Okay. Let's begin. I just silence my phone. Good evening. My name is Craig Slutskin, and this I am I am the president of Community Education Council District two. I will call this calendar meeting of CEC two to order. I'll just check. Can you hear us in the on the Zoom? Somebody could just write in. Great. I'm gonna ask the interpreters to come in and make the announcements, please. You want me to go get it? Victor. Okay. Enjoy our little chat today. Yeah.
Thank you. That's all. Just make him a. Okay. I'm gonna now, at this time, ask our recording secretary, Aaron Carr, to take roll call. Yes. We are recording the meeting. K. Okay. Attendance, Allison Bowen. Allison Bowen is here. She is in the ladies room. Should I I can okay. Okay. Back. Okay. Let me stop it up. Gloria Chu Gloria Chu is present. Daniela Egorov Daniela Egorov is here. Gavin Healy Gavin Healy is here. Aaron Carr is here. Cody Lindquist Cody Lindquist is here.
Sam Lowe. Sam Lowe is here. Tom Mazel Shay. Tom Mazel Shay is here. Rustam Movlinov Here. Rustam Movlinov is here. Tamira Reid. Tamira Reid is not here. Sabina Sereniz? Here. Sabina Sereniz is virtual. Craig Slutskin? Present. Craig Slutskin is present. Rachel Kenny? Rachel Kenny is here. Ethan Kwok? Here. Ethan Kwok is here virtually. We have Quorum. And please note that Alison Bowen. And Alison Bowen is here. Thank you. Before we begin, I just wanna remind everyone we're here for the children of, d
two. We do have student representatives as part of the CEC, and we may have students watching at home. So I'll ask speakers to be mindful of that when when speaking. I also wanna remind everyone that if you would like to to speak, you can do so by signing up at, h t t p s, bitly c e c d two dash speakers, which is Victor, I think, put it in the chat box, to sign up for the public speaking session. You need to sign up within a half an hour of the meeting starts. So it's 06:40 now. We'll just say 07:10. Is that okay?
Is that accurate? Before we move on, I just wanna take a moment to review how we'll be using the chat tonight. It's the same procedure that we've been using for the last few months, and I think it it's been going okay. The chat's gonna stay open for most of the meeting. It'll be closed during the superintendent's report and during public speaking. Outside of those two sections, it will remain available. When the chat is open, we will ask everyone to keep their comments respectful and focus on the meeting. The chat is public, including to students, so a good guide is to write in a way that you'd be comfortable with your own child saying.
You're welcome to raise points or ask questions in the chat, of course. Members may check it periodically, but our main responsibility is running the meeting so we won't be watching the chat every moment, so we may not see things right away. We're trusting everyone to keep help the space constructive. If anything crosses the line, name calling, profanity, similar type behavior, we may remove somebody or close the chat after a warning. Because we're not monitoring continuously, we may not catch issues immediately, and we ask for everyone's patience and understanding. The goal here is simply to keep the money the meeting running smoothly for everyone. Council members will not be deliberating in the chat.
Those discussions need to happen in the open where everyone, including those watching on YouTube or attending in person, can follow along. When the chat is closed, participants will still be able to message the hosts for technical issues, for example, if the sound isn't working. A quick reminder, the most effective way to make your voice heard is by signing up to speak during the public session. The chat is not the is not the official avenue for raising or debating issues and isn't the public record. If there's a topic you'd like the council to address or the Department of Education to address, the public speaking session is the right place to bring it forward.
So I wanna thank everybody for helping us keep the meeting respectful and productive. We're gonna start off tonight, with the presentations of resolutions. We only have one resolution this evening, resolution two ninety eight, the title of which is the resolution in support of ending NYCPS rental reimbursement payments for charter schools. Does someone wanna present? Gavin Healy. Yeah. That's fair. Good evening. So this resolution is is in support of of a package of bills in the state assembly and state senate, that would essentially, repeal the provisions that require, New York
City public schools or New York state schools to, to basically pay charter rental assistance. That is when charter schools, charter schools will, you know, do most of them receive, free space in New York City buildings, but where there is not, that option available to them, New York's, city is essentially required to reimburse the charter schools or pay a portion of their rent. In some cases, this is quite substantial, and New York City public schools are paying,
you know, tens of millions of dollars or more each year, to charter schools for this this rent. And I I wanna add that this is, this is really an outlier. This is something unique in in this in the, nation and in the state and New York City being required to pay this this amount. In and New York State no longer has any for profit charter schools. That those were eliminated. Well well, they were I I won't say eliminated. They were basically eliminated in 2010, but there's still a few that are grandfathered in,
six in the state, four in New York City. But in many cases, though, the charter school is a is a nonprofit entity, they actually rent space from a charter management organization, which is in a relationship with the charter school. And so, essentially, they're paying rent to themselves. In some cases, as I've highlighted here, there are a number of cases where there's quite inflated, rental amounts that basically we as as New York City or New York State taxpayers are on the hook for. So at a time when there's a lot of concern about about the the budget
and and and the increasing budget and attempts to cut costs, I think these bills, help ensure that, sort of put New York City more in line with with other school systems around the nation and around the state and also, require, certain matching payments when there is a sort of facilities upgraded, in a charter school co located with a, with another public school, that the public school will get, you know, a similar benefit. So I think these bills make a lot of sense, and they would help to
bring, you know, our city's school system more in line with with other school systems. Excellent. Yeah. Thank you. We'll do the minutes. Now the minutes have been distributed to you. There are three corrections. Thank you, Gloria. On page one, Daniella was not both here and virtual at the same time. So, she was virtual, so we will fix that. The bottom of page one says, Aaron Carr presented the resolution, two ninety seven. It was, Gloria Chu. And then on the bottom of page two, the academic affairs committee was Monday, March
30, not the thirty first. So we had the wrong date on that. So we'll make those corrections. Are there any other corrections? If there are no further corrections, the minutes are approved as distributed and corrected. Thank you. K. Moving along, there are no pro let me just somebody got needs to be added. And if my council members can also just look for the adding people on the on the Zooms. And I think there's a couple of other people in there now. There were no pro program presentations. I know we originally had scheduled, the newly tenured, district two assistant principals to come
speak tonight. They will be coming instead, at the main meeting. So I apologize for any confusion, or inconvenience, but they will be coming next next month, and, it'll be a great opportunity for us to, to meet our some of our, wonderful district two staff. Next is the report of the president. I do have a few things that I wanna go through. So and, well, everybody had a good April. The Department of Education introduced new guidance on AI as everybody, I think, is aware. You can check it out at their website, schools.nyc.gov.
Folks can certainly share their opinions and thoughts via a link to the on the page so the DOE will get that information. And if you do have opinions, please fill that out as the DOE continues to explore its formal policy. Last night, I did go to a meeting with the chancellor and the other CEC presidents across the city. We were able to give comment on the policy and and ask questions. I'll give a very brief summary. The CEC presidents did express many, many concerns, many concerns, including the rollout of the effect on specific groups of kids such as elementary school level students, students with disabilities,
and multilingual learners. There was a push for opt outs. It didn't seem like that was currently in the cards, but there was a lot of discussion about whether opt outs can be offered and what that would actually look look like. There were also many concerns just, expressed on on data privacy, how vendors would be using information, what safeguards there were for the vendors to use the information in a way not intended, how to prevent data breaches both at the DOE level and at the vendor level. The basic theme was that from the DOE, was that AI is here and we
can't ignore it, which is, to be honest, true. We can't. But there needs to be many guardrails, and the other CEC presidents and I, did express that there are we have many concerns, and we did not want anything rolled out hap haphazardly. We have gotten some emails and comments in. I encourage people to continue to send them in. I've asked superintendent. I forwarded a couple to, superintendent McGuire. I did ask for him to speak tonight a little bit about that. Hopefully, you have that you're able to do so, in his report tonight. We have many we've had many conversation on the council about the Broadway Education Campus,
which is the school where LMC Middle School is as as a in addition to the proposed NextGen High School. The joint public hearing was a few weeks ago. I wanna thank all council members that testified. I know council member Chu did, council member Healy did. I don't think I'm missing anybody. I know council member Reid tried to testify, but there were some technical issues, I believe. And I know our constituency has very strong feelings about this. The usage proposal which would close, urban assembly urban assembly. Okay. I know it's urban. Urban assembly and approve NextGen, and those are two separate votes.
There's one vote to close, Urban Assembly High School. There's a separate vote to approve NextGen. It they're separate. They're gonna be voted on next week at the panel for educational policy. That's a week from today. The meeting is at MS 131. We've had many of our meetings there. It's downtown or yeah. It's downtown. And the meeting starts at 06:00. This is when you really wanna come out if you wanna be heard. This is when the night the decision is gonna be made. If you wanna speak, I just wanna know from a logistics standpoint, I wanna make sure people understand. You have to be there in person. It's not hard, but you can view it by by video, but you cannot speak,
by video. You have to be there in person. You need to sign up between 05:30 and 06:15 the day of the meeting, so you have a forty five minute window to sign up. You do not have to be there to sign up. You have to be there to speak. So when they call you, you have to be there. But if you're not gonna get there till, let's say, 06:30, 06:45, you can sign up remotely. If you Google panel for educational policy and you go to their page, you find meeting date you scroll down to meeting date April 29, it gives you instructions on how to sign up. As I said, you have to be there in person when they call you to
speak. I have no clue when they will have the public speaker session for this proposal. They they go proposal, speaker session, proposals, speaker session. There are several different, utilization proposals next week. I suspect that some of them, some other ones from District 3 are also gonna be controversial. I don't know if District 2 proposal is gonna go first. It's gonna or if it's gonna go last, there's no way for me to know. So I just wanna warn people, it could be a relatively early night. It could also be a very late night. But I just wanted to make sure everybody understands the process.
