welcome to the CC 20 April 2025 calendar meeting we are very happy to be hosted here at MS 407 led by Steve Lombardo principal Steve Lombardo our recording secretary Kevin Z will now
take I saw you actually crossing with her one day yeah I honked you oh really i'm driving back is Kevin online kevin are you online is he online no I'll do it then oh so Steve will take
attendance steve Stow uh present uh here john Rickon elizabeth Chan here mayang Chen here um Wenming uh Wenming Chen she's
running late i think she's gonna be here yanqing Chen um Fabiola um Nandetta she emailed me and said she was running okay she's running late alina Lewis
sabrina McNamera here maya Rosenblot maya are you there tamara Stern here kevin Zhao kevin are you there
ryan Lee okay and it looks like we have one two three four five six at the moment we have six in person so not a quorum yet but um if our members running late show up then we'll
have quorum but anyway so uh attendance is taken back to you Elizabeth okay tonight we will have interpretation in Arabic Mandarin and Spanish you will see these interpreters in the participant list and they will post their information in the
chat our interpreters will now introduce themselves could I could our Arabic interpreter please introduce yourself uh good evening everybody my name is my
daughter Ali uh this uh introduction to the Arabic audience for hashtag hashtag arabic announcement is done thank you thank you could our Mandarin interpreter
please introduce yourself sure um the following is for Mandaring interpretation um complete manding um interpretation thank you thank you could our Spanish interpreter please introduce yourself
my name is Fatima along with Gerson will be the Spanish interpreters for tonight's event uh this announcement will be in Spanish fencia symbol much announcement thank you as a reminder
please try to speak slower than usual to allow our interpreters to keep up we will now go over the agenda for tonight's meeting uh is Kevin here yet oh oh can you please share the agenda so uh first order will
be to the students performance and the second one will be public speaking session third we will have school construction authority presentation on the proposed new primary school site and four we will report of the superintendent five we
will have the report of the council pres president and six we will have the second public speaking session and seven approval of the March calendar meeting minutes so yes thank you and now we
will we will be excited to be treated to a short performance from our MS 407 students they will be performing a scene from their upcoming performance of Annie's Kids no out anymore i knew you the
ticket in my mouth we need the is What I We listen oh no [Music] it's hard for us
what's up no one get wet from the crackes santa Claus [Music] spanish next this
is director thank you repeat like we said email that uh June uh 17th at MS 407 the full performance what time okay so doors opens at 5:30 and performance starts at 6
and how much are the tickets sorry on our website okay $5 for tickets and you could go on their website to purchase tickets now we would like to recognize several attendees at our
meeting uh Superintendent Dr david Pto uh Deputy Superintendent Dr dr joe O'Brien executive director Laura Kaiser family leadership coordinator Bill Chen uh family support coordinator
Sylvia Justi sorry and uh face representative Ena Presniski sorry and this is a list of some of the people from the elected officials office
uh from Alexis Aila's office we have Representative Katherine Burn and from Susan Zong's office we have Joyce C and we also have Lester Chang from the state assembly office
so now we will have our first public speaking session of the evening and you can sign up on the online form kevin will share the link in the chat if you are in person you can sign up using the sheet at our table and
speakers will be limited to three minutes we will start with anyone here to speak in person okay this one she is not here should we do her first or Joy we have one person jr J none of these others I don't believe
are in person i don't see her i don't think Nancy is here does he want to cut Jabra as far as I know but I'm just these other ones let's just confirm they're not in person nancy in What's that there is an inerson yeah I
know i'm not questioning that i'm just Nancy Sautil did Nancy make it tonight she was on the list nancy no and then Katherine Burn katherine were you in person i have here that she is but I
guess she's not and then this one's online and then now we can go to whoever's in person as well j so Jay Brown you could speak on there yes yeah on that laptop over there going to ask you to unmute you can just press
unmute yeah thank you thank you to the council um I I'm from CC2 uh me member and president but I'm here as a a district 20 parent um I just wanted to thank Dr predto for last month the explanation about the policy around
the notifications related to the sexual offenders that have moved into the zip code um I know when that came out I was uh reaching out immediately to uh many people including the DOE security chief
about that i understand you know the the crux of the issue that causes a lot of confusion and that was jarring to a lot of people is that the NYPD is uh allowed to share that information but the DOE is required to share it once the NYPD provides it
and the NYPD has not been providing it for a number of years so for many parents who don't have kids who maybe were in the school system pre- pandemic they'd never seen one of those and also the communication from the DOE i know it's a form letter principles yet there
can't be edits made to it um and it says an individual their this person's photo is on the next page but what was what was jarring to a lot of people was that eight 10 12 photos were on the next page so I know I expressed to DOE that it
would be helpful for principles if they had some leeway to be able to edit that communication so that it could be a little bit more uh clear to parents that it might might be referencing sort of catching up for a number of years hopefully that won't be the case in the
future hopefully now this will be regular communication between the departments but again I appreciate your explanation last month um and then my my one question was related to I know yesterday I heard a lot of principles were talking about you know sharing back and forth the information of getting
good news funding for to hire extra teachers to comply with class size mandates i know 750 principles got that funding which is more than 40% of schools but there was only I think 800 that requested it so it's a very high
success rate um and I know it's you know a lot of teachers are going to get hired that's one piece of the puzzle obviously space is another issue we're in a beautiful new space here but we have a lot of schools that you know are going to struggle to find those spaces so I
was just I'm always curious to find out how we figure all of that out you know the hiring the teachers is one step but finding the space and I know we could play with schedules a little bit too but it's going to be interesting to see how
everybody juggles that thank you then in progress in a U Hello I'm Steven Mahoney i'm the parent of a nine-year-old child in a district 75 school within uh district 20 um as I go along I find more
of what I consider the disparate treatment to our district 75 children some are rising in summer rising the children in general ed can apply to a school more or less within a walking distance of their school most of our district 75 children for their regular
classes have to take a bus back and forth if they go to an afterchool program they get no transportation mom and dad figure it out same thing in summer rising so from Bay Ridge the nearest school my son has to apply to is up on Kaitton kaitton up near Ocean
Parkway we live in Bay Ridge there's I think there's 13 schools District 75 here within the confines of District 20 but it's just the semantics of how they assign personnel and um the supports that these children may need so they're
