001you know I think I think I said it already but this this group is really special and it will never happen again the way that it happened this year with this group of people and I think I just feel really proud and yeah it was emotional though I mean and exciting I mean it's it I they kept saying to me this feels so so different this feels so different you know we're performing with no one in the theater I'm asking them to dance so big with no one watching except for the four of us and they did it you know so I'm happy you know the curtain is closed and they took their final bows and that was it so watching them on stage was everything to me because I didn't know if that would
002ever happen this year and it was very emotional I cried I Feel Complete like my senior year has been complete like even if I didn't get to do anything else prom graduation or what not I still wanted to dance at for haes at least one more time be on the stage with lights at least one more time that's all I was hoping for from the beginning of the school year we are so we are are while the world Falls R above it [Music] all I'm really happy I got to do something I really thought I'm like there's no way that I could I'm mostly proud of myself for being able to like stick to something and like do good and like be around people who are also doing good dance sometimes is just made to
003look effortless like you're not meant to see the pain you're meant to see the beauty of it so that's something that's d is that we pride ourselves on of making it look effortless as much as we [Music] can and this is the thing about dance is it's you on the stage yes you can play a character but it's your body and your expressivity that takes a heck of a lot of vulnerability and that's a big ask for young people even in the midst of a pandemic that we've never seen before even in the midst of great tragedies that we have not seen before the students at Fort Hayes the students in Columbus the teachers staff we all still rise [Music] up Tommy Emanuel thank you so much for being here today thanks for having me
004Maggie and accomplice 2 is out now you didn't think you could uh top the other accomplice albums but uh it's pretty special as well but we're thrilled to have you here today and uh we've got a lot to talk about where it all started this latest album the show tonight with yor mcalonan yeah indeed who we adore as well the show's tonight at 8 and we'll have a pair of tickets to give away for the event tonight details kappa.com it's also listed on our Facebook event Tommy what are you going to start us off with uh I thought I might play one of the tracks from the new album and this is a song that I wrote uh as a dedication to mer Travis's son Tom Brash who who passed away last year he was
005he was quite a cannonball that that guy he was a he was a a comet flying through our lives like Travis was I I guess so I tried to write this and it kind of with a with a typical M Travis flavor but then when I got to the bridge it it it visits Stevie Wonder or someone like that you know and that's because I'm from a different generation to to M Travis but uh on the album my buddy Richard Smith plays all the harmony parts so today I I'll have to do his part as well but here it is son of a gun [Music] good [Music] how do you do it uh it's all it's all smoking miror Tommy Emanuel joining us live from Studio A and it's track on the latest album accce
006to son of a gun with Richard Smith and tonight's the show 8:00 with yor mcon in two separate sets and they might to get get together we do for uh during I haven't seen you in a little while so it'll be nice to catch up with him and uh you know he's been a great friend to me when did you first play together um when I came to fur peace uh about 15 years ago amazing Place yeah maybe even more than that well tell us about some of these other all stars that you got lined up here it's a 16 song track so amazing people on here I me you don't need anyone but yourself but you have nice special guests on here well yeah uh it was real Serendipity how this album came together
007it all I recorded it all last year and I had one of the busiest years of my life and so did everybody else because you know since we we we got over Co and and we're back out working again everybody got busy but it was just really fortunate you know people like Billy strings and Molly Tuttle and and uh you know um uh y track and um uh Little Feet nitty-gritty all those people they were everybody's touring but they just happened to come through Nashville and and I was able to get them in the studio you know um Billy Billy came in and uh we we cut the the Doc Watson Tunes the first take and and then then he left and then Molly came in a little later and we cut her track first
008take as well you know the the artists of that level are that good you know you get a good sound on your guitar and on your voice and you can just do it you know and speaking you mentioned Billy strings of course he goes through a lot of strings he does I'm sure how about yourself I'm sure you do too well uh I played a show last night in Grand Rapids and it was raining cats and dogs and uh and it was really humid and and I thought my strings are going to be dead and everything but they sound pretty good I'm Road testing some new Mar strings so the thicker or thinner I I'm not a guitar player oh okay my strings are uh 12 to 54 is the gauge uh it's called light
009gauge uh but uh most people who play electric guitar would would go oh my God how do you play guitar with such heavy strings but when you play acoustic you've got to get some kind of Kickback you know from the string like you can still get that kind of vocal singing sound but in order to do say if I was going to do something like 16 tons or something I'd want I'd want that Honky Tonk bottom end like the the Basse sound from those strings so you need them to be big and and tough kind of thing you know yeah so well they sound pretty new today right but I thought they were shot to Pieces after the show last night but it must have been my hearing that was Sho a piece WC we've
010got this oh we've got we're happy to have you here and talk about this new album I'm okay no I'm not where it all started in Cincinnati Ohio base now and we'll get warmed up with a song and come back and talk all about that and give some tickets away sounds good sounds good what are you going to what's the first one you're gonna do we're starting with eight hours which is off of my first record okay yeah up [Music] PR everything's all right [Music] like hours of sleep [Music] NE [Music] eing pret everything's all right like none of it keeps you up at night please don't pretend that everything's all right you look like you got hours of sleep last [Music] night [Music] I hello to our entire Columbus City Schools Community my name
011is malan deashi and I'm a student at Northland High School before we begin tonight's Board of Education business meeting I invite you to check out these highlights and updates from across the [Music] district greetings and welcome to this week's highlights from across the district in a spectacular finale at East High School the Region 3 extrac curriculum Extended Learning League also known as real wrapped up a thrilling basketball season over eight weeks students from 14 CCS elementary schools not only dedicated their Saturdays to enhancing skills sportsmanship friend ship and fun but also engaged in a service project Gathering donations to positively impact the community the championship event displayed talent and excitement where Buckeye Middle School secured the win in the sixth grade division and Cedarwood Elementary School topped the elementary division these victories highlight our Scholars
012hard work perseverance and skill congratulations tockey Middle School Cedarwood Elementary School the coaches CCS staff and all young athletes of real for their remarkable achievements and the positive spirit they've brought to this season of basketball fun the second annual Columbus journalist and training program concluded with great success over the past five weeks CCS high school students delved into the world of Journalism honing their storytelling video production and social media skills under the guidance of Industry experts from The Columbus Dispatch and the central Ohio chapter of the Society of professional journalists as Saturday Mark the program's conclusion we extend our heartfelt congratulations to all participants for their dedication and passion in a grand celebration our Columbus City Schools Community gathered on Thursday March 14th alongside City year to celebrate three decades of educational Excellence at the
01330th Anniversary cityyear Red Jacket Gayla among the highlights of the evening was the recognition of seven exceptional CCS principles who received Red Jackets as a token of appreciation for their dedication leadership and partnership additionally City year honored CC yes with a prestigious Ripple award highlighting our school community's impact on our Scholars young leaders and Educators the evening was a testament to the collaborative spirit and commitment to empowering education the Columbus africentric Early College lady Nubians have secured their ninth state championship title in a thrilling Victory with determination and exceptional skill they've once again risen to the top showcasing their dominance in high school basketball congratulations to Our Lady Nubians for their historic achievement and Excellence throughout the season your Relentless pursuit of greatness and commitment to teamwork have solidified your legacy as true Champions on
014and off the court let's celebrate this remarkable Milestone and honor the outstanding achievement of our beloved team go CAE these have been your highlights from around the district for March 19th thank you so much for joining [Music] us good evening welcome to the March 19th 2024 business meeting of the Columbus Board of Education here at International Global academy uh please call the r missir present Mr Cole excuse yes here vice president Dr Pierce pres Miss Reyes here Mr Simmons present president ver here you have a quum thank you this evening we will have um our Region 4 updates in addition to nine public comment guest uh we also have some items under board matters we will have a executive report from our superintendent we do not have a planned report from our internal auditor or
015interim Treasurer um and then we do have items 10.1 to 26.7 in the um consent agenda and then we do also have an executive session is there a motion to approve the agenda motion to approve the agenda second please call the role Miss adir yes Miss Engles yes vice president Dr Pierce yes Miss Reyes yes Mr Simmons yes president ver yes motion carry thank you and at this time we are going to have our Pledge of Allegiance uh by student Jasmine Smith Hughes so if you can come up front and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please stand I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you at this time
016I will hand it over to you madam superintendent thank you good evening president Vera vice president peers board members and community members we are very excited to be here this evening at Columbus International High School and Columbus Global Academy for tonight's board meeting first I would like to provide um by starting with an update on our building substitute program for the 2425 school year as a reminder this program was initially started during the covid-19 pandemic to increase substitute engagement and support when teachers were isolated or quarantined for several days at a time due to covid-19 the entire program was funded by federal Esser dollars with the decline in the spread of covid-19 and the ending of federal Esser funding the Board of Education and the administration recognized the importance of continuing the building substitute program
017to help cover when our teachers need to be out of the classroom and if schools have vacancies that need to be filled usually due to late teacher resignations by including building sub positions funded by Esser in the recent Levy ask due to the success of Issue 11 we were able to move 56 building sub positions from federal Esser funding to the district's general fund budget in addition to these positions we prioritized allocating additional resources into the substitute budget to ensure we can guarantee one building Sub in every school for the 2425 school year this means again in 2425 we can guarantee one building sub position in every CCS school for a total of 113 building sub positions we currently have 242 active building Subs employed under a limited one-year contract which means we have the
018ability to keep close to half of our building subs for next year there's also a possibility to have additional building sub positions that will fill long-term vacancies for unfilled 2425 teacher positions the HR and Academic Teams will monitor teacher hiring and resignations throughout the summer and specifically after July 10th 2024 the date that teachers must notify the District of their resignation per Ohio Revised Code additionally in planning for the ending of s funding and diminished funding for the building substitute program in in consideration of our mutual interest in retaining dedicated CCS employees the admin and teachers union worked together in November to provide an alternative lure pathway for all building Subs to take advantage of we have now had 101 Building Subs expressed interest in the program and currently 21 building Subs are still working
019toward becoming teachers we certainly thank you for the support of our school communities and our building substitutes next we're going to we're eager to share a presentation with you this evening highlighting important updates in our district first we'll Begin by highlighting the work that is happening in Region 4 you'll hear insights from area superintendent Dr Keith Harris who will introduce Columbus International High School School principal Mr Doug Lowry we will also hear from Derek vicroy director of Columbus Global and some of our impressive superintendent student ambassadors showcasing their inspiring leadership and positive impact on the school Community Dr Harris will provide an overview of Region 4 share Regional data and highlights and talk about Regional achievement in relationship to our board goals next principal Lowry would discuss the cultural shifts at Columbus International High School
020offering a glimpse into the vibrant and supportive environment that defines our school Community we'll also hear from our superintendent student ambassadors Chris Lopez and Jasmine Smith Hughes who will join Columbus Global Academy students Gava valy and Christian Kano Romos they will share their experiences and briefly discuss their involvement in the superintendent student ambassador program so now I will turn it over to Dr Harris good evening board president Vera vice president Dr Pierce members of the board superintendent Chapman interim treasure vanover and interim from internal auditor o carner it gives me great pleasure to welcome you once again to learn more about Region 4 Region 4 is one of the six regions across the district serving 8,810 students we are composed of 19 schools and one program Region 4 three feeder patterns include the elementary and
021middle schools matriculating into Centennial wetstone and Columbus International High School today you are visiting a facility that houses not only Columbus International High School but also Columbus Global Academy which is the home to the district's English newcomer program for high school students we are proud of the fact that Region 4 is home to over 2,200 English language Learners you will learn more about Columbus International High School and Columbus Global Academy programs from our administrators and students later in this presentation as a region we are grounded in Clear Vision Mission and core values that we use to set goals for all of the work that we do as you see highlighted on this Slide the Northstar for our team as defined in our region vision statement is that all schools in Region 4 will achieve at
022least four stars on the Ohio state report card currently four of our schools have reached four more stars and additional 10 schools have a rating of three or 3.5 Stars I have no doubt that driven by our core values that center around students coming first equity and data we will as a region reach the levels of success outlined in our vision this exceptional administrators staff and students of Region 4 have been hard at work this year working towards meeting or exceeding the district goals for third grade reading proficiency seven grade math proficiency and high school graduation rate we are joined tonight by many of those exceptional leaders Region 4 principles courtin and staff would you please stand to be recognized [Applause] in Region 4 we use data to pinpoint areas where administrators and teachers need
