Okay, I believe that is everyone. I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and welcome you to the Panel for Education Policy meeting. With that being said, it's now my pleasure to call to order the March 25th meeting of the Panel for Education Policy, and I would ask our secretary, Secretary Nathan, if you would please call the roll. When I call your name, please indicate that you're present. Adriana Alicea? Deborah Altman? Present. Shirley Aubin? Present. Aaron Bogot is absent tonight. He's excused. Excused, yes. Joe Borelli? Here. Camille Caseretti? Present. Marjorie Dinstag?
Amy Fair? Present. Anita Garcia? Tony Giordano? Giordano present. And Vice Chair Green? Present. Verajee Hanna-Jones? Whoa, okay. That said something. Navid Hasan? Alice Ho? Present. Rima Isquierdo? Present. Yadira Jimenez? Present. Sharon Audwan? Present. Alan Ung? Present. Bernita Parsons? Present. Mahisha Sapp? Mahisha Sapp present. Jeff Faulkner. Present. Okay. And is anybody here representing the controller tonight? I don't see anybody. And Chancellor Samuels? Present. And our student members, Cassandra Sinchi?
New people. No. Oh, no fair. Yeah, here they are. Isaiah. Isaiah Tangan? Present. And Dalia Diaz Chan. Present. I had an old list or a different list. They're in the veterans. I know. I recognize them. And Sarah. 17, 18. Verajee Hanna-Jones? He's coming. So we have a quorum. We have 20 voting members present. Thank you. We're officially in business, and at this point, I'm really pleased to invite our chancellor to offer any comments that he may wish to make at this time.
Good evening. Thank you for being here. I want to specifically thank Chair Faulkner, Vice Chair Dr. Green, and the panel. Definitely our hosts at the High School for Telecommunication, Arts and Technology, Principal Shepherd and Superintendent Angeles, and the P371 Lillian Rachkis, Principal Miller, and Superintendent McCoy, and our LIFE program under Superintendent Esperance. I want to wish everyone a Happy Women's
History Month. Yep, and it's also Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month as well. And we have a number of holidays this season. I want to wish everyone a belated Eid Mubarak, and also a happy early Passover, and a happy Easter to all who celebrate. I want to share some updates since our last meeting. It's been a busy time. I have testified in front of the city council earlier this week about the FY 2027 preliminary budget. I also was
in Albany to discuss with our legislators mayoral accountability. And I had two community conversations. This is all just this week, by the way, just so you know. And so last night, I was in South Brooklyn, and before that, I was in Manhattan on Monday night. And so it's been really great to hear what our families and young people-- One cool surprise is how many young people actually show up to these
conversations and actually have wonderful thoughts to share. We have one more stop in the Bronx coming up on Saturday, followed by a final session in Staten Island in April. And, one of the things I want to do is make sure I continue to make myself available to this PEP. Last week, I had a walkthrough with some of the PEP members, staff, elected officials, and parent leaders in District 3. We visited some of the schools involved in the utilization proposals that will be voted on next month. I was able to highlight the opportunities and address some of the pain points that
were raised. We saw the beautiful facilities, including the rooftop outdoor area and the state-of-the-art performance space in PS 191. We discussed the challenges faced in the current building that houses PS 9 and the Center School, where students are having to do intervention services in what are actually meant to be closets. And at the Manhattan School for Children, we talked about the trade-offs of phasing out the middle school while still preserving space deeply valued by the elementary school families,
including art rooms, OPPT rooms, as well as a drama roomI look forward to continuing to engage with our school communities on these proposals alongside Superintendent Higgins. Something else that happened this week is I want to turn to our most recent update. Yesterday, we took the first step in creating a comprehensive playbook regarding the use of artificial intelligence in our schools. This guidance is part one of that process. It includes information that
I know is important to families and is important to me as a parent. It's critical that we focus on data and privacy, and safety and privacy. It also includes a traffic light system where we indicate what is never allowed as red, where caution is needed as yellow, and where innovation is encouraged in green. This guidance is available on our website at schools.nyc.gov/ai. I encourage everyone here today to check it out, because we want to hear your
feedback. On the website, you will find a feedback survey, which will be open through May 8th. This feedback will be used to inform the creation of the final AI playbook. I want to thank everyone who has been in conversation with us about AI over the last few months, and I especially want to thank this panel, which I know has been very focused on pushing us for more comprehensive planning, vision, and engagement on this topic. I know we will be discussing the guidance with you more
in-depth in the future. I want to close by naming very explicitly our values when it comes to AI. It is our responsibility to provide appropriate guardrails and clarity on where this can be helpful and supportive of learning in schools. We know that AI should support learning, not replace educators. There's no tool in the world that can replace the care and expertise that our staff members bring to school each day.
AI must be used safely, with privacy concerns addressed, and this is why we have our robust IRMAA process in place. And thoughtful AI implementation can only happen with equally thoughtful engagement with our communities. We have done tremendous engagement on this topic through our advisory council and more, and we look forward to community feedback and input in this next phase of the work. This is just the beginning. Technology is ever-evolving, and
we see this work as iterative. But we know we need to start somewhere, and I look forward to working together to make this policy even stronger and more robust. And now, as we proceed to our meetings, I want to thank the PEP again. This work could not happen without you. Thank you for your partnership. And finally, I want to introduce my cabinet, and specifically two members of my cabinet that are here somewhere. We want to make sure that I call out first Deputy Chancellor
Ginta, Daniel Ginta, as well as-- Oh, there they are. As well as the Deputy Chancellor of Family and Community Partnership, Flavia Pueo-Perdermo. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chancellor. A number of us had a chance to attend that announcement at DOE of your new team, your cabinet, and I can tell you we're excited. I know they're excited. We're excited for the rollout of that great new team, and I know we're going to be able to see great things happening for the department with this team as they
begin to do the important work in the New York City public school system. The chancellor mentioned that we are here at this beautiful school building and recognize the principal and recognize some folks. Before I introduce our student members, I want to introduce an alumni of this particular institution. So she's having somewhat of a homecoming moment, and so I'd like to recognize panel member Yadira Jimenez as an alumnus of this school. She graduated five years ago, right? Yes. I'm going to run with that. So, yes, panel member.
Thank you all for being here. Good evening. This is really a full circle moment for me. Thank you to Principal Shepherd for being here and for hosting us. I owe so much of who I am today to the High School of Telecommunications, Arts, and Technology. I was not a top GPA student, truth be told, but the staff at Telecommunications saw something in me that went beyond grades, something special, and they chose to invest in me. One advisor in particular recognized my potential and recommended me for an entry-level internship at a
public relations firm. That opportunity changed the course of my life. I stayed with that firm for 16 years, growing steadily in my career. During my time at HSTAT, I was recognized for my perseverance, something that continues to define me today. I carry that same persistence and results-driven mindset into my work and personal life. HSTAT is also where I met my husband, now a New York City firefighter, making the school even more meaningful to me on a personal levelMy connection to
HSTT runs deep. My siblings and my niece also attended here, and we all share the same deep appreciation for the administration and teachers who made us feel seen, supported, and respected. Simply put, thank you. Thank you for your unique approach to every student and for believing in me when it mattered most. Thank you. That's very nice. And now we'll turn to current students. We have our two student panel members, and I'll recognize them for their remarks at this time. Does anyone particular want to go first? I guess, Mr. Tan June, panel member, you're the senior member of the team.
Good evening, everyone. My name is Isaiah Tan June, and I'm a student representative. Tonight, I'd like to share my thoughts on student Omni cards, as well as the resolution and support for students in District 79. As we all know by now, student Omni cards are imperative to a student's ability to get to and from school, participate in extracurricular activities, and for some, travel to work. With that said, Omni cards shouldn't be treated as a privilege, but rather as a tool that ensures students have access to their education. Restrictions on Omni cards, such as eligibility requirements, deactivations, and limits to
certain transit types, can leave students without a way to get to and from school. While deactivations are meant to prevent misuse, this can oftentimes leave students without immediate access to transportation. When a student's card is suddenly deactivated or doesn't work on certain buses or trains, they're often left with no real alternative at the moment. Missing school isn't a realistic option, so some students may be forced to jump turnstiles or enter through emergency doors just so they can get to class on time. These restrictions all prompt fare evasion among students. Their intent isn't to break the law, but they're just trying to get to school.
These risks shouldn't come with our education. Lastly, I'd like to express support for the resolution for students in District 79. D79 ensures that students whose education has been interrupted have the opportunity to continue learning and pursue their interests, students who are incarcerated. However, the issue lies in the program's consistency and disparate resources provided upon a student's reentry. Reinforcing support for students in District 79 ensures all students have an opportunity to succeed and pursue their education. Thank you. I'll pass it to Dahlia now. Thank you. Good evening, everyone.
Today, I'm going to touch upon Building K025's new usage proposal, the proposed merge in the Canarsie Educational Campus, and Omni card accessibility as well. School closures, co-locations, or mergers can be very emotional for a student community. A year ago, we had a meeting on PS25, the Eube Blake School, and that school unfortunately closed its doors with under 60 total students. It was the smallest school in our district at the time. At just 56 students at the time of closing, I was shocked to see the stark and robust community involvement that occurred at last year's PEP meeting.
This community called attention to the reason for that number. Eube Blake's enrollment was a result of intense saturation of charter schools within the area of Bedford-Stuy. Due to this small community school with big space utilization gaps had to close its doors. I say this all to remind us where the system failed a year prior and urge NYCPS to keep a close eye on the current systemic factors that make sure we see a successful expansion of K through eight community within this building. The Brooklyn Brownstone School has shown space needs befitting of its
transition into building K025, and I'm hopeful that this vibrant school community will step into a space and have a success in fostering a well-run, economically feasible, and high-quality institution within its walls. Economic feasibility is a critical part of ensuring quality education. As the most expensive state in the nation for education, we need to ensure our resources are going to places that make sense. But that can be hard when there are schools with student to staff ratios of under ten to one. Trust me, I know this all too well coming from a
school with a graduating class of 10 people. One floor can feel expansive, but another can be crowded. Expenses allocated to schools directly correlate to student enrollment, but this funding has to go towards student administrative salaries first, all of the required counselors, paras, principals, vice principals, parent coordinators a school needs, then to teacher salaries, then to school supplies and remaining student activities if there's any money left at that point.
Within large educational campuses like mine, the Washington Irving Campus, or someone else's, like the Canarsie Educational Campus, there are four, five, or even six small schools in the same building. It simply doesn't make sense to pay for the staffing of four or five schools of 100 students each within the same building, rather than pay for the staffing of one school of 500 students, let's say. For a multi-school campus, it is the best move to increase funding per head and the array of educational and extracurricular
opportunities for students to experience without displacement. And I'm really hopeful to see more changes like this in the future. Now turning to an issue you might hear more about tonight, Omni cards have been brought about an unparalleled access to the city in a way that I and all of my peers previously didn't have. Now, as we are raring to prepare for year three of Omni cards in New York City public schools, there are things we can do to increase this amazing opportunity for access even more. In the resolution you will hear tonight on Omni card accessibility, they will reference New York State Education Law Title VI, Article 89,
Section 4401Which states the school district is responsible to provide suitable transportation as specified in the child's IEP to and from special classes and programs. If the student and family signs up for it, that transportation encompasses busing. However, the issue here is that students and families that opt into busing are not eligible to receive any Omni card or MetroCard for that student whatsoever. According to Chancellor's Regulation A-801, students who have or are eligible for a MetroCard provided by the school are not
eligible for busing. To which the MTA has said, well, vice versa. If you have an IEP and are busing under the law, you can't go to afterschool without paying out of pocket for the subway because you missed your bus back. But because you take busing in the morning, you're not eligible for a school-provided MetroCard under both the MTA rules and Chancellor's Regulation A-801. Equality here begins with amending the Chancellor's Regulation A-801, and this resolution is a great start in the right direction. Thank you. Thank you very much, panel members. Our next item is the adoption of the February 25th panel
meeting minutes. Is there a motion for unanimous consent to adopt the minutes of February 25th? Is there a second to the motion for unanimous consent? Is there objection to the motion for unanimous consent? Hearing no objection, the minutes of February 25th are adopted. We will now move to student open comment period. This allows us an opportunity to hear from our students. Um, and as you can tell from our two student panel members, the students often have a great deal to say and a great deal of useful information. Um, so we'll now proceed with student comment. Um, each student will be allocated two and a half minutes for comment. Alma Clancy-Baker.
You can make your way down to the microphone when I call your name. Uh, Juniper Wang, Katie Nardi, Oliver Kackler, and August Hoyt. And if you get to the mic, you can begin speaking. One, let's lower it, though. Yeah. AI is bad for kids. AI is used in things such as i-Ready, Writeable, and Google Gemini. My name is Alma Clancy-Baker. I'm an eight-year-old girl in third grade. I am taught AI-free. I love my teachers. I am not allowed to use i-Ready because it has AI.
Other than that and Writeable, my classroom is AI-free. AI takes away kids' thinking time. When their teachers ask a question, the AI does not let kids think to answer the question. It just answers right away. My family does not let me or my siblings use AI. Some ways that kids learn best is by having AI-free school websites. Another way is by having more independent reading time, plus more books that are my books and makes the books in it the
whole thing, not just a snippet. We also love the Earth. It is gobbling up our water and eating our trees. We must make it stop. Chancellor Samuels, please make our schools AI-free. Woo. Can I ask you, young lady, how- That's better. Can I ask the young lady, how old are you? Eight? You did a really great job. Was eight. And, um- Thank you ... and that's that. I hope you'll come back to future panel meetings and also, uh, a speaker as well. So you did a really good job.
Thank you so much. I'm going to just recall the student names just to make sure. Juniper Wang, Katie Nardi, Oliver Kackler, August Hoyt, Bart O'Sullivan, Vinnie Dong, and Nower Nuha. Yeah. So- You may start. Okay. Good evening, and thank you for giving me the chance to speak. My name is Nuha, and I'm a New York City Public School student who cares deeply about technology education. When I first became interested in coding and engineering, I was excited but also confused about where to start. My school didn't offer many opportunities to truly learn technology
in-depth. There is only one class where students can explore coding, and that was AP Computer Science Principles. So instead of waiting for those opportunities, I tried building them. In my junior year of high school, I co-founded a Girls Who Code club at my school. I wanted other girls to have the chance I initially didn't have, a space to learn, experiment, and feel like they belong in technology. I watched students run their first lines of code, celebrate when their programs finally worked, and slowly gain confidence to see themselves as engineers and problem solvers. The experience taught me something
important. Technology education isn't about learning how to use devices. It's about understanding systems, solving problems, and empowering people to build things that matter.That's why the idea of Next Generation Technology High School is so powerful. A school that teaches students not only how to use technology, but how to understand it, question it, and build it responsibly, is exactly what students in NYC need. If a school like this had existed when I was applying to high school, I would have chosen it in a heartbeat. Opportunities like advanced computer science, real-world projects, and ethical discussions
about technology should not be rare. They should be accessible to every single student who's curious enough to learn. New York City is one of the world's centers of innovation. Our students deserve schools that prepare them to be creators of technology, not consumers of it. I strongly encourage the panel to support the opening of Next Generation Technology High School so future students can have the opportunities many of us had to create ourselves. Thank you. Lila Torres. Good evening, everybody. How do you adjust the mic? Thank you so much. Sorry. Okay. Good evening, everyone.
I hope you're all having a great day so far. My name is Lila Torres. I go to school in the Bronx, and I'm 12 years old. I would like to start off by saying a minor problem, but from my experience, it's kind of big. In my school, students are using Google Docs to- I think your time is-- Go a little closer to the mic. Okay. Is this better? Should I restart? Okay. Good evening, everyone. I hope you're all having a great day so far. My name is Lila Torres. I go to school in the Bronx, and I'm 12 years old. I would like to start off by saying a bit of a minor problem, but in my school, from experience, it's pretty big. Students are using Google Documents to talk in it, but they're using it for
not great reasons. They're using it to talk about people and stuff in them and say pretty derogatory things. I've been in group chats like that and, well, Google Documents like that, and I don't understand how administration can see our laptops and stuff and our history, but they don't do anything about it. I've had to report it because people are saying derogatory things about me in it. There should be a solution for this. Not that kids can't make documents because when we're using them for work, we can't do it, but I feel like there should be some sort of solution for that. Next, as you all know, the state test is coming up soon after break. If we ask the adults why we're doing it, it's so we can pass our grade, right?
But last time I checked, it was just to see where we were at and how we were doing. Why can't we just look at classwork for that? And why all of a sudden is it such a big deal and that we have to take it or we're not going to pass our grade? I opted out of it many times, and now it's going to be weird that I'm taking it and it's mandatory and it's such a big deal now. Some kids have never taken it, and now it's a big deal, and now they have to take it. I don't understand that. Another topic is school lunch. I would like to bring up that. And for most schools that are in the campus, it's a middle school and elementary school. The elementary school students eat lunch way before.
They eat at 9:40 in the morning, and middle school students eat at two-ish sometimes. And then that means we get the food that's left over from the elementary school kids. So if we get called up last, we don't get whatever food we'd prefer. We get the food that's expired or moldy or what we don't want. So I don't see how it's fair that parents' tax dollars are paying for that and students aren't getting the food that they're going to be able to eat, and their parents are going to not be able to be sure that their children are eating and going home not
hungry. And last, I have a quick topic to bring up. In my school, whenever there's a problem, we write statements about it. That seems reasonable, but the administration doesn't always read them. They leave them. I was in the dean's office today, and there was a pile of statements about this big from back to September, and they weren't even read yet. When there's a problem, students shouldn't be in fear that they're going to get dirty looks in the hallway from their teachers or that they're going to be looked at weird or called out in the middle of class because you did something wrong by telling on the teacher, and they didn't do anything wrong. Oh, I know I'm out of time.
Last thing, student members should be able to vote because they're the ones being affected by decisions. I hope you all have a great rest of your day. Thank you for your time and patience. Oops. I have called all of the student names. Vinnie Dong. I called Vinnie. Yeah. Keep going. Oh, come on down. Great. Good afternoon. There's a reverb. Hold it, hold it. I'm sorry. There's a reverb, so we're getting a echo echo. So I would just make a suggestion, just slow down so we can actually hear what it is that you're saying, okay? All right. The words can fully form before the echo comes on and stuff like that. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Vinnie Dong, and I'm a
sophomore at Queens High School for the Sciences. Today, I am here to talk about Omni cards. These are student Omni cards. It's green, right? And we get to use these four times a day, any time of the week, during summers, too. And these cards, from the looks of it, is made out of plastic. These cards do not survive the whole year. This is my sixth one. Sixth. Rain, gone. Snow, gone. You shoving in your phone a bit too hard, gone. These cost every single person here
a bit of their tax. You all pay for these right hereThey are made of plastic. Every single one of you guys, your paychecks go to a bit of this. Now, this is the ones you buy from the MTA for a dollar. These are hard plastic. These could last however long you need it to be. Why are we students getting the second grade, second-level card, second-level downgrade of the real Omni card? These can last however long I need it to be, but these can't.
