##VIDEO ID:TwmASPYwr2M## good morning everyone uh can someone just triple check that we're actually live streaming thumbs up anyone we're live streaming I'm checking I'm checking live yes Ros said yeah someone needs to mute that's me right uh so everyone good morning please don't forget to mute yourself why do I have it twice I hear myself twice do you have the YouTube up on your screen yeah that was YouTube okay I believe now I solve problems thank you Randy okay good good morning everyone thank you for joining us uh CPAC meeting for November 14 hoping everyone is having an amazing day and week obviously uh we are going to let me just share my [Music] slides second okay thumbs up if you can see my slides beautiful thank you so much and okay okay awesome okay good morning everyone again I'm going to the first thing is welcome welcome and welcome and congratulations to um the new executive board uh you see their names on the screen uh congratulations yay working together as always um we are going to uh read the uh cpath Pro procedures and standing rules uh you have seen it in your emails it's a lot and these are a summary of the SeaTac rules which I'm going to read right now raise your hand and wait to be recognize before speaking right be active be an active listening and engage be respectful kind and professional One mic one two three before me uh don't uh please don't unmute yourself uh no side conversation uh please don't disrespect anyone uh no followup questions after you have already um uh your question has been answered um and is um infractions what does that mean if you do a boo boo right at first infraction is a warning the second one will be you will be muted and then the third one uh you will be removed from the the current meeting any uh questions please write it in the chat but no side conversation and stay engag AG um the current members as of yesterday that have sent all their election forms uh and count as Quorum for today um our district 1 District 2 District three District 4 District 5 District 8 11 14 17 20 21 22 25 2 6 28 29 30th 3275 uh Bronx High School president Council Brooklyn High School president Council Manhattan High School's president's Council Queens High School president Council and EST Staten Island president's Council um if you have not done so already please please please it's imperative that Anthony Aguilar has all your uh forms completed and sign election uh date and also um um the the person that held the election okay now I'm going to pass the mic to the beautiful Randy to do roll call thank you Rosa okay so we're gonna call roll call by District so if you're here just unmute and say that you're here um Ashley District One I saw okay uh District Two here District three District three District Four District 5 District Six District 8 here good morning present thank you ER District 11 District 17 I thought I saw 17 here thank you District 20 here district 21 yeah District 22 District 25 here District 26 I said District 26 District 26 Adriana district 28 District 29 District 29 is here for solo montaro thank you Priscilla District 30 present District 32 present District 75 Brooklyn High School I am here Bronx High School Manhattan president's Council Rose I know you're here Queens high school here and St Island High School present anyone I missed I think you might have missed apologies I think you might have missed district 14 jatel district 14 no okay all right please make sure you fill out the attendance form and then we'll know that you're definitely here I see a hand rais District 25 I I captured her for attendance thank you got you District 26 put in the chat that they're here but they're at a coffee and conversation and cannot speak so I just wanted to make sure their presence was recognized okay yes this is what we said about being engaged but thank you all right I turn the floor back over to you chair Rosa thank you so much Randy okay and the agenda for for today is rollal which Randy just did uh CAC business this is what um is it's like a new chapter right um we are going to be engaged because we sign up to do the work and together right we can inform and guide other parents and how do we do that is by actually being in the meeting staying connect connected and and active and engaged in learning because all this knowledge will be bringing back to our district our borrow for my example Manhattan I'm going to bring back all the information that I'm learning today what I keep on learning because every single day is a Learning lesson at least to me okay um so today we're having a presentation from the office of Supervisors of school psychologist by a executive director of school-based evaluation and family engagement please correct me if I'm saying your name incorrectly Arwin bajo and at around 1010 we're having the division of inclusive and accessible learning by senior executive director of special education School support Andy cor and the associate director of Special Projects special education office Stephanie Hilo um and also office of food and nutrition services we're having the chief of staff Nelson quilles Nicole Bona and Christopher H one second my screen is covering the last name Tri cardio and we're also having h a face updates uh hope I I'm not able to see everyone but hopefully Dr Christina is here and BB and everyone uh and we're going to hear from our new Chancellor Chancellor Melissa AES Ramos we are so excited to work with you and move forward from um anything that has been going on in the past so we are super super excited um we are also hopefully we have enough time to do districts updates so if you have anything going on in your district and borrow please write it down so when we call your name we call your District you are ready and then hopefully we'll adjourn and have an amazing rest of day if you haven't seen it already uh we have updated the monthly uh dates for our general meetings and also the executive board meetings uh that's our email address info CAC CPAC New York City gmail.com uh and mark your calendar for the next meeting December 12 at 9:30 a.m. okay CPAC commune meetings I have not been able to attend the high school I'm going to be very honest and transparent I was a little uh occupied with work but I will make it my business to attend if not most most of the meetings to see what we can have a a a recap of everything that happened during um the upcoming month so capacity building and support means quarterly or as needed the first uh Tuesday of the month at 11:30 a.m. communication meets quarterly the first Tuesday of the month or as needed High School is the first Monday of the month unless it's a holiday uh around 10:30 a.m. uh just in case so everyone knows it's the same chair for that committee that is continuing the work legislative committee meets quarterly or as needed multilingual language Learners bilingual English uh language Learners meets quarterly and of course a special education you can see the dates on the screen Title One meets quarterly the first Tuesday of the month at 11:00 a.m. Wellness health and safety is the second Wednesday of month at 10:30 a.m. and the alumni it meets quarterly uh or as needed okay and now we're going to our percentage don't mind my screen I'm going to take it off right now okay the first presenter you have the mic which is the uh office of Supervisors of schools um psychologist hi everyone good morning I am Lauren Sullivan and I'm joined with my colleague here Arena Vio I'm going to take a moment just to take over the screen sharing if you'll give me a moment good morning everyone my name's AR Vio and while Lauren um gets up Lauren will be um leading the charge I'm getting over a a bit of a respiratory infection here but I'm in the background happy to answer any questions um time in is needed uh Lauren's our director of evaluations and eligibility no one better than her to lead the work here glad to uh be here with everyone this morning great thanks ARA and I think we're all set up here now excellent great so as Arena explained we are from the office of Supervisors of school psychologist and we are really thankful to be here with you today it was an honor to be invited and not just because this is our work and we do on a day-to-day basis but because this is the work that we really believe in that an appropriate a thorough and high quality evaluation that uh really determines if a student meets eligibility requirements for special education services uh and the requirements that come along with that and then connects them to services that support them academically socially while they are in school and then of course to achieve those after school SCH After High School goals that's why we get excited to talk about evaluations assessments IP development uh and like ARA said we lead a lot of professional learning with our team so it's excited to have this uh group here today arwena is our executive director of school-based evaluations and parent engagement and she is a bilingual school psychologist who supported many students and many fam for years and continues to do so in this role so uh while I'll be taking the mic today she's also here to support and will'll be able to answer any questions you have in the chat as well okay so in our short time together today a quick 20 minutes on something that we could talk for hours about we really hope that you'll understand the role of the school psychologist in the evaluation process learned more about assessment options that are available for students make connections between the assessments that we conduct in our schools with students and to the IEPs that we then develop for them uh if necessary and how we connect that to what we call the Continuum of services so the role of the school-based support team the spst our school psychologists and social workers that's who we're talking about when we talk about our school-based support teams they are supporting in districts 1 through 32 District 75 and they're primarily supporting the uh EV valuation process so when a request is made for an evaluation some three big steps that they take to go through this process that are is really leading planning and reviewing what they have learned about the child during this time so they they don't just lead this work in in their own bubble but really they work really closely with all stakeholders to examine the reason for referral the appropriateness of referral they'll talk with families and other stakeholders in the school building to talk about why is this referral being made for the student and how can we best then plan for any necessary or the type of assessment that is that we can put forward for the student uh we'll talk about the plethora of materials that they have available to them but what they are really looking for is what path will tell us most or the best information about the student that will we can then connect for them to to help them both academically socially and longterm uh as they become College and Career ready so as a team they really work to collect data across many different scenarios in order to then review that data and work as an entire IEP team that may include um the the many stakeholders depending on the students uh reason for referral but it always includes our parents right special Educators General Educators our school Psych ologist if this is an an initial evaluation and now they all come together to review data and work diligently to analyze the many sources of data that were collected um they they think about how will the student best be supported do they meet eligibility requirements for one of our 13 disability classifications and if so they work together to develop an appropriate and inclusive high quality IP and that's always what's in the for front of their mind as as they're looking at the data how can they connect what they learned about the student to what is appropriate to support them so how do they do that well it's all in a day's work or over 60 days really and this is a bit of an overview of that process and we'll unpack each of them uh upon request the the team will determine with the parent with the administration is this evaluation appropriate or is there another way that we can support this student throughout the process other than an evaluation if it is through the evaluation process then that is conducted uh by the school psychologist the social worker will reach out to you as well the IEP meeting is held to discuss the findings and uh if any special education services uh if required are then determined at that time so let's go into each of those a little bit so when we say that our school psychologists and social workers have access to many uh Assessments in order to really create this comprehensive learner profile for the student they do and we've worked really hard to expand the availability of Assessments for clinicians over the last few years but there are some big buckets that they each fall into and that's because the the goal of an special education evaluation is to really measure the students current levels whether that relates to academic performance and learning characteristics their social emotional performance their health and physical development and also we're looking to really look at that student strengths and weaknesses in each of these different areas that you see here right that um that that we can have access to assessments to support whether that's through achievement cognitive specialized assessments and all of this data that's collected is then organized and discussed at the IP meeting so School psychologists have access to a wide variety of tools those achievement tests that you see there they're looking to measure Prof Proficiency in many different academic areas uh of the student that could be Reading Writing math spelling and it really looks at how much the student has acquired H in terms of their own development and learning which is a bit different than what you often hear about as well in our next box here which is the cognitive testing and cognitive assessments that are looking more uh about ability and intellectual ability of the student and this is where we really get some insight about the students about some of their bigger areas that may be impacting their learning so that can be something around um the students basic processing their language development some of their abilities that when it come to problem solving um we learn more about students there and our our school psychologists compile all this together now depending on the type of the referral it can be an initial referral an evaluation to determine if the student is still eligible uh the clinician and school psychologist that's assigned to work with the student they determine the appropriate assessments and those Also may include what we have access to now over the last few years specialized assessments and these are where we're looking to see an a much an individual need uh by the team what what are some additional areas that may be impacting the student is that around something like executive functioning a specific writing need that the student has um a print-based disability such as dyslexia and also very exciting to know is that our school psychologists have access to a neuros pychological assessment also known as the nepsi when that does look at some of those uh neuropsychologic iCal functions of a student so and and often times this is a request or happens outside of the school building but we're and big Believers that are School psychologists know your child the best know the student the best and this is a great place for this type of assessment to happen so that we can learn the most about the student so that is something that a