001that's okay okay we are live okay we're ready um I would like to first of all thank everyone for this opportunity for me to serve as the chair of the student support any of you who know uh my history as a principal that was something um we worked really hard at at making sure uh we worked to do whatever we needed to make kids successful so I look forward to the feedback from my colleagues on the board and from Madam president and I think that we're off to a good start I would like to uh introduce uh uh the superintendent who expressed interest in presenting um the first uh topic uh a very important topic of parent involvement and I will turn it over to you thank you so much Madam chairwoman um congratulations to
002you and um tonight we're going to hear from Chief Dr Ramona Reynolds and some of her team um she's been doing a lot of work um and some Innovative things to increase the amount of parent engagement that we have in schools and I know that we all know and we all agree that when our parents are engaged that you know we see test scores raised we see better attendance we see children who are more socially acclimated and so it's a win-win you know better communication and all of those things happen when we have um increased parent engagement so I'm going to turn things over to Chief Dr Reynolds so that she can introduce her team and begin the presentation and hello to all of the board members and colleagues good evening everyone and thank you
003so much Dr Williams um and mayor would you please advance the presentation the PowerPoint presentation right now I mean while he while he's doing that I can go ahead and get oh there we go so good evening once again and happy New Years Happy New Year to our distinguished board president prestigious board members and plus the superintendent revered families praiseworthy Community awe-inspiring students and admirable BPS colleagues who are viewing thank you for an opportunity to Spotlight just some of the district's family engagement efforts this year if it's the slide we recognize that parent and family engagement as Dr Williams said is the secret sauce to supporting Student Success as such it is imperative as outlined in our education bargain that we renew our relationships with students and families and fortify our relationships with Community Advance
004the slide though a great amount of effort is focused on cultivating trust and enhancing Partnerships with families the work we do with and on behalf of families is impacted in some way by each of the five goals that we will fulfill by 2025 advance and we know that it's an extraordinarily heavy lift and it's tempting to effectively engage and support the over 000 families in our district almost every department and certainly every school in our our district interfaces with families the office of parent and family engagement is a department leading this work and I am extremely proud of the efforts of this extraordinarily dedicated diligent and hard-working team that includes acting director Amy Casillas ozorio supervisor Jennifer Rich community resource leader James Jimmy Burns community resource leaders for adult scales Community Education leader Shyla early
005parent advocate Joe Agro and principal clerk Colette Clemens this small Dynamic team collaborates and co-plans with many departments Community organizations and parent groups and is well on its way with moving family engagement to the next level so please help me welcome Mrs Casillas ozorio and Mrs Jennifer Rich the Reynolds good evening as Steam board members and superintendent Dr Williams I am Amy Casillas Osorio acting director of The Office of parent and family engagement joined today by supervisor Jennifer Rich thank you for providing us with this time to present some highlights of the amazing work that we conduct on behalf of BPS families next next slide please thank you for dozens of years our district has conducted parent engagement work but never had consistent definition as such in 2020 the office of parent and family engagement
006convenes a diverse Committee of parents administrators teachers and community members who embodies a collective Spirit of Anne arrived at the following definition the BPS parent and family engagement definition active voice involvement and presence of parents families and community members working with awe in school home and or Community to ensure ongoing student learning wellness and development voice ensuring that the voices of all families are Amplified to cultivate trust aligns with our BPS strategic plan involvement and presence does not just mean showing up in person it also supports learning at home and throughout the community depending on individual family circumstances involvement in presence may also include other family members and other trusted adults other ways that parents might engage could be text messages emails messages sent home or to school with students and involving their students or
007their children in community sports groups supports wellness and development next slide please as many of you are aware we have made a significant investment of time and money and strengthening parent family and Community engagement throughout Buffalo Public Schools the office of parent and family engagement has partnered with high expectations a small But Mighty company similar to our oppe team to provide training on Dr Karen Maps dual capacity building framework for Family School Partnerships the commitments under goals four and five in the 22-25 BPS strategic plans are strongly supported within our implementation of the dual capacity building framework identifying and implementing a parent of family engagement framework is an action item under priority five in the district comprehensive Improvement plan looking at Pillar 4 of the framework it highlights how parent engagement is linked to learning
008as schools align their parent engagement activities and events to the academic goals of their schools an example that our health teacher conferences are being revamped to include a learning activity family activity nights whether they're fun activities are including learning activities and a takeaway that parents could take home to support student learning at home Empowering Families as co-creators and Advocates including them in the decision-making process such as the sbmt meetings the parent engagement planning school events um up whatever the school offers parents involving them making sure that they're part of the process every single School throughout our district have representation at the two-day in-person family engagement learning Institute including a two-day session for district level staff with representatives from almost every Department participants were provided with valuable resources and strategies to enhance relationships with families schools
009are now participating in Virtual coach coaching sessions with high expectations nopfe to support their ongoing family engagement work op Fe is leading up District family engagement team to ensure we strengthen the organizational conditions of the dual capacity building framework we just hit our first meeting on Monday there was a great turnout including the Departments who attended the Institute a number of addition and a number of additional departments as well as building level administrators they all heard great reviews from their peers it was encouraging to hear them affirm how oppe is already collaborating throughout the district next slide please this is some of the feedback received 168 out of the 177 participants that included families administrators teachers and community members Community Partners completed in electronic survey after completing their two-day session of the family engagement learning
010Institute 96 felt confident in durability to develop a family engagement action plan using a cycle of inquiry that is utilizing data to drive their planning 98 so feel confident in their ability to engage families in ways that will lead to improved relationships establishing trusting relationships between families and schools is critical to the success of students 97 feel confident in their ability to engage families in ways that will lead to improved student achievement during The Institute school teams identified many of the wonderful events they had planned for the year these events were strong in building relationships but not as much linked to learning the strategies learned during the family engagement learning Institute provided the teams with the resources necessary to link their family engagement events to the academic goals of the school and to the hopes
011and dreams of the fed their families there for their children this survey provided important feedback that has been guiding individual coaching sessions with buildings these sessions are being held virtually via Zoom with high expectations and a member of opfe schools are following up on the work they started in the Institute ensuring that the work that they have started is successfully completed our meeting with School 54 just last week was extremely productive their family engagement team was able to identify specific and actionable ways to support Lexia usage at home by providing additional training and support to families using the QR code to log in these are some encouraging data points as we continue to move forward with implementing the dual capacity building framework in Buffalo Public Schools next slide please as previously mentioned during the two-day
012sessions that took place in November through December school teams collaborated to identify the strengths of their families and school communities here are a couple photos of school teams collaborating on their plans these don't even capture the electrifying energy that exuded throughout the sessions we are extremely proud of the work being done to strengthen family engagement in Buffalo Public Schools and now we would like to share a video highlighting the key takeaways from our final day of the Institute video please the video Amy yep just a second yes questions so pleased that the office of hearing family engagement and the Buffalo Public Schools has wrapped our final day of our family engagement learning Institute with national consultant high expectations we're moving to a place of where we're no longer engaging families in isolation we want to
013make sure that we are linking our engagement to learning to provide our school staff our families and our District staff with the needed resources to support our student learning and schools and Beyond okay thank you I was really excited to come into this District where we brought administrators and Teachers Community Partners families together at one table to Think Through how can we tweak and repurpose our family engagement strategies so that they lead to include student achievement they lead to increased relationship with families that was really the work that we were doing and one of the highlights was the high school teams you know people say High School folks don't really get family engagement work and they're not excited and it's so much easier to work with Elementary and the elementary teams were amazing but those
014High School folks came in in charge and ready to go and and serious about thinking about how they were going deep in relationships with families um they had so much energy and it was it was amazing it was a highlight of the week [Music] my key takeaway from this parent engagement framework Institute to bridge the gap between families and staff and students you need to want to hear everyone's voice and try to understand where everyone's coming from one key takeaway that I'm going to go back to the families [Music] because everyone should be on the table so much to all good participating we hope that you found the value in what we've learned and we are looking forward to taking our family engagement practices to the next level voice [Music] thank you admir both are
015videos as well as many other resources of information are available on our BPS parent Center's Facebook page as well as it on the office of parent and family engagement Facebook page supervisor Jennifer Rich will now share information regarding our support to buildings with title one parent engagement Liaisons and parent centers foreign you could pull the presentation back up there for us and we are on slide nine thank you another important ingredient in strengthening family engagement that our department provides is supporting schools as they utilize their Title 1 allocations for parent and family engagement we offer trainings for administrators in June through August and follow up throughout the year with any new administrators taking the lead on family engagement for their building training includes an overview of requirements under Essa section 1116 which provides guidance and
016regulations for Title 1 parent and family parent family and Community engagement administrators learn about what is required for their school compact policy and what are allowable expenditures under title 1. we also have some fun this year we were able to do the training in person again and it was so encouraging to observe administrators collaborating and sharing ideas for Meaningful family engagement events Elementary administrators were collaborating with high school administrators to share ideas and resources that were focused on preparing students and their families for the transitions in their educational Journeys Osa teamed up with opfe to support administrators and their teams as they align their parent engagement planning to their set for the school comprehensive education plan this year director Bradley Behringer and supervisor Abigail wolski joined us to provide a presentation and support during our
017in-person administrator training they also joined us for our virtual follow-up sessions for anyone that missed the in-person training every building has scheduled one-on-one meetings that had started in August and are ongoing to present day to review planning requirements we also provide presentations and trainings for school staffs like staff meetings we get invited to as well as sbm team meetings follow-up coaching sessions are provided throughout the school year as buildings work to plan events and ensure families have all the resources they need to support continued learning at home next slide please now our parent engagement Liaisons or pells are hired to enhance the engagement for our parents and support the success of our children so really they're that critical bridge between our families the schools and even within the community this year we took our Pell
