okay good evening everyone welcome to the September 2024 cc20 meeting um I'm now going to take attendance Steve Stow president here John ratone first vice president
Elizabeth Chan second vice president mayang yes when Ming uh yaning um Fabiola Sabrina
here hey Sabrina hi everyone Maya Rosen blot Tamara stern here choyce shei Kevin Xiao yeah can you hear me I can hear you yep okay and we have
one two three four five in person so we do not have inperson Quorum so there will be no votes tonight but we can still run the meeting as we do at all of our meetings we have interpretation in Arabic Mandarin and
Spanish you will see these interpreters in the parti list and they will post their information in the chat our interpreters will now introduce themselves could our Arabic interpreter please introduce yourself
[Music] Arabic announcement has been completed great thank you would our Mandarin interpreter please introduce uce yourself thank you thank you and would our Spanish
interpreter please introduce yourself hi good evening the following message will be in Spanish PID complete thank you just a reminder please keep in mind the interpreters will be providing
simultaneous interpretation as you speak please try to speak more slowly than usual we'll now share the agenda for tonight's meeting we're here at as you mentioned we're here at Junior
High School 259 William McKinley pride of Bay Ridge as it's known so the agenda for tonight's meeting um we're going to
[Music] um yeah I'm gonna yeah we'll we'll do public speaking we'll do our first actually let's you know what we'll do the we'll do the presentation first and we'll have yeah we'll stick to this this presentation because I think the information provided here will help
inform some of the public speaking um so first we we had the executive directors from both Nia and um the Federation of Italian-American organizations with us at the meeting um I believe um online and they will speak about the um
Afterschool funding situation and our our superintendent uh Dr David prto will also make some comments um at that time about the the issue um and then after that we will have our first public speaking session of the night um we'll prioritize anyone who's here in
person um after that we'll have the report of superintendent Dr prto report of council president our second public speaking session and unless we get other people showing up in person we will not have a vote for recording secretary tonight um because we do not have
in-person Quorum and then approval of minutes and that will conclude the calendar meeting okay um I just want to take a minute and recognize several um attendees at our meeting
um in person we we actually have former longtime State Assembly member Peter abat is here in person um I also see online a number of Representatives um from um different elected officials offices Francis Brown from state senator
Ian Chu's office Tony krupin from city councilman Justin Brandon's office um and I'm just looking through and I remind anyone who's here from an elected office if you'd um maybe just identify yourself next your your office next to
your name that's always helpful um okay so to begin the tonight we we thought as everyone as many people know the sort of issue of the last few months has been the situation around after school funding in District 20 and a
number of programs losing funding um we've had a it was a significant focus of our conversation at our last meeting in August um since then there's been quite a bit of Interest both from the local media both from parents um and um
you know us on the CC and and really a large number of people in the community have been very involved in trying to get answers and get this remedied so we thought it would be helpful tonight to have the executive directors of the two
organizations that um um lost funding this year um ni and fiao um attend and and speak and I don't know if it makes sense David do you think it makes sense for them to speak first or then you to make your announcement first given your
information you have or I think your information is basically what we've talked about right this the additional funding sure I I know that uh over the weekend on Friday there was an announcement in the news that New York state had allocated three million
additional dollars uh to New York City uh to support uh the after school uh programming that resulted in the leaps grant funding uh and and this money has been uh allocated New
York City Public Schools who plans on applying the $3 million to centrally funded Empire programs uh in Brooklyn and the Bronx that were previously supported by Empire that did not receive the leap Grant I don't have anything more specific about how that 3 million
will be allocated to programs uh in Brooklyn and the Bronx that were uh under advantage and Empire previously and did not get funded by the leaps Grant I have strongly advocated to New York City public schools that the programs in District 20 uh that did lose
the funding uh received this funding thanks David thank you superintendent so first up I'd like to welcome the executive director from the Nia Annette vales Annette can you hear hear me yes I can
thank you great go ahead Annette the floor is yours please share with us sort of what you know what um to to this extent and sort of the impact that you've seen on your organization and the schools and families that you serve Absolutely I'll do my best am I able to share my
screen that's fine yes great thank you so much I have a couple of visuals that might help the conversation a bit um so thank you everyone for having me um I am ANZ I'm ni's executive director um I would like to start if it's okay with
just an a little overview and some background information about what what sort of got us here um so um some background on on um after school funding from the New York state level the office of Children and Family Services a a
state agency has for many many years funded after school programming throughout the state through two main funding streams one called advantage and one called Empire ni and many other local providers have been longtime recipients of this
funding what was happening was all Empire and Advantage funding contracts were um scheduled to expire were scheduled to end as of June 30th of this year and they were not going to be renewed by New York state by ocfs so for
us this is just a snapshot of the impact for ni alone that meant for us all of these listed schools and each of them showing the number of seats that we had funded at each of those schools all of these listed schools that were previously funded through Empire or
Advantage contracts with the state were not going to be renewed for this current school year um for us that means more than 2,000 fewer after school seats and this is I believe a list of 19 or 20 School partners that we're unfortunately not working with this year are not
working with to the same extent so a tremendous impact for just the schools that we're working with but certainly a much larger impact when you look at other providers throughout the city and throughout our area um in place of
Empire and Advantage funding ocfs announced earlier this year that they were opening up an RFP a request for proposals for what they call leaps after school programming so like everyone all other providers in the area ni reviewed
the RFP and we made some careful decisions about which schools we felt would be best positioned to receive some of those Awards so which schools we thought might have the highest chances of receiving a leaps award and we
decided to submit four applications and they're here on my screen now one of them in particular was for District 20 um including ps104 PS1 185 and PS 939 but I've listed all four of our applications so that you get a sense of
the other on we submitted as well um for us and as we learned was common for other local providers none of these four proposals wound up being awarded when we requested more information about why and how we had scored we found that we
scored relatively well so for you see for District 20 we scored 91.5 district 21 we scored even higher 93 94 we were placed on what they called the approved but not fun funded list which is essentially a waiting list so they
acknowledged that the proposals were well written they were strong proposals we are well qualified to be after school providers but they explain that other proposals scored higher and we qualified for funding if more should become available in the
future at first we took that answer at face value but we quickly learned that there were very many local providers that saw a similar outcome to what we did and I think everyone started to put the pieces together and realized that something had gone a miss here um the
RFP process there were a number of questionable questionable parts of the RFP process in our opinion and we started to learn that other groups felt similarly um and that's when the advocacy started to really take off that's when we started to Advocate very
strongly with our local elected officials and we want to thank them sincerely and tremendously for for all of efforts um and that's when parents and District leaders also began advocacy as well and and as we all know more recently while we learned of these
decisions in June um more recently the media has picked this story up and it's gotten quite a lot of local attention in um in the media as well um all that brings us to what we know of course um with superintendent shared which was that last weekend there was an
announcement that the state would be adding 3 million ion dollars more to this initiative and in our opinion and ni's opinion that leaves us in sort of a good news bad news situation at this point um the bad news being that um $3
million while it sounds like a lot of money up front unfortunately is not a tremendous amount of money for after school funding um I left this slide up on purpose because you can get sense here we our proposals we applied for
only 10 schools and the requested amount was almost $5 million just for those 10 schools so one can assume that if the if the awards will be given um at the same level which we applied for about 150
slots per school so one can assume that Awards will either not be given um at such high amounts like maybe fewer seats per school um or you know fewer schools but um it seems pretty clear that not that many schools un fortunately we'll
we'll likely see an impact from this additional $3 million um and right now as as superintendent shared there's not a lot of clear information about where it's going to wind up we've received no direct information as of yet um but of course if it's going to be funneled
through the Department of Education They will receive the information directly um so right now it's a bit of a waiting game and that's kind of all of the bad news the good news from our perspective is that um it's progress it might be small progress but it's progress and the
advocacy is working um making noise is working and it's our perspective that um regardless um regardless of what might have gone wrong in that RFP process for us and for other local providers it's really just our opinion that this is
drawing attention to a really immense unmet need um not only in District 20 but throughout New York City for after school Child Care um there are far too many groups that were not awarded there are even more that we couldn't even apply for you know even more lost
contracts from previous years that we couldn't even accommodate in these applications there is just this tremendous need that is not being met right now um and so it's our opinion that the advocacy should continue we should continue to make noise together because there are very very many schools
that um even outside of this application um are not getting the seats that they need they're not getting that the after school services that they need and there are lots of providers like us and like the Italian Federation that are ready and waiting and willing to to provide those services and we really just need
the funds to be able to do that um so I that's my my uh kind of overall statement but happy to be available for questions at the end as well great let me thank you so much Annette that was very clear let's let's go to um your counterpart here fiao I
don't know if um um it was Nancy sotil she's here in person great Nancy would you like to come forward and speak that'd be awesome what's easy Kevin to sit here Kevin can she speak there if you
