##VIDEO ID:UWXMYrW0z5A## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e everyone please take your seats we will begin the meeting shortly vice president Gardner before you begin today's meeting I would like to read a few announcements good morning welcome to the December 4th 2024 agenda review committee meeting before we start the meeting I would like to share a few safety points and next meeting announcements please note that the primary exit and entrance to the auditorium is the door which you use this to enter this morning if you're leaving the room please use this door the restrooms are outside the auditorium doors men's to your right and women's to your left during the meeting we ask that you keep all aisles and exits clear if you need any assistance during the meeting please wave the attention of one of our security officers for the next upcoming meeting please note that the next board meeting is Consolidated for November December and scheduled for December 12th 2024 at 5:00 p.m the December 12th board meeting will be held at Coleman office Auditorium 4655 South Dearborn Street for details about the registration and speaker Lottery process for the meeting please visit CPS boe.org if anyone has any questions about this process please contact the board office for our assistance I'll now turn the meeting over to assistant secretary to the board Myra Rivera who will facilitate the remainder of today's meeting thank you for joining us today thank you secretary Naros vice president Gardner we are now ready for you to begin the meeting okay good morning everyone welcome to the Chicago Board of education's agenda review committee meeting vice president Garner can you please strike the Gabel for the start of the meeting thank you good morning everybody everyone welcome to the Chicago Board of Education agenda review committee meeting today is December 4th 2004 I am vice president Mary Gardner on behalf of my fellow board members thank you for joining us today we are hosting today's agenda review committee meeting in the auditorium at Coleman office 4655 South Dorn Street I would like to take note that the board members and Senior leadership are physically present in the auditorium registered speakers may join us in person or virtually if they ought to do so and registered observers are joining us in person okay the agenda review committee meeting of Wednesday December 4th 2024 is hereby called to order assistant secretary please call the role member po present member blae present member jannis present member Thomas present vice president Gardner president I'd also like to recognize Pedro Martinez chief executive officer Ruchi Verma general counsel bdana shumova Chief education officer Charles Mayfield Chief Operating Officer and please for the record we have five board members present we do have a quorum thank you very much the order of the meeting will be as follows Public particip public participation please note that the presentation posted on the agenda will not be done third item is discussion of agenda review committee meeting items 1 through 10 a recess reconvene from Recess discussion of agenda review committee meeting item 11 through 15 a closed session reconvene from the Clos session and then adjournment let's now proceed with today's public participation section thank you for joining to share your comments with the board and compliance with the open meetings ACT public participation sometimes refer to as public comment is the portion of the meeting or hearing that grants District stakeholders ERS the opportunity to address the board with their concerns and comments note that public participation is the time for the board and Senior and CPS senior leadership to listen and hear from you rather than a time for dis dialogue with board members during or after your remarks while we can't discuss Personnel matters public participation is a key component of transparent govern governance and it provides us as board members as well as senior leadership an opportunity to listen to everyone who has signed to speak this board takes Equity of voice seriously while we may not address your comments directly during public participation CPS leadership is always present at our meetings and are able to address concerns as followup after the meeting as a district and as a board we also have have other spaces for authentic dialogue for example each and every one of our board members host Board office hours so that we can have a conversation please use our website cpsb.org if you want to meet with a board member during office hours we encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to meet with board members outside of a board meeting thank you for your attention and consideration as a reminder Union reps will be allotted five minutes to speak before public participation and any elected official will be allowed five minutes to speak after the conclusion of partic public participation assistant board secretary please share the rules of public participation thank you vice president Gardner members of the public who registered to speak were given the option to attend in person or via an electronic format for those who prefer to attend via an electronic format they were given information to AC access this meeting by dialing a number and using their phone we did this so that speakers with limited or no access to the internet or who may have weak internet connection could still participate using their phones also members of the public May submit written comments for Board of Education meetings via the written comments form on the board's website at www.cpsb.org or mail to one North Dearborn s950 written comments received between the day the public agenda was posted through 5:00 p.m the day after the Board of Education meeting will be submitted to the board and published within five business days on our website at www.cpsb.org speakers please listen while I provide directions for public participation I will call your name and number when it is your turn to speak for speakers joining us virtually as a reminder to unmute please press star six once you hear your name please state your name for the record I will then start the two-minute timer when there are 30 seconds remaining I will inform you so that you can proceed to conclude your remarks to allow for the next speaker to begin for anyone standing with a speaker please stand along the glass partitions to keep aisles clear thank you vice president Gardner before we begin calling registered speakers from their speakers list we do have we do have Union reps who would like to address the board we will begin with Maria Moreno CTU Financial secretary who is here in person good morning members of the board Educators parents and students my name is maram Moreno I'm also a former CPS student bilingual speech language pathologist and Elementary School teacher who has spent years in the schools and classrooms and as a longtime member of this Union I have also seen so much happen at this board of education however in your short time appointed to this board I've seen more good done for students than I have seen in almost all the years prior there are some who are telling you not to do your job don't provide leadership in this crucial period my union along with the community and parent organizations students and public public school advocates fought hard to win an elected School Board we celebrate the expansion of democracy in our city as a result of it but we can't ignore the threat to democracy and the threat to our district that is on the verge of taking power at the federal level right now the members of the CTU are still in the middle of a contract campaign and have been working without a contract since June we've asked you the board to play a more active role in our negotiations because the CEO is supposed to be bargaining on behalf of the board but all of his latest steps indicate the opposite like it said in the report we distributed at your first meeting our contract is a blueprint for implementing the district's Five-Year Plan obstruction at this stage isn't just holding up our contract it's holding up the district's ability to meet its own objectives you may hear from our Union sibling or have read about a dispute over Union representation for the District employees who directly serve special needs students we appreciate our Union brothers and sisters and are committed to working with them to resolve this issue but this is not an excuse to hide from bargaining or drag your feet CEO Martinez especially when there are forums in the labor movement or the Labor Relations Board design does designed for clarifying disp exactly like this when needed we know that the real fight is here for fuly funding and Staffing our schools so all of our students including those who have a right to sped resources get the support and Staffing they need Chicago's Educators and school communities are looking to this body to see every tool put in place to provide a worldclass education and protect our students and that includes our contract this contract will triple the number of sustainable Community Schools turning 140 schools into hubs for academic support Mental Health Services and Community Resources lower class sizes ensuring students especially those with disabilities and English language Learners get the attention they deserve and that is legally required expand access to the Arts music and sports opportunities that many CPS students have never had provide gender affirming health care and expanded benefits ensuring dignity and care for educators who give so much of themselves to our students and raise wages for the lowest paid staff lifting them out of poverty and stabilizing their families we have spent countless AR hours bargaining for the last six months we've made real progress but the misrepresentations of CEO Martinez in his statements to the public put all that in Jeopardy we want to settle via negotiation and we have provided a pathway to settlement that is reasonable proactive and meets the goals of the district and the needs of our students for every problem the district has raised we have offered solutions for example the district raised concern about Staffing levels we offered ramps Equity Focus implementation and a phased approach similar to the 2019 contract the longer CPS delays the longer students and Educators pay the price the longer the lack of leadership allows stress anxiety and worry to build in our school communities about what will happen next we've seen what's possible when CPS doesn't delay when you take action you have 30 seconds remaining look at Velma Thomas a school serving a majority Latina student body with a unique dual language Early Childhood Program instead of CEO Martin's initial plan to close and relocate the school CPS agreed to renew the lease through 2026 thanks to months of organizing by parents Educators and support from mayor Brandon J Johnson and alter persons CEO Martino's in parina's initial plan for seral students whose schools face closure was similarly to throw up his hands a seral plans to displac 2,000 students despite having more than enough reserves stockpile from public funds and despite just recently having its Charter renewed by the same CEO now parents and Educators who you'll here pleas conclude your remarks are looking for similar action to provide a better outcome than what CEO Martinez has offered you already know your power as board members and you've used it to show up for our schools so I'm here asking you help us settle this contract not in weeks not in months but now the schools the students in the community thank you thank you very much Chicago cannot wait any longer thank you thank you for your comments the next union rep is Jen conand CTU Charter division chair who is here in person good morning members of the board and CEO Martinez good morning as you know I'm Jen Conan chair of ctu's Charter Division I am here today to thank you for being responsive to the calls for help that you have heard from parents and Educators as we grapple with the consequences of Aero deciding to close seven schools at the end of this year the resolution that you passed in November was an important first step in preventing the harm that would be done to 2,000 students and 250 staff if this plan is allowed to move forward parents and Educators appreciate you all pushing to extend the go CPS deadline so that families have more time to become informed of and consider their school options we also appreciate this board demanding that Aero explain their decisions publicly and that you directed CPS and Acero uh to explore alternatives to closure and CPS to develop contingency plans if AO does not reverse Cor we hope asero is here ready to explain themselves and we hope to hear a report from CEO Martinez and his team on the contingency plans they have developed and how they expect to protect our students and schools demanding that a s return all unspent public funds and property is also an important warning to Charter operators that they can't just hide away Public School dollars in Investments and reserves if these seven schools close the reserves they have set aside from money that was dedicated to schools should be returned to CPS so that it can be redistributed to schools where these Aero students end up it should not remain as assets for AO and their real estate Investments the reason we keep calling for oversight of Charters is because they are able to spend their money however they want and it's leading to instability yes there should be more funding for all schools including charter schools and there has to be accountability for how it is spent aera was able to buy even more more land at the same meeting where they voted to close schools how is that possible finally I want to remind everyone here that CEO Martinez and CPS have made plans before to absorb a charter school in crisis the CEO made plans to keep Urban prep schools open as district schools when it looked like those schools would no longer be run by Urban prep they did it because closures would have been so detrimental to students and the community so why can't it be done now when thousand thousand of Latina students are at risk of losing their schools the resolution you passed in November was an important step thank you we hope that this board will continue to push CPS to ensure that these School communities can remain open and together thank you thank you for your comments thank you vice president Gardner I'd like to note that for the record member Bautista has joined the meeting at 10:54 a.m. thank you the next union rep is Kia Banks cpaa Chief of Staff who is here in person greetings on behalf of President lavier our governing board and over the 1,000 principles and assistant principles represented by cpaa we want to say good morning CEO Martinez to our steam colleagues chief shumova chief Mayfield thank you so much for your partnership and to the board members we want to thank you we appreciate you for swiftly accepting our invitation to meet with the Chicago principes and administrators Association um these conversations will be and they are vital as we work together to create environments where students Thrive and all Educators feel supported collaboration between this board and cpaa is essential to achieving our shared Mission which is the success of all of our students today I I come here to share some concerns that we had stemming from our members review of the recently proposed CTU contract while I emphasize we respect the work done by our colleagues in CTU there are several Provisions within their contract that present significant challenges for principles and assistant principles and for example there's sections in article one that threaten to erode not just the principal's Authority but the trust in the role of the principal itself this isn't just about CPS management or teachers but it is about the trust that our students families and communities have in our leadership they are calling it teacher autonomy but embedded in this messaging is the very real possibility that if principales don't have the authority to coordinate the very limited resources we have in the ways that we know work best for our schools how can we then be held accountable for the outcomes of the students let's consider the provisions of article 4 which address instructional time there's seven hours in the school day and we're required to provide at least four and uh 4.25 hours of um instructional minutes for our students teachers receive at least one 60 Minute prep per day which is dutyfree along with the 45 minute duty-free lunch the additional 30 minutes of additional duty-free prep time is only possible at the expense of instructional time for students and at the expense of our student safety if the district cannot provide the additional staff to safely supervise these students during this non-duty time it becomes difficult to accommodate that now let's discuss leadership time addressed in article 44 where we are fortunate to have very strong competent and dedicated teachers codifying in their contract the teachers should not be able to make individual curriculum grading and professional development decisions absence of the coordination of a cohesive aligned and relevant learning environment for every student in every classroom schoolwide it's like the P players on a basketball team saying they don't need to learn to plays review the film or receive coaching time and then they go out and they may lose the game but the coach gets fire if principles don't have the authority to lead then we shouldn't be accountable for those outcomes we are confident that with our help the board will make a measured will take a measured approach ensuring every provision aligns with the best interest of students and the operational realities of our school all of which principles and assistant principles are uniquely qualified to speak on from a lived reality not just Theory our goal is to assist you in considering their impact and minimize the destabilization of the very Foundation of our schools let me remind you CP a is the collective and legal voice of Chicago's principles and assistant principles and we are deeply committed to fostering collaboration and maintaining open dialogue with you and all stakeholders our members are in the trenches every day leading schools supporting teachers and shaping the future of our CH of Chicago's Youth and we are the stability our communities want and the leadership our students need we stand ready to work alongside you to develop policies that uplift uplifts our students and Educators alike so today I ask that you take careful consideration of our feedback on this contract we encourage you to ensure every decision is made through an analysis and input from all parties involved together we can ensure that our district not only survives and thrives delivering on the promise of a high quality education for every student in Chicago your leadership has the power to create lasting change and we are committed to working with you to make that a vision a reality so I thank you for your time today for your dedication and to each of you for your unwavering commitment to the success of the students in the city of Chicago I look forward to continuing this important work together thank you thank you for your comments thank you vice president Gardner we are now ready to call registered speakers from the speakers list the first group of speakers from the assero group we'll start with Eduardo Rivas speaker number two Juvia EST speaker number four Claudia Diaz speaker number six Carolyn ruford speaker number eight Adrien Galvan speaker number nine Norma G speaker number 11 Stephanie Gomez speaker number 12 Christine binder speaker number 13 Gloria Miranda speaker number 14 Dana Rodriguez speaker number 16 Daisy urenda speaker number 18 Lucia Salgado speaker speaker number 19 and Andrea aala speaker number 21 excuse me just just a point of information our each one of these people going to speak correct yes okay we'll start with Eduardo Rivas speaker number two who is here in person Hi um my name is Ardo Rivas I'm a friend of uh one of the schools that they wanted to close and fenes in the abund neighborhood I got a three uh three third graded uh student my son also graduated from that school now he's a Bach from high school now I got a nephew that also got a diploma fromo and bton Par I believe they one of the closest schools that they wanted to close and now he's in a college right now and Wisconsin now my my my my son is getting letters from mayor universities Missouri Lola Wisconsin too so for me it a s that is doing something good because my family personally they they getting a good start so they can go up and they can go up and um and uh to get a high education I think uh uh closing this schools is is is not good I mean there's still kids still children's my when I pick up my daughter like two months ago he was like what are your eyes and I asked her what's wrong with you he said I'm I'm really sad because they want to close my school and I don't want to I don't want to go to another school I want to this school for me if they close schools they mentally they affecting these children they're still children they're still six seven year old uh children and uh you have 30 seconds remaining I just want to note uh the C CPS a board as s the other what what people that want to close the schools to give a wi the reason they closing the schools they should be open more school or bear these schools instead of a closing they already closed to many schools uh before before Public Schools so I think that's wrong we doing the wrong way we doing the wrong way we should be open more school or better this schools I mean the the more schools the better for the children less please conclude your comments less crowded classrooms so they the teacher can go to each each student and explain it better so for me is better they can open more school or better the schools conclude your comments thank you sir oh thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker Juvia Estrada speaker number four who will be joining us virtually press star six to unmute EST for Gra Aros we will now have our translator provide the statement in English sorry sorry about that the light just went out um good morning can you hear me yes yes you can excellent uh good morning members of the leadership board my name is Juvia Estrada and I'm the mother of two students at the sandrao school one of the six Acero schools in danger of closing I come before you once again to ask with much sadness and frustration for you to please continue supporting us in order to keep these schools open today I want to let you know that parents like myself have been receiving incorrect information in order to confuse us when the time comes to apply to another school for the next school year should our school close many of us have also been pressured and intimidated to try to get us to remove our children from the schools as quickly as possible asto's leaders are desperate because they know closing our schools is wrong please you have the power to do something help us save our children's education thank you thank you our next speaker is Claudia Diaz speaker number six who will be joining us in person for for GR for for thank you very much thank you that's it Gra thank you very much thank you com I've just been informed by our translator that the uh statement that was provided is not exactly accurate so vice president Gardner and board members we will have the statement translated and shared with you after today's meeting thank you our next speaker is Carolyn Ruther for speaker number eight and she is here in person sorry it's been a little under the weather my name is Caroline Rutherford and I am the vice chair of c2's Charter division the chair of the CTU Council of Aero members and a visual arts teacher at Aero Marquez I have been with the asero community for 14 years as an educator and Union Leader and we are here again today to continue to advocate for the students and families of the seven schools Aero has chosen to recklessly close at the end of this school year thank you to to the board for passing the resolution last month to push back on aero's decision and your support to keep our schools open C CPS and CEO Martinez it is time for you to take action we have spoken to you multiple times about how essential these schools are to our community the impact closing these seven schools will have on 2,000 students over a thousand English language Learners over 110 newcomers and that closing these schools will have the largest impact on the Latin student population in Chicago History and Aero is choosing to prioritize their bond holders over our students and families we have reviewed lots of financial documents and I believe you have as well asero claims these schools are no longer profitable but profit should not be the driving force behind operating a school it should be the students Aero is choosing profit because of several reasons they continue to pay off over $40 million in Dent they acquired with Juan run hell running Uno they purchased a downtown office for a total of $3.2 million after they have $4.7 million set aside for retirement Insurance packages for their Chief Executives CPS this is the money you gave to Aero to educate our children and this is how they are spending it Aero here today to explain this the lack of oversight of the charter industry allows this to happen and we will not back down we will continue to fight for our schools it is not AO that makes these schools special it's the communities we have built it is the relationships between Educators Paras students parents and families and you have an opportunity to keep these communities whole we are demanding that AO be allow not be allowed to close these schools until the end of their Charter agreements and that CPS keep these schools open and keep keep our communities whole thank you thank you thank you for your comments Madam Madam Madam assistant secretary would you just remind them of the rules of public speaking maybe they've forgotten the two-minute rule please yes speakers um reminder that you have two minutes to speak our next speaker is Adrien Galvan speaker number nine who is here in person hello my name is Adrien Galvan I have two kids that attend Santiago in Humble Park neighborhood my wife and I have contributed six years in the aceto charter school system helping out where we can with parent BAC meetings and other contributions to our small community my kids are eight and 10 years old my son and daughter have gotten A's and B's since the start of Santiago with many with many perfect attendance and character awards they have been able to build meaningful and strong relationships with both teachers and students the teachers care about these kids you can see it they show up work hard and love on these kids make sure they get all the best education that they can provide they're professionals and should be treated as such although the system isn't perfect it's a vast difference from where I came from personally I'm hoping today's agenda meeting will bring some sort of resolve and clarity as to what's next for our schools as it's unfair to each student parent teacher admin to face what feels like a rug pull from right under our feet I want to thank CPS School Board P for passing resolution in November looking deeper into the unjust closure of seven assetto schools this closing will and has already affected my family students and teachers CPS we ask for you to take action you need to take action this would be the largest school closing of Latin students in Chicago these students have already left my son's there are already three students have already left my son's classroom talks of other students leaving my daughter's classroom early this is not limited to just Santiago but I've heard from other parents from other schools facing the same thing parents feel powerless and voiceless it's affecting these parents' mental stability it's it's suspicious to me to hear certain phone calls emails mail urging parents to take the schools out early now we