Okay. Recording. Treasurer is asking to be let in. She's in. I mean, not treasurer. I'm the treasur secretary. Yes, she's in. She's in. Okay. Okay. Good evening everyone. It is 6:32 and we have met quorum. So, we will
begin the um May meeting of President's Council. Can't believe it's the end of May already. We were just talking about that. Um, so the first order of business is
to review and approve our minutes. So, Jenny's going to share the minutes. if you could take a minute to um look over them. Chian, if you want to um review, go over the minutes as um they're presented.
Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. So, now uh let's go over uh the minute on February the 24th, 2025. uh it start at 6:30 uh 6:32 p.m. And uh
first we approve of previous meeting uh minutes that's the ones for uh January meeting and then uh super incident report including uh celebrations to spelling bee uh
winners respect for all contest winners uh and there are some upcoming events. First one is family sew weeks night the wellness day March the 15th district performance data first is progress in
reading and math assessments um and action terms including schools to continue monitoring and supporting English language learners emphasize healthy behaviors to reduce uh absentism
uh encourage parent engagement in understanding student progress. Uh we have some students we have some students uh to represent um some you know uh excuse me could please roll
up please yeah yeah yeah um yeah give you as the uh presentation that's including uh Olivia John from PS22 spoke about the importance of clean school bathrooms uh and we have Logan
Perskin from PS 164 highlighted the uh significance of of rest uh recess for students. Also we have Rachel Brassman from PS and MS 164 discuss the important
uh impact of polluting and the importance of reducing car usage. Um CC election update uh including a deadline to apply extended to uh to February the
24th and candidate uh forum scheduled for March 17th and uh voting period in April. uh score service uh there are some details service uh distributed to f to families,
students and staff. Submission method prepared envelope NYS schools account or online deadline is April the 4th. Um action item ensure all family complete and submit service. Upcoming meeting
first one is DPAC meeting this February 26 and CEC meeting March the 5th. Uh PTA updates PATA election for 2025 to 2026
uh executive board meeting should be uh in okay uh should including the f uh the following process. first forming uh nominating uh committees in April and elections in May. Expedited election if
no committees formed. Uh principal should be notified by April the 1st of the date, time and meeting format of the elections which is either in person or virtual not hybrid. um subject covered by February Cac
meeting with next CP pack meetings March 17th uh at 9:30 open floor with discuss me members were invited to read any questions or issues and there's a a
incident report of school within the district had issues with missing funds from the last financial year and A audit committee was formed to review uh finances and no addition no transactions
should take place until the date is completed. Uh and the meeting ended at 7:31 p.m. Okay, that's that. I just have a few changes that need to be made. Um, some of the dates
in February and April said 2024, but they should be 2025. Yeah. I made a uh amendment for that. Great. Okay. You want to you want me to pull out the uh April minutes now?
Um let's go ahead and approve these first. Can I can we get a motion um and state your name for the minutes to approve the um what were these? The February report. The February minutes. Anyone can either unmute
themselves and make a motion or you can put it in the chat. I motion. Okay. If someone could second the motion and state your name. Mike Caraher. Second the motion. Thank you. All in favor you can put a thumbs
up in the chat. Okay. If anyone's opposed, you can put a no in the chat. But it looks like so far everyone's in favor. Okay, so it looks like the minutes are approved unanimously. So let's uh move on to the
minutes from our last meeting which is April. Happy birthday Yeah, it helps me get Jenny will pull them up. Oh, they are up. You guys don't see it? No, we see what what was last the
February ones. Yeah, let me stop sharing and let me reshare. What about now? Okay, now we see the April minutes. Okay, so let's start uh the minutes for the meeting on April the 21st,
2025. and they just started at 6:30 a.m. Um uh and then for super okay super incident uh presentation including uh
the events the following events the administrative professionals day of the April the 23rd holidays not to uh acknowledge uh pass P passover Easter update you a passing through the
agree to 8 April uh transition spec May uh 6 through 16 as the upcoming district event. First one is make a book night uh and then another one is the 25
wellness day. Okay. And uh Bolgalo all those pro uh pro promos inclusion uh largest participating district in NYC. Uh we also have a cheer expo or star
games and girls basketball uh tournament celebrated the student athletic engagement. uh young leadership team studentled respect and kindness intuive uh launch
May the 23rd academic update including ELA sprint uh spring result uh grade 3 to five average pass rate is uh 34% grade 68 average
uh 81% performers 48% of all student level uh 62.4% 4% of non ELS students and only 6% of EL
students on grade level phonex gains a significant improvement in K22 bonex for ELS uh ELS uh 2025 to 2026 district goals
reading um uh curriculums focus on uh Subgroups EL ELELLL students, SWD students, black Hispanic students, wellness relationship build minds up
movements and SEL service, master curriculums, middle schools will implement uh amply amplify math college and career readiness project um project suit box and save for college expansion.
Parent engagement needed for feedback um progress communication uh enhancing participation in save for a college and also still 30 uh 20% of students um longtimes absent and continue the
priorities uh parental feedback and success instruction in your high school audience. 89 to collaborate. uh ritual chairman uh from
PSN499 supported the increased language access um particularly um Chinese translation translation during PTA meetings uh proposed M&A motion ship in
need to to connect middle and high school students with younger peers. Uh chat we we have chat discussion supported the safe for college program need for more communication about parent account set up and mapping
contributions. A presentation from robot William the office of language access share the services available translation and interpret and interpretation over 200 languages. How schools can support the non-English spoken families request
the forms and the language access cards. Emphasize the importance of having uh designated the language access coordinators at each school. Encourage the uh pro uh
proactive plan planning for parent events to include the translated materials and intercriptions. uh next steps uh including district 25 DPAC meeting on April 20 uh April 13th
left the CEC meeting on May the 7th PTA elections in May and the district 25 president council meeting on May yesterday May the 19th district 25 president council board election is on
June the 16th says the election result will be released is uh in June and open floor. We have question from David about the principal and the assistant principal hiring and also by uh live 53. Okay, that's
it. Thank you so much, Chan. Does anyone have any questions or changes um to the the new I mean to the minutes as they were presented? Okay. Then if somebody could make a motion to approve the minutes of
the as they were presented and state your name for the minutes. I approve the minutes. Jennifer Bardi. Thank you. And if somebody could second the motion and state your name for the minutes. Uh Mike Caraher. I second the minutes.
