Mount Vernon Board of Education Work Session September 16 2025

001[Music] Good evening. We'd like to welcome you to the Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education work session. Today is Tuesday, September the 16th. Please everyone stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. May we have roll call, please? >> Trusty Brown, >> present. >> Trusty Kelly, >> Trusty McDonald, >> present. >> Trusty Middleton, >> present. >> Trusty Peterson, >> present. >> Trusty Scott, >> present. Trusty White, VP Mitchell, >> and President Marabel >> present. >> We have a quorum and our student trustee Adon Trusty Adorno. >> Thank you. We will now have a special presentation. >> Every week we open Mount Vernon's jewel box to see

002the wonderful work happening across our district and community. Take a look at this past week's jewel box, which you can also view on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. >> Happy New Year. Happy new school year. [Music] Every child has unlimited potential. I don't care how you look, who you are, if you have a disability, if you speak a different language. Every child has the ability to reach something at a higher level. [Music] >> Thank you. That's just a taste of what's going on here in Mount Vernon. We like to thank our superintendent for that presentation. Um at this time, we would like to have a present uh I would like to ask Dr. Strickland if he would introduce um his cabinet members for their presentations tonight. >> So, great evening uh cabinet. Uh, great, excuse me,

003great evening trustees. Great evening uh, Vice President Mitchell, President Marbo, uh, the Greater Rochester that is viewing Greater Mount Vernon, uh, viewing audience. Um, so this evening we're going to have two presentations. One is going to be from the department of student uh personnel services uh which um is headed by our newly appointed superintendent uh Miss Lan White followed by a um a presentation on our New York State education data as of 202425 school year uh by Dr. Jamal Dogget. Thank you. I know that we've had we had several questions about transfers about the office of pupil personnel services um which if you've noticed on our agenda tonight we're looking to uh change the name of that so that it more accurately reflects the services that we provide to our students. Um but tonight uh

004uh Miss White will be answering some of the hopefully some of the questions that the community has been raising from the summer actually from July 1 through the opening of schools. So we hope hopefully we will be able to answer those questions for you tonight. >> Good evening, President Marbel, Vice President Mitchell, trustees, and the viewing audience. Uh my name is Lan White, and I am the proud assistant superintendent of student personnel services. And I'd like to take a few minutes to uh review some information, hopefully uh give some insight as to the experience we've been having uh this summer into the beginning of the school year. Hopefully answer some questions and uh we'll take it from there. So, we're going to discuss navigating the registration process, uh, enrollment and student services, and then a

005bit of an unprecedented year for the Mount Vernon City School District. I'm going to share with you some department data. Uh the school closures which were three schools, a little bit of information on McKenna Vento, homebound and home school, as well as uh transportation, district zoning, and the special education continuum. This number looks high from what may have been seen in the past. uh effective as of 9:15 uh 2025 which was yesterday we have a total enrollment of 7,389. That number looked much higher than what we've been seeing in the past which was roughly 6,000 maybe 800 6,900. Um that number although accurate we are also responsible for our homebound students, our homeschool students, our outofd district students which may be charter private schools um our compulsory aaged students. And so with all of those

006numbers included, we have an enrollment of 7,389 students. to share our department data. Um, as of yesterday as well, uh, I just shared the overall, uh, Mount Vernon City School District enrollment, total number of applications received as of, uh, the 14th of September was 659 applications. Uh you'll see P uh P4 which is preschool age4 we received 99 uh preK3 43 uh the council for preschool special education 36 and total of kindergarten through 12th grade which is 481. Of the 659 total applications that were received, we have 147 that had been flagged as needing English language learner services. 124 which were flagged as immigrant or new to the United States. 79 have been flagged as needing special education services including the 36 CPSC uh that I mentioned earlier from kindergarten through the 12th grade. 88

007have been flagged as potential McKini Vento and 18 have been flagged as foster care. uh we also are navigating approximately address changes. I do want to share with you before I go into the special class ratio um we have in that department three registars um who have been navigating all of this throughout the summer. We also have approximately uh four special education uh typists that assist as well that actually had to jump on board to assist to ensure that there was continuity in the registration process. Uh in addition to other folks in this building who also jumped on board to ensure continuity for the registration process. Um, I went on personally uh onto our website as if I were a parent to navigate the process because I needed to see first and foremost um if

008it was a smooth process to engage in and I it was not. It was not. Um I am not a parent but I needed to understand the um what parents have to navigate in our district to get a better understanding of what needs to happen moving forward. Um so that was eyeopening for me personally. I also um as we're looking at this data decided to stay at the front uh desk to engage with our community and our parents. And um there were a a varying experiences that I had with parents who were frustrated around the process which I completely understood. Uh in addition to the idea of some folks not being aware that there were school closures uh wondering what was happening with transportation. um wanting to know why they couldn't just transfer their children

009because they didn't care for a particular location of a school of or a school. So, I'll go a little bit more into detail, but I wanted to uh state the obvious uh because we do have a viewing audience and and many of our uh community members have expressed uh their happiness and also their unhappiness with me uh front-facing. So, I wanted to acknowledge that as well. Next slide. Um, our special class ratios uh for our K8 we have um and this was presented by uh Miss Michelle McKitty Bramley a few weeks ago and this is something that we are focusing on and so I just wanted to just draw your attention to uh we have 27 sections of 812 classes and these are our special education classes. We have 22 sections of our 1212, 14

010classes of 1511 and five classes of 151. Um this is the the 812 and 1212. These are more restrictive settings and our goal is to reduce our most restrictive special education placements or settings. uh we would like to reduce that to least restrictive uh by the end of this school year. Uh we are gauging about a 3% decrease, but I'd like to see actually more than that. Next, thank you. Um so we went from a reduction of schools from 16 total schools to 13. Uh the schools that were closed were Parker, which served grades K8, Leadership Academy, again served grades K8, and Honor Academy, which served grades uh K8 as well. There was also a district resoning and the whole purpose of the resoning is to ensure that communities had uh school options that were

011walking distance uh anywhere from 1.5 miles or less in proximity to where they lived. And there was also an implementation of a sped continuum so that there were class settings or programs special education programs that were in the varying zones throughout the city. So some of our uh challenges that we experienced is this was a year of unprecedented change. Um something else that we noticed was there was an increase in our McKenna Vento designations which I am meeting um with state representatives. Uh we're not quite sure uh why there may have been an increase, but there was some uh question around was there an increase in the McKini Vento designation outside of what we're seeing uh politically and and across varying communities around homelessness. But there also were questions that were being asked uh with

012attempts to potentially circumvent the idea that transportation may not have been provided and in some cases questions around McKenna options were being asked. Uh families were engaging which was a not a bit concerning but quite concerning to me. uh families were engaging in revoking uh special education services for their children um in lie of getting a more desired school location. So that was concerning and there was um a lot of conversation and education to parents of what that does uh to their children. Um, safety transfer requests were at a astonishing high. Um, enough that it led to inquiring about a board policy around uh what would warrant a safety transfer. And uh the safety transfers or transfers in general had to be the request was that they come to a halt. uh because at the

013time all of the children that needed to be registered which were upwards to almost 700 and I also addressed that it was not easy registrate registering students by way of the parent experience and I also realized that it would take anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 to an hour for a parent to register their ch child on our website and then it would take roughly 20 minutes to 45 minutes to actually register the child in our student information system. So, I want to be realistic. Although it doesn't sound um ideal, it's the reality of what the experience was. Um so, a lot of the transfers that were being requested did not align to the board policy. Some of the requests were uh concerns around um the walk, concerns about uh the walk in certain communities.

014Um various uh community members expressed, you know, their uh payment of taxes and because they pay taxes felt that they should have uh choice and what it is that they wanted or where they wanted their children to go. Although there were uh classroom sections and classroom numbers that we implemented to keep uh the numbers down uh but there were folks that felt this is where I want my child and it doesn't matter. Um and and some folks expressed that uh the other piece too we I mentioned this uh significant transportation requests um there was a desire because this this was experiencing it firsthand. It it tugged at some heartstrings for some and there was a desire to have as many face-to-face holdless meetings with some of our families as possible because it was clear that

015there were um opportunities that may have been missed in this whole reconfiguration process and it was definitely disturbing for some of our uh families the the experience that they were having. So, literally having that sit down and sometimes the answers were not what they wanted to hear. Uh, but the courtesy of hearing their concerns needed to happen. There were some that walked out with thank yous and others that had uh choice or words uh if they weren't receiving what it is that they wanted. But the idea of sitting with people and understanding their plight uh was was necessary. Uh we had our staff working uh through Labor Day weekend only to find that our student information system decided uh unbeknownst to most people including our technology department, it decided that uh it was going to

016have a facelift and uh the whole system changed on the uh those who navigated the system normally and because of the facelift it now uh the things that normally could be found could not be found for the registration process and it made it that much more challenging. So the majority of the women that work in the uh office of student personnel services spent their Labor Day uh attempting or Labor Day weekend, holiday weekend doing registrations at all hours of the night uh to just ensure that we didn't have lines and things like that. Uh I mentioned the address changes. Um there was a lot of the dialogue was definitely timeconsuming and to the point where when you're having a face-to-face dialogue and you have limited staff, it um it took folks away from actually doing

017being able to sit at the computer and actually do the registration. And so there was a a balance with that. Um obvious things that we noticed as well is that there's some staffing shortages uh especially in the area of teacher assistance in some of our schools as well as classroom teachers and uh there were some school space limitations. So these were some of the overall challenges that we we noticed. Although our highlights are not as as uh full as our challenges, but they are there are some highlights. We're caught up. Um we managed to to navigate all of that within the first week and a half of school. So there is a a slight sense of calm right now. Uh which is really good. So now we can focus in areas uh like spending time

018with some of that transfer information that folks asked for us to take a look at. Um we're now also personally uh calling families to address some of the concerns that they've uh shared. We are uh I mentioned that we're notifying families around the transfers and although you know honestly the transfers and the process of it is quite limited and we are using the board policy but explaining it uh to families is is of utmost uh priority. Uh all students with IEPs have been placed. Um there's been a specific focus on discharges. We were receiving emails uh from families stating that they may have discharged their child yet they were still getting emails and information um about the school and we cannot discharge until we have confirmation and proof uh that the child is actually enrolled

019especially if they're out of state. Uh sometimes hunting that down and can be a bit of a task. uh but we cannot uh discharge a student unless we have evidence of that. And also the um as much as it was a negative thing, the significant reduction in the use of transportation uh helped us from a fiscal lens because that was something that was being uh discussed previously. And we we we really um that reduction was very significant although not well received. uh but very significant from a fiscal lens. Um so you know one of the things our superintendent uh constantly reinforces if you're coming with the problem come with the solution. And so I shared some highlights with you. Uh but these are some of the future review potential next steps and essentially some of

020the overarching goals that I have for that department. Um, one of the things I'd like to do is initiate a comprehensive review of the student registration process. Um, again, I went through it as a parent myself and it just was not okay um, by any means. And I see some folks shaking their head in agreeance. Um, I I can't sit here, stand here or anything else and and act as if that was a seamless process. It was not. um reform student placement um and the transfer policy. And I'd like to spend some time uh with you all uh with some input from the community around what that transfer policy would look like and essentially maybe uh create a window uh within the school year to uh give families the opportunity to uh to transfer if

021this is what they so desire. uh but within uh reason and having some type of policy that we can vet and vote upon. Um the exploring the technology and the procedural improvements to uh better serve the staff uh and streamline their work. Uh three people navigating registration is just not ideal as well. Uh there were some brief conversations in the midst of of trying to uh do this work where I've heard stories where it was well the secretaries back in the schools did the registration back in the days and then it came back to central office and why don't we do it this way and this worked better. I think some some overall feedback is warranted and uh needs to be looked at. Um the other piece too is create a designated face-to-face registration office.

