last week, but certainly feeling a lot better. My voice is back, which I'm happy about. Uh, so welcome to all of you. We are going to call the meeting to order. I'm going to put into the chat our agenda for those that hadn't had a
chance to view it yet, as well as the minutes. And I'll share my screen with the minutes so that everyone can give them a look. And then we'll start with our session for today. Okay, do we have consensus on the
minutes? If so, give a little thumbs up. Virtual thumbs up. Thank you, Eduardo. Thanks, Rob. Eden, we good? Rachel, we're good. Okay, perfect. All right, guys. So for our agenda today, uh we're going to as always connect with
um connection before content. We'll do a couple of celebrations, some updates, reminders, and I'm going to share you the current state of uh of progress across our goals. We have a couple of them that are still in progress. So we'll talk more about those um more in
March than we will today. Um, and then Gus is going to talk a little bit about state accountability and there are some things to be um, happy about there when it comes to state accountability. Uh, as well as DC posting and the like and then we'll go through our general high school
superintendence report, president's council and so on. Um, so to get us started, I will begin with um my report. Um, and like always, we will begin with
the connection before content. And being that the Super Bowl just came and went, we'll do a little bit of a this or that. Uh, for you, is it about the game, the halftime show, or neither of those uh of those options? The game, the halftime
show, or neither of those options? Just take a a moment. Then we'll come off of the share mode. Do a very very quick breakout group.
Again, are you more the game, the halftime show, neither or something else? Or maybe Super Bowl boxes? Maybe maybe that's where your entry point is. Whatever it is inside of that space is totally fine. We'll do this quick three minutes and then everyone will come back
uh together. Okay. Open up the rooms. Quick chat. What about you, Louis? Did you watch? >> No, you didn't even watch the game >> at the mic. I didn't watch it. It wasn't even on once. >> Yeah, it really is. >> This morning I found out what happened.
And now all the commercials are on YouTube. I could watch them one clip. All the commercials. >> Oh, that's so funny. >> So, I'm going to do that. Yeah, I thought the uh the um >> as a baby now and now my >> was it the the Goodwill Duncan or
something like that they did with >> all of the former Goodwill hunting actors and whatnot? >> Yeah, you know, and now my kids are >> Was the game good? >> The next generation game, >> it's just great. So, yeah, just about family. >> Yeah. And I have to catch I want to
watch the halftime show. I didn't watch time was great. Halftime was great. You like you liked it, Jenny. I didn't really care for it. >> I love Spanish music. I love it. >> No, I like the I mean, it was so loud where we were that you couldn't really hear anything anyway.
>> Oh, I don't care about our game. I care about the the performers. >> Yeah, I root for myself during those games to see if I if I have a chance of winning anything. >> I have not been lucky over the past several years. >> Sunday two o'clock and we're like, we
have to get to the You know, we gota get it. We gota get it. >> All right, everyone should be back in a second. >> It was such a cold Sunday. They delayed their race like two hours. >> See, everyone should be coming back now, right?
>> Yeah. There we go. All right, guys. Welcome back. Uh anything from uh from your rooms that you'd like to quickly share out? We the game, the halftime show, none of the above. >> Rob, what do you got?
>> In our room, I think we all agreed that when the game's on, it's cool. When the halftime shows on, it's cool. The food's cool. Uh Tracy seems has to have a very uh uh like almost like a family holiday around around that. So, seems like another Thanksgiving at Tracy's house
for the Super Bowl. >> I love it. I love it. Anyone else? Our group was mostly halftime show. Um, personally, I only I enjoy the game, but I only really care if it's somebody I
want to win. This game was kind of, you know, a non-starter for me. I didn't really have a preference either way. So, definitely the halftime show was um my highlight. >> Yeah. Unfortunately for me, I have to enjoy these games whenever I can because
as a Jet fan, I'm not sure when I'm ever going to see one of those games that involves my team. So, you know, I um try to enjoy it for for what they uh for what they are. And uh you know, I I I tend to uh to enjoy the game for the
game, but always rooting for myself getting involved in some of those Super Bowl boxes and hoping that I have a chance at one. Uh which this year didn't have a chance really. It was not even close at any point. Um, but I'm hoping you guys that that did uh take in some of that time that you were able to enjoy
the day hopefully with some friends and and family. And if not and you're not into it at all, hope you got to enjoy a little bit of quiet. Um, so I do see we have a we have a guest. I uh Quinton, welcome. Um, I'm not sure who you're joining us from, but welcome to our
meeting. Um, and let's uh let's get on with the the rest of our session. Okay. So, couple things for you guys. Um, just a save the date. Um, if you can kind of put it in your calendar, that would be g
be great. Uh, Septe uh, excuse me, September Saturday, April 25th. Uh, we have a tenative date for our second annual uh, wellness day. Um, this will be in collaboration with Commonpoint
um in um in Queens. Uh last year they allowed us to utilize their bubble. They've agreed upon that again. So, we do have a tentative date. Um last year's event was was really great. The only thing that we needed more of were some of our families to participate. Uh so,
we're going to try to get the word out a little bit earlier than we did last time. It wasn't for a lack of those that were willing to take tickets. uh except for unfortunately those that said that they would be coming did not wind up showing that day. Um so I'm hoping we have a different result this time. Uh
but if everyone can hold that date, that would be great. Uh a few uh other announcements. Queens North spelling be again big thanks to uh uh Melinda from our team in organizing. We have a couple of winners that went on to uh the the citywide spelling bee. So
we wish them well. um soapbox speeches. This past CEC meeting, we had a young man from PS22 uh gave us a whole speech on mental health. Um we do intend to bring our uh soapbox speeches forward as much as we
possibly can. Uh what was really amazing about this young man is that he delivered his speech in both English and in Spanish. And um he really had us very connected to his words the entire time. He did a really terrific job and you
know as the speeches come in you know they're they just become more and more personal and more authentic um as um the more we get um our kids exposed to these soap box speeches the the the more productive they become. So really happy about the direction that we're heading
in that district 25 math family night. This was held on January 22nd at uh PS1 129. Uh big shout out to Principal Hulet and our team members Liz and Beth uh for organizing this event. Also had a number
of volunteers from 129 uh who came to join. We have upwards of I want to say 200 people there uh that participated in the math night um bunch of math games and just promoting math learning across the district. Really really great event and looking forward to more of these as
time goes on. District 25 math game 24 we held a tournament again. Thank you to Beth and Liz uh as well as all of our volunteers. This is a really really great day for uh for our kids in the district really
supporting them in problem solving and um thinking through the math with flexibility. And if you haven't been part of math uh game 24 in the past, um it is something that we're encouraging our schools to expose our kids to. Uh really promotes math fluency and really
strategic thinking. Um if there's time we'll post a video in the in the chat for you guys to to view just to get a little bit of perspective. But um you know our kids really did an amazing job as well as um our teachers and
volunteers that supported it. We had our middle school championship game. Um really really great event. It was through uh with WJPS um and um uh IS-20 uh JHS 185 uh had a great game.
185 is this year's champion. So congratulations to them. Uh congratulations to Diana for another successful basketball season for our kids. Uh we also held a girls championship game and all-star game. Big
shout out to our girls um for uh for this work. This league continues to expand as well. Uh looking forward to it to for it to continue to grow over time. This month um as we know is Black History Month. Uh we've encouraged our
schools to make sure that they're engaging our kids uh and activities and tasks that promote uh black history and the importance of um all of our black leaders that have come before us and current leaders uh to support our nation's current state. Uh so more to
follow on that and hopefully next month we'll have some resources for you guys to see some of the work that our schools put forward for our kids. Last week was national um school counseling week. So, big shout out to our counselors for the work that they do on behalf of our kids.
