Okay. Thank you, interpreters. I think we've heard from all of our interpreters, and I want to thank the interpreters for your assistance this evening. At this point, it is my pleasure to officially call the June 17th meeting of the Panel for Education Policy to order. I want to thank all of you for coming out on this really special week. And why is it a special week, everyone? There's a little hesitation there. Okay. Let's not get crazy. But now, I'm sure that all of you who've come out tonight are very anxious to have us
conclude the business in a very expedited way, so you can all go home and reserve a spot in the parade tomorrow. People are already reserving spaces, so you may want to do that. So, it's been a good week and it's been a good year, and so I think this has been a great way to conclude our academic year with a great celebration. So, I officially call the meeting to order, and I'll ask our secretary to please call the roll. Sure. Adriana Alicea? Deborah Altman? Present. Shelly Alban? Present. Aaron Bogad? Present. Joe Borrelli? Camille Casserey? Jonathan Collins?
Present. Marjorie Tienstag? Amy Fair? She's here. Okay. She's here. We'll come back to her. Maddie Fox? Present. Anita Garcia? Present. Tony Giordano? Present. Dr. Angela Green? Present. Faraji Hannah-Jones? Naveed Hasan? Alice Ho? Rima Isquierdo? Yadira Jimenez? Dr. Sharon Audwan? Alan Ong? Bernita Persons? Present. Mahisha Sapp? Present. And Chair Faulkner? Present. And representing Chancellor Samuels, Danielle Guinta? Present. And representing Comptroller Mark Levine, Steven Morales.
And we have two student members, Rajlaxmi Acharya? Present. And Tanvir Kaur? Present. Great. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine- Which means we have a quorum and we can officially-- Oh, we haven't declared it yet? We have 17 voting members present, so we do have a quorum. We have a quorum, and therefore we can begin the meeting. And before I do that, though, in calling the roll, you'll notice that there was a new name added to the panel, and I want to welcome formally our newest panel member, Dr. Madeline Fox, and I want to offer you the floor if you'd like to
say a few words. You're welcome to. Don't feel pressured, but if you're welcome to, please take the floor. Oh, is this on? Is this working? Yeah. Okay. Hi. Thank you, Chair Faulkner. My name is Maddie Fox, and I'd love the chance to introduce myself briefly if that's okay. So I'm very grateful for this opportunity to serve on the Panel for Educational Policy. And I think it's wonderful to be here in this room and on this panel, and that you should know who I am so that you can interact with me. So I come to this role as a parent of two
children in the New York City public schools. I'm a CUNY professor at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center in Children and Youth Studies and Urban Education and Sociology. And I'm a participatory researcher and an organizer. For the past several years, much of my work has focused on educational decision-making in New York, particularly in collaboration with communities that have historically been left out of important conversations about their schools.
And together, as inquiry collectives, we deeply engage with our most entrenched and persistent social issues like school inequities, and work together to collectively produce knowledge for the purpose of moving meaningfully towards transformational change. I've learned again and again through my work that when people who are directly impacted by issues or problems or questions are meaningfully included in shaping decisions, the results are often stronger, more creative, and more effective.
Our schools, New York City public schools, are a gorgeous public good. They are filled with extraordinary educators, school leaders, staff, students, and families who bring a beautiful array of creativity, care, and commitment to our school system. And at the same time, there are some that have experienced harm, betrayal, neglect in the context of schooling. And in order to reach our potential as a public school system, we have to attend to those histories, those histories of the present, and current
experiences. So I don't know if it's ever about one single perfect policy solution, but in order to reach our potential as a public school system, I'm convinced that our most urgent questions are how are we making decisions? Who is part of the conversation? Whose expertise is valued? And to whom and to what are we accountable? So as a panel member, I hope to bring my experience with an interest in educational policy research and these participatory commitments, but also my willingness to listen, learn, and be
moved. I'm a regular parent and community member And you all here are the dedicated public. I don't know how many, and I'm looking forward to working with fellow panel members and all of you to build even more public knowledge about our school system and how to engage meaningfully with the governance structures of our school system. And in this current historical moment, it's ever more apparent that schools and education are vital for protecting democracy. So I welcome you to be in touch. I want to hear everything and
anything. Educate me, organize me. Students, that definitely includes you. I'm very honored to serve, and I approach this role with a deep belief in public education and a commitment to thinking carefully about accountabilities and governance, and I'm bringing a peppy energy to get to work. Thank you. Thank you very much, panel member, and I think that your enthusiasm is going to be contagious. Alright. And we'll have us all, which we all do, working towards the common goal, and that is improving the education in the city of New York. So thank you very much for your willingness to
serve and your willingness to be part of this panel. Thank you. Thank you. It's an honor to be here. At this point, we'll now move to the portion of the agenda where we would normally hear from our chancellor, but our chancellor is at another engagement that's taking place, I believe, in the Bronx. So he's in God's country, the Bronx, and no slight to Brooklyn, but we all know where the Bronx stands. But we do have our first deputy chancellor here, and I'd like to open the floor to you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for having me this evening. And clearly, I'm not Chancellor Samuels. He's on his way, actually, from the Stonewall event at
Yankee Stadium. And for awareness, it's the seventh year of the Yankee Stonewall Scholarship Initiative. The scholarship is awarded to one graduating high school senior per borough. Each student receives $10,000 towards their college tuition. Launched in 2019 to commemorate the Stonewall uprising, the award celebrates students who demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and support the LGBTQ+ community. And so he will be here and is probably on his way as we speak.
I'm always delighted to share the stage with Chair Faulkner, Vice Chair Dr. Green, and the panel. And I do want to thank panel member Auben and Chair Faulkner for joining us last night at the Counted Out screening as we seek to start launching a math revolution and get everyone excited to love math and say confidently, "I am a math person." I want to thank our host, Principal Sarah Stoller, Pamela Randazzo, Susanna Taylor, and Michelle Penn. Also acknowledging the LIFE, Restart,
YABC programs housed on this campus with principals James Williams, Joan Indard-Etienne, and Dawn Harris, as well as our incredible superintendents, Shaneen Lindsay, Tom Rockowitz, Noah Angelis, Glenda Esperance, and I do see Superintendent Dunn as well amongst them. Sorry if I'm missing anyone. I'll keep a scan out for you. As we head towards the end of the school year, I want to acknowledge the tireless work of our teachers, principals, paras, school staff, and of course, families, and most importantly, all of our
students who gave it their all this year. And not only does June mark the amazing Knicks victory after 53 years, whoop-whoop, June is also a month that deserves acknowledgement and awareness as we celebrate Caribbean American Heritage Month. Mm-hmm. Awesome. Immigrant Heritage Month. Whoo. Whoo. Pride Month. Whoo. And our Father's Day coming up. Yes, and before that, concluding this week with Juneteenth. Whoo. Very good. We're so honored to call such a diverse and
multicultural city like New York our home. We see this pride all across the city, in our communities, in our schools, and most importantly, in our classrooms. Integration makes New York City public schools a powerful place, and earlier today, we launched the start of our district working groups for districts three, seven, 13, 16, and 25, with the focus on working together to build a stronger school system rooted in academically rigorous, safe, and integrated schools. Our aim is to ensure every student
has access to high-quality public education by maintaining high expectations, meeting students where they are, providing research-based supports and expanded opportunities to succeed, while creating school communities where students feel safe, supported, and able to thrive. And this work is also defined by a truly integrated school system beyond simply demographic inclusivity, but a focus on diversity of ability, socioeconomic status, and language. Superintendents of these five launch
districts will work directly with New York City Public School central leadership team to review data and evaluate how it could be used to support a truly integrated system. And what I would also offer in response to your remarks and welcome, is that the working groups are intended to put parent leadership, multiple perspectives, and stakeholders at the table so that as we tackle some of our city's most biggest challenges we're facing, that we're doing
this with communities and not to communities, and that is a promise of our mayor and our chancellor. Although this is the last meeting of 2025/26 school year, there are several critical items on the agenda from chancellor's regulations that include provisions for the inclusion of student participation on SLTs, to policies that address chronic absenteeism and ensure all our students receive the education they deserve. This work is years in the making, and we're beyond excited to be presenting these equity-focused and student family-centric policies.
This is our start to being the change we want to see and moving the needle in the right directions. With that, go Knicks, and let's have a great meeting. Great. Thank you very much, Deputy Chancellor. It's always great to have you with us, and I have to say that was a really great presentation last night on the learning about math and how math is taught and learning some of our math phobias and feelings around math. So it was a really great program. So I really enjoyed the presentation. We will now move to hearing our student panelists. You're not nervous. No. Okay. They're never
nervous. We'll hear first from Raj Laksm- Acharyya Acharyya. The floor is yours. Thank you, Chairperson. Salutations, all. My name is Raj Laksmia Acharyya, a junior at Epic High School South, and a historical advocate committed to shaping a future where students can lead. In preparation for the agenda items, what resonated with me was the Chancellor's Regulation A655 concerning student representation and school leadership teams, and the resolution put forward by the panel in support of career technical education.
This research reminded me of a conversation I had. On Monday, I spoke with my assistant principal regarding our school's leadership team, which I'll be referring to as SLTs. SLTs are responsible for developing a comprehensive educational plan and serve to make decisions on educational policy for their school. He mentioned how the school had mandated positions, and I decided to ask, "Do we have student representation on our SLT?" As high schools, we are expected to have at least two students represented. The response I received went like this.
"We used to. The student representatives we had for our monthly meetings were often inconsistent and underprepared." It is through this chat that I motivated my assistant principal to reconsider for this upcoming school year. A perspective that many faculty, parents, and teachers cannot provide is the experience of students in this era. The last time SLT regulations were updated was in 2010, 16 years ago. The new terms for A655 will make it mandatory for
students to be SLT members for both high school and middle school. This is why the agenda item up for vote, the Chancellor's Regulation A655, can empower students to take leadership positions within their SLTs and make a difference. Every student's strongest desire, undoubtedly, is to see their school community flourish and continue to do so beyond their graduation. For high schools, there must be at least two high schoolers on their SLT, and for six through 12 schools, there should be one middle schooler and one high schooler. Elementary and K through eight schools are not required but are encouraged
to have student representation on their SLTs. By broadening student leadership roles in their SLTs, schools can receive direct feedback on ways to improve their school's community and for students to take agency over their education. Student leaders might wish to champion the need for AI literacy courses, further mental health resources, and academic integrity through serving on their SLTs, for examples to name. However, two student representatives to serve as a reflection of the entire school are only a starting point. A method that can
elevate student representation, preparation, engagement, and impact in SLTs is creating a subcommittee of student leaders to delegate, research, and educate on topics discussed at SLTs. This can be recognized through an advisory council focused on advocating for their peers regarding, for example, mental health, access to opportunity, and diversity within the curricula. These advisory councils will serve to foster relations between faculty and students, incentivize students to speak about their experiences, and
serve as a reflection of their school's diversity, beauty, and ingenuity. This is where the strength of SLTs can be displayed. Representation with the support and shared decision-making are the next steps needed for students to feel welcome, be integrated, and authentically participate in SLTs as needed for students to feel like leaders. New York City public schools should serve their students, and that can only happen when students are at the forefront of their education.
Lastly, I'd like to offer student support towards the resolution of career and technical education courses, also known as CTE programs. These are some of the strongest methods through which students can successfully be employed upon graduation. CTE programs allow students to be certified and educated in their desired field. They're also able to break barriers for students of marginalized backgrounds. Throughout the city, students fear whether they're able to afford to live in the city or not. Available CTE programs can ensure
students can see themselves within their hometown in the next decade and further contribute to the pursuits of higher education. It is here, in this meeting, that we all share the desire to see students succeed. And through the PEP support, the resolution, and the Chancellor's Regulation A655, will serve as an important catalyst for student progress. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much, panel member, for that presentation. And, you actually solved a problem for me because I'm the author of
the CET resolution, and I was thinking about what comments I would make to offer support, and I think you did that for me very effectively. Absolutely. Yes, thank you. We'll now hear from our next student panel member. Panel member Tanvir? Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Is my mic on? Yeah. Thank you. If you want, I can provide you mine. Oh, that's okay. Thank you so much. Oh, I see sound now. Once again, good afternoon, everyone. It is my great pleasure to be a first-time student panelist here today. My name is Tanvir Kaur, and I attend Thomas Edison High School, CTE High School, by the way,
in Queens, New York. Today, I will share my viewpoints as a student on the proposed changes to Chancellor's Regulation A655 about school leadership teams and Regulation A450 about involuntary transfers. My journey of advocacy has led me to serve in many leadership positions, such as the Student Advisory Council to the Chancellor. Being a part of these roles and opportunities has taught me the great importance of fair representation, a principle that the School Leadership Teams are designed to uphold.
This resolution changes focus heavily on ways SLTs can become more transparent and accessible. However, leadership has little value if leaders are not actively involved in representing those who they claim to represent. Fair representation looks like actively asking questions to the body that is being represented through conferences with those who wish to attend or even having seminar events at the school. This is why I urge greater transparency within SLTs. As I was learning about what an SLT is, I
asked around the staff and the students in my school. Yet, to my surprise, most of them remained unaware. And as a matter of fact, all of the students I had asked did not know what an SLT was or who their representative was. By increasing transparency, schools can encourage greater participation beyond just the mandated number of members and ensure that students, families, and staff understand that they too have a voice in school leadership. Transparency is also as simple as informing the school about major
updates or movements done through the School Leadership team, rather than just being blinded with a name. Ensuring equitable meeting times for students and parents and more readily switching to hybrid or online models in schools can also strengthen participation, improve accessibility, and help address concerns about inconsistent membership that I've heard from members of different school communities. Leadership is strongest when people's voices are heard and then reflected in the decisions that are made. There's no point of hearing those voices if there's not enough
reflection. I would also like to highlight the proposed changes to the involuntary transfer regulation, A450. I'm informed that A450 was revised so that schools have more options when addressing bullying situations, including the option for transferring students causing harm instead of victims of bullying having to transfer. I understand bullying. My first language was Punjabi, so when I first started kindergarten here in the States, I was bullied for my inability to speak fluent English.
This continued for the next few years. It wasn't until I had learned English well enough for the bullying to actually stop. For that reason, I appreciate this policy's approach to addressing serious incidents, because some may require an involuntary transfer. A student who has been harmed should not bear the burden of disruption, and a transfer could provide an opportunity for an offending student to change their behavior in a new environment. And though this legal framework is well thought out for those reasons, I also have ideas and
questions on improvements. First, there should be greater emphasis on the restorative practice that goes on before the process of transferring begins. After getting to know so many people, despite having a student involved in a conflict, how that may look like to a dean, I have understood that there is usually a deeper psychological impact or an reasoning behind their behavior, or that it is a reflection of a greater challenge that they may be facing that cannot be immediately seen behind every action, whether that is good or bad. Every support system should be fully utilized
to support the children before the process of transferring. The system may include counseling or behavioral intervention practices. Though this already exists in the DOE already, it is crucial to ensure that the practices reach every student, regardless of race, gender, or any other determining factor equally. Studies from New York University prove that students of colors, particularly African Americans students, are at significantly increased risk for exposure to exclusionary discipline
practices. Leave no student behind, regardless of any factor. Second, it must also be guaranteed that the receiving school of the student has the necessary resources and potential to take proper care of the student transferring in. This includes targeted mental health and academic support services. The goal should be to help every student move towards success, growth, and long-term wellbeing. After all All the issue is to help the student move towards success and
betterment, rather than just moving a problem from one school to another. I thank you all for this opportunity to share my perspective. Thank you so much to both of our student panelists. I always say the student panelists bring a lot of insight and thought to their remarks and carefully prepare them. And you've both touched on topics that I think are very important for the panel to give very careful consideration. In addition, we've had a long history, a good history of having our student participation and there were some who served previously who are sitting in the audience,
and I'd like to invite them to actually come on stage. We have something for you. So if you're here, would you come on up? Cassandra Sinche, Dalia Diaz-Chen, Julia Nesif, and Isaiah Tan June. Isaiah's not here. Okay. Yeah, let's give them a round of applause. These are our student panelists who are now graduating and will be leaving our system, but we're very proud of you. Wow. Isaiah. That looks like him. He looks so clean. They're all excited. I like his red shirt.
There they are. Thank you very much for your service. Thank you. Good job. Yeah. That was a good one. Final comment? Dalia. Thank you very much for- What? Wait. Dalia. We got a mic. We got a mic. Need a mic. I want to say thank you very much for keeping student voices on the PEP, and I'm very excited to see continued growth of student
advocacy in this space. Yeah. Thank you for listening to our remarks, and for being so supportive. And I agree with Dalia, I hope to see more students join the PEP, either as public observers, giving comments, or speaking here on the panel. Rajlakshmi and Tanvir are two very intelligent and strong young women, and I hope that you all have enjoyed their remarks and will continue supporting them as they speak on the PEP. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck. Okay, our next order of business is the adoption of the minutes of our May 20th meeting. Is there a motion for unanimous consent on the adoption of the
May 20th minutes? Is there a second to unanimous consent? Is there objection to unanimous consent? Seeing no objection, the minutes from our May 20th meeting are adopted. We will now move to the next item of business, which is- Mr. Faulkner, I think we've been joined by a couple of additional panel members who weren't here. Could you introduce yourself? If you weren't here when I called roll before. Javita Zan present. Okay. Rima Escardo present. Great. Anybody else? Yeah. Amy Fair present. Oh, come on. Okay, so now we're up to 20 members. Great. Thank you. Do I have Alice Ho? Yeah.
Yeah, Alice. Right here. Thank you. Okay, next item on the agenda is the open comment period for students. I'll get the secretary to call folks up who may have signed up for that part of the program. Sure. When I call your name, you can make your way down to the microphone. Ariana Ahmed Misha, Anna Salvador, Yelani Joseph. You're there twice. Emma Sandler, and Vinnie Dong. Okay, you can begin as soon as you're ready. Okay. Good evening, the panel for Education Policy members and the representative of Chancellor Samuels. My name is Ariana Ahmed Misha.
I'm a sophomore at the Institute for Collaborative Education and a member of the Teen Activist Project at the New York Civil Liberties Union. In April, me, along with some of my peers, spoke to the chancellor about our extreme concerns about the usage of AI and how it is affecting us students. Since then, I helped plan a weekend event, student event, over hundreds of students to listen to our concerns about AI and AI guidance. There was a very specific session about AI policies there and where the conversation went so deep that the student couldn't stop
talking about this entire policy, and even after the entire summit, we kept talking about how much we absolutely hate the policy idea. And the question is about if we students care about this issue or not. Yes, we do care because as a student, whenever I talk with my peers about this AI policy, we always end up thinking about how much this is threatening our cognitive abilities and also having such a bad environmental destruction in many different ways. For example, across the country, there is already many different issues happening, which includes having drinking water undrinkable,
and this AI policy will not only make environment more vulnerable and going to make us students dumber, but also is going to make the worker the complicit in polluting the water of New York, which is really bad. And also, we are already seeing AI in a very unhealthy way because the way the students are now feeling like it's pointless to work hard because they can just use AI, because some students say that, "AI can do it, so why would I work hard?" At the same time, the adults are not even helping us to explain that where these products are coming from and how
harmful they are and how this is manipulating us students. For this reason, I just request the chancellor and the PEP that hundreds of thousands of students who care, on the behalf of everyone I'm saying that, please do not make our policy dependent on AI and please make AI something that we say no to, and don't let AI become something that takes advantages of us students. Thank you so much. You can begin. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Anna Salvador. I am a high school sophomore from Queens and a part of the NYCLU Teen Activist Project. As we know, artificial intelligence is being
sold as a solution to everything, especially when it comes to education in schools. Ads for AI are common in train stations and inside trains too. I often see these ads on my commute to school, whether it be for an AI friend or an AI artwork or a company that helps you pay your debts off and helps you with your work. People who sell these products want us to think of AI as normal or as one of our own, but AI hurts everyone, not only by damaging environments, but it impacts normal relationships with others, as well
as destroying any original thoughts or critical thinking. June 9th, a week ago, was the English Language Arts Regents, and in preparation for the argumentative essay, one of my teachers had used AI for feedback and comments on how we can improve our essays. But as a student, it felt like I wasn't getting any actual criticism on my essay. It was just a robotic comment that didn't specify how I personally could have done better. Feedback makes a huge impact on how I revise my assignments. And not just me, but it helps any author to move people with the message that they want to provide.
