And I'm going to share my screen. Does everyone see my screen? >> Yep. >> Yes. >> Okay, >> Rachel. >> Okay. Good night. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us um for the February President's Council meeting. We
hope you had a wonderful mid-inter break. Of course, it ended with quite a bang um of a a bang of snow. Um so we're glad you're able to join us. Thank goodness we have our meetings virtually. Um so it's 6:33
and I officially call the meeting to order. Um we do have quorum. So the first item of business would be to review and approve the minutes from our January meeting. Hi, I'm Charlotte, the recording
secretary. Um, should I go ahead? I'm so sorry, Rachel. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Tony was able to pull them up for you. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um, so we just an overview of last uh meeting which was in January 26th. Um, we went over some
major topics. Uh, started off with uh Dr. Dantona's remote learning snow day reflection. Um and we did a it was a very successful transition from uh the first time we were remote and approximately 90% of the students
attended which is great districtwide. Um their access issues were resolved. Uh everyone was able to pretty much log on. Um and then there's a leadership update. We welcomed the new chancellor Kamar Samuels and acknowledge the outgoing
chancellor as well. And uh priority areas that were highlighted included safe and inclusive learning environments, uh reading, academic rigor, and we talked more about MTSS, which is a multi-tered systems of support. Um there's a council discussion about what they understood about this
particular um uh model and Dr. Danton then talked about the three tiers of um the MTSS implementation. Tier one included core instruction for all the students and then moved on to tier two which is targeted interventions and then
tier three were intensive interventions which included small groups of onetoone I mean or one to one sorry and um the decision was that the district would expand these MTSS workshops and sessions uh for the public. Um student
achievement district highlights included that there was a D25 basketball all-star game. this Queens North spelling bee. Uh there was a Martin Luther King Jr. Day observation as well as the 3K and pre-K enrollments that happened and ended will
end in February 27th. So, family engagement workshops were also talked about which were math uh social emotional learning workshops and we also had a presenter talk about school food and nutrition service presentations and talked about things such as student meal experiences and
satisfaction menu quality and family engagement in these food services. Um she also Christine also talked about survey announcement uh that encouraging uh people to encouraging council members to go ahead and remind their uh their constituents about their about the
winter survey. Um actionable items included uh council members to distribute the winter survey as well as getting that completed. Um Jenny uh talked about the Nyc kids rise save for college program. So she presented information about how this is an
automatic college savings account and currently D25 participation was around 41%. Um and that noted that uh council members are aware of the program but uh understanding it might still remain a barrier. So an actionable item was for
council members and district leadership to go ahead and continue the messaging about this particular program about NYC Kids Rise. If there are any questions, we can direct them to Jenny who's always accessible. Um, and then civics for all as well. There's a program expansion
discussion. Um, we talked about uh student voices being elevated to teach uh while teaching civic process engagement. Uh, we also talked about SLT meetings, virtual participation. Um, someone had raised the concern about
the parent with concern as to why the SLT meeting couldn't pivot to v virtual platforms, but Dr. Danton explained that it was a state law that required SLT meetings to be held in person, but he would seek clarification. Um, just and then there's just a quick summary of the things that we just
talked about to review. Anything else to add? And if anyone can approve their minutes. >> I approve. Annie from JHS 185. >> Thank you, Annie. And we need someone else to go ahead and
approve the minutes. >> We have someone in the chat who has second the motion. >> Thank you. Thank you. Pay. >> Okay. If everyone's in favor of the minutes, if they could just write a thumbs up or um I approve like Pay did
in the chat, that would be great. Just so we can have um official approval of the minutes. >> Thank you. >> One, two, three. Okay. Thank you to everyone that participated and thank you Charlotte for
going over the um for the minutes. Um our next item on the agenda, I would like to introduce um our next speaker who is Shawn Blanks from Dial a Teacher. He's here to speak more about um that
service which is available to all New York City students. So Sean, I'd like to turn the floor over to you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um, excuse the background, but no work today. School's closed. So, dollar teacher is also closed because it
is a procession activity. So, um, teachers don't work during the day. There's no procession um, in the evening. So, hopefully we'll be back up and running tomorrow, which I have to go and clean my car off tonight, which is going to be a chore.
But, uh, my name is Sean Blanks and I'm here to just share information about Dollar Teacher. um just um is which is a free homework help hotline been around since 1980. So many of you have probably heard about it. We're actually wow 40 in
our 47th year of operations. So we've had generations and people who have used um dollar teacher started in 1980. We average around 35,000 to 40,000 calls a year. Um and it's absolutely free. Homework helps. It's as simple as just
picking up the phone and dialing the number. Uh we service all schools, all grades. Um we even get calls from out of state because this particular program is there's no other program like this, I don't think, across the country. And it is a joint partnership between the um
United Federation of Teachers and the uh Department of Education. We're actually open Monday through Thursday from 4 to 7:00 p.m. on school days. Um, this uh the number is 212-777-3380 and I'll put that in the chat, but I'll
also send out I'll send out some information and promotional items and flyers uh to you guys. These are actual New York State certified teachers who, you know, they teach during the day and then they leave their schools and then they come to the call center and they
feel calls from 4 to 7. And like I said, all subjects, reading, writing, grammar, social studies, you name it. What happened? It started in 1980 as a um a program to help. They were finding kids, you know, parents who working and kids
at home. And it only started as an elementary school program, but then when the kids got to middle school, they kept calling. And then when they got to high school, they kept calling. So we had to subsequently add on um all of those specialties and all of those grades. Uh
we have teachers who speak um Armenian, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish as well as Tagalog. Uh we're in the process of trying to um recruit more teachers with more languages, especially Arabic. Um we
don't give answers which kind of frustrates kids now because this is the generation of things really quick they want it. So we just assist students in problem solving and reaching the answers on their own. Uh this way they go back you know to class feeling confident that
they've completed their work and understand the subject matter. We actually have students that we um follow from elementary through high school. Some call every night. If a student or parent is comfortable and they like a certain teacher, you can request that extension every time. We don't give out
our names and so you'll call and hide dollar. Hi, this is dollar teacher extension whatever the extension is and um they then you you're you're routed to wherever you need help with. Remember, if the child needs help, it's just a
phone call. And we just like to give children and parents an additional resource and support system. We need it. It's like the idea is just to kind of strengthen the homeschool partnership which is really necessary for um your
child to um succeed in school. A lot of times when kids are they may be working on a problem and you know everything is different now. So, you know, the math that was when I was in school isn't taught the same way. So, and a lot of times kids are, you know, they get
frustrated because, well, I got the answer, but there's always the method to get to the answer, which is what a lot of kids get penalized when they have to show their work even though the answer is correct, but it wasn't the correct method used. So, it's just we're just
dealing with a lot of different methodologies to go about solving problems. But um if a student is working on, we have some of the textbooks, but a lot of times it's just easier if a student is working on something, they can just simply take a picture and um
email it or text it in and um so the teacher can um look at it. But like I said, these these teachers work in the school, so they they know the curriculum. And um yeah, it's it's it's really I I I tell you the the stories that I get from people who oh my
grandmother, my mother used to my you know, it's just cuz like I said, we've been around since 1980. Since 1980. Um yeah, I'm I have like that's about that's about it. I mean, I can um like I
said, I'm going to send out some um flyers, bookmarks, pencils, and pens to you guys, highlighters, stuff that you can also give out to um to parents and students, which will help as a um you know, also to have that, you know, we
even have like refrigerator magnets so that they'll they'll have the number on hand. Well, any questions? Okay, I don't see any questions in the chat. If anyone has any questions, they can
feel free to put it in the chat or they can come off. You can come off mute and just ask your question to um to Mr. Bank Blanks um directly. Oh, they're asking for the phone number again. >> Yeah, I'm gonna put it in the chat now.