022um that's staffed with bilingual uh parent liaons. We cannot uh act as if uh some of the limitations. I got on as an English-speaking non-parent. I can't imagine what it was like for a non-English-speaking parent uh or a non uh someone asked, "Well, did you give a application?" And they said, "Well, they can speak English. it doesn't also mean that they're literate, right? And so these are things that revealed itself. And so we cannot assume, nor can we make um judgment. And so if we create a safe space for folks to come in um and not have to explain their limitations as a daughter of a man who was dyslexic. And so that hit home for me. So these are things that um we need to create as well as de developing a cross trainining

023program uh for department staff because there are things that folks um essentially was for example Mckin Vento we had Mckin Vento liaison and they were quite proficient in their knowledge of Mckin Vento but they should not be the only ones that are quite proficient in their knowledge of Mckin Vento. It needs to be understood by our school-based support team staff members such as our social workers, guidance counselors, uh folks in the registration department. Everyone in here should be able to speak um to the processes. And so these are some of the things uh that I would like to see as uh opportunities to review, possibly implement as next steps and uh get more feedback on. And that is all I have. So I am ready for your questions. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >>

024Uh and may I just say that thank you so very much for a welldone comprehensive explanation of some of the challenges that we experienced in the PA parents and just the uh I guess the compassion that it was presented with and that it was met with um face to face. So I just want to say thank you uh Miss White. So, and I know we have board members that have questions. So, what I would like to do in order to make sure that it's orderly, right, is if I can start from this, I'll just go around the table and that may make it easier because I see a lot of people nodding their heads and and raising their hands. And we have our student uh exofficial member that's here tonight. And I don't know uh

025his name is Leonard. And I would like to know, first of all, I'd like to welcome him right um for the his very first board meeting. And then secondly, I' I'd like to know if he has any questions right now. And if not now, then maybe we can come back to you and ask if you have any later. >> Um, so, uh, while she was presenting, I heard a word, um, McKenna Provento. Um, this is my first time hearing that. Uh, could you explain what it is? >> Um, it's an act, a law that has been, uh, put in place by the state to address essentially homelessness. Um, and so it's a holdarmless law that anyone can walk in whether their circumstances without explanation and and in in the most discreet way share that they're

026essentially homeless and we are by law, no questions asked, uh, to place children in schools. that we do not need to wait for things like a lease or proof of birth and all of the required uh things that would be needed to register a student. Uh that would not be required if they're deemed a McKini Vento. We just register them, get them in, get them processed, provide resources if requested, and follow up after the fact. >> You're welcome, >> Trusty Mcdana. >> Thank you. Um and and and thank you for stepping in at this time to do this difficult work and thanks to your staff and and thanks to the parents for being patient with us as we work through this. So thanks very much. My main question is about enrollment. Obviously I saw that

027number and I'm my head is kind of spinning. Um I think the the first thing I think that's important we do um is have uniformity. Making sure we're comparing apples to apples. Um, and that's my worry is that we're not is that so the number we had last November was 6853. Um, the Bosey's projection for 2025 was 6142. That's 17% off where we are. That's a big miss. So, I'm worried that we're making decisions on bad data. Um, or that we're talking about one number and that it includes preschool and another number doesn't include preschool. So I would request that we just come to some uniform decision so we always know what we're talking about. Um the the other thing you mentioned inclusive in your in your number of 7389 was did you say charter

028students were included in that as well? >> Uh out of district so that includes charter. >> So charter students who are were not responsible for not enrolled in the district they're enrolled in another school are included in this enrollment number. Is that correct? Okay. So that's going to be a big difference that that'll explain a chunk of it because that wasn't in the Bosey's number. It was clearly not and it wasn't in the number um that we had for enrollment last year. So that's fine to do that. I think we just need to be uniform in how we do it. Um so that's that that piece of it. Um and just briefly regarding the move towards inclusive education, I think that's wonderful. You talked about your self-contained continuum. What do you have in terms of

029the number of special ed students who are either in general ed with support or in an ICT class? Um, what percentage are we at? Do you know that number? >> I don't. >> Okay. I would guess it's a it's a small fraction of the overall number >> for ICT. Can you re repeat the question if you don't mind? >> Kids who who have an IEP who are in gened classes that are not in one of these self-contained classrooms, what percentage? And then also along that line, kids who are in an integrated co-taught >> classroom, which wouldn't be included in any of those configurations you you put up there. >> So I I definitely know that the percentage is relatively low. Uh which this is one of the first districts that I've seen where the number

030of self-contained classrooms actually over o like over exceed uh the amount of integrated co-taught classrooms. I would like to mention that there was a sort of a misnomer that special education classrooms um that the integrated co-eing model was actually more expensive than self-contained classrooms. Yes, I did hear that from multiple individuals when I came here. Um so right away I I got with Miss White I got with Miss McKenna Bramley um and Dr. Ramsey at the time and said, "Look, we need to be doing least restrictive. Just because a student is on the autism uh spectrum disorder um you know continuum does not mean that that student cannot be in an integrated co-taught classroom. There's some students that have greater abilities than all of us that can multiply and divide with the quickness and and

031we we just put them into a certain class just based off of their disorder and it's not right. >> It's not right. >> It's not fair to them. >> Um so what we are doing is doing this comprehensive look at these self-contained classrooms. the special education uh office will tell you I do not like 151s. I was a principal of a 15-1 school with 151s. Generally, those students are students that can be in ICT classes with two teachers or they're 121 because they may have some behavioral challenges. 151 is not advantageous to a district. Not only that, but an ICT class, you can only have 12 to 13 students with disabilities versus a 15-1 which has 15 students with learning disabilities in one teacher. So, it's more advantageous to go with the ICT route. So,

032we're going to continue to move that and we'll be sure to get you that number about the percentage of students in ICT or that have 504s. >> I did also want to preface that we do service students and charters that have IEPs >> IEPs. Correct. >> Okay. But I do know that we still need to level set for the record just to make sure that we're not giving data that seems a little off. But I do want to say that the exuberant amount of uh uh services that speech OTP, >> we still have to service students and charters and we're already having a hard time servicing our own students. >> Correct. >> Understood. Thank you. >> Yes, >> Trusty Kelly. >> Thank you. >> I wanted to thank you for your responsiveness to the community

033and the registration process that you put yourself through. is commendable because Trustee Brown had was sharing her experience with one of her neighbors that she had to walk her through it and I couldn't believe that it was so difficult. So, thank you for doing that. >> The other thing is um as as opposed to the people that need to be trained to do registration. >> Um could you institute a cheat sheet for when you're doing registration so that those questions are answered? I know a lot of times when it's a more difficult process, people create cheat sheets that makes the information accessible. Um the other thing is the immunization. How do we do immunization? Like this is the hot topic now. How is that being treated in our district? >> That's a a question, right?

034And could you break out the numbers so we know exactly um the class sizes like how the buildings are being um populated >> and the need for the teachers because I know we have shortages. So I like the fact that you did present a overall number for us but I think it would be most helpful if we know how the the buildings are what the population in each of the buildings and what the needs are in those buildings. That's a request. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, trust uh, Vice President Mitchell. >> Thank you. Um, Miss White, thank God for you. >> I'm going to just say that. Thank you so much. I thank the heavens because that's one of the very best reports that I've heard on registration process in many

035years. I have I cannot draw a line to connect myself to any other assistant superintendent for PPS who ever said they walked the walk of the parent and they can determine and say clearly it is a hard journey. So I thank you for taking that journey. I appreciate you. I also appreciate your grace and being able to accept the criticisms with the praise as you just did. And that takes something. and it means it says a lot about um who you are as well as your compassion for what you're doing. Um, >> I will kind of uh shadow Trusty Mcdana to hear the numbers when the last 6 to 10 months leading up to the reorganization, it was being drilled home that downward enrollment, downward enrollment, downward enrollment was the reason for us closing buildings

036to now hear this and then couple that with us having these numbers that we were given before not including the numbers for charter. It definitely raises a lot of eyebrows and questions and concerns. So, I shadow Trusty Mcdana's request that we see that uh agree on how we're going to look at these numbers going forward and see the truth to what we were shown so that we can understand what this whole this contrast is. Um revoking. So, two things that stood out to me. You mentioned parents revoking specials the services >> and these are special education IEP mandated services. is you have parents willing to revoke their stu their child's services for a more desirable address, right? >> Yes. >> What does that say? What does that say? I mean, your opinion, >> it raises

037a red flag. um services are um based on a diagnosis and the purpose of the diagnosis is to uh provide what's needed so that the diagnosis doesn't remain. Um so even if we are you know placed on medication what your goal is never to stay on the medication it's to sort of manage streamline and then find ways to to come off. Um and so uh special education um is not a lifelong sentence either. Uh so that is never the goal to place a child there. Hence the reason why our more restrictive environments cannot remain that way. >> Okay. >> Um it we have to move our students to the least restrictive. That's the purpose as well. And not solely for our special education population but for also our English language learners. uh they should not

038enter and come in and stay in a a specific designation for 2, three, four, five, six years as well as our McKenna Vento. >> And I think it also speaks to what Dr. Strickland said earlier about the and what it is. We talked about it in the past just the overclassification of students, special needs and IEP needing. Um I think it speaks to that as well. It says, you know, you have revocation of services to be in a different building. Then I think it just sheds more focus on who how we're how these IPS are in place and the fact that are we where are we overclassifying. So again, thank you and your entire team >> for being on the front line, staying on the front line and you're they casting rocks and and and

039flowers, but it's a lot of rocks. So thank you to you and your team for uh managing. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. >> Uh Trusty Peterson. >> Thank you, Miss White. so much. That was an amazing presentation, especially because I think registration has big been one of my biggest uh contacts from parents and community members over the past couple of months. Um I definitely shadow what Trusty Kelly asking about the building occupancy at this point if we be possible for us to have a breakdown by building because I know I've been hearing a lot from from folks who feel like the buildings are are crowded. So I would love to see that and the number with the charters and out of district students not in it to see so then if we can really gauge

040okay what type of information were you you all received last school year. Um also excellent idea when I was the coordinator for the parent research uh um resource center I spent the entire summer registering families. That's all I did. I feel like I might have done that a couple of times this summer too but it's very valuable. um especially if you have parents who English is their second language. I had parents who were deaf, you know, with ASL. So, it is having utilizing the parent resource center is a true benefit for registering families as well. Excellent job. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, >> Trusty Brown. >> Okay. Good evening. Um an amazing presentation. Um, I like that everything was clearly called out and defined. Um, um, as Trusty Kelly said, I did the

041registration with a neighbor to see what it was like and it was an arduous task. Um, there was a lot of things that you needed to have ready and just because my mind is a project manager, I knew to tell her have this and have that and we would run back and forth to the scanner and to my computer to make sure that we were able to upload everything. Um, so maybe for next year when registration is, you know, getting ready to start, we should probably have some services like scanners and printers and stuff for people to have ready here or wherever we're going to have, um, a center for people to register. And maybe it could be all hands- on deck type of thing where like you said um not just some people know

042how to do the registration but maybe because it seems like we're having an upward trend of registration that we have more people who can help assist with the registration. Um but other than that I think everything was they've asked all the questions I would have asked. So thank you. >> Thank you >> Trusty Middleton. >> Good evening. I just want to say you did an excellent job in your presentation and I have to let y'all know that I've been in the district for like 41 years. I'm not that old. But anyway, and anyway, I started out as a typist to a stenographer. So, registration is not new to me. And I went through the entire process with other uh stenographers and assistants who basically are very versed with the process. And so I think it

043might be nice if instead of two or three people being in one place, you put the right people in place to assist. We did evening registrations. And of course in the beginning of the year with all that has already gone on with the school closures, you got a lot of annoyed parents, right? And that's always for the par when registration happens. But it gets easier and it gets better when you have the right people in place. You're that person and your team. And I just I I thank you for for being here and I thank you for what you have done and what you're doing. I just want to ask this question though. How many left the district? >> Oo, you know, that's that's fluid. It's ongoing. I have to get that number to you.