Now, why are we paying the MTA for a worse service and a worse card? Now, another issue I need to talk about is that these has limitations. We can't use these to go on, for example, express buses. From experience, when I talked and came to the Staten Island PEP, these don't work for express buses. Now, there's also more reasons why these should be unlimited. Students don't just go from home to school
and school to home every single day. We go to DYCD programs. We go to recreational sites. We go do stuff outside of school. Our life isn't only just school. We need the accessibility and the ability to go across the city to do whatever we need to get a better experience and a better education. These shouldn't be more brittle, and these should be what we should be getting. We're paying for the same thing anyways. That is all. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vinnie. Thank you.
I always listen very carefully what Vinnie has to say because Vinnie was coming to our meetings in the past, and he walked away getting a brand-new school building. So, you have to take very seriously what this young man has to say. So thank you for coming back to the panel. Thank you. Bye. Oh, Dalia. Dalia? Panel member. Yes. I agree with you, Vinnie. I think these Omni cards are way too fragile, and I would honestly recommend for schools, once they receive a batch of Omni cards, to laminate it on a low heat setting. It does wonders. The Omni card isn't affected if it's on a low heat setting, and the plastic cover will
make these Omni cards last year long, and I think it's easy fix. Okay. Chancellor. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I have an 11th grader at home, and he complains about the same thing. Just saying. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I have called all the student speakers who signed up. Okay, great. They may want to speak later when we get to the resolution. They may be waiting. Sure. Okay. We're going to now move into the voting portion of the meeting, and I'd just like to sort of restate the ground rules that we'll be following during this portion of the meeting. As was just shown, we'll be calling folks up.
Our secretary will call up speakers in groups of five. If you are not here when your group is called, you won't necessarily be able to regain your spot in the queue. Each speaker will be given two and a half minutes. More importantly, you must address your comments to the topic that is being voted on. So when we get to contracts, and we're discussing contracts, the only discussion or debate that's relevant, or testimony that's relevant during that period is any questions or debate relevant to contracts. So we will give you a warning. You'll notice that when your time is about to expire, we will give you a
warning, and at the point that two and a half minutes when your time has expired, we will then let you know that. So at this point, we'll begin with the first item on the agenda, which is consideration of contracts. I'll ask Secretary Nathan to please read the resolution. The resolution up for approval is entitled Resolution to Enter into Contract Agreements consisting of items one through 24. Before I do that, Secretary, we need to note that we've had several panel members join us. Okay. We have been joined by Naveed Hasan and Hannah Faraji-Jones, and the
representative for Comptroller Mark Levine, Jordan Stockdale. Okay. Back to you. Okay, great. So we'll proceed. Did you present the resolution? I did. Oh, I did that quickly. Is there a motion to adopt the resolution? Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. Let's open the floor for public comment. Okay. The speakers who have signed up on contracts. Alma Clancy-Baker, Steven Mincer, Johanna Bjorkin, Martina Meyer. That's it.
So you can make your way down to the microphone. Hi, I'm- Just introduce yourself, and you can begin speaking. I'm Alma Clancy-Baker's dad. I think there was a mistake. We intended for her to sign up for student comment. However, it's possible that a box got checked. I'm sorry. This is in relation to the consideration of contracts. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. We called all the students. I know some of them aren't here. So did she already speak? Yeah, she already spoke. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Okay, thank you. No problem. Thank youJust wanted to make sure we got everybody. To my right. Good evening, Chair, Chancellor, and the PEP panel. Going to speak to you guys every month that you guys are voting on this.
But item 21, busing contracts. All these contracts you guys are going to have to approve. We understand that we need to make sure our students continue to get to school every single day. Families and schools continue to face persistent shortages of drivers and matrons, leaving these students without a school to go to and without a safe and consistent, legally entitled transportation. These staffing failures not only undermine IEP mandates but place unfair burdens on school communities to compensate for systemic breakdowns. You heard some of the Omni
conversation there. It leads right back to our students not having access to adequate busing. As you consider these extensions, accountability must be part of the conversation. Bus companies face little meaningful enforcement when services fall short, while students and families bear all the consequences. These are public dollars, yet there is limited assurance that our most vulnerable students are receiving the services promised to them. I also urge the panel, as we continue to discuss these contracts and utilizations, that many of these students in District 75 are unable to participate in after-school enrichment
engaging activities because there is no after-school busing, including Special Olympics with a Polar Plunge this weekend. Without after-school busing, they are effectively excluded from tutoring, enrichment, athletics. And access to education should include access to participation. So as you continue to extend these contracts for the next few years, I hope that you continue to have deep conversations about how we utilize our money and how we serve our children. Thank you. So we're absolutely going to do that. But I'm going to make an announcement that we're having some difficulty hearing the speakers and making out what they're saying.
So I'm going to ask, one, if our folks can actually do some work to see if we can fix this problem. If not, for the speakers, if you can possibly send us a copy of your testimony, that would be very helpful. If we're not able to correct the sound issues that are taking place, and we'll post where you can send it, so that you're able to get your testimony across for us. So if you have that ability, we'd ask you to also send us a copy of your testimony. Yeah. You can proceed. All right. Hello, my name is Johanna Bjorken, and
I hear great here in the audience, so maybe you just need to switch the speakers around. I wear many hats, but on this particular issue, I am a DOE employee, and I am the language access coordinator in my child's school. And I am here to say thank you for having the translation and interpretation contract up for renewal before the previous one expired. As somebody who works in a school where 90% of the families speak a language other than English at home, one of the things we
talk about is if you're speaking English to our parents, you're not speaking to our parents. Interpretation and translation is key to how we do everything in our school. And I've been doing this for 10 years, and I applaud the language and interpretation unit, which is no longer called that. But for improving the way that interpretation works, especially the phone service. I am deeply concerned what will happen if we return to a system where parent-teacher conferences are in
person. The contracted provision of in-person interpretation was never adequate. We never had the numbers of interpreters necessary for our families to communicate with their teachers on parent-teacher conference days, which is arguably the most important communication that can happen. And so while I applaud this, I really hope that there will continue to be additional efforts to integrate interpretation and translation, not just as a unit, but
into every single aspect of how the New York City Public Schools approaches family engagement and public engagement. Thank you. Thank you. I want to offer an opportunity for the last gentleman because the audio wasn't working. If you'd like to re-present your testimony. Is that okay? Okay, thanks. He said no. The other two speakers I had called, Martina Meyer. Actually, that's it. Okay. We've exhausted the public... Did somebody have the... Did you have the? Okay. So we've exhausted the public comment list. We'll now move to panel member comments. Panel members, I'm going to ask that you also observe the two-and-a-half minute
time limit on comment. Yes. It's a request. All right. He's out again. Hello. Hi, everyone. Camille Caseretti, I'm the Brooklyn Borough President appointee. I agree with Johanna's comments regarding the translation interpretation services. I only wish that we were able to provide more and more and more, because as we speak, we have a CEC member who has arrived in person and unfortunately does not have the interpretation
services that she needs for Chinese. So I think we really need to do a much better job I do not have the solution to this problem, but we really need to find... Oh, Rima has a solution. Thank you. So thank you for that, Camille, and we've been discussing that over here, and we're wondering if we could possibly have a meeting with Ola to discuss what our contract includes and to discuss the potential of looking into the devices, so that we can have them on hand in school communities where we did provide the three common languages.
But the CEC or the neighboring community has a high other language that at least we have the devices to provide. That's not going to help us, for them to provide testimony for us to understand, but that does resolve half of the problem. And maybe we can work to figure out how we resolve the other half. But that's just my suggestion. Can I just follow? Go ahead. So- Good. Yeah ... so if anyone's read the book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and knows what a Babel fish is- I love it ... that's pretty much what we have now. Amazon, with technology, has actual translators that go into the
ear that you have. Some of them do 40, 50 languages. This is what technology can do for communication and bridging that gap. Okay, yeah. And if we had a contract that had these available at meetings, and if we don't have actual interpretation, these devices could be lent out in order for them to at least understand. It may not have the same dialogue, but at least they could try to follow along, pick up on the words, and try to understand what's happening in real time. So these things exist. There's multiple companies out there, and I'd love to have a contract or find a
vendor that can provide these services for our constituents. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your comments here. I think this is something that we're listening to and can follow up with. And actually, the head of Ola is right here. He's listening in. So, I'm sure he'll be happy to have conversations with you going forward. Okay. Are there any other panel members who wish to comment on this resolution? Contract. Contract. Yes. Contract. Resolution. Yeah. Okay. Seeing that, I assume then we're ready for the vote. I'll ask Secretary Nathan to call the roll. When I call the roll, please indicate how you wish to
vote. If you want to vote differently on any particular item, please let me know. There are no recusals on the contracts agenda. Member Alicea? Yes to all. Member Altman? Yes to all. Member Aubin? Yes to all. Member Borelli? Yes. Member CassarettI? Yes to all. Member Dean Stag? Yes. Member Fair? Member Garcia? Member Giordano? Yes. Vice Chair Green? Yes. Member Hannah Jones? Yes. Member Hassan? Yes. Member Ho? Yes to all. Member Isquierdo? Yes to all. Member Jimenez? Yes to all. Member Odwan? Yes to all. Member Ong? Yes to all. Member Parsons? Yes to all.
Member Sapp? Yes to all. And Chair Faulkner. Yes on all. Wow. Unanimously passed. Right. I know. Okay, we'll next move to proposals for school utilization. Secretary Nathan, if you could present the resolution. The resolution up for approval is entitled Resolution for Significant Changes in School Utilization for Brooklyn. The proposed opening and co-location of P396K at K320. A new site of existing District 75 school,
Sid Miller Academy, 75K396, with PS375, Jackie Robinson School, 17K375, and Ebbetts Field Middle School, 17K352 in building K320 in the 2026-'27 school year. The proposed merger of Urban Action Academy, 18K642, with High School for Medical Professions, 18K633, in building K500 in the
2026-2027 school year. Next, the proposed opening and co-location of P141K at K092. A new site of existing District 75 school, PSK141, 75K141, with PS92, Adrian Hedgeman, 17K092, in building K092 in the 2026-2027 school year. Next, the proposed reciting of Grade 3
of PS516, Sunset Park Avenues Elementary School, 15K516, from building K557 to building K333, and the opening and co-location of P372K at K333, a new site of District 75 school, PSK372, 75K372 With PS 516, Sunset Park Avenues Elementary School, 15K516 in
building K333 in the 2026, 2027 school year. And last, the proposed reciting of Brooklyn Brownstone School, 16K628 from building K35 to building K025, and co-location with Success Academy Charter School, Bed-Stuy 3, 84K83 in building K025 in the 2026, 2027 school year.
Great. Is there a motion to adopt the resolution? Is there a second? So it's been seconded and moved. I will now move to public discussion. Public conversation. Hear from the supes first or after the public comment? The- Superintendent. Oh, they wish to... Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Would any of the superintendents wish to offer comment? Good evening, PEP members and Chancellor Samuels. As Superintendent of District 15, my name is Rafael Alvarez. I strongly support this proposal as a thoughtful, student-centered approach to addressing both programmatic needs and equitable access to
higher quality learning environments. This plan not only optimizes the use of available spaces by more effectively distributing PS 516's grade configurations across two buildings, but also responds directly to a critical need for additional District 75 seats within our school community, district community. By creating the new District 75 site at K333, we're expanding opportunities for students with significant needs to receive specialized services closer to home, reducing travel burdens on families while ensuring access to appropriate supports.
At the same time, the co-location fosters meaningful opportunities for collaboration, inclusion, and shared resources, strengthening the overall educational experience for all students in District 15. This proposal reflects our commitment to equity, efficient resource utilization, and meeting the diverse needs of District 15 students and families. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening. My name is Dr. Keisha McCoy, and I am the superintendent of District 75. I am here tonight to speak in support of all proposed
D75 co-locations. Prior to this role, I proudly served as a principal for seven years, leading a school with six co-located buildings. I understand firsthand the importance of thoughtful planning, clear communication, and ensuring that every school community feels supported throughout the process. I have been made aware of concerns regarding a potential additional co-location at the Children's School 372K. I want to acknowledge those concerns and assure you that your
voices are heard and valued. Please know that we are here to support your school community. Our priority remains clear, ensuring that all students are safe, supported, and continue to receive high-quality instruction every single day. Principal Rosa Armata, her assistant principals, and support staff will continue the outstanding work that defines the Children's School. We are committed to working collaboratively and transparently
as we move forward. I sincerely thank you for your partnership and your continued dedication to our D75 children and this soaring school community. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Shaneen Lindsey, and I am the proud superintendent of Community School District 17. Yes. I want to express my strong support for welcoming District 75 schools, Sid Miller, 396K and 141K into District 17. This is an important opportunity to expand access and
resources for our students and families across the District 17 community. For too long, many of our students who need the specialized supports that District 75 provides have had to travel outside of the District 17 neighborhood to attend school. That travel can be exhausting for our children and difficult for families. Bringing District 75 programming into District 17 buildings means that more students will be able to access the services they need closer to home in the community where they live and belong.
This is more than about space. This is about equity, inclusion, and opportunity for our students. It is about ensuring that all children, including our students with the greatest needs, have access to high-quality support in a setting that is connected to their families and community. We are excited about the opportunity to partner once again with District 75 and to work together in service of all students. I strongly support this vote and what it represents for our children. Thank you for listening.
Thank you. Good evening, Chair Faulkner, PEP members, Chancellor Samuels. My name is Fabienne McIntosh, and I have the honor of being the superintendent of District 16. Yes. Yes. I am here tonight in support of the residing of the Brooklyn Brownstone from 16K35 to 16K25. This proposal is the result of deep, intentional engagement with our community and a commitment to making thoughtful, student-centered decisions. Over the past several months, we have engaged broadly, meeting with elected
officials, hosting community meetings with all three schools on the MS35 campus, engaging the broader District 16 community, conducting surveys, attending SLT meetings, and walking in the community to listen directly to families and stakeholders. We heard parent concerns and brought the appropriate partners to the table to address them. We listen closely to families, and most importantly, we approach this work with the focus on possibilities. What is possible for our students when we align our resources,
our spaces, and our collective effort. This residing allows us to better utilize space, align resources, and ensure that the Brooklyn Brownstone community has a learning environment that supports its growth and long-term success. It reflects our commitment to ensuring that all students in District 16 have access to high-quality, well-resourced learning environments. I want to thank Principal Brunner for his leadership, President McLean and CEC 16 for their partnership and
advocacy, and our colleagues at the Office of District Planning for their collaboration throughout this process. This is what it looks like when a district and a community listen, respond, and move forward together. I respectfully ask for your support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Deputy Superintendent John Banks from Brooklyn South High School, here on behalf of Superintendent Prayer. Here to speak about the merger proposal for the Canarsie campus. So first, I want to acknowledge our principals, Dr. Iris Garcia and Pauline O'Brien, whose leadership and
collaboration have made this proposal possible. Both leaders have recognized the urgency of this moment and have approached this work with a deep commitment to doing what is right for students. At the district level, we carry the responsibility to act with both compassion and integrity, ensuring that every student has access to a stable, high-quality academic experience. When enrollment declines to a level that limits programming, course access, and long-term viability, we must make difficult but necessary decisions in service of our students. This proposal ensures that students are in an environment where they can truly
thrive with greater access, stronger programming, and the full range of opportunities they deserve. For these reasons, we support this proposal. Thank you. I first also want to... Principal Alexander Brunner. Thanks. Yes, sir. Okay. Good evening, Chancellor Samuels and panel members, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. I am the principal of the Brooklyn Brownstone School. I am speaking tonight on behalf of the entire school community, our parents, our staff, and our students. Although they're not physically present, they are watching via livestream while attending our district-wide Black Choice Student
Showcase, where 40 of our students are drumming tonight. Yes. I have served Brownstone as principal for eight years after previously working in the District 16 superintendent's office, and before that, teaching at Brownstone for nine years. Over the past several months, as you heard from Superintendent McIntosh, we've carried out one of the most extensive engagement processes in our school's history. Over 15 dedicated meetings, four comprehensive surveys, two in-depth walkthroughs, and many individual family consultations with pupil transportation. These sessions included everyone, SLT, PTA,
UFT, all the acronyms, district planning, space planning, the superintendent's office, CEC 16, and many more. Through every step, we have centered community voice, listened carefully, and used that feedback to shape our planning and advocacy. Today, Brooklyn Brownstone School is operating at 125% capacity at the McDonough Campus, K035, even though we already have two classes at Lafayette Campus, K025. We remain over capacity while functioning as a single school split between two buildings.
That is not sustainable for scheduling, staffing, and program quality. As class size requirements phase in and we expand to move towards three sections per grade, staying in our current building will force additional conversions of specialty rooms into general classrooms. Next year, our dedicated music room would become a general classroom, placing music on a cart and ending instrument instruction. Over time, as all co-located schools in that campus face the same pressures, essential cluster spaces building-wide would shrink. We already lost the art room this year. We will lose the music room.
We will lose spaces for language and enrichment. We will lose the very things that make Brooklyn Brownstone School a destination for families and who we are.We cannot continue down this path. Lafayette Campus K-025 offers something fundamentally different, a right-sized home that gives us room to grow and room to thrive. If we re-site, our students will immediately gain access to a full, robust library. We currently have none. A dedicated dance studio, space for a fully equipped hydroponics lab, Spanish foreign language and world heritage classroom, dedicated art room,
a music room larger than our current space, a sensory classroom, multiple other cluster spaces, 61 less stairs to get to our main office and 18 more toilets. And if you work in education, you understand you need those things. These are not occasional privileges. These are stable, permanent components of a world-class elementary experience that our community deserves. This re-site does not change who we are. It gives us the physical environment that allows our mission to finally flourish. Some have shared concerns about protecting the culture, identity, and spirit of our
school. I'd like to speak to that directly. Our culture has never been rooted in brick and mortar, in the building. It has always been rooted in our people. Our teachers create the environment, our families shape the community, and our students bring life to every space. Our staff have shared openly that they will remain at Brownstone if we re-site. Nothing about our program will change if we move. I am unequivocally in favor of re-siting the Brooklyn Brownstone School to Lafayette Campus. This proposal protects and expands the arts, enrichment, and specialty programs that define our school.
It gives our students the dedicated space and learning environments they deserve and allows us to meet class size requirements without sacrificing program quality. This will position our school for sustainability and growth. This is not about changing the model, it's about finally giving that model the room it needs to thrive. Thank you, panel, for your consideration. To our families, staff, and community, I know this has been a very long process. Thank you for your candor, participation, and partnership throughout this process. Your insights have strengthened our planning and advocacy. I'm confident that if we move Brooklyn Brownstone School to Lafayette Campus,
we will broaden the possibilities for our students and secure a bright, sustainable future. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to also point out that we did receive a resolution from the local CEC in support of this move, so I want to highlight when the CECs take positions and comment on some of these important issues. I will now call the other speakers. Stephen Mintzer, Johanna Bjorkin, Qinxi Xu, sorry if I messed up the name. Naquan McLean, Erica Kendall. If you get down to the mic, you can begin. Good evening, everyone. My name is Naquan McLean.
