001All right. Good evening everyone. I'm going to go ahead and um start this work session. Thank you for joining us this evening. Skyler, are you online and are you able to hear us? I am online and I'm 30 seconds from the room. >> Okay, wonderful. >> All right, I am going to go ahead and turn things over to Superintendent Smith. >> Yeah, good evening everyone. Thanks again for the time. Um, tonight we've got um two presentations for you. Um we're going to zero in on just sort of the orientation and structure um some of the you know the challenges things like that um from the uh human resources department so led by uh chief human resources officer Jose Lewis. And then after that I'm going to turn it over to Phil Raider and Amanda Lewis
002um for a um an overview of the communication structure um along with some data. Right. So each of the um executive team members um were just sort of asked to obviously compile what is their organizational structure and then also what is the um uh what are the challenges in front of us and and what are the areas of of impact that they're looking to make um through data um connected to the strategic plan. And so tonight is just another orientation about that to sort of get us calibrated. And without further ado, Josie Lewis. >> Thank you. So, um I am going to start tonight. This is our schedule that was shared last time of who's going to be reporting um out when. But I am going to start by giving you a little bit of
003an overview of our HR department and then talking about the three priorities that I had shared with the board back in August um that have continued to drive the work in our department. Um so just high level overview of our HR department. Um we have a tagline that we have worked on and so um at the top of all of our agendas we talk about centering the humans and human resources is our big our big focus. So we want to make sure that decisions we're making really have our humans at the center because I am one of the few people who gets to have human in my job title and I take that pretty seriously. Um making sure we're taking care of folks. We have about 30 people in our department um that do a
004variety of things starting from posting job positions all the way through to when people leave the district through you know retirement or resignation things like that and then everything in the middle. So um things from collective bargaining evaluations um onboarding we we do everything we interact with employees at various stages of their employment with us and our department structure has changed over the years. So I've gone back and looked at um how the department was structured you know 10 years ago 15 years ago five years ago and our department has been structured in a variety of ways um from sometimes it's been structured with part of our department focuses on our certified or our licensed teachers and administrators and the other part focuses on um our classified staff. Um and so that's been one structure.
005Another structure has been focusing on the talent side. So recruitment, retention or hiring that side and then focusing on employee relations. We're really looking at what the right structure is for us. And so right now we're in a little bit of a transition trying to figure out what that looks like once we get our processes and procedures in place. I'm going to talk about in a little bit. So our objective um we talk about all the time is continuing to improve our employee experience so it improves the students experience. So that's really our our job as a service department is to support our employees. So these were the um priorities that I shared with the board back in August. Um really comes down to three priorities which is alignment of our systems and our processes
006in HR, compliance, and strategic staffing. Um so those are the three areas we have been focusing on and I'm going to go into a little bit more detail and updates on each one of those priorities um to tell you where we're at on those. So the first one is alignment of systems and our all of the different processes and procedures that happen in HR. Um we've talked about what that organization in our department looks like and really wanting to anchor to what the work is and then wanting to ensure that the employee experience is is great for all of our employees. So we're looking at things from what does the hiring process look like um from start to finish. We got a new human resource information system or HRIS in May of 2024 and really
007about 12 to 18 months after you implement a new system, we need to check it. And so there's this is a good opportunity for us to check um on that and work through the workflow process. So we're doing that right now. We have a new professional learning tool to do annual trainings with our um our employees. So we're working on that. Is that the right tool? So, a lot of processes are in place um that we have people looking at um to see if it's doing what we want it to do, accomplishing what we want, and if it's user friendly um for our employees. And then the other thing we've been working on is establishing a calendar of work. Um so, various parts of our department do work at different times. Um as you might
008imagine, we're going into peak hiring season and so very busy for that um side of our department. there's just other things that are busy. So, making sure we understand the cadence of work that um we do every day. So, that's our priority one. Priority two is compliance. Um we have been working really hard on making sure that our processes are compliant, but that we have the anchor documents in place to make those processes compliant. So um employee handbook um that was updated for 2526 already in the process of updating that for 2627 because you all know you've approved 93 new board policies that will need to be reflected in in our employee handbook. Um and then we will have additional policies coming to the board for review. Um those discretionary and recommended policies that we've
009talked about will be coming to you as well. So really wanting to make sure that we have the the anchors in place so that when we're making decisions, we're making decisions off of whatever that anchor is. So if the board policy says this is how we're going to do it, then our procedures will flow from the board policy. So we've been working a lot on that. And then addressing staffing related concerns I'm going to talk about on the next slide. Um but this is the compliance piece of it is really forming the basis for a lot of what we're doing. and then strategic staffing. So, um we have reviewed a lot of data um as you all know um from our district, from districts around the state, from districts around the country trying to understand
010our current staffing levels tied to our enrollment trends. Um and so we've our team um has just taken a deep dive into a lot of our data building by building, classroom by classroom um and then department by department. So, we have um really begun that process of starting to work on a 5-year plan. Um big goal is a 5-year strategic staffing plan. Um we need to be able to predict what our staffing levels are going to do tied to our enrollment so we can better make decisions in advance and forecast what we're doing. Um right now, you all know about, you know, the budget situation and some staffing decisions we're making because of that. It would be great if we could make those decisions three or four years out and start to forecast for for
011folks what we're going to be doing. Um, right now we're able to we're managing a lot of that through attrition and trying to make decisions that way. So, as I've shared with you in the past, we're not making decisions about riffing or cutting jobs. We're really looking at making decisions through attrition. In a five-year staffing plan, that gets easier for us to do because we can start to predict out. So right now what we have done is we've started to establish staffing standards um at our building level. Um we are also doing that at department levels and some of our departments already have this. Um you know I was talking to Amanda Grim and you know they staff off of meals served. So we have different ways that we're already doing this. It's just been
012it's a little new and different for the staffing standards at our building level. So that's where we're at on priority three. um some challenges that we're experiencing um and these are in no order of um priority just the capacity to meet the current demands. Um when we're talking about there's been a lot of requests for data lately that have been coming in and that's coming at the same time that we're doing staffing um or budget reductions and having to make changes in the budget and a lot of that is coming from staffing. So, we're also looking at staffing standards. All of those things are coming together at the same point, which is a big lift for our team. And so, wanting to make sure that we are not getting too in front on certain issues,
