##VIDEO ID:bIXjROLwkaM## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening we're gonna start uh I want to welcome everybody to uh Community Education Council 2 Happy New Year you all had a good holiday season uh in the absence of the recording secretary I will take the role pre buai pre bu is present Allison Bowen is absent Daniela egov is absent and she's excused uh she submitted an excusal request uh Gavin hilly Gavin hilly is present Charles love Charles love is absent W Maron W Maron is absent she is excused sonal Patel Don Patel is present Jessica Savage Jessica Savage is absent and she is excused from this evening's proceedings Sarah shakor Arenberg Sarah shakor aronberg is present Sabina sarin Sabina serenes is absent and she is excused from the proceedings Leonard Silverman Leonard Silverman is absent and Craig slutkin is present so which means we have five we do not have a quorum we do expect a quorum there are a couple of members that um are running late because of I guess issues with traffic so we do expect to oh sorry um we'll go to the stud reps as well in a second uh but from the uh voting reps we have five we do expect a quum for tonight uh I will also take the attendance for the student Representatives Layla Jason okay she'll be late and Alexander Stillman Alexander Stillman is okay so I'd like to start off the meeting um Again by asking for civility towards on one another another and respect towards each other I realize I ask for this every month I'm going to once again implore everyone to show respect when others are speaking and this goes both ways I will ask council members and the audience to respect and to listen and pay attention to each other I will also ask members of the audience to let others be heard everyone has the right to speak to not only to speak but to be heard please no heckling please no profanity we have students here intentionally listening at home we don't have to agree or even listen to other people we have to that everyone does have a right to speak their mind on issues that are important to them we'll also ask their comments in the chat they be kept respectful as well uh if we have uh vicious back and forth profanity we do reason the council does reserve the right to start off the chat function is that better is this better it's okay louder is good okay so um the first order of business is the presentation of resolutions we'll start off with resolution 266 resolution to affirm cc2 support of nycps guidelines to support transgender and gender expansive students and resend resolution 248 would anybody like to speak on this resolution council member healing can uh can you hear me okay great um I'll keep this um fairly brief because you know you we have been talking about this and I but I do do want to add a few additional things um um I think everyone here by now knows what resolution 248 that uh was passed by this Council in March is is about um though the main sponsor of resolution 248 described it as an attempt to have a polite conversation about the Doe's gender guidelines I think we can all see through that and I think we know that the true intent of resolution to 48 is to challenge the right of transgender students to exist as their authentic selves in our public schools these are guidelines that the doe adopted more than five years ago and they're in importance with state and city human rights law and they've been implemented by the doe without incident since 2019 so six years mod Marin the primary sponsor of resolution 248 says she just wants to have a polite conversation with people about the inclusion of trans girls in sports but she's also publicly stated that trans kids don't exist she has publicly referred to the lgbtq woke religion in our public schools and when a member of the public spoke at one of our meetings and identified herself as a proud queer woman ma turned around and said that means she's a straight girl without a boyfriend this is not someone who's interested in a polite conversation if you think mod Marin wants to have a polite conversation about trans kids there's a bridge just outside the school that I'd like to sell you this is someone who bullies children this is someone whose idea of parental rights is to be able to determine the gender of other people's children this is someone obsessed with the genitals of other people's kids someone who wants an evolutionary biologist to sit on a committee to talk about school sports is not looking to talk about school sports and we know that consistently misgendering someone is a form of bully whether it's directed at trans kids or CIS kids it's not compelled speech to ask kids to stop bullying other kids and to ask adults to stop bullying kids and misgendering someone as bullying it's about asserting dominance and control it's the bully saying you don't get to determine your own identity I do it's an attempt to assert power or another person and so in that regard I I don't want it to be all negative I want to give a shout out here to Leonard silver he's not here I wish he was here but I have I have to say I've heard um Mr Silverman occasionally misgender people from this stage but each time he has he has accepted correction he's apologized and he's he's worked to do better and and I appreciate that and there may be some exasperation in his voice at times but I don't think he misgendered anyone out of M I want to acknowledge that but mod Marin is another St she misgenders people because she wants to assert control over them it's intentional and it's malicious I believe absolutely that mod Marin is entitled to her opinion about biological sex and gender she's entitled to live her life in a narrow box consumed by her own bigotry and hate but she's not entitled to drag anyone else into that box with her you can really hear the malice in her voice when she misgenders it's an attempt to assert dominance mod Marin misgenders Chase strangio because she wants to take control she knows that chase strangio can run circles around her as an attorney she knows that St Chase strangio can run circles around her as a human being and that frightens her to her core so let's resend resolution 24 let's move on from bullying kids to supporting them in their academic Journeys that's what we should be doing as a Community Education Council that's all I have to say right now about resolution 248 thank you thank you the next sorry the next resolution is resolution 267 resolution urging New York City public schools to promote inclusion of correct bias against English language Learners in the administration of the chassat and admissions to specialized high schools does anybody wish to speak on this resolution council member heing um thank you as as I think some of you know we we tried to bring this resolution um last month as well both of these resolutions we did not have a quorum last month so we could not uh vote on the resolutions um since then the panel for educational policy uh approved a a contract with a company called Pearson to implement a digital version of the specialized high school admissions test which is the test uh which is the sole entry method for admissions to to the to eight specialized high schools and um and that's by state law and so this resolution is designed to expand the pipeline to those eight schools I I don't think it's controversial and I imagine groups like Place NC that elected the majority of our C members so if if we don't have a quorum at a meet at a meeting you can blame Place NYC because they elected seven of these members um and they profess to be advocates for high achieving immigrant students so I expect they'll be eager to jump on board this with this resolution as part of their advocacy for shsat and I also would extend an olive branch to our C's English language learner uh representative um on Marin I hope she'll see this as an opportunity to begin some kind of advocacy for the neglected community of English language Learners in our district there are 16,000 students in our eight specialized high schools and four of them are classified as English language Learners that's not not 4% that's for individual students that's 0.26% of our specialized high school students um English language Learners make up um 16% of New York City public school students overall and in the 2023 2024 school year there was one English language learner at ston high school one at Brooklyn L and two at Brooklyn town the other five specialized high schools have zero of course there are other students at these schools who may have been classified as English language Learners at one point in their academic career um but not many New York City Public Schools classify students who graduated from English language Learners status within the previous two school years as as former Ells that's that's a term under the doe um Brooklyn Tech has about 20 former according to sty comprehensive education program plan um they had 22 English language for 22 former English language Learners last year and so those students who are former English language Learners are still eligible to receive some kinds of English as a new language support um including some like additional um after school help some some other resources available to them like pull pulling them out of a classroom for some assistance and um so I mean groups like Place NYC talk about preserving these schools as sort of dream factories for for immigrant students so I hope that they will make good on that talk by supporting this resolution to call for the shsat to be administered in multiple languages um the doe already does this with other standardized tests it did so with a gifted and talented exam when that was done as a as a as an exam and there are resources in all of these schools including teachers with enl certification to assist these students and so C2 has been a source of vocal support for Accelerated education options and I think it's time for this C to offer those Ed those options to our newcomers I don't know if we'll be able to vote on this resolution today because we still don't have a quum but I would just like to say that I'm happy to repeat it again at another meeting if we do not make forum tonight thank you thank you we will now go into our program presentations we are uh pleased tonight to be able to welcome uh members of the New York City School construction Authority the sca as they are finally known come once a year uh to talk about the projects in our district uh and we will also so vote later in the uh working business session about uh projects that we would like to prioritize the SC SCA to prioritize over the next few years I'm also going to note that council member Silverman has joined the meeting thank you e e e e e e e e I just want to note for the record that council member Charles Love is Here we do have a quorum and uh student representative Layla Jason is here as well that's that excellent okay okay good evening everybody uh this is the cc2 presentation on the school construction authorities November Amendment for our 2025 2029 Capital plan uh could we scroll up to the next slide please it uh maybe yes it's not reacting on here there it goes okay all right um you could probably go to the next slide now I could probably get to this before it pops up uh so the agenda for this evening is to go over to the plan highlights the capacity program the capital Improvement program and the resolution a program which is funding from elected uh officials and the CC comment form and any questions or comments you have on the capital plan uh Amendment okay we can actually pop to the next one too this is actually a picture of uh Park West High School uh it doesn't look like this now I believe we already have some scaffold removed um so we're all well on our way to completing this project and returning the school back to its normal use okay um you could probably hit next now uh so we have a total amount of 20.5 billion a lot of between four programs the capacity program this is our program where we provide funding for building uh uh new schools additions to new schools and replacements for new for schools that have leases that are expiring 2.28 billion for healthy schools this is uh uh Redevelopment of playgrounds and the cafeteria enhancement experience we also have 7.54 billion I believe for the capital Improvement project this is projects that you typically see around your neighborhoods at our schools which include scaffolding and sidewalk sheds this is uh exterior uh repairs on your buildings this could be new boiler projects um resolving leaks in the basement or sellers of the building what we call flood elimination and I believe about three billion for mandated programs these are programs that we do to resolve local law compliance or compliance with city state and federal regulations now within for some Citywide highlights for new capacity alone this is of course Citywide 6.13 billion for new capacity again this is new buildings additions um uh for those exist for those existing buildings electrification 1.4 billion allotted through the Citywide to fully Electrify our existing buildings gutting out the existing equipment that is in that building and replace them with a fully electrified system which would be more uh functional for the building uh we have 1.25 billion for technology so this is upgrades to Telecom systems inter uh internet systems uh to allow greater capacity of the building and allow for the phone systems to be new and uh more functional and easy easier of use for the enduser um 800 million allowed for accessibility this is Ada accessible ramps it's billion it's a typo yeah accessibility uh we call it path of travel so this is Ada accessible ramps um Ada accessible uh uh bathrooms when we're doing upgrades to facilities such as including new elevators for those buildings um exactly so we're putting in new elevators uh new ramps um and where that elevator is going up we're modifying some of those restrooms on each particular floor to have so those um Ada students can have accessible spaces use the restroom thank you thank you thank you uh physical educ education space upgrade 40 million so this just upgrades to physical education spaces to make it more uh useful to the students and the cafeteria enhancement experience 150 million this is updates upgrades to servery locations to make the food uh and the place more uh appealing to students so they could you know try to choose healthier options when they're at school we can go to the next slide okay so I talked a lot about capacity program but within the capacity program for the 6.98 billion I had mentioned new capacity replacement program is 400 million you can actually go to next slide now uh 400 million this is to replace uh lease spaces that are uh no longer renewing their leases so we're moving these schools to alter or to new sites um capacity to support tiate classroom unit removals these are tip eight buildings outside of schools typically on playgrounds so when we remove the TCU there's also funding a lotted to redevelop that playground so the kids can use that space again and 200 million for Early Education so that's 3K uh sites for doe and cbos so how does something end up being a c end up on our cap Capital uh plan there's a number of ways every year there is a building condition assessment survey this is done in all of our buildings around the city this is a uh inspection of the interior and exterior they're looking at the architectural uh architectural uh side of the building the mechanical spaces and mechanical equipment and the electrical capacity of the building and they're rating these rating these services in the building on a scale of one to five one being the best five being the worst and those items that they observe that are in bad shape could end up on our Capital plan for a repair project again these project types could be exterior masonry window replacement new parapet systems which is the high which is the low wall at the top of a roof uh roof replacement flood elimination boiler replacement low voltage systems like PA systems in the building um we could also get requests from DSS division of school facilities on reported issues uh say the custodian is looking at something in the building and they say well um this type of uh work request we got from somebody reporting it to us or something that we observed is kind of outside of our scope to you know to to repair this work this could be reported up to the Sea and we could scope this out design a project to move forward with a capital plan uh Capital Improvement upgrade uh again mandated repairs local allw compliance city state federal regulations that we need to abide by reso a or resolution a program upgrades this is specific Capital Improvement upgrades that a school may want in their facility and the funding typically comes from the C city council member or the buau president uh to upgrade their facilities this could be something like a new supplemental cooling system in a PA space could be a library upgrade could be an auditorium upgrade could be a gym upgrade could be a green roof anything um as long as it meets Capital eligibility requirements and of course the request from the uh City education councils uh saying us their requests for Capital Improvement upgrades um at their respective schools we go to the next slide sorry I that earlier I think when the next slide pops up you can actually start to go to the next slide because I think that's res again oh no no no go this sorry um um so some District 2 Capital Improvement uh project highlights uh this is capital Improvement upgrades that are coming up uh for cc or for cc2 so we got a few cafeteria multi-purpose room upgrades um some climate control upgrades this is just uh climate control systems uh uh involving upgrades to I believe their building management system uh exterior masonry blood elimination you can actually hit next slide now uh kitchen areas roof replacement school safety so this is uh what we call ipvs Security Cameras that'll be put around the school and inside the school uh to make sure Ks are safe and it also includes I believe upgrades to school safety desks and window replacements oh all right I can't okay all right so here's a couple CIP or Capital Improvement project photos around the district so PS1 Alfred E Smith beautiful building brand new windows brand new mry completed uh new roofing system we just took or we took down the scaffolding some sideb shed remaining which we hope to take down pretty soon as well school will fully have their will have their school back to them um all these new upgrades help the the building um keep cooler uh