CMSD Board of Education Meeting - February 24, 2026

001District will come to order. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role? >> Miss Alcott >> here. >> Mr. Phillips >> here. >> Mr. Briggs >> here. >> Miss Jones >> here. >> Pastor Jones >> here. >> Miss Lebron >> here. >> Mrs. Peak >> here. >> Dr. Shrear >> here. >> Mrs. Welchow. >> There are eight members present. >> Thank you. I ask everyone who wishes to rise and participate in the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. All right. Okay. I understand that I've been requested to turn it over to Dr. Morgan uh for the beginning of the meeting. >> Yes. Thank you,

002Chair Elott. So, last month in January, it was board member appreciation month and uh we had a wonderful winter weather storm that it seems like we still are in the midst of with winter. Uh and uh our business session in January, we were not able to do our annual uh uh recognition of our board members. And this is the least we can do for so many of our leaders that uh come here, give so much of their time uh not paid uh to do this work, but to uh truly do this with a servant leaders mindset. And so I am really grateful for all of their leadership and support. And uh there's a video compilation that I believe we have here that we would love uh to share uh featuring yours truly uh and then

003we'll have some further recognition. So, let's turn it over. >> The board of education's job is to make sure that the right adult behaviors are in place so that students can learn and grow in school every day. I hope to motivate the scholars in in some form of and capacity really to make sure that they're inspired by the work that we do for them. Um, you know, this is a job uh of service uh fully volunteer role, but the people that are serving on the board, myself included, are doing it out of passion and pure hope of the scholars futures. And so I hope that they start to believe in themselves the same way that we believe in them. Having been an educator all my life, I thought I would have um a significant role

004to play in shaping what our young people and young scholars and our future leaders are going to be doing um with their education. I believe in uh paying it forward and I still believe I am paying it forward for myself. >> I am an inveterate volunteer and so I saw this as an opportunity to give back to the Cleveland community and try to make a difference. I enjoy being engaged with people in my neighborhood, hearing from them, learning what they think about different things, hearing suggestions, hearing thoughts, um even the complaints. I enjoy engaging with the students. And I think that's my role with the on being on a board member is engaging with the community um in every way possible. >> I'm out there every day talking to people, sitting on every community work

005group that you can think of. What I want to accomplish is that we level up the opportunities for our children to receive the best education possible. And I want you to be able to discover all the goodness in you because we all have something that is unique about us. So, we want to give you the opportunity to explore that and make good decisions once you leave the school system. >> I believe that this district can be a premier district. Um, and I'd love to be remembered for pushing a standard of excellence. I wanted to give back to the school system that I participated in from kindergarten to graduating senior. I'm hoping to make a difference, have a positive impact, and see the test scores and graduation rates increase. I also hope to inspire other CMSD

006alum to give back to CMSD with their time and support. >> I'm grateful to interact with so many wonderful people, brilliant individuals who um have the capabilities and skill sets to uh really make our city even greater. and I'm just honored to be a part of uh the plan of the CMSD and the the service of of this community. >> As a kid myself, I moved around a lot and I went to a lot of different schools and what I saw firsthand is that all children are born equal with the same rights to education, but not all schools are created equal. And some schools have more resources than others. Some schools have more of the right practices than others. And I wanted to be a part of making sure that our school system was the

007right system for our children so they could have the education that they deserve. >> We all have different skill sets, different experiences, different backgrounds that we all bring to the table when it's time for us to have these discussions. We bring different perspectives and different life experiences. And so being able to sit at the table with other leaders in our community and people who actually are invested in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District system, um it it it means that we're providing different perspectives. We're looking at it from different lenses and different angles, which is also representative of our community, right? >> You know, our students achieving everything that they possibly can um achieving and and striving towards our goals and guard rails that our board laid out. I think that, you know, producing students that

008can enter the world in whatever way they choose to and be successful is is really um the only thing to accomplish from my perspective. >> Most importantly is um increasing student outcomes. So, we have our challenges, but um my board colleagues and I and Dr. Morgan and his incredible staff are heavily focused on that and we're going to do everything in our power to make it happen. >> My favorite quote is uh man in the arena actually. It's uh uh by former President Teddy Roosevelt and it's really about not paying attention to the critics. It's not the critic who counts. It's not the person on the sidelines. It's the person who's getting dusty in the arena every single day and getting back up again and again and again, even after failure. And even if you

009fail at something, at least you failed by daring greatly. But the only way to be great is to try. And um for just a small token of appreciation, not only our of the certificates, but also a small token of appreciation um from us to you. Uh we thank you for your leadership, uh for your guidance, your support, for your push. Um this is our our first year in the implementation of the goals and guard rails and um that uh transformation for how we are leading and doing our board meetings but also holding our system accountable um is life-changing and u making a big impact for our scholars. So thank you for your leadership. Let's give our board members another round of applause. >> Thank you Dr. Morgan. Thank you to the team that helped um

010create that video. Uh, thanks everyone for sharing and um, yeah, thanks for the recognition. It's much more than is needed. All right, next we will have our public participation period. During this segment of the business meeting, we will hear all public comment on either agenda or non-aggenda items. This public participation period will be for persons who have previously submitted the online request to speak form to address the board for up to three minutes each. Excuse me. You will see the timer on each side of um of yourself as you stand at the podium after you are called. So, please keep mind of the time. If the timer goes off while you're speaking, please finish your sentence and conclude your comments. We'll go ahead and start calling folks up. First, we have Joel Bosque. Good evening,

011Dr. Morgan. Chair Lakod and board members. My name is Joel Boske. I'm here as a CMSD alum, former CMSD educator and Ward 14 resident. I'm here today as an advocate for student voice. Quantive data paints us a picture of attendance and academic ontrack trends, but numbers don't speak. You cannot easily quantify real life challenges. Who are the scholars behind the numbers? As Mr. for Phillips challenged us to think last session. Quantitive data points may be cheap and easy to collect and aggregate, but it should not replace authentic student voice. We cannot we can throw spaghetti at the wall or create a system that listens daily. Our most effective strategy may be to simply ask how can we support you? As pointed out last session, some of the top down intervention approaches implemented by the district

012are inherently inefficient. It's time for us to listen to all of our scholars, not just the SACE. Shifting gear slightly, I want to thank Dr. Morgan and the board for ensuring that building brighter futures gives all students equitable access to high level academic extracurricular opportunities. We now have a plan for where students will learn and what students will learn. We should also consider the who who's given the privilege of teaching Cleveland scholars. The teacher evaluation system is uncomprehensive. Teachers deemed skilled or accomplished in the system are essentially only formally formally evaluated on three lessons every two years. Those three lessons account for less than 2% of the teachers instructional time. This board may not have control over the primary teacher evaluation process and rubric, but you have the power to push for supplemental data. The

013Ohio Department of Education website lists student surveys as one of the optional evaluation components that can be added to the formal formal teacher evaluation system at the discretion of the district. The OD website lists links a report to the American Institute of Research that gives guidance on how to implement the student surveys, including that the requirement that they are aligned to the Ohio Teacher Performance Evaluation Rubric, that they are grounded in research and meet standards of validity and reliability. Other districts that have adopted student surveys include rating prompts such as, "I learn new things in this class. My class is a good place for learning. This teacher treats me with care and respect. I know how well I'm doing in this class. This is a good teacher. Despite what many people may think, the report

014found that student ratings are consistent across school years for the same instructor. Students don't automatically rate instructional skills high for popular teachers, and student ratings are not highly correlated with grades received. The report states that students of teachers rank in the top 25th percentile based on student survey results learned the equivalent of 4.6 six more months of schooling in math over a school year than students of teachers in the bottom 25th. In conclusion, we need more data points to hold our teachers and administrators accountable. Our scholars are more capable than we give them credit for, and they deserve a voice in reading the adults put in charge of educating them. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Boske. Next, Logan Gernaki. Logan Gaki, Ry Ryan Dent, Ryan Dent, Paulie Carr. My name is Paulie Carr and

015I have two sons at Campus International. I want to start off by thanking the athletics department. They are uh paying for six of our students $45 entry fees to the Ohio Chess Championship State Championship the first weekend in March. And several of the kids who are getting to go would not have otherwise gotten to go and athletics is always supporting us. We are building a chess powerhouse. You are going to throw us a Glennville like parade one day not too far away. We got 65 chess players now. So it's pretty awesome. We also have a really amazing first grade teacher. Her name is Miss Coley and she planned she wrote a grant, got it funded for a trip to the uh children's museum for the entire first grade. We've had two months of indoor recess,

016which is seriously the most bleak time of a child's life. We don't have a lot of space in our building, so we don't get to run around and play. kids have to sit and do nothing for, you know, board games and it's not active. They were really looking forward to the field trip, but parents took time off so they could chaperone and um 30 minutes before they were to leave on the field trip, they got a call saying that the bus wasn't coming. There is no bus for them. parents were already at the field trip who had taken time off of work to do this and there was no bus and they'll they'll reschedu and some kids like mine get to go to the the children's museum all the time and they still love it

017but some of these other kids they're this would have been like a big day for them to get to go and Miss Coley put a lot of work into that and I volunteer at uh school drop off every morning so I am seeing lots and lots of new faces and they are parents and grandparents parents who don't normally bring their kids to school, they ride the bus. Some of them are neighbors who step in and bring a kid to school because the bus didn't show up or showed up 30 minutes late when the parent has to get to work. They're exasperated. They are angry. And school choice only works if you can get to the school. Next year, you're asking parents to send their westside kids all the way over to KCBLA on the east

018side. and a kid who can't get to school in the morning, but maybe someone drives them. There is no bus in the afternoon either. And your kid's going to be 45 minutes across town and maybe you don't have a car or maybe you can't get there. And parents have to consider that before they sign up on the portal. And it just seems like there are bigger issues than just not being able to find drivers. It seems like there's something really going on. We have buses. We have contractors. We're not paying the contractors. I'm I'm getting public records. There are unreconciled funds. I don't understand why we owe rightway transportation so much money that they had to lay off their bus monitors. And if we don't have bus monitors, then you have a situation like today

019where van transportation for kids got picked up with strangers and they got transported with strangers and it's not okay. >> Thank you, Miss Carr. Lenanishia Abbercrumbi. Lenanishia Abercrumbi. That concludes our period of public participation. This evening's consent agenda includes the minutes of the last two board meetings and 10 legal resolutions, three finance resolutions, three academic resolutions, two operations resolutions, and four excellence and culture resolutions. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda consisting of agenda items 4.02 through 9.04 as set forth in the meeting agenda. >> So move. >> Thank you. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role? >> Miss Elott? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bilips? >> Yes. >> Mr. Briggs? >> Yes. >> Miss Jones? >> Yes. >> Pastor Jones? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lebron? >> Yes. >> Mrs.

020Peak? >> Yes. >> Dr. Shrear? >> Yes. Motion passes with eight votes. >> Thank you. The motion passes. The minutes are approved and the 22 resolutions are adopted. The next five resolutions have been removed from our consent agenda so that the board can vote on them in two separate votes. At this time, the chair will now entertain a motion to approve resolution 10.01 adopting the Cleveland Municipal School District calendar for 2027 2026 2027 school year and resolution 10.02 O2 adopting the Cleveland Municipal School District 2027 to 2027 2027 to 28 calendar. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh the proposed calendars for the 2026 to 2027 and the 2027 to 2028 school years were first presented late last year at our December 9th, 2025 board business meeting. At our January 13th board work session, we held

021a public hearing on the proposed calendars. Since under state law, the board cannot adopt a calendar until at least 30 days after that public hearing, the calendar resolution has been held until this board meeting. Dr. Morgan, do you have any further explanation or information on the calendars? Yes, I know that there were uh some questions that uh we we received uh not only when we first presented it. Uh we I know we had some questions from the Wilbur Wright community around start and end times. Um I can address some of those uh you know specific concerns that I had now. Not unless there were uh questions that the board wanted to ask uh specifically about that or would you rather me address uh some of the things that we looked into? >> Um yeah, Dr.

022Morgan, I think it'd be great if you could provide an overview for the board about how you considered that input um as you're looking at the calendar proposal. >> Yep. Um so, first before I go specifically into that, there were uh there was a process that we put in place during this uh month's period to receive feedback. Uh and so we thank everyone who submitted comments. Uh I know our academic team was reviewing that on a regular basis. So was our comm's team. of the link that we were getting information on and we were reviewing that information and seeing if there were considerations that could be uh in place. Um and so those were uh different things that we looked into and seeing if there were accommodations that could be made. At our last board

023meeting, not the very last meeting, but when we introduced this at the top of the year, um at our January 13th uh board meeting, I believe it was, uh there were concerns or questions that came from the Wilbur Wright community about the start and end times. Um specifically stinging uh citing students who uh with the later start uh time, it would conflict with a time for prayer uh for their uh faith practice. Um and there were also some concerns just around uh families that had made the shift to from Newton DB Baker and had changed their practice from going from a late start school and then going back to a early start school. So those were some of the comments that were made. I want to let you know our team looked into it. Uh

024we received those emails. I know I got a couple from students. So we always uh thank uh our students when we have that. And I love the the the the comment around student voice. uh something I want to follow up on on something that we're uh uh that I really want to personally explore for next year in terms of thinking more about student voice. Um but we encou we were glad to get those comments uh from our students as well as staff members. Um the reason why the recommendation is standing when thinking about Wilbur right there are three uh things that we looked into. Uh, one, we had our transportation department look to see what could we do a oneoff change if we were to change uh, this school from moving from a I believe

025right now it's a tier 2. Um, it's one of those in in between uh, start times to a early start time. And then there was kind of like a a spiral rabbit hole effect of how it would actually impact other schools and also impact other staffs in terms of thinking about drivers. And one of the reasons why we tier a a three- tier system is logistically for it to work. Um so there were some challenges there that would have a ripple effect. Um two, we are starting to get data in terms of choice uh school choice. Uh the portal closes on Friday uh for families to make a choice. Um but Mary Church Terrell, which is one of the building brighter futures transitioning schools going into Wilbur Wright, is one of our schools in the

026green, meaning it's a school that uh 71% of families have made a choice. So, we're glad that they have already put in their application and of that 71% 59% have selected their welcoming school. Uh those are high numbers and in the the the higher fashion of numbers in terms of students confirming uh not only submitting an application but also confirming their seat. Uh changing the uh start time at this point could would change information for families that have made a choice of uh already thinking about what school that they would choose. So that could also have a ripple effect in another area. The third reason why it is challenging to make that change now um they'll respect uh the the faith practices uh and or non-faith practices of all of our students and staff and

027we want to make sure that uh people see uh feel seen, valued and heard. Uh we have students of that faith in probably in all of our schools. Uh and that's something we would not be able to make an accommodation for in terms of making that accommodation across all of our schools. uh we do have practices where individual schools uh can take into the account um you know prayer times for students and make those accommodations whether for space as well as time um and one of the things I have our general counsel as well as our board attorney looking at is looking at our policy around religious observances uh and fine-tuning that language that specifically talks about the allowances we give to um uh to students to families uh align to state law. We had

028already brought some policies here last year that allows families to uh pull students out during religious practices for different um uh for different traditions that they may have and there's some restrictions around that. Um but we're going to be bringing a modified policy for the board to look at that more uh specifically states that. So, I know that was a long uh uh winded answer, but wanted to let uh the Wilbur Wright community know that we did take this into consideration and there were several data points that we looked at uh that will make it challenging to make the recommendation change. >> Thank you. I don't see anybody's line on so I'll assume no further discussion. >> All right. Uh Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role on that motion? >> Miss Alcott, >>

029yes. >> Mr. Mr. Phillips, >> yes. >> Mr. Briggs, >> yes. >> Miss Jones, >> yes. >> Pastor Jones, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lebron, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peak, >> yes. >> Dr. Shrear, >> Motion passes with eight votes. >> Thank you. The resolutions are adopted or rather the calendar resolution. Next, we have three academic resolutions authorizing purchase orders to vendors and declaring that the supplies or services purchased are only available and can only be acquired from a single source. Since under state law, such a declaration by the board requires a twothirds vote of all members of the board, these three resolutions are being voted on separately from the consent agenda. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve resolutions 10.03, 10.04, and 10.05, 5. The full titles of which are set forth in

030the board meeting agenda. >> Move it. Second. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role on this motion? >> Miss Alcott? >> Yes. >> Mr. Phillips? >> Yes. >> Mr. Briggs? >> Yes. >> Miss Jones? >> Yes. >> Pastor Jones? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lebron? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Peak? >> Yes. >> Dr. Trear? >> Yes. >> Motion passes with eight votes. >> Thank you. The motion having passed by at least a twothirds vote is adopted. The board will now hold its monthly monitoring of goals and guardrails followed by an update on building brighter futures implementation. Dr. Morgan. Thank you, Chair Elott. So, we have uh our academic uh data and update on where we are in terms of ELA uh and I believe our next one will be on math.

