CMSD Board of Education Meeting - October 28, 2025

001This business meeting of the board of education of the Cleveland Municipal School District will come to order. Obviously, I am not board chair Sara Alakard. She'll be here late. I am Nigan Srther. I serve on the board of education and um Chair Elakard has asked me to chair this meeting until she arrives. Mr. Stocktail, will you please call the role? Miss Elakard. Mr. Phillips >> here. >> Mr. Briggs >> here. >> Miss Jones >> here. >> Pastor Jones >> here. >> Mrs. Lebron >> here. >> Mrs. Peak >> here. >> Dr. Shrear >> here. >> Mrs. Welchow. There are seven members present. >> Thank you. I would ask everyone who wishes to rise and participate in the board for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the

002stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. We're honored this evening to have a special guest, Thomas Hustler, the new executive director of the Ohio School Boards Association. Mr. Hustler, thank you so much for joining us this evening. As an active member of OSBA, our board looks forward to working with you in the years ahead. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you be here with you this evening and uh my name is Tom Hustler and I'm the it's a privilege for me to serve as the the chief executive officer of the Ohio School Boards Association. OSBA's mission is simple but powerful to serve Ohio public school board members and the diverse districts they represent. That only happens because of committed leaders

003who give their time and energy, not just to their local communities, but also at the state and sometimes national level. I know firsthand how much time being a school board member requires, and stepping up for added responsibility with OSBA is no small thing. And tonight I have the honor of recognizing and thanking one of those leaders, Madori LeBron, for her service as a member of the OSBA's 2025 board of trustees. Not only has she helped lead the association as a trustee, but also as part of the delegate assembly, the group that determines OSBA's position on the many issues facing Ohio's public education and most importantly Ohio's 1.6 million students. Madori, in recognition and appreciation of your service on the as OSBA trustee, I'd like to present you with this plaque which reads, "Miss Madori Lebron

004is hereby recognized by the Ohio School Board's Association for Outstanding Service as a member of the OSBA board of trustees. We deeply appreciate your hard work and your dedication because we know strong state leaders come from strong, supportive school boards. We also wanted to thank the Cleveland Metropolitan Board of Education for encouraging and supporting Miss Lebron in this important work. I also have a plaque for you that reads, "The Ohio School Boards Association recognizes the Cleveland Metropolitan Board of Education for its support and encouragement to Miss Madori Lebron as a member of the OSBA board of trustees. I know right now more than ever serving as a member of a school board is more challenging than ever. And on behalf of the Ohio School Boards Association, I want to thank you for the service that

005you're doing for your community and all the work that you're doing to make a difference in Cleveland, but also all across Ohio. Again, thank you for welcoming you here tonight on behalf of OSBA and for this opportunity to commend the outstanding work of your fellow board member and your partnership as a board with OSBA. So, thank you for allowing me to be here and um congratulations. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> have our public participation. During this segment of the business meeting, we will hear all public comment on either agenda or non-aggenda items other than the school calendar. This public participation period will be for persons who have previously submitted the online request to speak form to address the board for up to 3 minutes each. As usual, we will limit each speaker to 3

006minutes. We ask that each speaker respect this time limit. If you have any materials to to hand out to the board, please hand them to Mr. Bzloff over here. Our first speaker um Lunosaurus Belelladan Crom. >> Hi, my name is Luna. I am in 8 years old in third grade at Shima Monasuri. Today I'm here to talk about my school. We know that everyone is different and learns in different ways. At Shima Monasuri, you can choose your own work and do it at your own pace. This helps us learn, grow, and help each other. One of the great things about our school is that we have kids from different grades in the same classes. This helps older kids support and teach their younger classmates. It also helps younger kids learn how to be around and

007work with their older classmates. It's easier to make friends with older and younger schoolmates. When I walk into my school and see my friends, they give me a big hug and I feel like we're sisters. When I When my little brother sees Mag in fourth grade, they say hi and they feel like brothers. When Miss Chrisman finds me a book, she knows I'm going to love. Tmont feels like family. Tmont Monasuri is a very special school. I hope the school board takes care of it while they take make their changes. Thank you. [applause] >> Um I'd also like to shout out Principal Celeste, Miss Chrisman, and all of the other staff here, staff and teachers that make Tmont special. [applause] Thank you so much, Luna. And and I appreciate your bravery for being out here.

008Thank you. Next, we'll have Logan Girki. Logan Gearaki. Mayor Abdul Hadi. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. How's everyone doing? >> Good. Good. Um, so hello everyone. My name is Mayor Abdulhadi. I'm a senior at the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine and I'm here to talk about something very pivotal. Uh, much like Luna, I see the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine as my family. Um, I came from Egypt about 11 years ago in 2014 and I've experienced many different schools and many different learning systems. I've been in CMSD I've been a CMSD student my entire life. And one thing I've noticed is that when a school is truly prosperous, it shows um not only by the environment but through the staff and the students and everything that goes on in the school. So, by

009a quick show of hands, who has been to the metro parks or like a forest or greenery area? Yeah. So, um it's like when you walk into those areas and you see this big amazing tree and it like puts you in awe. That's what the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine reminds me of. Um I could sit up here and talk about what the school offers and all the different clubs like many of our my peers have, but I want to stand up here and tell you all that um you can you're all welcome to come in anytime after school and see our beautiful clubs and our beautiful student engagement, but we already know about this prestige. We already know about the amazing things that are going on. But the real question is that it's

010like to be presented to everyone is why do we keep CSSM only CSSM? Why do we keep CSSM part of our system? And why do we take this initiative to allow this school to not only prosper but allow this legacy to build for the many years ahead. And so we learned that throughout our lives there are many investments to make. And the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine itself is an investment. So referring back to the tree analogy, every school in CMS is a different school. But to me personally, cuz I'm biased, um this school is amazing and it's beautiful and that's what makes it so special because of the passion and pride that goes into it. And we know that financial burdens are hard and is something that many of us have to go

011through. But what gets us through that is our purpose, our why. And I truly understand that financial difficulty is arising in our current moment. But we have to remember that CSSM allows us to levy this. from our board of trustees to our foundation and the annual benefit. Those are many of the examples that allow this burden to be lifted. And so there are many state alumni like Dr. Nicole Bmani Gonzalez. She's currently a secondyear resident um an OBGYn resident at a nearby hospital where she's serving our community and this is what has been doing. It's been sending out all these beautiful alumni creating these amazing changes point out to everyone. Um, so I could yeah sit up here and talk about the various activities, but there are beautiful impacts being made throughout our community that

012I would like everyone to look at and yes, that is what I have to say. So before ending this tonight, I would like us to please consider what is at stake here. TSSM is our special place and it fosters passion like no other and I have experience with this coming from a whole different country across the ocean and that's what I have to say. I am very proud of my school and I'm here to represent it tonight. Thank you everyone. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you, mayor. Next, we'll have Dr. David Margolius. Thank you to the board. Um, I am Dave Margolius. I am a proud CMSD parent, even more proud after seeing some of the student speakers here this evening. Uh my sons are in second grade and fifth grade almost sixth seventh grade

013in a few years. That's supposed to be a sixth seven joke. All right. Um so thank you. So as a proud [laughter] I figure if I say it they'll stop. So, as a as a proud parent, uh, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I meet uh friends, other parents in the suburbs and they say, "Oh, that's so great that you live in Cleveland, but you know, what are you going to do when when they're in school or what are you going to do when they get to high school?" With the implication being that, you know, us in CMSD were we're not as good as as in the suburbs. But I know that's not true. I know that even more tonight having seen the earlier speakers. We have the most incredible principles. We have

014the most incredible teachers. We have some of the best facilities, great sports teams, great robotics teams, incredible graduates who like Dr. Bmani who's uh in in the area serving doing medicine. And so just incredible folks. But what what we also have is resources that are spread too thin and too many buildings and too many decisions that have been kicked down the road for years and years. And so we've get got this perception from and so I know you have some really hard decisions coming up but I but I know that there's so many folks behind you. it's the right thing to do. This decision has been delayed too long and I'm so looking forward to a future state when those suburban parents are coming to us to find out, you know, how they can move

015to Cleveland to send their kids to CMSD just like mine. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Dr. Montgome. Next, Katherine Picassic. >> Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Morgan, and fellow community members. My name is Katherine Tachic, and I serve as the executive director of Say Yes Cleveland. I'm here tonight to express our support for C Futures Initiative. at say yes. We believe that every child deserves access to highquality education regardless of their zip code, background, or circumstance. The building brighter futures plan is a necessary step toward ensuring that all CMSD scholars have equitable access to the academic opportunities and support systems they need to thrive. We commend CMS's commitment to offering college credit and career pathways to 100% in 100% of high schools and enrichment courses in every elementary school. These are not

016luxuries. They are essential tools for preparing our students for success in college, careers, and life. The expansion of trade programs and the return of cosmetology courses reflect the diverse aspirations of our students. We also recognize the difficult decisions ahead. These are not easy choices, but they are necessary ones. Declining enrollment and rising costs require us to reimagine how we deliver education in Cleveland, and CMSD is doing so with transparency, community engagement, and a focus on student outcomes. Say yes is a proud to partner with CMSD. We are committed to continuing our wraparound services at every school to ensure that every student not only graduates, but is prepared for what comes next. Let's build a brighter future for every child in Cleveland. Thank you. [applause] Thank you, Mr. Katchek. Next, Craig Dorne. Uh, good evening. My

017name is Craig Dorne. I serve as the president and CEO of Youth Opportunities Unlimited, or an organization you might simply know as YOU. Since 1986, we have proudly partnered with CMSD to prepare Cleveland's youth for a variety of of uh opportunities, career readiness, mentoring, post-secondary advising, job preparation, and uh paid work experience. Today I'm here to voice while strong support for the building brighter futures initiative. We believe this initiative represents the bold and necessary forwardthinking step for Cleveland's youth. And to echo Dr. Margolus's comments, a long- awaited one. We know from our decades of experience that a larger, better resourced high schools are able to provide richer, more diverse experiences in the classroom, on the field, and through extracurricular activities. This initiative will put CMSD on an even playing field with other districts, ensuring that

018all students will have what they need to thrive. The plan also helps us uh at YOU and other organizations like YOU really consolidate our resources and provide and even stronger, more effective support. A couple examples. We could have more consistent presence in the schools. Right now we have advisers coming two, three times a month. They could come one to two times a week. we could expand our efforts to help young people get the OMJ readiness seal uh to complete their 250 hours of work-based learning and pre-apprenticeship. Our adviserss will be able to collaborate more closely with our partners at College Now to ensure every young person has a viable career plan after graduation. Uh so in in conclusion, just to wrap up and to echo the sentiments of some of our other partners here today,

019we feel this is the right thing to do now for our students, our school, and our city. It's a smarter, more equitable use of resources that ensures dollars really go to classrooms, technology, and teachers. And we feel keeping the status quo really means continued inequity and lost opportunity. So, we look forward to moving together with CMSD the and the city to build brighter futures for every Cleveland scholar and thank you so much for your time. [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Dorne. Glenn Schumate. So, good evening uh certainly to the board, parents and students. Um pleased to uh be here tonight to really talk about the future and in particular both education and for preparation for uh careers for young people. So, I live uh I'm a Cleveland resident, live nearby um a couple miles from

020here, and I've worked in the Cleveland schools for the past 30 years uh through a couple different employers and a couple different industries. Um and as I say to people, I've never had a bad experience in a Cleveland school. Um I really, you know, despite sometimes the stigma of what Cleveland schools or students may be like, I've had very positive experiences. I credit that to administration certainly to uh staff but also the students and youth themselves um and their support and parents and and others who are helping to develop them. So my, you know, I work for a association, but let me before I even talk about that, really a parent of three, um, grandfather of two, um, a daughter who went to Cleveland schools, um, earlier in in her life and, um, I'd actually

021just left my 31-year-old daughter this evening and talked about why I needed to leave her to come here and, you know, some of the things that I do in my professional in civic life, But, you know, it it really is around belief in helping young people uh find their hope, find their dream, but also support our community, our industry, our businesses. Right? So, I've I I know in my heart that there's a number of people who um like myself really care about students, really care about the future of Cleveland. Um and I think the alignment of what decisions that the board has to make that the staff has to make around um difficult decisions but yet needed decisions for how do you best prioritize and create resources in right areas is important to do. Um

022and as one of the other speakers said I mean kind of kicking decisions further down the road is not necessarily served everybody well. I hope that uh you have the support uh the wisdom and guidance to make the right decisions and difficult decisions that you know might mean changing things from what they have been in the past uh really for a brighter future uh for the district but and for the students and greater Cleveland. Um I also work with a civic volunteer organization uh Dr. Morgan Pace, right? The which really helps to align industries with youth in schools so that they can be exposed to 13 career paths and opportunities for healthcare and manufacturing and IT. I work in a construction industry. Um, we need workers and you know I part of a civic program

023that has volunteers in 13 high schools that really support students and I hope that can continue um with some of the decisions that you have to make here tonight. Uh so thank you for your support and direction in the future. [applause] >> Thank you. Next, Sandra Flowers. >> Hello, my name is Sandy Flowers and I'm the CTU chapter chair for Tmont Monasuri and a proud CMSD educator for over 30 years, 28 years which have been with the Monasuri program. My children also attended Tmont Monasuri. I'm going to give you a little um CMSD monastery history. Hicks Monasuri was the original CMSD monator school and was located on Bridge Avenue. The principal of Hicks was Helen Barbara Booker who advocated for the monastery program with the district. Hicks was closed and the program was moved to

024Gordon Monastery in Dyke Monastery to allow families to select from an east and westside location. Mrs. Booker became the principal of Gordon Monastery and unfortunately not long after the move passed away in June of 1996. The school's name was changed to H. Barbara Booker Monasuri Center to honor her memory. In August of 2005, the district merged H. Barbara Booker Monasuri and Dyke Monastery and relocated the Monasuri program to Tmont Elementary School. At the time, the staff and families were told it was because the district wanted a more central location to support the citywide draw students to the Monasuri program. This was a challenging merger because not only were the two Monasuri schools merged, but students that attended the traditional Tmont Elementary School were able to stay despite having no previous experience in a Monasuri classroom.

