Got it. Thank you so much for for the reminder, Rachel. Thank you so much, Jenny. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the April 20 president's council meeting. We have met quorum, and it's 06:35, so we're gonna begin. Let us review the agenda. Today, so this is our welcome. Welcome to April. Wonderful month as spring begins. We are gonna move forward to the approval of the March meeting minutes. I'll pass it to our recording secretary, Charlotte. Thank you so much, Veronica. So just a quick recap of, last month's meeting minutes. The first thing we did was welcome Jessica Villegas as our new family support coordinator,
and she's here tonight. And we talked about some things that were happening during, in the district. PS twenty four had a NASA connection to the, International Space Station. Liam from PS thirty two won the, citywide's New York spelling bee. And there's a winter debate with 12 schools, where they compete in PS thirty two, and Bell Academy were the winners. Civics week happened for March. Various schools did things like talk about their, take action project, and two students from
p s two one student from p s two zero nine and one from MS three seventy nine were selected to present at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And, also, there's a city's share fair schedule for late May. We talked about also the social emotional learning survey, and we talked about algebra one regions for the eighth grade as well as the parent survey. Policy changes for the portrait of a graduate, doctor Dantona outlined the New York State's shift towards a single diploma type and then, talked about the six core competencies for
graduate for graduates. We also had a guest presenter, Michael Verini, family educator at Include New York, NYC, and, talked talked about The Mission, which is a nonprofit, providing support for youth with disabilities and talked about different services and events that were coming up. The next event for them is 06/01/2026 in Bronx for outdoors for autism. And just some reminders summarizing, the application closed, March 27. Math family night was March 26. Wellness day was rescheduled to May is rescheduled to May 2, and this, CEC twenty
five meeting is April 15 that happened already at, Linden Place. And that was it for the minutes for March. Approval of those minutes, we just need at least two people either verbally or in the chat, please. Okay. I'll put a second. Thank you, everybody. No. That's great. Thank you. But, Jody, do you wanted to say something? I thought you're on mute now. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much to everyone. The the meeting the March meeting minutes have been approved. Thank you so much. We will now move go back to the agenda.
I believe the next item of our agenda is doctor Mike's report, the superintendent's report. Doctor Mike? Sure. Good evening, everyone. Really nice to be in company with you guys as always. I'm gonna go through our quick president's council superintendents report. One of the things as we always do, we like to start off with a little connection before content and this very little brief food debate.
So I put it into the chat of this or that. Are you a home cooked meal person or fancy restaurant? I've used this one in a couple of different spaces, and it's always a little bit of fun to get people's perspectives on this. And, if you wouldn't mind, just indulge me a little bit and put it into the chat. Are you a fancy food, fancy restaurant person or you a home cooked, home cooked meal person? Which one would you kind of, on the side on for yourself? Oh, Rachel, a little home cooked salmon by your husband.
Home cooked, another one. Home cooked, but on my ladies night fancy restaurant, I like it, Karen. Thank you. Oh, a little bit of both from Nicole. Alright. Shout out for the husbands in making those home cooked meals. I'm liking it. Those guys stepping up big time. I like it. And just so you know, I am a little bit of both myself. If it comes to to this, I've shared, you know, mom's macaroni meatballs. I'm full in on. Otherwise, I'm good for a good night out for, for a steak. And few times that we've heard this, you know, some have said it all depends on who the home kick who the whole who is making the home cooked meal,
depends on who it was, and then, you know, it would change their direction for sure. When I broke a home cooked meal yeah. I like it. Thanks, Joe. So I appreciate that. And usually, we take up time, but I do have a little bit more to talk to you about tonight. So I'll try to just keep it brief and into the chat. So I'm gonna go jump right into the presentation for you guys. And we will get started. Let me just get my screen situated so I can see everyone's face as I'm sharing my deck. Okay. So couple of things, for everyone.
I know that last month, we talked about, civics week. I do wanna have a little bit of an extension on that. We we were very fortunate. We had two students that were in the top 50, that presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So big shout out to Esme from p s two zero nine who not only was in the top 50, but was invited to be to participate in MainStage, which is the top seven students, that had written their speeches and presented, to a huge
group of people including the chancellor. So big shout out to, to Esme for having that opportunity and hers was on insufficient in lunch insufficient lunch and recess time and what what was really great about Esme's speech was, that she came prepared with, with resources and, and kinda really captivated the crowd in her speech. You know, you heard a lot of oohs and ahs and laughter as she was presenting. So, really great job for her and, also for Ethan, grade eight student from College
Point Collaborative and that's MS three seventy nine, if you did not know that's what their name was. And his speech was about immigration. Both of which we'll we'll be inviting to future meetings so that you can hear their perspective, and how they really connected with research, connected with, a little bit of humor, but also at the same time, very direct into the point of what their call to action was, which is what, our work in Project Soapbox is about and hoping to continue to grow in that space. I also talked to you about last month about Liam, and our spelling bee championship,
champion. But I also wanted you guys to know where this wound up going. It it's really incredible. You know, and I don't know if I said this to you, but because of his, wearing the jersey from Sunderland, they've actually invited him to be, to come to to to one of the soccer games where he'll be escorted with the soccer players onto the field, which is really amazing. He's been out reached out to by a couple of different news outlets, including NBC to do a little bit of a a spot on him and his experience with
connecting, with these, with these soccer, soccer clubs including NYCFC. But they he became Insta famous and they actually met with him, on Instagram and he had no idea that they would be there, but his favorite play soccer player was on the other side of, of the screen as they did their interview. So really, really cool stuff for him, and we're excited for to root him on in Washington DC. And I bring this back up again because he's going to DC, I would love
it for all of us to create something where it's a a really amazing send off for him, wishing him well. And, hopefully, we get to see him on ESPN because he's done so well, in May. So big shout out to to Liam and his success. We had meth family night, in, late March. It's, GHS one eighty nine. Just wanna shout out Beth and Liz from our team along with doctor Bradley for hosting. We had a really, really nice turnout. Families from across the district participated, and really wanna encourage all of you in your
own schools, to connect with your principals. It's just a really, really nice event. We have a a a bunch of resources that we've created at the district level, with hopes that we do them in our own schools as well, because it does bring out families, brings out the space of community and that's really a big part of what we believe in here at the district level. We also had our cheer expo. Big shout out to Diana from our team. I'm gonna show you a very brief clip. In fact, I always forget to do this. Let me stop sharing and reshare because I forgot to add the audio. But this was a really, really great event that I do wanna share just one
little clip, and then I wanna talk a little bit about it. And that's where I I wanna stop it just for a moment and just take a look at what's going on there. This is at Townsend Harris is where this where the cheer expo was held. And we have 30 schools that are present, engaging in this cheer expo along with hundreds of parents that came out to enjoy, you know, this particular event. And what I loved about it most was that after as every group was going
through their cheering, everyone else on the outside, including all the teams, were just cheering each other on. And nothing to me says community, like, you know, being able to show your stuff and have everyone else around you just pulling for you. And that's really what what I appreciated most about, about this event and all of the families that were there. We also had volunteers that that come to our events just to make sure it's extra special from, from one of my team members that that does the DJing and may because he has all of the equipment.