018program to the next level by offering our pills up to 40 hours a month at a rate of 15 per hour previously it was 30 hours per month at minimum wage 13.20 an hour we currently have 52 Pals with 39 returning this is a significant increase from last year at this time where we had 35 pills offering more hours and an increase in Pay provided additional incentives for potential pells who are using this job as their only source of income and as you see we've got 59 out of 60 schools with pells we do have pells that work at two schools they either have children at both schools or Community connections when we look at our pel engagement data we are seeing a significant increase in the face-to-face work which is really encouraging showing that
019our pills are in the building they're there at pickup drop off they're making those connections with families they're that familiar face when families drop off kids pick up kids um they're also offering Coffee hours informational sessions in their parent rooms we see another 27.6 percent of engagements involved in other and that's really the sbmt meetings they're palprofessional developments the disproportionality trainings and other parent group meetings the other part of our Pell engagement is really that critical Outreach piece where our pells are personally calling families within the schools sending text messages sending emails ensuring those families have all the information necessary to be encouraged to participate in those sbm team meetings our district meetings providing all of that information to make sure that it's getting shared as often as possible some of our pills this year
020I mean all of them really doing amazing things we have Miss Mitchell over at school 84. she was able to get gifts for all of the children for Christmas and other holidays and she actually was able to get additional gifts so that the students had a little store that they were able to shop at for gifts for their families they were able to practice some math skills then as well we have Grandma Vera over at school 82 who has an amazing supply of clothes donated shoes donated when I went over there to visit there were at least three teachers that stopped by with donations and that's just a regular day for her um we've also increased those professional development opportunities for our parent engagement Liaisons and during our October PD the BPS strategic Plan was
021introduced pells received copies and worked in groups to brainstorm ideas on how they can support the five by 2025 in their role as a parent engagement liaison as I said before our Pals this year are truly rock stars and continue to go above and beyond to support the home school connection next slide please our parent centers are another resource we provide for families and community members within the Buffalo Public Schools we partner with say yes to bring valuable programming and resources to our four in-person locations we have Bennett High School in the Northeast Zone Lafayette High School in the west Zone East High School in the East Zone and South Park High School in the South zone now participating in parent Center programming is not contingent on where you live in the city anyone can
022attend any event at the four locations if you live near South Park High School but there's something at Bennett that you are interested in by all means please attend um and then we also have our virtual platform as previously mentioned the BPS parent Center's Facebook page through say yes parent Center Liaisons are hired to support our efforts in identifying Community Partners who can bring valuable classes and information to families classes this year began in September and as of today January 11 2023 we have held 60 individual sessions and when we take a look at the data on the slides we have our offering broken down by our parent Center strands that parent leadership and advocacy academic and instructional technology personal and professional growth and development family bonding social emotional Wellness this year we've been looking
023at a lot of our parent leadership and advocacy and the academic instructional technology as we move into the second half of the year there's another focus on our social emotional Wellness looking at the attendance you probably see we've got a big chunk identifying as community members we have 51.5 percent identifying as a community member with 14.4 identifying as parents what we've observed is that many parents were signing in as a community member if their child did not attend the school where the parent Center was located but community members also Encompass our grandparents Aunts Uncles cousins neighbors siblings the true Village involved in the success of our students and BPS however our team is still working on clarifying the sign-in process so families understand that parent means any parent of a child in BPS some of
024the examples of programming that we've been offering deaf access Services they've provided ASL American Sign Language interpreter services and BPS for years in response to the needs of our families and community members we took that partnership to the next level by Contracting with deaf access services to provide beginner American sign language classes to our families ASL or American sign language is the third most commonly used language in the United States after English and Spanish ASL is also a critical tool in supporting children who are non-verbal to provide a communication resource and reduce frustration one of our families in our November cohort included a young girl around 10 and her mother her mother shared feedback at the end of the course stating that her daughter had never verbally said I love you but after participating in
025this course her daughter started signing I love you in partnership with say yes and strong African-American families which was brought in as a program and this provided differentiated lessons for parents and their children they were brought together at the end to share their learnings we also have partnered with student Support Services to provide the collective care cafes monthly these are virtual closed sessions to anyone who wants to join strategies for self-care and resources for families and BPS staff to support the emotional well-being are offered we have collaborated with Osa and Community Schools to house our data in one space through group Trail this will allow us to accurately collect attendance data and support meaningful program planning currently our offerings such as ASL and strong African-American families that are geared towards the family participation have had
026the larger turnout as opposed to classes focused singularly on the parent or family member surveys have been developed to collect feedback from families regarding future programming that they would find beneficial the pals are instrumental in sharing these surveys with families in their building and this is included in some of that Outreach we have some upcoming program bright Minds we have an intro to life coaching there's going to be a partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension for cooking classes infant CPR and the American sign language classes do return in March for five weeks and again in May for five weeks with many many more offerings to come please make sure to keep an eye on that BPS parent Center's Facebook page if you don't already follow it great resource but also our parent engagement Department District page
027has the calendar events that you'll be able to follow but I will turn it back to Mrs Casillas Osorio to discuss additional supports provided by opfe next slide please for speaking Mrs Osorio you're muted unmute sorry about that no problem yeah as many of you know under the BPS district parent and family engagement policy 3170 parents are provided with opportunities to participate at the district level the purpose of preparing Congress is to serve as the liaison between the district and our families they disseminate important District information to families and to provide parental feedback to the district they also encourage families to engage with indoor organizations parent Congress is currently comprised of six board recognized parent groups each with his own mission the current groups are bptl the EPCC MVP niac chw and CPAC parent Congress
028meets monthly as a collective in addition to monthly meetings with the superintendent the latest update to our District parent of family engagement policy Board of Education policy 3170 requires parent Congress groups to recertify annually we will begin this process in April scan the QR code at the top of the page to access our calendar of parent Center offerings as well as parent Congress meetings next slide please these are some additional supports that opse offers for families we are very excited to announce that we return in person for our annual parent family and Community engagement Summit taking place over two days with an award ceremony in the evening of Tuesday May 30th in the Bennett High School auditorium and a day of Celebration and learning on Saturday June 3rd at all High Stadium we also have
029our BPS information Hub that's the One-Stop location where families can get answers to questions that when they don't know who to contact our parent advocate Joe Agro provides supports to families with resolving concerns and then again our BPS parent centers and office of parent and family engagement Facebook pages has over 11 000 followers we that's where we promote our parent-center offerings in um sessions where we share Community Resources as well as strategies to support families in partnership with staff development next slide please in partnership with staff development we have launched a new literacy promotion where weekly literacy strategies are also posted on our Facebook page we are also collaborating on a video highlighting these strategies in action our Appel from number 302 is participating in this project so once again I I move the slide
030a little quickly but if you scan the QR code you can access our BPS parent Center's Facebook page and please note that if you are in the BPS Wi-Fi or Internet the link will not open so we have highlighted many opportunities that our department provides and we collaborate with departments throughout the district to meet the needs of All Families but as we know families are their child's first teacher and that doesn't stop when they enter school we need families to do their part so we can achieve 5 by 25. here are some ways to address our Focus areas of improvement to increase attendance ensure your child attends school on time every day monitor daily in class attendance to the parent portal utilize the supports within BPS such as the student support team parent center classes
031and also to reduce suspensions have those conversations with your children about expected behaviors and ask how they are doing be proactive communicating with school keeping those lines of communication which lead to building trusting relationships and again utilizing the supports within BPS and these are just a few highlights of the work and supports that we provide thank you next slide please do you have any questions for us at this time I will uh go around and uh give everyone an opportunity if that's uh probably the best way to do it um Madam president do you have any questions or comments well I just want to say thank you like I guess I do and I don't I don't I'm not quite sure but I appreciate the presentation um I guess in trying to move forward what
032I'm trying to find out I have a question like what when we we brought up the parent Congress piece what percentage of the parent Congress consists of parents that are currently uh with students in our district um these are the things that I sort of need to know because I need to know if we are who who who can who is who is who who is whom in our district and so I'm I'm curious to know you said that there's a recertification process that happens uh in the spring um and I'm gonna uh reacquaint myself with the guidelines but um I need to know um who's whom in in in in in this District how many of the parents uh how many people who are registered with the parent Congress are actually parents how many
033are teachers how many are community members um I think in order for us to service our customers uh our uh parents that we need to know the other thing I'm interested in knowing is how does having a parent liaison engagement liaison in our building impact us as far as student uh parent and uh or teacher and student uh uh conferences or engagement I saw that you said that uh you gave you know under ideas to reduce suspensions do we spell out for parents what it looks like to be engaged with the with the teacher you know it's one thing to say stay in communication with the um teacher or open up communication but do we open it up what are the steps to open it up I'm a parent I I didn't do good in
034school okay I didn't have a good relationship I don't in my experience is not positive how do I go about having that do we spell that out in some sort of procedural way for people to know some basic uh navigating tools and those are the things that uh uh come up to um I mean just come to my attention it's just like what are we are we making sure that we're meeting our customer where they are okay and that's what I'm concerned with when we are talking do we say do we talk in layman's talk or do we talk in education jargon I need to know that that's happening with our our parents the other thing and I'll get off of this and now you can in the future Terry I don't really want to
035be the leader of stuff all talking but because I don't want it to sound you know I want to have everyone else's opinion and if they don't pick up something I'd like to add mine but the other thing I'm concerned with is the uniformity that we need to get in place for the best practices with parent Liaisons we have some parent Liaisons that's knocking it out of the park and we have some that are not and I feel that we need to have some basic uh expectations we can say benchmarks uh that we expect all all apparently azymes to be doing okay and that includes having um each principle in my opinion with their own student um with their own parent student uh a group inside the building but I need to make sure that