still haven't gotten as parents we still haven't gotten a town hall meeting to voice our opinions please conclude your comments I'm curious to know what the investors have to say about funds being taken back to CPS if I settle moves to close the schools if there's something they know behind closed doors is this by Design students and families feel confused and scared about these school closings but CPS can add can and should do something about this we are calling on CPS to stop aett thank you very thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Norma Gat speaker number 11 who is here in person okay good morning CPS board members thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak here today my name is Norma GAA and I have been a parent at CIS netos for 11 years my oldest is currently a sophomore at Whitney Young Magnet High School she graduated from cetto as a solo storian of her class where she built not only great friendships but made a great connection with teachers with the teachers who helped her succeed and be who she is today I currently have a fifth grader who has had so much growth not only academically but emotionally and socially as well I really don't want this to impact my daughter negatively now that she will start Middle School the following school year cetto is a second home to my family I am here today not only to thank you for passing a resolution but also for not making it easy for assetto to just get away with their plans assetto has shown no empathy they made their decision without having any prior conversation with the students teachers faculty or families of the seven schools which they decided to close they presented a bunch of excuses at their board meetings such as declining population declining enrollment increased staff cost and yet they had the nerve to say we have around 300 spots available for students to transfer to one of the other schools that will continue open what about the rest of the students those students don't mean anything to you why should we want to transfer our students to one of the other assetto schools if they have already proved to us that you don't care about our students they are only a number or more like 30 seconds remaining when has assetto CEO Richard Rodriguez put foot in one of her schools when someone cares about their business they take the time to look into it and see what improvements need to be done firsthand to make the business succeed this is not a business we're talking about it's our students education and play what have you done to prevent this as of today asto has not had or scheduled any town hall for parents there has been no emotional support for our students parents have only been pressured to start pleas conclude your comments CPS board thank you very much for listening to our voices please continue to investigate a setto please help us save our schools please help them succeed thank you for your comments I'd like to remind all speakers that you have 2 minutes to speak I will give you a 30 seconds remaining um warning at that time and this will inform you so that we can proceed to conclude your remarks to allow the next speaker to begin our next speaker is Stephanie Gomez speaker number 12 who is here in person my name is Stephanie Gomez and I am a parent of two students at asero Esmeralda Santiago a school that AO has children to closed at the end of this school year I also have a graduate from there he is a senior currently this decision by Aero is not only Reckless it's devastating to our community this is not my first experience with facing a school closing my elementary school was closed when I was in seventh grade this closure ripped me away from a community that I grew up with and it took years for us to repair I will not stand by and watch this happen to my children just shortly after this meeting started I got a call from the school my 5-year-old is a type 1 diabetic and her Dexcom failed that's the device that reads her blood sugars so that they can know if her sugars in range I know that they have proper training to take care of her with or without electronic devices so that's why I did not have to leave and I can stay here and fight for the school to remain open I want to thank the CPS board for the special meeting in November to address the concerns that we've been raising since October and passing the resolution I don't think I see AO here today have they adequately explained the reasons for the closing of our beloved schools because they have not yet told us anything that makes any kind of sense the resolution also called for the board and Aero to mutually discuss that and explore Alternatives that enable continue operating the 15 attendance centers through of 2026 has any of this been done can you tell us what the alternatives are we are demanding that CPS and CEO Martinez do not allow Aero to close these schools if Aero won't listen then CPS you have a responsibility to keep these schools open thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Christine binder speaker number 13 who is here in person good morning members of the board my name ISR binder I have been an educator for over 30 years for the past six years I have been proud to call Aeros SOS my home today I stand before you not as a teacher but as a voice for the students and family and staff that have built a thriving community in our school my career in my career as an educator I faced many challenges navigating the chaos of global pandemic safeguarding students in emergencies protecting them from harm inside and out of the school and weathering many ineffective leaders yet through it all one thing has remained con constant our dedicated staff and resilient families they are the heart of these schools and together we have created something truly special a supportive thriving Community this isn't just a place where I teach it's a place where I love where my colleagues love and nurture and guide students to become their best selves I have watched children grow from uncertain Learners to confident leaders thriving because of the stability and care we provide every single day I remind my students my kids I remind them that my first and most important job is to keep them safe how they know that implicitly but how can I look them in the eyes and let them and keep that promise if the school closes if any of them close how can I assure them that the people they trust the adults who are supposed to to 30 are acting in their best interests when we allow that safe haven to be taken away aero's decision to close these schools threatens everything we've built if a sah won't listen it is up to CPS to step in and keep these schools open closing these schools will cause irreparable harm to a community that has already endured so much of its share of challenges we must do better what happens if the school closures go forward what's to stop from happening today I urge you to do what's right for the students the staff and the community these schools are more than a building they are a Lifeline CEO Martinez fight with us to save our schools soos thank you for your comments thank you our next speaker is Gloria Miranda speaker number 14 who will be joining us virtually press star 6 to unmute see for for imp we will now have our translator provide a statement in English good morning my name is Gloria Miranda and I am a proud parent of Casa cero School in pilson I am here today not only as a parent but as a voice representing the hope and future of our children in the time that my children have been at Kasa saso they have received the individual attention they deserve which has allowed them to achieve their goals for this reason I express my deepest gratitude to the Casas teachers I also want to recognize those members of the public education board who have been by our side however today I am especially addressing you Pedro Martinez the only person in this board who has not yet raised his voice in support of our cause you promised that there will be no more school closings and yet here we are waiting for you to be counted and reminding you of your commitment you have roots in our community you know our struggles and the injustices we have faced and continue to face I imagine that you feel proud in your position and I feel pride in you as well as a Latino you represent hope for our children the possibility that one day they can occupy a position like yours I assume that your own Journey has been driven by the changes needed for students like my children in communities affected by school closures everything we have faced like the absence of resources and support in your native language and here there's an interruption when when she gets to the 302 Mark uh so she jumps over uh let me tell you what is happening in our community commun currently in aceto central office employees are pressuring and intimidating parents urging them to withdraw their children from schools they mock us and say our Fighters are simple tantrum but let me be very clear no we have a voice and our fight continues we are not children throwing Tantrums we are parents who want the best for our children and our community just like you thank you for the comments thank you our next speaker here is Raina Rodriguez speaker number 16 who will be joining us in person hi my name is Rea Rodriguez I am a parent of the student at Acero Santiago no relationship to Richard Rodriguez I am here today with all of this parents and teachers to stand up for our schools and demand that a Martinez CEO Martinez and C Rodriguez keep Santiago and the other six schools open I would I would also like to thank the board for listening to the parents and teachers concerns since we've been raising um since October 9 we know that this hasn't been easy but we would do anything to keep our families together Santiago has constantly been a top performing School in the city all performing schools with similar Democratic and many schools with significant higher income populations just last year Santiago outperformed the average reading and math achievements for all of the schools and hble park Santiago has also been the top performing schools in the assetto network our students attendance rate has been in the top 1% of all 470 elementary schools for several years that shows you how much children's love to come to our school so why would you close the schools I could keep going but please look at the folders We given you so you can see more data about our schools aside from that this school is like a second home to my family and I don't want it to be close CPS you are already paying for this clo with the funding provided to a settle CPS you already oversee the schools the students are already CPS students and now the coast ran teachers staff are paid with the CPS funds so CPS keeping them open would not have been a major spense so now I'm asking you CPS Pedro Martinez have you asked assetto if they have talked to the community about the closures before making the decision did assetto try to uh renegotiate leases with the lease holders has cetto consider selling their multi-million dollar downtown office to keep our school open I honestly wanted a to be here but they're cowards they won't be here because they know they're Liars please conclude your comments thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Daisy urenda speaker number 18 who is here in person good morning my name is Daisy urenda and I am the office coordinator at little pass located in Little Village I have been at this school for over 10 years for many of us pass is like a second home parents have trusted us to educate their children for Generations it's sad to think that this might all soon come to an end assetto has made the devastating decision to close PA and six other schools aeto used parents and Educators to advocate for their Charter renewal in 2023 but couldn't be bothered to engage them before deciding to close seven of their 15 schools we are all feeling disregarded and undervalued the emotional and psychological trauma aetos decision has caused is something that will be extremely difficult to overcome the lack of communication from aeto leaders is only adding fuel to the fire to date they have not had any town halls and have had minimal contact with families and staff parents and Educators want to face to face conversations with assetto leaders we want to voice our concerns and we want to be heard we want the schools that we know and love to remain open we don't want emails or messages about how aido or inii will help families transition to a new school so many of our students come from loow income households and already struggle with a number of hardships our students and families rely on their school communities for support board members and CEO Pedro Martinez I stand here today and I ask you you have about the 2,000 plus students that will be affected by these closures do not allow asto to take away our students safe havens our students are CPS students and they deserve a quality education and access to opportunities thank you thank you for your comments thank you our next speaker is Lucia Salgado speaker number 19 who is here in person I'm and I brought you some packages and I'm here today to let you know what the situation is going on with AO as it toay parent I am great I'm greatly concerned in how asto is handling the transfer process many other Tamaya parents a dozen or more seeing me as a leader have come to me to express the following concerns over the assetto transfer process led by arel families are only being told about asto's options and Coach toward selecting those schools all those schools are not disgusted or or discouraged families that ask for the transfer for next year are being pressured into transferring this year for example if you don't take your uh if you don't take this seat now you may not get one next year the attachment letters from are from parents um it goes into details about the pressuring campaign students with IEPs are not being carefully considered in the transfer process and I re and the receiving schools are are expressing that they do not have the capacity to serve the students one parent reported being promised a seat for next year if they would transfer their child this year there isn't currently a seat for their other child but there will be one next year so make it transfer now this seat is not guaranteed and should not be promised I hope to see a change and this Behavior at it violates the trust families have put in a settle I'm happy to discuss this in more detail if we have any I have more several families um that are comfortable to tell you about these accounts and in the packages that 30 seconds remaining although I have more written statements and then they're pressuring all these parents have grown parents crying to me telling me what to do they're getting phone calls they're getting threatened pretty much you could say we have lost about 30 kids in tamay already and the thing is it it's affecting the rest of the school the kids in the school a lot of kids are saying what's happening to the kids my daughter this morning was so sad because she's like I'm not going to see my friend since I seen her since kindergarten so this is affecting mentally please conclud parents but the children thank you thank you for your comments thank you our next speaker is Andrea aala speaker number 21 who will be joining us virtually press star six to unmute good morning CPS board members my name is Andrea and I'm a seventh grade student at SOS I have been at cero since kindergarten and I have grown academically and socially I have built strong relationship with teachers and longlasting friendship with classmates s NS also provides fantastic support staff like office coordinators social workers security guards Lunch Ladies crossing guards and cafeteria staff these individuals also provide emotional support to all students they come across the nails has a lot of loyal teachers and students that call cels a family family members and the community surrounding cels rely on this school to stay open as it is a home away from home we are comfortable here and want the school to stay open most importantly I want to graduate from this school with my fellow classmates please help C stay open so that other students have an opportunity to enjoy the education that this school already provides for us thank you and help us keep the school open thank you for your comments thank you that is the last speaker for the assero group we will move on now from Lincoln Park High School the next speaker is Sarah Shaker speaker number three who is joining us in person followed by Shannon Waterfield speaker number 17 also joining us in person thank you for hearing my statement today my name is Sarah Shaker and I'm asking that this board correct a jaw-dropping miscarriage of Justice committed by CPS in 2020 during the Academic Year 2019 to 2020 my son was a sophomore Lincoln Park High School that fall an interim principal was appointed John th it Lincoln Park also had the great Good Fortune of gaining a new vice principal Michelle Brumfield talented administrators they electrified the entire Lincoln Park High School community in mere months teachers taught talked about being heard and feeling valued some for the first time in their careers students loved JN and Michelle but then a trip by the basketball team led to allegations of Staff misconduct four coaches plus th and Brumfield were accused buitt and Brumfield were fired just as investigations began they were never allowed to speak on their own behalf and were never told what exactly had led to their terminations CPS smeared their reputations in the Press teachers students and parents rallied behind them but then covid hit John and Michelle were left to pick up the pieces of their lives this June four long years later the oig released a scathing report finding that the osp's investigations were deeply flawed and unfair the oig report states that the OSP abused 30 seconds remaining and lied for the Lincoln Park High School Community it was Vindication the accusations of wrongdoings and supposed failures to supervise employees were completely out of step with the people we knew if the oig report weren't enough proof that John and Michelle were falsely accused all four coaches have been completely reinstated and paid millions in compensation but John and relle remain on the do not hire list I ask you to act now thing and remove them from that list thank you thank you for your comments thank you our next speaker is Shannon Waterfield speaker number 17 good morning my name is Shannon Waterfield and I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today I'm a CPS parent like most of you my children have attended Lincoln Park High School one of the most diverse high schools in CPS lphs has great students and staff but like many schools has felt unseen by CPS for example as a football parent 201 2017 I called the CPS rep for Letterman's jackets he hadn't been to L PHS for over 10 years it well it felt demoralizing but in the fall of 2020 all that changed we got a new principal John thit and vice principal Michelle Brumfield they were outstanding for the first time in years kids and parents felt heard it was like we had a new school the teachers and kids came alive the kids loved Miss brumfeld Johan thit had the support of parents and the teachers then student behavior on a basketball trip launched an investigation to the due to the investigation both thit and Brumfield were fired and put on the CPS do not hire list CPS and oig presented a case they claimed substantiated thit in brumfield's firings though the investigation had just begun and they were fired before its conclusion hundreds of kids and parents showed up to support both administrators oig OSP and other CPS administrators continued to paint John thit and Michelle Brumfield as sloppy and Reckless and publicizing a summary of allegations the kids and parents fought hard for JN and Michelle but their lives and careers were ruined I was personally asked if John thit raped a student our school was torn apart and then Co hit you have 30 seconds remaining thank you now this past June of 2024 we've come to learn that the oig of CP has concluded that the OSP Cammy Pratt and her assistant Deborah spragin jeopardized public trust by conducting an offthe books investigation both abused their positions and engaged in an enormous overreach of power you have not read if you have not read the oig report I hope you do now we know the truth about this miscarriage of Justice to these two longtime Educators is spelled out in the oig report it's also come to my attention the Press will be doing more stories and I hoping get ahead on this please take them off and do not hire a list that is my ask thank you thank you for your comments thank you our next speaker is Mariel Lano speaker number seven who is here in person good morning board members and CEO Martinez morning I am Maria laano proud former principal of PTO Math and Science Academy I'm currently a director at the Chicago public education fund where we believe the perspective and experiences of school leaders matter School leaders are charged with ensuring 320,000 students Citywide learn every day I knew the name of every staff member scholar and the stories of their families I put their needs first when I was faced with tough decisions I know this board faces a series of tough decisions you consider contract proposals with real implications for Scholars and families I am worried we are we are not talking enough about what those decisions will mean for schools two quick examples the current proposal includes 30 minutes of additional planning time daily for elementary teachers without a clear plan to replace the instructional time that will be lost it is true that our teachers deserve and need the time every day it is also true that our students deserve and need the hundred hours of instruction they will lose in a year meeting one need without addressing another will hurt students especially those who are just recovering from covid-19 second the current proposal also calls for individual teachers to make their own curriculum decisions without input from their principal it is true that our teachers should have the freedom to teach culturally resp inclusive lessons it is also true that principles are rated on program coherence because we know that students will learn best when there's consistency from classroom to classroom year to year you heard from CPA earlier that a group of principles and assistant principles has conducted a review of the CTO contract proposals please take the time to listen please ensure the needs of our students and families come first thank you thank you for your comments thank you our next speaker is Mary Lou Ugarte speaker number 10 who is joining us virtually okay for for Ju we will now have our translator provide the statement in English good morning my name is Maria alarte mother of a student at the interamerican magnet school and vice chair of the local school council at interamerican I am writing to let our new board of education know that unfortunately for over seven months our school has been requesting a fair resolution for our children due to numerous violations to CPS policies by principal Juan Carlos saas there have been so many violations that regrettably our local school council took a vote of no confidence which passed with eight votes out of nine this Council like many others has dedicated a significant amount of volunteer hours and has gone through all the channels CPS has avail ailable to resolve this situation we have contacted CEO Pedro Martinez numerous times and the situation has only continue to worsen seeing no other option we exercised our right to formally file charges against principal Juan Carlos saas on October 23rd of this year which was approved with eight out of nine votes in favor upon filing the charges the district has had 45 days to give her a solution these 45 days will expire this Friday December 6th lastly I would like to inform you that additional violations of policies have come to light since the charges were filed in October our school Community is depending on you to direct Pedro Martinez to act and remove the unqualified principal Juan Carlos saas we trust that you will listen to the school Community by respecting the dedication and work of the local school council we ask that you help our school Community begin to repair the damage this principle has caused so our children can continue to move forward wee we appreciate your time which we also recognize is voluntary if principal sayas is not removed by Friday December 6th please include in the next Board of Education meeting on December 12th the on the agenda there a request for from CEO Pedro Martinez for a formal dismissal of principal sayas from interamerican Magnet School effective immediately thank you thank you for the comments our next speaker is Marina senteno speaker number 22 who is joining us virtually press star 6 to unmute can you hear me yes you can begin hello okay um dear member of the Board of Education my name is Marina sanino and I'm the mother of two child at inter inter American magnet school for almost a year the interamerican magnet school Community has expressed great concern about principal di leadership despite our repeated communication with CPS and the board the situation remained unchanged first in August 8th a no confidence vote was taken by the LSC leading to their October 9th vote to fight charges against Mr Zas for mismanagement of s disy fostering a toxic environment and other serious issues PPS has known about those charges since October 23rd when a letter was sent to C Martinez yet no action has been taken this m mismanagement directly impact our children my daughter first grade class now has 28 student from the 22 we were used to in a bilingual program her initial teacher assistance quit after only three weeks and it took months to fill the position despite qualified candidates this is just an example of fleing the school because because of Mr Zas Mr Zas disregard for safety is equally troubling on November 20th an unknown individual roam or School unsupervised claiming to be a CPS custodian but without showing IDs you have 30 seconds remain directly from Mr has changed to security leaving the school interior on guard for a significant time each morning and reducing front death St this changes and our children we only learn of this breach after the LSC chair discovered and alerted Mr tros of District supervisor who then directed Mr Zas to inform the community Mr Zas offered no solution he has no plan to improve safety pleas your comments it changes are led to staff departure and low moral we implore you to remove Mr Zas please conclude your comments before December 6 and allow us to choose a principal who will truly serve our school community and if it's not done by Friday 6 please uh add that to the agenda included for your com request for martinz thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Michael Brunson speaker number 20 who is here in person how y'all doing today good morning morning um I'm this is pardon my persistence but this is like the third time I've come before the board with this very same issue uh I came before the other board with it I've come before you with it and I'm going to ask you again to respect the parents and the community by giving them three minutes to speak and not rushing us through because like I said before it's kind of hard to get your thoughts together and get everything out with two minutes that one minute makes all the difference if they can do it with the city council we can do it here at the board of education so I've asked you to do that before so this time I'm going to ask that you place it on the agenda for your meeting for the 12th and that this board votes on it that's not asking too much also um and this is something you can decide on that you compose a survey to get feedback from the public as to what they think about having the public uh the parents and the community and the students given the ability to speak for three minutes instead of two when they come to this Podium and