school psychologist May recommend to uh the team to conduct during this time and we also have raing scale reading skills are sometimes uh connected to you and discussed with you through our school social workers they look at some other skills that students have and that may be impacting their learning or social emotionally some of these may be around developmental skills we have scales around autism that look at the different types of behavior including daily living skills of a student and of course some of their social and emotional learning as well often our rating scales are complete Ed by uh staff at the school the family sometimes we're involving the student in those reading scales and they're a great great way to learn more about the student um through multiple stakeholders Now new and really exciting in 2024 is uh digital assessments that are hitting our schools and started Rosa I see you smiling and shaking I don't know if you're as excited as we are or if you experienced this already but we have uh started iPad administration of many of our um assessments through the Pearson publishing digital assessment Library uh for school so we have uh started already this year with great success in having over 40,000 different subtests uh of Assessments completed since September already our school psychologists our social workers have been trained and this is a long time in the works to have this proposal and have this funded for our clinicians and we know that it will only create equal access to assessment tools throughout the city it's more impactful and interactive for students and it also ensures that we're reducing errors and increasing efficiency for our own staff right and ensuring a greater productivity for them um not no more hoarding of test materials or waiting to get them or delays in shipment but now everything is available on an iPad one for a school psychologist and one for student so definitely uh increasing some excitement here in 2024 now what about the role of the parent during the evaluation process there's many times your uh your your information your um information about your own child is weaved throughout this time so that may include uh and the social history meeting and that's with our school social worker our school social worker will meet with the family and this is a very comprehensive interview and conversation with the family to learn about that student's history related to learning social skills development it tracks right from birth through current to learn more about the students uh development any concerns that are related to the referral or any suspected disability so we really depend on good relationships between our social workers and parents during this time this will be the first part of that um initial referral process and then updates happen throughout the years as uh the student and if the student continues to be eligible like we were just talking about the parent interviews they happen a few different ways uh very formal ways through rating scales our social workers may contact you to complete and get some more formalized data through rating scales to learn more about the child or we also have our vocational assessments that learn more about a student's postsecondary goals whether that relates to college or a career or what their hopes and dreams are after they are done with us here as a senior in high school so these are required for our students who are turning 12 and you'll work with the school team to do those um but oftentimes they even happen before 12 if if appropriate it's a great way to get student voice parent voice and learn more so we can align what we're doing in our school building with what the student wants to do afterwards and then of course you're invited to the IP meeting and that's where all the information is shared with you and the rest of the stakeholders as well the members we participate in the development of the IEP at this time and that includes developing goals for the student and really thinking through collaboratively what the appropriate Services may be for that child at that time and we encourage all of our parents to come informed and be really active participants at the IEP meeting we've shared a couple of questions that you may uh think through at the end of this presentation to support you in attending that iip meeting so at that I meeting now is the big time to connect the results of the evaluation that uh our teams have done with the recommendations uh of the IP development so after that students evaluation the IP team makes that determination around student eligibility so this can't be a disability that's due to a limited uh language right it could be an acquisition we have to really differentiate here is this a disability a language disability or a language acquisition struggle that the student may be having is this due to a lack of uh access in a certain subject reading or writing or math and does the student meet one of our 13 educational disability classifications so our teams have a big job to get it right and they're well equipped and well trained to do that um and what we we ask is that everybody trusts the data that's collected right looking at the student holistically and big picture but really thinking through and looking at those re results of the comprehensive evaluation that tells us a lot about the student and and helps us connect to um any special education services that are are needed so any type of specialized instruction for the student assist of technology or ways that we support teachers so that they can then better support students all this is discussed at that that IEP meeting and uh also to bring up is oftentimes we're discussing at the time of re-evaluation if we can consider declassification or reduction of services for the student because what was made right last year as we you know relook at the IP year yearly at least yearly we're always considering can we reduce any services for the students uh and provide them with greater access to general education environment general education curriculum so if the team is talking to you about considering declassification Services uh that's exciting right no longer being eligible for a school-based educational disability um or service so uh we always celebrate that for sure and that happens for many of our students as well as appropriate all right so the Continuum of services that uh we use to make recommendations for students is this great colorcoded uh visual that you say here that you see here our IP teams walk our families through a variety of services that are available those that are appropriate they're inclusive and they meet the needs of the student they may like I said sound familiar to you but they are all color coded in a very specific way way to really describe the broad and um multifaceted array of special education services that we offer here in New York city so we we look at the needs of the student and decide start writing from the beginning how can we support this student in our most inclusive general education environment is that through something like ICT integrated co- teing or special education teacher Support Services sets that happens inside of that general education classroom so it's important that there's to remember there are many different Service delivery options but uh our biggest Point here and our biggest reminder that we have for our teams for our families who participate in our IP meetings is that we always want to think towards that bottom right how can we support the student in general education and as we move up the Continuum which may be necessary for students depending on their needs always try trying to remain uh as as um most inclusive as we can for them we think about intensity and we think about restrictiveness and what that offers for the student so we always want full participation as much as possible and there's fluidity right between these different services that are here this is not a one siiz fits all it's really um a menu right we don't bucket our students into a certain uh recommendation that's here but we we really encourage all of our teams and we do a lot of training and data review to Think Through how are we supporting students in multiple different areas so our Continuum while I could talk for probably six hours about each of these Services is available and uh linked at the end here if you have questions more uh more questions about some of these different services and how they support students throughout the school school day but do know that our teams really do engage in ongoing convers ations around how to best support a student right uh and through one or more of these services and that can include what we see along the side here related Services as well right always our biggest goal is promoting that Independence for the student uh as much as possible so many uh of our goals and guiding principles I I previously discussed with you but let's talk just quickly about restrictiveness and intensity that I had mentioned there this is another graph that's connected to our Continuum and it's something that we consider when we're making a recommendation for a student whether it's a program or a service we think both about restrictiveness and intensity so restrictiveness is shown on the I guess this the horizontal axis and then intensity is going up and down on our vertical axis and these are not to be looked at as absolutes or um you know actual intensity but a couple of different examples of how we work towards being more restrictive or less restrictive in our recommendations so as we are moving to the right we're becoming less restrictive right we're giving more access to general education peers our ratio is greater between teacher special education teacher and student the location of our services is um definitely less restrictive as well and in the bottom left corner we are both less int tense and restrictive because of those specific access that you could see here the different general education peers that the student is amongst in their class uh so and then as we do move to the right it becomes more restrictive right less access to general education peers more intensive student to teacher ratio and we're always striving for the least intense and the least in restrictive recommendation uh in order to best benefit the student so needs may be met not only through a special education evaluation a lot of times we do see recommendations or requests for referrals that may not necessarily be required for the student right they may not be necessary because it may not be due to a disability it may be a need for further and more intensified instruction that's not related to a disability so know that the team will talk to you uh as a parent and uh with an ad administrator about how to match that individual students need to the type of teaching that will be best for them they may meet with you and ask for your permission and your agreement and in making a plan that will support the student prior to going through with an evaluation to give it some time for the student to have access to Quality instruction that happens here at the bottom for all students but also at a tier 2 smaller group level for the student in order to see if more and further and specialized instruction for that student at this level will make a difference prior to the evaluation so uh we often see this being successful for students and it helps ensure that we are really making the right decisions for students um you know in more instruction versus specialized instruction that's connected to a student's disability so I mentioned some questions that you may consider when you come to the IP meeting meeting and things you may think of before you even come to the I meeting and we really uh want to know right what do you hope for your child what do you want for them not just now but long term so we can consider what is the best way to get them there what do you think about intensity and restrictiveness of recommendations for the child because we want to promote their access to as much as possible their peers without PS right in their in their classes and the types of schools we're recommending for them in the type of Assessments that we do and um and recommend for the student as well and we also ask you at at home right what do you see if the student has a disability right now say it's a learning disability how does that manifest in your own child how does that impact them at home and how does the recommendation and current service that they have now align to what's happening there because at the end we do want to know right is the same level of service and program actually needed for your child throughout the school day or can we consider something that may be more appropriate for them so if at the end of all of this you do feel right that an evaluation is required for the student or that um you know the the all the options have been uh used up and we're ready to move forward with an evaluation we go go forward with many different ways to make a referral and your school uh based support teams Administration are always there to welcome your concerns and see what is the best route for the student so uh do always feel that your right is there to make your um recommendation or your request for an evaluation because we have amazing really well-qualified clinicians at our school building ready to meet those requests and support uh children throughout the city so thank you for a quick 20 minutes to go through uh the work that we do and we'll stick around a bit if there's any questions you finished right on time look at that right on time you did it thank you so so much uh special education IEP that is very very dear to my heart my daughter is autistic in the eighth grade and try and she is driving independent I can talk all day too um thank you so much please share uh all this wonderful information beautiful slid so we can share it with everyone everyone is going to learn and how to advocate for the children too you know what I mean thank you thank you so much we do talk to our psychologist that they are our Advocates right they are their voice so thank you yes yes yes absolutely Randy do you have any uh questions uh for the presenter by any chance um I guess we could put questions in the chat just to be respectful of everyone's time because I know our next presenter is here thank you thank you thank you okay if you have any questions for uh the presenter that just finished presenting uh please write it in the chat we uh C there's a little bit chance at the end we'll we'll go back or if anything we'll send them to you and then you can bring it back to us and then we can send it to all constituents and these I'm the next presenter but these are my dear colleagues Lauren and Arena so if you need a few extra minutes it's no problem you're so kind thank you so much we also thank you thank you thank you um yes please write it in the chat and uh we are going to go to the next person Center which is you wonderful uh your agenda management is so skillful uh my name is Andy Corso my pronouns are she and her I work in the special education office with the amazing Lauren and Arena um as as wonderful colleagues um and it looks like there is a question coming in um and so um I'll pause for just a moment in case it makes sense to answer that one and then I can't wait to share the presentation on MDR um and would love to answer the questions you raised but also hear any concerns that folks are having around that um Lauren ARA is this a quick question to answer or you it's a little Nuance so we'll answer in the chat okay wonderful wonderful I wanted to I wanted to double double check and see see what the