even further away where is the data showing how many of our district's 75 children attend afterchool programs and some are rising because transportation is a big issue for that um and I'd asked uh uh deis we got school construction
coming as I've made the rounds of district 20 schools this being one of them they have the whole second floor is there a visual point so these kids see 231 on the wall when they walk in only
up on Avenue P they got a big floor mat and it has their school number are these children invisible where's their sense of belonging so you know I know there's a lot of different things with school construction it's the budget for 75 and then the but school construction from
ground zero we got a banner outside i've seen that it says 231 but how about when these kids walk in the school they got a whole floor they got 20% of a building and on the variable message signs I understand it comes out of a different
budget the principal of my son's school has six sites he can't afford to put a billboard but if there's a variable message sign I ask the superintendent to encourage them to share it with the district 75 portion that's in there because these kids and their parents
that come up to the school they should see announcements also it shouldn't be restricted where only the general study school is allowed to use these resources or is inclusivity only a buzzword thank you for your time all right is she online she might
be now we'll take it actually double check to make sure there's no one else in person double check is there anybody else in person that would like to speak okay all right so anybody online that wants
to speak no one sign up all right so now we will go to our third agenda which is school construction authority presentation so we'd like to recogn uh welcome director of external affairs from the
school construction authority uh Steve Gonzalez steve will make be making a presentation on a new school site in the district over there you want me to go from here or up to you you said you want Yeah I can do it from here okay you can do it from there first of all thanks for the promotion i'm not the director but it's all right i'm external affairs
manager for South Brooklyn and Staten Island for the school construction authority first of all I want to thank the uh CEC20 for giving me the opportunity today and giving the agency the opportunity to talk about a a exciting new primary school site that
we're citing in district 20 um as per law uh or code and also city law that we are uh required to make presentations come forward and do a filing with the CEC and with the community board 11
which I did last week uh Mr brown was there last week he was present so uh we do these presentations prior to going before this for the New York City Council so as you say as I mentioned this is 7120 New Trek Avenue Brooklyn
New York you can also hit the next uh Sorry okay okay okay i'm going to read the filing pursuant of the New York City School Construction Authority Act notice has
been filed for the proposed site selection of block 6180 there are three lots lots 31 33 and 44 and any other nearby property in the immediate vicinity which may be necessary for the
construction of a new approximately 451 seat primary school located in community school district number 20 in the Burough Brooklyn the proposed site is approximately 22,518 square ft or 0.51 acres and is
located at 155372nd Street and 7108-7120 Utrich Avenue bounded by 72nd Street to the south New York new Utre Avenue to the east residential and
ground floor retail to the north and residential houses on the west in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn the proposed site consists of three privatelyowned lots surface level parking lot on lot 31 an unoccupied
retail building on lot 33 and a twostory residential building on lot 44 the proposed site will be acquired by the New York City by our agency the New York City School Construction Authority on behalf of the New York City Department
of Education the site plan and supplemental materials summarizing the proposed action are available at the New York City School Construction Authority at 251 Jackson Avenue Long Island City New York 11101 attention to Kelly Murphy she's
our senior director of real estate services our website uh is at nycsca.org community sites comments on the proposed action are to be uh submitted to the New
York City School Construction Authority at the bub address or by email to sites at nycsca.org this date's been changed it's been moved to May 28th it's been extended so May 28th 2025 now the SCA public process for site
selection as I mentioned before we are required to present school real estate sites to the local community board and community education council as we're doing tonight before moving forward a 45day public comment period on the sites
commenced on March 12th and again ends at May 28th formal comments can be shared through mail and email today's presentation will focus on the site itself rather than specifics about the school facility we do not have a design so we have to get proof by the city
council before we even talk about a design at this juncture so as I said we don't have design details to share i also we also don't have an occupancy date yet the school construction authorities again is proposing to build approximately 451 seats primary school
the proposed site is approximately as I mentioned before 22,518 square ft the process includes environmental review and engagement with city agencies such as DOT DP and FDNY before going to the city council for
final approval so as you can see the proposed site is here here's New York Pre Avenue this is the uh MTA line here subway line and uh the three three lots are
here as you see on this map over here this is the little site here is 72nd Street and 71st Street and and the interject intersection of 16th and New York which is up down the
block so again 45day comment period on these sites began on March 12th 2025 again it's through May 28th comments on this site can be emailed to sites at nycsca.org again the comments on the site can be mailed to uh Kelly Murphy
again it's 25501 Jackson Avenue Long Island City steve Gonzalez manager external affairs myself uh my emails S Gonzalez at NYCsca.org or and uh
718-752-5046 or myself which is 347-5390157 you're probably easier to get reach me there and our Department of Education contact Rebecca Lichensteinstein R lichenstein 2 at schools.nyc.gov and again that completes
my presentation i'm available for questions oh yes uh yes i want to ask you a quick question if if you do get approved for the sites yes when will you take design um input and do you do take
in design input like in account of how you design the building well we have uh we'll have a design team that will be uh working on this um we normally work in in hand with DOE we will at some point show the design as we've done in the
past to the superintendent so he does get the chance to see the design and but will the public have input on the design also well basically the design is done through uh through our design team so So you
don't take in public well I mean if the public has questions we would certainly talk to the public we'll take questions or comments but again we have a design team that we work in uh correlation with uh the DOE all right so do any CC
members have any questions for Steve how'd you find the site steve through our real estate ah it wasn't showed to you by any CC members years ago i'm sorry it wasn't showed to you by CEC members years ago i'm not familiar where was it i'll send you the deck okay i I
know that real estate handled this so yeah and they were again they were negotiating with the owners but I do I do thank you uh for those who who did share the site i appreciate that who helped us get that site thank you okay
uh Tamara has a hand or anybody in person CC members want to have a question first this one of the school that we talked discussed in the past years so this is totally new okay so this I noticed this is very