So he comes and make sure that, that the music is playing well. We have a member from one of our schools that's really great with the tech. So he was giving you he had cameras set up all over the gymnasium so you can get different views of what's going on. And we had over 5,000 views of this event, which kinda calls to why it's important and how we continue to promote community. So I just thought it was a nice thing to share with you guys, if you hadn't had an opportunity to see this. But these are the types of experiences including Annie. I see you from one sixty three.
They had their first graders up doing their own cheer. It's kinda like their first introduction into cheering, and it they honestly they brought the house down, those those little first graders. Yeah. It was it was great to watch. I I mean, I my little one didn't get to go. We were abroad, but, I saw the video and it was like everyone was so happy. It brought tears to my eyes, like, all the support that they had. It was great. Yeah. So cute. So cute. And, you know, they did an amazing job of doing a little bit of uplifting for, for us also. Really, really cool stuff, and we're gonna continue to to really build on our work
as we move through the year, through the years because it's it just it just allows our kids to showcase themselves in different ways. One of the other things I'm really excited about, congrats to all of our math winners. So, we had our schools this year participate in the first in math tournament, and I'm really proud to say that we had award winners at at every grade, in the regional competition. Really big shout out to all of our kids for for their hard work. We also did our first ever middle school game twenty four competition. We had the elementary school one earlier on in, in the later on in the
winter, and we just held our first middle school game twenty four, just in the spring. And our kids did a phenomenal job of of competing. And one of our teachers sent us an email, a little bit after the competition and said what was so exciting for her was because they were mixed schools, they're at each table and what she what she was so excited about was that at the end by the end of the competition, children that didn't even go to school with one another were so excited in rooting on the peers that they just met
at the tables that day. And again, all about building community and they're just so proud of our kids and proud of our teachers for putting on these types of experiences for our learners. We also had an Ezra Jack Keats award winner, from JHS one ninety four, La Lasady Grace from, January and her award winning book, Stray. Congrats to, to Lazady and as well as Julie Santaniello who supervised the development of this book. So big shout out for, for Lazady for her efforts.
We also had, Chancellor Samuels visit District 25 a few weeks ago. Big thanks to, Veronica and Rachel from, President's Council were able to join as well as Eden. We had, we were we were fortunate to to be part of this event where we had our student cheerleaders greet our chancellor at the door, followed by a performance from their upcoming Disney show, Finding Nemo. They did a little, little skit for our chancellor, and then we were also greeted in the gymnasium, by upwards of, I wanna say, 40 to 50 children that are
participating participants in their chorus, also, show their stuff to the chancellor on that day. But one of the great parts about this was that we were able to hear a little bit from our parents and our students, asking our chancellor some really great questions, supporting him in his efforts to to really get a a a full handle on some of the the wants and needs of our, citywide community in this particular case, our district. So big thanks to our chancellor for being there and for, principal Singh for opening her door, opening our doors, for us to to see all of the amazing things
that are happening there. Something I'm also really proud of, just so that everyone knows, we were published in in in a, at for the Center of Public Research. They did series of interviews on, us as district building leaders, teachers, and parent leaders, from across a series of schools, p s thirty two seventy nine. I was quoted in there along with some of our building leaders and district team members just around the things that we are we've organized to to really promote, the
implementation of new curriculum across the district. And you'll see the title that they established for us based on those interviews was, One Vision, Many Voices, making sure that we have opportunities to hear from all of our folks to make sure, to ensure that our implementation was as successful as possible. The link to the publication is there. I do encourage you to take a look at it. I was fortunate enough to present, four, a series of of, private, vendors like, the
Robinhood Foundation, Robertson Foundation, all were, all together in one look in one space where we were able to talk about some of the best practices that we have here in the district. So, really cool stuff. I encourage you to take a look at it. Summarizing, the, offers will be released, I believe, maybe even as early as this week, for all of our families. We do encourage, as I said last month, I'm gonna say it again now, if we're going to accept, the offer, I encourage anyone who's accepting to please make sure
that you're attending. Don't take a seat if you don't intend to be there because it will take up space from someone else that might be on that waiting list. So if you're gonna be coming, please make sure you're accepting. If other things have come up and you can't, we do ask you to turn down the offer, so that someone else can take the seat. Upcoming events, we have, a a few more sessions that are coming up. One with the Child Mind Institute on developing friendships, that is on Thursday, April 30. The sessions that we've been holding around SEL have been really successful thus far.