And if you have any questions, please email us or email our administrative assistant, Victor, and we can walk you through it or, you know, you can email the superintendent's office also. They have lots of, information about how this works. The school calendar has come out. It's on our website now if you go under resources. Gotten lots of feedback about it. I think, you know, I think Erin is the outlier, but the rest of the world seems to not be happy that the last day of the school is on a Monday and the week of July July 4. She was, like, jumping for joy. I don't it's very weird. I'm only kidding. Also, that clerical day is on a Tuesday in June.
Chancellor's day is that Thursday, so you have Tuesday on off, Wednesday in, Thursday off. It could have theoretically been like this year in a four day weekend, but we did not do that, or the DOE did not do that. I encourage you to make your opinions known. Things have have changed in the past. If you recall, the chancellor chancellor under, mayor Adams did change the schedule a couple years ago. So, please let us let us know your thoughts and, like, and and the the deal we know as well. They also changed December 23. Right? Did they already change that? They changed.
Yeah. Lovely. Last year. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Last year. Last year. That was that was the one last year. Yes. Yes. That was the boy in Brooklyn that wrote the letter. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. They made a very big announcement, and the mayor congratulated himself. The mayor announced several addition has announced additional two k and three k seats. I know my school will have a three k program for the very first time, so it's very exciting. I encourage anyone interested to apply. A few quick notes, a couple of quick notes. School April 4 was school librarian day, so I just wanna take a moment to thank and acknowledge all of our librarians who are very vital to our schools.
Pre k offers come out May 12, three k on May 19. G and T for students currently in k through three are now open, so you can can apply through May 8. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to superintendent Maguire. Sure. Yeah. Go ahead. You don't. You just have to press it. Oh, with that. Yeah. Go ahead. For the PEP meeting, I just wanted to clarify that, yes, you have to be in person in order to be able to speak. There is a hybrid version. But if you are unable to make it, you can provide written public comments that is on the PEP website. You just need to look that up and submit a written comment that will go
to all the PEP members. Yeah. Thank you thank you, Laurie. That's an excellent point. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Am I on? I'm gonna switch anything. Oh, okay. Not having to hold. Representative McGuire. Thank you. Even though you it's your fault about the calendar. Yeah. I just, in regards to the calendar, I wanna make sure that everybody knows that, I'm aware that it has come out. We have a bit of a history of flexing, to meet the needs of families when the calendar doves come out. And, you know, I, hope everybody has booked the extra long vacation for the for
the summer. So, and I know that that is not funny because if my own children were, you know, below school aged, it would be it would be tough to figure out how to how to get that, school year started in in in in September when everybody is heading back to work. Thanks very much for having me tonight. President Slutskin and CEC, appreciate the opportunity to be here. Just to acknowledge the question that, Craig mentioned at the start, of the conversation is that, some emails had come in asking whether or not I had ever proposed that
when I was serving as principal or whether I was serving as superintendent, in that my role as superintendent as to whether or not LMC should expand to six twelve. I did propose it once when I was principal. It was a very popular idea, and we did see, some space opening up on the 4th And 5th Floor of the building, and families were very happy with, the program we were offering in the sixth through eighth grades. Middle school is really quick, so we wanted to try to do what we could do to, serve and support families. Earlier in my tenure, as superintendent, I did, raise this question again with, the Office
of District Planning. People were aware. It was a different administration then. And it was really in response to hearing from a lot of families, as to whether or not, six through twelve's are a popular, idea. We know that, six through 12, schools are popular here in District 2. Currently, there are, you know, quite a few students who are sitting on the, Clinton High School wait list. I think that that and that that number has remained high year over year.
At the time that I proposed six through 12 as as superintendent, the option to expand, was not, on the table. The system was under a different chancellor and different city leadership, and, there isn't currently a plan that is on the table. But I just wanna acknowledge that, yes, that request has been made a few times in the past, twice by myself, and, but currently, there isn't a plan, on the table, to expand LMC to a six through 12.
Tonight oh, I have to grant me sharing power. Thanks. Yep. So tonight, we've got a few things that we are I'm gonna update the community on, and also as always happy to answer some of your questions. First thing that I wanna do is just now acknowledge some recent, announcements of superintendents. I mentioned earlier, this year that principal Bob Bender of PS eleven, is retiring after, close to twenty years twenty years. Ronnie Najer, and Medea McEvoy are two of our principals. Ronnie is currently principal of PS eighty nine and Medea McEvoy at PS two sixty
seven. And they have announced that they will be retiring from New York City Public Schools at the end of the year. I just wanted to share a little bit of data and information about the schools that these two, leaders have led. Ronnie for well over twenty five years, Medea for thirteen years. Both of these principals opened the schools that they are currently leading, and they've just demonstrated extraordinary, student outcomes, as well as levels of, satisfaction amongst families and the teachers,
that serve at these schools. I was meeting with the p s eighty nine SLT, last night, and, it was really fantastic to have them go around and talk with me about their work at the school. Many of them have been there since, principal Major started, as well as, many who have been there for fifteen years or more. So, these leaders have been truly successful, lead amazing schools and communities, and we're very sad to see them go. But we are very thankful that we have, strong leadership here in the district, and
folks that we can tap into when considering, the leadership for these schools. We expect to be able to announce an interim acting principal for both of these schools, later this spring. Summarizing offers have just been released. Summarizing here in District 2 is gonna be held at these, primary schools or these public schools, p s six, one eleven, 124, p s one, three forty three, and 217, as well as middle schools, seventy five Morton, Baruch, and Eastside Middle School.
The calendar starts right at July 1, runs an extra week to August 14 for our kindergarten through fifth graders and August 7 for our sixth through eighth graders. Again, these programs are a morning of academics, as well as and then an afternoon of arts and enrichment activities in partnership with community based organizations. All of the programs are open at 8AM for breakfast and run until 6PM, in the schools. Just as a quick note about who it is that is served and supported during
summer rising, All district two families are eligible, specifically in regard to serving and supporting students with disabilities. The vast majority of students with disabilities, in our district just, are are served in general education classrooms, and that will continue to be the same, during Summer Rising. We do have a couple of specialized programs in our district to serve students on the autism spectrum disorder, our Nest and Horizons programs. Students in those two programs are also, a part of summarizing. There is also an extended school year program for students who have a twelve month
IEP. Some of our students with disabilities have twelve month IEPs, that extend for all the different services that they receive throughout the day, classes, related services. And then some of our students have twelve month IEPs that serve, just primarily related services, speech therapy, counseling, occupational therapy. Extended school year, is being held at two different sites, one town one downtown and one uptown. But, again, the vast majority of students with disabilities who are attending, Summer Rising will,
partake in their, the program that they had applied and and were admitted to. We are in the middle of state assessment season, and, while we are not able to really look at all of the questions, which is one of the things we had done in the past, be able to take a test booklet and really understand and look at, the different questions and passages that students were able to that students were asked to respond to on these exams. Now because of computer based testing, we're not able to do that. In the near future, those exams will be released, and we'll be able to look
at those exams for planning purposes and to get better understanding of what the state is asking our students to be able to demonstrate what they can they know and are able to do. But right now, those are on computer, and I will say that, the report across the board is that moving to computer based testing has been, a real, lift of a lot of busy work that schools have had to engage in order to get ready for exams. The number of things that you have to do to get a student's exam booklet
prepared for test day is long and exhaustive, and, much of it can only be done the morning of testing. So lots of happy, test school, testing administrators, in buildings, But we look forward to being able to look at those, exams once they're released. There's a window of ex that in which all of these exams need to be administered, math, science, and, of course, the ELA exam. That is from April 6 to May 15. Schools create their own schedules, both for the standard administration as well as the makeups.
Later this spring, our regents exams will be administered algebra one, June 17, biology, June 18, and geometry for a few students on June 23. The NYC Soapbox. This is, a part of our civics for all event, and, school student thousands of students across the city are a part of, the NYC Soapbox. Box. This is a opportunity for students to be able to write, prepare, and deliver, an original speech, essay, or story, that they wrote.
We are very, proud of the the four students in District 2 that made it to the soapbox finals, which were held at the Met Museum. It was a really cool event. Across the Met in different galleries, they had set up small, stages, and students, reported the stage. You're able to listen to a few students, giving their soapbox and then continue to move around the museum to listen to different students in different galleries. Two of our students were finalists. So four of them made it all the way to the MET.