close on the other I mean on the for Hamilton part when there's another primary school right I think is around 69 70 no 90 something like a der some school it's not that well
112 yeah it's not it's not that far yes a couple months away yes so that means there's going to be a zoom shifting again on That's the zone that's up to the DOE we just build it we just do the
construction so we're right down the block from the future uh uh IS-82 St rosalia site we're right down the block maybe a block or two away yes can you repeat the anticipated date
i don't have no weine no I have no timeline no design we we don't uh schedule a timeline we don't propose a timeline until after approval of the city council and we're still in negotiations with buying the lot we're
close to purchasing the lot we have to get approval from the city council can't we can't do an anticipate anticipation occupancy date okay yes i have a question so because the inocation is nearby the subway and
how about protect the school student uh can uh normal normal noise the noise you know the train pass that have been noise how how do improvement here well
in terms of you mean for school instruction in the school in the building well they normally do sound we we've done a new designs with soundproof windows uh we've done it in a number of schools um 746 over by the Gowanas they
have they have soundproof windows that we've put in when we built that school so there is allocations to do uh soundproof windows to make sure to keep out noise okay can I ask my question now please
okay okay tamara has a question for you hold on one second and I'm I'm and I'm sure our design team will take it into into account the fact that the the MTA line is is right there so but but you design is not public or something i'm
sorry you said you weren't taking public comment on how to design the place we we will take I will certainly bring it back to our design team so people should email you if they have Absolutely they have questions we will take uh
suggestions yes but the actual designs are all done by our design team through DOE yes somebody had a question yes somebody on that yeah i've been waiting I've been waiting for a while actually to ask a question sure sure that's great that this is going to be another new
school that's one of the things that we all want in this district can I you know I I'd like to advocate for my students with disabilities to make sure that this site can be like possibly a site for D75 program you know
as well if you guys are looking into it because we do need a lot of more of those seats in this neighborhood for our D75 families so I will make I will make mention of that all right thank you a lot of the schools that um a lot of the schools that we've built
in the past several years do have D75 students um in fact uh uh K464 which is K2 or K231 uh school sites we just uh opened it up in September 132 seat
uh D75 in the old Our Lady of Guadaloop building in the main building so and this building too yes I think you have D75 that's right you have D75 this is K231 school here as well i I think the numbers match up really well on
elementary school now yes office of District Planning has showed us that yes we have yes we the SCA has made a considerate effort to fill a lot of our new schools in the last number of years with D75 because there was a a need i
know that parents uh and again the suggestion that someone mentioned about parent input parents did come before previous CEC meetings in the past uh advocating for D75 uh seats and uh we worked to make that happen but but just
because the total seat number is close to the demand it doesn't get into the details and specifics of grade levels and specific uh program provisions so you know we'll we'll continue to work with the special ed office to see how the evolving nature of uh D75 needs in
the district match up to to seats so we always absolutely we'll be talking so we we always do we always work with you on a regular basis yep also visually could you tell me how like a person that doesn't know square footage how how
large the site is like is it the same size as New Utrik High School or same size as Shallow no no no it it's it's going to be it's a smaller square footage okay of course New Utrik High School it's a bigger building we we um
In fact we put an addition to that school so it it is smaller and of course you have the athletic field so it would be smaller so the school shallow would be I think would be small and shallow as well oh okay a little you said you said like you had like a a rough estimate
about 450 students that 451 seats yes so that's more on the small smaller uh end more in the size of the schools that were just constructed to school and right correct 331 okay all right thank you you're welcome is there parking on
the site or do you envision parking no nothing right just we our our aim is always to build seats not a park maybe not parking but how about uh uh a yard outside playground i don't know that that again that would
be part of the design phase i don't know if if a play All right but Steve how'd you get an estimate of 451 seats but not having any design at all whatsoever where does the 451 come from that's that's an estimate that they that
they came came up with but based on what right based on a structure that could potentially be built yes yes all right but but again we don't we can't we can't design until I we until we get city council approval once we get once we go Steve once we go through city council
approval we can Yeah I know i know i I just wonder where you get a 451 from but yet you don't know anything about the design whatsoever well we don't it's not that I don't Couldn't it be 251 351 651 sorry I just I vent to many of these and
I just it's the same every time all right but but sometimes could you guys think about future incorporating uh parking because like a lot of like our community is getting so crazy with parkings so I was just wondering how come you guys don't anticipate future
needs of our community well because again it's always we've always advocated for building uh seats and and and not parking because the reason why I say and the reason why I say thatution No I understand but the reason why because
the real estate that we purchase is so tight that there's no room for parking that's that's the issue and and we always advocate for seat need and not parking i'm thinking about futuristically like you build up and have some underground parking or
something so there'll be less congestion that's what I'm just saying and unfortunately underground parking adds to the cost construction cost that's that's the problem all right thank you thank you so I have the question in the
you potach uh PPT uh petition have the 44 44 number can you can you show the go back to the PP they have the the base is the for
I saw that is the the lot number no it's the for the P she's right yeah yeah the lot number yeah the number okay so so that is the house yes we're looking to purchase the the residential yes the
house the owner is looking to Oh to sell yes they agreed to sell they agreed to sell yeah they're looking to sell yes that's why we're buying the lot yes they've negotiated with the owner and the and the three lots yes all
those owners okay three separate purchases huh three separate purchases yeah that they're they're they're p we're purchasing from the separate yes they're all they're separate purchases yes so is public
information how much we paid for the lot uh that's I'm just asking i that I don't know i would have to Is it public information how much they pay for each law should be yeah oh yeah so where would
that be he don't know where that real estate okay thank you any other questions for Steve i think you have the first design and then to show and then to apply as the
451 seat for the school i think you have to do first and then I maybe you come here to present dish 20 something like that so how do you didn't know that i didn't
know I I we can't again we don't have first of all we don't have full uh acquisition of the property and we don't have city council approval if we don't have that we can't go and design a building because we don't know what
