still waiting for two of our folks to to hop on uh but just for interest of time we'll call the meeting to order and we will table the minutes until um we have everyone on and we'll revisit it when that time comes if that's okay with everyone um we have um someone joining um oh shet yes I'm sorry we'll make that correction inside of the minutes you got it um we have um a student that's going to be joining us this uh this morning to share their Soo
speech uh so we will do a pause in the action just so that that child has an opportunity to share a little bit um about what they oh good Lamar is here so that we can actually go through the minutes um we will stop in the action when um when uh when she joins uh to give you a little bit of context around what we've been working on with uh the Civics for all work and project soapbox uh so we're excited that the student will be joining us shortly um but let's go back into and Lamar
we're going to plop the minutes into the chat again so that you have it and we will get going so that we can make come to consensus on the minutes let me go in here and make sure that sureet your name is spelled correctly I'm not sure how that happened I just did that mic you fixed it yeah in all the spots Lo cuz there's a
bunch of that I'm looking I'm I'm going to do a find yeah okay perfect thank you thank goodness for finding replace let me tell you absolutely
we're good there's three spots perfect just give one more minute we'll come to consensus
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all right do we have consensus on the minutes see Rob give it a agree thank you rob everyone else yes thank you shanet thank chanet thank you Lamar thank you Eden okay great so uh welcome everyone um happy day after Super Bowl I'm hoping you guys were able
to enjoy it was not much of a game but I'm hoping you were able to be uh in company with folks to just enjoy um you know enjoy the day I know uh most wind up getting together at the very least for uh the Super Bowl and if it's not the Super Bowl itself it's usually the commercials and um and the halftime show so I'm hoping you guys were able to enjoy uh each other's company uh for that I think it was all about the commercials only last night yeah the football did not theot did not really uh
measure up that's for sure halftime show wasn't even that good just some updates and reminders share a few things that have been happening in the district since our last session uh we will have a soac speech that is presented um I'm going to share with you the current state of uh Performance Based on um our aadience I ready uh data uh albeit we still have this week for makeups and we still have a handful of kids that still need to
test uh but I'm going to share with you the current state of our work there uh Gus is going to talk a little bit around CDC progress monitoring which we're doing anyhow uh and then updates on DCP and C postings um SLT pack docs and New York State accountability then we'll go through the other reports from high school and each of our other constituent groups uh today so having said that I will open up my presentation for this
morning okay so DT superintendence report uh as I mentioned updates reminders uh respect for all I do want to make sure that I call out some of our students uh Civics for all we'll have a student presentation want to talk to you a little bit more in depth around Wellness day and then we'll talk about current state of performance um here in District um so last month uh we did honor uh Dr Martin Luther King um for
all the work that he had done as a as a civil rights um activist and such uh so our community engaged in a variety of different activities across our district schools uh including our prek Center um they engaged in work with their families at home creating kindness leaves um you know along with an explanation of the importance of Dr King's work on how families can help their children understand uh the ways to work in um that's mean in in a way that's meaningful for our children that are three and four uh so we thank our prek
Center for engaging in that um this is just a snapshot of bell Academy they did engage in essay contests which was also something that was happening across uh across many a number of our schools in district um big shout out to council member un uh for connecting with our schools consistently across across the years uh but this in particular was a $480,000 grant that was given for res uh for Auditorium Tech and bathroom up great so we always thank our council
member um who happen to be part of count uh Sook speeches that occurred during that visit so uh big shout out to to them for that work uh District math family night big shout out to ps129 um uh principal huet and her opening up her doors um Beth Eaton from our team who organized this entire event making sure that there was uh connection to a wide range of math games tools um connected one of our local vendors um to
make sure that there were snacks and pizza and it was just a really great great event we had over 200 participants present um really promote the expectations for mathematics here in District 25 um there is another event that uh Miss Eaton will be holding actually this Wednesday uh around uh around mathematics District vision for mathematics and connecting into the space of math discussions and why that's important in our schools um so she'll be talking a little bit about that on Wednesday as well but big shout out to our school and our community for
participating this past couple of weeks ago um spelling be um shout outs congratulations to David from 130 uh divine grace from is- 250 and Jason from 185 uh they are our Citywide um they they are moving on to the Citywide spelling be in March as they were the the winners for uh the burrow uh event that we held at 185 so big shout out to them big thanks to our pronouncers and
volunteers and certainly Miss willins for consistently organizing this event uh at the district level so great work for all of our kids and our district Community uh Happy Lunar New Year our schools uh engaged in a variety of different activities including this past week and big shout out to to Lewis and Jenny uh participating in the lantern um Lantern making Festival this uh this Saturday at Queen's Library uh so big shout out to them for for participating
and representing the district uh along with other other uh events and activities council member un um and ps244 uh participated in um in a Lunar New Year parade uh we had Mr Met joining them as you see in the images there so big shout out to our school and for our council member for always being supportive uh 164 and you'll notice there's a lot of these things connected to Civic responsibilities for our kids as we go through our through our slides
164 brought their entire elected body of student council members uh to meet with burough president Richards uh at his office to really um request um funds through res uh to support school-based needs we really want all of our kids in our in our schools to make sure that they are having their voices heard and we we've said this a number of times here at the at DLT that our kids voices carry a great deal of weight uh so we encourage them as much as possible to
use those voices in productive ways and this is just an example of that voice um and let me just pop this into the chat just to make sure that you guys have the links some like to follow along with the links too so put that in the chat for you guys um also we had um respect for all is this week um so many of our kids participate in a variety of different activities to promote this space of respect and kindness across our schools
and I just want to announce and and recognize our contest winners we had Elvis from uh 209 uh who was also at the CC meeting um to receive his um his accolades for and and recognition for creating um his essay we had a poster contest winner also from 209 Anthony from 209 congratulations to him multimedia contest Aaliyah Chris uh Mauna Savanah chance and Chris from 201
uh created a multimedia video um to promote respect for all Stella and Benjamin from the d25 prek centers um also for big shout out to them for participating I have a little video here too that's in the slide deck we're not going to show it just just for a Time Time sake but it is there in the event you want to go back and take a look at that video um we also had our Middle School contest Award winners M uh Ming Kang from 18 5 was the essay Award
winner Jocelyn from 185 the poster Award winner and the multimedia contest Award winner was Isabella from 294 so big shout out to our students for the work that they put in um here is the video that I was referring to you're welcome to go and see it it's a it's a short one but uh it's worth seeing how we're promoting those types of respectful behaviors all the way in 3 3K and prek um Black History Month uh was celebrating this month across all of our
schools making sure that um our building leaders and our students and teachers are connecting with our kids around those that have made a difference in um in the world today um so really important work that our schools are engaging in this month um last week was National School counseling week just a big shout out to our counselors thanking them for the work that they do every day on behalf of our kids want to make sure that we continue to to celebrate the folks when there are opportunities to do
so so big shout out to our counselors uh upcoming events and events that have already uh just recently taken place uh as you guys know all of these things are videotaped so uh whether you whatever constituency you're with whether building leaders teachers uh parents these are all there and I would encourage you to make sure that folks uh have access to them um as it does provide some important information uh we have a virtual math Workshop that is
happening t on uh Wednesday night uh around discussions in math as I mentioned already Thursday the 13th we will be holding an I ready session at ps107 this one's very similar to the one that we had done in October it's just a time and space for families to come together get online see what it is that their kids how their kids have progressed um making it accessible to our families in the event that they have questions uh we have an I ready presenter that will be there to make sure that any families are that are not sure where where to go uh we'll know how
to access the information so we encourage all of our families to participate um we had a uh a session around special education classification that was held in January the video is there we also have one coming up in March March 18th uh around understanding the kindergarten IEP process which is coming up soon for any of our children that are in prek uh so it's making sure that our families are aware of what to expect moving forward and then uh aadience we had a session uh
just last week for kindergarten in first grade which was um was really great and we have a followup to that this week on Wednesday Wednesday is an actionpack day we have a math session and an Acadian session both of them are virtual this one is around second graders um making sure that our families understand what uh the diagnostic assessment and screeners um provide them in terms of information and how they can connect at
home to help support their children moving forward summer Rising um the applications for sumar Rising begin on Tuesday uh March 4th and closes on March 28th just a reminder for all of you just to make sure that um there's that awareness of programming opportunities for our families and that we get the word out as much as possible the program for K to 5 is July 2nd through the 15th um 8: a.m. to 6 and
grade 6 to 8 is um July 2nd to the 8th um from 8:00 am to 6 Lewis does the uh Elementary program end on the 8th as well in terms of doe or is that all the way through the 15th on that one so so the 15th is the extra week for yeah right absente and then correct so the eighth is when all teachers end or the the part the it's
