Contract for Excellence & Electronic Device Policy Public Hearing, Board Work Session | July 8, 2025

001Thank you and good evening. I'm Camille Simmons. This is the Rochester Board of Education and today is Tuesday, July 8th. Uh we are opening the meeting for our contract for excellence public hearing. Um, the Rochester City School District is conducting a public hearing to gather input for submission to the New York State Education Department regarding the contract for excellence. The contract for excellence is based on a New York State law which requires specific school districts to develop a plan to improve academic achievement, particularly for students with the greatest educational needs. Contract for excellence must be used to support continuing programs or to develop new initiatives which primarily boost the achievement of students such as those in poverty with disabilities and English language learners. Each year the district is required to submit a fiscal summary and

002narrative to the New York State Education Department to demonstrate our compliance with the contract for excellence requirements. The budget general fund expenditures are identified in the fiscal plan by school and purpose. The district's 2526 contract for excellence planning documents can be found on the website at www.rcsdk12.orgc4. We are here in this evening to receive public comments on the 2526 contract for excellence plan. We currently have no speakers for tonight's public hearing. As a reminder, the district's 26 20 excuse me, 202526 plan for the contract for excellence along with details regarding comment and submission can be found on the website at again www.rcsdk12.orgc4e RGC4E and public comment is invited through August 7th, 2025. Be there no other business noted. This meeting is adjourned. We are now opening the student and personal electronic devices public policy hearing.

003We will hear from our communications uh Marisol Ramos Lopez. Pardon my interruption. If you could just check the mic a little bit. Thank you. Check. One, two. I'm sorry for those technical difficulties. So this evening I would like to share with you the preliminary survey results for the electronic device policy. On um Monday, June 23rd, we released a survey for students, families, and staff related to Governor Hokll's new policy to create a student distractionfree uh schools in New York State. As you know, the policy has to be approved prior to implementation on uh August 1st. And I'm excited to share that we have received 477 responses to date. We do quite a few surveys throughout the year and this one has garnered significant interest. I'm sad that no one came for the public hearing tonight,

004but I am glad that they have shared their thoughts throughout our survey. I do want to remind our listening public the survey is open until Friday, July 11th. And so we will continue to collect feedback until then. As I indicated, we did have 477 responses. We had 18% of our responders being students, 42% 42.8% being parents and guardians, and 39.2% being teachers. We want to be sure that families, students, and teachers participate. So we made it a short survey. The first question was uh asking how people feel about the restrictions on smartphones. There was strong support uh 42% support 12.8% and strong opposition at 25.6%. And I want to let the board know that once the survey is completed, we will have the final data for you um next week to review. Our next question

005was, what concerns do you have, if any, about this policy and the primary concern related to safety and emergency communication? Each school will be sending out communication to their families related to how families can communicate with their child while at school in the event that parents need to reach them. Um there was another large group that had equity and enforcement concerns and then the third highest group had no concerns related to this policy. We did uh want to seek feedback on the suggestions for how our schools should store phones during the day. I do want to remind the board and our listening public that our middle and high schools already implement a cell phone uh policy. Each school implements it a little bit differently and they will continue to uh implement that policy in the

006way they've done it. So, some suggestions, lockable classroom pouches. Some schools already use the yonder pouch. The next one was collection and storage by school staff, which does happen at some of our schools. And the last one, which is actually the three highest uh percentage getters, was lockers or securing storage areas. So, those are things that the school chiefs are working with the principles for implementation. The other question which is a great concern for families is what is the best way to contact students during the school day in case of an emergency or important need and calling the main office is the response most people gave and that is the accurate response. And finally, what is the best method for us to communicate the details of this policy? And the majority was all of the

007above which is direct communication with the school which is going to be happening robocalls and information on the website which will also be happening written communication uh via email and then the school websites and social media will also have information regarding that as you will be voting on this policy on July 31st. The work begins on August 1st where we will work on implementation and communication plans. I am happy to answer any questions you may have related to how we will proceed. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh we do not have any speakers for this either and so that is open for the board to ask questions at this time. And do we have any board colleagues that are interested in asking questions? I see a hand from Commissioner Lebron. I just have two

008questions I guess. Um, and I see that for a lot of parents and folks who took the survey, the concern was centered around accessing and it's not just if I have an emergency and I need to access, but what if my child is having an emergency and needs to access me? Because my concern is that when students go to the office and they're like, "Hey, I need to call my parent." they may not always um allow the students to call the parents because it's going to be depending on what they constitute as an emergency versus what a child might feel like as an emergency. So that's one. And then my biggest concern around this policy is going to be around the discipline. Like for me, I personally feel like we don't need any more excuses

009or reasons to suspend students and keep them out of RCSD. what is going to be um how does this fit into our current uh rubric for the um code of conduct? Like I don't know if you have an answer for that, but that's where I'm at with both of those. I'll take down your concerns. We can add them to the question log and we will have a response for you. Thank you. Are there any additional questions? I see Commissioner Griffin. I guess my only concern would be um referencing the CPPs and um how that would play go into play with the restrictions on with the phones and um how are we going to address them with the IP IP the EP what is Lord Jesus IEP and then and the special kids with the special

010needs. How are we addressing those issues and concerns when it comes to the cell phones? But other than that, like um Mayor said previously, we have already been we've already been doing what we needed to do as far as the cell phones in Rochester City School District. And I think um there hasn't been any problems. I think with this coming into play with with Kathy Hokll, we may have some issues and concerns to be to address, but I think overall uh it may we may be able to work through those those um and tweak those things that need to be tweaked. But those are my only concerns when it comes to our kids with the IEPs and in the C in the CPS or CTE. So there will be exceptions made for devices used for

011instructional purposes. Um those that are outlined in the students IEP and anything that is um required to manage a medical condition needed for translation or language access or necessary for students serving as caregivers. So those exceptions are allowed within Governor Hokll's um regulations. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I do see a hand from Commissioner Patterson. Yes. Um you know, thank you for your report. Um going forward, what I would like to see is the total number of students that should have participated, you know, in the I think you said how many 400 Was it 400 or something that did participate? What was the number? I gave a percentage of the student participation which was 18%. I can give you the raw numbers if that's what you're interested in. Right. And um I don't have that

012PowerPoint. Okay. I couldn't review it before I came here. So I apologize for the questions. No, no. Um I would have called you earlier, you know, if you could share the PowerPoint with us. But um again, I'm one for change. I understand we have to adapt with change, but with this policy, um, I'm for what Governor Hok is suggesting. The reason being is that we have to make a decision. We have to make a choice because our kids are not reading on grade level. They're not graduating on time. They're not coming to school on time or even coming to school as far as attendance. They're not college ready and they're not career ready. So, we have to do something. And we just can't sit back and act like cell phones and social media is not

013an issue. And we can't say, well, it's happening here. It's happening there. I keep hearing that all the time. Well, it's, you know, happening in some other state or some other school district. We have to concentrate on our school district. What can we do? How can we lead instead of always following to address change? And if it means removing those cell phones and finding another means, you know, again, I understand times have changed and are more dangerous. But when we were younger, we parents call the front office and I understand what my colleague says relative to emergencies and, you know, kids not having access to the cell phone to call their parents, but the school should be on top of that. The principal should be on top of that, the administration should be on top

014of that and sending out robocalls when something does affect the school. So the parents do know. So I don't really see the need, you know, for students, especially when we know it's negatively impacting their growth, educational growth, that we're going to allow something to continue. So we need to, I would think, you know, take the lead in this area and say, "Hey, we're going to abide by, you know, what the governor says. We're going to make the appropriate changes." Another thing is is what I didn't like and uh this is more posed toward the superintendent respectfully obviously is that you know I worked for a large a much larger organization um before I came here and we had uniformity throughout the entire state. So that's 62 counties that we had uniformity and it worked for

015us. So to allow you know like I said there's some flexibility. There's always flexibility especially with students with disabilities and things like that. I understand that. But the majority of the people, the majority of the students and the majority of the administrators that are running these schools, uniformity, it makes things much easier to navigate. Much makes things much easier to control, especially for the superintendent rather than have, okay, what rules that they had over there? What rule or guideline did they have over there? What regulation did they have over there? It's much easier and simpler if you have one uniform policy that, you know, does have, you know, flexibility in it, you know, for especially students with disabilities. Thank you. Were you all set, Commissioner Patterson? Um, yeah, that was all I I put in

016my notes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so very much. Um, and I'll put my comments or question into the question log. It sounds as if we may even want um at some point, not now, of course, a presentation on how our district will be prepared to respond to things like mental health, the things outlined in the survey, mental health concerns, how we will be responding to potential violations of the policy in a way that um does not place our students in additional harm's way. Um so, so those will be things that um I would love to see in the question log and we can follow up accordingly when the time is right. At this time, I'd like to defer to Dr. Roser. Yeah. So, thank you very much. Um was waiting to hear from each

017of the commissioners who wanted to ask a question related to this very important topic. One of the things um to Commissioner Lebron, we're going to make sure that there is a consistent application of the cell phone policy throughout all of our buildings. That's going to be a major priority that we will be working on developing that protocol and making sure that our building principles, the assistant principles, and everyone that needs to be trained and understand what those protocols are are trained during the summertime. In addition to that, we're going to make sure that there are protocols in place that everyone in the organization along with parents and students understand in the event that there's an emergency, how can parents access their children? How can children access their parents in the event that we we shouldn't

018say in the event once we move to to um having the cell phone policy in place um we instituted in Pikipsy New York we instituted cell phone bans at our middle school and our high school and we made sure that those protocols were in place so that parents and staff members understood when a student has an emergency how they will then be in contact with their parent if a parent needs to get into a into contact with their child if there's an emergency, what those protocols are. So, we'll make sure that during the summertime as a part of the work of the executive team that we're making sure that those protocols and the communication is in place for the opening of school. Commissioner Lebron. Yeah. I just have to say like my concern is not

019the cell phones. I have a middle schooler that Okay. Nope. is still I don't know who Okay. No, I don't really want to turn it back on. So, um so I just want to uplift that my concern is not the cell phone. I have a child in middle school. Well, now going into high school. We know the yonder pouches and so forth. The concern is that she also has a smartwatch, a tablet, a laptop that is not school issued. She has a schoolisssued one, too. Smart uh smart uh glasses that she got off Teu. Um I just want to put that out there because they didn't come from an expensive store, but they sell them. Kids can access them. Um so those are my concerns. Not necessarily that it's just a cell phone. We are

020I think in for the most part our middle schools and high schools have a good grip, not all but for the majority of them on the cell phone issue. The issue is the other devices because our middle school, high schoolers and their parents already know that there's a ban on those things when they walk into most of our schools. It's what happens and there's a yonder pouch for it, but what about that smartwatch, the glasses if they sneak them in? You know, I'll do my part as a parent, but and also being realistic about our type of students who might you you might get silly with a with a student and they may feel disrespected and they're going to give that disrespect back. And this is how small things escalate and now we have a

021student who's going to be facing a disciplinary issue over a smartwatch. Those are the things I want to be mindful of and how that fits into our code of conduct. Thank you. Thank you. And so we're going to take one last comment on this matter. anything after that can go into the board question log and then we can formalize a request u for presentation as we move forward and I'm going to end with a statement or question from yourself commissioner Griffin um yes I think as a parent we have a role to play in this as well so if we know we have our children have other devices that may hinder the ability to learn in a school setting I think it's our responsibility as well to um make sure those items are left at

022home. Um we we are trying to do everything but I think that we have to divide ourselves from being leaders, parents and teachers. So I think there's a role that each one of us have to play to the success of our children. So it's ad we have to be adamant about that and if we all are paying a part in building the success of our children then I think that is also should be included. So we are putting something out there to make make it so that the children are able to learn in the environment where they're supposed to be learning then we need to make sure that our children are leaving the extra added um instruments that um that would be so attached to social media at home and then they can get them.

