Okay, you get start. Good evening and welcome to October CC20 calendar meeting. We are here tonight at Malk Middle School which is overseen by principal Andrew Frank. Thank you so much for hosting us.
Secretary I can do it here. here. Here Steven Kevin. We're good. So Ken not here yet and not here.
Tonight we have interpretation in Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish. You should see these interpreters names in the participant list, and they will post their information in the chat. They will now share directions for anyone who needs interpretation for the meeting. Can our Arabic interpreter please
introduce yourself? Uh, good afternoon. This is the introduction for Arabic interpretation. Please allow the interpreter just for a moment to have the number clear. The Arabic announcement is completed.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Arabic. Could our Mandarin interpreter please introduce yourself? Matter announcement has been made. You may not proceed. Thank you so much. Mentor interpreter. Could our Spanish interpreter please introduce yourself?
Fore! Foreign! Foreign! End of announcement for Spanish. Thank you. Thank you so much, Spanish interpreter. Thank you. As a reminder to speakers, please try to speak slower than usual to allow interpreters to keep up. Now we will share the agenda for
tonight's calendar meeting. Kev, can you please read it out? First, we're going to start with the pledge of allegiance to order public speaking session presentation
from Stefan M. Hirs from at CISO, senior cyber security and chief's policy advisor. Next will be a presentation from Lisa Wupong, the office of multil multilingual letterers. Next one will be presentation from Gregory Fult, panel
for education policy chairperson. Then a report from the superintendent. The next would be presentation from neighborhood coordinator offices from transit district 34 and the sergeant. Next would be a resolution three equip every teacher and staffer with a silent panic button system. Next would be second
public speaking session. Then the approval of the September calendar meeting minutes. I will now share instructions for our public speaking sessions. If you would like to speak, you can sign up on the Google form on our website and the link has been shared in the chat. If you are in person, you can sign up using the
sign-in sheet up front. It just come up. Oh, it just come up. Uh, what recognized? Well, did you we didn't even do the session yet. We have two people online. Do you want to speak?
No, I want Dennis to go first. Oh, this is the public speaking session. Then the presentation. Oh, that's her. He's whatever you want me to do. He's going to do a presentation. Yeah, but we didn't do the public speaking session. There's two people. This is a something else. This This is for the
public to speak. Okay. Sorry about that. So, the first one is Ling Lindsey Chen. If you're online, you can unmute yourselves. Can you call me? No, no, not now you can. Sorry.
Okay. If no one's online, does anyone in person want to speak? Okay. So, now you can move on to the presentation. I would like to recognize several guests here with us. Superintendent Dr. David Pto,
Family Leadership Coordinator Bill Chin, Family Support Coordinator, Sylvia Jazinski, Face Representative Ena Kresnik. Do we have anybody in Oh, Willing Colton is online and Assemblyman William Colton.
Laura's here. Yeah, Laura's here. She's not here. Okay, Laura Kais is here as well. [Music] All right. So, can we please stand? Yes, sure.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our first presenting speaker of the
night will be Stefan Hirs from CISO senior cyber security and chief policy adviser. Can you please step up, sir? [Music] Mr. President, Mr. Superintendent, thank you for having us. My name is Stephan Hirs. I work for the chief information
security officer for the DEIT within the Department of Education. October is cyber security awareness month. For us, cyber security is an everyday event for us. But what we're seeing now more and more in social
media, and we're very much aware of it, is that students today are using social media, and we're seeing more and more students dying in subway actions. The DOE does a very good job in communicating and monitoring what goes
on in our network, but what we're more concerned about is what parents are doing and what our students are doing in social media. We monitor it. We react to it, but we need you to be more partners with us.
Our applications are secure. We do constant reviews. We have a 24 by7 security operations command center. We monitor it. We work with our partners in the FBI, Secret Service, NYPD, and state police all the time. But we need you,
the parents, to take a more active role in talking to your child, finding out what they're doing in social media, asking them how they're using social media. Because to us, every child loss is a grave indifference to us. We care
about it. We have 975,000 students in the DOE. We are the largest school system in the nation, second in the world. Australia beats us by a 100,000. That's not enough. We can't afford to lose a child. We have 1.5 million users
in the DOE system every single day. We watch it. We monitor it. iPads, laptops, cell phones are critical to us and critical to our teachers. We need to make sure that you use it and you do it smartly.
When parents use credit cards in order to buy purchases, we worry that that information can get out to bad actors. We encourage you to use virtual credit cards that are offered by your banking institutions. This way, you can set a
credit limit and you can watch that monitoring very carefully. Making sure that your computers that you have at home have the latest software. Make sure that even your laptops have the latest software.
New York City Cyber Command, where I came from before I left the Department of Defense, has a very good tool in order to put it on your smartphones that will watch the monitoring of your individual devices. I encourage you to go to the OTI website, the New York City
Cyber Command, and download that particular product. It's free. No one sees it except for you. It's not monitored by federal, state, or city, but it's something that is free for you to monitor yourself. This is something that's very important
to us within the DOE. You know, we've got presentations material relating to make sure that you have multiffactor authentication on all of our vendors. We do about 1,500 vendor assessments a year. Myself and my team do all the IT
security assessments that we do to make sure that the products that the schools are buying are cyber safe. Every application that the DOE launches and we are not on the city network. If the city network goes down, you are safe and
secure. We are on our own network. We are hot hot between two sites. Every application goes through an intensive security review. It does not go out the door. My big concern right now is I'm seeing too much activity in social media, you
know, and for us cyber bullying, we're seeing it. We're looking at it. We're working with our partners to help mitigate it, but I need everybody to take an active stance on it. So, you know, the presentation we can do whenever you guys want, but I'm just
more concerned the fact that we're not seeing the negative press. The media is not giving it the attention it needs. The only time we see it is when a child is lost. That's not good.
We had an incident this morning on the J train at 7:30 this morning coming across the Williamsburg Bridge where two students decided they were going to subway surf. But thanks to my colleagues at NYPD, they saw it, they reacted, and transit was able to stop it before the
train even left the station. That would have been two more deaths. We can't accept that. So the DOE is taking a more active role in working with our community partners, with our community- based organizations, our MTAX in order to ensure that we help educate
our students. But we need the parents to take that as well. So I'm open for questions. Council members, do you have any questions, Mr. Harsh? Sure way. Um, as a parent, you know, that that
have like older kids who like I've had the conversation about subway suffering like with my kids. Um, I have two college students and a high schooler. Mhm. When subway suffering became this thing, my
kids, it it wasn't prevalent when my kids were younger, you know, like like we see it more as a parent. Is there any way like we could start like a parent initiative? That way we could take some some of the the the weight off of you guys because
they have to be getting the information from us as well. It shouldn't just be coming from the school. We we also have to piggyback right as parents and like what can we do to make sure that we're having these conversations with our children and they understand cuz I remember when I was a
kid we had like the scared straight Mhm. you know, initiative and like that was scary when you know, having those conversation, have people that been through, you know, the situation they've been through and sitting down and have a conversation with you about what they went through and this is not what to do.
Is there any way that we could have something similar like something like I guess like a kid that you know, you know, that maybe got hurt but survived like cuz these they need to understand that like it's not a game. You you don't have another life, right? You know what I mean? Like what like
what can we do? Right. So, I can tell you what's going on within DIIT, what's going in within the Chief Information Security Officer's Office, but I could also tell you what my conversations are with my partners at the MTA and NYPD.
But I also know we had a conference call the other day with 220 community-based organizations throughout the five burrows and we've implored them as they do their in-house training and their in-house communications to just
the students and and teachers but also asked them to bring this up to that level. Now the MTA will be doing a brand new media campaign. It's starting in two weeks. I think it's a little too late,
but you know, this is where the DOE is taking a more active role. The chancellor has already said at her last internal meeting that she's asking all the deputy chancellors to come together and put together a program that can go out to all the superintendent for them
to share with parents, share with the community. But this is something that has gotten way out of hand and has not gotten the attention. So in our organization, considering we're monitoring what's going on, we're
seeing it. We're reacting to it, but we've got to do more to get the message out. You know, we're also seeing that the cyber bullying activity is creeping up again. It went up 23% in the past two weeks
and we're watching social media. So, we see that and we're alerting our our federal and state partners as well as our community based organizations that we need to do more about cyber bullying. We have too many kids that will do something because they want the extra
peer recognition. You know, it's it's something uh I I'll give you a quick little story. My son graduated from Sison High School. His very best friend, because she did not get into
the university she wanted, that her parents expected, decided to slit her wrist in the classroom. The parents wanted her go to Harvard. She got accepted to Princeton on a full scholarship. She decided to slit her
wrist. Now, thank God my son, like me being an EMT, took first aid and the kids all went and saved her life. The parents didn't even think it was important enough because she didn't get into Harvard. Princeton wasn't good enough.
