the minutes in the chat so we'll call this meeting to order um minutes are in the chat i also have it up on my screen for you guys to peruse and we'll come back to together in just a minute we will introduce one of our newest members
to um the DT as well in just a moment so we can all just start taking a look at um at our minutes for from last month's session um and we can begin okay folks um do we have consensus on
the minutes are there any reasons to make any adjustments peten thank you rob thank you should be good monique Lamar Ed and let's give a virtual thumbs up just something chat okay thank you
Katherine thank you Mon'nique okay all right folks we are going to get started welcome welcome to April our April meeting um hard to believe we are already in second week of
April in the stretch runtime for for our schools um and then we're believe it or not we're going to be talking about uh next year's goals today and how we want to structure them um did bring this to our CC meeting uh just a week ago less
than a week ago just to talk a little bit about where we're at uh with goal setting so we're going to be doing a little bit of that today um along with some resources that are available from um from the central team in terms of supporting our schools um with their own
C development so um we're going to get started and right and going right away let me share my screen again uh and before we do that actually we do have uh to introduce a a new member of the team and to thank uh Mr mitchell um who was
our former um DPAC sitting as former DPAC president um um Mr mitchell has since uh moved from moved on from that position and Katherine St pierre has been uh so gracious in assuming this role in Mr mitchell Mr mitchell's
absence so Katherine thank you so much for for being here katherine's also uh a member of uh our CEC um and is kind enough to assume this role too uh we're keeping Katherine very very busy here in the district and appreciate her time um
I know uh you guys that that are part of CEC and DT and everything part of your schools it's not easy to to juggle all of these things so uh we thank you for being here and uh and welcome to the to the team so if we can do just a quick quick
little round just so Katherine knows who uh who everyone is that's part of the DT that would be great so she knows everyone's role on here uh Eden I'm pretty sure she knows who you are but if you want to just start off with your role and then I'll give a a quick round so that Katherine knows who she's going to be working that's why I figured I'd
come off mute first katherine I sit on the DT because of being in the CEC president seat so Thank you Eden mr marino hi Katherine welcome i uh am Rob Marino PS uh
principal of PS120 i'm representing CSA on the DT thank you Rob gus welcome Katherine i'm Gus Hazitriu i part of Central DOE uh director of federal and
state education uh implementation policy thank you Gus eduardo welcome Katherine uh my name is Eduardo Duvarte i represent Queens North High Schools thanks Eduardo lamar oh I see you're in the car take it easy
with that Lamar you can give just a wave if you want i'm going hi Katherine good morning i'm Lamar Hughes um I represent the UFT i'm the UFT refer district 25 and I'm also based out of uh PS 2011 welcome aboard awesome thanks Lamar and
Monnique uh hi i am too in the car so sorry about that um just arrived at my destination i'm Monique Lisano and I'm the uh DC37 rep for the district thank you Monnique and we have several of our team members on here Katherine also that just uh sit
in as observers we have Jenny from our team is here uh Tracy from our team Greg Beverly Janet Lewis and I think I got everyone and Mr sarin as well uh all here just as observers too so um having gone through that quick little intro we
will get into the into the meeting talk a little bit about updates and reminders um focus on our L's ELA sprints and then planning for 202526 uh the goals that we have in mind and you know hopefully you guys can linger over them a little bit and give
some feedback around where we want to go next uh we've talked about this at the CC we've talked about it a little bit with our principles and started to engage them in this process as they will begin organizing their own goals within the next couple of months um and you
know really really important uh that we linger over some of the data that I'm going to share with you today and what your thoughts are about it okay so um just a couple of notes national Assistant Principles Week is this week big shout out to our D25 PR uh assistant
principles for the work that they do um on a daily basis for our students happy administrative professionals day uh is April 23rd me keep it in here just as a note for all of you so that we extend those those thanks when the time comes uh I always say this that I am the worst
with those with these types of days so I'm so happy I have team members that make sure that I remember otherwise um you know I get mixed up in in the daily grind and you forget to to do those celebrations and it's important that we do um Passover coming up happy Passover
for all of our district community uh that celebrate uh the Passover holiday as well as Easter coming up in just the next um next week oh my goodness it's already it's already here we're at Passover and Easter it's it's um coming real real soon so
um big shout out to all of our community members that celebrate either of these holidays um Earth Day coming up April 22nd um important that we continue to recognize the importance of keeping um our Earth good and safe for all of our
kids and future children thereafter um important that we recognize the importance of of of that as community members um upcoming events these you know that we kind of shout out every time that we have an opportunity we have our virtual mass series our final one
which is around implementing shared curriculum um so Beth from our team will be talking a little bit around uh the new curriculum that we will be adopting uh next year which is the amplify math program um this is something that we'll
talk a little bit more about as the next um you know as the as ordering starts beginning for for next year and what it means for our middle schools and our elementary schools so we'll talk more about that during our next month's DT uh but just giving you guys a little point
of reference that uh May 28th will be the session where we start talking about that a little bit more in depth with our parents so that they know what that means for us moving forward uh I Ready uh session June 17th will be the end year for I Ready so that our families
know what's going on with um the endyear diagnostics and June 4th and June 11th for Aadians K uh K1 and then grade two uh as those assessments start changing uh for our kids as the year goes on important that everyone recognizes where
we are with it uh enrollment timelines um we've already kind of come and gone past the high school offer release and kindergarten kindergarten G&T offer release um April 9th which is just in a couple days middle school offers will be released
april 24th summer rising results and weight list will be available in my schools May 13th prek offer release and Tuesday May 20th 3K offer release um we do have we did have the district 25 math comics uh excuse me family comics uh
night that was held on March 12th uh as we talked about during our last DLT meeting uh this was a really nice event for our community big thanks to Melinda from our team um Principal Miller AP Bryant and AP Dalo um we had a member
from our central team there as well and our kids had an opportunity to read and engage with some comics that are aligned with civic engagement and democracy uh we know that our kids do enjoy reading graphic novels so this was a good opportunity to learn through that on
that day district 25 wellness day uh big shout out to Diana from our team Austin um and the rest of our district team along with our CEC for this collaboration uh it was a really really
nice event we had um about a hundred or so folks I would say mixed in between staff members and and families came and coming from the community uh the one thing that that um I think that was pretty powerful about it were the volume of vendors we had 30 plus vendors there
to really be there to support physical wellness mental wellness um seal uh nutrition you know we had all of those bases that were connected with and uh it was due in large part to our collaboration with Common Point and the CC so big thanks to um to everyone for
making this a success the only part that was a little bit disappointing for for me was the volume of people that said would attend and those that did um you know so I almost want to put a little bit of a of a little um statement in future registration that if plans are
going to change that we at least let the district know um because you know we prevented others from having the opportunity uh in attending and um you know we cut the registration at 350 people we had 350 people register and
far too few actually took advantage of it um you know and I do know that there were more that were interested that didn't get a chance to go so almost a little putting a little disclaimer on there if you do intend to you know if something has changed and you can't attend just please let us know and then we'll send out another blast to get more
people involved um because there were far too many vendors and resources there for the community not to have there at their disposal so that part of it was a little bit disappointing but the event itself was terrific uh so big shout out to everyone for that
uh we had our opening ceremony for Botchi uh this past week um was really really great um unfortunately I did have a meeting that I had to attend so I could not go myself but big thanks to all of our schools that are that are
participating we're at 25 250 185 194 219 and 379 the goal is to get as many of our schools involved in this as possible um really promotes this this space of kindness and inclusivity we are we have the largest number of schools in
the city that participate in this and we're only one of four districts that engage our kids in this um in this work um really really awesome experience for our learners um you know big shout out to Diana from our team for for helping
our schools get organized around this um looking forward to to participating with our kids um when they have some future events and competitions moving forward we also have our district 25 cheer expo is this week provided that we do not get rained out and I'm hoping we
do not uh it is scheduled for tomorrow uh we do have a rain date which I believe is Thursday right Lewis the rain date is Thursday um so cheer teams from across our district will be participating in um in this cheer expo uh last year was really really great and
I'm hoping a similar type of turnout will be there this is open to our families as well as our schools coaches district team members and certainly our cheerleaders putting forth their best efforts so um really excited about that and um looking forward to a really great
event we also have which I didn't put it on here is our elementary school all-star game for our elementary basketball players in um it's because we have so many so many teams it's split up into two groups uh we have the first group is on Wednesday and the next group
is on Friday uh so big shout out to those coaches and and our teams um and our schools for really you know pushing forward with the importance of athletics inside of our buildings we know that it's it is not just about academics um it's about creating opportunities for
