001e e e good evening I am commissioner Griffin chair of the policy committee for the Rochester Board of Education it is now 5:33 p.m. on Tuesday March 11th 2025 this is the code of conduct public hearing the Rochester Board of Education Code of Conduct policy 1400 in educational law and regulation requires the board to conduct at least one public hearing before the board can votee on any revisions to the policy the purpose of this hearing is to gather input from District students parents staff and the community regarding the proposed changes to the code of conduct the Rochester City School District strives to provide a safe and productive learning environment that will help students become successful responsible citizens our goal is to our goal is to ensure that all students have the opportunity to participate fully
002in their Education Without disruption the code of conduct is written to promote a positive learning environment for all students it spells out expectations for the responsible behavior of all Partners in the school Community including students all District staff in addition to parent Guardians and V visitors to the schools as required by the code of conduct and educational law and regulation the code of conduct committee which includes District students parents staff and and code of conduct committee which which includes District students I'm sorry District students parents staff and community members review the policy to provide recommended revisions all the information related to the proposed changes to the code of conduct can be found in the public hearing agenda on board docs and at www.rcsdk12.org back SLU hearings at this time we have one speaker for tonight
003as a reminder we will have we will have three minutes they will have he he or she will have one minute or three minutes to speak and on the topic of Coda conduct and we have uh Rebecca Harrington good evening good good evening my name is Rebecca heatherington I'm the mom of three boys at school 52 um I'm a parent representative um for the special education parent advisory Council um on the code of conduct committee the Monday before our last code of conduct committee meeting a parent from our school reached out about issues her child was having um in the classroom she had met with the administration twice they scheduled a third meeting um for the end of the week but it was becoming a more urgent matter I went with her to meet with
004the principal to schedule meeting sooner um since she felt uncomfortable on her own the next morning we both arrived for the meeting and were told that I was not allowed in the meeting I cited the code of conduct and the parent engagement policy we were told that the meeting would be cancelled if I was there reaching out to everyone I could think to support the parent in this moment the very long story of many hours is that the district backed the district parents and students do not have any levers to pull when our rights are violated instead we stand with papers in our hands that tell the people standing in front of us that what they are doing is wrong and they continue to do it with no accountability and or expectation of consequences honestly
005this was a nothing issue or should have been but because of the amount of times parents and students are denied their rights even when they are clearly stated like in the code of conduct that dozens of people have worked diligently on for years and has repeatedly been approved by this board it doesn't make it to the schools and it doesn't help us stand up for our students these issues are systemic they go to the root of what makes families stay and what makes them go parents are the only decision makers that matter when it comes to whether or not my children stay in the district and when you violate rights you violate trust and eliminate our Norms of collaboration when there is no trust it's easy to see a text message from a student resulting
006in a family showing up and attempting to handle conflicts on their own because we don't trust that the school will remember that our children have rights the district is large and complicated I'm asking that the Board of Education and the Rochester City School District administration approve the recommendations of the code of conduct committee and immediately make sure that the policy is implemented shared and followed in a meaningful way that supports every human person in the school Community with a sincere and direct focus on how students and parents can use the policy to have meaningful connections to school thank you so much for your time thank you Miss Harington this concludes this concludes the Rochester Board of educations code of conduct public hearing thank you and have a good evening everyone e e e hello Rochester
007students parents Community teachers uh welcome to the equity and student achievement committee uh where we're focus on our students achievements and how we can be better as a district uh this committee is is focused on our student outcomes um and so we're more than excited today for the um the presentations um there's going to be a lot of information that will be shared to the public in the community today and I want to also let you know that you can go on to the board docs website uh where you can review all the documents all the presentations that have been presented today uh you can look through there and and look at the presentation so you can develop and and not develop but really understand the the information that's going to be presented today um
008also there will be a lot of information shared between um Network our second uh Network updates uh which which Revol around our high schools uh updates on our I ready scores and also updates on our state monitor financial plan uh for Quarter Two um and so today uh to start off with we have actually can we review and accept the minutes from the February 11th 2025 Esa Committee of the whole so moved motion from vice president Malloy seconded by President Simmons any comments or questions about the minutes from February 11th 2025 seeing none all those in favor favor I any oppose and the minutes from February 2025 uh the esa committee is passed um so today we have one of two of our Chiefs who will be presenting about our second Network updates which again
009is around all of our high schools in the Rochester City School District um today we have uh one of our Chiefs Donna Lucy lender and another one of our chief uh Brenda Torres um and so it is up to you guys now thank you okay thank you commissioner Santiago good evening everyone uh the viewing public um all of our beautiful students uh good evening uh president Simmons and vice president Malloy and all of the other uh Commissioners as well as Dr Strickland again my name is Donna Lucy Linder and I am a secondary Chief here in the Rochester City School District so this evening we will be presenting to you on um an update on the second markting period for middle schools and high schools so continuing with our theme I just want to take
010this off can I take this down okay thank you that's a little bit better I'm vertically challenged okay so continuing with our theme this school year with activating dreams and unlocking potential we would like to cultivate a culture of academic Excellence for all and a community of empathy equity and accountability that Empower students to succeed beyond graduation next slide please so the focus of this presentation tonight will be on uh goal 1D which is increasing the number of students earning five or more credits in 9th grade from 70% to 90% by June 2028 um I want to share that as we continue to collaborate and drive um progress across our schools our work is directly connected to the goals set by the Board of Education these goals serve as our strategic Compass guiding our efforts
011in ensuring that we remain focused on what the most important matters are for our students and Community tonight's presentation is directly connected to the fourth goal increase the number of students earning five or more credits in n9th grade from 70 to 90% by June of 2028 whether we are enhancing instructional practices improving School culture or strengthening our student outcomes every initiative we pursue is aligned with the board's priorities and goals by staying rooted in these goals we contribute to measurable progress and demonstrate our shared commitment to Excellence equity and continuous Improvement okay next slide please so just a review from our December uh presentation in terms of reviewing the graduation uh requirements so all students in in order to receive a New York um State high school diploma needs four credits of English four uh
012credits of social studies three of science um three of mathematics one credit of World Language one credit of visual art music dance and or theater also they need two credits of physical education a half credit of health and 3.5 elective credits which leads to a total of 22 credits in order to receive a high school diploma so what is our data telling us so also as a review of the presentation from December we put in place this school year early monitoring systems for our students to make sure that our students are identified early and supported early so we implemented early monitoring systems um in order to make sure that these goals were being met so as I said before on the first slide in order to receive a New York State high school diploma you
013need a total of 22 credits and you also need Five Regents exams in order to receive an advanced Regent diploma you would then need um an additional three Regents exams which make it for a total of eight yeah and it's important that the Boe understand that this information is in Gold form it is happening in most buildings but not all as we are are in the process of establishing these systems it is important to know that we follow up on progress with these goals on school visits and in network meetings Okay so as a review this current slide is a slide of our current eighth graders across the district in secondary that's middle school and high school so these are the credit bearing classes so looking at the first line you have algebra which has
014a total enrollment of 300 33 students um in the second marking period the number of students passing is 270 students and you can see the number of students passing from the first marking period is 81.4 so the percentage of students passing for marking period two is 81.1 so this is um a an average or a merger of the two marking periods one and two that 81.1% um looking at credit bearing classes again looking at biology we have 232 two students um in grades 7 through 12 with a total of 76.3% passing in marking period two in earth science we have 153 students the number of students passing in marking Period 2 is 119 students in the first marking period you saw that there was 90.8 and merging the two marking period scores you have a
015percentage of 77.8% in the second marking period Spanish 1 that's 78.8% Spanish 1 p is 66.7% Spanish language art is 69.1% Studio in art is 77.7% and as a district total we have a total of 72.9% out of 2,182 students and one of our goals moving into next year's is to increase the offerings in eth grade to possibly all eighth graders taking at least two courses that allow for the opportunity of them to acquire High School Credit increasing eighth graders to acquire at least two credits will have a direct impact on our goal of ninth graders having at least five credits by the end of the ninth grade the explanation of Spanish 1 C and Spanish 1 P will be necessary as many are probably not aware of the difference between the two courses students
016enrolled in Spanish once see if they have taken Spanish previously and have prior content knowledge students are enrolled in Spanish 1 P if they are new to taking Spanish and have not taken any Spanish in the past next slide please so the current slide is of our ninth graders across the district again you'll see the schools listed going on your left you have school number 58 looking at the total enroll M of ninth graders that are on track for marking Period 2 there is 56 students on track with a percentage of 81.2% East High School the percentage of students on track is 68.9% Edison Tech 52.3 Monroe High School 57.1% on track Wilson magnet 49% on track Padilla 43 .1% on track Ria 73.7% on track pek 65.5% on track Rochester Early College High School
01782.5% on track School Without Walls 98.6% of students are on track soda 84.4% for a district total of 63.3% with um 1,54 students across the district next slide please intentional action steps so at the beginning of the school year Dr Strickland really stressed the importance of students knowing how many credits they had accumulated so that's been our ongoing work in making sure that all of our students know that they have these one-on-one me meetings with their counselors and also with their teachers um all staff and secondary schools share knowledge of graduation requirements so whenever you see a student in a hallway in a secondary building they should be able to tell you how many credits that they have accumulated thus far we also have um student trackers that monitor students progress so that instructional leadership
