There is one item of business that we do have to perform before we can actually call the meeting to order, is that as I've made reference to the fact that we have a brand-new panel for education policy, we need to swear them in. So, at this point, I'd like to invite the members designated of the panel for education policy to please rise and take the oath of office. You'll repeat after me. I, state your name, do solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member
of the Panel for Education Policy of the City School District of New York. That was a lot. No, you've got to say it. Okay, I'll say it again. Yeah. And that I will faithfully discharge the duties as member of the Panel for Education Policy of the City School District of the City of New York, also known as the New York City Department of Education, according to the best of my ability. Con- congratulations and welcome to the Panel for Education Policy. And I will say this, that normally, during the time that I've been on the panel, that oath has been
administered in private. And I really felt that this is a public commitment and that that commitment ought to be made in front of the public. And so I'm grateful to the law department for agreeing, but I think that the oath that we take is very seriously, and it is a commitment to the children and families of the city of New York, and we ought to do it in public, and I'm glad that we were able to do that. And so having done that important bit of business, I'll now ask our secretary to please call the roll. Yeah.
All right. Thank you, Chair Faulkner. Members, when I call your name, please let me know you are present. Panel Member Adriana Alicea. Panel Member Erin Bogan. Panel Member Kimberly Carbonaro. Panel Member Camille Caseretti. Present. Panel Member Dr. Jonathan Collins. Here. Panel Member Costa Constantinides. Here. Panel Member Carla Cordero. Here. Panel Member Marjorie Dinstag. Panel Member Amie Fair. Here. Panel Member Dr. Maddie Fox. Panel Member Farajii Hannah-Jones. Present. Panel Member Naveed Hasan. Panel Member Kristen Jefferson. Panel Member Tariq Khan. Panel Member Lucas Kohler. Panel Member Primo Lassana.
Present. Panel Member Marine Mehdi. Here. Panel Member Alan Ong. Present. Panel Member Courtney Rajwani. Panel Member Raisa Rodriguez. Panel Member Reverend Letitia Thompson. Panel Member Crystal Vera Montalvo. Chancellor Kamau Samuels. Present. And representing Comptroller Mark Levine. Present. All right. At this time, we have 22 of 24 voting members present. Accordingly, there is a quorum. And- Excuse me. Oh, I'm so sorry. Chair Gregory Faulkner. How soon they forget. Yeah. Present. Yeah, present.
Back to you, Chair Faulkner. Thank you. The next item of business that immediately follows, in accordance with our bylaws, is the election of the panel vice-chair. And at this time, I'd like to open the floor for nominations for the position of vice-chair of the Panel for Education Policy. You can also self-nominate. Are there any nominations for the office of vice-chair? Chair, I'd like to nominate. Yes. I would be pleased to nominate Carla Cordero as vice-chair. She has had a lot of experience with children and is a lifelong
public servant. I think would be great in the position. Great. A second is not required, but we'll do it just as a formality, as just a second. Nominations don't require a second, but there is a second. Ms. Cordero, do you accept? Accept. Are there any additional nominations for the office of vice-chair? Seeing no additional nominations. Yeah. Chair, I would also like to nominate Amie Fair. Wait, say that again? I would like to nominate Amie Fair. I'm sorry. Okay. Amie, do you accept? I accept. Thank you. Okay. So we have to go to an uncontested election. So what we'll do is we'll call the roll, and you'll indicate the candidate that you
are in support of. All right. Members, when I call your name, please let me know the candidate that you are supporting. Panel Member Alicea. Can you circle back? I can. Panel Member Bogan. Circle back. Panel Member Carbonaro. Fair. I'll go with Fair. Panel Member Caseretti. I'll go with Amie Fair. Thank you. What are you all doing? Jesus. Panel Member Collins. With her years of experience in bureaucracy and administrative systems, I'm going with Amy Fair. Panel member Constanzides? I'll vote with Karla Cordero. Panelist member Cordero? I'll vote for myself. Panel member Deansteig. Amy Fair. Panel member Fair?
I vote for myself. Panel member Fox. I vote for Fair. Panel member Hannah Jones. Can I circle back, please? Yes. Thank you. Panel member Hassan. I vote for Amy Fair. Panel member Jefferson. I vote for Karla Cordero. Panel member Khan. My vote is for Ms. Cordero. Panel member Lasana. My vote is for Ms. Cordero. Panel member Mehdi. I vote for Cordero. Panel member Ong. Cordero. Panel member Rajwani. Ms. Cordero. Panel member Rodriguez. Ms. Cordero. Panel member Thompson. I respectfully abstain. Panel member Vera-Montalvo. Ms. Cordero. Chair Gregory Faulkner. Can we go back to the people who passed?
We can. We're going to circle back. Panel member Alisaya. Amy Fair. Panel member Boggan. Where is he? Oh. Cordero. Panel member Hannah Jones. I will vote for Amy Fair. Chair Gregory Faulkner. Panel member Cordero. So. We can
quarrel. Nothing. So Karla Cordero is the winner. So we have a new vice chair, Karla Cordero. Welcome and congratulations. Now, of course, you know the one duty of the vice chair is to call the chair in the morning.
And if I answer, you can go back to sleep. As they say. So no, congratulations. It's an exciting role, and I'm sure you'll do a great job. And you're already seated right here, so that's great. The next item of business is the introduction of our chancellor. It is always a pleasure to hear from our chancellor because he always comes with exciting information, and so it's always great to hear from him. And so Chancellor, I'm going to give you the floor. Thank you. Thank you. First of all, good evening, and thank you for being here. I know I typically start with exciting information, but today I want to start on a sad note.
I do want to acknowledge the horrific e-bike accident that took place today. This morning, it led to the death of one of our young people. And certainly as a parent and as the chancellor, the news is devastating. My heart goes out to this young person's family and the school community, and we are providing the necessary supports that are needed. As you know, the safety of our young people is a huge priority of mine as the chancellor, and so this tragedy is truly heartbreaking. So if we can just pause
for a moment Thank you. And now, as we start our meeting, I want to specifically thank Chair Faulkner and the panel for agreeing to serve our city in this way, and it's exciting to see some returning faces as well as new faces. I also want to thank our hosts, the High School for Fashion Industries, Principal Blank, and Superintendent Bydleman, and the Manhattan School for Career Development, Principal Astarita, and Superintendent McCoy. I want to acknowledge that July
is Disability Pride Month. And yes, yes. I've been to many PEP meetings over the years. I can't say that I've been to one in July, but I'm super proud that I'm here in Disability Pride Month, and I am proud that we recently announced this administration's $67 million commitment and investment in pre-K special education programs. And speaking of early childhood, 2K offers will be released next week.
I'm excited to be thinking about our 2,000 seats for 2K, and very, very excited that tonight you will be voting on some contracts that are on the agenda. And meanwhile, my team and I are in full steam ahead preparing and planning for the upcoming school year. More to come on that, but as we get closer to this September, we will be having lots of announcements on the priorities and initiatives that will shape our school year. Before I turn it back to our chair, I do really want to welcome our newly inaugurated PEP members.
I'm super excited to have you on board, and I appreciate your dedication, your commitment to our schools and our communities. I want to really extend my gratitude for everyone who's answered this call for service. I became a teacher over 20 years ago, and I wanted to make a difference, and I'm sure that's the same impulse that draws all of you here to this role tonight. Together, I believe we can model for how deep engagement and collaboration can strengthen our school system and sustain our
policies on behalf of families and young people. I look forward to working in partnership with you. We are lucky to have your expertise, your thoughtful input. As we navigate key issues in our school system, just know you have my commitment for deep collaboration, and so I'm excited to continue with you all. So now let's proceed to our meeting. Thank you so much. Great. Thank you very much, Chancellor. I moved out of order a little bit. I wanted to first give an opportunity to our brand new panel members to maybe say a word of
introduction. Take a minute, that's really all to it. And don't feel compelled to use the whole minute, but, I wanted to give people an opportunity. We'll just go around the room, and if you want to just say a word of introduction or any opening remarks, I wanted to give that opportunity to you. So we'll start with Panel Member Deanstand, and we'll just go around the room. Go ahead. Good afternoon or good evening. Courtney Rajwani. I come from Jackson Heights, Queens. So I have some background and working in early childhood education, both working in a community-based organization in Jackson Heights, Queens for a number of years.
And then also working previously with the New York City, Department of Education to support the expansion of early childhood in our city. And I'm very honored to be joining this panel. Hi, my name is Kimberly Carbonero. I'm the executive director for a nonprofit on Staten Island. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now living on Staten Island. I service about 500 families a month with resources, educational literacy, trying to get back into the school system. I also have a child on the spectrum, and I've been in the public school system for over 22 years. Costa Constantinides. I'm a
lifelong Queens resident, 15 years in city government. I'm a product of the public school system. I'm now the CEO of a Boys and Girls Club in Queens, and an adjunct professor at Queens College, and a young person who's a child of mine is about to start a 3K program this fall. So, very excited to be a public school parent yet again. Hi, my name is Maryam Mati, and I'm a public education advocate, community organizer from Financial District in District 2. And I've served on the school leadership team at a District 2 school where I established the after-school Spanish program to increase access to world
language and education for elementary students, and also advocated for inclusive curriculum. I'm honored to be on the PEP board and working alongside my fellow panel members to strengthen the relationship between the families and the school communities. Thank you. Thanks. Good evening, everyone. Alan Ong, returning member. Thank you. Looking forward to working with everyone. Short and sweet. Hi, everyone. Camille Cassaratti. I'm the Brooklyn Borough President appointee. I'm a product of New York City public schools. My two children have also attended our great schools. The youngest one just graduated this
spring. Twelve years in parent leadership. I've held roles on the PTA, SLT, CEC, all these acronyms, now the PEP. And some of the things that I've enjoyed advocating for, working with families on special education, ensuring that families receive their services, inclusive classrooms, desegregation. I believe in culturally responsive and trauma-informed curriculum, and I am
excited about the prospect of all of these new early childhood seats, which are going to help close the education gap. I believe it is our job as a school board to ensure that that happens. And so, just a note of thanks to all of you who are here today, and to those who are watching online, and to those who are not able to be here, but really care. Thank you for sharing your voice and your support, and looking forward to working with you all this year. Thanks. Hello, my name is Faradji Hanna-Jones.
I'm the Brooklyn CEC appointee. This is my second year on the Panel for Education Policy. Very excited to be in this role again. Those who know me know that I go forward in terms of ensuring that our children, especially our children that are in our marginalized and high poverty index areas, are supported and prioritized, our special needs, and our students with disabilities. I too am a strong advocate for integrating our schools
the right way, and ensuring that every last one of our children that needs access to a quality education is also quality instruction in the classroom, is also implemented with competent and stellar leadership in their schools. Specifically in our Bronx and Brooklyn areas. So, that is why I'm here, and I will continue to do that work. And thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. Adriana Alicea, she/her. I represent Queens CECs on this lovely panel.
This is my third year on the panel, and I am very grateful to be in this space with all of these new members. We were able to do a few intros inside, and it's going to be a great year, you guys. It's going to be a great year. Speaking of which, I just want to flag that it is July 2026, and we do not have an ASL interpreter still. We still do not have an ASL interpreter either on the dais with us or in the crowd. Separate to that, or in addition to that , I chair the school utilization, or the, sorry, the utilization committee. We discuss school utilization proposals. Our first meeting of the year will be in August.
Typically, it is a week before the PEP. We go through that month's SUPs. There will not be any SUPs in August because it's not a school year month. So we will discuss other things at our August meeting. I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. Thank you. And I'm Dr. Jonathan Collins. I represent the Bureau of Manhattan, coming to you from Harlem. Where y'all at? There we go. Come on. As you can see, I'm still celebrating the championship. Knicks in five. And Knicks forever. Go New York, go New York, go.
But I'm here to focus mainly on making sure that we have evidence-based practices working. I believe that access, especially to early childhood interventions, is the civil rights issue of our time. That we live now in an apartheid system where there are certain kids who get access to early interventions, and there are certain kids that don't, and it completely determines the trajectory of their academic careers, and ultimately their lives. And so I'm glad that we're talking about early childhood expansion this year. That's one of the major commitments.
I'm looking forward to every single component that we push forward around that issue, because again, like I said, it's the civil rights issue of our time. So, excited to serve. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to my new panel member colleagues. First of all, I just want to thank our families who are here tonight, and all the teachers and the administration folks. Again, my name is Amy Fair, proud Bronx resident, born and raised. And as a lifelong New Yorker and proud Bronx resident, public education is deeply personal to me. For those who knew me in the prior
term, I've seen the strength and resilience and diversity of our communities, and I've shared that. And my passion of being here is due to my daughter, who has an IEP, and thanks to the navigation of our wonderful administration and the DOE I can attest that we have great opportunities here, and we make opportunities for our kids to be successful, that we're not all bad, and there are good products that do come from the DOE schools. As I continue in this term, I'm going to continue to focus on the Black and brown communities for equity and access in the classroom. Again, being born and raised in the Bronx, I used to always be jealous of folks
from Manhattan and other boroughs, because when we would talk to other kids, we would compare the different type of experiences that we had in the DOE schools. And I'm hoping that by working with this new team here, that it'll no longer be a comparison, but everyone will be able to say the same thing. They have the same positive experience, eating the same type of positive lunch meals. Right, guys? Having ACs in all their classrooms, and of course, having a great experience with all of their teachers consistently, and their leadership team, and that parents have exposure to be part of the SOT, because we know that's always been a big issue.
So I look forward to working with each and every one of you, and I thank you so much again for allowing me to come back. Good evening, everyone. My name is Karla Cordero. Thank you for this honor to serve the city of New York. I come to the PEP for my first year, and my focus is making sure the panel's decisions are transparent, well-informed, and it reaches every community that this affects, not just those that are here today. This comes directly from my work in equity-driven work, cross-sector program delivery. I spent a large portion of my career in city government working in
social services, and so this is near and dear to me in terms of the families that we represent. But it's also personal to me. I'm a product of New York City's public school system. My son is a public school student. My husband is a public school teacher. So I've lived this experience as a student, as a parent, and as a spouse. And I deeply believe in what good education can do, and my priority would be making sure that students, families, school administrators have all the tools and support that they need to actually succeed
in their environment. So thank you, and welcome to everybody that's here. Hi, everyone. Raisa Rodriguez. Pleasure and honor to be here. I am born and raised in the Bronx. I spent several years, yep. I spent several years in the classroom, actually. I started my career as a kindergarten teacher in the Bronx, and it was the three years that had the biggest, strongest impact on the rest of my career. I have had the great privilege of holding many roles, and there's none that I'm more proud of than to call
myself a lifelong child advocate. I lead a nonprofit child advocacy organization that's been around for more than eight decades, Citizens Committee for Children of New York, and our vision is simple: every child healthy, housed, educated, and safe. I strongly believe that there is no greater gift we can give to our city than to ensure every single child, no matter where they live or reside, has a high-quality education. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Primo Lasana. I am thrilled to be here.
I want to give a shout-out to all the young people in the room. Let's give them a round of applause. I'm currently the chief impact officer for an organization called the Forum for Youth Investment, which focuses on elevating youth voice to impact policy at the federal level to make sure that young people are being heard and that their voices are implemented in our policy decisions across the country. I spent the last 15 years working in early literacy education here in New York City public schools. Also worked for about 10 years in college access. I live in Brooklyn, and I'm just so excited to be here, to get to work,
to collaborate, and to deliver results alongside the wonderful staff at New York City Public Schools. Good evening. I'm Steven Morales. I'm policy director for education for New York City Comptroller Mark Levine. I'm also his designee on the panel. I have a seven-month-old, so I'm a future public school parent. And you may notice over the course of these meetings that I do not have a vote as the comptroller's designee. But my role here is to be a partner to the PEP members, and to parents, the community, in making sure our kids get the best education
possible. So it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Tariq Khan. I'm a long-term Queens resident, and I'm proud parent of four children who went through the public school system. A wonderful place to be. I am humbled and honored to be here this evening, and I am advocating for enrichment across the board, equity across the board in all our schools. And I know we will get there, and we're going to work hard on that. Thank you. Hello, hello. I'm Maddie Fox. I come hail from Brooklyn. I'm honored to be here and serve on this panel with all of you.
And amazing turnout here in July. Thank you, everyone, for coming to the meeting tonight. I come to this role as a parent of two public school students, and as a CUNY professor at Brooklyn College in children and youth studies and sociology and urban education, and critical psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center. And in my work, I collaborate with directly impacted young people and their communities around policies that impact their lives, and particularly with young people in their communities who aren't always included or sometimes feel excluded from
the way the policies impact them. And so I'm very excited to be here on this panel, serving in this role because I do think that the more engagement from the more people leads to more creative and stronger and more effective decision-making, and so I look forward to partnering with the panel and with the public in even increasing engagement with our school governance structures across the city. As a panel member, I'll bring my experience with an interest in educational policy and collaboration, and research and participatory commitments, but also my willingness to
listen and learn and be moved. So, be in touch, and I'm honored to serve and excited to work with all of you. Margie, you didn't get to go. Well, I anticipated you wouldn't go to back there. Let someone else go- Oh, okay ... then I'll go back there. Hi, everyone. Thank you for coming out in July. My name is Naveed Hasan. I am the Manhattan CEC elected representative on the Panel for Educational Policy. This is my fifth term. I am an immigrant from Pakistan. I went to public school myself, and so did my siblings in Brooklyn. And I have family members who are refugees, so as you can imagine, I have a strong advocacy orientation for immigration and
immigrant rights, and multilingual education. My background is in technology, and I try to bring as much of that to my work as possible, centering technology with humanity. And finally, obviously, education policy is a strong interest area given that I've been serving here for more than four years. So, thank you everyone for having me. I look forward to working with everyone else. Thank you. Hello, I'm Kristen Jefferson. I live in Brooklyn. I was a teacher for nine years and an assistant principal for eight years, and throughout that time, my primary focus was
always making sure that our multilingual learner students receive high-quality academic instruction and social and emotional support, and that the educators that serve them also get the professional development that they need in order to make sure that that happens. And I am very excited to learn from and work with the panel members this year. Good evening, everyone. My name is Crystal Vera Montalvo. I am from Staten Island. I am a mayoral appointee. I'm a proud New York City public school parent, second-gen CUNY student. I work for CUNY, and I'm a student in the community-based leadership
program. My work is primarily overseeing ESL, GED, and lifelong learning programs specifically for folks with disabilities. I'm honored to serve on this panel and to serve families and be a part of any effort that helps cultivate environments where all students feel like they belong and all students are thriving. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Reverend Letitia Thompson. I am from the Boogie Down Bronx, born and bred, and I love my babies.