could take place down the line i mean I'm not see I don't see issues with this coming down the line but we have to again we can't again we can't do a design until we have an approval by the city council
but see you say you say approved by the city council but you have the deadline to to access to um we can maybe some email to access to until April 29 did you do the approval before that no we
don't have approval we we have a notice of filing it's a 45day period which we extended to May May 28th and uh once the filing's done then we can move forward and go before the city council we also have to go as I mentioned before uh a
number of uh city agencies DOT and FDNY we have to go to through those agencies we've actually have sent comments to I uh it's under review before the DOT right now Department of Transportation i can tell you that i don't know about the other agencies but
the other DOT I do know that we've uh that we've sent comments to them and they're reviewing them in person audience miss um a good question now I do this okay so so we usually don't allow audience
members to ask questions but if we post So all right thank you so thank you Steve okay we're good yeah we're good thank you very much thank you thank you so so now we have the superintendent report
uh good evening D uh CC for uh having me for this presentation tonight's presentation is a report on one of the uh one of the real highlight initiatives uh and priorities in district 20 which is the civics for all partnership that
we hold in district 20 and we will also be giving a presentation briefly on the progress towards the development of the superintendent program uh with uh specifics in the social studies realm uh and we will uh you know culminate the report with uh two student presentations
in recognition of two student leaders in the district as well as two uh teachers uh from our district who have worked with our students uh their principles and district staff to uh really represent the district in a tremendous way while advancing this priority uh so
I'll start with uh the the introduction of uh our district achievement and instructional specialist in district 20 uh somebody who is the coordinator of the civics for all initiative in district 20 as well as uh the uh primary
support mechanism for the advancement of social studies implementation in the district the development of the superintendent program social studies arm that culminates in the uh US history regions and I might add the coordinator of not just the district 20 spelling B
but like a bunch of district spelling bees uh and we're really really lucky to have her and uh this year uh district 20 student won the spelling bee which I was super we were like we were super proud um but um I'm really uh really proud to
introduce Tracy McCarthy no uh from the district team to uh come up and kind of give a presentation overview of this work in the district before we introduce the students uh and provide some context i'm just going to share my screen thank you not sure if you want your
camera on i didn't turn my camera on share the screen um good evening to everyone i'm really happy to be able to speak to you this evening on the work that we're doing in district 20 around civics and social studies
yeah i'm trying to just get this screen shared really quick i'm sorry there we go uhhuh all right there we go so I can start off by saying before we get to the next slide that district 20 is a civics for all partner district um
the goal of partner districts throughout the city is to empower our students with knowledge and skills to be informed and engaged citizens um partner districts have existed in New York City since 2021 um district 20 was one of I believe the first six partner districts in New York
City we have been a partner since 2022 so we are in year three of partner district status um we meet with civics for all leads that represent all 43 of our schools um on a monthly basis and we ground our work every year um in various
different principles i'm on the next slide um and one of the things that we thought for this year was really thinking about this idea of power for our young students since civics is so tied to empowerment um and we really um our foundational work was really with this quote um thinking that learning
about power and learning about voice is so necessary for our students and really talking about what is in their best interest and the interests of their communities and for our young students their community is really their school community and the community around where they live so that is really where we
were foundational with this work um and we use this quote really sort of as inspiration for ourselves and all of the educators for this year um one of the things that we're most proud of and the hallmarks of the Civics for All program is Soapbox NYC and it is
a public speaking experience where students are able to create an advocate for solutions to improve their schools their communities as well as the lives of other young people that are around them um Project SOP box takes place
every year in schools throughout the city right now there are 29 partner districts throughout New York City um and by next year pretty much every district in New York City will be a partner district um but for Project Soapbox it really is an experience for
students to get on their soap box and talk about an issue that impacts them in a way that they feel can be impactful so for this year for Soapbox NYC which is also coordinated through the Mikba Challenge out of Chicago thousands of students in New York City shared their
voices um 26 District 20 schools actually sent representatives to the Brooklyn um quarterfinals and were able to represent their voices um of those 26 schools they narrowed it down to 51
students in New York City who made the semi-finals and four of our district 20 students actually made the semi-finals this year which was um absolutely thrilling um and then from the semi-final round of 51 students they narrowed it down to 10 students in all
of New York City to take the stage in front of the chancellor and some other elected officials and other leaders um in the New York City Department of Education and of those 10 students two of them were from district 20 and you're going to hear from those two
students Dappa and Liliana in a couple of moments and hopefully um and not even hopefully I know that you will be as inspired by their voices um as I was sitting there listening to them in New York City last week um this is the third
consecutive year um we are in year three that one of our district 20 students has made it to the finals in the main stage in Soapbox NYC so we're so proud of the work that all of our educators and school leaders are doing around Soapbox because it's such an important platform
for student voice another um hallmark of civics for all is participatory budgeting participatory budgeting is studentdriven and it is democratic in its processes um and it allows schools to sign up for funds that are provided by the city and the
students then are responsible for gathering ideas and voting and then implementing how the funds will be spent each school that signed up this year received $2,668 30 of our schools signed up um
the students around the district held discussions meetings and elections some of which we were lucky to go to and vote in um some of their choices were um water filtration systems the water filtration systems are very popular um
paint and decals um and re-imagining for spaces such as restrooms school murals um additional indoor recess equipment school mascots opening school stores um community gardens um picnic benches so
many of them in past years um at uh 7:48 we went and we voted on a school mascot the students wanted a mascot at their school and we went for a vote um at PS 200 last year students decided they wanted to create a school flag and they
wanted to be able to purchase materials and and so we went and we voted on a school flag um of all of the student creations um and at PS 682 we voted on the opening of what eventually was their school store so a lot of great ways for