013that we're communicating um as best we can when decisions are happening. But, as you might imagine, sometimes things are changing. And so, we're we're we're adapting with those changes. But the capacity to do all of these things on the on the same timeline is is a challenge right now. Um, and then the next one, the challenging notions of past practice and current reality. When we've talked about our declining enrollment and how we've staffed, our staffing has stayed largely consistent. And as our enrollment has declined, that has had to change. And so, that's just that's different. Looking at staffing in a new way is is going to be a challenge. I already talked about the budget impact on our staffing. Um, 83% of our operating budget is people. So, anytime we talk about budget reductions, a
014lot of it's going to be people. And so, that's that's tough to to be overseeing those different processes and how can we do it in a way that protects jobs um and does these changes through retirements, attrition, things like that is really important um to our whole team. And so, wanting to look at that from a holistic um standpoint and then leveraging our tools to create efficiencies. So when we got our new HIS system, it's incredibly um powerful tool in terms of analytics. And so we need to get really good at using that tool to pull our analytics so we can start telling applicant tracking data, um personnel data that can drive decisions we're making. So using the tools we already have that the district has already purchased and leveraging those to get our data
015is is a challenge but it's also a really exciting challenge because it's there. Um so we're just learning more about it each day. And then our choices um our challenges and choices are just connected. Um it's a lot of times we're balancing timelines. When do we make decisions? What goes first? What goes second? Um, our team talks about sometimes, you know, if we were building a district from scratch, what are the decisions we'd make? But we aren't. Um, and so there's there's people in positions. Um, and so we have to make, um, decisions that not only, um, respect the process, but also honor the people in those positions. And so, um, making sure to think about them in a variety of ways. But short and long-term goals, what do we need to do today to
016position the district for the next 5 years is something we're constantly thinking about. And then just compliance, always prioritizing um what we need to do at a at at a basic level and then we can build on uh from there. So, you know, if if the law requires us to do certain things in the applicant hiring process, then how do we build on that to make it work for DMPS so that it is reflective of what we want and what we've set as important for our district and then the impact. So, um I would say if all of these things are moving really well together, um we would have two things. Uh the first would be predictability and the second would be collaboration. So, um, predictability in any staffing plan is is just it's what
017you strive for is to be able to get so good at this that you can predict what we need based on the trends that we're seeing. Um, so in an ideal world, we would have the the predictability to be able to um look at our funding for staffing positions, not just by, you know, the overall positions, but by locations, be able to make those decisions um prior to anything actually having to have happened. um so that we're not getting on top of um those decisions, we're not marrying them together. Um and then that would allow us to be compliant throughout the system. And then overall, I would say just collaboration between our department um and all of the departments throughout our district. Um I I feel like I say it all the time, but we
018are service department. Um we are in service to our buildings, our students, our our employees. And so making sure that we're able to do that to support the student outcomes um is really important to to me. So that is uh I say the two big ones predictability and collaboration. I think that might be it. Feel like I talked really fast. What questions do you have for me? >> Josie on the um the staffing for the large volume of document requests you're speaking of. Do we have do you have or do your staff have the tools? This is the hot thing everywhere including corporate world but do you have the tools including maybe AI tools that others can help you with that type of uh work that maybe could be more efficient? >> So Neil and
019I work very very closely on um the document requests that we get. Um so we have standing meetings pretty regularly on the requests that we get um how we're disclosing those and things like that. So yes, we have some of that. I think we're learning through volume um other options that we may have but for right now the two of us collaborate on that. >> What's the name of the tool you said you had that has been so powerful? >> Power schools. So it's a Yep. It's a um it's a power schools product that we use and the business office uses um business plus and then we use several of their modules as well. Um, so we use their applicant tracking and then we have records which is another module and then the evaluation tool.
020So what's really cool is that all the systems can talk to each other. So you can start like when I first started in my career we had different products for different things. Nothing ever talked to each other. This it all pushes and pulls together so you can pull the analytics out of it which is really it's fun to to be able to do that. It also allows us to zero in on a single source of truth for data as opposed to multiple data pools from various systems. Um, that's been challenging for us in in years past. >> Where would you say you are in since starting getting a handle on where your department is? Where are you in your journey of to where you want to be and how much has the last three months
021months disrupted that? >> Um, that's a good question. I would say we have a lot of great things going on. Um, the the staffing work, uh, we have a team that's been really carved off and been able to just focus on that, um, because we've needed to because of the budget situation. So um we are doing some really great things. Would I um love to have more time for all of us? Sure. But we are moving forward um and adding on to a lot of the great work that was being done before. Um as to I I don't think I could like get it down to an exact number, but I like where I like where we're headed and I like the work our team's doing um on putting the important things first. So processes,
022procedures, and making sure we're compliant. >> I will say the the volume of data requests from various um agencies, public requests, things like that. Um while the team is has been managing, managing becomes untenable for the duration. And so that is a challenge that um that Josie and I talk about in continuing um you know to lift up the team, but also recognizing that changing roles and responsibilities and making some shifts even temporarily are necessary to keep folks um focused on the work and allow them also some breathing room um as days and and weeks and months go by. So, um, you know, like like many many good teams and and departments in the midst of a of a crisis, they all pull together and they they get it done and they are burning at
023both ends. Well, they've been at that for the last four months. Um, and so we're looking at that about what that means um for us moving forward and how we can make some adjustments and create some supports for the staff. >> One of the other areas that we're I'm sorry, you were going to say something. >> I was just going to say um I think our team's incredibly lucky. So, I was gonna like just take a moment and shout out the work that the team has done as we have been doing new things or different things or needed to shift and adjust work. Um, that has just been yep, I got it. Um, and so I can't I cannot overemphasize how fortunate we are to have people that know their roles. Um, know where they