I encourage anyone that is interested to participate. We also have our Virtual Math parent workshop series. The last one is on on fractions, proportions, and ratios. This again led by Beth and Liz from my team. This is really important because an area that our kids typically struggle with, in mathematics and and for that matter, sometimes us as adults, is in this area. It goes from really taking, the our number sense to the next level and seeing parts of whole, start to get a little bit more complex from that concrete to
the abstract. So I do encourage you to see what this looks like across grades. If you are available, I encourage you to be there. A second annual wellness day, as was mentioned, was moved to, Saturday, May 2. We have over 300, folks that have indicated that they will be there, that wind that registration will will remain open to whomever it is that wishes to attend. So I do encourage you to let your families know in your community that, this event will be there. There'll be a variety of different community organizations there to support, support the event, including
yoga, mindfulness activities, healthy eating demonstrations, along with some of our, you know, athletic institutions that we've been connecting with over the course of time. So it's really gonna be a nice event. I encourage all of you to be there if you can. New York State assessments, as you guys know, we are in the midst of ELA testing. The window closes at the end of this week. Many of our kids have already tested. Some will be going through that, shortly. Math, the math testing window, April 28 through May 8. Science testing window for grades five and eight only, May 12 through the fifteenth.
And NYSIS LAT testing for our multilingual learners, begins in April and ends at the May as they go through the four modalities, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. So it's a little bit of an extended window for them to test. For those of you who did celebrate, the Easter and Passover holidays, I hope you guys had a great time with your family and friends. Wanna make sure that we got that because it it happened during during the break, so I didn't get to share that with you prior to. Also, April is Arab American Heritage Month, celebrating our Arab Americans, throughout our country's past
and present. So big shout out for any of our Arab American community members. So AI framework. This has been something that if if you've been seeing over the past few weeks, we have asked our schools to send out notification to all of you around the framework that is has been created by the central team. This is the initial step in terms of establishing something that can go across all of our schools so that our students, are protected as much as possible, that we support learning, and then at the same time empowering our families, to make sure that
these tools are used in the most purposeful way possible. I'm not gonna go through this at at length tonight with you because there is a number of things that are there. But what I do encourage you to do, if you haven't done so already, I've linked in here. And in fact, let me just put into the chat the the presentation so that you guys, if you, wanna access this rather than going through the through this district site, you have it right there. The family facing guide is, is accessible to all of you. If you have not, taken a look at it yet, I do encourage you to
do so. It gives the the the the general context of what artificial intelligence is versus what it is not. And and I put some of those clips right into the presentation for today. But also how schools and and the central team are evaluating, software tools to make sure that privacy and security are are present and available including the 10 step process that we take to make sure that, these programs are legal and within the compliance space of ensuring safety and security for our kids.
And then followed by a traffic light system, which is the red, yellow, and green perspective. Meaning, the red part of it, things that we should not be doing with AI, which includes decisions about kids. We're not plugging in information about about our learners and then asking AI to spit out what we should do. It it should not replace who we are as educators in any way, shape or form. You know, we are the decision makers for our kids, so things like IEPs and
five zero four processes. It's the expectation that we as adults are creating that, not a computer. That's not what the intent of this is and now those are things that we shouldn't be utilizing AI for. Assessments and grading. We should not be relying on AI to support, the, decision making process. That's what we as educators are there for. Behavioral monitoring of kids is prohibited. Counseling supports. Again, we are here as the, you know, our counselors are are the, trained professionals in this space.
It's not an intention that, that AI does that. Deciding on a child's course path. Again, the where the the adults in the in the room, the educators in the room, the leaders in the room, along with our families should be really supporting that pathway, not not, artificial intelligence. And the goal that data is not to train AI models, meaning not to filter in information so that AI becomes the, the decision maker in, for our learners. So things that, that has kind of that yellow caution light and, you know, more
to more information to follow and and honestly, more feedback from our parents that's important. And I do think there is an opportunity here. I know that anything new and, you know, certainly AI has the space to potentially be scary for for us as as adults because of the fact that it's growing so rapidly and and improving at at rates that maybe, we as adults might not be ready for. But I do think there is opportunity there if if we use it productively to make ourselves, make things more efficient, to make sure that our kids do effective research.
But even saying that, there are things that we certainly need to be mindful of that AI is not always right. And we have to learn how to be critical consumers of the resources that we have, and that's adults and kids alike, so that we're making really smart choices with the resources that we have available. So I do know that there are concerns there. I understand them, and I encourage you to put your feedback into the form, which I'm gonna show you in a few moments, to the central team because this is about getting that feedback before our final framework is established.