I am here to shift the trajectory and the perspective around being a professional parent. That is all you need to be in these streets. I do have professional background, however, over 25 years in federal government contracting, multi-year, multimillion-dollar acquisitions for IT and network management. I am a former executive leader at Bank of America and have worked for various federal government agencies. And again,
that makes me a professional parent. And so I bring those skills to this work. I look forward. This is a good panel, y'all. I'm so excited to be here and to bring whatever I need to bear to improve the lives and the academics for our babies. Okay. Thank you, everyone. I see, I realize, actually, you were the one that followed the rules when I said it would be... So thank you for that, and I now would like to recognize panel member Dinstein for comments. Good evening, everybody. My name is Marjorie Dinstein.
I'm a parent of a current 22-year-old who has autism, who is still in the system. I represent D75. This is my fifth year, and that's why I waited and let everybody else talk first. I've been all over the place, PTA president, SLT, just name it, an advocate, a local community activist and leaders too, mostly for children with special needs. And I am a big, big fighter for new D75 in every community. And so far, I got to say, I'm
winning. Not in the lotto, but I'm winning in that field. And this year, not only that we are going to push for more schools, also the quality of education they are getting. Since my son is aging out, we need to make sure that every child in the system, our minimum is to give them the right to be semi-independent, if not independent. We're going to thrive to give them what they need To be able to achieve that. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you all very much to the members of the panel.
I'm sure we'll all get to know a lot more about you, and we'll see you out in the community. So again, thank you to the members of the panel. Our next item is an item of old business, and that is the approval of the minutes of our June 17th meeting. Is there a motion for unanimous consent on adoption of the June 17th meeting minutes? Is there a second to the motion for unanimous consent? Is there objection to unanimous consent? Seeing no objection to unanimous consent, the minutes for our June 17th meeting are adopted. We're going to now move into the public comment section, and I want to review the procedure that we'll follow as we receive public comment on the
panel. And I actually read it because I want to make sure that I don't leave anything out. During public comment period, everyone who has signed up to speak on specific agenda items will be allocated two and a half minutes. I will ask our secretary, Secretary McCormick, to call forward speakers from the signup sheets and to keep an eye on the clock to ensure that speakers finish their comments within the allotted time period. Additional time will, of course, be provided to anyone who needs language issues or to facilitate comments that require translation. We will also call speakers up in groups of
five. The clock will indicate the amount of time remaining for each speaker, and a light will flash when there is one minute left, so you'll get a one-minute warning, so speakers know that their time is about to expire. At the conclusion of each speaker's comment, we will move on to the next speaker. If a speaker, this is important, if a speaker is not present when their name is called, we will move on to the next speaker. Once that has happened, you will not necessarily be able to regain your spot in the queue. This portion of the meeting is only designed for comments
on agenda items. So when we move into the first period of the voting items, we'll be addressing contracts, and we'll open the floor for comments that would be only related specifically to contracts. If you want to speak about some other item, there's a period at the end of the meeting where we allow for general public comment, but that comes at the end of the meeting. Again, comments during these sections should only relate to the things or items that we are going to be talking about. The first item is we open the floor for public comment from students, and so I'll ask the secretary if there are students who've signed up to speak.
There are. When I call your name, feel free to walk up to one of the microphones. William Bough, Oliver Kackler, Juniper Wang, Alex Wolfowitz, Abid Mati. Yeah. You can begin. Okay, everybody have come with their fan club. You can begin as soon as you arrive at the microphone. A little bit louder. We can't hear. Can we move the mic up a little bit? I think that's the microphone. It's this side. This side right here. Yeah. If you want to swap, you can swap here. It's fine. Works fine. Hello, Chancellor Kamara Samuels and the Panel for Educational Policy. My name is William Bough, and I am a rising junior at the High School for Math,
Science, and Engineering at City College, and a member of the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee. In March of this year, the Panel for Educational Policy unanimously passed a resolution in support of expanding Student Omni, for which we have gathered over 500 petition signatures and 14 other resolutions at CECs. Despite this, NYC Public Schools has made no movement to expand eligibility to all students, and the Student Omni card rollout, which has been promised since last fall,
remains opaque. On June 29th, we hand-delivered our coalition letter to the chancellor's office requesting a response. But a month later, we are still waiting. Our coalition letter had almost 50 signatures, including three borough presidents, 10 members of City Council, six CECs, and several community-based organizations, all joining their voices to demand universal access to Student Omni cards. Unlimited daily rides, and more reliable and durable cards.
We are here today to demonstrate that expanding Student Omni is still a top concern for NYC students, and we implore you, Chancellor Samuels, to share your intentions to address our concerns as a top priority ahead of the 2026 to '27 school year. We can still achieve a Student Omni program that serves all NYCPS students, but not without the attention and cooperation of the chancellor. Cards can be easily updated to allow unlimited rides, and an expansion to allow yellow school bus riders and those
living within half a mile of their school to have a student Omni card is still within reach for the 2026 and 2027 school year. Thank you for listening to our concerns, and we look forward to your response. Hello, and good evening, Chancellor Samuels, and to all the members of the Panel for Education Policy. My name is Oliver Kackler, and I recently graduated from a School Without Walls, and I'm also a member of the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee. I'm here today to also speak in favor of universal and unlimited student Omni cards. Back in March, this panel unanimously
passed a resolution in support of universal and unlimited student Omni cards, but so far, New York City Public Schools has not taken any action towards expanding student Omni access. Right now, half of New York City Public School students don't have a student Omni card because they live within half a mile of their school or take the yellow bus. It's summer now, but having a student Omni card is still incredibly useful. I can use it to run errands or travel to medical appointments. I can see all the great things our city has to offer, like our museums and parks with ease. I can easily check in on family members and friends. Students who aren't eligible for a student Omni card have an extra barrier to the ability to
get around the city and to be able to do these things just because they live too close to their school. We've received support spanning all five boroughs, including elected officials, community organizations, and over 500 petition signatures. We implore Chancellor Samuels and New York City Public Schools to listen to the citywide outcry and finally address this issue. Thank you. Good evening to the Panel for Education Policy and Chancellor Samuels. My name is Alex Wolfowitz, and I'm a rising junior at Brooklyn Tech. My life happens all across the city. I take a summer course in downtown Brooklyn, work at CCNY on 140th Street, and play basketball with my friends in East Williamsburg.
The student Omni card is the backbone for all of this. When it works, I can do all these activities in the same day. When it doesn't, I'm stuck behind the turnstile, frantically trying to find a transit worker to open up the gates for me, and it doesn't always work. Two weeks ago, on the morning of my first pre-calc test, I was left stuck behind the turnstiles while I watched my morning train go by because my card didn't register. As a result, I missed the first several minutes of my test. This is not just a reality for me, but many other students throughout the five boroughs. Because it is so difficult to obtain a replacement, I've had to borrow
my sister's card, leaving one of us without them at any given time. When I was in seventh grade, I was ineligible for a student MetroCard because I lived less than half a mile away from my school. As a result, when I was commuting to activities or extracurriculars, I had to pay the full fare every time. This is why we are advocating for changes. We want universal access for all New York City students, unlimited rides, fair communication around deactivations, and a more reliable card. We have over 550 petition signatures and support from elected officials as well as community
organizations. This is why we urge Chancellor Samuels and the DOE to listen to the community and finally address this issue. Thank you. Good evening, Panel for Educational Policy. My name is Juniper Wang, and I'm a rising senior at LaGuardia High School. And I'm also part of the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee. A few months ago, I was commenting in support of a resolution to expand student Omni card at the March PEP meeting. This resolution was passed unanimously by the PEP, in addition to 14 other CEC resolutions around the city. It is now July, and we have seen no action from the Chancellor or New York City Public Schools to address the issues of student Omni cards.
We recently delivered a letter signed by 42 allied coalition partners to Chancellor Samuels. We have yet to receive a response. Half of New York City public school students were unfairly denied access to public transportation this summer. While other students were able to take advantage of what the city had to offer. Just because of their home address, they weren't able to get a student Omni card. This locked them out of jobs, internships, and other activities that make summer enriching and productive. Student Omni cards continue to be limited to four rides a day when students shouldn't be forced to pay for public transportation at all.
Some students have multiple commitments or complex commutes. The MTA is willing to compromise to work with New York City Public Schools and initiate change, but New York City Public Schools has to properly communicate with all parties involved and initiate the action to achieve unlimited rides. The deactivation of student Omni cards continues to lack transparency with no clear policy in place. Students are not communicated when their cards are deactivated, and their cards just randomly stop working. Making matters worse, schools have continued to struggle with keeping cards available. Towards the end of the school year, I heard from many students that they
were denied a card since the school ran out of cards. This meant they couldn't attend their summer activities on time without paying out of pocket. Unless they were forced to visit a summer school site, which also had low stock of cards. We recently received news of a digital card pilot, but details remain unclear. We don't know which schools are included, we don't know what the pilot is trying to achieve, and we don't know the logistics of the digital card system. I encourage the PEP and Chancellor Samuels to take action now. There's still time to address these issues before the start of next school year.
Thank you Hello, my name is Abid Mahdi, and I'm a rising junior at William Cullen Bryant High School in Astoria, Queens. I spoke last in front of the PEP on the behalf of my school community as we fought against the co-location of Bryant High School back in February 2026, alongside my teachers and the support of the New York City Young Democratic Socialists of America. And I speak here now for a different reason, to stop the AI usage of our schools and to implement a full moratorium on AI. There isn't any place for corporations in our school systems. They don't care about education, but rather
profit extracted from what they can gather off of the multicultural microcosm of the New York City public school system. The minds of my peers are being continually eroded, and for what? Gain? Profits? For the panel members who were there before, I'd also like an apology for starters of how you spoke in regards to the previous U of T representative, Ms. Georgia Lignum, who served the Bryant community for 20 years. She spent her last year in front of you, and though I'm now a U of T rep, I'm a socialist and I'm a student in the New York City public school system, and I'll continue her spirit, her fighting spirit in here and outside the
school setting. I trust the new appointees will not make the same mistake of not listening to the community. And Mahreen, you're going to do great. So I want to applaud you and all the other Zhou-appointed members of this panel. And thank you everyone for listening to me, and let's get AI out of our school systems. This was Abid Mahdi, rising junior at William Cullen Bryant and representing the New York City Young Democratic Socialists of America. Vinnie Dong, Andy Trinh, August Hoyte. Yeah? Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Vinnie Dong, and I'm a rising junior at Queens High School for the Sciences.
As a student, I come before this panel to talk about the lack of student input and the lack of the value of student input in the decisions made at legislative bodies that often affect students every day. A prime example is the Omni Card program. So earlier this month, my Omni Card ironically broke. So when I called my school, then I called my superintendent, then I called the school hotline, the community centers, then I called OPT, and I called a bunch of other people, they didn't have a
single answer on how I could replace my Omni Card. After about three hours across three days of trying to replace my Omni Card, I was told to go to any high school or any school open during the summer to replace my Omni Card. I went to numerous schools. I went to Francis Lewis- Okay. Can I interrupt you for a second? Can I ask people in the audience to hold down their conversations? Because I'm hearing them, and I don't want to interrupt the speakers. Go ahead. I went to Francis Lewis, I went to Queens Academy, I went to Bayside High Schools, and only one school was
able to offer me a Omni Card. Their reason is that they don't even have enough Omni Cards for their own students. Now, we all know that this has been an issue. These cards definitely do not last a year. We all know this issue. The MTA knows this issue. The DOE knows this issue. City Council knows this issue. I have spoken about this issue before the MTA board last year. My answer was to tell the DOE about this issue. The DOE now knows the issue, and when I went back to the MTA, they gave me a
generic answer. "Go speak to anyone else other than them." It is readily apparent that the legislative bodies selected to represent the interest of us do not. I ask for this panel to review the student Omni Card program. Thank you. All right. Is this working? Okay, great. So dear Chancellor Samuels, my name is Andy Trinh, and I am a rising senior at Stuyvesant High School. I am part of the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee, and I'll be reiterating what my fellow members have said today.
For this, I'll be reading aloud the coalition letter we sent to your office on June 29th. As the coalition of organizations, parent leaders, school principals, and advocates who strive to better the lives of our city's young people, we ask for your help in expanding and improving the student Omni program. While the transition to Omni has provided students with greater flexibility, including weekend and summer transit, the current daily limit and strict distance-based eligibility requirements continue to hinder students who participate in multiple
extracurriculars, internships, and family commitments across the city. The Omni Card also has technical issues with frequent bugs, durability issues, and deactivations, often leaving students without a card for weeks at a time. All of these issues leave students without a means of payment for public transportation, incentivizing fare evasion and creating avoidable encounters with law enforcement. The Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee has done extensive work to expand Student Omni. This includes circulating a
petition and a survey that have garnered hundreds of signatures and responses, presenting our vision to parent leaders at over a dozen community education councils and president's councils, and meeting with relevant stakeholders within the MTA and Office of Pupil Transportation to inform and protect their advocacy to ensure that all NYC students have the transit access they need via cross-defying reforms. Number one, universal access. All students, regardless of distance to yellow bus service, should be eligible for an Omni Card. Unlimited rides, number two. There is no predictable number of rides for a student with multiple commitments and
varying needs. Three, fair communication around deactivations. Cards should never be deactivated for suspected misuse without first notifying the student. Four, more reliable and durable Omni Cards. Many issues plague the reliability of Student Omni Cards, including frequent bugs, flimsy paper material, and supply chain issues impacting same-day replacement. So the MTA and NYCPS have the power to fix these systemic issues and ensure that every student has the transportation access that they need to succeed and thrive. With your support, we can remove the barriers that prevent students from taking advantage of every opportunity that our great city has to offer.
We urge you to act now. The future of New York City students depends on it. Sincerely, three borough presidents, 10 council members, 6 EECs, and 23 students serving in NYPIS organizing. Sorry for overtime. Yeah. Hello, and good evening, Chancellor Carmen Samuels and the Panel for Educational Policy. I'm August Hoyt, a rising junior at Bard High School, Manhattan, and a member of the Transportation Alternatives- We're having a hard time hearing you Sorry. And a member of the Transportation Alternatives Youth Activist Committee. We are a group of teens who advocate for better 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 550 petition signatures and surveyed over 400 students about their Student Omni experience, and the results are clear: the current program is failing New York City students. I'm here today to reiterate my support for the resolution in support of fare-free and equitable public transit for all New York City students, which passed this past March. In particular, I would like to underscore the concerns of myself and many of my peers that they continue to have regarding the deactivations of Student Omni Cards. 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, 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. Today, there is still virtually no clarity from NYC public schools regarding these situations and no way of knowing if the card was permanently deactivated or simply damaged. There should be increased transparency built into the system so
that 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, with students, and particularly students of color, at risk of confrontations from law enforcement. It is evident these problems continue to plague me and my peers. And so even though the PEP resolution passed in March, we are here again to encourage the chancellor to finally recognize our campaign and push towards an
expanded Student Omni program. Thank you. Okay, that concludes this student portion, student speakers. Yeah, Chancellor, would you like to comment? Yes. Well, first of all, thank you all for your continued advocacy on this most important issue. I'm referring to the Omni Card issue. I've heard so much advocacy around this over the last year, included in my own home from my own 11th grader.
And even tonight, having gone to so many schools, talked to so many young people, it's really important for me to say that there aren't many things in this job more important or intimidating than a group of young people saying, "Good evening, Chancellor Samuels." But that said, I'm going to call up Kevin Moran, deputy chancellor of operations, to talk a little bit about some of the things that we're doing here, but really, your advocacy is important, and it is heard. So Kevin?
This one on? All right, cool. Thank you, Chancellor, and thank you to each of the students for being here tonight in the summer. No. Cool. Yeah. Probably easier. There you go. Yeah, now it's... So, I do want to, again, thank the students for your voice, sharing your experience. And I apologize on the behalf of the Office of Pupil Transportation and our team if there's a disconnect happening at your school level, at the turnstile, and your overall experience. I would say I jotted down a few, and we had received your letter. We are looking at all of the requests You should know
we have an underlying MOU with the MTA, and basically provides for our eligibility standards, everyone who is eligible a card. And when we expanded the Omni card prior to that, we were paying about $40 million a year, but our usage was somewhere around $300 million a year. And there's a gap there if we wanted to expand to non-eligible criteria students. And so we're looking at that as a financial matter. There's conversations with the MTA because we understand the
broadened access. It's 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. It's the four passes. You can get additionals if you're involved in different activities. So we understand the enormous value of this. We also understand the value of advocacy. We want to make sure we could support. As it relates to deactivating cards, I'm going to have a meeting. I already spoke with one of the leaders of your group to talk about when we can meet together, go through some of those and see why cards are being deactivated without schools' knowledge, without schools' role, without the MTA's role, and I promise to get back to you on that.
As it relates to durability of the cards, it is something we've heard, something we talked to the MTA about. It does cost $10 million to harden the cards based on our usage. We're also going to be providing protective sleeves this year as an interim step. You also mentioned that there's a pilot that we'd like to get digital cards so you can tap and go. So that's something we're exploring too, but we'll rely on you and your experience to keep this an iterative process, keep us getting better for you. You deserve a better experience, and so we're going to look at the eligibility standards. We're going to look at the quality of the cards.
We're going to look at the overall provision at the school level. I can tell you as it relates to provision of and not having enough of, this is fully devolved to our schools. They actually make an order. There's a courier or a vendor that actually delivers said cards. There is no role in that process at our level or at the Office of Pupil Transportation. That is strictly a procurement. A school enters, "I need 250. I need 350. I need 1,000." We send, we match, it goes, it's delivered, school signs, school distributes. A few lost, stolen, broken, you can get a replacement at the school level.
So I can work with your school principals, your school superintendents if there's a card stock issue. That shouldn't be something that happens and it shouldn't be something you're experiencing. So promise to get back to you. I do hear your concern clearly. Thank you for being here in the summer, and thank you for your leadership. Thank you, Chancellor. Thank you, Deputy Chancellor. And especially I want to thank the students for coming out tonight and for presenting their testimony. The next item on the agenda, the voting item is a consideration of contracts, and I'd like to call on our Contract Committee Chair Faradji Hanna-Jones for the presentation of the resolution. Yes, sir. I would like to,
for consideration of the resolution to enter into a contract agreement for items one through four and six through 31. Is there a second on the resolution? It's been moved and seconded that we consider resolution to enter into contract. We'll first hear from public comment, and I'll ask the secretary to call public speakers signed up for public comment. When I call your name, please come up to the microphone. Martina Mayer, Wanda Yvette Belenes, Stephanie Morazzi, Dr. Calira Salas, Aixa Rodriguez. Yeah. Hello, everyone. Welcome new members,
and welcome back to those fellow members. You perhaps know me still. So the first thing that I want to say, I am so happy that a fellow council member, sadly is not a council member now, but she is a panel for educational policy member. I want to recognize and congratulate Reverend Leticia Thompson. Woo. As I mentioned, she is from representing all the councils from the Bronx School District 7 to 12.