want to go back and for yeah you could mute this yeah you can speak give me one moment [Music] yeah thank you okay go set [Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen I like
to thank C the superintendent and the M staff the public elected official the principles and most importantly parents is students that are working together to correct or wrong to the South Brooklyn
schools F has been in existence since 1977 and I've been the executive director since 1984 we have after school programs in many sites plus we have a community center located on 18th Avenue Benson Avenue we
have faced many challenges during the years but the latest one began on March 21st 2024 when we were told that after five years at ps12 the contract will end as of August 2024 but we could have applied for the
New York State learning and enrichment after school program called lips we apply for this program for two schools in District 20 and two School in district 21 we were all very hopeful and optimistic to receive our least ps12
program since we have been doing there a great job for the past five years in PS 192 where we started program last year on June 4th 2024 the nightmare began we received a letter stating that we were
approved but not funded that is when we started working tily elected official principal parents staff district office CC wrot letters on our behalf I know that our organization will not founded as well leaving South Brooklyn schools
without crucial after school programs the recent news that three millions were added to the after school program gave us some hope the problem is that we still do not know which sites and how the fun they will be distributed our Focus will always be the
students and their family giving them the opportunity to Che to reach their full social emotional academic potential we need to continue to write to the elected official the governor the district to advocate for all our children there is a saying in
Italian for translated together we will be strong and will achieve a lot more thank you you um executive director do you mind executive director do you mind just remaining at the podium for a minute
sure I think we just want to ask some questions you can respond or directorz can respond I guess executive Anette in your comments you mentioned you saw some questionable um parts of the RF
process talk guys elaborate on what you think yeah so either one of you go there sure um I'd be happy to start if that's okay um this is purely our
opinion um so I I I want to start with that but um throughout the RFP process there were a number of changes to the um kind of the criteria and the questions and so hey Annette can you hear me yes I
can I'm sorry just you were muted I'm so sorry we're just getting the the right technology set up so if you could repeat what you just said that would be great we can all hear you now no no problem um so I I I started by saying that this is purely our opinion so I you know I want to start with that to be fair but it was
our impression throughout the RFP process that um there were lots of confusing bits and pieces so throughout the process the um the RFP was changed quite a bit um questions were changed certain criteria changed throughout the process and it required kind of a lot of
pivoting in the grant writing um in the grant writing process and revising and um also Midway through the process or close to the end there was an announcement that the state would be doubling the dollar amount per award
that one could apply for but they were not increasing the overall bucket of money that was going to be put toward this initiative from the state level so it gave us the impression again purely our impression but it gave us the impression that they would be giving fewer Awards but at higher dollar
amounts um which a higher dollar amount is always of course a nice thing but not if it's at the expense of awarding fewer schools programs so that was one real big concern another thing that we felt that we noticed in the RFP wording
was there was a lot of wording about um less kind of favor or less consideration being given to schools that had other existing existing programming in the building already and in a lot of ways that sort of put New York City public
schools at a tremendous disadvantage because as we know our Public Schools you know some of them are PSIs and maybe the intermediate school has an after school programming has after school programming but the elementary school does not that it sounded like might have
counted against one in a proposal um a lot of our schools are so large that sometimes just one after school contract does not fully cover the after school need and so providers like us have to piece together different grants to make
it work and so um again if there was an existing Grant at a school it sounded like that school would not be considered for additional funding through this initiative it it was our impression that it left New York City schools at a big
disadvantage compared to for example um upstate schools that might be in a very situation to us um those were those were the pieces of the RFP for us in particular that were were a bit concerning did did you have a similar
experience anything you noticed about the RFP process that was different yes especially the fact that I know they say the same thing the Nia that every proposal was uh uh the the score with different the same exactly proposal for
different schools whever read it that the score was different for each one of them yes thank you thank you so much for mentioning that that was definitely our experience as well we we submitted almost identical proposals in all four of those proposals with just small
changes considering whatever schools we were applying for in that particular one and the scores came back as you saw slightly different in different categories and that's really because they're being graded by different people with different perspectives on the
scoring criteria so there was that was less than perfect as well wait so Anette did I just hear you right that different people are grading different proposals different different bureaucrats in the office of family Andro services and
there's no sort of consistent look across all the programs to make sure that everything is is sort of standardized or I can't speak to you know the the procedures in in ocfs necessarily as far as who's overseeing the process double-checking the process
so I don't want to speak on that because I I certainly can't but um but yes so there there's typically this is common for any um grants or government contract um process there's typically a panel of reviewers so there's typically a group of a number of different folks who will
review and grade proposals based on a you know an established rubric um but like anything else you know they're reading they're reading and narrative and it's it it can sometimes be left up to someone's opinion if a section met the criteria or not so that's just
another piece that's a little imperfect and and have you both I think you've both requested K you have the right to request the full scoring yes like the details we did got our scores but we were not able to know which sites were uh awarded and what they scoreb
they will not discuss that they will not disclose it if you said in the letter everyone over 65% of the scores were awarded but they were not funded right and it doesn't so so we we had one with 73 one with 83 one with
93 so who knows but you can't you cannot they were not disclose which programs were awarded the fund is that information I spoke to them once after a lot of trying and and I will say um you know it was it was
really difficult to get in touch with them and then we had one phone conversation and I've um they were saying that there might be more information coming once the official process has the the full funding process has concluded and they estimated sometime around November 1 and at that
point they said they might make more information available at least that's what I have in my head is that basically what you guys have heard as well no we just we heard that there were not Clos that okay we have not we've not been able to find or access of awards either
we've invited I've invited them several times I invited them to this meeting our last meeting I'll continue inviting them I believe they should speak it's really infuriates me when members of the public service they want to be there when times are good but then not show up when
there's difficult questions to be answered and that's what's happening now someone needs to answer for why this happen what what what's the actual change in the methodology and the procedure and the process that led to this result I just want to and I'll one second other members you can ask
questions too but I just want to follow up on I I want to try to understand kind of Anette I really appreciate the slides you brought with sort of the financial information so just to confirm if just trying to sort of think about last year like
Annette you said I think you said you applied for $4.6 million this year for all your schools not just District 20 so that was 10 applications so we had three within District 20 and the other seven were outside districts yes yeah so 4.6
million and then like last year you had the total number of seats I don't know do you disclose are you willing to disclose the total amount it took to fund all your programming last year so we can compare it to the 4.6 million you I don't have that information handy for you right now but what what I will say
is I can tell you that the previous contracts so those Empire and Advantage funding streams that I mentioned earlier were historically funed at much lower dollar amounts um so it the the new leaps funding they were giving an
opportunity for more funding per student so that that's that's good news that you know the state is upping the the dollar amount per student um but I it's information I can certainly collect but um while I don't have it handy I I can tell you confidently that the previous
awards were not as high as the ones we were applying for under okay I I could tell you that uh ps12 because it was the same agency uh we were funded for $190,000 a year for five
years so close to uh a million dollars and uh with that we were able to um have over 100 students participate five days a week and three hours a day 15 hours and I roll out program so with
$190,000 you can have prr for the entire year okay got it and um great C any c members have any questions for the two executive directors or any online any CC members
who are online um what what do you both recommend I mean sort of next steps I'm really pleased with the the turnout you know we've got 87 participants online we've got a number in the room I think the issue I think there's a number of media who are interested as you both pointed
out next steps recommendations sort of um what do you both think we should sort of do from here well I I believe that if we both work together um the elector official still have to be involved the
parents still have to be involved and uh the entire Community like I say before we do it together maybe we get somewhere yeah yeah I definitely AG I think that just the continued advocacy is the way to go um the the 3 million again our
opinion is the 3 million is a a very good gesture it's it's progress but um it's just not enough there's a much larger need New York state knows that New York City knows that um and so I I think we just need to continue to make noise together the other thing that I
would mention is um this we're talking about New York State funding um we do anticipate that the City level New York City through the Department of Youth and Community Development will likely be opening up an application for new
funding which would begin next school year um so that is likely going to be opened up sometime during this school year for funding for next year um when that happens I know ni will be applying in a big way I'm sure um the Federation
will be applying in a very big way and um you know that will be another opportunity for us to to to fund our existing partners and any new partners that are in desperate need of services and I think at at that point as well it would make sense for
all of us to make noise at the city level um yeah just yet because that application hasn't opened up yet right now we're focused on the state but when those applications are available and and all of your local providers have applied for schools in the district it would make a lot of sense for elected