our kids to develop um across a variety of different spaces so uh really thankful that we're able to do that in our schools uh youth leadership team um really excited about uh the the work that this team has started to engage in
we have 10 students from across the district that have been participating thus far uh they're coming together on a monthly basis we have two teachers from uh MS379 and Melinda from our district team um and Wing from our district
social worker that participate on a monthly basis with our kids to really think about how do we improve upon the culture in our schools um so what this team has decided to do is work together to establish a uh an event that targets
all student council representatives um from our middle schools to come together and connect in a in a series of team building exercises and motivational uh from and two motivational speakers who former professional athletes uh to connect with our kids who then are going
to bring this work back to their schools and develop a uh a plan of action to how they help support and build culture in their own buildings um I'm really excited about this as the whole notion of it is to really promote student voice um an opportunity to improve their the
culture of their schools as students uh not about us as adults but them as kids um so they've set a tenative date for May 23rd for uh the student council rep representatives from each school uh particularly our middle schools to be invited to this event um to serve as a
springboard into future work which I the the one of the reasons I'm excited about this is it connects to our wellness collaborative with the CEC the youth leadership team will be coming during our uh next month's DL uh CC meeting to share a little bit about what they've
been working on and how we can do this in a collaborative space so uh really happy about that and looking forward to some great work moving forward project soapbox continues to uh continues to um get lifted across our
schools we had two really great presenters uh during our uh CEC meeting uh Wednesday of last week we had Ayla from um 2011 and Tristan from 2011 uh share really really really uh passionate
speeches around snow days and the other one around lack of creativity in schools um and gave certainly a lot for the audience to ponder uh so I appreciate both of them and their teachers for uh for guiding them in their in their
speeches so uh moving on into our ELA initiative and the ELA sprint um thus far we have um this is a focus as you guys know for students in grades three to five across the city uh we've also asked for our middle schools
to participate in this as well uh thus far we have um almost 6,600 children across each of those grade bands um who are participating in this um last week we had uh on average 74 minutes of time
spent in the I Ready platform uh with an average of 3.8 8 lessons completed for our students in this um in this sprint for our elementary schoolers with an average pass rate of 74 uh 74% of lessons completed being meaning that we
were passing with at least a 70 or above uh which is a good thing is what the research says is if our kids are passing with a 70 or greater on these lessons that they're moving themselves in the right direction towards meeting standards um and similarly for our middle schools albeit the percentage of
the the number of minutes is a little bit lower our goal is to between 30 and 50 now remember some of our kids also do this at home so that's why we might see a little bit of an elevated uh number of minutes it's not differentiated between in school and at home um but on average
49 minutes for our students in the middle school with an average pass rate of an 81% of lessons being passed uh which is a good thing for our kids at this time now bringing us into setting the stage for DC gus is going to talk a
little bit um in a few minutes about uh timelines and tools that are available for our SLTs to be using uh the one in particular here and I'm going to just blow this up just really quick uh so that everyone can see the the timeline
uh the the release of the the draft and temp uh the the template and timeline for DCPS was released in late March uh April 4th I plan portal is was closed to uh facilitate the transition from one year to the next what all of our schools
are going to be doing over the over this month is really engaging in this uh comprehensive needs assessment and root cause analysis um space where we're going to be looking at something some of the types of things that we're going to actually look at today
together um and that's how we currently performing what does it mean for us moving forward and how will it help us draft our next go set of goals at the school and district level so there's a couple of things that we're going to look at today uh in order to
support that with the goal of sharing our district goals um even though they'll still be room for making adjustments within the next month or so having a very solid set of goals for our schools to refer to when planning out their own uh so schools are expected to
develop these goals between April and May um and then in June for me to uh June and July for me to review and certify the alignment of goals to budget um so there's a lot of work that our our
school leadership teams do need to do uh between now and um and June so that our goals are ready to go for review and certification uh by myself and then for final approval when uh the school year
gets started um thereafter but this timeline's really really important for our DLT members to certainly share with our schools and your respective schools uh but also for ourselves to share more widely with parents and so on uh and
that's something that I can certainly do based on attendance from our SLT training we can send out messages to all of our parents and staff members that were part of it uh to make sure that they are aware of uh this timeline as well it's important that everyone's on
the same page with this we began this work uh with our principles during our last principal meeting uh we will share some of these goals with our uh with our teachers to gather feedback from them as we get closer to a more
um uh revised set of goals um so that they are as tidy as possible and then we can receive some feedback from from the rest of the community uh on them so something that I do want to start with and I'm going to ask you guys just to take a few minutes on your own just
to review these next couple of slides and then we're going to do a quick little round so what you see here is a breakdown of um our English language learners and the reason why we're sharing this is because this population of our of our district is ever
increasing you know we're at over 27% of our kids in the district nearly closing in on 28% of our district are children that are English language learners um and you see the breakdown there from entering emerging transitioning and expanding and if you don't know what
that means those are the four particular groups uh that our L's can be in with entering being the lowest level of English language proficiency to expanding to be the highest level of English language proficiency before eventually testing out and becoming proficient English language learner uh
no longer needing services uh as an English language learner although former learners uh do get an additional amount of time to help sustain that space uh which I think it's two years right Tracy two years two years of time that they receive after um receiving those L
services uh to to sustain that level of proficiency 56.5% of our L's are Asian 40% are Hispanic uh 18.7% of our L's have IEPs of those I of those children
46% are ICT 41% are in special class 20% of our ENL students have are chronically out and 34% of our Hispanic students and 29% of the uh 20 304% of the Hispanic students and 29 and a half% of the Asian
students are L's uh overarching of the overall population and 31 and a half percent of IEP students are also L's which gives you a big picture of where we're at now this next slide I want you guys to kind of linger over just for a few minutes on your own um and kind of
call out what it is that you see in just a space of reflection what it's making you think um as team members just take two minutes look at the slides and kind of reflect over what it is that it's saying to you
okay guys what what I'd like you to do just for just for a couple minutes I want to put you guys into a into a brief breakout room just have a quick little chat um about what it is that you see there what it just makes makes you think just in general about um about this
small little data set you know it's it's nothing massive but it should kind of result in some some questions or wonderings or things that it's making you think about in this in regards to this particular subgroup of of learners now um we're not going to stay in the
rooms long but I just wanted you guys have a have a chance uh just to to chat um a little bit with one another about it um just for just for 5 minutes just quick rounds everyone have an opportunity to share out and then we'll come back anything that you notice
anything that you wonder from this small little uh little data set okay I'm going to open up the rooms right now uh and this will be primarily just for our um team members salted butter sorry Catherine we got sucked back to the main group
um anything that was um that uh that came up that uh in your other group is I'd like us to also share out some of the things that were noticed in us and Katherine maybe you can kind of loop back into that because I think it's important part of the conversation too um anything from from um from either of
the the groups rob I think you're you were in a different group than me right yeah yeah I was with Umeit and um Eduardo and and Eden we were talking about well something that popped out to me is um we're always looking at the L's of PS120 and so I tried to shift my my
gaze a little bit more towards the children who were non-L's this time and you know it's it's it's interesting to see 23% of those children are one grade level below right and what we can do to make sure that those kids because that's that it's not that it's an easy fix but it's something that you could see if if
the right approach is taken to children who are one grade level below you could see them succeed in a very short period of time um when you have children who are three greater levels below especially children who have been here for a while there's there's a there's there's more work to do right that's that's a complex issue that that really
needs a lot of um a lot of brain power but when you have one grade level below I mean they're close right so that's what we're doing with the sprinters that's what we're doing you know as the test approach we want to see those children proficient and successful
yeah thanks Rob anyone anyone else from from that group that would like to share then our group can can also chime in okay Gus or Katherine you want to share anything that that came up from um from our group too well the ENLs are always a a focus and a
concern and your chart uh well indicates that mhm yeah catherine so and we also noticed that um when you combine when looking at the
other two charts not just the ENLs that we saw um we were at about 50% of students who were performing where they they needed to be um and so what uh uh what came
into question then was um are we really meeting the students where they are and what kind of additional flexibility maybe do we need to give to the teachers um to allow them to deviate a little bit
from some of the programs that they're using in order to really meet each student um where they where they are in on an individual level rather than always um rather than being too bound by