during the summer keep warmer during the winter um ps234 Independent School you probably if you haven't been through that neighborhood you've probably seen the sidewalk shed there and the scaffold there that is down as well we've nearly completed that project Julia Richmond education complex we're doing an exterior modification project there as well and the m126 Jacob August free school which we're doing an exterior mod upgrade which is of course all we can go to the next uh slide uh all these projects focus on making sure that the building is is watertight and heat and cooling retentive okay we can hit next uh so resolution a projects as I mentioned are school specific Capital Improvement enhancement projects that we get funding for from the city council the burough presidents or individual grants for upgrades to the existing school facility as I mentioned these could be green roofs could be Hydroponics lab upgrades Auditorium uh gem upgrades supplemental cooling like Split unit systems in space a couple District Two reso highlights that we've completed since 2015 and to current um 47 Auditorium upgrades 11 electrical system upgrades 12 Library upgrades and 26 playground upgrades we can do next as well oh is that the next one okay yes C request form okay so the C request form for you folks top five requests need to be in by January 17th I'm sure You' been working on them already uh uh there requests after the top five you have until the end of April now when putting in your requests for the top five a couple things you should take a look at um number one take a look at our Capital our Capital plan if you haven't already done so it will show which schools are having work being done and the work that's upcoming in the building check with your check with your custodial engineer about projects that for that respective school what projects have been done here that you know of do you know what's going on in the school right now and then you can take a look at the bcast report for that respective school and get an idea of what how that that item has been rated and that could help you inform your decision on say maybe I want to move forward with a capital Improvement project for a window replacement because this window was rated to four but uh it doesn't look like they had a window project here last year they five years ago doesn't look like they have one going on now and it doesn't look have going on in the future and that might give you an idea of uh what you should you know move forward with on what your request should be and then the last slide is my contact information any questions uh we'll start with council member poai thank you so much as I start the visits for this school year I wanted to um kind of have a better idea what are we in terms of air quality that's come up a few times are there projects already happening in terms of improving like putting in the ventilation systems or is that been on hold I'm asking because I don't know yes uh we actually have a HVAC upgrade going on now I believe at Julia Richmond so that's a type of project where we're doing a ventilation project they're not happening at all the schools I mean they may have already been completed maybe there's some coming up um but uh you know those projects would improve ventilation in the building uh so um you know of course if there's particular concerns about air quality in a specific school you can always follow up with the UFT for that as well council members uh Silverman yeah I know that um being a resident in New York City I've seen those um signs that we have on uh my building for example you get grade letter grades and a we're unfortunately I liveit at Deb building but um are the schools exempt from these type of regulations in terms of carbon and reddits or I actually don't know about the exemptions but they do have the ratings on the doors I believe I PS2 might have it at the front um but I've been to a number of schools that have their ratings um I can't say if we've done a particular project if I went back to that school and noticed that the rating went up I I I I haven't checked but I I could probably look but I'm not sure if schools are particularly um do we know ah okay then they are not they are not exempt so they're not exempt yeah um and is there a push to get the schools to upgrade the um the the heating systems to use the different types of oil I know that in the city they've been pushing for uh is it the high lower number oils uh it's like biodiesel biofuel yes biofuel so how is that going in terms of trying to convert to more environmentally friendly type of fuel sources member healing so I want to ask this question because it's like very common question in like PA PTA meetings um and it's not just the schools it's it's other buildings as well but it's so many I've heard so many people say like oh my my child started at a school in kindergarten and there was like a sidewalk shed up or a scout or sideb shed and Scaffolding and now they're in fifth grade and they're still still a sideb shed and Scaffolding up so so what's up and and and again it's not just it's not just schools it's you know I can walk past like three or four buildings just a few blocks from my house and and this same thing for you know a year after year so what um like what's up with that and what should people be maybe doing about about that sure um so uh I guess in this kind of instance I'm not sure which particular School um let's say we get a uh emergency condition at a school sorry let's say we get an emergency condition in a school like a brick piece of brick cracked or you know piece of material fell off the building um that' be immediately hazardous condition that we need to resolve uh we would get a request either either DSF would inform us we would get something from somebody else and it would be in the form of a red dot request in then instance we would install a sidewalk shed immediately to make it safe while the sidewalk shed is installed now we need to go through the process of investigating the issue so that is a timely process we need to scope it out but it may not just be well this piece of brick fell uh let's just scope out that piece of brick and repair that could be a systemic issue with the facade all around could be an issue with maybe when we're doing the investigation we observe that uh the parapets and the roof need to be replaced too and the windows so this kind of scope and design phase could take up to could take up to a year and a half to to two to do that whole process and then the actual bidden award phase and moving through the project could be an additional two years depending on the scope will work now let's say it's not a red dot request uh let's just say it's a regular Capital Improvement project that we uh got through vcast report um and didn't have a sidewalk shed emergency condition so we went out there went through the normal process scope design you don't have a shed at that time and then we bid an award and now we're actually on site we installed the sidewalk shed um we set up all the scaffolding and we're doing the work we anticipated to take like two years or so and we get to the parapet level or something or we pull back some exterior masonry and we find oh uh there's no uh the brick the mortar behind are is crumbling well let's check if this is just this area or some other area now we find it's kind of another systemic issue that we didn't anticipate that could add additional time to it we don't want to just repair a small piece and say oh well you know let's just that is isn't come back later but that additional type of work could depending on the scope of it what the architect engineer observes could add it could add an additional six months um to that project and you know you have those kind of issues um ideally we don't want to have those issues but if they are observed we want to fix them before we leave we don't want to have to do a repair project for two years and then you see us come back a year and a half later after you completed and every was like what's going on you were just here so is there any tracking sorry is there any other questions from my council members before I ask my is there any tracking mechanism where let's say we put in our requests one two three four five this year where we can actually see go in and see not have to beg and beg for the information where they are so for example I don't know that we put any request last year but we put the previous Council council member Silverman Council Mel might be able to speak on it but they put in certain requests the last Council the council before that is there any way that we would know where these requests are because what I'm trying to what I'm trying to figure out is how much you actually listen to us how much how well do you actually take our requests and then Implement them or are we at the bottom and they're you know bottom of the rec I'm just trying to understand that I'm not saying you don't but I have no idea and I you know I someone who's Len has been on the council for what six years now six years now I'm assuming you've put in requests over the years and you probably have no idea like right right but what is the tracking mechanism to see how much you are listening to us in CC1 and three and four and five Etc sure so um I believe around November of last year we had provided responses to your requests in the form of like a spread well not a similar a spreadsheet uh on your request for the specific school and then we provided a comment from the capital planning team on if this project if there's a capital project is moving forward if one already exists or if we didn't cannot prioritize it at this time meaning we cannot we cannot perform this project this time due to a lack of funding um if I would take a look at that form I can refor forward it to you again if you'd like to if you'd like me to um once I finish that doesn't completely answer my question because I'm not I'm not speaking so so much about the projects that we asked for last year I'm asking for the projects that each of the cec's not just cc2 have asked two years ago three years ago four years ago we track it because if you said we if if this C put in request four years ago and then three years ago he said hey that's a good idea we're gonna put it on a list we're gonna do it well what do you how do you communicate to us in two years ago and one year ago where what the status is I'm not just talking about what we did last year and you saying well we're going to do it I'm actually trying to figure out over a period of time are you actually staying doing what you're listening to us and then actually implementing what you're saying you're gonna Implement yeah so um just like every year we send those responses to you folks assuming you send in requests um if you got a response that said a capital project would move forward for I don't know uh m234 for example and you requested uh roof replacement right um then you could take a look at our Capital plan it may not be immediate probably be on the next Amendment and it'll it would appear roof replacement for such and such right for a specific school um if it said we cannot prioritize it at this time you that's that that's the response for you know um now if there's any specific schools that you have in mind that you made requests for and you're wondering where they are I could certainly check it to my to my point I wasn't here five years ago I don't know what they put in I wouldn't know what they would have put in I guess I in the last five years I'm sorry the last five years I can send those yeah I mean that I think that would be a useful tool to show projects that you say you were going to implement or at least try to implement over the past five years and I think that would be a welcome tool again not just to cc2 but CC1 cc3 four five six seven it's it's cchs Etc because I think that would be useful tool to see you know are our are our efforts actually going anywhere right right okay you have a question say like if it hasn't been documented maybe this something we can continue to document moving forward right moving forward that we could have more of a documentation the requests that are made and which projects how how much of those requests are accepted sure I can certainly bring it back to our c Capal plan something to think about but I appreciate you're saying that yeah with the the shed the scaffolding it is because they do have to be put up as soon as for safety of the students because there was an instance where you know some when something Falls and a child is walking by it's important that the sheds are in place so sure I know they're not they're unsightly but yeah no I know they don't look so good but it's just safety safety wise that's it's um yeah something fell in my my head once I was like I am all for protecting until the job is complete as long as the work is actually being done for example on my block I have next door the shed's been up for 14 years so which school is this that's not a school that's next door to my to where I live they've been there 14 years Ruben Museum but any of any other questions from the council oh yeah I just think you know I think it's great that you guys come and you talk to us you know annually and I see some of you look familiar I recognize you I've seen before um I would just say I think that one thing that would be very positive is if there was more of an Outreach on a school school by school basis because there's different resources at different schools there's different parent engagement and there's different connections with the CC and you know I appreciate that you come in you give the presentations but I think what would really be helpful is if at least there was an Outreach to each individual school so that they had some sort of process set up so they could Advocate and they could Advocate to us and they could Advocate to the community in general to the school superintendent get that funding and the res all the different methods methodology that you have to get the funding because I think there's a lot of people and a lot of schools that really have no idea what's going on and I think it's great that you have the Outreach here but I think it needs to be on a Grassroots level on a school by school basis and I think I know that's a lot to ask because there's a lot of schools in the city but I think we go a long way to be more Equitable and really giving parents the resources that we need in order to secure the funding and address individual projects that schools might have absolutely any other questions or comments from the council okay well thank you very much uh Josh I appreciate you coming and thank everybody Tom good to see you I'm stop sharing my screen okay so oh well they gave another yeah yeah okay so we're now going to go to the public speaker session uh each person thanks Tom good seeing you um each person will have two minutes to speak we have a number a number of speakers uh I ask each person to keep their remarks to the two minutes uh council member um Silverman is going to call out names and uh council member yes and coun council member boai is going to uh work on the microphone over there G to start with the general disclaimer that um I can't I have difficulty with pronunciation and reading people's handwriting but it looks like the first speaker will be Amaya Perez followed by Andre Deo so if you could please come up um Amaya Perez and then we're gonna have speaker number two will be Andre deaso and then after that we have Laura Bell hello sorry okay good evening council members on Monday I attended the academic Affairs committee meeting for this District where a panel included a District parent and two members of the LGBT community they discussed the impact of gender ideology on kids particularly gay kids during this meeting the audience engaged in open discussion asking questions and sharing opinions that often conflicted with the p the panel's views if we can facilitate open discussion like we did on Monday why is the push for an open dialogue about transports consistently stifled the resolutions like resolution 266 this committee meeting clearly Illustrated that these conversations are not just possible they are essential regardless of the opinions of certain council members like Gavin every voice deserves respect and must be heard resolution 266 perpetuates the dangerous idea that merely disgusting gender guidelines could somehow lead to an increase in trans suicides in reality apart from some hurt feelings no lives were lost from an exchange or differing opinions on Monday's meeting let's be clear resolution 266 is not merely an attempt to uphold flawed gender guidelines it's an effort to silence descent against radical ideological agenda if FS suggests that to achieve inclusivity and diversity we must sacrifice girl Sports safe spaces and safety the landscape is shifting a federal judge recently overturned President Biden's update that included gender identity and sex-based rights protections which allow trans identifying boys to compete in girl Sports this ruling makes it clear education can cannot expand sex-based discrimination to Encompass gender identity meaning the participation of trans identifying boys and girls Sports is a direct violation of Title 9 along with the recent bill that passed in the house that bans boys from girl Sports in a fairly funded schools in just five days president Trump who has vowed to abolish disruptive policies include the transports policy will it be inaugurated we're in the brink of significant change a reckoning is coming for those council members who have aligned themselves with radical trans organizations in their attempt to silence vital discussions about the same of young girls and importance of sex-based sports it is not too late to take stand we should not we should have for the students of New York we must commit to fostering open and respectful dialogue that starts with voting no on resolution 266 thank you uh Andre deastro okay can you please hello oh there you go all right hi everybody good even evening how's everybody doing I hope everyone's doing great so I stand here today to voice my opposition to the resending of resolution 248 and to urge this Council to approach the topic of gender ideology in schools with compassion responsibility and most importantly critical thinking it is not bullying it's a power dynamic between trans activists and parents first and foremost I want to acknowledge that every child deserves to feel safe respected and valued even my two kids a boy and a girl I also believe that blindly