036uh we don't have willy-nilly's and everybody doing what they want to do and we don't and that we're not achieving certain things because I would think the ultimate goal with parent engagement is parent involvement and that includes everybody at least being able to measure because if we're doing smart goals they're measurable so that's where I'm at I appreciate the work that's been done this department has come a long way um but I I don't feel we're we're we're where we are where we need to be and it's no reflection on this department it goes back to over 20 something years of people advocating for uh quote parents with no parents being involved so you had all these big voices but yet no one trickled down to the actual school buildings and had parents involved and
037as a result of that our parent engagement suffered uh since Dr Reynolds has been in there she's improved it tremendously I appreciate the work and that you and our staff are doing Dr um Williams but we have still have a long way to go because we have a whole generation that never was involved in parent engagement I might I think it's stopped probably around the year that my my kids were graduating because yes all these big voices and we still have the big voices and when we look to see what the parent involvement is do we seek parent involvement or we do see do we see their point so I'm just curious to know who's the nitty-gritty stuff um who's who who are we doing I mean how are we making sure that the best
038practices are being done and and I'm big on procedures and that comes from my corporate background I want to make sure that that there's like all the parent Liaisons are at least doing x amount of things consistently throughout this district and I don't want to hold them down trying to pigeonhole them into doing anything I'm trying to make sure that we can at least expect that if a parent leaves and goes another parent can step in and say these are the things that the board expects to need to do and these are the things that I'm doing but uh we've come a long way with this department and I'm pleased to see the growth thank you hey thank you um Dr Evans Brown hello everyone um I've always admired this department under Dr Reynolds they
039do an excellent job and I've been to some of the Summits in the past but what Sharon was saying is kind of correct because I remember it probably goes beyond 20 30 years when when my kids were in school um parents weren't um welcome for example and so I remember my kid was a kindergartener and I heard overheard a teacher and and it has changed a lot so thank you for that um say oh now we have to be involved with with with parents but research shows that when parents are in vowel kids are more successful and so when we talk about taking it to the next level it would be interesting um to see um you know more regular parents participate in some of these groups um and for them to understand the importance
040of being involved you know in their child's education and not saying that it's not happening but we could do better um so it you know for any doctoral student it would be interested for them to to look at the the uh parallel with parent involvement and some of the initiatives that you cited today um because it would be nice to know if we're having an impact of student educational uh proficiencies you know with all of the deliverables that you um produced today so that those are my just observations okay thank you um Mr heard [Music] thank you Terry um I do have a couple of questions um but first I'd like to thank Dr motor Reynolds um Amy Kelly sofiro and Jennifer Rich for princess sent together a a great presentation and Advising our community
041the board and the district about our goals and what we're doing with our payment parent engagement and um how we um using Point engagement in the City of Buffalo uh it's very enlightening just to hear this presentation and I do have a couple of questions pertaining to it the first question he's going one at a time is um your parent engagement liaison could you give a little description about how somebody can become a parent engagement liaison I did get a couple of uh text messages about that and you know went through a consist of and how can people participate in it can answer that we have are so to be a parent engagement liaison we did expand what could qualify for parent engagement liaison previously was you had to be a parent of a child
042in that building we weren't necessarily getting as many candidates so we expanded it to a involved Community member if there was not a parent available they also need to have a high school diploma or equivalency and then once we get that information the administrator provides us with a form and we can always give that information um we can share that it's also available on our department page but the administrator then sends us the information the potential candidate would be interviewed by the building administrator and one of the members of our team if that all goes well we send their information on to our partner 22nd century who performs a background check so they go through a seven year background check clearance with them and then they would also have to complete the onboarding paperwork with
04322nd century before being fully cleared to be an active pal okay how long did that process normally takes so it can take can take within two weeks then we have to move on because again we are looking to tighten this program up and we do know that we need to keep this work moving forward um so what we have been doing with parent engagement Liaisons and potential pills because sometimes that paperwork or getting these emails or you're getting them from 22nd century it's an unfamiliar email we provide support so I have the pills come in and meet one-on-one in my office even print out the paperwork so we could get them cleared within two to three days okay great great you able to walk walk a person through this process okay great uh and going
044from 35 pills last year to 52 this year uh and with that type of incline growing you know I think that we can just go a long ways especially with uh this position now this um a volunteer position so they are paid I mean so it's 40 hours up to 40 hours a month at 15 an hour great great information for uh for um stakeholders yep and a key sorry and I don't think I mentioned this before I'm sorry um not a Buffalo Public School employee so we can't have like teacher aides or assistance um because that is often the question but it does have to be a non-buffalo public school employee what if it was a bus say employed by the bus company or what the district no so unfortunately because we partner with
045um so any partner corporate or partner vendor anybody that's paid somehow even through a third party vendor from Buffalo we can't because it's still kind of a double dip okay I understand thank you thank you for the information and um and seeing that you offered at four high schools didn't Lafayette East and South Park um are there any expansion with those high schools or other high schools areas or are we gonna um keep those four high schools out of stationary no so that's actually a great question board member heard because that has his conversation that we've we've two add additional hubs but we have had talks about pop-up parent centers where we will bring the programming to because again they are spaced out and we know this is a big city and we know transportation
046is a concern so how do we meet our families and communities where they are so we have been offering um centers and we so that's still that's a work in progress we really started that this year we haven't had necessarily a full one come to fruition but we're getting there so the excellent and that is the work that we are and I'll just intercheck this is before your arrival Mrs Rich we prior to the pandemic we offered um numerous parent Center pop-ups and we also offered them in other schools other than the four that um that are currently housing our appearance centers thank you so much I'm sorry are you done uh I wanted to Circle back to some of the points that um president continent brought up uh first of all let's go back
047to um the first question um regarding the Board of Education policy 3170 um that re-certification that's going to take place in April is going to um look at all those points that you did mention and that is um a new um addition that was uh as of July 2021 I believe it was um Dr Reynolds um China yes correct stuff correct so that yes so that process will start for the first time now this April and then another Point regarding um the Pell data so the group Trail um data Suite that we referred to earlier the houses are data in one space um that's that's also a new initiative that was started because there was a need to look and gather parent engagement data from all the different um areas for example the parent centers
048the Community Schools parent engagement data as well as um and any other parent engagements for um that that are taking place throughout the district um pal activities Robo calls for example you wouldn't even think to add that but even that is being added um The Suite um is still being developed and even the responses that parents are providing through mobile calls as well as our parent information Hub are going to be included there um to continue to to look at the data as far as how parents are being engaged um and again you know as we continue to to step up and and to bring in new Partnerships and new programs um we are looking you know at the data to and also based on on parent feedback what are journeys what would they like
049what are they interested in in um being provided with so you know um it's a work in progress um let me just interject also just to um in harmony with board president Kaufman's question she mentioned a smart goal and she mentioned the standardization of um the work that the pals are doing so I did want to lift up one of the office of parent and family engagement Department goals that align explicitly with our strategic plan um so there is a standard expectation that all Pals no matter the no matter who you are are will be required to provide information and resources conduct daily Outreach to parents family staff community members they can do that a number of ways recruiting at least 33 percent of their school families to participate in school-based activities events and attend
050at least one monthly Saturday Academy or parent Center offering and so this progress is monitored and measured through bi-weekly reports provided to the office of parent and family engagement by way of 22nd century technology so this is data that the team is continuously monitoring assessing and the recalibrating and having those individual conversations and coaching sessions with our Pals when needed again it's a work in progress but the gold the smart goal is established thanks okay uh Cindy you covered what I was where I was heading but thank you I just had one more question oh um we'll be talking about learning from home student learning from home how does the the pal works with children learning from home I mean our Pals so so when they do their Wellness checks and these calls to families
051so they know if families have students at home or if they're being homeschooled if they're home for an extended illness this is information that is communicated Without You Know full information because we do respect HIPAA guidelines but they reach out they can coordinate with the student's teacher to help support with making sure assignments are there they're calling home they're talking to the teacher they're in the buildings so that really does make a difference to have the pal in the building because they do make that quick connect yep I'm sorry um and I'm sorry team because I actually said I was going to remain uh hidden it's in your butt I'm trying to help to support um the the team mentioned the weekly family literacy strategies that are being shared and you can view it on
052the parent Center and office of parent and family engagement Facebook pages every Monday morning the pills also share those with their families so those are strategies that they're able to just very easily do at home with their kids I'm just concerned about children that suspended and extra helps for those individuals and how can we reach out to those those families um for for children are struggling and may have you know um been removed from school because of the because of the um uh some contrary to our code of conduct well I think you know our appearance Center offerings that's a great opportunity depending upon the reason why that child has been suspended particularly if it's a student who is um repeatedly suspended you know this might be an opportunity to really get to the root
053cause so I don't know let's just say that a kid is continuously um suspended because here or is being disrespectful um towards School staff there are we in instances like that we would encourage families participate in the session that one of our board recognized parent groups most valuable parents they provide what is it called parent to parent no parent to parents parents appearance sessions where they have real deal parent-appearing conversations and training sessions many of the members of most valuable parents and many of the participants in those sessions have experienced kids being suspended so that's almost like a support group for them so that is an opportunity and an example of the sort of support that we can provide to families of suspended kids and also these are resources for example when we have our
054Pell professional developments these are all resources and information that we do share with the pals and they turn key this information to the families at their building and then we also bring in presenters we collaborate with other departments such as um The Wellness um health and wellness department and so there's a lot of professional development that's provided to the pals that equips them with skills that they turn around they share with the parents in the schools they can hold meetings with them um you know and TurnKey that information so um they're very effective at doing that work type of work that sorry just as you speak to the pal PD so previously mentioned the collective care cafes our Pals attend those so whenever we have those those they are learning the restorative practices they are
055learning talking points to support families with those difficult conversations at home when you do see increased behaviors to get to that root cause and honestly when we hear that board member heard because this is a concern that we know we want to reduce those suspensions we want to provide supports for those that do get suspended so the literacy tips there's also also a video component but that's something we're looking at building on but again we're really you know we say it's a new day it's this is day one and to move it to the next level we need to do this in a sustainable way so we're really just getting things going here but we know it's very critical work yes thank you thank you again and um it was just on reflection because of