that's all I have for today thank you thank you for your comments this is our last speaker from the speakers list vice president Gardner we also have uh a couple of elected officials who would like to address the board our first elected official is Alderman Byron sicho Lopez from the 25th board who is here in person good morning um dear um members of the board uh C Martinez morning and um good morning to all the parents Educators and people from the community have come today I let's start my remarks just by remembering a little bit of Chicago History today we remember the assassination of chairman fed Hampton a 21y old leader in our community assassinated just for thinking and inspiring a generation of leaders from more communities to believe that a better world is possible history is not dead and I tell you that I'm thankful today for the board members that have met with parents a set of parents belma Thomas parents that have met with parents from Bost and for the many many issues that we continue to Advocate today in our schools I am telling you that despite of the narrative and the propaganda that we hear today I am thankful to have a board of education that is listening to the parents Educators and the people from all communities and not to the bankers investors that have profited from our school districts for way too long today we need a board of education that is a steady fast to protect our children no matter where they come from from reactionaries that want to dismantle the Department of Education reactionaries who want to ban books reactionaries who do not believe in science in climate boiling and you see the migration that is coming to our city a result of these same policies in main policies that are burning countries abroad and and leaving them right in front of our doorsteps we're not going to dehumanize each other we know what's happening in the city of Chicago we see what has been happening when we saw with our own eyes how the city of Chicago shut down 50 schools in the poorest areas of the city of Chicago and the violence that are generated to this date I Dare for M Ram Emanuel to come with those all recipes of Destruction to lectures of what's possible in the city of Chicago I will have the same advice that he has for himself be quiet and listen we tell you today that we need a board of education that is not distracted and is focus on the rights of our children that respect the humanity of every child and do not let these reactionaries to divid us and pit us against each other we have a responsibility to act like adults that's what I am grateful that we have a new board of education I am also concerned about this media fry that is creating and to discuss Personnel matters in newspapers it is unacceptable to have administrators collecting petitions to silence voices that are demanding investigations that are demanding changes in the board of it in our schools it is unacceptable we need to continue to focus on the real is on the board those are school closures I remind committed and remember that we are not allowing a school closures under our watch a setal schools will not be closed under our watch I also think that it's unappropriate that we even discussing that the contracts cannot be settled when we have a mayor who is an educator who sends his kids to Public Schools who has been arrested to ing changes in public education how are we going to allow these shameful administrators to tell us that we cannot settle a contract the numbers that they're putting in front of us are fake those are fake numbers the inappropriate discussions that we have on personal matters and newspapers it is unacceptable and in my opinion when we have broken promises when we tell you that we're not going to close schools but yet we continue to see parents crying kids that are crying to this day because there's no solution I still waiting for Pedro Martinez to give me the audit or AET I'm still waiting for him to give 30 seconds remaining I'm still waiting months later but I tell you that we are not going to wait is for actual Solutions I ask the Board of Education to look at the facts look at the facts and tell me that it is acceptable to have children cannot get a school because we have busing tell me if it's acceptable to allow the schools to close when we have the Solutions in front of us and tell me the personal matter should be discussing in newspapers as unacceptable and there grounds to terminate this madness and focus on the issues of the city of Chicago and we change the policies so that we protect the schools from Trump the trumpers and the RMS of the world thank you very much thank you for your comments the next elected official is Alderman Gilbert vas of the 36 Ward who is joining us virtually please enter six star six to unmute can you hear me can you hear me yes we can hear you you can begin thank you uh good morning everyone uh with the elections have concluded we have now heard from voters principales and even the previous appointed board members a $300 million High interest payday loan is not what our city needs DPS CEO Pedro Martinez continues to remain focused on good faith negotiations while unfortunately the CTU smears him in an attempt to create cause for his firing it's not right we saw this week over 700 principles signed a letter in support the CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and are supportive of the direction that CPS is going under his leadership the performances of our students has risen under his leadership I ask you as a current board what are you willing to have your legacy be do not make crucial decisions simply based on politics you me and all residents of our city will literally have to pay for this for years to come this is not the will of Chicagoans the recent election showed there's immense support for independent leaders that will serve our city not just the will of the mayor a newly elected board will be transitioning in in 2025 that is the board that chicagoan elected overwhelmingly and those are the folks that should be making decision that will impact our city for years to come newly elected board members have asked you to wait don't make political decisions that you will pay for you all are a new board serving in a transition period you aren't making an informed decision as you have not been here long enough and Chicagoans are skeptical that you're just doing the bidding for CTU thank you thank you for your comments vice president president Gardner this concludes public participation all right well thank everybody for those comments um I think that I've got Blaze few questions um thank you vice president Garner so this is new information for me um when some of the speakers were talking and thank you all again thank everyone who came to share with us and give us information um the more we know the better we can serve you all um and so we have as a board asked for the financials for Aero before um and we still haven't seen them so this is interesting um this was an interesting talking point that you guys shared about the investment money and they're buying land while they're shutting down schools so I would like additional information on that or if you want to answer to that CEO Martinez um and ultimately I would like to surely they have like profit and loss statements or something that we can get in P in writing from them their financials not a PowerPoint presentation with a summary of things but I would really like to see the actual data from these schools on how much money they've made how much they've stocked away how much the other um the other schools in their system have made the actual numbers that's I don't think it's too much to ask additionally what does it take to get someone from Acero to show up and talk to us I I feel like I feel like we've been asking for this for some time do we need to write a letter do we need I'm new so maybe there's some guidance I need or maybe I'm um so if you can answer that CEO Martinez um just to help me figure out how we really get the information we need for a about Aero thank you board member so I'm G to ask uh Chief Carmona to say a few comments I'll just say again any information that the board wants we're more than happy to to get it we actually had a lot of extensive conversations with us setto we've actually looked at their finances we looked at their audit um and like I said you know there's a lot of information that's already presented to the board more than happy to get additional information as well uh Chief carono yes uh good morning uh board members uh honestly I was under the impression that you have the information on financials if you haven't received it yet I'm going to make sure that you receive it by the end of the day thank you uh so I my apologies is that wasn't the case I was under the impression that you received the actual spreadsheets with all of the financials we had that information great we got a summary we have an overview but I'd like to see each school that that's perfectly fine we have that information I'll send it to you actually before I sit down I'll send it to you right away since we have it available as it relates to your question of what will it take for us to have the Aero people or the Aero leadership here we not only forward the resolution of course we sent an email and I spoke directly with leadership about the fact that parents family members wanted to hear from them uh but to this day we had no receive a response about coming uh to this forum uh and of course we don't have subpena power to bring them here uh so we still expecting and hoping that they come to the next board meeting uh I take this opportunity in front of the camera to invite them again uh to come speak uh to the board and to the families look right in the camera you to have to have that conversation to have that conversation with them yeah thank you and can you also one more question can you also speak to the phone calls that parents are getting they've it sounded like um maybe they thought it was coming is it coming from CPS and and and what are those phone Call's talking about yeah that information is new to me um I believe you receive a package so you can give me a copy of that package would be fantastic so that we can investigate exactly what is what is that that is not coming from us uh and I want to make sure that um I believe somebody already reached out to one of our team members we can't talk right now but this is this is who you're going to follow up with because that the phone call I see that there's a package ready for me so I'll I'll talk to them and start an investigation about where this is coming from and what is the nature of these uh conversations I want to believe that there may be some misunderstanding between the number of seats that they have available and transfers within their schools uh this this a good point and something that the board did in the last meeting uh as it relates to the extension of the go CPS that's what we manage and we're more than happy to have families as it relates to that so I want to know a little bit more about where this is coming from and what is the um the intention behind uh doing this process and while you're here sorry do you want to share the Outreach strategy at this moment how we're communicating with parents um what what Communications we've made thus far yes and and just to clarify to to our fam's parents here that are present uh so far the district has taken the approach we are we are waiting we have collaborated with the board uh in several options uh I know we have several meetings about that and we we want to land in a in a good possible solution before we come as a board and as a as a CPS uh to you for a town hall meeting that town hall meeting we expect to be two parts part number one is of course Aero presenting and having facing families and talking about their reasoning behind is something that families have been asking in several meetings it's something that we want uh to be uh a reality during that town hall meeting and the second one is to come to that meeting with options I think it's very important for and this is what we done in the past and we've done really well is to make sure that families walk out of those meetings with options not just we we hear them every single time they come we know exactly the pain we know exactly what's happening but we also want them to walk out of that meeting with potential options for them to consider excuse me thank you very much for that and that that item is on the agenda correct is it correct that AER is on the agenda oh think okay there's there's not in presentation I don't think we have a agenda so so we once once you give us the guidance you know and the options we present it to you we would like to put itend saying is it on today's agenda no ma'am okay all right thank you we're gonna come back because we're still it's fine I can wait member po member Pop please yes hi I just want to thank everybody for coming and for talking to us about something which is clearly extraordinarily important to you and your families and your children uh and to say that we are working on this issue we are listening to you we are considering various options nothing is ever as simple as it appears you know however I just I feel compelled to say at this point that we and CPS are here about your children and s is here about their bottom line and those are two very different concerns and I just I I have to wonder why one would have so much trust in a system where these people are considering their real estate interests and not the real interests which are the interests of your boys and girls who are studying and learning and trying to grow and develop and of the Educators who are trying their very best to serve and to enhance the lives of these children so I just think it's important to frame it in that sense and when you ask why aaro has not come I mean I can only suppose that aaro has not come because they have nothing to say that addresses the needs of students and Families so I'll stop there Madam vice president small statement please yes to the parents of Aero and the stakeholders in the community some time ago there was a meeting called by the mayor of the city of Chicago superintendent Martinez was there so is Mr uh kimona and there was an audit present to the Board of Education the financials were faulty and at that point we said there was no confidence in a Sero they were not bargaining in good faith because it is basically against the law as an entity to give a financial statement that's faulty and you know it we've asked them to meet with us but I can say that there has been much movement thanks to Mr Carmona to give you alternative we don't know if we can fix it all but we are moving we do hear you and one of the reasons we can't get a Sero to come here is because contracts make people perform when the contract doesn't have any teeth in it you can't make them do much and I don't think we'll sign another one like that that's right yes member Janis another question is Kia still here from cpaa hey um so I just want to thank you so much for coming today um I just wanted to know if you all um if cpaa is is is talking to CTU at all are you all communicating um and negotiating when you say negotiating I don't know are you all discussing or is this just the this is the Timeless rub between principls and teachers so I want to be very clear CTU does not negotiate with cpaa you know so uh no there's we have had conversations with CTU leadership mostly as they pertain to um various labor matters across the labor Community um in terms of having discussions regarding their contract proposals no um their contract is publicly available and our members were able to review it and look at what was proposed and our members were able to look at those and identify areas where there may be hidden B budget implications or there may be implications in those Provisions uh that would impact the ability of principles to be effective leaders in the building or design a cohesive environment and so our members just simply wanted to make sure that the board was aware CPS was aware of those conflicts uh some of those problematic Provisions um then we recognize that CPS does not have to take our recommendation um but it was important that we made them aware from our perspective of in what ways these contract Provisions would tie our hands and our abilities to be effective um but uh we do not discuss their negotiations nor do they discuss uh hours sure got it okay thank you I appreciate you for um coming by and then the last question is again for CEO Martinez in terms of the ju Carlos SAS is that a or maybe that's um a staffing issue and we can't talk about it in public is that right okay so I won't bring that one up then okay thank you Mr Janis would like to uh ask everyone to just keep in in your thoughts a student who was shot and killed last uh yesterday kenwan ban pelts a ninth grade student from perspective School uh resident in Englewood and we talked about uh I don't know the facts of this incident but what I do know is that Englewood suffered uh in the closing of the schools and if you Google like from the place where he lives to the place where he went to school might have taken him more than an hour to get get to his school and so it's not a community school and we're fighting for Community Schools we have 637 schools in our district the third largest in the country with over two 325 students our allegian is to them and the families and uh the mission statement in in in online for CPS it says it says states to provide a high quality public education for every child in every neighborhood that prepares each for success in college career Civic life experiencing as we have been uh shared rigorous joyful and Equitable we have a moral obligation to provide the conditions necessary for every child in every neighborhood to become all that they can be anything opposite of this is robbing children of their future and that's exactly what's we're seeing when we consider closing seven schools when we consider uh since when uh Educators have become our enemies being an educator is a vocation they have boots on the ground they're fighting for better class size you know Staffing levels mental health English Learners they're the pillars of our communities historically this profession has been honorable why we don't honor that today so let's walk the walk talk the talk let's uh otherwise failure of education is it's cultural genocide let's settle this contract let's do right for our students our our Educators our staff otherwise we have uh we have a lot to to think of if we don't make this these considerations and these decisions and I want to point out Alderman Byron sich Lopez the the the only Alderman that has the the courage to look at the face of the parents you know so thank you for doing that and thank youa btia um thank you so much Vice chair um Garder um I just want to commend all of the assetto families who have consistently shown up to our meetings um for providing information that is extremely valuable for us to be able to make our decision um and also to Alderman Lopez uh for making sure that um we have your input and your Insight which I think is extremely valuable you know there's six six out of the seven schools that are being considered to be closed are from one neighborhood that is criminal that is Criminal and I just want to um you know piggy back back on on board member Thomas's that you know we are going we are looking into making sure that we do have better contracts with our um charter schools and also the CPS team uh Chief Cardona uh Carona um thank you so much for all of the information that you've been bringing to us around assetto uh in the absence of of assetto being here to speak for themselves they've been a lot of digging for us so that we can make an informed decision and I just want to make sure that it is absolutely clear that this is a top priority for this board it is on it's something that we talk about almost on a daily basis and also with our um with the you know the elected officials with people from the schools with our Chiefs who are are diligently working on this issue because we will solve this issue and also prevent do our part to prevent this from ever happening again in this way um so I just wanted to make sure that you all know that you being here is extremely important for us and I I want to just thank you for for um your efforts uh they are not going unnoticed thank you okay uh M MAA I one more question for um CEO Martinez there was recently excuse me a bill introduced to abolish the Department of Education we've heard from Governor pritsker we've heard from the mayor we've heard um from the residents can and we one of our first acts as this board was reaffirming the values of this District can you um CEO Martinez share with us um your what you see as your role in joining these efforts just to reassure families and students across the city yeah definitely uh so thank you board member so I've always enjoyed a very positive relationship with the current Secretary of Education the fan is could you speak sorry can you hear me okay no I I said uh you know I've always been very heartened by the relationship we currently have with the secretary of education secretary Cardona has actually um even helped to elevate our our success and results we've had the last few years he's he's been publicly expressed how proud he is of the work here how proud he was of how we invested federal dollars that made a difference with children and so of course um there's a lot of concern about what could happen uh with the Department of Education I I do think um I do think I would encourage the board to for us to to look at maybe making a public statement as well because we have uh not only relationships with the secretary but we have relationships with with multiple uh leaders in the secret with the Department of Education because our departments work on with them on grants uh different different funding opportunities one thing that I am very worried about board members is that we knew that federal funds were already expiring and that risk we have been very publicly talking about you know the consequences of that we've been talking about that for for the last you know at least the last two years well we have not contemplated and we are going to be analyzing is what is the risk of grants that could that we have always taken for granted that could be changed in a in a way that is very negative to our district and so that is something we're analyzing now so it is I think it is something that uh shouldn't be minimized what those risks are so thank you B for bringing it up just uh followup um in the letter that you sent to the CPS Community you talked about the tools that were at your disposal to be able to address these um I would just say a a tax to to be able to protect our students can so it makes me think that you your team has actually been thinking about this can you share what those tools that are at The District's disposal that you were referring to and how you plan to use them slightly different different um uh uh issue in terms of this this area but this was really board member our communication about making sure that uh that that our families know that there are policies in place around making sure that the rights of our children are protected so uh and so that is something that we've actually sent more communication to our parents we're going to continue to send that communication so um you know we we're happy to to give you more details on that board member but uh it is something that we're very committed to whether it's you know we have we're one of the few districts in the country has a title 9 office we have very clear procedures and processes of how we we Advocate and protect the rights of our children I think that the letter that was sent uh was maybe missed the mark and didn't actually have that when we read that letter it didn't have that feeling of like it actually made us more concerned um from for all the reasons that were listed in in the letter so I think um it would be really helpful for us to get more clarity uh and and also Communications to the CPS Community about um what we actually can do to protect them um how can they make a report like how what are we like tools that we and processes that we have to be able that we can operationalize in an event that there are um issues of discrimination or violence um against our immigrant families or uh you know any of our protected uh communities you know that I think that would be helpful for the the CPS Community to hear from you that you got about this and that you're going to be able to protect them against these kind of onslaught so just to give you an example um in the hewish community there was a post that said um report all IL legals that you see here's a number to immigration if you see them at church at work at school at the playground at the restaurant here's the number to to call Immigration so so that's already happening in the far Southeast side of and uh a response from CP from you you know since you're sending these emails to the CPS Community I think it it would be helpful for them to be able to have that confidence of like what our role is what our position is U what do you think about that absolutely and again that that was that's been in the works already board members are more than happy and like I said we'll make sure that you also have all the detailed information thank you ma'am okay are there any further questions here all right board members we will now proceed with potential board reports to be considered at the December 12th 2024 regular meeting after each item is presented board members will have the opportunity to ask their questions and make comments before proceed proceeding to the next item on the agenda board members we will begin with the following education item number one authorize the first renewal agreement with various vendors to provide out of school time and student health and wellness products and services good morning morning my name is Tara D Clemente I use she her pronouns and I'm the executive director of the office of student health and wellness I am joined by my colleague Erica Robinson senior program manager out of school time and mentoring from the office of student support and engagement we are recommending the board to authorize the first renewal agreement with various vendors to provide out of school time and student health and wellness products and services vendors under this agreement provide schools with a variety of strategic services includ including in and out of school time academic enrichment mentoring nutrition education recess physical activity programming and school guarden support among a few access to these programs and services has shown a positive impact on student outcomes including attendance and grades this contract will run from January 1st to December 31st 2025 this contract is for not to exceed amount of $16 million to be spent with 113 vendors across all schools in the district the increase in spend from past contracts is due to additional vendors being added to the pool the equity focus is on resource Equity to ensure every student has the opportunity to participate in high quality out of school programs that support academic achievement social emotional well-being and eliminate health related barriers to learning our goal is to support and Empower schools to implement a targeted Universal approach and this Equity folks focused approach will ensure school students furthest away from out of school program opportunities can access and participate in them this is connected to our vision to serve the whole child and strive for academic excellence through a holistic approach to Educational Services key performance indicators for these vendors include increases in the following areas school day attendance student academic on track outcomes priority student engagement and student engagement in programs thank you okay thank you any questions um I have one yes uh Mr Martinez want to know what notices have you sent out letting parents and Community know about the