001This work session of the board of education of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will come to order. Mr. Stockdale, please call the role. >> Miss Elicott, >> here. >> Mr. Phillips, >> here. >> Mr. Briggs, >> here. >> Miss Jones, >> here. >> Pastor Jones, >> here. >> Mrs. Lebron, >> here. >> Mrs. Mrs. Peak >> here. >> Dr. Shrear >> here. >> Mrs. Welchow >> here. >> There are nine 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. Mrs. Peak justice for all. Thank you. We'll start with our period of public participation. Uh
002usually the board has public participation at our board business meetings, but since we had to cancel our January 27th board business meeting due to inclement weather, we are providing public participation at this work session for those who originally signed up to speak at the Jan January 27th business meeting. and for others who signed up to speak since that meeting. Each speaker is invited to address the board for up to three minutes each. The timing the timer will be visible on the screen and we ask each speaker to respect this limit. If the timer goes off and you're mid-sentence, please finish your sentence and then we'll ask you to leave the podium for the next speaker. We'll start with Logan Gernaki. Logan Gaki, Nathaniel McKinnon, Zulea Luciano, Lori Czecho, Aretha Jackson. Keith McNeel, Joelle Bosque, Joel
003Bosque, Abigail Gulborn, Ferris Buer. All right, that concludes our period of public participation. This evening's consent agenda includes the minutes of the last board meeting, seven legal resolutions, one strategic operations resolution, three finance resolutions, one academic resolution, and four excellence and culture resolutions that were all originally on the consent agenda for the cancelled January 27th board business meeting and four legal resolutions on the consent agenda for this meeting. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda consisting of agenda items 4.02 through 10.04 as set forth in the board meeting agenda. >> So move >> second. >> Thank you. Mr. Sto, please call the role. >> Miss Elicott, >> yes. >> Mr. Phillips, >> yes. >> Mr. Briggs, >> yes. >> Miss Jones, >> yes. >> Pastor Jones, >> yes. >> Mrs.
004Lebron, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peak, >> yes. >> Dr. Swedar, >> yes. >> Mrs. Walchow, >> yes. >> The motion passes with nine votes. Thank you. The motion passes. The minutes are approved and the 20 resolutions are adopted. This evening's board meeting agenda also includes an additional 15 resolutions in the areas of finance, academics, operations, and excellence and culture, which the board will vote on as part of the consent agenda at our February 24th board business meeting. The board will now hold its monthly monitoring of goals and guard rails. Dr. Morgan, over to you. >> Thank you, Chair Elott. Uh before we get into our go go goals and guardrails and for uh this uh uh month we have the ones that we were supposed to do last time as well as the one we
005were doing um today. Uh we will be looking at uh chronic absenteeism. Uh we will also be looking at uh our freshman on track. So looking forward to diving into that. Um but uh uh some other areas we're going to do progress monitoring on. Uh before getting to our goals and guard rails, I'm going to bring up our our CFO who's going to uh give our budget uh report in terms of where we are for this month and then we're also going to do a update on where we are for building brighter futures before going into the goals and guard. So I'll bring up Chief Stockdale um to give an update on our finances. All right. Um the presentation tonight will be uh fairly brief and the reason behind that is that the four-year forecast
006time period has changed. So in the past I would come before you um in November and then again in May and that gave six months of time between the two forecasts and it also gave us uh basically all of the spending information for the year and uh property taxes are paid to us in two payments. So, we knew a lot about what was happening with revenue. Since we are now required to report this in uh the last time I brought it to you was September and October and now February. Short time period. Not a lot of information has changed. So, I'll move quickly. Um and uh the forecast has not changed very much, but of course happy to take any questions at the end. So, uh there are four major fund groups. We're really just
007talking about the general fund. When people think about their tax dollars that are locally received from the state and um local property taxes, this is really what they're thinking of. This is the one that we're required to report on uh twice a year to the state of Ohio. And it's by far the largest funding source. And so when we think about where the money comes from, a little bit less than half of it comes from local property taxes and also a little bit less than half from the state. These numbers are almost the same as um last fall when I presented this to you. Really, this is talking about the fact that it is a state and local partnership. Um I've previously also talked about the fact that we're a guaranteed district, which means state
008funding for us has decreased already due to the state's decisions not to increase costs over time. And um so we have seen a $16 million annual reduction in what we've received through the the core foundation formula which means that we have a very predictable revenue stream as long as the state keeps the current funding plan in place. Uh this chart is also uh very similar to the one that you previously saw but uh I think it's worth just every time I get an opportunity to talk to people to reiterate this fact which is that the state has uh historically and is continuing to shift the burden of educating the cost of educating students from the state to local taxpayers. So this dark bar uh dark blue bar, the navy bar is showing what the state
009uh share was in starting in 2024 all the way through 2029. And you can see a decrease every year during that time period and an assumed increase every year during that time period for local taxpayers. So um the state um share uh decreasing and the local share increasing. And then one of the areas that is particularly of concern to me and to a lot of my uh treasurer colleagues is disadvantaged people impact aid. Uh at the federal level you may hear about title one funding which is uh funding for uh students experiencing poverty. DPIA is the state's attempt to do something for students experiencing poverty. And uh the state has changed the formula over the years in a way that has dramatically hurt our school district. And I think it's it's worth noting and that
010uh you know we've not seen a decrease in the number of students experiencing poverty but uh our funding has decreased since 2023. >> Uh Dr. Morgan, what is that noise? >> That's my camera trying to do that as well. >> I think it was all the air coming out of the room from me talking. >> I was doing the same thing. >> Okay. If you could just speak up a little bit. >> Sure. Thank you. >> Give me the thumbs up or thumbs down. Is this okay? >> Great. >> All right. So, uh, also just to reiterate, the fair school funding plan is not keeping up with with costs. And so, there's an independent analysis of the state school funding plan which has said that during this year and next year, our district is underfunded
011by $157 million. So you think of the challenges that we're facing in the context of of that um opportunity from the state that they have not fulfilled. There are some there are some good news on the revenue front. So two things that I want to highlight for you. Uh the first is that uh we've previously brought to you the fact that our uh student population for special education transportation has increased over time and it's caused cost increases. But I've noted that we would in fact be able to uh seek reimbursement from the state for part of that cost. So we don't get full reimbursement, but we get about 68% reimbursement. Uh this year we've done a better job of of uh seeking that reimbursement and have gotten $7.4 million more. That uh shows up in
012the forecast as more revenue. And then the second bullet point is that in the funding formula this year uh there is a performance component for school districts that are high performing and uh under this uh requirement CMSD is a high performing school district and that's because we earned uh at least four stars on the progress rating um in any of the previous two years. So uh we're receiving $1.6 $6 million more per year that we previously did not and um we will receive that as well next year and then we'll have to see what the state does in the future for how the formula works. On the expenses side, uh we have the the the same challenges that all of my colleagues uh experience which is that the um you know compensation especially health insurance
013is very difficult. It's growing very quickly and for us it's 79% of our expenses is personnel as it should be but uh it's a challenge. So we're seeing inflationary increases basically across all categories. No changes to the assumptions there. Um and then we have continued to attack this smaller area which is the non-saries the non-personnel side of things and we've reduced that in the last few years substantially. So the forecast um is slightly better um and I've showed this to a few people and the the response was well you know that's great there we are seeing better numbers in out years and we are um very very very small changes like well under 1%. Um we're not going in the opposite direction. Um but we continue to have annual deficits um which is that net
014revenues deficit line that we're projecting starting this year and carrying forward which points back to the need to do the cost savings measures that we're already working on and that we are uh looking to accelerate next year. Um, but the good news is here that we meet state requirements for fiscal oversight or for not having fiscal oversight for the time being. And we know that we have additional cuts to make with building brighter futures going into next year. And really, you know, think about this that in the fall I'm going to be presenting this forecast to you and we will be looking at FY29 as the time period we have to have a positive cash balance. So you're seeing still a negative number there. So there's still more work to be done which uh we're
015prepared to bring to the board in the coming months as we complete our school and central office budgeting process. So again, very small changes in the uh cash balance over time. And then a few key takeaways. Um one that I really want to talk about for a second is number four, uh because we're getting more information about this. So, our peer districts are going through the same thing that we're going through. Akran and Toledo are both uh they both qualified for state fiscal oversight. Uh Toledo actually would be out of money uh a year from now. Akran a little further out, but they're going through really substantial cuts. Uh Toledo is talking about potentially uh decreasing the school week to 4 days. Uh, city of Columbus has announced uh at least $50 million a year
016in budget cuts, which includes cuts to transportation and the city of Cincinnati is uh going through a budget cut process themselves as well. So, uh it's not uh it's it's not great, you know, it's this is what we're all going through and it's the hard work. So, um wanted to highlight that and happy to answer any questions I can. Is >> there any discussion from board members? Dr. Shrear. U thank you Mr. Stocktail. Thank you madam chair. Um so two I have two questions. Well one is an observation and the other one is a question. Um let me ask the question first. If you go back to our um the the four-year forecast slide. Um so just to just to clarify the the 35 million savings target that you have in FY27 that is still
017just a target at this point. you have you have not yet constructed a budget that realizes that saving. Is that correct? >> That's correct. And uh it is our intention to bring to you the budget. Um we're required by June we will bring it uh either May or June. >> Right. So, so that that I I just want to point out to everybody listening that that's when we say 35 million on that line that is that is what you have to you have to achieve in order for the rest of those numbers to um uh to line up. That's correct. And if I can add on to that, um, so what I was talking about with FY29 when we talk about 35 million, that is a starting point. >> Correct. Really, we have to go
018further than that in order to not go back into state fiscal precaution in the fall. >> Right. And and I'm I'm also noting the the the asterisk mark down there below which talks about no further collectively bargained wages adjustments. So that means that that gap is going to increase even further. Quite possible. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Um, so I want to go to the slide where you're comparing with other districts. Um, and and this is, you know, um, the if you go a couple slides ahead where you have, um, >> I I think that's in the online version and it's not in this version, but >> Oh, I see. Um, >> I can speak to it. >> Yeah. So, so the the um the the the cash balance um so when you talk about the
019the cash balance um that that we have in um in Cleveland uh compared to uh to the other districts um you know and and the and the Toledo number in particular is is harsh scary >> right um so can you speak a little bit about what what that means from an operational perspective what does the cash balance mean um you know I I've asked you questions before and you know you patiently explain to me what that what that line um above that line and below the line means. Can you explain um to to the board as well as to the public what that cash balance number actually means? >> The cash balance is exactly like your home checking and savings account balance. So it's making sure that you can pay your bills. Um that in
