001[music] Good evening and welcome to the Mount Vernon City School District working session. Today is November 4th. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge to the flag. >> Good evening. Please note that President Donna Marabel and Trustee Wanda White will be joining this evening um via video conference. President uh Vice President Warren Mitchell will be running this evening's meeting. >> Thank you. Can we please have a roll call? >> Trusty Brown. >> Trusty Kelly. >> Trusty Mcdana >> present. >> Trusty Middleton. >> Trusty Peterson >> present. >> Trusty Scott. >> Trusty White Okay. >> VP Mitchell >> present. >> And President Marabel. >> Okay. We have a quorum and we have student trustee Odora. >> Okay. >> We cannot we can't hear. President Marbel. Can we raise it up a little? >> Student trustee. >>
002Hello. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Present. Can I have a motion, please, to enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing pending litigation the financial history of a particular person or corporation or matters leading to the appointment, employment, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal, or removal of a particular person or corporation and to receive legal advice on a pending matter. Can I have a motion, please? Sec. >> Motion second. Motion first to second. Do we have uh we have a vote? >> All in favor? >> I >> Any oppose? Abstain. Motion carries. We're in an executive session. >> Uh we will be returning in about 30 minutes. >> I'm here. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? >> Hello. >> May I have a motion, please, to reconvene to public session?
003Motion >> second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? Abstain. Motion carries. >> At this time, we're moving on to our first presentation, 3.1. >> Good evening, trustees. Uh just want to uh level set on the presentations that you'll be seeing tonight. The first one being I Ready by our assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and administration, Dr. Dogget, followed by uh the Judy Elliot report overview by assistant superintendent of student personnel services, Lan White. >> Good evening, board of trustees, superintendent, cabinet, and members of the community. I have the privilege to present to you the beginning of the year I Ready data presentation. And I'd like to go through this presentation. It's pretty straightforward. It's just no comparison data. It's just where we are at the beginning of the year. No historical data,
004but I did add some historical data so the new board members can see it overall in context. So yes. So what is I Ready? I Ready is an adaptive diagnostic that automatically adjusts the difficulty of questions according to each student's ability level. Students will see questions based on a chronological age and as they go through the test, it will get significantly harder. Now, you've seen these slides before on the I Ready presentations that I've done in July. Next slide. Students will get about half the questions right and about half the questions wrong. So we know that from the onset. Next slide. How will the I Ready diagnostic data be used? Again, it's to analyze, to inform instruction, to monitor progress, and to collaborate with students, families, and educators to set goals. It's the beginning of
005the year. I Ready diagnostic for grade students in grades K through 8. We progress monitor around January, February. Do a midyear diagnostic. We see where we are. Progress monitor in between. And at the end of year we have the diagnostic to see exactly where we are. >> So in summary understanding I ready I put it into three buckets and I created this slide to make it easy for everyone to understand I beginning of the year testing data is just to inform. It's not to evaluate and make any decisions or say oh this is where we are. It's just to inform where we are. It's a starting point. middle of the year. It's also to inform us, but it's also to evaluate where we are, how we are doing, and what we need to do moving
006forward. And already end of the year is what we did and how we did and what we need to do moving forward for the following school year. So, I just wanted to um make everybody clear on that. Most students will not be at grade level because the school year just started and they have not been exposed to the entire curriculum. So now we can begin with the ELA beginning of the year grades K through 8. And ELA tests phmic awareness, phonics, high frequency words, vocabulary and comprehension. And as you can see right now, we have about 25% of our students performing at mid or above grade level or early grade level. about about one grade level below and about 38% of our students two or more grade levels below. So again, anything in the green
007is grade level, yellow is in between and red is below grade level as previously presented back in July. The next slide you'll see the specific grade levels on how they perform districtwide. And of course, K to2s is lower. Um, they have not been exposed to the consistent phonics at this time. But also, what we've done different this year is that we have our students, our unique learners, our ungraded students. We are trying to have them test on our ready as well because what we're noticing is that certain students that are in those classes end up testing in grade three. So, we want to make sure we have a di we we want to make sure we have a pathway and a flowchart for them to determine early if they're going to be ultimately assessed or
008take the state assessment. Because if not, what happens is that our unique learners are exposed to a curriculum that's only focuses on their foundational reading skills that support the IEP goals and not the core curriculum. And then by third grade, if they enter the mainstream classes and are and qualify for the nicer assessments, they haven't been exposed to the core curriculum. So that's another reason we wanted to make sure we test those students early. Next slide. What I wanted to do just to put the beginning of the year in perspective, I went back three years so you can see how the beginning of the year we performed over the past three years. So, as you can see, even though it's not much, we have more students, less students at two or two or more grade
009levels below over the four years. So, even though we start at 25%, which is low, remember last year we were started at 24% and we ended up at 48%. So, this year we're starting at 25%. And, you know, the goal is a 5% increase, so we're looking at hopefully 53% by the end of the school year. But please be mindful that even though we went from we only went up a percentage point of 25% of our students performing on on grade level. Be mindful that we had 2,000 students not in summer school this year. So this data is not that bad because as you can see the summer slide didn't really occur because if we had summer school and we had 2,000 students in school, our beginning of the year data probably would have looked
010a little bit better than this. I ready math K to8. Again, I ready math assesses number and operations, algebra, measurement and data and geometry. And as you can see, math is always significantly lower than ELA because they now have been exposed to the math content at the time. So, as you can see, 13% of our students are performing a mid or above grade level, 43% in the middle, and about 44% below grade level. Next slide. Again, as you can see, grades K through eight. I'm not going to go through them just so you can get a glimpse of what it looks like. K through eight, again, K to two significantly lower. because we have our unique learners taking this assessment as well. But again, I also wanted to show you um a four-year perspective to
011see where we are. And again, it is low and math is historically lower in this area. We're at 13%. And as you can see, last year we were at 12% but we ended up at 46%. So obviously we want to be at 51%. So again, >> over time The goal is to make sure that we have students entering the grade level, more students entering the grade level on grade level. So our next steps is to enhance our tier one instruction through high quality professional development, which is strengthening our core program. We want to deliver ongoing, targeted, and differentiated instruction to address student learning gaps focusing on our tier 2 and small group instruction. And if you had a chance to look at the PD matrix, our student, our teachers, staff participated in professional development for
012tier one and tier 2 today and inclusive of writing and the science of reading. And the main thing we would like to do is continuously monitor progress throughout the academic school year to ensure alignment with school student and school goals and make datadriven adjustments as necessary. And we will do that through our MTSS process K to 12. So again, I'll be returning hopefully in February and March with middle of the year update to see the progress. This is just a starting point of where we are. >> Thank you Dr. Dogit for this presentation. Um taking the time to ask, do any uh trustees have any questions for Dr. Dog on this presentation? Recognizing Trusty Mcdana. Thank you, Dr. How much overlap is there? Say for students two grades behind uh ELA and math significant overlap.