023support and work with departments throughout the district to get them the support they need to move the academic needle here are some of the highlights in Region 4 thus far this school year strengthening reading Proficiency in alignment to our board goals surrounding strengthening reading proficiency Region 4 has worked strategically to increase students meeting proficiency on the Ohio state test and increasing the number of students who meet the requirements of the third grade reading guarantee ensuring they are all on track for promotion to fourth grade at the end of their third grade year in 2022 the culmination of the October administration of the Ohio state test grade three English 2849 of students in Region 4 had reached proficiency this year after the October administration 39. 31% of All Region 4 students have reached proficiency surpassing the
024district's goal of 36.5% in addition as of today 525 of 714 students or 73.5 3% have met the requirements of the third grade reading guarantee this is a testament to the hard work of our teachers and administrators in grades prek through3 focusing on the foundations of literacy and committing to advancing their own learning through the study of the science of reading strengthening math profen proficiency even before the B even before the board adopted the goals surrounding strengthening math proficiency our principles and staff began to rethink the rigor of our mathematic programs and how we could leverage our I ready program to close gaps and ensure students were increasingly on track for proficiency on the Ohio State mathematics assessment thanks to the dedication and commitment of our school team I am proud to share that after
025the middle of the year I testing region Force 7eventh graders median growth percentile on our ready math assessment is more than 58% this data shows us that if students were to continue their current rate of growth Region 4 middle schools collectively will have a projected proficiency rate on the upcoming grade seven math OST of 43% we are thankful for the dedication to mathematics instruction that we see taking place across the region closing opportunity gaps in Region 4 matriculation teams continue to monitor the progress of students in each cohort Region 4 administrative teams are holding weekly matriculation meetings to track the progress of students in the cohort of 24 and at least relas bi-weekly meetings to increase the number of students on track to matriculate in the other cohorts earlier this school year you were able
026to hear from the exceptional staff and students of the centenal feeder pattern tonight we are thrilled to have you here from high school leadership and students from another one of our feeder patterns Columbus International High School and from leadership and students in our our English newcomer program for high school students Columbus Global Academy please welcome Dr Douglas Lowry principal of Columbus International and Mr Derek vickroy director of Columbus global [Applause] academ thank you Dr Harris good evening and welcome Dr Chapman and certainly to our Columbus City Schools Board of Education members we welcome each and every one of you here this evening our school family welcomes all who are here this evening they told me there would only be 10 people at these board meetings missed it by a little um we would like to
027welcome all of you to Columbus International High School where Roar is our motto and our students always strive to be respectful ful organized accepting and responsible my name is Doug Lowry and I do have the pleasure of serving as the principal here at Columbus International High School with me also this evening are my two assistant principles Miss jolita Johnson and Mrs ingred luff would you please stand and be [Applause] recognized our school was established 14 years ago just 14 years ago and has been housed in four different locations including the one that we're in this evening we educate students from as many as 77 different countries and celebrate that diversity each and every day last year we were proud that our school was selected one of the top 500 high schools in the state of
028Ohio by US News and World [Applause] Report we currently teach six different languages and next year are proud to announce we'll be teaching eight we will also have a startup vocational program for the first time on site beginning in the fall of this coming school year as well our students work very hard to earn the Seal of biliteracy while here at Columbus International and are able if they choose to pursue the international diploma at Columbus International we cherish our past but we celebrate the future as our staff continues to provide our students with the best educational opportunities each and every day and now I'd like to have my staff stand all my [Applause] teachers our school has grown since I started here in the fall of 20122 and will reach its highest enrollment since its
029Inception those short 14 years ago how did we increase enrollment here to increase enrollment we applied a variety of strategies to recruit students from within the district and to bring those students back to the district who had previously left us we approached students enrolled in Charter and Community Schools engaged our pathway strategically intentionally recruited from our middle schools with multilingual students and partnered with our Global Academy counselors and administrative staff as well as Central enrollment to create a way for students who wanted to continue in this facility to stay at Columbus International High School we are a unique School community that currently has grown from 279 students in the fall of 2022 to close to 441 students this year spanning grades 9 through 12 due to our recruiting efforts we already know that we have
030at least 600 students coming to school here this fall with almost 200 additional students on our waiting list that's a testament to all of those folks that just stood up and I'd like to clap for them one more [Applause] time our hard work recruiting both inside the district and out has truly paid off the building was renovated the physical plant was renovated as a part of the 2018 facility's master plan recommendations that relocated Columbus International High School to join Columbus Global Academy here what was the former Brook Haven building the merger has allowed us to strategically schedule students in the courses they need based on their unique language levels and their previous School experiences more importantly it has created an environment where our students have the opportunity to enroll from Columbus Global right into Columbus
031International High School seamlessly keeping them right here where they've grown and built those very important relationships with other students and with our staff members you will hear a little bit more about that later in our presentation we as a school family at Columbus International wanted to stay to you our superintendent in the board thank you for your support thank you for your interest and thank you for your leadership and allowing us to create this unique opportunity your dedication to the expansion of this unique program and this model within the Columbus city school district is what allows us to stand here this evening now I'd like you to hear from two of my awesome awesome students and have them relate to you some of their experiences here from Columbus International High School here to chair Chris
032Lopez and Jasmine Smith Hughes thank [Applause] you hello my name is Christopher Lopez and I am in 11th grade and I'm speaking here tonight because I want to explain what sets Columbus International High School apart our school sets us apart because of the different classes it offers for starters uh we have Spanish French Russian Korean Japanese and Chinese in my Japanese class we've learned to cook traditional food communicate with others in Japanese and learned how to write and so much more at first I was nervous to speak Japanese because I thought I messed up a lot I speak Spanish and English but Japanese seemed like a whole new world our teacher Miss Bishop took her time with everyone in the class we all tried our best and it was okay if we messed up we
033also offer AP classes like English language English literature Environmental science human geography and government I am an AP langus here where Miss Lyon makes a comfortable environment we decode language work with real life speeches and plan for our futures in our school you can find your interest and choose to go further with it there is a class for everyone and they help us to prepare for Life After High School the best thing about this school is the students we are very diverse students come from all over the world and all over Columbus we share our cultures and backgrounds my friends are all very different but we don't have to be the same to get along I have many friends who also speak Spanish and we can relate to our stories we all have families who
034came from different countries and Tred to create a better life for us it's cool to be in in a school that teaches about all different cultures and we can see ourselves in the work in our classes I thankful that I chose to come to columber International High School I've gotten to learn other languages and cultures I plan to go to college when I graduate and this school has made it has made me feel like I'm almost ready to graduate I can relate to people from other backgrounds no matter where I end up in life I know I can be successful because I've seen how my teachers Help Me Grow thank you for all for thank you all for being here and I'm glad you get to see the great things this school does I for
035my classmate that's Miss [Applause] Smith good evening everyone once again my name is Jasmine Smith and I'm a senior here at International I found International at the CCS High School fair in 2019 at their Booth the seniors and principal at the time Mr Lee told me about languages International seminars and global citizenship in all honesty I had no idea what any of that meant but academically I was interested in the specialized programming offerings in Humanities such as AP English and history psychology and sociology which are some of my favorite subjects combined with the Multicultural student body and Global perspectives embedded in the curriculum I was sold in my time here at International I've discovered that this school school is so much more than just the language School particularly under the leadership of Dr Lowry International
036has truly blossomed into a school of culture and belonging the expansion of our school is clubs cultural and Performing Arts events and sports along with the updates to our facilities including this gym here our Auditorium our cafeteria and even our floors and lockers have just added to the building's overall feeling the evolution of our building has made our school feel more established and in turn student relationships and overall School culture have also grown stronger Columbus International High School is a village a place where any student can come in and find their place academically culturally socially my interactions here with peers from all over the world have inspired me to study diplomacy and world affairs at ocidental College this upcoming [Applause] fall these amenities are uniquely available here at International but I believe that every student
037in Columbus and even the entire nation should have access to global education because this is truly what the world needs diverse empathetic Innovative global syst once [Applause] again once again my name is Jasmine Smith class of 2024 thank you for allowing me to speak to you all about my amazing school and now I would like to introduce you all to director [Applause] vicroy thank you Jasmine good evening and welcome Dr Chapman and members of the board my name is Derek vicroy and I am privileged to serve as the Director of Columbus Global Academy this evening I'm excited to share with you who we are as a program our mission and some of what we offer at Columbus Global Academy that we believe positions our students for Success along their graduation pathway establishing its current format
038as a two-year program in 2021 Columbus Global Academy has continued to grow over the years this year alone We Grew From 240 students in August to 368 students in March represented this population of Learners are students who speak 16 languages from 46 different countries we're often asked two questions about our program how do students arrive at Columbus Global Academy and where do students matriculate to after attending our program when new families arrive to enroll at Central enrollment their students meet with nurses counselors and enrollment Specialists students are assigned to Columbus Global if it's determined that their academic and language needs will be best served in our most Intensive English language support setting after the completion of our two-year program students have the choice to return to their home school of residence or and this is
039the choice that is happening now more than ever students could enroll to stay right here as part of Columbus International High School at Columbus Global Academy we are grounded in our mission this Mission ensures that we are all focused on the following key Concepts we see language and culture as assets not barriers our students are encouraged to use their native language to help build their English skills we value ethnol listic preservation and ensuring our students do not lose the language of their home country and culture we firmly believe that by prioritizing academic and emotional interventions we help students become the best version of themselves our program utilizes strategies to meet the unique needs of our Learners interventions in our program are individualized for students who show a need in the area of reading we have
040an intensive Reading Clinic Reading Clinic students have daily small group lessons focused on reading fundamentals our elective ESL course is another option unique to this program where teachers have the flexibility to Target specific skills not only in reading but other content areas needed for credit attainment in addition to our academic and language interventions we partner with outside agencies to support the whole child those include Partnerships with primary one Health Nationwide Children's Behavioral Health Services Chris communities and schools and the harmony project while you may be most familiar with primary 1 Chris and Nationwide Childrens I wanted to uplift Communities In Schools which is an outside agency that provides tier 2 support for academic behavioral and attendance needs the harmony project has been a truly enriching partnership for our school as it's a collaboration between our
041students and the harmony Adult Choir these Partnerships are part of what makes Columbus Global unique side note look for an invitation to our Harmony project show at Huntington Park coming up in May I can truly say that our partnership with a Harmony project now in its second year has created an opportunity for students to express themselves through the Arts and to find pride in their abilities while we looked at the community for Partnerships we also looked within our own building building to support all of our students this year we developed an in-house student mentorship program that is student-led and focuses on properly greeting and preparing our recently enrolled students for their new school experience not only does this ensure a smooth transition it also helps to forge friendships and ensure students feel connected from day
042one two of our student mentors are here tonight to speak to you these students embody our district portrait of a graduate traits in many ways I am thrilled to welcome Christian Conor Ramos and Gua valy to share with you [Applause] tonight good evening my name is Christian Canon I'm a t grader of global Academy and I first I want to tell you a little bit about my story I was born in Ohio I grew up in Ohio for six years and my family start having problems so my mom decided to take us me and my brothers to Mexico I grew up in Mexico for eight years then my mom and Dad decided I should continue my my school in the United States returning back to this country in the beginning many things were difficult for
043me to learn as I had forgotten many of the things that I learned years ago so what makes Global special I think that I things that make Global special is the help that the the teachers give you when I came here I was lost my English was not the best but the teachers made me believe in myself they make me see that I can do all the things that I propose glowal is for all the people that want to learn and be successful the teachers help you to give your best and show you how to be a good person to show all the people that you can make your dreams come true how does global help bridge the gap between your home country and your future I think that a good example that I can
044say is the teacher issues a lesson and test that help us to improve all the things that we learn I can say too that Global prepares you to be a good person to the world to be a boy or girl that s that is successful in the real world they teach teach you how to have a good future so that you can make your dreams come true I can truly say that since I came here I have changed a lot the teachers have shown me that I always need to do my best to not just conform and and be a aage they have made me want to learn more and more new things to take my study seriously and to always do my best thank you now now I give the RO to introduce my
