Yep, we are recording. >> Alrighty. So, good evening everyone. Thank you so much for being here. Um, as I'm sharing the the slide, I can't see anything. So, Lewis, if you see any parents coming in, please admit them. All right. Um, so
today is our DPAC meeting for October. We do have a agenda. Um we're going to be uh approving our uh September mid meeting minutes and Dr. Mike's going to give his um superintendent's report. We
have been talking about updating our DAP bylaws uh for a while now. So tonight we do meet Kum. So, we're going to make sure we have uh you guys stay so we can um approve the bylaws for the 2025 um school year and then I'm going to go
over the I plan portal and then announce some upcoming meetings and open the floor for the questions. Crystal. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Crystal Gonzalez chair. Um our meeting norms
start and end on time, one voice when speaking. This is a safe space to speak. 1 2 3 then me. If you spoke already, allow three people to speak before you speak again. Respect all. Be present. Be
engaged and involved. Approval of meeting minutes. September 2025. DAC minutes. District 25 DACA minutes. Date Tuesday, September 30th, 2025. Time 5:00 p.m.
Location virtual via Zoom. One, call to order and welcome. Meeting open by Jenny Chang, district family support coordinator at 5:08 p.m. Two, approval of minutes. March, April,
May, and June minutes were reviewed. Three, superintendence report, Dr. Michael Dantona expressed gratitude to parents for leadership and time. He discussed district vision, key priorities, connection before content,
curriculum and programs, assessment, intervention programs, district data, English language and learners, civics for all family initiatives, New
York City, kids rise/save for college program, adult education at is2 237 survey plans and closing notes. Four, title one overview done by Janney Chang,
pack roles, districtack, citywide pack. Five, DPAC elections or facilitated uh chairperson and alternate were chosen. Secretary is still vacant.
Uh the chair nominations were done. Uh Crystal Gonzalez was chosen as the chairperson. Uh alternate nominations were done. Jamie Wong was uh chosen as the alternate.
Uh six bylaw reviews. Uh this is an ongoing discussion uh since March to amend the bylaws. We wish to reduce quarum uh requirement from 8 to 5 and seven next steps and
announcements were made. You can find all of the information uh being discussed on our meetings uh all of the materials uh bylaws and a superintendent presentation on district 25's website at d25.nyc
and then the meeting was adjourned. Uh can I get an appro a a motion to approve the minutes? >> I approve. >> Can I get a second motion to approve? I approve. >> Okay.
Minutes are approved. Okay. We would like to give a warm welcome to our superintendent uh Dr. Mike Dantona and he's going to present our uh a superintendent report. >> Sure. Thank you guys. Great to see uh
see so many of you on the call. um you know the the work of DPAC is so super important for for our schools and how we utilize um you know our collective communities to make a difference for our kids. So I thank you guys for taking the time. I would imagine that it's not just
um this that you've managed to to to take up even more of your time other than being a parent probably working wherever you're working and then being able to give up your time to to be part of this meeting and all the meetings that you do in your school. So, I'm always going to start off in a space of gratitude for uh for what you do as
parents and uh the supports that you give uh to help make the experiences for our kids as good as they can possibly be. So, uh first and foremost, just a space of gratitude for for you guys and your willingness to to take part um in this space. So, I'm going to go over a
few things. Some of them will be um um continuation of things that we talked about during our last session. and I'll give you a little bit more of an updated space of of data. A couple of them that I'm going to actually ask for your help on. Um, one of them being our parent survey. I did send one out. You're all
going to probably see a little video message from me uh in the near future asking for more folks to contribute. We only have a little over 600 parents that have given us feedback. Um, and you'll see that in a few moments. And you know, while 600 sounds like it's a good number, we have 23,000 kids in the
district, you know. So, um it's how do we continue to get some of that clarity around what uh what we are doing that's working and perhaps things that we need to get better at. So, um I'm likely to add you ask you guys for any help that you can when you're at at the school when you see that information. Uh but
let me share my screen so you can see what we're going to be talking about um tonight. So, um just greetings. There'll be a small little connection before content that we do. Um, and a lot of these things that I share here, I do
make sure that for consistency and continuity sake, we'll share with at our CEC meetings and I will share at our president's council meetings so that everyone's on the same page with what is important to us um, here at uh, the district level. And then in between that
space is asking you for feedback on things that you think are important for for you as well as uh, parent leaders. So, um, connection before content, real quick rundown if you weren't here during our last one is something I'm asking all of our schools to participate in. Uh,
regardless of meeting, whether you are at a DPAC or you're doing a president's count PTA meeting or um school meetings that are that our building leaders run or that our kids are involved in. And it's really the whole idea is around relationship building and just getting to know one another in different ways.
