Rochester Board of Education Public Speaker Forum & Board Work Session | September 16, 2025

001Good evening and welcome to the Rochester Board of Education speaker forum. Today is September 16, 2025 and this evening we will open the speakers forum to hear from a few folks who have signed up to speak with us. I do want to read um the eligible speaker topics really quickly or briefly. Uh the board of education values meaningful input from our community on matters under consideration such as feedback uh that can directly inform our discussions and decision-making on matters impacting our school district and its community. In alignment with policy 2300 board bylaws, the board will host a monthly speaker form dedicated solely to receiving public comments related to items listed on the agendas of the committee meeting. Monthly work sessions, business meetings, and other public board meeting agendas established since the last speaker forum. And

002so with that, I am going to call our speakers that we have signed up being two. Our first speaker for this evening is Miss Maria Gonzalez. >> Good evening. Uh I'm here supposed to talk about the budget but I'm changing become my conversation because uh issue going on on Freddy Thomas and uh fightings are going around. So I just wanted to get some help in Freddy Thomas in the morning and in when school is over. Freddy Thomas since it started they've been having fights outside by sio. The police has been involved and the kids are bullying others and fighting. So the police have been called so they can break the fights and stuff like that. and we need to do something about it because somebody can get hurt. So I I really need so they

003can check that out because he's too early to have already problems at Freddy Thomas. Okay. Also I have problem with uh like I tal to you Miss Simmon they haven't fixed uh the problem for my goddaughter. She still have the problem in number 50 school and that's a there's a mess in there going on. So I really need so you maybe you can do it yourself because I don't know what's going on. They giving her the runar around runar around and she comes here to the the board meet not the board meeting but the the building and they give her another story. So you have to you know she came to me to crying. So, you know, I'm just letting you know more. And I told her to be here in the meeting today, but

004she needs to work, you know. So, if she don't work, how you know, you going to take care of her kids, especially with the one with autism, that he needs meds. So, and she really needs to help with that. So, that's all my I have to talk today. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Gonzalez. I do want to recognize that Superintendent Roser is currently commuting from another meeting um with plans to have been here. So, he will get that update as well and I want to acknowledge that. Our next speaker is Miss Lori Thomas as well. Good evening. In my research, I found that the 202526 state aid to the Rochester City School District is 843,736,370, an increase of 8.92% from last year. This accounts for almost 77% of the approved budget. Google tells us

005that New York state school districts spend between 880 and 935 million on payroll and compensation, leaving just 165 to $220 million to be spent on educating children. Dividing those numbers by the number of approximately enrolled students, that comes to approximately 8 to 11,000 per child. That means that after all the bills are paid, the district has $8 to $11,000 per child left over for their education. And that 8 to 11,000 per child is not enough to adequately meet the educational needs of every child in the district. Are we the people to believe that it is impossible to provide all of our children with an excellent education for 8 to $10,000 per child? USA provides a government report of RCSD spending. It states nearly $15 million is spent on instruction year yet nearly 86% of our

006children are failing. It says more than 8 million is spent on support services yet we have a 66% absentee rate. 476.6 million is being spent on other expenses. What other expenses are being used in support of our children's failure? It seems that none of these expenditures are being utilized efficiently or effectively. This speaks volumes about a board that would approve a budget that offers no solutions to their failure, but only asks for more money to perpetuate it. The money you are asking for does not come from the state. It comes from the people. The people who pay federal, state, and local taxes. We the people supply the funding you have misused to miseducate our children for far too long. No more. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Thomas. And with no further speakers, that concludes

007our speakers uh forum for this evening with the Rochester City School District. Um at this time, we will go into a brief two to three minute I'll say three minute recess um so that we can transition to our board work session. Thank you to our viewing audience for your patience. We are returning the B Rochester Board of Education for our September 16th work session. Um this work session is taking place with the council of the great city schools. Um our facilitators uh Dr. Ray Hart and Cindy Ellburn will be engaging us this evening um to look at grounding for goals and guard rails. Uh this is ongoing work u through the Rochester Board of Education to ground us in and board goals and to um with the goal of becoming better governance individuals and more

008collectively a better governance board. So I'm going to stop before I say the wrong thing and they catch me and I'm going to turn the mic over to our facilitators for this evening. >> Uh you are perfect. Thank you. Um, President Simmons and Commissioners, uh, Superintendent Roser. Uh, thank you all for letting us join you this evening. Uh, Ray Hart, I am the executive director with the Council of the Grey City Schools and I am joined by Cindy Ellburn who is our management manager of governance services. Uh, we'll do a quick recap and then we're going to put you to work um, right away. So, uh, just as a quick recap, uh, as you know, we share uh, student outcomes don't change uh, until adult behaviors change. And we're going to go quickly through um

009and what we may need to do is make sure. There we go. Um and what we're going to do is quickly kind of recap how we got here. Um and then we'll dive into a conversation tonight that will lead us into finalizing uh the conversation about our goals and guardrails. And if you recall um earlier this summer, we shared with the board uh just kind of the structure of what accountability in a school system looks like. Uh we talked about the community first of all. Uh and this is the community's school district. It is the Rochester City Community School District. Uh that community elects schoolboard members to represent them. Uh which is your role. Uh you as schoolboard members hire a superintendent to manage the day-to-day operations of the district. Uh your your role as

010schoolboard members is a role of governance. Uh the superintendent's role is a role of management. We'll talk about what that structure looks like in a m moment. Uh and then you've got your district staff who are primarily responsible for all the support systems and educating uh the children and the scholars of the community. Uh what uh you also have are the parents, students uh and staff at the school level as well uh who support uh the district and uh so the community uh are the owners of the school district. uh you represent the owners as schoolboard members and we'll talk about what that representation looks like tonight. Uh and then the customers are those who you are providing services to. Uh in representing the community as board members, your primary responsibility is represent the vision

011and the values of the community. And that is primarily what we'll talk about this evening is the vision and the values. And we had you go out uh do community listening. We also pulled information from your prior community listening sessions when you had your strategic plan um done when your superintendent went out and did community listening uh when you did your superintendent search uh and then the community listening that you just did. We pulled all of that information together to share a report with you that we'll go through in just a moment uh to how to support you in really creating the vision and the values for the district. And then you've already translated that vision into goals. Uh we'll spend some time tonight, later tonight, not initially, uh reviewing those goals. Uh but we'll

012start with the values uh that you've uh observed and really divi defining what the values are of the community and then translating those values into guard rails. And then from that process, um having listened to the community for that, the board will now create um the guard rails and then we'll review the goals that you've already created. uh and those guiding principles will become the foundation for what you share with the superintendent for what the community expects of it school board members. So, we just wanted to start here with kind of a recap of where you where you are. This process is the foundation for board work and we'll go through uh this full cycle. This actually this cycle actually goes through the superintendent, staff, parents, and then back up to the board in terms

013of feedback and monitoring. and we'll talk about that uh as well a little later this evening. So with that uh just to uh wrap up um our core beliefs uh that we've talked about throughout this process is that school systems exist for one reason and one reason only and that is to improve outcomes for students. Um and the role of the board is to represent that vision and values of the community. Uh and finally uh the last thing we'll share before we uh go into the next step of the process is that as a board um the work that we're doing now will help you establish a focus uh for the district where as a board you're focused on the governance work of the district which is focusing on the student outcomes and what we

014call student outcome goals which you uh will will draft and develop tonight. Uh and then also the guard rails, those will translate into the directives that you give to the superintendent and what you'll monitor from the superintendent uh as you go. Uh so with that, I'll turn things over to my colleague um Cindy who will uh take us through the next phase of the process and actually get you working uh initially on on the goals. >> All right. Yeah. So, um, congratulations on completing your community listening, uh, campaign and thank you for doing that work. Uh, what you have in front of you, you have a few different documents in front of you, but one is the RCSD community listening synopsis report. Um if we could all just take a few minutes to scan through

015that report on our own and then um would like to open up with just some reflections on that, reflections on the process of community listening. Um and uh what you notice from what has emerged as far as themes uh for vision and values. Mhm. Mhm. Thank you. As you're reading through um this synopsis, is there anything that stands out? Anything um anyone would like to share about the process about >> Yeah. Um, so one thing I'm I'm looking at is the comparison of the listening sessions from the board and how that translates to what we saw with the superintendent search feedback and um other sessions. Um I see an overlap or an alignment more or less around some of the um key areas like literacy, communication and so on. And then I see some other

016themes that have come out. So definitely some buckets and themes that we can pull from. I'm happy to know that we will have the opportunity to make community less listen leing sessions more regular um as we have already provided some of the feedback as far as this round was just getting started and so we didn't have what I would believe to be representative of the community voice with the same individuals showing up a handful of folks voices valued however not fully representative of the community. So with continued effort and maybe trust building um we may begin to see that but the alignment was there. >> Yeah. Thank you. Yes, Commissioner Griffin. >> Yes. Thank you. Um I totally agree with what the uh President Simmons was saying. And I also would like to add when

