We're gonna bring this one to a to a wrap. Sorry, Bon Jovi. Alright, guys. Welcome. So good to see you guys today for our May DLT. And, yes, I did say May. We have about six weeks left, and the school year will be wrapping up. So as much as we'd like to say we're wrapping up, we're just gearing into the next phase of our work. We never really, really end. And today, we're gonna really talk a little bit about, our two two of our goals, that we set, in draft form, that I want us to give us another
look see at, make sure that everyone from the DLT is comfortable. We've shared them with our principals. They will have some time to also reflect and give us some feedback on it, but we'll spend a little time look looking at that today. We're also gonna spend some time connecting in on portrait of a graduate. I mentioned a couple of couple of sessions ago, but I do wanna make sure that everyone has the fuller you know, as much information on it as possible as that's how we're gonna be held accountable moving forward, from New York state. So, we'll call the meeting to order, and share the minutes into the chat.
Let me do that again for anyone who joined after I put it into the chat. If we can just take the next, the next five minutes or so going through the minutes. If there's anything that's notable that needs to be adjusted, please let me know. Doctor Mike, just on the minutes, about the project soapbox, if you scroll back up, those students didn't speak till this month. And we but we talked about it last month before they presented. So I don't know if we wanna fix that because it wasn't actually last month. Also, doctor Mike, is MS379. It says PS.
Same soapbox, same soapbox, we so speak with. K, folks. Anything else? We come to consensus on the minutes. If so, give a little thumbs up, a virtual thumbs up, so we're good. Thank you, Rob. Thank you, Eduardo. Thank you, Eden. Okay. Minutes have been adopted, and we're gonna get right into it with the agenda. So the agenda for today, connection before content, we'll do a very brief one. This one I shared a a couple of times, but I'm curious to see from this group what what you guys think.
I'll do a quick celebrations, updates, and reminders. Oops. That's not correct. Sorry. 26, 27 goal reflection and feedback. And we'll be talking a little bit about portrait of a graduate. Gus has some updates regarding CEP, title one, and so on that will go through our, additional reports. So for us, connection before content, what job would you like to try for a day? Obviously, not the one that you're currently in. Something else other than the the current position that you have.
What job would you like to try for a day if you had an opportunity? So take a moment, think on that, and I'm gonna send you guys into a very brief room So it's just with a couple of your DLT members. No longer. We're just gonna have three minutes on the clock, and then we'll come right back. Again, what job would you like to try for a day? You can open up those rooms, hop in, quick little chat, and we'll come back together. Alright, guys. Welcome back. Everyone should be here in just a second.
Thirty seconds, everyone should be back. I'm hoping you guys had something fun that came up in terms of what that job would be. Ten seconds. And I think we are all back. Alright. Any of you guys have anything that you wanna quickly share out? Something that came up in your group that you would really wanna be for a day? I said park ranger, and then Charlene said that she wanted to be a What did you wanna be around? What was that? Park ranger, like a like a national park ranger. Okay. Why a park ranger, Rob? I'd like the outdoors. I'd love to get paid to to do thing to do something that I like
to do, you know, as a hobby. I'd like to visit the national parks. And Charlene had mentioned Haagen Dazs taster. We tried we were thinking we could combine those two. We could combine those two professions. I like I like that. I think Haagen Dazs tasting would be pretty cool too. Yeah. At the at the national park. At the national park. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. That's so funny. But, you know, Rob, similar in the in the idea of being outdoorsy. Eduardo, go ahead. I know that you have one that was connected to that. I I did say, so my job for the day would be my dream job when I retire, which is to work at the Queen Zoo, with the animals at
least three times a week, and that would be, like, a walk through Flushing Meadows, a walk in the park, be so relaxing. It's already therapeutic to be in, you know, in the company of animals. So that that would be what I love. Yeah. Love that, Eduardo. Gus, you have one? Well, I'd like to be a university president, to be able to tinker with the educational system in higher ed because I feel that we've gotten too far away from the purpose and the humanities. So I'd like to bring the humanities back.
Love that, Gus. Anyone else? Alright. Now I said, that I would love to be, able to broadcast, a a game. Being a huge Knicks fan, I'd love to be on the sideline like a little Mike Breen. I know that I can come up with some kind of a catchy, catchy shot like Mike Breen. He said screams bang after they hit a three pointer. I know I can come up with something pretty clever, and I think that would be a heck of a lot of fun. Mike Although it's Yeah. They they dress for the job you want, but that headset really got you some success.
Yeah. I don't know I don't know that, that, you know, the the headset's the part that I'll enjoy the most, but I definitely can see myself courtside. That's for sure. Alright, guys. Thank you for, you know, indulging that, that activity. I think it's, like I said to you guys, it's one that we have to continue to grow in across our schools. The more that we connect our kids and our buildings with getting to know one another a little bit, you know, allows those relationships to continue to grow, and it's a huge part of our work, is around relationship building.
So, thank you for engaging in that. Just some some things that this month, May is a big month for celebrating. It is Jewish American Heritage Month, Asian Pacific, Asian American Pacific Islanders Heritage Month, military appreciation month. You know, these are all really important times in, you know, in May, you know, celebrating those that have come before us currently present, that, have had a lasting impact on, on society.
So big shout out for these particular groups. It was also national appreciate principal appreciation day last, on on May 1. Excuse me. Didn't get to shout that out here during a DLT. Feel feel like it's really important that we do so. Our building leaders are second to none here in District 25. They do a fantastic job and should be recognized as much as we can. School lunch hero day. I honestly did not know that this was a thing, but it is school lunch hero day was, was also on May 1. So big shout out to all of our, folks that that keep us going in
our cafeteria. So thank you very much for the work that you do. On May 2, we had our, second annual wellness day. This was really, a great turnout for us. We had over 400 participants join us on, the second at Common Point Queens. This was led by Diana Stein and Wing Yi Chung Wing Yi Chung from our team. Along with, many of our team members were able to be there, to support. Big shout out to 169 at Bell Academy for allowing us to host in their
buildings as well. We had our local partners. This was a collaboration between us and the CEC. And it was just a really, really nice event. We even had a special, guest in the form of mister Matt join the day. Really great experience for our kids as well. So, you know, we wanna continue to promote the space of kindness, wellness, and, and, you know, healthy living for our kids. We have also had the office of school food there, providing samples of of the
food items that are in our cafeteria that helping keep our kids, good and healthy. So, really all all around a very good experience for our kids. I do have to say that and here you could see just some of our some of our images. You know, I when when it started at 10:00, I was a little bit nervous that we were gonna have a small turnout, but the turnout was fantastic and, you know, really, really great day, for our district community. We also had Cinco de Mayo. Happy Korean Children's Day, as well celebrating some of our cultures that are within our
district community. This past week was happy teacher appreciation week. Big shout out to all of our teachers here in district twenty five. We have fantastic, educators here in this district. It was also happy happy National School Nurse Day last week. This I have to make sure I shout out is my wife is a nurse. She's not a school nurse, but she is a nurse. So I need to make sure that we include that in there as well. And for those of you, for all of our mom, mother figures, big shout out for Mother's Day. We hope that you all had an amazing day yesterday, and you are recognized for
the amazing things that you do for your families. So I hope it was an enjoyable, enjoyable day for you. So this I do wanna share, this very brief clip. We are really pushing this idea of safe for college across our district community. The goal from the chancellor, is set for 80% of our children in fourth grade, to have activated accounts. And, next year, it's that all children are that we have 80% of all children in grades k through four have activated accounts. So what we did as a district as a district team was create something that
that hopefully our kids will get excited about, our parents will get excited about. The the goal also to promote this idea of financial literacy for our, for our folks across District 25. So we do have a little bit of a challenge. It we've tied it into May 4. That was the the date that we started. So for those of you who are Star Wars fans, May 4 be with you and and such. And between May 4 and May, we wanna get as many of our families to to activate those accounts. So we created this little this little video.
I do hope that you enjoy this. I'm gonna share my screen, put the sound on. And this is our little entry point. I hope that you guys find it fun. And not in the well, not the the big image of my head, but now the the video. Hold on. With May 4 on the horizon and our love for Star Wars, Grogu and I have a message for all of our families and our kindergarten through fourth graders around the Safer College program. Greetings, families. And Grogu, how are you today? Good. I'm joining you today from Linden Place as we launch District 25, A Future Fund
Awakens. This is Magnus. As a parent of a ninth and eleventh grade learner, I know too well of the importance of planning forward to support the success of my children. Creating a clear path for their success comes with the thinking about the financial needs to support college and career. I am a Jedi like my father before me. The save for college program is a great opportunity to start the saving process as students with a college saving account are three times more likely to attend college and four times more likely to graduate. Do or do not.