045classmate [Music] [Applause] Kar good afternoon English is my four language I give you a copy of my speech in English I will share it tonight and my first language French and Spanish [Music] for Columbus columus Global Academy [Music] leadership [Applause] Columbus Global Academy in [Music] fore [Music] AC [Music] and as a thank you for beginning here tonight beautiful now that was absolutely beautiful yes that is another round of applause so as G said that this is her English is her fourth language so I have the privilege to translate to English for her good evening I am Mia puit I am the supervisor of student leadership and engagement and I have the distinct honor to translate gra gara's story to English my name is grara VY I am a 10th grade student at Columbus Global Academy
046I was born born in Haiti to get to the United States I had to travel through 12 countries I arrived in Mexico on my way and was deported to Venezuela from Mexico Once I arrived in Venezuela we took the road again to Mexico to get to the United States from there I had to wait eight months to enter the United States once in America I found a house through a foundation called la Blanca I live there for a month in order to be free the Columbus Global Academy has given me opportunities for leadership community service and learning to speak English and Spanish better how has Columbus Global Academy helped bridge the gap between my new home my country and my future Columbus Global Academy does not force us to forget our native language here we
047are introduced to activities that will help us in the future such as the harmony project the Savior heart and student mentorship our advisors help us to make our study choices to be ready for the universities we take classes to help us in our futures when I finish University I would like to become a flight attendant Columbus Global Academy helps me to reach my goals and I am proud to be a student here now to close out our presentation please welcome back our leaders Dr Lowry and Dr vicroy and before we do that if we could give go just another round of [Applause] applause you know after 47 years years the most rewarding part of this is that we get to work with amazing young people like that each and every day and they're right here
048in the Columbus City School District in this building we have learned and we have grown together since our collocation approximately four years ago four years ago Mr vicroy and we continue to plan for our seamless growth forward as we plan for the year to come we're excited about many things we're excited that every student will be able to enroll in classes based upon the supports or the enrichment opportunities that they need to reach their individual potential we're also excited that our integrated unified Arts opportunities will ensure that we operate as one school in harmony we are thrilled that 123 students who have enrolled from the global Academy to Columbus International High School will be able to participate in sports clubs and all of the other activities that students in any High School across the United
049States would have the opportunity to be part of for our students who wish to return to the neighborhood school we will continue to ensure that they can do that after receiving unique supports provided by the Columbus Global staff furthermore we are encouraged by the ways that are counselors are collaborating to create master schedules and enrollments that ensure whatever dreams our students have we are able to align coursework to prepare them for Success having been brought together in this facility was a gift in that we have been able to lean on each other two leaders in one facility with one goal to lift up multilingualism and Forge unlimited Pathways for all Learners we know that as we continue to grow in expand the uniqueness of our programs we will Forge generations of successful Columbus City school
050graduates again welcome thank you and we hope that you are just as excited as we are to see this program continue to grow and shine in our [Applause] district again thank you to all of the amazing staff students administrators from Columbus International High School and Global Academy for sharing um from our students those powerful um testimonies about your experience here we so appreciate you let's give another round of applause to the entire team and president Vera that's this concludes our update from Region 4 and now I'm going to turn it back over to you well thank you um I Echo Dr Chapman's Sentiments of just the power and the the magic that's happening in this building and I myself personally have received recruitment um materials from your school from my kids so keep up the
051great work um before we move on I do want to get be mindful if any students have to leave or any families have to leave this would be an opportune time to do that as we transition I do want to thank our families and students who were able to participate in our office hours today um as I mentioned in past meetings we have office hours before every single board meeting between 5:15 and 5:45 and today we had quite a few students and families so thank you for those who attended at this time we will transition into our public comment our first public comment speaker is Amy mandilo um board action topic is school Staffing board action is here my concerns and reasons why I canvas and voted in favor of school levy hi Miss Amy
052how are you good thank you you have three minutes feel free to start whenever you'd like good evening president ver members of the board and Dr Chapman my name is Amy mandillo I live in Columbus I canvas in support of the school levy I voted for the levy I also attended Columbus City Schools and Elementary School a long time ago and I have taught in Columbus City Schools for 20 over 20 years I am here tonight with an very important ask I am ask asking the board to find a way to retain every single one of our building substitutes at their current locations larger schools have larger staffing needs I understand funding in Ohio is problematic actually unconstitutional and the City of Columbus is liberal with tax abatements and as a taxpayer I definitely want
053the district to be fiscally responsible but we need to find a way to retain all of our building substitut because they have become an integral part of our school communities recently when I returned from being out with the flu which a building substitute was assigned I asked my class if they did a nice job for the sub their response was we did not have a sub we had Mrs Delaney she had us get all of our work done she knew our names she had your phone number she knew how this room was run in my absence all of the work was done and learning continued without a glitch our building Subs have built relationships with our students they have been trained in the science of reading which is needed to support early literacy goals I
054have seen our building sub Mr fightmaster work with our first graders tutoring them in reading our subs have been trained in PBIS secl strategies and they are able to support tier two and three students in and out of the classrooms they attend professional development and they are involved in all areas of the school we are in the midst of the worst teacher shortage in history Columbus City Schools currently has a labor pool of well-trained professionals who know our students why would we let them go I have had other experiences in my classroom when we did not have building substitutes I've had times where I've had six eight 10 extra students in my room from various grade levels taking my class size up as high as was 40 I had one time where I had six
055additional fourth graders assigned to my room for nine weeks because no building no substitute would take the assignment and their teacher was on a medical leave this is not acceptable and our students deserve better I am here speaking to you because I really do not want to see that happen again we have trained Professionals in place please retain all of them thank you very much for your [Applause] time next [Applause] week next we will hear from Kelsey gray topic building substitute Staffing board action make zero Cuts in building substitutes for next year good evening uh good evening president Vera vice president Dr Pierce board members and Dr Chapman my name is Kelsey gray I'm an English teacher at Independence High School uh obviously a member of CA I first want to acknowledge before I get
056into this that the board in front of me is not the board that drove us to the picket line the election brought us two new members and a new leader who has personally been in my room with my students building connections I also want to acknowledge that the board has moved on the building sub proposal and for that I'm very thankful but it in no way is good enough for our schools we need more than one building sub we need every single one that we have now and more I'm joined not only in the room by my colleagues obviously behind me but I'm also joined in paper by 2,000 more over 2,000 over the past week CA members filled out a survey with one question what does your building substitute mean to you and or
057your building now I was originally going to stand up here and use the rest of my two minutes to tell you about my building sub uh her name is Miss Ashley Martin and she's with us this evening but uh my students actually asked me if I could fill my time with their voices instead so I have a small pile of sticky notes um with messages that they would like you to hear Miss Martin always made sure to provide a safe environment for her students she even made the decision to take over a whole subject probably not her decision but and become our everyday teacher when our original teacher decided to quit mid year our class was on the verge of not being able to learn and Miss Martin changed that we love her Miss Martin
058means a lot to me she is one of the strongest most helpful most kind-hearted teachers here at Independence High School Miss Martin is like a big sister to most of us she tries to understand who we really are before teaching us Miss Martin is an amazing amazing teacher she shows how she cares about us and her job M Miss Martin is the reason I come to school Miss Martin is the reason I love school throughout my three years of going to IHS I've known Miss Martin since my freshman year that was more than enough time for me to notice how she has taken charge so many times throughout this school she even stood up to teach an entire class when a replacement teacher couldn't be found Miss Martin has had such a great impact on
059me since my freshman year it was extremely important to what I've become today Miss Martin is always willing to help she makes our work very engaging and if it weren't for her we wouldn't have an American government teacher this year Miss Martin genuinely cares for every student she ever met even when I'm just being lazy she influences me to make sure my work is done and helps me she helped me learn that you should always try just in case I'm going to ask if I can go over time for four more go ahead Miss Martin truly is nothing less than a great teacher I can't help but appreciate how considerable kind understanding she is both in and outside of the classroom Miss Martin gives me the confidence I need to come to school Miss Martin
060is very kind and willing to help anyone that needs it we should have more teachers like her at our school and lastly Miss Martin is truly an amazing teacher I don't want any other kids to miss out on what it feels like to have a teacher like Miss Martin thank you and thank you Miss Martin Miss Martin um I do have Miss gray you said Miss Martin is [Applause] here okay before we move on Miss Martin is here is that right yes can you stand up Miss Martin just so we can properly say thank you for your service to our students all right at this time we'll hear from ja jakia jakia jakia Hearn uh topic building substitutes make zero staff reduction to building substitutes good evening good evening my name is jaia Hearn this
061is my eighth year in education and working for CCS I've taught at a few different schools and a few different grade levels but I currently teach first grade at East Haven Elementary school where we have two wonderful building Subs one of our building Subs has been in the classroom since the first day of school providing consistent instruction to a class I don't know where we would be if we didn't have building sub but also if we were only cut down to just one building sub per building if we were cut down to just one sub that would mean almost every day there would be at least one class split throughout our building I can count on one hand the amount of times we've had a nonbuilding sub cover a class this year I don't have
062to think back too far to remember a time before we had building Subs it's important to note that in elementary when there are no building Subs you aren't covering a class for a colleague these students are split up giv packets and with you for the entire day the students who are split up aren't receiving instruction and are instead now in learning loss let me paint a scene for you of a time before building Subs that happened to me multiple times I had my own home room of 25 third graders add on top four first graders and four fourth graders lots of questions run through my mind for the day first where am I even going to fit all of the students in my room I've had students sit everywhere from my kidney table that was
063designed for small group instruction to the carpet where we typically gathered for read alouds and I even had students who would sit at my desk from time to time because there was no more space um the next question is how will I be able to deliver quality instruction with so many other bodies and distractions in the classroom how will it still be safe at recess and lunch with an extra class full of students being added to the mix and no extra hands to assist how am I going to be able to effectively use my planning time with extra students that are now in my care unfortunately this was not an exception in an elementary school but a regular occurrence before building Subs our building Subs are vital to the success of Columbus City Schools building
064Subs are vital to safety they are another adult who knows the routines and procedures of a school as well as another adult that has built relationships with students in the school they make it safe so we aren't cramming 35 Plus kids in a classroom and having unmanageable ratios at lunch and recess building Subs are vital to provide instruction to our students instead of just being handed packets and sitting in the back of a class building Subs are vital to helping to alleviate teacher burnout teachers get burnt out knowing they will constantly have extra kids added in their classroom or their planning time gone or that they won't even get a chance to have a few minutes to collect their thoughts without students I remember a time before building subs and I definitely don't want to
065go back there I'm asking you all to save all of our building Subs because they have saved us daily next we next we will hear from Alex doy topic is building substitutes board action retain building substitutes good evening thank you and good evening my name is Alex dhy I'm a building substitute at Indianola K8 which happens to actually been the elementary school where I went when I went to Columbus City Schools I'm here today to speak to you regarding my experience as a building substitute teacher to request the retainment of all building substitute positions in Columbus City Schools I began this position almost exactly three years ago and over those past three years I've substituted in every room at Indianola and every student has been my student at some point I recognize everything face they
066all recognize mine my presence means that they don't miss that day of learning it isn't just the teachers who tell me what it means to have me in the room it's the students who literally cheer when they see that they have me as their substitute that day literally we don't have to split classes we don't have to be stuck with an with a packet we don't have to go to an unfamiliar room when I'm there they get to continue their read aloud of wild robot they get to work on their black history museum project they get to have their first day of the year using the drums and music class it's the kids who tell me who how excited they are that their learning isn't interrupted on days where their wonderful teachers can't make it
067to school and those moments remind me every day of the impact that I have at Indianola and in this District now if my story were a oneoff I wouldn't be here today I would take my fuzzy feelings I would go home I would play video games but as y'all can see it's not just me and in fact could I have any other building substitutes please stand to be recognized today I am in a unit with more than 240 other building substitutes across the city that are improving the lives and education of students stud all over our district you can talk to any one of us and the first thing we'll tell you is a story from that day about one of our students and what they were able to learn that day but that is