Thank you. If everyone is in favor, if you could put a thumbs up in the chat. Okay, it looks like it's mostly thumbs up. If anyone is opposed, they can write no in the chat. Okay, there are no negative responses. Okay. So, the minutes are
approved uh for April. Okay. So, next on our agenda, we will turn the um meeting over to Dr. Mike for his report. Sure. Thanks. So, thank Sure. Thanks so
much, Rachel. Good evening, everyone. Hope everyone's doing well. Um as Rachel mentioned, it's hard to believe we are here in the middle of May, towards the latter part of May. crazy to think, but we are in fact here. So, I'm going to go over a few things with you. Some of them
are a little bit of an extension on what I discussed um last month, but we'll go through some updates and reminders. Uh going to talk a little bit about Amplify, a little more about Amplify than we did during our last session. Um and I do would I would love to get some more of your perspectives on the parent
engagement goal going into next year. uh particularly in context to a recent meeting that we held with the CEC and landing on a theme of sorts around the wellness collaboration that we're going to engage in which I thought would be a nice tie into our parent engagement goal
but would love to get some feedback from you guys on that. So um when we get to it hopefully you guys can give me some thoughts some of your thoughts around how we can build towards um that collaboration with the CEC. But having said that, let me open up
my my slide deck for tonight and we will go right through it for you guys this evening. Okay, so some updates, reminders, math curriculum selection, talk to you a little bit more about that and just a brief review of goal priority 4 and five going into next year. This,
as you know, will always share some of the upcoming events that we have. Uh we do have a the the next in our line of math uh sessions for our parents and this will the final one uh Beth Eaton from our team will be going over in more depth the implementation of the shared curriculum that we'll be using across
our middle schools um as well as some of our departmentalized grades in elementary. Um we will be having a parent I ready workshop in in uh June as well as two Acadian sessions, one for K1 and the other one for grade two. uh
really important that uh our families know about these sessions. We will be sending a blast uh Lewis typically sends that through gamma to all of our families just to remind them that we do have these opportunities available. Uh but something for you guys to share as well at your schools that these are our
options for those that want to learn more about the assessments and what the data coming back means for you and your child. Uh we will be hosting a District 25 civic share fair on Thursday, May 22nd. That's this Thursday. Um at PSMS 164. Uh
the there'll be a bunch of opportunities for you guys to hear a little bit about um some of the civic action that our kids have taken throughout the year. Uh a little hearing some of the soapbox speeches that have been presented. We have some had some kids throughout the year share with you. Uh you'll hear a little bit about the participatory
budget projects uh that have uh taken place as well as some school projects that have taken place as well. Uh this is a really nice opportunity. It's an extension of what we had done last year. Last year was our first civics fair that we ever had. Uh this will be the second
of its kind and we're we're really um looking forward to a great night of hearing from our kids which ultimately is what we're trying to get accomplished anyhow is getting those voices to to have a strong passionate mindset around things and then doing things to promote
that space. So looking forward to that this coming Thursday. Um May brings us uh AAPI month. It's um Asian-American and Pacific Islander Month. Uh really promoting and supporting our Asian
community in in association with our Pacific Islanders as well, Malaysia, Melanesia, Micronia, and Polynesia. Um so across the month, you'll hear and see some of our schools engaging in uh in activities and uh and tasks that are
associated with learning more about uh the Asian culture. Uh it's also Jewish American Heritage Month uh celebrating all of our uh Jewish community members that have made such a difference over the course of time uh both in New York City history and across the country. So
uh we do have schools engaging in work. One school in particular as they finish um I will ask them share a little bit about it with you uh as they engage in the names not numbers project where students learn how to engage in uh the most uh the use of digital resources and
digital tools uh film making interview questions and they have an opportunity to interview uh Holocaust survivors um and create kind of their own documentary out of it. So, it's really really cool uh cool work. Uh we'll share a little bit more about the product after they
have been able to complete it. Uh enrollment timelines uh we've gone through each of them. Uh the last one that's on the horizon is 3K offer release which will happen tomorrow. Um those in prek you would have received your offers last week. Um and I'm not
going to go through all of the other ones. They're there for you just in terms of timeline for you to refer to as necessary. uh New York State and diagnostic testing administration window. We have now completed ELA math and science. NISSISLAD is still underway through May
23rd. Uh and endyear diagnostic assessments in reading and mathematics are happening through June 13th. Our schools did try to organize them so that they weren't all at the same time. Uh for our kids, it is a uh you know quite a quite a bit of testing going on uh in
April and May. Uh and for our middle schoolers taking regions exams in June. Uh youth leadership team really excited about this. Um Melinda from our team and I know Diana I see her on here as well have organized an amazing
opportunity for our our children and the youth leadership team members. Uh I did talk to you briefly about this, but this has expanded and and really created a really nice opportunity for our kids. Uh students and student council representatives from across our middle
schools have been invited um to attend this event. There'll be buses that are taking them from here at Lynen Place uh to Adelfi University where they'll have an opportunity to meet with um a variety of members from from the college campus, but also um members from their athletics
teams, volleyball, basketball, um as well as a former Boston Red Sox, a former New England Patriot, uh members from their dance um from their dance community, uh all with the lens of of uh
building responsible decisions, relationship skills, and how do how they how important that is uh through their lens as professional athletes with the goal of our kids from student council to come back to their schools to really talk about how we utilize what they've learned uh to help build community in
their own buildings. Uh so we're really excited about this and you know, we'll have more to share during our um our next president's council. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures and get some uh testimonies from our kids around what they learned and how they're going to bring it back to their schools. Uh so
