Okay. So, good evening everyone. Welcome to the CEC 20 May 2025 calendar meeting. I'm Dr. Alina Lewis and I'm a CEC council member. I will be facilitating tonight's meeting. We're
very happy to be hosted here at MS 936 led by Principal Frank Proudfoot. Princip, you want to introduce yourself? Absolutely. Can I introduce our artist? Absolutely. Uh what? Yeah. Do you want to do that before this?
Yeah. Sure. Hello everyone. Welcome. Uh my name is Frank Crowford. I am the principal here at MS936 Arts Off Third. Uh in a couple of minutes, you'll have an opportunity uh to see a little bit of what we're all about here. uh as one of our students
will uh be out to uh show off the incredible talent uh here at MS936. But just a brief word about this community uh if you're not familiar with us, we are District 20's uh only auditionbased middle school. Uh and so all of our uh
talented young scholar uh artists, they have majors in the building, whether it's dance or drama, uh visual arts, music, steam, and uh and uh each every day they get an opportunity to take uh their art as well as uh their uh
academic courses. We are a school that believes that arts and academics work hand in hand. That uh the skills they're learning in the arts will help them in math and science and law and any business that they go into eventually. So things like collaboration, things like uh things like uh creativity,
things like time management, they're so important in the arts and they're important in everything they do. And so we have some incredible, incredible, talented uh individuals here. Uh get to know our community. If uh if you if you haven't already, we have some open houses and tours coming up. And in just a few minutes, you're going to get to see really what we're all about uh when
one of our amazing, talented sixth graders come up. But I'll turn it back over now to our CEC. Thank you. Thank you. Um so our recording secretary Kevin Zhao will now take attendance. Kevin can you take attendance please? Yep. All
right. We taking attendance for this meeting. President Steve here. First vice President John Micro here. Second vice president is at the 10.
She's going to be late. She told me the calling secret here. Treasure May fun here. Um member Tamara Stern
here. Member Maya res Maya don't see her. Okay. Member Wayne Chen here. Member Arena Lewis here. Member Yang
Chen here. Member Sabrina McNamina here. I don't see her. and Fabiola here. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Kevin. Um, tonight we
have interpretation in Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish. Could our Arabic interpreter please introduce yourself? Uh, good evening, Adele Osman. Uh, do you want me to do an announcement or just announce it myself? Sorry.
Hello. You can go ahead. Okay. Um, okay. Good evening. This is announce. This announcement is in Arabic language. Arabic announcement has just concluded. Thank you. Could our Mandarin
interpreter please introduce yourself? Mandaring announcement complete. Thank you. Could our Spanish interpreter please introduce yourself? Yes. Good afternoon. The following announcement will be in Spanish. Fore unoidentific.
Say stress do symbol. Spanish announcement has concluded. As a reminder, please try to speak slower than usual to allow our interpreters to keep up. We're now going to go over the meeting agenda. Kevin, can you please share the
agenda? As you can see in the agenda, there's two resolutions up for discussion. In order to encourage public participation, the text of both will be put into the chat for those of you who are on Zoom. Members of the public are invited to use either of the two public
speaking sessions to comment on either of the resolutions. I will put those in the chat in a second. Um, and we're really excited as uh, Principal Proudfoot said before, we are going to now have our student performance. So, I will turn it back over to you quick.
She's she's a pro, so she doesn't really need me, but um, so uh, as as I mentioned in this school, uh, the, uh, when we talk about our students, we talk about scholar artists, and this student truly embodies this. Not only is she an Earth student, but you're about to find
out just how talented she is. So, uh, without further ado, I present to you Sabrina Woo. [Applause] Good evening, Superintendent PTO and
esteemed members of the SPC. Thank you all for joining us today. My name is Sabrina Woo. I'm a sixth grade theater major at MS36 and I will be performing theater major at x36 and I will be performing the song don't care from the musical Go
on. Don't tell me candy butter. [Music] Someone told
[Music] [Music] you I didn't make it. Guess I didn't make it. [Music] Weather shining
Now what I want [Music] At least I didn't make it. Guess I didn't make it simply. Thank you so much. Uh Barbara Stryson is also public school graduate Arasmus Hall
1959. So that's very cool to see one of our own uh singing her song. So um we are going to proceed to introductions. There are um elected officials and others that we like to acknowledge when we are at the meetings. So we have
superintendent Dr. David Pto. We have is Dr. O'Brien here? Okay. So we have Dr. Joseph O'Brien. We have the executive director of the district office Laura Kaiser. Family leadership coordinator Bill Chin. Family support coordinator
Sylvia Jasinski. CSA representative Jane Capatanakis, uft rep. Ariel Aoyo, President's Council, uh oh, President Josephine Kangaloi, Title One DAC Representative
Norma Arias, and Face Representative Ena Kresniki. I can never say your last name. Um, great. And uh and then from And what office is this? Oh, okay. Great. Um, from Alexa Ales's offices
office, we have Rob Aguila. Um, ours. Yes. Sorry. Um, uh, from Calman Jagger. Oh, no. From Susan Swang's office, we have Joyce. How do she And from Justin Brandon's office,
we have Tony Rupchin. And from Lester Chang's office, we have Lester Chin. Awesome. Uh and from Steve Chan's office we have Raymond Morales. So uh thank you to all the elected officials that are here and that
come to every meeting. We really appreciate that. Um we are now going to open our first public speaking session and for this we uh prioritize in-person speakers first. You can sign up in person or online. Uh where is the So the in-person sheet is here should folks
want to sign up. There's also a link to online sheet. Uh speakers will be limited to three minutes. We'll start with anyone who's here in person. Um and just as a reminder for those of you who are speaking on the resolutions, there is a text to the resolutions linked in
the chat. We're gonna we're going to put Assemblyman Chang first. Okay. We always get elected first spot and he's online. Okay, cool. So, um yes. So, we will start with any elected officials who wish to speak and we have Assemblyman Lester Chang online, so he's going to go
first. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. Can you hear me? Can you hear me so far? Yes. Good. Thank you very much. Okay. Good evening. I'm in Albany right now and thank you very much for taking this. I just wanted uh to to announce a very important
information regarding about PS 176 about the air quality uh construction. I I'll be sending out press release potential asbestous uh contamination in the air. We're trying to get better information about that. So that's uh I just got
alert. It's only several weeks ago uh about the parents about this. So I just want to let it out to everybody know about PS1 176. We're taking a a stronger action to to secure to make sure the kids have a a safe environment to go to
school. Now we got about six weeks to go before summer school starts. But just give you a heads up on that uh uh for that information. And I do have staff on on on hand to pass out the information as well. and any other questions. We'll we'll do that offline, but I just want
to pass it out uh this information. Thank you very much for for having me first on on a speaking term. Thank you very much. Thank you, speaker. Um so we'll now move unless there's any other elected officials, we'll move to the uh in-person signup sheet and I have Rob
Aguilar first and I'll um Where do you want people to go, Kevin? Over here. Um and that way the people online will be able to hear you as well. So, a reminder, you have three minutes. Um, and I'll try to give you a signal. Okay, great. Thank you. Uh, good evening
everyone. My name is Rob Aguilar, district director with the office of council member Alexa Az. I've got two really quick announcements. We have a street co-aming ceremony taking place this Saturday and we invite everyone in the community to come out. This is in
honor of Don Lee. Uh Don Lee was a uh champion of the Asian community. Uh he was also at one point uh director of Homerest. And this is going to take place this Saturday at 11:00 a.m. uh at the corner of 70th Street and 15th
Avenue. So if you're in the area, come on by. Um this is a good way to honor a community leader that um deserves this this recognition. And then also really quickly, our office recently has been
receiving some incoming emails and calls regarding uh some concerns around our neighboring schools. Uh most of these concerns are either around delayed constructions or some of the things that were mentioned before by um uh Senator
Chang um and you know quality of life situations as well. So, we wanted to touch really quickly and give the community um an update on some of the things that our office has been working on and some of the engagement that we have had with the principles and um
different community members. So um just so that for everyone's awareness um the principles have direct lines of communications not only to our office but directly to the council member and all of them have her uh direct cell
phone number. So, um you know, we we have that constant communication open um so that if there are any concerns or issues when reaching out to different city agencies, um they can reach out to us to help move that along if there are
any uh delays. I know that recently there was an outage of the um street lights over at 60th Street and I know that DOT was notified and also NYPD and there was some delays in that. So, we ask that you reach out directly to us so
that we can lean on them and and put a little bit of uh pressure to help move things along. So, um you know, uh again, we we want to make sure that um everyone has that. Um and as always, we will
continue to support um the schools, advocate for the schools. the the council member is um very adamant about making sure that our schools are uh fully funded. Um and you know if anyone has any questions they can talk to me on
this side but I also in particular want to thank uh the CEC for their work and um I years ago was a member of this CEC and the work that they do is volunteer
work. they do not get paid for their time. So, it's very important that we recognize um the work that they do. This is a volunteer uh group of advocates for our family. So, we thank them. We thank the principles for their continued leadership and we thank Superintendent
Prito. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Um next we are going to have Stephen Mahoney. So you have three minutes if you want to come up over here and I'll repeat. Yeah, there's a inerson signup sheet here. So if there
is anybody else in person. Good evening. My name is Stephen Mahoneying. I'm a parent of a 9-year-old child in a district 75 school within district 20. for summer rising program district 75 children were limited where
they could apply. We live right next to PS30 which does have a district 75 presence there but the DOE decided that Kaitton Avenue would be the nearest one. All the other sites on the other side of Brooklyn. I found out about a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, my son was
assigned to Chester Street, which is all the way down in Brownsville. Think about it. He gets his day program till 2:30. Gets the bus 18th and 47th. How long to get all the way down there. Program ends at six o'clock. He gets no bus service home. So, the parents are responsible
for picking them up because our district 75 kids that get bus service are subjected to disparate treatment because they're not allowed the omniard, that student omniard. I started uh sending out some emails. I got excellent help from Andy Corso. She's the chief in
school support, diversity, inclusive, accessible learning. That's a lot of uh words. So, the bottom line, they opened up a second site, 151472, K231, which is inside
PS4. I got the email last night, um, and I applied the wait list because prior to that, there was no weight list. That school wasn't even on the map. By banging the drum, blowing the whistle, holding the DOE accountable, all of a sudden there's a sight in our own
neighborhood because the children in Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Diker Heights, Burough Park, Bensonhurst, there was no District 75 site prior to this. The only other one I know of was up on Avenue West, 229 Avenue West. So, as a parent,
all we all have to be the advocates, not just for my son. how many other children were affected by this that hopefully they'll know because this this offer closes on the 17th for my son and I think that that new site is open until the 30th. So if you have family or
friends with district 75 children in the neighborhood there's a site for them if they want it and the pro afternoon program is 2:30 to 6. Thank you. Thank you. the next speaker that we have in person. That's okay. Thank you. Uh
Kenneth Chu. Thank you members of the council. I'm here on behalf of Assemblyman Lester Chang who is attending virtually. We've heard from concerned families, teachers, and students at PS 176, and the conditions being described are extremely
serious. Airborne hazards, rodents, and potential asbestous exposure. This isn't just a maintenance issue, it's a safety issue. Uh, Assemblyman Chang has submitted a formal letter demanding action. We expect the council as well as
the Department of Education to act on it. uh and um we have lawyers ready if those questions and documentations are not uh uh submitted to the public. Thank you. Thank you so much. Our next inerson speaker is Raymond
Morales. Good evening everyone. My name is Ray Morales. I'm here on behalf of Senator Steven Chan, District 17, state senator. Uh, we're here to hear the concerns of the parents about PS 176. I want to give the parents our email address, which is
Chan the symbol atnyate.gov. We need to hear from you in order for us to help you. Uh, Senator Chan has always been an advocate for our children's education. and he served as a PTA president for many years for Christina McAuliff and he takes that
work up to Albany. So he's an advocate for our children. We need to hear from you so that we can we're able to help you with these environmental concerns raised at PS1 176. To date, I don't think we've heard from many parents. So the people here, if you can please spread the word, email us or call us at
71833311 or please visit our district office at 6605 Fort Hamilton Parkway. Thank you very much to the members of the council for the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Our next in inperson speaker is Andre Suarez.