068at that's what's at stake here isn't it because when you reduce building substitute teachers what you are doing is you are reducing a teacher I have an assignment almost every single day my absence would mean 182 days of miseducation by an entire classroom and that's one building substitute a reduction in force of 120 building substitutes could result in up to 2,840 unfilled vacancies next year alone I do not find that acceptable to be honest these positions are vital to the education and communities of students across the city and I believe it would be a mistake I have two paragraphs left may I fix finish I believe it would be a mistake um to reduce these positions and honestly based on what I'm hearing tonight I would recommend even an expansion of this [Applause] program to
069point I ask the board to retain every single building substitute in the district and further ask the board to consider expanding the program in order to continue the learning and education of every single student every single day thank you for your time now we will hear from Michael Young now we will hear from Michael Young topic I love my HBCU board action attend the I love my HBCU at Afrocentric on Friday March 22nd 2024 good evening good evening I'd like to open tonight by giving honor to these phenomenal Educators that are in the room with us we're grateful for the contributions that they make to the young people in our community Madam superintendent to The Honorable members of the Columbus City Schools Board of Education good evening and thank you for allowing me the opportunity
070to present this resolution on behalf of the seabus faith-based collaborative which currently includes several local congreg ations whereas the month of March is designated as National why I love my HBCU month recognizing the invaluable contributions of historically black colleges and universities to the fabric of American Education whereas HBCU have been pivotal in fostering academic excellence and providing unparalleled opportunities to countless students particularly in communities of color whereas Columbus City Schools the largest school district in our proud state of Ohio has consistently demonstrated its commitment to prioritizing Equitable opportunities for all and authentic engagement be it resolved that the seabus faith-based collaborative officially acknowledges and celebrates the significance of HBCU and their impact on our community in our nation be it further resolve that we extend our deepest gratitude to the Columbus City Schools for their
071partnership and support of the 2024 cus HBCU College fa be it finally resolved we cordially invite the esteemed members of this board and your staff to join us at Columbus Afrocentric on Friday March 22nd 2024 from 10:00 a.m. to 2: P.M to engage with over 20 HBCU representatives and and hundreds of high school students we are eager to offer an environment that is filled with vibrant traditions of HBCU while supporting the whole child additionally we extend an enthusiastic invitation to the entire Community to participate in rep your HBCU Sunday on Sunday March 24th we ask that everyone exhibit their HBCU Pride by posting a photograph on social media wearing any HBCU perel up apparel and use the hashtag # cus HBCU your presence will greatly honor us and as we strive to Enlighten and Inspire
072our students towards higher educations at HBCU where they will not only pursue academic careers but they'll build a legacy of excellence and Community engagement in the spirit of education and Community we thank you for your time and your consideration humbly and respectfully submitted Pastor Michael Young city of [Applause] Grace thank you next we will hear from Christopher Monto topic substitute teacher cuts board action retain all the substitute positions and seek necessary budget cuts in administrative blo good evening good evening president Vera vice president Dr Pierce and respected board members thank you for your time regarding the decision ision to cut substitute teaching positions I'm a proud English teacher at Northland High School and I love working for this community I appreciate that any budget tightening requires hard choices and I applaud your steps to roll
073back the original plan to cut Subs positions by over half however more needs to be done substitutes are vital to our school ecosystems and any cuts to their numbers should be considered a failure by this board to create an effective budget let me establish some common understanding with some class participation I invite both the board and the audience to join please raise your hand if you can say yes to the following questions in The Last 5 Years have you reported to a school building daily for work in the past 5 years have you worked as an educator in the classroom all right I see you pierce in the last five years have you had to substitute for teachers and complete your regular job duties at the same time so I think we have a clear
074understanding we are the experts on our classroom building and Community needs and the board does not have the experience needed to make unilateral decisions on our Personnel the pandemic fundamentally changed the school environment while substitutes have always been important they are now indispensable for students and staff my first year in CCS was in the midst of the substitute shortage requiring me to cover classes almost daily I was already Dred in but spending my planning time trying to manage an unknown class while maintaining other professional responsibilities was a nightmare I seriously reconsidered whether this district and even this profession was the right fit for me as my work piled up and I lost the time I needed to make my classes great compare that to this year I have yet to be required to cover a
075class and I am thriving in my school our students have developed beautiful relationships with our building Subs who work incredibly hard and provide warm familiar faces when their teacher cannot with the youth Mental Health crisis causing widespread absenteeism the decision to cut Frontline Educators is baffling where are the cuts to our over bloated Administration I've never seen the board turn down an expansion of admin positions yet we who work with students have to bear the financial burden we're in a teacher shortage already and making our lives harder through budgetary mismanagement is an easy way to lose the best of us to other dist districts the board has since changed since I uh started with ccs and I believe the new members and leadership are making good faith efforts to write the ship from prior mismanagement
076therefore I ask you to help our district Thrive work with the experts in CA and cut unilateral decisionmaking maintain current substitute levels and look Instead at administrative bloat for your budget if you choose to cut even a single substitute position I hope you're ready to step into a classroom yourself the day we don't have enough thank you for [Applause] your so now we will hear from hesus Z topic limited amount of athletic trainers at Schools board action hire more athletic trainers and even build relationships with trainers who are at universities that could help at the school good evening good evening U first of all thank you all for your time and for the hard work that you put in for our children and the care that you give our children all right this is better
077all right once again thank you all for the hard work that you put in for our children and um and all of what you do and uh also Dr lry my son goes here so all the stuff that they talked about my son's a first year student here is real shout out to Dr lri sorry to sound like a hip-hop person but I'm I'm talking fast um and also his assistants um teachers down here um Miss sarian sorry I'm speeding and U Mr Welch um Miss Duncan I'm forgetting another one the band the band teacher all of that but the teachers they the building Subs everybody they do a great job my son is having the best grades he's ever had since he's been in school and and it's been great now sorry y'all Y
078cut in on my time thank you uh but what I really want to talk about is this um I went to a school called Shaw High School in East Cleveland Ohio uh I graduated in 1997 after that from 1998 to to 2021 that's a 23-year period we had two students that were basketball players that had heart attacks on the court one died the one that uh was the year after I graduated high school the second one in 2021 actually survived and his life was saved by an athletic trainer um one of my best friends who returned to my former high school to become the athletic director saw and he he remembered we were a year out of high school when the first kid died so that was like top of Mind of like making sure
079there's always somebody around prior to him becoming an athletic director it was shaky having athletic trainers on site so that was a top of Mind thing that person saved his life made national news was a big deal um saying all that to say this I'm about 5 to 10 feet away from where my son suffered an injury on this the same basketball court during the season um we share trainers I'm sure the other schools do too but we share trainer with uh Beach crof High School and that day our trainer was not here my son is 6'9 325 pounds so when I know that the trainer is not here and he goes down I'm like okay let's make sure he gets off the court safely and if I have to carry him off I will
080because that's a big boy so it took a minute um he got off the court I checked to see how he was things weren't looking good and his um Health assessment was left in the hands of an athletic director um athletic directors may or may not be able to assess things they have a lot of responsibilities and a lot of things going on at the same time um so in in that happening um I actually was was I wanted to do some things for my son and I was prevented because of the quote unquote limitations um that that they they couldn't allow me to do certain things I I don't even want to get into that right now but in saying all this I I noticed I'm a Problem Solver I noticed there's a a
081lack of maybe funds for athletic trainers I will be brief um I have some suggestions possibly starting internship programs with local universities that have athletic uh training uh programs also um creating Partnerships maybe with Nationwide children's medicine I'm not sure but I know my son has had to go there for Rehab at times um another thing is um starting booster clubs at some of the schools um I know here at this school like while I praise the academic situation the athletic situation is a little bit behind the times and there is no parent participation that's encouraged for us to maybe uh chip in if we can financially or uh do fundraisers or do something where we're helping ourselves instead of just going a you guys do the job because I don't want to just say
082you guys do the job I would like as a parent to have a part and making sure my son and his teammates and the other kids are um taken care of too um I would say in wrapping up that um some of these ideas may not be possible at the moment but let's not act like oh what we can't do this let's move on let's let's develop and and and um build these ideas and I will volunteer my time to try and do these things to help all the kids all over the district because Mr Z your time is up but thank you so much for your advocacy and certainly we will follow up someone from the district so thank you thank [Applause] you next we will hear from Anika drafton topic ACC augmentive and
083alternative communication speech generating device for device users board action prioritize making sure that these devices are available to the students and recognize that they are linked to our families good evening good evening um just as a correction it's actually a AC devices and speech generating devices um again my name is Ana drafton I am a parent of a non-speaking child that uses an AAC device or a speech Genera generating device um for her primary mode of communication um before I say anything more I wanted to first start with thanking you for hiring an AAC specialist as the family that's incredible for us we are spread out we are overwhelmed when we get into Columbus City School District we don't get a whole lot of direction right there's not a lot in our path that's already
084predetermined and it's going to be incredibly helpful to have the specialist we would like to hear what the specialist is supposed to be doing um I haven't heard that communicated yet and I only heard I have had an opportunity to talk to Renda she was very open to my ideas excuse my voice I'm very nervous but I'm going to get through this um I just need you to know how incredibly important it is for us to to really focus on giving our kids the ability to communicate I know that that is part of your portrait of a graduate I know that communication is one of the attributes but what I need for you to understand is the impact of giving our children functional communication not only does that impact and improve their quality of life
085um it actually it gives them overall agency right and freedom um I want to take my last minute and talk to you about the experience that I've had at my current school which is Valley Forge Elementary Valley Forge we transferred actually in the middle of the pandemic sorry um and I've had a wonderful experience there my daughter's had a wonderful experience there and by that I mean we have been met with an administrator in Dr Smith who has been open and receptive to my parent advocacy um we've had a speech th therapist in Jessica who has been incredibly helpful and has been very responsive to me asking that my child and children like mine not be relegated and isolated into that room but that they become a part of the overall culture in that school
086and they've done an amazing job with that and to demonstrate that I'd like to just tell you about this spring concert I believe about a year ago where my non verbal child was the loudest child in the choir um during that concert and if I tell you not one child turned around and looked at her and nor did any teacher or parent it was an amazing experience for her may I um it was an amazing experience for her and for me to see her be so holy accepted um my fear and my belief is that every child is not having that experi experience um and the other thing is because we are so spread out I'm not even sure that we are as a district keeping numbers on the kids that use these devices I'm
087not able to get that information and I look for it because we have developed a nonprofit to help families learn how to use these devices and you are our only link that's what I need you to know we don't go to the same schools we're not in the same buildings we don't live in the same neighborhoods we don't have the same teachers or therapists you are the common denominator we need to know each other our kids need to know each other we need to be able to share resources we need to be able to help each other our journey is tough it's challenging but together we can figure it out I'm not asking you to be the answer to all of it I'm asking you to be a partner in US finding the answer thank
088you [Applause] thank you next we have Maria agular topic Korean program board action create a full-time Korean class good evening aular hello I will help her Translate Okay Mar [Music] CL [Music] St [Music] Ma [Music] for [Music] School hello my name is Maria and I am the parent of Marin agilar a second year Korean student I am here to today to ask the board to support the creation of full-time Korean program here at International the school has offer Korean for nearly 10 years now and they are still teaching all levels of Korean may I during one class period This is a problem other language th have a separate levels of classes so the students can have the undivided attentions of the teachers for a full period each day of the week in a Korean students
089at level one to four are T during the same period by the same teacher who must divide her time and attention between four different classes it will be un Unthinkable for the D to offer four distally different math classes during the same period of instruction and it's unacceptable for our language classes as well some student need extra support and attention to learn and I want the best for my daughter and her classmates only heard Korean at school but she also participate in Korean community events and language lessons however I believe that she would learn more if she were in the class with the students of her same level and with a teacher only teaching that level of Korean Korean is a popular language International High School and the students demand for the class and shown
