October 10, 2023, Board of Education Meeting

001that's for me too all right I used it uh thank everybody for joining us today for our Board of Education pre-work session uh this Cadence for this meeting allows us to prepare for upcoming regular meetings uh these meetings are more casual primarily for the purposes of information gathering no formal votes will be taken we will begin today with the discussion of the book great on their behalf the board is committed to professional development that focuses on improving student achievement which you read about and organizational Effectiveness this book exemplifies this belief board member white will facilitate today's discussion of part one why School boards fail take it away Sasha thank you board chair hearnen and rest of my esteemed board members and Dr Whitaker hello did do that um all right so this chapter was called

002knowledge-based failures and it specifically goes into different reasons why school boards fail and I mentioned this at the last board meeting but I thought I'd mention it again that when we were going through the changes of administration and we were going through just uh AAL um in country and going through Co um I will say that there were times on this board where we weren't always um student outcome Focus we were tackling fires we were responding to a lot of things it was very hard for us to be proactive because we were very reactive in all the things that were that were happening in our school district so I appreciate that I don't want to use the word calm down but things have shifted I guess as a better way to uh on student outcomes

003and what what that means and so um one thing in this book that was um also or this chapter I should say that stuck out to me was where is that that verage that he used a lot adult outcome oriented adult outcome oriented so that so so many positive to having a very involved community and involved parent where it can get a little bit wonky is they they think that their issues should be our issues always that all of the issues brought to us should be at the Forefront of what our issues are and what we should be um be addressing and so I know there's some sensitiv there and we have to be delicate there but I also think that with us having a strategic plan now and with us continuing to focus on

004student outcome we can always bring it back to that conversation and we can always bring it back to will that will that and does that focus on the outcome of the student if it doesn't then I think that that tells us really how much time we need to be spending on it honestly and we can stand by that with data and with our strategic plan um so I also appreciated or I thought it was interesting the section that talked about States who don't even require for school board members to have school board training um so I'm happy to say that Georgia does that was something that we had to do as soon as we became school board members um so um fortunately there's a lot of states that you have to take a class just

005because you're an elected official and you have to cover a certain class for being elected and I also found it even more interesting that the courses that we take in different conferences every year don't necessarily have to be focused on student outcomes either um and so there are a couple of states that have adopted at least 50% of your cour work and Contin education that you take have to be focused on student outcomes and metrics so so even though that's not a mandatory thing in Georgia at this point I like that being maybe a a path that we could start to choose and I think we've already done that a little bit when we specifically hire gsba to do one of our trainings when they come to us I believe that a majority of the

006times that they have come to us they have been focused on student outcomes or metrics of some sort and so I think we're already maybe in that path and just being very cognizant that 50% of our training is focused on that I think would be great great policy to adopt um and also that 50% of our Schoolboard meetings are also always leading back and focused on student outcomes and um and the Matrix and the metrics that we use which I think we've also been doing a good job of that as well the last the board meetings especially so I just wanted to point that out that it isn't something that's necessarily expected of us by law like it is in some States but we are doing that here and I encourage us that we continue

007to do that because that is one of the one of the biggest reasons why school boards fail is that they take their eye off the prize which is student outcome so that was kind of I thought the way that I would facilitate it is just kind of giving a couple of my ahas and my takeaways that I got from the chapter and then um just give you all an opportunity to do the same if there was anything that really stood out to you all that you wanted to talk about so let's start with who's been on the board longest first that's me and that's Jana that a great summary um couple things stood out to me um I really appreciate the discussion that gave the differences between um inputs outputs and outcomes um that was

008uh impactful for me and and that there are um each of those has an adult component and a student component but what was particularly imp impactful was just the difference between outputs and outcomes um and so ultimately you know we are looking at the outcomes at the end of the school year um but the outputs are those um formative assessments and and things like that that kind of um help us to monitor our progress um but I can see how those sometimes those terms are mistakenly use in yeah interchangeably thank you yeah so that was impactful I appreciated the um conversation on the different types of boards um you know and how you know we we all come from these different backgrounds and we come with these different mindsets and so we may have had

009experiences on other boards and bring that those mentalities with us and then not always a good fit for a board that is looking for um student outcomes um at I would even say it's strong it's not that they're not always it's they're almost always not yeah exactly y y yeah um the the training piece was interesting and I I didn't have time I I was going to go back and pull up the gsba uh training catalog that we have to like look to see you know what could be considered of you know training on um just off the top of my head I know there's always the legal um training um for governance um I guess you know those things to say well you know this is about student outcomes but I don't think that's

010what he um what kept kind of coming up in my mind I was like is this an advertisement for him his business as a coach have all of these trainings and the the the research their research shows that you know even student outcome focused training there's often not a difference between boards who have attended trainings that weren't that not have that focus and the difference is that they don't have the coach and that coaching keeps coming up and I was like oh I guess in the end there's going to be you know you want to you get in touch with us you know the coach.com he was bringing that up and I was like well what does that mean for us um I thought about it though you know could it be considered that we

011are using a coach uh like we the and I I'm not great with names but um we had the facilitators came to our last our first four yeah so I was thinking that could be a coaching type role that we have thought from someone outside of the system thanks for the other lady that we took the course from at in Savannah who was also there with the doctor right uh she's a past board member and now she's at gsba uh Miss Hinton Hinton yes yeah yeah H so I was thinking you know maybe we are kind of doing that um we we we are we are yeah yeah yeah there's there's slight subtlety but yes we are okay um and then the basketball analogy I got I you know that kind of threw me for

012a it would be different if he was using had been using basketball andales uh throughout I mean it it worked but it was he just kind of went too hard on the whole basketball thing my husband is a basketball he gives he can only give basketball yes if anything the law just anything so um but you know overall IO thank you J chair you're the next longest on the board she beat me by a month love that she beat you by a month I like this one often School boards will focus only on what's popular in the community or the latest thing they've read in social media When selecting a set of goals School Board should focus on the authentically gathered voice of the community and the results of a root cause analysis needs assessment

013research and form tool to identify and prioritize potential goals and we do that bad thing up at the top far too often the school district I will sidebar say I don't think we're so subtly going along with this book as I read each like oh yeah that's what Dr Whitaker was uh I find it subtle at all right but even I mean I think that this is great and and some of the stuff that I've heard is we're elected but we're not running for election and I made a you know you will you will I am always a nered that you know the governor gives teachers bonuses every election year that's not been lost on me in my 43 years as a Georgia Citizen and it's not lost on me that school board should stay

014focused on identifying the root cause of these problems what we're going to do about it and not get caught up in the Meer of adult inputs which we do thank you sir that's want to rock paper scissors from that who's the baby who's the baby I don't know well Carmen is the uh the vice chair so we'll go ahead so we going into chapter two as well that's still part of part one okay I read from chapter two so for not I'm in trouble um to I guess to um to picky back off of James's point on page 54 um he mentioned that um he first of all G and I have the exact same highlighting pattern highlight notes in the margin highlight notes in the margin um but he kind of mentions in all

015of those bullet points there where he talks about why boards are designed to fail that it kind of starts with a foundation of not having clear goals and measurable outcomes for the superintendent and for the superintendent's cabinet so we can say very vague things like we want better policy legislations or we want to close the achievement Gap if we don't narrow or drill that down into something that you can sink your teeth into and that we can measure over time they're going to easily lose track of that and they will easily get sidetracked by whatever is on social media or whatever parent complaints are or whatever emails we get which nine times out of 10 is adult focused and not student outcomes focused but um I appreciate about what started chapter two is understanding um

016exactly what the what your skill is or what your knowledge is um and that can help kind of frame out or kind of put some Foundation or some meat on the bones of those goals um because we want you to be successful but we can't just hand you a goal that doesn't make any sense so your goals need to be smart they need to be measurable we need to put a timeline on them that also gives things that we can send back to the community so we want that achievement Gap closed but what does that mean so we want MTH scores in grades two through five we want to see an increase of x% and we want to see it by this point in time that gives you something to take back to your learning

017coaches and then you can decide how you want to do it but we're clear about what we're looking for and then if we don't meet that Matrix we can go back and figure out um exactly how we want to fix it um but I think it's you know from what he's saying here um School boards often have we're well intentioned but we don't sit down and figure out exactly what that we want those goals um to look like same thing with things like Financial stability well we're like well we want more we want to give teachers raises we want to give them bonuses that sound like good buzzword um but really what we want to do is drill down into we want more fiscal responsibility in operations we want to have money in this month

018we can buy this thing that's more measurable um so I think you said that that just really comes from understanding exactly where your grows are and where your glows are where you can focus and where things that may have to be repr prioritized over time you can't do everything at once so some things may have to be reprioritized and then have a very defined goal that we can thank you H um so I was going to start with each of the the four kind of types of boards I forget to be exact founder focused contribution Focus patronage Focus or outcomes focus and I do I realized that he had to kind of think about it in in grouping but it's important to note that that the details of it are both and that that you're

019going to have aspects of multiple in the in a board and where that's dangerous I think for us is that you can get elements of what outcome Focus look like on a school board but still not have gone all the way you can kind of convince yourself that you're there by having good data or by having good measurement talking a little bit more specifically about how disciplined we have to be about outcome focus by having some metrics around outcome does not make us outcome focused by having some aspects of an outcome focused organization does not make us outcome focused and there's a level of discipline required to get all the way there I thought the um examples of goals going from kind of pre- outcome Focus to actual outcome Focus was was really helpful I

020know that even when we we had talked about tendency for us not just us but I think anybody to default to measuring process right so we're going to spend this amount of time in training this many people are going to accomplish this amount of training we're gonna you know a percentage of teachers will have gone through this particular program and those are all the inputs to Jaden's conversation at the beginning they're not they're not actually what we care about which is what is the result that that has in the classroom how do the students do basically so I I thought making that that linkage you know coming from organizations that are kind of found founder Focus obviously my company is is founder focused as it can be um even in that case we have a

021lot of times that we talk about outcome focus and my reports to my board are outcome focused but that does not make me an outcome focused organization the same way when we if we have a couple of metrics that are outcome focused we shouldn't put a rest on our Loyals and assume that we're there there's a lot of work to do to get all the way to the point back and he's he's trying to make about thank you that great discussion um and I did want to wrap up on this last point I know that gsba talks a lot about this and and I think it Bears repeating that when there's a there's a challenge When We Run The Campaign as a board member there are items that they may also see on social media

022or the buzz around the community as being what they're going to focus on when they get on the board and so that's kind of their talking points and then we all realize I think sitting at this at this at our chairs that once you get on the board and you really see the the work that has to be done it's so much deeper than some of those other items that are the buzz out there um and lastly we get elected from the parents but the parents aren't who we work for and that that's where most elected officials don't have the same issue that we do they can listen to their constituents and whatever their constituents want they can kind of speak on that but our constituents are the kids and even if there are a

023good majority of the adults that are upset about something if it's not the best outcome for the kids if the outcome is not going to improve for our students we are not going to do it and we have to be able to stand on that um no matter how many neighborhoods are talking about it if it doesn't go back to our strategic plan and and the focus of the outcome for for our kids so I think um just I like that this is um the shift that that we're really making a more outward open honest intentional shift on student outcomes even though I think for the five of us we joined the board for that very reason but now we're we're putting like that you know putting it to paper um and putting it to

024action so good discussion great book thank you Dr wison I hand it back thank you Miss White for leading the discussion the next board Vice chair Dr Carman Sultan will facilitate all of part two how your school board can become effective step one move step one focus on mindset Dr Whitaker you can introduce our first presentation thank you chair heren good afternoon and today we'll have a presentation on the 2026 calendar process by Mrs Amanda Lynch chief of sta good afternoon board chair hearnen Vice chair sulon Este steam members of the board and superintendent Dr G Whitaker today I am excited to begin the conversation around the development of the 2025 2026 District calendar calendar development aligns to our strategic accelerator focused on organizational Effectiveness and Excellence I will start with A Brief Review of

025what calendar development looked like in September 2022 just over a year ago calendars were approved for the next two years the current year so the 23 24 school year and next year the 24 25 school year these calendars were informed by staff and Community feedback on several draft versions ultimately they reflected several changes first these calendars introduced mon monthly early release days on the last Wednesday of each month this time giv staff dedicated time to learn together collaborate and focus on necessary tasks without taking their daily classroom planning time or incurring the cost of substitutes second the 2023 202 4 and 2024 2025 calendars also included one digital learning day per year on Election Day third two staff dedicated work dayss were also included one during pre-planning and one prior to the semester break as

026we look to Future calendar development we are proposing a focus on developing and adopting One calendar annually last year calendars for the 2324 are current year and 2425 were adopted at the same time moving to an annual adoption process means calendars will be adopted approximately 1 and A2 years before they go into effect today we are beginning the process for developing the calendar for school year 2026 we'll start with an opportunity for you as the Board of Education members to share your priorities right after this presentation next we will gather stakeholder feedback this will include leveraging the superintendent many C CCS for their input we will use the board priorities and stakeholder feedback to prepare one to two calendars for the board to then review from a district perspective there are several priorities we have

027identified as considerations for calendar develop these include making sure we meet the minimum number of school days as require or suggested by the state of Georgia 180 recommended by the state seeking to distribute the days evenly across the semester break in December so that you know roughly half the days are before the semester break and half or after including opportunities for staff capacity building this is currently reflected in the monthly early release days on Wednesdays a possible iteration however maybe that the early release day would not follow a week where students were on break another priority is maintaining awareness of our community diversity for example by considering important religious holidays and it's important to note that we are also committed at a minimum to creating a calendar companion for our schools that highlights religious holidays