031So I know members of our academics team as well as our uh research evaluation accountability team are coming up to uh assist as questions may come up. So uh when we looked at the the data before particularly around goal one which is around early literacy um uh it was at the beginning of the year and our students had school had just started and um many of the strategies that we were building didn't get a chance to take place. Uh it is good to now see midy year where we are to be able to see what are areas we're making progress on based on the strategies and where our our um where we still have work to do on our strategies. So I was really uh um pleased to see some areas where the strategies are

032moving. Um just a reminder, goal one is around early literacy. Uh and I I want to make sure that this is uh you know stated more broadly. I was having a conversation I had the opportunity to have a conversation with uh city council not too long ago and there was a question really around uh the emphasis that we've been doing around building brighter futures is solely around um around college readiness and uh and older students. So there are a couple of things I want to state with that. Uh one early literacy even prek all of that is a college readiness strategy. the sooner we get students in uh involved in the education process and on track uh keeps them on track and also produces the the likelihood of college readiness. So just by talking about

033college readiness isn't only talking about our early students. And then I also had to remind them our board goal is actually specifically around early literacy, our K3 students. And so this is looking at um our proficiency moving from third 35% of third graders being um proficient uh which it was in August of 2024 that uh to increasing to 60% by August of 2030. Um there are a couple of CEO measures. One we look at the ontrack rates between kindergarten through third grade uh as measured by the fall I Ready um assessment. And then the other CEO measure is looking at the increasing the percent of students of third graders predicted to be proficient u by the winter I ready assessment. So we have some um updates for you there. I want to remind you of

034our pelt problem of practice. We talked about this in the fall uh that a uh team of us had the opportunity to go to Harvard University this summer to do a deep dive study of where we were in terms or where we are in terms of early uh literacy. Uh and our problem of practice actually started just as a ELA goal. We we realized we wanted to really focus on English language arts and how we were moving uh students. And as we really started to go deep, we realized that third grade was an area we really need to focus on. Uh this was a group that even though um last year there was uh evidence that many of our teachers were u utilizing the new curriculum, 76% of our teachers were utilizing the new curriculum,

035we still went down. It was one of the uh tested areas and one of the grade levels that went down on the OST. So it made sense that these were things we wanted to dive into. Uh areas that we looked into, we said though our teachers are using the curriculum, we realized that all phases of the curriculum were not being used. specifically um uh looking at some of the the deeper level cognitive uh uh tasks within the text. Uh so really looking at that deep engagement with the grade level text um the evidence of uh discussion and writing um within it as well as um the the the ability for students to actually uh talk about what they're they're learning. uh and then the team really talked about strategies that we would be doing from

036the academics pers perspective to support both teachers and leaders in implementation of this. Um so let's see where we are. Um where we were in the fall, we were behind from where we had been. Uh and it's hard to see from there. So I'm going to pull it up here for to make sure I have it. So uh we have a goal that 48% of our K through uh K uh kindergarten through third graders will be on track. um in the fall um because there's a fall measure that we want to uh look at. Our winter results indicate that 52 p uh 50.2% of students are on track in that K through three cohort. Um now historically from the winter to the fall we see a dip in the ontrack rate. So we assume that

037if we had the same dip that we've had in the past we will be slightly off track. So we believe that this is slightly off track. But I do want to take a note that from where we were in the fall um this group uh in terms of the on-track rates have grown 9 uh.8% so almost 10 percentage points. Um this is a much higher growth in terms of how many students grew um last year when thinking about from fall to winter. Um and so this is showing evidence that the work that the team has been doing um in terms of the strategies have been improving. Um, specifically I want to note our kindergarten um group is currently 70% of our kindergarten group are on track compared to 57% being on track last winter. I

038know these are two different cohorts but just knowing this the strategies that we're doing this is the second year second or thirdish year of using second year of using the curriculum. Uh and so that this group has really improved 70% compared to 57%. And then for our first graders 60% are on track this winter compared to 58%. So lots of signs of growth in year and we're going to talk a little bit more about that. Um so one of the questions I asked the team is thinking about the problem of practice when we went to Harvard. How are we seeing the growth of teachers using some of those higher order thinkings uh skills in the classroom and the application of the curriculum in the walkthroughs. uh because we have these walkthroughs that um not only

039our team is doing but school leaders are doing and teachers are doing it for each other just to see the practices and seeing what's happening in the classroom. And so when think about that deep deeper engagement and application of learning in the fall from September 5th to October 28th uh 51.23% of that was observed um evidence of implementation from the winter from October 28th through February 13th 52.87% that's a slight increase of 1.64% from fall to winter. Um, and so seeing how much that growing, we're seeing that deeper engagement. But then student discourse and writing, which is definitely a higher level skinking skill where students are actually discussing, they're writing, they're applying their their learning. Um, it was at 48 uh08, so almost about 48.1% in the fall compared to 53.16% in the winter. Uh,

040that's an increase of 5.08% from fall to winter. So this is evidence of the strategies that we're doing, evidence it's happening in the classroom. Of course, uh you know, this is slightly above for both of these is slightly above 50%, there's still a lot of work to do, but it shows that the work that we're doing and these are still really emergent practices that are new um are starting to take weight. Um and we'll talk about some of those strategies. So now moving to CEO measure 1.2. This is specifically looking at third graders that are predicted to be proficient. So we use I Ready not only to measure on track rates but we also look at to say if today were the day that students were taking the OST how many would be proficient and

041we've talked about how uh I Ready assessment has a high calibration rate to predict allow us to predict proficiency. Um and so what we're seeing today is that 31.4% of third graders are predicted to be proficient in uh on ELA. Um now while we are off track for this for our winter goal which uh our goal is 3.6 six uh percent uh this cohort alone has experienced a 6.2% increase from fall to winter compared to 4.2% from fall to winter last year. So once again, evidence of uh this growing and the predicted proficiency is a one po uh one percentage increase from last year's um data. And so we we know especially if this were the this was our OST data growth from year to year uh enables us to um make progress not only

042with our scholars but also to gain u percentage points on our report card. So uh this was good to see that growth uh that was taking place. Um, so we can say uh we can stay on track for this overall goal um by making sure that uh we really continue to improve the proficiency predicted proficiency rates on the spring OST test. We take those tests in April. Uh so I know that our schools are uh hard and work in terms of thinking about how we're supporting our scholars from now until taking the test. The other thing I'll note for both of these areas, both for 1.1 and 1.2, all of this is taking place in the midst of uh uh building brighter futures. um you know a very large uh transformation effort that we're taking

043as a district and it shows um that even though uh there's a lot of work happening operationally with building brighter futures there's great things still happening in the classroom in the work of teaching and learning which is our primary function is still taking place and that's we don't want to keep our eye off of that um and so ensuring that our school leaders are implementing this in our schools I know our academics team is really focused on making sure that uh we keep the main thing the main thing and above all our teachers are making sure we keep the main thing the main thing. Um so a couple of things just doing a deeper analysis um our walkthrough uh data shows that 50 uh you know less than 50% of observed third grade classroom are

044you know accessing that prior knowledge and building the background behind the lesson uh implementing the daily vocabulary lesson starting um uh a cycle of small groupoup instruction. So, we'll talk a little bit about some of these um uh these strategies in terms of areas of improvement when we get to that part. Um our ELA walkthrough data also indicates that more than 50% of observed third grade classrooms are implementing daily shared reading. Um implementing the writing components within the daily shared reading and implementing a writer's workshop. One of the things we've talked about before with our curriculum is that this uh all of our um uh curricula both for when thinking about ELA and math, they have many different components. And uh with those components, sometimes there are choice points that uh our teachers are making

045or even sometimes school leaders are making. And not only through our pacing guide have we been more intentional about what is supposed to take place in that ELA um block and that structured literacy block, the professional development that our academics team has been really focused on that. they've been doing teacher cohorts, really thinking about what are the components that that are supposed to take place. Um, and then the curriculum assessments indicate students struggle the most with producing simple, compound, and complex sentences, determining the main idea of a text, and retelling the key uh details of a text, and explaining and supporting the main idea. Something you'll also see when we go um look at some of the strategies. So the strategies for the implementation one implement the high quality ELA instructional materials and that means

046all facets of the instructional materials not just doing some of it. Um uh engaging students in the daily practice in textbased reading, writing and speaking. Um and that's where students can actually use the text to support and cite um why they believe you know what the main idea is or why they believe something is happening. That's a higher order thinking skill that doesn't only serve our younger students uh scholars well, but that is something we look for even in higher um in older grades when thinking about higher order thinking skills. Um for our K through 2 graders, uh kindergarten through second graders, students receiving that evidence-based structured literacy block that I talked about, um grades two and three students receiving the daily uh writer's workshop instruction. Um and then the implementation of the data driven

047instructional protocols that we've been working across all of our um uh content areas and um and grade levels on using the curriculum based assessments which we'll talk a little bit more about. This is the first year that not only have we have do we have I ready uh we've been very intentional about pulling out the curriculum based texts um for teachers to use. uh and that not only tells teachers that what they've taught in the classroom is either showing up, it allows it gives us the real- time feedback aligned to some of the things we'll see uh in between in these benchmarks. Um so what is working? Um we've already talked about the use of the HQIM, high-quality instructional materials. So in 2324 um 63% of kindergarten through third grade was or were using highquality

048instructional materials. that increased last year to six uh to 82% when we're thinking about the entire grade band. We're currently at 86%. So we continue to see evidence when we're doing these instructional walkthroughs that teachers are using the instructional materials. That is a celebration. Um also feedback and support for uh for uh teachers in this grade band from November to January increased by 20% over the previous three months. Um once again noting what we were doing in that time frame that was heavy into building brighter futures. Once again saying that the main thing being the main thing in our schools and classrooms um was really important. Um after structured literacy uh training of principles and teacher cohorts, there was evidence that teachers are um uh consistently using accurate letter sounds. That increased from 33% to

04938% u from October to January. And the percentage of structured literacy uh lessons using appropriate pacing increased from 22% to 53%. That's a large increase there. Um, I talked about the curriculum based assessments. There's been an uh a a big increase in terms of teachers using the curriculum based assessments. I think that's been evident in the work that we've done in pacing guides by ensuring that that's been in there. Um, for grades K through three, module 4 in school year 2425, we had a take rate of 36% using the curriculum based assessments. For that same module this school year, the take rate has increased to 76%. That's a 40% increase. Uh, and so, you know, I I'll be talking more through this, but one of the things if I had to do a headline on

050is when you find the strategies that are working, implementation is key and monitoring how much we're doing it at scale. And so, uh, it is it is great to start to see evidence of some of the strategies that the team has been hard at work on um, taking effect. And then students using the ELA ready personalized pathways pro platform. that is a platform where um because students are taking the assessment, it it's uh interactive software that adapts their learning uh to their own learning style and it's something that they can go on at their own pace and allows them to grow. Um that uh students who met their weekly use uh usage minutes saw a medium t typical growth of 73%. As opposed to those uh who didn't use it uh which I think was

051at 61%. So, uh, and the the ask for what we're doing in those path personalized pathways is about 30 minutes. Um, and that's not in that's outside 30 minutes outside the the structured literacy block. Correct. >> It could be building >> could be built. Yeah. Okay. And what we could do better. So, a few things. Um, while while improved, we are not consistently providing students opportunity to apply their reading skills. So, um, it goes back to just using those higher level, uh, thinking skills that we talked about. In grade three, for example, only 20% are consistently able to correctly determine the main idea. We talked about just how students are using the text to, um, use those higher order thinking skills. Um, to date, uh, there have been a total of 5,334 support visits, um,

052in schools from the division of academics. Uh, so that is great in terms of the walkthroughs that we're doing. Um but most visits have been to schools identified as tier three schools. And so um one of the things that I know the academics team has talked about is just the ability to get into more classroom and and to have evidence of what's taking place across our system. Um um currently approximately 46% of uh kindergarten through third grade students are meeting their weekly usage minutes. So to that point that uh I was just sharing and Dr. Florence mentioning that 30 minutes of the personalized pathways it can be embedded in that structural lit structured literacy block or not. Um but we're we're we don't have the majority of students actually going uh and using the personalized

053pathways. Um and then while district proficiency improved um for both our English language learners and our students with disabilities, we continue to see a gap with our students who are um uh who uh who our English language learners and students with disabilities between um nonll students with disabilities. So projected proficiency for all non-disabled nonll uh students increase 40% to 45%. That was a 5% increase. Projected proficiency for ELLL students increased uh five percentage points as well from 12% to 17% but just notice the difference in proficiency. It's a much lower proficiency and projected proficiency for students with disability increased from 9% to 12%. So that's an increase of 3% um but still noting a much lower proficiency um level. Um and then um you know with further analysis it's showing what are the supports that's