Receiving continuous AI feedback, students are often sent the message that we don't have to put any actual thought into anything we do. It is the job of a teacher to understand how their students learn. When relationships between students and teachers aren't built and instead teaching relies on AI, students aren't taught about work-based relationships, and receiving continuous AI feedbacks, they don't learn. Most of the greatest achievements in history are made through ideas and personal experiences.
Philosophers over history haven't relied on AI, so why should we? Do not only think about making easy shortcuts in this current moment, but think about the future. I'm going to have to begin to wrap up. Your time is about to expire. Thank you. The AI-- Many of my peers are the future, not only of this city, but many parts of our country. So what I ask you to do is to stop using AI products on our students and instead create human opportunities for us students to learn and grow. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Good afternoon, DOE leadership and members for the Panel for Educational Policy. My name is Yelani Joseph. I'm 16 years old, a sophomore from Brooklyn, New York, and an organizer with the NYCLU's Teen Activist Project. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. When people talk about artificial intelligence in schools, I often hear one assumption, that students either fully support it or don't care about its impact. But many of us do care because we're the ones experiencing these changes in real time. Recently, my friend and I were reviewing a reproductive health slideshow for class
and came across a nonsense sentence full of errors and false information. While my friend and I were eventually able to make inferences about what the sentence was trying to convey, we shouldn't have been left guessing in the first place. Whether the issue was AI use, lack of teacher review, or something else, students deserve educational materials that are clear, accurate, and understandable, especially when learning about subjects as important and personal as our own health. AI misuse makes students question whether the information they're receiving in school is factual. It creates distrust. That experience also made me think about the broader conversation around AI in
schools. There's a double standard in how AI is being discussed and used. Students are often told not to use AI on assignments because it can hurt learning or raise concerns about academic integrity, while at the same time, AI is being used for instruction to generate classroom materials and evaluate student work. I've also seen peers receive unfair outcomes because AI detection tools incorrectly judge their work. Students should not have their effort evaluated by systems that cannot fully explain their decisions. Students deserve to know that there are clear standards to protect against AI making decisions about their future. And government should be transparent and focused on supporting student learning,
ensuring that human judgment stays at the center of education. Students are asking for accountability. Thank you. Thank you. You can begin. Hello, my name is Emma, and I'm a student at Harbor Middle School, a District 15 school where scripted curricula have been introduced. Harbor Middle School was built around project-based learning or PBL. Classes connected different subjects and gave us opportunities to learn through projects instead of just worksheets. What made Harbor unique was the curriculum that focused on our community in Red Hook, teaching us about our neighborhood, the environment around us, and issues that affect the Red Hook community. The introduction of IM, EL, and Passport has changed a lot about our school,
and not in a good way. In STEAM, half of our time is now spent doing uninteresting math workbooks, and we have way less time for the projects, experiments, and hands-on activities that made STEAM engaging. EL and Passport have also had huge impacts on humanities. EL and social studies are no longer integrated, and we do a lot more worksheets and rigid short answer questions. Our classes have changed so much they don't even feel like the Harbor I chose to attend. A lot of other students are also upset about these changes. Learning isn't one size fits all. Everyone has different needs. What's the point in having school choice if all schools are
exactly the same? A lot of students, like me, picked Harbor because of the integrated curricula and PBL that matches the way each of us learn best, but it feels like our choice is being invalidated Some people might think PBL is an add-on to core instruction, but I disagree. Our integrated curriculum taught us math, ELA, and social studies just as well, if not better, than the canned curricula have. It connected what we learned in English and math to the real world, making learning feel meaningful and important. I know a lot of people, including myself, who hated math before coming to Harbor, but the original STEAM curriculum made
it engaging and helped me realize I was actually really good at it. I hope you'll consider allowing Harbor and other schools that have been effective with PBL curriculums to use those instead of canned scripted curriculums. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your presentation. Vida. The next speaker. Hi, I'm so sorry. My name is Sabrina. I am the mom of a five-year-old, and I also worked in public schools for 18 years. Today I had a meeting with our principal, and I was talking about our assemblies. There's this new thing now where they have a screen, and all the kids are performing behind the screen. And I said, "Why is there a screen?" The kids are hiding behind it.
They aren't guessing themselves. They don't even know who they are. They're looking to see if the screen is doing it right, and then they're hiding. I have taught for so long- Can I just interrupt you for a second? Yes. Is this- This is to AI Yes, but it's for student speakers. Yes, I know. They told me that I can come up here. Vida, come here. Okay. So is the young man going to be a speaker? I'm- Are you- ... trying to speak for him because they just told us. Actually, the rule, there's a period where adults can speak. I was actually anxious to hear the young child speak. Okay, you can say it. Okay, he'll say something. Ready? Here. No. So, he's yielding his time and so look, just in respect to the
rules- He said that I'll say it first and then he'll say it. Ready? I promise. Ready? I'll say it. We'll say it together. I see the sign. I see he has a sign. He does have a sign. You want to say it? It says, "We want education, not automation. AI sucks." Okay. Got it? Believe- So, no, I understand that you're speaking on his behalf, and I appreciate it. But what I'm going to ask you to do is that there'll be an opportunity for you, and I'll call you again to come up and you can speak and not-- But this period of dedicated solely for student presentations. Yeah, I didn't know. They said if I could- Yeah ... just because I came up. But I appreciate it, and I appreciate his sign.
Okay. Well, he's not in school yet, is he? He's at a school. Oh, he's five years old, okay. Yeah. Does he like school? Do you like school? What's your name? Say it again. Please come to the mic. Say Vida. Vida. Well, welcome. Well, I'm glad to hear from you. Go. And what is your sign? Let me see. Can you turn it? Let me see the sign. Let the panel see the sign. We want education, not automa-- I agree with you. Okay, thank you. Thank you for coming to the panel. The future governor. Okay. Governor. Vinnie Dung, and then the last two student
speakers, Marissa Procope or Procope, and Lyla Torres. Yeah. Good afternoon. My name is Vinnie Dung, and I'm a sophomore at Queens High School for the Sciences. Today I come here to talk about two things. I am here to talk about digital hall passes. Digital hall passes are for allegedly student security. I can assure you every time if I do need to use the bathroom, and I have to scan a barcode to tell my teachers that I'm going out to the bathroom, and it's on a system, it tells me exactly how long I used
it. I can assure you how long I use the bathroom or how many times I use the bathroom is not the business of my school. Why are we implementing digital hall passes? If we implemented digital hall passes for teachers or any administrative staff, you will have UFT here. You will see this whole auditorium filled with UFT. But when you do it with students, and you don't tell anyone about it, this is your outcome.
If you went to the October PEP about the five-year bus contracts, they showed up in numbers. Now, I want the PEP, I want any DOE official to explain to students, middle school students, elementary school students, high school students, why they need to be tracked on how long they use the bathroom. Or better yet, explain to their parents why their tax dollars are going to track how long your student is going to the bathroom. Why are we spending so much money on these contracts, these smart passes I think that's what they're called, on tracking
student bathroom uses? That is ridiculous. That'll be all. Thank you. Thank you. The last two speakers are Marissa Procope and Lyla Torres. Thank you. Okay. Good evening everyone, my name is Lyla Torres. I'm 12 years old. I'm in sixth grade, and I go to school in the Bronx. Hope you're all having a great day so far. I have a question for everyone because everybody in here seems a little bit bored and it's like, yeah, and we're not even really close to the meeting ending. So here. Can anybody maybe raise their hand and tell me what the word r******d means? Anybody? You guys are booing. Okay. Well, it used to mean intellectual disability, but now
people are using it as a synonym for stupid or dumb, which is not what it means. I don't think it's okay for adults to be using that word when they're talking to students in schools. Okay. I came here a few months ago, and addressing how my PE teacher kept on using the word r******d when he was talking to us, and a teacher from the other campus came into my gym class and was talking to a few students, and she goes: "Tell me if any of the students are misbehaving or anything." He points directly at me and goes, "She's being disrespectful, and she doesn't listen.
She reports me whenever I do anything wrong, and if I interrupt her cheer practices, 'That's r******d, isn't it?'" And I don't think that's okay, because if students get in trouble for using that word, why don't the adults? And if-- Okay, wait, where am I? Oh, God. I'm pretty sure I'm not wrong for calling out his behavior, and this is retaliation against what I'm doing, because I'm not wrong for reporting him on something wrong that he did. If he's being disrespectful to me, why is he calling it out every class, "Oh, this girl reported me." Also, when people be reported, shouldn't it be anonymous? Why does he know that I was the one who reported him? Because I'm not the only girl who's in cheer in that class.
Okay. Really quickly, because this is about to finish. There are school accounts called fight accounts up, specifically for my school, and my face is on those accounts and stuff, and the school doesn't do anything about it. They don't do an investigation on it. They don't care. They don't do anything. My face is on two videos on this account called PPA Fights, talking about how I'm scared and I don't want to fight this girl. It shouldn't be escalated to the point where a bunch of students in higher grades than me are talking about me getting into a fight with this girl when nothing ever happened. That should be investigated by the schools, and it shouldn't have gotten to that point. Thank you all for listening. Have a great rest of your day.
Okay. Well, thank you. Just because there were a couple of things that I heard that are, if accurate, are pretty disturbing. I'd like to see if someone from DOE could follow up, because of there's verbal abuse and then the other issues around violence. Just as a clarification, I think we would need to-- I know they're mandating reporting and such, but I'm just concerned about some of the language that I heard. If we can have somebody follow up, that would be- Okay ... helpful. Thank you. Yeah. The chief representative is coming forward, and somebody will follow up on that. Okay. That was it? Oh, that is the end of the student- Oh, okay ... speakers. Sorry, Chair. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Sure. I think we're all concerned and want to make sure that
there's a connection made. Yeah. Okay. We'll now move to the two voting items on the agenda. Actually, there's several voting items on the agenda, and I just want to review the procedure that we'll follow when we're considering the items that are up for consideration for a panel vote. As we enter this portion of the meeting, the secretary will call up speakers in groups of five for public comment on any of the resolutions that are being considered. Each speaker will be allotted two and a half minutes for presentation. The only discussion that will be considered is for the item that is currently under consideration for a vote. So when we move to the discussion of
contracts, the only discussions that will be considered will be any discussion relevant to contracts. If you are not present when your name is called, we cannot guarantee that you can-- If you leave the room, we won't guarantee that you'll be able to regain your place in the queue. So we'd encourage you to stand by for your name to be called. So we'll begin with the first items for consideration tonight, which is... Did you have your hand up? No, no. Oh, okay. No. Yeah, will be the consideration of contracts. To present the resolution for consideration of contracts, I'll call on our Chair
of Contracts Committee, Faradji Hanna-Jones. Faradji? Yes. The resolution for consideration is entitled Resolution to Enter into Contract Agreements for items one through six and eight through 23. Okay. Is there a motion to consider resolution? So moved, Shirley. Okay. It's been moved and seconded that the resolution is open, it will be considered. We will now move to public comment on the resolution. There are six speakers signed up, so I will call all six. And you can make your way down to the microphone.
Rachel Pelz, Martina Meyer, Kelly Clancy, Dr. Calera Salas Ramirez, Steven Mahoney, and Kamala Carmen. And as you get to the microphone, if you're there first, you may begin speaking. Hi, I'm Rachel Pelz. Step closer. I'm here to talk about the need for math coaching and professional development in all grades. I'm the mother of a kindergartner at PS 154 who's currently being forced to use an AI-enabled math ed tech app in her classroom against my will, an attempt from the
administration to raise math testing scores in our school. ST Math brags about their AI-driven approach, and it's been given to our children on iPads and Chromebooks, which means that now our K through two students have mandatory one-on-one devices. When kindergarten parents expressed concern about the introduction of ST Math to our youngest students, we were told that there was data that backed its use, but there is no data on ST Math usage in kindergarten and first grade, and
the one peer-reviewed study of ST Math in older grades found that, quote, "Two years of program treatment produced a non-significant effect." But parents are being told that this unproven AI-driven ed tech product is curriculum and mandatory. We've been told that it's cheaper than teachers, and that this necessitates the introduction of one-on-one devices against the calls of the teachers' unions who represent our beloved teachers who are absolutely dedicated to hands-on learning. Is this relevant to one of the contracts?
It's about math and about how we need support for math. But- So we don't end up giving cheap AI products to small children. I don't believe there's a contract in use. Yeah, it is. Hold it. Anything in favor of item two? It's in favor of both. In favor of teachers, in favor of AI. Okay, continue. Thank you. ST Math is only being used in five schools in New York City public schools. In another school in our district, it is opt-out. Parents who are advocating for the right to opt out of this product at our school have been subjected
to attempts at silencing by school leadership. Just today, I was told that advocacy outside of our school, quote, "Undermines our community, sets up confrontational dynamics with the administration, erodes trust, and stokes fear." To be here today to advocate for my child against ed tech products, to advocate for money for teachers, for hands-on learning. But I'm here. I'm here. I was here before, and I will be here again. I'm not just here for my child. I'm advocating for her, but I'm
advocating for all children. I'm advocating for our teachers who we love, who want to be teaching these children, who love to be in the classroom, who want to be hands-on with them. And, frankly, after what I was told, I do fear being retaliated against. Parents who are standing up against ed tech, against AI, who are fighting against these trillion-dollar companies, all of this ed tech money, the corruption that's coming in, we are really facing an uphill battle. But we're here for our kids, we're here for everybody's kids, and we're not going
away, no matter- Yeah ... what we are told until we get this done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You can begin. Next in five. All right. Yeah. I've waited so long to say that. My name is Martina Meyer. I am a proud New York City educator and proud union member, part of the MORE UFT. In this moment, I am speaking in my personal capacity and must articulate that for I have experienced the very retribution that was alluded to previously. I would like to speak about contract item 16, which regards crisis management services.
Contract item 16 highlights the current, former, and future need for mental health care for all of our students. But outsourcing this work to a consultant agency to the tune of $200,000 is an insult to the full-time unionized counselor staff that our students deserve. We need to expand the number of counselors and improve the counselor-to-student ratio in all of our schools. I am speaking about citywide concerns and about all school ages, although
I am in an elementary school, and I would like to specifically articulate that in schools across the city of all ages, for students who are just new arrivals in our schools, we need multilingual counseling. I am dismayed at the number of stories that we're hearing across the city about students who do not have access to the counseling and support that they need after suffering very real and very traumatic journeys to get here. Not only do they deserve high-quality, engaging
project-based learning that speaks to their interests and experience, but they also deserve trauma-informed instruction and very much deserve to speak to someone in their own language, and not to have the language barrier interrupt. Any expansion of AI, for example, in our high schools, will increase the need for counseling due to the emotional trauma that deepfakes and other AI slop are inflicting on our adolescents. I hope that the DOE can value the current need, and former need, and future need for full-time
multilingual unionized counselors in all schools to improve the student-to-counselor ratio and prevent future harm by passing a full moratorium on AI in pre-K through 12. Buenas noches a todos. Caliri Salas, CEC 4. Once again, we are deeply concerned. One, there are several contracts where we're once again outsourcing professional development for our leaders. We're outsourcing our counselors. We're outsourcing all of the different ways that we can support each
other within the system with unionized labor. And I recently had a conversation with some of the folks in the finance office, and we're talking about duplicative contracts, things and skills and people that we have within the system, that apparently we're outsourcing to all sorts of different places without having a comprehensive evaluation and audit of the contracts that we already have, and how and why we are either reengaging in these contracts, creating extension for these contracts, and understanding the efficacy. That includes anything affiliated and associated with curriculum.
That also encompasses anything affiliated with screeners. That encompasses anything, of course, affiliated with artificial intelligence. And so once again, we are just here to ask for transparency when it comes to contracts. There are other school systems across the country that have a full database where the public actually has access to contracts. I know this was a conversation also in the hearing this week, where city council asked for accountability as well. And so my question is to you, as PEP members, are we asking the right
questions when it comes to the contracts? I really do appreciate that there is a new contract committee that's coming together and bringing that to the space, but I think we have to figure out how to work collectively for additional transparency when engaging in these processes, because we do have the talent within the system to be able to provide our students with comprehensive support. And if we're trying to build and recap all of the things that we need within our system, if we're trying to go ahead and hire paraprofessionals as teachers or uplift parents that could bring their talents into a school
community, shouldn't we be investing in them, in our kids, in our schools, rather than in Kiddom, who continues, Hassan continues to come and ask for more money? That's my wondering. Thank you. Very hi. Hi, I'm Kelly Clancy. I'm speaking on my own behalf, but I'm with CEC for District 20. I'm also here to speak on contract 16, which made me wonder a lot of things that my colleagues Caliris and Martina brought up tonight. One of these is about serious questions about what it is that we decide to outsource in this city, and it seems to me like right now, citywide, it's pretty clear that there's a mental health crisis, and this mental
health crisis is being exacerbated by the fact that we have a curriculum that distances students from their teachers and students from their peers, and that has these one-to-one devices where kids are plugged into headphones. And then we decide to outsource mental health counseling instead of seriously investing in people that can provide that, unionized people, as Martina spoke to. And we also know that outsourcing mental health counseling is not something that happens evenly across the city. So we know that Urban Assembly schools, for example, are very excited about a chatbot
for college counseling, which is something that is not the case in other schools in the city. And I also think that what Caliris said is completely right. So if you look at Chicago Public Schools, for example, it's not perfect, but there is a database of all of their ed tech contracts, what acceptable use for data is, and what permission structures exist around that. When you ask those questions in New York City public schools, you're told two things. FOIA it, FOIL it, which my kids will be out of school by the time those FOIL requests get back to me. And then the other thing that you're told is that it's not anywhere centralized
because of the way that procurement works for sub-$25,000 contracts. And so as a body that is perhaps working towards systems of shared governance where parents can meaningfully contribute to these conversations, my advocacy is that we think about how we can invest money in our systems, in our schools, and not outsource to the lowest bidder. Thank you. I would also just for the record, want to point out that contract item number 16 is a city council discretionary grant that was provided to the department. I don't know that we'd want to give money back, but
yeah. They picked the vendor, right? They picked the vendor. Yeah. They picked the vendor. And the city council, yeah, the city council also picked the vendor. Is that it? There were two other people just to check, Steven Mahoney and Kamala Carmen. That's the end of the public speakers on contracts. Great. We'll now move to panel member comment. So are there any panel members who wish to offer comment? Over there. Can't see who that is. Dr. Collins. Dr. Collins. Right. Thank you, Chair Faulkner, colleagues. Thank you, students, parents,
New Yorkers. Go Knicks. Champions. That's what we are. That's what we do. I just have a few notes on some of the contract items just for our consideration, for our deliberation. I heard the concerns about item 16. I want to make us aware that the group, the organization, Elite Learners Incorporated is a mostly Black organization that has been doing very important gang violence reduction work in Brooklyn for quite some time. There's evidence that their approach has been effective.
I actually think that we are undervaluing the work that they're doing. I think what we're allotting to them, this additional $100,000, I think personally is too low. So, I firmly support us moving forward with item 16. So I just want to put that out there. Items that I do have concerns about, item 21. Well, actually, no, no. Item 23 because of what I see in item 21. So if you look at item 23, there was an original procurement process that had two bids that were made available specifically for
minority and women-owned businesses. Those two procurement bids were taken away because of federal funding restrictions. You can fill in the blank on that. Yeah. Item 21 was able to award a subcontract bid for minority and women-owned businesses. I would like clarification on why the same maneuver couldn't be applied for item 23, that was applied for item 21. Item 17, it's a vague increase in allocation and there's real concerns about... Is this my time?
No. No, go. Continue. There's vague rationale for the increase, and there are real concerns about one of the providers, St. Nick Alliance. Basically, it seems like they have a pattern of not paying some of their workers, and if we take the idea of labor seriously, that's something that should get our attention. I'm not saying to vote no, but I'm just saying I'm raising concerns about that one. And then, I'm very concerned about number 15 because there were several issues raised during the procurement
process that you can see on the documents. I won't read them. But so, concerned about 23, concerned about 17, and concerned about 15. And I actually applaud item 16 and the organization that we would be funding there. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, thank you very much, panel member. Any other comments from panel members? Seeing none, let's proceed to vote. I'll ask the secretary to call the roll. Are there any recusals? Okay. When I call your name, indicate how- Yeah, so are we- Are there any ro- What? Do we have a recusal? Are there any? Oh, I'm in the wrong place. No problem. Yeah. When I call your name, please indicate how you wish to vote.