by the programs that are in place giving them a little more um room to to be to be creative when they have to yeah thank you Catherine i think I think it's an important it's an important
thing for for us to continue to linger over um you know as a district one of the the parts around around programs is often the ones that that that we encourage everyone to use and this is something that we're also working on as
a as a district to kind of really think about the you know what what intervention programs are we using which of them are are really serving as being impactful um really identifying and queuing in on them and then establishing those sets of recommendations because
what these researchbased programs do say is that if we use them with the intent that they are designed kids should be able to grow uh based on it so that's part of what we we are going to be examining as a as a um as a district is
are the programs that we say that we're using one programs also come with like a a set criteria that we have to use them with this frequency in order to see results one revisiting it are we actually using it with the with the intensity that it's supposed to be given
uh the dosage the frequency um and the and the attention so that we're meeting um kids not only where they are Katherine but based on the dosage that's required in order to see an output you know and I think that's something that we do have to you know think quite quite
a bit more on as we move forward uh so I think it's a really important part of this equation is it's not just around the flexibility and and being creative always sometimes it's also did we deliver the the intervention and support with the frequency and dosage that's
needed in order to actually see a result um you know so that's part of uh part of the the conversation that that we do need to have um moving forward any other quick comments before I show you the next slide and we take a look at that one too because I think it's pretty
telling also okay so the the next slide I want everyone just to kind of check in on this because I think it's important and you know it gives me space of um encouragement around where we're going next so before I flash it up just a reminder for everyone explicit
instruction and the use of decodable text um has been a focus of ours as a district which means that our kids because of that should be able to grow in their ability to decode um and then moving towards that space of uh
eventually being able to uh comprehend the text so what you'll see here in this next slide that I'm going to show you um is the performance on the top you'll see K to2 and that's for a cadience and
um what what you'll see here is this first bar is the overall improvement in terms of reading now this is just for our L's um the first bar first set of bars is around improving their on children that are on or above grade level from beginning of year to
middle excuse me from last year to this year um the second one is first sound fluency which is really important in terms of phmic awareness this middle bar here is phone segmentation uh also really really important in terms of
building those foundational reading skills nonsense word fluency that's what you'll see the NWF there's two different SP parts of this nwf and CLS which is correct letter sounds and uh words um uh
oh my goodness um why am I drawing a blank on this um oh my goodness wwr why am I forgetting what the last the last bar the words correct it's uh I I'll get you
the exact acronym but it's also a part of um nonsense word fluency i'm not sure why it's not ringing in my head right now but from left to right those are the the areas that are assessed in the cadence that's K to2 and then the bottom I already um has words correct yeah the
whole word um the whole word's read yeah um so the and the last uh the the last part for I ready the bottom part is for children in grades 3 to 8 um these are also our L's it's the the one of the domains is around phonics another one is
high frequency words vocabulary and then the last one is comprehension but I want you to just take a take a look at these bars just for a moment like we did with the last one reflect in that space i'll put the timer on just for a couple minutes it's not an overly complex um
set of charts but same type of thing what is it that you're that you're noticing in terms of um how some of the work we're doing is impacting particularly our L's at this point mike this is cohort data so this is the
same kids this is just the L's just the L's this is not a separation with the other groups this is just the L's okay and year-over-year from last year at this time to this year at this time sorry so the light blue is last year and
the dark blue is this year the light blue is this year dark blue is last year okay guys we're going to come back together again and we're going to hop into again quick breakout group uh just quick little chat um hope you guys don't
mind me doing this i just feel like it's rather than just listening to me talk um I'd rather you guys have an opportunity to engage in some some conversation so just for 5 minutes some things that it's making you think or wonder um or questions that it raises for you um and
then we'll come back together as a large group and begin talking about some of our goals that we have in mind for for next Yeah I agree with what you were about to say Catherine by the way um okay any any
comments any bigger comments that we want to share with the with the whole group that you've noticed i was I was just mentioning how like the Acadians data looks great like we're seeing a lot of growth but then you you you scroll down to the um the I Ready data you're not seeing the vocabulary
moving where we would like it to for that's for the same group uh we have 17 18% jumping in growth on IRA on Aadians great but is it translating to children actually reading and and and becoming
better proficient readers who actually enjoy to enjoy reading yeah I agree with Rob yeah uh the vocabulary uh jumped out at me that you know that was u the smallest percentage of all the percentages that that you
indicated anyone else comments i think it's that transfer from being able to decode um and then now it's about making meaning right so um I'm able to decode the words we're seeing that in early early childhood there's
improvement there obviously a lot more lot more work that we have to do um but we are seeing positive trends uh as compared to last year at this time which is good um seeing it also in I ready in in the kids ability to decode when we're compared airing over across years the
15% improvement from phonics levels from last year at this time to where we are now high frequency words are improving from year-over-year now it's about that academic language and how we building towards that as a as a district and uh knowing that this is about accelerating
outcomes for for our LS we know that it does take time for kids to to uh become proficient in the English language in general uh you know I think uh we we can all argue in some way shape or form where we are ourselves in the English
language it's not an easy language um but especially for kids that are now balancing that across two languages and how do we help them um you know meet those gains particularly with their kids that are coming here um after grade three four or five um because that's
when it gets a little bit harder um you know I think about even myself as a uh someone who tried to learn Spanish I I mean I held on to some words but not necessarily with the in the way that I I would have if I if I was fluent in um in
in in English and Spanish at an earlier earlier age which is not necessarily the case for for our kids some of them that they come here you know later on you know it's how do we build that foundation while also helping them um
you know read with fluency so um you know there there's clearly a lot more work here but what I'm encouraged by is that the things that we focused on that explicit instruction and the use of decodables seems to be translating in to our kids ability to decode words um at a
better level than last uh than last year so that part of it is is encouraging for me for sure so where does it bring us it brings us into a conversation around goal setting for uh for next year and I
wanted to share my screen i want everyone to just read through these two two goals for priority one and these have changed a bit with feedback from our uh from our principles and this is still a very very drafty and this will
go back to our principles for review and to our teachers for review the first first iteration was very very wordy um so we took that feedback and we made some adjustments here um to that wordiness and uh kind of paired it down
a little bit so there are two goals here one is around um specifically for our L's and the other one is around all of our kids um in district and I think um it kind of still connects to both the
codables and um to explicit instruction so let's take a minute and uh give it a give it a quick read and I'd love for us to come back together and have a quick chat around your thoughts so I'll put the timer on just for a minute
and just note everyone as percentages may shift based on you know what we learn at the end of the year with EOI and and state assessment data um almost as a placeholder right now uh so pay little less attention to the overall percentages and more to the context of
what we're trying to get done with the goals okay guys we'll come back together real quick any any comments questions wonderings about this particular um this particular goal alignment that you see towards
promoting uh and pushing our work around ELA i think I think the first part of the goal is um pretty aligned to stuff that we've been done in the past i really like the second part of the goal which really addresses how uh schools are programming their standalone minutes because um that's something I really
that that that we enjoy doing right we like to be strateic we like to be creative when when programming um how we service our L's uh and sometimes you know the funding doesn't isn't always there and sometimes we have to really um be creative so um having
that goal aligned with what schools are doing or should be doing uh seems to make sense to Thanks for that Rob Gus any comments yeah I mean Mike you were uh you were uh absolutely right to
uh uh highlight the percentages in the first goal because you've got two different assessments you've got an and or on uh Aadians and and state assessments so you the percentage would vary according to the data coming out of
each one of those now I understand what you're doing because you've got interim assessments and then you've got the final assessment but when you finalize the goal um a decision is probably going to have to be made uh in terms of how you frame those percentages
yeah and I think it's it's subject us to um and it might have to be like separate separate goals in the within the same priority because K to2 obviously they're not taking any state exams um so they're they're really more aligned to a cadence than they would be uh a state assessment
um it's also to kind of give a little bit of flexibility to schools to make their decisions around what's the end point um you know for them uh so that we'll have to talk about as a as a DT moving forward with which one we want to you know land on um more specifically
than another yeah and just to add on to what Gus was saying yeah so you you for the first part of the goal you said 10% i believe it was a 10% uh I'm assuming that's designed to close the gap right so we can't say 5% for everybody and then expect an achievement gap to close