Two of them were finalists. One student from, Spruce Street School, and one student from, Battery Park City School. So very proud of them. They're gonna be presenting at our upcoming assistant principal and principal conferences. One of our students gave his speech both in English and in Spanish, talking about his journey, from Venezuela, to The United States, and, we heard a variety of other topics that the students were sharing. Just some really proud moments for these schools, for these students, and for their families.
As, president Sklutskin mentioned, the city has released our AI policy. This is, an opportunity through there is an opportunity through May 8 for families, community members, teachers, educators to be able to provide feedback on the current AI policy. Again, that will remain open until May 8. Again, this is this policy is just the first wave of policy that is to be released by, our, central team. We look forward to additional policies that may impact the way that students are answering
or responding to questions, the ways that students are participating in, their assessments and classwork. A lot of the information that's in this first wave of AI policy is very adult facing. Also, a lot of the information that is in this first draft of the policy, pertains specifically to how it is that we are going to keep student information, and students safe, with, the increasing use of AI in schools and in students' lives. Just last week, we released some enrollment updates, for our we had recent enrollment numbers
and offers for our middle schools. Those were released on April 15, and wait lists for various schools remain open. All of our district two schools and programs have students on their wait lists, some more than others. A lot of this information and these numbers are really in flux over the next few weeks. There's also the factor here that we're waiting on to find out what, is going to happen at the New York state level in regard to class size reduction funds, because that does impact somewhat, schools' ability to be able to admit additional students.
But I did just wanna share a little bit of information that I can share, just to give you a bit of an idea of how things look now as compared to, previous years. So currently, we have about two thousand sixth graders. We have two thousand one hundred, fifth graders. There were 2,400 offers made to sixth graders for the coming fall. Last year, there were 2,239 offers made. 450 of the offers that were made were to screened programs. And again, all of our programs and schools do have wait lists.
Those wait lists remain open over the summer. And again, we will continue to evaluate, what the incoming enrollment looks like for each of our schools and programs, and we'll also be keeping our eye on news in regard to class size reduction and how that might impact the number of students that each school, accepts for the fall. Just as a quick look back to, class size reduction because we do anticipate that we're gonna be hearing very soon, from the city and state in regard to class
size reduction. So currently for New York City, we're at 64%, but 48% of, district two schools are currently in compliance with class size law. A few more of our elementary schools are, in compliance with, the numbers, as compared to our middle schools. Again, the targets for next year are 80% citywide of classrooms and in the following year, 100%. In District 2, one 100% of our schools have applied for class size reduction funding.
Again, if that funding was fully met or if those proposals were fully met, that would mean that we would need to hire an additional 300 plus teachers across District 2. If those proposals were fulfilled, then 29 of our schools will be able to reach the 80% compliance benchmark. 24 of them would, of those 29 would actually be able to reach 100% of compliance, but some of our schools, about 10, would not be able to reach the 80% threshold. Again, schools aren't evaluated individually and districts aren't evaluated in individually for compliance in regard
to class size reduction. This is a snapshot that we look at across the city. So across the city next year, we need to reach 80%. We won't be reaching that here in District 2, but we will be making a contribution toward it. And then, again, looking at just some final dates, for this school year, Memorial Day, Eid al Adha, Chancellor's Conference Day on June 4, and a Clerical Day on June 5. Neither of those days are attendance days for students. Stew schools are closed on June 19 for Juneteenth, and then June 26 is the
last day of school. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. What's those days right next to each other? Consecutive days off. That's interesting. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. First, before we go on, please note for the record that council member Samara Reed is here. She's she's gonna be remote tonight. She sent an email, and I didn't see it earlier. So she's here, and she's virtual right now. So, thank you for that. I'm just gonna ask one quick question, then I'm maybe it'll come back to me, but I I wanna allow my council members, to ask.
Could you go back to the enrollment slide? Alright. Four hundred and fifth 450 screened offers. How many students are on the wait list that hit the cutoffs? Do you know? In other words, do I and let's say the cutoff was at three five. I don't know what it is, but let's say the cutoff was three five at Wagner. I'll just throw it out. How many students had a three five but didn't get an offer? Do you know? I mean, you may not know. I don't know the answer to that. I also can't say that there is a definitive cutoff. What does that mean? Could you just explain explain what that means? Because I don't think people will understand what that means.
Screen programs are, based on students' fourth grade course grades. Sure. But there is not a set, GPA that determines eligibility for a screen program or not. Of course, we view these school these classrooms, and these programs as accelerated, so we wanna consider that when we are admitting students to the program. The way that students are admitted to screen programs is that students with the highest grade point average are admitted in the highest grade point average in the district and
also students who ranked that school first are the first to be admitted to these schools. But to answer your question specifically, I I don't know the whether or not students on that wait list are eligible for the program for the screening program whether or not they're students who have generally a high grade point average or not. So I can't say. Do you look at and and that I'm not asking for us to just look at it. You you as the as the superintendent, do you look at the wait list to see, oh, I have all these kids with four point o's or whatever whatever it
is and say, I wanna open up another section. And can you open up other sections in all four of the schools that currently have these programs? So long as we have there's there's yeah. The answer is yes. We are able to open additional sections. The reason why we may want to open open we always wanna try to serve as many families as we can. So that's certainly a driving factor. Right. We also have, space in buildings, that is a factor, and we need to really pay attention to the what they call the yield rate, how many students are being
offered a seat that actually show up for that seat. So it's keeping your finger on the tab of, like, all of these different data points. And if the data show and the space including the data around, like, school space, shows that we can open additional class, then we absolutely will. And then one last question I have, and then I'll turn it over to my my fellow council members. On the screen offers, now now this year, anybody from any district could apply to any middle school across the city, but the individual districts have district priority. So district two students have district priority to district two programs.
District twelve has priority to district twelve programs, etcetera. On the offers, were any May how many of them were or any were any made to non district two students? I'm just curious to see. I'm sure many many applied. I'm just curious if any of them were able to get in. Yeah. The enrollment office priority goes to district two Right. Students in a I understand that. Yeah. Yep. The enrollment office does maintain two different wait lists, one of students who are in district and one of students who are out of district. Right. So could a student from out of district, make it in?
Is that what you're Well, how would they be able to get in if there's a wait list? As long as there's even one person on the wait list for in district Mhmm. Would a non non an out of district person be eligible? That that's my question. It's just a theory. They could. If their, if their grade point average was higher than the student who was in district and if their ranking of the school was higher than the student who was on the wait list, then an out of district student could make it in ahead of yes. That's and that's because you have no official cutoff.
It's it's it's not like If they have a higher grade point average than anybody who is in district who is on the wait list, then they could, be admitted to that program. Okay. Okay. Are there any questions from the council? I know that there probably might be. Allison? I just wanted to ask a couple follow-up questions that I understand you may not have the information tonight, but it would be helpful for parents at the next meeting or in some other way to be able to relay this to them. Because the wait list situation, I think, as Craig has touched upon is quite confusing.
In terms of the screen programs, I think it would be helpful to parents to understand if they are on that waiting list, if they are going to be, one, given priority over other students who are on the waiting list who are out of district. And then, two, to confirm, like you said, that the parents of children who are getting the higher grade point average are getting bumped up even if they're on that wait list initially at a 150 or the two hundredth person on the wait list to confirm that they are getting bumped up above a number of those people based
on their student score. So that's that's one part of my question. Mhmm. Yeah. I we are still early on in the, with the offers coming out. It's only been a week. It does take some time for these data to settle in. But for the main meeting, I will ask an off member of the enrollment team to join us so that they can answer some more of the technical questions. Okay. That would be great because, anecdotally, I have heard about students who are on the screen program wait list for both Wagner and Morton with, four point o coming into
the lottery system who are still, you know, highly ranked, but still on those wait lists. So I think it's helpful for parents to understand where the priority is really going to lie. The the second part of the question has to do with, out of district students, and it looks like if these numbers are correct that we only have twenty one hundred fifth graders this year and 2,400 offers were made, that we made offers to about 300 students. I mean, it's probably not perfect outside the district. You know, maybe there are kids in private school, a handful of them that are
applying for middle school, but I certainly wouldn't expect that to make up that significant of a percentage of the 300 offers. Do we have any idea, and this has come up in some parent chats as well, if there's a significant number of students taking spots, say, at zone schools like a Baruch or a Wagner coming from out of district, which then fills up seats for capacity at that school and is therefore preventing some of those schools from expanding
their screen program because they filled up their regular program with 50 or a 100 or more students from out of district. And what that's doing is inadvertently squeezing out district students for the other program, the spring program at that school. The four well, five, because Roosevelt Island is also a zone school. So the five zone schools that exist within Geographic District 2, are obligated to enroll any student, who lives within that, catchment zone.
So all what should happen, what should be, and we can assume that there's no reason for me to believe that this hasn't happened, is that all of the students who are zoned for Baruch, Wagner, 131, or Roosevelt Island, or 75 Morton, all of the students who applied to that school, who who wanted to go to that school, who listed that school, number one, who did not get an offer to another school that they accepted, all of those students, have a seat in their zone school.
