001Good evening. This business meeting of the board of education of the Cleveland Municipal School District will come to order. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role? Miss Elicott, here. Mr. Bips, here. Mr. Briggs, here. Miss Jones, here. Pastor Jones here. Mrs. Lebron here. Mrs. Peak here. Dr. Shrear here. Mrs. Welchow here. There are nine members present. Thank you, Mr. Stockdale. I ask everyone who wishes to rise and participate in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the board work session of April 15, 2025. So moved. Second. Thank you. All in favor signify by
002saying I. I. Any opposed? The eyes have it. The minutes are approved. All right. Next, I'm pleased to introduce Dr. Warren Morgan for his CEO report. Thank you so much, Chair Elakod. Before we go into my report, which I have a few slides and you can get those uh pulled up. Uh I know we just right before here celebrated uh hundreds of our volunteers uh whether they're parents, community members, community partners, some of our educators and staff who uh were there. We were thanking them for all that they do. As I shared when we were in uh the ceremony, it truly takes a village. And so that goes beyond our our educators, our school leaders, uh it is all of our volunteers and we thank them so much. Um we will have them stand in
003a moment and also we'll uh if any of them are still around, we'll have you uh come up front and get a quick picture with our board. Uh but I first also want to turn it over to Chair Alakot. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Um as I said in the other room, incredibly thankful to all of the volunteers that serve on behalf of our students in our district. Um I truly believe it takes a really special person to be a volunteer to serve on behalf of others to um put in time, effort and heart into the needs of other people, the priorities of our district. And um I also want to say you know to all the adults who are volunteering with us that there are two important things that young people take away from adults
004and it's one knowing how much they care and two it's you seeing you all as incredible role models. So thank you for being um the incredible role models that our district, our community, our city and our nation needs. And with that, for our volunteers that are here, if you will stand up and just come up to the front and our board members, uh, we'll, uh, come around the table in the front and take a picture with all our volunteers, if we can get that picture quickly. And then for our volunteers, if you wish to stay for the meeting after this, oh, light should not be out. There we go. Uh, we'll come up front. And for our um, after once we take the picture, if any of our volunteers want to continue to stay, you
005can stay for the board meeting. Beautiful. [Music] Thank you so much. Thank you. And just quickly, let's get an official round of applause for these volunteers. Thank [Applause] you. All right. And with that, we'll go into uh my update uh for this evening. And I first want to start with just some celebrations. As I always share, there are two parts of the year that are my favorite time of the year. So that my favorite time of the uh calendar year is the holiday seasons. That's always my favorite time spending time with family and celebrating. But my favorite time of the academic year is this time of the year because we celebrate our scholars. We have commencements. I know in a month we'll be celebrating our valadictorians and saludiatorans in a dinner similar like we just
006did with our volunteers. And so it's truly a time of the year that we're celebrating. Uh as we mentioned uh we've this was uh national volunteer week and we have 12,000 uh not 12,000 1,200 registered uh volunteers serving in our buildings across the school district. Uh that's approximately 30 community uh churches and actively providing tutoring support um also mentoring. So we truly thank you for the work that you do. uh 54 community partner organizations account for 75% of adult volunteer base and 26% of our community partners are affiliated with local higher education institutions. So we thank you so much and that was just a small representation of who came up here of all of our volunteers within the system. Some other things that we have coming up uh on Thursday May 1st this week uh
007we will be celebrating all of our scholars that made state this year. We've had several athletic teams that made All State. We also had several academic uh honors making All State and uh students with artistic abilities that made All State. So, this is our recognition from CMSD uh recognizing them. Uh being all state is not an easy feat. As someone who was all state in high school, it takes a lot of time, preparation, uh and hard work. And so, we want to celebrate all of our scholars and made all state. And we're going to be doing that in a lunchon this Thursday. On this Saturday, we have Rock Your Road with Steam coming up. That is our partnership every year with both uh the the Great Lakes Science Center as well as with the Rock
008and Roll Hall of Fame. They'll be both uh happening there. Uh so come out. That'll be from 10:00 to 3 uh 3:30 this Saturday. Uh and then next week is National Teacher Appreciation Week. This is also the time of the year where we're doing several appreciations. Just last Wednesday, I believe it was admin professionals uh appreciation. Uh, nurses appreciation is coming up. My mom is a school nurse, so I know when that's coming up. I already got her card. Uh, and then also next week is teacher appreciation. So, this is the time of the year where we just thank everybody for everything that they do as we celebrate uh this year, as we celebrate towards the end of the year. There we go. Uh, as I mentioned before, we will be celebrating this year's class
009validictorians and saludiatorans uh right before our board meeting on May 20th. Uh that will be an award ceremony from 5 to 6:15 similar to what we just did with the volunteers. We'll do that right beforehand. Uh you'll be seeing our our valadictorians and saludiatorans from all of our high schools come out. Uh they'll be in their regalia and we'll also be celebrating them and taking a picture uh with them recognizing them at the top of the board meeting. Uh being a valadictorian or saludiatoran also is not uh uh uh an easy uh feat that I also served as a valadictorian and so I know how hard it takes to get to that point and so we want to recognize all of our valves. Uh we're so proud of the work that they did and we
010wish them well as well as all of our class of 2025. We wish them well as they go uh onto their their journey post high school. These are commencements coming up. As I mentioned, this is one of my favorite times of the year, just celebrating all of our graduates, and it's going to be a fun uh time. Last year, I made it to most of the graduations. Uh this year, I will be at several of them. Uh and our team will be out there celebrating our class of 2025 uh for their accomplishments. This is truly when you see the best of not only our scholars, but of their families as well. Uh so, this is just our graduation schedule, and we're looking forward to celebrating them. I know we're getting those college acceptances that are
011coming in as well as our scholarship total FAFSA numbers continue to be up and also our SAS scholarship applications are up and so we're really proud of our class of 2025 and wish them well as they go on their way. Now a note about building brighter futures. For the past couple of weeks we've been doing our building brighter futures community meetings. As we shared, we're at a point in time where we're thinking about how can we make education for all of Cleveland scholars, no matter how they look like, no matter where they go to school, no matter where they live, a better and uh excellent experience no matter where they go to school. And right now, we do have pockets of excellence. We have some schools that have programs, some that don't. Uh we offer
012some things at some schools, but we don't offer it at uh others. Now is a time for us to figure out what can we do for all. not for some but for all. And that is the moment that we're living into with building brighter futures. And we're doing this in a plan that also thinks about a pathway to financial sustainability. If you've been to our community meetings, we've been talking about over the past 20 years, enrollment has decreased by over 50%. And about the number of buildings that we operate has been about the same. We're operating enough buildings for 50,000 students and we have 34,000 students. So, this is a time where we have to think about how do we how do we make sure that the educational experience is excellent for all kids while
013at the same time making sure we're on a pathway to financial sustainability. As I shared in those meetings, some of those recommendations as we do this work will be looking at replicating programs, making sure that there's college credit in all of our high schools. Right now, it's only in 78% of them. Making sure there career pathways in all of our high schools. Right now, it's only in 59%. making sure that our K8 buildings have access to courses like algebra 1, uh, foreign language and band and choir. Right now, it's only in 38%. So, we've done work to make progress, but we're not where we need to be. And so, building brighter futures is about that path. And when we think about that path, we have to make tough decisions such as school closures, relocations, consolidations.
014And so, uh, thank you for all that came out to those meetings. We had several meetings across our city as well as virtual meetings. These are some of the pictures. Uh they were all packed meetings and I really appreciate the pieces of feedback that we gathered. Uh when we were at our meetings uh these were there's a recap. We were on all sides of the city. We were here in John Marshall uh as well doing our southwest side of the city uh meeting and uh we had nearly 500 participants. Uh we also gathered uh 166 surveys uh that were submitted but that's not inclusive of all the feedback that we gathered at the table. So, we're still looking at some of the trends that we gathered at the table. As I shared during our building
015brighter futures community meetings, this is the beginning of a conversation, not the conversation. So, once again, the beginning of the conversation, not the conversation. We must continue to have these conversations. And if we do this work well, uh, and we engage with the community, even though they're tough decisions ahead of us, and we won't always agree on all of the different recommendations that are coming out, our scholars will win at the end. And that's what we're uh uh about and making sure that all of our scholars have a brighter future. So uh thank you for coming to this first round. We're looking forward to doing more of these. Uh uh we'll be looking at some of the data throughout the summer, maybe having some sessions during the summer, but definitely kicking some off in the
016fall. So please come out. As I shared during our community meetings, building brighter futures will not be implemented until 2627. So this gives us a year to engage, a year to uh review data, a year for uh questions, rigorous feedback, and then some point at some point next year, we'll be putting a recommendation in front of the board, and the board will be making the decision on the path forward for building brighter futures. Now during the building brighter futures community conversations there were several themes that came up and we will be sharing some of the the feedback and themes that we got from the community during bu building brighter futures. Uh that's some of the things that we'll be sharing not only in the upcoming board meetings but also in some of our fall engagements
017that we're going to be doing. Uh, but there are several questions that came up and misconceptions that came up that we've actually addressed before, but I wanted to make sure that because they came up so much and also through feedback that I've gotten from many people. Uh, we've received so many emails, so many calls throughout the time. Some of those calls I've I've been able to return back and some of those emails I've been able to return back, but not all of them have we been able to. But I could tell you the themes that I'm going to be sharing here are themes that came across the board that came up many different times and questions. and we want to make sure that we address these. We've addressed them in board meetings before. Um, and
018we'll address them again, but we'll also be posting these uh on our website uh just so that you can have it if you ever have a question or you're at this board meeting or you're listening and you're like, I remembering Dr. Morgan mentioning something like this. What did he say? What was the answer? I want to make sure that you can uh go to a place to get these uh questions answered. So, one of the questions that came up not only in some of our small group discussions, but also in emails that I've been receiving, particularly around some of the recommendations that are coming up now. Did the 2024 Oh, and I think we lost our slides. Did the 2024 central office position reductions involve mostly vacancies? Do we have that coming up? This is
019also posted on board docs as well. I'll do a voice over as we uh get this posted up. Um as I've mentioned before, our central office reductions in the spring of 2024 uh that included both filled and vacant positions. We made a reduction of about 12.6% uh 12.6% of uh of our central office budget. We had a goal of 10%. So we exceeded our our our goal and making a reduction of 12.6% from our budget uh to this year's budget. So our budget from last year to this year's budget, central office uh reduced by 12.6%. Um also our staff central office positions declined 9.5% from January uh 1st of 2024 to January 1st of 2025. So this is something we've shared before and on this next slide here you can actually see how we've reduced
020actual central office staffing over time and you can see the line from my start date. So, uh, a lot of the numbers that are reported from last year from 2024 was in my first year. Um, it was the it was before we actually made a lot of our budget reductions, but as you can see when we made the recommendations for last year in terms of our central office positions, you see the decline in drops and this is the work that we were doing. And so, I just want to make sure that that is clear and you can actually see the number of positions that we're doing. And also, as I shared before, we actually have staff members that work in central office, and the decisions that were made at central office were not easy for
021those people that actually work in central office or people that actually lost uh uh jobs. So, even though we want to think about how we're reducing the costs and expenses at central office, those are people, too, and those are also part of our family and part of our educators. But, as you can see, we did lose uh a significant amount of positions when we did those reductions. Also the next question were central office staff let go and then rehired at a higher salary. So as you can see from here layoffs in 2024 were not performance based. So these were um based on administrative decisions and cuts that were made. Separated employees were also eligible to be re uh hired into the system if there were open vacancies in 2024. There were some they did reapply
022to some other positions and in only two cases two cases applicants earned a position that was higher than the position they were in before. Um but these were not direct positions that they were in. They were laid off and as with any layoff if it's not performance-based or if there's not a do not hire behind the name staff are always welcome to reapply if they find positions. So that's information we want to make sure you have and that you're armed with the facts. This is one that we get a lot and I share it a lot, but I want to make sure that I share it again and I'm fine with answering it again if it comes up because we can uh continue to do that to make sure that people hear it. But it's
023can central office move from 11-11 Superior into an underutilized school. This came up a lot especially as we were talking building brighter futures and just our building and the footprint. People ask what about 11-1ven? Why are you guys there? And so the answer that I've shared before and I want to make sure that uh we continue to share that the lease was renewed and signed before I started. So right before I started the lease was signed through July of 2028. When we were making our cuts last year it would have been really expensive for us to break our lease. Uh so it uh as a matter of fact it would have been over $10 million to break our lease last year. Our lease does end in 2028. Now, as we are moving forward and we're
024looking at building brighter futures and looking at some buildings that may be open, we are exploring those possibilities. I've mentioned before, I've mentioned it here in board meetings. I've mentioned it uh before the lease when you are in the middle of it uh without there being some cost incurred uh and at the time we were looking at it and even still now we still have a few years on that lease and it is cost prohibitive to uh to break that lease or end it early. So, another question, uh, what is being done to address central office spending? I got a lot of emails, especially from parents that are saying, "Hey, if you're if you're cutting some of these programs or you're making recommendations for closing, uh, uh, closing some programs, what other things are you
025doing to cut costs?" Um, before I go into the answer here, one of the things we've been talking about over time, we have $150 million we need to save over the next three years. $150 million is not uh, easy to come by. It's not easy to make those reductions without doing uh major reductions of force particularly in instructional staff. So all the programs that we're looking at whether it was the central office staff that we made reductions at whether they're programs we're looking at whether there are other things we're doing these are all things to do before we go to instructional staff. Those are the things we do not want to do in terms of making those layoffs. Um and these are the things that we've looked at. So as you can see I've mentioned
026before we reduced central office positions by 12.6% 6% last year. Um, and we're continuing to look at not only staffing at the central office, but other expenses. Uh, we've put administrative controls in place on uh contracts, staff, travel, things like furniture, supplies, these are all things that were put in uh to place with last year's uh state deficit reduction plan. So when we did the end of last year's budget into this year's budget, a lot of those cuts you will see and many of the numbers that continue to be touted are numbers that are uh from you know the beginning of my term coming in maybe the first six months in before we put the state deficit reduction plan in place before we submitted uh uh all the administrative controls and also before we asked
027the taxpayers for a levy uh in the summer of 2024. So just note noting this our outofstate travel which is one of our smaller uh expenditures that we have is down 50% this year and it represents approximately 06% of our of our general fund spending and our fiscal year 25 this year our contracts which is one of our largest expenditures that we have is down by nearly $10 million. Um actually it's down more than $10 million over $10 million. So, I just want to know and we will continue to share these things as we're sharing the recommendations of different things that we're making cuts for. There are other areas that we're making cuts from and we will have to continue to make uh uh you know those cuts to get to the $150 million and
028building brighter futures will also help us with that. Another area that we look at is how much does CMSD spend on administration cost per student. This was one uh that I've also gotten a lot of questions about. Uh, and the state reports that CMSD spent in the 2324 school year, so that was last year, my first year, about uh $4,045 on admin um per student. Now, I want to let you know that the way that the state actually calculates admin spending, that's not just central office. That's administrative costs that are at schools. There's things such as like our devices that students pay for uh not not the students pay for, that our students use that we pay for. uh there are many programs that we use that are also couch in that administrative cost and
029expenditures. But because we do want to monitor this area, one of the things that we're looking at is how to parse that out based on the cuts that we did for last year and now be reported for this upcoming year because we're in the current fiscal year 25. You will see at least a 10% reduction. So this continues to show the work that we've done. The numbers that have been reported are old numbers, numbers that were before a lot of these administrative costs were on. So, I ask you continue to watch the numbers, continue to see what we're doing, and continue to see that trend go down because we're making those reductions. And then you'll also see this work through building brighter futures where we talk about we want to see the savings that we're
030going to find from uh, you know, closing, consolidating buildings, replicating programs. So, this is the work that we're doing holistically. When we went out for a levy last year, I said that it wasn't just the responsibility of the taxpayers to solve the district's financial problems. the district had work to do and we've been doing work from the minute we've come in and we will continue to do that work and so I just want to make sure we're sharing that with you and these were things that came up often. Uh there's one more that came up and it was a question that I wanted to make sure was addressed that we've also addressed in this meeting and we've addressed before but I want to make sure is addressed is why is the district spending funds reported
031as IDEIDA on uh funds on other areas other than special education. As you know, these funds are designated, they're federal funds that are designated um for special education. CMSD spends both our IDEIDA funds as well as unrestricted general special education funds on special education. We spend those dollars. The way we get our idea funds is as a reimbursement because we do spend our IDEIDA funds on general education. So, they come in as a reimbursement that becomes unrestricted. So when we get those funds in, they are coded as IDEIDA funds, but we get those and they're unrestricted. They have uh they're funds that have already been spent on special education. We're spending that a lotment on special education. We're spending the dollars that is uh required and coded uh for special education. But for our idea
032funds, when we get those as reimbursements, those are unrestricted. This has also been verified not only by the state multiple times, but also by the board's internal auditors. So this is something that we've looked at. Uh we've also had others look at it and we will continue to look at it. So when you ask the questions, you're doing exactly what you're supposed to do and we want to make sure that you understand. Oh, I didn't have that up there. That we're doing our responsibility. So just continue to watch it. Do not look at just look at the old numbers. Um look at the work that we've done since we've put a lot of these restrictions in and follow the dollars and follow those uh as they continue to go down. Uh and that's the work
033that we want to collectively do as we move forward together. Um, so I just wanted to make sure we shared those. Those were things that came up several times during Building Brighter Futures. They've been coming up in several emails. And I said, even though we've shared it in in uh board meetings before, I know I've shared it before uh publicly, um, sometimes it bears repeating and we will continue to repeat uh because it's okay if we get the questions and we're fine with that. Uh, but with that, that's my CEO report for this evening. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. I appreciate the collective um or the collection of of input and and notable pieces that folks were asking about and sharing that out. Um before I ask my colleagues if there are any questions or discussion,
034I do want to make a note that that presentation that Dr. Morgan shared is available on board docs and um anyone in the public can access it by going to the CMSD board website. And also um there was a question at our last meeting about board members looking at their computers and that's because we've got the presentation in front of us and the presentations that are up there are facing you all so we're all following along on our computers. I know we got some students in the building so want to just make a note about that. Um is there any discussion or are there any questions from board members? Miss Welch Howell. Thanks Chair Elott and thank you Dr. Morgan for Miss Welch. Is your microphone on? I think so. Testing. Okay. Uh, thank you
035for that presentation. It was very helpful. Um, one question um or maybe request on the lease point because it is sort of a hot button that continues to come up. I'm sure you and team have looked into alternatives outside of just sort of terminating the lease, things like subleting, buyouts, etc. Um, I think bringing some of that information forward on why maybe those are challenged options or sort of what those possibilities are would be helpful um for the community to see as we continue this process. Yeah. No, I I appreciate that. And those are also options and avenues that we're exploring. I know our general counsel looked at some of those things and some of the there are some places where we can't do some of those things and there are some where we can.