025We were told that the location was temporary because a new building would be built as part of CMSD's school modernization plan that was divided up into segments. A 3D model was brought to the school to show staff the proposed building design. After hearing about the district's plan, the Tmont community wanted to preserve the historic 1917 building and wanted the monastery program to remain in Tmont. There were numerous meetings to discuss whether the building would be renovated or rebuilt, during which time the building moved further down the list to the last segment for modernization. Our goal has always been to have an authentic accredited monastery program for our scholars. Eight years ago, we were fortunate to gain a monastery trained administrator, Natalie Celeste, that spearheaded our quest for AMS accreditation. Mary Beth McCormack became our first

026director of monatory programs. The multi-year accreditation began, and in February of 2025, we became the first fully accredited public monastery elementary school in the state of Ohio. This is truly an amazing accomplishment that demonstrates our perseverance and dedication to monatory education in our district. Our program has historically been a citywide draw from the beginning at Hicks until now. We currently have students from 34 different zip codes. The program must continue to be in a centrallylo area that would allow our students to go out and be involved in the community. Tmont has been a wonderful location due to its walkability, the public library located one block away in Lincoln Park. Consolidating with a traditional school would compromise our program and jeopardize our accreditation. Closing the program should not even be a consideration. If our building cannot

027be renovated or replaced as the district previously promised, then move our program intact with all students, teachers, administrators, and support staff members that are part of our Tmont Monatory family. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Miss Flowers. Next, Susan Conrad. Um, hello. Thank you. I also am from Tmont Monasuri. So, my name is Susan Conrad and I'm a children's house teacher at Tmont Monasuri and I've been teaching in the district for 32 years and 30 of those years have been with the Monasuri program. Doing the math, I myself have impacted between 6 and 700 preschool and kindergarten students. Of those preschool students, I have taught many of their children and affectionately call them grand students. I am not the only teacher that's lucky enough to have this experience as well. Just a little odd that

028they started at three and now have stu uh children that are old enough to be with me. Um we um currently have four employees at Tmont Monasuri that have gone through our program and several substitute teachers who regularly sub in our building. I keep keep in touch with a good many of our families and scholars. And what does this mean? It means that Monasuri program has stood the test of time. It means that our former uh scholars trust us enough to bring their own children to us when they're ready for school. It means that our former students are so connected with us that they want to work there. Um my colleagues and our students have also shared many of these things. But I also want to talk about our preschool program. It was stated that

029not all buildings or programs will maintain their preschool program. Um our preschool and children children's house as we call it our multi-age program is the foundation of our program and the model ensures that our students have the foundation of Monasuri as they move up in the grade levels. We ask that the monastery program stay in place and maintain its youngest scholars starting at age three something that only two schools in the whole district accommodate. Tree Tmont and Stonebrook. Our three-year cycle for children's house is a tested and proven model not just by Maria herself back in the early 1900s. But today, as you can see, how Monatory is widely popular and respected program. Up until Cleveland started the monastery program 40 years ago, low-income families did not have access to this type of education. And

030we believe at Tmont um as the only accredited public monastery in the state of Ohio that everybody no matter their socioeconomic level deserves an opportunity to have access to a free public monastery education. It should not be only for the elite and the fact that Cleveland has two monastery schools is something to be celebrated and many of our students have grown to go outside go to some of the best high schools and colleges. Um I have two former students right now that are currently have full ride scholarships to case in their premed track and this is just two people there are many many have left us to do great things. The monastery program in Cleveland is a crown jewel and should be revered and sees as an exemplar of school choice for our families. We

031the teachers and the parents love the Tmont neighborhood for all it has to offer and the support it has given us. Is a perfect central location that's walkable and fits our needs as a monatory program. Um, we understand the building needs, but we can't express more how important it is to keep monastery program growing with the preschool intact in the near westside neighborhood of Tmont, Ohio City. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Conrad. [clears throat] I'm going to go back on the list. Is Logan here? Logan Gaki. Okay. Kelly Lardy. Hello, thank you. I am also from Tmont Monasuri. My name is Kelly Lardy. I'm currently an upper elementary teacher at Tmont Monasuri and have worked at Monasuri schools in CMSD since 1998. I am here to make sure you realize what a gem you

032have in our 100year-old building on West 10th Street. There are approximately 5,000 monatory schools here in the United States. Out of those 5,000, 400 4,500 are private schools. Here in the Cleveland area, the cost to send a preschool or school age children to one of those private monatory schools can range from 15,000 to 27,000 a year. Obviously, this type of education is reserved for families of means. The level of tuition creates a barrier for families without expendable incomes. Ironically, Dr. Dr. Monasuri created her method of education with marginalized children in mind, not the wealthy children who are the main beneficiaries in our country. Public Monasuri schools are slowly growing within the United States and more available to children and communities everywhere. However, while all of these schools can use the term monastery in their title,

033very few are actually accredited by the American Monasuri Society. Tmont Monasur is the only accredited public monastery elementary school in the state of Ohio and one of only a handful in the country. The American Monatory Society refers to accreditation as the gold standard of monastery school excellence. A measure to distinguish the school community and help implement and sustain rigorous standards for a quality authentic monastery education. Tmont achieved that level of excellence in the eyes of the most influential monator organization in the country. Our path to accreditation began in 2017 with the hiring of two administrators with passion and vision for everything Monastery stood for. When Natalie Celeste was hired as our principal, her pledge was to have Tmont become an accredited Monasuri school. She never faltered on that promise. Achieving accreditation is is a yearslong

034process not intended for the weak of heart. Step one in the accreditation process was an intensive year-long self-study that involved our school's entire community. During this process, we examined and documented every aspect of our program and processes, governance, curriculum, fiscal and personnel policies, facilities, health and safety practices, teacher preparation, and learner outcomes. We identified areas of strength and opportunities for improvement and subitted submitted a 90-page report. Step two invol involved hosting a team of peers from other AMS accredited schools for a week-long on-site visit. The final step in the process took place with the AMS board of directors when they determined that our school had met all of the criteria and should be granted the distinction of accreditation. Right now, students from all over the city of Cleveland are experiencing the excellence we have at

035Tremont Monastery. We urge you to keep that in mind when you make your decisions. [applause] Thank you, Miss Lardy. Next, Cara Crocker. My name is Carrie Eert Crocker and I'm a teacher at Tmont Monasuri School and the parent of two CMSD scholars. I have worked in public, private, and charter monastery schools over my career and can attest to the fact that CMSD's public monastery offerings are something truly special. I am here today to request that both of our monastery programs stay whole and intact through the district's imminent closures and consolidations. Public Monasuri is a gift to the children of Cleveland, one that doesn't exist in many cities or districts. Monasuri schools require not just specialized training and certification but a deep and intimate knowledge of the monastery method and a staffwide commitment to quality implementation

036of the pedagogy. From our incredible monastery focused administration and teaching staff to the amazing paraprofessionals and the custodial and the cafeteria staff. There is a buildingwide understanding that we at Tmont are a monastery program, a good monastery program and we show up in that light every day. The data shared at this fall's building brighter futures meetings which was intended to level the playing field and shows apple showed applesto apples information shared a limited view of our monastery community. It showed the number of children K to8 in each building but didn't discuss the 100 plus monastery preschoolers who would be displaced if the buildings closed and are unable to be busted to other locations. The data included the number of children who could fit into square footage of each classroom from a traditional lens but not

037a monastery lens. It failed to note that we have classrooms that are enrollment limited uh due to the fact that we have various MDA units at various age levels and in our Kota classrooms. Those classes will never be at full capacity if they're marked against a traditional class size. The data shows falling enrollment over time, but it cannot represent the families that left over the radon problem two years ago, over the lack of easy elevator access for impaired children, over the lack of air conditioning and increasingly hot climate. The data does not address classrooms that may have been closed or transitioned to new units. I believe data is important and I understand the drive and the need to make the data objective. And I also feel that it misses the mark in representing the breadth

038of what happens in our school buildings. At the building brighter futures meeting at Joseph Gallagher, CEO Morgan told my son William that the district is committed to the mon monator model. We hope that you will show that commitment by considering our monastery schools in the district's plan for the future. Dr. Morgan CMSD board. I would humbly request keep Monastery equitable and accessible to all Clevelanders by offering high fidelity programs on both sides of our city. A brighter future for our monastery students looks like support from the district that lets Tremont maintain its AMS accreditation. It looks like offering our monastery programs the opportunity to fully implement the monastery pedagogy without the pressure to implement non-monatory curriculas. It looks like allowing the district's special programs to be special, not to mirror our traditional programs, which are

039outstanding in their own right. Above all, it looks like keeping our monastery schools open, intact, and enrolling new children. I appreciate the challenge that this decision-making pro process presents to you. I know it is not easy, and I also believe it is the job of a community to show up and represent their values in the face of great change. Thank you for your time. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Miss Dward Crocker. Paulie Carr. My name is Paulie Carr. I'm a parent in the district. I write a blog about CMSD public records. I'm the president of my school's parent organization. I run an afterchool program called CIS Plus. And this week, I'm the Scholastic Bookf Fair chair. I want to thank you, Dr. Morgan, for reaching out to the grandmother from Kenneth Clement Boys Leadership Academy.

040She told me that she really enjoyed talking to you, she felt heard, and that the very next day she saw some of her concerns being addressed. And I appreciate that so much. I'm here to talk about textbooks, or lack thereof. I started getting messages from teachers around the district on August 25th about missing textbooks. This was widespread throughout the district, affecting 36% of teachers in about 20% of the schools. I know that teachers were also reaching out to their union and that the building administrators were in constant contact with district administration. Weeks passed and textbooks still didn't arrive. I happened to be working at our afterchool program on a Wednesday in early September when I overheard a teacher talking to Dr. Anna Turner about the textbook issues. Turner said that the books would come, but

041also expressed confusion about what algebra curriculum our school was using for 8th grade, which seemed like something someone in the academic leadership should be conversant in, considering that just 70 students in the entire CMSD take algebra in eighth grade. Anywh who, I came to find out that my own sons are taking an advanced math class that combines seventh and eighth grade into one fast-paced year. They didn't have textbooks. They got copies of math modules that from the teachers access to the online curriculum, but only when our school had both copy paper and toner, which has become a unicorn rare sighting. I sent an email to Dr. Turner and the textbook guy ordering about this about the textbooks. I didn't get a response for 5 days. So, I reached out to Ed and Peggy Gallick and

042after their first news story ran, I got a response from Anna Turner. It was another week before we got textbooks. Well, just for my class, which was the last day of the first quarter of school in a fast-paced curriculum, there are still classes in our building that don't have textbooks. And I'm still hearing from lots of teachers around the district who don't have the right textbooks. They got books, but they were the wrong modules that had already passed. And well, those other books still have not come. And they don't have the correct number of textbooks. They got way too many textbooks. And it seems odd that the CMSD spokesperson said that the problem had been solved because it clearly has not. I was getting messages today. [snorts] This reeks of incompetence in both academic department

043and the procurement department. The way the district communications has been dismissive of the issue reeks of a kind of privilege that one has when they work at 111 Superior and not in a building with school children. Adding to this myriad of other CMSD administrative failures, one wonders why anyone would believe that this school board and this administration is competent enough to actually build the brighter future that we all really want. Thank you, Miss Carr. Famika Bonner. Grateful, grateful evening, Dr. Morgan and board. Um, I'm coming to you as your favorite transportation lady. Um, I'm just gonna give you the monthly update. I would like to say thank you to Karen and Eric. Um, Eric came out to our school on Friday. He had a meeting with me and my principal and um, another associate and

044we talked and we had a good conversation. Um, I will say that for the most part everything has been addressed. Unfortunately, some things are not. We still have students who are not getting picked up. Um I did email the particular people we're supposed to email at the depot. Um I just want to say because I don't want to take up too much time because I'm I've just feel, you know, overwhelmed listening to all the people um talking about the BBF. Um but I just want to say that I'm not I'm frustrated, but I people was like, "Fam, why do you care so much?" And I say that because I shouldn't care because my kids don't get on the bus and I'm just an educator, right? But just like Dr. Morgan said at the state of

045schools, well, like the young lady said that there's low poverty. Um, she said, I live in low poverty community doesn't mean I have to have a low poverty education. These children deserve to have their transportation. These children deserve to have their education. So with that, I am still going to be working with Eric. We're going to be best friends. Eric Taylor. And thank you very much, guys. [applause] >> Thank you, Miss Bonner. Alan Neville. >> Good evening. Good evening. My name is Alan Neville. I'm going to share a statement. presented on behalf of the board of directors and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Cleveland. Uh I am the chair of the people and culture committee as part of that board. Dear members of the Cleveland Metropolitan School Board, CEO Morgan and everyone here

046today, there's a lot of passion around this. Thank you for giving the Urban League of Greater Cleveland the opportunity to speak to you today about building brighter futures. I represent our CEO, Miss Marshia Makavee, and board chair Kevin Clayton, who had competing commitments during this time. Cleveland is a city that is always deeply cared about its children. As a CEO of the Urban League and Borg leadership, our organization is committed by mission to eliminating racial, economic, and societal barriers that prevent black and underserved students in this city from accessing opportunities. A key pillar of that mission is making sure that every member of our community has equitable access to a quality education. While good academic process has been achieved, progress rather, has been achieved, there are many schools in the district that have been underserved

047and disconnected from key resources. We know firsthand because we partner at some of the schools in question. We are there working with students on a weekly basis to supplement academic support and career pathway development. We cannot continue to see a school system where opportunity depends on the school building one attends. The community has been generous with its levy dollars and those dollars must be used wisely to support all Cleveland children to reach their fullest potential. Today, the district faces a challenge we can no longer ignore. Too many buildings lack resources to provide every student with the education they deserve. In fact, this is not just about equity of access to facilities and equity of services. It is a call to a moral imperative about how we value the future of our most valuable asset for

048the future, our youth. Building brighter futures is about providing equity of access to important elements in the educational process that include a full slate of college prep courses, a band, a football team, and other developmental extracurricular activities. Building better futures is about stewardship, fairness, and opportunity. It's about investing in a collection of schools with common goals and structures of excellence. We know these decisions ahead will be challenging. We're not here to just offer words, but real support. We offer to not just give you words of support, but offer to participate in planning, implementation, and support of children and families during the transition. We pledge to work alongside family, staff, and community leaders to make this transition as thoughtful and supportive as possible. CEO Morgan, we stand with you in mission alignment, as we've done for

049more than 35 years of school improvement transition. Together, let's continue to empower communities and change lives. Thank you very much. [applause] Thank you. This concludes our public participation portion of this meeting. This evening's consent agenda includes the minutes of the last two board meetings and one finance resolution, one operations resolution, one academic resolution, four excellence and culture resolutions, and four legal resolutions. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda consisting of agenda items 4.02 through 9.04 as set forth in the board meeting agenda. >> So move. Thank you. >> Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role on this motion? >> Mr. Bilips, >> yes. >> Mr. Briggs, >> yes. >> Miss Jones, >> Pastor Jones, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lebron, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peak, >> yes. >> Dr. Shrear,

