001uh meeting today uh I had planned on working on um some issues in pre-k uh program but I am going to ask uh Dr Rivera that you and I will have a conversation about that uh tomorrow if that's possible and um because of the pressing issue of um transportation and the proposed three bell schedule I know I have received many calls already today and um I think that it is in you know in um support of our families and our uh our staff that was something we need to address right now so I'm going to turn it over to uh Dr Williams to open the meeting thank you so much chairwoman shooter um you're right you know it is um you know it's been a long time coming and you know for those that are
002listening what I just want people to know and understand is that this is not something that we did thoughtlessly um it's a negotiated item it's been discussed for quite some time we put together a diverse group of stakeholders almost a year ago on a committee that was called it's still called the operation Sunrise committee and it really was a holistic group of folks District leaders School leaders first student transportation folks board members union leaders teachers pastors Community stakeholders and parents that came together and you know this was kind of a last resort um you know we tried many other things this last year to um try to address an issue that we didn't create but certainly it was impacting our students so you know we we beefed up recruitment efforts and we you know work
003with first student to offer bonuses and raise wages we rerouted bus patterns we combined schools on the same buses we innovatively you know paid parents we had drivers from out of town come in to try to pick up some Roots we've worked with Mickey Kearns um to to see you know what could be done as far as our County Motor Vehicles Department and trying to get more CDL licenses quicker our adult education department is addressing it and we even worked with our New York State DMV commissioner Mark Schroeder to see what we could even do there at the end of the day though you know we are where we are and there are groups of children that are not afforded the same opportunities that we want for all of our students and so we're trying
004to you know roll this out in a way that's inclusive and so you're going to hear from Chief Hills who you know is working just day and night you know because there's a lot that has to happen quickly in a short period of time and so I'm getting calls too I'm getting emails I'm responding to everyone that I get I think it's important to do that but I'm going to turn things over to Chief Hill so that he can share kind of what our rollout is and where we are in the work thank you off man superintendent and thank you chairwoman Judah the um um admin do you have the PowerPoint up so the equitably protecting instruction initiative the movement to a three-tier bell schedule um was made possible because of the language put in
005the contract next slide and it very much supports the 5 by 25 goals eliminating opportunity achievement gaps to provide excellent and equitable student outcomes access to educational excellence amplifying all voices um superintendent Williams discussed how we had a year-long committee the crisis has not only been for a year it's a two year long crisis that committee was committed to looking at every potential solution activating Partnerships with our community members with our vendor partners and then prioritizing safety security and Wellness so next next what we are looking is a solution that restores instructional time our elementary school day will have increased time where students are in classrooms with their teachers it allows the capacity for elt and Athletics Transportation so we will not be in a position where we have our Athletics teams having to take
006the metro bus to get from one place to a competition it allows for better bus Aid allocation before the pandemic we were at about 50 percent bus Aid coverage we're now at around 75 percent and with our pre-static number of buses we'll be able to recruit for kind of a a steady Target we actually went down in percentage this year because we added drivers and added buses and for every driver we need to add a bus save this will allow us to recruit bus aids to increase the goal is 100 but it will allow us to allocate our bus aides better um along with that we have a high turnover of bus aides and having the last bullet short arise with less students will make both driving and being a bus aide a much more
007um sustainable profession because a half hour ride with 30 kids on a bus is better and more easily easily managed than a um one hour to 90 minute ride with a bus that is full by the end of the Run predictability and reliability we did get better on this for the last half of the year but last year and for September October and November of this year we had many days where we did not have routes covered we had to double routes we had to um have kids wait for several hours kids were getting to late schools at they were walking in the door when when lunch was being served in some cases so it was not predictable I know that I saw and I I used very often the anecdote because I walk my
008uh little dog at every morning at 6 20 and when I go out I'd see uh Fargo in Rhode Island Fargo in Vermont I would see everyone waiting the the and they would be in their cars with the apps there'd be the family on the corner waiting and the bus wasn't always there on time so we won't have to have families relying as much on the app now buses will still break down there will still be things that happen but we have we will not have mornings where we're telling schools all your routes are not covered um and it will be like I said shorter rides with less students the Council of great City Schools average ride is between 15 and 25 minutes 26 minutes we were our average ride was in the mid 40s
009this year it did go down a little bit when we got the Allentown drivers we were able to split some routes but it still was a very long bus ride we had some kids getting on buses at 6 20 in the morning um in order to make it to their early School it will be a shorter ride less students on the bus less room for problems and essentially from the point a child walks out the door in the morning to the point they walk in the door at the end of the day they will spend less time door to door and more of that time will be spent in instruction because we'll be able to restore the full instructional day and less time sitting on a bus so those are the benefits those are that's
010the North Star that's why this was I know um we did get better at predictability this year but that relied on a lot of things we didn't get better on the other things so that's why we're doing this those are the benefits next slide please historically we had 631 drivers prior to the pandemic ideally we would have had around 650 we actually were experiencing a minor storage even before the pandemic we started the 2021 to 2022 school year in a crisis drivers didn't come back from the pandemic we had 25 percent of our drivers shortage we had to immediately double routes we had to cut 183 routes um we had to change the Rival and departures time sir most of our all of our elementary schools early schools the bus was scheduled to leave 15
011minutes earlier and we required that schools organized their students for departure about 15 10 to 15 minutes before that so they were ready to get right on the bus so the bus could move so some schools were losing 20 minutes of instructional time some schools were losing up to a half an hour late schools were getting the buses there between 15 to 30 minutes late schools had um had to be prepared to get the kids out of the building quickly we also had multiple schools that had buses doing double runs they would come to the school it's at you know 7 30 and drop off a batch of kids and go out and get another batch of kids and bring them to the school so we had a lot of situations where schools were getting
012buses at 7 30 8 o'clock 8 30 like I said late schools were very often having buses arrive very late in the morning so it we were losing a lot of instructional time um even when we got more reliable because the times we had on paper still required those compromises our current next slide January 3 we launched the parent reimbursement there was a lot of work that went into that that was a high level of Interest we wound up with 287 parents participating 341 students were transported by the parent reimbursement program I shared another meeting the um the positive comments that we received from parents it was it didn't really save us many buses it didn't save us any buses it made some rides shorter and it was a it was a support for families
013that were transporting their students um so we did that we recruited drivers we did get up to 440 by the beginning of September um last year every time we recruited a driver we'd lose two more we were able to to kind of keep people by this by um beginning of December we're at 464. we've stayed there we've added people we've lost people um we have had drivers quit um due to confrontations with parents due to um students hitting them in the head with a water bottle where they're trying to drive we have had situations where drivers did not want to continue we are hopeful that a shorter ride and people having a more predictable bus stop time there'll be less frustration that winds up getting taken out on our front line drivers and our front
014line School staff we raise wages we had a dramatic increased signing bonus recruitment and training were streamlined first student has gained the ability to give um the actual give the tests themselves for the um CDL license so but in all that we're still we've been pinned at 464 since December if we're looking to get back to where we were pre-pandemic we're looking to be at that 631 to 650. we are very far from that and there is no hope in sight that we would ever get there we weren't able to bring in 27 drivers from various locations we demanded that given the winter it was necessary because we did have we didn't have a horrible winter but we did have some rough days 17 the drivers did stay on after February break out of town
015drivers is not a permanent solution next slide so I just want to briefly go over this number of students we transport the scope that's there we are responsible for not only public school students your responsible for Charter students we're responsible for non-public students we're responsible for agency we're responsible for upk we're responsible for um in total about 26 25 000 students it varies there's been litigation on this it we are the Lea we have to provide this service and um it not only adds to the number of buses we need it adds to the the difficulty of putting the Mosaic together because we have to make sure that our buses can take kids to agency can take kids to a charter school can take kids to a public school so we have to pair up
016schools to make sure that we're using our bus run efficiently the three-tier system only gives us at the maximum exploitation of what's been allowed in the contract will give us 50 minutes between each School five of those minutes will be unloading the bus five of those minutes will be getting to the next stop and then at the end of the run five minutes we'll be pulling up to the school to be ready either for pickup or for drop off so it's not a true 50 minutes we're looking at 35 to 40 minute runs that we're working with in order to make sure this works and that's a very tight window to operate in and that's where a lot of the difficulties come our goal was to remain within that 464 with a surplus of buses
017every day five or six to cover drivers that are out um possibly a field trip we have that goes over those times but we don't have a much of a margin our margin is very very tight um if we were to go 10 minutes more we probably we wouldn't be able to make it if we make any changes it will wind up us not being able to guarantee that we won't have a day where a lot of people call in and we're not able to cover our runs and we don't want to go through all this and ever ever have to look at a family in the eye and say we did all this but your buses are going to be here on time we are we are we are giving a guarantee that this
018will allow for instructional data be preserved a predictable reliable arrival arrival a shorter bus run next slide everyone's familiar with the contract language so I did include it in there it does allow for a change of a half hour and 45 minutes a situation where you're moving specifically at nine o'clock um school earlier um there was a projected alignment where we really stayed very close to that but that projected alignment we deviated from five minutes a couple each way um and the work day for teachers is seven hours and 15 minutes next slide again the benefits um [Music] the I was called today say you really want the benefits there that many times and I said yes um it is again we're it's to restore instructional time restore capacity for elt and FX Transportation better
019boss Aid allocation predictability and reliability and shorter rides with less students that is the reason for doing this and making sure we can cover that the yellow bus is not a barrier to students having full access to the full instructional day next slide so when the ink dried actually about two weeks before the contract was approved but definitely when the ink tried on the contract that Saturday morning we started working on routing buses and uh putting in air fleet management system versus trans and putting the whole um whole student roster in charter schools non-pubs public schools all of our schools into the system and looking at times that fit those contractual parameters Elementary the tier one for students will be a 7 30 to 225 time so the bus will arrive at 7 25 unload
020at 7 30 uh pull away at 7 35. same thing out of the bus will be there at 220 we'll load a 225 and we'll pull away five minutes later teachers would be 725 to set to 240. those schools listed 33 37 42 which is our OTC program 59 67 76 79 90 um the beds coach for 59 and and 90 which used to be 59a or 159 in some forms has been split so now 90 is a separate school program um for pre-k to 2 and 59 is a separate school program three to eight um that was a requirement from New York State 93 94 156 and 192 and that's the 5 through 12 uh population at those programs Elementary tier two students would be starting at 8 20. it's five minutes after that
0218 15 point but we needed the extra time to make the runs happen and teachers would be a 15 to 3 30. um that's 6 19 27 31 50 54 61 64 72 92 95 and 195. these were schools we really looked for schools that had a tight cluster pattern that didn't have students necessarily all over the city we're in a strategic location so we could send a bus right after to either a charter or to an agency um so that was that's been the toughest tier to program um so those that's where we um have landed as the best model we've run and then tier three um which would be 9 10 to 405 but the teacher's day we've moved it an extra five minutes earlier so it's nine o'clock to four fifteen they'll
022have 10 minutes before the buses arrive and 10 minutes after so we keep it closer because that was one of the major concerns we really tried to guarantee teachers that we wouldn't have some teachers getting down done at 4 30 um and some teachers getting done at uh 2 40. so uh that's 3 17 18 30 32 43 45 48 um in the 48 another beds code combination the old 196. is being combined with 48 next year so the entire population is included under 48. um a handful of eighth graders because I believe it's Pre-K to six next year we'll all be one program on bets code 53 65. 69.74 80 81 82 89 97 and 99. and we were very limited in the number of schools we could move from the nine o'clock to
023the 8 15. there's about six schools that went from nine o'clock to 8 15 and six schools that went from 725 to 8 15. but again we only could work within the parameters of the contract next slide the secondary slide there we go uh tier one we have a three-tier system for secondary tier one is at 7 30. teachers will arrive at 7 25 um this would allow us to make sure that the schools have yellow bus for either five to eight population or for their IEP Transportation our evenly distributed we've we've actually have a lot where we have our IEP buses paired up with a middle stop so they go from 7 30 to a non-pump stop and then to our 820 eventually maybe an agency stop and then at 8 45. so pairing
024up those special ed we have um asked Emerson for an mou pending because that would be more than the 45-minute move there's strong support for that there which would allow us to have the Emerson on Chippewa 302 and the hutch Tech on chip in Elmwood 304 and then 355 Buffalo culinary each at a different entry and dismissal especially keeping the um Emerson and the three the Buffalo culinary and Edison students separated this is um Emerson Emerson opens up a full breakfast service so this actually fits very well with their program so at the first tier 156 192 197 MSD 198 208 302 309 and 366 research lab the second tier would be 820 it matches up with the second tier of Elementary that's 195 212 which we could have put in the third tier but