And during her service on CEC8, Reverend Thompson provided significant assistance with research, analysis, and thoughtful discussion that helped strengthen the foundation of several resolutions that has been presented, including several of mine. Her commitment to parent leadership, educational equity- Can I interrupt the speaker? Is this related to contracts? Oh, no. Okay. I just wanted to give the recognition. Okay. I wanted to- I'm happy for you to do that, but you'd have to do it at the right portion of the
meeting. Right now we're considering contracts, and all the comments- Oh ... must be directed. So I'm happy to recognize you to talk about contracts, and I'm very pleased to have you recognize our new panel member, but that would have to come at the open public comment portion of the meeting. Oh, I thought this was it. I'm sorry. No, this is we introduce contract resolution. So this contract, it will be discussing about the Office of Pupil Transportation and Omni cards or something like that? Yeah. Is that what it is? No, it's the items on the contract agenda. So- I don't have it at hand. Okay.
Okay. I apologize, but may- That's fine. We can- May not ... what we're going to do is we'll have somebody from staff redirect you to the appropriate section of the meeting where your comments would be most welcome and appreciated, I'm sure. Oh, believe me, I have four statements for you tonight. Thank you. Sure Oh. Read my T-shirt. One thing- IEP, I Encourage Progress. Okay. So again, let me remind speakers that the item up for discussion is consideration of contracts. Thank you. Hi, good evening. Good evening, Chancellor. Good evening, panel members, and thank you so much. We welcome you, and we honor you for the volunteer work that you are
doing to support our public school children. Thank you for your commitment. We welcome you, we support you, and we promise to hold you accountable with love. With love. I also just want to remind everyone that it would be lovely to be holding this meeting remotely. We have the capacity to let folks testify from home, and I feel strongly that if the DOE is serious about family and community engagement, why not hold these meetings as hybrid to ensure that more voices are heard? In Disability Pride Month, why not acknowledge the lack of ADA accessibility in our
transit system, and let the folks at home share their voices, too? Their voices matter, even if they might not be able to travel here. I am rising to speak out against agenda item three. As a proud union member, I must say, as a proud member of MORE-UFT as well, I must say, why aren't we investing in full-time unionized art teachers that our system clearly needs? If we need the art education, we need the people power behind that, and outsourcing that work is not it. Our students and the artist educators themselves
deserve art educators with union representation and with job stability. I'm also rising to speak against agenda items four and six. The DOE requesting contractors to do professional development work implies that they lack the internal capacity to perform this work. Every single administrator and coach, and many DOE central employees have professional development in their job descriptions. Has the DOE evaluated whether investing in permanent internal capacity would reduce long-term costs
compared with these continual outsourcing of these exact same services? If so, what are the results of these inquiries? If not, why are we not doing these inquiries? I am also raising against the emergency contracts, 27 through 29, especially those related to people transport. These aren't emergencies. This is similar to the game the way the DOE used to pass emergency school budgets. This is a shady practice, and it must stop. $93 million for one month of services? Did the DOE forget that they had to move kids to summer rising?
Speaker's time has expired. Emergency. All right. Thank you. See you soon. You can begin. Hello. You can begin. Thank you. My name is Stephanie Morazzi, and I am the mother to a rising kindergartner in Ridgewood, Queens. I'm here to speak on item three and the contract for arts education with the digital age learning. I urge the panel to be discriminating when it comes to incorporating technology into classrooms. I have a rising kindergartner going into public school in Queens, and I have been told that iPads are a regular part of instruction, which I find totally inappropriate for children of that age.
Our kids should not be using iPads or watching YouTube for arts education. I urge you not to approve any contracts that would involve handheld digital devices for children of that age or that overly rely on technology. Thank you so much for your time. Good evening, panel members. Welcome to the new panel members. My name is Kalidi Salas Shiher- That's the button. I think. Okay, we're back. Sorry. My name is Kalidi Salas Shiher-Ella.
I'm the current president of CEC 4, former Manhattan Borough President appointee to the PEP, so we can talk all you want, anytime soon. Either way, in looking at these contracts, my biggest thing is one, we truly support early childhood, 2-K amazing, everything that we're talking about in terms of universal childcare. But I do want to raise the fact that unfortunately those people that are providing, the teachers and the folks that are providing services within early childhood do not have pay parity, and there has been
grave concern amongst those of us that do and provide that kind of support and advocate for it, that the city is really not thinking about the folks that are in the classrooms with our youngest learners. I would also want to make sure that we highlight the fact that we want to continue to scrutinize any contract that has any technology embedded in it. Time and time, we continue to see a detriment in our classrooms because of the introduction of screens, et cetera. You can go on my CEC website. We have three resolutions directly related to ed tech,
i-Ready, and AI. The last thing that I will say is that I wholeheartedly support the affinity contracts for our affinity districts. Those of us that have children in those districts are elated about the fact that they have the freedom to introduce novel pedagogical philosophies and instruction into our classrooms. That we have a district that has been at the forefront of performance-based assessments, which is, again, what the state is trying to go for with New York Inspires, the Portrait of the New York State Graduate, and we have to continue to support our affinity districts in
that work, and that that work has been done for roughly 30 years, and we cannot provide that kind of support through other avenues, other consultants, other people that don't know our kids and that don't know our schools. So please not only vote yes on that contract, but ensure that that is baselined moving forward so that we can continue to support our students in our affinity districts. Thank you. I'm short, so that helps. Good evening, and welcome to all of our new faces. And you guys have such incredible backgrounds. We are so excited. My name is Aixa Rodriguez. I'm part of the MORE caucus.
I'm from the Bronx, I teach in Queens. I think I need to just give a hint about some of the perspectives from my students who are student government. They've spoken here before, spoken at rallies, and they feel very strongly about a lot of things, and they're the ones who have changed my mind about a lot of things. Just got an email the other day, CTLE PD on AI, AI, AI. We are tired. Ai, ai, ai, ai, ai, ai. Done. We are done. We are done. We are about to change all of New York State to WIDA for the assessments for ELs, and where's the PD on that?
Where is it? But just shoving AI down our throats. I'm a teacher that's been teaching since 2000, from Japan to here. I have colleagues who are very young and have no strength and need a lot more PD on other things, and I'm tired of this AI mess. It's not helping them. They're not getting critical skills to teach the students. So that needs to change. The topics on PDs and how they're delivered need to be about skills for teaching, not an agenda for outside people who are profiteering on teachers and students. We are tired of being a source of money for
others. That's one. The next thing that definitely-- Can we have paint and no more of this BS with screens? We look ridiculous to stop, "Oh, no cell phones, no this, no screens, no that." But then everything you're shoving in front of the children is screens. So I want librarians. Don't tell my kids to go on a Sora app when they can't even have a cell phone in their classroom. We want librarians, we want libraries, we want books, we want paint, and we want real professional development, and we don't want to be profited off.
The speakers. Laney Haimson, Maggie Sanchez, Alyssa East, Thomas Shepherd, Estella Ngwema. You can begin. Welcome, panel members, especially those of you who are new tonight. My name is Laney Haimson. I'm the executive director of Class Size Matters and co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. I urge you to be aggressive and exert your independence more than PEP members in the past, and to reach out for information from independent sources other than just the DOE. I also hope you will demand to see a copy of the actual contracts
before voting, not the skimpy summaries you've been provided. And if the DOE refuses to provide them, abstain from the vote. Also, if these contracts involve curricular materials, ed tech programs, professional development, or AI, ask for independent peer-reviewed research that the proposed materials or services have led to improved student outcomes in any way. Too many millions are wasted on contracts that do not provide benefits to kids or teachers for that
matter. One of the PD providers on the contract tonight, in number four, Encore Services, was found to have exposed the personal and highly sensitive data of an unknown number of special education students in more than 4,000 records on a public-facing, unsecured website. Such irresponsible action should not be rewarded with another contract. During the de Blasio administration, following a particularly egregious scandal of a $1.1 billion
contract posted just days before the vote and rubber-stamped by the PEP, despite the company being involved in a corruption scandal just a few years before, in response to public outrage, City Hall canceled that contract and made the DOE rebid it at a savings of about $600 million. At that time, DOE promised they would post all proposed RAs at least 30 days before the vote to ensure that the panel, elected officials, and members of the public had sufficient time to scrutinize them. This promise is no longer adhered to-
Speaker's time has expired ... and I hope you will demand it be resumed. And whatever the DOE- The speaker's time has expired. All right. You are public servants, and you are here to serve the public. I know you acknowledged it, but the speaker's time, Laney, the speaker's time has expired. Thank you for your time. Sure. Good evening, Chair Faulkner. Before we get into it, PEP's bylaws say that during these parts of our meetings, community has two and a half minutes. And the clock quietly changed to two minutes. So I would like the two and a half minutes that- The bylaws give that option, I believe, but we announced
when I read the rules. You said two and a half minutes. Okay. Thanks for filling. Yeah, you are correct. So yes, take the... And the last speaker, if- The last four speakers. Okay. So if they want to claim the additional half hour, I'm going to let that happen. Not half hour. Excuse me. 30 seconds. And may I have two and a half minutes, please? Yeah, go ahead. Good evening, Panel for Educational Policy. My name is Thomas Shepherd, and I am a parent of a student in high school in District 8. I'm here tonight to speak to not just an individual contract, but a pattern that I
see in the contracts in general. And that pattern is, this month we have 25 contracts up for vote, and almost half of them are retroactive contracts, which means the DOE has already gone into those contracts. And having served as the first CEC member on this panel, and as the first Bronx member on this panel, and as vice chair, I can tell you that it is unfair for any of you to have to vote on contracts
that have already gone into effect. So what I am asking here is for you to hold the DOE accountable for making sure that renewed contracts are brought before this panel in a timely manner and not in a retroactive sort of way. Now, I do understand that sometimes it is necessary to have a retroactive contract, but there is a pattern here where almost half of the contracts that you'll be voting on this month are contracts that have already
gone into effect. It is unfair for you to have to vote in that way, in the same way as it is to have to vote on, I don't know, an emergency declaration, the kinds of things where the DOE has already made a decision and you're voting as a formality. Your vote is to give approval to contracts, to give approval to all sorts of things. And, I just want for all of you to be in the best position to make the best decisions possible. So I will wrap up my comments with that. I have some more during general public comments, but I do
want to just say to all of you, welcome. I've been where you are. It is a tough job, and I look forward to seeing what you bring. Thank you. Hi, welcome to all the new Panel for Educational Policy members. My name is Maggie Sanchez. I'm here in my personal capacity. And I am the co-president of the Citywide Council on Special Education. One of the things that I wanted to follow up on and just bring to the table here is that,
again, we need to advocate to push state legislators to move the EPP bill. That's the A-8440. That's around busing. It'll fix a lot of the issues that we see through busing. And as we know, busing is not equitable to the access that a student gets through an OMNY card. Because all students should have access, but students with disabilities that have busing on their IEP, they can't access after-school trips or
vacation trips, programs that are not running within the school year, that are running in between, and their non-disabled peers do. So equitable access to OMNY will help older students with disabilities transition to traveling independently. The fact that these students and their families have to lose their school busing if they're working on that transition, to be able to utilize public transportation with the OMNY card,
is a choice that they shouldn't have to make. It's discriminatory. If our goal is to help students with disabilities achieve independence, this practice hinders that. And so, I would ask that students with disabilities also get access to the OMNY card, and not be limited to that. Thank you. Good evening, and I totally support what the previous speaker said. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Good evening, Chancellor Samuels and Chairman Faulkner, and welcome to all of you new members of the PEP, and thank you so much for your
time and your willingness to serve. My name is Alyssa East. I live in Washington Heights, and I have a rising seventh grader who is a Carter case. Happy Disability Pride Month, everyone. And I would like to speak about contract item number two concerning the e-scribe services for due process cases such as the one that I have to file every year for my child and his alphabet soup's worth of learning differences. I'm really concerned about the DOE turning to an outside vendor for the handling of sensitive student information by using the e-scribe service.
The information that parents must provide for these hearings concern our children's greatest weaknesses and their most challenging struggles. Given the damning student privacy audit by the State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, I'm wondering why this contract description mentions zero assurances concerning student privacy. Additionally, we parents are keenly aware of AI creep among outside vendors and vendor services, further exposing our children's information to privacy violations. I urge you new panelists to vet all
contracts with outside vendors for their privacy standards and for their potential AI use. The world has been on fire this summer, and AI is little but an accelerant on our warming planet. You members of the PEP have the power to lead the country as an AI-proof school system. An AI-proof school system means no vendors that use AI in the classroom for teachers, for the handling of student data, and especially around kids with disabilities. Parents and kids don't trust AI, and you
all shouldn't either. We don't need public dollars subsidizing private industry. You all have this tremendous, incredible opportunity to restore human-centered learning and administering of learning to our schools. You have the chance to increase transparency around contracts and regain families' trust. I hope you will seize this chance and to AI-proof our schools and also to cut back on screen time in schools. Doing so might actually lead to fewer Carter
cases. Doing so might actually help us grow this great school system and keep it thriving. Thank you. Thank you. And just for the record, I want to point out that none of the contracts under consideration tonight include any option for AI. Yes. Good evening, chair and members of the Panel for the- Yep. Yeah, we are ... Policy. Yes. My name is Estella Ongema. I speak tonight in my personal capacity as a parent and D75 representative on CEC 30, and as a sponsor of our adopted Resolution 207. I want to be very clear, we are not
against renewing the contract. We are against renewing the same failure in quality, especially for kids with disabilities. Now we are surviving on one-month emergencies. That proves the system is still broken. Our students still get old buses with no AC, no working lights, no GPS, and no notification when the bus is hours late. In April, you prove you can track kids with
QR tap on and tap off, but you excluded our kids with disabilities. Our kids are always the pilot after through. And this is about workers' right, which is about safety. When you do month-to-month contract, drivers and matrons leave. My non-speaking child with sensory needs cannot have a new untrained matron every month, every week, and even worse, every day. Workforce stability is student safety. That is why so many parents are now asking, see transportation
come back to DOE to full public control? As you approve item 27 and 28 tonight, in Resolution 207, we ask for three commitments. One, reconvene the appropriate Transportation Advisory Commission as a permanent table where parents of children in need and these 75 families are voting members. Two, put enforceable quality standards in every contract, IP compliance, right-time tabs, sensory-friendly buses, real GPS, and tap on/off for every vendor, and publish delays
and penalties on open data every month. Three, give us a real plan beyond one month, including a feasibility study on bringing busing back to public control on the New York City Public School. Don't just renew. Reform. I ask that Resolution 207 be entered into the official record. Thank you. The next group of speakers, Sarah Catalanoto, Charlotte Pope, Ethan Sax. I just want to quickly say that I actually wanted to testify in the public comment and I filed it wrong, so I'll stop.
We can move you to that section. Oh, thank you. Hello all. My name is Charlotte Pope. I'm with the New York Civil Liberties Union. I echo concerns with three- Can I just interrupt and talk to our tech? Some of the panel members are saying they're having a hard time hearing the speakers. Is there something with the technology? Okay. Are we good? Okay, let's- Try again. Go ahead. Hello. Yeah. If you want, we'll restart the clock for you so you, you know, we- Great. Yeah. Thank you. Hi, my name is Charlotte Pope. I'm with the New York Civil Liberties Union. I echo concerns with three, but I'm speaking to items six and nine with the ask that any upcoming re-released AI guidance include mechanisms for getting harmful AI products out of schools.
I heard your clarification, Chair. Thank you for that. But the issue is that the contract's agenda continues to be mostly incoherent and impossible to figure out what the product or service actually is Let alone whether AI-enabled student data harvesting is implicated in a contract. There was a very fleeting moment in April when the contract's agenda included language like, "They do not use AI to process data," or, "There's an optional AI feature." We urge the PEP to commit not to help vendors shield their products from public
criticism, and better translate the vendors' sales pitches to explain what's actually being presented for a vote. Contract item six uses a lot of jargon, but we fielded complaints about this vendor who we're told pushed in their AI-enabled app with their services, where teachers are now required to use their personal devices to take photos of student written work for AI-generated grading. And the app keeps adding scary AI features like AI-generated PBIS talking points for conversations with students. Then with contract item nine, again,
there's a lot of jargon, but we know this vendor markets AI-enabled and AI-powered PLCs with their services. We ask the PEP to push DOE to use plain language and be explicit about whether AI is being used in products that end up making significant decisions, like item nine school reform services. AI and AI marketing is intensifying a collapse of public trust in public institutions. It's critical that this new term of PEP push DOE to stop regurgitating vendor marketing terms and follow through on actual contracting transparency going
forward. Thank you. Waiting for the time to reset. Greetings from Parents to Improve School Transportation. I'm Sarah Catalanotto. On items 27 and 28, sadly, we are stuck needing these contracts with private vendors of school bus service because students with 12-month IEPs need summer school, and all students need field trips. However, let the record show that six previous two-month emergency extensions have brought us to the end of year one of the three-year contract extension.
The vote last November for that amended thing was supposed to solve something, but it cannot even begin. When will we see the vendor town halls with school bus families? Have they collected the $35,000 compliance fine for that times 50 vendors twice a year? Can you even do that while the clause is not yet in effect? The P****d inbox reflects chaotic and unsafe conditions despite this $93 million cost. A child whose class has six, but whose bus has
35 and takes three hours each way. A child whose code for a bus para dropped off the system after June. A multiply disabled student whose parent and doctor proved the need for time limits, only to become routeless for the two weeks OPT will take to meet that mandate. Mixed-up dismissal times, leaving students in school up to three hours after their program ends or removing them up to three hours too soon. Last summer, we pleaded for a focus group of parents,
school admin, and OPT to find the cracks between the summer application and the ridership screen. Young people are falling through those cracks today, especially in our autism programs and D75. If you're going to spend $94 million for six weeks, at least build a system that delivers the service every day. School busing is so expensive, yet so neglected that two organizations are now surveying students and parents for input. God forbid OPT do its own quality control.
On items four and six, we too oppose outsourcing professional development away from our own skilled unionized educators. It's a waste of money. We'll say more in public comment about Omni and privacy. One minute. So earlier as we began contract discussions, there were some speakers where I shortened the time period, and I wanted to offer those speakers an opportunity to come forward if they wish to and have an additional minute. Going once, going twice. I see no speakers. Okay. Yes. So you can have an additional minute, and I apologize.