If you wish to vote differently on any particular item, please indicate when I call your name. Member Alicea? No on 11, no on 18, and yes to the rest. Member Altman? No on two, yes to the rest. Member Aubin? Yes to all. Member Bogard? Yes to all. Member Cassaratti? Yes to all. Member Collins? I'm going to- Yes to all ... abstain from 23 and 17. No on 15, and then yes to the rest. Okay. Member Deanstag? Yes to all. Member Fair? Yes to all. Member Garcia? Yes to all. Member Giordano?
Yes to all. Member Vice Chair Green? Yes to all. Member Hannah Jones? No. No on number 11, no on 18, no on 15, and yes to the rest. So 11, 15, and 18 are no? Yes. Okay. Member Hassan? Yes to all. Member Ho? Yes to all. Member Escarrillo? Yes to all. She's missing. Member Ong? Yes to all. Member Parsons? Yes to all. Member Sapp? Yes to all. And I realize I left out our new member, Fox. Abstain on 15, yes to the rest. Sorry about that.
You can leave that. And Chair Faulkner? Yes to all. Two, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. The resolution passes. I will just do the last tallying and report that in a minute. Report it. Yeah. But everything passed. Sure. Okay, we'll now move on to the consideration of contract school utilization. And I'll call on the utilization chair, Adriana Alicea, for the introduction of the resolution. It's 17. Adriana Alicea, she/her, here for Queens CEB. The resolution up for consideration is entitled Resolution for Significant Changes in School Utilization for
Brooklyn The proposed resiting of Community Roots Charter School 84K536 from buildings K67 and K287 to building K265, and co-location with Dr. Susan S. McKinney Secondary School of the Arts and PSK369 Coy L Cox School beginning in the 2026, 2027 school year. And the proposed resiting of grades four and five of PS11 Pervis J. Behan from building K11 to building K523 in the
2027, '28 school year. I'll now turn the meeting back over to Chair Faulkner. Thank you very much, Chair. Is there a second on the resolution? Second. Second. Okay, we'll now move to public comment. First, we'd like to call the superintendent, Superintendent Dunn. I'm sorry. Have a good day. Have a good day. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Good evening, everyone. I am Megan Dunn, and I am the superintendent of Community School District 13. I'm here to express my strong support for both of these proposals that I believe will strengthen opportunities for students and schools across our district. First, the proposal to provide PS11 with additional space in a nearby
annex is both necessary and strategic. PS11 is a high-performing, over-enrolled school. This expansion will allow the school to meet class size requirements while preserving the quality of instruction and robust academic programming that families rely on. Second, I support the consolidation of Community Roots Charter School into the K265 building. This move will reduce enrollment pressure on a co-located district elementary school, PS67, allowing it to stabilize and thrive. At the same time, the new location provides meaningful opportunities for collaboration, particularly with the arts-focused programming shared by both the
charter school and the co-located high school. Together, they can build a strong pipeline for students and expand access to high-quality arts education. Both proposals are thoughtful, student-centered, and align with our commitment to equity and access across District 13. Thank you. And then we'd like to hear from Senator Brisport. Yeah. Good evening to the esteemed members of the Panel for Education Policy. Thank you for being here tonight. Let's go Knicks. I am, again, State Senator Jabari Brisport, and I had to come here tonight to speak strongly in favor for PS11 with the
proposal to resite. I speak not only as a state senator who has seen what a gem this school is in this community, which has incredible results, 97% proficiency on ELA and math, an incredibly strong student environment, and some of the most dedicated parents I have ever seen. Not only as a state senator seeing this community, but also a former public school teacher myself who has seen the effects of having a reasonable class size. And as a state legislator, that is why I voted for
the class size mandate, and it's important for me to follow through on the implementation of that and make sure that PS11 has the resources and the space in order to comply with it and keep doing the good work they do. So I speak again strongly in favor of them resiting grades four and five to Queen of All Saints, and I do hope you vote in favor. Thank you so much. Thank you. And also thank you, Senator, for being here, and we want to welcome you to the Panel for Education Policy. We'll now move to public comment. I think we do have the principals from some of these schools who are here as well,
so I'd like to invite them to come down first. If they're here. I think somebody was- There's a mic on both sides. But no, it's okay. Keep going. You're almost there. It's the end of the school year. Yeah. Hi. Thank you for having me speak. My name is Allison Kyle, and I'm co-founder and co-director of Community Roots Charter School. For the past 20 years, we have had the privilege of serving children and families in District 13. Today, we serve 474 students in grades K through eight. Since our founding, we have always been a co-located split-sited school. In 2006, we opened our doors to our first
kindergarten and first-grade students on the third floor of PS67, a building that then and still houses both PS67 and PS369. When we later expanded to include middle school, we moved those grades into the third floor of PS287. Sharing space is not new to us. It is part of who we are. That is why we are so excited to finally come together as a full K-8 community in one shared building in the neighborhood we have called home for two decades. I want to be very clear, we understand what it means to be good neighbors.
Collaboration is not just something we talk about. It is embedded in our core values of work together, work hard, honor yourself and others, and help each other. These values guide how we show up in shared spaces. We know that there are some strong feelings about charter schools. Without comparing ourselves to any other school or network, I want to share who we are. For 20 years, we have served District 13 students, including prioritizing students living in public housing. We are an inclusive school with 31% of our students
identified with special needs and all of our classrooms designed as integrated co-teaching environments. We are not naive about what it takes to share a campus We know the importance of maintaining each school's unique identity and mission. At the same time, we believe there are opportunities for collaboration that can enrich the experiences of all students from kindergarten through 12th grade. We also understand that the McKinney community has experience with co-location, and it may be tempting to compare this
proposal to past ones, but we ask that you see this as a new partnership. We bring 20 years of experience, a deep commitment to collaboration, and a genuine respect for shared community. As you come to know us, our leadership, our educators, our students, and our families, we are confident you will see that we are thoughtful partners, committed neighbors, and a school that leads with care, respect, and integrity, and we ask that you approve this co-location. Good evening, PEP members. I am
Principal Hope of our amazing, vibrant school, PS 11. I strongly support the proposed PS 11 split-site model utilizing the K-523 building for our grades four and five students. The proposal represents a thoughtful, strategic, and student-centered solution that will allow PS 11 to continue providing an exceptional educational experience while meeting the evolving needs of our
growing school community. PS 11 has established itself as one of New York's highest-performing elementary schools, recognized for rigorous academics, educational excellence, innovation, and its commitment to ensuring that all students achieve at high levels. The utilization of the K-523 facility will provide the additional learning space necessary to preserve and strengthen the rigorous academic programming, enrichment opportunities, arts education, athletics, and student support
services that have become hallmarks of PS 11's experience. This expansion will position the school to meet both current and future needs while ensuring long-term stability and sustainability. The K-523 building represents a unique opportunity to create a dedicated upper elementary campus specifically designed to support the academic, social, and development needs of grade four and five students. With the additional space, students will benefit from enhanced instructional
opportunities, deeper engagement in rigorous academic learning, expanded enrichment opportunities, and greater access to collaborative learning environments. Our school community has spent considerable time evaluating this proposal and planning for a successful transition. We are confident that the K-523 site will operate seamlessly as an extension of PS 11, maintaining continuity of instruction, rigorous academic expectations, student support services, extracurricular
activity, and the strong sense of belonging that defines our school culture. Students attending either site will remain part of one unified PS 11 community, connected through shared expectations, traditions, programs, and values. Most importantly, the proposal is about creating greater opportunities for students. For these reasons, I respectfully urge the Panel for Educational Policy to approve the PS 11 split-site model utilizing the K-523 building for grades four and five
students. This is a forward-thinking investment in students, families, and the future success of our school community. Principal Hope, you didn't leave me with anything to say. Good evening, members of the panel, family, friends, audience members. My name is Rashida Rand, and I am proud to stand before you tonight as the senior-most assistant principal at Public School 11, Brooklyn. I am also the school leader that Principal Hope will entrust to be housed at the
proposed new site full time. And I'm here to urge you to vote yes on the re-siting proposal. As a PS 11 staff member for over 25 years, as a teacher, an instructional coach, and now as an assistant principal, I can confirm that our families have consistently been drawn to PS for our incredible community and academic excellence. But because of that very success, our population has grown immensely, and we are now caring for and educating
over 1,000 students. Our current building is utilized well beyond capacity, and to keep up, we've had to make heartbreaking compromises. We've had to convert vital specialized spaces, a dance room, science room, technology lab, into general education classrooms. Our students deserve dedicated spaces to create, experiment, and innovate. This re-siting proposal for our fourth and fifth-grade students to a former parochial school,
Building K-523 at 300 Vanderbilt Avenue, is the exact ... solution we need. Our vision isn't just about painting walls. It is about providing our upper elementary school students with a future-ready facility that will prepare them for the 21st century. Furthermore, the move gives our main building the breathing room it desperately needs to reclaim some of those arts and science spaces. As the administrator who will be on the ground at the annex every
single day, I promise that we will operate under a clear mandate. One school. We are one school, just two buildings. We will maintain identical academic standards, safety protocols, and administrative care. Our community will remain deeply connected through shared events, joint staff collaborations, and integrated extracurriculars. This proposal gives our students the best of both worlds, a tailored advanced environment for
the upper grades and a spacious, fully restored home for our lower grades. Our community explicitly wants this, our survey data proves it, our families are here to support it. So I strongly, strongly ask that you support this proposal and you vote yes tonight. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Thank you very much. We'll now proceed to public comment. When I call your name, please make your way down to the microphone. Cynthia McKnight, Chanelle Church, Ben Green, Sophia, and Shelagh Amin Madani.
You can begin. Good evening, everyone. My name is Cynthia McKnight, and I'm the president and Brooklyn Borough president appointee for Community Education Council 13. And I'm also a proud former mom of PS 11. And I'm what was also the former PTA president there. My son, Orion, had an outstanding education at PS 11. When he came to PS 11, he needed OT, he needed speech therapy. He wasn't talking, where at PS 11 we were fortunate to learn that he had a hearing problem.
And he was able to go on to Brooklyn Latin, one of the specialized high schools, and thrive there. So I wholeheartedly support this expansion. And you could learn something from PS 11. It could be a model for the rest of the schools. And with a lot of our schools being under-enrolled, we need to support PS I also support the proposal for community routes to go to PS 287 so that their elementary and middle school could be one. So thank you, and I wish everybody a happy Juneteenth and a happy Father's Day. Thank you. You can begin.
Good evening. Good evening, panel members. My name is Chanelle Church. I am the parent of a rising fourth grader, co-chair of the school leadership team at PS 11, and a lifelong resident of the Fort Greene Clinton Hill community, and I'm also a PS 11 alumni. I'm here in strong support of the proposal to re-site PS 11's fourth and fifth grade students to Queen of All Saints. This proposal is about creating the space our students need to thrive, not just today, but for years to come.
And while PS 11 is a high-performing school, our success has never meant that our needs have disappeared. In fact, as our school continues to grow and evolve, the need for dedicated support and learning spaces has become even more important. So re-siting our fourth and fifth graders to Queen of All Saints starting in the '27, '28 school year will create the opportunities to expand the spaces that directly support student success. It would allow us to strengthen academic interventions, student support services, much of what Cynthia just mentioned with her
son, enrichment programming, and other learning opportunities that help every child reach their full potential. As a community, we have worked hard to build a strong foundation for our children. We want to continue growing that success pathway, ensuring that students have access to the resources, the programs, and the supports they need throughout their educational journey. To do that, we need space. Space is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Want to make that clear. This proposal represents thoughtful planning for the future of PS 11, an investment in our students, and an investment in our community because we are
able to take over a staple of Queen of All Saints, which has educated our students in the past in our community. It will allow us to better meet the needs of current families while creating opportunities for future generations of children who will walk through our doors. So I respectfully urge support for the re-siting of PS 11's fourth and fifth grade students to Queen of All Saints. Thank you very much. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. I got it. Good evening, panel members. My name is Benjamin Green, and I have been a parent leader in District 13 for over 25 years.
I strongly support the expansion of PS 11. They are overcrowded over there. They need that space. I'm not going to rehash what everyone else said, but I would like you all to vote yes for that expansion. For the proposal with Community Roots, we support that. The CEC support that very much I've met Community Roots as a PTA president in PS 67. And Allie, you know we had our ups and downs when they tried to expand in 67 to a K through eight.
I was part of the mastermind that expanded into 287, and we always heard that they want to be one school, K through eight. But I do want to strongly recommend something to Community Roots, that it's a collaboration. We definitely support them going into 265. We've been hearing a lot of rumors about you going into a high school with K through eight students, but I think, and always said
back then and I still say it now, it's about collaboration, working together, and hopefully we do not have any real problems. But if you do, then I think that the challenges is about working together. But I would love you all to support both proposals, and I'm going to give up the rest of my time. Hi, good evening. My name is Sophia Corperon, and I have been a member of the Community Roots community since In this time, I have worked at the Community Roots Elementary School as a
teacher, and I have worked at the Community Roots Middle School as a teacher. I have also had the great privilege of becoming a part of the parent community at Community Roots. I have a first grader and soon to be kindergartener. I am here today to speak in favor of the proposed resiting of Community Roots to co-locate with Dr. Susan S. McKinney Secondary School of the Arts. This year, Community Roots is celebrating our 20th year, and in this time we have not only built a strong community for our students, for our families, for our staff,
but we have also been considerate neighbors to those two schools that the elementary school has co-located with for 20 years. And great neighbors to the school that the middle school co-locates with for now 15 years. And though our schools sometimes serve students with very different needs and different ages, we have collaborated with love and respect. This can be seen in how we do small things like safety drills, how we coordinate to use the shared spaces. This can also be seen in how we co-sponsor community events with the schools that
we share space with. Because of this, I feel confident that we will be able to do the same given the chance to co-locate with the McKinney community. I also want to highlight that our school philosophy centers equity and social justice. We always prioritize making sure that the needs of all in our community are met, and that includes the schools that we share space with. I'm sharing this with deep love and confidence in our school and in District 13. We have a track record of being great neighbors, and we hope to continue that as we share space with the Susan McKinney
community in the 2026, 2027 school year. Thank you. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Sheila Aminmadani. I'm the parent of two children at Community Roots, and a high school teacher in District I knew Community Roots long before my children enrolled there because my high school has partnered with them for many years. Over that time, I've watched dozens of my students work with Community Roots children through internships, classroom projects, and summer programs. And what stands out isn't
just the programs, it's the culture. I've watched teenagers who are often quiet, guarded, or unsure of themselves come alive in those classrooms. They return to school with pride, with joy, and with renewed confidence. They feel valued, they feel connected, they feel like they matter, and that they can make a difference. Now that my own children attend CRCS, I've seen firsthand the excitement of the younger students, the relationships they build, and the strong sense of community the school
intentionally creates. In all of my years as an educator in District 13, I have rarely encountered a school so committed to building relationships across ages, schools, and neighborhoods. Tonight, we're not talking about whether Community Roots can become a good neighbor. After years of partnership and collaboration, I can tell you they already are one. CRCS has been split between two buildings for years. Bringing the elementary and the middle school together in one building will
strengthen the community and better support students and families while allowing the school to remain in the D13 community it has been a part of for so long. As both a District 13 educator and a parent, I am confident that Community Roots will be a strong addition to the Dr. Susan McKinney community. I hope my children have the opportunity to continue growing in the community we love together in one building, and I hope you will support this proposal. Thank you. The next group of speakers,
Richard Gilman, Kara Benton-Smith Isaiah Dawson, Jen Bowman, and Daryl Henderson. Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Richard Gilman. I've been a staff member at Community Roots Charter School for the last 13 years. I'm also the parent of two Community Roots students, a seventh grader and a fifth grader. Speaking as a staff member and as a parent, I'm extremely excited about the possibility of Community Roots Charter School moving from our current location at 51 St. Edward Street and 50 Navy Street to 101 Park Avenue. One of the things that has made both our schools successful in their current
locations is a commitment to being excellent neighbors. The leadership and staff of CRCS have worked hard to establish and maintain strong relationships with the other schools in our respective buildings. CRCS truly sees co-located schools as partners, recognizing our shared mission of providing safe, enriching, respectful environments for all of our students. We cooperate and collaborate with the other schools in so many ways, operating as a team during emergency drills, communicating clearly about shared space usage, and sharing the lunchroom and recess yard with
mutual respect and smiles. In addition to our strong relationships with the staff, faculty, and students of the other schools, I'm proud of the many wonderful connections that our school has built with the other professionals who work in our buildings, including our hardworking janitors, our dependable school safety officers, the good people of School Foods, and of course, our wonderful school nurses. These relationships are truly the things I would miss the most about our current location. I know that our school's commitment to respecting and honoring our building partners will be carried over into any
new space. I'm hopeful that both the MS and the ES will be able to relocate and build new connections in a new home. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good evening, PEP members. As both a parent and the co-chair of the school leadership team at PS 11, I am proud to strongly support the proposal annex to relocate our fourth and fifth-grade students beginning school year '27, '28. My connection to PS 11 is deeply personal. My eldest graduated from PS 11 June 2020 at the height of the pandemic,
and I have a rising fourth grader and a rising second grader. A core part of PS 11's success is commitment to whole child learning. Enrichment is not optional, it is essential. Programs like Spanish, dance, and the arts are deeply embedded in the school day and directly support student engagement, confidence, and academic success. We are already seeing the impact of limited space. We have lost enrichment spaces, and that loss has directly affected consistent delivery of programs. Without the annex, we will be forced into even deeper trade-offs that
further erode these opportunities. Importantly, this proposal also reflects New York City's broader commitment to equity and access for all students in District 13. By alleviating the overcrowding at PS 11, the annex strengthens the entire district's ability to maintain balanced, high-quality learning environments and supports long-term planning that benefits current and future families. I urge us all not to accept a future where enrichment opportunities are diminished simply because we do not have space to sustain them. And so I respectfully urge you to support this proposal that we
create additional space urgently needed while preserving an enrichment framework that simply works. An investment in the future where students continue to have access to full, enriching, and academic robust education. Thank you so much, and go Knicks. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Good evening, members of the Panel for Education Policy. My name is Jennifer Bowman, and I am a parent of a current PS 11 second-grade student. I'm also a member of our school leadership team and a longtime volunteer in our school community. When my son first arrived at PS 11, I was looking for a school where he would
be challenged academically and supported as a whole child while surrounded by community that believed in his potential. What I found in PS 11 was so much more. Over the years, I have watched the school become a place where children discover who they truly are. I've watched students perform on stage for the first time, find confidence through the arts, explore STEM and technology, build meaningful friendships, and develop the resilience and curiosity that will serve them for the rest of their
lives. As both a parent and an SLT member, I've had the opportunity to see not only the impact that these experiences have on students, but also the tremendous care and planning that goes into creating them. The spaces within our school are not simply rooms. They are places where students create, collaborate, problem solve, and perform. PS 11's mission is to prepare students to become curious, creative, resilient, collaborative, and empathetic learners. That mission is one of the reasons so many families choose our school
and why our community continues to grow. Tonight's proposal is about ensuring that growth strengthens our school rather than limiting what makes it special. The proposed expansion into the Queen of All Saints Annex would help preserve the enrichment opportunities, learning environments, and student experiences that have become hallmarks of a PS 11 education. It would allow future generations of students to benefit from the same opportunities that have helped my own child, who
is here, grow and thrive. As a parent, I want every family who joins PS 11 in the years ahead to experience the same sense of possibility that my family found here. I respectfully urge you to support this proposal and invest in the future of a school community that changes lives every day. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Isaiah Dawson, and I'm formally representing Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest as her community liaison. So Assembly Member Forrest represents and fights
for PS 11's families in the New York State Assembly. As she knows, PS 11 students deserve a learning environment where they can absolutely flourish. This residing of PS 11 to Queen of All Saints is an absolute win. This is because the residing would directly address the overcrowding that the school is experiencing and give the students the much-needed resources that they need to continue to learn successfully.