>> Okay, great. >> John, you said you mentioned that you're gonna send us some flyers and magnets and pencils. >> Are you going to send them to the district office or to all schools? >> To the um I'll send it to the to the office. >> Okay. >> Oh, I can Yeah, cuz that's Yeah. How
many schools are there? >> We have 36 schools. You can send me the um do you have like an the I can do it send it to like with the parent coordinators in those schools. So if you send me the list of parent coordinators and addresses I I can do it that way also.
>> Okay. It's on our district website. I'll send you the link so you can see how many schools. >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> Thank you, Sean. >> Yeah, I think magnets are a great idea because you know we at school have a flyer on the front of our PTA office, but that doesn't help parents when
they're home. Correct. >> Doing homework with their kids that's at home, you know. So, that's that's a great great idea. Thank you so much for offering those. >> Absolutely, guys. And everyone, please
be safe tomorrow. >> You as well >> as you're heading out. I know, right? I'm like dreading going out cleaning this car. >> You Sean. >> Gone are the days when people just knock on your door. Hey, can you help?
Can I ask a question about the dollar teacher, Sean? Um, is there an extension for the ch you said sorry, it's available in different languages. Is there a specific um or a um what am I
what's saying extension for? So, in other words, if you call and you need a Chinese teacher and that person does not answer the phone, they will take the information and the they will hand it over to the Chinese teacher and then you'll get a call back. Um yeah yeah yeah >> okay >> yeah but there no direct direct the
calls are routed by the um teachers >> so maybe is there an is a is a number already assigned specifically to that language >> no >> um >> everything is yeah it's just one general a general number >> okay >> so then from for for us we would love to
to explain this to our Chinese um families so they would just call the main number and then ask for, "Can I speak to a dollar teacher that speaks Cantonese or speaks Mandarin?" >> Correct. And then um they once they have that extension, they won't have to do it
again. >> Gotcha. >> And I I probably would I don't have my sheet with me, but I probably could have given you that extension. >> Ah, okay. >> Tonight. Yeah. >> Awesome. Thank you. Good to know. >> No problem. >> Sean, we do have a question in the chat. Is there help for all subjects or just
the core math, ELA, social every subject, everything, whatever they're doing in school. Yeah. >> Great. >> Hi, Sean, it's Charlotte. Um, just a question. Is the flyer that you're going to be giving also in different languages? >> Yeah, we're we're working on that. Right
now, it's only in um Spanish and English. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we're working on getting them in uh the different languages. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Yeah. And Sean, I'd certainly love to invite you to um our wellness day event that we're going to be having a little bit later this year. Be a great
opportunity to get that message out. I know you guys came last year. >> Um we're hoping to have a much bigger turnout than we did the previous year, but uh certainly welcome you and we'll share the flyer with you. So if you guys are available, it'll be a great time to get it out to more parents. >> Just shoot me an email. Absolutely.
We'll look into it. >> I will I will do that. Great. Does anyone else have any questions before we move on in our agenda? And thank you, Sean, for being available tonight to speak with our district office. >> No problem. Thank you, guys.