Um, I also wanted to put forward, I don't believe I did this for you guys last uh last month, uh, but we do have residencies that we've been able to secure for a number of our schools with the $80,000 that were was provided to me at the district level. uh 130, 154, 164,
169, 184, 200, 209, 214, 242, 244, and the prek center. Uh each of them will be having residencies that are going to come to their buildings from one of these organizations, Flushing Town Hall, Studio in a School, and Arts Connection. The reason these schools were
identified, as shared previously, that I'd be focusing on schools that did not have uh a budget to sustain this work on their own. these schools um are now going to have some additional time with some arts folks to support their work. Uh also in working with the central team
earlier in the year uh 499, 2011, 219 and 20 uh each received an additional allocation for arts funding to really promote art, dance, music and so on in their schools. So we have a number of things that are happening with the arts.
Um certainly more to follow including a schedule of arts events that we're bringing forward to our district community where um we will have host schools um and then upwards of 60 people at a time. Unfortunately, we um the
venue themselves is not the problem, but um Arts Connection can their programming only allows for 60 participants at a time. Uh so we will comply with that and do as many events as we possibly can for our families. Uh we had six schools that
volunteered and we'll be hosting them in those schools. Again, just a reminder of our new chancellor's message around building safe, academic, academically rigorous and integrated school system. Um really
looking forward to uh the you know the more of the work that uh Chancellor Samuels will be bringing forward to us. Uh what I'm excited about as I shared during our previous one, it's really really around building uh our focus around MTSS uh New York City reads and New York City solve. So as more comes
out from there uh any other new messages from our chancellor, I'll be sure to share it with you. Two uh two sessions that are coming up, shared it last time, but I do want to share it again. Uh we have a session from the Child Center of New York that'll be held tomorrow uh around
stress management for kids and families. Um and then followed by a session with Marble Health around improving family communication. So uh we're going to get that out more widely but encourage all of our families uh and the including for you at the high school level for any of
our families that want to participate you're welcome to share that more widely. Um I know that our academics and and those stresses for our kids and parents sometimes build up and cause a great deal of of stress. So um those
activities are there for us as a district. So the next uh the next part of this we're going to ask you guys just to take a few minutes. The slides are not lengthy uh but slides from slide 17 to 21. I'm going to give each of you uh
just a few minutes to reflect on this. I'm going to put the presentation into the chat and what I'd like you to do just for again five minutes just to reflect on what that data says for our goal and just reminding you our
goal is to improve outcomes for um for our targeted subgroups of learners. Uh this are our black learners, our Hispanic learners, as well as our students with IEPs and our multilingual learners. Uh what I ask that you do um
is again, this is just a snapshot, but just taking from that snapshot some things that you notice uh and things that you wonder from that data. And I'm going to put the timer on. for five minutes and then we'll do a
brief breakout group for you guys to quickly chat around these noticings. Again, this is a overview of it. You're not necessarily seeing um everything, but enough to give you a little bit of an understanding as to
where we are. So, five minutes on the clock and then we will come back together and do a small breakout group. Just one more minute, guys. Okay, everyone. Rather than do a breakout, we'll just kind of give you a quick moment to do um
a little bit of a round if you guys are uh are ready for that. and anyone that is willing to get started can kind of throw that thumbs up. Yeah, go ahead, Rob. >> Yeah, just quickly, I'm just noticing that it seems that in the lower grades, the foundational literacy, we're seeing
uh improvements year-over-year. Um, and you would want that to translate into uh the upper grades uh doing better. So, we're hoping to see that those changes as the years go on. It does seem like the upper grades um year of year are staying about the same data
wise. I'm looking at as far as Ire is concerned. Um but you know we're trying to figure that out. I would say how to get how to translate that those stronger foundational skills into um you know reading reading to learn not just uh um
see seeing the good stuff in the K2. >> Yeah. So it seems like um a cadence is what you're saying you saw more of a an improvement with the early childhood acadians than with the I Ready uh scores. Thanks for that, Rob. Go ahead, Rachel.
>> Rachel, you there? >> I did not realize I was talking to myself. Listen, if you were answering yourself back, then then we have some uh some concerns, I think. Go >> ahead, Rachel. What did you notice?
>> Like Rob, I noticed um the Acadians middle of data, the first and second grade were pretty much static, but there was a large jump in the kindergarten um realm for uh 25 26.
and you know just wondering if that's because of strong performance in our prek centers and our prek prep preparation. Um but that was one of the things that I noticed as well as um the
subgroups for the L's and the IEPs um were performing um and increased performance um in the I Ready middle of your subgroup comparisons. Yeah, thank you for that, Rachel. Um,
and I do think it's an important thing for us to do a little bit more studying on is, you know, um, kids that are in prek with us versus, um, you know, prek in in the nice, we don't get all of our kids, um, in prek. We get, uh, we get
many, but not all. So, I think that's an important thing for us to look at, too, for sure. Uh, Gus, did you want to say something? Um I if I read it correctly your overall um in ELA was stability. I
always look at subgroups uh and um you made modest gains but overall the situation is stable uh except for African-Americans which declined by 1%. Which is um a a challenge. uh your math
uh data looked like you made more gains in math. >> Yeah, we're we're gonna we're going to get to math, Gus. We're going to do another little spot check on that goal, too. >> And then chronic absenteeism. Um uh also, when I looked at it, there was some subgroup disparities.
>> Yeah, we're going to do a pit stop on on each of them. Um you know, so yeah, we're going to get to those other ones, too. Uh Eden, anything else that you want to say more about? >> No, I'm good right now. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, Eduardo,
>> I I was listening. Sorry, but I was also I got a phone call from a parent. So, but I'm back. I'm back. >> No worries. No worries. Were you able to review the the Yes. >> Any any comments, Eduardo? >> Um, so I noticed the the for black learners declined by one percentage
point in I um eye reading. Um that was the only thing I I was wondering about. >> Yeah. Um and certainly our goal is to to see improvements there and you know not
present so much with um with I Ready as much as it was with the Cadence. And there are a couple of things that I want to make sure that you know we're we're all seeing so that we can talk a little bit about what we're what we're planning for and intending to
to work on next. So let me just make my slide full slide. So a couple of the things that that should be of note. So when you see third grade here at the top uh the top right hand corner from the past three years
from 41% to 49% to 58%. Which is the a positive trajectory to see for our third graders. Now what is also important for us to note is not only the horizontal type of improvement that you see within
a grade but you want to be able to see that progression across grades. And there are two grades here that we have that we need additional attention certainly between now and the end of the year and then moving forward. Um is what we see when we're talking about from
grade to grade. So grade three at the top but that so that blue bar in the middle and then comparatively speaking to the orange bar on the right. So when my third graders were uh in 2024
uh were mid year 24 25 we were at 49% of those kids early on and above and reminding that this means that by the end of the year. So hopefully by the end of the year we're going to see more of a progression. But this year that same cohort of kids is now at 43% compared to
the 49 before which says that we see a little bit of a dip for our kids going into fourth grade. We also see a similar type of dip for kids in fourth grade going into fifth. Now, yes, the the the text gets more difficult. Um, you know, the the content is a little bit more
difficult for kids, but we are seeing a uh a decline in terms of where they were from year to year, which is different from other grade levels. So, grade five to six, we see improvement. Grades 6 to 7, we see improvement, grade 7 to 8, we see improvement. when you're looking at
it with same cohort years. So there's a 5% change in the positive from 7 to 8, a 5% positive from 6 to 7, a 2% positive from 5 to six. The two grade levels that we do have additional attention that we need to pay to are grades four and five.