013So students who are two years behind in ELA, are they also very likely to be two years behind in math? I'd have to do that correlation to see. But what we try to do is if we have a student that's two grade levels below, by the time they get to the next grade is one. and hopefully by the end of the year we we we sus we move them out of the danger zone. So that's the main thing that we're trying to do. But a correlation between if if it's the same students, I would have to look at the individual students to make that determination. >> Anyone else have question? >> Trusty Trusty Brown. >> Hi Dr. Dog, thank you for your presentation. Um, >> I know you mentioned about um the district not having
014summer school and I guess as a parent, >> what would um >> is that the reason why the district didn't send home like the packets for the summer as well? Cuz I know they sent just home like you can read, but while the packets weren't substantial, I still noticed the difference when my daughter would start school in September like she would be kind of on par. So, is that why the district didn't send home any packets? >> We didn't send home any packets because we did everything online. It was all digital. >> Okay. >> So, the assignments that we sent home were digital >> and summer school. The reason there was no um summer enrichment program because that was a 10-year grant started um 10 years ago and the grant ran out. >> But the
015only the only the only summer stuff that we got was reading. There was no math at all. >> There wasn't any math. believe. >> No, cuz I'm a I'm a I am a stickler for making sure that she gets through it. We're fighting now about reading, you know, the 30 minutes a day, but that's just me as a parent, but there was no there was no math that came home. So, I like did my own math stuff to try to help, but the only thing that came home was reading. >> I would have to check and verify that, but I believe something was sent. It might have been on the website, but I will have to verify and check that there was something sent home. >> Okay. Thank you. So, I actually have a question.
016Piggy back it off. Trusty Brown because she's not going to be the only parent that came that has that same exact experience. My neither one of my children had assignments really over the summer and I mean not digital or otherwise. So there was like I literally cuz we checked my wife is more of a stickler than I am but she checked we checked saying did you have assignments and really what they were told to do was just they had I ready assignments I believe but it wasn't something but I've heard a lot of parents say where was the summer work assignments because it's so it's shown that it impacts their when they return. I don't know exact. We did have summer assignments. We had the I Ready I Ready for ELA math. That's why we
017had students keep the devices over the summer because originally we want to keep them but we had assignments but I just don't know off the top of my head right now what with the what the assignments were. >> Do we have a um >> Dr. Dr. Strickland? >> Um I mean obviously there's clear disconnect between what the district did and what actually may have happened. So what we will do is uh just ensure that we have a clear communication plan going forward for summer 2026 to ensure that either one if we don't have summer school what will we do for the students that don't you know have anything to do during the day or I mean make sure we give them work anyway and then that way there's just no miscommunication we'll put it on
018the physical letter and um that's that's the best way to go forward. >> Okay. >> Any other trustees have any questions? >> Question. >> President Marbel, do you have a question? >> Question. >> Yes, I do. Um so just looking at the data that's presented here, some of it um is just a it's just a little interesting to me. It looks like in the testing grades in ELA that the higher numbers are through grade four which are and eight which are the testing grades but then it seems like it regresses when it's five and six and seven. Um, so I'm just curious as to how it's, you know, they they do very well in fourth grade and then they regress in fifth grade and then they not even really bounce back, but they kind of
019bounce back at a 50% rate in the eighth grade in the ELA. And then the data that's presented, um, you give us grade levels 2025, 2026, but I think I would like to see how it compares to 2024, 2025. That way we could kind of see our comparative analysis in terms of what the first graders were doing in that grade level and then maybe see what the looping looked like. Because if the grades if the students in the first grade are now going to be in the second grade, then that might be able to give us an indicator as to how well they're doing from one grade to the other. >> So what you're saying is a slide with all the grade levels have that comparison by year is what you're saying, >> right? Okay,
020>> we can get a three-year comparison of that as opposed to the overall because the overall the overall diagnostic trend doesn't necessarily help us because it only gives a descriptors for pretty much that grade that that it it kind of it bunches everybody together, right? So that's K that I assume that's K8 overall, >> right? In that diagnostic trend. >> So it doesn't really help us to know where the the trigger areas are in >> to see what cohort is is where the cohort falls off is what is what you're saying >> and what those numbers actually look like and whether or not there's been progress or regression in terms of those grades. >> Yes, that can be done. We do that with the state assessments, but that that could be done with Ready as
021well. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? questions. >> Hearing none, we can move on. >> And now we have Assistant Superintendent for Student Personnel Services, Lan White, uh, to present on the Dr. Judy Elliot uh, report and next steps. Good evening, President Marabel, Vice President Mitchell, Board of Trustees, Dr. Strickland, and viewing audience. My name is Lan White, and I am the assistant superintendent for student personnel services. And this evening, I'm going to review uh the Judy Elliott audit report. Next slide, please. On this side slide, um I've titled it a reintroduction and not sure if a fullon introduction was ever uh detailed and shared with everyone. Um so I'm going to take the opportunity to do that. And this dates back to uh 2016. Um, the particular report that I'm going to reference
022is the report on the audit of the provision of special education and related services to students with disabilities in the Mount Vernon City School District. Next slide. Many people have heard Judy Elliott's name and and upon my uh introduction to Dr. Elliot as well. I was it was shared with me that Dr. Elliott was a consultant that was working with the Mount Vernon City School District. When I first heard that, I'm thinking, okay, we don't have much money. We don't need any consultants. Um, until I started to dig into what type of consultant Judy Elliott is. Um, so to give you a little background, she's got 34 years of experience in education. And some of the titles that she has held is a special education teacher, school psychologist, teach chief of teaching and learning. She