30 seconds. I missed 30 seconds of- I'm giving you a minute, you can take 30 seconds. You're so kind. Thank you so much. I appreciate you, and that is received in the kindness that it is extended. Once again, my name is Martina Meyer. I'm here in my personal capacity. I just wanted to say that, in addition to the non-emergency, I'm really disappointed to see that the DOE continues to do business- Thank you ... with companies that have had student data breaches. And item eight on the agenda is only one example, and I'm glad that it was self-reported, but what would the DOE have done if it wasn't self-reported? If one of the chancellor's three pillars is indeed safety, we need to
include student data safety in that. I also want to express that I'm glad that item five was canceled, yet another assessment, and I need you all to hear us educators when we say that none of these screeners have ever identified any kids that we are not already aware of. And all the screeners do is, three times a year, take away a huge amount of instructional time that we could be using to help those students. I understand that you have in mind the most new teachers. Please consider the many different teachers that you
have working for you, many of whom have years of experience. We deserve to be honored and respected, and to work with the students that are in front of us, and not to have a computer tell us who to work with. Okay. Thank you Thank you for giving me that minute. Even though I started doing the congratulation for the panel member representing CCA, but I do have a comment regarding OPT and the transportation system that is affecting all our students. My name is Wanda Yvette Balenes. I am the District 75 representative in
CEC 8. I am advocating today for the abolition of the Office of Pupil Transportation. Why? Is this-- Hold again. Is this related to a contract item? Yes. I think it's 26 and 27 regarding transportation. Twenty-seven and 28. Okay. Okay. I don't need to tell the entire story because I already said that I'm the District 75 representative, so I'm not going to elaborate because it's very little time. During this chapter 683, commonly
known as summer school, on the first day of school, my nephew, my daughter, and several other students were not picked up from the house. They didn't go to school that day. And it was aggravating because we were waiting for so long, and it doesn't serve any purpose to file a complaint because before we could call and they will give us, oh, I don't know, agreements number, the violation number, the complaint number.
That is not happening anymore. We have to go to a website that sometimes crash, it's not working. So, for my nephew, Evan, the impact was even greater because transportation was not provided for the first 12 days of this summer. He lost valuable work site instruction opportunities to help prepare District 75 students for independence and adulthood. What was most frustrating was trying to report the issue and
seek assistance. Families should not have to fight to be heard when their children lose access to their education because of a transportation failure. District 75 have unique needs. I don't need to stress it because we do have several parents with children with And I apologize, I want to continue, but I will wait for public comment. Thank you. Okay, we've concluded the public comment period. I'll now open the floor for panel member comments. Are there any panel members who wish to comment on the motion? Do I see a hand? I don't. If... Do I have the honors, Collins? Yes. Yeah. Panel Member Collins.
All right. First of all, thank you everyone who stood up to give public comment about the budget items. A budget is a value document, right? This is a statement of what we value, what we support, what we endorse, and so we should be taking these conversations seriously. I'm glad to see that New Yorkers are coming out to ensure that we do this and hold us accountable. I have a few concerns
for my fellow panel members to consider as we're voting on these items. We had a hearing where we got to learn more information about the budget items. For those who were there during the meeting that I attended, you know that I expressed some concerns about items two, four, and But from digging even deeper, I'm particularly concerned about item number six. This is a digital platform that seems to heavily integrate AI. And we've been hearing consistently from our community
stakeholders that they do not want to see AI used in our schools. So I want to strongly urge you to just consider the implications of agreeing to the contract with Solve Consultancy. It's very clear on their website that they design websites and develop platforms that are supposed to be used for parent and student engagement, but that those platforms heavily integrate AI. So I just want to flag that.
I also want to flag item number seven. Sorry. What number? I just lost yours. Number six. Six. Got it. Like Dr. J. Item number seven. Another vendor, this is Encore Support Services, that also relies heavily on the use of AI when you look on their website and do research into the company. This is also a company that has had a major data breach- Look, I am not a data scientist. I am a social scientist. But data breach plus
AI is a bad formula. I also want us to think about item number nine. Sorry. Just because it's unclear if this is something that we truly need. This is support to do program and initiative implementation that essentially is already being done. So districts and schools are implementing reforms, and this is an item to help assist with that implementation work. I'm not saying that we don't need it, I'm just saying from the description and what
we were learning about the item, it wasn't clear that we do need it. I'm almost done, I promise. But this is important, right? Again, a budget is a value document. Right? This is a statement of what we value, what we condone, what we support. And I want to go back to item number two, which is the contract with e-scribers. And I want to be very clear that I understand the value of the service. We need to have scribes ensuring that parent engagement is
documented, that student engagement is documented. This is a key component to transparency. My issue is with the price tag: $40 million over three years. Now, during our hearing, district staff let us know that a lot of this funding is going towards actual human scribes, that this is not licensing technology. But I would like to see this item separated into different components, because I believe that the human scribes are very important. I'm skeptical about the technology component.
I'm not 100% sure that the technology component does not integrate AI. And so again, I'm just a little concerned. I'm very concerned about item number two, and especially given its price tag, because again, $40 million. We had students who just stood up here, and they talked about wanting the district to invest in OmniCards. If you look online, the estimate for how much it would cost to fund this OmniCard expansion, this is coming from a state senate hearing.
That price tag is $5.5 million a year. This is a $40 million contract. That's $16.5 million a year for three years. Again, I know it's not as simple as the fact that we take money here and we put it there. I know that there are processes in place. But conceptually, this is why we should be a little bit more-- We should slow our pace and be discerning when it comes to this one. And the last item that I wanted to talk about,
I think. Yep, was again item 23. It's employee survey software. I just don't know that we need to license additional software to survey district staff. Right? I don't know why we can't use Google Forms, but I won't insult the district in that way. But I will just question whether or not we need this. Oh, and the last one was the professional development. Okay, Pamela, you're going to have to wrap up in just a little bit. This is it. Is the professional development item four. And because there's one in particular, so I would like to propose, Chair,
if we could at least amend item four to remove the public group, I think it's Public Consulting Group. Actually, we cannot because we'd have to notify the public, and they would have to have an opportunity to come and testify. We've sent out a resolution which includes that, so we can't make that kind of an-- I think that would be a major amendment. So we could separate it from the pack and anyone could vote against it, and then it could be rewritten. But we would not be allowed to make an amendment here at the meeting because we'd have to have notified the public, and the public would have to have an opportunity to come and testify on that amendment.
Okay. Well, okay. I'll just- Yeah, I'm sorry. The reason is because we notify the public when we send out amendments or we send out the contract items, we notify the public. And if we make a major adjustment to that, we'd have to resend it and allow the public to come and have an opportunity to speak about that amendment. Well, that's up to the panel. Hold it, folks. That's really going to be a decision made by the panel. That's something that they can consider. But it would not be able to be done here. Okay, so let's move on. Well, I just- If you complete it ... I just strongly urge us to go through the process to try to remove Public
Consulting Group from this item, because they are documented of facilitating fraud through Medicaid Okay. Panel member, you can have the option to separate that item and have it voted on separately, if you'd want to do that. That would be allowed. Okay. Okay. So- Thank you, Chair ... if we can, we can separate that item, and that will be voted on as a separate item. Thank you, Chair. Okay. And it is one of the smaller subcontracts of the item, but- All right ... that company is not a company that the New York City Department of Education should do business with. Yeah. Actually, easier way is that any panel member, if you want, any of these
contracts if a panel member feels strongly, you have the option to vote against it, that particular item. So if there's a contract, you don't have to vote for the package, you can vote, say, "I vote for contracts one through five, and the other is I abstain." So you have that option also when you're voting. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sure. Okay. Is there any other panel member who wishes to comment? Yeah, I- No, I was... I just have one question. Is there the contract that, um, Dr. Collins just mentioned, is it possible to table that, number four? Can I make a motion to table it? Item four. Item four. Y- yes, you can.
Second the motion. Okay. So would you repeat the motion? I, Faradji Hanna-Jones, would like to, uh, make a motion to table agenda item four on the contract. Is there a second to that motion? Seconded. Okay. There's no discussion on tabling. We'll proceed to roll call on the motion to table. Panel member Alicea? Yes. Bogad? Abstain. Carbonaro? We have to- Casaretti? Oh, they're not to table it. Voting to table. To table. Collins? Yes. Constantinides? Yes. Cordero? Yes. Dean-Stagg? Abstain. This- Abstain. Sorry ... A- Abstain or come back to you? Come back. Come back? Okay. Um, Fair? Yes. Fox? Yes. Hanna-Jones? Yes. Hassan? Yes.
Jefferson? Yes. Kahn? Yes. Lasana? Yes. Mehdi? Yes. Ong? Yes. Rajwani? Abstain. Sure. We can't hear. I don't want to table, uh, the, uh, the item total as a whole, but I would support a motion to, uh, remove the one vendor out of that- So we'd have to go back and- Yes ... have it, it would be redone. Yeah. So it would be redone. Yeah. Okay. Rodriguez? I would, um, vote for the same approach. So you're voting... Panel member Thompkins? Yes. Panel member Vera Montalvo? Yes. Chair Faulkner? Uh, yes.
The motion carries. I can count the vote. Okay. Uh, we'll- Should we return... I'm sorry. Um, yeah, Panel Member Dean-Stagg? Yes. And Panel Member Carbonaro? Yes. Okay, the motion to a table has been adopted, so that item will not be under consideration tonight. Yeah, Panel Member Alicea? Good evening again, everyone. Adriana Alicea, she, her, here for Queens CECs. Uh, I think in general, we have to stop giving money to vendors with any history of abuse. Abuse is always on purpose. Uh, one of the vendors here, uh, on tonight's contract under agenda item
number 13 had 47 substantiated cases of abuse, and unfortunately, in my opinion, ACS's involvement does not automatically guarantee that things are on the up and up, either now or in the future. Uh, further to that point, uh, one of the vendors tonight was audited and was found to have inappropriately spent, to have inadequately documented, and to have inaccurately reported some of their expense spending. Um, and they did not adhere to the New York State Education Department Reimbursable Cost Manual.
It's been four years since the incident. Revised rates have not yet been approved. That means that DOE has not yet had the opportunity to recoup any of those losses, and we've decided that what we're going to do is give them more money, that they may potentially mismanage, as they have in the past. Um, with respect to contract, uh, items number 24 and 25, I feel like I say this all the time, but can we please build capacity within DIIT? Consultants take all of the knowledge that they attain, and they learn, and
they grow within DOE's central walls, and they leave with it. The end of their contract term is also the end of that knowledge loop within our system, and that's not acceptable. I understand that there are other things at play with respect to growing out DIIT, but we need to put- back to bed and grow our capacity. We're the largest school district in the nation, and we rely on consultants and duct tape sometimes. This is crazy. That's all for now. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Any other panel members? Yeah, panel member Fair? Chair Faulkner, I would like to request someone from procurement to please come to
the microphone because we're in these briefings that are very extensive, and we were told that there was no AI in these contracts. And I think out of fairness to the community, that they're hearing exactly what's being told to us and how we're making our decisions. Okay, good suggestion. Is there anyone that wishes to... Yeah. Yes, there are folks from the contracts team that can come to speak to that, as well as our early childhood deputy chancellor as well. Chair, while they're coming to the mic, can I just clarify that one of
the questions-- To be fair, the question that I asked at least, and I know that was resounding with some of the other members of the panel, was whether or not the contracts, one, have any AI functionality and, two, have the functionality at any point in the future or the capability at any point in the future to be turned on. Thank you. So the question is whether or not there are contracts on the current agenda with AI functionality. And I can confirm that we did not include any contracts that had any AI
functionality. Now, you asked a question about whether or not there's a capability for the vendors to provide AI functionality in the future. That's not a question that I can answer at the moment because it's not a question that we asked the vendors. So that's something that we'd have to take back. All right. But we do ask if there's AI functionality in the contracts, and if there are, we've removed them from the agenda. And- Yeah ... is there a general concern about me making a statement? Because I don't want to make any misstatements. I'm being very honest. I can speak for Adrianna. I know she has a separate concern, right?
However, if you could just relay to the community what was shared to us, in particular with item number two, and also elaborate on item number 23. And what- Explain item two There's no way that we could guarantee that even if they have the capability, the vendor's contract has that capability. Their use fabrics? You know. Yeah. So what are we saying? What's the overarching concern about number two?
Again, this is more of supporting what the community's asking- Yeah ... just about the AI component, just so you guys can elaborate further. Because I think what's happening is that we're in a situation where, as everyone knows, we're responsible to approve these contracts. And you guys, as your witnesses, do a good job briefing us. But I think that out of fairness to the community, they need to hear what we've heard as well, so they too can feel comfortable as we're making our decisions. So I think what I'm hearing, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that a company that we may agree that we're not going to have them involved, we're not going to use any of their AI features, doesn't mean that they don't have the
capability in the future to include AI. Is there a way that we could structure something that even if that vendor were to move into the area of AI, that it would trigger for us an automatic buyout from any of the AI features? Is that something that we could develop? Because it's very hard to say to a company that down the road might not become engaged with AI, even though we have asked that that not happen or things change in a year or two. I think is there a way to build in a protection for that? That'd be ground- A clause. Yeah, a clause that would automatically trigger, so if this company suddenly
now had a division that was heavily involved in AI, that we would really have a statement that the New York City Department of Education will not engage in that, and none of our schools would not be allowed to participate. Is that something, or maybe it's something we need to go back and work on and come back in the August meeting or September with some language that would further cement a protection. Is that something... I'm pointing looking at you guys. Yeah. Okay. Transparent. Yeah. Okay. So, why don't we- Thank you, Chair.
Sure. Thank you. I would love that. And also, I would love for us to get back into the culture of transparency someone earlier this evening mentioned that for one month last year, the contracts agenda also included a line in the summary or in the description that said, "This contract does not include any AI or any AI components" or something. It was worded very clearly, very plainly, in a very digestible way. We moved away from that almost immediately, which is very telling. And I look forward to having the
question about whether or not the functionality is possible in the future and whether or not we can add a clause to any of our contracts. Love to talk about that more, and I would love to pass it to the contracts chair to discuss that as well, if you'd like to. Yeah. So let's pause. Let's do exactly that. What we've been assured today is that moving forward, that the contracts that we're currently voting on do not include provisions for use of AI. What we will now do is build in a protection so that moving forward- If those companies sort of change direction or
do engage AI, that there would be something for us, that feature we would automatically opt-out or it would be a violation of our contract if they were to suddenly, "Hey, guess what? We're now doing AI, and now it's available," that that could be a buyout for us. So, let's sort of pause that, and we'll bring it up at our next meeting. I'm looking over at panel member Naveed Hasan, and let me tell you why, because the panel has been anticipating this whole question of AI. We've been getting a lot of this. One of the things we've been getting our inboxes filled with parents raising concerns about AI.
So one of the things we have done is we've appointed a working group of the panel that will address the whole question of AI. I've asked panel member Naveed Hasan, panel member Farajii Hannah Jones, panel member Maddie Fox, and panel member Dr. Collins to really craft some kind of a policy statement with regard to how we address these issues, and this might be one of the things we would add to that. We're also opening that up. I know there were folks out front making their
point of view known regarding AI. I did try to get out there and talk to folks. I want to invite you folks, and I saw panel member Hasan was out there, I want you guys, folks, to be a part of that process, so that we actually craft a policy statement that really addresses the whole question and makes us all feel comfortable around these kinds of issues. Well, can I make a statement? Yes. And this is coming from someone who's been in technology for over 20 years. I work with these systems all the time. Organizations work with these systems all the time.
And always the concern is whether or not AI is going to be present because of the data breaches, and data breaches do occur. I think what everyone is saying is that the fear and the concern is the inevitability that it's going to be here. It's being used in the classroom as we speak. It's being used in universities as we speak. And then two, we have children who are our students and some of our older students who are actively using it on their devices. So the concern is extremely
valid. If you have a Microsoft operating system on your computer, Copilot is a AI platform. The inevitability of you not being able to disable it, that may not be possible. Right? I agonized trying to disable it. I cannot disable it. I can't disable your Outlook to disable the AI from summarizing your email, just like you can with Gmail. So any vendor who comes up here, and I'm just letting you
know, because you're talking to somebody who's in it, you cannot guarantee that AI is not going to be in any part of the applications that you are asking for. Look how much money you are asking for in terms of the DOE. And let's be quite clear, you're talking about over 40-something billion dollars in the DOE fund. Everybody wants a piece of it. So every vendor's going to come here and try to pose as if they're about the holistic learning of our students, and then pose a contract
in which we are having to sit up here and vote after all of the parents that are here, and mind you, the parents that are not here are also saying the same things. So let's be very clear about the intentionality in terms of what this software represents. And also, let's not forget the instruction that did not happen during COVID when every last one of our students were in front of a screen. My child lost on two years of her elementary education. You know, panel member, I think that's- So I'm just saying, I'm not going to beat the horse
down. But I just want to let you know that they cannot guarantee it because of the inevitability that it's going to be here. So we have to advocate against it. And so as the contracts chair, let me just make it quite clear, as the contracts chair, that I will be abstaining from every contract item today as it was requested. And moving forward, if you cannot be clear, and we tell you again and again, stop using the DOE jargon. I'm a child of the military. You have police officers, they use the
acronyms. Please, please, please use plain English. And once again, all of the public, we will be having our contracts committee meetings. They will be open to the public, and it will be announced so that we can actually get to the bottom of what we really want for all of our schools. Thank you so much. Any panel members? Yes, Panel Member Hasan. Thank you, Chair Faulkner. Thank you to members Collins, Hannah Jones, and Fox for agreeing to do this work with all of us. I'm in agreement with the statements that have been made, specifically around the
lack of us having taken really good care of municipal, publicly interested technology policy And now it's all coming to a head with trillion dollar companies trying to get subscription revenue from our public school system. We should have dealt with this 20 years ago when we were offloading all of our email to private companies on the cloud. Better late than never. This is a discussion that needs to be had nationwide, citywide, and in our school system around the use of, as opposed to private products, open source software, open standards
products, and open weights AI models if they're actually valuable pedagogically. And the time to do it is now, and hopefully all of you will come and participate in these discussions. On the agenda item related to the affinity schools, I want to thank the DOE for an answer for ongoing contracts. It's painful to see those networks having done the work for an entire school year ending at the end of June, and only now getting approval to get paid for that, where they do a lot of valuable work. One of the responses was that we will have two-year contracts coming up to us for the next
time we vote on the affinity school groups, and also simultaneously, a public process for having competitive bidding on the work that they do. And honestly, if we have learned that they do some things amazingly well, we should be adopting them into our public schools across the whole system, as opposed to just leaving those best practices in the affinity network. Thank you. Thank you, panel member. And I want to thank the panel members also for agreeing to step up and take on that responsibility for the working group. Okay, I'm going to call on panel member Casaretti, who hasn't been rec-- Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. You had your hand up. Okay, I recognize you. Go ahead.