Um, so throughout the week, one of the my asks for all of our schools is that at minimum of once a week, minimum, and it could be more, that we take a little bit of time in our classrooms to expose our kids to simple questions or tasks that allow them to just talk to one
another. Um, get to learn who each other is. Um, uh, you know, to build some of that space of relationship. And um you know I think more and more it how important that is for our kids to know how to speak to one another in any given day. And I have two two children. I have
a ninth grader and 11th grader and both very very different kids. Uh Emily when she walks into the room you know she's there. Matthew when he walks into the room you might have to figure out where he kind of tucked himself. You know there are two very very different children. And um if you let Matthew
he'll be as quiet as you want in the corner. Right. We want our kids, all of them, to have to be able to build those muscles to be able to communicate with one another. Uh, even if they're a little bit shy and passive to begin with. Um, so what we're going to ask is just for
you guys to indulge me. Um, and I might put you into just a very brief breakout room just for a little bit of fun. Uh, so the idea of choosing a partner, I'm going to wind up choosing or the computer's going to choose for you. Uh, and we'll just prop into a into a room really briefly around this this question. Uh, is there something you are
afraid to try? Um, and why? So, just take a moment just to think about is there something that you yourself are afraid to try? Uh, and why? Just take a moment of pause. And if nothing hits you, it's fine. You don't have to feel compelled to say that. Yeah, I got
nothing. I'm I'm I'm good. Nothing really gets me nervous. Um, but I will start just so that you can hear mine. Um, you know, the the whole idea always, and people that do this, more power to them, but the idea of me jumping out of a plane to do skydiving is not something
that Mike is ever trying. The only way you would get me to be able to do it is if you knocked me out and pushed me out of the plane. Otherwise, I am staying nice and bundled up and buckled up and I'm good. And it's not that I'm afraid of heights or anything, but the idea of lack of control, um, I think is what
makes me say I am not doing that. So, just to give you a point of reference of what it can be, it can be as silly as as that or something even more serious if you like, but I'm going to break us up into into groups just for a moment. And I hope you don't mind me doing this, but I
just want you to get the experience of the small little ways that we're asking uh all of our groups to really just be able to connect with someone that they don't know. So, when you get into into the room that I'm going to put you in, just start off by just saying who you are. you know, your name, your school, uh maybe the grade level of your child
or group of children that you have, and just kind of get into that very brief spot. It's literally four minutes, and I'm going to scoop you right back in. Okay? So, I hope you don't mind me doing this, but I just want you to get a feel for uh for what we're asking uh to happen in our schools.
Okay? And I'm going to open the rooms for you guys. Okay, looks like everyone's got a partner, right? Okay, >> I'm just going to try one of the room to see what >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. all the details and I just copy and
paste it into a uh AI platform and say create minutes and it would just give me everything in bullet points. So please if someone would like to step up and become our DPAC secretary we will really welcome you and appreciate you. So let
us know. We're going to give um the floor a few more minutes. I mean a few more seconds to think about it. You'll be joining amazing team. We have Crystal and we have Jamie. And you'll be working closely with me and Lewis and Dr. Mike and team AA.
And we are here to support our title one packs. Our role is to support them. And Crystal Jamie will be attending C city pack meetings. It's once a month. bring back the information, bring back the updates and share with everyone.
You know, I'm looking at those who has camera on, right? I'm looking at Tim. I'm looking at Angela. I would love to but I have a lot of roles already >> and we understand it is it is a lot. It
is a lot. We do understand. >> All right. Okay. We're gonna move to our next slide. But if you ever wants to become a secretary, please give us a you know an email either me Crystal or Jamie and we'll make sure we'll include you in
our you know email threads and group chats. Um, let me go back to my PowerPoint. We stop. Let me bylaws. Let me open the bylaws. So, we've been talking about updating the bylaws for the few for the
past few months. Let me make it a little bit bigger. So, in the past few months, we had reviewed the bylaws. We also review it on our September meetings and it's been posted on our D25.nyc's
website under DPAC under um um sharing documents. I can show you where to find all these our meeting documents. Again u we would like to the only change we would like to do is to change the quorum from 8 to 5.
It is a city struggle that it's not only district 25 struggle. It's the city struggle that they don't meet quum either. So the city has talked about that we can change that to five vote since our bylaws do indicate that we need to be eight. We need to be able to
amend that to five. So can we in the chat get some thumbs up that we um to approve this new amendments and we're going to update it as our 2025 DPACT bylaws. Please um
we are asking everyone in the chat to oh that's the highlight highlight is to change the quorum of eight members to five so it's easier to conduct business to get the minutes approved and so on. We just need to be in quorum today in
able to change the update or ch you know change the number. Any amendments take two meetings. The first meeting will be to review the bylaws. The second meeting will be to put the votes in.
I'm going to stop sharing and once it's approved I'm going to have Crystal sign sign it and then we'll save it. Every year this bylaws need to be reviewed and every 3 years we need to update our bylaws.
I'm going to stop sharing. Um, yay. We got a lot of think um thumbs up. Thank you so much. So, Crystal, I'm going to ask you to come in one day to sign the the new
bylaws of 2025. Thank you so much. I'm going to go back to the um PowerPoint again. So, I plan portal. I don't know if you guys know what IP plan portal is, but I'm going to talk a little bit about it.
So after a pack election, after title one election, after a pack meeting, what's what will those documentation go? Schools are asked to document everything as title one is a federal program. So
everything has to be documented into the I plan portal. This is a deck that title one has shared with all the schools and this is what I'm going to share with you. And I will also go into the website itself so you can see how it looks like
outside this deck. We have um so the principal will designate someone. It can be themsel it can be an AP it can be the principal I mean the parent coordinator or it can even be a parent leader to upload um meeting documentations.