023The phone is one thing but if we're having other items those items should be stay at home and carrying your phone and giving it to the proper people at the at the school that they are attending. Thank you Commissioner Griffin. We'll put that in the question log as far as part of the presentation how we want to partner with parents because being a parent even though mine is 28 years old now. Uh I know I remember that even in my best um effort to keep things in on track. They didn't always work out that way. So with no further discussion on this matter, this meeting is now adjourned and we are going to recess for about um give us about five minutes and we'll reconvene to um go directly into our work session in about

024a 5m minute period. Thank you. Good evening. Today is Tuesday, July 8th. It is 6:08 p.m. and we are officially opening our Rochester Board of Education work session. And this is actually one of our or our actual first work session. Um and so before we jump into the actual session agenda, I do want to read um our conduct statement which is noted for my um reading. And that is that the board expects district officials and the public to conduct themselves and speak in a respectful and courteous manner so as to model proper civility and decorum for students. Shouting, personal insults, vulgarity, profanity, attacks, revealing information prohibited by law or any conduct that disrupts the flow of business is considered to be out of order. The board may among any other steps available pursuant to law

025take the following actions to during the meeting to maintain a fair and efficient meeting. Those actions being interrupt, warn or terminate a participant's statement when the statement exceeds allotted time, is personally directed, abrasive, obscene or irrelevant. request any individual to leave the meeting when that individual, whether in person or virtually, does not observe reasonable decorum or the conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting. And finally, call for a recess or any adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action. Moving forward into the board business items, I'd like to entertain a motion to wave the requirement that a um that a policy second reading occurs at the next business meeting following the first policy reading as outlined in

026policy 2410. So moved. Moved by Vice President Malloy, seconded by Commissioner Patterson. All those in favor or open for discussion if there's a question around that. All those in favor? I I. It moves forward. So, at this point, uh, we're going to go into the second reading, uh, regarding We're actually going to go into the second reading regarding the students and personal electronic devices. We've done that one. We just did that one. I don't know why it's listed as a second one. Did 56.95. Commissioner, you had something for that one. No, you're off site. Okay. Does anyone have any comments or questions for 5695? Okay. We're going to move into the recession or recision of policy 43 11.2. This is regarding civic education. And I know we had um some conversation prior regarding this um

027policy and the desire to either keep it um or let it absorb into other the other policy. It does exist some of this language in other policies. Were there any concerns or questions someone wanted to bring forward regarding policy 43 4311.2? Okay. I see Commissioner Griffin's hand. Commissioner um Elliott, I'll go to you after Commissioner Griffin. After reviewing uh this policy and reviewing uh other districts, I think that it is it would be advantageous for us to keep this policy in place. Um, I find that other districts actually do not govern this and this gives uh Rochester actually a heads up uh and a lead on and making making sure that our children are in invested in and in in um invested in civic duties. I think that this this governs things like when I

028was in high school like the Explorers program, working with different community organizations and having having that hands-on experience. Um, and although they're they're not getting paid, it's act almost almost acts like an internship. Some some of them did get paid. Um, but I know with the Prism program, those things those things were hands-on and kids learned a lot and they actually actually branched out after that to get really great jobs. Xerox, Kodak, all these things that govern like the civic engagement. I think it definitely and it's it's huge. It's bigger than that. It's bigger than that. So, I think that uh we do some of it now with with Wegman's and and other o other institutions and organizations. So, it definitely is something that needs its own separate policy and it should not be removed

029as it is currently written. Thank you, Commissioner Griffin. Commissioner Elliott. Um, we're going to go over to Commissioner Santiago and I'll come back to you, Commissioner uh Elliott. All right. Thank you. Yeah, I just want to agree on the importance of keeping this policy in place, but not keeping it as it currently is written in the language that's currently written. We do know that the state has put out um guidelines and reg and uh different um objectives for our district to to meet and so we don't want the policy to be redundant which I believe currently in the state it can be redundant but I believe that we can find ways with this policy to explore how we can expand to get our expand our education uh to better civically prepare our students. Um, and

030I think that in in this policy, we can find ways to better support the district and not be redundant with with the current policy by the state. Um, and that's including uh really emphasizing the importance about learning local civic education. Um, that's something that I I do believe that our district is is not um leaning into as much as possible to speak about how does local government work, not just on a federal and a state level. Um, but also even with with supporting and pushing for more of more of our young people to be um pre-registered to vote. As as you guys know, you can register to vote at 16 years old. Um, you won't be able to vote until 18 years old, but you can pre-register. So, by the time you turn 18, you

031can just vote without registering. So, I think there's ways that we can turn this civic policy um into something that's not redundant, but that's a benefit to the education for our students uh civically um and effective and also even possibly putting goals in and ensuring that our young people are pre-registered to vote and civically educated about our local government and municipalities. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Santiago. Commissioner Elliott, thank you. So, I have on the phone with me the author of um this policy, Bill Baneet. Bill Bernay was a uh staunch um community person, served in the in the county legislature um and was heavily supported by uh former um Commissioner Will Powell. And so, uh I'm having him to listen to this conversation before we make a decision. I do support it uh in

032its form. Um but um we probably need to determine what it is that we are recommending as far as a different kind of policy because uh that's something that um uh Dr. Benet uh has felt strongly about that we should have this and uh perhaps uh he will be able to write us a letter with regard to it. But I do think that we should keep it and if there's some to Commissioner Santiago's point, if there's some language that perhaps need to be changed, um maybe we can look at that. But um I just wanted to have Dr. Benet to be a part of this conversation because he's the one that always brings this to us uh almost on an annual basis. He had been doing to um to make sure that we are in

033support of the policy. Thank you, Commissioner Elliott. Uh, Vice President Mallaloy, thank you. Um, I'm not opposed to keeping um this policy, although to what uh Commissioner Santiago said, uh, perhaps rewriting it um, in some way. Um, and to Commissioner Elliott's point, um, having other people with their expertise, especially those who have written this policy or helped us write this policy, having that, um, historical understanding is important. I'm not against uh civic education, although I will say it's pretty clearly outlined in the New York State um K through2 social studies framework um under standard 5 civics, citizenship, and government. So, if we can avoid redundancies, that would be great. Um although, if we want more of a local feel to it, I'm sure we can rewrite it. Um and I'm not opposed to that. Thank

034you. Thank you, Vice President Malloy. Were there any other comments or questions from commissioners? Vice, I'm sorry. Um, LeBron, Commissioner LeBron. Yeah. I just want to point out that both of these are being brought to us because the New York State School Board Association is saying that they are redundant. They're not required by law. They they they already exist to Commissioner Malloyy's point in other areas. She highlighted one area. Um, and it's part of NISSBA's sort of advice to us on a regular basis that any time that they're reviewing policies, laws, and whether it's redundant, whether there's a new way that districts are accomplishing things. Um, and I think that that is, uh, true for this in particular because it exists in other ways for students to gain civic engaged education. Um, I think if

035we start talking about doing something that's more local, that's a whole other conversation and a whole other policy. Um, but it's not this. And I want to support that NISSBA is saying that it's redundant. We don't need it. I'm going to support that. Thank you. Thank you. Were there any other questions or comments regarding this? I will say that um I will say that there are practices and then there are policies and things that are often practiced don't always show themselves in policy and practice can go away with institutional knowledge things of that nature. Um I also recognize the importance of not having redundancy. However, I think there are some things concerning this district that do need to be explicitly se uh set up in policy and understood and I think civic education and the

036next policy we're going to discuss are two of them. So, I'm open to further discussion around what we can do to shape policy that is relevant um and aligns with maybe what we're looking for on this board of education. Um and so we would need to determine how we'll move forward with either rescending these specific policies or how we will um revamp these policies to be more relevant and different and apart than policies that pre-exist or have been set up by NISSBA. Um and Commissioner Elliot, you had one more comment and then we'll end on that. So do Dr. Bernay is available to to meet with u anyone with regard to the policy. One of the things he did say was is that the policy never was fully implemented. So, we really don't know what

037that looks like uh in terms of it being fully implemented. Um I I do know that if you look at some of our practices, some of of what we have for for what our students have done in terms of coming to us when there have been some issues that they've had uh some concerns with that is um civic education and civic engagement. Um that's an example of it, but it is not um to Dr. Bernay's point uh fully um fully um actualized imple fully implemented um but he is willing you know to look at what uh the civic education piece of NI NISSBA uh is speaking to and he has no problems with it being um you know adjusted um to that. So uh I just wanted to add that historical perspective. uh you know

038the board has to make its own decision around it and if it does have if part of the the new framework the new NISMA framework is civic education um you know hopefully what we've put into place uh on a local level uh is um uh uh aligns with or could align with what's done on a um on a a statewide level. Now, I would also say uh I don't know if there are other school districts or boards of education that have done this kind of work. Uh sometimes we seem to be the forerunners on some of these endeavors and the state and others look towards us. And so, um this is something that we've done. I don't remember if any other school districts had a policy that came from the community like this. Um but

039this board uh and previous boards are to be commended. Thank you. Thank you. And so I'm going to defer to you, clerk, uh, Travis, around um, if we choose to unpack this a little further. We're not prepared to necessarily vote yay or nay on rescending this policy. Um, I do want to place on record that Clerk Win did provide via email to all commissioners the current New York State policies as well as these so that you can identify potential redundancies, but also to give us some understanding of how we might be able to navigate this to create or u morph this into a policy that is relevant. Um, so should we choose to go that way, we want to continue developing or figuring out what we want to do with this particular policy as it

040stands, what is our our next plan of action there. Um, I would I would recommend being clear as to how you all want to move forward. Do you want to because normally policies are reviewed with administration's input and then given to the board for review. So I guess the question becomes is the board looking to develop the policy and if so we can add it to each of your upcoming meetings for you all to discuss each time based on what I heard the historical piece and the appetite to continue this conversation is what I'm picking up is um we would want to probably develop a policy um from so we're not going to rescend right now we need to make a decision on what that policy development looks like. So, we'll use this as a

041placeholder, I guess you could say. Until then, um, if that is where the board so agrees looking for my fellow commissioners to let me know. Well, if we can if we can also reach into to out to Dr. Bernet, I can provide Charisma with the phone number um so that you do have the historical contents of context if that's something the board um wishes uh me to do to get Absolutely. I think I've had one of those conversations. So we'll definitely accept that. And then also I want to move on to the rescention of policy 4314.2. This policy like the civic education policy was around I'm sorry. We need to vote on that. Yeah. I'm sorry. Um I'm I'm I'm actually going to make um I think the board has two options. Um it it

042it sounds like there is not an appetite to resend at at this time. So I think the board has two options. either you you take the vote and and and the policy is kept and sent back for some work to be done and brought back in a different form. Okay. Or or the board could just vote to postpone it further until a future date to bring it up again. But but I I think um uh you know maybe a pertinent course right now is just to take the vote and and if if you you don't want to resend, you vote no and then the policyy's worked on and and brought back and and goes from there. Yeah, I'd like to make that motion. I I'm sorry. I would also ask part of the motion to

043be clear as to when you all want it to come back because it's not part of the policy calendar to come back anytime soon. Yeah. I'm not interested in kicking this can down the road inevit, you know, indefinitely. So, um, before we do that, um, so the motion on the table will be entertaining a motion to postpone policy 43. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, President U. Simmons. Yes. So, the the the the resolution is already there. It's a resolution to to res to uh resend. Okay. So, if if Right. So, if you don't want to resend, the board can vote no to resend. Right. To resend policy 43. Okay. Okay, let me restate that. Thank you for your patience, everyone. Um, entertaining a motion to resend policy 4311.2. That's the motion on the table. Motion by

044Commissioner Griffin. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Santiago. All in favor of I'm sorry. I had made the motion in the beginning. Oh, okay. Thank Thank you. Okay. Thank you. You can correct the record for us. Thank you. I I don't think I had put the motion all the way out there. So, I appreciate that. So, do you have that corrected for yourself? Okay. Thank you so much. Um and so I think there's no further questions or comments on this policy. All in favor of rescending policy 4311.2. I hold on. I've got the mic. I'm going to call this to order. Any opposed? Nay, nay. So, so, so let's take that one more time to be fair. Right. So, we're all confused and I'm glad I'm not by myself today. All right. So, again, um, all in

045favor of rescending policy 4311.2. I I I'm an I. You can mark me as a yay. I'm a yay. We should be from what I'm hearing, Commissioner LeBron should be the only I pretty much. Yeah, you are. You do want to rescend it. Okay. So, the two Okay. Commissioner Mallaloy, I got your shoes. And Commissioner LeBron are res in favor of rescending the policy. Okay. Any opposed? Nay. I'm not. Okay. Did you catch that one? Yeah, I did it wrong. I did it backwards. You're doing it backwards again. So, and all in favor of it not. So, they would So, two commissioners would like to rescend it and then the collective rest of us are not. Um, Commissioners Lebron and Vice President Malloy as a yes and everyone else is a no. Right. Okay. Okay.

