Buffalo BoE Work Session 11/1/2023

001we need to wait forley because she is lesie Grant um think will CR sent her the link yes she has the link I sent it to her uh this morning she was copied on the board email okay so we'll wait give her a few minutes because she's going to be critical here I think she's going to uh present after I do I did speak with her earlier and she took a look at the PowerPoint and so she's aware of um you know what it looks like I shared it with her when I shared it with you okay so yeah so you want to get started because we do have another committee afterwards so at me we're ready okay you can begin all right good all right good afternoon everyone uh my name is Dr Kathy

002Evans Brown the vice president of uh executive Affairs and so we are going to continue our work with the Council of great City Schools um in efforts to improve student outcomes and one of the mantras that they use is student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change um and as you know the school district exists because of our students so assessments are critical in this work um the board adopted um their guard ra rail's last board meeting and there's four and I'm hoping that we all look at them regularly because we are accountable just as we want our superintendent tended to be accountable for her goals and guard rails the board has adopted um uh guard rails and uh uh consequences we'll be talking about those later on um when our um consultant from the

003great City School uh Council of great City Schools join us legle uh Grant so with that I'm going to turn the mic over to Dr Williams who will further her work um with the goals that was that she was charged with and specifically she's going to um include her interim goals as well Dr Williams all right thank you so much uh chairwoman first vice president uh Dr Evans Brown um admir if you can queue up I'll talk a little bit while he's doing that um I want to say welcome to all of the board members and to any listeners uh that we may have on the platform this evening as well as uh my cabinet members so tonight um what I'll be doing is iswing who we are in our work and then talking about

004next steps as we are establishing interim goals and metrics that are going to help sure that we are on track to meet our overall goals the premise for our work is that student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors do and that's a quote from AJ krail um we're working along with he and lesie um to make sure that the goals that we've set for our students are achieved so this will ensure that if and when we see any regression as we're monitoring goals it's important to have interim goals along the way so that we know if we're on track or if we need to stop modify and get back on track so that we do everything that we can to make sure that we're helping our students and staff to meet our goals so that's

005what tonight's presentation is going to be focused on admir please forward so for tonight um this is kind of um a timeline there's a lot that has happened over the last several months we began uh this partnership with a two-day Retreat back in I believe it was March it was a robust and an intense uh time that I was able to spend with the board members um our board leadership as well as with uh the consultants and so that happened that was kind of the kickoff to you know where we would be moving towards fast forward a few months later um this board contracted with the Council of great City School consultants for a two-year period and that happened in a July of board meeting and at about the same time the board approved our

006overall student outcome goals and guard rails at a board meeting so um the board approved three goals that I'll be going over just as a gentle reminder tonight I think you know I can't State them enough I want them to stay at the Forefront of the work that the board is charging me with and at the Forefront of all of the work that I'm doing with my leadership team and with um our school teams and our district level teams so I'm I'm always talking about uh the three goals that we're focused on back in September about a month and a half ago uh Leslie was able to meet with um members of my student leadership team so that we were able to roll out for them just at a very high level uh what this

007partnership entails and then last month uh at the board meeting the board approved guard rails to frame your work and I think you know that was work that was um really courageous and um you know it really for me um it's work that I can get behind because it's not saying do as I say it's saying do as I do and that we're all working in this together so I say Kudos I think that was very encouraging and very courageous and I believe for the later part of this meeting uh there will be some more discussion around um those guard rails for the board and and where that work may be advancing to it's important for me to say with this slide that it doesn't matter where staff which department they're working out of whether

008it is human resources academics public relations Athletics Finance with our parents legal um diversity equity and inclusion grants uh intergovernmental relations student support clri safety Osa operations or it all of our work has to be focused in one way shape or form on the goals that the board has charged me with and so as I've been meeting with staff and reviewing last year's work and talking with them about where I want to see their work going this year I'm able to help guide how their work because for some it's not as clearcut as if you were a principal or a teacher but I'm helping them to guide and look at if we say we're focused on ensuring that our third grade economically disadvantaged students are going to meet these goals we have to all make

009sure that they those schools those teachers have everything that they need that's the that's the priority so I'm working with um our staff to make sure that that happens next slide so for tonight's presentation um you know myself and um all of the staff that are on the platform who are within the executive um committee or the executive level leadership you know most of us are Educators and so Mastery learning objectives is it's something that we look for when we go in classrooms what is the Mastery learning objective the same way that when we have board meetings or you go into conferences and you go to meetings you're looking for an agenda you want to know by the end of this meeting what is it that I should know and be able to understand and

010so that's the way that I frame this meeting and by the end of this meeting all of our board members and anyone who is listening should be able to articulate what our District's three goals are for this year the 999 and I'll talk a little bit about that in case you've forgotten but they should also be able to understand the interim goals and measures that will serve as predictors for if we are on target to meet the goals and again if we're not then how do we make that a teachable moment and get back on track so I have a picture of Martin Luther King you know that's kind of the why because the time is always right to do what's right and this is what's right for our children ADM next slide so this

011slide is a gentle reminder for everybody on what our three goals are what are the things that this board has approved and said will be the focuses for myself and for staff for this school year and I do call these goals the 999 goals because there's a number nine in each one of the goals it's an easy catchy way for all of our staff to know them for our families to know them our community partners school-based partners everybody should know what these three goals are if they're working with our children and we want our children to know what the goals are also it was important that they be framed in a way that they're smart so we're not just putting out there that we're going to achieve some goals someday somehow um they're specific they're

012measurable and for the reading goal you know it's a big goal what we agreed upon what this board has charged me with is that the percentage of third grade economically disadvantaged students who will be proficient in Reading as measured by the end of the year dibles assessment will increase from 33 to 30 9% by June 2024 and I could have been more specific in saying June 30th because that's when our school year ends so I can amend and have that in there but you see that there's that nine where it says 39% that's where we're headed that's where we're going our mathematics student outcome goal is that the thir the percentage of third grade economically disadvantage students who are proficient in mathematics as measured by the end of the year I ready assessment will increase

013from 133% to 15.9% by June 30th 2024 and I know that that's a number that even when I say it I'm not excited about you know 15.9% but as I always say you can't go from you know a lower Rong on the ladder just to the Top by just jumping to the top it's you know a step by step and this will be a step in the right direction and finally our third goal deals with our graduation rates and so for that one the percentage of unofficial four-year graduation cohort 2020 students those would be our fourth year seniors right now who complete District graduation requirements will not decrease from the 79.1% that we achieved last year and we know that you know that's an uphill climb for us because the way that students uh were

014able to get across New York State because of the pandemic they're not eligible for anymore so we don't want to decrease we don't want to go backwards uh we just want to if we can maintain that that's going to be a stretch for the district ATM so I thought it was important for us to talk a little bit about some of the trend data it's important to know um where we're coming from so that board members are reminded and any public that may be listening that these are stretch goals these are not just goals that we just you know picked out of the air and you know there was hard work that went into looking at realistically specifically measurably where we were where we've been and where we need to go so if we look

015at a few years ago in 2021 um we ended the year year with 20 29% of our students um reading proficiently we didn't have the mathematics data um available but our graduation rate was 78.5% the following year looks like a huge jump in Dibbles um up to 38% and we know that that was during the pandemic we you know students were taking their Assessments in the home um there were a lot of um factors that may have played into that score looking that way but it went up to 38% I ready our mathematic score for third graders was at 16.4% and our graduation rate was at 79% so again th those waivers were in place for the year uh 2021 2022 and then we look at last year and last year um our students went

016backwards in the end of the year dibles uh scores that we saw we were at 33% so we dropped by five uh percentage points and for I we also dropped 3.1% in mathematics and uh for our graduation rate we saw a very very very slight increase to 79.1% so when the board met and had a a rigorous discussion about where we needed to go um the agreement from the board was that 6% was um a stretch but it was fair it was realistic and so for the the goal for this year 39% which would be an increase of 6% in Reading uh for mathematics again 15.9 an increase of 2.6% and then 79.1% no decrease with the GR graduation rate and so I've talked a little bit about you know the pandemic the learning loss

017wasn't just for the City of Buffalo students you know this is a learning loss that across this country students experienced because their lived experience has changed teachers lived experien has changed you know students went through isolation trauma grief um anxieties they had to learn differently teachers had to teach differently and so there was a lot that went on over that two-year period but we are back in session now and um our work is cut out for us but I believe that you know we will meet the goals that we have stated because we've been focused we'll continue to be Focus we're going to continue to be strategic intentional and systemic the next slide our question or I should say really you know the board's question of me is how will I as the superintendent of

018schools and my staff continuously and strategically measure whether or not this district is on track to reach the overall student outcome goals that's a big question you know I don't believe in setting a goal and um we hope that we get there that would be just like me getting in a car and with no map no map West hoping that I make it to Tampa Florida you know so you know it probably wouldn't happen because I wouldn't know where to detour I wouldn't know if I was going in the right direction um and so for us we have to have ways along the way that tell us we're on track we're progressing or we're regressing and we're not on track in some places and when that happens then we have to be strategic and intentional

019about what do we do to support support those schools or students where we're not on track so that we're not missing opportunities next slide and so this is a really important slide um in this slide deck I believe that language is important and it's important that everyone know when we're talking about interim assessments what are we really talking about interim goals what are we really talking about and so what we're really talking about is that we're measuring all along the year and analyzing data for a specific group of students to monitor growth and achievement that's connected to specific goals our goals are the 999 goals so we will be measuring collecting data analyzing supporting monitoring all of those things to help us to ensure that we're doing everything possible to get to where we need

020to get to so the interim data Andor assessments that for this year we'll be looking at is for Dibbles we've already looked at our beginning of year data and I'll share a little bit about that with you um Chief belli was going to do a presentation at the last board meeting but it was getting very very late and we had students in the audience and so we decided we will postpone that until um this upcoming board meeting but she'll be able to do an in-depth look at where we are with respect to our Dibbles beginning of year data what is the DAT data telling us as we compare it to last year's data so we're going to look at that data and then we're going to be looking at the middle of year data also

021to see if we are progressing we'll do the same thing with the I ready data um the beginning of year data is still being being collected and analyzed but that will be coming before the board also so that you know kind of what our Baseline is in addition we'll be looking at when we look at graduation rates um we have to look at right now for that cohort of 2020 students who are seniors fourth year high school students how many of them started the year with 16.5 credits because that's an indicator that's predictive that they should be able to meet St and District graduation requirements and then we look again at the middle of the year because we know that in New York state we have midyear um opportunities for students to meet graduation requirements