status of that one was uh how come all the best questions are Nuance that's what I appreciate uh so so that's that's where we that's what we have there um so I'm thrilled to be here with you today to talk about um discipline um students with disabilities and IEPs and the process called MDR um I'm going to share a lot of policy information and references um that are connected to the core questions you asked and I also just want to start with the intention that I know sometimes these questions come from something that has not gone well a situation where a student did not have the process followed or that you're concerned about um did the student get the support they needed so please do know I'm going to share the policy with you but if there are specific cases you're concerned about um or questions that come up I'm also just here to listen and really take back any information about what you're hearing and what you're seeing to make sure that we're doing everything as we need to be doing um for our students with disabilities um especially when it comes to school safety and discipline um so I'm absolutely here for that and get ready for a lot of policy that I will absolutely share all these slides with you as well well um and so you will get a copy of the slides also all right all right can everyone see my screen okay wonderful wonderful um and so MDR which we use as an abbreviation is called manifestation determination review and and we'll talk more about when this comes into the discipline and safety process but in simple terms MDR is is at a point in time saying just a second did this behavior challenge or discipline incident happen because of the students's disability or because of a failure to implement the IEP there's a specific protection and review that happens to make sure that we're doing everything that we need to do to support our students with disabilities so let's take a look the first thing I want to orient you are some primary resources so when I talk about MDR I'll refer to these resources through out the First Resource is Chancellor's regulation a443 and after I after I introduce each of them I'll show them on the screen but these links are live that you're able to take a look at the second core resource is the Citywide behavioral expectations to support student learning also known as the discipline code and and that has the best practices for New York City Public Schools that's broken up into K through five and 6 to 12 the third core resource reference document is the special education standard operating procedures manual which we call the sopm and then finally we have a link to the MDR worksheet for the actual MDR meaning which asks some important questions um to consider during an MDR meeting so these are these are our big core resources that I'm going to refer to a lot that I'm pulling policy language from that you might want to refer back to I'm just going to click on them to show you what the resources look like and then I'll go right into answering your questions so if you take a look here my computer cooperates then the CH this is Chancellor's regulation a43 and I'll make it a little bit bigger for you and this what it does I'm I'm going quick I just want to orient you to it this is all about discipline procedures and so especially when your first question I'll be referring to this and here it has a specific section on individual ual with disability and protections that are involved if you take a look here your first question had to do with principle suspension versus teacher removal all of that is outlined in Chancellor's regulation a443 so I just wanted to show you what that document looks like it has a lot of valuable information in it and and this document is for all students and there are special protections for students with disabilities then you may be familiar with also so just a second let's go back here with the Citywide behavioral expectations and what I love about this document that I just want to show for you for a second and I know I'm going quickly just to orient you is this document really has a lot on supports and interventions and so here when I when you when I get to your supports and interventions question this is a great resource for that and again this is the guidance document for all students in New York City Public School staff and schools and in here it has all of these supports and interventions along with definitions and descriptions of them so we'll refer to this when we get to question number three that you asked as well and then finally the last thing I'll show you here is um the sopm and if you haven't had a chance to see this yet this is a very important resource are you all seeing the sopm on my screen or not yet great and so this resource is kind of live and linkable because it's always updated and so when you click on this I took you right to the place on mdrs um but there's a ton of valuable information that I'll be referring to in the sopm so this is where all the information I'm going to share came from the core documents and these are places you can have much more information about um about what the expectations and policies are so let's Dive Right into your great questions question number one what is the rubric for Teacher removal principal suspension and superintended suspension for IEP students who have behavior issues so again we're going to zoom all the way out the Chancellor's regulation that I shared with you has the procedures in the rubric for all students regardless of disciplinary of um IEP status and disability status and has a specific section for each one of these and students with IEPs at 504 plans have specific um protections um underneath federal and state law and our policy which I'll get into a little bit later um in the presentation it has to do with MDR and then take a look at this last piece here in this please know that the expectation is that every reasonable effort be made to correct student Behavior through interventions and supports so we we don't want to go to removal the whole thrust of this is that we want to take supports and interventions so we do not get to a removal so these are the core pieces um in the sopm in the Chancellor's regulation around teacher removal principal suspension and superintendent suspension all right so let's talk about the protections a bit so this again is under question number one that you asked me and these are the protections that are there specifically for our students with five four plant and IEPs I'm going to give you just 30 seconds to read this screen and then I'll unpack it a little bit okay so the MDR is based on a couple of factors one is how often has the student actually had a removal um so 10 days is what we're looking for that's when the MDR process is triggered and it's called a disciplinary change in placement that's what we mean by a removal so those are the criteria for it how do we make sure that we're tracking that timeline and this is the the system called Soho and so anytime there's a teacher removal a principal suspension or a superintendent suspension that must be entered at so in SoHo if there's a decision to remove the student and then the clock starts in terms of how often is this happened for how many days and that's how we know that the MDR will be um scheduled and held if we meet the criteria which is the number of days more than 10 consecutive days or 10 cumulative days um there's also criteria called pattern of removals but just in simple language we're looking at is this about the same topic like is this about the same issue and and I'll get to that in one of your questions as well so these are the policy um answers for question number one what's the rubric for Teacher removal principal suspension and superintendent suspension for IEP students with behavior issues I'm going to move to question two so what support is given to students who have been given a superintendent suspension to ensure instruction time is not interrupted this is hugely important um and so oh I see someone just joined the waiting so it is an expectation that schools are required to provide appropriate supports to students during their suspension and when they return to their home school academically and behavioral supports both particularly for IEP students this so that's for any suspension but particularly for students with EPS the supports are memorialized on something called a suspension plan which is actually co-created by The Homeschool and the suspension site so they have to work together on that there's a little difference based on grade level here about how that plays out um for middle and high school students if it's a superintendent support uh suspension they serve the suspension at something called an alternate Learning Center for our younger students our elementary students it's like a buddy school or neighboring School um where they'll be serving their suspension and and please note that those whatever the location is they collaborate with the home school to make sure that there's a continuity of support the third Point here about supports look at paragraph three for me students with IEPs must be provided with special education services during any suspension so that they can continue to work toward their IEP goals so that is another their piece um and again the goal is to prepare students to return to the home school um the home school must continue supports um and um again we're looking at supports and interventions so those are the the policies and guidelines for support during a suspension this is both in the sopm and in the Citywide Behavior expectations for each of these slides at the top I put the reference which core document I pulled the policy from for you to be able to refer to let's take a look at question three so what supports are giving to a child before being suspended and this is the most important work so there there's a couple of important pieces here I'd love you just to read the statement and then we we'll look at it in more depth so please know it is an expectation that supports and interventions are used for all students and also for students with IEPs or 504 plans so that we are um having a comprehensive approach that improves student Behavior lowers the incidence of repeated behavior and then has a positive School environment for learning just to just because this is such an important one I am going to go straight to the source document on this so that we can actually look at the descriptions of some of the supports that are there and um please I I also just want to highlight here and I see some some things in the chat oh I apologize I have not been tracking the chat team oh okay okay good good awesome awesome awesome okay um is that um uh so let's take a look at the actual Source document for this one so I'm going to go back to our source page I'm going to click on behavioral expectations because this is the source document for that one and then can you see my document is is it showing now or is it still my slideshow showing you cannot see the document it's still my slideshow okay no problem that's what I've got that's that's why I always check success not yet you might have to stop sharing and then reshare share I remember share perfect perfect um Rosa your signals are so helpful a like the thumbs up thumbs down expressive face is really working for me as a zoom presenter right now so let's just let's just spend a little time with this document so here are all of the different supports we're going to talk more about the FBA and the bip in your question number four and those are spefic specific strategies to provide support around challenging behaviors but there are all of these other pieces as well and what I love about the um this um our Citywide Behavior guidance is that if we take a look and we move down they actually have definitions and links for all of these types of supports and and I do think that this is a helpful resource for schools to connect back into and say all right so what is collaborative problem solving the trained School staff member can use this process to identify the antecedent or the behaviors that happened before um the precipitating behavior articulate adult concerns and then engage the student in a collaborative process to address underlying reasons for the behavior and decide on a plan of action so that's just a and then there are all of these different pieces as well mentoring counseling PBIS um specific Counseling Services CBO um counseling about bullying intimidation harassment really looking at mental health support services so I I think that this core document is a very rich source um especially if a school is feeling a little stuck to really come back to this core expectation that supports and resources should be customized for the student and we have a a wide variety of research based techniques that can absolutely be leveraged here to support the students who who are experiencing challenging Behavior so that's something I commend to you and to all schools as they just a reground in that core resource I'll go back to my slides and of course I want to leave time um if there are questions but so but I want to I want to tackle our fourth question so here we go okay you should be seeing my slide again perfect and again that's the core resource that I just looked at here all right and now I'm going to question number four this is such a helpful question can children be suspended for the same reason and what supports are given to the child to prevent the occurrence from happening again I love the thinking of this question to really say if it's happening again the support we provided did not work so what are we doing to actually be be um lifting up and and and moving that there are specific requirements about this and one thing that we focus on here is something called the FBA in bip functional Behavior Analysis and behavior intervention plan and I will show you some specific resources in this but first I want to look at the policy children can be suspended again for the same reason but if they are there are specific expectations especially in the MDR process so let's look at three different cases here so what if the MDR team this is number one one says you know what this challenging Behavior was a result of this child's disability actually this is related Poe to the child's disability in that case the suspension does not happen in that particular case unless it's a very extreme exception weapons um there there are specific exceptions for that but then take a look at what happens here if it is a manifestation disability a functional Behavior assessment must be connected conducted and if appropriate a behavior intervention plan bip must be developed and implemented immediately if it doesn't exist it must be if it has already been conducted then it has to be reviewed so what's not working with this functional Behavior plan or the bip and modified is needed so we start with the the functional Behavior Analysis and then move to the BB and take a look at number three this is something that's also carefully considered in the MDR is the IEP being fully implemented or are we not providing some of the supports and services if there's any part of the IEP that's not being fully implemented steps must be taken immediately to remedy deficiencies so those are those are the kind of policy steps if um if we're in this situation to prevent reoccurrence if it is a manifestation of the disability let's look at two other cases and then I'll talk about FBA and bip for a minute so what if it's determined the students behavior was not a manifestation of their disability removal may happen so there may be a suspension but there also need to be some extra steps taken here