056uh we're doing such great work and uh this case that's being left behind that is suspended not by default of the district but you know reaching those homes so thank you for the work that you're doing I know it's a work in progress and I congratulate this department for the work that they're doing uh thank you Mrs Suda thank you uh Cindy you have anything I do not other than thank you uh so much uh each of you for thorough presentations and uh entertaining our questions very thoughtfully as well so um things that were popping in my head have been asked you've been answering um and I've been taking notes so uh thank you so much thank you Miss mccosy everyone shoot a so I just want to um I do have a question but
057I do want to State one of the main reasons that I'm on this board and what brought me to uh just this work was advocating for my children and transparency and communication to the community and the strides that have been made not because of you know since I've been on the board but not because of me and not because of board members but because of this department and how it's you know just expanded and all the work that you've done Dr Reynolds and everybody involved I can tell you we are miles away from where we were when I was at the other side screaming for my two minutes and 45 seconds and making sure people hear when I wasn't communicated about things just happening in my own children's school so I want to put out
058there that this is just amazing work that's been happening over the past however long and and it's growing and I'm just appreciative of all this it was a great presentation I do want to ask a question around something that's you know anybody who's been on you know around me long enough to know is we have so many um folks who are literally the front-facing folks with our students on a daily that aren't just parents so when we're doing this family um communication when we're talking about family and parent engagement do we or have we put um on the table like if you any support systems if you're a grandparent who happens to be taking care of your you know I mean taking care of of children or are you an aunt or an uncle are
059you someone who you know has now has inherited a beautiful student that you're now taking care of do we have any support systems in any of our parents centers or anything around that because it's still to me a concern as I'll be honest with you I still get these remarks that it's almost like people feel as if they're not being respected when they know that there's so many people playing the role of parents but they're not actually parents and they don't feel as supported because some folks technology is not where they're at so how can we reach out to them so I'm just wondering if in the near future if we have this and I've just missed you know I want to be able to advocate for that um and then also just uh making
060sure that um we have everything at the ready board members to be able to say okay these are our groups I mean I'm pushing the community schools and all of the parent and family engagements when it comes to uh parent Congress and organizations though there's a little bit of a disconnect as to you know we have the rfpq around if you want to work with the Buffalo Public Schools and partner with them and then there's do you want to be a part of parent Congress so I think that those two Avenues have to be a little more succinct I don't know if they go to the parent Congress um to the website underparent Congress to see if their organization might qualify or how to sign up to be a part of parent Congress as opposed
061to like groups that involve parents who want to be involved in working with the district and partnering with the district um I know of two different organizations that really would like to be involved in pairing Congress but they keep kind of uh pushed into working with the district as as a CBO with the district so I don't know if that makes sense but that's a concern that was brought to my attention so all of that and I'm done now okay go ahead I would just like to talk to real quickly um one of the points um one of the questions when you um asked about the grandparents so a lot of the programming that is offered through the parent centers is geared to parents and Caregivers for example we are currently um there's a couple
062sessions coming up um it's called ub's brain train of keeping your brain healthy and it's for population 50 and above and then a mental health for parents and caregivers so we really you know cover um all the ages because we do realize that many of our students um are being raised by their grandparents or some other um adult you know it could be a relative or even um just some a friend of the family so yes we do try our best to provide that type of programming um again each um each each semester let's call it um we have winter spring um and then fall and summer as well so you know depending on the need at hand but yes we do try to cover all those populations but of course we continue to advance
063the work we will be looking for more opportunities to provide you know even more programming gear for for that concern but Mrs Osorio let's just lift up though everything absolutely every offering through our parent centers is open to all so it's not just for appearances for parents caregivers aunties mamas Lalas yes and Dr Reynolds going back to the data that we had does demonstrate that the majority are responding as a community member yes the board member mckozey we do hear you and and some of that like clarification and communication and transparency when we are promoting we do say families and we can further Define what family because that's really also the work that we're doing so you know Grandma Grandpa Aunt neighbor if this applies if you work with you know Johnny comes over to
064be babysat by the neighbor but you want to know how to help with the homework come to this class this is what so um that's part of the survey feedback we're also looking to get from our families and community members that should be coming out in the next couple weeks as we further plan our programming yes okay um okay um Mr Scott thank you chairwoman Shuda um I just have a couple quick comments um first thank you to the present for the presentation Dr Reynolds uh Mrs Casillas Osorio and Miss Rich um similar to what Mrs mccosy mentioned I think when we talk about the office of prayer and family engagement we get a presentation that's kind of on the macro level and today for the first time since before I was even on the
065board we got into a little bit more of the micro level um that we haven't uh heard about in the past so I commend you on that that training from what I've seen and heard um it seemed genuine seemed impactful um Dr Reynolds knows that I I had questions about that contract and I think president Bolton Cotman is rubbing off on me when we're spending a good amount of money I want to be sure it's it's going to deliver and and it appears as if that in this case it it has um so I commend you that and what I noticed is that which we I don't think commonly do the training was parents teachers administrators staff together in collaboration usually we train on in parent engagement but it's in isolation um so it's really
066I think refreshing to see that everybody was in the same room doing that training together um to the point of attendance um even if as it was just mentioned if we have community members that are not directly affiliated with BTS and they're accessing our community schools our parent centers um I think that kind of speaks to how schools are the hubs of our communities and is a great example of the the impact of our our strong Community Schools and my opinion is if we have community members that are being served by our parent centers by our community schools then in some way our families and our students are being served as well um lastly the QR codes and this is more of I think an I.T issue um I tried to look access it on
067my phone and when we have a alert for a board meeting on our website it does not take you directly to that page and for so unless it's just my phone I'm not able to get that alert off and then go to the page and I bring this up because it's also a problem when I go to our Saturday academies and I use the QR code to sign in I have the same problem and I just I I think it needs to be corrected because I want to make sure we are getting a count of everybody that's attending our Saturday Saturday academies and parents centers any activities because we know that numbers Drive the funding that we get for our strong Community Schools so if that could be looked into and addressed I think it
068it's important that we do that thank you all thank you board member Scott sorry just to the QR code when I tested it out it is harder to turn that alert off so once you do get through it you get to the calendar but we can share those links directly um you know afterwards okay Dr Rivera thank you very much um I don't have any questions I think my colleagues have done an excellent job in in talking about the quality of the presentation as well as targeting some questions my mine is simply a request that as you continue to look for opportunities and you look for a way to expand this excellent kind of programming is to think in two directions one what kind of specific programming can you do for support for our parents
069and students with disabilities hi I think we're Frozen uh till we get Dr Rivera back uh Miss Woods um I also wanted to thank Dr Reynolds for all of her hard work she's she's always reaching out to the to the community finding solutions to reach to make our programming more effective thank you Amy uh Costello or so stereo and Miss Rich for your hard work um I feel that your your parent Outreach is the most important thing because the parents encourage the children and they're the ones who set the guidelines and say bring me home a hundred like my dad told me that's what makes the child see the importance of Education that makes her a better student so any program that you have and you have outlined many that encourage and strengthen the parents
070is is what's necessary because the parents they're the ones who are overwhelmed they've got to get the child to school they're they're just the key and any supports you can give the parent and classes and empowerment to the parent I just strongly support that because that that makes for a stronger student so I have nothing but respect for the program my only other point would be that uh I would hope that we would encourage each parent group that is working with us to also work with the district to always be positive to come up with Positive Solutions to problems and to realize they are in partnership with us to help come up with Solutions so things that face our parents in our school I only comments thank you I just have a few questions quickly
071I I know we're running out of time um with the uh the pells and their payment so that has changed uh before it was kind of like uh a lump sum they were given now they're given they're being paid hourly Ramona yeah it's changed from when we were when we were principals where they used to be provided a stipend from the district they are paid hourly they work up to 40 hours per month and they return 50 per hour and they're receiving they're paid I think uh every other week bi-weekly correct that's great my weekly what information I would be looking for is that I saw the the chart that showed who the participants were what I'm um curious possibly if you could get me the information of how many like how many people are
072going to those uh the trainings and I'd like to see um like the breakdown of that and um it does take me back uh to when we were principals Ramona to the Epstein model back in the 90s and we did all of the training and that went on when we were program coordinators and assistant principals and it was a very beneficial time in the district so I just appreciate your team and the work you're doing and bringing us back to the collaborative uh situation with our parents and families because it really it really does help I want to thank the superintendent for uh organizing uh the topic tonight and um we will uh now uh go to our next meeting thank you have a great evening thank you so much I have a couple of
073comments I just want to say um before we go to the next meeting I think if you build they will come and I think what you saw tonight is that this is a department that is steadily building and I think um you know that we will begin to see some increased academic achievement because we're partnering with our parents we really are one of very few districts that are doing the kind of work that we are doing with our parents and caregivers so I also just want to give kudos to this team they've come up with this research-based framework I think tonight you saw that they are really beginning to use data I saw that the board members are digging and want a little more data which is good I think that's good and I think
074this is a team that you know they've begun to use data and I think we're going to allow the data to keep informing our practice so that you know we continue to get better and better and get more and more parents and caregivers and community members involved the trainings I'm told were fantastic everybody that I heard from had very positive things to say about the training being really relevant and meaningful and they feel like they got a lot from it so I just also want to give kudos and when I see that we've had 11 000 hits from uh Facebook post that tells me that folks are interested they're interested in in what's happening with our parents and with their children so just Kudos great presentation thank you so much and we thank you you're
075always your support your support your approval of everything that we do couldn't do it without you thank you so much thank you thank you [Music] all right board members and Dr Williams are we ready to transition to student achievement yes sir all right um I just want to say as I begin my first meeting in this role as the vice president of student achievement um that this work really um centers on the superintendent and District goals five goals five by twenty five um all goals all these goals in some way impact student achievement but directly related are number one and number two and just quickly number one eliminate opportunity and achievement gaps by providing excellent and Equitable student outcomes for all and number two access to educational excellence and Excel accelerated learning by assuring that