students to use their voice and to use their options that they have in terms of the work that our civics for all leads do um we highlight various different aspects of the civic scroll curriculum including the use of the curriculum in the classrooms um there are multiple lessons that we share
with our leads on um community civil discourse uh local government we also had um various different lesson lessons pre and post election as we will do also in the days leading up to the November elections in New York City we used the
hidden voices curriculum we use comics such as action activists um in the classroom we finished about a month ago civics week um in New York City and we were invited to various different events that were held at the schools um to celebrate civics week um and again
project soapbox and participatory government so in year three we are really hitting all of the various different benchmarks for civics for all our final event for Civics for All for the year is a district event that we
hold um it's called our D20 Civics event this year the title of our event is Democracy Begins Here Educate Advocate and Act and it'll be held on Thursday the 29th of May and it'll be held at the Sunset School of Cultural Learning um
PS9 um we really look to have this again studentrun student driven event to be a representation of what students are doing in their schools every single day and to celebrate it um and we share with the leaders and our invited guests
really the work from this year and then the goals that students have for next year an update on our superintendence program for accelerated learning um in the fall of 2024 to coincide with the development and the implementation of the superintendent program we created a
cohort of sixth grade teachers um starting with the students that were coming in for the first year of the superintendence program um to have the opportunity to be exposed to various different academic pathways and to have a discussion around what exactly is accelerated learning and what should it
be looking like at least in our social studies classrooms that's what we focused on um we really focused on our using our passport to social studies curriculum and if you're not familiar with Passport to Social Studies it is an NGLS aligned standardsbased curriculum
that was created by teachers in New York City for teachers in New York City um we also used the framework to work on curriculum compacting and for this year we were looking at compacting the sixth and nth grade curriculums which sort of
work in tandem with each other we create pathways to the regents although the students take the regents in eighth grade we are working on the skills and the tasks that can be given in the classrooms now for sixth grade teachers so that we are distributing the work over the three years and we are creating
a foundational basis for sixth grade additionally we are also talking about disciplinary literacy and what reading and writing looks like in a social studies classroom in our district i'm going to turn it back over to you so now uh I'm really excited to introduce
our two New York City uh Soapbox NYC finalists um they are here accompanied by their teachers as well as their principles administrators so I'm going to invite them all up and I'm really excited to invite them to come up and deliver their speech uh so first from
PS164 uh we have Liliana and Liliana is accompanied by Yep and Liliana is accompanied by her principal Erica Steinberg uh and her teacher um Miss Obasa miss I've I've never said your first name before so I'm
going to say it today um Miss Olainka Obasa all right i'd like to I'd like to invite you all up uh and meet Liliana and have her deliver deliver your speech on internet information
and the topic of Liliana's speech is internet misinformation what would be the best what would be the Li should she sit or want to go over there yeah
one second one sec you're ready good evening my name is Liliana Prasad that's me good evening my name is Liliana Persan i am a fourth grader at PS164 and today
I'll be talking to you about misinformation on the internet are you like me after a long day of school one of your favorite ways to relax is by watching YouTube well once I saw a YouTube short that had mentioned one of my favorite YouTubers had died i felt
devastated minutes later I found out this was not true this is an example of misinformation and the effect that can have on kids like me we might think misinformation is not an important thing but it is and can affect us in many ways
misinformation can affect our health this was seen during the COVID pandemic the US the Department of Health and Human Services wrote that misinformation led to people to decline vaccines reject public health measures and use unproven treatments
misinformation can lead to people having negative ideas about groups of people which can lead to violence pbs News explains that during the 2024 presidential election misinformation about Haitian immigrants laid led to multiple bomb threats school closures
and growing fear within the city's immigrant community without misinformation people would be able to make healthy decisions using true facts they would treat people kindly because they would not have negative ideas that are not true so how can we fix this problem we and I mean
anyone who uses social media should question what they see is this coming from a good source can I find this information in other places we can also talk to our teachers and trusted adults when we hear something that seems wrong we should ask questions and challenge it
even if it comes from a friend but a big problem that a lot of kids face is knowing if something is misinformation i think a bigger thing that needs to happen is that kids need to be taught about this in school according to Scientific American 84% of kids can't
even tell what's misinformation for example I talked to some kids in my school and they agree with me that is difficult to know what is true on the internet so what does this mean it means we need to be shown how to think about what we see on the internet and how to recognize false information this needs
to be taught in schools because even adults can accidentally believe misinformation and pass it on to kids that's why we need schools to help all NYC schools have to teach digital citizenship but from my research on the NYCPS website this is one lesson once a
year and I do not think that is enough to help kids deal with issues we should write to the NYCPS and explain why we need more lessons on this topic we can also reach out to the programs on the NYCPS website and ask them to create more lessons and resources for kids now
don't get me wrong i love to watch social media like YouTube but I watch it mostly for entertainment because most things on social media are not true and when I come across things that are made to look like facts I ask questions and do research let's take action one by
taking responsibility and closely paying attention to what we see and two asking to learn more about this in school [Applause]
thank you so much that was amazing [Applause] our other Thank you so much uh I want to give you a lot of uh a lot
of feedback on how well researched and how well delivered that speech was but that like in short it was amazing um our second New York City finalist in uh Soapbox NYC comes from McKinley Junior High School uh junior high school 259 uh
we have Sappa and join and accompanying Sappa we have her teacher Miss Jenna Coughfield and And representing uh principal Janice Giri we have assistant principal Daniel Notto
[Applause] sure just make sure that they can see you you got this hello my name is Safadua at William McKinley Junior High School and today I'll be discussing
school students were you ever in a situation in which you had to smear a classmate's blood on yourself and play dead to hide from a gunman at school no well 11-year-old Mia Suro did according to CNN News Mia an