044Um it's not as high as as one would think, >> believe it or not, but I will definitely get that number to you. Discharges. Yes. >> With the increase, my concern is all school closures. What are we doing with these three buildings if we do because I've heard complaints in the last week about some of the schools and the classrooms being overcrowded now. >> So, how do we handle that with the increase of the numbers although they're charter school and etc. You know, how are we going to move with that? But good job. Excellent. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, >> Trusty Scott. >> Thank you very much. Um, one of the things about going last is I don't have to say too much because everybody said it for me. So, um, basically one

045of the things I I definitely wanted to point out is I look forward to what Trusty Mcdana, Trusty U Middleton, Trustee U Mitchell talked about in terms of the um numbers because I'm a visual type of person. So, I would love to see what those numbers are. But I do see where you talk about um staff shortages where you talk about the face to face and I know how that can be when the community comes to you and they're in your face and they're saying a lot of good things but I would like for you to talk about how are you looking at self-care for yourself and your staff. >> Well, I'm leaving for Spain tomorrow. I'm a self-care. Um, no, that was previously planned before I started here. I'm actually coming back sooner uh

046because I because of this work. But thank you for asking that and and that's something that um I I I try to uh along with with uh Dr. Dogget and uh Dr. Strickland. Uh those the women downstairs, they they took some hits. um they took some hits and and there was a point um the Brooklyn in me kicked in on one and I said you you you can't talk to my people like that and and the person reeled themselves in and said you know what you're right I I was so frustrated um and and so it makes sense one of the things that was mentioned is um I did ask that we have those late evenings so Thursday nights from 4 until 8 on uh for the month of September uh we have um an

047extended Ed evening um dinner was purchased for the ladies for their time again cuz I did share that they gave up their holiday weekend. Um you know we'll we we're going to be all right. I think the thing that that um will be the best uh win for us is those some of those suggestions go in place and we streamline this work so that we won't have to work as hard and we're working smarter. But I I appreciate that question because that that's big for me. Um and that I know our superintendent wants to be to bed at 8 o'clock. >> Um but he wasn't cuz he would call me with stuff. Did you see this? Did you see that? But I appreciate that question and I appreciate um because I know behind the scenes

048all of you um have understood because I know that you all are catching it as well. Um, and so I appreciate the um understanding and the allowing me to share and and speak to it and and in some cases uh defending uh the work. Uh so I appreciate that. >> Thank you very much. And just wanted to make sure that it's embedded in your systems. >> Selfcare is important. >> Exactly. Thank you. >> Uh our student uh trustee has a another comment or question. >> Um hello everyone. Um so she mentioned uh the difficulties in registration and I was wondering if I could put my input in that if that's okay with you guys >> please. So I'm currently um trying to apply to colleges and uh men uh and my mentor and I are

049you know using QuestBridge and through that process um QuestBridge application has links inside where it leads you to a YouTube video in which it shows you detailed processes in which we um no I mean in which they um uh fill out the application and everything and I was wondering if you could probably do that and also So to add upon that we could just make it in different variations in which is um different people who doesn't understand English um could you know put uh understand it easily. >> That's my >> thank you like a tutorial. >> Thank you. Okay just um just a couple of things I want to say thank you number one to the uh future review potential next steps. So thank you for laying those things out. I know that uh Dr.

050Strickland will be looking at them and for you to be able to drill down on a plan that you can develop and per hopefully be implemented because we'd like to know and which is our role is how we can help in order to ensure that uh that we make your lives easier. And so I just want to say thank you and Dr. Strickland does have some final comments. >> Yes. Uh just really quick um to our student trustee uh Mr. Arduro. Um, we do have an updated video that is online for the registration process that does not circumvent the fact that it is still very arduous and difficult to run with. I will say that um I in a previous district did push back around the electronic um process. You know, because all of our

051families aren't where we want them to be yet. Just because they have a smartphone or a iPad or a tablet doesn't mean that the access uh works well. Uh I did want to take an opportunity to put out a plug. Our parent liaison are now housed at the Graham school which is at 421 East 5th Street. Um and they're there to service your needs. Um I do I won't say too much but we are looking at at bringing them on for um more of a prevalent role within the district because this summer uh I know that they were working and I know we needed their help and we couldn't have access to them. So, um, you know, more news to come on that. Um, I did want to, uh, not, uh, forget about, uh, Trustee

052Kelly's, uh, question around immunizations. That is a general issue around, um, you know, folks, students in the black community, black and brown communities. um some of our families uh don't have the access especially here in Mount Vernon as it pertains to uh clinics and hospitals and things of that nature. But what we will what what I will uh begin doing is trying to start to find a way to um publicize, you know, places where families can get those services because pretty soon exclusion time is going to come where we can't have students without immunizations in classrooms. Um and I don't want that toffect uh to affect their attendance. Um I do want to put a plug out for the public. We can't. Please don't wait till September to register your child because it is a

053long process and it does create a backlog and we're here the entire summer. The individuals were down there. We got slammed in September and school started shortly thereafter. Um and and we could have, you know, really mitigated uh some of the backlog uh by doing that. Um, I will say that yes, uh, some of the overcrowding is is slightly real. Um, I've been walking out and about in the classrooms and I will also say that there are some students that have not shown up yet. So, I want you all to be clear that, you know, did they actually show? So, I heard a few times we have 21 pre kindergarteners. Um, have have all 18 of them, which is the legal mandate, have they all showed up? No, not yet. Well, we have to wait.

054That's why we have beds day to kind of clean those things up. Um, I do want to say, uh, also transportation, I know it's a big deal. It is a huge deal. However, we that's why we created these zones. We went over budget by over $9 million last year in transportation and are operating from last year on a $9 million deficit. That's where the bulk of the increase came. Um I I do want to you to be reminded that uh transportation is 6.4% of our budget at almost $18 million. Um that number is astronomical for the size of our city. Um and that's why we have to make change. And I know it's painful and it's hard and people are just demanding. But you know we we just we only have an obligation honestly for

055two miles for students and three miles for our high school students. Um but we are still working on how can we make sure that we get transportation to those that need it the most. And then uh uh finally um I was just going to say I had a great meeting with the Mount Vernon um the Mount Vernon Education Foundation and we're looking at some possible ideas around uh helping students with the FASA process. Um, those were very initial talks, but I'm really going to push on it because it doesn't cost that much. We just need folks in these schools helping our our students um apply for colleges. So, with that being said, I just wanted to end that and thank you, uh, Miss White. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any other questions or

056last comments? >> Okay. Thank you so much, Mr. >> Thank you, everyone. Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> I have the pleasure to um present our New York State Education Department data from the 2024 2025 school year. But in order to do that as well, I'm going to take a closer look at the Mount Vernon City School District year-to-year growth um starting four years ago. Next slide. Growth requires change. So when I present the data, some of the slides look familiar because it's an add-on to the presentation that I've done I believe in January 2024 when I did the NICET data presentation. So I would like to always start with the importance of change and what change looks like. And I presented this as well. These are the stages of change presented back um

057in January 2024 where I introduced to the community what stages of the change process that the Mount Vernon City School District was in. We were in the according to Kurt Leuen change theory we were in the unfreezing stage where we were preparing the organization for change and we were in a changing phase where we began to resolve and unlock the uncertainty and look for new ways to do things. So if you go to the next slide, Michael Fins talks about the process of change. It's pretty much the same thing. We were in these two stages, the initiation phase and the implementation phase back in 2022 2023 when the presentation was done. So now we're going to move forward. I'm going to present the 2024 2025 data also with the data previously prevented so you can

058see some a longitudinal study. So, as a reminder, our proficiency goals for the past three years have been a 3% increase in students performance proficiency levels and 75% of our students performing at levels two, threes, and four. So, keep that in mind as I go through the presentation. Next slide. So, again, very familiar slides from previous presentations, but please pay attention to the two boxes on the side. The purple box is the amount of students performance at levels two, threes, and fours. And the goal was always 75%. And the overall proficiency rate. This was the baseline year. This is 2021 2022 when students came back from COVID. So, as you can see, we had 72% of our students in ELA, grades 3 through 8 performing at levels 2, 3es, and fours and a proficiency rate

059of 39%. Next slide. The previous year we've increased amount of students performing at levels two, threes and fours to 74% and uh we increased by 3%. So we met our goal of a overall proficiency rate increase in the 2022 2023 school year. This is a slide of we was previously presented. Next slide. For 2023 2024 as you can see we remained flat. We didn't grow that year, but our proficiency rema proficiency rate remained the same, but we had a slight decrease in our levels twos, threes, and fours. And I'm going to talk about that a little bit later. Last year's performance, we reached our goal of 75% of more students performing at levels two, threes, and fours. And we also met our goal of our 3% increase of our overall proficiency rate in ELA. Next

060slide. just shows um a picture of all four years and as you can see some of the things that we're doing to increase our ELA scores and sustain is strengthen our writing and vocabulary instruction writing across the curriculum. We have phonics lessons in the upper grades which we um started last year and we've been doing ongoing training and professional development in the science of reading. also have some highlights that I'd like to discuss. For our ELA, our highest proficiency rates was Lincoln School at 64%. Let's give them a round of applause for their hard work. Last year, um, our school with the highest year-to-year growth was Benjamin Turner Academy. They had a 15% increase. And the following schools have met the 3% or more growth. Williams School, Grime School, this is an ELA, Mount Vernon

061Honor Academy, Mount Vernon Leadership, and the Nelson Mandela Joseé Holikoffa School. So, congratulations to our schools for meeting their goals. Now, we're going to move into math. And again, if you can pay attention to the same goals we had 7, we want 75% of our students performing at levels two, threes, and fours and a 3% increase. So again, these slides I previously presented in January 2024, so I'm not going to spend too much time, but as you can see, in 2021 2022, our scores were at 24%. And that year was the year that we really focused on math. Um, and if you go to the next slide, when we came back the following year, we had a six we had a 15% increase in proficiency rates. And as you can see, we had an 18%

062increase of our students performing at levels twos, threes, and fours, which means we were getting rid of our level one students. 2023 2024, which is the next year, um we had a 1% increase in our proficiency rates. And if you go to 2025, 2024, 2025, we were down 1% in our proficiency rates. We did not meet our goal. However, we did inc increase the amount of students by 1% of students performing in levels two, three, and four. So again, the next slide, if you go to the next slide, it just shows the trajectory over the four years. Some of the things that we're doing to increase our math instruction is that we're strengthening the use of the instructional model of how tier one instruction is taught in the classroom. and we're ensuring that our RTI

