January 9, 2024, Board of Education Meeting

001okay I'll call the pre-work session to order I want to thank everyone for joining us today for our board and education pre-work session uh this Cadence allows board members to prepare for upcoming meetings through pre-work sessions they're typically more casual in format and primarily for the purposes of gathering information no formal votes will be taken board member Hans UTS is joining us virtually we will begin our pre-work with our annual board self assessments [Music] everyone okay you okay great so before you you have the governance team self assessment with the different standards I will take notes and can enter this into assembly I feel so powerful right now uh we'll start with standard a governance leadership team is comprise of local Board of Education superintendent aderes to appropriate roles and responsibilities as defined the state

002St Constitution State law local act and board policy there are three elements there that you can read anyone have any feedback in terms of satisfactory needs Improvement or don't know I felt like this was satisfactory any disagreement with that hearing none standard B is as a team we execute our duties as def find the state Constitution laws board uh policies accreditation procedure ethical standards which governs our conduct uh including with this as following local laws as well as adopting and committing to other particular laws do have anything hear anything here in terms of satisfactory needs Improvement have satisfactory I did with the uh satisfactory as well with the uh comment that we have yet to complete the full review of all policies seon enact everything but uh we are I think working on it in

003a satisfactory way I think the other thing for maybe people who happen to be listening online it's the way that the uh the we're governed up here is dictated by GBA I think some people had questions about where the role of the superintendent is are you a voting member are you the secretary are you the chair of the board I am the I am the the superintendent act as board secret and it's right here yes it's not something that we created no no this is truly the uh Georgia School Board Association governance team self assessment and really these standards as well as the elements are identified by gsba and so those elements and standards are also in align with um all of what is done as far as my oversight right and then what is

004governance team right thank you the third standard is the board acts as a policymaking body separate from the roles and responsibilities authorized to the superintendant any thoughts feedback or comments I think that that's satisfactory as well I think we um have been very intentional during this Administration about trying to delineate between policies and admin oh I think that we've been this current Administration has been doing a good job in terms of delineating between policies and administrative regulations that can get confusing at times um but since the beginning of the school year there been several policies and we there's been clarification in terms of what you know falls on the board's perview and and what falls under the superintendent um and consequently you know administrative regulations so I say satis Factory okay yeah I agree and

005and then finally Let's see we have D um governance team demonstrates unified approach to governing the school system to assure effective fulfillment of roles and responsibilities well G it totally depends on what Tracy does well I was going to say that I really appreciated the two days of uh training I had I think it was December 16th and 17th so I'd say was more than satisfactory thank you no that's that's good to hear yeah those are all moving on to domain two strategic planning um the governance leadership team provides input and adopts the system strategic plan um feedback on this so I I had a question here sorry I had a question on this one I I I felt that I feel like it has been improved under this Administration I I would have said

006the the previous plan I feel like we did a lot of approving but not a whole lot of input into and now I feel like we're more involved in the actual input so um I think over the course of this year it went from needs Improvement in my mind to satisfactory I I'm I'm curious what other board members think on that I think it's still kind of in between these Improvement in satisfactory I think we um over the at least over the past two years have gone have been heavily focused on implementing a lot of these things like the Strategic plan a lot of policies that were missing but then we can't deide of the fact that after come up for rreview um I know that with a lot of policies they have for their

007set to Sunset and um I know that Amanda maybe keeps up with those things but then you know just because something isn't existence doesn't you can't to go back and same great often but if come up on an anniversary we yeah and I would agree um I did appreciate tremendously the board giving me the opportunity to um OB viously keep in place the four strategic accelerators but the pieces underneath to identify the coherence that's necessary between those different pillars and the various initiatives as well as obviously the ways in which it would be measured and so we are as a staff committed to reporting on the Strategic plan quarterly so what be coming up on another um you know report to the public and report to you as a Bo on where we are on

008the implementation just so that you know we do have a cabinet Retreat on the 30 30th first one one of those three uh we have a a cabinet Retreat on that specifically full day devoted to the St L you know I would say satisfactory because you know we just approved the Strategic plan last school year where we all had a lot of employee 10 those meetings and um participate in that process and then as we have been given um polic I feel like there has been intentionality around connecting the Strategic plan to the policies that we have been um approving um I feel like there's always that the Strategic plan has been intensely tied to these different where before we didn't have strategic plan so so yeah okay let's move on to three board can

009I ask can I ask where we landed where did we land on that is it satisfactory I mean I'm fine with I just where where did we land on it I I put it at sat satisfactory hearing the three and then I'm added C notes to it that U okay may be in between and need to continue to work on it and then B um oh B I'm sorry annual is needed utilize the adopted strategic planning process the governance leadership team monitors and reports progress on performance measures I think that's a satisfactory I think like I think what would really Propel us to Greatness would be in in utilizing those in the those progress reports kind of what the next steps or the next action items are which is where we need to grow and

010leave the next like two or three I think we do that often but not 100% of the time I think we do often report on where we've grown where we have some areas to improve get and I will say that the next time we um have the report out it will be in assembly so I know you referenced earlier that you are in assembly as we speak and utilizing that same tool so the Strategic plan will be in assembly and we will report out from a dashboard perspective in s so that is underway and so I look forward to the more expending so um I'm going to nitpick on this because while that is all great in exactly the direction we need to be going in and I can't wait till we have it we

011don't actually yet have that dashboard right and so I'm I'm calling this a needs Improvement right we we don't have a dashboard of metrics that is publicly available that everyone can see that we can all point to that says this is what we agree or the metrics that we're measuring ourselves by and this is what our goals are against each of those metrics I I do I do fully recognize that's all being put in place right and so I I don't I don't want to try to set this off but we actually aren't there yet and so the strict reading of this I read it as needs Improvement and I kind of agree with Hans even though I'm just here now so um I'd like to see a little bit more of the direction but

012thank you well I think the dash the dashboard is going to be great and helpful I'm just trying to see where we will be deficient on the elements that are presented here as it relates to not having the dashboard I think like Karma said that will really take things to the next level but I don't know that it falls within any of those four elements as a as a governance leadership I think it's the it's the evidence kind of what she said yeah yeah I mean that performance measures and targets that that sort of thing reporting performance objectives performing measures and targets those are those are are again so I'm I'm St clear I do know those are being put in place so I'm thrilled about it but they are not there as of me

013filling this form out right now and so it it's a needs Improvement for me okay the way you've argued it's hard to suggest otherwise I don't think anyone sitting up here would say no we're good on on having the measures in play so I'm fine with that I did put satisfactory for this one I remember thinking we are doing all that stuff and there's some other categories where like maybe communicating the data that we have or making it available beforehand but I've added those notes and we'll mark it as as needs Improvement I look forward to uh switching that to satisfactory next time uh board and community relations first standard is the government leadership team develops a process creating a culture where input is sought heard and Val feedback I like the fact that we're

014having the community [Music] meetings that's easy way to use that um Am I Wrong is or we where would we put using it not just heard I guess it's that we're aligning our actions to that feedback I I heard I think valued is an attempt to capture that value the feedback doesn't mean we have to listen to it doesn't mean that but we're not ignoring it we value that I think that's why that word was chosen there um well I I mean I think sorry go ahead James go ahead I do struggle with this one think that the the process of being salt her and valued is a long long walk and we continually see it every month where I I heard it from a place that's not from my principal that's not from my

015teacher that's not from my school means that the culture of seeking out feedback is not in place I do too I I I've read this a couple of times and sometimes I feel like we're still GNA we're still in the need Improvement category and maybe we're always going to be there um because needs of our community members are so vast um and they're so indiv visualized that you know it's it's hard to create a communication environment and then a two-way communication environment where they tell us something and then we respond in a in a way where they feel heard and they get the responses they want will always be that way but then if you remember in that great on their behalf book where there was that anecdote about the speed bump where the main

016issue I think we understand the main issue which is that we may not always deliver the exact response and know or the exact metric in a way that people are looking for because we have to meet the needs of so many children and so many families at one time um now that doesn't mean that we are not hearing and that doesn't mean that you know the fact is not valued I think um you know if somebody who has four kids in all different parts of the communities or different schools communication looks different everywhere they go and sometimes I think that that's frustrating ument I can see where that's frustrating as a as a leader I on this side of the table I can see where the where all of us are trying it's not from

017a position of laziness or malice so um I think that I I I struggle with this one well I can't A's communication um so um but I to have been either I missed or I didn't get it or I didn't see it properly and I missed something and I get where people are coming from where is the role of the governance team feel like feel like that's more on the operation side in terms of our communication right we had the board newsletter we had now the community sessions um I'm just trying to figure out like School communication how would we the governance team that I think we are still community members still parents and it's still our job to relay the needs desires and thoughts of the community to and speak on their behalf and

018then sometimes I think sometimes like you know I what we can say what we shouldn't say how we communicate those things I think the times I get tricky May well one of the things I was going to really talk about once this ConEd concluded is the fact that we will have school visits coming up this month and for those board members that are able to make it to those visits this is that's an example because um I've designed a protocol that could be used where you are seeking input from from staff from community that is going to be student focused but by that it's another Avenue so I know under my Administration I did put in place the community meetings and we're having them seasonally um fall winter spring uh and then we can also

019layer in what would be another initiative meaning the school visits in addition to the district website redesign that is underway um I think that that's I think another thing to note about the evidence is it's not in totality or singularly it's the preponderance of the ways in which we are doing it and it may not be something that's already listed here but these are examples of sorry H you go ahead no no no no no go go ahead this lag is killing me I'll just take the last spot if y'all let me I think Jenny you were asking something and maybe that clarification would help me with schools or operations so where do we put something like the SLT meetings so those are on our website but um at times and this is totally anecdotal

020it seemed like there wasn't a consistency in time at which those um minutes or agendas were uh posted so again I could be wrong um but I'd like to include that maybe as something to look at in terms terms of um District website and or board meeting agendas a minutes but then to Janice's point maybe that's in a different wheel out falls under yes so the sots the when it came to won the election of the slts that was the first step and then the training of the SLS that was the second step and now we have full implementation of what they are are to do so uh I cannot necessarily speak to what was done previously but what what I can speak to is as of today I have been in the training and

021I know that the all of the elections have been held and with that training as well as the I won't say the accountability for the SLT but that shared knowledge of what we need to do to keep all of the public informed of what slts do and the fact that I meet with them also so that's that's another piece um I could not meet with them and share those types of expectations until they were elected in that season ended I just want to I'm just want to make sure that I'm just I'm sorry H I'm G let you talk I'm just concerned that I don't want us to [Music] confused in terms of what we have control over and then what falls on the side I feel like some of the things that are coming

022up it might confuse folks um because they you know we we're acknowledging that communication could be more consistent I think on the school level um but that doesn't really fall under us right because this is the board meeting agendas and minutes and I operate as that secretary so an example of as that secretary we do have a run of show for the way in which we conduct board meetings um the way in which we utilize Robert's Rules of Order as a governance team the way in which the coordinator assists in that that's from this this team so let me let me if I could jump in here a couple of of quick thoughts one I think that the standard cannot be that the community members are always going to be happy with us if if

023that was the case then I I actually think we we're in fact doing something wrong and so the I I admit that the scene heard and in particularly valued part of this comment is a little fudgy but I I don't think that puts us under the burden of ensuring that community members are always happy with what we do um I think that this is is satisfactory CU I agree with Jana that this is really about what we do at a governance level I think that we are implementing a process where we have these uh uh two-way Community meetings right where I I forget what the term is that we called them but where we're actually taking questions from community members on particular topics uh we're we're trying to get everything into one place under assmbly

024if anything the the one thing that I think is Miss in off of this is really that clear process right I I think we're doing a lot of these steps I would be more comfortable marking it as a strong satisfactory if I knew what all of the steps of that process were and they may exist I just don't I can't really think of a document that has laid it out but um I think a lot of the detailed talk about communication and some of the other things that were talking about here actually crops up in the next couple of questions this one itself is is a little bit different so I agree with Jay on this one I'm fine with satisfactory and we probably need to move through these at a slightly flip for what

025it's worth um so I I've taken some notes there um on communication anything else that people want to share that maybe we haven't captured in that conversation okay I will do them by kind of domain and policy development uh next go on those does anyone have anything to share in terms of an area where we need to improve that you would like for me to note here can I ask about standard B does each school have the uh School Improvement plan posted on its website oh the your back on communication sorry no you're good uh no idea standard B yeah the board develops policies to ensure effective communication and engagement of all stakeholders which support the Strategic plan bed culture and continuous improvements of the school system um so maybe this doesn't fall under standard

026B but each school's St or School Improvement plan is that something currently it's not something that's required to be on the website that's not any that's not a practice that um CSD had in place and I did not um require that upill so I'm not sure I like what what I will say is typically in a title one school that's a requirement of the federal government and in the city schools of theator we do not have any title on schools that is why I would more than likely say that's probably why School Improvement plans um or even that that language is not necess necessarily typically utilized and so that is just understanding the culture of CSD if we need this if I'm picking up too much time James and it's away from the standard so

027do our schools have school Improvement plans yes yeah okay thank you I would I would actually hold on before I'm sorry James but I I would rather than speed through these and skip over ones where we ought to have clear debate for the community to hear I would rather us get as far as we can go in the time that we have and then come back to it I don't because I think a number of the other things under domain 3 need Improvement and just jumping past them I think is unsatisfactory to the community and so I I I would prefer us to debate through them and then when we run out of time we say we're going to pick it up in our next session well we are out of time so we will

028come everyone okay com back to these I am 3B yes and and I don't have a problem with that also let's set a realistic time next time this body is uh deliberative which is great but uh I think 15 minutes is probably not enough great okay hearing no objection to that we will put it back on the agenda um we need to haveed long as we're looking at it and right uh all right so turning over Dr Whitaker yes so um just wanted to speak to the fact that we will have uh School visits so Elementary School visits will take place on January 24th and middle and high school visits will take place on January 24th and staff has provided questions to support your efforts to focus on student outcomes and uh lead by demonstrating

029and modeling effective governance practices so um you are I'm really looking forward to it the what days are those again so the days are once again the 24th are for elementary and we will really I'll be honest focus in District Two as we do have new board member Anderson so um we cannot in the time a lot it get to all of the elementary schools so we'll make sure that we have focus on January the 2th um elementary schools on the 24th and middle and high school on the 26th I'm sorry I said the twice yep gotch you there okay so it's a Wednesday and Friday just to be quick y Wednesday and Friday all right um we will resume our book study in February for member Jan and Johnson Davis will facilitate part two

030step three so monitoring progress Dr wh will you please introduce the new business for discussion for the pre-work session yes thank you chair Hern I would like to call on Mrs Amanda Lynch Chief of Staff to seek your feedback on Personnel policy draft good afternoon board chair hearen Vice chair ston steam members of the board and superintendent Dr JMA Whitaker on our pre-work agenda policies that are presented during pre-work are new business on which we are seeking input these policies are presented as initial drafts they are being shared to gather your input and feedback that can be reflected in drafting or revising future versions today we will be seeking input on G policies this was informed by our policy audit and is aligned the policy review scheduled shared in September these policies align to our

031strategic accelerator of organizational Effectiveness and Excellence the two policies for which we are seeking your input today are gdka professional Personnel layoff and GF employee transfer I will present each one individually by highlighting its content and then ask for any input you have bbka professional Personnel layoff is the first policy the need to create this policy came from the policy audit that was conducted earlier this school year four of the five counties we used for benchmarking had policy GB Ka in place and we identified it as a need at that time this policy addresses professional personal layoffs or a reduction for and applies to the staff work including both certificated and non-certificated employees this policy recognizes the responsibility of operating a system that ensures Student Success and responsible stewardship of public funds it explicitly states

032that any necessary reductions of force shall be done so with regard to the best interest of the school system and with minimal disruption to students it acknowledges that CSD will attempt to avoid exercising reduction and force procedures but that it may be necessary due to circumstances in response to events such as declines in student enrollment reductions or shortfalls in funding districtwide reorganization cancellation of programs or closing or consolidation of schools after consultation with legal we have added verbiage on the procedures for reduction in force to the version previously sent to you this section just specifies that the superintendent is to prepare a plan for a reduction force to be presented to the Board of Education the gbk also includes a section on abolition and reclassification of positions this also requires the superintendent to prepare a

033plan for Board of Education approval that includes the reasons for abolishing or reclassifying the positions the positions affected and the procedures for staff holding effective positions to be selected to other District positions if appropriate finally the policy states that terminations will be handled according to the regular policies and procedures and any applicable laws an employee is ter is terminated if an employee who is terminated due to a reduction in forc May apply for future vacancies the language of policy gbk was found to be very similar across Metro districts and these similarities from the other Metro districts are reflected in this draft at this time we would love any board input or feedback that should be considered for revision to the policy ask a question and I think this could fall under regulation instead of the