024have strengths and can lean into stuff and say, "Yep, I can go on that and I got it." And like they got it. It's not something where like the next day I'm saying, "Hey, do you remember about that?" Like, it's done and I'm not checking it. That's like it's amazing. So, I can't say enough positive things about how our team has pulled together. As Matt said, >> recruitment is another board goal. Uh retention is another board goal. um where are you like where's your mindset in where we are on our journey to become a destination not just a place people have a heart for so they stay >> yeah so I think I've maybe said this before like in order to um do HR really well you have to both recruit and retain you can't
025do one well and not the other um we are turning a lot I think to use Matt and I think Neil uses this we are turning a lot of levers right now um in terms of you know early retirement ment and realignment of staffing and things like that where I don't know that I can give you a great grasp about where those vacancies and things will be right now, but we'll be able to do that in the upcoming weeks. Um, but right now we're turning a number of things and I don't know that I can give you a really direct answer on on where we're at. Well, and part of that retention, I've had this conversation with various staff members both uh within the HR department and of course at building levels and things like
026that and in other departments um really clear pathways for career advancement opportunities is a very big deal, right? And so we've got incredible opportunities through our blue contract through green um you know our work with Grand View and you and I. So we've got some really really amazing tracks but the p those are primarily for teachers. Um, and so we have the other side of the organization that may not have teacher endorsements or certifications that also are looking for career advancements and opportunities to move within the system because they want to be in De Moines. Um, but we don't always create a pathway or make it very clear what those pathways are and the opportunities to invest in those and um, those staff members. So that's a real opportunity I think as we talk about
027building capacity of the HR team and of the central office team collectively is to think um seriously and intentionally around creating pathways and investment opportunities for staff that are not teachers to grow in here with professional learning and training and certifications and endorsements but also through career advancement opportunities. Josie, I just wanted to acknowledge a comment you made earlier around uh I forget how you said it, but kind of keeping the human at the core of human resources. I really appreciated that and also what you said about u we sometimes will speak in hypotheticals about if the district were started tomorrow, what would we do? And the reality is it's not started tomorrow. So some of the decisions you have to make you have to keep humans in mind because as we all know some
028of the decisions that we make as a board you make as a staff that may not seem like they are financial impacts sometime have financial consequences when you're not treating the humans correctly. So I wanted to say thank you for that and um >> thank you for the presentation. >> Thank you. What can we do as a board to be more supportive in the next year for your department and for advancing some of the things that you want to do? >> Um, I think as we look at the different things that we're reviewing, the processes, the procedures, um, changes that we may have to make to align with enrollment to start to project out um, helping us with that. So, um, providing input as to, you know, does this make sense? um where do you
029want to see the district in five years when it comes to staffing? What do you want to see? You know, whether it's pathways or things like that. Giving us the time to build those things out, I think would be really helpful. Miss Maria, you're good. Okay. Um anyone else? I just want to say thank you as well. I echo Skyler um and his comments regarding humans. We've got some tough decisions coming ahead and knowing that your team is centering your decisions around the humans that make this um entire system run is incredibly important. I also want to thank you for using the analytics and the predictive nature of the data that you have. I think that will improve the way that we approach our work as we look ahead to the five our fiveyear goals.
030So, thank you so much. >> Thanks so much. >> Thank you, >> Bill Rder. Um, as you make your way to the podium, thanks so much. um also equally as excited uh um to hear, you know, and to collaborate with Phil around tonight's presentation. Um because we've been talking about um uh at least since 2010 when I moved here about the De Mo public schools telling their story um and doing a much better job of talking about the amazing things that our staff do on a daily basis. And so, um, Phil's put together along with Amanda and his team an incredible sort of presentation that sort of highlights some of these things in terms of context and challenges and opportunities. And so, the opportunity that that we have to move forward to invest even more
031so in the communications and the marketing of our district um to to lift up the successes and the achievements of our students, staff, and families is incredibly important as we move forward um in the next several months, but also in the next five years. Bill, >> thank you, Matt. Good evening everybody. Um what I'd like to do may just set the stage kind of level set here a little bit. Um is share what our current structure is around communications, what our responsibilities and task are currently for the district. Um share a little bit of data of some of our reach in some areas and then close with what what the need is, which is what Mr. Smith uh hinted at uh here. Um just to start with uh our current structure um and we actually
032twothirds of the communications department is here tonight. So uh I challenge any other department to match that uh attendance. I think we win. I think we beat Kaylee better. She was only 50% attendance last week. So um in addition to myself, uh I think you probably most of you know or at least met or dealt with most of the team. Uh, Amanda Lewis. Um, I was going to say Amanda does a little bit of everything. She does a lot of bit of everything. Um, uh, also here tonight, Adam Roller, our graphic designer, um, who makes us look good in more ways than one. um behind the wall uh Kyle Nicely who you see uh most every other Tuesday here uh running the show and and uh as our video director Kyle does a range of
033of video projects for uh social media, the website, DMPS TV, our Mediacom presence, etc. um John Lemons, who you've also met, uh our photographer, um who directs uh a lot of our visual uh the way we present ourselves visually uh to the community. I want to talk more about that because that is an important part has been an important part of our work. And last but not least, uh Amy Fleeter, uh she's the newest member of the team, been with us about a year and a half, uh oversees uh our websites, uh website work in the district. Um the team c cross-pollinates in our work uh if you will. Uh you know I think Kyle probably 90% of his work uh is video but he does uh a lot of photography backup. Uh Adam has
034a lot of experience and expertise in website design but at the same time Amy has a bit of a graphic design back background and fills in and and assist Adam uh on projects. So there's a lot of other duties as assigned uh within the team. I just want to walk through kind of our our main task. Honestly, these are in no particular order. Uh their importance may vary daytoday or even hour by hour uh depending on uh what's what's on our plate. Uh managing the district's web presence. Um several of these I'm going to come back just so with some quick data and numbers uh here at the end. Um, our social media presence, we're primarily on Facebook, Twitter or X, whatever you want to call it now, uh, and Instagram. Uh, we use, uh,
035YouTube and Flickr as video and photo platforms, um, uh, to share and embed, uh, on other channels that we use. And then we usually stick our big toe in another social media platform from time to time. We've been on Pinterest uh uh in part because its founder is a Roosevelt High School graduate. Um we did not get a lot of traction on Pinterest for whatever reasons. We've tried threads. We currently have a presence on um uh Blue Sky uh as well, but but the big three, Facebook, Twitter, and and Instagram are really where where the action is, if you will. Um we produce a weekly newsletter. Um, it's sent most Fridays uh throughout the year a recap of the previous week's news, reminder of upcoming events, calendar, photo and video gallery, uh, things like that.