looking forward to to that event on May 30th. Um so more to follow on that. District arts funding. Uh just to give you guys a little bit of an idea, I don't think that I I shared this during our last session. Um but we were fortunate to get some arts funding um at
the district level. Uh we did use it to to bring um some arts opportunities to over half of our schools. It wasn't enough to bring it to everyone. Uh but we did bring studio in a school to a building um to bring to create a community arts day. They're doing that
at one of our elementary schools as well as uh what our prek center. Uh we have Chinese dance and musical assemblies that were were made available to several schools across the district uh in alignment with AAPI month. Uh we brought
in Mexican dance, Colombian dance, uh West African dance and drumming assembly, Chinese jungling juggling assembly. Um and we're also excited to say that we we brought in some opportunities for Broadway shows. Um, so some of our schools will have the
opportunity to bring some students to go see Betty Boop, Operation Minset, uh, Buenav Vista Social Club, and lastly, Aladdin, which will be a student and parent scenario. Uh, this will be for for some of our schools that have been
working really hard on improving chronic absenteeism. All children that are in that 90 to 100% attendance rate uh will be put in a little bit of a spinny wheel um to have their names identified. Children that get selected will will have the opportunity provided they can
attend with the parent uh to go and see the show. Uh a few of our staff members from each school will also be invited as well as a few of our district team members just to be represented uh there during the day. Uh but really looking forward to uh to our kids enjoying some
of these experiences. I've received a great deal of positive feedback around um our connection with Flushing Town Hall. Uh they've done a series of of uh shows in our buildings. Have received quite a quite a bit of positive feedback
from them as well as Arts Connection who brought uh the China Patterns Dance Assembly to our schools. So really positive feedback from some of our building leaders. Uh, and hopefully, provided I receive some additional funds next year, which you never know. Hopefully I do, uh, we'll open up more
of an opportunity to more of our buildings to take advantage next year. But this has been really, really wellreceived thus far. And I'm happy to have been able to spend pretty much every penny that that came uh that was accessible to me. Um, I tried to spend
in a in a in a as good a way as I could to get as many kids involved as I as I could. Um, also just so that everyone knows, we held a district 25 teacher recruitment fair uh in late April. Um,
we do have uh 20 plus of our schools that had applied for and received uh approval for class size reduction uh in the district which means that we will have uh quite a few vacancies open into next year. Uh we had hundreds of
candidates come uh to 169 and Bell Academy. Thank you to both of the the principles of those schools along with the assistant principles and teacher leaders who supported the hiring process. We had members from across our district that were there uh meeting new
candidates um to uh to learn from them in terms of who was going to be uh make the best fit in our schools coming this September. Uh but this was a really really great event. I thank Allison Padoni from our from the district team for organ helping organize our uft
partners as well as our district team members for being there to celebrate uh to to organize and uh create a really great uh recruitment fair. Um high quality instructional materials uh for mathematics as I mentioned during our
last month's session uh the program that we landed on was amplified Desmos. Um this is very very much aligned with um illustrative mathematics which many other schools in New York City utilize. Uh the the goal of this is around New
York City solves and the focus on building our children as problem solvers which I do as a having an eighth grader and a 10th grader myself. um is really super important that our kids um learn not just the you know the procedural work and the content but learn how to
become uh a problem solver that that goes beyond the just the the math content but being someone who can think through a problem. It's really important for our kids to be able to do as um as they move through uh elementary, middle into high school and then beyond. Um not
all problems are as um you know as simple as some may may seem in the the task that our kids uh receive. It does they do require a great deal of thought um and and uh and understanding as well within the math content. So the this
particular program we do believe helps us do that more so than what is currently accessible especially at our middle school level uh to go through these elements of the math shifts. Now, what I'm going over briefly with you now is something that Beth will be going
over in more detail during the uh the math event um next week. Uh but just to give you just a you know a a preview of some of the things that will be talked about the large part in large part will be this last part of shared highquality instructional materials is what Beth
will be discussing in context to amplify. But the goal of this program is really to support sensemaking, making sure that kids are engaging in grade level work across, you know, a given grade. So all children in grade four are being able to have access to grade four
content uh and opportunities to really build through math discourse um where our kids are able to make their thinking visible uh to our teachers and to each other. Now, how did we go through this process? I've mentioned this to you
before. We had a district math team that was connected with uh some building leaders, teachers, uh and parents, particularly parents from our community education council, uh visited schools across our district that were piloting this work uh to help us make a decision
around where we were going to go next, which is kind of where we went this year. Uh schools piloted the program. Um and through that piloting and feedback from our community members, namely our parents, teachers, and building leaders,
we did land on um on Amplify. This included visits to each of the schools that are there, 164, 169, 379, uh 24, 32, 214, 185, and 200. Um those are all the schools that piloted. our building
leaders were able to go and get a uh you know bird's eye view of what the program looked like for those that weren't piloting uh so that we can make this decision for our students this year. I do have a very very short video clip that I will will play for you just to
get an idea of what the perceptions are of program. Whoops. Sorry. Yes, I got it. I got it. No, I'm so What if your students were so eagerly
engaged in a lesson they wished it wouldn't end? With Amplify Desmos Math, we believe in math that motivates. If I'm going to use math for every day for the rest of my life, then I need to get very good at it. I feel like it's just