There's also obviously overwhelming community support behind the proposal, and the assembly member is very, very proud to support it. As such, she urges the panel tonight to vote yes on this proposal and support the school's community. Thank you, and have a good evening. The last group of speakers. Chanel Church. No, these are repeat names. Man, it's a mess, this thing. Cara Benton Smith, Marissa Prokop, and Yael Harvell is the done listing. Good evening, everyone. My name is Yael Harvell, and I'm a proud PS 11
parent. I have two students, one in first grade and one in third grade, and PS 11 is a very special place and near and dear to our heart. But I think what makes PS 11 so special is that it doesn't just focus on academics, even though, as you've heard, the academics are amazing as well, but it focuses on educating the whole child. You can really be anything you want at PS 11. You can be a swimmer, a dancer, a capoeira. You can play a musical instrument, you name it. But unfortunately, because of the overcrowding, and no space,
the dedicated spaces for these activities are being taken away. And I believe that the students deserve to continue to participate fully in things that interest them and have a dedicated space. Because of this, I fully support the residing to Queen of All Saints for fourth and fifth grade. Good evening, everyone. My name is Marissa Prokop, and I am a proud PS 11 parent of Mila Joy, back there, a current third grader at PS 11. I strongly support the residing of our fourth and our fifth-grade students to the Queen of All
Saints Annex to better accommodate our exploding student population. You've heard it multiple times tonight, and I'll say it again. At PS 11, our leadership applies a whole child approach. It nurtures academics, creativity, and mindfulness. An expanded space will effectively and efficiently fill a need that will continue a well-rounded experience for your next generation of leaders. I ask that you overwhelmingly support our proposal. Thank you. Chair, that is the end of the public speaker sign-up.
Thank you. Before I begin the panel member comments, and I'd like to recognize that the chancellor has joined us. Thank you, Chancellor. Welcome to the meeting. Thank you. We will first hear from the panel members from the affected borough, Brooklyn. And so I will call on panel member Cassaratti first as the senior member from Brooklyn. Thanks so much, everyone. So for PS 11 community, I just want everybody to take a moment to bask in the joy of what a true community-led proposal looks like. This is really what we would hope for all
communities, everybody working together in the best interest of students. So congratulations. I'm in full support of this proposal. For proposal two, I need to recuse, so I'll say no more there. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Alderman Mehanna-Jones? Yes, thank you, Chair Faulkner. I appreciate it. Is Brooklyn in the house? Yeah. Nicks in five. Nicks in five. I just want to wake everyone up. Before I start, so much time has passed for me to recognize a matriarch of Brooklyn, a matriarch of New York City.
In this community, we lost the beautiful, great Marilyn D. Mosley, who we all call Mama Mosley. I wanted to speak her name because she embodied what we all want, and that is excellence for our children, excellence in terms of leadership, excellence in terms of the choices that we make for them. Primarily to see our Black children in our communities thrive and be the best they could be. She was a component of an individual
that stood behind leadership. That leadership had to be competent, and if you weren't, she waved her finger at you like a scepter, and you will hear from her if you did not do what needed to be done. But she was passionate about our kids. And PS 11 is one of those institutions and schools that she was extremely passionate about. So I just wanted to recognize her and say, Mama Mosley, we will miss you, we love you, and we'll
continue doing the work that you wanted us all to do. District 13 is a school district that I became a parent leader out of. At the time, Kamara Samuels was the superintendent, and then Meghan Dunn was the successor. And from that, I became a PEP member, and I'm very proud of that. I was connected to two other CEC members. That's Benjamin Green and Cynthia McKnight, and also Naquan, who's in District 16 as well. So we all stand together in support of PS 11.
PS 11 is one of those schools to which it is not the exception. The exception is if you let schools like this just be the only one. It is led by exceptional leadership. Principal Hope is a school leader that embodies every aspect of what I want every last one of our schools, particularly our predominantly Black schools, to be. Those are leaders that need to be in our schools. And her assistant principal, Principal Rand, who also embodies those same
values. PS 11 has a beautiful, Black, extraordinary, connected community, and they want the best for their children. They want the best for their community, and they want it to not only thrive, but they want it to also be the beacon and model for every last one of our schools here in New York City. And that is why I support their expansion. Their expansion is just not for them to be in another building. Their expansion should be a school that should be studied. If you were like me, you sat with Principal Hope, and you said, "What's your
secret?" And then she sends you home with homework. That is a school leader, not one that's going to tell me what she feels. And we've had our conversations, very long conversations, but I just want you all to know here on this panel that schools like this should not be the exception. They should be in every last one of our boroughs. This is what the Bronx asked for. This is what Queens asked for. This is what Staten Island asked for. But time and time again, we only see that given to predominantly white schools. That is the truth. PS 11 has fought
to sustain and have come together, and they want to see not just their school, but other schools be just as great as they are. And so I will continue to stand behind PS 11. I don't care what anybody says about that. I don't stand alone, I'll just let you know that. So I want to tell you that I support you 110%. Keep up the hard work and go Nicks. Okay. We have one additional public member who wanted to speak that we're going to allow. Lee Church. He seats over there.
Over there. Thank you. What did he say? So that's my cheerleader, and I'm here for her this evening. That's good. Bluebird, that's fun. Good evening to the panel and for all that are here in attendance. As mentioned, my name is Lee Church. I stand before you. If you can see my shirt, it says, "Proud PS 11 Brooklyn fathers." I stand here as a member of the Proud PS 11 Fathers Dads group that has an active 285 members in a WhatsApp group that stands tall and 10 toes planted in support of the leadership of PS 11.
So I'm here tonight to strongly support the creation of a new annex building for PS 11 in Brooklyn. An investment not only in square footage, but in the continued success of a school community that has delivered academic excellence for decades. PS 11 has a long record for strong academic achievement and has been recognized as a Blue Ribbon School That distinction reflects the dedication of its students, educators, and families. A legacy of excellence like that should be matched by a learning environment that allows the school to keep growing, thriving, and
serving students at the highest level. PS 11 is also a school where enrichment is central to the student experience. Throughout the year, students benefit from programs and activities that help them grow beyond the classroom: arts, music, movement, clubs, celebrations, and family engagement events that make this community vibrant and well-rounded. These opportunities are not extras. They are essential to a child's development, and they require space, flexibility, and the right conditions to be
do well. A new annex would relieve overcrowding, add classrooms and program space, and strengthen the foundation that makes teaching, learning, and enrichment possible. When a school with a proven track record gains the space it needs, it can expand opportunities, support students more effectively, and protect the quality of education families have come to expect. This project is also about equity and respect. Our students deserve facilities that match their achievements and support their future. PS 11 has delivered academic success for generations while
continuing to offer a rich and engaging school experience. It deserves the physical space to sustain that success for years to come. We urge the panel to support the creation of a new annex for PS 11 Brooklyn. Our school community has earned this investment, and our students deserve nothing less. And I'll leave with this. I've heard several people, although I stand here speak for an annex building, several people have used the word expansion. I support that as well. Have a great night. Okay. We're now going to open the floor if there are other panel members from the Borough of
Brooklyn who might wish to comment. Panel Member Garcia, did you wish to comment? Yes. Good evening. Can you hear me? Okay. Good evening. I usually don't speak. I just have to say something to District Years ago, when I first started teaching, most of my friends were teachers, then became administrators in District 13. District 13 was such a great example for many places in New York City, but I am telling you, it was so nice to hear parents come up and speak without an
attitude, jumping on us about whatever, but it was such a pleasure. I am going to text my best friend when I get home and tell her that her District 13 showed up and showed out tonight. Thank you. Thank you for that. Any other Brooklyn panel members wish to comment? I think we are ready for the question, and in light of the fact that I think, again, this is one of those proposals that was very well presented and where the community has clearly demonstrated its support, I would offer or entertain a motion for un--
Thank you. Is there a second to the motion for unanimous consent? Okay, I thought so. Seeing no objection to the motion for unanimous consent, the motion is adopted, and the proposal is approved. Congratulations. I do want to note for the record that Member Cassaratti was recused from being part of the unanimous vote on community routes, right? So that would go down as have that noted. And then on the contracts votes, item two was passed by a vote of 19 yes, one no. Item 11 was passed by 18 yes, two noes.
Item 15 had 17 yeses, two noes, one abstention. Item 17 had 19 yeses, one abstention, and item 18 had 18 yeses and two noes. All of the rest just had 20 yes votes. 23 had an abstention. I missed it. Thank you for catching my mistake. So item 23 had 19 yes votes and one abstention. I think that's it. Okay, great. Thank you. Our next item is resolution chancellor regulation package, and I'll ask secretary to introduce the resolution.
Okay. The resolution up for consideration is entitled Significant Changes to Chancellor's Regulation Package. There are four regulations included, A 210, which is Standards for Attendance Programs, A 450, Involuntary Transfer Procedures, A 655, School and District Leadership Teams, and A 750, Child Abuse and Maltreatment Prevention. We'll now open the floor to public comment. You need a motion to consider. Oh, sorry. Yes. Is there a motion to consider? Okay. Second. Is there a second?
Second. Second. Move the second. We'll now move to public hearing. The first speakers are Jane Demsky, Martina Meyer, Kelly Clancy, and Dr. Calera Salas-Ramirez You can begin. Thank you. Can you hear me here? Yes. Good evening, Chancellor Samuels, Chairperson Faulkner, deputy chancellors, and members of the panel. I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this critical conversation on Chancellor's Regulation A 210, Standards for Attendance Programs. My name is Jane Demsky, and I'm the founder of School Avoidance
Alliance. We are a national organization that supports and educates schools, clinicians, and families on school avoidance. I work with districts across the country, and I want to begin first by commending New York City Public Schools for recognizing the urgency of the issue of school avoidance and taking meaningful steps to address it. This shows real commitment to solving a problem that is affecting hundreds of thousands of families and students nationwide, and thousands of
families and students in the New York City public school system. School avoidance is a national crisis. It is causing chaos and heartbreak in families, and it is altering the trajectory of student lives. When school teams do not have a comprehensive education on school avoidance, families feel blamed, unsupported, and dismissed. It is also deeply disruptive to our schools. Our educators are overwhelmed and underprepared,
not because they don't care, but because they have never been given the training or tools to address this crisis effectively. School avoidance is not a child problem. It's a system problem, and systems only change when the adults are dedicated and equipped to change them. Across the country, we see a clear pattern. When schools educate their existing teams on evidence-based strategies, attendance improves, outcomes improve, and our children's lives improve.
When school teams understand what school avoidance actually is and what it isn't, they intervene early. They coordinate better. They can collaborate with families and clinicians, and they can prevent cases from escalating and prevent future cases. We also see the opposite. When districts task only one person or a very small group to address this problem and don't equip the broader school team, they are unintentionally- Your six minutes expired, so you're going to have to wrap up.
Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay. I just want to acknowledge something very important in your chancellor's report, that training frontline staff is extremely important, and I was thrilled to see it in their language. Naming the need is the first step. Implementing it with the right preparation is what changes outcomes. And a multi-tiered system of support by addressing tier one, two, and three will change that and improve outcomes and get children back to school and back to their lives. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Martina Meyer, and although I am a proud
New York City public school educator and union member, I am here speaking on my own behalf as a taxpayer and community member. I'd like to speak first to the SLT amendments. We do need to amend our SLTs, and I hope that we can do the amendments with more frequency than has been done. I think that this is potentially a yearly opportunity to look back at what has been done and look at how it could be done better. I'd like to make some comments about the three different SLTs I've served on in three different schools over a course of 18 years, and
in three different districts. So please accept my comments as general and not specific to the school that I am currently participating in. The stated purpose of an SLT is to align the school's budget with the school's goals and priorities via its CEP. However, in practice, SLTs rarely function as collaborative, deliberative bodies. Again, as part of my union work, I am in touch with many different schools, so I'm speaking about many different reports at high school, middle school, and elementary school levels. In most schools, CEPs and budgets are developed and decided
behind closed doors and then presented to the SLT for some comment and mostly for approval. The amendments that are presented today do not address the farce that so many SLTs truly are. When parents want to have transparency about the use of technology or AI in schools, for example, parents across the city, parents who are friends of mine, are told that they need to come to SLT, and so they engage their SLTs, they attend, and they are met with confusion and silence. Accountability and transparency clearly require much more specific
guidelines than are provided, and much clearer policy. The power dynamics present with administrators and educators on the SLT do not disappear just because parents and sometimes students are also at the tables. Educators, including educators inside of our AI moratorium coalition who have pushed back at SLTs about the use of AI within the mandated curriculum, have received blowback from administrators after the meeting has concluded. The proposed amendments do not go far enough in bringing clarity to the need for transparency through making SLT notes public as well.
If parents who are not on the SLT want to learn about whether ed tech expenditures were discussed or whether the myriad scientific studies critiquing the use of generative AI in schools were shared, they have no clear path or timeline in receiving notes. I'm little. Can't reach. Kaliri Salas. As a also member of CEC4, however, I'm speaking in my own capacity as a parent that has also served in three different SLTs. While I appreciate and know that this is incredibly timely, the amendments that are going to be made to these
regulations, thank you to Shirley Aubin and to Randy Garay for spending all of this time through CPAC and making these amendments. However, there are still some concerns in terms of one of the things that Martina mentioned, the dynamic process of what is the SLT, and the consistency that we have to do in order to ensure that the SLT actually has any sort of teeth in terms of the kinds of conversations that folks have in schools. I've been in three different schools that have very three different structures of the SLT. One of the schools, the principal would take the autonomy
to be the chair of the SLT and lead the conversation when it's supposed to be a space where diverse stakeholders within the school community have the ability to engage in conversations around curriculum and things that are happening within the school that are aligned with the comprehensive educational plan. Also, the lack of transparency in terms of the budget, and what people have access to makes it really difficult to align, again, our goals and align the budget to be able to accomplish the goals at the end of the year. There also is limited time to engage in the
production or the ability to engage in qualitative analysis instead of quantitative analysis. A lot of the goals are very much aligned with standardized tests and with screeners, where so much more happens within our schools. And while we are aligning the CEP to be closer to the portrait of the New York State graduate and thinking about college readiness and thinking about all of the different competencies that our students are supposed to develop, sometimes we don't have that comprehensive understanding when we are in the elementary
school, and we think that college really needs to be kids spending more time on screens, which is a really significant problem. The other thing is participation of students. We see this across the board in terms of different governance structures, not just the ability and capacity for students to engage in the conversation, but for parents that typically don't engage young people in that type of democratic structure to have the training and the support that they need so that it is a supportive structure for the students. Thank you. Hi, I'm Kelly Clancy. I've only been on one SLT, and
maybe I'll keep it that way. We'll have to see what happens. I just want to raise what Martina and what Clarisse were saying about the variability of what happens on SLTs and bring it to perhaps a yearly consideration of the way that SLTs can move towards providing more power and genuine power to parents. I will tell you that across District 20 and across the city, there's repeated discussions of recrimination against both parents and against teachers who decide to speak out against what their principal or what their superintendent says. And there has to be a climate where there is genuine opportunity
for people to participate in the governance of their schools without thinking that their kids are going to be discriminated against. And that does not exist right now. That doesn't happen at my school. My school is great, but it happens at other schools, and you hear these stories all of the time. The other thing that I think is really worth us thinking about is providing ways that within the comprehensive education plan, we can provide more autonomy for what learning can look like separated from the mandated curriculum that are the reason why more and more kids are skipping schools because they're on screens all the time and they're detached from their teachers.
And so what I mean by that is right now there is a federal lawsuit against i-Ready, and yet i-Ready is the way that most of the CEP goals for ELA and math are measured. And so that means that that is a screener that's required in almost every school in New York City, and it's a screener that's required that as a result, people use as a way to measure CEP goals. And so as a result, kids are on this program that steals all their data and this program that's designed to get them addicted to it, and it's required by districts that this happens. And so there's been a lot of work by
people in this room who are not standing up to talk about SLTs to move their schools away from using i-Ready as part of CEP goals. And my suggestion is that there is that type of work done by parents is nurtured and supported as we think about the ways that SLTs have become genuine ways that parents engage in self-governance and don't just become rubber stamps on allowing mandated curriculum and ed tech bros to decide what happens to our kids. Thank you. The next group of speakers are Gavin Healy, Kamala Carmen, and NaQuan McClain.
That's the end of this one. This group. Good evening. My name is Gavin Healy. I'm also a recovering SLT member. A former deputy chancellor of FACE once told me that parents need to trust the process, and my response to that is processes don't exist apart from the people who implement them, and neither do chancellor's regulations. And sometimes the people implementing them are not that trustworthy. I think the missing link here is principals. Without something here to hold principals accountable, any restructuring of SLTs isn't really going to be that impactful So I served on an SLT for two years at a time when I didn't know that much
about school governance. And during those two years, the principal did not once give us an opportunity to review a budget or a comprehensive education plan. I didn't really know better, so I didn't know to ask. We never completed the assessment of the principal form, and none of those things were ever presented to us. The principal, for a long time, refused to make minutes of the meetings public. So my point here is that, it's all well and good for the PEP to approve an amendment to the chancellor's regulations governing SLTs. But I'm not sure the vote really matters without that additional level
of accountability. And I think many principals see SLTs as a kind of interference, and it's very difficult for individual parents or teachers to push back against that. And so I think, imagine how much harder it will be for our student member to do that, to push back against their principal. So I think without some mechanism here to ensure that principals will be transparent and forthcoming, and willing to meaningfully participate in this process, I don't know if there's that much point to these amendments. So what might make these amendments more meaningful would be the addition of provisions about how, specifically the first deputy chancellor and
FACE will ensure accountability. What does the guidance and technical assistance entail at a practical level? And how can we hold the first deputy chancellor and FACE accountable for holding principals accountable? So thank you. Hi, I'm Kamala Carmen. And I too have been an SLT member. First of all, I want to echo everything that Gavin and the other people ahead of me said. My experience of the SLT, and especially of the comprehensive educational plan, was that it was all about compliance. And that, in part, is because of what somebody mentioned earlier about everything
being just this quantitative data rather than qualitative data. This reduction of children to numbers is not okay. And, for example, parents of younger children are really upset about i-Ready. What they don't realize is that i-Ready wasn't institutionalized as a screener until the end of the de Blasio administration. It hasn't been around forever. You are able to know what students in your schools are doing without i-Ready and ISLA.
Okay, for the rest of my statement, I wrote it down. I'd like to echo the comments made by Lainie Haimson and her written testimony to you regarding the amendment of Chancellor's Reg 8655. I very much respect her advocacy and her deep knowledge of open meeting law and the various parent governance bodies. Lainie points out that the regulation says SLTs must abide by open meeting law, but the details of what that means are lacking. The importance of hammering out the details can be seen by thinking about what happened in the main meeting of the Citywide Council on High Schools.
I know it's not an SLT, but it's an analog. In that meeting, there was no quorum. How that came about is a whole other sordid story that I won't go into here beyond saying shame on CCHS officers. Anyway, the council's president took it upon herself to shut down the meeting, insisting that that was in conformity with open meeting law, which it most certainly wasn't. In fact, FACE had to show up at the June meeting to make sure no further shenanigans ensued, and their representative confirmed that, in fact, open meeting law does not signal that meetings without quorum can't continue, only that voting can't.
Being more attentive to the language of this reg could prevent similar fiascos from happening in SLTs. Thank you. I'm not that tall. Good evening, panel members. Naquan McLean, CEC 16, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. I'm here to thank Shirley and Randy. I'm a little disappointed that we're poo-poohing on how far we got. Being one of the original working group members, we are five chancellors in eight years in to this regulation, these changes that we have tonight, right?
It is not perfect, but it's a step forward. What I will say is that it's about changing hearts and minds, and I'm going to charge the chancellor. I know the work that you want to do, and you got mayoral control for two more years, and I think the thing that we really need to focus on is the school structures and our SLTs. Making sure that they're functioning, pop-up visits to them, not just telling them when you're coming, having your deputies go, having superintendents go to these SLT meetings. Because in different places, you have different experiences. There's 1,800 schools.