That has to happen before students who are out of zone are accepted into, the program. If there are a, this there are, like, different data that, play into this. The, number of students who have applied and participated, and showed up, accepted the offer, Those numbers also play into how many different sections of screened or, core classes, general
education classes that a school may open. So in short, students who are zoned for the school have a right to attend that school. The school should not, accept students out of zone until they have served and supported all of their students who are in zone, and in district. And, you know, this is the first year where we have had this citywide access, to middle schools. And I can't say for sure, what the numbers look like, how many out of
zone students were, if they were if anywhere at all accepted to, the zone schools. We'll have to look at those numbers, and I'll be able to report back to you on that. But I understand the question. In an important one, though. Yeah. So clarification because we got a question from the public. Let's say my child is zone four Wagner, and they forget about the screen just for the for the zone program. They rank it very low, 12 choice, whatever. Does that mean they're not guaranteed a spot at Wagner?
As a zone Zone. If if I was zoned if my child was zoned for Wagner. They're guaranteed a spot at Wagner. They're guaranteed a spot at Wagner. Okay. Thank you. That was a question from the chat. I think it it also just might be good to be said, just for for for people to understand because you touched upon it. Schools take a look in the enrollment, and please correct me if I'm saying anything incorrect incorrect. Schools take a look at historical trends. So if they have an enrollment of, let's say, a class of 200, they may take 240 students because they know historically 40 won't accept, which is why it's very
hard to get off, for example, the Clinton wait list. If you're on the Clint Clinton wait list, you probably won't get off. And it's not because, you know, people aren't not attending. It's because they assumed they they have this assumption of it's a school school utilization. It's their assumption that 40 kids, in my example, just easy numbers, 40 kids aren't going. Is that I just wanna make sure that that's correct. Yes. The, schools that have, a very high yield rate, high very high, rate of students showing up, can't take many students off of the wait list.
Right. So that's why people some they were always questions as to why my child's number seven on the wait list. They're definitely gonna get in. Well, you know, they may not if it's for certain schools. So, are there any other questions for superintendent McGuire on on his report? It could be about this topic or any other topic. Gavin. Could you could you scroll back to the the slide about the class size compliance data? This one or this one? So so my quest oh, yeah. This one. So my question about this slide is, are those numbers do those reflect are those
are these after the exemptions, or are they without exemption? The citywide number is after the exemptions. Okay. The the district wide are the district district wide do not include the exemptions. K. Thank you. Sure. And then the other question is, could you scroll to the summarizing, slide? Oh, so, what do you have data about how, how many how many families applied and and how many got got offers at the elementary school and the Pembroke Middle School? I don't have that, but I I can bring that.
I will say that we serve between two and three thousand students, right about 2,500. Students have been historically served in the district during summerizing. I wanted to follow-up on the summarizing. I remember there was a presentation at one of the previous CEC meetings in which there was a statistic about past summarizing attendance Mhmm. Where there was some number of, you know, attendance this summer where a student that
attended one time was that was it. And then if they only attended once, what happens to their seat? Because if a lot of people applied and didn't get in and then you have a student that only attends once, is there some kind of follow-up method that, or system in place that says, okay. Well, if you're not interested in continuing on, you know, your your seat can be offered to someone else if you're willing to let go. Does that happen? Yeah. So I'm not sure that I remember sharing anything about, like, a student showing up
just one time, but I can acknowledge that, the attendance rate for summarizing, needs improvement. We would love for students to show up every single day. What I can say is that, starting the second day of summarizing, our parent coordinators, which, you know, each of these schools that is, serving as a summarizing site is supported by all of the different elementary schools that are affiliated with that summarizing site. So PS 6 may be the summarizing site, but all the Upper East Side schools,
are supported by staff from those affiliated schools, including parent coordinators. So parent coordinators get on the phone. They start calling people who have, an acceptance that are on the list and ask them, are you coming or not? Because if you're not, then we're gonna start, on with our wait list. And so throughout the summer, parent coordinators from various schools, as well as secretaries and administrative staff that are working for the summarizing site make make phone calls, extend offers,
to families as soon as the seat opens up. Yeah. That's a question. This this is a question from Tam Reed. Are students receiving recovery services only at summarizing sites counted towards enrollment cap? Are students receiving can you repeat that one? Yes. Are students receiving recovery services only at summarizing, sites counted towards the enrollment cap? So I think she's asking if Yeah. Just yeah. Yeah. They are. However, students, who students there there is this there is a separate, extended school year
site in which we serve we we primarily serve, students who are receiving related services. If a student is receiving related services, speech, occupational therapy, etcetera, at a summarizing site, then they are fully admitted, for the day. And the expectation is is that they participate in the full program for the full day, not just for that one route service. Can I just make a comment that I think summarizing is a little confusing for people, and I think maybe this has to do with the attendance gap?
I think a lot of people are like, is it summer school? Is it just a fun summer camp where I can take a week off and not show up or show up late? So, I mean, I know they market it endlessly to people, but I think people are still a little confused about who's eligible. Obviously, everyone is. But and and what the purpose of it is, that it is an academic camp. It's not just supposed to be I mean, it is fun. So I don't know. I think that's part of the I mean, one thing that I could say is that, you know, of the 2,500 students that participate in summarizing, a very small number
are mandated to attend because they haven't passed a course. I just think there's some parents that think that it's such a fun little thing to drop your kid off when you feel like it. They don't think Yeah. It is not intended to be a drop in. Right. I think they don't think of it as school necessarily. So I I don't know how to fix that because I know I think it's very clear in the literature about it. But I I know from parent chats that people are like, oh, it's this fun free thing. We don't go on Fridays. We don't go on Wednesday. We drop them off late. You know? Yeah. It is really school. I'm looking at you.
It's really school. It is taught by district two teachers, using a real curriculum, and that's in the morning part. Again, the afternoon is, more, arts and enrichment. But the morning is school. It is academic. Tim, council member Reid has a question. You should be able to unmute yourself. I don't think I I don't I think you're able to do that. Hi. I just had a follow-up, Kelly, to, thank you for asking that, by the way, Cody. I had a follow-up. So if I just wanna understand because I actually really, really don't understand this.
If a student does not want to do summarizing, right, they they just don't want to. They have other plans, but they're a student with an IEP who is owed services. Right? So recovery services are back services that, like, were never rendered, and they have RSAs or they just, you know, they have everything to show that they need these services. I know that they've been receiving them at summarizing sites. So you're saying that they would have to actually stay the whole day and enroll even though they're just going there to get, you know, like, ten, twelve, 20 speech
therapy sessions that they're owed. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. I'm saying that they are counted in the number of students that for which the summarizing site has capacity. They're Even if they're only there for an hour? Yes. Wow. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Are there any other questions? I have, but I wanna I've spoken before, so I wanna let others who haven't spoken before. Okay. I do have two two questions. Hopefully, they're they're pretty easy to answer. So you mentioned that to comply with the class size, you needed 300 new teachers next year. I think that's what you said.
Yes. Can you compare that to the number of teachers you hired in the district last year? And did you fill all the spots? And without giving any specific information, obviously, are all those teachers still here? Well, I don't know the total number of teachers that we hired, last year. Roughly, was it in the three I mean, I don't I don't need to know if it's 237 or recall that, our the plans that we submitted for the '20 for the current school year, 2526, were were dependent upon our hiring about a 120
new teachers. At some point, all of those positions were filled Okay. Generally. I mean, they're They may be Cases. I I get that. But for the most part, those positions were filled, and I'm not saying that all of them were filled on day one. There may be a position that was, you know, hard to fill. But eventually, yes. So I hope does that Okay. Get pretty close? Yeah. Okay. And then I I wasn't asking for exact numbers. I I wouldn't you I don't think you would have them off the top of your head. I get it. And then the other question is, jumping to this completely separate question, how many three
k and two k seats in the district do you expect us to have in the fall for full admittance? And, again, if you don't know it, that's fine. If you can just get that sent to us. Well, we have just about a thousand seats that are currently at our pre k and three k center. And we know that that number is going to expand by at least 132. We've also because we're adding a whole new site on E 65th Street. We're also adding some additional classes in, pre k centers, where there is space to
expand. I don't know the number across the board because, I'm not sure of the the number, in each of our community schools, but it will increase. The this administration has listened I I view the expansion of three k seats, really, of of three k seats, in our district as a real response to, the huge demand for those seats, amongst our community members. And, we are working to to open up those classrooms, including the one you mentioned
at, your child's school. We're doing that in different a few different places around the district. Yep. And my son's school, which is paid, or did you say that earlier today? I said that earlier today when I said when I heard you earlier today. Yeah. My school, which is three PS three forty sixth Avenue Elementary School, we will, for the first time, have a three k in in in the school. Would it'll be, I think, one class, but it's still it's a good first step, and we're all very excited about it. As I said, for the parents who would have had three k this year and are angry that, you know, they missed, like, they missed it. One year too late. I get it. Okay. Any other questions for the superintendent?