017it comes to the community listening sessions, I believe um that we should have it more at a recreation center and where we can speak to and see a lot of adults coming in at certain times. Making sure that the adults, the parents I should say or any adults are could be present because the hours that we had these community listening sessions were not conducive to working people, working families. Um that was what what I when I went to my my particular event. um community listening session. It was one parent there and she was on her lunch break and she was fairly young mother, very appreciative that she even made it there and um she has uh three kids, young kids and she's very very knowledgeable about what's going on in the district >> and she's

018very hands-on. Unfortunately, her friends couldn't come. >> Yeah, >> she was the only one that could come. So, she was the one for everyone. So in in the future listening sessions, we need to make sure that we're having it at a time that is conducive to the parents. Like we have the Boys and Girls Club, we have uh we have the recreation centers on Ben I mean on um number nine school, we have Lewis Street Center, we have Gardner, you know, we have all the the YMCA on Thursday. We have a lot of different areas. So we might we have to make sure that when we're having these community listening sessions, we're having at the best time where we can speak to a lot of the parents involved. Thank you. >> Thank you for your

019observations and this is definitely um definitely moment um continuous improvement is is the name of the game and as you keep note of those types of things as the board plans further community listening sessions, those are things definitely to keep in mind um when the board does that work. Commissioner Mallaloy. >> Thank you. Yeah, similar to what other people have said so far, um I appreciated that we have engaged in this process. I'm looking forward to having more community listening and making that a regular part of our repertoire as as a board. Um, in terms of what I found, well, the sample sizes though, uh, it's not adequate sampling from the people who showed up and I was very appreciative to have, um, that participation. Um, but we need to make sure that we're reaching

020more people um, from the broader community uh, so that we can get those sample sizes much larger and more reflective of the community that we represent. Um, but I really appreciated the many people who came out uh and you know spent time listening to us and as we went through scripts you know that was that was a little uncomfortable uh for myself. I I I'm used to as a teacher more improvisation and so having to follow a set script I'm sure it's something I'll become more comfortable with. >> Um the information was great but it it definitely there was a learning curve uh for me. One of the thing I noticed though is the overlap similar to what President Simmons said between some of the other community listening that took place um during our uh

021superintendent search with the firm and then also the previous strategic plan process. Um literacy seems to be the most common theme. um having basic skills, arith arithmetic, uh reading, writing. Um I I was surprised to see that that social emotional learning is right up there as well for for many people. Um and I don't think that we want to lose sight of that. >> But thank you. >> Thank you. Thanks for those observations, Commissioner Santiago. >> Thank you. Um I believe that the community sessions uh were were good. I think the takeaways for me is just the set questions. Um I will like to say that you know before this community listening tour there were initiatives you know to to have the community listening sessions um in different ways that that we had we have

022had them. Um and so some of these uh answers were answers of course that that we've heard in the past but I think the questions and the set questions were good questions. Um, I don't believe that a script is needed to be honest with you and I'll say that upright. It doesn't seem authentic to me. Um, I think that set questions is something that that is good to to have. Um, and I know that we're all trying to walk and move on one accord and one message. Um, but I don't think that having a script is the best way to do that. Um, but that I think also that there's different ways that we can expand as far as how we're engaging uh more than just they're sitting in ta at tables and we're talking

023to them and they're talking back and there's nothing else that can be said. And so I just think that there's better ways to engage um the community. I think that there's um there's ways to get the answers without the script, without the format. Um, but I think that the questions were focused, which is something that is important in comparison to possibly some of our last community sessions. And so that's a takeaway for me. Um, but everything else I just think we could do more, you know, energetic to make sure that we're listening to the community. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Thanks for those observations. And again, those are all things that are um valuable for you all to keep track of as you develop and um further listening down the road and and

024format and discuss at later times when you when you go out again. >> Yeah, Commissioner Patterson. >> Yes, thank you. Um you know, personally, I love the script. It kept us, you know, um, all the commissioners um, in line with what we should be saying and what we should be asking and we didn't go off on our own, adopt our own questions or change the questions uh, in a format that might not be understandable to, you know, the general public. So, you know, I like the format. Um, I thank you for putting it together. Um, I like the venue, um, that I was part of. um within the community. Um the only thing I didn't and again I'm in agreement with my colleagues is that there wasn't definitely definitely enough participation you know from the

025community. So you know the community often complains but when they have an opportunity to step up and voice their opinion in an organized fashion they don't show up. So we had maybe two or three people you know and and the the two I participated in um and then as a matter of fact uh one the second one um one individual left and the other two I had already seen at my first you know one. So it's like wait a minute I've already documented you know we've already documented these responses you know why are you back again you know so um again I think that needs to be clear you know attend one you know session um you know so it doesn't skew the results um so that would be my advice uh you know maybe

026we didn't do a good job um our PR people you know putting it out there that hey these these listening sessions or or whatever you want to call them um that you know here's you know where they are here's the times dates and things like that so we have to take a look at ourselves too as uh RCSD and say did we do a good job in publicizing you know these events >> yeah thanks thank you for those observations again um this is I I appreciate um these reflections and I think uh keeping keeping this in mind moving forward as the board does this work because this is definitely board work. Um will help you all continue to to improve offering those making sure that you have greater and greater community involvement. Um all of

027those things. So thank you. Anyone else? Um I I'll last and say that you know um this reflecting it also speaks to our responsibility to be responsive to requests as well because I think this was supposed to have happened several several months ago like back in 2024. And so giving that recognition um and effort from from the board clerk to get us going and and thus including myself right not getting responding with times and things of that nature brought us all the way to this date and uh so I do want to acknowledge that and then it was kind of we've got to do it and they did their best to get it out and so I think with that um recognizing how we move forward um will allow us to push this um the

028way it needs to be. >> Definitely. And again, um this is this is a matter of continuous improvement. And I'm glad you said moving forward because that's what we're going to um do. You have information in front of you. Um we can we can continue moving through the process. Um, and as you, as I mentioned, as you continue, uh, making community engagement and outreach part of a more regular part of your repertoire, um, you can continue to improve how that how that's done, um, how it's advertised, how you welcome and, um, invite people into giving their input. Uh, those are all those are all great things. Um, and with Let's get started with the goal or with actually we're going to start with guardrails. We always say goals and guardrails, but we're going to we're

029going to start um with guard rails first. Um so if you recall what what do you all recall about guard rails? Do you remember those the format of how we write guard rails? >> The the superintendent shall not. >> Yes, they are shall nots. um they put boundaries around super the superintendent um what the non-negotiable values of the community that need to be protected while the superintendent is working toward accomplishing the goals. Um, so what you'll be looking at as you go through this process are those values, the non-negotiables, um, from the community listening synopsis and thinking about what emerges as the those top guard rails to reflect in guardrail policy. um one of the other items that you have in front of you as we go through this process because you're going to do

030a little bit of work on your own. Then we're going to pair up and then um get into two small groups and then we'll do uh then we'll get uh get some stuff on the chart paper um so that we can start as a whole board so you all can have the conversations around narrowing down to those one to five and we recommend one to three guardrail policies. Um so one of the things and I you'll have a guardrail drafting worksheet in front of you um which kind of tells the steps it does tell it doesn't kind of it does tell the steps of brainstorming guard rails. So just to start off with an example, the first thing the first step that we want to do is to isolate the value. So get clear about

031the community value that you're trying to protect and narrow it down to one word. Um so for example, is bullying a community value? bullying. Would you call that a community value or an issue? >> An issue. So, what might if someone um talks about bullying? What is that underlying value that >> social emotional well-being? >> Social social emotional well-being may be one. What might be another? >> Safety. safety. Yeah, let's let's take the safety um example. So then the second step we have that isolated value of safety. Um then we want to scope the value. So what are one or two adjectives to clarify the scope of the value? So how would you further define that value of safety? Protecting the students, protecting >> student safety. >> Yeah. >> Yep. That could be one way

032of doing it. >> Safe classroom. >> Classroom environment. >> Yep. Safe classroom environment. So, safety in the classrooms. Classroom safety. >> Safety outside of school. Outside of um school property, safety outside of school property. I mean, so would that be the same as safe school culture? >> Safe school culture might go into psychological safety. You might go into the social emotional safety. You might go into physical safety. You might go into staff safety. There's all sorts of ways you could describe safety, but you're want you'll want to think about what you heard from the community as you do that. >> So, you say we basically all said similar things about the safety of children. So I mean we're it's all still the same governed under the same umbrella. Correct. Or is there something else you're