025we were able to combine special ed routes from both 195 and 212 which saved us about four or five buses so putting them there made sense 301 304 363 and 415. and then at 8 45 we have a third tier that only moves schools a half hour so we're not using anything more than the contract language specifies we only had six schools that we could move to that 845 tier 212 would be one of them but the other ones are 131 207 206 305 and 355. um there were no other options to sort of an mou with individual schools to move schools to that third tier but it does save us about 12 yellow buses and also we've been talking to NFTA it allows us to better strategize our special deployments so we can guarantee
026that particularly 206 305 will have more specials than they currently have to meet their needs and those two will be a priority to make sure that we have specials that support those programs because we want to get students out of the school door and out of the neighborhood to where they're going which we hope will be home next slide please so the timeline and we're kind of uh immediate res here starting in the middle it we have started a cross-functional team that meets um nine o'clock every Wednesday morning to tackle all of the issues because this is an all skate this does not um this affects every level of operations in our schools and affects instruction it is worth the effort that will go into it to preserve our instructional day and provide more reliable
027structure time for our students we met with operation Sunrise yesterday which that committee is going to meet monthly through the summer to help support the rollout and make sure we We Gather every um bit of feedback we can presenting to the work session today that's uh that's where we are next slide I also it's not on the timeline but I did present to the secondary principals meeting yesterday presented to Elementary today I will be meeting with Pat tomorrow to address any concerns um so we have the school list you saw it on the PowerPoint um and we had input this morning we we've been working on it um and then we are looking to publish the new bed bell times 517 which is well ahead of the June 1st requirement but the more time we
028have for discussion and let this breathe the better we are um School leaders will get an individual letter there'll be a master document prepared so everyone it can be it will be posted on our website the teacher transfer process will start on June 1st so Human Resources is working on that process to make sure this is the least disruptive to school Staffing next slide so in May and June schools will hold Community meetings led by building administrators the contract language says they have to be at each School location but we are going to film a um brief uh 20 minute bumper for schools we're going to provide a link so that feedback can be shared to a repository either an email or a form so that at the building level our goal is to fill
029the contractual language to hear clear and honest feedback so we can make sure that every need is accommodated and to um not burden our school communities with having to hold a community meeting and our building leaders having to defend the decision they may necessarily did not make and we're going to out of that on develop an ongoing FAQ document so that all of those questions and concerns that rise up can be addressed and then at the same time will the need to set all of the calendars in Infinite Campus the period schedule will be changed the um each school will have from high school to Elementary every school will have a six hour and a 55 minute instructional day um as as is allowed by the contract that takes advantage full advantage of the seven
030hour and 15 minute teacher work time and then we also need to make sure we're supporting schools and making changes in Infinite Campus so that any schedules they've had to change many schools may just revert to the 2019 schedule they use but some schools will have to make changes next slide and again the benefits we're restoring instructional time we're restoring the capacity for elt and Athletics transportation that's a huge Equity issue we cannot have schools where the only way you get to stay after school is if you're if your family drives better bus Aid allocation better predictability we shouldn't have a penalized families that don't have a reliable cell phone and can't follow the school tracker which has gotten better this year but still has glitches um people should know the letter they got that
031says when their school bus arrives that's when they should go outside um shorter rides less students that will that will be an incredible benefit for our students and our drivers next slide I'd like to thank everyone I kind of put your names in microscopic print here this is this is a huge lift I appreciate everyone's support I've got a lot of questions a lot of communication from families from stakeholders from board members um I thank you for being shoulder to shoulder and working this through and remember you're outside you see a bus go by wave to that driver make sure you thank them for all the hard work they do because our bus drivers our buses our bus staff they are doing tremendous work and if anyone saw the um story that was on channel
0327 about three weeks ago about the magic that a bus driver and bus they do and those are we have those stories all over the place um our bus drivers see the kids when they're barely able to open their eyes they see the kids when they're barely able to keep their eyes open because the end of the day and they take care of them and they make sure they get safely from one place to another thank you chairwoman shooter uh I'm going to see let's start with uh president Cotman are you ready Freddy or Dr Rivera I'm here I'm sorry where is it I don't have any questions right now I'm I'm the only question I really have and I guess the report didn't didn't do it is to explain what schools were really changed
033you know what was the change for the schools What what schools took the biggest change okay so if um there was only a 10 minute change uh for a school that's a different scenario but I was just curious um to know particularly since we're getting these letters I mean these emails from parents and what really blows my mind is uh it's very interesting that the schools who really did not have much impact at all during this process who were able to have their after-school program start who had their school start on time every day whose children did not even lose any edu learning time are the parents who are screaming the loudest it is very interesting to me I don't understand it because In fairness to everyone the majority of the kids were penalized except
034for a couple of schools so for me it's like I don't know even know how to deal with it deal with that because everyone else was making the sacrifices that afforded you the opportunity not to make a sacrifice and now it's time for you to pitch in we've got people uh uh having a problem and that's what my concern is this entitlement has the stop in this District we're all in this together so I'm really curious to know of the list what schools were the biggest impact by this because I think that's where the concerns uh I need to uh uh weigh in or respectfully respect those concerns but for the ones who have been entitled and whose buses were there on time every month they whose children got dropped off on time every day
035who got picked up on time every day I don't understand why these people are uh are are are feeling that uh that it's okay to uh not to understand that everybody's got to share some of this responsibility I don't understand it so I'm struggling with that but do you know that information do you know the schools that were impact the most I I have a chart with the new start times the old start times that I'll email um as soon as I'm done here well I think that's what's important okay all right thanks and I admitted it and I need to loop back on it one school that has the only school that had no change at all every other school had a change at school 84. um is a school that that deals with
036you know severe medical conditions and observes not only Buffalo that serves all of Erie County um so we kept that at an eight o'clock start every other school had between a 10 minute to a half hour change except for those late schools that went to 820 they had a 40-minute change so I'll provide the chart that has that okay so say that again please uh that last sentence the uh-huh every school had a change from 10 minutes to a half hour and the late elementary schools that went to the 820 time they had a 40-minute change thank you Dr Rivera thank you I have two kind of overarching questions that I think gets at a lot of the the discussion around this um and they're interrelated so the the largest question that I think we
037need to really make clear and that we really need to discuss to make sure we are doing the right thing is how will these benefits outweigh the challenges produced by the change and the multiple schedules and the multiple issues and any challenges that families might face how do these benefits outweigh those challenges because a lot of change is is concerning for for um families and to uh president kotlin's point is we need to make clear that there there's going to be a benefit a really large benefit in order to move forward with that change how do you see that you listed a couple of them for us I think I think really digging down on some of that's important so um the benefit calculation is going to be different for each family um there's no
038way to spread it evenly um but it is um we can look at some numbers that help us to make those those five elements to make the case more clear and compelling that you know the instructional time that will be restored and the uh shorter ride some of them are have a primathasha compelling uh element to them but some of them need a little more unpacking and maybe a little bit inside baseball where um we uh I cut a board member Scott's attention he's a big baseball fan so so um so yeah I'm Pat I will work on unpacking that those five bullets really simply each one I can I can add a little more clarity to but those are the those are the compelling reasons why we made this change um and I do
039believe that out of all the interactions I've had many families when they hear that um they can understand you know the ability to transport for after school programming has a large positive impact district-wide but there may be some families that that really doesn't they were comfortable picking the student up from school it may not be as much of a positive impact I understand that I think the other big question is is about um really early start time so in other words getting students to school having to be on buses extremely early or be on buses extremely late to what extent is that true with this so every student at a 7 30 school will have a shorter ride and will likely get on the school bus later in the morning so right now if you're
040at an eight o'clock School you could be getting on the bus 90 minutes before your school starts um so right now you're going to be 35 to 40 minutes so you're going to actually no one should be getting on a bus before 6 40. okay that's really it actually is a it's paradoxical because it's it's an earlier time but because it's a much shorter ride and because we're more we're actually we're very inefficiently using our Fleet but we're able to use these big long buses to but we're having a few kids on them we're able to get the kids there quickly okay so to reflect back to what you were saying is that because we are having issues with our bus routes not only do we have students not getting to school at all or
041getting to school so late that their instructional time is impacted plus we don't have students getting to after school programming a lot of students have such a long bus ride that paradoxically an earlier sarkheim is going to mean they're going to get on the bus later because we're more efficient okay thank you that's helpful I should have been taking notes that was very well said oh well thank you I I can always repeat it if you need me to um my last question is related to First Student because I think this is underlying a lot of what parents are saying which is the larger question is how has first student fulfilled this contract with us so we have a contract with us and we want to make sure that they fulfill their contractual obligations with
042us and they have done their due diligence before we turn to our community for a solution and I think that's still a question out there can you let us know how they've done that so one of the demands we made was the out-of-town drivers to make sure that during the um winter we didn't have students standing on the corner in very very cold weather um because we weren't able to guarantee a bus we get to them when when they were supposed to get picked up so that they transported lodged paid those out of town drivers to be here to support our runs that was because we um reminded them of their contractual obligations the superintendent made sure we met with them to let their National leadership know that this was something they had to do
043um we have held their feet to the fire on hiring drivers but like I said we've been pinned at the same 464 since beginning of December NFTA is having the same problem it is not only for a student that's having trouble finding uh CDL Drivers they're right now they're not necessarily they're glad that we've come to a solution but it actually since the the way their payment is structured they're receiving less from Buffalo public schools for the service they're providing so that's there are they if they would have gotten the drivers here they would have gotten more money so it's uh and I believe that matters to them um so for their how are we always happy with them know that they've been partners with us deciding bonus we paid part of it but they've
044uh paid they paid their lie and share of the signing bonus the wage increase was on them so they they've made a lot of moves that um that they've increased their recruiting budget 500 percent over the past year so they first student has tried to tackle this problem because it's not only Buffalo it's other districts we've also um made clear to them that we're their priority in Western New York okay thank you so uh this is a this is a direct result of a nationwide shortage and it's unsustainable to have out-of-town drivers and we are not paying more for Less Services we're actually going to end up paying less so we're not compensating them for something they're not doing yes but if we if we could have had 400 650 drivers um yeah and so
045is that works that that we can say if somehow this shortage eases is there a way to look at getting more drivers in easing any of the pinches that the community might feel I don't see that um until several years down the road um so we kind of have to tackle that Miracle when it comes pretty good phrasing okay thank you so much I appreciate it that's the end of my questions [Music] Cindy the cartoon are you ready I actually don't have any questions for David um one of the the questions or clarifying points and actually raised so I am good thank you Dr um Evans Brown I didn't have any questions but just a couple observations thank you David for a thorough uh uh presentation and I like the title equitably protecting instruction initiative
046that is pretty cool I think that well unfortunately this plan is not or will ever be satisfactory to all right no matter how you tweak it um there's gonna be many gonna that will continue to to provide emails to us because they're not happy I think the plan is critical that it saves um I think you've said 11 buses that will be guaranteed use the term guaranteed assurances you know to families to students that they'll get to school on time and the fact that kids will be bus to after school programs that was a biggie from my constituents that their kids weren't able to be picked up um and participate in after-school programs so with that we'll continue to tweak it but I think sometimes we have to also compromise because people who can and
047have the ability to pick up their children I was one of those parents when I I was in the district um we always think about you know our children and we're able to do that but you have the majority of these children who don't have households like you know those middle class households that can do those kinds of things so as I mentioned everybody's not going to be happy but it's a plan and I think it's a good plan it needs some tweaking um but kudos to you and your team thank you this is what are you ready oh sure uh David the letters I'm getting um I think there's some miscommunication out there letting some City Honors that I'm getting is about a parent crying because she's under the impression that City honors is