054needed to support students beyond that tier one instruction and really thinking about the other tiers which the team has talked about on MTSS and some of the work that they're doing to support that. So um it's great to see all of our students are increasing but also when there are gaps that's work that we need to do. Um a a few things uh that will change in response to this. So the continued focus of the principal professional um learning and school supports um in these specific grade levels um effective uh structured uh literacy pacing and the use of uh decodable texts and application of of reading routines. Um the review of the winter diagnostic data with school supports teams uh to really help uh adjust the list of focus schools and increase support provided based

055on the current need. um a deeper dive for those those uh groups of students both our students with disabilities as well as our um English language learners to understand more about the supports that's needed in um pull out instruction and to supp supplement uh the tier one instruction um and use uh all training and communication channels to encourage educators to provide those 30 minutes of the personalized pathway that's on the I Ready platform. Oh, I realized that I didn't switch it over. I was looking at it here. So, you can see that this was the last slide that I reviewed. And then finally for our final slide, um how can we replicate what is taking place? Uh you know, one of the things we saw in our last um presentation that we did is when

056there are best practices, we want to not only share it with you guys in terms of what's happening, but really codifying that across the system. So, um, continuing to, uh, communicate the importance of the use of, uh, the tier one highquality, uh, ELA curriculum, and that's all facets of it. Um the continued emphasis of coaching and support for targeted buildings and grades um as updated data suggests are the have the highest need and increased uh the monitoring and utilization of I Ready and the personalized path uh um personalized pathway for uh the other tiers particularly for tier 2 intervention support um and then what evidence that these shifts will work uh we're starting to see that this is that uh the data is increasing for these grade bands for these strate strategies. Um we're seeing

057the proficiency also increasing from where rates were last winter. Um and then uh the grade two and three on track proficiency metrics um which were specified as target focus areas saw significant increases from fall to winter. So we continue to want to do deep dives in that. um 93% of our second grade teachers from focus schools who participated in December and January of the training those teacher cohorts um uh stated that the the training that they received has been be helpful and valuable to them uh because we do exit surveys as teachers do their um do their professional development and then we talked about the student use of the uh personalized pathways and how students who are using that demonstrated higher growth than those that are not. Um, and so these are some of the

058evidence of things that we are seeing. Um, and overall it's great to see more focused strategies aligned to the work that we're doing for the specific grade level and seeing evidence of the progress uh that is being made. Um, Dr. Fence, is there anything you would add, amend or uh here? Okay. All right. >> Miss Peak. Thank you, Dr. Morgan, for that detailed report. Um, as a librarian, I'm hoping that you're also encouraging the children to get library cards, but I just want shameless plug, I know. Uh, however, uh, when you talk about a walkthrough, uh, I would like to you just to kind of tell us what that looks like. Is that, um, the people sitting down with the children observing? How much time, you know, does a walkthrough take? Yeah, I'll have um

059members of our team uh add on here, but at a very high level, we have a a structure protocol that we use that has to be consistent across all the schools so we can gather this data. And there are specific look fors that we're looking for when we're looking in the block. Um so, uh you know, Dr. Florence will tell you a little bit more about how much time that is. But the things that we're looking for, we're looking at what what the teacher is doing. We also are looking at what the student is doing because there are different parts of the the the walkth through that is specific to what's happening um that the teacher is delivering instruction and also what the students are doing. Dr. Florence. >> So at the beginning of the

060school year, we outline for principles and for teachers specific components from the curriculum that we'll be looking for as we walk through. So a school leader would visit a classroom for maybe 10 to 15 minutes. They would take notes um about what they're observing the teacher doing, also what students are doing, what task students are doing. Um, and then after the walkthrough, the teachers receive an email that lets them know um, feedback the principal has provided to them. The principal also sits down with them to review the feedback and talk about what um, instructional practice may be improved on the next visit. Um, but it's it's maybe 10 to 15 minutes of a classroom visit and then feedback and coaching after the visit is complete. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Shrier. >> Thank you, chair,

061and thank you Dr. Morgan for the presentation. Um I have two questions. Um f first um you know go going back to uh my colleague Mr. Phillips's point about the students behind the numbers. Um I you know the these numbers and these line graphs are are certainly um important for us to have and um and and and the and the you know percentage point increases are certainly important for us to track. But um it would be great for us to start to build a compendium of qualitative data points and student stories. Um you know the the thing that um Dr. France just talked about in terms of uh you know building um the the you know all of the all of the rich data that comes all the rich conversations that come from the observations

062um if you know if they just get reduced to a spreadsheet and some numbers >> um we lose the opportunity to to capture those things and I think um there may actually be a good way for us to build a communications plan to talk to students about what it means for them to spend the time and what it means to for them to um spend time in a different way, right? I mean, you know, a a a second grader isn't going to be able to interpret a line graph, but a second grader um could be able to appreciate another kid a similar age that that has, you know, a better reading ability and things like that. So, so I think you know and and this this is really just you know a as we are

063going through the next 5 years we're working through our goals and guardrails process just building this um year over year will create um a richer history of how we are doing this work >> some best practices >> Mr. Briggs >> um thank you very much uh chair Aquad and Dr. Morgan, I have a couple of observations and questions. U first is um I strongly agree with Mr. Bossky's uh comment about student surveys. I I think uh there's a wealth of information there. Yeah, you'll get some sarcastic comments and so on, but I think overall you would get some really good information, especially year after year. Um, under what's working, um, uh, it says after structured literacy training of principal and teacher cohorts, the evidence of teachers consistently using accurate letter sounds increased from 33% to

06438%. What What's the barrier of not having 100%. Uh, which applies to a number of these things? >> Yeah. Um, and I I can have our our our team chime in and different things of about it, but one of the things about um, when I think about the HMH curriculum, it is it comes with lots of components. And so, um, if you were to just open the teacher text, there are things you could do daily where it could be like, oh, students could read this this read this story and they can answer questions or, you know, we could, you know, do this certain aspect of the of the the lesson and answer certain questions. And there are other aspects of the curriculum that allow you to go deeper or higher order thinking. And what we

065found, and this is one of the things that goes back to our uh our PEL problem of practice, that uh in general uh we we as a district have been using some of the easier parts of the component uh of of the curriculum. As a teacher, I know sometimes why it is sometimes easier to use some of those components because it sometimes helps you manage the class a little bit better. Um when things when you have to differentiate that is a higher order uh teaching skill. But when you have students of different abilities on different pathways, it it it takes a different uh level of of of managing um the the classroom. And that's where we've been really intently working on the supports around that. And that's what the teacher cohorts have been focused on

066specifically when he's talking about the uh the sounds, the accurate letter sounds. Uh do you guys have any context there in terms of what has been challenging? Yes, that is one of the things we're working on as we support teachers and school leaders with our structured literacy block because you're right, right sounds is something that we can get to 100%. And one of the things that sticks there is that we are all the people who instruct our readers. And so we may be speaking to students the way that we speak naturally. And so we've been really working with our teachers and leaders to make sure that we're getting those phone names or those spoken sounds correct. So for example, all of us who are readers, we might say pen and pen and they may sound

067the same, but those are actually two different phone names. So really working with teachers and school leaders, regardless of accent, regardless of dialect, making sure that we're modeling those sounds for students, that the e and pen sounds different from the I and pen. And so that is something that we've been working through because it requires some unlearning on our parts as well because we are not always intentional with that as we're speaking. >> Thank good point. >> Um similar similar question on the next page. Um where you have approximately 46% of K3 students meeting the weekly usage minutes. Um again why not 100%. I mean or a higher percentage if that's the standard and everybody knows it. >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh I mean it goes back to uh to to do that one you need

068the timing. So really uh ensuring that we're supporting uh teachers and school leaders who are building that time in. Uh as you heard Dr. Florence say that could be something that's part of the structured literacy block. It could be outside of it. Um and that does take a level of differentiation as well in terms of getting that time um um component in. The other thing I will say is we are starting to see this is new. You know, it's one of the things that the team has realized and said this is actually pretty effective and schools that are using this and students that are using this is actually growing and so I think our ability to be more intentional about how we're pushing this out um can help. So more you would add there. >>

069Yes, good evening and thank you for the question. So actually that does hit on something that Dr. Morgan had indicated and that we're seeing is related to the personalized pathways making sure that teachers understand where within the block it fits as Dr. Morgan was sharing you know particularly in the in the K2 um classroom where you have structured literacy and then you have their reading um and then we've added the writing component. We have this wonderful tool that helps to really just diagnose and meet children where they're at based on where they scored on their winter diagnostic and their fall diagnostic. Seeing the results from fall to winter of the students who really intentionally used it in that 30 to 49 minute spot who grew so much more than those kids who did not has

070really helped us to rethink our strategy to make sure that teachers a know that this is a really effective strategy but b also um we're working on incentivizing it. And so um by that we mean really uh focusing on it. So we've been working with our communications team. We're going out actually tomorrow to uh celebrate a classroom of learners, their teacher and principal who are really focused on it um and just to create awareness of it and then also asking teachers to show their best practices of where they find the 10 minutes so that we can help teachers to understand where they best can do that. So we are working on spotlighting that um really great strategy to hopefully see some gains in the next couple weeks. >> Thank you. And just one final observation

071uh on the paragraph before that you note that you had 5,334 support visits to schools and most visits were identified as tier three. It seems like that's the wrong group to be visiting should be below tier three. Just an observation. >> Yeah. And I mean when we're saying tier three, those will be the schools that probably need the most support. So they're the the right one. But we uh I I think what's be mainly behind this is there's still a lot more that we have to to do. And if we only focus on that group um we have some other groups and some uh probably lots of students in classrooms and some of the other tiers uh that that need a lot of support too that we also have to understand a little bit more

072what's taking place in the classroom. Is that kind of correct behind it? >> Just in in a quick note to that. So we are we have lots of different mechanisms this year to track progress. And so one of those are just like where our people are going and and supporting in classrooms. And so tier three are a place of high support that all of our curriculum instruction team members as well as our special education program managers are our English language learning program managers are focused on. But we also when we did a deep dive of um where students grew in the winter diagnostic from fall just noticed that there were a couple schools that maybe that they weren't growing as much. And so we want to make sure that nobody's falling through the cracks and

073that everybody's getting the support that they need. And so that's just us stepping back, looking at the data, and making sure that we're providing support where needed. >> Thanks again. Thank you, >> Dr. Shrear. Back to you. >> Oh, thank you. Um Dr. Morgan, um so this one's this one's um uh again it might be a question that really requires more work and and and a future discussion. Um but I want to talk about um you know at a high level um what changes are you planning on on working on for professional development for teachers? Um what we are talking about here in terms of making a significant increase in the in the proficiency for our students is probably not achievable if we simply keep doing the same thing that we have been doing. and

074and just more of that, right? I Ready assessment. Yes, that's the that's an assessment that lot, you know, lots and lots of um school districts across the the country are using. Um and and if we're saying, you know, we'll we'll we'll only measure amount of time that professional development um time for professional development teachers are going through, it may not be fair to teachers to expect them to have fundamentally different adult behavior um if we're if we're not paying attention to it. Right? So I think that you know I I would really challenge you and your team to think about um our teachers are fantastic and wonderful um and bring a variety of skills to the table. How can we best leverage those skills? And and if we have to, you know, work on on

075thinking about fundamentally different professional development um opportunities, I would encourage us and challenge us to do that um you know, instead of in ter of just relying on what um what we may be having. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, and I appreciate that. I I um I agree there are different things we have to do. What I would say kind of in challenge to that is we have become a lot more focused with what needs to happen. And so seeing these this these increases and just my years uh as an educator to see the growth of almost 10 percentage points um uh of not only just looking at the ontrack rates but also the the proficiency rates from where we were in the fall to winter and knowing that these teacher cohorts become have become more

076uh focused. Uh I I think we're we're on to something in terms of thinking about how we can support. Uh we're learning things about the personalized pathways that we probably haven't been um as intentional about how we're getting in front of teachers to make sure that they're aware of it. You're right. We have brilliant teachers and uh eager teachers. Many of our teachers really are eager and they want to uh learn different aspects of it. And sometimes it's a matter of like I I'm not aware of how to do this or where do I find time and we just have to be better about that. So what I loved about the and I shared this with the team um which our academics team most of our goals sits with our academics teams and so I

077really appreciate their leadership and when I got a chance to really see where we were with this this was one of the more the areas where I saw um focused alignment between a few discrete strategies and how we're able to map that to improvement. Um, now where I will say is we should continue to really get specific about that, especially as time gets more um, we're in a really crunch time between now and April. Um, what can be the most high impact, high leverage strategies. U, but above all, I I uh, what I hear from you is ways that we can continue to leverage their expertise. Um, ways that we can continue to uh, double down on that support. Um, maybe even having some of our teachers, if it's working in their classroom, either deliver

078the professional development, highlight them. It's great to hear that we're going out to celebrate them. Uh those are uh good practices. >> Oh, I think I'm sorry. Excuse me, chair. Um just a followup. I I I would very much encourage and and want to see what you said at the last, right, which is our teachers leading and delivering professional development over time. That's not going to happen right away, right? But it it can only happen if we have a strategic eye and make that an actual goal um and and work towards it. Thank you, >> Mr. Phillips. >> Thank you, Chair Elott. Um, thank you, Dr. Morgan. I have a few questions. Um, my first question and thought kind of goes to um I believe it's slide maybe 10. um when we're talking about our

079English language learners and our um students with disabilities um the gap in proficiency um because I also think about just the number of students that we have that's um you know multilingual and students with disabilities and if we're not closing that gap and with the number of students are we are we going to really be able to hit the goals that we're reaching for? And so I'm guess my question is um how much does our plans with building brighter futures um intend to impact um how we're supporting our students? You >> know, it's a it's a great question. I'll I'll talk about it more broadly and I'll talk about it from a builder brighter futures uh standpoint, but um we see this as as our charge and direct work around our goals. We realized last

080year if we don't um bring our our students up the proficiency level for uh both English language learners as well as students with disabilities, we won't hit the goal. And this was a group last year uh both of these groups were groups we lost traction in. And so it was really important and one of the things Dr. Florence uh shared in her analysis was uh you know last year we were we were looking more holistically and globally at the data and not really pulling that out. So they've been very intentional this year about thinking about that and it's great to see that there's increases but there's still gaps. One of the things that happens in uh practicality uh what uh when we're um of why sometimes we see these gaps. A couple of things can

081be happening. It could be that uh there's an overemphasis of tier one instruction and there's other students in need more um and add additional intervention and support to really make sure they get there. So, that's one thing that can happen. On the flip side, another thing can happen, and I've seen this, and I I show our teams since they're in the classrooms and they're seeing this, sometimes you can overemphasize on they won't be able to get the tier one instruction, and we are um doing too much pull out or we've we've um uh are not reaching those standards because we we don't think the students can achieve it. And if we're never giving them the tier one content or the rigorous content with the accommodations they need to actually achieve it, um we're doing them

082a disservice. And so one or two of those things can happen. And what you you see here is the team is looking at the data. They realize there's support that needs to happen to figure out what what does tier one instruction look like for this group. But then also what does it also look like to give students what they need? Anything else you guys would add there? >> The only thing I would add is you touched on it is our unit assessment data which all students take at the end of a module or a unit. Um, we have data this year that we did not have previously that allows us to look at our data by subgroup. And so we know now all along the way how students are performing. And so both our sped

083and ELLL teams have used that data to go out and intentionally support teachers with specific students and to be able to move their data um forward. And so a more intentional eye this year on our subgroup data on a continuous basis and then being able to use that data to go out and directly support teachers and students in classroom. >> Thank thank you Dr. Florence. Uh Dr. Morgan, I also look at um slide I believe it's slide nine. Um what's working? Um the last bullet point when it's talking about the uh personalized pathway platform that increase it to me it seems like it's a big increase. It's a 12% increase with just utilizing this platform for 30 minutes. Um so I I kind of have two questions around that. one is um can anyone help

084me understand what that increase looks like? Um I don't know from a parent standpoint is is it potentially an increase in a grade in a in a like from a C to a B or B to a A or like a little context to help understand. So, it's looking at the uh I think they're specifically looking at proficiency or uh like their growth in proficiency. Um and so uh while while uh we we give some of the data me mechanics, the growth in proficiency not necessarily it could equate into um the grade that they're achieving in it, but it's just how um they're able to master the content. And so what we see is that the students who are using this are um uh you know they they're they're mastering the content at higher levels

085than students that are not. And what I mentioned about how the personalized pathway uh platform is it's adaptive. So it meets the student exactly where they are. Uh and it allows them to practice the skill that um uh maybe the teacher has taught whole group tier one at their level and it's adaptive. It doesn't keep them there. So some of this software as students u progress as their readings as they're answering the questions they get it right or as they make mistakes it's adapting uh and that that type of technology is supportive of that. Uh anything else you guys would add uh there in terms of what you guys are finding with that. >> So yes we were we deep dove into this data as well because we got it back from um our group.