officials and principles and parents to reach out to express support and advocate for those programs as the city is considering the awards before their um final decisions are made what what month is that roughly do you expect that
to be just so we can I I don't know month um and I I'm not sure yet if even the city knows a month do you have you anything yeah usually it's around April when these are the budgets and what portion of each of your um after school funding is usually State
versus is City funded just in a rough sense is it 5050 or the city no the city is a lot more a lot more okay okay that's our experience okay got it um yeah I mean one thing we are definitely going to do as the CC is is you know
find out who at the New York City Public Schools is now responsible for allocating this three million and do the best we can as everyone I think in this room we'll try to do for the district recognizing what you both have said it's a small amount of money it proportion but um let's let's see what we can do
and then the bigger question is for next year um try to get answers from the state about this program and and try to correct some things for next year that yeah go ahead John does anybody know if covid funding was used last year for after
school no no we didn't and like the stimulus funding John and maybe it got cut back yeah yeah it's a good question yeah wanted to ask um so are they the dycd is that a completely different group or it's you guys still running yes
or no with the city yes dycd is a separate City by division like parallel to New Y City Public Schools so but will they be running a separate like kind of Nia or is it still they you guys want your own different
programs we have our own different program and they have their own different progr yes we have we have some schools that we together in the same in the same school yes we do um so just it's there are there are State funding streams like the ones we're talking about tonight through um the office of
Children and Family Services and then there are city funding streams the city funding um we have very many programs uh funded through the Department of Youth and Community Development um and they operate just they operate really just the same you might not know the
difference you know um on the surface of whether or not a program is city or state funded because they operate very much the same um but as as both of us said city funding is typically a lot more generous and um they give an opportunity to open on some additional
days usually and have extra resources so the city funding is actually a lot uh more generous a lot healthier um and so that I do think while we should keep our attention on the state funding issue that we're facing now uh we should certainly stay poised for the city
funding coming up because that's another good opportunity so with the dycd coming in later more students could join or get added into the program later on in this school year um so it would be for it would be in the new school year next year um
those wouldn't be given mid year um and January or no in the new school year so September well this year we already have the decid to that the a funding from the ycd and the students already started
last Monday actually yes cor then even if we get the 3 million it won't then it will be in the schools that were funded by the ocfs okay thank you both so much for being here really appreciate it and we'll we'll definitely what did you say
Kev who does oh Kevin z c one more CC member has a question go ahead Kevin sorry the wrong button I just want to try to find out how many FS all and what are can
Okay Kevin your connection is your your the audio is not very good coming through can you post it in the chat Maybe we're just having a little trouble heing you Kevin um we'll get Kevin's question and
follow up with him on that um I just post it in the chat okay great and let's I can just read the question yeah so um do we have a complete list of schools impacted by the funding issue
um how many two for you right two for the District 20 for District 20 and then Annette what was the final total for ni that was that were impacted the total number of schools so three that we applied for um it was four or five I would have to pull it up again for you
but um three that we actually were able to submit the new application for but more that lost from the previous funding stream that was phased out so four lost you reapplied for three of those for correct yes just to be transparent we opted not
to reapply for um ps30 because we have additional funding still in place at ps30 through um a different funding stream and we felt that the state would knock them right out of the running once they saw that there was already you know
a hundred other seeds funded through a different Source um and so unfortunately we um we didn't include them in the application because was pretty clear that they were not going to be strongly considered for this got it oh and one more question how
come um the she divided the two district 21 like District 21A and district 21 B good question yeah um so there was a limit of three schools per application you couldn't apply for more than three schools per District um or per
application I mean um and within district 21 um we had a greater number of viable schools that we could apply for and so we we wound up putting in just two applications because of that maximum number per
application once you get the funding can you move money around the schools that you applied for you apply for yeah unfortunately they expect it to stay you know well not unfortunately it's it's fortunate for that cool um they expect it to stay
where it's originally yeah and one more question from a c member Kevin Z is there are there other cbos in the district I think District 20 that you know of that lost funding I think we were just told coming in that there's
one that did not lose funding what was the organization I think David you might have mentioned it the name of it Center for Family Life Center for Family Life did not lose funding um I think one of the Asian organization but I don't know the name okay we will definitely look
into that as well um okay um great thanks I see a great conversation in the chat about this um lots of people concerned um I would say um we're going to move on now to the next segment of our meeting which is the first public speaking session so thank you both
executive director sutile and valz for being here we will be in touch for sure um so for our first public speaking session we will just prioritize individuals who are here and as we do commonly we will prioritize elected
officials who are in attendance and we have state assemblyman Lester Chang has joined us um he's good to speak on there Kevin yeah this okay you're ready okay great great well thank you everyone uh for being here this very important for after
school program my office is ready available to help Anette uh ni and uh and F to to elevate the level and uh and see if I can do some uh shake down some some more money because I sit in the education committee I'll reach out to
them and see if they can squeeze out more for our behalf for our kids so I'm H I'm available ready to help them out and for every any body else uh if you have any more ammunition to help Elevate this let me know I'll be I'll be out
there thank you very much thank you thank you um we also have um with us a former um long TR State Assembly Peter Peter would you like to speak you should
stayed he should have stayed for this uh sure I thank you very much I'm a assemblyman Peter body former ass but I'm here today because at home I live on the corner one block up from PS uh 112 and I had a lot of the parents come by
my house and really upset of the closing of PSD after school program at2 uh and I wish Lester would have stayed in La uh I was there a long time uh it's very important that our elected officials put the pressure on the
commissioner right it just seems a to me after all my years that South Brooklyn 20 and 21 had all their programs cut or all but one that we know of to me that's unfair and I think really pressure I
know Senator I Chu and Senator Andrew granadas have been fighting for it and we also need our members in the assembly I gave a name to before a little earlier for Andrew heavy who's the chair of Children and Families uh you know in the
assembly and uh one recommendation if I was still there to my elected officials uh if this money isn't restored you know three million is not a lot if isn't restored you're not going to get the governor and other people to wake up but I think if a number of people and maybe
the board ask for the commission's resignation if this money isn't restored I think you'll see a lot more than the $3 million coming by uh the governor lost this area last time in an election pretty big this is not going to help
when she runs two years from now so I think it's important to know that they shouldn't be punishing an area because she didn't win in this area and that's just my opinion and and the boor hopefully I can tell the parents that some of the money will be coming back to
112 and for ni and both the Federation I just hope uh the programs have been great I mean I've been involved in them for years and hopefully we can get more more than the three million back and it was kind of stupid I just want to say that the State gave $3 million to the
Department of Ed who doesn't run any of these programs in leave so by the time they work it out it might be near Christmas Past Thanksgiving and I think uh they could have just run it right from them I think they gave the three million said you hand do it so our hands are clean and I I think that's very
unfair okay thank you thank you appreciate the the inside political perspective for sure um also so next inperson speaker signed up is Joyce
she right can you hear me yeah my name is joyy I'm here also St L I'm presenting city council member Susan's office today so at the this couple meaning we're all
talk talking about after school funding so we know we lost funding for the school but it's good news is at the we say as a n say we should fight for together this is State issue but Susan also fight for heart we search for the
addition of like third parties funding so we have some good news we re seen a appreciate letter a couple days ago from third party they say because sh the family of PS 160 186 and PS
247 in her Council distory will continue have a set a reliable high quality out of school time experience so that means the school got additional funding from out School fund for outo out out school
program and the other thing now uh Council Omen Susan also helped allocate the funding to library kids family can I accessible and the park so about Library should help allocate
800,000 from the park about 2 million from the public school in District 20 where PS 105 250,000 ps17 ps176 250,000 PS 205 about 380,000
PS 247 800,000 ps6 82 200,000 PS 186 200,000 and we also have Middle School is1 187 total amount being total amount is
1.5 million so as we say we 500 the kids we fight for family as a we together work together fight together we're going to win together so we should this is State issue but we should come together our will win our district thank you
thank you our next public speaker is alen Lewis yeah ready good right hi I'm amarachi I'm from Office of council member Alexa vas I'm her legislative fellow uh just wanted to come and let you all know that
our office is here um for any of your needs if you want to contact us regarding uh your children in school and if they're having any issues we have our district director Rob agular who's available to you I also wanted to share some events that we have coming up we have the what is city council Civic
series happening tomorrow so it's happening tomorrow at sunet Park library and um it's open to specifically students if they want to get community credit um it's going to teach them about the functions of city council so it's going to be a very
interesting presentation we also have the climate Justice Festival that we're co-hosting it's on September 28th and um it's going to be really fun it's going to be at Pier 4 Brooklyn Army terminal and we're also doing the uh
Fifth Avenue Community Festival which is happening on Sunday September 22nd at 11: a.m. and that's going to be on F AV uh yeah thank you the microphone excuse me is it cool if I
leave fers right how's that good okay great so that concludes our first public speaking session we'll now move on to our superintendent Dr David prto who will deliver his uh report