036Um, it goes out to all staff members and all families or primary audience, but we send it to elected officials, other community leaders, the news media. Um, anybody can subscribe to it uh, as well and it's free. uh parent square. I want to come back and talk a little bit more about this. This has been in some ways a gamecher uh for us this year um with the uh near universal reach that we now have with families um and the flexibility that it brings in terms of families getting messages in their preferred language uh in their preferred format, you know, text, email, phone call, um even a preferred time. Um it's it's been a a big change from from the previous system. Uh we work closely with our IT department on its launch um uh
037and training people and we've kind of by default have been the in-house experts um in particular Amanda Lewis um on Parent Square and providing that support districtwide. uh the reimagining education initiative. Uh we work closely with the superintendent, the reimagined uh the facilities planning committee, uh our consultants um at sharing information uh throughout that effort and we'll we'll look a little bit more closely uh at some numbers around that in a minute. Um but sharing me in on all of our various platforms and channels that we use to communicate uh at the district and we all know what the outcome of that was. uh video work. Uh I touched on that when was introducing uh uh Kyle a few minutes ago in terms of stories and promotions that that he produces for video as well
038as taking care of the broadcast and stream of uh of the board meetings. Uh branding and graphic design. uh Adam Roer uh has really led um this isn't to be critical of any of our colleagues, but sometimes working at a school district is a little bit like her cats. Um you know, everybody has good ideas and wants to pursue them. Um and a lot of people I think think that if you show a picture of a one room schoolhouse and an apple, you've like done some sort of educational graphic design magic. um not the case. Adam has really done a lot to get the look of the district to be professional and consistent throughout. Um it might sound like a small thing, but we're a big organization. We have a big impression on this uh
039community. We have more locations than Wells Fargo and HY and any other, you know, business organization you want to name. And so how we present ourselves matter and and and Adam has done an excellent job uh with that. Uh media relations of course we are the primary contact for the m uh news media write advisories releases you know work work with interview requests etc. Uh podcast um we launched it with the start of the 23 24 school year. Uh it's a monthly production. Uh Kyle uh uh produces the podcast. Amanda Lewis is the host. and we have I can't remember how many additions we've done, but um uh covered a range of topics. Reimagined education, I think we've done four or five episodes about it, but also talking about uh the budget. We talked about
040community partners uh uh with with Kaylee and one of our community partners last month. Um uh we're always and we're always looking for ideas, so if you have ideas, uh pass them along. uh public affairs. Um uh we have worked with the and essentially staff the community legislative action uh team uh in its work in past years. We continue to work uh with the superintendent and our lobbyist on legislative matters and provide you very support to um you know whether it's our preschool director or others in in uh their advocacy for for things before the legislature. Um we partner and collaborate with our schools of course on a almost daily basis that ranges from assisting schools with communications if there's an issue uh uh or an event that happened at school uh that they need
041to share with parents. We cover events um uh at schools daily. Um uh members of the team are out at that. Um we with the addition of Amy to our team about a year and a half ago, we also are working more closely with schools and their individual websites um monitoring them for updates and when we see that things aren't being updated, trying to you know offer training finding out why uh why schools are are not uh uh making best use of their sites. Uh we collaborate with HR um you know assist in promotions of job fairs uh uh critical openings run billboards and ads from time to time to uh uh to promote their needs. Um we also have worked with them uh in recent months re last couple years I guess it's been
042on an employee spotlight each month as well to highlight um an administrator a teacher and an another uh employee. Uh so three people getting highlighted uh each month. We also tend to be the advanced people for special events around the district. Um a few examples from this past year include uh the state of the schools event of course. Um by the way that's February 19th this year here at central campus. Um we did actually two events for the Clay Caitlyn Clark uh foundation last year. One was the uh unveiling of the first mini court that her foundation sponsored over at Weeks Middle School. And then we had Caitlyn herself at Mcome's middle school right before the start of the year. Uh working closely with the foundation um on some of their events such as the
043annual dinner um as well as the one run uh helped to we assist with the commencements. Um we did the staff all staff back to school event that was at the nap center last couple years as well. And then other duties is assigned. I mean, snow days um uh is always a favorite. Uh you coordinating districtwide message on on our marquee boards around the district, things like that. Um I want to circle back on a couple things just to share some numbers. Um uh just to give an idea of our reach uh impact into the community. Um a typical school month will see uh approximately 70,000 unique users uh to the district's website. Um what that means basically that's based on your IP address. So it means there's 70,000 unique I you know if you
044visit our website from your office and then later that day you visit it from home okay you you made two visits you're two users but that's how that's counted. And then we see about on average 1.2 million events on the website during a typical school month. Um, and that just means they went to the website and they did they clicked on something. Um, that varies some. You know, last month, uh, we had about 50,000 50 maybe about 55,000 users. Why? Because winter break, I mean, our when we're not in school, uh, usage goes down. Um, flip side is in October, um, we saw about 120,000 uh, users. Partly that was due to the interest we were getting with the former, uh, superintendent. Um but part of it, a big part of it was due to
045the fact that we had a referendum coming up and we were putting out a lot of information around that. Um social media, uh I just note there our followers about 54,000 followers on Facebook, a little over 17 on uh Twitter, and a little over 13 on Instagram. Even though Instagram's the smallest of the big three, it is our most engaged social media site by far. Um, if we post the same thing on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram across the board, you know, something on Facebook gets 30 or 40 likes, that same thing will get 3 to 400 or more uh on Instagram. Um, it's part of the reason we invest uh a fair amount of effort into uh our photography. People like to see what's going on in school. They like to see our kids. They
046like to see our teachers. They like to see events. they like to see uh you know the school musical, the basketball game, uh uh what have you. So um the more we show what's going on in our schools and the good things that that our people are doing, uh the more people appreciate and understand our work. Um I mentioned earlier parent square being a a bit of a game changer for us. Um as of today we are reaching 99.1% of our families through parent square. Uh that compares to give or take a little bit about 83% with Snap Connect which was our our previous service. The reason for that is pretty simple. Uh Snap Connect was passive. You you had to do something to connect with it. You had to download their app. Um Parent
047Square is active in that we get um it's connected directly with Infinite Campus. It's as current as 2:00 the previous morning. I mean there's an overnight connection between parent square and infinite campus so that we have whatever the most up-to-date information infinite campus is is what we are connecting with uh on parent square um we did uh a pilot program last year with parent square we had four schools uh during the last school year to kind of kick the tires and see what we thought of it. Um so we went districtwide with it this for this school year. Uh so essentially we're at the end of the first semester of usage of it. Um uh we're seeing 45% of our teachers uh are making posts which means something that can be seen by their class
048or or group or team depending on what they're connecting with. Um 71% of them are using it as direct message for direct messages which is essentially like an email. Um uh parent square works with around 38,000 schools across the country. So they've got a lot large amount of data themselves and have set some benchmarks uh for where they expect their users to be at. Uh at this point in the process their um their benchmark was 35% usage. Um so we are exceeding uh exceeding that um by a little bit. Um we've taken kind of a run before you can walk approach uh with parent square too. It's being used primarily uh for post and direct messages. Um, but we're looking to expand that in the months and years ahead. There's a attendance component that we're
049pretty excited about. Um, we can do more with things like permission slips, uh, and those types of tools. We wanted to make sure people were comfortable with this before we, you know, threw a dozen different bells and whistles at them. Um uh the um uh we're seeing about as I mentioned you know over 99% of people receive messages on parent square. We're seeing about about three out of four families engage with it which simply means that they are either uh there's some aspects of parent square it's kind of like social media. You can like a post that your school puts up. You can comment on a post or you're sending a direct message, you know, to your child's teacher or back to the school. So, we're getting about three out of four families that are
050after just one semester are using it to engage um uh directly with their school. The e newswsletter um goes out uh uh to about 30 a little over 33,000 about 33,500 uh uh recipients each Friday. We did um last year we did 45 additions. Um you know, we don't do it on winter break. We don't do it in spring break or every other Friday in the summer when things slow down a little bit. Um we're seeing a really good open rate uh for that this since the start of the school year between 43 and 51% of recipients actually open uh the email. Um uh the average for PK-12 education is about 37%. Um so we're running running ahead of that. And you know I mean I I don't know about you I think about the
051stuff that shows up in my inbox and yeah there's a lot of e newswsletters I get that I don't touch. um I forget to unsubscribe but I don't open them either. So um so it's that's a satisfying number um for us. And last but not least, Reimagine Education. Um just some highlights of our work there. Uh it was covered in 47 different e- newswsletters. Um uh since the initiative was was launched and was the topic of five of our podcast. Uh uh during that time there were 27 uh district-wide messages about reimagined education that went out and then we uh CISO one of our communications consultants uh prepared uh c uh uh specific school messages. Uh so that's that highlighted what does this mean for your school and your child's school. And so that was
052another um message that went out to 57 schools on a specific level. Um social media and I should have noted there, sorry. Um that's Facebook specific. We had just over 1 million views of our um Facebook post during the last 3 weeks leading up to the election. Um and we were doing I think Amanda daily post on that and had a little over 20,000 engagements. Um, and I'll be honest, those engagements, we all knew it was an uphill battle. Those engagements were the first sign I had that this thing might win because we'd post, you know, here's something great that rem, you know, if this passes, here's what we're going to be able to do with reimagine education. And there'd be, you know, somebody that thought they were clever that wouldn't make a snarky post.