And when we look at those two grades, it winds up taking any of the progress that we're seeing across the other grade levels and it's diminishing it within those two grade levels in and of themselves. So, it's something for us that we've talked about with all grade leaders at the at the district level
that we have to pay very co careful attention to. What are we doing to elevate our kids in grades four and five uh certainly between now and the end of the year, but also paying attention to it moving forward. So, this is a an important noticing that I had um at the
uh at the district level and certainly you see progress here from fall to winter, which is something we want to see, but it doesn't tell the whole story, right? We want to be able to to really make sure that this is growing um over the course of time. Uh our students with IEP see progress,
our LC progress. Um and when we're thinking about these two subgroups, uh our other two subgroups that we're really focused on, whoops. Um our black learners and our Hispanic learners, one of the things that is also true is that it tends to be those two grade levels,
our grades four and five. uh our other grade levels have seen some progress there comparatively speaking to grades four and five. So a lot more attention uh is going to be paid for those two grade levels as we move through the remainder of the year. It doesn't mean that the other grade levels are
unimportant but not by any stretch. Uh but it is a noticing that we have to to really look more carefully at across our schools. Did that raise any other questions for you just in terms of I Ready. Okay. And uh for Aadians
similarly we're looking for that progression. So for kindergarten now in first grade so 51% last year at this point in first grade in kindergarten we're on or above. Now it's 61% in first grade. Really important progression that
we see there. And the same for kids that were in first grade that are now in second grade. We see a 7% change. So that progress is really really important uh for us as a district and you know looking to see that we can extend that
through the remainder of the year. As the year goes on the material gets more difficult for our early childhood kids. We have seen a little bit of a dip by the time the end of the year comes and we're hoping to prevent that uh with that in uh more intensive attention as
the year goes on. Certainly seeing progress for our students with IEPs um and our students, our multilingual learners. Um when it comes to um our early literacy uh when you look two years ago our multilingual
learners was at 16% early on uh on or above. Now at 37% that is a a nice change. We want to continue to see that progression. Similarly for our students with IEPs from 25% to 39%. So we are making some progress for our targeted
learners. uh similarly for our black and Hispanic learners at this point of the year making 5% growth in each of those targeted groups. So a lot more to do um but we are seeing some positive trends particularly in our earlier uh earlier grades. Now the goal is to continue to
ramp that up as Mr. Marino mentioned from that uh learning to read to reading to learn uh so that our kids are building that space of uh being able to decode uh but decode decoding well enough where their reading is more fluent where that where their kids are
able to hold on to the material that they're reading uh in a and be able to comprehend. So that's where we currently are in um I Ready reading. So, for uh priority 2, we're going to have more of an update during our next
session. Uh middle of the year survey has not been administered yet um and reasons we've gotten some feedback from kids as well as some of our counselors around adjustments that we might want to make to the survey itself to get more uh
clear information. So, more to follow on uh that particular um entry point um for our next meeting in March. Which brings us to math. Um I'm going to ask that similar to
um to reading we just take a couple of moments. Um and this I'll give only three minutes because it is fewer slides here that we have. Uh but slide 25 and 26. If everyone would just take the next
three minutes to review both of those slides. And then we will come back together. Just one more minute to be in that space of reflection and we'll come back together. All right, guys. And when you're ready, anything that you noticed,
anything that you're wondering? >> Well, I noticed in um grades four and grades 8 and I ready math, grade four had a big jump um from 40 to 51, but then grade 8 had a big jump down from 56
to 31. So that was interesting to know why those particular grades had such a significant change. One for the better and one for the worse.
>> Yeah. And you know what, Rachel, I appreciate you saying that and something I should have uh led in with. So 8th grade is a little bit skewed um because it does not include the children that are taking the regent exam. the previous
year. Um, unfortunately, kids wound up taking both I Ready and uh end map. So, it doesn't include all of the students in um in the eighth grade unfortunately. So, it is a little bit of a a little is a little bit messy for eighth grade. I
should have started off with that. That's why you see the disparity there. Um but thank you for pointing that out. that is is something that um it doesn't account for all kids in that 31%. >> Go ahead, Rob. >> I mean, unless I'm looking at this
wrong, it looks like uh so we're at the the overall is at 48% now, up from 34%. Um in the fall and last year at the end of the year total, the uh above on or above is uh 48%. So, it looks like we're
at where we want to be if we're we're matching the uh EOI from last year for the MOI. Um you could >> So, so that's winter fall to winter. Um yeah, so it's not EOI. Um
>> Right. But we're at 48% now for for for the middle of the year >> and last last year's overall was 48% at the end of the year. So that that to me is encouraging that the trend the trend tends to go up from the middle to the end of the year. Yeah. So, this is these are all MOI to MOI like you see on
there. Yeah. >> Oh, I see. I see. >> So, what we did see last year is that um and for recent history, we've always tended to outperform um the I Ready data
when it comes to uh when it comes to mathematics in particular. Um, and this year it has us extending into the 70 plus% range of kids meeting standard. Um, if they meet their stretch growth.
So, um, the hope is that we do get and surpass that 70% of our kids on or above grade level in mathematics this year. That's the that's the the hope. Um, you know, we are seeing some progress in math, but when you look at some of our
subgroups, there's still a lot of work that has to be done to make sure that we're elevating all of our kids. Um, but yeah, thanks for that, Rob. Any any other comments? So like um like reading, we have seen some progress for our targeted groups.
Um our students with IEPs have improved a little bit. Our multilingual learners have improved a bit. Um our our targeted black learners and Hispanic learners have grown a little bit. Um about 4% by midyear comp year over year at midyear.
Um so there has been some progress there but we still have uh a lot of ground to make up in terms of making sure that our kids are uh ready and proficient mathematicians. Um but our current state says we are trending in a positive direction. Uh I
would much rather trend in a positive direction than uh than trend in uh a negative. So, um, I'm going to talk a little bit about next steps in a few moments from the district level. Share my screen again.