11-year-old survivor of the Rob Elementary School massacre in Uvali Texas feared the gunman would come back for her and so she smeared herself in her friend's blood and played dead imagine you yourself were in that position at just 11 years
old many kids in the US are left traumatized not only because so many of them have survived school shootings virtually every week we hear about traumatic events happening within our schools in the news how do you think I feel after participating in active shooter drills
throughout the year mia was quoted as saying "I was scared the gunman would return to my classroom to kill me and a few other surviving friends and so I dipped my hand in the blood of my classmate who lay next to me already dead and then smeared the blood all over
myself to play dead the safest place for kids to spend their everyday time is supposed to be their school according to sandy hookpromise.org there were more school shootings in 2022 46 to be exact than in any year since the school shooting at
Coline High School in 1999 this mirrors America's border rise in gun violence as it emerges from the pandemic this need not be the case by addressing the causes of violent occurrences and putting into practice tried and trueue tactics that promote a
positive school atmosphere we may create a safe and encouraging educational environment free from gun violence according to everytownressearch.org Every year more than 4,300 children and teens are shot and killed and over
17,000 more are shot and wounded but imagine a world where all kids can wake up and go to school in the morning feeling safe never being paranoid that their life could be taken we can all do something to help solve this problem today owners of firearms must be held
accountable if a child underage can access it according to sandyhookpromise.org Nearly half of all parents with the weapon in their home wrongly believe that their children don't know where the gun is stored some kids even receive weapons as gifts from their parents for Christmas
or birthdays holding owners and kids accountable for their actions would create a more secure and safe school environment citizens can take time to create a petition for the government to hold adults over the age of 18 accountable
when minors are able to access illegal firearms i encourage you to work at protests and petitions visit change.org today and sign one of the thousands of petitions that have already been created to end school shootings in this country now I'd like to leave you with a quote
from Dr amanda Gorman it takes a monster to kill children but to watch monsters kill children again and again and do nothing isn't just insanity it's inhumanity thank you i want to thank both um Liliana and
Sappa for their amazing work and I was just excited to share uh their work with with the community and the council uh soapbox NYC this component of civics for all is one of the like truly amazing opportunities for all students in the district to engage in researching topics
that are of interest to them being able to uh learn public speaking uh and propose uh potential solutions to uh really important topics uh that are important to them i appreciate hearing your voices and I know that everybody here was was moved by hearing your
voices and your very extensive research and very well-designed uh arguments and delivery so congrats to both of you and uh and thank you to uh Miss Caulfield Miss Obasa and Principal Steinberg and staff for supporting uh their work
and I and I thank again uh uh Miss McCarthy no uh from my office for coordinating and supporting this work in the district uh without Tracy this doesn't happen so thank you so much i appreciate you um I wanted to invite the the students the staff and the
principles up with the council just for a quick picture since you're all here and then that'll conclude my report i'll take questions everyone everyone go great you guys should come in the middle yeah yeah yeah yeah
thank you thank you you really know your stuff praise God just want to conclude my report with a thank you again to Principal Lombardo from MS 407 uh and his staff and the the arts performance shameless plug for the
district 20 uh performing arts e expo which is happening on May 23rd uh at McKinley Junior High School really excited for the for the arts visual and performing uh performances by students representing every school in district 20
uh at the end of May uh has been a district 20 tradition and are really excited to make sure that that continues thank the principles on the arts committee i thank Dr o'brien uh for coordinating uh the principles i thank Sylvia Jasinski for uh really coordinating all of the uh all the
principles on the uh on the team and I'm really excited for the performing art expo so uh thank you that concludes my report also um any CC members have any questions for uh Superintendent Pto i just wanted to I didn't catch her name
sorry um the civics for all person this Oh Tracy yeah yeah i just want to say thank you for the presentation and just share that um I got to teach them the soap box at my kids school and it was amazing and you know how I have a I'm a
parent to two kids but one is a sixth grader and usually they come home you say how was school you hear nothing the one she's on student government and the one thing she would not stop talking about was the participatory budgeting and she was so excited and they voted for water fountains um so it really is
awesome so thank you um and I did have a follow-up question so I don't know if it's to you or to you about the superintendence program and the US history in the eighth grade is that you can ask him we can um I'm just wondering the logic behind that just because the
you know the students will still have to take American history as a junior and tend to do better if they're older so I'm just wondering what the the logic is behind having them take it in the eighth grade and then also I guess my push back on that is just that um it's going to
make the seventh and eighth grades like value more coverage over depth if they're teaching to the regions so I was just curious to hear the thinking behind I can actually Tracy why don't you go ahead yeah sure the first thing is that the new um US
history and US history government regions is um a test that doesn't is not based on coverage it is primarily a reading and writing and an understanding of what the written history of our country is so we are really promoting
this idea of a skills based learning and understanding of it so in that way there's actually less to cover because there are probably about 40 less topic points on this new region than there was on the previous one the second thing would be with the advent of all of the additional advanced placement courses in
high schools and what is being offered um students don't necessarily if they come in with the credit from eighth grade have to take that it does open up and allow for them to take a different history course um than one that's just prescribed in the school year the American history though required as a
high schooler so it is and it isn't if they take it and they get the credit in eighth grade they are actually getting credit they retake that course so they would retake it as advanced placement US history which is a different curriculum the the college board is a different curriculum and it's just looking at it
and reimagining it in a different way but you also now with the advent of AP human geography um and then there's other AP courses that are historically based um gives them a little bit more leeway in terms of what they're able to offer curricularly and if students are
taking it in an accelerated program in 8th grade it might mean that they are going to be following up at a school that will be offering multiple different options and pathways when they take history courses so the intent there is that they could potentially opt out of it
later or just take I mean they're going to take four years of history that is still that is still a requirement of ELA and history in high school are the only two courses that you're required to take for four years but they they will have a little bit more le in terms of what their choices for history