There is no try. Like the force in Star Wars, we can help build the roots of success for our learners by activating your account. Join today and awaken the opportunities for your child's college and career pathway. The force will be with you always. Thank you, everyone, and we'll see you in space. Will be one has taught you well. See you, Grogu. Bye, district community. Let's get those accounts activated. So the the hope, folks, is just to get our kids a little bit, excited and engaged in this process. You know, for those of you who are are not familiar with the Safe College
program, and I know we have our, our folks here from, the high school president's council, and I'm not sure how familiar you are with with everything because this doesn't really connect with you. It's only kindergarten through fourth grade at this time. But it is an opportunity for all of our kids to get that active upon activation, they get a $125 added to an account, that is intended for for high school and, you know, in intended for, college preparation and and such. So, it has been difficult.
You know? Some of our families still are skeptical a little bit about the the program, but I'm hopeful, that creating this little bit of a competition. And what the the goal of this is by the end of five twenty nine, we will have, an idea of who the highest, percentage, of activated accounts is, what school, and then we're gonna just have a little bit of fun. We're gonna bring over some ice pops, and, one of our team members is a DJ on the side, so he's gonna bring his DJ equipment. We'll have a little bit of a little bit of fun for our school with
the highest activation rate. For me, the idea that we have, this this notion of research saying that, you know, activated accounts by by kindergarten where three or three times more likely to go to college and four times more likely to go, to graduate is an important statistic. And it does make sense. The more forward thinking we are, the more, goal oriented we are at the earlier ages. There it just creates a mindset that this is where I'm going. This is where I'm heading.
Whether that's to go to college or to a space of, you know what, I wanna be an electrician. I want to be, you know, my my son right now has a mindset around aviation and going, to become an air traffic controller. You know, these are all things that if we start getting our kids thinking about it early on, our family's thinking about it early on, and activating accounts that can accrue over time, the better space we'll be in. So I encourage all of you that that, you know, that are certainly on this call. Continue to spread that news to our community so that they have access to, these
important resources. Okay. Let me go back to my deck. Upcoming events, just so that we're all aware, we have, a moving as a community event, a series of them. We've, connected with Together and Dance, and the intention here is this is out of our district, arts funding that we received. And I wanted this to just not only be around partnerships with, excuse me, with residencies in our schools, but I wanted to create some family and, community events. So part of our conversation at the CEC was how do we do that, which
ones would we wanna have, you know, and there was agreement that we should have some community based, arts based activities available. So this week, we have several on, the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, at one sixty five, twenty two, and 02:42. Together in dance, we'll be working to choreograph, some dances with students and their parents, in their buildings. It's just an hour long, but the goal is to bring some people together, have a little bit of fun, learn about the choreography, but also promote community at the
same time. So we're really looking forward to those events, first of which is starting today. We also have, this idea of celebrating with our community with partnership with Arts Connection. So we will have, Juan, Ysera, and the Sambuca tribe will be part presenting at p s two zero one and one ninety three. And then we have Mexico Beyond Mariachi at p s one twenty nine, and we've created a registration link for all of our families to participate, or those that wish, wish to. Assessments of we are now beyond ELA and math testing window.
Science testing begins this week and NICE is allowed through the remainder of the month. Just also to make everyone aware that diagnostic assessment window is open from May 4 through June 12. We have asked excuse me. We have asked our schools, to not necessarily test right away, and there is a suggested calendar that, the central team has put out as well, as May is a heavy testing month. Now going into our priorities for next year.
Excuse me. Last month, we, we talked a little bit about our reading goal and landed on a few items. Thank you, Louis. A few items that we found as, really important in terms of prioritizing as we go into next year. This idea of building knowledge through text, understanding complex language, making sure that our kids can discuss ideas, write about their reading and analyze and reason with evidence. We recognize that the coding and meaning making need to be developed together, to make sure that our kids are as strong a reader as they possibly can become.
So we laid out from k to five, what does that look like, and what does it look like from six to eight? And focus areas are on building background knowledge, vocabulary development, understanding that complex language, and the analysis of text, ability to write write new ideas. And similarly for our grades six through eight, again, background knowledge, vocabulary development, ability to comprehend complex informational text, analysis of literature and author's craft, skills to engage in text
based discussions, and ability to write about and synthesize ideas across text. So what we have seen is that across time, just to quickly refresh, is that our kids capacity to decode is improving across grades, which is really good. But we have to make sure that we're coupling that with, you know, building our our students capacity to read across the page, but understand what it is that they've read. So really, really important, spaces of our learning. And these are the areas that we wanna pay attention to, which much of what I just talked about, just a few moments ago, which brings us to these two
goals that I'd love for everyone just to take two minutes, read through, And I will put them both into the chat just for your space of reflection because I'm going to ask that we break out into small little breakout rooms just for a couple of moments. What do these goals mean to you? Anything here that's not understandable that we would need to adjust as this is going
to be shared with our community? Anything else that what should we be defining more, so that everyone is on the same page with this work? We have identified a few things as principals, in the district that we are currently working on. But bringing it to this body, what are some things from your perspective that we need to make sure are very clear, for the community to be, aware of? K. Both of those goals are in the chat. We're gonna go into breakout rooms just for a few minutes.
Excuse me. You know, what is it that we notice about these goals? What is we what are we wondering? And more importantly, what would we have to make sure is clear for anyone else that's looking at this goal from the outside, to get clarity on what is it that we're really paying attention to here as a district, so that everyone is on the same, the same page. Okay. Put you guys into breakout rooms. Okay. And we will be in there just for four minutes. Again, anything from those two goals that you feel is important for us to reconnect
on, things that you believe that we need to make clear to everyone, are there words inside of it that we're not sure about, and then we will come back together. Again, just a a quick four minute chat. Okay. Welcome back, guys. I'm hoping that you didn't get pulled back in mid sentence. If you did, I apologize for that. But anything that came up for you, in your in your quick group, anything that you're looking at and says, you know, say, you know what? This really needs to be more defined, or I'm not sure what that means. How do we make sure we're clear with our community?
Anything that came up. In in our group, we had a question as to, which schools in District 25 will be participating in the reach program. Yeah. That's a a great question. That, we can we can definitely outline. We have 16 of our elementary schools, that will be participating that we can break down so that everyone knows who is, who's gonna be really engaged in that. It's primarily our schools with the, with the larger amounts of multilingual learner population.
We have some of our schools in district that have over 50% of their population are multilingual learners. Those schools, will be participating versus schools that have, you know, a fraction of that, not necessarily as, as connected to the reach program as others. Anything else that came up for you? Hi. Hi, Crystal. I I think, like, the terminology of MCSS, like, as a family guide that explains what the tiers are, tiers of support and what they look like, like, in plain
language using visuals like flowcharts to show how students can get extra help, something like that, to make it more clear for families. Yeah. I love that, Crystal. And, you know, we have, a couple of different, tools that we've created throughout the year, years rather. And and I think it's something how do we make sure that we're we're getting that message out widely? Maybe even messages from me to the community that this exists, you know, from the gamma system. Parents, just make sure that you're aware if your child is struggling and falls into this category.
Because it's not MTSS and tier two and tier three support is not for every child. It's for children that are currently struggling. So I agree that, you know, maybe perhaps we can get that message out a little bit more widely for community. Love that. So I'm gonna put this next question in the chat, which I'd love for everyone to just kinda ponder. And, Crystal, you kind of alluded to this one already in that question you just posed. So what does the current state make you think in regards to supports we need to provide teachers, students, community members?
And this should also read our building leaders as well. I don't know how I missed that part. Should have been the lead in to provide building leaders. Teachers, students, and community members. What if we're going to do this well, we're gonna make sure that we have, that meaning making becomes big part of our work, that we're refining our MTSS practices. What is it that we need to do in order to make sure that we're doing this well? Anything from from your perspective, I'd love for everyone just to think for two minutes. I'm gonna put my clock on, and then love to hear some of your thoughts.