>> Have a great night and be careful shoveling your car out. >> You as well. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, thank everyone for your participation in that. some great questions that we had for um Zila
teacher. Um now I'd like to turn the floor over to Dr. Dantona for the superintendent report. >> Yeah, good evening everyone. Uh excuse my my camera being off. I'm not in the best setup here. Very very dark. Um so
you'd almost be looking at a blank screen anyway with me with the camera on. So please excuse that as I share my presentation with you guys tonight. Okay, first and foremost, I hope all of you guys are good and safe. Um, and you
know, I know these these types of storms are not common. Um, you know, and unfortunately, we've had to bear the brunt of two of them inside of a month. So, um, you know, unfortunate, but, you know, New York manages to make their way through a lot of these things and
afterwards we say to ourselves, how do we do that? And, um, you know, it winds up working out as as good as it possibly can. So, I'm hoping you guys are safe, hoping your children are safe. Um, and, um, you know, we'll we'll get moving, uh, back into school tomorrow. Um, so,
couple of things. Um just to save the date if everyone can put this on their calendars um especially our our PTA presidents. It's really important um for me to see as many of you uh attend this event as possible and then spread the
word when we make it accessible. Um so this will be our second annual wellness day and when we talk about wellness um this is through the space of mental wellness, physical wellness, seal um and we have a huge number of um vendors and
organizations that helped us last year that we do uh intend to have back. Last year we had the New York City Soccer Club present, the United States Tennis Association, New York City Lacrosse uh organization. Was just a a really really
nice uh event. Unfortunately, um you know, the number of people that said that we're going to come did not. So, my hope is this year with with you know, just getting that message out sooner um and increasing the number of people that we're going to allow to to
um reserve tickets will be increased. so that the number of people that have it available to them um you know increases as well. So last year we only did it because it was the first time we were doing it. We only made it available to about 300 people. Um this year we will
increase that number with the hopes that everyone comes. But uh if people don't to at least say that we get half of the group will make me feel better about having all of those guests present uh and available for our district community because there will be a multi multitude of resources. We had physical therapists
there. We had psychiatrists there. We had psychologists there. Um all different types of organizations. We had a g gentleman, young kid from uh from college who developed what's called the turbo turbo doll. Um it's a weighted dog. Um that many of our schools
actually have to help support wellness. Um you know, and there's just so many different opportunities there for our families and for our kids that I'm hoping um we have as many people as possible take advantage of it. So if you haven't noted it, please note it in your calendar and uh more will be following
in ter in the form of flyers and giving everyone clarity around what will be there. Okay. Um civics uh for all I'm always going to mention and talk about our soapbox speeches. Uh at our last CEC meeting, uh we had a young gentleman
from PS22 um speak to us about um about mental health uh which was really appropriate given the areas that we're talking about at the district level and the CEC meetings uh to really consistently connect with our families around
ensuring that our kids are good and safe uh physically, mentally as well as social emotional learning uh wise. So, um, this young man talked about it through the lens of his own, one of his own family members, uh, that really
struggled mightily with, uh, with mental health. And what was so amazing about this youngster is that first he came dressed up with a little bow tie on, stood in front of an entire group of parents and members through online and um, spoke to us in both English and
Spanish. It was just a really amazing job by a fifth grade student to come in front of everyone and share what his uh mindset was about. And my goal with all of this is that over time we start developing these into really really big community-based projects where we're
connecting everyone to different resources based on something that is actually happening within our community. Uh not that just kids are just writing about things like you know in the past it was about global warming, right? Not that global warming is not important, but these are becoming much more
personal to children and the things that they're seeing around them. Um, so each time we have these meetings, I'm going to talk about, you know, recent presentations and I'm hoping that you back at your own schools are talking about these things to really emphasize the importance of student voice um and
raising these things further uh beyond just the speech. Um, so uh game 24 um this is something that we did for the first time uh this year. Here we had a game 24 tournament uh hosted by a PS 209. Big thanks to principal Egan and
her team. Um I have to tell you this is the first time we've done it and I can promise you we're going to continue it because it was awesome. Um the flexibility with thinking that our children demonstrated uh was really incredible. Uh and if you've never seen
game 24 before, kids get a little cardboard cutout with four numbers on it. And with those four numbers, they have to use multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction to come up to the number 24. So, they have no idea what numbers will be put on the card.
But as soon as they see it, they have to tap their hand on the board saying that they have the um the expression that will bring them to 24. And I have to tell you, some of the kids, the card barely touched the table, and they were already tapping. That's how quickly they were able to manage the numbers that
were there. And it was just really, really cool to see. Uh last year we had PS209 actually went to a state competition uh and won and 499 also went to that very same competition and finished in third. So we want our kids to get more exposure to this because it
really does support problem solving, critical thinking, um and all the work that we would want inside of mathematics. And for you as parents, just so you know, there is game a game 24 app um that kids can put right onto their phones or their their uh iPads and
it really really does support math fluency. So, I encourage you guys um if it's not something that you have, I would encourage you to to um download that app for your kids. We had our middle school basketball championship game um earlier in uh the
month. really really great job by um Diana Stein from our team in organizing this. Big shout out to 185 uh for winning the championship. Uh we also had our girls all-star basketball uh game
and championship game. Um we are one of very few districts in New York City that actually have this type of athletic program. Uh so I'm really proud of that and the work that's being done there. Uh, and the fact that this has now been expanded to an all girls team, I think
is fantastic and we're going to continue to expand on it over time. Um, celebrating Black History Month, uh, always important for us as a district community to celebrate, uh, our black leaders, current and in the past, uh, to
celebrate all of the achievements that they have to make our, um, our country a a better place for our kids. Um, so as the month has gone on, our schools have engaged their kids in different activities and tasks that are associated with Black History Month. So we
appreciate them for that. And school counselor Week was prior to, but we included in here anyway because I wanted our uh parents to to to know that that has come and gone. But uh we really do appreciate our counselors for what they do for our kids on a daily basis. um it is really truly important work
that they do and I know that our kids uh do rely on them for supports. So last month I did talk to you about in months previous around arts funding. I just wanted to give you an update on um the schools that are receiving residency
support. Um, so 130, 154, 164, 169, 184, 200, 209, 214, 242, 244, and the prek centers. Um, this was organized based on the small amount of funding. It wasn't a lot, but we got about $80,000.
And, um, these schools were identified, uh, based on current, uh, current budgets. So, this was intended to provide it to schools that do not have what you would call exorbitant budgets. um where they would be able to manage this on their own. Um so with my
outreach to these schools, uh they've each um identified a residency program that would be connected to either Flushing Town Hall studio in a school or arts connection. So we're really happy about that. Uh and there will be a couple of family events that I will
announce uh shortly. Um I'm not ready to announce it today, but I will announce um that there will be some family events that will be accessible. They will be hosted in some of our in some of our elementary schools uh in the form of performances and arts days for
community. Now unfortunately arts connection only allows about 60 people to participate at one time though. So these will not be huge events uh but events nonetheless that will be will be made available to our families in the district. Um and there will be some
Broadway show opportunities moving down towards the end of the year. Um, we do not have a great deal of money, so it will be a handful of tickets at most, especially given the cost of Broadway show tickets today. Uh, but just to give you guys a heads up, talked about it last month. This one is a little bit more in depth in terms of what's
happening with those dollars and what schools are going to be receiving it. Um, and just for your reference, as this happens, I'm hoping it happens again next year. Uh, like I did this year, I will put it out to you guys and ask for any feedback that you have. Uh and I encourage you to do it because what what
I hear from you I will do. Um a lot of these uh choices here were made based on feedback that I received from CC and the parent group uh brought it to you brought it to our DPAC. So um please don't hesitate in sharing feedback uh in the future.