There's 1,800 experiences that's happening across the city. And I think that where we have gotten, eight years it took to get to where we're at tonight. It's not perfect, but it's definitely a step forward. So I urge the PEP to vote for this, but I urge us to really think about how do we make this better? And in making it better is really working with principals and the CSA to really understand the school's governance structures and that we're really partners. That's all we want. We want to be a part of what's happening. A lot of things that were said tonight is true. I've been to SLTs recently where the parent coordinator opened up the SLT
meeting, right? So I think that it's about really having people understand it and really holding them accountable. But I think this is a step forward. Once again, I thank you, Shirley. Thank you, Randy, and I urge the PEP to vote yes. I supposed to said this when I started. CEC 16 passed a resolution that you all should have received in support of this. So I'm not standing here speaking on my own. I'm speaking on behalf of my council. Thank you so much, and enjoy your evening. I want to thank- President McLean, I also want to thank you because on the way to the meeting today, I opened up your note and saw your resolution, which I think offers a lot of great
suggestions in terms of how we move forward with the school leadership teams and district leadership teams. So I will make sure that tonight I will share that. I assumed it went to everyone. Everybody got it? If you haven't, I'll make sure and pass it out to the panel. And student panel member, you had a comment? Yes, absolutely. Hearing from the public regarding SLTs, I'd like to give my student perspective on it, because I think a greater issue that a lot of the public speakers are mentioning is in regards to privacy. I want to mention that the next steps for SLTs is to be more open about the
implementations regarding students' privacy and safety within schools. This is exemplified by GoGuardian, a software installed on students' school devices that is meant to monitor students' activity. Yet, teachers have access to that monitoring during the period, even when the student is at home, creating a lack of consent and agency for students. If SLTs were to make parents more aware of their existence and the new policies they've set, that would solve the issues regarding transparency as illustrated by the public speakers. So this is to the panel. Please consider a
greater transparency regarding SLTs and encourage these schools to be more open about the implementation of these policies. Because the more that parents are aware and involved regarding the education as present with their students' lives, we can have greater discussions between both the community and the schools that serve them. Thank you. Okay, thank you. And that'll open up the floor for any other panel members who wish to comment. I see a hand. Panel Member Alban. Okay, so all of you have elegantly brought up points.
Naquarn summed it up really nicely. It's not perfect. We need to come up with a regular schedule to update our regs, right? But it's very important, but I would like to note that the administration is aware. The regs didn't go as far as that we would like to, but we had to pass certain things. We would like certain things to pass because this air of environment, it has to be in writing. And for one of those things I'm talking about is the Title One. The right thing to do was to ensure
that a parent seat was reserved for the Title One. Some schools did, a lot of schools didn't. Why? Because it wasn't in writing, right? So now it's equitable thing to do is they have to come to the school leadership team meeting because Title One is discussed there. They are required as their responsibility as that parent leader to come to school leadership team, and it's not fair for them to sit there and everybody else get remunerations and they don't. So this is one of the things that why one of these
regs need to pass. Student representation. High schools was always mandated to have two students on the school leadership team, which you could see that is hardly was being done, and now is the middle school. You can't ask to encourage high school and student voices if you don't do that. Right? It's already mandated by the regs. So what is in writing? So we can't pick and choose. It's not in writing, but you're not, as a whole, are we following with the rules that is actually in writing in that
spirit? And it's minimum of two. It doesn't have to be just only two. I'm just putting out there, some schools have more than two students on their school leadership teams. The other point is, yes, the Open Meetings Law did not go as far in regs, but I've been assured that supplemental documents and not guidance, right? It's not going to be guidance. Right? It's going to be procedural steps or directive is the word I'm going to use, but the administration can use what language they want, but since it has to be in writing. But I want
to say this, right? You can't encourage participation and engagement and empowerment, and you make access impossible. It's not on the obligation of the public or the observer to be in person for school leadership team. That is the responsibility of the team to be in person. So if we want engagement and participation in the knowledge, and we want to empower our families and our students, we have to make it accessible to them. Martin Luther King says, "It's always the right time to do the
right thing." Right? If it's right for students, especially, if it's right for our families and our communities, why does it have to be in writing? Do the right thing. Right? That is the whole purpose. That is the spirit of Open Meetings Law. Right? So transparency and accountability and knowledge, because you can't be empowered without knowledge, and school leadership teams is not supposed to be a secret society. And our school system will function so much better. So I'm out there, please just do the right thing.
Don't wait for it to be in writing. Okay, any other panel members wish to comment? Panel Member Cassaratti? I can't hear you. Can't hear you. Hello? Oh, hi. Hi everyone, Camille Cassaratti, Brooklyn Borough President appointee. I want to talk about A655. I also am a recovering SLT member from elementary, middle, and high school. Lots of horror stories. But I do want to say in regards to accountability, that when I was the president of District 15, I worked very
closely with our superintendent then, the then superintendent, to ensure that all of our schools The 35 schools in our district had functioning SLT webpages that were transparent, where the dates of the meetings were posted, the links of the meetings were posted, the minutes were posted, and we knew who the contact person was. And this became part of the way the superintendent evaluated the principals. So I would say that if we don't have that
level of accountability in the Chancellor's Regulations, our parent leaders in the district should consider discussing this with their superintendents and trying to implement a district-wide policy to ensure transparency and accountability with your school leadership teams. So, thank you. Okay, thank you. Any other panel member? Panel member Hassan. Thank you, Chair Faulkner. I also have a comment on Regulation A655. We received a lot of input from parent leaders across Manhattan, and some of the things I wanted to elevate really were around transparency on
issues of school budgets, actual school budgets versus the ones that are visible on the public website. Because that's the only way SLTs can be collaborative in helping manage school funding and making sure that grants are being used and staffing is being kept up, too. So, a couple of bullet points I'll elevate, and hopefully we continue to discuss this in our next year's discussion on A655. So, the SLT members should have the right to request MyGalaxy allocation totals. This is the principal's
view. Obviously, keeping data around employee names and salaries private, but knowing which positions are still not funded or not filled is important for the school to understand what they're being able to staff for, especially in class size reduction environment, where it's going to become critical to make sure that we protect our non-classroom teachers for all of our enrichment classes in every school. So there should be timely training for SLT members on school budgets and how to access school data, ensure that SLT members
receive timely login to access the iPlan portal. And the second to last is SLTs should conform to Open Meetings Law by explicitly defining what it means in the regulations in terms of prior notification, availability of minutes, et cetera. We can also try to enforce that, as Camille mentioned, informally, but this should be in the regs. And, a question of whether district leadership teams are subject to Open Meeting Law, which hasn't been defined yet in the regulations. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Panel Member Izquierdo. Good evening. Thank you. Bronx borough representative appointee.
So I do want to ask a clarifying question. In our briefing, we did have a concern come up from-- A concern that was mentioned that DC 37 may have had reservations. I want to confirm that we did touch base with the union and that they are okay with the updates. Yeah, I had a conversation with them. They were first very grateful, and I should say that publicly. They were very grateful for the follow-up that they received from the department and indicated that they were supportive. Okay, thank you. I just want to make sure. And then I want to comment on the regulation. I am a current SLT member and recovering.
It's the theme for the night. So I'm a District 75 parent. I think everybody knows that, but if you don't, I am. And District 75 has not been covered in the regulation at all. Our unique structure, where we are multi-sited, the fact that 97% to 99% of our students get bused, which means that the majority of our staff are then unavailable the two hours after school because either they're doing busing or after school, or are bus paras. And so, structurally, we have been struggling and making it up as we go along.
And I'm extremely grateful for the last five to eight years that we've spent updating this regulation, since Sadie was here in her other capacity a long time ago. And we have finally included District 75 in the regulation, and we have intentionally tried to build a structure that the schools can follow so that we all have this equitable representation in our schools. And while we are talking about our survival stories, we absolutely want you to join SLT because, as everyone mentioned, that's how you make your school better, that's how you ask for the things you don't have, and that's how you keep us
accountable for our budgets and our goals. Thank you. Any other comments? Any panel members? Okay, I guess we can proceed to a vote. Secretary, if you'll call the roll. If you want to vote differently on any particular regulation, please let me know when I call your name. Member Alicea? Yes to all. Member Altman? Yes to all. Member Aubin? Yes to all. Member Bogad? Yes to all. Member Cassarate? Yes to all. Member Collins? Yes to all. Member Deanstag? Yes to all. Member Fair? Yes to all. Member Fox? Yes to all. Member Garcia? Yes to all. Member Giordano? Yes to all. Vice Chair Green?
Yes to all. Member Hannah Jones? Yes to all. Member Hassan? Yes. Oh yeah, you're here. Member Ho? Yes to all. Member Izquierdo? Yes to all. Member Ung? Yes to all. Member Parsons? Yes to all. Member Sapp? Yes to all. And Chair Faulkner? Yes to everything. All of the regulations passed unanimously. Great. Congratulations. You ready? Next resolution. It is. Yeah. Change slide. Yeah, turn the page. What's going on down there? Noise over there. Chancellor. It's not even that late yet. The resolution up for consideration is entitled Resolution in Support of Expanding, Modernizing, and Reporting
on Career and Technical Education, CTE, Across New York City Public Schools. Need a motion. Is there a motion to adopt the resolution? Is there a second? Motion's been moved and seconded. We can move to discussion. I authored this resolution, so I'll just make a brief comment, because I mentioned earlier that the student actually gave a very forceful argument in terms of support. But I fortunately had the opportunity to visit with some folks in the Bronx who've really been pushing these programs and really learned a lot about the benefit that it has in terms of academics.
The way that kids who really have not always been as engaged through attendance and other ways suddenly become really engaged in the process, become connected, and that it really can motivate our students to become better, to be more involved in the school, and to encourage attendance. So I thought it's something that we should really look into very carefully and expand. I think the resolution points out a number of advantages that further promotion of the CET programs can do, and so I would urge the panel members to approve it.
So we'll move to public comment. There is one person signed up to speak, Dr. Zaless. You all know that if it has anything to do with instruction, I'm going to say something about it. So career technical certifications and our CTE schools are absolutely critical in terms of the advancement of our students. And so some of the things that I'm sure, and I hope you are all engaging in conversations around, is again, how this fits within the structure of the portrait of the New York State graduate. And so it'd be lovely to continue to emphasize the needs
of our students to have these career pathways in a comprehensive way. And so our schools need to continue to build these systems and structures to allow our students to be exposed to valuable, deeply meaningful instruction, that has less to do with prepackaged curriculum and more to do with experiential learning and problem-based learning and inquiry-based learning. And engage in performance-based assessments that really does allow our students to engage in critical thinking. That language and that common understanding
for not just our educators that already know that, but also for our parents to know that this is the way of the future, not just for high school students, but this is how we engage in higher education. And so I'm really glad that you're putting this forward, but I hope that this leads to additional conversations in terms of what the education system really looks like. It cannot look like prepackaged curriculum. It cannot look like- Your- ... AI in our classrooms independent of their age. It has to very much look like deep, meaningful
content and meaningful learning, and more so in terms of that deep learning and not just necessarily content period. Because sometimes we think that the more content kids are exposed to and the more we drown their little brains in, the better it'll be. And I can tell you that's absolutely not conducive to critical thinking and problem-solving. So I really hope that this is the beginning of an important conversation that we need to have so that we can be at the forefront of revolutionizing education and not continuing to allow ed tech into our schools. Thank you. That's the only public speaker.
Okay. Are there any panel members who wish to comment? Yeah, panel... I didn't. Who was first? Go ahead, sorry. Hi. Queensborough president's appointee to the Panel for Educational Policy. So I am in support for this resolution. As a former Queens High School Presidents Council president, this is what I pushed through the borough, but also when I was also on Chancellor Parent Advisory Council. It's very important. We can't say we want our kids college, career, and civic ready if all our schools aren't college, career, and civic
ready, right? I'm proud that Queens lead in CTE programs in the city. My goal was for at least two in every high school, and now I want to see at least three in every high schools. But I would like to see that across the city, because we cannot truly say we want them to graduate, to be economically self-sustained if we don't provide the curriculum and the tools and the equipment for them to be there. So we have some schools that are already doing some excellent work,
and we would like to see it. The goal is to have it in every school. So I do fully support this career technical. That has been one of my passions as a parent leader. Any other panel members wish to comment? Panel Member Cassaratti, and then Panel Member Altman. Camille Cassaratti, Brooklyn Borough President appointee. I just want to second what Panel member Aban just said, I had a lot of experience with CTE programs in my District 20 schools. I had sewing and shop class in middle school,
shop again in high school at Fort Hamilton. And because of those skills that I learned, in addition to all of the academic background, I pursued a pathway at a SUNY CTE college. I went to the fashion industry. My mother went to the high school of fashion industries. My father went to a trade school in Staten Island. And so, I feel like the value of these schools is so important because you're not just learning skills, you're working with your hands,
and there is so much self-sufficiency built into that and confidence-building. And I think we need to rethink this idea that we're separating CTE and then separating academics. Those really need to be built together because in my life, I took all of those skills, I took all of my academics, and I opened a business, and I've had a business for 30-something years
now. So, those skills also make us self-sufficient, and we can decide what we want to do with our lives. Do we want to go work in a field, have a career, or be self-employed? And so, it really provides our students with a lot of opportunity and access. So I'm in support of this resolution. Thank you so much. I'm in support of expanding CTE in every single school. Panel member Altman. Hi. Deborah Altman, CEC representative for Staten Island.
I just wanted to say that I fully support the CTE, and I believe it should be in every school. Every school should have equitable access to understanding the opportunities that are out there in careers that happen after schools. There's something called the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. It's the size of a large encyclopedia, but it actually shows what careers are growing, which ones are shrinking, what the salary bases are, what their education requirements are. And it is something that is absolutely crucial that every school should have on-hand, when it comes to their school counselors, to their
career counselors to help and to show students what CTEs are actually going to give them careers. What is the point of an education if, by the time you graduate, there's no jobs out there? The average adult right now has four to five careers, and the reason for that is because the economy, industries, everything rapidly has changed. I have a degree in fine arts. I can tell you that when I graduated, I had a job, and within five years, those jobs became obsolete. And I had to go back to school to get a master's.
And then I got a job with that degree, and then within five years, that job became obsolete. I'm about in my fifth career right now. And so once again, the amount of certifications and trainings, we have to keep going back and keep updating ourselves to keep up with the times and the rapid changes. What CTEs can do for students now is they can try all the kinds of careers they want now. They can see if they have a good fit now before they spend $100,000 in college, where they get
in student debt. And then they have to try to get jobs, and they have to pay rent, and they have to have families. They can do that in the high school level, in the junior high school level. So then they can trial and error now when they're still in public school, so by the time they become adults, they have an understanding. They have credits, they have certifications, they have experience. They could have a career by the time they actually graduate. So I fully support this, and I hope this is in every school. Thank you. Thank you. Any other panel members? Yeah, Panel Member Escaro. Good evening again. Just want to stress again everything everybody has said and how important this is for our students, but also looking at it from a different
aspect. We have a lot of overage, under-credited students that would benefit greatly from finding a pathway in CTE. College is not for everyone. Not every student wants to be a lawyer or a doctor, and we owe it to every student to offer support for the pathway that best suits them. The Bronx has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, graduation rates in the country, but let's just talk about the city. And these programs offer direct paths for students to finish, to leave with a path that doesn't leave them in debt, that
doesn't leave them in jail, that doesn't leave them utilizing their skills in an unprofessional setting or in the street. We have a lot of students that have some really amazing skill sets from some pretty difficult life stories that CTE really, really speaks to and offers them right now. You can leave and get a job. You have a certification. You have a network. You can speak to these people that have been supporting the programs to get a job outside of school. And so I just want to, again, escalate how important this is,
particularly for populations that are underrepresented in graduation. Thank you. Are there any additional hands? Anyone else? Who is that? Collins. Yes, Panel Member Collins. Just really quickly, I just want to add that there are no downsides here. So I want to commend Chair Faulkner on the leadership to author this resolution. There's a meta-analysis that came out about the effect of CTE programs. Over 30 studies have been included in this meta-analysis. And students who participate in CTE programs are no less likely to attend four-year universities.
So even the concern that this is only going to benefit kids who aren't on a college pathway, there's no evidence to support that, right? This is a tide that potentially raises all boats. And so if anything, the concern might be that the kids who are already on college trajectories might take away some of the resources that are going towards the CTE program. So, this is a good thing. Is that right? That's a good problem. And, again, the upshot is, again, there's no downside here. This is a very
important and effective initiative, and I completely support it. Thank you. Are there any other comments or questions? I would like to also just thank the folks at District 7 in the Bronx who are working on putting together a program that did spend some time educating me. I had some friends who were familiar with that and called me up and said, "Look, we really want to educate you about something." Because I have to really shout out the community there for spending time and sharing the program and teaching me about why this could be a very valuable tool for us to have
in our toolkit. So with that, are there any other comments? Seeing none, let's proceed to a vote. Okay, I hear a motion for unanimous consent. Second. Is there objection to unanimous consent? Hearing no objection to unanimous consent, the motion is adopted. Thank you. And I'll remind, I know some of you had indicated you wanted to sign up. We did last month sort of indicate that we'll keep these resolutions open, so if you didn't get a chance to sign up, to sign on as a co-sponsor, you can still do that up to 24 hours after the adoption of the resolution. I guess we'll now move to general public comment.
I thought about doing it later only because of... People might leave. Yeah. Before we move to general public comment, I thought it would be important for us to recognize, this has been a year. It seems like just September, and here we are at the last meeting of the year. And for some of our panel members who've indicated that they will not be coming back and have asked not to be considered for reappointment, we need to take a moment and pause and, one, thank those individuals, our colleagues, who we can't say we've always agreed on everything, but I think we've come together as a really solid team and
worked and accomplished some really amazing things. I think our very first challenge, as I think back, was the bus situation when we were dealing with bus contracts and people telling us, "It's going to be a five-year contract. There's no way that you're not going to do that." And the panel stood united and forcefully and said no, and showed leadership. And there have been multiple occasions where the panel has really stood up and really asserted itself. So much so that I remember coming onto the panel years ago, a few years ago, and there was not a meeting that went by when about half the audience didn't call us the
rubber stamp. And I can't say it would hurt because they don't know us. It's not true. But one of the things we set about to do is to convince people, and I think what they were really saying is when we come to these meetings, are we really being listened to or is this just performance? And I think over time we were able to convince people and the public that we are in fact listening. Doesn't mean we're always going to agree, but we are taking what you have to say seriously and that we are in fact listening. And I think this panel really was very strong in making sure that that message got across. So much so that there have been articles in the paper saying how the panel has
now begun to assert itself. And I think we have to be grateful to DOE leadership, grateful to our chancellor for encouraging that behavior, encouraging us to speak out and become more engaged. And so I think that we're setting a good trend. But it's been a year. So for some of our panel members where this is their last meeting, we wanted to take a moment and thank them for their service, and we have something for them. And I'll ask them to come forward as I call their name. Panel member Amy Fair. Panel member Fair. Oh. I won't read it, but we have something for you to hang on the wall.
Thank you. That'd be great. Sure. That'd be good. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Chancellor. Aaron Bogard? Yeah. One second. I don't have Aaron called. Aaron Bogard. Bogard. Panel member Deborah Altman. And
we have one additional And I'm actually hoping this next award that this will be a tradition in giving out this award to a person who has really been a strong assistance to the panel. I'd almost call it like the cheers award- ... recognizing an individual who has really worked to make this panel great. And of course, there's no other person that could be than Noah Simonson. Noah. Noah. Let's go. Oh, Noah. I think he's actually enjoying this. Yeah, Noah. Noah. Noah and I would speak regularly on the phone, and he would always
begin the phone call, "Hey, how you doing? How's everything going? I have just a little thing to talk to you about." And I remember- I like that ... the one time the little thing was, "I just want to let you know that all the bus companies are threatening to go on strike. We may not have bus service tomorrow." Just a little thing. But we always get through it. So Noah, we want to just thank you for your effort and time and for all that you've done for the panel. And we know you're going on to bigger and better things, and we're proud of you. Mm-hmm. But we wanted you to know that we appreciate all you've done for us. Absolutely. Thank you. And now we'll move to open public comment. I will call the speakers in groups of five. Make your way down to the microphone.
Eileen Spitzer, Shannon Ritchie, Crystal Cleven or Cleaven, Jane Demsky, and Hillary Kong. It's a good microphone. Oh, what happened to my thing? You got the other thing. You got the other thing. You can start when you get to the microphone, please. Thanks. Good evening. I'm Eileen Spitzer, and I'm the mother of a kindergarten student at PS 281. If I may, I'd like to take a second to tell you about my daughter. She's bright, she's funny, she's unusually enthusiastic- ... and she's always loved going to school. That is, until her interaction with Principal Jessica Orleans on Friday, May 8th. Yes.