086And so what this actually goes to a little bit is just matching you know something that Dr. Morgan was saying where um you know I have a child at home who's off track from where they they should be in fourth grade and so they're getting the tier one content in fourth grade but they are not necessarily um at fourth grade level. And so she's doing some work at home to kind of get make make up some of those skills. And so the personalized pathway is based on their diagnostic test that basically um would be tiered to you to say how you did and and give you some skills to help you practice to kind of get you back up. And what they saw from the fall to winter was that the students who did the

087personalized pathways for the 30 to 49 minute time which they they tell us is kind of like the sweet spot where their research has shown you know kids do the best. Um saw a 73% growth in the median growth index which basically means that the likelihood of you growing further faster is more um if you're on it for this time. And so using these um nationally normed um assessments that they do, that was definitely a proof point where we thought, okay, this is this has got some stickiness here and is working. And so how do we make sure that we are giving and and having students do that? And so is it 10 minutes per day for five days a week or you know, our teachers are creative and wonderful and are using this supplemental

088program. It's supplemental to our um curriculum. how are they helping it? Um and and teachers use it in in a way that um you know best works in their classrooms and their systems and also is fun and and can be helpful for the kids. >> And I I got to follow up on that. Um just to kind of help me understand and maybe help the audience as well. Is this something that students can access outside of classroom time? And if so, do all students have device or whatever the case may be to um access that? >> So, I can answer that they can and actually we did see on our snow days and our cold days uh when I went back in to look at our data, our January data, you know, we did a

089lot of comparisons just recently from January to February. I met with Dr. Florence this morning to talk a little bit about that. Uh February, the first two weeks of February looked much better than the last two weeks of January did, but we did see some students accessing it. And so that is definitely something that they can do. As far as the device issue, >> definitely I I could tell you in terms of devices. So we do all students have devices in school. One of the things we are looking at not all students or schools uh where devices go home uh to them. Um but uh I believe our curriculum is available via schooly which if um uh students cannot use their phone in school. Uh we we are cell phone uh free zones. Uh but

090uh you know parents can download that we can. And these are things as we think about those strategies. We talked about electronic gradebook last week. We can do a better job of letting parents know what that extension of learning looks like. They shared with me that data point of of students using it on the snow day. And I know that that's not anything that um I mean we are assigning maybe there was a teacher who was assigning but nothing that we're mandating but that is uh that's incredible when uh students are using that and that's what technology is for. Um we do know we hear about issues of um uh w like do do students have internet at home? Um and we there's been lots of barriers that I I'm looking at our uh Mr.

091Timmons who's our IT lead uh has done a great job to help with work with digital seed to ensure that our our families have uh Wi-Fi. We also have the um uh hotspots uh that we were able to do work on. But these are areas that are still challenges um but definitely accessible and by being a student enrolled in the system, you are automatically um connected uh to uh this um uh to this platform because it is connected to the assessment that we give all students. >> Thank you Dr. Morgan. >> Miss Levon. Thank you, chair. Dr. Morgan, thank you for the presentation. You know, I want to take us back to a point for building brighter future where you mentioned um the class the classroom size changes, right? And how building brighter futures is

092going to help reduce uneven class sizes. And I imagine that instead of having, you know, randomly assigned like uh, you know, a classroom of 27 second graders or third graders and you're going to have two classrooms where each room, I think one of the examples you gave in one of the past presentations was like 21 students per class. um there might be that that should that should lead to maybe uh easier time for teachers to implement this in the classroom, but then also that peer-to-peer professional development and like learning communities amongst each other to say like this is how I've utilized it. Um can you can you share with us like your hope for how building brighter futures will impact this? >> Yeah, and thank you for your question, Miss Lebron. It reminds me um

093Mr. Phillips a question. And you had also asked about building brighter futures and so I want to also tie these uh together. So um yes, one of the things and um our our school leaders are about to enter into the phase of doing scheduling. I know some of them are already figuring out what courses will be um provided aligned to the the the promise that we said that building brighter futures would have. Um, and when we're thinking about whether it's the personalized pathways, um, pulling out, doing differentiation, um, uh, when you have two third grade teachers, there's a lot of things a school leader can do with that. Um, even when we, uh, differentiation is hard. So when you have a group of students of all ability levels in a classroom and how you do

094that, there may be times that uh a a school team that teacherbased team or uh the principal may decide um for different aspects of the block students are grouped and go with a uh this this third grade teacher where other students are going to another third grade teacher. It just allows us to do that in aspects that we're not able to do that as as much right now when there's only one teacher per grade level. And so, um, we know that through building brighter futures, we're projecting the majority of our, um, uh, elementary schools will have, um, at least two teachers per grade level. We'll still have a couple, uh, that will have, uh, just one teacher per grade level, but that will support, um, um, that work. Um and then also what can help

095support the work is we know that with the additional encore that additional enrichment course that is another opportunity um from a scheduling perspective that allows for some differentiation and time to do things like this and some of the other aspects that were um uh that will support students with their uh enrichment and learning. >> As a followup to what you just shared, Dr. Morgan, um, what, you know, because many of these principles are going to be put in this position for the first time, they haven't had an opportunity to to think creatively about what they could do with two third grade classrooms. What kind of professional development is going to be there for them as they start to decide how to utilize that? >> Yeah, we're uh we're we're kind of in the midst of

096that now. I know some work that has been taking place at our school leader institutes already has been around um scheduling. I know I got a chance to see some information today. um um AI in some of our elementary schools particularly thinking about algebra 1 um starting to see that information come in and then at our high school levels how we're doing the scheduling um so that's work that our team has been doing um academics has been see been receiving some support so that uh our team is actually prepared to support our school leaders with um the the support of this work so um it is underway um and I know that there's a lot we'll we'll continue to learn to think about the supports that's needed um but I also take your question as

097a charge to think about what direct supports we're also giving when thinking about the building out of the schedules. >> Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Uh, two comments. One is just a reminder for all that many of us submitted comments in advance of the meeting. Those are posted alongside this presentation. Um, and Dr. Morgan, you said something. I know you know this, but I want to underscore it. You mentioned that most of our goals sit or all of our goals sit under the academics team, right? And of course that is the case because our goals are designed to measure what students know and are able to do and we have shifted to an outcomes focused uh framework. But every department and every person in the district has a role in the goals, right? So students need

098to be transported to school on time in order to be able to read. they need to have access to the right devices and internet technology and things like that. So, um it's an all hands on deck situation. We're all rowing forward together. >> All right. Uh thank you. Do we have an update on building brighter futures implementation? Dr. Morgan, >> we do. Um so typically um uh with the the charge of this board to do uh to give re regular updates. We usually give a monthly update um but we just gave an update last um thank you uh team uh academics appreciate you. Um we recently uh just gave an update. So uh we have a brief update in terms of where we are. Um and so I'll shift that. I wonder if that presentation

099can come up. I have it down here but I have to remind myself it's not connected. Um so just a reminder in terms of where we are in terms of building brighter futures. We know that uh where we are from winter to uh summer that this is heavy into the implementation phases which is the most uh it's the most challenging work of building brighter futures really ensuring that we're ready for the start of the school year. And so, um, to your last point, Chair Elott, it has been all hands on deck, everyone working really hard and particularly the part that we've been working on the most right now has been choice and enrollment. So, huge shout out to uh Rick uh and uh Sonia Clark uh who I are not here uh today, but I

100know they've been working really hard from everything from choice fairs, working with our navigators to ensure families make a choice. So before I go into this, I want to remind our families Friday, February 27th, that is this Friday, the portal closes uh uh for you to make your choice. And so please make your choice. We have some promising data that families are making choices and I'm going to share that in a moment. But please make your choice. Um I forgot where I was, but I was talking to a parent and she told me the school she wanted her oh, she was coming to visit me. Uh so I had a a meeting with her meeting with Leo Serrano and I and she told me the school she wants her scholar to go to. I said,

101"Have you made your choice?" And she said, "No." I said, "Get on and make your choice." So, uh, please do make your choice Friday, February 27th. You just have days away. Um, and so, please get on. And we thank everyone. It's been a citywide effort. I'm seeing our city of Cleveland. Thank you for your support of getting that message out to our families as well. All right. So, just want to remind to that last point, the promise of building brighter futures. So, you heard this across some of the questions that were brought up from our um our board members about just a reminder of the promise of building brighter futures and really that scheduling aspect really goes into the goals of ensuring that 100% of our high schools have college credit, 100% have career pathways,

102and 100% of our elementary schools have enrichment courses beyond art, music, and PE. data I'm already seeing is showing that this is we're on track um to uh to do this and we're still continuing to work on this and we have to think about the supports that school leaders will get with scheduling. Um but I know our academics team is working really hard to ensure uh we're ready for that. Um so some information in terms of where we are right now. Um so the latest student choice data as of February uh 23rd uh is that 6,440 uh student applications have been submitted. Um and this is you know just unique individual students who have submitted their applications. So 6,440 um and that's including 5,261 current CMSD students but 1,179 new to CMSD students. That is

103a huge celebration that building brighter futures is not only attracting our families who are currently within the system. We have over 1,000 students who are new to CMSD. So, we're grateful to welcome those uh scholars in. Um a few other data points, 53% of impacted BBF families have submitted a choice for next year. So, um when we think about those impacted schools, schools that are either transitioning, closing. Um so, 53% we want to continue to track and get that up higher. Um one of the things we're learning from our choice navigators is um there are a lot of families that are uh assuming that uh they're welcoming that they'll just go to their welcoming uh school seat. If you're one of those families, still go in and make a choice. One of the things we've

104been very clear about, we want all of our families to make a choice in this time. Uh because we want to know um if you will actually show up and um and confirm your welcoming seat or not. It helps us with staffing when families can make the choice. So um we do know that we will make assumptions on if you're coming after the choice window if you haven't made a choice, but it it helps us plan if you do make your choice. Uh 58% of rising ninth graders have submitted a high uh a high school choice and that's growing. 90% of preschool families have submitted their kindergarten choice for next school year. Um and then we have 33 school choice navigators as we mentioned before and they are calling they're uh talking with families. I

105was talking with one of our choice navigators today and she told me Mooney is her school and she said they almost have all their families that have made a choice. Um shout out to schools like Bennish that uh I know 100% of their eighth graders have made a choice. I think they are highly in the green. I mentioned Mary Church Terrell earlier where 71% of those families have made a choice. So, our schools are making choices. We have some schools that can do even better. We're giving some extra extra support to ensure that those families know about that and that they are confirming their choice or confirming their seat. Um, and navigators have been able to contact 63% of families so far. So, um, huge shout out to our enrollment team um, and the work

106that has been taking place to Dr. Mosley, to Chief Farmer Cole that has been doing a lot of work to support this. as well as Dr. Florence as well from the academic perspective. Um we are also uh doing a lot of work with our our communities coming together. So uh we just had a professional development day on February 13th. I think that was Yeah, it was a it was a Friday, Friday, February 13th. Uh and uh the the intentional work was about our schools that are coming together, those schools that are um merging together. Um, and I mean it was a PD day for all schools, but particularly focused on schools that are merging together and welcoming uh school communities, which are the majority of our schools. And these are Oh, there we go. Uh,

107these are some some pictures and uh uh uh that you can see from some of the activities that have taken place. I think I saw a uh I uh the the school leader at Glennville, the combined community of Glennville and Colwood, they sent me a Tik Tok video that they had of their school communities did on their professional development days. schools are coming together and doing some um fun things in preparation. Um there also um uh scholars are coming together and thinking about what this merge can look like. There's also been several events that are taking place, not only professional development on our building brighter futures website. Um there is a list of all of the events that are taking place. I think Wade Park had a line dancing night or uh that they took

108place. It was very well attended and that was uh specifically uh for their emerging school that are coming together uh and the school communities coming together. So huge shout out for our school leaders and school communities that are coming together to do this work. It's already showing that our school communities can come together as we always knew that they would uh be able to um but that culture work is underway. I know we're uh continuing to do work on what the transition team work looks like and then also what it looks like for the school communities to come together, but many of our schools are are doing this work um on their own and really uh excited about welcoming families. Huge shout out to the choice fairs that took place both in January and February

109and many of our school leaders that came out um uh for those as well to do uh recruitment for families. Uh just a reminder, we shared this at the uh last board meeting of where we are in the process. So in December, we were able to name uh school leaders and do some work around the impacts of school leaders. In January, we were able to uh do some work around assistant principles um and those impacts. Um also what's not noted here, uh uh staffing for deans and campus coordinators is some work that had already um uh start to go underway in January. um you know doing really work around the administrative impacts when it comes to uh building brighter futures has been an area that we uh focused on first. Uh we know we have

110to get through the student enrollment choice window which closes on Friday which will allow us to really get a better sense of where we are with schools um because there are some schools that um families are selecting into. There are some schools that um there may be more demand um and that may um that could change what the enrollment will be at that school. It could change what the staffing could look like. We need to see what that all looks like once the choice window um closes. We are in the midst now of our central office budgeting um process. On top of the work that we have um um set for building brighter futures in terms of the savings, there is more savings that we're doing directly at the central office. We talked about some

