CMSD Board of Education Meeting - November 19, 2025

001Mhm. >> This business meeting of the Board of Education of the Cleveland Municipal School District will come to order. Mr. Stockdale, please call the roll. Mr. Outcalt? Here. Mr. Phillips? Here. Mr. Briggs? Here. Ms. Jones? Here. Mr. Johnson? Here. Here. Thank you, Mr. Stockdale. I ask everyone who wishes to rise and participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. All right, good evening and welcome. As we begin, I'd like to share a few remarks um to kick us off. As our board and our community have been discussing and commenting on the pending recommendation for consolidating a number of our public schools, I would like to take

002a moment to talk about the role of the Board of Education, not just in this process, but in the governance of our school district, and where this current work sits within the context of the last few years. Ohio state law provides that the management and control of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District rests with the Board of Education. Over the last 2 years and change, about since I became chair, in fact, the board has undertaken a great deal of work in transforming its approach to its governance responsibilities to ensure that we fulfill those responsibilities in managing the district. Last year, with the community's input, the board created district goals and guardrails for the first time in the district's history to ensure that our district delivers to our students the education that they deserve, and that we

003monitor our progress towards that goal in a transparent and effective way. Earlier this year, we shifted our meeting structure so that we spend less time reading out resolution titles and more time actually monitoring whether our district is succeeding in its primary business, educating the children of Cleveland. This structure functions to hold our CEO accountable as well to transparently monitoring in public meetings his progress toward the goals and guardrails that we have set, an approach that he has wholeheartedly embraced, rather than picking information about what we want to share to the public on a given day. At times, that has meant the board and district having to face some unfortunate realities about how we are not delivering for our students. At the same time, it has given us the opportunity to set up the work to

004do better. We cannot change what we do not face. In order to achieve to achieve our goals that we set for the district, it was clear to the board that our building footprint would need to change if we were to deliver the math, literacy, and post-secondary outcomes that we are aiming for over the next several years. For that reason, in January of this year, the board directed Dr. Morgan to embark on a long-term facilities plan planning process that included significant community engagement. The initial result of that process was the Building Brighter Futures recommendation that the CEO presented to the board and the community 2 weeks ago. Now, it's up to the Board of Education to exercise its statutory role as the governing board of our school district and to review, discuss, and listen to additional

005community input on the proposed recommendations before making the final decision on consolidation of our footprint. With regard to input, as many of you know, we have doubled the number of public comment slots during our meetings. I challenge anyone to find a public body in this city that's willing to adapt its standard operating procedures in that way in order to allow for more community input. With regard to input, I do want to say we're looking to make changes with as much care and thought as we possibly can. However, input is not going to mean everybody gets to choose what they do and do not want. At the end of the day, this board is is to have to decide and indeed carry the burden of deciding what is best for the entire district and for the

006benefit of every student. So, thank you to each of you who is here, whether you're giving comment or not, for being a part of the meeting today. Next, we will have public participation. During this segment of the business meeting, we will hear all public comment on either agenda or non-agenda items other than the school calendar. This public participation period will be for persons who previously submitted the online request to speak form to address the board for up to 3 minutes each. As you know, there will be up to 20 speakers called up today, and this is an increase from our usual number of 13 speakers. Again, as usual, we will limit each speaker to 3 minutes. We ask that you respect this time limit, and the timer will be available on both sides on the

007screens here, and there will be a beep when the time is up. As always, I'm going to start with students cuz I know you might have to get home to do your homework. So, Logan Gernacki. Ladeja A. Harris. Maybe they're doing that homework. All right. Uh Councilman Charlie Slyfe. Stephanie Wernet. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Stephanie Wernet. I'm the Chief Innovation and Technology Officer for the City of Cleveland, and I'm here to speak in support of the Building Bright Futures Initiative. I am certain that this board is well aware of the $150 million deficit facing CMSD, even with the much-needed passage of last year's school levy. The root cause of this deficit is quite simply Cleveland's population loss. Back in 2000, CMSD served

00870,000 students across 127 schools. Now, however, CMSD has only 35,000 scholars spread across 90 buildings. So, while CMSD has, over the past quarter century, made the difficult decision of closing schools, it has, to date, only closed 30% of its buildings in response to losing 50% of its scholars. This means, unfortunately, we still have scholars sitting in semi-empty buildings, buildings which cost as much to heat, to clean, and to maintain as if they were full of scholars. And so, the CMSD board is again facing the unpleasant prospect of closing schools. But, we all knew this day was coming. Before I worked for the City of Cleveland, I spent nearly a decade at Breakthrough Schools. You CMSD sponsored most of our schools, and we had a great working relationship with you. We used to talk about the

009decision, the decision that CMSD would eventually have to make, and we waited for an administration that would have the foresight and the courage to make the decision for the long-term financial health and academic success of the school district. I'm grateful that the administration has arrived and is here now. And so, in closing, I and the mayor's office support CMSD's journey on the path towards Building Brighter Futures. We know you're still finalizing your plans, working with your teachers, working with your scholars' families, working with your communities, but we are confident that collectively, you all will make the right decisions to address the elephant in the room, and to mix metaphors, to stop kicking the can down the road. Thank you for taking bold steps, for removing funding from old, semi-empty buildings, and redirecting money towards scholars

010and teachers, towards algebra, computers, band and sports, towards professional development, IEP support, and safety programs for the benefit of all of our scholars. Thank you. Next, Brandy Baggerman. Hello, good evening. Good evening. >> nervous, sorry. Um my name is Brandy Baggerman, and I am the parent of first-grader Ryan from Louisa May Alcott Elementary School. I'm here tonight because this school has made a life-changing difference for my child and so many others, and it deserves to remain open. When my family moved here from Texas in the middle of last year's school year, we worried about how Ryan would adjust. From the very first day, the teachers, the staff, and students welcomed us with a level of warmth and care that makes us feel right at home immediately and comfortable with our decision to attend a public

011school in an unfamiliar city. That kind of warmth cannot be measured in enrollment numbers. Because Alcott is a smaller K-35 school, teachers truly get to know their students. Within just weeks of arriving, Ryan's teachers identified areas where he needed extra support, needs that his previous, much larger school never recognized. With the focused attention he receives at Alcott, that personal investment is shaping his confidence, his new love of learning, and his future. That is the power of a smaller community school, and it is exactly why a K-35 environment like ours must be protected. I see this impact every time I volunteer. The classrooms are joyful and engaging, the building is well-maintained, and the teachers and staff are deeply invested in every child's success. We may not rely heavily on certain support programs for our family, but

012we absolutely value them for our community. Programs like our care closet help families who need extra support and strengthen the sense of community that defines our school. I also want to briefly mention our students who receive special education services. Families are being told that these students may not be able to move with the rest of our building to the merged school, and there may not be space. Your decision should be based on transparent, accurate information to fully understand the impact on most of our vulnerable students. They deserve to remain with the teachers, peers, and routines that serve them best. Every child at Alcott deserves a guarantee, not just a promise of that stability. So, for families like mine, Alcott is not just a school, it's a safe, nurturing place close to home where children can

013grow and flourish. Closing it would disrupt not only Ryan's progress, but the strong foundations being built for so many children whose journeys are just beginning, and children that I see of every time I volunteer. I ask you to look beyond numbers and truly see the lives being shaped at Alcott. Please keep our school open. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank [applause] you. Next, Jonathan Salazar. >> [applause] >> Jonathan Salazar. Hello, board. CMSD, I just want to say thank you for giving me this time. Uh I want to start off by saying something that I haven't heard or just a handful of times during all these meetings, and I've been to a lot of meetings, which is sped, special education, special needs, 504s, which is super personal to me. Uh 4 years ago, I

014moved over to the land from New York, and my priority was to find the right school for my boys that can give me the help I need to lead them down the right path of progression. Thank God I landed with CMSD, which I'm forever grateful to, and Louisa May Alcott. You know, they I didn't do this by myself. You talk about a perfect storm. CMSD created a perfect storm in Louisa May Alcott with the special people that they put in there that took care of my boys, special people, special leaders like Ms. Greer, Ms. Moore, Ms. Powells, Mr. Chapelle, Ms. Hollowell Martin, Ms. Smith, special teachers like Ms. Schumann, Ms. Adler, Mr. Jay, Ms. Head, Ms. Maldonado, and God willing, they'll make it to Mr. Reese. You know, when my boys went to the school

0154 years ago, Gobby, my son, he was nonverbal. Now, he can sit [snorts] back and have a small conversation with you back and forth. It took that team to do that for me, and I'm forever grateful. CMSD did that for me. My son, Xavier, he started off in a self-contained class. With their help, with CMSD's help, Louisa May Alcott, I was able to transition him to gen ed, and now he's flourishing. It changed my life. It changed my boys' life. Parents know that there needs to be a plan. There needs to be a change, and that's for sure. But, the plan needs to get tweaked to give parents smaller school options, so there's not all big schools. For my sons, for a lot of parents, their kids excel in smaller schools. So, we need to

016have those options, like Louisa May Alcott. So, that it works. It works. You want to keep what works. I'm living it. My boys are living proof that it works there. So, we should keep it. It provides the excellence and inclusion for sped and gen ed are core factors. >> [music] >> Board, if any of you have kids, CMSD, you got kids, especially with special needs, you feel where I'm coming from. Thank you, Mr. Salazar. >> [applause] [applause] >> Zach Reed. Good evening, Madam President, to the board, to the CEO. Uh my name is Zach Reed. Um coming to you tonight, and I'm not speaking to you as a former city councilperson, and I'm not speaking to you as a a member of the mayor's cabinet. I'm speaking to you as a former student in the

017greatest high school in the history of high schools, John F. Kennedy High School on the southeast side of the city of Cleveland. I graduated in 1979 from John F. Kennedy, and I decided to go 3,000 miles away to go to school in San Francisco, California. When I got to California, I didn't have a college because I was supposed to go to one college, and I decided not to. So, I was looking through the newspaper one day, and I saw a college, and I decided that I would go to that college cuz I wanted to take political science. And I went down to the school, and I took the test, and I passed the test. And my family and friends wondered how I passed that test because it was the third accredited private college in all

018of California. The two schools in front of it was Stanford and USC. If I told you my school, you probably never heard of it, Golden Gate University. I was able to pass that that class that that test because I was prepared. I took algebra. I took geometry. I took chemistry. I took Latin thinking I was going to be a a a lawyer one day. So, when I went 3,000 miles away, I was prepared. Dr. Morgan, when you played that video at the state of the schools, and that one young lady from John Adams, our rival, said, "Then, why can't we take classes like that?" And it's a shame that the students in this Cleveland Metropolitan School District are not receiving the best education that he received. Because today, if they got on a plane and

019went 3,000 miles away, and they had to take that test, and they didn't take algebra, and they didn't take chemistry, and they didn't take Latin, they couldn't have done it. Every student in this school district deserves to have the same education, no matter what side of the city they live on. So, that's why I support BBF. Because as I got a great education, every student deserves a fantastic education, and I believe that this recommendation and this plan will give every student the same opportunity that I received, and I believe that's what we should vote on. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Reed. >> [applause] >> Next, Laquisha Tuggle. Take it away, Kevin. Good evening, Board of Education, the city of Cleveland, CTU Executive Board. My name is Laquisha Tuggle. I'm the assistant chapter chair

020for the CMSD LPNs. I am here to respectfully request your support in implementing a team nursing model across CMSD schools for the 2026-2027 academic year. This initiative is designed to strengthen student health services through a collaborative, efficient, and comprehensive approach. With the proposed mergers, there will be many schools that will serve 500 students or more. Our community is already affected by violence, poverty, lack of preventative health care, and underinsured families. Our students depend on nursing services for chronic, day-to-day Excuse me. They depend on nursing services for chronic and day-to-day services. We serve children in the areas of tube feeding, ostomy care, diabetes type 1 and type 2, medication administration, new diagnosis education, allergies, seizures, asthma, mental health support, and mandatory reporting with strict deadlines. Immunizations, vision, and pre-K data all have to be sent off

021to the state. Our current school health services face challenges such as high student-to-nurse ratios, increasing complex complexity of health needs, and limited resources in some cases. These factors impact student safety and their daily health, academic performance, and staff workload. A team-based model offers a sustainable solution, and it also takes care of is substitute issues that we currently have. So, the proposed model structures structured teams composed of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, the roles would include RNs would be leading the care plans, verifying and inputting orders, talking to those community health providers, IEP and ETR concerns, and oversight. LPNs would manage routine tasks, schedule community events, and support the acute care. Workflow, this model encourages clear delegation and communication protocols protocols to ensure continuity and safety. The key benefits, improved quality of care for acute

022and non-acute needs, enhanced efficiency and resource utilization, better communication and continuity of care, increased student health outcomes and satisfaction amongst all stakeholders. Professional growth and increased morale for nursing staff. The expected outcome, we want to reduce health-related absenteeism. We would get faster response times for our emergencies, higher higher satisfaction from students, families, and staff, and we want to increase preventative care with community service such as dental, vision, and our vitals clinics. Your approval and support is essential for this model, and it ensures the health and well-being of our scholars. The model also addresses the sub and absence concerns on its own, which in turn offers continuity of continuity of care. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter. These are my fellow LPNs, and we just want to stay and do what we've