Uh, so priority four is around our soapbox speeches. As you guys know, we already have those up and running. Uh, we do have a tally just around the the trajectory of uh, lending towards civic readiness. I'll have more on that during our next session. Uh but our second goal
in priority 4 was around uh increasing awareness for safer college. Um we've been doing a lot of work. Jenny from the team along with the CC member have been visiting schools. Our parent coordinators have been receiving training. I've sent out a message to all
kindergarten through fourth grade parents via gamma. Um Eden at the CEC has brought it up. We're going to be doing another session on uh safe for college during our next CEC meeting in collaboration with the CEC. But unfortunately,
here is the current snapshot. And I want everyone just to take a moment to look at the snapshot of four New York City kids rise. So the data right in the middle, that 37% is the one that we're looking to improve. Are you made
So, just going to come off of share. Now, we went from around 40 plus percent to 37. They did add more kindergarteners to this uh which brought our percentage down. So, the goal was to get to um 49% this
year. Uh, so a lot more work to do there. And the reason I share that is because that number that I'm going to put into the chat right now is a number that I really would love for us to reduce. And that is this number here
of amount of dollars that our district still has available to our families. Want everyone to just reflect on that. We have $189,000 in um unused scholarship opportunities
for our kids. So, I want everyone to just kind of reflect on that and you know getting the message out and you know my feeling is that uh there are some families that just are not interested and I get it. Um but are we doing enough to raise the
awareness and if anyone has any recommendations I would love to hear what else um that we can try to do. Um, again, we have team members visiting schools, meeting with parents. Um, we have messages coming out from the district level. We're going to have a CC
session. Um, everyone just be in that space of reflection just for a moment because I do believe that, you know, making this available for our families is a real positive thing and would love to get more people to take advantage uh of this. So, just being a moment of
reflection, what else could we do? should we do um to make sure more of a message is being shared with our families. Anything else that strikes you that um would be helpful for us to consider or
do or because I am open to it. Um >> no translations available. >> Yeah, go ahead. Break. Is there a breakdown by school or is it simply at the district level? >> Yes, I do have a a breakdown by school.
Yes. Um we have some schools that are 50 60%, other schools are like 20%. Um so yes, I do I do have that um that breakdown which you know certainly is helpful in terms of outreach. we can
reach out to all of those schools and we do. Um but where were you going with that Rachel? >> No, just wondering um overall growth within a school and impact of outreach.
You know at our school we have had a overview of it during one of our PTA meetings. Um during one of our schoolwide events we had a parent that brought in a laptop and was willing to sign people up. Um I don't know how
successful that was but just wondering you know what the impact might be of some of these things that we have tried and you know are they worth continuing are are is there need to refocus on how
we're communicating with them um things along that nature. >> Yeah I love that Rachel and that's something I will I will definitely bring forward during our um next session. they don't have their tool organized in a spreadsheet format. It's more individual
PDF. Um, so it'll be a little bit more difficult to kind of show that on the screen right now, but we can definitely do a little bit of sideby-side comparison to see where we have seen that growth versus not. I think that's a great suggestion.
Anyone else? All right, this one we're going to continue to come back back to. I really want um as many of our families as possible to take advantage of this. It is as simple as as clicking activate um
and they will have $100 in their account. Um, and I think they give an additional bonus $25 for that as well. Jenny, correct me if I'm wrong. Is that Is that correct, Jenny? >> Yes, m you're correct. >> There's three building blocks. Each
building blocks will provide you $25 of reward rewards, >> you know, and you know, just having the account what what um you know what the research has shown is that you know, children and families that have these accounts when they have them uh there's
a greater likelihood of of pursuing college or technical fields, which I think is really really important for us to continue to promote um you know across our district for for Yeah, Rachel, go ahead.
>> And one of I think the last building block is um tying it to a 529 plan. And then there's even a match if you contribute um your own on your own to
the account, you get a match, I think up to maybe $100 or something from the city. So it promotes more than just that first step. there, like Jenny said, there's those building blocks that each one you get $25 and then also at um a a
match as well. >> Yeah, I mean it's it's a nice way to get a a savings account going for, you know, college readiness. Um, you know, it also supports, you know, schooling in the in
the uh um CTE type of fields, which I think are really really important entry points for for our kids. It doesn't always have to be about um you know you're you're going to become a uh you know a teacher or or a nurse or what
have you in your profession you know and Jenny correct me if I'm wrong it's for things like electricians and and things along those lines too correct >> it was that if you want to go ahead and study you know be in culinary school or beauty schools and massage therapies
they the money can be um >> yeah I mean there are so many options so many opportunities for it to go in in multiple directions to get our kids into really productive and active careers. So, um you know, the the more that we can push it, the better. I can tell you
I'm not I'm not happy that we're only at 37%. Um you know, I do think that we can do better. It's just a matter of making sure that we can um get the awareness out as much as possible. I think that is the hugest key to this is that we raise
enough awareness and um that families feel comfortable in in uh activating, you know, and I get it. Some families, they're just not interested and that's fine, but I want to make sure that they're at least aware. So, the more we can do the better. If you guys have recommendations, share them with me and we'll we'll move forward. Go ahead,
Lamar. >> Hey, Mike. Good morning. Um, if it's if it's I heard you, but I just want to clarify if it's, you know, a way to dip our toe into the CTE space in terms of exploring that route. I mean, we do have
folks within our union, one one of our vice presidents of CTE and, you know, I know we're I'm just wondering like if there's a space where we can kind of connect, we can do that. We can I I think they'd be more than willing to, you know, to collab and partner with that in our district.
Say same more, Lamar. >> Well, you know, if if it's a matter of exposing students to different areas, because I did hear you mentioning that that we could use some of that money in that area. Our vice president is always big on, you know, making sure that schools in the city, in our case, in
Queens, have access to different CTE programs, have access to different um different groups, different labor groups that are working with students from a younger age. Obviously from high school. Yeah. But, you know, even if you want to go even lower and talk about middle school, I don't I I think there's a
space for that, you know, and I think that's something that we could look into. >> Yeah, I love that, Lamar. Yeah, definitely talk more for sure. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Um, yeah, go ahead, guys. >> Yeah, I mean, basically the issue, uh,
it it seems to me is a a local, uh, communication and outreach issue, uh, for each school community. uh really getting the information out to that local community and there the uh family
um coordinators in each of your buildings could play uh a a crucial role. Now you're a multilingual multithnic district. So uh what occurs to me is how much of the information is
being shared or sent out uh in languages and in you know um groups uh community groups etc that are specific to each um school community. Um, for example, if
you have a very large uh Korean uh community, is the information reaching them um in um through their local newspaper or you know through their local media? So um an initiative maybe
having the information packaged in a way that then it could be turned around in u you know uh various languages to various ethnic groups through those kinds of local connections might be helpful in increasing that percentage.
Yeah, thank you Gus. And um totally agree that the you know translation support is is super important and you know um for for Jenny and I will be something that we can look a little bit more deeply into. Um but part of their
rounds you know one of the CEC members is Spanish speaking. So when she's going she's speaking you know she's conveying the messages in Spanish. when Jenny's going, she's conveying the message in Chinese, you know, but you know what that looks like on a regular basis. I think maybe perhaps we can drill down a
little bit further to make sure that all of those resources are translated and accessible to those um that are receiving it. Um so we we'll we'll have to look a little bit more deeply at that Gus. I think that's an an important thing for us to to make sure that while
we typically are providing things in translated ways, uh is it actually reaching the families? um in a productive manner. So, uh I think that's really important. Okay. And the the last piece of data
that I want to go over with you is on slide 32. Uh so, if everyone can give that a look. Uh just and we'll just take one minute. It's not going to take you long to uh to give that a look. See? Uh just take one minute on slide 32.