endorsing gender ideology particularly when it impacts young and vulnerable Minds is not the solution research shows that individuals who identify as transgender face alarming High suicide rates some studies estimate as high as 40% and that's sad and I feel for all of you all right they point to a much larger issue that transitioning alone does not resolve the internal struggles that individuals face there's a doctor her name is Dr wh Litman she studies something called rapid onset gender dysphoria also highlights a concerning Trend her work suggest that social influence and external factors may play a significant role in some young people's lives children are still developing their identities and are particularly impressionable as Educators and community members we have a responsibility to protect their well-being and not rush them into decisions that could have lifelong consequences nationally I mean there's uh statistics but it's very scarse on trans kids younger than 12 years old they're not really there uh I don't understand why we invest so much time into gender expansive programs for kids doesn't make any much sense to me furthermore while the intention behind creating an exclusive environment is Noble we must confront a difficult reality bullying exists even in the most inclusive settings my son just got bullied the other day children can be unkind and policies alone cannot erase that instead of placing children in environments where they feel uh perpetrated we should try to do something different but I just want to say that we should approach this we should get together talk about it and come up with a better solution because obviously the expansive program is not it thank you so much thank you our next speaker is g to be Laura Bell followed by Karen newworth and then we're gonna have Joe vital Laura Bell good evening I've talked before this is actually my third time here I do want to say I really appreciate that people are being a little more polite tonight a little more professional it is a public space I've been actually shocked and alarmed by the last three events where people here in this board or disrespected where I've been asked to suck male genitalia many times which as a lesbian since 1990 is quite offensive last time I was asked to suck somebody's male genitalia they were a schizophrenic with severe paranoia in a mental health setting because I am a mental health professional just want to say that people up here should have more care and concern for both sides I've been called a murderer a killer I've felt threatened coming in and out of this space well different locations and it's nice that people are finally doing the Macarena instead of being rude and disrespectful screaming yelling humming and all these other things children are possibly present children are watching online I feel that children's spaces should be protected and taken more seriously and that Single Sex spaces whether it's for Trans people females males um you know All Blacks all Jamaicans all Irish people should be able to choose to have single sex spaces single race spaces single age spaces I don't know why that's funny but anyway it's not being rude or bullying to want to protect girls opportunities in sports as an athlete that is very important to me I'm about to get honored for making over a thousand points in my high school career as a basketball player possibly would have been on on the bench if men had been my competitors I play on current co-ed teams now not basketball but other sports I choose to and that should be a choice and these young girls their decisions their their thoughts should be included and parents who are uncomfortable being here should be invited to the table in safer environments next speaker is Karen newworth followed by Joe vital orali hello so I'm here to my third time as well and I just want to express my concerns I'm concerned about vulnerable kids and vulnerable teens I'm concerned about safety and fairness and Sports I'm concerned about eminite boys masculine girls and other quirky sensitive amazing individuals being needlessly told they are the opposite sex and giving toxic chemicals and surgeries to remove healthy body parts instead of just being allowed to be themselves I'm concerned about the potential health effects of the chemicals and the surgeries involved with so-called gender affirming care I'm concerned that we're pretending people can change sex when they can't and promising kids they can become the opposite sex when all they can do is look like it I'm concerned that we're telling young teens that if they're uncomfortable in their bodies or with their sex that's because well they're really the opposite sex we're ignoring biology and reality and needlessly making them hate their own bodies it takes time and perspective to realize that a healthy body is celebrating and we're not giving these kids that time or that perspective I'm concerned about D transitioners who suffer from the medical interventions that are being pushed so hard on vul vulnerable young people I'm concerned about avoiding another and I won't use the name out of respect but person from Rhode Island who died at the age of 24 from the complications of the surgery to create a fake penis I'm concerned about avoiding another Payton McNab who suffered a brain injury as a result of being hit when a male on the opposing high school girls volleyball team spiked a ball harder than the girls do yes I know people die from surgeries and sports injuries happen even with just girls but why are we operating on healthy young people and why are we putting males and female sports making it more dangerous than it has to be one more sentence I'm concerned that instead of Simply encouraging young people to be their fabulous unique creative authentic selves and their healthy bodies where encouraging reality denial body hatred doing physical harm in the name of kindness we have Karen newworth Jo Vali oh was that Karen hi I'm here to support resolution mod Marin's resolution 248 and to deny any proposal for a resolution that would re it or delegitimize it a lot of people are talking here well what a lot of people here on Zoom don't see is what we have to put up with every month that we come out here and it's the foolishness of the other side who is currently dancing in a silly way and previously previously they turn our backs towards us and they hum or they fake cough that's how disrespectful they are and that's what the people on Zoom do not get do not get to see I am a former athlete I'm speaking on behalf of biological female athletes who do not want to have biological males competing on their school sports teams this hurts biological females in countless ways including devastating their opportunities for scholarships or for sponsorships I am a sponsored female athlete and my opportunities would have been seriously limited had biological males been allowed to compete with us a lot of people see the lunacy of not seeing the reality of biological sex which is different from gender and that's why homeschooling is on the uptick a lot of people are homeschooling because of this such nonsense and you see this in intimidation that's going on it's not going to phase a biological woman securing her own vulvo power which a biological male will never have biological males will never have any kind of overow and let me tell you the real beneficiaries the real beneficiaries is the Pharma medical industry because each person that they get to go on this medical mer MGO round represents upwards of a million dollars and if a biological male one sentence please if a biological male does get his penis cut off that is called 54125 in the icd10 code for amputation for the penis not a woman 541 125s full power next we have Joe vital announce the next person we have uh Joe vital Joe Vitali Joe vital okay then we have Michael Jer jeruel Michael jeruel followed by elvirus Spiker airus are any of those people here okay ask o ver I'm sorry o ver thank you when you start when um good evening um I'm here to speak about a different subject um I wanted to raise awareness and concern about the way that um Middle School Accelerated programs are being treated for high school admission as you may know um the children in these programs um have gotten in based on their grades and are working on an accelerated schedule in addition to that I have come to find out and some of the other parents that I've been um interacting with that there are no real grading standards across different schools which creates a separate set of issues um and so basically in our school and I will not name the school because that's not the point of this discussion but um there is um the grades are based on mathematical averages and every grade every test every homework everything is a mathematical average there are essentially no makeup exams in other schools makeup exams are a normal thing um in our school I believe that is uh putting an incredible pressure on these kids already in the sixth grades and I cannot imagine what is going to be happening um in the um seventh grade when these grades really matter and actually being counted for high school admission uh on top of that I wanted to raise awareness that this is um an issue that I believe that the chancellor herself has raised in terms of the mental health and importance of the mental health uh for uh kids in schools and I think I am very concerned that um the next year for these kids is going to be a pressure cooker and that the consequences we may not be able to even determine at this point so I would like to um ask you to um you know try to find a solution for this particular situation thank you very much good evening next we have Michael is here it's Michael J how do you pronounce sorry jarella okay that's that's the bad handwriting all right hey uh this is my first meeting so uh I don't have any prepared remarks um but I do want you all to know that I'm a D2 parent I have two kids I have a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old and one of them is trans and one of them is not so I suppose if anybody has any questions for me I'm apparently in the minority I'm happy to answer them but the one thing that I do want you to know is that as a D2 parent I'm against 248 and the reason I'm against it is because I know from my child who's not trans that she's never had any fear and I want to make sure that I'm clear that what this is about because I've heard a lot of concerns and I think completely valid but what we're talking about here is k through eight right I just want to make sure because I I read it before I got here I lost it on the way but so k through eight competitive Sports and making sure that females concerns are answered and I have a daughter who is not trans and I get that so I appreciate that but what I also know is if 248 goes through and we're allowed to put a mark on a child as being different it doesn't even matter because where that starts we don't know where it's going to go but that Mark is there and it's like you're different you don't get to participate so at the k through eight level I heard your concerns um when you get to be a professional or Collegiate Elite athlete that's a different subject we're talking about k through eight and I'm not at all worried about as a parent but also as somebody who played soccer club League Soccer sixth seventh eighth grade but a scrimmage against the girls of the same age I can tell you there was certainly no Advantage we got our asses handed to us a lot of times sorry I'm not supposed to swear like but well yeah I I I okay that might be true so but but again we're talking about K through so I'm just telling you as a D2 parent I'm against it and I'm not worried about it and I'm not sure what everybody's so scared about thank you thank you our next speaker is Nathaniel Bry Fay followed by rice Juan and I'd like to note for the record that Allison Bowen is here do we have Nathaniel Brodsky Fay okay how about a looks like a rice Juan Yan thank you who Hai tabanas next the following speakers can come have a seat here so they'll be W okay so we have Nathaniel rice kopy and then we have looks like Sharon or Shannon and then Christian Clifford hey you you may proceed uh hi my name is rice and I have this friend she's transgender and I love like doing sports with her and she has to go to a separate bathroom in the nurse's office to change because she doesn't feel comfortable changing with like other people of the same sex which in my opinion is unfair because she has to go through all of this way and still end up being late to gym class doing so and in regard to sports I I feel like I feel like saying that trans women are better than like um assigned female at Birth students is completely unfair because I have a brother and I will admit I do love beating him at almost every sport that he thinks he's very good at um I would like to see that like sports is more of like a team and in an effort to be a team we should like just collaborate together because that's also the point of sports like everybody's working together it's not like one person specifically shines out above all the others and I think that's the beauty in it it's um this rule doesn't allow for those people to be a part of a team that they can build bu up on themselves and other people thank you I am a junior at sty High School here in District Two and I I'm the co-president of my school's gender and sexuality Alliance and I will add it's not the main thing I'm talking about but as a student at a specialized high school I do think that that test needs a lot of Reform and it needs a great Le end very soon um so probably against my my better judgment I've come here in the middle of finals week last week of the semester to tell you all again about the same things I've been telling you all since this fall I don't know how many different ways I can I can say them how many new arguments I can think of how many new numbers and statistics I can regil you with I'm just here to plead my case and to plead for my rights those of all the other trans students in New York and it would be great if those of you keep standing on the vote could listen for once and get this over with so we don't all have to keep coming back I am just a normal girl and I'll say if if me saying that makes you think about what's underneath my dress you're not a normal adult um I'm really not all that different from any other of my 3200 classmates I spend all my time on homework I stress about my grades I go to choir rehearsals I'm at school so I can learn and graduate and get out right I don't have any secret ulterior motives I don't want to get sixth place in a volleyball tournament or spread the woke lgbtq religion I just want to get through school without constantly having my identity questioned and scrutinized the guidelines of the doe that support trans students do allow me to do that and I really I don't think many of you understand how much it means to be recognized and protected by my school Community to be able to use the right bathroom and the right locker room I cannot overstate how important that is the safety and acceptance that the doe guidelines um provided is what gave me the courage to finally come out and be myself there was nothing rapid on onset about that right this was it was a thing that I had to work up to and Studies have shown that trans policies like 248 can keep trans kids like me in a really bad place with really bad mental health and 50% of trans youth have considered suicide in the last year and it's very clear that policies like 248 increase that rate and I beg you to please consider the safety of all children of all students and repeal to 48 so that we can all live and Thrive thank you uh next we have Shannon Shannon f followed by Christian Clifford and then Shane Allen so can we have Shannon please followed by Chris Clifford and Shane Allen e e e okay we have Christian Clifford followed by Shane Allen and then August enzer hi my name is Buzz and I'm speaking on behalf of Kristen who had to leave where should I stand away okay um so on behalf of Kristen Clifford I am the mother this is she wrote this I am the mother of two beautiful trans kids one of whom is in District 2 the NYC doe guidelines have helped keep my kids alive please keep these guidelines our children deserve love and support all children deserve love and support my kids have benefited from teachers respect social transitioning and kindness 248 is not about polite conversation it is about dehumanizing trans children it's not about sports it's about keeping trans and non-binary folks out of public life especially to the can you all be quiet this is really disrespectful excuse me can we please keep it down thank you especially to those who have uh abstain from voting please protect my children please protect all of our children anti-trans legislation actively hurts our children please resend number 248 and just on a personal level I just want to clear up something no one can make someone else transgender it's something that comes from within and it's there's no one transitioning someone else's kid it's you have to really work hard to transition and get people to give you that kind of access so um let's just be supportive and accepting of everyone thank you so next we have Shane Allen followed by August enzer and then Liz I'm sorry Lynn Salon stall hello and if if I've called your name if you could move down uh it would save a lot of time too thank you you I often have found solace in the phrase let us judge let us be judged by how we treat the least of us Matthews 2540 as your Monday night panel showed and Ma is not here to tell this to who I would you are still fixated on surgery and genitalia gender surgery for minors is not a thing yet your entire panel was based on it bringing in a self-hating transperson all the way from Kansas to butress your views does not a balanced panel that you had to fly someone all the way over from Kansas for a local issue here in New York City shows the depths you are willing to go to validate your own bigotry stop you guys please I'm try to talk I I I know please can you can we all I I timed this for two minutes instead of if you keep your hat two minutes that'd be great you're gonna get your time and and this this applies to everyone but please let's all show whoever is speak the respect that they deserve thank you let me finish let me finish bringing in a self-heated trans person from Kansas to buttress reviews does not a balanced panel make that you had to fly someone all the way from Kansas for a local school issue here in New York City