uh continuing to just mention our our work with our chancellor, making sure that we're promoting safe, academically rigorous, and truly integrated uh programs for our kids inside of our schools. Something that I do believe in as well. And um you know, as more comes
out from from our chancellor around additional things that he might want uh to see inside of our schools, I will certainly share it. uh many of the things I talked about last month uh will continue to be a priority for us here in the district including MTSS and our focus on New York City reads and New
York City solves. Um just quick update from um from our team. We hosted a stress management um session with uh that was presented by the child center of New York. We had over a 100 parents that were on the feedback that we received was really
very very positive. Uh so my appreciation for the Child Center of New York for giving us their time. Uh they did this free of charge uh just to make sure that our families felt supported. Um we have another session with Marble Health around improving family
communication on March 10th. And I'm also excited that we've added two additional sessions that you see here in yellow. uh one on March 25th, promoting positive behavior at home and on April 30th, helping your child develop
friendships. Um each of these items that you see here were all part of conversations that came out of the survey that you see to the right. Um, and all important and I know certainly as a dad and having a freshman and a junior as they went through their elementary school years, you always want
to make sure that your child is is able to connect with someone else. Um, and that they have that opportunity to build strong friendships and relationships with others. Um, so that's really important. And I also know that sometimes, you know, there are things that are happening at home that we wonder, oh my god, have I done the right
thing? Why is my child talking to me like that? You know, so it's um you know, these these these uh sessions are here to support uh our families in uh if they are having some difficulty or need some feedback uh from a um mental health
professional on you know these are just some approaches that might support you at home. So I encourage you guys to to look into that and we will be sharing flyers in the near future as well. So, quick state of the district. Um,
now that our MOI assessments are completed, give you a little bit of context in terms of where we are comparatively speaking. Um, earlier in the month, this looked a little bit different. We were pretty much right exactly the same as last
year. Um we have with the last handful of children that did did complete the assessment we're about 1% off of where we were MOI to MOI this year uh from this year to last year. One of the areas that is most concerning um for us that
we've talked about with all of our schools and we're going to be doing a lot of uh digging deeper into are two grades primarily. all all grades with the exception to the two grades I'm going to say to talk to you about right now have demonstrated some improvement
um from last year to this year. But our third graders that are now our fourth graders saw a little bit of a dip from last year to this year. And our fourth graders into fifth grade also saw a a dip from one year to the next which is causing this uh overall
coming back to the mean of where we were last year. Each of the other grades did see some improvement, especially when we look year-over-year, which is really important. The one grade that I am excited about is our third grade, our third graders are 9% higher this year at
this time than they were last year. Um, when we look at our sixth graders to seventh grade, there was a 6% difference and a seventh graders to eighth grade, there's a 5% difference in terms of improvement. So, we're seeing some growth across four of the sixth grades.
We're going to be spending a lot of time over the last part of the year. Not to say that the other grades are are any less important, but we're just going to be a little bit more strategic around what we're seeing with those two grades in particular uh because there was a bit of a difference in those two grades compared to last year. When we're
looking at our overall um demographic uh groups, again, similar to the overall with about a 1% change, our students with IEPs saw a 2% improvement year-over-year. Our L's about a 3% improvement year-over-year. And then our
targeted subgroups, our black learners uh did decline by 1% comparatively to last year and Hispanic learners improved by 1% comparatively to last year. So, a lot more work that we have to do here to continue to reduce the gap. Um and in large part, this is going to be a group that we spend a lot of time on and those
are our multilingual learners. um as that is our most significant need at this time uh given the volume of children that we have that speak languages other than English. Now our uh students in K to2 have seen
progress year-over-year um from um 2023 to current. Um we are seeing uh that our children from in kindergarten when you look at kindergarten over the last 3 years from the light blue to dark blue to the uh to the orange we're about a 7%
improvement from where we were two years ago to where we are now. Um our children in first grade uh also seeing a bit of improvement. Uh when we look at kindergarten from last year was at 51% now it's at 60. uh and our second
graders around 65% of our children are currently on or above grade level. We want to continue to escalate that over time uh to make sure that our kids are reading by the time they get to the third grade um and then moving from that space of reading to learn um from
learning to read to reading to learn so that our kids are really digging into that space of comprehension. So what we're finding is that we're we're certainly helping them to decode. our decoding has improved significantly, but now it's from our kids being able to decode words to making meaning out of
what it is that they're reading. Uh, so ensuring that they can read across the page with fluency. Um, and I'm not sure about you, but even as adults sometimes, I don't know if you've ever experienced this where you've read across the page and like I I'm and you might be distracted and you're like, I'm not sure what I just read in that entire
paragraph and you have to go back um to make sure that you can reread and really understand what you read. similar type of things for kids that are decoding but not doing that with doing that fluently across the line. So these are things that we're going to continue to build upon for our kids particularly our
multilingual learners. But here are some some positive trends. So in 2023 our L's 18% of them are currently were reading on or above grade level. This year midy year it's 37% which is a really um positive change from where we were to
where we are. And likewise for our students with IEPs, we were at 19% two years ago to 37% now. Uh so we are seeing a positive trend in terms of our kids um getting to grade level reading according to the Acadians assessment. Uh
similarly, we're seeing a positive trend for our black learners, our black learners from 47% to 55% and our Hispanic learners from 37 to 44. So we are seeing a positive trajectory for these target groups. um in our district.