you'd have to try to sprint a little further uh for those who are further behind right they have correct yeah so it's five 5% all student subgroup remember that in encompasses all groups um and then when you when you think about our targeted subgroups usually
it's less than in terms of overall population it varies so um our black population is less than 400 children in the district so um if we in other words the numbers
won't won't coincide you know a uh a 10% change for our black learners is not the same as a 10% change for um our Asian learners which makes up 54% it's just fewer children the percentage and the ratio of that is the same but it's not
the same number of of kids so um it's about making sure that we're we're able to close close the gap between them and that we'll have to dig a little bit more in terms of um what those percentages will be moving forward for sure uh but any other
comment okay I'm going to ask you guys to to linger over this we did change this a little bit um priority one and three are now combined into priority one um so that priority three can be really all more about math and priority four which is around college and career
readiness can be around getting the seal um the civic skill for the seal for civics ready civic readiness by the time our kids uh leave the eighth grade they can earn one credit um towards the seal for civic readiness which I think is
really really important um and um I'm sorry guys just hold on one second I'm just getting a call from an assistant principal school i want to make sure everything is okay okay sorry about that um so at any rate this goal was con
consolidated into into one um what I'm going to do is um just for for time sake I want to share the presentations in the chat i'm going to ask you guys go
through the next set of goals on your own and these are very very rough guys this is I really do need your your feedback here and in fact you'll see some question marks um on some of the slides and this is through slide
23 through 27 if everyone could just take a few minutes and then we'll break up rather than me reading um each of these with you guys i'd rather you take a little bit of an opportunity to um to review them and then uh we'll come back
together with any of your thoughts about things that we could add now just so you know priority two is around all students are physically and emotionally safe priority three is that all students um uh that's oh man I mistitled that one uh
priority three is around all students receive a high quality academic experience and uh priority uh priority four is that all students got graduate college and career ready priority five is around all districts and schools are more inclusive and responsible for
parents and families and the last one's not not listed as a priority but it is a goal that we have to have around chronic absenteeism so if you can just take the next five minutes or so just give a quick review of those goals I would appreciate it and then we'll come back together um to have a quick chat around
anything that is making you wonder or notice uh about them things that you think we should include um that would be great to gather some of your perspectives on um on any of them so I just put the time on for five minutes if you just take a few minutes to review it
on your own that would be great excuse me Dr mike yep um I just joined is this something that you had put in the chat or was it an attachment to an email it should be in the I'll put it in the chat again you might have joined just as I put it into the chat uh Rachel
uh it just put it there again it's just the uh the pre today yep I got it thank you okay you got it and welcome Okay folks going to come back
together any comments on the second uh second goal there which around creating that um uh that safe environment for our kids borded by uh social emotional uh making sure that all physically and emotionally
safe any comments and just to give you a little bit more um a little bit more context and we're going to do this more in depth really just wanted to linger over the first first priority uh with you guys in terms of that um looking at that data
space but what you what you'll see here um for our kids and the reason why we kind of lingered over the MindUP program is that we do have you know quite a few kids that are unsure as to whether or not the MindUP program is having an
impact um on them you know and the the idea of the the brain breaks the the lessons and um are they supporting their ability to make better choices and what we've seen in the survey data that's come back from our kids is that that
doesn't necessarily tell the story um so we do need to revisit uh revisit that and what we've learned from our classroom visits is that sometimes it's not always um being connected to as the way that it should so uh but any comments i saw Shernet i saw your hand
raised hi so you said half of what I was going to say that's I was like lower my head lower my head morning everyone so um as a parent first
um to look above and look down on it when we have our kids come home and um having gone through this elementary school different versions of this through the years I think it's a matter because you're dealing with a room of let's say 30
kids 30 different personalities but your curriculum is the same that you're teaching And to have a mind break where a kid might want be happy with a fidget like I'm just making stuff up one kid wants to just doodle another one wants a
fidget spinner another one wants to just tap on the desk and you're giving them the brain break based on what you ex you're you're using we're using our our keys and standards to judge the reaction
expected of these kids and it's asking so much of them at this growing stage of their brain as it is on their own that we're not connecting with them you know like I say when you want to talk to a child kneel down and talk to them face to face don't
stand above them so or you know when they used to have that thing with the the wall and remove the wall or the different ladders these exercises I think become uh exercising a um tediousness for them
and it becomes like just give you what you want so we could move on back to the lesson and then you're going you're not going to it's not a good gauge to then say I'm going to learn better and be more relaxed in class because you just made me miserable i
want to just doodle on the page and now you tell me to stop and breathe or sigh or whatever it is when that doesn't work for me when I'm home with mommy or dad or whatever what works for me is to you know hit my brother or whatever you know
I'm making stuff up so we're putting standards i always say to people you know did you ask the user what works for them and reverse engineer the survey or the the brain
activity that you want the child to go through what if you have and survey the kids what works for you for you to learn better and they say "I draw balloons." Then a group five of them will say "I draw balloons." Then you have those five people draw balloons and
then that will be more calming for them but you're forcing me to draw squiggly lines and squiggly lines irritate me but I can't say anything because I'm at school and I have to respect my teachers and just draw these squiggly lines and then I have to go learn something you
know so yeah I think um there is a struggle there there's clarity from kids that not all of them like the idea of having to close their eyes or engage in a brain break in that way um so there is some variation in terms of movement
breaks versus you know what quote unquote brain break where you're doing the the the deep breathing but I think there's also something to making sure that kids even when you don't like something there is an approach that you have to
learn how to take as a student so that you respect the other child next to you that does want to engage in that brain break yeah so I think that there's a balance between that that we still have to work on and through that if today is a brain break tomorrow is a movement
break because you can't do them simultaneously right that we learn as students that I might not necessarily love that but you have the option to sit quietly and wait until that brain break is done so that your peers that are engaged do do um have
that opportunity as well i think the variation needs to happen so that we're keeping kids all connected throughout the day yes um but I think that there's that level of of understanding and self-awareness that we also need to promote it amongst our kids is that there going to be times when you don't necessarily like something doesn't mean
that it's time for you to chitchat and impact your peers um and I think the same too is for adults that if we value it we have to show our kids that we value it so that it's not looked at as all right well when I'm when we have the brain break I can chat too and then
guess what happens to the rest of the kids brain break doesn't happen which is what we wind up hearing when we interview children so um part of my school visits around interviewing kids and this is always a question that I ask because I'm I'm intrigued if we're going to all focus on a program uh program
implementation then we have to know whether or not that program is being received the way that we're hoping and what you see here is pretty much the reality you have some kids that love it some kids unsure and some kids hate it you know so we run the gamut of that but
yeah thank you Chanette i I agree with you uh Katherine the Oh gosh how do I get this hand down okay um you would think after all these years it's it's just so much easier and it's not um so I I
I can see like even in my own kids how some of the the brain break stuff works and some of it doesn't right we're all individuals there's going to be different strategies that apply um better to to some of us than others but I think overall like the the the social
emotional um aspect of getting the kids to kind of um find a place and a time to release um you know lunch and recess right like that's their time um and I think that some schools are better at
letting the kids have that as their time than other schools um I think that when we are sitting down and asking them to you know and look they got to eat right less talking more eating but also that's their time to talk like that's their
time to chat with their friends it's not really always their time to chat with their friends in the classroom or if it's indoor recess like why are we being asked to sit and be quiet and watch a movie because you know again that's their time that's their time to be
connecting with their peers and maybe some of them do want to watch the movie but maybe some of them don't want to watch the movie and every school has a bit of a different way of running that situation for whatever their circumstances are you know the type of supervision that they have at the time and everything else but I think that if
we are able to respect that as their time more I think a lot more um connection between the kids and they'll get a lot of that energy out that gets you know it overflows into the
classroom sometimes when they don't get a chance to connect during um during that time of the day yeah I think that's uh really important and I think can also be part of recommendations that we establish right you know as a as a DT for SLTs to think
about um in terms of how are we making sure that we're building in that space and what does that mean inside of these opportunities when kids have recess or they have lunch um I think sometimes too you know what what children look at