090the time to take a action and now I respectfully request the the board support the creation of full Korean language program and hire a full-time teacher to instruct the program thank you very much for your [Applause] consideration gracias all right now we will move into board matters item 5.1 a resolution to recognize March as women's History Month uh today we have two students uh f k a junior from Columbus africentric Early College High School and haa kamaru a junior from Fort Hayes board member board member Adair has the resolution thank you so much I have the resolution to recognize March as women's History Month whereas March is National Women's History Month the theme for women's History Month 2024 is women who advocate for Equity diversity and inclusion this theme recognizes the invaluable contributions of women
091who have dedicated themselves to advocating for Equity diversity and inclusion in each aspect of society women from diverse backgrounds have long been at the Forefront of efforts to address systemic inequity and promote a more inclusive and just Society the courageous advocacy of women for particular goals such as Equity diversity and inclusion serve as an inspiration for individuals and communities in 2024 we honor the women who have tiredly worked to dismantle barriers challenge Prejudice and create opportunities for individuals regardless of their background and attacks against diversity equity and inclusion programs and training in our institutions and now therefore it be resolved that the Columbus board of education does hereby recognize and honor March 2024 as women's History Month in the Columbus City School School District be it further resolved that this board encourages communities and organizations
092to celebrate the achievement of women who have championed Equity diversity and inclusion and reaffirm our commitment to advancing these principles in our society let us honor the women who have dedicated themselves to advocating for Equity diversity and inclusion and let us continue to work together to build a more just Equitable and inclusive world that is a motion there's a motion there is a second please call the RO yes vice president Dr Pierce M Reyes yes Mr Simmons yes president be yes M adir yes motion car ladies have any good evening my name is FAL Kane and As We Gather here today to celebrate women's history month I am blessed knowing the impact this month has on our society women's History Month not only highlights the contribution women have brought upon history but also allows us
093to acknowledge the suffrage of gender inequality and empowerment of women altogether women's History Month serves as a reminder of the work that still needs to be done to achieve true gender equality it's a call to action to challenge stereotypes dismal barriers and create a more inclusive Society where every woman and young woman can thrive and fulfill her potential and with the addition of women's History Month I have had the pleasure of being a part of the superintendent student ambassador organization which has groomed me into becoming more outspoken a better listener a confident young lady and a successful call scholar throughout this program I was challenged with the biggest Quest having patience with the blessing of patience you are able to allow the opportunities that fit in your criteria to come to light and expand your
094mind this organization has also Been instrumental in fostering leadership skills promoting Civic engagement and instilling a sense of responsibility to serve and advocate for others in my community in particularly I want to express my deep appreciation for Mama Mia and the leadership you have demonstrated with the organization your dedication vision and commitment to empowering students have inspired me and countless others to strive for excellence and make a difference in the world around us your mentorship and guidance have not only shaped my personal growth but also instilled in me the importance of using my voice and talents to affect positive change in society through your Exemplar leadership you have shown me the value of Integrity compassion and empathy and Leadership your unwavering support and encouragement has given me the confidence to step out of my comfort
095zone take on new challenges and pursue on my passions and determination in conclusion woman history mon serves as a powerful reminder of indominable spirits of women women throughout history and the transformative impact of women's leadership as we celebrate this month let us reaffirm our commitment to honoring the past empowering the present and shaping a more inclusive future for us all all right that was amazing please let's give one more running for now all right um I'm Haj hi hello good evening ladies and gentlemen I'm hajat Kumar from forhe art academic high school it's my pleasure to be here and to talk about women history manth and also being part of student ambassador growing up as a young African woman I had the misconception that men were entirely responsible for all the contributions in the world
096I was unaware of the significant role women play in making the world a better place I fail to recognize the significant contributions made by women such as as that lovess the first computer programmer Margaret taster the first female prime minister and Dr May Jimson the first African-American women to travel into space and many many more if not for women's history Mar I will believe that only men like Thomas Edis Thomas Edison Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin were responsible for all the inventions and achievements in the world I am not downgrading the effort made by men but women must also be recognized for their hard work contributions and struggles knowing about women's Socia has being a game changer for me someone who who grew up in a m dominated envir environment and wants to make a
097change working towards those change pushed me to take risk and became a super a student ambassador this program has enhanced my leadership skills and made me realize and understand that being a leader doesn't have a certain age gender or anything you can be a leader even if you have leaders around you being part of SSA has has taught me how to be a highway leader how to pull myself out there and take risk I now dare to voice my opinion and concerns to step up for myself and others if our leaders are not Highway leaders it has opened my eyes to the world of leadership and also given me a chance to be a leader to be a leader and be part of a solution that involves me as a student lastly our supervisors have
098shown me that I can be part of a change that usually involves the older more influential people in our communities Mama Mia Dr Hill and others have made sure that we are part of the decision being made for us the students they make sure we we're always hurt and S having them as as mentors has been a blessing more than any student could ask for they go out there and make sure we have many opportunities to better ourselves including this very event thank you Dr Chapman for our for giving us our Mama Mia She haven't only been a supervisor but also an amazing leader and role model to to us all a great thank you to her for giving me the opportunity to be up here and share my thought thank you all have an
099amazing evening great job ladies all right so we are going to move on to item 5.2 uh let's see here so it's a resol resolution to Rev the adopted annual calendar of school board conferences conventions and workshops for the 2020 2023 2024 school year resolve that the Board of Education adopts a revised annual calendar for the 2022 2023 2024 school year that's a motion is there a second please call the rooll vice president Dr Pierce sorry did you say my name no vice president Dr Pierce do you want to have discuss we're gonna have a quick discussion around this one um so the point of discussion is just that we need to log some updated information and Corrections in that so before that this is made official and put into the minute meetings can we
100make those updates and please call the all vice president Dr Pierce yes Miss Reyes yes Mr Simmons yes president Vera yes m m Engles yes motion Carri thank you all right now we will move to item 5.3 authority to enter into a purchase agreement with the Ohio State University um item 5.3 is being considered separate from the consent agenda at the request of board m Dr Pierce and want to make the motion I will make the motion is there a second any discussion please call the role Miss Reyes Mr Simmons yes president ver yes missir yes Miss Engles yes vice president Dr Pierce abstaining motion carries thank you now we will move into item 6.1 good evening again Dr Chapman I handed over to you for our monitoring report good evening again president Vera members
101of the board um tonight we are sharing a the district monitoring report focused on improving math achievement in response to the identified need for enhanced math performance across our schools the district has implemented targeted strategies to improve outcomes in math this report outlines the progress and impact of these initiatives on student learning and achievement in math reflects our commitment to data driven decision making and continuous Improvement showcasing the efforts to not only meet but exceed our educational goals in math ensuring that all students have the skills and knowledge they need to succeed academically tonight Dr Brown and I will share our Baseline information for the performance of our students in grades four five and six towards our middle school math goal I would like to name and acknowledge that this is a new goal area
102for Columbus City Schools following the pandemic there was a substantial drop in math proficiency Across the Nation prior to the pandemic there had been a gradual increase in math achievement for 13 year olds over the past three decades following the pandemic 13y olds across the country were performing comparably to 13 year olds in 1990 so there was a regression this was a substantial decline in performance erasing over three decades of progress nationally and the negative impact on math achievement was disproportionately felt in districts like ours Ohio also saw a drop in math ACH with fewer than 50% of seventh graders performing at grade level last year for our district our proficiency rates in math have declined by over 10% in comparison to prepandemic Performance we are grateful that the board recognized the importance of establishing
103strong mathematical foundations for Student Success in high school and establish a seventh grade math goal for our students today we are reporting on the superintendent interim goals which are for grades four five and six leading up to the board goal in grade seven given that this is a new goal for the system we are now developing a plan and aligning resources to support Improvement in math instruction as the board has seen with our work in early literacy supporting changes in instructional practices takes the alignment of resources professional development and time to accomplish throughout the system currently the strategies and approaches being leveraged to meet our math goal include ensuring all students have access to rigorous grade level curriculum and that the curriculum scope and sequence is being implemented across the district we are using consistent
104instructional routines that emphasize student discourse this me that students are encouraged to share and justify their problem solving strategies in math and analyze the reasoning of their peers as they work collaboratively and finally we are strengthening student and teacher engagement with I personalized Pathways as time spent on personalized practice is showing a strong correlation with student growth while we are early in the consistent practice of these strategies across our elementary and middle schools we are beginning to see some improvement in student outcomes in math at this time I'm going to turn it over to Dr Brown to guide us through the story our data is telling us about fourth fifth and sixth grade achievement in math good evening this is the uh board gold language that was adopted in November of last year uh emphasizing
105again the importance of improving mathematics proficiency for our students in seventh grade the goal uh moves our proficiency rate from 14.7% in school year 2223 to 23.4 five% in June of 2028 you'll notice that the goal increases gradually at first again allowing for that time for us to develop the the resources and professional development and changes in practice and then accelerates over time our interims are based on I ready because we know that I ready has a very strong correlation to outcomes and for the state of Ohio as a whole those correlations are around 085 which is incredibly strong so it's a great predictor of subsequent performance on the OST in grades four five six and seven as well the first interim goal is four fourth grade mathematics and these charts are all going to
106be laid out the same way the the line on the left which is in blue reflects our historical performance and culminates with this year midyear performance of 30.3% proficient uh proficient or stretch growth for that matter that's a 2.1 percentage Point improvement from 2023 the orange line to the right shows the interim goals moving forward over time again you'll see that acceleration is being moved forward if we look at the breakdown of the data uh for different student groups and the color didn't follow through very well on the screen here um what you'll see is that our performance at this point in time exceeds the interim goal the first interim goal that was set forth uh in fact we achieved 112% of the the interim goal at this point you'll also notice that most student
107groups have also exceeded the interim goal and at this point in time again it's a good start for for this work looking forward to grade five we see a very similar pattern again the blue line on the left shows historical performance starting the pandemic and the moving forward uh to the mid year of this year with 30.4% of our students U again having either met the proficiency level or stretch growth at mid year this is a 1.4 percentage Point gain from last year again shows an improvement over the prior year prior couple years for that matter it also exceeds the interim goal at this point in time and again the interim goals are outlined in Orange to the right moving forward to the 2028 school year again if we look at the breakdown by student
108group again most student groups are exceeding uh the the performance uh the interim goal performance overall most are in excess of 100% at this point in time there are um the in addition overall we have exceeded the interim goal uh at this point we've achieved 108. 6% of the interm goal at this point in time the there are some exceptions in this data as we we've seen with other data homeless students are a challenging population for us and one that we consider uh one that we need to lean into as we move forward finally sixth grade mathematics again the blue line to the left shows historical performance culminates in 36.9% uh proficient at this point proficient or having met stretch growth at mid year this is A3 percentage Improvement uh from the percentage Point improvement
109from the price year and again exceeds the interim goal for the first year and again if we look at uh the overall performance overall again we're exceeding the interim goal we're at 10.5% of the interim goal and the majority of student groups again are in excess of 100% of the enorm goal at this point as well again we do have challenges with our homeless population this is a population that often struggles on a lot of these metrics we've seen it before and one that we have leaned into over time this is the culmination of of of the data for um the interim goals and at this point I'm going to pass it back to Dr chman to finish you Dr Brown um again as you have just seen current student performance in grades four five
110and six indicates that we are on track to meet the board math goal in grade seven note that because we are on track for each of our interim goals at this time you are not seeing a plan for corrective action in support of the board goal we intend to deepen our implementation of grade level curriculum instructional routines and each students's already personalized pathway as we close our monitoring report I'm also excited to announce our first math Symposium that will take place on Tuesday August 13th for all Math teachers in the district and building administrators in grades four through seven during this professional learning opportunity teachers will have the opportunity to learn and extend their key math strategies and accelerate students mathematical learning I certainly want to thank all of our teachers across the district who
111will participate in this Hands-On learning experience for their dedication and efforts to strengthen their instructional practices in math I also want to extend a huge um um congratulations and gratitude um again to our Colum Community for their ongoing support of our schools we know that recent investments from the levy will support this Symposium and other professional development opportunities throughout next year so that all Math teachers will have the opportunity to continue to learn deepen and strengthen their teaching practices promote equity in math and bring out the mathematical Brilliance in each and every one of our students here in CCS thank you at this time um president ver we will entertain any questions that you have regards regarding our monitoring report uh thank you Dr Chapman colleagues as a reminder I know many of us met