decline the dramatic Decline and the funding going from 45 million to 16 million sorry B can you say that again I I was asking what notices have you sent out to parents and communities about the dratic dramatic decrease in the after school fund funding that they just presented to us on going from 45 million down to 16 million uh I yeah I don't I don't think well this is for one year the 16 million the 40 thank you I appreciate that very much um I wanted to hear from you sir yeah I don't I don't think that's accurate so let me let me let the it's in it's materials so if you don't mind Vice President we can if she can explain it but it's send the materials the the decrease yes ma'am the $16 million is only for one year versus the 45 million was for over a two-year period And so that'll cover for January 1 to June to December 31st yes ma'am thank you for that but my question again to Mr Martinez is what um notices have went out to the parents and the community about these programs that going to be dramat drallyn funds and those dollars are gone I'm just how H how we going to continue to pay for those programs so let me ask the staff just so make sure I we're answering your question is so I guess staff with the vice president is there any de plan decreases in the services with this agenda item or are we just adjusting either adding more providers um you know know is there any actual reductions in service that's happening with this agenda item no there's no service reduction we're still planning to offer out of school time programs to all of the schools within the district based on this report I understand that but you're 25 Mill 25 $29 million short but I'm I'm going to uh segue over to my board member Janis thank you I mean there's there's a significant reduction from a two-year even if it's from a two-year to a one year there's a reduction in in how much we're spending in in this projection in the next year correct correct but this is not all of the funding this is just for these 133 vendors this does not include funding that is being offered for schools to pay their staff that are also implementing out of school time program to their students so team members maybe just again just I want to make sure because I appreciate board just making sure we want to clarify for the community so thank you so I think to clarify team um this is an adjustment because I know we add vendors we change vendors um is there any reduction in overall funding that you know from from these services at all and that's question one and question two and is this is this um agenda item specifically just to again as always we sometimes add vendors adjust vendors um and it just happens that this is just happens to be the pool of vendors and and the subset of the dollars that are set aside for these vendors uh so as this is a pool this is these are the vendors we're working together to make sure our available for schools to select within their program so these vendors are available for all schools to select the best needs of their uh communities as far as the health and wellness these are things the schools have been building into their budgets and so I know there has been some OST funding in the past and just with all covid funding covid funding is gone and so we have done um a lot of work to increase the vendors in the pool to help with that strategic spending to make it them more available and easier get over those procurement barriers for for schools um but the 45 million from my understanding is the past the past multi-year cycle and this 16 million is for one year which is if you look in the historical spend is actually still higher than the other fiscal years in this contract thank you um but my question was to the CEO in terms of what kind what notices went out to the parents and the community about the loss in the funds not the vendors thank you very much for all of that but I will any other further questions we can move on yeah just Mr jannis yes and again I mean what what we need Clarity is what what do what does this mean to the families um that rely on the services because like you mentioned when we look at this history I mean there is a significant change and so what what is the end what what does that mean to the families that are relying on these Services you know we have agreed that there's a change in the funding there's a cut so that means that means there's going to be some changes what does that mean yeah so so again just the answer to be very direct there is no cuts and services uh this is a subset of multi-year funding that's been approved before that sometimes again we adjust um we actually adjust the providers sometimes we add providers some providers drop out so there's no reduction in in in Services number one number two based on what the team has said it's actually an increase what we've done in annual funds available so that's the direct answers board members thank you so this's number that says 24 from 6 25 to4 is that wrong information where it says uh financial implications historical spend 246 million right and 254 million yes that is correct since July 1 to date I think I'm I'm I'm trying to understand the question here are you talking about the historical span correct in the slide for fy22 is 2.9 9 million 23 7.1 so on so forth is that what you're referring to correct yes so this is the historical spin on an annual basis uh and what we're proposing here looks like based on historical spend is actually less than what we're proposing so we're actually proposing more 8 million for fy2 and 8 million for FY 26 so the last twoe was 45 right that was that was the twoe that you mentioned 45 as you mentioned two twoyear 45 million this is a renewal of the new contract in our previous so we have to do this RFQ renewal every due to the RFQ every um year we renew the individual but the last one which happened over covid was multi-year that full five which is not on here so we can get that and I'll work with my procurement colleagues but that full multi-year that may be a number I don't have it on here so I don't want to missp the dates on that but we here we go good morning Patrice Hernandez Chief procurement officer so the original term was a three-year term $45 million for three years 15 million a year in this case they said it we're increasing the not to exceed to $16 million now this is a not to exceed that this was we're asking for your approval to spend up to this amount we don't always spend that amount based on school-based budgets and you know central office budgets we're just asking for the authority to spend up to that amount for out of schooltime services but the original agreement was for three years 45 million so 15 a year so it's in line with what we've been allotted from a budget perspective thank you you're welcome thank you that was helpful okay um I'm not going to repeat my question but thank you very much for that yes ma' board members we will continue with the following Equity item number two amend policy on the enrollment and transfer of students good morning or afternoon I hope you had a great holiday last week good afterno um Welcome to our final board meeting of 2024 and our final with six members my name is Ali fendrick and I'm the policy program manager uh for the Department of policy ethics and Records um this is not Equity this is for I think there was maybe a miscommunication so um I manage the process in which all policies are amended um rescinded and then brought to you and so I am here to present as a policy owner um so I just want to make sure before I jump in as a policy owner that you are caught up on the policy process as to why I'm we're all presenting to you a second time so if you have any questions about the policy process like I'm after we finished public comment we're here again so I just want to take a few seconds to make sure we're all good to go I went on vacation for a couple weeks so I didn't have a chance to brief you all um so I just want to take a couple space because our my colleagues over here who who will present to you um they can answer content they'll talk about their policy content but I am the like the um content expert on the process so just want to hold space for that right now in case you have any questions if not I'll just okay perfect so the the policy I'm presenting as the enrollment and transfer policy polic this policy mandates what documents are required for enrollment how to enroll different groups of students and different types of transfers this policy was last renewed in 2021 our team decided to review this policy in response to many questions from principles and families over the past three years over the past nine months we have discussed this policy with the following internal departments and external groups to inform our changes records law OSD multilingual multiculture Cal education enrollment and attendance Safety and Security stls oscl Americans with the Disabilities Act team on options Network oae face Equity o oece portfolio start early Latino policy Forum Carol Robertson Chicago Commons success bound and L kids first Illinois Action for Children the CAC chairs lsab dfss cbos the north side parent advisory Council we send an email out in the Friday or a survey out in the Friday emails that go out to all parents and staff and then the we sent a survey out to All prek Families um I'm going to divide our proposed changes into required updates and proposed updates as I did last time our required updates include updating names of departments adding stronger language into enrolling our English learner students adding clarity about oh sorry expanding um what is provided proof of address per ISB so we're including leases changing required documents to for proof of age to comply with the missing children records act removing language of processes or programs that no longer exist adding stronger language around transfers into non-attendance area schools updating of disciplinary and safety transfers to be more Equitable and align with current practices adding a section regarding transfers for the Virtual Academy and other non-voluntary placements we have two proposed changes as I presented last time as well um permitting a preschool to kindergarten priority for chur programs um and then also permitting elementary and middle school students to remain in their uh attendance area schools if they move outside their boundary um we did get quite a few public comments um uh I submitted a draft that is in our agenda and we've actually revised that draft since public comment ended two days ago and we got quite a few over the Thanksgiving break so I wanted to address them to you now um we so we did change the draft so we added some language um for students with IEPs who did not have our records at the time of enrollment CPS must request records within one business day so we wanted to clarify that language and I also wanted to take the time to thank everybody who did leave a public comment we did get like 18 pages of public comments so I do appreciate that um there were some concerns about Transportation so we added some language that says if you are an attendance area student and move outside your boundary you still will be considered an attendance area student so all Transportation will be aligned with our transportation policy generally attendance area students do not receive Transportation so if you move away you'll be aligned with the transportation policy so I can't confirm or deny that'll be a case-by case basis but on average um you will not be receiving it I would say um we removed language around unaccompanied youth based on a recommendation for the Chicago Coalition for the homeless um the language was a little too stringent and so we're just going to update our language in our education on homeless youth policy which will have to go in front of the board um within the next two years based on our biannual review or year and a half um we did get a lot of comments and support about students remaining in their elementary school until they graduate um we did have some concern about how that's going to roll out um we are are going to have a presentation to all School leaders in our um legal conference in the summer so we'll have some more guidance and guidelines by this summer there were a lot of comments a lot of comments about transferring to yccs and how this policy in um impacts option schools this policy does not um the changes in this policy do not impact how and when um students can apply to and attend option schools um these comments refer to the guidelines on high school transfers which explicitly States transferring to an option school is a choice and students always have the right to choose to stay at their current school or choose another school that they feel better meets their needs and parents have the right to select an option school for their student regardless of the student circumstances however the guidelines must be followed um and that is the end of my presentation so there any questions thank you are there any questions boy members sure can can you go into further detail about the guard rails around transfers into non-attendance area to Area Schools yes so thank you yes um we have a policy called our admissions policy which is how students get into it's a different policy of how students get into magnet selective enrollment other choice programs um we wanted to be clear in this admissions policy that students cannot show up to one of those schools without an um an application so it's an equ more Equitable process where I can't just show up to a selective enrollment school and say hey can you let me in if you have seats um or a magnet school and say Hey you know like you can't get any principal discretion there's just no way around getting in so we want to make sure that all um all students who want to go to school that's not their attendance area school must have an application an acceptance to get in so we just put that language in the policy so we don't want anyone bending the rules you know to let people in that wouldn't have been able to get in okay and when you say removing principal discretion there there's still those seats that the sorry I I just don't want sorry I need to be very clear yeah we do not want to allow for unauthorized principal discretion at elementary level especially you know like if I show up at a school and they say well we do have seats available I'll just let you in there might be a wait list and that would screw up oa's process and things like that where we just want to be very clear that we need to follow these processes put in place um that are set in our other policy the admissions policy that office for Access and enrollment manages great thank you and then more details on disciplinary transfers um I am not the expert on disciplinary transfers unfortunately um but that is our office ofcl um so I did this in partnership with them I don't think anybody is here today um but vincen will get me a some follow yes yes that would be um I'll no problem I will con to the right person yes processes yes got it all right thank you very much thank you so much board members we will continue with the following Equity item number three resend and adopt a new culturally responsive education and diversity policy good afternoon everyone and happy holidays good afternoon I am Dr Fatima cook Chief Equity officer and I'm joined by Dr Greenwood who will walk you through the our requests for the approval to resend the 1991 Multicultural education and diversity policy to adopt the new culturally responsive education and diversity policy in the December 12th board meeting the policy um has direct alignment to our CPS Equity framework our five-year strategic plan our instructional core vision and our continuous Improvement um policy um the commitments in this new policy are around culturally responsive teaching practices curriculum and instruction professional learning anti-racism and anti-bias initiatives um Workforce uh diversity equity and inclusion and then Community engagement I'll pass things over to Dr greywood thank you well good morning good morning good afternoon thanks morning somewhere I'm Dr n Greenwood director of racial Equity initiatives in the office of equity hello there hello um today we would like to we would like your approval to resend the Multicultural education and diversity policy and to adopt the updated culturally responsive education and diversity policy this new policy would replace the old Multicultural education and diversity policy last updated 31 years ago in 1991 with a policy more in line with where we are today if not approved the district will continue operating under an outdated policy misalign with cps's current values perpetuating inequitable outcomes and harm for our most impacted students this new policy Cent equity and was developed with the input from over 5,000 stakeholders students Educators parents and Community leaders Guided by liberatory thinking and inclusive Partnerships it aligns with the CPS Equity framework and directly supports the district's five year strategic plan by fostering culturally responsive learning and work environments we've conducted extensive engagement including nine cried sessions input from groups like cpaa CTU seiu73 and the Latino policy for and received the POS is received very positive uh we've received excuse me a positive Community feedback U while there were five public comments and I'm going to kind of discuss the public comments we had five total public comments three were in Praise of the policy and two and the other two offer constructive feedback and suggestions that we will address during the implementation phase this policy is a critical step in closing opportunity gaps in creating inclusive schools thank you and I'm happy to answer any of your questions any question I have a question uh member pope then Yannis thank you so very much for providing us with this I'm A Relic I started teaching at Bonito harez High School in 1990 so prior even to the policy that you are amending and I can say that the districts understanding of the impacts of institutional racism of diversity what diversity actually means the many different aspects of diversity has clearly thank goodness changed over the years and I am very happy to see a new framework being adopted now the challenge for all of us will be the implementation of this framework in various different schools and situations that our students and their families find themselves in obviously we are not going to have the kind of support that we might like to have from uh Washington DC I suspect on this issue and it's going to be up to us to make sure that all of our children and all of our Educators and Staff feel the impact of the new policy so thank you thank you so um few questions can you please define eliminate the opportunity Gap and number two two on the policy commitment no I'm sorry my second question okay go ahead yes uh it says last updated 33 years ago like this policy was last updated 3 33 years ago I'm I'm concerned about that you know um I mean I think what are we doing different to make sure that this doesn't happen I mean there's world events the world is always with tensions that that impact our home impact our classrooms impact our schools our communities what can we do better yep I'll answer your second one a couple of things that have been put in place in the last couple of years is the board implemented a process where all board policies now have to be reviewed every two years that was not something that the board had put in place before and so we review policies by the recommendation of the board and so um it is the board who who lets us know like hey this policy is one that's on the books that's outdated how do we work to um engage stakeholders in the process for updating it we've up we've been in that process for about two or three years um shifts in uh leadership and things like that but all engaging along the way and so that is the answer to your second question and then the first question was around opportunity gaps was that it and then just before you go to that one uh can we do something to give you that power and bring us these recommendations because you have the boots Underground and there's so many policies that it would be impossible for us to know every policy that we have in place and I think it's important for you as experts bring recommendations and say I I want you to look at this policy I think it's time to make changes and does that make sense yes and since I have been in this place this has been one of the policies we have been recommending for the board to take a look at okay sorry I'm also gonna jump in um that's also part part of my role so I have a spreadsheet I have a spreadsheet of all of our policies and board rules and all of the managers of who um who manages it and what is scheduled for our biannual review so the policies that are scheduled through 2026 so the the first iteration of the board rules that are actually up for you to vote on this today um the B any review was adopted last April or May so we started it in February of this year so all policies that were adopted before September 2019 had to be reviewed by have to be reviewed by April 2026 so that's why you're going to see so many policies coming through um and have come through in the past few months um we're taking a break so that's why there're not going to be any so the new board you all can get acclimated um and so with every so processes can get in place so then they'll start picking up with intensity because we're going to have to meet meet these deadlines unless you all the board uh give us a little bit more wiggle room maybe a tri annal review but we did find that we had so many policies out of date that this was a concern for our last board and that this would not happen again so you starting in 2026 all policies have to be reviewed every two years so you won't ever see any policies more than two years out of date beginning in 2026 um and if you have any if you want to look at these spreadsheets I mean this is like my bread and butter I have like a schedule um through I have a tentative schedule through 26 of what is coming up but if the board has any priorities if the you know CPS has priorities that are together um you know we can work together on that to see what needs to come up so yeah I wouldn't mind looking at those policies I can work with Venia yeah bring it on yeah we have a lot of work to do that's all I'll say we have a lot of we probably have I think around 200 200 270 about board roles and policies together so and we've done maybe 75 so far so you said there's 270 policies and board rules combined and so you're we're going to review them every two years every two years yeah who who was that your recommendation to that was the board's recommendation every two years yes you went from 33 to two well I will say the board rules some of them are short so you know some them are a couple sentences so we've done full chapters of I'll say some of them are IND idual but I'm counting them as one so chapters of board rols we've done a couple full Chapters at once so those you we did like a full chapter chapter four this year or chapter three chap you know you did we're doing chapters one two and three all together that'll knock out 30 today so great okay a lot of work in your expertise you and your spreadsheet and everybody's been at this for a while do you feel like two years is is an appropriate time frame to re explore every single policy just curious so I will say that what's really difficult about it is every team does not have a dedicated policy person so I'm going to ask you know Finance probably has 10 or 15 policies they don't have one person dedicated who can do the engagement the equity the work they have to do that outside of their job responsibilities and so that's what you know sometimes takes a lot of extra time um you know it's not Dr Greenwood's full-time job to do this this policy review he has other responsibilities as well you know so like no one no team in CPS has a full-time policy person and so I think that's where some of the bill like extra time has come however you know once in 2026 the you all the board can adopt policies without having to go through this process again you can say this is new new and current enough we can move through so we just have to through this first hump and then I think it just I think three years might be good but I think I feel confident in my team so we'll bring it on like we can do it it's just I'm with you let's get through this first pass and then we can maybe re-evaluate yeah I agree and then also tight to that if I may uh a lot of this uh policies and reviews and implementation of Grants and so on I I I feel that it should be tied to looking at the Staffing to make sure that we're responsible because I do agree that sometimes people they're overwhelmed they get burned out they leave and we lose a lot of a lot of potential of doing great things so I think we need to make sure that it's sustainable that we we have the proper Staffing and and so that it's again responsible and um the systems are in place to make sure that we can when board members come and go and when staff members come and go that we can have continuity totally and the last one eliminate the opportunity Gap sorry thank you yeah that's not me fine so in our in our CPS Equity framework we use those four dimensions so that we can eliminate opportunity gaps so opportunities that we see across our district are not evenly distributed to all students and so when we say eliminate those opportunity gaps it is how are we putting the onus on the adults in the system to make sure that students have those particular opportunities and not putting the onus on students and saying achievement Gap or student gaps it is really the the gaps in opportunity that students face so that's what we mean by that related to the resources that have historically been provided in the context of institutional racism thank you yep all right is there any more questions okay mat assistant secretary board members we will continue with the following family and Community engagement item number four amend policy on accommodations for student religious practices good afternoon my name is Fanny Diego Alvarez and I'm the chief officer with the F with the office of family and committee engagement also known as fa face houses the office of local school council relations parent universities Title One supports Committee Action councils volunteer programs Network and school supports via our faith specialist and the office of faith-based initiatives and today direct the director of the office of faith-based initiatives Alan Conley will be presenting a proposed amendment to the policy and accommodations for student religious practices good afternoon happy holidays good afternoon thank you happy holiday um as a continuation from the last board meeting where we shared this policy which has not been updated since 2001 I want to give us a summary as it relates to the public comments and this will be helpful for you all on today as we look at why this policy is necessary uh to be amended the public comments reflect strong support for updating the policy particularly in areas such as equity inclusivity and the need for uh for specific accommodations the commenters noted that the new proposal would clarify the commitment to supporting all students regardless of their religious background and would provide clear guidelines for academic accommodations the emphasis on creating safe spaces for students to practice their faith without fear of discrimination was well received additionally some Jewish and Muslim families raised valid concerns about the scheduling of academic activities and the need for teachers to be aware of religious calendars these concerns are in line with the broader goal of ensuring that students religious observances are considered when planning school activities and we recommend including Provisions in the amended policy to ensure teachers are informed about religious observances and that reasonable accommodations for absences are made when necessary So to that end we recommend