033trying to get at? I'm just trying to >> I'm just trying to give examples for you all to brainstorm because pretty soon you're going to brainstorm on your own. So we just want to make sure that um each step is clear. >> Okay. >> So that that was step two, scoping the value. >> Um then you would create your draft guard rail. Uh and on that sheet there are some sentence stems that you could uh use. For example, the superintendent will not allow conditions that harm insert scoped value that will not harm student psychological safety. Um, or the superintendent will not make decisions that harm uh staff physical safety, whatever whatever that scoped value is. and that and um so that's that's what you would do next. Then the Is everybody any questions so far

034on how that's all working? Um once you've written the written down your one to five each each of you individually is going to write down one to five one to five values one to five scoped values and then um write those samp those draft guardrail statements. Then you just reflect and see if any editing needs to happen for more clarity um to better match the community value you're thinking of that you're trying to protect. And you can also then step four is choosing the level of specificity. Um and there's some examples there. You could use broad statements like major decision or more defined statements that such as decisions that impact more than 10% of the budget or impact more than 10% of schools. So, um you'll just have some latitude to to edit to the

035amount of specificity that you believe is improp appropriate based on that community value and the listening synopsis and what you heard. and that's where we'll start and then we'll get an um so we're going to start by you filling out that front and back worksheet. So you'll go through steps one, two, 3A, 3B, and four on the front and back of that first worksheet. Um and Dr. Roser and state monitor you are also welcome to participate uh and and draft so that you can be part of the discussions. It's ultimate these will ultimately be the boards um but that might help lend to some more robust discussion to have have additional participation. You can write up to five, but you don't have to. Any questions? Go ahead and and write. And if you have a

036question come up, just let us let us know. Raise your hand or yell or whatever. >> What was the question? >> Oh. Okay. Okay. And then this one. Just just one thing I wanted to mention those sentence stems on the um community listening or on the excuse me on the sample guardrails. There might be some a different way of writing it that makes more sense depending on what your value is that doesn't quite fit. So as long as it's a thou shalt not statement, you don't have to use those. Those are just samples. Uh so as you uh start to fill in your blanks, uh don't forget uh move on to step two, step three, uh and then step four. And if you have questions as you go, if you have a question about um

037one of the guard rails that you've written down, please feel free to let us know. So, uh step one, identify the value in a single word and then move on to step two, step three, and step four. And you'll finish uh with one to five guard rails. Damn it. Just went down like flies. Are we turning this in? like the paper or like just our thoughts and ideas >> when you say that we're sharing it. >> This is my paper. >> Okay. Just making sure. >> Yeah. Thank you. It's kind of like when my students ask me if something's getting graded, like, "Do I have to turn this in? Can I make a comment by any chance? Um, I'm struggling a little bit as I just reread what I've written. I feel like it's way

038too broad and I don't I know we don't want to give directives with a guard rail but sometimes things can be so broad that they are open to multiple interpretations just depends on who you ask. So how can we be sure that it's reflective of the values that we've collected now from our community? >> So good question. And there's two ways that we'll handle that in the process. The first of which is uh what we're about to do now is a process where you'll first of all pair up and then you'll get together as a board to think through rewrite wordsmith to some extent not extensively but wordsmith to some extent the guard rails that you've created so that you hone in on exactly what the community what you all collectively feel the community shared.

039Uh the second part of that process u which is an important part of the process once you've finalized your guard rails you'll turn those guardrails over to the superintendent his team to interpret what that guard rail means. And so when the superintendent and their team interpret they're going to create measure measures for that will allow the board to know here's the progress we're making in accomplishing the guardrails that you set. If those measures don't meet your expectations, you can go back and revise the language. So, there's multiple steps in the process that will allow you to revise the guardrail to get to a place where the board is comfortable, the superintendent is comfortable that we're on the same page and here's how we're going to move forward. >> And that work that the superintendent and

040his team is working on. That would be the creation of those interim guard rails in response. Yep. >> They're interim guardrails and then they'll create interim goals as well. Okay. >> Thank you. Everyone about set? Need a few more minutes. Need some more time. >> Okay, we we'll give you >> We'll wait. We'll give you more time if you all still working. So, we'll give you more time. Did that answer your question? All right. If you're still working, uh, we'll let you go ahead and and continue working. Uh, you'll work with your partners and with your pair. So, don't don't panic. Um, if you haven't gotten through, uh, all of them, we're going to go ahead and, uh, partner you up and we're going to play musical chairs. Uh, so we're going to, uh, mix

041things up a little bit. Where did We we got you. You're good. Um so a couple of things. The first of which is um um and he stepped out of the office out of the office out of the room. Uh but we'll have um Commissioner Patterson. Uh we'll have you partner um with uh Dr. Al Mr. Alisa. Uh so we'll have you partner with him. So you can come join him down here. Uh then we'll have a couple other partners. If you want to stay uh up at the deis uh near your seats, that's fine. Uh if not, you can move uh down here. Don't move yet. I'll give you your partners' names first and then we'll play musical chairs. Uh so Commissioner Lebron and Commissioner Elliott, uh you all will work together as a

042pair. Um, Commissioner Patterson, I just shared, uh, Superintendent Roser, uh, Commissioner Griffin, and Commissioner Mallaloy, you will work together as a triad. So, it'll be three of you. Uh, and then Commissioner Santiago and Commissioner Simmons, you all work together as a pair. And the first thing we want you to do is, uh, as your pair, each of you has written down uh, anywhere from one to five guard rails. in your pairs. We want you to narrow and you want we want you to talk to each other about what you've written down how you've uh translated the um values into uh guard rails. And we want you to come up with four as a pair. No more than four. So let's say for example each of you wrote five different things and you've got 10 different

043um guard rails. You've got to narrow those 10 down to four. Does that make sense to everyone? So as a partner, you and your partner need to take and narrow the guard rails you've written. Narrow those from 10 to four. You can revise language. You can combine language with your partners. Um you so you mentioned earlier, is my language too broad? Is my language too specific? Uh take the language of your partners if they have something similar. Uh it's pretty easy um to start this process by saying uh what are our similarities? And then once you get your similarities, narrow those down and then decide on the others. So, you'll narrow the guard rails that you've written down down to four uh as a pair. Everyone got your partners? Everyone good? All right. Um you

044can play musical chairs, meet with your partners. If two of you want to come down uh to um this uh deis down below, you can. Or you can just bounce around up top. It doesn't matter. Um, as a matter of fact, if you wanted to go one group at a time and have you call out one, you can leave. You're fine. >> No, I'm bring it over here. I can't see that. >> All right. Uh, we'll go ahead and, uh, we'll go ahead and get started. Uh, as you might imagine, as some of you discussed, um, there are a couple of things that are important about not only this process, uh, oh, that's not good. Uh, there are a couple of things that are important about not only this process, uh, but all the the

045process of setting goals as well. And that is, uh, if everything is important, then what? >> Then nothing is important. If everything is important, then nothing is important. So one of the critical things for the board is to make sure that the board is narrowing his focus. Yeah, I that's why I shared earlier. But if uh if everything is important, nothing is important. Um if the board uh now can't narrow uh the expectations of the superintendent, and I say can't, you will because we're about to go through that process, but narrow the expectations of the superintendent uh so that you are limited to one to five goals and one to five guard rails. What you are doing as a board is you're doing the hard work of figuring out what are the things that are

046the highest priority. So what are those things that are highest priority as a collective group and then as a collective um we will narrow those things down. What we're going to do now is we're going to go to each group and we're going to ask you to read off one and only one of the things that you've written on your uh on your chart. And we'll do it one group at a time. What I will ask is if you have something similar to what was written by your colleagues, please share that similarity um at that time. So let's say that someone shares something that's their number one, but it was your number three. Share it. And what we'll do is word smmith them together and we will add them to the chart. Um and so

047we're going to take what each of you has individually and we're going to narrow them down to a set that you you'll then as a board deliberate on. Does that make sense to everyone? All right. Uh, so it doesn't matter who begins. So I'll ask you who would like to which group would like to go first. All right. So, uh, Commissioner Patterson, your hand was first. Uh, go ahead and read one of yours. Uh, and actually, if you you all at microphones, so you're all good. >> Uh, we came up with the superintendent shall not make decisions that impact student outcomes without consulting with its stakeholders. So, the superintendent, before you write it, before you write it, uh, the superintendent shall not make decisions, Cindy, hold, hold on before you Okay. Uh, the superintendent shall

048not, um, make decisions that impacts >> student outcomes without >> consulting with its stakeholders >> without consulting with stakeholders. So, uh, does anyone have anything similar to that? >> So, you all have something similar. You all have something similar. What What did you have that was similar? The superintendent will not be major districts in stakeholders that represent the school home and community. >> Okay. So, the superintendent shall not make any decisions uh major decisions. All right. Any major decisions that don't represent the say minor that don't m don't uh >> represent the school >> the school home and broader community. I just wanted to capture. So before we move on to yours, is that similar to yours? >> It is. Um and we'll talk about which language is you prefer before we write it. But