053And right away, like three or four people would jump on and say, you know, you're wrong. We need this. this is what this means for our kids. So, um you know, it's hard to judge Facebook and social media. They're not votes. They're not sometimes they're not even real people. Um but but it was encouraging to see the reaction um uh that we got there. Um we also just noted here uh we have a standalone reimag education website. Um uh there's something like 70 pages of information not counting a few hundred other uh documents and images and things like that that are available on that site. The traffic there um is a lot less than the district site of course but um uh that that site is kind of a placeholder that we use to direct
054um uh uh other post and information that we share about reimagined education. Um we're in the process right now. In fact, we met this morning um of doing a lot of transition work around reimagining education to uh you know from what it will be to now the focus on what it is and the work that's underway. So in the weeks weeks ahead there'll be quite a few changes and updates to the uh to the re website that we have. So um I decided to lump challenges and choices uh uh here together on the same slide. Uh they're kind of the same thing. Um and and Matt touched on this by way of introduction uh a little bit. Um you our current communications structure here at the district is largely unchanged today from what it was
05510 or 20 years ago. Um it's largely unchanged from a time when we were essentially a monopoly. Um yeah, at the same time over the last 5, six years, we've seen more schools, more children leave this district than most um school districts in Iowa have kids, period. Um that started with the pandemic, but you you know as as well as anybody that the change in open enrollment law, the creation of vouchers, the expansion of charter and private schools, um uh we are now in a competitive market. we're not a monopoly anymore. Um and so and Shashank Aurora touched started to touch on this very well last week during the budget presentation around the strategic plan uh priorities. Um it's time to make an investment uh that recognizes um the the market that we now live
056in. Um you know, to me there's two critical needs. One is our in-house communication structure and resources. How are we staffed? Um, and what do we what are our capabilities inhouse to do? We are the second smallest communications department within the council of the great city schools. Um, we need to look at others whether it's colleges and universities or other large districts for models on on how we need to to structure, but we also need to look at some of the resources that we're dedicating to. We have we've got a good website but it's also seven or eight years old and you know just like dogs you know seven internet years or you know 70 uh years uh uh in a lot of ways. So and then the other critical area we need to look
057at is marketing of the district paid marketing. Um we've done we did that for a few years um in a small way. Um uh but it was it was an un unfunded measure that just did not get the eyeballs uh and the ears on our on hearing and seeing what what De Mo public schools has has to offer. Um, you know, some of you, if some of you know, we're um in the midst of putting together uh RFP to look at, you know, to start to bring in uh some support to look at how to plan to meet and address some of these needs. Um, this is the time to do that. And, um, on a personal note, I'll add this is nothing to do with me. Not that I'm counting, but I got 167
058days left at this district. Yeah, this is about in six hours. So, I am counting. Um uh yeah, but this is about the future. This is about um you know whether or not we turn the tide on declining declining enrollment uh or accept it. And uh you know, like I mentioned, Mr. Aurora did a uh an excellent job last week of laying some groundwork of how this ties into into the strategic plan and priorities of the district. Um uh we've got a critical need that it's time to address. So with that, thank you and questions. >> Bill, can I ask >> Yeah, you bet. >> Couple questions. >> We are streaming, so sure. Mike, >> you mentioned uh paid marketing. Are we currently doing any paid marketing? >> No, we're doing a well, we're doing
059a very very small amount. Um, and it's things that we've been doing on and off for years. I mean, we we've done some some billboard advertising, some things with Dart, some we've done sponsorships for a few years with Iowa Public Radio, but it's it's it's not a marketing campaign. It uh we did we did a marketing campaign. We brought uh Strategic America on board four almost four years ago. Um uh we spent around $300,000 a year um uh on TV, radio advertising, uh TV advertising, radio advertising. Um they did some additional uh static billboards around the around the community as well. Um I I want to I want to put that amount 300,000 in perspective. Um, I I I bought a new car recently and I was curious, what does a car dealer spend on
060advertising? The average car dealer, average car dealer spends about $650,000 a year on marketing. So, one business spend twice as much as we did, and we're one of the largest organizations in the state of Iowa. Um, so we the short answer to your question is no. We're really at this point in time we're really not doing a paid marketing effort. >> But we don't we don't pay Strategic America anymore for >> No. No. That came to an end with the end of last fiscal year, end of June. >> You mentioned a different outside consultant, CISO. >> Yeah, they were brought in specifically for reimagined education. >> That was just a limited engagement. Yeah, it was a year, year and a half they worked with us and then for a while we also had uh Wickstead
061and Associates um local firm that I think they were on board for I don't know four or five months um leading up >> education paid for from the found the donations that were created for that >> was it paid for it was paid for out of the funds that were paying for all the reimagined education work. Yeah. So it was separate >> volunteer group of people that raised money specifically for reimagining education. >> No, I actually pulled it out of my general fund budget to pay for it. >> Unless you're thinking of the campaign I mean there was a separate campaign committee. >> Okay. Yeah, that would be different. >> That was the campaign. >> Yeah. >> That you're thinking of. >> Gotcha. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> For sure. So, just to wrap
062that. So, we don't have any outside consultants now that we're engaged with that do any marketing or communication? >> Not to do any marketing. We um uh we use a local firm, Juicebox Interactive, that but they do our website. They're a website consultant. Um uh but no, we don't do we are not using any marketing agencies at this point. >> So, uh one thing I noticed a lot on the website and I know um we kind of myself and Maria um and Jenna, we kind of pushed last year about like making it um multilanguage and I did notice and I don't know if that's something like Neil did or is it something that you guys did um or Google but on the bottom right hand corner now and it wasn't here before there is a
063little drop down of 35 languages and I'm over here testing it and it is pretty accurate. Um, so I don't know if because I know that's something that we pushed. I don't know if that's something you guys add or is that something >> Yeah, Amy actually did that. Gosh, I can't even remember when it was. It's been several months ago. Yeah, it's been there a while. Um, it used to there used to be a drop down at the top that I can't remember now what exactly said. It said language or something like that. Yeah, there was a drop down at the top and we added that widget to the website because the nice thing about it is it floats on the page. It's it's like always there. Um, so just a little little easier to
064find and with the flag I think it's got the flags too. So it just stands out a little bit more. But yeah, Amy added that some sometime last year, several months ago. >> Yeah, cuz I've never noticed it. And I know that's something that we kind of pushed and that we talked about with like um the plans and stuff of the communication department. And so I just wanted to say for the families out there, it's now it's there. There's >> 35 languages. >> Um so I'm just I'm glad that I saw that put it up. Bill, can you talk a little about I'm always interested I think Ryan and I chatted a little last meeting about this and obviously wouldn't work with maybe HR or something, but just kind of the philosophy behind your department