111of those numbers uh in Chief Stockdale's presentation of $15 million uh that we're working directly with central office where these are impacts. And so a lot of tough decisions underway. Um but this is the work that uh we're doing collectively as we know that uh building brighter futures is work that is taking place in schools but this is something that uh we're implementing across the system and uh will have impact across the system. So we're in the central office budgeting process right now and that will be uh ending at the beginning of March. uh and we believe that the we'll be at a place where the teacher hiring process will be concluded by uh May of this year. >> Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Mr. Phillips. >> Uh thank you, Chair Elott. Dr. Morgan, I just

112um got a quick uh clarification just in case maybe some parents um students that let's say are not switching schools. um let's say a student at John Marshall it student should still go into the portal and pick a pick their school. >> That is a great question. So a student that's at John Marshall IT even though those campuses are coming together a student at John Marshall they intend to stay at John Marshall they do not that is a student that would not need to. Now if a student at John Marshall is at John Marshall and they're like you know what actually I want to go to Bard. I want to try my hand at Bard. They would need to. Um, and we do have some of the students who are uh there's some data that

113we've seen that students are making different choices, but that is a good example of a student who would not. An example of a family that does need to go in to confirm their welcoming seat. So, if you are um I'll use this example, Campus International High School. Campus International High School is um uh you know, is ending instruction at the end of this year, merging on the John Hay campus. Now, all the other schools on the John Hay campus, they wouldn't need to. if they want to stay there, they could. But if I'm at Campus International High School and I want to go to my uh welcoming school, go in and make that uh that choice that allows us to plan. I use the example of Mary Church Terrell ending instruction at the end of

114this year, merging with uh Wilbur Wright. Go in and confirm your welcoming seat or make another choice. Um so that's a really great distinction and if you have questions like that, please feel free to reach out, talk to your navigator, talk to your school leader. Um I know that that can get confusing. Um, but the way the portal is set up, it also can help you and direct you with your uh your prompts. Uh, if you are a student who's in a building brighter future school, it already uh I believe already defaults that your top choice is your welcoming school. >> Thank you, Miss Lebron. >> Thank you, Dr. Morgan. You mentioned that navigators have been able to contact 63% of students regarding school choice. I'd like to know how many of the 63% that

115they've contacted actually went in and made a choice. Um, and you may, you know, you won't have that necessarily right now, but the other question that I have uh with that is with school choice closing on February 27th, does the role of the navigators come to an end or will they continue to try to reach families of those that are still not enrolled? >> These are some of the strategic questions we're asking ourselves as we >> we have weekly meetings and sometimes multiple meetings. And one of the things we asked, what does that look like beyond there? Um there's things that we're starting to do underway for when um school assignments are done because I believe I'm scanning out here. Uh March 30th is the date when students will know uh it's like decision day.

116And so we're doing a lot of work to, you know, not only do comms around that, but also just think what does that support look like and um you know, what other work is underway. And so, um, we'll take that question and come back to you on it, but there's some questions we're asking ourselves because the role may not be needed in terms of selecting a a school, but there are there could be other supports that we're uh that are needed as we're thinking about the start of the school year. >> Thank you. And and a followup to that, at our at one of our last board meetings u most recently, we talked about the importance of leveraging our community partners like say yes, college now, Espiransa, etc. Um, have we thought about the navigators

117working with these partners to help increase school choice? I know we're I know we're at the end right now and it ends on Friday, but you know, possibly working with community based organizations that already have relationships with these students outside of the schools. Maybe that could increase. >> Yeah, some of them we have. So, we've worked directly with Say Yes. So, you mentioned Say Yes. We've been working with Say Yes. And um we we have our choice navigators, but I know our family support specialists who say yes have also been doing some work to really get the word out and support that work. Um we mentioned the city of Cleveland. They're also um I I can check and see if Esparonza is part of this, but we have a group of uh I would call

118I guess I would call them like ambassadors uh kind of getting the word out. There are many community partners that uh we meet on a uh with um uh really convene with the the city of Cleveland to figure out how we can get the word out. They did a lot of work in the beginning to get marketing out. Um what I like about your question, I'll follow up on to see uh you know how we're leveraging that for this final push. We'll have a few days and we can you know by any means necessary we got to get it done. >> Uh Dr. Morgan, looking at the PD with the school staff coming together, are we providing guidance and like a framework for how to uh prepare for that or are we I assume we're

119not just like putting everyone together and saying come up with your best plan for your school. >> Yeah. So, there's some work I see Dr. Florence is coming up. I'll uh answer high level here and I know Dr. Florence has some things he'll share there for the PD day specifically. This was one we worked with in conjunction with um uh not only our school leaders but also with our teachers union to figure out what that actually looks like. But this is a big part of the work that we're looking to get agreement on when we think about our playbook. Uh because there is work that the academics team actually did to really think about the the playbook, but we also want to ensure that we have um uh you know we have agreement and uh

120working with our our teachers union on around that. Uh Dr. For anything more you want to share? So for this PD day, um the principles had a little more leeway, but what you saw was a lot of relationship building as teams were coming together. There was also a lot of um conversations around the vision of my school that I'm currently in. What would I like for the vision to be like in my merging school, in our new school? What are rules, structures, procedures in my current school? What do I want those things to look like in my new school? And so a lot of work around helping to think about and plan for the school that will be the newly merged school and how that school will look. Um, we also every month give them

121guidance around what they should be doing with their transition team. And so they have an agenda, they have a slide deck, they have reflection questions. So as a team they're working to think through how they're going to bring their school teams together, their staffs together, their students together. And so they get that on a monthly basis, guidance that's consistent across schools of what we expect them to do during this time. >> Thank you. what is the role that we are um >> what is the role of the goals and guard rails as this planning work is happening within school buildings >> um so one we could make that explicit connection I mean when we think about the goals the process for building brighter futures is all centered in the work that we're doing around goals

122particularly when thinking about the um the aspects of the promise of building brighter futures and the course work that we're we're doing with it um we can more specifically es especially as we have agreement on what the playbook looks like, what the transition teams look like and we're we're underway working with our teachers union on that. Um ensure that that is something that is even more prominent as we have a uh as a as we have a playbook and that's one of the things we have in draft but we don't have it uh finalized yet. >> Okay. >> All right. I see no further discussion. Thank you Dr. Morgan. Oh, I'm so sorry. Go ahead, Pastor Jones. >> Thank you, Chair Ela Carton. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Um, with the, um, increased new, um, CMSD

123scholars, um, uh, was that a part of the strategy or with the portal about to close, um, are we expecting to see even more, um, positive, um, increase as that? >> Yeah. Uh, I mean, the hope is that we, we, uh, continue to see that grow. Um it is great to see that applications are up and applications are up across you know all those those groups even when we look at um compared to previous years. We know this is a different year. Um so we we're not only comparing to what it was in in previous years. But it's great to see that uh those areas are growing and then we're continuing to see um we want we would love to see those those uh areas grow even more. I I uh when I think about

124the impacted schools I would love to see our numbers of impacted families making a choice. Um though we know that there is a seat at a welcoming school, the unintended consequence of us planning for students who may or may not show up, we every year we do fall adjustment. And if you uh plan for um right now we're a little over 50% but about under a little under 50% of students who may or may not show up. Uh that has a big impact in fall adjustment. You staff a certain way and then you have to do different staffing adjustments. And one of the things we want as much as possible and the reason why we waited for the enrollment window um choice window to uh before doing this, we want our staffing to be as

125accurate as possible um and align to our budgetary needs. So um yep, doing great work and we still have a lot more work to do. >> Thank you. >> Uh Dr. Morgan, I actually have another question. It's really great to see the data point on the prek students and families who are choosing their kindergarten. Do we have data on uh families choosing a prek location yet? >> Not yet. I'm actually going on Thursday uh to our our um I don't know if it's monthly, a regular our regular pre-fore meeting um to just share some updates of where we are. So, we do know um we will have prek in more in more schools as a percentage than what we've had before. um we have more seats in terms of um the enrollment that we have

126now. We have more seats uh that we'll be offering next year, not necessarily open seats. We have a lot of vacant seats right now in terms of prek that are not filled. Um but of the filled seats, we will have more seats next year in terms of prek. Um but the the application process for prek um is not aligned necessarily with the process we're doing now. And so those are some questions I'll take to uh broadly to pre for cle and I can have an update um for you guys in the next time we do um our uh our our our BBF update because I'll be sharing some prek information and also getting some questions directly from the pre-for group. >> Okay, thank you. >> Okay, I think we have no further discussion then. Thank

127you Dr. Morgan. Is there any old business? Is there any new business? Okay. The next regular board meeting will be a board work session on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. at Arnold Pinkney East Professional Center. The chair will now entertain a motion that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of considering the appointment and employment of public employees and officials, preparing for negotiations with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment, conferring with attorneys concerning disputes involving the board of education that are the subject of pending or imminent court action. And considering details relative to the security arrangements and emergency response protocols for the board and the school district. Second. >> Thank you. The motion passes. The board will now move into executive session. Following executive

128session, the board will return to this room to briefly conduct some further business. When I say food is, you say medicine. FOOD IS >> MEDICINE. >> FOOD IS >> GIVE IT UP. YAY. >> SO, WHAT WE HAVE GOING on here today is a meet the farmer event. Um, so we have this year partnered with four Cleveland growers um that grow the vegetables that are on the salad bars that are in our in some of our schools and the students can meet the farmer. Today we have farmer Sarah and farmer Jamal and they get to meet the farmer that grows their food. They can ask them questions. We have trading cards um and the students get to try the produce items that they that the farmers grow and it just encourages them to try something new

129to eat fresh vegetables and um they can meet the farmer and then they get to vote on if they like the produce item or not and they get fun stickers and we have um what if they write on the board of what they like about the product. this is uh one of the youngest demographics that we can have an influence on. And when you're talking about school lunches, this is food that they're going to be eating daily uh for more for a majority of the year, right? And so to be able to introduce local foods on a daily basis to students within the Cleveland area is just evolutionary. We're talking about the benefits of fresh foods and also the difference between local fresh foods and those you might get, say, at a grocery store that

130might have been shipped from all over the country or world to get to your plate, often picked months and months earlier and don't have the same level of nutrition or flavor. So, giving them that experience of eating something that was grown locally and why that's so important and why it's so important to grow your own food. >> It was kind of sour. It was source and that was my first ever trying that, but it had a pretty color. >> One of our students, they did something special for someone in the community. And so, we get all these people here to celebrate and to recognize what Allison did for someone in her community. >> That morning, while boarding the school bus, you noticed a small child wandering alone on the street, wearing only a t-shirt. Recognizing

131the danger the child was in, you immediately alerted the bus driver and took action to help. I want to give you a first district commander coin. Uh it's got a a one on the front for uh the first district and the seal of the Cleveland Division of Police on the back. >> And I saw a little girl walk out and the bus driver was about to hit her. >> And so what did you say to the bus driver? >> I was like, "Stop." And then he tell me, "Who is that? It's like your niece." I was like, "No, that's not my niece." And just so then I went off the bus to go grab her. >> It shows a a great deal of awareness and maturity for her age. Most kids, like you say, they're

132on the bus, they're talking, they're on their phone, you know, and the fact that she noticed she paid attention, you know, to what was going on at that particular time is just, you know, amazing. I I think it's very important because, you know, we're a community. We work together. We help each other and that's how we get things done. And she's already doing that. Children can teach us a lot. And I think she did. Be aware. Look around. Help people when you see them in need. >> I don't really care about the gifts because it was just the point to save somebody, anybody that need help. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District School Choice Portal is now open for families to select the school that best fits their scholars needs. The portal will remain open until

133February 27th, 2026. To begin, go to choosecmsd.org and click the school choice portal. Log in using your credentials. If you don't have an account, you will need to create one using your email address and phone number. You can also change the language on the site. On the welcoming page, your scholars's name should appear. Now, if it does not, click get started and add their information. You will need the scholars 9-digit school ID number, which can be found on the report card along with their full name as it appears on the report card. You will also need their date of birth and address. When you are done, hit save and continue. On the next page, families impacted by the Building Brighter Futures initiative will first see a page informing them of the seat reserved at the

134designated welcoming school. The welcoming school name will appear grayed out. You will then choose one of two options. I want my student to attend the designated welcoming school or I want to apply to other schools. If you accept the welcoming school, the next question will ask about siblings. If there are siblings, add their information to ensure they can attend the same school if you choose. Next is school selection. Click the box for your welcoming school to confirm it is your first and only choice. You will then confirm that choice. If you don't want to accept the welcoming school, click I want to apply to other schools. Your child will have priority seating at other schools if space is available. On the school selection page, you can view a map and search by school name or

135distance to find a school best suited for your child. You may select up to five schools and rank them in order of preference. This process is the same for eighth grade families choosing a high school for next year. After ranking your choices, confirm them. You will also need to submit digital signatures for both the caregiver and scholar. You'll review your choices and then submit your application. Please note, once you submit your application, you cannot make any changes online. If you need to make changes or have questions about the process, contact the Office of School Choice and Enrollment at 2168383675. If you are unsure about your choice at this time, you can save your application until you are ready to submit. School assignments will be announced the week of March 30th. Scholars at colllocated high schools

136do not need to make a choice unless they want to explore other options for the 2026 27th school year. Now is the time to choose the best path for your scholar's future. Visit choosecmsd.org today and make your selection before February 27th. Your choice, your school, your future. Together, we're building brighter futures. Looking for the right school for your child? CMSD SchoolFinder makes it easy. Here's how to explore your options. With the CMSD SchoolFinder, you search by interest or location. There is an interactive map displaying all the schools in the district. You can view each school's profile and even compare schools. Want to narrow it down? Use the filters to search by grade level, programs, career pathways, and sports offered at each school. And here's the best part. Type in your home address and instantly you'll

137see the schools closest to you. Plus, you can see the distance a school is to your home to determine if transportation will be available to your scholar. It's simple, fast, and designed to help families make confident choices. So, go ahead, explore, compare, and find the school that feels like home. Your child's future starts here. Hi, I'm Dariel Snipes with CMSD Communications. Today I am so excited. I am hanging out with two of the Senate League girls flag football teams, John Haye and Roads. This sport is gaining popularity. Right now CMSD has seven teams. I'm so excited to learn more about flag football. Let's go. Joining me now is head coach of the John Haye Ladies Flag Football Team, Coach Vanetta Krider. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> So, I know this is an exciting sport. It's

138a growing sport. I It just got sanctioned by the Ohio High School Athletic Association. That's exciting news. So, now your girls can go for state championships. But, you know, some of us were brand new to flag football. Tell me what is the difference between flag football and just basic football? >> The difference for flag football and basic football for our girls is that we actually get to compete this year um outside of only using flags and not be able to contact each other and we have to wear mouthpieces. >> Okay. But just just talk about the growing popularity of this girl sport and how exciting is especially here in CMSD and the Senate league. >> Yes. Right now it means that girls flag football is now recognized by OSHA. So now we get more opportunities