036Um, but where we can even in when you actually can sublet, you also have to find a uh find someone who will lease the space. And when we think, you know, we talk to our our our downtown um uh business partners all the time. Um finding, you know, renting out lease space in buildings is not easy. You know, finding the people that will actually do it where it actually uh becomes lucrative and also helps us with some of the overhead costs that we're looking at um and outfitting the building for it to be the space for someone um doing it. Um you have to actually find out if it's actually a cost savings measure. Any other questions or discussion? All right. Next, we will have our period of public participation. During this segment of the
037business meeting, we will hear all public comment on either agenda or non-aggenda items. This public participation period will be for persons who previously submitted the online request to speak form to address the board for up to three minutes each. As usual, I want to remind that we will limit each speaker to three minutes and we ask that you respect this time limit. This the timer will be visible on each of the screens up front so that each speaker may monitor their own time. All right, we will begin with Dr.Wendelyn Jarvis. Gwendalyn Jarvis. Moving on to Dr. Vincent E. Stokes. Good evening, Mr. Stokes. Good evening. To be a black male educator in CMSD is to stand in the gap, unsupported, misunderstood, and often exploited for your presence while being denied real power. It means being
038praised by your influence over black and brown boys, but never trusted with decisions that shape their futures. You're tokenized on committees to check boxes, but your voice is ignored when real policies are made. You're asked to show up for every event, every crisis, every hallway fight, but rarely asked what you need to thrive. You're celebrated as a strong black man until you advocate for yourself. Then you're labeled difficult, emotional, or insubordinate. You're placed in schools with greatest challenges, trauma-filled classrooms, staff shortages, underfunded programs, and told to make it work. Others get transferred or accommodated. You get silenced. Yesterday, I gave a witness impact statement for a former student, Mr. Anthony Dewan Hughes Jr. I told him. Mine was the last classroom he sat in before CO shut our schools down. He was murdered on December
0399th, 2020. The next day, I had to teach his brother and two cousins and the other five years. And after 5 years of being in a district at that time, not one person asked me how I was how I was doing in the district that touts diversity. I've had my credentials questioned here more than anywhere else I've worked. I have an earned doctorate ProQuest verified with a published dissertation titled with a strength not of his own. The Christian formation of Reverend Nat Turner. Still, three white female administrators have dismissed that accomplishment. One in HR refused to call me doctor until corrected very publicly. Another said, "We all have doctor credits. Yours isn't important." And another asked, "Why do you make people call you doctor?" Would they ask that of a white man? Being a black
040male in CMSD means they expect you to play the game, laugh when you're not tickled, scratch when you don't itch. That's why they treat Dr. Warren Morgan the way they do. He's humble, effective, and yet blame for what Eric Gordon did or did not do. They take his humility for weakness, but it's really his strength. This district is nearly 63% black and 18% Hispanic. But leadership does not reflect that. I won't step and fetch for a system that refuses not to see me. But ask Cameron C. Zach or Zier Harris. I send them encouraging words every morning. Askamari Pritchette, who had her baby shower at my church, or Stanley Turpin, who dreamed of being a member of Alpha F Alpha in third grade, but was influenced and joined my fraternity, the Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity Incorporated,
041after being a student in my eighth grade class. Ask the students at AJ Rickoff in my church summer workforce development program. Ask the family of Anthony Dewan Hughes who saw me fight to rename the street where he died. Or maybe it's the 20-year-old Matthew, once my student who I fostered and now adopted. I don't work for CMSD. I work for Children of Cleveland and I work hard. This calling is purposefilled but painful. We carry hope but we carry hurt. I'm not here for the system. I'm here for the students. [Applause] Thank you, Dr. Stokes. Next is Paulie Carr. Hi, my name is Paulie Carr. I have fifth grade twins at Campus International School. I write a blog called Publicly Cleveland about my CMSD public records research. I post every public record for everyone to see
042on publicly Cleveland Substack. You can go and look at my files. I have an updated administrative file that I got in February, which I assume are the pay rates. When I'm talking about the hiring, it's from current workday postings. So, it's not old numbers. Yes, the long ago past of 365 days ago is so in the past, but I will say that the lease was resigned by Eric Gordon. I wrote about that. I thought it was a waste of time then. and I criticized Eric Gordon and I criticized Justin Bib who was the mayor at the time and is in control of the schools. I'd like to talk to you about administrative spending. I have a friend named Roy who is a custodian at our school. He's in the building every day. He works really
043hard. He has a good rapport with the kids and the students. Out of curiosity, I used the organization chart that I just recently got a month ago to see a map of Roy to Dr. Morgan. Between Roy, the custodian, who makes around $16 an hour, and Dr. Morgan, who makes considerably more, there are a half a million dollar worth of salaries between you in just facilities. This is not to mention Patty Chob's big consulting contract, which was $173,000 last year. I don't know if she has one this year. And yet, we had children in our facilities inhaling mold and sitting in squalor in a few schools, not just one. I've been talking with a grandmother from uh her son, grandson goes to Kenneth Clement Boys Leadership Academy, and there are serious issues there. She even
044got Karen Thompson and Jerome Pratt to come out and do a walkthrough with the building and do take pictures and document everything. And Karen promised she was going to get right on it to this grandmother. And she's been ghosting her for the past 2 weeks. She won't return emails. She won't send her the pictures. She won't tell her about that report that is the air quality report. This is a school where children attend and sit in squalor. When you did the last layoff, you claimed it was 12,000. you know, 12% it was 4% and then those people got rehired and I'm looking at their current salaries which is more than they were making before. Whether you want to admit that or not, these documents are available on my website, Publicly Cleveland. Now, in the layoff,
045the only big salary over $100,000 was Dr. Christopher Broutton, the data guy. Now, Nick De Mo has taken his position at that salary. And Mr. Broutton got a severance package, so you paid him through August. Now, Nick Demo on workday is hiring for Nick Namiko's old position. Those are the same salaries. There's been no cut. It's not okay. It's a Jackson Pollock painting of dollar signs on your organizational. Thank you, Miss Carr. Next, Maria Rivera. Hello, my name is Maria Rivera. I'm a freshman at New TechQuest and this is my first year in Civics 2.0. Throughout this year, I've gained many experiences I would have never gotten if I had never joined. I've met new people, tried new things, and seen new places that have really shown me how nice it can be to be
046more civically engaged. My hope would be that the district starts looking into maintaining Civics 2.0 as a permanent program at CMSD. It is our understanding that for the last few years, the the program has been operating on a year-to-year basis. This makes it challenging to meet our group's initiatives, stifles momentum, and risk ending the program that are so valuable and unique. This program has benefited many at our school and across our district. A student at New Techch West, Lana Wenmouth, had many good things to say about Civics 2.0, 0 including thinking about the possibility of civics 2.0 ending makes me disappointed because many kids including me look forward to events such as the Columbus trip for most of the year and they do it for a reason because it is truly something you usually wouldn't
047experience in high school. This program is an outstanding opportunity to learn new strategies, meet new people, and learn how to adapt in different environments. Another new tech student, Emma Keller, says, "This is my fourth year in civics 2.0. Over the four years, I had the opportunity to experience the full legislative process from committee to governor's signature. Being able to have people register to vote was amazing. And working as a poll worker on election day was an experience I don't think I would have received without this program. We get to be at the front of a new wave of young voters and arguing for and voting on what matters to us. The new Tech West validictorian Elena Elena Montteros Neves stated, "Civics 2.0 has made a big impact on her life." She says, "Civics has helped
048me reach out of my comfort zone. The skills, communication, and knowledge that I have received from civics helped me advocate more strongly for myself and also my community and a the larger good. We have already seen the program suffer because of the difficult and disastrous decisions made to trim the program. Students were once paid stippens to collect voter registrations. By ending that process, the time we can spend completing our work and collecting future Ohio voters has declined because many of the collective GA action gatherings this year were not held. Our ability to work collaboratively with other schools and students doled significantly and the work raising money and trying to combat gun violence fell by the wayside. Civics 2.0 is a valuable program unlike any other. It deserves a permanent spot in CMSD programming. Thank you,
049Maria. Next, Don Freeman. Mr. Freeman. Don Freeman Thomas Kubak, Principal Kubak. Hello, my name is Thomas Kubak. I have been in this district for 17 years at the same school. I have been there at Joseph Gallagher where we have 63% of our students are limited English and we have a great population of refugees and a great population of uh students from all over the world. This year has been a very challenging year. It has been uh personal challenging and uh at the school. But I wanted to share some positive news about some of the schools. I know that 15 of our schools right now are at 0% proficiency growth or less over the past three years. Not at Gallagher. Let me show you. At Gallagher, we are the third out of 64 elementary schools in
050Cleveland in proficiency growth in ELA. We are seventh in math proficiency growth in in uh 64 schools in CMSD. We are 11th in science. This is an incredible accomplishment. We have 63% of our students as limited English from all over the country. We are also second among active schools in performance index growth. We are nearly two in two years we have nearly 10 points performance index growth in two years. This is an incredible accomplishment. It is something that hasn't been seen but one other school. Second, I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. Ah, it's upside down. We are one of four out of theund and plus schools in Cleveland to earn backto back ODW momentum awards. This is a a huge achievement. This is something that you have to at least gain three PI points, performance
051index points over a year and get a five-star rating in growth. Why do I bring this up? Next month, the board is going to be presented with an opportunity to non-renew me. I have been there 17 years. This is my 10th year as principal. I've never had an evaluation below uh skilled and or accomplished. My growth ratings are fantastic. Our suspension rate is 5%. I asked the board, "What are we looking for in leaders in CMSD?" This is something that as the leader of Gallagher, this has been my life's work. I have been there for 17 years. I have helped design the new building and now I have been targeted to be non-renewed. I asked the people in the room, what are you looking for in your leaders? I am passionate. I have been a
052Gallagher rancher for 17 years. I I don't know what else in data wise that the our board looks for in a leader. I don't know what uh the city looks for in a leader, but we have proven it over and over and over again that we are among the best. We're in the top 5% of all schools in proficiency growth. And I'm not sure how this could be ignored by the board when we think about students before we think about adults and their feelings. Thank you, Principal Kubat. Next, Owen Pennington. Owen Pennington. Uh, good evening to the board. Um, I would like for you all to uh notice how I I came up here with no notes or no uh no pamphlets or anything because what I'm about to talk about is uh something that's
053really been plaguing my mind since I first heard of the idea's inception. And that is the restriction of 30 minutes for uh every school with extended days. There is a saying uh from the Roman poet oid uh that I learned and I thought it to be pretty profound. Small drops of water consecutively can hollow out hard rock. I would like for you all to take a moment to reflect on that with these 30 minutes that will be cancelled for these extended day schools. It is it it will it will show the cat the impacts of this policy will be immediate. Um I would like to ask you to reflect upon these students with four AP classes in their junior year. The uh international balorate students who uh have to manage uh having all of these
054tasks at hand and yet they get taken 30 minutes of every single school day away from them. The building brighter futures plan will have a severe and permanent asterisk on it if this plan gets implemented. I I would like to ask you specifically, Dr. Morgan, um how will this 30-minute reduction build brighter futures for our students? Um I would like to ask you all um specifically to reflect on this. Ladies and gentlemen, um this asterisk, this asterisk will be made prevalent if we continue to propagate ideas that will continue to harm the student body. I am here as a representative of my of my school, the Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, but most importantly of all, I am a representative of the student body at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The acclaim that you
055all receive for your positions here are held up by the students and the students alone. I would like to ask you to reflect on the pillars of your district, the faculty who will be getting pay cuts for these 30 minute um uh 30 minutes being taken away. Uh the constituency for your levies, how will they feel when seeing these impacts that the 30 minutes will have? The way that I will see school throughout my life is determined by a few small moments. And these few small moments can indeed happen within the 30 minutes that many people wish to take away from me and from the student body that stands before you. Board members, ladies, gentlemen, and people of the crowd. Uh please reflect on this. Do not hollow the rock that you all stand on.