028and related considerations so for example leaders and teachers should know when students may be fasting for religious purposes or when to avoid scheduling test because students may be out for religious H aligning our calendar to other Metro districts were possible and appropriate for example the Metro school districts all have the same spring break that first full week in this slide shows our anticipated timeline for the 2025 2026 calendar development process tonight begins the discussion and we look forward to hearing priorities from the board that should be reflected in the calendar draft we could we come back to you with following tonight's meeting we will begin our initial feedback base throughout October and into early November we will hear from stakeholders through the superintendent student PTA PTSA PTO Council teacher Council and FDT Council an optional

029survey will also be released next week to gather family and community in we expect to develop two calendars informed by your priorities and stakeholder feedback that is gathered we anticipate bringing these options to the next board meeting in November so at this time I'm happy to address any questions about the calendar development process as well as invite you to engage in discussion we kindly request you share any priorities that should be considered in drafting the calendars for review at the next four meetings um I think one thing to consider or that we should consider when we make the calendar next year are these are the early release days and how they're and like you mentioned how they're going to fall um sometimes that wind they doeses fall after a break so I come back from

030fall break and then you come right back into an early release day so I don't that's probably something to put in that survey um I think said the lift last year was making sure that we could get an early release day so maybe now we can massage where it needs to go should it be a Thursday um I don't know if you want to move it around in the calendar every single month of the year but kind of how we would reconcile that I think it is tough on parents that have had a whole week off of school and then you come right back and then Monday Tuesday essentially especially if you got Willer ones I mean no school in July ever feels wrong to me and as a board I don't want to be

031putting out a calendar that does that full week break and the winter and the fall or part of what makes decater decater and I love it and uh professional learning that's built into the calendar that teachers feel is valuable we don't have data that's the cool thing about this being 18 months I mean I like the early Rel relase days but the point is to do professional learning that let our money where out is in terms of training the teachers do they appreciate it is it working do we need to go back to the drawing board that's that's it you do those three things I'm happy with any calendar you put in front of me did you say you don't like not having school in July oh my God Jane school should not exist in

032July July should be the summer August it can be August one I don't care one is a Tuesday or Friday I apologize I that too was that unclear okay I'm sorry I'm sorry school should never be in July okay sorry AG okay oh my gosh go ahead J go ahead no I was just gonna say um I saw that there was a teacher of one dedicated teacher work day and free planning and I'm glad that that there's that one dedicated day you I'm sure teachers would appreciate and and and I would be interested to know like was that those two days were they honored like did they not have a meeting that they had to go to um because that's what ends up happening um yeah were we saying that we wanted our spring break

033the fall on the same day as everyone else's or that we want it to not fall on the same day alignment so fall the same as the rest of Metro District might be in the minority here but I sort of like the lack of chaos at beaches and everywhere else you get with your kids during that week but I was gonna I was going to bring up the same point I think that's something you should put in your survey um because some people may appreciate having it be off cycle the private schools I think have their spring break early yeah before some people it's easier get that week off if it's not everybody trying to S work or maybe it's easier to you want to travel somewhere to travel I don't I I can see

034both sides of the equation so maybe it's worth asking people what they prefer would they prefer it be in a different week or do they like that it's at the same time I don't know people have different and I wonder if that's a teacher thing too Dr whiter has an opinion you didn't ask but if we going to ask um we're not we're not okay well I will say that um you would need when you're thinking about building the calendar you are going to also think about staff and whether or not all of your staff 900 plus lives indicator and then also if their children attend say that yes so it it it's just something to be mindful of and um because that would be basically the third week that you're offering that what do

035you mean because your fall breaks do not necessarily align align either right I see one of the weeks could potentially fall so you have fall winter and spring and so when you're thinking about staff and alignment and that that parameter around what would and I hate to say this out loud but the gentleman's agreement that all Metro systems would have that spring break so that all staff would be able to and that's of course public K12 would be able to share that that's where that that that's pretty compound yeah Point thank you thank you Miss Lynch Dr Whitaker do we have another presentation yes chair heren I would like to call on Mrs Mall Hart marunga chief of communications to seek your feedback on the draft of our 2024 legislative priorities good afternoon again board

036chair hearnen Vice chair spon members of the board and superintendent Dr Jimma Whitaker today I am presenting a draft of the proposed 2024 legislative priorities for pre-work the city schools would the cater Board of Education annually adopts legislative priorities to support the Mission Vision and goals of CSD and to support the district's all indicator strategic priorities of ensuring CSD can equitably and effectively improve outcomes for all students the draft of the annual priorities is presented to the board in October for pre-work a second draft is presented in November for approval upon upon review and approval the board will ask the decor delegation to support the following legislative priorities for the 2024 session of the Georgia General Assembly the proposed priorities can be grouped under four primary categories Safety and Security mental health funding for public

037education and local board authority and governance our first priority is under student and staff SA safy CSD is committed to ensuring every student feels safe seen and successful proactively providing safe learning environment for all students and staff the first priority under Safety and Security is dedicating a line item in the budget for funding school safety making this a stable and ongoing priority while the state has made periodic Investments to help make schools safer there is no dedicated funding in the budget to make school safety an ongoing priority the second priority is incorporating an annual supplemental Grant in the QBE formula with allocations determined by the local board third funding for monitoring potential threats and continuous training for school administrators and resources for the installation and maintenance of security systems under mental health CSD opposes legislation

038that prevents an inclusive learning environment where students can thrive in a manner consistent with their gender identity the four proposed priorities under mental health are support for the mental health and safety of all students particularly those from historically marginalized population increase funding training for mental health professionals and expanding student and staff access to Services school districts are carrying the financial burden of supporting the mental health of increased funding for school counselors for special education and gifting students as statutorily mandated by the passing of HB 283 in 2013 decrease the student to to school counselor ratio to assist in the counseling and guidance of students priority three is a funding for public education CSD opposes the expansion of tax credits and private school vouchers that that will divert public funds to private education BFD supports funding

039public education by continuing to fully fund the QBE formula modernizing the QBE formula to account for inflation support sta technology and other needs to adequately fund the true cost of public education increasing state budget funding to ensure all students have access learning programs which are fundamental to Student Success recre reducing barriers to attracting training and retaining Talent including salary increases for certified Educators nutrition staff and bus drivers increasing funding for student transport to and from school the funding back to a partnership level State transportation funding has not kept pace with the district's actual cost State dollars currently cover only about 15% of these costs down from about 50% in the 1990s this shift adds significant costs to local budgets and limits the amount that can be directed to the classroom finally our fourth priority is

040local Authority and government csb opposes any legislation that will override the Constitutional authority of the locally elected City School of of deat Board of Education CSD support for local board and governance is evidenced by three priorities maintaining local control over school governance and operations including decisions about classroom instruction media sensor content and educational resources maintaining educational and curriculum decisions instructional resources and local Revenue sources maintaining local control and flexibility in implementing legislative priorities Additionally the city schools of decater fully support the legislative priorities and positions outlined by the Georgia school boards Association as well as the Georgia Association of Education leaders Gail gsca gssa GAE and paage in closing I want to make the board aware that City schools that catered recently join the Georgia education Coalition or gec gec provides a unified voice to

041state legislators and policymakers on behalf of Georgia's most successful and Innovative Public School System the Coalition is known to lawmakers as an Engaged and influential group with active engagement by the general assembly and Department of Education on matter affecting public education Bec is managed by seasoned lawyers and government relations professionals at Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarboro persective membership in G and member districts are responsible for annual dues based on student population with the addition of cfd gec is an association of 13 city and county school districts representing over 40% of Georgia's Cas 12 public population other member districts include the Atlanta Public Schools B County Carterville Cherokee County PO County the Cab County Pon County Gainesville wette County Henry County Newton County Carterville Gainesville I me be report repeating I'm sorry Cherokee Newton and Pen

042counties again these legislative priorities are being presented for pre-work are there any questions well I'm before we go to question I I love the list I think it's very well curated I love having it as a document we can point to for our priorities there are many of them that I could talk about for 30 minutes because they get me excited I did wrap the desk about modernizing the QBE formula um something that I've every time I see anyone who works at the state level I tell them that's that's the one thing I would do so thank you for putting that together other questions um so January fi the bit late to present this to the delegation um are we like are we able to pre- circulate or begin putting it in front of them

043and so this is been on they're not surprised by it because I know that's been a complaint that I think the delegation has justifiably levied our Direction so yeah yes we will be putting it before them in November okay okay fantastic um then if if I could ask a couple questions about each of them the security and safety priorities um when we talk about uh funding for installation and maintenance of security systems that's just that's not just physical security right I mean per the conversation we had today with our CIO that that should include no it doesn't include just physical security District but but we be cons about the discussion we had in executive said right yeah that's my point yeah what I'm saying is as as as a board there was a discussion in

044executive session but we will have a presentation this afternoon that we would be able to say that based upon what we hear this afternoon well really this evening a little later uh it may influence potentially some of the things you would want to offer regarding Safety and Security that gets to my question okay great um then on the mental health um this is just me terminology but when we talk about decreasing the student to school counselor ratio really we're talking about increasing the funding for school counselors by lowering that ratio right okay just want to make sure everybody's clear on that we this is a yeah we're still lower by the state right we are right yes we're we we're we're closer to ASA then make sure I said my right acronym ASA then most

045districts are okay so then I mean I I don't want to over ask but do we want to reference that and there is a professional organization that recommends a particular rtio that we would encourage our delegation to push to adopt yeah okay and then the last one on uh some of the funding for transportation on the I think number three number three yeah the last funding for student transport to and from school I know that that it is a question has come up a number of times for the community and I think it would be interesting to have this conversation but um when we talk about student transport to the extent that we can also reference uh electrification or transition to Green infrastructure um and and use some of I mean Georgia is a huge

046location now for building out battery um I'm gonna run out of terminology here very quickly but it feels like there's some alignment with the incen that the governor is pressing as to Workforce Development um Economic Development pieces that the governor is really purporting a lot of work around alternate fuel and so if we can link that and right I think that there is some value there yeah that was it the little um boxes blue boxes on the left um so on legislative priority to mental health specifically C if he opposes any legislation that prevent schools from creating inclusive learning environments where students can thrive in a manner consistent with their gender identity and I wondering if we should just stop at and I don't know how important these blue boxes are but the fact that

047that's on here wants us to you know that the intention is to communicate something I wonder if we should just stop at CS oppos legis that prevents schools from creating inclusive learning environments okay it feels like whereas we have had um lots of conversations about um equity in terms of race and things like that it feels like we're focusing on one demographic of students here and kind of re prioritizing a bit by specifically where you know it should be all as the priority I think would you keep priority number one then yes oh sorry okay the bullet point one oh under mental health yes that covers all right that covers I do want to give support to what Jana is saying I do think that blue box specifically identifies a particular demographic and while we

048do support that demographic there are a number of other ones that are being unnamed in that that I think we also want to ensure that we aren't exclude it right and we can't name because of some of you know the laws that Georgia has recently passed so if we if we take out that then at least we know that we are in fact talking about all students in that and are part of historically marginalized communities and and just so that you know once we have identified and mo more most appropriately you approve next month uh formally by vote we will be able to publish print the blue boxes um and I'm seeing like a business card flyer type of collateral with further explanation as well so the the blue box becomes really the talking point

049and then we're able to go in depth with the sub bullets that are to the right of the so is there legislation on the table right now that is specific to gender identity is that why that was brought up this a specific piece of legislation yes much robust conversation around this in upcoming legisl session there was some during the last session um and because of the of decator support we anticipate name some of those conversations just wanted to be from language to support your position so how are then we handling so we had to redo our policy and take out verbage around equity and race and racism and things of that nature just so that we can continue to ensure that we're receiving our funding and you know all of that and so how does

050this particular legislation fall in that same vein will we have to start using different language no the thing very clear and probably think changing this to where member johnon vas's point to just include inclusive learning environment will keep us where we need to be in that Affliction okay but may so but I'm also hearing that you unique to this next session there is going to be conversations about gender identity will and so do we want a another slide legislative priority slide where we say we support the students's ability to choose gender like I mean just be very clear about it and and because it is separate from the issues on on Race very much so is if if there was if if we could rewind back to when they were having the conversations about you

051know critical race Theory and the all that we should have had a specific priority around ensuring that we would be able to continue to teach the truth of what has happened in would be able to be honest with ourselves um do we want to be very clear as well by having it as its own slide that gender identity is critical that we maintain it is bigger than just mental health there is a student right here that that we want to ensure that we Preserve we want a separate slide or just to ask B priority the bullet point or bullet point bullet point this bullet point for this L that's priority so I agree 100% with Jana that the main talking point in the blue bucket needs to be inclusive of all students not just gender

052identity if we add a bullet point I feel like it gets buied a bit in mental health because there's a lot of other things that are kind of critical here J what do you think feels it just feels like the blue box moved to a different place like it's just it's still but I so I I I understand the conversation now in terms of there these upcoming conversations so we want to make clear where we are and and my my um I sh with Dr whiter doing I 10 on my and so I understand that my conflict is not that we shouldn't do that but in terms of these other things um guess you know it feels like we just we don't say anything else about it can can we have another legislative priority slide

053an actual slide that is couched in terms of resisting these initiatives that are depriving students of their full elves and include on that slide continued resistance to HB whatever the bill was that passed I and it count it in that term like we oppose that this was past anything that weakens this we are for and additionally don't do this with gender identity like don't take that away as well do you see what I'm saying like to try to get to all of it absolutely your priorities I mean we will do I'm 100% in support on the words and the language we can or have to use we want to stay within the letter of the law and so this is where we consult with our fellow districts this is pretty unique to indicator right but