050>> yes. >> The motion passes with seven votes. >> Thank you. The motion passes the mo and the minutes are approved and these 11 resolutions are adopted. Next, we have one academic resolution 10.01 01 authorizing the issuance of a purchase order to attainment company for the purchase of 36 prevocational training kits, materials, and web-based training implemented by all CMSD coordinators for the low incidence and medically fragile classes and declaring that these items for special education can only be acquired from attainment company as a sole source provider in an amount not to exceed $57,000. $57,0258 that the board will be voting on this separately from our consent agenda. That is because pursuant to Ohio Revised Code sections 3311.75 and 3313.46 46. With the adoption of this resolution, the board must determine and declare by a twothirds

051vote of it of all its members that the supplies and services purchased by purchased from attainment company are available and can only be acquired from a single source. The chairs will now entertain a motion to approve resolution 10.01, the full title of which is set forth in the board meeting agenda. >> So move. >> Thank you. >> Second. Thank you. Mr. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role on this motion? >> Mr. Phillips, >> yes. >> Mr. Briggs, >> yes. >> Miss Jones, >> yes. >> Pastor Jones, >> yes. >> Mrs. Leone, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peak, >> yes. >> Dr. Shrear, >> yes. >> The motion passes with seven votes. >> Thank you. The motion having passed by at least a two-thirds vote, this resolution is now adopted. The board will now hold

052its monthly monitoring of goals and guard rails. Dr. Morgan. Thank you, Dr. Shredar. Um, happy to bring this uh week's uh goal session. Uh, last time we had an opportunity to look at where we are with our u math implementation, our math goal, which is specifically focused on algebra 1. Today, we're going to be looking at early literacy um um and looking at our English language arts curriculum, but with a focus of where our students are in K3 literacy. That is the area where we're really focused on and our board has charged us. I know we have members of the academics team and our evaluation and research team here as well. Um we have Dr. Selena Florence is our chief academic officer. I see uh Hope as well who is our executive director of curriculum

053and instruction. Megan Traum who's also on our academics team and Dr. Andrew Coun uh as well as Dr. Nick Demo um that are uh here as well just in case there are any questions. So uh one we're really appreciative as we shared before that the board has charged us with our goals and really have sh uh shaped our board meetings to really focus on presenting the academic progress and process of um our implementation of our program. So uh today we'll be looking at uh our early literacy goal which is our very first one. Um I wanted to start like we did last time but really celebrating the progress from last year. uh you know there was a lot of academic achievement and we shared this even last week when looking at how our students showed

054up on our Ohio State test. It's no surprise by seeing uh some of our amazing scholars uh present tonight and just their how eloquent they are as well as our amazing teachers. You hear uh their passion and the work they're doing in the classroom and both of these show up in the results that we saw last year. Um as you can see in our results making significant gains in every single testing subject area. Um specifically in math. Um, we talked about math last year, but then English language arts and last year was the very first year we implemented our new English language arts curriculum, a high quality curriculum at scale in every single school at the elementary level and high school levels. Research shows that when you're implementing a new curriculum, you often take a

055drop. Now, today we will be looking at our early uh literacy uh grades and in our early grades we are seeing drops and we're going to talk a little bit about that. But across the board, we saw gains. our upper grades, we saw gains and particularly in our high schools where we're using the Savis My Perspective uh curriculum. We're seeing gains and I just really want to shout out all of our educators, our school leaders, but most important our scholars because they're showing up and doing incredible work. U we've now exceeded the preandemic proficiency in high school English language arts, algebra 1, and US government. So, uh in those areas, we are ahead of where we were pre- pandemic. So, let's keep up the great work. you're hearing about the uh the great work that

056is happening in our schools and we just have to continue to level up because there's more work to do that these are growth uh areas in terms of how we've grown. All of our scholars are not where they need to be in terms of proficiency. Like I shared last week, you can see the growth last year was even greater than the growth we saw in the 2324 school year where we achieved a three-star rating for the first time. Uh we had even stronger growth in every single testing area. So it was a strong academic year and we're very proud of that. And today when we're looking at some of the gains, we're going to be looking particularly at how we're doing this year so far. Um, now one of the things I've shared before is

057that the report card has changed this year. So last year we had five indicators that we looked at in the report card and we received three stars. We were proud of that three stars. Still very proud of that three stars because our our our teachers and our scholars worked hard for that. But this year a new measure, college, career, workforce, and military readiness showed up on our report card and uh we received one star in that. showing that across the board, we're not preparing our scholars for college and career. Even in some of our highest performing schools um uh that were five stars on on our John Hay campus, all three of those schools were um on the college and career readiness measures. Uh we did not do as well on that one. And now

058our four and a half star schools, a great measure. I'll take a four and a half star school, you know, any day. That's great progress. But at the same time, we have work to do really in our college, career, workforce, and military readiness. Uh for our class of 2024, um a little under 36% of our scholars were proficient on the college, career, workforce, and military readiness. Um and even some of our highest performing schools were at about 40%. So we have work to do to really make sure we grow this um and we'll over the next several months, you'll be hearing how building brighter futures will help address this um by making sure we can offer more of those programs to more of our scholars. So let's dive into our goal for today uh which

059we're looking at early literacy. Our early literacy goal is that the percentage of third graders, so we're looking at specifically at third graders, um will be proficient in English language arts will uh increase from 35%, that's where we were last fall, August 2024, to 60% in August 2030. I want to name that this is an ambitious goal just like math is an ambitious goal. We set an ambitious goal for math, but we've seen incredible growth. And so you look at the algebra 1 goal last year, we had 12.3%age uh growth in one year. So, we're more than halfway to the distance of the goal that we're looking at for algebra 1 in our English language arts, particularly in third grade, we have a lot more work to do um to get to that 60%. Because

060already we've been seeing declines in early literacy. And so, when we think about the foundational resources we need to build in our young scholars, there's more work to do. And that's the work we're going to be looking at. As you know, uh you have charged us not only with our topline goals, but also the the CEO measures. So there are two uh benchmark measures that we look at. One, we look at um the increase in the percent of K3 students. So in those early grades that are on track in reading as measured by our fall I Ready assessment. This is our first time taking that assessment. Um in fall a lot of students are taking that within the first week of school. So we're going to talk about that in a moment. And then our

061next CEO measure is looking at the percent of students who are proficient in uh third grade students who are proficient uh as measured by the winter I Ready assessment which will be taken uh I believe starting in a couple of weeks. So let's look at this journey. If you're looking at uh this the slide up here and uh it may be hard to uh to read and looking at this but this shows our journey across time. Like when we looked at our math data we looked at um you know from the past three years. This is my third year as the CEO. So it's showing that journey from the 20 32 24 school year, the 24 25 school year and the 20 uh this year in the 2526. So we're looking particularly at our fall

062data which is that last data point where the uh percentage of third grade students who are on track as measured by I Ready is about 39.3%. Remember the goal we have on our top line is to get to 60% for third graders. Now, if you look at how many students were proficient in fall and during the 24-25 school year, we had almost 48% of students who were not proficient but on track. Um, but the assessment change and I'm going to talk a little bit about the assessment change and the mark that we looked at for this because we're at 48% roughly in the 2425 school year in that fall and now uh we're at that uh 39.3. So, it looks like that's almost a 10% um uh drop. But I'm going to talk a little

063bit about what we find in the data. Also, the other data points you see there, you see it's across the board. It's not just one grade. Uh uh when we look at first grade, second grade, and third uh grade, we see the drops of ontrack rates as measured by I Ready compared to where they were on the NWA assessment. I will note that I Ready measures kindergarten uh on track rates unlike NWA. NWA you could not measure this. So this is the first year we'll have baseline for our kinder uh baseline uh for our kindergartenner uh students. We were able to look at where our kindergarten students were in the past as measured by the KR. Um but this also uh can allow us to look at uh where students are on track by I

064Ready. Oh yeah, I didn't know it didn't pop up there, but as you can see that that that line shows where we transition from NWA to I Ready. So on this next slide here, uh let's see. Am I going too fast? Yeah. Here we go. So, I want to talk a little bit about this assessment change. Even though NWA and I Ready are both nationally norm tests, these are tests that measure proficiency and we should be able to look at that to predict where students are going to be at uh um in terms of proficiency on the Ohio State test. The test does have a different cut off for looking at ontrack rates. So NWA when you look at K3 or early literacy they were 1 13 in NWA you look at the early uh

065literacy mark for um on uh on track for uh NWA it was looking at students at the basic level whereas when you look at I ready in terms of where that cut score is it's at the proficient level so it's a more rigorous measure in terms of the ontrack rates so us looking at the 39.3% on track in I is not the same as looking at that 48% that was on track for NWA. So that we did find that it was a statistical measure. It was a really uh uh well I guess you can look back on it and say it was a fun meeting when we were briefing each other on the data teams and uh I love it as a data guy myself and looking at data. I love it when two data

066uh uh uh people and academics can go after it and say like hey let's look at the test let's look at the standards and um actually doing some rigorous measures and looking at the methodology of both I ready and NWA our team was able to catch this that this is something we are looking at so in this case the cut score in terms of um on track does change and so let's look at when we look at that alignment here um and on this next slide it shows what roughly the cut score would be if we were looking if we're comparing apples to apples and the drop is a little less. So if you look at fall of last year, um taking that into account, we were at 47 uh% uh on track for the

067early literacy and now we're at about 44.8 almost 45% on track uh for the uh the fall measure. Still not where we want to be. Still a drop, but the drop is not as significant. Um and it's on par with the drops we saw um from fall 23 to fall 24. Uh so this continues to be an area we are focused on which is why UI charges with it with the board goals because our K3 area for literacy is an area we still really want to continue to um to focus on. When I share some bright spots I'm going to talk a little bit about our seven pilot schools. Last year we had seven schools that were piloting I Ready and we are seeing some um some promising things in terms of the schools that

068used I Ready last year and was also using the curriculum in terms of their growth this year compared to the schools that this is their very first time taking I Ready. So we'll talk a little bit about that in a moment but I did want to uh to note this change in assessment and how that changes things. The other thing I'll look at for CEO measure 1.1, this is looking at our fall. Right now, it's measuring fall tests and it may be something we look at to see if it is the benchmark we want to use. Uh there are some schools that are testing kids in I Ready in the very first week of schools before the teachers have even gotten a chance to teach instruction. Um so it's always interesting to see where students

069are in the fall compared to the winter because that's when the teachers actually getting able to do some instruction with them and seeing that growth. But there were some students that the teachers were administering this test and they haven't even had that much instruction for the year. So, uh that's something for us to look at to see whether the fall or the winter measure. For math, we are looking at the winter measure. Uh and it I I would strongly suggest that we look at the winter measure as well for uh for literacy. All right, next slide here. Um this is looking at one uh point two that's actually just looking at third graders that are proficient. Uh and that proficiency measure is um there there's no difference in terms of how we're looking at the

070proficient measure between um NWA as well as uh I ready. It just is predicting how many students would be proficient. There is showing a slight drop. Uh we were at 26.23 uh in the fall of last year. Now we're at 24.35. These are two different groups of third graders, so different cohort. Um but we did go down quite a bit. Oh, no, not quite a bit. we did go down um a little bit, but we are off track because our goal is to be at 60% in 5 years. So unlike math where we're seeing this really increase of our students being proficiency um being proficient in in algebra 1, um we're not seeing the early literacy move as fast. Um and so we have ground to cover here. So, one of the reasons why we're

071saying we're significantly off track, even though we've only lost a little bit of ground between last year's cohort and this year's cohort, we have more gain uh ground to gain because we have a very um very ambitious goal of getting to 60%. Uh and so this is one we're noting oursel as being significantly off track on. Even if we grow the two to four percentage points that we grew um from fall to winter last year, if we see that that gain this year, we still will have some ground to uh cover. And and I'll also note well we'll get to that when we go to our our pelt problem of practice about what we saw last year because this was also a concerning group even with all the academic gains we saw last year. Third

072grade was a group that when we looked at the OST test um it was a concerning group u when we were testing. This is just another way of looking at uh the the data. Uh and you can see from the past uh the past uh falls, that's the first chart you're looking at. Uh fall that'll be fall 23 went down fall 24 for this third grade group and now it's down even um uh even more in fall of 25. So this is a group that we really had to focus in on which is why we chose it as a board goal to really think about our early um our early uh grade students in terms of how they're moving. So uh strategies from implementation of course we know that best practice research shows that when

073you're implementing highquality instructional materials you see gains. We have seen that in what's happened with our test scores. Um when by implementing high quality curricula at scale in all of our schools for most of our grade levels we are seeing students um improve. Uh this is a grade level we need to continue to double down on. Uh we also really want to engage students in the daily practice of textbased reading, writing and speaking. uh really grounding everything in the text um and also really thinking about that structured literacy block particularly in our younger grades um and implementing the writer's workshop in grades two through three uh one of the things we've been really focusing on are the DDI protocols the data driven instructional protocols we talked a little bit about that with math um though

074we've been uh doing a lot of work with our school leaders over the past year in that and now have been rolling out this work to our teachers and there have been a couple of teacher cohorts being trained I think I may have saw when I was at Arnold Pinkney today, there were teacher cohorts being trained today. So I saw some teachers out there and so we're slowly rolling this out um to our teachers um so that as teachers have their pacing guides and all their instructional materials that they're these are different um resources and tools they can use to reflect and think about their students progress. So I want to talk about PELP. So um I am a student of PELP. uh ever since I've been a a system leader uh when I first

075came to work in the Cleveland schools uh over 10 years ago I was part of a fellowship where I got introduced to the PEL framework and this is out of Harvard that really talks about really centering everything that you do within a system around the instructional core and so you guys have probably heard me talk about the instructional core and the PEL framework since I've come in as CEO but one of our strategies has been that the school system and everything we're doing is centered around that instructional core and that is what's happening with the teacher the student in the content the teacher is using. That's our strategy. That's our strategy for improvement. Um but when we go to pelp uh we took a team of us uh from pelp and uh actually just by

076standing up uh those uh members I know there's a a few of you who are pelt this summer. If you can just stand um just to uh see we had a cross functional team some members from academics as well as um uh I know some members from my team and my chief of staff as well as uh executive director of research accountability. You guys can have a seat. Um, but it was a great uh a great workshop for us to go to because we had members from other districts also focusing on a problem of practice and our problem of practice was really focused on early literacy. This was a group that we said we're seeing gains in other subject areas and other testing areas. What why are we struggling in early literacy? And so you