And I do think it's a fluid thing where over time, we can certainly add to and and subtract as needed. But this is a really great opportunity to share your thoughts. What what I don't wanna have happen is create space where, we have an opportunity and we don't use the voice and then later on say, well, why isn't that there? So it's a really great chance for families and educators alike, to to make some of those decisions. And AI, I Ready is not necessarily a, an AI generated type of pathway like
the ones that they're referring to here. It does utilize how kids perform, and then we'll bring them into a different space based on that that algorithm, but not necessarily in the same way of a of a generative AI, would. So there are things there that I think, are worth certainly asking and posing inside of that feedback channel that is there, but it it's not necessarily the same, entry point as a generative AI would. So things like communication too, it it creates an opportunity as well for for translation,
and you'll see that translation of things like bilingual materials, is not necessarily something that we can do without, reconnecting on. So it shouldn't be something that we just use and and accept that bilingual resource without further further review, which you'll see you'll you'll see here are things around translation as as a green light. Let's use it, but we need to make sure we're mindful. It shouldn't be just let me translate this into Spanish and then not have it reviewed by someone that can read it, and and make sure that we're not putting
anything out there that's inappropriate. So if there are things that are AI generated where there is a space of making sure that there is a a notation that this was AI generated to make sure that families know that, that there may be some some things there that are not a 100% aligned with the way that, we might read them. But, again, the reason why, it should be reviewed by someone who understands the language well. Things that we that I do think it could be valuable for, brainstorming, organizing ideas,
helping us craft, communications, kind of streamlining thought processes. I do think that there is a place to help us become more efficient in our jobs. I do think that AI has the capacity to do that provided that we are reading the resources that are coming out of it. Nothing inside of this is a 100% foolproof. It does not necessarily, take into account biases and things of that nature. So I do think it's important that we we know that as we're using tools
that we are critical consumers of it and it should not be just something that we just take, because the AI generated that means that everything is true. And I think it's a it's for for our kids in particular, you know, I have a a ninth grader and eleventh grader, myself. So I do know and I do remind them all the time that, you know, while these resources are there, it doesn't mean that you get just to put something in and then accept the output and then hand it to a teacher. You know, so it is it is something that that we as adults have to
remind our kids of. And there are a lot of things that were low tech when when when I was growing up and, you know, the the same reminders occurred then. It was just not a a a tech tool that was doing it. For those of you that remember Cliff's Notes, those things existed and we used them because it was intended to be a shortcut around around the work. You know, the same types of of, feedback that we would give for a low tech thing like that, we have to start giving for a high-tech thing like AI. You know, so it's it's being mindful of the resources we have and making sure
we're making really smart choices with it moving forward. So what I really want you guys to to be able to do is give this a a a once over when you have the opportunity, and then there is at the bottom of this, document that the central team has created Let me go all the way down to the bottom. Sorry, guys. At the the very bottom, you'll see a share your thoughts survey, which I'm gonna put into the chat for you as well. And I really do encourage you and any of your families in your community because
this has come up at the CEC. There were a number of things that did come up as a concern from from our family members, and my feedback to them is the same as I'll say to you is this leadership group that add it to that form. If you have concerns because otherwise, we we can leave things for chance that someone else is going to do it and add some of your concerns in there or even highlight some of the things that you think it could do really well. If we don't include it in the form, then it will go unsaid. And that's not something that that I want to happen.
So, for yourselves, if you have some specific things that you would wanna include in that guidance, please share your thoughts in that. If you have community members that are concerned, please encourage them to use that form, and I will continue to do so myself. It's it stays open until May 8. So beyond that point, they will be they will start constructing what will hopefully be the the latest iteration that goes out to our community members around how we're going to focus on AI moving forward. I included, as I said, some of just the key points in this deck for
you, what AI is versus what it's not. The big part of this whole thing is is a reminder that it should not replace a human being. That's not what the intent should be. For teachers, leaders, parents and so on. That's not what we should be thinking about AI to do and and if that's what our mindset is is, then we're not doing what's right, by our kids or by our community. So I have this information here for you just to review, as you see fit. But more than anything else, just please make sure that you're getting the message out
there to get feedback. Just so that everyone knows, Wednesday, April 22, we will be hosting our hiring fair from four to six. This is will be the second year in a row that we're doing this. And for me, the reason why we've organized it at the district level is to make sure that for any vacancies that our schools have, that we are getting the message out there right away. We have over we have not over. We have 450 and we actually had to cut it off at that point. We have 450 people that are planning to come to our hiring fair on Wednesday.
And part of that, I attribute that to the fact that we have amazing schools, amazing leaders, amazing community, and folks wanna be able to work here. So it gives our principals and our assistant principals and teacher leaders opportunities to connect with those that really wanna be in our district community. So I'm really excited about that and, you know, we we'll be hosting this this coming week so that we have, have that opportunity to meet those that that fit our needs here at the district level. So looking forward to that in the next couple days and shout out our members
including, Louis who was on the call who did a great job of organizing this for all of our schools. Safer College. So you're gonna be hearing a lot about this over the next, couple of weeks in particular. So you've you've heard me talk about this in the past. Safer College should not necessarily be new to you, but we are putting out there we've put out there for ourselves that we wanted to reach at least 50% for our own district, and that's kindergarten through fourth grade. Right now, we are at, a little over 40%, which is not nearly where we
wanna be, so we're gonna continue to push that. But the central team has asked that we get upwards of 80% of our fourth graders. That would be the first group that started the having access to the safer college program, four years ago. So every single school has a certain number of children that we would need to reach out to and families we would need to reach out to to encourage to participate in New York City Kids RISE. What we what we've seen is based on research that children that have accounts as
early as kindergarten are four times more likely to enroll in college than someone who does not have that account. So we're gonna keep encouraging. There'll be outreach to our families individually through phone calls, through emails, and so on. And it would be really, really helpful for all of our, PTA presidents to continue to remind our parents at our PTA meetings that this is out there for you. I know there are a lot of questions that come up. What information do I need to put in there?
There is no personal information that is required other than a student ID number to create account an account. There are questions, will it impact future five twenty nine plans? The answer to that is no. We have amazing resources here right at the district level in Jenny and Jessica. We have one of our CEC members that have been going school to school to really voice the opportunity here. At the district level, we have a $190,000 that's not being tapped into by families across the across District 25.