like fun cuz then like you can talk about like math. It's kind of fun to see which one's right. Yeah. And I like I like sharing my ideas in math class cuz sometimes they come up with like really good ideas that I really want to share. Seeing those aha moments, seeing kids
share their strategies with each other and then coming back and then not being afraid to share out. Add the 7 to the 10, it will equal 17. I think when they find out that we're going to do Amplified Desmos math, they're very
motivated. They're eager. They're excited to do it. It sounds like very loud because everybody's talking with each other and helping each other. What I've noticed is a huge shift of engagement because there's so much
interaction and so there's so much buy in to continue on. Math can be really hard sometimes and when I like get a problem right and I fix something it makes me feel really good about myself. The students are grappling together. There's noise, there's laughter. I think
the talking has been um one of the biggest changes. So a notice something you see or a wonder something you're thinking about or you want to know more about. I am seeing the effect uh with how kids just feel in school. So I think there's just more of a confidence that
the students are carrying themselves with. It's been beautiful to watch from the outside to see everybody grow together and to see that it really ends up benefiting the students in the end. Oh, this might help us. Our mission is
for your students to learn math and to love learning math with Amplify Desmos Math. So, for real, for real, every single day I come to school, my favorite subject is school is always math because
I get better at math. So, just to give you a little bit of uh of an idea of what what this program kind of looks like, um you'll see manipulatives, you'll see access to to technology, which is more more prevalent in the middle school than it is in the
in the elementary school. Um but it is a it is a program that's really built around kids being able to to do what we need them to do, and that's become problem solvers. So uh more to follow on this um in regards to the things that it offers. Again, it's a problem solving
based type of program. Uh gives access to kids to engage in conversation. Uh there are a series of of math resources that come with it. Lessons are interactive. Creates opportunities for problem solving, excuse me, practice problems. um
differentiation moves are available for our for our teachers and a variety of different assessment tools so that you know for kids that are not necessarily getting it it's easily accessible to um you know to the teachers to know what they should be doing next. So
um this part is a grade level content making sure that all of our kids can access the grade level content and then there is a resource link here for parents to get an idea of what what is available for you as a parent uh to support this work moving forward. Now
all of our schools that are participating in this work will be engaging in professional development. My goal just so that everyone knows is that our teachers have had some exposure uh to the curriculum before the year is out. Um help making sure that the the
the platform is uh is recognizable and understand all the the components of the program um to support planning and and implementation between now and the end of the school year so that it's not unfamiliar when September starts. Uh my goal is that our teachers are as ready
as possible for the implementation during next year. Again, particularly for our middle schoolers. Uh there will be uh building leader sessions. There'll be multiple day sessions for school leaders and teachers of all middle schools. There's going to be an expectation of of piloting the program
over uh in in June for all of our schools implementing. And then we'll be having a participate uh we'll be participating the west research uh that'll be offering us a grant so that they can gather feedback from teachers and students for our students. It will
be something that we do get um you know um approval from our parents for our kids to participate. It's really survey based questions around how they feel during the math lessons uh to give us a little bit of context around how we can do things a little bit better. Uh but
that will require a parent to uh to opt out of that opportunity. Um and then lastly, there'll be training uh job embedded support training over the summer as well. Uh we'll be offering uh a multiple day series for any of our teachers in
grades 6 through 8, including algebra. Um and the district math team will be working on this um to create look fors and use to support monitoring of work over time. any of the feedback around this process and the curriculum review,
you'll find here with any of these links. So, if you're interested and you want to learn more about what some of the pros and cons were based on um our our teams that reviewed it, uh you're welcome to look at it here. It is accessible uh to you as a as a par as a
parent, excuse me. And I encourage you guys to take a look um so you can see what the perspectives are. I'm sorry. Excuse me. I'm sorry about that. Uh so you can gather the perspectives of those that reviewed. And lastly for tonight, the
things that I wanted to just touch base with you on during the last session, we talked about priority 4 and considering the safer college grant. Um same for safer college goal embedded in this uh in this priority four. I did run this by
the CEC. they were in agreement that uh connecting a goal to the safer college would be um a good option. Currently, we have just over 30% of our families that participate in the safer college. So, it's something that we do want to add to our goal. So that means that more
information could be shared um not only from from the safe cut for college program but us at the district level uh so that our kids are engaging in those financial literacy lessons and that more folks take advantage of this of the free dollars that come um from being a
participant. So children in K through three have access to these funds and we are going to create a goal that will be crafted uh for you all to see by the time we get to our next president's council session. Um, I just wanted you to be aware as part of our last CEC meeting, this is something that they
also agreed would be a good idea. So, I'm going to be crafting a goal um that's connected this to this likely to increase by a specific percentage. I do want to go over all of the students that have already registered versus those that have not and make a a reasonable
goal uh for us to to um to land on in terms of number of children that we want to connect with going into next year. Uh, but I'm looking forward to this. The other goals we've already reviewed, if anyone has any feedback on them, always still open to that. Um, not going to spend too much time on them tonight
because we already talked about it. The ones that I wanted to talk about in particular was priority 4. Just to let you know that this is a goal that I would like to add. And uh, lastly around parent engagement. So um the CEC and district collaboration, we were talking