actually the seventh the Thursday right perfect um and then middle school kids end on the eth and then the elementary school kids have an additional week with just the CBO perfect and we'll have more information about um summarizing next month regarding uh you know the application Stu that we'll go into more detail everyone next month okay um Civics for all presentations in Project soapbox uh we do have Raca from PS is uh 499 will
be joining us at some point during our um DLT meeting and we'll bring we'll bring her right on when she has the opportunity to join to share her soapbox speech with us and her call to action um and wellness day so if everyone can mark their calendar I would love to see as many of you here as possible uh the wellness day is on March 15th um and on the 15th there will be um a r range of things that going to
support umal our mindup program so we will have members from the mindup organization joining us to do some lessons around mindup there will be mental Wellness supports and physical wellness supports in fact I'm just going to close this just for a second so that I can pull up all of the groups that are um going to be joining us on this for this event and it is a a number of organizations that I'm really really excited about uh shout out to Diana from
our team for organizing this uh but let me just open this for everyone make sure that I can share all the groups that are going to be coming so in conjunction with uh common Point Queens we have uh nycfc football um Club is going to be joining us the New York Islander representatives from the New York Islanders uh the New York Mets and USA baseball USA tennis Association uh blaton
Athletics that's a lacrosse organization uh City lacks also a lacrosse organization uh Taekwondo will be uh Taekwondo organization will be joining us uh we'll have the 109th Precinct there will be um the office of school food and nutrition will be there with um with uh food samplings around what healthy eating options there are for our kids UFT will be there uh Brave it's an organization that does what they call the Buddha Booth um Kendra Scott diala
teacher the slow-mo Institute where kids will have an opportunity to create slime um fun and function YWCA New York Psychotherapy and Counseling Center fresh air fund and the Korean Community Center so we have a range of groups that will be there um we're going to be this will be at the common Point bubble in right next to Bell Academy and 169 so I'll be using uh some of Bell and Bell and 169 classroom space so thank you to to um to miss Rosa and Mr Abbott
for opening their doors to us um but there will be a number of opportunities for our kids to work in partnership with uh the district and the CC um for this for this Wellness day the goal of this is that it's a kickoff to really promote Wellness across our district in the form of kindness respect um physical uh Wellness mental wellness and social emotional learning uh so we're really excited about this and we'll open up for
conversation around this in just a second but we do I do see that our student is in the waiting room um and I don't want her to have to um wait too uh too much longer as she has to get back to to class but we're gonna bring Risa in um to the meeting Yay good morning Raa how are you I'm good how are you very good thank you so much for joining us today um you are here with our district leadership
team and on our district leadership team Raa you have um myself um who participates you have one of our members that supports the what they call the council for supervisors and administrators you have the leader for the UFT you have members from our apparent community that are on uh all to hear a little bit about what your call to action is so we're excited for you to be here to join us and to share a little bit about uh your project Soo
speech how's that sound graa can you hear me I'm sorry my Internet is just a bit like it's not little choppy before you begin with your speech can you tell us what school uh you go to and what grade you're in I go to PS SI 499 and I'm in seventh grade nice cool what is the topic what's the topic yeah
the topic is being an upstander to bullying I love it are you ready to begin yes okay you may begin when you're ready April 2nd 2021 I asked my mom if I could go meet my friend at the park and she said yes I gone to the park and what I saw flashed in front of my eyes my friend laying on the hard cement floor these two girls
one pulling her hair and another laughing at her her face fully red and in tears I was completely speechless I went as fast as I could to get help my first priority was to check if she was okay my second priority was to stand up for my friend and confront her bullies if I didn't stand up for my friend or tell an adult what was happening the bullies would have gotten away with it it is so important to me to be an
upstander Monique B Foundation States 85% of buling incid at schools there are other children around by standards watching and not acting think about that for a moment the presenter shows that most kids don't have the courage to stand up instead they choose to be a bystander in silent rather than sticking up for them which would ultimately benefit the victim by being an upstander and doing is Right westad States many students
don't tell School staff for fear of making the situation worse or being viewed as a snitch studies show that about 57% of bullying incidents are left being unreported students don't have the courage to stand up for the victim I would rather be a snitch and get this bulling situation dealt with than having the victim get hurt by the bully bullly out States when an upstander sees someone being bullied they do something about it they try to
stop the bullying from happening or they support the person who's being bullied being an upstander is an amazing thing and you should never feel embarrassed about why you were an upstander because you're doing the right thing and you can make someone stay as well imagine a world where people stand up for others when people see someone being bullied they step into help or go get help imagine being in a school and asking to go to the bathroom you see a group of kids in the hallway bullying a girlhood strength gets her class the right thing
to do would not to witness The Bullying happen but to be an upstander and help the girl out and who knows maybe the girl will think of you as a hero being an upstander is similar to being the pillow when someone falls asleep because you're supporting the person's head just like how you're supporting the victim when they're getting bullied by being an upstander I need you to see every time there's a blowing situation going on not to witness but to be an upstander I also need you to influence the people
who are witnessing this bulling situation not to witness everything that's happening but to stand up for the victim I need you to tell trust do what is going on and who is bullying who as Rosa Park said you must never be fearful about what you're doing when it is right fear is just the feeling that you get once in a while but don't let it keep you from doing what is right being an upstander a bullying because it's the right thing to do I hope this speech inspired you thank you
great job great job that was great terrific job racist I really appreciate you hopping on and and with this call to action regarding bullying and being an upstander you really gave me a lot to think about and the way that you you managed even through the through the computer to make sure that you were looking right at me you still had a really amazing tone in your voice you made sure that you were clear on your message and I think you did a really really great job do any of DLT members have any any comments that they'd like
to share with Raa yes yes I thank you Risa for your presentation and and this is something that uh even happens with us adults sometimes we see a situation like that and instead of interfering what do some people do they take out their cell phones because they think that they can record a viral video instead of helping whoever is being attacked and so we we need to change that we need to change that culture that helping one another instead of like trying to record some
sort of viral video or something that you know it it is I really commend you for for your courage standing up for others thank you love that Edo thank you yeah I loved how you uh called out the word snitch I've always felt like that word is something that people who want to make trouble created to prevent upstanders from doing the right thing right it's a label that we give people who want to do the right thing and you've addressed that and um I thought that was powerful
this was a great great great speech thank you and you know a lot of soapbox speeches you know they they communicate to different audiences a lot of kids when they do their speeches they're talking to adults regarding you know different um initiatives but I really felt like yours was towards your peers and I think that's really important to be able to communicate with your peers around this topic yeah I was gonna chime in also having watched my child go through that
um The Bullying situation it's really great to see a child speak up on it and like what to make a difference to help avoid that going forward yes Raa thank you so much um you also there's also someone in the chat um our high school president's council president um also said uh great job Raca keep up the great work so you're getting big shout outs from all of our members of the the DT really appreciate you
joining us and um expressing your call to action and I appreciate you doing that here for us uh it actually connects very much right now because this is respect for all week um and what it reminds me of is is that we need to be able to talk about this Beyond just a week um and that it's not something that we're limiting just to having a conversation around this time but always so thank you so much Raa do you have any questions or anything from uh from us as District leadership team
no okay Rea thank you so much uh you are free to go and I hope you have an amazing day okay thank you for inviting me I appreciate you being here sweetheart thank you so much by guys have a great day so any any comments um guys just around the the um the the power of Soo speeches and Civics for all and the work that uh we're we're trying to build in our kids
uh when it comes to this any any thoughts and you know I know some some of us here are fortunate enough to to be in a school where you get to see these things happen uh with a lot more frequency than just one student being able to to share her speech but uh any comments yes sure not hi everyone good morning again so um I don't remember who made the comment that you know we shouldn't wait for a calendar event to Institute basic
kindness and children learn what they live and I've always advocated for my daughter is in ninth grade now and um why can't it just be part of the structure of of schools where once a month you know they I remember a school years ago they would have a kindness day every month and then they would have like and in the high school they have like a dress up respect day every month you know where are you swap seats in the cafeteria once a month and you you got
color in her Elementary School they would give them um uh color uh paper and in the morning the day before you picked random colors from a like you know put your hand in whatever color you got for that week that's where you sat at that table and it was good because um my daughter went through bullying from kindergarten you know where two young girls in the third grade stopped her at the bathroom and wouldn't let her go in
and thank God there were cameras you know and she went on herself and she was so embarrassed and devastated because she like I I'm I know how to use the bathroom but they wouldn't let me and the teacher like it's not a big deal and that bothered me cuz her first time into public school a teacher say it's not a big deal these things happen this was 2012 2013 and I spoke to the principal I wasn't that's what triggered me get involved in PTA you know and I said you
know you can't have a grown-up telling a child it's okay when she knows in her house it's not okay and you know you don't want to punish the kids but they should learn that the clicks that they form it shouldn't just be a respect for all weak kind of a thing which was instituted a couple years ago so it should be something that the district should um encourage our schools to find random ways to over time it would change their behavior you know and