023was an assistant superintendent of student support services and special education, a position I currently hold. She was a chief academic officer, adjunct professor, distinguished educator, and a senior researcher at the National Center on Educational Outcomes. who is she currently and what is she doing currently is she's an independent consultant that assists uh various educational entities including schools districts state department and what she does is she helps to update and realign infrastructure and whole level district systems around curriculum data leadership accountability instruction um and especially those with a special focus on students with disabilities So, why is Judy Elliot affiliated with the Mount Vernon City School District? And that was the question. So, I initially heard consultant, and I think a lot of people may have heard her name. And even when I said her name,
024uh, there were folks that were a little nervous, but they weren't quite sure what the nervousness was about. Judy Elliott was hired as a consultant uh by a law firm and this was a result of a clearly significant federal lawsuit that was filed against the Mount Vernon City School District back in 2014, precisely August 1st of 2014. And it was a lawsuit, a federal lawsuit, significant again, federal law school suit that was filed uh by a group of plaintiffs that were students and their families uh students with disabilities. Part of the agreement in the lawsuit was it they required an audit, a special education audit of the Mount Vernon City School District. and that was one of the um resolutions to the lawsuit uh to address the compliance issues that were levied against the district.
025So Dr. Elliott formally engaged as an expert. So the lawsuit was brought forth in August 2014. She was engaged as a consultant approximately a year later in October 16th of 2015 and um she was to in her role review the various facts, documents, the testimony from the lawsuit and she was tasked with reviewing uh the administration and supervision of services and to provide recommendations. And the culmination of her work uh was the page that was on the first slide which was an audit report that was submitted December 11th, 2016. And that report is approximately 70 pages long. So quite detailed. So if you can see lawsuit 2014, she was engaged in 2015. 2016 she submitted this audit report and off and away she was with that audit report. I'm going to go over this audit
026report with you and share a little bit more details and give you more context to her the story. Next slide. So her report all 70 pages which um has become part of my life's work and and it's now become a little bit of something that I'm proceverating over um but it's uh broken into four sections uh the core audit sections it's a little bit more than that but it's broken into four sections and the sections are addressing the critical issues in the category the observations and areas of concerns. And then finally, she has uh recommendations. And I highlighted I bolded recommendations because although she was um recommended as a consultant, she was not only meant to capture some of these critical issues and the observations that she found and the data that she p pulled,
027but her role is also to assist in giving recommendations and ensuring that these recommendations are adhered to. Next slide. So to break down a little bit these uh sections. So the first one was the performance of students receiving special education services and that highlights the outcomes related to ELA proficiency, math proficiency, graduation rates and dropout rates. In that particular section she has roughly um she highlights about 10 critical issues and she gives recommendations around those. The next section, section two, highlights the organizational district organizational structures to support special education. So, she delves into standard operating procedures, central office alignment and collaboration as well as school-based oversight of special education services. I just want you to pay attention to section two because at the end of this I want to show you a sort of plan
028of action but I used section two as an example of the plan of action. The next section is three instructional practices supports and special education service delivery. So in that particular section she highlights staffing patterns and usage of staff. She highlights professional development and support as well as integration of special education and general education instruction. Again, if you look down, you'll see where those uh recommendations around the critical issues. I think there was about 20 something in section 2, 10 in section one, and here there's about 25 in section three. Next, we're going to go into section four. That's where where she addresses accountability, compliance, and the least restrictive environment. Here is where she highlights functional and responsive data systems. She highlights referrals and initial evaluations, suspensions, and the least restrictive environment. And here in
029this section, she gives about 26 recommendations. Next slide. In conclusion from 2016, this was a quote that stood out to me. Students with disabilities are general education students first. The other highlight in her report was the quote of the increase of referrals for special education, poor outcomes for all students, including students with disabilities, the low expectations shared, the lack of databased and targeted professional development, and the general lack of district-wide monitoring and support for special education shows that Mount Vernon City School District is perfectly aligned for the results it is betting that was in 2016. I want to bring you back 2014 a lawsuit. 2015, a consultant, someone comes in, evaluates all that's happening. 2016, the report, the estimated time in the goal was to attempt to address these things within three years. That would
030bring you to 2019. As I'm digging in and I'm doing the history and understanding what transpired in that time, um it was very very clear that when this report came out, the folks that were addressing this were addressing the concerns, the recommendations, the observations, the critical issues. And it appears that they were doing it in silos as if this was a special education problem. And it was not. It was a larger issue that needed to involve stakeholders, even those that are sitting in this room right now. And so as we look at what occurred in 2016, there was a report or a letter of concern that was issued in 2019 at the end of the year that this lift was happening with one department and not collectively across the whole district. And so as we