And this is our chronic absenteeism data currently. Okay. Any quick noticing from that other than the obvious that's there? Any quick noticing? the um the chronic absenteeism among our English language learners. I wonder if
that has anything to do with the families fearing um eyes in the community and like not, you know, not sending kids to school because of the fear. Uh we've seen in the news the little boy that was uh detained with his father and so would that be affecting
attendance in in the district. It's just a wonder in the house. >> Yeah, thank you for that. Eduardo, any other wonderings? And guys, listen, I I mean I I share this and we know that it's an area for improvement.
you know, in the city, we have the the second highest attendance rate in in New York City. Um, second to just District 26. Um, and we have uh the third best chronic absenteeism rates overall. But
nearly 19 over 19% of our kids chronically out, one in five kids is a significant number of children that we have to continue to work on and towards. There's not a silver bullet here. So there's not just a do this and that changes. Um but we need to continue to
reinforce the importance of being in school every day supporting our families however we are however we can because there is a reality here that I want to share with you guys. Kids that are not chronically out in
district 25 are currently at 51% of those kids are currently on or above grade level in grades three through eight. 35% when you're thinking about children that are chronically out. So, it's a 16% difference for children that are
chronically absent versus those that are not chronically absent, which is a big deal. You know, that is something that we have to make sure that we're we're consistently reflecting on um and are
supporting over time. When we think about our youngest learners, children that are not chronically out are at 66% kids at benchmark for our uh for our little ones and 52% for those that are
not. You know, so there is a disparity there that is very clear when we're talking about um our our learners here in district 25. Kids that are present in school do better than children that are not. And that's our that's our reality.
It's no different than what I would imagine any other district. I have only our data, so I can't speak for it, but it is a pretty easy um assumption to make that kids that are out frequently
are also going to struggle with their ability to read. So, it is an area that we need to continue to focus on as a district. Uh and we will continue to do so. So, uh, one of our team members, um, our attendance coordinator,
uh, he is is charged with connecting all of the in all of these spaces, and he's going to be working with and has been working with our largest, uh, chronic absenteeism based schools to look at their plans, to look at what's been working, to look at how we can make some
adjustments uh, moving forward throughout the remainder of uh, of the year. But when you look at specific subgroups, our subgroups also tell the story. Uh our black learners and our Hispanic learners, their absenteeism rates are
are much higher. Our students with IEPs, their rates are higher, as well as our multilingual learners. So each of our four targeted groups, their their attendance rates are are lower than that of our other students. So, we do need to continue to emphasize this uh inside of
our schools and offer our families the supports they need uh to make sure that our kids are present on a daily basis. So, that's just something that we I'm going to consistently highlight, consistently put out to our team, including you as our district leadership
team, um things that we should be doing differently to support our next steps. Okay. And lastly, what are we doing? Um, next. So, slides 33 and 34. Um,
as you guys know, we have a pretty robust uh data dashboard that we make sure that all of our schools have access to. Gives a breakdown of all of our kids, where we are, what are the standards that we're struggling with, what are the priority grades. As I mentioned, grades four and five right
now are uh priority grades for us. Uh there so that our our focus is going to be in uh you know continued entry point around uh grades four and five but also across every single grade uh we're
going to engage in uh a sprint. For those of you who remember last year, uh we engaged in a sprint for all of our children that were just below grade level and those that were currently just on grade level, um giving them additional access to instructional
resources in the form of I Ready, asking that kids during a week have 30 to 45 minutes of access to that work. uh in school. I know that there were some questions about what does this look like across um across the week and homework.
I do ask that all of our school leadership teams engage in those conversations so that it doesn't become overwhelming for our kids. Uh when they are also home, that they're not doing it for hours on end each day. Um it's not necessarily productive either. uh but
for us in the school level this we are going to be focusing on a sprint for our kids that are in uh just below and early on. What we did see last year is evidence that kids that participated uh did have a greater success rate at the
by the end of the year than those that um were not. Um we're going to continue our work around um progress monitoring and building our foundation foundational reading skills for our kids. The better equipped our K through2 children are,
the more equipped they will be for grades three and up. So there will be an ongoing focus there. Uh ongoing language supports for our multilingual learners uh through standalone L programming. We are in the process of implementation of the English
3D program. We got off to some bump a bumpy start with the English 3D program, but it is up and running. We actually have a school today being visited and receiving coaching to support our multilingual learners. Uh so more to follow on that.
Chronic absenteeism plan I have already talked to you about briefly. Um there will be a coordinated uh outreach effort for uh our schools especially those that have higher rates of chronic absenteeism than others. Uh and lastly, as I mentioned, grades
four and five, really thinking through the priority standards that we have, and that's standards R1 through R4. Real focus on kids being able to recognize details in the text to support their responses. That's an area that has been
um of ongoing importance for our schools. Making sure that our kids are have those eyes on text and are able to pull some details based on uh the questions that are being provided and become really productive readers and making sense of what they are reading.
Uh and then ongoing progress monitoring. You know, that's something that is always ever important to me. Now, what we also have here um that I want you guys to be aware of that myself and um uh have been unpacking, we'll share more of this in
March. I just want to give you a little bit of a of a backdrop of what we've done here. So, each of our priority areas um we've kind of unpacked along with the action steps that we said we would do. And what we what we have here
is from there to what we've been seeing that's been working and then based on the evaluation what we want to do next. So this will give you a we're going to fine-tune this a little bit more so that you can all take a look at it in uh during the March meeting. Um and then
give us some feedback based on what you see uh to say, you know what, Mike, that's great, but I'm wondering if um you'll have an opportunity to do that. We'll share it prior to the meeting next month uh so that everyone's eyes can get on it ahead of time uh and give us some really targeted feedback uh to improve
for the last uh 3 plus months of the school year. Uh, but I'm hoping that you see value in this um, not only for us at the district level, but also for our building leaders to use and replicate for themselves in their own schools um,
as a measure of constant space of progress monitoring and improvement, not just for performance, right? Our performance is one thing, but we put in action steps to make sure that improve that performance improved. So if we're not meeting those expectations of our
action steps, then we have to make adjustments to the action steps as well. So what you'll see here is is that um that intentional look across each of our goals um as a district and we will ask you guys for feedback on that. It will not only inform the remainder of this
year, but it'll inform our work moving into September. Um so just wanted to share this ahead of time that you will be seeing this um shortly. Uh it kind of gives you a breakdown of all of our district uh district EC C goals to date.
Okay. Um any questions on what has been presented today? Right. All clear. All right. Gus, if you don't mind, Eduardo uh asked if you can just go ahead of ahead of you if that's all right. And we're going to turn it over to Eduardo to give the high school
superintendent report and then Gus will follow up with uh with his updates on progress monitoring and uh state accountability and so on. >> Sure. If I could share my screen briefly. It says host is not allowing sharing for this meeting. >> Oh, no problem. I'll make sure you got it.