063instructional block is balanced. So, as you if you looked at the previous ELA slides, you saw that we had an increase of students performing at levels two, threes, and fours. And we had a significant reduction of our students performing at level one. A lot of that is due to the RTI period where students get their small group instruction. But what we have to do is make sure that we're balancing that with ELA and math because what happens and as a former principal I'm guilty of it too. A lot of that time those ELA instructional RTI periods are used for ELA only and not math and therefore ELA and math. So we have to make sure we find that balance as well. So, I have this slide up here and I told you I was going

064to get back to it and this is a slide about change leadership and this talks about something that happened in Mount Vernon and we knew we kind of anticipated it was going to happen. It's called the implementation dip and what that is, it's a dip in performance as a confidence as one encounters new innovation that requires new skills and new understandings. We've had a lot of new programs and changes in programs in addition to programs over the last two years and that's that requires a lot of learning. So research states that sometimes leads to imple implementation dips where the staff is getting used to the new learning. They're finding new ways to do things and sometimes there's a dip or a level off. So as you see previously in two years ago in ELA our

065ELA implementation dip we remained flat where we increased some of our level ones last year in math and we anticipated that this was going to happen that we had a 1% decrease but now that we have professional development there's nothing new we want to sustain the professional development we're just refining what we have we are anticipating that that implementation dip is gone So, we should be moving forward and we should be meeting our goals in ELA and math. We did meet in ELA, but we have to make sure we are much more aggressive and much more focused on our math. So, some math highlights. Again, the highest proficiency rates in the district, Lincoln School with 56%. Let's give them a round of applause. Again, the highest year-to-year growth, Benjamin Turner Academy with 16%. And the

066following schools have 3% or more growth. Um is Mount Vernon Honor Academy and Nelson Mandela Holoca School. Let's give them a round of applause. We're going to move on to science. Science is going to look a little bit different than it did in the previous years is because we have different assessments. So you're not going to see a four-year comparison with this data because we had a grade four test and a grade eight test. Then one year we didn't have the grade four test. Two years ago, we implemented the new grade five science test and it is hard and and the grade A test as well. So, I'm going to go to this slide. If you look at the proficiency levels again, the amount of students in 2023 and 2024 was 77% but the overall

067proficiency rates was 31%. This is a new exam and it is hard. It is a reading exam. Uh we're doing some things. We're looking to explore a new science curriculum because we have an our discovery ed is up and we're looking to adopt a new science curriculum hopefully for the 2025 2026 school year. Next slide. 2024 2025 as you can see we made some gains. Um we're at 81% of our students um scoring at level 2, 3es, and fours and we have a proficiency rate of a 7% increase of 38%. Some science highlights. The highest proficiency rate, Mount Vernon Honor Academy at 55%. That's a 21% increase from last year. Again, that was a new science test. So again, new learning. Um we we're looking to get a new curriculum to more to align more

068with the science 8 exam and the grades um five science exam as well. And we also have to make sure that we are making sure that our staff, teachers, um, and we make sure that that we're teaching science in grades K through four because one of the things that happens is that ELA monopolizes a lot of the times and science and social studies kind of gets pushed to the back burner and we know that the following schools have growth of 3% or more in science. Benjamin Turner Academy, Denzel Washington School of the Arts, Graham School, Grime School, Hamilton School, Nelson Mandela School, and Pennington School. Let's give our schools a round of applause. So, I'm going to move on to the regions data. And how this um data is presented is basically the English, the

069global history, US history and government, algebra regions, geometry, algebra 2, living environment. We're going to present that all in one. Um, and just so you know that five out of eight of these regions met the goal of 3% or more. But if you go to the next slide, I'm going to talk about the accountability levels and the past the the pass rates over the past two years. So as you can see, our accountability levels of students meeting levels ones, two, threes, and fours. And the pass fail and pass rate was 49% and 51% pass rate for the year 2023 2024. If you move on to the next slide, the P the fail rate has decreased to 45%. So had a 4% decrease and the pass rate increased by 4% as well. And as you can

070see that as students move through the levels, if you go to the next slide, I have both of them on so you can do a comparison. You can see that we're gaining more students at the level level level three and we're slowly reducing our level ones. So that is the goal to get out of the level one and level two zones. And again, if you look if you remember from the pres presentation that I did back in July 15th about the IRA data, grades K through 8, students, more students are leaving on grade level. It's a significantly higher percentage. So these students will be reaching the high school shortly. And this data is going to definitely look better over the next few years. Graduation rates for 2024 2025 is 75% but I also wanted to

071tell you from where we started from in 204 2014 2015 we started at 61%. We moved all the way up to 79% in 2122, but that's when the district had a lot of um passes because of um exemptions for COVID during that time. So, we're hovering around 75%. Um I know the superintendent has set some ambitious goals, 5%. So, we're looking to reach that 80% next year. One of the things that we're doing, we're doing taking a closer look at monitoring the ninth grade students with five or more credits because if we know if we can tackle that area, the more the more likely they will graduate on time. And we also want to offer more students taking um the biology and algebra regions in grade 8. And our highlights for our schools, secondary schools

072at Mount Verna High School and Steam Academy have met the superintendent's goal. Even though Denzel did not reach it, they have a very high graduation rate of 94%. So again, I presented the slide changes. You can go back one more. Yes, I presented the slide changes previously. So now this is where we are now. So if you look at it, we were preparing the organization two and a half, three years ago. We've prepared the organization. We still will continue. Now we're in the changing phase. So this is the trial and error, the practice, the new learning, the uncertainty. You hear things, I don't like this, we have no curriculum. I want to throw this away. So you hear those things. So when you hear those things, just know we're in a changing phase. You got

073to get through that to get to the refreezing and where you sustain the change. So once you start making the train um changing and hitting your stride that's where we want to be. So if you go to the next slide as well for Michael Fullen process um process of change we're implementation phases time to plan feedback opportunities and again these stages are can be fluid. We can get to institutionalizing sustaining what we have, but then we have to sometimes go back to the previous stage. We have to go back to preparing the organization again. If we get an influx of new teachers, we have to go back. So, you're not locked into these stages specifically. I just want to give an illustration of how we're moving across the continuum. So, thank you. One of the

074things I we definitely have to thank our teaching staff for doing a tremendous job and our building leaders especially last year. Last year was a specifically taxing and challenging year for our staff and they still came through for us. So thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Dogget. Um so we started on this end this time. So we're going to start on this end for the uh for Dr. Dogget's presentation. So, Trustee Scott >> selfcare, >> thank you for >> Thank you very much. Thank you very much for the presentation. Um, and thanks for, I guess, bringing us back. >> Yes. >> You know, in order for us to see um where we are now compared to January. Um, I have no questions at this time, so I'm gonna pass it on back to the president.

075>> Right. Trusty Middleton. >> Um, I've heard his presentations before. similar and it's great to see those ones shoot up and then when you got to go back to regroup and I see it happening just want to say thank you well done and just we we going to stick together to make sure it does happen. So good job. >> Thank you Trusty Brown. >> Um good great presentation. Um and I want to applaud those schools who had those uh percentage growth. That's amazing. especially as a parent who had a fourth grader last year and we were, you know, trying to just pray our way through it. Um, and so I am happy that um, there was that growth throughout the whole entire district and that we were able to highlight those schools. And um, I'm

076looking forward to seeing what the new um, science program will be. Um, with my background as a civil engineer, seeing what the kids are going um, to be learning at a at a young age because when I was that age, I wasn't doing engineering stuff. I wanted to be a lawyer and here I am 25 years later. Um, so I'm excited to see what the district is going to come up with um to uh try to gauge the kids. Um, so that'll be nice. But great presentation. Thanks, >> Trusty Peterson. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Dogget. Um, first I want to really thank the teachers who you know from being in the classroom during COVID and you know it's they've gone through a lot and so for them to still you know come through

077for us for our students for our families. I really appreciate shout out to all the teachers um and staff who help in the classrooms. I am s excellent presentation because I have been dying to see the 24 25 New York state because I've been on the website like where calling them like are they released yet? So I really appreciate that. Um, I am very happy to hear that discovery ed will soon be going because that science curriculum, you know, almost it's it's I feel like there's nothing wrong if you take it back like to the old school like fine like the textbooks like I feel like when I was a child we learned a lot in science and it was it wasn't that complicated. So even sometimes looking at you know uh a science curriculum

078that is you know has more textbooks instead of everything online things like that to get students back in books and back in writing. Um I think that's important because we've gone we our students have come out of that out of textbooks and we all know when we go into college yes there's you know lots of stuff online but we still have to use textbooks. So um that >> yep comment >> I was going to respond to you but you have more. Oh, and the departmentalizing math and ELA for the lower grades. I love it. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the difference is going to be come a year from now, the end of this school year, the end of next school year to see the outcome from that. So, whoseever idea that was,

079it's amazing. I love it. Can't wait. >> Yes. Well, what happened? What one of the things with discovery and this is one thing um we talked about as a CNI group um years back is that that was good for the time when we purchased it. But what Mount Vernon does and most districts do because it's u much more cost effective is to purchase a program for a six-year period, but you're locked into it for six years. So if something changes, you're locked into it for six years. So how do you navigate that? And I could give an example when we had envisions for math and everybody loved envisions. It was great. Everybody got into the groove. And then what happened? The state changed from common core standards to next generation, but next generation standards, but

080now we have the common core. We have three more years of envisions. And you saw what happened to our math scores. So once we look at our science program, we have to really see and take into consideration how long because it's much more cost- effective for six years. Is this something we want to do? Or do we want to do something for three years that's maybe a little bit more expensive just in case it's not working? But also at the same time, are we implementing with fidelity as well? You can't just say it's not working if you're not implementing with fidelity. Because again, soon as we don't like something, soon as we see the score dropped 3%, throw the program out. No, no, no. Sometimes you got to just make some refinements and keep moving.

081So, as you can see, our math data, even though it's going up, it went down a point, it's still in the trajectory of going up. Now, now if the next year it keeps going down like this, now we have a problem. You want your data to go up. You might have some fluctuation, but as long as the trajectory is up, that's why I wanted to show a longitudinal study. Trusty Mitchell. >> Uh, another really uh, insightful and incredible presentation. Dr. Dogget, thank you uh, for this. I've been here watching you and listening to this report from over the past few years, and we have seen a trajectory of upward mo upward movement, which is good. Um, I'm not going to jump up and down about a 75% graduation rate. I just won't. Um but I

082do like the um the clarity to our parents and the the taxpayers listening so they can understand we are still in a place that we're moving away from. So um again 75% is an honest understanding of the graduation rate where we have seen in the past where it was like we looked at one building's percentage rate and it that's just not accurate. You have to look at it from a district point of view, which I'm thankful for you showing it in that fashion. And I only call out the um the importance of change and the and the process of change. Those two slides are amazing because it truly shows us being in a rigid state of where we were us working to get to a point of thawing out to make it liquid so that

083we're moving towards restructuring what that shape will be, what our district will be. So, it's very very intuitive for me to look at and I hope that the parents and folks at home will go on the district site and take a look at this slideshow. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you, >> Trusty Kelly. >> Thank you, Dr. Dogget. I appreciate the presentation. The slides were much clearer, so I appreciate your team for doing that. I know you work incredibly hard with your team um to present stuff to us. I wanted to know is the the level two are they proficient? No, they're not proficient. But as far as accountability, we get credit for them towards our accountability status. If they're level one, we do not. And they are included in our denominator. So they

084hurt when we have level ones, right? >> So once you get rid of the level ones, but if you notice, we want to get rid of them early. >> So we do a lot of emphasis on grades preK, K1, and two because that becomes your three, four, and five. So based on previous slides with the I Ready, that data is looking better. So as that as that data looks better overall these students are going to reach the high school. So there's two goals. One is we want to make sure that we provide the intervention at the middle and high school level which we're doing. Um but we want to make sure we do more prevention preventative measures with our um foundations program our K to2. If we strengthen that area we strengthen our graduation rates.