031started to dig in why we determined that the root cause was that the stakeholders that should have been involved in attempting to lift these recommendations and do the work were not engaged and so that was the root cause of what was happening. So the three years transpired. She gave her concern at the end of 2019 and then March 2020 we shut down. Her last visit was in 2019 until last week Monday. Judy Elliott returned to the Mount Vernon City School District. If we can go to the next slide, please. There are many conclusions and some are disturbing. Um I'm not going to read all of them but they are going to be there but there is some some information that I want to be very very clear. This again was the conclusion from the 2016
032report. So the question would beg to be asked what did we do from 2016? The work was done. Here's the challenge in all of this. Some of the work that was done was compliancebased and not systemically based. And I need you to hear me on this because at no point do I want to attempt to say that my predecessors in any way didn't do the work because I have evidence of that and you will see it as we continue to unpack. But a lot of it as I started to roll this out to folks who had never seen this report in its entirety, the whole 70 pages, they knew that this existed. They heard of this lawsuit. They knew what the work needed to be done. But I don't think and even by some of
033the facial expressions that I'm getting that it was rolled out in the way that it's being rolled out right now. And so this report may have possibly contributed or the work being done in silo may have possibly contributed or the compliance uh check offs may have possibly contributed to the reason why we have a state monitor to this day. and some of the work was unfinished because it was compliance-based and not systemically driven. So, I want to go back to understanding that yes, work was done, a great deal of work. And with all of the recommendations, as I continue to uh comb through this, Judy Elliott will update us with her visit from last week. um you will see the work that actually was done, but we need to capture it. I'd like to go
034to the next slide. So, what is our plan of action? Because don't come here, Miss White, and tell us what's wrong with us without telling us how you're going to fix it. And so, part of it is what's happening right now. You need to understand exactly what the report details. You need to take a deep dive into understanding what the critical issues were, what the observations were and what the recommendations were. There's some accountability in sharing this information and this level of transparency. So revisiting the audit report needs to be a constant. Um doing part of the next part plan of action which is introducing this report to stakeholders. This is a very public meeting. Everyone is seeing what this report entails. Um, this is being shared with everyone. Um, Dr. Visit uh Elliot visited
035last week, Monday and Tuesday, and I'm looking forward to her report from that. We're going to document the recommendations that have systemically been met, not compliance met, but that is part of the culture of this organization. We're going to create a tracking platform, and I'll share what that looks like with you this evening. And there will never be a conversation that I'm going to have moving forward where I'm not going to highlight how that conversation is going to impact the work of the Judy Elliott report. Next step. So, just to give you an idea of what uh her visit looked like last week, she came, she met with Dr. Strickland, with the assistant superintendent, uh she met with principles, uh she met with teacher groups, uh supervisors, sped supervisors, other uh district supervisors. She met
036with related service personnel like speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists. Uh she met with groups of par educators, our TAs and she met with parents and that was last week, Monday and Tuesday. She also met with our state monitor and she did this over a period of two days. Next. So, I want to just share, you know, in my in my head, um, and I can't take, uh, ownership of this planning tool, but when we talk about having the right people in the right seat, uh, Dana Gardner, who we just bought on, I created in my head, how are we going to capture and track the work that we're doing? and she came back with this planning tool which is very project management driven. Um it speaks to the sections that I went over
037with you which are the four sections that we want to uh constantly reference but she unpacked it. So if you see this is an example section two part A she and I'm I have my glasses on but she calls out what the section addresses then she puts the compliance item. If you look over, it has the action step, what needs to be done, the due date or the deadline, the staff that are responsible, and this was part of the root cause before because there were people again lifting this work as if they were the only ones that owned it. And if you see as an example, there's my name, there's her name, there's the director of SPED, and there's the CSSE chairperson member. You're going to see as we break this down that there's going
038to be the responsibility of myself, uh, Dr. Dogget, um, you know, Jessica Graves, that it's going down to principles, teachers, TAs. There's going to be stakeholders including board trustees and the decisions that get made. There will be artifacts that show our progress and our level of impact. And in some cases, the action steps may not be limited to an action step one. It may be action step two, three, four. But it's going to show how we are progressing toward impact. With that said, um this is the direction that we're going in as we tackle uh this particular audit report. As you notice when she submitted it, she submitted it and it was in 2016. We are currently in 2025. She expressed her frustration and I expressed, "How much time do we have?" She said, "I'm
039going to give you all a year and I then I need to report back to the courts." And so this is going to be our accountability tool. And at no point if you ever see me as you watch this tool, I hope that you will ask about where we're going as far as impact and progress on addressing this because the goal is to um no longer engage in this work with Judy Elliott. She's heard me say that. Um as much as we do not want to continue a long-term relationship with Dr. Wilkins is our state monitor. Love her dearly. But there's a level of oversight because at some point there needs to be systemic change that services all children, not solely our special education students. But as you saw in the quote, every student that's
040walked in here is a general education student first. Next slide. So, thank you. So, I'm going to ask that um I'm sure there's questions, I'm sure a lot, but one of the things that I'm going to ask that everyone does is engage in reading the audit report. I want to continue to remind you that it is from 2016. There has been change. I will reveal the change, but my goal is to ensure that you all get a quarterly update on where we are um and how we're doing. And so I'll leave it there. >> I'll take any questions from board members starting from my >> I have a question. >> I'm sorry. Starting from my right >> or >> I have a question. Starting from my left, uh, do our student trustee have a question?