020our circumstance it's making sure that we can pay our employees and that we can play pay our vendors. And uh the challenge for school districts uh and I talked about this earlier is that we receive property taxes two times a year. So if you think about 44% of our general fund coming from local property taxes and we only get it two times a year, we have to keep a cash balance because our our cash flows vary quite a bit. So, um, when we think about minimum cash balance policies, um, you know, a lot of districts set two months as their minimum based on that. And so, you can see that we're right there right now. And, uh, if we don't take further action, it will it will decrease over time. And so, we do need
021to be aggressive in order to preserve that so that we can, you know, keep the operations going. >> Mr. Phillips. >> Thank you. Uh, Chair Elott, I just got one question on slide seven. Um, and I I'm just trying to make sure I understand or see it clearly. On the graph, it kind of in my thinking indicate uh slide uh seven. >> Um, >> I can't see the numbers. I'm sorry. >> My bad. Um, >> is it the uh the four-year forecast chart? N it's the state shifting funding. Okay. Thank you. >> That one. I'm sorry. Um it kind of appears that the state funding will bottom out just from looking at that chart. Would that be wrong to look at it that way? So um the reason it's doing that and this is uh
022this is an analysis that is done statewide. And so I'm using this because this is consistent with what the um every district would look at for base costs. Uh I'm going to try to explain this in a way that makes sense because it's state school funding. So it, you know, just can't make sense. But the state is not assuming in their funding formula that the cost to educate students increases from this fiscal year until 29. So really all that's happening is that they're expecting us to pay more and more and more. So the real picture is worse than this because we know of course that the cost to educate kids is increasing because of all the things we have to do but also because you know employment costs increase. And so um yeah the state
023amount is decreasing and it's it's flattening out. And then the other side of that is that that our contribution is probably actually higher. what what we needed. >> That that was what I was kind of worrying about. And I I was also kind of thinking about you just kind of answered it, but does it take into account the potential rising cost? I I assume that the cost to educate a student rises over time. >> Yeah. >> So, I was just wondering if it took that into account. >> No. Again, the the state made a decision in uh 26 that they would continue to fund us based on costs, and these are really costs from three or four years ago, a cost set. So, we're going to be going on several years without an increase from
024the state um for the same student. >> Thank you. Um I just have a comment, you know, with relating to this slide around shifting responsibility to the district. Um, obviously we don't charge our students to go to our schools. So that means tax levies. Um, and you know the what you mentioned about some of the other districts with cutting school days, cutting transportation. It's really shifting costs onto families, right? So um there's a property taxes, but then there's also child care costs if your kids not in school and you're working and then there's costs of fuel and getting your children to school. So, um, this is really alarming to to see and to hear about. And, you know, I know that we've got a pretty engaged community here in Cleveland in some ways. and some
025way and sometimes it is by engaging with us about our decisions. But, you know, I'd love to see and think about how the community can advocate at the state level as well because the problems that we are facing are really at the state level through these funding challenges, right? Um, so I appreciate you shining a spotlight on that through this presentation. >> Absolutely. >> All right, Dr. Morgan. >> All right. Well, the next uh presentation actually I'm going to do the goals and guardrails. So, looking at chronic absenteeism as well as our and uh chief stock, if you can give me the clicker uh uh as well as uh freshman on track. Uh so, if our academics team can transition and then we'll go into our building brighter futures updates. I'll also be remiss uh
026I know this is our first board meeting in February. Happy Black History Month to everyone. Uh very, uh happy to be celebrating that all month. uh as well as we ended uh January with board appreciation month, but we're extending that throughout this month uh because uh uh the the snow did not allow us in our last meeting to do that. So looking forward to uh this month not only celebrating Black History Month, but the continued celebration of our board members and their contributions. Um so where we are with our goals and this is the midpoint of the year when really some of the data is coming in and we're starting to see how the year is shaping up. Uh today I'll be talking about chronic absenteeism and um also our our freshmen on track just
027seeing where we are mid way through the semester. We are starting to get some of our academic data uh back and I'll be really excited to share with the board some of the progress uh that our academics team has been doing and some of the progress our scholars have been doing um uh that the academic data has been promising and I think that's coming up in one of our meetings where we'll be talking about our ELA and math progress. Um but for today um chronic absenteeism isn't a direct goal that uh we are charged with. It is one of the CEO measures that we look at under our goal of looking at proficiency. So when we're looking at goal one which is a charge really around early literacy proficiency. Um we have uh we have
028chosen this the the grade levels of K3 to think about if that's the grade levels we're tracking for looking at early literacy. We want to make sure that we're getting them into schools. As a district, we have historically struggled with chronic absenteeism. So, if students are not coming to school, how can they learn at high levels? So, we felt that this was really important to look at. Uh, and then also for goal two, when we're looking at uh the proficiency uh of algebra 1, which is our math goal, um, and looking at nth graders, we know nth grade is a huge area. I think it was our area that had the highest chronic absenteeism rate last year. And so uh we are focusing in on these areas and we want to share with you progress.
029Um so I always want to look meta in terms of where we are in the district. There are some interventions we've taken this year. One moving uh attendance to be uh closely aligned with academics and schools everything that is touching our students. So we've moved uh the supervision of where attendance is this year. And uh even though there are still areas we are struggling with as you'll see when it comes to chronic absenteeism uh we have uh slowed the rate down in terms of the decline and are pretty flat when looking at both the absenteeism district-wide of our system um or attendance rate uh districtwide as well as the chronic absenteeism. So it's pretty flat from where we were this year. Uh and there's still mitigating factors even though uh we are in year and
030it usually gets more challenging as the year increases. uh we are not taking our foot off the gas and there's still mitigating factors that we're looking at to ensure that we finish the year strong. Uh this was an area we lost uh points on our report card this year. And so even though we have uh focus areas we're looking at for our board goals and guardrails in the K3 and the nth grade space, we are looking at where we are districtwide and hope to gain some ground here. Um so first looking at the CEO measure of chronic absenteeism and K3. Um, so currently 48.8% of our K3 students have been absent 10% or more year to date. This is a grade level that the chronic absenteeism rate has gone up. So when we talk about
031chronic absenteeism, chronic absenteeism going up, that is not an area we want to go up. This is something we want to go down. Uh, and so this is an area uh right now it's showing that this particular grade band is going up. Uh we're up about 4.5% from where we were last year uh at this point in the year. And just knowing um uh not not 4.5 uh we are up about two point um two percentage points up. But knowing that uh we increased about 4.5 in previous years from now through the end of the year. If we continue on that historic trend we would be off track. So this is one that will be off track. I'll do a deeper dive in a moment when looking at the data and some of the other
032mitigating factors we're looking into. Uh so a deeper dive into the data when looking at the 23 and 24 school year and the 2425 school year. So uh the last uh the previous two years and looking at our uh uh kindergarten through third graders uh we increased eight percentage points in terms of chronic absenteeism. And when we're talking about an increase in chronic absentism, that's not good. We want that to go down. So in those two uh two years we increased about 8 percentage points um from November uh to this point in the the school year. This year the team has worked really hard to put some strategies and we actually slowed that down a little bit. So it was eight points in the the previous years. This year it's only 6%. Even for this
033grade band that we're looking at that is um higher uh has higher chronic absenteeism. So that is a promising sign that some of the strategies and interventions that the team has been working on have slowed down the rate. Um now to meet our goal no more than uh a little over 4,200 students out of approximately 9,300 students that's all the students in the K3 grade bin can be chronically absent uh at the end of the year. So that's what we're looking at uh to meet our goal. Right now we have a little over 4,100 uh K through3 students who are firmly on track. That means they have an uh attendance rate of about 92% or above. I see our our fan has gone down. I was told that that is a fan that is taking
034place but it may be coming uh back intermittently. Um but also we have these students that are on the bubble here. So we have uh about 2200 students that are between 92% and 87% and this is a focus area when you see some of the strategies that the team is looking at that we really want to focus in on. Of course we want to focus on those students that are chronically absent, those tier three students that uh really struggle. Uh but what the team is looking at here, these are students we could slow down the rate, ensure that they stay in, we could gain ground here and meet our goal. Um and so the team is really thinking strategically about this and dissecting this data. Um now looking at our ninth graders, this is a
035promising sign. As I mentioned last year, our ninth graders was the group that had the uh highest chronic absenteeism rate in our entire system. And this is a group currently right now we are on track. Um currently 63.4% of ninth graders um have been absent for 10% of the year. Um now let's not get it uh twisted. 63.4% chronically absent is not good. Um so we you're going to hear me we talk about continuous improvement and the work we have to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have to get our nth grade babies in school and learning. Um but we have uh this rate has dropped and you'll see some of the strategies that the team is doing. Uh when looking at where chronic absenteeism has increased in previous years for
036nth graders, it's went up about 2.5 percentage points and if we continue on that trend from where we are now, we would be on track to meet our goal. Um a deeper dive in the data similar to what we saw for the K through three uh BA uh grade band. When looking at the previous two years, we increased seven percentage points from this point uh from November to this point in the year and that has went to 5%. So um once again flattening that rate, slowing down the rate um similar to what you saw in K through three really looking at the data uh we need a little over 2100 out of uh about 3,100 almost 3,200 I would say 9th graders that can be chronically absent at the end of the year. Currently right
037now 975 nth graders are firmly on track at 92%. Um so 975 that's not even half. Um so a lot of work that we have to do there. But the promising sign is we do have those 707 nth graders that are right on the cusp. 92 uh to the 87% and that's a focus area we really want to focus in on. Um, and it's going to be interesting when we're looking at nth grade chronic absenteeism and the next goal that we're going to look at uh when it comes to freshmen on track because they're really tied together um when ensuring that students are not only in school but also that they're passing their classes. Um so some of the strategies that have uh uh that we've been working on all year and we presented I
038forgot when we presented this maybe it was October maybe September. Um I think it was October because it was after attendance awareness this month and we were talking about some of the strategies we were doing. Um there is the removal of the no-show students. The uh uh you know every year there are students that sit on a roster. I was meeting um with one of our partners today and we were talking about um some of our students that are sometimes overage or um just sit on a roster and our schools. Uh those are students that carry they they they carry with our students. um and if they they don't show up, they're not only impacting this data, but they're impacting test rate datas and they uh data and they eventually um impact graduation rate data.