085>> Okay. The other >> you close the gap before it starts. >> Okay. because there are correlations, right, of of different things that impact our student um data. >> Yes. >> Um staff turnover is one of them, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, Mala has a problem with that. Would that be one of the correlations that impacts our student performance? >> It can. Yes, it can. And this year, um we have a few teachers that may have moved grade levels as well. So, that may impact as well. For example, you may have been a sixth grade teacher for 20 years at leadership and now you're at Pennington and you're in first grade. So, we've provided the profession the professional development support for that. But again, it's going to take time um for that teacher get

086used to the new way of teaching the lower grades, especially if they have no exposure to foundations. We're in year four at this time. So, we have to do some training and Mary Beth has some additional support for those teachers in those specific areas. >> So, how many professional development trainings do you have for the teachers elementary and high school per year >> for what's for >> for any any professional development like what are the plans? >> It's it's ongoing. It's ongoing. But as you can see, every curriculum meeting, we have something for everyone grades K through 12. Every teacher um staff members can go to workshops on their own. Um we also have PLC's. Um we also have the superintendent's conference day, but we have I think one or one and a half days

087this year um for superintendent conference day to get PD. >> Okay. And the other thing was um when you gave us the data for the high school, could you break it out the next time by regions that they take? So if it's English, it's uh global history, if it's earth science because >> instead of collectively just do it indiv. I have that data as well >> for us to understand because then you actually see the progression of our students because you know there's a report out that that is saying that our 12th graders not particularly for Mount Vernon but their their literacy their reading skills are not very strong right and so I'd like to see some of the data from the regions to understand where the weaknesses in subject matter especially for high school

088students and I appreciate >> that's not a problem we have that Thank you. Uh Trusty Mcdana. >> I thanks Dr. Dogget. Um just two two questions. Uh one um I'm just curious to know what are what are the odds of a say a student who is uh gets an L3 in third grade math that that student will backtrack and be an L2 in 8th grade. So what are the odds of a student who becomes proficient early falling back later on? How stable is proficiency? >> Proficiency is is pretty stable. One of the things we have to be careful is we had some slippage early on as you can see maybe two years ago. We've done a better job at using our MTSS to um done do progress monitoring throughout the year to catch those students

089who are slipping. And one of the things that we we would like to do, we have students that we call on the cusp. We strictly monitor those students and on the cusp means that you can be a level high level two going to three or low level three that we want to make sure we do not slip. So we solidify. Yes. >> So we solidified a RTI MTSS RTI process to make sure that doesn't happen. >> So we've done a better job with that process. >> Great. No, thank you. The the second question is I know the the superintendent's goals has been pretty much 3% across the board which is a good which is a good Good goal. >> Not anymore. >> It's 59 five%. >> 5%. >> Okay. So the question then is and

090I know right now the graphics you showed um we're going through that change process. >> Yes. >> Sort of like you know a plane going through turbulence. >> Yes. >> And we get to the clear air on top smooth sailing. >> What what will the expectation be at that point? Will will we be looking for for change to occur more more quickly at that point once we institutionalize and refreeze these processes? >> That's the whole >> So so how ambitious are we going to be and what's the timeline on that? >> I think the soup may want to answer that question about >> So uh that's a great question. Uh, Trusty Mcdana, I will say that, um, this fall, um, after I, you know, sort of let the dust settle with, you know, all of

091the changes, uh, I do want to get into the strategic planning process. Um, and that's where we start long-term saying, where do we want to be within five years with our district? Um and that'll serve as the road map as to what it is that we want this district to look like. Um and it it becomes like you know it's broken out almost yearly uh to say this is what we are trying to accomplish this year. This is what we want to do by this year because we know that uh growth is incremental and you don't want to see huge increases. You don't like I I I love the 15% >> scary >> but it's also scary because it the state ed starts looking like huh and you know we know what has happened in

092places like Atlanta, Georgia, DC, things of that nature and we don't want eyes to be on us as if we're doing something incorrect. Uh but when you're talking about 3 to 5% you know that you're making incremental progress and that's why you know I'm changing goals to 5%. You know >> yes. >> Okay. Uh trusty odoro >> honestly the slides that were shown uh right now was so was very clear and it gave me an insight which is very fascinating uh about Vernon which I didn't know about I like to say this I want to say this actually um the main reason for the student success is mostly goes to the teachers the teachers are the reason why you know um we Well, how can I say this? Uh, the teachers are the reason why

093we are striving, most of the students are striving to do their best. And I just realized uh Trusty uh Kelly just said mentioned something about um she mentioned something about um the staff turnover. Okay. So as as a student I could definitely I could definitely say it it had a big impact on uh the students um because some students built connections through the teachers and which definitely uh boosted the students morale and once they left um well all I can say I can say I was devastated devastated and most of the students kept on complaining about um you know the staff uh being gone and um their favorite teachers going gone. So I can say that for that but yeah mostly that's what I want to add. >> Thank you and thank you to the

094board you know for um you know passing our resolutions. Uh we take that work seriously our superintendent um our cabinet our CNI cabinet has done a great job as well. The building leaders the teachers u we have to thank the parents as well and definitely our students you know for doing a great job because we know they can and we love them. Yes, we definitely uh are grateful to our teachers because we know that they motivate and inspire our students in order to to be successful. And if you have a great student, you know, we think a great teacher. So, I just wanted to know if Dr. Strickland had something he wanted to add. >> Yes. Uh thank you all for your comments and uh this really is to like one of my goals was

095to really shine a light on the academics. I want to have these conversations in front of our community to let us know let them know that we are focusing on what is happening in the classroom. I I not only want to thank our teachers and um but I I really want to thank the building leadership. Um I mean that's paramount for me. Uh the leader can change tra the trajectory of a school district and that's why I put a lot of emphasis. Uh I I said this before. If um if you don't feed the teachers, they eat the students and that starts with building leaders. Um and and I really believe that wholeheartedly. I do want to also thank the parents because they do the first step which is to make sure their children come

096to school. And I must say that I have been extremely impressed with the um the low chronic absenteeism rate in our district. Um which is impressive for a an urban district uh of our black and brown students, you know, that have struggles that have, you know, issues with barriers in our geography, you know, walking to school and whatnot. Uh I did want to say as in terms of the curriculum adoptions, uh Dr. Dogget was right on. Um my goal is to really ensure that that process involves not only um uh teachers and leaders, but it also involves students and and we get families to be able to review curriculum materials and say and give their insight as to what it is that they feel uh is going to work best for their children. I'm thinking

097about trustee Peterson's point around discovery ed. All I will say is that that was a supplement uh in a previous district of mine. So I was surprised to see that as the main component uh in in our district. Um thank you for the comment on departmentalization. I will say that was a myth that I came into where uh departmentalization is not allowed and I I did not know who made that up. Uh but um one of the things that I charged the um school leaders was to departmentalize at least with sixth grade. Um if me as a principal, you could not teach English and math in my building because the the load for both of those subjects in particular is too heavy. And it really helps with the planning. It really helps a teacher focus

098on the planning. It helps the leader focus their professional development. It helps the curriculum and instruction team really focus their professional development. And next year I charged uh schools to consider going down to third grade uh because they can do it uh in the suburbs. Guess what? Those third graders don't have the same teacher. They go from class to class and they do it on their own. Mhm. >> But we tend to police our kids and we want them in these straight lines and we want them to not talk and then they get into class and they can't talk. So want to loosen up the reins a little bit and really teach them how to be responsible young adults. I also am a big proponent of self-contained um departmentalization. Self-contained students are those individuals that

099probably need it the most. they're impacting our suspensions and that's because they're with the same teacher all day. So, let's even if we have a teacher do third and fourth grade two different classes, but at least they stay in the same content, then they get they get to move. I mean, they're they're getting antsy and then that leads to outward behaviors because they're in the same room all day. So also going to be pushing that really we need to focus on tier one instruction. Um again we um us educators all of us tend to want to remediate remediate remediate. We have to bring the students where they need to be. We have to teach to the standards and not below the standards. So um that that needs to be emphasized so that they won't actually

100backtrack. um because that's what happens. I wanted to talk about the Nelson Mandela RTA data. Um so I believe as of last year um those students were actually split among the three high schools because they come from the three high schools and that shouldn't be represented alone uh because they make up then um Denzel Washington students and makes up Mount Vernon High School students and steam uh students. So uh as we move forward you will see that as no more um and they will be distributed um the way uh it should be um focused on interim goals. Uh one of my interim goals that I will be presenting uh hopefully at the end of the month at the business meeting is around third grade reading because that's the the year where they're now reading to

101learn. if they're not proficient by grade three, that's when you get the backslide traditionally. Um, and then fifth grade for math because sixth grade becomes heavy in algebra. And that's the one of the number one reasons why a student doesn't graduate, which is algebra. Uh I will say in terms of delineating the regent uh exams very important that's also a part of my interim goals looking at algebra in particular um that means mark and period data looking at benchmark assessments uh diagnostic assessments as well as biology those are two gatekeepers and why the failure rates are as high as they are those two courses in particular and then you may know it is English three for our English language learners and students with disabilities all around. Uh and then you know finally I do want

102to give props to associate superintendent Graves. Uh she has developed a new exit survey so you will start getting data on why people are choosing to leave and the executive content. Uh so thank you uh for her to follow through. And lastly I I would be remiss to not thank Dr. Dogget and his leadership as well as the CNI team considering the fiscal challenges that we face to see the data not slide back the way it possibly should as a result of how money is just spent is phenomenal and I I just want to thank you uh sir from uh thank you >> you know on behalf of the students and staff. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And thanks for lunch tomorrow, too. >> Okay. >> I got a paper check that didn't get

103deposited yet. >> I just want to >> Mrs. Dav, >> it's so it's so good to to hear this laughter. I just want to say thank you also, Dr. Dog. And I want to just say thank you to the trustees for asking such thoughtful um questions and just listening to the presentations and really digging in the data and making sure that our students are receiving what it is that they need to receive. So I just want to say thank you for your leadership as well. Uh we will move on to our human resources resolutions to see whether or not we have any questions so that we can um hopefully we can move through them quickly. Uh but we will we will entertain all of your questions tonight. So we at 3.1 human resources number 132A

104certified temporary teaching appointments. Dr. Dog I mean I'm sorry Dr. Strickland has a comment before. >> So uh uh trustees I just want to again thank you all. Um if as a reminder I talked about fasttrack hiring. The individuals we won't do that for are the administrators. However, you will see this temporary uh word now, and that's because we want to get uh teachers, um cleaners, custodians, anyone that isn't administratively certified in front of students quick as possible. So, they would remain temporary until the business meeting so that it avoids us voting tonight uh if we don't need to, but also it doesn't hinder us from getting uh a a teacher or an adult in front of students or you know those high needs areas like our security officers, our teacher assistant, so on and

105so forth. So, that's what the temporary means. Um and yeah, that's all. >> Thank you for that explanation. Do we have any questions on this resolution? Seeing and hearing none, we'll go to 3.2, human resources number 132A, certified rescending resolution. Any questions or comments? Seeing and hearing none. 3.3 Human Resources number 132A certified resignations. Any questions or comments? 3.4 4 human resources number 132A certified additional compensation. Any questions or comments? 3.5 Human Resources number 132A certified recall teachers and teaching assistants. Any questions, comments? 3.6 human resources number 132A certified extracurricular and coaching appointments. Questions, comments? 3.7 Human Resources Resolution number 132B classified appointments of perdeiums and substitutes. Any questions or comments? 3.8 Human Resources number 132B approval of reinstatement. Questions or comments? 3.9 Human Resources Resolution Number 132B classified as it read amended. Questions, comments?