Good evening. Thank you. So I had a clarifying question in general when we're doing this contract work, and we just exhibited it, so I just want to clarify. When we either have our own reservations or the public has weighed in on what they want us to do with regards to these contracts, I really strongly urge us to not just rush in and rubber stamp, and to table things that we want more answers on. Right? 30 more days after a
year of giving us time to really digest a contract, which is not three paragraphs, just saying, and it's not 30 seconds on each one. Right? There's no way to digest, and some of us, we're cerebral up here this year. Just want to say that. We read, we research. Right? People have their laptops open. We're not playing around, and so give us time. I'm taking my notes. I'm doing all these things. I've done this work. I have done this work. I have led acquisitions teams, and so thank you
to our acquisitions management group within DOE, because that work is not easy. But bring in subject matter experts. There are going to be times where you will have to have a panel member in the room during evaluation of these contracts. You cannot ask us to evaluate and vote on something in this moment when we haven't had enough time to digest it. And so what I'm pushing for us to do, because again, I've done this work,
I've sat in war rooms for months to write requirements for a contract, let alone the RFP itself, and so it is very unfair to us to vote right after we hear what the public has to say about something. Right? It is not fair to us to do that. And so I would like to motion to table voting on number two, because number two is hot, and it's not
something that we have to do right in this moment. Give us until the next meeting to vote on number two. Second. So I motion to table the vote for agenda item number two. I don't know if I'm going to get a second or whatever, but that's- You got it ... that's what I propose. I hear you, and I think- But I'm not done. That was just- Okay, well, let me just- I was just putting it out there. I waited. Okay. I waited really patiently. Well, I want to be able to rule on your motion. You made a motion. Did I? Is that abstracted? Hold it. You made a motion, and I have to rule on your motion.
Okay. And that's what I was attempting to do. All right. Is there a second to the motion? But first of all, is there a second? That was a- Second. Okay. So, there is no discussion on a motion to table. We proceed right to a vote. It is important to note that sometimes when we table, it may have an impact on services to children, and this is an example of one of the contracts that if we table it, sometimes it does not go without an impact. It will have an impact on children receiving services.
Yeah. We will now proceed to a vote. Would you call the roll? Exactly. Panel members, when I call your name, please give me your vote. Thanks. This is- To table the item number two ... item number two. Yep. Panel member Alisa. Panel member Bogan. Nay. Panel member Carbonaro. Panel member Casaretti. No to table. Panel Member Collins? Yes. Panel Member Constantinides? I'm back. Panel Member Cordero? I'm back. Panel Member Dean Stag? No. Panel Member Fair? Panel Member Fox? Back to me. Panel Member Hannah Jones? Yes. Panel Member Hassan? Yes. Panel Member Jefferson? No. Panel Member Kann? No. Panel Member Lozano? No.
Panel Member Mehdi? No. Panel Member Ong? No. Panel Member Rajwani? Panel Member Rodriguez? No. Panel Member Thompson? Yes. Panel Member Vera Montalvo? Yes. Chair Faulkner? No. Panel Member Constantinides? No. Panel Member Cordero? Abstain. Panel Member Fox? Abstain. We have seven yeses. 12 nos. Sure. And three abstentions, so the motion fails. The motion failed to obtain a majority. The motion fails. Okay. May I continue my comments? I can't hear you. Speak into the mic. Okay. May I continue my comments? Yes. Thank you so much. Could you give the numbers?
Yeah. Bear with me for just one second. There were seven yeses. 12 nos. Petition. And three abstentions, so the motion fails. Panel Member? Thank you. I want to talk first about the emergency contracts. I am a unashamedly proponent of inclusivity and equity, and again, having acquisitions background, allowing contracts to expire is egregious. Allowing contracts to be extended without being amended, without being
redressed, and certainly to have any performance-based service contract not have performance-based evaluations in the contract is, again, egregious. When we talk about, Chair Faulkner, you just mentioned to table things have impact. Indeed, to extend them has impact as well, and when we extend irresponsibly, we do have a negative impact. There has not been one PEP meeting that I have come to or have watched
online where we have not had students or parents with disabilities. And by the way, it is not just students with disabilities that use busing. It is also our students in temporary housing who may be bused from one place to another because they are in shelters, and I don't think that gets highlighted enough. And as a native of the Bronx, in the district that has one of the highest amount of shelters, this is something that impacts us greatly.
And so I don't think that we should continue. Although it's a month, we're just extending it for a month. I just want to let the public know, right? So hold us accountable next month to see if the contract moves from emergency to some type of real and true contract, and that is for '27, '28, and '29. I also want to clarify for the public's information that when it says retroactive, it does not necessarily mean that we are only
agreeing to move forward with the contract because it already started. Yes. Sometimes, these vendors have actually done the work, and so because of the contract management process, we are approving to pay them for work that they've already performed. So, hold us accountable again to validate which retroactive contract meets that criteria because those are the contracts that we should all approve without fail because they've done the work.
The other retroactivity may be for work that was started for whatever reason that we were not able to approve before they started. So, those are two clarifications. And then I want to also- Strongly support Council Member Alicea for number 24, I believe it is. Yeah, it's number 24 for the IT consultants. I fully understand as a technologist having to have short-term contracts for consultants, but again,
I think a member of the public mentioned a pattern. And so if we are an education system, but we have a pattern of not building out the capacity within our system to have staff who are loyal, who work for, and who have the intellectual capital that is built into our system, then we are failing to do our due diligence by way of spending money for temporary fixes when we could build out the capacity to have it long-term.
And so that particular contract, as well, is concerning to me. There are a couple of others, but thank you for your time with regard to this. Sure. Thank you. By the way, I don't know if I heard if there were discussion about the temporary extension of the bus contract. Is that one of the- The emergency contracts. Oh, those are the extensions? For- Yeah, I just want to point out to the panel, this is important, that if we were not to approve those, we would lose bus service for our students immediately. I just wanted to say that for the record. We don't disagree with you. We're not disagreeing with you. But not disagreeing with me is not the same as doing something to fix the
problem. We are trying to fix the problem. Okay. But you may not see it, but we are. I just want to be really clear. You can be assured that we're working to solve the problem. It is a administrative problem. Because that's so, so important, that extensions do have consequences, and if we fail to extend those bus contracts, then the bus service stops. Yes, Council Member Cassaratti. Thank you so much. Camille Cassaratti, Brooklyn Borough President appointee. So I just want to agree with what Reverend Thompson said regarding the bus contracts and what
Maggie Sanchez, the co-president of CCSE mentioned. We still need everyone to call the Senate and Assembly and ask them to pass those bills. Senate Bill 1018 and Assembly Bill 4880, I think it is. So as Chair Faulkner was saying, there are going to be contracts that we just have to pass them because we cannot have this interruption of services, and the bus contracts are one of them.
Nobody is happy about this. These are still under negotiations and we did push back with the bus vendors. We said no five-year contracts. That was a win for New York City public schools, for the PAP, Chair Faulkner as the leader in that. I wanted one year, but here we are at one year. So, one year was a little bit unrealistic. Hopefully by the next year we'll have a firm contract in place that makes sense.
But I think I'm really glad that people keep elevating this issue and bringing it to the forefront. And in a way, seeing the emergency contracts every other month helps us to keep having these conversations and keep them front and center. Regarding agenda item two. Although it's not the same as a bus contract, it is a federal and state mandate to have the impartial hearing office record, report, and transcribe these services. And I believe they're also in languages other than
English. Somebody confirm that. But this is really critically important. The impartial hearing office is working with families whose children did not get a free and appropriate education. And so we want to ensure that they are being supported, they are being heard, and all of their stories are transcribed so that we can make sure that we are holding the system accountable and have the details to correct.
So I also want to say that there were attempts to do this in a different way. DC Foty's office was using Webex as an option, and that just didn't work. And so the DOE was attempting to do this more in-house. And there was a RFP, request for proposal, months of work and planning. And there were three vendors that were evaluated, and
eScripters was the winner for the best bid. And in our briefings, we had two one-hour briefings, so that's two hours, and then we had another two-hour session talking about procurements and contracts in general. So four hours talking about contracts just this week. And we did ask about AI for this particular vendor We were told that the vendor does use AI, but on
their own server, so that it is not an outsourced open AI. And so the data is not actually going out onto other companies' servers or out into the world. It's just run on their own server. So, all of that being equal, personally, I feel like it's really important that we pass this contract to ensure that not just we're meeting the federal and state mandates, which we need to do by law, but also that we're telling our
families who had to sue the DOE to get what their kids deserved, that we are going to be transparent and accountable to them. And I do believe that the contracts office does everything in their power to ensure student privacy in this area. And so, with that being said, I'm planning to vote yes for item number two. Thank you very much, panel member. I would also point out, you mentioned the briefings. We do go through hours of briefing on subject
matter, and so it's important that we attend those briefings because then we do get the opportunity to learn more and engage more with regard to the various items that come up in contracts or other items. Panel members can also request briefings if there are particular areas specifically that there is an interest. A panel member can request a special briefing, and that would bring the folks together. And one of the things I'm going to do is ask the contracts chair, because one of the things I did hear is that we want to make sure that the public is really given a chance to engage. So I'm going to really ask that the contracts chair take a look at finding
ways that we can engage public so that the public can have commentary. I would point out also that we do encourage written comment from the public, and written comment in many ways is not the same. People feel more comfortable coming to a public setting. The written comment, there is a time limit, and a DOE staffer will actually respond to all written comment. So you can also provide public written testimony, and that would-- So if there are contracts or if there are items that you feel strongly about, the public is encouraged to provide written
commentary, and then that commentary also will receive a response from a staffer at the DOE. It actually receives it faster, so it's not as sexy or in the field the same way to come to the public and have an opportunity to speak, but you do have other venues in which to be heard and express a point of view, and one of those is to use our panel access and to send in written commentary. And if you're here in the public and you've commented, you have written testimony, I encourage you to do both. Submit your written testimony as well. Are there any other panel members who wish to speak, or are we ready for the vote?
Yes, panel member. Sure. Okay, Matt. I'll be very, very brief, and I'm referring to item number 27 and 28. Again, it's transportation. It's $94 million, so one month, it's about 60% of the total items listed on this list. I understand, considering DOE fleet size, vendors, and the complexity, it takes time, and we're doing it month to month basis. My only take from this is moving forward, when a contract is eventually established, what lessons have we learned to avoid this in the future? We have been providing people transportation
all the time, year after year. By now, we should have avoided such a situation. I don't know if this impacts the services being provided or the expense. Does it go up? But essentially, moving forward, we need to do better at this. Yeah. At that. Thank you. It's very complicated. It's not just one contract. There are multiple bus contracts, so that just like signing one bus contract, there are multiple companies. There are multiple contracts that have to be negotiated. There are multiple steps. So it's not the DOE. They're working hard to
produce these contracts, but it is not as simple as we negotiated the contract, we signed the contract, and that's the end of it. You can see there are multiple bus companies. There are many bus companies out there. We have to do that individually. So it is complicated. And so we're not saying that we can't try to improve it. What I'm listening for is we could listen to find ways that we can do better. But I think it's also important to note that it is not as easy a task as it would appear to be. Any other panel members wish to comment? Okay, let's proceed to vote on this. I think we're ready for the vote.
This is the vote on... Okay. If I just say one more thing. You're good. I'd keep it really short. Sure. Sorry, everybody. Camille Cassaratti, Brooklyn Borough President appointee. I just wanted to talk about item number three through nine, which are the multiple task award contracts, and acknowledge some of the comments that were made regarding specifically art teachers and hiring staff, using internal staff to compensate for some of these expenditures. I am completely on board with that,
and I agree. As we are expanding class, or as we are trying to meet the class size mandate, we know that we need more and more and more teachers. They're just not available. But specifically for the multiple task award contracts, MTACs, that is not money that the DOE is actually spending in this moment. Those are negotiated contracts, and if a school wants to work with one of those vendors, that would be a school-based decision.
I just keep going back to this art one because I recognize that there are so many schools that do not have a full-time art teacher, that cannot afford a full-time art teacher, that cannot afford a part-time art teacher. And this type of contract allows a small school to have access to art and dance and other types of really important curricula that our children deserve and
need. And so I just wasn't sure if everybody understood specifically what that multiple task award contract is. Yeah, that was... Thank you for- Sure ... panel member. Yeah. Thank you. So let's, we'll proceed to a vote on the contracts. So panel members, this is a vote on contract items one through three and six through 31. When I call your name, please tell me your vote. Panel member Alicea? Sorry. Thank you. Adriana Alicea, she, her, queen, CECs. Uh, I would like to abstain on items two, three and 23. I cannot have a hand in filling the pool with poison, whether or not it's an MTAC
or whatever. Uh I will say no to six and seven, and yes to the rest. Panel member Bogan? Panel member Carbonaro? Same. No to number two, um, six and seven as well, and 13. Everything else, yes. Panel member Casaretti? Yes to all. Panel member Collins? I want to, uh, I would... I need to abstain from two and nine. No to six and seven. Um, also, um, to avoid a COI, um, abstain, I need to abstain from 30. Is that a recusal? A conflict recusal? Or recusal, yeah.
Okay. Um, but then yes to the rest. Sorry, Secretary, I missed one. Apologize. Um, I'd like to vote no on number eight also. My apologies. Thank you. Panel member Constantinides? With some reservations, and with the chair's sort of urging that we are going to look deeper into issues of AI, and with data privacy, um, I'll vote yes on all with the exception of number 16, which I must recuse myself from. Great. Panel member
Cordero? Uh, yes to all. Panel member Deanstag? Yes to all. Panel member Fair? Yes to all. Panel member Fox? Can you hear me? Abstain from 23, yes to the others. Panel member Hannah Jones? I must abstain from all of it. Panel member Hassan? Uh, abstain from two, six, and seven, and yes to the rest. Panel member Jefferson? I'm recusing from number eight and number 20, and yes to the rest. Panel member Khan? Abstain from number two and yes to all. Panel member Lozano? Similar to panel member Constantinides, uh, I look forward to deeper conversations about AI and deeper conversations around
problematic contracts. With that said, I also want to assure the continuation of services to New York City public school students, uh, so yes to all. Panel, uh, panel member Mehdi? I echo, um, Mr. Lozano as well. Yes to all. Panel member Ong? Panel member Rajwani? Yes to all. Panel member Rodriguez? Yes to all. Panel member Thompson? Yes to 27 and 28. Abstain from the rest. Panel member... Excuse me. Panel member, uh, Vera Montalvo? Abstain from two, six, and
seven. Yes to the rest. Chair Faulkner? Um, yes to all. Now, this was the hardest job you have because he's got to tally all of that up. So do we want to- Mr. Chair, could I abstain from 23? You, you change, you want to now abstain from 23? Well, I'll say to panel members, the new panel members, welcome to the panel. This has been a fairly lively discussion. But it's good. So we'll try to find ways that in the public comment and comments coming from the panel, where there are things that we can do and improve and do better, we're listening for that. And so I appreciate all the comments and discussion. I would have to say this has been one of the more lively contract discussions that
we've had over many years. So, that's probably a good thing. So let's move in that area. Can I say something? Sure. Thank you, Chair. Hi, everyone. I just wanted to take a moment. This has been a very eye-opening almost three hours. And I want to, as my first PEP meeting in this role, want to convey that the time you took, that the public took, youth, students, parents, educators, to share your concerns and generously
open up on some of these issues that are really important to all of us. I don't take that lightly. I don't think the group takes that lightly. And frankly, it's been incredibly helpful because it is part of the learning process. You have equipped me, personally, I'll speak for myself, you have equipped me with a more critical lens of how to approach the preparations for these meetings. And so I want you to hear me that the time you've taken is not going to go to waste, that it is actually very, very purposeful. And I also have to say a shout-out
to the returning council members. I'm taking notes. So, I'm just glad to be here, and I wanted to just say thank you. Well said. Do you want to So while we're tallying, there was a lot of movement in the tally here. We'll move to open public comment and invite members of the public who wish to offer comment on any particular item. When I call your name, please come up to the microphone. Martina Meyer. Meyer? Mm-hmm. Rachel Posder, Crystal Cleveland, Christine Tadler, and Zahira Martin. Good evening, panelists. My name is Martina Meyer, and I am
speaking in my capacity as a taxpayer and supporter of New York City's public education system. I am once again asking for us to have remote testimony at the PEP. After stating that earlier in this very meeting, I have heard from friends, multiple friends, who are at home and unable to attend for various reasons, some of which include disability. They want the opportunity to testify. As an educator, I will speak for myself. We want the DOE to address the underlying labor issues
that AI purports to resolve. So we need more counselors in schools, not children talking to bots. We need more prep time for educators to be able to grade. We need more sustainable workloads. We don't need Writeable. We don't need Amira. We need interdisciplinary project-based learning. We need fully funded after-school for all children. We need field trips for everyone, and we need time as educators to continuously develop culturally responsive educational experiences for the students that are in front of us today.
We need professional development that is not related to AI, and we need professional development that is not related to a scripted curriculum. There are many other ways to be developed as a professional besides those ways. Students and families are pushing back, and have done so for years, on the lack of whole books involved in each curriculum option of NYC Reads. And yet, we are expanding all three of these curricula that do not involve the reading of whole books the way that we know our students need to be reading.
Many superintendents chose HMH, and in the time since that choice, HMH has morphed from a curriculum publishing company to an AI company. I have so much more to say, and I will send it to the black hole that is the public comments. Okay. Thank- There we go. Hello, Chancellor. Is- What? Is- I think we have an issue here with the mic. Check, check. No, it's going in and out. We can't hear I'll take two and a half. Okay, I'm going to start. It keeps cutting out. Yeah. The mic is working, ma'am.
It keeps cutting out. That- It's not cutting out. I can hear you clearly. Go ahead. Okay. My name's Christine Tadler. I'm the parent of a rising third grader in District 15. I'm here to support a two-year moratorium on AI in our schools. With regard to AI, I want to talk about two issues, and those issues are greed and normalization. We know that the only goal of AI companies is to turn a profit. They are in the red, and they are desperate for money, and they've identified schools as targets with huge potential for dependence. Whether or not our children learn is inconsequential to their bottom line.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has said the future of AI is that of intelligence as a utility, like electricity or water. In other words, a future that positions technocrats like him as the gatekeepers of intelligence. Knowledge served up, shaped by their vision alone, available only to those who can afford it. Companies like Anthropic have bought up millions of rare and out-of-print books, using them to train AI models, and then destroying those books outright, completely eliminating our access
to those original texts. Does any of that sound pro-education? No. These are destroyers of education. They see our children for their shareholder value and nothing else. And what are we normalizing when we introduce kids to AI companions like Amira? Are we teaching that human connection is optional? That relationships with computers is valid, normal, safe? Chat bot use is on an alarming rise. Chat bots that exploit children's emotional needs erode essential relationship building skills, and in the worst case, they've driven vulnerable children to suicide. And despite all of this, we are introducing our
youngest students to Amira. We make Google Gemini available on school-issued devices. We invite these companies into our classrooms and call it education instead of what it really is, a rubber stamp on the erosion of human connection and vital skill building opportunities. If there is anyone on this panel who considers AI a potentially valuable tool for education, I urge you to remember that our duty to children is to nurture, teach, and protect them from exploitation. Artificial intelligence is the antithesis of that. Please reconsider.