018teams can identify students who are in need of additional support we are also have supports s such as marking period makeups so that students who may have failed the marking period can then also recoup that credit by finishing assignments and we do this um through the student monitoring system I'm a little tired today guys and um realize please that um School Chiefs follow up and monitor progress as school visits and network meetings it is also important that the Boe members know that we are in buildings on Mondays and Wednesday and Fridays okay additional School supports marking period Credit Recovery which I mentioned online credit recovery we also have extended day programming on afternoons and also Saturdays cohort tracking again recess credit recovery so while everyone else is on vacation many of our students and staff
019are here working hard in our buildings and then also based on student outcomes we also monitor students progress and we adjust their SCH schedules accordingly so if a student needs additional support in math maybe a math lab will be added to their schedule if they need additional time uh in terms of literacy our literacy lab can be added to their schedule to make sure that we are supporting our students as much as we possibly can so as you can see this slide shows the support that we have in place in the event a student falls behind and to ensure that we have opportunities for our Scholars to stay on track implementation of these supports varies across the district and our school specific it is important to note that we have implemented a wide range of
020opportunities to meet the needs of our students we are focusing heavily on this work as it will have a drastic impact on reducing the dropout rate and increasing our graduation rates any questions uh thank you Chiefs uh for your presentations uh if we can go back to the to slide number 11 for school supports uh if I can start off by saying that uh some of these these programs are are good programs and very beneficial to our high school students um I believe even in my experience in high school um I might have used one one or two of of these programs and these School supports that's up here um and they are beneficial but I am wondering um when you were speaking about the adjustment to student schedules and you were talking about how
021sometimes you may add a lab into their day usually what does a Lab look like let's say there's a laa lab for a high school student um usually what does that look like is it in a classroom setting are they catching up are they with other students or in they are they with general population or is it just a individual work time well normally what it is is a small um group that is already identified as a lab so it allows for small group instructions and what normally happens on grade level teams they will identify students who are who are in need of additional support and then those those teachers will give that student or provideed to the lab teacher in order to provide that individualized instructional support for that student and they can also
022use that for work completion in addition to um learning additional knowledge or catching up yeah and and how how effective have you found these labs to be as far you know may maybe individual you might not have that data now if you don't don't worry about it but um how how um beneficial have you found these labs to be towards a Student Success or progress um I would say in general in most situations it works out to the students benefit okay um that being that if the student is showing up consistently to receive that support and also if there's a great communication Network in that school building which we're all striving for that all of our teachers are able to collaborate and talk to each other on a team level so that they know all
023of our students and so in general if it's done um efficiently it can be it can yield great outcomes for students yeah and and I just want to um you know from from personal experience kind of just just raised that flag or that concern you know just as something to to look at see if there's better ways to enrich and uh and and get our students up to to progression I know my experience in labs and my labs in 12th grade were to to kind of fill up my schedule because I finished most of my classes early on in my my high school career um but a lot of those labs were you know sitting in the classroom you work on your own and majority of people you know s down listening to YouTube or
024watching vide and it's really not beneficial towards towards that and and of course we should have those free times where our children can interact um but if we're if we're taking them away from general education or we're taking them away from instruction sometimes it may not be beneficial at all it's just taking away time from times that we can be instructing them to really progress and so uh that's just that's not like we should be doing differently none of that just something to look out for in the future as uh somebody who who just came out of the district recently um but other than that love these uh School supports um I I've heard a lot of young people who have benefit uh benefited off of them uh last question Padia high school and some
025of our other schools who are in 40% uh regarding them being on track what are we doing to provide extra supports what are we doing to ensure that we're we're putting as much support towards those schools to get those students on track um so as I um spoke earlier um we are having additional supports in terms of after school um there's also online credit recovery for those students and there are also recess opportunities for students to make up work so February break and we also have another break that's coming up in April there's ample opportunities for students to be able to make up that work as well as Saturday school and we've ramped P right so there's a lot of things that are happening there now so we need to give it a little bit
026of time to find its work through it yeah and and I think I I I agree with that as far as it's going to take some time to settle things but I think um this is not new for that location or for that high school and um truthfully we don't have time these children have four years in high school they got you know from kindergarten up to 12th grade in our school if we don't succeed them before before they leave we failed them so we don't have much time but my hope is is to see in the budget you know in this upcoming year to see in the budget more support to these schools to make sure that we can succeed them as much as possible with supports whether it's counseling I know a lot
027of times in bigger schools it's hard for celor to get to as many students you know as they possibly can whatever that looks like um you guys are in the school you guys observe it um and and of course I can talk to you guys offline as far as you know some of the experiences on my end um just to give some insight if you guys want it but you know the these schools need some more support uh for Success um those are great points that you raised uh commissioner Santiago but I just want to let you know that a dip from marking period one to two is typical at times and students come in extremely motivated and then all of a sudden that motivation starts going away you have Christmas time you or the
028holidays uh so on and so forth and trying to maintain that momentum is difficult and then it tends to pick up when the school year is starting to get towards the end uh students want to pass and then you see that the wheels start clicking um and the standards are being acquired I did want to uh go back uh to that one other statement around um adjustments to student schedules you do have some principles within the district if they see a student is not uh being successful in a class or if it's it's not working out for them uh there are schools such as all city like principal Ramirez he will change their schedule to accommodate them so that they C he could support them and gaining credit and that is some of the practices
029that we're starting to do throughout the district where get the students in a course that they can be successful in um and also uh we are moving to more skills base versus content uh that's also something that uh needs to be brought up we must make sure that we are teaching to the standard and not necessarily to the content um but students are learning the skills by via the content uh yeah thank you and and there um of course every student there there's different things for every student and that's why is when we speak about the labs it's like you know of course specific to the student but what's important you know both in my experience and what you just shared to me is that the young uh students have a chance for oneon-one somebody
030that they can work with somebody who they can go to somebody that they usually that that that helps them come to school because they know that there's somebody there that they're that they're safe with that helped somebody walk them through the process and that helped them be successful but sometimes uh you know in my experience you have staff who are so overworked uh sometimes to be able to get to every student one on one1 sometimes CU sometimes they're they're that's not fully true uh any other questions from our commissioners I'll start down the day as it moved down commissioner Griffin thank you commissioner Santiago um I have a couple of questions here how many uh of the students passed the state Regions exam th this is marking period to commissioner Griffin um so the Reon
031exams haven't happened yet that's around marking period before but it hasn't it hasn't happened yet for this cohort because we're only in Mark period let me let me rephrase let me go back let me go back go ahead okay commissioner Griffin um so the January uh Regent results I believe um Miss Ramos is will give an update in terms of test data is Right are region scores in there but we can provide that information for you from the January so we can put that in the question log we'd be happy to answer that y I can't hear you so so uh to the public what's being said is um right now the state is still processing it if I'm correct and so the the data will be coming soon but the results from January will
032be back soon that's what Dr V was saying for the record we we're talking about January 2025 yeah thank you so um also you mentioned about the February boot camp how many schools participated in the boot camp how many and how many how successful was it because I think we need to acknowledge those kids that went to that boot camp and what schools was it at What what schools participated in that February boot camp do we have that information available well I can identify a school from my network I know that third Good Marshall was one of those schools that had one in February and it was very successful for the students um who attended that boot camp I can also get that data for you later but I'm I also believe there were other
033schools within the district and I would be happy to provide that with uh for you as well yeah I would like to know how many students actually participated how how success was it and acknowledge the teachers and the students that took their time during the February break that boot camp to commit themselves to successful future so that that should be acknowledged as well because a lot of students would not opt to do that if the teachers actually participated and assisted with these children we need to acknowledge those people um and then I have another question um what percentage of the students have benefited from the mark and perod recovery the mark marking period um just ended so students are actually um recouping that work now if you're referring to the marking period one we also
034need to get that data for you okay but Mark and period two they're now in the process of doing credit recovery but credit recover is ongoing so it depends on when they finish the modules because they're in modules so they may have uh some that started um in the fall and they could have finished some in January but I don't have that data readily available but we can get that for you okay thank you so so with that being said we can look at this this this data might not be as accurate because we're not including that information or it's not up to date I mean I'm trying to you know because you're we're talking about Market period we cover if we have some kids that actually have um completed and and were successful in