My thing is, it's always a choice for a parent, but I wanna make sure that at least everyone's informed to make that choice. And we have to get that word out there as much as we possibly can so that parents that might not have any awareness can have access to this. So we're gonna continue to push this, but I wanted you to be aware that that's the case as well. And the last thing that I wanna spend a little bit of time with you guys on and I'm gonna put this Padlet into the chat and I'm gonna ask us to do a little bit of reflecting if we could just for a couple of minutes. Put this into the chat.
So what I've asked of our CEC, I've asked at the DLT, and I'm gonna ask, you guys here as well as our DPAC. The chancellor has established several priority areas. One is to make sure that, all of our students are in safe environments, physically, emotionally safe, that we're creating academically rigorous environments for our kids and that we're creating space where we're promoting true integration, which means that we have resources that are, responsive
to our kids needs, that we've we have more a significant number of multilingual learners, how are we making sure that our students are supported, our students with IEPs. So integration can mean lots of different components, but in the end, it's about making sure that we're creating space for all of our learners to see success. So what I would love for everyone to take just a moment to do is reflect on these three components. What does it mean to be safe in District 25? What does it mean to be academically rigorous in District 25?
And what does it mean to be truly integrated through your own eyes? What does that mean for you? And if you wouldn't mind, and we don't you don't have to do it right now because I know I've I've already spoken for a good forty minutes. What I would love for you to do is just take a few minutes to bring this even back to your to your PTA, to a meeting, and share this this Padlet with them asking for those things. Because what I do wanna do is generate a a clear set of patterns and trends around what everyone believes and that way it's our collective beliefs and not Mike's
beliefs, not, not Lewis's belief, not my team's belief, but everyone that has children in District 25, what do we believe that this should be? Some of which we're already I'm really confident that we're already doing, but others maybe that we can do a lot better. And that's really what I want your perspectives on. So if you guys can just take a moment and reflect on that, there are some samples already that you'll see in here from parents that have already responded, to this call that I've given them. But would love to hear from as many of you as possible, if you wouldn't
mind doing so. I know I know it I don't wanna add one more layer of fun to your plates, but if you could just take a few minutes, think about it. Even with your kids, what do your kids say, for for this perspective? And I will be sending them, you know, a document as well to get it from the from the student perspective also, because I want this truly to be a shared ownership over what we want here in the district and not just my own. So I'm gonna close on on that part, and if anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to take them.
But that last piece, I really, really hope that you take some time to give me some feedback, bring it to your p a, PA, PTA meetings. It doesn't have to be long, but I I really would love to get, everyone's perspective if I could. And that closes it up for me, unless anyone has any questions. Thank you, Michael. Just one question in the chat, doctor Mike. Yeah. I I responded to that one already around the AI and iReady. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Thank you very much, doctor Mike. My pleasure. I do have a question if anybody else does not have another question.
I know we spoke about the portrait of a graduate. Do you have any update to share about how that is gonna look like in the next school year, and what should we as p t a p, PAPTAs should be aware of, and how can we engage our parents and school community? Yeah. So so there's definitely gonna be a lot more to follow over the coming weeks, months, and into next year. Similar to what we have here in in making these definitions, we're gonna do a similar thing around and some of them are gonna be aligned, with with what this
idea of academically rigorous is, this idea of of safe is, this idea of integration is. And each of those things will be aligned with the six areas that, that's identified in a portrait of a graduate. And so I actually just did this with, with my colleagues as superintendents across the city. We began working through those definitions. We're gonna do those same types of definitions with our constituents as, district community members, whether that be through the president's council, DLT, all of this will be an ongoing
space of growth over the next couple of weeks and months. So you have more to follow on that. More to follow. The one that I'm most excited about for us at the district level, which corresponds with many of the others, is the space of creating a global citizen, and our work around civics for all and its connections between that and all of the types of things that we would want for our kids. So but more to follow. It's not we're not, we're not there yet. I brought it forward last month so that we can begin engaging in the dialogue and there'll be more dialogue to follow. Great. Thank you so much.
Are there any other questions? Yes. So, Moreno, that we're we're certainly, waiting on the calendar. I do believe that should be coming out soon. I don't have a an exact date for you, though. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much, doctor Mike. If there are no further questions, thank you. And we will now move to, our next guest speaker, Kathy Wu from the child center of New York City. Thank you so much. Good evening, everybody. So just shifting gears a little bit. I'm here to present about, more, like, a referral resources and support, for the schools
and students that, you're currently at right now, from a behavioral health center. So we definitely focus on mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling for all ages. I just wanted to check. Do I have ability to share my screen so I have a little bit of PowerPoint? Yes. I'll make you a cohost. Yes. Okay. Perfect. Give me one second. Alright. Do you see my presentation? Okay. Yes. We see your presentation. Thank you, Kathy. No problem. Thank you. So, basically, overall, right now, our clinics are certified community behavioral health clinic.
Basically, it's a general operation certificate issued by, like, state. So we are governed by the state, to provide our services. We currently, have three locations across the Queens as of this time. So we have a location in Flushing, a location in Woodside, and a location with Jamaica. I believe our Flushing and Woodside location is pretty, you know, focused in the District 25 area where your schools are located as of this time.
All our locations are accessible by public transportation. We do both hybrid, telehealth and in person appointments. I do wanna signify though most intakes are in person just because we have to assess, the client and family that they have, the capacity and it's appropriate clinically to see them on telehealth for safety and risk reasons. So a lot of our, services, we offer evening and weekend appointments based on the population we serve. We know that sometimes school hours could be a little bit difficult.