shows the depths you're willing to go for your own bigotry let's first consider your premise at a basic level you keep speaking of trans as an ideology in need of a counterargument this is akin to saying that being black is an ideology or being Amish or an Italian is an ideology month after month we've seen parents teachers doctors athletes lawyers students and yes activists all show up in support of trans kids all voices you should have considered on the outset of all this look around you trans people are real trans kids are real the people who love and support them are real and they are showing up in large numbers to become counted where is your Coalition mod you're not even here where's your broad support the same hateful 8 to 10 people keep showing up month after month and the rest of you this board should know the number of people on Mod's panel FR Monday Night Out numbered the supporters in the audience there was like two or three people in the audience way way less than this by the way two to three people until this deliberative body chooses to believe what it can see with its own eyes that trans people are real and deserving of our protection you can keep flying in people from Kansas all you want New Yorkers will continue to show up and be heard let kids be kids and let trans kids also be kids thank you August August sir sir August ly okay that was August and then Lynn K ly it's Chrissy then Nico please come up thank you yeah oh I I'm sorry I was setting up the stage I had a whole very theatrical everything I do is a presentation why hello there I know many of you I know some of you we talked at the Monday meeting um Monday night cc2 hosted an event build as a discussion for parents about protecting our kids from a dangerous gender ideology with three anti-trans activist authors and influencers on Monday in one of our school auditoriums three people completely denied the existence of transgender people the people standing right before you your panelists being broadcast live to our family homes did not seem safe for children at all after they offer graphic detail of a near-death bullying of a queer kid using a urinal gave false information about transitioning and also just provided fake um fake quotes that didn't really lean to anything and when pressed on them they didn't they didn't find the source they couldn't find the source um the same one of the same authors on that panel actually just tweeted that day a picture of a 16-year-old trans girl with the caption bro that doesn't sound like bullying does it speaking of bullying after being told that I don't exist for an hour my friend Lucille a trans person stood up on two very existent legs to ask her plain question where would the D transitioner have her use the bathroom when she's with her kids and needs to pee Corey floundered unable to respond because how could she know what Lucille what chromosomes Lucille had how could she know how she started or how did deter I asked Corey the same question what makes a woman is it is it when you have eggs in your tube after after menopause are you no longer a woman so they weren't quite sure how to answer any of our questions we outnumbered them it was honestly a very boring presentation we had much more fun afterwards um I'm actually it's crazy that we still have it's wild we still have to be here after in inciting hate groups to come on to school campuses people who are known to be dangerous I think that this is wild because I was and there's a sign somewhere in here that says no student is put in the wrong body and you are right I have the perfect body it was made to be here it was made to be here so that I could tell you that we're not going anywhere there's nothing you can do about it uh next we have oh excuse me excuse me oh who are you just so we know for the list Lyn Salon stall thank you I'm a district two parent and I only need 30 seconds because to me this is pretty pretty simple um H me trans and gender expansive kids obviously deserve our love and support ly just pause for one second I apologize okay okay can we all just can we yeah oh that's fine no no I understand that's fine I'm not trying to reprend let's just take a deep breath take a deep breath Lynn could you can start over please start the time over for her okay thank you and please everyone has the right to speak please I'm a D2 parent I think I need about 10 to 12 seconds to say what I have to say to me it's simple trans and gender expansive kids deserve our love and support deserve to be themselves and deserve to be kids recognized and protected we as a community overwhelmingly want schools where all our students can be their authentic selves schools where their humanity is affirmed that is a basic requirement for creating a successful learning environment let kids focus on being students no one would devote this much of their free time to serving on this Council if they didn't care most fundamentally about helping School schools be their best schools and serving students to be their best selves as students and 248 is threatening that so I ask you please vote to resent that's all I wanted to say thank you for your time next speaker we have Chrissy Rose Chrissy Rose followed by Nico kefir and then Nadia Swanson and then Ro Pena I'm Chrissy Rose I'm a full contact karate black bout and semi knockdown champion and what y'all would call a biological female athlete and you do not speak for me speak for yourself I have already spoken from my extensive personal experience training and competing with people of all genders to tell you that trans women do not have an inherent advantage in sport the latest scientific studies coming out actually show trans women to be at an athletic disadvantage in metrics like jump height and V2 Max but the argument is the same whether it's here in a school board meeting or in Congress keep trans girls out of sports to protect CIS girls sometimes they even say real girls the thing is they're not defending real girls they're defending the idea that there is such a thing as a real girl gender like race is a concept we made up and in that sense it's it's both real and not real it's real in that people experience actual social impacts based on it it's not real in the sense that biology is not at the root of these categories our interpretations as humans are but why should you care about trans and interex folks if you're not one aside from the fact that that is a basic requirement for being a decent human being Because unless you're a cisgender heterosexual white man you're being oppressed by the same system trans people Pro prove that a strict gender binary is nonsense and if gender isn't real in the way conservatives say if there are no inherent differences between men and women then the logic for discrimination against women all women I'm talking to you cisgender women falls apart there's no more women are so emotional women aren't suited for combat roles we need a man as president of the United States when you defend trans people's right to exist you're defending your own right to exist without body being used as an excuse to deny you rights I want to leave you with some words from author chimamanda GOI adich culture does not make people people make culture so if it is in fact true that the full Humanity of women is not our culture then we must make it our culture we make the categories and we can make them better thank you uh next speaker Nico kefir followed by Nadia Swanson and then R Pena hi everyone my name is Nico I am a teacher in the New York state city public school system I've been teaching art for many many years and for the last few years I've been teaching martial arts I'm here to relate my experience the experience of every teacher every parent which is that when we affirm the identity of children as they present it to us everyone is better the classroom is better it's safer people learn more and the students are excited with the time that I have left I want to tell you about one student who I'm going to call M when M was being forced to be a boy M was clearly in pain she was disruptive she was combative she couldn't focus and she was pulling down the rest of her class and when M who is seven bravely bravely he showed all of us who she really is who she really is she became the best student in the class and she uplifted the other students with her by the way this is in what some would consider a combat sport I teach martial arts this child showed the other students how much stronger all of them could be by saying this is who I am Maria Nadia do we have Nadia Swanson okay row row we have two more you want to say their names Miss Daniels and we have Megan Madison okay thank you I want to start off by thinking Augie Elena Katie and so many others who have helped us stay nourished during these meetings um snacks are a must fun fact a snack is oftentimes the answer to most grumpy middle schoolers that's true look it up um our middle schoolers at TFS are big fans of snacks specifically C is a big fan of Doritos especially the spicy ones he loves apple flavored rice cakes and string cheese but not together although she's not opposed to trying H likes combining lemonade and iced tea and calls it the golfer instead because of course and while we're on the topic of lemonade L think simply lemonade is Simply the Best last week s tried to tried the new pretzel rods for the first time and was a big fan we got to discussing what makes a pretzel a pretzel is a pretzel only a pretzel when it's in the dough form is it a pretzel if it's more like a flat chip what if it's gluten-free what about all the pretzel rods and then s and I looked at each other for a beat and laughed because it doesn't matter a pretzel is a pretzel sure people might have their loud and very wrong opinions but it's silly and honest it's silly and honestly against your better interest to not love a pretzel pretzels have nourished communities for as long long as you and I can remember they have been there in a pinch only you you only need to enjoy the fact that they exist in all of their pretzel forms heck go ahead and use pretzel as your pronouns as one of our very cool kids does stop contemplating the pretzel and while you're at it protect trans kids thank you and and after our next speaker we have Megan Madison will be our last speaker so Megan if you could kind of move down here thanks good evening everybody good evening Council um my name is Elena Daniels and I am a proud transwoman and Progressive educator I've been shown up at these Council meetings for the last year um initially to support my friend uh Dr Megan Madison and her books that tell great stories about tell true stories about race and gender um and since then to ask this Council to resend 248 um when we first started there were only like six of us now we have this fabulous amazing community and while we still have not managed to resend 248 um in the last year we have not managed to prend 248 but we have built this fabulous Community we've also learned a we've also learned a lot about how cc2 runs we've learned that a significant chunk of the board does not show up most of the time we've learned that a significant chunk of the board only cares about getting gifted kids into specialized high schools through an unfair and biased test we've learned that at the best schools in the best District in the richest District in the entire country and possibly the world you know there are cockroaches that run out during Schoolboard meetings there is never an AV Equipment that works that the doe can't tell the members that board whether or not they're fixing you know schools that are falling down no matter how many times you asked them thank you for all that work we appreciate it um we've learned that this Council can't agree on much unless it's attacking certain kinds of kids other than the Omni cards so again appreciate that um I'm a transwoman so I'm systemically not allowed to be a parent um which means that I can't run for this Council only parents allowed to run which stops the people who are the Clos closest to Schools Kids teachers from actually getting to share their voice and be up here this council's even voted to not allow the two students on it to have a vote all this has inspired me to seek one of the two seats that I could be appointed to on this Council however to get anything done we need seven people here together seven of us working together seven of us working to make New York City Schools places where kids feel safe seen and loved um we need a bunch of details for two parents from this community to come and join and run to um thank you all um when trans kids are under attack what do we do when trans kids are under attack what do we do thank you all Megan Madison okay so okay if everyone can have we excuse please okay Megan Megan you're the last speaker so last speaker all right y'all we're gonna close out tonight with a song Our Community member Amy rewrote the lyrics to This Little Light of Mine and I'm going to teach you all to sing it tonight it goes like this this little heart of mine I'm gonna let it shine this little heart of mine I'm gonna let it shine this little heart of mine I'm gonna let it shine let It Shine Let It Shine Let It Shine is it possible Len to stop recording restart the time because there's a lot of cross talk which you all have been really mean about us like not talking over and you're not stopping them instead you're recording them we're gonna take a okay okay I'm just confused okay but perhaps should stay sit down Okay can everyone sit down so yeah but okay okay but each other right everybody keeps speaking up when someone speaks others so your timer is paused it would be kind to just be able to see and have everyone seated I would really appreciate that thank you so much thank you I think we would go a long way if everyone just please sit down also you know the I don't I'm not into controlling what people are doing their bodies but before we start again I just need to make it really clear when our group called out when we even hummed together you all threatened to call the police on us and have us removed instead when these people who are members of literal hate groups shout over my testimony you pulled up your cell phone and began to record them you did not interrupt you did not threaten them with the police that is a clear double standard and it is unfair and I need it noted before I begin to speak again all right shall we try again all right you all are welcome to stand or sit or dance the macarina or honestly do whatever you want with their your bodies because they're your bodies okay the next verse goes trans kids being kids we're going to let them shine got it trans kids be kids we're shine trans kids being kids we're gonna let them shine trans kids being kids we're gonna let them Shine Let Them Shine Let Them Shine Let Them shine right here in District 2 won't you let them shine right here in District won't you let them shine right here in District Two won't you let them shine let shine let shine let shine this little heart of my I'm gonna let it shine thank you that concludes our first public speaking session thank you okay okay okay we we that that concludes the public the first public speaker session thank thank you for all who spoke we appreciate it okay well now we go to my report Happy New Year to everybody I hope everybody had a happy and healthy holiday season uh I will again keep try to keep this brief um and if you are I see some people are leaving if you can exit quietly so we can uh get through this thank you uh we have the school Spotlight tomorrow at lab middle we're very much looking forward to it uh next Friday will be our second Whitten wisdom family engagement session I'll let superintendent Maguire discuss the particulars and what we'll be focusing on but it's Friday 9:00 am details on how to join the zoom or on our website few dates to keep in mind kindergarten applications are now open and the deadline is January 24th this includes gen General kindergarten programs as well as kindergarten g&t programs offers are to be released on or about a ail 2nd uh I believe 3K and prek applications open today January 15th and they close at the end of February February 28th offers released on or about uh May 20th g&t applications for grades one and through one through four or will open in late April I don't think they have specific dates yet but they will you know we'll we'll keep you posted on that uh students who have an interest in filmmaking can submit short films to the 7th annual New York City Public Schools Film Festival you can apply through March 7th for more information visit nyc. nyc.gov NC psf sorry P sorry NYC PS Film Festival this is open to all doe middle and high school students uh to celebrate our teachers you can nominate nominate outstanding teachers for Big Apple Awards celebrating teachers who go above and beyond for their students nominations can be made until January 21st so a few more days schools . nc.gov baaa Big Apple Awards uh applications for the CC elections have opened this includes elections for the 32 CC's as well as the four Citywide education councils cchs which governs high school students cc75 ccell which are for English language Learners ccsa which is for special education students if you have been uh if you're parent or guardian of a student who has been uh designated as such or has in the past you can find more information on our homepage and to sign up and vote you'll need a Nixa account if you don't have one if you don't know what that is please contact your parent coordinator at your school and they'll be happy to help you participating in these elections as a candidate or voter is your opportunity to help shape the future of your school community so be sure to get involved and make your voice heard to be eligible for a D2 seat you need to be a parent or guardian of a current D2 student the application period ends on February 16 16 voting will start in mid April through May 13th there will be candidate forms for each district uh we you will see announcements on that I don't believe that's scheduled yet this is for a two-year term commencing on July 1st 2025 there was a face that's family engagement group a face engagement session on January 13th I my understanding is there will be another one soon um sorry okay they'll handle it um um uh our face WP do you know when is there is there another family engagement session for the uh what day is that okay okay thank you thank you so um thank you for going back there uh so as soon as we hear about it we will let you know um one point I just want to say and and