When you sign in to iplan portal, this is what you see. School documents. Each schools are asked to upload the title one information, pack information. It has the title one election date. It has the need. It has
the quorum. It has your name on it, your first name, last name, your email address. After each meeting, they are also asked to upload meeting documentations. Since you are the one um conducting the
meeting or and you are also might also be the one to uh to send out the flyers or to create the flyers and create the minutes. You will have to find out who are submitting these documentations so you can forward those documentations to that person uploading to the IP plan
portal. Schools are asked to upload them monthly. If they don't do not do that, they will get a um notification from central c center will remind the district. So we will reach out to the school asking them to upload those documentations. So if school have not
done it and they are they are in need of those documentation, they will probably be reaching out to you as the um ch u title one pack chair. Um same as SLT SLT meetings
um SLT meetings documentations will also need to be uploaded into the I plan portal. The pack information as I mentioned before they will be asking for the date. They will be asking for the month and the year and who facilitated the um
election mostly the president of the PAPA. Um they will ask for the title of the person who facil facilitated the election and they will ask for quorum if quorum was met and then after that they will be uploading um they will be asking
for your name your address and the alternate name and address term of office which which is always two years it's for pack is always two years for DPAC is also two years president and pap is only one year term but for CEC C
members for title one pack is always two and has been two. Let me log in. I'm going to go away from this deck. Let me log in to an actual uh I plan. So when I log in I do I plan oh
I plan I have to log in with my DOE credentials. Since I work for the district, I have access to all the schools. Um, I'm going to go to schools document
and scroll all the way down. I'm just going to pick the first. Normally PS20 is always the one. Title one is listed on the way on the bottom. All the way on the bottom. Let's say the principal do designate the
parent leader to submit the monthly meeting agendas, minutes and documentations. This is where you go. But of course, you will need to get access to IP plan portal first. In able to get access, the principal has to reach out to iplan.com and request
access for you. This is where you will be uploading or whoever the principal assigned you'll be uploading the meeting documentation monthly starting with um the C calendar starts in April that's
why they have April as number one but you will be oh what happened I'm sorry let me go back the first meeting that the pack title one pack will be holding will be will be October so October you will have your first meeting or no
September October, November, December, January, February and you have March and then you will go back to April, May. Please note that July and August is optional because you have two years term. You also will have meetings over
the summer if you choose to. But these two months are optional. So you do not have to have pack meetings in July and August. Does anyone have any questions about IP plan portal? Just want to show it to you
in case you know um any deal and the principal or the parent coordinator will be reaching out to you for documentation. You know what it is used for. They must update the IP plan portal on the monthly basis. So it's important that you guys work together to um submit
those documentations so school can be in compliance and not get hunted down by me or Dr. my or central staff. So, Dr. Mike's back. >> Hi everyone. Thanks. Sorry for the interruption. Uh please know I may have
to do that again. Uh so I will I will hop off um if I do need to. So um thanking you in advance for for understanding that uh that I might have to hop off of uh of this call again. But I'll try to run through a couple of these parts and and uh when and if I do
receive a call, I will have to excuse myself again. But um let me share my screen with you guys just to go over a couple of uh just important dates for you to keep in mind. these as I say
during our CEC I say during president's council I'll say to you every time until every time I meet with you I'm going to share enrollment dates um just to keep it at the forefront of everyone's mind's eye of when these things are happening uh just so that um you know that repetitive part of this is important for
me so that no one is in a space of not knowing uh when the dates are and for you guys to also share uh as you can for any of your community members that might not be aware of uh of the of the dates of things that we have available. So, just a couple upcoming events that we
have, uh we do have a an English language learner uh virtual parent workshop um with um through English but with Spanish translation on November 12th. Uh we have another one on um Wednesday, November 19th for our
Mandarin speaking parents. Uh and again, this is all about how do we help build our kids uh language muscles. Um so really important workshop for any of our multilingual learner families uh that are out there uh to offer that that layered support. Uh we will have part
one of our special education series. We started this off with the CEC um and through our collaboration with the CEC we decided to establish another uh a workshop series around special education. The first one is around understanding understanding the IEP. Um,
I think there are unfortunately way too many times that um, as parents we we know what IEPs are and we know what what um, what they're about, but sometimes we don't know all of the things that go along with it. So, these workshops are really really great way of of being
informed. So, I encourage any families that um are in that have a child that does have an IEP to be involved and connect um, as needed because they are recorded and you can point someone too. you know, I I listened in on and they have really good information for you.
Please, you can access it on our district 25 site. It's all present and available for you. So, I encourage you to to make that known um to any of those that come uh that you come across would be great. And then we have a virtual math workshop uh focused around our goal of building sensemaking for our
learners. Uh this is led by one of our team members as well. Um these sessions tend to be pretty well attended and very informative. So, I do encourage our families to participate in that, too. Uh, enrollment dates, um, high school admissions timeline, October 7th, um, is
when high school applications for LaGuardia and, uh, specialized high school admissions tests open. Friday, this this this Friday for the 31st is, uh, the registration window closes for SHSAT. Um, December 3rd, high school and
LaGuardia applications close. And on Thursday, March 5th, the high school offers are released. Middle school application timeline, it opened on October 15th. Uh Monday, November 3rd, is the deadline to register for Mark Twain and District 21
talents. Uh Friday, December 12th, middle school application closes. And Wednesday, April 15th, middle school offers are released. Kindergarten and kindergarten G& admissions. Tuesday, December 9th is when the application window opens. Friday, January 23rd, it closes. And
Tuesday, March 31st, kindergarten offers are released. Um, and preK, 3K, preK for any of our newer families or, uh, families that have young ones coming into our district, uh, 3K, preK admissions, uh, the window opens January
15th, uh, Friday, February 27th, it closes, and then releases are offered in May, May 12th for preK and May 19th for uh, for 3K. uh G&T grades 1 through 4. Tuesday, April 21st, the application opens. Uh
May 8th, uh the application window closes and then um offers are released on June uh the 11th. Okay. Um just a couple of other things that I want to bring up that is also connected to our work. So what you see here on the screen
and let me blow it up is um kind of our mantra that we go by and what we what we stand for and this idea of strong roots, strong schools. Uh it's been something that's been part of our district for um for pretty long time upwards of a decade