But here down here is just our general number and fax number where you could call us. But for the most part, I'm gonna get into the application process that's electronic at the end. So, you know, as I kind of just went into, like, what a CCBHC is, besides the operation certificate of our governing body, It's basically a very comprehensive mental health and substance, abuse, provider model. And what it does is that the CCBHC addresses, a client or a family, holistically,
where we integrate a lot of not only the behavioral health care, but also primary care and other social services. And, basically, the CCBHC with some of our regulation is to reduce some barriers and challenges to access of care. I mean, as you could see, our, so these are the core services that we when I say we have the holistic approach, our wraparound services not only include counseling, but we have a crisis team for any elevated crisis services. We have, case management for anybody that needs a little bit more concrete support and
coordinating, social service support. We have psychiatric rehabilitation and peer support and counseling. And then part of, we do have a track that is segues into, servicing veterans as well. And even family members of veterans, should any family, or student have any, parent or family members that they're close with that is impacted by, them serving in services or veterans of services. So altogether, not to confuse everybody, but, as I did a very generic kind of
idea of what our services provide at our behavioral health clinic, we also break down the services by specialty. So, you know, I keep mentioning the substance abuse track. So anybody, with substance abuse as a primary or significant other could go into that track, the veterans, and military, but we also service some that that's more appropriate to the schools. We have an early childhood mental health program that services and especially trained to work with parents and, all children from ages zero to five.
This might overlap our OnTrack program might overlap with some of the high school folks, that ranges ages 16 to 30, which basically, anybody who has psychotic symptoms at an early age, neuropsychotic symptoms are, practically, the most impairing, diagnosis or symptoms that we see in the clinical world. So we have a specialized program to basically kinda catch it early, and hopefully, we could help them and support them assimilate back into society and normalize their lives.
We have a perinatal IOP, which is for postpartum mothers. It's an intensive outpatient program, that ranges about, six to twelve, twelve months. It might not be to your population, but, basically, any moms that have given birth and, may be experiencing impact from mood disorders, the hormonal changes, or had, like, a preexisting mental health disorder that may be a risk in taking care of their newborns or babies and children. The beauty of our perinatal program is that there is an in house nursery and
childcare workers so that they can attend treatment, for about four to five hours a day, including groups and individual services. Now the last specialty program we have youth intensive outpatient and bridge to hope. And, basically, this is more for your middle school slash high school folks. Any, students with, within that age that has suicidal or high risk factors, we also have an intensive outpatient program where they, you know, would go there from three to six months, with multiple services a week, for intensity purposes for to address their risk
factors. So altogether, these specialty programs eventually graduates. If they age out, gets transferred, internally to our regular mental health program. Or, so all the transition, we will do in house as a continuum of care should they enter any of these track. I do wanna say, I do get this question a lot. We don't offer psychological or developmental testing as of this time. A little bit of preview though, we are working on it. So in the near future, we might be offering psychological and developmental services, but just
not at this time. So languages and fees. We service, like I said, all ages from birth to lifespan. Because we kind of are located all our locations in the middle of, like, a melting pot, we service a lot of immigrant population. We do have but most of our staff are bilingual, but these are the predominant languages that we our clinicians do speak from Bengali, Chinese, Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Hindi, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu, Creole, and Romanian. So we have that bicultural, bilingual capacity. In terms of fee, we're billable insurance based.
We accept all medical and managed care plans. We accept most commercial plans. And if they are not eligible for insurance, or undocumented, we do have a sliding scale fee and self pay options. And if the client is avail you know, is eligible for, benefits or any insurances, subsidized insurances, like I mentioned before, a very holistic approach, we do have an in house benefits access program to help, clients and families apply for insurance.
Instead of going to the Medicaid office, our, benefits specialist does have access to the Medicaid system and will be able to apply for, you know, medic Medicaid or other insurances, like, essential plans, and even, like, for food stamps. So application process. I know I mentioned a lot of specialty programs. So just to ease everybody, we don't expect everybody to know right off the top of your head, what programs we provide and don't provide.
So we have, a centralized emissions department. So all applications have to go through our electronic portal. And every day, our emissions program are triaging through all those applications to identify which program, if it's relevant. Specialty program, the the clients or students or families might be most appropriate for, and, you know, we'll directly coordinate with the referral source and or the family to see if they're interested and, you know, just to educate them what those services entail.
So through our application link, if there's any relevant supportive documents like IEPs or psychologicals you would like to upload, it does come after you put in the application as a upload link. This, this exciting news that a lot of people like to hear is that we don't have a wait list as of this time. I know in the past, we had a long late wait list, but because of how we built our, new admissions department as well as now that we are CCBHC, there's regulations around that we can't hold a wait list for too long.
So, basically, if you put an application in, someone from our, agency will be able to speak with them within a week and, at most, schedule an initial intake by the second week if all goes well in terms of the communication with the client, but they'll about, like, their insurance demographics and their understanding of what our services, and they wanna proceed. But, with that said, there's no wait list as of this time, so feel free to send in the referrals, and recommend families for services if they need to.
Now, part of it too is that, because we work very, closely and it's pretty similar in all the locations, we might recommend, families to go to different locations based on the availability of languages, what their comfort level, and what the service is in because not all programs and specialty tracks are at every location, but we will talk through it with the client. So, I know some of you that, do speak with the families and you already have the report might put in the referral for the family.