are you no no no I'm actually good we can my computer starting okay so uh but first I'd like to uh just comment on the first first school was tremendously smooth and successful i' like support
I'm really happy that in all of our existing 41 schools and our new three schools uh everything went incredibly smoothly and I'm really happy to report that uh Not only was it the first day as principal for our three
uh new schools we also had two new principles uh have their first day of principle uh this past first day of school so I'd like to introduce both of them uh to the council and to the community uh first uh from ps160 at the end of the year last year
uh principal Margaret Russo who was a h a pillar of District 20 uh retired after a long long successful career um we're all really sad to see Marge go and uh really wish her a happy uh retirement uh
replacing uh Mrs Russo is uh her former assistant principal Christopher Goo uh Chris goo has been assistant principal at ps160 being trained by marj Russo for several years and I'm really happy to to introduce Mr Goo to the community I
think he's online so if you Chris you want to mute and introduce yourself say a couple words yes thank you so I'd like to just um just say thank you to everybody thank
you see thank you Dr prto and his District staff for all the support this year um he had a really smooth opening which is great District St very helpful I'd also like to thank apologize
for I'd also like to thank our school community and families and staff all so um I've been a a for bs16 10 years and honestly it's been highlight of my career so far so I'm
just very excited to have this opportunity to leave bs60 in the future and continue to lay a strong foundation with the students and with high academic expectations um building student character so that
all students can be College and Career gr so uh just thank you very much thank you so much uh principal Gallo very nice to meet you so was two yes yes so we're really excited to welcome um Mr G to The
District 20 principal Community uh as also over the summer after a really distinguished career including being the founding principal of PS 971 the school of uh Math Science and healthy living Dr Ruth Stannis has retired and we really
uh thank uh Dr Stannis for all of her service uh the tremendous task it is to open and establish a school which we just opened three of them at one time uh over the last couple years we we all we all know what that beginning process is so really
thank Dr Stanis for all the the tremendous work that she put into uh starting and growing PS 971 uh to uh to carry on the work at PS 9971 uh I have identified Tazia bacares
who is the former assistant principal at PS 682 The Academy of Talented Scholars uh really excited to uh bring principal rarus uh on and welcome to the family and I know she's here in person so I'd really like to invite her to come up and introduce herself and and say a couple
words yeah when you're ready thank you okay thank you hi everyone um I am honored thank you so much Dr predo thank you for the kind words um I have to say it is amazing to continue my journey here at
in District 20 it is one of the best districts to be part of and I'm really fortunate to be here I am also very honored to be part of PS 971 where um this school is a beautiful School a really nice Community I met pretty much
all my family staff members and I'm looking forward to Growing with them I have been part of PS 682 for the past 13 years I was in a AP for the past five years I was an instructional coach um I
was a classroom teacher I have a lot of backgrounds I've always been part of District 20 and I'm happy to continue my journey here in District 20 under Dr pto's um guidance thank you once again and I look forward to meeting many more
of the community and to working with everyone and the CC thank you thank you nice to meet you by yeah we're having some technical issues here but superintendent will resume his presentation in one minute
I can share some things that I don't need the computer for uh you know one thing that we're gonna going to speak about this year is around what it's it's it's happening slowly I don't know why it's going so slow um so one piece of
the presentation I'm going to be giving today very briefly is going to be around some new areas that are within our district goals every two years we draft a District comprehensive educational plan that includes goals that we set at the district level for uh for important
action plans and initiatives that are in response to data uh that shows up in a variety of places test scores uh School surveys attendance and a variety of different places uh and one of the things that we I was going to speak briefly about today was in response to some survey data we received from
students and staff around school climate U specifically bullying and the state of respect and uh and this is also carrying on a conversation that's happened in the district over the last couple of years and one thing that we are really focusing on this year is around uh in
response to the this feedback that we're getting from students is around and is aligned to the Chancellor's call to uh meet the moment in response to the October 7th uh attacks in uh in in the Middle East in Gaza and the resulting
you know call to action to really frankly celebrate and educate around the the culture and the diversity that lives in our schools so uh we are really aiming to lift up a lot more of the uh celebrations and activities that our schools are going to be taking in order
to to Really raise awareness around uh all the students and folks that are in our school communities both those that are seen and those that are unseen uh we really want to take a as comprehensive approach as we can uh and involve directly students uh and families around
making sure that we are lifting up uh recognizing celebrating you know everybody who's in our uh in our schools uh this is the start of Hispanic Heritage Month September 15th October 15th is the beginning and all of our schools are engaging in activities that
are cele uh celebrating Hispanic heritage uh 20K 187 is doing a month-long series of activities uh that uh deepen student awareness and appreciation for Hispanic artists authors and histories including class projects student announcements
discussions and exploration significant figures and events from uh Hispanic heritage and uh students are all taking a field trip to the Museum of the city of New York uh they have the opportunity to view the works of uh the renowned
artist uh Manny Vega uh PS 205 has a long-standing tradition around lifting up the Spanish language and engaging all students across the school in Daily uh activities around lifting up and learning more about Spanish language uh and 20K 192 uh has a yearly Hispanic
heritage uh School Festival where they invite all students and families after school on October 17th to a a festival this is just a couple of examples but something that I intend to do over the course of the year is just lift up and recognize both the existing celebrations uh and educating
opportunities around culture that happen in our schools and also New Opportunities this is an incredibly diverse district and one Focus that we have this year is to make sure that all students and families again like both seen and unseen are being recognized celebrated and we're learning about them
and celebrating uh their culture this P yesterday I believe was the official uh day for the the mid-autumn festival uh the mid-autumn festival is uh the a very important holiday in in Chinese culture and is a
Harvest Festival and is celebrated by the I've been learning more about it and it's I know that it's called the Moon Festival as well and the and the moon cakes are like the big um representative kind of treat from it so I've been sampling mooncakes I appreciate the I
appreciate the gift of the moon cakes today so I'm I'm very excited to to sample these thank you very much uh but guys there's some moon cakes right here for everyone to try uh and I was really excited that CC sponsored the mid AUM Festival that happened on September
8th and several of our schools uh joined uh CC in uh in celebrating the mid-autumn festival so really excited to to celebrate that all right get to are you moving on to the next section yeah do you mind if I ask
you a question about that part not at all um this is and I you know I'm I'm gonna I always try to do a better job of you know I know I appreciate focusing on sort of the positive David the celebration and whatnot and I I totally I I love sort of everything you said and
sort of the approach and and the good stuff there um you know I do want to follow up and and it directly relates to what you were saying with sort of the tough question which is and this goes back a few months um as as most people in the district know there was the episode at at CS last spring with the
graduation and and I remember a few months ago I was sort of asking you some sort of pointed questions about how we address that kind of issue and you I think at the time you were sort of saying let me you know we're working on the C we're going to sort of have more to say in the fall you know my question you know very
directly and and I think we should have a good answer to it as a district let's say there's the the topic comes up the war in Israel between Israel and Hamas and two students are on opposite sides of it and maybe they're um culturally or ethnically one of the groups maybe
they're not I just I'm very curious and I really want to know in situations like this maybe it's the war in Russia and Ukraine as well similar situation How are schools taught to handle that if the discussion comes up in class about a conflict like that between two students it's a great question I really
understand the uh I really understand the I understand the the challenge of what we imagine is happening and the potential for hypothetical situations uh what we're finding in the response from students uh and is
that there are some ways in which students feel that not only how they treat each other is targeted towards specific you know aspects of you know race nation of origin their body types uh sexual identity uh this is something
that they find is not getting better and you know we find that one of the reasons why this happens in many of the schools when we kind of dig a little bit deeper is because they really don't know a lot about those things that they're you know uh targeting and one of the big reasons
why they're doing it in a negative way is through you know a a lack of knowledge about that particular thing so we really feel that the best approach at the districtwide level and at the school level is to really engage students in uh
learning more about each other you know understanding who they are understanding who's in the room and from a positive standpoint I think that when something that I think everybody in the room recognizes is that all cultures have tremendously positive aspects about them
that are just waiting to be learned from other people and schools are a place where in a district like 20 where we're incredibly diverse uh and it's just a matter of finding ways to be proactive about learning about what those things are we feel that that uh you know
addressing that root cause is the best way to go about reducing the likelihood of those types of things happening in a proactive way so just to if you could just make it really concrete two kids are in a very verbal heated argument about what's going on in
Gaza what is the teacher supposed to do I mean if you're any hypothetical situation that's a heated situation where somebody shows up I mean all we really are looking to do immediately in the moment is to deescalate the situation I mean when things are getting to a place where uh they have gotten
heated what we're really trying to do is like bring the temperature down you know that's not the time or the place to begin you know educating you know when you know when anybody we all know how are when you know when we get heated all of a sudden when emotions take over
we're not in a Learning Place uh so we really need to make sure that we are being strategic uh and uh thoughtful about how we're taking the time when students are in a learning stance to be able to uh show them you know who's in
the room what's special and uh uh positive and need to be known about the cultures that are around them so that we reduce the likelihood and the uh the Quant Quan of time maybe that uh that those types of things happen