and we don't have any data yet obviously because they haven't taken that hasn't happened yet we piloted the US history regions last year uh on a small sample in schools yes yeah and they all passed with 80s and love like the the the
passing rates were such that gave us reason that uh it it made sense to include it in the program with obviously with support uh and we're doing the same with the geometry exploration that the council's requested and so we're in the midst of doing the same type of analysis for that
yeah that's helpful thank you this this is a well-meaning question um but I'm genuinely curious with and it's a tough question perhaps but with civics for all and I've been to the presentation that the school and it's wonderful they all the schools kids had these great displays and stuff as we all
know there are sort of guidelines the DOE has about politics in schools right um teachers staff not allowed to express political opinions how do you guys navigate that boundary between civic
awareness kids talking about issues that they're passionate about but also um you know adhering to really the you know the the intent of those regulations which is to sort of you know keep politics in its proper place keep our schools um as a
place of education you want Sorry can I ask you to come up so we can hear online please thank you thank you you can sit you can sit right here please thank you okay
so for the civics for all curriculum especially for soapbox soapbox is comprised of of multiple lessons and before students actually are able to get to the writing and choosing of a topic that they're going to there are sort of like norming and community activities that take place um additionally within
the structure of a speech there are certain benchmarks that students have to hit so if you're choosing a topic why is this topic important to you if it impacts you is it impacting you and is it impacting other people um when we have discussions about civil discourse and our lessons on civil discourse there
has to be respectful speak so when we're going over and talking about it first before students again even set pen to paper there have to be sort of like they almost like will bullet point something and say this is my topic this is why it's important to me this is why this is what I think should be done there has to
always be a next action it can't just be I want to complain about this and I want to talk about this there has to be a call to action if a speech doesn't have a call to action we actually will hand it back and say that's you know wonderful that you're recognizing this issue but what
are you asking for other students in the community to do about this issue so um we have various benchmarks along the way there have if there is a time when we'll see a speech and we maybe think that it is not being respectful to everyone that is going to hear the speech um and
students are open to this we will ask them to reimagine this is there a way that you can present this point but present this point in a way that it's inclusive to everyone that's going to hear the speech um so the curriculum and again the Mikvah um curriculum out of Chicago the um the Mikah Mikba group um
is very intentional in the way that they have this set up and the positioning of lessons before students actually are going to speak on an issue are students required to acknowledge views that might be different than theirs in their their
research and in their speech so I think what's interesting is that students naturally do that because because it is researchdriven and because students as you heard um Liliana and Sappa say they are researchbacked like they were looking for details to support but in
that process they're also finding out about viewpoints that are different than their own um and so that they can incorporate that they have to know who their audience is going to be and the point of their soapbox speech is that they want to reach everyone so in order to reach everyone and have everyone listen to them they have to be aware
that I need this to be messaged and I have to have a call to action that's going to include the most people and to do it in a respectful way because we do talk about that if we're not being respectful it's very hard for people to see our point of view and to want to work with us of course and I I do just
notice the nuance in the answer it it doesn't sound like it's required that they acknowledge that they go out and find I think you said if it happens in the course of research that's one thing but they're not that the program is not set up to say look at two sides of an issue weigh
each one and then decide on your point of view so soapbox is their point of view it's their voice and they're they're putting words to their voice they're asking for people to polarize and and to be moved to action based on something that they see in the world
that they would like to change for the better and we do say this for the better we want to improve our communities we want to improve the lives of ourselves and people students like us sure so in that message it sort of becomes sort of an inclusive message because we want to
get as many people joining along as possible and I want to add to that uh within the literacy standards I mean the civics for all work and soapbox including we work with students in from kindergarten all the way up to eighth grade so we have kindergarten students writing soap box pieces as well as eighth graders the literacy standards
don't call for students to identify or refute the counterpoint until uh a period that runs from sixth to eighth grade so uh a student who's in fifth grade or fourth grade in literacy period isn't called to uh identify the counterpoint uh in something when they're conducting research just part of
the the progression of the standards but in sixth to eighth grade they are uh and there's certain benchmarks that they hit along the way so we do address that issue in uh when we uh work with students to conduct research and their writing uh in in work but it's not a
requirement of soapbox specifically yeah I understand you know I I can tell you guys and I'll just share this you know activism is great but um there's many situations in the real world where decision-m needs to be made based on a more careful balancing of facts and activism at times it's just it's one
side right it's one side spoken loudly um and um intended to you know win hearts and minds which is necessary in a democratic society um but um you know when it comes time to making real policy decisions political decisions um it's really important to teach kids that
there's always another side um and um even though you may feel really strongly about something there's there's potentially costs and people who feel very strongly on the other side of the issue so um I I think for the soap box the main idea of it is empowerment of course and the
empowerment part and I think you heard with Liliana I think you heard with Safa is that to just move students to see something and to say my voice matters as much as anybody else's um as opposed to not have to have them hear the silence yep absolutely we're very like super
proud of that it's super important it is it really is and everyone you know I parents who do this I always encourage parents speak up like it you don't have to have a a thesis to speak up you don't have to have a PhD to speak up just come to a meeting and speak up so it's the same principle um and it's very
important except their children except their children in our school and we're really guiding them through a process of how to do that work in a um in a meaningful wellressearched and uh structured way yeah yeah thank you guys thank you thank you
so okay so David the middle school admissions results came today uh if any parent are not happy with the result what can they do if a parent is not happy with their result from the uh from the middle school admissions process
