I will now call to order the March 5th, 2026 meeting of the Strategic Planning Committee. Before we begin, I would like to give my colleagues a moment to introduce themselves to my right. Good morning. Rita
montoya, board member at large. Good morning, Brenda Wolff, district five. And good morning. Laura Stewart here. And I represent district four. Next I would like to ask if there are any questions or concerns regarding the informational
summary for the December 18th, 2025 meeting. If there is none, then we will begin our agenda this morning as we continue advancing. Objective four high quality, diverse workforce. I
would like to introduce three cross-cutting principles that can strengthen objectives two, three, and five in a cohesive and measurable way. Sustainability, accessibility and accountability. These are not new initiatives. Rather,
they are guiding frameworks to ensure our workforce strategies are stable, equitable, and results driven. And embedding sustainability, accessibility and accountability within objective four strengthens our ability to recruit, retain, and develop a workforce that
reflects and serves our students effectively. By aligning these principles across objectives two, three, and five, we create a system that is not only high quality and diverse, but also stable, equitable, and results driven. With that, if there are no additional questions from the
committee members, I will invite Doctor Addison and staff to begin an overview of today's discussion. After each topic, we will pause to take questions from board members. Doctor Hamlin, doctor o, we have
Doctor Hamlet. Yes. Sorry. That's all right. All right. A little bit of change to the plan. Thank you. Good morning, board members and staff. We're here to share about the goal four for strategic plan. We
first want to thank you for the opportunity to share updates on how m.c.p.s. Is strengthening and sustaining a high quality, diverse workforce aligned to our strategic plan. Today's presentation focuses on human capital as a student outcome
strategy, not simply staffing positions, but ensuring every classroom has a prepared, highly qualified, supported, and effective educator. We're going to go on to slide two, although okay, there we go. Thank you. And as Miss Stewart
just shared, our work centers on three guiding principles sustainability, accessibility and accountability. These principles ensure that investments in staffing and professional learning translate directly into improved classroom experiences and
student outcomes. Next slide please. All efforts presented today align with goal four of the M.C.P.S. Strategic plan a high quality, diverse workforce. Specifically, we are advancing staffing standards aligned to
student needs access to high quality. I'm sorry, highly qualified and diverse educators, and system wide implementation of inclusive and culturally responsive practices. This ensures coherence between policy, our staffing decisions,
and classroom practices. I'll now turn it over to doctor McCall to share more about how we make those connections to strategic plan. Also, I don't mean to interrupt, but I realize that you have not introduced yourselves. So if you want to do that before we go on. Sure. So I'm Nya Hamlet,
chief equity and development officer. And to my right. Good morning Margie. And I'm the director of professional learning. Good morning, Renee McCall, acting chief talent manager. Officer Alec Copeland,
director of talent acquisition. Good morning. Thank you so much. And thank you, Doctor Hamlet. We are entering the first full implementation cycle of our future ready strategic plan. And our primary indicator for goal four related to high
quality, diverse workforce is best measured by our teacher fill rate that shows significant operational momentum. Our objective, however, is not just to fill positions, but to intentionally recruit, develop and retain
teachers that our diverse student body can see themselves reflected in as we move into the data specific portion of this presentation, we will examine how we can align our staffing efforts to foster a representative teaching staff.
As of February 2026, our overall teacher fill rate is 98.3%, which is a 0.8 percentage point increase from the start of the school year. Our special education fill rate is almost 98%. Special
education Paraeducators at 96% and ML teachers at nearly 99% fill rate. These high fill rates and critical high need areas show our successful staffing efforts to meet the
needs of all of our learners. The takeaway from this data on this slide is the midyear growth in our most critical areas. While some districts generally see vacancies rise after December, we actually
gained ground. This is especially true in special education, where we've seen a 2.3 to 4 percentage point increase. And we have also reduced our ML vacancies to just nine. Our focus continues
to remain on the 111 positions in special education. That will bring us closer to 100% capacity. In looking at our vacancy data, this 32 day average time to fill tells us
that our internal processes are functioning efficiently. The challenge in filling vacancies is the availability of a deep candidate pool in specialized roles such as physics. This underscores the importance of internal grow your own programs,
which allow us, I'm sorry, which allows us to avoid extended fill time by developing talent we already have. With that, I will hand it off to Ella. Our recruitment strategies are daily operation and go beyond seasonal events to create a constant presence
in the talent market by combining various strategic efforts, including working with the Communications Department to promote campaigns such as Be That Educator, we are addressing both our immediate vacancies and our long term sustainability. This ecosystem
of strategies is partly why we saw a four percentage point gain in Paraeducators this year, and we're meeting our future teachers where they are as we continue to recruit diverse and specialized candidates at the national level. Conference participation helps us to
increase our pool of candidates, showing that we aren't just waiting for candidates to find us, we're going where that talent is. At this time, I'm going to pause to see if there are any questions with the information that has been presented so far. Okay. Thank
you so much. I will start with my colleague Brenda Wolff. Thank you. I have a question on. Hold on. Let me find the slide number. Well. Let me just ask
the question. Okay. The demographic data. The data is showing an overall strong teacher fill rate 98.3%. Right. So the average time to fill
high needs positions is quite a bit higher in physics. It's 47.5 days ML. It's 36.8 days. So I want to know what specific differentiated recruitment or retention strategies are you
using to close that 24 day gap? So thank you for that question. I think a few things you have to consider when we're looking at some of these, like physics, like you brought up the number of individuals that are have that physics background and
also are certificated in physics and want to teach high school students are fewer than, say, our elementary or early childhood or even special education. So the number of individuals is significantly less in terms of our pool. So
finding an individual may take a little bit longer than some of our other content area. But in terms of your second part of your question, Miss Wolff, in terms of recruitment. So one of the things that we're doing is we're looking for people not always in just your your usual
spaces. So we are going for some of our higher needs. We're going to to, to conferences and meeting people who may not necessarily have thought about becoming an educator and really talking to them about the pathway to become a teacher,
because sometimes people may have that yearning or that desire to support their community and to give as a part two of their career, but they don't necessarily know the pathway to do that. So starting building those relationships with individuals and
communicating that it is a pathway that they can take and that it's that our kids need them, is definitely where we see a lot of our our growth in terms of reaching people that may, may not be thinking about becoming an educator. Thank you.