041Trusty McDonald, do you have a question? >> I have a question. >> Trusty, uh, Trusty Kelly. >> How many times was this report updated since 2016 with Julie Elliott? >> I do not have evidence. >> I have 619, 620, 621, January 2022. >> Thank you. So there has been some updates. She may not have physically been in the district, but this is an ongoing discussion. I think we need to look at the historical information so you can be better informed of what is going on. That is not your fault. This is a great presentation. >> Thank you. >> But somebody's withholding information from you. >> So agreed. Agreed. >> And and I don't want to waste your time or hours. Mhm. >> 619 January 2022. >> May I ask you a question? The what you're
042referencing because I do have >> update on compliance, right? >> So let me Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask because what I go ahead >> where she says to the district, >> you're not doing the things that were suggested >> that part. >> And you're absolutely right. you're on point. But it's it's frustrating, right? Because we it was brought up even when we were doing the budget >> that we were paying a monitor for special education. So people don't remember, but they have to refer back to the meetings that was part of the budget that why are we paying this woman $20,000 a year, right? And we're from 2016. So it is again, thank you very much, Miss White, but my frustration is the transparency works both ways. >> Agreed. >> Thank you. >>
043And you're absolutely right. And one of the things I do want to highlight and I mentioned and I I continue to mention in my presentation that there was work that was done. I I did say from 2016. Please, I want to be clear and I'm going to explicitly share once I unpack everything even from her visit last week what actually was done in 2019 and to yes there were reports um and I started the presentation with sharing I don't know even in what you just shared if that was even known by everyone >> all stakeholders. I want to share with you that we had a lawyer >> who was basically the liaison between Julie Elliott um Tom Scappily who worked very closely with her for our district and even when the question was raised about
044the handbook being on the website we were assured in a meeting it's on the record that it was it was on the website so a lot of muddying of the water has been done it's not that it hasn't been addressed >> but has not been transparent. >> Thank you, Trusty Kelly. Um, and I think the one miss white, you you'll get back to us on the questions. Absolutely. Thank you. I'm going to go my next from this direction. Uh, Trusty Scott, Trusty Brown, Trusty Peterson, any questions? >> Thank you. Good evening. Um, thank you, Miss White, for that report. Um, honestly, you know, my question, my my major concern is, you know, it doesn't matter to me if there was an update in 2019, 2020, 2021. you know 26 2019 it's been five years seeing
045these conclusions from her 2016 report myself and I think I can I think I can solidly speak for mothers of especially black and brown boys in this district who are special needs. in special education who I have myself pointed out five of these conclusions in my concerns with my own children over these past five years. So to see that these conclusions are in this report from 2016 and to watch the effect. I know that sped especially boys are suspended at a greater rate than general education students. I know that many of us mothers know this. So to see this in black and white from 2016 and the pain and hurt and I'm speaking as a mother right now, especially a mother of a black boy in this school district to watch your child suffer and
046you're bringing these points up and you feel like, am I crazy? Cuz is this just happening to me? because that's how I felt since 2016 2019. I thought it was just me. So to see this in this report, it is painful for me. But I'm glad that this is out in the open. I'm glad that we are focusing on this because one thing myself being a trustee this is going to be my focus because I have to fight for every other mother in this district who has gone through this same who has been the other on that on that receiving end of these conclusions that were fighting for our kids. There's mothers out there with sped students who don't know how to fight for their children who have been affected by some of these conclusions.
