Charles County Public Schools leaders told the Board of Education that they are standardizing collaborative planning — scheduled, structured time for teachers to plan lessons, analyze student work and use data — and are asking principals to protect and operationalize that time consistently across schools.

Dr. Linda Iverson, chief of schools, said the Office of Teaching and Learning has created planning templates and professional learning team (PLT) protocols and that her office will help implement those protocols so principals and school teams are “empowered, not overwhelmed.” She described a three-tier model: district curriculum and tools (the “what”), the Office of Teaching and Learning (the planning protocols), and the chief of schools’ office (the implementation and coaching).

District guidance sets minimum planning expectations: elementary teams are to meet for 30 minutes weekly each for math and reading; middle school core teams are asked to plan 30 minutes each day during planning periods; and high schools are expected to provide 30 minutes weekly. The district also recommends choosing a single focus per short meeting (for example, data inquiry, examining student work, lesson planning or curriculum-aligned professional learning).

Principals and teacher teams presented examples of how those expectations are being put into practice. At JP Ryan Elementary, Principal Mr. Adams and a fourth-grade team described a pilot that used a core teacher role to build capacity and led to measurable changes in benchmark and MCAP scores for a cohort of fourth-graders; teachers said stretch growth on I-Ready rose from fall to spring, and the same cohort reduced the share of students performing at the MCAP “beginning” level by 24% in math and 9% in reading compared with the prior year. The JP Ryan team credited protected planning time, a dedicated core teacher role, and follow-through on agreed actions for gains in engagement and a drop in referrals.

At Theodore Davis Middle School, Principal Robert Griffiths said the school moved to daily collaborative planning for all teachers, with the first 40 minutes of planning blocks Monday–Thursday devoted to grade-level or content team work and Friday reserved for whole-grade data dives including MTSS conversations. Griffiths said the school uses a short facilitator form to capture daily focus and participation and that the practice has produced higher attendance and a 7% drop in chronic absenteeism at his school year over year. He said the school is also emphasizing evidence-of-learning tasks so daily planning is driven by data on whether students met learning targets.

Northpointe-area schools (presentation led by Principal Capel and teacher-leader Joseph Burton) described a block-schedule approach in which selected high-school courses (government, Algebra I, geometry, English I/II and biology) meet weekly for a 35-minute collaborative planning session. The school set department goals at the start of the year, publishes agendas in advance, maintains notes and agendas for continuity, and created an “adult learning” space (the “collab lab”) where teachers can meet and store goal artifacts.

District staff and school leaders repeatedly emphasized that collaborative planning is not “one more meeting” but a vehicle to implement school-improvement priorities, align instruction to standards, and build teacher leadership. Several presenters described initial obstacles — especially time and scheduling — and said teams are using after-school time, anchor preparation periods, and careful master-schedule alignment to make planning happen. Schools also described strategies for including special educators, ESOL/ML learners staff, and special-area teachers so planning does not exclude students who need differentiated instruction.

Board members asked about inclusion of special-education students and special-area teachers; presenters said ESOL and special-education staff are invited to collaborative sessions, and principals are working to schedule special-area staff so primary teachers have planning windows. Several principals noted the program is iterative and that year-two priorities include greater teacher leadership of sessions and improving time-management and scheduling to reduce reliance on after-school hours.

The district said it will continue coaching site coordinators, align PLT training to the county’s instructional priorities, and monitor implementation fidelity through school-level reporting tools.

Ending: District staff said the work will be iterative; principals returned to the board with school-level results and implementation plans and asked the board to sustain support for scheduling and training while district offices align resources so collaborative planning becomes routine rather than ad hoc.