I just wanna highlight because I know, a lot of you do do very well in trying to follow-up with if the the application or the services is successful. So if you are not listed as the referral source on the application just because of privacy HIPAA regulations, we can't release any information about the client. Now if you are the referral source, we at least could tell you a confirmation about the intake, appointment altogether. But if you're not the referral source, just you know, if you wanna just tack
on a HIPAA consent through the application portal link to upload it, that we could communicate with you and the family is in consent of us doing so, you can do so, and we will be able to share information with you without violating HIPAA, privacy laws. So this is, basically our referral link. We have a provider application, and then we have a client engagement. And the client engagement is kind of, we try to simplify it as best as possible for people to understand in terms of, you know, people that are not familiar
with the mental health terms or the system of the field so that they could put their application in, and we could better understand, what they need when they put in, you know, their presenting problem or why they want to have start services with us. So any questions? Thank you. First and foremost, thank you, Kathy, for this important information. It's really much it's very much appreciated. I think mental health is a topic that is not often discussed, and having this type of resources available helps our families. Will you be able to give us a contact information besides the QR code in
case we can pass on this information on Yes. I could, yeah, I'll I'll just share it with Jenny, a PDF of this presentation, and then I'll also, provide you with our admissions, information. Because I I mean, feel Jenny has my contact too, but sometimes if you wanna check-in referral, I might have the information firsthand Oh. And assessable to their system. But, they would know where the the process is in terms of, applications and questions to certain criterias to different programs, a little bit more clearly.
So I'll definitely include that in the information back to Jenny. That she could share it with the whole team. Yeah. Thank you so much, Kathy. And I'll make sure I'll post it on, you know, the president's council meeting sharing meeting folder. Thank you so much, Kathy. Are there any other questions? Any questions? Going once, going twice, going three times. Thank you so much, Kathy, for joining us today. Adarina. You. Have a good evening, everyone. Thank you, Kathy. Thank you very much. We will now move on to the next item on our on our agenda. As you know, this is our executive board members.
Important deadlines. So we're gonna move on to the next slide. Important timelines for all of us. If you have yet formed a nomination committee, please be mindful that elections need to be held by no later than May. June, the president's council holds its elections. So important to note, March, you want to start thinking about forming the nomination committee. This usually consists between three to five parents who are not planning to run for PAPTA positions, and that includes president, co president, recording secretary, treasurer, and any other of
the positions listed on your bylaws, or who will be graduating from the school. In this case, whether it's a fifth grader, or an eighth grader. April through June, we hold elections for the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven school year and elections for the mandatory officers, our president, treasurer, and recording secretary. We need to, we need to help them between April 1 and the last day of the school. Again, this ensures that there's compliance, and this ensures that we can proceed with the our president's council elections in June.
We must remember that June is an important month for all of our PA, PTAs because it is our transfer of records. Please, for reference, see the chancellor's regulations a six six zero in which, you know, the principal should be meeting with both the outgoing and the incoming executive board members to ensure that a complete transition of all p t PA, PTA materials is done. This includes bank accounts, passwords, credit cards, checkbooks, keys, EIN numbers, and all of the
official records. And we must sign the June transfer records form by all the required parties, which means that it's the outgoing PAPTAs and the incoming PAPTAs. And, of course, we need to make sure that we complete the end of the year financial report. This is essentially the outgoing executive board must complete this and submit the PA PTA and the financial report to the school by June 30, not after June 30, by June 30. Prior to the ending of the term, the complete report must be signed by the
treasurer and the president, the outgoing treasurer and president, and must be submitted by the to the principal. And we need to make sure that the ending balance matches the bank statements for that time frame. Again, important. You must keep all your financial information for, I believe, Jenny, seven years. Correct? Six. Six years. So you want to make sure that as you're if you're not a returning member of your PA, PTA, make sure that all the files pertaining to the year where you serve aside as the president are kept and stored properly to the schools so
they can refer back for at least six years. And, again, one of the next pieces and the most important pieces is the proposed budget, which is the incoming executive board must develop a proposed budget and a fundraising plan for the new school year. This should be presenting, presented for approval at the first PAPTA general membership meeting, which will be in September. That is correct, Jenny? Yep. No. That's actually it needs to be submitted according to the a six sixty by the June. ETA meeting. So it needs to be done by the outgoing, executive by the outgoing executive board,
and it can be amended by the new incoming board in September. Got it. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that, Rachel. I'll make sure I'll revise that in my notes. Yeah. So we we have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks as we set up over schools for success. Again, if you have any questions or you have anything that you will need support on, you can always reach out to the president's counsel and Jenny, and we will try our best to support you. See that there is a question. And the balance should match reconcile bank statement correct if there is if there are
uncashed checks, but they were written out in June. At times, there are standing checks. Yeah. I just wanted to clarify. That's been the modus of operations. I just wanna clarify that's correct because what's written is the bank statement, and that's not necessarily true. Yeah. As long as you're tracking and you're reconciling it, that should be fine. Correct? Yeah. I I I would I would think so because when you have That's what we've done the past three years. Sorry. I just wanna make sure. No. The the ending balance on the annual report needs to match the balance as of June 30 from your bank account.