Okay. So thank you, and and we look forward to, getting some other data that I know you're gonna Yes. Look for for us. So thank you. Appreciate that. Yep. K. Let me just put the chat back on. Okay. So chat should be back on now. So, next is the discussion. I'll just do that one. Okay. So the next, item on the agenda is the discussion of resolutions. This well, there's only one resolution as I mentioned earlier. Reso two ninety eight, the resolution in support of ending NYCPS rental reimbursement payments for
charter schools. Are there any other any does any council member wish to comment, or or ask questions on this? Council member Carr. Gotta turn that on. Oh, sorry. Before we forget, I wanna thank, on behalf of the council, Kelly McGuire and the staff at PS one eleven. We had a school spotlight there this morning. Several of us were there. We had really good student performances. I sorry. I should have mentioned this in my president's report. We had some really good really good student performances. Student panel had a little bit of a panel as well. We were in those classrooms. It it was very it was a very nice morning.
So thank you. Sorry. Oh, no problem. Do you have so I just want to talk a little bit about why I support the resolution, and I wanna focus on the budget impact because I think that's something that we can all agree on. You know, this is not a resolution that is in any way commenting on the existence of charter schools or how they're run other than these real estate reimbursements. As Gavin mentioned in his introduction, New York City is the only school system in the entire country required by law to pay charter schools private rent, and that cost
has gone up by 20% in one year. And our schools as we know, like our you know, when our new mayor came into office, noted that there was more of a, imbalance in our budget than was previously thought. They're looking for ways across the board on where we can save money, including in the DOE, and I think that that's something that comes up frequently. And I think this is an example of where money is going, where I think it shouldn't be going. And I think what makes this particularly hard to justify is that there are documented
cases showing that charter operators are essentially paying rent to themselves, inflating costs that we as taxpayers cover. And a court rolling court ruling just last month flagged this exact kind of abuse. So I think that this resolution supporting these bills on the state level could rectify this. They don't shut down charter schools. They simply end the requirement that our public school budget subsidized private real estate. That's over $266,000,000 last year that should be going directly to students, not to real
estate interests. So I urge my fellow council members to vote yes in the name of fiscal responsibility and putting our tax dollars towards students instead of real estate in interests. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? Council member Agarwal. So charter schools in New York City now educate 16% of our students. This number is only gonna continue grow because more and more families want these schools. 90% of charter school students are black and Hispanic and are low income. They are not second class citizens in New York City.
They pay taxes and they deserve access to school buildings. They already get a lower per pupil spending. All our schools here get a much higher per pupil spending than they get. And like so many of us here in this council, they have decided to not go to their, local public school because they made a different choice for their families. So trying to deny them access to public school buildings, it is discrimination just because they chose a different school.
And if there is something that is inflated in New York City public education, it's the public school, per pupil. It's now 42,000 per student. That's what should be brought down. The charter per pupil is much lower. I don't see any resolutions here about the 60,000 per child for two k. That is very inflated. That's much higher. The three k, I don't even know the latest number, but it's also much higher. And so deny for ninety percent of students who are low income black and Hispanic
kids who just want access to a good education and should not be treated as second class citizen. They have access to public school to public school buildings. And if the DOE is not offering them a public school building, it should pay rent. And this is also a state law, so we can even pass this resolution, but it's not gonna change the actual state law. K. Yes. Thank you. I have to pass. Yeah. Go ahead. So just to be clear, this is not saying that rent shouldn't be paid in other cities like in Los Angeles, the LAUSD.
It is not this the the it's not the DOE paying rent. The state is paying rent. So these resolutions are not about we're not gonna pay rent for these charter schools to have a building to be in. It is saying that we, as New York City, should not be paying that bill. So why New York City should offer your public school a building but should not offer to charter schools. Nobody nobody's saying that they shouldn't offer them a building. It's just that this is the only city in the entire country where it's depend the city has to come up with that.
Do you understand? Yes. I understand. So so that's the discrepancy. The other cities are wrong because charter school students should not be treated as second class citizen who should take out of their per pupil to pay for rent when we our schools, all of us here at public school parents, our schools don't take out of their per pupil, which is already higher than charter schools to pay for rent. So there's no reason why they should take out of their their per pupil to pay rent. I think the other cities are wrong, and you're exceeding on this issue. It should continue leading.
And the DOE always has the option to offer buildings. They don't have to pay rent. They can offer buildings. Right. They chose to not to and then to pay rent. Well, I I I don't think the DOE should be paying rent if there are buildings available. We should disagree. You know, I I just think that that that it shouldn't be paid on if if this is the way that it's done on in every other city in this country and it's working, we have the highest rents, you know, arguably, maybe, you know,
LA is getting there than any other city. And I think that that the fact that there are organizations that are profiting from the rental payments as the court case last month showed, I think that's an issue. And I think that's something that we should care about. So I just wanna see if anybody else any even who hasn't spoken Yeah. Just probably is with us and then and then Cody. Sorry. Probably, it's a stupid question. But, let's say this resolution passed, and everybody said, wow. Wonderful. That's a big deal, and let's let's stop paying this rent.
What's gonna happen in this case? So let's say if the government stops paying this rent, what's gonna happen to charter schools? They're gonna have to take out of their per pupil to pay rent. And so the actual money that they're gonna spend on education of low income black and Hispanic kids is gonna be even lower than already is. There's already even a bigger disc discrepancy than we already have between charter school per pupil and the GOE per pupil. So, yeah, I understand, that the concern about how these funds are being used, and
I agree that accountability and fairness are critical. It's but, at the same time, we need to be careful that any policy change, does not negatively impact the students currently relying on these calls. And, yeah, I would would support a more balanced phased approach rather than an immediate elimination. I just wanna point out and and what Daniella was saying, to not pass a resolution because it we can't change it anyway. We're just the resolution is in support of multiple bills, assembly bills, and senate bills
that are in there. And, again, I do think, like, this is one of those ones that it helps to look at the bill and see what the bill says because it I mean, it's all in there about the impacts of students and and all of that. So, you know, we've linked to the bills. It's helpful to do a little bit of research and look at that. But, you know, in general, this is not about, making a value judgment on charter schools. That's not for us to say. But it is about the fact that we just looked at that budget, and Sam
brought this up too. We looked at that budget last month, and, Ethan had brought up just how much is taken off the top immediately before it even gets to, New York City public schools. So this is just about the senate and the assembly are discussing ways to, deal with that fiscal cliff that we're dealing with. And, you know, there has been a lot of, scrutiny on how this rent is being paid out in the last few months.
And so it feels like, you know, to me, it makes sense to take a look at that and discuss it. I I would just wanna give space. Is anybody online? Because we have a couple of council members online. Is there anybody I I haven't seen anybody raise their hand, but I just wanna give you space in case there are any. And then I know Gavin you'd like to speak. Okay. Gavin, go ahead, please. So, I mean, I I think that the $266,000,000 that New York City Public Schools is paying to to outside, you know, landlords, you know, is money that could be
better allocated to, you know, the black and Hispanic students that we serve in New York City Public Schools. And I would also say that, you know, we look at these cases like Success Academy Hudson Yards facilities where rent increased over four times in, you know, like, fourfold in one year. We look at Hellenic classical charter schools arrangement where they sublease property back at three times the original price. I'm just gonna say if if your landlord, you know, you know, put a fourfold
increase on your on your rent, you know, in one year, you'd you'd move. Most of us would move. And this is where they're renting from an affiliated entity. So these are not, like, arms length transactions. So, I mean, I think this is one thing we don't have in a public school system where we have some greater degree of oversight. We have things like community education councils. We have things like the panel of educational policy. We have, you know, state and local elected officials who are, like, able to have play an oversight role. So I think what this is asking, you know, the state to do is to
bring us back into sort of the public sphere rather than this sort of, like, private, you know, commercial transaction sphere. But in this case, maybe we shouldn't stop funding. Maybe we should, like, check the policy, the the rents increase, and so on. We're talking here in resolution about just stop funding the Charter's calls. That's what I see. No? Hold on. I just wanna I wanna answer. I want so hold on. I I haven't spoken to the answer. I just wanna answer. And then and then the two of you go, no. No. No. That's fine. Yeah. To to to Russ's point, it seems as though we're burning everything the the the
goal or what we're asking for is basically to burn everything down as opposed to if there are procurement issues, which which are very, very costly, I think that's a very valid concern, and and that should be investigated. If if a rent goes up four times, that's that's crazy. And something is something in negotiations or something, there there should be better oversight over that. And that that I can get around. I don't know if anybody would be it would be against oversight, but I don't but but that's that's not the same thing as burning it all down. Yes.