046We got there. It took us a while, but we we made it. Okay. So, moving forward with uh the resention of policy 43, I'm sorry, 14.2. Yes. Move forward. So, it fell, which means the policy will remain as is. You did mention instead of get being kicked down the road, when will the board like Oh, thank you for that. Um well the next board business meeting is July 31st. Okay. And I think by then we should be able to have curated some form of language or idea around what we want to see different. Again clerk win has provided us all with the uh NISBA policies we can take a look and if there's something specifically we want to see between now and that time we can have reached out to Mr. Benet looked at the

047policies and have some language to put up. That concludes that conversation at this time. What I'd like to do is move into um the consideration of resention of policy 4314.2. Um entertaining a motion for the rescention of policy 4314.2. Can I are we going to discuss this or we're going to because right now the motion's on the table. Okay. By vice president Malloy. I need a second. Seconded by Commissioner Santiago. This is now open for discussion regarding policy 4314.2. Yeah. Why are we rescending this? What's the reason why we're rescending this? Um so the same conversation we had in regard to policy 4311.2. Um in our previous meeting, these policies were presented for recent. And I'm you asked a question so I'm just going to give trying to get I was talking specifically about 4314.

048Is that is that if you allow me I will complete that. Thank you. Okay. Go ahead. So similar to the previous policy we just discussed both policies came before the board for recent um based on the fact that New York State now has policies that are written and it was found that these policies pretty much duplicate the language or the spirit of those policies. So the suggestion so that we don't have policies that just exist to exist was that we resend them. Um during that conversation I believe board members shared um an important uh appetite around let not so quick let's take a look and explore this. So this is a second one that um came up in that conversation. Would you like to comment on this one? Yeah just specific to this one is

049are we tying this into the other one as well saying that this is totally separate. Correct. So we chose to postpone the one for the civic engagement, right? So what I would like I would also like to see this postponed as well because I think this is this is very important to our children. Um this is something that I know I used growing up in school and I think that this is something that is lucrative to all our kids success. So, I don't see how this one could be this one would be rescended and this one and the other one be postponed because they really work hand in hand in a lot of ways. I I definitely disagree with this one being rescended as well. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Griffin. Commissioner Santiago. Yeah. Uh just

050for just for clarification, um this this policy that we're currently um looking at is a policy that there's also another policy inside of the policy book. And so this isn't one that is connected to the state. The civic education one was, but this one is there's repeated language in both duplication. Thank you. Um and I just want to say after looking at both, I believe that this one uh can be rescended seeing that there's information and there's another policy with the same information. Um, I did take time to look at both policies. It's around the same language, uh, the same objectives and goals. Um, it would be great to see more CTE focused, you know, goals and language in there. And so I think with that being said, I I will also like to propose

051that this policy is rescended, you know, but also with the policy that is currently in place in replacement to this policy that there's edits to uh, hone in a little bit more focus on uh, CTE. um and students who are are planning to to take CTE as a career. Um and so I think that we can definitely resend this policy if the board of course agrees with that. But I think in the policy that replaces this one if we can put more of an emphasis on CTE um in there for the secondary uh education uh policy. Thank you. Okay. And it sounds like you would need to bring that policy forward to a a future work session so that we can take a look at the edits. Um should it is that is that one

052on the schedule or have we passed that one the one he's referencing? No from the um June the June 26th visit to me I had to think about the date you all just updated 4095 and that's what I wanted to add on. So just to be clear, if you look at the screen that John could share, um if you look at 4095 that is currently attached, the highlighted yellow sections of that policy, it is what was removed. I'm sorry, what was taken from the other policy so it could be rescended because of the redundancy. And so it has been updated as of June 26 based on the board vote to update the policy as well as the um title of the policy um to be aligned with CTE. So I say to say it's not

053coming back on the calendar. However, if the board of course wanted to come back, let us know that. But the other thing piece I would also say is just be mindful of the the fact that we we already took language from that other policy to add into this policy that if you decide to keep the other policy that to then remove the language so that it really isn't duplicated. Um, and I don't I personally don't agree Santiago if Yeah, if I can if I can finish off. I I personally think that that policy should be rescended. But I if also here on this floor if I have to make the the the motion that this policy is brought um brought up closer and on a sooner date for review with our current superintendent uh to

054to go under review to add if if this board agrees more CTE priorities in that policy. We can. So after the recession, uh, after the vote for the recession, if I could make that motion, um, I think that as a commissioner, I have the right to do that. But if I'm You would like to make the motion for the other policy, the policy that you're referencing. Um, yes, that one. Say it one more time. I'm sorry. I'll repeat. 4 40 495. 4095. Thank you. All right. That we gonna make it, but I'll do it after this, folks. Yeah. So, what I'm going to Yeah. to do is at this point the the policy on the table for discussion is again the matter is the um entertaining the motion to resend policy 4314.2 and so we

055are on the uh discussion of that um Commissioner Griffin I'm going to allow you if you could just be brief with your next statement because I'm trying I've been trying to speak for a little while and every time I try to speak somebody else just let me level set here. So, what I'm going to try what I would like to do is maintain order. And if I'm missing anyone, I'm I'm going to ask for a little bit of help and support. Uh Charisma is going to help me with the online screen because we don't see the tiny hands. They're not visible. Uh Commissioner Elliot. So, Charisma is going to just go ahead and speak into the mic and bring it to my attention if there's a hand on screen so that I don't miss her.

056And then also, um we're going to try to bring the conversation in just a bit. So, Commissioner Griffin, I guess my biggest concerns when we do stuff and we when we're working on these policies and we're making these changes, yeah, we have duplicates, but I think that most importantly, we need to make those changes and and and at that time, and then and then vote on it. I feel like we we miss things when we say, "Oh, we're going to get back to it." So, I think it's very important that we be we be we be advantageous in knowing that, hey, listen, I don't want to interrupt you. I want to I'm definitely trying to maintain respect in the quorum. However, what I need if you're going to make a comment at this particular I

057am making a comment about about this in particular because it was the question was I need to speak finish my president I need I need to finish this point. So what I'm saying is that the point that I'm trying to make because I don't want to recess the meeting the gives me a moment to just redirect. I appreciate this. What are you redirecting though? President, if you allow me to finish, I'm going to give you the understanding that I need you to have, which is that right now the conversation on the table is not about the processes or what we think about how we handle things. Right now, I'm asking for commissioners. This this floor is open to directly respond to policy 4314. And that's what I'm doing. But you're not allowing me. I know

058what I was saying. And I think that you're not giving that me that time to do use my voice. I know how to speak. So let me finish my voice and let me speak and then you will get your answer. Please don't do that because I'm that to me is taking away my voice. Okay. Okay. I appreciate that. Please continue. So um as I was saying when we when we have these policies and we're make we need to make these changes. Sometimes it seems that we're not getting back around to making the appropriate changes and our kids are missing out. So, as was stated, yeah, there may be some redundancy here, but I think that if we if we if we sit back on it, the kids are going to miss out. And I this

059policy has been here for a long time, yet we're not following it. So, I want to just ensure that we're going to make the appropriate changes and it's not going to be put on the back burner like a lot of these policies are that we're going over because as to the other policy, civic policy, the same thing. So, I just want to ensure that the things that are documented in here as what uh Commissioner Santiago was saying about the CTE are are actually done in appropriate time in a fashion so that we are addressing the needs of our of our of our students. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Griffin. Commissioner Elliott, thank you. So, what I wanted to uh this really is a question. It's posed to um um Commissioner Griffin because she had

060mentioned, Commissioner, you had mentioned that you wanted um if the other policy was going to remain um or we going to, you know, discuss it further that this one should remain. I wanted to know uh before I took a vote, why do you feel that that one from my from the first policy it was about historical context? So I wanted to kind of understand uh why do you want to continue with the current policy? Is there some some background or some information that we don't know about? Um as I talked about uh the policy doc that Dr. Bnee brought up. Is there some other um rationale that you believe that we need to consider as a board um in order to retain this policy? Thank you. Um Commissioner Elliot, I'll give you the floor. Thank

061Oh, thank you, Pres. Wait, I'm sorry. Thank you, um President Simmons. Uh I appreciate that, Pres. Uh Commissioner Elliott. Um yes, I believe that a lot of this information here may be lost. um because a lot of the information here um that is stated here is is is not in the other one and my concern is that the verbiage will be lost with the trans with with combining them both. So I would love to have us sit down with us as a group sit down and look at the both of them side by side with with um with the superintendent to see and have the input of us all before we take it off the table so that we're not missing anything. I think that a a lot of times that what has happened is

062that the administrators are making the decisions and we're not at the table. So it it kind of takes away from us actually knowing what's going on. So I do appreciate what you're saying. I believe we need to sit with both of these at the table like we don't have a policy committee anymore or no chair. We need to sit down as they do at the round table and look at both of them side by side when they made the decision to mark this one out. So I think that's what we should be doing. the same way that they sit at the table, we should be sitting at the table as commissioners to look at them side by side with the superintendent. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And that's not what we're doing now. Isn't that

063what we're supposed to be doing now? Thank you, Commissioner Elliot, and thank you, Commissioner Griffin. I'm going to ask that you both we thank you for this conversation. Were there any final discussion items regarding No, but can that can that question be answered? Is that what we're supposed to be doing now? Or to Commissioner Griffith's point, do we need to take this to another meeting? So, I want clarity on that. Are you So, that's Commissioner Griffin can't make that call, but the collective board can. Um, and so I would pose that question to the full board. Question. This is a work session. Is this what we're supposed to be doing now or give me some direction here? Because I'm unclear. I thought this is a work session and some of this we may could do

064now is what I thought. Unless I'm unclear. Um, because this is a work session. Well, it depends on the will of the board and where the board falls. So, if the board collectively makes a decision that they're not interested in moving forward with it, then it doesn't carry. Um, if the board is interested in doing so, then we would need to do that. But before we can make that determination, that's the conversation that needs to go on hand and then we can have that clarity. I think that would be the best route or course of action. So, with that said, um I guess we want to determine where the will of the board is in regard to the resention of policy 4314.2. I'm entertaining a motion. That's that's the motion on the table to resend

065this policy. Do who supports the resention of it? I guess we're on the we're on the I need to know the board appetite. Yep. I vote would resend the policy. A nay vote would keep the policy and then we can take the next course of action. So where's the board's appetite as far as I on rescending 4314.2? Uh yeah, I'm going to actually roll call it for clarity. Commissioner Santiago. Commissioner LeBron is an I. Commissioner Santiago. Thank you. Because I vote to resend the policy also. Commissioner Santiago is an I. Vice President Malloy is an I. President Sim is an is an I. Commissioner Patterson nay. Is a nay. Commissioner Griffin nay is a nay. And commissioner Elliot um I is an I to rescend. So it looks like the eyes have it. So effective

066this evening resention the resention of policy 4314.2 to um has been rescended at this time. How so? I'm sorry if I can be recognized. Uh how how can I make a motion for for policy 4095 to be up for review in the the next month policy calendar? All right. Well, I I would like to make a motion for the refu for the review and possible modification of policy 4095 in the next uh policy calendar month. Um is that just to be clear, you want to bring it back to the August work session? Absolutely. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Mallaloy, seconded by uh Commissioner uh LeBron. All those in favor? I'm totally lost here. So, what what's happening here? There's a whole different conversation happening at the other end of this board that I don't know nothing

067about. Me, none of us heard it over here. We are not Nobody's on the same page. Can we please be on the same page? Who's in charge? Commissioner Griffin, this is a little bit Commissioner Griffin. Yes, I'm here. Are you okay? Okay. Now, give me one moment. I'll I'll help level set this for you, please. Commissioner Santiago, would you like to just revisit quickly? Yes. What just took place? Yeah. So, the policy that was in replacement of this policy was voted to be rescended. With this policy, um I I put up the concern of of adding more CTE priorities in this policy. And so, I made a motion for the policy that is currently in place, which is 4095, to be up for review on the next uh calendar, the policy month calendar, if you

068know what I mean. and uh for it to be up for review uh for those changes with the administration and the board for August work session. Okay. So basically we are Did that clarify it for you? Oh yeah sure did. Okay. The motion was from uh Commissioner Mallaloy second by Commissioner Lebron. All those in favor? I I discussion. Oh, this is there any discussion? Because we voted already, but I just Well, I allowed him he asked to um bring that motion to the floor and I Yes, that's what happened. And so I allowed for that to take place. Um Vice President Mallaloy, thank you. And I think some of the concerns that you brought up, Commissioner, um will be addressed by revisiting the other policy so that there is more of a focus perhaps on

069CTE. I think that's all we would be doing is looking at perhaps changing um that language. So I think it kind of meets the needs of what everyone has been saying. Okay. So thank you. That was a great suggestion. 4095 that's where we'll be able to visit that. And so how are we finalizing this final? All in favor? Okay. Well, is this for 4095? Go ahead and finish up. All those in favor? I. Any oppose? Any uh Commission, sorry. Commissioners Patterson, Griffin, and um Elliot, I need you to say yay or nay. Yeah, you can hear me. Oh, I can hear you now. Okay. Are you a yay or nay? Commissioner Elliot, I'm a yay. Okay. What about Patterson and um Griffin? No. Yay. I'm a nay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Welcome Dr. Roser.