about a motto um to add to our district vision statement around this idea of promoting wellness. And there were a number of of choices that were available. But after deliberation and and talking with one another, we landed
on just these three words, wellness, kindness, community. uh to kind of encompass the the the mindset where we wanted to go as a um CEC and and district team and I want to bring that to you guys as well just in terms of
your thoughts um around this idea of wellness, kindness, community and more importantly is how can we revise in some way, shape or form this motto of um what we currently have in for district 25 for many roots growing as one community. uh
strong root, strong schools and and so on. And where can we how can we kind of embed this idea of wellness, kindness, community inside of it. We already have kind of community written in there, but I'm wondering if you guys can just take a minute or two to reflect on um on this
idea of of building in and then from that it would be around how we organizing what we would want to see in terms of any of these areas to focus on. the one that I've been leaning very much towards um is this idea of community um
and or kindness the both of them are really important to me uh especially uh especially right now I think it's important that all of our schools are really reflecting on what do we look what does community look like sound like and feel like in each of our buildings and how do we enhance that um as a as a
district but also individual schools but if I can ask everyone just to take a a couple of minutes just to to to reflect on on two things. One, wellness, kindness, community in terms of the overarching um model for our schools,
but where we can kind of embed this maybe in a goal and also in in terms of our district vision statement as well. Uh what you think we would be able to do with that as a as a collective group. Uh just for feedback for me so that when we revise it as a team, uh I have some of
your thoughts in in regards to it. So would love to see it in in in the chat or any of you that want to come off of mute in regards to the wellness kindness community and why we landed there or anything along those lines uh to support my thinking uh with the CEC uh moving
forward. That would be fantastic. If if I can hear from some of you on that. So just a minute to to think um about that and then we'll come back together and hopefully hear some voices. That would be great. I'll put my timer on just so that we're
all another 15 seconds. Okay, I'm just going to quickly stop share. Does anyone have any any thoughts, any comments? The wellness kindness community, how we can use that in some way, shape, or form to support a goal or revision of our district's
vision statement? One thing I thought of is possibly where we have strong roots, strong schools, we could maybe add strong, healthy schools because communities kind of already mentioned in the the
overarching motto and that would at least incorporate wellness That was just one thought I had. Um I was thinking expand on community. I think at this point there's there's not
a lot of community especially for junior high schools. Uh, and it'd be kind of nice if we can get like I I don't know how to do it because you know when we have PTA meetings, the only people who really come are the ones that have the student of the month and even that's
kind of slowly dying down. So to have something where we can get I was thinking maybe we can get like the kids kids like the kids who are friends their parents to get together. So it almost gets almost like a what's
the right word? Um a small group of people and developing communities that way instead of trying to do like everybody at the same time like an icebreaker or social. No, not that. It's just almost like try to find
out um the kids that hang out together and then have those have the parents of those kids meet sort of and then just kind of have it so that that they have a sense of community and then they can start expanding on it. So have like 30 little groups of community kids um
community parents and then have those guys kind of gather together and kind of make a whole like root system. Yeah, John, you know what? I I really I really like the the um the intention behind what you're saying and I think you know
that's that's kind of what I what I'm hoping for for everyone to kind of think through what you know what do we want community to to to kind of be in our schools and you know ideas are where that comes from right you know so when we start throwing ideas out there that's when we can start really establishing an
you know another way of approaching you know what we're hoping for as you know as a parent in inside of our schools. um you know, how do we really build in that space of of promoting community? We say it, but are we doing it with the in
in a way where it's actually happening, particularly at our middle school level? You mean, you know, as a dad of a of a of an eighth grader, I get exactly what you're talking about. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. Any other any other thoughts?
So if I can if I can ask you guys to just kind of you know think about this a little bit you know no pressure certainly certainly here but if I can ask you to to think a little bit on it uh because I do really value what it is that um that you have to say and and
your schools schools and you know I really want us to to think about when we go to our buildings um you know do we have that feel that community feel inside of our schools you know what is it that our school does to make us feel like we're a community and how do we add
and and enhance that you know and and I think it really does matter because our kids are going into our buildings every day and they should feel that space of togetherness and um you know wherever we can do that a little bit better. Um, I'd like for us to to really try and I think
your feedback as you know uh members of the PTA will go a long way in helping us shape that because you're there with a great deal of frequency. Um, so you see what's happening in our buildings you know more than most of you the other parents in our schools. So when you when you see things that can say you know
what how do we how do we go and expand upon this this idea of building community in our schools to build that space of kindness which I do think is so important to me and you know for for all of you to you know and I've said this before but just to kind of if you if you
hadn't heard me talk about this I I think that you know one one of my real real values is making sure that we're not only producing our kids that can perform well um in reading in mathematics and science and social studies, but that we're building really
strong kids of character through the work that you do certainly at home, but how do we reinforce that at the school level where you know when I always say to my kids is like when you're when you're out of my sight is when it's most important for me. You know, it's one thing for how you behave and I know how you're going to behave in front of me.
