

Open to all Howard County teachers and staff, Bright Minds Classroom Innovation Project grants seek to support student success, enrich teaching practices, strengthen school communities, and pilot important classroom and school projects.

The 2024 grant recipients were were recognized at a recent Board of Education meeting. Learn more about the recipients and their projects online.

October is national Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a time to strengthen our digital safety knowledge and practices. We’d like to highlight our online platform KnowBe4 Cybersecurity Resources. KnowBe4 provides staff information on how to stay safe in the digital world in two ways:

1. Emails from KnowBe4 containing short security hints and tips. In the coming weeks be on the lookout for emails from <SecurityTips@KnowBe4.com> that will contain timely cybersecurity safety and security practices.
2. Curated online library of resources and videos on cybersecurity topics. To access the platform visit the Staff Hub and from the Services menu select KnowBe4 Cybersecurity Resources link. Once on the site, select Library from the menu. Two resources have already been added by our IT Security team, including: Links and Attachments: Think Before You Click; and Safe Web Surfing Game.

Let's make cybersecurity a top priority and work together to keep our information secure. Stay tuned for more updates throughout the month.

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.

If you're looking for an easy and effective way to say ‘thank you’ to a fellow staff member, consider sending an HCPSS Peer-to-Peer certificate. There are several different templates you can select from depending on your purpose. By completing a simple online form - which can take less than one minute - you can recognize a colleague in a genuine way.

In emergency situations (including inclement weather), information will be shared with the community through a number of platforms.

! IMPORTANT ! It is the responsibility of each staff member to check one of the HCPSS notification sources for closing information.

The HCPSS emergency notification sources are:

• HCPSS Status website
• HCPSS homepage
• HCPSS community email/text alert
• X / Twitter
• HCPSS Information Hotline (410-313-6666)

HCPSS does not use schools-out.com, e-schoolnews.com or local news stations for any notifications. Only the sources listed above should be used to confirm emergency information.

Staff who have not already done so, or who are not parents in the system are strongly encouraged to sign up for HCPSS email/text notifications. Otherwise, it is the staff member’s responsibility to check one of the above notification sources for closing information. Staff reporting details during an emergency can be found online.

Please Note: 

• Staff who are parents in the system do not need to sign up, as you already receive these notices.
• If you believe you are signed up to receive messages and are not receiving them, please do not create a new account. Email webmaster@hcpss.org with any issues.  
• If you are unsure if you have already opted in to text messaging, text the word “YES” to 67587.
• Unsubscribing from any school or district email or text will unsubscribe a user from all messaging, including emergency notifications.

To subscribe or edit your subscription:

• Staff email/text sign up
• Manage your subscription (non-HCPSS parents/guardians)