I'll I'll pass it over to. You. Thank you. My question actually relates to the physics as well. And potentially I guess, ML but the the 40 plus days is what struck me right in the 30s. It's still about a month, you know, and I guess what I'm
wondering and I'm wondering in the context of do other school districts perhaps do this where there is I don't want to call it a bonus, but just some sort of incentive, additional amount of pay for certain specialized areas where that are kind of hard to recruit because
especially I'm thinking about the program model, I'm thinking about just we have a lot of kids, irrespective of any program models or changes. We have a lot of kids who are in very advanced courses, and there are or they're on the track to be in very advanced
courses, and then if they get to high school and they don't have a solid, you know, instructor or someone with a who, you know, I tell my own kids, your teachers are experts, you know, don't ask me. I'm not. That's not my area. You need to go ask, you know, Miss Yankee
about math, etc. Right? So I just I want our students to feel that way so that when they're taking courses like physics or some other advanced course that I can't even think of because I never was advanced enough in that area to take it, that we have strong people who actually potentially have also
maybe practiced. Right. There's such a value to that lived experience of practicing that profession and then coming to instruct. I know I had a lot of adjunct instructors, for example, in law school and in college, as maybe you did as well. Do we do something like that where maybe teachers are
only teaching two physics classes, and then they're also, you know, they work in some other capacity. So I always welcome to be able to offer more money to as a recruitment tool to my potential applicants and employees. I will say that
when we look at our pay structure in terms in comparison to other districts, and we are very competitive. So I do want to say thank you to the board for that, because that is a huge recruitment tool that I'm able to use in my arsenal when I'm trying to
convince someone to come here for M.C.P.S. if they have other offers. We are also in the. We have the ability to also look at their years of experience. So let's say they were a physics in a in the private sector prior to being an
educator. We do have some flexibility in terms of what step we bring individuals in. So that is another great tool that I can use in my arsenal as well. So I have a couple
questions. Have we been able to tap our Ex-federal workforce to fill any of these positions, especially something like physics? There might be people available that have this background. Yes. So we
definitely have been. And Margy can maybe speak to a little bit. Also, there is a program that they're with the fed workers to become teachers that is running out of her shop. We did hire quite a bit of people and also as a substitute teachers. And
while that is not represented in these data points, I think sometimes that is a nice entry way for individuals to really see because teaching is hard and it's not sometimes what people imagine it is. And so substitute teaching is such a
great entryway for people to see if this is something that they really want to spend, because it takes time and money to become a fully licensed teacher. And so that is where we saw a significant gains. Now, granted, some individuals went back as the federal government
opened back up and their positions was reinstated. We did see some individuals no longer participating in our substitute and and whatnot, but that is definitely an area that we have seen some growth as well. Did you want to talk
about the program at all? I think I'll talk a little bit about it as we go, and you can see, but we do have conditionally certified teachers in the feds to the teacher workforce. We have just under 20 right now in the program and working in the
system as teachers. Okay, great. We want to use all of our resources. Right. And speaking of using all of our resources, I know what we have M.C.P.S. students that are incredibly talented and they are taking advantage of our Stem programs.
And as they move through, I would love to. Well, I'd like to ask, are there any programs that encourage our current talented students to go to school and then come back to M.C.P.S. maybe some
scholarships or anything that can help with their tuition so that we build that pipeline early and they know it's a possibility, and we actually recruit in that way. So you are
right on track in terms of thinking through about really hitting our talent, because if we're trying to diversify our staff to represent our students, why not using our students eventually to come and represent? So a couple of things to keep in mind. We want
to make sure that it while they're going through school. It is an environment that they want to return to. Right. Because that it was a successful experience for them, that they want to come back and pour into the same organization and same structure that poured into them. And then two, we are
doing some grow your own programs, and I think Margie is going to speak to that later on in the in the presentation. And we also have some organizations in our, in our high schools for individuals who already know they want to be a teacher. And
so the Tam program is a great organization for students who have already identified that they want to be an educator, and they learned about that. They can get some money towards their university and some credit bearing courses as well.
Okay, great. Well, we can move on. Thank you. Great. Next slide. Perfect. So as stated in objective three, we strive to ensure that all students have access to highly qualified, diverse educators and are 98.3%
overall fill rate is the foundation of that access. Our focus is on hiring and retaining teachers who are credentialed and representative of our students lived experiences. This table shows a consistent and growing percentage of diverse staff
among our teachers and more broadly, across our entire workforce. However, to see the true impact of our recruitment efforts, we have to look at the individuals joining our team this year. We didn't just maintain our diversity, we actually expanded it. This
school year, we welcomed 444 diverse candidates to our district, 217 black educators, 157 Hispanic educators, and 70 Asian educators. These professionals bring the lived experiences our students need to see in their classrooms
every day. And with that, I hand it back to you. As we look more closely at our high quality metrics, you will notice a shift in our certification data from 96% to 87%. It is important to clarify
that this is not a result of losing certified staff, but rather a more rigorous calculation process. Previously, we measured certification based on teachers primary subject. This year, we measure certification across all
subjects taught to be more representative of what's happening in the classroom. This change reveals that some of our educators are teaching out of field for a portion of their day. For instance, under the previous calculation method,
if a teacher was certified in math but also taught a physics class without certification, they were still counted as 100% certified with the new method. However, if a teacher is assigned to a subject outside their certification, they are
identified as teaching out of field. This lifts up the need to examine school based operations, specifically scheduling to better match teachers to classes they are certified in. With that, I'll hand it over to Margie. Thank
you. So now we're going to talk a little bit about the National Board certified Teachers. This past December, we had 270 educators achieved the national board certification. So now we have 1169 national board
certified teachers in our classrooms. We have 604 in our low in our schools with three stars or lower, which is about 51.7%. Just to talk a little bit more about national board,
we're going to watch a brief video to explain what it is and why it's so valuable. Going through this process really helped me to reflect a lot more.
It opened me up to a lot of different instructional practices. I am much more reflective as an educator now. I do think very deeply on like, the ways that I want to hone the lesson and how I want to approach it for my students. I
definitely make it more suited my lessons more student centered, and asking them questions about their work and getting them involved in their learning to the power of five. Being certified has definitely improved my confidence. It's
expanded my connections also with teachers in the county, because going to some of the classes allowed me to connect with other teachers and see what they were doing, give them feedback, have them give feedback to me. This really helped me to delve deeper into
student engagement, and to working with families and to using data to drive instruction. It was almost like a refresher course for teaching 101 in so many different ways. So the journey really helped me grow. The network of diversity played
a huge role. And for me as an educator of color, I thought was very invaluable and I was able to take what they learned, what they experienced, the advice that they could give and apply it to my own teachings and also to my own journey. I
was very fortunate to have support from M.C.P.S. Not only did they help cover some of the fees, but they also provided courses that I could take to stay on track. So for me, it was really helpful to go to jumpstart with the county and the summer to learn more about
the process and then to figure out how I wanted to pursue certification for any teacher who is contemplating pursuing National board, I say go for it. Definitely go for it. If you are looking for ways to
becoming better educator, the advice that I have been giving to other teachers who want to become nationally board certified is that they should absolutely go for it, 100%. Achieving national boards has really helped me grow and become a better educator for my
students. While we have the most nationally board certified teachers of any area in the state, we are still working to
bring some more in and bring more into low performing schools. We are working closely with staffing, various ways of notifying currently current National Board certified teachers. If they move to low performing schools. There's an additional stipend for them and
then those that are new, we we let them know about the opportunities. In fact, just 28, 28 of those who just recently certified are are working in low performing schools. And by low performing, it's what the state has identified as low performing. We have 15 of those
low performing schools as identified by the state in our system. Next slide. You heard a little bit about this in the video. We have approximately 600 candidates who are pursuing national board certification
right now. And they are taking advantage of the fee support program and a variety of the support we offer to candidates. We have the Network of Diversity, which provides an affinity group setting to support teachers of color. We currently have 100 teachers
taking advantage of this group to ensure equitable access. All professional learning for candidates has in-person and virtual offerings on different evenings of the week. Saturdays, with the exception of some component support courses, all NBC Professional Learning is
funded by Msd's grant, which allows us to provide these free of charge support to to candidates. In addition to this support, we have what's called the Nbct Lead Teacher Academy. It's currently serving 47
National Board certified teachers who are learning the skills to lead and coach and support colleagues, and this is in alignment with the MSD blueprint for those lead teacher positions that will be opening up next school year.