[Music] Good evening everyone. My name is Andre Suarez. I'm the former Title One Pack chairperson for PS 176. Thank you for everyone for coming here today both in person and virtually and showing that we are united for the
health and safety of our children and teachers at PS 176. We are gathered here to support and improve PS 176. Our PS1 176 teachers are amazing people who who we dearly love
and appreciate. Our children thrive because of our teachers and our teachers should know that they have our unwavering support and we will continue to fight
for you all. You, our community, our parents, students, teachers, all have the right to voice your concerns and you have the right to have all your questions answered in
full. None of us should be made to fear any form of retaliation or discrimination. The entire situation at PS 176 could have been handled very differently from the
start. Miss Kulkin could have been transparent and forthcoming with everyone about the school construction and all of its associated dangers. No parent should have to go
through the great lengths that I did in order to get a response. Many questions remain unanswered. As a result, many PS1 176 parents are concerned that there is a
correlation between their children's health related symptoms that they may that may be attributed to the careless school construction work at PS 176 as well as our PS 176 teachers own health.
Today, I say to everyone, to every PS1 176 parent and teacher, don't be afraid and speak up. The chancellor, the superintendent, the New York City public schools, and
the elected officials are listening to us now. Miss Kokin's past and present retaliatory behavior and authoritarian leadership is unacceptable. ineffective,
unprofessional, and unbecoming of what a principal should stand for. Miss Kulkin has been the principal at PS 176 for 20 years, and she must be held to the highest standard to the highest of
standards. Therefore, we ask the school chancellor Melissa Ab Ramos and District 20 Superintendent Dr. PTO to remove Elizabeth Kulkin as principal of PS 176
and to appoint an interim principle and to conduct an independent safety inspection assessment of PS 176. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Last inerson speaker is Anthony Dan from
Jamani Williams. Uh good evening everyone. Um I'm just here uh last minute um here so I didn't get to introduce myself but my name is Anthony Duran. I'm with the uh public advocates uh office uh serving the community affairs for the burrow of
Brooklyn. Um we were um made aware of the s situation currently happening at PS1 176. Um and uh I guess in short u we do have some uh some some of our uh liaison working with
uh the community directly to to monitor the situation. There isn't specifically any uh answers that we can give right now, but I urge everyone if you have any issues or want to bring anything else up to the office, please reach out to us um
at uh get help at advocate.nyc.gov or calling 212-669-7250. I will repeat that 212-669-7250. Um and that's get help.nyc.gov gov or you can directly uh contact me that is a duran
durad advocate.nyc.gov. Thank you for having me here. Thank you so much. So, thank you to everybody who signed up and spoke in person. It is really important to participate in these meetings. We do have uh folks signed up online and we will get to those people
when we do our second public speaking session. So again, if you're online Yeah, go ahead Steve. Yeah. Donovan from Burough. Oh, Burough. Yes. Yep. No problem. Um, so we do have one more elected official online, so we'll go to them. But again, if you're signed up
online, we will get to you in the second public speaking session. Donovan, did you want to go ahead? Yes. Hi, good evening everyone in CC20. Apologies I can't be there in person as you guys know. Um, I do like to be in community with you all, but I am also
co-f facilitating another meeting virtual at the moment. Um I just want to say um for the from the office of the Brooklyn Burough President, we have been in communication and we have seen um the dialogue regarding um the school in question. And so I'm here um both uh in
solidarity and standing with our families and really hearing more details and formal response from the Department of Education and School Construction Authority. I will drop my information in the chat for folks, but Burough Hall um is a lock that partner with our parents in our communities and making sure
everyone is safe. Uh and so, you know, I'm going to keep my remarks pretty brief today. Um also again, thank you CC20 for the work you do and I know you guys have a full show there today. So, really want to center our parents in that. So, thank you all. Um and you know, looking forward to hearing from
the rest of you tonight. Okay. Thank you, Donovan. And again, thank you to everybody who already spoke and to those of you who will speak in the second public speaking session. Um, but that concludes our first public speaking session. We're now going to go to the Office of Food and Nutrition
Services. We have an update. Um, and we should have Andrew Goodman and Ania Veros Shakes on Zoom. Um, are you guys there? Yes, we are. Good. Can you can you hear me? We can. Great. So, good
evening. My name is Andrew Goodman. I'm joined by my colleague, Miss Anisha Vgo Shakes. Um, and I just want to give some updates from the Office of Food Nutrition services. So, first thing we like to talk about is that also food nutrition is currently hiring for some
entry- level positions. We have um a hiring event that our next hiring event will be on May 17th and June 14th and also June 21st. They are um interviews are being taken
place at our headquarters which is 44-36 Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City. Um I don't know if you could drop the flyer, Steve, into the chat or not for that. Okay. Um anyone that is interested
would have to there's a flyer and there's a QR code. They have to scan the QR code and schedule an appointment. There are no walk-ins uh interviews for these interviews. Again, people have to sign up. There is uh the the slides open
very quickly. Usually open up about a week before. Also, they go on to the uh Duey website and also search school food job and get that link. Also, in addition, we're also hiring for school food service managers. This is citywide
position. Um the flyer um is in the I think it's in the chat I believe. Okay. It's a citywide position. It's a civil service job. Also the position is also available on the department of education website under careers. You scroll down
to office of food and nutrition services and there is a link for that position position. The again it is a civil service position. There are positions throughout the city. So anybody is interested can apply again please read
the the qualifications recently the qualifications have changed for that position. Also we are we are very happy to announce our summer meals program. So our summer meals program is right around the corner and that starts on June 27th
through August 29th. There's no registration required for a anybody under the age of 18 to walk into one of our community theater sites. Breakfast is served from 8 to 9:15 and
lunch is served from 11 to 1:15. We are very happy to share we have a list of schools um right now. So, so they're going to be IS-30, PS48, PS
105, PS 163, PS 170, PS 182, PS 192, 2011, 2014,
205, 220, 223, 259, 264. and also 939. Now, some of those sites will be closing when summer rising is over, but we will have various sites throughout
the district open through the end. So, we encourage everybody to please participate in our summer meals program. In addition, we will be having a mobile truck in Prospect Park 7 days a week that will be available again for for anyone under the age of 18 to come and
get a meal. There's no registration required. As they say, come one, come all. So, please, it's a great uh have it's a good good nutritious meal. So, we encourage everybody to please participate in our
program. Okay. Also, we have a survey that we sent down. I don't know if that's in the chat or not, Steve. Okay. We want to know what what you think. Okay. We want to know the parents. Okay. Okay, it takes about 30 seconds to do
that survey. It's very very important. Okay, that you complete that survey. Again, the students are customers who really value their opinion. Also, myself and my colleague VGO, we are available to the community
to come out and speak at a PTA meeting or any type of community events. Um, my email is andrew gschools.nyc.gov. gov and my partner Miss Virgo is avergoshakeschools.nyc.gov and put that in the chat if you like. Thank you very
much. Thank you. Great. Um, yeah. So, got it. Uh, any council members? So, Steve, you said you had a question and then I'll turn it over if there are other council members with questions. Go ahead. And Andrew, can you send that put
that survey in the chat? I don't see it in the email that you sent me. I just see the flyer for the hiring that I'm about to post, but I don't see the survey link. Okay, I'll resend it to you in a few minutes. Okay. Okay. Give me about five minutes.