So two minutes on the clock, and we will come back together. Just reflect on that. What kind of supports would be necessary, building leaders, teachers, students, community members, to do this well? If there's anything that's connecting with you, feel free to put it into the chat. But we're gonna come back together and have a, quick conversation. I'd love for all of you guys to engage in that. Alright, guys. I already see, mister Marino, you put in the strategic programming of stand alone. Agreed. We have to definitely continue to grow in our programming work to make sure that
we're doing, what's needed as part of 01/5154. Yeah. Thank you for that, Rachel, making sure the kids are seen, heard, safe, supported, Connected. And I think the the one follow-up that I would have for that, Rachel, is what would you say we need to make sure we're doing to to ensure kids feel that way? You know, what what makes for a really good experience for our kids when we
do that well. But love that. Love that entry point. Making sure that we have blocks inside of our schedule. Love that. Anyone else? Feel free to come off mute, guys. This kind of reminds me of the the question that you asked the at the last meeting. Oh, gosh. I can't think about it. Like, integrating what was it? Truly integrated. What does it mean to be truly integrated? Yes. Yes. This reminds me of that. And and with that, it's like, inclusive learning, empowering the students, like like, we're do
like, the district is already doing through their, their soapbox their soapbox projects. True integration means students who learn differently can stay in the classrooms, you know, as their peers. Just diversity in the classrooms, authentic integrations between, you know, real belonging, like, everything that I don't know the person's name that, you were just talking to. Everything that she said, like, the district is doing, just add to it. Mhmm. You know? Yeah. And, you know, Crystal, you're gonna see it through line today as we get right
into the portrait of a graduate, where you'll see a connection between each of these things going right into the state, which is kinda why I've organized this the way that I did today. Just talking about our goals and how they relate. Hopefully, everyone will see a little bit of that relationship, in just a moment when we get to the portrait of a graduate work. But love that. Thank you for sharing. Okay. Anything else that comes up for you? And if we're going to do this well, as a DLT, what would we wanna recommend for schools? So really pushing literacy, we're pushing stand alone, what would you wanna see that we
do at the district level, what we could do at the school level to make sure that our parents are fully informed. Yeah. Go ahead, Rob. I was gonna say, regular progress monitoring is something we all do, you know, anyway, but it's something that we have to be mindful of, especially if we're going to be, expanding MTSS and then starting a new, standalone, E and L program. As far as, you know, informing parents and making sure that, all constituents are aware of what we're doing is just from that progress monitoring comes, noted parent notifications to
make sure that their their children, the parents are aware of what their children are, accomplishing, their areas of growth, any gaps they may still be experiencing, and what the school is doing to try to help. Yeah. I love that, Rob. And, you know, the question is, you know, what would we want that to look like, sound like, feel like, whether you're a parent or a school leader or a teacher? You know, what what what's a kind of a a best way for us to do that to make sure that everyone is on the same page? I think it's an important question for us to think about as a DLT, and then we can establish some recommendations.
Guys, here's something for you to think about at the SLT level. How are we making sure that parents are informed? How are we making sure that parents know what this goal is and what it means and how how it connects to you as a parent or a kid? You know, what would we want that to look like in terms of, like, a routine recommendation that we can make? I wanna just add. Yeah. I think I think and this is this happens a lot that we take for granted, that parents know the language that we speak when it comes to what even the simplest terms of I had a parent meeting this morning and we were going
over the child's, you know, report card. And the parent who's wants to be very involved, who really you could tell when they're giving it to kid a look like like, what's going on? How can I help? Didn't understand the one, two, three, four. The the the guy's new to the country. He didn't understand that the, our grading system of one, two, three, four. What does it mean? Something so simple. We're we're just taking for granted that every parent just knows what we know, that when we send him progress monitoring sheets that they this is even useful information in any kind of discernible way.
Mhmm. We have to meet everybody where they are, not just kids, but also parents. Meet them at their level of understanding and then work with them to bring them to where, they need to be to be able to help their kids. Yeah. So important, you know. And and I think, you know, sometimes I think we we send things and, you know, the the hopes that they're landing and sometimes they're just not. Right? So how do we make that a little bit more, you know, transparent, visible for our community members when we're when we're thinking about these goals? And, you know, what's the what's the frequency with which we wanna touch base with
our community? And parents, what does that look like for you? You know, sometimes you get so much. Let's say I'm a I'm a dad. I have, you know, two kids and, you know, I always say I'm so thankful for my wife because she she keeps me all connected, on on the things that are that involve my my children. You know? So what is enough? What's not what what's too much, to make sure that we stay well informed? But, yeah, thanks for that, Rob. Gus, any I I see you came off mute. Yeah. You know, I fully agree with what Rob was saying about assessment.
And I think one thing that I'm always very keen on is building in, looking at student work. I think, whenever you whatever kind of assessment system you're doing, embedded in it should be always looking on an ongoing basis at student work because that that gives you a sense of the reality and then sharing that information with the school community. Thank you, Gus. Parents, in terms of, you know, I shared let's just say, I'm sharing this goal with you, meaning making, here's where we're going. What would you wanna see as a parent in order to make sure you were
fully aware of where we were going? Because what happens typically is that the district will create goals collaboratively with our building leaders, and then in some way, shape, or form, they're very connected to what our building leaders wind up creating. So we're gonna establish it here. What would it be that you would need, as a parent leader, to share widely? What what is it that you would need us to consider doing? What kind of recommendations would we wanna make from the DLT to our schools in making sure that everyone is aware?
What what are some things that you would be on your mind? Would love to get some parent perspective on this. And, Lamar, for you as well, from the teacher perspective in in helping everyone kind of shape a common understanding. Lamar here. I think from a teacher standing, I'm gonna look at it from the work. I'm speaking from the work that that would be bestowed on the teachers to to to do this work. I think the redundancy and the time are the two things that I automatically feel like people would wanna clarify on. Right? Are we doing so are we reinventing the wheel with what we already have in
place in the district? And if we are, you you know, there's going to be a time frame. There's gonna be a window where we're gonna have to, allow for some growth to take place, if that makes sense. And then time is you know, listen. At the end of the day, we only have six hours and fifty minutes out today. Right? What does this look like in the space of time that we have? So from a teacher standpoint, I think that's a question to ask. And having conversations with parents, I think once we get that established, I think it's a lot easier to establish with parents.
This is where we are as a district or as a school as a school. This is where we are as a school. This is where we are in this class. This is where we are with your child. And, you know, this is why we need to have these pieces in place. I think the conversation from a teacher standpoint has to stem from an understanding that, you know, there there's a need to address, certain areas. There's a need to address certain growth patterns and so forth, and this is why we're doing it. I I I find that sometimes sometimes, this is not across the board.
This is not like I tell you all the time, there's 3,000. There's 3,000 teachers. It doesn't apply to everybody. But sometimes, there are spaces where teachers are like, I don't understand why we're doing this. Right? So we have to, I think, make a real concerted effort to explain and, you know, show the data. Really review the data and say, this is what's going on in our schools. This is what's going on in the classes that you have. If you're in a self contained class, this is what the numbers look like. If you're in ICT class, this is what the numbers look like. Right? And then this is where we are in relation to other schools in the district.
This is where we are in relation to the borough, so on and so forth. And there there there's always going to be external factors. Right? There's it it seems like there's an increase of ELL students in our district. There seems like there's been an increase over the past few years. That's a reality we have to address, and we have to kinda be respectful of the time it takes for those children to embrace to the culture and to the language and so forth. We have to be expecting of that. So I think a a a real hearted conversation, once we know with staff and
admin and if we're on the same page, and I guess this is the point of today, we can convey that to parents. And I think you get a better a better a better path moving forward. Yeah. For sure, Lamar. And I think, it all comes down to clarity. You know? I'm a huge fan of, you know, what research tells us. And, you know, there is a a book by, DuFour and Follin, which is actually funny. It's right on my right on my desk. And one of the things that, they talk about is this idea of clarity precedes
comp competence, that we need to make sure that we're clear on where where we wanna go in order for us to actually develop the competencies to get there. And I think the reason why we're having this conversation today is to make sure that we're all on the same page with where we're going and why we wanna go there. Kinda laid out the data last month and bringing us to the space of thinking through what we would want, going into next year. But what I want really for us as we lead into our final meeting is establishing our own definitions of, if we're gonna do this, what will it take in
terms of communication with families? What's a reasonable ask for all of our schools given their current structures? Because they are all doing some form of bringing families into our schools today. They've really gotten back to doing that, and I think our parents really do appreciate that given the number of people that come up to our schools. Is in how do we make sure that they're targeted around meaning making? You know? So if a school's doing first Friday and they're doing that every month, how do how many of those do we wanna be connected to meaning making, in our building? You know, those we can define, and recommend as a, as a DLT to our
SLTs to think about. You know, not necessarily us saying you must do, but a space of here's what we recommend because it's a good practice. And, you know, leave it to our school leadership teams to establish those next steps based on what we recommend, which I think is a good, a good entry point for our schools to reflect on. So for you, if you're a parent leader, you know, how frequently should we be engaging our community around meeting making? What what should that look like? How what can that look like? Are we doing literacy based event literacy nights?