and the national origin uh those the the different student characteristics are part of the it's part of it right like not knowing about that as part of it uh I'm gonna now I got my computer up so I've got some information that will help share you know kind of make the point
that I'm uh trying to make here but it's also the manner in which students communicate like you know yes there instances where in person you know things happen but students and families and the community communicate
tremendously online you know there's a lot of Communication online and you know we we do experience a lot of situations over the course of school where uh information that's garnered from online does land in you know a perspective that
somebody may take or uh a perceived you know argument that needs to be had so that's something that we're also really kind of taking a close look at after the deescalation occurs what's next what's required what are schools required to do it's focusing on that particular situation since it is so
topical it's it's a difficult question to answer I understand why you're asking the question it's a difficult question to answer because again it's a hypothetical so there's you know individual situations are treated very much Case by case especially when you're dealing with a A you know an escalation
like that uh so it's really difficult to like you know go through all the different pieces that would happen in a hypothetical situation because you know it hasn't happened but I I understand so I understand why you wantan to why you want more information about how it would go I could go back through the the
process and procedure for how we respond to you know incidents and you know utilize the discipline code and uh look at the measure the balance of uh you know disciplinary consequences and supportive measures that we use with students uh but yeah it's a little different well only in the sense that it
involves kind of these issues these these Global ethnic and cultural and societal and and sort of geopolitical issues that come home in District 20 because we have all these communities living here and I'm just curious if there's a a time frame or are there materials that you're
relying on or is it basically up to every teacher to bring the kids back together after a certain number of days and say hey guys let's talk about this it's a great question I mean the the short answer and I know it's not the it's not the the the if it was a if it
was an easy answer I think I'd be able to easily answer in the meeting and then we'd be able to easily answer in the school uh but the the the reality is is that it's going to be uh a plan that engages all of our schools it's a plan that's going to engage student leaders
principles teacher leaders uh in a in a process for really looking at you know what it is that uh students are saying about what's happening in school and having not just a districtwide plan but also school-based plans for how uh different School communities including
students uh are going to tackle the issues that are happening in their schools got it s right there and I appreciate everyone's patience with me and my uh my wonderful device here that decided to restart on
me for no reason I'm in now I'm in scre are you following up to my questions because I'm done for now but Tamara has a question or do you want to wait are you gonna share something else following up with yeah uh I mean I'm gonna I'm actually to get to a survey data point that's gonna loop back to
that piece so maybe Tamara wants to yeah hey Tamara you can ask your question okay I can ask my question yes well it's not not a question so much as an um an observation
because um I do have to agree in a way with what Dr pred just said because we've had conversations in my school with some of the students and for them I think being
acknowledged in culturally for them helps them um like kind of work out their feelings you know what I mean when when kids are recognized culturally and they acknowledged by other people and
and they know that they're allowed to to feel the way they do even if other people might not agree you know what I mean it it's very helpful and and it gives them the the feeling of knowing that other people might feel that way and I
do agree that culturally learning other cultures it's very helpful to other students because that you don't realize in a number of cultures that a lot of us have similar celebrations Traditions that are just called different things and we don't realize that we have so
many similarities and it's very helpful to understand where culturally another person is coming from sometimes you know what I mean so I I I do recognize that I hope you know that can be done more and that that is a
focus I know that's something you spoke about um I feel like like in last couple months so like I do appreciate you know that and and I think it all depends on the school and and the needs of the students as well so you know I do want
to acknowledge that Dr prto so that's you know that I really enjoy that and I hope we continue to do more of that I I was able to finally get this up and you know one of the data points that
uh We've really leaned into uh in the action plan within priority 2 around uh safety and climate is student survey data so in New York City Public Schools the learning environment survey is issued every year students families and
staff complete it and in uh middle school students uh complete uh questions around climate as well as uh some other areas and one of our most concerning data points was in uh was from our students in the preventing bullying
category this is our biggest drop uh it is slightly ahead of the Citywide average in this area but still a biggest drop in our in our district and really concerning data point uh so something that we're really focusing directly on in the district with our schools around
uh what the state is of culture and climate and how we're going to engage again student leaders as well as principles and teachers address it because while the questions and on this next slide you'll see the different categories I list all
the questions and their responses but these are the areas in which students were identifying being a real cause for concern for bullying amongst each other uh and levels of respect so uh there are questions asking about uh race religion ethnicity national origin uh gender
gender identity gender expression body type and disability so these are different areas that students were giving us negative responses about how they they feel like they're not treating each other well uh with these in these areas and they really did uh identify
online Behavior interaction as a really declining area in terms of the level of respect that they're encountering amongst their peers uh so something that is really needs to be addressed and this has been a topic that's been uh in the in the media and the chancellor spoken
about this the governor spoken about uh this so we're really looking to see how this medium how online interaction to what extent it's contributing uh to this negative responses and how what we can do in school as well as communicating the community around how we can uh send
out a much more positive message and approach for how this can happen in school so definitely we're there's an emphasis on celebrating and educating about culture you know again I really feel like and as Educators uh our our job is to teach uh and we know that
students are and students and everybody people are in the position uh to learn when they are you know in a state of calm and uh in a you know when we're in a happy place we're in a place where we're willing to learn when we're when we're upset we're not in a place to
learn so coming back to the hypothetical question it's not a good strategy uh to to hope that everybody's GNA stay cool we need to make sure that uh we're really you know promoting uh who's in the room uh and all the great things that they bring to the table and not
just them as individuals but also uh their culture their background like the the the people that they learn from and we really want to encourage uh those folks to also promote that same positive message uh because if it's it's just as uh infectious as as the negative and
then the other thing that we're really and we're looking to do that as a district and we're really going to be uh calling our schools to action to continue to celebrate one of the great things about this district is that there are already a million things happen happening every day and every month in these in our schools that just aren't
getting reported on uh so we really want to make sure that we're lifting those things up uh and uh celebrating our our leaders for for putting these things together as well as pushing them a little bit to find out what are the other what are the other places that we still you know have a place to grow in that area and make sure that those
students who you know aren't being seen as much as another group of students are being seen in that same positive light uh and then we're also looking to directly engage students and their school leaders in strengthening existing uh school-based action plans and also expanding them for specifically
combating bullying we have some areas that you see right here on the slide that do need to be addressed uh and we're going to be looking to uh all of our schools specifically our middle schools but all of our schools to see how we can uh you know take on this issue uh much more directly uh from all
three levels of school from the students uh to the staff uh to the principal and and our families right I'm going to slide back to the beginning of of this if it'll let me it's not there we go all
right um I was going to go through a data presentation so I just do it sure really briefly um starting with attendance it's uh District 20 is a district that performs very well in attendance uh we have an enrollment of
about 33,000 students in the district uh from 3K to 8 overall we are 94% uh for the at the end of last year that's second in the city uh and our chronic absenteeism rate well I don't like this is not a low number it is the second lowest in the city uh but it's still uh
this is a data point that we look at when we uh form attendance plans to support uh improved attendance when when we're at school we learn um we have we administer academic screeners every year every year we
utilize a Ian uh in k to2 for literacy and I ready in grades 3 to8 for reading and then we also use I ready in grades K to8 for math so in last year we saw slight shifts in our academic screener data at the end of the year at the mid
year we had seen some uh some larger gains in Reading uh in I uh we did end the year at 1% below the end of year mark that we had in 2022 2023 uh in aadience we were at 60% of our our
students in K2 at are above Benchmark which is 2% better than 2022 2023 uh and then in I read math uh we saw 58% of our students uh at or above Benchmark at the end of the year uh screening which is
1% lower than the than the year before um in New York state exams uh District 20 saw slight proportionate shifts uh from 2022 2023 uh these are the El results uh we at the end of the
year in grades 3 to8 in the district we landed at 61% at level three and four uh this is a drop of 4.1% uh from uh 2022 2023 uh we I included this graph just to provide some context uh always questions
when the when the scores drop um and a lot of uh you know a lot of theories around why that happens we take everything into account to find that out obviously the curriculum is a is a question uh if we put in a new curriculum is that the reason why it dropped uh there are
there is a research-based concept known as the implementation dip where in the first year a couple years of the implementation of a program uh there are research saying that uh you know scores can drop uh that it's a thing it's not the only thing that we point to when you
know trying to find out why uh scores drop um we did maintain the overall city-wide ranking so well we dropped 4.1% uh just districts across the city also dropped at a similar rate anywhere from 2 to 5% uh this this graph here
just shows the top 10 districts in the city uh and their scores from uh 2024 and 2023 in comparison the districts that are in green are phase one districts so districts that implemented uh chancer Banks's NYC reads