070Welcome to the jungle. This is Baptism by Fire and we have not opened um officially to to welcome you. Um, but I do want you to know that your presence is deeply needed, deeply appreciated in advance, and uh, we officially welcome you to your first uh, work session with the Rochester Board of Education. Uh, at this time, I do recognize that you have a 100 day plan that you will be presenting to the board. So, I'm going to jump off the mic and defer to you, sir. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Um, I really want to thank the board commissioners for providing me with an opportunity to serve the children and the families of the Rochester City School District. Also want to extend my thank you to the school community and the general community

071for their warm reception of me um being five days on the job. Um, as many of you are fully aware, I had the opportunity of spending 20 plus days um, physically here in the district and that provided me with a great opportunity to understand the challenges and the opportunities that exist here in the Rochester City School District. It is important that as I begin my tenure here in the Rochester City School District that I continue with my listening learning um of the landscape of the Rochester City School District. But now that I'm official um officially the superintendent, it also gives me an opportunity to respond to what I've heard um and will continue to hear from members of our community that want to share more about our community as well as the organization. For me,

072having a deep-seated understanding of our district and community will only provide me with a greater sense of information that will help inform my leadership as well as the leadership of the school district on nest next steps that we will need to take in order to address the needs of our children, our staff members, and our community at large. Over the next 100 days, I will focus on listening, learning, and responding to strengthen our district to align our actions that are aligned to the strategic plan that was developed a few years ago. This work will include engaging deeply with students, family, staff, and community partners to build trust and share purpose. Elevate the focus of quality of instruction across all schools. supporting a culture of safety, belonging, and joy in every classroom. Championing transparency, accountability, and

073operational excellence, and building partnerships that elevate student centered culture throughout the Rochester community. During my 100 days, I will focus on five critical focus areas. One will be strategic alignment. Second will be teaching and learning. The third will be organizational culture and health. Fourth will be organization effectiveness and alignment. And the fifth will be engaging school, home and community stakeholders and building trust, collaboration and elevating a student centered culture. It is important that that when we talk about the first focus area strategic alignment that we do so so that we can gather insight on how students a student centered district and community priorities, resources, systems and programs can be aligned with central office and school leaders to achieve the goals outlined in strategic plan. One of the big takeaways and action steps that we will

074be engaging in within the first 100 days is beginning to develop a community aligned centered student centered framework under teaching and learning which is the core business of our organization. It is going to be important for me to analyze and assess the academic strengths and areas of growth in the district and align central office and school leaders to achieve the goals outlined in the strategic plan. Three areas of the 13 that will be action steps are as follows. I will be reviewing the academic organizational structure to identify areas of success and opportunities for improvement. I will also be assessing the coherence of the district's literacy and mathematics instructional framework and also assessing special education and bilingual education programs including academic and social emotional support to ensure instructional quality and alignment with the district and New

075York State expectations under organizational culture and health. It is going to be important that I continue to develop a deeper understanding of the culture and overall health of the organization to support the continuous improvement process of creating enhancing environments conducive to learning instruction leading of course to positive school outcomes for all of our students. One of the major action steps out of the 12 action steps that can be found in the 100 day plan that I will be engaged in and is examining the district's process for gathering and responding to feedback from students, staff, parents, and community members about the school climate and safety of our school district. Under organizational effectiveness and alignment, it's going to be important that I engage stakeholders and assessing how effectively the district meets its responsibilities to students in the

076community with a focus on student success and responsible use of resources and to develop recommendations for policy and funding improvements that support continuous improvement. here. Of course, working very closely with the board of education in developing and implementing the council of great city schools student centered governance model as well as conducting a deep dive into the budgeting process to ensure the maximization of resources for improved student achievement, operational efficiency, and organizational effectiveness. And then lastly, and just as importantly, engaging our school, home, and community stakeholders to build trust, collaboration, and to elevate a student centered culture, to build trusting and meaningful relationships by being visible at school and community events is going to be a priority of mine. It's going to be important that not only I but we as a school district strengthen our

077existing partnerships to support a school home and community approach to advancing student success. Some of the actions I've already taken with this is to schedule standing meetings with the state monitor and fiscal consultant. schedule standing meetings with the mayor of the city of Rochester as well as the county exec offering an opportunity for the presidents of ASAR Bente RAP and RTA to meet with me on a monthly basis to talk about how we might be able to join forces to better the conditions of education here in Rochester by supporting of course our employees who have that awesome responsibility. I have already scheduled and we will be publishing very shortly fireside chats which will provide an opportunity for the community to hear from me directly as well as to have access to me to ask me

078questions related to the district's responsiveness and meeting the needs of our children. Those dates have been scheduled for September 23rd, January 13th, March 24th, and June 9th. We are currently in the process of identifying locations and times for those fireside chats. In the immediate future, there will be a community conversation scheduled for Saturday, August 23rd at 11:00 a.m. at Dr. Iris J. Banister School number 33. in which during this event we will also be doing the ribbon cutting for the renaming of the school. At this point in time I open up this conversation, this presentation to any board commissioner who may have questions of me related to my first 100 days. But before I I open up the table, I do also want to to note and to highlight that given some of the challenges

079that we're facing here um as a as a um as citizens in this country. While my 100 day plan does not speak specifically to the work, the very much needed work that we need to do as a school district to make sure that the interest of our children and our families are protected based upon the foolishness that's happening at the federal level. That's going to be a top priority of mine. is going to be critically important as I've mentioned in many circles already that we come together as a community to really focus on what we can do here locally to support our children and our families who are going to be impacted by the recent passing of the Big Beautiful Bill Act. We as a community need to make sure that we are protecting one

080another, making sure that those who may not have and who will not receive special support from our federal government that we find ways here locally to be able to support our children and our families. So, with that being said, I want to open it up to any commissioner who may have questions related to my 100 day plan. Thank you so much, Dr. Roser, Superintendent Roser uh for your presentation um this evening. So, the floor is open for any statements or questions. And Commissioner Santiago, just wondering uh your plans um for accountability to this to the board for your first 100 day plan. Um, so how how do you plan to measure this um and also update the board uh at periodic times about the um achievements in your 100 day plan? Great question. Um, Commissioner

081Santiago, um, the team and I have already begun to put together a public-f facing dashboard that will sort of outline what my accomplishments are over the hundred days. But I'm also hoping that at our retreat this upcoming Thursday that we will be able to have deeper conversations about what the board's expectations are for me to provide periodic updates not only to the board but also to the community. But there will be a public-f facing document on our website that will track um my and my team's efforts with um the elements of the 100 day plan with a followup after our 100 days of me providing a report to the board as well as the community during one of these sessions of what my findings are and what my recommendations will be. I'm also um one

082in support and and happy that you put in your presentation um pushing this district to be more student centered focus um in every school uh even here in central office and uh at board meetings and I also look forward to how you plan to engage the community um into education or and partnerships you know around our community specifically in the city of Rochester. Um certainly like you said as as we have financial effects so will our community and uh I think it's best for us to find ways to cycle the the things that we need the services that we need um and also to help our young people uh through the partnerships with our community. So I look forward to see uh how you do that and look forward to those updates. Thank you. Thank

083you Commissioner Santiago. Any other questions or comments regarding the 100 day plan that's presented? Any hands on the screen? Prisma. Yes. Okay, perfect. Thank you, Commissioner Elliot. So, so, Superintendent um Roser, a couple questions here. Um what do you hope what do you hope that your plan will accomplish? Well, definitely providing me with an opportunity to deepen my understanding of the district as well as to align systems that currently are misaligned. making sure that when it comes to our partnerships that we continue to build trust to make sure that we're all operating on one accord. to make sure that when it comes to the efficiencies that we may be missing right now that our organization becomes more efficient through my 100 days or we identify a pathway by which we can become more efficient and

084ultimately to make sure that we are structured in such a way that when it comes to the impact that we have on student success be it academic be it social emotional or wellness that our students are receiving the highest quality educational experience here in the Rochester City School District. Um, and another question is, how much will this 100 day plan cost us? Not a penny. All right. And then, um, you talk about the foolishness at the federal level, which I, um, totally agree. And um you know, we've got a uh pretty uh healthy uh pocketbook at this point. Um and um you know, I have been very adamant about us not spending it because we just didn't know what we did not know and what will happen. And so um um and we still don't

085necessarily know all of how it's going to impact us on the federal level. Um but I I would say that we need to be cautious. We need in terms of your e uh 100 day plan. I believe that it need I believe that what should come out of it is a a a position in which we have we are buffering ourselves as much as possible from what may impact us on um the federal level. Um, and I also, um, think that the plan, as you mentioned, has to put our children first and ensure that we are educating every child, um, within our district with fidelity. Um, and we we have a challenge with that. So, I'm hoping that your plan is going to position us in order to um to be able to do that.

086And I'll just say this to you, uh, Mr. Superintendent, we're at a time we have to protect our children. Mhm. Uh there's so much going on out there and school normally is a safe haven. It's a a beacon of hope for our children. We're living in times now that um it is just going to be I believe so could be uh so detrimental to our children and what they're seeing um that we have to make sure that we are protecting them uh as best as we can. Thank you. Yeah. And if I can just state, you know, a couple different things that that we're looking at right now. In our budget, we are projecting to receive 11.5 million in um IDA funding from the federal government. Title dollars is roughly 38 point 30, excuse me,

087$33.8 million. And with Medicaid reimbursement, based upon the presentation that was provided at the last meeting, um we are projecting um to receive $3.8 $.8 million in Medicaid reimbursement. Right now, all of this is in jeopardy. Um, as we learned last week that the federal government um is currently reviewing title funds um and they're not releasing them as they would have by July 1st. And we don't know whether or not they're going to be released as we anticipated um or they're going to be released with reductions. Same thing with the Medicaid reimbursement. With the passing of the Beautiful Bill Act, and it's very difficult for me to even say that, but the passing of that act, we already know that Medicaid is in jeopardy. What we also know is that not only families are going

088to be impacted, but we can also guess that public schools are going to be impacted when it comes to the Medicaid reimbursement. we need to be very conscientious as to what these financial implications will have on the school district, you know, not only today but also in the future as well. Thank you. Um I would too that um and this may not be the time but um I love that there's going to be a public facing website with a dashboard of of accomplishments and where we are and then a report out on what's to come. Um, and I'm also wondering, um, for our communities, our school communities, as well as our parents and so on, um, that they are educated on these cuts in a way that informs them of what what is happening or

089how the district is moving on some level. Um, and this would be a regular touch point, I would think, um, in a way that of course does not create panic, but keeps them informed and demonstrates a sense of urgency that comes along with the with the changes that are happening. There are a lot of community efforts. I think there's one tomorrow night even taking place around this conversation. There's some, you know, that are happening in all these different pockets, but the full community um, won't know. And then as far as this place of education, this would be a great space for that ongoing communication to take place. I do see your hand, Commissioner Griffin. Um, I'm going to go to you at this point in time. Thank you, President. Sorry. Give me one moment. I'm

090sorry. This is Charisma. Yes. She has her hand back up. I'm going to go to Commissioner Griffin and then I'll come um back to you if there's no other. I'll come back to Do you have one, too? I'll come back up there later. Go ahead. Thank you uh President Simmons and thank you uh Dr. Superintendent Roser for giving your 100 100 day plan. I am happy to see one thing in here that I haven't seen uh uh done in this district in a long long time uh and only one school is actually actively that I could see is doing it uh which is a PTA. PTA is extremely extremely important to parent engagement. This is something that I grew up on. Uh a lot of us grew up on and and what it does and

091what I've seen it do in in the district when I was going to school is it had the parents they were engaged in graduations. They were grazing the balls, the proms and and they made thing they made sure those things happened. Over the past couple of years, we have issues with our graduations with proms and balls. And I think if we had a PTA across the board in every school and we had those parents on on hand, then these things would not fall through the through the through the holes. I think it's very important that you that you noted that in there. That is lucrative. It should have never ever been put to the wayside when it comes to when it comes to our parent. It is something that is really really big and a

092lot of other districts uh they they bank on it and it's it's kept things afloat. So I appreciate you adding that in there as action step. Really do. Thank you so much. Thank you Commissioner Patterson. Yep. Dr. Roser, thank you uh again for your report. Um I thought it was very thorough. Um, again, uh, I just like to let you know for the the time that I have left here that I'm in fully support of you. Um, you know, like I said, when you gave that report, um, it just blew me away. So, uh, it was very thorough. So, um, you gave clarity, you know, to it. There there isn't any question. So, I look forward to working with you. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Commissioner Patterson. Uh, Commissioner Elliot. Um, thank you.