056Do not hollow the rock of your faculty who works day and night to keep you acclaimed. And most importantly, do not hollow the rock of your students who gives you all the positions and the grandeur that you have today. Thank [Music] [Applause] you. Thank you, Owen. Next, Xavier Avery. Xavier Good evening everyone. Some of you some of you may know me already due to my persistent push for the year- round calendar for Davis. My name is Xavier Avery. I would like to start by pointing out that CMSD has a school filled with students who are asking for more school time. I have been leading and organizing a student movement. My classmates and I have protested outside of 11-11. We have been interviewed by Fox 8, Channel 5, Signal Cleveland, and 78 Million. The district leadership
057responded, "Their hopes are that programs will continue." Last night, I addressed the city council and earned the support of several council members. Over the last two weeks, Davis students have collected close to 900 signatures on a petition to keep the year- round calendar. Captain Drew Ferguson, the founder of Argonite and Davis, has spoken to the school board and district leadership, but his concerns have been dismissed. Hopefully, my student voice is compelling enough for you to listen. Davis is a top three rated school with no admission requirements. We are also the middle ground for both the East and Westside students. We have a 3.5 star rating. Davis stats are higher than the district average. Our graduation rate is 81%. The average SAT score is 913. We have a 10% higher performance index than the district. Davis
058has received the momentum award from the state of Ohio for the past two years due to our continued growth. Many students believe that the year- round calendar helped them retain past information from previous years due to our summer being shorter. Research suggests that students with a traditional calendar may lose up to 20% of their reading gains and 27% of their math gains. Our year- round calendar plays a huge role in the success. It's what makes our programs, internships, and hands-on learning possible. The best time for our programs are during June, July, and August when students can work towards their private pilots's license and captain's license. Aviation and maritime classes rely on good weather in order to provide students opportunities to fly or go out on the lake. In June, many students participate in the after
059school programs to prepare themselves for the internships and careers that are available after high school. In August, all new freshmen to participate in a six-week program where they are taught how to operate small watercrafts and swim. All of these students receive their OBEC boating license. Davis is a unique school that is continually growing in success. Rather than trying to make all schools equal, we should focus on making great schools greater by concentrating on being equitable about what schools and students need. The district leadership is concerned about eliminating the debt. Yet, they are spending thousands of dollars on fancy massage chairs on their own benefit in their fancy building downtown. While there is a perfectly usable building on the east side, instead of trying to limit one of the most successful schools in CMSD, you should
060focus on the larger issue at hand that can save you $30 million. There are many empty schools that can be consolidated instead of cutting down hours and weeks for the students of Davis who are thriving with the year- round calendar. So my question to you all is why would we cut down school time for a school that is so successful just so just to save a small percentage of debt compared to focusing on the larger issue. Thank you. Thank you Xavier. Next Marilia Trios Carapanos. Thank you for your time Dr. from Morgan and board members. My name is Merilia Cerikos Carapanos. I'm a sophomore at Campus International High School and a proud member of the Civics 2.0 team. Firstly, I would like to thank CMSD for funding Civics 2.0's trip to the 2025 Youth and
061Government Conference in Columbus. Throughout the conference, many CMSD students ran for election for next year's conference. And I elated to say that CMSD had three out of five students elected to be in next year's presiding officers. Antonio Harris from Gin Academy will be our next chief justice. Owen Pennington, who previously spoke, will be our next youth governor. And I have the honor to be the next attorney general for the 2025 Youth and Government 2026 Youth and Government Conference. Aside from the election winners, all CMSD students who attended the conference did an excellent job showing their leadership, bravery, and knowledge. While there are many things to congratulate amongst the Civics 2.0 0 program. There are also amendments that need to be made. Last September, I spoke at a board meeting discussing the funding of this year's
062Civics 2.0 program. While the trip to Columbus was paid for, we missed on we missed out on many things that I and other students had done in years prior. For example, due to the uncertainty of whether or not the club will be funded, many schools missed out on opportunities to register people to vote and educate them on important issues in a major election year. We also were not able to meet as a district in order to discuss what issue we see in our community and how we can raise money or protest to solve it as well as not hosting a gun violence seminar for the raging issue of gun violence that we see in Cleveland. To go back to the Columbus trip around one month before going, school advisers were unsure if we had the
063funds to go due to the late green light from the district. Due to this uncertainty of funds, the district had to pay late fees per student for admission into the youth and government conference, which seems like a counteractment due to the fact that if we didn't know we were having funds, we had to pay more money due to uncertainty. I'm here today to ensure that what has happened this school year will not happen again and I will not have to come speak about issues regarding uncertainty, inefficient, and inefficiency within the civics 2.0 program next year. Thank you. Thank you, Marilia. Next, Dr. Stacy Steagurt. Thank you to Dr. Morgan and the board. Uh, I am a Colinwood resident and my wife and I have three children. I have a PhD in education policy and I've
064published research in peer-reviewed journals. I came here this evening to ask the school board to vote no on eliminating extended school day and extended school year by unifying district calendars. I'm going to begin with a definition. According to George Washington University, equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. On February 14th, 2024, the mayor's education chief sent an email to Dr. Morgan and the school board about cutting all schools to one calendar. I'm going to read part of that right now. Good morning. Great work yesterday on messaging the hard but necessary cuts needed to balance the budget. I suggest that you pull daily attendance records from the
065extended school year and use the data to defend a single calendar for all schools besides the downtown education center. As you consider the other schools on extended year, keep in mind that there may be some teacher union reps from those schools impacted who will protest this loss of extra funding. Being able to use the data of how many students actually attended those extra days compared to other schools could be helpful for the board and other leaders who may hear from these teachers. Also, if you cut all, it's bold and underlined in the email, all to one calendar, it may be easier than taking school by school approach. For instance, the John Haye school may have active parents and board members who want to keep the current year, but if you cut lower performing schools and
066not them, it creates a case of equity for lower performing schools. At least that's what I've heard about the Greece trip and the other things that John Haye receives. The same personnel are going to use the same arguments and push back on any changes since John Adams is an extended school day school. Now, one of the things that's great about a portfolio district is that anybody in the district can access any school model that works for them. For example, uh every student in the district, 100% can access college credit for free through college credit plus starting right after the seventh grade year ends. Setting aside the tragically incorrect usage of the concept of equity a moment ago, the district's own study study has shown that not only do extended program schools have better attendance rates,
067but predictably on all measures, students who have more instructional time perform better in school. The district is touting this as a cost-saving measure, but in a $ 1.9 billion budget, the savings gained by reducing instructional times would generate roughly $4 million in savings. That's 0.02% of the budget, $1 for every $500 spent. Now, I had a visual, but I wasn't allowed to keep it with me in the meeting. And I'm a teacher, so I believe very strongly in communicating through multiple modalities. So, if you're a visual learner tonight, I'm sorry you're out of luck, but you have to listen to everything that I read. So, for the benefit of our students and our city, I beg the school board to vote no on cutting all schools to the same calendar. Thank you. Alicia [Applause] Dodson,
068Alicia Dodson, Michael Kulsar. Good evening. Uh, excuse me. My name is Michael Koulsar. I'm a, uh, child of a CMSD teacher. My father recently uh retired a couple years ago. Uh CMSD is something I've known about. CMSD is something I've known about since uh you know my infancy. Uh like I I was a former teacher myself. I did my student teaching at Glenville uh high school. I know the systemic problems uh with the district because I've heard about it since I was 5 years old. One of the problems that we all are aware of is the decline in enrollment facing this district and I want to talk about how the uh unified calendar will affect that. I am somebody who would have left this district. I live in Colinwood. Uh I know many families who
069were in my situation. My child currently attends kindergarten at Camps International. The families in my neighborhood convinced my me and my wife to explore that school. We also explored charter schools. We explore private schools. We explore moving out of Cleveland. Not something I want to do, but my child's education comes first and my daughter's education who's coming behind him. Uh we enrolled our child in uh Camps International. and I'm proud that my child attends a C uh a CMSD school. You see the faces of the professionals that I deal with every single day when I brag about my child's school, a CMSD school. Um the IB program there uh creates intelligent, kind, community focused children. These are the kids I want my child to be. The staff there are dedicated, hardworking, and knowledgeable. If you
070cut this time, my wife's already sending me Zillow requests or Zillow pages. Where are we going to move to if this school goes downhill? This is a school that brings in people from other districts. It's a school that captures families and keeps them here. They see what their kids can accomplish. And I fear that cutting these 30 minutes is going to really wreck these schools that are doing so well. Um, after talking to my councilman, people in your office, uh, talking or attending the brighter futures meetings, I feel that this plan is being introduced prematurely. The schooltoschool look at has not been done. Uh, my wife and I have talked to people and it's clear that people are saying, "Oh, well, William Rainey Harper can do this. Uh, Campus International can do it without 30
071minutes." That's not an urban school that was built for families like mine, someone who works downtown and drops off my child every day. If you come and look at Campus International uh in the morning and at the end of the school day, you'll see that we use a lot of that 30 minutes just to get these kids in and out. Um lunch and recess, they said, "Oh, you can cut lunch and recess." We're already down to 40 minutes. We don't have room to cut. I'm disappointed that the district is looking to bring down schools that are raising up the district, looking for ways to push out families and limit choice for the families who want to stay here and want to uh continue to have their tax dollars go to the schools or go to
072the district that they're living in. You might notice that the CTU is not here tonight. That's because this is not being challenged by the CTU. I know that the most likely these teachers are not going to lose their pay. They're not going to get their pay cut. They're going to be grandfathered in, which is why the CTO is not here. I don't think you're going to get the funding reductions that you think you will out of reducing this. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Koulsar. Next, Benjamin Kronister. Benjamin Kronister. Hi again. Good evening. Uh let me see here. I'm pretty loud. I don't especially need the microphone, but I understand that uh you know it's the custom. So uh let me We're live streaming, so we'd like the public to be able to hear. Thank you.
073Absolutely. So hello. Uh my comments this evening will not be nearly as polished they were as the last time I stood before you. Uh the fact is I wasn't entirely sure I would be here this evening as I'm not confident that my speaking to you is doing any good. Uh last month I spoke to you about my hope that you would choose one of two options I put forward to ease the possible pain of the transition to a single unified calendar. The first option was putting off the transition for another full school year in order to give teachers and parents ample time to adjust and make difficult choices if need be. The second option was to provide a special dispensation of pay to help cover the force transition and pay schedules such that teachers moving
074from year round to to traditional calendars won't miss a pay period. In this last month, have you taken the opportunity to discuss and consider either or both of these options? Did you Mr. Krener, please provide your comments? We aren't pro we aren't responding in the meeting. Thank you. Thanks. With teacher appreciation week coming up, I was thinking about what CMSD has done in my time here to make me feel truly appreciated or welcome. Aside from hiring me in the first place and continuing to pay me to do my job, it's hard to think of much. And to be clear, that's not nothing. I genuinely love what I do, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue doing it. In general, though, I'm not a person who particularly values material things beyond their immediate function, especially
075not as a way to show appreciation. What would be nice, I think perhaps even refreshing, is honesty and transparency. Two years ago, when we first heard rumblings about schedule changes, I suspected the district intended to move toward combining schools and shuttering buildings. Put the schools on the same schedule and it's simpler to combine them. A year ago, when we were told about the unified ELA curriculum, I was pretty sure that such a move had a lot to do with making it easier to join schools and shutter buildings. Put everyone on the same curriculum and it's much simpler to combine them. This year when you announced building brighter futures, my supposition was confirmed as a certainty, even as other content areas are also being pushed into unified curricula across the district. Last year when unifying calendars
076was first publicly announced, you agreed to wait a year and do research. Cut to a year later and after the levy passed and the labor contract was already signed, your research has apparently ended up coming to the exact same conclusion that you had more than a year ago. It's clear that most of your plans are determined quite a while in advance. That's not a bad thing. What is glawing, however, is the constant insistence that what you're so obviously doing isn't actually what you're doing until you then publicly announce it months and months later when there's no time to even explore other options or possibilities. You prefer solutions to be brought forward along with problems. So, as I did last time, I'll provide what I think is a solid solution to this issue. I ask that
077you publish and publicize your full plans for school mergers and closures. I'm confident you already know what you intend to do. So rather than playing koi for an age and a half, please tell us what you're thinking. Let us know what you have planned in detail. Show us your teachers, your community, how much you appreciate us and what we do by showing us some respect. Not talking down to us and giving us a proper heads up about what for you is just business, but for us is the total upset of our communities, our school identities, and our classroom families. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Connister. [Applause] That concludes our public participation period. Um, now the board has a special item coming up on our agenda this evening relating to board goals and guard rails. But
078before we get to that, we are going to consider the 2025 school calendar resolution. And here um Dr. Morgan's latest report. I will note this is one of many reports that has been shared with the board and we did ask Dr. Morgan to put uh all of the reports in one place on board docs because we know it's been a little while that we've been talking about this. I think now three board meetings um and so um all of the materials from the prior board meetings are together on board docs at this time. Um Dr. Morgan, I understand you have additional information responding to board questions, questions we've heard, and then we'll have discussion on resolution 6.01. Um, the chair will now entertain a motion to adopt resolution 6.01, adopting the school, the CMSD 202526
079school calendar. So move. Thank you, Mr. Briggs. Thank you, Miss Welch Howell. All right, Dr. Morgan. Thank you, Chair Elott. And I I want to thank everyone for the the comments that were shared, particularly our scholars um hearing about not only the calendar, but civics 2.0. And a lot of these scholars I know are on the student advisory council. Your voice uh making your voice known. That is the work. Um and you guys are doing it so eloquently. So, thank you for for doing that and continue to use that. No one uh never let anyone mute your light. So, that uh it's just so uh powerful seeing our our students use that uh voice. I also want to share I know a lot of comments tonight were on our pockets of excellence and I've shared
080that in our system we do have pockets of excellence. When I think about what the Cleveland plan's been able to do for our system and how much we've been able to grow, I am so proud of this system and that we have schools like the one you've heard uh the ones you've heard from tonight. um like so many schools that have been able to have academic excellence. But in the same breath, we still have schools that are not meeting the mark. We still have many kids that are left behind. We still have many voices in schools in this the thousands of pieces of feedback and the different things we have that I've heard we that we haven't heard from that we have to still educate and as a community that we step to educate. Yes,
081equality is where everyone gets the same thing and equity is making sure we get the we differentiate the program so that we can bring everyone up to a standard of excellence and that's the work that we're trying to do. But in this time where we must educate all, educating all and making sure we look out for all does not mean we're abandoning others and not employing strategies. And in a time of finite resources, we must look at and consider different strategies and a path forward. And that's what we're doing now. And there will be differentiated strategies as we move forward and looking at the different programs that we must do. But right now, we must think about how do we educate all and how do we not leave some of our scholars behind? How do
082we not forget those voices and thinking about how we could provide a full robust education program. So when we think about building brighter futures, yes, it may mean changing some strategies, but we're looking at how to make sure all kids in our system have a high quality education. That's what our board goals are focusing on. So I just want as we go through this journey, we're not always going to agree on the strategies moving forward, but I also want to make sure that we all are keeping in light where we're going for all of our kids and thinking about solutions for all of our kids. Um, with that said, I do want to address some questions or first take you on a journey and then uh a couple of questions that were outstanding from our
083last meeting. As Chair Elott mentioned, all of our decks are combined in this uh this presentation on board docs from our very first research presentation in February all the way through the recommendation to some of the things that I brought up last week as well. Um, but I do want to take you a little bit on where we've been. Um our preliminary data last year when we looked at this showed that um doing an analysis comparison uh comparing our uh calendar types and instructional minutes types showed that there was no impact uh across calendar types and also across school uh types. That was just our preliminary data when we were just looking at it across the board. Uh this year we did uh work with highly respected researchers from Cleveland State University and AIRIR. Um
084and they supervised a study that our team uh commissioned. Um and what we looked at was looking at how extra days and extra minutes improve student outcomes. Uh this research also looked at uh the calendar types and also minute types while keeping things consistent. looking at demographics across the board looking at students and may be of similar type if they were in different contexts. Um the study also examinate uh examined outcomes by counter type rather than uh school by school um to just look at the holistic picture um when we're doing this assessment. Um, as we've shared before, the research study showed it generally found that there was no evidence um that there was substantial uh a substantial um meaningful difference in the academic outcomes in our different calendar types also across minutes. Uh we
085also recognize and value the excellence of our many different schools and the different things that it brings. But there's also other variables and that's what the study also showed that there are other variables in our schools that make them great. The programs that we're able to do, those are the things that make the schools great and those are the things we're committed to actually making sure that we continue to move forward. And we're going to talk a little bit about that tonight. Um because many of our programs that are in some of our schools, they're in schools that are in traditional calendar types. So, like when I hear about the programs at at Davis and I've got a chance to talk uh to uh scholars uh there uh as well as uh to leadership there,
086we hear about some of the different programs and we we will be able to continue those programs and continue the trips even if this uh resolution does pass when looking at um keeping some of those programs. And uh this study also showed that those are some of the things that actually impact uh academic outcomes. Um and then also um yeah the other research does show that there is uh you know sometimes extra minutes and extra time does have an impact on academic outcomes. Um this study just looked it looked different for our context. It also um in those different context the way it was implemented also the way the program was run was different from what um our our program looked like. I want to share with you at a very general high level what
087our master schedules look like. You heard last week Dr. Florence talk about master schedule guidance and the work that we are working with school leaders on master schedules. So in our K8 schools there's sometimes eight period days. Uh they roughly are about and this is traditionally on a traditional schedule about 50 minute periods with a 40-minute lunch. Um our high schools uh and it varies across schools but have about a 55minut period for eight period day. um which varies across the board especially if they have advisory uh with about a 40-minute lunch and those who are on block schedule have about uh four 80minute blocks. Sometimes they're uh they may be a little bit longer. It varies across length uh with a 40-minute lunch. So this is what our traditional school master schedules look like.