I'll send it to you. Okay. Uh while he's looking for that, do council members have questions for the office of food and nutrition services? Any questions? You guys good? Okay. I just want to add very quickly um just so let
everybody know we do have a halal site actually a couple halal sites that will be open for summer and they are going to be junior high school 223 and also public school 170. So our options will
be available at both schools. So we have location at both ends of the district. Thank you. Any other questions? Good. Okay. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. Um, so I'm now going to turn it over to Dr. David Pto for the superintendence report. Sure. Thank you
so much. District 20. I'd also like to uh thank uh Principal Proudfoot and also Principal Georgia Museris from PS939 uh which is uh colllocated in this campus uh for welcoming us for the CC meeting
this this evening. Um, you know, I'm going to start off with just addressing uh the the concerns around PS 176 uh and the issues and concerns that families and community members have raised. Uh I want to note that uh now two meetings
have been held at PS176 coordinated by the principal as well as school construction authority and the division of school facilities uh to specifically address the concerns that have been raised by uh families in the community and to both describe the updates on the construction process uh and also attempt
to uh address concerns that have been raised from families. Uh, additionally, in response to these concerns, uh, the school construction authority and the division of school facilities have released every single document that is related to the construction process and specifically the asbestous abatement
process at PS176 that has been ongoing. Those documents have been posted on the PS176 website and have also been distributed to every family uh, in the PS176 community that is registered via the gamma uh, website. So all families that have their uh email registered with
the school under GAMA uh would would have also directly received an email with a link to all those documents. Um uh in addition uh the Ahira management plan ahira is the uh law that governs
the protocols that uh must be adhered to when related to asbestous management and abatement. Um the management plan for PS176 as well as every single uh New York City school building is posted on uh the department of education website
under the facilities section. It's public information. Anyone can go and look at it. Uh so I just wanted to share that information. There were a couple updates I want to give before I uh post a presentation. First, there was a resolution written by uh district
20CC early in the year around the geometry regions. Um and I uh have been engaged in a process examining the possibility for uh establishing uh geometry regions classes in the middle
school. And I did understand the potential benefits for students and families uh for potentially earning additional high school credit and being engaged in accelerated opportunities in middle school. Uh the geometry regent is a 10th grade regent. Uh and in past year and
this actually this year we established uh the expansion of uh screened academic programs in district 20 the superintendent program which engages in uh three regions courses and then an algebra honors program which engages
students in uh the the the algebra regions. And uh we did see some some additional potential benefits uh for students uh but also some some potential uh pitfalls and concerns that were things that we really took closely into
consideration when thinking about uh the viability for establishing uh and piloting geometry regions courses in the district. Uh one of the potential pitfalls that we see that we were being very mindful of were uh the uh potential
earning of high school credit. Uh while students could be engaged in geometry coursework, uh there's no guarantee that children engaging in geometry coursework would actually earn that high school credit. It was one of the pitfalls that we were, you know, concerned about. Uh there's no guarantee that even though
the children may uh take the course, pass the course, and uh take the exam, they may not get the credit. Um and the other concern that we had was just around uh some of the pressure that children may experience uh taking coursework that was two grade levels
above uh their expect their expectations. Uh I'm we're very firm believers in you know rigorous instruction in the district and we want to provide children with every opportunity for those types of experiences. Um, and we, you know, we did learn in our examination of the
process how, uh, there can be incredible pressure placed on young people, uh, when engaged in this level of coursework. And we're very concerned with ensuring that while providing students with this type of opportunity, it's also our responsibility to make sure that we're taking care of children
and not putting them in positions that can place undue pressure on them and potentially have negative impacts on their schooling despite the best intentions that we may have for providing them with opportunities. Uh we so we've been taking this into serious account when thinking about uh how we
would go about potentially establishing uh this program. We have landed on uh and I'm announcing today publicly that we will be establishing uh pilot geometry regions courses uh in the district in three different middle
schools and we will engage in a three-year process for uh establishing those pilots. uh they will uh live in three schools and we have consulted very closely with a few other schools in New York City who have established geometry
regions and really been thoughtful about the potential benefits for children that I mentioned amongst others that I I noted as well as potential pitfalls, you know, ones I named and then others uh that are uh you know, kind of programmatic and uh challenges for
schools in order to make sure that an opportunity like this like all opportunities that we offer for children that we make sure that they are high quality uh and that we are dotting every eye and crossing every tea when we're thinking about how we're implementing these programs so that we when parents
place their you know when parents place their children in these programs or children are identified as uh candidates for these programs uh that they experience the best possible version uh of that of that program. So really being thoughtful in rolling this out and
piloting it. We will be piloting it at three schools. Uh at Maline Brennan School 20K 2011, uh at William McKinley 20K259 and at John J. Persing 20K220. Those three uh schools. Um there's going
to be more to come on that, but uh it will start at the sixth grade level just like we started the superintendent algebra honors programs at the sixth grade level as well. Uh and I'll continue to share more information about the details of that. uh but you know
just for uh you know kind of the highlights and main idea uh we will be piloting this uh at these three schools it will start at the sixth grades that means that uh nobody will be taking the geometry regions uh for three years
starting next year uh and I will pro I will continue to provide updates on the progress of that and you know supporting the school leaders uh in those communities on establishing all the different foundations for you know a successful pilot uh and we'll and we'll go from there. So, but I I we definitely
heard the resolution. We put a lot of thought into it and we decided that it is um viable to pilot uh the geometry regions in in the district. Um next, I had a request for information about the superintendent
algebra honors programs. So, I'm just going to share my screen quickly. There we go. So there was a request for um enrollment uh data from the superintendent algebra
honors programs for this year. So just for context for folks who aren't very familiar, uh there's been a a dialogue amongst myself and CC20 around the uh establishment and expansion of screened middle school programs in district 20.
Uh this year uh last year we announced the formation of two programs, the superintendent program and the algebra honors program. Superintendent's program is uh an all-encompassing uh screen program uh that utilizes the DOE screen criteria middle school to engage
students in accelerated programming beginning in the sixth grade uh in uh the four core content areas ELA, social studies, science and mathematics as well as uh language opportunities uh either dual language or foreign language pathway as well as enrichment
opportunities that are specific and unique to the different school communities in the district uh that are the decision of the principal and the uh expectation that all students uh in the school are provided access opportunity to any number of variety or permutation
of those enrichment opportunities uh in the school. It's not restricted to students in the superintendent program but students in the superintendent program are required to engage in the enrichment pieces as well as the accelerated programming. And similarly, the algebra honors program for context is the same idea except the uh
accelerated program pathway uh culminating in the regions exam was only for the algebra uh subject. uh but also comes along with the opportunities for either dual language or foreign language uh instruction uh culminating in either
our hope and plans around uh culminating in a seal of bi literacy on the diploma for students in high school or definitely for students engaging in the foreign language proficiency exam uh that that lands in potential high school credit in the freshman year. Um, this
was the first year of having students admitted and enrolled in schools in a district beginning in the sixth grade in either the superintendent program or the algebra honors program. Uh, and the data that has been requested has been around how many like how many students were uh,
how many seats were there uh, and how many students applied. All the information that I'm going to share is located on the my school's website. So, it's you can search it uh, by each school. uh and this is for the current year. So students who are sitting in this year's sixth grade who applied
through last year's enrollment admission cycle, that's what this data is. Uh the data for uh the current year cycle for students to enter into sixth grade beginning in the 2025 2026 school year will be uh released later this June I
believe when all admissions data in the DOE is released. Uh so this is a an overview of the algebra honors sixth grade. There's a total of 390 seats uh in the district
across these 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Sorry, my my vision is getting worse. Uh eight schools. Uh on the left in the blue you'll see uh the number of seats that were offered through the admissions process and the number of applicants and then on the right you'll
see the number of seats designated for students with special needs and the number of applicants of students with special needs for these programs. And just to note that when you see the applicants, uh, these are what are referred to as true, excuse me, got
a granola bar stuck in my no throat. Th this is the number of true applicants and the true applicant number refers to the number of children who applied to this program uh who did not receive an offer to a program that is
that they ranked higher on their application if that makes sense. And you'll notice that this does not include Christa McAuliffe because the all the seats of Christ mccll are considered superintendent program as you'll see on the next slide this slide. And then here's the
slide for the superintendent program in sixth grade. There's a total of 85 seats in sixth grade. Uh these are all the schools that uh have those uh programs and those seats. And you'll see on the left for
students in the in general educa for general education students seats and applicants and then on the right not shaded the number of seats for special students with special needs as well as the number of applicants of students with special needs for each of those programs. David I
need clarify the previous slide was what again the algebra program that was algebra only okay and this is superintendent the superintendent all course y and just one thing to note especially for Christa McAuliff just for context I didn't this slide was going to get too expanded so I didn't Christa
McAuliffe has three differentmies and when children apply to Christa McAuliffe they can apply to that school via each academy. So when you see the the seat the total number of seats and the total number of applicants that
is that is the total number of seats and applicants added together for the three differentmies if that makes sense. I didn't list each academy separately. I don't know if you have off the top of your head the the total because I I would the first thing I I'll do after
the meeting or whenever is total all this up and just compare seats and applicants across the district. Do you happen to know what that is off the top of your head? It's fine. In terms of like in in what way? Just our total district like across the district how many seats we established
and then how many you can't hear me? I'm sorry. I got to use my I gota use my cafeteria voice. I'm sorry. Sorry. I'll say it again. You can also come close if you want because we don't have a microphone. I can do it again. That's no problem.
Want me to go to the Would you like me to go to the last slide? No, just go ahead. This one's okay. I'm just interested in the meeting, but It's fine, David. I was just I I'll do it later. I'm just because I I always like to look at like across the
district, you know, any any and I would do this for any program that we offer. Like I'm always interested in like program offer. So I just So what this doesn't include I mean the request was for um the academically screen program superintendent algebra honors. It doesn't include the dual language
programs that we expanded into middle school which are also screen programs. We scream for language. Um, and it doesn't account, this is just the sixth grade, so it doesn't account for the existing seventh and eighth grade students who sit in uh, you know, the the previous iteration of screen
programs in the district. Uh, so this is it is definitely an expansion as you know like this is an expansion uh, from the previous structure. Uh and we have as you all know uh we've established uh criteria and framework for the academic
program and opportunities that children engage in when you know admitted and engaged in this program. uh as well as my expectation that all students in our schools particularly related to the the language opportunities um a and the
accelerated opportunities in ELA and math and for their enrichment opportunities that principles are making these opportunities available for children who may be interested uh and capable of engaging in that level of course work or an interest in those
enrichment opportunities but may have not gone through the screen process for admission. there children principles still make these opportunities available and accessible for children who didn't necessarily go through the process. So, this isn't like a a closed door thing, but what it is is um a way in which we
can plan for and launch early in the middle school process opportunities for children to engage in advanced coursework when uh so we have a structure for that. But, you know, I'm definitely open to hearing feedback on it and um we have engaged in that process again this year and we
will move this program up to the seventh grade and then um obviously welcome the sixth graders coming in for next year. Just sort of reflecting on some of the comments you made earlier about the geometry um pilot and of course thank you very much by the way. Um how do you
feel like the first year has gone of the the new superintendent program in terms of student learning, student readiness, stu you know student social emotional health in the program and all the all that? Uh we we haven't seen we haven't we haven't seen it all the way through and I think the regent is a piece where
we won't see the impact on these children for the for another couple years. U but we over so far I mean as so far so good. I mean there really hasn't I mean a a a grand majority of the work in year one has been teacher training that we've been conducting at the
district level in social studies uh in science in mathematics and you know obviously we've you know we've we've talked to literacy curriculum uh to to every different place we could. Uh but we've done a lot of work in terms of teacher training and supporting them in kind of like really ensuring that the
experience that children are uh having in the classroom when it comes to the academics is indeed accelerated. they're taking an approach and have a process for ensuring that there's not just a label on the door that they are indeed engaged in uh uh you know a a rigorous pathway that will culminate in the
regions. And one of the additional challenges that we will have in mathematics with the geometry regions program is ensuring that that uh pathway needs to be uh almost double accelerated uh with students taking uh the algebra
regions in the seventh grade uh in order to take the geometry regions in the eighth grade. uh and ensuring that the sixth grade year positions students in order to be able to be in a good place to engage in that uh accelerated coursework taking nth grade working in
second 7th grade uh and not just academically like I said but also uh socially and emotionally uh you know that's uh there's a our our the feedback that we've gotten in the discussions that we've had is that there's a lot of pressure placed on kids uh in these
programs and we don't find that children perform well under a lot of pressure. We don't find that it's good for them. Uh we we think that uh we think that high expectations that that's coupled with high support really lands with a lot of
success for kids but when that high expectation turns into uh undue pressure that it has extraordinarily negative impacts on students. So we really wanted to be you know that will be a component of the support that we provide to schools who are piloting these programs
to ensure that that's a layer built into this program so that uh parents, teachers, students uh all have you know the kind of the appropriate you know pathways and supports uh in to ensure that you know everyone's who's engaging
in it is getting out of it what we all kind of intend for the children to get out of it. If that makes sense. Yeah. So, um I do have a quick followup question. I'll see if any of the is the end of your report. I have one more slide about summarizing. There was a request around how uh children were
admitted into the program. So, I have a Okay. So, I'll ask mine now because it's about this. Just very quickly, does do these numbers represent an expansion of screen programs for district 20 kids over years past? Most definitely. Thank
you. Any other questions? Questions? Okay. Okay. So, yeah, if you want to do the last part. The other uh request I had was around uh summar summarizing application priorities. Uh
and I've posted what the uh process and rubric essentially is for students in uh summarizing in terms of how children land with a seat. Uh so the first priority group is uh promotion and doubt applicants. These are students who uh
must attend summer school in order to be promoted to the next grade. The and uh so the first priority is for students whose pro uh promotion is in doubt who are required to attend summer school uh summerrising. All of our district 20
schools are affiliated to a summering site. So, if I attend a school that where summerrising isn't being held, if my promotion is in doubt, I my my school that I attend during the school year is affiliated with one of the 13 summer rising sites in the district, I have
priority to attend that school because I must attend in order to be promoted. And if I have a sibling, if I have a little brother or sister and I'm in promotion doubt, my little brother or sister also has priority uh for admission into that summarizing site.