076all students have access to high quality instruction that is cultural and linguistically responsive in all classrooms and all BPS schools I think it's the superintendent often talks about these goals and I think it's good for us to continue to go back to them to focus us and and be sure that we're spending our time our primary primarily our time on student achievement and outcomes um so with that said before I turn it over to Dr Williams we have a wonderful presentation tonight um that will be given by Mr Rob Harris director of CTE on our internships and work work based learning opportunities and then I believe we'll have staff from say yes Buffalo that is going to present on our new say yes apprenticeship programs so Dr Williams don't have much to say except to
077say that you know Mr Harris does a fantastic job he's got a lot uh that he works with he works under our division of curriculum assessment and instruction with Chief Botticelli and tonight you know this is a really exciting another Nuance for Buffalo you know I don't think there is another District or School in any surrounding area of Western New York that offers what we are able to offer to our children as far as work based learning which really our learning experiences that allow our children to explore different careers and different career goals so I'm going to turn things over to director Harris and he will begin his presentation good evening board members and superintendent Williams thank you for having me here this evening and sharing this information with you I wanted to start off
078to by giving an explanation about why I broke up internships and how it falls into work-based learning opportunities um I wanted to give the uh definition given by State education department and I'll kind of like give you a guideline about how I have to operate in order to provide these opportunities for our students so um and then at the end I'm going to have uh Johanna Kaplan who represents say yes talk about our Partnerships and these apprenticeships that we're moving forward for our students all right um admir do you have the okay yes thank you so much uh you can go on to the next slide so the CTE Department falls under uh in the moving to the next level bargain we fall under the commitment to Innovative high schools as we know the CTE
079department is committed to providing Innovative career programming that is based on Regional Department of Labor data as well as industry advisory input and our students interest and that's how we maintain our programming for Buffalo schools there are three different factors that basically guide our work next slide please under the five by Under the five by twenty five the CTA department works to increase uh industry and advisory partners that will assist in eliminating gaps and strengthening connections to the community so that is why we fall under uh number one and number five the goals um in eliminating opportunity of an achievement gaps by providing Equitable student outcomes for all and activating Partnerships which is number five which which will expand learning beyond the classroom and connect the community to the classroom next slide please basically in
080this overview I want to give you the definition of work based learning experiences and internships with guides which guides our CTE work um I'm gonna give you an overview of the work based learning framework um current District work of based learning data and how many uh internships and work-based learning opportunities we have um I'm going to talk about upcoming uh internships um and I'm going to give you a little brief understanding about our commitment to the youth employment Coalition as well as at the end say yes apprenticeship is a partnership we're going to discuss that with Johanna Kaplan capping off this uh opportunity before I move forward is there a hard stop to tonight's meeting I want to be cognizant of the time anyone yes um we are trying very hard to keep our committee
081meetings to one hour yes ma'am so I would say if we can finish up by 705 that would be good okay we're gonna work to give you the presentation and leave time for you to ask questions at the end okay thank you so much next slide please so the the New York State education department definition of Works based experiences work-based learning is authentic learning experience that allows students to explore their career goals abilities and interests while applying their academic and Technical Knowledge and Skills in a real world content these experiences are planned and supervised by the CTE instructor instructional staff in collaboration with business industry or Community Partners high quality work based learning uh will provide effective and Equitable experiences to empower all students to become confident workers and culturally competent citizens of New York
082State you can find that information on the stated work uh stated website next slide please here we have the framework um the office of Career and Technical education in consultation with the stakeholders impacted by work-based learning programs has provided a conceptual framework for high quality work-based learning in New York this framework is broken down into three components and it shows the development of high quality work-based learning experiences throughout the lifespan and serves as a visual guide for your work based learning as you can see uh what we are supposed to be doing is exposing our students um from the birth years all the way up to adulthood on in between where CTE Falls we're providing career awareness career exploration and career development so under the work based learning framework career awareness is where students are
083used to Career Fairs and Expos interest surveys industry related credentials and Industry tours um and that usually happens around grades nine the that great seven eight nine and ten because we're not getting them into the workforce at that point so early uh career exploration is when our students are doing community service uh volunteering they're uh completing industry-based projects uh they're uh doing interviews to provide them information on specific careers uh their school-based Enterprises if you ever seen a school store CTE students are running that school store and they're receiving work-based learning hours according to the requirement by New York State education department and as also their service learning career development is where the meat of this internship like um uh opportunities are we find apprenticeships internships and that can be either internal or private and
084I'll explain that later on they can be community-based work programs which are provided for specifically for our students with disabilities their in appearance enhancement programs as well as clinical experiences where our students are working to receive their certified nursing assistant license when they complete their internship with high point uh uh Care Center okay next slide please so under career development it usually happens for grades 11 and 12 after some CTE course work in training um this is just a list of some of the uh examples and information that some of our students are um performing in right now internships and internal and private um we have an example of Mayor summer youth what happened uh is we are in partnership with the mayor summer youth to ensure that our students can receive internship opportunities within
085the days within hazardous work uh areas and those are defined by the Department of Labor um community-based work plan programs are works for students with disabilities as I said there are programs provided to get them ready to move um into the world of work and become productive citizens um appearance enhancement happens with our spa program you you can go over to the program and you can get your nails done and you can get some uh hair things done but you can't do the uh any chemicals to the hair at this point in time uh the clinical experience all of our students in the certified nurse assistant are going to High Point and they're working with our um elderly patients over there they do that three times a week for three hours a day um and
086then our apprenticeships we're partnering with say yes for experiences that lead to long-term positions next slide please so we have District registered internship like work experiences when we say District registered we have to register all of our experience with the state Ed department and let them know exactly what's going on in those experiences in order to ensure that we're abiding by the department of labor laws as well as the the components that stated is requiring us to abide by so there's career exploration internship program uh it's age 14 and up it can be unpaid students do not complete productive work school credit can be earned there's a general education work experience program that's for students ages 14 and up it's paid or it's unpaid students complete productive work one classroom period of CTE is needed
087in order for a student to be in what is called a general education work experience program Cooperative career and tech ed work experience is where most of our work is right now because we have to cooperate with different entities in order to get this done and to make sure that our students are doing productive work that aligns to their CTE experiences so usually our students have to be 16 and up paid or unpaid experiences are out there um productive work is done supported by a class period and there's also school credit that a student can receive um in addition to completing this Cooperative Career Tech work experience next slide please so now I'm going to give you a little data about the current internal um internships in conjunction with the mayor's summer youth internship program
088uh we are able to offer 300 to 350 slots for our students and this is beyond other experiences that are out there for other mayor summer youth students right this is information from last year's program I'm giving you up-to-date information and I'm letting you know exactly what was going on so you see here that we had Emerson Buffalo culinary McKinley's Building Trades McKinley's Horticulture burgard Advanced manufacturing and this is a reminder we have to partner with mayor summer youth so that our teachers are on the premises working with our students because they are considered hazardous work um environments next slide please we have current internal internships and that more internships there are Northland uh district-wide is working with us to do a 150 slots every year to learn about this specific areas in uh uh
089Advanced manufacturing Riverside has a conversation conservation program there's a work with the SPCA in conservation beam is one of our partners and they're providing ghd in engineering um in nursing clinicals there are about 15 students in nursing clinicals and Community work program next slide please now in an internal internships outcomes the students receive targeted training per the CTE program satisfying the minimal hour of work based learning that our students have to get but we try to provide a robust rigorous experience so that they're getting exactly what they need in order to move into the field of work or they're moving into college readiness a minimum of 120 work hours are done with the mayor summer youth it's a minimum of 120 hours um they haven't changed it much but we're going to stick to the
090120 hours which exceeds what is needed for students that are working on work based program uh paid minimum wage per the department of later labor regulations so all of our students in conjunction with the Department of Labor and making sure that we're abiding by those rules and regulations have to be paid at minimum wage each students develop employment skills um all of our students are developing those employment skills Beyond just the technical skills they're learning in the class they're learning how to go to work what is the expectation of your behaviors in a work environment those are the things that our students are learning CNA students specifically receive 108 unpaid hours but become uh become certified as a nurse assistant they take I'm sorry but become ready for this certified nursing assistant exam they have
091to complete their 108 hours in order to be eligible to take that certified nurse assistant exam that we provide at the end of their um work based learning while working with the mayor summer youth students are eligible for employment during their college Years as well this program extends all the way until they're 21 years old old and usually uh the uh mayor's office works with us to either connect them to the the places that they're already working in or provide them another placement um also working with the Mayors I'm working with the mayor's office to expand upon these experiences I believe that we have a lot of our students that are already working for mayor summer youth that will probably fit into the general exploration program and we have to provide that information to the
092state and we're looking to improve upon that and then lastly 100 of our summer internship program students completed it successfully there is a um a evaluation piece to this where students have to sign off on the evaluation piece the teachers evaluate the students and 100 100 of our students have completed the program and are eligible to move on and take the program if they need to next year next slide please our current internships when I say private this means that the companies that we're working with are reaching into their own payrolls to pay our students and provide the insurances needed in order for them to be employed with their particular uh branch of work so we have AIS our AIS Computing that does all of the Computing for our Buffalo schools they provide 30 slots
093for our students in uh the program in CTE National Grid is started last year um asking for uh meter readers um we got three and those were three positions provided and those were pretty high wage positions Geico was working with us um that one is probably defunct right now because the person that was in Human Resources working with us has moved on Wegmans is a big partner of ours they have been working with all of our schools but particularly our culinary schools specifically they give students 25 slots in their program on a yearly basis Jacobs Institute provides Jump Start programs that they try to get as many of students as they can Roswell provides medical opportunities for our students montante solar who's a partner in uh installing our solar on our buildings has also provided