so let's say they said you know what this was not a manifestation of the disability still at the next IEP meeting the IEP team must determine whether they should do an FBA or to develop a review bit so we still need to bring those in even if it was not a manifestation of disability and if an FBA is required one must be condu conducted and a decision must be made about whether they the student requires a bip if it's required it must be developed implemented immediately if they already have a bip it must be reviewed so again this is even if it was not a manifestation because the student has an IEP at the next IEP meeting they need to go through these considerations because of the fact that there was a challenging behavior that resulted in a removal and then finally look at number three because we take repeated Behavior so seriously like something's not working here if you look at number three regardless of number one or two if it's found to be a manifestation or not if any member of an MDR team says you know what we need to change our support of the student either Educational Services or related services or maybe we need to re-evaluate through assessments for the student then that member must request re-evaluation or IEP review immediately um following the completion of the MDR so this is another moment to step back and say okay because this happened does that cause us to say just a second should we be considering different types of support the last thing i' love to do and then I want to make sure that we open it up is actually look at the SP sopm for what is the f um FBA INB so I'm going to go back to our core documents and these are hugely helpful tools I know we have so many acronyms um and it's just like FBA bip there's sopm there's so many pieces but I do want to just show you the FBA and bit part of the sopm because I think these are hugely valuable tools so just to show you in the resar sources so I'm going to stop share again because I'm going to a new document and again the core document I'm going to is the core document of the sopm on this one just a second and I'm pulling it up for you I see a new message coming in okay so let me share my screen and then I'll take questions um uh okay you should be seeing the sopm now so we're back in the sopm document and I just want you I just I just think this is a really helpful section to Anchor in for schools and I I want to just give a plug for a functional Behavior assessment take a minute and just read the paragraph you can see under overview functional Behavior assessment then I'm going to lift up a few key points and then I'm happy to answer additional questions all right team I'm gonna I'm gonna make the screen a little bit smaller so you can see everything at once there we go I know you probably haven't read the whole page but the first paragraph was the most important so I think what I'd like to close here is what we know in the special education office and what we know as good Educators is that behavior is communication behavior is actually communicating a need something the student is trying to get or trying to avoid that's what behavior is is communication um and one of the things I love about a functional Behavior assessment is that really trying to get at what is the function of this Behavior what is the student trying to communicate with this Behavior are they trying to communicate actually I need more of something or I need less of something and that's what this tool when done with Integrity is really able to do is get at what is the underlying communication so that that underlying need can be met and we're able to move forward and support the student to be in a really positive learning environment for themselves and their peers I'm going to close here with the presentation I'll be sending all these slides to you of course uh but would love to just I know we're in our last minute um but would would love to pause I'm happy to answer questions I also I also just want to acknowledge while I've shared all this policy and it's important that we know the policy it doesn't always go well um and so if there are particular students you're concerned about if there's a case you're like Andy thank you for sharing the policy but that's not what happened here uh then then please do let let us know one thing I wanted today is to make sure we all have the same common language but I also this is an area of active um support something we care deeply about um so we we certainly want to know about concerns you're hearing or experiencing um and we know there are students for whom these policies are are not yet working the way that they should thank you Andy this was very very heavy detail yeah I was like literally looking at your face and looking at Randy because me and Randy were making the same faces yeah and I'm like w it's kiding it's going straight to my heart because I you know like see it in different districts that's right and it's like you know I needed like a moment to breathe I feel bad um thank you for the very heavy presentations yeah um hopefully we don't have any of that uh that everything is well that everyone is happy that the children our students have everything that they need that they have the best quality resources education in order to succeed and that's why we're all here yes that is our main mission you know to to support to Pro to guide every single parent Guardians so they can advocate for their children that's right okay that's right that's why I do what I do that's and that's what we all here that's right um thank you please send us uh those slides and to everyone absolutely um truly thank you for joining us tonight me today oh gosh so well and just thank you for acknowledging the heaviness um both of the density of the policy it's like it's a lot but also the lived experience of students and family um and and so um I'm just grateful for the way that you hold space for so many um families um and also try to make this information more accessible because sometimes like the documents are dense and it's it's like we're where do all these things live and this doesn't feel right but like how do I document that like there's just a lot of layers to it so I think that your leadership and this whole this whole um advisory Council really provides a pivotal role in making that bridge um and making more accessible um the rights and responsibilities that we have for students um so deep appreciation for that um uh my name is Andy Corso I'm a Corso 6 um in the New York City Public Schools I'm grateful for this time with you um and I will absolutely be sharing the presentation deck um and um and uh thank you again thank you for breaking it down also you know it was a lot of information and you explaining in it felt better right but it it was Heavy it's still a lot it's still a lot it's I I there's no no two ways about it um I I don't want to keep you I know you have your next presenter um on Deck uh to to go through the next part of the of the work so um again don't hesitate to reach out thank you so much for the invitation um and and deeply grateful for your work awesome awesome thank you so much um is uh Stephanie Hu going to also present or no she could not be here today so uh so I'm I'm presenting for us today both no problem you did it thank you so much please send us the information we'll do um and thank you for your time'll do um now we have a office of food and nutrition services Nelson is here niola is here someone Christopher no well we we we'll be representing Chris today abely just want to go ahead and thank you all for having us today um Chris and I have had the pleasure of presenting to this group several times we've provided an overview of our program many times and more often than not questions will always come up about the specifications of our menus how are they built we'll get asked questions about menu accommodations and we always wish we had Nicole present to answer those questions because that is our area of expertise we can speak on it uh rather freely and provide um solid details but not in-depth details like she can so we just wanted to take this opportunity to provide a in-depth analysis and look at our menu creating our um the nutritional and the guidelines behind creating the menu and to answer any specific uh menu questions that you guys might have or that might come up due to the presentation so without further Ado I would like to turn it over to my colleague Nicole bonica who is our menu coordinator for our menu Management Department hi good morning everybody and thank you for having me on this call so again my name is Nicole Bona menu coordinator here in menu Management Department I'm also registered dietitian and certified dietetic nutritionist uh with the organization and I'm going to go over um my presentation which uh kind of answers some of those questions that uh Nelson was referring to uh so some of the things that we're going to discuss today um is our food standards what drives our menus um a little bit about how we do accommodations plastic free lunch day collaboration uh which is part of our menu now part of our 3-week cycle and cafeteria enhancement and then a separate menus which are are Hala menus okay so our our mission is to equally serve New York City's students with healthy and delicious meals that enhance their educational experience reflect their voice and nourish them into adulthood um and we talk about that mission all the time especially when we have student taste testing we we discuss how those students Drive our menu products and our our recipe choices and it's really important that their students our students voices are heard so we currently have 36 menus with about 500 plus recipes we actually did the count just two days ago we actually have 515 recipes we're serving over 1,800 schools in all different sorts of varieties um whether it's an Express menu or a regular hotline menu um with over 1 Mill students enrolled in the in uh Department of Education we're serving about 850,000 meals per day with and who supports that work is our partners and we have about 50 plus partners that we orchestrate all of this with so the way that our menus are created and the way that our products are procured we have three bodies that we really look at one is New York City Food standards so we have to follow all the governing rules of that New York City sets for our food standards then we have the USDA standards which I'll get into a little bit and then we have our own internal standards so some of our our own internal standards and I start with over finess first um just because it's it's one of the most it's us it's who we are and we drive our own products so uh for example we we have when we are creating specifications and outreaches and solicitations we like to call out certain identifying things that we want our products to have so for example our chicken we call out that where chicken is no antibiotics ever uh this is an NAE chicken or it's also known as ABF which is antibiotic free so we want to make sure that when we're purchasing chicken for example that our chickens are humanely raised we don't want them we want that they when they have their life on this Earth that that is a good life um that the breading on that chicken is whole grain it has to meet a 51% whole grain criteria which means that there's at least two grams of fiber per breading um that we have no fillers so many years ago products used to contain soy fillers uh so we' now are calling out strictly that there's no fillers because now what we've realized is that okay we're we've we've made that distinction no soy fillers but now they're filling with other things like oat fillers and different kinds of extenders so we want to make sure that our students are receiving a whole natural meat and that nothing else that they're getting a natural meat um we also ensure that there's no deep fat frying because fat increases um that you know the fat of the content of the food uh other things that we look at so for example turkey when we're procuring turkey we're calling out that the turkey is craw which is see our Au which is is uh it's responsible antibiotic use uh so turkeys actually live a little bit longer than chickens so chickens can have an AE but turkeys cannot so turkeys will have some antibiotics so we call out craw for turkeys um other things that we call out on part of our specifications is that we like to have local so on all our specifications we say that product to be local preferred we can't mandate it but we say preferred uh so that is to ensure sustainability to ensure environmental health to that we're lowering our food miles for these products and that we're also giving that we're doing business with New York State we just had a local product uh with with a local Grant and so you see all these things on our items that are highlighted in green they're going to be highlighted in green because they're local um also so we have an extensive prohibited ingredient list more than any other um educational Food Service in the country we have almost 80 items on our prohibited ingredient list we are almost in line with Whole Foods um this pred ingredient list actually started in the 1960s when Food Service uh directors saw that there might be potential harm in collar additives and flavor enhancers and then it's just grown from there we actually have worked with a group called The Lifetime Foundation that has helped us support our prohibited ingredient list um so 80 items so when we look at our products we have to evaluate our products on all these standards including the prohibited ingredients to ensure that our students are getting the most natural product and that the product is not enhanced to mask or that the flavors are not in like we want them to taste the food for the food the way it's supposed to be you know okay so then we have the New York City Food standards so New York City governs what we do for the most part also USDA governs what we do so for the food standards that are derived from New York City this is helping us with our purchasing framework so our Foods all align with the purchasing framework of New York City so for example our yog YT our yogurt can have um has an added sugar per ounce so for 4 ounces we can have no more than seven grams of added sugar for our cheese we could have no more than 350 milligrams of sodium for our cheese um for slice bread for example 180 milligrams of sodium so people question why does our food taste a certain way why does our our why are some things more Brown than others it's because we're required to have fiber which fiber is a little more Brown then if you were just to do a plain white slice um or why does it taste a little Bland because sodium gives flavor we're prohibited on sodium then we have to find other ways to enhance that product so um we do our best with the restrictions that we have and we do wonders with the restrictions that we have and we've really learned to be creative and think outside of the box to make our food taste delicious and be healthy uh with all these standards that are in place um New York City also has um as part two I want to say is the agency population specific standards um for the most part I want to say that agencies follow this we do but we are more following the USDA meal pattern standards and that really governs how we make our menus um and then there's things such as what we do follow is for example New York City requires us to offer a plant-based meal option once a week so we have our plant powered Fridays uh they also require us to serve cheese no more than twice a week so we have our meatless Mondays and then you might see um a mozzarella stick during that week um we've also