Next slide please. Also wanted to talk a little bit about how we support new educators with professional learning. We are really working to start them right from the beginning. Those first year teachers, that's
when it's most extensive, even before pre-service with new educator, new educator orientation. And then throughout the school year, they receive a consulting teacher who works with them at the individual level. They also have the opportunity to access
professional learning courses designed specifically for new teachers, such as the new teacher training courses and foundations in teaching in two. In year two and three, the support shifts from that direct and explicit learning and coaching to an increased level
of responsibility and ownership of their own growth and learning. As novice teachers find their own individual footing in the profession, second and third year teachers can continue to receive support from a consulting teacher or mentor on an as needed basis.
And then there's some professional learning, more professional learning courses that are open to them, like study and Skillful Teacher. The professional learning model shifts to include more peer discourse and the modeling of a professional learning community
through what's called New Teacher Connect. This program utilizes the teacher structured group model. The Teacher structured group model leverages a community of practice, peer discourse, and an inquiry cycle. We're really
helping teachers shift from the theories that they learned in their teaching programs to the real world application in their classrooms. They're now talking about what they're experiencing on a daily basis with their peers. Next slide please. Thanks. And so now just a
little bit more about the certification and the pathways that we were talking about. Our higher education partnerships are a critical investment in our staff and strengthen the educator pipeline from teacher preparation through advanced leadership development.
Currently, we have about 950 colleagues participating in these partner in in these programs and partnership programs. On the teacher side, we partner with multiple institutions to create accessible pathways into teaching, especially in those
critical need areas. We've been focusing on special education and English language development, so it's exciting to see that alignment with what we just heard. And then in continuing education, we are deepening expertise in areas such as reading equity and
artificial intelligence. This supports retention by allowing educators to grow and remain in M.C.P.S. for leadership development. We have a strong pathway from administrator certification through the doctoral level, helping us
sustain and retain our current and future school leaders. And recently, we just applied for an Msde grant that would allow us to expand access in shortage areas through apprenticeships and accelerated pathways. We're really excited about that
opportunity because there will be a lot of funding to support those who are conditionally certified, or if you're a paraeducator, going into the teacher pipeline and some wraparound services. So we're excited about that grant
opportunity. Together, these partnerships represent strategic aligned system designed to build capacity intentionally and systematically for the long term. I'm going to pause there for some discussion on on that part. I think we're going to
stay in this section for a little bit. I anticipate a lot of questions. I will start with Miss Montoya, since I was saying, don't you want to stop after the first slide? Don't you want to just stop right here first? But thank you. I just want to first, actually, thank you all for the work and
the organization. Many years before I was on the board, I actually wanted to figure out, well, how can I be a teacher? I have all these degrees. I don't really want to be a lawyer anymore. And so what can I do be a teacher? And it was just like a black hole of trying to figure anything out
and no answers. And then I saw how challenging it was for our teachers, and I was like, hey, let me do something about that instead. So here we are. So I just want to thank you, because I can see how much more organized things are and the levels of support. And I've had people even reach out to me who've applied and things like
that. And even when there are issues or things that they need, it's like we're able to really connect people right away. So I just really appreciate that because that all helps. When it's hard to do, then everyone's like, forget it. I don't want to apply there, right? And I also want to appreciate this new approach that I'm going to ask about in
terms of the certification. But I also want to say that as someone who had a non certified teacher in middle school who was an accountant, and then she came to help, and in Catholic school you didn't necessarily need the same certifications. And she was phenomenal. So just parents, before you start
getting all worried, it doesn't necessarily mean that your kids aren't getting the level of quality of education we want. We just want to make sure everyone's certified because it's the best thing to have. Right. And so with that, for my first question, I'll ask about slide 11. You you said like a
new method. And so by that do you mean we're just trying to be a little more kind of accurate and I guess kind of under the veil of transparency. Is that the idea? Yes, that's the idea. And also the state has changed the requirement. And so the state is asking us
to to better reflect what's happening in the classroom. And so again, previously we were just reporting on one of the subjects that the teacher taught, and now it's their entire schedule we're reporting on. Okay. Fantastic. Thank you. And I do have more questions,
but I'll go ahead and let my colleagues go first. Thank you. On slide ten, you have data on the demographics. The white teacher population is still
pretty high 66%. It doesn't really reflect the diversity of our school system. So I'm kind of wondering what we're doing to improve on that. What are what are our grow your own pathways and how are we going
to how are we going to bring that picture so that it looks more in alignment with our student body? Because representation is important. It really is. I 100% agree. I think one of the things to keep in mind is that the that needle
of 66% is going to change year over year as we're bringing in more teachers. So the as our experienced teachers are getting of the age where they can resign or retire, then that allows the growth for new
individuals who, as you can see, when we reported out, was over 50% of the diversity. So we are bringing in more and more diverse educators, and it's going to slowly change our complete demographics. But that's going to just take time,
because I can't change all of the demographics at once. It's just chunk by chunk year over year. Thank you. One thing that we've noticed in the past, and I know it's too early in the year, you won't be able to tell, is that when we bring in a
percentage of minority teachers, we generally lose the same percentage every year. And there's something about our cultural conditions in this school system that don't align with what they're looking for.