034actual policy but I wondered if um we had to reduce uh the teaching staff what would be the determination as to who if there were two or more people in that position that would be that would come under regulation not under policy and I don't know if this is go ahead on uh I was going to say uh just so that we're we're clear about this that this may be unintentional but I know with us recently talking about um non-renewal we just recently had a conversation about R non-renewal we've had conversations about adjusting teaching schedules we've had a lot of conversations about things that are to impact teachers in the next uh over the next year um this policy coming forward at this time obviously is going to certainly raise fears that we are actually

035considering a riff and so I would just like to make sure we have a clear communication plan in place I don't believe that is the case and it just happens to be um uh what's the word yeah yeah it's it's arbitrary that is happening to come forward at the same time but but like we'll just make sure that fear is going to come up just make sure that we can clearly address it yes um so that you know we do not anticipate any Personnel layoffs we do not anticipate reduction the number of Staff uh but what I do anticipate is red reducing the number of Staff we fund locally by maximizing the QBE in order to increase the state funded teachers so what that simply means is there would be adjustment to schedule so that

036we would be able to maximize funding which is the board adopted parameter for this budget okay so same same Staffing levels it'll just be paid for by the state as opposed to our taxpayers that is that is the goal got it that's not in that's not in the meat of this policy no that that and that is that I raise it just because I there is concern that you know when when you talk about positions and you talk about changes like this it it is I just want to make sure that we're in front of assuaging any concern particularly amongst teachers but any staff that this is not coming into place in order to give us the ammunition to do this this year that's not what we're intending to do I answered my own question

037maybe next up we have policy GF employee transfer this policy acknowledges that an imbalance of staff may occur for reasons including but not limited to loss or gain in student enrollment and budget allotment restructure or reorganization and opening or closing of schools it goes on to allow for a transfer process within the district to assign or reassign staff to existing known vacancies to balance District staff numbers the superintendent is explicitly authorized to develop regulation to implement this policy as we know such a regulation would describe how the policy would be implemented at this time we would love any board input or feedback that should be considered for revisions to the policy but when I initially read this I was intrigued that there's no timeline for it or when we would have to enforce or or

038anything like that um so like a teacher could I today I might have to change schools would I expect it to so the the timeline is an example of what would come through regulation but then even more importantly it would come through uh truly the practice Yeah because when you are talking about a staffing timeline there is an internal Staffing timeline that it runs parallel to budget okay so it's really based upon season but then also once you actually have head count in place which would be um typically 10 days 20 days into the school year dependent upon where children are you may need to transfer staff and that's a once again something that would be outlined in the regulation this is a new this is a new policy for us both of these are

039would be new yeah I'm I'm with G I'm with J on this I'm just Gob smacked that we don't have a policy for this already yeah we we don't well and understand this is to be underscored with the policy audit that was conducted in the beginning of the year is what identifi the policies we did not have in place and so the timeliness of G policies IE Personnel policies coming now um remember we really took a look at a couple of things what we going to impact student achievement what was going to be fiscally sound I'm going off of my in your in the original policy conversation for what month we would bring which policies it was really based upon what we needed to put in Place once we first started versus what we could

040bring along throughout the course of the year to synthesize this and I'm sorry if everyone could just be patience since this is my first time but so one we're establishing these policies because that's just good practice um but two we are going to be looking at funding positions differently is that correct we are looking at how we build the budget so that we can maximize our QBE and our funding so at some point and again please just tell me that's not the topic for now and it's confusing people will we get numbers to see what are we looking at right now in terms of staff that are funded through QP and staff that aren't yes we can provide that when we are when we get to the point so the the state provides us um

041our fiscal year uh earnings and when we receive those earnings we will be able to go ahead and present that but that's not necessarily this policy thank you you all right thank you Miss Lynch Dr Whitaker y so uh I want to reiterate for for the board and then obviously for the community and most importantly for our staff these Personnel policies are timely but we do not anticipate any Personnel layoff but we do anticipate reducing the number of Staff we fund locally by maximizing the QBE in order to increase our state funded teachers as we move through the spring semester our staffing procedures um and their Clarity are vital so accompanying regulations will be drafted and brought next month inclusive of the transfer timeline so that will be um put before you as far as

042a board so that you are aware of what that looks like you know and its implementation excellent thank you Dr Whitaker staff for your presentation we will now move into our work session was it we done all right let's start a work session uh thank you for joining us today Dr Dr whiter please introduce the first pres chair hearen I would like to call on multiple members of executive cabinet to Pro provide an update on East BL 6 Mrs Jennifer Burton assistant superintendent of teaching and learning Mr es Melton chief of Information Technology and Mr Sergio Perez chief of operations good afternoon uh board chair hearnen Vice chair Dr Sultan esteemed board members and superintendent Dr Whitaker um I along with assistant superintendent Burton and Chief Operating Officer Perez are happy to share with you

043a snapshot of each spast 6 we'll give you an overview of what spast is where we are in the spast cycle and discuss how each of our perance uses this valuable taxpayer approved resource and we'll be happy to take your questions and receive your Fe the East floss is one of our favorite education acronyms standing for Education special purpose local options sales tax it's a 1-cent County sales tax approved by the voters for the special purpose of supporting schools most recently in 2021 CSD receives a proportionate share of the County sales tax receipts we're halfway through year two of the current fiveyear spls cycle SPL cost funds can only be spent on projects that are identified in the voter approved referendum and they tend to be higher dollar amount capital projects and Acquisitions significantly spot

044dollars cannot be spent on Personnel salaries and benefits but where we have an opportunity to sustainably fund a project or purchase through SPO we can remove the owners from the general fund freeing up general fund resources to put toward salaries benefits a topic about which you'll get a update from Chief Human Resources officer you Walker in a little while you've seen this slide before um this is an overview of the current spast budget uh broom has presented a few times and I'll highlight that we anticipate revenues this year of about 7.4 million expenditures of about 8.4 million with the difference being made up with from a fund balance from last year let's geek out about it for a little while one of the major changes in the squad six referendum was to bring us into

045parity with other Metro districts and identify as a desired spwa acquisition the licensing of enterprise-wide online learning and business resources these tools even a decade ago might have been Capital physical purchases of textbooks some of which we still make or a huge one-time license for Enterprise business tools the market has changed to a subscription-based model in our Splash referendum and term C up this last cycle consequently last year we were able to Shi the large portion of the it budget from General funds to Splats we spent over a million dollars on Enterprise software as a service mostly for core online instructional resources we also use spot for the capital acquisition of staff and students computers flast five was the first time the CSD it Department had access to spast F and thank goodness CD was

046fully equipped when we entered the pandemic to provide every single child who needed one with a computer for virtual learning with virtually no wait time some of you will also recall a couple of years ago that coming back from the pandemic Sloss along the board's approval allowed us to re-envision the middle and high school one toone programs and allow every student to take their CS device home with them because increasingly that device is how they access their learning which at the which at those ages seldom ends at the end of the school day our students without technology at home would have been at a precipitous post Advent post pandemic disadvantage and SPO five allowed us to close that Gap we'll be able to maintain those programs through SP six indeed our elementary device Fleet is

047due for a refresh this summer keeping with our equipment life cycle plan we also use SPO to maintain copers because we still sometimes need a piece of the analog even in a digital world and I'm looking at my fellow English teacher over here because you know the benefit right okay um SPL also enabled us to deploy um and through SPL 6 maintain a single districtwide telephone system we Consolidated from four and a half voice systems just five or six years ago into a single service and put a CL a telephone in every classroom for our teachers lowering a barrier for staff to maintain those humano human voice-to-voice relationships with our families which is a critical piece of maintaining that um supportive environment um for our students and our last big um splot item is maintaining

048our Network infrastructure you all will recall from October uh our Network infrastructure is a critical component of our cyber security defense and depth and it provides the backbone for all those computers and cop gear and telephones to actually work that said I would be remissed if I didn't highlight some SPS challenges and as you've heard before SPS receipts have been lower than anticipated directly impacting the availability of those funds we have deferred some Acquisitions because of the lack of income and the lack of spending locally in the cab county um I want to highlight some active panel Replacements at the at the uh second schools and we're deferring for a year our staff laptop um it has however the lack has also been a driver for us to evaluate where we can reduce services without

049reducing student outcomes for example we are due for a refresh of that copy release this year the existing copier volume and deployment is from before the pandemic before we opened T before we did the grve reconfiguration between those two factors and having saturated our environment with other Technologies largely provided through SOS and even recognizing our community's values around environmental stewardship we're looking for opportunities to cut back on The copier and paper spent um but nevertheless you should know if you havn't already that the uction in spash income is affecting all of us not just Bound by our particular county lines that I'll pass it over to you good afternoon board chair Heen Vice chair Dr suan superintendent Dr J Whitaker and his team board members our s funds allocated to instruction are mainly spent on

050textbooks ensuring all students have necessary necessary resources needed to be successful in their coursework and textbooks include digital versions as well uh we also allocate funds for band and Orchestra equipment so far this year we've spent $221,000 on textbooks and this includes Math workbooks that align with our new Georgia math standards digital resources for our AP courses and K5 Ela resources we will spend an additional 65 to 75,000 on decodable text for our K through 2 classrooms to ensure that our students and teachers uh have to support our youngest students that are learning to re we spent all of our funds allocated to band equipment on our Orchestra equipment was needed to expand the orchestra program at VHS this year so we will have about $100,000 remaining that was initially allocated for textbooks we didn't

051use all of that money because we knew we were moving away from Arc um and so we'll be moving those funds towards next year's floss budget to help offset the increase that we that will be necessary for the ELA K through 8 T of adoption to board chair her by chair Dr s members of the board Dr this slide we have a view of the project successful finished in 2023 achieving the 85% of the district groups expanding solar arrays and electrical vle charging station renovating Tali Elementary backfield and completing the first phase of the kitchen replacement and so more the Board of Education approved the proposal for amend the in governmental agreement with the city indicator and City SCH indicator to increase the financial commitment for de development of the Legacy part track and field

052the construction project will feature a concession EX uh with a storage upgrade to the current gym for ABA accessibility and renovation to Resturant to ensure gender neutral access design plan and Compass a line track and synthetic star field we are expecting the completion for a late fall of 2024 under the pillar of a organizational Effectiveness and Excellency we are collaborating with designers and Architects to assess the design budget and materials for restant modernization and renovation City School of indicator will renovate and modify existing resturants with the aim to enhancing inclusivity and Universal accessible opportunities we are looking for the replacement of some of the wooden playground structure structures while it's still functional today we have they have extended their life cycle the principles are providing feedback on material design and accessibility for the new structures

053BSD C had managed a total of 13 elevators and four wheelchair lives across of day night locations due to the life cycle requirement existing conditions and issues with equipment this continuation of support part for manufacturing in some case may require complete replacement our recommendation response we initiated the installation of chair LIF in elevators in two locations to ensure continuous uh accessibility our goal and concerns res revolve around safety Ada accessibility and convenience we are collaborating with manufacturing and mechanical engineers to establish a budget and timeline for the complete replacement of 25 rooftop units across the system across the EC furthermore we are involved in a broader effort to prioritize air conditioning ventilation units replacement District Y and multiple locations theator has been honored to receive for his sustainability initiative supported Bylo six FS the energy

054Man Award from the Georgia public service commiss commission and the energy class price for the US Department of energy a commitment to sustainability includes the expansion of solar race and the installation of solar reflected roofs moving forward we are dedicated to implement a sustainable long range operations plan aligning with our strategic Vision through this plan the district aims to reduce its environmental fing while also creating educational opportunity for students to engage in social responsibility and adult sustainable practices what what rooms are we looking at there um this is uh beon Hill and uh I think this Glen GL the solar panels that you see in the picture is are and thank you any questions um one copers are the vein of my existence so I realize my question may be born from um are the

055copiers we're getting are the ones that we do have are they for like individual teachers departments um a school I guess the experience I've had is or and colleagues um copers that aren't meant for multiple people to be using so they're always like to share the frustration with with copers um we provision copiers with there are a couple of building some of it is St size and L it's right sizing that goes into it they're all intended to be multiple user devices um there are at an elementary level two to three at our bigger schools they have more but they're all meant to be used by The Faculty yes and and they're they're not me we're not taking single purpose home desktop top printers and saying entire department use this does that make sense yeah

056no perfectly then me ask one question about the math workbook are these um like does every math student have a workbook or is there a certain number that are for use so um Math workbooks were created from the Georgia learning plan so CSD adopted the doe math learning plan and uh we worked with a printing shop um to create workbooks for um schools and specific age ranges that felt like this was really needed and important um for for their coursework this may be um a little met question and maybe you're going to get to this later but this has come up before where CL this kind of underperforming I think maybe some of it is in Commission because people are shopping online as opposed to shopping in for some Mor Stores um do you have

057some comparison as to what our 20 our 24 spos uh Revenue looks like compared to where it was and are you projecting that over time it's going to just keep kind of slowly declining because it looks like the difference is coming out of the fund balance yes so midy year like in this midye adjustment or midyear amendment that was submitted in December I reduced block so I'm just watching it because you know it's kind of hard to project because you don't know how people are going to shop but halfway through the year if I see that um Revenue receipts are coming in lower then I'll come back to you all to reduce the revenue so looking at looking at kind of the trends over time is it you know like a percentage down each year

058like you're you feel like every year it's just kind of falling year over year 10% or kind of that what you're started last year was the first year but slop five that came man fin I'm going to stop for one moment uh our virtual board member moves devices and so the new device needs to be um which is a 41 uh 415 needs to be set as a panelist so that his questions aren't coming in on a a different device versus this one he just said I have a question and so lonita then that be that being said because some of these are ongoing projects that are at significant cost um so if we're looking like well it's like kind of mid year is starting to not go where your performance we would have to

059hold those funds out of fund balance penti is that what you're thinking in worst case scenario we will pull it from General I know Hans does board member does have a question so we'll just pause momentarily as we uh the field behind tally is beautiful Sergio thank you to you and your team for doing I've been to two parent events there and it was a topic of conversation how nice it is yeah was Ching to make the correctly yeah I think come out the way we B design was created so am I off mute now you are so my my question was around how we ensure that we're reviewing all expenditures for qualification for splots you know so for example um one of the security systems that we spoke about earlier um that that that

060apparently qualifies for squat spots and and gets moved out of the general fund how do we what is our process for ensuring that that is done for every one of these expenditures to the absolute minimum number of things that the general send versus going to splot yes that is a great question and is one that is extremely timely with everything that is happening with our audit Sergio will is going to come in respond normally it has to be uh whatever is the language in the prend you know if it's qualify for the expenditure then we can add it to there otherwise we have to strictly which what was approved by the pr so before we determine where it would be placed if it's in I would say one of the three divisions in front of

061me which would be teaching and learning operations or uh in not instructional technology but information technology I would um question that I think we're good okay so cheers her then I would I would say what excites me about The Literacy for all is truly for all so our strategic Partnerships around DHA and bef and even what we could do around literacy and how that is tied once again to how we can pay for books this is it's awesome so thank you so much Mrs Burton Mr Perez and Mr M um Mr Melton uh next presentation yes and so Mr melson comes back and he's going to provide the principles of AI thought we geeked out on cop you get so um hello again it is a complete Delight uh to share with you what direction

062technology and instructional staff are moving in with regard to artificial intelligence and specifically generative artificial intelligence AI has been in and out of the headlines for about a year and has very much made its way into the the education space I'll share with you a bit about what AI is how we see it intersecting with education IND theator and the direction weete plant to movement with generative AI your feedback in questions particularly so that you feel equipped to discuss CSD and AI with constituents so first a lesson um I apologize to the direct instruction artificial intelligence is a decades old mathematics and system systems engineering discipline focusing on developing systems that can perform tasks typically requiring humanlike intelligence like learning reasoning problem solving and decision making it encompasses numerous subfields and products including machine learning

063machine learning algorithms analyze data identify patterns and make predictions without being explicitly programmed it's like giving AI the brain power to figure things out on its own deep learning uses neural networks that emulate any the type of connectivity parallel thinking and reiteration provided by the structures of the human brain and generative AI is a type of machine learning that specializes in the art of creation going Beyond just analysis to create new content Based on data fed to it by large language models or vast visual libraries and the most powerful Genera AI models use deeply AI is already part of our Lives the fingerprint unlock on a smartphone replicated the humanik thinking that cops with ink and a magnifying glass did Generations ago and more profoundly the face unlock feature replicates our own ability to recognize