065and the the use of student support within the district. Are there are students of DMPS engaged in doing any of this work in any capacity of supporting posting graphic design? >> No. Um they're they're not. We've used interns a couple of times. Um, uh, I'll be honest, we're just not staffed up to be teachers and do our own work at the same time. I mean, I know it makes us feel good and it sounds, you know, but it inefficient for this for what else we have on our plate. So, >> because of staff size. >> Yeah. I mean, it you know, God bless them. Love interns. I was one myself many years ago, but you know, you really there's a lot of supervision with an interimm too and the um so yeah, we we we
066don't have the capacity really to do that justice unfortunately. >> Thank you. >> Talk about parent square a little bit. 99% are able to be reached or 99% are being reached currently. >> They're being they're being reached. So the the.9% represent there about 300 >> give or take a few but about roughly 300 families that aren't uh uh being reached about a hundred of those are they label them as non-contable which means we don't have contact information for them. Um the other 200ish are um uh might be getting my word flip-flop here, but uncontactable, which means they've either a couple things. They've either opted out, which is their right to do so. Uh I don't know why you would not want to hear from your kids school, but um uh there was a data entry,
067like the phone number's wrong, the email address was typed in wrong, something like that. uh or there's a few people that have landlines so we can't text them. Now with most of those people though under parent square there's the urgent alert that overrides it. If you might have opted out but if it's you know if your kids school is dismissing two hours early and we need to tell you that you're going to you'll hear it. Um but yeah 99.1% is getting it one way or another. Most of people have opted with I think about 85% have opted with email to get it by email. Um 15% by text and then parent square does have an app. It's not required but highly recommended because it does you know there's some features there that um but we've
068got about 40 we we haven't pushed the app too hard. Um uh but we got about 40% of the people have already donated or downloaded the app and and um a good number of them then also get it via the app and whatever other way they choose. But yeah, the nice thing about parents square too is just you know the flexibility with your language preference, how you receive it uh and when you receive it. You know, I think most people probably get like a daily digest where you know if your school you know we have schools that might be posting four or five things a day. Well, rather than getting four or five emails a day, you get that one at six o'clock at night. That's sort of like almost >> with this. >> Yeah.
069>> Yep. So, >> what about the customization? Uh I remember at the all employee meeting at the beginning of the school year, Parent Square was actually there and said, >> "We're here to give you ideas about because different buildings can customize this and and their communication style differently." How many buildings have actually engaged that way? How's that going? it, you know, it's going with um parents square has a algorithm of sorts that that monitors our school use. You log on your dashboard and they've got like this green, yellow, and red, you know, green good, red bad um scoring of schools based on their their utilization. All we've It's been fun during the first couple months of the year that they're all green now. I mean, just sliding over. They um one of the benefits of
070of our switch to parent square was that we have a lot of staff that had familiar I mean we had staff people that knew more than I did about it when we got it because they either worked in a district that was had used parent square or they have children that go to a suburban district neighboring district. Uh so they were seeing on the parents on the parent front and so there was a lot of familiarity with it. You know, we honestly with 60 schools, we we're seeing a range. I mean, we we're seeing um uh some, you know, some schools are out there doing their own newsletters via making good use of calendars, things like that. Others are still, you know, doing the basics, doing, you know, doing posts and direct messages. Um, like
071I said, we're kind of taking a run before you walk approach to it. And I'm hoping that come next school year, be somebody else's issue, but um come next school year, um that some of these other features are going to be much more utilized. It's been a great system. I know um you know, I I referenced um you know, one of the things we need to look at here sooner rather than later is a revamping our district's website. Um, uh, Parents Square actually has a I mean, we'll need to go out for an RFP and stuff. I not going to sit here and advocate who we should use, but like they have a website, um, uh, service themselves that I would think is going to at least be worth taking a look at when the
072time comes and how it might integrate with parent square itself and and having better coordination between those platforms. So, >> Bill, I'm curious about the families and the parents that we aren't reaching and if any action or um plan for action is being taken to engage with those families >> there. So for schools the one and and this I'll get a job selling parent square but I don't um one of the benefits of parent square when the school logs on to their dashboard is they see exactly who they're not contacting. Um in other words who you can look and see well we don't have an email address or phone number for this student and this student. So they're easy for them to identify easier than going into Infinite Campus. um uh knew that because it's
073I mean it's literally the first one of the first things you see when you log in into parents who are at this at the school level. Um we have not other than encouraging or pointing that out to schools and you know keep an eye on that from time to time and make your updates. Um, we've also used it. Trying to think of a specific example. Walnut Street School. There was construction downtown that I think there was a gas leak or they smelled gas or something. They had to let out early. So, sent out an urgent alert via Parent Square to, you know, let families know what time um, uh, they were going to dismiss that day. And then there were, I think, five or six families that they were were not contacted. Um, well, the
074school was then able to at least go back and track them down the oldfashioned way and and you know, call or um uh reach them in some manner to make sure they get got the word. So, it does at least make it easy to find out who is not getting uh a message from Parent Square. Um, and then like I said, just kind of back to the oldfashioned way. Most schools, if you go down list, I mean, there there schools where everybody's contactable, if that's a word. Um, uh, and in most cases, it's a very small number. I mean, you know, singledigit numbers um, in worst case. So, it's a pretty manageable uh, situation for school on a school by school basis. And do we have any data around the languages that the families are
075selecting when they're utilizing parent square? >> We do. I can go back and pull up some specific. I don't have off top of my head. There's roughly I mean parent square's capacity is 190 languages. Um the last time I checked what we had there either 31 or 32 languages that are the most are what are regularly used um or what our messages are regularly translated into. So in other words reflecting what the uh what the what the home preference language is. Um and that's something to if a family is not getting you know for whatever reason aren't receiving uh a message in in their home language uh that they they wish that can be changed on infant campus. So it's that's something that be can be corrected can be updated um uh pretty easily. I
076mean and if if the family can't do that directly themselves on infant campus just talk to the school and they'll be able to make that switch. And is there any commonality in the families that we're not reaching? >> We run the data on >> Yeah, I I don't know. Um uh it's it's not as if like they're not necessarily all clustered in a couple of schools or some and kind of kind of spread. I think a lot of it um you reflects a lot of the challenges we deal with. People don't, you know, don't have a device. they um you know they might be very mobile um uh you know I think probably reflects you know some of the challenges that we you know that we see in other other areas around the district too.