1063.10 Human Resources Resolution number 132B classified approval of provisional appointment. Questions or comments? I do have one question. Um, do we need the end date since we did it in 3.9? Do we need the end date in the 3.1 resolution? Okay. Um, for this one, not right now because she has to take the exam another time. So, it won't be an end date for this appointment. Thank you. >> Uh, Trusty Scott. So, going back to >> 3.9 where this person did pass the exam, there's no end date. Is that does that need to be an end date or is this >> there's an end date for the probation period on the second the second one? >> The first one is just where she started where this person started. Okay, I got you. Thank you very

107much. >> Okay. Okay. Any questions? Any other questions? Okay. 3.11 Human Resources Resolution number 132B classified approval of recision of provisional probationary permanent appointments. Any questions or comments? I do have one question. Um have we what efforts have we made to secure the notice in writing the notice? We have tried to have an official letter ahead for most of these positions for people to accept but I know for the recall for the teaching assistants for RTA. Um we had um a situation where TAs had to be called back hopefully the next day. So we were here late contacting them via email and phone but we wanted to absolutely get it and writing at least for the email so they can start the next day because there were a need for about five TAs at RTA.

108Okay. Right. Thank you. Any other questions? 3.12 Human Resources number 132B resignations, questions, comments. >> Trustee uh Vice President Mitchell, >> are we going to have the Hold on a second. Let me just make sure I'm in this. Are we going to see the actual letters attached? >> They should be. I believe they are. >> And executive competent. We're on 312. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Hold on. Let me do a refresh. Hold on a second. Maybe that's what it is. >> We can go on. I'll come back. >> Thank you. 3.13 Human Resources request for leave of absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act, FMLA. Any questions or comments? Yes, Trusty Middleton. Um my question is that if a staff member had surgery has surgery and the doctor says because they would be ineffective

109in a classroom particularly special ed at that and cannot function as a staff member in a class and the doctor gives a note and says they got to be at home for a while. On what basis or reason would you deny that person FMLA? it would be denied if they did not have the required number of hours worked the previous year preceding the leave request. Um that is a mandate um on the federal level that the certain number of hours has to be met before they can be entitled to FMLA. It doesn't mean that they can't use their sick leave. It just means it won't be a leave under that provision. >> And and what would those hour what are those hours? >> 1,250 hours. >> Okay. Thank you. >> No problem. Any other questions?

110Any other questions or comments? You're making me laugh. Making me laugh. I do have a question. If an um individual is approved for FMLA, but they also participate in extracurricular activities or they may be a coach. What would what would happen? Would they be able to still participate? Would we need to seek another individual to cover that position or how would that work? Yeah, another POS another person, excuse me, would have to be see to fill that position because when they're on FMLA, the understanding is that they are not going to be working at all. >> Okay. Even if it's intermittent, which could be even if it's intermittent. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions, comments? Section four, curriculum and instruction. 4.1 Authorization to approve to continue the district's title one schoolwide committee

111for 2025 2026. Questions, comments? 4.2 Appointment of Technology links for the 2025 2026 school year. Questions, comments? I do have a question. What is the formula for selecting the school links and the ratio of either per student or per teacher and how are they um sourced? >> Dr. Strickland, you want to designate? >> Yes. >> So, we'll have M or Mr. Ramirez as our director of technology uh answer that question. Good evening, president of the board and trustees, superintendent schools. So the techlings are instructional staff, teachers, assistants and they work in the schools. They apply for these positions that is typing based for the entire school year. They work with their leadership in every school building. So the principles lead the efforts for professional development, adoption of the instructional initiatives. And right now we have

112you know the iPad instructional initiative in K4. There are other professional development plans that are in in progress through curriculum instruction and the traditional you know implementation of the curriculum. So all of these technology links are selected to support those initiatives on site in every school building. The selection process is they applied for the position. when we get the the number of applicants, we discuss with the principles what is their preference in terms of the work that they've been doing. So, it's not a given. It's actually that they earn based on the uh commitment to the school building leadership and the and the goals set by the leadership on the district level. >> So, is there a formula that is used in terms of the number of students that are being served versus the number

113of teachers that are in the building? only because I'm looking at the list and I have I see some schools that have uh lower enrollment numbers that have the same number of links um tech links that have that does a school with a large population and they have the same number. So I'm just wondering um what is there a specific formula where you would be able to identify how many links would be appropriated to each building and is is it just >> so for example your desire >> we made adjustments based on the availability of the positions but we have the same numbers from last year this year we were able to provide for the high schools with larger enrollments like estim with an additional tech link it's not really a formula like 200 students

114per Tech link is actually larger than that. We in some cases they cover 300 students because Mambo esteem is really 900 and change. So we try to provide as much as we can based on the budget resources that we have and these are lines that don't change. They basically stay the same every year. >> So >> Dr. Strick uh just uh just uh help him out. um our high schools uh have three tech links and our K6 or K8 have two tech links. Um I will say that that is something you know in the future we can look at and will look at in terms of proportion uh like what is the proportion of folks uh that are deployed at different schools if you >> thank you. >> Uh Trusty Scott >> are these um

115staff that applied for this or were they selected because of certain skills? How how did we get all of these names? As I mentioned before, they are regular instructional staff, teachers that are working in those buildings and they get a stipen for the additional work that they do under the leadership of the principal and it's all instructional work, professional development, adoption of initiatives by curricular instruction. So they all apply. So it's a competition and then there is a process for selection with the principle of the building. >> Thank you. >> Can you just refresh my memory in terms of the stipened I believe it is in there is 3,000. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Any other questions or comments? >> This is an adjacent question. >> Um Trusty Kelly, >> students were um

116given iPads. Can you explain the program how iPads were distri was is iPads >> were distributed? Did all staff get them? H how did special education get like how were they right? How are they distributed in the district? >> So, um I will say before I hand it off to Mr. Ramirez that the iPads are distributed uh K4 >> K24 >> K to 4. Um the roll out is is happening. Um I will also say I did have the opportunity to sit on the uh meeting with the Apple individuals with uh Mr. Ramirez and you know hear about the professional learning that will take place which I actually um did in a previous district as a as a principal um which it's very very good. Uh I do know that the rollout hasn't been as

117pretty um and I will allow Mr. Ramirez to speak on that. Uh but I do know that we are almost getting to the uh space where all of our students will be okay. >> Yes. So grades K through four are now having this implementation of the new iPads that completed. The distribution was completed last week, Friday. Today we got delivery of additional headphones for the new model. They're going to be distributed the rest of this week and we will have a full implementation. Tomorrow we have another training schedule for the teachers with Apple classroom. So this will be the second one in the last couple weeks that we're having with this majority of teachers in the grades K through four. Our goal is to continue doing this every month and that's why the tech links

118are critical because we want to do a train the trainer model and release that content and information to all the schools >> and that includes the special education student >> includes the special education and includes the teachers >> and it's a are they phases like this is phase one for okay that's thank you very much >> I just want to refer that before we had iPads in grace prek all the way to second grade But interesting enough, our teachers didn't have the device. Now they have it and they can take advantage of the full motion of the device and the Apple classroom resource to control and do classroom management. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ramirez. Any other questions regarding this resolution? Thank you. 4.3 approval for boys varsity basketball team to travel to Aahu,

119Hawaii to compete in the Oyani Classic. >> I got a question. >> I want I got a question. Can I go? >> So, >> okay. I'm sorry. Okay, back to business. Vice Vice President M. >> So, so yeah. So, we've been This isn't This Hawaii trip is not new. We've been doing it. But what I did notice this year is that the cost this year is the lowest it's been in several years. So I look back across the last I don't know we got 2022, 2019 all the way back to 2016 first. So who determines the cost for like the hotel rooms and things like that? So, I'm looking at um for a prior year, we were like $350 a person for meals by 20 people when now it's uh 20 people at $20 a

120day for six days. I mean, who comes up with the schematic to put these costs together and present them to us for resolutions? >> Well, I will say that uh uh Coach Samino does uh excuse me, our athletic director uh Mr. Samino does uh put forth this resolution. I cannot ex answer that, but what I will do is I I made note already and I will ask um those details uh based off of years prior. I just wanted to make sure that the board policy was being followed and you were aware of this out of uh state trip. >> I guess the only other question I have then is I mean we got more than we have one basketball we have several >> only one >> we have more than one one sport. So, I'm

121going to shine a light for a hot second. The district has a lot of different sports. I haven't heard this trip or this type of thing done for any other sport in the district. Does that say that all our other sports suck? I mean, what is this? >> Well, I mean, you know, I'm just How is it that none of our other teams get to embark on this type of uh Go ahead. Go ahead. >> He's looking for the mic. >> Dr. Would you like to de delegate someone to respond? Go ahead, Dr. Dogget. But I will say and um you know, in previous districts, I mean, well, we do know that the light does shine a little lighter on our basketball uh team. Uh I am a proponent of making sure we open up

122all opportunities, especially with our women in athletics uh big time. That is one of my biggies. Uh, I I I would take the time and opportunity to charge Coach Samino with, you know, looking for those additional opportunities for our other sports as well, especially for our young ladies. Um, you know, but I'll let Dr. Dogget go ahead and respond. >> Each sport has its own specific type of tournament. So, not all sports do tournaments like this. So, like if you say, for example, our track team goes to Pennsylvania. Um, our cheerleading team, they went to Florida. So, we do go to different tournaments. They just don't go to Hawaii. >> That's the thing. >> So, those tournaments, this is um a big national tournament and it's really big. So, and our our team competes and

123you know, Coach Amino has those connections as well with basketball. So, that's why this happens. But, we do we sent our soccer team somewhere, I believe, somewhere too. can't remember of right now, but they do have opportunities to go to their tournaments for their specific field, right? >> Just not Hawaii. Got it. >> Where we all want to go. >> And that's the question that I wanted to have answered live. We you just mentioned we sent the soccer team as well, but it's not like they're just going on a trip for vacation to have a good time. They're going to compete. And even though it's right here in the words, the word on the street is not consistent of the words that are here. So that's why I wanted to ask the question and you

124just answered it perfectly live on the camera. Thank you. But also also one of the other things in reference to the basketball team, you think about my Vernon, that's what you think of, right? So you have tournaments that would make it easier for the better teams to go to prop up the tournament. So if your team is not good, you're not going to get the invitation to Hawaii. But if your team is very good, which will make another team that is even better come from Alaska or come from Chicago because Mount Vernon's there, then you're going to get that opportunity. And that's the staple of Mount Vernon. has been basketball >> and just an additional comment for >> hold on I got Trusty Kelly and then let we're going to go we're going to do

125this in order. So Trusty Kelly and then I saw Trustee Scott and then I saw Trusty Peterson. >> So my question is um when teams do uh fundraisers is it part of our resolution so we know how it impacts the cost of the trip? Question. So again, um I I will uh make note of that uh question that you provided and include that in my letter uh for you all because I can't quite answer that. However, I will I do see that it it shows a funds which is very likely that uh there's some funds within the district that have actually helped to support this initiative. Um and you know that's that's the only thing that I can say. >> Okay. And the second part of this is um when they uh participate in these