035the one marking period and we carry them over how do we know how accurate this information is that we're looking at today okay let me just clarify let me let me clarify something commissioner Griffin so the the first thing you spoke about was Credit Recovery Credit Recovery is after a student has failed a course okay and then we have something separate that's called marking period recovery right so Credit Recovery is if they at the end of the semester they failed the half semester course and then they will take an online course to recoup that credit marking period recovery is say after marking period one you didn't do so well the teacher gave you additional work and then you completed that work in order to receive a passing Mark in that marking period right so each
036marking period if students are doing that it's on a school's individual basis in terms of that data of how many students are making up work in order to receive a passing Mark so that's work we call that's ongoing and the credit recovery like I said that's online it's in modules it can happen at any time but it's normally semester based but it's based on how many modules the students complete okay just want I just want to be clear want to make sure that we allow the superintendent to respond one second to to the question that you just asked if we can allow the superintendent to resp I want to was saying we'll come back to you no just to uh help explain your question even more this data is not stagnant so just as you
037said when a student has passed the marking period we will then update it accordingly that's why we have those cohort trackers for all of our students so you pass the marking period you pass the class guess what that data gets updated and then these numbers begin to change so you you will see a difference in some of these numbers actually uh possibly for the third marketing period because we've had increases for the second marketing period okay so on and so forth okay I I think that basically clarifies I just want to make sure that we're not misleading in any way about the the data that we're seeing here because we have Mark imp peric recovery and Credit Recovery is to different things I am aware of that but I just want to make sure that
038we have accuracy that we when we're providing it to the public so I thank you guys for that thank you thank you um yeah and I know Credit Recovery is actually one of the things that I had to do uh in high school and it was like it was online it was throughout the entire uh um school year I believe it was throughout the entire school year um and we worked uh online through the class to recover to recover the credit and so that is one one of the things I benefited off of any other questions from our commissioners uh pres uh commissioner Elliot um good evening so my question has to do with where are we in the line of the goals so the intent was for you all to come and present us
039quarterly about where we are with the goals so in terms of people being on track um are we going to where where does it potentially where do we envision ourselves potentially to be when it comes to the board goals uh for example uh um the ELA for 3 through six Excuse Me 3 through eight you know are we going to hit the target for this year are we going to hit the target for goal B and and goal C where are we in terms of at this point a snapshot of where we are can we be encouraged by um um what we're seeing and I can't I don't know if what I'm seeing if I can interpret that it's reaching uh meeting the goals that the board has established for for board goal [Music] 1D
040yes so as it relates to board goal 1D and terms of students receiving five credits I think that um we are I won't say that we are it's hard to give an exact answer for that because no I don't need an exact answer but just are we potentially move it in the direction so if you go right for for the year for the year that we're so we just finished the second marking period and all of the numbers that I read off to you it's how the students are currently doing but we still have the other half of the school year to go so based on these numbers right now we are hopeful that we're going to be able to increase the number of students receiving five or more credits significantly so I think we
041are on track yeah yeah I think if if my memory serves me correctly we sort of broke it up um to um 70 80 90 or something like that so whatever that number is I can't remember I don't know if it's 75% or what will we do we have the potential of reaching that for this year for 2020 uh 5 26 um I think it's whatever it is whatever the the year is we 2026 2026 25 are we on track to reach to go for that particular year um I am hesitant to say yes on that we're so right now we're at 63.3% the one reason why we want to begin to make this public and and things of that nature is you bring awareness to what is happening in the classrooms it also tells
042you what are we doing as a district to try to continue to enhance that number so it increases by us being at 63.3% we know we have work to do we have to continue to work because we said we set a goal at 75 and we want to make sure that we get there um that's why we also talked about all of the other additional pieces that we're trying to put in place in order for students to make uh make up those marking periods to pass the uh uh their courses things of that nature so that we actually can see uh what we actually see the the outcome goal for 1D and I think it is around 75% the good thing is you could start to identify and track what students are not in this
043pile of passing and once you can track those students you could Target them differently some of these are I'm I'm almost certain there's a correlation with attendance we also have had a a large dip from what is happening in the world right now in attendance um and and we just have to continue to Chuck away you know what I mean not making any excuses for our students our families our teachers however these are the things that our staffs are contending with you know it's very different and can I just add a little no no let me say something let me interject please thank you see one of the things that I've said I remember going to an RTA meeting and they had all of these other concerns and they are valid concerns but I said
044to them you can't control that all we can do is control the education piece and so that's the that's the important thing and I think that that's what I want to make sure is conveyed in this space they're trying to work with everything else and they can't do it they weren't trained to do that right that may be my responsibility for my day job but it's not theirs all they can do it is educate and if teachers and people keep their eyes on education and not the other stuff that will take care of itself if they're educated right so it's it's important that we not we not get into all the other stuff that takes too much energy away but if we can focus on the education and I tell I'll say this and I'll
045say this we were all we've always poor as African-Americans but the one thing that we knew is that we got the education we will not be poor anymore and and and that's the difference when you have other people who are teaching our children that don't understand that and so that's why it's so important that everybody focuses on education because they can't control the rest but they can't control the education so I say that to say if we if we use the energy for that I I can almost guarantee you that we will see these um um School scores increase but if if to much so much energy is spent on the other piece that that they can't control all we can control is the education you'll see a difference that's got to be the motivating
046factor for the people who work in this District that they're focusing in on educating them and not worried about the other stuff because that will take care of itself so I I say all that to say because you know we've got these goals we may not as we may not uh we may not need them right we may as well not have them if we're not focusing in on accomplishing the goals it's so important that we do that even in times of what we're going through now right even in times of what we're going through now we got to do this work so thank you thank you thank you commissioner Elliot uh Qui quick followup our individual schools um so we have the board goals does in does individual schools create goals as far as
047they're working towards throughout the school year to help absolutely um all schools have school Improvement plans and um School comprehensive education plans where they set goals okay and I will say um as you recall at the beginning of the presentation one of my first charges my non-negotiables was that every single high school student and I even turned it to eth graders um needs to know their amount of credits so all of the students that have seen me in their schools this year they know what question is coming and that wasn't even the case prior to this that was not and I know for some some of our schools in receivership you know as far as their plan and what they create you know is is depending dependent on the law how how connected is the
048goals that these individual schools create to the board goals that that are supposed to be leading this District generally uh most of the so this is the overarching goal for the entire District a lot of times the receivership schools have metrics that are established from New York state which are level one and level two demonstrable indicators that they are trying to reach just to stay open or demon so the target is maybe different I can't say lower because I was at a receivership school where targets were actually higher than what some of the other schools may have uh had in the district however um everyone knows that the expectation is to do their best by any means necessary to reach that board goal period yeah well I think it's also good you know when schools
049have individual scho like when you have a a direction that you're going to a goal that you're trying to hit um and because we are the Board of Education this is set for the entire District you know how are their individual plans connecting to these goals and what are they doing and and you answer that thank you so much president Simmons thank you commissioner Santiago uh thank you for your presentation this evening um so just honing in on goal 1D um I do want to offer just a suggestion that might help us um because you do have a chart here that shows us the 63.3% is where we are and um a visual aid that might help is if we make like a thermometer or some charting toward that goal where it'll show we're 63
050this is the ultimate goal and it'll kind of give us that visual aid to show how we are progressing towards that and listening to the conversation this evening another suggestion might be around some of the qualitative data it has been acknowledged acknowledge from the day as that there are some attendance issues things of that nature so that might also support support the qualitative quantitative conversation and bring things together so that's just a thought um but thank you again for that presentation um and so I just want to move into uh slide number seven we don't really have to go there but you can I just wanted to lift some of the interventions or uh areas of support uh towards credit attainment I love Cort tracking that's certainly necessary and the online credit recovery will be
051critical especially at this particular juncture um and so I heard commissioner Santiago talking about labs and I know he was referring to learning Labs but when he mentioned the learning Labs it sparked in i a thought around science labs because we know that a lot of our students when it's time to take that Regent exam um they do not necessarily qualify for the exam because they are missing Labs so in these School supports um maybe I'm ahead of time what what grade do they need the science labs um so if a student is advanced in Tak earth science or biology uh those are the entry-level uh science courses the region based courses that they need those 1200 lab minutes so we identified this issue uh this challenge early on in December uh noting where students
052are in terms of their lab minutes and so we are doing lab minute recovery and I believe there will also be lab minute recovery over the a the April break as well um so there are opportunities for students to make up those lab minutes on Saturdays and after school right now because we want to make sure that our students are eligible to sit for these exams awesome thank you for that and then lastly I started to think about parents when I reflect on my experience um going through high school not my personal high but my son going through high school right and um are these supports being communicated or how are they being communicated to famili so it was always helpful for me to know that something was available so when he said oh I