022there are regions exams that students take in January so that number could look very different in January if a student still needs to take regions and they take them and pass them in January then those are additional credits they'll have towards being a able to graduate in June um we'll also look at the that group of students to see how many of those students have already passed three of those state regions exams we want to know how many are starting the year because it's possible that they have 16.5 credits and none may be regions or some may be regions but the more regions they pass they have to pass five so the more regions that they've passed towards that five is an indicator that they're on track to be able to graduate so those are

023the interim assessments that we'll be talking about um a small team of us had a phone conference with uh Leslie oh maybe about a month or so ago just to go over that because um what she shared and we all agreed is that you know the data has to inform whether or not we're going to meet the goal that's that's what the definition shares so could we have pulled all kinds of data that really would not inform if we're going to meet the goal we could have said we'd look at five-week progress reports but are those the same skills that are being tested on the dibles according to the curriculum no they're not so it wouldn't make sense for us to compare oh well it looks like 99% of the students have a a an

024A or 100 in Reading we should be on track well maybe and maybe not so we wanted to be very clear and very focused so that's why we didn't put those as um interim assessments so when we looked at our interim goals the goals had to be smart goals that has been um encouraged by Dr Evans Brown that has been encouraged by Leslie and so the goals here is that you know by the middle of the year for Dibbles um that 36% of our economically disadvantaged third graders will be scoring at proficiency we want to end the year at 39% if we make it to 36% then that's progress we're on our way so we've got a middle of the year um middle of the year goal for Dibbles we've got a middle of thee

025goal for our economically disadvantaged third graders in mathematics and that is 14% we will have moved from 133% to 14% which is an indicator again that we're progressing towards that 15.9% and this goal is it's a a you know it's going to be an uphill climb because when we're looking at our data right now um it's you know we got to pull out all the stops to help make sure that our students that are in this 2020 cohort will have um 16 .5 credits um 75% of them and at least three regions passed by second semester because right now um we've got quite a few these are coid students students that you know started high school during coid and we've got quite a few that are right now at a deficit so that means we've

026got a lot of work to do a lot of work to do to try to get them prepared and positioned to be able to graduate in order to do that um we do have our smart goals we do have our interim assessments but we can't ignore that there are so many other factors that are going to play into it so I've convened uh executive level um data team and we meet every five weeks and we're not just looking at these interim assessments we have to consider things like attendance we don't have any control over it so we know we couldn't have that as an uh you know one of our interim um assessments or measures but it's a factor it's important and when we see when we pull the data to see you know why

027we're not progressing in certain schools or on track to meet it if the attendance is very low that's an indicator that we got to get in there and we got to support getting the school what they need to help that to happen we're looking at suspension data you know if students are behaviorally having difficulties then we've got a whole team of folks in a district this size that can go in and help interrupt some of that so that we can get them back on track so they're in class ready to receive the instruction and ready to learn we are also looking at report card grades we're looking at the progress report data that comes out so when we meet as a team we're going through with a fine tooth comb you know because first I

028want to see the district level data I want to see the high level data how are our third graders doing overall then we start breaking it down I want to know what are those five or 10 schools where we don't see progress but we're not scoring where we need to be okay now when we look at those five schools what's the attendance like what are the suspensions like what's the parent involvement like what are the report card grades like what you know do the classrooms have highly qualified teachers in them all of these things start to play into how can we then provide them with what they need to help us to get to where we need to get to so that's the work um that we're doing with respect to uh our interim assessments

029next slide now where we are right now when we look at dibles last year for the beginning of the year assessment when we looked at our economically disadvantaged third graders 29% were demonstrating proficiency at the beginning of year this year I'm proud that you know we're for percentage points higher so we're already at 33% of our economically disadvantaged third graders achieving proficiency that's an indicator to me that you know if we continue to just go higher which is my goal then we should be on track to not only meet but to possibly exceed um what the goal is that we have stated and I don't believe that you know this beginning of the year number is just happen stance it just happened we just got lucky and that's where they are I believe it is

030because you know in our work with the Council of great City schools and with AJ and with Leslie and with this board um starting back in March and we knew that this this was kind of where we were going we have been working in a deliberate intentional strategic and very focused way and you see there's a little Stone there we're not leaving any Stones unturned so when you know we're looking at things like summer school we were strategic we specifically engaged parents to say you know we want your children to be a part of summer school you know when we're working with um Partners whether it's the mayor whether it's pal or whomever they got reading programs you know we got to tell them what our goals are so that they know and can help

031to support that um the staff supports when we were hiring this year literacy coaches reading teachers were prioritized if we say we want to increase these things then we have to put the resources behind them we're working with Reed to succeed which is another big partner they're increasing the number of schools that they're in because because we have these goals um when we look at professional development our professional developments have to be aligned to what our goals are so whether it's clri Orton Gillingham whether we're presenting at embedded trainings at principal meetings AP meetings we're all talking with the same voice that these have a goals that we're focused on um datadriven instruction is a big piece of what I've had the ASL work on with schools I want to see the data I want

032it to be visual I want everybody in the school to know what the goals are I want our children to be able to articulate because they can as young as kindergarten they can if we use things that are developmental developmentally appropriate for them but I want our third graders to know where am I in the data and what do I need to move my data um you know the ASL and Cai which is um curriculum assessment and instruction and our Associates of school leadership our chief of school leadership our clri department has been out in schools doing classroom visits to support teachers with meeting these goals we've been focusing on our instructional priorities um I sent home a newslet to our parents I'll continue to send out monthly some things to parents it's not heavy

033reading you know I don't believe in having paragraphs of reading there are visuals it's just one page uh we get it translated and it's just really sharing with parents some very easy tips whether they're at the grocery store with their children how they can help them or some things they can do at home to help them um but you know understanding that all of our parents um may not be comfortable trying to help their children with literacy because some of them may be struggling with it so we do our Wednesday with Williams you know we have little YouTube snippets that every now and then we'll be focusing on some tips some things that they can do it's you know it's something that um most everyone has a cell phone um most everyone is on social

034media or you know they like them because they're quick they're easy you know it's a visual and so we'll be using that we're on the radio on Saturdays and so there will be some Saturdays that will be allocated to that we're trying to to as in as many ways as possible get the word out to parents that these are the goals and this is how you can help your children to achieve these goals we're meeting with parent Congress our parent leaders you know we want them to know so that they can reach out to all of their constituents also and know and working with our Community Partners they have to know if there are opportunities to reinforce whether it's comprehension if it's reading aloud whatever it is is and and they may feel you know

035it's just a small way to do it but you know each step that everyone takes helps us to get closer um to the goals we have grade level expectations it's a one-pager it's very um quick and easy to read it's online um I'm going to suggest that we have them in schools you know we've got a lot of parent teacher conferences coming up and it's a good time for parents to be able to receive in the school um you know because some parents will go online and look for it and some won't but how easy would it be if they're in the building and they're at a parent teacher conference to receive something like that um Saturday programming has begun and we want to encourage our partners if it's a petting zoo that's fine you

036know that's good and you know the children enjoy it but how about we take some index cards and we label some some things around that petting zoo that children can read and um learn about so um our Extended Learning Time program has begun recently and you know that's a time where we're also reinforcing these goals so there's a lot that's happening in a deliberate and intentional and strategic and a focused way so I wanted to just reassure the board that we're all working together uh for these three goals to make sure that we're leaving no Stones unturned next slide this is the final slide um I thought I needed to end by sharing where we are going in our next steps um with this 999 model um I Envision that at our board meetings we'll

037be sharing some very detailed information on dipples on I ready and on um our graduation work who you know we're counting right now credits we have counselors in schools our asls are working with principles they're looking at credits they're doing detailed Credit reviews um to see just how many of those students have those region exam passed and how many of them have the 16.5 credits and how we're targeting those that don't to come to elt program so that they can have every opportunity to get them uh I'll continue meeting monthly with uh first vice president Dr Evans Brown so that you know we can go over it and um you know come to some decisions before you know publishing or or coming to uh some of the meetings like this the committee meetings to present

038and so that the data is very easy to understand something I always used as a principal was a Gant chart and um you know it's a it's a colorful visual it's easy to understand um it'll list for you you know kind of all of the initiatives that we have and where we are with those initiatives red green or yellow and if it's red you know there's no shame in it being red that just just tells us a story that we got more work to do in that area so um I'll be sharing that information um I'll continue with the data meetings with uh my cabinet so that we can continue to do a deep review and some action plans if we start to see things sliding back backwards uh we want to ensure that our

039Extended Learning Time program is targeted for our most needy students we've got to make sure that those students that are regressing or are not program dressing have the opportunity to participate in um Extended Learning time and that was really the impetus for us creating a three Bill schedule so that it would provide equity and all students would have the opportunity to participate especially those that needed it the most and the big thing is that I have to keep the team and the schools focused on the main thing the main thing has to stay the main thing I can't you know know pull them off of the main things to you know run in other areas because the reality is at the end of the year I'm holding them accountable and you all are holding me

040accountable so if the main thing is and the board has approved it that these three things are the main things then we got to keep those things the main things and finally uh we'll continuously work with Osa so that we are using our data dashboard refreshing data every day and making sure that we all know and understand how to use it and how to stay up to dat with it and to keep using those data points to inform what we're doing so that's kind of where we are um and I and my team that's on will take questions now thank you Dr Williams um I'm certainly encouraged and I'm sure the board is as well um if you have any questions before um I bring on Leslie Smith Grant hi lesie she's our certified coach

041from the Council of great City Schools um please raise your hand any questions on this encouraged datadriven uh presentation by Dr Williams uh president belon cman hello thank you thank you uh chair Evans Brown and Dr Williams for your presentation so I I I I'm trying to figure out U the B when is the okay the beginning of the year was it uh data was taken in September when is the middle of the year it will be before February 28th so there's a window I don't yeah but it'll be before February 28th okay and so if I understood previous presentations from our chief academic officer she talked about that there were things that they do inside the classroom in between the testing progress monitor progress monitoring so that's still going on right oh yes uhuh

042okay so with our extended learning program and I've always thought it should have been a reserved for the most needest students um how is that working out I'm um uh are we going to get a report eventually uh to share what's going on with the elt program as well absolutely absolutely it just started but absolutely we will okay thank you um yeah I'm I'm encouraged thank you oh you're welcome thank you president Cotman um and I should note that uh I want to give president Cotman you know Kudos because she was one of the persons that introduced uh this whole concept of uh Council of great City Schools she had already went through um the training and brought it to uh this spard so I appreciate that thank you but it can't happen without the