047So I am grateful for this report. I'm grateful for Dr. Elliot being in this district, but for myself as a mother of unique learners in this district and like I said, especially boys of color, this is heartbreaking for me. >> Thank you, Trusty Peterson. Uh, President Marbella, do you have a comment? >> Are you on me? I think are you muted? You got it. Yes. So, um I would I would like to um number one concur with trustee >> Kelly in terms of um just in terms of the reporting to the board over a 9-year period from an individual who has been assigned to the district to monitor and to provide um consults to our families, to our children, to um our district. And I I am challenged, I'll be honest with you, to hear
048in a report that's over 9 years old. And yes, we may say that in silos work has been done. Um however my question I guess really lands with um what you know what was the actual purpose of a consultant coming in providing us with this information continuing to come in? Was were they monitoring the situation? Um what was their role? What kind of guidance should they have been giving us? Um and are they still here? Are they going to continue to be here? We do have a state monitor. And are we going to have two state monitors? Are we going to have the the state monitor that was assigned to us in July along with the special education monitor? Are is there going to be some type of merger at some point some level? I
049guess that will be revealed to us at a at a later date. Um, but but the questions are are really concerning to me that over a nine-year period again and I agree with Trusty Kelly and again with Trusty Peterson that there has been a time span where you know hits and misses. So where was the accountability? Where was the reporting out? Where was the guidance? >> I I I need some help here. Dr. Strickland, can you can you answer that? >> Yes, President Marabel. U wonderful points. So, just to give you a little uh context, when I came into the district and heard about the Judy Elliott report, um it was it was apparent that Dr. Elliott was really only working with one individual in the special education office. And that then translated to uh
050it's just seeming like it's a special education issue and not a district issue. My understanding also is that when she came in, the letter was to the superintendent, which you know, you know, they're supposed to roll out the work to make sure that there's this communication uh that's happening, uh updates to the board, um you know, and actual changes are taking place. I I I can't, you know, go based off of what happened in the past. I just know what we're doing to move forward. Um, I do know that some of the items that were completed, what we will do is actually just review them and then they will go into the compliance document as an update to really start systematizing these processes so that we get better. I I want to reiterate again, we
051have leaned on the special education department only and that's not that's not good practice. Special education is a result of some tier one issues which are in the general education classroom and we have to enhance that process. That's why the report talks so much about multi-systems, multi-tiered systems of support. We are really making sure that each school is tight with those um systems in their school. It's not a program, it's not a plan, it's a system uh so that we continue to move in the right direction. It addresses academics. It addresses behavior. It addresses attendance. It um the overclassification rates um have come without substantiated data. You have to show that it's a true need and not necessarily you've missed so many days of school and now you're behind uh in grade level and now
052you need special education. like we we can't just continue to work in this cycle and those are the pieces that the report addresses and I believe that you know by her meeting with the state monitor that's going to be another compliance piece. I am so thankful for the um the document that was created to capture this evidence and I will let you know you will be getting reports >> and updates on this regularly. >> That's that one. >> One second. I'm going to Is there any other trustee who has not asked are you still talking about president? I just want to say thank you to Miss White for her presentation. It was very comprehensive. I totally appreciate I've been on this board a year and a half and I didn't even know that the state
053monitor for special education was even in the district. >> Thank you. >> So, so um can we get the Okay, echo. So, um thank you Miss White for this for this presentation. >> Yes. Um, >> I wasn't aware of uh Judy Elliott until maybe my second year ever on the board, which would have been 20 2020. Um, so I was aware that we were receiving reports from her. Uh, Trusty Kelly and I at some point during I think 2023 initiated a request to get to see where we were and what was going on. Um, I think it was important what you said the difference between um, compliance and systemic. I mean compliance being tunnel vision because it's what are known factors and just kind of nichi to just certain things for compliance purposes only but
054not looking at the whole picture when systemic is the whole picture. Um I I remember people speaking during public comment many times including trusty Peterson when she was on public comment and another fellow whose beard is not as long as it is now asking the same question. Where are the Judy Elliott reports? Are we paying attention? Do we know what's going on? Why are we when we know that CO happened and there were children students who were owed compensatory services when we came back from COVID and questions were asked where is the audits of special education to know where are students who were owed compensatory services after CO before CO. So these questions have been asked to and seemingly fallen on deaf ears and short arms. So, um, but I will say I have one
055question though and you said that that Dr. Elliott gave us a year to get this together. So, I am going to question why she didn't put that type of bind on us before now. Why did it take all the way till now for her to say you have a year? because there were folks sitting in these seats for years before us who I won't finish that sentence. But how is it that we're just now getting the ultimatum that we should have had a long time ago. >> Thank you for that. Um and to answer is the best way I can based on my asking that same question of her. Um, as you are aware, even from her last um, visit in 2019, uh, we've had significant leadership change. Um and even now and you know
056Trusty Kelly you're and I think that is also part of where um the when we look at the root cause because I don't ever want to and and what you shared trustee Kelly there's evidence of that work being done there's evidence of concern being communicated um to leadership at the time even in 2019 and it explicitly shares what the concern was that the lift was happening in one area and I always go back to my my science world right as a science teacher this organization or this organism if one of the systems is down it's going to have an impact on the organism as a whole. Okay. And so this lift could not only be a special education lift, but the evidence shows that the people that thought the work was only theirs were only
057the ones doing it. When I shared this with executive cabinet, and if you okay with me sharing this, Dr. Dogget, um he sat back, he said, "I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed cuz I didn't know this report on this level." And as this is being reported out and again I am not going to discredit because I understand what project management work looks like. I understand as a former receiverhip principle right what this type of works and if you do not understand how to lift it and I say this from a lens of a person who's sitting on the deis who was my state monitor when I was a receiverhip principal who was on my butt but I also was given a a a tracking or what I'm sharing with you wall, a planning tool. And someone had
058to report in right to me to ask me, why are you in the red in this area? Why are you only progressing? What type of supports do you need? So when you start to unpack the planning tool and that's why I said we have the right person in the right seat with Dana Gardner because that planning tool that she created is I mean unpacking each and every recommendation that Judy Elliot meant. But if you notice even in the example I gave you, my name is not the sole name up there because this is not solely my responsibility. And partially in my recommendation I shared with you, it's yours too. It's yours too. And this is becoming a passion project for me because I am that person when someone says, "Well, suspend the student." No, you
059will not. And I'm getting push back on why I'm saying no. Are you using progressive discipline? Are you using the code of conduct? And then I get every other reason, but there's ownership in all of this, myself included. And so I own this work. Um, but I charge everyone here to own it as well. Because one of the things that Dr. Strickland says, before you point a finger, make sure you swept at your own front door. So what are you doing in your decision making? what are you doing as far as your culture and climate that you're creating? So, this is legacy work and that's where I think the root cause was. This was silo work that became a heavy lift for some folks. And I think collectively and universally, if we all understand our
060role in this, we'll be able to get where we need to go. But I think out of respect and the this change again, she's like, I'm going to give you a little bit of time. Um, but she needs to see where we're getting where we're having some impact. And that planning tool is going to hold us accountable to that impact. And this right here today, this report out with this comes accountability. >> Thank you. Trusty Kelly, you have a comment. Trusty McDonald comment. >> Um, thank you. So, this goes back to a a federal settlement you said in 20 2016. >> Correct. Correct. >> Um, wasn't there any report back to the courts on progress over this period of time? Like, so can we get those documents? >> I'm not I I'm sure I can.