048going to a earlier schedule and I'm like well City owners is a 755 start time School and what you're telling me in this schedule is they're going to 8 20 which is later not earlier uh am I reading that correctly correct City honors had the was almost the perfect profile for him for an 820 school it had a large scatter point it had a central location so we could easily get a bus from there to a sec to a third stool um and it does they had that middle level population plus um some IEP Transportation students so City honors is at the 820 level okay well I think that needs to be communicated to the parents because the letters I'm getting City honors Has Orchestra and the parent was afraid that her child was going
049to have to be out on a bus stop catching a Metro the child's never caught a Metro before she was you know young girls just starting she was writing a little cheese bus and the parents saying I'm afraid to put my child out there catching a metro in a dangerous area this early in the dark so I will be very happy to reply to this parent and say no you have been heard City honors is not going earlier your child will not be in danger and you are okay but I still would like to have been able to say as we said to teachers if there was something that really destroyed your life you had other kids and you couldn't handle it if there was uh a plan for mitigating circumstances rather than put a
050child who's never written the Metro bus and been on the cheese on a corner in a in the dark especially in winter is there some other option that I recall that we had uh exceptional circumstances or child safety that that child could if a parent was facing that situation that the child would be able to be picked up on continue on off uh the yellow buses the cheese bus or something else what are what are the options that we have to say to a parent who might have been in that situation because this parent isn't now uh We're not gonna put your child in danger if it's a dangerous situation here is who you talk to here's who you call and we will respect and try to make a way to no child is put
051in danger so I'll have to investigate that option further um because it would be a multi-tiered process um it wouldn't just be College Transportation so um we'll investigate that process on how we would find out that hardship and how we would accommodate it but there are there are many levels to that that I would need to not on my own try and develop a plan on the spot okay well I'm mentioning that because I know we as a board had said that we were going to at one point because of the dangers in the snow because Buffalo terrible weather we were going to ask the state to reimburse us and change the uh one mile to a mile and a half or whatever that would provide for more of our children being able to ride
052buses get Metro passes and be safe and if that is a concern I'm still concerned about that we need to move forward on that and take it take off answer that the problem for our parents this is a snowy Buffalo and child safety is extremely important to me so um board member Woods we did advocate for that when we met with the legislators there was a team of the board members myself and while we were lobbying that was one of the main you know priorities that we mentioned to every single person that we uh spoke with so we are at you know actively um lobbying for that you know I'm getting concerns also um not many when you look at the number of children that we transport not many but every single one is a
053little different and so you know we're working to accommodate as much as we can everyone but when you're transporting almost 30 000 children in the district you know I think as board member or board president Cottman shared you know um and Dr Kathy Evans Brown shared you know it's going to be very difficult to please everybody you know we're trying we really are we are really trying to be as inclusive and to listen and to hear and to problem solve but the issues that I've been hearing about haven't been that issue that hasn't really been the issue that has come forward thus far so you know if it does then then we'll address it we'll work with you know we'll work with a family but what I heard Chief Hill say is that in most
054cases children are able now to be out a little later because the bus rides are shorter so they were actually out you know earlier where it really was dark out because you know it was a 90-minute bus ride or 45 it's not going to be that now so that shouldn't be the issue in most cases I I am very supportive of the three Bills schedule if there is no if answered button our parents have to recognize that every child is entitled to an education to get to school every child has a right to get Extended Learning and after school and to be able to get there it can't be for the privileged few those who are parents who can get them there we are doing what is best for the majority of the students but
055that given I do know that in the few cases as you say that isn't the majority it may be a few when mitigating circumstances of safety concerns well we could be a little flexible I mean if it isn't a flood I'm sure we we can be creative and come up with something and I respect that you will do that to the best of your ability Madam superintendent absolutely Mr heard thank you so much Mr shooter I'd like to say um first of all thank you uh Mr Hills um this is a lot of work that you and your team put together and um that superintendent um Dr Williams um this this this plan you know I I know it took a lot of hard hours and a lot of thought and a lot of conversation
056and meetings with with everyone um to uh to pose this plan that that you uh put out tonight and I just want to say thank you for the work for the body of work that this District can do um thank you um chairwoman um shooter for uh having an insight to bring this to to um the board today and to the community um I have a couple of questions um I know this fits our 5x25 plan and that uh this is uh really you know addressing a critical need of the district and and our schools and and our children and our teachers um and especially um some of the parts about Athletics where we'd be able to get children to athletic programs after school at a reasonable time and able to get them home afterwards
057um nobody want their children coming home in the dark and nobody wants to uh to have their children you know at the bus stops in the morning in the dark but uh but some of the things that that we're proposed in this plan addresses that and from that understand the start times won't be that far off from what they are today um so ciso is clear with our parents uh this is this will begin the 22-23 school year um this is how we're routing the buses for September so um this will begin the 22 20 or 23 24 school year 23 24th Street just so we want to be clear with that and um my concerns are from uh fluent amount of emails that I received and and the parents concerned because some teachers concerns
058who's actually followed to the same categories it's about it's about the start times of the schools and them the ability to those parents to have multiple children to get them on busing at different times I hope that the schedule can help address that a little bit more but what about those parents what can we do for the have a hardship I I heard from some parents and some actually called that said that you know they have children that go to different schools but they can be categorized you know the same grade um levels that they can attend one school uh is any way that we can address those parents with those type of hardships that may have three children or four children it's one to different schools we're not encouraging a mass you know a
059lot of movement of students because that would be extremely disruptive for the children so we wouldn't encourage that but we certainly will be working with you know families I mean right now we have two-tier schedules so we have early and late schools they may already have children that are in you know two different tiers of schools but you know again I just want to you know continue to reiterate that you know we're going to listen and you know try to proactively and you know restoratively do all that we can but at the end of the day there may be some that you know we just may not be able to give them you know exactly what they want we know that this year is going to be a difficult year because it's the first year
060of it it's new it's different but you know we certainly want to do it in a way you know we respect our parents we understand the concerns that are coming forward and thus far we've been able to address every parent that has come forward with a concern so okay thank you um I really appreciate that I think I counted 59 schools that's affected by by the transformation and um I think I remember when I was younger in school we had some a different start time started when I was in elementary school and and I it affected that much because we adapted very quickly and I think that this District would adopt quickly to the new start times um another question is um were the charter school programs start times change do we have the ability
061to to work with those programs also or are we just looking at our start times and uh with the same start times that they had before since uh two years ago um we've been working with the charter schools we've had multiple Charter Schools change their times in fact it was part of one of the strategies that allowed us to um reduce the number of routes we were doing for the past two years if the charter schools had not changed their times when we we asked them to we would have even had a worse problem so we have we we essentially work with the charter schools but we've we've met very little resistance in uh when we said we need you to go a little bit later we need you to go a little bit earlier
062we we've been able to slot them in of course we're not telling a charter school they have to start their school day at 6 30. um but we are we are fitting them in around our our transportation Fleet is what's driving everything that's the priority okay I just want to understand our priorities and just make sure that uh that we're taking care of public school kids and not their families so um this is my last question about the hardship so those that are an extreme hardships um I know Dr Williams you said you guys have really take a deep dive into it and see what the issues are and problems are but uh there's our teachers that establish the same exact same type of hardships that that may be using uh public transportation or coming
063to school but they have to put kids on several different buses and they and they're claiming that they won't be able to get to school on time because of the new start times and uh how and I I only I don't even want you to answer that question now but just to make reflection that you know um there are parents that have to go to work or have to uh be the be at a job at a certain time where they can't you know make make allowances and um so that we can try to you know as a district be um responsible and accountable at the same time you know for those parents and education so I thank you so much for all the work that you guys have done and um and we continue
064to stay posted and read another hundred thousand emails thank you Mr Scott Thank You chairwoman Shooter um so I have a few questions um but before I get to those I just want to First say that right now I have two boys that are on different start times um with a difference of over an hour this that will change for both of my boys next full year um it'll actually be a less of a difference between their start times with one of my my older son will actually be with this proposed change starting at 7 30. so my family my kids are impacted by this proposed change personally I also work in a three-tiered bell system um and I've seen the challenges with adjustments but also I've seen the benefits of it I know Niagara
065Falls has also switched to a three-tier call system and in fact I believe the superintendent said that he saw attendance improve with the three-tiered Bell System and there might be other area school districts that are also in a three through Health System but I'm not familiar with them so my bit I you know Mr Hills that I've had questions and concerns about this and it's really about being convinced that the benefits of it will be realized that it's going to be a solution that will produce positive results um so to begin with elt the after-school programming and the Athletics are we saying that if this is implemented that we can almost guarantee that there will be Transportation provided for expanded learning after school similar to what we had 2019 prior absolutely yes and then Athletics
066this year we had to combine schools and we were told that it was because of a lack of Transportation so fewer students could participate and modify Athletics would we potentially be going back to having more schools being able to individually participate because Transportation would be more available for for High School athletics we'll be able to cover it at the level we had in 2019. for the modified we still have to work out a plan but we will have more capacity to be able to address that but modified really grew during the um coming back from the pandemic so we'll we'll work on on that it will help us there'll have to be some creativity but it will help us to have the three tiers to schedule those modified um so the the absolute Athletics after
067school yes modified we're going to work on we don't have that completely mapped out okay I I will be in substantially better place though okay so just clarifying questions um we've been hearing a lot about research on early start times and how it impacts kids differently based on their age and the level that they're at um and a lot of that research is is credible and I think there's it's warranted to raise that research but I if I heard you correctly you said currently the earliest pickup time is 6 20 a.m right now yes and under this it would be potentially 6 40 to 6 45 it will but it will not be earlier in no situation will be earlier okay so because I've heard like for example that students will be waiting out in
068the dark even earlier in the morning like five five thirty that will not be the case that will not be the case so yes that research is credible and still is something that we need to consider but we're not actually expecting students to get up and get on the bus at an earlier time under this plan you're actually saying that it's going to be later no matter what correct um and if I could the American Academy of Pediatrics has done a lot of um a lot of research on multiple developmental stages and circadian cycles and uh what puts your brain in the best position to learn and that research is very compelling but there's also compelling research on instructional time and after school programming and the benefits of that excuse yeah I mean yes that
069is credible research but there's absolutely research to show that missed instruction time is going to impact students um and that after school programming has just incredible impact on learning and most importantly from my perspective social emotional development um and then Athletics too I mean obviously has a incredible benefit to students especially those athletes that sometimes struggle in school too um so you really laid out a lot of things that have been attempt attempted as remedies to this crisis and um I want to just talk about or just have you uh clarifying wages and bonuses I thought I saw one point that we were the most competitive if not close to the most competitive with wages and benefits and signing bonuses for drivers is that accurate to say that would I tell Chief Operating officers and
070other urban districts around the country what we are paying our bus drivers they are Blown Away we are paying our bus drivers a good 30 percent more than the average Urban District around the country okay so we're not under we're far from underpaying though uh for the market yes we're we're not underpaying them for the market but for the difficulty of the job fair enough uh and I and I just want to clarify with the ETF contract two things that at the start times which you did touch on were projected at 7 30 8 15 and 9 o'clock now we're talking about 7 30 8 20 8 45 and 9 10 9 10. so those were projected times and it says projected and it also says about the community meetings that this this is the
071language because there's already some confusion on this prior to the implementation of the change the district agrees to hold a community meeting at each impacted school to receive feedback from the school Community that's correct so the community meetings are going to at the next board meeting we're giving this a week to kind of percolate to allow the board the next board meeting um we're going to prepare resolution to present to the board um and implementation will be when we do the routes over the summer notification has to happen before June 1st so really the notification is happening at the concurrently with the community meetings um happening at the schools okay one question and then I'm going to close a final Point Charter Schools you've mentioned that there has been adjustment in their start and end