I have the pleasure of serving as the CEC president for District 16. I want to thank the panel tonight and our chancellor, and to my fabulous superintendent, and I want to-- You heard from our principal, you heard from our superintendent, so I just want to talk about the experience real quickly. We had over 60 hours of a direct engagement with the CEC, weekly meetings with ODP, with the superintendent, the CEC, three members of the CEC team talking this through. We walked the district from the first school to the last school with our first deputy chancellor,
the former one, so we're going to be looking forward to walking with the new one. This engagement, I haven't seen engagement like this since Karen Goldmark was in district planning. We have really been able to really move this forward. Rebecca and her team, this is what it looks like. This is what it looks like. You don't see and you're not going to have no parents from here, from Brooklyn Brownstone or from our community complaining, because they all was engaged. We had community meetings, we had walkthroughs. We met with elected officials. We did a lot of work to make sure that this was
successful. Chair Faulkner already said we sent you a resolution that was passed unanimously on Monday night. We hope to hear the PEP say that Brooklyn Brownstone can get a new home. Thank you so much. Hi, everyone. My name is Qinxi Xu. I'm Mandarin speaking for the Mandarin English. Today, we don't have translator for me. I told you my superintendent always help me for the translator. This is our partnership in District 15, so I'm going to read. Just bear with me for a second because she has the statement about the Omni card that I just want to read for her as well as for the utilization, if that's
okay. Yeah, that would be- Just let him do it. I mean, it'll be later, though, right? How do you want to do it? Thank you. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. CEC 15 strongly supports the resolution in support of fair, free, and equitable access to public transportation for all New York City students. We have passed similar resolutions both this year and last year, and too many students are still not served equitably by the current system. While some students can access Omni cards, many still face barriers. Students who live more than half a mile from school or rely on yellow bus service often do not receive Omni cards.
Even when provided, four rides per day are often not enough to meet the varied needs of students and families. In addition, families face challenges such as a lack of transparency when cards are deactivated, limited availability of cards at school, and paper cards that are easily damaged. Consistent and reliable transportation access is essential to student success.Given Mayor Mandani's emphasis on equitable transportation, now is a critical moment to expand support for all students. We urge the PEP to vote yes on this resolution to ensure
that all students can reliably get to school and to their activities. Thank you. And then for the second part. CEC 15 would like to express our support for the school utilization proposal for K333. Our members have been in conversations with the school communities involved, including principals, parents, PTA, and SLT members, teachers and staff. And we believe this is a positive step that will support students and their families. We will continue to work closely with the schools to ensure that community questions are addressed, especially around accessibility and
program inclusion. We also appreciate Superintendent Alvarez's commitment to ensuring a thoughtful and smooth transition. Shé:shé. Thank you. Thank you. You can begin. Or whoever. Hello again. I'm going to speak on the three D75 co-locations. I'm going to be echoing what the superintendent said earlier. We know that we need these locations throughout Brooklyn, throughout New York City. I'm happy to see that there is one in 15 and two in 17 on this meeting. Hopefully, there are more in June across the borough. 15 is in absolute need
of seats. 17 will benefit greatly from these two co-locations. And I hope to see you all next month in May as we talk about more co-locations, because every single student needs to be served in the community they live in. Thank you. To my left. You can begin. Okay. Hello, I'm Johanna Bjorken, a woman of many hats. Right now, my hat is as a community member in Sunset Park who falls into the zone of PS 516 and was very proudly a member of the community that
rallied and got that school built. I am so enthusiastic about the proposal to merge PS 372 because, among other things, my child, when Sunset Park was too overcrowded for him to go to kindergarten in his neighborhood, attended PS 372. And I love the inclusion model. I am thrilled that the proposals tonight really take into account what the community needs, what the community is asking for, and looks at how the landscape of the
environment has changed. I adore PS 516 and the principal there. I am thrilled that we are opening seats for D75, which we have called for, for so long in our community, and thrilled that this is going ahead. So cheers. Floor is yours. You can begin. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Erica Kendall, and I am the president of the Community Education Council of District 17 in Central Brooklyn. Thank you. Thanks, y'all.
I am here to represent my community in expressing our collective support for both of these D75 programs in our schools and our gratitude for the expansion of special education resources in our district over the years. I have endless amounts of gratitude for Superintendent McCoy. That's my superintendent, Keisha. Y'all can call her that, though. For the years that she spent as a District 75 principal in D17 in our community meetings, helping us understand the importance of bringing these resources closer to home and the impact on not just the academic performance
of these students, but also their quality of life. None but the most jaded of us can spring into learning mode after a miserable hour-long commute on a stuffy bus, sometimes with no AC. Certainly not our little children with big needs. And of course, I must also express my gratitude to Superintendent Lindsay for putting up with me over the years. These proposals tonight are what we consider to be a first step, a foundational step for building responsive schools to helping us meet the moment that our community and
its children finds itself in here in D17. And as a community, in our conversations around our schools, when it comes to special education, we are all one band, one sound. We want this. And prior to the administration turnover, agency heads in the DOE had thoughtful conversations with my community about our needs, our goals and desires for our children in hopes that we could be supported in crafting those schools, even in the face of dwindling birth
rates, challenging enrollment, and other budget and money-related issues. And so we are thankful for this, but we consider this our moment to make sure that we remind you that we are looking forward to the next step in the journey of uplifting our children, our schools, and our community in ways that we have never been on the receiving end of before. Thank you. That is the end of the public comment sign-ups. Okay, thank you everyone. We'll now proceed to panel member comments. I'll begin with the panel members from the affected borough, and so Panel Member
CassarettI, and then Panel Member Hannah Jones. Thank you. Gail CassarettI, Brooklyn Borough President Appointee Um, I hope you'll all bear with me because I want to go proposal by proposal since these are all their own spec- Is that your way of telling me it won't be two minutes? Yes. Well, but in fairness, what I will ask you, if you can please, um- I will speak quickly ... make it as concise as you possibly can. I absolutely will, but I really want to value all of the successes that these communities have shown. Um, starting with my hometown, D15,
uh, Superintendent Alvarez, with his team, CEC15, they have demonstrated a strong long-term commitment to expanding D75 programming. Uh, efforts to foster inclusive welcoming environment are highly commendable. Um, this site is going to ensure that students with specialized needs who live in the surrounding communities are able to access education closer to home, um, rather than enduring, as we keep hearing, these
lengthy two-hour commutes. Um, when I was the president of CEC15, I had parents coming, crying, trying to understand why on Earth their children had to get on these buses for so long, and it took a long time, but we are there, and so I just want to thank the community and everybody who was involved. Um, D16, I mean, what else is there to say? You guys are superstars. You are leading the way in, um, community engagement, and you
have definitely created a replicable model. So, uh, just want to give an enormous shout-out, and I'm skipping over paragraphs here. Thank you. Um, D17, just want to elevate the commitment there as well for, um, bringing people together, creating exceptional spaces for equity, and ensuring that student-centered planning is happening, and that, um, we
can access high-quality programs closer to home for our students as well. Um, and then regarding the merger of Urban Action Academy and the High School for Medical Professionals, I think that this also reflects a really thoughtful and strategic approach to, um, strengthening opportunities for our students, and just want to talk for a second about the benefits of these larger, um, combined school communities.
So we know that more children equal more dollars overall, but it also brings a wider range of academic offerings, extracurricular activities, student supports, and more robust and sustainable learning environment. And I just want to call that out because as we're moving into looking at more mergers, I think this is really important to keep that, um, sort of top of mind. Uh, and really happy to know that the D75 inclusion program at that
campus will continue, um, in the merged school. Uh, and that one last thing about the D79 adult education programs, um, there was no negative impact to them as a result of this proposal, but in fact, they could use more space. And so if there's any way that space planning could maybe give them one or two more classrooms, that would really help the greater community and allow them to serve more, um, overage and adult students. So, thank you so much.
Thank you. Go Brooklyn. Thank you. Panel member, uh, Hannah Jones? Good evening, everyone. Uh, my sermon is not long. I'm saving it for the end of this, uh, this meeting. Uh, is Brooklyn in the house? Oh, man. Come on, man. Is Brooklyn in the house? All right. Okay. All right. Um, first off, I just want to thank everyone and all the engagement that's occurred, uh, to all our districts. I got a chance to meet, uh, Superintendent Alvarez. Um, uh, shout out to District 15, 16, 17, and our D75 schools. I'm in complete support
of the, uh, proposals, and you will get a yes from me. Um, me and Camille have been kind of double teaming and, uh, trying to hit all of the districts in terms of listening to all of the community, and, um, I'm here to say I'm also reminded of something that, um, uh, my fellow PEP member, Rima, has said, is that there is a big difference between special needs and disabilities. And, um, I want to say that in terms of accessibility, our
students need the very best, and, uh, we will make sure that that happens for you. So, um, just letting you know that I am in support, and, uh, thank you very much. Thank you very much, panel members. I realize that there are panel members who actually live in Brooklyn, although they don't represent Brooklyn on the panel, so that's why we allow... Hold it. Don't do it. You know. That's why we allow the panel members to speak first. But I will offer an opportunity for those of you who claim residence in Brooklyn and feel compelled to speak on this particular item.
Um, panel me- Heartbreaker. Okay. Panel Member Sapp. Hello, good evening. I'm born and raised in the streets of Brooklyn. I'm only teasing. I bring a little humor today because I can, and a little gratitude because I'm a former paraplegic, and I had a five-and-a-half-inch spinal cord tumor that was removed, and the prognosis was horrible. And I get a chance to stand and to say,
17 years later, still having residual effects of that, and when I look outside on the coldest days, and I look outside on some of the most painful days, and those are the days I prayed for 17 years ago. And I just wanted to say that people often say, "Oh, you're always so chipper." Because I prayed for those days just to be able to... Look at here. Life is hard, but I'd rather do it on two legs. I'd rather do it in the land of the walking, or what
people call ambulating, or the population that is typically using both legs. Both legs is not a given. Some illnesses, you can look at your legs, and your legs are looking at you, and your legs are asking you, "What you want for dinner?" Because they don't understand what it is that you're saying. So I say that in gratitude of take advantage, full advantage of your faculties, your ability to sit in a chair. It took me five years to sit.
And I practice at it. So I know we show up, and we have a lot of things on the agenda, and there's a lot of tension, and there's good trouble, and there's duality, and there's dynamics, but trust me, it's a really good space to be in when you can show up, when you can walk to your appointments, and you can sit down in an auditorium, because it's not a given for everyone. And for people who cannot come out because of mobility
issues, I do think about them, and just because they're not here physically doesn't mean that they are less engaged. So I just spoke from my heart today. That wasn't scripted or anything, and I just wanted to just let everybody know, like I let people know on public buses , speak into your faculties. Speak into your legs, if they function. Say, "Thank you, legs." They may be a little ashy, a little dusty, a little rusty, may have varicose veins and all this other type of stuff, but let me tell you, your legs got you from point A to point B.
So I just wanted to just signal that. Take care of yourself, take care of your health. Thank you. Okay. Brooklyn panel members who might want to comment? Oh, is there anyone? Did I see any hands? Panel Member Giordano? So I didn't want to steal Yadira's thunder, but Sunset Park was part of my home, and my dad was a teacher at Erasmus guys 371 for 25 years. My sister runs an after-school program- Panel member, you are off topic ... 94. No, no. Clearly off topic. I was going to come full circle how the DOE- Yeah, but we're... Come on ... 372- We asked the public to stay on topic, and now you're talking about memory lane here
... 372- Complete your statement. The 372/516 is really an indication of how the DOE responded to the community. Okay. Five seventy two is the school called The Castle School. That was a building that the community tried to save for 40 years, unsuccessfully, and it was under Principal Jennifer Knudsen. It's been turned into a magnificent school, and I think this move is the culmination of that work, and it's really, really important and really meant a lot, and it really was the DOE at the highest level
listening to the community and think something that should really be held up, and they're doing a terrific job at that school. So thank you, Chair- Thank you, panel member ... for allowing this now Manhattanite- Okay ... former Brooklynite to jump on the mic. Hey, the Bronx. Wait till next month. Any other comments? Are we ready for the question? I don't see any other hands. Let's proceed to a vote. Feels unanimous, you know? Well, so based on the enthusiasm with which these proposals were presented, I would be happy to entertain a motion for unanimous consent on the adoption of all proposals. Panel Member Cassareddy?
Is there a second to the motion for unanimous consent on all the Brooklyn proposals? Hearing no objection to unanimous consent, it is so ordered. The proposals are adopted. Congratulations. I will say to all involved, to the superintendents, to the leadership, when the panel takes that kind of a step, especially on these kinds of questions, and approves them with unanimous consent, that really says that the work and all the I's have been dotted, and as has been alluded to, and so we appreciate it, and thank you for the work that you've done in bringing this to the panel. Thank you very much. And hope it'll carry over until next month.
Okay, we have several panel resolutions that we'll now move into. I would like to say a word before we actually move into consideration of panel resolutions. We have been receiving a number of CEC resolutions, and I want to encourage that. I think that CECs have begun sending us the resolutions, and I want to encourage the CECsTo continue to do that, I also want to highlight a few that we received that I think ought to be given some further research by the panel. One of them came from CEC 26, and they came up with some very interesting proposals regarding
the future of school governance. I'm actually going to refer that to our chair of engagement, Naveed Hassan, and ask you to take a look at it. I'll get you a copy of it, but it did go out to the entire panel. And to go-- Oh, wait. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. He's passing it over to you, so yeah. There was another one that several CEC 2 and CEC 26 raised an issue around early voting, and the concern was that some of our schools are being used as early voting sites, and we're concerned about the security, and I want to move that one forward also, and ask the panel to come back and take a look at it and see whether that's
something that we ought to take a look at. The other was one we actually had an opportunity to follow up on. CEC 22 presented a resolution asking that there be a fresh look at how we define instructional space. One of the concerns was that when it comes to providing air conditioning and other support, that that often will not go into a gym or an auditorium. It only goes to instructional space. There's a history in that. We did, thanks to our chair of- Utilization committee ... utilization committee. I'm having a moment. I want to thank you for allowing us. We had the representative from school construction, and we did
have some discussion at the meeting on that. So, I want to encourage the CECs to send us those resolutions, and in this case, it was really fortuitous because we had an opportunity to present and raise that concern with the president of the School Construction Authority. So, if you haven't been sending them, send more. We've actually dedicated a site which we'll put out, where you can send your resolutions. If you want to send them to me directly, you can also send them to me directly. We'll put that email that I've created so that you can also send those resolutions to us directly, and we want to follow up on those things. Actually, we should've been doing this a long time ago.
We're doing it now. So I encourage CECs to continue to send resolutions to the panel for consideration. Yes, panel member Castoredi. I just wanted to add something to what you were talking about regarding the air conditioning resolution. I think that most CECs were trying to just ensure that air conditioning was going to be provided in common areas. And because of their advocacy, whether the language was right or not, the Senate and Assembly actually have a bill right now establishing a school air conditioning system grant, so
that's Bill S178 and A2717. And I think in your advocacy, families, for trying to move this needle forward, please call your senators and assembly people and ask them to co-sponsor and pass that bill so that we can get more money in the system to ensure that our schools are getting air conditioning in common areas. Yep, and I saw panel member Hassan start making some moves there, so we'll follow
up on that and maybe present something at next month's panel meeting in that regard. Again, this is important that we establish and strengthen those communication bonds between the CEC and the panel. And so what I'm going to ask is that the borough representatives, the elected borough representatives, if there are resolutions that are taking place in your borough, or CEC is doing a resolution, please bring those forward to the panel. And if you feel that it's a resolution that we should actually formally endorse, please bring those to the panel and present any resolutions. In fact, in that spirit, I'll ask if there are any
comments from borough representatives regarding items that you think the panel ought to be made aware of that are happening with the CECs. Just- Gentleman ... broadly speaking, we would love to be informed when the DOE receives CEC resolutions. We don't always find- Yeah ... out until much later. So if you could let us know, there's a lot of CECs- Sure ... and lots of resolutions. Thank you. Vice Chancellor? Yes. Yes, sure. That's something that we've certainly been discussing, and we're trying to figure out the best ways to make sure that we keep you guys updated on those. Sure. Yes, Admiral Escano? And I'd like to expand that to include the president's councils, the
DPACs. Anybody that's writing a resolution for us should have access to us receiving it. I've received multiple complaints, and I'd love to go back to October when we were having the conversation about the bus contracts, which are still not registered, by the way, so we had time to fix them. We had 10, 15 resolutions from presidents councils, from SEPAC, from CECs, and we didn't receive any of them. All we received was one letter from a lobbyer asking us to pass the contract. But our communities couldn't access us, and there
are multiple touch points within the emails- Yep ... that are provided by DOE. So I would love if we either streamlined it to one email that we provided or that those emails then be opened up to access, like the panel email, that the panel members could have access to that, that the resolutions email not only be restricted to FACE, but to the panel as well- Yeah ... so that we can create a better system where we're catching more of the community engagement. Because they work really hard on those resolutions, and they- Wonderful ... they fight, and they love, and they do all the things.
Blood, sweat, and tears go into those conversations before they end up with a final version, and they try really hard to get them here before we vote We're going to fix that. We're going to make sure that these resolutions are provided, and more importantly, that we're listening to them and we're taking action on those resolutions when it's appropriate. And, I've already had this conversation with our staff, with Noah and Simon. We've already discussed this. We are dedicating a space where those resolutions can be sent into us. But I'm also, an additional set of eyes, I'm also encouraging the borough representatives. If there are things happening within the
CECs that maybe it doesn't necessarily arrive at a resolution, but something that we should be aware of as a panel, we'll allocate time in the meeting so that you folks can come to us and say, "This is what's happening in CEC five or 10 or where have you, and we want to bring that forward to the panel." And we can discuss it offline, but I think we need to really reconnect or connect, more importantly with the local CECs and with the other bodies that you've mentioned as well. Panel member Holman. Until the technology piece is fixed, because I know- Say it louder.
Until the technology piece is, they work it out, because I know there are going to be security issues about accessing mailboxes and stuff. But what I do is to be on their mailing list, so I will get the agenda and the potential resolutions, and once they do pass, I will get it again. Right. So I think for us, we can sign up to at least our borough's CECs so we can get that information. Because whoever's on the mailing list is going to get those resolutions. Yes. I think we use whatever means is necessary and possible for us to get
communication. I was not going to use it, but I actually, to send them directly to me, set up an email dedicated to receiving CEC resolutions. It is pepchairgreg@yahoo. Send it to me. Yeah, well, don't comment. No. But, why is that? Does that date me or something? It's AOL. I mean, it would've been AOL. I'm sorry. I'm not tech-savvy. That's it. But hey, the point is, it'll work and it'll get me the information until we actually do exactly what you're saying and we update it so that we can really
get a more robust way of receiving those documents. So, it's really important. And importantly, we were able to take action. That the resolution came in regarding space and air conditioning right at the moment that we were inviting the president of the School Construction Authority to a meeting, so we were able to address it directly at that meeting. And I think we want to take advantage of more of those opportunities. So to the members of the public out there, the CEC folks who are listening, please find a way, get the resolutions to us.