061I'll ask. >> There should be. If this was per a settlement agreement, I would guess the terms of that settlement have some sort of reports back to the court. >> I h actually I yes >> I have something that I can ask. >> I guess I would like to see the actual settlement and I want to see the audit. Um and these should be I think made available publicly. They should be on our on our website. But I' I'd be curious about that. I I want to see what was reported back to the court over the years. Thanks. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I just want to uh also sorry I also want to uh >> kind of recognize that when Dr. Dogget when I came on the board and I started to speak with Dr.
062dogged about this. He did take ownership of what was going on. But in the Julie the compliance special education compliance report we had, they were already talking about the science of reading. That is in the report from 2016 >> that we were fighting for in 2022 to change from literacy to the science of reading. And the reason I voted for our present uh superintendent is because he said he was going to institute a program amplify for the science of reading because a lot of that would help our students or and also Dr. Dogget which is interesting because this was two separate um conversations and Dr. Dogget had said if we had any money correct me if I'm wrong Dr. dog because you're looking at me. He wanted amplified and when we talked to uh Dr.
063Strickland and he brought it up, we need those type of programs. That's where our money needs to go. We have to figure out how to strengthen our curriculum. That's why I'm sitting here. >> Thank you, Trusty Kelly. Dr. Dicklin, you have something? >> Uh just to um circle back with uh Trusty Kelly, I do know that we don't have Amplify as a program. We do have foundations which serves a similar purpose and it goes through the skill skills sequence so that students are learning um their sounds the right way. Um I will say that we are now starting to enhance uh even those items looking at different type of AI um systems that are out there to um be tutors to our students uh so that they can continue to work at home. Uh so
064more details to come on that. We're we're actually in talks with uh individuals now from different organizations Thank you. >> Yeah, I just wanted to comment on that and you're right, um, Trusty Kelly. However, I did not see the whole entire report in its entirety. The part the portion that I've seen was the compliance check off. So, there were certain things that I saw that pertain to my department that we just submitted because this was needed for the Judy Dr. Julie Elliot report. after seeing the 70-page document and after um Miss White presented it, I would have done things a little bit differently to to put things as a system versus a submission. And that's the piece that we're working on now. >> Any other questions, comments for Miss White? >> Hearing none. Thank you
065so much, Miss White. As you >> Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Appreciate you. >> [applause] >> Moving on to our state monitor report. >> Good evening everyone. All right, ready for our state monitor report. This is the update. Just a reminder of the statutory authority of this Mount Vernon monitor under chapter 566 of the laws of 2025 requires a commissioner to appoint a monitor to the Mount Vernon City School District to provide oversight guidance and technical assistance related to the academic and fiscal policies, practices, program decisions of the district, the board of education, and the superintendent. A reminder, on July 1st, I was appointed by Commissioner Betty Rosa to be the monitor of Mount Vernon City School District. Since mid July, I have been meeting with individuals, stakeholders, examining documents, visiting schools, and attending board
066meetings. Development of the academic and fiscal plans of financial plans. A key responsibility of the monitor is to work with the board to develop a proposed academic and financial plans for the 2526 school year and the four subsequent school years. The financial plan shall ensure that the district budgets are balanced in accordance to generally accepted accounting principles. The plan structure the mon has prepared for the board's consideration a combination of academic improvements and financial plan. The plan is organized as follows. The document asurances, introduction, organization of the plan, methodology of the data collection, theory of change for the district improvement, findings, recommendations, evidence of implementation by domain, summary, and then I will have appendices as well. The four domains, turnaround, leadership, talent development, instructional transformation, cultural shift, and then finally the section on finance. I
067do want to put a I want to stick a finger in that for a minute. On the Judy Elliott, I did include the Judy Elliott plan inside of the document because of the significance of the findings. So, I just want to note that that that's in there as well as New York State Education Department special eds caps and aprons that are found inside for this district. So, they're all included for special ed. So, it will be wraparound, not just one plan, one plan, and then our plan. It's the plan. Just remind everybody of that timeline. The public hearing will be announced today. It will be on November 18th, but let me back up. On between November 6th through the 11th, possibly the 12th, the monitor will meet with the board members individually or in couples.