072times are there charter schools are Willoughby charter schools that start at 7 30 with there are some charter schools that start at seven o'clock there at Charter Schools to start so right now right now um so my last point is the the after-school programming and the Athletics if this is proposing to change that that is huge for me I I understand that this is going to be a struggle for some parents it's going to be an adjust adjustment but it's just a terrible inequity and Injustice that we have right now right now students that have access to after school programming have to have to access to some Athletics because their families can provide transportation and those that don't have their own transportation are shut off from access to the after-school programming in particular so to
073me I mean people need to see that and I know in it for individual students and families it's going to be an adjustment but on a whole that is an inequity that needs to be addressed and if this is proposing to address that um it's it's hard for me to to remain skeptical honestly so I thank you for your presentation that's awesome and I know we're um running late but I do have a couple questions I guess um teachers now with the new time they if they didn't put a transfer in they are ineligible for transfer no um that's something we're working out um you know we'll be working with Chief Holly McGee to see you know how we can accommodate if it's possible I mean if there are openings and and you know okay
074but we're working that part out with you okay there was a question that um was brought to my attention um I I do one of the things we wanted to carefully avoid was creating a situation where high quality teachers were maybe gravitating for certain layers of time scheduling so we were that's one of the things that led to the 910 being moved to nine o'clock so we could kind of make sure we didn't have a school that's in the late tier having some of their best teachers decide to go to an earlier tier school well I I'm hearing some of that already so I'm not sure that that will be avoided what my other question is um you know David we've always had trouble with split positions and so now we're adding three um three
075different time of schools so now that uh the school-based budgets are done have we looked at that and taken a look to see if we are going to be able to match up to make sure there is instruction uh that's aligned for these schools so that probably wouldn't be a David um question he's got a lot on his plate okay but I know that um our chief academic officer and our chief of Human Resources will be working together you know to help to ensure that as they are making assignments that those are things that are considered okay and then superintendent Williams I actually can at least so during the cross-functional team that's meeting to address the issues the Staffing and the splits are something we're addressing and um providing some solutions as you know making
076sure the matches are done very early to to maximize our our Workforce and also looking at the way we can provide some sample belts inside the day schedules for buildings that would make that match a little easier okay what about and then the other question is sports so when we have now high schools on three different schedules so when will Sports begin and in there is in one case where uh early school is based um is paired with a late school and they're they're uh that's how they're paired for Sports so that's something we're going to have to look at too and I guess I I guess when I take a look at all these 730 uh high schools so I guess I'm concerned about 7 30 starts for high schools and my question is
077how it seems like we've made such a drastic change for high schools when probably 95 of our kids traveled through Metro buses and so I'm wondering how many like what how many complaints did we have at the high school level about the yellow buses I got that there's been issues at the elementary but it seems now there's so many issues that that are now are going to be brought up at the high school level because of uh the change when it's just such a very very small percentage of the kids that are traveling in uh in the yellow buses so that you know 10 of our high school population that rides yellow buses for IEPs not taking the two the three schools that have a five through twelve population that that 10 accounts for about
07830 to 35 buses at each of the tiers okay and those buses are buses that go to a 7 30 then go to an agency then go to an 820 and then go to 845. so so it's really uh mobile maximizing that Fleet that's what allowed us to make it work within the short uh 15 minute 40 minute really 45 minute time frame is by we're right at the um edge of making this work if we didn't have those 30 buses to work with we'd wind up if we put all 90 of those buses at the eight o'clock time or at 8 20. we would wind up having a days when we wouldn't be able to um we have uncovered routes okay so that that was what the um what we are doing is we
079are prioritizing with NFTA and this will allow for our NFTA to provide specials um more more than they're able to now because the three tiers will spread out what the NFTA has to cover it will take our kids off of NFTA at High ridership Times which is 8 30 to 9 30 and it will put it give us three tiers of dismissal downtown so it will avoid some of the Fountain Plaza but it is still um 7 30 for our students that do two three transfers um that's going to be um I think that's David that that uh really concerns me the kids that are taking two to three buses to get to school at 7 30 the Metro Bus and we talk about a loss of instructional time I'm worried about those kids missing
080first second and third period so the high school piece is really concerning to me but we can continue the discussion because I know we're running late and I appreciate everyone's feedback I appreciate it yes there has been a question polls uh in the chat and I want to make sure that we start addressing the questions that if we can during the meeting and it piggybacks on your concern about teachers transferring in your PowerPoint Mr Hill you said that the T that this schedule Bell time schedule will be resolved by our next board meeting and it will be out to the schools at that point in your PowerPoint it says that that the transfer process starts June the first is that correct that I cannot speak for human resources but um Tammy Allen McGee has provided
081that date that is correct okay so there's not a problem with teachers if they need to transfer during that time you had to already have put in a transfer they're not okay that's what oh okay so what are you doing to accommodate those I don't care this is Nate I don't want that misinformation to be out there it's my under you know the way that the language reads is if you are at an impacted school that would prevent a hardship you have the opportunity to reapply um and we will have to re-canvis for the for transfers for those Folks at the impacted schools okay okay put in back in March or whatever it is doesn't mean you've lost that opportunity okay thank you Nick one other question Nate that involves you so in our meeting
082yesterday our transportation operation Sunrise transportation meeting it was brought up that the news um reporters reported something that was not quite correct David you were kind enough to share today the actual wording in the contract but the report was that each school would have the ability to vote on the bell times and that is not what the contract says from what I've been able to see so can you be clear with clearing that for us we bargain for the ability the management right to make this change there is if as long as we provide notice by June the first of the change within the parameters of what the language says it's we have the right to do it there is no other request or approval that needs to be had at this point okay thank
083you I just wanted to be clear that those two things are out there thank you so much okay uh Dr Williams if you'd like to make comments no I think this was a good uh start you know we have hit the ground running we will continue to be sensitive you know to the needs of our staff and of our families um and of our students um you know we'll continue with the operation Sunrise committee meeting and addressing issues as they come up but I just ask everyone to realize this is a big major change it is new we're rolling it out the team is committed and is doing the very best you know that they can so I just ask for patience um and know that you know again we'll be sensitive to the needs
084that you know that we hear about okay thank you um just one comment I'm going to ask that we have compassion on those who may be impacted more by this than others there may be some that this is exactly what they wanted there may be some families who this is uh this is an impact on them uh please we will do everything we can to support those families but um let's let's make let's make sure we have compassion and mercy so we're making you know the recording the video I think it's important that they hear from me you know to open it up um why we had to do what we've done um and that we will certainly be sensitive um you know to their needs but you know doing the recording will allow us
085that's the community meetings that's how we will be you know sharing with schools um What It Is What It entails tonight is the first night that you know as I know it that we've gone public with where the schools really are there's been a lot of anxiety up to this point I think because people didn't really know and they were just assuming that you know my child will be outside at 5 30 a.m and they won't get home until six so hopefully you know putting this out there will help to de-escalate some of those anxieties and and concerns turn it over now to chairperson Scott thank you Miss shooter um are we ready to go with student achievement all right so welcome everybody to the student achievement committee um we will have a presentation from
086Chief Tammy Holly McGee and her staff on Staffing for the summer and for the fall um I know that we have tried the district has tried um enthusiastically to fill many positions and so that is certainly not overlooked um we are trying to to fill many many critical positions and we can we'll continue to do that and I I'm hoping to hear from Chief McGee um some of the ideas and efforts that will be had this in this this summer perhaps the spring and the summer to help fill some of those vacancies so we can get good teachers um in front of our students um so superintendent Dr Williams I'll turn it over to you Mr chairman Scott um yes we have our chief of Human Resources Miss Holly McGee and she's got her team
087here I can see that we've got Mrs girlstone and Mr Anastasia um you know they do a lot that office processes thousands upon thousands of applicants for various positions they're recruiting efforts you're going to hear about have been I think um very exciting after a pandemic where everybody is struggling for staff you know they've tried some Innovative things to try to get us highly qualified candidates that's what we want and so I am I'm looking forward to the presentation she runs a data driven department and so I think you know there will be some data that will also be presented and I know that the board has been hungry for that so I'll turn things over to Chief Holly McGee and her team thank you so much Dr Williams good evening board members uh Dr
088Williams colleagues and uh Buffalo community so it's with great pleasure today that I'm going to share some information with you guys I'm going to do a quick overview I know we're a little short on time but uh admir if you could put the PowerPoint up for us please thank you so I'm really really proud to show you guys our new human race Buffalo Public Schools human resources campaign I have to give a huge shout out to uh Keith Hughes and his team these are actual BPS employees and students on this uh poster okay these are not clip this is not clip art these are actual employees and these are our students so we're very proud that um Keith out and helped us capture what working for Buffalo Public School looks like becoming that hero next
089slide please next slide Amir thank you so um I just want to do a quick overview before my team gets started with some data and some facts for you guys just want to shout out Keith and then I also want to talk about how we're really trying to hone in on The Human Side of Human Resources um we heard the board when they said we need to do um we need to improve in our customer service so what we have done is we've invested we've taken some funding and we've hired a professional trainer to provide some customer service um training to our team in Human Resources it's about 35 of us and it's been fantastic I have seen some great Improvement I'm hearing that from the building so I'm really excited about that but in
090addition to training our in-house team our human resources team we're doing training out throughout the district we know teachers and principals they have the opportunity for professional development they develop a transcript in pgs but what we found was that some of our paraprofessionals they were not getting um exposed to some of the professional development that some of our other these were so we have um started providing them with training last uh superintendents day I invited each of our board members please consider coming out tomorrow is the next day that the other half of the schools will be receiving teacher um uh teacher Aid and assistance training they call it a conference I was there the last time um that they off we offered it uh during superintendent conference day they were so excited they were
091very engaged um I saw a different uh Outlook with the teacher aides they were like thank you so much uh for offering this conference to us we've never had an opportunity to participate in conferences so um I would like to extend an invitation to you guys to go out tomorrow at East High School the uh training starts between 8 and 8 30 and it will end at 3 30. so just feel free to come by and say hello and just thank them for all all of their hard work and all of the uh backbone work that they do to help support our buildings and keep our kids um you know with sound and solid instruction we know that they have fulfilled the role uh over the last year coming back from a pandemic when there
092has been a worker shortage a teacher shortage they came in and filled some serious roles by providing some support to our classrooms um like nothing you know before so we had to get creative with that and they stepped up to the plate so uh with that being said we're also offering uh substitute training so there will be a substitute training opportunity we're investing in that in the human resources department we want to make sure that our subs understand that they're valued and professional development will be provided to them and all of these entities will have their uh transcripts in pgs so we're doing this in collaboration with staff development and Crystal Benton and her team so each person will have a transcript of all of the trainings that they'll they're taking when they're going through
093these training courses I just want to talk to you a little bit about the training that they'll be receiving standards of conduct sexual harassment self-care there will also get training by Matt Pegg and the student support team on supporting a successful classroom um they'll hear from our teacher residency programs talking about pipelines you'll hear a little bit more about that later today about where we're trying to grow our own they'll hear from their Union so many of them have not had an opportunity to even put a faith to a name with their Union Representatives so they'll talk a little bit about their rights and their roles as uh union members okay um next slide please admir so as uh we do our work in Human Resources people may say how do we line up with
094the five by twenty five our goal is to make sure that we recruit and we send to the subject area directors um qualified candidates to uh have an interview with them and be considered to go into our buildings so that we can have children that are getting an equitable and a fair opportunity at an education we are lined up with Safety and Security security hiring is a high priority with us in our human and human resources department and also you'll hear a little bit more about how we have activated and cultivated some new Partnerships with some of our community stakeholders and we find that that's super important in human resources and everything in all of our work aligns with the 5x25 what we want to do is we want to recruit strategically we want to