We read them, we will take action, we will bring them forward, and we will make sure, especially those that are timely, that they get the attention that they deserve. And so let's sort of hit the reset button and move forward and talk about finding ways of making sure that we're getting that communication out there. So now we've got a number of panel member... Yes, I'm sorry. Panel member Alicea. Good evening, everyone. Adriana Alicea, she/her, here for Queens CECs. I would also like to encourage the CECs, if you have committees or subcommittees, please invite all of us or at least your CEC representatives to those meetings.
I know my home district has a very collaborative, and very well-attended class size committee. That's District 28, whoop-whoop. But I know that there are other districts that have similar committees, or even for your Title I meetings, et cetera. I know that the lady next to me is like a Title I expert, so if you invite her, you can show off your skills. But please invite us to your meetings. We're interested in what's happening in our communities. Thank you. I can already feel the resolutions coming. They're already- See ... putting them in the mailbox, so great. Let's move to panel member resolutions. That's the next item on the agenda, and I'll turn to Secretary Nathan to
present the first resolution. The resolution up for approval is entitled Resolution to Strengthen Educational Continuity and Equity for Incarcerated Youth. Is there a motion to adopt this resolution? So moved. It's been moved and seconded. I want to offer panel member Cassaratti, who's the author of the resolution, an opportunity to speak first. Thank you so much. So as you all know, I have an interest in identifying persistent gaps. Yeah, you do know. In educational access, and this is a big one. One that isn't really
talked about that much. And I've been studying the outcomes and root causes of this particular population for a number of years. And with the help and advice of District 79, I feel that together we can help close this gap. And so the resolution is a request that New York State change their regulations and laws surrounding the education of incarcerated youth. This document reflects a critical and overdue commitment to ensure equitable, high-quality
education opportunities for justice-involved youth across the city and New York State. So long story short, many of these children are entering the system under-credited with trauma, unmet special education needs, language barriers, and other challenges that make access to education during incarceration even more essential for them. In the beginning of their placement, the first few days are criticalFor them
understanding the process of how to continue their education while incarcerated. And so the reforms and suggestions in this resolution are not only legally but ethically necessary. They are proven strategies to improve educational attainment, reduce recidivism, and support successful reintegration into the community. And so by implementing these measures, New York State can ensure that all young people in correctional facilities have the opportunity to
achieve academic success and long-term stability. I believe this resolution embodies the panel's commitment to educational equity, rights-based services, and meaningful opportunities for every student in the city and across the state. And I really want to thank those who co-sponsored and supported my work in this. I appreciate you all. Thank you so much. And I want to thank you for your leadership in this area. Just even from your first moments on the panel, this was something that we discussed. Our first conversation. Yes.
Yeah, at the first conversation, we talked about this. And let me say the importance of this. There's tons of research that demonstrate if a young person or a person leaves incarceration with a high school diploma, the chances of that person re-offending and going back into the system reduce dramatically. And I think it's no accident that when they commissioned this study, it was a study done by the Rand Corporation, shortly after releasing this study, about some time ago, the state eliminated the option to go to college or go to school for kids. And I think that the timing was really interesting that at the
time that we showed that it could keep our folks from being engaged in that system just by simply having a person complete an education, we took away the right of incarcerated individuals to complete their education. So I think that the New York City Board of Education would be sending a really powerful message in adopting this kind of a resolution. So again, I want to thank you for your leadership in putting this forward. Thank you. Are there any other panel member comments? We have one public speaker. Oh, I'm sorry. I jumped ahead. I'm sorry. Yes.
Tom Shepherd. Come in. I can cut Tom off, he won't mind. Tom won't mind. That has to be rewritten as a memorandum. Good evening, Chair Faulkner. I'm here in support of this resolution. That said, I do need to make a few points. One, if we have to create a resolution urging this system to make sure that more than 15% of our incarcerated children having access to an education, we already failed them. If we do not actively dismantle the root causes that makes this resolution necessary, if we don't actively dismantle the
persistent racism and xenophobia and all of the things that serve as barriers to an education for our children, we've already failed them. And we don't put our money where our mouth is, right? We can sit back and pass resolutions all day, but I had a four-hour conversation with a CEC member, Reverend Thompson, from District 8, and we talked about this, and a resolution without resolve, a resolution without action, doesn't mean anything. It is,
for lack of better words, like us trying to clear our conscience of something that we know is wrong. So what I am urging you to do is not just pass this resolution. What I'm urging you to do is when budgets come up in front of you that do not fund learning-to-work programs, that do not fund actually giving our incarcerated students an education, then the same energy that you put into approving this resolution, you have to also put into saying no to a budget that does not include that. Because actions do speak louder than words.
And one of the things that we are all kind of stuck with is the fact that we all got a lot to say, but systems don't change, and we need those systems to change. So I support this resolution, but I also urge you to go over this budget with a fine-tooth comb. Programs that have been eliminated, like learning to work, and other programs that support our incarcerated students or our students that are overage and under-credited, have the courage to say this is unacceptable unless these things are included in the budget. Thank you.
Sure. Thank you for your comment. Back to you, Chair Faulkner. Okay. Are there any panel members who wish to comment? Yes. Yes, Panel Member Panner Jones? Hello again. I absolutely agree with what Mr. Shepherd just said. I think a lot of times the DOE is typically more worried about optics than they are getting to moral solutions, which is why we're here. I think a lot of that autonomy needs to be given back to our local parent leaders and
organizations. There are so many elements within our schools and our districts, and particularly students that are within the high poverty indexUm, who attend schools who don't necessarily get the type of academic elevation for them to be confident in their learning. My daughter was one of them. Now, sitting before you is the former superintendent of District 13 who sat with me and my
wife talking about cohorts that their reading not being assessed. And at that time, we were doing everything possible to ensure that those children got that justice. I want to thank Ms. Casarelli Reddy for this resolution. There's a documentary called "The Alabama Solution" it won a Oscar that I encourage you to watch. There's also a book by Douglas Blackmon called "Slavery by Another Name."
We all know that our African American men and women, our children, and citizens that have disabilities, that are hearing impaired, that also have other disabilities that are in prison, are not being educated. The moral issue here is that our public school system is not doing their job in ensuring that in a lot of our marginalized communities, that we have instruction that is worthy of our approval, and that we have school leaders that are in these areas that have the knowhow to hire educators, hire
administrators, hiring the best individuals to be able to provide our children the best education. We all know that science proves that they build prisons based on third and eighth-grade reading skills. And I myself have witnessed cohorts that weren't assessed since first grade. My child was one of them. And where are those cohorts now? Some of them have fallen into the prison system. And so we have a job to do to honor the
dead and not just fill the gap, the dead. If we're going to be in these positions, we have to be bold about the initiatives about making sure that our children, whether they are incarcerated and also in our high poverty index areas, that they are given the best. And we have to take those bold statements, not because it's a political thing to do, because it's the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do. We cannot call ourselves Christians, we cannot call ourselves Muslims, we cannot call ourselves in any denomination of
religion to be our best selves if our children and our students, even our older students, are not being educated morally. And so I want this resolution to pass, not just because it's just the best thing to do, but because this is a step forward in a moral direction. And, I'll end it with that. Thank you. Thank you very much, Panama. You know, ironically, I was going to announce this earlier, Panama Hannan Jones is now chair of our Contracts Committee. Yeah. So I'm sure that as we present contracts and we present these things, you'll review to make sure that
we are clear that, there was at one point a contract, I think early on, where panel members were uncomfortable regarding certain supplies that were being produced by inmates, CoreCraft. And, so when those kind of things come up and they show up in a contract, you and your committee, I'm sure with some of the people who've spoken already, will flag those for the panel and say that this is something that really doesn't support a direction that this panel is interested in going. So I appreciate it. One more thing. Yeah, very quickly. Also, I just want to talk about that our Board of Education
retirement system, we are currently working on having them divest in our prison system. Again, please watch that documentary, "The Alabama Solution." We all know that a lot of these private prison systems get their money by how many Black and Black males and Black women that are being locked up in prison. So we have a problem, especially under this Trump administration. And this is happening before the Trump administration. So we have a job to do. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you. Any other panel member wish to comment? Just one quick mic? Yeah. Okay, so focus. Okay. So this ecosystem is hugely important. And I think as parents and the advocacy that needs to happen and the conversation we need to have with our kids, is crucial around how these companies do work together. And it's an ongoing issue because what happens is you have
Black and brown children, particularly African American boys, it becomes white noise that we really have this high-risk population that has been targeted to fulfill the ecosystems of prisons and the things that collectively work together to make sure that this product does not change. I'm even-Personally having to deal with the narrative around chronic
lateness, and when you're talking about Black boys, you can't have language that creates disengagement. If you're labeled, disengaged, that is a consequence when you're already a Black male. So currently, I am fighting against what is considered chronically absent, and does it mean that you are disengaged? Look, life after COVID, no one has to tell you how horrific it is. And we have to understand that sometimes our children
need mental health days. They're dealing with... If you have any high schoolers, you do understand that you already have some high school students that have been in and out of drug rehab centers. You're dealing with mental illness. This is real talk. And so, a dentist appointment should not put you on a chronic absent list. To take care of your mental and your physical, emotional health should not be considered a problem. You should not be labeled chronically absent. So again, I'm dealing with
that right now. It may just be a change in language, but do understand that there's certain people, particularly Black males and Black females, that once you start giving these labels, then it signals other labels. That may be a paradigm that other people don't have to deal with as much, but I see the setup, and so I have to know better and I have to examine these things. And when it starts hitting home, we're going to really stay diligent, like I do with other children. So we have to be aware of what these words and these
labels signal when it comes time to this matter. It's every day. We have to stay on it. It's not okay. Kids need to have time to collectively understand who they are without saying, "Oh, you missed a certain amount of days in school, that means that you're disengaged." No, it doesn't. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, let's proceed to a vote on the resolution. When I call your name. By the way, if anybody would be interested in unanimous consent. Unanimous. Okay. It's been moved and seconded that this resolution should be adopted by
unanimous consent. Is there any objection to unanimous consent? Hearing no objection to unanimous consent, the resolution is adopted. Congratulations, panel member. Thanks. Dr. Adams. Hey, hey. Next resolution. The next resolution up for approval is entitled Resolution in Support of Fair, Free, and Equitable Public Transit for All NYC Students. Is there a motion to adopt the resolution? It's been moved and seconded that the resolution should be adopted. We'll now move to public comment. Okay. The speakers. People have signed up to speak. Jay Brown. And you can make your way down to the microphone when I call your name.
Juniper Wang, Katie Nardi, Oliver Kackler, August Hoyt. You may speak on my right. You can start. Good evening. I'm Jay Brown, president of CEC 21. Normally, I'd say right now that I am speaking on my own behalf, but I can confidently say that I know I'm speaking on behalf of our entire council, because back in January, we passed a resolution that closely mirrors this resolution before you tonight. That came a month after students from the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee, high school
students from New York City public schools, presented to our CEC. And I will say that they didn't just provide a great presentation for high school students, they provided one of the most amazing presentations we have ever seen. They were amazing advocates, as are the student panelists here tonight, the student speakers here tonight. They answered all our questions that we peppered them with, and we're just really glad to support their efforts in this. When we have 160,000 K to eight
students in afterschool programs, many more in extracurriculars of all sorts and working after their school day ends. Over 150,000 students experiencing homelessness, and OPT Yellow School Bus service often failing our families. It is clear that the student Omni card program needs to be universally expanded. The deactivation issue must be resolved, cards must be made more durable, and delays in schools receiving replacement cards must be corrected.
The DOE response that we received to our resolution at CEC 21 was lacking. It simply stated what the current program is, and though we can appreciate that this is a partnership with the MTA and there are budget hurdles, the concerns about problems that need fixing were not addressed at all. So we greatly appreciate the panel considering this tonight. I urge the panelists to vote in the affirmative on this resolution. Thank you, panelists, Chancellor, and Chair. You may speak Good evening, Panel for Educational Policy and Chancellor Samuels.
I'm Juniper Wang, a junior at LaGuardia High School and member of the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee. We believe all New York City students should have access to affordable public transportation that is easy to access without barriers. Over the past year, our Expand Student Omni campaign has done extensive outreach and research around student Omni issues. We have met with relevant stakeholders from the Office of Pupil Transportation and MTA, as well as students and parents. We have presented to numerous CECs and received supportive resolutions from 10 CECs and CCHS in support of expanding the Student Omni program and addressing issues with the system.
While Student Omni cards bring significant improvements compared to the Student MetroCard, many issues exist with the logistics of getting a card replaced. If a student loses or damages their card, they likely face wait times of two or more weeks before getting a replacement. This forces them to pay out of pocket or fare evade and risk the consequences. No student should ever have to make these decisions. Students should be able to get a new card on the same day they request one, and OPT should work to improve the logistics of fulfillment for replacement cards. Students need transportation daily and should not face challenges for weeks at a time just to get to school. According to our survey data,
70% of 350 students said they were not able to get a new card on the same day they requested one. This school year, we were told by OPT that they've increased the threshold ATS uses to replenish card supply, but it hasn't solved the issue. Just yesterday, I heard from a friend that my school is currently out of cards. They were asked to leave their name on a long list of people also waiting for new cards. Personally, when my card was damaged, I had to wait three weeks to get a replacement card. There was no indication of when a new shipment of cards was going to arrive, and when it finally did arrive, it had been multiple weeks and multiple trips to the office. And this was just to get the same flimsy paper card that would eventually be
damaged again. If Student Omni cards weren't made out of paper, there would be a decreased need to replace them so often. OPT has the power to negotiate a contract with MTA for more durable cards next school year. Additionally, the MTA is ready for the rollout of virtual Student Omni cards, and we hope OPT will avoid delays in making it available for students who choose to use it. Students deserve more reliable and durable cards that are easy to replace and alternatives that eliminate friction with the system. I fully support the resolution to make public transit free and equitable for all New York City students and implore the panel to vote affirmatively. Thank you.
You can begin. Good evening. My name is Kai Dinardi. I'm a freshman at LaGuardia High School and a member of the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee. I'm here to support this resolution because the restrictions on eligibility for Student Omni card is making it harder for my peers to move around the city and access many opportunities. Students living too close to the school or using the yellow bus don't get access to Omni cards. When I was in middle school, I narrowly qualified for the Student MetroCard. Despite not using it to get to and from school, the ability to take transportation for free has really improved my life. I used my MetroCard to go to art classes in Manhattan, which helped me get into the
fine arts program at LaGuardia, and even the ability to stand in front of you today. But this privilege is something a lot of students aren't given simply because they live less than half a mile from their school or take the school bus. These are objectively arbitrary things that shouldn't deter our independence. If I had lived a little closer to my school, suddenly a lot of the things I do now wouldn't be possible simply because it would cost too much to get there. With the current price of transportation, going to and from an after-school activity three times a week would cost $72 out of pocket, money that students with Omni cards would not have to spend.
According to the New York City School's data, 73.5% of students who attend New York schools are considered economically disadvantaged, and an extra 70-plus dollars a month is simply not possible for families. They should not be expected to pay that much for something so important to our growth and enrichment. A lot of the things that colleges and jobs look for are things that we do outside of the school. This difference gives students who can't afford transit a disadvantage, reinforcing an already existing wealth gap. I implore New York City schools to make the necessary policy changes that would ensure all students receive Student Omni cards in the upcoming school year.
A great place to start is updating the Chancellor Regulation A801, which hasn't been updated since 2000, longer than I have been alive and attending New York City schools. We need to make sure that Student Omni programs include all students so we can access opportunities without worrying about if we can afford them. Thank you. You may begin. You may start. Hi, my name is Oliver Koechler. I'm a high school senior at School Without Walls and also a member of the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee. I'm here to speak today in support of unlimited rides on Student Omni cards instead of the current limit of four rides per day. Four rides a day may sound like a lot, but it's not at all sufficient for students'
needs. I use up my four rides multiple times a week to go to after-school clubs and activities. I'm in the photography club at my school, and we often end up traveling all over the city. It's fun, but most of the time, I do end up using all of my rides before the day is done. Then I don't have rides left for things I need to do after it, like going out to help my grandparents with chores or even just to get home. This definitely isn't just a problem for me either. In a survey we gave to nearly 400 students, 87% of them said that four rides a day was not enough. I am also in a privileged situation, though. I have a regular Omni card that I can use when I
inevitably exceed my daily ride cap, but many students don't have one. These students are limited by where they can go and might give up opportunities because of the cost of transportation or the risk of committing fare evasion Multiple other cities in the US such sure as Seattle, San Francisco, DC, and LA already provide students with unlimited rides. It is very possible for New York to also do it, and that is something that this resolution calls for, so please vote for it. Thank you. Thank you. Test. Hello, and good evening to the Panel for Educational Policy. I'm August Twaid, a sophomore at Bard High School, Manhattan, and a member of the
Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee. We are a group of teens who advocate for better public transportation options for New York City students, and we are doing that through our Expand Student Omni campaign. Over the past year, we've gathered over 305 petition signatures and surveyed over 400 students about their Student Omni experience. I'm here today to express my support for the resolution in support of fair, free, and equitable public transit for all New York City students, and in particular, to express the concerns of both myself and many of my peers surrounding the deactivations of Student Omni cards, something which is addressed in this
resolution. It is not an uncommon occurrence for Student Omni cards to suddenly not work, leaving students without a means of riding the subway or bus, and either resulting in fare evasion or students being forced to pay out of pocket. I've personally had my Student Omni card stop working over a half dozen times since they were first distributed over a year and a half ago, as have many of my peers. My card will also often decline at the turnstile before working again the next day. However, there is virtually zero clarity from the DOE regarding these situations, with no way of knowing if the card was permanently deactivated or simply damaged. There should be increased transparency built into the
system so students aren't suddenly left without access to transportation. School transportation coordinators and the MTA have stated that only OPT has the power to deactivate Student Omni cards. When this lack of clarity and lack of a procedure for how students' cards are deactivated predictably results in fare evasion, it puts students, and particularly students of color, at risk of confrontations with law enforcement. Please vote in support of this resolution and make sure the DOE provides fair communication surrounding how often and why students' Omni cards are deactivated. Thank you. Thank you very much. If the students who testified, I think most of you were from LaGuardia, if you
could leave us information, I think your school principal would like to know that you guys came out and did a really great job testifying before the panel. And so if we can get that information before you guys leave, that'd be appreciated. Okay, we'll now move to... Oh, I'm sorry. There are other speakers who have signed up. Steven Mahoney, Johanna Bjorkin. We did that one already. And Latisha Thompson. Good evening. My name's Steven Mahoney, and I am the District 75 parent representative for CEC 20, which we're in tonight. We're in CEC 20. Welcome to Brooklyn. Welcome to our Community Education Council number 20.