That's the that's the first priority group. The second priority group are are students uh in our extended year program or students with 12-month IEPs that are affiliated to that summarizing site, and this is designated by the special
education office uh and their siblings. Uh the third uh the third group are students in temporary housing and their siblings. The fourth group are English language learners, students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch and students with disabilities uh who attend
a DYCD afterchool program affiliated to a summer rising site and their siblings. The next priority group are all other uh DYCD afterchool participants that are affiliated with a summarizing site and
their siblings. Then after that are students uh English language learners, students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch uh and or students with uh an individualized education plan that are
affiliated to the summarizing site and their siblings. Then after that is all other applicants that are affiliated to that summarizing site and their siblings. And then all other language learners, free price lunch, students with IEPs who apply and their siblings
and then the last priority group is all other applicants. Uh this is the priority group uh sequence for students who apply for summarizing sites for uh summarizing this year. I'll leave this one up.
There's one question in the chat. Um, how about students in private schools who have an IEP? They would fall under all other applicants, I believe. David, I'm sorry. I believe I have to get back to you. I want I want to confirm that. And this is really thorough and I'm honestly I'm not sure
where this request would fall in but what and then if is there a priority the students who are with the after school program run by that CBO during the school year is that someone somewhere in here that's the uh DYCD after school participants affiliated to the
summarizing site that's the fourth priority fourth and fifth fourth and fifth now just a note there are after school programs in the district that are cited at schools that are not funed by DYCD and in those cases that can be a
place where students may feel like they are entitled to a seat or fall into this priority list but not necessarily a part of a DYCD funded or affiliated program and DYCD you know in partnership with the DOE runs summer rising right if it's
not funded by the DYCD is it funded directly by the DOE the the after school program it dep it depends I We went through the whole leaps thing last. Yeah. So, you come from a variety of places. Thank
you. This is helpful because like I said, there has been some complaints about this is typical summarizing um but um I'll I'll follow up with the this is very helpful. Thank you. The other question in regards to the 121 applicants affiliated with some horizon.
So, even if the person is not affiliated with Summer Horizon or CBO, shouldn't it be that if they have a 12-month IEP that they should be able to get first come, first serve? Because it's the person has a disability, right? So, if you have a
disability, you should be able to go in front of the other applicants. Am I right? Oh, are you saying that it should be like that if you have a disability group should be the first priority group? Correct. And especially if you have a disability, you should be able to get
in, not over somebody that gets food for free. If you have a disability, you should be able to get into a summer rising class. If you have a 12-month IEP applicant and you're part of you're not part of summer or you're not part of
CBO, you're taken off from the 12 month IEP for that child. The only the only priority it needs to be revamped. The only priority group that comes before the 12-month IEP applicants on here are students whose promotion is in doubt. Yes. Number two would be 12 month IEP,
but they're number nine and they're on a wait list of 40. No, no, no, no. 12 month IEP applicants that are affiliated with the summer rising site are the priority too and they never got in. They're on a wait list. John, John, you're saying a parent has reached out to you about Yes,
correct. So I mean we could talk offline around like the specifics of that parents uh you know case or application but just according to the priority groups that have been provided by the summarizing team students with 12month IEPs that are
affiliated to a summarizing site. So I have a 12-month IEP and summarizing is being held either in my school or the site that my school is affiliated with. I you know I'm sorry summarizing site designated by the special ed office. And I'm going to like kind of note here that
12-month IEPs sometimes are located in community schools but not typically. Typically students with 12-month IEPs uh attend school in a district 75 school. So it does happen. There are there are cases where it does happen in community school but not typically. Um, so that's
why on here the summer rising site designated by special education office, the special education office, and I think this was kind of touched on before, uh, also runs summer rising programs in addition to community school districts like myself. And they identify sites
specifically for district 75 students. uh and you know the majority not all but the majority of 12-month IEP students are going to you know get uh admitted to the site designated by that by the special education office and there are two sites in the district one was
referenced by a speaker earlier uh and then there's another site that uh is cited for students uh with 12month IEPs in district 20 if I don't know if this person is applying for a different site and is weight listed for a different
site But I I would talk offline about what that would be. 75. Yeah. At that point, I'd want to kind of talk offline. I want to talk about an individual's like specific case in a public meeting. Other questions for Dr. Pto? Kevin, just
a quick question. How many seats are offered this year? I don't have that number off the top of my head, but we do uh they we can I can get that number for you, but I just don't have it off the top of my head. Okay. Yep. Thank you.
Yeah. So, superintendent, I just wanted to um just sort of come back to this the PS1 176 issue and appreciate your comments. Appreciate what you've said. I also, you know, of course, I'm going to try to get parents to sort of have their say and
and get their questions answered. Um, the two things that I've been I mean the the one is sort of the school construction authority, their process, what they did, the steps they took. Um, do you mind just reiterating sort of your position
on that? Um, and then touch on the school itself and sort of their response. um school construction authority. Yeah. Do you mind just going back? So the construction specifically the asbestous abatement but the entire school construction process is managed
by the school construction authority and in partnership with division of school facilities and uh in response to the concerns raised by the PS1 176 community. uh the school construction authority and division of school facilities have been the folks responding to the concerns uh both in
email and also uh in meetings that have been held at the school uh particularly a meeting that was held last week to address specific issues including uh parents being taken on a walkthrough uh of the building. So there have been continued follow-ups uh from elected
officials uh and other folks asking the same questions and uh the SCA has provided the same response. Uh and you know so like that has that's ultimately like my it's not really a position I have it's just what's happened.
Um, you know, we really want to be responsive to concerns that parents raise around the safety and the response from SCA and DSF is that uh those things have been addressed and the documentation that has been requested to
back that up has been provided uh in in exhaustive detail like every single document that's related to the construction project at 176 aspesus related or not has been posted publicly on the PS 176 website and sent out. And if there's any families who haven't received it, you know, we can direct them to there. If they have a hard time,
you know, accessing the link, uh, we can give it to them. It's not easy to read. It's a lot of, you know, documentation between contractors and the school construction authority, but it's that that's the documentation. Um, so that, you know, that's and that's on the
school website among other places. You said it was on the school. It's been posted on the school website and it's also been emailed to parents via Gamma. Not all parents have an an email address associated with gamma. Uh but we also wanted to you know push it out as much as possible. Uh it was it was
communicated uh to me to make sure that this documentation was made available uh to the school community. See this right here 176 this 176 construction construction documents. I think this is it. I just want to put it in the chat. Yeah, there's a request
in the chat. That's what I was saying. Great. Thank you. And then uh superintendent, um as far as the school's messaging throughout this, that's one thing I've I've heard is the school wasn't as responsive, wasn't as communicative, um as some parents would
have liked. What's your response to that? I've taken the feedback and I've met with parents and I've heard the concerns around the communication from the school and I'm working with the school to ensure that the communication issues are addressed. And in the case of my understanding is there's there were like I think the SCA said they did
something like 18 remediations and I might have that number wrong but let's call it 18 abatements in the school abatement actions. Did did the principal notify school community when each of those actions were taken? the DSS and
SCA uh uh communicated with the school community around how the process for communicating on this topic happens. Uh and you know I'm not the I'm not the resident expert for how this goes. Be honest with you, I'm not a like I have
been a principal and I've been a superintendent. Um but we do really partner with SCA and DSF to uh support principles and making sure that these things happen that's in their that's in their purview. So um we've made sure
that SCA and DSF have been present these meetings to um to address the concerns and answer these types of specific questions around uh the uh the Ahira management plan ultimately which includes communication about the
projects and those things come from SCA and DSF but it's not you want no no I was telling them that we yeah go ahead I just you But as far as so it sounds like essentially it's I
understand what you're saying. Um it's discretion at the on the part of the principal if they want to um sort of go above and beyond the usual communication channels just to make sure that the message is out there. It's it's at their discretion essentially.