077you um mentioned that the website as being a a sooner rather than later priority and then um turning the tide on our declining enrollment being uh a priority as well. If if you could name one thing or um something that you think would greatly impact our um next five years when it comes to whether it's marketing or communications um and money were not a concern, what would you say would be the greatest impact on uh the students and families in the city of De Moines >> in terms of attracting addressing the enrollment issue? too. >> As as you depart in 161 days and 5 and a half hours, what would what would you hope for De Mo public schools and the comm's team? >> I would like to see as many De Mo public schools
078TV ads as I see University of Iowa ads or DMAC ads. >> I think we need to look at >> marketing would be the the highest impact. Yeah, I I think we need to look at and I I and I think we need to look at the higher education um uh model. I mean, we're in that same competitive um environment. I mean, obviously, it's different. You know, you you have to go to school, you don't have to go to college, but um you know, we're surrounded by a dozen good public school districts. uh on top of, you know, the support the families now get to go to charter school or go to a a private or parochial school. Um, you know, we talk about telling our story and, you know, we do that, you know,
079every day. It's just that not enough eyeballs and not enough ears are are are receiving that message. Um so yeah I mean I think we we need to be serious about um about how we market ourselves. With that said secondarily um you know we do we we we can't ignore our in-house capabilities. Um uh my friend Janine Beck is the assistant vice president at the University of Iowa for their strategic communications. I can't remember exactly what her title is. Um, but essentially her department is, you know, our version of our department. Um, she's got 40 people on her staff. And the University of Iowa, if you look at it, is not that much bigger than De Mo public schools in terms of the number of students we serve and kind of the structure and and
080all. And that doesn't count the sports information office. It doesn't count PR people. It doesn't count the PR people, communications people that they have working for the foundation. Um, I'm not suggesting that. Um, or if I am, I realize it probably is not going to go terribly far. Um, but I, you know, I I I I think we need to get serious about our in-house capabilities. We got a great people working uh here. Um, uh, they need more help um, to do what they can do. So, >> I have a question. >> Yes, >> I'll turn it on for you. >> Can you Thank you. Yeah, thank you. >> There we go. >> So, I am stuck on the 99.1% of families that are reached with um with our newest um communications method. And what
081did you say? How is it that we know that we are reaching that percentage? Like how do we what evidence do we have that we are reaching that many? >> The the I mean the data we get from the dashboard for parent square. I mean, yeah, I I I don't know what more to say other than that's the data we have that shows the messages that have gone out and been received. >> So, when we know that someone has opened an email, then we know we're assuming that that person is able to read the information to absorb the information in some way. >> Yes. I mean I we know they got a message. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So >> yeah. Um what would be um internally uh what would be a recommendation that you
082would make to be able to reach families in a more effective way and not relying completely on parent square >> to reach all families on >> to reach families better more effectively. Um, >> are there things that maybe the district um could be doing or maybe we could be investing in something different? Because I hear, you know, parents square kind of being the answer to everything and it isn't. Um, there is a percentage of families that are not being reached and so same concern or same similar question to what Kim asked. you know, what what are the the commonalities, right, with those families? Why are they not being uh reached? And then what leads us to believe that once a family opens an email or opens a message that even though it might be in
083their language that we're assuming that they're able to read it? >> Yeah. I mean, it's the old leading a horse to water, right? I mean, I we we know we're getting messages to people. What what they do with them is is harder to uh to tell. We made a huge jump. Uh you know, going from the previous system, Snap Connect to Parents Square. I wouldn't sit here and pretend Parents Square is the beall end all. It's the newest uh um newest system that that we have. And I, you know, from everything I see, it's making a big difference compared to where we were, um, you know, less than a year ago. >> Mhm. >> So, >> yeah, I think that one of the concerns that I have is that, um, we could be dealing with
084families that are, um, illiterate in their own language and that limits their ability to receive information, make informed decisions. Right. on on their children's education. And so that's why I was wondering what your recommendation was. Is there anything else that we could be doing to be able to reach to serve families more effectively? If I can jump in actually what >> um I was asked this question earlier today not in relationship to this particular question but the question that I was asked was is hey do you make um video communications um to staff and so >> thank you >> hearing your question what it's got me thinking about is um the opportunity to maybe to pre-record some messages and some videos um that u you know could be sent out. I'm wondering about, you know,
085how we do that maybe in multiple languages and things like that. So, that might be a a frontier that would be next possibly um moving forward. >> Does Parent Square have a texttovoice translation feature? >> They Yeah, they Yeah, that's right. >> Yeah, they do on Yeah. So, I will tell you voice messages sent out. It does. Yeah. >> I will tell you this too. I have seen some AI >> that does this. Um, and it kind of blew my mind when I saw this. Um, >> yeah, we had a demonstration of an AI where it makes made the superintendent look like they were delivering the message in a different language. Now, there's >> question with that though is >> do you really speak Swahili? >> Right. >> No, you don't. So, I don't think
086you do. So, is there I mean there's an lack of authenticity to some of that those I mean they're they're amazing, >> you know, but it's also dishonest. >> Yeah. So, there there is that that sort of um because I've heard some of those same concerns too, right, as I look at this. Um and so I think it's an area for us to explore. Um because at the same time, I mean, if I I mean, personally, I would appreciate an AI that would present me as 6'5 and um you know, 170 pounds. Um so, if we could add that to the mix, Miss Maria, that's something I'm super uh interested in. So, >> struggle here with this, but I'm not messing with when it's on. Okay, >> we just did it. Um there's a and
087perhaps it's a small percentage, but there is a number of families that um don't even speak Spanish. And I know we say, you know, we we advocate for having things in Spanish, right? Um but a lot of our uh communities come from areas where they don't speak the national language, right? They speak dialects. And so, you know, we're missing we're still missing. And so that's why I'm I'm curious, you know, when when we we talk a lot about being intentional, how is it, right? Because we can say, well, you know, we have so many languages, but Yes. And that's great. Um, but there are things that we could continue to do and do better. >> Yeah. And I um I really look forward to the the board committee coming together to make the recommendation about