been um governed to reduce um processed meats and we have learned all about the different ways that to create a processed meat uh so things such as celery seed and rosemary extract which we learned earned creates a processed meat and so now all our turkey products chicken products beef products are now not considered a processed meat because we've fully moved away from that okay so the US uh so after we do an Outreach and we review samples of products then we can determine whether these products if they meet all our criteria and we say that they've passed um our our eyes and our paperwork uh we actually have students coming up here right now if you've heard them then we request samples these samples then go through our student taste testing so we have student taste testing in headquarters on Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays um so the students will um get a couple of samples to review we ask them for a thumbs up thumbs down and we ask for some basic simple comment so that we can go back to a manufacturer if a product doesn't pass student taste testing which they need a 75% passing grade so if it doesn't meet that student uh passing grade we go back to the company and we say you know the students like this product but they thought it was too peppery or they thought it was too Saucy or they felt that it was too bland can you you know change the formula somehow and then we'll retest that product again today we're um actually doing cereals because we got some new cereals in manotti we're doing a katsu uh which is a Japanese uh dipping sauce so these are some of the things that our students will be taste testing today other things that we're doing um to get feedback is we're doing cycle menu surveys and those surveys um parents or students can respond to those surveys those are posted on the New York City Public Schools website uh you could they just uh scan the QR code and then we get feedback from our service uh so those surveys also Drive how we create our menus so if something isn't um liked and we see that there's very little interest in a product we'll say you know what let's table this for another time uh or we we'll look at a recipe and say well what didn't they like about it we'll evaluate how it was served we'll evaluate the recipe again for Taste uh for ease of preparation all these things Drive how we do business um we actually have a Citywide student sampling coming up next week which is for our Egyptian chickpeas uh that way we can get an idea of how this is going to be well-received in our schools and then again with the Food Service uh survey it's an online parent feedback survey so some of our menu highlights um all Citywide menus feature meatless Mondays and plant powered Fridays and this is to ensure that our students are receiving something other than chicken that we're exposing them to different culturally diverse Foods um and we know that um having a plant powered a plantbased entree for the day is doing wonders for not only for our health but for our planetary Health as well uh all our menu items feature either a v or a ve one if they're vegetarian and two or if they're vegan uh so this is to help identify how those items are designated but it's for also great for students to have dietary preferences or allergens so any item that does have a ve next to it is dairy free and egg free so that really helps students who have either dairy or egg allergies help Drive what they can have on those vus um again all the items highlighted in green are locally sourced uh so you'll see those items in our recipes um or on the menu anything highlighted in green and that is from a local grant that we just um started initiating and getting those products for actually this year uh so we have that local Grant going all the way through the end of this year and I believe into next year um so some of those things would be like the corn the corn on the cob that we just had butternut squash some of our onions are from New York uh State uh some of the fresh squash that we have is from New York state so it's really great to be able to really uplift New York State as part of our meal program uh we also have fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables offered for breakfast and lunch um and no juice no that's something that we did away with about two to three years ago now um juice is nice but juice doesn't have the nutrients it's just not nutrient-dense and it doesn't offer anything that a fresh whole fruit offers um all our products um if they are grained they're whole grain Rich our products are required to meet the whole grain Rich criteria that's set forth by USDA high fiber low fat and our limited sugars so as of 2027 we are required to report on our added sugars so this is something that now we are taking this very seriously and re-evaluating how our recipes are made the sugar content of our recipes the sugar content of our weekly nutritionals uh to make sure that we're meeting the USDA requirement for added sugars for meal pattern uh men I can remember the last time we had pork on the menu our menus are pork free and this is I think more than five years um well chicken is certified antibiotics ever it's humanely raised again our turkey is craw which is certified responsible antibiotic use and again no processed Meats so you won't see like turkey uh tur sliced turkey you know baloney you won't see that on our vus so our lunch daily offerings is our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a humus crackers um hot and cold cheese sandwiches um which you'll see Monday through Friday our Southwest burrito is only offered on Fridays and we are also adding a new item to our Friday daily offering which is a rainbow wrap uh so that is humus served with um different sorts of uh vegetables or in a wrap and it's really to help off lift and to increase that participation on Fridays plant powered Fridays and then your tuna sandwiches you'll see only on Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays because that's when we can offer meat or fish so menu accommodations I do menu accommodations dietary restrictions um with another registered dietitian in my office um so there are students Citywide that may have Celiac uh uh you know disease or peanut butter allergy or you know a mold there are students with 10 allergies sometimes so what we do is we have to create specific uh menus for them and we do that through a 504 process um I'm going to go into food allergies first so if a student has food allergies parents can reach out to me they can reach out to all finesse meal accommodations and request the labels or request um allergen lists and we will provide those allergen lists so if they have a question about anything our menus uh sometimes they ask about Sesame we'll provide those allergen lists of the foods that contain those allergens and we can also provide the labels um for dietary medical accommodations again if this Celiac or students with anhy as students with um a multitude of different allergies that we cannot make this accommodation on the service line we would recommend going through the 504 process or if the student has an IEP and we will create a specialized menu for those students and then we have the alternative milk options um so those that is soy milk or lactose-free milk um and so that requires a doctor's note in order to provide that alternative milk option we are currently looking at other alternative milk options uh such as an almond milk or an oat milk but as of right now soy milk and lactose free milk are the only two milks that meet the nutritional content of cow's milk we also have part of our regular menu um plasticfree lunch day and this is to help reduce the amount of plastic waste that is created as just a part of food services so this initiative was created um with the uh with cafeteria culture uh the urban School Food Alliance it came out of a school and district 15 where the students were um you know really ambitious about the plastic waste that was created as part of the Food Service program and they wanted to do something for their planetary health and so this initiative stemmed from that it's the roots of that we wanted to hear that we wanted to tell our our students that we heard their voice and that we support their Ambitions to care for our environment and care for our planet and so we introduced this plastic free lunch day uh it started as a once a month initiative um where we had just you know a simple menu that was once a week once a month and now it's it's become part of our regular 3 week cycle menu um so it went from just doing plastic free 10 times a year so now we're almost implementing it 20 times a year so it's we've doubled and we've learned um to work with new recipes to that this plastic free lunch day isn't just like something different as part of the menu but it now is themeless with our menu It's amazing um and then we have cafeteria enhancement uh experience so these are really found in our junior high schools in our high schools and it's a different type of service model it's a more mature service model more adults students can just take what they want and go as long as we make sure that they're taking the reimbursable meal but it gives a sense of more autonomy autonomy for these students um so we have pillars of their of our CE program um the menu that they follow was called the food court menu because that's the style of service that they're having uh so it's really it's it's enhancing student choice so all the options are kind of laid out in these cabinets and they can take what they want um it's a faster service because there's no waiting on lines really it's just taking and going which students love because that gives them more time to hang out you know at for lunch you know for lunch period um it's a modern style of a cafeteria so the way it works is is that cafeteria enhancement starts I think on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning so students leave school on Friday they see the cafeteria how it was left and then Monday morning there's a brand new cafeteria with brand new furniture and it's it's a more of a congregate kind of eating style at Round Tables it's and they're very nice they they're colorful that it makes it fun and enjoyable and welcoming um and that's part of the list is the new furniture and it it it supports participation it's it supports the student students in our program and it gets kids eating our food which is really important um lastly I'm going to talk about HAL menus we have about 110 certified Halal sites throughout the city um these schools are evaluated by the imams so they have to pass their Imam inspection in order to be certified Hal um this request to have a Halal school is is through I guess parent community Through the principal um principles that and request Hal schools through the district supervisor for ofns um we evaluate all our products to be Halal uh so we send labels to the imams to review uh we have about at this time almost 500 products approved Hal uh we have three products that are certified Hal which means that we they actually carry the um Halal symbols so this is a chicken patty these are chicken tent or and a Jamaican beef patty all the items on the Halal menu will be reviewed all our recipes are reviewed and everything has an H next to it uh to ensure so that we're advertising properly that these items are Halal I think that's it any questions for me that was a lot uh I know a lot of people have thousand or maybe a million questions uh where a little bit you know over time so thank you so much for um all the information which you know especially with the enhancement of the cafeterias I love that uh hopefully every uh single of our schools will have it it also creates independency in our students um thank you both and I will go to face now because we're a little bit over time perfect thank you have a great day thank you thank you thank you Dr Christina all yours I am so excited to be here good morning everyone um first I want to start with uh you've got you hit the ground running your new board with just all these wonderful pieces of information and presenters so I'm I'm really glad to see that the work continues always at CPAC um it is it is a pleasure to see you chair um and to welcome you to the space ass chair congratulations um and the space is better because you are leading it alongside of some of our veteran folks um so I'm really excited for all of our new friends and all of the folks that have just continuously been here to support CPAC I am going to make it quick because I know that the chancer is up next and I don't want to follow her so I'm gonna go really fast um we have I'm I'm gonna I'm going to start with We Have Faces working on a bunch of things but we have a resource Fair this coming Saturday we're calling it harvesting connections um so it's it's a great opportunity from 10: to 2 down here at berkram the school right next to um One Police Plaza but also right near Tweed um to just really get as much information around a whole plethora of things you name it they are there from immigration to school stuff to language to and we've made it as accessible as possible so not speaking the language should not be a barrier we will have folks there available as you are going through the different tables um so we are excited to welcome everyone uh to this Fair we are we have launched our second round of ambassador program um everyone really wanted to be in it everyone didn't get the emails um we launched it on the 6th we we're only in week two uh I will share the link of the ambassadors as well so that you can continue to sign up we have the first two sessions already recorded so we will be more than happy to share those so that you can show up ready um again those are accessible to everyone we have all languages um available to during interpretation while you are live in the session so we want you to make sure to participate and feel good um and share with your constituents and then our Chancellor is going to speak a little bit more about this but we if you have not gotten the email yet you will be getting it soon uh we are launching the chancellor is launching a five buror listening tour um we are very excited I am very excited um she is very much interested in making sure that she hears from all of you um and this is a great space to not only share the information but um to ensure that all of you motivate everyone to show up at these at these um listening Town Halls because they're going to be really really insightful and a great opportunity for you to share all of your expertise and knowledge and experience that you have as as the boots on the ground for us so we are very excited to not only launch this but also to ensure that you are present and then as you know we are gearing up on the back end to I just shared all of that with everybody um in the chat we are launching the c campaign in January officially that does not mean that we are not working behind the scenes to figure out a whole host of things but we just added a campaign manager just two weeks ago um but she's hit the ground running we've had some folks on the team working to ensure some pieces are ready so we will be inviting you very soon to a working group because we want to make sure that we share with you just all of the things that we're thinking um when I started two and a half years ago I walked into the campaign already started um and there were a lot of lessons we learned um mostly from all of you and so I'm really grateful to invite you to a working group to just share some of the thinking we've been doing around campaign guidelines and all of the things that that sort of get tricky