095increase our retention of our current and employees and we want to make data-driven decisions next slide please so I just want to go over a little something with you guys which I did not realize that many people in the district didn't realize what the role HR plays in hiring teachers um in the building so let me just start by saying a candidate applies someone that is a recent graduate or a seasoned teacher we look at their qualifications we make sure that they have the proper certification and depending on the certification that they have we send them over to the subject area directors the subject area directors coordinates an interview they interview the candidates and they decide if the candidate is a good fit for our district they will decide which building they will go into
096and then assign them to fill the vacancy once they do that they let HR know so that we can then extend an offer and we send the offer and we have a discussion with them about onboarding and um discuss salary ranges where would they fit based on their experience on the um steps and we answer any other employment questions that they may have but based on what the subject area director when they fill that position in that building they'll let us know that Tammy Holly McGee she's going to school 89 and she's going to fill the position of the 1.10 and then HR will the individual so they can start uh start their position and then they report and then they report to the principal or the supervisor next slide please admir oh excuse me
097could you just hold one second could everybody mute that's not speaking except for chief McGee thank you okay so at me I believe we're on slide number five thank you so recruiting qualifying Staffing and hiring so those are the pieces in order to get a qualified certified teacher in front of our children in the building so where does uh everything lie recruiting and qualifying candidates that's our piece in human resources then you have interviewing and Staffing that is done by the subject area director or the department supervisor but together it's a team effort we get this person hired and we put have them go into the building and provide the services and serve our students but we do the recruiting they do the interviewing and then they staff the building or they staff the vacancy
098for uh the building that has the vacancy and then we send out the paperwork and we make it a team effort so that in play in turn we have a certified teacher in front of our students but I wanted to just give you that little bit of an overview before our staff goes into the data regarding uh summer school in Fall next slide please so I would like to introduce you to Adam renzoni he's our human resources manager he's going to cover summer and fall instructional Staffing for us Adam good evening super Ty Williams board members of colleagues um I do apologize I seem to be having a little bit of technical issue with my camera so I might not be showing up on your screen I worked earlier and it's not working now but
099uh hopefully you can hear me um Amber can you go to the next slide please so I'm going to start off with some summer school updates um we worked this year to create some some new tools and some new efficiencies to hopefully staff Summer School uh in a quicker and more efficient manner the first one being we worked with the Extended Learning department so we could get our job postings up earlier this year than we have uh in most previous years since I've been here the goal of that was obviously to secure our own teachers for summer school and not lose them out to other districts that we have in the past uh also this year uh we created in collaboration with the secretary directors a new Staffing tool that we haven't used in the
100past um we've created a shared folder system uh between HR and the subject area directors uh in this shared Staffing folder are the centralized location for applicant lists for the staffing matrices that the directors use to assign teachers as well as the Master summer school list that we share out to the building principles for summer school as well as payroll and I.T so that everybody can be on the same page of where teachers are going to be working summer school this new tool so far has shown some success I've actually saw a lot of success because what it really does is it eliminates the need for us to use email communication our email boxes get inundated and this tool helps us to keep everything centralized so that we're not searching our inboxes for Staffing emails
101in regards to summer school so so uh Andrew can you go to the next slide please foreign so as of right now uh this data was pulled on May 4th we are currently at 94 uh either staffed or waiting acceptance for summer school uh for this upcoming year uh 74 of those offers have already been filled uh we're waiting on about 20 of the acceptances six percent the subject a directors are still making office of candidates uh with our goal being staffed at 100 by July 1. um just for to put a number to that six percent that's six percent of summer school vacancies that's 38 positions uh looking at the applications that we still have that have not been reached out to yet we have well over 100 candidates still in the pipeline to
102be offered positions so that I'm very confident that that goal of 100 by July 1 is completely attainable uh next slide in there all right just a little bit uh in regards to fall Staffing uh the Buffalo Public Schools partook or or ran uh two recruitment events this year um the first one being on March 16th where we ran the recruitment event that we hold every year now which we were able to hear 61 open contracts for teachers uh we also attended the Buffalo Niagara TRD uh at the Niagara Falls Convention Center where we were able to secure another 53 open contracts for teachers uh those open contracts are uh job offers that we provide to these teachers that interviewed with us already so that once we complete our transfer process we're able to start
103reaching out to them and placing them into potential vacancies in regards to the teacher transfer process you've heard a little bit about it already this year we've decided to move the process up sooner uh normally in years past we started that process on July 1st and ran it through the middle of August we always guesstimated at about August 15th this year we decided to move it to June 1st and run it through July 15th some of the advantages of this is that the current teachers will know where they're going to be placed for the 23 21st school year sooner this also allows the subject area directors to start to hire teachers for the vacancies that they still may have at the end of the transfer process now those would be for new hires to bring
104back their temporary teachers these open contracts it gives us a bigger window every year when we ran the transfer process from July 1st to August 15th we were at a extreme time crunch to hire as many teachers as possible for the new teacher orientation that takes place at the end of August and with us starting so late we were actually losing lot of potential candidates out to the other school districts because they were able to hire sooner so we're trying to get our teachers in and our new teachers in sooner so we're not losing these uh highly qualified candidates to other districts um next slide please my final update for Staffing on the instructional side and this was thanks to a suggestion from board member shooter we looked into a suggestions that she made to
105operationalize doing sub-recruitment and sub-interviews on a monthly basis instead of quarterly what that has provided us is that we're averaging now on we're averaging and interviewing 20 candidates per month and at a 92 percent 92 and a half percent success rate that's giving us 18 new Subs a month that we're able to onboard to add to our sub pool so that when a teacher does take a day off we do have more candidates now in the pipeline to fill in uh for those vacancies in the district so we make sure that we have a uh you know somebody in that classroom with those kids every day so this is a goal that we're going to carry into the next school year as well we're going to have one big sub recruitment event during the summer
106and then every month into the school year will continue these monthly interviews to continue to bolster our sub pool to make sure that we have enough covers for these classrooms for the upcoming year uh next slide emir so that does complete my brief overview I'll turn things back over to Chief McGee work into that at this time I would like to talk let you hear a little bit from Barbara girdlestone our director of Recruitment and Staffing and she's also over our civil service team thank you very much good evening superintendent Williams board members and colleagues thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak with you about Recruitment and civil service um admir if you could go to the next slide please um so our recruitment strategies are both digital and in person
107um we're providing a balance of broad Outreach and a personalized touch since we are in the digital age we are working to update the career section of our website so if you go to visit it you will see our new campaign um that is our billboard become a VPS hero um that is one of the Billboards that is the billboard that we have in six different areas around the town but it is also now the banner of our career page I'll be working with Keith Hughes and Mr Hammond to add short videos to highlight Buffalo Public Schools the first video that we're going to be working on is the top five reasons to join BPS so we're going to be working to identify current employees and we're going to come up with um the top
108five reasons to join BPS why people should join once that video is complete and on the website we're also going to work to create videos that I highlight a day in the life of a BPS employee so that people can see what's it like to be in Food Service what's it like to be a bus aide um things like that so they can get a better feel for what those jobs actually entail um as you know a lot of people spend a lot of time looking at their phones so we did recently implement the uh texting function in our applicant tracking system this has been a huge Time Saver for us um so setting up interviews as you can imagine for the um quantity of candidates that we try to get so typically when we're
109scheduling bus Aid interviews we're looking at interviewing 48 candidates um in one day so we can now schedule those interviews a lot quicker by using the texting function if candidates don't have the ability to re receive text messages we do also reach out to them via email um so we we don't just use one method of contacting people um and as I mentioned the billboard so as you drive around Buffalo you're going to notice six Billboards and then we also have bus shelters around the city these advertisements will make over 3 million impressions over the course of the next three months so our goal is to drive as many applicants to the district as possible next slide please foreign so we've been doing a lot of in-person events um a few that I want to
110highlight is the first flyer that you see there is for a bilingual um teacher Aid recruitment event that we did so in partnership with Mr Rivera Dr caban and Dr Kaz Rodriguez we held two events in March these events were focused on the Spanish-speaking population but all were welcome to attend um Mr Nelson Melendez who is a bilingual teacher aide he joined us at this event and was able to describe the day-to-day duties as a teacher Aid as well as provide translation of of the presentation that was given these events led to teacher aids getting hired and placed in our buildings another thing that we did for this event was we had documents translated into Spanish so if you're not familiar with the Civil Service process it can be difficult um to explain um to
111anybody so what we want to do is make sure that the that all of the candidates that we're recruiting um that we have materials for them in their native in their native language so right now I have these this information um translated into Spanish but I am going to be working with the multilingual department to get it translated into the top eight languages that are spoken within Buffalo Public Schools um so that we can have this information available for for our candidates so that they can see what that process looks like um so the next one the next flyer that I have up there is for our security officers we are aware that hiring security officers is a top priority so we qualify candidates on a weekly basis so as we get those candidates in
112on the Civil Service team reviews the applications make sure that the candidates meet the qualifications and then get them over to Chief Lark so that she can conduct bi-weekly interviews once she lets us know who she wants to hire we start that that hiring process for them um as Tammy's uh as the slide Chief McGee's slide showed with that inner with that hiring process there are a couple more steps with Civil Service hiring um so the biggest one being getting them through that Civil Service process and then the candidates also need to be fingerprinted um so those are two more steps that our civil service candidates have to take um so we will continue to work on attracting applicants to the security position um both food service and transportation hold regular interviews to ensure they
113have a constant of low of candidates as teacher aides apply we qualify the candidates and work with principals to get interviews scheduled as Chief McGee mentioned we are holding a hiring event on Saturday June 10th at Waterfront Elementary you are all welcome to come and please bring your friends that is the flyer that's up in the corner I am also going to be getting those flyers translated as well so making sure that we're hitting on the top eight languages again and then in that bottom corner there um the become a b PS hero that is a postcard that we are sending out to 6630 alumni um so we're going to be inviting them to this event and asking them to bring their friends and family in addition to all of these efforts that we're hosting
114we are also attending job fairs in the community to let everyone know that we're hiring um just today we went to the adult education job and career fair where we got information from 52 candidates who were interested in additional information so we're going to be reaching out to them within the next week or so um tomorrow we're actually attending the betc the Buffalo employment Training Center spring career fair so we'll be there tomorrow at the convention center June 3rd we will be going to the parent family and Community engagement Summit um to make sure that we let everyone know about our hiring event and then also answer any questions they may have about becoming a BPS employee June 10th is our event um again spread the word um tell as many people as you can
115about it and then June 14th we're going to be doing a Department of Labor job fair this will be an in-person event so they do hold virtual events but we find that the in-person events give us a better chance to explain who we are what we do in our hiring processes um one other thing that I am um talking to I'm Chief Amos about is working on a potential diversity recruiting event where we will be targeting um the um individuals who English isn't their their first language um and doing a hiring event centered around them um but as you know not all hiring is done at events so for positions that are based in our central office or even our school typists and clerk positions those can take a little bit more of a concentrated
116effort so I take pride in working with department heads to gain an understanding of their hiring needs and create a recruitment strategy based on our conversations I've currently been working with Chief Barnes and chief kuzman to do some head hunting for their current vacancies one examples of my efforts is seeking applicants through various platforms such as LinkedIn and handshake which is a job board that sends job postings directly to colleges of our choice this is a national network of colleges so we can present we can post jobs all around the country if we choose to as of today Chief Barnes has indicated we are filling three of his openings with candidates who were recruited from outside of the board of education so there's our new individuals who have never worked for us or a city
117Department before who are coming in new to the district next slide please foreign because a lot of my recruitment efforts fall on the Civil civil service side of the house I was recently assigned to supervise the Civil Service team um so we are working hard to ensure we're working smart not just tired all the time and getting candidates in the buildings as quickly as possible uh since we all like numbers here's some data for you um so in 2023 we currently have 311 buses that we've hired the total number needed we estimated at 500. so we're at a 62 percent Bill rate for those positions um with the new announcement from Chief Hills that they'll be going to the three Bell System we are anticipating that this number of bus total bus AIDS needed will