126tournaments uh is there any u monetary or is it just for the fun of the sport? >> Well, I don't know with the update in the college profession. I'm just asking. >> Oh, no, no, no. That's not allowed. >> And you don't have booster um like alumni booster clubs that kind of support some of this? >> Well, they they might support some of the cause. I mean, if you look at the resolution, there's like three cultural excursions. So, that was done by fundraising. We can't pay for that as a district. We can pay for transportation. We can pay for dinner for the students. Uh but certain things we can pay the um the tournament cost and things of that nature. We we have to be we have regulations that we have to follow in terms

127of what we pay for. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Trustee Scott, >> good question. >> Thank you. Um, I am all for this, you know, because I've experienced it, you know, my son experienced it when he played on the team. And it's not just about the basketball. >> It's about the educational experience as well of going to these locations and doing these things. So, the cultural excursions are very important just as much as the basketball. And the the players come back and they are different. you know, they're more explored in terms of their mind and things that they see where they can possibly play at certain schools because they get to talk to other players from all over the um the country. So, it's a great thing that this is being done

128and I see that they've cut down. So that could be another reason why the cost have gone down because I know that they've had a lot more people go that were not players >> and this year I see that they only have like four people going. So that could be a reason why the numbers are down as well. But this is a great thing and I'm all for it. Trusty Peterson, >> I totally was going to second exactly what Trusty Scott said. And as someone who went with them their last trip, what makes Mount Vernon High School so different is that they are playing schools who get to pick players from the entire country. And we are one of the only schools that play in this where all of our players come right here from

129these four square miles. So, it's really it is something to see these these young men from these four square miles play against these players who are I mean that just all over the all over the country. So, it's it's just it's an amazing tournament. And I would just like to say that we we know that experiences and exposure is really what helps to um educate our children because if you can actually go to a place, it's one thing to hear about Hawaii, but it's another thing to actually go there and visit and be immersed in a culture. So um anytime we have an opportunity for our children to be able to explore and to be immersed in a culture somewhere else, I'm I'm I love to travel. So um I would just say that any

130opportunity that you can have to travel let's go. Okay. So I just wanted to say that uh any other comments on this particular okay 4.4 authorization to accept a memorandum of understanding between the city school district of new Relle and the Mount Vernon city school district for pool usage at the Mount Vernon aquatic facility. Any questions or comments? Trustee Kelly, >> have we increased the amount? I see that the amount, it looks like the amount has gone up. Has it been increased, >> the amount of the rental of the lanes? >> So, I believe the amount actually did go up. Uh I just um I'm new to this process. I just know that they do have all their certificates of insurance um that is needed uh from our general counsel. So, um that's what I

131can answer, but uh the council did inform me that the price went up. >> Okay. And the other thing is I think I mentioned before just one more that's it. I had mentioned that uh our uh representative Gary Prello had asked when he secured the funding for this pool that we have free classes for community. Did you investigate that as of now? as an aside. This is an adjacent question always >> that that I have not but uh that's good to know so that um I will um talk more about that staff. >> Okay. Um I just wanted to make sure that we did not leave our student representative out. Um Trusty Odoro, do you have any comments on any of these items that we just discussed in for section 4? Does that include the

132Hawaii trip? >> Yes, it does. >> Then I'm then I'm in all agreement with everything then. Okay. >> But to be honest, um as a person, one of the students that a lot of uh students in my uh school envy because I get to go on trips and two day trip two-day trips and other stuff. Um it's a great experience in which uh they can uh spread Mount Vernon. For example, during the summer, which I've already mentioned to most of the trustees, I went to um North Carolina for some weeks and I won myself a silver medal in uh you know uh NAACP. Thank you. In the process, I boosted um and other uh Mount Vernon students boosted the uh the name of Mount Vernon allowed and people now know Mount Vernon as a place.

133So um if You're welcome. But so um if the uh what's steam steam um sorry my vering guest who goes to play in Hawaii uh they can just boost their name and get we uh us benefit in you know in a good way. Oh yeah that's my input. >> Thank you. Thank you for >> actually wait can I get on that trip? >> Get in line. Get in line. Right. Any other comments? Okay. Section five, pupil personnel services. 5.1, authorization to change the name of the pupil personnel services to student personnel services. Questions or comments? Trusty Kelly, >> I wanted to roll back up the curriculum and instructions. I wanted to know about the greenhouse. um if I'm not mistaken. So, we can't talk about that because it's on the agenda, but I mean I

134have not >> we can um we can we get on the agenda. >> I'm sorry. No, no, we took >> It's not on the agenda. >> No, we that was >> we can Okay, we can >> just tell me what to do. >> No, what I was going to say is we can we can ask if there are any other items that you want to add at the end. >> Okay, there you are. And now we'll have an answer. Okay. All right. Thank you. authorization to change the name of pupil personnel services to student personnel services. Any questions, comments? I see trustee Mcdana. >> Yeah, just out of curiosity, is this um a trend that's happening going from PPS to student personnel services? >> Not that I'm aware of. What was that? >> But there

135was um the pupil personnel services there was uh it was brought to our attention the idea of pupil um being um not clear to those from an English-speaking perspective an pupil versus a pupil relating to the term student. There was some a lack of clarity. Then we there was the idea of throwing out student support services that was brought to our attention that that may the SSS uh may be offensive to >> Yeah, I could see that being a problem. >> Okay. So then you you want to speak in in detail that was brought to our attention and it it hit home to the point where I was like I'm not interested in engaging in anything >> that could offend. Just student is an easier term for general understanding than pupil. >> Correct. >> Got

136it. Okay. >> You said it. >> Seems like pupil is just more archaic, I would think. Yeah. >> Any other questions or comments? Okay. 5.2. Approval of pupil personnel services memorandum number 04 dated September 30, 2025. >> I have a question. >> Any question? Okay. Vice President Mitchell, >> does that mean that these these approvals for Pupil Personnel Services, the naming is going to change from pupil Personnel Services >> based on the vote? >> Yeah, based on the vote if >> No, no, that that'll happen after the business meeting based off of whatever the vote. >> Okay. Okay. >> And it can be backdated, can it? If you need it, >> it it can I mean, generally the appetite I didn't there's no difference in cost. It's just really a naming convention uh that we

137would like to put forth and honestly it's it's more it's more familyfriendly. >> Okay. Okay. Uh I do have a a 5.2 approval of pupil personnel services memorandum number 04 dated September 30, 2025. I just want to make sure if anyone has any questions or comments on that. I did have one question. Have we confirmed the residency of the students that are registered in these programs or these um schools? >> So, as it pertains to some of the residencies, I know that that's an ongoing process that we are encountering. As of right now, we just have to be sure that any student that it's on our books are receiving services. However, there was mentioned and even our state monitor brought it up today or in and it was on one of our calls that we

138do possibly need to take the next step in finding an investigator uh to actually figure out uh who is actually living them within living within the four square miles of Mount Vernon um and who isn't that we are providing services to. Uh so that is ongoing. I'm pretty sure that some individuals are getting services that are not in our city and uh as we encounter those we will take them off of our books. Um we we have good direction as to what to do from uh our state monitor and I want to thank her for that. >> Yes, because we do have a wide range of the cost per student in in here use from like 5,000 to 30 something,000. So I just wanted to make sure that we're not spending money that we shouldn't

139be spending. Okay. Uh 6 point. So we're now in 6 point uh section six business office 6.1 authorization to increase the 2024 2025 budget. Any questions or comments? Uh Dr. Strickland, do you have a comment you would have? Would you like to explain? >> So uh just want to explain that uh we have the opportunity to increase last year's budget. Uh as you may know our funds sit in a bank account uh that uh acrru interest and um we found out after an audit uh our treasurer said we there is an additional 2.5 million that we had to increase the budget because that's the funding that we had. Now, that 2.5 million, remember, is really going to help cover the costs uh that we went over in terms of transportation um just to help minimize

140the budget, but we have to put forth Yes. offset the deficit. We have to put forth a resolution to uh actually do that officially. >> Trusty Kelly. >> Yes. Will we have a monthly report from the treasurer and the auditor, the claim auditor? >> Yes. >> Our working meeting? Yes, it will be in the board business meeting just as we did last month. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Any trusty Scott? >> I don't have a question on 6.1, but I wanted to know if we can go back to 5.2 so I could just ask a question on that. >> So, as soon as we finish 6.1, I will I will go back to 5.2. >> Anyone? Uh, Trusty Mcdana. >> Hi. Um, so I'm just looking at the it's the interest and penalties on

141taxes and the interest on taxes from the settlement with the city, right? And so this is an acrruel basis. It's acrual accounting. So it's not going to impact cash. We're not getting that money in cash. So it's just per books for this year acrual accounting >> for for last year. >> For last year for for the acrruel accounting. >> Yes. For the acrruel accounting. Yep. >> Okay. >> Now if now I'm sorry. Now, if we did not have um a deficit, we could have placed that money in this year's budget. However, we do. So, we had to put it towards last year. >> Any other questions or comments on 6.1? Okay. By request of trustee Scott, uh we will go back to 5.2. Is that the Okay. 5.2, Two, approval of pupil personnel services memorandum

142number 04 dated September 30, 2025. >> Yes. Um, just for my edification, I see that in some of the contracts listed below it says partially ex executed contract. Can you just explain that to me versus the ones that don't say partially? >> So, the ones that are partially executed, uh, they're all partially. I do know that this resolution in particular is one of those resolutions where uh we we have to offer mandated services to our students with disabilities. And I do know that our council has been going back and forth with these organizations to make sure he gets the certificates of insurance as well as Sam's uh and insurance 5 million over 5 million for sexual abuse and misconduct. Uh so these are in process but we have to go ahead and start those mandated

143uh processes as per the IEP. >> And I'll just add one other thing. Sometimes you'll see I I know the board brought this up uh actually trusty uh Mitchell brought it up the last board meeting and working meeting >> who Brown. >> Yes. >> Oh Brown. >> So Brown uh in reference to looking at contracts and having them backdated. So what happens is you send the contract out, the vendor is eager to sign. They sign, they send all the documents, the supplements, their COI, certificate of insurance. I look at it, say, "Hold up. Wait a minute. We're not going to do the process all over. We get that fixed. We retain the signed copy at least on the top and then the last signature comes to the board and then that's the one that really

144rules. But in the meantime, we try to get kids on board and we try to move the process so we don't stand still. So it's like a fast tracking. >> Okay. No, no, no problem. Any other questions? 6.2 Approval of general funds transfers for September 20 16, 2025. Any questions? >> Trusty Kelly. >> Yes. Um, I see that it's $100,000 the transfer the amount. Um, and it says urgent situations. Um, are we going to define urgent situations? >> So, so I'm I'm just following the policy uh just because the amount is above it's above 10,000. Um, I I could just tell you that it it's let me see. I'm sorry. >> Why is this uh >> where is No, >> sorry. So, I don't know why. Just I'm sorry. Just a moment. Sorry. There is

145a link at the bottom of the um at the bottom of the uh the resolution. Uh this one was a funky one that I wanted to actually change. Sorry to use that word on the biz, but it's the truth. Um, I wanted this actually to be forward facing so that it's not confusing. But if you can see, we're moving uh 16,000 from one account to a different account and it was for uh covering the cost of the speaker at convocation. Uh, and that's where the line uh the actual function code and object code is. It's in the board of education's line. So, is this basically a correction of the account code? >> So, this is just putting before you why we're moving the funds. And you will see that at the bottom, uh, it says