093So uh another point you didn't mention in the plan and I because I have not seen the plan uh about um food our food line from the federal government. Is that also something that we're looking at um that may also be in jeopardy uh funding from the USDA? Yeah. Anything dealing with federal funds we're we're taking a close look at. We're doing a deep dive to see, you know, whether or not it's going to be impacted. um each and every day I'm I'm looking online just to make sure that I'm not missing, you know, important information either from the council of the great city schools or um our state education department. Um one of the things that I will share with you that we're definitely looking into is um we're looking at our current food

094pantries um and seeing whether or not our current food food pantries are are adequately stocked. We're getting an inventory on where they're located. And we're also looking to work with community- based organizations who may have an interest with supporting expanding our food pantries, not only those that currently exist, but also establishing new food pantries. Because if SNAP is most certainly going to be impacted, we need to make sure that we are supporting our families by connecting resources that are available in the community that may not be easily accessible to our families or may not be known to our families. that we're providing an easy connection for our families and we're looking to do so through, you know, establishing and expanding um current food pantries in our school district. Well, let me just let me just

095as a person who works in the community, let me just say I wouldn't depend on it. Uh the reason I say that is because even now uh funding is tight in a lot of these organizations. people are calling in to for a back rent uh for security deposit uh and at my organization we don't have any money right um and so we may have some food but if you check with food link you know it may reduce uh their um ability their inventory so you know I I would like to talk with you about it maybe at some point because I think there may be a way in which um we can we can partner but don't depend on a lot of the organizations because they just don't have the funding and and in many

096regards, you know, their budgets are so small uh that they don't have the ability to be able to um um resource a lot of what our communities need, but I'd like to talk to you about that at once at some point. Yeah, I I'll most certainly reach out to you and maybe we can have a conversation early next week. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other conversations, conversations, comments, questions in regard to the 100 day plan presented? Okay, we'll conclude this part of the work session at this time. Um, we are about 1 hour in to this work session and I'm going to turn the mic over to our board clerk for this evening, Charisma Travis, who is um going to speak with us regarding the coordination of future work sessions. Good

097evening commissioners and a viewing audience. So, if you look at the attachments and board docs which is being shared, this is just a quick reminder. Uh, clerk win went over this a few months ago about how um, work session agendas is supposed to look like. Um, and so just really quickly, there will be items for discussion for policy and uh, then then what would happen is that the resolutions for the work session, so the resolutions for the upcoming business meeting for that month for academics and administrative supports would be here at this point in PDF form which will allow the board to ask questions. um so the administration can make the adjustments that's needed. So by the business meeting um you all have what you need to vote on a consent agenda based off of

098the governance model you've been um adopting and then any written reports will be added. Of course you know if needed uh based on the um board president the categories may change but as of right now this is just an example of what the agenda would look like for future work sessions. Also attached is just a quick overview of the topics that um could be discussed. This is not a finalized thing. This is drafted. Um as Dr. Rossa continued to get acclimated, you know, definitely could reook and see if there are other topics that need to be added or removed. Um but as of right now, these topics came from the the um prior committee meetings that were um absorbed as of right now with audit being the only committee. So this is just a way

099to continue those other committees um focus and work. Thank you. Thank you, Charisma. Um, are there any thoughts or questions or comments regarding what information was presented? So, I'd implore us all to take a look at this re uh familiarize oursel with the information presented as this will be an adjustment. The work sessions are different than our committees. Um so right now we are live going live kind of raw and figuring it out. Um but we're getting a pulse on how the work sessions can be conducted. And if we recall the council for great city schools did give a time frame. Um you know we we're not always looking to be here till midnight. I don't know about you all. I'm not. Um and so 90 minutes is a good time frame for a work

100session. We do understand that there's a lot of business to be conducted, conversations to be had, and so that may not always be plausible, but that is certainly a a nice goal. Um, so moving from the work session conversation, uh, let me take a look here. We're going to move into the resolution process. Um, and I think this is a timely conversation given our last board meeting. We had uh a lot of resolutions in front of us and um revisiting how this process works and um maybe some recommendations um will be beneficial to us. So, I'm going to turn the mic over to Mayor Saul Ramos Lopez at this time. Chief Ramos Lopez, President Simmons, I'm not sure why you're turning it over to me. Oh, I'm sorry. Hold on. [Music] because per my notes

101so I'm following those very diligently and I maybe I made a mistake here but it it says the resolution review uh process review and it has you listed around discussing that and how it will be reviewed in the meetings so I trusted this okay I'm I'm happy to talk a little bit about that and the use of the work session to go through the resolution ions. I did have a conversation with district clerk win earlier today. I do think that as part of your retreat later on this week, a discussion is going to be had on the resolution development process since uh 2020 when uh we were assigned a state monitor. We've gone through a number of iterations to improve the resolution process. the timelines associated with the resolution process and the quality of the

102materials that you receive in a timely fashion. We went from a 4-week schedule to a sixw week schedule, thereby giving the opportunity for board members to have more time to review them. Now that we're coming into the work session, we are working with the administration to make sure that you have a robust amount of resolutions to review after this meeting. However, there is still time for submission of resolutions and those will be noted in the packet so that you when you come to the board meeting, you will know the resolutions that were reviewed during the work session and those items that have been added after the work session. Okay. Um, so maybe there's opportunity for clarity and it and I you're good on your feet. You're good on your feet. I have to commend you

103on that. Thank you for for that. Um I'm going to allow for some questions recognizing that you may not have all of the information right now. Commissioner Griffin. Yes. If you could ask uh Mayor Saw u the the the uh well not even ask we should have a cut off of those resolutions. Isn't there a cut off? We do. And I think that part of the discussion that may be happening at the retreat. I'm not 100% sure that has been slated into your agenda will show what our calendar is. We do have a calendar, okay, that we work by. We do have a cut off time and we do have a process for exceptions beyond those timelines. Additionally, though not regularly used, the superintendent can bring a resolution as a walk-on. Okay? So the board

104considers it because it's an emergency situation because it's a last minute issue that arose because and and um general counsel Neil brings them up to the board as well for discussion. Usually it happens uh as a discussion in executive and then it's brought in as a walk- on resolution. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's my Okay. All right. Any questions or comments regarding this the information presented at this juncture of the meeting? You look like you have a question, Commissioner Patterson. I don't know if it's the time or place for it, but are we talking about resolutions and we're talking about timeliness in those meetings? Is it okay to raise those questions right now or um I think well it was this was about the the process review which includes the timing of resolutions which

105I think she touched on and so what would be the avenue um you would suggest or recommend for us to to follow up so that we because I I was under the impression we were going to get like a actual review of the process presentation style or something like what I can do is to make sure that either at our retreat on Thursday evening that we are prepared prepared to give a presentation, but I want to first check with um board clerk win um to see what that agenda currently looks like. And in the event that there is not um an opportunity or time on the agenda for us to provide that presentation is to provide that presentation at a future meeting. Okay, that sounds good to me. Commissioner Patterson, does that um work for

106you with Dr. Ross or just Yeah, we'll talk offline. Okay. Okay. Um, any other questions or concerns to present regarding this? Thank you, Chief Ramos Lopez. Thank you. Okay. Okay. The other conversation we had prior to this meeting, we had to come back and revisit was around speakers um parent advisors and student advisors um as being part of these work sessions. So as we recognized during the committee meetings we had which were several um different committees they we had the opportunity for parent representation on those committees. Um and of course um those com um we also have the opportunity now to consider if we would like to have speakers come before us during work sessions to have conversation or share comments and also if we'd like to share this space with student adviserss. We want

107to share the space with everyone. Um, is this the space to do it and how that might look? I'm going to turn over to Charisma. Um, she says that you will lead the presentation. Some f Okay, because you look confused. Don't do that. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Travis who will lead the presentation um around some of these decision-making points. Thank you, President Simmons. Sure. Okay. So, this PowerPoint that you all seen um last at the business meeting from June um has been updated based off of board um feedback. And so, this slide that we're currently on um as a result, the board had had recommended um or had asked that there be one meeting a month. Um, and so as a result, it is recommended that the

108board establish a monthly speaker forum as the only opportunity for public comment by requiring speakers to address agenda items from the periodic audit committee meeting and monthly work session. This can focus community input on actionable items and keep board discussion strategic strategic and align with responsibilities. Whereas allowing speakers to address any topic regardless of relevant relevancy to the agenda can dilute the effect effectiveness of public input. And so basically you see in your screens right now um there is a blue kind of given options um based on what I'm speaking about whe the board um whether the board want speakers to address based on agenda items or we want to continue to process how we do with business meetings where they can talk about anything and and so do you want me I think that's

109already in our bylaws in terms of speakers on topic. So there would have to be a bylaw change as well if we make a change here and that requires more than four votes. Yes. So let me sorry let me back up a second. So this entire presentation is reflective of your bylaws. So what's being recommended is changes to your bylaws. And as um Commissioner Lebron has just mentioned, you know, at the end of the day, you will need at least five votes to make any changes. So the current slide that you're looking at basically it aligns with the board wishes, which was to create a monthly um something so that the so that the community can come and speak with you all. And so what's being proposed right now is exactly that um as an

110option. Of course, this is a recommendation. the board can, you know, if you guys have other options. Um, but right now, this is recommendation based off of that um, last meeting. And so what I was getting at is that it would be helpful if moving forward if you all decided that this is what this is what we want to do that the topics that the community are coming to you with is actually the ones that's on the work session agenda and you have two audit meetings right now a year. And so that way it's actual actionable items that you all are reviewing at the moment in real time versus something that either are not is not up for review or maybe in the future. Um and of course you have the option to again have

111it where the topics is open the way you do for business meetings currently. So that's the first part. The second part is if you or were to move forward with the speaker forum the timeline would you want it to start sooner meaning September 2025 to give time for um board staff and communication to work together with a plan so that the community is aware of this change um or do you want to wait until February and so the differences is is that for February um the recommendation would be right now you have um monthly retreats that's supposed to end in January And so starting February, you could swap that meeting date, that meeting time slot with the forum. Um, or do you want to start this in September and create a another week on your

112schedule, which would be the third Tuesday of every month, which would be the forum. So that's the first that's one one well two options, I should say. Both options, the recommendation is to start at 5:30. Um, and then the the differences is that if you was to put it during the retreat week, it would give the public at least two days to be able to look at the work session in the um audit committee agenda, which as if you was to do it in September and pick that third Tuesday, it would give the public at least one week to be able to look at the work session and um audit um committee agenda. Uh and the last thing I want to say is that for both options, commissioners would need to be present. You know,

113out of respect of the fact that you have the community coming out to speak with you, it would only make sense at least to have majority of the board here so that they, you know, can feel heard as well. Um so before I move on to any other slides, so that's the question. I have two questions basically here. Um first question is, well, I guess the big question is do you all want to move to the speaker forum format? And if so, do you want speakers to be required to speak to the agenda item or leave it open? And then are you looking to do option one or option two in terms of um when it would start? Let's open the floor for discussion. Thank you for that part of the presentation. We'll pause there.