054we will work with GE and our partners to make sure that the language is what I read this and the reason Jana's comment speaks to me in the follow-up conversation about adding something doesn't as I read this as a umbr of like these are our priorities these are what we think in terms of a pedagogy of how you should approach legislation we are not commenting on HB 4171 1819 447 if there is an actual QBE formula proposed by representative Crawford I would love for us to release a statement in favor of that and said this is we have very strong opinions here same thing with the gender identity Bill same thing with the CRT bill or whatever but you would have to be pretty Bol to read ensure the mental health and safety of all

055students including those from historically marginalized populations and not gather what our opinion on certain bills is broadly but it's more than the mental health and safety I I mean we're now restricted on what we can teach and I think we want to be clear that we want to continue to resist that even though we have to follow the law anything that undermines weakens changes or gas that law we would want to look at and be supportive of and that is worth saying it it is more than just mental health in this case you know I mean all of that I you know say myself represented in books and being able to talk about it learning you know um how my ancestors or you know the folks I'm descended from are portrayed as you know corporate

056workers on the farm versus enslaved people and so I don't know I feel like and I don't know if this is what James py back on Lefty but I'm pulling from James's comments these are just our these are just our priorities we can say that we you know we want to continue to see children to be able to read books that reflect who they are uh we want children to be able to I mean like I don't know how we would be breaking the law and saying that these are the things that are important to us we can't yeah we're not teaching this in the classroom that's what we're prevented from doing we can say that we disagree with our assembly for passing these law and I feel like if if everybody said that you

057know the more districts said if these were priorities for more districts then I don't know if that might help in agree agree um that make sense it does and I wanted to ask you before I one question if we change the blue box to say CSD opposes any legislation that prevents schools from creating inclusive learning environments where students can Thrive within their in a manner that's consistent with their identities that covers race that covers all things yes so if we took out the gender that's excellent suggestion yeah look on your feet there like it thinking are you trained in [Laughter] communication you're good thank you m we look forward to the updated priorities at that November meeting uh Dr Whitaker thank you for connecting with the members of decator and the decab delegation during your

058first 90 days I'm sure that those are ongoing conversations in the context of our legislative session uh I see we have policies that are new business up for discussion yes chair heren I would like to call on Mrs Amanda Lynch Chief of Staff to seek your feedback on three policies this afternoon good afternoon again board members and Dr DEA Whitaker today we have three policies on our policies that are presented during pre-work are new business on which we are seeking input these policies are being presented as initial drafts they're being shared to gather your input and feedback that can be reflected in drafting or revising future versions policies for which we are seeking your input today are km visitors to schools I KB cont IAL issues and Iha grading systems I will present each one

059individually by highlighting this content and then ask for any input you have first p in visitors to schools this is the first policy up for input this policy will support our strategic accelerator of organizational Effectiveness and Excellence a few highlights PM States our commitment to welcoming parents and visitors to schools while also prioritizing a safe secure and orderly educational environment it defines limitations on who may visit or conduct classroom observations as well as detailing expectations for visitors participating in school sponsored events Provisions for visitors are described such as including requirements for signing in at the school office and obtaining an identification badge to be won throughout the visit specific guidelines for conducting observations for outside providers providing educational or therapy services to a current student are also included in the policy finally the policy addresses

060unauthorized visitors and disruption at this time we would love any board input or feedback that should be considered for revision to the policy so I forgive me if I I don't remember seeing this in the policy but um it occurred to me doing parent teacher conferences this past week where some of that happened after the kids weren't in the school but there were still you know some students that were we' obviously want it to still be a secure environment are these policies meant to apply even in those circumstances or do we need to call that out specifically we can look at it right now the first part on the limitations specifically says the limitations during the school hours and it also talks about like School sponsored events so um that is something that you know

061we could add to a future revision or just some clarification that like PE parent teacher conferences those sorts of things constitute a school sponsored event I know I didn't have to get a badge I didn't have to so that that's where the question was it just occurred to me at that moment and I Wasing all right that's great to be back I don't hear any all right next up we have policy the ikb controversial issues our policy audit revealed this policy is an outstanding draft policy from the 2022 2023 school year based on prior feedback and consultation with legal services a Redline version is being presented for input this evening policy ikb Highlights Highlights include a strong commitment to support intellectual honesty in the classroom it also indicates board support of our teachers the policy

062explicitly states that teachers who in Faith comply with the policy will not be subject to disciplinary action this time we would love any board input or feedback that should be considered for revisions to the policy this is a good well I was um in my 101 what Dr lakar asked her about that I wanted to get the board feedback um the last sentence which is actually well yeah the last sentence right above definitions this is repeated twice um also said in the one third paragraph I didn't think it needed to be said in the third paragraph I thought right there the last place is good but I was also wondering this line no educator who in good faith complies with this policy will be subject to disciplinary action that's a pretty powerful statement I thought

063it should it be on all of our policy I are on the equity policy um you know like this is the first time that I've seen that and I'm wondering you know should it be where else we could add it yeah other policies Equity or I I feel like I remember the discussion with this one specifically being that we wanted to make sure that teachers felt like they had freedom to teach truth in the classroom so that although there are some restrictions by the state that they felt like they wanted to teach you know history as it was you know as was truth in good faith then they would not be subject to reaction so I guess to back that question up where that's I thought that was the reason that we put that particular

064line in this particular policy but what other where else would we where else would we be putting that put policy and my my response specifically to um board member Johnson Davis was that this policy is truly in response to the law which is the complaint resolution policy for harmful to miners so because there is a true statute regarding harmful to miners the actual law this policy is saying specifically tied to that where the equity policy does not cross reference um ocga 20-2 d32 46.6 which is at the on the second page that law is not specifically tied to the equity policy which is why I would think that statement would not necessarily be applicable there but it must I think is a strong statement for staff for this for obviously this policy you um my

065understanding is that Dr hon put and her team put together good training for teachers around this right and that there were do do we want to be explicit in in policy around ensuring that that is always available to the teachers or that it will be provided on a recurrent basis or I mean that might be starting to get into the the next level of of work but yeah uh I just wanted that that there's no reference to that here maybe we just want to at least reference that it exists and that there is going to be uh I forget what is it procedures this is policy and then there going to be procedures around yes so you want me to yes please okay so uh Whenever there is an adoption of a policy or a

066regulation it will be included that there would be training so for example uh we will adopt there will be a regulation put for for um this afternoon it will include a timeline for training starting with leaders the day after the board meeting and then the subsequent audiences that will be really the Cadence so that all staff will know what it is is that is happening at this table from a governance structure and that process will be replicated for everything that is passed right here as well as um regulations that are that are brought for information so once this comes out of what would be our pre-work state it goes into first three then it goes to Second read vote adoption when we vote adoption then there would be the true implementation implementation with training and

067then that training becomes annualized as we bring on new teachers or it to make sure that everybody sees it um and is it reinforced every X number of years with teachers or and then there would be obviously coming up would be a place for policy information to be held so in the beginning of the year we are required as employees one policy we must you know um mandated reporter training that's an example of what you must do at the beginning of the year and we monitor if those things are done so this would be one of those things that would be a sign off to say that you are keenly aware of the policies and it's embedded in our employee handbook and that you've read it and You' signed off on it and we can

068build it into that process right right our final policy for board input as part of today's pre-work session is policy Iha grading system we recognize that policy Iha is extremely important to our community and so I will not only share some highlights of the policy but I will also share a timeline for Gathering additional stakeholder feedback before I solicit your feedback let's start with the highlights of this initial draft policy on grading systems this draft presents the continued use of the 1 through four scale at grades K through 5 the language of the 1 through four scale is aligned to the Georgia Milestones assessment systems language this draft policy does present a change to the current grading practices at grades 6 through 12 it reflects the implementation of a 0 to 100 scale EPA calculation

069is on a 4.0 scale using whole number increments an additional quality point would still be awarded to students enrolled in AP IV or dual enrollment Advanced coursework the draft policy on grading systems also acknowledges a commitment to multiple assessment opportunities and retakes this reflects our value of continuous Improvement and opportunities for student growth finally the draft policy states that IV schools will continue to evaluate students in alignment with their grading standards middle Year's program for NP schools will issue reports on the NP Criterion twice a year students enrolled in the IB diploma program or DP demonstrate learning through formal IV required assessments students in the IV diploma program will also receive IB marks range from scores of one which is low to seven which is high for policy Iha we have built and feedback opportunities

070for stakeholders to provide their feedback following tonight's presentation of this initial policy tomorrow stakeholder surveys will be made available for both students and adults through our website the link to these surveys will also be shared through school newsletters surveys will remain open also on October 16th and 17th the chief of performance Karen Newton Scott and the chief of staff myself will review the draft policy including tonight's board input with staff at Beacon Hill Middle School and Decor High School these visits are targeting our middle and high schools this is where the policy represents a change to some of our current practice our visit will include the solicitation of feedback finally Dr Whitaker will also leverage her various councils to gather feedback on the draft of policy Iha the feedback gathered from these various methods will

071be compiled analyzed and synthesized for the board and may be reflected in the next version of the grading policy I'll return to my previous slide of the highlights at this time I'd like to invite any board input or feedback that should be considered for revisions to the policy I um my first question this has made me more of a mall question um that um survey is the 19th is a pretty quick turnaround um so what is our plan for making sure that we're able to to get it out quickly and then make sure that people are able to reach and everybody knows about it yeah it's been put together we're ready to post it on the website tomorrow so there will be on the banner kind of rotating like fill this feedback survey out um

072you know if you're interested in providing feedback on the grading policy um we did plan also School newsletters um we've got a maybe a wiggle room of a couple days but we do want to make sure we figure that the people who are super passionate are going to be able to go in and fill it out um you know but of course we do want to make sure we reach all stakeholders we do want to make sure that we have time to look at the feedback and be able to synthesize it analyze it and be able to present it as well so it'll go like in the principal's newsletters like they said and if you go to the board uh we move the board to a section on the banner of the website is our

073location and my second question is for the high school based grading um it's going to be a shift going from you know the 1 to 7 to the 0 to four scale um and looking at your uh your metrics here um there it says Mastery proficient distinguish Etc based on State Standards what do we do for classes that are more elective based that may not have have uh grounded State Standards so what if you're taking like when Ensemble or if you're taking black history not exact standards How would how would we reconcile how those how you weave that into Mastery of State Standards okay there's still standards for courses and so the desired outcomes would still be you know looked at so are the students mastering the standards that are expected of a student in

074that course a quick question and a comment it feels like um the survey would be a great thing to get plugged into like the CSD parents page on Facebook it feels like precisely the sort of thing that should be put into the social media atmosphere to get as much uh response as possible so just to confirm that is a part of the uh that is a part of the plan um and then the the comment was uh just we are not in any way eliminating or moving away from IB we are still supportive of the IB curriculum we are still going to be an ivb school system um I just want to make that very clear for anyone that might be listening in or thinking what it is that we're changing here yes um one

075of the things I wanted to just make note that we did look at the top performing United States IV high schools and their grading policies so anywhere from Beaverton to uh Florida to Brooklyn Latin School to all over the nation and all of them have a z to 100 grading scale and they all also have the Criterion of 1 through seven that is aligned and that is what is outlined in the administrative regulation and how in the frequency and all of that but their policies would read similar to what we have drafted and provided today we can provide that information just get that condensed and put that I just like I'm thinking like a slide or something that we can point pents to sure we can we can make that available I'm looking right at

076it right now great and then my last question is can you go back to the slide that has the timeline for this because I think we also need to emphasiz um exactly when this would be finalized it's going to take some work um and it Tak some revisions and this is not something that's going to be pushed down the pipeline by Christmas time um just the initial this is just the this is just the initial draft and so we will take the feedback synthesize it give another give another draft and then if we provide that second draft get some feedback synthesize it we can take another draft um I know we had talked at one time to really be able to hopefully by December have a final draft but all of next semester will be

077training change management socialization ensuring Infinite Campus ensuring the teachers ensuring the rubrics ensuring the parents ensuring the universities although they all basically already get this information anyway would all be keenly aware of so that implementation of this policy would be in next school year 2024 but all of next semester is to change management yeah I I are we wetted to the phrase Shunk of next learning no reads awkward to me as repeats there um and then I'd love to see including in this or some other policy the timeline for how grading changes do happen in the district um something I've become keenly aware I think everyone on the board is that if you start talking about grading people freak out um often they're uninformed um sometimes I mean we we've received emails where people are

078angry that we're doing what we're doing and and I think having a clearly articulated this the timeline on how grading changes would happen would do a lot to help sort of the State of Mind of our students and particular like if I just knew if I'm a senior okay I'm good or if I'm when that would happen I would love to see something like that added to this policy or if it's an appropriate place somewhere else which I think may be somewhere else where a timeline of changes yeah prob the policy presentation rather than that in the policy itself okay okay it wouldn't be in the policy because the policy will remain after sure um but it's part of the change management process also the communication the training all of those uh thank you thank

079so board and the community I want to reiterate the process to seek feedback on the drafted policies so monthly I convene various advisory counsels so I have students second through fifth grade I have students middle and high PTO PTA ptso officers teachers and support staff and now that the so elections have ended I will convene the district's SLT which is the system Charter leadership team and as well so all of these advisories have already received a copy of these three initial drafts and they have been commissioned to seek feedback from their peers and will provide to me in their next meeting depending upon the policy you've all already heard from Miss Lynch we will engage directly with teachers at either their grade level meetings faculty meetings whatever is most appropriate for that great band and

080I'm also reminded from a quote from our good old book that we're reading great on their behalf and it is the end of the mindset Factor one of the more debilitating mindsets that leaders can trap themselves into is the idea that the way it's always been done is the only way and the best way that it can be done right all right so thank you thank you Dr Whitaker and your staff for the presentation uh we will adjourn the pre-work session and and move into our work session yeah so we are adjourned from the pre-work we need a break yes we will take a [Music] break try to warm it up in here right I'm going to call to order uh the work session want to thank everybody for joining us today for our monthly