043right mindset and we had to get the Right leader in order to move our district to the next level and put other people like you and Etc in place to make it happen your Vice presidentship uh of executive Affairs and your uh leadership is showing so thank you so much thank you thank you yes mindset is important uh thank you so I have a hand in City Hall is that um board member herd yes uh thank you um chairwoman Evis Brown um thank you for U the great presentation you have today and and Dr Williams thank you for U going over in detail about um what dibles mean and and our your three goals and plus the additive goals that goes along with that which I don't think everybody truly understand because we're not just

044concentrating on third grade but we're looking at everything as a focus um uh I was looking at and listen take to some questions from community members about Dibbles you know the concerns of it I know that the district sent a letter out to all the parents about dibles um my the question was on there was what can parents do and and we see a lot of calls from parents who didn't understand the coursework in class work and we we know that at home is where um a lot of kids you know have to focus on studying doing homework and and understanding that uh what they learned in school to take it home to be able to do the the coursework I know that we have programs set aside you know that they can go to

045to help them um complete their task also and after school help um what can we do for the parents even more to try to help help them um understand the work cuz we know this educational system I'm here and some that they came from may have failed them or they may have not learned as much as you they should have you know to help a family so um what can we do with those individuals those parents that's been reaching out and last question to that was uh a parent asked about online coursework that they can do themselves and I know they're doing the coursework that the kids are doing through the apps but they want to know something that they can do to understand and learn so what can parents do when I send home

046uh the newsletters it's usually just one or two real basic um things so you know having your child read something and then just tell you in their words what they read um when you go to the supermarket um introducing fruits or vegetables that they may never have heard of a rudaba you know you never know when they get into um some of these New York State assessments there could be a question about a rudaba you know there could be a question about a Frankfurter you know is that a hot dog what is a Frankfurter but if you don't call them frankfurters then you get into the test you see that word and you just automatically shut down so comprehension comprehension right now has was the focus for the first newsletter um that I sent the

047second this one will talk more about them pronouncing pronouncing and talking talking more about reading asking your child you know what did you do today in Reading instead of just saying how was school because most kids are just going to say I got a grandson and he says it all the time fine you know so you know if you don't ask those what questions if you just ask them how was school and you give them the chance to say fine that's what they'll say but tell me one thing that you learn today in Reading and have them voice it and articulate and if they say you know I don't know nothing well you had to learn one thing just one thing just keep pressing them with that one thing thing um we have these um

048these documents that uh the C Department uh created which talks to parents about and it's very friendly um their pictures talks to them about as a third grader what should your child be able to do as a kindergartener what are some things that they should be able to do so those are the things that I'm thinking you know sometimes if you just trust sending stuff home in a backpack sometimes it makes it sometimes it doesn't make it pass the locker or the bus but if we can get parents to come in for parent teacher conferences where they can just get it they can hand it out if it's on the front counter at our schools where when parents come in to pick their children up it's just right there if it's in the nurse's office

049where they can come if they've had to pick up their children it's going to take all fronts but beyond that I think you know we've got these beautiful parent centers that Dr Reynolds um overseas and we have some very strong uh parent parent groups dpcc we've got MVP and some of these groups are bringing in lots and lots of parents at these meetings so we want to do some face-to-face trainings also and you know beyond that those Wednesday with Williams where if you are a parent that struggles to read we don't want you to feel bad about you know not being able to necessarily sit down and read to your child so it's a time for me to be able to come on a video and in two minutes or Le be able to share

050with them some questions they can ask and some things that they can do thank you Dr just last thing is that um I know it's embarrassing for a parent also who has trouble reading or can't read or don't know how to do math or even read or write or a grandparent that may be in that situation to work with a child so they really feel they disconnected from that child and I just think that you know reaching out to these to these ones who seem to be forgotten to try to help them I think that's one of the biggest keys to the city to help educate everyone I agree I agree you know I don't want any parent to feel discouraged or embarrassed because the reality is you know I've been in this 34 years

051and every parent wants better for their children and I don't want them to feel embarrassed or bad because they may not necessarily know how to navigate and get them too better I mean my parents wanted me to go to college they hadn't gone they didn't know how to get me there but they knew that that was one of their goals so it took people in schools to help me to navigate and get there and that's what we have to do to help our children to read and do math mathematics is is challenging nowadays and so it's whole different way so we don't want them to feel bad we want to help them to learn and sometimes our children can help them to learn how to do it and so we want to take put the

052fun back in learning for them okay so I don't see any other hands uh here I see Jen and pette you guys have any questions for Dr Williams before uh I introduce Lesley bring her on okay so so uh Leslie Smith Grant is with us she's a certified coach with the Council of great City Schools she has been instrumental and getting us to this point where we are and it's interesting because you you we don't realize how much time has gone by and here we are talking about goals and guard rails and uh you know the board has adopted their guard rails and now we at a point that at a juncture that we're talking about um reviewing uh the CL consequences of the G rails that we put together so uh as you know

053Cindy board member Cindy Cindy m katchen is not here and she's the chair of our implementation team that uh president Cotman put together along with myself and uh board member Shuda will'll be meeting Friday I believe so in her said uh Leslie is here and so Leslie um you do have the floor thank you um hello everybody good to see your tiny faces on these little squares um I hope that uh next year we'll be able to see all of you in person actually pretty soon um so thank you um superintendent Williams for putting together the report on the interims and we will be working just again I appreciate y'all indulging in our little seed course on how to do the whole student outcom Focus governance um we did put some goals took extracted some

054from the work y'all had done to give the superintendent smart goals for this year the interim goals are the things that you all you all will be progress monitoring throughout the year and again this is all sort of a um a practice for when we get that set next year but what I would um like to do and um encourage each of you to do is go back and look at the goals that you set for the superintendent look at the interims that she has presented and if you have any questions about those be ready to um you know just if if there's anything that you are um missing or if you are seeing um can see the Arc of progress there just think about that let us know I would be happy to have

055a little session on progress monitoring reports with any of you if you want to do that and also hope to get um a little more graphically aligned um uh progress monitoring rep report that shows the Rel relationship between those inter rooms and where they are in terms of the overall goal so um hopefully by the uh your board meeting we can uh we can do that I'll work with h superintendent Williams to get that done so that you have a really clear concise understanding about how those interms are um are where they are in the year what the progress is from the beginning to the end um and how they relate to the overall goals now I know that we had Dibbles for the literacy goal nibbles is what we're measuring that was the biggest

056strongest indicator of progress towards that goal for this year um when we go into the big fiveyear planning next year um to get your five-year goals set we will ask for more than just one sort of inter room so we'll ask for three different measures that y'all can track throughout um the fiveyear period but um for right now we're tracking the Dibbles on that and for the math goal hang on a second uh we're tracking I ready I ready I ready yep um and then for the um you would just put up the piece about the um sorry about the the graduation so other than that I know that um there is a um there's a question about elt report so is that something that you want to have as a um as a interim

057I don't I don't know that we had discussed having that as one of the interims if that's something you're tracking that y'all need to track on your side of the house yes it I don't know that it's something the Board needs to track as well um it's something that um you know it indicates it's an Extended Learning Time program so it's an after school program um and we want to make sure that we're reinforcing in after school you know what's happening during during the school day and if the school day is focused on these three goals then you know we would hope that after school participation you know there's some time for cultural and enrichment activities but you know the academic activities should be moving forward uh the academic goals that we have set so

058we'll be looking at a first snap at you know are they full you know who's attending and we targeting to make sure that the students that need it the most you know those students that are coming in at a real deficit have the opportunity to share show some growth maybe they won't be at 39% you know if you're showing a lot of deficits but at least you will be progressing towards that so so we want to look first at the attendance and who's targeted and and how folks are targeted and if we need to beef up some of that okay but that that those are things that you're following on the administrative side to understand all of the factors that go into are these children going to be successful for the goals the board has

059set yes right okay but so I just want to make sure that um the third grade um uh economically disadvantaged students are the ones that the board is tracking you that will be on your evaluation so I just want to make sure that you know when lots of um when the information is extended Way Beyond that um just making sure that it's relevant right that it ties back into that so um if there's a program that that you know the board requested a report out on a pro progress of a program um trying to figure out how that aligns with the you know a student outcome would be you know a best practice right rather than long yeah than understanding all the nuts and bolts of what went into the program so Sharon Belton cman

060you had a question yeah I have a question because I'm not clear it's not clear in my mind what happens uh okay we've done the beginning of the year we already have children that we're targeting or we're working on how does the parents get involved are they notified that you're child at that point that you know we need you to be involved in it or what how how was that going on because um I don't you know oftentimes the parents call us up and saying they were surprised about stuff so you know if they don't come to the parent teachers meeting what is in place for that for those do you send home a statement or something with every child does a letter go out I'm just curious to know how because often times parents

061call us up and say they didn't know okay and I just wanted to know uh is there anything in place about that so each school does but this year um in addition to that I did um a letter to all of our third grade parents I did a robo call to them but the school sends home something to all you know K through through six or k through eight to say they want them to participate but because um we're focused for the purposes of um this work on third graders I sent home something to third grade parents and I'll continue to I don't want it to be a one and done every month I'll send home and it's again it's a nice colorful it's really only about three or four sentences it's pictures um but

062it's something to let them know that we're involved in this work we want their children to be a part the Extended Learning Time program it's only going to help them and these are a couple of tips that they can use to work with their children but principal send home their own letter to say your child scored at this at Dibbles we want them to be a part of after school um but again I did something for third graders I did it for third graders okay so is the letter a uni is it is the letter is it across the board the same letter is being sent out to every all third graders yes okay so so what is our Target I guess what I'm looking at is um because next year the second graders will

063be third graders and so are you targeting any other groups of children to get to that make sure that goal continues because this a two-year process for us yeah so so what we did last year we started working with our second graders who were rising to be third graders when we knew that the board was moving in this way so that they would be a part of the summer program so I'm sure that that's something that second semester will start focusing more on second graders we right now are looking at their data so that'll be a part of the Dibbles report because that's going to help to inform the board on what my goals should be next year if we're continuing our work with third graders or if we're going to move up to Fourth

064grad or whatever it is or we're going to say second and third graders so second semester we'll start doing more focus on that group okay thank you all right Leslie I'm sorry you can continue yeah I just didn't um I'm not sure if uh I just want to be clear the intent would be that this report which would be an interim uh will be clear about the interim goals for each of the goal uh free to the overall goals that'll be a report and then you will do the dibles you you had it on the agenda for the last board meeting it got moved so that will be on the next board meeting agenda correct correct okay great and I again would to work with you a little bit on yep chair Evans Brown I