that this policy is approved for the amendments are there any questions and yes yes you know I'm I'm 100% on board a perfect example is our next board meeting uh December 12th for Latin America and for I mean Catholics around the world it's a day of our Lady Guadalupe right absolutely which impacts many families many students so 100% we need to be aware of these dates as it pertains to every faith in in the world you know uh because it it definitely creates uh an impact uh at home in the school and in in our communities yes I totally agree you know many of our families our faculty staff they get their core values from a particular faith uh and just to be aware of those cultural observances sometimes they're not religious but it's cultural and I think that we need to be aware of that as we plan out our academic calendars member po this may be a peculiar question but uh for example Hindu students who don't eat meat uh Jewish and Muslim students who don't eat pork those kinds of issues have you worked at all with food service departments in terms of providing food that is acceptable in schools where there are significant uh representation of religious minorities so not our department uh per se as it relates to the food however we have uh played a role in food that's um giv even to our students in the after school program uh in in our house in our department the office of faith-based initiatives Safe Haven is house in many of our places of worship uh throughout the city uh and in those places of worship you will receive children across various Faith distinctions and so many of them will have dietary uh restrictions and so we work with nutrition support to ensure that uh we we meet those uh recommendations as it relates to I don't know if anyone is here you want to speak to it well we can um speak with uh Jason moika and um he will be able to send that information over to vencia and the board staff thank you very much Sor this this will be specific and also creating spaces like for example Like a Prayer space and so on is that incorporated in this absolutely that's what we mean by creating those safe spaces have to be creative uh one of the things that came up uh in the uh whether it was the focus groups or one-on ones there is this notion that some schools are not at the same capacity as another meaning that some are underutilized some are probably at capacity right so you have to be creative as to how you create that space so the implementation of the policy is where we will uh work alongside of our schools we being the office of faith base to help them think through creatively how to to create those spaces uh so just to provide an example of that I'm sorry um it's um we've been asked before from a particular school that maybe hasn't received that request before um how to go about it and an email will go out to Allan and myself someone from law other folks involved just to make sure that we um are all understanding the policy and the resources at the school level and then also connecting um the school that that has that question to a school that already provides accommodations so that they are able to just brainstorm and think through um like how to do it how to implement it member Thomas i' just like to commend you on your vision and hard work as we become more diverse as a community we certainly need all of the things that you are are talking about thank you thank you very much assistant secretary board members we will continue with the following students with disabilities item number five amend resolution authorizing payments for special education services to various State approved non-public facilities good afternoon everyone good afternoon my name is Josh long and I'm the chief of the office for students with disabilities I'm joined by my colleague Rick tro the deputy for the office for students with disabilities we're recommending that the board amend uh the authorization for payments for special education services for students with disabilities placed by CPS at the December 12th uh 2024 meeting we're recommending an increase in the amount of 26.4 million this increase will change the amount previously authorized from 148.5 million to 175 million this two-year term of author authorization ends on June 30th 2025 these payments are for services for students who have not been successful in traditional classroom settings and require intensive support non-public services are provided under ISB regulations the request for an increase is based on both the anticipated and current number of CPS students who are placed in a residential setting if not approved the district will be subject to litigation for failing to meet the obligations as the local Education Agency students with disabilities will also not receive legally mandated Services amending this report will ensure that CPS meets the legal requirements while addressing systemic barriers by recognizing the unique needs of students with the most significant disabilities non-public Services provide students with the most significant disabilities with expanded access to joyful and well-rounded educational experiences we also have only 10 days to implement an IEP once it's been written so that's why we're asking for the increase which would be through June 30th of 2025 thank you very much any questions I have a question Thomas so specifically not for-profit agencies provide what we don't uh and we're amending the contract to increase private placements for special educations uh students that they can receive the services that they are legally entitled to yes sir um I would like to ask uh at this point regarding sped bargaining you know about the number of case managers that are still too high uh opening OT and transition schools uh was a no at one point yet they're still trying to uh increase Outsourcing maybe you want to answer that or CEO wants to answer do you what is your specific question sir I talk about I'm trying to find out you know is the case number the man number of case manages are they still high uh and you are still trying to uh open transition centers for schools at one point time that was a no we weren't doing it maybe Chief long um first of all I think it'd be great even for you to share your background because you have a wonderful background um and then the other is um maybe discuss the number of increases we made in in this area especially with case managers teachers uh but even with that we still have a lot of needs that are district not designed to meet and so but again you have that wonderful expertise yeah absolutely so board member Tom Thomas you're absolutely correct that we are still in the middle of negotiations I am personally not part of the core bargaining team but have been uh part of uh representing CPS for the special education proposals one of those is what you mentioned about case managers and looking at the formula that is designed to uh provide case management to schools which would be specifically for uh leading the efforts for Designing IEPs we are still in the middle of that and have went back and forth with CTU about you know what we think is the appropriate uh number for case managers and and specifically with the formula um my personal concern with uh looking at a formula that would generate and this is personal but that would generate you know a large increase in Case Management Services is that you know we are already at a shortage within our district for special education teachers and so any increase in case managers would then have a direct uh reciprocal effect negative effect on our already ongoing short of special education teachers so I do want to make sure that we stay balanced in what we think we believe is best practice and what is needed for our students in terms of opening transition centers uh I myself was a principal at Southside occupational Academy which is uh one of two transition centers within Chicago public schools and know firsthand you know the benefits of uh transition education for students with disabilities age 18 to 22 uh in the time that I was at Southside occupation ational Academy we expanded to a second School site and went from 174 students in 2010 to 383 students when I left in January of last year so definitely know exactly what we need to do and and and certainly see the benefits of that uh education and you know want to be responsive as a district to making sure that we can continue to meet those students needs all right Mr Martinez how many SP vacancies do we have I'm sorry what how many Spar vacancies do we have so I I think uh he's been here I saw him in the back there he goes it's an area that uh you know Nationwide has always been a challenge I will say the board members were we're doing better than than our peers and we're doing I think even better this year than in the past but I'll ask Mr Fon to give the most recent number what what what number are you aware of sir I'm just and then I can see the difference between the two let me let uh our talent leader to share it fine thank you good morning vice president Gardner we about 300 Special Education teaching teacher vacancies uh as of the beginning of the month I would note that we're up somewhere you know north of a thousand special education teacher filled staff teacher positions over the last I want to say two or three years we can get you final you know specific numbers about the dates but we make we've made some of the most um comprehensive gains in our in our in our staffing in our schools with special ed both with special education teachers and with special education classroom assistants so uh some of the strategies that we've identified on that front is growing our own through a teacher through a teacher Residency program where we're investing in special education classroom assistant teachers assistants Etc to become the next generation of special education teachers expanding our student teaching program here in the district uh to make sure that we're attracting more and more special education teachers to come student teaching the district so we can offer them a job get into the district right away we have an early offer program that focuses on special education teachers an expansion of an international teacher program so we've we've had we've made a lot of progress in special education Staffing but is the number 300 yes okay thank you yep member Thomas yeah uh I have a grandson who's autistic and he is in Chicago public school so I asked this he's not the only one who uh were parents or grandparents are navigating seems like up upstream or you you know trying to climb up a up a tall Hill with the vacancies that you uh have how many students are not receiving services and uh what are we how are we trying to address that so um Mr filton just outlined you know some of the efforts that the district has for creating pipeline programs for teachers this is not a new issue this is something that's been ongoing and believe it or not we are on the positive upswing for you know meeting all of our teacher needs and I do want to also just Echo what he said that we've added over a thousand new position positions over the past couple of years so our our vacancy rate is lower uh even with adding all those new positions now it doesn't matter because we still have vacancies and so I I do wholeheartedly you know believe that is there I'm sorry is there a number of students or prospective students that have applied who are who are not being served that's that's not based that yeah yeah and getting to your question yes there are so wherever we have vacancies then those are students who are not receiving the services that they're legally entitled to there is a process within the federal law and procedures where if it's a new service we file a notice of non-implementation of service or a Breakin service from there then the IEP team convenes and provides an opportunity for compensatory services to be provided so that we can Rectify uh the loss of services or the lack thereof of services that were not provided is there a hard number on on the number do you know the number of students that are not being provided I don't personally know the number off the top of my head we could certainly get that for you thank you very much oh I'm I'm sorry member both yes uh I've been giving a lot of thought recently of course to special education and the needs of our students and uh one of the things that you just brought up in terms of what I would call makeup Services makeup services do not meet the same needs that ongoing Services meet me meet for children particularly for the many special education students who are in need of daily consistency continuous reinforcement students who have memory issues and things like that uh so is there a way in addition to tracking missed minutes and trying to make them up is there some way that we could make it more possible for these students to receive their minutes as the time at the appropriate time yeah and I don't disagree with you by any stretch of the word board member Pope the reality is that we need people we need staff to do the work and we need staff to be in the roles and you know I do appreciate that we have procedural safeguards to uh make sure that we are you know not just not providing services but also then providing some remedy but you're absolutely right so I have a follow-up question if I could it's a detail that Mr Jan has brought up and that pertains to uh teachers who are here for instance on a J1 visa and I know that there had been a considerable number of Filipino special education teachers are they still in the system are we still recruiting from the Philippines and other areas and I appreciate your response yeah we are and I actually had the opportunity to speak to them uh on their first day uh they all met uh in the garden level at central office and they will be here for three years so we just had a new group come in and we have another recruiting trip uh in January going over to you know find even more and that is just one example and I'm happy that you know about that but that's just one example of really trying to find a remedy but trying to be extremely creative on behalf of our students especially those students with disabilities to find the staff that we need thanks not sure if the gentleman behind you speak I mean I would just say this is true for all of our teacher recruitment work but specifically for special education um teachers there just simply is not a supply being generate as you know po member Pope there's there's not a supply of candidates being generated through the traditional Avenues to generate student special educ ation teachers which is why a few years back the toal office here in CPS under Pedro's leadership you know our strategy here was to that we were not going to be passive consumers of the of the teachers that local universities were giving us that we needed to develop our own supply of candidates so whether that's through our Residency program whether that's through recruiting our own high school students to become the next generation of CPS special education teachers whether that's you know like I said getting more uh student teachers in the system especially in some of the hardest staff schools whether that's um you know expanding our international program all of that is to is because we are done being a passive you know consumer of the teachers that are giving that that the local universities are giving us we have to improve the supply that's a conversation that's now being had nationally but I'm really proud that Chicago Public Schools is really at the at at the cusp of innovation on that front uh because otherwise you know while we do have vacancies you know we the the Staffing numbers that we've achieved especially coming out of the pandemic you know with increased student need more co-teaching in the district you know the fact that we're up well over a thousand special education teachers over the last few years shows that these strategies are really working thank you all right thank you very much Matt assistant secretary unless you all had I just was saying thank you oh absolutely absolutely yes ma'am board members we will continue with portfol folio item number six adjust the grade structure and the attendance boundary for fauler and Nixon and the attendance boundary for Kelvin Park High School uh good afternoon board members Alonso Carona Chief portfolio officer I'm here to introduce uh my team as they present this item we have here uh deputy chief uh con Timbers uh director uh do Vargas and director Emil Vargas aarka present the next item uh good afternoon uh my name is Conrad Timber assar I'm the deputy chief in the office of portfolio management we are recommending the board to approve adjustment to the attendance boundary and grade structure for Falconer Elementary School to include seventh and eighth grade and adjust the attendance boundary for Kelvin Park High School at the December 12th board meeting I want to make it clear that in for the record that this grade structure and attendance Browner proposal is just for Falconer and Kelvin Park our basis for this recommendation is that currently students uh Zone to Falconer are Zone excuse me students at falconar zon to Kelvin Park High School for seventh and eighth grade however only a fraction of students attending the elementary school transitioned to Kelvin Park High School after sixth grade that was 4% over five years there is sufficient space B at the elementary school to support this expansion the school has had enrollment declines of 40% over the past 10 years Additionally the population of students within the boundary has declined by 32% for the schools at the end of the transition period these schools will serve approximately one this school will serve approximately one to two additional home rooms excuse me the elementary school expansion will improve transition between Elementary School and High School by allowing students to remain at their Elementary School Middle School is a critical time for our students both academically and social emotionally allowing our students to continue at the same school with their peers and trusted educators will improve their overall educational experience this has a tie to our Equity Focus as well which is inclusive Partnerships the engagement process emphasized Community voice and the recommendation was amended based upon feedback from the impacted School communities it also touches resource Equity elementary schools that do not serve kindergarten through 8th grade and require additional transition for students between Elementary and high school were prioritized as part of the preschool to high school Pathways working some additional information for your consideration is the elementary school will need to limit their out of boundary enrollment to accommodate the additional grade levels additional grades will be phased in starting July 1st 2025 students would not be required to transfer and recommendation accordance with the attendance area view policy was submitted Community perspective and concerns 92% of surveyed community members at Falconer indicated that they are in support of this expansion The Proposal was initiated by the school principal CPS held three Community meetings to solicit Community input on September 10th September 17th and October 3rd a formal public hearing was held on November 6 some Kelvin Park teachers were opposed to the original proposal which also included the remove of seventh and eighth grade from Kelvin Park this updated proposal removes a portion of the Kelvin Park High School boundary but not the grades served um and our finally this connection is directly excuse me this proposal is directly connected to our strategic plan for every Community Preschool to high school p a question um so we were briefed by you you briefed us on these changes that included two other schools as well um is this going so this is not happening together it's going to be a phase approach instead or the other two schools are just wondering about the difference yes so to to answer your question yes so after our extensive Community feedback um we felt that the other schools were not ready for a change um and so this proposal is strictly for Falconer Elementary School and delin park uh we created a criteria for this process and we actually putting together Playbook uh moving forward uh and there were three aspects of that criteria number one it had to be a 70% or higher number of uh participants that were in favor of the expansion uh number two the schools needed to have the space of course to have the expansion as well and number three the schools cannot lose any program that already exist in the school okay so the two schools that you mentioning Nixon specifically is a school in which 82% of families and stakeholders wanted the expansion um the school had the space for only to expand Seven Grade uh to expand a grade they have to do some concessions and some um um pieces that will have an impact on existing programs so we decided that because of that as well as the impact that the expansion could have on two other high schools we decided that that wasn't right now is not the right path for Nixon to move forward with an expansion when it comes to Berry uh there was no support from the community the community did not necessarily wanted expansion and the school does not have the space also uh to complete that expansion so therefore we remov uh Nixon and Barry from from this um um board proposal I think uh and I mentioned to you during during the uh briefing extremely proud of the team and the effort of basically collecting information from over 900 stakeholders that came to the meetings and tell us a straightforward this is what we want this is why we want it uh and we are very um happy to know that this is a proposal that has not only the families the community our labor Partners electoral officials that have been briefed uh several times on these different areas support for us to move forward with something that will certainly benefit not only uh the falconer Community but in the future other communities that want to do expansions like this okay um so Kelvin will continue to have seventh and eth also okay okay um yeah it' be helpful I feel a little bit blindsided only because we were briefed with a a different plan that included the the two other school the two other schools when we had our briefing no we we specifically in the briefing mentioned that we remove the two schools okay yes okay yes and the documentation you receive the two schools are only mentioned because we wanted to make sure that you were aware that the efforts for engagements were done and why we remove the schools from from that proposal okay thank you and I really do commend the um Comm Community engagement um I know that in the beginning it was a little bit Rocky with the community was not on board and there was a lot of um organizing that was happening with the the parents so I appreciate that you've been amenable to that original plan and that you're supporting the plan that the parents wanted and this is why we created that Playbook I think and as a team we talk about this idea that because the request came from the community this is wasn't this wasn't something that we came to the community to say hey guys you should look into this the community came to us we did the analysis and then we went back with potential options uh and they pick the options actually that works really well for each one of those communities okay we'll be look I'll be looking forward to see how the transition happens and uh making sure that we have all the support for those families that they need thank you any more questions thank you very much assistant secretary board member we will continue with information and Technology item number seven authorize a new agreement with International Business Machines Corporation all right good afternoon board members C Martinez I'm Norman Fleming the Chief Information Technology officer and I'm proud to present my team my leaders today over the last two and a half years we've been working for this one day this is a the last step for board authority for us to move to implementation and replacing a 20 year old enterprise system so with that I would like to introduce Kim Thomas our executive director of business transformation and Ed Wagner our Deputy [Music] CIO good afternoon board members and uh hope you have a a great holiday is I'm I'm uh Ed Wagner Deputy Chief Information officer for uh Information Technology Services I'm co-presenting this um agenda item with Kimberly Thomas the executive director of uh Erp business transformation we're co-presenting um since this initiative is is is not just about replacing an IT system it's about modernizing and streamlining our business processes so this joint effort between this is a joint effort between its and our business units we are recommending the board to authorize a new agreement for Erp system integration and related services with International Business Machines Corporation you know more commonly known as IBM um for a not to exceed price of of $60 million over a three-year term um just to give you a background of what an Erp system is uh it stands for Enterprise resource planning and it's a it's a unified platform that supports key business functions of a of of a of a company so Finance accounting budget procurement uh human Capital Management asset management and and and and and other other modules uh as as needed by having a single unified platform um departments are able to uh share data between business units and see the information in real time um to improve efficiencies and automate processes a simple example of this is if an inventory management data is shared with a procurement system consumables can be automatically ordered um and sent to the appropriate location when the inventory dips below a threshold our current Erp system as Chief Fleming mentioned is out of date and out of vendor support our important business functions are running on an approximately 20-year-old system um that is highly customized to support our current business processes while that was common at the time of that of the implementation that's not common practice anymore uh since they lock you into Old processes that prevents um us from making changes and and leveraging new technology to meet new business demands as part of our Five-Year Plan we have committed to modernizing our it systems and this is part of that commitment we've been working on the selection for the new system for about two two or two or so years now uh in February of this year we received board approval on the platform selection Oracle Fusion Cloud we are now before the board seeking approval for the system integration of the new Erp system through IBM who was selected through a competitive RFP process uh implementation of the new solution will allow us to to replace unneeded customizations of our existing systems with outof the-box delivered functionality based on industry best practices and standardized business processes uh this is not a trivial effort and will impact every department and school across the district taking approximately three years to implement during that time the system integrator will work side by side with uh our departments to migrate and streamline business processes improve accessibility provide real-time uh analytics for more informed decisionmaking while uh which which will increase efficiency and productivity across the organization and ultimately Empower uh our district to better serve our students and communi if this board report is not approved the district will face significant risk uh as it continues to leverage an obsolete Legacy system additionally we will not be able to take advantage of improved efficiencies and productivity um uh of this new system that that this new system will facilitate um that will s that that can uh can save the district on operational costs um I will now turn it over to uh to to Kim who will talk about the selection process our Equity focus and various benefits of the system hi board members uh Kimberly Thomas I'm the Executive Director of Business transformation and I would like