114Yes. And get some thoughts. I'm going to go because you're the first hand that I see, Commissioner Santiago. And the question on the table right now is yes or no to speakers. And also then if we do go with speakers, are we asking that those speakers stay on topic with the agenda at hand? Yes or no? Right. I do agree with monthly speaker forums. I actually suggested that. I think it is a good idea. Um, I believe that uh speakers should be able to speak on any topic, but I believe that it should be prioritized for speakers who are coming with a specific um agenda item. So, so prioritizing well that that conflicts with our bylaws because we also prioritize on parents, teachers. So, I'll take that away. But I agree that speakers should speak

115on any topic and that we should start September 2025. Commissioner LeBron. Yeah. I I don't agree that they should speak on any topic and I think we got to be real careful because everybody in their mama will come up in here talking about random stuff that don't got nothing to do with nothing. So I support our current bylaws in terms of aligning as much as possible the agenda to the topics. It would be the same opportunity for work sessions. Our board business meetings per our bylaws also allow members to come in and speak about any topic as it is. So there is already a space for them to come in if they have an issue to discuss something at the board business meeting that my understanding that won't change because that meeting will still exist

116with the same format or you would be removing the speakers from the board business meeting. Okay. So then I'm I'm still going to keep people on track with addressing topics to the agenda. That's one. And I prefer option two because sep I don't personally believe we can wait till February to figure out how parents are going to be speaking to us as the federal government and this country is going to hell right now. Just what it is. So um no I do think that we should start in September even if it adds another week for us. Um I do want to uplift that for those listening and for parents in particular who do come to these board meetings. This is an opportunity for us to just listen versus listening for 5 minutes and then we

117have 3 hours of work to do and everything you just came and told us has been wiped away cuz we wasted our brain power on 3 hours of conversation. So, I'm excited about this. Um, and I support Commissioner Santiago's idea about doing this in this format. Um, and as he has mentioned before, other government bodies do it the same way too. And I do think it's more meaningful for the community to be heard, but then see actionable items afterwards as well. Thank you, Vice President Malloy. Yeah, I agree with everything that has been said. I'd like to know how this aligns with the council of great city schools our governance model because I know um we've talked about having community listening sessions and I know that's more about educating the community I think about the

118model um but I'd love to see how those align um and if this is replacing the board business meeting comments um I have to agree with u commissioner LeBron Harris because I'd prefer that that address specific agenda items and I'd like to see this start in September. mber uh just given the federal climate. So, thank you. Thank you, Vice President Malloy. Point of clarity for myself. Um is this an addition to the business or this is replacing it or this is an addition to the business meeting? So, this is replacing speakers at any meeting including the business meets and because right now audit committee also still allows speakers as well as well as if you call a special meeting. Could you talk a little slower for me? I'm not picking any of that up because

119you mentioned audit and I wanted to know what you you said there. Yep. Nope. I'm sorry. Um what I was saying was so currently minus the work session the business meeting audit committee meeting and um any special meetings that are called currently allow speakers. So this format would replace any of those speakers. It would just allow none yeah speakers. I had it stuck in my head that this was going to be in addition to the business meeting but no other meeting. So that's good to um clarify. Um and so my position on this is for option two. I do think it needs to happen sooner than later. Um, and recognizing that service is sacrificed. Although we would be adding a week to, you know, our meetings, nothing over, you know, nothing can beat those several

120committee meetings we had, right? And so, um, services sacrifice and coming to hear from the community, um, is an optimal opportunity. I like that setup and I think we can afford to do that. So, that's where I'll go with that. Commissioner Patterson, did you have another comment or question regarding this? I do. So, um again, uh it talks about our speakers may address any topic. I'm not for uh the speakers addressing any topic. I think they should stay on topic and I'm not for rushing uh and doing things. Uh I'm one for taking its time and uh if uh a couple weeks go by or you know at least one month go by and uh you know the the speakers aren't available to speak because um you know we just pushed it back. Um I

121don't think that's going to really hurt anyone by waiting. So I'm not for I'm just that type individual. I don't like forcing things uh for the sake of forcing it when you know we can just take our time and and use uh some type of um discretion and diligence when we're doing things. So um I'm for I guess option one. You're you're looking for option one, correct? Okay. Uh Commissioner Griffin. Yes. I would like to say I really do appreciate that finally you're listening to all the things I've been saying from the beginning as far as how the other how all the other uh government elected officials have been doing things and how we need to jump on board. So I do appreciate that. That is something that is that is something that I'm glad

122we are doing and I wish that we could do some other things that they're doing because that would be lucrative to to our success as a board um in a unified manner. So, with that being said, I do I would go with option two. Uh, and I would also go with the fact that I think that they should uh we should stay on topic. It shouldn't it shouldn't go all over the place. It should stay on topic. Um, so those are the two things I just want to put out there. Option two and staying on topic and and glad to hear that we are finally looking at the way to do things in a in a good in a good manner, better manner. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Elliott, I know that I don't see a hand

123from you, but if you are um present at this time, wanted just to get your appetite for this and see if you're willing or able to weigh in on um speakers at the board meetings and if you think option one or two is is best. Well, I'm not sure which one is option one, which one is option two, but I will say that it is uh I think we need to have speakers who are going to come um to speak on topic. Now I would also say that I don't know you need to limit it for a certain period of time or you will be here be at these meetings uh much longer than you want to. So uh whatever that number was is what I would uh recommend. Thank you Chris. Did you capture

124all this? So, it sounds as if there's a a large appetite and we can do a role of well, for those of us that are here um as to what option I'm option two, I heard um Commissioner LeBron say option two. Two for Santiago and two for Malloy, option one for Commissioner Patterson. Yes. So, it looks like um two is the larger appetite. Also considering this, it looked like most commissioners were interested in maintaining on topic matters. Commissioner LeBron on topic. Um, Santiago more broad. You were on topic. Um, I'm on topic as well. Um, Commissioner Patterson, did you have an appetite for on topic or or a broad um scope? Yeah, I said on topic. I couldn't. Again, uh someone just mentioned one of the other colleagues relative to time, you know, if we

125allow them to go off, I think it was, uh the uh Commissioner Elliot, there will be times, right, when we when we open it up to everything again, we're talking we're trying to cut back on the time of these meetings instead of lengthening the times, right? And if we're going off topic, then that's going to lengthen the times that well, you guys will be in this meetings, not me, right? And so, um so you again, option one, but on topic. And Commissioner Elliott also said on topic sounds good. Um, so it looks like option number two has the most appetite. Staying on topic for speakers that come and we recognize we'll set that up in a timely manner. We are at 90 minutes for this particular work session, which is the recommended time frame. Um,

126so where what do we do to make sure that this moves forward this way? And not not for you all to read this at this moment, but really quickly based on the fact that you picked the option two and that speakers need to speak on topic. As I mentioned before, it would affect your bylaws. And so not to read everything I have on the screen in this next slide, but just really quickly um this next slide, slide four, talking about special meetings. Right now, speakers are allowed. So moving forward, this change will remove work session language out of this, which we'll be discussing in the next slide. as well as no longer allowing speakers to align with what you just talked about. Okay. And and then when will we will we take that formal vote?

127So technically the resolution from June 26 is on this agenda. So you all can vote on it tonight or postpone it for the next meeting. But I just want to be clear before we we get to the vote as to the changes based off what you just did, how it impacts the bylaws. So um again the the special meetings will be impacted. This next slide talk about work sessions. It has been updated actually because currently work sessions would just be called um you know to the will of the president or a board member. Whereas now work sessions are very specific. It happens the second Tuesday of every month unless the board says otherwise. And so this update in column B I mean sorry the second column reflects that. Um that new change that we started

128starting July 1. And then committee meetings. As I mentioned, right now we only have audit committee which allows speakers. And so the change to this again will be to remove speakers from speaking at audit committees moving forward. And then the final change would be to in your bylaws in section 2K which would become section 2M because of the other previous changes. this spec these specific paragraphs are are um currently talks about the business meeting. So currently as you know the business meeting you could talk to any agenda item. It tells you you have 60 minutes and so based off the change this has been changed to reflect that you will now have a a speaker forum that um would start at 5:30 and I could update this now to say it would happen the third

129Tuesday of every month. Um so the highlighted yellow is what I'm referring to when I say it would need to be updated. Um, and then the other question become to Commissioner uh Elliot's point. Right now the bylaws allow 60 minutes for business meetings. Do the board want that to be the continued practice that you have 60 minutes? Each speaker right now has three minutes to speak and the max is 60 minutes. Of course, you always have the option to um wave the bylaws, you know, during that specific speaker form or right now you can expand it if need be. Um, so that's the one thing I do need you all to talk about for this slide. Commissioner LeBron, I want to say I'm I'm comfortable making a um, as we just decided, I'm not comfortable

130with changing policy language unless that is in the resolution already. As well, I do think we need to take a little bit more time when we're talking about changing the bylaws and it also requires five votes, so we have to get there. Um, so that's just my recommendation regarding the and I think we can do it at the board business meeting. I'm not saying that we extend this long. I think there should be there's a general consensus of how we're moving forward now, but that we bring forth an actual resolution that speaks just to the changes in the bylaws separate from even this conversation. Um, and then lastly, I I support two hours of speakers, um, which is what city council and um, county ledge do right now. They they don't exceed more than 120

131minutes and they only take the speakers during speaker sessions. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Santiago. Yeah, I just want to say I I don't agree with 60 minutes uh for the community to speak. I do agree with 120 and then if if the board has to wave that, we can do that. But I think 120 is a good place to start off. Not at 60. I don't agree with 60. Vice President Malloy. I'm also amendable to 120 minutes. I like 90 minutes. However, I am flexible and if that is the will of the board, that's what I will concede to. Um, and because I do recognize there may be some topics that are really heavy and community members really need to weigh in on. And matter of fact, when we consider the direction we're we're

132potentially going, and there might be a lot more um need for deeper discussion. So, um I I too am in a space where I'm not willing to necessarily make that part of the discussion tonight, but at least you have a um plan of action of what we do agree on and um preliminarily some areas that we can lean into as we move forward. any final convers uh sation comment or for the record I'd like to maintain what we have the 60 minutes okay thank you with no further discussion or what do we have charisma um I have one more quick slide but before I move forward I just want to be clear so we're all on the same page here that um until you know you all amend this and it will start in September

133once it's amended um for the speaker forum the business meeting right now for July in August will be the only opportunity um that the community can come out and speak to the board. Obviously, you can always wave, you know, um policy 2300, but I just want to be clear about that right now, especially to the listening audience that the business meetings will be the opportunity for July and August. Okay. And I have one final slide. Oh, sorry. Are we all set with this section? Because the next section is going to switch gears. Before she asked that question, can I can I ask a question? Yes. So, have we spoken to the council of great city schools who's doing our training to see what they recommend relative to these time changes because our board meetings are

134so lengthy? Has anyone consulted with them relative to this? Well, we do have a retreat with them this week and so we can probably, you know, pending the agenda and how it's going, we can probably post some of that because they will support us on that and we're not taking a formal vote tonight right now. It's discussion. So, yes. And vice president. So whenever we do vote on this then um how are we going to communicate to the community this big change? So um our office will work with the communications um department to ensure that the community is aware of the change. So like social media post some we do now with a lot of other things like social media posting you know um other parts of that plan but we will and we'll make

135sure that the board is aware of the plan as well. Am I all set to move forward with the last slide? Please. Thank you. So the last piece, so I'm switching gears from speakers to talk about parent and student board meeting involvement. Um so what's currently being presented if I on um in the second column? So this change from parent from to parent advisors and student advisors because right now um the committee uh were called parent reps and student committee reps since we no longer have committees besides audit. Um the recommend recommendation is that change. So this change will allow parents and students to continue participating in board meetings and an advisory capacity much like the roles they currently hold in committee meetings. It ensures that their voices remain part of the conversation supporting transparency

136and inclusive decision- making. And so does the board want to move forward with this recommendation with just literally we're just changing the the name of the role um of parent rep and student rep to parent advisor and student advisor. I like the idea of changing it to advisor as long as the definition is very clear because sometimes you know it's potato potato and we can use um terms that mean different things to different people and so just creating that clar clarity around what we mean by advisory role um would be important and so with that I would support it we would need to develop that vice president Malloy I'm also willing to support this um how are we going to choose choose those advisors, how many will will there be? Because there is no one

137single voice for parents in this district. So, how do we ensure that we have a diverse group of people? So, once you all finish this part of the conversation, the next step moving um which would happen at a a future meeting would be basically that iron out for the board. Of course, we'll come with recommendations for you all to decide on, you know, how you want to move forward with that process. um bas kind of like updating what we currently do um or what we currently did I should say and seeing you know again what the feedback is but right now it's just the question really is do you all want to move forward with this change because then the bylaw is for the July 31st meeting would reflect this change and then you all

138can right now we're trying to determine are you hungry yes I'm hungry I'd like to eat what would you like to eat is the next part of the conversation okay uh commissioner Santiago I just want to say I agree with it I think It's going to be important the discussion about how many advisors and the process of choosing these advisors. Um, but that's next step. But for now, just to get us across that mark, I I agree with this. Now, Commissioner Griffith, I'm in line with uh what President Simmons is saying about the advisory. Uh, one thing I just want to get clarity, we're talking about one student advisory on the board with us, correct? Or you talking about multiple? I just want to get clarity on that for the record. I'm I'm sorry I

139I didn't hear the last part of your question. Trying to get clarity on the number of people are students you're saying is it just the one that you're saying that would be like the student advisory that's usually on the board or am I not am I off track? So that's a so it'll be a different role. So the student rep that we have that's a different position than what this is. So if you recall we had parent reps and student committee reps. So this is what this role is aligning to that not the student rep. The student rep role is coming from SOC whereas the parent rep and the student committee rep is a different process. Okay. Um they would so before they were on committees now the the goal would be that they will

140be on work sessions. And so as I mentioned you all would discuss at a future meeting um those logistics like how many do you want kind of thing. Um right now it's just are you okay with this change. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that clarity. Yes. Is that it? I think that's every Are you P Commissioner Patterson? Miss I think uh just as far as paragraph forming I think went through um one of our one of my colleagues is uh the plural advisors or student advisors. Is there any way we can clean that language up and just advisor like one advisor that'll clear that up for you? Thank you. Okay. And so from I I got that you all are in support of moving forward and I will we'll make that re that change. What

141I will ask so what will Oh, sorry commissioner but but before that earlier you said the conversation was about if we're going to have we got to decide if we're going to have more than one or one. So I think when we just put advisor we we make it down to one like that's our only decision. I think keeping it as advisor is is the best for now and then when we go through the process we'll see who signs up and what ends up happening. But if we put advisor that puts it down to one and we don't just want I I don't just want one parent advisor or one student advisor. So, we're going to we're going to um finish on this what whatever you want to express here. We're going to finish with

142that and with the understanding that we'll conclude this part of the conversation because we still need to build out what things will look like. So, Commissioner, to your point, I don't I don't even need to say anything. So, we're we're just building it out. It's not nothing set in stone. I don't need to say anything. You just answered it. No. Um I'm good. Can I just close? Can I just ask so moving forward um an email will be uh sent out from one of the board staff and what will be asked is that if you have any recommendations so some commissioners I'm hearing they want more than one parent advisor and more than one student advisor for example if you can reply to that email with any recommendations you have so that way when it's

143brought back to the July 31st business meeting um the presentation can reflect on what you want. Um so yeah, watch out look for that email uh by the end of this week and please do reply to it so we can um uh you know plan accordingly. Just another clarity question. These these children that were the students that we're selecting from will be coming from different schools or different it's not specific to one group. Correct. We're just we're selecting them for from different schools. We're going to we're going to build that process out. So, right now, just want to make sure we're hungry and we we're just trying to figure out what the side salads and steak will be. I'm hungry. I did not eat today. Um All right. But yes, so we'll build that out.