065believe in talking to Dr cresus that um we are going to review the Dibbles and I ready scoring the beginning of the year in my work session next week for student achievement that's that's correct is that correct Dr Williams I wasn't sure that can happen that can happen kind of makes sense yeah do you well do you let me ask you this do you all is the full board on this meeting does the full board come to all your committee meetings for the most part yes so you're looking at the information twice though so if we do it at the committee meeting we won't have to do it at the board meeting it wouldn't make sense to do it to do the same I would recommend it being highlighted at your board meeting that you're

066paying attention to the student outcomes that you're monitoring progress for students that would be my recommendation is it that become the focus of your board meeting I'm sorry lezie would that become a workshop normally that would be a workshop no it'd be a progress monitoring so you're monitoring the progress of the outcome goal or yeah uh I think Leslie honestly this goes into when we probably the first Retreat we did with both you and AJ about our committee structure and how our committees operate so I I hear you I think this if our focus is going to be on student outcomes and these are this is the progress that we're we're really having a close look at it's something that certain certainly should be part of our regular business meetings so but I don't know

067if we're at a point where we want to we can change that structure now and if it's something that we're working towards in the in the near future um that is a y question I'm happy to work with you um in you know whatever formatting agenda planning or anything you want to do to get there um that is a y question it's kind of like you know we're changing the game so to speak so it kind of makes sense Larry what you're saying for student achievement but it also makes sense that at a full business meeting meeting um a board meeting that um we have more of a uh precise and full audience so to speak so that you know sometimes people don't necessarily come to our committee meetings and listen but they're more apt

068you know to attend uh a business meeting on the third Wednesday uh Terry board member Terry scha you had your hand up yes you know um and I'm listening to the the discussion and I would say I would be in support of transferring a lot of this committee work of the student achievement into the main um business meeting because I thought that's where we wanted to go that our meetings were going to be 50% student achievement data driven uh right Leslie is that what what our goal is and so one of the guard rails you set for yourself one of the guard rails and so um I think that that that's a good way to start and Larry I think where where I'm struggling and I don't know if you're struggling and any of the

069other chair people then it kind of like where are we going then with these committees and are the Committees as useful as perhaps we thought they could be if we're and that's just my thought and I'm looking you know for feedback from the rest of the board members but I think that this is really putting those those discussions in the right [Music] place I'm right there with you Terry and I would just add that do we know um are we includ including our work sessions to determine whether we're spending 50% of our time on student outcomes or is it just our regular business meeting that we're applying that expectation to our recommendation is that anytime the board calls a meeting or requires the presence of the board and staff that that is time you track

070okay excuse me um I jump in um I'm just not clear um superintendent made a um um statement earlier about Dibbles and when it's going to be ready the the um the data from the Dibbles and also for my ready so would that be ready by the third week or are we looking to extend that out more it's already ready yeah beginning of year data um is ready but the middle of year it'll be mid yes that'll be ready by February 28th that's when we middle of year testing okay yeah and what we would like you to do is you know as soon as possible when the data is you know verified but fresh that the board is receiving it to understand what the you know like what is the progress of students so um

071looking at beginning of the year data in December is you know not ideal um so you you want to make sure again that the you know the board is able to to see and understand where um those interim um progress monitors for the student performance it are um the students take um assessments and having the board again understand where the population of students is at the beginning of the year as close to the beginning of the year as possible where they are middle of the year and then we we have a um you know a matrices of uh questions to ask around the strategies that are being used and um would like to have a session with the board um to talk about that as well so that the information that's being glean from that

072from that data that's shared is useful to the community to the board and to um to the staff so yeah we were ready for October but it's just that you know we had a lot we're baby stepping guys we this is good we're baby stepping in the right direction we are one more question um with the data coming out at the end of February say February 28th that leave us 3 months just in case we need to make any changes to help children doing that time period before our finals exams in June or when school closes is that enough time those three months to um well we're doing students who underachieving so we're doing progress monitoring all throughout the year it's just that middle of the year that's where we do another big assessment but

073the children are constantly taking little assessments and teachers are refining their work to Target where the students needs are so we're doing work all year year you know progress monitoring in between beginning of year middle of year and end of year I don't want it to seem like we're just doing three assessments beginning middle and end we're doing work progress monitoring all throughout the year was and our students with IEPs and and the students that's transferring back from Charter programs I had some conversation with parents earlier this week uh about their students returning back to the Buffalo schools because they felt that they wouldn't get enough um um work for the IEPs for their children so they're coming back to the district so with those children are we able to properly assess those children who

074may be coming back maybe January or February they would take the middle of the Year assessment and if they left us let's just say if this was their first year in a charter we'd be able to look at where they ended the year and see kind of where they are but we you know whenever they come back to us wherever they fall if it's in February they take the middle of the Year assessment and for that grou be their Baseline I see two hands on uh board member poet Woods followed by uh board member shut Leslie I I have a quick question I hear you saying that it's important for us to at the board meetings let our constituents know that we're monitoring student achievement and Larry's saying he wants to move his items to

075the board meeting then I had a constituent say to me again why don't we have two board meetings a month and then instead of having two committee meetings if the committee meeting structure is going to be diminishing we can have one meeting and put all four committees on that one date and then sounds like we'll be moving more in the direction that you're pushing talking about achievement letting the public see it is is that what I'm hearing um I would say for best practice and what we've um you know in the research the more time you as a board can spend together monitoring progress of students the better for student outcomes um the more time you allow the superintendent to do the work you have um charged the superintendent with which are the goals in

076protecting the guard rail the better outcomes are for students um there there are a lot of different steps in this work if you want to keep going in the student outcomes Focus to keep your focus on student outcomes in this process one of those practices uh you know um practice cleaning habits that we like to take you through is to do a full assessment of what what are your practices now so you have committees examining what the Committees are what they serve how what is the how is this time you spend you know useful to increasing student outcomes um what are the policies you have and you know that um committee is the implementation committee has taken a sort of tried to gather all of that together so that you all can do it um

077so the Committees the policies like what what are you doing how are you as a board operating together as a unit to help students improve their outcomes in your District um I do not want to say and would never suggest that in a meeting like this that you immediately switch you know all of your practices around how your committees are structured or something it's a process we need to look at it everybody needs to be you know sort of engaged and thoughtful about um about what the purpose is what you want to do with it does it benefit you right so um just know that's coming Paulette yeah I glad to say overnight y'all just do everything perfectly overnight it's not g to happen um we are going to uh keep working to get there

078and but I just want everybody everybody needs to be engaged everybody needs to be brought at the speed that if we try to do this too quickly it's not going to work for everybody so I just wantan to let's go slow go slow get there together um but I also do want to encourage if um you know if the student achievement committee um uh board Scott is that is something that could just be presented once that saves the staff and District time if if all of y'all it saves y'all time um if we can present that at your main board meeting where um the focus should be on students and what they know or are able to do that would be great okay uh thank you for that Terry schuda I'm all set thanks okay

079all right so um looks like excuse me can I ask t uh Laura lesli a question sure okay so lesie um uh I'm sorry I don't have your timeline in front of me but when um when do we start monitoring the time spent that the board is spending like at our board meetings when do we start that exercise is it anytime soon um we can do that tomorrow I would recommend that you figure out who your favorite timekeeper is um which one of you enjoys that practice um I'm happy to work with any of you to do that um and to show you sort of how we work through that I have shared a couple of meetings from other districts just sort of best practice thing so if any of you really enjoyed watching those

080you might enjoy doing the timekeeping piece um if there is a staff that you want to include to help us with that to sort of be the holder of of those time use pieces let me know but we can start that at any time it's useful it's you know it's a good habit to get into um but as it um relates to your um to the timeline and to your um official work I need to go back and check that and I apologize for not knowing that um but I do want to understand we have a board self- evaluation coming up and I will email all of you after that so what we'd like to do is the month before have a Time use evaluation so you un all are clear on what you spent

081your time on that last quarter and then we do the self- evaluation for that quarter and then you see okay these are the practices or habits that we changed that you know helped improve and get us further along the line where we want to be so can can we okay so you want one person but I really think that it's important that the entire board understands this because um a lot of time is spent on things that are not currently on the board that are really outputs I mean inputs not outputs yeah and as a result um you know the meetings are extremely long uh in a lot of cases okay okay um and so I I I I you know I'll talk with the implementation team about it but I just think that that's

082one exercise that every board member should really do it was part of the training that we received um and um you know I just think that if if and particularly the board members you know that tend tend to be a little long- winded um that if they realize that you know this amount of time is being used uh Tak you're taking it from your staff you're taking it from um you know your other board members when this is not the time for that so I I I I I encourage us to do uh some sort of a group activity or share that because um I think that it's important because I think that practice is always is also happening uh where board members are are are engaged in other things throughout the community that there's

083a tendency not to stay focused on the issues uh other the goal so we can talk more about that but I do know I think I think that if we can get that going I think we'll be able uh to uh shorten our our board meetings and that'll give staff back some time and that'll also um allow the super intended you know to be able to uh concentrate more and not spend you know four five hours a week just sitting with the board um a couple of ways that we could do that and again I I would like you know if one person quarter wanted to volunteer to be the timekeeper for that um quarter we could do that that doesn't get everybody engaged if you would like to have a small little workshop on

084how to do those time use pieces um with everybody via Zoom we could do that and that would I would give you you know each of you watch a meeting or two and you have to you know code it for me that would be very helpful that would for all of you I think um with the mind to your own behavior and your own time and this is the thing where we don't want to get into is the um I love to watch watch meetings of the board I used to be on and point out when everybody else was doing everything so just being mindful of uh you know like everybody watch it with regards to themsel right um keep the chunks of time on what you think it was spent on but be really

085mindful of your own behaviors and those that would be my um advice and if we want to do that um if you want to try and get a you know a little um y'all tell me when we could try and get that together to have a little work shop to really just go over that and dig into it yeah let's let's let Cindy let's let Cindy uh because she is the chair let's make sure she's involved in that process and then we can follow her lead I if y'all uh y'all all just do a do we want to do this yay or nay straw poll or something at some point we let me know okay yeah yeah I think it's a great idea because you know we're shifting now and sometimes you know change may