088kind of the the must haves in this RFP um so that we can really um dig into what's possible for our next five years in communications, public relations, and marketing for De Mo public schools. Phil, you you referenced a few times about the staff size being kind of a hindrance to some things and it being the second smallest comm's department in the Council of Great City Schools. What What does an adequate size staff look like going forward? And if you were to add staff, what bodies of work would that staff be doing that's not already covered? >> Sure. and and I just take half a step back if I couldn't say I think part of that would be what we'd want to have looked at um uh in doing like a communications audit and review
089and developing that plan. So um I just want to caveat that you know I think we want to get some other other minds into that conversation but I mean some I mean flip side is your your question is very fair because we're the ones that do the work and know what gets done and not done. Um I mean we a few a few things uh come to mind immediately that we've discussed. One is um more content creators uh you know somebody to do more video photo graphic work that that we can share on various platforms. Um, we used to have a writer editor on staff, which I think honestly is a, you know, sounds old-fashioned, but is a critical need to share share stories and and make sure our communications are are well focused. Um,
090I would love to have a a PIO, a public information officer, uh, at the district, somebody whose sole job is the care and feeding of the news media. I mean, we we do that, but I've I mean, even in this day and age, we um uh you know, that's that is a big one to me. A social media manager um uh for the district is another area. I mean, we you know, we've we've got tens of thousands of people um uh uh that connect with us one way or another through social media. Um you know, we we put a lot out, but but it's an area where where we can do more. Those are a few that just, you know, we've discussed internally. I wouldn't want to sit here tonight and say here, you know,
091here's the proposed flowchart of of a future communications department. But those are, like I said, those are just some of the needs that we have discussed here in recent recent weeks, recent months. Um, uh, that would be, you know, that would be helpful at some point in the future for sure. No, >> I appreciate it. And I I go back to it because I know you referenced University of Iowa as being so large. I know the one thing higher ed does do is use students and goes back to a point earlier. Um I know a student probably isn't going to be a PIO necessarily, but um content creators and some >> Oh, absolutely. Content creators um you know, we got uh you know, they're good uh stu students out there do good work with photography
092and video work. They're learning graphic design. And there's certainly, you know, things to be done. If somebody can help coach them and steer them and and remind them we have a graphic uh standards manual that they can't just make up a new logo on their own, you know, things like But yeah, um, for sure. >> So, yeah, >> I kind of want to go over to uh what Skyler was saying. Um, when you referenced like our social media account, that's just our DMPS one, correct? >> Correct. >> Okay. But then we have um like I'm on social media and I have um East High School has their own uh the basketball team, the football team and a lot of those are run by our students and they are really really good sites. Um so I
093mean that would be something that honestly we can look into it and maybe they could teach us something versus you guys having to teach them, right? because they're already doing the work right now. >> Yeah. Flip side is East High School then loses their social media person. >> Both. >> They could do both. They'll do both. But I mean because we have a lot of students that I mean I have quite a few of them >> on like Instagram and Facebook and you probably have Lincoln and Roosevelts and other ones like that that they're already doing the work and they're some of these videos are pretty good. Um, so I mean probably just tapping on that next year for the interns. I know we had interns. >> Yeah. In the technology department, summer interns and
094so we still do that. Yep. >> So I mean that's something that we could look into. >> There's a big push right now just generally in the state and in the country for workbased learning also. Um it strengthens college applications when they apply. I'm probably preaching to the choir, but >> yeah, >> I I'm a huge advocate for student workers um getting experience that's meaningful. >> Right. Any other questions, board members? >> Yeah, Phil. So, we talk about these different buckets and different things. Has the communications team ever looked at the realerbased website? So, you know, uh greatschools.org information that feeds through that does a lot of >> uh >> ratings for our schools. Is that something your team has looked at or worked on or anybody? >> There's not a whole heck of a
095lot to be done about it. Un I mean great schools is kind of the bane of a lot of urban school districts. I think every council of the great city schools me PR meeting I've been to that's come you know come up they don't reflect they there's been a lot written about their bias and they you know affluent schools are on the top of their list and and and all um but the same things that go into the state report card are what you know or a lot of the same things are what steers those great school ratings uh as well. So, you know, it's not as if sending them a press release or, you know, a marketing campaign is going to change them. It's going to be based on the numbers that, you know,
096we get for college readiness and um, you know, test scores and, you know, those sorts of things is where that pulls the data that them compile the ratings that they put out on you know, Zillow. And I mean, Sarah, you probably know more than any of us about. um about how some of those things are used and where they show up. >> So, >> it's a frustrating >> Yeah. So, that organization, the Great Urban that they haven't shared strategies for >> pushing back on any of those. >> I've never seen one that works and it's talked about all the time. I mean, they like I said, they they base it on on the data that that we put into this, you know, what the state what goes into the state report card largely. So, we
097improve those numbers, we improve our great schools rating. All right, board members. Um, if you have additional questions after our meeting concludes tonight, please regarding human resources for Josie or regarding communications for Phil, please email Matt and um, board leadership and then we'll determine if we need a follow-up session with either of these leaders um, moving forward. Anything else, Matt? >> That is it. Thanks, Phil. Thanks, Josie. Good work. >> Okay, >> while I have you here, um board members, there's a couple of action items before, um our next meeting. So, just take a look at my most recent weekly update. Um one in particular is the conflict of interest form. Um we will see you Oh, there might be one in front of you. Yes. Um >> we will see you Friday at our
098retreat. >> Yes. Yes. Tomorrow morning. >> I've never done a board retreat before.