039And so, uh the team has done a great job over the past couple of years of strategically, uh thinking about the removal of the no-show students. There was a process that we have to go through when doing that. Uh but that's, uh been very important, an important strategy, the attendance campaign work. Um, one of the things we talk about, I know I talk about my goals and these are my goals is how I get evaluated in terms of how students what students don't en able to be uh uh to be able to do but all of our senior leaders their goals roll up into these goals. And so we've worked um the external affairs team has come alongside our academics team and has shared in the goal of attendance awareness and even when they're thinking
040about the campaign and marketing uh work uh a lot of that is tied directly with their goals. uh we have an attendance task force uh that's really thinking specifically about these grade bands the K through three uh B grade band as well as the nth grade grade band and thinking about strategies um there's been principal focus groups uh asking what are some of the challenges that schools are facing and also what is working uh and then we'll talk a little bit about these attendance review teams at schools um as we get more specific about some of the strategies that are taking place at each tier um things that I shared that are working um you know the principal focus group learning what schools need and some of the challenges. I was even encouraged um in
041our meeting that we had our our regular meeting that we have with the mayor's team and was asking what can what can the city do to come alongside uh and think about chronic absenteeism and appreciate always the all-in approach and we want to ensure that the strategies that we're using in house are moving towards this. But if we could think broader about some of the other U partners that we have, we have partners uh like say yes where they could come alongside and actually um not only just provide the support but are sharing in our goal and also measuring the impact so that we're improving this all together. Um the district attendance uh task force that's uh meeting regularly and has uh gotten underway um really since our last presentation that was one of the
042strategies that got implemented. uh and then the attendance review teams uh and then having um a consistent uh schedule of communication and support for attendance liaison uh and that has been very helpful and an intentional strategy this year. Some things that are not working is the majority of uh uh absent uh that are uh collected are unexcused absences and um you know 76% of those are uh of the chronically absent students are having those unexcused absences and with there not being a reason why it does become a little harder to diagnose. Uh we don't want to throw spaghetti at the wall when looking at this. We want to really be strategic about what are those levers we can do to move it. Uh the two-way communication between home and school. Um the inconsistent imple implementation
043of some of the strategies. Um and you know we're still you know in the diagnostic stage of really figuring out what are those high leverage um root causes as well as the high leverage strategy that moved to impact. So those are things that we're still doing. I'll name a few other things. Of course, over the past uh few weeks, weather has been a challenge. And so, I can imagine as we emerge uh today, we we got a little bit of a break. It was 40 something degrees. I said, I saw grass. Uh you know, uh but as we emerge and we come back up, we're going to start looking at our data and it's going to show up. Um not only the days that were hard that we were in and out, but it's been
044a hard um uh winter and the families that have just chosen to stay home uh and really thinking about how that hits and we're about to enter into testing season. So that's been a challenge and really thinking about how we can come alongside of that. I also had the opportunity to meet with uh Governor DeWine last week and um with uh some of the other colleagues u my colleagues across the state who lead districts and we were talking about even just some of the ways attendance has to be reported um some of the other things that um are challenges that we have and be very transit districts districts that have high mobility. So these are some of the things that we're uh looking at. Um some of the next steps uh the district level attendance
045task force uh that we have and the the team that is really uh studying this and really understanding what are those high impact high uh leverage strategies. Uh the attendance campaign and awareness um continuing to do uh those uh leveraging some of the partnerships that we have around incentives. Uh those usually help those the students that are in tier one. that keeps them in school. Um sometimes you may motivate some of the tier the students in the bubble to stay in school. Um those don't always help the students who are chronically like seriously chronically absent. And so um those are just some strategies we'll continue to go on. Um the everyday labs campaign, everyday labs helps our schools identify who those students are to give regular communication out um as well as messaging that we
046can do with that. And I know the attendance leaison have been working with that as well. And one of the things that was shared in the last presentation that still has not happened to date but will happen um uh I know that the team shared with me in preparation for our review for this is asking students um and specifically I think before was we were going to talk to nth graders in general but really focusing in on those bubble students learning about them what are some of the challenges they're facing. um uh there may be things that are on our radar. Uh there may be things that aren't on our radar. Um we also know that there are aspects of culture in school that uh can sometimes be challenges for students. So really just understanding
047that so that as we're building the strategies, we're connecting uh to that. Uh but this is the group we want to focus in on because if we slow the rate here as well as maintain the students in that 92% or above uh we have a chance to uh hit our goal. Um so I want to talk about the school level attendance review teams. This was a strategy that came out I think from the principal focus group if I'm looking that this was something that by getting proximate to the work of which our uh academics team uh loves to do not only getting proximate uh by speaking with school leaders but they're in schools all the time doing walkthroughs talking with teachers and uh seeing what's happening. But one of the things that came out from
048this was really thinking about focusing in on those students in the bubble for our K3 uh specifically and um what are some of those strategies that we're looking at? So we already talked about the the target group. We know those groups of students that we have to uh slow the rate down. Um but then also really thinking about some of the strategies where there there's a check-in and checkout system uh approach with parents. Uh because when we're talking about our littles, it is not just a student level intervention like it may be at the high school level. This is also a parent intervention. What's happening at the home that parents are struggling with getting their young uh student to to school. Um also leveraging our parent ambassadors. We have parent ambassadors in every single one
049of our schools. I think the DACA meeting is coming up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's next week and that is a very engaged group. But how are we leveraging that group uh to uh not only learn from what's happening with parents but also uh think about those strategies that we can turn key and use in our schools. Uh and then also um implementing that check-in and checkout process uh at the the ninth grade level as well. Um, so these are some of the the strategies and before I go into the uh the freshman on track uh team, is there anything else you guys would add? Amend. >> All right. Um, did you want to take the questions in between now? >> Yeah. >> Um, Dr. Shrear. >> Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Um, this is
050some sobering data. Um I I have one sort of tactical um question and one more uh one or two more more strategic level questions. The tactical question um and I don't mean this to come across the wrong way. Um so the two numbers that you talked about both at the K through three level and the uh 9th grade level where you say the the data from November were were 2.2 percentage points better. Um is is that you know is that something that is is is something that your team predicted and is tracking or is it just happening? >> Yeah. No, a a great question. So um nothing that we we I would say predicted. What we are predicting is when we're looking at strategies and we're tying to it, we are hoping it slows the
051rate down. So that would be something you're you were predicting. Um, of course, if we were looking at a prediction, we would want that prediction to be a lot lower. Um, for ninth grade, it is that we ended up there. Um, um, in the K3 space, even though it's lower, we're still at a higher space. Um, but we are monitoring it to see are the strategies working and that helps with it. I thought what was what is behind your question, but I thought what you were also going to ask is particularly in the K3 space, if it's slowing, why is the rate higher? Uh, and uh, there could be a couple of reasons for that. one, the cohort of the number of students uh changes from year to year. And so one of the reasons
052why I always like to look at the attendance percent in conjunction with the chronic absenteeism rate is because the attendance percent um though isn't apples to apples will give you that percentage relative to the the the the student body that you have. Uh and your percent may increase based on the enrollment that you have or the amount of students that fall into a different category. So it is a little bit more dynamic. Um so what we are seeing is that um the the slowing of of the rate um but the the end per se could be could be larger um and also what that is also showing from November to this point it wasn't looking at um how the year started. >> Sure. Thank you. Um so this actually goes into my next question which
053is um you know a little more broader and perhaps looking into next year. Um do we have uh and this is two parts. one, do we have data that we can talk about that um that ties outcomes for students of course at the summary level that connects to attendance rates and and the and the lack of chronic absenteeism, right? So that is in terms of a communication package. Um yes, parents have all kinds of challenges in getting their kids to school. Um yes, ninth graders and and and tth graders may have um you know challenges but is is do we even do we make the effort of communicating to parents to families that you know here's the outcome that you can expect for your child if they attended school more versus not and and and
054and so the the this is the this is I mean really looking at building the message for next school year especially as we think about a completely reconfigured um district um is you know again this number and as you're pointing out you know between November and January or February that gap keeps widening so it's really our best shot um for for reducing chronic absenteeism is to start the year much stronger and make the case with families and with students saying that you know coming to school every day has a direct material impact on their on their outcomes. So um so what what kinds of things are you thinking about um from a messaging communications perspective >> connecting to real data um of of how students are doing? Yeah, there is data that we've actually tracked
055before that we may have even shared before at the board level that where we looked at or and I I know I saw this I don't know if it was when we were at PEL when we were looking at this but we we we looked at chronic absent the students who were who came regularly and how they were achieving and you did see it there's Dr. Deo getting up uh we did we did get a chance to to see some of that and I will say on the me the family messaging side before um I turn to Dr. Demo um we have messaged some of those things actually you know at the parent I I was at um our choice fair which I'll talk about in a moment for building brighter futures and I know
056some of the uh literature that Tracy Hill had out was really just these parent guides where it reinforces that I think things that we could do better with and also things that our families don't understand when you're talking about chronic absenteeism and even attendance percent it it is hard to translate. I remember even when I was a school leader, we always had to translate the percent of attendance to the number of days. Uh because it, you know, there may be a family that says in a given week my kid comes four out of five days, they're fine. And now at this point in the year, if they come, if they miss every day, at least one or at least one day um every week, they're going to be off track. Uh and so I I
057think that's changing the mindsets and um really understanding what that impact would uh would have. Uh but Dr. Dr. Demo, do you want to share a little bit more? And I think I remember seeing that data somewhere. >> Um, we do have the information. So, just to give you a quick sense of it. So, students who are uh 90 have a 95% attendance rate or higher tend to be 40 40% of those students are proficient compared to students who have an 85 to a 90%. So, they're in the chronically absent category, but not severely chronically absent yet. They have a proficiency rate of about 23%. So you're talking about almost on a magnitude of like a 20 percentage point difference between those groups of kids. We've also done it was many years ago and we
058did the attendance campaign and I don't know if anyone remembers the kind of citywide campaign we did. We did also do a number of like analytics around like the amount of like drops in your scores on OST for every day you miss or how your rate of your probability of graduating changes. And those are things we could refresh as part of a a broader kind of communication strategy to families. >> Yeah. Well, I'm I'm glad you said the last thing because I was just going to say that, right? I mean, you know, speaking in percentages is is fine for, you know, perhaps this conversation that's not, you know, easily translatable, right? So, >> yeah. So, yeah, it's the the putting in terms of like the whether your kids going to pass the third grade reading
059guarantee or graduate college seem to be meaningful things that we can anchor to, >> Mr. Briggs. >> Thank you, Dr. Morgan. And I may I have two questions. I may have missed this. First one, have you ever thought about engaging student leaders who are good in attendance to engage their colleagues who are not so good at attendance and possibly some leadership groups? Uh and the other question is, have you ever thought about um having attendance competitions between or among the various schools? >> Those are good ideas. So we could definitely do that. we have the ninth grade focus group we're doing and I also know as part of our student advisory council um one of the breakout sessions which we're doing now uh we're going to do them in in smaller groups uh which I
060always love when we get a chance to go into the schools uh and do them in smaller groups but one of the questions is um really thinking around uh attendance I don't know if it was attendance and on track but I know that's one of the the focus areas that we're focusing with the student advisory council as well um but we can do that as well with the uh the nth grade uh uh strategy group as well. >> Miss Lebron. >> Thank you, Chair Alak. Thank you for this information and all of this data. Um, one of the things that I wanted to talk about was outcomes and and Dr. Street actually covered it. But I was thinking about um you know another idea tying it to like um outcomes and metrics tied to attendance
061is the college career workforce and military readiness. Um you know as somebody who reads college applications that don't for students that don't automatically get admitted, one of the things that I look for on a on a transcript is h you know what does the attendance look like? And I know that for CMSD um the district doesn't include attendance on the transcript, but perhaps you know helping students understand the impact of what it means, you know, for a college application if that's something that, you know, they're interested in. Um because it definitely ties to student success and retention and really even admission. I I mean that's something that we look at. So um I wanted to mention that. But also, um, I think it's really a great idea focusing on the students on the cusp of
062becoming chronically absent. Um, I I I'm really excited about the nth grade focus groups and what data comes out of that. I think it's always really smart to go to the source, right? What what do scholars say? Are there issues rather than, you know, the data will tell us some things and like you even mentioned in your presentation, sometimes it's just unexcused absences with no reasons. So, you can't really get to the source of the problem. So, I'm really excited about the nth grade focus groups and really uh learning what comes from that. Um, one of the questions I have is what is the makeup of the attendance task force? I want to know who is included on these task force. >> So, good evening. The attendance task force for the district level is included
063of it's representative of a diverse group of departments. So, we have everyone from special education, multilingual, our project ACT or homeless and shelter groups. We have folks from our academics team. We have our uh external affairs division, communications. Um we also have family and community engagement. So we have a plethora of diverse group that touch attendance, parents and all of that to be able to not only analyze data uh progress monitor these particular strategies and then also brainstorm on what other strategies we can continue to do in order to um better our chronic absenteeism rate. Are school counselors included on this task force? >> No, but we do have representation from our college and career team. >> Okay. And does it and it sounds like the task force is made up of like high level
064people. Are there people with high touch to the students on the task force? >> That's a very good question. So, we are in the process of defining all of that. So, that's part of the reason that we did have the attendance review teams. the attendance review teams are it's more or less the same concept that they're um the purpose is not only to review and to implement some of these strategies but it's it involves only our district administrators that they can then touch those kids because parents are only are going to be um very connected to those that know they're not going to be connected to myself for example being the deputy chief of student services they will be connected to the assistant principal the principal the dean the say person so that's the very
065personal connection that we wanted to mimic what we do with the district task force with the attendance review teams. >> Thank you for that clarification, >> Mr. Phillips. >> Thank you, Chair Elott. Um, Dr. Morgan, my my question is and a lot of the questions that I had already kind of been answered, but um probably the biggest question that I have is around um absenteeism and and and I know we had a task force to try to help with strategies with that. Um, and I know in the past we've um had situations where systems also helped. So with things like filing truency and I know there was a program with um the court system where parents can come and get the supports that they may need to um help with their kid getting in school.