I'm getting I think that's what I'm talking about. Here. So Right. Yeah. Sorry. So I'll we'll start with Erin, and then we'll go to Daniella. The only comment only comment I'm gonna make is that in my understanding from having looked at these, this was a few days ago, is that it's not about burning it all down, but recognizing that this isn't working, that this is not an acceptable way to fund, the rent, not fund the schools. No. I don't I mean, that's am I somebody correct me if I'm wrong from what I read, but I didn't see anything that's saying that, like, this that the schools
won't that the rent's gonna suddenly not be paid or that they're not they're not gonna be funded. I I agree that I think that if they that per on a per pupil basis, they're not getting, an adequate amount per pupil, then maybe that money could go toward that instead. I just don't I really, you know, have an issue with with this happening a lot on on a city level where private entities are profiting off of taxpayer dollars
at an exorbitant rate. And I think that, as Gavin pointed out, rent going up four time fourfold in one year is ridiculous. Do you wanna comment? One last comment. The title of the resolution is resolution in support of ending NYCPS rental reimbursement payments for charter school. Nobody here is talking about reforming, rethinking. They're talking about ending. And I highly recommend every for it's the first time in four years that we actually have a functioning controller in New York, which is very exciting. I highly recommend everybody to read his report on the drivers of cost of New
York City Public School. He mentioned three things. Carter cases, he mentioned class size law and the increasing number of tiny schools that are not financially viable and that we keep funding them at a very high levels of enrollment even though they are enrolling now one third, one fourth of the students that used to be there. These are the actual three biggest drivers of cost in New York City public schools. Nobody mentioned charter schools rental reimbursement. So if we actually are wanna be fiscally responsible and are concerned about the budget
crisis, which is actually an impending crisis, it's not a budget crisis because income is still going up in New York City, Let's focus on the actual drivers of cost of New York City public schools. We can do more than one thing. I mean, you know, we have a we do have a a a larger city. We have a lot of different concerns, and so we can, you know, tackle problems from, like, multiple angles. One thing that I would point out in terms of the the charter school rent, which is quite different from public school rent. For example, in one case, I'm aware of a a charter school in The Bronx,
the Bronx Charter School for Children. That was actually, it was, you know, essentially, like, a private equity organization that's in space basically, like, building schools and, like, retrofitting other buildings, like warehouse buildings for charter school use. It's actually selling, like, this as, like, a private equity investment. And and I I'm, like, looking directly at their sort of private placement memorandum where they're talking about, you know, the amount near city is required to pay to charter schools for rental assistance is $5,502 per student for the upcoming school year, a per
student amount that and this is a per student amount that has more than doubled since 2014. And the CEO of this private equity firm says, he says from a real estate perspective, for real estate dollars associated with a charter school, we get $5,500 per kid per year in rent. He says, I get that same 5,500 in the South Bronx that I would on Park Avenue. Obviously, the cost of my real estate is far cheaper in the South Bronx. So if you wanna know why, you know, charter schools are in the neighborhoods they are and are serving the kids they serve, you might look more at, like, the
real estate angle rather than any kind of, like, you know, sort of altruistic angle to to serve a particular student body. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Yeah. Sam? Sorry. Sam, and then we'll go to Sam, and then we'll go to Tim. But I I definitely believe that sort of thing should be looked at more closely. Sorry. Could you speak a little louder? Yes. The the issue is if it's if it's calling to support, ending this type of rental reimbursement, what happens to you you know, that 5,000, where does that end up
coming from? It comes from other funding for per pupil. Right? I mean, let's say per pupil, what what what does that charge to school student get in terms of funding per pupil? I don't know. You said 5,000 goes towards rent. You know, that's, like, the overhead for running the building itself. So maybe if they had 20,000 in total for people, then now they only have 15,000 because we've eliminated the rent reimbursement. So if they're only getting 15,000, they still have to pay that rent. Or is that is that coming out so now they're that 5,000 comes out of
the pupils for spending. Is that what happens? Well, I think I think one difference between the the charter schools that are in, so these private rentals versus charter schools that are given space in a, you know, public building is that when we are doing improvements on the chart you know, on the building that where our charter school is located, I mean, we are, like, as near city taxpayers, we're benefiting from those improvements. Whereas when we are, you know, basically investing money into a to a sort of a private, like, landlord's building, like, we're not getting that money. Like, it's basically going to the owners of the building.
So I think that's probably the main, like, one of the main differences here that I would like to hire. Right. But that I mean, that is unfortunate. They a decision by the DOE to house a school in a private building as opposed to in a public building. So that I mean, you know, maybe we revisit why that decision was made. And then instead of saying, okay. Well, now we're just gonna not pay for that rent and then take the money because, you know, that's while it's a valid point that you bring where taxpayers are
paying towards this private investments, that still doesn't answer the question as to where that money would come from. You know, would it be coming out of the the per per people funding? One last comment just for information on Just to answer that, and then I want Hansiam to go. So the law when it was passed was only for new charter schools. There were a lot of charter schools that were already created, were not included in the law. They are as and they have to rent private space. They are, as of now, paying rent out of their per pupil. So there are I don't know the number, but there are a number of charter
schools that are not in this law because this law is only for new charter schools when it was passed, and they are already taking money out of the per pupil. So if New York City stops paying this rent now, they are gonna have to take out of the per pupil to pay for rent. Yes. Pam, I know you had wanted to speak before. Hi. I think that oh, shit. Oh, sorry. I think that maybe, looking into when you're talking about just financial oversight, and charter
schools and and money that you should really dig into the school construction authority. Charter schools are are taking money from public school students in ways that you wouldn't expect if you look at the audits that I'm I'm investigating for, a story that's coming out shortly, which is, actually, a civil case right now, against the SCA that you can can happy to share the link with you. But part of it is taking money that's supposed to be charter matching funds.
So whenever there's a colocation of a charter school with a DOE school in the same building, and they have any kind of upgrade or improvement to facilities that has to be matched. So there's equity within the building. So those public schools that are with the charter schools have that equity and have that same enhancement. Those funds have disappeared. They have not been paid. So there's multiple ways that, you know, that even the charter school students themselves are getting ripped off through the system and having to work with the SCA. And it is intriguing to me because I don't know a lot until, you know,
really actually digging into it and listening to Danielle. It's not about charter schools as much as how we're paying for them. And there's something really dirty going on. You know? And I think we all need to be aware of it. But the the second point was to the Carter cases. The Carter cases, kids are not going to charter schools. They're going to private schools if they can, if they're lucky enough to be able to have the money and the time to sue in the first place. And, you know, the answer to that is is not trying to outsource these students, but actually following compliance laws because students with disabilities have less protection under IDA when
they move into a charter school than they do actually in the DOE schools. So I just wanna pass that along. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay. So, we will move on to the public session. Hold on one second. Okay. So we have three people for the public session. Reminder, you get about you get two minutes. We can be a little bit flexible today because it's only three people. The timer is on the screen, so you can do that. We have everybody who wants to speak is actually in person tonight.
Thank you. So, we will start off, with Joe Vitale. Reminder, you can speak over there by the, lectern, please. Hello. My sign again says CIS equals can't imitate sex. I'm dedicating my mini speech today to the International Olympic Committee, which finally came to its senses and said that biological males cannot compete in the women's games. My question again for superintendent Maguire for the fifth time is what do you have
to say to the biological girls who do not feel safe sharing their locker rooms or their sports with biological males? The DOE, the Department of Education, wants kids to be on the medical merry-go-round involved in the so called gender affirming care. They're no better than the drug dealer on my corner, except I trust my drug dealer on my corner more than the DOE. The DOE should probably stand for drugs on everyone. It is not hard to make kids feel insecure about their bodies, and the DOE
is capitalizing on that in bed with the pharmaceutical industries. And that's why, Erin, your SAPIIS resolution will be diluted and have no movement here. The salaries for the city employees is public information. You wanna talk about bloat in your budget? Maguire makes about $250,000 a year. That's a lot of money not to answer a question from the community. And, again, one of the big reasons for the decline in enrollment is that a
lot of parents are paid Sorry. And there's an uptick in homeschooling. Joe, I'm gonna ask you not to comment on people's salaries. That's not appropriate. Why? That's public information. I I understand. Public information. Understand what It's a lot of money. Joe. Joe. Just to answer a question for the from the community. Joe. You're a frat. Just so folks know, in our bylaws, you cannot attack you you you can't attack personal information. I understand it. Okay. In any event. Thank you. So the next person is Elena Daniels. Thanks. Evening, everybody. Can I start with a simple question? Well, simple question for the adults in the council.
What's your job? In according to the DOE, community education councils exist to advise on matters affecting the educational welfare of students in this district. You're charged with ensuring that every child in District 2 has access to a public school where they can thrive. That's your job description. Now let me ask you a second question. Did you do your job tonight? Because what I saw was a council that spent its time debating whether students submitted to Wagner and Morton come from the right ZIP codes, arguing that the DOE spends too much money on students, and trying to funnel public money to privatized schools and
private realtors. These debates might serve someone's interests, but I don't think they're serving the interests of the students in this district. Now I have a question for Rachel and for Ethan online. Y'all are the folks who are supposed to you know, y'all are the folks who go to these schools. Y'all are the folks of the experts. I wonder, you know, do the adults treat you like you belong at the table and are equal with them? I wonder if the adults are listening. Thanks. Thank you. The next speaker the final speaker is Erica Sotto Lamb. Erica, welcome back. I think welcome. I don't think you've ever been here before. I think I've just heard you on the line.
I've been here. Okay. I apologize. Welcome back then. Hi, everyone. My name is Erica. I am a parent, long time District 2 parent. My kids went to PS forty one and seventy five Morton. My oldest has since graduated from d two schools. He's a freshman at Bronx Science. I actually came and with a group of other seventy five Mortons to a few meetings in the fall, as we were really beginning our campaign to build our community. We call ourselves We Love Morton. And I came tonight to give you an update on that community building and to
an extent to extend an invitation. So first, and as superintendent McGuire spoke about, the fifth grade offers are out, we are really proud. This is my, like, on the street intel. I'm sure he can provide the more specific intel. But as we understand it, we have nearly a 100 new students, probably at a 100 now from the latest news, coming to join our sixth grade class next year. We're really excited about that. That is a 33% year over year increase over last year.
