Policies and Procedures Handbook
Last Updated: 8/1/98	Garrett County Public Schools 40 South Second Street Oakland, MD 21550 (301)334-8900

     This document includes both Public Schools policy statements and administrative procedures. This document should not be considered exclusive in the sense that no other policies or procedures exist. Neither does this document restrict in any way the Public Schools's legal obligation to make and revise policy within the framework of The Public School Laws of Maryland.

THE STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM
and
THE GARRETT COUNTY Public Schools

Board Policy

      The Free Public School System of Maryland is constitutionally sanctioned under Article VIII which empowers and directs the General Assembly to, "...establish throughout the State a thorough and efficient System of Free Public Schools and to provide by taxation or otherwise for their maintenance."

      The General Assembly carries out this constitutional directive through The Public School Laws of Maryland, which provide for a State Public Schools, consisting of nine lay members appointed to overlapping five year terms by the Governor. The State Board appoints an executive staff headed by a State Superintendent of Schools.

      It is the duty of the State Public Schools to cause the provisions of The Public School Laws of Maryland to be carried into effect, to determine the educational policies of the State and to enact bylaws, rules and regulations governing the conduct of the public schools.

      The State of Maryland and its twenty-four political sub-divisions share the cost of public education with the State Board prescribing minimum standards in areas such as curricula, certification, buildings, staff, school organization, food service, transportation, graduation requirements, and the length of the school year. The Board also conducts studies for the improvement of the schools and provides professional assistance for the local systems.

      The regularly published bylaws, standards, and policies of the Board, along with The Public School Laws of Maryland, constitute State school policy.

Membership and Appointments of the Public Schools

      Maryland is divided into twenty-four political sub-divisions, each of which has a local government operating within the framework of State Law. Each of these sub-divisions maintains governmental and service agencies usually associated with local government including a system of free public schools., which in Garrett County are under the operational control of a lay Public Schools, consisting of five elected members.

Organization, Powers, and Responsibilities of the Public Schools

      The law provides that the local Board shall have a president and vicepresident elected annually from their number and a secretary- treasurer, or county superintendent. The county superintendent is the executive officer of the Board, appointed for a term of four years, and heads a staff appointed by the Board to carry out State and local policy.

      In general, the County Public Schools is directed and required to maintain a reasonably uniform system of schools designed to provide equal education opportunities for all youth throughout the county. The Board is a required to cause the provisions of The Public School Laws of Maryland and the bylaws and policies to be carried into effect. Within this framework of State Law and State Public Schools policy, the County Board makes local educational policy.

      Among the many specific responsibilities of the County Board of Education are the establishment of public schools, the delineation of geographical attendance areas, the reception and administration of funds dedicated to public education, the acquisition of sites and the construction of school buildings, the employment of architects, the establishment of citizens advisory groups, the consolidation of schools, the transportation of pupils, the appointment and compensation of school employees, the prescription of curriculum guides and programs of instruction, and the establishment of local school policy.

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