The school construction authority communicates with principles around the ongoing of you know construction pro uh projects in their schools. um when there is a um when there's a legal responsibility to communicate to parents
in the community around uh you know a condition in a building it is always going to be when it's unsafe and it will be coming from the SCA or the DSF to the principal that they must communicate something um and that's part of the docu that would be part of the documentation
that would be contained in this construction report from my to my knowledge uh John, did you have something you want to add? So, numerous children and teachers been sick, whether they have asthma or dust particles in the in the
room. So, what happened with that? Like, what is going to go on? Did you guys notify anything per se? All the folks who are involved in the construction project that uh ultimately can speak to all those pieces have been made available to the school community twice
and will be made available to the school community once more. Well, do you know how many rooms are closed right now that's not being utilized with the children and the teachers if there's any? None. With the weather off the top of my head, there's a lot of floods inside there with the ceiling and the roof
leaks. I'm going to def Listen, I hear that you're saying these things are happening. I'm going to defer to the facilities folks to confirm whether or not these the the things that you're saying are indeed happening. Um and that's why we've made those folks
available and released all these documents. Mr. President, Steve, um may I address you? No, sorry. We we do have to stick to the um the the sort of agenda. Um but I I will say put in the chat. You guys
want put it in the chat. I will say one chat. So okay, you can use that. I can answer your your question directly that you just asked about. Let's stop if you don't mind. Keep I I will say just one thing one thing and I don't know anything about looking at the chat. Um
and I understand what you're saying Dr. Poto that you're not the facilities person but it does sound like just as an outsider looking at the situation there's also some leadership issues in terms of like the principal and communication. Um and so I would just
make a plug for that that is in your wheelhouse. um you know trying to get in there and figuring out uh where where those gaps are if there's some sort of communication issue or leadership issue. That's I don't know. I'm just saying what I'm saying. Follow on to that. We
learned recently that with any construction project, there's the monthly I can't remember the name of it, but it's an SCA. They're supposed to give the monthly reporting between the school staff and the um and the SCA. It is optional on the part of the
principal to have parents there, but I think in this situation, it would make a lot of sense if principal Kulkin would start inviting parents to those monthly meetings because I'm assuming that's where a lot of the discussion was taking place um around abatement actions and um potentially if you'd had parents at
sitting at the table um things could have been worked out. You have the feedback and I I see the comments in the chat. I'm going to be honest. I'm not going to discuss like a specific personnel matter or like my discussions with a with a leader in the school in a public meeting, but I have heard the feedback. Uh, and I, you know,
I appreciate it. Um, so any other questions from council members on this? Yeah, go ahead. Thank you, whoever put the information on online for the parents to access. um
what I think is not right because like many of the families in that community might not be able to read it if they if they speak a different language. So the fact that this information is not translated in a format where they could understand it, it's kind of unfair
because like they really want to know what's going on and they want to be able to read this information. And even at the the other meetings, there was no translators there for the for the parents. And I think that's you know need to be something needs to be done about that because if you want to communicate with the parents you have to
communicate in a way where they could they could understand and if you know you have a like a um a language barrier for your school you should make translations available it's only right you know so like that's something that I want to put out there too because
because like the parents are really they want to know you know and if they don't understand English they should there should be somebody speaking in a language where they could can understand. So then they could ask their questions in that language and then they could translate it because all of that information needs to be
accessible to everybody. So I just I just wanted to say that and I just want to say Dr. Pto that I'm going to continue to talk to the parents that organize and I'm going to I'm hearing their concerns and this is coming from from a parent who have a kid with
asthma. this is dangerous and it's concerning and and the miscommunication from leadership it it it's not right and I think that you know if I know you have a busy agenda but if possible I will
request just you know to follow up with with all partis um and I do think there are some folks um signed up for the online public speaking session that are also waiting to comment on this. So I'm going to move us to that. Um so our second public
speaking session is now open. We do have two folks here in person right now. So I saw Ken Lee and uh Sheilang Zang. So Ken, do you want to come up first? [Music] Yeah. No, you need to if you come over here,
the people who are on um Zoom will be able to hear you. Thank you. Okay. Hi everyone. I'm McKenni. I'm here. I'm here today to support like all the parent come from PS 176 because we
have issue in the school. So all all about you already know our parent is strongly opposed. We need an independent inspector to the school to check about the you know the problem. If you agree
can you help up so we can send a people go inside the school PS1 uh 176. Superintendent Derry you agree for that response. We don't we don't we don't typically have back and forth. you can speak but it's not typically a back and
forth. Oh okay. Yes. Okay. I just want to say that you know because all the parent is so worried about that because we care about our kid and also the 150 uh uh you know staff who work in the
school everybody. But the principal she don't care about nothing. She don't know anything about us. She just say oh just start work. What's going on? So I believe you know she is L you know she's not
responsibility about the school problem. She don't care about the parent and the kids. So we we we we don't like that. So we want you know this is a big problem for us. So please you know be attention
because it's really simple. We just need to send a inspector go to school and then get the result get a report that's it and then make people safety you know make make the parent send a kid to the school be feeling oh this is a good praise you know everybody care about our
kid this this principal is a losing her job totally nobody like that today we are here it's bad day but whatever So helping you guys help this problem.
Okay. Especially for the pattern. Uh I'm sorry, what's your name? Okay. He want to speak about more. Can you give a time to him? Um we're going to go to everyone that we have who hasn't spoken yet and then have time with them but we may not. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um our next speaker is Sheiling Zang. She are you here? Is sheing here? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Come on up, please. Okay. Hi everyone. Good evening. So
anyway, uh I can I get a temperature inperter? Oh yes, of course. He request that I be his interpreter. Could I? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh tonight I'm here. I just want to Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Okay.
So today I'm here tonight I'm here to express my concern which I think I believe are shared by many parents which is regarding IEP uh students. Yeah. Okay. Uh is
187. Okay. [Applause] New York City Health Department. So my my my child is a sixth grader at uh MS 187 and in in the one year that he's been enrolled in the school uh every month I get called two to three
times by the principal into the school because they have they find issues with my child and then my we have been forced to get uh three psychological evaluation for him twice at the ER and once done by
the New York City Health Department and all three times they didn't find anything wrong with him. Okay. Uh, so Uh uh so today I was called by the principal because uh my kid had an
emotional um temper tantrum in class. He was doing the math uh you know he was frustrated over uh certain homework colors and then he he had a little he had a temper tantrum where he picked up a chair but he did not hurt anybody. So
I was called in by the principal uh and I was told by the principal that uh we have to my child has to receive two levels of punitive measurement. So, I'm I have to say something before
you proceed. I don't feel like this is the information best shared at a public meeting. if you want to contact my office afterwards and you know kind of share some of this personal information uh I'd be h office would be happy to kind of like figure this out. So that's
just I just want to Yeah. and guilt. Okay, ultimately it's your decision. Okay. Yeah, he's happy to meet with you afterwards to share his personal uh to work on the personal case with you guys, but he's taking a stand to express that how immigrant parents
who don't uh who have language barrier. He feels that do not get serviced adequately by school. Too often administrators brush off parents concern, do not offer them enough um in do they just immigrant parents just do
not and immigrant children alike. If your parents are not articulate, they tend to be punished more. They tend to be called in more. That's the concern that he wants to express. It's not just for his son. He wants to talk about this situation in general that he wants to
stand up for all vulnerable parents. Yeah, that's that will be the last Yeah. Yeah. That's why he Yeah, he's happy. He really appreciates the offer to work with him and he will uh he'll get down and discuss his personal details about like Yeah. Yeah. He's not he's not he just
wants to talk he just wants to talk about he wants to call attention to the fact that IEP students lack resources and then I immigrant and then particularly IEP parents with im students with immigrant parents with language barrier they are the most
vulnerable in terms of getting those resources he understands that sometimes it's not and sometimes it's because the system you know maybe the teachers they're overwhelmed there's not enough resources in general in the school So uh the you know the weaker the more vulnerable ones tend to be you know
brush off and go get the shorter end of the stick. He just wants to call to the situation and get more resources. Thank you. Thank you speaker. Appreciate that. Thank you for translating. Um our next speaker is in person Michael Gang. Is Michael here? Great. Thank you.
Three minutes. I did give them extra time because we were translating so people know. So, um, I appreciate it. Thank you. Um, I'm also a parent, a concerned parent of PS 176. Um, I didn't plan to speak today
because we're I think I represent a lot of the silent majority of the parents at PS 176. Um, I know Mr. Po, you're not kind of aware of the specific information uh happening in the school. I know SC sea
DSF they're they're taking care of kind of the day-to-day activities. I just wanted to address that what you had mentioned earlier. Um you know you repeatedly saying that and I know this is not a debate floor. Uh you had said previously that um you know the SCA and
DSF have you know sent out held meetings sent out information they uploaded yesterday you know all the documents there. I comb through them and in my professional understanding um and I think um th those those items are not
addressed. Those are not solutions and I think you know if we didn't speak out against this and you know to to the efforts of other people in the in the in the school and the parents uh this wouldn't have come up come up and my son
is in the kindergarten and I I haven't been made aware of since you know my son joining the school of any abatement work that was to occur and that is still occurring and I think um the statement that you were not kind of uh alluding to
that they're actively working and being proactive about it. I think this is like a reactive uh way that they're working about it. And I think the situation still persists because um of the shortcomings I think due to the means and methods of how they
boarded up the windows and that's related to you know the scheduling issues of the windows not arriving on time. You know happens all the time in construction. We understand however it's it's these things are causing uh issues with you know weather damage
and penetration through the border windows and there is like I think areas of improvement in the means methods to make sure that the seals are cocked and reinspected and there there's area for improvement so we can make sure that doesn't keep happening the the weather
damages you know it's raining for the past three days right so there there the issue here is it's going to continue to happen until we look at those critical issues in terms of the weather protection and the scheduling issues with the new windows. And um I just want
to make sure that we understand that instead of being reactive to you know things that our parents are bringing up, I want to make sure the school and SC DSF are being proactive in kind of preparing and safe uh protecting our kids and the children inside the school
as well as the faculty. Thank you. Thank you. We're gonna move to folks online. And so first thing that he said is it Yeah, it's up to the Yeah, I want to acknowledge one thing uh an issue that you brought up because it was separate and I appreciate
you bringing it up and I just want to uh reiterate that it was something that was also brought up at the parent meetings that were held at 176 particularly around the windows. It was something that uh the the division of school facilities acknowledged that uh it's the SCA's contract work that they're doing
with the windows and the windows were removed prior to uh and the wind they were boarded up prior to the the new windows being delivered. Something that the uh school facilities rep acknowledged and was something that was definitely taken back. uh that was
something that was a piece that was reported to me as something that uh you know 100% heard. So I want to make sure that you know that that was heard uh and that they are definitely working on that. So I I just want to validate that. So thank you for sharing it. Yeah. Um so
our next speaker is online. Karina Delvas, are you there online? Karina Delvasto, if you're online and still wishing to speak, can you come off mute, please? Uh, with a K. Del Vasto. See her online.
Um, I can also come back to her. Karina, Okay. Yeah. Does anyone else you can No, I hear Yeah. Um, we will move to the next online speaker and we will come back to
you if you can figure out the audio. Robert Merfield, are you still there? Yes, I am. Robert, can you hear me? Do you see a Robert? Can you hear me? I'm going to keep going down and I'll circle back to the people.
Just give me right here. Hang on one second. Robert sauce. Okay, Karina, I think it was us, not you. No, she wasn't speaking. All right, so let's try Robert and then we'll go back to her. It works. I don't. But uh Kevin said you
saw Robert he was speaking but I can't hear there's a lot of background noise. Go down one more and see what happens. Um who's next? Oh no it's Hold on. Sorry it's just tech. That's is Thank you.
Oh, pink. Okay. All right. So, we'll come back. I'll put it down here. So, just bear with us. We're having some You can try again. Yeah. Yes. Robert, do you want to try speaking again? Sure. Can you hear us? Yes, we have a signal. Okay, great. Go ahead, Robert. You have
three minutes. Wonderful. My name is Robert Merfeld. Um I'm actually a parent from district 1 um who's dialing into the district 20 meeting because um both district 1 and district 20 are advancing a resolution tonight around the um CEC
elections and the future of phase and um yeah Dr. Alina Lewis kindly, you know, um suggested that I should share some comments with all of you uh due to the fact that um you will be voting on this resolution a little later on uh just how
district one will be voting on it. And I believe the citywide council for the high schools has a resolution as well. And both resol um all three resolutions have similar text. They're obviously upset with what has happened um over the course of the elections um recently with
all the many faults but they're calling for two things. Number one is they're calling for uh phase to be dissolved and uh secondly for the elections to be moved to the board of elections just like the marial election or any other election in the United States. to be
administered by a state um entity. And I just wanted to caution everyone around these two propositions because um just how you know critics of marital control from the left want often a new system that is different from what we currently
have to dissolve phase most likely will never happen. and the board of elections has refused to take on the election because the New York City public school system with its million students and then maybe two million parents is a unique voting body and they cannot have
any everyone just identify themselves as parent to vote as if it's a marital election. So it is a quite idiosyncratic specific process to us and whilst we have to acknowledge the falls that were in the election process and why I think these resolutions to go um to the table
to be voted on are justified um I just wanted to caution um you know some idealistic scenarios that face would be abolished and that this gets moved to the board of elections and that we have to deal with the constraints still accepting that face will be around and
that we have to do the next election ourselves and the renewal of marital control will be an excellent opportunity in 2026 um to sort through some of these issues um how they should be addressed. So this was my contribution to you guys
tonight in district 20 um so that you have some food for thought when you come in to the point to vote on the resolution. Thank you. Thank you speaker. Um Karina, we're going to come back to you. Can we can we try to see if we can hear her?