now. And um since last year we did make a change where you see here it says from many roots growing in wellness, kindness and community. It used to be used to read from many roots growing as one community and we changed it based on
conversation uh at the CEC uh to really promote this idea of wellness across our schools, kindness across our schools and community across our schools. So once a month when we meet with the CEC um we engage in conversations around how are
we going to start working to build this so that it's a sustainable thing. We meet together as a group. We talk about how we can build this um as a district and where we are right now in the process is kind of defining what we mean by each of these words by wellness, kindness and community
and then thinking about what are some asks that we can have of our schools to make it so. So part of this is asking all school leadership teams to have a component on their agenda that calls out wellness, kindness, and community. How are we doing that? How are we promoting
kindness? How are we promoting community in our schools? Um so that it supports this idea of wellness whether it's physical or uh mental or social emotional uh in our buildings. And my feeling is the more that we are connected to this um as a collective
community, the more actionable decisions that we can make that promote those types of behaviors for our kids. Um you know if we are struggling what do we do about that? How do we help manage that for ourselves but also seek out some support from um you know whether it's a
peer or a colleague you know depending on who who you are or uh you know a student seeking out a teacher um and you know part of our discussion is one that I do see as a lasting one because there's never just one way that we can reach our folks uh whether they're
adults or our kids. Um, so this is what a summarized version of what we talked about at the CEC is. What I'd love for you guys to do if you want to just if you could just take the next two minutes just read through some of those things that we kind of uh lifted during uh
during the CEC. Uh, and they weren't always just necessarily phrased like this. I kind of tidied them up and put them into these small little buckets. Um, you know, just take a a couple minutes. What does it say to you um as um a member of DPAC
So if we could just take a a moment of of pause and thinking about this in what ways uh can we promote this idea of wellness, kindness and community from your own perspective. So thinking about what you see here, is it making you think anything about maybe things you're
already planning in your own school or things that maybe we could start thinking about planning and it's not mean meaning today. All right, tomorrow we're going to go back and all of a sudden wellness, kindness, and community is everywhere. It's a it's a building block space of, you know, how do we start thinking more intentionally about
this as um as schools and and you know, as well as that as parent leaders uh that we want to convey to our kids. Um so just take that take that moment from your perspective. Is there anything you would even add uh to this that you don't see there or things that you would want
to see um that are not there um to kind of describe these each of these terms. And just so you also know we've we've gotten perspective from our kids too. We're still in the process uh but we have about 10,000 responses from our uh from our students. we did give them a
survey uh and that will also be consolidated so you can see what kids think um about these terms as well um and then use it as a means of building our work as a as a community. But um just take another moment and if there's anything that kind of strikes you or
connects with you or uh makes you think about things that we could do at at our schools that promote it, would love to hear some of your perspective. um you know and feel free you can put your your your digital hand up so that we can you know allow uh each of you to have time and space to to share out. I would love
to hear some of your your thoughts. So, I'm going to stop sharing just for a moment. And if any of you have have any thoughts about that, whether you you you know, you like the idea of wellness kindness community as small as that or as big as adding some of your own uh thoughts to
contribute to to this space. I would I would love to get your feedback. So, feel free to put that that digital hand up or come off mute and share some of your thoughts. I'd love it. some of my thoughts. This is Crystal. Good evening, everyone. Okay, good
evening. So, on wellness, I really love the idea. It's not like not only about academics any longer. It's um it's showing that the school is considering how critical uh wellness is for the foundation of learning by pri
prioritizing our children's health. I'm speaking from parents lens right now. Um the school is like the district is trying to create a better environment for academic uh success doing this. I'm seeing building healthy habits are being promoted. The school um is supporting a
well-balanced life for students and staff and it recognizes the need and this is what I love. Y'all are listening to us. It recognizes the need um for self-care. It recognizes the need for
having that downtime and the time for play. It's not all about academics. It's about emotional health as well. And it's a pri they're prioritizing it. And it's um they're aiming to create uh an environment where well-being is the core
part of the school experience. And that's why I love at PS29 what they have every morning they ring a little bell, make the kids take their breath, you know, it it's beautiful. They have that time to relax before starting, you know,
their day. Um, it's about action and it's not just words and they're putting it into play. And this is what I love. Like you said it, now you're asking us for our feedback. How are we going to get the ball rolling on this? And then on kindness having that as a daily
practice of empathy for the kids. It's not just a kind um just a concept but being a daily practice that's guided by dignity and empathy and this means that the school wants to force the compassion and respect in a respectful environment and I love that you know and allowing
the kids to treat teaching them also treating others as they want to be treated and it's a guide for behavior. So, I'm just I'm just loving all of all of the ideas that I'm seeing here and um thinking about ways that it can be implemented more.
>> Yeah, I love that, Crystal. And you know what, I think, you know, from an idea to actualizing it, right? How do we how do we make sure that we're we're seeing these things in a visible way? And, you know, we have a number of things that we have put in place just at the district level in terms of um you know, in terms of those brain breaks through programs
like Mind Up and um and things that are associated with it. Um, but then to me it's how do we make it more visible and celebrate the the spaces where we see it and you know encourage our kids the the you know why it's important because I think sometimes the way that it shows up
are the ways that we don't want to see. >> Yeah. >> Those are the things that wind up getting visible. You know the ones that the the the negative choices wind up becoming the ones that become the things that get talked about and not all the wonderful things that our kids are capable of showing on a daily basis. and
how do we capitalize on that and make sure that we're making those those events, those activities, those tasks that our kids do that show them in um you know doing the the amazing things for others around them is really important too to to kind of capture. So thank you for uh you know for sharing
that. Um, anyone else that it kind of struck or hit in their own way that or want to contribute to this to this idea. I agree with uh Crystal that it's it's a full
full spectrum where it's not just all about academics that being able to relax before school. I really like what she said they do at 29. Hopefully that could be done at all the 20 um district 25 schools because I think a lot of kids especially they're like trying to get to
school on time. They're rushing. they get there and they're like flustered and offcenter and they're not really in the mind frame to dig in and start learning. So, I really like that idea. But I I like that it's a it's a full it's a
trying to get my words together. It's it's not just about academics. It's about healing the mind, body, soul. Like it's all in compassing in compassing. Yeah.