you can take it for what it's worth if somebody isn't here tonight and they are excused there is a reason why I don't disclose that to the public it's usually personal information people can be excused for various reasons it could be their own health their child's health it could be relating to a work emergency um so we do do that and there is an excusal process for a reason uh but again I'm I I'm not gonna I don't think it's appropriate for me to disclose why a person may or may may not be here that being said I'm going to uh thank you all for coming and uh we still have some more uh to go but uh we're to move now to our superintendent uh Kelly Maguire thank you Kelly hopefully I didn't take too much of your speeching like I did last month okay can you hear me okay yep all right um thank you very much Council for having me this evening um I did just want to start since most of our guests are here uh in relationship to resolution 248 a couple of things that I think are important to note and some people who have reached out to me in regard to um some specifics related to that resolution uh number one um we do fully support uh the right of students to participate in both physical education and sports that are consistent with their gender identity and that is a question that we uh sure um that we as a New York City public school system support the right of students to participate in both physical education and sports that are consistent with their gend gender identity and we have never wavered in that uh policy I also I also want to add there are a couple things that um people ask people ask me why we permitted um certain events from happening um I will say that there are events that are sponsored by the Community Education Council um we believe in the importance of hearing voices uh the legal offices of the nework City Department of Education will not um exclude uh folks from participating in or holding events uh based on what it is that their panelists or or guests might say um so that is upheld by our Chancellor's regulations and our Department of Education legal system and then finally I do just want to say that um as both a a teacher and a principal and now a superintendent uh and I do believe very strongly across our district two schools uh that we meet our students where they are at uh that we meet our students and our families we ask ourselves the question how is it that we are making ensuring that the everyday student experience for uh our students is a place where uh where our schools is a place where they are loved and supported no matter how it is that they show up uh and that is our mission um and will continue to be um forever uh in relation to a couple of other things I did just want to provide a couple of other uh notes in regard to the work that we are doing here in our schools um we have a lot of really strong and positive things to share in regard to uh both climate and academics in our district uh at this time we were looking at some data back in the 2021 2022 School year and we're also then looking at those data in relationship to currently in 2025 in 2021 and 2022 uh at the midyear Point uh we had recorded 247 suspensions across the district and in 2025 to this point we have recor we have recorded 120 that's a significant reduction we have reduced the number of suspensions across all uh subgroups of students racial students with disabilities uh and English language Learners and so we're proud of of that work uh and proud of the experience that students are having in our district we just completed a round of school implementation walkthroughs both in literacy and in mathematics um essentially what we did through a school implementation walkthrough is that we went through every single School in our district uh we deployed our district team members we asked them to visit two classes per grade level in every single school um we asked them to look for specific indicators of the implementation of both the wit and wisdom curriculum and illustrative Mathematics Curriculum there are some really really positive things we saw that there was strong use of curriculum across all of our schools they were really strong in our early literacy and foundational literacy in grades K through two uh and then also we saw some strengths in instructional routines we are still growing in ways that we are building our assessment uh structures and also in the way that we are engaging in explicit teaching and we're going to talk more about that um when we meet together on Friday January 24th um for our second family engagement session um on our NYC reads initiative and the implementation of Wht wisdom during that uh engagement session on the 24th we are going to be blessed very very blessed by uh both some teachers and principles from a few of our district 2 schools uh we have PS1 who is going to be showing up PS1 150 and then also the Spruce Street School representatives from those schools will be um sharing their work with us around both uh assessment explicit instruction uh and of course the the curriculum I also want to share a little bit in regard to um our work with NYC reads over the past month we've uh engaged every single one of our Middle School Math teachers uh in a uh Workshop series series around multi-tiered systems of support mathematics through multi-tiered systems of support we are engaging our students in rigorous learning accelerating students uh and also making sure that we are building in scaffolds so um we're very happy with that introduction that was provided by one of our district 2 team members Rachel benoff who is uh really nationally regarded uh in the work that she has done around mtss we are very lucky to have such strong team members uh working with us here in District 2 um as president here's where the overlap begins uh as president SL suin mentioned um tomorrow we have a uh uh a excuse me a school Spotlight visit for the month of January that's going to be taking place um at lab Middle School um we're excited to see the work that lab middle school has done both in um science uh in mathematics and also they have been building a nest program um across their school for several years and that is very very high highly sought after amongst families um in every part of the city uh a few other updates um as we look forward to uh the end of January the beginning of February um we are going to be opening our three new prek programs at the PEC slip School those are going to be a part of our district 2 prek Center again these are three new uh special classes that are focused on prek students um with disabilities uh and those classes are going to have either 8 students or six students those classrooms are going to be supported by teachers and Par professionals um and so we're really excited about that new development um in our district I also want to mention that um CC elections and applications have now opened they're going to remain open through February 16th we have identified a date for the candidate Forum uh I guess I'm breaking news here uh April 9th uh is the uh date on which um our district 2 presidents Council presidents will be holding the D2 candidate Forum that's going to be again on April 9th uh we just decided on that date after all of the folks who um are applying to run for cc2 uh get the opportunity to share their platform on April 9th uh a couple weeks later then voting opens um that's going to open on April TW April 25th and run through May 13th again parents are going to vote uh and they vote through their Nixa account parents parents and Guardians thank you very much parents and Guardians vote um and they vote through their Nixa account and then we expect that the election results will be announced in June and then the new members will take office uh on July 1 just a couple of dates coming up ahead uh January 20th schools are closed for Martin Luther King Day January 21st to 24th is our Regents week and then the 28th is the start of the spring semester Lunar New Year is on January 29th and our schools are closed for that as well and then um schools are closed February 17th through the 21st for our winter recess thanks for the opportunity to share uh this evening and I'm happy to take any questions you might have um just to be just as follow to be clear at PC slip when are they opening up the classes is that for the fall we are no we are looking for a end of January uh perhaps beginning of February um I might extend that period of beginning of February uh through the first couple weeks of February but um we're doing hiring right now for that interviewing candidates and so we're excited about that uh expansion um are there any questions from the members of the council council member Patel Kelly could you talk a little bit about what um individual schools are doing to support parents in setting up their accounts in order to vote in the CC elections uh yes um so our parent the question was around um how is it that we're helping parents set up their Nixa account if they do not currently have them set up so we are really trying to blast out um in multiple ways through text message through email um holding forums one of the um big changes that we have made recently is that I am meeting with all of our parent coordinators um along with our family support coordinator Tina yaker uh we are blasting out information so that if families uh do not have AXA account we're giving them multiple Pathways around how to um set up their Nixa account and also letting them know that this is the method by which they can apply to C uh if they're choosing to do so so um I have been in this position now for four years um I think that the uh the the campaign that we have around um getting family families their Nix account um is uh it's very very strong um and um a lot of information is coming out of our schools through parent coordinators parent coordinators are the best they know everything and um they're One-Stop shop for lots of questions that people have in schools um so I have a question is and I guess I think this is kind of on a lot of people people's minds um with um you know the new um regime change coming out um next week um and I um know that there's official doe protocol for how to handle requests from federal agencies and I'm speaking specifically about ice um and about how our school um principal teachers are supposed to keep um ice um agents outside the school if if an ice agent comes to the school they are supposed to not cooperate if first call do legal and you know seek seek guidance and ask to see the relevant you know documentation but basically that they're supposed to keep them at Bay until they can confer with du Central eagal and you know of course this means that school staff um on the ground um who would might be the first point of contact with um you know possibly ice agents um need to be trained to you know not Bend to threats from because I mean they have been known to say that they can you know arrest people for interfering with a federal investigation um if they don't give access to students or allow access to a school bill so and we know they've been known to bully try to bully people into compliance um so I just want to know what training have school say principals and other school based staff head in how to deal with that threat and how to how to respond to that threat because I mean if if um it's great that the chancellor it's great that other you know doe senior people are are are giving that message but I just want I'm just concerned that it won't be really it's not effective unless the individual you know people in the schools really know about it and are prepared for it so I'm just curious what kind of specific information what kind of training have they received before you that I want to if I may I want to pigy back off your question because it'll be his answer should be probably be comprehensive have has the to your knowledge has the doe spoken to the various unions UFT whoever is the school safety agents to ensure that they're protected because to to council member Hy's point you don't want a safety agent arrested by ice or so whomever because they're protecting our students and that should be you know a concern that we have is that we're putting safety agents teachers in that you know I think this relates to what what council re is saying we're putting them in very tenuous situations we don't you know I'm not disagreeing with with the Doe's policy what I'm concerned with is you know protecting our our our people or protecting the do's people um so um council member Healey you did lay out the policy and practice very clearly um to uh this point around training um and specifically the question of legal protection um going back now a couple of months um we have been engaged in a series of trainings uh with our legal offices um both a a superintendent we were trained Deputy superintendents and that then began trickling down to uh various folks within our organizations um we started having uh OS and calls with our principles pretty soon after we were trained because we want to make sure that um everyone uh not just principles are getting the the right and clear message um additionally then the city has begun offering um Central trainings for folks of all different titles principls teachers school safety agents uh School Aids um all of the different people that uh might uh meet um uh uh person of Authority or anybody when they come into the school building um we are also went the extra step this this um year to make sure that our after school programs were really well trained in all of these policies as well as a part of all of those Central policies um our staff and I don't just mean our district team or our principles our staff have been triple assured that they are protected under uh the guidelines of the of New York City law uh of the policies and chancellors regulations that um impact practice in our schools and so um that message has been sent out again and again and again we are uh doubling down tripling down quadrupling down on this um next week uh we are bringing all of our school leaders into a meeting with our senior Council um so that they can ask questions directly um as well as questions about other topics around legal uh issues that might be top of mind for them and um so we're very much trying to do a very comprehensive job of both assuring people that they are protected making sure people are aware of the policy and that everybody who needs to know the policy is is aware any other questions sorry okay well thank you very much I appreciate you uh coming down oh coming down tonight it's Jan you know trying to so we want to thank you for coming we also would like to acknowledge Deputy superintendent Shannon thank you for coming as well it's always a pleasure to see the two of you and say hello to Deputy superintendent hiin as well uh moving along uh the report of committees we'll start off with the uh bylaws committee so there's been a um we are proposing a change in the bylaws uh to add the following language to our bylaws and I'll read I'll quote the chair shall have the authority to suspend the second public speaker session and the chair shall have the discretion to prioritize the order of speakers during any public speaker session now the impetus for this is and I want to just compliment I want to actually compliment everyone in the room most part because this probably was the the most orderly meeting we've had in quite some time I know it may not seem like that but it h it has been but uh I can tell you that for the last number of months uh there have been a number of meetings where things have kind of gotten a little heated and a little bit out of hand and um speakers have refused to relent quish we've had situations where speakers refuse to relinquish the microphone gone over their time and the speaking sessions uh run rather rather lengthy and um this is just not to curtail speech in any way we're still with advocating certainly the uh having two public speaking session but in those situations where we do have a breakdown of uh tensions tend to Rise um we want to give the chair the discretion to suspend the um second public speaking session and I would say that my experience has been certainly over the last five six years that people who speak at the first public speaking session also speak during the second public speaking session sometimes the comments vary a little but it's usually the very similar speakers that speak during both sessions so we do get to hear from so this is not I I don't want this to be interpreted as a uh an attempt to curtail any 's right to be heard or to speak but it is just to provide a safety valve for those situations when things get out of hand and I don't anticipate it would be necessary but it's again we want to have the discretion there in and I'm just gonna add one thing for from my perspective I'm gonna take a little bit of a different take on it it's not about 7:30 I want to get out of here let's conil the SEC not have the second speaker session it's it's not about that and I say this as think council member Healey and I are probably the only two people who have been here every single meeting I think I've actually been here for every minute of every single meeting I don't even think I've excused myself uh since the beginning of the term you know a year and a half ago so this is not about it this is about for me at least it's you we have to be out of here by out by 10 o'clock that's not us that's not me that's this that's the permits you know if if anybody's been here that late you will see the the safety agents basically throwing us out so we have have to be out by 10: I need a few minutes to clean up all the it and all that stuff and it's you know 9:30 and we haven't had a second public speaker session you know we have to get through it and we have votes to take and and some some business to do so for me it's more of just you know flowing the time flowing issue this is not for me about you know trying to get people not to be able to speak I I'm I've listened to everybody from the beginning so anyway um do you want to talk about the procedure that is next month so order to do bylaws changes they have to be presented at uh one uh official meeting and then voted on at the following meeting and then if enacted the changes would be effective the next meeting after that so it's a basically a three- month process or three meeting process to affect the bylaws change so um and this provides um the members of the community to have an opportunity also if you guys wanted to comment during next public speaking session or next month's public