064human face a virtual assistant like Siri or Alexa are all examples of AI and they're not new what has been really groundbreaking in the last year has been the arrival of generative AI in the hands of consumers letting someone with no technical skills very easily access a tool to create totally new written visual sound content for example I went to Google bar and asked for a short description of our school district and you can see on the screen in just a moment how quickly the search created a snapshot I typed in a Write a brief description of city schools of cater thinking thinking thinking content is pulled from information from the web but much of the specific word choice order and presentation is entirely novel and interestingly pretty correct although I will point out at

065the footnote the very bottom says quote B may display inaccurate info including about people so double check its responses um still you'll be shocked I'm sure to learn that your District computer guy is a real science fiction nerd and generative AI is the closest I've seen to decades old depictions of conversations with computers like C3 and how the generative AI is still immature as are the systems in place beg guide its you best practices specifically in education generative AI brings up some real fears and uncertainties for the classroom one is the obvious concern of academic malpractice and students passing on as artifacts of their own learning content that was really created by a machine another uncertainty is how to balance the human components of our work to provide feedback to students and employees versus what

066the machine say right there are concerns significant ones about bias in the underlying data that provides background knowledge for machine learning tools the academy and Industry have published multiple scholarly works on how some data sets are highly problematic and there have been prominent examples of AI models that use for example the service is formerly known as Twitter as the basis for a language model yielding an entirely predictable fire of an AI chat product and the fourth concern particularly when it comes to students is data control and privacy there is opacity to the extent in the extent to which some AI models use the prompts fed to them to develop the AI model itself monetizing our sensitive information about students we have some reasons to be ious but we also have compelling reasons to be excited

067one opportunity around AI is to offer up new or improved forms of interaction familiar input capabilities such as typing and clicking and dragging and touching or gesturing can be reliably augmented with speaking and drawing familiar computer output like text and Graphics can expand into instructive conversations meaningful content annotation and relevant suggestions and recommendations and this sub tales with another exciting opportunity when it comes to adaptivity learning AI tools could expand how students are able to show what they know and help Educators scaffold to meet students needs AI enhanced learning tools can also respond in the moment to students demonstration demonstrated learning to support teaching enforcement and extension AI strength in identifying Trends and patterns has a lot of potential to help us sift through data and find Trends or influences in student outcomes that might

068otherwise be difficult to discern and tying this all back to Student Success in all areas why we're here generative AI has potential to return time to Educators by creating compelling first draft lesson plans learning activities and other tier one instruments in this can in turn return time to teachers to invest in developing and facilitating tier two and tier three interventions with students and AI tools have the potential to provide meaningful feedback and guidance during tier one instruction allowing teachers to invest in the more personalized learning of tier two so how is theer looking at pursuing and bringing in AI we've collaborated with peers and several other districts because we're all in the same book share ideas and draft language we also taking advantage of expertise in our community you'll find one of the AI experts

069we've spoken with about this quoted in time special issue on AI and here are some of Cs these proposed principles when it comes to artificial intelligence first is maintaining human centricity around Ai and specifically remembering the claran call for all students AI tools just like any other tool at our disposal is in service to student outcome and not just the novelty of AI itself this also includes education about Ai and must include the tools to empower students and staff to critically examine both AI models and human assumptions and values in their development and use and it also means ensuring our curriculum is preparing students to develop and enhance the AI tools that will increasingly be part of their lives second our procurement and evaluation of AI models must be delivered in ensuring that such models

070are compatible with our vision and appropriate n K12 setting most AI tools that capture a lot of media attention these days are not meant for young people any of their terms of service say do not try to log in if you are younger than 18 because they're covering their own fbook vendors must meet our already stringent procurement requirements when it comes to protecting student data we want generative AI tools that are transparent and how they derive content for and for that content whether it's an essay score for example or an evaluation sumary to be easily overridable by human operator we want to adopt AI tools that provide opportunities to to improve our practice perhaps to amend classroom assessment practices to minimize the risk of academic Mal practice and when we're approach we want to approach

071this rapidly evolving field of AI with an eye toward continuous Improvement and reiteration because the landscape is changing on almost daily basis what have we already done we've collaborated with staff peer districts and Community experts to draft ai's csds AI principles which you all have been sent copies of a couple of times and an implementation regulation for staff we've amended our technology procurement guidelines to interrogate specifically vendors use of in December we turned on a machine learning powered module to evaluate its ability to identify students at risk of not graduating on time and we've supported some staff particularly computer science instructors and bringing some AI tools into the classroom to support students and we have a group of instructors leaders and operation staff using The Bard generative AI tool which we have Enterprise access to

072through our collaboration what next pending board input this afternoon if you have any to share we want to officially adopt those AI principles um and work with our Communications te to socialize them with staff students and other stakeholders and with that we come notification of the supporting admin Ray and an opportunity to expand our early adopter group for the bar generative AI tool technology and curriculum leaders will also continue to identify how to enhance our ctae and Ma offerings to boost our students Readiness to create AI such as media Specialists and instructional technology coaches to increase students Readiness to be consumers and interrogators of AI lastly we'll establish an AI advisory team of community stakeholders and subject pardon me subject matter experts to periodically advise on today's state of the industry and identify opportunities for

073us to reiterate and improve our progress I would love to have your questions your feedback your okay um thank you I I'm actually reading do you remember being born where the it's a work of fiction and a 75y old poet is commissioned to write a poem using AI um and I love that we're doing this um so thank you I guess I'm all over the place I'm old enough to remember when the state of Georgia required teachers to have to get technology um approved for lack of a better word like we literally had to do like and I remember New York Times was it last year you know can you determine was this a third grade or was this a high school student was this AI generated and you know I think I'm hearing one

074AI used more like a friend said in her business as like an intern right a data collector that sounds great um but when I'm thinking of students so I love that we have a position statement awesome you know I'm thinking of the article I read um it was moring Downey the education report of to the AJC what's her goal for this year that schools or School District expand help right according to research she's read uh statements from a school uh a teacher's policy may not be as effective AI not a cellone um so I love that we're looking at kind of the student proficiency but I wonder what that's actually going to look like like love that we're getting a copier because obviously when students are using paper there is no AI method but I

075guess maybe I'm throwing out the kitchen sink here I hope that we're just as intentional with how we um implement this as we've been and how we've looked at it and thank you I have um have one question and and I think the point is is I think has to be abor that AI is is moving is the genie is already out of the bottle you know I mean there you can't put it back in other we can you know learn how to work with it or just kind of watch it and um I I've even seen it in a couple of places that work and I was like oh that's wild like interpreters um that you know we basically Google translate um so that's that's what that's not a person that's voice um but

076I think my one question for you might be and in using this to Tracy's point if you're talking about grading papers is kind to discern is it a you know a kindergardener versus a high school student or when students are reaching out into the web for resources how do we combat um the the bias point because um you know if some of these resources are being pull from a nonhuman Source you know the first layer of protection we have are well trained teachers um who can say that that's not what that means um that's not what that that's not the point that that's trying to get across you know what did you think when you read that and within you know artificial intelligence point of view that human interaction is lost and a lot of

077these vehicles are overwhelmingly created by you know by have the angle of white SC perspective absolutely especially and and then if you're not a typical learner if you are not an English primary English speaker you know what would we do to make sure that when we put this out there for all of our students to consume that all of those students are able to participate from it's even narrower Dr sulon than that it's white male cisgender heterosexual neurotypical I mean me and so I think think one of the things that we need to be thoughtful about is like is comes back to what we've already tried to and that is deliberately interrogating our third party benefits you must be transparent one of the things I think we can anticipate seeing the marketplace develop response to

078Ai and an area we leverage an AI advisory team are who Rises to the top in terms of thirdparty arbitration that's not the right word but third party assessment over what are the AI models where they pass a rubric for inclusiveness of of the global majority for example Marketplace isn't out there yet even when you think about the broad industry of AI to say nothing of the particular needs in a K2 environment that's an area we need to grow um I think another piece of it is honing in very tightly with our staff and employees really with our early adopters around AI U so to speak you need to order off the menu in terms of what online learning tools that our staff are using to generate content that goes in front of students or

079generate content that goes in front of a fellow employees that was deliberate and twice you V in the model of using generative AI to support staff evaluations right because it's not just kids it is our colleagues in our reports who might potentially be touched by something that a machine and so you know I describe the criticality of us and our responsibility to students to make them critical consumers of AI the same is true of building our own staff's capacity around identifying Ai and going back M Anderson to a question or the comment you made a moments ago one of the things I want to follow up on is I think the the Georgia Department of Education might have published a short course certification around AI like in the I forget I'm blanking on the name

080of that type of even micr credentialing around AI is probably something that would behoove us to take a look into to before we look at the broader adoption particularly for a tool that is so novel in Cas it's not an answer but it's a bit of a response to like just some really thoughtful questions about what appreciate you even if you look on Google and you Google up you know what is a parent maybe middleaged white woman you know that's just kind of how Google platforms are or if you Google what is a doctor it's going to be a male surgeon you know um so I think some of this FL a player of how the internet you know put those puts those stereotypes into the minds of children and how we would have to

081be very aware of and so I think part of that too like just stepping back from the notion of generative AI you just said some of those is complete misconceptions are just out there on the internet kids are out there on the internet yeah outside of the space of generative Ai and I've talked about building capacity in students to be interrogators with AI but that also follows than the brogger umbrella of our charge to make our students informed consumers of news and media in general regardless even if it's in print yeah I'm my fellow Ela teacher right asking those critical questions of the text in front of you and and giving our students the knowledge base to know what questions should I ask and how to validate the assumptions or the assertions that they're looking

082at whether it's on a computer screen or piece paper that's one other question and I think or maybe it's a comment so in terms of just technology in general like if AI is falling under technology as well as teaching and learning um similar to the possibility of a course that Georgia doe is offering for teachers would there be a baseline for students in addition to what we're teaching I think I may be moving farther a field but back to these assumptions you know I'm in the classroom yesterday with some students after school and you know they can't figure out the am meing B we're joking because I said you know there's this assumption that you're all kind of techsavvy and so I'm wondering while we're building in AI um are we also looking at what

083our students actually know how to do besides just a student who chooses to do the CTA e pathway as a student who has one connection at Middle School sure I think the notion of the obligation that we have to make students responsible and inform consumers of the world around them it's not content area specific right I vote the image of the media Specialists our media Specialists particularly the youngest age where these Impressions get made and are hard to unmake thank goodness our media specialist see every one of our kids um and that I think is it's and I don't want to put it all on their shoulders but as not just literacy leaders but also particularly at the elementary technology leaders and have like i' we've been talking about this with the media specialist for

084about a year now like some passion and some capacity around at the schoolhouse level than being among the drivers of producing our kids Readiness to know what it is that does that make sense y very thank you thank you thank you Hans a moment I think he's he's okay he's all right okay thanks all for time I appreciate it absolutely thank you and thank you so much Bor for that feedback griter do we have another presentation yes chair hen summer is just around the corner so I would like to call on Mrs Jennifer Burton assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and Mrs Francis H chief of state and federal programs to provide an overview of our summer program all right good afternoon I have the pleasure of presenting our 2024 summer programming offering this summer

085we will offer 15 days of intensive Ela and math instruction for students in grades 3 through eight an algebra Prep course for students taking enhanced algebra or algebra Concepts and connections and credit recovery for high school stud students through Georgia virtuals in grades 3 through eight students will be invited to summer school if they meet any of the following following criteria have ones or twos on their report card in math or Ela score below the 50th percentile or at least one grade level Below on the December or may math assessment score beginning learner on the Georgia Milestone assessment we have a really unique opportunity for any student that is taking the eighth grade enhanced algebra course or algebra Concepts and connections those students will be invited to participate in the algebra Prep course that has

086been created in partnership with the national summer school institute High School students that earned a grade of one or two in a core course and had fewer than 20 absences will be invited to credit recovery through Georgia virtual for grades 3 through eight the math standards and lessons provided will Foster a deeper understanding of grade level content these lessons will assist in filling gaps and previewing for the next grade level with a focus on problem solving these lessons will provide number sense and will be taught using manipulative each day we'll start with a number talk followed by either a mini lesson a formative assessment to guide small group instruction and a rich mathematical task for students to practice in grades three through 3 through five Ela instruction will focus on Phonics fluency vocabulary and comprehension

087in grades 6 through eight daily instruction will include Word work focusing primarily on by reading comprehension and writing the algebra Prep course is available to all Rising 8th graders who registered for the enhanced algebra course and Rising ninth graders going into that algebra Concepts and connections remember algebra Concepts and connections is what we all know as algebra 1 this will prepare the students for these rigorous courses ahead of time so they have a strong foundation and algebra skills students in this prep class will not participate in ela course in ela coursework and will spend three hours the entire time that they're in summer school focusing on algebra teachers teaching this course will receive weekly professional development from the national summer school Institute the credit recovery dates are a little different than traditional summer school high

088school students participating in Credit Recovery will have from June June 3rd to July 12th to complete coursework through Georgia virtual there will be a computer lab set up at the middle school where students can complete work along with receiving additional assistance staff members will be doing weekly check-ins with our students participating in Credit Recovery initial and recovered grades are reported on the transcript students will be enrolled in any courses required for graduation that are not able to recover during the summer students that would like to take courses for initial credit through Georgia virtual can do so for a fee however we will offer needs-based financial support who students who for students who would like to take courses for initial credit um but are unable to pay summer school information is being communicated this month through

089school newsletter in February families will receive individual invitations to summer school if their student meets any of the qualifying criteria along with an informational video explaining summer school content and Logistics summer school registration begins in April and a summer school family meeting will be held in May summer school is from May 29th June 18th at Beacon Hill Middle school for grades 3 through 12 students will report from 8:30 to 11:30 that's 3 hours and a snack will be provided we're working on with transportation to provide a truncated bus route teachers will have one pre planning day before summer school starts along with planning time daily Mondays will be longer for teachers to allow for one hour of planning and training time and Friday will be shorter we're looking forward to offering intensive opportunities so all

090students find success next school year and next up Francis H our chief of state and federal programs will share updates on extended school year yeah no go you want to take you can ask your question well let let Mrs Hulk go next because if it'll it'll go together if that Mak it now you understand the guest show well you know what ask the question while we just to years unless it's it probably will be covered in um the post presentation I was LE about students with I that's exactly what her presentation is summer school that's that's her presentation okay then I do have one other question the there go the C is just for initial credit not for credit recovery okay all right can I answer two questions in terms of the Georgia virtual option

091am I correct that there's the credit recovery for the students who need that credit but then other students who may just or free up their schedule okay and then the algebra prep all of these things besides Georgia virtual will be only face to face there's no virtual option that is correct okay and then last question I'm not sure this is actually for you so I'm sorry if I'm wrong um have we identified the teachers or is that in the process of finding them in the Press thank you can you can you clarify the qualifications so it says ones and twos on a report card so is that just they have to have one to chos for both semesters or just one say below the 50 below is that multiple or is that just we are

092it is a wide net so we are we are casting a wide net so if you receive a one or two on your report card an Ela or math you will be invited no one is required but we want to offer additional support to any student that um at any point this school year uh shows that they needed additional support if I got a two in math in the fall but then I got a four the next semester I would still qualify you would um and because you know in in this the way that we're doing summer school is that um we are really trying to fill gaps for next school year so I might be concerned that first semester you may have some gaps in numbers and operations let's try to fill those gaps

093um but again not required but an offering and for the for the credit that's that's for the high school that's right okay and that's and that's only if they want to take a class to boost not if they need credit recovery is that what you were explaining so they can credit recover and night through uh for high school nth and 12th grade if they need to if they did if they didn't pass a Class A core class we're going to offer credit recovery for those students like hey let's get caught up this summer and try to pass that class some students want to accelerate and pay classes for an initial credit the first time they've ever taken it to get it out of the way um or maybe they want to you know get to

094that next math class and so they're going to you know do some of these other classes for initial credit for those we aren't going to pay for that that's that's the way the Fe that's right that's a fee however if there are some students that want to accelerate but um they cannot pay for that we have funds that we're going to make sure that all students that do want to accelerate that fee would be covered but that is need thank you sorry you go ahead I'm sorry um so I know you said that it would not be mandatory so I just want to clarify that there would not there would not be opportunity for promotion to be link to attendance in summer school that is correct and then the I think now con that you

095were asking a question in terms of the eighth grade students those would not be the eth graders signing up for an honors math class those would be the eighth graders preparing for the algebra class in high school for the algebra prep class or yeah it says 8th grade students taking algebra Concepts and Connections in ninth grade so that wouldn't that wouldn't be eligible H math just math um any student yeah going into an algebra for so any that's a great question any algebra Concepts and connections class or if you're taking that enhanced 8th grade that combo class of eighth grade math plus Algebra 1 yes we encourage you it's a great opportunity um to get this extra Foundation to make sure you're successful so yes thank you for that question good afternoon for chair Herman