112with Dr Brown and Dr Chapman to submit questions um so certainly at this time we will not be repeating any of those questions and I also want to remind each colleague that there is just a guided um handout in our binders and at this time we can open for any strategic questions that have not already been presented board member Simmons um thank you board president Dr trapman I was hoping I know we touched upon it briefly at our last meeting but I was hoping you could kind of speak to some of the reasons why our students might find themselves homeless to kind of raise awareness I'm sorry board member Simmons can you repeat that question I know we we talked about it a little bit last week but I was wondering if you could kind
113of talk to maybe some of the uh things happening our community that lead our students to be homeless as we see through the data that that's the group that are um you know typically struggling and lagging behind just if you could talk to some of the reasons why we're seeing from when our families come back and they tell us hey we're struggling with housing right now are you know are we getting data as to why or maybe anecdotally um Dr chman before you answer that question I think that's a really important question board member Simmons but that is not a part of this monitoring report we're not monitoring that as a specific part of this report are we only supposed to ask the questions on the sheet is at the first meeting it was suggested
114that but then at our last modering session we didn't do that so I'm not sure yes we at this time we are only talking about math and what's presented in this particular document so a great question certainly that is information that board member Simmons is interested in do you have another question board member simmens can I look over the sheet just real quick please while you're wait why you're looking at that any other colleagues have any questions I think with and do you have a question I want to paraphrase our our assist board member Simmons because I think what he's getting at is do we understand what the root cause of homelessness in our community is and in general how is that impacting the data that we are seeing across our monitoring reports specifically noted
115in tonight's report is that way you were getting that it was but I'm not sure weos that or not because it's not on the sheet it is on the sheet it's which one is that block number three it's the it's the first one that's given what do we know about the root cause of the student data in the report homelessness is the root cause the question goes deeper because I extended it and said what do we know about the community because your question is about how is housing affecting it the response from the superintendent to the initial question that we got was that you were a voting member of the shelter board um is that a question that was already answered the the question that is posed right now has not been answered but some
116of the information that was given in a previous question could be used to answer this question without me answering the question I still don't I still personally don't see the connection so if you can summ up what it up for us that do we know what the root cause what the root cause causes of homelessness in our community are as we see that homeless students are performing under Target in this not wait a second are performing under Target in other monitoring reports and close to performing under Target in this one so I've certainly um in my term um in this role um and my experience as a member of the Columbus Community um I am aware that there are a myriad of reasons why our families have housing instability and thinking about the vulnerable youth
117that we serve which certainly one of the factors that um you know lead to a youth being vulnerable is the housing instability in our community we know that um there are a variety of factors of why that is the case we know that we are seeing certainly an increase of students who are homeless um a increase in students who are are vulnerable um due to housing insecurity and certainly we are you know um collaborating with our Community Partners across the city to be thought Partners in how we support and provide resources to our vulnerable youth in the district um and I certainly welcome all of our board members who are also members of the community to shed light from their persp perspective as well as context if you would offer additional reasons why we are
118experiencing housing instability in our city I believe that's the the the question the answer to that question the of why we the impact of do you have another question you know I I would just like to uplift that you know an estimated um 25 to 40% of homeless youth are members of the lgbtq plus Community um you know many of those students may have been kicked out your know Mom or Dad has said no you're not able to live here you know you you have to you have to leave our home um because of their sexual identity or their gender orientation um and I just wanted to LIF that up because too often times our lgbtq students are left out of the conversation and so my question is and if it's can't make it as
119a question I will certainly follow up I'm going to make it as a statement is you know you provided a response about what services we provide to all of our LGBT or to all of our homeless students but I was wondering if you could talk about you know that estimated 25 to 40% of students if you could talk about what service might be specifically provided and tailored to them are we partnering with different organizations in our community do we have specialized staff and I will connect this back to our board gold guard Bo our board goals and guard rails that you know two of them ensure a culturally responsive staff as well as prioritize a whole Child Focus I think when we're having these conversations we've often just talked about the board goals but what
120we haven't talked about our our board gold guard rails very often and so just to reiterate my question and okay so fine if we're not allowed to ask it during this portion but what services does the district offer or partner with different agencies to offer specifically to our lgbtq plus students who have found themselves homeless if if it would be more convenient I'd also I'd be happy to follow up so I I think I mean it's it's a matter around how how are we drilling into the data around our homeless student population what do we know about our students that are homeless right what are the demographics um related to are they homeless are are they dealing with um lgbtqa plus issue so I think that is a more um that's a deeper dive into
121Data that's a bigger conversation it's definitely um important but it's also a technical question because we have to see if we have that data and I apologize Dr Chapman if I speaking out of terms in terms of the data my question was just about what what services do we offer those students um and then you know and I I also just highlight connecting back to my own experience as a student in the district you know um that is absolutely students are absolutely kicked out of their homes because of their agender or sexual identity um you know I had classmates who I rode the bus home every day um and they had been kicked out of their homes and you know when I didn't see them on the bus I asked them oh you know why
122don't you ride our bus route home anymore and they you know they're living with Grandma or grandpa or Aunt now they're living at you know maybe star house or Huckleberry house so I just want to you know make sure I uplift that that is absolutely something that does happen um in our district and we have to do um everything right by those students to support them to provide them with all the resources they need um to make sure and again you know that's one of our our guard rails is align resources equitably and if those students aren't getting the resources they need then it's not Equitable um and just to to rephrase or to reiterate my question is what services does the district provide to our homeless lgbtq plus students or are do we partner
123with organizations who help us provide those Services thank you board member Simmons I I appreciate you highlighting this I think this is in fact as uh Vice President Pierce mentioned this is a deeper dive a deeper conversation and that is something that I would like to submit to the administration to be able to follow up with all of us as to what those resources are um but at this time we are not going to um move forward with answering that question because I recognize that is a part of a monitoring all right at this time any other board members Dr Pierce um so let's see future performance question given what we know about um the industry as it relates to um Workforce Development future jobs in this region what can the board do to help
124you all speed up the progress that we're seeing in this inal report um thank you um Dr Pierce for that question when I think about the growth that needs to happen in terms of student achievement to meet the demands of Tomorrow the demands of the workforce demands of our city and our region um staying focused on this board goal is the number one priority um recently I was on a panel and we were talking about what's holding us back it was a more global conversation about what gets in the way of good teaching and learning and I would offer that protecting the instructional time protecting the instructional core is what we need now more than ever we shared tonight that pre pandemic um where student learning particularly in the area of math was before the
125pandemic post pandemic three decades of growth in the area of math has been erased nationally certainly our data here in Columbus is on Trend with that and so what we need to do again is focus on these board goals and so what that means is that we prioritize these board goals we Cascade them across the organization and we have a laser-like focus on these goals and this is the priority work of the district and so again making sure that we protect instructional time we stay focused focus on what I say keep the main thing the main thing stay focused on these goals we are focusing on middle school math as a um the foundation for ensuring that our students are ready for high school ensuring that our students are matriculating from middle school with a
126stronger foundation in math so that they can be prepared um for high school and then be ready for the rigor of High School courses this is going to set them on that trajectory so that they can not only matriculate through high school and stay on track with their peers each year but also um making sure that they are able to pursue higher level math courses in high school as well the foundation Starts Now um again that's why these interim goals are looking at math achievement in grades four five and six so that our students will be successful um in seventh grade math again setting that foundation for high school Success as well I appreciate that response but it leads to another question you just said we need to protect instructional time yes how can we
127update these monitoring reports to provide the board with information as to how much instructional time our students are receiving in these particular subjects but we can certainly share how much instructional time our students are receiving um in math um but this is this this is more globally and thinking about making sure that we are not um asking our staff to do more that pulls them away from protecting their instructional time so for example when we set these goals as a board it sends a signal to the rest of the organization that these are our priorities as an organization and we collectively board and administration are going to do everything that we can to make sure that we stay focus on these goals and nothing else this is the major work of the district these are
128our priorities and we're going to do all that we can to protect the instructional time we're allocating our resources to support these goals and it ensures alignment across the organization and that is significant for us as a district with 113 schools we want to make sure that in all of our schools Across The District No Matter What school you're visiting we have clear understanding of what our board goals are and we have alignment we're aligning our resources to support those goals I propose that we investigate that further with the academic and Facilities alignment Committee just to understand where we might be losing instructional time in terms of requesting or requiring our Educators to be pulled in multiple ways or directions but also how uh State Testing our other requirements maybe taking that instructional time away
129from our students thank you for that I appreciate that thank you Dar Pierce all right um this time board member D um I will make a motion to um accept the reports as presented this evening as well as a written report from a superintendent dated February 28th 2024 for interim goals 2.1 to 2.3 which support our seventh grade math goal based on the OST second please call the Mr Simmons I I'm sorry what was the question accepting her report yes president be yes yes M yes Miss Engles yes vice president Dr Pierce yes Miss Reyes motion all right thank you thank you Dr Brown all right good evening Mr OK Conor how are you sir good evening uh I only have an announcement today and that is we have an audit and accountability meeting next
130Thursday March 28th 3700 South High Street s 825 at 3:30 pm thank you thank you sir good evening Miss van overy good evening have any I know you don't have a report you have any updates for us I have nothing to update tonight right thank you all right colleagues we will now move to item 9.1 a public hearing on Reemployment of retired employee Kevin zanowski uh pursuant to the Hovis code section 3309 345 the Columbus Board of Education gives notice that Kevin zanowski executive director of specialty audits who retired from Columbia City Schools effective January 31st 2024 is seeking employment with Columbus City schools as the executive director of specialty audits effective April 1st 2024 there is no one here to um speak on this hearing so this hearing is now closed all right colleagues
131we are going to now move down to our consent agenda which is items 10 or our first consent agenda items 10.1 to 26.7 um are there any items a member would like to have removed and voted on individually from the consent agenda yes discussion uh 16.3 Award of general contract for the Mifflin High School Press Box replacement um is there a is that a motion that yes for disc is there a second need a motion a second for the consent agenda sorry are you are you making a motion to pull it from the consent agenda not to pull it just for discuss so we need the motion and the second then to just so point of order president president a I'm sorry um I think to have the discussion we need to pull it from
132the consent agenda whether or not everybody consents and votes wholly to to have the discussion and need to be pulled from the consent agenda the consent agenda is a no discussion item so we will be pulling item 16.3 um is that a motion is President I I I would just can we clarify if our parliamentarian Dr Rous please because at every meeting I've been at as a board member we've always discussed the consent agenda items um without removing them from the consent agenda so if we're going to make a process change or a change in how we interpret our rules that that's fine but I would just like to have that conversation maybe not not right here on the spot and then I will also say in addition that the consent agenda is an agenda
133item and so I'm not sure why we wouldn't be able to have discussion about the consent agenda as a whole but I'd love to hear from our parliamentarian in looking at Robert's Rules and I would reference back to the wonderful memorandum put forth by board member Engles which did a very good job in the in the purest form of a consent agenda the consent agenda is not debated it's not a debatable motion it's simply an up or down motion yes we have done things differently in the past and while allowable it was perhaps not the cleanest way to do it and certainly as we as we continue to evolve as a board Robert rules would recommend the manner in which Bo mangles put forth in her U memorandum so the consent agenda if you wish
134to discuss an item or debate an item should be removed from the consent agenda for said discussion if there's no objection to removing said item for that discussion then you simply remove from the item and you can have a discussion after you vote and dispense with the consent agenda Madam president if we're not able to discuss the items on the consent agenda without having them removed first then we I'd have to find a workaround because there's important business to to be discussed yeah I I just want to Echo what Eric um what Mr Rous brought forward is that we have had a memorandum on this we I also texted every member of this board to make sure that everybody understood the rules um but that said if there is an item that a board member