Thank you. Thank you. My name is Rachel. I am a public school parent, a 23-year New York City public high school teacher, and an education doctoral candidate at CSI. I implore this body to move with a breathtaking quickness to reverse course and end all curriculum mandates which are doing immeasurable harm. These mandates enrich corporations at everyone else's expense. They deprive our kids of the meaningful, culturally responsive, developmentally aligned, and joyful learning experiences that
they deserve, and they disrespect educators' labor, intellect, and creativity. What good is being trained to decode phonics or circle correct answers if you never get to immerse yourself in a book that makes you want to read and to learn throughout your life? What good is a teacher's fidelity to a pacing guide when she can see that the children in front of her need her to slow down or change it up to show they matter most? Accountability need not mean uniformity, and real equity requires
flexibility and responsiveness, not top-down standardization. Yes, provide new and struggling teachers with resources to uplift their practice. Yes, have clear end goals, but don't strip from educators the dignity of self-reflection and choice. We cannot build a multiracial democracy of critical thinkers capable of imagining and then creating a better world on a foundation of schooling focused on compliance and rigid sameness. And teachers cannot mentor children to
become questioners, innovators, and authors of their own futures if those teachers aren't able to model questioning, innovating, and creating their own curriculum. If these mandates continue, the only people who will want to teach are those who are really good at following orders and exerting control. That is dangerous. It is bleak. We owe our kids and our democracy better. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Good evening. I'm a public school parent of two young kids, and I created a group called District 30 Parents for Ed Over Tech, my name's Crystal, by the way,
which is a coalition of parents concerned about the use of ed tech and AI in our schools. And I just started the group a few months ago, and it's ballooned to over 100 parents very quickly. And many of us have very young children and are deciding where to send our kids to school. But the New York City DOE is making it difficult to make that choice. Given the wide range of unsafe screen use, tech, and AI use in schools, the system has no central database for the products we are using. The city council hearings demonstrated that the DOE's privacy officer stated, "We don't know if all of our vendors have followed our privacy agreements." And in fact,
we know some are in direct violation of New York Ed Law 2-d, like YouTube, which continues to be widely accessible in schools and used by teachers. In fact, because of the well-known harms of YouTube, the New York City Public Schools is a named plaintiff in lawsuit against Google. The New York City Public Schools knows these companies are harmful and are paying lawyers oodles of our taxpayer money to suit that Why? Make that make sense. Why do we still use these products? Are our kids safe in school?
Additionally, at recent city council hearing, the DOE officials claimed there are multiple quality peer-reviewed articles that show AI has benefits in school, yet they provided no evidence of this whatsoever. The studies they cited actually showed some harms. That's what they use to justify the millions of dollars they use to spend on AI products in our school system. AI is unsafe and ineffective. You know what is robust? You know what does have robust evidence? Books, pencils, paper, and teachers.
Please, we are New York City. Demand excellence. We are the best city in the world. That's why many of us chose to come here. Demand better for our kids, supporting the whole child, all children. Thank you. Have a go. Hi, everyone. My name is Zahira. It's the microphone. There we go. So I am a New York City public resident, and my mom is a retired... Thank you. My mom's a retired DOE person. Imagine if a young individual learned who they were before the world and
environment told them who to be. The response is in the SEED. SEED is a structured, experiential, education, development, learning pathway built to restore and regenerate the traditional perspective of what it means to be a student in New York City public schools. And I'll say this, I wrote it down because sometimes I digress. After hearing so many people speak with such passion and regard to the education that their children are receiving, what this design is, is truly the response
to all of what is being said and what's opposed. It's inside of the SEED model, and the SEED model sits into a larger ecosystem known as the Pulsework Project 21 Continuum. And I share that to say, being a student of the New York City public school system, the same thing is still here, but it seems to be in a different form. And if the responsibility of the panel is to change that in policy, we can start with something that implements not more work for the teachers, the staff, or anyone.
It sits alongside of it, but it keeps everyone accountable and honest and participating in their own development. Thank you. Thank you. I think we have the results of the contract vote. Yes. All of the items, items one through three and six through 31 passed. Thank you. The next group of speakers, Wanda Yvette Belenes, Stephanie Marazzi, Dr. Calera Salas, Aixa Rodriguez, Laney Hampson. Working? Yes. Are we talking about contracts? I'm sorry.
I was talking to other people. Or this is public comment? This is public comment this time- Thank you ... so feel free. 2.30 minutes. It says two minutes. Hmm? It's two minutes for open public comment. Okay, two minutes. Oh, my... Okay. So I should be saying it in Spanish, but I'm going to be nice to you all since it's your first day. To the newer members, welcome. Since 2019, November 21 of 2019, the Panel for Educational Policy approved a budget for the CEC, CCECs, Community Education
Council citywide, for a budget of $25,000. I became the District 75 representative, a new addition to the CECs in 2023. We have had the entire time being stagnant, actually. We have had zero increase, aumento, since 2019. Seven years where the councils have to rely on
$25,000. I'm going to go straight to the point. The majority of the councils' members that are not District 75 represent or become liaisons of four, five, or six schools, while the District 75 representative, me, have to do walkthroughs, have to advocate for more than 10 schools. That is actually problematic because doing my CEC job, I lost more than
$20,000 from my job income. Doing this because I want my daughter and her fellow classmates to have the benefit of a professional parent But that's cutting into my income, it's affecting my daughter's roof, my food, the bed that she sleeps in. So I wanted to increase that amount parallel to whatever we have right now. 4.6% increase to the budget of the CEC since 2023. Thank you.
Thank you. All right. Gracias. We got you. Hi, Aixa Rodriguez, more UFT teacher. One more time. There are things that people have said before that I think might need to be repeated in Disability Pride Month, and I would love to see if there should be some type of electronic voting so that we can actually follow it on the screen and actually know what's happening, especially if we can't hear you. That would be very ineffective in any classroom in New York City that we can't follow what's going on. So please use this lovely screen to help anybody who's watching understand what's going on, whether in the audience or whether it ends up being
live-streamed or seen in archive the next day. I think would it be lovely to see that the PEP would do something that the UFT already does once a month, which is electronic voting, so we can actually see the results. That would be great, and we can follow along and have much more engagement, that lovely word that we get hit with all the time. Some of us have been here. We're not new to this. We're true to this. Some of us have been here for many, many chancellors. Some of us have flashbacks to ARIS, which is an $80 million boondoggle, and we've seen all the failures of many, many
administrations. We remember before mayoral control and during mayoral control with different mayors. Some of us have been around a long time, and when we do ask for things, mostly it's to kind of warn you before it ends up that we're right again all over again. With the changes on testing, we used to teach whole books. We used to have a Regents, an English Regents that was two days, and you had to memorize books, and you had to write two types of essays. That got changed. Thank you, Common Core. We warned you then. And now we're talking about excerpts, and kids don't read whole books, and everybody's illiterate.
We're warning you again. And we're tired of being the canary in the coal mine. This is a situation where we're going to be right again. The pendulum is swinging across the nation, and everybody's going to pen and paper. And we would like for New York City to wake up and stop swallowing this idea of AI everything. Yay. No. Come on now. Let's be so for real. We used to actually have physical books and everybody wasn't going Sora, digital this, digital that. If they can't be on screens for attention on their IEP, that shouldn't be what the school is doing. Books, again, change-
Speaker's time expired. By the way, I will say that was a great suggestion on the electronic voting. And I'm going to take a point of personal privilege here and welcome Lainie Hansson. I saw you outside, but I didn't realize. I just want to thank you, and your work you've helped over the past year from Class Size Matters. So I wanted to acknowledge your presence here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Faulkner. Again, I'm Lainie Hansson, executive director of Class Size Matters. I also wanted to alert you to two recent troubling audits. The first on the lax privacy policies and practices of DOE that have led to data breaches
involving more than a million New York City students, and the second on the hundreds of millions of dollars in potential Medicaid reimbursements for special education services that the DOE has failed to apply for. Among the most distressing findings in both cases was the fact that the DOE had delayed for months, and in some cases over a year, to provide these offices with the basic information and data necessary to do the audits. Also troubling was the DOE's dismissive responses claiming that the
auditors had simply misinterpreted the facts in these cases. Mayor Mamdani is still relatively new and many of you are new PEP members. I can imagine no better time to learn about the findings of these audits, require that DOE improve their practices, and turn over a new leaf. I also wanted to share with you some of the comments that we sent today to the chancellor by Class Size Matters and the Education Law Center, urging him to improve and amend the DOE's draft class size reduction proposal for next year
by setting out clear descriptions of the specific funding, policies, and levers that will be employed to ensure that 80% of classes are in compliance next year, followed by 90% to 100% in the following two years without excessive numbers of hundreds of schools exempted. The current proposal falls short of what the law requires. The draft proposal lacks transparency and is replete with ambiguous and conditional language without any actual commitments that sufficient staffing and space
will be provided in the future to allow schools to meet the benchmarks in the law. I will send you all copies of our comments, but I also urge you to look closely at this plan and make sure that the DOE does better. They are supposed to provide a revised plan to the State Education Department on August 14th, and you should be giving them input about what that should look like. Thank you very much. Hi, my name is Clara O'Malley, and I'm a teacher, but I haven't heard my name called yet. Do you see my name there for public comment?
No, what do you say? But go ahead. Okay. Thank you. My name is Clara. I'm a teacher from Brooklyn, and I want to talk about the use of generative AI in schools and how this has been embraced in districts across the country under an onslaught from the big tech companies seeking to sell their products. Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and other giant corporations are bombarding schools with offers of "free" AI resources in order to get them hooked. Meanwhile, huge investments in data parks for AI are keeping Wall
Street afloat. In reality, this new technology is in its infancy, and its impact on the education of children and youth, and adults, is only beginning to be measured, but we know enough to be concerned. Studies have shown, and our experience as educators confirms, that students' indiscriminate use of AI leads to a worrisome retrogression in critical thinking at the very least, and the accuracy of AI results in many cases is more than questionable, with potentially catastrophic
results. I'm speaking for the Class Struggle Education Workers, a tenancy in different education unions. We would be for a limited moratorium on the use of generative AI by students in instructional settings. At the same time, it's inevitable that AI will be used by students as it already is massively. Therefore, the issue is who will direct its use. The CSEW is for union control of technology, and more specifically, for decisions on AI or other new technology to be made by
educator-led councils of teachers, students, parents, and workers, not by the NYC DOE, New York State Ed, or other government agency or body. Who should decide? Educators, together with students, parents, and coworkers, who actually carry out the task of educating a new generation in a collective undertaking to better the conditions of all working people, in a society in which the development of each is the condition for the free development of all. Thank you. Hello. My name is Stephanie Morazzi. I'm the mother of a rising kindergartner in a Queens public school, and I just
wanted to reiterate that I believe it is inappropriate for five and six-year-olds to spend any amount of time during the school day receiving instruction on a handheld digital device. I think I speak for a lot of parents- Thank you ... who I've met at our school who are deeply concerned about this. I also wanted to point out that the Los Angeles school board recently banned the use of handheld digital devices for grades K and one. And I know this panel might not handle
that specifically, but I would urge you to devote policies in that direction. So thank you so much for your time. The next group of speakers, Maggie Sanchez, Greg Pak, Liat Olenik, Abid Madi, Andy Trinh. Chancellor, PEP members, thank you for your time and consideration. My name's Greg Pak. I am a comic book writer, artist, and photographer who organizes with Comics Action right here in New York City. Seven hundred New York artists, writers, and creators, including myself, have signed a letter asking for a moratorium on AI in the
public schools. Yes, we are mad because these AI billionaires have stolen our work without permission to create their databases. But more importantly, we're mad because these AI products destroy kids' abilities to write, to draw, and to think for themselves, which means they undermine education itself. Many writers and artists work with kids, so we know that every kid can draw. Every kid can write. Yes, it's a process. We all start out kind of bad, takes a while to get good, but even the hinky stuff is incredible because drawing is seeing and writing
is thinking. A kid who draws, a kid who writes, is observing as part of their community, is learning how things work, how people interact, and how they can analyze and participate in all that. But when you tell kids to use AI to generate images, ideas, or outlines, you're telling kids they're less than. You're telling them that their own minds, their thoughts, and their experiences aren't good enough, that all that matters is some product that a billionaire's machine crapped out. That's a horrible thing to do to anyone and a deeply damaging, even
abusive thing to do to a child. Furthermore, AI tools make up fake information, spread racism and sexism, and have been linked to cognitive decline, cheating, fraud, and even suicide. The billionaires want you to think kids have to learn AI to prepare for jobs. I don't buy it. Right now, we're seeing businesses looking for graduates without AI degrees or training because kids who are dependent on AI, who have learned to cheat and got cheated out of a real education, are worse problem-solvers and creative thinkers.
Please pass the ban on AI, the moratorium on AI in the public schools. Our kids depend on it. Thank you. Hi again. Maggie Sanchez. I'm here in my personal capacity. I'm the co-president of the Citywide Council on Special Education. Just want to remind the PEP that student data privacy and security must be at the forefront of ed tech discussions. Families should at least have a way to opt out from certain powerful generative AI features. There must be a balance struck when it comes to ed tech without
compromising students' cognitive development, critical thinking, student privacy and security, and the needs of students that require certain aspects of assistive tech in order to meet their needs. Also, more independent research by childhood development experts needs to be done around the impact of these generative AI model features. As even Congress considered last year, the race by companies to develop ever more powerful AI models seems to
be made a priority. Generative AI's rapid growth has raised concerns and discussions about managing potential risks. For example, the tendency of a generative AI to produce incorrect or misleading results, sometimes referred to as confabulation or hallucinating. Given the lack of federal oversight and regulations, we must consider the adequacy of industry self-assessment and how to require independent testing and reporting of results. Thank you.
Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Liat Olenick. I'm a public school parent, teacher, and climate organizer with Climate Families NYC. Today, we released a letter to the mayor and chancellor signed by 17 climate and environmental justice organizations calling for a moratorium on generative AI in schools. Until the DOE is able to quantify and share publicly the environmental and climate impact of AI tools, we should not be using them in our classrooms. This summer, we've all felt the impacts of the fossil fuel
climate crisis: toxic wildfire smoke, extreme heat, flash floods, all of which children are especially vulnerable to, and this is only the beginning. Okay. Thank you. I don't know. All right. I'm going to need those seconds back, though. Just so you know. This is only the beginning of climate collapse, which, if not mitigated, will cause billions of death and suffering on a scale we cannot imagine in our children's lifetimes. Right now, the green energy transition is underway, and we should be on a path to phasing out fossil fuels. Solar is cheaper than gas, and around the
world, countries are investing in renewables. But for the fossil fuel industry, that's where generative AI comes in. Generative AI is creating demand for fossil fuels at a moment when we and our children cannot afford a single additional gas plant or a fraction of a degree more of warming. We would not be okay with our New York City public schools investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Exxon or gas plants. We should not be okay with them investing that money in fossil fuel-driven data centers that are destroying the world.
The new demands comes from not only the fossil fuels powering data centers, but also the construction of data centers, and the strain on the grid that means more fossil fuel infrastructure comes back online. This is why companies like Google, whose AI products are on student Chromebooks, have seen emissions skyrocket. We have an opportunity to set an example for the nation and put our children's futures and health first. Put a pause on generative AI in schools. I hope the mayor and the chancellor will consider this.
And also, these meetings should have food and childcare. Thank you. The next group of speakers, Alyssa East, Thomas Sheppard, Estella Ngwema, Sarah Catalanotto, Charlotte Pope. Hello? Hello. You all can hear me okay? Yeah. All right, cool. So I want to start by just thanking my successor, Bernita Parsons, for her service as the Bronx CEC member on the PEP, and I want to give a warm and heartfelt welcome to
our successor, Reverend Letitia Thompson. I believe that the Bronx is truly in good hands. I will say, though, that the vote for vice chair tonight could've waited, because conspicuously absent- From the stage tonight is the Bronxville President's member who did not have a vote, and who would be the vice chair on the PEP. So I just needed to flag that. So that could have waited. So I'm going to make this quick. Parents and communities come out month after
month and year after year because the decisions you make have an impact on curriculum and academic outcomes, budgets, the funding formula, capital plan, contracts and transparency, compliance with the class size law, the use of AI in schools, changes in school utilization, transportation issues, condition of school buildings, school food, safety, restorative justice and human-centered schools, and school integration. Now, I want to reframe school integration as an equity
issue because we- You have to turn it down. There. Oh. Additional. Thank
you. So Mr. Sheppard, I'm going to give you an additional minute for the interruption so you can- Fair enough. Thank you. And by the way, thank you for giving the community their 30 seconds back. I do appreciate that. They got more than 30. But yeah. So I know that the mayor and the chancellor have really talked about school integration. But I really want to reframe this as an equity issue because yet again this year, we admitted three Black students to Stuyvesant High School. And in order for us to have any real conversation about equity, Black kids got to be in the
building. And right now when we talk about Stuyvesant, they are not in the building. When we talk about our specialized high schools, they are not in the building. So I'm just tired of counting them on my fingers every year. I just think that in incoming classes that got thousands of children in them, we need to do better than counting them on our fingers. And I guess the last thing I want to say is having been where you are, this is an incredible responsibility. The community, the public, parents, and
students all have a say or should have a say in the way that this works. It is also not lost on me that I don't see any students, our student members up on that stage. And we need to do more to make sure that our students are not just on the stage, but that their voices are taken seriously. And to the degree that we can, even if it means changing state law, that our students should have the ability to vote on the things that impact them directly. So again, I welcome all of you.