077it help it teaches teaches you to obsess about the problem and really get clear about your problem of practice. And so I want to walk you through some of the things we've learned. Uh this is uh yeah this talks about what what we just did this summer by going to Harvard and learning from Pelt. So when we went to Pelt, we started with this problem of really thinking about knowing that we had did our classroom walkthrough data. So initially what this shows is based on our classroom walkthrough data, 75% or above of the 2,180 classrooms observed across all 94 schools during the second semester of school year 2425 showed evidence that the curriculum was being in use. So that's a huge celebration because that means our teachers are using the curriculum and this was in

078the first year of using it. But based on our classroom data and walkthrough, we were seeing that that deeper level of the text wasn't being used like the deep engagement uh evidence of of support and the ideas and the discussion of writing and the application of what they learned. So that's where a problem of practice started. Now when you start with the problem of practice, you can start saying like well what's the issue? What are the problems? You can start by saying well maybe the teachers don't understand it. You could say, well, maybe the principles aren't uh you know um you know translating that to their teachers. You could say maybe the PD isn't working that we're doing. Um maybe people don't understand the why behind the high quality curriculum instruction or maybe district leaders

079aren't, you know, prioritizing their time right. You could start from all these problems, but you really want to get really centered in the problem and also think about what's in your locus of control. And so we started thinking about us as central office leaders. What were we doing in terms of the implementation of curriculum that actually supported teachers? And when you frame the problems of what we can do to support school leaders and teachers, um our problem began to really take shape. It wasn't about things outside of our locus of control. It was really about what we could control and the things we could do to support. So um when we revised our problem of practice, uh this is what our problem of practice showed. Uh and we got a lot of great feedback from

080our partners. We were part of a triad of Milwaukee public schools as well as Birmingham um public schools. Um and uh this is where our problem of practice became refined. He said the CMSD board recently adopted three five-year goals, including an early literacy goal across third grade classroom walkthroughs uh in all 63 preK8 schools. 76% showed evidence that the new ELA curriculum is being used in those classrooms. Once again, a point of celebration. Despite the ongoing school leader training efforts, third grade ELA proficiency def declined from 35% on the spring OST in 2024 to 31% on the spring 2025 OST. So this is even last year's data with all the growth. The third grade group went down uh and the the data from internal walkthroughs, external uh walkthroughs and teacher surveys shows that we're not

081using that deeper context. Um now what we said is it's because our central office hasn't yet developed a clearly defined integrated systems of support accountability to enable principles to lead ELA instruction with their teachers and administrative teams. So we put that mirror on us and said what can we do better to support our leaders and our teachers in this implementation. What we did from that was we did a and anyone who knows theory of action I won't go through all of this and you guys can see it on yours but we did these if then statements. So if our division of uh academics is creating the systems of support um celebration because we want to celebrate progress. every district we told our problem of practice to they're saying how are you guys getting 76% of

082your teachers implementing the curriculum I said one we have awesome teachers um but two it's because you know the the the work is being there so that was a celebration but we realized we're not celebrating that enough we're not celebrating our our our our teachers enough um but there's still work we need to do to really implement the systems of support we also thought about our senior central office leaders in terms of what we're doing to implement those accountability systems and then also we realized we're putting too much on our school leaders uh time. And so we realized there's several things we could do thinking about um how we restructure time, how we support our principles with their time. And we also knew when going to uh Pelt that we would be doing all of

083this in the vacuum of building brighter futures, which is a huge time commitment for everyone in the system. So we just wanted to acknowledge all of the challenges that were out there and think about what can we do to support. And so when you see the things that we're doing this year around um the the teacher training of cohorts, the implementation of DDI that's going the central office doing that to the the teachers um making sure that all students have a curriculum text online um as well as our teachers having that online and the resources that we have those are all systems of support that we're we're doing and more work we have to continue to do to really integrate and make sure that this is what's going down. So, uh, I wanted to name

084this because we know it as a problem and we're, uh, obsessing over really making sure our our K3 literacy improves and this is what we're doing. Uh, really quickly, some things that are working, uh, across the board, the increased use of the instructional materials as you see from our problem of practice. Um, the differentiated uh, ELA training cohorts for both school leaders and teacher cohorts. Uh, improved ability to progress monitor through the module assessments. And I know our teachers are using those module assessments and the pacing guides. Um the increased number of school leaders providing consistent feedback to on ELA instruction to their teachers. I know that I I believe the SLI trainings have been specifically focused in our elementary school principles on this [snorts] early cohort. Uh so that's been a shift we've been

085working on. Um also a bright spot that we see working well well first the percentage of offtrack students decreased by 8% in kindergarten and 3% in first grade from fall 24 to fall 25. So we see some of those younger grades that we've been working on seeing that decrease. But I also want to note the Pioneer schools, the seven Pioneer schools that used I Ready last year improved their proficiency rate from 13% of fall of last year to 22% in fall of this year. So if you want to look at and say, well change, go back to NWA, the I Ready isn't working or the new curriculum and the DDI protocols aren't working. The schools that we worked on, we had seven pilot schools last year. um they actually grew significantly. Uh and I wish

086I had the list of those seven pilot schools, but want to give them a shout out. And so we want to continue to double down on the work that we're doing. Uh we have work to do. This is one unlike math where we're seeing uh the gains, we have work to do to really catch our scholars up. But I appreciate the board for giving us this goal because there's an area we want to focus on. Uh briefly, some things we could be doing better. We know that um students are not consistently applying those reading skills in both the structured uh literacy uh structured literacy in terms of decoding the text and shared reading blocks. Um students also have uh making uh students sure that students have consistent opportunities to practice all foundational skills during the

087literacy block and really working with our school leaders and teachers to ensure that no part of that block is skipped. Uh, and just like I shared last week with math, as a former teacher, sometimes it's easy to get to certain parts of the curriculum because students resonate with them a little bit better and the things that they're struggling with is a little bit harder. And when you have to differentiate, it's hard. Um, as a teacher, there's so many reading abilities. I'm looking at my my Treebine teachers here. Not only have different reading abilities, you have different grade levels, so you guys are rock stars. Uh, but just thinking about how you're really differentiating and thinking about that support. We have work to do there. Um and then um the time creating for our students to

088really do the writing. Um writing is really important and that's something that of course now with um you know technology and different things like that. Writing sometimes isn't emphasized as much but it's a fundamental part of uh literacy development and we want to make sure that we're getting that um that uh support. Um and then also um we are not providing consistent student access and support to um really those different tiers. We've been having a real big focus on our um multi-tered uh systems of support MTSS to really not only focus on tier one instruction what all students get but all the levels of instruction. Um and then also just like we saw with um math ensuring that our English language learners and our students with special needs are getting the support they need. Um

089some next steps we have here we want to continue to focus on those teacher cohorts. Uh we still have other grade levels that need to be trained. Um focusing on the principal professional development that I shared there. Uh we have a refined walkthrough tool that we're using. We realize that the walkthrough tool we were using when we we went to Harvard didn't capture every part of the literacy block. So it's a little bit more aligned this year. So we have more informed data when we're going into the classroom. um increase school leader knowledge uh to really support uh the scaffolds particularly when thinking about MTSS and even setting up teacher teams to really address student needs at different levels. Um and we there's also been emphasis in working on our multilingual um students as well

090as our special education students. That's all under the direction of um Jose Gonzalez and really supporting that work. We just had a special education audit from the Council of Great City Schools where we're really trying to learn to implement this even better. Um and then um how we're going to speed up that progress, you know, targeted classroom and school leader supports from the curriculum and instruction and um central office teams, the progress monitoring of those curriculum unit assessments. Um so not just waiting till we get to I Ready, really using those curriculum embedded assessments. I know even when I was leading academics um in Indianapolis, those curriculum embedded assessments told us so much in between the time so we don't have to wait till we get to I Ready and we sure don't want to

091wait till we get to OST to find out that there are issues. So really using those uh supports um and then just replicating uh you know things that are working uh continuing to communicate the continuous use of that tier one high quality um uh curriculum materials. Uh also really now that I is a new tool really thinking about how we're providing that support and monitoring um at every tier of the system. uh and then norming and calibrating across our school leaders on the walkthroughs. Um and I I've already shared like some evidence that these shifts will work. We already talked about our younger grades. They're growing. We're seeing growth in them from where they were last year. And also those seven pilot schools saw incredible growth, a 8% uh uh uh jump in terms of

092growth that we saw from fall 24 to fall 25. uh and schools that had a high number of walkthrough look fors last year uh rated as evident in grades three through five in the 24-2 also had stronger OST performance. So the more schools that are doing these these walkthroughs and also the walkthroughs that we're doing as a team, we're seeing evidence that um there's growth on the student uh test. Uh so that is where we are for ELA. Lots of work to do, but we're also hard at work in this area. I would offer uh any reflections or uh any updates that we have from uh any members of the academic team if you guys have anything. Okay. >> Okay. Good. >> Great. Dr. Morgan, before I uh open the the door floor up for

093to questions for from board colleagues, I just want to appreciate the the level of depth and detail that you are putting into these reports. Um so u so I want to make you know two two sides of this thing right on the one h one hand um for the community this can seem like a lot of data overload um but I really hope that we as a community get used to this data overload right because the more that we see about how our um children are performing how our educators are doing and how our school leaders are doing the more attuned we can be to u to hold hold the district to account and hold the leadership to account to get better um to to many of the uh the comments that we heard in

094public comment. So, so thank you. Um and then as a data nerd myself, um you know, this is just fantastic. Uh so it's really cool to see this. So thank you for the level of detail uh and attention that you're putting into these reports. These these reports have become uh certainly my favorite part of uh of board meetings. So with that, Miss Peak. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate all the work and everything too, but you know, I'm a librarian and I just want to know where the reading, you know, where it begins. So, I want to know as all of our K through8 school, how many of them have preschool, uh, with a literacy focus for our youngest of the group? >> I believe 57 of

095the 61 of our, uh, elementary schools currently have prek. Thank you. Um, and I also want to give uh a shout out to Paul Hoover also uh who's our network leader also on the ELA team as well. >> Hi. >> So I have a couple of questions. Um I want to say uh first off thank you for understanding that since we are off track what that we must look at this problem of practice with an iterative approach right we have to adapt and we have to modify and one of the modifications it seems like the district has made is the use of the I Ready assessment um and uh I had the opportunity and privilege to meet with some of the representatives of I Ready and really ask some questions about how that um assessment

096really supports learning in the classroom and supports towards the teachers and I was really impressed with what I with what I learned and I think um one of the points that you made in the presentation about moving from an assessment that just uh focuses on the basic proficiency ver uh versus being proficient in the proficient range. One of the things that I really enjoyed about um the I Ready um assessment is understanding that it doesn't only prepare the student to be ready for the lesson, but for students that are already ready for the lesson, it continues to move them forward in their learning. And so I really appreciate that approach. Um, one of my questions is, um, how, so of the 24% that were not found using the I the assessment material in the classroom,

097how many of them were third grade educators? And you don't may not have an answer for me right now, but I'm curious um because if you said that there was a drop in the third grade um, rates, I want to know how many of the 24% that weren't using it may have been third grade educators. >> Yeah, we can take that offline to look at it. I I do know from how we did classroom walkthroughs and I know that the team is even being more sophisticated in doing the classroom walkthroughs, it wasn't um even though we captured 2,180 classroom, it wasn't that every single classroom and every building um may have gotten a a classroom walkthrough. I know that's uh areas that they're working on this year between the school leader and then also with

098the academics team. Um, so we can pull how many of those were not third grade classrooms, but it may not be representative of the entire uh pool of third grade classrooms, but we could take that data. >> Not unless I I have to look over at Dr. Demo because sometimes he's like, actually, I have that. Yeah. Okay. [laughter] >> Thank you, >> Mr. Phillips. >> Uh, thank you. Um, good evening, Chair Elott. Um, I have a question that pertains to slide seven. Um, and just kind of and I agree with Dr. Shrear. It's it's so good to get so much of the information, so much of the data and really be able to dive into it and it may be a easy explanation, but I'm just kind of curious. It kind of sticks out to

099me when I look at the graph that this spring numbers dropped in those two years that's here. I don't know if it was on a longer um more years if that would still be a trend if it went back further years. But just looking at those two years, I'm just it just makes me wonder is there a reason, you know, is it an attendance situation? Is it a I don't know, is it a weather situation? like what why are we seeing such a big drop from winter to spring? >> Yeah. Um while starting I definitely if there's anyone uh that want to to jump in um that is something to note because one of the things when you look at these tests that are nationally normally you're supposed to look at the range um it

100can fall in the plus or minus 10% um in terms of that proficiency range. And so you know looking at this yeah we did fall outside of that in terms of looking at you know last winter we were looking at 51% that should have been and now this is looking at offtrack which also considers the um offtrack includes basic so it doesn't also include the students that are proficient so it it is a little bit more um but if I were looking at um let me just go forward and looking at uh this slide here. Oh, that doesn't have the OST on it. And maybe Dr. Demo has this. You may see a little bit more closer range between our second CEO measure when looking at just proficiency and how students did an OST, but

101I'll let Dr. Diko share that. >> So, if you go back to slide seven, um, pretty much the explanation is that um, when you measure on track, the state the state provides us with cut scores for fall and then for spring, third graders are essentially measured both in fall and the spring. So the big dip you see in the spring is simply a matter of the state's expectation for third graders is different. Like so they go from fall this idea of on track in fall to in the spring it's an expectation of proficiency. So this expectation for third graders steps up by quite a bit in spring. And that's pretty much the entire explanation of this drop. It is almost completely attributable to third graders who might have been on track in the fall because

102the on-track score is slightly lower, less rigorous versus them being expected to have to be proficient by the end of third grade because state needs students to read by the end of third grade is the expectation with third grade reading guaranteed. >> Thank you, Dr. Demo. Uh the other thing I would add to that is, you know, even with um looking at where the where we're predicted to be in terms of proficiency, a lot of times it is a good predictor of it, but it can go either way. We even saw with our math this year, uh we were predicted to be a little bit less and our students really showed up and showed out on the OST. And so, uh there is some things that we can look at in terms of just some

103of the the data and ensuring that we're we're looking at some of the predicted measures. uh these assessments still just nationally normed are some of the best we have to look at that though that's an excellent question and one that we can continue to really uh monitor and look at one or two more questions um pertaining to slide what was that 18 I believe and I just kind of want to just speak to um 18 at the bottom I think it's the last it is the last bullet point um in regards to the supports for our English language learners and students with disability. Um can we kind of speak a little bit to those supports that's going that's being provided to help um keep those young people up to speed as they move through our