118come down and so we'll work with the transportation department to realign our goals and be sure that we're working to get those positions filled um for the Food Service as you can see food service we overshot our goal um and we did that on purpose because food service is a high turnover area we want to ensure that director O'Brien wood has the required staff to keep her Department cooking and serving lunches um security again you can see this year we've hired 90 so far we've hired 90 security officers of a total of 103 needed so we're at an 80 87 fill rate uh we just received notification just the other day I think there's three or four Security offers that we're going to be extending offers to this week so that that effort is never
119stopping um until we reach our goal um and then teacher aids and assistance as of May 4th we were at a 97 fill rate on May 5th that changed um because sped added 26 teacher Aid positions that took our fill rate down to 94. but we are still working to increase that number um as of today we just had a couple more teacher aides clear the Civil Service process and we're continuing to reach out to candidates get them in for interviews and get them placed we're going to be doing this until June 1st is the cutoff that we've kind of put in our head um it would give the candidates a month of working before they had that summer break um next slide please and here's the data just in another format um as you
120can see we are trending in the right direction when it comes to hiring Chief McGee I'm going to put it back to you thank you Barbara appreciate that next slide please admir last but not least I would like to introduce you guys to Mr Michael Anastasia deputy director of human resources and he's going to finish off our presentation for tonight and then we'll offer you an opportunity for questions at the end Mr Anastasia uh thank you Chief Holly McGee good evening board members uh thank you for having me here today thank you Dr Williams and also to any colleagues and community members who are still on um I'm excited to share a couple opportunities I do want to leave time for questions so I will try to be as brief as possible uh admir could
121you go to the next slide please so uh as a former math teacher I think one of the things that I bring to the HR department is kind of a love for numbers um I really like analyzing Trends I like looking at data and this number 79 is something that recently stuck out to me so some of my initiatives are trying to look Beyond some of the data we've collected in the past and trying to dig deeper to see some additional Trends and so since the BTF contract announcement was made we've had 79 experienced teachers apply to Buffalo Public Schools and so that is a number that really stands out to us that says that people are paying attention uh they do want to work here and the new contract is hopefully something that will
122help bring people here and also keep them here and so we're excited about seeing this number it continues to go up every day so since this presentation was put in place that number is actually over 80. um and so again we're excited about that this is also something that is forcing us to continue looking at the ways that we're going to work with um the subject area directors to help them staff too because we realize this is a larger number of people than maybe they've ever had to deal with at one time and so being thoughtful about the way we onboard folks bringing people into uh Buffalo Public in the best possible setting apologies if you can hear the siren add me your next slide please another key uh piece of information that we haven't
123touched on yet is our teacher Pathways and so we know that these have continued to expand over the past few years Elizabeth Campion Works within our department she's the supervisor of teacher Pathways she also oversees all of our student teaching placements as well and her role is extremely vital to continuing to find really great teachers to put into our schools um Elizabeth oversees 14 different Pathways and Partnerships she also works with 14 colleges that extend beyond just the Western New York area and each partnership each University partner they all have slightly different ways of going about things and Elizabeth really plays a pivotal role in being able to cater the college program and the candidates who come to us with what we need to see happen within Buffalo Public Schools all of these Partnerships have
124been great ways to increase diversity within our teaching staff and also try to fill hard to fill areas so next year we have she had a meeting with UB today next year's cohort of UB residents we're going to have 26 new candidates coming through the door they've already identified those folks we're really excited because over a third of the candidates coming in for next year's cohort from UB speak a language other than English and so really trying to increase the number of multilingual candidates who are coming into our schools one of the things that um trade recruitments uh is making sure that we just want to find as many talented people so we may have a bilingual Aid posting that doesn't mean that we only want to hire bilingual aids for the bilingual Aid posting
125if you happen to be a bilingual aide you are also eligible for our teacher Aid postings and so the same way we look at our teachers we want to make sure that we're finding the most qualified people and so we don't just need to hire a multilingual teacher to teach World languages while we do need that too we also want to put multilingual people throughout our buildings because that's going to help our kids and families feel welcome um the Buffalo Urban teacher Fellowship is in the middle there that's a new uh pilot program this year and so we are committed to hiring up to six staff members through that pipeline this is a new program and so we want to make sure that we kind of feel it out before we make a bigger commitment
126but we're excited about this opportunity and it's going to be a way for us to potentially tap into some folks we haven't been able to tap into through our previous Partnerships and then the last bucket there the grow your own is one of our most exciting um we really believe in the people who are currently working for Buffalo public there's lots of great people who are in our schools who are not in instructional roles right now and who have lots of skill sets that can be really valuable in a classroom setting and so one of the things we're really trying to focus on is how do we build people up if they're interested in a teaching career and so as Chief Holly McGee mentioned tomorrow at this teacher Aid and assistant event there will be
127College partners and University Partners present Elizabeth Campion will be there to talk about the teacher Pathways so for the folks who are interested in exploring a teaching career they're already in classrooms every day this could be a great way for them to continue moving up and again supporting our kids and this is also a way for us to give back to our current staff members um it's providing a ladder for them to climb the organization if they're interested it's also a way for us to have more people because our teacher aides uh live in the city there's a residency requirement it's a way for us to continue finding great people who live in the city to give back to our schools this year we've converted 32 trades to assistance that number is pending even more
128people who are currently in the pipeline to grow up and again really our focus is on trying to identify great people who are already in our buildings who know our kids who know our families who want to continue growing with the organization and finding the right fit for them um so Barb has done a great job of trying to talk to people all personalize this process as you can see we're doing two things we are expanding our reach we are trying to get our hands in as many places as we can have as many conversations with people as we can but we're also trying to personalize this people come to this career in a lot of different ways and so we know that not every person can do one teacher residency pathway if you have
129kids you might need a very personalized approach if you're someone who's just leaving college you might need a different approach and so we want to make sure that we're trying to support people and get as many great people here in Buffalo and then keep them here uh with that I will pass it back to Chief Holly McGee thank you so much next slide admir so we just want to take the time to thank you board uh education for allowing us to share a little bit about what we're doing in human resources and Dr Williams we wanted to acknowledge you at this time we would like to open it up for questions or comments Mr Scott I don't know if you're speaking I can't we can't hear you um president Belton Cotman any questions oh yes
130um first of all I think an apology is owed to you because of the misunderstanding uh that I had and certainly I'm I know other board members had that the and I'm gonna say it how I feel it that the bottleneck of moving new applicants to the next level was your department and as a result of that you have taken some heavy blows um because of it in your presentation you said that it was a team of team effort so I'd like to go back and I'd like a question answered on the slide where you said that you had the uh you have the candidates identified I think it was let's say uh can we go back to that I think it was slide number five or six somewhere in there and you identify uh
131x amount of people who had put in their application I want to know how many of those have been hired and I want to know why they have not been hired if they have not been hired particularly since we're in such a competitive environment they will not get hired for a process us however they have been sent over to the subject area directors they are aware of who these candidates are um so there's they're they're uh certified in many different areas um so according to their certification they go to that subject area director however um at this point uh there is a communication that should be going out from the subject area directed to these candidates letting them know that we are in the teacher transfer process and they will be reaching out to them
132or I know Ashley uh from elementary Ed has been hit with several applicants I want to say she's received at minimum 40 applications for elementary teachers and she has been chopping at the bit to reach out to them we've made a commitment to one today that I'm aware of but um they are reaching out to them as they get the uh individuals qualified and sent over to them so that is my understanding I don't know If Anne would like to elaborate more on that or not but because that is um Cai and she oversees well I guess here here's what my concern is as a board member Ashley is responsible for 40 on or trying to notify 40 people does she have any help she has a workload she is there and now in addition
133to her workload we have identified new candidates okay and I'm sure there's no time schedule put in place as once these people are identified that there's time to remove move forward how is Ashley supposed to in addition to her own responsibilities handled uh on sending letters out to 40 plus people it just does that part right there something it just doesn't seem efficient or or moving smooth because how do you expect Ashley to stop her workload and on board and and go through the process of hiring uh people and then she's responsible for sending out the letters to them as well something just doesn't seem right I can understand if in the contract it says that um uh B uh DCs are supposed to uh offer kind of whatever identify them that and we need
134to have a conversation about that too maybe not this time but later why is it that the staff does not have someone moving them to the next level and making sure that these people get identified uh this is very this is a very competitive environment and I received a call the other day because a person was considering going to another District they had they had some information from Human Resource but it wasn't enough for them to think that they had a job um because they had not gotten any additional follow-up so I'm trying to figure out you know how can you make the process more smoother because In fairness to staff do you really feel that someone who who gets inundated with 40 applicants can can do what she's supposed to do and continue to
135handle the ball she already has up in the air and In fairness to her I agree so I need you know I think we need to look at that because my other concern with that one is how much training has staff had as they screen these applications okay seriously to understand what applications should look like or what who I mean they're determining who's a fit for this District so now that I have all these people of diverse backgrounds working in the Suburban districts because they were considered not a fixed fit for Buffalo Public Schools we're in the process of trying to pull people together when does the second look happen when does someone say okay this candidate was very good we sent them over how did they not make it to the next level because
136implicit bias is real I know that there are some people who have applied who have had excellent credentials and I really think they didn't get the job because of it that they intimidated the staff that's my personal opinion but I don't know if it's true if you have someone that has more experience in in in their baby finger and you're interviewing them for a job then your whole hand Howard no wonder people we have such quality people in the suburbs because they're not making it so when does the second look happen because In fairness we have a reputation of not hiring people of diverse backgrounds so who is looking at these applications again okay because something is not flowing and I don't want us to have one person have 40 candidates okay and how long
137does she get two months three months to onboard them do you understand what I'm saying somebody needs to be working with her I think that's fair and I'll keep them I'll I'll be quiet okay so thank you for that question um board member Cottman uh so that would be something that Anna uh superintendent has called n and I in for that very question superintendent was at an at an event and the candidate said that you know well I have all this experience and I keep applying for to Buffalo Public Schools and I seem to not um seem to get anywhere I've had an interview but I can't seem to get in the door so that at that time the superintendent asked that I pull data um showing the number of candidates that human resources has
138sent to subject area directors um over the course of the year uh for consideration for to fill these vacancies and I did that um and so superintendent asked that Ann and I come together and uh meet and discuss that I shared with her that human resources uh qualified and sent over to subject area directors the number is around 670 qualified certified teachers in various tenure areas and so with that being said there has been a couple of meetings with Dr Vado uh Ann Botticelli Mike Anastasia and we're coming up with a corrective action plan which is that 360 uh shared document that Mr renzoni was uh speaking about so that when HR sent over to a uh subject area director of candidates we can see they're supposed to then tell us when they reach out
139to that candidate and let us know when they called them in for an interview so I can look at the document say on on May 10th I sent over Mike Anastasia on May 12th he was contacted for an interview and offered an opportunity to interview he interviewed on Monday and he accepted the position or I can see on there that I sent all HR sent over to um the subject area director on May 10th but the subject area director did not reach out to that person until two weeks later and when they did reach out they realized that the person had accepted a position at another um District so we're trying to avoid that from happening so we can actually kind of watch the uh process better so that's part of our corrective action plan
140that um Ann and I have collaborated to say you know we want to make sure that people are being seen but you asked a very important question Miss Catman um how does Ashley do that when she's Staffing summer school when she's preparing for the teacher transfer process well she has to do staff reconciliation she's got to prepare for summer school she's got to do false staff and then how does she where does she find time so I believe that we um Ann and I will need to talk about how we can provide more support to the subject area directors um through I don't know what method I don't know if it would be a tosa assigned or but some kind of support to help and assist the subject area directors with getting um quick and