053can't do this or this isn't there I knew as a parent um hey nuh I heard there's a science thing or there's something on Saturday or you can do this online recovery so how is that being communicated ensure that so the beautiful thing about technology right now is that we have a myriad of ways to communicate so there are newsletters that go out from multiple schools there are rooc calls there are mailings that go out to families there are post on on social media on Facebook letting parents know uh the resources that are available to support their children um and it's something that we're proud that we're able to do um because it's something that's very important for our students to have access to and we want to make sure that uh parents are aware
054um we want to get to a point in which we can actually text and some of our leaders are even on texting basis with parents saying hey uh Johnny is really behind on this or khil is behind on this um he needs to come and see me on Saturday and so there's an open door policy in most of our schools that we want to lean in to our parents to let them know what's available and that's why I'm glad we have this moment here tonight to say look at the end of the day they don't have to come home we will support them at the end of the school day and we will support them on Saturday as well just drop them off bring them bring them to us and that's what we want to
055continue to do to make sure our students are successful and that parents are aware okay and then my last thing on commissioner Santiago thank you for those responses is um again I wanted to just go back to the cohort tracking that was something I found so attractive and I remember being at East when the EPO Inception happened or what have you and not so much the EPO but the tracking wall they use the data wall I just remember um my the team of people I had around me would take the students to that wall and when the Wall came out because we know that marking periods lag just because you took the region exam you're you're going to wait before you see that data you take the first marking period you're going to wait before
056that data is Consolidated and set out but when they did come out I remember that tracking um data wall kids would come and look and look for their they had like indiscriminantly numbers that you couldn't identify it was like not even their 890 I don't remember what it was but they could look find themselves and see how they were doing if they were in the red yellow or green and they knew where what the charge was from there so I hope some of our school communities are finding um ways to to bring that culture together as well yes they are account meetings to give student updates even after hour testing with our students to let our students know how they're doing and which um standards that they still need to master so those conversations are
057happening and they are becoming quite robust in our district which is something we're really proud of because when students know they where they are then they know what to aim for and so that's something that we're trying to make consistent across the district yeah if you know where you are you know where to go thank you exactly quick question are are there the apparently aison are they in the high school also or is that an elementary school thing in our high schools they are homeschool assistants okay thank you uh vice president Malloy thank you thank you so much for your presentation this evening and it's really I love seeing this cohort tracking model um and I can see that we are making some progress we have more progress to to be made um I'm looking
058at slide seven and and that's the cohort tracking for our current eighth graders um I think it's great that we're going back and and doing this at the eth grade level I think it's fair to say too that you know when we're looking at algebra biology earth science any of those credit-bearing courses are most likely being taken by our honors students um would that be a correct assumption just as they're already taking that in eth grade um and so I think that you know when we see percentages those percentages look okay right um but that means that you know in algebra you know almost 20% of our students taking that at the eighth grade level are are not passing right um and so I am curious to see that progression um so but it is
059great that we see this as Commissioners I'm wondering how that eighth grade cohort tracking when we look at the next slide when I'm looking at the ninth the current ninth graders then who are on track you know obviously we see that those numbers are much much lower overall um and I I'm just curious to know what percentage of those students were the were honor students when they were in eth grade and already came into ninth grade with those credits um and what percentage so is it fair to say that a large percentage of those current ninth graders already had the the credit going into 9th grade which is wonderful we love to see that um I just want to know I don't know if I'm making much sense no you you're making a lot of
060sense you wonder worried when I see that dip but then it's actually a much higher number of ninth graders who are at risk if a larger percentage of those numbers were honor students in eighth grade coming in that we'd love to see those credits already but it it means that many more of our Reg Ed non- honor students perhaps are falling behind I don't know if that yeah I'm just curious to know that the what percentage of those students were um in those Honors that honors cohort as well okay I think I understand your question um so you're looking for the number of students who were um who were ninth graders who are current nth graders but who earned those credits already back in eth grade okay that's something that we can we can delve
061into we can get can get numbers for you co thank can we add that to the question lck please thank you thank you so just an FYI um some of the students that are on this chart so 69 students at World of inquiry School some of them probably already have two three credits and could be in an higher or Advanced course that they're not doing so well in but it's all en encompassing right um we took the time to highlight the traditional High School uh 9th grade schedule algebra biology so on and so forth some students take earth science some take biology uh Spanish onec one you know those are some of those courses exist in our high schools for n9th graders and it's good to track as an indicator of what they're going to
062do in n9th grade as well but um you are you're right we just need to find a percentage of students that were Advanced and figure out how many of those individuals where are they uh where do they fall on this chart yeah thank you and I'm sorry if that wasn't CLA um one thing though I'm curious about just enrollment I know on slide seven we're looking at total number of eighth graders it looks like the district total for eighth graders is 2,182 so and when we look at the current nth graders in the district it's um 1,540 um is that just due to declining enrollment or do we typically see is it just an anomaly between those classes obviously maybe that can't be answered now but that's a big dip in between classes just in
063the total number of students enrolled uh yeah if we can add that to the question log thank you to the question thank you vice president Malloy uh that's the end of the presentation thank you guys um for your your presentation all that you had to share uh next up we'll be having a presentation from um Dr Vicky Ramos who will be giving us a presentation and an update on on our um I ready scores and so um Dr Ramos is it's all the mic is all yours and I would like to remind the community that's watching just in case you weren't here uh during the beginning all of these reports and presentations are available on board docs uh rcsd you can search it up on Google and you can find all these presentations uh Dr
064Ramos you're ready I'm ready thank you all right let me move this forward and make sure okay we're can start in the next slide please all right as you as you know and first of all good evening Commissioners and thank you so much for the invitation to present to you um I'm reminding you this is the middle of the year my presentation is a lot about the diagnostic testing as to where we are supposed to be going the kids take this test they're not there yet just to remind you again on that and I will go to those slides um a little bit differently from the previous pre presentation um all the work we do is including your goals as well as our priority goals and my priority goals of course include 1 a and
0651B which would be the next slide and we can go to the third slide we do not um forget actually I think commissioner Elliot said it very clearly um the educators are the responsibility of what we have in front of you and we have to maximize the time we have in front of you with with the students we always say this to the Educators um when they come here it's the best of the best that we can have and give them and so how do we support them we support them with good curriculum and good tools and we support them with a very clear line we've been talking a lot about since I started November about priority standards and how we were going to do that and you will see some of that work reflected
066here as well as our program impact you'll also see some of those pieces reflected here and how we plan to continue moving ahead um next slide please so this is a a a quick synopsis of the the total amount of students that were tested for the mid year um with with fall going from one year to the other both in reading and Mathematics and we go to the next slide just a reminder the these are diagnostic tests so they are testing the kids as to what they would need to know to imp to have the entire entire year under them they don't test them as to what they should know by the time they take the test in January they're testing them what is everything you should know by June of the current year and
067so you should have like we always say students that aren't meeting the targets but how do we know we should always have students that are above that medium and we should always have students that are below but what are we doing about it right and we'll talk about that as well um moving forward we really have tried looking at the data differently this time around because we have a set of data we're looking at how are we progressing which is what I mentioned what's the impact of the educational programs we're putting forward what's the impact of the curriculum what's the impact of the relevance of curriculum that we have um how are we maintaining growth we can't let kids slip you know when we started in October we realized that last year State Testing we
068lost children that we thought were going to be twos they were ones how did that happen we don't want that happening again and those students that are falling behind why um if we go to our next slide so here we go with mathematics um let me just again remind you that relative placement means the growth over a specified amount of time in other words the exponential growth rate um the difficulty of this slide is that what you're going to see at the very top in in blue is the middle so nationally the Norms are that they say students can be at this end and students can be at the other end where is the student in the middle of the norm and then they base the data based on the student in the middle it's
069not an average it's just based on the student in the middle so how do we compare with national Norms is what this slide is about right um and how are students doing from year to year also is what this slide is about so we can see those students that had the growth rate that we're hoping and we want them to be at 52% those are the students that we have 3% of our students at 52% that are mid or above grade level seven that are early on grade level um with with that Norm in mathematics okay do you want me to just keep going and we'll come back to the slides because I know that sometimes these slides can be um and the next slide here's a relative placements from when to Winter by grade
070we have the percentage as well as the numbers in our with our students sometimes we look at these and if you want to try to follow the cohort of the student you would be looking if you're looking at this year's third graders right they were last year's second graders so sometimes it's good to follow them that way and then you do see even though it's a tiny increase you do see increase in percentages that winter to Winter we need this time this moment in time you would say to me why are we doing winter to Winter because we and then can can look at their growth remember we have to we have to decrease achievement growth right that Gap we have to decrease the Gap the only way we can decrease decrease the Gap is