088When we look at how our 30 additional minutes and extra minutes were used, they vary across many different school types, but a lot of our schools are using it for extra time during lunch. When we were doing an analysis of where the minutes were used um dismissal, you heard from uh I believe the Campus International parent, but we found that the majority of the minutes at Campus International are used on dismissal um in terms of the extra minutes and some that's valuable for that community. I believe as you heard um also from the person that spoke and then also it can be used for additional time on periods and blocks but this is how it's used across different uh different master schedule types and this is what we did an analysis on. Uh traditional calendars
089as well as extended calendars also provide the same types of experiences in terms of fine arts and intervention. These are also some of the things that you'll continue to see in schools that when we talk about from an academic standpoint that we're working with our school leaders on making sure we preserve no matter what calendar types. This is an example of two different schedule types. One that uh was a a school that had extra minutes in this school year and how those extra minutes were used. So in this case when you're looking at schedule A, you see eight periods that have 53 minutes and a 52minute lunch. um when working with that school leader for this upcoming year, uh the network leader as well as the academics team will be looking at what do eight
090periods look like with 50 minutes and a 40-minute lunch. So, you can see how some of those minutes are used across um uh the board. You do see a difference in the instructional minutes um but a big uh reduction in the lunch time. Um and so these are just some of the examples of some of the master schedules. I know there was questions about master schedules and how we're working with school leaders on that shift. Now, when we think about the student experience, and you heard a lot tonight about trips, trips that happen during inter sessions, robotics trips that take place, these are things that take place across many of our different calendar types and school types, whether they're year- round models, whether they're schools with additional minutes. Um, we currently have these programs and
091run them in our traditional schools. I want to note the majority of our schools are traditional schools with no additional minutes, 71. So the majority of our schools do not have additional minutes. The majority do not have uh one of these five different calendar types. Uh there were uh about a dozen schools that have either additional minutes and or um are on an extended calendar. We are working with those schools about preserving their model. There's nothing in a traditional model that stops trips. There's nothing in a traditional model that would stop clubs like robotics. There's nothing in a traditional model that would stop uh being able to utilize some of the programming. Um we also encourage as we mentioned before in presentations if schools have the funding and resources or have outside resources. I know
092there are some schools with partners and corporate partners where those resources can come into the school those programs can continue to be offset in terms of keeping those extended times. There's nothing stopping the school. When we talk about school leaders having autonomy, school leaders do. And this was a program that was managed centrally um paid for centrally for only a dozen schools. The majority of our schools did not have access to these resources. And so when we think about the programming, programming will continue. We'll be able to uh preserve uh some of the things that make the model uh strong and great in our schools. And then also professional development will still be provided in terms of supporting schools not only on the academic model but also on the master scheduling. I know there was
093questions just around the professional development and the shift on what it's like to teach on a different block and as you saw the two different models uh teaching on the on one calendar type or the one extra minute types to the next doesn't very much only uh three minutes um on those two different types but there will be training and professional development to help think about that and I know our academics team is working on that and you heard Dr. Florence talk about that last week. So, those were some of the questions that were addressed uh before. Um, as I mentioned before, all of our presentations are here, including all of the research. It's a pretty lengthy deck because all of the different questions and the research um we're in. Um, it's not a easy
094recommendation. When we think about in totality how much we need to save over the next three years, it's 150 million. This recommendation saves us $9 million a year which times three when we think about the threeear savings because it accumulates every year is 27 million. When we think about programs like building brighter futures which could save at least 30 million over the next two years that's 60 million. 60 plus 27 is 87 million of our 150 million. So this is significant savings. It is a big part of the savings that we need to save. We talked about our state and federal re reality. It's not getting any better. So, we must think about how we continue uh to find a path forward for finding that high quality education that we talked about in the brighter
095futures for all kids while at the same time putting the district on a path to financial sustainability. Um, and it's not easy when we think about some of these recommendations. But as you also heard from my earlier presentation, we're not only coming, you know, at the programs, we're looking holistically at the ways we need to do this without making a reduction of force in our teaching staff. Um so that's um the questions addressing there and I'll see if there are questions from Chair Alagot or others. Thank you Dr. Morgan. I'll yield to my colleagues first. Is there any discussion from board members? Dr. Shidar Dr. Morgan um could you speak a little bit about so when you say there'll be a $9 million saving specifically what kinds of things um will we not spend money
096on as a district? what kinds of reductions will occur. And I want to draw attention to the to one of the comments that the public commenter made about teacher salaries and and potentially being grandfathered. Could you please address that please? Thank you. Yeah. No. Uh specifically, so when we think about the $9 million of savings primarily the the savings is actually from the amount that staff are paid um for the additional minutes and actually the uh extended counter because staff are paid on that contractually. Our contract states that when teachers are um doing additional minutes or on these extended years, they actually get I believe 7% above their uh regular pay. Um so teachers are not getting grandfathered in. I want to make sure that that is clear. What we did share in response to
097uh one of your questions uh you know the uh the board meeting that you spoke at was the gap in pay for teachers because those teachers on the year year- round model uh traditionally would get paid around August or so. What we're doing this year is putting that front frontloading that payment so that uh they will still get paid in that first part of August because they were used to doing that on a different time, but they're not getting grandfathered in in terms of the cost that they will be paid for additional minutes if this passes. They're they aren't working those additional minutes. So, they're not getting that and that's where the savings come in. Um Mr. Christian, I don't know if you have anything else you would add there to that. Nothing else. Okay.
098So, so to be clear, I'm sorry. To be clear, when you say you're frontloading and the and teachers will continue to receive a check in August, they will receive a check, but the amount that they receive may actually be smaller. For our educators who are in an extended year or year round schedule, that extended pay schedule, the first paycheck of the year for them traditionally has been on August 5th. where our traditional our staff at traditional schools their first pay is August 20th. So if we were to uh vote to have a unified calendar and everyone's on this traditional schedule, we would normally shift everyone to that traditional pay schedule and their first pay would be August 20th instead of August 5th, creating a sense of a pay gap. Uh so someone will still receive
09924 pays over the forward year. What we're moving towards here to address that is to to for one year to maintain the current pay schedule. So so everyone will still receive their first pay on August 5th. It will follow the same pay schedule that it would as if the calendar was not unified. And then we're giving our staff a year to plan for that transition in summer of 2026. So, so just to be clear, um, the you're you're talking about a schedule in terms of when people are paid, when teachers are paid. Um, I'm asking the question of the actual amounts on those checks. Um, and I'm I'm specifically responding to the to the public commenter who said that a person may continue to have the same amount on their check. So if I if
100if I'm a teacher and if I were paid $107 last year, you're saying now that I would be paid $100 this year, the the amount is not being grandfathered. So the the additional pay for the extra minutes or the extra days would no longer be there. So there is a pay difference and we're not we're not loading pay any differently. it it's simply that the salary level for that individual that's listed in the contract would be paid starting on August 5th just as it would in a prior year. It would pay over the course of 24 pays into the following summer and there would be no longer the extra days payment or the extra minutes payment. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Shredar. Any other questions? Mr. Bilips. Thank you so much. Um I I have
101a few questions. Um the first thing I kind of wanted to uh ensure that everyone understands what happens if um what what exactly does fiscal precaution means if the district isn't able to uh say you know deal with the $150 million deficit. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. Um so fiscal precaution, there are two steps that districts can be designated. Fiscal precaution and fiscal watch. Last year when I stepped in uh as CEO, if we did not make the cuts and had to submit a state deficit, we were actually in fiscal precaution when I walked in as CEO. We were in fiscal precaution. We had to submit a state deficit reduction plan showing how we were going to make those cuts. When we met when we met with the state, the state said that these had
102to be actual cuts. They couldn't be things that the district said, "Oh, we're going to cut this or we're going to uh close schools and not actually follow through on it." So that's why last year in our state deficit reduction plan, it didn't include things like closing schools. It didn't include things that we weren't going to do because they had to be realistic cuts. As we go into November and present our 5-year forecast, if we do not make the cuts that we need to make uh around, you know, uh this proposal around building brighter futures, we will be in fiscal precaution. And if you get through fiscal precaution and fiscal watch, uh you could be at risk of the uh district being taken over by the state. Uh there are districts in our uh state
103that ha are taken over by the state and are on emergency watch. Uh CMSD has been taken over by the state before and this is not a time that we would want that to happen. Um in any time do we want that to happen but let alone now we do not want that to happen. We've made so much progress over the Cleveland plan. We've done so much work. The community has invested. So, it is our responsibility, fiscal responsibility, but our responsibility to our kids that we have a fiscally sound district and that we have books that are together and um so it's really important just like when you're balancing your budget in your your own home, but in our case, we have a a responsibility to the state that we have a balanced budget that
104we're in the black uh and that we do not fall into fiscal watch or precaution. It is really serious. And when we submit those uh five-year forecasts twice a year, we're about to do it in May. Um but when we do it in November, that'll be for the upcoming fiscal year. That's when we have to show we'll be in the black for the next three years. Thank Thank you, Dr. Morgan. I also a couple weeks ago, our board adopted goals and guard rails. um some some people, you know, believe that our goals are are pretty strong um as far as what our our students can do. I I kind of want to know and you you've already kind of touched on this in your presentation, but I I just want to be very clear on
105the record that potential changes to the calendar, we will still work to achieve the goals that we adopted. Yes, we will work to achieve those goals and we've made progress and like we we have pockets of excellence. I'm so proud of those schools that are three star plus. But even with the three star plus and our rating as a district is a three star. Let's be clear, our achievement is still two star. Early literacy, we're one star. We're about to have a new measure on the state report card this year for college and career readiness. One of our schools with our highest graduation rate over 90% is a school that is it's 20% on that rubric with the state. We're not where we need to be and with that onear rating that alone and that's
106a new measure that'll be on the report card. That alone jeopardizes our three star rating. So even with the progress we made we have a long way to go. We must celebrate that and celebrate the progress that we've made. But we also must think about new strategies and we must push ourselves because we have kids that if we don't get it right for them, if we don't provide the opportunities for them, the opportunities aren't there. And we've shared this with building brighter futures and there's so many kids then when the opportunities are not there for post-secary for rigorous education, the options on the street are not um good options for them. And so uh we must live into those rigorous goals. And you know, I know during the discussion there were some that said, "Are
107these too ambitious?" They may be ambitious, but our kids deserve us to go deserve for them for us to go hard for them. Um, they they need and deserve an excellent education, and we must think about how we provide that for all. Thank you. And I I have one more question if I can. Um, and I I'm glad, Dr. Morgan, that you pointed out how difficult this is, uh, you know, for for this whole situation. And I I just wanted to reiterate or ask you to reiterate that programs like the civics 2.0 that the young people spoke about today. Um they spoke multiple people spoke about their work on gun violence prevention in our city. Um I I believe Dr. uh Stokes also spoke about uh the trauma that our young people experience um and
108that our uh uh teachers and every everyone has to experience. I I kind of am asking um even with any changes potentially to the calendar that we will still be able to support our young people being involved in civics and and all the different opportunities that they have um to do the the beautiful work that they do. Yes, Civics 2.0 is a program we invested in this year. It's in our budget for next year. We'll continue to invest in it and you see that as um demonstrated by our brilliant kids that spoke tonight. So there's no change in the civics 2.0 programming. Any other questions or discussion? Dr. Shrear, I have a comment. Um I I I wrote down something that I'm going to read. Um it it is the board's role to set direction
109for the district and it is a district leadership's role to implement strategy in order to make progress towards that direction. This board has begun this direction setting work in the form of the goals and guardrails that board member Phillips just mentioned that we adopted at our last meeting. Over the course of the next several months and years, we will reshape how the board spends its times time in these meetings in public with the aim of openly discussing the strategies and tactics that will get to the get the district to a point where we can all be proud of the outcomes we deliver for our students. Reducing the amount of time students are in school seems like a counterintuitive action to take when faced with the goal of delivering better outcomes for students, families, and the
110community. I've struggled with this decision quite a lot. I know that my colleagues on the board have as well. In the end, however, I see this decision of unifying calendars as a first step toward implementing real change in Cleveland schools. The financial impact of this decision is driven entirely by effects on adults, on educators who work in these buildings. But as part of implementing this decision, I see the district leadership also taking on and hopefully owning the responsibility of ensuring that any negative impacts on students is mitigated to the largest extent possible. As we enter the phase of monitoring the district's progress towards achieving the goals set by the board while ensuring that the guardrails are not violated, I want to see open discussion at board meetings on a regular basis that carefully monitors the
111impact of unifying calendars on students. Dr. Morgan, you've mentioned several times in your public remarks, including today many times, that there are pockets of excellence sprinkled across CMSD. Some of these pockets of excellence exist in precisely these schools that we are altering. I ask that as you as you implement this change, your team play pays close attention to ensuring that any such pockets of excellence are in fact preserved and more importantly replicated in the rest of the district. As a board member, I am going to support your recommendation and it is our job to hold you accountable to that. Thank you, Dr. Shredar. Any other questions or comments? Um, Dr. Morgan, I had a question and then a comment. You you spoke to preserving programs, ensuring that programs like the ones our Davis students shared
112are still able to be implemented. And of course, we have similar programs in other schools, not quite uh the same with some of the individualization of the school's theme. But um you know, I know that I've pushed you on this point in particular. Uh I also wanted to ask you about IB international balorate programs. I myself went to an IB school. I thought it was a wonderful experience. I didn't have extra time to do that. Um and I wanted to check that that's still the case that um you know schools don't actually typically need extra time in order to be an international balorate school. Is that still correct? That is correct. Even in our um district, we have a we have a uh IB school that does not have the same time as one um
113does. uh IB is the approach and the the pedagogical approach. Um one that I'm I'm a huge fan of. Um and I'm glad that we have that programming within our our system. And so it's really about preserving the programming even with the con uh the constraints of of the time and as you think about how it's implemented across the country um it varies in terms of the time implemented. Thank you Dr. Morgan. Um and then you know my final comment is really on behalf of the board but to the community around these changes. It's never my intention or the board's intention to make things harder for students or educators. Right? And when we make decisions that are unpopular, we each of us has to look each of you in the face. Some of you in
114the in the audience I know and I'm going to have to see you this year, next year, right? And I'm looking at you, Nigel, but um our neighbors, our family members, the children of our of our friends, sometimes our own children, right? And we don't consider it just business. We don't take it lightly and we have to consider every student in the district and the way that we implement perhaps new strategies that require a shift in order to have a longer term impact for all of our students who we are responsible to. Um and those students you not all of our families have the luxury of moving and leaving the district and so we have to serve them no matter what. And Dr. Morgan has is in the unfortunate position of having to answer my
115phone calls at any time that I call or text him and he has heard from this board. He has um him and his team have put together, you know, additional content, additional presentations to make sure that we are addressing what we hear from you. And I'm really thankful to everybody who has given public comment today and at our past meetings, who has sent us emails, who has stopped us in the street, who has chatted us with us on the weekend. Um, every single board member on here has has heard from folks in their circles and we do take that in. We bring that back and as Dr. Shrear said, we support our CEO, but we hold him accountable and that's our job. Um, in the next segment, we'll be hearing from um, our consultants at
116the Council of the Great City Schools about goal monitoring in particular, and this board is getting trained on that because it is important for us to adequately monitor the progress of the district and what's working and what's not. And so every vote that this board makes is made with not hope but with the informed position that it will have a positive impact on the long-term academic outcomes of our district and our students within it. Are there any other comments? I just want to say that I echo the sentiments of my fellow board members and and full support and want to commend um Dr. Morgan for the work that he's put into this to make sure that what our decision is studentbased and it is an equitable decision for all of our students. Thank you, Miss
117Peak. Dr. Morgan, any additional information or comment? All right, hearing no further discussion, Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role? Miss Alakod, yes. Mr. Phillips, yes. Mr. Briggs, yes. Miss Jones, yes. Pastor Jones, yes. Mrs. Lebron, yes. Mrs. Peak, yes. Dr. Shrear, yes. Mrs. Welsh How? Yes. Motion passes with nine votes. The resolution is adopted. Next. Is Mr. Crarville here in the room yet? Okay. Next, I'm pleased to welcome AJ Crarville, the director of governance at The Council of the Great City Schools brings together 78 of the nation's largest public urban school systems and it's a coalition dedicated to the improvement of education for children in our inner cities. AJ Crayville is the director of governance for the Council of the Great City Schools where he leads schoolboard supports for the nation's largest urban
118school systems and improving student outcomes is we all know the board knows his relentless passion that he has worked with our board on for the last year and a half along with his team um to support us in learning about student outcomes based governance, implementing student outcomes based governance and changing the way we operate as a board when it comes to student outcomes focused governance. Um, today Mr. Crarville is going to be uh delivering a training in public for our board on student outcomes focused governance goal monitoring. Mr. Crayville, welcome to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Thank you for having me and thank you for engaging uh in professional development this evening. I realize it's Can we check your mic? That mic is Hello. Hello. Do I just need to be closer to it? Can
119we get the volume up on the mic? Mic check. Mic check. Is that better? It's okay. I just want to make sure that it's okay. So, can folks in the audience hear? Are you guys I think my mic Can you hear in the back? Okay. I can't hear. No, I can't. Yeah, I can't hear. Now my mic's off. It was just on. Hello. Hello. Hello. Whoa. Oh, there you are. Hello. Got me. Can I get my mic turned on? Is it working? Okay. Over to you, AJ. Uh, thank you for, uh, having us. I'm joined this evening with one of another member of our coaching team. Uh, are you gonna hang out over there? Okay, Carol. So, Carol is uh one of our members of our coaching team. She is sending out an email to
120you now. Uh, we already sent some documents to you. Um, but we want them at the top of your inbox because you'll need them uh to pull up your devices. Also, whoever is controlling the monitor will probably put the documents up there. Um, first, I just want to say thank you for engaging in professional development. I realize for some it seems odd for a public body to engage in professional development during one of your public meetings. We actually recommend this one. It demonstrates a sense of humility that you are on the constant learning pathway that you expect all of the adults in your organization to be on that you are not above that yourselves. but also it helps provide critical information for members of your community to have an understanding of what are some of
121the things that you're doing to create accountability in this organization for the well-being of your children. Um, and so that's why we engage not merely in professional development, but why we encourage doing so in public. And so, uh, thank you for taking that task on this evening. Uh, the conversation is about monitoring progress towards your goals. the goals or what you adopt that say this is what our community says that our children must know and be able to do and it is unacceptable for a school board to simply trust that the superintendent and team are accomplishing that as the community's representatives you have obligation to verify on a monthly basis that there is in fact being progress made for students. uh that conversation, the constant monthly check-in to figure out are we moving the needle
122for children, we refer to as goal monitoring. And that is the nature of tonight's training is to talk about what are effective practices in boards monitoring goals as a way of holding the superintendent in the school system accountable for actually serving children. Uh to do this well, there is a document called effective goal monitoring. You've been sent it before. Uh many of you I know have already received it because you've submitted questions about it. Um if you want to go ahead and check your email and open that document up uh that will be necessary for this evening's work. Do you have that? Excellent. AJ, we want to make sure that um the document can also be loaded for the public if possible. Yeah. Who is controlling the screen so we can Dr. Morgan is checking
123on that? Excellent. Um, and also any documents like this that we share with you, we strongly encourage attach them to board docs as well. Uh, so they're publicly available. Um, if folks in your community want to understand what you're doing, that is that is all to the better because then they can be part of holding accountable uh the work that you all are doing. Um, so what I'll ask you to do is start u by uh reading just the very first section of that document. U so take a moment I know most of you have already seen it. take a moment to read over that real quick of what is goal monitoring just that very first section and then we'll talk about it here in a moment So, as you read this first section, what
124is goal monitoring? Um, what's the uh something specific in that very first section, just those first two paragraphs? What's something that jumps out at you about this idea of goal monitoring? So the first thing we'll do is we'll we'll talk through some of the concepts and then we'll practice some of the concepts and uh so as you read through the section about what is goal monitoring what are some of the what are some of the ideas uh that jump out at you avoiding uh a revolving door of initiatives and silver bullets and making sure that um initiatives and strategies are deliberately planned against schools and then assessed and monitored. Yeah, absolutely. Um good things happen for children uh by intention, not by accident. Uh particularly at scale. Uh and so there's an insistence that that
125we're not doing things haphazardly. We're having a strategy. Uh we're declaring upfront here's what we're going to create for children and then we execute and then we monitor to figure out are we in fact creating that for children. Yeah. Uh who else in that first uh section about what is goal monitoring? What jumped out at you? I think the thing that uh struck me most is that we have to agree upon what the outcomes look like, what data we're using to to make sure that the student outcomes what we predicted in our goals. Yeah. being clear as a group in advance of saying here's what success for our children looks like and then ravenously pursuing that as opposed to every day waking up and it being something different like that doesn't actually set the school
126system up for success in serving children. It just leaves people confused. Um and so having that clarity of saying here's what the vision is and ravenously pursuing it as an important part of this. And they say that you know without a where there is no vision what happens this is what happens. Um and so it's the jobs board to declare on behalf of the community what is the vision and then to constantly constantly look to identify are we in fact moving closer to it. Yeah. Anyone else? What jumped out at you? This this first section is that the first paragraph? think the idea that um goal monitoring is a conversation, a continuous conversation between the superintendent and the board to make sure that progress is happening. Yeah, this is a conversation between uh the superintendent
127of the board. I know often there are like attorneys serving on school boards, they think this is a cross-examination. Uh but you know, that's not what this is. It's actually a conversation. And when you think about it, the the way I encourage boards to think about this conversation is what's the conversation you'd want to happen between teachers and principles about student performance in the classroom. Uh it's that type of colleial discussion that absolutely looks directly at what is the data saying about what's working not working for our children u and what is our response. So we taught little AJ this on Monday. uh the data suggests he didn't get it. So, okay, what are we going to do differently on Thursday? Uh that but that's a that's a conversation. That's not an interrogation of teachers.