to say as Chief leming and Ed already mentioned this is something that's going to impact the entire District uh that's why the leaders that are standing here with us Ben Fon from Talent uh Chief procurement officer Hernandez our it CIO and also our CFO is part of this program as our senior executive sponsors because it will touch every part of the organization even down to the classroom so we wanted to talk about kind of the equity focus by building a modern system our back office systems it will impact our classrooms because it allows more time on task for teachers to be freed up from administrative burdens that take them away from you know classroom time when they need supplies or they need you know assistance from the office somewhere in central office if they need to tap into our facilities if something's happening in their classroom the system doesn't allow them now to do that in a you know a modern or efficient format this system that we're trying to build which we've already purchased the software for will allow our end users to actually do more of the things that they were hired to do and less of the administrative burdens that come with being part of a large school system it will assist our our principles and our leaders leers in buildings and departments and onboarding staff quicker identifying potential staff members filling those vacancies uh being able to look at data and use that information to make more informed decisions in the classroom for their buildings for their departments that will actually get us to the business of educating our students uh so our Equity focus is around resource Equity as we know there are some schools that have more than enough resources and people to handle kind of those operational kind of tasks that are you know important for all buildings and there are some schools that are under resource where there's only one or two people that handle that by providing a streamlined modernized system that levels the playing field for everyone meaning that a person that has a one clerk school can efficiently run payroll for their staff as well as a large school that has to run payroll for several hundred uh staff members they will be able to more quickly do out of school time and things like that where we are doing those manually still on paper time sheets where they will be able to do that in a system that will able will be able to show a teacher like hey here's all the time that you've put in is this accurate making sure that we're correcting those errors before they ever happen so we aren't doing a lot of cleanup on the back end so the system integrator will help us build this system so that we can maximize the use of the system and make it Nimble enough so that we can take advantage of all of the emerging technology AI we appropriate uh stre lining and having dashboards where principles and teachers can see information they they need in their classroom in real time more quickly and not have to go to several different systems to uh get that information um also our vision connection is around modernizing our technology systems which is part of our five-year uh strategic plan and so to do that we need to look at our systems as a whole instead of us doing bits and pieces you know where we upgrade here we add on here and we needed you know we need to take a step back and just look at the entire system and that's why it took us about a year and a half or two years that we engage stakeholders across the district at the school level at the district level at the network level uh we've had uh interviews we've had sessions with teachers we collect information we're building a change network that will help us actually adopt this new technology and make sure that all of our users are trained uh understand what the system is knows how to use it and then can take advantage of all of the tools that we are putting in place for them uh we did collect Community perspective from this and the community is kind of all of our business users users so we talk to data analysts we talk to building principles we talk to clerks we talk to people that would be impacted by the system and we collected kind of some of their pain points as we were going through this and that kind of helped us uh put together our gu like our guiding principles we wanted to make sure that as as we were going through this process in selecting a system implementer that we had all of the voices that were going to be impacted by the system so we didn't take it lightly normally our procurement process you have about seven evaluators picking products or or tools that we are going to use through the software selection we had 138 participants through the system integrator selection I believe we had I think it was close to 48 50 people that were part of that process that asked hard questions that uh work through evaluation where we down selected through four different rounds and that's how we ended up with uh uh IBM as our si uh implementor that we want to work with to make sure that we build a system that will go with the generations that come after us and can be nimble enough to stay up to date kind of like with those policies that we aren't updating the 20 Euro system in 20 years that we're going to stay up to date with what's going on and implementing that as those news te Technologies come out so that's all we have any questions did you say paper time sheets yes where is that happening so for our SPS system which is our out of school time for people to get paid for programs that happen after school they actually have to fill out a paper time sheet wow take that to the office the clerk then has to set up a bucket to pay them out of it and then input manually keying in that time where in a new system teachers will have access to a mo through their mobile device or their laptop or their you know iPad where they can go in and log that time into the system it can then workflow for the approval that is necessary they can see when that approval has happened and know that the time that they worked after school will actually show up on their next paycheck thank you and how do we come up to 3010 MBE wbe if we're using IBM so I see you Tina yeah all our solicitations that go out to Market have goals attached to them right and then then the vendors when they respond part of the submittal requirements is they have to respond what their compliance plan is to meet those goals okay so based on what they provided to Tina laori and her team that's what they're proposing 30 and 10 hi I will also add it's based on census Department of Labor numbers vendors that have MBE certifications wbe certifications so for example I think there's probably four mbes and wbees that are participating two are local and then IBM has committed in terms of their not only their Partners but the divers the diversity and the demographics of the people who will be doing the implement the implementation okay so IBM as a company is not the it they're saying the the the the staff members that come and help us install the stuff is is going to be W the there will be MBE and wbe so the MBE will be 30% there will be their subcontractors that they have chosen and it will be 10 it will be 7% for wbe no they're using subcontractors for the installation yes there will be subcontractors participating and those sub subcontractors are going to be um the subcontractors will complete documents what a strategic plan we will have the name of those subcontractors along with their locations and the principles that manage it okay Plus's because IBM it doesn't sound right IBM's not yes but when you get the board report M or W right so like what we're doing today is just a review so when you get the board report it will itemize who those subcontractors are it will have their phone numbers their names and the principle of the person that does it and if you need further information about those subs I will have that information no worries thank you so much Tina I don't have any more questions thank you thank you very much one question it's sorry it's a replacing a previous contract and this whole system so since we haven't upgraded in 20 years uh we don't have an implementer it was implemented you know quite a while ago so this is a new contract so there we had a contract with someone before or no so so we we currently have an oracle system that's 20 years old we still pay licensing and support for that so we will continue to pay licensing and support for that until we get this system implemented so it's uh as far as the it um I mean obviously it's a significant increase right in the budget for it yeah so it's a uh not not to exceed $60 million for a three-year term this is for implementation costs so yeah it's a one-time cost um uh but uh you know one of the things that that we didn't mention during during our presentation is that there's also some significant business value that we will get out of this implementation um we we had IBM do a business value analysis now we need to take that with the grain of salt and understand that some of this might be soft costs and not hard costs but they said between 50 and $60 million a year we could potentially save inefficiencies and and and all of that once implemented did you want to yeah no I mean you're doing a great job you can keep you're doing a great job so quite frankly this is the first time we're using a large system integrator in 20 years and typically you don't see these type of significant costs because we don't Implement enterprise resource planning systems every year because it takes three to four years to implement So based on this investment based on preliminary estimates we expect the 203% return on investment we expect a payback period of three and a half years we expect potentially an annual run rate savings and reduction of cost as Ed mentioned between 50 to $65 million a year and that's the productivity and efficiency gains that we will enjoy from this system is is there's a potential that it can increase this uh estimation like that we can go beyond this amount yeah a matter of fact um as we go through what we will call an agile implementation cycle during each phase we will validate the efficiencies the cycle time improvements the limitation of redundant systems and I think one of the biggest advantages that we have that's not in this report we can decommission other systems that currently would not support the modernization of the systems across CPS so at a certain point in time I think after we started to start implementation phase every year we will validate the benefits realization I can't say it will increase but there's an opportunity for us to make sure that we drive the highest Synergy cost reduction through this platform would you say that this has to be done you know given the the priorities the I would say yes the longer we continue to extend a 20-y old system we carry more technical debt and what that means we pay more for a legacy platform that's 20 years old at a certain point we will not be able to secure resources or development around a current platform we actually have 44 custom apps custom apps that we built on Oracle there is no other organization that can support the customizations so the more we carry on the technical debt we're going to pay more cost in the next two to three years thank you ask question sure M po yes thank you I'm sorry I missed a part of your report although I've actually read through the fine print here and I would like to make a request when you use initials whether it's w be or whatever it is could you try to remember that not all of us operate in your world and if you would just put at least the first time in parentheses what the term actually means then we would feel smarter than we feel when we see them the initials that would be really helpful to us and also having uh worked on this under this Legacy uh system it was brand new and shiny Once Upon a time and there were problems with it even then and seems logical to me that we don't just keep throwing money down a sink Hall I uh had this experience with my roof in my house where I had it patched I had it patched again because it was going to be a complete tear off with a KOA and all this and it's going to cost a lot of uh my savings and eventually I just had to get a new roof I had to bite the bullet so that sounds like the point we're at here yes board member we're are at that point um as a matter of fact just to piggyback off everything that we said in two years I think in 2027 our timekeeping system goes out of support um that the company will no longer be selling it so you know we need to get ahead of that you know we know that uh time and attendance is the most important people want to get paid so by us doing this now that gives us you know a little bit of headwind to make sure that we have a system that is working and in place so that that doesn't become an issue in the future the Oracle time system is going out no uh we're on Kronos right now oh okay y because we use Oracle at the county I was say hold on no no no right we're we're actually talking to uh the county in a couple of days as a reference to kind of get some lesson learned uh from the county as they're a little bit ahead of us so we are tapping into all of our partners across not only the city but other like organizations to make sure that we're doing this right uh we are our goal is to stay on time and on budget uh so that we do not have to come back and ask for additional Authority so we are being very mindful of what we are spending and why we're spending it but we do know that this is an added benefit for the entire District I like that you're talking to your partners it every other um government entities have been through this for sure yes and failed or done you know what I mean no they there's lessons to be learned is all I'm saying from their mistakes right I have no other questions thank you are you right I'm just gonna add just to give credit again to this leadership team uh actually back in October Kim anded presented to the Council of great City schools at 78 school districts across the United States we're leaning in the front so a lot of schools districts are looking at how we Implement and replace this system and we're very excited about our strategy we're very excited about our plan and we're very excited about the talent that's going to deliver the significant change for this District so we want to thank you for your support thank you very much assist thank you very much assistant secretary thank you board members we will continue with procurement item number eight authorize the second final renewal agreement with ODP Business Solutions LLC so good afternoon board members and CEO Martinez my name again is Patricia Hernandez Chief procurement officer um today I'm bringing forward before you a request from our procurement Department to approve a renewal agreement with ODP formerly known as Office Depot for the purchase of school supplies and related products the contract is for one year start date of March 1st 2025 through February 28 of 2026 we are asking for not to exceed amount of $10 million based on historical spend if the request is not approved schools and departments will not be able to purchase any office supplies above the $35,000 threshold per fiscal year without doing a separate competitive procurement process um this contract is not mandatory schools can still purchase from other uh vendors schol supplies if they choose to as long as it's under that $35,000 threshold um ODP is working to increase their wbe numbers they are meeting their numbers globally and they have been working with our business diversity team they've added five subcontractors this past year and they are working on adding um some um signage on their landing page in the punch out to identify diverse suppliers to help our schools and identify and highlighting diverse suppliers when they go to purchase ODP also gives us a 5% rebate on all purchases that are made to our Marketplace they have been a true partner to CPS over the years donating goods and services to the district they are working with they have worked in the prior uh years with our philanthropic arm the children's first funds and this year they have donated over $142,000 in school supplies to various to three schools they recognized teachers every year and they also give uh gift cards to our principles they have different Community investment initiatives to make a difference in our communities through employee V volunteerism and philanthropic um giving such as school supply drives um the resource the equity focus is related to resources so we want to make sure that every school in the district has access to the same V vetted contracted vendors where they can get great pricing for office supplies and then Vision connection is related reled to financial stability and operation Excellence I will take any questions if you haven't any questions I I have the same question I'm sorry office so this is the artist formerly known as Office Depot um how is Office Depot 30% MBE 7% wbe so those are the actuals so as we St ated earlier all our contracts have aspirational goals right so in this case Office Depot's goals are 30% M and 7% w we work with the vendor to identify subcontractors there are minority or women-owned businesses and the actuals is what Office Depot has actually paid for the subcontractors so in this case they are up to 33 and a half% minority they're a little shy of our goal they're at 4.5 with the woman-owned businesses this contract creates a marketplace right it's in our um Marketplace in our Oracle system but they identify suppliers that deliver to Office Depot that then delivers to the schools okay yeah and you'll have info on that and they in the board report all our board reports list all these subcontractors there are minority and women owned so when you see the board reports you'll see the partners that Office Depot has on this contract great thank you anything else I think you're free to go thank you very much all righty almost there at lunchtime assistant secretary board members we will we will continue with Finance Finance items numbers nine and 10 we will begin with item number nine resolution levying property taxes and authorizing and directing the filing of a controller's certificate item number 10 is resolution authorizing the issuance of educational purposes tax anticipation warrants and notes hi good afternoon uh board members staff and audience I'm Wally stock the district Treasurer and uh I have these next two items to present to you so the first item number nine is the resolution levying the property taxes and directing the filing of a controller certificate for fiscal year 20125 for school and capital Improvement purposes of the Chicago Board of Education and what I will say about this is that the fy2 operating budget identifies 3 85 billion in property taxes to balance our revenues and expenditures so what we're presenting to the board is the legal document in the form of our annual property tax resolution that we must approve and file with cook and DuPage counties in order to receive the property taxes that support our budget property taxes are our largest source of Revenue they represent approximately 50 % of all the revenue that we receive to support our operations across the district so without this Levy we would be significantly short of all the revenues that are needed to support our fiscal year 25 budget so again the levy is it was it was approved uh it was part of the fy2 budget and this is the second part of it which you have to formally approve the document to file at the county and to break it down a little bit further it consists of several parts um there's a teacher pension Levy and that is $584 million there's a workman's compensation Levy and that is approximately $85 million there is a capital Improvement tax levy and that's approximately $2.6 million and then there is the educational purposes Levy itself and it's 3 bli 168 million roughly and then all together again that Levy is $3.85 eight billion the educational Levy being the largest largest part at that 3168 billion uh it allows us to pay all our teacher salaries all our staff salaries clean and maintain our buildings keep our information technology systems up and running just like you heard in the previous presentation um and then pay for all our vendors like and you heard in the previous presentation as well that that do work across the district and all the things that we need that are CPS so they all support our education Mission primarily that that Ed fund Levy is is the Workhorse of the levy itself so um again the levy is needed today because our revenues to support operations are limited and we don't have any other mechanism to increase levies we can ask the state continuously to try to increase increase our our revenues but the state we're at the state's Mercy this is what they will do this is our really our only lever that we can pull um so the levy I think what's also important to understand is that the levy that's requested today is is capped this is how we commonly talk about it it's capped um and it's it's by a law called the property tax extension limitation law that goes by the acronym pel PT l l and and what what that does is it limits the increase to the lesser of 5% or the rate of inflation whichever is less so they look at last year's Levy and they look at existing property and they look at that Consumer Price Index and then that's what they will ultimately do a calculation on next year sometime in about June and they will finalize the levy so you're requesting this amount and it will be finally determined by Cook County next year but we do carefully consider the ability to request and what it is that we're requesting and we try to balance the overall needs of what it is that we're doing with CPS we look at obviously the budget was crafted first um and then the property tax levy is part of that and we we we are looking to do what we are allowed to do with inflation um and and what is what is best for the overall uh purpose of the district and our and our financial ability okay questions yes so you did nine and 10 or was that just nine that was just nine um and I can I'll go on 10 that's fine now I I have a finish 10 and then we no I have a question on nine yes um just two quick questions one is what is the interest rate that is tied to this so that would probably be more aligned to question or to item 10 there is no there is no interest rate associated with this so again we are just asking the county to Levy 3858 billion doll in property taxes on all of the city of Chicago and then pass that money back to the board of Ved so that we can operate okay and then the second so we'll park that question we'll come back to that one are there normally funds untapped that go under utilize at all no okay no I can confidently say that thank you all right you may proceed on with number 10 sure so uh the next item 10 everybody knows here excuse me okay too many pages um so the the next item is this resolution to approve and authorize educational purposes tax anticipation notes which go by the acronym Tans TS uh in the amount not to exceed 1.25 billion for cash flow purposes in fiscal year 2025 and and so on this item um to recap it the cash balance in our operating fund bank account that pays the majority of all our bills all our bills at the end of the year it continues to not be large enough so we ended fiscal year 24 we're not quite done with the audit yet but we know the numbers uh we ended fiscal year 24 with $66 million of cash in the bank so if you look at the size of our budget in fiscal year 25 that was three days worth of cash three days at the end of the year June 30th so property taxes are the largest source of Revenue but we only receive them two times in the year so we if if you own property in this in the city in Cook County you you probably get a tax bill maybe it's paid by your mortgage but you probably still get it in the mail and you know that they they come in this the spring they're typically due in February and then the second bill is due in August so we need to maintain cash flow for operations all 12 mon once of the year but we only get 50% of our Revenue at two times of the year and so the Tans borrowings help us bridge that Gap so when we don't have the property taxes coming in in may we can draw on a tan and then we can make payroll so that's what this essentially does the the bottom line with the Tans is that we we definitely wouldn't be able to make payroll on a consistent basis throughout the year and we would be able to make our vendor payments in FY 24 we looked at at the statistics here 60% of our payrolls were funded by Tans well how do I know that because I had Tans outstanding and I had you it was the only reason I had cash in the bank was because I had Tans drawn so 60% of the payrolls again were made because our cash position was negative and we needed Tans to fund that so you you've inherited this in a way right so just want to make that clear um but you know the future is bright um so we all have it in our hands to be able to mold um but since 2014 we've been doing this process so um this is our 11th consecutive year of doing this process so um as we as we struggle through all the things that we've heard today um this is really the back stop of being able to do those things right um and so uh as part of the tax levy this is associated with the tax levy so that educational purpose tax levy that's what these Tans are repaid from and with the approval of the tax levy today and with the approval of the Tans um then we will file those documents at the county we will be able to have the the tax revenues that we we we need in in 25 and then we'll be able to negotiate with lending institutions in order to put the Tans together and uh uh board member Gardner you asked about the interest rate and I think that's that's a great question so we work very hard to get the lowest interest rate possible on our all our loans um most of our bonds that we sell are sold in the public we have a Bonafide offering period where we advertise for sale and we take bids from investors and we negotiate to try to get the lowest rates um the bonds are a little different than the Tans um there's a select group of people that we can actually go to to get the Tans being the third or the fourth however you look at the math what day of the week it is largest school district we a very large school district in the United States so there's not a lot of large major institutions that have the ability to lend over a billion dollars to us so with the relationships that we've developed and with the information that's available we go and we we talk to the large Banks and we ask them for information about how and what the rates will be so that's yet to be finalized but what I can say is through a lot of the discl Ure a lot of the transparency that we've been doing um you know we're also frankly coming off a period where we've had I believe it's um seven consecutive years of financial over performance um a lot of that was due to the Esser money that we received so that just means our that just means our revenues exceeded our expenditures right just a little little bit little accounting right but um that's led us to basically be able to push interest rates down so there were points in time where we were back in in 200 15 and 16 and I was here I wasn't always up making the presentation but I was always in the background doing this work and there were not a lot of people that would lend to us because of how bad our financial situation looked right but we've been able to talk to lenders this year and we have uh kind of a a group of perspective lenders that are you know once if this is approved and we'll be able to talk to them but um and I'm I'm being long-winded about your question right but I want to I think it's important to understand the background because I can quote you a number and then it it doesn't mean as much right so the majority of what we pay is based off of an index and the index we don't control right just like uh you're you're if you have a outstanding balance on your credit card and