094uh internship opportunities Tesla who's also a partner at the end of their curriculum those students have an opportunity to have a full-time job with Tesla because they're a partner in devising how our students are educated in order to work in their particular area Delaware North is a great partner as well we've been doing about 25 students um at this point in time we have students currently working with them it's not just a summer opportunity next slide please uh where internships that I'm working on currently I'm working on an expansion with Delaware North uh AIS is working with me to do an expansion in our I.T Department MNT uh I was rekindling our relationship with them last night uh they're looking to do some big things with our students as far as Tech um we have
095uh four new ones that are arubis metals uh that which I was introduced by Dr Brown um and uh Martha younger lyceum is at the table tapecon is at the table as well as Garden Gate nursing because our students used to work with them during their um during their clinicals and now they want to expand it and and spend a partnership to go beyond just medical and in other trades and then we're also working on an expansion of Mayor summer youth and I told you they a lot of our students are already working married to Summer Youth and could fit into general education work experiences next slide please thank you so some CTE work-based learning data 200 partners are working with our students at all times we're working to grow that um we have uh
096a career advisory network in which we invite Partners to join us and let us know what they can provide for our students and by the way of work based learning we have 350 to 400 internal or private internships and that's growth for this new year we have 100 of our students are working with our partners in some work-based learning capacity already and we are partnering with the youth Coalition the youth employment coalition to work on students that may be uh separated from a Traditional School environment it's usually 16 to 21. their goal is to bring those students into the fold and make them employable and now we have apprenticeship opportunities through through their Workforce Development initiatives next slide please so I wanted to introduce you to say yes in our Apprentice partnership with them they're
097devising a plan to implement new apprenticeship opportunities we are recruiting new interesting Partners so that we can grow our work based opportunity for ourselves we're building the partners cultural responsiveness for diversity and equity and inclusion efforts efforts that is the big work that they're trying to do um they want to make sure that our new partners are culturally responsive and understand the needs of the students that we serve matching students to Partners based on interest and skill set and they're finding ways to reduce the barriers for successful long-term high-wage high demand employment next slide please so now what I would like to do is introduce Johanna Kaplan she's going to talk to you about a little about say yes enter an apprenticeship program and then we're gonna uh allow you time for questions at the
098end of that Johanna hi everyone good evening thank you for having me Johanna Kaplan I am the student relationships manager with say yes Buffalo and specifically for our youth apprenticeship program could we see my slide deck please it's a separate deck at Mir just a second I got it right here coming up thank you so much so with this deck I'm going to be providing just kind of a high level overview of our program uh we have had uh our pilot year completed and are in our second year now um for sake of time I will be going a little bit quickly but please feel free to ask any questions you have the deck and I'm always available after today for questions as well next slide please so this youth apprenticeship program is really just
099a natural evolution of our say Yes program uh say yes is largely known for our scholarship opportunities to higher education but it's really a creative career perspective and we come in on that career end of things we have a Workforce Development Department that includes both our apprenticeship program and our internship program which I will quickly highlight at the end of the presentation next slide so the youth apprenticeship program is really bridging this gap between education and career so our vision is to create a clear pathway for youth to accessible Equitable apprenticeship opportunities that reliably lead to secure mid-wage mid-skill employment we call this a modern apprenticeship so we typically think of apprenticeships in the traditional model within the skilled trades career fields which are amazing opportunities and this builds off of that and creates similar
100modeled opportunities within non-traditional Pathways in more corporate environments or such as that or Advanced manufacturing and many other fields as well so it's a spin off of traditional apprenticeships and say yes really serves as the intermediary for all of this work we are called career-wise Greater Buffalo we are an affiliate of a national organization called career-wise and we really just bring together all the moving pieces and partners to make this happen we very much have a village mindset to make this work happen it is a work-based learning opportunity that that combines paid employment on the job learning and related classroom-based instruction at the completion apprentices will have industry credentials and or college credit three years of work experience social capital and professional networks and we all know how crucially important all of those elements are
101to having a long-term career-oriented Pathways after education next slide please so how it works this is the traditional model for modern youth apprenticeship I do want to know that for our pilot year and the second year we are taking a little bit of a deviation where we're focusing on graduating seniors so all three years of their time in our program their classroom instruction is with higher ed institutions our pilot year um was with Hilbert college and Northland and that will continue into our second year also adding on Villa Maria as well um so you see the combination of all the different learning models um I'll speak to this later but we are working to develop a task force to strategize how to move the program up into the high school years but with both models
102the point is just to be an options multiplier so at the end of this program apprentices will have options to become a full-time employee earning a livable wage where they have been working or become a competitive Workforce a candidate within the workforce or maybe they want to achieve a two or four-year degree that this Sparks something for them and helps them figure out their passion or both the point just to give them those options to enter into the workforce into really livable wage career opportunities next slide please the employer benefits from this program as well they get to build those local talent pipelines we know that a lot of our workforces are predominantly white and we have a huge potential of talent in our community with our black and brown young professionals so it builds
103those pipelines where they don't naturally exist already a big component of this is our racial Equity learning for our employer Partners racial Equity is just the basis of everything we do it say yes in general and especially in this program so those Equity conversations are had from the screening process of employer Partners throughout the duration of their time with us I also want to specifically highlight that before our employer Partners even interact with our students that go through anti-bias training racial Equity training and there's ongoing racial Equity think takes that are being brought back as well to have that conversation be just the predominant conversation it also allows us that if any barriers come up we're able to go back to that Equity basis and identify Equity issues as they arise and work around that
104to make sure that we are providing that Equitable program for our youth because it's what they deserve and they also receive ongoing support and coaching from our CIS staff I'll speak in a moment about the support for students but employers get that support as well through us and we can already see that happening or maybe a situation arises and they're not it's new to them they don't know how to handle it they know they can come to us for support next slide please on the recruitment end we are unique in comparison to some other models where we have what we call career coaches embedded right in the school buildings so they're able to work uh collaboratively with guidance counselors and with CTE to have those career oriented conversations with our youth and then identify students
105who maybe don't want to aren't ready to go to college right after high school are interested in the career Pathways they have available and really find students who are interested and aligned with this program and then support them throughout the application process those one-on-one relationships is where we find the magic happens and they're really able to do that we have incredibly talented staff in the buildings um and it just sets up students for Success going throughout the process so that has really been a key for us in this pilot year that we are going to continue throughout the program um so this goes a little bit more into the process of what that looks like I don't want to read the slide to you but um it's all through this hiring Hub creating a profile
106that is their application and then it's very easy to click a button they just have to click a button to apply to be apprenticeship opportunity so um we kind of try to combine a mix of making things accessible and easy but also preparing them for the real world experience as well so interviews are not guaranteed apprenticeships are not guaranteed you know it really models what it's going to be like in the real world just within a very supportive accessible experience next slide please so a recap of our pilot year we were able to build a team of seven leading our program operations our student recruitment efforts and the employer growth and retention we received over 1300 applications from over 200 students and it was just astounding I mean the response just speaks volumes um and
107I have to say that we would not have had the success without the collaboration and Partnership of BPS from Dr Williams and her team to Rob Harris and his team to the administration and staff and then school buildings it's just been such a warm and welcome response to this new program and we know new programs can be a little bit you know uncomfortable at times but just such a warm welcome and high level collaboration that allowed this kind of response from students so just very appreciative we piloted in six schools last year and continuing with those six schools now and that is McKinley burgard MST South Park Hutch Tech and Riverside we do accept applications from any BPS student um but as far as having the career coaches in the buildings provide that high level
108of support we are still focused on those six schools until we grow our team we hired 25 apprentices with six inaugural employers those employers are M T Bank Rich products Tesla harmack Moog and Wegmans within the fields of advanced manufacturing business operations and I.T we've had employer Partners who are just really bought into what we're selling you know that they bought into this modern youth apprenticeship program they have bought into our students they have bought into the equity it's been really exciting to see they've been with us from the ground up growing this program um and we do we're very intentional about getting feedback both from Youth and employers that we're building a program that serves everyone again we are just an intermediary bringing all this together but we want to make sure that everyone's
109needs are being met we also have technical assistance from career-wise and our national partner the Partnerships to advance youth apprenticeships and new America they have been doing this for a very long time with Best in Class models across the country so we're able to learn from them and we really have the adapt not adopt model so we adapt what we learn from other people who are doing this amazingly well but adapted to our community because we know our community um so it's been wonderful to have their support we've had a successful launch uh press events and media coverage and we also did a week-long boot camp for hired apprentices Rob spoke to this earlier about that preparation for what it's like to work it's not just the technical skills it's the how do you communicate
110with your boss and your colleagues what do you do if you're late what is Casual Friday mean so on those soft skills we um we did this boot camp for them which is a training they got paid for we're going to expand on that this year but was really key and to building a cohort feeling amongst um all the apprentices which continues now that they are working so they have that peer support as well next slide please just a little bit of a deeper dive on the employer partners and our first cohort of 25 students that shows the distribution of where they were hired and what field they were in um attrition is also normal with our program so we currently stand at 21 students but for typical attrition rates we are very proud of
111that and it's a really strong showing for our first year of the program next slide please oops sorry I think that went the wrong way can we advance at a couple slides thank you perfect so looking ahead um as apprentices complete there are three years in our program the goals for them to have a job offer for a full-time uh position earning at least forty five thousand dollars a year a certificate or a two-year degree and for some um a New York State Department of Labor certified registration so the goal is H pathway is very nuanced and a little bit different but the goals that when they complete this they have a job offer and some sort of um tangible um item saying that they completed this program and can use that to be a