recess as is free reign to do all things and anything that they want absent the the guise of being safe um because when there are not rules what we also wind up seeing are some of those behaviors that
result in either a child getting hurt um because the there's a little bit more aggressiveness that tends to happen especially when it comes to play um so one of the things that Diana has done particularly with our uh with our school aids and with our teachers is to really
work on what does productive play look like during during recess time um so that you know so that our kids do have that opportunity to to um have a little bit of a release but also doing it responsibly because we oftent times
where the the occurrences happen most you know in our schools if we look at the breakdown the occurrence reports from buildings where accidents tend to happen most is at recess and lunch um and you know on the other side of it we wind up getting families that get very
upset that their child was was hurt because they were being a little bit too um let's say happy during the during their recess time and it creates a it creates a little bit of a struggle because on on one hand yes we want to
give them that time and on the other it's you know how do we make make sure that they're doing what's right and they don't hurt their peers uh or themselves when it's sprint time on uh on the asphalt and suddenly scraped knees necks everything else uh and the child comes
home all all bruised and bandaged that's also the concern that we have too but I think your point is is one that is well taken how do we make sure that we're in an agreed space as a as an SLT around how do we want that to look for our schools um and each school does it like
you said there's does handle that differently um but I think it should be part of a school conversation around how we organize for it for sure uh go ahead Mon'nique thank you Dr mike so just to piggyback off um um u Miss St pierre um I do agree
that you know students that is their free time their only time during the day i I feel that more could be done but I feel that there's not enough support staff in the cafeteria to allow that to be done um so the hiring and because I'm a DC37 rep I also worked um in a
building as a parent coordinator for 14 years is that there needs to be more adult um to student ratio so that those things are possible um one of the concerns from school aids themselves is
they feel that there aren't enough um adults with the children during lunch and recess and so therefore most of the time it is a rushing situation they they have a certain amount of time to eat and they want to make sure they get out to play and then it's the transitioning
these large groups of students from inside to outside from outside to inside that takes away some of their time um but I also want to state a solution uh or just an idea of when they do come back from lunch they do have all this
energy and that might be a time when they return back to the classroom um whatever class they go to whether that's with their main teacher or if you're in a middle school your next class is to maybe implement the mind up to kind of reenter them um so that they can focus
on the rest of the day because the the cafeteria itself if you're if you have a child that's sensitive to a lot of noise a lot of activity that might be triggering for them and maybe they can't get back to focus so maybe utilizing the mind up or or that situation when they
return back to the classroom after lunch to kind of give them that opportunity to talk to a friend to do the mind up to kind of like say to students hey how was your lunch or let's talk about it or have a conversation with your friend or you know just to encourage those things
so that way you can get back to the focus at hand which is the academics but that's just a suggestion but thank you yeah thank you Monique and you know it's it's interesting you say that many many of our schools um it's become a routine uh where teachers as the kids are coming
back will engage them in a brain break they do that after physical education as well um you know to find those spaces to give them that little cool down and I think to um this kind of to shet's point is how do we make sure that we're balancing between some of the approaches
because not all kids do come back and feel like they want to be able to close their eyes it doesn't it doesn't do it for them um so there's a few things that we need to work on and and what you'll see in the in the goal was around this mindful moments which is about and these
conversation starters where it's about connecting kids and having them have conversations with one another about who they are about what they like there are a whole bunch of different prompts that the program offers but we don't necessarily take advantage enough of which is kind of one of the other
elements of the goal aside from just the brain breaks it's about making sure that kids have that opportunity to connect in other ways and help build some of those relationships too um so there's a lot here that we need to to work on we'll link around more in the the next coming
um in the coming months around uh C the C organization and I'll share more of this data with you but um I think there are a number of things that are preventing the the program itself from taking full route in in our schools that we need to really work through a little
bit more um you know moving forward and using the elements that the program does have have to promote that space of self-awareness and and regulation um because listen they're also five and six and when they get to older being 12 and 13 there are certain things that that we
need to connect differently with uh to make sure that they are are good and safe in their space um so uh more to more to follow on this but Lamar last word and I think we'll probably wrap up this call because we're not going to get finished with the other the other three and we'll revisit those during the next
uh the next DT because I know Gus still has to speak and we have to get through all of our constituents so uh Lamar I have the final word on this one sure um it's just something to add on for us to consider and I don't think there's an answer for it but it does factor into the space that children have let's say
during recess i want to touch on Christina's point some students may not want to engage in a certain activity during recess they want to play they don't want to on a day like today when everyone is going to be inside and you have upwards of depending on the size of your building upwards of a hundred
students there really the spacing can be an issue too right we can't just take 20 children and put them in this space and 30 children and put them in that space you know your gym can only hold but so many even with staffing it proper staffing your gym can only hold but so
many your auditorium can hold but so many and if I had a nickel for every time a kid told me "Mr hughes I don't want to watch um so and so movie again we've watched it for the past 2 or 3 weeks." Respectable understandable i don't think there's an answer for it but I think we do have to take into
consideration some buildings don't have the physical space to give children that space to be off in one area if they don't want to engage or if they want to be by themselves sometimes you know the spacing is just not available there's no answer but I think that that should be kind of included somehow just to get get
gain an understanding have a a bigger understanding of of the situation and the spectrum of it yeah and I think that some some schools have become very creative um Lamar and you know um created like lunch club opportunities where where there's this space of self-
selection and um you know but that's not everywhere right that that's in spaces where where they're able to do it and they have some some additional flexibility um where they they do have opportunities for kids and and they're connecting with with some of their teachers or or what have you in
different ways um again built into their program um appropriately but you know it's not everywhere that's where it it can happen uh where there's a little bit more flexibility in schedule but um on a whole I I think that it's how do we how
do we really look at this time and and build it out as as one and I know we're talking about about lunch and recess because typically that's where these these activities happen but I think in a larger scope of of how are we making sure that we're creating um you know
good effective social emotional learning opportunities for our kids is the bigger question uh they tend to have a lot of those release scenarios tend to happen when they get to release lunch recess gym um you know are are usually the the biggest spaces for incidents to occur um
but for me the the goal is around helping kids help them learn how to manage themselves you know what allows me to to get into that space of learning and readiness um and you know it's it will be different from child to child there's no doubt about that you know
some kids you know sitting down for for a period of time they just can't do that you know and keeping their eyes closed or or breathing deeply that that's a struggle for them we have to recognize that too and come up with alternative approaches for for children that that do have that scenario but at the same time
making sure that they understand that there is a respectful space that has to be um valued for their peers that do really value that time and if you're going to giggle and laugh while someone else is trying to engage in that well uh we have to be able to promote that space
of self-awareness also so more to follow on the other three goals i do ask you to reflect on them um we will we'll have a a more formalized uh view of those other three next uh next month when we come together and hopefully by the end of
next month's session uh we'll be able to really solidify all of our goals uh that can be shared with our building leaders um to reflect on as that's what we will be doing too um so any other quick comments on on the goals to this point
um I know just one and two was was reviewed and I appreciate your feedback on both of them they were uh was very helpful mike on goal three I know u uh which is um career uh development if I remember correctly that's high quality academic
experience four uh the um uh uh career you might consider broadening it a bit because it's only soapbox uh focused so uh you might consider some uh additional technology or science um you know uh
items added to it thank you Gus i also include in there safer college we'll talk a little bit more about that next time um but our percentage of families that take advantage of safer college is is not very high at all uh we're below 40% of
our families that take advantage of that initial savings account opportunity for our kids um and I think we should be able to take more advantage of that you know really promote that space for our families um you know it might sound like a little thing now but over time if SLTs
and school communities you can even do events that the the the proceeds can actually go right into kids accounts um you know it's a nice savings opportunity for for our families so we'll talk a little bit more about that i'll give you guys some percentages that's why I put it in there as a question mark um
because I think it's worth us exploring um and there's always that space for STEM but I do think that the the civic readiness is something that connects a lot of in a lot of spaces and promotes that opportunity for voice while also getting kids prepared for
