Anne Arundel County Board of Education

20 meetings on our record, 13 of them from the past year and 7 with unconfirmed dates · typical meeting 2 h 15 min · 84,346 students · 8 members on our roster

Latest · Sep 16, 2026: School board approves 2027 legislative program as amended Play 2:41:32
Newest meeting we have: Sep 16, 2026 · District's board page ↗ (it may list later ones)

On the board: Gloria Dent, Board member · Sara Hamdaoui, Board member · Sarah J. McDermott, Board member · Erica McFarland, Board member · Dawn Pulliam, Board member · Dana Schallheim, Board member · Robert Silkworth, Board member · Joanna Bache Tobin, Board member

Recent meetings

What the board took up lately

Board meeting · 3 h 28 minWednesday, September 16, 2026School board approves 2027 legislative program as amendedBudget cuts and layoffsVouchers and school choiceSpeakers: Gloria Dent, Dawn Pulliam, Robert Silkworth, Erica McFarland and 2 more

Play 2:41:32

Board meeting · 1 h 11 minWednesday, September 2, 2026Board adds class-size sentence to legislative programSpeakers: Gloria Dent, Dawn Pulliam, Dana Schallheim

Play 52:08

Board meeting · 1 h 51 minWednesday, June 17, 2026School board approves FY 2027 operating budgetBudget cuts and layoffsEnrollmentPhones in schoolSpeakers: Gloria Dent, Dawn Pulliam, Robert Silkworth, Erica McFarland and 2 more

Play 1:20:19

Board meeting · 1 h 24 minWednesday, May 20, 2026Board approves grading policy allowing class rank on request on 7-1 voteSpeakers: Gloria Dent, Dawn Pulliam, Dana Schallheim, Joanna Bache Tobin

Play 1:21:36

Who does the talking

No one member stands apart on the Anne Arundel County Public Schools board: 3 of the 5 members we rank could rank first

Minutes speaking per full board meeting · 13 board meetings, Nov 5, 2025 – Sep 16, 2026 · talk time only, never tone or stance

A ranking, with its marginEarly readLess of this board's speech is named so far, so its ranks are wider. Each rank is a 90% range across 13 resampled meetings, so "2nd–4th" means the data can't place them more exactly. The ranges may widen as we name more of the speech.

Coverage: about 79% of members’ speaking time named (60%–90%)

Minutes = time we heard them speak per meeting, from the speech we have named so far, so each is a floor: at least that much.

Runs the meeting

—Gloria DentBoard member · District 1 · runs the meeting, not ranked16.2min, at least12 of 13meetings heard, of those while seated—runs the meeting, counted apart2.9questions asked per meeting, at least

Members · ranked by minutes per meeting

1st–3rdDana SchallheimBoard member · District 58.7min, at least11 of 13meetings heard, of those while seated25%of the members’ talking · 16%–36%3.0questions asked per meeting, at least

1st–4thRobert SilkworthBoard member · District 28.7min, at least10 of 13meetings heard, of those while seated26%of the members’ talking · 9%–43%0.3questions asked per meeting, at least

1st–4thJoanna Bache TobinBoard member · District 67.5min, at least9 of 13meetings heard, of those while seated22%of the members’ talking · 14%–33%2.4questions asked per meeting, at least

2nd–4thDawn PulliamBoard member · District 76.3min, at least12 of 13meetings heard, of those while seated18%of the members’ talking · 11%–29%2.9questions asked per meeting, at least

5thErica McFarlandBoard member · District 32.3min, at least9 of 13meetings heard, of those while seated6%of the members’ talking · 4%–19%1.6questions asked per meeting, at least

Members · not ranked

—Sarah J. McDermottBoard member · District 4 · We could name only 15% of the speech they may have given; we rank at 30%0.9min, at least6 of 13meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked0.2questions asked per meeting, at least

—Sara HamdaouiBoard member · We haven't identified their voice at a full board meeting—min per meeting—We haven't identified their voice at a full board meeting—not ranked—no question counted

Minutes speaking per full board meeting held while seated; a meeting they missed or stayed silent in counts as zero · bar = minutes named so far · line = our margin: members whose lines overlap may sit in either order · talk time only, never tone or stance · Hamlet

Meetings on our record

All 20 meetings on our record

Clips

What board members said

Going back to one of our priorities that wasn't met, which is foundation funding. Again, another truly disappointing non-action by the Maryland General Assembly.Dana SchallheimBoard member · Anne Arundel County Board of EducationWatch the full meeting from 1:19:34

I mean, I definitely agree that we need to be advocating for our students, but given that last year a student came to us and came before County Council and said, I am personally fixing instruments myself. We need this money, and it did not get funded. I am skeptical that it will get funded this year as well.Erica McFarlandBoard member · Anne Arundel County Board of EducationWatch the full meeting from 3:41:35

On the map · Phones in school

June 17, 2026

The board discussed phones in school.

Its first meeting on phones in the year we read.

Watch the film Open the meeting

Meeting time

Where the board's meeting time went

Ceremony and recognition7%3%–12%

Public comment7%3%–13%

Budget and finance5%0%–11%

Safety and discipline0%0%–16%

The two readers didn’t agree on 18% of the time; it counts toward no topic, so every share above is a floor.

Not shown: facilities, closures and enrollment, curriculum and instruction, student services and special education, labor and personnel, governance and policy, routine business, other subjects, whose checks haven’t passed

Public comment

Of the 20 meetings on our record, we counted public speakers at 13; 12 had at least one. The busiest, on Nov 17, 2025, heard from 49.

49 on Nov 17, 202549 speakers25 speakers7.6 a meeting on average

Attendance

The roll call at 1 of the 20 meetings on our record: the one where we could read it

Roll-call attendance, member by meeting
Member	Sep 16	Sep 2	Jun 17	May 20	May 6	Apr 8	Mar 18	Feb 4	Jan 14	Dec 3	Nov 19	Nov 17	Nov 5
Joanna Bache Tobin	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not shown	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded	Not recorded

PresentNot shownNot recorded

Federal district ID 2400060 · student count from the federal 2023-24 count · meeting videos posted by the district