086not necessarily be good for everyone but you know we we want to do this work we agreed to do this work and um you know maybe a little uncomfortable but um it's it's for the betterment of our students in this District yeah again it's a really good practice um we are you know we'll say till we you're second hearing it student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change which adult has to change first and it's not the person across the table from you just a note um so examining your own you know own behavior is a really really good practice so getting eyeballs on that um speaking of getting through and um freeing up your evening do you want me to um go into the next item I know that uh Cindy was um Cindy

087was not able to attend tonight she was on a flight but we wanted to discuss the um the you had adopted some board guardrails and to look at the um practices that are pretty common around what those consequences would be and Larry I that's for me or sorry board members Scott yeah sorry to to interject before we move to that next topic I just want to close up this one because we need the superintendent and staff are going to need to know what we're doing in regards to um student achievement and whether we're going to have a student achievement work work session or if we're just going to move that presentation to our regular business meeting in two weeks I I would appreciate the opportunity to work with you to align that a little more

088um Dr Williams if that's okay and then that would give you giving them that extra week um board member Scott I think would be very helpful so at the big meeting so then no student achievement work session next week can everyone live with that we can live with it Dr you have any oh I can live with it okay any objections no we still have a educational support piece that Terra Shuda um shairs correct and I'm sure she can use the time yeah yeah my my concern is that the board meetings do not become excessively longer because of that okay so I want to be you know real clear we're getting student we're getting our staff out at 8:30 n o'clock at night many of them dat their day start at six o'clock in the

089morning um so I want to be you know uh cognizant of how that's gonna work out to make sure that we're not putting another half hour or whatever on onto our board meetings and put us out to 9:30 10 o'clock yeah that's that's a consider I would say look at look at what you have on the table and if you got to move some stuff off the table to accommodate a report on students it's a good thing so looks like Terry has a question I would think though we're probably going to do the same type of analysis of our full board meeting on how much time like when we're spending when we do our analysis we're going to see that maybe some of the things we do at the full board meeting um I think

090Leslie we've had this discussion in the implementation meetings that there's some things that we need to restructure as a as a whole to make them more efficient agre all right so um I I just want to be the timee keeper we do have another session I know Leslie um wanted to go over some of the uh board guard rails as it pertain to um the adoption of uh consequences um I think we may have to table that at this time because there is another committee meeting and [Music] um um can I yeah can I push on that a tiny bit um I would I think this is uh very important you don't have to have this discussion tonight but it is very important that each of you um do review this was a draft of

091a sort of a one that has been used in many districts around the country um and what it is again is if you there's no point in having any kind of you know just lip service to oh we're going to put guardrails on ourselves as board members unless there are some consequences that get followed through with um you know judiciously um and so the draft that was sent to you all does everybody have that I have to bring it up and I just think it would be very um very helpful for each of you to read through that and um you know discuss uh with you know get a partner discuss it um see if there you know things that you would like to discuss with me are there things that are impractical for you

092in Buffalo I know y'all get cold up there and I don't know if you can but anyway just look at it see if there are things that are you know um you're okay with this and I would recommend trying to adopt this at your next T meeting so that would be my um my question to you as if there's a big something here that needs to be pushed H so everyone received a copy of the document correct all right so I I know it's it's extensive and um I gleaned it over myself probably need to read it again I'm wondering if this is something that could also be included in Larry's time next week since he's not having a student achievement um committee meeting if this is something that we can carve out next week

093prior to the board meeting that's just are you saying that you you would like to use some of that time not used by Larry for executive for your executive uh committee to review this okay so that's very that's that's durable um I would think that does free up staff um this is a board uh other than some board support staff maybe but you don't need the assessment team and whatnot for this so right I'd agree you agree who else agree or who don't who don't agree um I believe how what AJ and um well how referred during during our training that um that our some of our committees that we have you know they believe wasn't focused towards student achievement and student achievement should be focused at the board meeting and I think this is

094a great step you know to how to move forward with student achievement at the board meeting so that the population could know exactly what our goals are uh what our guard rails are um whatever our plans are for the future and and are we achieving or declining in certain areas so I really think that that should be at the board meeting how it was described to us and that we can move in that direction is is is a new pathway for us and might be some fears in it but but I think that we can le as a group move in that direction okay I'm ask I'm sorry just one final thing on this on the consequences I would ask each of you please read through this um if you have questions concerns objections whatever

095around this if you would highlight those um email me and let me know um and I could maybe keep a you know a running tally of that so we could have um more productive conversation um at the when you're ready for this there may be some things that I could handle you know offline or a couple of you could manage together but uh being able to get through this um without everyone you know needing to bring it up for the very first time with each other would be helpful and productive I think sounds good so are we in agreement that then that next week what we what I think we should do is take a look at them and decide next week if we're going to move them forward or what we want to do

096with them um at once you have that conversation um the board can have an active conversation about it because um it still has to go before legal as well okay and so um any if we're talking about adopting anything policy or moving something to the next table we had uh we have to uh talk to legal and see if we can move it in one meeting if it's a change in policy it has to be done in two meetings so we we we need to uh definitely uh have that conversation next week and decide what we're going to do I think that's what we need to leave it at yeah you could definitely manage this in two meetings I wouldn't roll it through you're not gonna kick anybody off the board by Christmas so you

097good I thought we passed the guard Wells am I mistaken we passed the guard rails so we didn't pass the consequences yeah so this is what the follow through is if the guard rails are violated so that you're holding each other accountable to your um what you said you wanted to um how you said you wanted to behaviors yeah interact with each other your commitment to each other so so can you resend that out please it was I just found it again um what day was it yep it's um Cindy had sent it from the conference o from Cindy I'm sorry Cindy Cindy sent Cindy sent it October 28 October sth okay yeah that's a different yeah oh yeah I was looking for you I thought you had sent it I'm like oh boy I

098don't see it it is the 27 okay anyway I think it was a Sunday Saturday I don't know yeah no I I can find it now I thought it was something that lesie had sent and I overlooked that's all I was for draft guard rails and consequences draft board guards and consequences um and I know I'm running your patience in time here we had mentioned a book club idea and I just wanted to throw out if y'all are interested in pursuing that I think it would be greatly beneficial to the community and my thought was that you could do a virtual one um each of you propose people and then we get AJ to host it um sometime in December that gives people a few weeks to get the book read the book we could

099keep it rolling and have them later as well but this way there's no like you know we don't have to go in person and organize all that that's a lot to do oh true just a thought if y'all want if you still wanted to do the book club idea I think it would be very smart to get your community engaged in the head space that y'all are moving to so okay so we have a lot to think about Terry sha you have your hand up yeah I I just think December might be a tough month to get uh people with the holidays and uh all that because I want to make sure that you know from my standpoint and I'm sure it's from everyone else's we want to make sure that we get a a

100true engagement and we and I'm not sure maybe uh December wouldn't be the best month maybe January you could promote the book and promote the idea through November December and then we could try and have the sounds great that sounds great yeah that's great start promoting that okay well we can talk more in the implementation meeting thank you guys I appreciate your time and patience tonight and uh you all know where to find me if you need me all right lesie thank you so much again thank you lesle we'll see you Friday impation meeting this includes EX ative Affairs uh session and I'm going to now pass the time to chairwoman poet Woods for her finance committee meeting pilot Woods yes uh welcome to the finance and operations committee meeting other than hiring the superintendent

101one of the most important legal responsibilities of this board of education is to pass a budget your bud budget is your statement of priorities you put your money where your mouth is so today we have a very important presentation on the status financial status of Buffalo public schools for the 2023 24 year this year and a review of the arer funding and a 20242 budget preview because we have some important decisions they're going to have to be made and we need to be our CFO and our superintendent want to make us aware of it because it's going to be a process and it's going to be some very important decisions for this board so Madam superintendent I give it over to you to introduce your staff and to make whatever comments you would like thank

102you so much honorable chairwoman Woods um you've really gave a great opening that's EX exactly what tonight's presentation is all about um there are some very important decisions that are going to have to be made uh over the next couple of months and um you know I think as much as we can be ahead of it and proactively plan for it and being transparent and communicating you know what we need to do I think the better off we be I do just want to share as an aside that today um our CFO and myself had a very positive meeting with our city controller um Mrs Barbara Miller Williams uh she had convened a small team that was there the her Special Assistant uh Mr deol Smith and I believe the CFO I'm not quite sure

103of his title for the city Mr samansky and uh it was a good conversation talking about Buffalo State College and da Vinci and that whole lease agreement uh piece um it looks good good there were no promises but she and her staff will be engaging in some deep review and research she understands the timeliness for you know us knowing where we're going and what we need to do and so she has assured me that she'll be back in touch with me not later than Friday to let me know so so I really do want to share that and my appreciation to her for agreeing to meet with us on a dime it was a quick request and she accommodated and it was a very positive and good meeting so I'll turn things over to uh

104CFO Barn he was very helpful in that meeting and I know that he's got you know a lot that he needs to share tonight um some good some challenging but um you know it's all information that this board has to know to help with you know guiding some of the decisions that will be coming down the line so CFO Barn I'll turn things over to you thank you superintendent and thank you Mrs Woods uh you guys framed the presentation perfectly uh and Mrs Woods I got to say I always look forward to our pre-presentation very spirited discussions uh it helps clear my mind for these meetings so tonight uh I'm just going to talk about the we're at the end of the first quarter so where we're standing for the current year results and then

105yeah a preview of our planning and budget for next year regarding the uh our the end of our so next slide ADM please like at the end of every first quarter it's too early in the year to calculate a reliable projection we only have one month of the full BTF salaries they only come back to work in September and the state has not yet released our current year revenues um so largely based on that at this point there's no identifi identifiable savings so the original deficit projection of 37.7 million that's what we should count on um but among the factors that are maybe a little bit different or pronounced this year uh I want to go over some of those the full impact of the second year the BTF contract on salaries extra activity and

106benefits if you remember a large portion of that first year was funded by resser that's not the case this year um we're going to have fewer vacancies thus higher wages and benefits than in the past years um we may have to make some transfers to capital projects that were not originally budgeted for examples of that include 1.5 million for for fosic field a $1.4 million down payment on the commissary project and possibly an unknown amount for the renovation of lease space that du it we very recently had some unbudgeted Transportation cost for Lake bus supervision and for elt buses there's uh a pending and still being discussed $6 million wased purchase that was not in the original budget and then maybe two weeks ago we got notified by the state that they're going to uh