023been doing for the last couple of years with Cleveland's kids. Thank you, Ms. Tuggle, and thank you all. >> [applause] >> Shacory Davis. Good evening. Good evening. Uh so, my name is Shacory Davis, uh president of Next Generation Construction. Uh local Clevelander, born and raised here in the city of Cleveland. Um uh CMSD grad, graduated from East Tech High School. Uh my wife graduated from CMSD as well. Um met her 32 years ago when I pulled her up in my seat on the bus. Um um both of my two two of my children, CMSD grads. Uh um one They're they both uh attended uh John Hay, uh which is a school that's um architecture, um sorry, science and medicine and early college, uh which is going to be merged, um and of course, they're sad

024about that process, but uh I'm here in support of uh the Building Building Bright Future plan um for multiple reasons. I am also um I do a lot of volunteering, and I sit on the board of Say Yes, sit on the board of uh uh Cleveland Builds, I sit on the board of GCP. In each one of these committees, I have the privilege to work with a lot of CMSD students. I'm also an employer. I employ over 100 uh individuals, um and I'm very intentional with my hiring of CMSD students, and I have to say um if it wasn't for my intentionality, and I measured them against uh kids from other areas, I'm not so sure that um we would be in the best position. Uh as we all know, society is changing, and um

025we don't we here do not uh create the market and the standard for hiring and uh for children to be prepared for uh different uh workforces, and um I'm very supportive in the plan that you all are putting forth. Uh we have to make the hard decisions, and uh I commend you for uh since you've been here, uh you've uh I wouldn't say a bearer bad news, uh more so a bearer of the of the decisions, the hard choices, and hard choices are not um easy to make. So, I commend you. Uh these choices did not just arise when you got here. Uh so, I just wanted to say we support you and I look forward to hearing the action plan in place for the business business community to work with you and partner with

026you so that this building brighter future plan can be successful. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> Jessica Jessica Rohrbach? Jessica Rohrbach? Good afternoon or evening now. I'm Jessica. This is Miles. He is my youngest of four children. We have lived in the West Park neighborhood for my whole life. So, I was raised in West Park. I went to St. Joseph Academy. I have two older children that attended private school and attend and graduated from St. Joseph Academy as well and Lutheran West High School. Um it was a hard decision and Miles is my first child that I have chosen to go to attend Cleveland Municipal School District. I decided to enroll him in Valley View Boys Leadership Academy where he is this is now his fifth year there. He has been there since pre pre-school

027and he is now in third grade. He we chose that school. It is a small school. Um but every time I drove past that school principal at the time Dr. Terrance Mitchell would be outside helping the kids cross the street. Every morning staff would be there fist giving every child a fist bump knowing every child's name. Um it's very hard on us to hear that although it's reported to be a merger with Kenneth Clement on the east side of Cleveland. To us it is a closure. It is a different building. It is a different name and it is in a completely different community. Having Miles um thinking of the decision to put him on a bus for probably 45 minutes to an hour every day. Um it's just not an option for us. He has

028thrived in a smaller school setting. He is used to that smaller school setting and unfortunately um I know Cleveland has done such great things with Miles. He's also on an IEP. He's had an IEP identified since um pre-school. He has been in speech and um it's we have stuck with Cleveland. Valley View was known for the extended school day, the extended school year. Um after care. All of those things have have stopped for us. We have navigated having grandparents pick up. With a school on the east side of Cleveland that is not an option for my parents who are 77 years old to go and pick him up. If there's an emergency, there is nobody able to pick him up over an hour away. I work in Lorraine County for Lorraine County Children Services and

029although I want to stick with Valley View or at Cleveland, I just want it known like how special it has been to be able to attend a school in our community where he can walk to school if needed. He's right there and it has been a pleasure working with Cleveland so far and it's very heartbreaking to know another school in our community will be closing. Um Miles just wanted to say one thing. Every morning they say a pledge. If he could say this really quick I can say it with him. Every morning they say this before the day of the start of the school day. We are the young men of Valley View Boys Leadership Academy. We are exceptional not because we say it, just because we work hard at it. We will always be

030responsible, respectful and resilient. We will always be each other's brothers. No excuses. Never fail. Never give up. Heads up. Mind is brilliant. Chest out. Love is in our hearts. Valley View Boys Club. Thank you, Miles. [applause] >> [applause] >> Next, LaQuetta Worley. LaQuetta Worley. Cleveland Teachers Union President Sherry O'Brinski. Good evening, President O'Brinski. Good evening, Chair Alcott. Good evening, board members, Dr. Morgan. Earlier this year I stood here with teachers, paraprofessionals, related service providers and parents as the board contemplated the elimination of the extended day, extended year and year-round calendars. Board members heard from all of these stakeholders and then implemented a one-size-fits-all plan across the district in the name of fiscal responsibility and equity despite everything you heard from the community. Today I stand here with these same stakeholders as the board considers closing

03129 school buildings and impacting more than 30 others with consolidation and building moves. That plan the plan that was represented by Dr. Morgan on November 5th made many promises moving students to better buildings, increasing the course options for students and much more. And I don't think that anyone can or should argue with these goals. They're what we want for kids. Better than what they have right now and more of what they deserve. The CEO also presented a compelling case for reducing the district's footprint, a shrinking enrollment and schools that are too small to offer what they deserve. It's hard to disagree with that logic. But here's where the agreement ends. The CEO described the vigorous attempts at community involvement in the process to develop the plan, the many meetings throughout the process to gather feedback

032feedback. Yes, meetings were held. Yes, feedback was gathered. But it's simply disingenuous to say that stakeholders have had meaningful input into the actual plan. Asking people what their aspirations are for their children's education is conversation, not input nor feedback. Feedback and input involve actually cluing the community in on your plans and having them tell you what they think, gathering their questions and answering their concerns. It's only now over a year into this process that we are anywhere near that part. To gather this feedback and input, the board has committed 3 hours of public comment over the next 4 weeks before making decisions that will completely alter the landscape of education in Cleveland. Proposed changes that have to this point failed to take into account the lived experience of Clevelanders, their thoughts and opinions. Over the

033next 4 weeks the board has a duty to this community to not only listen and learn from the feedback and input that you're now getting after more than a year of planning, but a responsibility to get out your red pen, not your rubber stamp, and make the changes necessary to create what our kids need and deserve. Over the next 4 weeks you need to examine closely why, for example, Mooney's moving to Denison and not the other way around or why neither is consolidating with Ben Franklin or why the John Hay campus is being condensed when it would seem there's no actual existing plan for how that will be accomplished or why Hannah Gibbons is moving to Memorial as opposed to OH Perry, which is physically closer to Hannah Gibbons, particularly when we have limited capacity

034for transportation. This is only a sample of the concerns that I've heard, but my 3 minutes are almost up. On December 9th you will all make decisions that will impact the children of Cleveland far beyond your tenure on the board. I know that all of you here are in service of CMSD students [music] in our community. Part of that service is listening not only to district administration, but to all of our stakeholders. Then using that knowledge to make the changes that need to be made. It is only when you do that that you can prove to the people of Cleveland that you are really building brighter futures. >> Thank you, President O'Brinski. >> [applause and cheering] >> Dr. Shenise Johnson. >> [applause] >> Good evening. I do want to start by saying appreciation for President

035Sherry O'Brinski's comments. My name is Dr. Shenise Johnson Thomas and I'm here on behalf of Cleveland Public Library CEO Felton Thomas Jr. Good evening, Madam President, CEO Morgan and CMSD board. >> [gasps] >> I am here to share that Cleveland Public Library supports the recommendation made by CEO Dr. Warren Morgan. And I'd like to provide how CPL will provide support in the following areas. Number one, prioritizing student support. Cleveland Public Library values its enduring collaboration with CMSD while remaining steadfast in its mission to support scholars and families. To help families make informed decisions about high school placement, we are partnering with CMSD to host the December school choice fair. Number two, community-based communication. Every CPL campus will serve as a trusted partner and point of connection for CMSD families, helping to provide accurate information on

036school assignments and creating state safe spaces for questions and dialogue. Number two, number three, transition resources. CPL will work alongside CMSD and community partners to develop programs and tools that support scholars in completing the school year and preparing them for the next with an emphasis on continuity in learning. Number four, equitable access for all students. CPL will work with the district to ensure that every student has access to the resources needed to to thrive during and beyond this transition. And finally, it is important to note that Cleveland Public Library remains committed to ensuring that all Cleveland's young scholars and their families have safe and convenient access access to our campuses regardless of where they go to school. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. Next, CCAS President Quenton Davis. Good evening. >> Good

037evening to the school board, to Dr. Morgan and his team, to our CMSD family, to the Cleveland community, and most importantly, the reason I'm standing here tonight as the president of our Cleveland Council of Administrator and Supervisors, also known as CCAS. I want to begin with a story. I'm currently enrolled in CSU's doctoral program. Every semester, the university releases the Dean's List, students who have earned a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Recently, a friend of mine asked why I hadn't mentioned making the Dean's List. I paused. I responded, "I didn't tell you because I've been telling you all along about my grades, the assignments, my test scores, my dissertation feedback, etc." I assumed that if the process was tight, clear, and communicated consistently, then you already knew the Dean's List was a guarantee. It was

038a promise. In my mind, the process was clear, but in reality, the people around me still had questions, and that meant the process wasn't as tight or transparent as I believed for them to believe I met the promise. Now, what does this have to do with BBF? We all understand the promise of BBF, a strong, equitable, and robust learning environment where every kid, regardless of their zip code, has access to opportunity. The promise is not the issue. The process is where the question lies. And when the process is unclear, when stakeholders don't understand the sequence, the rationale, or their role, uncertainty grows. Doubt grows. Trauma from past CMSD experiences resurface, and the very people who must uphold this work every day begin to wonder where they fit in. If the process is honest, transparent, seamless,

039and inclusive, then there is no room for confusion or mistrust. A tight process leads to a tight outcome. A clear process leads to a clear promise. Administrators are essential to the BBF's BBF promise. For many of us, the district is not a job. It is woven into the fabric of our daily lives. We have committed our careers and some of us, our families and personal sacrifices to ensure CMSD students thrive. Administrators are the bridge between the district's vision and school execution. We are the ones who translate plans into action, who support teachers, who support families, who respond to families, and who ensure instruction does not stop even in challenging times. Because of that, we desire fully to be included in the full BBF process, especially when it comes to decisions about admin placement, staff changing,

040building level adjustments, and structures that impact our daily work. We are not asking for control. We are asking for a true seat at the table. Our request is simple. I'll wait till that stops. I got like 20 seconds. Once it stops, you can finish. I'll put it Thank you. I appreciate that. Allow us as a CCAS school leaders and administrators to collaborate with the board and with the district leadership in shaping the processes of BBF. Not to debate the vision, not to disrupt the work, but to contribute purposefully to design um of systems that would determine whether the promise is fulfilled. We do not have time or interest in being combative. This would delay the access to the promise our students truly deserve. We want to be an unwavering collaborator. We want to ensure the

041decisions being made about us, our schools, our teachers, and our students are informed by those who are closest to the work daily. BBF is a promise worth fighting for. But promises are only realized when the process is strong. Let us be a part of strengthening that process for our schools, for our teachers, for our administrators, and above all, for our students. Thank you. >> Thank you, President Davis. >> [applause] >> Katie Kelly. Katie Kelly. Thank you, CEO Morgan, Chair El We also see that CMSD's preschool program is a powerful driver of enrollment. Over the past decade, more than 70% of families who enroll in the district's preschool program go on to enroll in kindergarten. The district's commitment to continuing to offer preschool in nearly every elementary building is especially important now. We are seeing consistent

042year-over-year increases in the number of young children who work requiring special education services, and state and federal policy shifts and funding uncertainties threaten other sources of high-quality preschool across Cleveland. As you finalize planning with school school communities across the district, we urge you to preserve as much capacity for preschool as possible. We are also encouraged that the district is expanding its use of state resources, including the early childhood education grant and publicly funded child care, to strengthen the preschool program. These funds significantly enhance CMSD's ability to sustain high-quality preschool in every neighborhood, and will help offset the district's costs and contribute to sustainability. With 5 seconds left, Pre4Cle is here to be a partner in whatever way we can to support the district's plan, including helping families find high-quality preschool options next year. Thank you,

043Ms. Kelly. >> [applause] >> Next, SEIU Vice President Shahera Shire. Good evening, CEO Morgan. >> the mic if you need. I'm sorry. I'm short. Good evening, CEO Morgan, board chair Ellicott, CMSD board members, staff, families, and community members. My name is Shahera Shire, and I serve as the member vice president and lead delegate for SEIU District 1199 CMSD chapter. I am here today representing more than 600 dedicated employees across the ESS, food nutrition, non-school support, and school secretary classifications. This is the team that greets families each morning, serves meals to our scholars, maintains clean and welcoming school environments, and ensures essential daily operations run smoothly throughout our district. We appreciate the CEO's recent meeting with our leadership team and the commitment to engage meaningfully with our membership in the weeks ahead. As you consider recommendations