081work session we recognize it's only the third time we've combined the work session board meeting hopefully our constituents are adjusting to the new cadence once again it's example of how we are creating more effective and efficient organization and the implementation of our strategic plan all indicator during our first board retreat on August 17th we took a deep dive into our Georgia Milestones data Dr Whitaker do you have any updates on the beginning of the year assessment results yes thank you chair heren I would like to call on Mrs Jennifer Burton assistant superintendent of teaching and learning to provide an update on student performance good afternoon board chair hearen Vice chair Dr sulon esteemed board members and Dr superintendent Dr G I'm presenting our 2023 2024 beginning of year data nwe map growth is a nationally

082normed standardized achievement test which measures what students know and informs what they're ready to learn next by using a computer adaptive test that adjusts to the ability and knowledge of the student all kindergarten through 8th grade students took the math assessment during the first four weeks of school our district average across all grade levels is above the national Norm in both math and reading When comparing Spring to Fall District math averages overall we did not show summer slides in math or reading overall our students maintained their learning from one school year to the next here you see our math MAP data from Fall 2022 and fall 2023 by subgroup the numbers you see in the chart are the average National percentiles by subgroup national percentiles are used to compare one student's performance to that of

083other students Nationwide the percentile means that the students scored as well as or better than the percent of students taking that test in that grade so let me walk you through the chart please look at the column for our black student subgroup look at the first row for grade one this represents our current first graders in the fall of 2022 these first graders were in kindergarten as kindergarten students these current black first graders had an average NPR of 72 these same students now first graders in 2023 when they took the MTH test this fall the average NPR was 52 let's look at the next row the one labeled grade two in Fall of 2022 the black students NPR was 79 when those same students came back this year and entered second grade their average NPR

084was 40 we'll look at one more Row the next row which is labeled grade three in Fall 2022 these students were second graders and had an average NPR of 33 when they came back in third grade this year and took the map their average NPR was 26 you can see the continuing trend in this chart where you see green the subgroup NPR improved from Fall to fall if it is red the NPR went down and if it's white it stays the same quick question if I are we looking at um 72 is end of the year kindergarten 52 is beginning of the year this is all fall to this slide shows our fall 2022 to fall 20123 subgroup data for reading while the disproportionality between our black students and other subgroups is not as wide

085as seen in math it certainly remains this year 95% of our high school stud students took the star test this is a significant Improvement compared to last year's spring Administration where only 50% took the test I want to thank principal school for ensuring student participation this allows us to make strategic plans Based on data DHS is algebra one student Algebra 1 student achievement so I'll share Algebra 1 end of course test projections next star projects that 60% of our current ninth graders will pass the Algebra 1 EOC when we look at this by subgroup we see a similar Trend as in K8 the green rows are projected to pass the yellow and red rows are not projected to pass but the yellow certainly is closer to passing so um and I realize the color is

086a little bit off in the screen but the yellow is developing the green is proficient and distinguished the number in the parentheses are the number of students based on this data the teaching and learning department is focusing on three things Fidelity of phonics instruction for our youngest students ensuring standards based instruction especially in math and ncss we must ensure that our youngest students in K through3 have systematic explicit instruction in phonics every day our reading coaches are training our teachers in our phonics program foundations by covering one skill per month and doing coaching observations on that specific instructional skills we must ensure that our students are receiving standards based instruction every day we will be training our coaches on a Georgia standards unpacking tool that will be used across all contents K12 as teachers unpack

087standards they will answer the questions what content knowledge do the students need to know what does Mastery look like what possible misconceptions might the students have and what will we do to ensure that the contributions of marginalized population ations are present when teaching this standard we've already begun talking about scheduling for next year and are completing an audit of our master schedule we must ensure that we are maximizing the instructional every single minute counts in addition to monthly math cultural lead training our stem department is providing training with our Algebra 1 teachers in the middle and high school monthly as an additional Algebra 1 support my team is currently writing an RFP for Algebra 1 tutoring using the outcomes based Contracting framework where we pay according to student outcomes and not just the service after

088conducting an internal audit of mtss we realize teachers need Clarity on what interventions are and who who they are for we're going to build on the existing CSD ntss structure and use a clear five-step problem solving process to align interventions with specific student need or a Target skill we're also going to focus on building the capacity of our mpss leads to bring Clarity in their role so they can consistently and effectively facilitate npss meetings in their building we're going to bring alignment to our npss process by using Star as our Universal screener beginning in Fall 2024 for K through 12 along with the adaptive technology resources aligned with star we've partner partnered with our chief of school performance Mrs Newton Scott to ensure successful implementation of this plan principles are responsible for clearly defining finding

089their goals to improve student achievement at the school and at the subgroup level our chief of performance uses a structured approach including School canvas walkthroughs visits to professional Learning Community meetings one-on-one meetings with principles and monthly data analysis int introducing an additional layer of support and accountability this approach ensures that we will collectively work towards achieving Improvement in the performance of our identified subgroups and keeping a laser focus on our progress the data is our data and our data is alarming we must shift our practices so all students are successful we must allocate time and resources so students are successful and we will we will tirelessly support our schools in reaching their student outcome goals and we will increase in our student achievement for all students what questions do you have um I just my

090first question is um I think we we've been here before um looking at these numbers um I think quarter over quarter when we see these MTH sces and then we kind of pull a layer back and then see um data um which always heartburn I'm happy to see um on one of your slides some um meaningful steps to try to rectify it I think that starts in recognition that we have a problem and that's not just all reasons the good for my first the my one question is can you explain a little bit about what instructional minutes audit means um and what that means especially for um younger kids because you know the school day is relatively short um so what does that what does that mean sure um so right now um our uh

091School minutes per subject area vary across school to school so you may see more time for reading allocated at one School uh you may see more time for math at a different school um there are also uh School kind of that have been adopted um that certainly have value um but maybe we need to look at pairing them down so we're not spending so much time in some of the fun great things that make school great at the standards based instruction we've got to look and find a balance between so we have both and so that's what we're digging deeper into um Dr wh our one-on-one I know we talked about and I don't know if this information is available yet um are we able to parse this out by school so that we can

092see if there is a trend or or something specific that one school is doing that's really working for example things like that so um I'll just go ahead and give my comments now because it literally lends to it um in multiple things so um I would be remiss not to share the labor intensive process to give you the data data visualizations you have so to you're literally pecking at the numbers and the shading and and things of that nature we must have a dashboard that is interoperable where we can overlay our map data with our Georgia Milestone data we should then be able to filter for race social economic status and learning environment so as we procure and train on such systems our staff will be able to respond to the instructional needs of students

093and we as leadership can develop the support structures based on the patterns and trends that we're seeing so in the entrance we have our next board retreat on November 28th at The Retreat we will provide campus level subgroup data with alignment to feeder pattern a additionally next month's board meeting will include the Baseline data for the Strategic plan initiatives inclusive of the Strategic accelerator for Student Success in all areas we do have much work to do to ensure that outcomes are positive for all students in the city schools of theator so um to your point yes that's our work at theet along with a couple other things right um in I mean in addition to some of that really finely detail data will be able to start identifying correlations between ISS OSS disparate discipline outcomes

094and you know student level outcomes that we know exists in the data but we may not have visibility in right now um so the timing on some of this um I'm assuming there's going to be a budget ask that comes New Year uh so I just would to pre- Signal my support for uh for that um and if that's something that we anticipate implementing over the course of this year so is ready next year there are there are some pieces that we are Reviving okay so uh we have had a system called Tableau in the past um and I will say um sometimes I've found over the past 90 days that we do not necessarily Implement a true change management process when implementing something new so the tool goes to the Wayside but actually it

095is one of the best in class so the question is how do we Revol revive that system and then be able to do the different um things that I already stated overlay the different Data Systems overlay the demographics of the students put in into that what would be OSS ISS student Mobility like all of those different demographics really put the face to this data with the name and ultimately with a different outcome yeah that's that's what we need to get to right thank you for putting the numbers next to the percentages there I see 55 students who are beginning Learners that are likely to fail algebra um I want to know what we're doing yeah if this were my classroom I would have a plan for reaching out to those kids to figure out are

096they students who've had ISS so OSS are they students who have some mtss requests that we're not meeting like what can we do how can we inform inform that I I would love to see that um yes 31 out of that 57 are black and that is horrendous and I appreciate you putting step forward and that is why you're hired and that is what we're looking forward to attacking but I also don't want these 57 to just be the number for improving for the next three to five years right and I've shared that with you and and the counselors Etc we have the capacity and the budget and the means to fix this and and that's one of the reasons why M Mrs Burton spoke to outcomes based contrac correct um you know in the

097in the era we are in now high dosage small group tutoring is one of the it yields one of the greatest um efficacy for students bringing a small number of students together and being able to give that 101 2:1 3:1 tutoring specifically on that targeted skill but that does not mean you as a vendor I need to see that the outcome has changed for the students then you are paid for services and it's a sliding scale dependent upon the number of students who actually meet their goal so that is one of the things that Mrs Burton has attended training on since being in the role um we are going through the RSP process to bring on what would be the vendors that would be able to say yes pay me give you what your outcome

098that might be the theme for today's qu meeting so so much of what is required for old Lear like so like K to3 A lot of the stuff that you do with with younger kids there's sort of a protocol for but so much of what is required with older Learners is not just teaching them the specific topic but helping UE them with the skills for how to learn themselves like these are these are good study habits this is how you take notes this is how you review you know so that that whole academic coach part that is beyond just the topic tutorial itself is that is that something we're also looking at with this vendor or a vendor or is that something that we can consider I would say currently there are structures in the

099school day um otherwise known as wind time would be the most applicable part of that um study hall things of that nature but this specifically is going to be targeted skill of standards that will be addressed by the Georgia for on the Georgia mileston and so we as we get more sophisticated with our information we're going to be able to be much more direct in our Outreach to the specific students that need the study hall that need the win time and need the extra um you know the coaching for for that that is beyond just a tutorial I think to Tasha's point it would be helpful to to see this data broken down especially in the lower grade like the one to three grades to be broken down by school not not only to see

100where some schools are successful some schools have some areas of improvement but um you know within the lower grades our students of color are such a small number compared to their their white counterparts you would probably find that you know this 7252 in grade one could be two or three students in some schools and you know at some point we have to humanize this data and this is not 52 and 72 this is somebody's baby you know this is somebody's kid who's struggling year over year and then we keep promoting them and then they become line 2 7940 there still somebody baby and um and you know and it's to me that just that's almost just that almost makes that makes that almost makes me cry that we just keep tolerating that but at some

101point we have to put a to put a face behind this number and maybe that will get some maybe that will light a fire under us maybe that will move the needle if we put a face of a child up there and say it's this child this is the child that we keep sending back to school with math course and 26% I will do it the yeah the the a data that Tableau I hope will be able to do for us is create something that we call a baseball card and it has the students picture um and it has all of that information attendance and OSS ISS all of those things and as a former principal I had my own baseball cards and these were my students that I checked on and my AP had

102these baseball cards and they checked on those students and we built relationships and did check and connect and monitored their data even more closely and so the goal is to get there is to get what we call the baseball card because we have to humanize it we have to put names of these numbers yes thank you Miss Burton thank you for the your assessment update Dr Whitaker there are policies for us to review this work session yes CH hon there are three policies for first read Mrs Amanda Lynch Chief of Staff will review is it still afternoon or is it evening drer think I can start today we have three policies on the agenda for work session these policies were discussed in free work last month the recommendation being made is that City schools of

103Decor Board of Education accept each of these policies for first reading they will be available for public comment through assembly first we have policy G A GC employee act sorry this policy states that all school system employees will comply with laws statutes board policies administrative procedures and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission code of ethics there were no changes made after the discussion last month in pre-work is there any discussion on this policy or may I read the recommend recomendation yep the recommendation being made is that City schools of Decor Board of Education accept policy gagc employee ethics for first read I have a motion to approve the recommendation to accept policy GC employee ethics for first read board member UTS makes the motion may I have a second any discussion all those in favor motion

104carries unanimously Miss Lynch you want to read the sure second we have policy gaea employee protection this policy was also discussed in pre-work last month this is a policy that was previously adopted under the code GC based on board input last month the term whistleblower policy was added at the beginning of the policy is there any that is the only change is there any discussion or may I read the recommend recomendation you may read the recommendation the recommendation being made is that City schools of Decor Board of Education accept policy gaea employee protection for first read do I have a motion to approve the recommendation to accept policy gaea employee protection for first read don't move board member white makes the motion may I have a second second number o second any discussion on this

105particular policy I'll will throw in that uh one of the things that I've heard in my time indicator is that um teachers fear of retaliation or anything like that and I love that this policy is there I love that the phrase whistleblowers keep I want to thank the administration for for getting this out there for read and I would encourage teachers or staff who are listening to give it a good read and provide some feedback any other points of discussion okay all those in favor i i i motion carries unanimously uh and then the final recommendation please all right finally we have policy BAC Equity this policy was also discussed in pre-work last month the policy was a draft during the previous school year and a Redline version was discussed last month based on the

106board discussion in September there are no reflected changes in the current redlined version is there any discussion or may I read the recommendation please read it the recommendation being made is at the city schools of the Board of Education accept policy BAC equity for first read I have a motion to approve the recommendation to accept policy BAC equity for first read moved board member white makes the motion uh may I have a second second member o second of motion any discussion all those in favor say I I sounds like that Two Carries unanimously thank you so much Miss Lynch Dr Whitaker you have a regulation posted yes chair hearnen I would like to call on Dr Lily hudleston associate superintendent of equity and student services to inform the board of a regulation good even name