107charge us retro tuition increases for the kids that attend agencies that could be up to one 1.5 million um there are miscellaneous other unbudgeted requests for approximately $3 million if they're approved the Su been holding the line on those but that's out there um and again it's too early to change that initial projection because we haven't gotten our first Sam's output report which is uh how the state tells us the exact amount of revenues we're going to get this year these factors will be more fully discussed and outlined in the in the official first quarter report which will be submitted to the board for the next full board meeting but again right now largely because of all those things I just told you a much more active year than we've seen in a while uh

108we should plan on a $ 37.7 million deficit this year um this is the last year of the RoR budget some recent additions uh additional security measures involved scammers says little scholar programs and some playgrounds at this time actually just yesterday at 4:00 we submitted the sr2 to the state uh the final report so that part is gone we are in our last year right now and and why I say that is now that it's final and submitted to the state we can work on the final tweaks to this last year of the resser budget but there's really so many requests for resser any additional requests to be considered are going have to be offset by Cuts ADM next slide okay before we start talking about the end of our professer process I want to

109reiterate again that we are in the strongest financial position this district has ever been in uh we're in a stronger financial position than just about any other District that's facing the same arbesser challenges um that should make us feel very good and confident going into uh the planning process for these decisions that we have to make um on this page I have the the fund balance analysis if you go down to the last number the million that's our total just general fund balance however about 200 some million of that has already been assigned for specific purposes I'm going to walk through some of those if you go to the top the nonspendable and restricted items so you got 375 million in cash but 31 30, 844 has to be set aside for specific purposes um

110including uh the last payment on a death that we incurred uh unemployment insurance and any potential judgments and claims you have to set aside that money then the assigned section this is where decisions made by the district impact how you can use your fund balance uh the first line is designated for next year's budget 37.7 that's the projected deficit right now we need the money at the end of the year to fund that overspending let's go the next line is $6 Million last year there were POS cut that weren't fully paid out you need to set aside 6 million to pay that this next line I'm going to mention a couple times in my presentation assign for capital projects $24 million that is money in our that is deducted from our fund balance and put

111aside for decisions that we've made for the commissary for Buff State for fck field uh additional monies for all High Stadium and then there's a tiny bit of a contingency in there so anytime we fund unable projects or our portion of an aable project you have to set those funds aside and it's a deduction from your fund balance uh the last item or the next item $70 million that's for the payment of uh post employment benefits uh then there's 15 million uh you set aside that that's like a month and a half for health insurance just in case something bad happens this next line $30 million here is why we are our financial strength will make our ability to handle these upcoming decisions easier than most districts after uh conversations with the superintendent and prior

112to our audit being finalized we assigned $30 million for the continuation of some of the our planned items $15 million over a 2-year period okay we don't want to use that money but it has been set aside in case we don't achieve our objective of cutting 90 million um and last last 9 million you set aside money for any unknown prior year claims that crawl out of the woodwork so when you're done with all that we really have $11 million in unassigned operating cash still exceedingly healthy but you can see we start at 375 and based upon the decisions we make like unable capital projects those funds get assigned and essentially gobbled up ADM next slide please I guess I want to end on again this fund balance and then analysis the assignments were very

113conservatively done that is a supremely healthy fund balance even after the assignments we're in great shape to address these decisions that are upcoming uh real quick review of three of the most fundamental challenges facing the district one continued decreases in enrollment uh will me ly impact both our foundation Aid and our major title grants that are all based upon enrollment um at some point we need to align our building staff to these lower enrollments um that's we need to address that and we do it every year in the school based budget process and in the regular budget process I think this our process will put the focus on that a little bit more and and I'm confident working together we can really address this fundamental issue maybe for the first time in the district's history

114and not believe it as a vague comment it doesn't mean reducing any services to the students it means providing them more efficiently um and we'll talk more about that as we get into the RFS process second big point during the last two fiscal years we transferred $27 million out of the general fund to capital projects as you just saw there's an additional 24 million assigned that's $51 million over a three-year period um I think it's time to reflect for a minute like congratulate ourselves that's a lot of money um and it's a lot of great projects the commissary bu State School 8 school 86 all High Stadium but you can reach a point where it starts negatively impacting your finances we should Revel in all those wonderful projects nothing like that has been done in

115decades but there's a point where you need to stop that's that's my point of view anyway but anyway any further emergency declarations will could trigger a state audit of these uh projects we got to be careful with it lastly our buesser it ends June of 2024 we have $90 million in expenditures being funded by ARP 310 FTE the summer school and the after school programs that money does not fit into the general fund um I'm going to paint worst case say nobody wants to do anything that's $90 million in expenditures with no Revenue that would eat up that $151 million that we just talked about in 18 months so no action is not an alternative next slide here the next slide you go so we're in the strongest Financial position everywhere and a great position

116to address this challenge um in our planning uh we can't count on increased funding from the federal state or city level next year the state is facing its own budget shortfalls for the federal bailout just look at what's happening in the House of Representatives nothing's coming out of there so we can't put that in our plan we can't really plan on any significant amount of additional grant funding we will use them as wisely as possible and we'll continue to scour everything for additional grant money but we should all remember that our existing grants they're already being pressured by the increase in BTF contract cost and large increases in extra activity pay that is something we can address the extra activity next year again to frame the issue the 90 million in budget expenditures will be

117cut one way or another if we don't act to cut them which I know we will cash balances will it almost run to zero in 18 months he started $150 million You' spent $90 million dollar a year with no Revenue that's what would happen that's our unassigned cash would run out the state would not approve or may not approve a budget that we give that has $130 million deficit it uh worst case it could trigger a bond default remember we have very serious terms and conditions on our financial health and performance that's associated with our $455 billion in outstanding bonds any and all that happens a hard control board would be installed they come in and cut 90 billion so I just wanted to frame it that no action is not not a uh alternative

118so next slide Ed a little small I overview of the planning process uh as I discuss with Mrs Woods I we're just presenting here today the framework and some additional thoughts on how we're going about this um so we're going to begin the review and recommendation process with the cabinet members in early December the objective is to either cut the Esser expenditure or to make offsetting Cuts in the general fund and shift those items over but would you have to reduce expenditures by 90 million that 90 million is made up a two components 60 million in non-staff expenditures and 30 million in FTE Personnel related including the benefits first thing say the 90 million in expenditures is made up of 60 million in non-staff expenditures and 30 million in Personnel related expenditures so the first

119step that we're going to do is res re review all non-staff budget items approximately 60 million there are actions that we could take that will immediately reduce that 90 million to a much more manageable level reduce the usage of 1 1200 you I think that's like frivolous no that's 1015 million dollar uh no more unable capital projects and I just reviewed the tremendous success we've had in capital projects like take a pause all it's a district no large scale equipment upgrades we've been doing them for 24 months straight contracts for programs with no measurable value reduce excessive PB or travel none of these measures in that 60 million will harm anything it doesn't increase class size it it it does nothing to uh diminish the quality of our services it's just we'll have to take

120a hard look and just say get a new mindset other than the one for the past 24 months this stuff isn't necessary right now and it doesn't impact the kids cut it um the Second Step focus on the 310 FTE that's 30 million the first step in this is we're working on providing the superintendent a detailed analysis of the positions that are in without our pressor by position by school by Department Etc we're going to give her the big picture overview and then we're going to throw together data on for the cabinet members that will show the oppressor positions the beds data for the schools and historical FD FTE for some perspective keep in mind that this analysis will also include current vacancies from a budget standpoint we currently have more vacancies than we do

121positions within FTE but what that means if we were to use them you cut the vacant position you move the AR passer over everything's fine but but then we cannot go back and add more unbudgeted requests it's cutting the vacancy and moving it out of the budget um so cabinet members will then make their recommendations on either cutting the arser or offsetting cuts to the general fund such as the vacancy uh then a summary report of the cabinet recommendations they'll be provided to the superintendent to review I'm extremely confident again we're in the strongest position of any District that's facing these issues uh we need to address some fundamental issues Staffing in enrollment unable Capital expenditures it we're going to come out of this strong ER than ever with no uh impact on the kids

122and the quality of our program so that's going to start in December and the first step is to get the super start getting the superintendent updated on some information she's been asking me for it uh we will get that to her abil soon and me last slide I I just thought I'd take a couple minutes and update you on some projects that the finance department is working on in the current year first of all we're launching a new online payment software solution this is going to increase revenue and reduce the risk of misappropriating a cash across the district uh we're initially going to roll it out to support fundraising for the extra classroom fund Andrew O Oni the controller is spearheading this project and he started some training today but potential future uses could include

123online ticket sales for athletics and other extracurricular uh extracurricular events technology fees all kinds of things but we're starting it out with the extra classroom funds extra activity funds second thing we're doing is a new munus based invoicing and account receivable system we actually implemented it this year and we had our highest ever amount of invoicing to other districts for a variety of largely special ed related services this was be headed up by Rachel nand and Adrien Block uh it improves the volume accuracy and efficiency in District invoicing it improves collection times reduces writeoffs uh we are in the process of hiring an assistant collection person all of which has been in the budget just unfill but we we've been working very hard with HL and uh we're making some real good progress we're going

124to replace the paper based overtime and extra activity system within electronic process this will establish controls to prohibit double dipping and other forms of overpayment it will improve the accuracy and efficiency of the process and it will greatly reduce time on task and improve the report for auditing purposes I know it's been talked about before yes promise you we'll get done all I caution is size of our district the numerous unions that all impacts these data tables that these payroll things are based on that and the number of approval levels is everything when you're trying to manage and not change a process like this we have everybody we need all the expertise we need to get it done and we're on our second meeting I can give you a report out maybe at the December

125boing lastly again working with HR we're making some good progress here a robust internal audit Department we're in the process of hiring in two internal audit positions again both of them were in the uh approved budgets uh so these efforts will be supplemented LS McCormack and joshler Mali Andrew nii and I have a real vision for how this uh internal audit department will work we can expect both cost savings and process improvements throughout the district we're actually going to be communicating out what the audit plan is in the coming weeks and this is not a gotcha program uh not after anybody or anything there's well you'll see it in the AUD plan like 10 areas that we think uh need to be reviewed for any healthy organization uh people processing things according to State regs

126uh are they processing them efficiently and consistently and in in uh uh in conjunction with board policy along the way I guarantee you we will save money probably find a few things that are wrong um but it's really all about process Improvement and training to our St thank you very much well you covered in some very significant items uh when I looked at the report and I said my God a37 million deficit I say and uh I asked about that and you indicated that the impact of the BTF salaries extra activity and benefits that's $40 million that came into our budget because of that that's correct because of that one contract that's that's the deficit right there 40 million increase in salaries because of the contract and it we can't push it off into our