139to get school funding. Um so luckily we are division one school. So we had about 40 girls that come and try out. So this year we're expecting even more. >> I mean what do you think about that that more girls want to play football? >> I'm excited. I'm excited to teach them and for them to want to be competitive and lead and be outside their comfort zone. What the fact that it's, you know, when people think about football, they think about it as a male-dominated sport. The fact that flag football, especially girls flag football, is taking off. It gives young ladies an opportunity to play a what's once was known as a male-dominated sport. Can you just talk about that opportunity for them? >> Yes. So, now it gives girls a platform to compete and

140lead. And we're breaking stereotypes and proving that football isn't just for boys. Anybody can play as long as you got the passion and the skill for it. And joining me now are two players from the girls flag football team at roads. Welcome. Tell me your names and what grade you're in. >> I'm Aaliyah. I go to Rose Environmental Studies and I'm in 10th grade. >> My name is Nia. I go to RCCA and I'm in 10th grade. >> Wonderful. So just tell me because I just I don't know. I'm learning. What is the difference between flag football and football? >> Well, flag football and um regular football we already know it's like it's not as much contact, but there's a lot you can do. like the quarterback can't run. The ball is smaller, less people

141on the field, so it gives and flag is um it's quick. It's quick. It's not like football. Football you have more time. Flag is quick and you have like less time. >> Okay. And then you also have the flags. How hard or easy is it to get another opponent's flag? >> It depends on how fast the person is moving. >> Yeah. >> And what moves they're pulling out. But usually if you're up like if you're catching up to the person, it's very easy. They're not hard to pull or nothing. So >> So tell me, why did you guys want to join the team? >> Well, I wanted to join the team because ever since I was like very young, I always played regular football with my brothers. And when I got older, it was like

142like it was something I always wanted to do. And like 20, 23, I played flag football with boys, but then I got scouted for a um girls team and we went all the way to nationals in Las Vegas and won a championship ring there. And then when I came here, there was no flag football team. So I asked if I could play tackle, but my mom would have let me. And then I found out later on we had a flag football team and I was like, "Oh, this is my sport." So I'm definitely going to play. >> Also feel like a sport that was really made for boys that girls never really got the opportunity to play. When I saw it at Rose, I feel like a sport that was always always classified as like

143a boy sport being like girls being able to play. I feel like that was really cool. So I really wanted to take that opportunity to play. And also, Coach O'Neil, she really inspired me to play. She was the assistant basketball coach and it really gave me something to do and now it's something I really would do the rest of my years in high school and see where it takes me. >> Right. So this this is the second season for the team. Um just talk about how fun it is and just the team camaraderie that you ladies have. >> Oh, it's very fun. Like in the first year it was some rough patches but we always got through it. our coach, she's a very great coach cuz she is like more informational >> about flag football

144than basketball. So when she um is out here, she put her hearts on the um field just like we do. >> Yeah, Coach O'Neal, she really was great. She keep us all lifted up like something could go wrong and she was always bringing the joy. It was like our first year was really fun. We went real far and just seeing where it took us, it made me excited for the next season to come. like what we going to bring to the table and flag like I didn't expect it to be like I thought it was just going to be something to do but act when we actually started playing I'm like it's fun like >> now another difference is that flag football is played in the spring and not in the fall like regular football

145>> um well can you just talk about the fact that now it is a sanctioned sport and so now you guys can go for a state championship just talk about you guys could be the state champs >> that's very exciting to me because like I said I always love football in general So for me to have this opportunity to probably get scholarships to play in college is just like something I want to achieve. >> I think that's really good. Like it gives opens up more opportunities for the girls and gives girls something to do because we always as a girl we always like doubt it or we don't always get as much opportunity. So it just opens the door for girls sport. >> Now it looks it still even though you guys don't have pads

146and a helmet, it's it still can be tough. I mean it's still um >> I mean it's still a contact sport. What did you not say? >> Like you're definitely going to fall. You're definitely going to >> Good time, >> but it's fun. >> Yes, it's very exciting. >> All right. Well, thank you ladies. What you see before you is a culmination of two and a half years of work. But moreover, there was 86 years of blood, sweat, and tears put forth by men and women who comprised the Tuskegee experiment. Let history show that in the course of human endeavor that never have so many owed so much to so few. >> My first reaction was it looked a lot better than I than I did it in class. It took a lot and it's

147just I'm proud to see that it's up there and I'm glad everyone else can see it too. I think it's the good that the Tuskegee Airmen get their word out and their faces out because they helped this world and I'm glad that I was able to help them represent it. I seen everyone do their painting in class. I seen like their entire process through it and now looking at it inside the airport, it's like, "Wow, they did that. That's amazing. >> My name is Lori Lane and this is my father, Earl Rosco Lane. He was with the 332nd of the Tuskegee Airman. I think they did a fantastic job in doing it. I know I when I was speaking to a group of them um they said they did a lot of research on it

148but they were so open to listening and to learning more so that we have more young people that are able to display their talent learn and it's one as a teacher I know it's one of the greatest ways for students to learn and this will stay with them for the rest of their lives. I'm very happy today because I am sharing the CEO seat uh with a very amazing young scholar. Uh she attends AB Hart and she's in seventh grade over there. This is Victorious. She goes by Tori Blackman and she's CEO for the day. So CEO Blackman. Yes. Let's give her a hand. >> I have been going to meetings and hanging out with some of the high schoolers and thinking about what high school I want to go to and just having fun

149with him. >> To be a leader, you have to step in. It takes boldness. It takes not being afraid. And uh so far Tori has been uh stepping up to the plate and showing that. Having a a scholar with me has been amazing. And uh I mean she was at the table earlier today with some of uh Cleveland's you know top leaders and just being right at the table just means a lot to have that that seat at the table. And so, um, you know, and to be a, uh, a young, uh, scholar, young lady, of color, uh, that just means a lot when we think about representation. >> So, today we started on our robots. Well, we started our robots like 2 days ago, but today we added like our finishing touches and we

150made them waterproof with pool noodles. We attached motors to them with wax in it. So it is it's waterproofed and those motors spin at a very high speed so it can propel itself through the water and able to um do its tasks. It's so cool because usually robots are like on surface, right? This time it's underwater which makes it harder to see but more funner cuz like you don't know what's going to happen. The machine itself, you can program it first from your computer. Once you like uh access, it says it via Bluetooth. It basically you can control it from there and automate it wherever program you want to set a specific time. Experiencing all of this, I've actually had a lot of fun being able to come up here and um just learn about

151a machine. And um I've personally been part of a robotics team. So being able to experience a machine uh automating other stuff like agriculture is a really good experience. I had a lot of fun. So, I just got to Cleveland. >> I just wanted to come out and see y'all. We working out every day. Uh we got a purpose. We got something we trying to accomplish and achieve. But I'm trying to bring Cleveland, of course, a Super Bowl. >> What inspires me to keep going? I would say um knowing I I got a lot of people watching me, knowing that I'm a positive influence uh to the youth. That's what I say what keeps me going. So like even coming here seeing y'all. >> You go to the website, you type in the access code,

152and you're in. Your kids pictures are there and you could easily I have a kids at two different schools. You can easily switch from school to school and keep up on top of it. >> Everything's right there. Like everybody always has their phone with them so you can easily access it to your phone. >> It's a relief for me knowing that my child has the best chance that they can knowing every day they wake up they can go to school and you know take advantage of the day. The winner of the first annual rise pitch competition is, drum roll please, Riverside. >> Rise was birthed out of an opportunity that we thought was very very important for us to be able to give students opportunity to have their voices centered. So we asked them a

153question. The question is, if you could solve a problem in your community with unlimited resources, how would you do it? >> I'm 13 years old in the seventh grade at Amaya Elementary and our group is excited to be here today to share our opportunity for action. I feel like that our gaming lab will help a lot of students because of these new technology industries that are coming from these foreign countries which can excel our students and improvise them and get them set for life. As a basketball player myself, sports helped me with a lot of teamwork, leadership, and even helped me with my mental health. So, for me, I'm just asking, can we get more opportunities for sports all along a school year? >> We also wanted to make sure our ideas weren't just meaningful,

154but doable. We're excited to introduce a few things we think that can make Riverside better right away. >> Our goal is to think big for our classmates, our teachers, and our whole school. Congratulations and I hope that you have an amazing day. Would you say my classes? Today we have the ceremony award of the seal of biteracy. Uh we have students who took the stamp test this year and they got uh the seal of biteracy to from different uh languages. >> I speak multiple languages well two actually Spanish and English. I'm excited that I earned this because I know it will bring a lot of opportunities for me in the future. So, I'm very proud. >> The seal of bi literacy is one of the seals that students could earn upon graduation and that it

155gives them certification for being not only bilingual and they can speak two languages but they can also read and write both languages and it's grown tremendously. It's a very very important um skill set that they will be uh transferring into the real world as they become adults and they go not only to college but also to the workforce, the military and it also hits a lot of our goals um for college and career readiness. >> My name is Enida Torres and I am the welcome center ambassador and the executive secretary. It's an important resource for our families in the community um because there are some resources that you can't families can't get from the school. Some of the common questions and concerns could be anything from payroll, it can be from benefits. Um we also

156um have folks that come in that are just recently retirees. Um so we get an array of services that come in. Our families specifically um consider them our frontline front-facing services in and much of our enrollment. Um be it student transfer um transcripts related or um to talk through issues or concerns that our families feel may have not been um addressed properly at the school or or those type of things. We have project ACT which is also here um for our homeless population and our students and our families who are in transition. Um within enrollment there's our prek, there's our K through 8, there's our high school enrollment services as well. Um and special education focus as well. The first thing is greeting our customers and our families that come in. Um I think the

157communication piece with our families is the biggest aspect when they come into the welcome center. making them feel welcomed and making them feel comfortable as they come into the welcome center. We have uh our our welcome center ambassador who is bilingual and can and and especially those with our Spanish speaking which is our highest population of um second languages that we encounter here in the welcome center. all of our enrollment services. So, school choice and enrollment educators can also be serviced here depending on what their needs are, if it's benefits or payroll related. Our buzz office is here to address concerns um help our parents connect with resources in our families and advocate in that way and be a connection to the school and particular departments um for our families. Ensure the goal is always

158getting them to the right first point of contact. So, typically a family will come to the welcome center for multiple reasons, but if they're coming for the unbuds office, they're coming because there was a situation at the school where um there may have been a concern and they feel as though the concern was not resolved or they were not happy with the results of the concern. And so they will visit the unbuds office and we will serve as that impartial place, a safe place where they can provide their concerns to us. We have a new platform called Let's Talk and it's basically um on our website. You can find it on any school website on our homepage. They fill out a form. Great thing about Let's Talk is if they have a concern and say

159for instance it may be about transportation but they want us. The beauty of that is that even though they want us, it will go directly to the appropriate person that should handle the situation. We are here we're here to get you connected to what you may need. Um again um we 8 8:30 to 4:30 a.m. first customer scene. We wrap up around 4:30 um to but we are here. We have um our staff can help you maneuver through by way of CMSD that we're getting uh you a resolve that we're getting you to the right first place and that at the end of all that that you can give us a thumbs up that we've served you served you well. Hi, I'm Dariel Snipes and I'm here at Orchard Steam School and today we'll be

160taking a look at the ribbon dancing team as they prepare to perform at a schoolwide event. >> And we are here with Felicia Kelly who is the 5C's coordinator and the ribbon dancers coach. And behind us we have the ribbon dancers. So, just tell me, how did you get this program started here at Orchard STEM? >> Well, I did a praise dance for my mom for Mother's Day, and I used a ribbon uh and I brought the ribbon in to demonstrate um part of what we call demonstration of learning. And I brought it in to the ribbon dance uh to the school. And the ribbon dancers that are now ribbon dancers loved it then and asked me, "Can we do the same thing?" And I said, "Of course." And so I brought um bought some

161ribbons and we started practicing and the team was created. >> But you have told me that it it has exploded. So many kids want to be a part of it now. So what is the age range of your ribbon dancers? >> So we have first grade all the way up to sixth grade. >> Nice. And so while dancing is beautiful, but you are here to instill life lessons into these kings and queens. Can you tell me about it? >> Yes, absolutely. and they will tell you my first my first rule of thumb is positive energy. I have it all over the media center here and they know that we are about uplifting each other, about encouraging each other, about helping each other. So those are kind of the life lessons that I'm trying to instill

162so that they don't just incorporate it here in the first grade, second grade, middle school, high school. These are lessons that I try to teach them for life. >> How to be kind to each other, how to treat each other, how to be sensitive to different situations that that might come up. >> So, this is a steam school. >> Yes. >> So, and even though you're doing dance, which is arts, which is part of steam, um you're also incorporating some other things. Can you talk about uh some of the things that you're trying to teach them as well when it comes to steam and dancing? >> Okay. So, um the t-shirts that they're wearing today, they actually help make we have um Cricut machines. We have Silhouette machines and transfer heat transfer paper to actually

163make the t-shirts so that the t-shirts that they're wearing, they're they made them. And also 3D machines. We have laser cutters. We have actually, if I you don't mind me stepping off camera a little bit, um we have the capability of making mugs and they helped to design their own um character on my mug and it says, "I love my ribbon dancers and each ribbon dancer picked out their design and we made this mug for me." >> Wonderful. I'm joined now with Mila and Paige. What grade are you in, Paige? >> Third. >> And what grade are you in? >> Six. >> And tell me, why did you guys want to join the ribbon dancers? so I can learn new things. >> What about you? >> U because I always wanted to dance in a

164in a group. So I always found passion for Miss Kelly's moves and that's why I joined Ribbon Dance. >> So besides dancing, what else have you learned? I know she talks about, you know, life lessons. So tell me what life lessons you have learned. >> I've learned to work with a team, not by yourself. And sometimes you just have to work together so you can make things happen, >> right? You're right. And what about you? What what what lesson have you learned? >> I learned how to collaborate with my team and um have teamwork and um when somebody's doing something to have to encourage them, >> right? And some of the collaboration you guys have done is you had the some art students paint this for you guys for your performance. just talk about how

165you like performing in front of others and showing uh your other students what you've learned and show the beautiful dances that you've learned. >> I enjoyed a lot because it's got me like not to be scared when people are watching. So I'm not shy anymore like I used to. And now I talk loud. I'm just loud all vibes. And when we perform, it makes me feel great because I show myself. >> Good morning. Good morning. >> Morning everyone. Good morning. No beefing. Hold that up. >> When the kids walk through the door, there's a personal relationship here. So immediately they have a connection with an adult as soon as they've entered the building. >> Typical day at James Ford Roads is being active with the kids, trying to be proactive with the kids before it