044for building brighter futures, we urge you to recognize that some schools may see their enrollment double. This reality requires a serious commitment to prioritizing adequate support staffing levels for the 2026-2027 school year. As the board reviews the recommendations presented in this plan, it is imperative to ensure sufficient secretarial coverage, fully staffed kitchens, and robust environmental support services. These roles are foundational to smooth operations and central to scholar success. We stand ready to collaborate with district leadership to ensure that every scholar, regardless of school or neighborhood, has the resources, stability, and support necessary to thrive. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Vice President Shire. Next, Alizay High School. Danelle Chappell. Good evening. Greetings to Chairperson Ellicott, Dr. Morgan, the rest of the board. Thank you for hearing me today. Number one, I have a Today,

045I'd like to have an invite, an advocacy, and a recommendation. The invite is I'd like to invite you to Louisa May Alcott Black History Black History Month program through the lens inspired by Through the Lens of Allen E. Cole, A History of African Americans in Cleveland, Ohio by Samuel Black and Regina Williams. It's going to be sometime in February. I'll send you out reminders, so book that in your calendar. Number two, I'd like to advocate for a creation of an academic contemporary to the Senate, such as having the academic side, like we have sports, academic bowl, academic decathlon, and we compare that to the pre-K through eights, so we can have spelling bees and math competitions, and then they can unite and boost each other and boost some of that stigma. A powerful thing a

046young man said at one of the town halls is our high schools are not gangs. They are not. They are anchor institutions to build future leaders of tomorrow, and I advocate for that. It's in the Let's Talk app, so I'm not going to spend too much time on that. Um Something I often get in trouble saying to my friends is I'm not against favoritism. I'm against being no one's favorite. The The Building Brighter Futures did not cut our way at Louisa May Alcott, and I could almost stomach it until we got to special education. We move together at Louisa May Alcott. If we're If we're told we're all merging, we all merge. And this year, that maybe our special education may be with us, maybe not. We don't move like that. Our special education kids

047have never heard nothing like that. They take up space in our building. They take up space in our gyms. They take up space in our hallways. They take up space in our playground. We'll shut the playground down for 3 days for a kid to have their goal of reaching the top of the playground, and they will cheer. That's Louisa May Alcott. I have a recommendation that we have a Building Brighter Futures meeting specifically for special education before this vote. You have done a wonderful and incredible job of hearing the hard questions and hearing the hard statements. You have built the guardrails. You have built the core values. Let your hard work work and hear out the community of special education. And if you have a problem, we'll help you. We know it's hard to configure

048it, the continuity between K to 2 MD autism, 3 to 5 IAS, and all of that. We have seen a special dedication to the specialized schools, but we want to see special dedication to special education. And just lastly, we're going to end it off and round it out for the advocacy of Louisa May Alcott. Might as well shoot my shot while I am here. We understand that you have got plot points and data points and all of that. But what would it take to keep Louisa May Alcott open, this magical place, the place that don't mothball it and lose the magic. If the guardrails are the wall and the core values are the line, then let Louisa May Alcott be the trampoline for special education, for integration, SO THAT THOSE WHO GO INTO THE FUTURE

049ARE NOT LOST, but we will prepare them into the future. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Chappell. >> [applause] >> Ryan Evanson-Hein. Ryan Evanson-Hein. Ramona Brazil. Good evening. My name is Ramona Brazil. I'm executive director of government and community relations at the MetroHealth System and a proud graduate of Cleveland Metropolitan School District. I'm here tonight on behalf of our president and CEO, Dr. Christine Alexander Reyburn, to confirm and reaffirm MetroHealth's strong support for CMSD. More than a decade ago, Dr. Alexander launched MetroHealth's school health program at Mound STEM Elementary in a converted classroom. Since then, through the Integrated Health Initiative, we've expanded care with mobile clinics serving more than a dozen CMSD schools and opened five in-school clinics at Mound, Clara Westropp, Glenville, Anton Grdina, and my alma mater, John Marshall. These clinics offer

050students a wide range of care, annual and sports physicals, treatments for illness and injury, chronic disease management, mental and behavioral health, teen services, and dental care. By meeting students where they are, right in the schools, we see real results: higher immunization rates, more consistent physicals, fewer absences, and stronger academic performances. We encourage families and staff to take advantage of these on-site clinics, and parents and guardians can fill out consent forms so students can be seen through the day. Our partnership, however, extends beyond health. In Lincoln-West High School, the first high school in the nation located at a hospital campus, students gain experiences, mentorship, and scholarships. They explore not only medicine and nursing, which is my background, but they also the many professions that keep a health system running, from IT and supply chain to legal

051services. But we also recognize that change is difficult. Change is painful. And as we look at Lincoln-West consolidating back to one school, we recognize that our program may look different. But just as MetroHealth has has faced significant financial pressures while meeting high community needs, we stand with CMSD, and we reaffirm our commitment to continue and reimagine an even deeper partnership. I'm intrigued by the team team nursing. How can we help? How can we help in leveraging our relationship? So together, we will keep working with the schools to provide care, opportunity, and pathways into health care careers, helping Cleveland scholars thrive today and lead tomorrow, just as someone did for me. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] I'm going to go through those who I called earlier, just in case anybody has arrived. I do want to

052allow the opportunity. Logan Gernacky. Ladeya Davis. LaQuita Worley. Ryan Evanson-Hein. That concludes our public participation period. This evening's consent agenda includes the minutes of the last board meeting and one Board of Education resolution, two finance resolutions for excellence and culture resolutions, and three legal resolutions. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda consisting of agenda items 4.02 through 8.03 as set forth in the board meeting agenda. So moved. Second. Thank you. Mr. Stockdale, please call the roll on this motion. Ms. Ellicott. Yes. Mr. Phillips. Yes. Mr. Briggs. >> Yes. Ms. Jones. >> Yes. Pastor Jones. Yes. Mrs. LeBron. Yes. Mrs. Peek. Yes. Dr. Sridhar. Yes. Mrs. Wulchau. Yes. The motion passes with nine votes. Thank you. The motion passes and the minutes are approved and the 10 resolutions are adopted. Next,

053we have one academic resolution 9.01 authorizing the issuance of a purchase order to Panorama Education Inc. to purchase the teaching and learning survey platform which consists of digital licenses and material declaring that these items may only be acquired through Panorama Education Inc. as a sole source provider in an amount not to exceed $105,875 that the board will be voting on separately from our consent agenda. That is because pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Section 3311.75 and 3313.46. With the adoption of this resolution, the board must determine and declare by a 2/3 vote of all its members that the supplies and services purchased from Panorama Education Inc. are available and can be acquired only from a single source. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve resolution 9.01. Again, the full title of which is set

054forth in the board meeting agenda. Thank you, Dr. Shridhar. Second. Thank you. Mr. Stockdale, please call the roll on this motion. Ms. Alacourt. Yes. Mr. Phillips. Yes. Mr. Briggs. Yes. Ms. Jones. >> Yes. Pastor Jones. Yes. Mrs. Lebron. Yes. Mrs. Peak. Yes. Dr. Shridhar. Yes. Mrs. Welsh How. Yes. The motion passes with nine votes. Thank you. The motion having passed by at least a 2/3 vote, the resolution is adopted. All right. Um at this time the board will take the opportunity to continue the discussion of the Building Brighter Futures recommendation that our CEO presented to us at our November 5th board work session. Do board members have any further questions from last time that have come up before we get into the presentation? All right. Um Dr. Morgan, over to you. Thank you, Chairwoman Alacourt,

055and uh thank you, board members, for your questions. So, some of the questions that you shared during our November 5th meeting, I have those answers for today. And then also as the questions we've been getting even tonight, they're so helpful. It's always really helpful to hear the feedback and also thinking about I heard a lot about process, um not necessarily just the promise, but the process. And I think that's something we all agree on that we really have to ensure uh should this be a the recommendation move forward or any version of the recommendation move forward, it's going to be really important that we work together on the implementation. It's a really big plan that has a really huge promise, and I know our entire community wants it to be successful. Uh and so, some

056of the things I want to share tonight are just some of the questions that came up last week. I wanted to bring those responses back to you, members of the board, but then also share some responses to some of the things we've been out in the field cuz we've been actually today completed all of our staff meetings that we've done in in buildings. Uh we've started doing our family meetings, and I wanted to hear share with the community some of the things we've been hearing bubbling up and provide some responses to it. I know there were even more questions that were lifted tonight that we would love the opportunity to share more on. Um just a reminder, these first couple of slides are what we call repeat to remembers just to make sure that everyone

057is grounded in not only our timeline, but also the recommendation. So, as you're aware, 2 weeks ago I shared the recommendation to the board. And as Chairwoman Alacourt mentioned in our November 5th meeting, the intention is for the board to vote on December 9th, so a few weeks away. What has been taking place in the in between time has been those staff meetings. We've been in all of the schools that have had some type of an impact, whether you are transitioning school, welcoming school, or moving school to do staff meetings. We've also started the family meetings as well. As you've even heard tonight, some of the questions bubbling up from those. We've also been doing briefings with our principals and assistant principals. And also just meeting with other different staffing groups. I know there's opportunity

058that we had a chance to meet with SEIU. I know soon I'll be meeting with our bus drivers over at the bus depot. So, really getting out to listen to our different staff groups. And then there will also be an opportunity for us to hear specifically from chapter chairs at transitioning and welcoming and moving schools to receive that input as we continue to gather feedback. And that will be taking place um in about a week and a half. We've also had student support led by our human wear department at all of our schools. So, just a reminder of the recommendation. So, our recommendation, the the first column on this slide is beginning with the end in mind knowing that in this recommendation, should the recommendation go through, there will be 18 buildings that we will

059need to think about for reuse. There will be 18 buildings that will be left empty that we will need to figure out what we are doing. I know we're working with the city on that. Some of those uses we may also use as education facilities for our district, but those are all things that we're planning to planning to move forward and work with should this recommendation be approved by the board. Um and there are five lease spaces that would end. Those five lease spaces in in this recommendation would be the space we have at the Great Lakes Science Center, the space we use at both Tri-C and Cleveland State University for MC Squared STEM, the space we use for Campus International High School, and our fifth lease space oh, Stonebrook um uh Montessori that is

060part of the Michael R. White Montessori which will be moving to the Stephanie Tubbs Jones building in this recommendation. Now, we know that buildings are not synonymous with schools. So, even though there 18 buildings that would be left vacated, there 29 fewer schools as you heard many of the commenters mentioned. So, this recommendation includes 29 fewer schools, a total of 39 total mergers and moves. And we've shared some of the details of this that these are all mergers or consolidations per our union language and not necessarily closures. Really thinking about how students move and staff move. We heard some good feedback tonight about some of our specialized groups cuz as it is now, there are some buildings that have space requirements for special education, pre-K. And so, those are always even now how we have

061to think about the space requirements for those, but the comments are heard and we definitely want to ensure we can continue to work and provide that information to the community. And then also just realizing the system-wide benefits of this plan. So, speaking of the benefits for the plan, you heard a little bit about this tonight in some of the comments about the promise. So, I do want to make sure everyone understands the promise. So, of those students in impacted schools, those students who are in a school that is transitioning or student that will need to move schools, 100% of those students will have expanded academic opportunities, extracurricular opportunities, athletic opportunities as well as student supports. And 96% of them will be attending an equal or higher rated star school. So, these are students will have

062a higher performing school that they will have an option to. They will have a seat and reserved seat at a welcoming school. And then 95% of the students will have a reserved seat at a welcoming school that is equal or better in terms of building condition. So, all of this is part of the recommendation should the board vote on the recommendation. And also, this plan saves us an estimated $30 million a year. And when we think about that $150 million target we talk about over the next 3 years, this totals to at least $90 million. And I'll talk a little bit about our finance forecast per the questions that we received on both from Dr. Shridhar as well as Ms. Welsh How last week. We'll be sharing more of that later on. Now, those were

063just the impacts for the students in impacted schools or the the benefits for students in impacted schools. Building Brighter Futures as you heard from many of the commenters tonight has the promise for every single student within CMSD. And so, the promise for the entire system is that 100% of our high schools will offer college and career opportunities and pathways starting next year. 100% of our elementary schools will offer at least one enrichment course beyond art, music, or PE. And we've talked about those enrichment courses being the ability to take algebra one in eighth grade, offering foreign language, offering CTE pathways starting in the middle grade. All of that will take place starting next year. And we know that this plan has a promise to ensure that 100% of our students are in newer upgraded facilities.