>> Yeah. And what I what I what I ask all of you and you know not that I need to give you you know more things to do as as parent leaders, but what I what I would love for you guys to lean in on just in in your role as a representative of for your school is to think about
ways that we can make this really become part of what we do. What are the what are the activities? What are the events? What are the approaches that we're taking um you know in school but also that present and and promote it? uh even in the things that we do as parents, you
know, what would we want to see happen uh within our community? And I want us to really start thinking about things more instead of these kind of like isolated events that we do, but they're all always consistently messaging around how this is bringing us together, how this is talking about the idea of
kindness or this idea of wellness and and thinking about as we're organizing our own events and activities as a parent leader, where do we fit those in? Um, and then it can become a guide of sorts across all of our schools to think about, oh, I loved what I just saw at 185 or 379 just did an amazing thing and
suddenly it starts creating this momentum uh around just amazing tasks that we're able to contribute to our school and and district for that matter. So, this is an open space that I'm going to come to every single month. Um, just in terms of update and what we're
thinking about and would love for you, and this is kind of the homework, not homework, that if you have ideas to just bring them forward. Uh, bring those to the to these meetings so that we can we can learn from one another around what we might want to try in our buildings. And it doesn't mean that because we came
up with an idea that it happens tomorrow, but it gives us opportunity to reflect and think about how we make things even more improved than what they currently are in our buildings. So, just throwing that out there as as a food for thought for you. Um, and I'm going to go through just a few more slides just to share with you a couple of other things
that are um that are going on. So, we did just finish up our beginning of year uh during our next meeting with CEC. I'll have a more detailed report. uh but this is just to give you a little context of where we are now compared to the past couple of years. So what you
will see here our starting point and our baseline is consistent with what we had seen last year and not too far off from uh from 23 in lots of respects in terms of uh initial space of our I Ready for
grades 3 to 8. uh we have lots of lots of room to grow which um you know is exciting but presents lots of challenges as well. Um so what you'll see our schools really emphasizing this year um especially for these children that are
in these pinkish and reddish sections you know regardless of grade level. So, pinkish and reddish sections, you're going to see our schools really kind of digging deep into not only the instructional core, which is the most important, what we do day-to-day in our classrooms, most important, but for our
kids that are really struggling as as readers, those real targeted intervention supports uh through programs like Spire, Sound Sensible, uh, and Phonics for Reading. those are programs that are designed to help children that have been struggling uh to
help pick up the the some of those pieces that maybe perhaps have those gaps that haven't been filled. Um so just so that you're aware um those are things that all of our schools are are aware of and connected to. So, if you get feedback and it's
it's your child and you say, you know what, my child is currently below below grade level. Um, you know, it's an entry point for you as parent to be able to connect and say, so talk to me about the interventions that you're going to be able to offer Mike because Mike is
showing that he's having a little bit of a hard time as a reader. Now, in some cases, they may say to you know, you know what, we're providing just small groupoup instruction, and we know Mike's going to be able to to to get over the hump just with that. Or they might say to you, you know what, just based on our
assessments and what we've learned, we know that Mike is going to is struggling with their phon with his phonics. So, he's got to be in inspire because Spire is going to help him elevate those needs um and, you know, build himself as a reader. So those are the types of conversations that that are happening in
our schools and I'm encouraging our parents to also have and be aware of where is my child you know where are they you know and you know what is the school doing but also then from the standpoint of a parent what can I also be thinking about at home right it's always about helping uh helping support
um our learners as much as possible so similar type of dynamic in terms of starting place now last year um it wound up allowing us to elevate and grow by by about 6% overall as a district. Um, which is a positive trend and that's the
same kind type of direct trajectory that I'm looking for this year. Um, you know, we're at around 64% overall. I want us to be in the 70s. That's where my next stopping point is is to continue to accelerate so that as many of our students are reading on grade level as
possible. Um, and similarly in math. Now, math is a little bit more elevated than in past years. um not by a tremendous amount but by a smidgen. It's by a little bit. Uh math we are just under 70% of our kids on grade level. Uh and a lot more work to do there. But I
wanted to give you a little snapshot of what the baseline that September October data said for our kids parent survey. Love for you just to take a moment and uh give a a quick look. I know they're a little bit small. Um, but these are
responses to the questions that we asked our community. Um, I gave it either a yes, no, or agree, agree, or agree or disagree. Uh, just to make sure that parents can make a choice. It's either one side or the other. We tend to get a lot of neither neither or neither nor. I
wanted to give someone make a choice. Either you're either you're saying it's there or it's not. Um, in large part, we're in the 90 plus percent. um range for most of the questions that have been asked of parents thus far, but 600 folks
is is not a lot uh for our community. So, I'm going to send out a video message um to everyone. Not that I love hearing my voice cuz I do not. Uh but I'm going to send out a a voice message to all of our families um just asking
that they do please complete it. Um, I know it's another thing and you know, um, filling out surveys is not always the the an area that people like to do and I get it, but this really does help. It gives a little bit of a snapshot as to what our families are thinking. And,
you know, one of the ones that's most important to me is this idea of making sure that everyone knows the progress of their children. So, that one that's right in the middle, number six there, uh, we have 91% of of families responded that yes, they feel like the school and
their teachers are giving them feedback on how their child is progressing, which in general is a good number, right? I'd rather be in the 90s than not, but we still have 9% of folks that feel like that's not the case. Um, and if that's so, how are we going to continue to voice and message um, what's going on
with our children? So, um, this and as parent leaders, I'd love for you to just continue to share. The link is there. You'll have access to this presentation. Point people in the direction. Oh, did you complete that survey? It's really going to help Dr. Dantona and the team out with supporting us a little bit
more. So, that's just as an FYI. Likewise, we did anal survey. Uh, here we have nearly um 9,000 children at this snapshot of of students that completed it. So the areas that we did our survey on are self-awareness, social awareness,
self-management, responsible decision-making, and relationship building. Those are the five core SEAL components that um are out there from all of those that are in the field of social emotional support. These are the five that they call out when they're
talking about. The others that we added in in the survey is community agreements. um things that we have expectations in our classrooms that students and staff alike agree on how they should be living in their classrooms. Um the things that they want to see and the ways that they go about
handling it at the school level if children aren't feeling like that community agreement is being met. Connection before content. I want to know from our kids if we're asking these things to happen. One, are they happening? And two, if they're happening, do they feel like it's helping them in any way? And then
lastly, supportive environment. There are a series of questions around that. Now, in large part, we have a range from 69% to 75% dependent on the area where kids are either saying they strongly agree or agree. A huge bucket and I