speaking session about the proposed changes um there are a lot of reasons I also agree with Craig it's not um you know we're not trying to get out of here early but there are situations we really just gonna run out of time we're gonna have certainly have two public speaking sessions tonight it's not an issue everyone has been pretty mortally tonight um but you know you run into situation I've seen it before you could have a lot of speakers for the first public speaking session and it's just not work so again it's just about giving discretion it's not about um and we would also just one last thing I think is important the decision to suspend potentially suspend a second public speaking session would of course be open to discussion and and debate amongst the council not necessarily voted on but it would be something that could be discussed beforehand so I don't anticipate that the chair whoever he or she may be would um would just make that decision without certainly running by the rest of the counil so so the way it works we're just introducing it right now we're not discussing it yes and and we would vote on it next meeting a lot to say about yeah the discussion sounds like you guys are kind of discussing the resol you could have the discussion now we can also discuss it next time before we actually vote but is presented now and if you wish you could certainly say it at once short I mean I am adamantly opposed to this revision I think it's ironic if you had just changed obstain vote to a no Vote or Ps vote the direction of repealing this resolution it seems to me that this revision wouldn't even be necessary and also our sole purpose as a cc other than I think some zoning and Capital Improvements is community engagement so this revision is proposing to cut our only job by 50% so I will very much propose this resolution when we vote on it next I I want to say that under the bylaws we already have um we do actually have discretion to um suspend the second public speaking session but it's by a majority vote of the of the council and it it doesn't take us that long for us to have a discussion and vote um and so I mean I don't see the need for any change and we actually did have a um uh a bylaw Amendment on the agenda I believe believe last December 2023 and we actually voted down this very basically this very Amendment and so I mean I think it's clear to everyone what this amendment is um you know people are coming here coming out in droves because they're upset about resolution 248 that this Council passed and you know this is basically a resol I mean this is a bylaw Amendment saying well I guess too many Trends people are speaking so we won't have a second session I mean let's just call it what it is I mean we haven't said this about anything else we have had other hot button issues where we have talked about I know I've heard this Council talk about vacination mandates or whatnot and we haven't limited um the speaking so it's this this is just like unacceptable and I mean we'll talk about this more next month and I guess we'll take a vote next month but I mean this is just like silly like we want to hear from the people that is what we are here for we are a Community Education Council we are not the education Council of the 12 people up here on this stage we are a community and so we hear from the community and if we're GNA make a decision for some reason we just don't have time we have to get up by by 10 we can vote on that as a council that's what we do thanks well we'll we'll we'll we'll discuss it discuss it sorry discuss it more next month uh are there any other committees that wish to committee chairs that wish to present or discuss their committee it's not okay uh discussion of resolutions resolution sorry let me my glasses on read this wrong resolution 266 resolution to affirm cc2 support of nycps is guidelines to support transgender and gender expansive students in resin resolution 248 is there anybody who would like to start the discuss would like to comment or discuss um well I I mean I said most of what I wanted I recognize council member thank you thank you for recognizing me I appreciate that um I love to be recognized um let's see so um I said most of what I wanted to say um in the um you know earlier and so I won't add that much more um but you know I want to say people again we're a Community Education Council we listen to the community we listen to parents we listen to students we listen to community members and we make decisions based on that um and and we've heard loud and clear from the community over and over again that they don't want this resolution they don't want resolution 240 they want it rescinded and I think we have an obligation to listen to those voices and to to do the will of of the people and the community and I just want to say I mean students need to be loved and respected for who they are not for who we want them to be not for our ideas but for who they are we have heard that so eloquently from from teachers here tonight from parents from from our students and we've heard it from our district two superintendent and and I think we need to respect that and so that is why we put forth this resolution to resend resolution 248 I hope that my fellow council members will vote Yes and will finally listen to the community that they profess to serve thank you uh council member love I pass the mic thank you I haven't even said anything yet you may like it I'm I'm sure you'll like it um as usual um Gavin's being a little misleading um I I think everyone's kind of missing the point of all this um we've been listening to people speak on both sides of this issue obviously more on one than the other but I think they're all kind of missing the point and they're speaking about why some should or should not happen but if the if the point is the resolution itself um think back with me it's been months we've been doing this almost a year um if we recall we had the mayor once then Chancellor Banks once at Pep once directly here sitting next to us you know saying that we're all disgusting and racist and all those other things and said the resolution was going nowhere um it's we have so much evidence that this is not about this resolution and the harm it it supposedly is going to cause it's it it hasn't been um activated enacted in any possible way um the doe seems to be very clearly against it um superintendent Maguire for the last four or five months before he even starts his report has to do a five minutes caveat to to talk about all of the wonderful things that the doe does and how they um go above and beyond to make sure that every kid especially trans kids are listened to and protected and you know I think two months ago even said he wanted to I guess several months ago I told him that he was partially uh the cause of the madness we're seeing I still believe that and he disagreed but the evidence is is a couple months ago where he said that he was glad that they're all here and I think one of the parents uh spoke about it saying that we're here for district 2 k through eight kids and um virtually none of the people speaking fell into that category but you know he was excited that they were speaking which is fine but um if that is the case and that's on either side I'm assuming that most of the people here don't have D2 kids either so I'm not you know calling you out specifically but the point is we're not concerned about the kids so you're all lying this so all kids matters just like the black lives matter you say we care about all kids but I don't see any all kids on your sign all I hear see is trans kids I don't hear you talking about any other kids except for when you make weird examples between black kids and trans kids but you know that was interesting um but you know you know I it was odd right but whatever but I mean you had a right to say it that's that's cool but it doesn't make sense and everything you do is proven that you're not trying to uh do what best for the kids in this district and that's a problem especially if you don't have kids here so you keep talking about a community I think that many of the people are coming here because Elena's right they found a community here there's a a bunch of people who had whatever problems in their lives and they found a group of people who agreed with them and now it becomes a t that's why there's snacks that's why they had pizza last week I mean kindly they offered me a slice last SM thanks but that's why you have pizza and that's why Gavin's so excited because obviously he doesn't get any encouragement anywhere else but you all bring him flowers right and you all say he's great and that he hasn't heard that probably since he was a child so he's excited about that but it's not helping the kids right none of this is about education at all this is a bunch of you know narcissistic emotional feel-good nonsense that means like you know what this really is I was gonna say it's compelled it's compelled speech but it's not even speech it's like compelled thought but you're really trying to do because the doe and whatever you think about Maguire they made it clear that this resolution is already dead so there' be no reason to come every month but you come because your real reason is to make ma because you use her name myself and others change their mind right there is no resolution except for in the heads of the people who voted for it so you're here to make me think a certain way good luck with that and by the way if that's really your goal do you think coming down here saying I'm literally killing kids is going to make endear me to your cause I mean it's insane so so the whole point is complete nonsense and a couple months ago the last thing I said I talked about bullying and you all erroneously thought I said you were bullying me you're not bullying you wasting my time but you're bullying me who you're bullying superintendent Maguire who's being bullied are the parents and the kids that you supposedly care for who are afraid to come to these meetings because they don't want to deal with the nonsense but you won't speak on their behalf you just sit here and cheer for people talk non I'm glad you're here that's why I say you part of the problem you look confused all you want so so you can keep coming here every month if you want and keep asking us to resend something that doesn't have any power and doesn't exist in the doe and superintendent McGuire and then Chancellor bank and the mayor and doe all said it's going nowhere but you keep coming here because you make it it makes you feel good because you meet friends down here and you can dance and do the Macarena keep coming but it's not helping the kids so at some point the doe needs to do something about what matters to the kids in D2 and oh by the way want you when you keep talking about the community look at this community most people in the city most people in in District 2 most people don't agree with you probably telling the truth thank you okay okay okay okay let's get through this okay give me a give me okay hey okay okay okay okay let's okay let's take a deep breath okay Charles Charles let's take a deep breath okay okay okay everybody okay back to your Corners everybody please please please can we can we okay I'm gonna Rec okay I'm okay I'm gonna recognize Don did you Gavin okay okay okay okay so I'm okay okay thank you okay okay okay we're gonna let uh council member Hy go Charles Charles Charles let him speak let him speak he let you speak he let you speak Gavin let Gavin let you speak let you let let's let Gavin speak okay well G coun member Hy let you speak I know but he's allowed to speak again I'm recognizing recognizing council member Hy I don't know maybe maybe people like me because I'm nice um but um but but but listen to the contempt for the community listen to the contempt in those remarks like this is this is a Community Education council member literally screaming at the members of the public and and he's continuing and and I mean none of none of us know what every what every eight million what all eight million people of New York City want like Charles love hasn't pulled them I haven't pulled them but we know what we're hearing from the community we know what we hear month after month at these meetings we know that people want to resend resolution 248 um and and and just one and I'll continue when there's when Okay so so I just I just want to leave everyone with this I want to leave everyone I want to leave face with this I want to leave the community with this I want to leave people at home with this is that you heard a a man yelling at you tonight yelling at the community and the only reason that that that man yelling at the communities on this council is because he was endorsed by a group called Place NYC no one knows Tim no one knew him before he had no presence in the community but but a group called Place NYC endorsed him and this is what they bring into our educational spaces this is what they bring into our schools and you know what parents and parents parents and families deserve much better than having a group like Place NYC endorse someone who is going to come in here and yell at the community and scream at the community and tell him that he doesn't care about the community and that's what you get from a group like Place NYC that is what they have given to our councils that is what they have given to our students and it's a shame and it's a absolute shame okay I'll say one more thing and everyone everyone on this end of the table was endorsed by place onyc that's all okay okay okay is there anybody who hasn't spoken that would like to speak whether it's I'm I'm asking I I okay um okay thank you we're going to go to the next resolution then resolution 267 resolution urging New York City public schools to promote inclusion of and sorry correct bias against I should have my reading glasses on against English language Learners in the administration of the shasat and admissions to specialized schools does anybody wish to speak on this resolution recognize uh council member Hy okay so actually what I'd like to do is I would like to motion to table this this resolution 267 to vote on next month and the reason I want to do that is um uh Dr darling Mi do so so we received uh the council members received an email today from Dr darling Mir who is a um parent in District three and he's also a member of the panel for educational policy and he's an advocate he's a very strong advocate for uh multi- uh lingual learners for um our English language Learners so he suggested some amendments that we could put into this resolution to kind of expand it because there is some effort um underway at the state level to expand um the number of of languages that are you know translated for um official Communications to add uh Italian polish and Yiddish and so he suggested we could add that and so rather than try to up here um you know like amend the resolution to add that I suggest that we we go back and we add the language and we come back next month and we vote on 267 the resolution about the um uh multilanguage uh supports for the shct we vote on that next month that's so so I'd like to make that motion and I'd like to ask Su a second there a second uh a second by council member Patel I think it was Patel uh I think we can take it to a vote now right procedurally l so there's the motion is to table motion on the floor is to table um uh resolution 267 to next month's calendar meeting motion has been seconded someone to call or roll call vote now um PR Allison Daniela here Gavin Charles okay uh m is not here so Jessica here Sarah uh Sabina is not here um all agree and duck right one two three four five six so we have six in favor two no um the motion does not seven just for people out there you need seven votes for the council to do anything so we do not have the votes also I would just ask our student members um would you um like to vote on this oh okay I don't know if they yeah they hold on one second I I apologize we did I did not call for discussion I do I do apologize did anybody want to we can revote if people on but does anybody want to say anything else about yes just want I just want to point out that it would be wonderful to have our elll representative here while we vote on an elll resolution and I we put it forward we didn't know she wasn't going to be here so I just you know I just want to appeal to um PR and Allison to say you know we would want M's voice as she represents the El students and we definitely really want to get those Yiddish um uh language Lang personally yeah it's one of the language we want to put in the amendment because uh my grandparents came here were speaking yetish and you know it's kind of cool so it'd be nice to it anyway that's not the point the point is it really like to have the elll rep here so that was one of the reasons we wanted to table it um and so just you know and and I appreciate I think I think Charles gets that too as well I appreciate that because I know he's focused on education Focus resolutions what we're talking about is just tabling it's not the actual resolution so now we're going to move to a discussion of the resolution um so I think probably the simplest way if we have more time I would do something more you know complete but in the second to the last therefore be it resolved um and other council members other sponsors can weigh in on this but there just say therefore be it further resolved that C2 calls upon nycps to offer the shsat in multiple languages including that's including the current doe languages which are this English plus nine others um which so in the current languages are Arabic Bengali Bangla Chinese uh French Haitian Creole Korean Russian Spanish and erdu so it would say um in multiple languages including the current doe languages plus Italian polish and yish so first is there a motion to amend I make the motion to make that okay does anyone second that motion so there's a motion on the floor you want a discussion on that motion to discussion on the motion the motion to include the language um second last paragraph therefore be a further resolved at cc2 calls upon nycps to offer the sat in multiple languages including the current doe languages including erdu Yiddish other we're gonna we're gonna have a a vote on that uh PR Allison Danielle is not here Gavin Charles that's two times You' agree with Gavin I don't know mod is not here uh sonel Jessica here Sarah um Sabina is not here I say yes right one two three four five six and eight that motion to amend passes our student representatives are thank you so uh just just for