Are we doing our parent chats? Are we doing our, you know, you know, open school events over the first Fridays if they're calling them? You know, how many of them do we want dedicated to that? And I think the same for our principals and and the teachers at our mouth. How frequently do we wanna do that to make sure that there's full transparency around where we're going? And that's what I challenge you between now and next month, to be come to come prepared with that because then we'll create a guide for our SLTs to bring to them, starting in from the word go.
As an SLT, first meeting, what what are we defining? How frequently are we meeting? Are we meeting? What do we wanna meet on? How are we making sure that our parents are informed? And that's a big part of the job for all of our leadership, whether you're a parent, teacher, or a principal. So there's a shared ownership over improvement, if that makes sense. I'm hoping that makes sense to everyone. But that's what I that's what I envision this work being that, you know, we establish those recommendations from ourselves, and then they get shared widely with our SLTs to start employing those devices in our buildings.
Okay? Gus, did you have something you wanna add there? Well, two things. One, is, related to, title one and, PACS. I at the last central meeting, I advocated that, central create a calendar of suggestions, for, packs the way we have for SLTs. And I think that, what you're talking about should relate to and take advantage of the resources that central is already providing on a monthly basis with suggestions of what
SLT should be dis discussing. And they really should develop something like that, for PACS as well, in terms of, the title one program involving parents and the, supplemental services and supports, that our schools put into place. The other item is going back to what Rob mentioned yes, earlier about his experience with the parent. I think he said it was this morning. Most people don't remember, but there was a time where we had a listing of terminologies and, explanations of these terminologies for parents because there there are a lot of
acronyms and a lot of particularly with portrait of a graduate, this is something that, is gonna be even a bigger need going into next academic year, I think. And, District 25 has a reputation of making suggestions at a central level that have been adopted by the system as a whole. So perhaps at a principal's meeting, FACE or whoever is responsible can revive something like that and create a resource that, I mean, you're talking about creating something on, on
the local level. But, really, this I think the system as a whole needs, something like that, to help parents navigate the, the terminology and particularly the new items that, are coming into being, for next academic year. Thank you, Gus. Okay. Alright. We're gonna hop into our next, our next goal. This is our math goal. Math, we have been seeing steady progress. We're actually just under 70%.
I'm hoping that we surpassed that this year. But in alignment with this idea of meaning making, we wanna keep that common through line. As you guys know, we are, moving forward with the Amplify Desmos math curriculum. As a district, we've been doing training supports throughout the year for families in in, the form of virtual training sessions from, Beth and Liz. We've done a series of of math family nights as a district, and we've had training throughout the year for our middle schools and the nine pilot schools that we're,
implementing it at the elementary level. But, likewise, there is a common theme here around promoting meaning making in mathematics. And for me, the one of the main reasons why this is important, and I always tend to refer back to my own children when it comes to, to the work that we're doing because, I see some of the struggles at times that they have in math. And, you know, and, you know, those that have heard me speak about this before, they know where I'm going with this. And, you know, when things are not in a cookie cutter type of scenario, they
tend to struggle, you know, where where it's more process and procedural, they're okay. But once you change the the the the phrasing of the question around, once you make them have to think through the mathematics, it becomes a lot more challenging for them, and they tend to wind up not being as successful, because of that. You know? So, for for me, it's really important that we we're engaging in this similar type of conversation in the form of building that that fluency through mathematical routines, but also
creating more and more space for our kids to become problem solvers in math, through their being for through their ability of making meaning of the concepts that are in front of them. So just take a few moments, like we did with the reading, reading goal. Think about the mathematics goal that we have, same type of premise. What is it that you, what needs to be defined? What is it that is, you know, needs a little bit more teasing apart? What's not understandable? Or just a question of why we're doing it if that's still unclear. Just take two minutes.
I'm gonna put the timer on. Okay. We're gonna send you guys into those breakout rooms really quick. Again, no longer than a few minutes, and then we will come back together. Just quick chat, similar context as the previous one. Welcome back, guys. We have just about thirty seconds, and everyone should be returning. We have almost everyone. Okay. I think we have almost everyone. And there we go. Alright. Anything that came up in your groups? I think that, this goal is framed around where it needs to be focusing on
staff. I would say even I'm I'm sure you're including the, staff leadership as well, because if you're going to start something new, the the teachers and and, the administrators need to feel comfortable with this. They need to feel like they are, able to, you know, understand not only the the way in which this is taught, but, like, the the curriculum and and the philosophy behind rich math tasks and and deeper understanding of math. We saw so many gains when we endeavored to do this in, you know, the
late, like, 02/1718 with the algebra for all. Mhmm. Very similar, way of approaching mathematics, but we all know that that you know, we have people in in elementary schools who a little little little afraid of of math and getting them on board and getting them trained is going to be, 80% of the work, I think. You know, the kids are gonna love it. The kids love this way of approaching math. They really are excited about it. It's, so this staff related goal, I think, is, hits the mark.
Yeah. I love that, Rob. And, listen, I I think that when you when you give kids, you know, a a a real problem to solve, you know, they're interested in solving it, you know, and that's the that's the bottom line. I think, you know, our math should be that way. Eduardo and I were just talking about, you know, this idea of building positive math identities from, you know, this this idea that I can't do math or math is not something. I'm not a math person. And I think as adults, sometimes we use that language, you know, at least I've heard of a bunch of adults use that language with frequency.
You know, my my wife typically, she's like, when math comes home, she says, go talk to your dad. My only problem is now as the nine in ninth and eleventh grade, I I look at it. I'm like, oh my god. I don't know I don't know how much help is. I don't remember a lot of it, to be honest. But, you know, I I think it's, you know, this idea of being able to persevere through things and not just give in because it's a little bit of a struggle. And, I think building those positive math identities is part of it, but also making sure that kids have access to to things that are gonna make them think, and
not just think about here step one, two, three, and four. Go ahead, Crystal. Yeah. So my comment was May me and Gus was discussing, like, from a parent's point of view, to get the concepts to parents, we need to bridge the gap between school math and home math because everything that the children are learning now, we didn't learn this way. So if it's difficult for us well, as you just said, some things you're looking at like you don't remember, but some things are brand new to us because they're
doing things differently. So we need to bridge that gap and teach the parents as well. And we were we were just discussing, like, ways to do that. Like, I I remember we had some workshops at our school, like, getting the parents, the parents have to understand it to be able to help their children. If we don't know what we're doing or how to, you know, how to help them, how is that gonna work? Mhmm. You know, at home, it's one thing to have it done in school, but how is it gonna work at home? Yeah. I love that, Crystal. And I think that it's it's how do we get the the the masses to
be able to come out. You know, parents typically when they hear the idea of workshop, it's also like that, you know, that word that is like, oh god. I'm not doing that. You know? I'm not I'm not sitting for a workshop. You know? I've had a long day, and workshop is not for me. So it's how do we make sure that we're doing something that they're connected with their kids that's relational. You know, I'm gonna come, I'm gonna sit, I'm gonna learn with my kid. Maybe we'll solve this problem together in, in a way where it's not looked at as I'm gonna be spoken to. And workshop has that connotation. It has that that feel that I'm gonna sit and you're gonna talk to me
for an hour and then, you know, and then I leave still not knowing anything and, you know, maybe perhaps frustrated that I just gave up an hour of my time to do that. So, I agree with you. I think the more we can communicate, the the better off that will be. And I think what we can define that. What do we want that to look like? So this year, we did three, three separate training sessions virtually as a district. We had a pretty well attended where we had over a 100 people that that joined each of them. And then we did some family nights where we got quite a few people as
well. So, definitely love for everyone to think about what can we what can we establish as here's our recommendation as a as a DLT to our SLTs. Recommended that you have x, y, and z as part of your routine. But love that, Crystal. I have one more comment. Yeah. Can we do something like send home, like, math newsletters where it will teach the parents how to talk to their children's provide providing specific questions during dinner time or whenever whenever they have time to spark conversation of discussion on how to solve problems,
the math that they did that day in school, or the why behind the method that they're learning with explaining the strategy, like using a number line or something that the parents can understand why their children why their children aren't just, using a using the standards. Standard algorithm. Yep. Grew up. Yep. Those kind of things. Love that, Crystal. Any other comments? So definitely more to follow. I I am giving you guys a little bit of homework to really think about what we would what we would need for our community.