We had an incident a year ago in the Lower East Side where a kid was cyberbullied and he jumped right by the Brooklyn Bridge. We're not doing it. We're not doing our jobs. So yes, the DOE is taking a stand, the cyber security team is taking a
stand, but we need more help. You know, the funding is there. I have to tell you, talking to my colleagues at Microsoft and Google and IBM, they're willing to do a media campaign. I just got off the phone at 6:00 this morning
with the head of IBM Cyber Command, and he said, "Steph, we'll do it for you. you tell me how you want it and we'll put it in the cyber range, but this is something that it needs more and more attention and we're we're just not getting it. So for us, we're taking
the lead on it. We know the chancellor is very serious about it. The first deputy mayor for public safety and Cass Cass is on this like white on rice. He knows this. He wants to do something also. So it's reached the highest levels
within I mean the municipal government within state government you know the head of cyber for the state in colony her who's my partner in in cyber has said Steph we'll put out a media campaign tell me what you want but we need the grassroots we need the parents
to be able to monitor what their kids are doing I mean I know it's hard they don't always want to talk to their parents about what they're doing on social media they boys don't want to show what they're doing on their laptops. I get it.
You know, for us, we're watching it. We're alerting the principles. When we see something, we're saying something. There are benefits out there for the kids. You know, we do have great psychologists running around within the
DOE that can come into a school and can help educate these kids why it's bad. But unless the parents raise their hands and say we want to be active participants, it's just going to be money out the door. And for me, that's
unacceptable. You know, I can't afford to lose one child. Yes, ma'am. You have your hand up. I just have a response and I would just be really want to be really clear that um it is not just a parent responsibility and big tech needs to be
held accountable. So if you're asking about what people want, I think it's disingenuous to put that all on the parents as they're supposed to solve this problem. There should be regulation of addictive algorithms, which New York State did just pass a law about that.
Um, but it should not be legal for big tech companies to feed kids addictive algorithms. So if you have a line well two people with with all due respect ma'am uh I'm not going to get into the politics of
Google Microsoft you know what they do. I will tell you that the information security teams talk to each other and we're trying to develop programs that are more user friendly
should I say. Now, I can't get into the, you know, listen, uh, I'm a first year law student at Georgetown, so I'm first learning what the law is. All right? If Congress would enact what they should have enacted two years ago, you probably
would have seen a lot different right now what's going on, you know. So for us, we can work with our media partners and we can say to them, we need to really watch what's going on in their networks. You know, it is a partnership. Is it not
is it 100% the parent? No, it's 100% everybody, but I also need my legislature to step in and write restrictive laws. That is what Right. And for me, lobby, you know, you've got a mayor election coming up
right now. You got a lot of members of your city council that are up for reelection. You have a gubanatorial election next year. Maybe it's time to put pressure on our elected officials and say to them, it's time for them to step up. Dan Goldman is
a pretty decent congressman. He is open to ideas, right? Chuck Schumer, for his good or his bad, his staff will listen. But you've got to get it through to them why this is important. You know, our tech
companies are about making money for their shareholders. I understand that. I don't always agree with it, but I think the problem is that I was and so I think that So, first of all, thank you very much for being here. This is something that weighs on me all the time and it's been absolutely weighing
on me since the latest subway incident. And so I think any conversation we can have about this is incredibly important. I do think that you're absolutely right that the conversation needs to focus on what is happening on social media. And one of the ongoing concerns that I have
is that the the way that social media works now, you can't monitor it because there's abs because the algorithm is trained to take data about kids and feed them different things than it feeds adults. when I when I watch what my son
is, let what's appetized to my son, it's completely different with advertise to my daughter, let's advertise to me. And so I think that one of the big problems which John showed us the other day is that there's this Tik Tok that is being shown to 13, 14, 15 year old kids in New
York City about why why subway surfing is cool. And we will never see that Tik Tok because it'll never be on our algorithm, right? And so I think that absolutely you're you're 100% right. parents who have conversations with their kids who need to know what they're doing. But also, we can't deny the fact
that like the way that they're maximizing profit for their shareholders is by turning our kids into data and into guinea pigs. And for me, that's something that's very derine to a lot of the conversations that I hope we can have in partnership with you and in
partnership with other organizations in terms of how to keep our kids safe. This also is very derine, I think, to something that I want to that we'll be talking about over the next few months, which is the way that AI also does the same thing. And so, we've had numerous
instances of kids uh being coached on how to kill themselves because of relationships with AI. And as I tried to get and so I guess the question that I have for you and maybe it's not your office that's the way I want to ask but um as I've tried to get more information about how AI is being rolled out in
schools and what's that look like. I've heard that there's an NDA that's been signed that doesn't allow for the disclosure of what type of AI is being used in our schools and what schools it's being used in. And as a parent that makes me really worried if we're
let me answer that. Okay. So New York State and some of it does fall within my realm because I do the cyber security assessments for all thirdparty vendors. So any school that is looking to buy a third party product through Irma and the
one trust tool falls upon me and another gentleman to do the security assessment. If the vendor selects that there is AI in any part of it, it goes through a
even more intensive review because AI is a platform. You put garbage in, you're going to get garbage out. AI is nothing new. AI was going back to 1990 when we were doing Y2K in the Department of Defense. We had AI,
we had data lake. This is nothing new. It's a new buzzword out in the community. Yes. being used in a different way. So my question is, is there an NDA that's being signed that's allowing Yes. So let let me get in. I I wish Dennis was on. Dennis is our chief data privacy officer and he and his team work
with us when we do third party. There is a NDA and a DPA, an NDA non-disclosure agreement and a DPA, a data processing agreement. they use that and we merit against we have our own AI policy within the DOE.
It's even more restrictive and more intense than the state policy. All right. So, we know the schools are buying AI products. We're also monitoring the vendors on an annual basis that they are doing what they're
saying that they are doing. If not, we're cutting them out. I guess as a parent, my question is like how do we know what this is looking like at the school level? Like how do we know and as a representative, right? How do we know what this looks like on a district level? You tell me that like
you're making sure that it's it's rigorously tested, but maybe your standards don't match what my standards are. So I guess my question is like how do I know what tools are being tested on my signing this idea? Like we have to bet like hey, right?
So let me do this. So, when it comes to that, can I pick you up for one second? Sure. Hi everyone. I had a hard time hearing the uh the question there. I'm Dennis Doyle. I'm the chief privacy officer. Give me one second. Dennis
should be okay. Never mind, Dennis. Yeah. Okay, you can speak now. Yeah, I was just say I couldn't hear the uh the question. Um, but I mean to to Steph's point, uh, I think the question was about AI use in in DOE and we do
have strict data processing agreements in place with all of our thirdparty vendors that are uh accessing student information. Um, and that includes any vendor that's going to be using AI to process student information. And like Steph said, we have specific AI
provisions um relating to how they can use AI um including not training any sort of AI model on student data. Uh we have an AI questionnaire that we give if to our third party vendors to to better
understand how they're using AI. Um vendors are obligated to notify us when they make a change in use of AI. So this is something that we're you know we're monitoring very closely and we're very attuned to the um you know to the to the
risks that are you know associated with use of AI and we want to make sure and we do make sure that we have like the appropriate legal agreements in place uh to protect our student information. So, and this is the last thing that this is the last question that I'll ask because I know we have a lot to talk
about tonight, but there was just a report that was published today that talks about how at schools where AI is being used, there's like a tenfold increase in the amount of cyber bullying that's happening and the amount of self harm that's happening. And so my concern
both as a parent and as a member of this board is I um I'm happy that you have an AI questionnaire, but I really would like a much more robust understanding of which children are being used as guinea pigs for AI technology and where that's
being integrated into classrooms. And so and when I hear the word NDA, what that tells me is that no one will tell us when our children are being subjected to AI. And I think that that's something that parents have a right to know. And I just think that this is a conversation
that is worth having. What is the DOE's policy on AI? Like how is the conversation about cyber bullying and AI being used happening in the same rooms, right? Like I think that these are things that are important for uh bodies like ours to be having conversations
about. Yeah, absolutely. I think those are all really good questions. I mean, I'm I'm the chief privacy officer for New York City public schools. So, I mean, my focus is specifically on issues relating to to student privacy. Um, and I I have
a short presentation I can give on that um a little bit later. Um, I think on the broader questions that you're asking, I know that we have like an AI task force that's being stand stood up at New York City public schools that are looking into all these issues and all of
the different facets of of using AI. Student privacy being just one small piece of that. Um and then we have also a data privacy working group um that we convened earlier in this year to work on
uh matters relating to data privacy including the use of AI and how the intersection of AI and privacy in particular. Um, so those are the issues that that I'm involved with in and I know just as a as a whole our agency is is, you know, focused on, you know,
developing a more robust policy when it comes to AI and, um, and how we're going to be able to use this responsibly in our schools, use it in a way that protects student privacy, uh, mitigating bias, and, you
know, all the, um, the other concerns that you mentioned there. Um, but again, just just from my my own personal uh point of view, I can only really speak to the to the privacy issues when it comes to the use of AI in schools.
What my last question, my actual last question I really was that AI working group hasn't met though, right? Even as these AI policies are being rolled out, I know some people that are on it that says say that the that AI group that that exists in theory actually hasn't met to start doing that kind of advice.
Is that uh I mean I I don't sit on the the AI work sub subcommittee working group for the data privacy working group. Uh the subcommittee I think has met though. I mean I I would have to check on that for you though.