071if we really are looking to see not only what is their typical growth what it could should grow in a year but how well are we doing with gaining on the learning loss and the next slide is mathematics for for grades 6 7 and8 okay our next slide we have reading again this is total District the following slide we have it by gray level 1 second 3D fourth and fifth I will point out that we're starting to Hope and see that our percentages of those pinks and reds are starting to decrease as we are doing more work in the science of reading and you're going to start to see that with these slides and as we continue to move forward remember this is the first year of our implementation of the science of reading really
072targeted phonics fluency um pieces and um grade six seven and eight so that's normally what you get with the slides with um our midy year but I really wanted to and we've said this all along attendance makes a difference and for us to know what is the impact we're having with the programs that we have in school the next slide which is the attendance-based performance and growth I asked that they provide us a slide and this is um 17 I think you skipped one there we go um I ask that they give us a slide that showed four kids that attend 80% of the time or more what's the impact how are those kids learning versus the kids that do not have um the 80% or more attendance and you can see that the 10
073points that we seem to be losing when we're looking at the other General slides we suddenly gain them so attendance matters we want kids every day in school right it does this slide shows you that what's happening in the classrooms is having an impact with our learning are we where we need are are we are are we where we want to be not yet but we're not going backwards when you look at this slide um if you look at the stretch growth next slide please so stretch growth is what I had mentioned to you that we have to test to the standard if you look at the next side please this is the national Norm we know that kids for two years that were studied right that when we have them looking at the standard
074and teaching to the standard look at the growth that kids do nationally we know that we are truly this year looked at the standard and we are teaching to the standard and we're doing priority standards so we should in two years be very similar and mimicking this growth and what's important piece about this is if you're not checking the stretch growth you're not decreasing the achievement Gap so the kids that get behind behind behind then you don't have a way to say are we catching up so we know that data and research tells us that if we keep doing what we're doing we notice that with the attendance in two years we should be able to really start to see those gains and you won't keep seeing tons of red in your bars so how
075do I know this is happening next next slide please this is an example of math and reading where the kids how are they growing when it's towards the stretch growth so we have 52% of our kids we were able to say that 52% of our kids in math are starting to decrease the achievement Gap so if they were at I'm just going to make this up at a progress of 20 they might be at a progress of 30 are they on Gray level maybe not but we're getting them there so this is the type of slide Commissioners that tell you are we doing what we need to do with what's happening in those classrooms do we want to see these percentages continue to increase absolutely that's why we're pushing for writing if they're not writing
076they're not continuing that cognitive development of talking about it reading about about it and now we need to write about it right and writing is not a one time event they should be writing all the time right um and the reason why we say that mathematics manipulatives we just spent close to $40,000 in February of ordering manipulatives for the elementary schools we know that when kids practice using manipulatives they're moving the agenda how do we know that because we see that in those classrooms where they're truly using manipulatives this growth is minimizing how do we know the work is happening we're meeting with the Chiefs they know school by school student by student who's on this chart and who is not so what are we doing about those that are not and what are we
077doing that those that are so that we don't lose the momentum um in in our next slide if the state exam was tomorrow this is where we would be so my hope is that in two more months we are better than this but not less than this those are my fingers crossed right we don't want to lose kids where they are right now but this is where we would be in mathematics if the state exam was tomorrow um not the percentages of where we want to be but this is that snapshot in time that tells me and tells our department and tells the Chiefs where are we right because we can't wait for the state just to say we didn't do it right and we can't depend on I ready all the time so this
078is really a lot about stretch growth right this is not progress that the kid is just doing from day to day dayto day yes but in addition to that how are you getting closer to that gray level and then the next slide is reading moment in time where are we if we were to have the test tomorrow so we always in the next slide please we always talk about what are we doing so I kind of Switched this over to what are we providing our staff so that we can continue to move the agenda because I think this is important that not only we talk about how are we what what are those instructional priorities we're doing but how what are we providing to teachers so that and then they can employ those that toolkit
079that we're asking and so um with literacy um those monthly meetings with the reading teachers are looking at data talking about what kids you know my question always is what's the impact that we have what is the impact of that reading teacher on students right because if we have reading teacher and we have a commitment of reading teachers of course we would love a lot more reading teachers but if we have them then how can we say to you it worked and it impacted them and every single one of the reading teachers have to submit their impact because everybody wants I have yet to find somebody who doesn't want a student to be successful especially when it comes to reading right um instructional intervention toolbox resource there's tons of pieces there um we have dedicated
080tier three intervention services I heard commissioner s Iago ask about you know what about these labs in elementary school they exist right but they're rotating all the time the back in the old days we used to call it the wintime you know they're flexible grouping a kid should not be with the intervention teacher all the time intervention is not about content you're not going over the same thing you miss because you're absent it's totally standard-based that's how we're going to reduce the achievement Gap so they have a remediation guide or they have remediation programs that work with the phic awareness with the fluency with the vocabulary development with the comprehension those are the big buckets how you get there is the information and the content that you have right um we have um English language
081learner supports these are programs that exist right now in different um buildings I stations so that we can measure their language fluency and acquisition isas that are used for our Spanish-speaking kids and a in a mirror which with the kid can sign on with fluency as well these are used in addition to intervention during um tier three we also have them available for the classroom teacher during tier 2 intervention when she's when the teacher is doing or he or doing small groups um parent training focus on early preventive practices have been um happening you know we've been joining very strongly with pre I'm very happy to let you know that prek is now going to start the alignment for next year of what we do in kindergarten they're going to bring it down and kind
082of do it so that that kindergarten Readiness quote that you look at TH those little numbers can increase and so prek department and the K Department have been uniting forces so that the message is very um clear as well as first second and then professional learning opportunities for leaders and teachers um one change that we recently made Commissioners is 100.3 regulation that's a science of reading regul ation says K through three and so now Under the Umbrella of the science of reading we're including grade three as well so that we have the same expectations from third grade and that we can continue that um numeracy you have professional learning going on with I make it we have a big conference day coming up everybody's getting trained right on it and this is kind of what
083we call the letters which is the literacy training how to how what is the science of reading and why it's so important to do certain things in Reading during reading time that we have our classroom teachers do it it's the same thing for mathematics we are just in the process of the selection of K5 program in mathematics we do have parents involved we have a pilot right now going on um and as well as we'll be getting feedback from our from our students and elementary schools because their voice matters more than anybody else's right um parent workshops of course increasing math excitement um this is my my plugin May 30th at school 7 we'd love to see you at the 24 game District White tour tournament so um that was my plug so that I
084wouldn't forget to invite you um and professional learning I mean I think that we're providing ample opportunities and we really are trying to remind teachers all the time of the resources that they have okay let's go to algebra I'll try to go faster this time midyear algebra so this midyear diagnostic is that lab that they're taking commissioner Santiago that you talked about right during that lab we use I Exel time and we use that lab time to test to see how well are they doing in algebra so you will see that many of your numbers here don't match a total number of nth graders because if they are in that math lab and they're using that time in that math lab forl that's those are the kids that are being tracked right now for next
085year um this year is a full year of implementation for next year um our point is that every single ninth grader that is taking algebra must have the lab attached to them um the next page is the pie that you always appreciate and that you that you want to see um again this is midyear this is everything that the kids should know by the end of the algebra year so the fact that you're seeing 68% of them are far below all your eighth graders have not made it through that curriculum right on the next page you have the ninth grade pie chart as well and we had a great discussion today during our chief meeting about this and our work continues oh yeah we're behind yeah sorry okay and our work continues aligning curriculum materials
086trying to identify those areas um one of the pieces like we said we get weekly a skill set from the students that are in those labs and then there's work that comes with that M that Lab One change that they did this year is the teacher that teaches algebra is the teacher teaching the lap in the past it used to be random and that we saw that that wasn't working and so for the upcoming year algebras will be double period but the reason why they're double period is because we expect every kid in algebra to have a lab attach with they need that extra time on task and um our our leaders and our teachers and at the end of the year again looking at the analysis um um I understood the question of about
087um Regents exams in January there is a process where we load these exams and then once we get the permission from s to be able to share we will be sharing those with you my department did do already a deep dive analysis and once we're given permission to do that we will be telling you what we are sharing and actually at the principals meeting this Thursday what we're telling our principls make sure that you're seeing this this and this happening in your algebra classes so that we can be successful at the end of the year this is a new algebra exam uh thank you uh Dr Ramos for your presentation and I I just will will also like to remind and say that this is data regarding the current place that we are after the