096Vice chair sulan SE members of the board superintendent Dr de W I am here to share with you information about extended school year Services yes why and its connection to some summer programming and the Student Success in all areas in building and sustaining and engaging in inclusive culture strategic accelerator esy under the individuals with disabilities Education Act or idea are special education and related Services provided to students with disabilities Beyond those provided during the regular school year in some cases interruptions to the school year schedule such as as summer breaks weekends holidays may result in some students with disabilities losing basic basic skills and taking a long time to recoup those once the schools begin again esy services are provided during school break and it's intended to prevent that lossy must be considered each year

097for every student with a disability at their I meeting this is not just for students in certain categories of disabilities or for those with the most severe disab sended school year services are not daycare or resit Services they are not summer Recreation programs or enrichment programs even if those activities provide some educational benefits esy services are provided in order to ensure that eligible students receive a free appropriate public education for Fai therefore there is no cost to the parent every student with a disability who qualifies for special education has an IEP IEP describes the program and services necessary for Faith this plan is written at a meeting of the IEP team teams are made up of the students parents teachers and other other educational professionals some of the sections one of the sections that is

098completed annually requires the team to discuss and decide whether or not the student requires esy as part of their educational program if so together the team determines what the services will be when and where how often or the frequency of services how long and how long those services will be provided generally only a portion of the regular school year services are necessary when considering esy and whether a student qualifies for it the IEP team must engage in a multiactor consideration process this process makes the decision Equitable the final decision is based on multiple pieces of data it is not decided by one person or granted solely upon request some of this data that is reviewed measures the students achievement before and after the breaks from school the team can also gather information from the teachers

099and parents observations of the students behaviors and skills before and after break can also be considered again there is not one sole when making these considerations team consider the following questions will the student regress or revert to a lower level of functioning in skills or behavior as a result of the interruption will the student take a long time to recoup or recover the skills or behavior patterns that were lost during the break will a pattern of difficulties with regression and recruitment make it unlikely that the student will maintain the skills and behaviors relevant to their I goals and objectives will a break in Services substantially reduce the students chances of ever learning a critical life skill or behavior related to their I is the student at a critical stage of mastering a life is related

100to their I goals of self-sufficiency and independence from caregivers and does the student have a severe disability or multiple disabilities no student with an IEP automatically qualifies for esy it is an annual consideration the IP team determines the esy model models can include an instructional packet small group tutorials or small group classes the school district determines the location for the services esy is always provided in the least restrictive for LR list respective environment that is appropriate for the student this means that the student with a disability can should be placed in situations that allows opportuni to engage however CSD is not required to assemble non-disabled peers just to make esy less restrictive esy decisions are made at the annual review meeting and decisions about esy in CSC are typically made by March 31st of the

101school year although there are a few students who may qualify for esy during shorter breaks embedded within the school year I gold data for the majority of students indicates that the longer summer break is the break during which most students require extended IEP services for this reason the special education department has for years provided esy programming over the summer in recent years we have increased our collaboration with the teaching and learning Department to ensure that the coordin ation of all summer programming is effective and Ma and maximizes logistical efficiencies in the summer of 2024 this summer our esy program will run for approximately three weeks during the month of June and on this slide you can see more details about the Pacific one difference you may notice is between the number of days per week

102that the students are projected to receive esy versus the summer school Pro the the summer school students program additionally esy teachers will have a slightly slightly different hours on Mondays learning that has already been covered by Miss Barson I know what you're thinking what if a student with an i for esy can they still participate in regular summer school programming yes if a student has been invited to attend the regular education summer school program they may for these students reasonable accommodations are made just like for students with Section 504 plan however IEP Services Would Not Mirror the services during the school year in that in the case um that I team determines that summer school is required then the I team would determine appropriate Services CSD summer School programming is optional for all students therefore

103this is not a scenario that we typically encounter we also receive questions about whether a student can participate in both summer school regular summer school and esy the answer is it depends but generally yes students who qualify for esy and receive tutorial Services may be able to receive their tutorial services and resume the summer program already in progress however we would not reschedule esy just so that they can participate in both without overlap in conclusion thank you for this opportunity to share this information do you have any questions for me that was my question um if you know because I know well when I tght special most times my students did not qualify for C school year and so I think summer school is a great opportunity for those students um but I was concerned

104about my question was about their accommodations um and things like that so they may not receive the accommodations that are in their I we do work very hard to give them as many of their accommodations as possible and if they have an assisted technology device they're certainly welcome to bring that and use that as well um the services that would not mirror would be things like co- teing or even small groups because the summer school program is already in a small group so um you know those are the things that we would not offer during the esy um setting unless we were to determine in some rare case that summer school is required for that student but we typically do not do that we work through the I process for their promotion okay um but

105um each special have the opportunity to work from yes so we do um ask for teachers to volunteer here in the next couple of weeks we'll be starting that process along with our summer programs and um of course they do get paid for their time but if they're not selected to work um extended school year we usually don't need that many teaches they certainly can apply and if they're selected to work the summer program they can and then my only other comment was I I don't know that there has been summer school since I've been in the district but I'm concerned about high school students willingness to attend summer school at the middle school I'm concerned about you mean as far as location is concerned well one of the things that's key for Readiness for

106the beginning of the year is that we really try to limit the use of facilities so that we can get the facilities ready so um as a former summer school coordinator of sorts I have to allow the operations team especially at the high school to do the work that and then it becomes an all hands on deck to get as far as the staff is concerned to get the middle school now ready for to receive students so but I but I do understand the the apprehension because what do you mean I have to go back go back there as the perception right yeah and I just hope that you don't miss some folks because they don't want to go back to school you know they're in the building with it's K through 12 right uh

107three through three through three through yeah and so that is a concern of mine that they might miss this opportunity because of the perceptions that they well what I will say is we can look at the different levels of I won't say construction but work that needs to happen from a capital perspective at the catar high school to ensure its Readiness that was a concern that I I had as I transitioned in the availability for our support staff to get the buildings ready because they were being occupied and I would say best practice is typically to mitigate it as much as possible by reducing the number of sites in use so that then you can have all hands on De on the one but um the cater High School is large and it's still in

108use to some degree because you have all of the different practices and things like that that occur so it's about sectioning and already sectioned building and making sure it's ready so we can look at it one question these are for either of you um these are half days so um for somebody who's had a thir or or fourth grader um what would they I mean what would they do they'd have to either be not working or um they have to be available to pick their child up before lunch um so for kids that really do need these classes what would what would we do to make sure that if you have a work if you're working parent I mean I mean in the summertime camps are hard enough but they wouldn't be able to even

109enroll their kid in a camp if they could drop them off I'm trying to I'm even trying to think conceivably if like these were one of my kids there's no way I could pull this off you know I'd have to get there at lunch and then take them to some camp that would take them in a half day and may we want parents to be able to do it but what options do we have if they get out at 11:30 like come in the middle of the day if if we've done this in the past other districts have done it in the past Y how do we Rectify that so we have um I've done it in a previous District um as a principal and we did work with our local um kind of daycare

110Camp to set up where there were buses that came and took them there you know to offsite um so that is an option um we are already um we're starting a conversation with d and what their summer programming and things you know how we can um potentially support students there um being at the middle school which would be close enough um to walk um so we are looking but I will tell you this is a struggle everywhere when it comes to summer programs um it is difficult to find that 8: a to really 6:00 pm block like that's what I need as a parent um and so um but an immediate solution is trying to partner with some of the local you know kind of daycare camps that that do some busing um that would

111be open for half but it is a chall it is and in previous distress um one of the ways that it was remedied was to work with a partner um specifically uh writing and Grant with the United Way to help provide the PM support and that's what we called it how can you support me on the PM because we are providing the summer school on the am or the summer programming on the am so these are some of the ways especially when you have a population that is really in need of the academic programming they were very apt to support us so um we talked about summer programming at our last bef board meeting and so we did not talk about this specific need but I will definitely take that back to our community to

112really help us problem solve it because that's the way it has been problem solving yeah and I mean the high schoolers conceivably could walk home or even some of the middle schoolers could walk home different them by themselves um but even if you're talking about some of these populations of kids that maybe have different needs maybe they can't um yeah but I don't want that to be a deterrent from somebody signing up for these Services if they're like there's no way that I could get home 30 for students with it that have the tutorial model um a lot of times our teachers will schedule with the families during that block so you I can't say that every family will get the 8:00 time or the 8:30 time but there's conversations that happen with the teachers

113that work with that particular population the tutorial because they do come in and out um and we try to make it something that works for the teacher and the parents as well a separate question um I guess I'm thinking of high schoolers in particular and I think your point about Beacon but more so and we may not have the data um what if the student I know you can't compel them to do it but I'm also thinking that a sixth year might just say why would I want it beyond the you need to graduate right or you want to graduate want we want to help you be successful so sorry I wouldn't use the microphone I just wonder do we even know right now which students are interested so it sounds like the esy we've

114had before with the summer school the yeah um so students um you know we start here to talk to you about kind of what is coming forth um and so this is our first time publicizing and talking um about summer programming um but our um we have we have identified staff members that are um 235 staff members so work year round that are really interested in working with our kids thaty and targeting their those kids to say and really encouraging and wrapping their arms around them um and so I feel like we've got the right people that are interested um and it will we'll see you know hopefully we're going to see progress for our students and so we don't have kind of a finalized list but some some year round employees that are ready

115to jump in and really partner with the students um to Prov as much support as we can right thank you both thank you for the thoughtful and early approach to our summer programming um can introduce the next presentation yes chair hearnen uh at the November board retreat we took a first look at our salary options for the 2425 school year now we will take a second look at those options when adding in benefits or for our total compensation I would like to call on Mrs Adena Walker our chief of Human Resources good afternoon chair heran Vice sherff Fon other SE members of the board and superintendent Dr today's presentation is part two of the compensation reform process in which we introduce during the Board of Education Retreat back in November that presentation represented District rankings

116and options for teachers and non-teacher positions solely based on salary as well each category during this next phase we represent those options with benefits for district Healthcare amounts PRS Visa contributions to encapsulate the total compensation package as we embarked on this journey we agree that the optimal compensation model should include salary and benefits which is Health TRX in F TRS in FICA for the total compensation package ensure competitively positioned salaries be transparent and easily communicated establish and maintain internal Equity consistency and fairness and be affordable and sustainable over time these ultimately tie back into one of our strategic accelerators which is cultivating and retaining high quality professionals one of the goals of this accelerator is to propose a competitive compensation package for all positions to support the Recruitment and Retention of qualified employees based on

117market conditions which board established with board established uh budget limitations there are additional considerations and variables that are always at play as we review all compensation options what will be the average salary increase for other districts we have to be mindful of how aggressive other districts will be with their salaries for upcoming fif years who pays into Social Security which is sp this is one of the most important variables because it has such a big impact on both the employer and employee perspective will TRS employee forit increase and what will that percentage be what districts make contributions toward healthc care premiums and how much will be funded by the state in the years to come that will ultimately affect our Bottom Line This is a look back to our current teacher ranking solely based on

118salary if you have your original packet that is on page 12 for entrylevel teachers coming in with zero experience we rate eight out of nine for when we look at teachers with 12 years of credible experience which is about the average years of experience we rate eight out of nine for Bachelors and Masters and seven out of nine for teachers who hold a special and doctorate degree when we look at the top of the scale which are teachers with credible 25 years in credible experience in higher we rank nine out here for part two in this process we present the current sy24 salaries with total compensation rankings for each district these rankings give you pertinent information from both perspectives the employer perspective in which which includes the total compensation package paid by the district for

119each employee in order to compare apples to apples for the total compensation totals we include we included the employer State Health amount and employer TRS contribution spica again which is Social Security and Medicare and any additional Boe Healthcare contribution by the district this is in alignment with the compensation study we previously presented at the end of 2021 also be included the employee perspective showing the employee salary less social security before the individual tax and benefit premiums are taken out this is very important to show in order for the employee to know even with even though the district is paying into their retirement it gives them a look at their poent potential growth take-home pay we know as inflation goes up this take- home pay amount affects their quality of living in all aspects of their

120lives so our rankings did change a bit when we look at total compensation we increase our rankings in every phase of the teachers career but mostly for teachers with with 20 with 12 years experience are greater which reflect the majority of our current teacher staff for ENT level again for zero years we are now at seven out of nine for bachelor's degree four out of nine Master's level five out of nine for specialist and which is a good increase for our doctorate level which is now four out of nine for 12 years of credible experience we increased to five out of nine for bachelor's through doctorate and for top of the scale we are now seven out of nine for Bachelors and Masters six out of nine Specialists and five out of nine for doctorate

121level now we will look at the options presented during the salary first look here are some of the least aggressive options with both the original salary amount and then the others amount that you see is the salary plus benefit can I ask a quick clarification question I apologize on the slide you just went through and I appreciate you putting together in total comp know that's hard to that what what does that include that includes the employer State Health portion basically that's the same amount that paid by each district y the CRS contribution yeah F which is Medicare Med uh Social Security Medicare and then our district contribution toward Healthcare I ask a clar question there is like um benefit is the terrorist contribution the same for each district too so so the real difference there

122between us and other districts is the Boe Health the Boe Health contribution and F okay thank you and the three districts that uh pay that is US Clayton and um okay right now I confused James the first question you were asking was about what contribution that every District it's it's in the packet but I i' done down I just wanted to know when looking at charts right we've broken down salary but then total compensation because you often hear we pay into more the more there there's an asterisk own I see total compensation so State Health employer TRS FICA and Boe Healthcare contributions and then you're asking a very important question which is well what's different about decada from some of the others is that we do an additional State Health contribution and a FICA contribution

123uh which increases total compensation but one of those actually decreases takehome so it's yeah I don't know if this is the appropriate time to comment on anything because I love that we've got two charts but I just feel like your average employee or teacher is going to look at the first one with on my check and so send an email explaining but I wonder if there's a way and I may be getting ahead of myself let let her go through yeah all right again like I said these are the options that we presented last time as a recap well I wanted to also say options one and six are not presented on this presentation because they did not have a significant change or impact to the staff now as a recap option two in inre

124the entry salary to 53,000 um and this is the step eliminating the double STS for each uh salary schedule this option also keeps that varied amount between the steps that we're trying to eliminate on the salary only is $1,183 and with Benefits 1, 37,7 78 for option three this increases the entry of amount also to 53,000 and it implies that uniform step increase for each salary schedule for a bachelor's degree 900 Master's level $150 uh for the specialist level $1,200 and for doctorate level $136 for the salary only 1,1 183,000 and with benefit 1,519 $28 for option four the entry level Remains the current amount at 50,000 uh $947 but it does apply that uniform step increase for each uh level for a bachelor's level 1,000 Master's 1,150 specialist level $1,300 and for doctorate level

125$1,450 um this salary increase salary only is $82,400 542 for the next two options these are the more aggressive options to see the most impact for employee and District ranking for option five this increases the entry level to the amount of 55,000 $200 this also applies the the uniform increases for each step for bachelor's levels 800 Master's 950 specialist 1,100 and doctorate level 1,250 the dollar amount for salaries only is 1,619 212 and with benefit 2,7 with the total compensation this increases our ranking to second or third for all levels but particular again this is where uh we saw the most increase for mid to end level career teachers which are reflect most of our staff for option seven the entry level increases to 57,000 it also applies the uniform increase for each level for

126Bachelors 900 Masters 1,550 specialist 1,300 and doctorate level 1,350 the salary only is 3,167 I'm sorry 3,167 312 and for a total with benefit 4 m677 79 as you can see this option is the most aggressive that increases our salary and total compensation rankings with tremendously our rankings tremendously for all now we will move on to the non-teacher compensation options these are all the options that we previously presented in the salary only with the salary only amount however now you have more information with Benefits amount for both TRS eligible employees and non-teaching staff that pay into our Public School Employee Retirement System such as codium boot service and transportation sta of which the district does not contribute to their retirement plan just find as a review for all of these options on the screen just

127as a as a overview all options re amount by 5% all options in incorporate a 2.2 25 increase between steps excluding the administrative salary schedule it expands all positions again excluding the administrative scale to 23 steps and it also adds the assistant superintendent and Deputy superintendent positions to the salary scheduled to incorporate the supplement currently added separate in addition as requested all positions on this scale uh the full-time employees on the non-teaching scale will increase above $15 an hour lastly for the administrative scale the study shows that we rate fairly low among our district Chief Executives in principal rankings with total benefits the assistant principal rankings fa fairly high with total compensation therefore in order to stay competitive with recruit including High performing Executives it would be favorable to increase the entry percentage amount especially