Karina, can you um come off mute and see if you can speak? I'll keep going down the list and we'll come back. Cang online. Cang online. Do you still want to speak? All right, I'm going to keep
going down and I'll come circle back. Ying, Ying, Jiang. These may be folks that signed up earlier. They're still here. None of them are responding. Yeah, I see. They're just not responding. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll come back. Um, Anna
Kinho. Anna, are you there? She's also here. She's in the meeting. Okay. Um, if if folks who are online are friends with any of these people, let them know that we're calling their name to speak. I'm going to move to Cindy Lopez. Cindy, are you there? Yes, I am.
Awesome. Um, so go ahead, Cindy. You have three minutes. Sure. Um, so I've never done this before, so I don't know if this is allowed, but I just have a lot of questions that have still left uh been left unanswered. Um, so since Dr. Predto is at this meeting. Um I would
like to ask him if he has viewed the these two meetings that he keeps referring to. Um uh I made the links available. Uh they're they've been posted on YouTube. Um it it doesn't seem like he has viewed them since he is
saying that our questions were answered when they clearly weren't. Um, so I I would like to know that. Um, if he does have a chance to answer. Um, I would I also like to know his thoughts on those meetings. Um, because they don't seem to
be uh coinciding with what the parents actually walked away from those meetings thinking. Um, so I would like to know why uh were parents not notified about hazardous conditions and potential asbestous exposure? Um, did Miss Kulkin
inform DSF regarding hazardous classroom conditions? Because that was a back and forth between them while DSF uh had to be the one to make the decision, but then who would be the one to notify them? That was left completely unclear.
Um, it it was just a constant passing of the buck between SEA, DSF, and uh, Miss Kulkin. Complete waste of time. Um, also did you were you aware that at neither of these meetings were translators made
available? Um, and the second meeting actually where DSF finally showed up. Um, it was scheduled at 2:00 which is right at the time when parents are waiting to pick up their children. Um, there were a lot of complaints posted on
this and it was just completely irresponsible and unfair. Um, so back to my question, did Miss Kulkin inform DSF regarding hazardous classroom conditions? If not, why not? If yes, why were children allowed to
remain in classrooms when remote learning and mobile classrooms are an option? Um, also, I'd personally like an investigation done into Miss Chin, the PS1 176 parent coordinator, and Mrs. is Chrysanthy Geianopoulos, the
SLTUFT, for their complicity in Miss Kulkin's attempts at deception and withholding of important information regarding student teacher staff safety. Um, as well as Mrs. Geonopoulos's completely unprofessional behavior at
the May 5th, 2025 SLT meeting. And I'm also another parent who would like an independent inspector to come into the school because at this point we cannot trust um the SEA or DSF. They've made that apparently clear and we definitely
cannot trust Miss Kulkin to provide accurate information. Thank you. Perfect timing. That was three minutes. Um, and then I'm just going to check back one more time if either C. Giang or
Anna Kinho is online and still wishes to speak. Are either of you there and wish to speak? Does anyone Yeah. Do you see them in the They're on. Hannah's there. Okay. Um, but you can Okay. So, I'm just going to
do um we had a request for one more. I can do three minutes, but here one in the public Wayne is also Oh, and you you would like to speak. Okay. So, three minutes and then um Andreas, you can have three more minutes and then Thank you.
Good evening. Good evening everyone. My name is Ling Y. Uh I'm here to talk about safety, the safety of students. Uh first of all, let me start by uh you know uh by thanking the par you know the PS 176 parents who
are here today because you are talking about the physical safety of the students. Uh we you know I'm in support. We we need to guarantee the safety of our children. I I'm a PS20. I'm a CC20 parent myself. Uh but I'm here to talk
about safet anti- no and you know uh the safety of our children from from bullying uh anti-bullying measure. It's always recently I myself um was experienced a very terrible incident
because I was helping a friend's child who was beaten up uh at a playground by a gang of teenagers uh who you know um some of them are 15 they range from 15 to 17 year old uh
this happened outside the school but it's an extension of the school bully bully start in school and bully grow, bully take it outside the school and take it out out in the playground. Our children are not safe when bully issues
are not dealt with. Uh and of course school isn't the you know school isn't the only place where we deal with uh bullies. We also our society need to step up and allocate resources to protect our children. May it be the police officer responses. May it be um
you know uh ACS protections but school is also a very important place where we can deal with bullies. We've seen it a lot last year uh two years ago at uh at IS-201 uh the horrendous incident of school
bullying and and now um I two weeks ago I I saw I personally witnessed it in uh Rainbow Playground where I saw a child beaten by a gang of 10 other kids uh all teenagers and they all attended uh
neighborhood schools CC mostly CC20 schools. Uh and I just want to you know I just want to raise this uh raise the awareness of bully and then how we need to address uh the mental health of our you know of our youth and how we need to
step up education both for the youth to you know to to for them not to bully not not to to behave not to bully fellow uh classmates and kids and also to protect you our children with education. what how should they act in the case when
they are bullied and um and uh thank you. Thank you so much speaker. So um Andre, you have three minutes um and then we'll conclude the second public speaking session unless we are able to get either of the two folks um that had signed up before. But there
were messages put in the chat for all of them. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. And there's three minutes. As you all know, uh my name is Andre Suarez, uh former title one pack chairperson for PS 176. Um I just want to quickly address a couple of the items
um that Dr. Pto um has mentioned. Uh number one, documentation has been provided. However, this very morning, I have emailed um Dr. Predto and many other uh members of the uh SCA DSF telling them the
documentation is incomplete. So um again this whole mentioning about the documentation has been provided well in fact it's incomplete. Um, we're missing the photographs from the day that that actually reflects the water infiltration
deterioration and the boarded up windows when the windows were missing in the classrooms and that the children remained in these classrooms with the teachers. No notification was provided to the teachers to the parents of the of the children that were in these classrooms. We don't know for how long
they were in these classrooms under these conditions. part of the email that I included notifying that the um the documentation was incomplete. I provided an internal email that was given to me by principal Koken where the uh Genesis
um Genesis Sanchez part of DSF actually says to the other folks of the construction authority and the contract and says this is an uninhabitable unsafe conditions. the children should not be going to these
classrooms. So they were aware of uninhabitable unsafe conditions yet parents and teachers were not notified. So this whole presentation about documentation has been given to us. Yes, a document dump was provided, but it's
incomplete and it's not fair for us to be told, hey, they sa and DSF says that the information's been given. So, I just want to clarify on that point. I want to clarify on another point um that is
correct that on the two meetings where DSF and SCA have come to our school um and and and um Michael, you you you put it correctly. It's all being reactive because if it had not been for me, none of the parents or the teachers would
know of the situation. Again, I'm the former title one pack chairperson. I sat on the SLT. I've been a member of the SLT for three years and two years as a title one pack chairperson and the principal uh Miss Elizabeth Kokin wanted
to keep this internally and not release the information to the parents. She willingly wanted to keep it a secret. I could not be complicit with that. I resigned from my position and I made it my job to blow the whistle on this whole
situation and I'm the person I've been dealing with this situation since March 7. That was the SLT meeting. So, we're now going on to two months into the situation. Um, and um, I have plenty of more information. I'm willing to share it with everyone here including the
CDC20 um and uh President uh Steve still to answer your question about the 18 emergency asbestos abatement notifications. We did not know about them whatsoever until SCA mentioned them on uh May 2nd during that first meeting. Thank you for giving me the time speaker
of course. There's one last person I saw asking to speak online and that was Nicole. Nicole, do you still still wish? Nicole Palma, do you still wish to speak? Nicole? Yes, I do. I do. You have three minutes,
Nicole. Thank you. Uh, my son is a student at PS uh 176. Uh, a few months ago, he was missing a lot of school because he has asthma due to his breathing. I did address it to Miss Kulkin. Uh I had a
walkth through in the school in regard to this because the windows could not be open due to the dust. The air conditioner could not go on because of the construction that was going on. The radiators, they couldn't turn the heat off in the classroom. Her her suggestion was to
move my son out of the class. That makes no sense to do. Um I feel like these things should have been fixed. I said to her that I took my son to the doctor and he was prescribed a steroid which he's never had before for his asthma. We never knew about the
asbestous issue. It was not brought up to us. So, it's it's a shame that this is happening. And I'm really worried about my son's asthma now because was he exposed to the asbestous? Like what was actually going on in the school? And
then when I did address it with Miss Koken, she basically tried to say that the teacher was going through menopause and that my son and her concerns were not basically valid. And I don't see how that is okay. They've been working on the school windows for a very, very long time. The
playgrounds are disgusting because of the scaffolding. They let them play out there. It's It's not okay. It's not okay what's been going on at that school. And I don't know whether I should just keep my son from going to school or sent him at this point. Like none of us are
really sure what to do. Like what is the best option for our kids at that school and that's all I have to say. Thank thank you Nicole. Um everybody who spoke either in person or online um we
appreciate hearing from all of you. We are going to move to the discussion of the resolutions. We have two resolutions on the agenda tonight. Resolution five is about the Office of Family and Community Engagement and the CEC elections. We're now going to open
discussion of the resolution. Can I ask the sponsor to introduce the resolution? Sure. Can you hear? Can I am I heard if I'm at this one? I'm audible, right? Yeah. So this resolution, resolution five, resolution to demand reform of the
education council elections and the office of family and community engagement known as face. Um the community education council elections concluded yesterday. These happen every two years. They're a really
important opportunity for parents to participate in governance of the school system. the education councils. What we do is um the closest thing in New York City to parent elected body to hold school um the the department of
education accountable to um represent parent voices with the department of education. Um so these elections are an extremely critical um mechanism for for parent voice. The department of education face runs the elections. Um
they have a budget that was 3.6 6 million in 2021 and 4.3 million in 2023. There have been many problems with the elections and this year was the the worst of all three elections it faces run. Um it starts with very poor
planning. They had a working group um to um discuss um improvements to the process. That working group only launched in December um one month before uh the application period started. Um there were a number of problems with the
candidate forum videos. Some were not posted online the the forums. Um others were posted and and taken off at at in ways that um that were unfair to other candidates who um who didn't have as much exposure. Um there was a candidate
who was allowed to participate in in the forum twice. Um, one of the big problems, and I heard this from a lot of parents, is the way names were listed on the ballots. Um, names were listed, um, last name first. Um, and and often they
cut out parts of, um, applicants names as well. Um, things got really bad the day voting started. They had to suspend voting um, immediately after opening up the the voting period because there were so many errors on ballots. Candidates
were missing. Some candidates were on ballots for councils that they weren't even running for. Um um they they suspended voting the first day. It took a I I don't know how many hours, eight or nine hours. Um there was no communication about whether people
who had already voted would have to revote. Um the worst however came about a week after about a week of voting when face had to cancel the district one election. um up to that point because they had
left a candidate off the ballot. They sent an email to all parents in district one telling them they had to revote. Um there's obvious problems with that because there's no guarantee everyone got to revote. Um and and and a big problem is those parents that district
one has had one week less of voting than the rest of the city. Um um there's the face has a bunch of campaign guidelines. Anyone who's talked to me knows that I that that these guidelines for in my opinion are um
attempting to be more than they are. Um they are supposed to be uh based on uh chancellor's regulation D130. Um in reality they are things face wrote on a website that may or may not be legal.