Apparently they don't feel comfortable here because they leave. So I'm just asking at the end of the school year, I'd like to get some data on the retention of teachers that you have hired this year. And I'd
also like to get a demographic breakdown of the participants in the national board certification pipeline, especially the lead program that we're trying to to work on.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for asking that question. That was actually my question was retention by demographics. There's also a a type of way that we lose teachers. That's
really more disruptive. And that's mid-year exits. So do we have any data on mid-year exits and are there do we find out
why that this happens. So I'll take that question. We can provide some data for you in terms of mid-year exits. What I have found in the role that I sit in, there are a lot of times people who, if they're
leaving, it's because of something that is happening outside in their personal life that they just cannot control. And so we sometimes support try to support them through other avenues instead of just leaving the system. We have a robust
support network in terms of our benefits and the availability of leave to our to our staff. And so sometimes it's especially our new staff, they may not necessarily know what is available for them. So coaching folks what they can do other than just resigning. And
then there are times where that is the only choice that they have for personal reasons. But I can definitely work on getting you some of that more data. I just want to make sure that there's not any trend there. If it's about the same
year after year, then I would think yes, emergencies, but just making sure that we are doing our best to keep our teachers. Absolutely. I think the other question I have is on
the retention question if when teachers leave, do we have any kind of exit interview or a survey? So individuals we don't unless someone requests an exit
interview. That's one mechanism, but it's not for every single individual that's leaving the school system. But individuals do have the opportunity to inform us of why they are leaving. And they do. And so we do. Some of the data that I'll
be sharing with you will tell you about the reason that someone provided us based on why they're leaving, and so that gives you a better picture of what is going on in terms of our resignation information. So
I'll provide that for you. That's great. I've had anecdotal stories that some of our more diverse teachers didn't feel welcome in their school community, and they did end up leaving the system
because of it. And so I know we'll get into some of our anti-racist policies coming up. But I do think that is definitely some work that we need to do in the system, because it really breaks my heart to feel like that. We are
not welcoming to all types of faiths, ethnicities, anything that you can think of that would contribute to folks not feeling welcome. Can I just follow up on that? The board
has been asking for years for exit information, so that we could make some sort of assessment about why so many of our minority teachers stay for one year and leave, because we know it's got something to do with the culture. So I would
also like to get some data on how many of the demographics of our teachers that are in the PA process. Thank you. I'll move on to Miss Montoya, and I just associate myself with all of
those comments and requests. Staying on slide ten. So first, I do want to acknowledge that we're always operating in a challenging landscape. Hiring and public education in general. No offense, but that's why I
was like, I don't know, maybe I don't want to be a teacher, right? It looks really rough, especially in this day and age. So I just recognize that challenge up front for everyone. It's so hard for me, though, to continue to see the lack of
Latino teachers, because here we're just talking about teachers, right? I know if we look at our support staff, sometimes we're looking at a whole different issue, and there's some whole different patterns there that we need to address and have a conversation about. Including, especially with security assistance and lack of Latino staff. But here
with with educators, right. These are the people that are in the classrooms with the kids every single day. Right? I've had my kids come to me and say, mom, I don't have any Latino teachers this year. Now I want to also say. I have been so fortunate to have amazing staff,
irrespective of what they phenotypically look like, right? What they look like on the outside. And two of the most amazing were staff that did not look like my child, a white male and a black male who changed my child's life. And it had nothing to do with whether they look like this or not.
They were also very culturally competent and that made a difference. So while I am very concerned and I, my ultimate question is going to be specifically what are we doing to reach out to Latino educators? I do want to stress
to everyone that our staff can still serve our children well and connect with our children well, even if they don't look like them, provided that they are culturally competent. So my question, though, is, you know, especially because I'm thinking
about the proportion to the students that we have in our school system. Right. And I want to be clear that when I say Latino, I'm not talking just about children who may be immigrants, children who may not speak English. Right. Latinos are a huge group. I'd also like to know why I don't
see Native American educators here, because I happen to know some. Thank you. I'll start and maybe you can add on. I mean, we share those concerns for sure, but I do want to celebrate our success here over the past year with 157 hires of
Latino teachers. And also, as ell and I were preparing for the presentation, we took a look at some statistics and even for the state and nationally, Latino folks actually are not enrolling in prep programs as frequently as
other groups are. And so I believe in Maryland, there were only about 6% who were in a program. And so the availability of of Latino potential teachers is just not there. But I'll hand it over to Ella to talk more specifically,
and I can appreciate that. But I just just so that everyone knows and this is with my own children, right? I don't base how they're doing based on how everyone else around them is doing, because we always strive to be the best. Right? And I can appreciate that. Maybe there's only this percentage in
the programs, or that just means we have to go out and try harder and get to where they are. So I want us to be very careful about saying, because we say that a lot about a lot of things special education, hiring, speech pathology. Okay. Well, there's there's a lack there's yes, I know that just
means we have to try harder because our kids need it. And I know everyone here knows that we want to give our kids the best. Right. So can you give me can you just approach that instead? I do want to celebrate the positives, and I think those are great. With all due respect, point. You know a
point three percentage, right? I don't know that I would be calling that a celebration. So what I want to focus on is what are we going to do? What is the plan. I also just want to keep in mind that we're talking about a huge group of teachers of over 13,000 teachers, right. And so it is important to pause
and celebrate the successes of 157 just for this year alone. So it will take time. Over time, we will be able to improve it more efficiently to better match our student demographic. But with that, I'll hand it to Ella to to talk more specifically. Sure. So to your
point about the fact, a couple of things. So what Renee was saying is absolutely correct in terms of the number of people that were in our program. So you raised about okay, so now what? Right. So we we recognize that we don't have as many people that we can recruit from
your traditional universities and colleges while we are still doing that, as you saw in the recruitment slide of going to a variety of different Hispanic serving universities and and colleges, but we have to look
at the on ramp of other people. So that might be who are not going through the four year program. So that is looking at them from either the conferences, having conversations with people wherever you meet them in life.