166becomes reactive. >> Sometimes we have to stop and counsel or assist a student that might be going through something when they came in this morning. I greet the students, make sure the hall is clear. Um, interact, ask them how their day was going. Walk through, interact with the parents, um, the community, the mail, um, mailman, the neighbors across the street. They familiar with me, on my side, I'm greeting with them. >> I try to walk around, try to help the kids. I'm not trying to police them as a security officer. Can't do that. You you try to help them in every way possible. And and and that's what I do. I'm a resource for them. going through the detectors in the long line. I hear them say, "Boy, if it wasn't for y'all doing that,

167this that and so they they really do like that detector, but just knowing that you in the halls and the students see that and and they see how I, you know, if they beep or they see how I go through their bags, I don't play." So, they feel safe. They be like, "Oh, they go Miss Campbell, Miss Campbell." When they fear something, they come straight, "Miss Miss Campbell, you know, so and so." And they I'll be like, "Okay, okay, okay." So that makes me feel that, you know, they see that I'm serious about my job. You know, >> I have noticed if we're referencing the phone collection, um, a lot of the students are interacting more with one another instead of just being stuck on their phones. They've started to build relationships with one another

168and do different things that we last year and the year before that we weren't actually noticing anymore. uh especially with how we do the yonder cases, bringing in securing book bags, making sure that um no items or weapons are brought into school. I think it makes students and scholars feel um much more comfortable, much more safe. When the kids come through, they understand there are necessary things that have to happen. But when the officers treat them in that way, like human beings, and make them feel special, they're not thinking so much about those things. They're thinking about the relationship they're building. It's the most important thing for everyone in a building is that relationship you have with kids. And if it's positive, usually you're going to get positive results. Not all the time, but more

169often than not, I would do it all over again for anybody. Hi, I'm Trisha Paige and I'm a first grade teacher at Andrew J. Rickoff. I had a couple students that were having lunch in the classroom with me that day. I was sitting at my table like here in the back of the room and um her back was toward me this way. >> So when I was eating my taco, I tried to dip my other one in the meat and cheese, but when when it went through when it went to my throat, I choked on it and >> she was choking and I she was making the choking. her hands were on her throat and there was no there was no sound whatsoever. Uh I got up, ran to her, told the other teacher to

170go run and get the nurse. Um she was sitting in her seat. So I >> when she told me to get out here, she like did this. >> I went underneath of her her armpits here. I picked her up. So I stood her up and they started doing the himlick on her and she was silent for a minute and it was it was really scary. I don't know who was more scared if she was more scared or if I was more scared. Um but eventually she started crying and making sound. >> She deserves a reward. Thank you for saving my life. >> You're welcome. And I would do it all over again. The wakeup cafe was created to um give the students real world experiences promoting communication, social and life skills and also to help

171the students gain independence and confidence. >> We're also helping our students build independence and prepare them for future vocational opportunities. We have students that leave us and go on to high school and when they get into a lot of our high school programs, they also have opportunities similar to this. And this prepares them to step into that role with some experience and some skills. Um the students empower themselves by gaining um pride and confidence through their roles. They are speaking up. They're supporting each other. They're problem solving. and um it's empowering to see them step into their leadership roles and show what they're capable of. >> I feel like coming to the Wake Up Cafe, we're able to see um the um capabilities of autistic individuals and it helps to support um inclusiveness. >> It's

172a really great way to break down misconceptions and celebrate what's possible on the second level. This year competition is water theme based. How the competition goes is there's there's a reef and of course um if you see on the theme they're like these the purple you know it it looks like a reef. Um and then we have the coral. The coral is basically like this like a white it like a white pipe. And then the algae is a ball. And basically to score points, your robot has to have to put algae onto the reach. Each alliance three separate robotic teams. So it would be us and two different robotics teams that are just randomly picked to work with us. Usually before a match, um we'll meet up with those two other robotics teams and we'll

173talk to them about uh strategy and what their robot can do and what ours can do. And usually we work together to kind of um figure out the best game plan. >> There's a autonomous point, autonomous ranking point, which is all three robots move off of a starting line and then at least one robot scores one coral anywhere on the reef. To build the robot, it takes like the whole team, which is about 20 people. And then we need people to program the robot, people to wire the robot. But once we have it all built and on the field, we only need one person to control the drive and one person to control the elevator and score. We also have a third person who tells them what to do and looks at the whole field

174and is in charge of strategy. Uh the main challenge was just building the robot overall. It took about 10 weeks to build. It took a lot of teamwork and cooperation to build such a beautiful machine. And it also helped us learn new machines that normal high schoolers have hasn't used before, including mills, CNC machines, long uh long drills, and just all kinds of different things. >> This is actually one of the biggest competitions here in Ohio, and it's very diverse. So, we'll be competing against what a top competition is. the this season, this is our last uh regional. So, we participated in Miami Valley and this will be our last uh for this season. Our goal is to go home with a blue banner. >> I've noticed um observing the students mental health is very

175important for the safety of the staff as well as everyone in the building. A lot of our students feel comfortable talking to staff. Many staff members uh just kind of serve as a uh just a listener. Um and they counsel where they can. >> I've been with the district for almost a year now. So I know mostly everybody names now. Everybody know my name. So me engaging with the kids, I'm just like a older sister to them. They come to talk to me about anything. And then we all been young before, so we know how it go. just just talking to the scholars, just asking them questions. Just something simple as how is their day going? How are they feeling? Um even simple as asking them how they ate in the morning. Just trying to

176keep that open line of communication with them. Building a level of trust. And so safety at school definitely matters. Safety in route home from school also matters as well because if where students are concerned about that, the closer you get to that time, um that's where the attention is going to be. even when they're sitting in the classroom. >> If the kids don't feel safe, if the climate and culture for them is not safe, then they're not going to be engaged and they're not going to perform well on their test. And so, we don't want them to be in that situation. So, we want them to know that we are here for you to support you in a mental capacity. And if if you feel safe coming to school, then it should produce some great

177results when you take uh when you get into your academics into your testing. That's my first priority to make sure not only the kids feel safe, the um staff feel safe, parents feel safe when they come in this building. That's just how I am. I welcome everybody. I just put their shoes in my shoes. Just like if my son in school, I would want him to feel safe while he there. So while I'm here, I want these kids to feel safe. Would you please go ahead and rewrite the numbers in your notebook so you have them? 15. I wanted to make sure that my students used education as a powerful tool not just to get smart but to um change their environment. I have always believed in constructivist knowledge. So instead of me just giving

178kids information and then soaking it in, we've seen that that doesn't work um with students very well. I have given them the tools to construct their learning. They're they're standing at the boards, they're talking to each other, they're coming up with more than one way to solve a problem. Um and I think that helps with the different learning styles because they're not just sitting reading and writing. They're they're verbally communicating. They're talking to other people. they're collaborating not only with their team, but they can go check their answers at another board if they need to. So those things are included in those different learning styles. So I do try to do like weekly rewards where I acknowledge kids who've done everything that they're supposed to. And so kids who complete all of their tasks, they

179are recognized and every day I'll do a shout out for kids who've been on their agame in terms of behavior or in terms of just trying their their best. And a lot of times I'll just pull them aside and just say, "I'm really proud of what you've done in class." and just sort of give them benchmarks and goals to work towards. Solving problems is just what we do as humans outside of the classroom. So if you can be resilient and know that like maybe you didn't get it right the first time, you go back and you fix it. So even with their bell work, I'll say if you don't like the grade, I put a comment, go back and fix it. If you don't like your answer, go back and fix it. Redo things. So

180building up knowing that just because you didn't do well the first time, that's not failure. That's a it's like evolving. It's an iteration of where you are and go back and just become stronger and better. And don't look at not doing well the first time as failure. I see pair of professionals making a difference every single day the minute they walk in the door with smiles on their face. They're the first people here greeting our scholars, always offering a friendly hello, um hands-on work with these kids all day long. >> And they just want want all of our students to succeed and enjoy school. My talent is observing and then applying. So a lot of times in the beginning of the school year, I would observe more, see what they like, see what interests them

181or seeing what methods help them calm down or get them to actually learn like whether it's um occupational learning or academically learning. listening, being patient, being focused on what the children have to say and responding back to them. There's like a lot of things I didn't know like from different cultures. Like I've been learning a lot from them. Like there's a lot of things I don't even know from uh other countries that I've been learning. Every single day I'm learning something with them. >> It just feels really good to be part of a team and you never know. Like I said, you might be doing one thing one day and one thing the next, but it all ends up being part of the like it takes a village kind of outlook and it just feels

182good to be part of a team. >> Thank you, Paris. Thank you, Paris. >> Thank you, Paris. I love you. >> My name is Barbara Davis, and I am the secretary here at Stephanie Tubs Jones School. I grew up where the original Superman story was born. It inspired me because Superman is something that is not only big for Cleveland, but inspiration behind the creation of his character really brought inspiration to me in creating my characters. So my goal is to bring awareness to bullying amongst the youth because I also was bullied when I was a child as well. When I grew up, I didn't have any superheroes that look like me. And I looked around for them, but I couldn't find them. So, I figure I can create them. My girls teleport around the world

183and fight against bullying mentally with the help of Serenity. I think it's pretty cool that I am able to still carry on a legacy that was built in Cleveland, Ohio based off of Superman. And me being able to build hopefully the first triplet superheroes in Cleveland, starting from the place where Superman was created is actually a big deal for me. And I'm pretty sure it's a big deal for our community for the kids to be able to see superheroes that look just like them. Let's go. When I say food is, you say medicine. FOOD IS >> MEDICINE. >> FOOD IS GIVE IT UP. Y. >> SO, WHAT WE HAVE GOING on here today is a meet the farmer event. Um, so we have this year partnered with four Cleveland growers um that grow the vegetables

184that are on the salad bars that are in our in some of our schools. And the students can meet the farmer. Today we have farmer Sarah and farmer Jamal and they get to meet the farmer that grows their food. they can ask them questions. We have trading cards um and the students get to try the produce items that they that the farmers grow and it just encourages them to try something new to eat fresh vegetables and um they can meet the farmer and then they get to vote on if they like the produce item or not and they get fun stickers and we have um what if they write on the board of what they like about the product. this is uh one of the youngest demographics that we can have an influence on. And

185when you're talking about school lunches, this is food that they're going to be eating daily uh for more for the majority of the year, right? And so to be able to introduce local foods on a daily basis to students within the Cleveland area is just evolutionary. We're talking about the benefits of fresh foods and also the difference between local fresh foods and those you might get, say, at a grocery store that might have been shipped from all over the country or world to get to your plate, often picked months and months earlier and don't have the same level of nutrition or flavor. So, giving them that experience of eating something that was grown locally and why that's so important and why it's so important to grow your own food. >> It was kind of sour.

186It was sour and that was my first time ever trying that. But it had a pretty color. >> One of our students, they did something special for someone in the community. And so we get all these people here to celebrate and to recognize what Allison did for someone in her community. >> That morning while boarding the school bus, you noticed a small child wandering alone on the street wearing only a t-shirt. Recognizing the danger the child was in, you immediately alerted the bus driver and took action to help. I want to give you a first district commander coin. Uh it's got a a one on the front for uh the first district and the seal of the Cleveland divisional police on the back. >> And I saw a little girl walk out and the bus

187driver is about to hit her. >> And so what did you say to the bus driver? >> I was like, "Stop." And then he tell me, "Who is that? It's like your niece." I was like, "No, that's not my niece." And just so then I went off the bus to go grab her. >> It shows a a great deal of awareness and maturity for her age. Most kids, like you say, they're on the bus, they're talking, they're on their phone, you know, and the fact that she noticed she paid attention, you know, to what was going on at that particular time is just, you know, amazing. I I think it's very important because, you know, we're a community. We work together. We help each other and that's how we get things done. And she's already

188doing that. Children can teach us a lot. And I think she did. Be aware. Look around. Help people when you see them in need. >> I don't really care about the gifts because it was just the point to save somebody, anybody that need help. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District School Choice Portal is now open for families to select the school that best fits their scholars needs. The portal will remain open until February 27th, 2026. To begin, go to choosecmsd.org and click the school chores portal. Log in using your credentials. If you don't have an account, you will need to create one using your email address and phone number. You can also change the language on the site. On the welcoming page, your scholar's name should appear. Now, if it does not, click get started and

189add their information. You will need the scholar's 9-digit school ID number, which can be found on the report card along with their full name as it appears on the report card. You will also need their date of birth and address. When you are done, hit save and continue. On the next page, families impacted by the Building Brighter Futures initiative will first see a page informing them of the seat reserved at the designated welcoming school. The welcoming school name will appear grayed out. You will then choose one of two options. I want my student to attend the designated welcoming school or I want to apply to other schools. If you accept the welcoming school, the next question will ask about siblings. If there are siblings, add their information to ensure they can attend the same school

190if you choose. Next is school selection. Click the box for your welcoming school to confirm it is your first and only choice. You will then confirm that choice. If you don't want to accept the welcoming school, click I want to apply to other schools. Your child will have priority seating at other schools if space is available. On the school selection page, you can view a map and search by school name or distance to find a school best suited for your child. You may select up to five schools and rank them in order of preference. This process is the same for eighth grade families choosing a high school for next year. After ranking your choices, confirm them. You will also need to submit digital signatures for both the caregiver and scholar. You'll review your choices and

191then submit your application. Please note, once you submit your application, you cannot make any changes online. If you need to make changes or have questions about the process, contact the Office of School Choice and Enrollment at 216838-3675. If you are unsure about your choice at this time, you can save your application until you are ready to submit. School assignments will be announced the week of March 30th. Scholars at colllocated high schools do not need to make a choice unless they want to explore other options for the 2026 27th school year. Now is the time to choose the best path for your scholar's future. Visit chcmsd.org today and make your selection before February 27th. Your choice, your school, your future. Together, we're building brighter futures. Looking for the right school for your child? CMSD SchoolFinder makes

192it easy. Here's how to explore your options. With the CMSD Schoolinder, you search by interest or location. There is an interactive map displaying all the schools in the district. You can view each school's profile and even compare schools. Want to narrow it down? Use the filters to search by grade level, programs, career pathways, and sports offered at each school. And here's the best part. Type in your home address and instantly you'll see the schools closest to you. Plus, you can see the distance a school is to your home to determine if transportation will be available to your scholar. It's simple, fast, and designed to help families make confident choices. So, go ahead, explore, compare, and find the school that feels like home. Your child's future starts here. Hi, I'm Dariel Snipes with CMSD Communications. Today

193I am so excited. I am hanging out with two of the Senate League girls flag football teams, John Haye and Roads. This sport is gaining popularity. Right now CMSD has seven teams. I'm so excited to learn more about flag football. Let's go. Joining me now is head coach of the John Haye Ladies Flag Football Team, Coach Vanetta Krider. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> So, I know this is an exciting sport. It's a growing sport. It just got sanctioned by the Ohio High School Athletic Association. That's exciting news. So, now your girls can go for state championships. But, you know, some of us were brand new to flag football. Tell me what is the difference between flag football and just basic football? >> The difference for flag football and basic football for our girls is that