088second marking period um and I do want to say that there there's a lot of work that we have to do um and and this is something that we all know this is why we you know you guys took this position this is why some of us ran um is because there's work that has to be done for the children and so um I'm hoping to see uh throughout the rest this marketing period for there to be progress and I know that absenteeism you know is usually a big contributing factor um and truly however we can find ways to decrease our absenteeism uh will be important and I know that there's a lot of uh students and parents in this District that has unmet needs unmet concerns unmet problems I think as we really start
089you know tackling that and taking care of our parents and our students uh we can we can start you know chipping away at our chronic absenteeism here um and that also does come with with the code of conduct enforcement and ensuring that our parents and our students know about the code of of conduct and enforcing that that it's being right uh that is being practiced in this District um because these are our parents and our students rights is there any questions from our commissioners I'm going to go uh this way now so commissioner uh vice president Malloy first and then we'll go down awesome thank you so much for your presentation I really appreciated just this there's some sobering numbers of course but um I wanted to say thank you for point pointing out um
090just that stretch growth I'm looking forward to to learning more and and seeing more of that um also really appreciate that we're looking at standard spaced instruction um and it was nice to see all the information on the many interventions that that we're doing for mtss so thank you for your presentation and we got a lot of work ahead of us but do um thank you for uh this snapshot thank you and can can you quickly remind the community what mtss is I do know what mtss is but just for the community to know because I do think that is a model that would be helpful even towards the the data that we're seeing today so multiple tiers of student support is really a committee that looks at every student and looks at the data
091and then our academic and um intervention teachers or services or what we provide um with our with our intervention teacher so when we have these students that are two grades below um and they're not meeting the mark and then they have extra time of intervention yeah yeah so I we got that presentation uh I believe some point last year uh when when it was kicked off and so I'm glad to see that it's being utilized I'm and excited in the upcoming months to see the result we have a data a data um form platform that allows um staff and teachers and administrators to see how they're growing once the intervention is being provided so um we can see was this impactful or not during that time right so we're right we're we're we're not waiting
092the three months for this to come out right we truly are trying to do as much as we can thank you president Simmons thank you um I wanted to uh thank you for acknowledging that there are um various approaches and that we cannot hone in simply on I ready that we have to be able to differentiate several different um ways to uh test student perform performance to ensure they are um doing well and and not having them in front of these these computerized tests all the time um although they are nice pulse checks they are not the end withth all so that is a awesome acknowledgement um also um the attendance piece I was I was looking at the slide this is really helpful to see it charted in this particular way looking at slide
093number 17 specifically and not only the correlation of attendance and impact on performance and growth in education um it also prompted me to think about a conversation or a comment I made earlier today because I'm looking at the state of or the climate of education and how diffic difficult it is across the board even with our Educators on some level and this is not to lend excuse like we all need to be here students need to be here Educators too um but there is um we we struggle with Staffing and things of that nature and so also the correlation of the student comeing to class and maybe not even seeing their teacher consistently in some cases and so just figuring out we recognize we need to uh support our students but also how do we
094support holistically our school climate as a whole to ensure um education is happening in the Rochester City School District so um just a thought thank you agree thank you president any other Commissioners commissioner Patterson yes Dr amosa thank you you know for your uh report um in- depth report um it just uh shines the light on and gives us an idea as Commissioners is exactly where we stand and where we you know have to go uh where we have to to get I should say but um again thank you I'm not going to be repetitious and I think my colleagues have already reported out on you know what they thought of this presentation but you know just thank you for your honesty and your transparency so uh not only us but the public can see
095exactly where we are where our students are and what grades and you know where the bars and where we have to go so thank you thank you commissioner Patterson commissioner uh thank you Dr Ramos for that um in-depth review um of information and where where we have what we need to work on I have one question what is what um professional development is being provided to ensure elementary teachers are skilled at teaching um math or reading since many don't have degrees in math and reading math in English I'm sorry that's wonderful so um we have a professional development actually um we've been providing it for the for the last two years but this year we really wanted to make sure I believe that our um current K12 teachers 80% of them have completed the letters
096training this is not a one time this is like it's it's you go through modules and tiers and it teaches you how why it's important to teach reading and what are the different phases of reading and how does the brain work because when we understand how the brain works right we understand and then what can I do to enhance that and what are the things that I love doing but maybe might not be impacting that that measure um we had that's the same thing of I make it and we've started that this year and we're using our conference day full conference day six hours of training for our elementary teachers you know one of the things I always used to say is I was totally in the literacy side that I probably would have taught
097math the way I T literacy and that's a big no no teaching math is a whole different way and you have to change your way um teaching inquiry based problem-based using manipulatives letting kids figure it out that is um the I make it way so um we we are constant it's not a one-time PD time it's throughout the entire year teachers can sign up after school during the day on the weekend um you know dur during the summer these are these are PDS that are going on all the time and then we use our department and our toas to go right to the buildings I mean we have a principal that calls I have a teacher in second grade that really is struggling how to teach reading Kim Harris Pepin that's in charge of reading
098she goes to that school and hands on deck right because that's that's we we have to be able to know what's happening in the front lines and if we're over here we can't get it right I just want to say again and I know there's a lot of issues and I know that we can all talk about what's not happening but if anything the attendance data shows that we have a lot of people doing the right thing in those classes but we have to be responsible for every kid and we need the kid here when the kids come we can impact them and I think that's the biggest message I have when the kids are here we can impact them look at that slide look at the difference still not where we want it but
099there's a difference there right um another question um what how are we doing on like navigating the children um early now with the textbooks I'm a big textbook person um and and not much of an you know like a Google Chrome I know we're trying to move away from that is that correct and make sure it's more like the phonics learning but I'm I'm I'm big on textbooks and opening up and you know children flipping the pages and learning oh they have them so the phonics are all decodable books they have classroom libraries they have tons of books they can take them home we have them um kids that are right now six seven and eight that are in Expeditionary Learning they have great books that the kids are asking to take home you know
100and we're letting them take them home this idea of like oh no let's not let the books go home because we lose them no we want kids to have those in their hands we want them to have the right book um and um we have textbooks in the classrooms and those Elementary classrooms have classroom libraries that we're supporting so they have they have access to textbooks okay and my last question I don't know if you would be able to answer but you may be able to shed some type of light on it we have a lot of cbos and we have our pre prek program how many of those kids that come in from the cbos versus the kids coming in um at pre prek level have have um are more advanced than the ones
101that we have at the prek level that's coming into the district so I would think that's a specific prek question I think when um executive director Eva Thomas presented to you she did give you the breakdown of that back in in September um but the cbos use the same curriculum we use we are we are um changing curriculum and next year we're going to be totally aligned with what the kindergarteners do and the cbos are going to actually March superintendent conference day they're getting exposed to what we're going to and what that requires of different teaching and we will be supporting them with professional development um because we we need them to be ready for kindergarten well I guess my last question would be if if my if it's not broke I fix it so
102what is making you change that at this stage of the game when we are we were doing so great in that area with 3K why are we changing it now what made you what what who made that decision to do that if our numbers were good so I don't I I'm making the decision because our Readiness test tells us that we have to be more intentional with the science of reading like there has to be to teach reading is difficult we're not disappearing The Learning Centers but the Learning Centers become very intentional we're changing the structure of what happens and and when it happens and how it happens maybe by changing it and by being more intentional and then we can measure because it just can't all be qualitative right then we know they have
103great smiles we see them going to the classrooms they're enjoying it that's not going to stop the happiness of the children won't stop but we want the intentional the teaching to be int so that we can measure so that when they get to kindergarten if they went to prek we can have an impact on K have a more on grade level when they enter K and then say to parents send them to prek because when they come to prek they do better in K thank you thank you very much Dr Ros welcome president Simmons oh I just got excited you know you talk about reading you're talking about my my thing and I'm still learning and growing in in my understanding with that area but I love what you talked about um regarding the intentionality
104that's necessary and I remember when Karine Weaver the gentleman featured in the whole documentary the science of reading talked about the intentionality that is necessary to execute that well and also even the planning time if you look at a curriculum we know science of reading is not a curriculum within itself it's a it's a science right it's a methodology and a what have you but um the pillars are are are necessary and um just recognizing how careful have to be to execute um literacy um in a responsible manner so I do I do like what I'm hearing in that regard so thank you I just want to lift that thank you thank and thank you Dr Ramos uh we we have work to do um and and I hope that our parents are encouraged our
105our teachers are encouraged our administrators are encouraged because it's going to take all of us to make sure that we are uh uplifting and succeeding our next generation for our last presentation we have uh an update from the State monitor's financial plan for the second quarter coming from our interim superintendent Dr Strickland great evening president Elliott vice president I excuse me president Simmons vice president Malloy Commissioners uh student staff uh the Greater Rochester committee um I'm pleased to bring you the first uh reporting of our financial plan for quarter number two uh this is extremely similar to our um academic plan updates so um now we are just also doing uh this task for our financial plan and with the sunsetting of the uh finance committee we have to bring this uh forward in some