So in my mind, we are all ambassadors for M.c.p.s. And so when I have really great service at a restaurant and they are mindful of not putting a hot plate in front of my young children, or putting or removing the knives or bringing
things to them before I've even thought of it, you know, I asked them like, what are you like, what are your plans? What are you thinking about doing? Have you ever thought about becoming a teacher? So those recruitment is maybe not your standard, but those if we're
all doing that, if every single one of us is recruiting 1 or 2 people, imagine the the what we could do here and changing the, the, the wave of our of our workforce demographics. The
other thing to keep in mind is that because of that, a lot of those types, a lot of the teachers then are coming to us as a conditional teacher. And so that is where Miss Wolff, back to your original question about, we see a lot of our our teachers of color leaving. One
of the things I really want to look at while you didn't ask it, but I do want to look at is also the number of conditional teachers, because the majority of a lot of our conditional teachers, meaning that they did not go through a four year program. They have a bachelor's degree, perhaps in physics, but they're not a they don't have
that license. How many of them are leaving after and were not able to complete their program? And then that's where we really work hand in hand with Margie's office, because they have programs to support our
conditionally certified teachers so that they don't feel alone, that they're going through a program with other individuals who are in the same boat as they are. Because for me, it's not just recruiting, but it's also that retention. Because if I'm constantly, I can bring in people, but if
they're not staying, then it's a hamster wheel. And so as long as we can continue on the path of retaining our our teachers of color, and I and my team continues to bring individuals in, that's where I think we're going to get the most bang for
our buck. Sorry. Can you just address the Native American teachers? Why they're not listed in the demographics? I'm going to have to get back to you, because I think I'm not sure to see if we we'll have to follow up when I add up the
percentages. I think it's even a smidge over 100% like 100.2 or something like that. Okay. So we certainly have that data. We can follow up with you. Okay. Thank you. I have another question. And it gets back to retention and my belief that we're taking them in and
shipping them out pretty much at the same rate. A few years ago we started Bond Academy because black male teachers did not survive here. At least 50% of them were pushed out of the system. And I use that word
lightly because I don't really know the reason that they left. But I see you have males at 21%. Can I get the demographic breakdown of that? And also can I get I don't know. Last, I don't recall last year's hiring
numbers, but can I get a breakdown on the demographics of who left the system at the end of last year, especially if they were hired at the beginning of the school year? I would like to associate myself with that comment as well,
especially because, in full disclosure, I'm the mom of two boys, so they're always like so excited when they have a male teacher. I'm excited. Not that our male PE teachers are not amazing, but it's always lovely to see a male PE teacher that's a male teacher that's not teaching something like PE, because it also breaks some of
those gender norms and stereotypes. So I'm really interested in that data. And I'm wondering I guess also she mentioned bond educators, which is amazing. We like affinity groups for our teachers, right? There's educators, which expands beyond just our
teachers, but also principals, administrators, support staff, you name it. And so I'm just wondering what, if anything, we do to help foster or support those spaces, because as someone who has been the ♪only one in a space, and I know some teachers who are the only one
in a space right now, it's not it doesn't feel good sometimes. So a lot of the affinity groups, we are supportive of them. However, there is you want to make sure that it's not that we are the ones leading that,
because we want it to be the authentic, authentic and come from the grassroots. But we can definitely look to see and continue to look into the bond and see where they are in terms of their impact and the supports that they may need
from talent acquisition or others who are not at this table. But do we make so like when teachers apply, for example, do we you know, I'm sure we let them know about M.c.a, right. The teachers union, do we let them know? Also there's bond. There's bond educators, there's educators so
that they can find their community. Right. Because you go to your school, but you're not just like hanging out with all the teachers in M.C.P.S. all the time altogether. Right? So I might be the only one in my school, but it's pivotal for me as a black male educator, to know that bond educators is
there. And I can connect with Doctor Howard and and those folks, and they can provide that support. I'm not sure I would defer to Margie if they have representation at Neo, because I would think that would be an ideal place and space for them to to meet those
new educators. Okay, I'm going to go back to slide 11. The teacher certification numbers. So we know this is a new way the state is calculating. So
you mentioned that in order to. You know, play the state's game basically that we will have to look at scheduling. So like a certified math teacher teaching a physics course, we would get
dinged on this. My question is a couple questions. One is do we ever have teachers that are flying in two areas? Does that happen? That absolutely happens. Yes. Okay. So another way to
take care of this problem and is to encourage that that happens, not just making sure we're shuffling teachers around. So the reason why I'm concerned about, you know, taking that math teacher and not putting him in the physics classes
because they could be actually a really great physics teacher because they have that background, that math background that you need for physics. And it might not be
such a huge leap for them to be a physics teacher. So I don't necessarily want to lose our pool of physics teachers because we have to show growth in this requirement. So can you
talk about maybe that strategy or what are the strategies to move our number up? And what what's our goal here? I don't even know what the goal is. I think the goal is to better reflect again what's happening on the ground in the classrooms.
And so in thinking about encouraging teachers to seek multiple areas of certification, that's certainly one strategy we could use. But I also agree with you and Miss Montoya around a teacher can be an
excellent teacher, but not yet have the certification. I think there's something to be said for the energy and excitement that a teacher brings to the table, and also basing it in the relationships that teachers have with students really speaks to the level of culturally responsive practices
that are in practice on the ground. So I agree that this is one way. We certainly can look at the scheduling, look at teacher certification, and make a better match. But we can also, again, encourage teachers to seek other certifications so that they can be able to teach
those various courses. And still our representative percentage of certification would be higher. So again, this is just a better reflection of what's happening and it is a more rigorous calculation. Just trying to be transparent and reflective about what's actually happening in the
classroom. I do really appreciate that. What what's the goal that we should be meeting for this state? What is our. So we're at 87%. What's what's our goal there? The goal
is to be as high as we possibly can. Last year at 96%. We're not comparing apples to apples here though. Right. And so I do again, just want to underscore that this is a different calculation method. And so we certainly could take a look at
comparing last year's method to determine if it's aligned. But certainly we again just wanted to be transparent here. And I absolutely appreciate the transparency. But this is we're talking about the strategic strategic plan. And so I know
we are still working on goals. I'm not sure if this is a particular section in our strategic plan. I presume it is. And so I think our next meeting that we will have more discussions about actually our
baseline and our goal for this year and whether we met the goal, because I know we still have some work to do that on that. It's great. That strategic plan to me is a wonderful guide. So we need to start filling in in the lines.
So I do appreciate that. As I think I have one more question about slide 14, I wanted to know about, for instance, the lead teacher Academy. How are
we doing on the diversity there? That's what I asked her. Oh, you already asked. Okay. I'm sorry. Okay. Never mind. Question. Okay. Off to Miss Montoya. I just have one quick
thing about Nbct, and I guess it's something I just wanted to flag. And I did already elevate this issue to Doctor Taylor, because I feel like it's something that could impact more than just the person who reached out to me. One of our staff members had an issue where they submitted everything.
All their files were great, all the sound was great, everything worked fantastic, and then they got their stuff back and they did not quite make the whatever cut offs are because there was some sort of a sound issue. But on their end, right. It had all
been fine. I'm not as tech savvy to know exactly what the issue is. I do know recently someone sent me a file and because my phone is much older than theirs, the file came in to me blurry because my phone could not read this new software. So I flagged that
because again, that's something that I feel like could impact more than one person. And I just want to make sure that when we're talking about support that we think about tech support. Also, maybe it was something like that that happened and that in my opinion, is really unfair, right? So as
a system, I've asked Doctor Taylor to kind of look into it and see what we can do to make sure that our staff who work so hard, I mean, it's hard to do this while you're teaching. A lot of our staff also have young children at the same time, so I don't want their work to feel for naught. So just to
make sure that folks are aware that there might be some tech challenges, and perhaps I'm not sure if our tech here can help, you know, with those things, but I just wanted to make you aware of that. Thank you. And just this year, we started a cohort support on just focused on the technology pieces that
are relevant to going through the process. So we totally agree and are working on it with candidates. If there's no more questions, we can move on.