049so we got that one, that one, and then what is yours? >> I think we had a some semi- similar one. The superintendent will not allow conditions that do not uh promote student or community engagement. So, >> so the superintendent will not allow conditions that promote uh promote >> that do not promote student um community engagement. Is that similar to the two that you all estab you all shared? >> It's in the family. >> All right. So, it's in the family. Um is there I'm going to pick one just arbitrarily. Uh this one had more words. So, I'm going to pick the one that's more wordy, but is the one that's more wordy capture your idea? It does. >> Does it capture your idea? All right. Did you all have anything similar? Okay. Do you

050want to take you want to capture that one and then we can write that one down? Does that process make sense to everyone? >> All right. So, we got So, we had three groups that has something similar. Sorry about that, Cindy. All right. So, while she's writing that one down, we'll move on to the next one. Which group would like to share next? Anyone? >> Yeah. >> Oh, she has your board. Go. Go ahead. That's all right. Go ahead. They're going to share up here. >> I know, but I got to move the mic over here. And I had to move our thing because it's not sticking over here. Um, which one do you want me to read, Cynthia? Any of them. >> Anyone? What? Whichever one you think is >> We're going to start

051with number one. >> Highest priority. highest priority for you. >> Yeah. That the superintendent shall not allow any district communication or action to lack consistency or to fail to provide a direct and honest account of district performance, challenges, or goals. >> So, you got two in one. Sounds like you got two in one. The superintendent shall not allow any communication that lacks clarity and consistency. I'm going off memory. and uh does not fully communicate >> an honest account of district performance. >> An honest account of district performance and goals. Okay. Uh so the superintendent shall not uh allow those two things. I won't try to to repeat them, but did anybody have anything similar? >> All right. So we'll go since she's got your chart, we'll go here first and then we'll go back. But

052listen to make sure that the language is similar and then we'll decide who's the right. Go ahead. Our our second one was the superintendent would not allow conditions that harm academic or fiscal transparency account accountability. Okay, >> which is kind of kind of to the same of what she said but a little less words. >> Okay. The superintendent will not allow conditions that harm um academic or fiscal transparency and accountability. Does that sound similar? >> No. Um I do think I have a goal that sounds similar to or shall not if you will. Okay. So, >> our second one I think sounds similar to that. >> So, that one So, so that one to you doesn't sound similar to one >> not to my to the one I just read, but it does sound similar

053to the second one. >> So, that one was about academic and fiscal transparency and accountability. Uh, yours is about communication >> and honesty. Honest communication. Yes. About with the performance challenges and goals of the district. >> Okay. Because my core word for this one, the value word that I started with was honestly for number one. Transparency is my second value and I think that's where it fits with their number two. >> So you got So their number two has transparency. When you say second value, transparency was another one that that was written. Gotcha. So honesty was the value that was being captured there. Uh you said you had something similar. I guess just hearing that um ours was more similar I think to the transparency that they mentioned. >> Okay. >> Not to their first

054one. Um I was looking at it in terms of like accountability. >> Okay. >> But um now that I better understand it, I don't think it matches. But there is that word accountability and transparency that we heard from >> Okay. >> So we can do two things. Um you may want to go ahead and read yours. Yeah. Go ahead and read yours. Don't don't forget to use the microphone. Oh, sorry. Um, ours was accountability and growth. The superintendent will not foster a culture and climate that is absent of accountability and professional growth. >> Okay. So, the superintendent shall not foster a climate that is absent from accountability and growth. So, we'll take the honesty one. Can we write that one down separately um as number two? And then we'll go back and take the three

055that we heard and potentially you may have one as well, but um the three that we heard and we'll make the transparency and accountability. Um we'll talk through those three together. >> We're going to read the transparency one. I'm sorry. >> Pardon? >> You want me to read our transparency? >> Yep. The honest read the honesty one, not the transparency one. Just the honesty one. So we'll capture that separately. >> Okay. It's the superintendent shall not um allow any district communications or actions to lack consistency or to fail to provide a direct and honest account of district performance challenges or goals. No, no, it's okay. That does not allow any district communication or or action to lack consistency or to fail to provide a direct and honest account of district performance, challenges, or goals. or

056to fail to provide a direct honest account of district performance challenges or goals. failed to provide a a direct and honest account of district performance challenges or goals. So of district performance challenges or goals. All right. Um so then we've got three um at least three. Um, and we'll check uh with this team to see if you had anything similar. Uh, but the superintendent, this one I'll read again. The superintendent will not allow conditions that harm academic fiscal uh academic or I'll say put in the or academic or fiscal transparency and accountability. >> Um, go ahead and read yours, which was a different one. >> Yep. Um, >> and don't forget to use the microphone. >> Yeah. So, the same stop writing the superintendent shall not. I just so it's the superintendent shall not allow

057any student academic data or a progress report on the district's educational goals to be communicated to the board without clear accessible disagregated information and how on how different students are performing. >> Okay. Does this uh so this this is a little more concise than your wording but does this capture the same thing that you shared? >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um, and then read yours that goes with this one once more. >> The superintendent will not allow conditions that are inequitable to learn, growth, and postsecary access. >> Uh, no, no, no. The one related to accountability still on transparency, accountability, >> superintendent would not foster a culture or climate that is absent of accountability and professional growth. So the only thing that this one has uh this one doesn't have that yours has is professional growth.

058>> Uh can we add trans professional growth to this language and it capture all three? >> That that sounds like a different value to me though. >> Say again. >> So that sounds like a different value to me. >> Professional growth. >> Yeah. What does prof I mean I hear professional growth. >> Professional I'm sorry. Go ahead. I hear professional growth and you know and that's important but what does that have to do with transparency and accountability >> fostering the culture and climate >> right >> so culture and climate is the space that superintendent of >> person >> I also see it going along with our idea around the academic um conditions as well. Professional growth would definitely directly correlate with academic outcomes or no. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, don't add the professional growth.

059>> Professional. >> I was right. I knew it. >> Accountability. Accountability without support is cruelty. >> So, >> right. >> So, how do we push? How do >> Okay. And then if it makes it on the list, then it makes it on the list. Right. >> Okay. I'm kind of I'm getting I just want to backpedal for a minute. >> The one we're looking at is accountability and growth. And the one you guys have up there, Isaiah, and um >> is accountability and transparency. >> It's number is number two. >> So it's accountability and transparency. So the superintendent will not allow conditions that harm academic and fiscal transparency and accountability. >> Correct? So let's just take this one. Uh we'll come back to the professional growth um or we'll think through the professional growth. Uh

060let's just take this one for now. Uh the superintendent will not allow conditions that harm academic and fiscal transparency and accountability and it still cap captures yours. correct about transparency >> roughly. >> All right. >> I I I just have to say I think that is too vague for me as a guard rail because saying like allow not allow conditions. Who's determining those conditions? What are the conditions? What's the standard that kicks it off for? So for me it is getting academic reports that we can understand that we can read that we know what's being reported but also and this was part of uh Cynthia Elliott's conversation and myself I always think of the average person and parent our our report should not be written so complex that they can't follow along at home and

061no one should need special training to understand how their school district is making decisions. >> Yep. >> So for me they are a little bit different but they do both hit the core value of transparency. >> So two things um just so just so you'll be more comfortable as we move forward. The first of which is as we and we're going to talk about what the reports from the superintendent to the board look like. Um and those monitoring reports. Remember we talked about monitoring. uh we stipulate those monitoring reports are only five pages and that they're five pages in language that is not education ease that it is public language um so that's one thing so we'll make sure that those reports are clar clear the second thing um that I'll share just related to

062that um is the guard rail will have with it specific measures so all these guard rails that we're creating are going to have measures so you'll be able to see in those measures whether or not the superintendent and the team are interpreting them the way you intend. Does that make sense? So there's two there's two kind of back stops to make sure that what you just shared gets covered. All right. Um who would like to share their next one? >> He said the next next one. >> Yep. >> Any anyone >> you can share another one if you have if we haven't caught because you've only got one of yours so far, right? Well, you you forgot me. >> Say again. >> You forgot me if you want to raise my hand. So, you know.

063>> No, no, no. We're going around the room. You went first. >> All right. Go ahead. Think our next one is the superintendent should not allow the implementation of an academic and social emotional program that does not meet the needs of all the students. So, the superintendent shall not >> allow >> um implement an academic or social emotional program does not that does not meet the needs of all students. Anyone have something similar? >> I do. Soon as I heard, I was like, "Oh, we got something that matches that." >> Mr. Elliot and I have that the superintendent shall not allow the district to implement or continue any curriculum, program or practice without a clear researchbased rationale that demonstrates its effectiveness um for the specific populations it is intended to serve. That's got more language.