do like random I don't know how what you call them like little things I can't find kindness activity yeah sh Shan so so one of the things that I that I love about what you're saying is that it creates an opportunity for us to establish a set of recommendations so I think our schools do a really great job of organizing monthly calendars typically around character development and things that align with um you know positive behaviors but I think that could be also emphasized even from us as a as a
district leadership team that here are some things that we would say are really important so if you don't currently have it in your calendar let's build in a monthly space for just um this reconnecting around respect kindness um you know positive behaviors um you know so that it's it's consistently emphasized across all of our schools yeah yeah sounds good Eden that would be nice um I was going to chime in actually just based on what we saw at the c meeting the other day also with the
other speeches that we heard um one specifically was about bipolar disorder and awareness and the fact that a lot of children are left untreated with it and I think that the fact that a child is able to like notice that because she has a family member that's going through it and say like we need to do more for these children should they have this and what can we do was like beyond amazing um and the other little boy was also
great about food waste but really the bipolar one really spoke out to me because I I know that there's so many children that are going through things and like they don't like to diagnose kids when they're young but yet the sooner you get the diagnosis the sooner you could help the child and so I think that that going along with what we also heard about today with bullying because the bipolar stuff kids will get bullied based on their actions and they might not even realize why they have those actions if they're not being diagnosed so I think
it really kind of tied those two together for me yeah yeah I love that I think the more we can get our kids to be vulnerable and willing to talk about things that are uh are important to them but you know usually when it's important to them it's typically important to other people too um you know so the more frequently we can get our kids to to participate in these things and for me it's it's also about how do we make sure that that voice gets echoed beyond the space of just the speech so uh we do
have um an opportunity later on down the year for civics for all day where um our kids are able to come and and kind of share their voice in a larger space um to really kind of get it out there and and make those calls to action a little bit more um more likely right so beyond the space of just being able to say it to a group of kids but how do we really try truly get something accomplished and I think the other thing too that that I think is important even around bullying
topics is making sure that people know what it is and what it's not um you know sometimes that that word gets thrown around there a lot and sometimes it's really not the case it's you know kid just said something that's insensitive but it doesn't mean that they were being a bully um you know so I think that's an important part of what this time frame really means too uh go ahead rob you know uh just listening to her it just uh reinforces how we have students
in our district and our schools that have positions and feelings on on these topics and what we're doing is creating a forum for them to be able to express it to organize their thoughts and share it with others I could tell you that um this is my 10th year in this building I've had a student government every single year and the first few years it was a lot of we want lunch to improve and let's get more recess and the last few years since we've had this new culture of speaking out on issues that are important the quality of discussion has um really taken off to to to safety
to what's going on in the classrooms um to what the culture of the school is around being around kindness and and around respect um and so we have the kids that are that have these ideas that are already there and we're creating a forum for them and then we have students maybe that aren't thinking about these things that are now thinking about them they would not have been if they didn't see their peers standing up for topics
that they uh organically feel um need a champion right so seeing the since Civic for all has been in in our schools uh an increased amount of awareness from children about what's going on in the world and I think we need that we've always needed it and we need it next yeah especially today sure and you know one of the things that U Mr Marino is is kind of talking about his his kids did a full-on study around the for a stop sign on the corner um you know to a to a
point where they're kind of even videotaping what it looks like in the morning so that everyone can get it kind of see what that means and then they invited in all their elected officials and you know to the credit of all of our elected officials in this District they all came they all saw what it is that the kids had to present and hopefully it'll be create the road for them to start making some really important changes around the school but that's all coming out of the the mouths of kids um you know it might not it might be
that they're out of the school by the time the the action has actually been able to be taken but it'll be a legacy that they've been able to create for themselves so uh really important stuff thanks for that Rob Eduardo go ahead close so the the message shouldn't just be blessed to students but also parents making them allies in respect for all so that's why every February at Queens North we do a presentation and training for our parent coordinators on how to make par parents aware in the community about the importance of of respecting
one another and ending at some point not ending but reducing the amount of bullying that might be going on in our schools so I think it's very important also to to get the the word out to parents because parents are the best the best people that know their their children so in having them uh know that you know that there are systems in place to kind of prevent this Behavior may may help out in in like uh preventing such behavior in our
schools yeah I love that Eduardo and um you know just listening to to this little brief little chat and you think about it's all coming from a conversation that a that a student in one of our schools brought us to right uh so it's kind of allows us to think about what kind of recommendation can we have for schools just in terms of promoting kindness what does that mean in terms of that recommendation to parents um what does it mean in terms of recommendation to all of our staff members right um that comes right from the DT so what I would love is if
everyone can kind of think through between now and our next session in March um what what is our actual vision for this right so we talk about equity and access inside of our uh vision statement we talk about embracing differences inside of our um inside of our vision and we talk about the idea of promoting student voice inside of our vision but what do we we want that to look like in terms of this space of respect and kindness because this one
more and more if you've heard me at CC meetings lately I've been talking about the importance of just really promoting what it means that to be a child of really High character um you know because it matters you know it really does matter it's not just about performing well in school um it's about doing what's right and what what that what does right mean for our kids across our school district so I think it's an important part for us to kind of emphasize so would love just in terms of
our own call to action for us to have some some context around what do we really mean when we say those things um and how do we promote that across our schools on a routine basis so um just throwing that out there I think it would be a nice thing for us to revisit uh when we come back together um in our next month's meeting um okay any other comments on on rac's um presentation or what that means uh for us moving forward anyone else have anything else to
say okay um okay and before we move forward any comments around the wellness day because this is very much connected um to uh to rac's speech um does anyone have any comments around around Wellness day and what it means and um would love for like I said any of you to support it it is on March 15th um setup will be 9:30 and we'll be sending more
information out to all of you um in the community we'll be sending out a registration form sometime this week to get an idea of how many people will be coming um with the number of folks that uh number of partners that we have I do anticipate it's going to be a pretty good turnout uh in terms of of an event uh but does anyone have any questions about what the wellness day is about why we're doing it or anything along those lines well just general comments
too okay all right so more to follow on that um we'll continue to update you on where we're where we're going with uh this Wellness day and the the goal of this in in in collaboration with the c is to create an ongoing conversation around Wellness here in District 25 well they'll be working uh side by side with us uh to support and promote uh Wellness
across the district and maybe perhaps that results in a Wellness Group that we organized which is among parents staff um parents teachers principles and so on where we're really building this across our schools so more to follow on that um but I am looking forward to uh to this event on the 15th and I'm hoping you guys can all join okay back to my report which is now going to dig into uh some progress monitoring I'm
going to put the presentation into the chat again um because I love for us to just linger over this and we're going to do this a little bit differently I don't want to talk at you for this I would love for you guys just to take a look at each of these data sets on your own just for a few moments and then we can come back together and have a chat so I'm going to put um a few minutes onto my clock and we're going to look at this first set of data which is around um um
performance for our children in grades K through two um and what you're going to see here is just the performance of where we are now compared to where we were last year the only thing that I do want to make sure that I call out which is important is the children that were five months or less in the um in our school system as English language Learners were not part of the first assessment in the fall some of them did take that in the winter so I
did remove those numbers because it would skew the information so uh those children have been removed and what you'll see here is the current state of performance for each of our groups um when it comes to uh the diagnostic screener we don't have all the kids tested yet we still have some that will be testing this week uh but it does give you a good picture of where we are the goal just to remind everyone is that we would be about 5% higher this year
across all students and we are looking for a 10% growth for our subgroups so I want you guys to take a look while be it we did make progress we did we are not necessarily meeting our goals just yet um but I want you to take an opportunity now if you can look at slides 24 through 28 and then we'll come back together for a quick little chat around what this means moving forward and I'll put the clock on we only need about four minutes for this guys so
things that you're seeing inside of the data put four minutes on the clock
e
e e
take another 30 seconds
okay we'll come back together uh what I'd love to to do is do a quick round um