127Essa it's got to come in out of the general fund yep but then when you went over this late budget supervision extra 1.2 million yeah uh I I'm like what what's that all about and you're saying because we have the three tier Bell system that people have to work late and um for the ex extra learning times the staff has to work like so that's 1.2 million and 1.9 you're saying $3 million because of our our our shift in the bell time is that is that my understanding no not the shift in the bell time it's in even with the shift to the three tier Bel time which has shown some improvements kids are waiting uh a long time longer than we expected at certain schools and supervisors have to be there and this was

128submitted by the department uh as a very conservative estimate both of those items could come in lower but that's not how we budget here well I I do believe in conservative budgeting so we don't run a deficit but then we got a $1.5 million bill for New York State saying they did a seven-year review and they we old tuition for the charter school it's like uh typically they do a one-year review and that's it they had skipped numerous years but they've never gone that far back to adjust the rates that we've paid to these agencies so we have to make it up it happens almost every year but to a much lower level uh this is just like seven years of retro that's why we have contingencies the budget this thing normally would have just

129been absorbed in one of those contingencies uh but I wanted to put that on the list just to show you know we're so big and complex stuff like that happens nobody's fault it's just the New York state right setting unit uh went back and ordered their own books okay to agencies that wasn't Charter Schools no not char Char schools no this has nothing to do with Charters it's p agencies tuition rate increases for agencies agencies students with disabilities students with disabilities who attend agencies and they adjusted it over seven years and hit us with a $ 1.5 million dollar bill now yeah it's like we'll have to make adjusted payments to I think there's 13 agencies we utilize and we have to make payments to them and then you're saying our student count you're anticipating

130it's going to drop 100 just this year yes okay uh I see Terry shoot his hand up so I'm gonna uh I should I should say that 100 student drop is the lowest drop drop in five years it's much less of a drop than we've experienced uh the the prior years were five six 7 800 okay every year four okay go ahead okay thanks um I have a question I have a couple things um so the first student they we're having a problem with the lot like you had said with the overtime with um our staff so where does first student come in uh to play here that if they short drivers or they're uh they're arriving to schools late we're paying for them uh for their the issues that they're facing there there should

131be I'd have to double check for you Terry but there should be a a penalty Clause within the contract but I'm not so sure about this most recent contract I I will just double check with you yeah because it it doesn't M if we're if they're providing the service and they're and we're incurring uh that uh that additional that doesn't make sense but my other thing um my other question is um what is our operating capacity of students I've been reading a lot about Rochester their operating capacity was 37,000 they only have 21,000 enrolled and they um on October 20th they took a look at you know they had too many they they had I think they closed 11 buildings like what is our capacity I don't have a number but we face those same

132challenges as them but the same underlying demographics and capacity I don't have our numbers but we have a lot of schools that have three 400 kids in them we all know that okay I just I was concerned when I've been reading about what's happening in Rochester and that's uh that's something that's uh we're we're not immune to any especially New York State urban districts uh nor do we have any like problems that are unique we're just larger than most of them but those are all things that we will have to consider once we take a look at you know where we are um starting you know it'll be early December and we do have to look at buildings where there's capacity but you know the enrollment has consistently over time been been low you know

133but it's not easy either when we start making decisions about closing schools that that's a hard conversation very very of very yeah so there's a lot to consider we have ter uh Terrence herd his hand is up Mr herd board member herd thank thank you um uh chairwoman Woods um I just hear the the conversation about closing schools or buildings um that's something we can't do because um we can't leave that open to any other possibilities for any other school or opportunity for other um uh organizations to move into those facilities and we really need to um work on as Dr Tandra Willi's been doing was getting our our word out about the programs that this District offer and getting children back into the Buffalo Public Schools which I appreciate I was on a um

134conversation with a board member from a district in Michigan and they have 15 buildings and they're closing four of them and may be five and I don't want to get into that structure also which we trying to obtain more property so so that we can have an easement for our kids because it's different here in Buffalo because with all our kids being on similar bus lines we have that confusion that that exists between the kids and um and different schools that that's that's in um um not agreement with one another we have we have you know um things um along them lines of too many schools in the very congested um bus lines so so that's one thing let let's work on now just going back um now we started the little Scholars Program with

135say yes uh would that be affected any kind of way right now you you mentioned that and um the um the little Scholars uh what's what's the position on that right now I thought we was looking to expand that program it'll be expanded with one extra school next year uh it'll be a total of eight which was the agreed upon number for the pilot and uh will be Shifting The District cost over transitioning it from Esser into a couple of different sources after that okay so we looking to maintain sorry sorry sorry Dr whims it's in the budget so we've got our fouryear budget plan and um you know that's something we don't want to say we've started it and we're cutting it out but at some point you know we will have to start

136to have some really challenging conversations because we've been able to do so much good stuff which is our ponies everything's good and great um but we just we won't be able to keep everything the way that it is so we want to start with those non FTE things like travel you know like looking at um overtime and and you know where it's been at 1 1200 you know those are some lwh hanging fruit things because we want to cut as less as we can close to the classroom we don't want to have to delve into cutting services in classroom for our children okay that's very very important for for this community and our children and also U I know hearing rumors and phone calls about condition over at the ceao and and what will happen

137with that program that we might want to bring in more little scol programs here into our district uh so uh whatever we can do to fight to get funding for that please let us know how we can move forward with that um of course um I've been promoting playgrounds in in the schools in the in this in the city on our school so where we at with that no we said $5 million allocated for 500,000 additional fa recently to finish the installation of I think three playgrounds five to finish three playgrounds correct okay and uh we have a scope on the other playgrounds is that something that's obtainable still or is just something that we need to we don't have it on our radar but you know the budget proc process is coming up and

138we'll consider everything within the context of the presentation that was just given okay I'm sorry um it's an organization called Kaboom and in Georgia you know they kind of it's almost like um eight days of Hope where they go out and you know and underserved communities they help build playgrounds and they help um that's kind of what their mission is so I'll be looking a little more you know into that to see if that's something that in Buffalo we can take advantage of but we'll have to do you know Innovative things like that to try to keep you know keep those services and supports for our children okay I'm not going to hold it up because I know we went over a lot today I know a lot of board members have questions but the

139last thing that I'm just going to make reference to is we we made uh we spoke about of principal B having calm rooms inside each of the schools to where they can calm a student down if they're going to a Health um issue or problem and um and that was something that was supposed to been included into the budget but I don't think it was included in the last budget but it was uh something that we said that we could looking to adapt to the schools after meeting with the principles um we are we with that and if there are any other you know private sources we can get to help fund these com rooms um can we look into those um possibly or grants that's exactly where you know where we'll go is looking

140all of our schools have Community Partners we've got a a a document that's got hundreds of Partners in there and all don't have to be elaborate you know some C rooms it might just be a few hundred dollars or a thousand dollars to just you know get some bean bags and some paint and that kind of thing but we're going to have to you know lean on our partners a little bit um to help with some of that okay thank you thank you again and um I know the board MERS have questions so thank you so much thank you for a great presentation okay um remember when uh this presentation Started Mr uh Baron said we have to align our building staff to enrollments I asked specifically for some examples and it it one of

141the examples was we have classes special what classes with one child and two teachers we have to be more efficient than that that's the kind of decisions that we we wanted to deliver services but I would think most people would would agree one child and two teachers it's not an efficient arrangement I see M uh board member mco's hand up thank you chairwoman Woods um thank you Mr Baron it's a great presentation and it really got me you know got my wheels turning especially around how you're looking to cut costs in the future um and and I'm looking specifically at PD to me that that you know considering we have a a less amount of teachers more vacancies uh that's a great place to start but I'm also Dr Williams I'm concerned with how much

142feedback I get around PD and how some people you know you you got people who still have the opportunity just kind of sign in and call it a day and then you have you know we have so many things that we offer which is amazing but I don't feel like we have enough people really partaking in everything that we offer so I with cutting that short I also would like to see where our resources could be put into making sure that these PDS are actually being followed to cut the meat you know cut off whatever we're not using um and even hold folks accountable and you know I'm a great teacher Advocate but I'm going to tell the truth if you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing you need to be held accountable

143for that because my kids and the children in this community count on you learning whatever it is you signed up to learn so I feel like PD is a huge uh it it can definitely be cut as far as cost but we also have to look into the 101 start from the ground around how we you know go about monitoring PD and I also with the EXT your classroom I I I don't know if I have the term right um does that cover what is that covering is that literally like we're putting extra classrooms in buildings or are you covering like some of the supplies that teachers get making sure every has what they need like I'm not sure what that was every school has to have an extra classroom activity account to take receipts

144and make purchases uh it's probably about $2 million across the 60 schools but it's highly monitored it's also students have to be involved it's a chance to engage them in a financial way this will just make it'll eliminate the cash and make everything electronic that's beautiful that's that that's actually what I was kind of hoping to hear when it comes to that and the last thing I'd like to say is I've been saying this since day one I know it's not a popular um opinion but I've been in enough of the SST meetings and the school-based management meetings where we're being held as a district responsible for everything that's being spent but sometimes the autonomy in the schools to be able to get what they want doesn't match with what it is we need to

145do in order to hit the goals that you're looking to hit and that we put in front of you so I just want to put out there that you know I don't know how the power needs to be set whether it's you know Elementary School whether it's by grade whether it's you know Elementary and high school but I I don't want to upset any principles but you know autonomy in the schools and what is being spent in the schools and to have you know a bunch of positions filled yet you don't have your math teacher in place some of these things that I'm hearing is is it's a little concerning so however it is you go about it I I would love to um just put out there that monitoring the spending you know we

146always end up picking up the Flack for what's not being offered in schools and some schools have this and others don't and we bring it back down to the sbmt and the SST meetings and I I just feel like that is also huge when it comes to budget um how we monitor you know this is what needs to be in your class and I see you don't have it here but this is what needs to be in your class I'd love to see you know how that looks okay I'm done good comments thank you I don't see any other board members hands so I wanted to point out as I pointed out to our CFO that when you say this 90 million that we spent on our Esser the 60 million of it is one

147onetime expenditures there's a difference between saying we have 30 million in staff that we're trying to save 30 million makes sense uh if we do it efficiently but when you say the 60 million that we spent are things like uh equipment maybe those coid things uh white boards whatever yep onetime expenditures we don't have to spend that again that's that's that's an easy choice if the if if if you do some good management reviews and say okay we bought all these white boards we bought this we bought that that's one time and it I'm saying it's not gonna be as difficult or it shouldn't be as difficult to say hey I bought you a white board you don't need another one thank you Mr Woods sister Woods yes um just one just one last thing