might have to think about whether or not I want to keep this neutral one in here so that our kids can also make a decision. a lot in that box of kind of like h you know it's depending if it's our middle schoolers. Our middle schoolers tend to be like the yeah you know uh kind of space. It's like almost
like yeah I'm I'm good either way. Uh so we do need to dig a little bit more into that. What I what I also need to kind of call out is the percentages of children that either disagree or strongly disagree. Now it's not a huge number but when you think about thousands of
children 2% is still a good number of kids. Um, so if they feel a certain way and they feel like they're not able to manage themselves or they feel like they're not being supported as a learner, these are places that we do need to connect with our kids to offer
them some of that additional TLC. So this survey is going to be administered three times a year. I will give you updates as the year goes on in terms of where we are. And again, like other things, I encourage you to say, you know what, Dr. to Daytona. I think this would be a good idea if we bring our kids
together for um or we organize around this. This is some of the things that I'm hearing my own child say um as an elementary schooler or as a middle schooler uh and how could we approach that? So, I encourage you guys to do that. And just as an outgrowth of this, what I am really excited about,
especially for our middle schools, our middle schoolers tend to have the most to say about uh peer-to-peer interactions. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not so good. Um, so we have now just trained um half of our middle schools and K to8s with a group
of children that are going to become peer mediators. Um, the next group is going to be trained in the in the coming weeks. Uh, so they can serve at helping kids help themselves solve problems. Um, I think sometimes when it comes from an adult, it's great, but it's even better when it comes from a peer that helps
them out. So, just so you know, that's also part of our package of things that we're we're organizing to build these relationships with our learners uh across our schools. Couple of other quick things. Um I know that you guys are also on SLT. Uh so, we
will be doing an SLT training on November 3rd. Uh we'll be going over a number of things that are important um from connection before content to um SLT 101 and the chancellor's regulation that governs the school leadership team process progress monitoring. We'll be
going over the MTSS expectations a little bit more than I just did. Uh so that everyone knows what the expectations are. And there will be a space around school budget. Everyone will be asked uh again not that I'm survey crazy but there are certain surveys that I think are important and
this one is around school leadership teams and what do our parents think about at the current structure of our SLTS are we doing the things that are we're supposed to be doing from the perspective of parent teacher administrator uh where are we and then what do we need to help and that's something the district leadership team
will be able to kind of pinpoint and say here are the supports that we can provide you at the school level okay uh and the other things are goals that I've already shared. Uh I'm not going to spend too much time on it, but we are focused on our space and reading. Um really having an intentional look at um
the data that we have, focus on explicit instruction. So you'll hear kids, your kids talk about this idea of an I do, we do, you do uh where teachers are expecting, I'm expecting our teachers to really model um the behaviors that we want to see in our kids. So I'm going to
show you what my thinking is learner to see how we do uh this partic learn about this particular skill or this particular content so that there's clarity for our kids when they then have to do those things on their own. So big emphasis on that specifically focused on what are
the resources that we're going to provide our kids that are falling outside of the sphere of success. Children that are struggling where's their entry point into the learning. So that's part and parcel of what we're doing here. We're also piloting work for our multilingual learners. Uh specific
focus on kids that are entering and emerging. Just so to reiterate that um the uh physically and emotionally safe are things that I just kind of talked about from the survey. A lot of our work is going to come out and through that. Um so not so much more to say there.
Mathematics I already mentioned around sensemaking. This is where our goals are. And what you'll notice is all the things that I talked to you about are going to be very connected to our priorities. You're not going to hear me talk about separate things. You're going to hear me talk about the things that we're focused on as a district. Um, and
we'll bring them up routinely just to keep you guys up to speed and allow you to ask questions when they come up. Um, likewise with Project Soapbox, Civics for All, huge proponent of it. Uh we're going to have some kids, provided you guys are okay with it, come and share their soapbox speeches coming in
December. So you can get a little bit of perspective around what's happening in our schools and how our kids are really connecting to it. And Jenny and one of our CEC members are on a little bit of a tour right now or going to be starting their tour of helping families really
understand the safer college program. If you're not aware of what that is, it's for children in grades kindergarten through fourth grade. Each student has the ability to have an account activated which will place $100 in an account that's saving for college that acrrews
over time. Um so it will stay with that child. It can be added to if a parent wants to. Schools can do fundraisers if they want to and then contribute dollars to kids accounts. Last year we're at 39%. Some families disagree with it. They don't want it and that's so be it. No
problem. But for anyone who's interested, they need to be aware. So, we need to make sure that we're doing a good job of raising awareness that this actually exists um with the goal of increasing by at least 10% this year. That's what our what our goal is. Uh so, Jenny is going out to schools and doing
support supportive um messaging to our families to make sure that they know what it is. Some are some are not part of it because they just don't know. Uh even with messages that go out, you know, say for college had looked at it and maybe oh that looks like a great idea and then not do it. um you know so
for us it's about raising that awareness. Okay. And the last goal that I want to mention to you is around chronic absenteeism. Won't leave a meeting without talking about it. We happen to have the second highest attendance rate in New York City as a district. Um we do a great job. Our kids
are coming in. We're at 95.6% of our kids are in on a daily basis. Uh the trouble with that is that we still have even with that high attendance rate, we still have 15% of our kids now. And it changes every day because once a child's out again, they'll put them at an at
risk for chronic absenteeism. Um, so it changes every day. We were at about 11% a week ago. Now we're at 15. Um, so when our kids are chronically absent, it impacts negatively on their ability to perform at every grade level. And the
space that it happens most parents is in grades K and one. Those are our two biggest trouble areas as a district community. It's far less in terms of chronic absenteeism rates when they get a little bit older. We still have our problems there, too, but our largest
groups are in kindergarten and first grade. So, early intervention, outreach, we I've asked all of our schools to make sure that we're connecting with families early on um so that you know our our families recognize the importance of being there. Sometimes when you're kindergarten, first grade, we don't
always relate the idea that, oh, well, you know, it's not that big of a deal if Mike stays home with me today. Uh, he might have had a sniffle or it's freezing out or the rain is terrible. You know, those are some of the things that weigh that weigh in that sometimes we we just disregard because they're
little. Um, but because they're little, they miss out on some of those key foundational skills when they're out. So, yes, they're going to be sick and we're not ex those those are excused things. those happen. But every other day, we need people in. We need our kids
in school. Uh, okay. So, that concludes what I have to share with you guys tonight. If there's any questions about anything I've shared, would love to hear from you. Um, but other than that, I wish you guys all a pleasant end of your end of your night. >> Um, Dr. Dantana.