Principal Orleans was in our daughter's music class to conduct a teacher evaluation. Our five-year-old was participating in the discussion and peacefully swinging her arms- Yes ... alongside other students who were doing the same. The principal fiercely reprimanded the students, "Your behavior is unacceptable," and then forced our child to stand alone in the corner for 15 minutes. At this point, shocked by the principal's outburst, unsure of why she was in trouble or why she was being singled out, she began
to cry hysterically, hyperventilating. The principal offered no solace, learning moment, or discussion, instead leaving a five-year-old alone in a corner for an entire 15 minutes while she hyperventilated. Yeah. She was in such distress that the teacher was forced to stop class instruction to do breathing exercises with her. The impact was immediate and lasting. The incident occurred on a Friday, and that Monday, for the first time ever, our daughter said she hated school and didn't want to go. For the two music classes that followed, our daughter sat in the cozy corner, refusing to participate. She said, "I'm scared of the mean teacher."
Leadership challenges can arise. However, this is by no means an isolated incident. Last spring, there was a 93% teacher vote of no confidence in the principal, and parents and teachers came forward with allegations of verbal abuse- That's it ... harassment, and retaliation by Orleans. At the time, the superintendent wrote to the community that the principal was dedicated to creating a positive and respectful environment for everyone at PS 281. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It's been a year, she hasn't followed through. Please take action now. If this had been handled last year, my daughter would have
been protected. Hello, everybody. Is this working? Okay. My name is Shannon Ritchie. I am a parent of a third grader in Brooklyn and a member of SLT. I am here because I believe the overuse of AI and ed tech in schools is the beginning of the end of public education. The rapid increase in screen time over the last 10 years has left me baffled. When I was a teacher, my classroom was joyous. Kids were creating and engaging with each other. They did not have apps or bots. My son does not have this sort of classroom. He has a Chromebook.
He sits in front of it, headphones on, next to his classmates who are doing the same. For two years, they wanted him to read aloud to an AI app, Amira. Amira is manipulatively referred to as she, as though it is a human. But Amira is not a teacher, and it could not understand my son when he read aloud. Due to severe hearing loss, my son's speech was not clear. His reading skills were strong, way above grade level. He genuinely loves books. None of that mattered because Amira wasn't programmed to understand kids like my son or the countless kids who
speak with accents from around the world. I tried to opt my son out of Amira and was told by our superintendent, David Cintron, that it was not possible, but I did it anyway When I went to someone on the CEC with my concerns, I was told that this was all a positive thing because future models will adapt for kids with speech issues. But my kid is not a test subject, nor is he fodder to train AI software. We never consented to this. The response to parents who raise concerns about screen time in schools about AI and ed tech is often to opt out,
change schools, go private. These are not realistic options for most families. And this is where I see trust in public education eroding. If we as parents cannot trust that our kids are being taught by their teachers, what are we even doing? Why is it so difficult for parents to know what ed tech products our kids are using that they're training on a daily basis? Why is it impossible to get the data that these companies are collecting from our children? Why are we spending taxpayer money on apps and bots instead of hiring more teachers? We need an AI moratorium now, and
you need to stop seeing our children as products- Your time's up ... ripe for harvest by Google and ed tech companies. Thank you. Hi, I'm Hillary. And I have a five and a seven-year-old and live in Brooklyn. I'm here today to support an AI moratorium and a real effort to minimize screen use in classrooms. Last year, without my knowledge or consent, my first grader shared that she read with an AI tutor in class. This year, the school has made it mandatory for all students starting in kindergarten to use iPads and Chromebooks for an ed tech math app.
I've also learned that students use iPads for art starting in second grade. Adobe Express is a mandatory tool at our school, and according to our admin, art is not every kid's favorite subject, so devices are used to increase interest. Elementary school children should not be learning math or making art on a screen. They should not be interacting with AI. Creativity and learning happens when we use our hands, our bodies, our brains. These are precious years that our
children will not get back, and this is the time to build a foundation first, learn from their peers, their environment, and human teachers. Lastly, I am deeply concerned about the embrace of AI in parent communications. I wrote a thoughtful, sincere email to my principal, and she responded with ChatGPT. It was wordy, automated, and dismissive. We want humans to listen our questions and answer our questions. We want humans to lead our
education system. We want humans to teach our children. Thank you. I'm short. Good evening. I'm a public school parent of two young kids, and I'm deeply concerned about the introduction of AI into the New York City public schools. I'm a physician scientist, so naturally, I go to the data. I read some of the published data that exist, and studies show AI negatively impacts critical thinking, contributes to cognitive offloading, and decreases cognitive activity, and is particularly pronounced in young kids. Is this what we want for our naturally curious children whose brains are not yet fully developed?
Our AI policy says it clearly, "The long-term effects on how children learn, think, and develop in the era of AI are not well understood." But then it recklessly states, "We will not wait for certainty that may never come." Would you agree to give your child a medication that has unknown long-term effects? Would you trust a doctor who said, "We will not wait for certainty"? No, you wouldn't. So why are you giving kids technology that has never been tested for efficacy and has known harms? It also seems we can't manage the tech we currently have. As the Comptroller reported, the systems has no
central oversight of tech apps as it does not maintain a list of apps used by schools, the type of information being stored, or if schools have entered into a written agreement with vendors. That's a direct quote. Who is protecting our kids? Now you're allowing AI apps that listen to our kids reading and review their writing, apps that will chat with my kids. My four-year-old will form an emotional attachment with a literal rock. Okay? What will this do to him? I don't care what those Google-backed companies say. Your children's voices, writings, and creative works are being used to train an LLM.
I do not trust that New York City public schools has any idea how your children's data are being used. Respectfully, Chancellor Pep, I am a new parent in this system. I am begging you, ban AI products until we have strong proven benefits for its technology, which is I think an area you-- we will not find certainty soon. Thank you. The next group of speakers. Excuse me. Craig Garrett, Martina Meyer, Kelly Clancy, Zeke Dunn, and Dr. Salas-Ramirez. Seven plus.
Yes. All right. Hi there. I'm Craig Garrett. I'm a father of a first grader. But I'm going to cast our minds back two hours to when there were some high school students speaking right here. Not again. And I want to make the point that when students know their teacher is using AI, robo-grading, they sometimes call it, they get the message that academic integrity, intellectual cura- curiosity, and sustained effort are less important than doing school efficiently They also get the message that it's okay to take a shortcut when you encounter something tedious or difficult.
Most worryingly, they get the message that their education is not worth their teacher's personal attention. A student's trust in their teacher is an essential component of learning at every age and every grade level. AI destroys that trust. The only way to restore that trust is to press pause and show students that we value their minds, their humanity, and their future more than we value a technology that's sometimes racist and frequently wrong. We need an AI moratorium. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Zeke. I'm a PS 132 dad. Go
Shining Stars. I want to talk about how the stock market and the AI industry work for a second. This day and age, if you're the CEO of a tech company, you cannot afford to be a mature stock. You have to be a growth stock. You need 15% to 18%, 20% annual growth. You need a new product. You need a larger total addressable market. That's your mission in life. If you are a 4% growth stock, if you're a 4% stock, people might as well buy bonds. They're just not into you anymore. These tech companies need to stay in that territory, and so the first thing
they're going to do is go out and pay a bunch of consultants to try to tell everybody that what they have is what everybody needs. And they start by saying that what they have is inevitable, that we can't avoid it, that we absolutely have to buy it, that there's no choice but to buy what they're selling. But it's not true. They said that with the Metaverse. Nope. And they said that with blockchain. Nope. And they're saying it now with AI, and AI is interesting. AI creates plausible language. Language, that thing that is the root of all sociology, of all
social existence. And they want to sell us their product to replace our social processes. The social process of learning, of reading each other's stories, of being there for each other. My child is not neurotypical, and he learns socially. He learns because there's a teacher there that he wants to please, because there's parents there who he sees doing things, and he wants to try doing those things. We cannot replace the social process of teaching with what AI is selling us, and we do have a choice, and you have a choice. These AI companies know that they need
government help to get the profits that they're hoping for, and that means that you do have a choice not to buy into this. So, thank you so much. Hi, I'm Dr. Kelly Clancy still. I'm here to talk about here's what we know a year in. The first thing we know is that we've had thousands of conversations and millions of dollars spent, and there's still not one single use case for why AI belongs in our schools. There's not one. No one has ever said, "This is the reason that AI belongs in our schools." We also know that over a month ago, the so-called feedback period from parents closed. We know 6,000 parents or more
filled out this survey. We know we were promised by people sitting in this room we would know what that said in 72 hours, and we know that survey was buried. And I think we could guess why that survey was buried, because if it was good news for the guidance, we would've all seen it. But instead, it was 6,000 parents telling you that AI does not belong in our schools, which means that it was buried and nobody got to read it. Here's also what we know. We know that there's a new report out today, and here's what it says. "These results are among the first large-scale behavioral outcome evidence generative AI has altered how students," this is high school students,
"study and the knowledge they build, a population-level indicator of cognitive surrender." So what that means is that we know for certain now on a population level that allowing AI to be used in high school classrooms leads to cognitive surrender, which forecloses all of the career and technical opportunities that you were talking about today. AI does not belong in schools. It is now beyond a doubt that it should not be in high schools, and that's something we know. We also know that at my CEC meeting last week, a parent of a third grader showed up and said her kid is writing worse in third grade than she did in
second grade because her teacher hasn't read her writing all year because she's been graded by AI. So we also know that the idea of teacher-facing AI is a myth. AI does not belong in classrooms because it forecloses the ability for teachers and students to form relationships with each other. Students deserve the right to be graded by humans, by teachers they have a relationship with. Outsourcing that to AI kills the relationship between teachers and students. We need a moratorium now, 2-K through 12, student-facing, and also teacher-facing. Thank you very much. Have a good night. Hey, all. Back in my CEC4 capacity.
Kalidi Salas-Ramirez, for the record, president of CEC4, which has passed three resolutions since December directly addressing not just AI, but also screen time, and developing appropriate guidelines for developmentally appropriate engagement with screens. In addition, last week, we passed a resolution for a moratorium on i-Ready due to the fact that we've also seen that in the last couple of weeks, i-Ready Math is one of the curriculum that we're implementing with New York City Solve.
So we're deeply concerned by the use of these instruments. I've already talked to you a lot about the developmental concerns that I have, particularly around adolescence. Feel free to go on pubmed.gov and write in there Salas-Ramirez, K-Y, and you can see all of my 18 publications specifically on adolescent development, cognition, and emotion. But with that being said, the biggest concern that I have is the fact that AI is racially biased. And we have spent decades fighting the school-to-prison pipeline,
fighting to make sure that our Black and Latino kids understand their opportunities and the ways that they want to engage with the world. And the way that we can do that, in the words of Jalen Brunson, because let's invoke the Knicks in this moment, is to be able to make mistakes through human experience. How did he learn to be the number one MVP basketball player? Because his parents gave him the ability to engage in experiences and make the mistakes that he needed to make in order for his brain to be able to learn and tap into the
cognitive processes that allow him to move forward and succeed in life. What AI and ed tech does not do is allow students to make the mistakes that they need to make for their brain to consolidate cognitive circuits. Moratorium is needed on AI across the board. Thank you. Yeah. Good evening. My name is Martina Meyer, and once again, I'm speaking in my own personal capacity. I'd like to share words of young people that they told me to put on this board. This says, "We want actual intelligence, not AI." And this side says, "AI ain't it." And that's from the mouths of babes. I heard a lot about trust here, and I just want to say,
we have to talk about the afterschool program situation . The decision to remove successful and beloved afterschool programs across the city without parent, educator, or student input, and without a transparent process, has been a shock to our schools, and does not bring a feeling of trust. The feeling at my school is one of having the rug pulled out from under us, and this is being experienced across the city. We need to do better when there are these drastic changes. Another way that schools are eroding trust with families is through the use of AI in schools as part of these mandated curricula.
When the HMH contract was passed, HMH was billed as a publishing company that we were contracting with for curriculum. Now, HMH has morphed into an AI-focused company that also sells curriculum. I will never use Amira or Writeable, but both of those generative AI programs are being presented by the HMH coaches as part and parcel of our curriculum. The most pressing concern I have is that multiple studies show the racism baked into these AI bots, especially as it relates to student feedback. The same essay can be submitted, and depending on the
perceived ethnicity or race of the author, due to their name and name alone, the response of the AI bot will differ. Writeable will not ever have access to my students' brilliant writing. And the racism baked in should be a non-starter for our entire school system. This is a liability for the Department of Education as it is a violation of our students' civil rights. The cloaking of these mandated curricula, and even of the use of AI in the language of equity, is an insult and a misunderstanding of the term equity. Equity does not mean that everyone is doing the
same thing at the same time, in the same way, across the city, state, and nation. Our students, especially our students who have not been adequately served by this great school system, great meaning large, deserve smaller class sizes, project-based learning, enrichment, and culturally responsive education. So much more to say. Two minutes goes fast. Okay. The next group of speakers, Kate Mulvaney, Dina Katz- Mm ... Rachel Kate Miller, Cynthia McKnight, and Chanel Church. Maybe they're not here. Hmm? No. It's nothing. Not here? Okay. I think it goes.
I'm kind of short. So ... Good evening. I have a first grader in District 28 in Queens. I'm here tonight to speak about my concerns around screen time in the classroom, online safety, ed tech use, and AI use by New York City students. As a parent who did not have a child in school during COVID, I was shocked when my child was handed an iPad in kindergarten. My partner and I have kept our son away from devices because of the countless research that shows how detrimental screen time is to child development and learning. So the daily exposure to one-on-one screen time via the now
required use of i-Ready, the consistent use of YouTube, both by teachers and by my son in his classroom, the use of device time as a reward, and unfettered access to the internet is a shock. My son's DOE-issued device has no parental protections on it. It's not what I would do at home, and I'm not sure why it's done in school. He has open access to the internet. As a parent who has, as a young person herself, experienced the harm of an early version of the internet, I know firsthand what is
out there, and it has only gotten worse. My six-year-old son has read about kidnapping on his DOE device. His friends have been bullied on their DOE devices, and his six-year-old peer has seen female bodies, I'll leave it at that, on his device. The DOE's lack of basic protections on school-issued devices and disregard of concerns regarding student time spent on screens, the welcoming of ineffective, unresearched ed tech, and now the fly-by-night AI guidance, has broken my trust in the system in which I was educated, and most importantly, has put my son in
harm's way. I call on the PEP and chancellor to stop spending my tax dollars on this nonsense, and start protecting our children. Thank you. Hi. My name is Dina Katz. I'm in District 28. I have a rising first grader at PS 101 in Forest Hills. I came to this meeting to express my concern about the use of one-to-one devices during school hours. I've made a tremendous effort over the past six years to limit my son's tech use, and I was very surprised when he
got to school, and he was given an iPad, and I'm very upset. I think he's too young for this device, and I don't think it's needed or helpful. I think it's actually harmful to use devices during elementary school years. I made a request with my amazing principal, who I love, Mr. Mack, to opt him out of the one-to-one device for first grade. And I also got 12 other parents of rising first graders to sign my letter. But, well unfortunately, my amazing principal only has so much power and told me it's not
possible to opt the kids out of the one-to-one devices for next year. Because of this reason, I'm seriously considering sending my son to private school. I already picked a school. I'm very sad to send him to private school. I don't think it's the same experience as public school, which is what I want for him. But I'm really worried about his learning, his mental health, and the addictive nature of these devices. Thank you.
Mm-hmm. Hi. Good evening. My name is Rachel Miller. I'm from PS 281 River School. I'm a parent of a rising fourth grader, rising first grader, former PTA president, recovering SLT member. And while I have a lot to say on AI, I'm going to power through something completely different. And I apologize in advance if you hear the frustration in my voice. But I suspect that if you were in our situation, and it was your children and your community, that you would feel the same way. We need a resolution for our leadership crisis at PS 281. For over 12 months, we've been told, "Wait for the investigations." I'd like to recap the last year for you. Parents who have stood in solidarity with our
bold and brave teachers and their vote of no confidence met with icy silence if they are, in fact, greeted at all by our principal. We are on a list of oversubscription of students for D75 schools. With our district's support, we formed a parent special ed committee to address the gaps in services and teacher support. The parent head has pulled her child out of the school, is currently suing the city for failure to provide him with a sound basic education and allowing him to receive the support he needs. Last year, we lost 12 teachers. This year, 47% are leaving or looking elsewhere. Looking at the city's own data, you will see that we have
some of the highest teacher turnover and the lowest teacher-principal trust of our neighboring District 2 schools. And when they go, they leave a crater. They leave our newest teachers standing on the edge of a canyon full of beautiful, glowing intention, but completely stripped of their maps. No mentorship, no North Star. We have an instructional coach who worked with four teachers this year. We are not asking for administrative perfection, but we are screaming for human accountability. Accountability when it comes to our missing $77,000 of PTA funds, which is currently under investigation. Accountability when it comes to use of a consumer Gmail account for school
business, including PII of both our educators and our students. And of course, what brings us back here today is a kindergarten human music class who learned the wrong kind of scale, a scale of how much a system can inflict before anyone says stop. And I am so tired of being told that it's under review, that it's being investigated, and being investigated, and being investigated. It is a song with no melody and a hallway with no floor. And I don't know how many broken boundaries it takes to make a crisis. But I know what a tipping point is in a system that prefers compliance to compassion, and all I know is that we are out of breath, and the tension has
names. We do not need another form to fill out. We need a clean slate. We need the truth, and we need a new start. The next group of speakers, Wendy Xu, Ben Green, Allison Keel. Okay. Sheila Amin Madani. Keep going. Kara Benton, Jocelyne Panamano, Mino, Lavelle Johnson, and Sarah Rothermel. You may start. Good evening, everyone. My name is Wendy Xu. I am an author-illustrator who's been making kids' graphic novels for the last
quite some time. But more importantly, I am also an after-school comics teacher at Hunter College High School, and I've been there since 2017. I am also here to talk about the use of AI in our schools and how concerned I am for our students. Mm. And I would like to share two anecdotes with you, one if I only have time. But one of my students in class this past year, I was having them do an assignment where they would draw a comic based off of a piece of poetry, and it had no right or wrong answer. This was kind of a free-flowing creative assignment.
My class is very low-key because, as you all know, Hunter College High School is a very high-stress environment for these students. But my student, in his insecurity and desperation to get a correct answer to make a really nice piece of work, said he was going to ask ChatGPT the meaning of a poem. Mm. To which I said, "No, don't do that. I'm not interested in what ChatGPT has to say. I am interested in what you have to say. I'm interested in your ideas." And he only needed this little bit of encouragement to put ChatGPT away, and he made a really
beautiful piece of work. And I think that allowing all of these ed tech programs in our schools are eroding our students' confidence in their own creative abilities. And I'm really sad to hear that not only are students using it, teachers are also using it, too. And so I would like to end with a quote by Ursula Le Guin, one of my favorite writers. She said, "All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills. We need guides to show us how. If we don't, our lives get made up for us by other people." And I
encourage the chancellor and the PEP to not let these ed tech companies and tech CEOs decide who these kids are and let them decide. Thank you. Go ahead. Nobody. Hi there. I'm here as a parent of a student at the River School PS 281. You've heard my fellow parents already. To coin an old TV show, here we are again. Same bat time, same bat channel, but the heroes have not escaped, and the bad guy has not been captured. For some members on this panel, our
frustrations are not new. We were here till midnight with the bus contracts to express these same concerns. For Chancellor Samuels and his representative, please hear us. I am here to express my profound frustration with the district's ongoing handling of the situation at our school. We are months into a seemingly endless investigation regarding our principal, and while the administration remains tied up in red tape, our children are paying the price. You've heard a parent already. The district made explicit promises to the parents. We were promised heightened supervision of the principal.