064This will take us a few years as we're building some new buildings. This recommendation includes a new high school build for the Glenville Collinwood community as well as a new high school build for Lincoln-West and a new build for Marion-Salk but then also there several facilities upgrades that we will need to do in some of our other buildings to bring them up to par with this recommendation should the board vote on the recommendations, the buildings that come offline also frees up resources and bond dollars for us to pay for facilities upgrades in our existing buildings. So, I want to respond to questions that were raised by the board last week or 2 weeks ago as well as things we've heard out in the community. So, the first one that in part the the biggest one

065we've been hearing whether it's been out in community meetings we've been doing or in some of the town halls that have taken place last week is this question about won't merging schools dilute what's really working in our schools and the academic promise that all of our schools have today. And then there's this other question about are we is this plan disregarding some of the great work that's already taking place in schools around college and career readiness. And so, I do want to take a moment to address some of these questions and know that as we continue to get questions really on the programmatic aspects, those are things that we'd love to bring back to the board to share some of the things that we're working on and planning and give some more specific details on

066that. One I want to remind you this is information that is on the slide that is posted on the website as well as on the individual slide decks that schools have. Building Brighter Futures does offer, particularly in our high schools, well in all of our schools but in our high school mergers, the expanded opportunities for college and career opportunities. So when we talk about that 100% many of our schools do not offer those programs now and with the enrollment it offers that expansion. It offers the expansion of language electives, the ability for students to earn honors diploma at every high school and also the ability for many of our high schools to have Senate League sports. But we also want to preserve what's working. There's been many questions as we've been having meetings about what

067about the key partnerships? We have some really great partners you know within our our system. You heard about MetroHealth that I know is supporting our Lincoln West campus and other campuses you know as you think about the clinics but I know particularly the program at Lincoln West. We want to preserve that and also figure out as we're doing the next iteration of this plan, how do we strengthen that and strengthen the model so it actually has a clear pathway with the four courses to to complete a pathway cuz sometimes we're offering a program without a completed pathway. We've I know we've been meeting with the foundation board at Cleveland School of Science and Medicine which we want to preserve those programs and now with the opportunity that more students have access to that curriculum, what

068does it look like to support more students in that model? And I know that there are internships that the Cleveland Clinic offers. We want to continue those types of programs and thinking about the expansion of that. With Argonaut over at Davis Aerospace and Maritime, now that you know with this recommendation if should the board vote on this, that would be a combined school at Benjamin O. Davis Jr. where both the Aerospace and Maritime pathway as well as the Media Arts pathway as well as the transportation pathway will all be there together. So how do our partners actually support all the students in the model and expand those partners? So we really want to continue to meet with our partners. MC^2 STEM is another one. Excellent model that now will have the opportunity for kids in

069the central community in this recommendation to have that option at East Tech High School. It's not about eliminating the partnership, it's about expanding it and giving opportunity to to kids that have not had that opportunity. So a lot of opportunities for us to work and preserve what's working and then also thinking about how do we protect against cuts to services. We want to ensure increased safety and security. I'll talk about safety in a moment. Nurses in our buildings, still having our full-time on nurses. Shout out to the LPNs who are here tonight. I know you guys hear me say it enough, my mom is a school nurse so always has a special place in my heart. But we're really thinking about how we preserve that and think about supporting that and guidance counselor services in

070our schools as well as special education, pre-K, all of these different things are things that we're protecting. For more specific details, I know the community has specific details about their school community. The Building Brighter Futures page is a landing page on our website where it is a repository for all Building Brighter Futures information. So if you have questions about your specific community, so you can see on the slide here, this is a screenshot of the website. I know we're in the process of doing some upgrades to the website so it may look a little different but on the Building Brighter Futures website, not only can you find past videos that we've done, you can see the recommendation that I delivered to this board on November 5th. You can see the presentations we've been doing at

071all the different school communities that specialize for each individual school based on the recommendation. You can go on the website to see that. You can also go on the website to find frequently asked questions. So we know we've been getting lots of questions and sometimes we may get the same question 100 times and so for those frequently asked questions we would ask that you know, one you can ask it and we will answer it but also you can go to the website and get that information. We'll be continuing to update it based on information that we receive as well. But this is all on the Building Brighter Futures landing page. Another question we've heard about was about the East and West side the the differences of opportunities on the East and West side and there

072were many questions I've heard over the course of the several weeks around, you know, aren't we decimating the East side? You know, stripping the East side away from schools. Hasn't this been a historic practice? And I just want to bring some numbers and facts to some of the things that we've looked at. So as you look at this slide here, our current reality right now we have six this is looking at our K-8 schools. So this data these data points are only for our K-8 schools. We have 61 elementary schools. Right now 34 of those elementary schools are on the East side, 27 are on the West side. And if you look at our current enrollment right now, our enrollment is slightly lower on the East side than the West side. We have more students

073on the West side but less buildings. I also want to remind you that right now we have 61 elementary schools. We took two elementary schools offline last year, both of those were on the West side, both in Walton and both in Newton D. Baker. So those were both on the West side. We've already closed two West side schools last year. And we still have more East side schools. With this recommendation should the board move forward with this plan, there's a recommendation for a total of 45 elementary schools next year. The East side would still have one more school than the West side. And so I just really want to make sure I know sometimes we can talk in platitudes and there's also experience and I heard that in the comments that there's experience behind the

074words and people's lived experiences but I also want to make sure we're grounded in facts and in data in terms of what's taking place. The other thing I want to know want everyone to know that with this plan and I know there were questions about won't students be left in deserts? Our data when looking at the average distance students will have to travel to get to a nearby CMSD school it will still be under a mile. Still under a mile for students to get to a nearby CMSD school. Now we're open choice system. Students can choose wherever they they want to go. So we have students that live on the Southwest side that are traveling all the way to the Northeast to go to school. Like some of our our patterns show that and if

075that's what they choose and they can get there, they can do that. But we are open choice system but if families want to choose a school that is in their neighborhood. Like I you know I I heard the compelling case tonight of the the family that's at Valleyview and I know with this recommendation they won't the recommendation doesn't include an all boys leadership academy on this on the West side but there are there are other options in that neighborhood. There's there's Riverside, there's Clara Westdrop. You know, there there are other options that are in that neighborhood not all boys leadership academies that families could choose. And so in this time when we're thinking about the open choice enrollment should the board vote on this plan, there are transition supports for families to understand not only

076where they have a reserved seat. So in that case Valleyview students in this recommendation would have a reserved seat at Kenneth Clement but also have the choice to make a a choice within their neighborhood. And so just really helping families understand that. But should they choose, there still is a school within less than a mile of where they live. All right, speaking of transportation there were questions about transportation. I know on the day of the recommendation I shared that our commitment is to continue to provide safe and reliable transportation to all of our scholars. A couple of things just to add some facts behind that and what we're planning to do. Currently CMSD we transport students who live within one to three miles of their school and we will continue to do that. That doesn't

077change with this recommendation. Also specialty schools that offer district-wide transportation, we will also continue to do that. That's also part of this recommendation. Currently high schoolers that live more than a mile from their their school receive RTA transportation. That will continue through through Building Brighter Futures with the continued support and I know we're looking at the revamping of safe passages supports given this recommendation. And then also we have to provide transportation for students who have accommodations or things that are in their IEP that requires them to have specialized transportation. That is what we currently provide. We will continue to provide that. So this is just a graphic here. Now you may be asking why is it saying K through 7? Because the students should this recommendation go through and this is where the board wants

078us to charge us in terms of moving forward with Building Brighter Futures, there is K through 7 students are the students who would need to make a choice. So rising kindergarten students and then of course well actually current kindergarten through 7th grade students. Rising kindergarteners of course they will be new students. So these will be current kindergarten through 7th graders. These will be the first through 8th graders next school year. Of course all current 8th graders will be our rising 9th graders and they need to make a high school choice and so there is a a process for that. But when we talk about transportation we provide yellow bus services to our elementary students and then of course high school students who have special education services. But in our elementary schools if you are if

079you attend a neighborhood school and you live less than a mile of your welcoming school. So a student is has a reserved seat at their new welcoming school. They're at a school that their school is closing, they need to go to a welcoming school but they live less than less than a mile, they're within walking distance and they would not receive transportation. That that's currently our policy they wouldn't receive transportation there. Now if their welcoming school is more than a mile, a mile or more currently as it is now from their welcoming school, they would receive transportation not only for next school year, but also for the 27-28 school year. So, that's one of the things that is not only in the FAQ, it's been information we've been presenting at the individual family meetings. And

080then for our specialty schools, you know, those are those models, dual language, or single gender academies, the art academies, IB Montessori, those are our special T schools that offer the district wide transportation, that will continue. So, you heard tonight the the parent forum Valleyview, which is a specialty school, it's a single gender school. The the in the recommendation it's to combine Valleyview with Kenneth Clement. In that case, for families that want that reserved seat at Kenneth Clement, we will provide that transportation, even though that is a distance. As well as also help families explore other options, should that be something that the the that gets voted on with the recommendation. A couple of other questions we've heard have been about class sizes. So, um um we've heard, you know, won't merging buildings create larger class

081sizes? The the enrollment in buildings are growing, won't that increase class size? We've also heard a lot about safety. What are we doing to ensure safety? And so, I want to address a couple of these things. And those were questions that we also received from our board last week as well. So, first starting with safety. With this uh recommendation, we know that by taking some buildings offline and making no changes to our security staff, we'll be able to provide either level or increased security support at all of our schools. And so, really thinking about how this plan will help ensure more safety and security in our buildings, and really improving the allocation that are at schools, but then also really thinking about those social emotional learning resources that need to continue through our Human Ware

082Department, and also providing um a support through safe passages. These are things we're committed to. We currently already have a standing working group with the city, with Cleveland Public Library, RTA, Cleveland Police Department, our police department. I know in those meetings we have our union president there, we have our board chair at those those meetings, really figuring out ways to to work together and provide safety and security in our in our buildings. And many of our partners we will continue to to work on that. The other thing I will share, and you heard someone mention this from one of the town halls where a young scholar who graduated in 2017 said, you know, high schools are not gangs. And so, even though it's really important when we think about the merging of our schools, we

083do think about the two communities coming together, it's really important that one, we realize that all of our students are scholars, and we as the adults need to raise our expectations and the bar that we have in terms of how we will how they'll interact and behave. And that's up to us to really make sure we're providing that cultural and welcoming environment. Also, we've been a open choice system in our in our city for some time now. So, students are already choosing schools that are mixing neighborhoods. That currently is the reality. Even though we have schools that are in neighborhood, we're open choice system, kids can live anywhere and choose any school. And so, I just want to remind everyone that because many of the people I talked to we went to school in a

084different time, and there may be a things that people are remembering of what it once was when there were neighborhood specifics or some of the issues that were in our schools. Now, I'm not saying that there are not challenges in our buildings. I'm not saying that our students are always safe saints. We know that it's it's a growing process, but we also have to remember where we currently are and think about meet our students where they currently are given the issues that they have. And some of the bigger issues we have are around safe passage and making sure students get to and from school, which is why this working group we have is important. Class sizes. So, we I know we've described this quite a few times. Our commitment through this recommendation is to ensure

085that class size limits are the same in our contract. So, we are not this is not increasing those class size limits. We want to ensure that those class sizes are are maintained through our contractual agreement. Of course, our agreement also shares what overages are, that's already in the agreement, but we're not planning on going beyond that. And just to give a visual example, I know I've described this before. If you're looking at school A, which right now school A is a lot of our elementary schools, really small schools, they have one teacher per grade level. So, it's a single class of third graders with 21 students in the class. If in January you get six new third graders in the school with one teacher, all six of those kids are going to one class, the

086class size becomes 27. Still under a still in the contractual range, but it's 27. Versus in school B when there's two teachers, maybe both of those classes have 21, you get six new students in January, you can split those two students up into two classes and now you have two classes of 24. Now, this is an example, I don't want people saying, "Oh, this is exactly how it's going to look like." But it shows how when you have more teachers per grade level, more electives, it actually helps your problem of not over overcrowding classes. And right now, that's an issue that we have in some of our buildings. We heard at the beginning of this year a teacher talking about one of her elective classes having 41 students in it, mainly because that's a school

087when we look at it is not offering college and career at scale or actually career pathways at scale. I'm not sure about the college readiness pathways, but not as many electives for students to choose from. And so, when students have to take an elective class, it becomes one of the options that students have to go to. And so, this is a plan that we actually think will also help the teacher experience and also help us manage enrollment. So, transition supports. This is something that has been a hot topic that we've been talking about in our schools, and we really want to ensure that we're providing transition supports not only in the social emotional side, but also thinking about how we're welcoming students into new school communities, the navigation. You heard a lot tonight about options,

088you know, whether it is a special needs student, whether it is a student whose school will be transitioning and offering into a welcoming environment. You hear this idea of what do we do? How do we navigate our options and our choices? And this is something that is top of mind for us. So, uh should the recommendation be voted on, one of the things we know in the implementation phase that we would have to ensure that we're doing, continuing to listen to our partners, but really working with the community on understanding choice, understanding all the different nuances of the plan so that we can actually move forward. We also want to continue to really think about community in this, leveraging our partners to support us through this, and also strengthening that collaboration and honoring legacy. One

089of the things we've also talked about our transition teams, and I know that this has also been a hot topic late the academic team under Dr. Florence's leadership has already started working with principals as early as this summer to ensure that 100% of our schools. At that point, we didn't know what the recommendations were going to be. So, the idea was really working with all of our schools to stand up transition teams that say should a recommendation need to move forward, how are we supporting that school community. Now, there's a responsibility we have as district leadership to provide guidance on the academic model, to provide guidance on you know, how enrollment transportation will work. There are budgets. These are things that we already provide, but there are things that are close to the school community.