high school and beyond um by by creating a place where they can get receive credit by the time they get into high school uh so that's the the reason that was there and we'll we'll talk more about that during our next uh our next meeting uh but Gus I'm going to turn this over to you to share a little bit
about uh your work otherwise we're not going to approach that 11:00 mark um at all so I'm going to turn it over to you i'll I'll try to be brief uh let me share uh Okay um Lewis uh can you share because
it you can share okay okay can you see my screen it's coming up slowly but it's coming oh we're on your desktop guys okay can you see the CP yep yep yes okay perfect
uh first of all uh you should know that all of your CS uh and uh the DC are now online uh you cannot see them at the moment because uh and I'm not going to go over the timeline because uh Mike
went over it already but um uh I plan was closed on April 4th the reason why they closed down I plan is they are transferring the um uh prepopulated stuff from last year to this year's
template um uh assuming that all of the categories are uh there and the same uh and it will open again by the 21st so um uh you can't see anything right now but
um when I plan opens again it everything should be there now I'm not going to go over the whole uh C uh most of it's the same uh the um they added some items uh to uh the um
uh the uh um uh signature pages and so on uh let me see if I can go to page 14 uh that's where the uh the only really significant pages let me see try dragging
it it's in the the progress monitoring uh section okay that's page seven that's 13 okay now you see in implementation monitoring um it says um that uh indicate your
primary uh structures and it says note implementation progress checks will be conducted in progress monitoring tool in the I plan portal for this academic year so uh there are two things I want to mention here the um the word document
that schools now have access to is just for planning purposes they uh should not submit or their new C using the word document as in the past so remind principles that that is not it's just for planning
purposes until I plan opens again later on this month and they'll work on the regular document now I uh the reason for this box here and the change is they've reduced the uh the progress monitoring section the implementation section from
the last year's template and everyone is using the tool now you the the tool is a separate section now some of you might recall that uh there was a discussion um about implementation as opposed to
progress monitoring in other words what you're doing is you're checking to see whether your action plan is being effective as opposed to the instructional progress being made although the two are intimately connected so uh you don't have the uh
the uh the new version of the tool but I was part of discussions and what they've done is they've uh tinkered with the progress monitoring tool to make that clearer for schools and principles so
that whole issue the feedback that went back to central about some confusion out there between implementation monitoring and uh progress monitoring based on assessments um was heard and that's why they made that change uh to the template
and so um they've reduced the uh the section on um uh in the actual for each um priority and uh enhanced uh and tinkered with the progress monitoring tool so that's the only really
significant change it seems to me other than adding as I've told you now the pack u individuals are uh mandated and hopefully we'll see A655 uh to be able to u um u uh see that in
writing because that's now supposed to be embedded in the revision of the A655 uh regulations on SLTs and DTS now the other item that I'm just going to quickly mention is you have some tools
that um uh are useful for uh assessment progress monitoring developing goals etc this one here uh and you all have them uh and they should be shared with the schools and the uh SLTs they were um uh
uh developed by central and this one here is an overview of doing the um needs assessment and what's useful uh is in all of these tools there are these links you see these these blue um uh
underlines here that will so it's not just the information that's in these documents there are links to additional resources in these documents as well so I encourage SLTs and schools in general
u to utilize these materials and use the links and a lot of all of this resides always on the resource section of the IP plan portal so you also have another way of getting at that information uh as
well uh so that is that's the stop I'm going to stop sharing those are the quickly o overviews that I have the other item which um I repeat at every single uh DT um in Queens North uh and
is an ongoing issue uh is putting in the monthly information uh from the SLT meetings and the pack meetings which is again a separate section uh we're all the whole city is behind uh Queens North
is behind um I'm going to send out an additional report um um probably next week uh to all of my uh superintendent so you could see who's um behind and who's um not behind but I just want to
highlight one thing and I'm I'm mentioning this especially because Rob is here um and he was on the receiving end in the past from state education so ladies and gentlemen it's not enough just to put the material in one of the
things that state ed is very keen on is um um uh proving to them and having them see in a very um apparent way uh that uh parental involvement and parental engagement uh particularly for things
like the um parent policy and uh developing of goals etc is uh explicit in the minutes uh so uh I know that uh schools are putting minutes in but be
thoughtful look at those minutes make sure that um if stateed starts spot checking which is what they did in the past and they uh I had to go back to Rob and ask him to look at uh aspects uh and it's not only his school they just spot
checked a bunch of schools and um and uh then uh revised things and send it in they are going to do this again to us so um uh being um aware of that please um emphasize to all uh schools that when
they do their minutes and when they do their agenda items and if they have any handouts particularly handouts that are are related to parents and parent engagement make sure that they're in the the I plan and being dropped in because
that that is one thing that I know the state ed uh folks are going to be checking uh on us um uh um in relation to and um I don't want to have I want to minimize having to go back to anyone and asking them for additional information
so that's basically all I have to say any u question questions or comments uh and I appreciate uh all of your hard work and and support all right thank you so much Goss i appreciate it and you know it's this is something that we will continue to
convey during our uh principal conferences AP conferences and um conference calls just to make sure that we consistently stay on the ball um it's as as you're talking to us about uh what's in what's in plan i just reviewed
the the first four schools down the list just to make sure that uh quick spot check and from that first four all four of them have uh up-to-date uploads so um you know we'll we'll continue to to review it and make sure that that all of our schools are in that space um because
it is important that it's accessible to our SLT members but also to our community so and Mike I think you I think you sent out an email about the citywide conference um uh just to remind everybody uh encourage our DT members to
attend and uh I'm sure as in the past we'll have a good uh representation there yeah and the citywide conference is April 26th folks um I'm hoping that you will all be there i will be there mr sarin will be there um hoping as many of our DT members as possible can be there
as well um I will follow up with um with the time and and location did they give the location Gus yes it's a it's a high school in Manhattan i don't have it here in front of me so uh I'll share all of that information with everyone just to to make sure that you do have it it would be great if we have um our DT
present and uh and accounted for so I'm hoping to see all of you guys there um at that time i will share that information with you in a follow-up email uh but yes that is April 26th it's a Saturday April 26th uh for all SLTs and uh all DTS across the city um we'll
be there to kind of go through what is now the shaping of work for next year so thank you for that Gus uh Eduardo um high school superintendent report uh yes so we had our youth empowerment conference last Friday at Queens College
um we're still gathering um all the um media because we had uh student photographers and videographers but I do have a short video clip I would like to share um one moment let me share it right here uh share with
sound here we go and it should be this one screen four uh can everybody see the screen yep good morning what does the Youth Empowerment Conference mean to you um the Youth Empowering Conference means to me is the
idea that all teens get to kind of just come together and talk about the future because we are the future and I don't know I just think that it's really important that all of us like Queens North in general all the schools that we get to kind of just meet and yeah we get to have fun we get to talk about the
future and power and all that so yeah okay um that probably was not the correct frame rate uh we just got a new camera and I'm learning it but I'm trying to correct it before we post it on our website so I have to sh my skills
on uh Dainci Resolve but um so we we'll be sharing all this on on our website uh thank you okay thank you Eduardo um CSA Mr marino hey everybody i sound like a onetrick pony every month but we're desperately
waiting for uh our uh small class size reduction applications to come through so we could start uh programming i know it's like April so someone may think that we don't really do the work yet for the following year but usually I have it all wrapped up almost by now and
furthermore CSA is monitoring very closely the uh I don't know what what you would call it but the conversations coming out of Washington DC about the two billion billion dollars they may hold from us uh and how that would affect our our schools and you know we're keeping that
in mind too um that that is a uh doomsday scenario that we would lose title one and title three and then all of our C goals would be even more challenging when we talk about programming uh students but we're uh we're paying close attention to all
that stuff so that we could act accordingly um and uh yeah that thanks Rob um yeah as soon as I as soon as I do hear an update on the class size applications I'll be sure to share um certainly with our principles But uh
everyone here as DT members um you know we'll talk about that hopefully have a much clearer insight into those application requests um by our next DT that is what I'm hopeful for um and I'll get back to you guys on that for sure and terms of the you know things that
very well be coming out of Washington um you know we'll we'll see what winds up happening as uh as time moves forward and you know the impact that that may uh may have on us that I can't know I can't I don't have a crystal ball on that um hoping that um it will be not not be
something that does impact our schools the way that it could provided that that kind of funding is removed from from our system so we'll we'll have to kind of play a wait and see on on that a little bit and um you know hopefully we're on the the right side of it and not the wrong side uh when it comes to um