064Um did you did you hear that one? >> Yes. >> Is it similar? >> Similar. >> You got to decide. Otherwise, >> it is it is similar. >> So, uh it's just has a lot of words. Will people remember all that? Oh, sorry. Will the superintendent remember all that? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Can I just say um I I wanted to spell out the curriculum program and practices because they are three separate things like policy practice. >> So can we add curriculum programs and practices to this statement? >> Yeah. >> Is that are you all amable to that amendment? >> Uh so the superintendent shall not allow the implementation of academic curriculum. Can we say we say academic? >> Yep. Academic and social emotional curriculum. programs or practices that do not meet the needs of

065all students. everyone first see how we can merge it or we that's only two >> and do you all have something that's why I say do you have something similar >> yeah I think it's I mean I think something but it's not it's >> yeah so >> if it's similar then we can that's why I'm if if you have something similar share it somebody else. >> So the superintendent will not allow conditions that are inequitable to learning growth and post-secondary access. >> Somewhat similar. >> I have a question. >> Postsecary though. >> It's not. It says to learning growth and postsecary access. >> The superintendent shall not allow what read the whole thing. The superintendent will not allow conditions that are inequitable to learning, growth, and post-secondary access. Equitable or inequitable? >> Inequitable. Thank you.

066Uh if we add at the beginning of that one because what you're what you're adding here is equity just an equity issue but if we say the superintendent shall not allow inequitable implementation of academic social emotional curriculum programs and practices that did not meet the needs of students. Is that captured? >> I guess I guess it's too >> Hold on. I'm sorry. Yeah, inequitable is fine when we get to the bottom. All of that. Yeah, at the bottom it's kind of wordy. Is it something that we can do to like bring that together at the bottom? I I'm fine with the statement but not the way it is the word wording at the bottom. We can we can word smith it later. We've got you. We can word that >> the wording >> later. Are

067you all comfortable if we add inequitable to the beginning of that? Are you all comfortable that it addresses the needs of all students? >> Yeah, >> you could take that out. >> So, no. Are you all Are you all comfortable that it doesn't change the meaning of what you wrote? >> What are you looking to change again? >> If we add um if we add allow inequitable implementation um at the top of that. >> That's fine up there. Um and then does that if does that suffice for replacing your meets the needs of all students at the back at the bottom end? >> I think the same thing >> change >> and I'll ask I'll ask that next. >> It still says the same thing. >> Yeah question. >> I'm fine with um you're good

068with it. This might be separate and apart, but um because I do agree with like making sure the curriculum and what have you are standard and e equitable and research based all that good stuff. I'm struggling with social promotion because one of the historical issues is that students have not mastered certain skills and find themselves socially promoted into the next grade level. And that's how we find students at the ninth, 10th, and 11th grade unable to um master certain things. And so for our number one, we were talking about the metriculation of students that the superintendent will not metriculate students who have not mastered. We put literacy, but we could say academic skills um like key academic skills. there are foundational skills our students need and how do we work that into this language where

069there's ownership or accountability that we talk about that do not allow for our students to be grade promoted in that manner you know >> um so I think two things one is it could be a separate guard rail or what could also happen and as a board you'll need to make sure that you do this is when we talk about the board clearly articulating their expectations so the superintendent and team are interpreting it correctly. It could be that the measure that you're looking for which the superintendent will develop in an interim guard rail. That measure addresses that concern. You don't necessarily have to create a guardrail for it. >> I think an interim would be good, >> but we'll have to make sure that you get the language in a way that the superintendent's measure

070for how they come back and report to you. We're going to report this data to you and that data will specify that we're making progress toward this guardrail. Does that make sense? Yes, >> absolutely. So, Commissioner Lebron, and please correct me if I if I misquote what I heard, specified that there should be evidence-based >> incorporated within this because an academic or social emotional curriculum program or practice if it's not evident. We there should be intentionality with making sure that it's evidence-based. >> So I would say uh inequitable implementation of evidence-based. >> Okay. >> Yep. Right there. Right there. Yep. >> Yep. >> Glad I gave that to you, superintendent. >> What' you say? >> Joking. Yeah. Are you all comfortable with that? Still the inequitable it means it's still encompassing all students. Are you

071all comfortable with that >> or you want to keep the meets the needs of all students? Because it was your original statement. >> Training that is student centered but we want to make sure that students that well they said that are student centered >> hold it hold it hold it um so is allow inequitable implementation of student centered right here in your space >> yeah that's good of student right here. Right here where my finger is of student center. >> Is that is that working? >> All right. Which group would like to go next? >> Covered all of yours. All right. >> I just have one left. >> You just have one left. Go ahead and give us your one while President Simmons is reading. Go ahead. >> Okay. >> And if it's not clear,

072let me know. Says, "Create a clear stepbystep information um for all department, staff, and families that help parties understand the path for resolving issues in the district." What do I mean by that? I get all the calls, you know, I've said this before. I get phone calls, emails from parents often. It's an issue that they really could have been addressed with the school and then if they were not satisfied with the school's um feedback, they should have came down to central. That is not written for anyone anywhere. Culturally, I know that because I've been in this system for over 25 years with kids and counting, but I had to learn that as a parent. Um, and even myself when I was just a parent, if you will, years and years ago with my first oldest

073and I had an issue at the school and I wasn't happy with the resolve that I had with that principal, even myself. I wrote to the board because I didn't know that there were chiefs. I didn't know that there were other people in the interim. And that often happens in in this district cuz parents just don't know. We don't have that information anywhere for them to go to. So, personally, I'm like, we should put start training our staff and our families because it's the same for staff. Staff either go to a direct supervisor or they may or may not go internally to the next level. Most of the time they're not happy with a supervisor. They're jumping to the board. And I just think that we create problems that way, too. um and by not

074even putting it out there clearly to our stakeholders that this is how you resolve the issue and these are the steps. >> So clear clear lines of communication. So it's clear lines and effective communication. Uh does anybody have something similar? >> Um I don't know this probably doesn't really go with that but it's so crazy because I just had that same I just wrote an email this evening um about that same topic a few years ago. I asked uh previous superintendent of course um I mentioned that we need something to live on the district website right where parents could go and and a road mapap a communications roadmap if it's at the classroom level they know exactly how to triage those issues and >> is that one >> so I'm thinking well it goes under

075for me community and student engagement it's but it's probably not a guard rail as much as it would be um what is the other term you used the little thing that goes under the guardrail >> the measurement guard interim guard rail. >> Yeah, I think it could be like an interim piece that >> uh so you won't be able to dictate the interims. The superintendent gets to pick what those are. >> You won't you won't get to dictate them, but you can revise your guard rails to if you need to to add additional clarity if the superintendent didn't interpret it that way. But let's take it the way it is um right now if it's okay. >> I'm just ask I'm trying to understand it as a guard rail because For me >> that's more

076of a communication protocol >> and that communication protocol >> is is is more related to a task. >> So developing the communication protocol is a task and it doesn't in my mind right now I'm not I'm trying to >> put it into the category of a guardrail. >> Yeah. So we can revise the wording so it be becomes more of a guardrail but the superintendent shall not allow um the district to to function in a way that parents, community members and others don't clearly understand the lines of communication. >> How you solve that is up to you. >> Yeah. And the >> some of it is out of my control. So even if we develop the protocol >> Yeah. It's not about Yeah. It's not about whether or not people adhere to the protocol. Um,

077but it's a matter of how it's communicated. >> Understood. >> Yeah. No, I just want to like uplift that the value for me was resolve, resolution. That was the value because yeah, we're constantly there's constant issues, constant um situations oftentimes honestly that could be solved right away, but because there's no clear direction for folks, it snowballs. And sometimes those situations put us in a position where we're responding to the media on something that we could have addressed internally and fixed it, kept it pushing and kept things going. That's it. That's how sort of my mindset on that. Thank you. >> I I I don't want to um go down a rabbit hole or anything, but I'm I understand Dr. Rosson and I understand Commissioner Lebron. I guess my concern is too that we're doing a

078lot of communication on the website and then some people don't have don't even get on don't get on the web. So I mean when you're talking about communications I think it's it's a it's like to Dr. Roser's point that's a that's a big area there because we have we do a lot of communication I see on Facebook but we don't utilize other avenues of of advertisement um that's conducive for people that are not are not even computer literate or don't have these. So, I I think that that's a that's a big area of concern. So, I don't how how do we navigate that really because it's going to we're still going to lose people. We're still not going to be able to reach those people. Um some people we're not going to be able to

079reach everybody, but >> for the vast majority um and then some people that are not don't go on Facebook or anything, what are we doing with that? How are we addressing that? So, >> so the how Yes. The how the guard rail says don't don't allow the district to operate in this way. The how the communication gets developed is the superintendent's job. Does that make sense? >> Whatever strategy and then the superintendent will share with you here's how we're going to measure that the community or parents or whomever else is feeling as though we're communicating with them effectively. So the how is up to the superintendent. The guardrail says don't don't allow the super the district to operate in this way. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. Let me get to I'm trying to eat the boba.