>> Yeah. um any of their are we able to find your presentation on the site or >> Yes, I'm gonna I'm going to share it with um with uh with Jenny and then we'll post it right on the on the on the DPAC site.
>> Can we also share it on our own? >> Anything I anything that I share, you are welcome to share with whomever it is that you like. Yeah, these uh these slides are not just meant for you. They're meant for whomever it is that you want. So if you're doing a report for your school um and the reason why I
keep them consistent so that whether if it's president's council great if it's DPAC great someone's going to wind up sharing the information uh and I try to keep it consistent. Now it will vary here and there but I do try to keep it consistent uh so that the information is
available to our schools. >> Okay. Thank you. Just wanted to be sure that I could check I'll share >> and we also have the recording too of the video of Dr. presentation. You can refer to that as well. >> Oh god, no one needs to hear my voice. >> Yes, >> no one needs to hear that. That >> playing in double double speed. Double
speed. >> Yeah, triple speed maybe. Uh Dorothy, just so you know that the the safer college program, the reason why it's K through four and you might not have heard it as a fifth grade. Um is that it's it started so I guess it's now five
years now in the running and they build it up every year. Um, unfortunately, your grade level was not part of the initial starting place. Uh, and they're not going to accelerate it up to the grade levels that were already above it.
It's for all those that are coming in thereafter. Uh, so this started 5 years ago in a district uh or six years ago as a pilot in a district and because of the success of it, they chose to I know I'm sorry. It is a big thumbs down. I'm sorry. um because of the success in the
district they piloted in, they chose to say, "Let's let's now try to do this citywide and it then began with kindergarten and then they looping it up year after year." Don't get me wrong, we did ask and we were told unfortunately they don't have the capacity, you know, financially to keep building that up
across the other grades that they're trying to stagger it up from where they were. Um but yeah, don't worry. I'll keep advocating for it. I I I just don't know that I'll be able to get a uh get a yes out of them on that on that side of it. But yeah, we'll keep advocating >> for sure.
>> Daytona, is it possible that if a parent that's in that original grade band didn't do it, can they still join in even if Okay. If their kids are sixth graders or fifth graders, they can do it if they started at that five point. >> So no, not only if they are in K through
four right now. >> Right now. Yes. Which one now? >> Yeah. So kindergarten through four. So if they are >> and they're in that K through four, >> if they are a fourth grader right now, but they never activated, they can activate now. >> Yes. >> Right. If they were a third grader and never activated, they can activate now.
>> But they can't be a fifth, sixth, seventh, and up and then activate now because the program didn't start under their year. >> Yeah. And it also it also goes for new admits in those grade levels K through four. >> Yeah. >> If they're new to New York City public schools, they can get their account as
well. Yeah, and it's a really nice thing. It's a it's, you know, $100 of just hitting the activation button that goes into the account and they do it for each child. So, if you have multiple children, um, you know, you get to open up an account for them. >> Now, we also want you to spread the
word. So, the eligible grades is K to four and is regardless immigration status and and income. So, please encourage anyone to activate the account. It's $100 that's sitting and waiting for you to be, you know, to be activated. And then each step you will
do is that's three step you will give $25 as a reward for each step. >> So please spread the word and me and Stephanie from the CEC will be going to schools and you know host these parent workshops to make sure everyone is aware.
We don't want them to not get that money that's sitting there and waiting for them anyway. Dr. M, you good? >> Yeah, unless anyone has any other any other questions. I I just appreciate you guys being here. This is the largest group of DPAC representatives that I
think I've ever seen on one of these calls. So, I appreciate you guys uh for taking the time. I know it's a lot in your schedules to to be able to add in another meeting. Um, but the more information we're able to get out there and the more you guys are able to to ask questions of me, the the better
experience we're going to be able to provide for our kids. So, um, I thank you guys for your time. >> And we were able to, um, vote to update the bylaws. By the way, the DPC bylaws is not updated for 2025. >> Awesome. Thank
>> Thank you, Dr. Mike, for your awesome um, super superintendent's report. Let me go back to the IP plan portal. I did forget one piece. Okay, as we are talking about the bylaws. The school pack also need to update their bylaws.