funding relief and and such um uh where am I uh you have a comment on that Charette yeah hi go ahead so I'll lower my hand so the rumblings where we were told um end of March we're going to get this funding blah blah blah and then
it it actually came out in the newspaper implying that it happened so the understanding is if we're moving forward to be doing our C for 25 to 26 and programming has to start and
hiring is now open now you're starting to do your hiring halls for teachers it's a rock and a rock not even a rock and a hard place situation where parents us at SLTs we're saying we did all this work in December to put in
requests for teachers and blah blah blah to meet this those class size initiatives how then do they expect us to plan if the rock which is the money to then go hire the rock that are the
teachers you can't go and then it's like business as usual the hiring halls are still taking place at the standard dates like tomorrow you know I know a couple districts are having some this week and next week how then do you [Music]
um fit the square peg in the round hole to I know I'm talking crazy but it's like you're not talking crazy at all my brain is like blown by this madness yeah so yeah go ahead Rob i would just say like the way we always do this job because there's always challenges that that come up there's always something in
the wind that funings going to get pulled away or it's going to come or it's we're going to have to do without uh something that we had in the past it's just that we we plan for the best you know um until the world ends we will operate as if it
Yeah listen I I think um I don't like that part i think I think we all are going to get the funding all of our all of our schools um you know they they can have things that they anticipate and then you know when budgets are released which is um towards the end of May
beginning of June is when those things become realized so um anything that they even offer at a at a fair is typically a um a space of um understanding that those are tentative you know so schools
produce tentative programs because there's a reality that there may be things that change um you know in terms of the the volume of staff that you can bring in um you know who may be coming who may be going a lot of those things typically are tentative anyhow because
budgets aren't released until that time which is why they don't get to then uh approve anything i don't get to approve anything until July uh in terms of the alignment so most in most cases when when you start while there's an
opportunity for folks to put things into um you know to open market and things of that nature um the hiring for that doesn't happen until um you know those budgets are released for all schools so uh it's about getting ready for uh that
anticipation for um and preparedness and unfortunately um whether building leaders love it or hate it they often have plan A B C D um that they're ready for in the event that there and that happens every year
whether there is um you know the whether the the money looks great or the money doesn't look so great they're always ready with multiple um multiple schedules multiple things in mind in the event of um so that does happen it's it's often very trying this case a
little bit different because we there's a lot of unknown inside of what it what it means just yet because they claim it's not your budget it's you know class-siz money running alongside the monies so you know it's like a bait and
switch situation where we are given this hope that this guaranteed money sits outside of your budget money that usually goes "Yeah not sure you're getting it not sure you're getting." But this was the you're getting this money and it's locked in so go ahead and go
and get your teachers so the hoopla has gotten really quiet now you know the fanfare has died down you're like "Wait a minute um is this separate money is it co-mingled money why can't we just go and take this bucket of millions of
dollars and go hire teachers oh wait it didn't get released it's kind of tied running alongside the NYC DOE budget and it's like a line or is it not you know I had couple principles saying "I don't know what you're talking about we haven't seen any money." I'm like "What are you talking about they said the
money got released." Like "No it's not we're looking for it we don't see it so we're not going to program." So cuz we don't know yeah well that and that that's the Charette one one of the things that that I will tell you that I would would do anyway i I
personally I get prepared for whatever it is that may be coming to me the potential when principal are telling us they're not going to program they they they might but I can tell you our folks here are going to be prepared that's just because who that's who they are uh yeah I prepared that like you have no
idea yeah no they're going to be prepared because that's just who they are as as leaders but um you know does it make it more difficult sure well Robert put it really well says till the world ends let's hope not let's hope not but thank
you thank you um okay yeah so a lot lot more on that for sure um you know and we'll see what happens uh moving forward but we we are we are certainly aware of it we continue to look at it and as more information is
available we will share it for sure um to who was I on uh was that Rob Lamar sorry um so what to say much to do um along the lines of the federal funding piece you
know on the uft endn we're watching this very closely we're monitoring next steps um and I think a lot of what we're doing now is centering on getting the members involved and getting the community involved so I'm going to put a date on everyone's head and everyone's calendar
may 6th it's a Tuesday we're rallying outside of our Queen's office um if you know where we are we're on Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike the big what used to be the old KE Edison building on the corner um we're going to be outside of the Queens courouses
getting together getting people aware of what's going on with um tier 6 and what's going on with federal funding and making sure that you know our members and our parents and community are all aware and on the same page of how detrimental this could be as a district
i think I'm hoping I feel like we're all understanding of what the ramifications could be but we also really want to get involved in spreading the word and making sure that everyone who has a vested interest in children and everyone who has a vested interest in
education excuse me takes part in you know sounding the alarm and making sure we know what's going on um I want to shift a little bit we're also working with uh we still have the initiative with our par professionals and making sure that the city council votes to
provide a bonus a signing bonus i'm going to call it a signing bonus an annual bonus it's not a increase in pay it's not a salary increase it's a bonus an annual bonus of $10,000 a year because as you know as well as I do um as a starting salary as a par to make
what that starting salary is and to live a life in New York is a bit much to ask it's it's you know it's it's needle in a haststack it's it's it's it's a lot to deal with so we're working with city council in that regards and um we're going to be spreading the word in our
school buildings as well making sure that parents are aware of the work that par professionals do how important they are in D75 settings and ICT settings and self-contained settings and those um that sector of our workforce who work
you know intimately with with with your children with students um are in a space where their pay should reflect the work that they put in so we've got a lot going on in that regards um but May 6th is a day I want to put in your put on your radar and if there's any support
you could lend to that day you know to coming down and and and and spending time with us down by the courouses on Queens Boulevard we'd appreciate that okay thanks Lamar for that um Mon'nique
hi okay I put in the chat um that the Office of Food and Nutrition has revamped um their hiring halls uh they do have a Google form where um anyone who is interested in coming to the hiring hall which will be Saturday April
19th at PS 209 um they're trying to um bring in community members families parents grandparents anyone you know who wants to work for the office of school foods and nutrition in district 25 they're doing it districtwide um so
please any f any parent leaders that are on today um download the form share it um at your PTA meetings or um any events where you see parents share with your own family um and get the word out um it's a great opportunity especially for
those parents who are looking for a part-time position and want summers off want to be able to pick their children up from school um it's a great opportunity to earn a little bit of extra money um also you're in the pension um you will also you're also
provided with the TDA so you and and health insurance medical coverage so you get all the full-time benefits for part-time employees um also um what newly came down at at my meeting at the education and libraries division of DC37 is that we've been informed that
when we visit schools as you know I've been visiting schools um in the district and all my districts um is that we can no longer be signed in um by a school aid so if there is a school aid at your desk covering the local 372 president
has made it very clear to the office of labor relations to the head of DYCD um that our school aids our DC37 members should not be manning the front desk for any reason we understand there's a shortage but our people are not trained
to be there so therefore if I come into your building and you have a school aid at your desk I am being told I must ask for an administrator to sign me in so it's just uh letting you all know in advance um and also as um Lamar had
noted what uft is taking on we're um with um what's coming down the pike DC37 and ask me we're getting ready as well um our our marketing campaign is to get organized um we are signing up as many
members as we can um so that we become union strong um and DC37 will also be having some political action meetings themselves they have their own department and so those meetings will be monthly and coming up um and I think that's it thank you so much okay thanks
so much Mon'nique um we're gonna go move on to um I'm gonna move on to Eden first from CEC and then Chernet I'll come back to um to President's Council only because Eden has to uh has to hop off so I'm going to pop it over to Eden and then uh we'll move on with the
President's Council reports no problem thanks for the adjustment uh good morning everyone so just a couple of updates our CEC elections are actually going to be opening very soon so just reminding people share out to schools um
have parent corners share that out um if you know anyone that's got kids in the district 25 area have make sure they're voting everything like that our next two meetings are May 7th as well as June 11th but June 11th is going to be our award ceremony that we do every year uh
we will be letting everyone know about what school and we're starting to get ready to send out for nominations to the principles as well as planning all the features there the other piece that I wanted to just mention is um a little bit of what Dr mike was talking about with the leadership program with those
students is also we are working very closely with Dr mike on a pilot program on the wellness initiative and so we're really looking forward to having these leadership uh kids come in and see how they can kind of collaborate with us as well so that's the update from CC