Love for you to come come back, for the June meeting, which will be in person, by the way, for the June meeting to be prepared with some some things that we can organize in terms of here is the, here's the tool that we would like to have our SLTs reflect on. And, yes, Gus is right. They do have a central one, you know, that is available in terms of dates and organization. But to me, this is about organizing those things around our current goals. The the calendar is more of a a general guideline, and then it's for us to tailor it down to what we're trying to get accomplished at the district level,
with the things that we have and need. And they are always very much connected to the central team as well, but these are things that we need to focus on as our, collectively. So couple yeah. Go ahead, Rob. Just one more thing to add, I think is relevant. If if I remember, I mean, algebra is now ten years ago. And the way we really launched it was all the conversations following up any type of walk through or observation was rooted in, student work artifacts. Really looking at what students were able to produce as a result of their, the instruction, the the different the different way in which we were approaching it.
You know, not just assessments, not just theory. How do you think it went? This is what I observed. But really looking at keeping student work at the at the center. At the center. Yeah. Yeah. I love that, Rob. And part of their of their training, which brings me to the, kinda, the next slide, and then, Eduardo I'm gonna kinda transition real quick. I know Eduardo has asked that if I he can present his portion, after this. But I do wanna make sure that everyone is aware of, with this new, new curriculum that's coming towards us, there are some things that are happening right now just
to make sure everyone's aware. Teachers from across the district are engaging in training. This has already started, across grades k through five. We were you know you know, I'm certainly really appreciative of all of our schools sending their teachers. We've had, you know, cohort after cohort already that are digging into the program, getting an understanding, getting a little bit more Of what the program asks versus what they're currently doing. And one of those elements is around this idea of do the math. We're really encouraging our teachers to go through this protocol that allows them to understand
what the math is behind the the the actual tasks, and some of which is not gonna be very very different, all the time from other types of problems that kids may have experienced. It's just packaged in a little bit of a different way. And, you know, for for us and for me, what you'll always hear me say is people in practice, not programs. You know, it's the adults in the room that have to deliver all of these things, and it's how we deliver them that that matters. So needless to say, there'll be some in person opportunities. Our middle schools are having their final intervisitation that occurs in May.
In 2627, all schools will receive four days of in person training. They'll get job embedded coaching from Amplify, the organization that, produces the Amplify program. There'll be four additional unit unpacking days for schools. And, likewise, for the middle school, they will have four days of in person training and then also getting job embedded coaching. So there is training support that's involved in this work, that, you know, I'm excited about moving forward. Okay. So I'm gonna just pause just so that Eduardo can, you know, do his, his
presentation, and then I'll close out on portrait of a graduate. And then Gus will do his piece, and all of our constituents will be able to share. Go ahead, Eduardo. Thank you. Hi. Good morning, everyone, and greetings from the, doctor Tu, superintendent of Queens North High Schools. So I'm gonna start this morning by sharing that, wonderful news. Some some of our students in, in the high schools that you see on your screen have earned have earned a paid internship at Lirvana Labs. This summer internship Yeah. Eduardo, you're not sharing anything right now.
Oh, sure. Here we go. Share. Oh, there we go. Alright. So, the students, will engage in, hands on professional experience, develop industry relevant skills, and collaborate on meaningful projects in an innovative and supportive environment. Doctor Tu will host a, a co design party at Aviation High School on May 20 to celebrate the students that have earned, this paid internship at Lirvana Labs. And as you can see, two of our high schools in District 25 have students
who will be participating. And that's, Townsend Harris and Veritas Academy. Also, our district was, was, awarded a $240,000 grant from the Hechsler Foundation, and this is to, promote financial literacy. So 12 of our schools, and in District 25 in particular will be John Bowen High School, Robert f Kennedy, and World Journalism Prep. We also want to announce that we have a new staff, here at Queens North,
Tom Tom Mac McKenna. He will be, supporting District 25 and District 26, as a a district achievement and instructional specialist for climate and culture. He comes to us, from Queens, Satellite School, where he was a principal, since 2017. Also, I want to remind, everyone and everyone is invited, that we have part two of conflict resolution, on the twenty first. All of this information has been posted on our website.
So we had our student empowerment conference, That was, April 24 at Queens College. Students, came from all of our high schools and participated in different activities. I'm going to share a quick video here of some of the activities that they were engaged in. So they involve performances, workshops. They also explore job and internship. So some of the activities involved, how to create a how to create a, a team in high school which students in the pre nursing program also, had a workshop
on how to, administer CPR. Also, I wanna mention that we are having a, a a hiring fair on June 16 at Queens College. Please share the word, the word. You can just tell, folks that, they can find out more information at, queens, queensnorthhs.org. All that information, it's on our website. Thank you. And that's it for me. Okay. Thank you, Eduardo. Okay. So we're gonna just jump right back into this last part for me, which is,
around, portrait of a graduate. So I'm gonna talk a little bit about that just to make sure that everyone's clear on what it is, and where we're going with it. And, you know, just before I do that, I wanna just bring this to your attention too that we've asked all of our SLTs to do. We're starting to get lots more responses in here. We've asked for all of our SLTs to define what meaning making means, in mathematics and in reading. This will help frame what we decide on as a district as a common definition
for each of these areas. I you know, I'm really encouraging everyone to really dig into this. And as you can see, excuse me, we've started to see, a number of entries from our school leadership teams. We're gonna continue to ask that they do so, so that we have a common set of definitions across our district in these areas. So just to kinda highlight that for you and encourage you to keep asking folks excuse me. Hold on one second. Sorry about that, guys. Got a little tickle. So needless to say, things that we'll be digging into a little bit more over time, but it is there, and we're continuing to get feedback.
So New York Inspires, there is a a a staged approach. So they started this in in November, of twenty twenty four is when a group presented on the New York's inspires plan. It outlines four different transformations, and beginning in 2027, NYSED will sun will NYSED will sunset the, diploma assessment requirements and other policies related to graduation, for full implementation of
the framework in 2029. So students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in different ways beyond standardized assessments. Districts will support schools in expanding high quality learning experiences aligned with twenty first century skills, and building on existing exemplary programs in New York City public schools, students who have access to a broader range of learning experiences and programs to support college and career goals. So what does that look like? Oh, these four transformations adopt the New York State portrait of a graduate.
There's gonna be a redefinition of credits and learning experiences. Diploma assessment requirements will suns will sunset. And there is a move to one New York State diploma. So under current requirements, students must earn a minimum of 44 credits across required subjects and pass a minimum of five exams, typically regents exams in order to graduate. So transformation one, portrait of a graduate defines, the the skills and knowledge students are expected to demonstrate. And if you look over to the right hand side, you'll see, that kids the
expectation that kids are academically prepared, they're creative innovators, critical thinkers, effective communicators, global citizens, and, the last part is reflective and future focused. So each of these six elements is intended through what their the experience goes on in their, elementary, middle, and high school experience that promotes each of these six areas, in order to demonstrate that they're ready for, to to graduate from high school. So what does that mean?
Is that students can earn things like the seal of biliteracy, completing a capstone project, and completing an English composition course would give that child a track for graduation. And likewise, on the other side, you see the young lady successfully completing a multimedia communications program, passing the state exam in in English language arts, and completing a summer summer internship for a community newspaper. Tracks to promote this idea of writing this for graduation. So we're not gonna go do this part, at this time in terms of the
breakout rooms. This is just to make sure that we are connecting on this for future conversation. So students' learning experiences will expand the ways that students can demonstrate proficiency. There'll be a focus on proficiency rather than completion of a timed based unit of study. New requirements for final financial literacy. This does impact all grades. So financial literacy requirement is for grades four, eight, and, and in high school and grade 12. So within grades k through four, there should be an experience for our kids in
financial literacy. Save for College work does connect with that, here in the district, but more more to follow on that, but important that everyone knows. Excuse me. So on March 10, NICE had adopted regulatory amendments that require schools to provide students personal finance education and climate education by the end of the last year of each grade band. So grades four, eight, and 12, as I just mentioned. This expectation starts the, school year of 2627 in terms of personal finance, middle school grade bands for grades five through eight, elementary grade bands in '27, 20 '8 in
grades k through four, and then climate education '27 through '28 and 2829. So over the next couple of years, there'll be more, integration of personal finance education, and climate education as well. Excuse me. So students may provide evidence of their proficiency of the standards in a variety of different ways as you can see here from approved work work based experiences, capstone learning projects, early cod college high school, earning New York State SEALs, credentials or SEALs, high
school courses, NYSED approved CTE programs, participation in the arts. And lastly, the well, it's it's not necessarily gonna be a requirement for graduation, but passing approved assessments is still part of it. So sunsetting of diploma assessment requirements. Students may continue to use state administered, exams, for diploma requirements, but they are not required to pass regents exams to earn their diploma. And I think that's an important, distinction that everyone needs to be aware of.