106way shape or form so uh our financial plan is is set up just like our academic plan in which there are 33 total recommendations that are in uh different buckets those being uh General fiscal risk F General fiscal practices at 14 governance and programmatic decisionmaking at 4 legal and financial audits five budget development five organizational organization structure and internal operational efficiency five um and this all falls under the Strategic plan priority uh number five which is operational efficiency uh SL Excellence the reporting process is extremely similar U actually identical to the academic plan reporting process in which we asked um the Departments to ensure they submit the evidence uh this evidence should be ongoing it should not be uh all of a sudden a oneandone where they just um stop work and place things in
107um the recommendation uh leads confirm if required actions were fully implemented during the quarter the state monitor the fiscal monitor superintendent deput and Chief of Staff we review the plan in entirety in in its entirety um and that means actually going uh indicator by indicator to ensure that the information is uh appropriate uh for uh each of the recommendations the report is submitted to the state Monitor and the fiscal Monitor and excuse me Fiscal consultant the final document is then sent to the commissioner of education and then the New York State Education Department and the superint intendent conducts a final review where I can present this information uh to New York State Ed so uh for the first area uh for General fiscal practices as you can see we had 11 yeses uh three NOS
108or um in progress um totaling 79% uh achieving yes 21% achieving no um it's important to highlight that in this case as well just as our academic plan does some of those uh indicators cannot be achieved until the end of the school year uh so there are areas that are just not going to be yes I just uh need to continue to reiterate reiterate that um there's areas of appropriate progress uh so for instance and I won't read all of them uh adhering to Staffing ratios we've uh really tried to uh ensure that we're connecting our staffing uh ratios uh to our staffing handbooks our contractual agreements um we looking at we're looking at a monthly position control report to ensure that staff are in the correct areas of of different um in their POS
109positions um we're being transparent with an explanation for activities U listed on the resolutions that was a requirement that started with the previous state monitor uh Oracle planning has made a insurmountable insurmountable amount of progress um and but as you could see we still also some have some areas of uh in progress Staffing ratios outlined in the collective bargaining agreements uh vary but that's a still a constant adjustment that we are always trying to make uh the implementing of the westad recommendations for the staff audit uh to continue to rightsize the district so we have aspects of some of that audit however now we are actually bringing back to the Board of Education an amendment for westad to now really focus specifically on uh position management and then finally uh implementation of the updated position
110management action form or pmav um is is something that's continuing uh to be ongoing um as I stated before under my Administration um I actually physically uh needed to see each and every single pmath where there's position changes um position ads position deletion so on and so forth and I signed off on those specifically for governance and programmatic decision-making we have areas All U yes 100 100% uh so reports to The Benchmark uh reports to Benchmark the annual use of H and K funds um all contracts and resolutions include an evaluation and cost analysis a monthly vacancy analysis submissions uh that that actually comes to uh members of the executive cabinet and then finally identification of various Revenue components uh which you actually see on a monthly basis when our financial um when our chief
111uh Financial Officer presents the financial report I just really want to uh uh let the public know and you all know the H fund is connected to cash capital and the K fund is connected to our bonds for legal and financial audits we had four yeses and one no in progress so we consistently are reviewing all moas um memorandums of agreement uh we are currently in the process of reviewing election to work agreements uh annually that's uh the sort of the document that governs our uh schools that are com comprehensive schools in need of support which are our receivership schools and then uh we use independent counil with uh when appropriate and areas of progress uh independent Council to audit all collective bargaining agreements that is something of course that will be happening um as
112we are beginning um negotiations with one of our bargaining units so we have that additional consult for this next would be budget development uh yet again five yeses uh areas of appropriate progress School leaders were trained last summer um on uh the best practices in finance and budget uh there's a continued um we continue with the budget process and timelines implemented to produce uh the 2024 25 school year improve the budget book and complimentary budget materials so those things that have subsequently just uh been shifted over to this year's academic plan even though uh earlier in the uh school year we've elected to keep the uh budget book as close to last year as possible and then finally uh submit an updated five-year financial plan to the state Monitor and the Financial Consultant and our
113long range financial plan is currently being reviewed and submitted uh and will be submitted to the state Monitor and the board of education for review and then finally we have organiz organization structure and internal operational efficiency uh we have a total of three yeses and two NOS uh or in progress uh areas of appropriate progress would include strategies for implementation to reducing rising cost of utilities so we do have uh different uh we we we've had uh different lightings U put in some of our buildings to reduce energy we're just always looking at ways on being efficient energy wise as we know that those costs continue to rise uh monitoring the development and implementation of uh the faciliity modernization plan so very intri myself I am very intricately involved uh with uh our state Monitor
114and our chief of operations um president president Simmons actually attended the meeting with us yesterday um um commissioner Elliot was also extremely involved so that helps keep the uh the the things mve in um implementation of at least four strategies to reduce the district's Reliance on Transportation so one of one of those big things were trying to ensure that we zoned our students as much as possible in middle schools so that we can become more efficient and as you can see we still continue to have ongoing Transportation issues so we continue to go to the drawing board for a number of things areas in progress Medicaid compliance uh written to the board uh superintendent and the state Monitor and finally uh continuing to Monitor and enforce that all service providers document in the IEP or
115the individual education plan direct service um log all services provided and events that prevent the delivery of service within 48 Hours of delivery of the service delivery so we need to ensure that in the event that a student is not afforded a service that they are provided at because the IEP explains that we have to be most certain that uh the parent receives documentation and is it as it is their right uh to do so um we've also have done this when in the event a teacher is not in front of them we have let the parents know that their teach teacher hasn't been in front of them and these are the fape options that we have available and um I do know for a fact that our special education department has uh generally been
116up on that and with that being said um I am ready to take any of your questions very short and sweet but uh a lot of um progress in our financial um financial plan and that's been uh ongoing year after year which is great uh thank you inm superintendent Dr Strickland I want to start off with the state monitor uh with any comments from him good evening and thank you commissioner Santiago for the opportunity I truly want to commend the district for the work that they're doing in this area I know that last year and this year uh through the leadership from president Simmons we were getting the reports from the academics and now we're moving forward also with getting reports on the finances for the district uh one of the reason why there's a
117monitor and if a fiscal consultant in the district was uh due to the use or uh the funding that was in the district and if you recall quite a few years back not that many uh the district exhausted all the finances all the fund balance everything and in the middle of the school year there were some uh employees that needed to be to let go so the district has put a lot of efforts and there's has been a commit from the board all the way down to the superintendent and the staff to continue to improve the finances in the district uh fiscal consultant uh Porter and myself we are very happy with the work that the district are doing and we will continue to address the needs of the district and to continue to remain
118Vigilant because we don't want the district to go back I know that there's a very nice healthy F balance but we don't want that f balance to be used all at once we want the district to be proactive to look at the entire dis uh Staffing in the district at the program and to try to evaluate all the programs that are in the district because if something is not working we need to revisit that and make some adjustments some uh changes so uh from 60 plus uh recommendation we're down to 33 that means that we're making progress that you're making progress and that we will continue to work with you and to continue to work with the staff to continue to improve academic and finances in the Rochester City School District commissioner LeBron thank you
119haime um a couple of things just uh regarding slide seven which is where you're we're at where we landed the slide right before the last slide um you know my concern and I know we've done amazing because uh yeah we had a deficit in this district and it was was very painful to have to do midyear um cuts to staff in this district and it was very emotionally impactful to both staff and students and famili so I personally never want to have to live through that again I'm sure they do not either but I am concerned um as you all know there's lots of still stuff still happening but I want to point out that you know strategies for implementation to reduce rising cost of utilities there was a new story a few weeks ago
120on channel 10 that rg& electricity costs went up and this is before the tariffs that our current um person in office at the federal level has um put into place with Canada now when all of this was going on at research we're actually we are getting our energy from Canada so unfortunately I just want to point out that if Canada was to stay true to essentially cutting off the electricity we New York State and us right here in this District we would would be impacted we would not and I don't know what our generator um looks like across the schools but we are in the zone of being impacted but also now with a 25% additional increase in the tariffs for electricity from from Canada and the USA and what's happening right now you know
121I'm concerned that our rg& is going to Skyrocket and I don't know how we manage those things and what strategies we're going to put in place um I'm also as we talk about FM P today today there is um president Trump threatened Canada and said he's going to double tariffs on wood and steel we eat those costs like that Canada is not eating those costs those costs will then trigger down to us and FMP as well and I already have concerns about the rising cost of food and supplies so even our food services budget that we have put money year after year and in and maintain an additional funding outside of it being a self- sustained uh budget item line that we've intentionally done the increases but my concern is not even going to be
122enough and I know that right now we have a healthy balance but we also don't know what this budget that expires on Friday is going to look like right there's still a lot of conversations about what both the Senate and the and the Congress are going to do but the budget is set to expire on Friday so I just want to I it would be hoov me if I did not uplift that I do think that we need to look at the financial plan for the state and with the administration again to have some planning done for what happens if we get hit with a 50% increase for just electricity and I want to point out that it's electricity that went up and not the heating but a 25% is on both electricity and heat