Thanks. I appreciate it. Thank you. Can I add one thing? So when a school decides to buy a product that they know has AI, I think there's got to be a level of transparency
to both you, the parent, and to the administration within the school as well as to an outstanding superintendent who is really one of the best that we have in the city that he needs to be aware of the fact that this is happening so he
can communicate and he can work with the principles and go, why are you buying this product? If there's already a product out there that has already been approved in the Irma process that you don't have to go through the six months to get it,
use that. Understand what the tools are. Yes, there are schools throughout middle schools and high schools throughout the city of New York that are using AI. They're finding it beneficial, but there's got to be guard rails on it.
And what Dennis and his team, us and our team, what we're looking at to make sure that the guard rules are there, but when the school purchases it, if they don't know that it's got AI and only we find out, then there's a gap there. And then
we go back to whoever the requesttor is and say, "Are you aware that you're buying a product that has AI and it's got to go through the AI questionnaire?" and it may get rejected because it does not meet the standards that the DOE has, the state has, or that
N standards or federal standards that we have. So, I think there's a partnership when it goes through, you know, schools can also buy products under $25,000. It doesn't go through our process. Are you asking that same question of that
principal or whoever the requesttor is? Because to me, if I don't see it, I don't know about it until maybe it hits the DOE network and all of a sudden I've got it either whitelisted so it can get in. So it's a partnership,
right? And I it's perfectly raised question. Everybody's got to be have their hand on this because AI is not new. Cyber bullying has become as you know and I know we're seeing it more and more but you know technology at the DOE is at
the greatest level right now we're doing new and innovative stuff every single day our CIO has charged us to be better than what we are but for us we're only as good as the information we get we get from our
partners we feedback from all of you. One of the reasons why I'm here in person. I I live in lower Manhattan. I came out here because I want to hear what your concerns are because I can bring it back to our team and go, what do we need to do better?
You know, is the Wi-Fi in this school up to standards? Is the technology there in order to help the teachers to help our students? I have 975,000 children. Every single one of them is
mine. And I take this very seriously. That's why I left the federal government and the military to do this because this is where I was born and raised here. Milbas in Bergen Beach is where I grew up. I traveled the world
from the military and I came back home. My wife is a Brooklyn Tech grad. I'm a Styrad. You want to get into the competition? We used to do that all the time. But to me, every child is important to us and I got to make sure the technology
is there so they can compete globally for a good paying job. Okay. Wait, I wanted to say something. Yes, ma'am. Um it it is a collaborative effort but uh we shouldn't really uh blame the parents because I have heard from a lot
of people that the the girl that just passed away her parents really do feel guilty and research shows that in middle school and high school your peers are more important than your parents. So you could do the best you can as parents and your the kids will still sneak out and
do what they're going to do. So I just want to put that out there like we can't blame the parents. Yes, it is our our position to monitor our kids, but they will leave and they will do things without telling us and you know they respect their peers more than their
parents. So I just want to put that out there because there there's a lot of guilt on the parents part and I feel as a parent we shouldn't give them more guilt and more blame game. Then how do we help the parent? So this is where I'm going to twist it and I'm going to go okay I'm just one person
sitting in an office with 60 very highly skilled trained technical professionals. How do we help then everyone lower that level is by banning phones in schools, right? Like banning one of the biggest things
that help us is banning phones in schools from bell to bell. Like one of the ways that I think you help us is by giving us the same sort of physical protections that exist for our kids, you give us the cyber protections to exist for our kids as well by saying no, you
cannot use these kids. You can't use your 975,000 kids as guinea pigs. I'm sorry. But no, that's fine. But but let me tell you something. Like some some of these kids, they post already on social media what they were going to do. And some people some of these kids actually posted like two
weeks ago there was a gun in a queen school. That kid posted it. It was other kids that saw it on their social media feed that alerted the teacher. And that is why they were able to stop whatever the kid was planning to do. I'm saying
right that's where it's it's a you know the FBI command center in Quanico Virginia saw it notified the NYPD intelligence unit notified the cyber unit within NYPD at the big house and then everybody was on the phone to each
other and that's why sector cards were rolled. So yes, there is big brother watching at some point, but sometimes even that could be dangerous because we always don't want big brother watching. So there's got to be some sort of
balance where when a child or a student uses social media and makes a threat and either one, we work with our partners in the tech firms to alert us. Sometimes we
have our good partners on the federal and the state side will see it and they'll alert the right authorities and then sometimes there's this bridge when are we overstepping our balance. So you know we're a very much a democratic society. We're a free and open society
and sometimes that's not always the best. But from the DOE side, and I can only talk about within our own organization, we are taking this very, very seriously. We see something, we say something. We work handinand glove with our incident
response teams and we're just trying to see what we can do better within the confines of the law that we are not overstepping our bounds. So yeah, you're right. I said parents because I have to look at my parents first and say how do I support you since, you know, you know,
you have a tool now that you can monitor when your child gets on a bus or not. That's brand new and it works really well. We did not have that when we had the snowstorm during the Delasio administration and parents didn't know where their kids were. It took years. We got it fixed.
I know. I'm I'm finished. If you guys are finished with me, the app that you said that we could download to monitor that was free. So go to OTI, Office of Technology Innovation. Go to Cyber Command. They have a app there that you can download
to your uh to your smartphone. And if John, I'll get you the uh the URL. And also, do you also another question, do you have a direct number that students and parents could call if they see something like uh very like a warning
sign on social media? Is there a direct line that they could contact you guys? I know we have our security operations command center. I don't know if that's the right vehicle, but I can take that back and find out. And Mr. president.
So, so then that your campaign like your friend's campaign, it should say if anybody sees something, say something. Well, you have that right now already with NYPD, with the MTA, you know, as far as social media on social media. That that tool is being
monitored 24 by7 by both NYPD and the MTA. They are watching that as well. We know our federal partners are doing a good job in monitoring. That's how we found out about the issue in in Queens. But I think what you're asking is when a
parent sees something, who do they really call? Who is the right resource to call? Is it the DOE? Is it NYPD? You know, also are we just going to send members of the department over when we really need
someone who has more of a psychology background that can talk to so we don't have people committing suicide and jumping on train tracks? Sir, I know you had a question. We we can't take questions from the audience. No. No, we're not allowed. Oh, we're not allowed. I'm sorry. So, in regards to the cyber security presentation, are you going to do that
or No, move past it. We can move past that because that's something you could share with the community. Okay. No problem. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Thanks very much. So, as of right now, we're going to call on Superintendent Dr. Predto for his report
Steve Steve's office. Canon Shu, can you please come up? The senior adviser from Assemblyman Lesser Chang's office. Five and six are no longer here.
We're going to have to switch it up. You can just come here to this laptop, please. Thank you. All right, you're good to go. Um, I'll make this uh short uh brief. Uh, on behalf of China,
Friday having a press conference, excuse me, sorry, PS 205 um in support of gift programs. Uh second, um we are aware of the subway surfer, one of um the victims. Actually, I'm going to go
to McKini. Um, we just wanted the council know uh and if people know the family, our office is here to assist them if they need uh any assistance. And I I've been hearing about this um um bullying whether it's the traditional form or the new form or through AI or or
whatever uh is not tolerated. Um we believe that it takes a community uh not just parents but also teachers uh the school um their classmates uh and elect officials if we need to um propose laws uh to uh help them um our office is here
to help. Um so feel free to contact us and again uh thank you. Thank you. So we're going to call on Dr. to do his report. Thank you. I want to uh before I uh do my report, I'm going to be reporting on just some uh timely uh pieces that are
coming up that are important for parents uh middle school parents who are applying for high school high school applications and also a shift in the SHSAT exam which is going digital this year. So, I'm going to describe uh some of those components, but I want to uh acknowledge I've invited some of my colleagues. I've invited Kevin Danstead
from the office of safety, new development. Uh he's also invited some partners from the MTA. I know we have some officers here from the NYPD who are all here to talk about cyber uh sorry subway surfing. So I know that this is going to be a big topic. So I'm going to just run through these shifts and then
we'll get to that conversation around subway surfing. Um so the high school application process. I'm going to share my screen real quick here. So the high school application process has launched actually since yesterday and uh since yesterday
all the following things have begun. So high school application obviously the LaGuardia application and the specialized high school's admissions test registration all open yesterday. Uh Friday, October 31st is when the specialized high school test
registration closes. Wednesday, December 3rd is when high school and LaGuardia applications close. And then Thursday, March 5th is the high school opera release date. Uh something new this year is the specialized high school test will go digital. So all students who are
taking that specialized high school test will take it digitally. Just going to walk through some of the things that parents can expect uh with that and some of the uh modifications that can occur. So, first the test will move to a digital online format and will include technology enhanced items such as drag
and drop, fill in the blank, and hotspot types. There are still two sections, uh, ELA and math, and each section will have 57 questions, which is similar to previous years. And it is still a three-hour exam with extended time for students with accommodations, and this is similar to previous years.