and messy when we put them in action and we want to hear from all of you what your thoughts are um so look out for the working group invite because that's going to be a big thing and then we have a tentative Just Launch um flyer that will be going out as well so look forward to that um I see all folks from the Chancellor's team are here but I still have like a couple more minutes I'm not sure if anybody has anything for me I can turn over my time if folks have other or I can keep talking chair it's up to you you still have three more minutes perfect I'll keep talking so we have um we have two Town Halls coming this we have have cc25 Town Hall coming and if anyone he is from cc2 or in District 25 that'll be on November 18th and then we have District 21's town hall on December 5th yes so Randy will be there um and we should all show up and support we're really excited the chancellor is really excited it it is a also a wonderful opportunity to have conversation and be in conversation with not just the chancellor but her cabinet um to discuss all of the things that are real and are happening in your communities that maybe we're not hearing and it could be all of the things that need some attention but it could definitely be those those spaces um those hidden gems that we don't always get to hear or experience from this side um and so we would love to to hear in those Town Halls some of that and if anyone has any questions for me I am happy to say that CC which cc is on the 5th 21 cc21 is on December 5th um that is Randy's um C and then we have cc25 on November 18th what should we be in terms of emails when we email Dr mandz and the chancer what should we expect in terms of response to emails um I I did get your email but especially if it requires a calendar invite um I also I think that's it gets tricky because we want to make sure that we are coordinating the Chancellor's calendar so I do have your email um and I'm I've I've been out a couple of days so I haven't responded but I have received it and it just it's an invitation which requires coordinating in other levels but yes thank you Queens high schools yep no thank you and apologies for that anyone else I don't see the Chan's on just yet is that accurate not yet she's on location and details for both yes so at P at um for District 25 we will have the town hall November 18th at um Junior High School 185 Junior High School 185 and then for district 21 we will have Randy's Town um District 21's Town Hall Randy I already put it in the chat um but it's at Kingsboro she writes the short version but um it is an incredible School you graduate with not just one degree but two which is awesome so I we're really excited to be there it's one of those gems in our school communities and in our districts any other I'm also going to be reaching out to some of you around our literacy hubs so we have literacy spaces in some Community businesses um and we only have five districts that actually have hubs but we will be expanding that this year so if there are spaces I know that there there are lots of spaces that we are not currently in but we also need support in trying to maintain them because it is a community project so the business owner as well as someone um in in spaces like CPAC or any other um parent leadership space or volunteer space can support in maintaining it which really is just taking a picture of a QR code and telling us you need to put more books in here because people have taken them which is not the expectation but we also don't stop people from taking the books if it you love it we want you to have it so let us know two things um and and we'll send that via CPAC but let us know two things if there's a space that you know we should be at and then two if you are interested in supporting that space as well that would be a perfect um piece of com perfect combination um and I see our Chancellor is here so I will stop and turn it back over to Rosa thank you so much Dr Christina believe me all the information you provide is very very important and we have our new Chancellor Melissa Ramos AES take it away the mic is all yours good morning and congratulations chair it's very nice to see you um and also just want to um acknowledge all of our CPAC members here uh but especially some of our new folks um so again congratulations chair and also to um Ashley mulero D1 president Council and Josephine calosi uh for D20 president Council as well so thank you so much for for being here um I'm super excited to talk to you a little bit more I know that I've had the great pleasure of meeting with you in my very brief time as Deputy Chancellor for family and Community engagement um and and even in in my role as as Chancellor I I want to thank you all because the personal Outreach uh the text messages the phone calls the emails um you all stay super connected um with me and so I'm I'm deeply appreciative of that um and as you may have heard and this is all thanks to you I have been speaking a lot about family empowerment as opposed to engagement and that came out of this specific space um Shirley and and Randy raised that directly in this meeting and I'm very grateful to both of them um because that's exactly what we are doing we are working to empower our families and um I was just having a conversation um with my team and uh my chief of staff uh kenita Lloyd mentioned you know it was it was so great when you talked about um you know what happened to you last week with parent teacher conferences and um I will share it all with you because it it really does speak to the work that we all do um in New York City public school so I was obviously at a conference and my schedule was packed and there was a time difference and all of a sudden I get a phone call and I don't recognize the number but something told me to pick it up and I hear um a gentleman say uh CH uh Miss Ramos uh good evening um didn't see you at parents teach your conference um and I'm going oh my God I missed my daughter's parent teacher conference and um the teacher was just so gracious and so wonderful and he called me from his personal mobile um to just tell me how well my daughter is doing um and and I share that moment with all of you because our Parenthood looks different across New York City um and regardless of what that looks like we should all remember to be compassionate and supportive and empathetic um because it's hard right it's hard for me who sits in an extremely privileged place and I have an ecosystem of support and I have this amazing job albe it a super demanding one but amazing um and and there are people who have other struggles that look very different and so when we Empower families we say we're not keeping track of the fact that you didn't come to a parent teacher conference we're not keeping track of the fact that we called you and you haven't responded we're not keeping track to judge you what we're saying is that we need to find a way to open up the space and make it accessible so regardless of what's going on you feel coming into this space to talk to vent to learn is for you parents right and the only way that that can be done is if we EMP Empower our families to be leaders in their own space and so I don't come to you as just a Chancellor I don't come to you as a lifelong educator I come to you as a parent myself who deeply respects the work that you do because I have benefited from it as a parent as a principal and as a teacher and now very much so as a Chancellor so um I I just wanted to share that story with you because Parenthood is real um and that's why empowerment is so important I also um we have a couple of slides uh today to share with you don't know where those are but if we could up them awesome we can skip past that one um one of the the things that I have been very intent first of all I'm an English teacher at heart obviously everybody knows that um or if you didn't you learn today but the reason why I mentioned that is because I truly believe in the power of language we need to be really intentional with the words that we use again going back to empowerment over engagement um but it's so important to me that in this new role um the Year is already we're already in November and for those of you you know as teachers we know that that already means like half the year to us is gone and so I keep getting this question what is your what is your big thing what are the big initiatives you're going to do um what what is your vision and I just want to be very very transparent with all of you as a teacher and as a mother and someone who knows the system very well because I've sat in almost every seat um I can tell you that when you change up a system in in October or November um it does not do anything good for children and families and teachers it just doesn't um my commitment my priority is to make sure the great work that we started continues and has impact so New York City reads is a behemoth of an initiative it's an important amazing initiatives but like everything else implementation needs to constantly be monitored and we need to make sure that we're tweaking and fixing and working to to to make it successful we don't need new additional initiatives in that space we need to make sure that's working however while I share those same priorities that started under Chancellor Banks particularly because I was a big part of the start of all of those I also recognize that there are areas that we must double down on as prerequisites essential prerequisites for learning to happen in the classroom and this is why I'm calling them my commitments because these are my promises these are my commitments to you and your children and they are very very simple one is ensuring safety and promoting wellness and when we talk about safety we are talking about physical and emotional safety and wellness our children need to feel welcomed and loved when they leave their homes when on their way to school when they get to school and when they go back home home and this is why a community approach to education is so important and it is a big part of my leadership number two strengthening comprehensive teacher supports teachers are all the things they are school counselors they're social workers they are sometimes they're therapists they are Deans they are they're they're curriculum writers they do we they do so many things we expect so many things from them and we're so lucky that we have so many amazing teachers who who do those jobs day in and day out but what would it look like what does it look like when we provide optimal support to our teachers and it started with New York City Reed this is reads this is part of the reason why we wanted to offer curriculum and we wanted to offer this job embedded shoulder-to-shoulder training for those teachers but what I will say is that it needs to go even deeper because when children who are experiencing trauma show up day in and day out and we are trying to navigate difficult situations with them to make them feel at home in school someone needs to pour into the teachers so the teachers can reset and come every single day and do the job again so while we're also caring for our families and our children we need to make sure that we're pouring into our teachers to make sure that they feel supported that they feel appreciated and that they have all the tools and resources ources that they need to be able to show up and deliver for our children every single day and the third one is fostering fostering genuine and impactful family and Community Partnerships and obviously I opened um very much centering in on this but I also in the coming weeks am going to make announcements around additional structures that we want to put in place to empower our families and give them opportunities for training and to spread information and support to other families um I think that the answers are usually in the room it's just a matter of coordinating everyone together and figuring out how to get the job done I'm often credited with the work that I did for project open arms and I always have to remind everyone that all I did was recognize Talent across the system and pull people together and ask what do you need from me to help you get the job done I did not design the structures that exist for students in temporary housing I didn't design the structures that exist for family engagement and empowerment I didn't design any of the work that supports our multilingual Learners I simply took inventory and pulled them together why is this important because that is the type of leader that I want to continue to be for all of you I'm not looking to give you the answers I'm not looking to create the answers I should say I'm looking at who we can pull together to get the answers in the room to you and part of that is empowering our families and our Community Partnerships because all the answers don't always come from New York City Public Schools not all the best profession professional development comes from New York City Public Schools not all the resources come just from New York City Public Schools they come from our partners in our communities they come from our partners in our families um it's so it was important for me this is actually the first time that I'm speaking in depth about my commitments and I'm so proud that in alignment with my I'm I'm we are building family leaders that is I want to be that Chancellor and so it is so fitting for me to unpack these with you there is so much more to come it's month one this is also like almost my one month anniversary happy anniversary to me you guys um I almost one month um that I've been in the seat and so I'm I'm excited to celebrate it sounds silly but I'm excited to celebrate that here with you and to really unpack these commitments because these commitments are for you and they're for our children I don't say your children I say our children because my baby's out there too and your babies are my babies and I want to thank you for entrusting me with them is that the only I think there was one more if not we can stop there okay perfect um so I'm super excited to launch our burrow tours um these burrow listening tours are very important to me because even though we've had structures like this in previous administrations um I would very much like to come like to to take maybe a a slightly different approach um after we attend we we listen at these burough listening tours um we would very much like to produce a summary of what we learned and identify Trends and patterns uh in alignment with our three commitments and it's important because this is going to maintain transparency with all of you on what we're hearing um and how we are codifying all of that so that way we can respond appropriately to what we're hearing um outside so there is uh a listening tour in every single burrow we are aggressively getting these done before the holiday season because we really want to hear from you and everything that you have to say is going to continue to shape um the ways in which we move so just asking you all to please join us if you're not able to be there um send a friend send a representative invite whoever you think needs to be there this is a true authentic opportunity for us to hear from you um which is really important to me so I want to I I know that I've talked a whole bunch and I want to stop there uh to give everyone an opportunity to react and um ask questions um I know that that uh you know a lot has happened over the last few months and so um you what you have to say and your questions you ask are very important so and thank you always for giving me um space uh and time here absolutely and thank you because I feel really empowered like so energetic like yes you