>> Okay. That's weird. Did they change the features? >> Oh, there we go. Okay. Sorry, Ed. There you go. >> I got it. Okay. Uh
share. Okay. Uh good morning everyone. Um good things from Superintendent 2. Um I have some brief updates. Uh of course these are our five um six high schools uh that
are in our um district 25. Um John Bow will be hosting an annual transition fair and this is really important because um a lot of schools don't don't have the resources to host such a large fair. So everyone everyone in Queens uh
even if you are not a district 25 uh family is invited to participate. um people uh are urged to register uh so that way they they uh ensure that they have uh the spacing available uh uh for
um the fair. So this will be Thursday, March 5th from 5 to 7:30 at the school uh at Johnbound High School. Also, uh we have this information on our website as well. Um uh Sunni is uh holding online sessions and workshops to
prepare students and families uh for um uh FAFSA completion. And we also have um u um information uh for uh uh human services job training for women. Uh so that information um is
on our website as well. Um and so excellent news. Uh for the second year in a row, um 2024, 2025, and 2025, 2026, every single one of our high schools has achieved, uh local support and uh an improvement designation. Uh so you can
read more about it um here. We'll we'll have this information as well on our website. uh just uh sharing a brief um some brief pictures from our previews uh of family empowerment uh conference. Um so uh a quick uh one minute video was
prepared and it's also on our website. I'm just going to show you briefly um how u the event um happened and uh here it is. We had student performances and organizations from all throughout
Queens. We also had very good food from the door and that was sponsored by um Emblem Health. Okay. And also on our website, let's switch to our website now. Um we're
celebrating respect for all. Uh this week is respect for all week. Uh we had a student from aviation submit um some artwork and so uh and I also linked understanding respect for all so our families are aware um of the respect for
all of um presentations throughout the district. And also if you're a Mets fan we had a student from BSG name a finalist in the AKC art contest. So you can read more information about it on that link. And that is it for uh my high
school update. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Eduardo. All right, Gus. Going to turn it over to you. >> Okay, I'm going to start with the bottom of my uh bullets. Uh New York State Accountability because Eduardo already mentioned it. Uh I'm very proud of the
fact that all of Queens North um uh with the exception of one school in the entire uh region uh is in good standing. Uh and district 25 is now uh in good standing as well. The designation is
called LSI. Uh just as a reminder, the reason why uh the district was identified last time was not uh because of a school that's under your jurisdiction, but uh a a school that was
geographically in the district, but um was the under the control of another superintendency. So, um it was not technically something that you had a direct control over, but that school made u the accountability
cut and now that makes the entire geographic district uh in good standing. What happened to you um happened to another district unfortunately in Queens North. Again, um uh they were identified because of a school outside of that
their jurisdiction. Uh so um we uh will um work with uh that superintendency uh to uh see what collaboration could be done to get that school uh and out of the two schools that were actually in
our uh Queens North school uh portfolio. One of them made um the uh the the cut. So it went from TSI to good standing. the other one remains at accountability and so we have one school in Queens
North uh to um uh uh work with. Uh now uh I think I I haven't done a study but uh I doubt that there's another uh region um in the city that has only one school identified. Uh so I'm very proud
of the fact that Queens North is doing so well. It's a it's a testament to the superintendent and the um the communities, the schools, the the teachers, uh everyone working together and um I hope that it will continue and
if we can get that one school off, then the entire uh area will um will will be in in in good standing uh going forward. So, um that's it for accountability. Um the details are not public yet. they
will all be announced and that information will u uh be public. Um but um I understand that uh letters have gone out to the schools and the schools and principles know their designations particularly those that have been newly
identified and they have to go to a meeting um and um uh because of that one school I will be attending that meeting as well which uh will take place I think that's next month. So, that's it on accountability. It's all good news. Uh,
pretty much on um the um uh professional learning plan feedback. I'm going to leave that for last. My understanding is that you still haven't received the u the feedback, right, Mike? Is that correct? Okay. Yeah, that's that's um the correct
>> that's the same for the other districts. I'll I'll deal with that in a moment, but let me go through the other items. you just went over um a large portion of your data. It's my understanding that the progress monitoring tool in um in I
plan for the DC is active. So um we can go in and start putting information in and uh all the DT members should have access to that so they can take a look and um I think that you said that there
was some additional data that um is pending and you will um uh uh deal with the progress monitoring tool uh in uh you know the most appropriate way that you wish to for the March meeting. It'll
be on the March uh agenda as well. This is typical for all of the districts that I have in in Queens North. Everybody has partial data and um uh is um discussing it and then deferring uh the filling out
and completion of the progress monitoring tool to next month, which is when it's due anyway. It's due in March. It's not due in February. So, we're on track uh for all of that. And then um on the um uh postings, I I don't think the
DCPS have been publicly posted yet. Um uh the um uh CPS I was told um as of um uh last week that they are publicly posted. There were some technical issues
that um I plan had to resolve and I understand that those issues have been resolved. So, I urge all of you to look at uh the schools that you're uh concerned um with in district 25 and um
let the district and shoot me an email if you see that um the um information and the the C is not accessible or there's any problem on the public posting because there may still be some anomalies
although I was told that they were resolved. Now, um I have been sending out um reports on u title one and on the SLT information. Um they um send out
updates every week and uh I get to them towards the end of the week usually on on Thursday and and Friday. They they tend to do the updates on Wednesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. So um these have been coming out with great
frequency and um I know that the district is doing extremely well. Uh you have only a a um a a small uh percentage of schools uh in terms of um um re the
Queens North as a whole that are falling behind and you're reaching out to those schools. I did have an issue with the progress monitoring that schools are doing uh report that I sent out and this morning, Mike, I got an update from
Central that they fixed the problem. So, um hopefully by the end of the day today, I'll get that updated report out to you uh and your colleagues in Queens North as well, the corrected one um on um on progress monitoring. uh there's
some there there there um are probably more schools that are falling behind on progress monitoring than in uh some of the other categories. So that will um you know something to take a take a look at. Um,
in terms of the professional learning plan, uh, let me see if I can share my screen. And, um, it is a, um, a work, uh, in progress. Um, and, uh, the superintendent and I have discussed this, uh, kind of privately. Let me see
if I can share. Um, let's see. Hopefully this is the right screen. Come on. Can you see that? Did I do it? >> Can you see the checklist? >> Yep. You're good, guys. Okay, good. See,
I'm learning. Um, okay. Um, uh, the, um, the checklist which you will receive, I filled it out for, uh, all of the districts in Queens North. Now, uh, I know that some of U the DT members, and
you've already discussed this in the past, the professional learning plan is something new this year. And so Central um uh has learned from this year's experience that they need to give districts a template because the lack of
a template meant that there were pieces that uh districts did not know they needed to include and there was no un uniformity citywide on these plans. And so they have learned now and they will
produce a um a uh template and more specific instructions for um these um uh plans going forward. Let me see if I can go down. Okay. Why can't I go down? Let's see.
Let me try this way. Yeah. Okay. It's moving. So you see the way this looks and u the the district can decide how they want to um uh share this with the DT once you get the
feedback. So um there are all of these um uh boxes uh and comments on the side and I tried to put in a comment uh for each one. Uh the the the system is similar to the review that was done for
the DC. I did a review uh like all of my colleagues did citywide and then it was sent to central and um different departments or leadership also um uh either use the same format or they have
another document and the two were merged. I don't know because I haven't seen the feedback myself. Uh all I know is what I filled out. Uh so when that reaches you, you'll either get two different documents or a merge document. But uh what I did was I filled out and
you see how it says that um the PL team includes a majority of teachers designated by uft. Um so I did not find first of all there was no no requirement
to give me a list or to include a list in your plan of who participated and uh you know the individuals in the plan. So in response to that uh now the when when I had a discussion with central on all
of this they said well Gus it was in the the state guidelines that were shared with the superintendents. So those uh state guidelines, yes indeed they were shared but it wasn't clear I I
feel uh or made um you know um uh emphasis enough when you did your plan that all of these different pieces had to be included as separate kind of pieces in in the document itself. So they'll take care of that going forward.