thanks so much Eden i appreciate it uh Shanette we'll move over to you for the Queen's um um President's Council High School report hi okay so uh it was a quite a busy last March into April and the highlight of and if I could share
with you guys we did our college fair uh last Thursday at uh Richmond Hill High School um in partnered with the bar president and we had approximately still counting 480 um families in attendance and I just
want to show you guys some highlights um this was a it was from uh 6 through 8 and we had schools like Boston i called every school myself i have no shame i I dragged people to show up because realizing for me personally as a ninth grader going to college fairs going to
you know out of state it's becoming harder so I came up with the idea I don't know if I mentioned it to have these schools come to us outside of your typical Sunni and Cooney schools so we had um Syracuse Yukon Boston Cooper
Union the Army the Navy we had an info session with a college um essay writer um MIT admissions counselor seeing what they look for we had um higher education of New York talking about scholarships so we had info sessions alternating in
between um the fair so this was at 7:30 and yeah we couldn't get them out so um let me see if I could do that this was the crowd at 7:30 uh yeah there's no volume but this was
at 7:30 and it was still packed so uh and then we had a surprise visit from our bar president he stopped in so that was really exciting and fun and um he was like "What?" And he stood online so and the line was down the road and we
were like surprised he was like he couldn't believe the crowd so I wanted to say you know the encouragement we had eighth graders and seventh graders show up with their families which was really good and they were like next time I'm going to bring paper so you know we have to start early like you're talking about
some of the priorities of college readiness for the kids to have that experience of you don't need to wait till 11th grade and 12th grade to look at schools and it was so heartwarming and we had student volunteers come and every child that came got community
service awards we got a nice print out from the bar present four hours that they can use towards their bank for community services so that was really good so now we're going to have to It was 40 schools and we only had three no-shows satan Hall Stony Brook and I think uh US Navy we figured it was the
rain and the distance Thursday night so we forgave them so we're going to have to go bigger find a bigger space cuz uh we turned out schools like Hopstra and Pace because it was first come first serve nyu was there you know it was it was really nice we're having our um
meeting tonight and we're going to have um a college specialist who reviews applications to talk about things that matter when you're applying for school that he looks for when he submits names to the admissions folks at at um MIT and
we're going to have also on hand um what is her name uh um Victoria Garvey she's the director of planning and development with the Queensboro President's Office they're going to start a program about engaging students in land use in their
neighborhood you know teaching them about the importance of preserving the earth I guess um and launching that program and all about applying to US universities and we're going to be spotlighting two districts um uh consortium of international outward
bound schools and the transfer schools Dr chang and doc and um superintendent Sullivan and district 79 which is alternative schools and um and we're going to be doing an info session uh on April 30th in regards to helping kids getting ready to start doing the
application process once it opens up in in the summer and uh that's it and then we're winding down and it's been a it's been a very impactful year learning so much so I thank you guys for part of my education process and and as as was
mentioned earlier we did our CEC for city council high schools we had 64 candidates it was a long night so for um elections so we'll see how things shake out and um we can only hope that we have more parents stepping
up because it's thinning out a lot so and I don't have any other report because this meeting is before all of our other meetings see everything else thank you Charette and I think that what a what a what a great uh opportunity you guys provided for your your students and families with that that type of a of a
college fair i think those experiences are invaluable and you know even getting our kids to campuses I think is a huge thing um you know it's funny we we bring our elementary and middle schoolers to high schools when we do the um just our you know sports sporting events and they
walk in and they just they're just marveled around you know around the experience it starts building um that idea of what's next for them and I think it's important um that that you guys were able to do that and you know just judging by the volume of families that
you had clearly it's something that resonated with them um you know across you know the across Queens so uh that's a that's a great job and if there's any time and space where you feel like we can connect on that and certainly in D25 with the K to8 I'd love to do that i
think that's a great opportunity yeah we should definitely so more on that and you know when you're starting to think about you know putting something together like that again i'd be happy to be involved for sure well because of the the fact that we turned on schools like Pace because we only had 40 tables you
know we weren't expecting this turnout i mean people were taking Ubers like we like all Democratic showed up we had kids from Bronx Science you know Manhattan schools Staten Island there were a couple from Staten Island um a lot of Brooklyn you know because of the
schools that we had there because who it's time to go to Yukon you know yeah we're will we're certainly willing and I'm sure one of one of our schools wouldn't even mind hosting and you have plenty of class talk to you yeah I need a big auditorium and a big gym because
I'm sure we can we can work on something like that i think it's a it's a nice opportunity for for our schools and some of the some of our schools are right on the Queens Queen's College campus too which which would make the experience of being connected to that a little bit different too um yeah so as time as we
start organizing let me know no no no i'm telling you we're planning for October because it would tie into early action so the kids get a chance to see the schools before they put in their application we're timing it to then do a fair to help you with your decision because a lot of the people that came
excluding NYU and Yukon and Boston University these were actual admissions counselors yeah I love that look at at applications and I was like so pleased i'm like they're like "Yes we came cuz you bullied us." Well listen bully away you got them
there right no fully away then if that's the perspective then sure yes you did when you pick up the phone versus emailing the response makes a big difference and I called every single school so you know it was we will talk thank you awesome
thank you guys uh Rachel you got it rachel anything uh for president's council yes in March we also had our successful CEC uh candidate forum um we had uh over 30 applicants but only about 12 showed
up to the forum so we were able to add another um closing statement um to the because time allowed um our next meeting is the Monday after the break the 21st and we will be having a representative
from the Office of Language Access um and then also just providing more um support to our P PATA presidents about coming into election season about having already formed their nomination
committees and how to handle their elections reminders such as you know no hybrid meetings for elections it must be online or in person it cannot be hybrid things such as that so just providing our uh constituents support in that area
and that's about it awesome thank you Rachel um and guys just just to kind of put it on everyone's mind um the June meeting I would like to have that one in person and we kind of added that into um uh I think we even put it into the bylaws as that that we would do it uh
this year in particular um to get a couple of inerson meetings so um the June meeting uh just to put yourselves uh put that your your mind's eye on that get it into the calendar i'd like to have everyone together for the June meeting if possible um obviously we will
have hybrid access to it for those that that are unable but we'd love everyone to be there if you could where um it's going to be here at Lyndon Place here at London Place yeah oh that's where our office is yeah here at Lynen Place uh but our next meeting is May 7th um if
anyone had Does anyone have any any other business that they'd like to discuss before we come to consensus on a close hi Dr mike i just wanted to make a suggestion to you i know you're looking for community programs um so there's a big program called I will graduate i'm
not sure if you've heard about it it's a youth development program um their email address is I willgraduateprogram.com it encompasses community activism it's a K to2 program um so if you visit what is it
what what does it entail um so it's dedicated to serving and empowering students families and the community by communicating the importance and I'm reading off their website i have very bad connection but they basically work with schools and they come in and they promote
um you know uh hold on empowering the students and inspiring the future the importance of um educational ex excellence they accomplish their goals through youth development programs art and education college and career guidance mentoring parent engagement
school and community workshops and exciting events i know they came to my son's high school once um and when he was there they do big school assemblies they get everyone ready i don't know what the K program looks like but if it's something I know our district we're
mostly K to8s um and so that might be an organization that could appeal to Are they a vendor Monique um I believe they are a DOE vendor i believe they are because they're in a lot of New York City public schools um and they're they're they're stationed
in uh Brooklyn but they do come out to Queen schools i know folks don't like to come uh all the way over here no but they do they do i know there's something about where we are in Queens that it's like "Oh that looks a little bit too far for me." Yes
I know i don't know and we feel the same way about the other burrows i know it's so true it's so true especially when they mention Staten Island like Oh oh yeah that's a long one that's a long one i'm lucky enough I don't have to I don't have I'm not the rep that has Staten Island thank goodness not yet i'll tell
you what when I when I was a network leader I had a I had schools by the out of bridge crossing i was like "Oh my lord almighty." Oh my god that was that was a track out all the way out to 50 it was like on the expressway it was a It was brutal time for me um but anyway
guys any other new business thank you for that that's a that's a really uh really good thing for us to to look into all right guys uh consensus on bringing a meeting to a close thumbs thumbs thumbs all right perfect guys thank you
so much i appreciate your time and uh we'll work on building those goals out a little bit more and look at goals three four five uh during the next session mike hang back just two seconds yeah yeah okay bye everyone have a good one everyone have a good one have a great
week off day yes happy holidays guys