112competitive candidate in the workforce our goal is to high recruit and hire 50 apprentices for cohort two so we're in the middle of that process right now we are bringing back some employer Partners from last year and adding on new employer Partners so it's really exciting to see the program grow we also are focused on supporting the retention of cohort one apprentices we have what's called a success coach who is there for coaching and mentoring and case management for students who are hired and supported throughout their three years so as I said we have the employer support but we are very very heavy on The Apprentice support as well um and we will be growing that team as our apprentices grow as well um again as I said earlier we are going to be putting
113together a task force to strategize how to move this program into the high school years and I will be facilitating that process and then also down the line is the regional expansion we are called career-wise Greater Buffalo for a reason to grow this beyond the City of Buffalo um so right now that's still just in the exploration phase but that is the goal to make this a regional effort next slide please this is the the team the team of seven that has gotten all of this started we are already starting to grow our team we have interviews coming up new positions posted um this is just going to continue to grow but this is the initial team of seven um showing uh our senior director my colleague who works with the business Partnerships and our
114team of career and success coaches next slide please and just briefly want to mention as I said we are a Workforce Development Department so um we also have an internship and career Pathways program which is where I started off and where Stephanie started off it is an opportunity for our says Scholars who are enrolled full-time in college to be hired for 10 week um paid internship opportunities over the summer they are all paid applicants must be have completed their first year of college by the time their internship starts so they can apply during their freshman year for a summer internship but that those first two first two semesters are a big adjustment and we want them to acclimate to college so once they've gone through that process then they are eligible for this program and
115again full-rounded support that's just how we work at say yes so they have support from that program supervisor with resume and cover letter and interview preparation and also for those who are hired a series of professional development workshops to really give a well-rounded experience throughout their summer so I just wanted to mention that we have that program as well and that is all I have for right now thank you Miss thank you Miss Kaplan um and Mr Harris for those great presentations um we have about 15 minutes to um get this concluded at the time that Dr Williams said we should complete this um so I I'm gonna go in reverse order reverse alphabetical order um to have my my board colleagues comment and ask questions so start us off board member Woods I am
116just impressed with the number of opportunities the way you hold the students hands and the way you're trying to guarantee that our students go as you said from Cradle to Career I I just applaud the program it's it's great I don't I don't really have any other questions thank you Miss Woods uh board member shooter any comments or questions yes uh real quick first of all I also want to say thank you for the development of these uh programs that really they really enhance uh interest in the school day and I've seen firsthand I also want to comment that one of the the young ladies working for say yes Jennifer Ray is a former veil of Victorian from South Park High School and um she previously worked with project um project project store for cradle
117Beach and she was there when I was there and I just think it's great to see one of our own kids um encouraging our students now so I'm all for this I look forward to watching this program grow and I want to thank uh Mr Harris he's always helped South Park in the development of programs and I look forward to working with you Paul thank you Mr shooter board member I'm sorry board member Rivera it's praise thank you very much for these wonderful programs they truly do make a difference for students and I look forward to seeing more as you develop more thank you Dr Rivera board member mccosy you and it's not redundant when it's repetitive it just means that that's how great you guys are um I really again I appreciate this I
118went to your presentation and kind of your yearly meeting I believe it was last year and I just want to uplift that so many of our schools have so many programs and the amount of programs and if that could be like really listed and if we as board members and folks can really make sure folks are unaware of each school and all the different programs that are available I you know on a personal level know of the montante and the solar piece and how many students have gone through that program we're talking years ago at least 10 years ago where we had students working on the BPS school buildings and was a part of that work and just hearing their stories at that last meeting is incredible so again I just appreciate you all and
119I want to do whatever I can to make sure you're uplifted as sometimes the opportunities for a career is you know the way that that students want to go or need to go and we're doing a great job I think and that's all to your work so thank you thank you Miss mccosy um board member mckecken thank you um I'm going to Echo once again what uh we have heard from our colleagues here but um I do want to just add that at the tail end of your presentation Johanna you mentioned the 10-week program and um we've had in my my day role right a couple individuals pass through that way and it was awesome to work over that 10-week period through the summer with individuals and to see the change and to have them
120continue to engage with us as they grow and evolve in their careers now right because they're finishing school and it's been a few years so I mean just kudos to you guys right as we see the fruits of those efforts and and folks coming back so thank you thank you Miss mceachen um board member heard thank you uh chairman Scott um you know I don't want to um Echo everything about Ella said but uh I have to give you know my heart out to Mr Harris the work he's doing over the CT Department uh Miss Kaplan uh for a great presentation and and give him describing the body of work that you're doing over him say yes and also David Russ who's um a president over to say yes but um this does an outstanding
121job you know hiring great people you know with that same mindset of helping you know children of need um I would just like to um we always talk about our track for college and college um placement for our kids and one thing we we don't recognize is children that's going into the workforce center through our CT programs so I'd like to keep a database or or make sure that that's inclusive in our inner year report so that we can have a track on our children that's going to our CTE programs that may be going straight into employment you know starting families and um and um using this these tools these great tools to um to uh you know project their lives um this is a saying that every child is not meant for college but
122you know hand it's childish children or people that's meant for Hands-On and development and building and and we have a sleuth opportunities here in Buffalo and Western New York that we can meet those needs and that's how Buffalo was was built so we can continue on that track I think that we get that balance of our College ready kids and our children that's vocational ready that we can have a comparison so we can have a better protection of what we're doing here in the Buffalo schools um I'd like to say thank you once again and um I just want one question just one question is about the um about the high school task force um we know you I heard you say that um that say yes career coaches reach out to these children and
123for these opportunities but uh in the CTE Department I know Mr Harris you're reaching out to these individuals also so are we reaching all our guidance counselors and who can make recommendations of teachers the guidance counselors is it um the children themselves or are they looking for the parents to be informed with uh the children so I'll start off it's like a two-fold process for them while they're in high school um usually our partners are looking for students to fill positions or we're looking to make sure our students uh do an exploration program what we try to do is do the process actually how a work offering would be you have to complete an application you have to do all of those things that it would take in order to get yourself a job sometimes
124it's producing resumes and sometimes it's producing cover letters but usually when the the opportunity arises from our employer we ensure that it's operating just like it's a regular job they have to apply usually our teachers are assisting our students because that's where career and financial management comes in our students are learning how to write resumes how to complete cover letters and then that process it basically is defined by what is the employer need or what we're doing as far as the program is going on we have counselors involved in the situation as well so it can be a different a myriad of different things is it dependent on the partners and depending on what I'm trying to do with a specific program Johanna for your piece yes for our program uh those career coaches because
125they're directly in the buildings they can work with guidance counselors and with CTE to help identify students they also do presentations in front of seniors since that's what we're focused on right now is graduating seniors so it kind of just varies depending on the building and what kind of programs they have and opportunities to be in front of Youth sometimes there are senior meetings sometimes they're finding the teachers who see the most amount of seniors they're really good at tapping into who has great relationships with the seniors and so kind of a multi-faceted effort and then as they start getting the word out there largely Focus down more on those one-on-one relationships to really do the work and figure out if there's alignment and walk them through the process we're both trying to reach out
126to kids in different ways to make sure there are a myriad different ways to reach them so we don't have barriers we're trying to ensure that we don't have any barriers to get them to that next level okay oh my only reason I accept my concern is we have students that's um they have now like scored great going into for like a hutch test program for engineering but they're Engineers but they're in a field that you know they're you know don't really want to be in but they want to be Engineers so we can reach out to those type of children those type of those situations also correct that's what that's what uh say yes is bringing to the table so when a kid maybe doesn't fall into a CT career that he wants to
127do in high school they offer different job opportunities with different partners that are just looking for it people to be employed so we don't uh keep them in a CTE program and say you can't go and apply for this job we offer a myriad of opportunities and make sure that any kid could get in there in actuality National Grid offered us the position and they didn't really care what the where the kids came from when they offered that position they just wanted to make sure that the student was employable and they had the wherewithal in order to apply for a job maintain a job and be successful in the world of work and I also want to add for the part of the process with use of Youth apprenticeship is within their profile they're selecting
128skills and traits that they have so it's not based on what experience work experiences they've had because that becomes an equity issue so it's based on skills and trades and we really talk to the employers about don't hire based off of experience hire based off of curiosity and passion and desire to learn um which is just it's really a movement of thinking that extends Beyond this program um so and even once they're hired as an apprentice they're a valued based evaluated based on competencies and that's how they achieve success within the apprenticeship program it's achieving achieving proficiency within the competencies so it's a different way of thinking about preparedness and hiring and success that we think is really advantageous to our youth and just you know humans in general in my opinion thank you thank
129you that's wonderful thank you I really appreciate you your work um uh chairman Scott thank you Mr heard uh vice president Dr Kathy Evans Brown Scott thank you Mr Harris and Miss Copeland for a wonderful uh presentation I'm so excited um since I've been on this board I didn't realize how thorough CTE was um one of the observations I have is you know when you talk about uh seeing CNAs have you thought about it you know going to another level and include LPN type program so that you know young people can get experience with um you know LPN licensure for example or cosmetology I know when I was in high school those are the kinds of um licenses that some of my friends came out with and they still you know use that as a
130career and some have gone on to our ends and you know owning their own cosmetology you know Pro businesses Etc and then I was thinking about um what you said Miss Copeland in terms of uh you said you were only in six schools what is the plan to expand to other uh schools this year because I think you know our kids need an opportunity to know that this does exist thank you sure Rob do you want to go first or do you want me to go first uh yeah I can go first um so I just want to make sure that everyone is aware I'm um abiding by the Department of Labor rules and some of the rules that guide the practices of us having certain programs at the high school level unfortunately on when
131I was in school LPN wasn't offering by Buffalo schools districts when they changed the regulations we had to move it to an adult program and it has to be after they're 18 and in order for them to move on to LPN but I do have other goals of expanding on medical programs that we can offer we can offer a home health care assistant for our students we can offer a EMT program for our students so there are other uh High School level medical programs that we can offer unfortunately that LPN had changed and into the Departments of licensure so we had to make sure that we were only providing the CNA at this point in time and be we were CNA is a high level graduation rate and completion rate we're in the high 90s