080Yeah. >> Um anyone any others? So which >> any groups have another one? So I know this group is tapped out. That group is tapped out. Go ahead. >> We had one more. Just >> uh hold on. Hold on. If I could You need to listen up so you make sure you hear what they're what they're sharing. >> Just something different. But uh the superintendent shall not allow working conditions that harm. Uh let's see. >> Staff retention. >> Right. >> Uh superintendent shall not allow conditions that harm staff retention. >> Yeah. working conditions that harm staff retention. >> Okay. Superintendent shall not allow uh working conditions that harm staff retention. >> Yeah. I was going to say, you mind you mind reading your number four and then tell me if this number four is similar

081to what you have, but yours is specific to staff. So, read your number four. >> The superintendent will not allow conditions that do not foster um social emotional and physical safety. >> Uh psych So, you want change psychological to social emotional? Psychological is good too, but I just said social emotional, but psychological. >> Psychological safety in the workplace is a real thing. >> Yeah, >> that's why I was saying, do you want to change it to psychological or I think >> No, stay it can stay as uh psychological. >> Okay. >> So, this one says the superintendent shall not allow conditions that do not foster psychological and physical safety. Does that capture what you shared except that um and we can say student and staff? We can add student and staff so that it's clear

082that this one is referring to student and staff psychological and physical safety. When you talk about retention, retention might be a measure >> of how you know that that's happening, but I wouldn't necessarily make the retention a guard rail. Does that make sense? >> So, if we added the superintendent will not allow conditions that do not foster student and staff psychological and physical safety. Does that work? And does that cover what you shared? >> What? Make sure or do you want to leave it? You want to leave a staff retention? >> You got to turn it on. We went we went with the retention because he was talking about the transition and when there's movement in leadership staffing and all that that will affect stu you know >> stability. Yeah. He's under stability. >> Yes.

083>> That might help. Um we put the superintendent will not make decisions that harm the stability in terms of leadership teaching per professional or turn per professional or turnover. >> Was that one of your four? That's one. That's the four. >> It's right here. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Would that >> So >> that's basically what he >> So say say it again. >> Okay. So the superintendent um >> don't forget to use the microphone because it >> the superintendent will not make decisions that harm stability in terms of leadership, teaching and par profofessional turnovers. >> So I want to do two things. Um and I'll share with uh and I'll ask you to weigh in as well. The first thing I'll share is as you listen to these there are if you notice at

084the bottom of the report that first page of the report so RCSD community listening and synopsis report at the bottom of that report um there's one of the things one of the things that we wrote um is a couple of things but the most important is we're going to go back um and we're going to develop actually board guard rails as part of our process as well but One of the things we noted at the bottom of that sheet of paper is that some of these could actually be board guard rails as opposed to just superintendent guardrails. And so you'll need to think about what is the responsibility of the board in terms of leadership churn and what is the responsibility of superintendent in terms of leadership churn. Uh but let's go back. Let's read

085that one. Go ahead. >> And that's why we went with the staff. I we knew that >> Yep. >> leadership was there. >> Okay. >> But that's why we went with the staff. >> All right. So, they've got um so we started with um the superintendent shall not allow >> uh up top. Sorry. Thank you. The superintendent shall not allow conditions >> um that harm working conditions that harm >> Staff retention. So, that one's specific to staff retention. This one is specific to psychological um and physical safety. And we can add staff and students. and yours is >> Stability. So, similar to staff retention. So, stability to staff. Um, so do you all want to create two different guard rails or do you are you all comfortable that if staff retention is addressed, it addresses

086uh then the super you you'll be comfortable the superintendent has not fostered um conditions that do not um or not created conditions that do not foster physical and psychological safety. As long as students are also in there, I think that >> so it's for students. So it's for students and students and staff. >> Do you want to create two separate ones? >> So keep in mind at the end of this process, so we're writing them all down at the end of this process. How many are you going to have? >> Four. >> So >> one to five, preferably one to three, but one to five max. So if you create separate guard rails for students and another one for staff, they're going to eat up your one to five. >> I think we need >>

087but you can you can have two separate ones. >> I know we're going to be >> Go ahead. Go ahead. >> I I I think that we should be strategic on this. I don't think we should have five. I mean, I think that we should find a way to encompass and bring things together and if we can, you know what I'm saying? To reduce it. >> We will. >> Oh, okay. Sorry. We will. Are you comfortable with that? >> He's got a question. >> Go ahead. You got a question. Go ahead, Commissioner Patter. >> He's got a question. >> Oh, he's got a question. >> You you raised your hand. Sorry. It is the the explanation about uh the comment that you wrote at the bottom but listening to the input from the community about

088the concerned about the staff mobility of the staff leaving turnover so and leadership but we went with the staff because when we talk about staff we we are talking about superintendent teachers but our professional food service everyone who works in the district >> okay >> it's all inclusive So, you're you're tapped out. Uh, do you have any more? >> You're tapped out. Do you have any more? >> You're done. >> We're done. >> You're done. >> Yes. >> All right. >> So, they do addressility. >> Yeah. >> Yes. There's a specific to staff, but we got the message that we want to add. We may create a separate one. >> Stability says stability. >> Staff retention has >> always said yeah. Yeah. for students for families. >> Oh, >> nope. I think we're good. I

089think we got I think we have we should have We're going to recap. You got one, two, What All right. So, we're going to do a quick recap. We're going to number these. Uh you are now down to one, two, three, four. Uh actually four is in the perfect spot. We don't have to re number that. Five, six, seven. So we're down to seven. Uh we're down to seven guard rails. Um we'll read them really quickly and we'll do two things. Uh going to give you uh each um a set of votes to help you prioritize and then we'll have a conversation. So we won't do it just by voting, but we'll vote and then have a conversation. Uh but you've got seven. You've got to narrow seven down to to one to five. Uh

090we'll read them really quickly. Number one is uh the superintendent shall not allow uh inequitable implementation of student centered evidence-based academic, social, and emotional curriculum programs and practices. Number two, the superintendent shall not allow unclear, ineffective communication of information for district departments, staff, and families to understand uh the path to resolve issues. Number three, superintendent shall not allow working conditions that harm staff retention and stability. Number four, the superintendent will not allow conditions that do not foster u psychological and physical safety. Uh do you do you want to make that for students? Students and staff. All right. You can make that students and staff. Then you should put it over here for for students and staff. Uh number five, the superintendent uh shall not make any major district-wide and school decisions without seeking the input

091of stakeholders that represent school, home, and broader community. Number six, the superintendent shall not allow any district communications or or action to lack consistency or to fail to provide a direct account of district performance challenges or goals. And then number seven, the superintendent shall not allow conditions that harm academic and fiscal transparency and accountability. Any questions about those? Anybody need clarity on those? Anyone need questions or clarity on any of those? All right, everyone needs to pull out a piece of paper. Um, and we will give you three sets of votes. You got five votes, you got 10 votes, and you got 15 votes. Um, >> you can put on a post-it note if you want. You just write on a sheet of paper. All you need to do is write the number. So 1

0922 3 4 5 6 7 and then take your five, 10, and 15 votes and put them on the one. So the one that you think is most important, give that 15 votes. The one that you think is second, give it 10. The one that you think is third, give it five. Does that make sense? >> Nope. You have 15 votes for 15 points. Let's say points, not votes. 15 points, 10 points, and five points. divvy up 15 points, 10 points, and five points around your number one priority gets 15, your number two priority gets 10, your number three priority gets five. Does that make sense? And so just write the number, the number, and then the number of points that goes with it. And then uh take a break. So as you do that,

093do you all want to keep going? We're almost done. Say again, >> we're almost done. >> You want to keep going? All right, we'll keep going. It makes it easy. >> Oh, >> they need it. >> You can't read it. >> You can get up. You can get up and walk around, too. You don't have to stay. You can stay there. Okay, start asking. uh write them down on a sheet of paper that that you can give to us. Uh so it'll be anonymous. Write them down on a sheet of paper that you'll give to us and then we'll plug it in. Uh you can take a break if you need to and then we'll uh call out the votes and then we'll have a conversation to make sure that we didn't miss anything. >>