Uh, this shift is aligned to local, state, and national trends in assessment. uh it will increase supports for English language learners and students with disabilities and overall universal supports for all students. Uh there will be options to include question formats beyond multiple choice for the first time. There will be very
limited typing required. However, uh and families can access uh practice questions uh the prep guide and tutorials for student readiness on the New York City specialized high school achievement test portal. Uh all supplies will be provided by N
New York City public schools. Students don't have to bring anything to the test. Uh paper will still be able to be used for scrap paper. Uh and students who have IEPs or 504 accommodations that require paper pencil tests will be supported. Uh and students will continue to receive a single composite score
that's used to rank order for admission to the specialized high schools. So uh big picture specialist high school exam will this year be uh done digitally. Schools will engage students uh in the fall in a readiness tutorials for so that students who are going to be
taking the test uh get a little practice with it. Uh and parents can register for the specialized high school test in three ways. You can register on my schools. You can have your students guidance counselor register for you. Or you can
visit the family welcome center at 41589 street and you can have the family welcome center support you in getting registered. And the test in New York City for New York City public school students uh will take it on November 12th. And finally, uh, in anticipation of the
middle school application process, District 20, uh, by request of parent leaders such as, uh, John Riatoni, Josephine Kangallocei, uh, Christina Shear, we will be holding a District 20 middle school fair. Uh, this fair will be held on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025
from 5 to 7 at PSIS-229. We're going to pop flyers uh for both the district 20 middle school fair as well as a list of all the district 20 uh middle school open houses that each individual school holds. We're going to drop uh that link in the chat and also
that will be sent out by all schools parent coordinators. And then finally, subway surfing and student safety. This is big a big topic. As uh most folks uh in the district are aware, we lost a student in the district over the weekend to subway surfing. Uh
the student was a McKinley uh middle school student. Uh and I just want to share briefly what uh the school and district did in response to support the school and the parents and the uh and the staff. And then I want to share just briefly what the school is doing in
response to support and followup uh with the rest of the school. And then I'm going to pass it over after that to my colleague Kevin Dancler uh from Office of Safety News Development to just speak about what resources and connections and information is available for families. When we had a presentation that was
organized by uh Josephine Kangalosu from the President's Council in the spring on this topic of subway surfing, uh this is not when we had lost a child. you know, now we've lost a child to this in the district and uh I I think it's incredibly important to make sure that everyone kind of absorbs it and we we
take it as seriously as we do and I really appreciate everyone knowing that NYPD is here, uh the NTA's here, you know, everyone's here to talk about this. So, I really appreciate everyone uh recognizing the urgency. Uh so, what we did do at McKinley, we did support uh
staff uh and students. We had guidance counselors available both from the school and I want to thank uh principal Giri. We have assistant principal Daniel Noto here in the audience uh and the entire McKinley team and especially the guidance counselors at McKinley who made themselves available all day and throughout the week for students uh for
staff. Uh the uft also makes uh resources and supports available for teachers uh on an you know as needed basis. uh but we made sure that uh guidance counselors and support was available for uh students and staff uh as this has evolved. The school has also
organized with NYPD's uh school safety division to organize a series of presentations for students uh in the school specifically on this topic. And I want and I want to thank our partners again for just being really responsive and quick to make sure that this gets scheduled. Uh the students at McKinley
will engage over the course of early November all the way through December on presentations that uh speak to uh the dangers of subway surfing and really trying to make sure that this uh this topic gets out there uh in the dialogue in the school. And you know obviously the intention tonight is to do the same
thing in the entire district and that's why in um I invited uh my colleague Kevin Dancler uh who's who's on uh when this happened. Uh Mr. Dancler works uh under Chief Ramperent in the office of safety youth development and deals with the specific topic uh on behalf of New
York City public schools. And I really appreciate him plumbing uh to kind of share uh his his insights and whatever resources uh that that the the system has done to uh organize around this. So I'm going to pass it over to Kevin.
Can you hear me? Okay. Can you hear me? Okay. Hold on one second. I think organize the sound. Okay, go ahead. Okay, good afternoon. Good evening. Can everyone hear me? Okay. First of all, thank you so much for having me in your space. I also would
just want to offer um condolences at the loss of your entire school community has suffered and experienced and just thank you for allowing us to come here. I also want to thank my colleague um Shantel Cabrera who's here from the MTA um who's been shoulder-to-shoulder um with me in
this work. Really quickly, because I know time is out on our side, I just want to share with folks some of the efforts that we've taken. There is an inter agency working group on subway surfing that's been convening for the past three years making efforts to do
three things. Um, stop subway serving through education, through enforcement, and through engineering. When it comes to education, New York City public schools along with our partners in NYPD, the MTA, the Department of Youth Community Development, and other agency
partners, we meet to talk about how we can raise awareness about the dangers of subway surfing, the illegality of subway surfing. And to do that, we have presentations. Um, as Superintendent just mentioned, we have presentations at schools for students and families. We
have districtwide presentations. We have school-based presentations. And if anyone is interested in having a presentation at a school for an elected official at at a CEC meeting for students for families, I put my information in the chat. You can reach out to me directly at that email address
and I will coordinate and liaz with all of my partners across the city to make sure that we provide information and presentations um for families and for students and for staff. We also have materials as you may have heard or seen
in subway stations. There are posters, anti-ub surfing posters. We just had a refresh of that in September of this year or late August actually, forgive me. Rebranding and reinvigorating that particular campaign to raise awareness.
We've also tapped in our students because all of our efforts are student informed. So, our students provide announcements in all of the subway stations in the MTA's platforms, advising against the dangers of subway surfing. Partners at the MTA have also
enlisted celebrities or anyone who we think may be an influencer or have relationship capital that they can leverage to get through to our young people as well as to advise our families about the dangers of subway surfing. I also want to mention if anyone wants
materials, meaning posters, palm cards, pamphlets, or any information once again in-person visits to talk about the dangers of subway surfing and to make families aware of some of the things they should look for with their young people, please let me know at the email
address again that's in the chat and I'll be happy to make sure that we are responsive. I don't want to take up too much time, so I want to turn the floor over very briefly to my colleague Chantel Cabrera from the MTA. so she can speak about some of the efforts the MTA has made regarding this campaign as
well. Shantel, hello everyone and thank you for having me. I I echo Kevin's sentiments and offer my condolences as well. Um we at the MTA do believe that social media plays a big role in the uh just the
normalizing of this behavior. So we have taken it upon ourselves to uh reach out to the platforms uh like YouTube uh Snapchat, Instagram in or and since that advocacy has started we have pulled down
over 14,000 posts related to subway surfing. We are also currently piloting an engineering solution um and and testing that in order to see if it is uh just design capacity can support uh the
the installation on train cars at this time and we're we're we're continuing to do so. We have worked with our uh NYPD partners to help them in their efforts to use drones to identify uh young people who are potentially climbing on
on train cars. uh I believe and we can check this with the NYPD that they have intercepted 130 students in the act and that to us is 130 students whose lives were saved. Um we continue to help them in their journey of understanding any
trends. So, we inform uh adults, trusted trusted adults and students that if they see or or suspect any subway surfing that they should in fact call 911 and uh and say to them their direction, what
train line they're on and the train car that they're riding in so that you know every data point for the NYPD is an opportunity for them to understand the trend a little bit better. and I along with NYPD partners and Kevin have been facilitating presentations since 2023
and we have um reached a variety of different stakeholders this year. We have uh been able to talk to over,400 uh community members and we continue to work hand inand to address the concerns of the community and our and our
government partners. Thank you, David. Shantel, I want to thank you both for for coming out and uh and sharing as part of this uh horrible tragedy and hopefully the resources helpful.
Yes. Do we have any council members ask any questions? Um Stephen, go ahead. As far as with technology, um by far I have a like a camera in the front and camera in the back and I would
imagine that um it's good identify where these areas are. I would guess most of this on the elevated platforms. Is there any practicality to mounting some type of device on one of the cars that has a view some something that would then
perhaps be victim using technology that we have because I guess you can identify where have these incidents happen on the elevated lines. So how can we use technology to help
become aware of this? Obviously when these people that have been rescued from this people have been reporting it but what what about using technology um similar to what we have on a car. So this way if somebody's bound in the car
getting up to the roof access you know I know NY they have uh cameras on the trainers right so they have specialized units that are monitoring cameras throughout
our city. So is that something that's being done? is being thought about being done using technology to see if you become aware of what someone's doing when they're seeking. I don't know if that's a very practical idea, but that's just a question I have. So, so we do continue to explore all
avenues in relation to engineering solutions and and new technology is always at the forefront of what we are doing at the MTA. Um there are constraints related to cyber security and and things of that nature, but we are looking into new technology
solutions. Any other members? We're good. All right. Thank you so much. We're going to move forward. Can we please have the NCO sergeant and NCO officers please step up? They're going to do a presentation.