128That's not putting them down, that's not denigrating. Um but it is really looking at what is real for our children and then expecting there to be responsiveness for that. In the same way that that's the nature of the conversation you'd expect between your teachers and principles, that's the nature of the conversation between the board and the superintendent. Uh that you will press for reality. uh that you will not hide, you will not sugarcoat, uh we will look for what is real for children. Uh but we do so in a way that demands what's possible for children, not that tries to destroy uh the staff in the process. Uh anyone else, what jumped out at you about this first section? What is goal monitoring? Um the what's jumping out at me u both in this as
129well as all the preparation that you've helped us go through is is the is the is the public conversation, right? that is that this conversation you're talking about between the board and the CEO happens in front of people, right? I mean, you know, you look at our setting where we're all sitting next to each other in a line with microphones in front of us. um we're talking, you know, we're we're set up as though we are um talking to the public, but but really this is a conversation that happens amongst us in public that we are able to ask questions of the CEO and the CEO can respond to those those questions and also engage in conversation about what's working and what's not working so that people can actually see for themselves. Yeah, this the
130monitoring process as we describe it uh for the board is actually a micro evaluation of the superintendent. So every month you're taking one slice of the community's vision and saying show me the receipts of what we've done and what's worked and what hasn't worked. Every single month you're doing a public-f facing micro evaluation of the superintendent. Uh this is in complete contrast to most school systems where the public has no insight whatsoever into uh any evaluative dialogue between the board and the superintendent. In this case, the community has a front row seat to that literally every single month of a small slice. Now you take small slices because the intention is to go deep into each individual area, not just have it be surfaced. Like you really want to harvest an understanding about what's working
131and not working for our students and what is the superintendent and their team's response. And so you take a small slice every single month and really dig into it. Uh but that but the unique aspect is absolutely the community gets to witness that. Um and and so there's always this transparency, this clarity that happens that frankly simply doesn't happen in most school systems. Uh any other reflections before we transition? I I think it's important uh in the discussion if uh the goals aren't being met to understand why uh and not only understand why but what's being done about it to uh correct the situation and not not having gotchas with the superintendent but helping him to u identify the issues and solutions to those problems. Yeah, this section implies essentially a threepart test that you're
132doing at every monitoring. The first is does reality, you know, match the vision? Uh we've said that this is the vision of the community, the goals. Does the reality for our children actually match that? Are our children where we want them to be academically? And if that's not the case, then so be it. But then the the next question is is do we at least see growth in the direction of the vision? are are we seeing students grow such they will that they will make the progress necessary to achieve the vision? And if and if we don't see that yet, then the third question is does the superintendent have a plan that's sufficiently aggressive to cause growth to get to proficiency. Um and so it's not just a one quick simple view. It is this
133really in-depth layered understanding of what is happening, what's working, what's not working. uh and where we don't yet see proficiency, do we see growth? Where we don't yet see growth, do we see a strategy that is sufficiently aggressive to help students catch up to where we expect them to be. Um but that that is a much more detailed look at what's working, what's not working, and what is the response to that evidence uh than just a cursory glance at um at data that comes out once a month. Uh any other reflections before we transition about what is goal monitoring or why we might do it? Any other reflections before we transition? I would say think oh oh go ahead. I would say is this a process of uh thinking more critically critically critiquing critically analyzing
134the process um in a more of a a critical lens of uh being serious and sincere about your expectations. Yeah. Yeah. is it's it's not enough to have expectations and then hope that they will work out. That you have to examine those expectations on a recurring basis with a critical lens to identify where are we not yet living up to our full aspirations and and what are we going to do about that? Uh looking at where we're not yet living up to it not as a condemnation but as an opening for action. uh or as we often say uh you know that sometimes a setback is a is a setup for a comeback. But if but if we're not actually willing to investigate what is it that set us back in the first place uh
135then we can't have a meaningful com conversation about what the comeback's going to look like. Uh yes ma'am. I'm good. Thank you. Um the next So we've talked a little bit about why you would monitor. I want to get into some of the mechanics of it. uh and then ultimately actually have you practice developing uh some questions uh that get at it. The next section I want you to jump down to is called effective monitoring reports because the mechanic of monitoring the way it will happen each month is you will tell the superintendent in advance on a calendar here's exactly when we want you to report out on which part of our goals and so then each month the superintendent will bring you the slice of their goals that you've asked for in the form
136of a monitoring report. But I want to make sure that you know what to look for uh what is quality and what is not quality in that report back from your superintendent. So take a moment and review the section called effective monitoring reports. There's a little paragraph and there's just four indicators of an effective monitoring report. Check that out for a moment and then we'll talk about it. I just want to note for everyone that the document we're reviewing is now available on board docs. So, as you can see in the document, there are four elements of an effective monitoring report. But before we get into those four elements, what happens if the superintendent shows up with a monitoring report that is lacking in any of these four elements of a quality monitoring report? What
137should the board do in that circumstance? Postpone the discussion. Yeah, you definitely don't proceed. If you don't have the basic information you need to have a real and meaningful and transparent conversation about student performance, then don't fake it by having a pretend conversation that lacks the fundamental tools. Simply pro postpone it as superintendent, this this ain't quite ready for prime time. Uh you and your team, circle it up, get this together, and then uh we'll bring this back. And so that has to be the response is you have to look with discernment of do we have the information we need to engage in effective monitoring conversation. What is the first item and why do you think it matters? Uh who will share what's the first item in an effective monitoring report and why does it
138matter that this be present? So I I think that it's uh I think that it's very important to be very specific so that everyone is on on the same page as far as exactly what we're talking about um from the very start. Yeah. The the first item is the goal and it's important that we be specific about what exactly are we looking at so that we're all on the same page from the start. I have watched in board meetings where there has not been clarity about what the monitoring report. didn't mention what the goal was is being monitored. And so the conversation was all over the place and we never actually dug into you know as little AJ actually learned more uh over this last period or not you know the conversation wondered because there
139wasn't that level of specificity. That's why the first the first criteria effective monitoring report is actually tell us what goal is being monitored. It sounds trivial but sadly I've watched people wander in the wilderness without getting clarity about that. What's the second uh necessary element of an effective monitoring report and why does that matter? The data. Why do you need data? So that you can assess whether you're achieving progress towards the goal or not. This can't be about my opinion of performance. It can't be about your opinion of performance. It can't be about his opinion of performance. It can't be about their opinion of performance. It's the data is the data. We actually have to know, do we have evidence? Do we have receipts that show to the extent to which our children are growing?
140And when they're growing, great. What worked? U let's have a conversation about how do we grow that? Where has it worked? Great. What didn't work? Now we know that. What's the pivot? And and and when is that going to come online? Uh but you but the grounding element of that has to be actual data and not data that's cherrypicked, not data that's sugar-coded, the data that is agreed upon long long in advance. This is part of why you have a monitoring calendar because you will declare essentially five years out. Here's the exact data in the exact month. And so when the month comes, we're not looking for new data. We're this is the data we always said we're going to look at. And the data is the data. And if it shows that things are
141growing, great. If it shows that things are flatlining, great. If shows that things are declining, great. What are we going to do in response to the data then becomes the heart of the conversation? The data has to be present and it can't be new data that we've made up in the moment. It has to be the data that the board and the superintendent agreed on far in advance. What's the third element and why does it matter? And by the way, this is probably the trickiest one in the list. What's the third element of effective monitoring report and why does it matter? the interpol. Go ahead. No, no, I was going to say the interpretation keeps us on the same page. It keeps us um focused on the conversation that matters. Um the interpreting um shows
142uh that we all understand and especially the superintendent understands uh the process. Yeah. Has an understanding what the data means. Uh you're about to come off mute so I'll pick on you. Uh why do we need the interpreta the superintendent's interpretation with the of what the data means if we already have the data? Well, because if the interpretation that the superintendent makes is different than what the board intended it for it to be, then we might be going along two tracks that are not going to meet at some point. Yeah. The reality is the superintendent knows things and sees things uh that the board just doesn't. And so it may be that the data in the monitoring report tells one story, but the superintendent knows in a more holistic picture. Actually, that shows that things
143are looking great. Let me explain to you why I don't actually think things are great. I I think things are slightly off. Or conversely, this shows that we're declining heavily. Let me share with you why I I actually don't think that's the case. I think we have some data anomalies. Here's why I think we're actually on track. It's important for you as a board to know what does your chief executive believe about system performance. uh does the superintendent say, "Yep, we're doing well. No, we're declining." And it also gives you an opportunity to have a sense of can my chief executive meaningfully and accurately predict the trajectory of this organization because if a chief executive can, that gives you a lot more confidence about their leadership and and their ability to make decisions in alignment
144with the future they predicted. And if they can't, then frankly, that's a little bit worrisome. And so there is value in knowing not only what does the data say, that's the second element, but the third element is what's the superintendent's interpretation. What does the CEO say this actually means relative to overall system performance? And then what is the fourth element of an effective monitoring report? And why does it matter? The evidence and plan, the evidence and a plan. Why why does the superintendent need to show us evidence and a plan? Well, I have this model uh planning for success and we we all know that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. You plan to fail. And so just having a plan without uh the previous uh data that you had, looking at
145where you were, where you want to be, and then how do you get there, and what are the steps and techniques that needs to be in place? And then like we've already discussed, where are some of those points that you make sure that you are on the same track and not somewhere else? And then h if so, how do you get back? Yeah. Because we know there's still going to be challenges along the way. And they need to be addressed as they come. not way back here. You know, as you uh see them, you kind of stop that plan and just say if we need to regroup, let's regroup, but we're not going to go down the road that's not going to get us to where we want to be. Absolutely. You know, in a
146school system of this size, at all times, there's going to be areas where students are exactly where we want them to be and students who aren't quite where we want them to be. I this is just going to be a reality of a school system of your size. Uh had you had the wisdom to be in the leadership of a school system that only had like a 100 kids, maybe not so much. But you chose large. And one of the fundamental characteristics of that is there's just a lot of variation in student performance and what students needs are. And this is your opportunity to see is the superintendent's plan durable enough to be responsive to that diversity of need. Uh and and so you want to hear that from the superintendent. You want to get
147that clarity that yeah, there's a lot going on here. Is your plan sufficiently aggressive to be responsive to the the virgin sets of needs that our students are experiencing? You absolutely it's incomplete to not give you some insights into the plan. Now all that said, the monitoring uh even though all four of these things have to be present, how long do we recommend monitoring reports be? should be brief. Brief. We We have an indication of brief. Uh how brief do we recommend they be? One to five pages. Yeah. One to five pages. Because the superintendent not only has to provide all four of these things, but should be able to provide it in language that is accessible to all of your community. Um and in a format and brevity that's accessible to all of your
148community. This shouldn't be some 90page document that people have to have a PhD to be able to wade through. Anybody should be able to pick this up, look at it. It's like, okay, for this area of our goals, I can see exactly where we are, what's working, what's not working, what the plan is. It should be that available, that transparent to anyone in the community, not not just y'all, and certainly not just the staff. And so, those are the four elements of an effective monitoring report. Any question about effective monitoring reports before we transition? Questions or comments about effective monitoring reports before we transition? All right. So then the next piece of this is once you are in the meeting, the superintendent's handed you the monitoring report. Now the next step is your job is
149to really ask questions to dive into it. And the nature of the conversation during the monitoring between the board and the superintendent is this is an inquiry. is that board members, your job is to ask questions to really get gain a deeper understanding of what is going on with student performance and the superintendent's plans around student performance. And the superintendent's job is to to be able to answer those questions. Uh but to do that, the questions really can't just be random. Uh they they need to be highly effective questions. And so what we offer you next, if you scroll all the way down, uh there's a section uh called monitoring conversation evaluation rubric. Uh, and what it's looking at is kind of how would we know if the questions that we're asking are really effective
150questions that going to help us get at what are the lessons to learn from the data? What's the truth and reality for students and and what is what is there to learn from and what's being done about it? That all of that emerges uh from questions. So, what we'll what we're going to invite you to do um is uh take a moment to reflect on these. We're going to talk through each of these five criteria for effective questions and then we'll spend the rest of our time together uh practicing this. Uh you you'll have you draft some questions that are highly effective. Um and just for fun, we'll also have you draft some questions that are highly ineffective. Uh and we'll dissect that so you have a sense of kind of what quality and non-quality
151looks like in a monitoring conversation. Uh but first, let's go through the five indicators. So the first indicator of effective monitoring questions is that they be strategy focused. Why should the board focus on strategy during board meetings rather than on technical and tactical issues during the board meetings? Why why is the standard of effectiveness in a monitoring conversation that the board is having these higher level strategic conversations rather than lower level tactical conversations? Why do you think that is? Well, that superintendent is uh charged with the responsibility of the tactical and um um understanding the strategy and uh implementing through his very tactics um as his uh his um with his staff and so on. So, it's um it's not the board's position, I don't think, to be involved with the tactical aspects of it.