uh initiative last year so District 26 District 25 and District 30 were all uh and YC reads phase one districts along with District 20 uh all implementing uh hmh into reading uh and 25 and 26 also implemented uh into literature as well
as the Middle School uh so you'll see that there was minimal changes in terms of the uh of the ranking and similar drops so something else that we kind of take into account to see you know to what extent the curriculum uh had an impact obviously it was the curriculum
that we use in literacy so something that we're definitely taking a close look at uh also looking at the fact that you know students in grades 5 to8 took the exam completely online for the first time this year uh so that's definitely you know another factor to consider uh so you know definitely something that
we're really uh taking a close look at and making sure that is as as predicted will be at the center of our you know action plans uh in this upcoming year David just a quick question on that yeah um the decline the 4% Decline and you said Citywide it ranged from two to
5% did you see a pattern between districts that implemented New York City reads and those that didn't was there a difference and I this is all you're talking about percent of threes and fours this is all publicly available I can check this out later which I'm going to do but in your words there's not a
difference like it was declines were similar there were a couple districts that went up okay uh there was a couple districts that had uh one one and a half percent gains not that many but there were a couple okay uh and there the districts that drops were phase one and
phase two okay um and I swear I'm not going to make this another we'll talk more about it it's big topic I know but um the um the um sort of schoolwide actually real quick you
mentioned implementation one issue five to eight online for the first time those are both working theories at this point you're are looking at other things that factors they're just factors that we consider there things when we crafted an actual plan for the upcoming year you know the the curriculum we're going to be putting into year two so we want to
make sure that the the focus areas that we uh you know apply our professional development plans to and you know you know areas of emphasis that we place uh to principles and to teachers we want to make sure that they're just placed in the right place you can't focus on
everything the whole time so we want to be strategic and make sure that the things that we are focusing on our our high leverage it says so if this if this thought you had about five now now they're taking the test all online this is the state test all online yeah and this year it'll be fourth 5ifth 7eventh
and eth they're adding two grades this year is that something you're going to be we G to be even more screens for kids I mean is that something you would make adjustments for well just in line with your statement you were just saying you're gonna make adjustments to hopefully account for some of these issues that might have contributed to the drop is that one of them do you
think like a lot of the schools had plans in place our schools did know that the children were going to be taking the test online uh this time uh the children had never done it was the first time School leaders all had a plan in place to get their children accustomed to typing on the computer answering
questions uh a big part of one of the reasons why we had all the students taking those module assessments online was just to get them accustomed to uh answering questions typing answers that kind of thing on the computer it's it's it's a reality that all the kids had to do and they'll they'll have to do again
this year uh at the end of the day all of the plans that they put in place despite except for the the couple of schools that we did have who piloted uh the the computer-based testing in 22 2023 um you know it was it was their
still their first time uh and and you know as you know as stressful as it is to take a test for class the New York state exam is you know is just it's a different experience for kids and um you know so it's just a factor I I wouldn't say that it's it's definitely not the
only Factor but it's it's something that we take into account so we expect that they'll do a little bit better this year year just for the fact that it will have been the second year uh and that's just that's for the students who uh took it last year um and then also for you know all of our teachers and staff who kind of went through that experiences here so
just it's the first time they did it okay and without getting too much into it this topic tonight right now but implementation wise are there any highlevel changes you're making this year with respect to hmh and it's um the
way it's being implemented you've talked a lot about past about implementing with Fidelity and integrity and all these sort of buzzwords are there actual changes you're making throughout the district anything um that comes to mind that might um help improve things yeah I mean we have a we have a we'll have a
big focus on um reading you know like I think one thing that we really found uh with uh the first year of implementation is that with uh a new program everything's new so there was a lot of exploration that
uh teachers and staff principles you know did in looking at everything and trying everything out uh and you know that's a that's definitely a trial and ering process and one thing that we found was in that you know in this
exploring of the different things that were there to try there wasn't as much time spent on you know reading the text that was in front of the kids uh and probating out time for that so it's it's a simple thing but uh it's it's understandable in the first year uh
something else that we was that a lot of people recognized uh was how uh writing was a you know a piece that was showing up to be a challenge so that's something that we're really focusing a lot our efforts on is uh is writing uh both
writing in response to reading and uh writing aligned to the the three genres uh from the ngls and and uh so and then and then we're definitely going to be looking seriously again as we always do but really again now that we have a year of
test scores under our Bel with the new curriculum was around how our our our priority subgroups uh performed our English language Learners our students with disabilities uh and Hispanic students we really want to make sure that uh those subgroups were were prioritizing uh in order to make sure
that we're uh improving those outcomes and uh addressing achievement Gap so and we'll talk more about this on to math math um we had a slight proportionate shift uh as well in 2022
2023 uh near we ended at 70% level threes and fours this 1.8% gain uh from 2022 2023 maintained our overall city-wide ranking of third overall so that's uh that's where we
landed a math ask questions good uh and then I I spoke a little bit about the survey data from a a concerning data point uh we use survey data as well just to monitor uh how
things are going in other areas so uh we did use some survey data from teachers uh to measure the success of the implementation so one area on the survey which is the greatest increase that we had on the school survey was the program coherence uh section this is where
teachers are asked some questions around curriculum implementation uh and we did see a 4% increase uh which we were we were happy to see we we take that as some kind of positive news around you know the process in which we took to to implement the curriculum since it was the one
curriculum that everybody was implementing last year so these are some examples of those questions uh the the for example the middle question at this school and in this case this school is the district because this
these these responses uh encapsulate all the responses of District 20 teachers uh at this school once we start a new program we follow up to make sure it's working this is a question that's asked every year of teachers uh and this was the question that had the greatest gain
uh across the district the one of the top at this school curriculum instruction and learning materials are well coordinated across the different grade levels the school there was a 4% increase so you know we take uh we take this as a you know one positive data
point to see how the process at which we uh implemented um you know landed in an improved way uh for teachers at least as it regards program coherence but as uh as with last year you know Priority One of the chancellor
is all students will learn how to read well NYC reads is the number one action component of the DCP so it we have a a detailed plan that we will share around how we're going to be addressing literacy uh in the 2024 2025 school year
and then I went over the the data around uh bullying and uh and just the the areas that the students responded to as well as the kind of highle components of the action plan there's more to it but there's these are uh pieces that we want
to S share uh talked about uh Hispanic Heritage Month and we talked about uh the mid-autumn festival and then finally uh one additional piece uh priority five is around uh family engagement uh and one thing that we are adding we're adding a
few things this year based off of some uh pilot experiences feedback from uh parent leaders and expanding existing structures so last year uh our family support coordinator Sylvia jinsky and our District 20 social worker Laurence
tone uh partnered with uh the child MIND Institute and conducted a series of parent workshops for Family Support over the course of the year it was a a small pilot and partnership uh and it was successful it's something that we want to build upon so this year we will have family support Mondays you know once a
month every month this year uh I'll also attend each one of them and and be available for you know parents and families uh to to connect with me as well as engage in the uh in the support that's being provided there and we'll also
continue to look for feedback for how this you know additional structure uh will will go and how responsive it is for uh for family needs syv is going to drop in the chat uh the the flyer and a link for families who are interested to to
register and that's the end of my uh presentation so I'm happy to take any questions any other questions any council members questions for superintendent oh yeah since um October 9th was coming fast uh do you have any news about the Middle School
applications I just saw that the middle applications opened I don't have any new information um and anything about the Omni cards that the middle school students are getting um anything specific uh no just
the fact that in the news they said students were selling it did did you have any problems with us in our district no the Omni cards were distributed to students we've had positive feedback from them it's been it's been a good thing okay thank you wasn't there a change was there a change
this year to the there was like who's eligible and depending on the rate wasn't was there a change made I don't know the details the only change was that students uh you eligible students were distributed Omni cards Omni cards students are able to use them more over the course of the week so previous
student Metro cards only worked twice a day uh the Omni cards work um across the week so students are able to you know get around more they're able to get to after school programs other types of things and there's no change to the geographic eligibility not to my not to my knowledge no
okay question I have a question about region exams I remember how you you know I really like how you highlighted that's important for the district and you are encouraging schools to to participate or so um did you have like any check in the
schools because um some of I mean I remember last year parents complained that you know seems like not all the teachers up to the bar to teach specifically algebra one that um
you know parents felt like teacher was not ready to teach up to to the test and and you know I didn't hear that feedback so I'm thank you for sharing it now check back his parents I don't want to just you know b m
someone I think that uh we found that this is the first year of the superintendent program officially so all the students who entered into Middle School through the screened application process in District 20 across the schools for the algebra 1 sorry the
algebra honors and the superintendent program classes that starts this year so the sixth graders are engaged uh we are designing professional learning for our science teachers our social studies teachers and our Math teachers uh the