their pre their presentation. They're from the transit district 34. Yeah, sure. So, the microphone the microphone camera microphone camera please stick with me and you can just speak directly online
and um good evening everybody. I am Sergeant Rivera, Transit District 34. Um, you can't. Sorry. Sergeant Rivera, Transit District 34. Um, just wanted to talk a little bit about what we've been
doing as a department in general. They kind of they kind of already explained like we have drones that um it's a whole drone unit. They put the drones out. If they catch any
kids train surfing or doing anything like breaking into train cars, sometimes they try to steal trains themselves. They've done that a couple of times. We had a couple of instances with that. It's been helpful in trying to identify them and catching them. Do we get them
all the time? No, we don't. But we do end up finding out names, going to the schools, seeing where they got on, being able to track them down that way. Um, when we do track them down, another thing that we do is that we do follow-up home visits. So, I'll go with an
officer. We'll meet up with the parent and the student. We'll just talk to them. We'll ask some questions. A lot of times what you'll see is again, social media is a big influence. Um, if you go online, you just type in in any
Instagram, Tik Tok. I did it this past weekend. train surfing. Train surfers, you see everything that they do. They don't just climb up on top of the trains. They go in the tunnels. They've been climbing the bridges. It's just been getting worse and worse. So, we're
just trying to do our best to figure out how to just stop it in general. It's been a struggle, but um some of these kids just it's curiosity. Last home visit I did, he's like, "Oh, my friends do it." So, I just wanted to see what it was like. And then when I asked him, I was like, "Well, how was it?" It was
scary. Will you ever do it again? No. And then we talked to the mom. He's in our Explorer program now. That's a program we offer to all the kids, high school, elementary. If they want to join us, we do community service. We take them out on trips, museums, even
bowling, something to keep them busy. Sometimes after school on Saturdays. Um, want to add anything? Um we pretty much go to a lot of the the stations where the schools are closest to. So we pretty much have officers at
some of the key stations and we do a lot of outreach and we talk to the kids on a daily basis and pretty much we just show our presence pretty much a lot that know that that they know that we're there also. So that's another key component we do also. Yes, we are open to that. I can leave.
We have pamphlets about train surfing. We have the contact information for the auxiliary and the explorer officer. Um, we'll do the presentations ourselves. I'll leave my number. Um, you just give
me a call. We can work on that. Anybody has any other questions? And do you have rights to uh stop a young kid when you see them late at night? Like obviously she was like 12 out at 10:00 at night. Do do you guys stop them and try to get the parents?
We'll talk to them or question them. We've done that. We have um what we call end of line. So we cover still a sometimes we'll see young kids on the train and they turn out to be runaways. They turn out to be missings and we find them. We contact the parent. We return
them to them. Yes. Okay. So you touch them on top of the trades and you get to them in time to take them over. What happens next? So, basically what we do is we'll bring them to the precinct, we contact the
parent, we will do we'll prepare a juvenile report and just release them to the parent. There's no real unless they're repeat offenders or they've done something like I said earlier. Um, we had an incident at 36th Street where the
kids literally got keys to the train and drove it just a little bit. Just slightly. Just a little bit. Yeah. Um, that's something else that I'm working out cuz some of these kids are finding access to the keys to get onto the train.
Don't know how it's been happening, but they're getting access to it. So, we've been talking to the kids trying to get information out. Sometimes they'll let us know when another student from the school is selling, but then they don't give any more information. So, it's it's been a process. It's been a process.
They found some on eBay. So, but MCA movement Yeah. Yeah. Just the internet is very different from when I was in high school. You can literally find anything and everything. And it's so much easier
to meet other people from other schools. So like for example, let's say two kids from one school want to fight. They'll promote it on Instagram and next thing you know you have kids from three or four different schools meeting up just to watch and it makes it so much worse cuz the
fight will get even bigger. So it's a struggle. We try to keep a hold of like when we try to get information and then we'll send extra cops to that location for the day and it helps here and there. I don't know if anybody else has any other
is that right? She said before it said about 130 on um last I checked in the s the summer about a August it was about 200 probably more and there's
some are repeat offenders. Um, like I said, I suggest um go on Instagram and Tik Tok and Google it because after what happened this weekend, I was like, I just want to see just what are these kids seeing that makes it seem so interesting. And I
was able to find both the girls Instagrams. One of them did climb the bridge. Mhm. One of them did climb the bridge. And I also saw videos of ex train surfers and they basically said like either they
were influenced by other friends um that's how they found extra friends or they they were struggling at home. Things were going on and that was their way of coping with it. It's like two sides of the coin. Thanks for doing what you do.
Yeah. Thank you. Do we have any other questions from the members on the other side? No. Thank you so much. Um if you have any great and again if um anybody wants a
presentation done with the kids I'll leave my number in my card. Yeah, that would be great. Got the best trend that turns off the seven trend the best views. [Music] Thank you so much, Sergeant Officers.
Thank you for everything you do. We have an elected official online, so we're going to call on him first and then we'll work on the presentations. Mr. Assemblyman William Colton. Can you please unmute yourself? Yes. Thank you. Do you hear me? Yes.
Uh yeah. I would also like to thank the police officers who just spoke. Uh I go on the subways very regularly uh meeting people and giving out leaflets. And two years ago I saw two children subway
surfing and I called 911 and I can tell you they did respond. It's very frustrating to them. And actually these two children switched from the Manhattanbound FTRA to the Coney Islandbound Frain and but the police
officers did respond. Uh so it is a problem we have to deal with and I I commend CEC20 for having this you know these presentations about it. Uh there are two things that I think parents will need to be alerted to as we approach
this year in the school budget. Uh, one of them was, I think, referenced by Assembly Member Lester Chang's representative, uh, which is the gifted programs in early childhood grades. I think these are very crucial and I think, you know, we're going to have to
be very careful. I know there's been uh uh, you know, some talk about it, but I think that we need to be careful and make sure that that district 20 and all the districts make sure that we continue to expand on gifted programs. I have a piece of legislation on that and uh on
behalf of myself and council member Susan Swong, we feel very strongly about that. Uh also I think that we have to be very careful about the afterchool programs. Uh last year there were cuts made. We were able to get some
additional monies, but they still didn't give it to the schools in in like in district 20 and 21 which had had existing programs and they were cut. Uh I don't believe we should be disqualifying existing programs in schools where they exist and where
parents are desperately need them in order to be able to keep working. Uh I think that when you do that you impoverish people and that's something that's wrong and I think you know we may have to get some parent support in making that clear. Uh also just uh a
last point that my office and the office of Susan's Wang uh organizing we've organized a children's book collection and we're going to be distributing books free to children on the second Friday and the fourth Friday of each month in
front of each of our offices. So, this Friday, October 10th, from uh 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock, we are going to have in front of our in my office and Susan's wife's office, uh my office is 155 Kings Highway. We're going to be distributing books to children. I think it's very
important that we make sure children get access to books, that they're encouraged to read books, and I think this will make a a big difference. I think books open a world to children and they really, you know, supplement and strengthen what is going on in the
schools and I we want to assist the schools in being able to do that. We've collected a lot of children's books and we are going to be making distributions each month uh the second and fourth Friday of each month from 2:00 to 4:00 in front of our offices and we're going to be distributing them in some other
places also which we will make announcements about. So, thank you for the opportunity. I'm very happy to see CEC20 has very good presentations and uh that you know you do a great job in terms of advancing education of our
children and that's why the district does so well. You help you play a big part in that. So, thank you very much. Thank you so much. Assemblyman. Up next is a presentation from Lisa Lisa of Office of Multilingual Learners.
Hi, thank you so much. Um, so my name is Mumita Zaman. I'm here on behalf of Lisa and my team at the Office of Multilingual Learners first and foremost. Um, please accept my condolences and on behalf of my team and myself um on this tragic loss that is being processed by your district. Um, so
it's really a privilege to just be here tonight with all of you and um cover a little um a little bit about our office and initiatives that we have that are for our families. Um, so it is a little bit of a pivot in terms of content and I'll try to go through it really quickly because we are um we have a really
packed agenda. Um if you want to stay connected with us, um we'd love to um have you fill out this form which collects our attendance um to let us um keep you updated on family facing initiatives and programs that we have through the office of multilingual
learners which is a central office um that oversees and helps support our um English language learners, our multilingual learners, immigrant students and um as well as our bilingual education programs um offered by New York City public schools. Um
so Lisa could not be here tonight but my name is um again Mita Zavan. I'm the associate director of multilingual and immigrant capacity building. A lot of my work is educator facing as well as family facing um and making sure that our schools are um equipped with
resources, tools, and strategies to support our our multilingual learners, our L students um and that they are equipped with and have connections to CVO partners um that support a lot of our different language communities, particularly our low incidence language communities. Um, and so if you are not
familiar with the Office of Multilingual Learners or you're hearing about it for the first time, um, our mission is to empower our multilingual learners and immigrant students, um, to ensure that they have equitable access to rigorous instruction and that we're setting high expectations in welcoming environment
that affirms their various identities, including their racial, cultural, and linguistic identities. and that we have a very fierce belief in their diverse abilities um so that they can experience a strong sense of purpose and belonging and that they are graduating prepared for success in college in career and in
life. We have three-pronged goals in terms of um increasing the percentage of multilingual learners and immigrant students who meet grade level standards who are making progress in English language proficiency annually and are graduating in four years. Um, I wanted to highlight that
multilingual um, families, L families have their own distinct set of rights within New York City public schools. Um, and so there is an orientation process for L families. Um, family members, guardians of students who have been identified as English language learners have the right to attend a highquality
orientation that covers the following. Um, the expectations of L's at their child's schools. L stands for English language learners. um testing, state standards, and that they receive a nuanced overview of programs for our students, our L students, covering the benefits of multilingualism,
particularly our three different um programs that we offer, which is dual language, transitional bilingual education, and English as a new language um which is the last one is the largest category in which um our L students um participate in and receive services in. Um so this orientation must be provided
before the final program placement of the student and must be in the preferred language of the guardian right. Um so before once an a student is identified as an L student um they have to go through this orientation process and families should know um and have a good understanding of u the different
offerings that we have within our programs for multilingual students for L students so that they are making an informed choice um what's what's right for their child and what's right for them as a family in terms of their goals and aspirations for their students. And then L students every year have
what's called an annual parent meeting for L's. Um, this is required for each school on a yearly basis for each of their L students. It's a great opportunity for our English language learner families to meet individually with school staff such as their teacher, their principal or guidance counselor.