066Um, is can we speak to are there any like supports that a parent might need that like I know some sometimes a parent might just need some supports u to get their kid into school. Is there anything that we can speak to in that regard? >> Yeah. Um, you know, when we think about the family support specialist and the work we do with Say Yes, that's really the concept that came around it. There's so many um um I I would say opportunities when we think about how to wrap wrap around a child um and uh say yes uh family support specialists have really been thinking about where they're the quarterback and thinking about those resources and helping our families. One of the things we do talk about in is how can we be more strategic
067as well by looking at the data because the question is always around impact. So, um, many of our, uh, family support specialists and many of our community partners do lots of different things that touch our families and, um, make an impact and change their lives. But if we're not monitoring the data or being really strategic, how can we ensure that the work that we're doing and we have a person in each one of our schools um, supporting this work? And so, um, I know in one of our last meetings we had maybe in November, we started looking at the data. say yes had started collecting the information and some of the reasons why students are are doing that and really excited to uh to continue that leverage uh leverage that partnership. I know we have
068our new executive director that just started um but really thinking about how do we uh have that collaboration while we have these resources that are helping to really help us uh with this work. Um because there there could be many many reasons and also figuring out there could be many reasons but where do we what is the most high impact high leverage uh strategy that can help move them the needle the most uh and put our resources towards that. >> Thank you. I got one more question. Um also I think about um as a parent uh from time to time I do get the call um that your child is not in school today. Um, but I also think about um the chronic absenteeism is not just about the day, right? It's about also did
069you go to the class right after lunch every day. Um, and so can you kind of speak to the importance of also attending every class every day? >> Yeah, you're this is uh this goes into one of the things I was saying we were talking with the governor about and it's high school. So, and being a high school person, it's one of the challenges. There are good reasons why period by period attendance was uh was created. Uh and it's not only like that in our state, it's like that in many states. The challenge and very high um uh you know schools that have high mobility of which we do um high transit rates, lots of different things that are taking place in the school, a kid can be in school and if they miss that
070class after lunch and they happen to be in the guidance counselor's office and if you don't have the systems in place, I think we lost our our feed that we may want to check. There we go. um that uh if you don't have those systems that are in place to to really capture the student it can be a challenge and so um I think where it is in our uh the way it is calculated now student can miss one period and have a half day uh of attendance and so um that won't you know that alone won't change your high numbers of chronic absenteeism rate but it does capture a lot of students sometimes that could be um that you could be missing. Uh, and so I think that's a challenge. And Miss Miss Harris,
071was there something you wanted to add there? Okay. No, I didn't. I was like, yeah, you come up. Yeah. Um, but no, that I think that that that that becomes a challenge in in the high school space. K8 is not the same. And that I think to the point of messaging for families, one of the things we talked about when we were reviewing these, a lot of our families don't realize that because in K8, if you show up for the day at some point now, if if they're there much later, you know, they they they they won't um get counted, but your your attendance is captured once and you're there for the day. And a lot of parents don't realize that. Um maybe even 10th, 11th, and 12th graders don't realize they get marked absent
072for a period. They are missing that. And that goes into tardies. There are a lot of kids that are late. Uh I talk about it all the time. You could be driving around the city for a midday meeting and you see a a kid that's school age in high school with a backpack and you're like, why are they not in school? They're walking up to the school now and it's 10:00, it's 11:00. Um that that all matters. And so, uh those are all the things we have to look at. And it can it does have an impact when you look at all those half day attendance for some of our schools. It does matter and it could be it could move the attendance rate significantly even just by focusing in on the that uh strategy.
073>> Miss Jones. >> Thank you chair Alcott. Thank you. um in thinking about the different I'll say reasons etc that students might not be in attendance. I mean there's a whole host of them etc. But as you talk with your student groups um a couple of things that came to my mind are there either activities or clubs or things that might draw them in to come in early to do that might help with that. But then the other thing I thought about it could be something as simple as breakfast or it could also be the fact that they're taking care of their other siblings and therefore they can't leave until their other siblings are set. Um so I just say that to say there may be some ways um that by knowing this information there
074can be some things that could be done. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, high level, you know, when we think about the work we're doing around building brighter futures, the other things, the other aspects that get kids excited for coming to school, even your your uh best student, um they're they're not coming to school. I mean, they they may love instruction, they may love reading, but they're not saying like, "I really love that ELA uh curriculum that I have." You know, they're they're going cuz, you know, um they have uh you know, cheer basketball. You know, we were just talking about the Senate League game this this weekend when you saw uh both our our our boys and girls basketball teams performing at such high levels and then dynamic cheerleading squads right on the side. Those
075are the things that we have when we our students can compete at high levels and do something really well. It it draws them in and keeps them in school. Um and so, you know, we want to leverage that. Um and also think about the calendar because we're in the we're in the period of time of uh you know, looking at our calendar for this year. Uh Dr. Dr. Florence's team has really thought intentionally about the calendar. And when we think about currently now when we have uh parent teacher conference days or open house days, we have a KA day, we have a a high school day. And that usually those days are a wash uh because high school kids will have their siblings, they will stay home and then they'll stay home on their day.
076And so um and so you know those are just things that we can you know leverage and think about. Abra. Absolutely right. >> Yeah. Dr. uh Dr. Morgan, I wanted to add around, you know, this has been brought up a little bit, but just doubling down on the idea of not just communication, but uh addressing structural issues by first identifying some of those structural issues. And you and I have talked about this, but um I'd really love to see us make sure that we are accessing and requesting information from our um partner that we've invested in say yes. Um because the the um specialists are uh in touch with our students and their families about their biggest problems. Uh so I hope to see more of that data coming back addressing some or at least
077understanding some of the root issues so that like you said we can then access the highest value return on investment strategies. Um the other things I'm thinking about are you know students are they're not dumb right like they're making a value assessment sometimes of is it worth it for me to go to school versus something else that's going on in my life. So us creating a more um successful school environment like we are looking to do with building brighter futures I think is one strategy for us so that kids know like I'm going to get something out of being in this school building right and that's consistently demonstrated to them through the quality of education that we are providing. So I think that that's one important strategy that we're investing in now through the building
078brighter futures plan. Uh the other question I have is around immigrant students um and students who might be afraid of getting to school with what we are seeing in some of our other communities around the country. I know that Minneapolis public schools have been virtual for I don't I believe they're still virtual uh for how long now? Um because families are afraid to go to school. Uh so I'm wondering how and whether we know whether that's impacting any of our students. you know, there uh we we do there was a time particularly uh about a year ago um when a there was a kind of an uptick of uh some of these uh things and um really a lot of us dealing with these issues for the very first uh time um that we uh
079you know um our multilingual department under uh uh you know Jose Gonzalez's leadership was really starting to to look at what are some of those uh those challenges? How can families communicate information to us? We do have a protocols that were in place that we did recently uh um I wouldn't even say refresh, but we just uh brought back out to our school leaders given some of the uptick in activity that has been uh taking place. So that our school leaders do have and we do have protocols that are in place. Uh but I was on a call a week ago with uh council superintendents from the council of great city schools and um hearing what's happening across the country has been uh sobering uh cuz there there we hear about Minnesota um but we
080we you know not hearing about some of the things that are taking place in some of the other states um and was asking even for resources that other districts are doing and other cities are doing. Um, fortunately we haven't been confronted with the issues at the scale that some of those other ones are. Um, but we want to ensure um that there's readiness in the event we ever have to. >> But do we know aside from whether we are being confronted by them right now? Do we know if families are concerned about that and potentially not coming? I would assume it might be at a low level if it is. But are we accessing that information somehow? >> We are through our multilingual department. We we we have a very active multilingual department through the
081direction of Miss Barios who's uh sits right next to me. And one of the things that we are noticing is that a lot of our multilingual families are asking for the remote options and being very proactive on that. The other piece of that is that um the feedback that the multilingual department has gathered through their home language surveys and their interviews is that families feel very safe within a CMSD school because that's the environment that's been created for them, especially our very highly populated schools. So we we do have some type of a grasp on that. We are noticing a shift in that remote option with with a lot of our multilingual families. So I know that the multilingual uh department's uh family engagement component and their um compliance team and their assessment team are
082keeping a close eye on those families and assessing the needs that they have in order for them to have full access to to their education. >> Thank you, Miss Peak. Yes, I was going to ask something similar to what you uh just mentioned. Um I'm uh kind of concerned in the the groups that the young people are having. Are you learning anything about do they feel safe? Uh and of course, you know, that mental health piece. Uh we know that it's a lot going on in our families now and sometimes uh they may not be coming to school, but they may be going somewhere else. I know as a librarian we had lots of children to come into the library when they were not in school and uh it was the policy not to uh
083asked them to leave because we wanted to make sure that they were safe but they would they were still afraid of something and I didn't deal with it too much because of the privacy but we just wanted I wanted to know uh are we checking in on the kids as they're not coming to school? >> Yeah. Um well there they're definitely things that are taking place at the school level. So there are school level school level groups but then also thinking about the human wear and the work that uh uh we did in our first student advisory council meeting there was a small group on it. As I mentioned before we're doing a small group session where we're going into the school similar to what we did last year um where those sessions are you
084know either a circle group or things that we could do directly with students in in smaller groups. um where I do believe that that was something that was uh on there because the student advisory council is a um it's usually about a three-hour day with travel. Sometimes the students miss the whole day. Uh it was supposed to be on Friday. We didn't do that uh given the uh inclement weather um that we recently had. Um but we are uh revising that and um uh Jason Tidmore who leads the student advisory council that's one of the topics when I saw the agenda that we're looking at um not only to look at chronic absenteeism rates but also to um to just check in with students and see some of the things that uh uh is on
085their mind and the ways that we can support them and also just thinking about how they're doing and and and thinking about the transitional support. So I know those are some of the things that the human department was checking in on. So are you learning anything from them and that information and maybe listening to having that information then making some adjustments to uh to address the chronic absenteeism. >> Um yeah those are coming up where we can learn from that. Um now you were asking what we what we learned before. Uh what we learned before was specifically thinking around building brighter futures and that did help us in informing some of our um uh not only the decisions we were making around bu building brighter futures but the informing how we were um uh not
086only taking into account uh transitions and the things that are important for school communities as they're coming together. I know um even this month uh during the PD day, school teams are coming together. All of those different things were things that not only that we heard from students, but that we heard from staff. They'll be really important for students to come together. But I think you're talking more specifically about chronic absenteeism in uh SEAL, which is more of a focus for what we're doing with the student advisory um coming up in the coming months. >> Mr. Phillips, >> thank you, Chair Eric. I I just had a cl a clarifying question to ask. is uh multilingual synonymous with English language learners? It is. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure I understood. >>
087Uh I have another question. To what extent are our students tardy due to our own transportation challenges? like are if CMSD buses are late is that a challenge that we are seeing that is contributing to the absenteeism rates? >> It can uh one of the things I will say is that we don't do yellow bus services in the high schools. Um unless uh for our our special education students so we do provide uh that and that would be a a challenge there. It's RTA buses for our students in high school and that's where the period by period attendance is. So, >> and do we know to what extent RTA tardiness might be a part of the challenge? I'm just thinking about how we leverage resources. >> Resources, find solutions. >> Yeah, we can track that
088for both of the questions because I do know when yellow buses there are times yellow buses are laid in the elementary space and that has a impact. It won't impact this data cuz essentially when in the elementary space when the students show up even when they're late they're going to get um >> they're going to get counted. But in the high school space, we can um get that and whether there are RTA buses. Uh it is a little bit more uh it is harder to track even because students are doing their individual routes that they're doing to get there. Um >> we do know though if students miss a bus and the frequency of it um sometimes the next time that they'll do that, they're they're getting there late or they're coming from a a
089far distance that that can has have an impact. But like you reference if they maybe they're helping get a younger sibling to a bus and if that bus is late. >> Yeah. >> Okay. On to the next report. >> All right. So the next one is really looking at freshmen on track. And the way we define on track is our our our students passing their classes. And I I'm uh just as a point of clarification it to be on track they have to be passing all or can they have um is it one do we track it by one F that they could have >> five credits. Okay. So that they're earning up >> by the end of the year. So that is the definition when we're looking at on track and this was something