141um you know efficient forms and Communications to qualified candidates that are sent over by HR so Ann do you want to add to that at all yes so we have been working closely together um and I think it is it's been very productive we're happy that we are able to use these new tools and make sure that we are all on the same page my staff takes pretty accurate records to make sure that you know if a candidate has been sent twice we make a note that perhaps we receive the same candidate already and we've already contacted them so we're trying to be very accurate in our record keeping to make sure that we don't miss candidates and uh I I would say that they generally speaking do not wait very long that they try
142to reach out as quickly as possible because we know how desperately we want to hire the best candidates so what if everyone is doing their best to make sure that that's happening okay what is the standard what is the standard so you have a corrective action plan hopefully the correction action plan has the ability to prop the ability to prompt staff that there is a task that is not uh completed and what is the standard okay so I'm I go for a job interview okay it's 10 days is there a standard that says that I should be reached out by day 10 or is there a standard that says no there is no standard because What's Happening Here is is that we are in a very competitive market okay and if we don't jump on
143it okay other places are jumping and these have more than one occasion where I I have went out and recruited people and had to beg them to stay with Buffalo because we did not move it to the next level okay so that's the teacher process we're aware that there's other process but without a corrective plan without a a um an ability to have a standard then there is no corrective plan I'm sorry I'm sorry I've got to call it like it is because the reason for the corrective plan is to make sure that you get the result and you can't get the result if you don't have a standard so I need you know I'm just trying to be uh just trying to show that yes you've got a correction action plan it's not prompting
144the staff that this work has not been done it's and and there's no report because once a week a writer should be able to be generated that says you have all these outstanding applicants you haven't addressed them or whatever but what cannot continue to happen is is that people are Sitting Waiting from March all the way to end of uh the beginning of May and not really sure that they have a job with us they're not because no one has reached out to them okay but we gotta we gotta work with that we got to tighten that up okay I'm really concerned about that I agree not only are we going to talk about the tool but one thing that you did mention a standard so one of the things that I know Deputy Anastasia
145is working on is providing uh subject area directors with scripts so hopefully we'll have a script so if you know the candidate is sent over if you don't reach the candidate at this time you know what kind of message are you leaving them are you leaving them a message that invites them you know to call you back to let you know that we want you to come and be a part of our team we want to interview you we want to have a discussion with you so Mike and his uh Deputy Anastasia will be working with um Dr baudo on providing some scripts uh in the next coming weeks uh to help the subject area directors but one of the things I must say is um you're always you got a lot a lot of
146balls in the air when you're trying to do uh Staffing but uh adding some support to some of the um Pro people such as the special ed department and Elementary Ed which has a high volume of applicants on a regular basis trying to provide support so that they can be more efficient and um meet the standard that we all expect so I agree thank you thank you for your response just one other quick quick question so you have someone who is whose job is to go out and to recruit does not that job also require that uh their that their recruiting efforts also produce absolutely wouldn't that be part of the function that we're talking about that Ashley needs support with you so much from the HR perspective okay so Ashley we can't do anything
147with this uh with the uh Staffing of the building so that will be support that will come from the Cai department and from you know from that department HR we do the Recruitment and we do the follow-up to make sure that you know we're watching and you know we're gonna see that this person actually ends up in the building or for whatever reason you know they're they're not a fit but um that wouldn't be the recruiter uh response to a letter I'm trying to get a clearance who would issue the letter here once Ashley does her part now she's got 40 applicants she's got to sit there and try to produce letters for do the secretaries do that who it's not necessarily a letter Ms Catman so what happens is with the difficulty for Ashley
148would be once we send those 40 applicants over she has to have an interview with those individuals that's the difficult part having the interview with um the teacher candidate and then um putting them you know fitting them with the right building vacancy so that's the difficult part um and I think that's where we need to add some support in that area and that is really the Cai side of the house not necessarily the HR side of the house we get them once Ashley says that they're a fit she's a Stampy Barefoot okay she froze all right as another measure of quality assurance what I have asked for you know each month is just a report of those who have been deemed as qualified but for whatever the reason um still have not been offered a
149letter and there will be some that if the directors find that they are um you know not a fit that you know I'll be able to support but there may be some that I have some questions about and we'll reach out to Ann to talk about and see you know see what's going on some people you know don't interview as strong but they get the job and they do the job well you know they're committed to it so you know those I share that there's another measure of quality assurance now that's um that's okay good okay good so what training has uh the staff had regarding implicit bias and um things like that that you're screening who's going to come and work for our district what training have they had okay what have what what
150have they had because all of us bring you know implicit bias to the equation um what training do we have and I I've asked that question not just of you uh Tammy I'm Mr H.R McGee but I've also asked it in our with Jim Barnes and the people who are screened who are screening our uh rfpqs and Etc and so I I feel that there should also Madam superintendent be a list of things that people have completed before they are deemed ready to determine what Buffalo Public Schools needs and that's just how I feel you know I don't know if what you're doing I know uh uh HR is doing she told us before she's doing certain things but I dare you think that you can just sit at a desk and determine what BPS
151needs needs if you have not attended some culturally linguistic responsible training some implicit bias training that you have not grown yourself uh to that degree so those are just some things I'm so glad we're having this conversation and personally I don't have a problem with going over if as a result of this we end up knowing that human resource is not the bottleneck that everyone thought was going on here okay at least for the teacher a piece now there's other pieces like you know your teacher aids and stuff we've got some questions about that but at least we know now and none of us knew that and so uh I'm glad that you know this came out today but I expect that your uh area subject subject area people that a standard be put in
152place that uh if if that that this these people do not just sit out there waiting for us to get to them while other people are snatching them up thank you um uh diversity equity and inclusion that is going to be working very closely with Chief aracelli and with Chief Holly McGee you know creating and crafting um interview questions that are um culturally responsive you know as well as content oriented so she'll be working closely with them also to support you know if there are trainings that are needed in those areas actually Chief Amos has agreed so she plans on creating some curriculum to provide training to the staff district-wide on implicit bias and things like that so she and I have had a discussion so just know that there are a lot of them
153out there already and that she doesn't have to reinvent the wheel um uh certainly New York state has has done a lot with that and so um the sooner the better because I do think a lot of people don't get jobs because of of that I really do because it can't be their credentials so thank you I'm sorry if I took too much time no problem vice president Dr Evans Brown any questions I don't um I yielded my time to uh wart member and President Sharon Cottman but thank you thank you um board member heard any questions uh yes quickly um um I'm not going to be long um thank you um Mr House McGee and your staff for um for really um making a concentrated effort I know it's our hiring process uh scene
154has flaws in the past but I think you made some great changes and some great strides into uh into securing um you know um positions and and also addressing our needs and our vacancies um I know I know it's a complicated process there's a lot of people deal with a lot of moving parts and and just recorded 80 new teachers within the district is amazing to me that's amazing and I'm just happy from all the concentrated work from the superintendent to Nate kuzma and uh Mr Byron's help getting this contract settled and that we can't afford down to or bring these individuals in um one thing from the com from the past conversation I would like to see is a hiring timeline a timeline established to where when someone put an application in that uh
155that it will be a set date that they're gonna okay yeah somebody had to have a set date to where it was my put application in for a position and also that they can um so that they can receive all instructions about about how to fill it out whether you're going online and fill application out and and whether it be the timeline to get the transcripts in your license or your resume uh your references all things that's required to be a higher your fingerprints so that so that it can be more constructive so everybody can be on the exact same um path um another thing um I would like to see um you know is recruitment is to our um Collegiate um see what we're doing about um I haven't heard it from you in
156this presentation I'm quite sure you're doing it but detail to the colleges for for the new graduates that's interested in education and how we can establish that not only our local but um Reach Out across from New York State and and program States oh yes we're doing that um absolutely yeah yeah we're not only doing it for teachers we're reaching out to the colleges like last week uh we had individuals from the human resources department trying to fill some of these positions that are in finance so we know Canisius is a finance college so we're out there and we're meeting and we're tabling and reaching out to Canisius College to grab some of these college uh graduates to get their foot in the door um in our accounting department so uh uh director girdlestone do
157you want to speak to that at all and what you did with Canisius yeah um so the the website the one website that I mentioned handshake um so things have changed a lot in recruiting and with colleges you used to be able to reach out to the colleges directly and you could send the career center of the job posting now everything is done electronically so what handshake does is handshake allows us to put a job posting up and pick and choose what colleges we want that job posted at um so I did we did get an applicant from Canisius College um for our Junior auditor position he happens to live in Tonawanda so I am going to reach out to him to discuss if he's willing to move um but that is one of the
158other hurdles that we face is the City of Buffalo requirement for some of these jobs um so I do make sure that it's known and that it's posted on the jobs when I post them um so I'm hoping this gentleman will be interested in moving to Buffalo if he saw that City Buffalo requirement but we do that we reach out to the colleges and um Deputy Anastasia is um actually just showed us an email that he received from Canisius today uh talking about her hiring event that so that has been blasted out to all of the colleges locally too I know there was an application I saw because we did set up an application for the hiring event it's not a full application it's just more informational because we want to be able to track
159how many people are are noticing this event or you know um seeing the Flyers seeing all of the materials that we're putting out there and I did notice that a couple of the applicants were from UB and mentioned that they heard about it through their Career Center at UB so it is getting out there to the colleges okay so what about our hbcus how we are how are we reaching out to those individuals when they have to have the the Buffalo residency requirement so for the teacher's side of the house with the hbcus when you're a teacher an instructor you don't have to live in the city okay so a certified individual if you're a teacher or an administrator um cert with a New York state certification you do not have to live in the
160city however if you're gonna come to the Civil Service side of the house you have a few months to be able to gain a resident keep residency here in Buffalo so um Chief Amos and I are going to uh participate in a couple of HBCU hiring events in the near future um so that we can uh but we want to make sure we package it well we want to do this with some good solid factual information from the uh Buffalo Convention Center Greater buff uh Greater Buffalo partnership we want to talk about how Buffalo is a great place to live we got to attract people that are living in these Southern States in nice warm weather weather we gotta attract them to Buffalo so we want to make sure we have a nice attractive package
161talk about Ellicottville talk about the wonderful things to do in the wintertime when they hear Buffalo they hear cold so we want to talk about something that's going to attract them we want to talk about how it's affordable place to live you know um it's a safe somewhat safe place to live and all of the attractions of Buffalo so we're trying to make sure when we go out there to the hbcus and try to recruit people to come to Buffalo we have a nice solid package that will attract them to come here okay please please include me on those trips um I wouldn't mind going even even on my dying um just to um absolutely with that part of going down to hbcus and uh and and just you know say more about Buffalo so
162we're doing it during conference so you know we're not going to go individually because that wouldn't be cost effective but there's like a couple of where all of the hbcus are coming together and they're doing um they're looking to uh help people get placed into jobs so we're going to career and hiring events specifically okay are we going to be at the upcoming events like the Juneteenth and the spending Day festivals and we will have a present we will have a presence um but it will be up to the superintendent to what magnitude she is going to you know support that but we will definitely have a presence and like we did last year but we didn't have a float or we didn't have necessarily a table but we did have our brochures and our
163information out there to share with people yes so it's time that you asked that because we just recently had a conversation about it Dr Morrell has been working with um solar Ingram on the Juneteenth I think she's the chairwoman this year for it and so um you know I think they're still working out details and and you know how you know what our level of involvement will be so I'll be meeting with Dr Morrell to find out you know what the level will be of involvement so so you know I would love to see afloat on a trumpet and have our kids out there you know playing music dancing and and she promised one last year you said you were gonna have one you said that last year I remember I did but then after
164May 14th I got a little you know but but this is a new year and we're resilient so so there's a lot of policing out there I'm sure we all be safe if we get some banners out there Buffalo uh Buffalo um of schools banners out there and and the hiring also incorporate into one I think it'll be very very useful and as a recruiting Source um and I were both at the Hispanic um parade last year together so we will be done the Saint Patty's Day Parade you know we support we support so yeah but you didn't Dr Williams In fairness you did not say that we were going to have a float last year you did not you said this year we were gonna have one yes you did yes you did let