It's also important for me to know that those same types of things are happening when you're when you're in school, you're at a friend's house, that you know that we're doing things that are are most appropriate and that that's important to me at the the district level that we're also assisting in
supporting those same types of things that you try to build at home. Um, you know, so this is a big part for me and I it's important and I'd love to get your feedback over time to how we do that as as best we possibly can in our schools. So, um, looking forward to hearing from
you guys next time. If you wouldn't mind reflecting on it, I would love it to hear what you guys um have to say uh to improve on this as a district. But other than that, that that concludes my um my Oh, did I hear someone? Yeah, I'm sorry. Uh, so to just say something with it is
hard to get middle school parents to join in. I'm a parent of a high schooler and I'm never at his school. Um, we did talk about interacting or engaging with parents like uh parents versus teachers
or parents versus kids activities to kind of like reel them in. So, more like when you see on like Facebook reels like the tackle games, the footballs, kind of like that, like a relay race. Um, maybe in the beginning of school year, cuz at the end we're completely tapped out as parents. There's no more like mental
input that we can give. um we kind of talked a little bit about that and I think that might have a sense of community and community is different in every school. So that's very hard um to reel that in because there's language barriers, there's religion. So it all
depends on um the availability of the parents. But we really thought like kids versus teachers or teachers versus parents will really bring in the gap of teenagers finding it very socially awkward that their parents are there
where you know in fifth grade they're at that cusp where they're like yeah sure come but just don't talk to me. Yeah. No, I I I get it. I get it. you know, uh, it's funny, you know, my my son, you know, one of his things that
he's in, he's in chorus and, um, you know, so when when his show is over, he's he can't get out of there fast enough. He's like, "All right, let's go. Let's go." Dad, it's not even like I'm like, you know, so I get that awkwardness that that does come at at times for our middle schoolers. Um, but,
you know, even at the elementary school level, you know, um, you know, building that space of community. Um, you know, I do know that sometimes this is taxing. There's not much much left in in terms of thinking about these things, but um, but absolutely welcome your thoughts
and, you know, want to build even at the district level. How do we do some more community events where we get kids and families from across schools uh, to participate? You know, we do some of the book events and those are all all nice, but oftent times you're you're by yourself. You're not you're not
necessarily, you know, encouraged to engage with someone else. So, um, but at any rate, you know, not to belabor this, I I encourage you just to to share your feedback and and I'd love to hear it. And the last one, last goal here, just to report to you guys, we um we are
right now second highest attendance rate in New York City. Um, our chronic absentism rates have been coming down over the last um last 3 months, which is a really good thing. Um, you know, and I'm I'm looking to continue to progress on that. So that that is the the last
goal that I always mention, chronic absenteeism. But just so you know, we are we are doing very well comparatively to the city. Uh we just want to keep that up, get our kids in the building as much as we can. But other than that, guys, unless there's anyone anyone has any other questions about anything else I shared, I hope you all have a great
night and thanks for the time. Thank you as always, Dr. Mike, for your presentation. Thanks for joining us tonight. Thank you. Bye. So, moving on in the agenda, we do not have any guest speakers tonight. Um, our
focus for the rest of the meeting will be on supporting you, our PTA presidents, um, as it comes to various things PTA related um, and especially um, towards the end of the school year and with
upcoming elections. So, just some reminders. Um, you should have or have access to your PTA employee ident employer identification number.
Um, and if you do not have that, then you need to contact the IRS and we can provide you with assistance in doing that. Um, your just a reminder that your PTA bylaws should be updated every 3 years.
So, you should check your records for your current copy and if it's more than three years old, um, you need to update them and a copy, excuse me,
uh, a copy needs to be filed with the principal's office and then that, um, the parent coordinator will make sure that the district office is also updated with regards to your bylaws. Um, after you hold your um,
elections, whether it be this month or next month, you will have a PA, PTA, and SLT election certification form. Bear in mind that the PTA keeps the original and the parent coordinator should keep a copy. So, you should make sure that you
receive the original back once it's been signed by this the principal or their design. Um, also a reminder that the PAPA annual financial report is due by June 30th. Um, this would be all financial activity
from July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025. And your PAP proposed budget report is due by your June membership meeting. This is where you will complete the section as to the starting balance,
your anticipated membership dues, a list of all individual um income, as well as a list of all expenses and what your anticipate your final
um balance will be as of June of 2026. And lastly, we are going to provide you and with and go over a script that can be used for the elections by your elections chair. Um, this will be shared
with all um of the parent coordinators. Since we have all of their email contacts, um, we will share with them in the instructions that they forward it on to all of the PA PTA presidents. And then you'll want to
um update this for your own school. And then um this is a template that we received from face a few years ago about how to chair a PATA and SLT election. So the first slide talks provides
um a mock meeting agenda of how you could run the meeting um with the beginning of a welcome an overview how the meeting will run choosing a chair and a notetaker although I recommend that the elect the election chair
already be selected so that they can go over this information in advance and then the process of thection ction meeting and the selection of of nominees and the election verification and attendance which is generally conducted by the school. Then the actual
nominations um you would start off with the president the three core part positions president recording secretary and treasurer and then any non-mandatory positions that you may have as set out in your bylaws. You need to make sure
that if you are running co for co or any non-mandatory positions that they are outlined in your bylaws and then after the PAPA elections conclude then you would have your SLT elections separately and
adjourn the meeting well adjourn the elections after that you can continue with your regular business. Next slide. So, this is a sample of what some of the opening remarks that the election chair could say. Um, it does actually
have some 499. I did try and make it general, but um the voter ID code you will receive from the parent coordinator generally is the person that handles that. And just a reminder that teachers can only vote vote in the PTA portion if you're a PTA, but not in the SLT
portion. Um, even if you're a PTA, the SLT portion is only voted on by the parents. So, first you would start off with the motion to open the election portion of the meeting. Um, here's the script here as to what to say. You would
make a note. The timekeeper would make a note of who motioned, who made the motion, and who seconded the motion. Then moving on, you will begin with the princ the
president. Next slide. President or co-presidents if your bylaws permits for such. Um you start by reading the roles and responsibilities. You would open the floor for nominees stating the exact time.