090Those those routines, the traditions that are in schools, the activities, the partnerships. Those are things that you know, I should not be you know, dictating, nor should people on the team. Those are decisions that are close to the school community, are important to the school community. And that's what the heart of these transition teams are. Transition teams are not decision-making authorities that you know, replace the you know, the district or our or our principal or our chapter chair, but are making some of those local based decisions to really support the school through the transition. And so, more to come. I know that there's some questions about who's on the transition team. In some cases, in some schools they're already up and running. In other cases, there's lots of questions about the transition team in terms

091of the roles and support. We want to provide more clarity for this, but the idea of this is really making sure that there are people in the school community navigating to help the school through change and transition. Staffing is another question that has come up. And this is our timeline. Should the recommendation be voted on by the board in December, one of the things that we are committed to doing is naming principals by the end of December as much as possible. And then by the end of January naming assistant principals by the that end of that time, and also working with our our principals association, our administration association to navigate those decisions. We know that the enrollment window is set to be open from January to February 27th. That's probably our enrollment choice window anyway,

092you know, outside of even the recommendation, cuz we would normally be doing enrollment and choice right now. So, enrollment choice window will be from January 5th to February 27th. And at the end of that enrollment choice window, it'll allow us to determine the staffing in our building so that we'll know the enrollment numbers, we can determine the budget, and also complete teacher the teacher hiring process by the end of April. Central office budgeting will also take place between January and spring to really ensure that central office budgets are taking place, and then also central office staffing will also take place in that timeline. Just a quick note on financial sustainability. So, when Chief Stockdale presented our four-year forecast to the board in October, this was what the board charged us with. So, the board charged

093myself as well as Chief Stockdale with finding $5 million of savings in this year, but at least $30 million that can carry year over year. And this was something that the board passed a resolution on, charged us with to find savings. Uh, and so that additional 30 million is the is the minimum when we think about Building Brighter Futures savings. We know that there's more work to do because if you look at fiscal year 29, there is in that bottom row a negative deficit there. So, there's even more work that we we have to do there, but this is the charge that we did to actually get us through the next few years. And I want to share with you how Building Brighter Futures is supporting us towards that goal. So, I believe there there

094were a couple of questions last week about where are some of the savings coming from and are there any money that we'll actually have to invest for this plan to take place? And so, this is a very high level of some of the early estimates that we are projecting through Building Brighter Futures. Uh, just by doing the configuration, by the programmatic impacts, some of the the investments we're doing in new programs, there is a savings of $36 million included in this recommendation package. So, of all the 29 schools that we'll be recommending to end instruction at the end of this year, all of those moves taking the even the the new programs we're bringing in, we would save $36 million. So, that is showing how much we would save. When it comes to leases and

095utilities, that's a small amount of our of our savings, but we would save about 1 to 2 million dollars just in taking those buildings offline. We would save 1 to 2 million dollars. There are some costs that we will have to put into this plan. So, these are one-time temporary costs. I know our board chair asked the question like what are those one-time temporary costs that will be added in. We know there's costs that come into securing the buildings, to move. Because when there are moves, this happens in any given year, we actually do the moving services. So, I hope that people don't think that like teachers are doing moves. Now, of course their individual boxes. Those those type. Well, actually I think in some cases some of the the things can actually be packed

096and moved. They we actually send to the new the new building, but that's a cost that we incur. Records. And then also from staff separations in terms of any um uh, you know, early separations that are included. I know that that went out to our bargaining unit members recently as well as some of our school leaders. So, these are the costs that we would actually have to eat up, but they're temporary costs. It's 7 million. And then no changes actually in student transportation. Even with the transportation to provide transportation for all of our students through Building Brighter Futures, we're projecting a level cost and no added cost. And at first we thought we would actually have to pay more money for transportation, but we're not. And safety and security is nothing we're making cuts from.

097We are actually keeping that level so that we can increase safety and security in all of our buildings. After the added expenses of what we are going to save through Building Brighter Futures and the add-ons of what we will have to put in, right now our early projections are 30 to 31 million dollars. We're committed to continuing to share with the board more savings as we go along. And we may realize more savings should the the board vote on this plan and there's more work that we're doing ahead. Finally, I I just want to remind you of this chart. This is another chart we also shared. Chief Stockdale shared when presenting our four-year forecast that just shows over time the amount of savings we've been having. And if you're looking at that X axis thinking

098that that's like a a balanced budget, that dotted line is the very of what our budget looked like when I first came in as CEO in terms of being very steep. We were going down. We were in fiscal precaution. We exited fiscal precaution by taking so many measures. When we think about cutting 200 million from central office, the calendar consolidation, reconfiguring our our school-based budgets, passing the levy. Year over year, this chart has continued to move to a balanced budget. And what you see right now in the dark line with the diamonds in it, these are early projections with Building Brighter Futures and you can see we're almost getting to that balanced budget, but more work to do. This just shows what we've done over time to improve our um uh, our finances. And as

099you can see on this chart, a $518 million improvement in our fiscal year 27-28 balance. This is just a reminder to the public, but I know also our board has this that for all information we're putting it on our Building Brighter Futures landing page. I know we're in the process of doing a CMSD website refresh to have a new website for our entire CMSD webpage, but Building Brighter Futures will actually be a icon icon directly on that page where you can click on it, find all things Building Brighter Futures, as well as information about schools. So, with that, that's the Building Brighter Futures portion. Any questions? I don't see any lights on. I'm sorry, we don't allow public questions during the meeting, but we'll make sure that there's a way for you to connect with

100Dr. Morgan's team after the meeting. Thank you. Dr. Sridhar, do you have a question? >> Yeah, not a question. >> Say again? Why isn't your light on? Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, the rest get on your lights. Dr. Morgan, I know this is not a question. I'm just I just want to appreciate the work that you've put into and you and your team have put into providing us these answers. Thank you for being responsive and thank you for bringing the the information to us in a way that is is both understandable and is detailed. Thank you. Dr. Morgan, I have a few questions. First, great to hear about the website by the way. I know that's not the big topic of the day, but I I am happy to hear that for our district

101and our school communities. A couple of things. You mentioned, you know, re-upping the safe passages program. Can you talk more about that? What is like share more about what it is, what happened to it, what the plan is to revamp? Most definitely, yes. So, we have safe passages or had safe passages and we and working with partners to do it, had lost some funding that actually was outside funding that we were getting to actually support safe passages. And so, right now since I was funded by one of our foundation partners and it's no longer being funded, we're working and committed to preserving that. I know we've been in talks with the the city. Dr. Mosley's team has actually been working with a couple of other organizations that may do it subsidized by another organization, but

102this was funding that we had and and don't have anymore and it's a critical function when we think about the importance of getting students to and from our schools safely. Oh, and the other thing I will say about it, crossing guards, which some people will think about safe passages still a part of what we do have. And our crossing guards are supported through the city. They're they're financed through the city. Great. Thank you. And feel free to come back with any of these answers. What I do want to hear about how you and your team are thinking about special education as we make these decisions and potential changes. You bring that back. Yeah, I'll I'll definitely do that. Thank you. And then I know that you you shared Go ahead. One thing I did want

103to share on special education, there is a meeting that we already have planned to meet with families of special education, but I also heard a request about prior to. So, just know that I'm tracking that. And then also we can come back and provide information that we're doing on special education as well. Thank you. And then I had you I know we're talking about almost all of our schools um if they are consolidated according to this recommendation, students going into either the same or a higher level rating of school. And you know, that is important to me. I don't think that our students should have such our families should such high stakes decisions when it comes to choosing a school. I'd love for all of our schools to be high quality opportunities for our students.

104And frankly, in some of the situations, like they are still not going to be yet, right? As as much as we want them to at least in that first year. How are you thinking about and can you I know you've talked about this a little before, but can you again reiterate how we will maintain and increase the ratings of our schools through the consolidation process? Yeah, I know this is a a great question. And they're questions we receive on both sides because there are there's the benefit of students going to in some cases a higher rated school. And then there's some of those school communities that are saying, we worked so hard for our four star and now we're going to be having a new school community come in. How do we maintain that? And

105so, that is on on our radar. Gratefully for the work that we're doing through the board goals and guardrails in terms of monitoring our academic progress and the work that is taking place on Dr. Florence's team. There's just a lot of coherence and synergy on the academic model. Um, I know many of you get a chance to see our board uh, goals and guardrails, which tonight I know we will be uh, talking about chronic absenteeism. You get a chance [snorts] to see when we're presenting that. Already we were talking about um, our our college readiness goal. Uh, and you know, Dr. Florence's team was presenting that in one of our cabinet meetings. Really just talking about the academic progress and when we look at our current or how current students are currently performing, uh, there's

106a lot of work we have to do, but in many cases students don't even have the shot because the courses aren't offered. And so when I think about the work that um, Dr. Florence's team is doing in terms of thinking about the rigor that is at scale and on all of our classes, if students don't even have the rigorous opportunities to take um, advanced placement work or to take enrichment opportunities and courses, um, we won't be able to get to that level. And so the Building Brighter Futures is uh, provides the pathway or as many people said, the promise for us doing the work. Then we have to continue to just monitor uh, and double down on all the strategies that we've been working on and been making some academic progress on already. Thank you.

107And again, you can come back with this answer, but I would like to hear more about how you are thinking about the savings beyond what's currently projected cuz as you said, there is more work to do. Um, and I think it's important for the board to hear how you're contemplating achieving the rest of the savings. And I know that perhaps some of your projections currently are conservative cuz I know you want to be careful and ensure that you've got all the data together, but um, if we can bring that back in the future, that would be great. Ms. Lebron. Thank you, Dr. Morgan for um, answering the questions that you've been hearing um, within the community and from the board members. I really appreciate that as well. Um, as we heard today during public comment,

108there are many concerns and questions surrounding special education and and Chairwoman already requested some additional information around that, but I was looking at the FAQs online and it says um, that that there there's a plan to share information with families. I'm wondering what can families expect to learn at these meetings that you're going to be having? Yeah, great question. So, as is now when it comes to special education, pre-K and any specialized program, um, not every school, and this is what it is now, has the has seats available for that. So, if there are students with special accommodations or special things that are needed, we have to make sure that the facility needs meets not only the facilities needs, the staffing, the programming, all of that needs to meet meet those opportunities. So, as is

109now when families enter into our system, there's always um, uh, you know, a reviewing of that student's IEP. Uh, there's uh, you know, someone working with from our special education department working with that family to find out where the the best options are. Um, and so that's how it currently is now. Of course, when we're thinking about the movement of students, we have to think about the recommendation for where schools will be, what the facilities will be, the staffing in those buildings. Not only thinking about our our teachers, but also paraprofessionals for these certain areas to know where the seats are. And so we already knew that there were our families with students with special needs needed extra support in navigating those options and understanding that. And so there's a commitment that our team already

110had that starting in December and then doing some along the way that there would be meetings to help families understand their choices, understand the option, understand why they attend a school now that has those options, but maybe in the new school those those classes can't fit there because of the space needs. Or in some cases, keeping pre-K in there so that we can move special education classes to other areas. It was just all about space needs. And so those are all different things we want to work out. So, that's what's planned should the board vote on the plan. I also heard a request about maybe there questions that family members have prior to. So, that's something I'll be circling up with the team to see if that's something we could stand up beforehand. Um, but

111we definitely even even if we do something beforehand, we're committed to having ongoing meetings cuz families are going to have to understand their choices and it is um, it is a specialized case for each student as is now. And we always really want to make sure families understand their options. Uh, Dr. Morgan, I had another Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Billups. Thank you, Chairwoman. Uh, Dr. Morgan, thank you again for the uh, presentation. It's uh, I I do have a question kind of around our communication with students. Um, just in my day-to-day life, I I interact with um, young people in in various capacities. And um, I don't think that I could ask the questions that they have necessarily, but um, some questions around um, students who are at current schools that will welcome in

112new students. Um, if if this vote goes forward, um, they have questions about, you know, how things will look for them as they apply for scholarships, as they move forward um, in their education. Um, so I my question is, um, will the students have an opportunity to communicate and and have questions answered directly from um, maybe their leadership in their building or or other other leaders within the district? No, that's a great question and of course our our our scholars never will be shy in terms of asking the questions. I was at the Davis Digital meeting last night and there were students asking questions. They were asking about specific classes. They asked about their block schedule, um, you know, what could be offered. Uh, in some cases there is a um, I think there's a

113uh, a video gaming course that the digital side offers that now Davis students are like, "Oh, now we can offer that, but is that in a different pathway?" So, they're already asking all the technical questions and I love that the students are asking those questions. I also had the opportunity the weekend following uh, when I shared the recommendation to attend a Minds Matter showcase where many of our scholars were talking about their experience um, living on a college campus over the summer. Uh, and I I took the opportunity to just ask the kids about the recommendation and um, you know, though there are students who have questions or concerns about the recommendation, most of the questions are forward-thinking. So, the number one question I got was about their class rank, uh, what's going to happen

114in their class rank should the uh, schools merge. I I heard questions around some of their programs, you know, um, like the white coat ceremonies, different things like that that we're committed to doing. When it comes to things like class sizes, um, not class sizes, um, class rank, um, when it comes to some of those specifics of the programming, um, our academics team is working on a loose-tight framework. And when we say loose-tight, that means what are the things that schools have under their control to allow students in the community to have um, say over versus what are those things the district has a position on. And I know academics has been working really closely on that. That's something we're providing for school communities. The other thing I'll say to your question about um, applying

115for colleges, uh, none of that should should change. You know, when thinking about the student's pathway. So, in for an example, for a student who attends Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, um, should this recommendation move forward where they are all on one campus, the Science and Medicine pathway is not going away. So, those students will still be in that that pathway and should be putting on their college application that they are a graduate of the of the Science and Medicine pathway. Should they have earned the pathway. And that's something that's also um, a misconception now not just on that campus, on many other campuses that students aren't necessarily completing the pathway. So, we we don't want them just in a school by name. We actually want them completing the pathway, finishing that seal, um,

116finishing you know, with with the college credits to have dual enrollment or early college credits to go into college. So, these are the things we're going to continue to work on and it'll expand now because now all high schools will have those opportunities. Graduating with honors diploma, many of our high schools don't offer the coursework for students to actually graduate with the honors diploma. Building Brighter Futures enables that. Thank you so so much. I got one more kind of question. Um, it is good to see from the one of the last slides with no changes on the safety and security as far as the budget. And I think about that from a student perspective. Um, you know, a lot of times that security staff, um, that safety staff in the building, um, the the secretaries

117are a lot of times that safe space for a lot of students. Um, so it's it's really good to um, see that. And I I guess I kind of would ask my my my thought process goes around the schools just merging into another school with with those staff people, are those staff people considered um, similar to teachers as as they move from one school to another potentially? And you're talking specifically for safety and security staff? Y- yes. Yeah. Uh, let me I actually want to come back to that in terms of what our cuz I um, every bargaining unit is is different and we do have um, through our police and and officers, they're under OPBA and want to make sure I understand how that allocation happens or if that happens centrally. So, I'll come

118back to that. But, I know one of the things we're committed to is continuity, which is why we um the the larger recommendations are mergers and consolidations versus closures to ensure that as many students as possible are seeing familiar faces as they go to a new building. I'm just not sure what that means for safety and security. And that's a team I know we have to do a meeting with and the same thing, which I appreciate the question that uh SEIU asked because it's like every union's really different and as what are the staffing implications as we do this. So, I appreciate all those questions and these are the the things that people are writing in terms of the process over the promise. Ms. Lebron followed by Dr. Sridhar. I have a two-part question, Dr.