they can either contact the family welcome center or they can contact uh the family leadership coordinator family support coordinator on district 20 team uh and and is there anything additional that we should add here those choices that they didn't match up with they'll
be on the wait list for those choices if you have uh you want to add on you could uh add on weight list for those program for the zone program like you didn't apply for or something like
that check with the family welcome center at uh 718-7593900 option number four or you can email them at 89 TH FWC at schools snnyc.gov or they can contact us also
there is also uh three uh workshops uh that are being conducted online starting tomorrow i'm going to put the link in the chat um they can parents can sign up and uh take
participate in the in the information session any more questions and also during the break do we have anything uh that students could do during this um for the community for
free that you want to tell us i know that individual schools uh at their discretion and you know as budgets and planning allow run a variety of spring breakmies and other cancer programs i don't have them you know a list of them
at at hand uh but individual schools will uh communicate and have uh been communicating these opportunities uh to students and families uh since the late winter early spring so if parents are interested or want to find out if their school is operating any one of these uh
programs opportunities they should contact their parent coordinator or their principal all right thank you so now that completes the superintendent report thank you superintendent Purto and now we get the council president's
report you do okay hey I just want to give a quick um uh notification cec elections um voting begins April 25th um if you didn't get to watch the
District 20 candidate forum you can do that on um replay um I'll drop the link in the chat um um one second here sorry um just a quick uh run through of
the steps on how to vote for anyone um who's um who's interested um it all is done through your New York City schools account through your my schools account um and um yeah it doesn't share yeah can
I share yeah if you're in a meeting Yeah yeah all done through your um New York City schools account at this page um if you don't have a my schools account please contact your parent coordinator at your school um the parent coordinator will provide you with an
account creation code they'll give you a student ID for each of your kids um you can also contact family support coordinator i believe Sylvia Jasinski will assist with that process um and then there's a page with
um more information on um your New York City schools account that I'll just drop in the chat as well um stop sharing and share that helpful link there um so the first link is for
the the forum the second link is for the um um information about setting up a New York City schools account if you don't already have one and I think we have we've always had really good um numbers of parents signing up for the for the voting in this district um once
you have an account created starting on April 25th you can log in and vote you get three votes for every kid um and um you'll see the list everything will be very straightforward within your within your account you'll see the list of candidates and um you can choose how to
vote um and then just a final just a quick follow-up note um as many know we had our legislative breakfast couple weeks ago two and a half weeks ago hosted at PSIS-163 principal Jared Shapiro uh very
successful many electeds in attendance over 140 RSVPs um so real appreciation to everyone who worked to put that one together um including our administrative assistant Kevin who is invaluable
um and that is I'm trying to think if there's any other announcements um um that I want to share i don't believe so at the moment um yeah middle school announcements came out today so please
um um yeah like you said reach out to the district if you have questions or reach out to us that's all I have so we will now hold our second public speaking session of the evening you can
sign up on the online form and Kevin will share the link in the chat if you are in person you can sign up again using the sheet at our table and speakers will be limited to three minutes is Don Dagio online
hi how are you hi Um I'm calling in regards to the recent email that went out regarding the HIV curriculum for grades K through five my concern is that I was told that
the parents no longer have an opt out option for their children the opt out age is only required for grades 7 through 12 and I feel like the parent should have a say in what they want their children to learn and it shouldn't
be mandatory for them to be held to certain curriculums that the parents are not approving of um I spoke with my school they said their hands are tied that this is the first year that the state is mandating
all students participate in the curriculum it'll be included in their gym program um and again age five in my opinion is just not needed it is not necessary and if some parents
think so fine that's their option it's their children but I want the option for my child oh thank you for your feedback uh we don't actually have the answers and it's uh David do you want to respond today to
her i mean it is a state requirement i can get more details i'm not prepared to give like a you know a substantive response to it so she did the right thing in terms of uh reaching out to her school but if that's something that uh the council would like me to you know
prepare a more detailed presentation on I can do some research and get back to you yeah again the curriculum um it's not the opposition to the curriculum it's the option for the parent to be able to opt out if wanted understand the question okay
thank you uh Allison Paresi Alison Paresi are you online she's here she's right here can I ask you to unmute allison Paresi can you unmute okay now we going to move on do we have
any more speakers i just Hi I'm so sorry hi i just wanted to see if there are any updates about if there's any news at all about a Horizon program coming to district 20 in a middle school i have um a child who goes to a
school in Park Slope for elementary school and our options there's four middle schools in all of Brooklyn for Horizon program and our closest options are pretty much equally as far away i could go to Dumbo or I can go to No
Stranded Avenue to Sheep said Bay both are approximately six miles away which equates to a very long bus ride um I have another child in the same grade ASD Nest program and I'm really I've been praying for years that something would
come to District 20 thank you thank you you want to answer the question yeah so I can respond to that uh I completely understand the concern we do not currently have a middle school option for uh Horizon students in
district 20 i have been working with the special education office and uh the central budget office around establishing a program in district 20 uh in addition to middle school there's a need for more elementary seats uh for
Horizon as well as for NES so uh ASD programs are one of uh my priorities in terms of uh identifying sites and being able to establish new programs to to address a concern like this uh I don't currently have an update right now the budget needs to be finalized but we are uh pushing towards establishing a middle
school horizon program for next year once I have confirmation I will definitely share it with the broader community including uh CEC thank you so that concludes our second that concludes our second public speaking session so
now we on to approving uh approval of the March calendar meeting minutes kevin can you please share the meeting minutes and everyone could um look at them everyone review um the minutes are there
any changes anyone if there are no further changes to the minutes the minutes for the February calendar meeting are approved oh March meeting sorry my bad and this concludes the
CC20 meeting April calendar meeting is there a motion to adjourn the meeting is there a second to adjurnn second all in favor i yes thank you good night everyone