everyone out there just so you know the student representatives are in the middle of midterms so that's why they're not um okay so now we will move to discussion of the resolution as amended I'm going to read the the am the name of the resolution one more time just so so everybody is aware resolution urging New York City public schools to promote inclusion inclusion of and correct bias against English language Learners in the administration of the chassat and admissions to specialized high schools uh does anybody have anybody like to uh discuss this so uh first I wanna I wan to um say I do appreciate the sponsors recognizing that uh we do have tremendous diversity especially in languages in New York City there's no question about it um I I think we should do more to accommodate uh people who have in their native languages I don't think that's a that's a question at all that's uh should even be up for debate however we did have a speaker I think was Al Su last time who uh who who talked about the fact that um the the schools that we're talking about for the shsat are some of the most competitive schools in New York City and they're the some of the most rigorous schools in our city um and their curriculums are administered in English now there is a a whereas clause in the resolution which states uh students in gifted and talented programs are uh given the admissions test in different languages I do think there is a fundamental distinction children who get a gifted and talented test are uh are usually around four or five uh years old so there's certainly um time to develop language skills when you're entering uh high school it's quite a lot to chew uh and to expect a student to be proficient if they're not proficient English in those classes that are required and I think the numbers pointed out I think your own resolution talks about the number of Ells in the specialized high schools I don't know if that's necessarily a um uh uh result the fact that the test is not administered in different languages I think it's just the fact that um you have to be English proficient at that level to be competitive for admission to those schools the other thing that concerns me is we've seen this before uh that opponents of the shsat tend to focus on attacking the test now and that's a and and that's approach because we've seen what happened with GI and talented programs they uh attack the test usually it's on Equity basis uh now we've seen language um I think this test has been in effect for I don't know maybe a hundred years now um it works uh could could we do more to meet our uh Ells absolutely I think fundamentally there should be an expectation that by the time you're in nth grade you should and you if you're applying to a specialized high school the most rigorous some of the most rigorous I don't want to make a generalization but some of the most rigorous schools in our city you should really be proficient in English and be able to take a testl so um I am do not support this resolution although I do truly understand the concerns of the sponsors and I think it's admirable but I think it's misguided and again I'm concerned that it's again a backd door attack on the shsat and the test which works it's been around for a long time uh and uh it and it really has left our specialized high school some of the best schools not only in the city of New York not only in the state of New York but in the in the entire United States and uh and that's why I oppose U this resolution anybody else wish to speak on the resolution okay I I'm gonna recognize uh C before I first you you've spoken already okay go ahead Gavin thank you P um so I I would say if if I if I really wanted to attack the shsat if I really wanted to attack the shsat I would attack it because there are only um there were only seven black students admitted to stus um it's it it's please let him speak please please let him speak it's okay please please don't do that I mean okay okay I I have recognized council member Healey please let him speak I mean I mean math was never my best subject but it's really easy to count a single digit number like seven okay um but um okay anyway um who who you know I want to ask Charles Charles Charles let Gavin speak let him speak okay you okay you did okay you keep repeating stuff let him let him if he wants to answer he can answer if he doesn't he doesn't have to go ahead Gavin I don't I don't think I'm Philly Bel string I think this Philly Bel string is over here but um um I would also I would also add um I would also add that okay okay please let Gavin speak okay okay okay let him answer if he wants if he answers okay but you're not letting get Charles you're not letting him you're not giving him a chance please see see see this is what this is this is what place NYC brings to our councils um so there's also you can also count okay let him let him finish his sentence please Charles okay okay Charles Charles thank you okay Charles we have we have we have Charles Charles okay time out time out okay Charles Charles Charles can I speak let me speak Gavin please wait let me speak guys Gavin let me gav okay before any okay Charles before you speak Gavin before you speak it is nine o'clock it is after nine o'clock no let me please let me finish we still have we still have Charles please let me finish okay we have no we have several items on the agenda we still have this discussion we also have to get through the the school construction requests they are due in two days so if we don't pass them tonight there were schools that are gonna suffer because we will not rec so I please let us get through this thank you I I have like 60 seconds worth of stuff I want to say I could have been done a long time ago um I also want to point I also want to point out Charles Charles come on we Charles we Charles let him have his 60 seconds Charles Charles Charles I would like to get to the school construction Authority requests so let Charles speed let Gavin speed then then he doesn't have to answer nobody has to answer a question he can speak what he wants to speak so I also want to point out okay Gavin does not have to answer that if he doesn't want to Charles okay Charles Charles I will let you speak after Charles I would let you but I'd like to be respectful to other I'd like to be respectful with PR Brie has been waiting also this speak so I also want to point out okay I also want to point out I don't think Gan wants to have an answer please I also want to point out the wolfle inadequate Charles please Charles come on Charles uh Place NYC folks this is what it gets you okay this this message was brought to you by Place NYC okay we are going to we are going we are going okay we we are going to adjourn the meeting to for people for five minutes for five minutes to take everybody to have a pause I now declare this me we're adjourned for five minutes it is now 9:07 we will start again at 9912 thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay if everybody can go back to their seats please okay if everybody can go back to their seats we're going to start up again we're going to try to start up again it's here somewhere Victor okay we're gonna try to start again everybody could please sit thank you okay okay so thank you we're going to try to take a reset okay I'm going to recognize right now council member opai who has not spoken about this issue at all Craig I was not done speaking okay okay okay I'd like to yeah I'll yeld to counc member both all right thank you I'm glad we can get restarted again good evening everyone good evening so I'm here to share in my opinion um I know that we added the inclusion of the doe languages to the statement now which still does not represent the language that I speak and the language that I spoke when I came to this country which represents at least 1% of the pop of our students in all of New York City so that besides that I also want to show share why it's not the best interest for English language Learners or students to attend specialized high schools New York which are they currently they only offer instruction in English so first the Statics show that there in from 2023 to 2024 school year only four English language Learners were enrolled across all specialized high schools so this Stark number isn't just a coincidence it's evidence of a systemic challenge specialized high schools rely heavily as Len mentioned on Advanced English language in um intensive instruction so if students take the SS in their native languages even if they pass they're likely to struggle with the daytoday real realities of English only curriculum so this sets them up for frustration and failure rather than success so second implementing the shsat in multiple language is not you know technically a practical solution especially in a high school level so translating and maintaining consistency across land languages would require an enormous number of contact Specialists and resources so the real solution lies not in lowering barriers but in equipping our elll students with the tools they need to overcome them so rather than focusing on a multilingual s sat let's look at the success stories of our English language students who have navigated this s um this system including myself I was not at that time able to be taking taking the the sh satat because it wasn't available I mean obviously in their language but I didn't but I succeeded in other ways so their resilience and strategies um be it through intensive language programs or additional academic support are what we should replicate and scale so inclusion cannot come at the expense of setting students up to fail let's prioritize giving our elll students the skills they need to thrive in specialized high school thank you thank you are you gonna recognize me thank you um so I I understand that okay I'm just going to talk I think you should just I understand that but um we are talking about a deficit mindset that you're saying you're set we're setting students up to fail but you know what it's up to students if they want to fail or not it's up to students to get that opportunity and the other thing I'm going to mention is the other group of students that is woly rul under represented in all let him speak and that's students with disabilities and students with disabilities are just as capable member has and and you know they don't get the respect that they deserve and many students are have been pushed out of those schools celed out of those schools and they deserve to be supported in those schools so if I really wanted to attack those schools for their inequity I would also point to the lack of students with disabilities in those schools and it has nothing to do with their ability to handle the curriculum it has everything to do with schools providing the federally mandated supports that they should be providing for them and which they're not and so those are all really important you know the number you absolutely know the number I told you many times okay are you sorry so anyway I I I am the IEP representative on this committee that means I am the and I am the chair of the students with disabilities committee and I came into this Council because I wanted to represent students with disabilities who I felt were ignored and even disrespected by this Council who felt unwelcome here and you know what they are unwelcome here they are disrespected because even when I try to talk about them I can't because I'm I'm having somebody talk over them and this is and this and again this is a message brought to you by Place NYC Place NYC does not want to hear me tell you about students with disabilities not being represented in our screen schools does not want to to tell you English language Learners not being represented in those schools does not want me to tell you about black students not being represented in those schools so that's what I'm trying to do and you know I'll leave leave it at that and you know Charles will say what he wants to say because that's just who he is thank you okay okay okay okay okay let's move on okay okay hold on hold on let me okay anybody who hasn't spoken okay please please come on come on we'd like to we have other business please you'll there's a public session there's a second ma'am there's a second public session please sit thank you okay Charles I did I said your name yeah I I said your name what I what I think about I think that it's important that um everyone has a a strong opportunity uh to be successful on the test and believing that I want to know how many black students we need to have at these specialized schools Gavin in order for them to be successful seven is not enough that must be a right number I'd like to know what that right number is no because I want to achieve that right number but I don't know what it is I want more don't you all want more students in school so you don't in school okay is thank you Charles and you will I'd like I'd like to make a comment okay okay okay he's done he's done I would just like to make a comment okay well do what you have to do I can't tell you what to do okay okay so I'd like okay I okay I'd like to speak the resolution can I speak on I'd like to speak on the resolution okay okay thank you okay so I would like to read I would like okay okay come on we have other things we'd like to get through this I'd like to get through the sea requests these are important construction requests for some of our neediest schools most in need okay please have that in a heart okay so I do agree with the points that and pre have have have made um one comment I would like to make is that within the test itself or the what will be the new test for students who do have some Mastery but do have some issues with the English language and I'm going to quote the vendor will also provide translation galeries in the Doe's standard supporting languages to increase access for students who speak home languages other than English so to some extent this is addressed to help those kid those those kids that's you know what I wanted to just make that but that is from the con the the Pearson contract that's not my opinion that's that's that's you know what's been signed okay so I'm now going to close the discussion of resolutions we will now go to the second public speaker session how many people do we have seven okay can we reduce because we're tied on time can we is everyone okay with one minute okay you're okay with one minute thank you okay one minute okay uh the first person to speak when I call your name please come down Joe V vital again I apolog I'm I'm gonna do a len and apologize ahead of time Joe vital Jay Berlin is second Shannon is third I spoke for and I'm going to read re iterate everything as if it was already said so just you know transplant my previous talk onto this one and I'll add some new information because obviously I still trans I still support resolution 248 and I still resist any resolution that would deplete it or resend it what I wanted to add to my previous talk was that obviously trans is not the same as woman and I hate to say biological woman because that should be understood by the word woman but what I want to say is that there's a different entity called trans Health in the medical system so obviously trans people are not the same a trans transwoman is not the same as a biological woman because there's such an entity as transsexual Health in the medical field the other thing I want to say is that if a woman is not secure in her own vulva power she's definitely going to be indoctrinated so you're going to have biological women come up here and support and support things like 54125 which I mentioned before is the actual icd10 code for the amputation of the penis because the real beneficiaries of this the real beneficiaries of this is the medical world and let me just complete my sentence because they stand to make over $1 million doar for each person who gets on this medical marry go rounds and thank you gays against rumors and thank you Ro women and thank you the people right here J Berlin and then next is okay next next is next is Shannon and then miss Daniels good evening and I thank you for hearing my questions now that we have Quorum this month I hope that this repetition is of service I'm the parent of two kids in the doe so maybe you'll consider giving me two minutes my two kids are really eager to join sports teams that are inclusive of all children as apparent the resolutions that District 2 condones do inform what my district condones and therefore it does concern my children when I try to understand the nitty-gritty of the enforcement of 248 it gets very creepy and disconcerting it seems like an egregious violation of children's privacy can you clarify please Council your idea of your implementation plan I would also like to ask as an NYC taxpayer protective a public school funding what district two funding you would spend on implementing 248 if it won't be rescinded I would like to ask again for the council to publicly account for its constituents what funds you would divert to pay Educators tasked with investigating students signing up for sports budget cuts ended the extracurricular activities at my child's school last year 248 seems to De demand taxpayer time investigating children's biological sex am I misunderstanding the policy who would you test to enforce resolution 248 or would this resolution depend on accusations perceived based on perceived gender identity and who do you would you and have you enact if have you enacted a resolution that relies on the volunteer service hours of bullies who do you think those bullies will come for only trans kids thank you the enforcement of resolution 248 will require the policing of all district du bodies all district two bodies What If instead the council rescinded 248 and spend that time money respect the minute else respect the one minute like education thank you hi Council um I had a preamble but I'm going to skip it in the interest of being a one minute let's talk about the room and the contrast that is clear here uh there's an usen them they have hateful signs we have snacks uh which you're still welcome to by the way I think we still have some pretzels uh they have insults they call us groomers and pedophiles we have a conflict deescalation team I know because I trained them they claim they are silenced yet they just elected a felon who ran on open openly on and trans rhetoric they say they just want to have a conversation but we had one such conversation on Monday There's no conversation there was a heavily restricted Q&A I know because I tried to have a dialogue I couldn't I