And I really I wanna make that point because all of you council members who've been around for since the last term may recall that it was not even a year ago that the discussion about our school I I will not belabor the point, but the term dying was used to describe our community. We were a new school. We're still a new school. And so I wanna I wanted to come and make the point that we are building our community. It's it's not dying. We're thriving. And in fact, as discussed, we have a wait list. I know all schools have a wait list. I don't know how long those wait lists are.
As best we can tell, sources say that there are at least 22 kids on a wait list for our screen classroom, which seems like enough for another classroom to me. And superintendent Maguire, I I I heard you say and I was really thrilled to hear you say that, yes, you are able to open up new classrooms. I understood you say that space is usually the issue. I think it's 75 more than we have room. So we're really hopeful that we can add even more members to our community for next year. And then the last bit, I said I wanted to invite you.
We're having our first ever, Wharton Community Day this Saturday, in fact. Saturday, April 25 from one to 4PM. We're inviting everyone, not, you know, zone schools, like, come and check out our school. We have a really lovely community. There'll be food. There'll be fun, DJ. It's gonna be a rainy day, so I think the Gaga ball pit is probably not gonna happen because it's gonna be outdoors. But, yeah, I'm I'll pass out invitations, so you all can share it with your communities too, but thank you for the time. Thank you. Thank you. And we generally don't comment on people's people's, testimony, but I do wanna congratulate you
because it was a lot of effort that you know, over the past few months. So congratulations on the results of of more students there. K. K. Moving along, we have the vote of resolutions. So we have the one resolution this evening. Resolution two nine two ninety eight, resolution in support of ending NYCPS rental thank you. Rental reimbursement payments for charter schools. I'll make a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. K. Let's take it to a vote. On resolution two ninety eight, Allison Bowen. Allison Bowen is a no.
Gloria Chu? Yes. Gloria Chu is a yes. Daniella Egorov? Daniella Egorov is a no. Gavin Healy? Gavin Healy is a yes. Aaron Carr? Aaron Carr is a yes. Cody Lindquist? Cody Lindquist is a yes. Sam Lowe? Sam Lowe is an abstention. Tal Mazel Shay? Tal Mazel Shay is an abstention. Rustam Movlinov? No. Rustam is a no. Tamira Reed? Yes. Tamira Reed is a yes. Sabina? No. Sabina is a no. Craig Slutskin? No. Craig Slutskin is a no. Rachel Kenny? Rachel Kenny is an abstention.
Ethan Kwok. No. Ethan Kwok is a no. That's five yeses, five nos, two abstentions. The resolution does not pass. Thank you. Moving along, the report of committees. I know we had an academic affairs committee meeting. Danielle or Allison, do you wanna report on it? We held the academic affairs committee meeting on Monday, March 30 as a virtual Zoom meeting to discuss the pilot program for the Regents geometry class that's been held this
year at Lab Middle and to talk with parents about the opportunity to expand this program to other district two middle schools for the upcoming school year. Superintendent Maguire joined us and talked about his support for the program. And the next step is for, superintendent Maguire to work with the interested principals and determine which schools are going to be offering this program and in what capacity for the upcoming school year. So for any parents who are on Zoom tonight, if this is something that you'd
like to learn more about, school leadership teams have been, prized of this. Principals have met on this, and I encourage you to either reach out to us on the CEC or to your school leadership team to talk more about it. Thanks. Thank you. Any other committee reports? K. Then I think we can adjourn. All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed to adjourning? Okay. So meeting is adjourned. Can we go right into the, business business meeting? We don't does anybody need a break? Okay. Let's call I'm gonna call this meeting to order. It is 806.
Can we call or roll? Yes. For our business meeting, Allison Bowen. Allison Bowen is here. Gloria Chu? Here. Gloria Chu is here. Daniella Egorov? Daniella Egorov is here. Gavin Healy? Gavin Healy is here. Erin Carr is here. Cody Lindquist Cody Lindquist is here. Sam Lowe? Sam Lowe is here. Tal Maisel Shea? Tal Maisel Shea is here. Rustin Mavlinov? Here. Rustin Mavlinov is here. Tamira Reid? Here. Tamira Reid is here. Sabina Serenice? Hey. Sabina Serenice is here.
Craig Slutskin? I am here. Craig Slutskin is get your name out. Craig Slutskin is here. Rachel Kenny. Rachel Kenny is here. Ethan Kwok. Here. Ethan Kwok is here. We are all present. We have quorum on you. The name. Sorry. Treasury report. Russ, you have Yeah. At at this time, there is no formal financial report to present, as we're still waiting for for expense submissions to be completed. I have received reimbursement request related to IT expenses through April, which are currently in
process. And I'd like to remind everyone to please submit any outstanding expenses as soon as possible. Do not wait until the last minute so we can prepare a completely poor report with the full numbers. Thank you so much. Thanks. And I I I said this, I think, at the last meeting. On behalf of Victor, I beg you. Do not wait till, like, 04:00 the day it's due. It is not fair to Victor. I also have to sign and review all of these these reports. And if there's a problem, there's no way around it. Like, if it's if if you send it in at 04:00 and it's not resolved
by five, you're out of luck. So, and we had that issue last year with a few people. So if you need any help with that, Victor is the man, and he will be happy to help you. Treasury sorry. SCA capital budget request. I passed it around. As you know, we made two requests. I think it was in January or February. Sorry. Oh, I'm gonna go your your thing. I didn't forget your thing. Yeah. I didn't forget it. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't forget about it. No. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Under new business. So we had the two items in, I think it was January, February that we
submitted, for Baruch Middle School and p s two twelve. I did ask if anybody had anything to add. The two things I received were at Lab Middle School, they have issues with their electrical systems, so they would like to upgrade that. And then at PS three forty, two sixty Avenue Elementary School, installation of water bottle stations on each floor, including their cafeteria. My understanding is that it will require plumbing in certain areas because they they need to move things around. So it's not, you know, a $400 part. It's actually a little bit more substantial. I did not receive anything else from anybody.
Is there anything else anybody would like to add? Okay. The ones that we already submitted were priority one, priority two, because you have to do, like, an order. My my suggestion is to make lab number three and six. I don't think it really makes a difference. And six, p s three forty number four, is that everybody okay with that? Well, in terms of should we be prioritizing based on what we think they might actually fund? I don't think it really makes it no. I mean Just because I know with the PS two and two, it was like, no. We don't do smart boards. So Well, one and two are already Already submitted.
They're they're already submitted. Oh. They we submitted them back in January. So this would be number we're looking at what's three and what's four. What's the not three? The top the top ones. I don't think I don't think we can, but, you know, but I think I think electrical system is probably more important than water. I have to submit we have to submit this by I think it's Tuesday. If anybody in the next six days reach I mean, we'll take a vote on this to make sure everybody's okay with it. But I I am asking the council that if something comes up, like, let's say, Russ at, I don't know, Wagner. I don't know what you have.
Or or Eastside Middle School at Spruce Street. If find something at Spruce Street the next six days, you know, we we can we can have as many as we want. We can put 300 requests if we wanted to. But if somebody else has a request, you know, we'll inform everybody, but we're okay with just putting it at the bottom and, you know, order received. Is that because I wanna give people as much as opportunity if you speak to your schools in the next few days. Everybody okay with that? Anybody have an objection to that? Okay. I think we do have to take a vote though on this. So I'll make a motion to approve this order and these requests.
Okay. Voting on rep approval of the SCA requests. Allison Bowen. Allison Bowen is a yes. Gloria Chu. Gloria Chu is a yes. Daniela Egorov. Daniela Egorov is a yes. Gavin Healy Gavin Healy is a yes. Aaron Carr is a yes. Cody Lindquist Cody Lindquist is a yes. Sam Lowe. Sam Lowe is a yes. Tal Mazel Shay. Tal Mazel Shay is a yes. Rustom Movlinov? Yes. Rustom Movlinov is a yes. Tamira Reid? Yes. Tamira Reid is a yes. Sabina Saraniz? Yes. Sabina Saranese is a yes.
Craig Slutskin? Yes. Craig Slutskin is a yes. Rachel Kenny? Rachel Kenny is a yes. Ethan Kwok? Yes. Ethan Kwok is a yes. Approved unanimously. Great. Thank you. Liaison school reports, anybody have any? I have one. So I voted today in my council's my special election. I did my early voting at Lab Middle School. And as a reminder, we have the people at Lab Middle School do not like having early voting there. We did three resolution. I was only here for two of them, but we've done three resolutions going back to, like, six years ago. Is that what seven years ago?