104system? >> Good evening and thank you for the question. Um so there's a couple reasons what we're looking at um our line of sight particularly for our English language learners and our students with disabilities population and one of those was um being able to look at the unit assessment data in a way differently this year that we weren't able to last year. So this year we were able to break it down into subgroups further to be able to have a better understanding of exactly what are the strengths and areas um of opportunities where they need to be targeted and to help grow them a little bit better. So that is one area of site and training that we're doing with principles um and assistant principles when we meet with them monthly. It's also a a

105part of our teacher cohorts which we are offering this year that um is a is a new um area. The other area is really working in coordination with our um office of student um supports and our teaching and learning department um as well as our multilingual education department where we have program managers who are coming together to look at the data across um schools and within particular networks. We have four quarterly uh stepbacks that are done in networks. Actually um our second one for the year is starting tomorrow. Um and each network has their teams coming together and looking at the data holistically particularly now really targeted in the K3 space for them to work with the network leader to say what kind of supports are we needing looking at the data um particularly for

106those two uh groups subgroups of students so we can target them better and I think that that was an aha not only that we had at Pelp but also within our own ELA team which is like really targeting in not only on the K3 space but also looking at our subgroup populations and getting a much narrower focus and then training in the MTSS, the multi-tered systems of support for um school leaders but also for teachers. So, we're looking at it from multiple different ways to be able to um tackle um and and be able to provide more targeted supports for the populations of students. >> Thank you. That's that's all I had. Cherry, >> thank you. Um first I wanted to say that uh well, good evening. I was listening to the meeting in my

107transit time here. I wasn't able to see the slides and I want to thank chair Dr. Shredar for holding it down while I was gone. >> Didn't break the the gap. >> That's good. Thank you for that as well. Um and just echo Dr. Shredar's earlier comments about the preparation and the rigor. Um I think that's 100% right. Thank you, Dr. Shredar. Uh I did want to just comment on you know you looking at what's not working, what needs attention, where are we struggling, where are the gaps, and you know being really honest and um looking at that alongside the positive data. And I think that's the idea behind doing the goals and guardrails monitoring at nearly every meeting is that we can catch these things that we're looking at them. we can't fix every

108single thing all at once, but being able to focus in a couple of these areas um is going to, you know, pay dividends hopefully, you know, sooner rather than later, but certainly down the road as we continue down this process. So, really glad to see um you know, the highlight of what we need to continue to work on, especially that time around writing. I [clears throat] know that that's, you know, that's an area that we have to dedicate time to in order for students to improve those skills. any other comments. All right. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Is there any old business? Okay. for new business. I did want to share that um several of the board members went to the Council of the Great City Schools annual conference just last week and you know you

109mentioned Dr. Morgan in in your presentation that there were things that you you know when you attended that professional development with your team at the Harvard program um there were things that they held you to account on right that they pointed out to you things that we learn from our peers and that is so important because we can't operate in a silo and sometimes other folks are doing things better than we are right and we want to learn from that so having that time at the council of the great city schools conference um was I think you know I I believe I speak for my fellow board colleagues that it is invaluable. Um, some of the things that I learned were uh, you know, from the Dallas school district. They are about nine years into

110the goals and guardrails process and they have um, had incredible academic progress, but something that they saw for the first time last year. Um, and we know that school districts around the country are struggling with enrollment because of primarily birth rate decline. But um last year for the first time in like a decade they had their enrollment increase by something like I don't want to say the number because I don't remember it with fidelity but I will say that you know it's very impressive and heartening to see that work being done. Um I know that they have since had some enrollment challenges due to students um you know immigrant and do undocumented students not coming to school due to the federal changes that we've seen over the last year. But the academic progress and the

111transparency around the data has been really helpful to them and they're at like a level that I hope to see us at where they are measuring budget ROI against goal outcomes and Dr. Morgan we are going to be talking about that. I'm very excited. I got the documents. Um but you know that was incredibly useful to see. I know um I also attended a session on AI policies in schools and in districts and you know district districts that are handling that well so that students can benefit from it while having safeguards and training around it. Um so really glad to have been able to go there. we you know that is funded by our foundation partners but I just want to speak to the importance of that peer learning and professional development because we do

112sometimes get criticism around that and we try to be very um you know with the board we get outside funding we don't typically use taxpayer dollars for it but we try to be really judicious about that but it also has um incredible value for us to be able to be um successful in the work that we are responsible for doing for our students and our educator teams Um, any other new business? Anyone else? All right. Well, before we go into executive session, the next regular board meeting will be a board work session on Wednesday, November 5th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. on the east side 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

113employees 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 uh the board of education that is the subject of pending or imminent court action and considering details relative to the security arrangements and emergency response protocols for the board and the school district. So I move. >> Thank you. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role? >> Miss Alakud, >> yes. >> Mr. Bips, >> yes. >> Mr. Briggs, >> yes. >> Miss Jones, >> yes. >> Pastor Jones, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lebron, >> yes. [snorts] >> Mrs. Peak, >> yes. >> Dr. Shrear, >> yes. >> Motion passes with eight votes. >> Thank you. The board will now move into executive session. Following executive session, the board will return to

114this room to adjourn without conducting any further business. >> [music] >> I'm very happy today cuz I am sharing the CEO seat uh with a very amazing young scholar. Uh she attends AB Hart and she's in seventh grade over there. This is Victorious. She goes by Tori Blackman and she's CEO for the day. So CEO Blackman. Yes. Let's give her a hand. >> I have been going to meetings and hanging out with some of the high schoolers and thinking about what high school I want to go to and just having fun with them. >> To be a leader, you have to step in. It takes boldness. it takes not being afraid. And uh so far Tori has been uh stepping up to the plate and showing that. Having [music] a scholar with me has been

115amazing. And uh I mean she was at the table earlier today with [music] some of uh Cleveland's, you know, top leaders. And just being right at the table just means a lot to have that that seat at the table. And so, um, you know, and to be a, uh, a young, uh, scholar, young lady, of color, uh, that just means a lot when we think about representation. >> So, today we started on our robots. Well, we started our robots like 2 days ago, but today we added like our finishing touches and we made them waterproof with pool noodles. We attached motors to them with wax in it. So it is it's waterproofed and those motors spin at a very high speed so it can propel itself through the water and able to um do its

116tasks. It's so cool because usually robots are like on surface, right? This time it's underwater which makes it harder to see but more funner cuz like you don't know what's going to happen. The machine itself, you can program it first from your [music] computer. Once you like uh access, it says it via Bluetooth. It basically you can control it from there and automate it wherever program you want to set it at a specific time. Experiencing all of this, I've actually had a lot [music] of fun being able to come up here and um just learn about a machine. And um I've personally been part of a robotics team. So being able to experience a machine uh automating other stuff like agriculture is a really [music] good experience. I had a lot of fun. Welcome to

117our culminating event for our concert band and marching band summer experience. [applause] Welcome to Shima Monasuri. >> Accomplishing this accreditation, we are the first public elementary Montasauri school in the state of Ohio to get this accreditation. Um the American Montasuri Society accreditation. We learned on Valentine's Day, actually great great Valentine's Day, um that we were approved as um as an accredited school. Many private schools that have it, it's considered the gold standard for monastery. It's a platinum standard for public monastery. Basically, there are five core components that we have to meet. You have teachers who are credentialed at the grade band that they teach. That you have the multi-age that are three-year cycles. that you have materials, the proper monatory materials, that you have an uninterrupted work cycle of two and a half to three

118hours, and that you have um ch that it's child focused in how you approach the work that you're doing. It's based on the theory that we it's a human development model instead of just an academic, it's the whole child, it's the whole person. And that it's six-year cycles of how children grow into the human beings they're becoming. And so education should really revolve around the developmental sensitivities and needs excitements of that age in order to spark and keep their learning going. For me, I really believe having been in private and charter schools that our children deserve what private school children are getting. That it doesn't matter what their economic human development is human development. I have teachers here who've been at this for 20 years, you know, 25 years, 26 years, keeping Monasuri alive, and

119they get to be a part of celebrating that we're recognized nationally, that what they do is my what they do is amazing. So, it's a it's a win for everybody. [cheering] >> So, I just got to Cleveland. >> I just wanted to come out and see y'all. We working out every day. Uh we got a purpose. We got something we trying to accomplish and achieve. But I'm trying to bring Cleveland, of course, a Super Bowl. >> What inspires me to keep going? I would say um knowing I I got a lot of people watching me, knowing that I'm a positive influence uh to the youth, that's what I say what keeps me going. So like even coming here, seeing y'all You go to the website, you type in the access code, and you're in. Your

120kids pictures are there, and you could easily I have a kids at two different schools. You can easily switch from school to school and keep up on top of it. Everything's right there. Like, everybody always has their phone with them, so you can easily [music] access it to your phone. It's a relief for me knowing that my child has the best chance that they can knowing every day they wake up they can go to school and you know take advantage of the day. >> So we are at Rock Your Road with Steam. amazing partnership that our district CMSD has with the uh Great Lakes Science Center as well as the uh Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it's just amazing seeing all of our scholars. We have parents, educators out here. It's a great

121day for an event like Rock Your World Esteee. This is really the culmination of a year of work for our students. Some of the work that you'll see, for example, in the art tent, uh are projects that students have been working on since the beginning of the year. Uh these ensembles come to begin rehearsing early in the year. uh and rehearsed throughout the year. Most of the bands uh actually perform twice per year as full ensembles for All City. They do the winter concert and then they perform here. So quite a bit of work. If I were to tally the hours, incalculable. So you might notice my outfits a little different this year because we had a lot of rain today. Uh but yeah, I've been slogging around looking at the different performances. Uh the

122orchestra, the choirs, uh have been downstairs to see all the wonderful STEM displays. We also have our face tent which [music] is our family and community engagement tent where we have partners like College Now and Digital C and Starting Point and Say Yes. Um sharing information uh the [music] Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Association as well as the city of Cleveland uh sharing information about summer programming. And then uh our office, our department uh provided free summer learning activities for students uh so that we can keep them from sliding. You know, we want to prevent that summer slide and encourage families to read to their children, make sure they're reading uh and engaging in uh different activities throughout the summer so when they come back to school in the fall, they're ready. We're just going to keep

123rocking it. We rock it rain or shine every year. >> [cheering] >> The winner of the first annual rise pitch competition is, drum roll please Riverside. [cheering] >> Rise was birthed out of an opportunity that we thought was very very important for us to be able to give students opportunity to have their voices centered. >> [music] >> So, we asked them a question. The question is, if you could solve a problem in your community with unlimited resources, how would you do it? >> I'm 13 years old in the seventh grade at Ammyra Elementary, and our group is excited to be here today to share our opportunity for action. I feel like that our gaming lab will help a lot of students because of these new technology industries that are coming from these foreign countries, which

124can excel our students and improvise them and get them set for life. As a basketball player myself, sports helped me with a lot of teamwork, leadership, and even helped me with my mental health. So, for me, I'm just asking, can we get more opportunities for sports all along other school year? >> We also wanted to make sure our ideas weren't just meaningful, but doable. We're excited to introduce a few things we think that can make Riverside better right away. >> Our goal is to think big for our classmates, our teachers, and our whole school. Congratulations [applause and cheering] and I hope that you have an amazing day. Would you say my classes? [applause] Today we have the ceremony award of the seal of bi literacy. [music] Uh we have students who took the stamp test

125this year and they got uh the seal of biliteracy to from different [music] uh languages. >> I speak multiple languages well two actually Spanish and English. I'm excited that [music] I earned this because I know it will bring a lot of opportunities for me in the future. So, I'm very proud. >> The seal of bi literacy is one of the seals that students could earn upon graduation [music] and that it gives them certification for being not only bilingual and they can speak two languages but they can also read and [music] write both languages and it's grown tremendously. It's a very very [music] important um skill set that they will be uh transferring into the real world as they become [music] adults and they go not only to college but also to the workforce, the military

126and it also hits a lot of our goals [music] um for college and career readiness. >> Hi, I'm Dariel Snipes and I'm here at Orchard Steam School and today we'll be taking a look at the ribbon dancing team as they prepare to perform at a schoolwide event. And we are here with Felicia Kelly who is the 5C's coordinator and the ribbon dancers coach. And behind us we have the ribbon dancers. So just tell me how did you get this program started here at Orchard STEM? Well, I did a praise dance for my mom for Mother's Day and I [music] used a ribbon uh and I brought the ribbon in to demonstrate um part of what we call demonstration of learning and I brought it in to the ribbon dance uh to the school and the

127ribbon dancers that are now ribbon dancers loved it then and asked me can we do the same thing and I said of course and so I brought um brought some ribbons and we started practicing and the team was created. >> But you have told me that it it has exploded. So many kids want to be a part of it now. So what is the age range of your ribbon dancers? >> So we have first grade all the way up to sixth grade. >> Nice. And so while dancing is beautiful, but you are here to instill life lessons into these kings and queens. Can you tell me about it? >> Yes, absolutely. And they will tell you my first my first rule of thumb is positive energy. I have it all over the media center here

128and they know that we are about uplifting each other, about encouraging each other, about helping each other. So those are kind of the life lessons [music] that I'm trying to instill so that they don't just incorporate it here in the first grade, second grade, middle school, high school. These are lessons that I try to teach them for life. how to be kind to each other, how to treat each other, how to be sensitive to different situations that that [music] might come up. >> So, this is a steam school. >> Yes. >> So, and even though you're doing dance, which is arts, which is part of steam, um you're also incorporating some other things, can you talk about uh some of the things that you're trying to teach them as well when it comes to steam

129and dancing? >> Okay. So, um the t-shirts that they're wearing today, they actually help make. We have um Cricut machines. We have silhouette machines and transfer heat transfer paper to actually [music] make the t-shirts so that the t-shirts that they're wearing they're they made them and also 3D machines. We have laser cutters. We have actually if I you don't mind [music] me stepping off camera a little bit. Um we have the capability of making mugs and they help to design [music] their own um character on my mug and it says I love my ribbon dancers. And each ribbon dancer picked out their design and we made this mug for me. >> Wonderful. I'm joined now with [music] Mila and Paige. What grade are you in, Paige? >> Third. >> And what grade are you in?