148I would like to to investigate into the $9 million that uh the City of Buffalo um receive an interest off theer funds that that from the shared bank account and I think we need that some of that money or that money back to the district to help out you know with our cause so I would like to to see where we at with that and uh reaching out to to find out what we need to do to uh obtain that money's for the district and our [Music] children yes that's a key project especially given the situat we're facing but I just want to point out that in the million there are items that are uh included talking about uh the 120th that we had to pay staff one they don't get u a uh the

149hourly rate or amount that they used to get now they get a higher amount and we're not to my awareness tied to continuing that in this in the next year and that's that's a 105 million doll item that we have to have the guts the wisdom to make that decision and say no uh we're GNA we're gonna say teachers positions and not all these extras Mr bar you can comment on that thank you for those comments uh in the spirit uh yeah thank you PA Sharon belon Cotman had her hand up as well board president thank you CH chairwoman Woods um I have a couple of question questions so I need some clarity here is the Buff State Pro um D Vinci project reimbursable yes or no yes okay and considering that have we been

150has it been approved by the state considering that we have a a a lower enrollment yeah yeah yes um there's still some formal there's still some formal paperwork to be done done uh because of the nature of the transaction but financially the building Aid portion is all but done yes yes and so how much of that is aidable 20 of uh superintendent they're going over 24 million 24 million 8 98.5% 98.5 okay all right what I I I I do we have a definite plan for increasing enrollment in this District have we put together Madam superintendent a definite plan for increasing enrollment in this District um we have we have and I think that you know the um data that Chief Barnes uh shared is is I think evident that we are getting our kids

151back um you know we've done a lot with marketing the district um and I believe that it is beginning to take hold you know we're being more transparent with the data um so I mean you know I can't say that I have a written plan but you know certainly being on the radio um Billboards that we're doing uh being visible in the community um you know making sure that all of our classrooms have highly qualified teachers and the recruitment efforts that we've done and announcing that so I think what has been shown is that over the last couple of years years we're losing fewer and fewer kids yes um you know whether it is our athletic events you know that are happening there's a whole Litany of things I think that are bringing children back

152into um our Buffalo Public Schools okay so I do recommend that a plan be put together purposely put together that involves every one of your cabinet members as well as every principal every staff member in this District because we're in in open enrollment right now right and um I I've received more literature at my house from other schools about enrolling students than I received from Buffalo Public Schools so in other words we have people actively we're sending out mailings and sending out stuff to get people to enroll in their schools but I don't see it you know the same process uh I've said before people do not know about our CTE program they don't know okay so if they don't know about it and and um and we have an excellent program they don't know

153about it how can they know to enroll students so I really think that uh we really need to look at that um I was expecting something uh some sort of when I see that these are efforts that you are making to uh try to cut cost travel is one of them travel is a is not a huge amount but overtime is you understand what I'm saying so we have we so what what all of this boils down to me is efficiency are we run in every Department efficiently I'm talking about all the way down to the into the uh schools where the hot water um faucet may be leaking you know I'm talking about pure efficiency to make sure that everyone is doing what they're supposed to do we've just passed a major contract with

154one our social emotional supporters who don't have staff my question was how do we determine how they get paid we just pass $600,000 to them meanwhile I'm saying I'm being told that in many of our schools they don't have proper Staffing so I think there there needs to be and I don't know um seems like something was done years ago about something like this uh when Pam Brown was here about some sort of inefficiency but I think um Jean Chason might have been a part of it at the time with say yes I don't know but we really need to look at what efficiency looks like okay because if Cindy had not taken the trip that she took recently out to the Council of great City Schools we would not have the information that she's

155about to deliver to the board because of course it was a council of great City schools and what are big schools doing in this in this country and about to bring some things forward uh that will help us be more efficient as a board so I'm really concerned this fosic fills what happened to the money that was promised to us by the um alumni that initial this is one half this is our part of the total purchase price that's our part and so has has it been determine what how that field is going to be used I do not think so I I don't it hasn't come before the board and there was some Community concerns about that okay um and this meeting with the controller and not to have the conversation about interest Ed

156this District um I'm glad y'all had a good meeting maybe we should have had somebody from the board in there who could have asked the questions you didn't want to ask but uh we want our interest okay we want our interest back we need it at this point um and so I'm just looking at this and um I'm looking at this and I'm really concerned because what I'm being told is that if we are more efficient as a district we will save Mo millions and millions of dollars I'm talking about stuff that's being thrown out that shouldn't even be thrown out books that are no longer being used that just it's just we just got to look at what efficiency looks like in this District we have to you're tightening your belt but you can

157come up with suggestions but first of all we definitely I want to know what's going on with overtime in this District Dr kids did a report the last report this board got was in 217 on overtime Dr Pig asked for it I think um both you and uh board member woods and CFO Barnes are all saying the same thing you know that the efficiency piece is going to be huge um you know I got to say I'm not surprised that you're getting literature from Charters I think that the work that we're doing is causing them to level up um I'm seeing they they're putting up Billboards now they're on the radio now um because I think you know we have been very aggressive and not shy about uh what we're doing the good work we're

158doing and that you know we can best service our children so I'm not surprised that they're sending information I'm glad to hear but people still ask me over and over and over again when are we going to put our CTE programs back in place we did put a billboard up on CTE I just have to find out where it is because we've got so many I haven't seen it but I know I know uh the Challenger is available and we're not using that newspaper to get our word out we're not using it okay why wouldn't we put that article uh Rob Harris did a fantastic uh presentation not too long ago uh about our CTE program that that should be in an article and it should be in in the paper um so that everyone

159could know it could be on our website so everyone could know the work that he's doing in CTE and I'm just concerned that we we don't we're not uh really we're doing better than what we were before you came on I have to give you kudos for that you've hired uh Jeff he's doing a fantastic job but there's still much more work to do to get our story out because if we waiting on the Buffalo news or some of these news people to do it we'll be dragging out stories for three and four weeks that that should have been covered and and moved on so we got to the Challenger I'm interested in doing a weekly editorial I don't mind writing something or having staff you know we can submit something but I didn't get

160any response and I did submit something and it didn't make it in so you know we've got some work to do to just make sure maybe we didn't get it to the right person I don't know but I think we need to have you you need to have your your Jeff person uh Jeff your Jeff is the um uh publ our communication person have him Reach Out directly to her and talk to her I did have a conversation with her uh and um she she's willing to work with us however I do think that you know we have not even with marketing our open enrollment you know I don't think that the word has been out uh as strong as it should be should be a major campaign that starts in August and runs in

161my opinion until the end of that to let people know why they should bring their children to Buffalo Public Schools um and if we depend on the news to do it they're only going to hear the negative stuff because that's uh that's what they're trying to uh they read if you bleed a guy told me that the other day that's why we're always in the news that people people buy the news if we read they only read when you bleed so Buffalo is always uh put out there bleeding in order to get more people to watch and listen to to the news so thank you for that but yeah um I'm interested in um having a being a part of a conversation about efficiency because I still think there are things that we should be

162selling uh we should be building more for we're not billing um our special weed Services we are entitled to income from those special ed services okay but if we don't Bill them we won't get them okay so we're providing services to Charter Schools and there's things that we can be billing for and we haven't been billing for them and we can we're doing it within our own children we can be building uh the state for and we haven't been building so we need to start looking at how we can make some money for this District big time because I'm not pleased with talking about laying off people after giving everybody Hefty salaries last year so you got to know where I'm coming from Children First so I'm just letting you know nobody was disagreeing with

163paying all that money it was a great idea now all of a sudden it's a bad we're we're in a situation where we're strug we're going to be struggling so I want us to take a look at that thank you thank you for all you're doing U Jim great report thank you thank you um Mr BR did you want to mention some of the the again uh Revenue increasing activities that your staff did uh you did present it at the last board meeting I know you're going after more revenues yeah we had our highest revenue year ever I think it was well over7 million and invoicing to other District agencies and Charters okay we have we have a very robust uh invoicing program uh where we scrub enrollment scrub Services provided we based on WE

164Bud we invoice on actual cost which is higher than the state rates so uh we have a pretty good effort uh do you think we should sue or we should go after the state for trying to make us pay back money they did not help us get the back money that we're entitled to for the charter schools why are they now coming forward uh telling us that we have to back pay some money okay did they do this every year it's called a rate adjustment it's just the length of period uh that they went back and did it for so can we challenge their their formula is there any is there any Hoops holes in it is what I'm looking for I do not think so okay does this rate adjustment also include the the

165monies that we have to pay for when they send children back that we not receiving no it's another issue should be tied [Music] together we sending kids back and we got to educate them without receiving no monies that should be tied into it [Music] definitely uh CFO Barnes I want to commend you on replacing the current paper based over overtime extra activity system we've had several complaints from staff not getting paid their extra monies for six months uh Terry shoter has brought a lot of these things to our attention so I'm glad to see that you're going to that your staff is working on an electronic process so we can eliminate some of these problems because it it it hurt staff morale and it doesn't make us look good when we can't pay people according

166to what the contract says so I commend you on that do any other board members have any other questions car sha I just would like to Echo I'm I'm very happy to see uh the what's happening with the new system it's not done yet ter I'll be watching thanks all right um Madam superintendent I don't s see any more board questions so I turn it back to you to close this out all righty um I also want to Echo you know how happy I am about um getting folks paid more timely and I also want to give a shout out to uh our Cai Department along with HR because they've also um enhanced the time between interviewing and getting people hired and getting people into school and and calling back that's huge so that's a

167big thing and uh Jeff just texted me because he wanted me to let the board know that you know and I shared it at the presentation that we did with nisba but you know the Wednesday with Williams you know we're getting tens of thousands and we got 87,000 views for the one wed that's a lot that's a lot but we're getting thousands of views you know weekly we're tracking that information so that's just another way that we're trying to get the word out about the great things that we're doing that's all I have it was a great report okay the last last thing I want to mention is that the Buffalo Urban League annual Gala will be held on Saturday November 11th at 6 pm at the Buffalo convention center and that item uh our

168board president will uh vice president will be bringing to the table at our next board meeting so we can support the Urban League Gala as they give scholarships to our young people with with that if there's no other comments have a blessed night that's in the finance and Ops committee all right good night all right thank you Mr barns see than you Mr Burns thank you superintendent all righty yes thank you so much transparent superintendent