social studies and science professional learning is specifically going to be geared towards the regions the regions are being uh have been aligned now to uh the Next Generation learning standards the living environment regions will no longer be given now students will only
be taking the biology regions the biology regions has been changed so there are some shifts uh and we're you know supporting teachers through professional learning through my office office to support in those shifts and you know we were pleased we do also monitor our Region's passing
rates uh both at the 65 and the 80 level uh so we do look at that and we do support schools uh in you know their plans for how they're going to improve those rates but we were pleased to see how well the students did uh in the regions from last
year that's across uh science math uh and history which is an 11th grade exam just just say yeah thank you so Middle School appliation is open October 9th till what day is the
deadline s I'm gonna have to get back to you on the deadline I can I can we can definitely get that those dates I know that that's going to be blasted all over the school's website I probably can look at the the homepage and find it but we can also send that out to the council and
then we also have open houses for the middle schools yes yes so our middle schools have already started uh scheduling their open houses and communicating with their families in fact I was notified that an open house uh at ms47 which is our newest Middle
School principal stepen Lombardo uh he's having an open house on tomorrow right tomorrow yeah so tomorrow night uh uh but our schools are advertising those open houses as they did last year on their school websites uh and there's a
link to everyone's School website on the District 20 the D20 br.com website thank you just just to come back this so if parents feel like teacher is struggling they should basically direct the teacher to your office where you have if anybody
has a concern with their teacher they should reach out obviously to the teacher first I mean parents first point of contact is their child's teacher uh and if they find that the they have any concerns after that interaction with the teacher they should reach out to the principal I mean that's that's
ultimately who a parent should go to when they have a concerns about the teacher that they aren't able to resolve the teacher I really encourage parents and teachers to communicate with each other as much as possible to resolve those whatever issues and uh share any questions that they have but if there's
any questions or concerns that a parent would have after uh communicating with the teacher I would encourage them to reach directly out to their principal yep nothing on mind you would tell me if you saw and hands online from CC
members all good okay thank you superintendent [Music] um for president report I'll just highlight a couple of things um we are planning a um a welcome back
breakfast for um other elected uh District Parent leaders PTA Title One reps um we've um I believe we've settled on the date will be probably be Friday October 25th more planning to come on that um we've been
having conversations there's a couple issues that have been raised in the past a lot by our first vice president John Raton um around school safety agents um and we're um sort of at a have been having some back and forth with the
um Department of school safety on when we'll get more information about the the graduating class and how many if any new safety agents will be allocated to District 20 so that's something that um John especially has has sort of kept his
um you know his his foot on the gas there um next month we're gonna have or we're tentatively planning to have someone from uh District 75 our new District 75 Reb Sabrina mcamera has been building
uh connections with the district 75 staff and so we're hoping to get someone from District 75 to join our meeting next month um and and sort of speak about District 75 programming in uh District 20 um especially with the new
schools and uh programs we have opening um and then I have to um those are sort of my comments on on on different things we've been involved in as a c there's there's something very important to me that I'm going to just comment on now which is something our CC was involved
I'm very proud to say in a former term was was involved with early on and that's Chancellor's regulation d210 um this is um there's a recent court decision that I feel is very important to highlight as in our role as parent Advocates um Chancellor regulation d210
and and I understand this is as a representative of the Department of Education superintendent this is um something you have to um sort of abide by and and promote I'm going to ask your opinion on this in a minute um but this is a regulation that was put in place a
few years ago um and um the reality of this regulation is it um was designed and has been tried to be used to silence parent voices of parents who the Department of Education did not agree with um just to reiterate for everyone
who's in here you know I have great respect for all the doe employees I interact with um we are parent Representatives elected by parents and we are here to serve as a voice for parents and with a strong mayor system in this in the city of New York it's
critical our only recourse is public dialogue and sharing and speaking up on things that we think are important about education that's it all the power rests with the superintendent and the chancellor so that's why it's so critical that our right to speak publicly and freely must be protected um
that's why this recent decision court decision is so important um in June Chancellor Banks removed moved a c member named ma Marin from cc2 in Manhattan um her offenses were saying and Publishing things that the chancellor disagreed with um Chancellor
cited regulation d210 is giving him authority to remove an elected CC member Miss Marin and two other parents sued the Department of Education and as a a few weeks ago they've all but won on September 3rd a judge in the federal US Federal eastern district court issued a
preliminary injunction restoring Miss Marone to to her c seat a quote from the judge's order reads securing First Amendment rights in is in the public interest in a set forth above plaintiffs have shown a clear and substantial likelihood of establishing that
regulation d210 violates the First Amendment I'm very proud to say that in a previous term cc20 took a position opposing regulation d210 um December 2021 the former C20 um called for the doe to withdraw the flawed and
undemocratic regulation from consideration for approval um unfortunately it was approved by the panel for educational policy but I'm thrilled that this month um effectively our our nation's system of checks and balances has worked as designed in that the courts are protecting the
constitutional rights we all enjoy as residents of this country um and so I'm really reaching to parents who are either at this meeting parents who might be thinking of speaking up joining an elected body um just to remain confident
in your ability to um to join to speak your mind um your rights and protections under the Constitution um will be protected um and superintendent you know I want to ask you directly you know I know that you're you're the public face you are here if Chancellor Banks was here I would ask him the same thing but
you're a representative and I I know in the past you've encouraged the use of Regulation d210 have you rethought your position on the regulation in light of this court decision I mean as an educator and also as a parent I really think that the the the use of
you know public forums and making sure that you are able to speak about what's important to you in terms of your rights is is an important thing I mean that's something that we really support and we also support uh understanding the Civic and legislative
process I mean we're Civics for all district you know we we really uh teach teach our children to you know understand more about uh the different structures of governance and you know how they can use their voice to to make change so you know that's something that
I do find is very important um I am uh the superintendent of District 20 you know the chancellor regulations are the uh they are the New York City Public Schools like most local rules uh so and
the chancellor is responsible for executing them all and I do locally here in the district so you know that's something that I you know continue to do it's it's part of my job and you know I really also look to make sure that you know the the dialogue that happens in
the district is something that does uh you know contribute right do contributes to uh everyone's experience uh and doesn't detract from it so uh and that's something that I really find is important uh in between the the the
regulations every single one of them uh including d10 so I mean that's my those are my thoughts on it yeah so has your has the Doe's position changed on d210 since the court decision I'm I'm not I'm not aware of any change in the in d210
so that concerns me because it has and they've they've published an amend an an addendum to the regulation you can see it online now they said they're going to stop enforcing it um they're essentially waiting for um the court uh decision to be finalized but it's the court has
basically said it's it's extremely rare to get a preliminary injunction in a situation like this and so the um um the fact that it is and the language that we we've all seen and the judge's decision you know it's a clear and substantial likelihood that the regulation will be found to violate the First Amendment so I'm just concerned that a superintendent
in I I'm concerned the Department of Education hasn't broadcast this to all superintendents um and so you know I'm guessing they I know I don't know why they wouldn't do that I'm sure once the legal process takes its full course uh you know like you said y
um you know all the the requisite you know things will need to be uh put in place uh I do know that uh know like you said I'm sure there are a lot of different legal avenues that are being you know engaged currently so once there's one case and it's going to go to
trial yeah yeah so you know once the all the legal processes have you know taken course and things are solidified then I'm sure that we'll all be uh engaged to make sure that you know chances regulations continue to be uh you know enforced in the way in which they're
crafted yeah yeah I'm just asking and I'll just go on record I'm just asking you to recognize that this is a poorly written regulation I know you can't say that publicly if you agree with me you know but and I would strongly encourage you you have discretion and um your choice to enforce this use this
regulation is it's you know it's up to you and um it would be to to the detriment of you know rights parental rights if if it is employed use so um anyway that's my really my thought
and I intended to bring this up tonight because I think it's really important so I can't comment on the on the language and the chance of Regulation um I think Tamara you have your hand up yeah um I'm going to have to disagree
with everything you just said um I was one of the parents of actually for the these regulations because as we've been seeing there's been a lot of hateful rhetoric in our community by a number of parent leaders that have been elected in
these positions just to continue to spread their rhetoric and um I'm sorry but M needed to be removed she was racist homophobic and transphobic all right and as a parent okay who is a
black especially a black parent we do not need the spreading of hate around our children we already have it in society as the the superintendent was discussing we need to be a more inclusive community because we are this
community is filled with a whole bunch of diverse people and to spread hate to certain individuals because they're different than you is not good and it does not promote any kindness and any helps and it does not promote community
and I totally disagree 100% with what what you stated Free Speech it's fine and dandy until you spread hate that gets people killed and murdered and hurt that's different when you have people being attacked that's
different and that's unacceptable Behavior okay kids or or adults and that should not be allowed and they should be held responsible for that type of behavior we we cannot be spreading hate at