uh around the our own DLT room um where we can kind of took about anything that we're noticing anything that you notice inside of the data anything that you wondered and then we'll kind of close out just the priority one with um any kind of next steps that um that we're currently following in District or any comments that you have beyond that go ahead Rob um a lot of the data is showing us I mean plus or minus a little stagnation in a lot of areas um other
than I'm seeing some growth in special education I'm seeing that same thing in my own School uh and that's for for reading in math you could see there's more growth happening across the board in math um which is encouraging especially since our district Focus has really been on Ela of late and um with launching a new math curriculum next year it's encouraging that we have a good foundation for so on that platform thanks Rob anyone else for
Priority One things that we're seeing for kids in kada 2 um let me see we'll go through Monique anything that you noticed try to go through everyone that's on my screen guys in in a little bit of an order and you can feel free to pass if there's nothing you'd like to add but anything else that you noticed kada tube um yes like e even within the the progress between the Black and Hispanic students when it comes to the reading um um they still fall um well below and I don't see there hasn't been
they kind ofay a status quo this I don't see much movement um and uh the number of black students have increased um the number the percentage and well below um and it's kind of weird because in all students the well below number increased and so did Adder above so um I just find that kind of like strange um but that's what
I've noticed awesome thank you for that Monique you're welcome um I don't really have much to share on this one right now no worries spoke a lot about it the other day so yeah no worries Eduardo anything from your perspective no I I passed you're fine yeah shernette anything from your
perspective yes um so I'm a numbers person so I'm I'll try to behave myself and not get sucked into analytic that's my life so um the plus or minus uh the median in addressing uh the Hispanic uh black and enl where it says uh below average uh let me pull the chart back up so I'm t talking to it while I'm doing it so um I
guess when we look at the enl at 50 mid of the Year 23 to 24 in comparison to this year um and as well as the black Learners um the fact that well below Benchmark I think the concern is are we going to assess where the population is coming from is
it tied to um I I'm not saying immigration without seeing immigration um the influx of the type of students coming in last year versus this year um I wasn't here last year um and to see that the the neck and neck in terms of well below Benchmark is what stands out across the board outside of the all if you lump everybody together then everybody's at above Benchmark but when
you look at it in Silo it's the well below Benchmark those numbers I feel represent too high of a percentage of our population and um the midyear progress did not bod well into the new year 24 to 25 um and I guess it's it's a matter of digging to the roots of the cause would
be the issue and to assess oh wait I thought I had my camera on sorry I'm like talking and inflecting with my hands I no one see my hands um to say um it's not just about the numbers but the why to do the progress monitoring to assess um is it which school s cuz this is lumped data sure you know and I always have a
concern when uh silos are then grouped together and then you can't find the root cause because it's not pinned to a The Silo of the school so districtwide on paper as collective your numbers yeah so some of the things that you wouldn't see there because it there's always more questions and I
appreciate you kind of pulling that out there's always more than what meets the eye in in overall information so when you disaggregate and you start pulling pulling you know peeling the onion so without our English language Learners we have 80% of our kids performing on or above grade level by the time they get into second grade um the large majority of of our children um we have almost 6,500 L's in in the district where
English is a new language so um and in particular for our kids that are in our earlier grade so it does contribute to it but our goal here is regardless of of L status we want to make sure that we're raising uh the mindset and the bar that even though we are we have a number of English language Learners in the district we want to continue to elevate and raise that uh that set of expectations for for our kids um which
is why El group is one of the ones that we do have in there when we do disaggregate that and we say the children that are not El's um we're at 79.8% of our second graders that are currently reading on or above grade level uh which still leaves plenty of room to still grow even with that but um you know it's certainly not 60 doesn't it get lost in the weeds of um the whole Force for the trees
mentality of you know you have your El's they're spread out across different schools it cannot be one size fit all to elevate everyone and when we aggregate data the hard work is the root cause per building or grade and that hard work becomes overwhelm whelming and that's why numbers don't grow in Leaps and Bounds because to be consistent with
the hard work to elevate is a lot for our teachers and a lot for district leaders and for you guys of course yeah so uh the Trap them becomes turning in data for data purposes or doing the hard work to truly raise every yeah of course yeah and that you know for for our schools um it's really around those studies that's what they're all kind of plans for
school all challenge to do is create those plans for the plans of support for kids that are outside that sphere of success okay um so that's kind of the the expectation it's um it's an Ever challenging because as you test children out new ones come in um and it's that that ongoing cycle but yeah I 100% agree that it's around that root cause for sure love that yeah um did I miss Lamar any
comments not um nothing much that hasn't been addressed no no okay so things at the at the district level just so that everyone um is kind of aware and connected to this um our schools are really really quite focused on um uh a few things one particular is around to codable text making sure that our kids um are able to from the foundations
lessons that they're learning uh to build an opportunities to really apply that into real context in terms of reading so we've been really paying attention uh a lot to um the uh the use and implementation of decodables across our schools so we have training sessions that we've been providing across the district uh in school supports um that are also also present but I I think that a couple of things that we do need to continue to work on is our are our mtss
structures whether or not those interventions are in fact working um for our kids when they do receive them if they are in need of tier two and tier three support um if they're getting them are they really working that's something we have to dig a little bit uh more deeply in and for our L's it's been a very big push for us around Standalone support meaning children that are receiving L services that those services are connected to the use of things that can support them as readers um you know
we're working with a professional developer his name is Wy Levens he's a pretty renowned researcher and writer and everything in between and one of the things that he's been emphasizing is that you know we're doing this work but it's really hard it's hard work for a 5-year-old to read it's not easy and sometimes we we forget that as adults uh but it's not easy work for them so sometimes even the smallest of print we look at as well why are they having a hard time doing that and what Wy will
bring us back to is the idea that this is really hard work uh for a 5-year-old to do um so but we're going to continue to push we're creating the spaces for our schools to go where we've been seeing some success around uh decodable implementation and we'll continue to do that throughout the year and really drill down to the needs of each individual child that's what our goal is as a collective group go ahead Monique thank you I just have a a question um I
guess with reading I mean in order for you to be successful at it you really have to have some type of a small bit of love for it right and and it's also about attention span and being able to focus um and comprehension right there's a lot that goes into reading so just out of curiosity I mean I've been in the schools we don't really have you know the book the libraries the um focus on
actually um reading a book maybe reading a book within the classroom I know the day is so full um but I think once students see the joy that maybe their teacher or um even at home have uh enjoyment in reading it makes them want to read and want to be successful at reading right so and it gives them a passion I know that you you know from where I come from ps20 R L's come in and
I'm telling you by like I mean I I used to do the Book Fairs by third fourth grade these kids were reading and into books and their head was in there they're walking through the hallways on their way to lunch with books like they actually the El's end up having a love of books because it's so there it must be and I'm not in the classroom but I know for El's there's so much emphasis on them learning the language that once they m Master it it's it's just their way of also
um you know reading becomes a little bit more easier for them in English right so I don't know if there's something that we can that the district itself can Implement where you bring back that love of reading and dedication to books like we used to have books in the classroom kids used to take the little book baggies home they would read even if it's at home um or in school you start a story I know sometimes I know like uh there was a time in middle school where um Middle School teachers would actually
read the book in the classroom and then have assign students a chapter or two to go home and then they come back and it becomes so yeah I mean the kid kids still have access to to books on a on a regular basis that that that has not changed no I'm not saying they don't have access but I'm saying there's no emphasis on it anymore it's more well I don't know that that's that's true I mean we're we're consistent consistently emphasizing the the I mean you can't read without a book so the types of
books that kids are going home with in particular especially our early childhood grades um there's this encouraging space around not only the the you know the decodables but books in general I mean hands on print is really what we ask for our kids and the you know kids become a joy for reading comes with confidence if you're not a confident reader typically speaking you're not going to be the one that wants to pick it up just simply because you're not confident in doing so um which is why we Implement programs like
hegerty fundations and now the use of the codable tech so that we're building confidence in our kids as readers so they do go home with books on a on a regular I don't know that that has changed um not sure which schools you're referring to that that don't necessarily do that but that that's that is part of what building readers in the district is really about it's about building their confidence because um you know I think about you know even kids my own family that struggle they struggle because it's not it's not because they don't want to have a joy for reading is that they
struggle as a reader um and when you struggle as a reader and you don't have confidence there is not a space of joy that comes from it because it's hard um so but I don't disagree that we do have to promote this idea of being excited about reading but I think in order to do that we have to make sure kids can read you know so I just I just like I do believe if I have every faith and trust that 5-year-olds can do the work some will struggle um but I think that
because it's you know most of the district you know we have well one side of the district has a lot of L's um and I think that you know we did have this emphasis where we pushed for parents to read even in their own language um but some kids are not going home and they're not having that typical um what we think is a family that goes home and we have quiet time and you can pick up a book and read um and I just want to make it clear I'm not saying that students