Next, you will hear an overview of how the district is supporting educators through professional learning focused on inclusive, culturally responsive and anti-racist practices. This work aligns directly with our instructional priorities and our commitment
to ensuring every student experiences rigorous and affirming learning environments. Our approach is grounded in a clear theory of action. When educators engage in high quality professional learning, instructional practice improves,
which ultimately strengthens student experience and outcomes. Educators engage in professional learning in multiple ways designed to support access and sustained learning, this structure allows staff to engage in ongoing and
job embedded learning. Next slide. In 2023, M.C.P.S. adopted standards for professional learning that mirror those of a national organization, Learning Forward. We chose to specifically elevate anti-racist and
culturally responsive practice in each of the three domains rigorous and transformational process and conditions for success. Each domain articulates what professional learning designers and facilitators must do in order
to model and support the design of the learning that centers on the assets and needs of our racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students and staff populations. Designers and facilitators must also leverage anti-racism in
professional learning to disrupt long standing patterns of inequity, and to support the achievement of the advancement of educational justice. Next slide. So this year, our district wide professional learning uses the science of learning to strengthen our
instruction and make thinking visible in every classroom. Over the past year, we have been able to deliver this learning to professional staff and roughly 800 educators by focusing on science of learning and more specifically, effortful thinking, we are
working to ensure all students, especially black, brown, Hispanic, multilingual, and special students receiving special education services have rigorous, affirming opportunities to engage with and demonstrate grade level learning. Our next session is
on the district wide Professional Learning Day on March 20th, and so that the teachers feel supported as they implement these practices they're learning. Throughout the school year, school based leaders have engaged in their own learning, which centers around coaching and providing
feedback on building classrooms that invite all students to think effort effortfully to solidify their learning. Next slide. Our Professional learning for school leaders focuses on using high quality da instruction that is
grounded in the science of learning and structured observation and coaching to improve outcomes for every student. Leaders have been deepening their skills in assessment, alignment, data interpretation, and recognizing effortful thinking in
classrooms. This work helps the leaders identify who is and who isn't experiencing rigorous learning, so they can use specific, responsive supports to remove barriers and expand access to high quality
instruction for all students, especially those that I just mentioned. By equipping leaders to identify who is and is not experiencing rigorous, effortful learning, and to act on data with responsive systems and supports. This focus
ensures instructional decisions actively remove barriers and expand access to high quality learning for every student. Next, slide on the one of the first steps M.c.p.s. Took in response to the antiracist
system audit was to require learning around anti-racist leadership for all central service leaders to. Since its implementation in 2023, we've trained over 1000 central leaders, and they've participated in four session
course designed to develop their abilities to identify, respond to, and prevent racism and bias at multiple levels. Specifically, ideological, individual and internal, interpersonal and institutional.
This course has now become part of our onboarding and new to central office leaders, and they complete pre and post course assessments of these abilities. This year's course cohort has demonstrated 100% proficiency on four out of five
of the skills. In addition to the learning I mentioned that all educators engage in, we have 1422 educators who have participated in professional learning that occurs outside of the school day, so it's their
choice to participate in this. The work in here strengthens student belonging, engagement, and access to rigorous instruction. Additionally, we've been able to support and provide opportunities for our
support service, our supporting services staff, and you can see some of the courses that we provide to them. And we're already gearing up for this summer. So I just wanted to give you a preview here. We anticipate that we'll have over 5000 staff participate in
professional learning. The required sessions are going to be aligned to the district priorities, including orientation to the new k eight math curriculum, some strong start sessions for our kindergarten, first grade and second grade teachers on how to
integrate that tier one instructional vision into their Ela curriculum. That will include special education and Eld. Co-teachers. We'll focus on some IEP excellence, and then we'll have some leadership
learning for principals working with Desley, we'll have some focused support for teachers in literacy and then some safety and security sessions also for our for our team members. Okay,
so on this slide, as we close out, what I would like for you to take away from this slide is the fact that we're moving from participation to evidence of implementation. And I also want to point out that culturally responsive or even relevant
instruction is a baseline, not a destination. So what we're looking to do is establish a rubric that will ensure educators are intentionally considering representation, relevance and responsiveness in their instruction. But the
again, the work moves beyond the baseline when culturally responsive teaching becomes a leadership practice embedded in how schools operate. So essentially, a culturally responsive instructional rubric will help us to determine whether professional learning
is changing classroom practices, whether students are experiencing consistency across schools, and where additional supports are needed. Next slide. So the core principles for our
discussion today. Again, sustainable staff ensures stability for our students. Accessible workforce practices ensure every student has qualified educators and accountability systems ensure investments produce measurable outcomes. Our goal is simple
but ambitious. Every student and every classroom, every day experiences high quality instruction delivered by a supported and highly prepared educator. The work we've outlined today ensures our workforce systems make the goal
achievable and sustainable. And we'll pause here for closing discussion and questions. Thank you so much for this section. Again, this is a huge, meaty
topic. It's, in my opinion, one of the places we need to do extra work. So I will start with Brenda Wolff for questions. Thank you. I have the same question I have every year.
It's sort of like, so what we do all of this training, it doesn't seem to translate into the classroom. Okay. So I want to know, as we look toward 2030 what what's going to be
different? Well, I mean, how do you know it's going to be different? And what are you going to do about it if it's not different? Because that's the same question I ask every year. Yes, absolutely. So I'll go back to that second to the last slide where we're looking to establish the rubric for
culturally responsive instruction. Again, that's just the baseline. And I think a lot of times in education when we're looking at culturally responsive teaching and relevant practices, people think that that's kind of like the be all, end all. And really
that's just where we have to start. So with that, establishing that rubric, as I said, is more of a baseline, not a destination, not the goal we're looking toward in particular. But what that will help us to do is not just to determine what should be
happening in our classrooms, what the look fours are in our classrooms, and in the interactions between educators and students. But whether it's actually happening. And then you said, what are you going to do about it? That goes back to that accountability piece. What
accountability looks like has to be defined and in collaboration with how we work with the unions, how we work with our school administrators, and how we work with our central service providers who support our staff in the classrooms. It's interesting that this is a baseline,
because we have been doing this for the whole. This is my eighth year on the board, and we have been doing this for eight years, so we should have some baseline data on this. But I'm still not sure how we're
going to measure the direct impact on the classroom, on our kids, because so far it's training. And I noticed that on one of the slides, the sort of
learning went up from 56% to 100%. And what's interesting in my mind about that is we hire smart people. So of course it went up if they sat there through the course. So what does that what is that really telling us? It's not really
telling us a lot. What I'm trying to figure out is what are we looking for in that classroom, and how are we going to know it when we see it? Right. My questions are actually connected. If if you want to just hold off for a second. But actually can I
confirm I wanted to confirm something that slide 22 where it says Central Services anti-racist leadership. I think that's the one Miss Wolff was referring to about the 56% to 100. That's central office staff, right? That's not the classroom teacher. The front office. That's right person.