We were promised greater involvement and transparency. None of these promises have materialized, even with DOE district oversight of Kelly Shannon and Kelly McGuire. Instead, the reality on the ground has gone unaddressed. Children who desperately need services are still not getting them. Students are being pushed aside, ignored, and mistreated by the principal. Right now, families are trapped in a broken system where only two options are to stay and let our children continue to suffer, or to uproot them entirely and transfer schools. Furthermore, the toxic environment created by this principal is driving
away our most dedicated educators. Our teachers are struggling under this leadership, and many are actively looking to leave. Threatening to strip our children of years of invaluable experience and institutional knowledge these professionals bring to the classroom. An investigation cannot become an excuse for an administrative paralysis. The district needs to stop hiding behind an ongoing process, fulfill the commitments it made to the parents, and take immediate action to ensure our children are safe, supported, and receiving the education and services they are legally and ethically owed. Chancellor, panel members, and district
personnel, we are begging you again and again, help us help our students and teachers by removing Principal Orlins. The next group of speakers, Bridget Kessler, Mariella Benavides, Gavin Healey, Steven Mahoney, Tanaya Nasser Frederick, Camilla Carmen, Jimmy Amodeo. You may start if you have the mic. Good evening, panel members. One more second. My name is Bridget Kessler, and I'm the parent of three kids in Brooklyn, and also currently serving on the president of the Community Education Council for District
But I'm here in my personal capacity today. I had a bunch of things prepared, but I want to speak right now for the parents that aren't here and can't be here. Because on my way here, or actually picking my kid up from school today, a parent came up to me and said thank you, a parent who I had no idea had any concern about screens. Like nothing. I was not wearing the shirt. And she said, "I saw that you've been speaking up about screens at school, and I'm so grateful for what you're
doing. And keep speaking up, and keep asking questions, and I'm so sick of the screens in school." And I have to say, this has been happening to me over and over and over again. Like- Mm ... across the city. And I grew up in New York, so I know people all over the place and people from different backgrounds, different political persuasions, totally different socioeconomic situations,
different racial groups, immigrants. Every parent I speak to has the same feeling, and it's we're just done. Like we're done with screens in school. Okay. And it's AI, but it's not just AI, right? We want our kids to have human relationships in school and in life. And thank you so much to the panel, and I support the moratorium, as you can tell. Good evening. I'm back again. I'm Gavin Healy from CEC2. I just want to say I support
the parents and teachers and students at the River School who have come to the PEP on multiple occasions, both in the previous administration and now in this one. We've had a number of meetings with our superintendent, deputy superintendent. We had meetings with people from Manhattan Borough President's office. Steven was there. I've had a number of conversations with people in the past administration, like Dr. Rucks. I've talked to Chair Faulkner about this. But what I really aspire to is a school system where parents and teachers from the River School
never have to come to another PEP meeting. And I think it's in the power of some of the people up on this stage or maybe some of the people here to my left to make that happen, to come to them, to talk to them, to talk to Principal Orleans. I also visited the school. I met with Principal Orleans in my role as a CEC member, and I asked her point blank about the teacher turnover at the school. This was in the fall, I think, early fall. And actually, what she told me really kind of shocked me because she said, "Well,
I used to hire a lot of teachers who were of a certain age, and they would get married and they would have babies and then they would leave. So, my sort of solution is to hire teachers of a slightly different age who are not in that age." And I heard that, and the former attorney in me thought like, "Oh, I'm thinking lawsuit here." But anyway, I hope that it will never be necessary for them to come again because there will be action taken. Actually, I was going to speak about AI a little bit. I just want to say that we heard a lot about inevitability, but I want
to say Nixon five was inevitable. But AI is not inevitable, and what's certainly not inevitable is our response to it. So, I think we're hearing a lot about potentially having a moratorium, and I support that, but it shouldn't just be a moratorium for K to five or K to eight. It should also extend into high school, because we know that some of these ed tech companies, they're targeting young people to show them subly serving videos and things like that, and that's a real issue. And so I hope
that the DOE will really reconsider this AI policy and really take the time to have a process that goes through public scrutiny rather than a process that's driven by private equity. So, thank you. Hi. Kamala Carmen again. I'd like to remind you of a point earlier this evening when a student from Harbor School gave heartbreaking testimony about how the very special school that she attended, a school that grew out of a community design process and one that this student and her family chose for its unique project-based and place-based curriculum, was being
stripped of the very curriculum that distinguishes it. In its place, the superintendent of D15, Rafael Alvarez, imposed on Harbor School corporate commercial curriculum without the consent and to the great dismay of the school community. This school, which has since its inception used projects tied to its waterfront location to stimulate its students' zeal for learning. For that to be replaced by worksheets which can be done just as easily in San Antonio or Des Moines is a travesty. And while my own kids did not attend Harbor, they did go to schools that also used true place and project-based learning, not adding projects to, quote,
"learning" from standardized curriculum projects that were created by people who had no idea which students would eventually be subject to their products, much less what resources they would benefit from exploring where they lived and studied. The way my children grew as thinkers and as learners, as humans, the relationships they made, and the benefits they accrued from their time spent in classrooms where their teachers created inquiry-based curriculum, that was invaluable. Unlike what Superintendent Alvarez and CEC, teachers do not require specialized PhDs to write curriculum. They need prep time to network with others and respect for their
professionalism. Parents and educators across the district have written to express their dismay at Alvarez insisting on forcing curriculum on schools which he infuriatingly characterizes as in service of equity. As others have said previously, equity does not mean everyone doing the same thing. Please respond to the District 15 stakeholders begging you to respond to Superintendent Alvarez's micromanagement, and don't expand mandated curriculum citywide to older children. In closing, I want to speak not just to the PEP, but to the other parents and teachers here. These standardized curricula and AI-driven classrooms are the
inevitable outgrowth of a school system that is singularly obsessed with student state test scores rather than students. The most powerful action that families can take to stop this destructive system of standardized curricula and students being placed in front of devices in their schools- Speaker security ... is to refuse to allow their children to participate in the state testing and New York City corporate assessments. Excuse me, your time's just about- Please opt out. I'm Tanaya Nasser Frederick, a researcher with the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience. My statement is in line with most of the comments during the public comment period.
It's in line with the students who spoke here at the beginning of the meeting, and it's in line with the "Magnifica Humanitis" of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. In 1998, Lehman Brothers Vice President Michael Moe wrote a white paper entitled "Dawn of the Age of Knowledge," where he suggested that private equity should exercise the same aggressive consolidation and profit extraction in the education sector that had already ravaged the healthcare sector. Today, Michael Moe is best known as the founder of
Global Silicon Valley Capital, or GSV, a private equity firm focused on identifying, investing in, and promoting what he has kind of ludicrously termed weapons of mass instruction. The ASU GSV Conference is today one of the largest annual education technology conferences in the world, where Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Wall Street investors who deliberate how to demolish the entrenched status quo of public education that impedes the scalability and profitability of their private solution for public schools. Under the guise of former Mayor Adams' education reforms, a
host of corporate vendors from this culture have come to dominate curricula in New York City public schools. These vendors, HMH Into Reading, Imagine Learning, the further expansion of Curriculum Associates, i-Ready, et cetera, do not believe in teachers or the mission of public education, and they don't care about students or their privacy. Through the aggressively undemocratic and non-consensual integration of AI into their products and data processing capacities, these companies have revealed themselves as primarily concerned with establishing an ecosystem that creates and collects the data that AI needs to generate returns on investment, returns that have not yet materialized and which shouldn't ever materialize
on the backs of kids. It's disappointing that the Mombani-Donnie administration is going to passively and uncritically expand Adams' mandate for corporate handouts. The school system doesn't need weapons of mass instruction to break down the entrenched status of the DOE should be the pope. Sabrina Chapadiev, Jen Bowman, Daryl Henderson, Mariela Benavides, Naquan McLean, Marissa Prokop, Yael Harvell, and Sabrina Chap. Honest, there's no other way.
That's it. Yes. Hold up. All right. I'm going to- I stayed all of this time just to say this. I thought he left, but he's still here. On this Friday, we will be honoring Mark Rampersad. District 16 had some major challenges with safety issues this year. For those of you who know me, I have this orange thing on my arm. I have lost three different generations of family by gun violence. So, violence and gun violence in our community is really important to me. And this year, we were able to get two guns out of our
schools. And they did not have metal detectors, so we don't need metal detectors in order to get these things done. But this Friday at our Juneteenth event, we will be honoring Mark Rampersad for his support, for his unwavering love for children. So I just stayed all this time to just say that we appreciate Mark, and we'll be honoring him at our Juneteenth event. There he is. He's there. That's the end of the public speakers who have signed up. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Chancellor, would you like to offer some comments? Sure. I'd like to offer some comments.
Thank you for everyone who spoke in the public comments section. Your messages are heard. But I do want to take this time to really thank the panel for its service, its hard work. I hope that the departing members enjoy their free time. But honestly, I really hope you stay engaged with us. I'm super impressed by the panel's commitment to our children and their focus on the public voice and engagement. I'm excited for this new chapter, and I would be remiss not
to mention today we launched our working groups, district working groups, five of them we're starting with. And over the next few years, we'll have district working groups all across the city who are really tackling some of the most difficult issues in each district. And I'm super excited to be working alongside the folks that are going to make sure that even though we have systemic challenges, they have local solutions. And so, again,
I appreciate all that the panel has taught us this year around public engagement. And as a public school parent myself of two children in public schools, you also represent me, and I'm looking forward to the future and the level of deliberation continuing. So thank you so much. Thank you very much, Chancellor, also. We will now move to panel member comments. And are there any panel members who wish to... Yep. Let me see. Why don't I just go around the room? And we'll start with panel member Hannah Jones, and we'll just go
around. I'll ask the panel members to keep in mind the time. Oh, wow. Mine is short. I just want to thank everyone for coming out and everyone from Antonio Reynoso's office. I recognize you. And Naquan and my CEC president, uh, Cynthia McKnight, uh, Benjamin Green, uh, Megan Dunn from District 13, um, and all my CEC presidents, uh, that represent Brooklyn, thank you for your support.
And, uh, I do recognize these empty seats. These are individuals that cannot be here for unforeseen circumstances, but it does not mean that they are not concerned about their children's education and progress, so let's recognize that. And, uh, thank you so much to, uh, the River School. We hear you. I've been there. I'm still with you, so, um, we're going to do everything we can to rectify the issue at that school, because your students deserve it. And, uh, and in terms of AI,
uh, there is no need for AI to be in our schools. Um, and that's coming from somebody who worked in technology for over 20-something years. Uh, my education about technology stems from my hands-on abilities to learn, break things open, put them together, uh, in terms of programming, understanding programming, and being responsible and acknowledging the fact that programming is here to help us, not do the work for us. So, um, I don't need a hammer to hammer a nail for me
when I have two hands to do it. Um, so I just want to address that. The AI is definitely something that, uh... But I will tell you that these vendors and these businesses are the driving force, and I think if we really want to, uh, put it to them, we're going to have to start putting our phones down. We're going to have to start telling, uh, companies like Apple and, uh, Dell, and, uh, all the other tech companies that we're going to start putting you down if you don't, uh, start rectifying the issue in terms
of AI. Because now they're putting AI in your devices. So, um, and if you don't want it in your schools, let's start using what we have and start, uh, taking initiative and not buying these products. And so, uh, I think it really starts with us to force these industries to do that. So I'll yield. But thank you, everyone. Comments? No. No. Ms. Coke. Okay. Hi, everyone. Um, I just wanted to say, when I got the email, um, asking to apply for this position, I ignored it at first, thinking, "How can I serve yet another year on another
position after being an SLT member, after being a citywide District 275 school member, being a single parent, living in New York City with the rising cost and expenses, um, having a kid soon to go to college and having to try to figure that out?" Um, it was a lot. And it came across my email a second time from a different source, and that to me, was some kind of indication that maybe I should take another look at it, and I applied. And during that interview, they looked at me
and they said, "You know you're going to get hired, right?" Because they knew who I was. They knew the work that I did in the past. They knew what kind of parent I was and how passionate I am about not just one child, but all children, and that I look at the whole child, and that I truly care about improving the school system, and I hope I showed that this year. And I just wanted to say it's been an absolute pleasure. It's not a goodbye. Um, it's just looking for another way to find a purpose to keep advocating for not just schoolchildren, but for everyone in this community. Thank you.
I will say this. During our meetings, you were often the person that went right to the clarity on any topic. We would be debating, and then you would bring right the obvious point of view and bring us right to the point that really provided a solution. And so I know collectively, and I know it's not goodbye, but we want to say thank you for your service, for the time, and for those excellent brownies that you brought last week. You can continue to bring those anytime you visit us. Food is the forefront of education. And reminding me, you did a great-- When you were
chairing our committee, uh, food services. We had been talking about this for a long time, and you right away said, "We don't have a food services committee," and you took it on and did an amazing job in really bringing the attention of how we could improve nutrition services for our kids. And have done things that are going to last. It's an ongoing conversation. So I think we all, um, want to thank you for that, and thank you for your service. Appreciate it. Yes, Madam O. Hi, everyone. Camille Cassetti, Brooklyn Borough President appointee.
Um, I have three things I want to talk about. First, I support an AI moratorium and will continue to vote no to these contracts. We went through almost two years of our kids being separated from each other, uh, during the pandemic. There was a reason that a phone ban is in place now. Giving our babies iPads to create art is completely unacceptable. My oldest child is 20, and I still have the
art that he created in kindergarten framed on my wall, and I look at that every day. And just today, he was still doing more art. We have to maintain that hands-on love of learning. Um Our kids need to build human relationships. So please put down your phone and put down those screens. Second, I know I'm always saying we have a public-facing written public comment form that you all can fill
out. Just in the last couple of days, we've received over 100 comments about the Respect Check bill, which provides paraprofessionals with a single one-time payout to compensate for the low wages that they're receiving. While I respect and support this bill, that is just the first step to what needs to be done. It cannot be the last step. Our paraprofessionals are working with some of our most vulnerable children, and they need to receive
equitable long-term compensation so that they can build a future in the profession that they love. So I'm urging city council to support passing this bill and continue to keep fighting for pay parity and pay equity for all of our support staff. Okay, last thing is I just want to show my appreciation as the school year is coming to an end. I want to give special recognition to our extraordinary parent leaders, including those at this
table, those in the audience, those who continue to show up every single meeting, sending your feedback all the time. Your dedication, hard work, talent, and commitment have strengthened families, enriched schools, and helped create opportunities for countless children and communities, and so thank you so much. The next generation of parent leaders depend on our continued investment in training, mentorship, and support. Together, we must create pathways that nurture emerging
leaders, strengthen partnerships, and transform positions of volunteer service into opportunities for personal, professional, and civic growth. And to our administrators, educators, and the various support staff who are the foundation of our schools, thank you for your leadership, your excellence, and your unwavering commitment to making a difference. Lastly, and most importantly, to our children, we are so proud of you. Thank you for your bravery, always speaking out and inspiring the adults to do better.
Keep doing what you do. We love you, and congratulations to all of our graduates. So thank you so much, everyone. Okay, next panel move off. Okay, who's next? Panel... Oh, let's see. Yes. Good evening, everyone. Adriana Alecia, still here for Queens CECs. In orders of magnitude, I want to say Que Bonito Bandera, happy Pride, and Knicks in five, baby. Okay. I have a few things that I want to share. First, I agree with Panama McAserty with everything that she said, but also congratulations to all of our graduates, and congratulations to all of
our pre-K parents. You made it. Yay. Secondly, I hope that DYCD will take seriously the concerns of over 250 parents who believe that DYCD got it wrong. I encourage parents and administrators to submit appeals to DYCD directly and include the letters written by your parent constituents in your appeal. You can attach it directly to it. Oh, and the principals. Yes, sorry. Did I say administrators? Sorry. Principals. I meant principals. It's all good. Thank you, Camille. The utilization committee met earlier this week on Monday to
discuss the school utilization proposals that we voted on earlier this evening, and continued to work on our position paper. Oh, the panel meets-- Also, segue a little bit. The panel meets over the summer. Please join us at those meetings. Some of the details for those meetings are already posted on the New York City Public Schools website. The easiest way I have found to access this information is by googling NYCPS PEP, P-E-P, and you should be brought directly to the page that lists out the meeting schedule and the documents, et cetera. And then I would like to close with this.
A member of the public earlier this evening mentioned that she has heard conversations from parents who are at their wits' end, amounting to either dis-enrolling their student and then enrolling them in private school, or opting to homeschool them. And I think it's important that we understand that this is not hyperbole. She's not being dramatic. Some demographic and enrollment data suggests-- Listen to the women. Some demographic and enrollment data suggests that the percentage of students being homeschooled has grown roughly 7.5%. That's about over
53,000 students over the course of the last five years. And this is in addition to the drop in birth rate nationwide, and also a loss of enrollment of around 10% since 2020. So pandemic-related loss in enrollment. We have to stop the bleed. We need a moratorium on AI. That is the packing gauze. Full stop. It's time. Thanks, everyone. See you in July. Good evening, everyone. Shirley Obeng, Queens Borough president appointee. You all know I love the orange and blue. Go Knicks. And I'm not talking about my amazing Mets. I'm talking about the New York Knicks.
The last place. I'm talking about the Knicks. And I don't talk about the Knicks because Knicks literally will give me a heart attack. That's so emotional, and I want to take that win, that spirit, that energy, we fought the fights, with us always, because there's a spirit of joy all over the place, right? I would like to take that emotions, those feelings, that unity, and bring it in this space. Right? No matter all the time that we had the bad calls,
everything was against the Knicks, and that's probably because the NBA wanted to stretch it out to make money, okay? But we have to overcome those. We don't always get everything we want in this system. But together, in perseverance, in the partnerships that we have developed, we need to continue that and carry that energy onward in the encore until we get that system that benefits all our children, all our families, and we only can do it together, right? So like we all cheered on for our Knicks, let's all cheer for each other and our students together.
Just take that same energy. And I just want to say, this school year has been-- We have accomplished a great number of things. Just move it forward, step by step, we'll get where we need to be. Right? But no fighting. Just bring that energy, and that's all I would have to say. And just one more thing. In life, please just do the right thing and lead by example. Right? It's very important. Our children sees that, right? So in any way, all things we do, the way we celebrate, the way we treat others, always be kind.
We need to lead by example and just do the right thing. Thank you. Maricela? Do you want to say anything, Vice Chair? No, just everyone have a wonderful summer. Thank you. Mm-hmm. And Member Fair? Yes, you can clap for me. Yeah, I do. Yes, I have my other word, so goodbye. Good evening, you all. Can you hear me? Yes. First of all, I just want to say thank you guys so much for being good colleagues, everyone on the panel. I know that we've agreed and disagreed at times, but it's been a wonderful experience. I really do appreciate, honestly, building relationships with all of you and getting to know all of you.
And honest, I'm going to miss all you guys and all our wonderful debates. I really am. But thank you so much for teaching me, because I was a student, I felt like, in the room, and a lot of you guys were experts on so many things that I'm not knowledgeable in, in the DOE side of things. So thank you so much for just being humble and kind and sharing knowledge so I can be a better parent to my daughter and allowed me to be strong when I was working in my daughter's schools and advocating for her. So now I'm going to go into what I actually wrote, okay? I promise, guys, I'll be short and sweet. So good evening again, everyone.
As this is my final meeting as a mayoral appointee to the Panel for Education Policy, I want to take a moment to reflect, not just as a panel member, but as a Black woman, a Black mother, and a parent advocate. I joined this work because of my daughter, who's in the back sleeping. As a single mother raising a daughter with an IEP in New York City public schools, I spent many years navigating a system that often felt very difficult to access and even harder to understand. Like many of you parents, I attended meetings, I advocated for services, I was frustrated, I
challenged decisions, and I fought to ensure my daughter received the support she deserved. But I also navigated the system as a Black mother, which is a different experience for many of you. That experience carries a unique weight. Too often, Black families enter educational spaces already having to prove that our concerns are valid, our children are capable, and our voices deserve to be heard. We know that our children are often viewed through a different lens, as many of you have said tonight, one shaped by bias, lowered expectations, and the systematic inequities that continue to
exist despite decades of progress. Yet our children continue to excel. Next week, my daughter will graduate high school and will start college in the fall with her IEP. Her success is a testament to her resilience, her determination, her brilliance, and support from some of the most amazing DOE teachers and leadership. But throughout my daughter's school years, it was not always a consistent experience. But I thank those who supported me and encouraged me and became a part of my village. It's a reminder that families should not have to fight as hard as I had to over the course of her years for opportunities and for
support. So as we gather this evening, just days before Juneteenth, because we did it, nobody mentioned that, I'm reminded of both how far we have come and how much work remains. Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom, resilience, and hope. It's a reminder that progress has never happened by accident. It happened because people were willing to speak up, organize, advocate, and demand a better future for the generations that followed. That is why I'm especially proud tonight. I was telling my colleagues at the table if you saw me chit-chatting so much, that when I looked around early and saw so many Black parents,
Black educational leaders, and Black community members represented today, it was so important, and it brought tears to my eyes because representation does matter. It matters because our children deserve to see themselves reflected in positions of leadership, like you, Chancellor, and influence It matters because diverse voices strengthen decision-making, and it matters because when Black families have a seat at the table, like myself and so many of my colleagues, the conversation becomes more inclusive, more authentic, and more responsive to the needs of all students.