128for our Chiefs in our principles for any option so what are our next steps during the board retreat in November we agree that Janu in January we would add the benefits for each option to aggregate total compensation adjust rankings to aggregate compensation and to assess the affordability and sustainability for all options and considerations going forward in February we will determine fy2 compensation recommendations that will be in the best interest of this District financially lastly we will estimate the financial impact of achieving the district's goal of being or sustaining in the top four tow by FY 28 thank you and at this time I will answer any question additional questions that you you may have um touched on this in the past do you have a breakdown of where our our teaching staff Falls in terms

129of who Bachelor entry level versus who is specialist top of scale yes I gave that that demographic breakdown at the very beginning when we did that first look at at the beginning of the year but I can I can definitely share that back okay thank you and and just to look at the boxes if you go over our it's in the third column and then go down to the second row that is where the majority of our staff work third column more towards the middle and end of career and then the second row the majority were masses so I I apologize if this was I apologize if this was shown but um one of the things I would like to see as we start to evaluate both teacher options and the um other Personnel options

130is a a matrix of like teacher options on the rows Personnel options on the columns and total budget impact um calculated for all of that that that'll help us kind of exactly I have already provided that to each board member I'm not sure if uh you were able to get a electronic copy of that yes yeah I just got the text just got the text all right go and look for it right now yay okay I got it give me give me a second to absorb yeah and Sheet one and Sheet two because we're printing off of excel you know that's a little interesting think so uh so yes because it's two-sided in front of us but you have it electronically a few questions um SSN AJ that column to the right of total comp

131yes what is that that is with the Social Security investment so basically anyone any District that pays into Social Security that is giving the the added amount of you take home once we have contributed that into that and I I was looking at the steps well I was looking at the um descriptions of so and I realize this is somewhat standard practice I'm just curious uh the teacher seems to start at step one the administrator started at step 15 no the administrative scale goes to 15 every scale starts at zero okay so what determines the step your years of experience so with your te teacher of course every every year that you teach call in any District that is uh has a cred uh credible um curriculum in a fulltime so then in like my

132case right um I've been teaching this is my 27th year if I go into Administration do I go to the top of the administration step at this time with our uh compensation guidelines no it would just be for leadership year thank you I I appreciate all the hard work on this I mean my only question is can we afford option seven um and then the last slide what is our FY 28 plan just just so we're clear I love seeing us at the top quartile I know that it is hard to snap FS with your fingers and generate uh four million dollar a year um but if we can we should we have face of it that would be that initial cost yeah and then Lita would help us just price out Fe but it

133wouldn't be that in that same amount every time this is just initially to get us there and then sustain us through that Sy right it's a $4 million increase but it's a $4 million increase in perpetuity that's the reason it's never happened it's the reason the government govern prefers bonuses because it's easy to say we've got some budget Now versus there um I I I I would highly encourage us to work backwards to say and I think I feel pretty confident that the other members of the board would agree with me can we afford option seven oh we can't okay but maybe we want to get there by FY 28 okay can we afford starting in option five next year that would be great and I I would like for the conversation to start and

134kind of end there in terms of total compensation for for teachers and staff and the second part of that is it's not just the teachers it's the staff for to can start with option seven but then we also need to go in the highest rank for the other staff too not teachers bus drivers affiliate staff they also deserve to be the highest here to so we got to marry those two and then go from there so we can't have the highest level of composition increase for what so I guess this the I'll let Jan talk so I guess my question is what does option seven look like in terms of our expected Revenue the changes to QBE uh the changes to the scheduling um which aren't happening for no reason but are happening so we

135can find that and then would we have to raise taxes to go that and where is the break point of of keeping taxes flat to achieve the largest salary increase we can for teachers this year and and that would be that's how I would approach it and hopefully we're approaching it those are my questions and I but I saw in the timeline just assume that that would be coming next month all of those variables yes to take into consideration because if you remember another initial piece um that we're introducing Now is working with our tax assessor and Tax Commissioner around um what that forecast looks like for us so when we are making an informed decision uh for a recommendation obviously you could tell from the presentation it could be either option five or option

136seven but we wanted your feedback so we that's why we're presenting them today so that we can then be able to move forward have a few questions that may not come into this particular meeting but in form perhaps that February so if I remember correctly um okay so with regard to compensation and it I think my concern is Will staff know when um contracts are given what they're looking at so you started by recognizing that uh other Metro districts are looking at increasing compensation and then how are we making sure that CSD employees understand exactly what those other contributions look like so I was starting earlier because you know I think I've talked to numerous teachers and not necessarily referring to CSD and I hope I don't sound ages here but you know you're younger

137you get your full-time job you're looking at your paycheck and so are we doing enough to make sure that perspective employees understand what this looks like if you're coming to CSD versus going to all the you know other but two districts that don't pay into social security for your first question it is U normal practice whenever we distribute a contracts the budget has not been approved yet so you always get your current salary on your contract that's pretty standard U whenever we do have the approved budget we always send out the total compensation um sheet which does include all of the benefits that this District does pay out so that is the information that the employer employee gets that is their total compensation of everything that the district is paying on the let's see sound

138like you're trying to speak we're gonna move on I think uh can you guys hear me or am I still muted I hear you now good yes so I just I did a real quick through up of all of these numbers and uh I put them in the Matrix that I was that I was just talking about and so just in in terms of of scale option five is somewhere if we assume option five for teachers and any of the options for non-teachers we're somewhere between three and a half and 3.7 million dollar budget impact if we assume option seven for the teachers and any of the options for non-teachers were between 5.5 and $5.7 million so the difference between option five and option 7 is consistently that difference between the teachers it's about a

139$2 million aggregate difference so that in terms of us thinking about it uh that's over well actually lenita can keep me honest on that that's about a mill now right is a mill right around 2.1 I think um that's about a mill it's about a mill difference um uh between option five and option and option seven and so I guess from where I sit given that um option five definitely gets us into that top core tile just like option seven and option five really more or less puts us in the same positions as option seven um I'm I'm probably leaning more towards in option five and then come back and revisit in future years I think the number we need to be aware of and if you hear and if you talk to staff if

140you talk to teachers your teacher receiving paycheck it's what is your take-home pay to be an active teacher what does your paycheck look I've heard someone say well my $500 more for the same years on the same jobs in the cab county so a yes we've got to do a better job of telling people what they're actually being paid and B in terms of option five we need to I look at that column the Social Security adjustment there it we will be higher than three but will be lower than one two three four five six we'll be seventh still in terms of what the take-home pay is for our Educators in a city that pay a lot more taxes and to send your kids to school yeah we have to be able to explain that

141to the citizens that were asking for an additional Mill of tax for uh in order to cover it so I guess I would say this I am open to option seven if there's a zero tax impact if we're able to dig deep enough into the budget and make that a neutral impact I am more than willing to give that additional dollars back to the teacher and I suspect most of the citizens in the city would but if we're coming back with a millage increase certainly if we're coming back with a millage increase but if we're coming back with any kind of even just non-adjusted middle rate with a 20% % increase in tax digest we need to have a serious conversation about how hard we pull this Lev good good good than all right all

142right so board I want to reiterate our commitment our commitment um to ensure that the staff of the city schools of theer is competitively compensated today we will discuss portions of the total compensation such as our salary uh Social Security TRS uh and and also the board's healthc care contribution all of those are very substantial we value our staff and want them to know there are additional benefits for being all in with CSD so I'm also working with staff and postsecondary partners such as Mercy University goar to increase opportunities for staff to gain their Advanced degrees at a reduced rate and also with Agnes Scott on brainstorming how their proximity to this building into our system and that part partnership could enhance the benefits for working in CSD so in conclusion the options presented today

143reiterate that one size did not does not fit all and we must differentiate the treatment IE the salary increases based upon the position grades one other thing I was thought about during the presentation um where we have such large numbers of um staff uh who have um Specialists um and master's degrees and so while I was a teacher I went through there was a partnership with pedmont MH um and they came and gave classes you know right at what you know as winfro and so you know I don't know if that's on your list of things to look at but it was a great opportunity um for teachers all of our surrounding postsecondary of uh all of our postsecondary institutions are having lots of conversations with us okay awesome excent the regulation yes chair Amanda

144Lynch Chief of Staff to review our regulation regarding amplifying student voice good afternoon again board chair hearen Vice chair Dr Sulton a c members of the board and superintendent Dr Whitaker last month I shared with you an update on our vision to establish student representation to the Board of Education this is truly an innovation that advances our strategic acceler Ator to build and sustain an engaging and inclusive culture it truly allows us to amplify student void today I am excited to share with you regulation B1 student Board of Education Representatives last month we discussed legal and practical issues with establishing a true voting student member on the board of education while we will continue to explore the process and feasibility of the option in the longer term regulation badr1 student Board of Education representative allows

145us to move our Innovation forward specifically bab R1 establishes the procedures for a student Board of Education representative this position is intended to amplify student voice enhance communication between the board and the students it serves enhance collaboration between the board and the students that serves teach student the importance of Civic involvement and expose students to Board of Education functions preparing them for possible future Civic service regulation bb1 outlines the student Board of Education Representatives terms and responsibilities based on your feedback last month the position has been designed as a two-year term students will be elected in the spring of their sophomore or grade year with their position commencing June 1st for the first year when the students a junior or an 11th grader the elected student will serve in an apprentice role as an apprentice

146the student shall have the right and responsibility to attend all board meetings except for closed or executive sessions they will be seated as an attendee in addition as The Apprentice they shall receive all the materials presented to other board members again except those related to closed or itive sessions or legal matters that are protected by the attorney client privilege The Apprentice is expected to provide input which might include requests or preferences of students to the student board representativ following the apprenticeship year the elected student will serve their second year as the student Board of Education representative this will occur during the student's senior or 12th grade year this student Board of board representative shall have the right and responsibility to attend all board meetings except for the closed or executive session a student board the

147student board representative shall be seated with you as members of the board at the board meeting in addition a student board representative shall also receive all the materials presented to other board members again except those that are subject to Executive or Clos sessions or legal matters protected by attorney client privilege the student board representative shall be allowed to provide input with which might include requests or preferences of students to be taken under advisement by the Board of Education input may be provided on all matters except those subject to closed executive session or legal matters in addition to outlining the terms and responsibilities of the student Board of Education representative including their first year as an apprentice the regulation also provides additional guidelines it establishes that students interested and running for this position must declare their

148candidacy and meet candidacy criteria candidacy criteria includes a sworn intent to fulfill the two-year commitment good academic standing as measured by a GPA of 2.5 or higher acceptable behavior as attested by two teachers parents or Guardian acknowledgement of candidacy and a course of study plan election specifications are also included such as defining election by majority vote students actively enrolled in as n eligible voters and granted one vote each regulation bab1 also includes a section for addressing vacancies it allows for an apprentice to assume the representativ SE if the representative seat is vacated if an apprentice sheet seat is vacated an election shall occur to fill the vacated seat I would love to highlight if we could not develop a regulation on student Board of Education representa without hearing from our students the content of this

149regulation was informed by the feedback and suggestion of the superintendent secondary student council members they had great feedback they had robust conversation on whether current seniors should be allowed to vote and it was their idea to add Behavior requirements to the candidate criteria they had great ideas that will continue to be explored around other cabinet likee roles course credits and running an environmentally friendly election their feedback was valued of course indeep regulation bbr1 is an exciting step for CSD as we speak to amplify student voice and ensure all means all our next steps include one notifying and training staff on this regulation is tomorrow at our administrative staff meeting two forming a committee that will help establish the process for our very first election we will seek both students and staff committee members to help

150with the development of the election procedures at dear high school they will help with establishing documents such as the candidacy form and the election timeline for spring 2024 at this time we are anticipating the election to take place in March or April three developing a comprehensive communication plan this will ensure students and their families are aware of this new and exciting opportunity and for a longer term next step we will continue or we will collaborate with the city of dear to explore the process and feasibility of establishing a true voting student member of the board of education at this time are there any questions is um is it is it in City decator hands or is this more of a conversation with the delegation my understanding this is more of a state issue than it

151is a city issue sir I think there's a lot of layers and so we just know that that is longer term and step one is finding out who everyone we need to talk to and what all the Avenues are to to start doing that feasibility study I love this um thank you I do have a few and I love that the students are informing the process so if the elections are in the spring then will the candidates know hey this is what I'm signing up for next year these are the board meetings that I'll be attending these are the others so we'll have to I'm assuming set that timeline so the candidates can declare um is there any kind of how do I word this is there a limitation so that have the same student

152fulfilling two leadership roles you know we're a district 5,000 students you have 1,800 or whatever it students that ask about that or if that's something we need to consider interesting the students actually brought up a couple of things and there was some conversation around that as well um some of the students talked about well you should have other leadership experience and so really you should be serving in another role we had students talk about kind of those cabinet like or other committees they said you know to get even more voice yes we will have this representative but who else might be able to inform them in what ways and so they were really excited and I think there's opportunities to to kind of pursue pursue that but not a specific specific limitations we umed out

153to gsba about um I think some of the the core the foundation to doing well in this role is is training so we initially reached out to gsba even before last month's meeting that's where um we got some of our first um Road bumps that we had to overcome because they along with legal you know raise some Flags around some of the the Practical and legal implications around this they did say of course that you can pursue it as a regulation and have been advising us throughout the development of this regulation um next steps will be to continue to work with them so that we can ensure that we're providing kind of the exposure and the things that we know um and talked about last month that we want the student to experience that they

154can really truly um you know be part of um you know what what you all do as a board so what they do the same kind of training that we went that that we went do we are hoping so that is the plan so uh example would be gsba training in June um we have we would like to bring the the students to the to that training and did talk to them about that so that was one of the the things that we talked about as far as my you know what the student advisory very cool excellent thank you B lch thank you so as this is a regulation it does not require a vote by the board of education but we will now work with staff according to the timeline that everyone saw um

155that Miss Miss Lynch presented so thank you so much you all all right that concludes our work session for today we will be back as close to 5:00 pm as possible to begin our regular board meeting we're adjourned you all right we'll Now call this meeting to order at 5:00 pm we ask that you silence all your cellphones at this time uh would like to begin with a moment of silence followed immediately by the Pledge of Allegiance at this time I ask that everyone join me in a moment of Silent reflection thank you now I ask that all that are able to please stand for the pledge of allegiance algi 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

156justice for all like to remind everyone of our mission it is to inspire and enable student growth through meaningful and engaging learning experiences supported by high quality highly qualified and caring educators in a safe and learning inviting environment uh board member Hans UT is joining us virtually this evening uh and we'll move on to the second item on the agenda approval of board meeting agenda for January 2024 board members are there any do I have a motion to approve today's agenda I move to approve today's agenda board member Johnson Davis makes a motion may I have a second second uh Dr Sultan makes second a motion any discussion of the agenda ex say I I I motion carries unanimously our next agenda item is the approval of minutes from our previous board meeting do I

157have a motion to approve December's regular board me minutes Mo to approve the me minut thank you board member Sultan makes the motion may I have a second second thank you Miss John Davis second the motion any discussion of those minutes heing none all those in favor please say I I I motion carries unanimously all right we are going to move forward with our other agenda items starting with student and staff recognition next on the agenda uh Dr Whitaker I see that there are more than a few students and staff in the audience are we recognizing anyone yes we are shair heren at this time I would like to call on our deput superintendent Mrs Karen Newton Scott and she will come to the podium for some spe special recognition thank you Bo chair heren

158Vice chair Sultan exed members of the board Dr Whitaker and a special welcome to board member Anderson tonight I have the pleasure of making four presentations first I'd like to invite up principal Derek Thomas to the front for our first presentation all good this past December Beacon Hill Middle School held its annual 70 and the 2023 winner is newa munir is a member of De Hill Middle School Junior Beta honor Club in the Junior Beta spelling be at the Georgia beta State Convention she will compete at the Junior Beta National Convention to be held in June 2024 in Savannah Georgia no is also a member of the Beacon Hill Middle School debate team and Varsity division congratulations again next I'd like to invite principal scroll up for the next two [Applause] presentation tonight we'd like

159to congratulate the following decada High School band students spiter Wilson and AI shant come on [Applause] up all of these students have been chosen as winners of the Georgia music educators Association composition contest these three amazing young composers submitted their music creations and were chosen from an advant pool of other high school students from across the state of Georgia there are more entries this year than ever before each of these students will have their compositions performed in January at the annual Georgia music education association annual teacher conference in Athens what an honor congratulations again to these students and deor high schools band director Ira jenin Jenkins for supporting the students to become world renowned music [Applause] composers next up we'd like to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of two decator high school students Jano Rogers and