was not allowed they have hate and we have love they have a c they have a council member who hurls insult at other council members we uh we we we just don't have that and Charles by the way I don't give a damn about changing your mind I care about policy you can have your belief all you want you can go home and believe whatever you want but when those beliefs create policy that causes harm I will be using my minute thank you Charles when you have beliefs that causes harm then I care and by the way we did just take a poll on who supports LGBT equality was called um the Equal Rights Act it passed uh 62.5% 7 4.7 million people in the state support this I do not believe Char I was interrupted I was interrupted thank you I don't think Charles speaks for the people on this Council it is never too late to do the right thing you joined this Council to make a positive difference you still can here now tonight with Quorum hi folks I come out this every month because you know this weird hobby is so much fun listening them listening them yell at each other and hurl insults like like it really is what makes my day um I will say we're not here to change your mind we're here to build power and to vote them out equival 248 just passed nationally through the house earlier this week you know attempting to attack trans girlss playing sports and what we've seen around the country is that it starts there and then it slides further it slides such that near next we maybe don't let trans kids use their name and pronouns maybe we don't let them have healthare maybe we don't let them exist maybe we get to the point where we are calling for them to be eradicated something that you know somebody who may be taking office next week has kind of done um so I think it's important that we all come out and that we stop it now before we let it go further thank you the next is Kia he still here is K I think I think she I is K still here oh there you okay K August and Amy it's a minute this time right I'm really really fast everyone here has the potential to make the world a more loving place a more welcoming place a place that is more just I want you to picture a beautiful Utopia where we can feed our community use a toilet without fear and play sports because they're fun I want our girls all of our girls to feel loved and I want everyone to feel loved are you ready to fight for that they want us to be hopeless have you given up hope have you given up on love have you given up on each other transgender people are not new before we were transgender we were healers spiritual advisers revolutionaries Warriors we were Rebecca's daughters a group of cross-dressing vigilantes in the American South that smashed toll booths to protest unfair taxation we were General LED's wife revolutionaries in England who dawned women's clothing and led Rebellion to Pro protest unfair working conditions for Loom Factory workers we are mahu we are two spirit we are bisu we have always been here and we always will be last thing I want you to repeat after me I am brave thank you thank you I am strong I am my ancestors wildest dreams thank you wanted to speak on the resolution about the elll and the SSAT I took the SSAT I go to a specialized high school I go to sty um and I think that allowing the S to be administered in multiple languages would help improve would help uh widen the community that sty serves and help it better represent it City sty is arguably the the flagship of New York City Public Schools it's it's very well known it's very well-renowned but unfortunately it doesn't represent our city demographically and Charles to answer your question the right amount of black kids at sty is one that makes it so that the proportion of black kids at size is the same as the proportion of black kids in the overall New York City School System it's simple um and I think allowing El students to take the S SSAT would um would reduce this inequality and um I think it is an important policy to pursue in the most linguistically diversity in the world thank you thank you and the final speaker is Amy thank you Miss Shore I just wanted to speak because it sounds like you haven't heard from a lot of parents and there seem to be some question to that I have two kids that are now in high school in schools within two um they're both cisgendered a boy and a girl they've both done a lot of sports so my son has run track he has played baseball he has played soccer my daughter has run cross country she has played lacrosse she has played soccer they have played with trans kids they both welcome trans kids to their teams they are they they're part of the team they are studying for midterms but they asked me to come and say that uh first they said to say that they don't care everybody should be able to play but then they amended it and said I should say they care deeply because these are the kids they go to the potato cart with at lunch these are the kids that they're studying within their classes and they're the kids that they do things with after school and they should be the kids that they can be able to participate together in sports and ways that they're comfortes thank you thank you and that concludes thank you that concludes the uh oh oh sorry uh that concludes the public second public speaker sessions we now to go on to vote on resolutions does someone like to make a motion so I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution number 266 entitled resolution to affirm cc2 support of nycps skyelines to support transgender and gender expansive students and resin resolution number 248 does anyone second that motion G to call roll call [Music] vote gav Charles not here son Jessica's not here Sarah spe is not here V yes one v no I'd like to make a motion to uh approve resolution number 267 as amended resolution urging New York York City public schools to promote inclusion of and correct bias against English language Learners in the administration of the shsat admissions to specialized high schools with the amendment that was previously mentioned does anyone want to second that motion I will now call a roll call vote for that uh we're voting on uh to approve resolution 267 s uh PR Allison Danielle is not here Gavin Charles with be amended okay mad's not here sonel Jessica is not here uh Sarah Sabina is not here I vote no great uh that's three votes yes one two three four five votes no um the motion does not pass our two student Representatives presid thank you uh we'll now move to the minutes there are two sets of minutes we'll start first start with the draft minutes of the November 20th meeting does anybody have any comments or Corrections hearing none the minutes are approved I'm going to move to the draft minutes of the December 18th 2024 ccd2 minutes does anybody have any comments or Corrections hearing none the minutes are approved we'll go to new business and he have new and he has new business and then we will adjourn the meeting does anybody every uh take a vote by a show of hands to adjourn the meeting and go into the next one anybody oppose sorry didn't ask for a discussion okay I know let's go to directly into the working business meeting I'm G to call this working business meeting of community uh of ccd2 uh to order I'm gonna ask the vice president to do a roll call roll call PR Allison Daniela is absent Gavin Charles M is not here solo Jessica not here Sarah Sabina is not here I am here and cig here one two three four five six seven eight people being present uh four being absent we do have a quorum or two student members uh are not here thank you we're gonna start with the treasures report do you have anything pre I guess let me be let me before you read your report do you know and maybe Victor can answer have the has the approvals been made At Doe to do reimbursements like I know they were like in the system okay so we sorry I just want to for the three of you so so I just because this is you had asked about this last we're still Victor is is still waiting to hear back to get the formal approval from the doe for reimbursement so it's um so Victor they everyone has until June to submit yeah you have until June but face a face WP can this is this is one of our face reps not our but one of the face Reps for being today thank you any idea when we can get because we've been waiting for quite a while we submitted This months ago like can you work with Victor tomorrow to see to push it forward I I understand that but I think Victor has been with sunny and is not getting any answers if it's me yeah if I have to do it I'll do it I don't I just don't know who to do like I don't know who Sunny is so okay thank you okay the second question I have on the treasure report Victor did we submit the as amended one because we remember we did an allocation for the president's Council so but we've submitted it okay that's fine do you have anything else on the treasury report I just want to tell everyone that you can still submit even if from last term um if you felt that you missed a deadline since we have the funding please some please put your you know expend expenses in um yeah we can like swi what we do we voted we more than a thousand think it was 1500 yeah 1500 that's right that's right okay so thank you uh moving along on the annual Capital requests so um each each of us have liaison schools and one of our functions is to speak with our liaison school to see what capital requests they do need they want to us to advocate for also when if and when we do our visits we can see things ourselves that we think that there might be gaps we each of us or several of us put in requests and we met a smaller group of met last week with s SCA the school construction Authority no actually we met with school facilities and we went through all of the requests a lot of the requests actually do not go through S SCA they are what's called reso a reso reso a right reso a which goes through the city council or the burough president so there actually only are two requests that we are proposing I'm going to actually I'm one was from a school that I was I put in for another one was from a school and another one was from a school that council member Healey uh advocated for I'm going to speak about mine but I'm first gonna let uh council member hey speak about his if you if you'd like um and then I'll speak about mine we have to prioritize them I think that in our sort of pre meeting I think we had an agreement as what we thought was the priority um I I think I can say it now I you know my feeling was uh council member Hy's priority should be Priority One my priority should be priority to I can give the reasons why when I speak again but Council m h do you want to talk about your school I'd rather you speak about your school yeah um so so my school is ps51 it's on it's on the west side it's on 44th Street and like 10th um it's a school that it has um about a third of its students are students in temporary housing it was zoned for at one point it's zoned for eight different um uh shelters and and so they had of about 450 students you know close to 200 I think actually were students inbr housing this was actually even before um the influx of Asylum Seekers they had a lot of students in temporary housing and so the community has really come together and tried to create a safe and welcoming space for those students as the principal said to me she wanted to make sure that when students are in the school building like even if they are poor nobody feels poor inside the school building and that really resonated with me um the school has a few needs and um I think specifically what we talked about in terms of the sca was the I believe the um the playground on the rooftop and was that was that correct sorry I think that was it yeah it was yeah that's what I wanted you to speak about I didn't remember exactly they they need a playground resurfacing because they have a lot of the paving bricks have come up so it's kind of a dangerous space for the students it's also the lighting is very dim so it's not a a very good um space for them particular like in times like these when it's gets dark very early and also the rooftop needs some some work because a lot of these students you know it's not an area with a lot of parks um on the west side like Hell's Kitchen area and you know students are living in shelters so having having a rooftop with like a trus some shade and that's resurfaced would also be beneficial thank you um and and we can get into discussion after but I'm fully supportive it's a it's a very uh Noble uh noble cause and and certainly needed the school that I want to talk about is actually not my leisen school I pinch hit for council member sarin who was not uh I I knew some people at the school and I was at the school it's a it's a school called Ballet Tech which serves students from grades four through eight and as as you can tell from the name it's a school that focuses on uh dance the school takes students from all over the city it's three floors in a commercial office building in in uh on Broadway near Union Square um and the uh student population is now 100 they are going to uh try ramp up over the next five years to 200 uh I think it's one of those quote unquote forgotten schools and the reason why is because when you have these Reser away grants from Council Members it's very easy for a Zone school to go to a council member and say Hey you have all your resident all your constituents are in this school please support it and the council member you know wants to do it it gets votes B Tech there is no one council member who has all of the it's it's it's spread out all over the city the building is actually fairly old it's it does serve um a fairly a very diverse a fairly diverse population and what they need in the school and what I'd like to advocate for is a public address and Bell system so they have in the end of a fire they have the fire bells but there is no public address system so if a principal want the principal wants to speak on one to the entire school she cannot there is no Bell System between classes or if there's an you know there's a fire drill there is no Bell to do that um that is a huge safety issue for me um as they ramp up from 100 to 200 students I think it's even the the problem is even compounded um so I'd like to advocate for that um one of the issues in the past and I'll just go quickly one of the issues in that school that school is as I said three floors in a commercial office building they it's it's rented the doe rented from I know some landlord and the doe did not want to make an investment in that school or in that system um if they were just going to be there for a short term the school did just sign a 10year lease so the school will be there a lot for for quite a while and Facilities did say that given it's a 10-year lease they would be much more they would be supportive of that um you know I just to comment on on why I think that should be the second priority and G G should be the first I I we could go either way and I think probably C council member heing might say the same thing but number one I think that the needs are are more immediate at council member Healey's school and number two it sounded from the conversations we had last week that everybody was very supportive of Ballet Tech everybody knew about the issues at Ballet Tech with the with the Sy with the PA system and the bells so I got the impression that council member heale ps51 needs it more needs to be number one more than Ballet Tech but I think they're both very valuable so that is a recommend the recommendation from the sort of pre meeting I ask a question so does valy Tech have a playground okay um still with with with the chair's per still four fourth graders and fifth graders with the chair's permission can we do a vote uh and so what you're gonna do here is I'm G to call this out and you rank them ps150 ps51 you give me a one or a two um when I call your name because they have new rank so we'll do it that way 51 is Gavin and um Ballet Tech is um is great he but what we gonna we're just voting on those number two because the top five when he we still we still rank we'll still rank should we well shouldn't we wait till our top five to have like okay yeah so all right so so yeah so with with the chair's permission I'm just going to call the vote so um pre um between 51 and Ballet Tech you I'd say balet tuck would be number one for safety okay uh Allison ps51 and bence between those 51 First and yellow's not here Gavin I'm assuming 51 Charles wow it's three times T um what um is not here sonel Jessica's not here Sarah Spina is not here IA 51 first right okay so I'm just gonna tot it up to one two three four five six seven ones and one two and the other one isse so the first choice will be PS5 51 for SCA request the second choice will be Ballet Tech terms the rankings thank you everybody we have maybe three minutes left because I gotta pack up also is there anybody that has a very quick School aison update very very quick please thank you uh Char here at CEC meetings uh we spoke about this Victor has tried to get information on it it doesn't seem like anybody Victor correct me if I'm wrong but it doesn't sound like anyone is really doing it anymore I you check with other CC's you check with face and we couldn't get right pricing and there were issues when I spoke to face about it the issues were child were Insurance that's very expensive because you have to actually hire somebody that's been fingerprinted I think see our face rep is is nodding does anybody we can pursue this at the next meeting if you want but does anybody people can have kid that was the Le to me that was the least of the issue okay okay uh is there anything else um no but I am Tom so I'm just wondering can if if there was I'm sorry I'm just asking can I submit it at least if there is a reason we haven't we have to vote on it that's the problem and we w we can't she's going to a school tomorrow and she wants to know for a last minute I think we we can't because we can't even have another meeting because we wouldn't have we wouldn't have enough time to notice the meeting so unfortunately okay yeah yeah that's what I was gonna get you yes yeah so so if if there are needs and the needs may not well be SCA we can talk about it tomorrow they could be Resa they could be facilities has to fix something speak to me and we will we'll resolve it okay uh and that being said I think we are adjourned thank you everyone thank you security appreciate it thank you Victor thank you face thank you for everyone who stayed thank you thank you thank you good night John Boy