State assessments will be considered to be administer, continue to be administered per federal requirements, and school should still continue to operate under current regents exams requirements until the state proposes and adopts changes in local guidance expected for '27. And then this idea of moving towards one diploma. Currently, there's a regents advanced and local diploma that you can get from the state. They're looking to move to more of a single single diploma. All students who satisfy future requirements will earn a New York State high school diploma.
Advanced designation would become a seal or endorsement among other potential changes. So New York City, public school diploma cert certificates already follow these conventions. Seals are added to our standard diploma, for special education, like, special designations like the seal for biliteracy or the seal for civic readiness gets added to student diplomas. So this is just the timeline. So the release of portrait of a graduate rubrics and guidance there that is currently still in process of organizing financial literacy and climate education requirements.
Those are still, as I said, will begin in the 2627, and then the following year for climate education. One diploma, sunset, these are all the things that I just talked about. And you can see here in this time line, of what it is that's gonna be coming forward for our learners, particularly impactful on the high schools, but super important for us at the elementary and middle so that we're preparing our kids for what this means for them as they go through, their elementary, middle, and high school careers.
So this is important. You know, feel free to make sure that you take a little bit of a snapshot of this so that you know what is coming next for our kits. And let's see if there's anything else that is here. Okay. And that brings me to this last little part just so that everyone can get a snapshot of what this means. So these six areas in terms of a portrait of a graduate are defined as you see here on the left. Take just a moment to read through those. Okay. And I will put them into the chat as well. But anything that kinda stands out to you, makes you think wonder.
We will be having more conversations on this. There's no doubt. But anything right now that is kinda making you think around the expectations of a portrait of a graduate. And I do see in in, Crystal, some of the things that you mentioned in terms of things that we are doing. I do see a lot of our work, present inside of what a portrait of a graduate calls for. Especially, we're talking about global citizens and making sure that our kids are engaging in civic based, activities promoting critical thinking. I do see a number of those things related to that. Was it making you guys think anything in particular?
Yeah. I try to look at this as, you know, always through a positive lens. But, you know, lately, when I look at creative innovator and critical thinker, I think that even now more than ever, that becomes a challenging endeavor in this digital domain that we all live in. You wonder how much digital dependency children are being taught at a young age. You know, having a 10 year old myself, I'm torn between getting this kid ready for the world he's gonna live in by exposing him to all of these tools And at the same time, wanting him to, you know, develop a brain that could do as much as he can without it.
So, you know, and and and ten years, five years from now, fifteen. I don't know. Yeah. No. I hear that, Rob. And, you know, when when you think about just what's happened with technology over the course of time, I think, you know, there are different ways to innovate. It's just helping kids recognize what those entry points are for innovation. I don't know that when we were when we were kids that we would have thought of things like Blockbuster going out of business because of the digital tools that were created or the, when you think about all of the record stores that existed,
and how they are no became no longer because of a technology advancement. So while the those spaces of innovation like the the going from an eight track to a DVD, all of those things have had their layers of of technological advancements, but still a space where kids can find access and entry into becoming creative. They had to learn how to do it differently. So I think it's helping our kids learn how to do those things, but still having the the mindset of what they wanna be able to create in the process.
But I I I hear you. I think that there is there is certainly concern around how we do both and build both of those things, those muscles at the same time. Comment? Yeah. Go ahead, Crystal. Thinking about what he said in today's world and what you're saying right now. Like, being a student is is is much more than just being, it's much more than about just getting good grades. It's about becoming superpowered, like, being in this world today. Like and they have to be a become better versions of themselves. And that's what we want for our kids anyway. Right? We want them not to just to strive, but to thrive.
So we want them to be ready for anything. So this, I think, it's building them up to have stronger brains where they can solve tougher math questions and reading puzzles and having creative hearts and think about how to get their ideas across and thinking of new ideas and finding a kind voice in this cruel world and helping others speak up, for themselves. So when I think of that, it's like they're learning to become critical thinkers who
don't just believe everything they see online, but they're also becoming effective communicators who listen, and they talk well. They become global citizens, just trying to pick out key points from, you know, all parts, who take care of their planet and other people around them. Most importantly, it's about them being reflective. And they're they're they're not just checking up on themselves, but checking up on others and but everybody's feelings, also their own and the goals, and their goals that they
hope to achieve, and they're staying happy while doing that. You know? The social emotional part. They're healthy. They're happy all around. They feel safe, and they're excited about it, and they have a love for learning at the end of the day. This is what I gather from all of it altogether. And I think that the district is doing a great job of, you know, implementing all of it. Thank you so much, Crystal. And, you know, I agree. The idea that, you know, we we shouldn't be defining kids by a grade on, on any given task, It doesn't tell you everything you need to know about a
kid, and what they're capable of. You know, there might be a a learner that scored poorly on an assessment, but you know what? I'm following them when it comes to certain things that they're really, really, really amazing at. You know? And it's about how do we tap into those things that, we don't always see on the end of a, standardized type of an assessment, and really build from those spaces. So, yeah. I love that. Go ahead, Gus. Yeah. I, I think that you demonstrated one of the, things that you are talking about.
I was very impressed by your presentation of the, college savings program and your creative use of Star Wars. I mean, just a few years ago, or even last year or the year before, creating something like that would have been very, very challenging. So I assume that what you did was you used, you know, the tools of technology that are available to you now to create this very, you know, creative and engaging, outreach on, the savings program using that something that kids and parents are familiar
with. And, that to me is an example. It's a it's a model of the the way the new technology enables, creativity in a multitude of ways that I can't even imagine, you know, in terms of the future. So kudos to you for actually demonstrating, I think, the creative use of technology, in, something, practical, just for this DLT and for the district as a whole. Yeah. Thank you, Gus. And I listen. I can't take credit for those things. I have amazing people here.
I have Lewis and and Marissa that you throw in an idea and, you know, be able to tap into other people that have the capacity to do that well. So it's also that's also connected to this idea of, you know, being a a communicator and making sure that that that becomes something real as a result. So we're gonna talk a lot more on this folks, and, you know, I want you you to be able to think through it and establish starting to establish some some clear, definitions of what we want here in District 25. And I do think that we're doing a number of them already. It's just about making sure that we feel like we're aligned with what the new
guidelines are from the state, are and how we're how we've adopted some of them already. You know? And I think we have. As I read some of these, these areas, I I know that we're doing a good job of them already. It's just how do we continue, build on them. So that brings my, my portion to a conclusion today. I'm gonna turn it over to you, Gus, for anything else that you need to share in terms of update, with the team. Thank you. And by the way, because, it's, related to the state, your presentation that you just
did on portrait of a graduate, this is gonna be, something that's gonna occupy you for years to come because it's not something that is particular to a chancellor or to the DOE. It comes from the state, and it very much reminds me of no child left behind when I had to introduce back in the in the day the whole new no child left behind, which then engages us even up until today. So, this is a sea change, and it's something that's gonna be part of everything
that you're gonna be talking about and working out both as a system and as a district for years to come. And it's exciting and challenging, and, it will really transform the whole educational system, in my opinion. So getting now to the details of the the things that I, need to talk about, the CEP template has has, has some new pieces to it. And what Central normally does is they create resources for schools and for districts on
the changes. So I have a PowerPoint that I'm gonna, you know, share with you. You have it at the end. It also has a timeline, which, is in the PowerPoint and and we've shared, separately as well. So, you can look at that at your leisure. I'm gonna go quickly over it, but let me just go over, the, main aspects. The the template has, got some new pieces to it, and, it is everybody's CEP, for all of our schools are now live on iPlan.
I think last meeting, I I mentioned that there was a word version that you can use for planning purposes, and I still encourage you to use that because you can look at all of the different pieces at once. Whereas in iPlan, you can only look at one tile and one piece at a time. So So if you wanna get an idea of what the whole thing looks like, the way to do it is to download that PDF. And I always tell you, always save your work and save a copy of that,
document going forward. I've had some schools ask me about last year's, document, and, it's, of course, available on a PDF, but, it's always good to have your working draft saved. So, going forward, the template, that's live on iPlan now, the only piece of the old one that's still alive and that you can put pieces into it is the progress monitoring tool piece. So that's still, active and you, because, remember, you have this June piece, to put
in for your schools, so you can still add and tinker with that, portion, but all of the others are only April going forward. So it's April, May, June, and then next academic year. You cannot go in and put into the SLT or the PAC monthly pieces or even any of those annual, report pieces like the title one, set aside plan, going forward. Those are now, only available for new materials, going forward from April and for next
academic year. And, related to that are you know, the I send out these reports that I get from Central on schools that have, central on schools that have, pieces that they have not put in. I haven't gotten any new reports yet, but those new reports, I'm sure I'll probably get one next week or the week after. And those, are will not have any old material. They'll only relate to what's there going forward. Also related to the template is, what's been transferred over from last year.