Right. So these folks generally are like, they're not engaging with my kids at the school for the most part, right? They might be peeking in to train or to do different things, observations. But they're not teaching the kids class or the media or anything. Right? That's right. Okay. So just so we know, kind of because I
think we're kind of looking at the experience of the children and families in the building and then also for our staff, because if our Latino and black staff and Asian staff again, are dealing with these things also, that might be go towards retention, right? So here's my
question, and I have to acknowledge the level of frustration that I'm feeling because I actually invested time and energy into making sure this did not happen. Right. I'm looking at, okay, we want people to be culturally responsive. And then we're looking at slide 23. We have
all of these courses. I do have to question if we're culturally responsive by some of the terms that we're using. But I don't see anything about Native American students or families. And I'm just going to say that a lot of what is framed as a Latino person, community member
family because they happen to originally, at some point come from some certain country or Spanish speaking country. A lot of us are indigenous. And so to erase us continuously year after year. And I'm frustrated because I actually had a whole meeting in the conference room right over here in the
boardroom. I had another conversation with members of the equity team prior to the meeting, which led us to have the meeting. I provided resources and connections of actual people in the area that could help to do this in a culturally competent way. And
then I offered future support, and instead what happened is we just got taken off the menu altogether. So we had a seat. They just didn't really know what to do. And then because I approached them and said, hey, here's some things, it was like, never mind, we're just going to you don't even get a seat. And
I have two Native American children who talk to me a lot about the things that they see. And I've been in schools where I see racist Native American imagery. My children have been told they should be honored. By that imagery. They have been made fun of because of the way
they wear their hair. And their mother is a board member. And when these issues are raised by me, there is nothing that happens. And because I don't want backlash against my children, I don't fill out the hate bias forms because it also feels like they just go into an
empty hole. We have events on Indigenous Peoples Day, events about property and ownership, which shows me a serious lack of cultural competence, especially when you have a Native American board member and I leave my door open all
the time to everyone. So if we are going to say that we are pursuing equity in this school system, it has to be for all of our students because they notice. And my children are young, they're in fourth and sixth grade. And we've been talking about these things for
a few years now. And to their credit, their administrators address it when they when needed, at some spaces, at the current spaces we are in. But that is not always been the case. So I just want us to acknowledge that. We have a lot
of work to do here, and you have people who are available who have been pushing for this work. I mean, Miss Wolff has been on this board probably as long as my kids, I think, have been in the school system. If I
think about it, and I've watched these meetings and I've seen her push for this, not just for black students. Can I just follow up on that a minute? I just want to understand something. Where in the the professional learning is the anti-racist learning, because it's not in the professional
growth system. Right? It's not in the professional growth system. But shouldn't it be there? It should be. And we have we have some work to do there to make it. I think we've tried to add it to some of the
standards, but there is some work to do there. So it shows up more predominantly in the professional growth system. Okay. So when will when can we expect that? I mean, what do we have to do to to do that? Because that really leads into
my overall question, which is how are we supposed to have a rubric? How are we supposed to measure anything when staff aren't even required to take these trainings? And for staff as well? Right. Are we setting them up to fail? I mean, I'll just say staff have sent home things with my kids that I was
just like, are you kidding? This is a racist image, right? So I just again, though, we have to have, you know, talking about baselines, right? We can't quote unquote punish or chastise people for things that they're not aware that they're not supposed to be doing. Right, that we haven't explicitly said. Now, everyone should be aware. We all have access to the
internet and all those things. But as an employer, right, we have to say, okay, now you know, and now we can hold you accountable. No, you can't wear that image. It's not vintage. I think that it's important that that be considered. It has to be part of the professional
growth system, not just random learning over the summer. I also want to point out that we have on for some reason,
there's not a number 25 overview of summer professional learning, and I don't think any of that the anti-racist type of learning that I see here, correct me if I'm wrong on this
particular slide for the for the summer learning. So I would say two things. One, anti-racist practices are used as a part of the standards to develop, design, deliver the professional learning, and they are a part of the practices
that we're teaching teachers to use in that summer learning. So thinking about how you do that work as you implement new curriculum, as you work on focusing on that tier one instructional vision that is intentionally an effort to work
to support black, brown, Hispanic, multilingual students receiving special education services. I mean, that's the that's the focus of the professional learning altogether. So that's where it will show up in the in those practices, in in those
opportunities and requirements for the summer. So we do make requirements. That's why it's important that we let staff know by March 1st what will be required for them. Because they do have to attend. Leaders do have to attend that learning. I
guess maybe we need to make sure there's something intentional in that. So we know as a board that it is actually being done. And so if we could think through that. So we see
the intentionality. Also, back to the slide that you were on that had the list of courses. How many people participated. Yes. So 1422 participants. I
think there's a request to see how many take each of these different courses. So we understand maybe some aren't being selected also. And demographics. Thank you, Miss
Montoya. I also I'm a little surprised that it's only 1422. That to me is disappointing. We have I think you said 15,000 teachers. Reilly. Yes, we are
working to promote these and encourage people to take them. These are on top of these are these are in addition to these are people who are doing this. Maybe they have they can support ongoing continuing professional development for
licensure or just by choice. They want to take these courses. So these are these are more intense courses. You know they're after school on Saturdays. People are putting in the time to get continuing professional development
credits for these courses. I do understand that it is extra work, but it's extra work that actually needs to be done. So I don't know if there's something we can do to have to work with
our union partners to see if we can encourage taking more of these courses, maybe pick one a year or every so often. At least we should have that as a
goal, even if we can't get that written into a contract. But there should be an expectation, an expectation that you will be taking one of these courses. At regular intervals throughout
your career. Because. As was stated earlier by Miss Montoya, that what you don't know is what you don't know, right? Do you actually understand what
makes kids and also our fellow teachers feel unwelcome? And that is work that we all have to continue to do. Every single one of us has has to continue to do that work through our whole lives, because the way we
grew up or what was in society at one point seemed great. And now we look back and say, wow, that is not great. For instance, I grew up in DC, so we wore our
team shirts, right? Or sweaters or whatever and had offensive imagery on there. I would never wear that today, but that's because I had to learn that. I didn't know that when I was in elementary school and we all
participated, right? Just like, you know, there's other instances just like that, that growing up, you know, going to Virginia, I used to see a certain flag. I had no idea that that was offensive. When I
was five, six years old and growing up. And as I as we developed as a society, it became more and more unacceptable. Right. And we know exactly why, but we can't just assume people know that.