094Okay. We're going to collect their papers. Then I can do it. So, hold on. Hold on while you're voting. So, we got one um we got one suggestion that seven and four are saying the same thing. Somebody you say yeah. >> They are. All right. So seven says the superintendent will not allow conditions that do not foster um psychological and physical safety for students and staff. And number seven says the superintendent shall not allow conditions that harm academic and fiscal transparency and accountability. Um I thought when we went through it we said that >> they're not the same but they're talking about safety and it's hard to that we can merge them together to address the needs for both instead of having two separate ones. >> Yeah. Psychological and physical safety I think are a

095little different than >> well I think the word safety in there is is is what's bothersome because >> well safety is the value. So that's the that's the value you're after is safety at the the bottom one >> the value is accountability >> just whichever one you don't like >> I mean but and that's the power >> I think I favor both of them in some way but it's how do you how do you when you talk about safety I feel you got to look at Does that make sense? >> I g >> He was trying to combine the two. I think they're different. See all these seven as being different or is one of them the same? >> Which two? That's once they start getting Make sure I get everybody. What? >> I got

096it. I got it. >> 15 points to number five. 10 points to You have your We're going to talk about the goals quick. should go pretty >> like >> he has >> right right. >> Oh, what are you doing? of information and seven is >> that is about challenges and two is about um communicating to family and about um resolution. Who else? Uh, >> who else has finished that? I haven't gotten there. Have you Do you have your points? One. One gets >> four markers. You want >> Everything in here. I think >> it was >> we just Yeah, we we just >> Oh, wait, wait, wait. No, you can only can only vote for can only use 15 once, five once, and 10 once. >> One thing can have 15, one thing. >> You

097get to vote for three. Yep. your top three. >> So, one gets one gets a 15. Your your topmost gets a 15, your second gets a 10, and your third gets third place for you gets a five. Only two more people left. Oh, I think Dr. >> Oh, you want >> Okay, Dr. or gave one two. Do we take Yeah. >> Okay. And let's leave it or let's go with what we got. I'm getting better. and five. Four gets 15. One gets 10 and five gets five. Okay. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah. So, I'll give you the points. All right. Can we go ahead and keep Okay, if we go ahead and keep going. All right. So, we'll keep going. um I think is uh it should be fairly clear and I think

098you'll have discussion uh around two uh so you all can discuss uh maybe two of them. Uh the number one has 85 points. So number one is 85 points and actually it either got 15 point 15 votes or 10 votes from everyone. So everybody either made it their number one or their number two choice. Um, number two is 10 points. So, number two is 10. Oh, you're right. You can't see. >> You got a black >> 85 points. All right. Number three, you can cross out. It got zero votes. So, number three got zero votes. Um, number f number one, two, three, four, uh, 40, 40 points. Number five, 50 points. Number six, 15 points. And number seven, 10 points. So you remember we said preferably one to three guard rails um and up to

099five guard rails. So we said preferably one to three. You've actually prioritized three things. Uh you've prioritized number one, you've prioritized number four, and you've prioritized number five. Clearly, now you can do one to one to five. Um but you've prioritized three things. And before I um before we finish up and we have a discussion about the last couple, um two things I want to point out. One is we wanted you to to kind of create um just language so that you can kind of understand the value that you want to articulate as a board uh to the superintendent and then some language around it. We can still go back and words smmith the language so we're not married to the language in each of these right now. Does that make sense? Uh so we

100can go back and word smmith the language so that everybody's happy with it and it's clearer. Uh the two that got 10 points are number two. Um allow unclear or ineffective communication um of information. So we got one, two, three. Um oh, I'm sorry. One is 15. So we'll go down to 15 points. So if you want to go beyond three, uh the one that got 15 points is allow any district communications uh to lack consistency uh or to fail to provide a direct account of district uh performance challenges or goals. So, that got 15 points. That could be your fourth if you so if you so choose as a board, which is perfectly fine. That could be your fourth. Uh, and then you would need to decide if you wanted to go to a

101fifth, you would need to decide between uh number two and number seven as your fifth. Uh, however, remember we said if everything is important, nothing's important. So, you've created a priorities. You set a priorities. the more you add, the the more challenging it becomes for the superintendent to actually stay focused on the goals. Does that make sense? Does that make sense to everyone? So now it's just a matter of you all having a conversation. You've got three that are clear. So number one, number four, and number five. Do you want to add the one that's uh number six that has 15 points and it is about communication? Can I say something to the board as a whole? I think that >> Don't forget to use your microphone >> to address the board as a whole.

102I I um I appreciate the response for the district communications, but I do think that um one one that is very important on there that probably should be come to the forefront is the academic physical transparency and accountability. So I that's just my personal opinion. And I know that everybody voted the way they did, but if I would to pick a fourth one, that would definitely be one that I would take over over the over the uh number number five. I think that is what is that number five? No, I mean number six. So that is just my opinion, but >> if it were me, I would look at more of the academic physical transparency. >> But it didn't it didn't receive. You can you can debate it. Um, if you let's deal with the

10315 point one first and then we'll go back and deal with the two that receive 10 points. >> All right. Thank you. >> So, we'll go back and deal with the two 10 10 points. >> So, I wouldn't want I mean I appreciate what every all the values that are represented in every single one of these. I think any of these could be uh fabulous guardrails. I wouldn't want to elevate a 10point winner over a 15point winner. And I'm not having a 15 point become one like a fourth one. I think that we have three that have clearly stood out, >> but I wouldn't want to elevate a 10point one over. >> Yeah, that's why that's why we're just dealing with the 15.1 right now. We'll go back and deal with the two 10 point

104because even if you if you accept the 15, then you only got room for one more. >> So, you would have to decide. But at this point, we won't deal with the tens yet. We'll just deal with the 15. And for me, um, I I personally want to stick to three. And I think there are three that have the highest points. I don't want personally I don't want to spend time talking about additional guard rails, especially given the the way that the points are reflected, right? 85 and then there's some that are just a straggling 10, which could have been any one of us just put our 10 points on that one. So yeah, it's a no for me. For me, I want to support three guard rails. And for me, the three clear winners

105is 85 points, 40 points, 50 points. >> Okay. Anyone else? So, uh the only decision here is um whether or not to accept. So, we'll do it this way. Whether or not to accept a guardrail that only got 15 votes. And if you don't accept the guardrail that got 15 votes as a board and you stick with just three, then we won't consider the t the two tens. Does that make sense to everyone? >> Yeah. Can we get just consensus on who's comfortable sticking with three or who wants to entertain? >> Let's just get consensus on who's comfortable sticking with three. >> The conversation. Um and so for check for myself, I'm I'm comfortable with three. I recognize less is more. So um >> three for me as well. >> So we got two board

106three board members that have said three. Anyone else? I'm good with the three. >> You're good with the three. >> My vote is an A. I think that there should be four and the fourth one should be seven. About transparency. I agree with Commissioner Griffin on that one. >> So, you won't be able to elevate that fourth one over over to 15. >> Yeah. >> As is seven. Seven has 15. Does not >> No, seven has 10. >> Okay. I can't. It looks like 15. >> It looks like 15, right? Okay. >> Well, the one that Commissioner Griffin and Santiago are talking about, is there a way for that to become an interrum or does that not even fit in the interim piece? >> That's a good question. Yeah, it's still >> necessarily fit. >>

107Oh, sorry. Thank you. >> I'm not sure that it necessarily fits >> um in or that you would want to dictate that as a I don't think it would fit as an interim >> anywhere. What I can say is that as you begin monitoring progress toward the goals, there will definitely be that will have a an academic and fiscal transparency and accountability that comes with it because the budget, the um academic outcomes, all of those things are going to be part of the monitoring process for the uh student outcome goals. that >> the rubric, right? It >> it's part of Yeah. So that um Yeah. that the budget that the superintendent shows that the budget is aligned that any strategic decisions that need to be made differently would have a fiscal component. So just offering

108that um but still >> so we've got right now three board members who are in consensus that um three guard rails is is good. >> You have four >> four. >> We have four. So we got four >> is so is a 15. So there's only one with 15 points. >> There's only one with 15 points. >> Okay. Well, if if that's the only option for a fourth one, then I'll say keep it with three. >> Keep it with three. Mhm. >> Okay. So, that's five. Um, so is that right? That's I think that's everyone. >> Everyone that's here. >> So, >> and Griffin said three as well, I think. >> Yeah. >> So, the next step, um, and we'll we'll wrap up, but the next step is we'll wor these a little bit. Um,

109potentially won't do anything major, but we'll come back to you to make sure it's okay. What we'll do is work with the administration and the superintendent to say these are the three that the board has decided on. Now, we're going to create interim guard rails, and those interims are going to be actually measurable. So, we're going to actually create measures. The superintendent and the team will report on you, report for you the measures of each of these as we go throughout the year. Does that make sense? Uh so, it'll actually be a measurable um that you'll get you'll understand this is how we know whether these are being um either honored or we're making progress on them. Uh the second thing is and we'll talk about goals. So do you want to talk about um