165me finish up I'm sorry I got a couple more questions all right we're all over our time so let's let's be concise okay uh a lot of our charter schools are incorporating um teachers and today programs from colleges some instructors some professors uh if we can take a bigger stab at that and see what we can do how we can interject those into our current programs I would love to see that you know from our um from our district and um also um how to help our current teachers or like substitute teachers or teachers Aid receive their certifications I think we need a a big platform on that because I talk to a lot of substitute teachers and teacher aides who want these certifications don't know how or or unable to um meet the timeline
166because of working family and how we can have an extended version of that uh it's it's more things you know that we got people that that's that's um of African descent that's working in the district already that wants to propel I think we can possibly looking to doing a better job and trying to promote those individuals I know you're doing it already I'm not not trying to take anything away but uh but uh we can always do more I I don't take it that way I love to hear I mean half of the things that we're doing that's Innovative came from uh president Cotman board member shooter the in the fact that we're doing the teacher a training came from uh board member mccosy and board member Rivera having a discussion with me about what
167type of trainings are we offering you guys helped me to that so then we said okay we're going I didn't want to necessarily announce that but everything that you say means a lot and we take it into consideration and we try to weave it in and align it with our work um if it's something that we can do we want to do it so I appreciate it and the last thing if we can receive a report on the vacancies um that's left and um maybe as board members or everybody else we can help try to recruit individuals to fill those also so thank you I'm happy to say that we have less than 50 50 trade vacancies in the district I don't think um I know Adam's been with us for 11 years he said
168he's never seen that view of teacher Aid vacancies so we're at an all-time high for our fill rate with teacher a vacancies we've been doing on constant constant um uh recruiting and filling of those positions we even have a building principle that said you know I know my my thing says I need eight but I don't you can give them to somebody else I don't so it's just like you know we're really happy um that you know the team has really moved forward processing and that's all about us really following up you know trying to designate a specific time where I can have my team the Civil Service side of the house do constant follow-up with people because it's very hard to get the teacher aides to all of the required documentation just to prove
169that you're a resident of the City of Buffalo then you got to get a background check there's some people that have a small infraction on their background and so if that's the case we have to have a disposition in order for civil service to even consider hiring them of course we're not going to hire someone with a uh violent background but you know 15 years ago you may have been shoplifting at Payless shoe store we don't want to keep that person that have not had any other infractions from in front of our kids if they have had a work history and things like that so little infractions like that seem to hold up the process on us but we're punching through it and we're uh following up okay did you get that this position okay
170Civil Service the only thing that you need to have for them is the disposition can you get that so we can get you in the building so we're doing more follow-ups than we ever did before okay how's McGee Payless don't resist anymore so we don't have to let them that's why I stopped with 15 years ago at Payless so am I aging myself am I dating myself no no you're not okay the last thing is um sorry is um those those individuals that may not qualify to be a teacher are we referring them to another position or another job that they can work in the district we don't turn anybody away so there may be somebody that can't do the dummy pull for the bus say position right because you have to be able to
171pull a uh the dummy in order to make sure the kids are safe then you know what we're not saying you can't have a job with Buffalo Public Schools we're sending you over to Food Service to see if that see if you could be considered so absolutely if you're not eligible as a teacher we have many Charter School um employees I should say that have applied to work in our district and some of the teachers in the charter schools may not have a certification so therefore we cannot give them an instructional uh teacher position or we encourage them to come in and become a sub with us get to know our kids and then get up become a part of our residencies programs so that they can become certified thank you so much thank you
172for the work and thank you Mr chairman um or Scott um those are great answers and I love to see the progress in this thank you board member board member McEachern any questions thank you so much um go uh Dr Kathy Evans Brown and yield my time to my Kyle Lakes who've brought up some great discussion points very good uh board member Rivera any questions very much no I no action that we're having and I'm looking forward to having more and just a comment you know I'm always interested in talking about some more Pathways that we might be able to do cooperatively with higher ed I know we have talked about this before and so I'm still open to the conversation whenever you're ready yes thank you thank you board member shooter any questions so
173we'll yield my time to my fellow board members very good and last but not least board member Woods any questions for president raised about I did think the bottleneck was that we couldn't find qualified candidates and I was wondering why so many people African-Americans very qualified candidates tell me they cannot get into Buffalo schools uh I am from Angola and I am my family is all around the region and when I talk to African-Americans uh teachers highly qualified African-American males they tell me I put my application in first the buffalo's public schools and I could not get I did not get a follow-up a call or I interviewed and I got no follow-through so for me diversity and hiring is one of the primary concerns that I have that we have teachers that do not
174reflect the student body nine percent African-American black and brown teachers go to 83 black and brown population and I have too many people kicking me in the butt saying that every child gets a better education if you have a diverse teaching Force so for you to tell me that you sent 670 teachers to what do you call them area directors or area what subject area directors yes and that we don't have any tracking system to find out why those 670 teachers did not or did or did not make it into Buffalo schools that is something that does need we need a management system on it as you say we're giving the second highest salaries and the best benefits so we should be able to get the best qualified teachers I've had teachers walking up to
175me in the bank special ed teachers and they're saying uh how do I get into Buffalo schools I want to come into Buffalo schools I've had students I'm going to graduate what do I do to get in Buffalo Public Schools I've picked up my Criterion and Challenger to see if I saw any uh notices of these events hiring events so that the African-American and uh back in brown communities are aware of these events and the most recent ones I have don't have anything in it am I missing something oh no all of our hiring events are in the Challenger and the criteria the one for the 10th has not been uh issued yet it will you will see our hiring event in the panorama the Challenger I don't think the criteria this time because we
176we didn't find that it it didn't give us a lot of results but the Challenger and the Panorama and the Western New York jobs you will see this hiring event and um all of those Publications and then the previous Publications that we had um they were definitely in the Challenger more than ever we always put it in the jail very expensive but we put it in there definitely and there's um ah I was I was in the superintendent's office fairly recently when we had our last event and um it was in there so even our teacher recruitment day announcement was in the Challenger absolutely I'm not as Tech forward as our board president so you have to forgive me but it is a fact that we have bias in all of us is it is
177a reason what we have culturally relevance linguistic training and that our staff that are reviewing and the area directors and anybody that's doing hiring the fact that they need to have some be aware of their own biases I hate walking into I go into several churches and I've had a very qualified math male Math teachers tell me I even offered to be a substitute because things are so challenging for these children I want them to love math and I got no response not even as a sub I mean master's degree in mathematics so for me I want to know what systems changes we are going to make to as uh president cotton said 670 teachers what happened well now yeah what other time frame what other time frames on when they're going to be contacted
178because the best are recruited first I I'm I just want to express that I want as a board member with the focus on diversity and hiring to see some report or give it to the superintendent we can go to the superintendent and say uh superintendent provide us with a report 670 teachers what happened how many of them are diverse uh what up um oh sorry what what is the diversity in the hiring of those teachers especially if there's any math ones I'm so tired of people screaming at me they don't have Math teachers and science teachers and I know you are doing a very good job and with this contract we are doing a very good job of getting people who want to come to Buffalo schools so for the for the teacher who's graduating
179who wants to know how to reach you can you tell her and for the other people who have approached me in the banks and in the supermarkets or from who want to come in from other school districts they want to get in here the Buffalo can you say how do they do that so I I don't have to tell them all go look uh somewhere on uh Buffalo public pool page there's this this page for hiring and you do whatever can you just tell them so they can hear sure absolutely I'm gonna leave it up to Mike Anastasia would you answer that question for board member Woods because you've been working closely with Cai and um we we know that there hasn't been the the movement hasn't been fast enough but I don't want this
180to be a thing where we're blaming the subject area directors because they're doing the best they can um I believe uh with trying to get these interviews in but we're going to do a better job of uh working with them to see how we can help make sure that people are moving along there's no way you additionally need to help you okay thank you and thank you board member Woods um so one thing I will say even though you don't want to hear this is they can go to our website there is a spot on the website for join our team it's on the main page um Barb girdlestone has done a fantastic job redesigning the career page to make it easier for people to access what they want um the other thing that you
181can do is you can reach out directly to myself or to uh our director of Recruitment and Staffing Barb girdlestone if you have questions about the process so I like the feedback about trying to have a clear visual on the web website of the hiring process especially because it is different depending on which sort of role you're applying for so that is something that we will work on as well to put onto the human resources page so it is a clear visual so people understand kind of what to expect in the process the other side of this conversation though is um working closely with Dr Kelly baudo and her team in the last couple weeks because we've seen such an influx in candidates we are looking at trying to have a July teacher recruitment um
182hiring event so that we can get people officially hired in July once the transfer process is done that has not previously been done we do need to work through the logistics because there are contractual obligations making sure that our recruitment teams have the right number of BTF and bcsa members but we're committed to making that work so that more people have a contract offer in July than they would have in the past and that's in addition to the over 100 people that have already received open contracts and so Dr abouto's team and myself we've been meeting regularly we're going to continue to do that because we do realize this is also an influx of people that they haven't had to deal with in the past and so that she probably McGee's point they are doing
183a lot of different things and so we do want to help alleviate that pressure and then also figure out ways that the HR team can step in at different points especially on the communication side to help so that they're not getting into lots of back and forth one-on-one conversations so the the simple answer is go to the website and apply to the job you want if you're not seeing what you want or you're not getting the response you want you're welcome to reach out to myself or to Barb girdlestone and we can share that information with board members after this as well and what is your what is your email and phone number that they should reach out to you so anyone listening can hear this so if they're looking to reach out to myself
184um and I can let Barb speak for herself uh if you're reaching out to me my email address is M and then the letter p and Anastasia like it says on the screen a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-a and that's at Buffalo schools.org and if you're looking to send me if you're looking to call me um my line here at City Hall is 716-816-4959 the teachers but let's be clear you're going to have the person put the application in no matter what okay because you have to work from an application right so don't don't call you without putting the application in well if you do that's not fair to you I'll still be happy to talk to you especially if you're interested in teaching uh because I love teaching and learning but I will say to your point yes uh
185board member Felton common I want to make sure that people are applying because to the point about bias from the HR side we are screening based on the qualifications that are in the job and so if you do apply to something that you're not qualified for you may not hear back from us so for anyone who is interested in applying if there's not something there that you're seeing please reach out to us because we have so many different jobs here at Buffalo Public Schools if you feel like you're not qualified and you're you're curious if we can help you that's where myself or Barb girdlestone can help try to find the right fit for you if you don't have the teaching certification right now that doesn't mean that you can't work with us we will
186find a spot for you to get into our team and then we'll try to help support you if you're interested in becoming a certified teacher foreign still in effect some of them have started to lapse that that being said we are still working uh with a number of folks especially the uh colleges and universities to try to figure out some quick ways for people to get their certifications in place a lot of that really depends on what previous coursework they've had um so one of the additional things we're doing with UB outside of the teacher residence for next year they're going to help us certify four more teachers with a bilingual extension those are people who already have some sort of teaching background though so it really depends this is where we want to have
187a personal conversation with people we don't want to steer someone to a job that's going to take them five years to get we want to help them get a job right now get their foot in the door and then figure out what do they want in the future so that we can follow up and support them along that Journey all right very good um I am going to retroactively yield my time to my board colleagues um superintendent Dr Williams any closing thoughts no I think we had a very uh good conversation I hope that you know board members see that you know we've got a great team we've got a great team in HR we've got a great team with the Cai Department they're working together we're going to continue to modify and get better
188and better so that's it thank you for the presentation um thank you for all your hard work still a lot of work to do and I trust that you'll continue to be Innovative in marketing and recruiting the best teachers to Buffalo Public Schools so carry on thank you sessions tonight that's right keep going good night good night everyone good night diversity equity and inclusion