130>> Six. >> And tell me, why did you guys want to join the ribbon dancers? >> So I can learn new things. >> What about you? >> Um, because I always wanted to dance in a in a group. So I always found passion for Miss Kelly's moves and that's why I joined Ribbon Dance. So besides dancing, what else have you learned? I know she talks about, you know, life lessons. So tell me what life lessons you have learned. >> I've learned to work with a team, not by yourself. And sometimes you just have to work together so you can make things happen, >> right? You're right. And what about you? What what what lesson have you learned? I learned how to collaborate with my team and um have teamwork and um when somebody's doing something

131to have to encourage them, >> right? And some of the collaboration you guys have done is you had the some art students paint this for you guys for your performance. Just talk about how you like performing in front of others and showing uh your other students [music] what you've learned and show the beautiful dances that you've learned. I enjoyed a lot because it's got me like not to be scared when people are watching. So I'm not shy anymore like I used to. And now I talk loud. I'm just loud all vibes. And when we perform it makes me feel great because I show myself. Good morning. Good morning. >> Morning everyone. Good morning. No beefing. Hold that up. >> When the kids walk through the door, there's a personal relationship here. So immediately [music] they

132have a connection with an adult as soon as they've entered the building. Typical day at James Ford Roads is being active with the kids, trying to be proactive with the kids before it becomes reactive. >> Sometimes we have to stop and counsel or assist a student that might be going through something when they came in this morning. I greet the students, make sure the hall is clear. Um, interact, ask them [music] how their day was going. Walk through, interact with the parents, um, the community, the male, um, [music] mailman, the neighbors across the street. They familiar with my side and greeting with them. >> I try to walk around, try to help the kids. I'm not trying to police them as a security officer. Can't do that. You you try to help them in every

133way possible. And and and that's what I do. I'm a resource for them. going through the detectors in the long run. I hear them say, "Boy, if it wasn't for y'all doing that, this that and so they they really do like that detector, but just knowing that you in the halls and the students see that and and they see how I, you know, if they beep or they see how I go through their bags, I don't play." So, they feel safe. They be like, "Oh, there go Miss Campbell, Miss Campbell." And they fear something, they come straight, Miss Campbell, you know, so and so. And they I'll be like, "Okay, okay, okay." So that makes me feel that, you know, they see that I'm serious about my job. You know, >> I have noticed if

134we're referencing the phone collection, [music] um, a lot of the students are interacting more with one another instead of just being stuck on their phones. They've started to build relationships with one another and do different things that we last year and the year before that we weren't actually noticing anymore. [music] uh especially with how we do the yonder cases, bringing in securing book bags, making sure that um no items or weapons are brought into school. I think it makes students and scholars feel um much more comfortable, much more safe. When the kids come through, they understand there are necessary things that have to happen. But when the officers treat them in that way, like human beings, and make them feel special, they're not thinking so much about those things. They're thinking about the relationship they're

135building. It's the most important thing for everyone in a building is that relationship you have with kids. And if it's positive, usually you're going to get positive results. Not all the time, but more often than not. We are here for our first middle school CTE fair. So, these students are engaging with STEM ideas. They're doing some design work with 3D printing. They're doing a lot of building with uh Legos and with wood. Um and today they're here to show off those projects that they've designed and they're also here to learn about all of the CTE pathways that we offer at the high school level. >> Middle schoolers that come in here is way more easy and really really beneficial because they could see their options. So it open their mind and open their perspective so

136they could they could decide what they're going to choose. >> There's that initial attention getter. We're going to get you over to our booth because we have a fun or exciting game and something that you can do, but ultimately we're going to show you how you actually get to do that every single day at our school. And here's what you also get with it, a certification that's going to make you money after you graduate. So, it's really, really exciting. >> I went to the uh veterinarian place and I saw the chinchilla and I was like, "Oh, she's so adorable." Like, I find animals very intriguing. I wanted to go to the architecture one because I'm figuring out what I'm going to do when I'm growing up and I think I'm going to be an architect.

137>> The career pathways that are available in a variety of our high schools in the Cleveland area are outstanding. And so getting a firsthand uh chance to look at what some of those opportunities and work environments lead to are beneficial when you get to see them in a place like this. [music] I'm here at work offering positive energy. Transporting [music] scholars is important for the education um the future. They are our future [music] to make sure that you got every children accounted for every day because the children are counting on you. >> My typical day looks like [music] picking up children sometimes handling um field trips, middays, monitoring behavior. It's about ensuring children access to [music] education, promoting academics and personal development, and creating a safe and more equitable learning environment. My training and support

138[music] was excellent. I learned so many things about the city of Cleveland that I didn't know, and I've been here all my life. That's why I I'm here 33 [music] plus years. One of the best things about this job is the flexibility. >> I got my time with my family. I spend more [music] time now with my family and my friends and I got my weekend off. >> It allows you to go to doctor's appointments. If you want to go to school, it allows you that downtime. We have that downtown where you can go to school. You can go grocery shopping. [music] I wish more people would know about the benefits, the the potential of uh moving through through the company. Um [music] that's always a plus. And the money is is is very good.

139You can make good money. >> Make a difference. Apply today. >> Make a difference. [music] Apply today. >> I would do it all over again for anybody. Hi, I'm Trisha Paige and I'm a first grade teacher at Andrew J. Rickoff. I had a couple students that were having lunch in the classroom with me that day. I was sitting at my table like here in the back of the room and um her back was toward me this way. >> So when I was eating my taco, I tried to dip my other one in the meat and cheese, but when when it went through when it went to my throat, I choked on it and >> she was choking and I she was making the choking. her hands were on her throat and there was no there

140was no sound whatsoever. Uh I got up, ran to her, told the other teacher to go run and get the nurse. Um she was sitting in her seat. So I >> when she told me to get out my did this >> I went underneath of her her armpits here. I picked her up. So I stood her up and they started doing the himlick on her and she was silent for a minute and it was it was really scary. I don't know who was more scared if she was more scared or if I was more scared. Um but eventually she started crying and making sound. >> She deserves a reward. Thank you for saving my life. >> You're welcome. And I would do it all over again. The Wakeup Cafe was created to um give the

141students real world experiences [music] promoting communication, social and life skills, and also to help the students gain independence and confidence. >> We're also helping our students build independence [music] and prepare them for future vocational opportunities. We have students that leave us and go on to high school [music] and when they get into a lot of our high school programs, they also have opportunities similar to this and this prepares them to [music] step into that role with some experience and some skills. Um the students empower themselves by gaining um pride and confidence through their roles. They are speaking up. [music] They're supporting each other. They're problem solving. and um it's empowering to see them step into their leadership roles and show what they're capable of. [music] >> I feel like coming to the Wake Up Cafe,

142we're able to see um the um capabilities [music] of autistic individuals and it helps to support um inclusiveness. >> It's a really great way to break down misconceptions [music] and celebrate what's possible on the second level. This year competition is water theme based. How the competition goes is there's there's a reef and of course um if you see on the theme they're like these the purple you know it it looks like a reef. Um and then we have the coral. The coral is basically like this like a it like a white pipe. And then the [music] algae is a ball. And basically to score points, your robot has to have to put algae onto the reach. Each alliance three separate robotic teams. So it would be us and two different robotics teams that are just

143randomly picked to work with us. Usually before a match, um we'll meet up with those two other robotics teams and we'll talk to them about uh strategy and what their robot can do and what ours can do. And usually we work together to kind of um figure out the best game plan. >> There's a autonomous point, autonomous working point, which is all three robots move off of a starting line and then at least one robot scores one coral anywhere on the reef. To build the robot, [music] it takes like the whole team, which is about 20 people. And then we need people to program the robot, people to wire the robot. But once we have it all built and on the field, we only need one person to [music] control the drive and one person

144to control the elevator and score. We also have a third person who tells them what to do and looks at the whole field and is in charge of strategy. Uh the main challenge was just building the robot overall. It took about 10 weeks to build. It took a lot of teamwork and [music] cooperation to build such a beautiful machine. And it also helped us learn new machines that normal high schools have hasn't used before, including mills, CNC machines, long uh long drills, and just all kinds [music] of different things. >> This is actually one of the biggest competitions here in Ohio, and it's very diverse. So, we'll be competing against the top competition today. the this season. This is our last [music] uh regional. So, we participate in Miami Valley and this will be our

145last uh for this season. Our goal is to go home with a blue banner. >> I've noticed um observing the students mental health is very important for the safety of the staff as well as everyone in the building. A lot of our students feel comfortable talking to staff. Many staff members uh just kind [music] of serve as a uh just a listener. Um and they counsel where they can. >> I've been with the district for almost a year now. So I know mostly everybody names now. Everybody know my name. So me engaging with the kids, I'm just like a older sister to them. They come to talk to me about anything. And then we all been young before. So we know how it go. just just talking to the scholars, just asking them questions, just

146something simple as how is their day going, how are they feeling? Um, even simple as asking them, have they ate in the morning? Just trying to keep that open line of communication with them. Building a level of trust. And so safety at school definitely matters. Safety [music] in route home from school also matters as well because if where students are concerned about that, the closer you get to that [music] time, um, that's where the attention is going to be. even when they're sitting in the classroom. >> If the kids don't feel safe, if the climate and culture for them is not safe, then they're not going to be engaged and they're not going to perform well on their test. [music] And so, we don't want them to be in that situation. So, we want them

147to know that we are here for you to support you in a mental capacity. And if if you feel safe coming to school, then it should produce some great results when you take uh when you get [music] into your academics into your testing. That's my first priority to make sure not only the kids feel safe, the um staff feel safe, parents feel safe when they come in this building. That's just how I am. I welcome everybody. I just put their shoes in my shoes. Just like if my son in school, I would want him to feel safe while he there. So while I'm here, I want these kids to feel [music] safe. Would you please go ahead and rewrite the numbers in your notebook so you have them? Five. I wanted to make sure that

148my students [music] used education as a powerful tool not just to get smart but to um change their environment. I have always believed [music] in constructivist knowledge. So instead of me just giving kids information and them soaking it in, we've seen that [music] that doesn't work um with students very well, I have given them the tools to construct their learning. [music] They're they're standing at the boards, they're talking to each other, they're coming up with more than one way to solve a problem. Um and [music] I think that helps with the different learning styles because they're not just sitting reading and writing. They're they're verbally communicating. They're talking [music] to other people. they're collaborating not only with their team, but they can go check their answers at another board if they need to. So those

149things are included [music] in those different learning styles. So I do try to do like weekly rewards where I acknowledge kids who've done everything that they're supposed to. And so kids who complete all of their tasks, they are recognized and every day I'll do a shout out for kids who've been on their agame in terms of behavior or in terms of [music] just trying their their best. And a lot of times I'll just pull them aside and just say, "I'm really proud of what you've done in class." and just sort of [music] give them benchmarks and goals to work towards. Solving problems is just what we do as humans outside of the classroom. So [music] if you can be resilient and know that like maybe you didn't get it right the first time, you [music]

150go back and you fix it. So even with their bell work, I'll say if you don't like the grade, I put a comment, go back and fix [music] it. If you don't like your answer, go back and fix it. Redo things. So building up knowing that just because you didn't [music] do well the first time, that's not failure. That's a it's like evolving. It's an iteration of where you are and go back and just become stronger and better. [music] And don't look at not doing well the first time as failure. I see pair of professionals making a difference every single day. The minute they walk in the door with smiles on their face, they're the first people here greeting our scholars, [music] always offering a friendly hello, um hands-on work with these kids all day

151long. >> And they just want want all of our students to [music] succeed and enjoy school. My talent is observing and then applying. So a lot of times in the beginning of the school year, I would observe more, see what they like, seeing what interest [music] them or seeing what methods help them calm down or get them to actually learn like whether it's >> [music] >> um occupational learning or academically learning. listening, being patient, [music] being focused on what the children have to say and responding [music] back to them. There's like a lot of things I didn't know like from different cultures. Like I've been learning a lot from them. Like there's a lot of things I don't even know from [music] uh other countries that I've been learning. Every single day I'm learning something

152with them. >> It just feels [music] really good to be part of a team and you never know. Like I said, you might be doing one thing one day and one thing the next, but it all ends up [music] being part of the like it takes a village kind of outlook and it just [music] feels good to be part of a team. >> Thank you, Paras. Thank you, Paris. >> Thank you, Paris. I love you. >> My name is Barbara Davis and I am the secretary I'm very happy today because I am sharing the CEO seat uh with a very amazing young scholar uh Uh she attends AB Hart and she's in seventh grade over there. This is Victorious. She goes by Tori Blackman and she's CEO for the day. So CEO Blackman. Yes. Let's

153give her a hand. [applause and cheering] >> 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 [music] just having fun with them. >> To be a leader, you have to step in. It takes boldness. it takes not being afraid. And uh so far Tori has been uh stepping up to the plate and showing that. Having a a scholar with me has been amazing. And uh I mean she was at the table earlier today with some of uh Cleveland's, you know, top leaders and [music] just being right at the table just means a lot to have that that seat at the table. And so, um, you know, and to be a, uh, a young, uh, scholar, young lady,

154of color, uh, that just means a lot when we think about representation. >> So, today we started on our robots. Well, we started our robots like 2 days ago, but today we added like our finishing touches and we made them waterproof with pool noodles. We attached motors to them with wax in it. So it is it's waterproofed and those motors spin at a very high speed so it can propel itself through the water and able to um do its tasks. It's so cool because usually robots are like on surface, right? This time it's underwater which makes it harder to see but more funner cuz like you don't know what's going to happen. The machine itself, you can program it first from your computer. [music] Once you like uh access, it says it via Bluetooth. It

155basically you can control it from there and automate it wherever program you want to set it at a specific time. Experiencing all of this, I've actually had a lot of fun being able to come up here and um just learn about a machine. And um I've personally been part of a robotics [music] team. So being able to experience a machine uh automating other stuff like agriculture is a really good experience. I had a lot of fun. Welcome to our culminating event for our concert band and marching band summer experience. [applause] Happy birthday. Welcome to Shima Monasuri. >> Accomplishing this accreditation, we are the first public elementary Montasauri school in the state of Ohio to get this accreditation. Um the American Monasuri Society accreditation. We learned on Valentine's Day, actually great great Valentine's Day, um that

156we were approved as um as an accredited school. many private schools that have it. It's considered the gold standard for monastery. It's a platinum standard for public monastery. Basically, there are five core components that we have to meet. You have teachers who are credentialed at the grade band that they teach. That you have the multi-age that are threeear cycles, that you have materials, the proper monatory materials, that you have an uninterrupted work cycle of two and a half to three hours, and that you have um that it's child focused in how you approach the work that you're doing. It's based on the theory that we it's a human development model instead of just an academic. It's the whole child. It's the whole person. And that it's six-year cycles of how children grow into the human