This is an opportunity for them to discuss their child's progress, language development services the school is providing and other important programming information for their child. Um this meeting is not a substitute for other other meetings that happen that um such as like the initial parent orientation that I just spoke about or
the regular parent teacher conference. Um this is an addition to right and this is to create a space to make sure that um we're uplifting things that the families need to know in terms of their their children making progress um around English proficiency. Again, there is a bill of rights for
families of multilingual learners l students. It's on our New York City public schools website. There are se 17 distinct rights of guardians or family members of multilingual learners and L students. It outlines many key policies to inform families including that L's have the right to receive English as a
new language instruction at any school that they attend. Um this is again available on our website. There are also videos that are translated in our top languages um that families can utilize that schools can utilize to ensure that families are aware of what their rights
are. Um this is a really great thing to push in into your school communities and ensure that um new families, existing families that they uh receive this information, they know what their bill of rights are and that there's a conversation around the ways in which families can advocate for their child and for themselves in their school
community. Um, one of the programs that we have that's direct to family, um, is our Gen Connect program, which is an 8week intergenerational program that brings multilingual students and their families together in a unique environment in order to foster and develop strong family bonds, advocacy, literacy, and
social emotional support. Over the course of eight weeks, students um multilingual or English language learning students and um a member of their family, their guardian or their parent um meet with other community members who have a shared language, other parent um parent and student diads
who have the shared home language. Um and over those eight weeks their school will implement this program and they cover a lot of different um topics and themes to to think about their education and planning for the future and also um creating those bonds when a lot of our
immigrant families may have um uh may not have the space for these convers conversations with their children. Um as someone mentioned before earlier in your meeting that sometimes children are not speaking to their parents or not sharing information. Um this is a space where we we're we're seeing unique engagement and
bonding happening not just across the parent and the child but across a community of um a language community that we're that we're serving. Um so this um flyer here is our interest form. There's a link here as well. If folks are interested um in recommending a school, please um let your school know
that this is a program that exists that we can bring to their school and we can train their staff to implement this um and we'll support um in uh making sure that educators have the supplies and materials from the office of multilingual learners. And so we do have um open interest form right now um
schools can apply and we will be in contact with them. So, we're happy to um make sure that as ambassadors, at par, as parent advocates, you are able to um uplift this to your school communities in your district. And again, um going back to our bilingual education um
programs, we have um these brochures that are available um at family welcome centers. It's available on our website um which really identifies and really um breaks down the difference between our different bilingual education programs. Like I mentioned, dual language,
transitional bilingual education, English, English as a new language. These are translated also in all of um our top top languages. Um and we have um differentiated for elementary school, middle school, and high school. Um so that families have these resources as
they're making a decision about where they want to place their L child L student. Um so this is something that we hope that your district um I'm pretty sure that you're also socializing this. Um this is uh helpful for families to make informed decisions. We want to make sure that you have access to these
resources as you're going through um family orientation or placement for students. Um so that's what I have for today. Um we also have our website um for the multilingual immigrant student support team in which Lisa and I sit within the
office of multilingual learners. We have a lot of different trainings and professional development for educators. Like I said, a lot of my work is working with um our school staff, our family facing staff and making sure that they have culturally responsive, sustaining um frameworks and um resources and
tools. We also have folks who are working on college readiness for multilingual learners and L students um career readiness um and family engagement um as well. And so there are opportunities for students, for families, and for educators to partner with us. Um and we hope that we are able
to um connect with many of you across the school year. Um we have a lot of different resources available. There's no shortage of resources whether it's instructional um whether it's student or family facing um and if there's something that you think that your school would benefit from um we would
love to come to your district or to your schools to partner and think about the ways in which our initiatives and our programs can help support our multilingual students and our immigrant students. Um so at the bottom both Lisa and my um email addresses here are here. I will share this with John and with the team so that you all can socialize that
um as you see fit with your with your with your school communities. Um we're looking forward to continuing our partnership with all of you. Thank you so much Miss Marita Zman. Can you please put your information in the chat for our members the community?
Thank you. Anybody have any questions from the council? Anybody have any questions from this side? Now we're going to have the presentation from Gregory Faulk Panel uh for education policy chairperson.
Yeah. Thank Thank you very much, chair. Um first, I'd also like to extend my condolences on, you know, the recent loss of a student in your district. And I'd also like to to compliment um the CEC and the and the superintendent and for the staff for their very quick
response and supporting the students. Um you know, I know it's a tough time and I think it's important and and that you responded very quickly and I think that that's really um is going to really um to show that we have that level of support and community is really an important thing to communicate. So I
really thank you for doing that. Um let me share a little bit about the panel for education policy. Um, by the way, I'm joined by uh a gentleman, Noah um Simson, who is also on the call and um you know, we're here basically to to get
people to become more familiar with what the work of the panel. Um, I have to say I I was really listening very intensely to your conversation about AI because actually this morning we had a meeting of the AI subcommittee um and uh to look at what policies and how we should
really make improvements to AI policy and safety and security um is a topic that actually is going to come before the panel uh very shortly and we'll panel will be voting on that. the the panel for education policy or otherwise known as the New York City School Board
really is there to address uh concerns and to address uh policy issues and vote on issues before the um you know before the school before the schools and before the community. And one of the reasons I was very interested in coming out and and listening is for exactly that
reason. And I think it's important that there be a better bridge or a better line of communication between the panel for education policy and the local CEC's and that we're um sharing information that we're supporting each other that we're communicating with each other. Um I think those are um really that you
know those are things that are really important. And so for me personally, it was very helpful for me to listen to some of the conversations that were taking place because as we vote that's going to help to inform the votes that or or how we address some of these policy concerns. So let me share with
you a couple of things that are really um immediately before the panel. One of which obviously is the whole question of AI security and data processing and and cyber security. That's really something that's going to come before the panel very shortly. The the other issue is around and that's one and and this is
one that's really um become very prominent that's the whole issue of bus service. Um the panel will very shortly be looking at the whole busing contract and how the bus service um is performing. We we're going to be holding
a um town hall meeting on school bus service later this month on the 28th. And uh we also have appointed a special uh commission to really review the quality of bus service. It's the number one complaint that we get from all over
the city and was something that the panel felt would be very important for us to really address in a serious way. So we are really looking seriously at um what are the concerns that parents have? What are the issues? How can we improve bus services? What are the things we would need to do to make bus service
more efficient? Um, we've heard some really, um, you know, um, are difficult, you know, conversations from parents who talk about buses that either don't show up or they show up late. Um, and we really want to sort of dig into that
issue and find out what are the concerns that you're hearing as the CEC, what are the concerns that um, you need to discuss with us so that we can give a voice to that and really look to to bring about some improvement. So again, this is hopefully not a not the last
time. It's the first time, but it won't be the last time that uh we'll come out to the CEC. We want to make ourselves available. One of the ways that we have uh are attempting to do that is that for the first time all the committees that
um the panel for education policy has, we've now opened those up to non-members of the panel for education policy. So, if there are issues or concerns or things that you have an interest, uh we'll send that list uh forward, um you can consider joining one of our panel committees, um we think that it really
is a great would be a great value for the for the panel and for the local CEC's to have better communication with each other. Um when you're passing resolutions, make sure that those resolutions get forwarded to the panel so that we're aware of some of the things that are going on and and so that
we can address those those concerns. Um, so you know, we want to open the door, better communication. I think in the past there's been kind of you have the panel for education policy and then you have the local CACs and for often times there wasn't a lot of communication between the two. So we want to really open that door, have better
communication and collaboration and work more closely together and and then come out to meetings like this and just spend time listening and finding out what are some of the issues that are happening in the in in the communities that we need to address at the level at the citywide panel. So that's it. Again, thank you
for inviting me and thank you for um we hope to come back um and look forward to working more closely with you and I thank you chair for inviting us. Thank you so much, Gregory. Um, we have Tamara Stern. She has a question. Sure.