know like I'm I'm so hopeful that everything will be much better more accountable and we can literally trust you to continue the amazing work that new YK City Public Schools can do um I know we've sent a couple of uh questions already I'm not sure if you got them or um if you know if you have the answers to those it'd be great if we can hear um those answers if not um let me know I don't know you shaking your head like yes I'm ready no no I'm I'm fine with answering them if we could just maybe go through them like if you can ask them and and we'll we'll go through them and if time permits I I see we already have a couple of hands up right so we sent out h a questionnaire for the November 14 so if you did fill out the questionnaire uh those uh questions will be asked first um let me see Anthony would you be able to help me um if he's here where is he I know question oh sorry go ahead Dr M please no you can go ahead and then I can ask the rest if thank you thank you I know one of them is uh regarding the calendar school year so we are not adding a day uh we're not adding a day we had enough days um to be able to Grant the December 23rd day um if we get snow we will have to Pivot to remote so we won't get a snow day where there's no instruction uh and that's that's that's the tradeoff right but a couple things again going back to the commitment um we have to think about families and teachers and um if teachers are not a ble to make it in on December 23rd or additional staff members and we are you know trying to make sure that our children uh have everything that they need um that that's just it it creates it creates an issue that we don't need to have when we have the day so we thought just logistically again having been a principal and having to um cover classes on extra special days um we were thinking about the whole school community and given that we had the extra day we we thought it was fitting and then of course we had our our young man write a letter to the mayor and to the former Chancellor and he's like I got I think he got something like 2,000 signatures I mean it was really impressive um and so who who could tell who could tell him no I certainly can't SEL him now so um the next question here is we are hearing from several parent leaders that there are ongoing challenges in building strong Partnerships between schools and ptas what measures are in place to ensure that schools are actively collaborating with PTA and parent leaders to promote meaningful parent engagement yep super important question um so we are actually Dr Melendez is is spearheading this um this is something that she and I talked about when I was still Deputy Chancellor creating this pilot opportunity um for school for parent leaders and District leaders to receive targeted support on how to work collaboratively and this is being done not only through face but also with division of school leadership it's super super important that those two divisions work closely very lucky that I have two amazing people to do that work together um but in in many cases it's really just making sure that both the parent leaders and the superintendant have the tools that they need to be able to collaborate productively efficiently um and even when there are disagreements what does that respectful discourse look like um and so we're we're in the process of rolling that out and we're super excited um I the next question is what is the Chan what is your plan to provide a better support and resource for parent leaders across our school specifically how are we addressing the needs for greater recognition and empowerment of these leaders and that goes back to uh the previous question and this pilot but also it's we needed to strengthen the relationship between faith and a division of school leadership because we have our flc's and our FC's and our PCS um we have way too many acronyms um but we need to empower all of those folks but everybody reports to different people preparing coordinators report to principles your flc's and your FC's report to superintendent you have face over here who's providing professional development and so so we know that things only work when we have a cohesive plan to work together and there's a shared vision for leadership and that's the work that we're really doing now so that way you all benefit from it um Chancellor if you don't mind if I just add something to that as well of course you know part of our investment also was a professional part of our investment is also in the professional development and hearing from parent leaders across the system as to what the need is for professional development so as you all know we did um a Citywide um professional learning last year and it was so great that we did another one in the in the fall of this year and we have plans of doing another one in the spring of this school year um continuing to build off of that and bringing parents and District leaders together in that space to learn together and to move the work forward so I just I you know we've been getting such great feedback about that opportunity and I just wanted to share that in this space hey Deputy Chancellor Rox spot on um would it be possible for the chancellor to attend an uncoming borrow president's council meeting to engage directly with our constituents and you're hosting your own um yeah I honestly I I always willing to go to any space where I can communicate with our stakeholders transparently it it just always it's based on on the calendar um there were things that shifted from the previous Chancellor's calendar that shifted to mine and then there were additional things that came in so if you just please work with Dr Melendez and and make sure um my office has the information uh if I'm available I will happily join um and then I think their next follow-up question there is how do they get on your calendar and I think the answer is just reach out to me and I'm happy to then follow up um what a what is being done to hold schools accountable for their compliance with PTA standards especially when it comes to PTA not functioning with a full board yeah I I hate to just keep reiterating the same response but this is where deep professional learning um but not like the kind where we sit in an auditorium and hear people speak at us this is why we are so grateful to Deputy Chancellor RX and to Dr Melendez for working together on how we are going to better um train and and Target it based on where the need is right it's not just a one-size fits all if if a PTA is functioning beautifully um and has an excellent relationship with a principal why are we not leveraging that group as a best practice in other spaces so other PT can learn from them no one wants to hear from me and I Adore You Christina but at some point no one wants to hear from Christina and at some point they're not going to want to hear from Dr RX either because we we are these authoritative figures in the minds of some folks it's more where show me where it's working so I can learn from it right and I love what um um Miss mon just put in the chat create or conduct a PTA etiquette training and part of that training should also be look at these models that we have across the city right and so when we talk about professional development it's how do we connect people who are doing the work really well so people can learn from their peers not just here us talking at people at nauseum yeah um and I think just to add we are we we want more of this right face wants to know we can't be at every PTA meeting it is virtually impossible we have PCS that we continue to support whether it's through the FLC or directly but we need the information that you need to for us to share with them and so CPAC is is also a great space for all of the president's councils to gather that information for each district and then send it over to CPAC because CPAC does a great job at sending it over to me specifically and we can all work together here to figure that out but um sometimes that's sometimes our president's councils are off on their own right um and so CP I want to continue to reinforce that CPAC is a wonderful space to Center all of that and that they do a lot of the professional development trainings to our ptas directly but only if they know right and so we need to make sure that that everyone's that we're flagging everybody so that everyone we can pull all our resources together to support you um I think this is more of the Peta operations where you know where where where are there the in if there no interim annual reports who's overseeing the financial Integrity of PTA operations I can yep um so we know that CPAC is an excellent resource because you are here to provide support and professional development when needed um but your flc's right are prepared to have those conversations and provide those trainings to PCS as well as the PTA and p pa so if your FLC has questions we urge you to reach out to face for for clarity right that's where we we come in um and you should flag where you think that there are are issues you can speak to Dr Melendez offline um and that's you know good feedback for us so that way we know who to support um and and then I think this is this is something that comes off often which is we would like to inquire about the availability and allocation of PTA rooms and spaces within schools are there policies or guidelines to in place to ensure PT have access to appropriate facilities um to conduct their activities and store their materials Etc so Pas and ptas are entitled to free use of school buildings including school safety or security coverage for up to 110 hours per year outside of school hours um the executive board is responsible for obtaining the necessary permits and those hours are for the exclusive use of PTA and they're not transferable to other groups or organization so those 110 hours can be used 12 months a year unused hours can be rolled over month-to month but expire at the end of the school year so if you didn't use them at the end of the school year they don't transfer into the new school year um if there is more than one school in the building each PA PTA is entitled to 110 hours of free use per year um and the PA ptas May charge admission fees and receive donations contributions again you have regulation a660 um and uh let's see under regulation d130 um Pas and ptas are also prohibit are prohibited from holding candidate forms for any political or community- based organization um so that's important to know please um and you may hold candidate forums only for the election of their officers but the use of the school building St many school hours Pas and ptas that wish to use a school building during school hours must obtain permission from the principal and so if you have any any other questions about the regulation or anything more specific than that you should really have a conversation with Dr Melendez yes and then I'm going to turn it over those are all the questions I have chair so I'm going to turn it back over to you um I do think we have one more question and I I do want to just um take one minute to to discuss this uh I I am asked regularly who is going to be uh the new Deputy Chancellor um for this division um I I want to say that we are looking at the division a little differently so family empowerment will be at the core of it but we are making a couple of shifts um from the pulling out from the division and adding a couple of things in um we are in the process of vetting um our our final candidate um but unfortunately until that vetting occurs um we cannot share with the community right there are protocols and procedures in place and we need to be respectful of those what I will say is that when that person is selected this will be the very first group um to know um and nope no hints but but we will make sure that you have time with the candidate uh very much in the way that you did with me um to speak with them and share concerns um but this work is very important and so I've been thinking about it for a long time because um I I knew for a little bit that I was going to be Chancellor and so I was thinking about this for a long time and I I am really excited at the prospect of this person joining us so more to come in the very near future I was super excited I was oh my God we're gonna get the answer today but just just so I can add to uh what the chancellor has said and Dr Christina has said one thing that we're forgetting is that that we are CPAC right we have a representative of every single District president's Council and borrow president's Council like utilize what you have in front of you if you are the president of the president's council is because you know the system you know the rules you know the protocols to follow and you have CPAC we are here to help you together to work to guide you let us know so any questions with regards to slts title W um P let us know we are here like literally we are here um and by the way I love and I have to shout her out my FLC rosangela and Nancy Pereira I love you just in case they are my rock and I communicate with them 247 maybe I bother them too much anyways um thank you Chancellor for everything thank you Dr Christina for everything um I believe we do have a minute for district 177 to ask a question I know you've been holding for a little while so I want to acknowledge you Veronica hi good morning and thank you um thank you for allowing and I like to welcome our new Chancellor I'm looking forward to working with you and collaborating however there are two questions one of my questions um vegan Fridays a lot of our babies are going home hungry because they're taking the trays and they're putting it in the garbage is it possible that we can still have vegan Friday but there should be options of autumn meals that our babies are entitled to and my next um asked of you um I know the chanc reg said that a PA or a PTA should just have a cabinet um is there any way that we can change that because I'm saying if we have H our families are happy in the building we get more production right now in my district there is a principal who have the PTA cabinet in the bathroom so if if someone is using the bathroom they have to wait to get to the cabinet and I think that is unfair because we are volunteering and we want to do the work for our community and I think that as long we are comfortable I think we will get more out appearance so those were two of my concerns out of District 17 but I also know other District have a problem with the vegan Friday thank you so much thank you so much Miss Clark I really appreciate those questions um and and so I think we have our team on with us but what I will say is that um Chris CH Caro who oversees our um our our food and nutrition office he has done amazing things um with our students and testing the food do taste testing and our kids give feedback and he makes changes um I don't remember which dish it was but um Anna my daughter Anna wasn't part of the tasting but she made her sure she came home and she was like please tell uh your friend the the man who does this that that didn't work out and then the next week she was like this was great so and and he really took the feedback you know and he has these sessions with our students from across the city giving feedback so um if if Deputy Chancellor vadera is on or if Christa Caro is on to speak specifically about vegan Fridays and and what we could potentially to but if they're not here what I will say is that they are always willing to take feedback um and so I'm happy to communicate with them if they're not here but do we have uh Chancellor yes I'm here representing the office of food and nutrition services my name is Nelson kees and