144Thank you for your question. Uh so, we're going to that I think that concludes and that was a a good conversation. Um and I it looks like we're going into mending um it looks like so was policy 2300 was postponed from the June 26 business meeting. Okay. What am I? Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you guys. There we go. So, actually, I think I need to go into um executive session at this particular President Simmons. Yes. You want Okay. Can Before you do that, could you because right now pol um the resolution is up for 2,300. I know you all agree that you want to postpone it, but I do need a vote to do that to postpone uh what is it? Resolution number 2025 905 902 to the July 30th entertaining a motion for to

145postpone resolution 902. Is that what you were saying? 300. Yeah. 20242592. I just want to be clear about the year because we're in a different school year. Oh, okay. So, entertaining a motion to postpone resolution 902425 school year. Motion. Motion by Commissioner Santiago, seconded by Vice President Mallaloy. All in favor? I. Okay, that motion um any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Um and that is now postponed. Okay. And at this time, this meeting may recess an executive session, which is closed to the public, to discuss matters leading to the appointment or employment of a particular person or corporation, to discuss collective bargaining negotiations, to discuss matters made confidential pursuant to federal or state law, and to receive the advice of the general counsel as permitted by section 105 of the open meetings law. um entertaining a

146motion to go into executive session at this time. So moved. Moved by Vice President Malloy, seconded by Commissioner Griffin. All in favor? I. We are going to uh exit into executive session at this time. Thank you. Thank you for your patience and welcome back. This is the July 8th work session with the Rochester Board of Education. We are now reconvening our meeting um to conclude with a few more items on the agenda for this evening uh regarding consideration of resolutions. Um we're going to start with resolution um for 202526 and this is resolution one um and ask um that I'd like to entertain a motion um for resolution one. A motion motion by Commissioner LeBron. Motion seconded by Commissioner Griffin. Resolution one is now open for discussion. Any questions, thoughts, or concerns? We'll start with

147Commissioner LeBron. Yeah, I just I I just have to put this on record. I I mean, I know things are going to come up and this will come up eventually, too. Um, so I just want to state specifically to our teachers because I don't know what's going to happen tonight with this resolution. um that I personally feel that their ball was dropped on the communications to this board and our ability to have a little bit more say before we got to this vote. Um in fact, it was trying to be brought on as a walk-on resolution. And in my seven and a half years here, I've never had a contract be brought on that way that was negotiated or even anou or an UA as an understanding. So, you know, for me tonight, if I

148had had that opportunity, I don't know realistically if I would have supported this, but here we are. And now I knowing that there are federal cuts, knowing that I've been talking about these federal cuts, I now feel as a as a board member that because this information was already communicated with RTA leadership and and the body of members and the assembly happened. It's almost like I don't want to pull the rug on what they left this school year having an understanding because people dropped the ball behind the scenes and that they're going to be penalized for it. So tonight I will be supporting this and I just wanted the community to know um that had this gone a different way perhaps not but I personally for myself feel that my back is to the wall.

149Um and I just would never as someone who is a worker and depends on salary and has a family to raise. I would never want my own board to come to me and say we're going to give you a raise and a potential bonus if you stay all year and then nope never mind we made a mistake. I would be pissed. So, that is from where I'm taking it from. Um, and so I will be supporting this tonight. Thank you, Commissioner LeBron. Um, I'm going to pivot around the table. I'm going to go to Commissioner Santiago. No comment. Do you have um no comment at this particular time? Okay. Um, I'm going to go to Commissioner Griffin. Uh I just basically would like to say that all the for for the record that I appreciate

150all the teachers jobs that you all do with our children. Um there are some unfortunate situations and circumstances surrounding this particular resolution tonight and it it leaves me very uncomfortable uh making decisions where we don't have things were done in silos or behind the doors uh without uh me as a commissioner and elected official being privy to it. Um, I stand with integrity in this in my position and and I don't I don't feel comfortable with the lack thereof integrity. Um, I don't do I don't feel comfortable when people uh speak behind the doors with others and not come to the to the table and speak to everyone as a whole. So I I I have to I have to look at this and based on integrity issues and concerns that I have that's the

151way I will be voting. But for my teachers out there know that in whatever way this vote goes that I care about you as people. I care about what you do for our children. And I never want you to think any indifference. There's a lot of things going on in our world. There's a lot of things that are up in arms with with our government because of the the big budget bill and I think that it is important that we look at all all avenues to be able to be address our children in the upcoming days. So, I want you to know that I do care about everyone of the every one of you out there as I do everyone that is going to be affected by everything that's going to be done in the

152next uh what uh 60 to 90 days. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Griffin. Uh, Commissioner Patterson. I took a few notes uh while we were back in executive session. Okay. And we be careful not to um I'm not sharing information from executive. All right. I just want to caution you because we're tired. We We didn't eat. It's possible. So, um, that kind of threw me off, but, uh, where I am with this is that, and this isn't necessarily in the the proper order, but I'm a teacher myself, right? I'm New York State certified teacher and have respect for teachers. I have respect for unions. My parents work for General Motors. I have respect for human resources. that works with you in these contracts. But what bothers me is that people want to work in the

153city in a in an area that has numerous pockets of poverty, but it boils down to money. Because what I've heard, and correct me if I'm wrong, that teachers will leave if they're not going to receive something in this contract that they want. So I question are you really truly here for is a priority the kids or is the priority your pockets? And I say that as a teacher. I don't have to be here on this board. I could go somewhere and make a six-f figureure uh check but I choose to be here and I choose to work for this community. I chose to move in this into the city in 2010 to be a part of this community. I choose to be a mentor and a role model to the youth within the city

154of Rochester. So for me, it isn't about money. It isn't about a percentage. So, the teachers that are going to supposedly, what I understand, leave because they're not going to receive a certain percentage or a certain dollar amount. That hurts me to my heart to even have heard that. And if they walk away, it's going to show us something. Anyhow, were you truly here for these kids? which I think most teachers are. They're here for our students. They're here for our youth in this community. I'm not speaking of all. I'm speaking of the ones even contemplating leaving and creating a void for our students. What bothers me most of all is just one concession, lesson plans. How do we rate and evaluate our teachers, the principles, without being able to look at a lesson plan,

155a thorough put together lesson plan that I'm familiar with because I too was a teacher in the district, let alone in other school districts. We talk about things students not graduating on time, students not reading on grade level. We talk about performance. Where I come from, we don't award lack of performance. I would even agree if I were going to be on this board in January to take a cut myself or not even be paid as a board member until we see things increase as far as our goals. Again, those students reading on grade level, graduating on time, being college and career ready, but students not learning and we not finding a way together. And I'm not blaming any teacher. I'm saying blaming the system that we aren't able to do what we have to

156do. Work together, not separately. That's the board, that's the administration, and that's the unions for the betterment of student outcomes, not our pockets. That's my priority on this board. student outcomes. How do we resolve the attendance issues? You can't do it alone. We have to do it together. But again, back to the lesson plans. Lesson plans affect teacher performance, classroom quality, student success, teacher performance, and evaluation. Not to mention tenure. That's how they're rated. That's how they're evaluated. The principal going into the classroom, looking at the lesson plan to make sure they're teaching our children what they need to be taught, pedigogy, and all the other things that are contained in those lesson plans. But that's what really bothered me. that we couldn't even concede to that. We have to vote on those teachers tenures.

157Oh, excuse us. And we as board members should be privy to that information, how a a teacher is being rated and evaluated. And that's what I keep hearing from the principles. You know, commissioner, our hands are tied. We can't even see a lesson plan anymore, a thorough documented lesson plan. So, please, I'm not going to be voting for this tonight. I ask you to go back to the table and at a minimum for me, for our children, for student outcomes, to evaluate our teachers. And so we have the best teachers in the classrooms. Allow us to do at least that. Thank you, Commissioner Patterson. I'm going to um go to the Zoom online. And Commissioner Elliot, did you have any comments that you'd like to express at this time? Well, Commissioner Patterson expressed a lot

158of the sentiments that I have been supporting over these years and when I've been critical of the RT in the past and I will admit that I have attempted as president to work with all of the unions. Um but in the past when I have tried to uh say and share those same um sentiments uh that the union brought everybody and their mama uh to work against me and to vote against me when I just want to make sure black children are educated so that they can contribute to society as opposed to being a detriment to society. And we have we are the worst performing district in this in this nation. And I've always wanted to be the number one school district in the world, but we have gotten caught up into the union contracts.

159And when we talk uh or when people are talking to union represent, there's always got to be a union representative. There's always got to be some way in which um the um the union is protecting itself. And I would say it albeit at the expense of our children. It doesn't appear that we are focusing in on children and then the RTA has been known to intimidate. I'm a living witness, right? That they've tried to intimidate. And so, uh, it seems as if we've got a a board now who is asking, we want to be able to work with the union, but we're asking you and and we've had the opportunity to really be able to, uh, have some conversation at this point, and we've never had this kind of conversation before, uh, where we're talking

160about, um, that there may be a possibility that, um, this may not be ratified this evening. Now, it may be, but to have this kind of conversation, I don't remember when we have had this kind of conversation pro except except me. I'm one of the ones that had because I've gotten beat up by the unions um quite a bit. And I'm okay with that because I will die for my children. And so, but there are people in the district that don't feel the same way that I feel and they don't live in the community. And so, um, it, um, uh, it is concerning that, uh, we we we're here, you know, I'm in my 20th year and we only have a 60 low 60% graduation rate. And I remember we started off when I started

161off at a 39% graduation rate. But it was seemed to me that we are able to move forward and the teachers are the ones that are on the front line. Now, you may not be able to do because you may not know the children. And that's a disconnect. You shouldn't be here because you got to be able to know the students that you're working with. And and there's always a disconnect when most of the teachers that we work that are in this district are ur are suburban um that live in the suburbs not really understand not really understanding an urban environment. And I'll have to admit to you also that with some of the new generations, I may not necessarily have the connection myself, but what I do have is love for our children. And

162so I think that uh if you come in, and I've said this before, if you come in with love for our children, that supersedes everything because you can learn. But I've heard too much in terms of uh how do we protect an employee when the employee has done some egregious things uh to our students and not educating our children is egregious. And so um those are the kinds of conversations that I hope we we can have that we are pretty forthright with those conversations. I know that, you know, in the past the RTA has been really intimidating. Um, and and I'm okay with that, but we're talking now about how do the people who are members of that group make sure that they're doing the right things by our children. One thing that you can

163do is ensure that there's a per a performance evaluation that you're that we are there's the evaluation, excuse me um so that we know whether you're a good teacher or not because it doesn't prove that by uh our children and and the performance of our children. I left the dance one night years ago and I'll just put this out here. I left the dance wonder and wondering whether or not you all want the same education for my children that you have for your own children and do you want to be in a position where my children can compete with your children? Let the dead came as revelation knowledge and so um you know I would say that if if this this is not about um educating our kids then please don't be in this district.