119Morgan. At the state of the schools addressed, you made a call to action to community partners to step up particularly around the buildings, uh the usage of the buildings that will no longer be um schools, right? Um I'm wondering have community partners stepped up to that call to action and in what ways do they plan on, you know, helping out with those spaces and continuing to serve the communities? Uh yes, uh there are um of course we're working really closely with the the city um cuz in some cases uh there are places, there are there's land where our schools are built on that either the district may own or the city may own. Um so, there's usually processes in terms of really figuring out what is um uh how do we figure out the next

120steps with that? And so, we're working really closely with the city on that, getting the county now involved to meet to talk about different opportunities. But, I've also been hearing um I've been hearing from local churches and different community organizations that are um interested in figuring out how they can best support and partner with the district. Um often times people don't understand the undertakings of a building, particularly uh our buildings that are not in good building condition. So, it is not uh uh you know, there's a lot of investment that goes into that. And so, I think it's both understanding for the community partners about how we can re-envision and reimagine a a school while at the same time also making sure it's realistic and what can happen. And I know that that's been one

121of the challenges that have happened in the past as to why there are some buildings that were uh closed in a um much earlier facilities plan like in 2010 that is still standing. And I know this board um voted in the spring uh to do some demolitions on some of those to move forward with that. Um but, that's why the intentionality we've been doing with the board and some other community partners are so important on the early end of it so we don't have to wait um be 15 years down the road and still having empty buildings. The second part to my question around community partners, I know that there are still partners that want to engage in some of the services that they provide at the schools. What will that look like or have

122you engaged or will principals be the ones engaging with the community partners to figure out, okay, now that we have this many more students that qualify for these services or that could benefit from these services in the building, are they able to provide additional support? Will the support still be provided to those that are at the, you know, the the welcoming school? What will that look like? Yeah. Um partnerships are what make schools and our district work. So, we are very fortunate for all of our partners. Um for those partners that are currently in, we're meeting with them to figure out the next iteration in terms of what that looks like should the board vote on the the recommendation. Um but, also it's really important that as we think about partners, um we think about

123sustainability. And we're just coming off of, I mean, all many of us uh we're we're here when we had to when we lost SR funding. And we were spending almost a half a billion dollars to uh outsource our after-school programming and different things like that. And when that money goes away, we we had to make the difficult decision for those programs to go away. And so, a big part of building brighter futures, these are programs that the district can maintain and the district can um provide um and work with outside partners. So, we do want to figure out from those outside partners, how can we come alongside of you? How can we work with you? And then also we're interested in figuring out what partners or funding they may have to come alongside to work

124with our district. Uh and so, we want to continue to keep those conversations going. If there are any partners that are out there listening and you're interested in thinking about um you know, supporting or helping, please feel free to reach out. We really want to figure out that path forward that is sustainable. Dr. Sridhar, good job with the light. Um Dr. Morgan, the uh so, I'm looking at the at the staffing slide that you had a couple You don't need to go back to the slide. I I have a specific question about uh professional development for teachers. Um particularly at the high school level as teachers are moving into schools that have these career technical education pathways, schools that and even in school even if the if the teachers aren't moving from one school to

125another, um if a school has a new pathway that didn't exist before, um uh and this doesn't need to be an answer right now. Um uh if you could bring um a plan for what kind of professional development will be available to teachers, um if you have an answer I'd certainly appreciate it now, but you know, it would be good to to actually hear about uh what is the plan for that and how we will support teacher teachers in those buildings. Yeah. I'll I'll come back with more uh specific on it. I can let you know what we're already knowing will need to be true. We're thinking about the expansion of programs such as AP and um even in some cases um you know, if a IB program is moving to a school or uh

126well, in all of our Montessori cases, the schools are just moving to a building. But, any case where there needs to be training, we're already committed and working on getting the teachers professional development on it. We know in the high school space there needs to be professional development on college and career pathways um period non-stop. We know that that's something we all we have to do. And so, we're uh committed to that. Also, one of the things in working with our our um our teachers union, uh President President Olbrinsky, uh we are also committed to uh providing a draft calendar early. And so, one of the things we may be looking at is um we know that there's a process that the count that the board has to do to review a calendar. We may

127be bringing a draft calendar um before the end of this calendar year just for the community to look at and then of course letting it sit for the time that we need to sit to get feedback on. But, also that will help for a couple of reasons. One, uh help people plan. Um and that's the same thing with starting in times. We know that's another question we've gotten about and we want to get that earlier to people. It helps them plan. It helps with staffing. But, then also it helps We've already know that should this recommendation go through, there's going to be time that schools are going to need um at the beginning of the year with their staffs and their school communities building that community and also building partnership. And so, um that's one

128way that we're also thinking about supporting. Ms. Peak. Yes, I wanted to just step back a moment to uh the the schools that are closing or and also that are maybe um going to welcoming schools. Uh just some thoughts on how the community and partners can support preserving some of the legacy of of those closing buildings. And then perhaps they may also want to bring something, you know, with them to that the welcoming schools. So, are there some community conversations that are going to happen around how we can smoothly transition uh some of those things that they feel that is very uh personal to them. That's a great question and also something I can provide more information on. I know at a very high uh you know, uh preserving the legacy not only in schools,

129but then also um maybe there's a building that now will have a recommendation of a a name change such as I've gotten questions about Mary McLeod Bethune. Like, how how are we thinking about honoring um that legacy? And so, there's many different things um that uh you know, we're thinking of. But, then also when we think about the school communities, those are things that, you know, when school communities really come together, they can um do many different things to help preserve those legacies and keep things moving forward. Um but, also I'm committed to sharing more information about it. And I just wanted to acknowledge uh for the public that, you know, we have been getting, you know, some of those questions that people have asked and we thank you for raising those. Okay. Uh Dr.

130Morgan, I have a follow-up to Dr. Sridhar's question, actually. So, thinking about those programs or pathways, um for example, IB um potentially being moved to the John Hay building and the professional development, do we anticipate any lag in actual implementation of some of these new pathways, especially when they are truly new to the building? Or is there going to be, you know, an anticipation of particular staff being able to carry that in? How are you thinking about that? Yeah, so one of the things that we're going to we can come back to share more information about this. I know from talking with some school leaders and teachers, there's this question of like, we know that there are more programs, but how does this work? And uh there there are the group of kids that are

131have currently chosen a school or pathway that they need to graduate in that pathway. And so, there's a bifurcated I almost think support process we have to have here for um finishing students out in their current pathway versus what it may mean for bringing in a new freshman class and now has many opportunities to explore IB and you know all the college credit courses and the pathways and there'll be a opportunity for expansion over time but next year there will be a certain amount of courses that we have and it'll meet the requirement to help students finish out on the pathway for the cohorts or so that we'll have we'll have a couple of cohorts that we need to finish through with that and then also build as we build along but I'm committed to

132sharing a little bit more about what that looks like cuz I know that those have been questions and I appreciate those questions cuz when people have those questions here they're they're they're truly thinking about okay how do we move forward how do we make this work um you know your question was specifically around a lag for students who are currently in their pathway we don't intend for there to be a lag where there may be a new program that's entered in in that first year we may not be able to offer up that program for all students I won't be just okay all students start over from scratch you can now choose a pathway if you're a senior now it won't be like that it's about finishing them out while building that along but I

133can share more specifics in the coming weeks about that Okay and in addition to that the commitment is still for those schools that don't have pathways that they would be able to have it that first year though Yes so the recommendation on the day of the recommendation there was a map that we shared so the career pathways those are those where those will be next year so that's the minimum of where we'll have I I I know last night there was a guidance counselor at a school that was talking about potentially an IT pathway cuz they have a course in the IT pathway and they were like but we don't have it yet so we could build that over time but we will have a pathway for students to complete for next year and it

134can grow and build over time and the same thing with college readiness we have some schools that offer no college readiness courses there will be college readiness courses in every high school Great thank you Miss Lebron This conversation made me think about you know we're talking about teacher credentialing for teaching these pathways and you know will the pathways be ready but I'm also wondering like I know you we had talked about having some information sheets about what what pathways would be available at each of the schools will that be ready before school choice opens up or is it already available >> We do have that information I know that our team is working on a school finder tool that should the recommendation be voted on that on our website so this new refreshed website which

135I've seen a beta process of it it looks pretty awesome but there will be both the building brighter futures landing page where families can go and get more information but also potentially the school finder navigator right there the school finder navigator will not only help you find a school it'll also let you know what programs are there what programs are being built there and so that is information that we'll have there as we get more specific on the actual courses that is something that we can probably be providing in the spring towards the fall the reason why I say more specific is staffing needs to be determined at the building so that we can know exactly all the courses that will be offered there and so we can't do that until we know the enrollment

136and so there's still some of this as school leaders will be shaping as they're doing planning for the start of the 26 27 school year Okay thank you and and students and families can still make changes to their choice if they learn that they wouldn't have access their first year to a particular pathway that they they chose that school for Yes students can make choices with changes within the choice enrollment window so that's that that timeline between January and February 27th if they want priority in in the choice portal of course you can make a choice after that and it may be based on what's available in terms of where the seats are and that's how currently is so we really want families that should this recommendation be voted on by by this board to

137make a choice as soon as possible in that January and February timeline so we can determine the staffing and buildings determine the courses and then also determine the budgets and enrollment I'm sorry there was talk about having having these teams that would be intentional about making calls to all the families that are impacted by BBF I'm curious like because the vote has to happen first if if the if the recommendations are approved by the board we go right into the holiday break does that mean that like this team is going to be in full force making calls and connecting with families in January before school choice opens and then during that process to make sure that they're well informed Yes some of that will happen right before the holidays but really get kicked into gear

138in January also there on the high school side there will be a couple of career pathway fairs for our rising eighth graders they'll take place in December I think it's it's two I'm looking back there two two there will take place in December that will also help the students make choice and then in January there will be fairs for families not only at the high school but also at the elementary level to help make a choice so those are things that we can we can share more information about like that that calendar and a very high level what we're planning to do but yeah the the navigators who you're talking about which is different from the transition teams that schools are putting in place but there are these choice navigators that are really helping families

139navigate and understand their choices Thank you All right thank you Dr Morgan and thank you for being responsive to questions and concerns you've heard from the community and also thank you to my board colleagues because I'm hearing you all ask things that we have heard out in the community and concerns that others have raised and that is our job right to make sure that we are vetting as as deliberately and fully as we can as we make this decision All right and we're not done yet so the board will now hold its monthly monitoring of goals and guardrails and Dr Morgan will please present that presentation All right thank you so much so we are to night's goal and guardrail is focused on specifically on chronic absenteeism but if you remember this is a indicator

140that we've attached to goal one which is our ELA goal that focuses on third graders being proficient and then also goal two which is around algebra one and our ninth grade team we have several of our wonderful team members who lead our attendance work that are here with us this evening so of course Dr Florence chief academic officer Jose Gonzalez Victoria Harris who leads our attendance work and then also Dr Nick Demico so very grateful for them and they'll be chiming in as as there are questions So just a reminder the goals this is connected to both goal one and goal two goal one is thinking about the percentage of third graders who are proficient in English language arts will increase from 35% in August of 2024 to 60% in August of 2030 and we're

141looking at chronic absenteeism cuz if students don't show up how can they be proficient and so we know historically our district has struggled in chronic absenteeism which is why this is a focus of ours we want to decrease the percentage of K3 students identified as chronically absent from the baseline that we were at last school year of 49% to no greater than 45.5 and that's in year so that's what we're looking at to decrease it in year we're focusing on this grade band because this is a grade band one that struggled academically on the OST third graders struggled on the OST last year and also this is a a group that um has also struggled with attendance as well We also goal two is looking at the percentage of first time test takers who are