So if there's pending checks that have not been cashed, they would go on the following year's annual report as when they hit the bank account. Couldn't you note them? Could could I We note them as on cash. Then when they are cashed in July, that's when they reconcile. So, yes, we have a preliminary ending fund balance for June 30. But then in July, when they're cashed, that's when they're caught up. So that's what I mean by we have an adjusted ending balance, which is our
true cash fund balance. Mhmm. It won't tie to the bank account necessarily, and it's not always, but there's always a couple of stragglers that don't cash the checks on time. They'll catch up by the July statement, which becomes our summer statement. I I just wanna make sure because what's written is is a little bit, I think, not accurate. Okay. I got you what what you said, but we should still bring it up to the membership general doing your, mhmm. You can make a mention of the outgoing items, but the, actual report needs to
be an accurate reflection of what is in the bank account. So even if you have a $100 outstanding bank, check, it's not going to be on that annual report because it has not hit the bank account yet. So it would hit it would be on the annual financial report for the following school year. You can keep your records separate for budgeting purposes, but it actually has to match the bank statement. Both the January July 1 bank statement has to match the July 1 starting balance,
and the June 30 bank statement has to match the June 30 ending balance. Yeah. And if and what I will say is that and what we what was done, for example, in our school, any any check that you have issued that have yet to be cashed, write it on the notes. And then say, like, you know, for purposes and clarification here is the following checks have not been cashed. Keep that record, but reflect what you have in your bank account and what has been cashed as of yet, as of June 30. So when you're doing the transfer of records, you can let the new incoming PAPTA
know, hey. You're gonna have six checks that are gonna hit your bank account. You may have $5,000 now, but by the beginning of July 1 or before the beginning of the school year, you may end up with a lower balance because these are all the checks that have yet to be cashed. You just want to make sure that the membership is aware of that because when you just present the reports and you just say, oh, we have 5,000, some people will be under the impression that you have 5,000 to start, but they don't undercount the checks that have yet to be cashed. Totally agree. Any pending activities, make sure you give the new incoming board a heads up and
put it down somewhere on the financial report so it's pen pending. Yeah. Then you're okay. Then you're great. I I will say, you know, make sure that transparent as possible. That's what company is saying. You wanna be as transparent and pro as possible. And another thing is, like, it's our school community money. Right? Our parents have given the funds, have continued to support our, activities. So in this document where you see the transfer of records, you can be as thorough as possible about what has been transferred to you.
And then because you are an incoming board, I don't know whether the principal may want to be sitting down and offer some more guidance or their calendar of events. Like, as you come up with this and as you build your relationship with your principal, this is a great way to say, this is what was given to me. This is what I'm starting. This is what I have. Again, transparency is key because that's what helps us build trust, and that's what help you to be successful as you run your school year of activities in support of a school community. So as you can see, the transfer of records form, you're gonna put the school,
the district, the meeting date. You're gonna list all the documents that were transferred and discussed during the meeting. It needs to be signed by the outgoing president, by the outgoing secretary, by the outgoing treasurer, and then you have the incoming president secretary and treasurer. Those are the only three positions that sit in this meeting along with the principal. And then that form needs to be sent to the district. Correct, Jenny? No. We don't need this form, but the school needs to keep a copy. Yep. Yep. But the school would need to have it as a copy just to make sure that this was done and this was executed.
I mean, the district never minds to keep a copy for all records, you know, as a backup, but this doesn't, need to be submitted into SBL's LCI, which is one of our compliance items that we need need to monitor on the monthly basis or weekly basis. Okay. Let me go to the next page. Thank you very much. Jenny, you want to discuss PTA link? Oh, sure. Yes. So PAPT link has weekly office hour for all our school member or parent members.
Their office hours have takes place virtually from ten to eleven every Thursday. So if you have any PAPT questions, concerns, so please feel welcome to join this, happy, not happy hour. I'm sorry. Office hour and they will be there to respond, you know, to your questions. I see the smile on everyone's face. And then CEC meetings. These are our CEC meeting schedules. The next one will take place on Wednesday, May 6. CEC meeting takes place in person here at Linton Place. If you're interested in joining, please, feel free to come and join us. We'll be meeting the CEC members in person.
And all CEC members must be in person to meet quorum, But there's also a hybrid link on the d twenty five's website for you to listen in if you're interested in joining the CEC meeting. DPAC meetings is for all title one schools and all title one patrons and alternates. The next DPACC meeting is, April 29 virtually at 05:00. So we are encouraging all title one pack and alternates to attend this meeting. We do have a guest speaker coming. She's from she's a nutrition educator from Cornell Cornell University.
And then the next president's council meeting will be May 18. And the June meeting will be for the elections, president's council election. Are there any questions, any concerns, anything that we can support you at this time? No questions? It looks like it. Alright. It's 07:42. I would like to move forward to adjourn the meeting. Adjourn. Thank you, Joe. No problem. A second? A second. A second. Thank you. Just wanted to say, listen. It's April. Next month is elections.
I just wanna say to all of you who are standing on the ground from the very beginning to the very to the very moment now, thank you for everything that you do for schools. You dedication, your support, you commitment to our parents, it's really important because you make a difference. So I wanted to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for for from the bottom of my heart because you as PAPTAs hold a place within our school community that cannot really it's under cannot be understated.
Our families treasure you and care about you, and you're the first source of information for them. So thank you for everything that you do, and I hope that you can come back next year through the elections. And I really look forward to working with you and expanding and figuring out what else we can do, but thank you for everything that you do. Just wanted to say that before we close. I will say thank you to you ladies as well on president's council. You guys do a lot behind the scenes. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. It's it's we all do what's best for our kids, and we all want our
schools to be as successful as we can possibly imagine. And it takes a village to raise a child. And we don't have just one child. We have more than one child, and every child is unique and is wonderful. And we hold events, and we try to do our best. So thank you for everything that you do. Just wanna remind you, and good luck for the elections next next month. Yeah. Veronica, we have 23,100 that you're helping. So thank you all for all the work that you do. Have a great night, everyone. Thank you, doctor Mike. Thank you. Thank you. Good night.
Bye, everybody. Bye, everybody. Bye, everybody. So 07:44 with this we adjourned the meeting, Charlotte. Yes. 07:44. Thank you. I'm gonna stop recording right now. Thank you so much, Jenny. Thank you.