Um, Face has Oh, well, in in the recent last week leading up to the end of the election, Face started calling um um candidates who had not voted yet to ask them to vote. Um this obviously if you have someone overseeing the election um
to maintain an integrity of the election, you should not have access to who has voted and who has not because then you can see who's voting for who and who's not voting for who. Um so it's obviously an infringement on the the privacy of of um parents who are voting
to be um calling people directly and telling them why haven't you voted. Um so the and then a final really important point here is the purpose of CEC's and um in education councils is to provide some measure of parent
governance in the system. And I think a really important um example of that is here tonight. we've had, you know, as a a school a lot of parents from one school. It it gives an opportunity, a platform to communicate with the school district um and and engage in a structured dialogue um and and work
through issues. And it's so it's really important that the education councils and what they represent um is a strong parent voice, a strong governance voice in the system. there's an inherent conflict of interest if you have the department of education overseeing the
election for these councils. Um, and that ultimately is the main driver for the first recommendation, which is move the elections out of the Department of Education away from face and have it be run by the New York City Board of
Elections. Um, I'm under no illusions that the board of elections is perfect, but you will remove that major conflict of interest um having the Department of Education oversee the election um for um a body that's supposed to provide some
measure of of accountability for them. Um and then some secondary recommendations in this resolution, if the elections stay with FACE in the Department of Ed, um we need leadership change at face. Um we need um
individuals leading face who um frankly have demonstrated skill and experience at managing organizations and conducting elections. We'd ask that the Department of Education um audit the votes this year given all the irregularities that
have occurred. We also ask the Department of Education to review the prior two elections in 2021 and 2023 when considering reforms of the process. and we'd like this resolution to be sent to all of our elected officials. Um, this is a state law that governs all this. So, we will need action at the
state level if that's to change. And we're hoping that combined with other CEC's both tonight and in the future that we can get a um a strong wave of support for this this reform. So, that's the res resolution and I hope you will
all support it. Thank you, Steve. And just to remind folks online, the text of the resolution is in the chat. So, I'm going to open it up for council members. Um, do folks want to comment on the resolution? Go ahead, Tamara. I put a comment already on it. The part where it says
that, you know, they were calling people about voting. I voted and they were calling me. So, I was still getting calls even after I vote. So, I don't I don't think that's accurate because I know other parents that voted and they were getting calls, too. So, I just
think that that statement is not accurate and I don't think it should be here because you it's misinformation a little bit because it doesn't represent everybody that was, you know, getting contacted about voting. Me and my husband were vote. We and we voted like
weeks ago, right? You know what I mean? So, and Tamara, let me just I just want to the people who got called that hadn't voted the they were being asked why haven't you voted? So, they were actively looking at their votes and then
speaking to them on the phone and saying why haven't you voted? So, what you're saying is true. They they might have been calling other people too, but the point is they know who had voted. Were they from Were they targeting specific districts in general or like like how
was that that makes no sense. Like how would they know who voted? What's that? That that's okay. That's weird. I just think it's really important that the faces overseeing the election. They shouldn't be going and
looking at who's voted for what before the election's over. Um it's Yeah, I think it's very inappropriate. Like I I do agree that something needs to be done. There is definitely a better way to do it. Um, I do also agree that
there needs to be um an somebody that's not part of face doing it and like an independent person and not part of DOE doing it because we need somebody some bias just in general because there's a lot of rules that um were giving when it
came to being a candidate that a lot of people weren't following. And there there were people last year that were going in front of schools and getting and handing out flyers and they weren't allowed on school grounds and when we when face was notified they weren't
disqualified and it literally said that they should have been disqualified. none of that happened. And I think there need to be clear-cut guidelines that's fair for everybody across the board in general because you can't have where one group gets to do whatever they want and
everybody else is paying the price for that. That's that's a little bit unfair. And um there does need to be change. I I 100% agree with that and it needs to be way better than than what's happening because as of now we don't even know if
the amount of people if there was an increase in voting this year from last year was a decrease and that's something that needs to be done because the the just everything that goes around with this process is done too last minute. You shouldn't be doing this stuff the
year that she's supposed to vote, the year that you got to have came. This should this should be done the year before. You need to get the momentum. You need to explain to parents why these elections are important and they don't understand because as you can see there's not many people that are coming to these meetings. They're mostly online
and we need to do a better job especially for our immigrant community because they don't know what the these elections do. They don't they don't know the voice that they can have in these elections and they need to know because they need to be running too alongside everybody else.
Um, so I there's a couple things I want to say. Can I make one comment? Some it was something Tamara raised earlier and something Robert raised. I just want to point out this resolution. I I removed the line about dissolving face. You had said that to me and then Robert said that too. That's not in our resolution. Yeah. So um yeah,
I I think this is a really important conversation. Um, I think that all of this reveals like very deep flaws in the school governance structure and in the case of New York City, a very deep uh lack of regard for actual parent
involvement and parent power. And there are no other districts that I know of where the school system runs its own elections. So the CEC's and school boards in general are supposed to serve as a check on the power of the school
system. So we have a case here where the system is running its own election. To me that shows just how little um they care about you know parents having actual power and even the constitution of the CEC itself which was supposed to be a bone to parent power um is very
limited. This body is extremely limited in what it can do. Um Tamara is totally right about the unclear guidelines. A lot a lot of us on this council were candidates or I guess are candidates and it is incredibly confusing. I was texting people all the time. Am I
allowed to do this? Am I not allowed to do that? Like that is just not a way to u manage an election. Um and so yeah, I think it's it's really important and and toara's point also just in terms of having more parents participate, seeing
these as as an important elections all of that. Um, it should be part of municipal elections. There is no world in which the DOE should be running the elections for the school board. That's supposed to provide oversight on on what they're doing. So, I definitely support
this and I hope that um we send a message to the DOE that uh this has to be done better in the future. Yeah, Kevin, go ahead. Well, before the meeting I was more like oh issues with this election but now as you guys have
mentioned a DOE is running its own election which is needing a conflicting it's a conflict of interest and it make more sense now it should be moved to the election board rather than by face yeah go ahead I I like this resolution
But I don't feel like the board of elections should be taking over because of the parents that do try to run for CC. We're not politicians and I really feel like the politics should be kept out of CC voting. And I don't like face
arbitrarily disqualifying people that they they don't like or or you know they feel like, oh, they're they're more liberal or they're more uh conservative. I feel like we should just keep pace but them so that they'll
be able to like be a separate branch of the DOE without listening to them. So we'll have um more parental like involvement because the parents that do it we we do it because we we really believe in the
work we do. Thanks. Any other comments on the resolution or motion to vote then? I'll make a motion to vote. Second. Okay. So then what do we do
next? Great. So we are going to take a vote. Um great. So we will now hold a vote on the resolution itself. So this is resolution five. Um Kevin, can you take a roll call vote, please? Sure. Taking a roll
call on June five. Uh Steve, yes. Approve the resolution. Okay. John, I'm sorry. Okay. Elizabeth,
yes. Kevin, yes. May, yes. Wayne. Yes. Okay. Ying. Yes.
Arena. Yes. Sabrina. Is she here? I'm not sure if she's here. 100%. Okay. Absent. Maya. Yes. She says yes. She said yes. Okay. Thank you, Tamara.
Yes. Okay. Thank you, Fabiora. I vote. Yes. Thank you. So, we have one, six, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Yes. One absent. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Um, so
we're going to move on to the discussion of the other resolution, the second one, which is title resolution six. Um and that is a resolution urging the inclusion of state test scores in admissions for screened well this says New York City but this is district 20 is
it not? So this is saying for the whole city. Okay. Um so can the sponsor please introduce the actually I bring up this resolution just because um first of it was in the past we have
been always considering state test in the middle school um admission especially for the screened program but now since the co due to the covid it was dropped off and now the co is long gone I think we should bring it back it's I
mean More importantly, we see that most of the I mean we in the past few years we have realized what is missing when we don't consider the standard test scores and then the students also did not receive the appropriate um education
because it is not aware of their um where they are in their academic. So that's why I would like to think to bring this up to bring this back. Okay. Um, so I'll invite uh people for
comments on this resolution. Can I Yeah, go ahead. Um, yeah, I I I support this resolution. Um, and I I I think it's really um pretty striking what what's happened.
And I I want to encourage everyone on the council to support it and and especially everyone who might in the past not have been aligned with this kind of resolution just to hear what's I I think it's really important to hear what's coming out of our colleges and universities in the
last few years. And there's a section in this resolution that takes direct quotes from these institutions. Um, and these are just three, but there's there's dozens of them that have started to go back to including standardized um tests
like the ACC in their admissions like the SAT or the ACT in their admissions process. Um, for example, at Yale, um, you know, it's it's it's the the the part of the quote from the Yale University. We found that standardized
tests are especially valuable for students attending high schools with fewer academic resources and fewer college prep courses. At MIT, um, they said that standardized exams are most helpful for assisting the admissions office in identifying socioeconomically
disadvantaged students. at Dartmouth. They said test scores are an especially valuable tool to identify high achieving applicants from low and middle inome backgrounds who are first generation collegebound as well as students from urban and rural backgrounds. So, I just want to, you know, in addition to those
of us who are generally supportive of using using tests and admissions, I just want to make a, you know, kind of a direct appeal to those who might be more cautious on it and um sort of, you know, appreciate what's being said about the
ability of a standardized assessment to um to cut across, you know, challenges in life um and in different different backgrounds, different pathways and add um a consistent type of indicator in the
admission process. Um, and I I strongly believe we should as a city we should incorporate that into the middle school for screened middle schools. And that's an important point here is that this is only for the screened middle schools. Um, we'll continue to have our, you
know, a whole host of schools zoned and and otherwise. Um, so that's that's the point I'll just make on the resolution. Okay. I have a a lot of thoughts. Um but I I think that there's a lot of sort of some flawed logic in here and um first of all I don't understand why without
having any data th this only so if you think about district 20 we just heard the data from superintendent PTO about the screen program if we don't know how middle schools have been working with a different screen and we haven't collected data to see how many kids have
gotten access how are they doing I don't understand why we would change change course without collecting a lot of data to see if it's going well. I think in a place like 20, we heard Dr. Prao say before that not having the test has
increased access to screen middle schools for our kids in 20. And if I am correct, that is what a lot of people seem to want in the district. So, I'm confused why then we'd be advocating for a policy that might reduce access to the
very programs that I, as far as I understand, two years ago, everyone on this panel fought to bring back. So, I I think there's just there's so many more questions that would need to be answered about this before before we said this is a good idea and there's just like no
data to support that this would be a good thing for the kids. I think this assumption in here about the um helping low SCES kids, you can find all kinds of data that shows how it also um decreases access for those same kids.