123so and that's just one small piece so I just want to put that out on record so that you are all having that conversation and you can come back to this board to say these are the conversations we've had this is what we're looking at and this is how we think we can sort of Fango and manage some of this thank you thank you Dr stricklin No thank you for bringing that up commissioner LeBron so um I've been um I had a preliminary discussion with uh one of our Regents um talking about looking into what Hydro power we could possibly get from the Gennesse River as it does flow uh quite uh well um so that is an initial very initial conversation but I do want you to know I'm just always thinking longterm I've
124been thinking that way um you know even it was a while ago um but also for FNP um this um this board would be pleased to know that I have made a request uh for an additional amount of money $125 million uh to help support the modernization efforts um fmp3 was passed quite a bit ago and um we know that there's inflationary costs but exactly what you said about these tariffs and things of that nature that's going to be an increase on the goods and services needed to modernize uh so hopefully uh the state will uh come through and be able to support us on those efforts so conversations are happening and uh I'm just happy to I have a response yep I'm going down the line so commissioner Malloy ni thank you um thank
125you so much for your presentation um just one question I'm just not really familiar with the pmath I think that was on uh what slide seven yes or so um is this a some sort of database and how does that work so the PF uh is a um it's a process in which we create positions we change positions and it goes through a series of approvals one it gets put in by the department manager it gets validated by budget to ensure that the funds are there um it uh goes through human capital to ensure there's no issues with uh the collective bargaining agreement and then uh it finally comes to uh the superintendent to make a determination on whether or not this position will be approved um for the most part I will say um
126most positions um were like this year if if there's a net zero mean you know you you want something you're giving me something um we're not trying to add additional things uh but you know in a sense that's what happens now there are uh different grants uh which you know now are going to be interesting um but different grants come in and there may be positions attached to it we actually have to create a or put it uh in a PM to create a job code so on and so forth so that we are able to hire for the position and so this is isn't just this isn't a building level type form this is a central office um yeah generally uh central office does it for the buildings in many cases and it goes
127through a long string of approvals thank you absolutely president Simmons thank you um earlier this afternoon we had a brief conversation State monitor superintendent around um disaster or contingency planning things of that nature so I heard a little bit of ideas do you have a specified um this might be going off the rail a little bit but just like a specified team within this budget season where well what does that look like as far as contingency and disaster because we recognize we can have the budget in front of us yes and as the climate changes so might the budget and absolutely so for the most part what it looks like now is not us touching fund balance so what I'm working in is within the current constraints of what I have and not touching fund
128balance in the event that we do things like lose title 2 three and four um we will have a fund balance to help support that and honestly with uh the vast amount of positions that we do have in our budget uh you know we still can continue to try to get some concessions out of the staff that we have and make reductions appropriately so um that's the only contingency uh we have someone that signs these things called executive orders every day it seems and it's like it's so hard to keep up with Absolut so you know we're just continuing as a whole as a collective to read up on this information and try to stay as clear as day because just as soon as they get signed then you hear the next day that the
129judge knocked it down so it's like it's a moving Target and what we have to focus on is getting you a balanced budget and that's within our Oracle system so we're now moving over to something else and we have these con these constraints because we have deadlines because we are under state monitorship so we're doing the best we can and I can assure you that myself uh the acting Chief Financial Officer his budget director his team they're working on weekends um it's it's nonstop it is nonstop so that's that's really the only thing I can is that is there is that Reserve still that they talked about um is the reserve still okay they were saying that some dollars could get cut but have you but there was a reserve that was still really healthy
130and you may not see it right away that type of thing so um well right now what the state projection the state projections that came in were more than we thought um however with declining enrollment there's a possibility that the numbers go down however my number one goal because we do have Rising costs like health care and it's and again that's that's as a result of what's Happening um we have to still make Cuts in some way shape or form we found a a number of of vacancies that are not going to get filled they're double budgeted get those out of the system so that we can actually free up some funds and not have to worry about people because I'm like uh commissioner uh Lebron said do not want to deliver that news um
131but one of the things is really being meticulous and saying what's vacant what's not having a pot uh so the in coming uh superintendent we'll have a pot where if there are necessary positions that are needed um then there's the ability to create a position if need be so really setting up uh the district for long-term success uh is is what my goal is thank you you're welcome commissioner Elliot so I just want to emphasize what um uh commissioner LeBron said around cost and um you know you know you all know I've been talking about cost for a very long time and not knowing what we would need these resources for and now you know um it it's coming into fruition uh the possibility of what may happen on the federal level and so um
132I think that the entire District needs to be mindful of this even the unions needs to be mindful of what's going on um and maybe they need to pull back some um because we just don't know um you know what the um president may be doing I mean he says he talks out of both sides of his mouth um so we're not clear about what those directives are going to be but we certainly are mindful of the fact that they're going to be some kind of um cost and it may hurt us pretty bad and while I'm not saying that we spend all of our fund balance on um Title One funding we we just have to be if that gets cut when I say TT all the titles excuse me we certainly have to
133be strategic about how we're going to um support um that funding that may be lost so I just wanted to also just uh um second what um commissioner LeBron was indicating thank you thank you any other comments or questions commissioner Patterson yeah thank you for your report appreciate it thank you no questions thank you um and that concludes our reports today and the esa committee meeting uh thank you to the community for watching again all the reports shared today you can access on board docs uh for all of our commissioners please complete the board meeting survey um and lastly can I get a motion to adjourn the esa committee meeting motioned by commissioner uh Lebron seconded by commissioner Elliot all those in favor any opposed meeting adjourned thank you you e e e thank you
134for your patience and we are now opening the special meeting to convene for consideration of resolutions today is March 11th and it is 7:49 p.m. uh at this time we do not have speakers and I'm actually going to entertain a motion to enter into executive session um to discuss matters made confidential pursuant to federal law or state law and to receive the advice of the general Council as permitted by Section 105 of the open meetings law motion motion by Vice president Malloy motion seconded by commissioner Griffin all in favor I any opposed at this time we'll be uh convening into executive section session thank you e e e and thank you to our viewing audience for your patience we have returned from executive session and we are now um back in our special meeting to
135convene for consideration of resolutions uh we are looking at our action items on the list and I am enter asking to entertain a motion um to bundle resolutions 553 through resolution 561 so moved move by vice president Malloy seconded by commissioner Griffin um all in favor of bundling resolutions 553 through 561 I I at this time um resolutions 553 through 561 are open for discussion any discussion seeing as there's no discussion I ask to I'm sorry can I'm sorry can I get a point of clarity because I heard a motion to bundle not a motion to move forward with them oh so this a motion to bundle them and we've that motion has carried and at this time I'm looking to entertain a motion to go through the the resolutions if there's open for discussion
136say that vote okay do we need but do they need to discuss the resolutions at all so I was opening the discussion for them and was there confusion with that and so where I was going with that as seeing as there's no discussion at this time I'd like to entertain a motion to vote on resolutions 55 3 through 561 motion motion by commissioner Griffin uh seconded by vice president Malloy all in favor I resolutions 553 through 561 carry um moving down to our items discussion items we have I listed here Council for great City schools here and Rahim I might ask for your help um I believe it's uh is it April 16th and 17th yes ma'am we um either or either or one of the days April 16th or 17th we have the opportunity
137to uh meet as a board a collective board with uh Mr AJ krabill with the council for great City Schools uh anyone who has sat in his presence knows how phenomenal and strong this gentleman is and he would be able to facilitate um some discussion we are still um kind of mending that out and what that would look like for us but AJ would be he would be looking at uh some of our board Dynamics and um really leaning in in a very real way um so I wanted to just kind of share those updates with you we're not voting on those but I do want um us as a board to be aware that the opportunity to meet again with Mr AJ krabill um would be available to us on April 16th or 17th
138uh rahima our board clerk will be reaching out to see if Commissioners uh what dates you might be available I believe this would be um extremely extremely important for us um to do as we progress um in our district here and at this time I do want to move forward to resolution 552 and um I'm going to place that resolution in the hands of our general councel uh thank you um board president um uh i' I'd like to um I'd like to raise a point of order if the chair will allow it yes please um and my point of order is um the board um uh took an action um last week um and voted on a resolution um and um I should have advised uh commissioner Santiago to recuse himself from that given um
139that there was um a potential conflict of interest due to uh pecuniary interest um so I'd like the the board to uh if the chair recognizes that that um resolution is is is void um does the chair have any objection to that that is recognized confirmed um but I would also like to um you know to indicate and clarify that I believe that the district does have a statutory obligation and there's enough law evidence to indicate that um commissioner Santiago um is um entitled to uh defense uh in this matter um and under my authority um I do have standing Authority as general counsel to app Point um outside counsel as needed um in those situations and that is under resolution 2122 um 528 um and I intend to uh do so thank you general
140counsel that concludes resolution 552 um and at this time I'd like to entertain a motion to um adjourn the special meeting to of consideration for Resolutions this evening so move moved by uh vice president Maloy may I have a second a second I'm sorry second by commissioner Griffin all in favor of adjourning the meeting this evening hi special meeting adjourned thank you so much have a good evening