Very little has been transferred over, for the schools. So, there's more writing and new pieces to be done. The reason for that is that because the priorities have been reorganized, that, most of it has not been transferred over. So, there are a few things that have been transferred over. SOTs and schools looking at the template will find that they have to reenter, some of that information, which is why it's a good idea to have your, old one
in a in a Word, doc so you can, cut and paste and, and edit stuff that you need to be, put in. So that and I'm gonna go over the the, PowerPoint that Central has provided on the, on the CP in a moment. DCEP. The DCEP and the priorities and the configuration is gonna be mimicking and very similar, as it always is, of the CEP. I don't think they've released the template yet. I think that that's coming and should be available shortly.
I'm told that, it has been approved, so we should see that without, any, long delay, going forward, and we can begin working, on that, for next academic year. Title one, as I said, the new pieces can be put in. I had a conversation with Jenny, going forward and, her colleague, in terms of putting in those pieces in terms of elections and, you know, PAC elections and other title
one, representatives, DPAC, and the rest of it going forward. If people have been elected and appointed for two years, that's fine. You don't have to re you know, do the election. But the new information, the the that information needs to be put back into the system both at the SLT level and the family coordinators know how to do that and at the district level. So that's a piece that needs to be put in, by the end of the
academic year, and there's a, a a deadline for that, that, our, very fine, family district family support coordinators, know and, will be engaging with, their counterparts at the school level in putting that information in. A six five five, which I've been advocating for decades, for, an update, I'm told that it's out for public comment, and they tell me that by the end of
the academic year by June, that that will be available. So, hopefully, that will be the case, and it has the new, mandates including, the PAC, you know, pieces being mandated members, in, the, in in the new regs. So, hopefully, we'll see them, and, I might even who who knows, I might even be able to share that, in the June meeting, if if, that has been approved, by then.
Now in terms of my, my handouts, you have this PowerPoint that I'm gonna go over, in a in a sec. I also have a worksheet, which I'll quickly, show you. Let's see. I think share. Can you see my screen? Let's see. Yes, Gus. Okay. This is the the worksheet. Again, Central has made this available, for, DLTs to utilize and and, and schools to
utilize. It's not mandated, but, you might find it helpful, and it is available, for, everyone to use. The other piece is the PowerPoint that Central has, created for us. Can everybody see that? I moved it over. Yep. I put it in the chat too, Gus. Okay. Great. So the PowerPoint is pretty straightforward. It, the CEP, you know, this is what the you all know this, why the CEP is important. What's new?
So what's new is their the system wide priorities is the big piece. What they've redone and the next slide is gonna show you those, system wide priorities and what's changed about them. The other piece that's changed is there is on, on the MTSS section an explanation that schools have to and districts will have to do the same thing, is there's more explanation required on tier one. Now what does that mean? What are you doing for all the students?
It used to be that, in the previous template that, you were mostly talking about what you're doing for the students that need extra help. So they added a piece that requires adding what, is being done for all of the students. And then, attendance has been, tweaked. There's, a stronger coherence across goals and strategies and action steps. A big piece that's changed is on the action steps, there is a drop down
now. So for every goal, there's an a drop down, and they want you on the action steps action steps to answer certain questions, prompts. And, in talking to schools, people find, they tell me these prompts helpful because it really clarifies the information that goes into those, action steps. And then I plan to tweak things and, as they usually do to try to make, the, whole, way of utilizing it easier.
So what they did was they, literacy is still there. They, put in priority two, math. Remember, it used to be that, it was something that we had to sort of put into, priority three. Now it's much clearer. It's now a clear priority and is there in terms of math. Uh-huh. What they did was they took out the, the, the family, engagement, priority, but they
took it out and embedded it into everything else. And, the next slide is gonna tell you, that there has not been any deemphasis on parent engagement. In fact, you could argue that it's been emphasized even more because instead of a stand alone, it is embedded everywhere in all of these different, priorities. And the next slide, which tells you where all of, the the parent pieces have
been embedded, is something that I actually asked for because, some of my colleagues agreed with me as well that we wanted to have something that we could share with, parents and schools that actually shows how this is being done. So priority three is safe and inclusive schools now. College and career readiness is priority four. Priority five is what you saw last time where attendance is emphasized and, chronic, absenteeism
is there, as part of it. And then, the, students with disabilities piece is an additional priority, as I think, it was last year. So the next slide was actually the one let's see. Yeah. This is the family engagement one. So this I actually asked for. So if you see in literacy priority one, what they did was they broke out into the those boxes in terms of the goals that ask schools to put in,
the family engagement actions are still there. But in addition, what they did was they put in language having to do with what is the focus in terms of, literacy, partner with families to support language development, early literacy, providing multilingual resources, etcetera. The same for the math piece, the same for safe and inclusive schools, the same for college and career readiness, the same for attendance, and the same for SWD.
So that has all been added to the whole structure. Next piece. As I indicated at the outset, portrait of of a graduate is big, and this is something that is embedded again in, the language of the new template. So you're gonna see portrait of graduate pieces embedded in the language of the, new, CEP template. And going forward, I'm sure they will enhance this.
And as they refine, the different pieces, you'll see this, particularly in the action plans, going forward. But, this is something that increasingly parents, SLTs, the whole college the whole, school community will have to be, oriented more and more, towards going in the future. And it's new, so, you know, there are a lot of things that need to be worked out. And, there'll be resources, I'm sure, be, developed going forward that will address all of
this. And then how priorities are, applied in school planning, what's this means for schools. There's, how, the needs assessments. All of these, I know that, my, central team is working on remember, what they always do is they give you in the iPLAN resources, resources, new needs assessments and other tools for, your planning process and, for implementing the CEP template going forward.
So they're currently working on all of these folks, and as, it these resources become available going forward and I'm sure they'll they'll start, rolling them out, in June and then over the summer for the the planning process going forward and especially, for, next academic year in terms of assessment and working on. Now, luckily, you don't have to worry about this. This is the, the ATSI, CSI stuff.
We we don't have any, improvement schools in District 25, so that doesn't relate to you. This is the tier one instruction. And you see, there are some prompts here about what's new and how, to define it. So, this will be probably a resource that central will develop in more detail going forward, but there are there is some information here, that should prove useful for, what
they mean about, the the description of tier one and answering those questions. See the bullets on one side? And on the right side, it it gives you, some prompts, on how to answer those particular, questions going forward. School summary, there is, some additional updates that you see here, in terms of, transfer high schools, and, most of this relates to schools in improvement status.
Attendance upstate update, attendance priority, and, EISA, and chronic absenteeism. There are some shifts and some subtleties involved in this going forward that I'm sure we'll get some, resources and clarification on, but it should not really, impact, in terms of your filling out the, attendance section in any really significant way. Action steps, as I indicated, there is a drop down now, and there is, a
drop down that asks you to, answer, instructional leadership structures, professional learning structures, and, student facing, support. So when this was rolled out, centrally, I asked a question. I asked, Central and the people at Central who developed all of this. I I looked at the instructions, and I looked at what's there in the template, and it doesn't say that each one of these is mandated.
But it really is, ladies and gentlemen. So they told me that they didn't wanna put language in terms of mandates there, but it's highly recommended that each one of these, is answered. And it relates to state ed as well. So, really, every school should fill out one these pieces and put in the information that the drop down, is asking for. Even though it doesn't say mandated in the instructions, it really is, something that every
school, should consider doing. Expanded learning time, is required for, the MTSS, section. I need to explain. This is not every school has always put in what you're doing in terms of, before school, during the school day, after school, weekends, etcetera. The language has changed and shifted. The questions are, are are a bit different, but this is not really a new
piece. It really is, something that, you've been doing, all along. It's different than schools that have to get, you know, a waiver and add to their school day. That's not what they're asking for here. They're asking for what you're doing, you know, supplemental, in terms of, before, during, and after, the school day and weekends, etcetera. It's just that the language and the structure has changed, a a a bit.
Let me see. Quality of their, clearer labeling, between the goals and the targets, improved guidance in terms of root causes, repeated action steps, and, they eliminated those, and, have, reduced duplication and put in those, those drop downs. And then there says last edited times time stamp added to support, and improve, the
review, process. So this is the iPlan folks putting in their, their, so here's a a good overview of all of the changes. They, have, removed things for improvement schools, which doesn't apply to you, And this is a a sort of overview of the new pieces that have been put in, for you to look at and, share with your, SLT. This is, support, differentiated support for schools to strengthen CP development and implementation.