107chair hearen ice chair Fon the theme board members and superintendent Dr JMA Whitaker October is LGBT History Month and this is a good time for us to highlight the district efforts to affirm and support LGBT plus students the board established policy Jaa equal Educational Opportunity we're informing the board of a regulation that will support the aform mission policy this afternoon I will provide you with an overview of our procedures related to creating a safe affirming and supportive School environment for transgender and gender expansive students this regulation aligns with the Strategic accelerator building and sustaining and engaging an inclusive culture the regulation ties into the specific indicators outlined by school and Community stakeholders during the Strategic plan process development projects in addition according to the National survey nearly one in five transgender and non-binary youth attempted

108suicide last year and more than half seriously considered attempting to do so with rates being even higher for students of color CSC continues to be committed to creating an affirming and safe School environment for all students as an essential component of supporting mental health and wellbeing idle N9 proh it's discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs and activities recent Landmark Court decisions has made it clear that sex as used in Title 9 includes sexual orientation and gender identity in addition the US Department of Education has committed to ensuring that all students including transgender students have the opportunity to learn in an environment free of sex discrimination in public schools next I'll talk through some of the specific procedures outlined in ja R2 the regulation provides commonly used terms to ensure that

109we have a shared understanding of the most respectful ways to refer to and support trans transgender and gender expansive students it also provide guidelines related to privacy confidentiality and record it establishes the expectation that all staff use students preferred names and pronouns it affirms that students should be allowed to access facilities and accommodations consistent with their gender identity asserted at school the regulation outlines the importance of avoiding gender segregated activities unless there's a specific educational purpose students should be allowed to participate in activities in a ordance with their gendered at school unless prohibited by state regulations such as those put forth by the Georgia High School Association which applies to most most some school activities the regulation highlights the procedures for intervening and Reporting bullying and harassment of transgender and gender expense students it also

110outlines accommodations for religious exception and includes a requirement for staff training to ensure that CSC staff members are aware of the provisions that are outlined in the regulation BFB has developed a process for families to update a student's name or gender marker the process which was originally established in 2017 is being updated based on staff and community input the new guidelines will help to ensure that families are aware of the process and will facilitate the transfer of information across grade bands when requested by famili and student services team members have partnered with information services to facilitate legal name changes and changes to Preferred names and gender markers these changes can be applied to local platforms such as St at campus and Google workspace families interested in accessing this or School administrator school counselors will collect

111information about the parameters of usage of the updated name and gender marker as well as any other support needed to ensure the student feels safe and included in the school environment the next slide outlines the timeline for updating procedures for training staff and for communicating with the CSD community so this and District leadership over the next several weeks we'll provide training for school administrators and councelors with a goal of training all staff members by the end of November there any questions I had one and and I just want to make clear I I have the answer so if a parent updates that this information isn't sent outward or accessible by a state Authority or anything like that this is internal to CSD is that correct that was just important as as we navigate um issues

112with gender and changing it and and I appreciate that care is being taken um just thinking of it from a parents perspective how do I how will I find out where to change my child's name and what is the timeline that you expect that will be available and uh known within the community so we we currently have a form that is on the website and that has been shared by school counselors we're doing H some minor revisions around that um but we'll be using the same link so that when the updates happen it will have to the four um in terms of the timeline it's our goal to make sure that everybody in the entire CSD Community is um updated by the end of November so we have turn around tomorrow thank you and Dr

113hson um who is responsible for disseminating that information so if I fill off that form I'm and I change my child's name um is it the principles are responsible for making sure that the teachers have updated information or it says it lives with the counselor than the counselor's disseminated or what is the the workflow from there so the part about the change that kind of happens through the form communicates with information services to handle that portion but the second piece which is the process for alerting the individuals that the student and family want to be aware and be a part of the process the counselor is the holder of that um so going forward the counselor will be the person who does family to where are the places you want to where you want to

114be changed and things of that nature and then they will be able to disseminate that information for the people who are identified through that intake process so the school administrator will always be for um but the counselor is really more of the manager thank you anyone else excellent thank you Dr hudston um fact that it's a regulation means it's an effect yeah as of today so it exemplifies our commitment discussion earlier about building and sustaining and inclusive culture for all um I know we know October is lgbtq plus History Month um and I look forward to hearing how training on that regulation will help ensure all students feel safe valued and heard throughout CSD settings and locations um this concludes our work session for today uh we will take a short break and we will

115begin the regular school board meeting at 5:00 pm Shar is that correct all right than dismiss from the work session thank you now I ask that all that are able to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to the black of the United States of America and to the rep for stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all thank you our mission is to inspire and enable student engaging learning experiences supported by highly qualified and caring Educators safe and invied environment is our mission we will move to the second item on the agenda approval of board meeting agenda for October 2023 board members are there any recommended revisions to the agenda this evening hearing none do I have a motion to approve today's agenda Davis do I have a second second Hans one

116there uh any disc discuss all right all those in favor please say I I I motion carries unanimously our next agenda item is the approval of minutes from the previous school board meeting you have a motion to approve September's regular board minutes to approve September's regular board minutes board member white makes the motion may I have a second second second board member H second to the motion any discussion right all those in favor please say I I I that motion carries unanimously we're now going to move forward with our other agenda items including and starting with the student and staff recognition Dr Whitaker several students have shown up which means uh there must be some recognition yes yes chair hearnen at this time our chief of school performance Mrs Karen Newton Scott will come to

117the podium for some special recognition good evening what chair hon Vice chair Dr Sultan esteemed members of the board and Dr Whitaker today I have the pleasure of making two presentations first I'd like to present deada High School's IB world history teacher Kristen Embry she's coming straight from the model un and she us right over to be here this evening for this recognition Kristen was one of 23 teachers from across the country who was selected for the US Institute of Peace 2023 Teachers program and the only one selected from Georgia the peace teacher program is a virtual profession opportunity for middle and high school teachers in the US founded by Congress the program is d dedicated to the proposition that a world with nonviolent conflict is possible practical and essential for the US and for

118Global Security the 2023 peace Teachers program will run from July 2023 to January 2024 as a participant Kristen will receive education resources and support to strengthen her teaching of international conflict and the Poss possibilities of Peace he will also serve as an ambassador for teaching about global conflict and peace at Decor high school please join me and a round of applause for Kristen emby our next presentation is to nine seniors from decada high school were recently named as National Merit scholar semi-finalists please come forward as I call your name the CSD semifinalists are Miriam ARA Alexander gch Jason he Rory King Gordon L Lin did I say your name correct Gordon no okay I want to get it right oh it's l Gordon littin thank you leis messen Brennan o'i Connor CER and Alexander Williams

119in September the National Merit Scholarship Corporation unveiled the name 15,000 semifinalists in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship program these remarkable High School seniors who Excel academically now have the opportunity to continue their journey in the competition buying for a share of the prestigious 7,140 National Merit Scholarships collectively valued at nearly 28 million which will be awarded next spring to Pro to progress to the final IST level of the competition and be eligible for a merit scholarship award semifinalists must meet specific requirements it's worth noting that these semifinalists represent an elite group constituting less than 1% of high school seniors across the United States and they stand as the highest scoring participants in each state tonight we take immense pride in recognizing ing our very own Decor High School National Merit semifinalist with a round

120of [Applause] applause board members and Dr Whitaker please join us in congratulating our decada high school teacher and students on such great accomplishment other words we hide behind there we [Laughter] go look at me and then I'll turn you over the PS one two three by yourself oh one in all right back I don't get swag very often hand out so here's a couple more thank thank you all right well look who down there um the next item on the agenda is Dr Whitaker presentation about her first 90 days yes you're not waiting on me are you no not at all making sure awesome yes well greetings board chair hearnen Vice chair Dr Sulton and esteemed members of the board I want to begin by thanking you for granting me the honor and privilege of

121upholding the vision and also the mission of the city schools of decar as your new superintendent and note that the presentation is greater than six slides so my core values as a leader center around Equity leadership and engagement and they have truly today I come before you to provide a report on how these guiding beliefs have influenced my first 90 days and the implementation of my three-step entry plan for which I called gim Jim is a moniker that aligns with my now well-known belief that the city schools of decada is a gy a rare and special find of Excellence it also aligns with our District's new strategic plan all indicator and has assisted me in achieving the plans and objectives for maximizing student outcom by establishing the conditions for an instructional leadership structure that ensures

122High literacy instruction intervention and closing the achievement Gap also building the capacity of our organizational leadership and lastly developing a strong relationship of trust with the district the board and the community Through professionalized Communications in reviewing the timeline I must reiterate my thanks to the board for the pre-entry I was afforded last summeral start date of July 1st during this phase I was able to meet with each board member to learn about their concerns and expectations it provided access for my research on all things related to CSD and in the and also to the district's leadership team all of this provided critical background information during my canvas visits of every school in the district over 15 CSD central office employees helped me carry out the canvases which involved day long visits to school during these

123visits we conducted interviews and focus groups with leaders teachers and students and observed classroom rooms in action you will find a yellow Post-It note just like this this artifact of the students Insight regarding the strength and the opportunities of their school by day one I was well equipped for to enter the next three phases of gem which include included gathering information so that we could Envision a plan to maximize the results and ensure that the Brilliance of CSD is reflected in all students like every effective leader I am a learner for the first phase of gem I built upon what I learned during the pre-entry phase and I hosted and arrange a series of virtual as well as face-to-face listening sessions councils and meetings all aim to engaging with stakeholders around the district to listen

124to learn and to understand your perspectives on CSD the glows and also the growths collaborative opportunities to ensure Student Success and what support was needed from me as your new superintendent I met with school-based and administrative staff support staff current and former Guardians Community Partners Business Leaders local and state officials including the decab delegation of the general assembly and then there were all of the impromptu session occurred in the parking lot and also outside of the welome center slide shows my pre-entry and entry engagement by the number all truly means all I am especially pleased by the amplifying of the voices of our students in the process from kindergarteners or even even I could say from birth all the way to our 12th graders the many gems about CSD were highlighted during these sessions as

125were the opportunities for growth in every quadrant of the district there seem to be a consensus on communication salaries compensation Equity services for students with special needs the grading structure and the need for a safe and inclusive environment where every student can Thrive as I gather as I gathered information from stakeholders I continue to critique our INF infrastructure my gem plan focused on instructional leadership in the area of literacy it involves staff revision visiting schools as well as reviewing the alignment of curriculum assessment professional development central office support and all student literacy data we identified some quick wins as we synthesize literacy data to Envision and maximize high quality high quality literacy these quick wins included acknowledging the misalignment of Arc and reducing its training providing professional development on Focus bonics instruction and co-creating a

126principal theory of action for student achievement over the past 90 days we have also kindled relationships with science of reading experts developed a process for establishing A literacy framework to to be shared in December a review of the CSD Milestones data for ELA reinforced what we knew about the achievement for most students however a comprehensive review after a comprehensive review we found evidence of a significant Gap in achievement of subgroups of students within the same cohort so if we look act are current six sixth graders in the yellow we see their performance on the milestones in 2023 as fifth graders the bar to the left in Gray shows that same group of students performance in 2022 the bar to the left of the gray which is Orange is that same group of children as third

127graders in 2021 the first year of testing after the pandemic you see black students are decreasing in percentage of scoring proficient and distinguish as compared to all or white students where there has been growth put on a positive Mo note our current ninth graders their yellow bar is slight hire white and black children this data suggests they are scoring at prepandemic levels with this information and others gathered throughout the 90 days we have the opportunity to refrain infrastructure to one align prescribed instructional minutes and explicit instruction struction with the five pillars of reading we need to use data to drive small group construction increase the use of evidence-based resources including the alignment to the Georgia standards of excellence and the science of reading and enhanced coaching and professional development for literacy as we move to

128determine conditions to improve for all students we assessed what we learned from our canvases and the professional learning needs we also created School profiles and reviewed the results of the equity audit quick wins included conducting a root cause analysis with the schools and even with you the board supporting each School in developing a theory of action and delivering training on the dime model how to design Implement Monitor and evaluate systems on this slide you will find a listing of other ways we have been able to begin addressing the achievement Gap we analyze current data systems and reach consistent to shift to Tableau additionally we created data review calendars for the school and for the instructional cabinet whose members are the chief of schools performance staff state and federal programs assistant superintendent of teaching and learning

129and Associate superintendent of equity and student services this slide shows the Georgia milstone cohort Mass performance unlike with Ela black black students have not reached prepandemic performance for our current sixth eighth and ninth graders our current seventh graders have surpassed prepandemic performance but with the largest a achievement gap of 60% the yellow bar of white students compared to the yellow bar of black students findings for presented the following opportunities one to produce these graphs staff entered by hand the results of could have been easily uploaded from the state therefore improving interoperable support structures and Data Systems used for visual visualizing student performance is a mon how do we know if learning environment gender or socioeconomic status is playing a role in the data that we see additionally we must enhance Prof professional learning and collaborative

130structures for adults we must on the data and determine what we must do to reteach students who do not reach Mastery during the first time of instruction and most importantly we must Advance our Equity work by becoming more student focused and operationalizing outcomes timately the results what we learned in analyzing the gaps in literacy and achievement of subgroups is that CSD has focused on the how which is instruction culturally responsive pedagogy mirrors and window window s for Tech selection but now we must focus on the what the content the Georgia standards of excellence it is with that lens that we envisioned how we best to establish the evidence-based intervention to maximize outcomes the gray box shows what we did during the Gathering fa our quick winds were creating an inventory of intervention and progress monitoring