I also have a 10-year-old son in a District 75 school, and he takes the bus over an hour to get to school because he doesn't live less than half a mile. Why the bus? He takes the bus because the way the DOE has set up education of our District 75 children, the vast majority go into co-located schools, not standalone schools. I live right up the block, Center Street. There are nine schools within a half a mile. One of them is a District 75 school. They recently added a second one. It's going K to two.
It's a 231 site. I believe that the DOE is failing to comply with the Individuals with Disability Education Act. Every child has the right to be educated within their community. This is something also to give them an educational opportunity. So this law, I feel the DOE is in noncompliance with. As far as the educational opportunity for our District 75 children to go to the Intrepid Museum, the Museum of Art, the same thing like our general education students that
live more than a half a mile away. Our general education students that can walk five blocks to a junior high school, that means they don't get a card. Meanwhile, the children that go to Christa McAuliffe, where my daughter went to, she gets that card. This is your gifted and talented program. So the kids at the high end of that spectrum, they get additional boost up. But if you walk three blocks to junior high school, you're left out of it. And a lot of those children left out are from a Black and brown community in these neighborhoods because they don't qualify for that. You got children, a B-minus, a C-plus. These are good kids.
They got to level the playing field and have this program. When I went to school, we had a free lunch program. Reduced lunch was 25 cents. Full price was 55 cents. Okay. They just started the breakfast program. A big glazed donut, hot chocolate, and a juice. The dieticians would fall off their chair if they saw that now. But we did away with that because we feed all our children. Well, the same way we feed our children's bellies, let's feed all of our children's minds. Let's take a look at the
IDEA. Let's look at that federal law, because they're in noncompliance with our disabled children, and our general ed children also deserve that same right. Thank you. Don't touch it. Good evening, everyone. Reverend Latisha Thompson. Proud Bronx born and bred Shout out to everyone who is acknowledging Physical Disability Awareness Month. And this is my son's Omni card. One of my sons is calling me right now. This is my son's Omni card. It doesn't work.
And when it's raining, when it's cold, and when he has to go to basketball practice, and when he wants to be independent a little bit, he can't use it. And so when we go and ask for a new one, they don't have any more. And this is a problem because at the train stations and on the buses, there are MTA agents waiting for those who are evading fare. And the problem is that some of our babies, they don't necessarily look like babies.
And some of our babies have beards, and some of them are six feet tall. I have a seventh grader who is six foot two. And this is a problem that we can easily resolve, because if you make sure that they don't give us these little flimsy paper Omni cards and give us the big people hard plastic Omni cards, we won't have to worry about it. Because if they get one, all we have to do is activate and deactivate. All we have to do is update them. That was the whole purpose of Omni, right? Is to replace paper with plastic.
And so I know you're going to do the right thing, because you've been doing the right thing lately. You've been voting for stuff that the community is asking you to vote for. And so, I know you're going to do the right thing today, and I know you're going to ask not just to expedite replacements, but to give our children the hard plastic cards. Put a little investment into something that's going to last. Thank you so much for your time. Hello, Pep. It's me again. This time I am wearing the hat of the...
And here on behalf of the SLT for my son's school, the Urban Assembly Maker Academy, which has wanted me to fully endorse this resolution. I'll keep it short. The students and everybody else said it clearly, but MetroCards has been on our agenda every single month this year because of the problems that we have replacing lost MetroCards. It went from six weeks to four weeks, but still we are
out, and when the students are out, they don't come to school. One of our student members told us how, when her MetroCard didn't work, she stood in front of the turnstile and said, "Do I jump it or do I turn around and skip school?" And this is a student leader in our school. We have to do better for our students, and we have to do better for our city. That's the point. That is the end of the public sign-up. Okay, great. Yes, Mr. Shepherd? I can't hear you.
You did? Oh. You're just- You did? Yeah. Okay. You're just showing up as to the other one, but sure. Be quick. You know. Good evening, Chair Faulkner. So of course our young people need Omni cards. Of course, they need cards that aren't going to fall apart. Of course, they need to get to and from school. We're not debating that, right? I think what the question that we are saying here is without them, they are unprotected, right? Without them, they can't just get on the 12 bus in the Bronx, right, the blue one, the limited one,
without the cops coming in the back and pulling them off. Right? So the purpose here is to make sure that our kids have these Omni cards, that they have access to buses, that they have access to trains, that they do not have to interact with law enforcement just to get to and from school, or after-school programs, or sports, et cetera. Right? So there's no argument there. I think that passing this resolution says that we acknowledge it,
and we have to fix it. So again, like I said in my previous comments, resolutions are great, but action is better. And if we are going to pass a resolution that says that our young people need access to Omni cards, then that has to be followed and connected with action that makes sure that our young people can get to and from school with no problem, that they can get to and from after-school programming and sports with no problem, right? That they can move around the city with no problem, right? And the only other thing I want to add to that is we have Omni
cards, but we also have 520 miles of coastline in New York City, right? And last year, my son went to the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, had to take the ferry every day. And if you add that up, I can tell you what it costs. Costs me $9 a day to get him back and forth to school.So while we're having conversations about Omni cards, we need to make sure that transportation in this city, public transportation in this city, is free and accessible to all of our young people. That there's no time limit on it,
that they can travel and move freely in this city. So if we can do that part, if we can get that right, the resolution is a good first step. But if we can get to that part, then we're doing right by our young people. Thank you. There are no other public speakers signed in. Okay, thank you. And I want to thank all the public speakers. Before I open up for panel member comments, I want to recognize Panel Member Shirley Altman, who is the author and the leader in this and has really done all the work in putting this together. So Panel Member Altman, I want to recognize you first for your work in doing this, and then I wanted to offer you the opportunity to offer any comments
you might want to make. So, thank you so much. I'm going to thank the Transportation Alternative Youth Committee, because the resolution was mostly based on their petition. So everybody here, please sign their petition as well. And I also want to acknowledge JCC21. He brought it back onto my radar about the good work the youth were doing about transportation, because it's been an issue since last year, going into this school year with the Omni card. And, this resolution was titled Enhanced. So it would be unlimited, and it
was supposed to be for all mass transit. That's what we're petitioned for, including the ferries. That's in the resolution. But another piece that one of the public speakers that I want to bring attention to with this aspect is the cultural arts institutions. So not only that every student, regardless if they go on the yellow bus, get this Omni card, but it's to also to experience New York City's cultural and arts institutions, because there's some inequities in that as well. So I appreciate one of the
comments on this resolution, and I want to highlight that. That's also we want to make sure that those cards, so all our kids have access to go to the museums and the cultural institutions in this wonderful city. Okay. Thank you, panel member. All right. Do any other panel members wish to offer comment at this time? Panel Member Esqueda. So I want to say hi to the students. I'm super excited that you guys made it. I've been working with that group for months. Yes to the YTAC. Yes to the YTAC. I especially want to thank Juniper and August because they have
gone on a borough to borough tour using the Omni card, and letting everybody know. They've testified at at least 10 CCs, and they've spoken at CPAC, and they have sent their resolution all around, and it has been passed in every borough. Presidents councils have passed it. And so I just want to say thank you for all the hard work that you did, all of the data mining. The presentation, if you haven't seen it, is amazing. They have charts. They have a survey. They really are the pulse of the students.
And on the committee that we've been working in together, they've been working with the District 75 students. And so it's been really amazing to bring groups together that don't normally work on anything together in the mission of students and equity. So I want to tell a different story about what resolve looks like in this situation. So we have Omni cards, and we've heard lots of issues, but we also just had a mayoral election, and we heard a lot of promises. And one of the things that we heard was that we want to make MTA free,
and that the city is our classroom. And so to that point, I would love for us to then take the lead on initiating that MTA should be free for students, period. And that that campaign promise should start here. This is step one. We won't have to worry about replacing cards. We won't have to worry about negotiating contracts. We won't have to worry about hard plastic, soft plastic, paper, magnet strips, accidentally being charged when you walk too close to the machine, not having enough rides to get home, your card being
deactivated while you're at a program, so now you can't get home, and running the risk of then being faced with law enforcement and not being able at 9:00 PM to have this conversation. Because we have beacon programs like in Truman High School that end at 9:00 PM. We need to be better, and we have a way to be better. MTA free for all students. How do we do that? All students need an ID card, because if something happens to a student and they don't have ID, they are in trouble. They are in trouble. So we need ID cards for all. That is what this contract
needs to do. MTA needs to stop getting money from DOE. We are city agencies. You give the kids what they need because we are legally and federally obligated. They are entitled to a free and appropriate public education, and we have to get them there. We can focus our energy on our busing contracts, and we can have MTA give this to us for free. Now we focus on a contract for ID cards for all students. All they do is flash their ID, and they're on the train, and they don't have to worry about anything else. If we want to be solution based.
Thank you. Thank you, panel member. Actually, what that leads to is, panel member, the suggestion that maybe you would spur that on and produce a resolution for us next monthOkay, great. So we'll have a resolution coming from a panel member for us to consider, and then I would urge you to reach out to all of these various groups and how that would look. The kids are coming. Yeah. Thank you. The kids are coming. Question, yes. Hello. Rima mentioned the ID cards. I thought that all the ID cards you can get... Oh, we don't? So just so everybody's clear, let's open the box,
right? District 75 students don't get ID cards at all, and the ID cards that we get don't scan into the system- Oh ... that we use to scan kids into their own school, which is a contract issue. I want to point that out. But also, most schools don't have the means to provide the cards. I fought for our school, on my District 75 site in Truman, with 4,000 kids in the building, to get ID cards and to fight for the superintendent's office to pay for it, which our budget is central anyway because
we're a city-wide program, but we had to jump through hoops just to get ID cards for all our kids, and we are footing the bill annually to replenish the materials needed to print the cards. This needs to be a central contract that is provided to every school for every student, period. Okay. So next month, I guess this will be in one of the additional items on the agenda. Are there any other panel member comments regarding this resolution? Yeah. Yeah. Panel Member Cassaratti? Yeah. Well, I recognize you and then I'll come back. No, but Maisha had her hand up first.
But I saw you. Yeah, just let him come in. Panel member, would you please? Rebekah had her hand up, so we'll do it. Okay. So, I just wanted to thank the students for being here, and also acknowledge that our Brooklyn president also has been meeting with these same students and has a Brooklyn Youth Advisory Council that has 20 Brooklyn High School students, across 16 Brooklyn high schools
across the borough, and supports the same. Thank you. Thank you. Panel Member Satt. Good evening again. I feel like I'm having therapy up here because being born and raised in Brooklyn and having this issue since I was a kid, and watching my son, who is a adult-presenting 17-year-old, where you look at him and you think he's a grown man, and so how his world is shifted, thank you so much, because we have to speak into it. And I'm going to say again, the
experience of Black boys and how they navigate this system in regards to being criminalized when they're trying to navigate. They don't get the grace of looking like a student. And this here has been such a pervasive but white noise because as Black parents, we have to get up and function and do it anyway. And so being on the panel, one of the privileges is to hear some of the things that are
actually being resolved that we did not have the opportunity to resolve when I was younger. But this is so crucial, Rima, this is so crucial because this impacts how our kids develop their connection to law enforcement, the criminalization that they have to carry, and then you wonder why my son needs a mental health break. It is such a burden to have to have three or four layers of protection before
you even walk into the school. And I do know, again, my son presents as an adult. He has ever since he was 13. The cute googly-eyed that he used to get when he was a kid stopped when he was 13 because he's developed facial hair, so he doesn't get that grace. So when he does not have his card, I definitely make sure that he takes his book bag because you have to signal. He physically has to signal that he is a student because we understand the setup.
So this has real world and a very personal impact and consequences on how our children are navigating through everyday life, and then they're supposed to be okay. So certain kids may have grace, other kids do not have grace, and so when we think about that type of impact, we have to make some changes, and I'm going to sign on to this. I'm going to sign on to this because this has been such a headache, but we adapt to this
pain point. Every single day we adapt to it because it's just something that has to be done, that a lot of other parents don't have the lived experiences that these Black boys have and these Black girls have. So again, listen, let's get it done and let's raise some hell with this. Thank you. Okay, any other panel members? Say it again a little bit louder. Motion for unanimous consent. Okay. Is there a second to the motion for unanimous consent? Second. Is there objection to unanimous consent? Seeing no objection, the motion is adopted. We have a third and final resolution.
Yeah. Secretary Nathan? The resolution up for approval is entitled Resolution for a Comprehensive Language Access Implementation Plan for All School Utilization Proposals. Is there a motion to adopt the resolution? Second. Okay. I want to this time give an opportunity for the two panel member authors to give an opportunity. Yeah, let them speak. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. If you have any more for us. Good evening, everyone. Adriana Alicea, she/her, here for Queens CEs again. I was just giggling a moment here because, I
think the missing interpreters, the missing translator this evening, are kind of emblematic of how easy it is for one person having a rough day or one person having a rough commute can affect multiple people in the public or multiple people in the audience. And that effect is compounded when we're discussing something as serious as a school utilization proposal. I believe it was Ms. Bjorkman this evening who said that if you're talking to the parents and the families at her school in English, you're not talking to them. And there are a lot of schools where that's the case.
And school utilization proposal materials are not necessarily available to the families, to the parents, even to the students, immediately or upon their first interaction or hearing about the SUP. They may be provided after the fact, but that's not necessarily helpful. I'm going to turn it over to Panel Member Oban to discuss the rest of the resolution. Thank you. Okay. So the resolution calls for minimally all 13 languages and also include American Sign Language or any other physical language that
may be being used in our society. It also calls for visual aids, right? Not only minimally in English, but not only be translated, but also we have visual learners. You can hear the proposal, but it's not really sinking in. If you have a visual aid, because some of us are visual learners, we should have slides on what the proposal is, a summary of what the proposal is enacting. And to ensure that every community
engagement and joint public hearing regarding proposals to the families and the communities that is affecting have translators, right? Translators, interpretation, the information also in their language. Because there's some communities that the majority speaks, like, say, for example, Spanish. Having the material in English is not going to help those families. I have seen some engagements regarding proposals. Translation is not being asked and not provided or being ignored.
We cannot do that. We've got to make sure that the entire communities are engaged. So we want to put the onus on Central to make sure that all these proposals, these community engagements, the joint public hearings, have translations for the families. And the other piece to this also, the system is set up that we have parent coordinators, our family leadership coordinators, and our family support coordinators. They should be aware of those proposals. They should be aware of the proposals that's happening in their district. The parent coordinators should be aware if it's affecting
the school, because most of us will go to those family-facing leaders who are the liaisons to the school for information. So they should have that information as well. And I think that summarizes the resolution. Hold on. We have one person who signed up to comment on this resolution, Johanna Bjorkman. I think you get the award tonight. If I'm going to come, I'm going to make it count. Go for it. I've worn many hats so far, but I'm speaking right now in my very personal
capacity. A long time ago, before I was a parent, shortly in one of my many previous careers, I lived internationally, and I lived in translation and interpretation. And eventually, when I became fluent, I became an interpreter when I needed to engage with community, and I know it can do well. It can work. It's not a wheel that we need to invent. Multilingual engagement is more than just translation and interpretation. Multilingual engagement means thinking
about how you're going to engage in many languages from the minute you structure your meetings. Maybe it's not a presentation that is written with a PowerPoint with lots of words. Maybe it's not a community meeting where people come up one by one and stand at a mic, but it's small groups where people can speak in the language that they feel most comfortable about their dreams for their children. And so this resolution, I'm totally in favor of it, but I also think that we have a lot to do to really, really envision what
engagement means and what it looks like. And we don't have to invent that. It's done all over the world. So thank you. Thank you No. Tom, did you intend to sign up for this one also? Good evening again, Chair Faulkner. And here's the deal with this one, right? So of course, we need comprehensive language access for all school utilization proposals, right? I think it's something the community has been asking for forever. I think that that also comes with an
understanding that we don't invest in language access the way we ought to, not just school utilizations, right? I think last year's budget, I think it was like, what, $20 million or something for language access in a system with almost a million kids and 1,800 schools in it. So yeah, we do need to do that. We do need to make sure that information as it relates to changes in school utilization need to be language accessible to all of our communities. But that needs to happen with everything,
right? And we have to put our money where our mouth is again, right? So you got to make sure that the division within the Department of Education that deals with language access has the resources it needs to be able to make sure that information as it relates to changes in school utilization is covered in our languages. And I also think that making sure that information is language accessible and changes in school utilization needs to exist as a part of a
comprehensive overhaul of Chancellor's Regulation A190, right? If we're going to have us a conversation about how these things look and how they play out, language access should be a part of revamping an entire system that has disenfranchised communities over the years. And that's what I got to say about that one. Thank you. Okay. Well, yes. I think there's one more point I forgot because Ms. Parkins brought it up when she said about engagement. And when we have these engagements, it can't be presented to the
communities, it shouldn't be presented to the communities like it's a done deal. They actually have to have discussions. That was another key point of the resolutions, is the way we approach the communities with these proposals is also important. That we need to invoke dialogue. Okay. We'll now open the floor for panel member comments on the resolution. Panel member Cassaratti. Thank you so much for this resolution. I feel like it's much needed. I also want to point out that there is a language access expansion
bill in the Senate and Assembly right now that requires certain documents to be translated into 12 languages. So if you're so inclined, please call your senator and ask them to vote for S5535 or Assembly A4875. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any panel member comments? Just today, at work today, I finished a course about digital accessibility. And in terms of what we're talking about here in the resolution, I think that also should be implemented.