160pton sovin both Juno and pton have been selected to serve on the city of the cater environmental sustainability board they both the city of theaters environmental sustainability board added two youth members for the 2324 school year the environmental sustainability board was established to provide recommendations to the city commission regarding the city's environmental regulations I looked at you all and smile these are my former students and I lost track I'm going to read that again the environmental sustainability board was established to provide recommendations to the city commission regarding the city environmental regulations plans and initiatives as well as assisting with the implementation of City projects that impact the natural environment to protect and improve the quality of life for Citizens and property owners in the city of cada interested High School a students submitted statements of

161interest and completed an interview process we are so proud to have Juno and Pon serve as student Representatives on this [Applause] board our final presentation tonight will be for the district level young Georgia authors winners the purpose of the young Georgia author's writing competition is to encourage students to develop enthusiasm for and expertises expertise in their writing to provide a context to celebrate their writing success and to recognize student achievements in arts and academics this prestigious competition has been engaging Georgia students for more than two decad and is open to any student currently enrolled in Georgia Public Schools s have been submitted to the regional competition and winners Will Go On from there to the Statewide competition this evening it is an honor to celebrate our city schools of the cater 2024 District winners first

162up we have Max Jung kindergartner at Westchester [Applause] Elementary also from Westchester representing the first grade is baraji MRA for second grade at wanona Park Elementary School we have Molly SK our third grade winner is coming from tally Upper Elementary School it is leel Gillum also from T Upper Elementary School we have Alice wil as the fourth grade winner and fifth grade is also from Sally over Elementary School Claire [Applause] Camp charot kuster is our winner for sixth grade at Beacon H Beacon field Middle School annael Kim is our seventh grade winner from Beacon Hill as well and June bug brown from [Applause] a high school winners are Bethany mccr from ninth grade Raa Johansson 10th grade Oba watt 11th grade Margaret pner 12th [Applause] grade we are so proud of all of our students

163this evening and we would like to invite our board members and superintendent W Whitaker to the front for photo opportunities with them all beginning with our young Georgia authors winners through fifth grade to move forward can we do that any can now everybody else move need to move over take step this way take another step this way there we go now we're going to get tight we're going to make friends here everybody one two three par thank you so much students board members remain we have more if we would if we could have our Beacon Hill Middle School spell andb winner to come on over okay Courtney we are ready hardest word you have to spell I don't know an easy one that's I don't know she's like I didn't miss any they weren't hard

164okay Mr Thomas you can join the picture please come on over you got the Applause so why [Laughter] not thank you very much and now our high school sorry okay deada high school if you all would all come together now okay now hold on hold on hold [Laughter] [Music] on yeah try to hide [Music] Sor and Juno on over guys good wait wait wait we got some par oh you got thank you so much appr thank you so much [Music] so uh for the record I do really miss that stuff it's not fun just sitting back and watching it I I really like being there for that we know huh [Music] all right get started the next item on the agenda is the superintendent report Dr Whitaker you have comments yes I do first of

165all good evening good evening happy New Year and happy birthday to board member Jana Johnson Davis upcoming this week week happy 39th J thank you yes well this this coming Monday we will also observe the birth of Life contributions of Dr Martin Lu King Jr and as a reminder ml day is a Federal holiday so the district will be closed last week we were thrilled to welcome back our students and were excited about the semester ahead but before we look forward let's take a moment to reflect on some of the key highlights from the first semester we started a new school year with a successful opening of schools and a launch of my Gem and plan which involved Gathering feedback from students staff parents and the community to Envision a plan for maximizing outcomes for

166all students as a district we were pleased at to have our outperform the state in the SAT scores and the graduation rate and be ranked in the ranked the fifth top school district in the state State thecar High School was also ranked 16th in the state by the US News and report news and World reports in addition to our academic achievements our school Community celebrated several athletic accomplishments including the Championships of our Middle School boys soccer our High School girls softball and volleyballs as well as the high school girls cross country team second state championship and I was so excited to be there with them when they won we also recognize just like we did a moment ago V various students and staff members for their hard work and dedication including the first ever School

167support staff member of the year and our teachers of the year and naming our tally stem teacher Miss Alicia Reno as District teacher of the year our Arts programs also excelled with the high school marching band receiving top breakings in the Statewide invitationals and the faith and Beacon Hill choruses performing at the Georgia state capitals winter Coral concert it was wonderful to see such while we celebrated these accomplishments my 90day review revealed areas for improvement moving forward we will prioritize improving instructional coherence enhancing leadership capacity and a claran call for all refocusing our Equity work to ensure all students achieve their full potential we also reviewed working we also are working to review our strategic Plan called all indicator those findings from my 90day review and even our District's Charter that was first semester but

168during the break I read a book about finding hidden potential the book reads similar to Jim Collins oldie but goodie good to great one of the main them in this book was the reality that to elevate ourselves we must be comfortable with discomfort I know that change is often difficult yet change has and will continue to happen in CSD to be all indicators we must learn new ways to reach all children last semester the board of approved several policies such as the new equity and Grading policies these changes were the result of feedback from the listening session from the super superintendent advisory councils we also announc rigor through offering honors courses while devising evidence-based supports for our most vulnerable Learners I want to thank the members of the board and our District also our school

169leaders for refocusing our efforts to be more student focused as we look forward to the second semester I must begin by thanking Governor Brian Kemp for uh bonus the employees to feel valued and appreciated while the governor's bonuses did not fund all active staff I thank the board for for approving all active staff in the city schools of decada as of January F were eligible for the bonuses full-time staff received $1,000 and part-time staff received $500 before IRS taxes so that was taxed the gy work will continue this semester with a new series of listening sessions in the evenings of February the 21st at Oakhurst and also February the 27th at Beacon Hill we'll also hold a virtual meeting on March 1st at 11:30 a.m. I would love full participation of all stakeholders that's students

170staff and families tonight we will submit the much anticipated 2025 2026 School calendar for board approval and earlier today the board discussed a plan that will enable us to offer a more competitive compensation package I began the conversation with the board at their November retreat with a thoughtful approach of reviewing Staffing Master scheduling and the annual B budget to identify existing funding for increased compensation our efforts to improve organizational Effectiveness as outlined in our strategic plan will also mean implementing practices that will assist us to in adhering to all federal regulations related to the National School breakfast and lunch programs at CSD we are committed to providing every child with access to a healthy breakfast and lunch during their school day many in our school community may be unaware that our school nutrition program operates

171as an independent fund and is sustained through meal payments and government reimbursements at the beginning of the covid pandemic the provided funds for every public school student to receive free meals regardless of income when the program ended in 2022 CSD continued that practice unfortunately that has resulted in a current negative balance of $88,000 and that is an unpaid lunch fees I want to reiterate this $88,000 balance cannot be paid with General funds therefore we are asking our families to help us with all of our negative balances as soon as possible as a reminder all CSD families can apply for free or reduced price Mills at any time during the school year on The District's website at CSD theater.net back luncha Additionally the CSD Nutrition department has communicated changes to the mill charges procedure this week

172that will enable CSD to remain in compliant with federal guidelines while continuing to provide healthy meals during the day the changes will be effective February 1st 2024 we appreciate your understanding and cooperation and finally we will move through the next few months with a growing anticipation of graduation in May and I look forward to shaking the hand of every graduate in the class of 2024 as they begin their postsecondary Journeys to college the workforce or the military and to that end I would like to call upon Mrs Karen Newton Scott Deputy superintendent to inform us of our students midyear performance and summary of their Readiness for college and or career personal good evening again hon Vice chair suon Este Este members of the board and superintendent Dr gima Whitaker I'd like to share with you

173the winter assessment results by taking a look at the College and Career performance index and our midyear math results so picture this if you can during any major league sports season stats are recorded for each player for every game these stats tell you how the players are performing from one point to the next based on that information the coaches can support the players by building upon their strength during conditioning and practice times to increase their performance this is what the map assessment serves as for teachers and families it is like a magnifying glass revealing details that allow Educators and families to closely analyze students strengths and weaknesses in specific areas of map of math excuse me and Ela to continue to practice to support improve student outcomes so if Mt serves as the information on

174each player while the season is in progress then the ccpi will be the report of the final wins and losses at the end of the season the ccrpi captures not only academic performance but also broader elements such as student growth Readiness for College and Career and the overall climate of the educational environment for the entire school year our end of season or end of year school 15 for the 2022 23 school year in the past we would have received an over all score and a score for each component of the ccpi the overall score has been eliminated to increase transparency and provide a more complete picture of school performance ensuring that challenges and opportunities are not hidden behind a single score the score for each component area remains so we have cores in five areas

175Content Mastery tells us if students are achieving at the level necessary to be prepared for the next grade college or career progress tells us how much growth students are demonstrating relative to academic relative to academically similar students closing the gaps tells us if students in all all subgroups are making improvements in achievement rates and Readiness tells us if students are participating in activities preparing them for and demonstrating Readiness for the next level college or career and finally the graduation rate tells us the percentage of our students who are graduating from high school with a regular diploma in four or five years so first we will look at our elementary schools our elementary schools as you can see surpass State benchmarks in all components of the College and Career ready performance index so the scores represent

176three through five it is also a reflection of the foundation of the K2 schools as well you will also notice that K5 experiened a slight decline in overall performance from 22 to 23 specifically in the Content Mastery component which tells us if students are achiev achieving at the necessary level for the next grade course di slightly from 98.2 to 96.1 in the realm of progress schools were tasked with improving the performance of each subgroup by 3% While most subgroups achieved this Target in either Ela English language arts or math and in some instances both the economically disadvantaged subgroup fell short in both of these content areas despite some progress proficiency levels for economically disadvantaged black students with disabilities and English learner subgroup remained at 40% or below the most pressing concern with these figures revolves

177around literacy levels among the economically disadvantaged black students students with disability and English learner subgroup while the overall average reveals that 90% of our students read at or above grade level at the K5 level a more detailed examination of ccrp ccpi exposes a concerning disparity specifically only 57% of black students 43% of economically disadvantaged students 55% of English learner students and 57% of students with disabilities are reading at the designated grade level this analysis underscores the inadequacy of the reading instruction we are offering for these student subgroups it emphasizes the pressing need to move forward with Comprehensive professional development and a thorough overhaul of our in intervention processes that assistant superintendent Jennifer Burton has spoken of we must Forge Partnerships with others who have gotten it right to ensure that every student regardless regardless of

178their background or learning challenges has Fair access to resources and support similarly to our elementary school our middle school has consistently excelled and surpassed State benchmarks and all components of the College and Career performance index you will notice the high scores in each area the Middle School's overall performance increased from 2022 to 2023 specifically in the Content Mastery component where scores were up from 86.4 to 90.5 again this this year schools were charged charged with increasing each subgroups performance by 3% at the middle school all subgroups met this Target in math and Ela except for the English language Learners we commend our Middle School for the progress made for most subgroups to assist with closing the Gap however 35% or less of our black students economically disadvantaged in English Learners and students with disability subgroups

179perform Ela and man you see the same gaps in literacy with the average of 91% of our middle school students at or above grade level while only 63% of our black students 53% of our acade economically disadvantaged 55% of our English language learners and 52% of our students with disabilities are at or above grade level in reading for high school earlier this year we reported on the graduation rate of 94.1 for the class of 2023 representing a 2.5 decrease from the previous year's 96.6% rate while this year's graduation rate represents a slight decrease from the previous year CSD has consistently achieved a graduation graduation rate of 94% or higher for the past decade according to the recent data released by the Georgia Department of Education BSD ranked second highest in the Metro Rea region this

180year's results further signify the resilience of our 202 23 graduates who faced unique challenges during their High School Journey including disruptions caused by the global pandemic however in Content Mastery we also see a decline for our high school students where scores dipped from 88 to 80.3 the targeted 3% increase in American literature was not achieved by any subgroup in US history only white and multi-racial subgroups met that 3% Target in algebra one progress towards the 3% increase was observed in all subgroups except for our black student subgroup and in biology all subgroups met the target except for black and economically disadvantage sub group for both American literature and us history achievement levels declin with a significant impact on economically disadvantaged ability and English Learners where the high school saw below 60 to 70% of students

181being proficient readers at the end of the school year cons assisted with patterns seen in other great bands there is a notable disparity in the data for our black English Learners economically disadvantaged and students with disability subgroups while the average percentage of students reading at grade level at the high school is 88% proficiency proficiency ratees for subgroups were as follows 64% 38% % and 43% for black students economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities expected so as we reach the midpoint of the current school year our map scores provide valuable insight into what we might anticipate in terms of our ccpi data for the 2023 24 school year the chart represents projected growth targets for each grade level alongside the actual midyear growth the diamonds visually represent how closely each grade level approached surpassed or fell

182short of their targets in English language art a noticeable Trend emerges as students progress through the grade the an anticipated growth Target decline this aligns with the natural trajectory of Child Development where the most sub substantial growth occurs during young ages however it is crucial to highlight that our ability to meet these targets also experience a declin this observation underscores the challenges associated with the current reading and writing instruction likewise we have a comparable representation for projected Mass growth outlining the projected and actual growth with the diamonds illustrating the proximity to or deviation from each grade level Target in this analysis we observe a parallel pattern with the expected growth declining as students progress to the grade however a distinction emerges in the mass data for the majority of grades we observe that we observe

183the performance aligned with the growth targets are very close in proximity with one exception being in the fourth grade drawing insights from the growth and Target achievement observed in math assessments we can anticipate proficiency levels for students in both reading and math specifically our midterm projections indicate that approximately 70 to 80% of students are expected to reach proficiency or higher grade Milestones assessment in math however a notable exception is evident with one f grp as Illustrated in the data this discrepancy pops up to to delve deeper into the underlying factors influencing this subgroup performance from the current presentation are anticipated proficiency levels for the economically disadvantaged subgroup we are actively working on enhancing our Data Systems to consistently capture this information across all administered Assessments in the words of Dr Whitaker interoperable displayed here are

184the projected proficiency levels categorized by programs utilizing our map assessments our midyear Benchmark suggest that a minimum of 50% or more of our student population should be projected at this Benchmark has been met by two of the programs showcased in the data and and then here you see the program data where we are not yet meeting that Mark now turning to English language arts the same subgroup data persists as a focal point among our student demographics including white asian multi-racial and Hispanic students performance is generly commendable however the trend emerges for our black students who consistently follow below most targets and subgroup performance metrics this underscores the need for targeted invent intervision and a thorough examination of the factors contributing to these disparities in our Ela outcom again we have the comparable examination of our

185Ela performance focus on the same areas of program support students served in npss gifted n504 programs are meeting and in some cases surpassing the mid bench ever to the areas that are of concern so in summary while our white asian multiracial and Hispanic students are performing well our black students and economically disadvantaged students need more ccrp I reading proficiency and map subgroup data scores have shown minimal deviation over time for these students who are consistently scoring below most targets and subgroups in some areas grossly so it is deeply concerning and imperative to note that black students and economically students in communities that do not have the affluence and resources that CS SD have the resources of CSD these schools outperform students who attend our school consequently there is an ongoing imperative to enhance our instructional

186approaches for all students despite having a substantial cohort of high performing students it's essential to recognize that this exceptional performance creates a misleading perception of overall Excellence such an illusion might lead us to believe that no changes are necessary when in fact the reality for these students and families must change having been a part of this institution for 28 years presenting this data has been one of the most challenging things I've had to Stand and Deliver these numbers not only reflect who I am but also stand as a mirror to the journey as an educator the data extends Beyond individual Reflections it is a collective representation of our efforts board members administrators teachers and staff the Stark reality that in our district being black or coming from a h a household with limited economic resources

187presents a greater challenge compared to other tital one schools in the area is quite jarring continuing to acknowledge this truth about how we have serve a subset of our community should compel us to recognize the debt that is owed and motivate us to take concerted action for Meaningful change we are all accountable every decision we make every distraction that diverts our Focus from addressing the urgency that only 38% of our most vulnerable at the high school are reading at or above grade L will continue to contribute to the narrative revealed in this data one great person said our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better we all know that it doesn't quite work like that

188change is difficult but we can give up some of the good things and go for the great all of our children there any questions is there any way that attached to to every presentation that is ever given in front of this board in this community for this school district this information is always included I mean I can think of no more clear moral absolute that we have than to fix this and it should always be in front of us is there is there a way to do that I just I just there should not be anything that goes public that doesn't acknowledge this I I'm very frustrated I I'm sure that my fellow board members share that perspective but I think this is probably I want to commend the administration I want to commend Miss