record the nominees names below and if somebody else is nominating someone you would ask for a second. Um if a person is nominating themselves you do not need a second to the nomination. Once all of the nominations
have been and this is in addition to anyone that nominates themselves um in advance using the regular nomination process. Um once all nominations have been secured, you will close the floor with a count of three and then state the
time that that the floor was closed. Um then it's good practice to allow each nominee up to one minute to address the parents as to why they would make a good candidate for the position. And this is important where it's important to have a notetaker who would
be responsible for timing them to make sure that it is equitable. Uh that all nominees receive exactly one minute and somebody doesn't get a minute and a half. If they choose to use less than one minute, that's fine, but at one minute you should let them know that
their time has expired. Next slide. Then once nominations are closed, they will proceed to a vote. Again, this is the language about calling um each candidate in alphabetical order, so it's not random. To make a statement of up to
one minute, the noteaker will be the timekeeper. After all candidates have spoken, we will proceed with a vote by poll. Now, if you were in person, you would proceed with a vote by ballots. This is assuming that it's taking place
um virtually. Again, elections can either be virtual or in person. They cannot be hybrid. We cannot stress that enough. Next slide. And then just a nice little congratulations to whoever was elected
to serve as the president or co-presidents for the 2025 2026 school term. So, as you go through the rest of the slides, so the next slide you would have for the recording co-recording secretaries. Oh, I forgot to take out my
school. You can just put your school name in that section. And then in the next slide, you'll have um the respon roles and responsibilities. And again, you would update that for any that you would have. Follow the same process.
Next slide. Again, follow the same process for reporting secretary. Next slide. Keep going. And the same with treasur or quote treasurers.
You would want to make sure that any it does not need to be a comprehensive list which is why it says include but are not limited to but just an overview of what the position would entail so that the families know what they're signing up
for so to speak the parents. Um next slide again the next two slides the position would be the same. Then if you have now you've filled your three core positions then you would proceed with
any non-mandatory positions that are allowed for in your bylaws. So for example vice or co-vice presidents then you would go through the proc the same process for that position. Move on. Again, the list the roles and
responsibilities as they are outlined in your bylaws and then you would follow the same process. Next slide for the voting. Next slide. Congratulations. Next slide. This is
just a sample based on who what we have for um non-mandatory positions corresponding secretary or co-cresponding secretaries. Next two three slides are the same. A list of roles next slide list of roles and
responsibilities the voting the core congratulations and then you would update this again with whatever non-mandatory positions you have and their roles and responsibilities. So go through the next few slides. Keep going. Keep going. Keep
going. Then at this point, go back. At this point, you would um recap the meeting and congratulate all of those that have um been nom been voted into the 2025 2026 PTA executive board.
and then you close the PTA elections and move on to elect for the SLT positions. So for the next slide, um again reminding them that this is a 2-year position. Um so it's for 2025
uh through ending in June 30th, 2027. Next slide. You would list your number of positions available. As you can see, we have three. Um, remind them that participants that only parent members
can vote for parent vacancies and give a brief overview as to what is the role of the SLT. Next slide. Again, a list of um for the first position, a list of some of the roles and
responsibilities. Um, same process for nominations. Next slide. and you would congratulate them and move on and repeat this for as many um next slide as many positions as you have. So
if you have two, you have three um however many um positions you have available. Again, congratulations to the new parent members. Next slide. This is the last and final step.
You need a motion to close the election part of the meeting and you record the time. You record the name of this person that makes the motion, the name of the person that the motion and then the election portion of the meeting is
closed. And the last slide is a thank you. Thank you to all those that participated. Thank you to those that are stepped up to be in the 2025 2026 executive board. And that would complete
your election process. Now again, this is a sample for you to use. As you can see, I had already started to um personalize it for $4.99, but feel free to um make edits to make it
relevant to your school and your bylaws. Does anyone have any questions? Um, I know we did go through that rather quickly, but a lot of it was repetitive. Um, again, if you you do want to fill
your mandatory positions first, if you are unable to fill any of them, you would want to have an expedited election in September. Same with the SLT. If you are not able to fill all of them, you would have an expedited election in September.
Um, and also you can make a choice uh for non-mandatory positions to fill them in September if you want to allow opportunities for incoming parents, say in the kindergarten or prek classes or new middle school students um to
participate in the PTA. Um, but you do want to try and fill your president, treasurer, and recording secretaries in May, June if at all possible. Any questions? And just a reminder, we have attendance
in the chat. So if anyone um please um take a moment to uh click on the link that Lewis shared to take attendance. Okay. Okay, if there's no questions, we'll move on um with the presentation.