So there's a piece in I plan portal where the someone will be reaching out to you to ask for a copy of the bylaws. The bylaws need to be reviewed every year and needs to be updated every three years. If you do not know where the bylaw is sitting, please have a
conversation with your um parent coordinator. They might have a copy in their you know in their on their computer or the principal. If no one have ever seen that bylaws for some reasons we have a template where you can create one from the scratch. It's just
two pages template. You you you make some changes. You know the template is always the minimum requirement what the federal wants wants to see. You can always add some to it if you would like and then make sure it's reviewed and
voted on and someone stayed and signed it mostly the pack chair. Okay. So, please do not forget to update your bylaws. That was the I plan portal and again we are um 36 school in district 25.
Uh whereas 26 of them are title one schools and two of them are our prek centers. These are um our vendors that we have worked with earlier. our title one schools have worked with because we know at the end of the title one school year
we will have to find out on how to spend that 1% set aside that's why we are here. So these have been um utilized we will try to invite each of them to come in and present for our new parent leaders as you haven't if you were not
around last year or you know so you won't be able to know what they what they are what they um what they offers. So for the next meeting we will um we will invite Tabel from Elevate. We're going to do them month by month invite some new vendors to come in so you can
get an idea on how to spend that 1% bring it back to your title one schools and have a vote for it because you are the voice of the your title one school on how to spend that 1%. So, Elevate Education um helps schools, they tailor
programs to help students who struggles and who needs some, you know, to teach them some skills. They will also um provide um trainings for the for the teachers so they can um support them um you know um with some other skills. So,
Tabel is great. We'll try to reach out to Tabelle. Hopefully, he can make it. If not, then I will reach out to the next one on my on my list. If you guys know anyone that's great and are DOE vetted and approved, please let us know
so we can add them to our list. Um, DPAC meeting is once a month. The next meeting will be November 5th. No, November 25th, I'm sorry. Um, each DPAC meeting, we will also be sharing some city pack updates.
This month the city pack um meeting has been postponed due to a holiday. So the next city pack meeting will be on January 3rd. Usually they will have their city pack meetings on the fourth Monday of each month but they postpone it to November 3rd. Crystal Jamie and I
will be attending those city pack meetings. We will alternate. We will bring back the information, the updates and have it, you know, turn key during our DPAC meetings. So please come join us every month. Even though we were able to change the chrome to five, I don't want to see I don't want to see five
parents. I want to see all 26 of you. Okay? So, please make sure you still show up and and support us with the DPAC meeting and get the feedbacks and get the updates to turn key to your community. Every month, CEC are also having their
meetings. We have Angela here, perfect um person to explain to you what CC meeting is. But these are our meeting dates. um they are having in-person meetings because CEC follow the open meeting law. So their meetings must be
in person. All members must attend in person to be counted as a quorum. But there's a hybrid link on D25's website if you would like to listen in and see what they do and just see who are our CEC members. They are having monthly meeting with the superintendent.
President's council meeting. So PAPA presidents they support schools with fundraising. President's council are um one extra layer to support our school level um PAPA parents. They also attend monthly meetings and they host monthly
president's council meeting to support our school level parents. Um the monthly meetings they attend is called CPAC meetings. So your title one is city pack. the uh president's council they will attend CPAC meetings with central staff and liaison and they will also bring back updates
and you know important uh informations and turn key to our uh PAPA parent leaders. So these are all important dates that you can you know say I felt like I forgot something but I lost it. Does anyone have any questions
for now? I guess I would just want to know um if your presentation is also on the website. >> Oh, see I knew I forgot something. Thank you, Angela, for reminding me. So, I plan portal. Let me go to D25. So, our
district website is d25.nyc. It can't be easier. Lewis made it as simple as possible. d25.nyc. It's going to bring you to our district 25 website. um our meet all the public meetings are posted here. You have the CEC meeting, you have the DT meeting, you have the
president's council meeting and DPAC is an extension of the DT meeting. So there's an arrow. You click on this arrow next to DT and you click on DACA. All meeting documents are right here under share documents. if you click on
it. Um, make sure you click on the right school year and the correct month. So, I have it right here. DPAC meeting 10:29, which is today. I already
uploaded the bylaws, the um my presentation, the minute and the title one um piece where you know the deck from title one on how to how to submit I plan um documentation into the plan portal. We just need to submit Dr. Mike's slide and then we all you all
set. You have everything right here. Everything is public. You can use our slide for your presentations. >> And Dr. Mike just sent me his slides. I'm going to put them in there right now. Louis, you're behind me today. Usually Lewis will be the first one to upload and he will be
>> No, not but Dr. Mike made his slides but without me so I didn't have them till just now. >> Okay. But today at least I beat you again. We are here to support our title one schools. We the DPAC is an extra layer for support and then we still have
city pack. We can always reach out to city pack if we have any concerns or questions that needs to be unanswered. So feel free to reach out to us with anything and we're here for you. But make sure to join us on the next
meeting J uh November 25th 5:00. Always at 5:' it from me. Does anyone have any questions? Crystal, did I forget anything? >> Let me know. No, that's all that we discussed.
>> Okay. If I forget anything, let me know. >> All right. So, I guess we can adjourn this meeting. Thank you so much. Thank you all so much for being here. I know everyone took the time out out of, you know, the dinner time to do homework with your child, with
your children to be here. So, thank you. Thank you so much. >> 19 has her PA meeting in about five minutes. So I got >> Oh my god. You have to jump from one meeting to another meeting. >> Yes, I do. Have a good night everybody. >> Good night. >> See you next Monday. >> Good night. You miss you guys. Bye.
>> Good night. >> Good night. Good night. >> Thank you so much. >> Good night. >> Good night. >> Tamoy, I'm happy to see your face because I know we spoke over the phone. So, it's good to have >> I'm happy to be here, too. It's even though it's my first time cuz like I
asked Ria, right? >> Yes. >> Cuz we in a group chat with Angela and I asked her should I attend and she's like if you have time and I was like okay I have time. >> We want you to be here every month. >> Right. I wrote