So um one um and these this checklist ladies and gentlemen if you look at the um the state document the guidelines that district received it basically aligns to that. So we're trying to satisfy the state which is why all of
these different pieces have to be included in in the plan. So going forward um they will correct it in terms of the um the template and all of these pieces will be be put in and you see then there's a se a separate section um
plan uh um uh purposes aligns to improving teaching and learning. I don't think I I said no to any district because everybody's plan uh was aligned and interested uh to to teaching and
learning. So it was basically specific little sections and what I tried to do was I tried to give uh information um in um in in uh each box uh as to suggestions as to what to include. And
what I tried also to do, ladies and gentlemen, is if there was anything at all in the plan that related to what those um those u those u uh B1's, B7, uh
C, all different sections. I I I put in a portion because my feeling was even if it it was mentioned, it was partially and uh I made some suggestions uh on the side to to include and they also um the
state wanted you to reference a um a state document. uh I don't have it here in front of me but it has a a a certain title to it and it gives like seven uh pieces that um a learning plan ideally
should have and again I looked for those pieces even though you didn't reference that document because again districts it was in the stuff but unless you clicked and downloaded it you wouldn't be aware
of it. So going forward in the future the um the the district team should download that document which is the state you know document on professional learning plans and just reference those different uh pieces that uh are are um
uh enumerated there. So in the end uh what I did for all my districts see there's an evaluation piece and again uh there was no separate evaluation plan uh in virtually every uh district plan that
I looked at. Again districts didn't realize they put in some evaluation components for various priorities. So I tried to give people a pro a a partial if there was any evaluation piece but uh
the template should have uh asked for a u evaluation um you know plan um uh piece uh to as part of the plan or as part of each section of the plan. So as you see at the very end it said strengths and I tried to put in some
areas for revision recommended next steps. What I said basically for everybody is the recommended ne next steps is to look at that state document more closely going forward and to make sure that your uh team is aware of it
and then look at click and and download that uh state um guideline on professional learning plans and be aware of those. I think there's seven pieces to it that u they wanted uh districts to
be aware of as well. So, um uh I um I'm I'm following uh my my instructions from Central. Central wanted us uh even though um you what we were told would they weren't sure whether you would have gotten the feedback by the time your DT
um you know takes place because all the DT citywide some take place at the beginning of the month, some take place at the end of the month. So hopefully citywide all of the districts will receive the feedback by the end of the month. So it could be uh you know a a a
more um um productive discussion um on the agenda for um for the um for the March meeting. But um going forward this is a um uh a learning process and um the uh learning process will hopefully
result in a better planning process and an earlier pro process. All of my superintendent told me the same thing. Gus, we should have done this earlier in the year so you know we could take it into account. Now, this doesn't mean that you're not implementing a robust
and good um uh u um professional development plan in your district. Um when you get the feedback, you might want to tweak uh uh tweak it here and there. Uh you might want to take some of the feedback into account and um and um
uh do some um uh tweaking and revisions or add a component or whatever going forward. One of the things that you should definitely do if you're not doing it already is if you give any uh training sessions or workshops, it's it's kind of standard procedure that you
do a a a pre um you know workshop um um survey or a measurement of some sort to see what people know and then afterwards check to see uh whether learning is taking place and whether um the u the
workshop could be improved or the the session could be improved. in some way. So that's kind of standard. You're probably doing it anyway, but that will be part of the evaluation plan going forward. So u that's basically all I have to say on that folks. Let me stop
sharing. I gave you the document. I don't remember whether I sent out the state uh document. Um the overview. It's pretty much the same information. It's just here it's in a checklist form and there it's more of of a narrative form.
But if there's anything that um the district feels that um I can send out additionally or we can you know look at it for the next meeting um when um we hopefully we'll have the feedback uh to discuss. So let me stop sharing.
Mike is there anything you want to add? I know you and I have discussed this. U >> no looking forward to seeing the feedback that they uh that they provide. The checklist certainly has elements that you know as I look at it know that we can do better. So, um, you know, I don't have a have an issue with with
whatever that feedback is and then we'll share it with the DT and make adjustments for going into the remainder part of the year and into next. Um, you know, certain things in terms of of feedback and making sure that the feedback we received is aligned with
what is actually in the plan. Um, we do open up opportunities to gather feedback from a variety of different groups. Um but is it consolidated in the plan of saying who said it? Um no not necessarily you know uh but we do have
you know mindset around each of our goals and how we're working towards them. Um but whether or not it fully aligns with said checklist we'll have to see what it is that is shared and then we'll make the adjustments. >> Okay. >> Yep.
Okay. Thank you Gus. Uh excuse me. Um, moving on with our agenda for today, we're going to go through our constituent groups. Uh, Mr. Marino, anything from CSA? >> Yeah, not too much. We're just happy to
report or at least are reporting that, um, last Monday, uh, President Henry Rubio went up to Albany. Um, he's advocating for a 3% increase in state funding for education. uh they are proposing a 1% increase but due to
inflation um we're supporting a 3% increase hoping that uh we can meet at that level but that's about it. >> Okay, cool. Thanks Rob. Uh Lamar, anything from uft? >> Nothing new to report. We're still
working on our tier six reform. Um I found an interesting tidbit. 53% of the current teaching force are tier six members. So, anybody who's a tier four like me, we're starting to be the dinosaurs of the group. So, that's my conversation with people. We're doing that. We're doing a lot of work with our
par professionals, making sure that we're working with city council. And um really, that's it. So, that's kind of where we are right now. Just making um and by the way, I don't know if you're all familiar with uh Leroy Bar, the uft staff director. He retired effective February 1st. So, if you ever come
across the name Michael Sil, he's the new director of staff with >> Okay, awesome. Thank you, Lamar. Um, Eden, anything from CC? >> Good morning. Sorry, I've been kind of behind the scenes a little today. Um, so CC did have a vacancy that we just
filled at our last meeting. Um so one of our members, Grace Torres, who had been on the council last year, has now returned to us. So she will be getting brought into the fold of everything. Um we will be collaborating with the district on the wellness day to continue
our initiative on that. And I know Dr. Mike mentioned the save for kids kids rise um presentation and we're also looking at having the public library come in in the future months to talk as well as we are looking to have somebody come talk about I Ready a little bit more because I know myself and some
other parents did bring up some concerns of what kind of homework aspect of I Ready looks like. So those are the things we're coming up with right now and then we are in the process of planning our June uh awards ceremony already as well. So that's it from us.
>> Thank you, Eden. Uh Rachel, anything from President's Council? >> Well, um uh my co-president Veronica was planning to attend uh the last CEC meeting in person. Um hopefully she was able to do
that. I had a conflict. I was co-hosting a webinar with PTA Link about finances. Um, >> Rachel, she actually ended up on Zoom, but she was did partake in our interview process. >> That's great. Thanks for letting me know, Eden. So, >> you got it. >> CEC and President's Council were working
closely together. Eden's great with um keeping us invited and informed on the CEC meetings. Um, as far as our president's council meetings, our next one is the Monday after the break, February 23rd at 6:30 p.m. Um, we do not
have our guests outlined as of yet, but we are looking to try and bring in if not in February, maybe in March, uh, dial a teacher um, to help promote that benefit and also PTA link um, to promote
their website which has a wealth of information for new and existing um, PTAs and would be a great benefit to our our membership.