aren't going home with books oh yeah no I know what you're saying it's nice to go home with books but who's reading them with you that's no you're not you're not wrong Monique it's it's a it's a process you know that we that that's an Ever uh ongoing space of need you know um making sure that there is someone that can sit with you and there is that helps promote the excitement when a parent can pick up a book and read beside them um but is that is that the norm for every household I wish I can say that it is
it's it's not necessarily something we have to keep building on for sure you know and you coming from the role that you were formerly in you know that for sure as a as a PC it's you know there are some spaces where that happens and others where it's you know I'm just trying to make it through the day you know um but you know not standing it's it's still something we have to continue to grow through there's no doubt um across grade levels we we had a parent that um you know took a lot of books that we had older books and took them down to where an area
where she lived um and she was giving them away for free and nobody wanted them so it's kind of like that's what I'm saying like you know instilling that um I I was very close with our our literacy person when you had literacy coaches in the schools and you know it's you can see how she exuded that joy and love of reading um and it didn't seem like a task so that's all I'm I'm yeah yeah and I I think that you we we we
certainly you know host uh events and the one thing that I will say to you well and the experience might have been that they didn't want to pick them up from that individual person I mean we've given away thousands of books and you know families seem to to Really promote that space of um you know when it's made accessible to them they do come so the maybe perhaps the frequency of which schools open up opportunities for them to to come and pick up books um making it more accessible maybe that will be helpful too um so the the next goal
around um social emotional learning and and wellness for our kids um we are still in process of um sending out the second round of surveys for our students to get that data back we will have that for you guys in the March DLT meeting uh but what we do have next is our I ready reading which I want us to spend again just four minutes minutes and that's slides 32 through 36 um to give a quick review of what
that says now I ready reading is for students in grades 3 through 8 uh because aadience is grades K through two so I ready reading is K through uh is 3 through 8 so if you wouldn't mind just take the next four minutes on that
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just another 30 seconds folks
okay we can come back together again quick round of noticings or or wonderings all right around priority three and this is for our reading
goal Mr Marino any comments so I think I jumped the gun before and I looked at all of the data so I I'll defer to my previous comment on on that you got it you got it go ahead shet okay all right so I had a question first um in the comparative data can we I see the median plus or
minus uh confirm that um it's at least 98 or 100% of the same kids being tested um in in remarks to skewing data so that there there may be there may be some variation in in this because we do get new kids in they're not pulling this is not pulling out kids that were uh not here last year versus new kids that are here um so it doesn't take out
the it does not take into account fourth graders that were that are no longer here in fifth grade uh this is just straight to the point here are the kids that are being tested uh here in District 25 um it does not account for any of any of that information it's just that here's where we're at this is not pulling out other kids with the exception to kids that are five months with the exception of the kids that are here five months or less as else okay only because I'm watching the Stark drop
off of the let me I'm trying to and blow this up at the same time um where is it 34 or the black students the early mid or above grade level and the one grade level below I mean these are good numbers um but in terms of three or more that the drop was so much from 20 what is that 20 29.6 to 26 right so that's
why I was wondering for such a it's good um that you're not you're having more go from three or more grade level drop off but then it where did they end up in the so I think Shanette one of the things especially with our black population we have um less than a thousand students across the district okay so the it's different from them and our Asian population Which is far far more significant in terms of in terms of
numbers as well as our Hispanic Learners those are our two largest subgroups so when our with our with our black Learners um especially when you then change that from grades only three through eight you're talking about uh about 600 children versus you know thousands so even a handful of children that are going plus or minus it it it's going to change the percentages much more quickly than it would for a group group that has thousands upon thousands of children so but yes it's it's pretty
clear there with the with the um with the data that um we we have seen a a a better change for our black Learners here than we have for other subgroups right because with the Hispanic it it was consistently you know give or take one point something and then um so I guess then with the exception to the early on ad mid they did there was there was some movement movement there but um but not necessarily the
um it's actually higher for our Hispanic Learners than it was other subgroups which is a it's a positive trend but you know the my biggest concern is that we do have and specifically with our Hispanic Learners many of our Hispanic Learners are also El's which is the large portion of these kids that are in those three or more grade levels below standard below okay yeah that's why I saying where the cluster how it where's the shift moving to you're getting an increase here but then
where are they ending up kind of you know right so where where are the subsets going yeah okay got it that's my two cents yeah I love it thank you so good um Eden go ahead I was just looking through each section and I do see that like early on grade level mid or above grade level and early on Mid or above those actually all had increases definitely but there's the three or more grade levels below that's where there's
like some questions for me of like really what's going on that those kids are still falling further below and not making an improvement compared to last year yeah 100% and those are the the same things that we're you know we're working on and through with our uh mtss it's something that is is part of the work there is no doubt we have the the same kind of um conversations and concerns around that yeah but really
important Eden thank you for sharing that um Lamar or Eduardo okay I'll pass okay and lastly we'll hop into mathematics that'll be slides 39-
43 put on for four minutes
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let's take one more minute everyone
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he guys have everyone come back together
really quickly we'll go through one more quick round any noticings or wonderings um Marino you just happen to be at the top of my screen anything else you want to add I know you mentioned math earlier yeah some some uh some progress in in mathematics across all of the uh the subgroups um which is reassuring I said that I had mentioned that before like I I missed no no you got it you're good uh Eden anything you want to say uh about the math um just looking I mean I
see generalized Improvement but um for the black students specifically there was a jump in the one grade level below um from last year to this year which was a decent jump so something is helping them push along um for sure perfect thank you for that Eduardo anything else you want to add no thank you okay Eduardo Shanette
anything else regards to math well it's the same the same ACR same type of scenario scenario yep uh Monique no I'm good thank you okay and Lamar you good on this one as well he put in the chat that he's driving so
he might not the answer so uh one of the things that I am seeing is that um you know in terms of progress targets um we are making progress towards those targets but we're not certainly there yet so uh I ready reading the goal should have been at this point overall for all students was um be by mid year around two and a half percent we're about two um 2% um goal for our for our subgroup so that we're closing that Gap was not necessarily as significant as I
would like the goal was to be at least by 5% by mid year uh we're under that in each of the each of the groups but having said that we we do see progress in terms of the overall percentages um but I always say to to folks that students are bring High these percentages and we need to be able to drill down to those individual kids um and make sure that we're providing the supports necessary for them to uh to to meet expectations um so more to follow on on this guys I did want to make sure that
you guys had your eyes on the most current data um from our district and where we are um the other pieces that are are that you'll see moving down um in the slide deck um one is around theal survey there's not the new new information there yet so we'll provide you more info on that during next month's agenda and the last one I want to linger over is attendance we have gone from surpassing all of our benchmarks to now we're around the same place where we were last year and there
are a bunch of variables that go into place I know you know our building leaders teachers are getting sick all over the place our students have been getting sick I know that that's been a big part of it um but we're going to continue to emphasize the importance of this our chronic absenteeism rates are up to almost 18% now um earlier in the year it was down to the low teens um and we do need to continue to build on this as the year is going on so part of what I do and want to do is continue to send
out messages to our families through the gamma system just reminding them of just healthy habits of making sure that our kids are consistently washing their hands um that they're good and bundled up when they're going out which I know especially for our middle school middle schoolers is like the worst thing you can tell them to do is put a jacket on um because it is not cool when you wear a coat apparently um I go through that with my own two kids my my daughter and son it was freezing yesterday and Emily was like in a um in a regular regular
t-shirt I'm like I'm like where are we going is it summer um you know so it's it's an ongoing thing that we need to continue to support because we know that our kids are not learning if they're not in school uh which Shanette by the way one of the other variables that we didn't include in here is how chronic absenteeism is influencing the performance of our kids and when you have 18% of our children that are chronically absent currently it does have its influence on student learning we've seen it year-over-year um and we're going to continue to
emphasize the importance of our kids being in school but I can tell you it is something that is a concern we we've seen our attendance go from uh well above 95% overall to just above 94% now um and when you are a district with with over 24,000 children uh 1% reduction is a significant number of children that are chronically out uh and and their attendance is waning so uh does anyone have any any other thoughts or recommendations we have our uh
attendance teachers out supporting schools we have a mentorship program that our our district is doing on top of what our schools are doing uh but any comments around chronic absenteeism that you'd like to throw out there uh before I bring my part to to a close go ahead Rob uh the things happening in the political Arena right now that have been um causing concern uh for some of our families uh and something I did was I just had uh people with similar um with with the same languages reach out to these