okay and any parent leader that continues to spread hate should should be removed you shouldn't you have a right to your opinion but when your opinion get somebody hurt that's a different story okay there's consequences for your action as as adults we teach our children okay to be
better human beings okay and we need to be better about it because there's too much hate going around in the world and we need to be much more Kinder and honestly m is affiliated with Mom's vality which has has been declared a hate Group by the FBI that's serious
things that are happening we have we need to stop promoting the hate in general and we need to be a better society and I am for d210 I'm honestly concerned what's going to happen with the consequences of a lot of our parent leaders being
doxed their kids being doxed pictures of their children being blasted around social media their addresses their homes like a lot of unforeseen packages being delivered to their addresses because people are spreading this type of
propaganda and we need to be better about it and we need to be a better society and it's unacceptable any other you know it is a worthy topic and I we don't need to go on and on but any other CC members want to comment on this particular topic and
if not that's all the comments I have something different Jo I can mute myself okay as a I think as a Asian we're always are quiet so we always encourage kids and parent to speak out no matter what your opinion we speak out we not speak the hey we just
speak out your opinion so don't if you always say consequenc it always that's why you limit don't want to spread your opinion because you're afraid that's a consequenc but you always free to speak
out your mind because we say we don't spend the hate everyone is kind we say kind love be unit be unified so we always say just be yourself speak out your be yourself
speak up okay don't we don't we always love each other but you don't forget your mind is important too your voice is important to that's why parents because like um at the last time
we saying after school funding parent need some voice not just El official pent because I fight for one of our school with my kids that's why we G A funding but if you don't speak up pent don't speak up because sometimes our
pent doesn't know School lost funding so we get communicate with the principal our pent speaker all have our voice so we fight for the funding that's the right way but we always say just be up as the Asian we always so quiet but we need some make
some Lo so don't afraid your voice be yourself go ahead Maya um I just want to add that um just you know a fact that last year when we had this incident in foron where um students contct other
students details but I was begging parents to speak up students were scared to speak up parents were scared to speak up uh students said to Mom you know I'll leave the house I'll run away if you
speak up so it's really was really eye opener for me that in the United States of America you know in the Brooklyn 21st century kids are scared parents are scared that was really really sad
realization just wanted yeah thanks Maya okay um that concludes my report we'll now move on to our second public speaking session and we'll go to the list of
speakers Kevin has the list of speakers here so first speaker and I believe these are all online right everyone here be online right first speaker is um Myra keswell Myra K Kwal if you're online if
you can hear me no we don't see Myra next speaker is yandan Jang okay we don't see sometimes they're on under different names but yeah can ask okay oh that's the L next speaker
SAA gilani okay next speaker Kinga popek you're in person oh great okay is she set up to speak come up here I can just go okay hi everyone I'm a parent from um
PSIs 192 and I got an email last minutes to be honest but I was okay let me let me see let's let me see what's going on I approach our principal every single day do you know anything about after school
and he really is trying to help you know our school had only one time after school only one time and everybody around has after schools and I keep asking why we don't have it why can't you do anything about it so he finally
got it and it was taken away my daughter's 10 and she haven't had a chance to go to after school at all because I have a six-year-old that started kindergarten so I have to pick her up anyway it's from grade two to six I believe so what am I supposed to do
with the little one leave her pick her up get the older one you know like it's it's really tough and I asked why we don't have after school someone answer because Bor Park the school 18th Avenue
and 47th Street um PSIs 192 it's considered being in the rich neighborhood which none of the rich kids are going to our school because it's a Jewish neighborhood so I'm polish we
have Russian Muslim Hispanic all of us so I have two kids do you know what's the cheapest after school next to me $500 so that's $1,000 that I have to pay which I don't pay so I don't work because I have to leave work the latest
120 to make to a pickup time by the time I'm GNA get to work it's 9 would you wanted to hire me so I'm gonna tell you oh I have to go I have to pick up my kids so there is no point of VI in going to work if I have to leave when the train is uh late when
anything's happening um like the psychopath texting the teachers can you please hold my daughter can you do something L because I'm running late late so it's really really tough and you know we never had a chance so I don't understand why some other schools have
it year after year after year after year and we only had it once for big kids and you're speaking about hate black people Hispanic we all have them in our schools and I feel like the after school program if you're going to give
them a ball you're going to give them a basketball you're going to give them a volleyball something they can get to know each other and you can do something with those kids I used to I used to teach volleyball and if you guys going to let me I offer to school I'm gonna
stay and I'm and I'm sure there's plenty of parents that are going to help if you're gonna give them a chance because they don't have a place to meet they're closing a park after school hours the kids have nothing to do we take them home leave them give them a bowl let let them do something you know
like if we're going to have a chance like we can we can fight like my my daughter her daughter her best friend was a black girl they were like and only because we were meeting at home they had not a chance to meet at school after
hours because there was nothing for them to do there was there is no Sports there is no swimming teams there is no chew leading squats there is not basketball teams like I come from Europe and that's
oh okay you can finish up so I I come I come from Europe and everything is for free you have a volleyball team you have a swimming team you have everything that happens after schools that was like really hit with something that here you have to either skip or you have to pay
for it big money so the after school program it was like Lifesaver for all the families in our school so if there's anything you guys can do about it I would I would appreciate so thank you so much thank you
our next speaker is Francis Brown hi my name is Francis um are you able to hear me okay uh my name is Francis Brown I'm here on behalf of Senator Ean Chu um first I just want to say Happy back to
school to everyone I hope you all had a smooth and easy start to your school years um know we've talked a lot tonight about the F and Nia after school funding um I do have just a little bit of an update
on that as well um I won't reiterate the things that F and and I have already spoken to you about about um the uh issues with uh the grant process
um the senator has reached out to both both ocfs and to the AG's office regarding this process um to get more clarity um and it's just it's not fair to our
after our parents and to our Educators for everyone to be scrambling for after school options at this point um when we reached out to ocfs they recommended that parents apply for CCAP that's the
child care assistance program um and they will be sending a um representative down to Southern Brooklyn to have office hours to assist with applying to CCAP um I don't have a date yet we're
hoping this will start next week on Wednesday um but once the flyer and the details are confirmed uh it'll be on our social media that's um senu senen um on everything and I'll send it
to the CEC as well um obviously this is not enough um and we're going to keep pushing for um funding to be directed down here especially the funding that was just released from the governor um but it is
one more thing to have in your back pocket um and then uh yes yesterday was mid-autumn so uh Happy mid-autumn Festival to everyone who is celebrating um our office is partnering with a number
of local organizations to host a mid-autumn parade um it's going to be Sunday September 29th at 11:30 um on 8th Avenue so it'll be it'll start at 6 62nd Street and it'll head
south um to 48th Street and I hope um that a lot of you are able to come and celebrate this important cultural uh event um and then as well we have an event coming up in October um it will be October 26th that we're partnering with NI for um it'll be a fun Halloween event
and I'll have more details in the flyer for the next meeting um but just wanted to throw that out there as well uh hope you all have a very nice night thanks Francis next speaker is uh Dan Pang I'm spoke
yeah she's gone yeah she's not here our next speaker Brenda tro and our final speaker on the list yvenia tesler okay so that concludes the second public speaking session
um I think our last for the calendar meeting is just approve the minutes from last month is that right we have seven if you want do the secretary vote we have seven yeah who show oh okay all right
um FAA yeah okay so we we now have seven people in person um so we can now we now have an inperson Quorum so we can hold a vote for the new um recording secretary um the way these votes for
officers work is um CC members anyone can nominate um themselves or other CC members can nominate um um um someone else
um and I'm just looking here I do believe um yeah I'm just looking at our this right here um all right I'm um
it's too late yeah um I'm and so I'm going to move to um postponed there's there's someone I know who is interested in running for the position who's not here um and so I'm going to move that we um postpone the vote for recording
secretary until the next meeting U or actually I'm GNA ask if there's a motion to postpone that vote is there a motion to postpone that is there a second okay and now I'll take a roll call vote to postpone the vote for recording secretary to the next
meeting um because I know there's an individual who wants to run who's not here um so um the motion is to postpone the vote for recording secretary until the next meeting um I'm going to take vote on
that roll call vote so Steve Stow I vote Yes um first vice president John Raton yes um Elizabeth yes mayang
yes um sorry bear with me um when Ming you were online I know when Ming are you still there no um Yan Shing yaning yaning is online
yaning do you vote yeah I say yes can you hear okay yeah got you yep um Fabiola uh Sabrina she's here she might have had she said she was
sorry um what was that I apologize that's okay the motion is to postpone the vote for a new recording secretary until the next meeting okay is do you want to vote yes or no on that or abstain
uh yes yeah just it's just to move the vote to the next meeting you're not voting on any we're not voting on the position right now right okay um Maya yes
Tamara epain Joyce um and then Kevin Z is not here all right so the motion passes so we'll do that take care of that at our next meeting in October um so then the final order of
business approval of the minutes so everyone please review the minutes from the last um calendar meeting um and just if there are any changes please speak up for
for for for any changes to the August calendar meeting minutes okay hearing none the minutes are approved is there a motion to adjourn the September calendar meeting motion to
adj Second any opposed all in favor I all right so our calendar meeting is adjourned um CC members does anyone want a break before the business meeting or just I don't believe we have much on the agenda so
anyone need a break