School board committee approves revisions to principal-selection policy, drops CSAC training requirement

The Prince George's County Board of Education's Policy and Governance Committee on Jan. 14 recommended revisions to Policy 4113, the district rule on community involvement in the principal selection process, and asked staff to remove a requirement that parents take Special Education Citizens’ Advisory Committee training before serving on interview panels.

The committee’s action followed a full presentation by Dr. Christy Baldwin, the district’s chief human resources officer, who described the multistep administrative procedure that screens candidates, holds leadership and school-specific interviews and invites community members to provide written and oral feedback for candidates advancing to third-round interviews. “We start the posting for each academic year to come on the first Monday in October,” Baldwin said, describing timelines and confidentiality expectations for community panelists.

Committee members raised two themes during the hour-long discussion: (1) how to ensure that interview panels represent distinctive school populations — for example, parents of students with disabilities or English learners — and (2) whether any training for community panelists should be mandatory and, if not, what training the district should provide. A parent who submitted written public comment requested that two parents or guardians of students with disabilities be guaranteed seats on panels; the current draft guaranteed one.

After discussion, the committee agreed on language changes and implementation steps. Members asked staff to: (a) remove the CSAC training requirement from the policy and make training optional and broadly available; (b) have human resources and the division of school support and leadership ensure panels are representative of the affected school’s populations (for example, special education or English‑learner communities) and consider school context when assembling the four community members typically seated on a panel; and (c) create a short, district-produced training or primer for all community panelists addressing confidentiality, bias, and issues specific to vulnerable student groups. Dr. Baldwin offered to work with the district’s equity office to make a brief onboarding video for panelists.

Board members debated whether the policy should require one or two panelists who represent students with disabilities. Several members said that mandating two could be difficult in smaller school communities and that an approach tying representation to each school’s population would be more flexible. “When you open the door for one of our populations, you have to be cognizant that you can't leave another population out,” Baldwin said, urging a broad view that includes English learners and other student groups.

The committee concluded its review by directing Mrs. Welsh, the policy sponsor, to prepare the revised draft reflecting the agreed changes. Chair Jonathan Briggs noted there were no objections and the committee recommended Policy 4113 to the policy sponsor for revision approval.

What’s next: The committee referred Policy 4113 to the policy sponsor for drafting the agreed edits and to update the administrative procedure to reflect operational details (panel size, training materials and outreach steps). The recommendation passed without objection and will return in future review and public-comment stages if required.