We have many students who have disabilities, not just because they have vision disabilities or hearing disabilities. We have students who may be able to see but may not be able to see clearly. Also, screen reading tools that also should be implemented within instruction. So I think maybe that can also be implemented. I mean, added as well. Okay. Any other panel member comments? Okay, we're ready for the-- Yeah. Yes, I'm going to do that right after, I promise. 30 seconds. I also want to say that language access is not only about
translating the words, but about bringing the language to a level that is understandable to the community that you're trying to speak to. We love legalese. We love acronyms. Acronyms don't translate nicely because the words in the other language don't start with those letters. And so we need to be intentional about the way we break things down. There should be a layman's version that is translated into the language of the community so that the documents are accessible to everyone. Similar to how we take books and
we level them for different readers, but it teaches the same topic. We need to level what we give to the community so the community understands it. We had a comment when we were doing the aggregated budget, which resulted in us voting no and having another meeting about it where the budget was further explained to us, and if we were more intentional about the way we break down the information for the public, we could avoid those things from happening. And motion for unanimous consent. Okay. Is there a second to the motion unanimous consent? It's been moved and seconded that the motion resolution be adopted by unanimous
consent. Is there objection to unanimous consent? Hearing no objection to the motion for unanimous consent, the resolution is adopted. Okay, we will now move to the period of the meeting where we invite open comment, and we'll ask the secretary to call any folks who've signed up for the open comment period. Sure. Max Miller, Jay Brown, Leah Friedman, Jim Baker, Busley Fagan. You can make your way to the mic, and if you get there first, if I've called your name, you can start speaking. Good evening, chair, chancellor, panelists. My name is Jay Brown, again, President of Community Education Council
21. We're still mourning in our district the loss of an 11-year-old student, Amira Amanova, who was killed by a school bus last month here in Southern Brooklyn. For years, previous chancellors promised that GPS on every bus would not only allow families to track students, but also, and more importantly, provide the DOE with real-time data to trigger corrective actions against unsafe driving. Yesterday, I received a response from the DOE FOIL office to the records request I submitted over a month ago for the bus that struck Amira. Despite these being digital real-time records,
they stated that they need until June 3rd, four months after the tragedy, just to locate the logs from that day. A December 2025 controller audit found that the DOE has not used readily available GPS data to monitor safety and is sitting on $42 million in uncollected fines, primarily because school bus drivers are failing to log into these mandatory GPS systems. I know Chancellor Samuels took this job to move the needle on issues that have been stuck for years, and we appreciate that. Overriding an additional 10-week bureaucratic delay so that this crucial
data is promptly released would be a clear demonstration of unsticking safety from red tape. I am here tonight to advise the PEP and DOE leadership that I will be introducing a resolution at our April CEC 21 meeting, calling for immediate release of the records pertaining to my FOIL request and for assurances GPS data is used system-wide to improve safety as promised. This data tells the story of what happened to Amira. It tells the story of how the school bus was being
operated before and as it struck her. We are asking for the transparency mandated by Local Law 32. We will share our past resolution with this body shortly, but the time to override this delay and prioritize safety over red tape is now. Woo. Thank you. You can begin. There's a student comment that missed. Is it possible to have a student comment that was not able to be done during the student time? Sure. Yeah. We can do that. Is this Bart O'Sullivan? Yes. Hi. Great. Hi. Thank you. I'm right here. Woo. So, good evening. My name is Bart, and I am a seventh grader at the Center School.
You've probably heard about that by now. I want to tell you why I love the Center School and how important it is to me, my fellow stu-- Oh, okay, that was loud, and future students at the Center School to find a location that is best fit for the Center School. What is special about the Center School? One of the important things is that I have friends across different grades. So, I have friends in fifth grade, I have friends in eighth grade, I have friends sixth grade, and I'm in seventh grade. Smaller gathering spaces and smaller classrooms means
that we won't have enough space. So, I think... I'm just trying to remember. The talk show. Someone saw it, yeah. The talk show, a lot of people see it, and a lot of people really enjoy it. It's hilarious. It's part of our curriculum every single week. It's critical- I've heard about the talk show. Heard a lot about it. Were you in the show? Yes. Okay. Great. Critical to find an auditorium that is similar to what we have now. I think you said a different auditorium? What were you-- Yeah, similar auditorium. Okay.
Sorry. You got this, guy. It's fine. So I actually visited the proposed location. And I'm like, "Whoa, train is really far away from here." And I have a lot of friends who live really far away from the school currently, and this proposed location is on the southern edge of District 3, which is the current district that the school is in. So, some of my friends would have a really, an increased hard time getting to the new location. And, I think that's really all I have to
say. Thank you. Thank you. You may speak. Thank you very much. My name is Jim Baker. I'm a parent of three students. You've met one of them, Alma, this evening. You, Chancellor Samuels, met my son Cyrus last week when he delivered to you in Manhattan a petition with 2,000 signatories to adopt an AI moratorium in New York City public school. So that's what I'm here to talk about today. Thank you. Thanks for waiting. All right, Chancellor Samuels, thanks for touring the boroughs. Very excited about your town hall coming up. For one, I question the DOE's AI guidance policy. Parents and taxpayers have yet to hear an argument for why the DOE is sidling up to
unregulated tech giants, and you give no affirmative case for why we'd want to expose 800,000 minors to many risks, cognitive stunting, declining emotional health, algorithmic bias, and negative impacts on instruction with no further evaluation. No affirmative case is made in this guidance for why we want this in our classrooms other than being, quote, "future-ready." And it goes against 50 or more years of gains in public education, not to mention environmental protections, demanding the best teachers, a higher degree of individualized instruction, smaller class sizes, and culturally relevant, high-quality education we've come to expect from the DOE.
Moreover, there are unevidenced assertions in this guidance about benefiting the most vulnerable students in our school system. Why not spend taxpayer money on helping these and all students in the New York City public school system by hiring more excellent teachers, administration, staff, and so forth? Ultimately, when, Chancellor Samuels, you say we need to focus on making our children future-ready, I'm not afraid of AI. I know what future-ready means. It means books in the classrooms. It means learning Uzbek, Spanish, Chinese, Creole, Arabic. Shukran, gracias, merci beaucoup
to our translators. It means learning the liberal arts and, God willing, less time out of my daughter's dinner fighting against the-- raging against the machine, as it turns out. I am for development of the whole child. AI is not for that. This guidance is inadequate today and will remain inadequate in three years. That's why Parents for AI Cautions in Educational Spaces, PACES, rejects this guidance and supports a moratorium on AI in New York City public schools. Do better, Chancellor Samuels and Mayor Mamdani, and thank you for your time.
You may speak. Okay. Max Miller, Center and MSC parent. Say no to the D3 proposals. Politicians and CECs are speaking out against them. Join us. The DOE acknowledges that the working groups failed and says it will do better next time. Do better this time. If we had had the engagement that some of these Brooklyn districts got, we'd have better solutions in our district. There are numerous unresolved issues in the EISs, and the DOE has a proven track record of failure at addressing concerns after the fact. At the latest CEC 3 meeting, the DOE
restated that it will be closing and harming smaller schools citywide. This is an attack on choice and alternative, progressive, inclusive, accessible education models. One size does not fit all. It is also an attack on community and Title I schools. At that same CEC 3 meeting, council members questioned whether the DOE, while hiding behind its numbers, is actually enforcing systemic inequities. And who benefits? One of the wealthiest blue ribbon schools pushing its services into
hallways when there are simple, harmless solutions, like making more efficient use of empty classrooms and myriad administrative offices. But this is not about one school. It is a critique of the DOE. At RSMA, closing a Title I middle school that took hundreds of English language learners while failing to provide appropriate and required support is harmful. At MSC, placing children with physical disabilities into middle schools that are merely accessible without thoughtful programming is harmful. At Center, a relocation that cuts roughly 50% of programming space for
a school based on movement is harmful. The DOE may add a few classrooms, but a real theater and adequate schoolyard will never exist at 191. Off-site workarounds with significant losses to instructional time are harmful. The DOE's desire to silence and ignore our community speaks volumes. Stop these proposals. Show us you're serious about real engagement. Take the time to get it right. Thank you. You can begin. My name's Leah Friedman, and I'm a proud alumna of both Manhattan School for Children and The Center School. I became a public school teacher because of my fully public K to 12 experience in New York City, and I've taught at Center School
since 2020. You've already heard about the shortcomings of the working group structure that failed to inform and engage our community. I hope by now everyone has read Sue Edelman's piece about the violations of Title I funding at PSIS 191. Now, as a formal proposal, the EIS contains several misleading, confusing, or contradictory claims that only deepen our community's concerns about this reciting. We're told by district officials that it's the norm for an EIS to contain generic and vague language, and that problems will be addressed after a PEP vote, and we are asked to trust them.
If this is happening to our school, this is surely happening citywide. If the DOE wants to keep families in the system, earning our trust here is a place to start. Yesterday, Chancellor Samuels traveled to Albany to ask for four more years of mayoral control and some relief on the deadline of the class size law implementation. Legislators there expressed their concern about extending mayoral control. This administration, for which many of us voted with hope and optimism, wants our trust that with another four years, they'll make changes that make our public school system more equitable and desirable. The Chancellor asked for more time.
That's what we're asking for at Center School as well. Enough time for a move to be thoughtful and considered, not rushed and sloppy. The Chancellor has made family engagement a cornerstone of his plans for schools. On surveys sent out this week, parents and teachers are asked to rate the statement, "I take the Chancellor at his word." When it comes to parental engagement, we want more than lip service or check boxes. Our parent community and those at 191 MSC and CAS were not engaged in the relocation proposal process, and now that they're finally aware, they unilaterally oppose it. Can we take the Chancellor at his word that there will be
meaningful dialogue and collaboration? It's never too late to start listening to families when they speak up. Thank you. The next group of speakers are Tekel Ekrich, Jamil McKinstry, Glenn, sorry, Jean Levy, Megan Nickerson. Thank you. You may begin. Good evening, members of the PEP, Chairman Faulkner, Chancellor Samuels. Thank you to those of you who have come to our school, the Center School, and I'd like to extend an open invitation to all of you on the PEP to come see the good work that we
do. I just want to say that as a parent and teacher, I'm confused by so many aspects of this transaction, of this truncation, phase-out, and relocation of four small middle schools in District 3. Community Action School, MSC, PS 191, and the Center School. We've been given so many mixed and conflicting messages about the rationale for these closures, but the latest we heard from the chancellor on March 14th says that small schools are not viable. What does that mean, small schools aren't viable? Are you planning to close, merge, or phase out all the small middle schools in the
district, in the city? What does it mean that small schools aren't viable? Bank Street, where the mayor went, has 160 kids in its middle school. Browning has 150. Are small schools only viable for the wealthy parents and private school families? What about the rest of us? Chancellor, you cited rigorous instruction, then mentioned algebra. We've taught algebra at my school to every eighth grader for over 18 years, before it was in vogue. That's in addition to art, theater, Latin. We are rigorous.
Yes. Small schools have a place in this city, our district. They serve students in a way that some large schools cannot and do not. They shouldn't just be for the affluent. How can we advocate for small classrooms, but not for small schools? It doesn't make sense. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jean Levy. I'm a parent at the Center School. In District 3, the DOE proposes to close two middle schools, Manhattan School for Children and RSMA 191 Middle School, and move Center School into the 191 space to make room for PS 9, a million-dollar school with a parent association with a
million dollars. We understand that the city is in a budget crisis, and we understand that as the DOE cuts costs, it's going to be closing and moving schools, and we don't oppose relocation. We never did. What we want, it has remained consistent. We're a theater arts-based school. We would like an auditorium. We're a mixed-grade school. We would like an outdoor yard that fits our entire school. Instead of moving us to a building that fits these needs, the DOE is forcefully moving us to 191 because it doesn't want that space to sit empty after it closes 191. You've heard about the lack of parent engagement in this process already.
Now, I'm kind of jealous of Brooklyn because that seems like a beautiful collaboration between the superintendent, CEC, and the parent community. You know that that's not happening in District 3 because every single school that's being closed and relocated have the same complaint. There is a lack of parent engagement. And when we express our documented concerns, District 3 superintendent dismissed it by calling it big feelings about change. And then he publicly accused us of opposing integration, which is a flat-out lie. The Center School specifically requested to be moved to the Central Park East location in East Harlem, and we
also would love to move to the Brandeis High School complex, which is a predominantly Black and brown school. What we oppose is moving to a building with no auditorium, which will result in 27% reduction in instructional space. We're going to lose 2,200 square footage of instructional space. And when we say that, the DOE talks about rooms. Who's talking about room count? You can fit 30 rooms in 6,000 square feet, and it still is not 8,200 square feet. We're going to lose over 20,000 square feet of outdoor space. And the DOE says to take our kids, 250 kids, to an outdoor park
half a mile away. Moving 250 kids daily, almost an hour distance round trip, is the 30-minute recess. That's ridiculous. Please, think and do this again. Give us a pause. Thank you. The next group of speakers, Steven Mahoney, Jimmy Amodio, Josh Weinberger, Johanna Bjorkin, and Caleb Haraguchi Combs. Good evening again. As a District 75 parent rep, part of my responsibility and duty is to visit schools. I visited 10 schools. I wanted to let you know some information about three of them that I visited.
Two of them are new construction. So going in, DOE School Construction Authority, they knew they had two different groups of people, and they got to provide equitable educational opportunities for both. PS 407, where Nathan's used to be, shares it with 231. The visuals walking into the school doesn't compare. Our 75 has a small plaque on the side of the wall. You get off the elevator on the second floor, here's an art cart with the art teacher and the art closet. And she says, "Well, we don't have a classroom." I says, "Oh, so General Ed has no classroom?"
Yes, they do, for their exclusive use onlySo that's one inequity. Our kids aren't given the same opportunity. There was a problem in the gym that they share. They share it half and half. There was a leak on General Ed's side. Guess who got moved? Our District 75 kids had to relocate up to the multipurpose room. What I suggested is just like the Super Bowl, get an Eisenhower dollar, flip it. Heads you keep it, tails we keep it. Because where's the equity in that as far as with that? Space is an issue. I visited a school, PS
372 at 331. And music, an opportunity for music. Ms. Amato, our District 75 teacher, says she would love to give 20% of her budget so she gets that class once a week. Going in, we heard the word inclusion, collaboration, equity. You knew you'd have two groups of people there, yet you failed to provide the same educational opportunities for our District 75 children. That's a clear violation of our federal Individuals with Disabilities and Education Act.
And maybe I should say it a different way. How come the white kids get it and the Black kids don't? Plessy v. Ferguson was overthrown by Board of Ed. Brown versus the Board of Ed, excuse me. Here in New York City, our District 75 children, they need their Brown versus Board of Education moment. And it is definitely a segregated system in some instances, and it's definitely separate, and it's not equal. All of our children- Excuse me, your time has expired ... especially our most vulnerable- Your time is expired ... educational.
I apologize for overextending. My name is Josh Weinberger. I'm the parent coordinator at Center School, and I want to thank the PEP for having these conversations out loud and in public. And you've heard about the level of engagement that we were expecting from this process and the level of engagement that we actually received. And I was just as envious as Ms. Levy was about what Brooklyn Brownstone got to experience in this process. What you saw tonight through them and their experience and the applause you heard, the rapturous applause of an engagement process that actually engaged the community and
ended in a result that pleased so many people. That is a process that was denied to the four schools in District 3. There was no process of engagement. There was no family involvement. There was no solicitation of alternative ideas. There was no procedure that enabled us as workers, as parents, as families, to develop solutions that could work on every level for every person. And not every solution's going to work for everyone, but ideas come from people who show up, and people show up when they're invited. These communities have shown their desire to be part of a process that can work. And it's up to you, the PEP, to not allow this
process that was truncated, to use a word, to go forward. What we need is a process that starts again, involves the community, asks for the community's involvement, and welcomes it in order to develop ideas that work for the most number of people. And I would like to point out that the superintendent of District 3, the current superintendent, at a town hall for Council Member Brewer just three nights ago, said that no decision has been made yet. And I don't know if he was referring to the PEP vote that's coming on April 29th or every other kind of decision, but I will tell you that we feel with an EIS in play, the decision has been made. And schools have been talked about moving, and
schools have been talked about truncating, and schools have been talked about closing. And those are decisions that are in place. And we need you please, as the PEP, as the last bastion of reason, to stop this mistaken process from reaching its conclusion. Let's start over. Let's get to a conclusion that we can all live with and all prosper through. Thank you. Look at this man. You can begin. Oh. Good evening, Chancellor, honorable members of the PEP. So happy to be here tonight. My name is Caleb Haraguchi Combs. I am the current project director for the proposed new high school, Next Generation Technology High School.
Tonight in our meeting, I was actually struck by two very important moments in time where technology kind of served to assist us in potentially the public good. At one moment, a panel member spoke to the need for an advanced translation option so the communication could be more accessible. In another, a student spoke thoughtfully about the effectiveness and design of the Omni Card. I think that student should go to Next Gen Tech. Both examples point to the same truth. Technology is not abstract. It shapes how people move, communicate, and participate in daily life. As a father of a two-year-old, I find myself
thinking often about what our schools must become over the next 10 to 15 years. The world our children are entering will deeply be shaped by technological systems. They say that 60% of the jobs our kids will have don't even exist yet. Because of that, I believe we have an obligation to prepare students not just to use technology, but to apply it, understand it, critique it deeply, and improve it for the benefit of society. That is the vision of Next Generation Technology High School. Our model is rooted in ethical technological literacy, which we define as the ability to understand, evaluate, and build technology responsibly through advanced
mathematics, computer science, and coding. Students learn to engage technology not as passive consumers, but as capable creators and civic leaders. I also want to bring clarity around the idea and conversation in relation to artificial intelligence. AI is an academic discipline and a growing area of college and career opportunity. As these fields expand, traditional computer science pathways are not enough. This work is not about putting students in front of edtech products. It is the opposite. It is important that our school model can exist completely unplugged. The foundations of AI include topics like
coding, linear algebra, gradient descent, and machine learning, and have been taught at major universities for decades through rigorous mathematics and deep study using pen and paper, chalkboard and chalk. The school model is built on that foundation, pairing the math, science, and computer science, and coding with humanities. The idea of reasoning and responsible tech literacy across the curriculum. I hope that you guys will consider us on April 29th. Thank you. All right. Hello again. And now I appear before you as a parent who loves math, who loves data,
who stays up late in the night downloading data sets in order to bring you numbers, which I did last night because that's what I do when I get riled up. I agree with everything that Program Director Kale said. As the parent of a student in a software engineering CTE program, one of dozens in the city. But I worry it doesn't make the case that it needs to be a standalone high school. There is no reason for another standalone high school in the city. Manhattan has 15,000
extra high school seats. There is no reason for that school to be screened. Last night, it took a lot of squeezing to get this number. But do you have any idea how many seats there are in screened, and screened with assessment programs for our ninth graders? Just put a number in your mind for the 70,000 students who apply. There are 20,358 seats available this year for ninth graders in screened programs.
Listening to the chatter among parents, you would think that there is a dearth, there's a deficit. But that's not where the need is. The need is in screened group three and four. Those are the students least likely to be matched to a program of their choice. There is a desperate need for programs for students with disabilities. That is a budget priority as we are paying for the tuition in Carter cases. I love the idea of a technology-focused approach to high schools. There is no reason it needs to be a high
school. That's a 2016 solution, not a 2026 solution. Tom Shepherd, Mike Robles, Francesca Laguardia, Martina Meyer, and Sarah Calderon. Good evening again. And this time, I didn't have chance to say before, Chancellor Samuels, welcome. Okay. We look forward to seeing what you are going to bring to this, and how we can work with you and your team to make this system work better. The other day, you released your AI
guidance. And, I submitted comments for that. But I do want to make some things clear, right? One, I am pleased that the DOE worked with parents and worked with community stakeholders in trying to figure out what this looks like. That said, there's some issues with this, right? AI, we know that the models are racially and culturally biased, right? AI, we know that we have real issues around what data is being
collected, how that data's going to be used, all sorts of things, right? So while I understand and can appreciate AI as a tool, I don't think we as a community or we as a system know enough about it, right? How does it work? What data does it collect? Is that data safe? How's it being used? What do we do when it hallucinates? All of these things, right? So, I fully support a moratorium. I think we do need to take our
time, right? There are cases like LA years ago where they decided they were going to put an iPad into every kid's hand, and it turned out to be an absolute disaster, but we all learned from it. And when the pandemic came around, we made some changes, right? I don't necessarily see us as the one that has to be the one to epic fail for everybody else to succeed, when all we have to do is invest some time and energy into taking our time and getting it right. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Thanks to the chancellor and the panel for this time this evening.