090that was really important. We're looking and thank you for part of the academics team that works on chronic absenteeism and I know now we're focusing to our college and career readiness team. Um so this is under our co uh college and uh readiness goal when we're thinking about the percent of four-year graduation cohort that is at least college ready and um ACT SAT readiness honors diploma API u 12 plus college uh credits uh etc. And you may ask yourself, how is this related to it? And the reason why this was really important for uh for me when thinking about a CEO measure goal that we were looking at, if students are not coming to school, we first looked at chronic absenteeism. So, first we need to make sure they're coming to school, but we also
091need to make sure they're passing their classes. Um, and I know uh from even being a high school leader, if students are not on track to pass their class in their freshman year, they're they're going to be off track for the rest of their time. And what we know about many of our students is they're not proactive about getting into credit recovery. They're not proactive into getting into summer school until it's time to graduate. And uh, you know, they'll they'll do as many admin that they have to do. they'll do what they have to do because they want to uh you know they want to go to prom, they want to graduate but we should be tracking this all along and it is a big part of the work that we as adults we have
092within our locus of control. Uh, one of the things that was really important for me in this last um, contract negotiation that we did was ensuring that we have an electronic grade book. And this was one of the reasons why it was really important and one of the reasons why you will hear us talk at every family meeting and for our parents to sign up, parents, we need you to sign up to know what your your kids are doing because if they're not passing their classes and if they're just going every day and they're not passing their classes, they will be off track. We we cannot get them across the finish line and we can't get them to be achieving at these high levels. Um so our goal for this year is to uh our
093baseline was at 69.7 last year and we want to increase it to 74.2. Um so in terms of how we're doing right now after the first semester this cohort we are down um we are down um from where we are this is a decrease um from where we were last year at the semester um um uh looking at semester 1 last year and even down from where we were semester 2. um but uh down from where we were semester 1. Uh you know some of those root causes and we're going to dive deeper into this data is academic preparation really thinking about those instructional practices and behaviors. But a big part of this is monitoring and we're going to uh get into some of the things we're seeing and the work we're doing in this
094next semester to just ensure there's more intentional monitoring. uh and we have some best practices that we want to start lifting because I know we don't do school spotlight um uh anymore uh through the way we do our goals and guard rails but as we are seeing things that are taking place we do want to lift those practices that are working throughout the system. Um so let's just do a deeper dive into the data. There are some subject areas that are up when looking at the failure rate from last year. So looking at royal languages, uh social studies, ELA, algebra 1, uh ELA is slightly down from where it was uh last year at this semester. Um I mean slightly um um yeah, the the failure rate has slightly decreased. So that's some one we
095will want to go uh down. But thinking about algebra 1, social studies, and world language, those are all up. ELA, I would say, is flat. Um the subjects where students uh struggled the most um in terms of the failure rates is in science and fine arts. And I can imagine even thinking about fine arts that is um there are probably attendance. These are compliance issues a lot of times and not necessarily mastery issues. And so really how can we support our scholars uh and support our educators with supporting our students? Um we shouldn't use uh from a standpoint students should be coming into school being prepared completing their work so they can be on track with um uh passing their classes. And from an educator standpoint, we shouldn't use grades as a way of punishing
096kids either for their behavior or maybe not coming to school. And so there's both and in terms of the work we have to do to up the rigor and get our students prepared, but also ensure that uh we are not using grades as an indictment for our our scholars. Um uh so I want to talk a little bit about some of the strategies. One of the things we have right now with our electronic gradebook, we do 369 reviews. Nine is at the end of the marking period. you have the three um the uh third week uh point and the six week point. And one of the things I you know push our team in looking at is what are we finding out at the 3, six, and nine uh period. These should not be surprises.
097They shouldn't be surprises to us now that we have electronic grade books and we actually have dipsticks of where uh families are uh uh of where our students are and they shouldn't be a surprise to the parent which is why we want to ensure parents have their electronic grade book. I'll share some promising data that we have on our update of our electronic gradebook, but we want to make sure we're we're focusing in on that and thinking about the leveraging of the supports. I'm also month uh doing the monthly monitoring of students who are on and off track uh through the academic progress team. There are some schools and one of the best practices at the high school level is to have both a department or content ex uh grade level team but also or
098a content team but also a grade level team. A lot of our high schools are only um organized by departments, which departments, they help with the content. But if I'm meeting with the English team, all my English peers, and we're talking about the ninth graders that are failing, there's usually one or two ninth grade English teachers. The best way to talk about behavior and grades and attendance is in a grade level team because those all those teachers whether they are the ninth grade English teacher, the ninth grade social studies teachers, the ninth grade math teacher, they all meet regularly and they could talk about intervening for students. And so there's been a focus for uh thinking about those teams and how we leverage that. Um and then also just the the correlating the data of
099the chronic absenteeism with the data of um the uh the ontrack rates. Um and then also uh supporting our educators with what they're finding and some of the challenges that they have and that we're not putting that out there. The other thing that's really important and I get sometimes calls from parents even with the review of the 369. There are some parents that actually have access to their grade books and they'll say I went in and there was one grade. Uh and so that also doesn't help. Uh because if we there's only one grade or so that is entered and that's not a real realistic picture of how the kid is doing, it will be a surprise because if that one grade is that the kid is passing, but we haven't entered in the grades
100and we wait until the end and they're failing, how do we intervene? And so um and there I I know I fielded a couple of calls from parents where they say, "I don't see grades in and I can't know where my um student is, uh is at." And so some work we have to do both on the students end and on the educator end. Um some things that we've done if you're looking just at an arc of where we've been this year. Uh there's been some training in August at the top of this year on the student information uh system for pulling grade reports. At one point there was only through our data team uh access to a grade level report and we said school leaders need to have access to pulling this on a
101regular basis uh and ensuring that they're doing that. Um in What we've done this month with principles is making sure there's a turnkey presentation on the monitoring of student achievement. Um, and that they're they're doing this at regular uh levels at the high school um in the high school space. But since the beginning of the year, I know network leaders have been meeting with principles and pulling those high failure rates. Um, and principles have been meeting with teachers to think about those strategies for improvement. We just need to make sure that we are intentionally seeing the data change as we move along. Um as I share things that are working are um the principal trainings and principles actually seeing how they can um not only pull the data but also identify gaps and then the
102369 um monitoring reports that have also helped um the parent grade book we ended last school year around 25% we are now sitting at 63.5 so that's huge progress and huge work I know at almost every event I'm at there was someone uh Tracy I'm seeing Anthony Brown back there doing some speech on signing up for the gradebook. So, we're over 50%, but that's still not all. So, as I'm looking out here and we're talking to our parents, sign up for the parent grade book. This is just as much of a of work for our educators and for us as it is for you. And you can help us uh as you're seeing some some challenges. Uh and that's what that access is for. And the gradebook not only gives you access to how your
103student is doing, it also gives you access uh to things like attendance as well as their uh behavior as well. Um starting to work are those network uh leader uh meetings to really just track the progress um and be more intentional. These this isn't a surprise. So we're sitting now we're in quarter three and quarter three will be ending soon. So we, you know, we we see what's happening all along and how are we leveraging those network meetings and the coaching conversations that network leaders have with principles on uh this this data point. Um and then uh the apt agendas which those are the academic progress team meeting agendas um to really think about those action plans. Um things that are not working is we haven't we have some broad strategies we've done here. there
104hasn't been a consistent strategy in terms of monitoring that we've been doing that we want to ensure is working and there's been inconsistency with that and then as we mentioned before the inconsistent practices in grading across our system. We have a grading policy but not necessarily um uh a you know some standardized things that have worked and there there have been strategies in systems like ours that do work some that our our schools are implementing in terms of how you track students. There are things that you could do around um like no zero policies and different things. All of those are strategies that work, but we haven't adopted these things districtwide or have an agreement on districtwide of how these things can support our efforts. Um next steps, uh principles are already reflecting on uh
105these ontrack to graduate uh uh this goal within their AAPs. I know the AAP meetings are underway and we're doing a lot of support and work in conjunction with our our teachers union on this year's uh AAPs. Um and we yeah we're talking about those developing not only of the plans but also of the strategies. Uh school teams are uh reflecting on their grade progress in those uh 50-minute meetings. But then also there's a charge of just thinking of when looking at uh this particular data point 9th grade on track or just even looking at on track in general who's the composition of teachers who are monitoring um you know those grades and making sure that they're they're together. um uh schools using the new F report um to to monitor the 3,6 and uh
1069 um and how we can support those students and also looking at chronic absenteeism. Uh and then the academic progress uh team will maintain their focus on nth grade on track and off track of students. We also want to lift Cleveland School of the Arts. Uh this is another example where uh a leader once again has organized this uh this particular metric by grade level team and is thinking about those uh those tiers. So that top level uh that top layer looking at the data reviews the interventions and town halls as needed. Um that middle layer um those grade level teams and really looking at the students of concern and interventions. Uh and then that bottom layer um just what's happening on a regular basis where the principal is reviewing those grade level reports lifting
107those uh concerns to the teachers and also seeing what uh plans of support can help. And I don't have the data on top of my uh head. How much did these schools improve? I know it was a significant improvement when we when we lifted these. Um and maybe the the the team can find that as we get any questions from board members. Um, but I did want to share that there uh I remember hearing how much there was an improvement for these uh two schools or some of the schools that we've looked at and we want to leverage those practices. But that is all >> miss LeBron. >> Thank you. um you know separately the chronic absenteeism presentation focusing on you know K through three and 9th grade made sense but I'm curious and and
108maybe this is slightly a suggestion but I wonder if there's any benefit in focusing on eighth grade as well so that we can create a c like a a a regular school attendance behavior and have it because that will definitely I think it will impact the the onstar on track nth grade readiness Um, so I just something that I thought I'd put out there um as an idea. Um, the other thing I wanted to say is I'm really excited about the new early warning tools um that are coming out of the 3, six, and nineweek uh performance reports. I'm wondering like the early warning uh tools like who who gets an early warning? Is it the educators? Is it the student? Is it the family? >> Good evening. Good evening. So the um Dr. Morgan
109lifted earlier that the the AP teams, academic progress teams and some in some cases the admin teams get a chance to look at these dashboards to get those earliest warnings. So then they can then speak to the students to create to set up those interventions or the teachers to set up that structure in that classroom to support those students. So for example, last week we had students uh we had the counselors reach out to nth grade students specifically who were founded to be in that early warning space. >> Okay. But there's a gap then in how quickly the students real like find out that they're actually um a warning, right? And so I'm wondering if there's any way um or or if the system can alert students to say, "Hey, you've been dinged or you've
110been, you know, you're on track for, you know, you're not on track and this is what we need you to do." Like something that kind of puts the onorus on the student to to get them to meet with their counselor or to get them to meet with their their their teacher to say, "Okay, I need to get back on track. I'm, you know, whatever. This is what was happening. Um, just curious if that's something that you've all thought of or if the system has the capability of like alerting the students so that they also are responsible for their education. >> I just I'm just c I'm just worried about that gap in timing. If there's an early alert warning, like the whole benefit of having the early alert is that they it gets taken care
111of right away. um if it takes somebody an AP team to go into a dashboard to create a plan and to like then outreach to students there's not I I feel like it loses the benefit of the early alert >> miss wellchow thank you chair elicott uh thank you Dr. Morgan for that presentation um my question is actually on behalf of my colleague Dr. treat are um >> I wasn't expecting that to be so funny. Um >> so his question is what kind of intervention are we planning with educators in terms of professional development and have we seen a correlation between teacher PD and student performance? >> Uh yeah, I'm going to uh pass it over to the team, but I will say that it is it's it's a both and in terms of the
112work we do. Uh and some of it is just the systems. Um so actually putting a system in place now where we have an electronic gradebook that's one of the things that help having things in place like a 369 those are the things that help u but we don't have standard um we don't have like a standardization in terms of uh grading in terms of uh what's the expectation of how many uh grades um um what are the weights uh and some of those things you you know you want you want teachers to be able to uh have their creativity and autonomy in some of the uh spaces and when things are so very different for students um especially in the the communities that we are are are serving. It is it is a challenge
113and um sometimes it is some of those tactical things and so those are some of the structural things we are looking at. I'll let the academics team talk about um some of the um the interventions you guys have been doing on the teacher level and also I'm see I'm looking at Dr. Dr. I don't know if you had uh that response and if you did or not uh >> to teacher PD correlated with >> not the teacher PD I didn't know up on the the other one that we were looking at in terms of the the data for the schools but if you don't have that that was fine >> you do have that >> okay y um so to answer your question so we we saw the team saw it in two different ways
114so one was the preventative piece um so what happens before the student receives the grade and so you saw the example of that from road so that's where the the grade level team works together and they the team together says what interventions need to be put in place. Um we spent time this semester this first semester working on MTSS or multi multi system materials and supports so teachers then know how to do scaffolds in their classroom to help kids access when they are struggling. Um but one of the things that um I think it was lifted earlier that um I don't think we've done a lot of in the past that we are looking to do this semester moving forward um is for those students who are in that I think you call it bubble