142proficient in algebra one will increase from 26% last year to 50% in and we're specifically looking at decreasing the percentage of ninth grade students who are identified as chronically absent from a baseline of 71.2 that was how many ninth graders that were chronically absent last year to no greater than 67.6 which 67.6 is still abysmal but we have work to do and so I just want to stop here in terms of these two grade bands that we've identified because these are grade bands that have struggled so we're going to talk globally about some of our attendance efforts I know many people think about what we've been doing in attendance more broadly in the system and the reason why we picked these groups cuz these are the groups that struggle and when you think about ninth

143graders that 71% of them were chronically absent last year this is a rallying cry of work we have to do as a district and a community Okay so the first thing I want to just share is just our attendance rate so attendance rate is looking at our average daily attendance and what that attendance rate is and there's a celebration here globally so right now based on where we were last year at this this time we're up we're actually up from where we were two over the past couple of years so when you think about some of the global things we've been doing to increase attendance we're we're we're up 82.8 still is not something to shout and scream about we still have a lot of work to do there At the same time chronic absenteeism

144is up now chronic absenteeism is something we don't want to be up we actually want it to be down now you may be asking how is that how can that be true how can you be both raising the attendance percentage but then chronic absenteeism being up. Uh a reminder that chronic absenteeism is defined as students who are missing um uh 10% of the days available in that school year. So, it's a it's a moving target. You could be chronically absent now because you missed a good majority of October, and then if you come to school all throughout the rest of the year, um but if you missed a good majority, you may not be able to catch up. But let's say you missed Let's say you missed about 7 days in October. Um you would

145be chronically absent right now. But if those were the only 7 days you missed throughout the school year, you would not be chronically absent. And so, I just want you to know that it's a moving target. Um I think to be chronically absent in an entire school year is about 18 days, give or give or take or so. So, um that is why the attendance rate can be up because we can get more students that are coming to school on a average on a daily basis, but chronic absenteeism being up. The other thing is I move to this presentation. This is globally how we are across all of our grades. Um the grades we've picked uh K3 and 9th grade um have struggled. And so, I want to share that. All right. So, let's look

146at um our K through third uh third grade uh uh grade band. Um and if we look at the past couple of years, so this represents the the 3 years I've been here as CEO, for this grade band, chronic absenteeism is up right now. We're at 43.71 for those students in K through 3, and it's up from where we were last year at this point in the school year. Um based on our all our past data trends, uh we saw increases in chronic absenteeism that grow about 11.5% in a given school year. Um so, if we continue on that pattern, right now we would be off track. Like, we can't be We're currently up, and if we continue uh out pacing in terms of how many students are chronically absent, we will not catch up

147to our goal. Looking at our 9th graders, um this is a a bit of a a more of a flat line, but it is up from where it was last year. Last year at this point it was 56.39% of our 9th graders were chronically absent. Um and uh right now we're at 58.08 of our 9th graders that are chronically absent at this point in the year. So, we are up. Um and as you saw from our our data, we continue to go up in 9th grade almost up to 71 um percentage points um of students who are chronically absent. So, if we continue on that path, uh we would also be off track. Uh we are off track if we continue on that that pathway. So, there for both of these groups, these are groups

148we need to look at and figure out what are we doing to slow down the rate, and also understand some root causes. Um one thing I'll also share as our team is starting to look at new measures, and we're realizing this. We were just talking about college readiness today. A lot of the information and the strategies we're doing are baseline. So, we're looking at We may be looking at historic trends, but the the the strategies may just be emerging starting this year. And so, even in areas where we may be off track, we may have different hypotheses of different things and different strategies we're going to need to do. And so, we're learning through this goals and guardrails process that we even hope in the things that we're presenting that we see with new strategies

149these things to evolve over time cuz it's it's challenging us to realize in some cases where strategies are working and when some cases where they're not. All right. So, a deeper dive into our data for both of our grade bands in K3 and 9th grade, students with disabilities have higher chronic absenteeism. This is another correlation that we also see when we look at proficiency that students with disabilities have lower proficiency rates than the general population. But for K3 and grade 9, um students with disabilities are more likely to be chronically absent than students without disabilities. And you can see these numbers in K3, 45.49% students with disabilities are chronically absent compared to 43.19% students without. And in 9th grade, 66.71% students with disability chronically absent compared to 56.53% students without disability. Now, on the contrary,

150for our English language learners, um both students with disabilities and English language learners are groups of students who are less likely to be proficient when we look at ELA and math than they are their general counterparts. But something is happening for us our English language learners in our system right now that we want to study a little bit more, particularly for these grade bands. Cuz for both K3 and uh and also in 9th grade, our ELL students in these grade bands are actually lower They have lower chronic absenteeism than their counterparts who are not ELLs. Um so, this is something for us to study and understand um to figure out some of the strategies. Um and it's also interesting to We all We all We know English language learners are not always um synonymous with

151um uh you know, students who may be in uh from families from an immigrant background or or different things like that. It's not always synonymous with that. Um but it is interesting to see this rate also given um some of the the challenges we've had nationally um um particularly for some students in this population. Um 9th grade chronic absenteeism rates are much higher in high school 1 compared to high school 2. Um our high school network 1 would be our um more than likely our comprehensive neighborhood high school. Where more our high school neighbor uh high school network 2 are schools like John Hay, um Bard, um Davis. Uh and so, just really thinking about the the differences there, and it's almost a 20% difference between chronic absenteeism rates there. So, some strategies for improvement.

152Um these are some things that I know our team has been working on globally. So, these are not specifically targeted towards these grade bands, but uh there's been a targeted school tiering system. Um this is the first year that attendance has been under academics, and that was an intentional strategy last year when attendance rates were not uh were down and chronic absenteeism was up last year. We had attendance in our culture department, which there was a reason why it is a part of culture, but we knew that um academics uh are where the principals are supervised. It's also where we do the work with teachers and students. And so, we made an intentional choice to shift attendance under our academics team. Uh and really since this summer, there's been intentional planning around our attendance liaisons

153uh to think about how we tier students and what strategies we give based on those different tiers um based on last year's attendance rates. Um there's also been intentional training for secretaries and principals around how we're supporting data entry. Uh we had some data entry issues last year that we found out midyear that we had to clean up that also impacted our attendance rate. Um and um those uh uh they've also been continuing to ensure that we've have good clean data that we're looking at. Uh student and family outreach. I know that this team did home visits even before the school year started. They were doing attendance visits based on students who were tier 2 and tier 3, and those things continue to go on. Removal of no-show students. We're going to talk a little

154bit more about that. Um our no-show students are students who don't show up, but they stay on a roster. Um and believe it or not, we have a cohort of students like that. And if we're not actively moving them off our rosters in the way that we can, cuz there there steps and processes you take. We can't just move students off our roster. Um but we have to go through those processes to do that that um moves our attendance strategies in a a strong way. Um really working with the communications department on an attendance campaign. Uh there's been some pros and cons with that. We'll talk uh through that as well. And then also just um some of the motivational challenges of just understanding um what we can do to incentivize attendance, um how do

155we best uh promote positive attendance, and also promote that healthy uh behavior. And then also realizing for the two groups that we talk about, K3, an attendance strategy is uh is also a parent strategy. Kindergartners, uh there may be a couple, but most kindergartners are not, you know, getting themselves out of the door and getting to school. Um that is a parent. And so, when we're thinking about the strategies that are going to move that group, it's really thinking about how are we supporting the families to get kids to school. Versus 9th graders, you could very well tell your 9th grader, "Okay, I'll see you when you go you know, when you get in." And you think that they're off at school and they're doing something else. And so, that may mean a different type

156of strategy. And so, we realize we do need to have that that dual approach in thinking about these two different groups. All right. So, what's not working? Um or what is working? We're going to start with what's working, and then we'll go into what's not working. So, what is working is the removal of those those no-show students. We had 561 no-show students so far this year that we could actually remove. Um there are some others that may still be lingering, but we can't just do to uh all the the rules and processes you need to do to to remove them. Um and 561, though it seems small, adds up. So, these students who don't show up every day, they they just are no-shows. So, they just are not showing up, and they pull down our

157attendance, particularly in our high schools. Um we're currently working on removing 364 overage students. Um and so, I know that's something that we've been working on. Uh and this is this while removing those, and I think when we did this I don't know if they've already been removed already, but I know when we started producing this This was in October, but it's ongoing. That'll almost take us to about uh almost 1,000 students that we've been able to remove through this no-show process. Um the increased strategic work that we've been doing with our attendance liaisons uh to really help with that family assistance, the data entry, the phone calls home to families, um working with our family support specialists that we have through SAY Yes. Uh I know uh by sitting on the board for SAY

158Yes, we are tracking attendance at the Say Yes level that's happening in the schools and that has been a strategic shift in focus of our team working directly with Say Yes. We also have had some bright spots. So, 15 K-8 schools and 11 high schools have reduced their chronic absenteeism by 6 to 7 percentage points already this year. 15 K-8s, 11 high schools. And we want to learn what's happening there. We want to find out what what's working, what are the strategies, what can we replicate, what have we done? There are also 36 K-8 schools and 22 high schools that are currently under and what I mean by that, it says attendance goal, but they are currently they have lower chronic absenteeism or meeting their chronic absenteeism target from where they should be. And so,

159that's also a celebration. That's a good amount of schools that are moving in this trajectory. Now, on the converse, our schools that who are struggling are really pulling down the rate and then also for the two grade bands that we're looking at, both K-3 and ninth grade, these are grade bands that are really pulling down our rate that we need to focus on. But, it reiterates why the board has picked this as a goal. So, what's not working? Um the global strategies are working for some. It's more of a I would say a tier one approach and there's more we have to study to understand about not only tier two and tier three, but these specific grade bands about what is taking place. One of the things that Dr. Florence shared, even for those schools

160at their celebrations where they reduced these numbers, when you look at the particular grade bands in the K-3 and ninth grade, they're struggling with that as well. So, it reinforces why the board charged us with looking at these grade bands and there's work we have to do. Our attendance campaign has been helpful. I know we started off the September with attendance and a lot of people saw that, but there's more work we could be doing to be more strategic with that. We've had a long-standing partnership with the Browns and we're grateful for that. But, there are questions around like, oh, a Browns player shows up to your school. How do we actually get that incentive? We just had Darius Garland, the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rhodes, which was great. And thank you, Victoria, your team and

161people from Chief Farmer Cole's team to really got that together. But, I remember whispering to the principals, I said, what's your what's your attendance rate? And they were both like, 70, 80. And I'm glad Darius, hey, come on out where you want to. And I I I want us to be charging if we're going to have someone like yourself in one of our schools that we want to raise the bar a little bit. And so, we need to be more strategic in some of these efforts and really figuring out how do we incentivize this to our effort in the work that we're doing. There's also still some a lack of understanding in chronic absenteeism, the rules, the hours versus days. One of the challenges in high schools and I know this being a former high

162school principal, when students miss a period sometimes, they already automatically get a half a day. They're a half day. So, a lot of our kids are are tardy. I know many of you may be driving down the street at 10:00 a.m. one day and you still see a kid walking with their backpack and you're like, shouldn't they be in school? Well, if they show up, even if they show up on that day, they're not getting credit for that full day. And if you keep getting all those half-day attendances, that is also going to contribute to this. So, this is work we have to do to understand it a lot more, particularly in our high school space. And then even though all the work the work we've been doing with family support specialists have been showing

163that there's been more intentionality, we can also tighten up in terms of the types of data that we're using. I know Say Yes is tracking. We just saw some data in our last meeting where they're tracking some of the reasons why students who are missing are missing and it varies. You know, it could be family issues, it could be mental health issues, many different things. And understanding that and making sure we're being more strategic in the intervention levels and support. So, next steps we have here, I know that there's a specific focus really on an attendance task force to study these issues, particularly for these grade bands. We need to have the global strategies that are helping all of our systems or all of our students across our system, but if we're going to move

164this metric for these grade bands, we have work to do here. And then also, if they're not showing up, we we can't get them to be proficient. This this ties directly with goal one and goal two of ELA and math proficiency. Also, the student and family outreach, we've talked about that in intentional collaboration with Say Yes specifically in these grade bands and also thinking about how do we mitigate the barriers. We've talked about being more strategic in our attendance campaign, the tardiness focus, particularly in ninth grade strategies we could be doing. And then also studying what's happening in our ELL subgroup because there are some positive momentum there in understanding what's taking place here that we could replicate. And I would add here and I know the team has talked about this, really understanding what

165is taking place at those schools that have are either exceeding their AAP target and or are below their chronic absenteeism rate from last year. Um And with that, team members, are there any other things that you would add or share to it before we get any questions? Okay. Dr. Sridhar Thank you, Dr. Morgan. The So, this is this is really just a connection between this work and the and the discussion we had earlier with Building Great Futures. There was mention about a special discussion about sped. Um In in that discussion about special education it would be meaningful for the board to hear something specifically addressed about chronic absenteeism, especially with your observation that students with disabilities have a higher rate of absenteeism. You know, are there things that we could be doing better as we