I look forward to working with you. Thank you, Chair Faulkner. Sarah Catalanotto. Again, speaking on behalf of Parents to Improve School Transportation, PIST. On expanding Student Omni, like the young people said, Chancellor's Regulation A801, not revised since the year 2000, denies a MetroCard to youth who walk or ride a yellow bus to school. But Student Omni is advertised as letting them learn, work, engage in the whole
city, and practice travel skills with or without an adult chaperone. Change the eligibility in those rusty regulations. One transportation contract we want you to discuss is the parent-facing GPS and supposed routing software. The Via app glitches on the parents and those cheap phones glitch for the drivers. It's eaten 50 million tax dollars, which could've gone to Omni, and it must be on some boycott list because
how is confidential medical info and addresses sent to engineers in Tel Aviv? The request for proposal to try other providers for less money was withdrawn, and Via got a two-year extension, and the privacy clause expires when that's over. Parent and worker leaders have been raising alarm about the attacks on Haitian Temporary Protective Service, but we're told by counsel it's getting fixed in the court. But it's ending effective this week. What is the city doing
to protect thousands of Haitian-American school bus workers from being profiled or worse? On the Medicaid reimbursement audit, related services include specialized transportation. Even if many families don't consent for privacy reasons, there could be an effort to get some fraction of the roughly 1,000 per student per year, which again, could subsidize other services. Thank you. Hi again. Alyssa East. A big thanks to all of you who took
my comments on contracts so seriously. I'm very grateful. And I want to address some of your discussion on the contracts. I want to encourage this panel to think of the strength of your purchasing power. You're in the position to make demands. You have 800,000 students. You can say, "We don't want your suite of products unless you shut off AI." You can demand green climate-saving standards for our kids' futures in any technology that you bring into classrooms. You can say that unless independent,
not industry-funded studies can demonstrate that whatever products are on offer can improve learning outcomes beyond what human teachers can do, that we don't need them. You can say that unless your student data privacy standards are bomb-proof, we won't do business with you. And you can also demand transparency in these contracts that you also share with the public in advance of these meetings. And I mean details, the kinds of details that needed to be presented to the public before tonight's discussion. I would also like to encourage you all to take a serious look at the amount of
screen time students at all grade levels have in schools. I'm sure you've read about LA United. This was brought up tonight as well. They have cut screen time from 2K to second grade. Now, the Dodgers may have beat the Yankees in the World Series two summers ago, but we can beat LA United by getting rid of screens in 2K through fifth grade, and limiting screen time in middle and high school. School systems across the country are eliminating screens, which is also a highly effective and efficient way of getting rid of AI to
increase learning outcomes. New York is going to fall behind Alabama, Tennessee. Alabama and Tennessee, y'all. Come on, seriously. I'm from down there. I can make that comment. Utah and Iowa, which have passed statewide bans on screens in K through five. The US has spent over 30 billion in ed tech, and since 2010 we've- I'm sorry. Speak into the microphone ... seen the lowest test scores in decades. Please consider taking a leadership position on screens in schools. Thank you. Hello, my name is Charlotte Pope. I'm with the New York Civil Liberties Union. Thank you. The DOE guidance on AI says
stakeholders have a voice through the PEP, which has established pathways for active partnership. For the new PEP Task Force on technology and AI, we ask that you help with one piece of partnership in particular. Please disclose to the public the membership of the DOE's external AI advisory council. The AI guidance document said New York City Public Schools builds AI guidance with the communities it serves, but included there the external AI advisory council defined as external experts informing New York City Public School AI governance, but
the public has never known who that is. What we do know is when that council was first convened two years ago, it happened right after a former chancellor said in his address to all the technology companies investing in AI, "Start here in our schools." Since that address, some reporting has cited council members like Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and IBM. But the list does not stop there. The public needs to know what companies influenced the AI guidance and got us to the frightening reality we are now grappling with. Community members come month after month to say the DOE is doing too
little to curb AI's threats to teaching and learning. The public should know what industry representatives were and are behind the curtain shaping AI policy and potentially strong-arming the uncritical deployment of experimental and erroneous AI ed tech in our schools. For this new PEP task force and this new term, help reveal to the public the shadow AI working group established under the former mayor, and use your power as a partner to the public. Thank you. The next group of speakers,
Kate Mulvaney, Queen Arsem, Craig Slutskin, Valerie Shusterov, Ethan Sax. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to all the new members of the PEP. My name is Kate Mulvaney. I'm the mother of a second grader in Queens. A friend of mine came here last month and told the committee she was considering moving her child out of public school because of her concerns over tech use in the classroom. She's made the decision to move her son to a private school and was told by his new principal that for the first time ever, the school will have two first-grade classes, and that the classes will be larger
than usual. This is not a blip on the radar. This is a new generation of parents with children in or entering public education who grew up with devices, saw what happened during COVID, and is still happening in our public schools, and who are saying, "Not my child." Last month, I came to the PEP And spoke about one-to-one devices in the classroom and how my son accessed content about kidnapping while in his first-grade classroom and on his DOE-issued device. This month, I used simple terms, search terms such as sex, porn, AR-15, beheading, and
boobs on my son's device and got the following: how to have sex like a porn star, a masterclass, top five porn stars of the '80s, lots of stuff about overcoming your porn addiction, which, hey, might be educational, "Swingers," a short film, boy love short film, how an AR-15 works, lots of photos and information about breast implants, and punishment around the world. I was also able to access "The Anarchist Cookbook," which, for those who aren't familiar, teaches a person how to make various types of bombs, mace, and Molotov cocktails. DOE-issued devices do not have appropriate
protections on them for our children. The issue of one-to-one devices is not only for those in second grade and below. It is a problem for all students. None of them should be accessing this content. Due to the New York Education Law, Section 2D, NYCDOE was told by the BOE that students should not be allowed to access certain Google products, including YouTube, due to Google's refusal to sign a data privacy agreement. New York City schools are in breach of state law. Every child I know in public school has access to YouTube on their state device. My question is, why does this continue to be the case?
Thank you. Sorry. Oh, if anyone wants to look at my son's iPad, it's here. You can look and see what content's accessible. Thank you. Should throw it in the garbage. Good evening, Chancellor Samuels and PEP panel members. My name is Valerie Schusterov. I'm a born and raised New Yorker, a PhD student in clinical psychology with an emphasis on child development, and more importantly for tonight, I'm the mother of two young children, including a rising kindergartner in this school system. They were the ones running around earlier. I'm here because I believe there is no place for tech devices and
app-based learning in early education and in AI in our public school classrooms, and I want to ground that belief not in nostalgia, but in scientific evidence. There is data showing that screen reading encourages rapid skimming, reduced comprehension compared to reading on paper. Gamified learning apps reduce comprehension and rely on metrics like engagement and time on device. The product here is their attention in place of actual learning. Screen time is the
primary obstacle to student focus, critical thinking, and long-term problem-solving stamina. I'm not sure why there are coding classes beginning in kindergarten with gamified problem-solving when actual recess is only 15 minutes, where children can learn problem-solving skills through play. This is not an argument against tools that serve genuine accessibility needs, because what the data doesn't fully capture is what we in developmental psychology already know.
Children learn through embodied relational experience. They learn language through a caregiver's face. They learn regulation through a teacher's presence in the room. They learn persistence through a peer struggle sitting next to them, and they learn tolerance and empathy through play and social interactions. And an app cannot replicate that, no matter how adaptive its algorithm claims to be. One-to-one devices take this away from children. We need to protect the cognitive and neurodevelopment of children in this critical window.
The urbanist Jane Jacobs spent her career fighting against Goliaths like Robert Moses, who redesigned cities from behind a desk- Speaker's time has expired ... without ever observing how people actually- Your time has expired ... lived on the ground- Thank you ... considering profit- Thank you. Your time has expired. I beg you to ban devices in early education. Your time has expired. I'm asking if you please follow the rules. Is it working? Yeah, it's working. Okay. So, can you guys hear? No. Give him it. All right. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can. Okay. First of all, I want to thank all of you for taking the time to hear
us. Humans listening to humans is the bedrock of democracy, and God, do we need more of it. I want to say that my name is Ethan Sacks. I'm a born and raised New Yorker. I'm a graduate of the New York public school system. I'm the parent of a child who is a much, much more recent graduate of the New York public school system. And I'm a journalist and a comic book writer, and basically, my entire career started because of the guidance and the love and the dedication of elementary school teachers, creative writing teachers that encouraged
me, a journalism class in high school that taught me the love of going out there and reporting, and everything that followed afterwards was the product of personal triumphs and traumas, of education and experiences. Now, a few months ago, a friend of mine just used ChatGPT and asked it to write a comic in the style of me, and it produced mostly gibberish, but clearly a rip-off of something I had written. Now, I had never given permission or gotten compensation. Neither had Marvel Comics.
And I just think it's illustrative of what this technology is, and that is it doesn't create, it regurgitates. And What are we using it for, for our children? It's stealing. It's stealing their ability to learn, to create, and to think for themselves. It's stealing the autonomy of teachers to come up with their own lesson plan and use the skills that they've earned and the passion that they have to teach. And it is not a replacement
for any of that. The most artificial thing about all of it is the perception that it's inevitable and that it's necessary. So please, you're our hope. You're our hope to protect our children, so please keep that in mind with every contract decision and everything you do. And thank you very much for listening. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Craig Slutzkin. I'm the newly reelected president of CEC2, but tonight I'm speaking solely on my own behalf. So first, I want to congratulate all the new PEP members, and thank you for stepping forward to serve.
It's a significant responsibility that'll impact more than 800,000 students and their families. I also want to recognize Chancellor Samuels. In your short time as chancellor, I've appreciated your accessibility, your willingness to engage with families and communities, and your commitment to strengthening our schools, and I look forward to working with each of you over the next year. As you begin your service, I'd like to offer a few thoughts. First, embrace oversight. As you review contracts, ask the tough questions. Ensure each one is necessary, delivers real value to students and families, and is a responsible use of taxpayer dollars. At the same time, we need to move decisions forward.
Our schools depend on both accountability and efficiency. I'd also encourage you to read your resolutions from CECs. You won't always agree. You won't always agree, unless they're from me, then you're always going to agree, I'm sure. But they all reflect conversations with families across the city and provide important insight into what parents do care about. And just as importantly, listen broadly. The loudest voices are not always the most representative. Most parents are not at meetings or on social media, they're working and raising children. They want safe, rigorous schools, and when possible, schools close to home. Their voices matter. And above all, focus on what keeps families in New York City public schools.
My own son's grade, more than 10% of the students have left this summer for private schools or suburbs. Families vote with their feet, and we should make public schools the first choice. I was disappointed that the mayor's budget did not include new AIMS, NEST, or Horizon seats. Existing seats were maintained, but there was no true expansion made despite the strong demand and success of these programs. I wrote a resolution that was passed unanimously calling for growth, and I hope that the PEP and the chancellor will advocate for that in next year's budget. Finally, please make decisions based upon evidence and results.
Evaluate what works, change what doesn't, and ensure ideology never outweighs outcomes. We must address chronic absenteeism because students can't learn if they're not in school. Our schools should be safe, respectful, and welcoming- Speaker's time has expired ... for every child. So congratulations and thank you for your service. The last group of speakers, Johanna Bjorkin, Sarah Hughes, Mariela Benavides, Mark Gonsalves, Rashida Brown-Harris. Right. Is it working? Okay, it's working. Hello, panel. My name is Johanna Bjorkin, and I'm here tonight as the parent of
a rising 12th grader. I can't believe that I'm here. And I don't come to all the PEPs, but I come frequently, and I want to welcome so wholeheartedly this new PEP who is appointed by a mayor I couldn't be more excited about in this city. My passion is data, and my passion is budget, and my passion is equity. And I'm here tonight, first of all, to thank the chancellor for setting up the pilot working groups in the five
districts where you did it. I cannot wait to see where they go. Where I'm confused and what I need desperately for clarity on is what happens with high schools. High schools are intentionally marginalized in terms of parent and community engagement by design. There are very few structures that are functional for parent engagement at the high school level, and they are completely inadequate to handle the moment that we're in, where we have
a completely segregated high school system, where we have Black and brown students in intensely segregated tiny schools that are not offering them the robust education that they deserve. I am lucky enough that my child attends an ed-opt, non-screen school where he is getting a fantastic education where the population looks like the city, and every kid should have that possibility. And I really hope that we get clarity on what that's going to look like in the
high school level soon, and I hope that you will really do lean into that hard work. Hi, I'm Sarah Hughes. I'm a parent to a rising kindergartner and next year, three care in Kensington, Brooklyn, and I'm also a working artist. This is my first PEP meeting, and I'm very glad to be here in company with all you new PEP members. And I'm here to demand an AI moratorium I am here and I believe you are here because you value the one million students and 81,000 teachers that are part of this system. You value their brains, their learning, their privacy, their intellectual
and artistic contributions, and their future on this planet. These are all things that AI and the tech companies peddling in on every subway platform could care less about. They are instead interested, as a previous speaker said, in stealing. In stealing our artistic work, our labor, our critical thinking skills, and those of our children from ourselves, and selling it back to us for millions of dollars. They are creating the sense that it is necessary, urgent, and inevitable. These are lies, it is hype, and believing them benefits only billionaires, much like those depicted on these murals.
I teach my kid that it is not okay to steal, but he's going to be taught by tools that steal from him. We have seen this movie before. We don't need to do it again. When we fall for this and pay these billionaires with our incredibly hard-earned and very stretched thin tax dollars, we are devaluing the human labor of teachers, the intellectual property of artists like me and many others here, the environmental future of our children, the universal and inalienable right to privacy, and the critical thinking skills of students.
And we are prioritizing techno-corporate chumminess, the surveillance of students and teachers, and shallow performance outcomes rather than actual learning. It is up to us, to you, to stop the infiltration of this detrimental, racist, sloppy, error-ridden technology, just as we stopped the use of personal screen-based devices during the school day. We've already done that. We can do this again. We need a moratorium to give us time to draft a curriculum focused on teaching students and teachers about the issues inherent in AI use, so they can approach these tools when they come across them in the world outside of
school with healthy skepticism, awareness of bias, and strong critical thinking skills. Thank you so much. You can begin. Hi. My name is Mariela Benavides, and as you can see, I don't have my notes on my phone because it ran out of battery. Luckily, I grew up during a time where I learned to write on paper, and I learned to use my brain. Also, I would really appreciate it if you could all listen to what I have to say instead of
looking down or looking at your phone. I know we're all tired. We've all been here for I don't know how many hours. I woke up at 6:00 AM. I have two kids. We all have things to do. But I have been listening to you and paying attention, so I would expect the same. Okay? Like I said, it takes a lot of effort to make it to these meetings that you decide to only have the public comment open to people who actually show up. I agree with everybody else that you should change that. Also, this is my third PEP meeting, and I feel like I'm back in the '80s
because none of this technology that you guys use for these meetings work. We keep having to change microphones, et cetera. And to me, it's crazy that you want to spend all this money on AI and technology in schools, but you can't even get this stuff to work here. It's just basic stuff. Anyways, my daughter's going to be going into kindergarten next year, and when I found out that she's going to be getting a Chromebook, I went insane. I don't understand how you guys think that this is
okay. And now to introduce AI and have robot teachers in school that are made by bot companies. What are you thinking? What are you thinking? Do you think that this is okay? I never consented to any of this, and she cannot consent. And I also know other parents who are thinking of putting their kids in private schools. So, unless you're ready to see the mass exodus of all the students, you need to take the feedback from the people that are here. Speaker's time has expired.
Good evening, Chair Faulkner, Chancellor, PEP members. My name is Mark Gonsalves, Co-President of Citywide Council on Special Education, with two kids with IEPs, both with assistive technology. I'm speaking on my behalf today. We're hearing a lot about technology, about AI, hearing a lot about all the problems, right? The data breaches, the risks, cognitive ability, mental health concerns, student privacy risks, and so many other problems. I acknowledge those concerns. I share many of those concerns. But what I'm here to talk about
is a population that actually does need some of the technology, students with disabilities. Right? Students with disabilities, they have an IEP. It's an individualized education program. Where does that come from? IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Act. Again, individuals. It's the federal law we all live by in this school system. Right? We also are under ADA and 504. Let's be very clear. We're hearing the talk about a moratorium, about stopping technology, about
blocking technology. Uh-uh. Our kids are protected by federal law. If they need it, they get it, beginning, end of story. We've got students that need word prediction, they need spellcheck, they need grammar check, they need AAC to be able to communicate These are real technologies that, yes, they use AI. They use LLMs. They use different AI features, right? Machine learning. It's in there. You can't ban it. They need it to be able to access the curriculum on a daily basis.
So to restrict, to ban, to put a moratorium, is discrimination against these students and against federal law. And if there is such for these students, there will be federal law that comes down on the DOE. Thank you. Okay. Testing. All right. Peace and blessings, y'all. My name is Rasheeda Brown-Harris.
My pronouns are she/her/hers, and I am a parent leader, parent advocate, and parent volunteer with New Settlement PAC, Parent Action Committee. Excuse me, can we have some order in the back of the room, please? Excuse me, can we please have some order? There's a speaker. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you, Chair Faulkner. All right. Start again. Peace and blessings, y'all. My name is Rasheeda Brown-Harris. My pronouns are she/her/hers, and I'm a parent leader, parent advocate, and parent volunteer with New Settlement PAC, Parent Action Committee, and Healing Center Schools Working Group with the Bronx Legal Services
in the Bronx. Healing Center Schools Working Group, we elevate, educate, advocate, and support healing-centered, restorative, transformative, anti-racist, anti-bias, and culturally responsive sustaining practices in our New York City public schools. I'm a mom of a 16-year-old high school student, and her Omni card stopped working, and we have no support as to where to go and who to talk to. But so let me just clarify that we just need to go to whatever New York City public school is open and ask if they have an extra Omni card. Is that how that works?
We'll get confirmation on that. But to uplift the demand from our Omni youth advocates, we need universal access, unlimited rides, fair communication around deactivations, and a faster, more reliable replacement process. In regards to our busing, this panel should rediscuss and respond to recommendations that the Comptroller put forth in December 2025, at the time Brad Lander, about the pupil transport audit report. Y'all should discuss that and report back to us at a future meeting if you're able
to, please, because they have some really good recommendations in there. In regards to our AI in schools, the unacceptable risk rating from Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute, CSM, gives Google's AI products the lowest possible rating because they create unacceptable risks for our kids and teens. The AI industry has plans to construct hundreds of these data centers to emit more than 129 million tons of greenhouse gases, and what will life be like for our kids in 30 years?
AI is a threat to knowledge, expertise, and truth in our schools. It's destroying our environment. Thank you. Thank you. And welcome to all of the new panel members. And shout out to Letitia James on day DX. Let's go! Okay. That ends the public com-- Yes? Well, I got- She was on the- She was called. Yeah, I guess we called you earlier and you weren't present when we called you. So normally that would forfeit your opportunity to speak, but because I know you wouldn't accept that well, we're going to- You- We're going to- Talk. Hey. The floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you.