115or or space um um of passing their courses for this semester. So um so those within 20% how can we let teachers have teachers work with those students to recover their grade during the same class versus like Dr. Morgan mentioned earlier trying to recruit those students in credit recovery years or semesters down the line. So let's let's put you with the same teacher that you have first semester what class what um assignments you may need to make up or what test you need a retake of to get that to get over that threshold. So that should bring our um our failure rates down a little bit. Thank you. to your question about those two particular schools. Um it's not a case necessarily that they had increases from last year. They're just two schools that consistently
116have very high on track rate. So roads college career typically is over 90% on track. CSA typically above 95% um on track very consistently. So that's how those schools were selected. >> Thank you so much >> Dr. Morgan. And I do want to remind you that it is okay to come back with the answer at the next meeting as well. Although I appreciate everyone being at the ready. >> Pastor Jones, >> thank you Chair Elott and to Dr. Morgan. Thank you for your presentation. Um I heard the presentation concerning the uh electronic grade book and I think my question is in this day and age of uh having to utilize um technology um is there a reason why parents are not uh becoming uh what's the percentage of involvement and then is it is there
117some problem with parents having access? >> Yeah. Um so the for signing up for the electronic gradebook that is a challenge there there were challenges um of which our team has worked to reduce some of those barriers. One of the barriers were it was it's a lot to uh it was a lot to sign up I think in the initial stages um parents needed to have their student ID number there they need to go in with their own unique login. So even if they came to a fair and there was someone saying sign up for electronic gradebook it wasn't just as simple as enter your name and your email address and you get signed up. It was a process, but there were some barriers that we actually were able to break down. And one of
118the reasons why we were able to have a lift, I know um uh Chief Farmer Cole's team in conjunction with uh uh Tracy Hills team worked with our IT team to help um reduce some of those barriers and got families uh signed up. But we're continuing to think about that um of how we can get more families uh signed up. I think the other area is just uh some of the challenges we have just with engagement in general. Um when do we have those touch points of families? Uh so I know we've worked at the school level um because particularly in our elementary schools most families are going to set set foot in the school at some point in an elementary school and so how can we leverage right at the school having that information
119and I will say to our school's credit there isn't a school there not many schools I walk into particularly at the elementary level when I walk in the main office I don't see anything about signing up for the electronic grade book but how can we continue to leverage those efforts >> Mr. develops. >> Thank you, Chair Elicott. And um I was also say thank you for the presentation, Dr. Morgan. Um I I would I would say, you know, and I appreciate um um what you said about the electronic grade book, the importance um as again as a parent, um we use the electronic grade book very often um in my household. Um, Pastor Jones kind of asked my question to a point, but I want to kind of drill down a little bit more specifically
120with um, our parents that's um, multilingual. Um, is the electronic grade book um, easily accessible for those families as well? >> Yeah, there is a trans I believe there's a translation feature and I don't see Oh, there we go. Tracy. >> So, the power the electronic grade book is available in multiple languages. Parents can select uh the language that they prefer when they sign up for the electronic grade book. And um to Dr. Morgan's point, we were able to work with our IT team to use a plug-in to create accounts for every parent that had a a email address. Now, that means that we have about twothirds of our families that have email addresses. So, they all have an account. What we're doing now is trying to um ascertain those um find out those parents
121who don't have email addresses, get them to update their information um at their schools in power school so that we can again use the simpler process to create those accounts. Thank you. >> I have a question Dr. Morgan. So we are deep in the interim goal right now but that interim goal is uh under a higher goal which is college readiness. So um my question is when we focus on just Fgrades why is that like is that the only offtrack measure? Because in my brain I'm like well wouldn't a Dgrade also potentially be a signal um that a student would be off track? That's a great question. For this particular one, we're focusing on that because uh for if we're looking at graduation rate, so there's many things that feed into things that we measure
122for students to actually graduate and uh to ensure that they can graduate, they need to be passing on classes. So, we do want to um ensure that they're passing on classes. I wouldn't say it's necessarily just a focus. Um we're looking at those students who are getting C's and and D's as well. Um some of our other measures that we're looking at uh get more specifically at the rigor of some of these other elements. Um but we know that if students are not um uh if if students are not passing their class and to to a Dwood count um in terms of uh passing their classes, they won't get credit for that and they won't be able to graduate. So it is the measure that we know uh will eventually go into account for graduation
123rate but not necessarily the only thing we're focusing in on. Okay. All right. Oh, sorry, Miss Jones. I didn't see you. >> Thank you. I'm curious because I remember from a previous um board meeting, we were talking about was it second and fourth graders or whoever they attendance was great and then attendance wasn't and those kind of things. And so I guess it had me thinking, okay, at what point do either students lose interest, start to have problems, whatever it is, because it's almost like can we catch them before that happens? But the other thing I also thought about, I do think that oftenimes, no matter what the class is, um there are times when teachers can make things fun and sometimes the fun keeps people interested. And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying
124to say that everything isn't fun, but there are some things that students will come to do because that's the activity or that's the whatever. And to some extent, whatever we can do to help that take place, I think is going to be important. Uh, but the other thing I also wonder about is what is the support in the home? Nothing personal, but there was the expectation when I went to school that I was going to school. It wasn't like I was going to be cutting school or doing whatever because heaven forbid someone catch you and tell your parent. Um, but I'm not sure that that's exactly the same anymore. So, I'm not sure like what are maybe some other mechanisms and not expect an answer, but things that we as a system can do or
125look to do to try to help that or support that amongst our students. >> Yeah, I can um bring that back. I think, you know, when I think about your question, I think a lot about some things that we can continue to learn and it goes back to a question that you asked. Um, and so I could come back as we think about, you know, the the presentation and um that we'll end the year with and seeing where where we are. I will say to your broader point, there's so many um there's so many different access points and when we what I love about our goals in guard rails is they're focused in uh you know, they're focused areas, but these aren't the only areas. Um and there there are other areas if we were
126looking at them that there would be other uh challenges and so it is an entry point and a starting point. Um but there are areas where we can uh look in and the goal you're talking about in particular which we're about to be presenting on that again is thinking particularly for the algebra. One goal that we have but we're starting to look at our current fourth and fifth graders and where they will be when they eventually will get in nth grade. And so the more we can see some of those correlations, and I heard a little bit of that from you, Miss Lebron, if we're focusing in on these ninth graders, what's happening at the eighth grade level, it may inform how we look at some of our CEO um measures for the um the
127upcoming year. >> Yeah, >> Mr. Phillips, >> I'm sorry. I I thank you, Chair. I I have one more. I I just can't get my mind around to to really process. Um slide number four. Um and the reason being that the percentages just stick out to me so so much because it's a tight range. It's like 5%. Um range um from um the world languages being at 25% failure rate and then fine arts being like 20%. And so in my mind, I'm something in my mind is telling me, are these the same group of kids that's failing across the board because the range is so tight? I don't necessarily need an answer, but I'm just I'm just trying to kind of figure out is is that indic indicative of a a same group of kids
128that's maybe having a chronic absent issue or some other issue that's leading to that. >> Yeah. Yeah. But I see exactly what you're talking about. If you were looking up straight from top to bottom, you're you're roughly between, you know, 20 and 25%. And you know it's there you know and so I see what you're saying like you know is this the same group of kids that are consistently doing it and one of the things you will see and it is listed as a strategy here. The team has started to look at who are the students who are failing and it's due to chronic absenteeism which there is a big range. This is a group that we have the highest percent chronic absenteeism and there may be students that are failing every single class because
129they haven't shown up much. Uh but then the team also was looking and I did appreciate this um to because it could become so easy to say well they're not showing up so if they don't show up I'm gonna give them an F. We do have a group of kids and they're they're looking at this report now where they aren't necessarily in that high chronic absenteeism group and they are still failing. And so I think looking at both the strategy because if chronic if they're not showing up and that's one of the reasons why they're failing that is much more of a chronic absenteeism strategy. Get them in we can get them to pass. Um but then what's happening for the students that are coming in and this new report also helps differentiate that >>
130and if it is the same group or largely same are I'd be interested in what schools they're in right and are there interventions that need to be happening at a school level. >> Yeah. And now that that gets to even where I appreciate, you know, you clarifying just the high percentage range because a lot of districts that are track tracking freshmen on track um and there there have been systems at this for about 20 years um urban systems with some of the same challenges and you know you're you're in the 90%. And so when we could see some of our schools um that are neighborhood high schools that are doing this and they have high um they're they're getting kids to to pass their classes, there's something to learn from them. But we can get
131that that breakdown and we'll have that for um our final presentation. >> All right. Thank you. Any other questions on this report? Uh Dr. Morgan, I did want to follow up on my question at the last meeting around the uh supports or accommodations for prayer during the school day. >> Yes. Uh so what we have and what uh we mis uh put together and that was thinking specifically um that question came up around the calendar uh and some of the feedback that we uh got. So there are best practices that are being lifted um uh across the board um in some of our schools of where there are accommodations that are are being um met. One of the things our team is looking at is um looking at currently what our our our policy says
132and what are some things that we can um bring before our board and ensure that there is a a policy that uh you know list those accommodations. Um but there's already a policy that's that's listed. Uh but there are some best practices that Miss Fu has lifted in terms of things that schools are doing where they're providing the space um for students. Of course, we have the policy that the board has approved where um there is a time where families can actually uh pull students out if needing to do that. But the space for both uh students and um uh staff in the schools and so those are best practices that we want to lift for policy. >> Thank you. Um yes, my question was within the context of the calendar changes. Um, and also
133I know Ramadan starts next month, so that might be more of a need as well. Um, all right. Anything else, Dr. Morgan? >> We had our uh BBF really quickly. Yeah. Um, so one more presentation. >> This is what happens when there is a uh uh we don't have a a board meeting, but did want to give the update. The board charged us with um uh building brighter futures uh and what are some of the progress we're seeing. And so I want to share some of these updates really quickly and thank you team academics. Um >> we're going to sorry where is this presentation? >> Um the found >> uh we'll make sure it gets in the we'll get it in the agenda. I don't know if it's um uh updated now and there but
134we'll get that. >> Um so just an update in terms of our building brighter futures progress monitoring. This is one of the things was shared was going to be shared in our January one because every business meeting uh which this one's not a business meeting but we share update on where we are with building brighter futures. You guys know the timeline that we're in now we are heavy into implementation as I always say with any of these uh uh planning processes uh processes the implementation and planning part is the hardest part and that's where we are in right now. Um we know the high lever goals that we have around building brighter futures is to ensure particularly for the 100% college and career in each of our high schools that takes uh planning and intentionality
135that we're doing and then also the 100% of at least one enrichment course in each of our K8. So those are the uh the three big goals that we're tracking towards when we're thinking not only about the planning of the pathways and the the courses we're doing, but now as we're entering into staffing, it's a big part of the work that we're doing. Um so I I have an update for you particularly on enrollment in terms of where we're doing in terms of our choice applications. Those have been open now for over a month. Uh and then also staffing um because that's a big part of the work that we're doing through building brighter futures. Not only school-based staffing but also um central office. So um the choice portal opened on January 5th and uh
136opened with a uh a bang. Uh we in the first three weeks there was over 3,000 unique student uh applications received. I'm going to share some of the areas that are up. We are um when we opened up we were up in several areas and those continue to be up from where we were uh last year. Now comparing last year to this year is different. We opened the choice portal in January versus in 2024 would have been we opened in November 2024 was a different uh time. Um but uh in most of our categories uh we are up um from where we were in the first few weeks. Uh families have until February 27th to make a choice. Uh we really want to ensure that we leverage this choice window time uh and the the
137applications continue to roll in. Um so some things that we've seen uh to uh from where we are at um uh as of uh today um or as of yesterday um 4,489 unique students have submitted a CMSD application. Um and this includes uh 300 uh 3,66 unique stu uh current CMSD students but that's 883 who are new to CMSD. And that is a huge um that's up from where we were in terms of new families that are choosing CMSD. And that's exciting uh because even when I was at the choice fair this weekend, I saw a few families that were once students in CMSD. Some were not students in CMSD before, but they're interested in coming back uh or coming to CMSD. And we we see that even in our applications. Uh 45% of rising
138CMSD 9th graders have submitted a high school choice. This was also an area that was higher um up this year than what it had been in previous years. Uh 40% of preschool families have submitted their kindergarten choice for next school year. Uh 32% of impacted BBF families have made a choice for next year. This is a category we continue to want to monitor uh because we do know families have their welcoming seat. Uh but we are one of the things we've shared during this time. We need families to uh confirm their welcoming seat. That's going to be really important. Um we have those choice navigators uh that are supporting at um particularly our building brighter futures uh schools making calls. Um we're tracking that data per school to make sure families have made a choice.