families with the with the message uh of what the doe has been sharing of um you know just the facts not making promises just saying um that there are a lot of uh procedures to be followed before some agency could come in here and and do something and that's that's it's alleviating some some pressure and um we're seeing uh students return to school where they were being held back um for the last couple of weeks so
it it was comb upon me I did some out some some Outreach um to those families and it was a significant amount to be honest we have like a high uh obviously it's a high immigrant population in District 25 and and they were concerned about that definitely attributing to some attendance issues thanks for that Rob uh Monique I see your hand Eden Shanette I see you came off mute I'm not sure if you wanted to say something also oh oh well uh Rob
said two-thirds of what I was going to and also um I am not sure if it's still standard to do um wellness check over x amount of days how consistent that is I know there was a problem a couple years ago where they were just leaving phone calls the auto dial you know you've been out for 4 days just letting you know we know but no one was actually assigned to go and check on those families you know and sometimes we forget that we're all
human beings and it might not be anything you're thinking of and I've had a situation where they went to the homes and the parents weren't there you know and the kids don't want to leave the house because they don't have food or whatever so it's no fault of their own kids the parents are working two three jobs and the kids didn't have you know the card to get to school so um I'm wondering if that's part of our wheel well of taking care
um attendance they're not sick you know they're not immigration is just a wellness issue yeah so we have four attendance teachers um each of whom are assigned to school so when there are concerns about followup uh building leaders connect with our attendance teachers to go and engage in those visits to to parents um on a on a as needed type of basis so you know when there's cause for concern then our attendance teachers do follow up with our with our families for home visits it's not a phone call it's home visits
yeah yeah that's important thank you sure uh Eden so I see you guys I was just I know like illnesses are definitely um increasing right now as I'm going through it myself right now and Dr Mike recently just went through it but I do know that the conversation of immigration and the things that were going on was coming up and I've been sitting in on a lot of meetings um as CC president with Chancellor and like different offices from the districts um
leadership from face and they are really putting in a lot of things in place to make sure the children are safe and that people aren't coming into schools so I think if we are able to reassure families and push out like what those policies are that are in place it's going to help families feel more comfortable to send their kids to school which is very similar to like what Gus was saying is like that they were reaching out and letting them know like what the policies are I think all schools should be making sure to kind of push that out because I think it'll
definitely relieve parents of like some of the worries that they have thank you for that Eden um Monique and then Gus so I just um about the immigration just want to just understand that it um it's not just about parents students being in the school parents have to be out in the street and I think the fear is is with all social media um they are
seeing themselves being taken from the street so a lot of people it's just a trickle down effect it's not about putting your child in school and thinking your child's not safe it's about are you going to be safe getting to your destination or will you be stopped so we also have to think of that aspect as well it's not about the students arriving safely it's more about the parents Journey to the school building and then also the parents Journey back to the school building to pick up their child so there's more than just what schools can do but I just
think we need to be mindful of it it's there's a bigger picture out there um and because of social media because of what's going around and we don't know every parent's status per se um and why they're here I think it's just the fear of being picked up when you're dropping your child off the fear of being picked up while you're walking home from dropping your child off and then knowing that no one is there to pick them up um so I just wanted to bring that to light
and then just quickly about the um respect for all I know I came in a little late apologize for that but I know we were talking about an um students and learning kindness I think the biggest thing and it's very difficult to learn because even as adults we don't have it is empathy right empathy for others and it's a really it's something really really difficult to teach because it's an understanding of what empathy is and a lot of people don't understand what the definition of that is um but I think also leading by
example within the school building um the people that we we see how teachers interact with each other how staff interacts with each other is big and then because I am the dc37 rep utilize your sapis um I U utilize my sapis my sapis did parent meetings they are the experts in respect for all and bullying in teaching the Dynam dynamics of what bullying really is what it looks like um so uh dc37 is also rallying behind them
to get more money we used to have 3,000 sapis now we have less than two uh two less than 300 sapis employees so if you have if you're fortunate enough to have a sapis in your building utilize them they're a great aspect sorry I'm in a high school they're playing music while they're changing classes so I'm going to cut it short if you don't have a sapis find out how you can get one thank you than Monique hopefully it's a good tune um Gus go ahead I just want to Echo uh what others
have said um I'm I'm aware of the immigration issue and its impact on attendance um based on interactions with other districts so this is not unique The District 25 I want to U emphasize that and it varies from school to school I've been impressed by the um numbers uh significant numbers in some schools that I've interacted with so uh this is an
ongoing issue I know that Central is aware of it and that it's being addressed in a multitude of ways but I just wanted to say that this is um not unique to District 25 and um the uh impact on attendance is pro I can only speak from Queens North firsthand but it's probably uh you know having an impact Citywide yeah thanks Gus and yeah listen I think there are so many so many variables and um that that play a role
in um you know in a child coming to school or or not and I think um for us it's just being steadfast and on helping support our kids and families in in being in the building every day regardless of what the circumstance is if it's if it's connected to the idea of uh being worried to leave the home um or due to illness just a constant reminders of um you know if if we're healthy we want to make sure that our children are
in school and those will be the things that we continue to emphasize um with our folks and be as supportive as we possibly can be um at this time so that kind of concludes my my report the last one that I do want to mention is around um making sure that our parents are aware of their child's progress I'm going to be sending out a a blast through gamma uh just reminding all families that these the mid year assessment has come and gone uh for the vast majority of our kids and that they should be connecting with our schools as well as their teachers their child's
teacher um to learn a little bit more about their current state of performance if they haven't already done so uh it's really important that our te our parents are connected with their teachers um so that they can help their kids at home but also just that space of awareness goes a long way um to help your kids so that'll be the last part of what we um what we talk about today from my report um and now Gus I'm going to turn it over to you I know part of it we've already done in terms of DC progress monitoring
uh but anything else that you need to share in your report turn it over to you Gus thank you uh first of all it's an honor uh to be with District 25 once again I appreciate being here and having an opportunity to share information with you I want to start off with a positive news um first of all your CS have all been um uh approved uh and they should be online so uh please check I plan uh you're 100% uh uh
and we do have um some other uh stragglers elsewhere uh but not in District 25 so uh congratulations on that uh also uh the other good news is I've been sort of anxious to see whether um uh New York State Ed would uh identify any schools in Geographic uh District 25 um in terms of the new uh accountability measures I'm happy to
report there are no additional schools identified in District 25 in fact we have no additional schools in Queens North as a whole so um that is particularly uh good news uh for uh all of our districts in uh Queens North and for me in particular because whenever schools are identified that then um uh triggers interventions and reports and visits and things that I have to do is
um as your um representative for school Improvement uh so uh there's not an additional U piece of work to do now District 25 just as a reminder is identified for a school that uh at the high school level that uh is in Geographic District 25 but belongs to superintendent Walsh and so uh I know that uh our superintendent dantona is uh in touch
with that that superintendent there's collaboration taking place but it's not a school that uh uh this uh DLT is directly responsible for uh in terms of the uh way the structure is set up uh that does impact on the district's U being a a a Improvement District hopefully that U school will continue to improve and I know that superintendent
dantona is on top of it and uh is watching their data so hopefully uh they can uh be taken off the list and if they are uh then uh and which would come next year then um the district would be uh not an improvement status as a whole so that's on H good news in terms of the CP uh I know it's been completed it's uh should be also like the Cs online in I
plan uh you are doing a very thorough job in progress monitoring um you just heard uh details uh concerning that the only thing that I would say is I would encourage the the district to uh make sure that your progress monitoring sections remember there are uh six sections that have to be addressed uh and I know that you've discussed several of them but uh in I plan uh that
information needs to find its way into each section or else um when they generate a list we'll be on the list and I never want any of my districts to be on any uh lists from Central so uh please get uh even though you may not have completed your assessment uh do um try to put the information in I plan because it's supposed to be done in February it's part of the timeline that's created by Central I don't create these timelines but they um uh will uh
monitor that and send me a list at some point doc you sign uh thank you for all of you who have been responding to DocuSign uh and uh I think we're on top of that uh and uh uh if I have to send it out again you'll you'll see it but I I think we're doing pretty well well in terms of getting U that information in where we're lagging behind and this is
not unique to District 25 it's Queens uh uh North as a whole and the city as a whole is on the monthly SLT information and the pack information that has to be uh put into I plan uh as I've told you repeatedly I I'm sure I'll still be talking about this in June because it's a new procedure schools have a a lot of different things to do uh and U they put the information in and