189Newton Scott for putting in front of us in these Stark terms I think this is probably the first time we' we've really it's not the first time we've seen the data I think this is the first time that we've set the difficult data front and center in the conversation and um are are approaching it from a perspective that we really do have a moral obligation to see it change so um I don't know I'll I'll stop my comments at that thank you for the information I would love to have this in front of us at every board meeting thank you yeah thank you I agree with h the fact speak for themselves I think the question I have is back to your sports analogy um so you know my daughter plays soccer a scrimmage may

190not be treated as seriously as a real game and so the concern I have is how are we also looking at the testing itself so you know as a teacher who's administered ma tests as a parent who hears a child talking about math tests who hear students talking about map test often I've heard that it doesn't count and so by no means am I suggesting that there isn't work to be done we all know there is but at the same time when we're using this testing data how are we determining that the results are actually um indicative of the students knowledge versus the student or rather the students abilities reading skills Etc versus the students lack of knowledge of the test importance or also like keyboarding skills and just so I'd like to look a

191little bit more at other factors that can inform um the performance and what you know we're doing on that end as well as obviously the targeted invention to help all of our students be successful I think there's I mean all that not withstanding there's also some Trend you know you can see some of the same Trends AC the mileston just the map and I think you know the most important thing is that I mean we I feel like I'm in some kind of strange like movie because I feel like every board been meting get here every single time I think since I have been in this chair and you know at at some point like you said we will have we will um do both love and hate change and maybe um maybe something will

192we we'll be able to the next step or the next the next presentation will be you know more action items which is what I think we all need to see I think um the most important thing that you said that almost is is still sitting like in my throat is that everything else is a distraction all the anything else that we sit and we mull over that we're you know buzzing about in the community as parents as Educators As Leaders we're just distracting from the fact that less than 50% of our students with disabilities with that that are English as a second language speakers can read at grade level going into High School we're we're we're getting distracted and so every every day our Focus needs to be our energy needs to be on the

193fact that our students of color consistently even in other districts that have less resources they're outperforming us and anything else we're just we're getting distracted so I think as parents as community members we need to get behind that and realize that that's where we need to put our energy and put our efforts because we're getting distracted by some of the wrong things by the flavor of the day Harmon I 100% % degree thanks for saying that well I'm looking forward to there are changes that have been put into place since we have a new Administration particularly around reading and the um push for really the science of reading being our foundation and so I'm anxious to see how that changed um what that will do for these scores that we're saying um have parents coming

194in here advocating for these changes and you know talking about the connecting that to equity and so um I'm looking forward to to seeing the results which I think will be positive um for these subg groups but it won't you know that will just be a part of it um because we know that there's more to um need these students to be able to read um but we also want them to feel um included in the environment um to have a um a good experience to feel like they belong have good interactions with their teachers and so um so looking forward to see what other things we can put in place to know if could I ask a quick sorry sorry James if you have something to say go ahead I had just one quick

195question for Dr Whitaker please go um so Dr Whitaker I know that you have been involved in previous roles in in turning numbers around on schools that were performing poorly on some of these metrics can you set our expectations and what a realistic timeline is to to see some of these changes because I think we all have a sense it's not going to be instantaneous we we've been working on for five years and obviously we we haven't really made a dent in it but but I I I in terms of your practical on the ground experience of seeing this done what can we in the community expect in terms of of timing so um for that question I will say that in my most recent two most recent positions um I was over a community

196of 30 schools where 16 of those schools performed um I would say almost act where our economically disadvantaged students are or even lower and in a 4-year span we move from 16 schools to two and I will say when I look at those schools they at or above G grade level reading than the cater high school subgroup now they are is what you're saying now now when I compare the data that of the data you see on this screen which was a made public in uh late December and that same data for all of those schools are higher for you're economically disadvantaged and for often for your black population I know it did take four year that was a fouryear span to move that needle because there needs to be systems and structures in place

197around one curriculum two instruction three assessment and four really truly understanding that interoperable data system those were the four key lovers strictly around curriculum and instruction but in the in February at our board retreat we're going to talk about all for lovers that will create the conditions for all children to be successful because this jars me knowing who we are and who we can be I I guess I share kmen sentiment that I feel like I'm in a weird movie where we know the data I think the difference for me is it's not shocking um we wear this on Our Sleeve what I want to have see I'm giving you the grace to provide is thank you for using the levers we're very good at identifying these problems thank you for putting together I imagine

198it was depressing um what we're not so good at is publicly saying and here are the four things we're trying over the next two years to combat this my time on the board in four years I know this Dad ex I ran because this D exist I've listened Johnson Davis and I had lunch we talked about ruing the board like we agree on this where we need to make progress is these are the four things we are doing so they were my neighbor and I look my neighbor in the face why should we come to decater yeah we have warts but these are the things that we are doing to try they have worked let's get it done yes so um rest assur student outcomes for our most vulnerable students Remain the focus of this

199Administration explicitly we will ensure that race Andor socioeconomic status language proficiency or disability is not a PR predictor of student outcomes this type of data underscores that all must truly mean all and we must do something different to think that our economically disadvantaged students educator High School will potentially graduate with only 38% of them reading at or above grade level in 18 months turn 11th graders it's morally appalling and I will reiterate all must truly mean all so next month I will present how our equ work moving forward will refocus us on student outcomes because what is happening now is not moving the needle for their Readiness at the most basic level and that's reading at grade level upon graduation we have to do something different we have two key meetings next month as a

200board and a governance team one our board meeting and two our board retreat and in both of those times we are going to talk about and see the full plan for what it is going to take to move the needle on those numbers sh hen that concludes my report thank thank you next item is the chair good evening uh behalf of the board I I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year welcome back to our students staff and families uh the board remains grateful for all of the engagement of our school community and the success of our students in schools and we are looking forward to another great semester um today's board meeting began a while ago with the swearing in ceremony for myself and our new District Two board member Tracy Anderson I

201am pleased and honored to serve for another term and I want to congratulate and officially welcome board uh we look forward to working with you to ensure the success of every CSD student and school following executive session we began tonight's meeting with our pre-work and then work session both were reviews and discussions on several important policies and regulations including adding a student representative to the school board and we're excited about that addition we heard presentations that provided plans for upcoming summer programming including school summer school and extended school year the board received a finance and East blast 6 update and as the use of AI in school increases the fourth presentation was an overview of ai's relevance to instruction and the district's approach and our position statement on the use of AI in the classroom

202we also heard a presentation on our students year performance a summary of their Readiness for college uh the majority of our students are doing quite well the data for our traditionally marginalized students is evidence that we must do more to make sure all are successful all of the presentations are available in assmbly we had four amazing student recognitions this evening including Beacon Hills 20123 spelling be winner the three DHA band students who were winners of the Georgia music Ed Educators composition contest two DHS students who have been selected to serve on the city of decator environmental sustainability board and the 13 2024 districtwide young Georgia author winners again I want to congratulate all of our students on their achievements you're the reason we do this important work and you make us all proud as I

203close I want to Echo back to Dr Whitaker's initial acknowledgement of the observance of Dr Martin Luther King Jr day on Monday many people see this as a day on rather than a day off and our community offers so many opportunities to follow Dr King's example of service to the community this month is also the start of the 2024 session of the Georgia General Assembly we will be monitoring the legislative session closely we'll provide updates on educated related legislation and the budget as it progresses through the state level I must also reiterate the board requests for patience as we are working to accomplish the goals of our 5-year all indicator strategic plan CSD is a high performing district for most students our goal is to make CSD a great District where all students are safe

204and successful where we retain high quality staff with competitive compensation for our district operates with excellence and instructional and organizational management fiscal responsibil and simply compliance with state and federal standards that concludes my remarks for this evening fellow board members does anyone have any thoughts they would like to share at this part of the meeting I uh I disagree with the term simple compliance but other than that everything was perfect fair enough even the complex comp I I think I chose that word to try to highlight that in many instances the board is complying with federal and state standards not inventing things that want to be done yep 100% hearing more we'll move on to the next item we will move to consent agenda items which includes a school nutrition report Personnel report monthly Financial

205reports and the school calender for 2025 2026 Dr Whitaker to's start with our monthly financial report yes chair hearnen Miss lonita broom Chief Financial Officer will present the monthly financial report m board chair he Madam Vice chair welon members of the board superintendent Dr wher community and college the November 2023 Financial reports are located in the AG the general fund budget is approximately 98 million as of November the district has collected 39% are approximately $ 38.6 million of the budgeted Revenue year to date which is in line with percentage that was collected this time last year November Revenue collection was approximately 5.4 million which is 44% more than the amount of Revenue collected last month October this is due primarily to the approximately 1.6 million increase in the amount amount of tax receipts from October

206to November this is increas is normal for this time of the year the largest tax percentage of sales tax is traditionally collected in November and December earning on investment is continuing to Trend higher than anticipated approximately $56,000 have been received for November which is approximately $20,000 are 57% higher than the amount received in November 2022 the board approved an increase to the earnings on inves budget to accurately reflect the uptrend in interest all other revenue is trended as anticipated expenditures are normal for this time of the year the district has expended 31% of the overall budget or approximately $29 million year to date for the month of November extens is equated to approximately $7.6 million this is 14% higher than what was spent in October 2022 which is due primarily for increases in salary and

207benefits the majority of November expenditures are for salary of approximately 79% of the budget for the month of November there's a deficit of approximately 2.2 million which means the district expenditures for the month were 2.2 million more than the monthly Revenue the 2.2 million will be taken from the fund balance which is normal for this time of the year overall year to dat there's a surplus of 9.7 million due primarily to the large receipt of propit taxes last year last year this time the Surplus was 850th the surplus of Revenue is normal at this time of the year in account for the healthy fund balance of approximately 24.6 million which includes the UN audited beginning fund balance of approximately 14.9 million as shown the fund balance has been decreasing since August and this is also

208normal for this time of the year November revenue for Capital funds consists of 57745 from earnings on investment slet collection expenditures total $432,500 expenditures and revenues are trending as projected and the $144,950 Surplus will increase the fund Balan which is currently approximately 7.5 million F the year 24 anticipated expenditures to Capital is approximately million food nutrition revenue and expenditures are trading within the same range as previous year food nutrition revenue for the month of November was $1 181,182 this amount does not include Federal grant reimbursements the reimbursements will be listed in next month report the largest source of Revenue is $12,000 from students breakfast and lunch expenditures for the month of November were $278,400 deficit of Revenue will decrease the fund balance which is currently 1.8 rent funds assist the Federal federal state and local

209grants the district received $110,100 in Grant revenue and it spended $298,900 there was an increase that was salaries and benefits is that new stuff or is it new practice like the way your insurance premium goes up or salary adjustments for additional degrees it's a combination um C benefici increase and also we gain salary ratees that increases any other questions all right you thank you Miss broom do have a motion yep yep okay I need to approve consent items one through five do I have a motion approve consent items one through five consultant do I have a second second second okay uh any disc right hearing none all those in favor please say I I I I motion Carri unanimously right Dr Whitaker we have next on the agenda is an executive session item to discuss

210yes chair Harden uh staff recommends an organizational change the most recent vacated role of chief of student services will be abolished Additionally the role of chief of state and federal Pro programs will be abolished there will be two new positions created the assistant superintendent of student services and a special education director this recommendation does not increase headcount and actually is a cost savings to the district for FY 24 of 8,383 183 and expected 36,00 ny25 in executive session Mrs Francis Holt was recommended for the position of assistant superintendent of student Support Services the special education director position will be posted may I read the motion statement yes please I moved that the city schools of theer Board of Education approve the superintendent recommendation made in executive session do I have a motion to accept the

211superintendent's recommendation presented in executive session to accept thank you may I have a second second thank you than second motion any discussion I I will throw out that I'm excited about uh appointing a director of uh sorry I wanted to get the name correct special education director and appreciate your willingness to to organize the district in a way with hard to look at a superintendent thank you all right all those in favor please say I I I motion [Music] carries uh moving on to policy Dr Whitaker thank you chair hearnen I would like to call on Mrs am Lynch Chief of Staff to present three policies for second read action good evening again thank you tonight we have three policies for second read action as previously shared with the board the versions being presented tonight

212for Action do reflect some minor edits from the version presented in December primarily wording changes policy djd expense reimbursements was updated to make it clear we follow the state Accounting Office policies on the federal mileage reimbursement plac these policies were all available for public comment through assembly no public feedback was received on them through assembly I did test assembly to make sure that it working first up is policy DC annual operating budget may I read the recommendation yes please I recommend to approve policy DC annual operating budget for action do I have a motion to approve the recommendation to approve policy DC annual operating budget for action move M Johnson Davis makes a motion may have a second second second from any discussion I have mentioned this to Dr Whitaker I just want to mention

213it out loud so that it's on the record I think uh as an addendum to this policy not an addendum I'm sorry that would an edit of this policy I mean as a partner to this policy I think we should uh consider adding a policy that requires the publishing of an actual budget book we have previously talked about whether that is a policy or a procedure I think given the Strategic importance the nature of it being best practice and the fact that just because we have a superintendent now that wants to do it doesn't mean that we will necessarily have a superintendent that wants to do it in the future um I I would like us to have that discussion uh to reinforce uh not only the annual operating budget but the manner in which

214we can uh communicate it and we will bring we will draft that and start that through the process next month um regarding pre-work great thank you no further comment I just ask one question is it Ty to have just two or not I shouldn't say just two excuse me the two public hearings um I think it's in the where is it sorry um fourth paragraph prior to the formal adoption of the budget at least two public hearings on the budget will be held yes okay it doesn't matter when those two uh public hearings are held there is a timeline I think it's already been approved okay so so as a board uh every year we bring forth a timeline and the board approves it and that includes when that takes place that's a part of

215the budget development proess also just for a bit of color here and and um for Miss Anderson to have context on We have basically every meeting for the next couple of boards we will be talking about budget we will have a preliminary budget we will have an edited budget we're going to have a series of evolv budget conversations the last these two hearings I believe are talking about after that entire process is done after the you know probably eight public conversations that we have about building out the budget we will then have two specific budget only uh conversations and and so I I I certainly don't want anyone to be left with the impression that we only have a public conversation about the budget with the public twice there is a ton of opportunity for

216the public to listen in and weigh in on as it's going through development all those in favor please say I I I I the motion carries unanimously second recommendation great next up is policy DK Student Activities fund management I recommend to approve policy DK Student Activities fund management for Action thank you do I have a motion to approve the recommendation to approve policy DK Student Activities fund management for Action so moved may I have a second count Mr Utz is providing the second any discussion F no discussion all those in favor please say you're fine all those in favor please say I Miss Lynch the third recommendation please finally is policy djd expense reimbursements I recommend to approve policy djd expense reimbursements for Action excellent do I have a motion to approve the recommendation to

217accept policy djd expense reimbursement for Action thank you Miss Sulton board member uh makes the motion do I have a second second second any discussion hearing none all those in favor I I I there we go cared unanimously thank you so much Miss Lynch appreciate those policies and and uh the part about the Cadence up at the beginning where that is the third month where they have been available for public comment and um just part of the natural calendar of things we'll move on to our final section which is public comments uh the following information is included in the board policy manual and members of the public also acknowledge this information when they sign up to speak this serves as a reminder for all speakers and members of the audience the opportunity to address the

218board during public comment is limited to District parents students residents employees businesses and organizations persons wishing to address the board during public comment must sign in before the public comment period begins and in doing so are asked to State their connection to CSD and or the city of decar this allows time for the board's other business public comment will ordinarily be limited to 1 hour or 20 speakers at the board's discretion the public comment period may be extended for a specific amount of time or a specific number of additional speakers the time limit is three minutes person speaking during public comment will B not be permitted to yield the floor or transfer unused time to other speakers comments during public comment should be addressed to the board as a body not to any individual board

219memb at the chair's Discretions persons violating this policy may be asked to St down speakers you should be courteous and professional speakers are not to list complaints about specific persons or individuals connected with the district in a public session the board strictly prohibits abusive language threats comments Jers Applause or shouts from the floor disruptive persons will be asked to leave the meeting room the chair May terminate public comments that are profane vulgar defamatory or disruptive if any speakers comments begin to Verge in the areas of hate speech or defamation I'll ask the speaker to end their comments speakers may not address confidential student or Personnel matters those should be submitted as concerns to the superintendent in writing members of the board will not address persons presenting public comment or speak to the substance of any