110the goals really quickly so we can wrap up? >> Yeah. So I think you all Oh, thank you. Um I think you all have the student outcome goals that you've previously adopted in front of you. Am I correct? No, >> we have them. >> Oh, not all of you. A little laminated sheet. Yeah, hold on. Isaiah is right here. >> Got it. So, as you look at your community listening synopsis um at those that that top where it talks about vision um and student outcome goals. I would ask, do you still see that reflected in the goals that you have? >> Yeah, >> we're looking at the board goals. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> So, >> yep. Accurate. I would say absolutely like this reinforces that literacy is such a high priority as well as

111math um for community members. We saw that as one of the top things for all of the values um and and the vision for the district and it's also reflected in goals three and four as well. >> Yeah. any any >> although I will say our fourth goal which is about ninth graders earning credits by um by the end of nth grade or in nth grade gaining at least five or more credits towards graduation um as a predictor of like success future success um I would say that is one goal of ours that we created prior to these community listening sessions that we don't see necessarily reflected in the values from our our listening that we did. >> So that would be one you see everything else reflected really clearly but that last goal around

112credit bearing by 9th grade or having >> yeah it's not as high as the other high expectations was like the fifth >> most important uh community value that was expressed and so I I would say that >> uh our goal number four does reflect in it the high expectations we have. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for that. >> Two things to point out about um goal number four and the goals that you create. The board also has when you create your goals more information than the community necessarily has. And so if the board has information that says that, hey, this is will help us be on track for like college or career, military readiness, things like that. Um that you want to the district to focus on because you know it will help you in

113the long run. you can create a goal that's not reflected in what you heard from the district because you have additional information to help you okay as a board say this is important to us. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Yeah, Commissioner Santiago. >> Yeah, my my answer is yes. Um a lot a lot of what we heard was the foundation and the foundational um skills that people are expecting our students to have by graduation or even by certain grade points. And I think that in in the the list of um board goals, those things are covered. Um and definitely in the earlier years, you see, you know, all students reading by third grade, three to three through eight, and even going all the way up to high school, which like Commissioner Malloy said is expectations.

114And so, um I do think so. I Yeah, >> great. >> Thank you. Thanks for that observation. Any other any different? very comfortable with the direction we're going in and believe that once we get into the progress monitoring, we'll really >> um hit the sweet spot, if you will, and >> be moving toward progress. I just wanted to add that at many of the community listening sessions there were concerns expressed by some um some community members several times several sessions um that they felt that these goals were way too low >> that you know going from 16% to 40% in literacy is setting low standards for our students. So, I think there are opportunities for us as a board to educate the community about why that's a snapshot. I think um the reading that you

115gave us to do in chapters 7, 8, and nine kind of spoke to that a little bit. Yeah. >> Um >> and how it's not low expectations, but it's part of our smart goal setting process. You have to have realist it has to be realistic. >> Right. Right. >> Right. It has to be um goal oriented and you can't set goals. We want 100% of our kids to reach mastery. Um but we're working in increments of three to five years. And so it it wouldn't be realistic to say 100% in three years time. >> Yes. Yes. And that that's absolutely true that you'll have the opportunity to educate the community as to why the percentages sit where they do. That the absolute vision is for all students to be successful, but this is the next

116bite out of the apple toward that overall vision. Um, and speaking of which, the percentages, uh, one of the things that we talked about, uh, one of the last times we were here was the idea that now that Dr. Roser is in his seat, um, that you would anticipate that the strategic plan would change, that strategies to achieve these goals would would change. One of the things that we would um recommend or suggest that you all entertain is to give Dr. Roser a full 5-year runway with these goals. So allow for the um that baseline percentage to be set with current data and then expand the goals out five years from now and so rework those target measures. Does that anybody opposed to that idea here? Are you saying changing the goals now? >> No.

117>> Change keep the goals the same. >> The the percentages the starting date and percentage would be current and then move the ending date and >> so we are changing the that's what I meant. Chang we're changing the ending date. >> The ending date. Yes. Give give him a full five years. >> That is that is a re that is up for you the board to decide. But that would be a a recommendation. If not, what you're going to do is hold the new superintendent accountable to uh goals that will expire in 2028. Um, but again, going back to the point about, it depends on where your current status is. Um, we don't know your current status. So, we'll work with the district to get your district staff to get your current status, but let's

118say your current status is slightly higher now than your beginning status a couple of years ago, then you can adjust both the ending date, but you could also adjust the ending target. um which would address the the feedback that you heard from the community that hey, can we can we increase these just a bit? >> Yeah, >> I do have a question. Um so we're changing the end date, but wouldn't we also change the starting date? Yes. 2023. So it would become 2025 >> instead. and and the whatever the baseline numbers are for 2025 because the baseline numbers that are in here now are the uh baseline numbers from and you don't have dates associated with it but whenever it was started whenever it was established 2023 2024 maybe >> commissioner Griffin >> yeah because

119those actually don't have starting dates on them now that I look yeah >> well in all due fairness I I think that that's a great idea. I think it's a great idea, but I think we would be able to make a better um give a better answer to it once we see where we're going to where we're at and how how we've reached some of the goals thus far. So, that would be instrumental in making that decision. But I I definitely said in the beginning I think that it needed to be stretched out because of everything that the district has that's happening now um that's going on that needs to be resolved. So it would only be fair for for him to have the autonomy to have more time to resolve issues that are within

120the district because they're so complex. So yeah, I think once we get that information, that data, we can make a sound decision. So, can I ask this evening, are we going to walk away with a point of clarity that that is the direction we're going in or are you asking us to think on that or can we walk away with a definitive yes, we want to allow for that flexibility first? >> Uh, what I was going to share is we'll get you the information first so you can make an informed decision. So, the information about where you are now baseline will should inform whether you extend out five years or whether you, you know, stay where you are. But knowing where you are baseline right now, do uh do you do you know where you

121are baseline right now? >> Take a look and see. >> Which >> we have which >> uh Thank you. >> Yeah. Well, let me say this that the state released preliminary data for 2425. Um it has not yet been um sent out as as official from the state, but we do have preliminary data. um on where we landed this past year with ELA and math assessments. >> So, if it's preliminary, um I would suggest that you don't use it until it's official. >> Um but then use that official data as your baseline, but understand what that baseline is now and then use that to make a determination. Do we keep it 2028? Um do we adjust um and move it out five years? And if we adjust what is the baseline relative to what it

122was or where we are right now and where we wanted to be and then do we adjust the targets five years from now based on what the baseline is now. So all of those things are things that once you're finalizing information as a board you can make that decision. >> Okay. >> The second thing I'll point out is the next step for us um if I hope we're not rushing but the next step for us is to work with the superintendent and the district team on two things. one is developing interim uh go guard rails and we'll go to goals in a minute but interim guard rails around these that are actually measurable and then the second thing we're going to do is develop interim goals u but the first thing we need to do

123is say what's the baseline um and the other thing that you'll need to do as a board is say okay here's what we want the ultimate goal to be we're going to leave it the same we're going to change it etc and then we'll work with the administration to create interim goals that they'll report to you on and that that will happen at every board meeting throughout the year will you understand um this is the goal that we're monitoring today. Here's the interim results or the final results. Here's the progress we're making against them, etc. And at every board meeting, you're going to know you won't know for every one of the goals and every one of the guard rails. But at every board meeting, you'll know when there's going to be a report on

124a goal or a guard rail, an update on the progress for it. And those will be your your conversations that you'll have. So, you're actually you're actually almost there. The last thing I'll share which is important as you have now developed the goals and as we work with the administration just understand because you just developed this tonight there may not be a measure for this that currently exists in the in the in the district. Does that make sense? Um and so there may be things like surveys or interim assessments that need to be put in place for you all to now have the interim information that you'll need moving forward. So, just know that that is part of the process. What you've created is the direction for the district to say, "Here's what we want

125you to start reporting on. It may not be in place yet." And so, we'll get from the district, here's our timeline. Here's our thinking on when we can start to put some of these things in place to measure this. Make sense? >> So, any any questions about that? Okay. So I think um the only other thing that I would say aside from um what the superintendent will be doing regarding the data and the interim measures is that um the board will need to start thinking about how about the communication process back out to the community um about the guard rails and the goals and all of that. So we can um start start working on that as well and we'll support you with that too. Okay. Well, we want to once again thank you for

126engaging us in the student outcomes focused governance framework u the council of the great city schools. That concludes this evening's board work session for the Rochester City School District. Um work everybody. >> Motion to adjourn the meeting. >> motion by Commissioner Griffin. Second by Commissioner Santiago. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Good night.