135would like to remove from the consent agenda to discuss um they could make that motion right now to remove that item from the consent agenda and then those items are individually considered and uh up for disc discussion board president I'm sorry I I don't think I got your text when was it sent okay it's it's I've had conversation about we've talked about point of order talked about Parian Dr Rous the question I would just like to put 16.3 on the floor for discussion I do not think it merits being removed from our consent agenda just a discussion the you have a motion before you now for the consent agenda and I believe has there been a motion yet there's no motion yet the cleanest way to do this is to remove the item for from
136the consent agenda and have it discussed under the consent agenda it is simply an up or down vote okay oh um point of order Dr Rous if so if we're not able to consent the agenda but I could make a motion to amend the consent agenda and if that motion is seconded then the amendment would be discussable and then I'd be able to discuss I so if we're not able to do our practice which has been again for all year for the meetings I've been at um if we're not able to do our practice then I'm just going to have to make a motion and then we'd be able to discuss the items on the content agenda regardless no no I was a parliamentary inquiry for Dr rash the cleanest way to P is to
137name the items that you would like to pull to discuss we pull them from the consent agenda they are considered as individual items we have discussion when the item comes up and then the rest of the consent agenda is a yes or no Vote or can we go back to the the email communication or the text I'm a bit confused about what exactly that was I'm happy to post that everybody's talking over each other so we want to be mindful of one person speaking at a time so at this time Z Pi I will make a motion to pull 16.3 from our consent agenda for discussion Madam president point of order is a motion to pull from the consent agenda is that debatable that is not a debatable motion thank you all right there's a
138motion on the floor is there a second second please call the rooll M air yes Miss Engles yes vice president Dr peerce yes Miss Reyes Mr Simmons yes vice president be yes motion carried thank you so much for this colleagues I appreciate it so the point of discussion for 16.3 while I understand what happened to our Press Box at myin high school I am very concerned about the investment to replace it um the discussion is for us as the board to think about how are we determining the levels of Investments we are making in buildings knowing that we have the FMP process going on and then also how are we being mindful of these Investments understanding that board member Adair will be looking at equity and Athletics extracurricular activities as well as our arts and
139theater programs have kind of been lifted as one of these areas where we have inequities it was the discussion Point that's no I I'm just with I I will have something here here in just a moment but are you ready for me now okay go ahead that was the discussion point for us to to Really reflect about the Investments to think about the inequity um that currently exists in our district and how this act of us investing this much money in the placement of um mifflin's Press Box is signaling and communicating to our community any board members have anything they want to add Dr all right so that I just encourage us to be thoughtful thank you Dr Pier all right so at this time we are going to close discussion um you need to
140vote on point3 separately correct or do you had a motion to pull it from the consent agenda as its own item there now need to be a motion and a second for the item itself unless I miss that in going back and forth right that's what I'm saying is now that they've discussed it's been removed and discussed now they need to make a motion in a second to act upon it cor before we move into the consent agenda yes we just we just move in second the item itself and vote on it no you can vote on that issue individually so I'll make a motion to approve uh item 16.3 second please call the president buau yes Miss adir yes Miss Engles yes vice president Dr pece No Miss Reyes yes Mr Simmons no Source
141or not what I'm my computer is down so give me a to pull that back up point of order president I believe now we can move back to the consent agenda it's everything except for items all right so now well I think I think I think there's still a question pending about whether or not yeah if it's sole source it needs a five member vote correct I'm looking see what 16.3 says I don't does not it doesn't note here that it's a soul Source I'm just looking at what what's in front of a here not it's not indicated s source so pass so it does pass I thought it was it's listed as other because it's through Cooperative purchasing so I didn't know how that impacted it wanted to make sure before I'm determine whe
142pass or not if there's a better question about whether that's more of a legal question because that's a statutory provision less more so than it is a uh a rules provision if you will correct I don't see it marked in the legislation as such but if you certainly want to confer with Council before you call the result of that I understand the desire to do so yeah we can you may want to stand at ease or take a brief recess to to do so yeah because it does not indicate let's take AEF recess point of order we need a motion to recess if someone would like to offer a motion and they could be seconded but the for our rules motion to recess second without if if you say there if there's no objection you
143can go into recess then oh I I objected based on not following the rules so there was an objection but you made the second as well there's a second now so rather then we can call you can the treasurer can call the RO you can have the treasure call the role or without objection you can move into recess and there's also a lot of people talking out of order and right now we need to be very clear that unless you're called upon we are not yelling things out because we're confusing our team we're confusing me and we need to if we're going to do point of order we need to point wait until you're called on so we are we doing a fem minute recess is that what we have the motion do we need
144to call the role you had no objection Madam president you can call For Recess all right we are at we're going to do a five minute recess to check if that that um stands thank you e I know that kids feel or think that you're not valued everybody may not show you how much you're value but you are and always will be Rox and beard a sixth grade math teacher at Yorktown Middle School will be spending her summmer teaching at Sherwood Middle School she says this is the first time the district has held a kickoff summer experience professional development event and it did not disappoint I think this was very empowering for our teachers and then um our staff that's working together um we don't know each other so this is a chance that we
145get to collaborate and start building those relationships as well and talking about ideas that we want to see happen in the summer experience program this St really we have been really intentional about creating a professional learning experience that has teachers at our Center this year's summer experience includes Project based learning focusing on entrepreneurship family and consumer Sciences Fine Arts Sim and World languages and cultures and the reason why summer experiences are so critical is it provides the same content and cross-curricular learning process that happens during the school year students who for instance are participating in our stem path with Franken Park Conservatory they not only get the science social studies reading math right all of that content but they're able to actually use it in a very real world experience type of fashion summer experience
146starts June 20th and will take place over the course of four to six weeks we are grateful that Junior Achievement leaned in to support us in getting um Lavar Burton here to support our staff as a school district it is Mission critical for us to Leverage The Power of partnership today we have over 150 Community Partners that have joined hands with us to make sure that we are providing access to our families an opportunity to have a leg up and get those kids ready for school so that the first day they've got their bus pass they've got their school supplies and they got their backpack and they're ready to go this fair means the world to all of us it really brings our community together it really helps our families feel welcome and excited to
147come back to school and this is the momentum we need to carry out through the rest of the Year this event is actually amazing there are so many different partners here every healthare entity that we have is here and we're all working together to be able to put everybody in one place on a beautiful day like this and just be able to identify and help everyone that walks through these lines to be able to reach 10,000 13,000 people in one day uh is is more than what we can do throughout the entire year throughout Outreach the diversity of the folks that are here uh the amount of uh interest that people have in the Red Cross and all of our community Partners is really encouraging and inspiring there is strength and partnership and we want
148Columbus City Schools to know that we are a partner both in the classroom and outside of the classroom we share a common goal and that goal is Student Success and we want these students to succeed and we would love to be a part of their success as they go throughout this school year and school years to come just makes me so proud proud to be a Columbus City school graduate uh proud of all the great teachers and staff of Columbus City Schools that are out here making it happen and just really proud of all the partners that are here from after school programs all the city teams that are here uh really all kind of stacking hands and I think showing the kids and families of this community uh that we're all in this together
149and we're going to do everything in our power to make sure we have an awesome awesome school year Family Support is critical at ccs and we have a wealth of resources for our families the mission of the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department is to connect the residents of this community Through nature wellness and creativity it's all about being able to reach the students as they are out in the community as well as in the classroom the growth of this city is going to be incredible but we're not just interested in being bigger we're interested in being better and that's what today is all about to make sure our kids and our families are successful I think this is going to be the best school year ever it is our goal and a priority for us
150to support the whole child which includes the whole school and the whole Community we really want to provide those wraparound supports to our students and families and provide them with the resources that they need so that their students can come to school every day ready to learn and ready to [Music] succeed he [Music] for [Music] the city league is so important because it's just important to keep kids active and stay out the streets and do good it's kind of funny ton came into us this year but his dad I actually coached in Little League he played for my Columbus Day Stars coach Bell he mean a lot to me that's my dude and he actually out here doing this for us if it wasn't for him we wouldn't be here one of the things I
151think that separates ton is his work EIC and his his attitude you know uh he always wants to be first uh he he he he wins in the Sprints uh he he he uh he studies the film like he spends more time on the film than some of my coaches do you know he studies the game of football and he he's always asked him questions and uh you know I think that separates him a lot about his commitment to the game of football and and trying to be the best he can be he scored five touchdowns the first game you know I think he had seven touches and he had five touchdowns and uh and then the second game he had maybe four touches and he had three touchdowns and our third game he had
152two more touchdowns the other part that's that's exceptional about him is that is a pretty good defensive player me and my teammates we play a lot and it's all about fun for real that's all it's about having fun coming out with a good attitude positive energy no negative that's how we push each other you know has over over 3.5 or you know close to a 36 in in in the classroom so I was asking I said why do you why is it important for you to get good grades and he said because that's what they expected of me and my family without good grades you ain't going nowhere you need Education First to get in any school for any sports if you're going to be a student athlete you got to have good grades I
153want to go to college because not too many people in my family went to college and I just I want to be one of the people that go for not just to go to college just to say I went to college I want to go to college and prove something to a lot of people he's he's he's coachable he's always asking questions you know I give him Direction he follows it he listens he's definitely has the potential to be a uh a big time football player in the division one level I want to study think about entrepreneur I want to playing NFL but if that don't go well my backup plan was entrepreneur college coaches should recruit ton Burns clubs he has world class speed he's a culture changing type young man so you know
154he definitely going to bring the energy and the leadership and the commitment to your program so if you're out there you d1's d2os need to come seeing college coaches to recruit me because I'm a good teammate I'm good in the classroom my good education I work hard I'm I'm I'm [Music] nice the see students succeed is always a great feeling and seeing students succeed in part because of the things you have taught them is even better I guess the best part would be seeing students who don't fit in in other places find their niche in my class um that is such a deeply rewarding satisfying feeling here is just this Square saw one wave Mr van has been a great teacher he's probably one of the best message I've ever had he's I see I
155see myself in him sometimes because he's very he's very smart he picks up on stuff quick and he he's a very good explainer he he explains stuff very well and he's very patient with us but he also pushes us he's an amazing teacher like funny like relates to you really well uh Marcel Harris is one of my standout students um he's been working at wcbe as an intern this year and he has a lot of talent I've learned learn pretty much all I know right now with just production learning through music theories help me with that like I knew pretty much nothing when I came in now I feel confident in my skills somebody pick a category Mallet okay magent that does sound impressive uh he's an amazing teacher and it's like it's not even
156the debate he's coming here from junior year even through the pandemic he's done his most to teach us and feed as much information to us as possible like whether it be class works or just conversations like manto man like human to human he's just he's a great person and he cares for all the students in this class Mr van bber I love him so much I'm so glad I chose his class when I came here I don't know what I would where I would be at without him I've learned so much from him and I appreciate him and I'm going to miss him when I leave I mean just so many students just their normal daily work a lot of it is pretty incredible um my favorite things are when students Branch out they go
157above and beyond the class projects and they're working on their own music because that's where their passion really comes into play and I think they get the best results is when they apply what they learned in the class to their own material I'm able to give students um projects and experiences with recording with mixing with mastering with post production with audio for video audio for video games with live sound all of those things beat making songwriting and then they go on to become Professionals in that and they end up knowing much more than me which is the goal that's what I want to [Music] happen you should join this program because it's a just a great chance to learn and grow you have to start somewhere and as you continue to build you will become
158something there's just no doubt about it if you have a knack for being creative like if you're that kid that used to be in classes just you know tapping pins or just like beatboxing If Music and the process of creating music is is for you this is that program because we have a good blend of people it's such a great environment it's definitely my favorite part of the day um for times where even if I miss the first half of the day for like an appointment or something like that I I still want to be here for career center wanting to learn more about music and what it all really takes and even like the business aspect it's it's a a great experience it's not just with producing like Mr van gives you a lot