131tools hosting a CSC program overview night for our parents and finally establishing focus on mtss through a partnership with Handover research to be honest of all of the areas examined in the gem plan interv interventions is the area which needs most attention we must Implement a dime model for mtss we must D design an mtss system that follows the guidance of the Georgia Department of Education we must design atrisk reporting systems for the I we must Implement training for all staff on the problem solving in for recycle and progress monitoring process implementing interventions is not the sole responsibility of one person as SCH it is a team effort where all staff who teach the student utilizes those evidence-based interventions aligned to the targeted still skill that needs to be remediated and for the M we

132must monitor these systems in schools and we must ensure align of our central office support to do so finally for the E evalu we will pursue outcomes based Contracting through this model we will evaluate the tutoring Services provided to students specifically in Algebra 1 by vendors if the students meet their outcome goals 100% of the contract is paid if the students do not there is a sliding scale for payment High performing organizations focus on the systems and the structures that build the capacity for their staff during the pre-entry in the gem phases I identify gaps in our organizational structure audits investigations Cadence of board meetings and communication between the board and the superintendent were a few of the quick wins accomplished the key findings of this area are direct strategic accelerator organizational effective Effectiveness and

133Excellence of our strategic plan at the start of the year I expanded our admin Council formerly executive cabinet and principal to administrative staff now coordinators and above channel for communication support and accountability within the organization and yet we still have much work to do and building capacity around key building business processes such as change management and project management creating a competitive compensation package auditing and reorganizing the finance department to ensure fiscal responsibility and transparency with resour procuring an Enterprise Human Resources information system the final focus of the gy plan emerged as the number one area of me during the listening session communication by you I was charged to professionalize communication I in turn realized that a strong relationship ship of trust with the city schools of the cater and the Greater Community was needed quick

134winds included hiring a chief Communications officer someone to focus on the internal and external Communications of the district creating additional advisory councils such as elementary students PTA PTO ptso officers and even support staff we're building trust with the decab delegation by demonstrating competence credibility and experience with the challenges previously faced and those that lie ahead a demonstrated commitment and Leadership to all with the appointment to eight Community organizations serving the cater Andor the cat I am certain the community has noted how we have professionalized communications through videos Graphics newsletters and a social media presence through the establishment of a Communications Department CSD held its first Press Conference during my swearing in this sort of public publicity and media relations manages our reputation another key finding was the opportunity to Elevate the position of CSD in

135the metro in the state and the nation on key ideas concerning education such as policy budget instructional technology and Equity moving forward we will continue to utilize the gem strategy in order to maximize the results for all students first we will create create coherence instructionally all students will receive high quality instruction using the Georgia standards of excellence assessments will and progress towards Mastery of the standards will be monitored to accelerate success for all additionally we will use coherence by creating a through line from our policies to our administrative regulations to our practices second we will build capacity for our leaders particularly in the areas of project and change management these key business practices will demonstrate our commitment to transparency not only for student outcom but also financially and finally there will be a claran call

136for all our Equity work today has focused on ensuring that students are safe and SE going forward we will focus on student outcomes putting the structures in place so so that all students are successful Lord thank you for entrusting me with your gem I am all in in ensuring even greater levels of Brilliance for student outcomes in the city schools of decar where all will truly mean all thank you thank you board member comments um I just I wanted to touch on uh I know that you mentioned this quickly as you went through it when you talk about interventions being kind of a key issue related to both the equity and achievement gaps that we're seeing with some of the issues that we have seen with literacy um I just want to to highlight that

137because I think it is really important in terms of root cause we've heard from lots of parents coming up here talking about literacy some of them that are here today um um just ntss proess our ability to actually quickly and rapidly respond to when a student is having trouble is is foundational so I appreciate that being called out as something that we're going to need um that well done um he touched on all the things that we brought you doing that uh Second uh interview you know I think get uh the affirming of the decision that we made and looking forward to the next 90 days and the next 90 days thank you so much just want to piggy back on on Miss Jana Johnson Davis um thank you for putting this together uh I

138think sometimes people do wonder you know what has she been doing behind CL closed doors and so I I appreciate that you've made it transparent on what some of the wins were what some of our opportunities are and what the steps are moving forward so I appreciate you being transparent about that um and then also just continue to ask the community to to continue to walk with us this is uh this is a journey and we take these steps together we all have the same goal to um for the outcome of of our students to be the best and brightest that they can be we want that for your kids just as much as you do so again thank you for for sharing that with all of us I appreciate it I agree I think

139I like the overall theme of this being rooted in student outcomes so you started out by building your team and a team that's focused in student outcomes and then with um organized and very specific goals that are rooted in how well kids are performing um so that we don't get distracted by that so I think with that sort of being your um sort of your guide I think that then we'll start to see some some results some that will come quickly some that may take some time but um I think looking here everything has a focus in in student outcomes um so I think we have to continue just maintain that thought process right 88 classroom visits 90 student conversations in 90 days I love that I think the student seeing you is very important

140and appreciate all that you're doing come join us okay we'll do because I believe there are other items for your report you're not done yeah yes there are so thank you um October is the month of many recognition CSD joins the nation in celebr celebrating the diversity courage and the triumphs of many in our community while there while many are near and dear to our community I want to invite Mrs Jennifer Burton assistant superintendent of teaching and learning to share a few words about how CSD will highlight dyslexia awareness mon good evening October is dyslexia Awareness Month what is dyslexia according to the international dyslexia Association dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin it is characterized by difficulties with accurate and or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding

141abilities these difficulties typically results from a deficit and phonological component of language that's often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge dyslexia occurs in and all in intellectual levels one of the ways CSD is ensuring all students receive systematic and explicit instruction is through a focus on the Fidelity of implementation of Foundations our K through three phonic program foundations is a tier one is tier one instruction that supports all students when you're teaching foundations you are supporting students with characteristics of Dyslexia and students without all students benefit from multisensory structured fics additionally our principles and assistant principles are growing their knowledge in the science of reading and

142a letters for administrators cohort we also have two cohorts of teachers and coaches participating in the 2year long letters three course tomorrow our district leaders and principles and some board members will be participating in a dyslexia simulation in partnership with the Georgia reading league and our CSD dyslexia task force this month all schools have displayed posters of remarkable people with characteristics of Dyslexia these posters were recommended by our parents that graciously served on our dyslexia task force dyslexia awareness is important because we know that an early identification and intervention is critical as a dyslexia a Georgia dyslexia pilot District we're proud of the improvements that we have made in our screening process and our focus on explicit and systematic instruction but we know we have more work to do I look forward to sharing updates

143in the future as we continue to align our instructional practices resources and professional learning with the science of reading thank you so much Mrs Burton I know some of our board members are looking forward to participate in the dyslexia simulation tomorrow unfortunately I won't be in attendance I've been asked to speak on a superintendent panel before state legislators regarding literacy although I won't be at the administrative staff meeting for that portion I will continue leading as we build awareness regarding the science of reading and its implementation in Georgia thank you last week I attended the inaugural Georgia Governor's Workforce Summit there Governor Kemp announced the Georgia match program an Innovative education and Workforce initiative and so this is what many will see as a logo starting today 845 Decor High School juniors and seniors will

144receive a personalized letter in the mail from Governor Kim listing the public and Technical institutions colleges and universities that are holding a spot for them in Fall for the 2024 semester based on academic eligibility the number of schools listed on a Georgia match letter is determined by the individual students 11th grade hope GPA and their freshman year index all students will receive a letter of academic eligibility for admission to the 22 Technical College of system Geor of Georgia institutions students with higher GPA will also up to 23 system of Georgia institutions so there are three University system of Georgia institutions not participating in the Georgia match program because they utilize a different holistic uh admissions process those would be Georgia Tech Georgia College and the University of Georgia so all Georgia match participating in institutions

145will wave their application fees for students starting in November of 2023 for students who apply through the Georgia match program so students would be able to view their personalized match list requests more information and actually claim their spot utilizing the George of futures.org website beginning next week also today the state released the 2023 graduation rat and I am pleased to report that the 20123 theor high school graduates continued the long of high achievement with a gradu graduation rate of [Music] 95.1% while this rate represents a slight decrease from the previous graduated graduates with a rate of 96.9 we remain second in metro Atlanta and it signifies the cater High School's commitment to ensuring students graduate prepared for future success for the fifth consecutive year CSD is ranked among the top five school districts in the

146Metro Atlanta area for having the highest Scholastic aptitude test scores otherwise known as the SAT of the decator high school students an estimated 75% of eligible students took the SAT and accumulated an average score of a one of 1147 a perfect essay score is A600 with 800 total points in math and 800 total points in evidence-based reading and writing the national average for SAT scores in 2021 was six was a 1060 placing CSD in the top ranking school districts in the nation I want to remind our students and our families and staff of our remote digital learning day coming up on November 7th Communications were sent last week through the district and school channels that included details of the day and an fa you to assist students families and staff in planning for the day

147additionally I want to recognize all of our principles for National principles month your dedicated leadership is evidence in the achievement of our students thank you for being all in for the students in the city schools of the care and on a personal note it is fr cancer awareness month and I am wearing pink in honor of all of the courageous survivors of breast cancer here hen that completes my report Dr reaker um good evening students staff families on behalf of the Board of Education thank you for partnering with us being all in for the students of decator we've had a very full agenda uh we'll continue the important work around our four key strategic accelerators uh we began to pre-work on our calendar the 2024 legislative priorities and then several important policies including grading uh

148we reviewed our beginning of the year assessment data and understand the work that needs to be done to ensure Student Success in all areas Dr whiter thank you for your update on the 90 days you've obviously been very busy we're excited about the work ahead implementing the Strategic plan uh I want to personally applaud Miss Embry and our nine National Merit semifinalists again on their accomplishments you represent the many great things happening at CSD uh Dr whiter at the beginning also mentioned that October is the month of many observances we appreciate Miss Burton for increasing our awareness about dyslexia it effects on learning CSD is support is committed to supporting enhanced literacy instruction addressing the unique needs of students with dyslexia and we look forward to participating in tomorrow's simulation with the dyslexia task force

149each year in October we also look forward to joining our schools and communities and celebrating our principles few of them are here tonight we are grateful to each of you for your passion and leadership in creating high quality learning experiences for our students and staff to thrive as we continue Hispanic Heritage Month we also join our schools and communities in preventing bullying and paying tribute to the history makers within the lgbtq plus Community finally I want to continue to reiterate the need for Grace as we work together to be great on their behalf fellow board members do you have any thoughts you all would like to share before we move to action items excellent all right we will now move to the action items uh we did not have any action items on our executive

150session this evening uh board will now move to the consent agenda items which include a Personnel report School nutrition report and monthly Financial reports uh Dr Whitaker the financial report includes a presentation yes Cher H hearen I would like to call on Miss lonia broom Chief Financial Officer to present the monthly financial report good evening board chair turn Madam Vice chair Dr flut members of the board superintendent Dr Whitaker and the August 2023 Financial reports are located in assembly of the general fund budget is approximately 98 million as of August the district has collected 25% are approximately 25.2 million of the budgeted Revenue year today which is in line with the percentage that was collected this time last year AUST revenue is 1,548 less than the amount of Revenue collected for July due to the

151large 40% collection of property tax revenue received in July property tax revenues are collected in April and December the April collections were recognized as current fiscal year Revenue in account of the district receiving such a large percentage of budget Ed revenues within the first month of the fiscal year earnings on investment is continuing to Trend higher than anticipated 56223 was received this month which is approximately 35,000 or 160% higher than the amount received in August of 2023 a budget amendment will be submitted in December to increase the anticipated revenue for earnings on investment our other revenue is trended as anticipated expenditures are normal for this time of the year the district has expended 7% of the overall budget are approximately 6 million year to date for the month of August expenses equated to approximately 4

152million this is 24% higher than what we spent in August 2023 which is due primarily to the majority of AUST expenditures offer salaries and benefits of 12 months in along with purchases associated with the start of the new school year for the month of August there's AIT B of approximately 2.6 million which means the district expenditures for the month were 2.6 million more than the monthly Revenue the 2.6 million will be taken from the fund B overall year to date there is a surplus of approximately 19 million due primarily to the large received of Property Tax Commission posted in July last year this time there was a surplus of 18 million the surplus of Revenue is normal at this time of the year and account for the healthy fund balance of approximately 34.3 million which

153includes the UN audited beginning fund balance of approximately 15 please note that the fund balance will decrease as expenditures increase August revenue for Capital funds consist of approximately $666,000 from earnings on investment and SP F collection expenditures are normal for this time of the year and the $429,500 years this year 24 anticipated expenditures for capital is approximately 7 food nutrition revenue and expenditures are trending within the same range as previous years F nutrition largest source of revenue for the month was approximately $277,000 from student breakfast and lunch expenditures largest source was from salaries and benefits the 7474 surplus of Revenue will increase the fund balance for school nutrition which is currently 1.6 special special special Revenue funds or all other funds including federal and state grants not budgeted and general funds we're currently closing out

154FAL year 23 grants and receiving reimbursements and preparing for fiscal year 24 grants will be which are effective this month I will be happy to respond to any questions or provide clarification thank you Miss broom any comments or questions from the [Laughter] [Music] board do I have a motion to approve the consent items uh one through three move to approv consent items through three thank you Mr SS do I have a second second white any discussion all right all those in favor say I I motion carries unanimously the next action item which is the board salary and benefits uh I'm going to yield the chair to board member white Miss White thank you uh board chair uh so it is about that time for us to just consider U looking at the board salary we're