157beings they're becoming. And so education should really revolve around the developmental sensitivities and needs, excitements of that age in order to spark and keep their learning going. For me, I really believe having been in private and charter schools that our children deserve what private school children are getting that it doesn't matter what their economic human development is human development. I have teachers here who've been at this for 20 years, you know, 25 years, 26 years, keeping Monasuri alive and they get to be a part of celebrating that we're recognized nationally, that what they do is my what they do is amazing. So, it's a it's a win for everybody. [cheering] >> So, I just got to Cleveland. >> I just wanted to come out and see y'all. We working out every day. Uh we got

158a purpose. We got something we trying to accomplish and achieve. But I'm trying to bring Cleveland, of course, a Super Bowl. >> What inspires me to keep going? I would say um knowing I I got a lot of people watching me, knowing that I'm a positive influence uh to the youth. That's what I say what keeps me going. So like even coming here seeing y'all you go to the website, you type in the access code and you're in. Your kids pictures are there and you could easily I have a kids at two different schools. You can easily switch from school to school and keep up on top of it. >> Everything's right there. like everybody always has their phone with them so you can easily access it to your phone. >> It's a relief for

159me knowing that my child has the best chance that they can knowing every day they wake up they can go to school and you know take advantage of the day. >> So we are at Rock Your Road with Steam. amazing partnership that our district CMSD has with the uh Great Lakes Science Center as well as the uh Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it's just amazing seeing all of our scholars. We have parents, educators out here. It's a great day for an event like Rock Your World Esteee. This is really the culmination of a year of work for our students. Some of the work that you'll see, for example, in the art tent, uh are projects that students have been working on since the beginning of the year. Uh these ensembles come to begin

160rehearsing early in the year. uh and rehearsed throughout the year. Most of the bands uh actually perform twice per year as full ensembles for All City. They do the winter concert and then they perform here. So quite a bit of work. If I were to tally the hours, incalculable. So you might notice my outfits a little different this year because we had a lot of rain today. Uh but yeah, I've been slogging around looking at the different performances. Uh the orchestra, the choirs, uh have been downstairs to see all the wonderful STEM displays. We also have our face tent, which is our family and community [music] engagement tent where we have partners like College Now and Digital C and Starting Point and Say Yes. [music] Um sharing information uh the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Association as

161well as the city of Cleveland uh sharing information about summer programming. And then uh our office, our department uh provided free summer learning activities for students uh so that we can keep them from sliding. You know, we want to prevent that summer slide and encourage families to read to their children, [music] make sure they're reading uh and engaging in uh different activities throughout the summer so when they come back to school in the fall, they're ready. We're just going to keep rocking it. We rock it rain or shine every year. >> [cheering] >> The winner of the first annual rise pitch competition is, drum roll please Riverside. [cheering] >> Rise was birthed out of an opportunity that we thought was very very important for us to be able to give students opportunity to have their

162voices centered. So, we asked them a question. The question is, if you could solve a problem in your community with unlimited resources, how would you do it? >> I'm 13 years old in the seventh grade at Ammyra Elementary and our group is excited to be here today to share our opportunity for action. I feel like that our gaming lab will help a lot of students because of these new technology industries that are coming from these foreign countries which can excel our students and improvise them and get them set for life. As a basketball player myself, sports helped me with a lot of teamwork, leadership, and even helped me with my mental health. So, for me, I'm just asking, can we get more opportunities for sports all along [clears throat] other school year? >> We also

163wanted to make sure our ideas weren't [music] just meaningful, but doable. We're excited to introduce a few things we think that can make Riverside better right away. >> Our goal is to think big for our classmates, our teachers, and our whole school. Congratulations [cheering] [applause] and I hope that you have an amazing day. Would you see my classes? Today we have the ceremony award of the seal of bi literacy. [music] Uh we have students who took the stamp test this year and they got uh the seal of bi literacy to [music] from different uh languages. >> I speak multiple languages well two actually Spanish and English. I'm excited that I earned this because I know it will bring a lot of opportunities for [music] me in the future. So, I'm very proud. >> The seal

164of bi literacy is one of the seals that students could earn upon graduation [music] and that it gives them certification for being not only bilingual and they can speak two languages but they can also [music] read and write both languages and it's grown tremendously. It's a very very important [music] um skill set that they will be uh transferring into the real world as they become adults [music] and they go not only to college but also to the workforce, the military and it also hits a lot of our goals [music] um for college and career readiness. >> Hi, I'm Dariel Snipes and I'm here at Orchard Steam School and today we'll be taking a look at the ribbon dancing team as they prepare to perform at a schoolwide event. And we are here with Felicia Kelly

165who is the 5C's coordinator and the ribbon dancers coach. And behind us we have the ribbon dancers. So just tell me how did you get this program started here at Orchard STEM? Well, I did a praise dance for my mom for Mother's Day and I used a ribbon uh and I brought the ribbon in to demonstrate [music] um part of what we call demonstration of learning and I brought it in to the ribbon dance uh to the school and the ribbon dancers that are now ribbon dancers loved it then and asked me can we do the same thing and I said of course and so I brought um brought some ribbons and we started practicing and the team was created. >> But you have told me that it it has exploded. So many kids want

166to be a part of it now. So what is the age range of your ribbon dancers? >> So we [music] have first grade all the way up to sixth grade. >> Nice. And so while dancing is beautiful, but you are here to instill life lessons into these kings and queens. Can you tell me about it? >> Yes, absolutely. And they will tell you my first my first rule of thumb is positive energy. I have it all over the media center here and they know that we are about uplifting each other, about encouraging each other, about helping each other. So those are kind of the life lessons that I'm trying to instill [music] so that they don't just incorporate it here in the first grade, second grade, [music] middle school, high school. These are lessons that

167I try to teach them for life. how to be kind to each other, how to treat each other, how to be sensitive to different situations that that might [music] come up. >> So, this is a steam school. >> Yes. >> So, and even though you're doing dance, which is arts, which is part of steam, um you're also incorporating some other things, can you talk about uh some of the things that you're trying to teach them as well when it comes to steam and dancing? >> Okay. So, um the [music] t-shirts that they're wearing today, they actually help make. We have um Cricut machines. We have silhouette machines and transfer heat transfer paper to actually make the t-shirts so that the t-shirts that they're wearing they're they made them and also 3D machines. We have laser

168cutters. We have actually if I you don't mind me stepping [music] off camera a little bit. Um we have the capability of making mugs and they help to design their own um character on my mug and it says I love my ribbon dancers. And each ribbon dancer picked out their design and we made this mug for me. >> Wonderful. I'm joined now with Mila and Paige. What grade are you in, Paige? >> Third. [music] >> And what grade are you in? >> Six. >> And tell me, why did you guys want to join the ribbon dancers? >> So I can learn new things. >> What about you? >> U because I always wanted to dance in a in a group. So I always found passion for Miss Kelly's moves and that's why I joined Ribbon

169Dance. So besides dancing, what else have you learned? I know she talks about, you know, life lessons. So tell me what life lessons you have learned. >> I've learned to work with a team, not by yourself. And sometimes you just have to work together so you can make things happen, >> right? You're right. And what about you? What what what lesson have you learned? I learned how to collaborate with my team and um have teamwork and um when somebody's doing something to have to encourage them, >> right? And some of the collaboration you guys have done is you had the [music] some art students paint this for you guys for your performance. Just talk about how you like performing in front of others and showing uh your other students what you've learned and show the

170beautiful dances that you've learned. I enjoyed a lot because it's got me like not to be scared when people are watching. So I'm not shy anymore like I used to. And now I talk loud. I'm just loud all vibes. And when we perform it makes me feel great because I show myself. [cheering] Good morning. Good morning. >> Morning everyone. Good morning. No beefing. Hold that up. >> When the kids walk through the door, there's a personal relationship here. So immediately they have a connection with an adult as soon as they've [music] entered the building. typical day at James Ford Roads is being active with the kids, trying to be proactive with the kids before it becomes reactive. >> Sometimes we have to stop and counsel or assist a student that might be going through something

171when they came in this morning. I greet the students, make sure the hall is clear, um interact, ask them how their day was going, walk through, interact with [music] the parents, um the community, the male um mailman, the neighbors across the street. They familiar with my side and greeting with them. >> I try to walk around, try to help the kids. I'm not trying to police them as a security officer. Can't do that. You you try to help them in every way possible and and and that's what I do. I'm a resource for them >> going through the detectors in the long run. I hear them say, "Boy, if it wasn't for y'all doing that, this that and so they they really do like that detector, but just knowing that you in the halls and

172the students see that and and they see how I, you know, if they beep or they see how I go through their bags, I [music] don't play." So they feel safe. They be like, "Oh, there go Miss Campbell, Miss Campbell." And they fear something, they come straight, Miss Campbell, you know, so and so. And they I'll be like, "Okay, okay, okay." So that makes me feel that, you know, they see that I'm serious about my job. You know, >> I have noticed if we're referencing the phone collection, um, a lot of the students are interacting more with one another instead of just being stuck on their phones. They've started to build relationships [music] with one another and do different things that we last year and the year before that we weren't actually noticing [music] anymore.

173uh especially with how we do the yonder cases, bringing in securing book bags, making sure that um no items or weapons are brought into school. I think it makes students and scholars feel um much more comfortable, much more safe. When the kids come through, they understand they're unnecessary things that have to happen. But when the officers treat them in that way, like human beings, and make them feel special, they're [music] not thinking so much about those things. They're thinking about the relationship they're building. It's the most important thing for everyone in a building is that relationship you have with kids. And if it's positive, usually you're going to get positive results. Not all the time, but more often than not. We are here for our first middle school CTE fair. So, these students are engaging

174with STEM ideas. They're doing some design work with 3D printing. They're doing a lot of building with uh Legos and with wood. Um and today they're here to show off those projects that they've designed and they're also here to learn about all of the CTE pathways that we offer at the high school level. >> Middle schoolers that coming here is way more easy and really really beneficial because they could see their options. So it open their mind and open their perspective so they could they could decide what they're going to choose. >> There's that initial attention getter. We're going to get you over to our booth because we have a fun or exciting game and something that you can do, but ultimately we're going to show you how you actually get to do that every

175single day at our school. And here's what you also get with it, a certification that's going to make you money after you graduate. So, it's really, really exciting. >> I went to the uh veterinarian place and I saw the chinchilla and I was like, "Oh, she's so adorable." Like, I find animals very intriguing. I wanted to go to the architecture one because I'm figuring out what I'm going to do when I'm growing up and I think I'm going to be an architect. >> The career pathways that are available in a variety of our high schools in the Cleveland area are outstanding. And so getting a firsthand uh chance to look at what some of those opportunities and work environments lead to are beneficial when you get to see them in a place like this. >>

176[music] >> I'm here at work offering positive [music] energy. Transporting scholars is important for the education um the future. They are our future to [music] make sure that you got every children accounted for every day because the children are counting on you. >> My typical day looks like pick it up children sometimes [music] handling um field trips, middays, monitoring behavior. It's about ensuring children [music] access to education, promoting academics and personal development, and creating a safe and more equitable learning environment. My training [music] and support was excellent. I learned so many things about the city of Cleveland that I didn't know, and I've been here all my life. That's [music] why I I'm here 33 plus years. One of the best things about this job is the flexibility. >> So, I got my time with

177my family. I [music] spend more time now with my family and my friends. and I got my weekend off. >> It allows you to go to doctor's appointments if you want to go to school. It allows you that downtime. We have that downtown where you [music] can go to school. You can go grocery shopping. I wish more people would know about the benefits, the the potential [music] of uh moving through through the company. Um that's always a plus. And the money is is is [music] very good. You can make good money. >> Make a difference. Apply today. >> Make a difference. applying [music] today. >> Make a difference. Apply today. >> I would do it all over again for anybody. [laughter] Hi, I'm Trisha Paige and I'm a first grade teacher at Andrew J. Rickoff.

178I had a couple students that were having lunch in the classroom with me that day. I was sitting at my table like here in the back of the room and um her back was toward me this way. >> So when I was eating my taco, I tried to dip my other one in the meat and cheese, but when when it went through when it went to my throat, I choked on it and >> she was choking and I she was making the choking. her hands were on her throat and there was no there was no sound whatsoever. Uh I got up, ran to her, told the other teacher to go run and get the nurse. Um she was sitting in her seat. So I >> when she told me to get out here, see did

179this >> I went underneath of her her armpits here. I picked her up. So I stood her up and they started doing the himlick on her and she was silent for a minute and it was it was really scary. I don't know who was more scared if she was more scared or if I was more scared. Um but eventually she started crying and making sound. >> She deserves a reward. Thank you for saving my life. >> You're welcome. And I would do it all over again. [laughter] The Wake Up Cafe was created to [music] um give the students real world experiences promoting communication, social and life skills [music] and also to help the students gain independence and confidence. >> We're also helping our students build independence and prepare them for future vocational opportunities. We have

180students that leave us and go on to high school and [music] when they get into a lot of our high school programs, they also have opportunities similar to this and this prepares them to step into that role with some experience and some skills. Um the students empower themselves by gaining um pride and confidence through their roles. They are speaking up. They're supporting each other. They're problem solving. [music] and um it's empowering to see them step into their leadership roles and show what they're capable of. >> I feel like coming to the Wake [music] Up Cafe, we're able to see um the um capabilities of autistic individuals and it [music] helps to support um inclusiveness. >> It's a really great way to break down misconceptions and celebrate what's possible on the second level. This year competition

181is water theme based. How the competition goes is there's there's a reef and of course um if you see on the theme they're like these [music] the purple you know it it looks like a reef. Um and then we have the coral. The coral is basically like this like a it like a white pipe. And then the algae is a ball. And basically to score points, your robot has to have to put algae onto the reach. Each alliance three separate robotic teams. So it would be us and two [music] different robotics teams that are just randomly picked to work with us. Usually before a match, um we'll meet up with those two other robotics teams and we'll talk to them about uh strategy and what their robot can do and what ours can do. And

182usually we work together to kind of um figure out the best game plan. >> There's a autonomous point, autonomous ranking point, which is all three robots move off of a starting line and then at least one [music] robot scores one coral anywhere on the reef. To build the robot, it takes like the whole team, which is about 20 people. And then we need people to program the robot, people to wire the robot. But once we have it all built and on the field, we only need one person to control the drive and one person to control the elevator and score. We also have a third person who tells them what to do and looks at the whole field and is in charge of strategy. Uh the main challenge was just building the robot overall. It