>> Awesome. Thank you, Rachel. Uh Crystal, anything from uh DPAC? >> Good morning, everyone. Having some technical issues, difficulties this morning. Can you hear me? >> Yeah, you're good, Crystal. >> Okay. So, we'll uh DACK updates. We'll be inviting Turbo and Child Mine
Institute to join our meeting and our next meeting is February 25th. Those are the updates. Thank you, Crystal. >> You're welcome. >> Okay, guys. Any uh any new business that we that anyone has that we need to bring
up? All right, guys. We are in um hard to believe we are well into February and uh which means we have the the stretch run is starting to begin for for our schools and making sure that our kids are are
good and ready. Um I know that once we once we enter into into March, it's it's that long run between then and state exams, but um that's the place that we are in. And you know, not that we're we do all the things that we do in preparation for a state exam because
that's not what the end all beall is. It's about making sure that our kids are good and ready for middle school, high school, and beyond. Um, but we also know that this is the way that we're also held accountable. So, our schools are working really, really hard to make sure that our kids are in the best position
possible to do well. Uh, and we're going to continue to push that from from the district lens. And just so that uh that everyone is clear on what what my ask is of all of our buildings is um a student
by student view of where our kids are. Um I know we look at things in terms of uh overall percentages and you know this percent is here, this percent is there, but behind those percentages are our children. Um, so I know all of our building leaders and all of our teachers
are going to be looking really really carefully at all of our kids. Where are they? What could we do uh a little bit better uh or more strategic to help support them to become the the best um learners they can be inside of our schools. So um we'll give you another
update on where we're at in March. Uh I will include the um the students in terms of their regents uh preparation performance on map. Um, I'll get all of that to you during our next next session, including um, you know, any
updates for a parent survey. Gets a little bit tricky during the middle of the year because um, our parents and kids get another survey from the city which just came out today as you may have seen or uh, if you haven't, there is a press release about that today
about the school survey coming out. So, sometimes with our families and kids, they get a little bit of survey fatigue. Um, so we're gonna we're going to try to balance that out and still get some important data back uh for everyone in March to see whether or not uh that
space of relationship building has been growing. And for for all of our schools, my message to them, just so everyone knows, is really about creating more and more space for relationship building, i.e. those connection before contents, those small little entry points for our
kids matters so that they can learn that we have lots of commonalities amongst amongst ourselves and we should have that time and space to communicate um to really build relationships and you know I think when we do that and our kids feel feel comfortable being in their
classrooms all the time uh the greater likelihood they we'll they will see more success and I do think we do a good job of doing that but I think we can do even better for some of our kids that are struggling a little bit with that social emotional learning uh SEAL component. Uh
so more to follow on that, but I thank you guys as always for for being here. Um and we will have our next meeting on March 9th. It will be virtual. Um and I look forward to seeing all of you guys then. Have a wonderful break. Yes, Rachel.
>> Before we end, did Quinton get a chance to share out? He's actually the representative from president's uh high school president's council. >> Oh, okay. I didn't know I said welcome Quinton earlier, but Quinton, please feel free. I wasn't sure who you were representing, but feel free. >> No problem. No problem. I didn't take it
personal. How not too much to update, but maybe they knew. So, no. Um, thank you for that, uh, Rachel. And, uh, no, I love what you guys are doing. Appreciate you guys. And on the high school president's council, we have a new secretary, Rachel Ortez. She's be having
our first meeting today. Today's meeting was not on the general schedule, so we kind of are not making it a mandatory meeting, but we do have some updates for the parent engagement and fundraisers that we found that we just wanted to share and some ICE updates and we plan on highlighting in high school every
meeting now. So, that's what the meeting is today. It's going to be a shorter meeting, just going to be focused on those things because it wasn't on the main agenda, but our next full business calendar meeting will be in March and we'll update everyone in your emails. But thank you for that and looking
forward to continuing um the positive work that we're all doing in our districts. >> Love it. Thank you so much for being here, Quinton. And should I should we expect you to be the the point person uh moving forward as as a representative? >> Yes, it'll be myself and if anything changes, I'll let you know. I know
Patricia usually does it, but she's out in the country. She's out in the country right now. >> Oh, anywhere fun. Is she somewhere fun? >> Um, yeah. Yeah, she's in what's called >> She's in Uruguay. She's in good good for her. Good for her.
Visiting her mom being here. >> Visiting her mom, so she's getting family time. >> Love it. >> And Quinn, what um is there an email address that we should include for you? Um or are you >> Yeah. >> accessing the the the Hotmail account, >> the Outlook like the
>> um Well, Patricia had given us a an email address, uh PBN New Yorkhotmail.com. Do you use that email address or do you want a different email address? >> You could use that address because I got the link from the Queens High School president's account. I had got the message for this Zoom. So, it's on our
calendar, on our main calendar that we all have access to, but you could still keep her looped in, too, because I know she usually is the one attending this one, but I don't mind in the meantime attending for the rest of the year. We're good. >> Okay, cool. Sounds good. >> If not, you're welcome at at any time anyway. So, uh feel free, even if
Patricia's here, you're always welcome to to join us. >> Appreciate that. I'll be here. >> All right, guys. Thank you so much. And do we have uh consensus to close >> meeting today? Oh, and I see Maline uh Maline uh Hernandez, I don't I don't uh I want to, you know, call you out, too.
I'm not sure uh who you're joining us from either, but welcome. I saw you pop in and out a couple of times, but welcome. I don't know if you want to come off and introduce yourself as well. >> Oh, hi. Good morning. I just chiming in. I'm also with the Queens High School
President's Council, so I was just updating the contact in case you needed it. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> A pleasure. >> Welcome. >> All right, Gus, did you want to say something? >> Yeah. Uh, just looking forward uh to um
uh uh the end of the academic year. Uh as everybody should know, uh we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of uh our independence. Uh we have a unique connection uh in Queens and in District
25. It's called the Flushing Remmonstrance uh which was related to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights uh that took place here. We have some other Queens related um items related to uh American independence and the Revolutionary War.
And I would like district 25 and district and Queens um north as a whole to be a model for the city of New York uh uh in terms of celebrating and giving our students resources related to our
local history uh to the American independence 250th anniversary. Um, I know that um you have a uh a a robust um um uh educational program and I make the
same pitch to all of my Queen's districts. But you're unique because in your geographic area you have th those connections and the Queen's Historical Society, I think, is also located in District 25 as well. And um the Flushing
Town Hall is located in district 25. So, um, just thinking ahead, folks. Uh, it's a couple of months, uh, until, you know, um, uh, July 4th. Uh, and, um, we should think about doing something looking forward. Uh, and, um, I'm sure you'll
make us all proud. >> Well, when you phrase it like that, Cus, I I mean, we now now, you know, you didn't give you didn't give too much wiggle room on that one. So, so we're going to have to try we're going to have to try to make sure we make you proud on that one. >> It's it's it's a it's it's a measure of
how uh highly I think of District 25. >> Well, thank you for that, Gus. And uh yes, you there's a great deal of importance and you know I I don't I don't think um in general we take advantage of the resources that are right in our backyards and we take them
for granted that they'll always be there including um you know the the few that you just mentioned. So um especially in the historical context of what it means for our nation's history. So, um, I do think there is a lot more to be said about tapping into those resources,
especially as we approach the 250th year. So, uh, thank you for that, Gus. Um, okay. Uh, folks, we have, uh, consensus to close out this month's meeting. Got a thumbs up from Rob. Rachel, thank you.
Lamar, we good. Quinton, we good. Eden, >> I can't I can't I'm not sure what's going on with mine. Yes. >> Okay, got you, Crystal. All right, guys. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a great day and enjoy the
uh enjoy the the time off uh uh next week for President's Week. >> Take care, everyone. You too. Take care, everyone. Bye. >> Bye. Bye. Have a good day, everyone.