159of opportunities to learn got a lot of speakers come in and just he gives us a lot of internship opportunities like radio stations it's a really good opportunity to learn how to create your own music if that's something you're interested in also there's a lot of coding and Technology you should join the program because you're going to be around people who want to do what you want to do and have the same interest as you that's going to make you grow as a musician an artist and as a engineer e all right we are now back from uh recess um Treasurer vanover uh yes we have confirmed the motion did carry thank you all right um so we are going to go back to our consent agenda is there an item that a board member
160uh wish to pull for discussion or separate consideration board member uh Simmons 20.1 20.1 that's a motion is there a second second is there any [Music] objection right M I would have someone move in second 20.1 and then begin debate and discussion move the second it's been moved in second it's been moved in second to remove it from the consent agenda and now it should be removed in seconded as an item for debate discussion is there a motion to move the item for motion it's your item make the motion Mo to consider 20.1 for discussion motion to discuss motion to discuss motion to approve it'd be a motion to approve 20.1 move to approve 20.1 second discussion now discuss oh thank you so I I'm saying that you just need to recognize him you need
161to recognize whomever now so he's asking to be recognized point I'm sorry point I thought in order to remove something from the agenda it needed a a vote if there was there was no objection removing it from the consent agenda but once it's removed from the consent agenda it still needs to be moved in second in order to be considered and voted upon it's now an item that it just is on the agenda you still have to move it and second it to adopt it to approve it so we're we're in the discussion you're now if there's been a motion and second on that item so you're now to the debate discussion phase the president has then the authority to recognize whomever she recognizes I I wanted to highlight today on the um on the
162Personnel agenda and I will scroll back to it um you know we heard from our staff today about substitutes and about how the reduction to their staff will there's a couple they handed us this great information there's a couple things I will just read out without quality building substitute it makes the whole school dysfunctional it causes teachers to be stressed from worrying about what will happen to their students if we call off work also splitting students when another teacher is absent and having extra students in a class is a huge burden huge is all capitalized class sizes are already too large and having extra students in the class causes all kinds of logistical problems another one they know every student in the building and can enter any classroom with minimal disruptions to the learning process
163most days each building sub is utilized by an AB by an absence preventing the added pressure of covering students until excuse me adding added the with preventing the added pressure of covering student students during a planning period or having extra students in the classroom I want to connect this um back to my experience as a student you know there are a lot of times where um a teacher did have to use their planning period to cover our class or where we were sent you know a temporary sub that um didn't have familiality with the building or us as students um and wasn't really qualified to be there to be quite honest um from the perspective of the student experience and the reason why I raised this on our personnel agenda today is there are a
164couple positions within the payroll department of the treasurer's office um it sounds like pre previously we had one person managing 12 people now that one person manages three people and then maybe one or two of those three people manages two or three people um one of those people manages only one person um and I wanted to highlight you know we heard about administrative blo our community knows we're topheavy I know we're topheavy we need to make reductions to our central office St and so I just have a lot of concern that we are um moving forward with positions and why I don't have any issue with the individuals but we are you know spending our our community's valuable dollars to pay people um to to manage two or three people or one person and then
165to be managed by another person who's just managed by another and so you know if I I'm just curious as to and this is my question and and you know board president if you permit it and the inter room Treasurer would like to respond that'd be great if not I can always follow up after this board meeting and then share the information at the next board meeting um but I'm just confused as to what challenges in the payroll department um were these positions these additional supervisory and manorial positions attempting to solve and I'm curious how the operations of that department has been improved since they were added again you know we went from one personing one person managing 12 people to what now if I understood the information from the inter room treasur um correctly
166it's one person who manages three and then what each of those three people manages two or three other people and then one of those three people actually only manages one person um it's a lot of layers it's a lot of layers to the onion um and I just wonder is that really the best investment for our district or would a better investment be in our building substitutes that we heard tonight or maybe the other hundreds of positions that will be ended at the end of this year when those Esser dollars run out um and so again I just want to reiterate that um what we heard tonight was absolutely true we do have administrative float um um and there are far too many times where we make the decision to um hire additional staff I
167was looking through the Personnel agenda $104,000 $114,000 and again I just wonder what those challenges were that we were attempting to overcome that would require adding um one two three layers of management where again prior it was one person one person managing 12 people I've also heard from other folks um you know there's one department where um there's five supervisors a deputy director and a director um you know we have a a school where uh all um K through 12 is all Co located in one building but it's organized as a separate elementary middle and high school which means there's um a separate I believe a separate principal and assistance for that building um these dollars would be more valuably spent in the classroom on the people we've heard are the people who matter to
168our students and so I encourage my colleagues to um look through the information that was provided to us today at the board table um because these this is not the best place for our community's dollars and with that I have nothing else to discuss Madam president I would like to make a point of personal privilege after this motion to clarify um some of my comments before we recessed anybody else um so thank you for bringing this um matter do I have I'm sorry yes go ahead do I have okay thank you appreciate it uh president ver um while this um discussion is related to 20.1 um I I think it's important to note that when we are discussing our human resources and our Personnel that those do tend to be separated in terms of our
169academic services and our human resources I would like to note and Dr Chapman please correct me if I'm wrong that um today's Personnel files do show the appointment and hire of substitute teachers for our buildings for various classified subjects and so I would like to thank those individuals that did come and give public com comment I would like to thank our Administration for continuing to put dollars there not negating um the points that you are making in terms of do we need to be more mindful with our SP yes we do but I do not want to conflate this idea that um Administration or administrative was the term bloating um is um impacting and also uh affecting our direct instruction to to students we do see efforts on the part of our Administration on the
170part of our human resources department to ensure that we are hiring classified individuals to be in the classroom again not saying that we are 100% um firing on all cylinders there's definite room for improvement but please note that tonight's agenda items also include the hiring and appointment of um substitutes teachers instruction AIDS coaches and athletic directors anybody else thank you um Madam president I do want to just share a quick story um that from last year when I I was running to be a board member um so I I was up at the the early vote election center one of our um past colleagues who's no longer with us um you know was campaigning for the levy and a voter said to her um you know I'm not sure if I'm going to vote for
171it you know the district's very topheavy um and that board member who's no longer here said well you know we actually we did a study and what we found was that comparatively we're actually not too topheavy and um you know we don't think it's impacting student instruction um and and this voter um looked at that board member in the eyes and she said you need to have even less than what you do um and so I just wanted to share that that story um that's the community's comments um that's what we heard from our our um staff who came today to speak and as someone who um once stood on that side of the room and looked this way and now gets to sit here and look that way I want to Echo those comments
172because um it is true that we we invest too many dollars in the wrong places and and that's the reality of this District that's the reality of the board that's the reality of the administration and there are places where our resources could be better invested and that includes um personnel and again I would just ask and I will send this question to our inimum treasurer office or of course that the board president um would entertain it and she' like to provide an answer now I would just ask what challenges or obstacles were attempting to solve by adding um three layers of management to a group of I think about 12 total people um you know going from again that one person who managed 12 people to now one person manages three and then each of
173those three manages two to three and then but one of them only really manages one person so I just want to uplift that and reiterate that and say thank you to all of our staff who came um to speak to us at the at the board table today those substitutes are absolutely vital and I understand it might not be a one: one ratio um but there are certainly positions and space um for this district for this board to better allocate um our resources or which not actually our resources our community's resources because we just hold them in and Trust for our community that that is our charge um but these resources are our community's um resources at the end of the day absolutely thank you board member Simmons um interim Treasurer vanover is there anything
174you would like to say or add sure just to clarify one man one per payroll manager man 12 staff yes we are adding one layer of management and each individual person will manage at least three people in one case there's going to be potentially four um the challenges that we're trying to resolve with this layer of administration is several several issues one is trying to navigate and manage and validate the information related to new items included in our collective bargaining last two collective bargaining agreements in that come out in payroll that we have to then collect the data we have to verify it we have to get it paid timely um as a result of a lot of situations that we've had as it relates to that as well as other issues we have had
175situations where we've had to have people work out of class because they're as an opsy member they cannot do certain things which is part of the need for the administrative role um and again the ultimate goal is to make sure all these teachers that we're supporting and that we want to have on staff are being paid accurately And Timely and that is our main focus and this helps to reorganize our office in such a way that we can better accomplish that and do it faster and better so I don't know if that provides all the answers that you're looking for um but that that is that is that was what our goal was when we started working with um HR to design how that office needed to be restructured to help better provide that service
176uh thank you um miss vanover all right any other discussion on this item no I appreciate the super I mean the um treasurer's response to that again as it relates to the specific five positions that are listed in this personnel file again I just want to uplift the uh work that our academic team is doing to recruit and ensure that we have qualified um Educators in our building um and I uh continue to encourage I guess our entire board to think about how we are in investing the money uh from our community in our district in our students in our entire um personnel and staff individuals can't do this alone right our Educators need administrators our administrators need Educators and our students need them all so we need to balance it thank you thank you
177Vice President Pierce I Echo those sentiments do we need a motion to put this back we we already have a motion in a second to vote okay so now we can do the full consent agenda great well we need to vote on item 20.1 all right so we need a a motion we have the motion in the second we just need to vote madere Yes Miss Engles yes vice president Dr Pierce yes Miss Reyes yes Mr Simmons No president Vera yes motion carries thank you all right so now we will move to um approve items 10.1 to 26.7 the consent AG consent agenda is there a motion to approve motion to approve second any discussions objections please call the role Miss Engles yes vice president Dr pce yes Miss Reyes yes Mr Simmons yes president
178bura yes missir yes motion carries all right and we just have one more consent agenda items 28.1 to 28.12 is there a motion to approve the agenda consent agenda motion second second any uh discussion or objections seeing none please call the role vice president Dr Pierce yes Miss Reyes yes yes Mr Simmons yes president verra yes Miss adir yes Miss Engles yes motion carries thank you madam I would like to make a point of personal privilege we yes thank you I just wanted to um before we had recess um board member Eng Les I did get your memo um I misunderstood what you said I thought you were saying you know we got that memo roughly a month ago and we did have a conversation about discussion and voting and my understanding is that our
179practice in terms of how we voted would be changing um I didn't realize that our practice in terms of how we would um be discussing things had changed and so when you brought that up I thought that maybe there was an additional memo I started looking through my phone and so you absolutely did send me that memo you did um we did talk about it via email text over the phone absolutely did so I just wanted to clarify that um point I just didn't realize that again you know it's been a month I think we've had two board meetings since that and I didn't realize that our practice in terms of discussion would also be changing we talked about it as a potential I just didn't realize that that was actually going to um happening
180today so I just wanted to clarify that um and and put that out there for everyone thank you all right so we now move into executive session um Dr Vice President Pierce has a motion I feel like we need to do a mindful meditation moment before we go to ex we'll do that when we get feel like we need to do some box breathing how many of our students are doing box breathing I need y'all to do some box breathing can you just read the it is recommended that the Board of Education recess into executive session per section 12122 G1 of the Ohio revised code to consider the appointment employment dismissal promotion demotion or compensation of a Public Employee or official or the investigation of charges or complaints against a Public Employee per section 12122
181G3 to confer with an attorne for the public body concerning disputes involving the public body that are the subject of pending or imminent Court action and Pur section 12122 G4 to prepare for conduct or review negotiations or bargaining sessions with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment that's a motion there's a second member Rees please call the RO Miss yes Mr Simmons yes president ver yes M Mr or Miss Eng looking Co you call me Miss Engles sorry I said Mr I was looking at Cole's name um Miss Engles said yes vice president Dr Pierce yes motion carries all right well before we adjourn we we're uh we won't come back televis but I want to thank the team the staff everyone from International all the students uh thank
182you for having us today thank you for the band that was playing at the beginning at the meeting uh we truly enjoyed the experience so have a good night thank you