132we're trying to get the word out to our students and our parents this is the first level into the nursing doctor doctoral Fields if you want to be in medical you want to take this CNA coursework and we'll get you into the other fields we have partners that are working with us right now to expose our students to the other uh different Pathways in the medical field so we're talking we think we're going to explain I'm telling you right now there is going to be an expansion okay I'm telling you there will be another CTE offering of a medical program coming up all right and as far as your appearance enhancement um uh I believe uh board member shooter has seen me over there working at South Park pulling together a full cosmetology program so
133there's an uh operational uh approval that I have to get from the Department of licensure as well as far as where these specific programs are placed I have the licensure to run it at South Park because of the facilities and how we put it together what we're going to do is expand about um the spa intro and move it into a full uh cosmetology program so that is in the works and then what I'm doing is trying to start it small and then if there's just like we did with Emerson and buffalo culinary if there's room for expansion we'll put it in another part of the city in order to make it work for everybody that's involved in all of our students so those are the two things that I can do I want you
134to know I'm not just sitting on my Laurels I'm going to bring to you some new things and sometimes we have to close programs depending on regulations Department of Labor and I just want you to be aware of that I can't just close a program I have to have permission from State Ed in order to close programs and I have to apply in order to open programs and as far as our program goes in the timeline um I don't want to give a specific date because I don't want to speak incorrectly but it is part of our strategic plan and growth plan to do that soon it involves bringing on additional career coaches so that we can have that one-on-one support within the buildings but I just want to emphasize that we will accept applications
135from any BPS student we don't want to hold back an opportunity from anybody it's really those six schools are more about providing that one-on-one career coach support within the buildings last year we've done a presentation in front of the guidance counselor so they're able to outside of those six schools also identify students who would be aligned and eligible for this opportunity which we will hopefully be able to do again this year um so that we do have that opportunity because it is about exposure and knowledge and making sure and we want to provide Equitable opportunities so it's really about just like the growth of the program and when we're able to grow our team to provide that level of support and I also want you guys to know that Johanna and I are really working
136in concert so she knows what's going on on my side we're not duplicating services on her side we're not clashing we're growing together in order to make this work so we're having monthly meetings directly with each other and it's inclusive of some other partners but more than usual is going to be her and I just working on our pieces to make sure that we're not clashing and it works for everybody across the board thank you Dr Evans Brown president Belton Cottman thank you thank you both for your presentation I you mentioned uh Rob that we have 200 uh partners yes ma'am working with our students are any of those resulting in any certifications for our children yes because remember I told you at the beginning work-based learning opportunities all the students have to complete 54
137work-based learning opportunities and I want you to know that CTE students when they receive a technical endorsement that means that they have culminated and completed all of those pieces that are in a CTE program so let me give you an example of a student that completed a technical endorsement and went down to uh Charlotte Charlotte North Carolina she gave us a call and she had to verify her experiences that she had in order to get this new job that she was going to get so we had to provide her with that information so she could get the new job technical endorsements are what is our students are going to be able to take into the workforce and get more money than the next student technical endorsements are going to be something that our students are
138going to get go to college and be able to say I don't have to take this class because I have an articulation or a dual credit all CTE programs have to have some college Association therefore we're able to give them two Pathways you can go to directly to the world of work with your technical endorsement or you can go into college with your articulation or your dual credit [Music] okay so the 200 partners that we have okay um or the Partnerships I should say uh are the corporate partners it can be a a different group a a lot of different levels of Partners we have a lot of corporate Partners I was actually with m t last night working with m t to get the rekindle the thing um we have uh Tesla at the
139table with our school over at South Park Tesla will hire our students immediately after they complete the program it is a part of our mou with that partner um IBM at Bennett they're going to do the same thing as a part of these grants some of these p-tech grants that we have that the whole point is to get our students to the world of work with skills and the ability to take on a position and hold the position so those are some of the big partners and you saw that uh Johanna had MOG at the table Wegmans at the table so it can go all the way from Big Partners to small business partners that we work with and that's why we have 200 of them because we can go from the big to the
140small okay so this technical endorsement are you saying that's the certification because Larry Quinn when he was on the board used to say that his um his uh business part friend men Partners or friends are were saying that uh they wanted our children to come we needed needed more children to be certified is it am I am I talking uh the same thing are we talking the same thing when we talk about technical endorsements versus certifications I don't know what he may have been talking about but there are different level certifications that our students receive so it's like if I'm talking about our CNA students they are going to be certified in CPR if I talk about our building trade students they're going to be certified in OSHA which is a safety in the workforce
141so there are certifications stackable with credentials we like to call them stackable credentials that our students can receive to go into the workforce now I don't know what certification he was talking about talking about the Construction Industries right so there are some definitely yeah there are definitely some stackable credentials that our students can we come back at another meeting and see what this what that picture looks like I'm curious to know if we get in what our grade is in that area are we we how many uh certif how many stackables are we getting how many certifications because we still are in an academic world do we get a B C or D in that area I want to know where we are because when I have um a businessman of his caliber reaching out
142saying Sharon we want to get more students employed with our people and doing uh things in the trades I want to be able to at least have a conversation in the future with him about what we're currently doing and then engage a conversation on what we need to do in order to guarantee and this piggyback's on the conversation I had or that we uh when we were down in Florida when we attended uh what was going on in the Dallas School District where the Partnerships that they are working with in particularly in the um uh work environment where their students go and take classes a certain percentage of the day and then they go and work in Private Industry during the after in the afternoon and they're coming back with and they're getting the jobs
143when they graduate because many of these children are already prepared because they have those relationships and I'd like to see uh Madam uh Mr uh chair or even under educational support it ties up in there some way or another what does it look like what what are we doing how many students are we producing in these areas what is the goal for each year okay because this should be about I'm particularly thinking about uh burgard um uh the amount of children that go through there I'm seeing success now with the um Northland Corridor but I want to know if we are planning success meaning that we have 50 students we expect a 50 ratio uh and blah blah blah blah blah so I would like to see that in the future but my next question
144is for Mrs Kaplan you said that you would like to do this program regionally what does that mean since say yes works with uh uh public and uh uh Charter Schools what does regionally mean for that word um for my and I and I I hope I'm speaking correctly so I'm not directly part of that process but that's working with our national partners and funder to explore what is it like to bring youth apprenticeship to um say Niagara Falls or Rochester or the Southern Tier it doesn't necessarily mean that say yes would be the facilitator of that but just how do we bring this greater movement to Regions beyond the City of Buffalo because there are other regions very close to us who have similar needs and would benefit from this kind of movement but
145as far as I don't none of the details of logistics have been um decided upon or explored it's really in the early stages of what is the need does this fit with what's going on there what is the current landscape of apprenticeship work and Workforce Development in those areas to see what that would look like so it's very early thought process but that is um something that is being explored I appreciate that thank you those are my questions I appreciate uh your presentation and um I will be um looking forward to additional information about our Career Technical educational programs in the future because I want to make sure that when I people are are coming approaching me I had a guy uh a big wig approach me at Wegmans on this topic uh in the
146fruit aisle okay so uh we had a conversation about this particular Topic in Buffalo Public Schools and I want to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our um business partners thank you so much I appreciate it Mr chair I turn it back over thank you president Belton Cotman um I I just have a brief comment and want to say that the State education department recently concluded a study on multiple Pathways to graduation and I haven't had a chance to read the entire study but I will be reading it soon but I'm a huge proponent of CR I think our students need multiple Pathways and I think what we've heard today we are setting up our students to graduate with those different Pathways multiple different Pathways and I hope that state Ed gets
147on board with endorsing a different uh graduation process so our students that have so many different talents can be recognized for it and I think Mr heard brings up a good point we talk about how many students enter college and I think it would be good to no quantify and highlight how many of our our students are entering a career and successful in a career and just lastly thank you to both of our presenters Miss Kaplan Mr Harris I think again tonight we see the value of our partnership with say yes Buffalo how valuable it is to our students in the school district and community and Mr Harris for all of your work over the years it makes an incredible difference in the success of of our students education and obviously their future success so
148thank you uh Dr Williams any closing remarks or just briefly first I want to say thank you to Rob Harris he's a swirk for many years for the Buffalo Public Schools and I want to thank Joanna Kaplan also for all of her work and with you know the work that say yes does for us so I want to present a few months ago to the Buffalo Niagara partnership and you know it was a room full of business owners and stakeholders and what they wanted to know because diversity equity and inclusion only enhances the work that they're doing and so they are looking to partner more with Buffalo Public Schools because they want diverse workforces and so I know that there's this narrative that Buffalo Public School students graduate and they can't read and they can't
149write but when I hear that you know organizations like Tesla Roswell medical Delaware North Wegmans National Grid are working with our students intentionally and deliberately recruiting our students and with this youth of practice ship program where they work with that program and then they make up starting forty five thousand dollars a year I mean I think it is incredible and so I think we have to be the conduit to start changing that narrative so you know as Mr Harris was presenting uh one of the things that I've started to do I'm on my campaign I'm on my campaign about the good things that happen in Buffalo Public Schools and so I'm writing articles now every week for the Challenger and the Criterion and I'm willing to write for whoever else and so I've asked Rob
150Harris when you look at your text message you're going to see I would like for us to write something up about you know the work that our vocational and our CTE programs are doing so great job to both of you just you so you know Dr Williams I've been putting in our programs and the schools they're at in uh a uh a QR code so they can directly link to our district in the Challenger at this point in time and they're asking me to do something um to write something about the Career Tech Ed programs so we're we're I've been working with you about that I heard that in the back of your mind so we're working on it okay awesome awesome bandwagon all right I don't have any more remarks thank you Dr Williams
151very well said and obviously it it means a lot to be lifting up this district and our students so thank you for those efforts all right that concludes student achievement and our work sessions for the evening have a good night everybody thank you