Once again, welcome newly appointed PEP members. As you can see, there's a lot of stuff going on in the New York City public schools. At the forefront, of course, right now, there's a lot of us that really want to have a conversation around tech, screen time, and AI, and what is the appropriate use of that in our classrooms. One of the things that you'll learn as you sit in those seats is that as president of the CEC in District 4, we are deeply committed to anti-racist practices in our classrooms, and that includes anything that will impact our most marginalized students.
And so in turn, we've actually written 19 resolutions in the last year that has to do with all of the ways that we can deconstruct the systems and structures that impact our most marginalized students. So I recommend that you log on to my website, cecd4.org, and read those 19 resolutions that typically do not get robust responses from the Department of Education, just to initiate that conversation. Today, I want to use my last minute to talk about our most recent data on the segregated high schools that we have in New York City, particularly
our specialized high schools. I will say that I spent 15 years as a professor in the CUNY system. I have now moved on to Rutgers, but I still live in Harlem. And so in turn, I have the opportunity to really talk about what happens in higher education and things that we're seeing. What I will tell you is that we need to deeply invest in how we're going to integrate our high schools, and you have an opportunity in the next couple of years to actually make recommendations so that only three high schools
continue to use the SHSAT as based on the law. The rest of the schools can have different admissions policies. And so I'm going to challenge you in your term to push this mayor and to push Chancellor Samuels. Give him the support that he needs so that we can integrate our schools in the way that he really wants to do them. Thank you. Sure Actually, I think that's a very valid comment. I remember when we had the SHSAT, and we were voting on the renewal of the exam. I reluctantly voted for it on the basis that we would do exactly that and take a look at whether we need to provide other admission
standards, or should it be limited to just one test? Not lowering the standards of the school, maintaining those schools should maintain high standards, but also find out if there are other ways that we could determine whether a child would be successful in that school or not. And that's a conversation that I think we should move towards having at some point. Are there any other comments? No. Okay. That concludes the public comment section of the meeting. We will now move to panel member comments. I will preface that by saying panel members, you will be limited to two minutes.
So if any panel members who want to make a two-minute wrap up, you can feel free to do so at this point. Why don't we just go around the room, and if you have a comment or an observation that you want to make as we prepare to conclude the meeting, you're free to do so. I see a hand. I can't see who it is. Yes, Panel Member Anna Jones? Sorry. No, I just saw a hand that I didn't know... I was just going to go around the room, but is there something that-- Okay. All right. So why don't we start at the end of the room, and we'll just go around. And feel free to pass if you don't have a comment. I would just express appreciation for members of the public who have
spent their time with us this evening and provided their perspective. And also I want to express appreciation for members of the PEP who are returning to their roles, similar to what Member Rodriguez was saying. Listening to your discussion has been really impactful and instructive. Thank you. I agree. I would like to thank everyone who came here and poured their hearts out for their children, because if no one stands there and advocates for our kids, there's no one else that's going to. So these parents that are out here at 7:00 at night trying to fight for the students, I want to thank you, and especially the students that were here voicing
their opinion. Because it's now that we're seeing kids come up front and voice and know that they have a word within our city, so that's a good thing to see. And I hope everyone gets home safe. Okay. Panel member. I echo my panel members as well. Thanks so much for everybody who came out tonight to share their thoughts and advocate for themselves and their families and their kids. Thank you for coming out. I'm looking forward to partnering with the rest of the panel and addressing some of the concerns that came through. Thank you. Alan's passing. Good evening, everyone. Yes, of course. Thank you as always for showing up and speaking out. Appreciate all of your comments.
I do want to say that I was pretty disappointed this month in the written public comments. I don't think we received more than four in the entire month of July. And it's really important that you all are writing to us so that we can get that in writing and really ensure that we're addressing and writing concerns, just for the public record, and for the transparency and accountability piece. So if you haven't had a chance to look at the PEP website
lately, go on the DOE, look up Panel for Education Policy, and just scroll down to where it says Written Public Comment, and you can send messages any time of the day or night, and we're going to receive them. Just a correction from something I had said earlier when I was talking about contracts. I had flagged that DC Foty's office had attempted a translation interpretation, but I actually misspoke. It was the Office of Administrative Trials and
Hearings, and so shout out to DAHAL. We have too many acronyms. And lastly, just want to say thank you to all the CECs that took the time to send in their IPRs. Really appreciate that. I looked at all of them. I especially like the ones that had your resolutions linked. That was super helpful and a really smart idea. So, thank you again. Your time is appreciated. Good night, everyone. Thank you so much for everyone that spoke. Just want to say welcome to the new panel members and
this is truly a very integrated group of people. This is what we want our schools to look like. This is what we want equity to look like. So I just want to appreciate everyone for giving all of their brilliance and their greatness here. I'm sure everyone agrees with me when I say I want this administration to succeed. I want this chancellor to win. I want our children to win. I want our communities to win. And so much was said here in terms of technology. In no way or fashion I'm saying technology
is not relevant. It is. But when you use technology to explain-- When you use technology and say, "We want you to use technology so you can become workers, or you can become better workers," I think that's the wrong way of really looking at this. We want people that have technology to be thinkers, to be problem solvers. We don't want the problems to be solved for us. We want to be the ones to install, instill those problems so that the problems go forward
so that we all become better. And that's what we use technology for. We don't need technology to think for us. We don't need technology to write for us. We don't need it to do all these things automated for us. What I will say is, what do we do when the lights go out? When there's no power When your child can't write no more than a sentence, or when you can't write a sentence, or you can't communicate. So this is things that we really need to talk about holistically in terms of what's happening. And I will end it by saying this. In light of all the book banning and DEI
banning and Black history banning, my wife and I are building an institution in Brooklyn, in Bed-Stuy, called North Star Books and Bar. We are building a huge bookstore in Bed-Stuy. It's going to have all the books that are banned. And just want everyone to understand that while we're struggling here- Panel member ... we do have people that are trying- Please wrap up ... to get it done. So thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. Adriana Alicea, she, her, here for Queens CEC. Since there's a time limit, I'm going to skip the pleasantries, though that feels so wrong as a millennial.
The chancellor and the mayor secured an additional two years of mayoral control and additional two years to roll out the class size plan. I really hope that this means that we can meaningfully address capacity and utilization as well as our agility with our approach, given the consistent drops in enrollment over the last approximately six years and the national drop in birth rate. No artful segue. So when will we see the results of the AI survey that was lauded and defended for months last year by Dr. Pate, who is a chief academic officer here at DOE?
Cool. Chair, I would like to thank you for confirming that the panel can and will be briefed on topics of concern. I'd like to formally request that the panel be briefed on the complete results of the survey in advance of the August meeting, and have a special presentation of the results at the September meeting for the public. Kind of lastly, I want to apologize to Kate Mulvaney. I am so sorry that your son was exposed to any of that. My family plans to conscientiously object to the use of one-to-one devices in school this coming school year. I didn't agonize for the first four years of my son's life, and honestly still,
about the amount of screen time that he has on a daily and weekly basis just to send him to a classroom to be taught curriculum developed by money-hungry tech bros instead of the subject matter expert at the front of the classroom. How many more canaries do we require? I completely agree with one of the speakers earlier. My chief responsibility as a mother is to protect my child, so not a single canary more. We've been practicing the statement, "My parents said I am not allowed to use devices at school." And I encourage anyone interested in exercising conscientious
objection, whether on the basis of ethical concerns or religious concerns, given the release of the encyclical on AI by the papacy. Further to this, I want to flag a few things happening around us, because not a single canary more. One of the Ivys, I think it was Yale Law - Panel member, you have to wrap up I will wrap it up, I promise. I'm on my last little page. All of the 1L or first-year law students, and I think it is at Yale Law, but don't quote me, are now required to use pen and paper in every class for the entire first year. Okay. Recently, a professor's Twitter post went viral because he shared the results of
mid-year and final exams- Your time has expired ... illustrating glaring evidence that the majority of the students- Panel member, your time has expired. Let me finish, please. Thank you. Thank you. No, we agreed to two- I am so tired of being horrified by the things- Panel member ... that I hear in this space. Panel member, in fairness, we agreed to two minutes. This portion- Two minutes Excuse me. The same thing as the three. Excuse me. This portion of the meeting is at the discretion of the chair, and I'm allowing it because we agreed to a time limit, and the agreement was that we would allow for two minutes, and I extended-- And actually, we went beyond the two minutes. So can we move on to the next speaker?
Can I yield some of my time to Adriana? No. We don't yield. We don't normally do that. If you wish to speak, you can speak, and then we're going to move on. The point is that we agreed to two minutes. Okay. So do you wish to make comments, panel member Collins? We'll move on if you don't wish to. And when we mo- I'll be brief. Thank you. Well, good evening, everyone. I just want to speak briefly about the spirit of tonight's meeting. I think it was very healthy that we were able to have and demonstrate and model civil discourse as
a board, as an organization, as a group. There were some intense kind of moments when we were engaging with the contract issue. But as I said during that portion of the meeting, it's a value document, and it should produce spirited discourse. This is a deliberative body, and deliberation is rooted in civil disagreement that should ultimately lead us towards more enlightenment, towards more of an absolute truth. And so I just hope that we can continue to keep the spirit of this
conversation moving throughout the rest of the year, and I hope that we can practice the thing that I've learned in the little time that I've been on the board, which is the most important attribute is courage. It takes a lot of courage to sit up here and do what we do. It takes a lot of courage to spend time combing through documents, looking at facts, making judgment-based decisions, and trusting your peers ... to listen and to be open to your ideas. So I hope we can continue to practice this kind of
courage and civil discourse for the sake of our kids for the rest of the year. Thank you. Alma, Mayor. Good evening, everyone, or good night. One, I just want to welcome my colleagues again. It was nice to hear everyone's reasoning of what motivated them to join or be a part of this great advocacy for our kids. I think that a lot of times, the public is not aware of our stories where a lot of us, some of us came from different challenges or experiences, not always positive in a DOE, but we still were hopeful. And a lot of us are products of the DOE. And thinking of all the parents and the teachers and everyone who was talking today,
even with my time returning, I was thinking about, "Well, how did I get here? How did I get into my role? How did I get into NYU?" And you guys are absolutely right, AI was not a part of that. AI was not a part of my critical thinking. I'm a DOE alumni from Susan and Truman High School, and there was many a books that I had to read and write papers, right, to prepare me for college. So I'm going to hold myself accountable to continue listening to our community with a fresh lens, and just really be mindful that as we're making these decisions, that we're not doing it because it's a trend and because it looks good, but because
it makes sense for our community. And that's it. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Vice chair. I'll keep my comments short. I want to thank everybody that's still here, that sat with us for four hours. I have not moved. I'm usually always distracted at work where I'm doing multiple things, and I was very intentional to only bring out my laptop when I was looking at our contracts and making sure that I was reviewing it. I come from a land of climate justice, so really listening to the AI and the feedback from parents and students has
been very enlightening for me today. I was taking a lot of notes. This is my first PEP. I learned a lot. I learned about the expectations that you all have of us. Took notes of things that I need to read and educate myself on so I can help make informed decisions. I also want to thank my fellow PEP members for entrusting me to be co-chair. I know we just met, and you guys talked to me for, like, two minutes. But I take this very seriously, and I want to be in support. We're a collective, and I just want to make sure that
we get to elevate how we want to improve these meetings, because I'm already thinking about some ways to improve them. But we're here to support you, and I look forward to serving for this next year and collaborating with everybody here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for sticking around. I also have learned a lot. I'll be very brief. I mentioned already, and I just want to reiterate what you shared, how you've opened up, the generosity with your time. It will have impact that extends beyond this room, and so I want you to hear that. I am a professional advocate, and so this
is an opportunity to really see where and how the information we're learning from you at the community level can have a ripple effect on systems changed broadly. So know that if a meeting doesn't go exactly the way we planned or things that we wanted to pass, pass or don't pass, just know that it doesn't mean it's the end of the line for that. And so I've learned three things. Bring a charger or a portable charger. Don't drink that much water. And I hope he forgives me. Chancellor, I want to talk Omni
cards. Me too. I just want to reiterate my thanks for everybody who came out, and also want to say congratulations to all the new members of the PEP, and thank you to all the returning members of the PEP. And I just want to take a moment to recognize the NYCPS staff who are working in the background to make moments like this happen, to prepare us for meetings, to help us after meetings, to answer our questions, and to keep this system running, so thank you. Good evening, everyone. I just want to thank the public for their voices. And for us at the table, it has been a very engaging evening,
and I look forward to more of this to lead into productivity and efficiencies and make a difference in the pathway to our schools. Thank you, everyone. I want to-- Yeah, so really shout out to the public for your comments, to students who have left, mainly I think, but were really important in the beginning of the meeting. And a shout-out to the educators who are on the front lines every day and who brought your professional expertise here. Thanks to the experience on the panel and
to the experience in the room. There's a number of folks in the room who brought a lot of institutional memory, and I think that's really helpful. All of us who are new to the panel, we are still in the midst of being trained. And we have a lot of learning to do about what this role is. But I also want to say that We have a mayor right now who I think is really encouraging us as a city to look at our city with fresh eyes and dream big and dream wild. And that for us on the panel for
educational policy, I hope that together, it feels great to-- I did feel that feel. I'll stop. I'll wrap it up. And when I'm tired, it's really hard to make a sentence work. But I do think that we should think about the history of the panel for educational policy, and that we have an opportunity right now to think about what do we want this body to be and how should it work. We can make this what it should be and can be together with public, with each other, and with the system. So I hope that we educate ourselves about the history together and then think
about how we want to be deliberative together. Thank you. And Chair Faulkner, did we ever get a tally on the contract votes? Oh, we got that. Sorry, I missed that somehow. Thank you to everyone who came out to speak, all of the students, the parents, the teachers, and anyone else who is still in the room. Your input is always very much appreciated. I want to welcome all of the new panel members. Thank you for taking this huge responsibility upon yourselves, and looking forward to working with you going forward. I want to really just highlight one issue that one of the public commenters thankfully made, but TPS has ended for people from
Haiti. There are 40,000 people living in New York City right now who have no other legal status and are now immediately vulnerable to immigration enforcement by any federal agent who happens to be in the city. They don't even have to work for ICE. So that is going to be a huge issue going forward into the next week and month, and when school starts. And it's shameful that the federal government is doing this to people who are refugees to our country, who, through no fault of their own, are coming from a country that is torn by war and gang violence. Same thing applies to people from Afghanistan, and Afghans are also no longer
protected by TPS, even though the people that are here are some of our allies in the military who served as translators and other service providers, have lost protection from the people that they protected. So it's shame on us, and we need to do better for all immigrants. Thank you so much. I just want to thank the parents, the students, all the community members that came out, share their time and your brilliance with us. This was extremely helpful. I'm extremely grateful, and this will absolutely inform how I prepare for this meeting and how I participate on
this panel. Thank you. Thanks. Good evening everyone. Thank you for making your way out in person. And a shout-out to those who we can't see you, but you can see and hear us online as you're multitasking behind the screen, listening intently, taking your notes, and preparing to write in or maybe show up next month. We appreciate you. The parent collective is not to be underestimated. Please stay in the fight for our babies.
I have three questions. Oh, well, I have two questions. How does the panel review written commentary? I am a panel member, and I would gladly read every single comment. I raise my hand to read those comments and bring them forward because had we had the people who are at home write in what they may have wanted to say and be able to address those here in public, that would have been so beneficial, and I'm sure it would have made them feel seen.
Number two, where do the resolutions that CECs work so hard to draft-- Yes. Oh, yes, we do. I was CEC five minutes ago and drafted a mini resolution that seemed to go nowhere. So where do resolutions go and when do we get to hear and see those? And lastly... Well, before lastly, there is a difference between ed tech policy and AI enablement, and we need to be very clear, because
words matter, and we need to be very clear on what we're saying and why we're saying it. The DOE, to my understanding, does not have an ed tech policy, and so I think we need to start there. And lastly, I will say that I am a hood librarian, y'all, because I have a degree in English. It's one of them. And I started a Boogie Down Book Hub in a laundromat in the South Bronx, and I can't keep the books on the shelves.
We've given out at least 5,000 books over the course of a year and a half, and it started- Panel member, please wrap up. I hear you. It started because parents wanted their babies to be able to read. And what we've heard all night is that we want books and pens and papers. And so start your book hub. Great. Thank you. Actually, with regard to the resolutions, one of the things we've been trying to do is announce at panel meetings, and we have been receiving resolutions, and I've been responding. We don't get a lot, but there have been--
Well- I beg to differ. There have been a few CECs that have sent them directly to me, and when they have come in, I have actually referred them back and mentioned them at panel meetings. I have actually referred them to relevant committees. I have to admit, there haven't been a lot, so I'm going to say it again publicly to any CECs that may be listening, I'm encouraging them to send us directly their resolution, to send them directly to the panel. And you're new, but we did receive several CECs did send them in, and when they have, we read them, and then some of them have been great ideas, and we've actually
incorporated those ideas into panel policy. So, I actually agree with you. I think we really want to encourage the CECs. I've learned they're doing great work and are doing tremendous resolutions and making tremendous suggestions, and I would, again, publicly encourage them to send them forward to the panel. And we will definitely make it available for panel members to read when they come in. So I want to thank everybody on the panel. This has been a great first meeting, and I hope that it's been a benefit to you. I welcome you all again to the panel.
We look forward to seeing great things happen, and I really have a great feeling. I remember a few days ago I was asked by the press what I thought about the new panel. I said, "This is a great, diverse team that brings a lot of talent," and I meant that, and I'm really excited to watch and observe the work that is done by this panel. So now, there will be times when we're going to disagree. That's been evident tonight, but we can still walk away because I think even when we disagree, I know that it comes from a place where you're there because you want the best for New York City Public School students. And so when there's a disagreement,
that's very natural. What I try to do is in a disagreement, listen for something that we can do better. So sometimes it's hard. I won't lie. Sometimes it's a little painful to hear some of the comments. But what we want to be able to do is digest those comments and then say, "Is there something in there that has merit that we could improve?" And so I think if we all approach it in that spirit, we're only going to come up with a better product. I think we have all the elements in place. We have a chancellor who is extremely responsive to us. We have a mayor that's saying we need to do cooperative leadership and cooperative
governance. We have a great team that I think will bond well together and work well and produce great things. And so having said that, guess what, folks? We get to do this all over again in a month. So our next panel meeting will be held at P.S. 131 on Hester Street on August 26th. There will be various briefings, so please stand by. I think they will activate an email for you, so they'll tell you when we're having briefings and suggestions, or areas you might want to participate in. So if there are no other comments, again, thank you all
tonight. If there are no other comments, this meeting is adjourned.