139There's some schools like oh and I think about Alfred uh Benish which is in our central neighborhood where 100% of those eighth graders have made a choice. So that's exciting. It is only 13 uh eighth graders at Bish but 100% of them have made a choice. uh well you know uh and which enrollment is one of the areas we had to work on which is why we have to be building brighter futures. Uh but we are tracking that and our our choice navigators are are tracking that information. Um and we are the goal of navigators are to make at least three outreach attempts um and efforts to families by February 27th. So we're only a few weeks away from February 27th. >> Dr. Morgan, just for the board um this is now under 15.03 03
140in uh board docs and also available to the public. >> Thank you. So, in terms of our uh enrollment and marketing plan, um this is work that we've been doing to get the word out. Um you know, there's been social postings that our um external affairs team has been doing to get the word out. Uh there have been ads uh things that we've been working on not only through social media but then also um uh radio um you know different things we've been putting out there working with our city uh partners um to ensure that there's information that is going out whether uh on buses and um different flyers that are going out. I believe that there may have even been postcards that may have been sent out. Um so this has all helped as
141well as just IVRs and communications that have been going out with families. So all this has been supporting and helping our efforts and uh we think are attributing to the spike we've seen in uh applications. Uh we've talked about the support that we're doing and the work that we have underway. Not only those choice navigators that are every school, but we've had the school um choice fairs that have been uh very helpful. We had one school choice fair at the end of January, another one that was in February. Um we've had some focus specifically for our our high school students, those eighth graders that are choosing a high school. Um, we uh have the new schoolfinder tool which is connected to the application, but if you go to the building brighter futures website or or
142choosecmsd.org, I think that's the the the the website. Um, the school finder tool is there. So, you can see all of our schools there, you can actually see what are um uh some of the offerings that they have there and um know that families have a choice uh and can make that choice. Uh, and so, um, the other thing I would say is that everything is due on February 27th. And of course, the earlier you get your application, you, uh, the better. Um, but I know I've gotten questions from families is if our applications weighted any different based on when, um, you submit it and they're not. And so, February 27th, everyone has that opportunity. At that point, uh, we'll start reviewing it. Um, I know I got my letter of recommendation in. My scholar
143kept asking, "Please submit your reference for me, Dr. Morgan, and I got it in." Uh, talked to her mother to make sure that we got that in. And so, uh, really exciting. So, if you are someone who is sponsoring or recommending a kid for a school, make sure you get that letter of recommendation in. Uh, that's going to be really important. Um, so just other things to just share in terms of the timeline that we have here. We talked about this. This was something that we shared with the building brighter futures um um timeline that we shared. Uh in December was when we named principles. So uh immediately following the board vote around building brighter futures, we were able to name principles. Um in January, we were able to name and do the assistant principal
144process and starting that process. Central office budgeting actually kicked off um at the end of January. We're in the process of that now. uh and more work to come on our central office budgeting. Uh we'll be doing town halls with central office because all the work and I when I think about back to Chief Stockdale's presentation, there's a charge of a a finance target that we have through building brighter futures. That's not inclusive of the work we're doing at central office. And so there's work that we have to do at central office uh to support building brighter futures as well. And if we don't do those f the financial work at the central office level, we won't hit our overall um target or we won't be uh able uh we will be in fiscal uh
145watch in the the future. So we're doing some work at central office. We already talked about when the student enrollment window uh closes in February 27th that also helps us kick off the uh the school-based staffing um aside from administrators. So, we've been able to do um make some decisions around principles, assistant principles, deans, campus coordinators, all the that work has gone underway. Once the enrollment window closes, we'll have a better picture uh for some of our other uh staffing processes as well and want to uh end that process by April. Um, as we talk about just some of the key levers of support, there's just been a lot of proactive planning, um, ongoing conversations and also working groups not only with our administration but also with executive leadership from both CTU and some of
146our other uh, collective bargaining uh, groups. Um, we also have the instructional readiness and lensure work because even with the positions we may uh, find, we want to make sure that there's alignment. There are the current positions that we have, but then there's the promise that we talk about through building brighter futures, and we want to make sure that we have the staff that's needed um to do this work moving forward. Um there's work around that we've been doing with our principles. our our principles have been uh shouldering so much of the work uh all year uh because there's been information they've known they've known about their own um uh situations for a a a good amount of time while at the same time leading uh leading to uh finish out the year um leading
147to get academic excellence in a in a place and as I shared academic achievement um is up we'll be sharing some of that uh academic data in future board meetings uh but they've been working really hard but how are we supporting um through that time and I know there's some work that we're doing with principles in the upcoming uh school leader institutes. Um so just some some areas that we're continuing to really work on. There's a lot of intentionality and planning around pathways and programs. Um I I I mentioned the meeting I have with the governor and one of the things that uh director Steve Dakan showed uh us he showed us uh participation in CTE programs across the state. And when it was the map of the state of Ohio when we looked at
148northeast Ohio it was a desert um and showing and what I mean by desert just they had they had different color codes based on where CTE participation is and in northeast Ohio it's really low. Um and that's in alignment with the work we've been seeing. We saw the we we see what our uh college and career workforce and military readiness measure is with at the state and we also saw through our building brighter futures numbers even though we offer um many different programs uh really making sure we have those state approved pathways and so um I know our team our academics team has been working hard to ensure that they're 100% college and career pathways in each of our schools and seeing what that means in terms of the programs the continuity of some programs
149and also the addition of other programs Uh, and so that work is underway and it takes a lot of planning, intentionality, and work. And so, huge shout out, uh, to Dr. Florence and her team, and I know we're working with other partners to help us with that. Um, work we're doing around facilities, uh, so building reuse planning, all that comes before this board. Um, but we've been working really closely with the city of Cleveland, and I know that there are, um, listening sessions that they are doing right now, um, for to hear from the community. Um all of this is also leading us to a very uh strong start of the uh 2026 school year. So there's planning we're doing from everything not only on facilities but transportation um from our academic planning, staffing, all
150of these things is to make sure we have a strong start and we already each year do uh what we call like a a school readiness opening committee. Um and and this year a lot of the work we're doing to building brighter futures is in um conjunction with that. I will also say that a big part of our work is ensuring that the work we have with our partners is um is uh meeting the work that we're doing through building brighter futures. And so we have several partners all of which uh add to so much of our work. So um I've named a few up here because these are ones I personally u have been in conversations with. Argonaut who supports our work over at Davis and Aerospace and Maritime which will continue that's a
151pathway that will continue um at the um at the new Davis High School and Cleveland School of Science and Medicine Foundation Board which uh supports a lot of the work that is happening at Cleveland School of Science and Medicine. We intend to want to uh uh work with that foundation board in the new John Hay structure uh ties that supports a lot of our STEM work specifically in MC Squared STEM um but also in some of our other schools. And so I know I've had a a meeting with some of the um uh the board members as well as the leader of ties to say how do we continue this work moving forward. And I want to be clear as we think about our partnerships. I want to ensure we leverage these partners and continue
152the work. Uh the programs are are staying. So it's important that we continue the work. And a lot of our partnership agreements are really old or they haven't been updated. Uh we were looking at one of our partnership agreements for a school that's not up here and hasn't been updated since the early 2000s. And so we have a lot of work to do with our partnership agreement and um our work is to continue this work and move forward. We have schools to open up. We have kids that are signing up for these schools that are excited to keep the work going. I'm just excited to keep the work going and continue the partnerships and I'm ready, willing, and able to continue our work with our partners and we want to continue that work. Some of
153these conversations have started. I know our academics team has been meeting with a lot of our our our partners and so it's really important. We want the work to continue. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Um, regarding partners, you know, I know that we we invite these partners to be um in our schools and to support our work in educating students. I think something that gets missed a lot of the time is the investment that we make in bringing those partners in. How much money do we give Argonaut to operate inside of Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School? >> Yeah, I believe that's 300,000. >> $100,000 a year. >> 300,000. $300,000 a year. Okay. Thank you. Um Okay. Any other questions, Mr. Bilips? Thank you, Chair Elott. Uh Dr. Morgan, I just had um kind of one
154question and it's around the choice navigators. Um and again, kind of speaking to the um multilingual families. Um, I'm I'm assuming that the support is there for the multilingual families um to, you know, in in their language to help support them through the school choice process. Yeah, I'll I'll follow back up. I don't think I see anyone from our team that has that or do we have those for some schools that are assigned? Uh oh, here's Dr. Florence. our multilingual team does most of the support for those families. So, the school choice navigators are assigned. If there's families who need specific support, they reach out to the multilingual team to make contact with them. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Florence. Um and then I also just kind of um I I guess my thought process
155is um how much can the stu can can the choice navigator help the family? Um so is is that role more of a you know hey you need to do this you you know we need to get this done or can they really help the family understand what they need to do step by step in that process? >> Yeah. So there was there's several trainings we've done with our choice navigators and it's really all of the above. So some of it is just contact to say hey make sure it's happening. Oh I see right there. Sorry about that. I didn't see you there. Uh uh but one of the things that there's been training to say what how do we communicate with families let them know that the the portal is open but also that
156they understand the um the application uh process and the application is pretty uh simple um uh you know going in how you navigate it you know make a choice uh there is clear language if you are a building brighter future school that you know your welcoming school must be a choice so it's one of the things that we we do, but we can walk families uh through that process. Um and choice navigators as well as our enrollment team is all um trained on that. We've done work around school leaders, so they are ensuring how that uh process is. And for our eighth graders choosing high schools um I don't know if it's for all high schools or selective enrollment. That's where you get those uh you have to have references and as I shared before
157I'm serving as a reference uh for someone, but then that process it gets emailed to that person and they uh can submit their application. So the navigators can really help all through that entire process uh and support that work. Is there anything else you would add Sonia or >> Good evening. So I will add you asked about the stepby-step process. So, our navigators are trained to walk our families through and help them step by step the four easy steps of choosing their welcoming school or exploring other options. >> Thank you. >> I had I have one more. I I don't mean to hog this space. I'm sorry. Um, I I'm also wondering for students who I I know obviously we can't have um choice navigators in schools outside of the district, but for students or
158families who um maybe are entering the district in 8th grade, 9th grade, whatever, is there someone that they can reach out to that can help them navigate um through the process of entering CMSD? Yeah, a lot of our schools, particularly when thinking about the eighth grade selection, are whether they are uh counselors that may be there or other uh staff members, they help uh students through that process. And so many of our students um they are already submitting that application, they work with their families to do that. Um and that is a um is represented in the high numbers of eighth graders that have already um you know made a choice. Um and so you we have those supports underway at our schools. and why we are tracking it school by school. There are some
159schools that are doing great and there are other schools that you know are not. And when we think about the challenges, one of the pieces of data I'm looking at now is some of the families that have not responded or made a choice wouldn't be a surprise of who those schools are. Those are our schools high mobility rate. Um uh probably if we were looking at some of the other areas in terms of chronic absenteeism, uh um you know, some of the academic data, they they fit the bill on all those different uh things. And so we are differentiating our strategy because if we do a one-sizefits-all or just expect that if we do a fair and think that's going to reach everyone, there's sometimes that more intensive support that's needed. And that's what we're
160looking at. U we look at this data at least once a week on not only the cabinet level, but we look at it um in some of the different committee levels. And now really thinking about some of those differentiated supports. >> Dr. from working for the students that are like automatically going to be assigned to a school. Is there a confirmation process or anything like how do we know then that those kids will show up at the beginning of the school year if they're automatically assigned? >> Yeah, that's a great question and that's one of the reasons why we want families to make a choice now. Um if you are a a scholar that is in a building brighter future school, it is so important to confirm your choice. So the the be you have
161to go in and make an applica do your application and confirm your seat. Confirm your welcoming seat. You can also choose another uh school which we are seeing some some families choose other schools and we know that they're going to be some schools that are more competitive uh this year because we do have families that are choosing. Um but if they go in and choose that, that helps us know that they are coming. Um otherwise we will assign them. That's not the favorite thing we want to do because we know that we can assign them to a school. But what that could do is if they don't show up in the fall, um each year be a fall adjustment and then we have lots of movement because the families didn't show up. We overstaff, we