146to cover the keynote speaker and expenses for the 2025 2026 convocation on the second page. But, >> I was talking about the $100,000 as opposed to I understand for the >> Oh, so not the Yeah. and the yeah just the >> so I mean if that's the will of the board um that's something that we can actually discuss uh generally you will not see any like resolution um come before you that has been over a 100,000 where it's not ran by this board. Okay. Um, so you know that's you know if you see something >> we'll talk about it definitely >> and and and if it's just for a gap stop in order to ensure that's something that the board can go back to revisit in terms of our policies. So okay so 6.3 authorization

147for 2025 lease payments for in I'm sorry lease payments to 1832 Broadway management corporation for the teacher center o of central westchester questions or comments okay 6.4 Four, authorization to approve an extension for Savin Engineers to provide capital projects accounting services. Questions? 6.5. >> I do want to go back to 6.3. Sorry. >> Okay, that's okay. >> Yep. >> 6.3. We're going to go back to 6.3. >> Yes. I just want to be uh shed light on this resolution because this is also something that actually started um it's backdated in July um in the future and I've already explained that we have to be on it but the funds were released later which is why we actually had to uh we they allowed us to use the facilities in July. However, we did not actually

148secure the funding until September uh for this um this lease in particular. >> And we are we are the fiduciary agent for the teachers center. So they all of the monies for all of the uh consortiums in Westchester County. there are professional development opportunities for teachers and through those grants, the grant comes from New York um state education department and what happens is we are actually the conduit that holds all of the funds for New York State um from the grant and it is um administered out of our fiscal office and so we are responsible for paying the bills even though the money doesn't come out of our budget so to speak. Um, so, um, I guess there was probably a question as to what how this this happens and and what happened. So, that

149was probably part of the delay and also just a draw down of the funds in order for it to come into our budget line into our accounts before we actually spend the money. So, >> well said. >> That's a well said. >> U, Trusty Kelly, you have more. Oh, Trusty Peterson, >> I'm sorry. Just it's it's for going back to I'm sorry, 4.2. It just there's a a name change that needs to be made on page three of theou. >> Okay. You want to go back to 4.2 >> aquatic. >> Okay. No, the technology links or the aquatic >> for the for theology >> for the aquatic. >> 4.4. I'm sorry. 4.4. Page three of theou. >> Okay. I just want to make sure we're done with 6.3. >> Any other questions on 6.3? >>

150Okay. Then we'll go back to 4.4. authorization to accept a memorandum of understanding between can you just give us okay >> I do I see exactly what it is that she's talking about it doesn't list the current board president >> okay >> thank you am I 6.5 anyone have anything above 6.5 that we'd like to go back to before we move forward okay approval to join the RAIC one risk operation center for the data privacy agreements. Questions, comments? 6.6 Approval of the claims audit report for June 2025 and July 2025. Questions? Seven. Okay, we're moving to uh seven and this is a vote. >> This is a vote and the vote is to authorize um 7.1 authorization to send the items to consent agenda the items that we have already discussed. >> Can I have

151a motion please? >> Motion. >> Second. >> It's been moved properly seconded that we will authorize to send these items for a consent agenda. May we have a vote, please? All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? Abstain. Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Can I have a motion, please, for >> I want to make sure. Does anyone have any other items that we they feel as though they need to bring to the work session? >> Yes. >> Trusty Kelly. >> Yes. In reference to the contract for the um Mr. Caprio to continue the greenhouse initiative. So, uh, we have been able to secure funding, uh, to, uh, continue with the greenhouse initiative. Um, and we've secured that funding and through our title one, uh, grant. Um, and it will be we will be able

152to provide, uh, the we will be able to continue the opportunity for our students out Mount Vernon High School uh, with uh, Mr. Caprio. Um, but you will see that contract come through at the board business meeting. it won't be a part of the consent agenda as well as another contract with an agency um which it it's leaving me because it's past my bedtime. Um it's but it will definitely be >> so sorry Dr. Strickland. We asked too many questions. >> No problem. No problem. Excuse us. But it will be it will be at um business meeting. >> No. Do we have any other questions or comments before we uh move to the to section 8? Any other questions or comments from the board? Okay. Would any board member like to Okay. Okay. Vice President

153Mitchell. Uh I just want to say um thank you for having from the public site the attachments with the documentation and the numbers and the info which is something we've struggled with and fought for for a long time. It's good to see it from the public site. The the transparency is finally here. So thank you very much for that Dr. Strickland and District Clerk Rita James. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments before we move forward? Okay. Thank you. We will Oh, there is one thing. That's what I want to I do want to say. You will notice that we have a model tonight and it is our vice president Trustee Mitchell. And if he would stand for us on behalf on behalf of your board leadership, we have purchased these polo shirts for

154all of our trustee board members, our the cabinet members, our assistant superintendent, our technician. Um, and I wanted to just say we we did that because we appreciate you and we wanted to just say thank you for the work that you do tirelessly and that you do not get paid for. And we just wanted to say thank you very much. And we will take an a photo opportunity. We everyone will wear them and we will um on October the 14th and we will we will take a photo of of everyone in those polo shirts. So just wanted to acknowledge that. Yes. Oh, for your birthday, right? October. Okay. All right. So, now we got >> So, hold I know. I know. I don't even forget. Um U our student U trustee Odoro, I know it

155is probably about time for you to go and get some school work done, but are there any last comments that you have before we go? >> I mean, there are several I could say, but not now because I have homework and AP classes to take. But um uh I actually just received a a message from one of my friends is telling um saying I should uh talk about the computer issues that they're um has arisen because um phones have been taken um it's left for students results to your laptops which is quote unquote bad and uh there are broken keyboards when they go to the library to change it there's limited supplies and a lot of stuff and um one thing I would like to address personally because I um run a an esports in

156my school um extracurricular activities is not being able to done because uh teachers don't get paid to do that. So that is one issue and a lot of uh students comes up to me because I'm the only active person in the school keep on coming up to me asking me um how can I do how can I get extracurricular activities blah blah ya and well it's tiring but um most of the times it's not possible because of that but yeah that's what I want to address. >> Okay so I know Dr. Strickland will follow up with with u our student trustee Odoro to um ensure that we follow up with that. Any other qu trusty middleton? >> Um because it's come to my attention and to my mind in the last couple of weeks and

157maybe a little more. Um what I have been asked by more than several people is um how is it or why is it and somebody can bring clarity to it. um that the community or even the school community and the community at large um cannot talk to board trustees. That's a question that's it's it's circulating and I've gotten you know people who have asked that question and and that we've agreed to that cuz that was asked of me like quite a few times in the last couple of weeks. I mean, I know that we have not discussed this at all on this board and that we all ran on um the fact that we are represent representatives of our community and our constituents. And so that is I don't know where that information is coming

158from. Uh but that is absolutely not true that members can speak to our board members. We have a a a board email address and I'm not sure if that's a readily available but uh parents can email us at BOE trustees.mmount uh mount atmount verernon mternoncsd.org um if they have any questions or comments and I think people have been doing that. Also um I would like for Vice President uh Mitchell and for Dr. Strickland to also um weigh in on that if he'd like to. >> I'm just I'm just going to add something. I have heard that. I've heard that as well. It's not just from our parents. It's also uh district workers as well. And that's something that's old, that's not new. Um you know, staff is told from their building leads, don't talk to

159trustees about anything. We handle everything here in house. We don't need people coming in here telling us what to do. That's something that's been going on for a long time and I think that stigma is still in place. But as far as parents, all of us have all of us do have emails and Dr. Strickland, I'll let you speak to um exactly um the val the validity of that comment and you know a lot of times unfortunately this district has been seeing a historical uh repetition that they can't there's nobody has any place to go for help. You have said it for I've said it before that you know the difficulty is you know if you're a worker in the district and you're being stepped on by your supervision or your building lead you better

160not tell anybody and I think that's the struggle I that's what I've been hearing haven't heard it I've heard it from parents as well but I think that's another piece to it >> and I just want to say that has been past practice but I'm also hearing now that it's it's continued to present day. So I don't know and that's why I need to get clarity because I want to make sure that if I got to respond and I'm not going to say nothing I don't need to say but if I have to respond in a way you know my thing is always hey hit Dr. Strickland up, you know, go to our superintendent, he follows up, blah blah blah. Keep it keep it optimistic. But if we can bring clarity to it because it's

161coming from the community as well as the schoolwide community, um then while we're sitting here, that would be great. Thank you. >> Well, I will say that I think that we have shown um based on our actions that we have welcomed the community to come here. We have public comment. We actually are responsive to our public comment, which is not something that we have to do, but we feel it's it's it's courteous. If we can answer their questions, we do. I think that Dr. Strickland has been just a wealth of information, and I think that um I don't know if it's a, like I said, a past stigma, but I think that if if people really want to um see what it is that we're trying to do, that they'll come out. they will um

162cast into our um board meetings. We've also opened back up our Facebook page so that people are well aware and and I think that we've been more open. We also posting on the district website. So I think that um maybe it's something that people have felt in the past, but I hope that we are showing them that that's that's not what we're about and that we are open to listen and to hear our community. So um Dr. Strickland, if you'd like to weigh in. >> No. Um I I I definitely agree with um what President Marabbo said. Uh, I will say that I do caution you all um in regards to employees because it becomes personnel matters and you vote on those matters and if you are talking to those employees that are bringing you

163issues and then it comes to a vote, you actually need to recuse yourself from that and it becomes a huge conflict of interest. Um, so it's it's one of those things and Dr. Middleton, you just said it perfectly. You send them my way. Believe it or not, I can't always respond either because I can't be at that level and then I will get my staff to start responding accordingly. Um, as it pertains to the public, I mean, they have the mic. They can come up. They do. And people are not shy. Uh, I will say that. Um but they they nobody's trying to silence any voices. However, we are trying to put in place protocols that are going to make us run more efficient because things get talked to through the grapevine. It's half stories

164a lot of times. I was also a building principal. I it is very frustrating for a principal to to have a superintendent or or an assistant superintendent say so and so came to me and told me AB and C and that person didn't even go to the principal. So we have to have some organization some level of decorum in which we are going to be productive and we can actually solve our problems efficiently and effectively and I know that hurts sometimes but it's it's true and um it it really is not to uh cause you know to silence voices and things of that nature. It it really is just to bring some order and really to keep you out of stuff that you don't need to be involved in and and and especially when it

165comes to litigation because sometimes we're receiving emails just putting it out there from people that are bringing charges against the district and then they're saying they're talking to all of you some of you. They're CCing you all. We saw one today. That should not happen and we definitely have to just again it's for your protection. It's not to silence anyone's voice. >> That's understood. But you know there are sometimes minimally where >> Well, thank you for raising the concern. >> Got it. Got it. >> Thank you. Um I do want to just make sure that we uh our state monitor is here. Uh Dr. Wilkins, I just wanted to make sure that was there anything that you needed to add before we actually move into I know we have to go into executive session. We're

166about to do that. I just want to make sure that I'm not leaving anything on the table. >> No, it was actually a very well-run meeting. >> Um, everything's in order, so there's no comment. I made comments to the trustee over here, but he took care of this. >> Thank you so very much. So, if there's nothing else, if we can move into um section 8, move into um take a vote for executive session if there's any items that we have before us. 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

167pending matter. Have a motion, please. >> Motion. >> Okay. All in favor? I. Any oppose? Abstain. >> Motion carries. We are in executive session. >> Thank you. We are currently in executive session and we will not be returning to the room. So, thank you very much for all of your participation.