So, more to follow on that in towards the end of the presentation. I'll share a couple of things that we're we do have planned and we and we're organizing moving forward. Uh so, priority two uh we have not administered the um the midyear survey
for our kids. There was some feedback that we got from our kids and staff. So, we're making some adjustments. We hope to get that out later this week uh to get some additional feedback from our learners on SEAL and that includes relationship building which is one of the uh one of the key components of our
work that we're focused on this year as a district. Uh so more to follow on that um as soon as we share out that survey. We should have it ready for you by the next time we meet in March. uh mathematics uh again goal to improve
by 5 to 10% for each of our targeted groups. What you'll see over time from the left to right you'll see that our we've been making progress over time for our students when it comes to mathematics um especially across grade levels. You'll
see from left to right from year year over year one year to the next we're seeing a positive progression for our kids with the exception to eighth grade. I do want to highlight that for you because you may look at and say, "Well, Mike, what's going on in the 8th grade?" So, in 8th grade, you'll see that there
is a a big drop from 2425 to 2526. Uh, that's part and parcel because last year we did have students that were taking the regent exam also take I Ready, which skewing this a little bit. Um, this year they just took the MAP
assessment because it's more aligned. Um, so we're missing a good 14- 1500 children out of the mix of this assessment. So that's why it looks a little bit a skew uh when it comes to our math data. Um, across our subgroups,
we are seeing positive trends moving forward. Um, having said that, there's still much to do for our kids to make sure we're proficient in math. Um, goal is to get ourselves over 70% of our kids meeting um meeting math standards this year. we are very very close to that um
or were very close to it this past year and I'm hopeful that we will see those that type of performance uh surpassed this school year. Um so more more to do in mathematics but we are we are moving in a positive direction.
Um so project soapbox we had um and continue to have many of our children participate in soapbox speeches um and engage in the work um to earn to move towards that earning of one point
towards the seal for civic readiness. And something I'll talk about more during the the March session with everyone is the changes that are going to be happening at the state level when it comes to um diplomas. There will be a shift that I will talk to you guys about
uh our next session and start to get some feedback from you. and coming from the state, it's something that they're referring to as a portrait of a graduate and what we would deem as um appropriate for our kids to be ready to be high school and college ready. So part of
that work is um is around including the seal for civic readiness is one of the elements that could be added to the diploma. There will be one diploma that is shared versus the many that are available now. Um, so more to follow on this and what I'm going to be asking you
guys for is feedback. Uh, as president's council presidents, you know, what would you want to say that a graduate looks like here in district 25? Obviously, we can't do that across through high school because I don't get to supervise our high school kids, but from elementary
through middle school, what do we want to say that our kids are able to do by the time they leave us? Um, and part for me is this this space of taking action and that our kids are using that voice in order to make positive changes around them. So, we are well on our way. Our
schools across our district are implementing our civics lessons, making sure that our children become civically minded and know how to use that voice to make positive changes. So, this is happening across our schools and I'm really happy um about that. And um you
know my goal as I said is that our kids in eighth grade are ready to go to high school earning that point and there are many of our high schools across the city that are offering the seal for civic readiness and we're giving them a head start on that here in district 25. So
really excited about that and um you know looking forward to seeing how many of our kids are able to earn that by the end of the year. um safer college program. Um I know that at the beginning Charlotte mentioned that we were around 40%. When January turned over, more kids
became eligible and unfortunately our numbers went down to 37. So um want to make sure that that we continue to message. I will continue to message at um any opportunity I have at any meeting I have. I will continue to extend um
messages through Gamma. Um Jenny has met with all of our parent coordinators so that our parent coordinators can do this at all of their sessions. Um and we're going to ask that that um our safer college representatives make themselves available too at our meetings so that
they can also express what it it means for our families and how they can benefit from it. Um just by registering that they're getting themselves a $100 starter um and upwards of 150 if they complete a couple of tasks. So, it's really it's it's an opportunity that I
want to continue to mention and make available to our families um as uh as the year goes on. Um you know, $189,000 is what's currently not being used across our district and I would much rather it be in our parents and students
hands than it be just sitting there. So, I'm going to continue to reference that uh as much as we possibly can and you know, we'll we'll hopefully change change that 37 to around a 50 by the end of the year. Um, okay. Uh, parent engagement work. Uh one
of the things that we do have and our schools are working on which we'll share a little bit more widely with you during our next session but all of our schools are engaging their our families in engagement workshops in you know whether that's through open houses or welcoming
Wednesdays first Fridays all of those types of events aside from workshops around and uh reading and mathematics this is part of my expectation that our schools are are engaging our families in this work Um, the more that we can do this, the better informed our families
will be uh so that we can increase response rates uh on the citywide survey, which is available to our parents as well to voice their uh their opinions about what we're doing inside of our schools. So, we will be sending a much more scaledown version of what we sent out at the beginning of the year. I
know that at some point parents also get uh survey fatigue and it's like, "Oh, here's another one." Um, so we will scale it down and I will be sending it to every every parent's gamma. Um, hoping that we get a little, you know, many more responses than what I originally got, which was a little over
a thousand. Uh, would love to have as many parents contribute as possible because that's how our our district's district uh, sessions came about was through that feedback. So, the more our parents can communicate, the more we can do for you uh, to keep you connected and informed.
And lastly, I'm always going to talk about this because it's so super important, and that's chronic absenteeism. Um, our rates um are unfortunately not moving in the the most positive direct of directions. We were
approaching nearly 96% I want to say, of attendance rates in Novemberish, and then from November to now, we're at 94.2% 2% of our kids in attendance on a daily basis, which is good comparatively in the city. We are tied for second uh
highest attendance rate in New York City amongst all of the districts. So, comparatively, our kids are coming to school, which is fantastic. But we still have a lot of kids that are not in school with the regular with the regularity that is necessary for them to
be to sustain their success. There's a 20% nearly a 20% difference in performance. I've shared this with you guys before. Uh I'm going to keep sharing with you now. Um our uh attendance coordinator is going to be touching base with our schools and most need to revisit the current um plan that
they have in place uh and organizing things that they can do a little bit differently to hopefully, you know, promote more positive attendance in their buildings. Some of our schools do have very high chronic absenteeism rates and others are very very minimal uh in the single digits. So, it's important
that we continue to message the importance of being in school um for so many reasons, but most importantly to make sure that our kids are reading um by the time they move on beyond schooling with us in the eighth grade. So, really super important.