And we have to start that baseline. We have to just assume that people don't know what they don't know. So I'll move on to Brenda Wolff. I'm
tryi to understand or recall. I thought a lot of this was already in the professional growth system. So what I think you're really in need of is incorporating this rubric into
the system, right? I mean, I don't have the standards in front of me. I just kind of remember hearing that before. I also don't have the rubric in front of me. But I do know that equity is a through line throughout PGS. I don't know
that it's explicitly stated, but certainly it is factored in. I don't know if Marjorie wanted to add to that, but I just wanted to bring that to your attention. Yeah, I think it's the rubric that we need to make sure is included in there, because I do believe the
standards already provide for that. I would like somebody to get back to me on that. Yeah, we can we can go back and take a look. And as doctor McCall said, really look at where that intentionality is in the language. The rubric that I was
referring to is something that has yet to be developed. That's something that we're moving toward. And I think it's a great example and concern that you all raise when you're looking at the learning from, for example, the central services, anti-racist
leadership. Right. So what the Post-course assessment might tell you is just like when we have our students that are taking the MCAT assessment, right, you get a score, you get to determine whether or not the student is proficient. But what is the next step when you're trying to determine whether or not they've been able to
generalize that into real life experiences? Right. And so that's what the rubric would be intended to do. And I think you raise a good point, not just looking at the intentionality in the language within the PGS system, but also how that rubric could be incorporated in
the system itself. I have a question that has actually kind of baffled me for a little bit, because the law requires public school employees in school staff to be trained at least
every other year, specific to certain groups. And and I apologize, I didn't pull up the comer reference. I'm actually looking at an amendment to that section. Okay. It looks like it's education 6129. And it
talks about the Department of Education and the guidelines that they have to develop for anti-bias training for school employees. And it specifically delineates certain groups and says raises awareness of biases, prejudices, intolerances and discrimination faced by African Americans, Native Americans,
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. I will use the term Latino Americans and other historically marginalized racial and ethnic minorities. And if you go down further, it says that in section C1, every other year, each county board shall train each public school
employee whose job duties include frequent interactions with students using its anti-bias training. So it seems to me that Maryland law requires our public school employees to take trainings, at least specifically addressing those particular groups that
are in Comar. But that's not happening because at the even assuming that these 1422 participants are taking every single course for each one of those groups, which I'm sure we would find that they're not if we break it down. Right.
Definitely the 15,000 teachers and however many staff that are in schools are not. So how is how are we reconciling the noncompliance? So we have our annual compliance training that meets the requirement that you
just read. What this is referring to, as Marjorie stated is above and beyond the the standard professional learning that's required of our school staff. So the annual anti-bias training speaks
specifically to biases and prejudices against Native Americans. And then it speaks specifically to biases and prejudices against Asian Americans. Is that correct. So that I would have to look into. But the compliance training, training there are multiple
modules. And so I don't know exactly how specific or granular it gets, but the compliance training does address anti-bias and discrimination. Okay. I just would love some follow up on that to make sure that we're actually complying. Because if
we're not and if there's something external to our ability to require that, then we need to address that as a legal issue, right? Not just, hey, we'd really like it if you guys would take this training, right? And I understand that not everything is always in our control and we have to negotiate things sometimes, but
we need to understand whether this is also not just we would really like our staff to be trained this way, but also there's a potentially legal compliance issue that we need to. So from a compliance, and I don't want to say it like it's a check the box, you know. But from the compliance training
standpoint there is an accountability measure. There's monitoring to make sure that all employees have completed compliance training annually. What I think is important for us to really look into is to determine that, make sure that each group is represented
within that training. And we actually have a group that reviews the compliance modules annually. They're actually working on that now as we speak for next year, to make sure that if there's any changes that need to be made to the compliance modules, we can do so. So that's something that we
can raise with that group. Thank you. You're welcome. Can we just get back to the rubric. Because I think this is such important work. So we can actually have measurements. How.
What were the tools that you'll be using to actually do the measuring? I'm curious, are you going to use surveys or what what what will be used. So
there will be a combination of tools that we would use in order to develop the rubric. And then those would be resources that, as I was stating before, that administrators could use as look for things that they're actually looking for to see that our staff are implementing
in the classrooms, again, not just from an instructional standpoint, but also from that cultural leadership and their interactions with students every day. So yes, it could be surveys, it could be observations. There could be a number of tools that would be a part of that rubric. I would
love to have a follow up with the list of the different ways that you would get the information. Sure. Because as the old saying goes, garbage in, garbage out, right? So we want to make sure it actually
reflects the lived experience in our schools. And it looks like there's no more questions from my colleagues. I want to end more on a positive note. I
do see that at least the trends in the right direction. It's very small, especially. I was actually thinking about our diverse workforce slide. I
think it was like slide 11. Yes, we can just go back to their. I
believe in slide 11. But. Yes it is. Oops. We're going to get there. Oh it's actually ten.
Thank you. Excellent okay so. The good news is I see all pluses or pluses should be so we're not losing ground. I have to say I did do a little bit of
a math problem over here. The Hispanic 0.3% is about I believe four more educators. If anyone wants to correct my math, please do so. I will celebrate
those four extra teachers that can reflect our student body. We need to do better. I think what we've determined here is that the retention is huge, because I believe you said we
recruited over 100, which means we've lost too many, right. And so that is probably I always like to talk about the low hanging fruit. If we could get ten of those teachers to stay.
And then add to that, maybe we'll get closer to 1%. And then if we do that every year, you're going to get there, right? At least you're getting closer. So I do want to say I can see there has been work.
There's work being done that we are going in the right direction. We just need to accelerate. And so. I want to let you all know that I understand that we're trying to
do better. The rubric that you talked about is a great place to start as well. And so back to strategic plans. This is why we made a strategic plan, right, to make goals and see if we meet them. And so I really look
again I really look forward to seeing how we develop these goals, the information that goes in and then checking back on our work so we can finally make those improvements that my
colleague Miss Wolff has been working on for eight years. And I know she's made progress, and we're going to continue to build on that. Do you have a last word? I just wanted to
make some continuing technical requests, if that's okay. Go ahead. That work. Just so, for example, Miss Wolff asked for the breakdown by ethnicity and race of male educators. If that could just be a continuing request. If we could also have the percentages there, if we
could also include the numbers. So like for example, you said 10.3% was 157, for example. That's really helpful for us. And then if also we could include whether we're talking about educators or perhaps we're going to do another one later for paraeducators or
social workers, etc. if we could also include the student demographics so that we can see what is the student body look like at this same moment in time that we're looking at the workforce snapshot, I think that would be really helpful. Thank you. I also want to
acknowledge that this work means a lot to you all doing the work. And personally, I want to acknowledge that you all are also living in this
society. It's not always easy and doing the work can also be hard and want to acknowledge that. Especially face it. I don't have that same experience.
So please, if you have something you want to share with me, go ahead and do that because I'm opening to learning. So thank you all so much and I look forward to making progress. And with that, no more
questions. I think we're ready to end. Okay. And we are
closing the meeting. Thank you.