068We'll figure that out. Um to discuss in detail the plans. The plan must be sent out three days prior to the hearing. Our goal is to get it out by the 13th of November. The hearing will be on November 18th, 5:30 here in central offices. Our goal is to have it adopted at the November 25th board meeting. And it needs to be to the commissioner by December 1st, but if the board adopts it on the 25th, I guarantee you if I can't get it out on the 25th, it'll go out the 26th. So, we'll get it out as soon as possible with the public hearing. Um, we will bring our plan to the public on December 8, excuse me, November 18th. And once the hearings have been conducted and the public comments considered, the monitor
069will then again submit the document to the board. and then hopefully by the 25th it gets voted on and by the 20 by December 1st it's into the commissioner. In summary again the plans must be com to the commissioner by December 1st. There is opportunity for the board the district staff for feedback and public comment. The law provides powerful incentives for the board and the monitor to work together to submit a plan that we can come to consensus on. Once the plan is approved by the commissioner, it is not aspirational. The board is committing to the district to imple implement its recommendations, and failure to do so may cause the monitor to file a notice of violation with the commissioner. But we're not going to have that happen because we're going to make our we're
070going to make our quarterly reports. The goal is to create a plan that when implemented with full fidelity, I'm going to say with full fidelity, will allow the district to improve his academic outcomes and achieve financial ability. So that is the plan. >> Thank you, Dr. Wilkins. We appreciate that. Uh are there any questions from any board members? Starting from my left at this time. anything from my right. Trusty Scott, Brown, Trusty Peterson. Uh, thanks very much again, Dr. Wilkins. Looking forward to this embarkment. Appreciate you. >> Moving on to our agendas, our resolutions. Um, are there any questions for any of the resolutions in the human resources section 4? Resolutions 41 through 4, sorry, 412. >> Any questions? >> Yeah. Can I get clarification on 412? >> 4 I'm sorry. You have clarification on
071resolution 4.12. Yep. >> Um so for 4.12 um we were told that the titles commissioner and uh deputy commissioner for human resources were not appropriate titles for the school district and they were therefore abolished. And since they were abolished, uh we wanted to ensure that individuals were not dis displaced from their positions. Uh so they returned to their old title which is more appropriate uh for the work that's being done um as personnel associate. >> So there is no detrimental imp. >> There is no detrimental impact on anybody who is under this resolution. >> No. as per CSCA contract. Um the U of there's none. >> Correct. >> Thank you, Trusty Kelly. Anybody else have any questions? >> Hearing none. Moving. I'm sorry. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Trusty Marabel can't hear. Can't hear. No problem.
072on 4.1 I noticed that the um tenure appointments uh the tenure I think they're tenure appointments tenure dates for the individuals if we could have those um items in a timely manner because currently we're looking at dates that are 128 some are even estoppel dates 10:26 11:15 so if we could have those dates 60 days out. So, we don't run into any concerns. Um, just looking at some of the information where there may be um I don't know, there may be some uh high levels of absenteeism on some of them. So, just asking that we have them 60 days out as opposed to at the date of or estoppel dates. >> President Marabo, you're absolutely correct. Um I am definitely not a fan of any estoppel. Um and what I will say is that um
073associate superintendent Graves has done a fantastic job by making sure that the information is directly on principal's calendar and that they are to get it in in a timely fashion. We will adjust to ensure the 60-day mark, but I do know that there's one that won't be 60 days cuz I just met with that person today. But it will be before you before the estoppel date. Um so that's the only thing I can say but uh that is noted. >> Thank you. Have no other further questions. Moving on to acceptance of number five curriculum instruction 5.1. Any questions on this resolution from my left? Anybody from my right? Hearing none. Moving on to section six, student personnel services. Do we have any questions for resolution 61 through 69? Any questions? >> Hearing none, moving forward
074to section 7, business office. Are there any questions for resolution 71 through 75? Any >> trusty Marabel? Anything? >> We're good. Okay. Hearing none, moving forward to section 8. Any questions? Board of Education 81 through 87. Any questions? >> I'm sorry. Go. >> We're going to do that now or >> Okay. Uh, Dr. Mr. Strickland would like to step back to uh section 7 for the business office 75 authorization to adopt the budget calendar for 2026 2027. So, um I just found out that um who the individual was that was working on the budget calendar. Um I was actually told that that was already completed um by the previous um individual in the role. Um I will say that this calendar will already have to be updated because we have a state monitor. Our balance
075budget is due March 1st or March 2nd. So that means we actually have to get it to you midFebruary and get it to her before um March 1st or March 2nd. So um there's going to be alterations to this date. This is something that we'll bring up in committee just to be uh fully transparent with our budget chair. And uh do know that there's going to be some alterations to the calendar. >> Thank you for that, D uh Dr. Strickland. So uh back at uh number eight, board of education. Any questions? Aid one through 87. I heard none. Still the same. Thank you. Moving forward to number nine and which is uh going to take a vote for items to consent agenda. 9.1 authorization to send items to consent agenda. Can I have a motion?
076>> Second. >> Hearing second. Please have a vote. Vote. >> All in favor? >> Any oppose? >> Abstain. Motion carries. >> Moving on to 101. Motion to adjourn meeting. 10.1 to adjourn meeting. Do I have a vote? >> Can I have a second? >> Second. [clears throat] Having second. Do we have a vote? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Abstain. Okay. Motion carries. >> Like to thank everyone for joining us digitally, online, and in house. Thank you very much and we'll have a good night. See you soon.