166are working with that population of students that have needs that are different from other other students that would encourage them to be in school better. So, that that's something that I would like to see as well. Ms. Lebron I'm you know, I appreciate the context that historically we've we've struggled as a district with chronic absenteeism and I think that's important to acknowledge and that we're doing something about it with the goals and guardrails. I'm curious given the current climate around and I'm thinking of this like for next steps. I don't expect you to have data on this yet, but around the current climate with immigration, if we see an uptick in students or families choosing not to send their their kids to school out of fear for, you know, practices, you know, in their neighborhood

167or on their way to school. I'm just curious about that particular population. Yeah, we can follow up with that. And like I said, ELLs are not always synonymous with our immigrant communities, but for our English language learners, actually attendance is is chronic absenteeism is down. So, there's evidence showing that that rate is slowing down and we just need to study it. And like I said, it doesn't have to be that all ELL students are directly impacted in that group, but it's something for us to study. I do know qualitatively, particularly at the top of this year, not the academic year, but like in January 2025 when a lot of um either executive orders or different mandates were coming out, we did hear from families who were concerned. There was guidance that we provided to schools

168to think about the supports for that. And fortunately, we've had very supportive community school leaders that have been really helping to ensure those safe environment in our schools and we haven't had any major issues in that regard, but I'll follow up to see what we can find out from that. But, for our English language learners, chronic absenteeism is down. Mr. Villa Laps Thank you, Chair Khatib. Dr. Morgan, I I just want to make sure that chronic absenteeism is fully understood understood for myself. When we look at 10% or more of their scheduled school days for any reason. First of all, thank you for adding the glossary of terms. That was very helpful for me. But, I just want to fully understand. My mind automatically kind of goes to days, right? So, when you look at

16910% am I accurate in in thinking about that as being [music] like maybe one day in the two-week time period? We've talked about this because yeah, I I know when I was a school leader and we were doing our attendance strategy, we had to break it down in days cuz it's hard to tell a family member that says, you know, you've missed 10% of the days. They're like, well, what does that mean? I don't understand. How do I change that? And so, one of the things we've talked about in terms of thinking about this, making whether through a campaigns and different efforts, we we translate that into days. I don't know how many days we've been in school so far, but you know, we're we're about halfway through the school year. So, let's say we're

170at 90 we're more than 90 days. Yeah. Let's say we're at 90 days. You know, you know, 10% of that would be nine days. And so, that would be you know, students who have missed nine days would be or more would be chronically absent. And so, really just understanding that and for families to understand what they can do to turn that around. We also have lots of families and this we see this in the younger grades that we see spotty attendance. So, there patterns that after a weekend, parent doesn't show, you know, doesn't bring the kids to school on Mondays and they may not show up on Fridays. But, they come for three days out of the week. And maybe in their families' mind, they're like, I'm sending my kids to school every week. But,

171you're missing every Monday and every Friday or you're missing at least one day out of the week. That after time and especially with many many weeks as we've been in school already, that's going to put you off track. You're going to be chronically absent. And so, just really thinking about that. The good news is we are not at the point, well, and we do have some people that have missed more than 18 days. And you know, we we have strategies for those families and how you can turn that around. But we are not we are still at the point that if there are students who are chronically absent now, maybe right at the baseline of being chronically absent, you could turn that around and it doesn't mean you have to have forever be chronically absent.

172And so, we we're I know we're looking at strategies of how to get those kids that are right on the cusp. They're probably like our tier two, those yellow students. How can we get get them to turn it around and maybe move them to a category where they aren't chronically absent? And then there are those strategies like for the kids that really are really struggling. And really thinking about how to best have those environments. It could be, and this is you know, Dutch treat, I appreciate your question around not only just special education, but it could be maybe that family chose a school that's really far. And we need to just talk about hey, is there a better choice for you given where you work or your different environments? There could be many different atmospheres

173that we can look at. Sometimes it's a social [snorts] emotional issue that's taking place, a kid not feeling safe. And just understanding what those are so we can deploy the strategy and help us turn it around. Yeah, thank you for that. And I think that that communication is so important to for some families with that service. I got another question though. As far as when we are looking at chronic absenteeism, would I be accurate in thinking that if a student has a doctor's appointment or need to leave early for some appointment, maybe they have a court hearing at juvenile court, would that missed time contribute to potentially to them being chronically absent? Hello, hello. I can respond to that question. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing school for any reason. So, that is your excused,

174your unexcused, your suspensions. So, it's for any reason. And you say it's suspensions as well? >> Suspensions count towards chronic absenteeism. Yeah, and thank you for that note, Ms. Harris, because I remember being a school leader, and I'm sure you guys get this. Parents are like, well, I called in, it's excused. It still is an absence. An absence is an absence. So, even if it's excused, an absence is an absence. And so, that that goes for all all of the above. Of course, we want excused helps the school understand that that kid isn't coming and we can plan ahead. It's not unexcused, but it doesn't not not count towards chronic absenteeism. I just want I'm sorry, I just want to clarify. Even though they would be classified as chronically absent, absent with an excuse, they

175would not be identified as a truant. Okay. >> Which is a is a different classification. Okay. I got one more question around this. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to make sure that I'm very clear. Um for students who are, let's say, in high school, who change classes, a student could potentially come to school every day, but if a student is missing a particular class regularly, that could also contribute to chronic absenteeism? Yeah, if you're marked absent for I think it's just one period. It's a half day. Anytime a student is out of the seat, those minutes, hours count towards their chronic absenteeism. Especially in high school where our students move period by period. So, every time a student is not in seat, the teacher must mark them absent and that counts towards their chronic or

176habitual truancy hours. Yeah, and it takes a lot of management for particularly in high schools. I remember being a high school leader. Sometimes you have kids that are cutting, but then you also have the kids that are in the guidance counselor's office or they're like, I'm going to go see about this. And if the teacher takes that attendance in the first 5 minutes and you come back, and teachers are busy. They're up teaching and doing that. And if they don't correct their record, that that becomes an issue. And so, even thinking about those systems for school leaders to capture. Is the kid down in the guidance counselor's office? Are they doing something else? Are they, you know, helping somebody else out? How can we capture that attendance so it doesn't get away from us? And

177in a big in a in a high school, all you know, all of our high schools, it's just too many students in too many moving places that if you don't have strong systems in place to capture it, it'll get away from you. Mr. Briggs? Uh yes, I have a question having to do with averages. Let's say in year one, the you have 50% chronic absenteeism, and the average number of days absent is like 40 district-wide. Um year two, you have the same percentage 50% chronic absenteeism, but the average number of hours is 30. So, that's that's a big improvement. Do we measure that? And conversely, if the reverse is true, you have 50% and average hours go from 30 to 40, that's a negative thing. Yeah, and I'll I'll I'll turn over to Dr. Demicco.

178I want to say Mr. Briggs, as you were starting, I felt like it was starting out as a word problem. You know, I was like >> [laughter] >> And I immediately thought I said, okay, Dr. Demicco. Um chronic absenteeism is a student measure, so you're counting individual students and categorizing them as chronically absent or not chronically absent. So, in your example, none of that is really being recorded. So, if you had a student who is being chronically absent, but they had actually improved their attendance compared to previous years, they're still chronically absent. And similarly, if you had a student who has missed more than 18 days and they keep keep missing, they'll only be encountered as chronically absent one time. So, in terms of this overall measure, it's each kid is only going to count

179once no matter how much better or worse they are across that threshold. So, you don't measure overall chronic absenteeism as far as the number of hours of students? No, that would be more like the attendance rate measure cuz that the attendance rate truly is like total time in school divided by total possible time students should have been in school. That would be more along the lines of what you're you're looking at. Okay, so you do measure that. Yeah, it's just that would be the attendance rate, but that's not what we're held accountable by the the state report card. Okay, thank you. Pastor Jones? Thank you to our chair and to our CEO and to your staff. I guess my question is uh two-fold. That is under the slide which speaks about student family outreach, what

180kind of ongoing connection do we have with families with concerns about the family home as relates to a child. And then the second part was as relates to proactive planning campaign to what type of aggressive measures do we take to have proactive lack of absence that we put on the front end of everything we do. So, I'll start with the first question that you asked. So, we have family support specialists supporting every single building and our attendance liaisons go out to the buildings and meet with them. But that is the group who is calling families every single day to find out what supports they need, why students are not in school. And so, they then direct families to specific resources in the community that they may need to address the issues that they families may

181have. So, they are calling on a consistent on a daily basis. They're calling families to see why students aren't in school aren't in school and then directing them to specific resources. What we have not done is to continue to analyze that data to get to root causes and to be able to really speak to and address those root causes instead of the ongoing issues that we see on a frequent basis. I want to add. Also, for our tier three students that are marked currently as chronically absent, once they are not being able to be reached by a phone call, the attendance liaisons and the family support specialists do home visits on a weekly basis to address those needs and to see what are some of the barriers that they also can break in order for

182children to come to school. Mr. Billups, do you have another question? Yes, I want one last question. Kind of around students um who could potentially have a IEP. And just kind of help me understand um is there a time requirement for or an attendance requirement for students who potentially could get a IEP? Um and if so, are there um any supports that could be given? I think it in my experience kind of there's been students that um that concern could be for, but um there's challenges there. So, is there any supports for students that may be needed IEP, but is chronically absent? If that question makes sense. It does. If I'm tracking it, it would be students who are chronically absent, but could be could be identified as a student that needs a IEP. Is

183that what you're asking? >> Yes. Um I'll begin to answer that. Then I don't know if there there questions that you have here. In any given school, particularly at the elementary level, there may be many different challenges. Chronic absenteeism may be one of them, maybe academics may be uh another one. And usually there's a a team at that school that says, hey, let's figure out how we support that that kid. And one of those recommendations may come up to say, you know what, we're realizing between the connection with the students um not coming to school. They're not coming to school because they're struggling academically. They feel out of place. They're not getting the support that they need. That may be the genesis of how IEP gets started. And a lot of times, especially in our

184elementary grades, that's how it gets started just by you know, a cross-functional team really looking at a lot of the challenges that a student may have and that's how that can happen. Is there anything else you would add there? Thank you for that and I I think the basis of my question was kind of around our students missing out on an opportunity to get an IEP because they're chronically absent. I think that that was kind of the basis of the point that I was getting at. So part of each each one of our schools has a student support team that looks at students that are that could have a potential disability and one of the things that we are required by law is to address the attendance before we even consider a disability. So in

185order for us to then begin the process of thinking through as a a student support team, we have to look at the student's attendance. What are some of the barriers for them coming to school and then at that point once those barriers are broken, then we can then say as a school team this may be a potential disability. Let's move on for testing if the team requires that. we have to be able to show that they are not getting behind because of attendance as opposed to is it a disability. And so the team has to be able to differentiate differentiate are they not improving because they're just not here enough to receive instruction or is it a true disability? All right. Thank you Dr. Morgan for this goal monitoring presentation. I wanted to just reiterate

186what I said in my opening remarks. This is an exact demonstration of what our primary business is, which is educating students, improving student outcomes and I'm glad to see that the monitoring is working. Obviously it was quite jarring to see those numbers and um even worse yet to see the projected numbers. However, if we weren't monitoring it in this way, we wouldn't have the opportunity to hear from the team about the strategies that are working but are not working but also that will be implemented in order to ensure that we can improve our student outcomes towards our goals. So thank you. All right. I don't see any other comments. Is there any old business? Any new business? All right. The next regular board meeting will be a board work session on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025

187at 6:30 p.m. at Arnold Pinkney East Professional Center. The chair will now entertain a motion that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of considering the appointment and employment of public employees and officials, preparing for negotiations with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment, conferring with attorneys concerning disputes involving the Board of Education that are the subject of pending or imminent court action and considering details relative to the security arrangements and emergency response protocols for the board and school district. So moved. Second. Thank you, Mr. Stockdale. Please call the roll. Ms. Allcott? Yes. Mr. Billups? >> Yes. Mr. Briggs? >> Yes. Ms. Jones? >> Yes. Pastor Jones? >> Yes. Mr. Lebron? Yes. Mrs. Peak? >> Yes. Dr. Shridhar? Yes. Mrs. Welchau? Yes. Motion passes with nine votes.

188Thank you. The board will now move into executive session. Following executive session, the board will return to this room to briefly without conducting any further business and thank you to everyone who is still with us. >> [music] >> I'm very happy today cuz I am sharing CEO seat with a very amazing young scholar. She attends AB Hart and she's in seventh grade over there. This is Victorious. She goes by Tory Blackman and she's CEO for the day. So CEO Blackman, yes, let's give her a hand. >> [applause] >> I have been going to meetings and hanging out with some of the high schoolers and thinking about what high school I want to go to and just having fun with them. To be a leader, you have to step in. It takes boldness. It takes not

189being afraid and so far Tory has been stepping up to the plate and showing that. Having >> [music] >> a scholar with me has been amazing and I mean she was at the table earlier today with some of Cleveland's you know, top leaders [music] and just being right at the table just means a lot to have that that seat at the table. And so you know, and to be a a young scholar, young lady of color, that just means a lot when we think about representation. So today we started on our robots. Well, we started on our robots like two days ago, but today we added like our finishing touches and we made them waterproof. It's pool noodles. We attached motors to them with wax in it so it is it's waterproofed. And those motors

190spin at a very high speed so it can propel itself through the water and able to do its tasks. It's so cool because usually robots are like on surface, right? This time it's underwater, which makes it harder to see but more funner cuz like you don't know what's going to happen. The machine itself