And now, what are we doing? So, there's going to be an ongoing focus um using our district data dashboard. We have a very robust dashboard that allows us to break information down by standards and grade levels and subgroups, which was why I was able to highlight certain things for you um that we really are
zoning in on moving forward. Um making sure that uh kids that we're calling our our sprinters. So, some of our families may have received a a letter say asking uh excuse me uh letting them know that their child um is going to participate
in a uh in a sprint. These are particularly for children in grades 3 to eight that are currently just on grade level or maybe a little bit below to give them a little bit of additional practice in I Ready for 30 to 45 minutes per week. Uh to make sure that we're building those muscles as much as we
possibly can. Uh we're going to continue to strengthen our early literacy, particularly focusing on those foundational skills, uh supports for our L's and children with IEPs, particularly our standalone, uh L programming and any intervention programs that we're using,
i.e. phonics for reading, spire, and sound sensible. Um and I already mentioned the revisiting of our chronic absenteeism plan as a community. um and supporting our schools in refining how we're checking taking a look at our grades four and five uh to make sure
that the kids that we're seeing that were on grade level last year at this time that might have dropped a little bit to give them all that they need to help boost their um their supports to make sure that they're ready to go by the end of the year. And by no means is the state exam uh the only thing that
we're preparing for. We're just we want to make sure that our kids are good and ready for the next grade level. Uh, and part of that is making sure that they get enough practice um, with the text that's in front of them. The more eyes that we can have on text, the more um,
and the more routinely our kids are reading, uh, the the greater the likelihood of them seeing success um, as readers moving forward. So, um, that's where we are right now. Uh, and that concludes my um, my presentation for you
tonight. Does anyone have any questions for me based on what I shared with you? >> Well, thank you very much, Dr. Mike. I don't see any questions in the chat. Listen, as always, guys, um I appreciate
you and you know, I thank you for for being on here, especially in a on a day where you uh were cluttered up in in in the home all day with the uh cooped up in the home all day with the snow that that uh that came. So, I appreciate you guys for constantly supporting our
district and our schools. Um and well, I I do ask one thing. If you have any recommendations for our wellness day, things that you would like to see for us to make available, uh please let us know because it is a it is a really cool day and we want to make it as supportive as
possible. So, I thank you guys as always and I will be on listening in uh for the remainder. So, if you need anything, I will be here. >> Great. Thank you so much, Dr. Mike. and I hope you're staying safe and warm and get to the office safely tomorrow cuz I
know it's going to be treacherous out there still. >> Yes. Everyone be safe and um you know I'm really confident in our building leaders to make sure that our kids um are good and taken care of as always.
>> Okay, so moving on in our agenda um I would like to introduce Antonia Martinelli. She is with uh P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P PTA Link which is part of Apple Seed New York Apple Seed and she um PTA Link is a great
source of support for parent leaders um in the city. So Antonia, I'd like to turn the floor over to you. >> Thank you so much, uh Rachel, and hello to everybody in district 25. Hello, Superintendent Dantona and and Jenny
Chang. We've we've spoken a lot on our um our office hours and I'm just really happy to be with you all today. Uh thank you so much for inviting me. I'm gonna share my screen. Is that is that okay?
>> Yep. I made your co-host so you should be able to share your screen. >> Wonderful. Okay. And there we go. Everybody can see my my presentation. All right. So, I'm just going to give
you guys a a little introduction to um PTA Link and what we can offer. Um so, first off, who are we? Um my name is Antonia Martinelli and I've been a parent leader for quite a long time. I
started off as a PTA secretary at a middle school 88 in uh South Slope in district 15 and eventually I became PTA president and then um I was a member of my CC in district 15 for eight years.
Became president of of that CEC and um and I work for PTA link which is a project of New York Apple Seed. We advocate for equitable, inclusive, and integrated schools. And we're dedicated to empowering parents and teachers and
and principles and the entire school community. Um, so everything that you need to know about running a PTA can be found on our website, uh, ptalink.org.
Um, it was actually created by another parent, uh, named Rachel Fine, who was, uh, a PTA parent also in district 15. And she saw this real information disparity between PTAs. Um, and this was
long ago before before there were family leadership coordinators, before parent coordinators were a mandated position in the DOE. And she worked to create this website. It's free. It's there 24 hours a day. I know a lot of our parent
leaders do a lot of their work maybe at 10 or 11 o'clock at night when some of these questions can't be answered by your parent coordinators. So, please uh make use of our website. Um, we are here to empower parent
organizations and how we do that is providing information and tools and support because we believe that if a if if a PTA is more knowledgeable uh then it is going to be more accessible to its entire school
community. It's going to advocate for the entire school body. Um, and we think that when a PTA is more knowledgeable and accessible, they're going to be more effective. Um, and so PTA Link likes to
give uh, PATAs the opportunity to share their best practices, their own successes and challenges across the entire city so that we can make all of our PATAs knowledgeable, accessible, and thereby effective.
Um so we feel that equal access to information reduces conflict. Um and we believe that information uh fosters PTAs that are in compliance with the rules and when they're in compliance
with the regs that fosters continuity from year to year. uh people want to continue to to do work on their PTA and and pass the work on to others and and encourages others to to participate. And
maybe people who never thought of themselves as joining the PTA um might see themselves in those roles because their PTA um is um is really
working for the entire school community um and is and is um is a good functioning organization. Uh everybody wants to join organizations that are run well um and
That uh participation across school community fosters positive family engagement which encourages productive collaboration with the principal and the staff which of course in turn reduces conflict.