you say what's what's prime is a is a common way of an index so we have an index that we we go to so this is a major index that all uh borrowers would go to and that index itself and we we pay a percentage of the index which is standard but that index itself that percentage is somewhere between four and 5% and then we have to pay a credit spread based on what they assess our risk is on top of that so overall our rate has been hovering somewhere in the recent years with where the interest rates have been somewhere in the four to 5 per. and what that translates to is what's information that was presented on the slide so the cost of these borrowings and the cost of financing 60% of your payrolls is almost $9 million a year so that's because we don't end the the year with enough cash in the bank to be able to make it through the the 60 days or so until the property taxes are due we must borrow that money all those periods of time we're borrowing that money and it's outstanding and we're borrowing and recycling that loan pay you know upwards of maybe two billion dollars during the course of the year that cost us $9 million and that's at a low too I will say because it's been at a much higher Point than that previously when our credit was a little bit weaker but I can honestly say that we're pushing as much as we can we're doing what we can do to keep that rate as low as we can if the federal government neglects to uphold its obligation does the district have a plan to maintain Service uh how would in in in terms of the federal government um stopping its plan to do could you be more specific about what the federal government would happen to for example the abolishment of the Department of Education right would this authorized borrowing be a part of the cps's plan to maintain service um so and let me I I'll give you because I know we all probably are hungry and so by approving The Authority the board is doing its part if we approve this Authority and I'm saying will you do your part meaning will the CEO do his part if we give give a approval to this year so the way that we look at the purpose of the borrowings are that they're for items that were in the budget so we have to construct a and I'm getting in the weeds here I know but we have to construct a cash flow of what all our expenditures are on a weekly basis and they're all based on what was approved in the budget and the ability to pay them is based on the revenues that were included in the budget so if revenues are delayed but the expenditures come to play and we don't have money in the bank then the Tans will be there to help us bridge that Gap but only for fiscal year 25 so the Tans can only be used for things that were authorized in the budget and those expenditures and that's primarily what they will be do but as you heard me say the majority of the use of the Tans is for payroll because payroll is our B biggest expense and 60% of the payrolls were financed by T Mr Thomas uh am I right in in thinking that there's a little bit of scoop and toss here in terms of restructuring the debt kind of pushing it down the road that's the first question and the second one uh in anticipation of additional taxes or tax dollars coming from the city would that change the financial picture at all and terms of what you had pass on hand sure I'm glad to answer both those questions and I think um the first question that you bring up with this this term that's Loosely thrown around scoop and toss poor choice of words no no no it's it's it's the actual terminology that's that's what's used so that's a that's a fair way to describe but I think what gets sometimes Lost in Translation is how it actually applies to a particular situation so scoop and toss typically is associated with your long-term debt and nothing that we have here before you right now in is is long-term debt so we're not doing this is no authorization to do anything with long-term debt this is no authorization to do anything with the the discussion that's been out there in the public with the high interest loan for $300 million that's got nothing to do with this this is really just short-term borrowing for cash flow and liquidity primarily to make payroll and it's repaid how and it's repaid from the property taxes the educational purposes property tax levy which is the other item that you're approving thank you oh Mr fanis yes not sure if this is your your scope but have you looked at um is this is this something that that you often do look at all districts to see uh how they um maybe something that we like that we can incorporate here in our district uh like you mentioned 50% of the revenue is from the from the property taxes right from the and so like for example digital advertisement or other other instruments that can help us to add some uh dollars to to our to our bucket if you will does that make sense yeah absolutely um you know what I will say is you look at the size of our budget and how large it is and um we're certainly always interested in all types of ideas that we can to en enhance the revenue that we have but um you know the way Educational Funding is constructed in Illinois um CPS isn't alone in that 50% of our revenues are from property taxes and all throughout the United States property taxes are kind of the Workhorse of of education and it's also you know kind of the the topic of conversation of all politicians to say that it shouldn't be but it's hard to come up with a solution so um to be more direct about your point you know I've I've participated in a a limited amount of the CTU negotiations and I've worked with some of the members and talked about Revenue ideas and we've talked about uh those things that you just bring up with digital uh ads and things like that which have started to be rolled out in California so I think that's a work in progress and we welcome the opportunity to sit down with our partners and talk through that some more and see what other options are there thank you all righty this concludes the first portion of the board report on the public agenda we will now move into a short recess can I get a board member Blaze do you have a motion I move that the board take a 20 minute recess second okay all right thank you I will proceed with a roll call Tom board member Thomas did you second yes no jannis okay thank you I did hear it thank you okay I will proceed with a roll call member Pope yes member blae yes member jannis yes member Bautista yes member Thomas yes vice president Gardner yes this motion has been adopted six Ys zero Nays this meeting will now go into a 20 minute recess thank goodness e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e idential board reports to be considered after December 12th 2024 regular meeting after each item is presented board members will have the opportunity to ask their questions and make comments before Pro proceeding to the next item on the agenda board members we we will continue with the following Talent item number 11 authorize a new agreement with share care operating Company Inc good afternoon board members afternoon CE MERS Carla kiring the executive director of healthcare and benefits in the talent office I hope everyone's doing well today yes thank you uh before we jump into the contract item there's something like this is something in the talent office that we've been thinking a lot about as if fits within our five-year vision and strategic plan supporting healthy schools and students I mean I'm sorry staff um the past few years you know CPS employees along with Educators Nationwide have experienced heightened emotional psychological and physical challenges as a result of navigating the pandemic and its aftermath we've observed an increase in mental health challenges absenteeism burnout and emerging chronic conditions that affect an employees overall health and productivity as you know the education sector is a giving profession and often times staff place the needs of students in school communities above their own well-being for these reasons we recently launched the B well employee wellness program that offers a pleora of resources to support employees wherever they are on their Wellness Journey we're currently using multiple communication channels like I uh email and our Wellness Champions at the school to help build more awareness and promote our programs and our efforts are boosting participation but there's still room for improvement um however the most important and common recurring thing that employees have expressed is how difficult it is to understand and navigate their benefits um I I think we can all agree that the healthcare landscape is very complex um there are numerous providers benefits and coverage options to choose from in the current state our employees have to interface with multiple systems and sites to review all of their benefit plans navigating this can be overwhelming and frustrating which leads to over or underutilization of benefits or And Delay care and ultimately suboptimal health outcomes and so that's why we're recommending this new agreement with share care for a comprehensive and personalized navigation solution which includes benefits navigation a well-being platform and live advocacy services this was advertised and solicited through a competitive RFP and we're recommending an initial threeyear term agreement that will begin on April 1st of 2025 through March 31st of 2028 for 5.1 million with two oneyear options to renew for a total of 5 years the prime vendor will utilize a minority owned subcontractor for the coner component of the contract and the MBE goals are at 39% which is about 22.6% addressable spend and that's pretty significant considering this is really a an application it's technology um this is a comprehensive solution again that will serve as a centralized platform to simplify the health Journey for employees as well as their adult dependents it streamlines all benefit programs and resources in one app with a secure single sign on instead of multiple applications or websites for all of their benefits which gives an employees a holistic view of their health status allowing them to really take action the solution includes three three main components a personalized benefits Hub and navigation that's really based on eligibility it's fully integrated benefits plans and programs and services from rcps Custom programs including our B well uh well-being program as well as a share care library and other third-party ancillary uh benefits that we offer um it's customized to meet the users specific needs that means their preferred language Ang addressing gaps in care managing conditions and social determinance of health so it can address unique non-medical needs such as food in security housing support Financial stressors health literacy and transportation just to name a few helping to improve over the overall well-being and productivity the well-being platform is really equipped with a Content Library that is robust and it includes digital Therapeutics videos contents clinical proven self-guided lifestyle programs addressing things like tobacco sensation mindful mindful eating a weight loss program diabetes prevention anxiety and on and on and on and it really helps us manage our whole population of healthy emerging risk and high-risk participants the live advocacy and navigation is really the bang for the buck because that's where the ROI comes into play and that's a personal coner so it provides claim support open enrollment and benefits coverage preventive benefits and programs the explanation of your benefits Pharmacy dental vision leaves disability Behavioral Health Community Resources navigation all of this stuff wrapped up into one solution and so all of this really improves the health outcomes and lowering the overall cost of care for not only the employees but for the district um and the ROI speaking of that is pretty significant it is validated through an independent third party actuary company um that projects that in year one we should see a onet to1 Roi in year two a one to one and a half and year three one to two so we are really making more making earning back money significantly by year three of people using this app the equity Focus is that it advances Health Equity by providing users regardless of their socioeconomic status location primary language with accessible personalized information and resources it enables individuals to easily find affordable care options understand their benefits and connect with a coner for Support Services ultimately reducing disparities in Health Access and outcomes the vision connection is connectedness and well wellbeing we deeply value the well-being of our employees and Educators as their health is essential for them to provide the highest quality service to our students and Community by prioritizing their holistic health we're ensuring a thriving environment where everyone can perform at their best and the implications if this is not approved is that employees and their dependents will continue to face numerous challenges while navigating the intricacies of their benefits which lead leads to higher costs and again suboptimal care and CPS will continue to experience higher health care costs and less ability to manage those high cost claimants through targeted supports the key performance indicators we have a lot of performance guarantees and and fees at risk um provided by the vendor we have engagement metrics operation metrics our obviously our our implementation has metrics assigned to a client and member satisfaction and all of our fees for the live advocacy Services which is really a huge customer service component so they really do all of the work they really help can do scheduling for the appoint uh for the uh members help to find providers for them dispute claims work through the appeals process all the painful stuff that people just really find um difficult to navigate through their benefits and what ends up happening is they just disengage they don't do anything a nursa sets in and then they wait until they have problems and then that's when they seek care and that is the most costly care that you that that you know you end up dealing with so this solution is really very Innovative um we've in the research that I've done and I've done some reference checks it is definitely a game Cher in terms of driving engagement and helping um members make wise decisions about their Healthcare voices I will open it up for questions member Pope yeah I have a question what kind of hours will this service be available because one of the things that struck me when I went from an office job for the federal government to being a teacher is you can't make calls you can't get callbacks from people and things like that so will this be available in the late afternoon and and evening I believe the hours are 6:00 AM to 8:00 pm Central Time and they're also open on weekends okay thank you so much any other question thank you very much thank you thank you before we move on just real quick I just wanted to yeah my plan was to introduce our e excellent uh executive director of healthcare and benefits but I do want you all to know that um that Carla's work on B well there's been a lot of like discussion about teacher attendance and employee Wellness Carla and her team have led this ambitious uh new um initiative to begin really addressing it we believe that this particular contract this particular app is a critical part of that but I just wanted to be able to publicly shout out Carla for all the work that she's doing to improve employee wellness and to think about how do we how do we best position our employees to uh to serve young people really effectively so thank you Carla for all of your hard work yes I'm sure you did great yes I'm GNA second that shout out too thank you so much so only only the teachers ma'am sorry more sorry only the teachers uh have will have access or is this all CPS all CPS employees okay thank you you're welcome all right thank you for that again assistant secretary please board members we will continue with the following facil item number 12 amend agreements with various vendors for the purchase of maintenance repair and operation supplies and personal protective equipment good afternoon board good afternoon board members my name is Caleb rberg I'm the director of facilities management operations I'm here with Chief Hansen we are here today to recommend the authorization of an amendment to add one more vendor for the purchase of maintenance repair and operation supplies also known as mro the company we will be adding is global Equipment Company Incorporated doing business as Global industrial m is the get closer to the mic I feel it yes ma'am is that better okay thank you Mr supplies are tools pumps filters everything that you would expect to find at some of the big box stores um and currently we have contracts with Fastenal grain or sorry Fastenal Northern Safety and saf this would add one more which would allow us to be more competitive with pricing to look at various vendors through the CPS Marketplace to ensure if we're selecting a wrench it this system lets us know if it is cheaper with one of the other contracted vendors so this will just add another person to the pool so that we have more competitive pricing um this does not change the not to exceed it is staying at the 27.5 million for the term the historical spend are actuals the supposed spend is the allocation of the not to exceed the diversity goals are 30% MBE and 7% dbe um if this was not to be approved you know we would have fewer vendors to try to get competitive pricing uh this ties to equity through resource Equity ensuring that we have what we need um at the best pricing to get the work done for our students and staff it's connected to the vision through the 21st Century Learning environment the to schols and products that we purchase through M vendors allow us to upkeep the schools by doing work inhouse rather than hiring external vendors to do the repairs um and thank you for the consideration for this item thank you um any questions you guys are free thank you again thank you so much assistant secretary okay board members we will continue with the following Capital items numbers 13 and 14 we will begin with item number 13 amend the second final renewal agreement with Bureau foras technical assessments LLC and item number 14 is authorize the renewal of a lease agreement with the Catholic bishop of Chicago uh good afternoon my name is v d I am the executive director for Capital planning and construction and I'm joined by Chief facilities officer Ivan Hansen and we are recommending the board approve at the December uh 2024 board meeting uh the ex a 10-month extension and board authority amendment to Bureau Forest technical assessments LLC better known as bbta to us uh to provide banal facility Assessment Services this vendor performs detailed assessments of every facility in the board's portfolio within the state mandated 2-year period including special assessments of other facil ities within the CPS system these assessments are used to inform and prioritize Capital Improvement budgets uh for the district specifically uh they provide validation of data uh collected from previous assessments as well as capturing and assessing any missing new or remodeled portions of our facilities uh they provide information on the current condition of our roofs masonry Windows mechanical electrical and plumbing system systems uh our fire protection systems every interior uh space uh classrooms gymnasiums Etc and in addition to the site including our turf fields play Lots parking lots um they also uh look at facility performance standards they look at access accessibility our ventilation systems and building square footage um these this vendor performs these services for on a two cycle and they are in the process now of completing the 2023 2024 assessments which will be available um in the early spring of 2024 and then Poise to begin next summer uh of 2025 the next round of Assessments so we finish one assessment we post them and we go right into uh the next round of Assessments and this is so that we can stay compliant with the uh required the state legislative requirement for B anyal assessments per the Illinois State Law Public Act 096-b Authority is for a total of not to exceed $7 million for the 2-year and 10-month term uh which would start well we already renewed it so it started May 1st of 2024 and it was initially scheduled to end uh April 30th of 2026 but we want to extend it so that they would be able to compl complete the next round of Assessments um the vendor who we are currently using using was selected by uh bya competitive selection solicitation process and they include affirmative action goals of 30 and uh 7even for M and wbe support and um overall participation since the contract's Inception has been about 38 and 23 so they are are uh tracking good for on um that uh field past performance has been satisfactory and so the requested board authority for this vendor is consistent with previous uh vendors board authority necessary to complete the volume of work uh required to complete the facilities assessments again uh the vendor would is again poised to complete our current round and start the next round in the summer of 2025 uh concurrently with that process we will be issuing a new RFP solicitation in 2025 for the following uh assessments that would be for the 2026 2027 I think 2026 2027 so while we're while they're starting the new this next round of Assessments we will be doing the RFP to get a a new vendor selected uh for the next uh round of Assessments after that um the equity Focus for this is resource Equity because it ensures that uh we are prioritizing work that aligns with the needs and uh of the district based on the current condition of the facilities and the vision connection is for our 20 21st Century Learning environments and Equitable funding because this way we know where the money needs to be spent and we do it accordingly um thank you so much for that I have a question about um the experience working with buau here Rita's technical assist do they have an acronym this is this is when we need an acronym bbta bbta um like have have you found that they're like catching some things that might have been missed like their assessment the work that they've been doing um are you seeing like it like its Effectiveness I want to I want to hear like about like maybe some things that they caught that you were surprised about um that you're dealing with you know I mean obviously we've seen all these pictures on the news about like black mold and as Festus and falling ceiling panels and uh people having to go to the hospital because of the the facil you know I'm talking about specifically George Washington High School um the incidents that they have had so just wondering about like the assessments that they're doing in the buildings like are you finding that they're effective you been surprised by any of their findings um because we're about to double down and extend their contract so I just want to make sure that they're we're getting something out of it like beneficial and and what is that um how is that looking can you talk to us a little bit about that and I I would say that we are getting it so this this contract started originally in 2019 so this current set of V this vendor has been doing the assessment since 2019 so I think that with the cont ity of them doing the past two assessments yes they have been catching things that may not have been caught previously because prior to that it had been years since we had the assessments done and so there was kind of a little bit of a catchup to to do and they have been uh uh documenting those things and I will say that by doing them every two years like this we are seeing where in some cases things maybe are deteriorating at a faster rate than we might have expected due to uh the weather patterns you know especially whe it relates to exterior masonry uh or or or how you know our heating Cycles are those types of things so we do see they do document those things and those things get updated and then that affects the uh assessments for those particular schools which also affects their facility condition assessment and so if things need to be prioritized they're letting us know that can you give me some examples I'd love to hear because if they're doing these assessments but we're seeing these conditions you know um and these reports um from from um like teachers and and parents and students about issues like mold and um asbest and other things like that are they catching these things so so mold I mean if we if we hear about mold obviously we're addressing that right away right so that's that's that's something that we would be addressing right away um and it would also possibly get get caught when we are having our uh assessments so the the the uh assessments for asbest and things like those because those assessments are on a I think a three-year cycle for the facilities teams has a three-year assessment of cycle for um uh asbest right and then also they have a every six months they update that in between the three months assess three three year at overall assessment so if something changes they update the the the the system of record for uh asbest right so that we know if something is changing there and that's not necessarily what they're doing they they'll know the condition of the tile because these assessments are not destructive right these are visual inspections that they that they go out and do at all the schools and then they work with the engineers for the more technical stuff uh soliciting information from them as far as how the systems are operating so these aren destructive tests that they are doing so they're not necessarily digging behind walls and things like that for these assessments they are looking at at this and then comparing into what they were previous yeah I guess I just wanted to hear maybe some stories or some examples of like things that they have caught um yeah so again it's just as as Vinnie said these are these are really for the facility um assets with the roofs mechanical pieces like that items that the benefit of the same company doing these over the the last uh five years is that they will come in and look at your facade for example and they will say that this is a you know an immediate need or you have a long you have a few years to make the repairs we can see the deterioration come sooner as they're going out to check them again so this there has been times where they've said yeah you know what we need to address this facade sooner than later we thought we had five years out of it we really need to get into a capital plan now to to do that when you're talking about the other uh the the pieces that you're referring to with and some of the environmental side of it that's not what these are doing this company's doing they're really looking at the assets of a building and going through and identifying the boilers the air conditioning unit the rooftop units and checking the condition of those looking at the roofing the roof items fire alarm system security alarm the security systems and checking those items and document them so we understand what's number one is in the building and the operational uh of that of those systems in the building the one nice thing I will say is that they added to is they've they've since enhanced our Capital plan with identifying um we had playgrounds with a lot of the black mats they were not Ada accessible so they went through and identified to say we have a good playground at this school this one still has um the black mat it's not Ada accessible so we went through and actually targeted through the CEO to to have now that every school after this this next summer every school will have an ADA accessible playground we will not have black mats at any school so they were able to flag those as they were doing these over the years there there's items like that that were come that would raised up to see the restroom category we have now in the capital plan we're now every Elementary School gets a girls and a boys restroom and a