Mention the um the committees. Um, is there on the the chair? Can I ask you if you could repeat the question because I'm we're having a hard time. I'm having a hard time hearing them hearing it. If you can repeat
a little bit better. Hey, good morning. You you mentioned the committees. Can you hear me now? Yes, I do. How would you get information about um attending those committee meetings? Is
it on the the DOE website? Do you the what I if No, if you're still there, if you we could put an email in the chat. Um the committees are listed on the website. Yes. So, that's one way you can go on to the website. The panel also has a a specific email um that you can email
us and say that you have an interest in any one of the particular committees. The committees range from a committee that deals with utilization. So when we have questions about school utilization, we have a committee on school utilization. We have a committee on engagement, just how do we connect better with the community. Uh we have a
committee on contracts that addresses um uh contracting items that come before the panel. Um so so if there's an and if there's we have one on early childhood. So so if there's a particular interest area that you have and you think that's something that the panel should address
let us know and it it'll be something that we will address. Um you know we we we feel that you know we're the school volunteers. We're members of the panel for education policy are volunteers members of the CEC's also our our school volunteers and we think it's important
for the volunteer community within the school system to begin to communicate together work together and support each other and and so this is really what this is an attempt to get out to talk to you to work together opening up our committees opening up our meetings and doing things that can that could force a
greater collaboration. So yes, the committees are open. Um we've had people suggest committees that in areas that we should be working on. The whole question of bus service was really something that came out of the community and said, you know, you need to really do something um
about bus service. You know, we we were hearing from parents who children had an IEP that said you should be on the bus no more than an hour and and and these kids were sometimes on the bus two and three hours. So, so the that committee really came out of the engagement we've
got from parents in the community. Um are the committees um in person or virtual? Um it it depends. Some of them have really attempted to do u in-person meetings. Um the you know we run into issues around the state law open
meetings law because if these committees are are creating policies there are some cases where that some of the committees have to at least have a quorum of the committee meeting in person and then there can be virtual attendance. So sometimes we the committees have to operate in a hybrid fashion to be in
compliance with state law. Um so but that's something we can discuss. Um I know for example our utilization committee recently had a meeting and it was a hybrid. They had people who were online and they had uh a quorum of the committee which was actually two people that actually met at tweet and and made
that available for folks. So I guess the answer short answer is yeah they're very often hybrid and I apolog I drop my information in the chat and we can always follow up too if there's other questions about the committees or anything that we can additionally provide that would be more
supportive. Yeah, thank you. No, I was hoping you were going to jump in here. Yeah. So, yeah. So, so again, let's, you know, I know you have a lengthy agenda, but let's let's keep fostering this communication between the two of us, between the two or, you know, between the panel and between the CC's.
Do we have any other members that want to ask a question? Okay, we're going to move forward. Thank you so much for everything. Okay, thank you. And we'll stay if you don't mind. Uh, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Yes. So, we're going to do the president's report.
So, I figured that we could talk about bully awareness month because that's what it is today for the whole month. So, um if you need to report any bullying, you can report it directly to the school. You could also do it through the New York City Department of Education online at new york
city.edu/bullying reporting. You could also email respect forall at schools.nyc.gov. You could also call 718-9352288 or you could do it the 311. You could file it online or you could do it on the 31 app. Um we had a bullying incident
and it was taken care of. Um we reached out to Superintendent David Pto. He called his team. He did what he had to do on his end. So we all worked together. So that goes for the parents, our council members. When we do get a bullet report from our CEC email, we reach out to the liaison of the school
and that's what we do. and we forward it to whoever we have to forward it to and we take care of it. So each council member has five schools or four schools, it all depends and they're the liaison for those schools. So if you go to our website at cc2020.org,
you're going to see our pictures. If we don't have our pictures yet, you'll see our email and our name and just you could kindly email your liaison and let them know what's going on in the school. It could be anything. So we'll reach out and we'll help you out in regards to that. Um, now I am going to call on
Tamara Stern. Um, she's going to speak about something that she is really near and dear to. And Tamara, whenever you're ready. Okay. Um, as you've all noticed, we as you've all noticed,
um, there's been like a main topic at tonight's meeting, right? We we've lost um two children, one from our district and another one from Manhattan. And at this point, you know, we wanted to make sure that we presented a lot of
information to our families so they could be very aware of what's going on and they able to reach out and get the guidance that they need to help them and to help their students and the staff. So, at this time, um we would like to take a moment of silence for the the two
students that we lost. We want to thank you so much for um Dr. PTO. We want to thank you so much for all the all the guidance that you were able to um offer McKinley. We want to thank the McKinley staff and you know for for making sure that the the students and the staff are properly
taken. Miss Nodto and and Miss Giri. we know how how wonderful your school is, you know, as as a past parent who had three kids that went through that school, you know, and continually come back to to say hi to the staff because they really love the school. It's a
familyoriented school. Like they treat everybody like family. And you know, I know like this is devastating for the staff and the students and the and the family that lost their child. And we want to make sure that they have everything that they need to support the family and to make sure that the kids
have the necessary tools that they need to be able to express themselves and and the help that they need. So please, anybody that needs help as a BP representative, I've also reached out to the bureau president's office and he will be reaching out to McKinley to see um any assistance that they could offer
the school and the parents and the students at this time. All right, we want to thank everybody for your support and you know we we got to bring this more this topic and awareness more to our families and we really have to get together and do something to make sure
that this doesn't happen against another student. Thank you so much and Samara Stern is the liazison of McKinley school and I also wanted to add um since she was um a senior A lot of kids in the
neighborhood, they did know her and they going to the high schools in this neighborhood and other neighborh schools, they knew her cuz my nephew actually went to McKinley, too. And he's he's a acquaintance of hers and friends of friends. So any kid in our neighborhood that needs mental health,
they should reach out to their counselors. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. All right. Next up is going to be a resolution. Tonight we have one resolution on the agenda. Title of the resolution is going to be
equip every teacher and staffer with a silent panic button system. So, I'm the one that wrote this resolution in regards um so I'm going just go through it real fast. Whereas students lack direct access to cell phones in schools, so they can't reach any quick and easy help in case there's
an emergency like a medical issue or active aggression. Whereas the welfare and security of our children should take more seriously. Even financial institutions such as banks have regularly instilled silent banning buttons to guard money. And yet the lives of our children are pricier and
require much more vigorous defenses. And so is our teachers and staff. Equipping the teachers and staff with a button system enables immediate and silent communication with emergency responders, ensuring swift action in cases where the teacher cannot speak or access a phone. Research shows that
seconds saved can mean lives saved in active shooter situations. God forbid. Whereas the utility of the systems has been proven, a new panic alarm system in Appalache High School in Georgia saved lives as killer shot was reported. Study
participants were required to press wearable panic buttons on their ID badges and this initiated real-time alert notifications to police causing the shooter to be stopped within several minutes. Back in July of 2022, Governor Kathy Hokll signed into Alyssa's law, which is S713B/
A18, which requires schools in New York to evaluate the utilization of silent paddic alarm systems as part of their school safety plan review and development. This legislation specifically acknowledges the fact that even the time saved during responses that would otherwise be used to save
lives are minutes saved. New York State 2022. So with that being said, I believe that each school and each ch teacher should have an alarm based on the fact that it saved other lives in other schools and Governor Kathy Hokll actually signed in
a law but is not mandated but it it requires schools to look into it. So that's why I wrote this resolution and hopefully um the council would approve it. We will now vote on the resolution.
Kevin, can you No. You want to take it? Can you take local vote? Yes. Elizabeth? Yes. Yes. May always speak. Um, Steven. Yes.
Fabola. Fabola. Tamala. So, I have a few questions. Tamal. So abstain. Ben, hi. Are you calling me?
So you both get or no? Uh give me let me see. Uh I will. Yes. Yes. And then so you vote yes or no about the
having a silent alarm. He's a co-sponsor. Oh yes. All safe. You ask someone. It's in regards to the the co-sponsor that you sponsored. Oh, for the the panic alarm. Panic button. Yes.
Yes. Can you tally up the yeses and how many people you have now? Zero. Okay. We have nine yeses, one absent, one abstained, and one excused. So, the
resolution passes. We're also going to send this to the education policy chairperson, which is Gregory. Yeah. All right. The first vice president would like to say something. Oh, no. I'm just saying that we still have um indigenous people's day on
Monday to celebrate and we also have a Hispanic heritage month that's still going on and a lot of our schools are doing a great presentations and activities and Diwali coming up Italian Heritage Month
and it is Italian Heritage Month all of October. Thank you so much Now we're going to go to the second public speaking session. Kevin, is anybody signed up? Anybody here that wants to speak? Please sign up and
speak. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna call Tam Reed. Please unmute yourself. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you. Um I just wanted to say thank you actually um to council
members particularly Rick and Stern um for putting this information together tonight for focusing on subway surfing and everything that that brings up. Um, we lost a student at my son's school three years ago, um, a middle schooler
and it's it's something that's been escalating. It is something that people are very silent on. Um, and I think it's very multiffold. I think it's access to mental health supports, to wellness supports. Um, the kids that are vulnerable are vulnerable kids. And so I
think that a lot of training needs to happen in the schools with families, with parents to get that information out. I was writing to the child something like I don't even know what Discord is, you know, like how do we break into our kids' phones and know what the hell is going on? Like I don't even know what these things are and how
do we do it without them knowing and I'm kind of serious about that, you know, but other than that, I just wanted to say on the resolutions, I know I signed up to speak to that. I would I was hoping that it there would be more discussion on it tonight. It did it
seemed like it went straight to a vote. I was really wanting to hear like the different sides and sort of the intricacies of it. Um, just on the base level, it's like anything that keeps our teachers safe, our students safe, you know, it's a it's a good thing. I think
this could be actually it could cause some students some student populations harm. I do think that it needs to be implemented with like the utmost fidelity. We have, you know, black students, disabled students who have disproportionately higher rates of
incidents involving the police, um, involving being in crisis, being handcuffed. We don't want to see that. We don't want it to be used in some way intentionally or not on students who are vulnerable in the classroom in crisis. Um, so just something to think about uh,
Rick Katoni, sorry, President Rickon, Trevor Katoni, as you're moving forward on this to really look at that training piece and I would love it if you had a town hall or some sort of meeting where we could really like just dig in and make sure that this is used to actually help and not harm certain populations.
Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Is there anybody else, Kevin? No. Okay. Okay. So, we're going to move to the approval of September calendars meeting minutes. They were sent to the council members in email. Kevin, if you
could just put it online and just go through it. That concludes the meeting, the the minutes. Are there any changes to the minutes, council members? [Music] If there are no changes, the minutes are
approved without a vote. You guys want to take a break or you want to move forward? [Music] Yeah. [Music] Yeah. Good. All right. So, this concludes our October CC20 calendar
meeting. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Is there a second? All in favor? The meeting is adjourned. The next calendar meeting is November 12th at PS971. Thank you for everyone for attending.
Thank you interpreters. We're going to start the business meeting. We're going to go right through. Good evening. Welcome to October CC20. Thank you so much. CC20 business meeting. Kevin, can you please take roll call attendance? No.
So recording secretary here. Elizabeth here Steven. [Music] Yes.
I don't know. I don't know. Yes, I'm here. Tonight we have interpretation in Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish. You should see these interpreters names in the participant list, and they will post their information in the chat.
They will now share directions for anyone who would need interpretation for the meeting. Could our Arabic interpreter please introduce yourself? Uh good evening. This interpretation is going to be in Arabic if for those who
are interested. Arabic announcement is done. Thank you. Can you ask them for the paper? I can sign it so I can leave on time. Thank you so much to the Arabic interpreter. Can Mand interpreter please introduce yourself? ID
mandering uh announcement completed. Thank you. Thank you to the Mandarin interpreter. Can our Spanish interpreter please introduce yourself? Fore microphones. End of announcement in Spanish. Thank you. Thank you so much to the Spanish
interpreter. Thank you. As a reminder to speakers, please try to speak slower than usual to allow our interpreters to keep up. Now, we will share the agenda for tonight's business meeting. Kevin, can you please share the agenda on the screen? It was
also sent to our council members prior. agenda. Yeah. Nalin, can you please uh call roll call? [Applause] Here. Oh Elizabeth here 10.
Alina here. Kevin here. So on the agenda, it's going to be old business. It's going to be the approval of September business meeting. That's it. And then we have a new business which is
um move money from the PC card to the events. Kevin, I'll explain after. We'll do the minutes first and then we'll talk about that. Is there any changes on the minutes? No. If there's no changes, the minutes are approved without a vote.
The minutes are approved. Thank you. Three, four, five, six. Elizabeth, can you just pass it down to to Mar? Okay. Um, if you look at the your screen right now, you see the budget. So, we
moved originally 900 to the PC card. PC card is just a debit card the CC uses for certain things. It's pretty limited. Um, we were going to use it for the website, but because of some complications like tax reasons, we can't pay tax as a deal organization and they won't tax exempt us. The previous uh
website host was Wix. They said we can't be tax exempt. It's something it's some type of role they have. So, we couldn't use their website service anymore. And I don't know if anyone's been to the website. It's uh it's Google Sites now, but it's basically the same thing. If you've been on the website, nothing's really changed. I updated it over the
weekend. So, it's basically the same and it's free. So, now we have $900 to move back into events. Into events. Yeah. So, that's a vote you guys need to do. Okay. We should do it now. Y
take a roll call, right? Someone needs to call it and then Yeah. Nalin, can you take a roll call in regards to changing $900 into events events? Okay. From the IP card. Okay. So, um, just take a roll for the
vote for the the peacock to the event. John, yes. Elizabeth, yes. Benny, yes. N, yes. May Steven, yes. Fabella. Pamo. Yes.
Paddy. Yes. Ken. Alina. Yes. Kevin. Yeah. Yes. How many? Yes. We have eight. Okay. We have n uh 10 yeses.
We have 10 yeses. It was approved. That's all I got. Can you just give us how much money we have in the events now? Yeah, it's right here. So, events right now before before our event coming up. Yeah. 5650.
5650. That's how much we have in there. That's And then we're going to have another 900. Another 900 on top of that. 6550. Okay, great. All right. I also want to talk about uh when should we do the giveaway? So, like the holiday giveaway, right?
Because that's what it's going to be. Yeah. Should we do it or not? Well, Elizabeth, you're in charge of that. So, you have to speak to the other three people. It was only me and her. Who? When Ming. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so I thought we had to get approval to
do the dates so that everyone could show up for the the giveaway, right? We have to get approval from you guys on the budget. [Music] It's going to be um an event for holiday
event. First we were going to do a book bag give back but we didn't do it. So we moved it to a holiday give back for the community. So So don't we have to ask like when we should do it like November or Oh you want to pick Oh, you got to pick a date.
Yes. You guys you want to send a doodle poll around or you want to have Kevin D. you could do the uh doodle pool and then so how does it work that we ask how much the budget should be and then we could tell him what to buy.
Well, what do you need to I know food is probably something but and if it's a give back if it's a give back then we don't really need food. We could just give stuff out, right? What you trying to do? It's like
like do it in front of Sephlo part. Do we do need a thinking permit? I think it's full bees or maybe just a coffee and bagels and and that's something you can give out and if you want think of like a code drive or something. No, like just give out like is that something else we talk about then? Because you you texted me or you
contact me about a code drive. Is it the same thing or something? No, that's something different. It might be better just to combine both of them. Yeah. Go ahead. You think so? We then we could we could talk about it offline then. Okay. All right. Go ahead. Would you want to do November? I I think this pick a date then. I guess we're all like
Yeah. No, I think we should do it in November because December will be too many holidays, right? Okay. Okay. November is just a little too I mean if you it's just around the corner. If you one more time December location enter the date
but if not do November or I could also poll with all dates November and December and whichever gets the most. Yes, that would be good. Is that okay? Yes. Is that okay? And if you're going to do a school, you would pick the school like how Fabiola and Tamara did. You would find a school
that you would want. You would talk to Kevin or if you wanted Kevin to do it, you could do it like that. Okay, good. [Applause] And it's only the middle schools and the elementary in our district. Okay. You can ask.
Anybody else have anything for the business meeting? You guys good? Oh, go ahead. Yes. All right. So, what happened? Um, so we're mostly going to use the lunchroom like how we did like a couple years ago.
And, um, they said that how um, we could use some of the school for parking. Um the sound system will be accessible to us and the band is probably going to perform something for a little bit. So like that's all set up and ready to go. So um
and we just we show up and like we you know with the food and everything like I don't know what time you you order the food. I already I ordered the food and the merchandise. Um the food came out,000. The merchandise came out to like 7:42. Okay. And so we're all set. The food's set to
come there around 8:30. the meeting, the event starts at 9:00. Okay. And I'll be there earlier so we can or I can just set up everything. Okay. All right. So, that was uh in regards to the welcome back breakfast that Tamara and Fabiola put together. October 17th. October 17th. 9:00 a.m.
9 a.m. But they are the meeting. So you could be excused for that. You don't have to. It's not mandatory. Okay. Yeah. So like Yeah. Yeah. So, just tell the SLT that you're going to your own welcome back breakfast and
they're going to have to excuse you. What time is it? 9:00. 9 to 11. 9 to 11. Did you confirm with the school today? Yes. 98 9 to 11. Okay. So, when would you be there? So, the event start. So, when you want me to be there?
Well, um I was going to be around 8:15. Did you say what? Ah, Friday. Friday. The 17th is Friday. Yeah, it's next Friday. Yeah. When's the next meeting? November. What? 12. We're good.
Oh, yeah. So, if you if you guys are driving, you'll be able to um park. Have to go around park. So, so I'll wait. I have a question. Um so, I'm going to pick up the waters for for that for that meeting. Um I don't know if you guys want to do like apple juice
and orange juice. Prior we did the apple juice and orange juice. Um, if any members want to bring like two things of apple juice, two things of orange juice so that we don't use our funds because I'll just buy the waters. I'll buy a whole bunch of waters. But if anybody wants to bring apple juice or orange juice, you can do that. If you want to
do that, just let us know now. So, um, just because last uh last year Steve did it because usually the vendors they always they charge a dollar per water bottle and then for the like little case of juice it's like $20. So last year, Steve just bought it and then we figured just to save some money.
I think we just It's way cheaper to just buy. Yeah. So, you know, maybe four people want to chip in and then put it together and four people like that. We could do it like that. So, we have all email addresses. We have the chat going on. So, we could do it like that. All right. So, that works. We're not going to spend
$20 for a jug of jug of orange juice. So, that concludes our October CC20 business meeting. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjourn. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I. The meeting is adjourned. Our next business meeting is on November 12th.
Thank you for everyone for attending. Thank you for the interpreters. You are dismissed. Thank you for be Thank you for bearing with me with all the people that came to present. I think we did a good enough time. And yeah. Yeah. Do we have anybody that I need to sign
with? Uh okay. It's