We have another one from um Do you see the correct PowerPoint this time or is it still the script? No, it's the PowerPoint. Okay. So, just a reminder that your elections for your 2025 2026
executive board, it's recommended that elections are held before the June president's council meeting, which I believe we said is June 16th, if I'm not mistaken. So that way, the newly elected presidents or their design can attend
the June president's council meeting and run for a position on the executive board. So you would want to encourage the new president if there has been a change in presidents um for the new year, the new school year to attend our
June president's council meeting so that they can run for a position on the executive board. Again, the the executive board for the president's council consists of president, treasurer, and recording secretary. And we cannot state this
enough. Election meetings must be in person or virtual. Hybrid meetings are not allowed. The meeting should run by be run by a chair or I don't know if that says nominating committee, but with both you need at the
minimum a chair and a notetaker. And it's recommended if at all possible to already have these people in place or at least the chair. And then um one recommendation often I've heard is to
look to parents that are graduating out. Um it cannot be anyone that is running for a position. So if you are president and you are running for president next year, you cannot run the election, which is why it's good to have this um script so you can share it with the person that
is going to be chairing the election because that cannot be anyone who is running for a position. And that's it for our PTA updates and overviews. Okay, I'm going to move on to the
next. Um I don't think I seen um I saw Eden today. No, I don't think I saw her either. Okay, I'm gonna update everyone on the CEC election. So, first I want to thank everyone who took their time to support
the CEC election by voting and uh I know it's been you know hectic on everyone's end but voting has been very very important and all the district has been competing about you know getting the voting numbers up and you as as you know Dr. M is also very very competitive. So
it's been um so it's been hectic in the past few weeks when we have you know gone through the CC elections but the CC election stage at this point we are at uh we just finished voting that ended on May 13. The next will be June where all
the result will be announced and um the members who are going to be sitting on the CEC for two will be sitting on the CC for two years terms. Their term starts on July 1st and ends on June 30, 2027. So two years
terms. Um I'm going to be um here is some data charts from the CC elections. Uh so we have the orange that's 2025 in comparison with the blue which is two years ago. Um these are the applicants that were running for the CEC uh two
years ago and for this year. Uh so as you can see the comparison we have an increase of 22% this year. So meaning we have 22% more applicants running for the CC elections which is uh I calculated
which is 260 parents or applicants that that um that's running for the CC. The next chart is showing um how everyone voted. So these are parent you know um casting their vote. Um number
one is not you know a date is the first day of the voting when the voting started on April 25th. Um and then you can see how the voting you know rolled out on the 13th day we see a huge spike. We don't know what happened but it looks
like it's a magical day where you know schools parent coordinator any anyone did something magical because the number did spike on the day 13. Um as you can see these are the two comparisons from two years ago and this
year th this is broken down into um schools no into district into district. Um we always compare oursel with district 26. We are not very very happy with the number but this chart was um given out a week before the deadline of
the last day to vote. So we hope I haven't gotten the new one yet but we hope we you know the number has um changed and definitely gives an higher you know a higher number. We also held so all schools were
asked to hold a watch party for their school community. All districts were asked to hold a district voting party. So, we chose our district 25 voting party at PS32, which is on by 35th Avenue and
before Francis Boulevard. And we picked this location because we feel like parking was easy and they have a very nice new building into, you know, into their school building. um the principal and the parent coordinator and the team went be beyond and above with the
decorations because they didn't no one gave us budget but they you know they were try able to they were still able to try to you know figure it out by you know by adding buying balloons they have snacks they have these uh they have sessions where parents could watch these
recordings if they feel like that's needed they have photo booth they have a session where face were giving out um um swags and they have a station where we have some computers to support with the Nexa account if parents didn't, you know, have a Nexa account because Nexa account
was the only platform that's used to uh vote with the CEC. And then we have FaZe also supporting with any questions that's related to CEC and the CC's voting. And my son is one of the volunteer. He's by the snack bar, so I drag him with me so he could volunteer
with me. So that's my son, Alec. Um and then on one of the picture you can see you know superintendent you can see principal at Rigo. So everyone was there to you know to um m ready to mingle with any parent that would be stopping by just to have a little chitchat. So
that's the day where you can meet you know the superintendent Dr. Mike, the principal, some teachers, and then we have the parent coordinator, and it was just a a team of very, very helpful um people to help. And then Maria on the first picture outside, you know, the
school, she was also she's Maria is from PS21. She also came to help us in case we have any Spanish speaking, you know, parents that needed support with Spanish. Me, myself, I speak Chinese, so we had Spanish and Chinese cover for that day and balloons all, you know, outside the school building. So parents,
you know, didn't miss where, you know, the voting uh entrance was. Um I'm going to announce some upcoming meeting dates. Um the next CEC, no, the next president's council meeting will be Monday, June 16, and that's also the
president's council executive board election. Next uh DPAC meeting will be uh May 29, which is next Thursday. And this is where all the our title one schools pack members meet. And next CEC meeting meets on June 11. And we also
have um June June 11 is the um uh CEC award ceremony. And we do have two meetings prior to June 11. I apologize if I have if I have not listed those two dates. Um, one date is June 3rd, which
is the CEC meeting prior to June 11 because we can't consider the CEC award ceremony as a meeting. So, we had to add another meeting and June 4th, which is the day after, we will have a CEC special meeting as well. Um, those
notices will be sent out very soon. So, keep an eye. I guess that's it from me. Does anyone have any questions so far? Okay, so this is your opportunity to ask any questions um as we go into continuing election
uh season for our PAS and PTAs. If you think of any questions later, you can always email um the president's council at the email that was on the slide or you can also find it
on the president's council page at d25.nycpc and I'm also inserting my email in case you want to email me. So, I have insert my email in the chat.
Okay. Hopefully, everyone signed the attendance link so we have a record of your attendance tonight. And if there are no more questions or no questions because I don't think we've had any, um, I would like to ask if somebody could make a motion to adjourn the meeting and
state your name. I motion to adjourn the meeting. Jennifer Bardy. Thank you, Jennifer. And if someone could second the motion and state your name, please. I second a motion to end the meeting. And Kim Wong. Thank you. And it's 7:49 and that
adjourns the May meeting for President's Council. We will see you back here in June for our president's council elections. Uh best of luck to everyone, those that are running again or those that are supporting the new president.
Uh we hope that you have a good election uh good and successful election with lots of participation. So have a good night everyone. I want to add one more thing. Um sorry everyone. So for the next meeting we will need the current
PAP members and the newly elected PAP members to attend right because only the current PAPA members will be allowed or eligible to vote for the upcoming president's council election.
Okay. Thank you Jenny. You're welcome. Have a great night. Good night. Good night. Good night everyone. Thank you everybody. Good night.