My name is Mike Robles. I am a public school product, Quinntech 2006. And I have two very special daughters in District 3. It's gratifying to hear that the community at large is heard and valued, through the process of mergers, resiting, and co-locations with the approval of the proposals you had today. I stand with those parents, and I also stand with the parents of MSC, CAS, 191, and The Center School, who hope to get that same engagement as well. Earlier this month, my local community school, PS 191, was proposed for truncation. Just as a reminder for everyone, it's a school of over 130 kids, mainly Black and brown students, and a mixture of asylum
seekers. A school that was recently placed on CSI status, even though it was not properly communicated to parents and stakeholders alike. The proposal for truncation is due to not meeting performance metrics, per current Superintendent Higgins, and the truncation would be a step in an effort to help save the lower school. I ask the chancellor to help articulate how a truncation can really help a failing school. As a parent, I take responsibility for my children's grades, and if it becomes urgent matter to help them, I find the resources to do so. I ask the panel, whose responsibility should it be to tell the parents like me that their school is failing? And where are the resources for the children like mine and the Black and brown
students who are likely entitled to have it, not probably researched and implemented properly? In the end of April, this panel will decide the fate of this community middle school. Please note that Community Board 7 has not provided any resolutions in full support for any of these proposals. They are asking for more time to consider how this impacts the community at large. The impact specifically on the families who will be relying on the district for placement in a matter of few months. Dr. Higgins asked us to have faith in the process, but I wonder if the district is equipped to truly handle this type of situation in a short matter of time.
Thank you. You can. Ms. Pecharigo. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Sarah Calderon. I am a middle school parent from Lower Manhattan Community School in District 2. I'm also on their SLT. Thank you, PEP members, for coming and hearing us and giving us this opportunity, and the chancellor. As someone who has been part of multiple co-located school openings, I found this meeting rather heartbreaking. Right? I've helped open Dream Yard
Prep in the Bronx, Mott Hall Charter School in the Bronx, and Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists, also in the Bronx. I also was a former DOE employee. I've witnessed strong relationships between the Office of New Schools, the School Construction Authority, DOE Planning, and community members. Work that was highlighted that happened in Brooklyn today. But in District 2, similar to what's happening, it sounds like in District 3, in the Center School, we are not experiencing this. The DOE basically has said that they are co-locating the Next
Gen High School that you just heard about, and that today was the first time that we've actually heard a thorough explanation of what it actually is in the building at 26 Broadway with LMC. There has been little to no community engagement. There has not been real discussions with our community members. And three years ago, our school asked to have the DOE consider expansion from a 6-8 to a 6-12. None of this has happened. Similar to the Center School, we are asking that you pause this proposal, that you engage our
community members, and that you start listening to what the community has asked for and needs. We have asked for a 6-12. It is what the community needs and what the data demonstrate families want. Thank you. The last group of speakers are Jennifer Ansley, Ellen McHugh, Rashida Brown-Harris, Letitia Thompson, and Wanda Yvette Bolinas. You can begin. You can begin. Hi. Thank you. My name is Jennifer Ansley. I am a middle school parent at Lower Manhattan Community Middle School, and I've also been
on the SLT for the last three years, and I'm now head of the SLT. Our community is asking for LMC to be heard regarding expanding our middle school to a 6-12 school and reject the resolution, which will be proposed at the next meeting, placing Next Generation Technical High School at 26 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. Being here tonight has been such an education for me as a New York City parent for the last 15-plus years. I was inspired when I heard about the Brooklyn community speaking about the co-locations in their various different communities.
Hearing superintendents, principals, and community members speaking tonight about collaboration, deep, intentional engagement with the community, thoughtful conversations that went on for over a year, I cannot help but be very disappointed in what's happened at our school. Unfortunately, it's been very different at 26 Broadway. The first our SLT heard of this possible co-location was last month. The first opportunity for engagement with
the DOE only came earlier this month. During that first opportunity of engagement at our PTA meeting at our school, the Superintendent of High Schools, Bytelman, was notably absent, instead speaking at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, about opening an AI high school in New York City public schools this fall. We have a tried-and-true model for leadership, student achievement, and health and wellbeing at LMC. Our principal is an
exceptional administrator, and our school has a reputation for meeting all types of students where they are at. 1,400 people have signed our petition opposing the proposal to establish a 9-12 Next Generation Technical High School at the current site shared with LMC. We ask you to consider all this information next meeting. Thank you. Am I right? Thank you. Good evening, panel members, Chair Faulkner, and everybody. Chair, Chancellor Samuels.
I'm a little bit nervous. I haven't... It's weird. Anyway, my name is Juan Divet Balines. I am the District 75 representative in Community Education Council for School District 8. And I am so proud to have so many District 75s between us today in here. So thank you. I went to meet the guy from this, so we're going to be talking soon. Notice my shirt. It says, "In March, we wear orange for Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month."
I find it funny that in District 75, they're celebrating a lot of Women's History Month. Wait. Yes, I'm a woman, but I am not a woman right now. I'm a mom. And Alexa is the most important thing for me. So, but, let me just jump on it because I have very little left. I want one thing from you. I want to have Nina Cupota, the CEO from the School Construction Authority, come and sit down with us the same way that Deputy Chancellor Forti does, Mr.
Rampercent or whatever his title, I know he's in safety. And I want anybody that works with us because they need to give us explanations. What are their reasoning for them not to decide to put strobe lights in a school? The third thing that I'm going to be talking-- I'm sorry. I am with panel member Izquierdo. Every single student in New York City, every single student starting in pre-K or 2K, whatever, they serve an ID from the school.
The machine cost only $35 in Amazon. In order for them, it only needs to have-- I know that my two minutes expired, and I apologize for that, but we need to make sure that every single student have an ID. We do not want to have somebody from the justice peace from Texas, from Uvalde, Texas, saying, "I couldn't identify the body parts of the student that died in that massacre in May the 24th of 2022."
Every single child deserves- I'm sorry As you correctly noted, your time has expired. I know. Thank you. But I didn't-- I actually gave my point. Hi, good evening. Or maybe you're going to say good morning at one point. My name's Ellen McHugh. I'm here on four issues. One is that when I came here, I came in the handicapped entrance. The door was locked. There was no bell to alert people on the inside that someone in a wheelchair might be outside. Two, I've been here before. Two years ago was the
last time. I asked for closed captioning then. I was promised that there would be closed captioning. There isn't. Three, on February 25th, Mark Walter, a distinguished professor at NYU School of Teaching and Learning, and I, wrote a letter to the chancellor. I know the chancellor got tons of emails. We haven't had a response, so I figured what the hell, I'd bring the letter with me tonight. Last, here's the copies. Last but not least, my Aunt Ellen, for whom I am named, graduated from
this school in 1928. She came here from Ireland on a boat by herself to stay with people she didn't know. She came here because this was the land of opportunity. Fast-forward to 1990. My son, who is deaf, Rourke is his Irish name, came and entered telecommunications despite pushback from what was then the high school CSE, who wanted him to go to a school for the deaf, a high school for the deaf, or to Edward R. Murrow, where there was a large program for deaf individuals, about
150 kids, I think. I'm telling you that to tell you this: identity by disability is not a great thing. And we have swung from one end to the other. At this point now, I work as an advocate. Families are telling me that when they go to CSE or IEP meetings and suggest a segregated school or a state-approved non-public school, they are told by CSE or IEP members that they cannot, and therefore will not, recommend an NPS. An NPS is on the continuum of
services. The regulations 300.113 to 300.117 favor the inclusion of kids in general ed programs with appropriate supports and services. It is not a mandate. It is a favor because this is a continuum of services that extends across a wide range, and there are some children who will need to be in a self-contained program. I, myself, and my husband, and my son benefited from an inclusive
program begun here by Deirdre DeAngelis, who then became the principal at New Dorp.What I'm asking you to do is to work with the CSEs and IE teams to expand their knowledge and understanding of the IDEA. Thank you for your time, and I hope that you have a happy holiday, a decent Pesach, and happy Easter. And here's the letter. Again. Testing. Mm-hmm. All right. Good. Peace and blessings, y'all. Rasheeda Brown Harris. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
I'm a parent leader with New Settlement PAC, Parent Action Committee, and a member of the Healing Center Schools Working Group. I just want to say that my daughter's in 10th grade high school, and she is waiting for her replacement Omni card. It's been two weeks and counting. So we have been paying out of pocket for her commute. Where's Mr. Borelli? He was here, and he left. And life be lifin'. I think everyone knows the tweet that he tweeted, the harmful tweet using the R-word, referring to the Bad Bunny
halftime show, Superbowl halftime show. I think he might have given an apology to Chair Faulkner and the panel members. I think I might have missed a memo or two of an overall apology, maybe, to the community. Also, just want to mention to you all that I've been reading the SEI report. Why? I don't know why I'm reading it, but it's sad, it's disgusting, and I know a lot of these are allegations and they're pending investigations, but some of our adults who are being accused of causing harm to some of our babies should not remain in contact with children until the investigations are
final. Lastly, I just want to say, listen to the D3 community, please. Listen to the D3 community. I'm also speaking on behalf of PSPNY, Parents Supporting Parents New York, and we ask you to vote no, pause these proposals, fix the funding, and do not continue policies that fail Black students and our schools. Thank you. Good evening again. Reverend Leticia Thompson. Like tea. Long.
These are my notes from Monday, March 23rd, at the Chancellor's listening tour. These are my notes. And I understand that in bureaucracies, problems are often promoted to become someone else's problem, but we've had kind of enough of that. Today, I got a picture of a baby who got a black eye in school in the most restrictive learning environment that we have for gen ed. He should've been safe, but he wasn't. Now I have a parent who feels defeated, like they cannot keep their baby
safe, and that the word safety is tossed about like a volleyball. Where's the OARS reports, the mediation, the trauma-informed restorative care? I mean, at the very least, where are these magical respect for all liaisons? Nowhere in sight. And where are the parents? Kept out of buildings by door locks and principals who create negative narratives. They lie, they cheat, they steal. It's on those SEI reports. And what happens? Superintendents give them effective ratings. How sway? If you harm children by commission or complacency,
we can't be friends. Instead of reward, these so-called leaders need to be rooted out so we can till this educational soil and produce the next everything this world needs through our babies. By the way, I and every parent is already empowered to expose the injustices done to our babies. To be continued. I'll see you in the Bronx. I think that's it. Okay. Okay. Chancellor. I'd like to recognize the Chancellor. All right. Thank you. And thank you all for your comments. I want to take a moment to
speak a little bit to some of the comments and concerns about the D3 proposals in particular. And since we've heard a lot from members of the Center School in particular, I'll start there. And tonight, I think we heard also from a parent from 191, so I will address both of those proposals. And so I'll start by saying that no decisions have been made. I mean, this is the process.
This is a part of the process. And so when we reflect on-The engagement process that led us to this point, there are a couple of things that I want to clarify. Number one is that, when I got to District 3 in July of 2022, by September of 2022, I was having a conversation with the principals of the Center School and PS 9 about
one room. One room that was shared between the two schools. And it was during that time that a conversation about space allocation came up. And the Center School, then I was learning, Center School and PS 9, was one of the schools in my district at the time that was over 100% utilization. Right? So, the notion that there was no issue with space before this conversation is
actually, I'll just start by saying that doesn't reflect my experience. And I'll also say that this was prior to any conversation about class size. And so the idea that I just, or the DOG just suddenly decided to move the school or proposed for this move, doesn't reflect my experience, because I have several emails and exchanges with Center School community where they
basically listed the things that they would want if they were ever supposed to be resited. And those things included, number one, the school is, and always should be, a five to eight school. So as you know, typically in the DOE, our schools go from grade six to eight if you're a middle school. Year over year, we have complaints from folks in District 3, especially other middle schools, that it is not fair for the Center School to have a fifth grade.
I actually believe the Center School should have a fifth grade. I believe in the Center Schools model. I've always said I believe in the Center Schools model. I actually believe more schools should probably have fifth grades, right? And so I committed to that. I committed to the fact that that school will remain a five through eight school, despite the fact that there is a lot of concern, not only in the district, but at that time, Central DOE, which I now represent, expressed thoughts about having the school not have a fifth grade.
Center School is an intentionally designed school, intentionally small school. And that was the second thing, they wanted to remain an intentionally small school. Small in this context means 250 kids, right? They want it to be in that range. Not 200, not 150, not 100, not 75. Like when I got to District 3, there was a school of 75 students, and we said that school was not viable within the context of how we support schools in the
DOE. And so I support the Center School's desire to remain a school of about 250 kids, give or take some. Now, the Center School wants to remain a vibrant athletic program. The Center School wants to remain a radically inclusive space, right? For both the athletic program, as well as being an inclusive space,
and as well as keeping the fifth grade, and as well as making sure the schools remain intentionally small, so it's co-located with an elementary school. That was one of the arguments. There is no building in District 3 that is more suited for accessibility than the PS 191 building. It is our newest building. It is our most accessible building. It has an, I'm not going to address outdoor space yet, I'm about
to. It has an upgraded gym, like a state-of-the-art gym, right? And so I want to address the... So there are several things that I took into account when thinking about this that I got from the Center School community. Several, there was a list of, it felt like 10 things, I think it was, or 12. And so the vast majority of those issues were met with this
idea and proposal. Now, I'm going to talk about the EIS for a second, because the EIS does not reflect the number of rooms that Center School would be allotted. Somebody mentioned that tonight. And not after the PEP voteOr PEP considers, prior to the PEP considering, you will receive a letter from us that tells you specifically the number of rooms that you will be allotted, and that will be more than the number of rooms than you have right now.
In the current space that the Center School occupies, the Center School admittedly uses, and have used, rooms that were designed as closets to support young people in related services. That is not a debate. And those rooms are not up to code and shouldn't be used for those services. There's no debate about this. So we are solving an issue that exists in the district. The second thing, something else I want to talk about when it comes to this
is, number one, we have several concerns that we've heard. One is about the outdoor space. Sure, there is ample outdoor space in the building, and it's outdoor space, and I'm sure several of the PEP members have walked that building. There's also a field that's close by that is being renovated, that would be finished over the summer. Right? That we've gotten commitments from with our elected officials. Gabru is working with us on that.
Another thing that folks wanted was to make sure there are arts institutions close by. There's Lincoln Center close by. And, the notion that this is farther from the train than Center School is right now, and I think that's reasonable. Columbus Square is farther than the train is from the current school. However, there are several schools within a half a block of where this building is.
There is PS 452, very highly sought after school in District 3. There is another middle school, 6-12, West End Secondary, right a half a block away. There is Collegiate, talking about private schools. There are several schools right in that same vicinity. And so the notion that there wasn't engagement in getting to this point, we looked at other buildings when it comes to the Center
School, and we engaged with members of the school staff and figured, look, I listened to you. I did not interrupt. I will continue to speak. Okay? Excuse me. So- I ask that you allow the chancellor to finish. Yeah. Give you a chance. And we looked at the... There were three different schools. One, where a school just moved out of, how to move out of the folks at Center School, the folks we talked to and toured that building with, did not think that was viable. There was Manhattan Country School that the School
Construction Authority said was not viable and would cost way too much to get up to code. There was a brand new, as you guys might have heard already, there are several buildings around the city that were originally made for pre-K centers that have not been occupied. We looked at one of those to see if we could upgrade and make it good for a middle school, and the Center School folks said that wasn't an option for them.
So the notion that we did not engage, you can say it wasn't the kind of engagement you want, which I would say from my perspective, we did. I've done probably more than 25 of these proposals, the kind of engagement we did with the Center School community. I've never done that type of engagement before. Right? So whether or not it meets the needs, that's another question. And so I do though want to address something that I think is very dangerous, that I've
heard over and over in this engagement process. It is really divisive to say things like your neighbors that are PS 9, that many of the PS 9 families come to Center School, to say things like to cast aspersions about somebody's PTA budget and so on. And I'll say why I think it's really dangerous, because the demographics of PS 9 and the demographics of Center School are
not that far away. So- Right ... when we just look at the economic need, PS 9's economic need is one of the lowest in District 3 as an elementary school. As a middle school, Center School's economic need is one of the lowest, if not the lowest in District 3. So to kind of draw those comparison, I think is pretty dangerous, and I would just say, and divisive. And so that's my perspective, and especially coming on the heels of what we've heard in
District 3 over the last month or two, I think that is dangerous. And so I will say to everyoneYou might not agree with this proposal, and I get it. But when you look at the availability of space or the lack of availability of space across the Upper West Side, anybody who's ever tried to get an apartment on the Upper West Side, the things you have to give and take, you have to have some kind of sacrifice. You can't get the exact kitchen you want.
You might have to get a different... Right? And so this is the kind of thinking that went into this. I do not know a better... I've looked at almost every school, public and maybe even private, on the Upper West Side. I cannot find a better option for the Central School to move to than this building. Now, I would say finally this. When we think about the PS 191, I will very pointedly say
the reason that a truncation will help PS 191 is because when you have a 3K to 8 school that is now a CSI school, designated a CSI school by the state, which means that it's among the lowest-performing schools, the bottom 5% of performing schools in the state, we want to be able to focus on one grade band. We've seen this before in District 3 even,
where PS 165 was once a K-8 school, struggling in that way, where they truncated the middle school, were able to focus on the K through 5, and was able to build the elementary school back. When you have several points of entry, sometimes it feels as though you're running three different schools. A pre-K, when people leave at the end of pre-K, so it's 3K and pre-K, when people leave, other people come in at kindergarten, they leave at middle school, other people come in at middle school. It feels like three different
schools. Also, when you have a 15-year-old in the same building, in the same school as a three-year-old, that's a difficult thing to manage. Right? And so I talk to principals, I visit schools, especially when we have the most vulnerable students in that space, that's difficult to manage. Right? And so that's the rationale. That is where we are. Again, we can have debates about these things, but quite frankly, I think sometimes we end up
talking about things that are not based in the actual process that actually took place. So I just wanted to address some of those things. This is only the first of its kind. We are going to- Excuse me. Look- Excuse me. Look. We're not going to have a debate. Let the chancellor finish. I listened to you. Yeah. There will be times for us to have another conversation. The next time you can come back. The reason I stated this now is because I know that this is not the last time that we can have this conversation. We can have other conversations, but just wanted
to put some additional context regarding this. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Are there additional panel member comments? We're moving into open comment period. Yeah. I have some... You don't mean in response? Yeah. I'm not- Yeah. Sorry. You're not asking me to- No. Yeah. No. No, I had some other things, other different topic items. Yeah. So, want to make a shameless plug for D17's newest school, the Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy. So they're off to a promising start
and offering a unique opportunity for students who would benefit from individualized reading support. As we discussed, the school is open to all Brooklyn students, and so if you are a Gen Ed student and you're eligible for bus service within a five-mile radius. So, they're hoping to make this opportunity more accessible to siblings and families. The My Schools Portal will be open on
April 27th. So please look to that, and it'll be open throughout the summer. So if applications go in after the initial period, you'll be automatically wait-listed. But the school is actively reviewing applications and making offers on a rolling basis. So please check it out. Very quickly regard- Oh, thank you. Well, I'm just glad you brought that up because I'm hoping that we can get a report back on numbers. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. I don't have those numbers. Yeah. That's you. That's you guys.