So this is, a a a pyramid which shows the kinds of support in terms of the new tran template that's available to schools and districts and, how, this, relates to planning and professional development, going forward. So there's nothing, mysterious here going forward, and, you will, doing your planning, in terms
of, the SLT training and any school based support, that's needed, principals meetings, etcetera. And, Central will be rolling out, as I said, information and supports for all of this, and we will, share that. So the timeline. This timeline is should be familiar, to you by now. The, June 26 is when the drafts, are available. So that's not something that's different from last year. So it's a June 26, and then July 10 is the alignment that, schools and
districts, and the alignment that schools do between their budgets and their goals. Remember, the only part of the CEP that is very difficult to change is the goals. Once the superintendent approves those goals alignment with the, the budget, they're they're they're they should not really be, changed and adjusted, but they will be, the rest of the document, really should be adjusted in terms of feedback, etcetera.
The superintendent will certify the alignment of the goals by July 24. And then the timeline going forward, ladies and gentlemen, is similar to what it was last year. There's nothing, dramatically different in terms of the timeline, and you have it here. And, feedback and support will be available, on an ongoing basis with the district teams and with central. And, resources, see here, you have, some links to the resources and worksheets.
I showed you the worksheet with, earlier. When you click on these, it should take you to iPlan, and you should be able to get at the resources, going forward. And as I said, they are constantly gonna be adding to those. So that's basically it. I tried to get through it as quickly as I could. Any questions on anything I said, so far, ladies and gentlemen? If not, I'm always here to answer questions. I know that I'll be getting, and I have been getting, questions from the schools
that I try to answer on, you know, twenty four seven. And, going forward, any planning or any, professional development, that, the district wants to hold, I'm always available, and I will always get ahold of whoever else we need from Central, to support you on an ongoing basis. So that's basically it. Thank you, Gus. Thank you for your help. Much appreciated. We are right in the midst of all that CEP, DCEP planning right now, which
is part of what Gus was sharing. It's just about getting all that stuff into our plan and and ready to go for the following year so that I can begin approval. Okay. CSA, any, any updates? No. We're all just, you know, in the midst of planning, a little stalled. We're waiting for our budgets to come through with the state state to finalize their business so we could know about, our class size reduction applications. And, also looking forward to hearing about the DYC defunding, finalizations of, who is receiving that, the that funding so we could plan forward.
Yeah. We have quite a few schools, everyone. And I can share that once we start getting some of those approvals of who's getting that, that d y c d program added to their schools. Many of our buildings, as you guys know, over the years, had struggled particularly our elementary schools. Our middle schools never had an issue, but many of our elementary schools that wanted a d y c t pro d y c d program could never get it just because the funds weren't available. Many more of our schools, are eligible, so I'm hoping to hear that we have, quite a few more that are receiving access to this.
So more to follow on that. But thanks, Rob. Anything else? That was it? That was it. Good. Okay. I think Lamar had to hop off, Eden, CEC. Okay. CEC, we just had our meeting this past Wednesday. We are in the end of the first year of the two year term. We have our award ceremony on June 10 where we will be honoring students and teachers. Hope to see some of you there. Other than that, we we kinda wished well to our two students that have been serving with us for the entire year. Turns out, doctor Mike, I don't know if you know, but they actually are available
because we told them the wrong date. So they will be there. Oh, great. Now, which is great. And then I'm meeting with doctor Mike this week to do our annual superintendent evaluation. And we come July, we will do elections for our board for next year and go from there. So it's been a good year. We had a lot of success and a lot of active movement in our council this year. So Yeah. For sure. Thank you so much, Eden. Charlene, c, DC thirty seven. Hi. Sorry. I could not find the unmute button to say my right now. So I just want everyone to know I will be, working the entire summer, and
I know there are many summarizing programs occurring. And so I still will be seeing you over the summer and so hoping to get to some of the schools I missed through September and June. And we're just keeping plugging along. Please continue to pass the message about tier six. It affects all of us, and, it would really make a great impact on the the employees or potential employees that we can get into schools and get them properly staffed if that could be, if that could be worked on. Awesome. Thank you, Charlene. And just just so you know, I did secure May 20 for you, at P
S 214. I know you wanted to meet with your members. So it did secure that date? Say again? I don't have to email you about that. I was just told on Friday that, they need a month in advance. So now I'm in June, which is dicey. So if you have a date Give me another date, and, I'm sure mister Chabot wouldn't mind making it available as long as there's nothing else going on in the auditorium, but just let me know. Okay. Thank you very much. I just found out on Friday. I didn't wanna bug anybody. I swore on Friday when I found out. No worries. No worries. Okay. Thank you for that. Rachel, president's council?
Yes. We have our meeting coming up on the eighteenth. We will be having a representative from the New York City Football Club, there to present, to give some information to our presidents about fundraising opportunities. They have some great options where you don't have to buy tickets in advance. You just have a link for families to sign up, so that'll be good. And we will be reminding, board members about the they're running their elections, hopefully in
May. And that way, we can have our elections in June for our executive board of president's council and also reminding them of the, compliance items that are due such as the annual fundraising annual financial report and the transfer of records meeting with the with the principal where the outgoing board shares the information with the incoming board. Awesome. Thank you so much, Rachel. All very important things to close out the year, and I know that's something that,
you know, all of our building leaders wanna make sure they can support, our PTAs in doing well. So thank you for that. Crystal, anything from, Deepak? Yes. Our next Deepak meeting is May 26 at 5PM via Zoom. We'll have the superintendents report followed by a special presentation from Queen's Library, and they have many fantastic free, programs and resources like summer tutoring and homework help. They also have after school support and many valuable, resources and family based programs and
resources. That's it. Thank you so much, Crystal. And Queen's, high school president's council. How's it going? How's it going? How are you? Welcome. Two things. We have our meeting tonight, our first meeting on May, and, we're doing a mental hellness. Mental healthness. Why did I say that? Mental wellness. You're gonna sound scared. Like, there doesn't go. So that We'll we'll we'll we'll edit that part out. We'll edit that part out. Part out. We'll pronounce So that's tonight, 06:30. And, that's gonna be our our whole self care type of thing, especially in light
of all the things that's been happening in the realm of middle school and mostly high school in this past month. We definitely wanna reflect on that and see what we can continue to do to do better and keep everybody taking care of themselves and seeing what we can do as a community. And, also, I'm putting this flyer in the chat. We're cosponsoring this event with the, oh, I put a direct message. Hold on. I I did it wrong. I should've did it to everyone. Sorry, Eden. But, level up to success event with the borough president's office is happening this Saturday
at, five five May 16, and we will be there as well. That's gonna be, partial college fair with 20 to 25 of the top colleges and universities, but also We will have financial aid support and grant writing and, s essay writing support and also admission support, but, also, we have some unions and career, options for those children that might not see college in their future, but want to see a good career, in other types of civil service and different things.
So it's good for all families. We're inviting middle schools and high schools because parents can all be involved in the resources that will be there, and that's, of course, sponsored by, federal president's office. Just put that, in the chat and New York City Public Schools and us. So I'm looking forward to that. And, anything else that's coming up, that's it. And Memorial Day weekend, hope everybody stays safe and has funds. And happy Mother's Day to whoever I didn't get to say. Well, thank you so much for that. And I I I love the, the premise behind the the level up to success,
session that you're doing. I think, you know, sometimes, you know, us as parents, we don't always know the best direction to go when it comes to any of that. You know, the essay writing is a big one. My daughter's already saying, dad, you're gonna write it for me? I'm like, I'm sorry. No. That's not how this works. You know, you know, we need to be able to to start thinking about those things ahead of time for our kids. And, you know, just as important recognizing that not everyone, is going to take that path. And, you know, finding the the the best path for our youngsters is is really important. So I really appreciate the premise behind that, and thanks for sharing.
So guys, this brings us to a close. I do wanna make sure that everyone is aware, of our next meeting date, which is on Monday, June 8. That is an in person event. Remember, we do two times a year. We do the December and June meetings in person. It will be here at Linden, and, really I always look forward to that so that we can make sure that we're, in one another's company outside of these little boxes that we have on the screen, at least a few times a year. So I'm hoping all of you are able to join.
If not, we'll we'll, you know, we will certainly organize so that you can so that you can be there, you know, in some way, shape, or form. So, needless to say, I appreciate you guys all being here and being connected, today's session. And, we'll see you around the next time. We have a consensus on closing today's meeting. Yes. Thumbs up. Sorry. We're fifteen minutes over today. Usually like to give you time back instead I took more of it. So everyone have a great day today, everyone.