it's just not a a matter of putting it in it's also the quality information that's being put in which will be monitored so I haven't gotten a uh a report on that yet the last time I did get a report I turned it around and we did have schools U lagging behind District 25 and um I know that the district is very good at reminders and sending information uh out on all of
that um in terms of uh the um national uh picture I know that there's a great deal of anxiety uh not just on immigration issues but um we hear uh about title one we hear about uh uh the US Department of Education being reorganized or uh cut back uh it would take a act of Congress I believe for uh it to be illuminated
entirely but um there's no question that changes are uh in uh process um in terms of uh funding and not only title one funding but uh funding for L's for IED for for um idea um all categories of federal funding I think that it would be prudent for schools to utilize their
funds um as uh efficiently and as quickly as possible um given you know the parameters that they can uh we don't want to leave any money lying around um that would uh come to the U uh attention of Outsiders and also generally speaking it's a good idea for our school communities to let their uh legislative Representatives know how important all of these funds and these programs are to the welfare of the student population
and that their schools uh as a a whole we're in a period of transition ladies and gentlemen um I don't know what uh lies ahead but uh we should do what we can to um uh Safeguard uh the programs that are important to us to the extent that we can there is a meeting taking place as this morning as I'm speaking to you by Central I will listen to the
recording I'm sure it's a topic that uh Sharon rencher from Sarah sh from Central um uh uh will be uh addressing because I know that uh uh parents and uh principles and schools various members of the community have been asking about uh what is reported in the news uh and will share any information with you uh as I get it uh that's about all I can say at this point and I uh I thank you
for your support and uh for all of you uh your leadership and um uh time and effort in terms of helping our our students in District 25 awesome thank you Gus I always appreciate you thanks so much um and yes I will continue to connect with uh superintendent wall just around QSI that is the building that is currently um identified as uh a targeted school for
improvement um we'll continue to work with them and and perhaps in the coming months we'll invite them in to come and talk a little bit about the work that they're doing to get themselves off of said list um which is really really important and I don't like to be on any any list unless it's one where we're being celebrated so um you know we'll continue to work with them on that um High School president uh superintendent report excuse me uh Eduardo hi good morning everyone uh I just have some uh brief updates uh not much to share since we had our regions
examinations and uh the end of the fall semester and the beginning of uh spring semester so we will have our next Family Forum on January 28th uh we continue our social emotional uh workshop for parents we had over 300 parents at our last uh at at our last um parent workshop and that information is on our website um I just want to briefly
um share my screen see if I can so this is the the invite is on our website uh so on January 16 we had um over 300 parents our next one will be exploring range of emotions and it it will be on uh February 27 all parents in Queens North are invited um thank you and that's it for me on in terms of high school
updates okay thank you uh Eduardo appreciate it um in terms of um CSA Mr Marino um just had to take a an important call so he just kind of wanted me to share out that um he just appreciated from the CSA perspective the opportunity to engage in uh conversations around the curriculum that we're choosing going in into next year for math uh for all of you guys here please know that we are in the process of engaging and we did talk about this
earlier in the year but uh we're looking at uh a various curriculum uh moving into next school year that will be used across grade 6 through 8 um and we're looking at it for our departmentalized elementary schools as well to begin the process so the three curriculum choices are I ready um they have their own curriculum um illustrative meth mathematics and amplify mathematics which is very much like illustrative um so we're currently in the process of
reviewing each of those curriculum we have schools that are piloting it our principles have been given an opportunity to go into our schools um assess the program through their own lens and then we'll be coming back together in March to engage in a conversation which where where we will make a decision as a district um and you know from that point on we'll start with our professional learning opportunities to start building everyone's Readiness for the fall um so that's just a quick little update for all of you on that um uh High School
president's Council report shernette hi everyone so we had our January meeting and unfortunately I know we had announced that the chancellor was going to be there but she had an emergency but um nothing's better than having your Deputy still show up at the last minute an hour before um so Deputy Melendez showed up and it was an engaging very good productive meeting we focus mostly on um the disconnect with parent engagement uh between the ptas
the principals parent coordinators some schools are doing great but like any data says you want the majority not the minority so um we're facing an uphill battle of uh I've been doing a lot of expedited elections where PTA leaders are just not showing up whether it's a Treasurer the manatory member members or the um recording secretary Andor the president or all three um it's like every month
we're doing at least two and I think um it became a concern where for the first time we started to refocus these meetings to do breakout rooms and have our constituents meet with their superintendents and flc's to make the meetings have more value versus you know us just looking at presentations so we gave for the first time we gave each uh district 15 minutes um some complained
of wanting more time and so we're going to continue doing that and each district had uh a people uh filling out the rooms which was good so um what we want to do is to find a way to bridge a gap where we're recognizing old birds like us are aging out and information's not being transferred how to run effective ptas how to lay on with your principal your role on the SLT meetings we're seeing
slts they're talking about trips and you know fake sales and no one's talking about the C you know there's no progress monitoring being done there's no data being R you guys are you know those rare birds We're Not Gonna you know I can't show you guys off because then they're like whose team are you on I live in the North I play in the South I tell people that so I have high bias really bad and it's okay cuz I'm going to get back to my North living and and playing
soon she has three more years but it's okay I love all of like so um I think um one of the directors from face and uh our Deputy Chancellor is how are we re-engaging parents to want to participate in our schools and we found a lot of our parently leaders um slighted feeling they're not needed um because they don't affect your budget we don't affect um engagement of
learning so it's a postco um side effect where fundraisings you know and contributing to schools some schools are still doing it God bless them and there are schools that can't even rate Five $600 to contribute and they're not part of the educational planning of the school they're not consulted things are happening and your FYI so what we're
going to do uh we're starting is to do workshops and I sent out a email about two weeks ago and I'm going to put it in the chat hopefully it goes um where we're going to reintroduce the whole A through Z how to run effective um p t slts uh we've invited principls we're asking our district flc's and fscs to
share it out because we're even seeing new principles don't understand um Chan's regulations a660 and running interference with parents and parents not knowing their role as to boundaries and that they're entitled to see the budgets that they're entitled to ask questions so a lot of these slts I tell I've told superintendent if you pop in you'd be very sadden that parents are just sitting there and normally the conversations between the teachers
members and the principal because the parents do not feel they can contribute because they're not informed they're not I don't say educated but they don't have the skill set to have those kind of conversation about comprehensive education plan because we're not taught that it took me like seven years and I'm you know in my year 910 you know for me to be able to walk into an SLT and say you're not running it right your agenda is supposed
to be focused on this you have each month you're supposed to be hitting these marks in your bucket and etc etc so we are I'm going to try and see if I could um uh put in the chat and I hope you could have that shared out um on the 25th we're going to do two sessions and we're inviting everyone K through 12 and um to come because we couldn't even have uh the interim Financial reports
half of the PT didn't even know what that looks like and these are mandatory things that they're going to n start checking and auditing PTA for 100% we have ptas that their monies is being put and I don't know how you guys are doing this who's watching the hen house their monies are going into the school accounts that's like red flag red flag all over the yeah no that that yeah no that should not be happening so I I am very concerned that there's you don't
know what you don't know until you get in trouble yeah and and it's not intentional why you got in trouble it's because you're not knowing of you can canot yeah of course yeah yeah I appreciate that yeah yeah no we'll be happy to we'll be happy to uh share that out Louis if we can share that uh that yeah what's in the in the chat to um uh to the community just around something that they're hosting for ptas I think it's important and we'll we'll be happy to send that up so because of
the expedite election chaos that's going on where um schools don't understand if you start September with one mandatory member you're required every month to have an expedited election if you fail 60 days you cease to function and everything you do your SLT now voided you're not compliant so anything that's being voted on including your SLT gets affected if especially if
you have new parent members because they're n and void and your PTA does not exist and our principls no fault of their own I don't know if you guys could tell the higher Powers maybe at principal's meetings learn like take a half an hour go through Chancellor reg a660 so that everyone understand that there are rules on both sides and what is expected from you to have us come to PTA executive board meetings to share
out the budget um to explain the budget and it's not a need to no basis to share your calendars to understand that you can only have two events per year not in instructional time all these things so now they're auditing us but they're not telling the schools and then parents don't want to be engaged so and parent really important are you guys having a shortage or um we're having in the high schools Parent coordinators like dropping like
flies like they're buildings without parent coordinators we have had a pretty significant turnover over the past few years um but we we are in a good space I mean all of our schools have a have a PC at this point so um but we did run through a stretch with retirements and and things along those lines but we do have um we do have full contingent of PCS in the in the district and we're fortunate we do have um PC meetings on a monthly basis where we're bringing in
folks um you know to make sure that our PCS are aware to help support our ptas our president's Council um president is terrific she's not was unable to join us today but consistently connecting with our uh P presidents to make sure that everyone's following suit in um in a in a productive way so but I hear you it's really important that everyone's aware in fact I just added especially for our new principles that it becomes part of the conversation yes uh we do have 14 new principles here over the past three