And the the examples that Steve shared are assuming the kids um compared to that's assuming that you're taking low SCES kids compared to kids of higher SCES. Again, if you took a district like 20, um I think instituting this would
decrease access to screens. And again, the numbers we saw before, um show that we have more kids in screen programs now in district 20. So, I would be really cautious and I I do think that from what I gather from everyone here and what I
have heard that parents want access to screen programs. So, I'm confused why the same parents who would want that would also potentially institute an admission policy that would decrease the access that everyone just fought to get back. Um, so it really doesn't make a
lot of sense to me. It also needs a lot more data. I also would urge all of us to say, why don't we collect that data? We do not need to vote on that right now. we could take some time and look and see how this acceptance is going without the test before we make any
changes to something that may not be a problem in the first place. Um, so that's what I think. Yes, Kevin, go ahead. And then um, oh yeah, Kevin and then Fabiola. Okay, first of all, I do not think we
are suggesting to decrease access to the screen program. Well, what we are asking over here is when we are doing today we are doing the NRA for the screen program and what I'm asking over here is to consider this uh
state test score as part of the grading for the students because today we are taking this one of the big drawback from the current system is we are taking this the grade from the report card from the given by the teacher and we see that there's a two problem over there. One is
each school each teacher then let's say in the 90 90 they gave out to a students that means very different amount of different school and different teachers and it's very subjective and there's no way to say if the 90 is means the same
thing and the second thing is um just one second I kind of forgot I should have negative notes before Um, oh, forget it. I'll come back later. Yeah, I just wanted to say that Delina that we
need this was brought to us in a short period of time. We need to do our own research. We need more time and we have we need better numbers before we create something else that it might not be beneficial for our students in district
20. And also to be to give parents to understand this language and and the data here and this resolution and and that has been in this district for a number of years. The fact that we have
more um uh better understanding how superintendent program works now under Dr. Perto than before makes a big difference because before every school was doing their own thing. They were doing their own thing. So like and a lot of times it didn't make sense to the many parents that went to that were um
part of these school communities. So the fact that we actually have something more comprehensive that is explained and the parents understand it way better now. So, and the fact that we actually have more programs says something. You know what I mean? And you're right. We don't we don't have the data to back any
of this up. And I'm like, hearing from MIT, that's great. But like, we need to find out the data in our own district to figure out what works for our kids and our students here so that we can better prepare them for when they get to high school and when they get to college. And
until we have that data, I don't think this information and this resolution has what we need to even put this forth right now. I'm sorry, but I don't. So, I will have to agree with you. We need more data. Sorry. May I speak? Uh, do you hear me? Maya Rosenblot from the
council wants to speak and she's online. Maya, go ahead. Do you guys hear me? We can hear you just fine. Okay. Thank you. So um uh Tamara uh you mentioned preparing children for school for for college and high school. I have a high I
have a college uh graduate and I have a high schooler in my family. So not uh having uh standardized testing and you should understand if the standardized testing is one of the requirements. I'm not saying it as Kevin
mentioned it could be part of the formula as it was before pandemic and all the you know stuff that happened to us during these years. So um if at least part of the formula it will prompt
parents not to opt out of the standardized testing. It's optional. A lot of parents if it's not required they will opt out of standardized testing. They will not uh have their children take test because why why would you
bother? Why would you prepare if it's not required? So if we do not teach children standardized testing early, if we are not introducing them, they will suffer greatly in high school and more in college. Um I see that New York kids
who are subject to standardized testing are doing better in college. They're doing better in other multiplechoice situations. They are more more stress uh you know I see Tamar is disagreeing. uh they they are they are less um you know
prompt to have stress when they are tested. So I do not see it as an evil. Also we have a situation of a great inflation in New York and the data is all over the you know media and it's
well known and it was actually apparent during the high school um uh high school admission times when everyone is in ' 90s. everyone is a a student and how come you know um how do we make
decisions for the high school admission? So it was a problem that was noted on all the levels. So I would like to support the resolution as a great chance for kids to learn the standardized testing early on and also to avoid um
situation when one school is generous uh greater and the other school is not as generous and also um you know when um uh because of the great in inflation the
level of participants of of of the uh you know screen programs are going down and then we're talking about you know kids not being able to do geometry because that's too stressed. Well, maybe we should be more careful in accepting them to the programs. And to your uh
point, Alina, um the number of seats are not changing. This if the screening is more rigorous there, there are just more qualified students who are going to be accepted to the programs. So, the access is not changing. It's just criteria is
better. So, kids are on the same level. they are you know um more capable and the more the level is more even so the teachers can be more um rigorous with the programs. Um thank you. Thank you Maya. Is there someone from
the council who has not spoken yet that wants to speak? Yeah, go ahead. I just want to support the solutions because right now um for this one most people who in the school or sports I
think but it's unfair because I use the language for my office I just have she's got a bella doesn't doesn't um do in the screen and then whole six years she was depressed because she's learning nothing
she say she was sleeping whole year but she still got the principal certificate from the good students and then I think about now to add in this um stat test on it it's just not yeah bad because it just adding some
like after the superment for adding less student have more stuff adding and not just in the school sports and make a more ecoing so that's why I Thank you. So I
like to support Mission. Thank you. Elizabeth, did you want to speak? Yeah. I just feel like it's just another tool for the admissions for the school. I mean, it's not saying because like a lot of students were complaining about like
the lottery numbers like people their lottery numbers will be higher and they will get in or or they'll have a bad lottery and they can't get in even though their grades are good. So I just feel like just adding the standardized test will be just another option to just
let the school see how a student are is more more balanced. And it also tells us is the students meeting the standards. Are they able to keep up with the coursework in such a a harder school? And you know, we don't want to go back
to like where colleges have to give their students remedial courses before they could, you know, get into a very um harder learning. So, I'm just saying I I believe that we should add the standardized testing um just as another
tool, another addition to supplement uh a mission process of who you choose. Go ahead. I just that for me personally and I'm talking in behalf of my kid too.
I'm not saying that I oppose, right? Because we I'm talking about my son who got a good grades and not got into the school he wants, right? And but he's doing great when when it comes to the state test. We're talking about grade
grades. I'm not saying it's bad and as a proud auntie of two you know graduates of these two school that is mentioned I'm just saying that we need better numbers we need more research I just want to clarify and people to understand
because Maya may you know make some comments I'm not opposing I'm not saying this is not a a good tool I'm just saying that we need more research and more time yeah I mean I would just reiterate
legislation looking for a problem like this the the screen process changed if we have not yet looked at the data that says how everyone's talking about kids not being prepared we don't know anything we don't know how kids are doing in the screen programs we don't
know how many got in the access is like we don't know who they are I don't understand why we'd be talking about fixing something that we haven't even diagnosed has a problem So that the logic behind this just does not make sense to me. Um, and I will go back to
its effect on district 20 and I'll say that again very clearly. This to me looks like a district that wants more screened programs. Kids are interested in screen programs. So are parents. Go back to the numbers that the superintendent shared before. The change
to the admissions represented, he said, more access to screen programs for families. So I would want everyone on here to be aware that this could lead to less access to programs and that does not seem to be in the interest of the community. I speak
Alina hasn't gone. Sorry Alina when you said less access um I mean the number of teeth are not changing when you say less access it's going to be what do you mean by that solution? So because in my in my
past two years I heard so many parents say net is like a gamble you know because if the kids have the uh we we like a good student but the may
say may have the bias. Some some teacher have bias. So some kids maybe have really good and some a good grade but some teacher have by 50 give them bad grade some of one of parents was mentioned to me how can I yes I class or
teacher yes I don't know I said you have to talk to school yes right so it's not means that if they are to support this this thing it's the about the kids they have to go up the environment and then
Uh, you know the N just add the N this one to it be fire. It be it be it be like Oh, can I speak Mandarin? Yeah, someone can translate. Karen can translate for me. Okay.
Okay. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! He said it's like a it's basically a more fair and most um subjective way to access the students. So the student um school can better help
students in that case. Yeah. So um the question over here is lottery itself is not a reasonable way because the students who has a I mean a good on study it's I mean they should be able to
take more as class courses. It's not basically like a gambling and dismissed the students uh need So this is like a basically restate what we did before and it is right to assess
the students from different as perspective but this does not I mean to ask a student from different perspective it does not require the more data to say what's the outcome of that. So it's basically to give the to making
the emission process more uh trustful to the parents. So that's why she's supporting it. Thank you. Thanks Kevin for connecting. I want to make a motion to vote on the resolution. Second.
Uh so Kevin, can you do a roll call vote then? And just to be clear, Elena, are we voting? And if and if I'm making a motion to stop the debate or we can go right to a motion to vote on the resolution and Oh, I'm sorry. What did you just say? Maybe I misunderstood. I
I'd like to make a motion to vote on the resolution right away. Right. Somebody if you guys are I'm sorry. Can I just ask if there's any possibility of there being a uh Well, didn't somebody already second? Doesn't that mean we have to? Yeah.
I guess I'm confused about how that Yeah, there's a distinction between like ending debate and holding a vote and then holding the vote itself, but um Okay, sorry. Can I ask a question? I thought you just did both of those. Yeah, you can do it's it's a little
tough sometime. I I just want to give you guys a chance if you guys wanted to. Can you hear me? Am I able to ask a question? Someone always has a question. Republic. I'm sorry. Can you hear me? I just wanted to know is it is it unorthodox to uh postpone a resolution
such as this? I'm proposing holding a vote on the resolution. Is there a second? Okay. Okay. So, Kevin, can you do the roll call vote then? Yep. Okay. We are taking a role on I guess not. Number
six. Uh Steve. Yes. John. Elizabeth. Yes. Kevin. Yes. Ma. Yes. Wayne. Yes.
Ying. Yes. Arena. No. She's not. She's not here. Maya, yes. No. Fabora, no. Okay, so we have six, seven,
eight. Yes. Three rows, one option. Thank you, Kevin. Um, thank you. So, that concludes the resolutions. We're just going to move to the approval of minutes from the previous calendar
meeting. So, we're now going to approve the minutes from our April calendar meeting. Kevin has already shared those with us, I believe. So, um, can the council just quickly review them? You emailed those, right? Yeah. Great.
So, we don't need to spend too much time on this. Any changes to the minutes over there? Changes to the minutes. Okay. If there are no changes, then the minutes are approved.
This concludes the May 2025 calendar meeting. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion. Can I get a second? Thank you. All in favor say I. I. Great. Meeting adjourned. That was long. So, let's take a quick break before the c the business
meeting. Thank you all so much. Thank you everybody for staying so late. Have a good night. Get home safely. Stay dry.