152This this demonstrates an insight that a lot of people miss. Your CEO is not hired to be a tactician. Your CEO is hired to be a a strategist, the chief strategist for your organization. You you are not if your superintendent knew every single detail about every single thing happening in every single classroom in every school in the building. That would be a huge problem for you because the time they took to know all of that and to be into all of that would means they didn't spend time doing what? Their job. They were so busy doing everybody else's job and being the tactical level that they didn't do what you actually hired them to do which is to be available at the strategic level. So you actually don't expect your superintendent to be a tactician
153to have insights into all the tactical level things. For that reason, it doesn't make sense to ask tactical level questions during monitoring. And so, effective questions during the monitoring conversations are questions that are at the strategic level, not at the tactical level. Uh, and the the standard we usually apply to that is strategic questions are really trying to figure out what is the alignment between the overall actions that we're trying to engage in and our likelihood of accomplishing the goal. And if the questions are in that genre, we think of them as strategic questions. If the questions are more about who's doing what um and uh kind of what is the science behind this particular metric, all those sort those sort of things, those are more tactical and tactical questions. It's very appropriate for you
154to ask those. It's very appropriate because you will need to ask technical and tactical questions. But our coaching is to ask those before the board meeting so that you already have that information available so that during the board meeting you can focus on strategic questions. And so to the extent that you look at a monitoring report because you should receive these hopefully 3 to 7 days in advance, hopefully earlier than that uh that you can submit all of your technical and tactical questions early so that you already have those in mind so that when you are here at this table you can focus on strategic questions. Uh Mr. superintendent. Uh if you get tactical level questions uh here at the board table, our coaching for you is to graciously write that down um and let
155your board know, hey, uh we will get that information for you. We'll send it out in the next Friday update. Uh it's important to us that you get all of your technical and tactical questions answered, but I want them answered accurately. So, I'm not going to try to answer them right here. Uh I'm going to make sure that we get the right answer for you and send that out to you, but I wouldn't try to deal with those in the moment. That's that's how I'd encourage you to respond. Now, sometimes, frankly, CEOs are really horrible about this. So, Madam Chair, uh would you hear a tactical question from your colleagues? Our coaching for you would be to actually disrupt that and say, "Hey, Mr. CEO, could you write that down and send that out to
156us uh in your next Friday update? Uh who has the next question?" That's how we'd encourage you to uh to address that. If you hear non-strategic questions offered during monitoring, other questions or reflections about questions being strategic as part of effective monitoring. So after we talk about them being strategic, the next indicator is that they're measure focused that that the questions actually be focused on data that's actually in the monitoring report. Why is it important that your questions be measure focused? That they be focused on data that's actually in the monitoring report. Why is that an important indicator? Otherwise, we're just speculating. Yeah. Yeah. We could just be speculating. We're just making it up. Hey, look, uh, I was on Twitter page and I heard this, that, and the third, and so let's talk about
157it. Okay. Well, that that's not actually helping us dive into what is the evidence of what's happening for children right now and what is the administration's response to it. Um, and so instead of going off on random data uh that we've got from wherever else from the monitoring conversation, let's focus on this. If you have questions about what's happening out in the me social media verse, ask those questions. Our coaching will be just ask those before the board meeting so you can get those answers before the board meeting, but it's not an appropriate set of questions to ask in a monitoring conversation that you'd really want it to be measure focused that it's focused on the data that's in the monitoring report. The next standard is to be askoriented. That you ask questions that are
158open-ended rather than yes no questions or multiple choice questions. Why do you think it's important to ask to be askoriented rather than it be offering yes no questions? Why is that important in a monitoring conversation? You need to be specific. Say what? You need to be specific. It creates opportunity for the superintendent to be specific. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Anybody else? Why do you want to ask offer open-ended questions rather than yes no questions? Anybody else? You get the complete because you get a better Say what? You get the complete picture. Yeah. If you ask open-ended questions, you're more likely going to get a complete picture. If you ask the yes no question, Mr. Superintendent, uh, was this a good strategy? Yes or no? Yes. Yeah. That's what we get. Now, you don't know nothing new
159that you didn't already know. Of course, he thought it was an effective strategy. Otherwise, it's already here. you don't know anything more because you didn't ask anything more. That's not him being a fool, that's you being a fool. And so, the thing to do is ask open-ended questions rather than yes, no questions is a effective part of monitoring, right? And if there are some of the challenges or the bumps in the road that gives that um the superintendent an opportunity to, you know, to expound or explain or even if there's good news or maybe maybe ahead of the game. So, it just just allows for a more vibrant, you know, exchange of information. Yeah, absolutely. That that more vital, that more vibrant, that more accurate exchange of information. Absolutely. Absolutely. Uh the next indicator is
160results focused. Is the conversation focused on understanding the data or is the conversation focused on offering opinions uh and blame? Why is it matter that the board's conversation be results focused on really understanding what the monitoring report is saying and what's true for children and what's true about the strategies rather than be focused on offering opinions, offering suggestions or offering blame. Why does that matter? We're trying to get to a solution to the goal. Yeah. And so the whole conversation should be going in that direction. Um, we saw the example of the CEO tonight when faced with a conundrum of issues, he stayed focused and gave his report that was clear and concise. Um, that guided us to a point that that gives us hope, gives us an inspected end. Yeah. The reality of how
161this works is that in a school system, most of the easy decisions are made by somebody not in this room. uh that really the nature of school boards and the CEO role is that the some of the most challenging, some of the most gut-wrenching decisions are reserved specifically for y'all. That is just the nature of the job. And if you don't like it, there's a door. Uh the to be in these seats is to make hard calls. That's just the nature of the job. Um, and so to be in that conversation and come from a spirit of blame, to be in that conversation and come from a spirit of shame, to be in that conversation, you know, and to offer opinions rather than try to seek to understand, doesn't actually honor the whole job that
162you've signed up for. Uh, if you can do that, then this is the place for you. Um, if your leadership must be typified by blame and shame, then honestly, you're not going to be effective for children. save the spot for you uh that that the conversation actually has to be results focused not opinion and blame focused. And then the final indicator is time bound. And what this is saying is are the questions looking backwards at where we've come from or are the questions predominantly looking forward at where we're going in monitoring. If the task is monitoring, should we be spending most of our time looking back at how we got here or looking forward at what the next steps are? Most of it's looking back. Why? Why is the majority of the monitoring conversation analyzing
163how we got here rather than just immediately jumping into what happens next? Because that's the data that's being presented to us. Like we have data on what has happened. Yeah. Yeah. If your superintendent provides you hard data on what's going to happen next week, be suspicious. Like the data that you have is necessarily data about how we got here and that's what you're analyzing. You don't have data for next week. You don't have data for next month. You don't have data for next year. And so the conversation really needs to be grounded in what where are we? How do we get here? And and if we don't understand the path that brought us here, then any strategy that we talk about about what happens next is necessarily unmed by the reality of how we got
164here. We're likely just to repeat mistakes of the past. It's absolutely essential that your conversation be time bound so that we can spend time understanding. The majority of probably 80 90% of the conversation is looking backwards and understanding where did we start where are we now and how did we get here and what happened what worked what didn't work and uh and what are we doing in response to that and then only at the tail end of the conversation so the last 10 20% of the conversation really be looking okay so now grounded in the wisdom of understanding the path that brought us to here uh the last you let's use the last you know 10 minutes of this meeting uh let's talk about here's here's what's going to happen next uh here here the
165next things the board needs to take on. Uh here are the next things the CEO needs to take on. Um we put it all together. These five indicators you being strategy focused, measure focus, ask oriented, results focused, time bound. These are the five indicators we use to help you evaluate are the questions you're asking in the monitoring conversation. Are are they really setting you up to be effective or not? Uh what questions or reflections do you have on this rubric for effective monitoring conversations? In a moment, we're going to try this out. We're going to have you actually write some develop some questions. Uh but before we get into that, any other questions you have about any of the elements of effective monitoring questions? I don't have a question just but you did say also
166reflections. Um I think that although we've learned all about this for some time and you know uh we've been at it, this is going to be a hard shift. like I can imagine or understand why many boards don't adopt this approach. It's a it's a tough change to make and I think now when you ask us to start doing it as as a practice it's going to be interesting to see. Yeah. Uh this really intentional approach to one monitoring the progress of our students and two trying to do so effectively does take a it takes a lot of a discipline. It's it's often different than what we're used to. Um and so maybe I don't like this because you now I got to change my behavior and I don't feel like I like change. When
167other people change, I don't like to change. Uh but so this this does require discipline. It it isn't designed for your ease or comfort. It is designed for the greatness of your children uh for you to actually be able to stand up for them uh in a more effective manner. U but yeah, it this is a shift. Part of supporting you in that shift is as your coaching team will be watching some of your board meetings when you start into this monitoring work and we will actually use this rubric to code the questions that you ask during the monitoring board and then we will send you back uh an evaluation of your monitoring conversation and it will reveal a score somewhere between 0% and 100%. Uh suggesting what was the level of effectiveness of that
168conversation. So we we'll use this and we'll actually you'll receive a spreadsheet. You'll have all your questions and they'll each be scored according to these five indicators and then you'll get a final summitive score at the end of how effective was the monitoring conversation. We generally encourage boards to try to aim to be somewhere between 80 to 100% in uh in that range for effectiveness. Uh anything north of 80 is absolutely solid. Uh you know 70 to 80 is kind of wobbly. Anything south of 70 is uh is just this was not this is not a conversation that is helping you set your students up for success. Um and so you will get that type of direct feedback from us so that you will see question by question. So you able to look at the
169question you asked and like oh well that wasn't a very it wasn't a very smart question. It wasn't very strate strategy focused measure focused ask oriented results focused timebound. It wasn't it wasn't very smart in that regard. um and as a way of helping to constantly level up your abilities to really be the representative for children that you intend to be in these conversations. Any other questions or reflections before we uh get into the practice? All right. Uh so what there is to do is to actually I'm going to have you write down you have pen and paper something to write on, something to write with. I'll ask you to actually go ahead and write down right now what is an effective question. So you've got those five indicators. You've got those five indicators. What
170you want to do is you want to go ahead and now write down what's an example of an effective question. Uh so imagine the superintendent brings you a monitoring report uh and it's talking about uh literacy. It's talking about your students ability to read. uh go ahead and practice writing down what is a question you might ask that would be strategy focused as opposed to tactical in nature. There would be measure focused rather than coming up with your own data. That would be askoriented. That's an open-ended question rather than a yes no question. That's results focused. That's really trying to understand the data, understand the report uh rather than assigning blame or and then that's time bound. That's really kind of looking backwards trying to understand how we got here rather than just uh immediately
171jumping to what happens next. take a moment and try to write a sample question you might ask a superintendent uh about the uh a monitoring report about student literacy. Uh you'll have to just invent that for yourself, but you've had enough conversations about student literacy this day if you you got some ideas about what that might sound like. Go ahead and write down a what's a question you might ask the superintendent during the monitoring conversation that meets all five of these indicators. Uh take a few moments and practice it out. Uh, and Carol and I can circulate and uh, if you have any questions, we can help you out. And then in a few moments, uh, we'll try some of these out. I have a question about pass. without question. I ask That's true. So
172weird. I see a few of you still working on this. Uh for those of you who've already finished, you can go on to the next step, which is to practice writing an ineffective monitoring question. A question that fails all five indicators. So, you've just come up with one question that meets all five indicators. Also, practice writing a question that fails all five indicators. This is boring. I will go first. I will offer an example of an effective monitoring question, a question that tries to meet all five indicators. Um, and then I'll ask you all uh for a few examples that you all have come with. Uh, the example I'm going to use is one that I've wrote previously and it's actually the one that's on the screen. Uh, it's easy to identify. It's listed under
173effective example. uh this this document you should also have in your email as well. So you could pull up this document and follow along if you want. So um I'll read this off and then I'll just ask people to um share with me what about this question meets the various indicators. Uh so so one example is uh third grade literacy growth on page four of the monitoring report appears to be flat for group A but not for group B. Which if any of our budgeted strategies most account for that dis for that difference? Uh so the the example question you might offer is the third grade literacy growth on page four of the monitoring report appears flat for group A but not for group B. Which if any of our budgeted strategies most account for
174that district? Uh I'm asserting to you that that is strategy focused. What about that question is strategy focused? What about that question is trying to connect the dots uh between uh our actions and our vision? Yeah. you specifically not only stated the specific grade and the results, but you also talked about you you asked about the budgeted strategies. So, uh linking to a set of investments that the board and the district approved to improve this area and was really asking specifically about those strategies and how that's attributing to those results. Yeah, that that's the insight that you need to get that that that's really a strategyoriented question rather than a technical or tactical question. U why do I consider this a measure focused question? A question that's focused on uh looking at the data that's
175in the monitoring report rather than the data that's not in it. Why do I consider this a measure focused question? I I'll read the question one more time. The third grade literacy growth on page four of the monitoring report appears flat for group A but not for group B. Which if any of our budgeted strategies most account for that difference? Why do I consider that a measure focused question? Well, it references a specific metric in the data that's in the report and um specific to different student groups as well. Yeah, I'm looking at specific data that's specifically in this monitoring report and I even tell you where you can go to find it. All of that is evidence that this is a measure focused question that I that I'm drilling into what is true for
176our students as described in this monitoring report, not pulling it from somewhere else. Why do I refer to this as a askoriented question? It's a it's a at the end it's a question that will give the superintendent or the CEO an opportunity to thoroughly explain um any nuance um that may need to be you know answered. Yeah. It it it creates an open-ended conversation for the superintendent. uh it doesn't say uh CEO uh was this a a good strategy yes or no u and then we we ask a question that doesn't invite uh insight we wind up with an answer that doesn't provide insight um and so this is askoriented because it opens it up for the superintendent to to respond to what what is the larger circumstances in the school system not just answer
177a yes or no question I refer to this as results focused uh uh that's focused on understanding the data rather than offering opinions or offering blame. Why do I consider this a results focused question? As asking what accounts for the difference? I mean, it's kind of getting right down to the crux of the issue. Why why did we get this or why did we get that? What's what's the what's accounted for the difference? Yeah. As a board member, I just want to walk away from this table with a deeper understanding of what's true for my children than when I showed up. And this question is trying to get at that deeper understanding. I'm not saying who's good, who's bad, who's right, who's wrong. I'm not into any of that. I'm just trying to understand what
178is reality for my children and reality for the resources that we've deployed. Uh what effect have those had on our children in reality. Uh this is about understanding and this is a results focused question. And then finally, why do I refer to this question as time bound? It's focused on um outcomes we've already measured, not future actions. Yeah, it's focused on outcomes we've already measured, strategies we've already deployed. It's trying and figuring out why they worked or didn't work. uh and and for which group of students. Uh having a deep understanding of that definitely will inform, you know, 3 months down the road when the board has to vote on the budget, knowing what worked and didn't work will give you insights into analyzing the budget 3 months from now that the lack of that
179knowledge will leave you looking at a budget and not having any real insight into are these investments, do they still make sense or not? I see that we're still spending the same thing we did last year, but I don't know any better. Have these made a difference. But because you're monitoring each month and you're really having a results focused, timebound orientation that monitoring, you're getting an insight and what what's worked or what's not worked. Then when you look at the budget, you begin to see things that you didn't see before and you're able to ask questions about the budget that maybe you wouldn't have been able to ask before. That's part of the benefit of being timebound. All right. So that's one example. uh who will give the next example of a question uh that
180you believe meets all five of these criteria and then we'll ask your colleagues if they agree or disagree. Yeah, go for it. Dr. Morgan, thank you for presenting the data tied to our goal about literacy based on the data you presented. How do you see us progressing toward um sorry, hold on. What strategies proved to be the most effective in moving us towards the our year-end goal for our K through three students? All right. So, what I got is based on the data you presented, what strategies prove to be most effective in moving us toward our year-end goal for our K through3 students? Did I catch that correctly? All right. So colleagues, um, is that strategy focused? Yes or no? And why? Based on the data you presented, what strategies prove to be the most