194we actually get to compete this year um outside of only using flags and not be able to contact each other and we have to wear mouthpieces. >> Okay. But just just talk about the growing popularity of this girl sport and how exciting is especially here in CMSD and the Senate league. >> Yes. Right now it means that girls flag football is now recognized by OSHA. So now we get more opportunities to get school funding. Um so luckily we are division one school. So we had about 40 girls that come and try out. So this year we're expecting even more. >> I mean what do you think about that that more girls want to play football? >> I'm excited. I'm excited to teach them and for them to want to be competitive and lead and be

195outside their comfort zone. The fact that it's, you know, when people think about football, they think about it as a male-dominated sport. The fact that flag football, especially girls flag football, is taking off, it gives young ladies an opportunity to play a what's once was known as a male-dominated sport. Can you just talk about that opportunity for them? >> Yes. So, now it gives the girls a platform to compete and lead. And we're breaking stereotypes and proving that football isn't just for boys. Anybody can play as long as you got the passion and the skill for it. And joining me now are two players from the girls flag football team at roads. Welcome. Tell me your names and what grade you're in. >> I'm Aaliyah. I go to Rose Environmental Studies and I'm in 10th

196grade. >> My name is Nia. I go to RCCA and I'm in 10th grade. >> Wonderful. So just tell me because I just I don't know. I'm learning. What is the difference between flag football and football? >> Well, flag football and um regular football we already know it's like it's not as much contact, but there's a lot you can do. like the quarterback can't run. The ball is smaller, less people on the field, so it gives and flag is um it's quick. It's quick. It's not like football. Football you have more time. Flag is quick and you have like less time. >> Okay. And then you also have the flags. How hard or easy is it to get another opponent's flag? >> It depends on how fast the person is moving. >> Yeah. Yeah. >>

197And what moves they're pulling out. But usually if you're up like if you're catching up to the person, it's very easy. They're not hard to pull or nothing. So >> So tell me, why did you guys want to join the team? >> Well, I wanted to join the team because ever since I was like very young, I always played regular football with my brothers. And when I got older, it was like like it was something I always wanted to do. And like 20 23, I played flag football with boys, but then I got scouted for a um girls team and we went all the way to nationals in Las Vegas and won a championship ring there. And then when I came here, there was no flag football team. So I asked if I could play

198tackle, but my mom would have let me. And then I found out later on we had a flag football team and I was like, "Oh, this is my sport. So I'm definitely going to play." >> Also feel like a sport that was really made for boys that girls never really got the opportunity to play. When I saw it at Rose, I feel like a sport that was always always classified as like a boy sport being like girls being able to play. I feel like that was really cool. So I really wanted to take that opportunity to play. And also, Coach, I know she really inspired me to play. She was the assistant basketball coach and it really gave me something to do and now it's something I really would do the rest of my years

199in high school and see where it takes me. >> Right. So this this is the second season for the team. Um just talk about how fun it is and just the team camaraderie that you ladies have. >> Oh, it's very fun. Like in the first year it was some rough patches but we always got through it. our coach, she's a very great coach because she is like more informational >> about flag football than basketball. So when she um is out here, she put her hearts on the um field just like we do. >> Yeah. Coach O'Neal, she really great. She keep us all lifted up like something could go wrong and she was always bring the joy. It was like our first year was really fun. We went real far and just seeing where it

200took us, it made me excited for the next season to come like what we going to bring to the table and flag like I didn't expect it to be like I thought it was just going to be something to do but act when we actually started playing I'm like this fun like >> now another difference is that flag football is played in the spring and not in the fall like regular football. >> Um well can you just talk about the fact that now it is a sanctioned sport and so now you guys can go for a state championship. just talk about you guys could be the state champs. >> That's very exciting to me cuz like I said, I always love football in general. So, for me to have this opportunity to probably get scholarships

201to play in college is just like something I want to achieve. I think that's really good. Like it gives opens up more opportunities for the girls and gives girls something to do because we always as a girl we always like doubt it or we don't always get as much opportunity. So, it just opens the door for girls sport. Now, it looks it's still even though you guys don't have pads and a helmet, it's it still can be tough. I mean, it's still um >> I mean, it's still a contact sport, would you not say? >> Like, you're definitely going to fall off. You're definitely going to >> bump, >> but it's fun. >> Yes, it's very exciting. >> All right. Well, thank you ladies. What you see before you is a culmination of two and

202a half years of work. But moreover, it was 86 years of blood, sweat, and tears put forth by men and women who comprise the Tuskegee experiment. Let history show that in the course of human endeavor that never have so many owed so much to so few. My first reaction was it looked a lot better than I than I did it in class. It took a lot and it's just I'm proud to see that it's up there and I'm glad everyone else can see it too. I think it's the good that the Tuskegee Airmen get their word out and their faces out because they helped this world and I'm glad that I was able to help them represent it. I seen everyone do their painting in class. I've seen like their entire process through it and

203now looking at it inside the airport, it's like, "Wow, they did that. That's amazing." >> My name is Lori Lane and this is my father, Earl Rosco Lane. He was with the 332nd of the Tuskegee Airman. I think they did a fantastic job in doing it. I know I when I was speaking to a group of them. um they said they did a lot of research on it, but they were still open to listening and to learning more so that we have more young people that are able to display their talent, learn, and it's one as a teacher, I know it's one of the greatest ways for students to learn and this will stay with them for the rest of their lives. >> I'm very happy today because I am sharing the CEO seat uh

204with a very amazing young scholar. Uh she attends A Heart and she's in seventh grade over there. This is Victorious. She goes by Tori Blackman and she's CEO for the day. So, CEO Blackman. Yes. Let's give her a hand. I have been going to meetings and hanging out with some of the high schoolers and thinking about what high school I want to go to and just having fun with them. >> To be a leader, you have to step in. It takes boldness. It takes not being afraid. And uh so far Tori has been uh stepping up to the plate and showing that. Having a a scholar with me has been amazing. And uh I mean she was at the table earlier today with some of uh Cleveland's you know top leaders and just being right

205at the table just means a lot to have that that seat at the table. And so um you know and to be a uh a young uh scholar, young lady of color uh that just means a lot when we think about representation. So today we started on our robots. Well, we started our robots like two days ago, but today we added like our finishing touches and we made them waterproof with pool noodles. We attached motors to them with wax in it. So it is it's waterproofed and those motors spin at a very high speed. So it can propel itself through the water and able to um do its tasks. It's so cool because usually robots are like on surface, right? This time it's underwater which makes it harder to see but more funner because like

206you don't know what's going to happen. >> The machine itself you can program it first from your computer once you like uh access it says it via Bluetooth. It basically you can control it from there and automate it wherever program you want to set it at a specific time. Experiencing all of this I've actually had a lot of fun being able to come up here and um just learn about a machine and um I've personally been part of a robotics team. So being able to experience a machine uh automating other stuff like agriculture is a really good experience. I had a lot of fun. >> So I just got to Cleveland. >> I just wanted to come out and see y'all. We working out every day. Uh we got a purpose. We got something we

207trying to accomplish and achieve. But I'm trying to bring Cleveland, of course, a Super Bowl. What inspires me to keep going? I would say um knowing I I got a lot of people watching me, knowing that I'm a positive influence uh to the youth, that's what I say what keeps me going. So like even coming here seeing y'all, >> you go to the website, you type in the access code and you're in. Your kids pictures are there and you could easily I have a kids at two different schools. You can easily switch from school to school and keep up on top of it. >> Everything's right there. Like everybody always has their phone with them, so you can easily access it to your phone. >> It's a relief for me knowing that my child has

208the best chance that they can knowing every day they wake up, they can go to school and, you know, take advantage of the day. The winner of the first annual rise pitch competition is, drum roll please, RIVERSIDE. >> Rise was birthed out of an opportunity that we thought was very very important for us to be able to give students opportunity to have their voices centered. So we asked them a question. The question is, if you could solve a problem in your community with unlimited resources, how would you do it? >> I'm 13 years old in a seventh grade at Ammyra Elementary and our group is excited to be here today to share our opportunity for action. I feel like that our gaming lab will help a lot of students because of these new technology industries

209that are coming from these foreign countries which can excel our students and improvise them and get them set for life. As a basketball player myself, sports helped me with a lot of teamwork, leadership, and even helped me with my mental health. So, for me, I'm just asking, can we get more opportunities for sports all around us of the school year? >> We also wanted to make sure our ideas weren't just meaningful, but doable. We're excited to introduce a few things we think that can make Riverside better right away. >> Our goal is to think big for our classmates, our teachers, and our whole school. Congratulations and I hope that you have an amazing class. Today we have the ceremony award of the seal of bi literacy. Uh we have students who took the stamp test

210this year and they got uh the seal of bi literacy to from different uh languages. >> I speak multiple languages well two actually Spanish and English. I'm excited that I earned this because I know it will bring a lot of opportunities for me in the future. So, I'm very proud. >> The seal of bi literacy is one of the seals that students could earn upon graduation and that it gives them certification for being not only bilingual and they can speak two languages but they can also read and write both languages and it's grown tremendously. It's a very very important um skill set that they will be uh transferring into the real world as they become adults and they go not only to college but also to the workforce, the military and it also hits a

211lot of our goals um for college and career readiness. My name is Enida Torres and I am the welcome center ambassador and the executive secretary. It's an important resource for our families in the community um because there are some resources that you can't families can't get from the school. Some of the common questions and concerns could be anything from payroll, it can be from benefits. Um we also um have folks that come in that are just recently retirees. Um so we get an array of services that come in. Our families specifically um consider them our frontline front-facing services in in much of our enrollment. um be it student transfer um transcripts related or um to talk through issues or concerns that our families feel may have not been um addressed properly at the school or

212or those type of things. We have project ACT which is also here um for our homeless population and our students and our families who are in transition. Um within enrollment there's our prek, there's our K through 8, there's our high school enrollment services as well. um and special education focus as well. >> The first thing is greeting our customers and our families that come in. Um I think the communication piece with our families is the biggest aspect when they come into the welcome center. Making them feel welcomed and making them feel comfortable as they come into the welcome center. We have uh our our welcome center ambassador who is bilingual and can and and especially those with our Spanish speaking which is our highest population of um second languages that we encounter here in the

213welcome center. All of our enrollment services so school choice and enrollment educators can also be serviced here depending on what their needs are if it's benefits or payroll related. Our buzz office is here to address concerns um help our parents connect with resources and our families and advocate in that way and be a connection to the school and particular departments um for our families. And sure the goal is always getting them to the right first point of contact. So typically a family will come to the welcome center for multiple reasons. But if they're coming for the unbuds office, they're coming because there was a situation at the school where um there may have been a concern and they feel as though the concern was not resolved or they were not happy with the results of

214the concern. And so they will visit the unbuds office and we will serve as that impartial place, a safe place where they can provide their concerns to us. We have a new platform called Let's Talk and it's basically um on our website. You can find it on any school website on our homepage. They fill out a form. Great thing about Let's Talk is if they have a concern and say for instance it may be about transportation but they want us. The beauty of that is that even though they want us, it will go directly to the appropriate person that should handle the situation. We are here. We're here to get you connected to what you may need. Um again, um we 8 8:30 to 4:30 a.m. first customer scene. We wrap up around 4:30 um

215to but we are here. we have um our staff can help you maneuver through by way of CMSD that we're getting uh you a resolve that we're getting you to the right first place and that at the end of all that that you can give us a thumbs up that we've served you served you well. Hi, I'm Dariel Snipes and I'm here at Orchard Steam School and today we'll be taking a look at the ribbon dancing team as they prepare to perform at a schoolwide event. >> And we are here with Felicia Kelly who is the 5C's coordinator and the ribbon dancers coach. And behind us we have the ribbon dancers. So, just tell me, how did you get this program started here at Orchard STEM? >> Well, I did a praise dance for my

216mom for Mother's Day and I used a ribbon uh and I brought the ribbon in to demonstrate um part of what we call demonstration of learning. And I brought it in to the ribbon dance uh to the school and the ribbon dancers that are now ribbon dancers loved it then and asked me, "Can we do the same thing?" And I said, "Of course." And so I brought um bought some ribbons and we started practicing and the team was created. >> But you have told me that it it has exploded. So many kids want to be a part of it now. So what is the age range of your ribbon dancers? >> So we have first grade all the way up to sixth grade. >> Nice. And so while dancing is beautiful, but you are here

217to instill life lessons into these kings and queens. Can you tell me about it? >> Yes, absolutely. and they will tell you my first my first rule of thumb is positive energy. I have it all over the media center here and they know that we are about uplifting each other, about encouraging each other, about helping each other. So those are kind of the life lessons that I'm trying to instill so that they don't just incorporate it here in the first grade, second grade, middle school, high school. These are lessons that I try to teach them for life. >> How to be kind to each other, how to treat each other, how to be sensitive to different situations that that might come up. >> So, this is a steam school. >> Yes. >> So, and even

218though you're doing dance, which is arts, which is part of steam, um you're also incorporating some other things. Can you talk about uh some of the things that you're trying to teach them as well when it comes to steam and dancing? >> Okay. So, um the t-shirts that they're wearing today, they actually help make we have um Cricut machines. We have Silhouette machines and transfer heat transfer paper to actually make the t-shirts so that the t-shirts that they're wearing, they're they made them. And also 3D machines. We have laser cutters. We have actually, if I don't, you don't mind me stepping off camera a little bit. Um, we have the capability of making mugs and they help to design their own um, character on my mug and it says, "I love my ribbon dancers." And

219each ribbon dancer picked out their design and we made this mug for me. >> Wonderful. I'm joined now with Mila and Paige. What grade are you in, Paige? >> Third. >> And what grade are you in? >> Six. >> And tell me, why did you guys want to join the ribbon dancers? >> So I can learn new things. >> What about you? Uh because I always wanted to dance in a in a group. So I always found passion for Miss Kelly's moves and that's why I joined Ribbon Dance. >> So besides dancing, what else have you learned? I know she talks about, you know, life lessons. So tell me what life lessons you have learned. >> I've learned to work with a team, not by yourself. And sometimes you just have to work together so

220you can make things happen. >> Right. You're right. And what about you? What what what lesson have you learned? >> I learned how to collaborate with my team and um have teamwork and um when somebody's doing something to have to encourage them, >> right? And some of the collaboration you guys have done is you had the some art students paint this for you guys for your performance. just talk about how you like performing in front of others and showing uh your other students what you've learned and show the beautiful dances that you've learned. >> I enjoyed a lot because it's got me like not to be scared when people are watching. So I'm not shy anymore like I used to. And now I talk loud. I'm just loud all vibes. And A motion to adjurnn

221this meeting.