So as I leave this role, I want to offer a challenge to our chancellor. You know I have to. In a time when conversations about race, equity, diversity, and inclusion are increasingly under attack across our country and in New York City, we must not retreat from its commitment to Black students and families. We must move forward with courage. Black students, and I'm stressing Black students, yes, all students, but I'm a Black mother today. Black students deserve schools where they are seen, valued, challenged, and celebrated. Black families deserve systems
that partner with them rather than question them. Students with disabilities deserve to receive services without parents having to become experts in special education. I don't need to be a lawyer to advocate for my daughter, but I had to learn the DOE to be able to navigate the system. The data continues to tell us that disparities remain, and we see the academic outcomes, disciplinary actions, access to advanced coursework, special education identification, and college readiness. These gaps are not the result of a lack of talent among our children.
They are the result of the work that we still need to do. So my challenge to you is continue listening to Black families, Black students, invest in them. Continue recruiting, developing, and supporting Black educators and leaders. Continue confronting inequities even when those conversations are uncomfortable for you, Chancellor, because I know you have a lot on your plate. Because our children are watching. They're paying attention of who is being supported. They're paying attention of who's being included. They're paying attention of who is being valued, and they're also paying attention of who is leading us today, and that's you.
To my fellow panel members, thank you so much for your service. Thank you for becoming my educational family. Uncle Greg, Auntie Angela, Cousin Zina, Brother Noah- ... Sister Bernita, Sister Maisha. Kate, you is sister too now. Darcelle, and so many others. The rest of you know who you are. To the families who advocate every day, I highly respect all of you who stay here late with us every month, every night. I've heard you. We may not always agree, but I heard you, and we in this fight together. And to my daughter in the back who's sleeping- Oh. Was she in here the other day?
She might have two. She's my baby. She's my only child, y'all. Forgive me. Maddy, I love you so much, and thank you for being my greatest teacher. Aw. I did not know how to advocate until I became your mother. So when people see me talk loud and boisterous or strong, it's because I had to, and that's because of you. You taught me that advocacy is not about meetings and votes or policies, but it's about ensuring that every child has the opportunity to thrive and every family feels like they belong. So thank you so much for holding me accountable. I love you.
Mm. Amy, thank you. I know from the very first meeting, I remember that car ride and we were talking, and I was, I guess, contemplating being chair, and you were there. And you remember, you probably forgot, right? You were giving me a stern lecture. And I got a number of those throughout the year, but it was always with a spirit of like, "How can we do things better?" And it was done generally with humor, oftentimes. You have a great sense of humor. It was often done with humor- Mm ... but with compassion. But, I remember getting those phone calls and-
Email ... and again, being held accountable. So I think that, again, we know we're going to see you coming to meetings and being involved in the future. So, thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. Love you, Greg. Yes, I'm Uncle Greg. Uncle Greg. Niece over here. Yeah, we're- Aw. Who's next? Did we go around? Anyone want to say anything? Okay. Panel members, go down. Her birthday is next week, Uncle Greg. Whose birthday? Mine. Hi, my name is, panel member Maisha Sapp, and born and raised in Brooklyn. James Madison lineman, 19-
Real story. I was a lineman, defensive end in high school on an all-boys team, and I had one of my fellow friends make a suggestion when I was watching the boosters. What? And, I said, "Wow, I sure would like to be a booster." And he said, "Maisha, you're muscular. Who's going to lift you?" Geez. Oh. There it is. I just wanted to share. Hater. Anyway. If I can add anything a little different to this dynamic, the plight of Black women and Black men and
Black children has not ended. Personally, I don't think a lot of times policy had enough practice in eliminating these systemically Black problems. So when new problems come up, people think the problem is new. And so we need to start Aggressively looking at patterns that have not been disrupted soon enough. And, that's the only way change can come. Another thing that I, as a parent leader, what my experience on this board, and in every single
day, I try to remind people that we live in a society with an algorithm of re. Coming from the not-for-profit sector, R-E always stood out as a word that represented someone had to mess up first before they received help. So whether it was a reform or a redo, as soon as I saw the R-E, I knew that someone had to go down before they
actually can get services. And what I've recognized over the past 20-plus years is that I am so pro pre. I want to see more pre. I want to see more pro. I want to see more pre-funding. I want to see more before you mess up, here is what you can do before you become a R-E, a re. Prefixes. Yes, this is how neurodivergents organize information. We break down words, and we need to be more
mindful of how pre and pro and re operate in our society, because they're funded very differently. If you take a moment to mostly where funding can go in not-for-profits and wherever you go, who has to mess up first? And when they do mess up, who gets grace? Or how far do you have to mess up before you get services? See, these are the things that happen while we manage school and stuff like that. I had to remind some
teachers recently. I called them my child's team. I want to make sure that they know that this is a team effort and that we're not waiting for a child to mess up before you notice that he or she needs help in a class. How about we see where he or she is at weeks before the grades are in, and we do something about it? How about we check in? And I'm recognizing a lot of how we respond in society has to deal with big
algorithms. This is the standard, and we have to begin to start dismantling and examining why we operate the way we do as a society. So while we're hyper-focused on AI, which is really important, we have a societal AI as well. We have an AI that says we follow certain patterns. So why does re get funded?
Why can't pre get funded and pro get funded? Why do I have to respond to a child after the child messes up? So we have to learn how to be more proactive so we can have different outcomes. And this is not a solution that can be solved in policy today or what have you, but these are the thoughts that I know as a parent leader, I want to make sure that I give my children and the children that I work with and the parents that I work with, opportunities to respond differently in
an ever-changing world. Because we know those children that tend to always get the short end of the stick, always in trouble. And I think that we have to start looking at some of the paradigms that lead to those type of responses. And we can think a little broader in how we respond to situations. And I just wanted to share that, and I'm signing off. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I will say, one of the things, I don't know how many of you know that the panel
also has the dual role of serving on the pension board. I think that comes as a surprise to many of us when we got on the panel, that we are now trustees of the pension fund, and that's another monthly meeting that we go to. And when we saw there was not really a lot of equity being done in terms of how investments were being made and opportunities for investment with the BIPOC community, and that the city was very lax in that, and that was a fight that we took to the Board of Education retirement system and the five pension systems to really make sure that they were investing in our community.
Otherwise, it's money coming from our communities, and that that money ought to be reinvested in our communities. And, so when I'd be sort of arguing this battle, Maisha was always right there, and I'd always look over and I'd say, "Man." More importantly, that they were watching her to say, "Let's make sure we do this because we don't want to make Maisha upset in the meeting because she will call it out." And so, I appreciate you having our back in regard to making sure that the pension money was invested properly and responsibly. It's still unfortunate that less than 1%
Maybe it's up to 2% now of the $300 billion pension fund is invested with Black and Latino firms in the city of New York, and that money is made up of our membership money. So I want to thank you for your support in leading that fight, helping us with that. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you, Chair Bobb. Yeah. Well, to add on to that. Well, first of all, I love STEM and I love the Knicks. So being this could be our last meeting, I want to potentially propose we change the name to the Brunson Burner officially. Okay?
But tomorrow, instead of going to the Canyon of Heroes speaking about the pension boards, I'm going to be trying to avoid the Canyon of Heroes, getting to 55 Water Street for the Teachers' Retirement System Investment Committee meeting. And to build on that point- Good luck ... if you look in Wall Street, the major firms have less than 10% Black and Latino employees. That's a fact. 65% of all public employees are people of color, yet 6 to 8% of the assets are invested with firms of color, and that's a lot because of our efforts. And I ask, if I'm not back for the next meeting, I
commit to helping anybody who is here to forcing, to changing this. We cannot live with this disparity any longer. It's just not fair. It's not right. Our students will not aspire to being on Wall Street until they- Okay. See- See themselves ... see themselves in it. Right. And it breaks my heart to see that this is not an aspiration for our students, and it needs to be an aspiration. Finance is the largest industry in New York City, point blank, period, end of story. And the fact that our whole swath of community is being kept out of that is just, that's when a city fall,
when crime increases. That's when depression increases. That's when intensity increases. Everyone's got to be included in the party, and too often Black and brown people have been kept out of that. So I hope we began that legacy here, and we all fought hard for that and brought it up at every single pension meeting, four or five meetings a month for some of us. And I just hope that whatever happens going forward, that this board and the people who sit on this board will continue the fight that we began. Panama Escoto. I want to take a minute to thank all of the panel members that will not be returning. We're bonded in blood up here.
It is what it is. That's it. Nah, stop it, Amy. We are. Yeah. Bronx vibe. Listen. Yes, it's a Bronx vibe right now. So I want to thank everybody. We have a lot of very heated conversations. We don't always agree. The one thing that we all always agree on is that we're trying to do the best thing for the students. Yeah. So I want to thank everybody because it's not easy to come out every month. We have a lot of meetings monthly, all throughout the day. Most of us are working, most of us are parents. Most of us have kids in school right now. And so I just want to thank everybody for your sacrifice and your commitment to
this system, to the evolution of this panel not being a rubber stamp anymore. And really just offering your time, your expertise, your spirit, your love, and giving it to everybody here. And Deb, I am totally talking to you because you brought a different kind of fire in this space, and you looked at issues that people have historically avoided. And you brought an expertise that is really, really specific to a very small population of people, and that voice has given us all a better
mind to move forward in this space, to represent people like your daughter, to represent programs that helped you, to represent Staten Island. So I'm very grateful to my Staten Island folks- Yeah ... because you guys get disrespected every other fifth month, four months out of five in a row. So I just want to thank you guys for coming out, always supporting our boroughs. You guys always come most of the time. For sure. No, but seriously, I appreciate what we've created in this space and the votes, the programs, the things that we said no to, those are
going to have lasting impacts in this system. So I just want to thank us all for the collective impact that we created this year. This year was different than every year since this panel became a thing, and I just want to thank you all for contributing. Thank you. Thank you. Panel Member Bogard. I didn't prepare anything on my phone- ... so I'll be brief. Phew. I'll be brief. I came into the panel really nervous, not knowing what to expect. I always tell people, and it's probably in my bio, that I've
always been just a dad. I never considered myself a parent advocate or leader. I've always been just a dad. And I never thought I would be in this arena at all. I worked EMS, and I was disabled and hurt on 9/11 and lost my partner. A year later, my wife was pregnant at the time, and a year later I had, or about a year later, my twins. That was 20 some odd years ago, and when they
were in preschool, I started a parent association. They never had that. And from then on, I just continued, Shirley knows, working and being an officer at SEPAC, and I think, elementary, not think, I know, elementary school, middle school, high school, I've been a PTA member. Yeah, I've been an Been on the SLT. I mean, on the infamous SLT teams in all of the levels of the school, CEC president and presidents' council.
I never thought that I would be doing this, and it was all for my daughters, for the kids in Staten Island, now the kids throughout the city. It really is and was an honor and a pleasure to serve. I mean, we 20 some odd people, we are different, different boroughs, different people. We may disagree, but we all got along and I came in here not knowing what to expect and just being another
panel member, and I'm leaving here with, 20 some odd friends that I've made, and- Thank you ... I just want to thank everybody for everything that you do as well. You know, Aaron, what stands out is your humility. Yeah. That just comes across right away. I know that there were hardships throughout the year, and you didn't complain, but you struggled through them and were a very valued member of this group. And, just as I said, your caring, it comes across, your humility comes across, and so always a pleasure having you on the panel, and we're going to call on you.
Hopefully we'll call on you, and we'll all see you working in other areas in another venue. So again, thank you again for your service. I enjoyed those trips out to Staten Island. Thanks. I'll see you in September. Yes, we'll see you in September. Thank God we got- I will be at the September meeting. Yes. Thank God we got the travel, but it's great to get out there and experience other parts of the city. Our newest panel member, you're just starting. I know. I wasn't going to say anything, but it's an unusual meeting maybe to start at, and so just want to say that it's a real joy and honor and responsibility to
hear from the students and the educators and parents and public and school leaders who spoke tonight, and then it's really a joy and I can really feel the commitment and the heart here on this panel. And so I actually am kind of grateful to be here even if it's strange. But- ... and to kind of-- I'm soaking this up and soaking it in. I can just feel the commitment and heart. So thank you for welcoming me tonight. Welcome you. We're excited. Panel member Parsons. Fellow Bronxite.
Yes. Yes. Fellow Bronxite. Yep. I have a very boisterous voice because I do other speaking in other spaces where, we love to be at on Sundays. So, I just want to say that, as a mom of a D75 son and also a grandmother of two, don't even try to calculate how old I am. You're going to hurt your brain. But, I love to be a part. This is going to be my last time here as Bronx CEC representative.
I have a successor, but I love the work that I have done outside of the panel, which is this extension of bringing people a part of this who didn't know that this PEP existed, especially with students that are Black and brown. I had the awesome opportunity of speaking with students in different other spaces that was so glad to see a Black woman speaking on their behalf,
and they want to see Black women. Black women love seeing themselves in these spaces. I'm a paralegal by day, and in that space, it's not many of us. And so when young Black women see me or Emmy Fair or Dr. Green or panel member Garcia speaking on their behalf, it gives them joy, and then it gives them the encouragement to come out and speak in these places. So, in the future, you're going to see me again,
probably with more Black students coming to speak at these forums because this is where they want to be, and that we hope that we have more CT programs in being a paralegal or in financial investment, in equity where we need that. We don't want to see CT programs in just shop and fashion and things of that. They want to use their minds, and they want to be ready for the workplace, and I want them to be ready for the workplace, including D75. My son is in a D75
school. He got straight As this year, and I'm so proud of him, knowing that I'm coming out and I'm speaking for him as well, but he needs a job, too. And what does that look like for him when he's 18, when he comes out of school, or 21? I don't want to wait for the last minute to figure out what kind of job that he needs. And I don't want him to be a cashier. I don't want him to be a barista. I want him to be just like his mom, sitting up here, opening his mouth, and speaking on
behalf of his fellow constituents that look just like him as a Black man speaking in New York City public schools. I enjoyed my time here. I hope to continue to work outside, especially in the Bronx. I'm looking forward to the hip-hop school in the Bronx. I'm looking forward for that. I'm going to be there with my door knockers and my Tims and my fitted hopefully. Thank you, Panel Member Izquierdo. I enjoy working with you as a Bronxite as well, and all the other fellow people out there, I look forward to you in the future.
Thank you so much. And thank you. I remember meeting you when you were president of the CEC 10. Yes. And you had an incredibly difficult time there. Very difficult. They were giving you a lot of grief, and I remember coming to that meeting and saying, "How is she holding up?" To that. And I learned something, and you always did it with grace- Yeah ... and with patience, and with charity to the ones who weren't really that charitable to you. Yeah. And that's a message for all of us. I really appreciate that, and your time on the panel has been meaningful. Absolutely.
So I think you can certainly take that away. Yes. And now the first person I met when we joined the panel, maybe you don't remember. I don't remember. Yeah. See that? I came to your school. Dr. Green, and I came- Oh, yeah ... to visit your school. Yeah. You see? Panel member Hassan. Thank you, Chair Faulkner, and I forgot to mention I was the Title I PAC representative on the SLT for three years, too, so- By the way, I was going to say, is there anyone who has- Not been on a- ... ever served on a school leadership team? Raise your hand. So- Never served ... we've gotten thousands of emails at this point, at least 1,000 about DYCD, and it would be remiss if I didn't say anything about it.
DYCD has impressed on parent leaders that their PPB process doesn't allow parent or student or school satisfaction as part of the contracting, as this would introduce bias in the bidding process. I found that to be a very befuddling way of doing things. The contracts appeals, they told us, were only being accepted from the vendors who lost bids, and anything else is still a bias in the contracting system. And the system didn't seem to be built to serve the community. Mm. So disturbing school programming continuity for vendors, again, is
shining a light towards how city agencies are not working together collaboratively towards the best interest of the children. It seems to be a different model of thinking around how we can have vendor diversity versus how we best serve kids. If we were doing it right, we would have free after-school for everyone in every school, and it would be part of a DOE budget. Why is there another agency handling this for the two and a half hours after dismissal? Secondly, contracts. We do more than $11 billion a year at the DOE now, and City Council hearings on that last week, along with meetings with
advocates this morning in different settings, and council members since then, including multiple meetings that happened today, and upcoming education and technology committee hearings, are what we heard from everyone, including people you might not expect, are agreeing on the fact that the city has to take drastic change on how we don't use our staff, our teachers as highly educated professionals to engage in human-to-human interaction. And we should develop the highest quality in-house curriculum given our size and scope of the system. Education policies should be very different, revamped towards municipally designed,
beneficial, culturally responsive, linguistically relevant programming, and implemented by us. I want to recognize and tell the River School that we see you, and otherwise really empathize with the fact that we have these sort of ongoing investigations, which just turns into a system that's sort of harm-perpetuating bureaucracy towards the kids, the parents, and the teaching staff. We shouldn't accept a system that leaves school communities in the lurch with indefinite, opaque investigations that may or may not be playing out while
the kids are being actively harmed in the classroom, like we heard today. That seems, again, a way that the system is not serving the needs of the community. I've heard many districts in Manhattan, including three, four, and six on the huge problems of education technology and generative AI in schools. We've seen resolutions that have been published. We've seen parent leaders do technology-free weeks in all of their schools to great benefit, and I actually saw some of those parent leaders this morning, and they were so excited about their results. So until the city addresses municipal technology
policy with open standards, open source, open weights models that we control and we can manage, we can't move forward into the Wild West of education technology infiltration into all of our kids' classes. Unless that happens, I continue to support an AI moratorium, and I thank all of the PEP members who have signed on. And I hope that we can see something develop along these lines to do the right thing for kids. In terms of helping some students or parents in schools, as a school board and as a set of leaders, I think it's incumbent on us to always turn desire for
quick Band-Aid solutions into vocal public advocacy for systemic change. And so I want to recognize that the people in this room have done a lot. They always come out and always try to create solutions that will help the most number of people. So thank you for that. Public advocacy for systemic change will help everyone, whether it's regarding consulting contracts, immigrants, anti-bias structures. Leadership means putting yourself on the line when it comes to getting change implemented for all kids. So thank you again for everything that you do. I want to thank all of the students, parents, and advocates that came to speak out tonight.
Thank you for your collaboration and holding the system accountable. Let's keep pushing the ball forward to create a genuine system of co-governance, where teachers are in the room when we're talking about pedagogy. Where many parents are involved when we make choices about what happens in kids' classrooms. Where each school is free to make real independent choices on how their community's needs should be addressed, and let them have both the authority and accountability to live with those choices and grow with those choices. This is how we will have parents who feel they're being pushed out of public schools, feel like these schools are for them, and truly want to stay in the public school system versus all the other
choices they might have, including leaving the city. We must do better to have not just an inauthentic peace in the status quo, but a reform system with true justice for all. So thank you so much, and have a great summer. Well, thank you all, and thank you- Thank you ... panel member, especially for advocating around the issue around AI. You've been the person on the panel that's been bringing... I know when the resolutions were passed, you drafted something and have been notifying us and keeping us abreast of- Of the important things that are happening, and I know you're working on a resolution that'll come before the panel in the next panel term.
So I want to thank you for your leadership in terms of advising us on the whole technology area and giving us that feedback. So I want to thank you for that, and also the work you're doing on our intergovernmental and legislative committee. I want to thank you for that as well. Thank you for that collaboration. I want to thank you for that. Sure. Thanks. Well, wait. Now A motion to- Out of order. That's it. No, only because I want to announce where our next meeting is going to be. Our next meeting will be on July 29th in Manhattan at the High School of Fashion Industries. Ooh, go, Fahad. Oh, see you at alumni.
Fahad. Yes. We look forward to seeing you all there. Thank you all very much. That brings to a close this year's- Adams ... panel, and July 1st, we'll have a new panel in place. That'll be my brother, yeah. And look forward to that work and wish them all well. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Why are we getting music? All right. I don't hear anything. Dance the whole night, we a dance tonight. Left, right. Hey. Left, right. Outside. Outside, left, right. Hey. Dance the whole night, we a dance tonight. Dynamic Vibe, feel the dark.
I'm in fresh black, look down, sinking. Outside, a new man, new skin, clean.