220comment made during the public comment section instead a member of the administration team will follow up with persons speaking at the board meeting Dr Whitaker will you call our first speaker yes the first speaker is David Messer the second yeah think we should move on and then if we have if we see someone join us okay BR uh the second speak speaker is Rachel Ain I'm looking at okay okay yeah make sure we're in the right one yes we're in the right one okay all right the next speaker is munira shareif and that was Zoom okay what did he say uh no one was present in Zoom okay the next just as a just as a quick point we're we're still six minutes before 6:30 I I wonder is there any chance so well we

221can go back um yeah let's do that I'm writing it down and okay we can go back okay 630 and the next person is Jacob schmuckler yeah good evening CSD board and superintendent Whitaker uh I'm a relatively new parent with CSD with one child's in College Heights and another coming soon I'm speaking here tonight to put on record a response to comments made by fellow parents at the December board meeting then FYI both sets of our comments were published in the teator uh Edition December 17th 2023 online um our letter uh reads as follows we are dozens of Jewish and non-jewish parents of CSD with great concerns about the general rise of anti-Semitic incidents our children and families have personally experienced both in schools and in the community since October 7th against this backdrop we

222are writing in response to some comments made at the CSD board meeting Tuesday December 12th before responding to those comments we want to commend your leadership for the work done so far to address various issues related the staff curriculum the day-to-day incidents hate and intolerance against students Jewish and non-jewish backgrounds we acknowledge that these are difficult issues and our priority is the safety of all students and Families Our Hope is that the community can continue to work together to do the best we can in an imperfect environment by now it should be clear to everyone that there are no easy answers or simple choices here next we came away quite pleased with the potential for common ground with fellow parents who advocated for things like free expression bance curriculum safe schools and proper handling of

223Staff incidents what we believe is lacking is a proper for to have a constructive dialogue about what we as Jewish parents uh want which was sadly often misrepresented at the December board meeting for example we do not want Gaza Palestinian history or the current War to be avoided or censored in classrooms we do want to ensure that the content in classrooms is credible that is meets state standards and advances critical thinking skills we do want students to hear from accepted and legitimate experts on both sides of this issue to provide context and information that will allow students to come away with their own conclusions we do not want students of Arab Muslim Palestinian or any other descent to feel like their struggles or their history is being ignored or neglected we do want the human

224death toll on the Palestinian side of this current conflict to be openly discussed and Central to the discussion so too should the nature of the killings be discussed on both sides and the impact it is having on their respective societies we do want an atmosphere sorry we do not want an atmosphere a fear of our students or staff we do want an environment where staff and students can learn and discuss history and current events without fear of being singled out harassed or put down or being Jewish Muslim or any other religion we hope that all parents can agree that given these principles there's ample room for common ground and a shared perspective for how to move forward in tackling these challenges it is imperative we uphold our commitment to creating an environment that not only

225Champions free expression critical thinking and respect for diverse opinions but also prioritizes the use of factual and credible resources our shared objective must cons ently revolve around creating a safe and inclusive space for every student regardless of background or conviction we eagerly await ongoing collaboration and open dialogue where the voices of all are heard and thoughtfully considered in shaping the future of our school system the next speaker is rahee snow my name is Raheem snow I am a resident here and a parent of two children in the school system so today I'm talking about the price of equity is eternal self-examination and adjustment there is a concerted and calculated attack on Equity happening in America right now from billionaire Bill Amman using allegations of plagiarism to push out Claudine gay from her role as president

226of Harvard University first black woman to be in that role from Texas passing a law that prevents any institution of higher education from establishing Dei offices or hiring employees or contractors to play those roles from Elon Musk saying things like Dei needs to di this is a disturbing pattern that we need to be aware of here at CSV these things have a way of filtering down of happening discreetly behind closed doors in rooms where it happens and later surprising us dni is our attempt to address issues of equity racial Equity gender Equity islamophobia anti-Semitism all all all of the above take the issue of Palestine for example Israel has been killing the people of Gaza non-stop for the past three months in that time we are learning how little Americans actually know about the root

227causes of the occupation why is that Palestine has been pushed out of Education it has been pushed out of the history books and classrooms professors and teachers have lost their jobs students who advocate for Palestine have been systematically targeted and their student groups have been dissolved Coalition of pro-israeli lobbyists have infiltrated grade school and higher education and they are controlling the narrative about Palestine talk about dark sarcasm in the classroom what's the result millions of college educated Americans come into adulthood in the workforce without knowing atine and very little about the Middle East except propaganda and stereotypes this is a staggering level of thought policing that we've allowed from our lack of vigilance thei has the potential to flip the script on Palestine on racial Equity gender equity and so many other issues that's why

228the critics are getting rid of it they're getting rid of it because it's working they're not getting rid of it because it's failing it's starting to flip the script on who has control of the narrative so we have to be vigilant here in decator we cannot let the patterns happening nationally affect us they want us to throw Equity out we're going to say no and we're going to stand our ground our freedom of speech our freedom of thought and our freedom of assembly all depend on it thank you the next speaker is Andrew leis good evening when I spoke to you at the November Board of Education meeting I expressed concern and outrage on a number of issues as they related to being a Jewish Community member of decar with two children who graduated from

229CSD having attended CSD since pre the closure of the December Board of Education meeting excuse me I introduced myself and provided my phone number and email addresses an email address to four separate speakers who spoke in opposition to my comments or the actions of CSD unfortunately I did not hear back from anyone my desire then as it remains today is create a healthy dialogue will we accomplish we will accomplish nothing if we remain siloed and unwilling to find common ground on this and other issues fully appreciate how difficult these current times are for our curent our school district our teachers but most especially for the students of CSD as challenging as it is for C adults to navigate the complexities of our world we must not forget that we Face these challenges with the experience

230time our children are not afforded such luxuries their world is shaped by the next social media post and the one after that it is with this in mind that I am a appreciative of the early steps I have seen by the district to refocus the district's Equity work to be student focused these early actions help ensure all students feel safe and included all teachers are provided the resources they need for a diverse student population like ours and action is taken when anyone in the district abuses their responsibility be administrator teacher or students these are the actions of the community a school district and its leaders who understand the terms diversity equity and inclusion are meant to lift all who are a part of the district most especially our students but these early actions are the

231first mountain in a long chain of mountains that must be built upon if we are to create the educational environment that fully Embraces and educ Ates all CSD students I look forward to helping CSD navigate the trials and tribulations of today to ensure a stronger and more prosperous future for tomorrow thank you thank you the next speaker is Adam harwit hey everyone um my name is Adam Horowitz I'm a stu not a student I'm a parent of two students at Deacon Hill um and you know probably like a bunch of us I am still really taking in the presentation that uh Miss Newton gave earlier um and you know one of my questions obviously and it sounds like it's the agenda for our next for the next meeting is so what's the plan um and

232you know I have a thought in terms of what I wanted to talk about coming here and it doesn't change I feel like it's only informed by that present but you know I was coming here tonight to speak um in support of the equity work that the district is doing and I'm honestly a little bit concerned after that presentation and some of the initial response that the equity work as it exists Now is really going to be kind of used or treated as a Fall Guy for what hasn't been working when I think we would probably all agree that that is a systemic failure I mean I understand like I heard a number of people say it's our Collective failure and I think that that's true and so I'm not against change in any way

233um but I also don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water or whatever that kind of expression would be because I do feel like there is work that the equity department does that is essential and important and helping to address those issues um not that there's not other things that could be done or should be done and part of what that is is making our students our faculty members of our community feel a part of this community and a part of this school district um and I know I was here last month talking about um issues around Palestine um it's still something I I'm here to talk about today and I think that the equity department is one of the important and really the place that I know of in the school

234district to bring these concerns and to raise voices that um are often suppressed like has been said so I am here to speak in support of the work that has been happening understanding that changes has to be made but I think um we should build upon not necessarily just take away um and I guess the last thing I'll say is I know from having discussion with some folks here here I know that some continuing education work has been doing to kind of to build our capacity to deal with issues around Palestine which I think is great I think one issue that I've been hearing from talking to students and faculty about that would be important to add the list of of of those issues are this is this confusion that I'm hearing time and time

235again around issues of what constitutes anti-Semitism versus what is criticism of Israel I've been hearing from both students and faculty uh concerned about speaking out because of not understanding some of those distinctions the next speaker is Samir hman then the next speaker is Tracy n everyone happy to be here my name is Tracy I'm a parent of two City School of decator kills when at save where I first fell in love with M new Scott um and I am also the 2020 2021 Georgia teacher of the year I serve on VLT as well and I'm a former member of the Georgia School Board of Education um I'm coming tonight because of how much I love this District's commitment and vision for Equity over 10 years ago I chose this school or the school district for

236my own futured children based on that the transparency this commitment to equity and also because of its size so that is exactly what brings me here tonight two issues around the ways that we can strive and really live up to that Vision MBS and Miss Newton Scott could not have laid a better groundwork for the things that I want to talk to um now more more than ever before as I work in the state policy realm of Education I can tell you that everyone is watching us ESD is who people are looking at as a model of equity and Progressive leadership I want to address two things one is about how we treat the discussion of current eventss in the classroom and how we manage that time and those discussions with staff and with students

237alike now in C County last year we saw when outside current events and politics were attached to a student Le classroom discussion The District School Board spent Millions on attorney fees and they dismissed a celebrated educator even after a tribunal of handpicked top County principles advised otherwise we are not so we are not C counties and I wanted to lead with love with understanding and a focus on grok and collaboration that's what be AC of our students and I think that all leaders need to lead the way that they want their teachers to teach I'm also here because of this nutrition plant policy this change I have a great appreciation for understanding that it is independent with funded however if we're striving for Equity that absolutely has to be something that we're talking about you

238know today I'm a state teacher of the year and I have two degrees from University of Chicago but that wasn't always the case I'm a daughter of a single mom who was a drug addict cly incarcerated and chronically ill I attended nine different schools in my time and even still as an elementary child I was filling out my free or reduced lunch application and trying to find my mom to beg her to sign us we cannot put this on children handing a because their parents of slightly more than $99 is not the password so what I'm imploring you today is to consider children's needs for access to food security I want you to have an investigation that really answers a couple of questions the first of them being what has the district done to assist

239families in actually applying for free R lunch have we made home visits have we actually called home the second is what has this District done to collect on these accounts more than an email this can happen to your children my own youngest is in the red right now I told par with her dad I provide meal for my kiddo their dad doesn't always he needs to pay that is HE capable of paying it yes he is that's not the case for all kids we shouldn't publicly humiliate them or under Nour them with a sandwich solely for that if we really want to focus on equi we have to think about what these subgroups need and how we're going to close those not gaps but how we're going to close that education Deb every child deserves

240it the next speaker is Hassan iier thank you thank you for speak um my name is I'm a parent I'm a resident inur and have two kids in school um as a cfd parents who has a kids District I'm concerned that that school board is either um failing or intentionally avoiding to address specific issues related to the punishment of equ sta member and banning of representation of Palestine at the model League Debate Club both of these actions sent an undeniable message for censorship and punishment for a particular view point let's not repeat the mistakes this board made during the dror D's Rocky tenure in which the school board fails to hold the superintendent accountable or be transparent to the cents of n the punishment of the CSC staff member due to sharing resources in Palestine

241was unfair and problematic such haste and lack of transparency by the district to punish a sta member for supporting Palestinian human rights makes as very concern as T many of us are now concerned that Ira is support that cire will criticize the ongoing Massacre of Palestinian civilians in the GAA by the is isra Defense Forces or if our kids choose the CRI size speak against the ongoing war in Gaza they could be punished for their actions or could be labeled as anti- the way in which as the CSD Equity staff member was suspended for that email sends a clear and chilling message to the entire Community indicator that no one should criticize the actions of the Israeli government if so they will be punished or considered anti-in the parents asked the school board to step

242in and acknowledge that there's currently ongoing censorship of po Palestine voices under the guise of anti-Semitism and this is a false equivalent diversity of opinions should be encourage and I believe our Equity Department uh does that not punished remember you are elected to represent parents and provide oversight in school distri we need more transparency and accountability that is not influenced by political or lob thank you thank you thank sir the next speaker is Philip cuffy evening everyone my name is Phil cuffy I'm a resident of thecar proud parent of two graduates of Decor high school and co-chair of Beacon Hill black alliance with human rights I'm here this evening with a simple message that is we're taking Equity seriously wanted to do the thing for all of our students 5700 that attend we will make

243it strong we will make it robust and we will make it meaningful so that all students feel that they are seen heard expected and seen as individuals who can engage with teachers and staff in a very meaningful way I think it's important that as the board you accept your responsibility to not only meet the state standards also meet your community's needs for all those things that fall under the equity umbrella for all of our students not just the black and brown and students of color what you're setting for these students will ultimately serve them rest of their lives they're introduced to what Equity is at this stage potential for the future will look better for all of us I want to specifically um ask you to address the issues of you know our students being

244seen our students feeling valued our students being heard and it is what you do in terms of making the equity the director position coordinator's position the entire staff in the equity Department making it really feel and serve our students in a way that is uh reaching its full potential we just don't want a box checked as Equity we just don't want anything that fears to be window dressing we want to see that Equity is really centered in the CSD that is something that board as well as the staff teachers and in the community so I leave you with this question engage in a very meaningful and purposeful way and intentional way all the benefits of equity in our education in our community you for your time that was the last speaker listed I will go

245back to the names that were said before David Meer Rachel Aon aine munir Shere then was one of those was in Zoom did they right in the Mir okay okay all right we would like to thank all the speakers for taking time to be here tonight as board members it is important for us to hear oh I that's what I'm reading it the digital name and the sign in I think that's fine okay sure thank you for this opportunity to speak my name is Dr Linda Hamilton I'm a veteran teacher with 24 years of service served here in city schools at deor I'm a deor high school's 2023 24 teacher of the year recipient of the city schools's theater good trouble award and 2324 recipient at csc's extra mile award I list these honors because

246before I speak I wish for the community and the board the children education and the community I serve today I thinking about silence just recently two and a half years into my service here at EHS I was taught the history of Trinity High School and was introduced to the wall for those here who do not know the wall is a demarcation of the space between what once was the wife's only deor high school campus and TR high school the high school for the black children of city of decar now that I know the history as I walk past that wall and my daily work at the high school I'm compelled to think about silence and opportunity here is a truth I stand here in 2024 as a teacher at Decor high school because there were

247citizens who were brave enough to speak in the face of Injustice I owe my education my opportunity my vision for a more just world for those who were brave enough to speak out against the accepted status quo of the age who push to demand dignity agency and visibility for my community in the face of Silence because of my history a history of opportunity forged by those who spoke voice into my existence I've watched our community in CSD first with dismay and more recently with growing fear are we truly content with silence here is the truth City schools of theor names its first educational pillar as equity it is for this reason that I chose this district for my employment and for my own child's high school education as an educator and a pluralistic Democratic Society

248I expect to teach facts to teach history to teach uncomfortable truth and to not B I expect to not limit knowledge building based on individual interests to understand that critical thinking brings discomfort and to look to Excellence which requires that I adhere to standards laid out by my state without censoring or avoiding difficult topics this practice is not silent encourage the community to review the Georgia standards regarding World civilizations carefully we are called to teach history and to teach truth and yet we are being censored in silence this is a dangerous path to take who gets to decide where the silence ends why silence why did I come to you with this word I believe that our silence in the face of global violence our choice to Champion the lives of some over the lives

249of others to purposefully not mourn our dead children with equal weight of urgency and compassion is this violence it is an eraser an eraser of personhood a rer of voice a rer of History all of the silence that surrounds us is definite it is not without fear of rival that I'm breaking my silence but I'm governed by truths that push me to speak I will end my time with words that are my guide as an educator and humans words perhaps that pushed me to be recognized by this very board as one who will make trouble in the face of Injustice these are the words of Dr King words that inspired generations and shaped a nation we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single Garment of Destiny whatever affects one directly

250affects all indirectly these are the words that compel me to speak these words will not allow me to forget that all means all Bard I beg you to join me break the silence thank you thank you okay now I'd like to thank all the speakers for taking time to be here tonight thank you for pointing that out for me uh as board members it is important for us to hear the concern from our community and we take these comments into consideration um I do want to point out that in the assembly presentation is the calendar uh for 2425 I went through that a little quick I think but it is uh presented in the assembly on page 51 and and the board will share it publicly as well probably in our in our board presentation

251there um anything else before we move on to future dates okay the next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday February 20th at the Wilson Center again we will follow this new board meeting Cadence we'll have our next community meeting on Wednesday January 17th at Beacon Hill Middle School starting at 6:30 pm. uh that is different from the date we had previously announced because we did not want to conflict with the state of the city which we will be attending the community meeting is this board's commitment to two-way conversations about our vision and our values topics such as budget compensation and student outcomes are on the agenda to be discussed excellent there being no further business this meeting is adjourned at 6:54 pm. thank you