Okay. Um so we uh have articles on PTA link that explain the rags uh in practical terms through real examples. The regs can be very dense. Um I find myself reading them multiple times a
week. I can't count the time the number of times I've read a A660 and I I still forget things. I have to go back and read it over and over again. So we try to explain it in layman's terms. Uh we provide direct support to parent
leaders. We respond to questions during our weekly office hours or via email. Um and we often also have scheduled 10 one-on-one calls with parent leaders. And we try to stay on top of all of the changes to the rags so that our website
is up todate uh so that you all know what's going on. Um, we also give parent leaders the opportunity to share their ideas by writing articles uh to post on our website. So, if anybody out there uh
wants to share a success or a challenge um that your PTA has worked on, we would love to publish it on PTA link. So, so reach out to us um if you'd like to partner in that way. Um, we also create
and distribute resources. Uh, there is a QR code here up on the screen for something we call PATA year at a glance. It's it's basically a calendar of of
to-do items for PATAs. I kind of think of it as what to expect when you're expecting a PTA. Uh so so please uh take a look at that. Uh uh try and take a
picture of the QR code if you can if you're interested. And we also I want to highlight that we have resources on how to incorporate as a nonprofit organization and how to apply for 501c3
status. Um, this is a a a question that we often receive. It's a very complex process. Um, and it's one that the regs mandate uh, PAPAs
um, retain an attorney to do if they choose to be a 501c3. So, we refer uh parent leaders to other organizations because obviously retaining attorney costs money, but
there are pro bono um lawyers out there who can help you. And we refer people to new New York lawyers for the public interest. Their number is on the screen. It's 212244664. And what happens is you will call them
up. You will explain that you're a PTA and you would like to go through the process of becoming a 501c3 and they'll ask you to apply um for their proono services. They will take a little time to review your
application. um I'm not sure how long, maybe a month or two, and then they will select um hopefully select you for a pro bono attorney. They will assign you to somebody um and that you can work with
um to hopefully become a 501c3. PTA Link also schedules private uh or not private but presentations. We are available to attend your PATA meetings. We table at events. We were just at Queens North High School's event with
the with the Queens High School President's Council uh in January at uh Queensboro Hall. Uh we do webinars tailored to the questions of your PA, PTAs, and President's Councils. So,
please contact us at infopalink.org or to schedule one of those. This is a webinar that is coming up uh next month uh Thursday, March 26th at 700 p.m. Elections are around the
corner. Um, so we're going to have um a family leadership coordinator from district 21, Geette Pzilante, and some of our CPAC leaders are going to come and share all of their knowledge
about um running PTA elections. Um, and then all of our webinars, they're all recorded and they can all be found on our YouTube page. Uh, we recently had a webinar a few weeks ago
on PATA finances and your your co-president Rachel was one of our guest speakers. Uh, it was it was a really interesting topic. We had uh somebody who is a tax expert speak and somebody who works for
a bank. Uh we really got into the nitty-gritty of of uh PATA finances. And then um back in December, we did a grants and funding um webinar with Tracy Kaufman from Candid. lots of great tips
uh about applying for grants, corporate grants, um applying for other sources of discretionary funding and resoa funding through your burough president or your city councilman's office. So that that was a really good webinar and um please
look look go to our YouTube page and check them out. Um, we have office hours every Thursday at 10:00 a.m. Uh, you can, uh, get the QR code here. It'll take you right to the Zoom call. Um,
it's really an open conversation. I never know who's going to show up. I have PTA leaders from all over the city, parent coordinators, family leadership coordinators, all all sort of join randomly. I never know what the
questions are going to be, but it's really interesting to see people from all districts um have these conversations and uh share their their knowledge. And some of the questions I wanted to
share some with you um today uh that have come up and and we've gotten the answers to them and put them out on our newsletter. So, the first question I've got up here is, "Is candy permitted at the monthly PTA fundraiser of
non-approved food items during the school day as long as it's outside the cafeteria?" First, I'm just going to tackle the monthly PTA fundraiser question. I'm sure you all know that there uh is a waiver that allows PATAs to have more
than month one monthly uh fundraiser during school hours. you can actually have 14 in total over the course of the year, but this waiver does expire on June 26th of this year. And um we we
don't know if they're going to um extend that. Uh it'll be interesting to see. Um but aside from that waiver, no candy remains prohibited for sale to students during the school day. PTAs may sell
other non-approved food items like baked goods during the approved fundraisers, but um of course the bake sales may not take place in the cafeteria. Uh second question, must our PATA have
an executive board member on school grounds during a virtual meeting? This person was actually conflating virtual and hybrid meetings. So no uh a PTA can hold a completely virtual
meeting. You don't have to have anybody in person. The the requirement to have one inerson executive board member on site just pertains to the hybrid meetings. Our PTAs can have they can choose. You're autonomous bodies. You're
not subject to open meetings law. So you can have a completely in person, a completely virtual or the hybrid form uh forum. But if you do have the hybrid meeting, you have to have the one executive board member on school
grounds. And if there is uh a location that is accessible to people with disabilities, that is where that executive board meeting has to hold the inperson portion of the hybrid meeting.
Um our PTA would like to have a fundraiser in which parents pay a fee to rent a table and bring toys, household items, etc. to sell. The PTA would receive a percentage of sales. Would
this be considered a flea market under A650? So, unfortunately, it probably would trigger an A650 uh flea market type requirement because of
the percentage of sales um style. So instead, we recommend that uh parents consider donating these goods directly to the PTA so that the PTA can then sell them and all the proceeds just go
directly to the PTA. And last question, can PAS use zel? You can accept money donations through
zel, but you cannot pay you cannot make payments through zel. Chancellor's rights prohibit the papa from making payments through persontoperson or instant payment systems. However, they may receive donations and payments
through these systems. And I'll just put my contact information on the screen. Lots of ways to connect. Um, info@ptalink.org. My direct email is Antonia Martin, oh sorry, a martinelli@ new
yorkapplece.org. Please look at our our websites palink.org and also our parent organization new yorkapples.org and consider subscribing uh to our newsletters. You can go to
this QR code. Um the newsletter is a great resource. That's how we let everybody know about our webinars and every time uh we get a great question. Um we answer it um in our Q&A section on
our newsletter. We we put out um lots of great resources. um through the newsletter. So, please go to that QR code and subscribe. Um and I'll take any questions if there are any.