183took about 10 weeks to build. It took a lot of teamwork [music] and cooperation to build such a beautiful machine. And it also helped us learn new machines that normal high schoolers have hasn't used before, including mills, CNC machines, long uh long drills, and just all kinds of different things. >> This is actually one of the biggest competitions here in Ohio, and it's very diverse. So, we'll be competing against what a top competition is. the this season, this is our last uh regional. So, we participated in Miami Valley and this will be our last uh for this season. Our goal is to go home with a blue banner. >> I've noticed um observing the students mental health is very important for the safety of the staff as well as everyone in the building. A lot

184of our students feel comfortable talking to staff. Many staff members uh just kind of serve as a um just a listener. Um and they counsel where they can. >> I've been with the district for almost a year now. So I know mostly everybody names now. Everybody know my name. So me engaging with the kids, I'm just like a older sister to them. They come to talk to me about anything. And then we all been young before, so [music] we know how it go. just just talking to the scholars, just asking them questions. Just something simple as how is their day going? How are they feeling? Um even simple as asking them how they ate in the morning. Just trying to keep that open line of communication with them. Building a level of trust. And so

185safety at school definitely [music] matters. Safety in route home from school also matters as well because if where students are concerned about that, the closer you get to that time, um that's where the attention is going to be. even when they're sitting in the classroom. >> If the kids don't feel safe, if the climate and culture for them is not safe, then they're not going to be engaged and they're not going to perform well on their test. And so, we don't want them to be in that situation. So, we [music] want them to know that we are here for you to support you in a mental capacity. And if if you feel safe coming to school, then it should produce some great results when you take uh when you get into your [music] academics into

186your testing. That's my first priority to make sure not only the kids feel [music] safe, the um staff feel safe, parents feel safe when they come in this building. That's just how I am. I welcome everybody. I just put [music] their shoes in my shoes. Just like if my son in school, I would want him to feel safe while he there. So while I'm here, I want these kids to feel safe. Would you please go ahead and rewrite the numbers in your notebook so you [music] have them? 15. I wanted to make sure that my students used [music] education as a powerful tool not just to get smart but to um change their environment. I have always believed in constructivist [music] knowledge. So instead of me just giving kids information and them soaking it in,

187we've seen that that [music] doesn't work um with students very well. I have given them the tools to construct their learning. [music] They're they're standing at the boards, they're talking to each other, they're coming up with more than one way to solve a problem. [music] Um and I think that helps with the different learning styles because they're not just sitting reading and writing. They're they're verbally communicating. [music] They're talking to other people. they're collaborating not only with their team, but they can go check their answers at another board if they need to. So [music] those things are included in those different learning styles. So I do try to do like weekly rewards where I acknowledge kids who've done everything that they're supposed to. And [music] so kids who complete all of their tasks, they are

188recognized and every day I'll do a shout out for kids who've been on their [music] agame in terms of behavior or in terms of just trying their their best. And a lot of times I'll just pull them aside and just say, "I'm really proud of what you've done in class." and just sort of give them [music] benchmarks and goals to work towards. Solving problems is just what we do as humans [music] outside of the classroom. So if you can be resilient and know that like maybe you didn't get it right the first time, you go [music] back and you fix it. So even with their bell work, I'll say if you don't like the grade, I put a comment, go back and fix it. [music] If you don't like your answer, go back and fix

189it. Redo things. So building up knowing that just because [music] you didn't do well the first time, that's not failure. That's a it's like evolving. It's an iteration of where you are and go back and just [music] become stronger and better. And don't look at not doing well the first time as failure. I see pair of professionals making a difference every [music] single day the minute they walk in the door with smiles on their face. They're the first people here greeting our scholars, always offering a friendly hello, um hands-on work with these kids all [music] day long. >> And they just want want all of our students to succeed and enjoy school. My talent is observing and then applying. [music] So a lot of times in the beginning of the school year, I would observe

190more, see what they like, see what interests them [music] or seeing what methods help them calm down or get them to actually learn like whether it's um occupational learning [music] or academically learning. listening, being patient, being focused on what the children have to say and responding [music] back to them. There's like a lot of things I didn't know like from different cultures. Like I've been learning a lot from them. Like there's a lot of things I don't even know from uh other countries that I've been learning. Every single day I'm learning something with them. >> It [music] just feels really good to be part of a team and you never know. Like I said, you might be doing one thing one day and one thing the next, but it [music] all ends up being part

191of the like it takes a village kind of outlook [music] and it just feels good to be part of a team. >> Thank you, Paris. Thank you, Paris. >> Thank you, Paris. I love you. >> My name is Barbara Davis, and I am the secretary here at Stephanie Tubs Jones School. I grew up where the original Superman story was born. It inspired me because Superman is something that [music] is not only big for Cleveland, but inspiration behind the creation of his character really brought [music] inspiration to me in creating my characters. So my goal is to bring awareness to bullying amongst [music] the youth because I also was bullied when I was a child as well. When I grew up, I didn't have any superheroes [music] that look like me. And I looked around for

192them, but I couldn't find them. So, I figure I can create them. My girls teleport around the world and fight against [music] bullying mentally with the help of Serenity. I think it's pretty cool that I am able to still carry on a legacy that [music] was built in Cleveland, Ohio based off of Superman. And me being able to build hopefully the first triplet superheroes in Cleveland, starting from [music] the place where Superman was created is actually a big deal for me and I'm pretty sure it's a big deal for our community for the [music] kids to be able to see superheroes that look just like them. Let's go. Let's go. Hey, hey, hey. Let's go. Hey, hey, hey. Let's go. Let's go. Hey, let's go. I'm very happy today cuz I am sharing the CEO

193seat uh with a very amazing young scholar uh she attends AB Hart and she's in seventh grade over there. This is Victorious. She goes by Tori Blackman and she's CEO for the day. So, I'm seeing [applause] [cheering] >> I have been going to meetings and hanging out with some of the high schoolers and thinking about what high school I want to go to and just having fun with them. >> To be a leader, you have to step in. It takes boldness. It takes not being afraid. And uh so far, Tori has been uh stepping up to the plate and showing that. >> Having a [music] a scholar with me has been amazing. And uh I mean she was at the table earlier today with some [music] of uh Cleveland's you know top leaders and just

194being right at the table just means a lot to have that that [music] seat at the table. And so um you know and to be a uh a young uh scholar, young lady of color uh that just means a lot when we think about representation. >> So today we started on our robots. Well, we started our robots like two days ago, but today we added like our finishing touches and we made them waterproof with pool noodles. We attached motors to them with wax in it. So, it is it's waterproofed and those motors spin at a very high speed. So, it can propel itself through the water and able to um do its tasks. It's so cool because usually robots are like on surface, right? This time it's underwater which makes it harder to see but

195more funner cuz like you don't know what's going to happen. The machine itself, you can program it first from your [music] computer. Once you like uh access, it's via Bluetooth. It basically you can control it from there and automate it wherever program you want to set at a specific time. Experiencing all of this, I've actually had a lot [music] of fun being able to come up here and um just learn about a machine. And um I've personally been part of a robotics team. So being able to experience a machine uh automating other stuff like agriculture is a really good experience. I had a lot of fun. Welcome to our culminating event for our concert band and marching band summer experience. [applause] Welcome to Shream Monastery. >> Accomplishing this accreditation, we are the first public elementary

196Montasauri school in the state of Ohio to get this accreditation. Um the American Monasuri Society accreditation. We learned on Valentine's Day, actually great great Valentine's Day, um that we were approved as um as an accredited school. Many private schools that have it. It's considered the gold standard for Monasuri. It's a platinum standard for public monastery. Basically, there are five core components that we have to meet. You have teachers who are credentialed at the grade band that they teach. That you have the multi-age that are three-year cycles. that you have materials the proper monatory materials that you have an uninterrupted work cycle of two and a half to three hours and that you have um ch that it's child focused in how you approach the work that you're doing. It's based on the theory that we

197it's a human development model instead of just an academic. It's the whole child. It's the whole person. And that it's six-year cycles of how children grow into the human beings they're becoming. And so education should really revolve around the developmental sensitivities and needs, excitements of that age in order to spark and keep their learning going. For me, I really believe having been in private and charter schools that our children deserve what private school children are getting that it doesn't matter what their economic human development is human development. I have teachers here who've been at this for 20 years, you know, 25 years, 26 years, keeping Monasuri alive and they get to be a part of celebrating that we're recognized nationally, that what they do is my what they do is amazing. So, it's a it's

198a win for everybody. [cheering] >> So, I just got to Cleveland. >> I just wanted to come out and see y'all. We working out every day. Uh we got a purpose. We got something we trying to accomplish and achieve. But I'm trying to bring Cleveland, of course, a Super Bowl. >> What inspires me to keep going? I would say um knowing I I got a lot of people watching me, knowing that I'm a positive influence uh to the youth. That's what I say what keeps me going. So like even coming here seeing y'all you go to the website, you type in the access code and you're in. Your kids pictures are there and you could easily I have a kids at two different schools. You can easily switch from school to school and keep up

199on top of it. >> Everything's right there. Like everybody always has their phone with them so you can easily [music] access it to your phone. >> It's a relief for me knowing that my child has the best chance that they can knowing every day they wake up they can go to school and you know take advantage of the day. >> So we are at Rock Your Road with Steam. amazing partnership that our district CMSD has with the uh Great Lakes Science Center as well as the uh Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it's just amazing seeing all of our scholars. We have parents, educators out here. It's a great day for an event like Rock Your World Esteee. This is really the culmination of a year of work for our students. Some of the

200work that you'll see, for example, in the art tent, uh are projects that students have been working on since the beginning of the year. Uh these ensembles come to begin rehearsing early in the year. uh and rehearsed throughout the year. Most of the bands uh actually perform twice per year as full ensembles for all city. They do the winter concert and then they perform here. So quite a bit of work. If I were to tally the hours, incalculable. So you might notice my outfits a little different this year because we had a lot of rain today. Uh but yeah, I've been slogging around looking at the different performances. Uh the orchestra, the choirs, uh have been downstairs to see all the wonderful STEM displays. We also have our face tent, which is our family and

201community engagement tent where we have partners [music] like College Now and Digital C and Starting Point and Say Yes. Um sharing information uh the [music] Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Association as well as the city of Cleveland uh sharing information about summer programming. And then uh our office, our department uh provided free summer learning activities for students uh so that we can keep them from sliding. You know, we want to prevent that summer slide and encourage families to read to their children, make sure they're reading uh and engaging in uh different activities throughout the summer so when they come back to school in the fall, they're ready. We're just going to keep rocking it. We rock it rain or shine every year. >> [cheering] [applause] >> The winner of the first annual rise pitch competition is, drum

202roll please Riverside. [cheering] >> Rise was birthed out of an opportunity that we thought was very very important for us to be able to give students opportunity to have their voices centered. So, we asked them a question. The question is, if you could solve a problem in your community with unlimited resources, how would you do it? >> I'm 13 years old in the seventh grade at Ammyra Elementary and our group is excited to be here today to share our opportunity for action. I feel like that our gaming lab will help a lot of students because of these new technology industries that are coming from these foreign countries which can excel our students and improvise them and get them set for life. As a basketball player myself, sports helped me with a lot of teamwork, leadership,

203and even helped me with my mental health. So, for me, I'm just asking, can we get more opportunities for sports all around us of the school year? >> We also wanted to make sure our ideas weren't just meaningful, but doable. We're excited to introduce a few role things we think that can make Riverside better right away. >> Our goal is to thank big for our classmates, our teachers, and our whole school. Congratulations [applause and cheering] and I hope that you have an amazing day. Would you see my classes? [applause] Today we have the ceremony award of the seal of bi literacy. [music] Uh we have students who took the stamp test this year and they got [music] uh the seal of biteracy to from different uh languages. >> I speak multiple languages well two actually

204Spanish and English. I'm excited that [music] I earned this because I know it will bring a lot of opportunities for me in the future. So, I'm very proud. >> The seal of biiteracy is one of the seals [music] that students could earn upon graduation and that it gives them certification for being not only bilingual that they can speak two languages [music] but they can also read and write both languages and it's grown tremendously. It's a very very [music] important um skill set that they will be uh transferring into the real world as they become adults and they go not only to college but also [music] to the workforce, the military and it also hits a lot of our goals um for college and career readiness. >> Hi, I'm Dariel Snipes and I'm here at Orchard

205Steam School and today we'll be taking a look at the ribbon dancing team as they prepare to perform at a schoolwide event. And we are here with Felicia Kelly who is the 5C's coordinator and the ribbon dancers coach. And behind us we [music] have the ribbon dancers. So just tell me how did you get this program started here at Orchard STEM? Well, I did a praise dance for my mom for Mother's Day and I used a ribbon uh and I brought the ribbon in to demonstrate [music] um part of what we call demonstration of learning and I brought it in to the ribbon dance uh to the school and the ribbon dancers that are now ribbon dancers loved it then and asked me can we do the same thing and I said of course and

206so I brought um brought some ribbons and we started practicing and the team was created. >> But you have told me that it it has exploded. So many kids want to be a part of it now. So what is the age range of your ribbon dancers? >> So we have first grade all the way up to sixth grade. >> Nice. And so while dancing is beautiful, but you are here to instill life lessons into these kings and queens. Can you tell me about it? >> Yes, absolutely. And they will tell you my first my first rule of thumb is positive energy. I have it all over the media center here and they know that we are about uplifting each other, about encouraging each other, about helping each other. So those are kind of the life

207lessons [music] that I'm trying to instill so that they don't just incorporate it here in the first grade, second grade, middle school, high school. These are lessons that I try to teach them for life. Mhm. >> How to be kind to each other, how to treat each other, how to be sensitive to different situations that that might come up. [music] >> So, this is a steam school. >> Yes. >> So, and even though you're doing dance, which is arts, which is part of steam, um you're also incorporating some other things. Can you talk about uh some of the things that you're trying to teach them as well when it comes to steam and dancing? >> Okay. So, um the t-shirts that they're wearing today, they actually help make. We have um Cricut machines. We have

208Silhouette machines and transfer heat transfer paper to actually [music] make the t-shirts so that the t-shirts that they're wearing they're they made them and also 3D machines. We have laser cutters. We have actually if I you don't mind [music] me stepping off camera a little bit. Um we have the capability of making mugs and they help to design their own um character on my mug and it says I love my ribbon dancers and is now back in public session. The chair will now entertain a motion to adjourn this board business meeting. >> So move >> hearing. No objection. This meeting is adjourned. Have a good night. >> She took it well.