155going to have um a new governance team sitting up here as of January 2024 and so um this is the time with which we talk about it so the first steps that we T typically take are we look at some of the surrounding school districts school districts that are our size to compare um if some of you were ARR around a couple of years ago at one point the board was earning about $50 um a meeting and so that was increased to $600 a month which is where we've been um am I supposed to wait for ad to come up supped I'm supposed to be reading that purle thank you Dr wer please introduce thank you Miss White I call Mrs Adena Walker chief of Human Resources to address the board salary and benefits I'm

156sorry like we might need to that's it right that's it long it's been a very long good evening board chair hearen Vice chair Sultan and steam members of the board and superintendent Dr jwi the purpose of this presentation is to review current board member salaries and how they compar to board compensation to other Metro Atlanta and like siiz districts as well as present benefit premiums to board for board members in eligible dependant October is the normal time of the year to review board salaries for alignment with du and responsibility and timing consideration to State Legislative guidelines proceeding local elections as a reminder CSD staff uh received their annual increases for FY 4 um on July 1st 2023 any approved recommendations tonight for board uh salaries will go into effect January 1st 2024 board member terms

157are based on calendar years so let's look back at the last five years starting with January 2018 through December 2019 board members received a perum of $50 per day for meeting I'm sorry and reimbursement for expenses from January 2020 to present board members receive a receive a siphon of $600 per month for board duties and additional $50 per month for the board chair for current uh health benefits board members participate at their own cost for any insurance plan at this time city of theator does not contribute toward any health care uh premiums for board members we conducted an environmental scan of annual salaries for other Metro Atlanta districts and S ADV District as you can see City schools of theer falls in the middle of the pack and also recognizing the annual salaries of the

158decor City Commission the annual salary review not only takes into consideration current duties such as monthly board meetings including executive sessions executive and work sessions professional learning and constituent engagement it also acknowledges the increased responsibilities for quarterly L Retreats which are aligned for data Deep dive weekly meetings with the superintendent to create systems and structures for organizational ass Effectiveness Community engagement meetings to enhance two-way communication with the community and monthly book studies to increase knowledge in alignment with the Strategic plan which cultivates growth as the exemplary board currently the total board salaries are $36,500 annually which is $600 per month for board members and $650 per per month for board chair in consideration for the increased responsibility the current recommendation is 3 is a $300 month increase to for board monthly amount this recommendation also

159takes into account the increase for the board and vice chair amounts as well so this is $900 per month for board member 925 for vice chair and 950 for board chair which is a total of $54,900 per year each year the board is extended options to participate in health care benefits as you can see the out of pocket monthly uh amount um for this board maximum for State Health is $1,274 67 per month for with out the white column and for the stage colum is with the contributions for uh board members the only difference with that uh board with the contribution is Kaiser HMO which is $646 $48 36 so this is giving you the option if the uh District contributes or if the uh District does not contribute they gives you the out of

160pocket also board members have the option to um pay their uh benefit their premiums through their compensation or remit the the amount directly to the district this time you have any question thank you Mrs Walker so comments um and discussion from the board now I can talk okay um well okay so she said everything that I started saying what I wasn't supposed to say um but yes this is the time for us to start talking about this um and one of the main reasons that this is important to me is not just about the people that sit in the chair but it's the actual chair and what does the chair the person sitting in this chair earn at one point there was a time when um babysitting for example wasn't even covered and so it

161was creating a barrier for some people to run for this seat um knowing that it could actually cost them to sit in this seat and so um over the years we've been kind of stripping away those barriers and so I'm very happy to see that we are also now adding in um Health Care um because that's that's just huge we all we all know how healthare is in the US and so if there's any way that we can help again remove one of those barriers so that we can have um community members who really do want to serve um move that barrier um from in being in the way as it's been for such a long time so I am personally um extremely happy to to see this even if I'm not participating in it

162I'm so happy to see that the person that will be sitting in this seat starting in January will be able to have those barriers removed for themselves I agree I didn't run for this uh seat for the money for the for the high pay obviously but I do think that what we want is for a varrying perspective and we don't want for there to be barriers in place whereby people feel like they can't run or don't want to run or don't want to provide their perspective um because there's limitations um like Child Care um some of us are in positions where we have that privilege and some people don't so I think just U putting some metrics in place where people don't um where people feel like they're valued um and I think this feel

163like they can serve and this is a job this is uh this is a job so um people should feel valued in their job I was thinking the same thing in the context of value of this role and um you know I don't know it makes sound $300 $300 increase may sound like a lot to some folks but I mean a lot of our time really to us go into this role um you know we the slot listed you know the increased um expectations for us to meet but then I don't I don't think I saw there what we have what we do before the meetings to prepare and so we get a packet every Friday from Dr Whitaker with the points of interest on things that are happening um in the district and so

164it takes time to read and prepare for our weekly meeting with her um and for our questions and um you know uh whereas before we would get a a board packet you know just before um the meeting and preparation now there's packets coming this thing you know it helps us to stay informed um and to make uh better decisions but I think that um and and when you look at what other districts are get I think that um this world is deserving of that yeah I mean i' I'd second that I think that um I knew this would be a fair bit of work I didn't I think quite appreciate how much um there was a span of time from mid January of this year through legitimately April I think where I spent far more

165time on this role than I did in my dayjob uh and but you know I have the luxury those times but work and um you know right now I have kids at home with um somebody watching them that I'm that I'm paying for and the thought of single parent trying to perform this role every month uh we just want to ensure that that we take as many of those limitations and barriers away that's a critical voice to have up here and it this should not just become the ability of the privileged and the wealthy to be able to sit on this panel we ought to be able to make it that anyone in this community that is interested in representing their children's interests ought to be able to sit up here and so I think

166it's extremely important that we move forward with this uh it doesn't really benefit any of us until I think we go through an election cycle right I mean so miss white is stepping off this board I think that this is conversion am I correct about that I don't want to be for rather or not for everybody on theard well then completely take back what I just said it doesn't work for Miss White the but nonetheless I think that um uh it it's it's it's pretty important that this be something that's available to anyone in the and this is a step in the direction to to make that so I mean I asked you to speak because one of the most influential meetings on me in my life was when I was thinking about running the

167board I took Miss White here who to coffee and she told me that she spent more money on Child Care four member I that's messed up um and I am running for reelection but after we had a meeting with gsba and Miss Valerie Wilson who I consider to be a mentor as a school board member told me that it was I could run or not run but I needed to talk to other good people about running and all three of them told me hell no I will not do it for the cost and being yelled at by my neighbors and one single mom said are you gonna watch my kids um and so when you brought this idea that they need to make it a little more compensated I thought okay that goes against everything

168that I think in terms of compensating myself for this but I I think it is important because four years from now when I don't think I'll run again I want to sit down and be like it's you're well compensated your time yes your neighbors are still going to yell at you but um at least you can CH cover child care if you decide to do it and so that's the influence you've had on me and I thank you for for bringing it to our attention thank you so much for saying that and yes thank you for mentioning un unmarried parents up here it's a little bit harder to uh to get things figured out when you're um sitting in this seat for eight hours um not at my job uh so I do appreciate that

169we are all supportive of each other up here um that means a lot go back to the script so so do I go to the script yeah oh wait is that you are you purple I'm blue oh you're blue yes okay go ahead may I read the motion statement for board salary you may yes yes yes you may I moved that the city schools of decada Board of Education approved the superintendent's recommendation to increase the salary in do I have a motion to approve the board member salary item one so move board member SS thank you for Mak making the motion do I have a second second thank you board member Jana Johnson Davis second a motion uh we had our discussion are we all in favor I I you say I motion okay motion

170carries unanimously thank you so much B may I read the may I read the motion statement for board member benefits yes I move that the city schools of Decor Board of Education approve the superintendent's recommendation to offer benefits to and contribute towards the monthly plan premium for board members you have a motion to approve the board member benefits item number two so move board member Utz makes a motion thank you do I have a second second thank you board chair hearen seconds the motion do we have any other disc discussion on the health benefits portion okay all those in favor thank you motion carries and let me just share something here I've been sitting up here for eight years right and most of the time I've been flying on my own and then everybody wanted

171to get all fancy with the script and I never had the script before okay and now that I'm leaving everybody wants the script stuff none of us find it surprising that you like working with script M you might be right about that thank you Mrs Walker discussion on the item has ended and I'm now returning the meeting back to the chair thank you board member white next we review the requests for proposals for HVAC and plumbing services yes chair Hearn did I call on Mr Sergio Perez chief operations officer thank you good board chair Heron Vice chair Dr suon the team members of the board and superintendent Dr JMA wher request for proposal 23003 for pluming services was issued on August 21st 2023 the scope of the of services includes equipment Diagnostics repairs maintenance installations

172retr feed and modification additionally Professional Services architectural and Engineering Services we receive responses for three vendors on September 18 2023 the evaluation committee recommends keg plumbing and J2 connect to be awarded for the pluming services contract the cost of these Services is not to exceed 500,000 ons are budgeted in the maintenance and operational fiscal year 2023 General funds budget additionally we have the request for proposal 23004 heing ventilation and air conditioning services the scope of services includes equipment Diagnostics repairs maintenance installations ropy and modification Professional Services architectural and engineer Services we receive responses from two vendors on September 18 2023 the evaluation committee is recommending MSI Mechanical Services and Max Air Mechanical to be awarded for the heating ventilation and air conditioning service contract the cost of these Services is not to exceed 500,000 ons

173are bued in the main and operational fiscal G 2024 General funds bu you have any questions may I read the motion statement for request for proposal for 23- 004 for HB please I moved at the city schools of decada Board of Education approved the superintendent's recommendation to award and execute the contract for hbac Contracting Services to MSI Mechanical Services and Max Air Mechanical thank you do I have a motion to accept the request for proposal 23-4 for hbac Davis do I have a second second Mr any discussion those in favor say I I I motion carries unanimously I'd love to hear the motion statement for the plumbing yes I moved at the city schools of theator Board of Education approve the superintendent's recommendation to award and execute the contract for plumbing Contracting Services to keg

174plumbing and J2 connect thank you do I have a motion to accept the request for proposal 23-3 plumbing services so move right do have a second there you go you're good uh any discussion all right seems like we're good on air and plumbing all those in favor please say I I I the motion carries unanimously uh next thank you Miss press we review our disc item this evening Dr Whitaker if you could introduce that item please for chair hearen I call on Mr eston Melton Chief Information officer to share a cyber security report evening good evening chair Vice chair Dr Sultan esteemed members of the board superintendent Dr wh in addition to October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month dyslexia awareness month and National principles month for the last 20 years October has been National cyber

175security to share with you some information about how CSD provides a safe cyber safe learning and working environment our work around cyber security lives within the organizational Effectiveness and Excellence strategic accelerator and specifically the charge to enhance safe and universally accessible learning environments there are many things about K12 education that differentiate us from widget makers like apple and service these create lifelong Learners ready to thrive as productive Global Citizens ignite positive change and create a more just and Equitable world but unfortunately just like the apples and Del of the world K12 are targeted by malicious actors seeking to steal our data our environment or hold those for ransom almost a third of cyber attacks last year targeted the education sector k12 and higher ed mine a successful Cyber attack can create days to weeks of

176learning loss take weeks to months to recover fully and cost thousands to millions of dollars in taxpayer money and I want to focus your attention specifically on learning loss the unanticipated unavailability of school with notification that might be measured in near hours disproportionately affects the students who most need to be in school in the first place you've heard about things like summer slide but for some students a slide can occur in days and not over seasons and to quote assistant superintendent Burton about two hours ago every single minute counts unfortunately we do not need to travel far to find districts that have lived through this experience and in the last two minutes that I've been speaking our firewall has repelled about two dozen unsolicited and even suspicious attempts by outside parties to probe or access

177our Network so what do we do about it we spent a lot of time during the height of coid talking about the Swiss cheese approach to disease prevention we get through the shutters of thinking about coid all right minor flashback sure we're still living with it but all right right bear with me although it is not a perfect metaphor it is a helpful metaphor to understand the how behind cyber security in our environment but instead of maske wearing a vaccine regimen and social distancing our layers of Defense include policies procedures and awareness the physical security of our core infrastructure external and internal Network exposure uh architecture and monitoring post system configuration and Patch management access control and data protections and I'm going to talk further about our work around awareness and monitoring our Network perimeter

178and how we use resources from the Georgia Department of Education for day-to-day monitoring and long-term planning we have focused most of our efforts around building cyber security Awareness on fishing fishing is an email or increasingly a text message attack intended to convince the target to give up sensitive information transfer money or install malicious software at least 90% of cyber incidents particularly those involving ransomware that can an organization dig with Su a successful uh fishing attack we have powerful email filters in place we use Google workspace Google uses Google workspace they're pretty good tools um and we block dozens to hundreds of fishing messages automatically day however our adversaries are constantly reiterating and sometimes their messages land in a colleague zbx thanks to a partnership with the Georgia Department of Education CSD has access to an

179industry-leading resource called No before that administers simulated fishing campaigns and provides information on where we might need additional training to better recognize actual fishing and our fishing campaigns come in two variants those meant to gauge how well our colleagues identify and respond to fishing and those that are not even announced within the IT team I usually push the button that tests how well the IT team actually responds to something that gets through our automated filters fishing awareness training is part of new higher orientation we do focused trainings with high-risk work groups such as HR and finance and our my own department and it has been a focus at school's faculty meetings last month and this month and according to no4 the average within the education industry for someone to be uh fishing susceptible is five

180and and a half percent five and a half percent of users uh will respond to fishing either by replying to the message or clicking on an embedded link indicator our rate is 2.8% and although we are happy to see that our staff performs well on those campaigns it's important to recognize that anything other than 0% susceptibility is still a call to action and that's why we're doing fishing campaigns last month this month and training and we mult with it we're also working more with our media Specialists to support anti-fishing training and tightening the timeline between when we see an employee susceptible during a campaign and when we provide intervention additionally we are in discussions with our middle and high school instructional technology coaches to use no with students any CSD user by the way board