181effective at moving us toward our year-end goal for our K3 students? Is that a strategy focused? Yes or no? And why? Somebody speak on it. It is. It's it's inherent in the question. Yeah. Inherent in the question is trying to evaluate uh what is the relationship uh between uh the strategies put in place and the effect on moving our students toward the vision. It's in it's inherent in the design of the question. It's absolutely strategy focused. All right. Is it measure focused? Yes or no? And why? Somewhat. Say more about somewhat. Somewhat because you know the the it's a little amorphous in terms of saying it's based on the data you presented. What specific data are we talking about? Yeah. So it does indicate in the question that is based on the data presented but
182it doesn't mention the exact data. How could you make this slightly more measure focused? I mean if you could if you say something like based on the data on I ready measures that you showed uh on on second grade reading. Yeah. Then suddenly it becomes measureful. I I'm looking at the chart on page three where it's talking about third grade literacy rates uh based on this data that you presented. um and then ask the rest of your question. That makes it uh that way none of you and also none of these folks have to guess about which data we're looking at. Uh that you know that we're really clear about that. So you know does it reference data in the report? Technically it does. But yeah, it absolutely could be a little bit sharper on
183that which will just make the conversation for you all easier because then you don't have to kind of guess or look around. You know exactly where in the monitoring report to look. Yeah. And it should reflect some improvement because if you're looking at the old which is why he's reporting it of course because there has been some improvement. So this is important part that in your will all of your monitoring reports reflect improvement and that's what I'm saying if that if that's the question she's asking. Yeah. It should be based on something that's there that would make her want to know what strategies we use because if the needle hadn't moved is no to me would be no need to ask the the question and then the other part of it that strategy may I
184would also look at the plan did we follow the plan also to get that strategy was in the plan so that we could attach the plan and the the improvement to the strategy. Yeah, you can say look, I've saw the uh evidence on, you know, page four in uh table three about third grade literacy. U and I see that we saw growth here, but we didn't see growth here. Uh what evidence do you have that the strategies that we funded have actually been implemented u in both places? Uh that would be absolutely be an appropriate type of question that you might ask that tries to get at an understanding of what is the relationship worked between funding and reality. Absolutely. What actually worked? Yes. Um, we've established that it's strategy focused, it's measure focused, uh,
185it, uh, it's askoriented, it's result focused, tiebound. Oh, I'm sorry. We've established it strategy focused, measure focused. Is this ask oriented? Is it open-ended or is it yes, no? I would I would say that that would be an open-ended question. Yeah. Um, you're asking superintendent, you know, um, you know, what what proved to be effective? That's a pretty open-ended question. Uh it's not a is what she's not asking is superintendent u I saw that you did X at school Y. Was that effective? Yes or no? That's a very different question. That's not the question she asked. The question asked you for this particular group of students, for this particular strategy, what proved to be effective? Uh that's very askoriented question. Uh is it results focused? Is it focused on understanding the data or is it
186focused on offering an opinion about the data? It's focused on understanding the data, I believe. What What would it sound like for this to be focused on offering opinion about the data rather than on understanding the data? Somebody be salty for me for a second. Could you reread it? Yeah. Based on the data you presented, what strategies prove to be the most effective in moving us toward our year- end goal for our K3 students? You were saying make it opinion based. Yeah. This is clearly results focused. It's not offering an opinion. But if it was going to if it was going to not be results focused, what might that sound like? Probably something like um the the data that you presented was I don't know was not effective. The the strategy that was used was
187not effective. Or you could say, "Do based on the data you presented, don't you think this other strategy might have been better?" Yeah. Or, "How come you ain't doing your job?" I mean, there's a bunch of ways to ask this question that don't actually help us get a deeper understanding. It might feel good. It might feel cathartic, you know, to to ask it that way, but it's not actually giving us a deeper understanding of what's actually going on for our students. it's not actually setting us up to make smarter decisions on their behalf tomorrow than we did yesterday. Um, and then finally, this is time bound uh because it really is focused on past strategies uh that have been deployed uh in pursuit of the goal. U so congratulations, thank you for going first and
188offering a question uh that meets all five and thank you for helping uh strengthening up tightening up just a little bit. Uh let's do one more and then uh we'll ask for anybody who wants to offer a question that fails all five. my favorite type of questions uh that fails all five criteria. Uh but one more uh who has one that meets all five criteria. All right, go for it. I I I think it meets all all five, but I'll try. Um I see that the third grade proficiency dropped by two percentage points on the comprehension strategy during the last I Ready assessment. What do you attribute to be the reason for this drop? And which of the strategies listed in the progress monitoring report do you believe will help us improve this data for
189the next assessment administration? All right. Third grade proficiency dropped by 2% on the last I ready. What's the reason and which strategies will help us improve? U is this strategy focused? Yes or no? Yes. Yes. Yes. Why do you say yes? What strategy will help us improve? Because one of our goals is increasing early literacy rates. So it is strategy focused in that it contributes towards that goal. Yeah. Again, for it to be strategy focused, what we're listening for is is it helping connect the dots between the adult actions that have been deployed uh and accomplishment of the community's vision for what students should know and be able to do. And when it's connecting those dots, we consider that strategy focused. Um, anything that's not doing that is either uh technical or tactical in nature,
190but not strategic in nature. Um, is this question measure focused? Yes or no? And why? Third grade profisionally dropped by 2% on the last I already. What's the reason? And which strategies will help us improve this? Drop 50%. Say what? That you mentioned drop 50%. So, yeah. So, he's pointing at specific data. He's like u and he actually, you know, mentioned a page that I didn't catch that uh but specific data about third grade and a specific drop that he's noticed of 2% for that data. Uh the uh this this is what's necessary is to get crystal clear about what is the data actually saying not kind of what what do I think it says, what do I want it to say, not do I hope reality is, but what is the real u and
191so that's why measure focused matters. Is it askoriented? Is this open-ended or yes? No. open-ended third grade proficially dropped by 2% on the last uh I ready what's the reason which strategies will help us improve is that uh uh ask orient is that open-ended or yes no question is open-ended it's open-ended um and this feels very results focused and time bound uh I'd say this meets uh all five indicators as well who has an example of a question I got I I got a question real quick. I'm I'm just thinking about the question and it in the question itself it don't necessarily refer directly to um data that was presented. I know it's not written into the question. Would it be proper to as a board during meetings to stick to data that's being presented
192during that board meeting? Yeah, this is a great point. So at some point one of you all whether intentionally or unintentionally is going to ask a question that is not smart that is not strategy focused not measure focused not askoriented not results focused not time bound u generally speaking as board chair uh or whoever is actually facilitating the conversation because it'll probably be you to start off with but we actually encourage you to rotate facilitation so other people uh have practice with facilitating the monitoring conversation. So, whoever happens to be facilitating the monitoring conversation that night, you always have to have your ears on and listening for um is this a strategy focused question? And if it's not, then you might have to interrupt and say, "Hold on, that that sounds kind of technical or
193tactical. Um I know there's a strategy question in there. Uh do you want to take a moment and uh work on that and we can come back to you?" That's the way that the facilitator of the conversation might handle that. or if it's not measure focused. Hey, I I didn't quite hear you reference specific data. Was there specific data in the report that you're referring to? And then give them a chance to uh amend their question in the moment. Uh that's generally what we'd encourage whoever is facilitating the monitoring conversation to do. Sometimes you want to give people some a little bit of time to upgrade their question. Other times you want to help them in real time fix it and then ask. Other times it'd be like, "Yeah, that's that's pretty uh that's that's
194definitely not a monitoring question. Uh but superintendent, could you write that down and get us an answer in the next Friday update?" Uh so that the board members can have that. And so whoever's facilitating, you will need to be available to support your colleagues uh to that degree while people are still leveling up because like I said, this form of inquiry, it's just going to take you a little practice. It's like anything like you got to do push-ups, you know, to get a little bit stronger. You're going to be doing push-ups on questioning uh for a while before before you get them guns ready. Uh who has an example of an ineffective question? Yes. I knew I'd excel at this one. Um it's way more fun. Isn't it true that we didn't achieve our third
195grade reading goal because you didn't put novels in all of the classrooms? Isn't it true that we did achieve our third grade literacy goal because you didn't put novels in all the classrooms? Uh, isn't it true that we didn't achieve our third grade literacy goal? Uh, because you didn't put novels in all the classrooms. Um, see strategy focused, measure focused. I didn't inherit reference any measures from the document. Um, ask oriented is definitely yes, no, isn't it true? Horrible way to start a monitoring question by the way. Horrible way. Horrible way. Well done. Um results is it focused on offering opinion? Is this question offering an opinion? Yes. What's the opinion she's offering? Then we should have had no why why didn't you you know uh my cousin sells novels. Why didn't you buy one?
196Yeah, there's clearly an opinion uh loaded in this question. Um is it time bound? Uh ask the question again. Isn't it true that we didn't achieve our third grade literacy goal because you didn't put novels in all the classrooms? Is that time bound? Is it looking backwards? It is looking it is time bound. It is in fact looking backwards at past performance. Uh for it to not be time bound, it have to be a question looking forward. How would you modify that to be looking forward? Isn't it true that students are not going to be able to learn to read if you because you didn't put class novels in the classrooms? Yeah. So now we're making espersions about the superintendent strategies long before we have any data to back it up. Uh and now this
197question truly fails all five indicators. Uh well done for your failure, ma'am. Thank you. Uh uh the example that I offer here that you see on the screen uh is since X is an effective strategy for improving student outcomes, are you going to finally do your job and provide teachers with training on it next semester? Uh again, it's not about strategy. It's not about measures in the document. It's definitely a yes no question. It's definitely opinionated and shameoriented. Um and it's definitely looking forward. It's not trying to understand what what has brought us to this point. Uh that would be an ineffective monitoring question. Uh is there one more before we transition? Anybody else come up with a truly ineffective monitoring question? Uh before we transition, one that fails all five indicators. Maybe one that
198you have heard at a previous board meeting. All right. Uh hearing none. Uh then uh let's uh take a moment um and just visit with we're going to wrap this thing up now. Take a moment visit with your shoulder partner for just a moment. Uh kind of what's one thing you learned, one thing you took away uh from this quick training about effective goal monitoring? Take a moment, visit with your shoulder partner. What's one thing you learned? One thing you'll take away from this uh monitoring conversation. Yeah, I was thinking um I was just thinking really close to their microphone. phone when they speak. Uh uh thank you. Who will be the first to share? What's one thing that you learned or you'll take away uh from this quick training on effective goal monitoring? I
199I guess I'll start. Um I I think that we agree that it's it's really really important to be prepared ahead of the meeting so that you can um ask appropriate and smart questions. Uh this preparation part is essential. Uh, anybody who has this document up that's on the screen, you can scroll all the way to the very last line of this document. Um, what does it tell you? If you look at the last two lines of this document, what are they saying about the score that you will receive from your coaches? Failure to prepare is a zero. If you have not done the work to prepare, uh, we'll get you automatic zero here. Here's the way that we know. Uh, did people actually read the monitoring report before you got here? Uh, if the answer
200to that is no for anybody, we're going to give you automatic zero. That just means you were not taking the work of your children seriously. We'll ask ridiculous questions like, what were you doing last week instead of loving on children? Like, why weren't you doing your job? If anybody did not actually read the monitoring report before you got to the meeting, that's an automatic zero. And notice that it is impossible for the board and the CEO to succeed as a team if one of you is not carrying your weight. That one of you not preparing uh creates an automatic zero in the report that we'll give back to you. Uh it also talks about participation. If if any of you don't ask a question, so you just kind of sitting on the sidelines letting everybody
201else serve children while you watch. That is not why you were in these seats. Your job is to step up and serve children. And so if we watch this, if we see anybody not participate, not asking questions, not getting involved and trying to really understand what's true for children, we'll give you automatic zero, an automatic zero, failure to participate. Similarly, part of preparation is having your thoughts together in advance um and sharing out those questions with the CEO. And so we'll ask a question, you know, did people send questions into the CEO at least 3 days before the monitoring conversation? Uh particularly if you had technical or tactical questions, you want to send those in advance. Did you did folks actually do your homework and fully prepare? If the answer to any of those is
202no, then we'll write down a zero it here regardless of what the rest of the data says as a reflection that you cannot you you rise and fall together for children. Um and as a constant admonition like put in the work as a unit to lift up what's possible for children. Yes. Yeah. on that point, you know, one of the things I was telling Chair Elott, she's already starting to model that uh not only uh if uh board members don't give us a time to get the question, but if we don't get the information in hand, she said she, you know, we will we will push this back. So, uh Madam Chair is already uh starting to model that and you know, we're uh shaping and adjusting as a team to make sure we get
203the information adequate in an adequate enough time. Uh thank you for being the first to share. Uh, anyone else? What will you take away from this training on effective goal monitoring? Anyone else? What will you take away? It's It's not easy. Yeah, this is not designed for your ease or your comfort. It is designed for your greatness on behalf of the children you serve, but you will have to put in some work. You will actually have to put in some work. Anyone else? What will we take away from our time together before we close out? Um, to what Dr. Morgan said, you know, we need obviously we want the data in advance, but also we have to look at it um in like a robust deep manner in advance so that we can ask for
204more, ask for changes in advance so that when we're actually reviewing it with our questions, we have the right set of data. Yeah, absolutely. Anyone else questions or refle or reflections or things that you learned or you'll take away before we before we close out? Well, for me personally as as a as as a librarian, I would probably do a little bit more research on my own. Yeah. Uh to give some counterpoints or some other, you know, as I analyze it, you know, put it in context so that I can understand it even a little bit deeper. So I'll just check for my own understanding. Yeah. And if I find some levels of uh in addition to the questions for clarification but again just yeah understanding how to look at data, how to yeah you
205how to read it, how to analyze it uh a little bit better. Um and what we also can provide if anyone wants it, we have a whole separate uh workshop we could do one-on-one or just provide you the materials on analyzing research. So that um like that is not some of you have that in your background but not everybody does. Um and so if you hear about research on a regular basis be like I don't really know how to how to parse all of this. Uh we actually have a whole separate training on that and we can do one-on-one or we can just provide you the information. You could do it as a self-study. We can kind of grade it for you. And so if uh if having more capacity with analyzing research that the
206administration presents to you would be helpful, just let us know and we'll we'll uh we'll get that going for you as well. Good to know. Thank you. Yeah. Uh well then I just want to close out uh by just saying uh thank you. Uh again, this is this is not work that is easy and automatic. You actually have to work for it. You have to reach for it. You have to want it. Um and unfortunately a lot of folks just won't do that. um they're they're looking uh you know for the wide path, not the narrow path. Um and so for your willingness to do what is necessary on behalf of your children uh just thank you um and thank you for having us. Thank you Mr. Crarville. Thank you and thank you to my
207board colleagues for their diligence and participation and everyone being good students. All right. Um, now we do have uh nine remaining resolutions before the board. I do want to note that Dr. Morgan has explained these in the work session. We will not be asking him for another explanation. However, board members do have questions. I will um have those uh allow time for those if needed. All right. Next, the board will consider the adoption of nine remaining resolutions on our agenda in the areas of academics, finance, and excellence and culture. The board discussed these resolutions at our April 15th board work session. The chair will now entertain a motion to adopt the following two resolutions. 8.01 adopting the student code of conduct for the 202526 school year and 8.02 02 determining the textbook requirements of the
208Cleveland Municipal School District for the 202526 school year and authorizing the CEO and/or the CFO to order and pay for such textbooks in an amount not to exceed $4,93,7053. So move second. Thank you. Are there any additional questions? Hearing no further questions, Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role? Miss Elicott, yes. Mr. Bips, yes. Mr. Briggs, yes. Miss Jones, yes. Pastor Jones, yes. Mrs. Lebron, yes. Mrs. Peak, yes. Dr. Shrear, yes. Mrs. Welchow, yes. Motion passes with nine votes. Thank you. These two resolutions are adopted. The chair will now entertain a motion to adopt the following two resolutions. 9.01, 01 accepting the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the necessary tax levies and certifying them to the county fiscal officer. 9.02 authorizing the acceptance of a grant from the
209state of Ohio and authorizing the CEO to spend the funds in accordance with the terms and conditions of the grant. And 9.03 03 authorizing the acceptance of gifts from the Cleveland Foundation, Shape America, and the US Chess Federation and authorizing the CEO to spend the funds in accordance with the terms and conditions of the gifts. So move. Second. Thank you. These are our finance resolutions which we discussed on April 15th. Are there any additional questions? Hearing no further questions. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the role? Miss Elott? Yes. Mr. Bips? Yes. Mr. Briggs? Yes, Miss Jones. Yes, Pastor Jones. Yes, Mrs. Lebron. Yes, Mrs. Peak. Yes, Dr. Shrear. Yes, Mrs. Welch. Yes. Motion passes with nine votes. These resolutions are adopted. The chair will now entertain a motion to adopt the following five resolutions.