I'm here for Chris so um Veronica thank you for that question and I'm happy that you refer to them as vegan Fridays so the first um time we the first time we ever launched a vegan Friday it was referred to as vegan Friday and we learned very quickly that um vegan options only vegan options weren't going to be very successful u f in our school so we quickly pivoted to plant-based options so every Friday we have a plant powered Friday where we do offer plant-based options not all of them are vegan and the one thing that we really want to drive home is that there's multiple options available every single day not just on Fridays so that's something that Chris and team have really been trying to communicate with our schools our students our parents that every school does provide multiple options now when you look at our menu you might see a main or a center of the plate item but we we're always going to have anywhere from three to five additional items to accompany that item on that particular day so we do want to encourage our students to ask our staff behind the line what else is on the menu today because our goal is to ultimately feed every single student and provide them with something that they're going to be able to take off the line and eat happily um just like the chancellor also mentioned a big thing for us is feedback earlier I put our student survey uh Link in the chat I want to encourage everyone to please share that with parents with students with administrators we want to collect feedback we take that feedback and we make real-time decisions and changes to our menus using that information um we found that ultimately that's probably our best way to kind of cast a wide net to collect that feedback so we just want to encourage folks we do have our student taste testings that take place we're doing them three times a week where students will come to our headquarter orders they'll test any new recipe that we're thinking about putting on our menu and those items have to get a 70% approval rating before we can even entertain putting them on the menu so we take great pride in saying that our our menus are student driven and student taste tested but please encourage folks to feed out um to fill out that survey we really really need that thank you Nelson thank you so much um and just to the the second half of the question um uh M Miss Clark I'm going to ask you if um you can connect with Dr Melendez on the specific um space so that way we can get that information over uh to Dr Ru as well and her Chief um who oversees the school uh just so that way we can make sure that we connect and we figure out what's going on um we need to make sure that uh we we get to the bottom of whatever's happening but most importantly we know that schools are there are many schools that really are strapped for space um it's just it's a struggle for our schools that said the work that you do needs to be um respected and uplifted and we want to make sure that you are spaced appropriately and and a bathroom uh is certainly not what I would consider um an appropriate location for a cabinet so uh please connect with Dr Melendez to give her those details so we could quickly uh connect with the school Community absolutely I think it's hopefully some miscommunication misunderstanding and that's not really happening but if there is we are here to resolve any problems live uh in real time so um I believe uh Randy will you like the mic please thank you Rosa um so Chancellor Ramos I I absolutely love your commitment I love all your commitments but especially number three um so we look forward to the opportunity to for us as CPAC to advise you as your Chancellor's parent advisory Council um unfortunately we weren't given that opportunity with the previous Chancellor and we look forward to setting up a meeting with you so we can share insight for our 1600 plus schools and we can start collaborating and advis Advising um I'd also like to thank I'm going to too okay going to publicly thank diit specifically Helen and Muhammad for setting up our Zoom for CPAC we were asking for that for quite some time and they were able to do that for us which was great they did the run through they helped us so we could live stream on YouTube so all our families and our parent leaders can see you know and we're being transparent and we're public and it's great um but we do have some questions regarding the parent leader emails if we can meet privately to address it publicly to address it whatever you choose but we appreciate you so much I I'm so happy to hear that um your the zooms were set up um and I I also want to thank diit um you know this is this is obviously something that we've been talking about for a while even before I was in any of of of these spaces um and and I want to thank you for your patience and I I also do want to note that you know Di it is trying to comply with a city-wide mandate um this is coming from um city hall right and so again being that we're New York City Public Schools things look a little differently for us and so we're trying to work through those issues and we deeply appreciate your patience and the feedback and the wonderful people at the IIT who um know that this is very important to me and they are um prioritizing it and working with you that being said um you you said something else about advising me and and and I absolutely um look forward to having regular meetings with you and us starting those as soon as possible so um I will make sure that uh Christina and my office work together so we can launch the first one um I understand that hybrid um you know I'm sorry that virtual is is is usually preferred but in in the rare cases that we're all able to join in person as well I think that would be great um it also doesn't have to always be a tweet if there is a a district that we should meet at I defer to Christina and you all to figure that out but um to the extent that we can be in community but within our communities and not just a Tweed um that's also important to me so um I'll leave the details up to to all of you but we should um talk more about the diit simply because I'm I'm a little overtime and I know that I have to to run I'm trying to I always get in trouble because I don't stick to my schedule I drive everyone crazy um but I would love for that to be you know one of the big topics uh that we discuss in in our very first meeting thank you and and I was Al also going to add the fact that you're here as long as you are we've never had a chance to stay as long as you have so we appreciate and respect that so much and I also have to Advocate because Dr Melendez at and um Anthony Aguilar have been like such advocates in helping us formulate our questions and making sure that we get everything that we need and and they've been advocating especially with these app L their emails has been frustrating so I want to thank them and thank you for your time thank you so much and it's great to see you all and again I know I talk a lot and I have a lot uh a lot to say and you're always just so um gracious and and willing to to listen um and patient um I want to thank you all for giving us the space that we need during this transition to say to you we're working on this but we need a little bit more time or we need to coordinate with these officers is um just the fact that you hear us out and and you work with us again it's not that we always agree we're not all always going to agree the system is far too large and complex for all of us to agree and when a decision is made sometimes everyone's going to be most people are going to be happy but there's always going to be some people who aren't um and but it's about the way in which we work together it's about our productivity and it's about staying focused and centered on our families and our children so you advising me is so important and and most I just so I want to end really quickly by thanking the team our Deputy chancellors our Chiefs our superintendents our principls um amazing work that they do again no one's perfect none of us are perfect but together as a system we have amazing people who are censoring our children so I also um want to make sure that I thank them so I look forward to seeing you all really really soon um and answering more questions and you know that we don't need formal meetings to connect uh you can always Reach Out call email text uh and we'll be as responsive as we can but thank you so much and see you soon bye absolutely and also I just want to acknowledge what uh one of the executive board members said um earlier we are so glad that you're actually sitting down and taking the time to actually talk to us rather than rushing and we do appreciate it thank you I can't promise that one day you won't catch me in a car in between meetings like that may happen but please know that you'll still have my full respect and attention but sometimes the schedule is a little crazy and he might catch me in a car so I do want to say that but I will always do my best to prioritize um being in a in a a quiet space where I can truly pay attention um so if you see me in a car just know that there was no other way around it but like I'm here for this I enjoy this work so thank you I look forward to seeing you all soon and have a have a great weekend we're almost at the weekend bye thank you so much and I know that we have um we wanted to do something like Anthony settles jams not so secret jems and um anony is working on something new for next month uh Anthony you want to say something before I go to the next slide and just so busy working okay thank you thank you so much oh yes sure um so yes we're going to continue something like Anthony had with um his secret gems um but Rosa said a suggestion on maybe um Anthony's wealth of knowledge um where we'll be set giving reminders based on the calendar and what's up and coming so that you can inform your districts on what's going on and then just some insights and pointers um based on what other districts are doing doing uh to support you in your districts thank you thank you thank you that is coming next month you have to tune in because we work together right we don't have all the knowledge in the world but that's why we have CPAC CPAC supports every single District including Boral high schools yes Dr melindes I'm sorry you could just finish go ahead um I think I was just going to say exactly what you were saying um I think it would be really really helpful I ask all of you um or your designes whoever comes to the CPAC meeting for your District first of all let's make sure that every district is represented at the CPAC meeting um I want to join the chair on that and and the executive board on that because it is so such it's such an important Rich space Not only do we get senior cabinet that you can ask direct questions to um but ALS so a space for us to hear um from you and every single District what is in fact needed and what is going on and sometimes um we we don't see we don't hear it we and then things happen and we get these emails so for us is really helpful to use this time um for you to get your questions answered directly from the source but then also to hear your advice on many of the things that you are seeing and the trends that you are identifying um so that then we can maybe maybe the board or whoever is meeting with the chancellor on a on a particular Cadence can continue to develop those ideas so I urge you I urge us all to use that and I urge us all to like when Anthony which I'm like I don't know we have three Anthony here so you got one Anthony retired but we have another Anthony um and that's just so awesome because it keeps us all in the same space but um when Anthony shows up with some new information or pieces of or reminders um I want you to push in if you don't get it if you don't know I it's really important that you share that here because there's so many people here that are are experts in this work and I'm not saying Anthony or myself I am actually speaking about all of the members here and so it's really helpful for Rosa and and Randy and the rest of the executive team to know this is this is a big issue because then we can we can with CPAC plan around a more explicit direct sort of support but we can only help what we know about and so I I say I said that already but I'm saying it again because no question is is silly no question is too small no question is is dumb or inappropriate or like everyone here has the same question even if they've been here for 10 years they still look at it and they're like oh wait can I um and that's really important because then we also get the other the Grievances The OSI the all of those things and we don't want to be in that space we don't want to be in the judgy space we like to be in the supportive space so however we can work together to do that um through this space I would love to partner with CP continue to partner with CPAC on on very explicit professional developments that we can do with groups of people or subgroups of people so please please continue to come and with your questions awesome awesome and that's what CAC is providing knowledge to all the district's president Council and then it's recorded share the recording it's there for you know many many many years to come uh thank you so much uh Chancellor Dr Christina Anthony Aguilar I love the last name uh and and everyone thank you very much um what is CPAC right uh still people sometimes they don't know it that's okay if you don't ask what is CAC then you know you're not going to know you need the answer this is it we are elected parent leaders representing all New York City public schools and their families literally we are here all of us representing everyone we are comprised of 38 president's Council 38 that's crazy uh CAC ensures the parents voice is heard we are here please join have few questions answer the question here we're going to send the December question year answer it ask your questions there it will be sent out to the chancellor the chancellor will have already the answers and we are always always striving for excellence equity and opportunity for all we collaborate like we're doing today and we have been doing so with different Stak holders and we work together to provide the best and useful information that that's what we do my computer is not working now there we go um and of course um an update we don't have the October minutes I know the former recording secretary is busy I get it right I've been there um hopefully we'll get it by the next meeting or within the week or too it will be sent out because there's a lot of information in there including the elections um and we'll table it for next month and uh Randy do you want to say anything else before we we close oh motion right Banda you don't want the floor say hi thank you um I'm good I just I just try to be respectful of everyone time so it's 12:05 I don't want to you know longer if anyone has questions we're here absolutely I agree thank you thank you so much and we wish you happy healthy and blessed Thanksgiving to everyone if you have any questions you know where to reach us and I would like a motion which I totally forgot motion to adjourn the meeting please anyone motion to adjourn okay Queens High School motion to adjourn and who was the second one Josephine thank you D20 thank you very much and the meeting is a journ thank you everyone for joining us today let me stop the recording um Anthony Anthony if you don't mind staying for uh couple minutes the live R sorry Christian yes once again I'm looking for it and the live stream is a delay when it stops okay give me one minute almost there I think did you stop it I am not getting the stop button