Lab Middle is supposed to have not no early voting in June. In the June primaries, they're not supposed to have early voting in that site. It's supposed to be at the Rubin Museum. I am confirming that it actually is true because I've heard that it's been confirmed before and then it wasn't confirmed all of a sudden. So we are working on that, and then I would like to start working on trying to get out of Wagner as well because Wagner loses the gym, I believe. They lose the gym, and they lose it for, like, a month, you know, every time there's an election. Lab loses their cafeteria, I believe.
So they eat in the auditorium on their laps or they go out. During testing days to Right. Security issues. Right. It's really not ideal. Although if it makes you feel any better, it was just me and some woman who was probably about a 110 years old voting there today at this point. She's very nice and very very lovely, but, you know, I don't think she was doing much. But I it's a it's a it's a it's a problem, and it's a problem in schools where they're on, like, the 2nd Floor, the 3rd Floor. And I know the DOE has told me, well, there's plenty of security, but that's famous last words. It's also a problem at l and it's not our part our jurisdiction, but it's
also a problem at Elroe because Elroe has, Eleanor Roosevelt High School on the Upper East Side. I think it's in the eighties. 76. Because they they have early voting there as well. So it's all it it's a problem. It's a district two high school, but it's District 2 as well. So, I will, let people know, once I confirm that I have an email, to, Kevin Moran, who's the deputy chancellor of operations. Craig, I think what would be interesting if we could find out actually how many people came to a school like lab for early voting, and so we could show the statistics above how many students were put out every day by lack of use
of a certain facility versus how many early votes were actually captured. I think we'd be surprised at how few votes were actually passed during that time period. Yeah. No. It it was gonna be point. I voted early, and there were three people there the whole morning. Yeah. Just so folks also know, there is a bill there's companion bills in the in the state legislature, both on the assembly side and the senate side, to ban early voting, the practice of early voting. I did have a conversation with assembly member Boris who's the sponsor on the sponsor on the assembly side.
On I think on the senate side, it's, senator, Liz Krueger. He said that he's obviously very much in support of it, wants to push it, but the issue he has found, and he's gonna try to see if he can amend it, is that this is not a real issue upstate. Like, if you go to, like, Albany, they don't really mind having it in schools because they have these sprawling campuses probably you know, much bigger schools. Think of a New York City school versus a school in Albany. It's probably, you know, a different so they they can accommodate it more easily. And they don't want Upstate, and I guess probably Long Island as well, to be
forced not to have it in schools. So can't they just make a ban or would they go to New York City? That was my and and and he's trying to work on people to do that that. So but that that's the issue of why these bills apparently have not early voting early voting in the schools. No. Understood under understood. So, he's working on it. I know Liz Krueger is working on it as well, but it's something top of mind. I know there's also a bunch of, Wagner parents that have also found, like like what I did with lab, found alternate locations.
Because I I walked I mean, I live next to the Reuben, so I I I knew it that is available. But they have they've walked around the neighborhood. They have alternate locations, so we're working on that as well. Tam, did you wanna have a comment on this topic? Your hand's raised. No. I was just gonna say that no. Liaison reports. The Yeah. Yeah. So Erica, who commented tonight, Erica Sotto Lamb, did it for me. But the what the work that Morton has done there is so is so impressive, and I just wanna, like, congratulate them because that's a school really caring about its
community and the community coming together. I mean, the the work they've done there is crazy. And they have a wait list. I mean, they pulled that that school, you know, out of so much, like, just outside external chaos. You know? And it's it's such a lovely, lovely place to learn, and I'm just I just wanted to give a shout out to the to the school community that's worked their days off, you know, to make that happen. We see you. Thank you. And just just to be clear, because of my previous comment, nobody is against early voting. We will I think most of us are very happy with early voting.
We just don't want the disrupt disruption for our kids where it's they lose their gym for a month. They lose their cafeteria space for a month. We there are better there are many places in New York City that you could have it at, an empty museum, a a storefront that's vacant. So we just wanna, you know, to to I think it was Allison's point to to have that disruption eruption of our kids, to not have kids have access to a gymnasium, which could be in the winter months. They can't get out for months when there's, you know, 30 people over five days
that are vote I don't know. It's about 30, but a 100 people over five days that are voting, we we can easily move them out. But I don't think, you know, I think every resolution that we had state specifically stated that we support early voting. We don't wanna end it. We just wanted to to move it, and it not school specific. It's in general. Okay. Any other liaison reports? I visited two of my schools over the past couple months, both, PS one fifty and Pexip. And I wanna say, both principals took the time to meet with me, principal Corey at Pexip and principal Victorino at BS one fifty.
Terrific schools, terrific visits. Both have successfully implemented the class size laws, and, I was very impressed with both. Great. Any other liaison reports? K. New business. I have one item, but I think you had an item. Do you wanna go first? Yes. Thank you, Greg. I have a short report. Yesterday, I attended a CCL meeting with the citywide council on English language learners. They brought together ELL representatives from CCCs across the city. I'm an L representative here. That's why I was there. The main goal of the meeting was to connect and exchange experiences and collaborate on
cases related to L students. We had several presentations from DOE leadership, including doctor Brenda Garcia, chief of the office of Multilingual Learners, doctor Anne Marie Lopez, chief of face, Kyle McDonald, senior director of academic program policy at OML, and Robert Williams from the Office of Language Access. So from the Office of Multilingual Learners, the key focus is on empowering multilingual learners and immigrant students to meet grade level standards, make steady progress in English, and successfully graduate. Some important data points shared were that about nineteen percent of NYC students are identified
as ELSE, and forty four speak a language other than English at home. At the same time, there has been a decrease, of approximately 6,000 l students enrolled this past year. We also received a presentation from the office of language access, which reinforced information previously presented at our council. Here, I just want to briefly remind everyone that NYC public schools currently provide support in 12 languages, including Albanian, Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian Spanish, Ukrainian,
Urdu, and Uzbek. So families can access resources at schools.nyc.gov/hello. Additionally, I raised the question regarding world language programs, and I'm glad to share that this topic received strong support from both the council and DoU representatives. As a result, we can expect a more detailed presentation at a future meeting, likely in the fall, covering current programs, successful models, and potential expansion of world language, offerings across New York City schools. Overall, it was a productive and informative meeting and a great opportunity to align efforts
across districts. Thank you. Thank you. I I have one other item that I'd like to propose to the I'd like to do a sort of listening session event over the next couple of weeks for the council. One of the things I I realized last night, and this was a general theme on the AI because going back on the AI topic, is a general a theme that came up last night on the CEC president's call with the chancellor was that there are a lot of families who just don't think that there's a venue for them to be heard. They can put something they can they can email they they can type an email, you know, in in the response bucket that says, I don't like AI because of
this or I love AI because of that or whatever. But, you know, it doesn't go anywhere. May maybe it's a response. What what I would propose to do is so the the AI team, the deputy one of the deputy chancellors and then her team were there last night to answer questions and to listen to the CEC, presidents. The during the meeting she got back to me, one of the members of the team agreed that if we would like, we could have a CEC two listening sessions where members of the she will attend and members of the public can actually speak
to her, give their comments. They could ask questions. I don't know if she'll give us more than an hour, but it at least would be something. I think we need to do that quickly because the comment period, I think, is over May 8. But I envision this as not really not us deliberating. And if it's an hour, probably not any of us speaking outside of welcome, because I really would like to get the parents to have an or parents and guardians to have an opportunity to testify and and to be heard. So I'd like to be able to do that as as a it's not I don't think it needs to be under a specific committee.
I think we just do it as a listening session. Is it what what do you think about that? As long as she's willing to do it. I don't think it makes sense to do it if it's just us. But if she's willing to do it, which she she emailed me tonight that she would be willing to. I love that idea. I think it's important for us as leaders in this space. And if we wanna pass any resolution about AI ahead of time for us to know what people in our district want, and, I think it's great. Yeah. I mean, there's no agenda. It's literally, like, this is the policy. You wanna test it's almost like the joint public hearing when you think about it. We're having our own little joint public hearing.
I think our next meeting is not gonna happen before the end of the comments, Pierre. So but we could write a letter from the council saying that's our joint feedback. Right. Like, this is what we heard most. Yeah. Yeah. Or or we can have an emergency. We can have a a special need. I mean, possible. Good luck. Five days. If you're paying, but I knew we can do it. I think you have that's a good idea to have it, like, to send a letter from the house. I just Yeah. Encapsulating the the testimony from on the district. Yeah. I think we yeah. Absolutely. I mean, even if we don't come to an agreement amongst ourselves what our position
is, we can at least do do that. That's a great idea. But even even if that does I mean, even if that didn't happen, at least let them hear from district two Yes. Of course. The district two community. So everybody I don't we don't really vote. I think we should let AI take the notes at the listening session Well and then submit that to the DOE because it would save us all a lot of time. You know, funny you should mention that because I took notes last night, and I didn't take it. It was my AI that took notes about the AI meeting. So, you know, guilty. But okay. Thank you, and I'll I don't think you're allowed to use it.
I'm almost senior citizen as my son tells me. I'm an I'm advanced and my son told me I'm advanced middle aged. That's what his his new title is. Any other new business? Okay. Well, thank you. For the folks that are on still, thank you for staying, and listening. For the council members that are online, thank you very much. Ethan, Sabina, Tam, thank you for your participation tonight. And