164We want to take care of you. We want to make sure that you get what's right as as as employees and as members of that union, but make sure my babies get what's right. That's what I'm And you have not done that. Now, you'll blame somebody else, but you haven't done it. And that's what we need you to do. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Elliott. Vice President Malloy. I wrote my statements down. I'm not feeling very well, so I wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything. Um, as a school district, we are committed to providing every student with the best possible education. At the heart of this mission are our teachers, dedicated professionals who continue to support our students and implement challenging changes to meet our ambitious academic goals. Retaining highquality teachers is not

165just a workforce issue. It's a student stability issue. A stable, experienced, and supported teaching force directly impacts student outcomes, especially in literacy where we must meet our RCSD benchmarks. To create an environment conducive to learning, we must begin with those who make that learning possible. Our teachers deserve to feel respected, not just in words, but in our actions. One-time bonuses do not foster the commitment or continuity our students deserve. Instead, we must pursue longevity incentives and pathways that support professional growth for both certified and uncertified educators, including substitutes willing to become certified and stay in the district long term. We are also navigating uncertainty due to recent federal actions including the department of education's policy shifts, the passage of the big beautiful bill and project 2025. While the full financial impact is unclear, these developments

166threaten to dismantle key supports for students and families and could bring significant cuts to public education funding. The Kursa and ARPA funds provided a critical boost to this district, allowing us to build the strongest fund balance in our district's history. However, at our current spending rate, this balance could be depleted within 5 years. Controlled borrowing may be necessary to sustain critical and often mandated services, but we must avoid spending down these reserves irresponsibly. A one-year contract extension does not reflect the seriousness of the moment or the needs of our workforce. If we are serious about supporting teachers and ensuring student success, we must return to the table in good faith and negotiate a three-year successor contract, one that promotes stability and incentivizes teaching in lasting ways. Both parties must be willing to compromise for the

167sake of our students. Public education has the power to unite us all. We call on all stakeholders, teachers, union leaders, administrators, families, and policy makers to work together with urgency and transparency. What's at stake is not just a budget or contract. It's the future of our children. Thank you. Thank you, Vice President U. Malloy. Okay, thank you. Let me see here. Okay, so I'm I'm going to keep my comments brief as possible, and I do recognize that my duty as the president of the board of education is to ensure that the board has the opportunity to review any tentative agreement prior to board approval. when I became privy to a tentative agreement that there was conversation at least around that tentative agreement would have been on Thursday, June 19th where Superintendent Strickland did communicate his

168percentage increase as well as a potential for retention bonus. That following day, I received a call from RTA leadership asking or expressing that they had spoken with superintendent uh Strickland and gave a percentage increase in retention bonus. Um both conversations were with the understanding that this was going forward to the full board on the next board business meeting for conversation on Monday, June 23rd. We recognized that that was signed, the um MOA was signed by Superintendent Strickland and RTA leadership. And on the 24th of June, Superintendent Strickland did provide email correspondence to the full board advising that attentive agreement had been reached and would be discussed um at our next board business meeting being June 25th, excuse me, June 26. And on June 25th, um the agreement was ratified um with the RTA and some

169of its members. And on June 26 where we had the official board business meeting. But again, that timeline is to constitute that on June 19th when I became privy to information regarding the uh tentative agreement, it was immediately brought forward to be discussed at the next available board business meeting. With that said, I do want to recognize the matter at hand and that although we are talking about teacher retention and bonus increases and things of that nature, um I I have family members that are educators that I watch pour their livelihood and their lives into these students each and every day. I have watched these family members cry like I'm sure many of our educators do, struggle through many, many things to support our students. When I'm considering this particular contract, we know that bonus

170increases are most effective when tied with opportunities for also growth and recognition of how you perform and how you do. Teachers do deserve growth opportunities. The incentives we provide our educators need to be strategic, not just blanket raises. Providing dollars, if you look at any type of research or organization, you recognize money is not a predictor for employee satisfaction or fullon retention. And in the long-term retention, we want to see a one-time bonus. I do not believe we'll achieve. Teachers and educators and people feel valued when they have career paths and when they feel seen. I'm also considering the federal landscape. We recognize that's been a point of contention throughout this board. We've heard about it time and time again. And the nation is currently having that conversation and that threat is no longer a

171threat but a reality and we are going to more than likely see the impacts of those cuts much sooner than we will later. I do have to echo my colleagues uh express sentiments that we our educators deserve a comprehensive successor agreement. So with all that said, I truly do value our educators. I believe my actions over the years have demonstrated such. I am prepared to speak to any type of questions or concerns, alternative narratives that present themselves, as I know they shall. I'm prepared. There's not going to be alternative narratives. Don't do that, Camille, because I just I'm sorry. I am on the the mic. I do not care. You're not going to Okay. So, I would like to call make a motion to recess the motion meeting. Vice President Malloy. Yes. Okay. Commissioner Griffin.

172All in favor of recessing the meeting. I Okay. I'll Okay. So it was recessed, motioned and motioned and collectively an I. And okay, because what we're not going to do is is have an arguing match. I want to recess the meeting to allow me to finish my Oh, absolutely. But you don't have to be You don't have to be passive aggressive. Say recess with your meeting. Commissioner LeBron, that is the meeting. That is that is out of order. The person has to recognize out of order, Adrian. And she just recessed the meeting. So she she asked for a vote. She asked for a vote for a recess to take control of the meeting. So you can mute that. Did they Did they vote for it? Can you mute that? Did they vote for it? Okay.

173Oh, we didn't have the full Okay. No, that that's okay. So we're not So we didn't make it to recess because it's Well, no, it's four. You are you clear? She says there any nays and there's only one nay. Then everyone else is a yay. Charisma. All right. I don't we don't need to take this into a 10-hour recess. I just want to take a moment because I'm going to finish my comments and I you know I'm not going to apologize for what you're not going to do is make comments. I'm going to ask you to And thank you for your patience. We did take a brief recess. We are back um to finish out uh this meeting. And I will complete my comments. I'll start from here though I uh truly value our educators

174and I believe my actions over the years have demonstrated such. I was speaking to some personal connections um and what I do appreciate most about educators and recognize the role is not easy. I also shared um a brief timeline of occurrences for me in which I aligned with. Um, long story short, my commitment to identifying a path forward is to move forward with a long-term demonstrated commitment through a comprehensive successor agreement that honors the values we speak about surrounding our students and educators. So, at this time, um, I would like to take a formal vote on the matter at hand. And I we know we've had comments and positions stated, but we are going to take the formal vote as of now. Um I'll start online with Commissioner Elliott. Commissioner Elliot, are you present? This

175is Commissioner LeBron online. Commissioner LeBron, would you like to extend your formal vote at this time? Yes. My vote is yes. And to the teachers, let me just say all this hoopla that was tonight will not pay bills and support you. So, I just want to put that on record. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. You don't have to, Camille. Stop. Stop. Stop me. You don't get to control how I say things. You don't get to control how I are you done with your comments. Point blank period. But you're no longer called because I said I'm done. Not because you said I'm done. And now you're done. And now, Commissioner Griffin, I'm done because I said my vote is no. Go ahead, Camille. Go ahead, girl. Big old president messing up this damn district.

176Okay. Thank you. Are you all set? Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Patterson, I already said I was dead. Nay, I'm sorry. I don't know if we have the the ability to because it's kind of confusing the conversation. Did you weigh in? Okay. I'm going to go down to Commissioner Santiago. Uh, my vote is a yay. Thank you, Commissioner Elliott. You can go to the other people first. I'll think about it. I'm still thinking. Okay. I've went around the table. [Music] I've gone You've gone around the table. I've gone around the table. You You said go to other people. I went to about three or four other individuals. Okay. Yeah. Um I'm What's the vote? Oh my god. The vote is whatever your whatever you'd like the vote to be. Your vote. What is your vote? Yeah.

177I had to step away for a moment. So, I'm not sure. Um I'm just not sure. I'll think. Let me think about it for a minute. Okay. I'm not sure. Thank you. Um Vice President Malloy, it's a nay for me. Okay. Now, were you looking for all of the votes around the table? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let me just say I I I you know they the we have not they have not done good by my by my children and so I'm asked to give these increases and these concessions when it's benefited them but they have not been responsible and accountable to benefit my children. So why should I vote for a contract that they have not benefited our children afford? They're going whether we voted or not they still are going to get an increase.

178Are you prepared to provide your vote at this time or No. Okay. So you So what we going to do here? Cuz I'm asking for your vote at this time. You and I'm the only one that's left. I'm the last I'm the last one. But you're the only commissioner left. I'm not sure. Okay. So, right now we have um Vice um President Malloy who is a no. We have Commissioner Griffin who is a no. We have Commissioner Patterson who is a no. We have Commissioner Santiago who is a yes. We have Commissioner LeBron who is a yes. We have President Simmons who is a no. What is your vote, Commissioner? Yes. And Commissioner Elliott will be a yes. So, thank you for that conversation, Commissioner Elliott. With no further discussion on this matter, the nose

179have it. And that concludes this particular part of the conversation. So, it's 34 with commission with commissioners um Elliott, LeBron, and Santiago. Yes, she said she she said no. Okay, we have one last final matter on the table here and that is the uh resolution number two here for general counsel. So, I'd like to entertain a motion for resolution number two, which is on the table. Motion. Second. Motion by Commissioner Griffin. seconded by Vice President Mallaloy. This is now open for discussion. Um uh yes. Uh thank you, Represent uh Simmons. Uh I'm I'm going to ask the the board to um um make an amendment. Um the the resolution states that the period would begin August 1st. Um because we're originally thinking of pushing this out um to to the end of the month and

180then we added this to this meeting. So, I would ask that the um a resolution just be amended to state that it that um the period would begin July 9th um so I could utilize this as as quickly as possible. So, that's the request for an amendment. Okay. So, um state mon um so we would need to go ahead. There's a motion for an amendment. Okay. Motion to entertain an amendment for resolution two. So moved. Moved by Vice President Malloy. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Griffin. All in favor to entertain. Oh, discussion on the amendment. Yeah, just for clarity, we we're retaining them. Uh are these the ones we currently have on retainer or are these is this different? Um some some are different. Uh, so we did a a uh RFP and solicited um you

181know um open it up for folks to um respond from from anywhere from all over the state and so forth. Um so a couple of these firms we do already use. uh some of them we do not which was really the the purpose of the RFP which is to see who's out there who um could can help us when we need it and to expand the scope of of who provides services to the district. I guess my question is uh because I've asked this question before and it's just becoming privy to me with this RFP um what I kind of got some reservations about this right now. I kind of need some questions answered. I think that this Yeah, I know we need outside counsel, but I I just, you know, the relationship with the

182with with council is important to us and different. Yeah, I think I need more some more questions answered on this before I actually vote on this particular one to be honest because there's some that the there's a RFP out here, but the questions that I've been asking about in reference to general counsel have not been answered and then all of a sudden I get an RFP. This doesn't sit right with me. I need more questions answered before you're g giving me RFP. So on on the floor right now is just the amendment to uh where the the date says um for a a period beginning August 1st um as soon as as soon after as a grim is fully executed. So just the amendment is just to change that to July 9th. No questions on

183the amendment itself. So there was no questions on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment for this. It's not in favor of the resolution too but on on the amendment. All in favor? I sorry about that. I misunderstood. Thank you. Okay. And so um we are now bringing forward resolution two for discussion um or do we okay on the RFP asot with the amendment? Um so we can so you did share your your expressions around your concerns. Yeah. Were there any other questions or concerns regarding resolution number two? And just for a point of clarity for myself, general counsel, my understanding is again these are RFPs that went out. Um this is not boards um external counsel. This is this is just we recognize that attorneys have different areas of expertise and practice. And

184so as different things come before the district, you will need to have a a um robust pool or team of attorneys to reach out to to gain understanding and folks that have those different expertise work with. AB: Absolutely. Um um you know, we have a a small team and we have a lot of work. Um and so and we don't necessarily have the expertise in every single area of matters that might come to us and some of the matters that come to us are very nuanced and um and so yes this serves you again both purposes. on for areas where we we do need the help and sometimes with just bandwidth. Um you know we have um any number of CA the child victim act cases for example um are are huge and monumental. Um

185and so we we do need we do need help and um this was the fairest way that uh we could think of to make sure that where we're getting that help from was open, transparent and um and that any firm that was interested had an opportunity to respond to the RFP. Thank you for that point of clarity. U is there any further discussion on this particular resolution number two? With no further discussion on um resolution number two, all in favor of resolution two? I I I. Any opposed? I any opposed? Nay. Record that. The eyes have it. Resolution two carries. Um I believe this concludes our vis our work session. Yeah. So motion to adjourn the work session moved by vice president Malloy seconded by commissioner Santiago. All in favor? I. Good night. I