21010.01, authorizing the employment of teaching, non-eing, and school-based administrative staff. 10.02 authorizing the reclassification of employees. 10.03 03 accepting the retirements, resignations, and other separations of employees. And 10.04 authorizing the issuance of limited contracts for differential positions and the payment of additional earned compensation to employees. So move. So moved. Second. Thank you. These are excellence and culture resolutions which the board discussed at our April 15th work session. I know that Dr. Morgan does have an additional comment regarding one of these resolutions. Dr. Morgan. Uh yes. the only one on 10.03. Um the amount of separations at the work session was at 56. It's now to 55. So that is adjusted from 56 to 55 on 10.03. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Any additional discussion from board members hearing. No discussion. Mr. Stockdale, please call the role.
211Miss Elott? Yes. Mr. Bips? Yes. Mr. Briggs? Yes. Miss Jones? Yes. Pastor Jones? Yes. Mrs. Lebron? Yes. Mrs. Peak? Yes. Dr. Shrear? Yes. Mrs. as well. Chiao. Motion passes with nine votes. Thank you. These four resolutions are adopted. Is there any old business? Any new business? Well, for new business, on behalf of the board, I'd like to wish a happy birthday to Miss Peak, who is celebrating a birthday this week. All right. The next regular board meeting will be a board work session on Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at Garrett Morgan High School. The chair will now entertain a motion that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of considering the appointment and employment of public employees and officials, preparing for negotiations with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms
212and conditions of their employment, and conferring with attorneys concerning disputes involving the board of education that are the subject of pending or imminent court action. So moved. Second. Thank you. Mr. Stockdale, please call the role on this motion. Miss Elicott, yes. Mr. Phillips, yes. Mr. Mr. Briggs, yes. Miss Jones, yes. Pastor Jones, yes. Mrs. Lebron, yes. Mrs. Peak, yes. Dr. Shrear, yes. Mrs. Walchow, Motion passed with nine votes. The board will now move into executive session. Following executive session, the board will briefly return to this room to conduct some further business. [Music] Your lettuce is popping [Music] right But the good thing about the face like [Applause] [Music] Yeah. Here we go. [Music] 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
213team as they prepare to perform at a schoolwide event. Let's go. [Music] And we are here with Felicia Kelly who is the 5C's coordinator and the ribbon dancers coach. And behind us we have the ribbon dancers. So just tell me how did you get this program started here at Orchard STEM? Well, I did a praise dance for my mom for Mother's Day and I used a ribbon uh and I brought the ribbon in to demonstrate um part of what we call demonstration of learning and I brought it into the ribbon dance uh to the school and the ribbon dancers that are now ribbon dancers loved it then and asked me can we do the same thing and I said of course and so I brought um brought some ribbons and we started practicing and the
214team was created. But you have told me that it it has exploded. So many kids want to be a part of it now. So what is the age range of your ribbon dancers? So we have first grade all the way up to sixth grade. Nice. And so while dancing is beautiful, but you are here to instill life lessons into these kings and queens. Can you tell me about it? Yes, absolutely. And they will tell you my first my first rule of thumb is positive energy. I have it all over the media center here and they know that we are about uplifting each other, about encouraging each other, about helping each other. So those are kind of the life lessons that I'm trying to instill so that they don't just incorporate it here in the first
215grade, 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. So, this is a steam school. Yes. So, and even though you're doing dance, which is arts, which is part of steam, um you're also incorporating some other things, can you talk about uh some of the things that you're trying to teach them as well when it comes to steam and dancing? Okay. So, um the t-shirts that they're wearing today, they actually help make. We have um Cricut machines. We have silhouette machines and transfer heat transfer paper to actually make the t-shirts so that the t-shirts that they're wearing they're they made them and
216also 3D machines. We have laser cutters. We have actually if I you don't mind me stepping off camera a little bit. Um we have the capability of making mugs and they 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. 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? 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,
217what 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 I have to um encourage them, right? And some of the collaboration you guys have done is you had the some art students paint this for you guys for your performance. Just talk about how you like performing in front of others and showing uh your other students what you've learned and show the beautiful dances that you've learned. I enjoyed
218a 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. 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
219open 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 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 cuz I'm figuring out what I'm going to do when I'm growing up and I think
220I'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. Rey, who loves to read? Raise your hand. I love to read, too. Okay, let's go. Let's go. Heat. Heat. [Music] I see pair of professionals making a difference every single day. The minute they walk in the door with smiles on their face, they're the first people here greeting our scholars, always offering a friendly hello, um hands-on work with these kids all day long, and they just want want all of our students to succeed and enjoy school. My talent
221is observing and then applying. So, a lot of times in the beginning of the school year, I would observe more, see what they like, see what interests them or seeing what methods help them calm down or get them to actually learn like whether it's um occupational learning or academically learning, listening, being patient, being focused on what the children have to say and responding back to them. There's like a lot of things I didn't know like from different cultures. Like I've been learning a lot from them. Like there's a lot of things I don't even know from uh other countries that I've been learning. Every single day I'm learning something with them. It just feels really good to be part of a team. And you never know. Like I said, you might be doing one thing
222one day and one thing the next, but it all ends up being part of the like it takes a village kind of outlook and it just feels good to be part of a team. Thank you, Paras. Thank you, Paris. Thank you, Paras. Thank you, Paris. Thank you, Paris. I love you. Welcome to TEA 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 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
223credentialed 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 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
224what 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. 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. So 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
225for 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. 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.
226Her 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 me here, she like did this. So I went underneath of her her armpits here. I picked her up. I stood her up and I 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
227again. Good morning. Good morning. Morning everyone. Good morning. No beefing. Hold that up. When the kids walk through the door, there's a personal relationship here. So immediately they have a connection with an adult as soon as they've entered the building. typical day at James Ford Roads is being active with the kids, trying to be proactive with the kids before it becomes reactive. Sometimes we have to stop and counsel or assist a student that might be going through something when they came in this morning. I greet the students, make sure the hall is clear, um interact, ask them how their day was going, walk through, interact with the parents, um the community, the male um mailman, the neighbors across the street. They familiar with me, kind of on my side, I'm greeting with them. I try
228to walk around, try to help the kids. I'm not trying to police them as a security officer. Can't do that. You you try to help them in every way possible. And and and that's what I do. I'm a resource for them. going through the detectors in the long run. I hear them say, "Boy, if it wasn't for y'all doing that, this that and so they they really do like that detector, but just knowing that you in the halls and the students see that and and they see how I, you know, if they beep or they see how I go through their bags, I don't play. 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
229I'll be like, "Okay, okay, okay." So that makes me feel that, you know, they see that I'm serious about my job. You know, I have noticed if we're referencing the phone collection, um, a lot of the students are interacting more with one another instead of just being stuck on their phones. They've started to build relationships with one another and do different things that we last year and the year before that we weren't actually noticing anymore. uh especially with how we do the yonder cases, bringing in securing book bags, making sure that um no items or weapons are brought into school. I think it makes 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
230them in that way, like human beings, and make them feel special, they're not thinking so much about those things. They're thinking about the relationship they're building. It's the most important thing for everyone in a building is that relationship you have with kids. And if it's positive, usually you're going to get positive results. Not all the time, but more often than not. [Music] Your lettuce is popping. Smile right here. [Music] But the good thing about it like that [Applause] [Music] Yeah, I got [Music] 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. [Music] And we are here with Felicia Kelly who is the 5C's coordinator and the ribbon dancers coach. And behind us
231we have the ribbon dancers. So just tell me how did you get this program started here at Orchard Stem? Well, I did a praise dance for my mom for Mother's Day and I used a ribbon uh and I brought the ribbon in to demonstrate um part of what we call demonstration of learning and I brought it in to the ribbon dance u 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 to be a part of it now. So what is the age range of your
232ribbon dancers? So we have first grade all the way up to sixth grade. Nice. And so while dancing is beautiful, but you are here to instill life lessons into these kings and queens. Can you tell me about it? Yes, absolutely. And they will tell you my first my first rule of thumb is positive energy. I have it all over the media center here and they know that we are about uplifting each other, about encouraging each other, about helping each other. So those are kind of the life lessons that I'm trying to instill 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
233to be sensitive to different situations that that might come up. So, this is a steam school. Yes. So, and even though you're doing dance, which is arts, which is part of steam, um you're also incorporating some other things, can you talk about uh some of the things that you're trying to teach them as well when it comes to steam and dancing? Okay. So, um the t-shirts that they're wearing today, they actually help make. We have um Cricut machines. We have silhouette machines and transfer heat transfer paper to actually make the t-shirts so that the t-shirts that they're wearing they're they made them and also 3D machines. We have laser cutters. We have actually if I you don't mind me stepping off camera a little bit. Um we have the capability of making mugs and they
234help to design their own um character on my mug and it says I love my ribbon dancers. And each ribbon dancer picked out their design and we made this mug for me. Wonderful. I'm joined now with Mila and Paige. What grade are you in, Paige? Third. And what grade are you in? Six. And tell me, why did you guys want to join the ribbon dancers? So I can learn new things. What about you? 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
235yourself. And sometimes you just have to work together so you can make things happen, right? You're right. And what about you? What what what lesson have you learned? I learned how to collaborate with my team and um have teamwork and um when somebody's doing something to have to encourage them, right? And some of the collaboration you guys have done is you had the some art students paint this for you guys for your performance. Just talk about how you like performing in front of others and showing uh your other students what you've learned and show the beautiful dances that you've learned. I enjoyed a lot because it's got me like not to be scared when people are watching. So I'm not shy anymore like I used to. And now I talk loud. I'm just loud. All
236vibes. And when we perform it makes me feel great because I show myself. [Applause] 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 the 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
237because 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 cuz 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
238to 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. Reading. Who loves to read? Raise your hand. I love to read, too. Okay, let's go. Let's go. [Music] Heat. Heat. I see pair of professionals making a difference every single day. The minute they walk in the door with smiles on their face, they're the first people here greeting our scholars, always offering a friendly hello. Um hands-on work with these kids all day long and they just want want all of our students to succeed and enjoy school. My talent is observing and then applying. So, a lot of times in the beginning of the school year, I would observe more, see what they like, see what interests them or seeing what
239methods help them calm down or get them to actually learn like whether it's um occupational learning or academically learning, listening, being patient, being focused on what the children have to say and responding back to them. There's like a lot of things I didn't know like from different cultures. Like I've been learning a lot from them. Like there's a lot of things I don't even know from uh other countries that I've been learning. Every single day I'm learning something with them. It just feels really good to be part of a team and you never know. Like I said, you might be doing one thing one day and one thing the next, but it all ends up being part of the like it takes a village kind of outlook and it just feels good to be part
240of a team. Thank you, Paras. Thank you, Paris. Thank you, Paras. Thank you, Paras. Thank you, Paris. I love you. 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 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
241of 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 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
242years, 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. You go to the website, you type in the access code, and you're in. Your kids pictures are there, and you could easily I have a kids at two different schools. You can easily switch from school to school and keep up on top of it. Everything's right there. Like everybody always has their phone with them, so you can easily access it to your phone. It's a relief for me knowing that my child has 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. I
243would do it all over again for anybody. Hi, I'm Trisha Paige and I'm a first grade teacher at Andrew J. Rickoff. I had a couple students that were having lunch in the classroom with me that day. I was sitting at my table like here in the back of the room and um her back was toward me this way. So when I was eating my taco, I tried to dip my other one in the meat and cheese, but when when it went through when it went to my throat, I choked on it and she was choking and I she was making the choking. Her hands were on her throat and there was no there was no sound whatsoever. Uh I got up, ran to her, told the other teacher to go run and get the nurse.
244Um, she was sitting in her seat. So I when she told me to get out my here, she like did this. So I went underneath of her her armpits here. I picked her up. I stood her up and I 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. 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
245an adult as soon as they've entered the building. typical day at James Ford Roads is being active with the kids, trying to be proactive with the kids before it becomes reactive. Sometimes we have to stop and counsel or assist a student that might be going through something when they came in this morning. I greet the students, make sure the hall is clear, um interact, ask them how their day was going, walk through, interact with 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
246do. 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 we're referencing the phone collection, um, a lot of
247the students are interacting more with one another instead of just being stuck on their phones. They've started to build relationships with one another and do different things that we last year and the year before that we weren't actually noticing anymore. uh especially with how we do the yonder cases, bringing in securing book bags, making sure that um no items or weapons are brought into school. I think it makes students and scholars feel um much more comfortable, much more safe. When the kids come through, they understand there are necessary things that have to happen. But when the officers treat them in that way, like human beings, and make them feel special, they're not thinking so much about those things. They're thinking about the relationship they're building. It's the most important thing for everyone in a building
248is 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. [Music] Your lettuce is popping. [Music] Smile right here. [Music] But the good thing about like [Music] 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 prepare to perform at a schoolwide event. [Music] And we are here with Felicia Kelly who is the 5C's coordinator and the ribbon dancers coach. And behind us we have the ribbon dancers. So just tell me how did you get this program started here at Orchard STEM? Well, I did a praise dance for my mom for Mother's Day and I used a ribbon uh and I brought the
249ribbon in to demonstrate um part of what we call demonstration of learning and I brought it in to the ribbon dance uh to the school and the ribbon dancers that are now ribbon dancers loved it then and asked me can we do the same thing and I said of course and so I brought um 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.
250And they will tell you my first my first rule of thumb is positive energy. I have it all over the media center here and they know that we are about uplifting each other, about encouraging each other, about helping each other. So those are kind of the life lessons that I'm trying to instill so that they don't just incorporate it here in the first grade, second grade, middle school, high school. These are lessons that I try to teach them for life. 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. 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
251talk about uh some of the things that you're trying to teach them as well when it comes to steam and dancing? Okay. So, um the t-shirts that they're wearing today, they actually help make. We have um Cricut machines. We have Silhouette machines and transfer heat transfer paper to actually make the t-shirts so that the t-shirts that they're wearing they're they made them and also 3D machines. We have laser cutters. We have actually if I you don't mind me stepping off camera a little bit. Um we have the capability of making mugs and they 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
252grade are you in, Paige? Third. And what grade are you in? Six. And tell me, why did you guys want to join the ribbon dancers? So I can learn new things. What about you? U because I always wanted to dance in a 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
253um when somebody's doing something I have to encourage them, right? And some of the collaboration you guys have done is you had the some art students paint this for you guys for your performance. Just talk about how you like performing in front of others and showing uh your other students what you've learned and show the beautiful dances that you've learned. I enjoyed a lot because it's got me Night. Back in public session, the chair will now entertain a motion to adopt a resolution authorizing the 3-day suspension of a teaching employee. So moved. Second. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Any explanation on this resolution? Yes. This resolution is to authorize the 3-day suspension of a non um actually of a teaching employee for violation of district policies, procedures, and rules. Is there any discussion from board members?
254Mr. Stockdale, hearing no further discussion, would you please call the role? Miss Elott? Yes. Mr. Phillips? Yes. Mr. Briggs? Yes. Miss Jones? Yes. Pastor Jones? Yes. Mrs. Lebron? Yes. Mrs. Peak? Yes. Dr. Shrear? Yes, Mrs. Walchow. No. The motion passes with eight votes. Yes. The res the resolution passes. The chair will now entertain a motion to adjourn this board business meeting. So moved. Second. Hearing no objection. This meeting is adjourned. Have a good night.