162overallocate, uh and at some point those adjustments need to be made. >> And when you say application, I know for the criteria schools, there are additional things, but what does that look like just in general for non-riteria schools? >> Yeah, it's literally just ranking the choice. So you just go in and just say uh you know one, two, and three. I know I I I see it visually in my mind because I um or I five choices of >> That's okay. I'm just curious like how cumbersome because when I hear application I'm I'm in the college access business. So I'm like what do these families have to do and >> so they know it's not are we sharing sort of that the process is not >> and we could do that even more. I think
163there's a video that we have out there that is walking families through it. Um but yeah, they go in and rank um five choices. And if for the high schools, um let's say you are a high school scholar that is choosing both a selective enrollment and one that is not, it'll prompt, you know, the uh the essay prompt that you have to do. But for the majority of our families, all we need you to do is go in um you know, log in with your information, uh select your your choices. If it's a building brighter futures one, make sure your welcoming school is number one. And it's just literally that simple. Okay, thank you. Anything else? >> Okay, thank you, Dr. Morgan. Is there any old business from board members? Um, we do have two
164items of old business that appear on our agenda carried over from our last board meeting. These are the resolutions adopting the 26, 2027 school calendar and the 2027 2028 school calendar. And at our January 13th board work session, we held a public hearing on those proposed calendars. Since under state law, the board cannot adopt the calendar until at least 30 days after that public hearing, the calendar resolution is held under old business on this evening's meeting agenda, and the board will be asked to vote on the calendar at our February 24th board business meeting. There any new business? I do have um quick new business. Um, as many of you know, I am our board's representative on the council of the great city schools uh board and uh the council of the great city schools
165not only uh is the uh creator of the student outcomes focused governance framework that we've put into place, but they do a lot of work um lobbying at the federal level, sharing information with districts at the about what's going on um in the education space at the federal level. So, I just wanted to provide a quick update from the last meeting that I got on um education funding. So, um many already know, but Congress did approve education funding about about a week ago. Um they did reject many of the significant cuts that the administration had proposed to education funds. Um they kept most cut or they kept most of the funding level. um which is still important to know about because it sounds good but um like Mr. Stockdale mentioned costs keep going up every
166year so keeping it level is actually a cut. Uh so that's uh notable for us. Um a very small increase in IDEIDA funding which um again very small. I think it was like 20 million but uh good to at least see the um indication that cuts are not coming to IDA which is our um special education students. So just uh those are my highle updates that I wanted to share. All right. Uh the next board business the next board meeting will be a board business meeting on Tuesday February 24th at 6:30 p.m. at Garrett Morgan High School. The chair will now entertain a motion that the board enter into executive session for considering the appointment and employment of public employees and officials, preparing for negotiations with public employees concerning their compensation or other currents other
167terms and conditions of their employment and conferring with attorneys concerning disputes involving the board of education that are the subject of pending or imminent court action. >> So, >> thank you. Mr. Stockdale, please call the role. >> Miss Elicott, >> yes. >> Mr. Phillips. >> Yes. >> Mr. Briggs, >> yes. >> Miss Jones, >> yes. >> Pastor Jones, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lebron, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peak, >> yes. >> Mrs. Walsh, >> yes. >> Motion passes with eight votes. >> Thank you. The board will now move into executive session. Following executive session, 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. Y >> So what we have going on here today is a
168meet 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 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
169the 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 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
170that'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 remember 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
171Cleveland 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? Is that your niece?" I was like, "No, that's not my niece." And then 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
172a 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 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
173site. On the welcoming page, your scholar's name should appear. Now, if it does not, click get started and add 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
174will 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 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.
175You 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 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 choosecmsd.org today and make your selection before February 27th. Your choice, your
176school, 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 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
177the 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 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
178football 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 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? >>
179I'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 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
180your 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 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
181it 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 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.
182And 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 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
183really 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 take 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 than basketball. So, when she um is out here, she put her hearts on the um field just like we do. >> Yeah. Coach O'Ne was great. She keep us all lifted up like something could go wrong and she was always bring the
184joy. 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 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 can be the state champs >> that's very exciting to me because like
185I 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'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. What did you not say? >> Like you're definitely going to fall off. You're definitely going to be excited, >> but it's fun. >>
186Yes, 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 experiments. 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
187able 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 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
188will 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 with 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
189uh 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 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
190because usually robots are like on surface, right? This time it's underwater which makes it harder to see but more funner because 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 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
191to 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 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,
192so 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 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 the seventh grade at Ammyra Elementary and our group is excited to be here today to share our opportunity for
193action. 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 other school year? >> We also wanted to make sure our ideas weren't just meaningful, but doable. We're excited to introduce a few of things we think that can make Riverside better right away. >> Our goal is to thank big for our classmates, our teachers, and our whole school. Congratulations and I hope that you have amazing. Would you say my
194classes? Today we have the ceremony award of the seal of bi literacy. Uh we have students who took the stamp test this 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
195they 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 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
196or 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 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
197and 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 and 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 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
198a 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 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
199you 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 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
200me, 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 into 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
201grade 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 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
202different 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 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 you don't mind me stepping off camera a little bit. Um, we have the capability of making mugs and they
203help 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? 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. >>
204I'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 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
205like 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 becomes 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
206the parents, um the community, the mail, um mailman, the neighbors across the street. They familiar with me, getting 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 run. I hear them say, "Boy, if it wasn't for y'all doing that, this 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."
207So they feel safe. They be like, "Oh, there go Miss Campbell, Miss Campbell." When they fear something, they come straight, 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 and 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
208students and scholars feel u 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 the 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 often 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
209like 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 a 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 go 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. I stood her up and they started
210doing 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 Wake Up Cafe was created to um give the students real world experiences promoting communication, social and life skills and also to help the 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
211opportunities 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 u capabilities of autistic individuals and it helps to support um inclusiveness. >> It's a really great way to break down misconceptions and celebrate what's possible. on your 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,
212you know, it it looks like a reef. Um and then we have the coral. The coral is basically like this like a 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 talk 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
213a 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 and 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
214schoolers 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 important 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 um just a listener. Um and they counsel where they can. >> I've been
215with 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 keep 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
216the 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 results 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
217everybody. 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? Negative15. 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 kids 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
218solve 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 I'm 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 are 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
219you'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 building 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
220failure. 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 or 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
221know 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 good to be part of a team. >> Thank you, Paras. 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.
222It 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 looked 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 and 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,
223starting 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 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 some questions. We have trading
224cards 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 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.
225We'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. It was source and that was my first for 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
226for 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 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? Is that your niece?" I was like, "No, that's not my niece." And then so then I
227went 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 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
228Cleveland 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 add 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
229save 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 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
230child 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 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 216838-3675. If you are unsure about your choice at
231this 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 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
232filters 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 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
233is 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 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
234in 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 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
235known 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 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
236already 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. >> 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
237join 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 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
238that 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 Anil, 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
239it 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 than basketball. So when she um is out here, she put her heart on the um field just like we do. >> Yeah. Coach O'Neal, she was 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. 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
240I'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 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
241as much opportunity. So, it just opens the door for girl sport. >> Now, it looks still even though you guys don't have pads and a helmet, it's still can be tough. I mean, it's still um >> I mean, it's still a contact sport. Would you not say >> that you're definitely going to fall off? You're definitely going to >> Good, >> 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, 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
242first 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 seen like their entire process through it and now looking at it inside the airport, it's like, wow, they did that. That's me. >> My name is Lori Lane. session. The chair will now entertain a motion to adopt resolution 19.01 authorizing the termination of a teaching employee. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Do I hear
243a second? Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Any comment or explanation? >> This is a recommendation for the termination of a teaching employee. >> Any discussion from board members hearing? No discussion. Mr. Stockdale, please call the role. >> Miss Alcott, >> yes. >> Mr. Phillips, >> yes. >> Mr. Briggs, >> yes. >> Miss Jones, >> yes. >> Pastor Jones, >> yes. >> Mrs. Leone, >> yes. Mrs. Peak. >> Yes. >> Motion passes with seven votes. >> Thank you. The resolution passes. The chair will now entertain a motion to adjourn this board work session. >> Second. >> Hearing. No objection. This meeting is adjourned. Have a good night.