Thank you, Antonia. If anyone has questions, they can either unmute and ask their question directly or you can put it in the chat. Um whichever you prefer. I don't see any questions in the chat. Well, thank you so much for being here
this evening. Um, as I mentioned, um, you're a great resource. ptalink.org or is a fantastic re source for all to sorts of things PAPA related and we appreciate you coming here tonight to talk about it.
>> Thank you for having me and thank you for for joining our webinar and being a guest speaker. You are a fantastic guest guest speaker. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate that. >> Sure. Have a great night everybody. Enjoy the snow. Okay. So, moving on in on our agenda for
tonight. Um, next we have uh our president of our district 25 CEC, Eden. Eden, I turn the floor over to you. >> Hi guys. Hope everyone's staying warm. I know it's not fun out there. Um, just
quickly wanted to go over next Wednesday we will have our annual our monthly meeting. this meeting. We're going to have some resolutions that we're voting on. Again, we do have a new CEC member. Thanks to Veronica for being on for that interview. Um, we were able to elect
somebody pretty quickly. We will have a presentation from New York City Kids Rise. We also will have a presentation going on about state testing and how to get kids ready. Dr. Mike's been talking about the soapbox speeches. We will be having another soapbox speech. And then we will also be going into our business
meeting to talk further about our awards ceremony as we are in the planning stages of that. So as soon as we have more information of that, I'll let you guys know the date and which school we choose. Um as we have to talk with Dr. Mike about that. Um but we'd love to see people there. So I'll keep everyone updated. But does anybody have any
questions for me while I have you? Awesome. Well, stay warm. Be safe tomorrow getting to school. And I will see you all soon. >> Thank you, Eden. Same to you. Be safe tomorrow getting your kids to school.
>> Okay. So, Jenny, you want to pull up the the slides? >> Yep. We have some PAP reminders. I'm going to go straight to reminders. Oh, these are the CC meeting dates for your review. The next one will be on March
4th. Wednesday, March 4th, 7 PM. Okay, Rachel. >> So, just uh hopefully this will be your last reminder. Um your interimm report for um this school year was due by
January 31st. Well, the 30th was the last school day. Um you had until the 31st to submit that report. Again, it covers the time period of July 1st, 2025 through January 15th, 2026.
Um, on the next slides, you'll see the actual report itself. If you have not done it yet, please do it as soon as possible. It does need to be signed by the treasurer and the president and submitted to the principal um as well as
um the uh parent coordinator. Um so that the parent coordinator does submit this re uh form to the district through SPLCI. Um and then also the report needs to be shared and reviewed with the general membership at the next monthly meeting.
Um so if it's not been done yet, you'll want to make sure and do it um at your next meeting uh prior to your next meeting so that you can review that information for the general membership so that they can see where all the money is coming from and where it's going to.
So they can see the income as well as the expenses for the school year as of thus far. And so this is the first page of the report where you'll list um item by item the amount brought in for each fundraiser.
Um you'll start with the beginning balance. Again, that needs to match what's the bank on the bank statements. Um, you'll outline all amounts brought in for membership dues and then list all of your fundraisers with the total amount of income for the entire period.
And then this is where you'll list your expenses and total your expenses. And then you'll have your fund balance as of January 15, 2026, which again should match, no, must match the um balance in the bank account as of
January 15, 2026. And this form again needs to be signed and forwarded to the principal and shared with your members. And just a reminder about PTA links office hours which they just shared. Um you can follow them also on Facebook,
Instagram. Um X they are active on social media so you can follow them as well. Just want to tell Antonio I share this with the parent coordinator too every Wednesday afternoon so they have it
ready for Thursday morning. Rachel, I can um I can talk about the DPAC meetings. So, the next meeting will be this coming Wednesday. This is for all title one schools parent leaders as the title one pack chair and alternate. Um we also have guest speakers coming
and we have invited Turbo Brian Meal. He's the founder and the CEO of Turbo. will be coming and talking about the Turbo doll itself and a parent com um parent program that's links to its u the doll and their program. So Turbo and
everyone you guys are you know feel free to join the DPAC meeting if you would like to. It takes place via Zoom 5:00 on Wednesday and the next uh President's Council meeting will take place on Monday March 16. Um on Monday, March 16, we have
invited um include NYC to join us as one of the guest speakers and we will still go over the uh PAP elections and nomination committee. So if you have any questions for President's Council, there's our email
there, d25pc1gmail.com. Um, also, um, the link to the President's Council's main page on the district website, um, where you can always access that email address. You can access recordings of previous meetings if you miss one.
You can also access documents that are um, shared such as this presentation, Dr. Mike's presentation. Um those the minutes from each meeting are all available on um the president's council page on the district
website. >> Um Rachel, do you mind if I go back to the financial interim report because um me and Lewis also keep a copy. Hold on, let me go back at the district level for per audit
purposes and sometimes we do receive a copy where it's not signed or dated. So I I have to return back to the parent coordinator then then have to reach out to you for signature or date. Just make sure it's it's signed and date uh before you give a copy to your parent coordinator. They have to input it into
SPLCI and we also keep a copy for audit purposes. I'm going to stop sharing. Okay. Now we'd like to open up the floor if anyone has any questions um for anything that's going on in your
schools. any questions for that you might have thought of for Dr. Mike or any of our presenters. Okay. Well, we want to thank you all for taking time out of your busy day. I'm sure it was more um hectic than usual
having all of our kids home all day. Um hopefully they got to have some fun in the snow. Um but we would like to then bring the uh February President's Council meeting to a close. Um, if I could get someone to motion to adjourn
the meeting and state your name for the minutes. >> All right. Motion to adjurnn. Annie, Junior High School 185. >> Thank you, Annie. If someone could second the motion and state your name for the minutes. Lisa Lamb accept seconds through the
chat. It is 7:47 and the February meeting of President's Council is officially adjourned. Thank you all for attending and for your participation and we look forward to seeing you at our March meeting. Again, that's on Monday, March 16th. And have a great night. Be safe, be
warm, and be careful getting to and from school tomorrow and the rest of the week because I hear we have more snow in our future. So, good night everyone. Thank you.