a gender neutral single user restroom and a a staff restroom renovated um in the building those are things that got flagged from these facility assessments um that were added to a capital plan that that enhanced what our programming was okay thank you I just wanted to say um because you know the back in the day when we used to have a janitor that was hired by the principal and they were there so I just want to give a shout out to Mr G who who was the you know who I'm talking about who retired from CPS he was a janitor at George Washington High School and also his brothers who were also janitors at other other schools um and so if you're if you're listening thank you for your service um when we had that system where we had like one janitor in the building that would be um assessing you know these kind of things and making like the requests for improvements and things like that I'm just wondering about like the cost effectiveness of um we we went away from that and started to use the you know the different contractors to do this work so it just seems like a lot of spending um and I'm just wondering if there has been any thoughts about going back to the old way so I'll answer that in two ways number one is this brings consistency across the district right so it's the same eyes looking at the building so we understand what's going on South north east and west in the building so we understand where we compare our district together so that's where they can create the tears of where the need comes in we we are bringing back shout out to Washington High School again because they did in a new crowd Comfort they were the custodians that won the awards um right Char they they were good with that one so there's there's still a good group of custodians there um but what we are doing now with the crowd Comfort is putting that tool back in the hands of the custodians where they're not only checking off the rooms that they're cleaning if they identify something like that now that we may not see or we may not be in in a room on a day-to-day basis they can identify that In Crowd comfort and that gets pushed up to the system so it it is back in the eyes of that so we we we agree we totally agree and now that's back in the hands of the custodians to do that which we've rolled out throughout the district um this year so that is that is is something we have brought back so it's a great Point um and we are moving that back so that's a you know two different things day-to-day level and then this is District level every two years member pop yeah so s right I uh I am wondering about things particularly like lead I know I have a personal experience where my granddaughter's lead levels were elevated are they inspecting for lead at all in any way when they do this that's question one let me finish okay uh and also in terms of reports is there a way that teachers and staff at a school can make a report if they see for example what they think might be black mold growing or if they uh are concerned about white flaky stuff and is it as best of you know things like that is there a channel for people to make reports and then when you do these assessments how could we as a board or the public find out about the results and the problem areas and those are great questions uh number one is these are these reports here are strictly for facility items we do have the environmental reports that that go out as part of the the State statue separate group these are Engineers that are mechanical engineers Structural Engineers Roofing Consultants that go through and are looking at these particular items in a building we do have the other environmental reports um be happy to sit down with you guys as a group to run through kind of how that works it um our requirements by the state to do those tests and where those are found um the other piece of that is um the question of can the the teachers or staff do that two ways to do that one is through a workorder system with their building engineer um they can put that right through that system also with our crowd Comfort now we're working to get that back in the hands to do that because now it's documented those reports can be pulled on an ongoing basis to to do that so yes we are putting it back so if some it's you know we we we can't be everywhere all the time so the more eyes out there telling us what's going on we want that so that's we are getting those reports back done that way okay thank you very much s secretary board members we will continue with the following Board office item number 15 rescent policies board rules and 4-1 and adopt new board rule chapter one bylaws you skip 14 skip 14 oh did we skip I apologize you're doing 14 yes I just want to um thank you rushi for that the all of the these assessments are available on the schools websites and our facilities website so every time we do them we update them uh these will be updated again on the website sometime in the spring those go through there so they're they're accessible to the school staff the public whoever wants to go and look at the assessments for the building yes we'll this latest round the past round is up there now then the latest round will be available in the spring Ian are they doing the charter schools too have information on the Catholic schools no we do all of our uh the Catholic schools that house Charter Schools no that's what I mean no no we we do not okay I'm going to go ahead and repeat item number 14 is authorized the renewal of a lease agreement with the Catholic bishop of Chicago good afternoon members of the board my name is Steven Stoltz director of real estate for the facilities and capital department and I'm joined here today by Chief Ivan Hansen we recommend the board authorize the renewal of the lease agreement with the Catholic bishop of Chicago doing business as arch dases of Chicago to permit the continued use of various School sites leased from the arch dasis CPS has leased School sites from the arch dases since 1999 and the board approved renewals in 2002 2005 and 2015 the number of sites that cps's leased has fluctuated over the years years at the time of the 2003 renewal CPS occupied 24 sites that were owned by the arch dases in 2005 that number had increased to 28 sites by the time of the 2015 renewal the number of sites had been reduced to 19 sites that were leased from the arch dasis today CPS occupies space in 10 Arch dases buildings to accommodate the space needs of nine schools including Velma Thomas prek tomman Ashburn peace and education High School Chavez Bridge Fairfield Academy Hansen Park branch and peek prek CPS pays rent to the arch dasis at a rate of approximately $10.50 per square foot on an annual basis and reimburses the arch dasis for utilities at locations where they remain in the landlord's name base rent will increase at a rate of 35% per year throughout the term of the lease the parties may agree to lower rent for a particular location and in the event that one of the school sites is being transferred to another owner CPS will have the flexibility to offer a higher rental rate to secure occupancy for that particular site total rent including utility reimbursements are estimated to be $4,850 th000 for the first year of the lease renewal funding for subsequent lease years is subject subject to budget appropriation and approval if approved the lease renewal will commence on July 1st 2025 and will end on June 30th 2035 if the need for additional space arises CPS will have the ability to add additional sites owned by the arch dasis subject to budget appropriation conversely the lease permits CPS to vacate a site if there's no longer a need for lease space to support a school space needs the lease will contain a mutual termination provision and either party May terminate the lease with respect to any of the sites by providing notice of termination to the other party by October 31st of Any Given lease year with termination to be effective on June 30th to calendar years later please note I would like to call out uh call your attention to a discrepancy in the slide that's in front of you it misstates the termination notice period and what is in the slide that you see with the June uh December 31st termination notice date with termination to be effective June 30th that was our prior termination provision and the arch dices has agreed agreed to a longer termination notice period so that we can adequately plan in the event that any of our sites are terminated the parties may also mutually agree to change the termination notice period for an effective date of termination on a case-by casee basis and is memorialized in the lease riter for a specific site that concludes my presentation for this item and I'll be happy to answer any questions Hi how are you so are we signing 10year leases with the arch dases for all of these sites yes so this miss this Master Lease would include all 10 sites it'd be for a 10-year term okay and then they can they they can terminate made the lease with us with six months notice no we're up to a year now yeah now it's extended to 20 months 20 right so by October 31st of any lease year if they provide notice to us then we have until June 30th two years later 20 months later it's not a full 24 months but two calendar years and can we cancel with them yes it's a mutual it's mutual got it it's the same time frame yes the same uh time notice Provisions my understanding was that CPS was were did you used to do year byye leases no so this the the current lease we have it's a a master lease which governs the general Provisions for the 10 different sites now each of the 10 different sites has a specific lease writer the lease writer spells out the specific space within the building that's being used square footage as I mentioned some sites Utilities in our are in our name and some they're in the arch dases name so the lease writers spell out all those specific circumstances and are those annual leases no so they're they're the 10-year term um but again what does the the flexibility here is that the 10 riters are they're while they're governed by the Master Lease they're all independent of each other so if one of the sites were terminated we would be secure at the remaining nine sites and there's I'm just I just got must have gotten bad information so there's no sites where CPS is renting from the arch dasis for um an annual lease that we have to renew every year not currently no interesting we we do have perhaps other leases not with the arch dases in our portfolio for shorter term and those are generally things like a parking lot for staff at the school and then do you would you have information on what's the name of the school BMA Thomas um on what's going on with that negotiation and um sure um I could give a brief overview of what's going on on that site um thank you so the parish that St that Velma Thomas is located is called St Maurice and St Maurice is uh the parish has clo or the parish is still there but the congregation is no longer in existence so they're no longer an active congregation at that site as do you know when they stopped doing church I'm not sure when the services were last H but I can see if we can get that information no worries thank you um but in August of this year the arch dases listed the site for sale in August of this year yeah okay bear with me and just note this when did St Maurice close thank you member Thomas so um so Velma Thomas was put up for sale and we understand currently that there are a few interested parties we even heard an unsubstantiated rumor today I've reached out to the arch dases to confirm but they have yet to confirm that that the rumors that a contract has been signed with a buyer and what we heard is that the buyer intends on keeping us at the site that is one thing that we've had long discussions with Arch dases about we are concerned um about what will happen with a new buyer so the arch dases has committed to us that they do not intend on selling to a buyer that would terminate our lease the buyers that they are in conversations with have committed to keeping us there at least for the next school year through June 30th of 2026 and potentially longer the arch dases will put us in direct communication with the purchaser once their contract is signed but we have at at this point have not yet had any direct communication with the intended purchaser and and since Ivan's here Ivan can you speak to what condition that building is in sure and just to clarify my earlier statement um I don't I don't know if I understood you correctly but we do our facility assessments at any of our our owned or lease facilities just not the charter so I just want to be clear that we we don't do facility assessments at this Charter but any of our leases we do do the facility assessments so um Velma Thomas has a lease we do do we do facility th great okay thanks that's where I was going with it anyway thank so yeah so um it is it's a an older building um the every space is is utilized in there um Capital work on that side of it um comes or the maintenance work if you will will come from uh a shared expense with us and and the arch dasis if there's a need for mechanical work real fleeks items like that um it it comes at a a split cost between us um it is a it is a older building that just hasn't been updated in years um as some of our in our own portfolio are um that's great if we could get some info on that I I know some of the families there were saying they they were concerned that the numbers that CPS was saying it would cost x amount of dollars to repair it that's why we're not buying it they were concerned that those numbers weren't real they said they asked for who um did the appraisal or assessment what company blah blah blah and they they couldn't get that information but I'm just assuming maybe it wasn't in that meeting because according to you right it gets it gets checked out every couple of years every two years correct every two years so is can we get um um a report or you're saying it's online yeah but we can pull it for you I mean can you pull it and I can send it to some folks that would be outstanding yeah thank you yes member Thomas um you answered part of a question I was in the shared expense what's the ratio of of how that when you look at a facility and it's it's in need of repair how how is that cost how do they break down that cost it's 5050 uh and just to clarify when the arch dasis may want to sell a property they're only considering uh a purchaser that is going to uh buy the property subject to the existing lease yes yes that's correct okay is there how if if if the arch dasis is selling it they do they let us know and do we have like first wrer refusal uh so do they I I think they they do tell us that they're they're selling a building and on that side of it um have we ever bought a church or anything we CPS yes we have or like a school Catholic School a Catholic School yes we have we have in the past in the past not anything recent that we could think of so yes we have in the last 18 months yeah and we don't like this site sorry did we consider to purchasing this location do you know yes we have considered it you know again this is a we work with our officer portfolio of where the the assets and the and the the seats are needed um so those recommendations come from a a group that that talk through that to to to where there's pieces that are needed for that got it so recommendations from who you said so we work with uh on the education side with officer portfolio on um where there's see or in early childhood in this situation of where the this where they need spaces throughout the city and that's where we look to find areas they need to yeah I I understand that as a general approach however the curriculum and structure of Elma Thomas has the only dual immersion uh bilingual preschool program of its kind kind of I mean there may be preschool seats somewhere not too far away but they don't necessarily meet the same educational needs so how is how does that factor in in this case there was a and we were trying to address the situation of the sale pending and there wasn't much Clarity around who the arch dases was going to sell to what was the outcome of the sale so we were were planning or looking at options and exit option because we just didn't know now that we have more details around like what's actually going on they have a few buyers and they have a verbal commitment you know expressing that CPS will be there that's why we're initiating this lease um at least for next year and even longer term that's why we're doing the 10e to see if they sign off on that and if they they are DIY signs rate and if they happen to sell during that time then we'll be in contact with the new buyer to make sure that we can keep that same lease in place or it may be a situation where some of the terms may be renegotiated so that's still to be determined once we identify who this specific buyer is thank you do do we even maybe we should tell the arch dasis to check with us like see if we want to buy it first is that possible it would seem handy yeah easy like a win-win on both sides maybe right then they don't have to like actively seek a buyer maybe we get a deal for that or something and and alleviate some of the the crisis when you know everything up for exploration but you know I would be remiss if I didn't remind everyone that you know we did an educational facilities master plan um assessment throughout the entire district and and it's very clear that in order to get our buildings up to the to the status of pristine it it's going to cost us 14.4 billion so we're looking at all assets um to make sure that we repair them properly timely uh expeditiously and that's why we have to prioritize our repairs and so you know the purchase purchasing another building uh would be another asset that we would have to make sure that we oversee and maintain properly yeah I think to member popes Point some places are more special than others maybe or programs are need to be really considered before [Music] um you know we just got to think things through a little absolutely every every school is significantly important consideration your concern with the buildings and and and yours with the actual structures and the leases um but there's obviously lots of te years and so when you're going over things in your group like how to prioritize and who to who who to um which buildings to to focus on or programs I think we just we got to make sure that we there's a number of voices at the table um Community maybe Community Voices and and also um if there's a program there I I believe it's the there's one Early Education early childhood education bilingual program in CPS is that right dualem dual immersion bilingual tons of bil okay dual immersion so that's kind of special right and um so we should just think more about um maybe look step take a step back absolutely we always engage with u because we look at the buildings and we also engage portfolio or face Team U significantly important to make make sure that we engage the community and in this case we we we did and we will continue to do great thanks thank you thank you very much assistant secretary board members we will now continue with the following Board office item number 15 resend policies board rules and 4-1 and adopt new board rule chapter 1 bylaws Save The Best For Last hey um good afternoon board members uh my name is Lauren pet I use she her pronouns I am the Deputy Chief of Staff to the board and um I'm recommending that the board resend policy 101.1 policy 102.1 board rules chapters 1 two 3 and 4-1 and adopt new board rule chapter 1 board bylaws which includes the following sections the board board administrative rules board members board member expectations officers meetings meeting procedures committees and direct reports it's a lot the reason for this recommendation is that conducting a comprehensive review and restructuring of the existing board rules and policies related to board governance is necessary in order to ensure a smooth transition and implementation of the upcoming expanded board many of these rules and policies have not been updated in years While others need to be updated to be in alignment with recent updates to the Illinois school code while board governance is a niche space we were able to find uh thought partnership and feedback both internally specifically with uh law oig and audit and externally with the Illinois Association of school boards and the Council of great great City Schools to ensure that the new rules are comprehensive and will effectively guide and support the work of the new expanded board the equity focus is on Fair policies and systems the board office researched and consulted with various school districts and governance experts in order to ensure that our board governance policies are fair and aligned with best practices our connection to the vision is updating these board rules ensures that the board will be able to govern effectively and support the district in reaching the goals set forth in the Strategic plan if this recommendation is not approved the board will be out of compliance with the Illinois school code and will also not have the structures in place to govern effectively when we have that full 21 member board we received no comments during the public comment process however we have made changes to the prior draft um that was posted for public comment these changes are in response to ongoing feedback provided by the stakeholders that participated in the more in-depth Community engagement process um the draft that you have I just want to point this out um that draft does not reflect these changes because again you've heard from a few other policy owners due to the timing of the public comments period closing we weren't able to get those into you yet um but I will summarize those changes and then you'll receive the final version before the board meeting next week so most of the changes that we made are very very small the one major change is the removal of references to a process for censuring a board member this was something that we had opposed putting into the new board rules um but based on feedback that we got it seemed like it was Raising more questions than it was answering so we decided to remove that um if the new board feels it is necessary uh to center a board member it is still possible under Robert's Rules of Order so there is a process that exists to do this we didn't feel the need to then spell it out in the board rule um and several of our stakeholders had expressed concerns about including that in the board rules so we just removed it uh the office of the Inspector General requested a few explicit call outs in the board rules specifically around the district's reporting structure and access to file files and data by board members we added that we made updates to language Andor formatting for clarification um and ease of reading for example we changed the word monitoring to the word reporting um and the word unforeseen to unanticipated that's the majority of the changes that we made are like that uh final numbering was conducted and subsequently references were updated um we also added introductions to each board rule to just summarize what the board rules contain um and then we also made a handful of other grammatical updates um so that is it and I'm open to questions I think you're free to go okay thank you assistant secretary that is the last item on the agenda okay let's see okay board members this concludes the board reports on the public agenda are there any comments or questions on other items if not I do have some comments I okay so my comment president Gardner we do have the standard monthly reports on the next couple of slides right they will not be read but they will be they're on the screen now just wanted to point that out okay haven't received that thank you very much okay I'll double back to does anyone have any comments if not I'll go ahead I know it's a long day and we still have a long way to go but um before we move to Executive session I want to raise just two concerns uh Mr Martinez in your recent CPS emails you cited 10 billion doll and a staffing of 7,000 we have gotten updates both from your bargaining team and the negotiating team at CTU and neither say that those numbers are current have you not gotten updates uh from your bargaining team if you sec to answer that that's fine yeah so those those um those estimates were accurate board member as of that date and we still stand by that and we're now getting new you know new well we haven't gotten uh we're getting we're Hing to getting now new proposals that we're hopefully trying not to estimate okay okay um and again I'm going to just repeat that both your barg your bargaining team our so-called bargaining team and negotiating team as CTU said neither of those current numbers that um went out in the email are are accurate um in the email that was an update to to I'll let I'll let you I'm just finishing that are up an update to our school school Community um and then I'll give you the last question and you can answer that both of them together sir so we also we sent you a letter that this this is an urgent priority to us since the CTU has lowered their compensations from 9% to 6% and provided options and Pathways which all reflect reasonable movement to settlement can you please provide us with an explanation as to how you are moving the district towards settling this contract yeah so the so the first question uh board member it was it was actually our um negotiation group that put together that communication with our with our team so it wasn't done independently but that that went out you're talking about the emails that went out to the community right because that was like two weeks ago right right okay and and you guys are meeting every day the negotiating team meets right so things I'm just just I know the one the emails that I I've gotten copies of they're two weeks old so you know I'm just saying to you we've gotten updated information since then and so unless you're sending out a new email with updated information then was yeah so so board member again you know as of that email when it was sent it was accurate at that time yes it was put together by our negotiation team along with our finance team so it wasn't it wasn't done in any isolation since then uh to your point we re we have received some new information uh we are going to be discussing it in a close session item with you today yes and so and we are uh to your also another point you made which thank you for making it uh we are now negotiating seven days a week so to answer your second question uh there is definitely I am cautiously optimistic there's more urgency now for us to actually get proposals counter proposals and so we are we're in the process of analyzing those now and so we've got now some new information that we're in the process of like I said we'll be talking more about it in close session yes so so I'm hoping that um you know as always that we'll continue to work with the same urgency we've had and hopefully hopefully even more since now we're negotiating seven days a week okay thank you very much for that I just want to leave us with we do not want a strike period we don't want that thank you very much um may I get a motion please going on to Executive session member Pope so moved that we go to Executive session got a second so moved thank you it's been moved will I will proceed with a roll call member Pope I member blae I member jannis hi member Bautista I member Thomas I president vice president Gardner I um six Ys zero Nays this motion is adopted we will be meeting now for Clos session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Tech Team could you remove the close session okay I need to gra gin okay the uh agenda Review Committee of the board of education is reconvened assistant board secretary please proceed vice president Gardner I would like to know for the record that there are no items to vote on from executive session thank you is there a motion board member Blaze I move to adjourn all right seconded by Miss second all in favor I I thank you