181members included who receives an email or text to A CSD account that appears to be fishing or just suspicious please forward it to fishing at CS theater.net there are a lot of people listening and not going to pass it the you the opportunity um although fishing is a major precursor to cyber incidents it's not the only one um villains will sometimes take advantage of network access openings that an organization deliberately leaves open to provide better utility or take advantage of vulnerabilities and older unpatched Network systems these vulnerabilities sit at our perimeter outer fence so to speak you all will probably recognize this graphic from this afternoon to help stay ahead of this and again in partnership with the doe we use a resource known as bit site for Ono monitoring of our Network perimeter for

182the view of our network from Beyond the fence looking in bit site offers each organization an overall security rating up to 850 and letter grade ratings on 16 individual and very technical components CSD is in the advanced level of performance with a score of 780 out of that 850 scale 14 individual components two of them score B and any stakeholder who wants to monitor our performance on the nobe fishing prone rating or our cyber security score can visit the information Services web page CS theater.net is click the link for our performance dashboard and our data is there and updated at least transparency is an excellent component of building cyber security awareness and accountability team believes in that firm this level of performance protecting our network from outside threats aligns with the cyber security assessment report

183you heard this afternoon from our partners at lockstep Technology Group and for the last two years lockstep has conducted an external and internal review of CSD cyber security posture and we're grateful for their actionable feedback one of their overarching recommendations is for CSD to adopt an industry standard cyber security framework our foundational practices and infrastructure have matured to the point where we are ready to implement a formal cyber secur framework from the uh from the center for Internet Security adopting the cyber security framework is no small task it is is not just an IT undertaking but the IT team will be leading this charge cyber security framework development is a major enterprise-wide Pursuit and it's the next step on our cyber security journey to better ensure a safe highly available and increasingly connected learning and

184work environment additionally we'll be evaluating in the near-term possible enhancements to our tools for monitoring internal activity and we expect to have those in place any enhancements in place by the end of year and third we're laying the groundwork for expanded use of multiactor authentication and CSD and with it expanded single sign on Integrations for staff multiactor authentication is the prompt you might get from an app on your phone when you log into a banking or we've required multiactor authentication for district Google workspace accounts and for those employees with access to sensitive or financial information for years as part of national cyber security awareness month we are in the middle of the campaign to incentivize additional School level staff to opt into multiactor authentication and we anticipate that multiactor will become mandatory at the same

185time we refresh the current employee device Fleet or the opening of next school year whichever is soonest we eagerly uh we look forward to eagerly investigating pass keys and emerging standard to replace passwords and to eliminate the need for multiactor authentication pass Keys rely on a face scan pan or fingerprint and use a method of cryptography that is more secure than traditional passwords and again I encourage everyone within the sound of my voice to go investigate with all your various online services multiactor authentication or pass Keys as an option turn it on cyber security um is an area where we have no choice but to pursue continuous Improvement and thankfully we are not pursuing it alone we have allies from federal state and private entities and in addition to the doe we benefit in in

186particular from a close collaboration with other Georgia K12 both in Sharing best practices and in benefiting from lessons learned all of these grown-ups of course are here to support kids our ongoing focus on cyber security and the board's support for our evolving work is ultimately in service of preventing unnecessary learning loss and time away from school for our students I hope the board will remain engaged with me my team and the rest of District leadership as we continue this critical work I am happy to take any of if I can anticipate I think you were asking earlier about funding I will say that the partnership with the doe has been tremendous for us over the last couple of years and um superintendent woods and Keith Osborne the doe um CIO have certainly recognized during it

187coming back from the pandemic the importance of the investment in tools for school district we're really grateful for that the the IT team at gdau has invested a significant portion of their Esser funds which we all know from we've talked about Esser for a few years like it's limited um they spent most of those Esser funds to revive those two tools at night we'll have those specific tools at our disposal for it is either two or three additional that's not to say that there aren't additional tools that we're investigating or might want to ramp up the use of but those Cornerstone pieces that give us the certainty of these are some these are some metrics that we can take long-term planning to um that is due in very large parts of the partnership with youo

188and them applying resources for us I I wanted to mention that the statistic that sobers me is that 33 32 something like a third of all fishing attacks cyber um attacks happen on school districts and I mean if anybody pays attention to the size of the education industry in the US versus others we certainly do not represent onethird of the US economy and so you may presume that it is highly disproportionate there are terrifying reasons frankly why school systems are attacked and so um I just I want to be very clear this is something that we've got to continue to pay significant attention to we may uh you know to the extent that there are minor inconveniences that we require in order to be more secure it's all for very very good reason um thank

189you for your time and effort on it and um stay ahead of the game yes thank you thank you for that support aome well hear nothing thank you Mr absolutely uh we now from move on to public comment following information I have some stuff to read here is included in the board policy manual and members of the public also acknowledges info when they sign up to speak this serves as a reminder for all speakers and members of the audience the opportunity to address the board 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 period begins and in doing so will be asked to State their connection to CSD and or the city of decar to allow

190time for the boards other business public comment will ordinarily be limited to one hour or 20 speakers at the board's discretion the public comment period may be extended for a specified amount of time or a specific me number of additional speakers the time limit for all speakers will be three minutes person speaking during public comment will 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 member of the board at the chair's discretion person's violating violating this policy may be asked to step down speakers should be courteous and professional speakers are not to list complaints about a specific person or Personnel or individuals connected with District in a public session the board strictly prohibits

191abusive language threats comments Jers Applause or shouts from the floor disruptive persons will be asked to leave the meeting room the chair May ter public comments that are profane vulgar defamatory or disruptive if any speakers comments begin diverge into areas of hate speech or defamation I will ask the speaker to end their comments speakers may not address confidential student or Personnel matters but may submit such concerns the superintendent in writing members of the board will not address persons presenting public comment or speak to the substance of comments made instead a member of the admin team will follow up with person speaking at the board meeting Dr Whitaker do you mind call fing our first Speaker yes the first speaker is Robin painter thank you Dr litaker members of the board my name is Robin painter

192um I'm here representing Atlanta area transparent as a member of that group um there are 40 some families who are members of Atlanta area transparent which was created just in the last three years um over a dozen of these families live in city of decator limits send their kids to city schools of decator and there are many more members of the transgender and um gender diverse community living in city of Decor limits who are not necessarily members of transparent but who I know I am also co-chair of Fifth Avenue Elementary Dei committee um and I'm here speaking in that behalf as well um but most importantly I'm among of three kids all of whom have been in City's schools of Decay at some point um and I I have twin 10-year-old boys one of whom

193is a transgender boy who came out to us at age five and then I also have a 13-year-old daughter so I have my hands full but um you know I'm just here mostly to um express my gratitude that this has been a safe district for our family um that it has been a safe dist um I know that has not been across the board the experience of every transgender family um but I know that the board today um considered um board policy ja2 and approve that policy to um cify and um increase protections for transgender and gender diverse individuals in our community and I greatly appreciate that step forward to making that a more formal policy of the board um my son has had a wonderful experience since he came out in kindergarten um I

194want to highlight that your lgbtq plus staff memb members have been incredibly instrumental in making sure that he has had a good experience but he's also had non-lgbtq plus staff members who have been instrumental in helping him as well um I grew up here in Georgia in the 1980s this was not the experience of many gendered first friends and famili members that I have um so I'm really proud to live in a progressive District that is forward looking and future facing um I'm also responsible for helping my parents as they age wellbeing and my parents wellbeing if I were forced the choice to move out of state because I could not find a district of the state for my family would be heart-wrenching and so I really appreciate that as well um also as a

195mom of cisgender kids I you know I have two kids who are not transgender and it's wonderful to send them to a school where their sibling is not othered where kids generally are not othered and bullied um so thank you to the board for um making sure this is not going to happen that children are not going to be bullied as a matter of board policy or a lack of board policy in the future um I have two questions for the board or the admin one is who will be conducting the training for the district and how will the religion exemption for staff work and then I also wanted to offer I don't think it's polite to come up here and ask questions without making an offer if the board at any point or anyone

196at City Schools if the cater needs a parental or family liaison from the transgender or gender diverse Community I would be happy to either serve in that position or help identify an appropriate that position thank you thank you the next speaker is Lena Poler all right I was here last month and I'm going to talk quick again today um I promise that I am saving yelling at my neighbors for when you're here in an actual position um I'm going to start with a quote CS stands for our transitioning gender expansive students with full knowledge that gender like so many other identities is on a spectrum all young people should have their dignity and Humanity respected and this includes young people who are transgender gender fluid or who embody any other non cisgender identity CSD has

197established a process to help make the transition safe respectful and Equitable that's actually a quote not from the policy that was just being mentioned that is actually a quote from cst's Equity website um so this is language CSD publicly upheld four years ago the first time this board some of whom were here um voted on these policies that was the first time parents of trans kids stood in front of you and asked you to take action to protect their children and unfortunately four years ago they celebrated because at least from what they could see you acted on that promise of a safe and and respectful and Equitable School environment instead it seems that what happened four years ago has been buried and lost a time um by folks who shall remain nameless who felt that

198policies as PR stunts were an acceptable M Mo in interim children like mine have been left with no meaningful protection in the classroom another quote csc's mission is to inspire and enable student growth through meaningful and engaging learning experiences supported by highly qualified and caring educators in a safe inviting um inviting environment not to quote you completely Dr but thank you for teeing up that quote earlier this evening um again these are words of CD's published Mission but how are how are we creating a safe environment when policies are not enforced how are we creating a safe environment when the word of an abuser is taken over the word of the victim and investigations only happen when we as parents get loud M this year along with csc's meaningful and engaging learning my 8-year-old learned

199what good trouble really means as she stood up to Authority and has faced down intimidation tactics from her school and I am so deeply proud of her but this year she is also learning a lesson about what it means for someone to be a good German I'm really happy to Define that later if you'd like me to she learned about gaslighting and she learned that school was not always a safe space for her or others like her and she learned that even when she is braver than most adults I know when she sounds proudly and speaks her truth that even then sometimes adults in positions of power like this school board choose to do the easy thing while hiding behind bureaucratic smoke and mirrors rather than doing the right thing I am deeply proud of

200my child who is speaking out to not only protect herself from the abuses of a teacher but to also protect other children like her I have already shouted and I will make this quick shout at our story from the rooftops and it seems like my voice may have fallen on deaf ears so tonight I am hoping that the hearing the voice of an 8-year-old speaking truth to power will move you to take the right action especially when it is the hard one thank you the next speaker is Alise kler Wallace it's Alex Alex okay hi as you may know I am Alex third grade the trans kid who I I thought persuaded you you the problem over at tally as a transid being [Music] misg misgendered and dead named is very disappointing and I I

201and did I mention after dead names me most of my class laugh most of my class laughed at me he and taunted me and that was super disappointing and sad I feel unsafe at school knowing that there there is hurting me in in trans kids like me after all that after all that persuading you believe me me and my mom or thank you Al thank you the next speaker is Jesse mcnalty senior hey y'all I wasn't sure who was going to be here hello I'm I'm just a little shaken from all this he feel like Robin painter as far as I'm very proud to be part of CSD I was a 25 year veteran school teacher trying to get here out here the last three years I'm proud of the work that's being done with

202Dei um I come here as teacher parent activist for the lgbtq situated young people in the state of Georgia done that work for over two decades outside of my teacher duties um it's disturbing what Alex has just been telling you and we need to believe Alex uh I am proud of what's happening with these policies I I was reading through there's some holes in here the holes are you know part number 11 um schol staff in inadvertently or unintentionally fail to comply um that's probably why Alex is not feeling believed multiple violations May constitute um disciplinary action I don't know all the ins and outs of everything that's happened with this case per se I know I believe that Alex is uncomfortable at school my first year of teaching um in Cab County uh a

203young person from Vietnam changed his birth certificate it was very obvious um that student somehow they made a way for him there was you know there was nothing already laid out in policies these discussions weren't even happening the gay community was rejecting trans young people and adults back then in the 1900s uh it seems like CSP is trying to do something I'm very again proud to be here Dr Mary Ben is amazing the things she says and does she's all in I'm all in with her everything is happening uh all of our Affinity groups are launching now um I'm so nervous talking I just I believe you I'm sorry you have to go do that we have some Hol sys in here this is swis cheese a little bit but I'm proud of what's here

204I'm proud this is a blue dot and a very red fire place I I'm from New Jersey I was appalled to be teaching in a trailer when I first started teaching I had no idea what Georgia was all about but yeah I'm learning still I mean my 28 year of teaching now my military years I really could retire but there's a lot of work to be done I'm going to be here at CSD at least another decade and I'd like to see this stuff sure shorted up a little better I I offer myself up as the leue Aon as well um you have good people doing good things I am proud to work here and I just I think we can do a little better but but thank you for what we do have thank

205you thank you that concludes this public comment sign up okay I I want to thank all of the speakers for taking time to be here tonight as board members it is incredibly important for us to hear the concerns from our communities uh we will take the comments into consideration someone we be reaching out to you all that sort of stuff uh the next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday November 14th at the Wilson Center again we'll be following the new board meeting meeting Cadence um go from that public comment will be at 6:30 and that is sort of the focal point from which we plan around that to make people available Etc I appreciate you taking your time future making that is is that that and we kind of work backwards also we will have

206our next board retreat that will be November 28th 8 2023 um and we will be at the salarium which is the community center of South decator uh we'll take a deep dive into some of the campus level data and a competitive compensation package for decors uh staff and Personnel any comments questions about any of future dates all right there being no further business this meeting is adjourned at 6:41 p.m. thank you all okay what what time