Okay, so very quickly, I am deeply concerned about the lack of accessibility and usability of the recently posted AI guidance. I'm not even going to get into the details of what's in there, but the current format, the way it's presented, relying on multiple links, threaded pages, it's confusing and difficult for parents, families, and advocates to navigate.In particular, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there's a tab that says
"Read the full guidance," and it just redirects you back to the top of the page. So when I saw that tab, I was like, "Oh, here's the PDF version. I can just print this out with my highlighter marker," as we all like to do. But no. You know I like to do. A lot of you- When I said we, I meant Rema and I We all like to do. She's coming to the table. The people here who carry highlighters in their handbag. And Post-it notes. Okay, so there's many of us here. Yeah. This is true. Okay, I'm not going to keep going with that. Yeah. Very last thing. School facilities
conditions- I agree ... remain a critical concern, particularly in D14 and across Brooklyn schools. What I keep hearing is that bathrooms are in urgent need of renovations, and I know that we did so many bathrooms. I don't understand why we're not at capacity with bathroom renovations, but we're not. That's true. So we need to keep going with that, put more funding into bathroom renovations, because the elected officials don't really want to do that, because that isn't a fun photo op to-
To get a- ... get a picture of a toilet. Or locked on the door. Okay, so I'm also hearing that communications from the School Construction Authority are insufficient. I'm sorry to say that, SCA, but this is the feedback. Especially regarding project timelines and delays, ongoing and repeated delays in capital projects causing frustration and uncertainty for school leaders and families who are relying on these improvements. But a shout-out to the Division of School Facilities
because they seem to constantly be picking up where SCA drops the ball and... Let's not forget Joe Lazarus also in those applause. And Joe. So I think that wherever possible, giving DSF greater responsibility and enhanced funding should be seriously considered. Their track record shows that they can respond rapidly and effectively when empowered and resourced appropriately. And then just PA systems, we really
need to pay better attention to that. There's systems lack core functionality, and so schools are trying to navigate who actually owns this issue, whether it's the SCA or DSF. Take a- We need these systems for safety and daily operations. Okay. Thank you. I take that. Thank you. Any other panel members? Yeah, panel member. Okay, thank you. I don't know if that's working. Yeah. Oh. Okay. I know it's late. Thank you all the parents,
CEC members, advocates. Thank you so much for being out here. The moms, the parents sitting with us. You all are sitting in for the empty seats, but I wrote mine down, so I'm going to be very short. All right. Good evening. I come today not to oppose the chancellor or the mayor, but to speak to parents, school leadership teams, and community education councils who have been rendered powerless under the current structure. We are told we have a voice, but when decisions are made about school closings, charter co-locations, and budgets, our
input is an afterthought. This is not how you build a great school system, and history proves it. So I'm going to give you a little historical perspective. There's a book I've been reading by Diane Ravitch called "The Great School Wars," and we have been here before. In 1871, Boss Tweed centralized school control under the mayor. The result was not efficiency. It was cronyism, canceled contracts, and a demoralized system. Centralization centralizes power without checks. It prioritizes political loyalty over what
children actually need. Today, we are repeating that mistake. Proponents call mayoral control innovative, but let us ask the fundamental question. What type of autonomy are you giving school leaders to ensure students are meeting the mark? The answer under this system is almost none. Instead, we get top-down programs, expeditionary learning, or whatever the latest mandate may be. But programs do not meet everyone. A single approach imposed by central administration cannot serve the diverse children of the city.
When a program fails, school leaders are not trusted to adapt. They are punished for deviation. We claim to value productive struggle, the messy, collaborative work of solving problems together, but we do not permit it our own principals and educators. We mandate compliance instead. We get lost in this compliance culture. It's the work that actually matters. There is no mandate that values a tracking system on how teachers connect with parents, yet we all know that relationship between a teacher and a family is the engine of student
success.Under mayoral control, relational work is invisible because it does not fit. It does not fit on a spreadsheet. And so we lose the path of confidence. We lose the ability to take bold steps. We lose the very conditions that allow students to feel confident in their learning. We have watched schools that were once pillars of academic excellence, 287, schools in high-poverty areas where students thrive, be destabilized, closed, even demolished.
Those schools did not fail. They were failed by a system that valued real estate utilization over human relationships. The system has collided with gentrification to devastating effects in neighborhoods like Harlem, Fort Greene. Fewer than 25% of children attend their zoned public schools, families with means to opt out. Enrollment has dropped 12% citywide, with Black student enrollment falling 32%. Schools face shrinking budgets
and rising poverty concentrations, not because they were bad schools, but because policy has hollowed them out. At the same time, charter schools have steered from their original inception. They were meant to be laboratories of innovation, working alongside district schools. Instead, they have become a parallel system that drains resources and deepens segregation. In gentrifying areas, nine out of 10 charter schools remain intensely segregated. We are siphoning public dollars into unaccountable private boards while telling families the public
ship is sinking. Let us be clear, mayoral control is not an innovative strategy. It is a regression, a return to the centralized corruption of the 19th century. It strips away checks and balances that democracy requires. And if we do not change course, the damage will not remain contained in low-income communities. The School Construction Authority projects another 22% drop in enrollment over the next decade. When that happens, the same ruthless logic that closed schools in Central Brooklyn will be come to District 2 in Manhattan, District
15 in Park Slope, District 22 in Brooklyn. The closure of beloved neighborhood schools will become a citywide epidemic. Affluent communities will discover what our communities have known for years. Mayoral control offers no protection. It offers the- I don't- ... illusion of efficiency- Exactly ... until your school is on the chopping block. In conclusion- Thank you ... we need a different path. We need a community governance. We need to restore autonomy to school leaders so they can make decisions for their students. We need to value productive struggle over rigid compliance. We need invest in relationships between
teachers and parents, and we need to take bold steps to restore confidence and learning for every child. The time to act is now, before more historic schools are demolished, before more families lose faith, and before the instability reaches every district in the city. Thank you. Thank you, panel member. Are there any other panel members who wish to offer comment at this time? Yes, Panel Member Altman. Hi. So I just wanted to bring awareness to the public that the introduction of the new guidance on AI features, the Traffic Light Framework for
Safe and Responsible AI Use, is live. It went live, I think, a day or two ago at schools.nyc.gov. It is right in the first page. There is a link to learn more and also share your feedback until May 8th. That means that this is going to be the template that's going to create the guidebook. Now, the next 45 days, every single person, teacher, student, parent, everyone in the community can fill out the survey. I filled it out. There's a section at the end where you can write your thoughts, what you think, if the framework is good, if you think it needs more, less.
They're asking right now for feedback. This is crucial. This is critical. This is going to create the actual playbook that will come out in 45 days. It will be the first draft of its kind. Every single person, I encourage you to go onto schools.nyc.gov. Fill out this survey. Make your voices heard. Let them collect the data. Let them know your concerns. Let's get this right the first time. Thank you. Thank you. Any other panel members? Yes, Panel Member Fair. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. This is to you, Chancellor. Thank you again for joining us and partnering with us in the PEP, and for your
continued leadership and commitment to our school community. I wanted to take a moment to speak about an opportunity that could have another meaningful impact on our students and our families, particularly in strengthening engagement with Black students and Black parents. Over my time on the PEP, I've noticed who frequently spoke during these public comments, and it's not many of us. And it's not because Black communities and parents don't care, but Black parents are navigating racialized experiences their children face daily. How do I know? Because I'm one of them. My parent leadership journey began when I had to advocate for myself as a single
parent and for my daughter to receive the support we needed from her school. It was important for them to understand that we were both responsible for my daughter's success because they were the only village I had. As Chancellor, your voice carries such tremendous influence. Your leadership already sets the tone for inclusion and excellence across our schools. And additionally, your presence as a Black leader offers a powerful opportunity to deepen connection, trust, and a sense of belonging among Black students and their families. Representation at this level can be incredibly meaningful
It signals not only visibility, but also understanding and advocacy. I highly recommend you do some research with your team on how to uplift more black students and parents, and work with school leadership to encourage more black family engagement in reinforcing that they are seen, valued, and supported within their communities. Our goal is to build stronger relationships, increase participation, and ensure that all students and families feel connected to us. But your engagement in this space would be instrumental in helping us move that work forward, because we can't do anything without full representation.
Thank you. Okay. Any other-- Yes, Panel Member Schirro, then yeah, Panel Member Alicea, and did you have your hand up, panel member? No. Okay. All right. No. All right. Good evening again. So somebody asked who is in charge of telling parents their school is failing? Your school is in charge of telling you that, and that is federally mandated on the New York State Education website by the New York State Education Department. Some people will tell you that they have 45 days, it is not. It is as soon as you don't have a highly qualified teacher. A highly qualified teacher means that they are certified in the content, or in
the grade, or in special education to who they are teaching. And in grade seven to 12, you must be content certified as well as a certified teacher or special education- Can I ask that the audience please remain in order? I know that people get enthusiastic about speakers, but in order to maintain the effective meeting, I ask that people not call out and just maintain some decorum. Thank you. The Bronx- Panel member ... can't help themselves. They're excited in Brooklyn. It's okay. Strobe lights. So somebody brought up strobe lights and SCA, and I would love to have this conversation with SCA. We have a school in the Bronx.
We have one hearing education school in each borough. Just one. Why don't they have strobe lights? Why is SCA telling us that we have to wait? I sent an email from my legislator in May of 2023, and we are still waiting three years later for these strobe lights at 333X, if anybody wants to know, for a program where we have deaf students and teachers. It's not written into the safety plan that somebody goes to the other side of the building where these students and teacher are located
to get them in the event an emergency. And even if it was in the safety plan, who is that? Because that person is not going to be available at whatever time on any day. The people typically on the BRT are the people who are not in classrooms and sometimes who are not in the building every day, which is another problem. We can't have the counselor, the social worker that's there for three days on the BRT responsible to respond to crises on a day they may not be there. And so we just have to look at this because we have schools that need strobe
lights for fire alarms, for evacuation, that don't have them. It is a safety issue. It is a federal mandate. And this goes back to seats and co-locations. I am in full support of expanding and giving seats and opening maybe seats to give people opportunities. We have special education and District 75 students that actually don't have seats, that don't have appropriate settings. And so when we talk co-location, there's only so much land that we have in the city. And so we just need to think about these are all our kids.
District 75 special education is program, not a place. These are the kids in your parks. These are the kids upstairs and downstairs from where you live, in the supermarket, and they could be working where you need them when you're older. We need to be responsible for all the kids in our district, not just one school or one community. We are all the community, and we all up here hear you and represent you. We don't oppose what you're saying, but we also have to look at a huge picture. And we are happy to engage in that conversation. A lot of us have provided our emails at the joint public hearings so that
you have direct access in the event that you can't reach us to tell us exactly what your issues are so we can have that conversation and be your voice in this space. My last thing, the bathroom repairs. We have schools that don't have locks in girls' bathrooms in middle school. It's not okay. And that is another safety issue. And I'm not going to talk about the bathroom issue that I've had with phones and things, but we need locks on these doors at minimum. We need bathrooms that the kids fit into.
We need bathrooms that are accessible for students that need support to be changed, for the para to be able to fit in the bathroom with the student, and for them not to be changing the student where the sinks are with the door open, because they have to leave the door open if there's kids in there. The adults are not supposed to-- It's a weird thing, guys. If adults are not allowed in the bathroom, then what are the rules for the student that needs it? So if we could just think about that and work on these bathroom repairs. We've done a lot of repairs that resulted in us losing stalls and losing space. In Truman, we had specific
bathrooms. Those bathrooms are now smaller, the stalls are smaller, and they're less accessible, requiring two staff to go so that they can each key and go back and forth. Please visit if you don't understand, but we have a bathroom problem citywide that we really need to address. This is basic human rights. And the last thing, the process of wheelchair admissions is citywide. So thank you, Steven, for coming and speaking about accessibility and speaking about equitable education, because there are students that have specific needs with disabilities that
can't engage in a process of school choice. You get what you get, and you don't get upset because if not, it's not accessible for you. That's not fair, and that's not how our tax system works.I pay taxes for every kid. I expect every kid to benefit from my taxes. And please translate all the documents. Our documents are not available in any other language other than English. And so we're going to talk about translation and equity, then let's start with us. Maybe we have one document in each language that we're providing interpretation for that people can then either take a picture
of, or we have the QR code available. But let's start with the-- And the captions, we need the captions minimum in English. We actually do have the captions. We're checking into why they didn't work tonight, but they've been up for a while. And I know we have it online, because when we were talking, I- Yeah. They may be down tonight, but they actually are there. Yeah. But online we had them. Yeah. So the online community had it, we just didn't have it in person. Okay. And so I'm just saying, if we're going to do that, I want to look at us first. Let us be the model- Mm-hmm ... for the whole city for everything. Since we heard that, we checked and confirmed that it was developed and it's
up. Sometimes technology failed. After all, this is coming from somebody with a Yahoo account. So... Listen, be proud for loving your Yahoo. I'm very proud of my Yahoo. It works. You said it. It works, it works. Okay, panel member... I'm sorry, did you finish? That I was just asking to remind about the first statement. If we can get the SCA to have a conversation with us, the two trustees, even though they're supposed to have three. Yep. If we could have just the two trustees. Yep. All right. Hi again. Say hi. Adiana Alicea. She/her. Queen CECs. Thank you, Panel Member Altman, for shouting out the AI guidance that was posted on the New York City Public Schools website.
I also encourage all of our parents and guardians and students to visit that. And then I encourage you to go ahead and watch the PEP recordings from the past couple of months where we've had members of New York City Department of Education central office discuss something called a playbook. And what we received was guidance. And while I would like to be excited as everyone else this evening has been, I just don't feel that. There is no opt-out process posted. There's not even a wireframe for an opt-out process. There is no full list of the vendors that we are operating with.
I think that if my kid is going to be exposed to a vendor's third-party information tech or IP, I should be aware of that. When my kid is exposed to a book, I have the option to pick it up and read it. Further to that, on the guidance page, there's not sufficient information that is being provided about the amount of time that our students are sitting in front of AI-powered tools, AI-powered software, AI-powered programming. And I'm just going to end with a request for all of our central folks who
develop these documents or develop the talking points or the policies, whatever it is. Please stop moving the goalpost. If you call it a playbook, release a playbook. A playbook is a very specific thing. It tells you what you're going to do to get to win. Guidance is not a playbook. Those things are nary the same. So if we're going to say that we're releasing a playbook, then we release a playbook, because that is very different than just the viewpoints of guidance that are now posted. And I think,
I didn't want to touch on this point, but we were discussing schools having outside space, right? And schools in Manhattan having outside space. I think it's also very critical that we remember that AI is drinking our water. AI is heating our planet. AI is causing our government officials to look the other way when large factories are being purchased to become AI data centers. And those things also drink our water. Yes, and they're also hijacking your utility prices. Call Con Ed and ask them if you don't believe me. New York City Public Schools has the responsibility to do
better than this, and 2,000 people have asked us to put a moratorium on AI. We've asked New York City Public School parents, guardians, families, students, teachers, staff members to participate in this feedback loop for this AI guidance. And to my understanding, the AI working group was not consulted about the guidance that was posted. To my understanding, the working groups that have been developed community by community about this were not tapped for their opinion about the guidance that was posted.
So, can we please put up-- Let's just breaks. Like breaks are really good for everybody, and since we got traffic lights, maybe we can have breaks and put a break on this. Thank you. Thank you, panel member. Was there someone else? Did I miss-- Did I get everybody? Me. Yes. Thank you. Thank you to all the parents, and students that came out to speak tonight. We always appreciate getting direct input from everyone, and we will definitely take everything into consideration. I wanted to raise the issue that I always raise at every meeting, and it's about undocumented families and students who are living essentially in fear under this tyrannical regime federally.
But I have some good news. I got a chance to hang out with Dylan Contreras, and he is so relieved that he's out. But the first thing he said was that he feels guilt. He feels guilt for the other kids left behind in Pennsylvania private prison, and would like to do something about it. So let's continue to advocate for the abolition of ICE. ICE cannot continue to exist. ICE is terrorizing people in our airports right now in a way that's completely insane. They're not even doing any work. They're just standing there playing on their phones. And just because of that, people can't travel.I want to give a huge
shout-out to Rock NYC, Adam Abah, who I just had the pleasure of honoring at City Hall, and Power Malu, and also the Interfaith Center of New York, Reverend Chloe Breyer, who we're visiting almost weekly, sometimes multiple times a week, and we're the ones to bring him back, and the New York Immigration Coalition. They've been instrumental in being very vocal about the rights of everyone in this city, including those that are not fully documented. So thank you so much. Thank you, Panel Member Hassan. I think we have to give a note of thanks to you, panel member, for your work in this
area and for advising us. As soon as Dylan was released, you sent me a text right away. We're really pleased about that, and I really appreciate it. Thank you. And no. And I know we talked about this. Hopefully, we can have Dylan come to a panel meeting. We'd love to honor him and let him know that his school community, we didn't forget him and that we're proud of him. And he made an important sacrifice for us because this talks about democracy- Yes ... and where we're headed. So I want to thank you for your leadership and being persistent in reminding us and keeping those issues front and center. Yeah. I want to thank the whole panel for their support, and also that his school
is in Manhattan. Marble Hill is part of Manhattan, so I take credit for that, too. The Bronx might differ with that. It's right on the borderline there. That's true, it is Manhattan. I think we had everyone speak. Is there somebody else I... Me? Ditto to everything that was said. Okay. Ditto. Okay. Well, we get a little preview of what we're going to hear in April at this meeting, and so I want to thank the panel members for coming out and being here. I do see you standing there, but at this point, we're not going to have additional conversation around this. So I acknowledge you, but we're going to move
forward. No. Well, there's no dialogue. No. Okay. Is there any further discussion? Seeing that, our next meeting is going to be on April 15th at the Bronx and College Prep High School. We'll see you all in April. This meeting is adjourned.