years um so and we have a monthly principles session that we host uh just to make sure that they're up to speed on all things that are related to their job especially compliance wise right because what we're running to into is grievance filings you know simple things like principles cannot be running PTA meetings yeah no that that that I that I'm I'm knocking wood we don't have any of those kind of things um here in in in our district schools but I know that we
certainly run the risk if you don't know you think you're doing what's right and trying to be supportive and you know it's there is that separation that District 25 yeah so thank you and our next meeting is March 11th and we're gonna be doing a wellness and um mind and body um day so um I usually send it out to Eduardo and every everybody else so everyone gets the Flyers to share out it's open wall you don't have to be in high school to come and to be informed because eventually everybody ends up in high school and if you'd like to to uh
or if someone from if it's not you or maybe one of your um your if your alternate wants to be there on the on the 15th I think it'd be a great opportunity just to be there and and say those that have have questions around High School you're welcome to come over and and pop over to just say hello because we will have some of our middle schoolers no doubt will be our future high schoolers that they always have questions from our you know from our parents so well share that out and we're going to be doing fingers cross we're collaborating with um Queens bar
president uh Donovan Richard's office to do a college fair in conjunction with Queens High School president's Council on the 2nd and third of April um the announcement should be coming out uh this week and it's going to be uh held at a high school in the north and a high school in the South for to make it more accessible for families to come out and um we're hoping you know it goes well so just started the planning so yes that's
terrific yeah thank you for sharing that's great wor thank you love it um Eden um so we just had our meeting this past Wednesday we do have an AA coming on board which was a huge thing for us with C so she'll be starting on the 18th we also are really trying to get a good push into all the schools about C elections for this year there's only 12 applicants as of last week for District 25 so I would just ask that we get that
pushed out to the schools again continue reminders um and we really as a group really liked having the students that came in to speak and we're looking at other ways to do that in future meetings as well because it was nice to actually see a full room and get really new people speaking up and like giving their input um and we will be kind of jumping in and helping out with the wellness day we have one of our members who's very active in wellness and things like that
so she's gonna be jumping in and we're gonna be giving some giveaways that day as well love it thanks so much Eden no problem um Lamar any updates or share outs I know you were running to another another school Lamar but if you have anything or not you can just share it in the chat Rob I already shared around the math curriculum that you mentioned to me anything else that you want to add
in uh no thanks Mike that was it appreciate it perfect oh there we go Lamar yep hold on hold on okay sorry Hi everybody morning um the one thing I do have to share um it was addressed um by Joe Kesler at our C meetings I just wanted to amplify we're having um as a union we're basically putting a an entire new in initiative going forward to the end of the year on
supporting our power professionals and raising power professional pay so last week we were at City Hall and um the chair of the education division um proposed a bill that would support power professionals having I'm I'm going to stop short of saying salary because it's illegal to mention it as a salary but if you if you're familiar with teachers Choice it's along those lines where it's a bonus pay of $10,000 so a a stiping right Lamar a
stiping that's a better word yeah you can't say it's not salary because then that means that they're employed by the city council and that's another whole legal ease so it's not a salary but it is a stip in bonus and I think we can all agree to the importance and the impact that power professionals have in our schools and just how meaningful they are to our day-to-day um so we're really really pushing that initiative of course in our district in 25 and through the five burrows as I say it today we have
over I believe 55,000 people who've signed a petition and it's not just and this is why I'm bringing it to DT it's not just doe employees so there are parents who are signing in communities there are students who are able to sign the petitions and speaking on behalf of their par professionals and the impact they've had their and their educational standing so I anticipate at some point over the next couple of months there will be a big drive a big push a big
initiative to bring the awareness up and hopefully get the city council to sign this bill it's a bill that's going to be proposed that has to be voted on by June so it's not Ironclad yet but it's a vote and if we can support um I'm thinking at some point as a district you know we may have to somehow pull to pull all our resources to support that group and then we can you know go forward and you know see this through to the end so that's the big issue that we're having right now that's our big a big initiative okay
thank you very much for that Lamar uh you know my mom was a power professional for 30 plus years so um you know I appreciate certainly the the the outlook for what you're trying to do thank you I remember you saying that yeah I totally I remember that um and Mo'Nique we'll we'll close out today with uh you getting the final word of um from our constituent groups okay thank you so um just so everyone knows um dc37 parent
coordinators should have received um a $2,000 uh it's called allowance and that's something that they'll received every single year it is taxable so it wasn't the full two um but it is uh and it's also not pensionable um so that should be something they receive yearly so if anyone has parent coordinators that have not received theirs they had to be um in payroll status um and uh yeah and they couldn't they cannot have fallen off of payroll
from January of 2024 last year through December of 2024 this year um also um that leads us to dc37 is conducting a Lobby day in March um based off of what I just spoke about um trying to speak to our elected officials about increasing the funding for our sapis um employees our sapis title they're very vital in the schools especially um during this time those who have sapis in the
district understand how important they are and and what a great connection they make with uh with their families there um also February break is coming up um parent coordinators were given um the ability to be remote with principal permission for the days um that they are not covered um so we're hoping that principes will honor that and allow parent coordinators to work remotely
those few days um because they don't have a permanent remote status that's something that we are continuing to try to get on the books but this is the second year in a row so we're really happy the Department of Education is offering that opportunity to them as well um and I think that's about it um if there are any issues for schools with um anything going on in the kitchens please let us know um we do hear that a lot of our kitchen staff especially in those CE
kitchens which are enhanced you'll find them in the middle schools and the high schools um that um a lot of them are being um they say overworked and there's not enough Staffing in the kitchen so if any of that comes to anyone's attention in the district please let us know we'll go over there take a look at the Staffing um and just make sure that um they have the proper Staffing there because we want to make sure the students get fed um and that there is food um put out in a timely um manner um
and I think that's about it thank you so much awesome thanks Monique and just so you know Monique with the uh office of school food will be at the um the March 15th event um not sure who that would impact in terms of uh dc37 members that may be part of it but uh the goal is to kind of show um demonstrate some healthy food options for families uh during that day so it's kind of like physical wellness mental Wellness seal but also this idea of healthy eating um kind of
promoting this whole Space of just Wellness in general so office of school food will be there uh which will likely have mean that some of the members I would imagine will be offered an opportunity to be there as well right um to support it so is a great opportunity because the see kitchens I know a lot of parents even though you see the menu I mean to actually physically see the food that's being put out I mean it's it's just uh it's a great operation our our members work very very hard to make sure that food is constantly being
replenished um it's basically sort of like a grab and go come up and they select the food components that they want um uh and I think the kids in the high schools um and the middle schools are really enjoying the options that are being provided so yeah so we we'll see I mean you know oftentimes it always comes up you know whether it's from kids or from families and most times our parents are reacting to what our kids say uh but they don't necessarily know what it is that's being made available and they just go with their kids oh the food is the worst the this the that and the other thing but they don't really know exactly what is accessible to Children
um on a routine so you know that's hopefully something they'll be able to see at the same time you know enjoy a little bit of a snack during the event so yes looking forward to it thank you um you got it any other one anyone any new business that anyone has all right guys uh we are now at 1111 I thank everyone for joining us today do we have consensus to close the meeting
for today oh sorry Dr Mike one more thing any principles that have new employees that were hired either over the summer or from September to now um we're having a uh new member orientation at um District 25 um New York City Public Schools uh District office um that is tomorrow actually from uh 3:30 to 5: thank you sorry about that no no
worries no worries uh our next meeting is March 10th Monday March 10th uh just to make sure that everyone's clear on that uh but do we have consensus for today and please one of the things I would love everyone to do is please make sure that you reflect on that space of what we really want to promote respect and wellness wise I'll add that into a note to you guys uh before we meet again uh in March on March 10th but I would love to have a a space of recommendation that we can then also send to schools I think that was a uh a great set of
suggestions that that chanette brought up during during the meeting that we can then extend outwardly to all of our buildings because I really do want our kids thinking about this space of of uh just being a kind human being and I think um sometimes that gets overlooked and it's not talked about enough but you know academics goes so far being a good human being goes far uh in my opinion um and that's not to say that I I'm I'm sitting here saying we're not paying attention to academics cuz we are but it's important that we're we're producing in through the lens of
us as a school system as much as we possibly can really great kids um and that's really what um needs to be out there too but Shanel was that a hand raised to that consensus for the meeting or you had something else to say okay consensus to close the meeting Mr Marino we're good yes Monique we're good uh who else we have uh Lamar we're good I'm going to go with Lamar is good
everyone have a great a great rest of your day okay thank you all