001good evening um this is uh a special meeting tonight to uh review the uh get an update on the Strategic plan uh by superintendent uh uh Carmine paluso I just want to welcome uh everybody to uh this strategic uh plan session and I'm going to just turn it directly over to the superintendent Dr paloa thank you president Ellie good evening to you vice president LeBron board Commissioners uh families that are watching staff students so we are continuing with our uh conversation regarding our strategic plan and also today because you know there's we're coming to you in in bits and pieces right there's meetings going on throughout where we're meeting with our steering committee and our steering committee I just want to let you know you have which is also on our website rcsdk12.org back slash
002plan um you'll see the steering committee some additional information all the Powerpoints that have been already done but I just wanted you to also have here who is part of the steering committee so that as we talk about it you know who those members are what those meeting dates are and currently we're also in a process of doing our um Community forums we're getting out and having um staff families all come to kind of give us feedback today's meeting is to bring you some of the feedback from the steering committee as well as from uh others in the community members about our mission our vision as we move towards um our goals so with us again today is Aurora Laura she's been kind of leading us through this process and and working with everyone so
003she's here to kind of give you and provide you an update and also solicit some feedback so I'm going to turn it over to her great thank you Dr paluso and um to the entire board for having me here today my name is Aurora Laura I work with inside education last time you met my partner Nika Bernard she's not able to come today um but fortunately I was able to be here to take you through the next steps of the strategic planning process um today we're going to finish the vision mission and core beliefs what I hope is we end up landing on a draft version of those and we're going to start talking about priorities and then I know you guys have set goals so we're going to just start to talk a little
004bit more about the meat of the Strategic plan overall timeline um I just want to make review it with everybody we have had the steering committee meet every single month um and they're going to be meeting again next week to work on different pieces and today we're going to share with you some of their feedback and their ideas we have also done a stakeholder survey and I'm going to share the results of that with you today um and then we're in the process of taking different pieces um out to the community to get ideas to get feedback so we can make any drafts that we have stronger our plan is to bring a a final product to you in March but we want to make sure we're including you along the way so we get
005your blessing on any direction that we go so here are just the things that we've been working on at each of the meetings um at the beginning one we looked at sample plans just to know what strategic plans look like and what are the pieces that we'll be building meeting to is where we got there um ideas about portrait of a graduate core values vision and Mission and we brought some of those to you we now have a little bit more feedback on them now that you have um you've had some drafts uh now we're in the phase where we're looking at the data um and the the survey data quantitative data and starting to identify what the what the community what they feel like some of the priority areas should be for the district
006moving forward so we're going to share those ideas and then after we set the then we'll start to work on um how we're going to achieve the goals of the district and we're going to talk a little bit about that process later today so to start with we're going to go through the core values vision and Mission I'll show you kind of the draft of where we landed last time the feedback that we got from steering committee and focus groups and then we'll open it up for discussion on whether we want to make any changes or or what what draft you want to go with or are we going to start a different one okay so core values um just as a review they're the set of beliefs that drive all behaviors of the district
007a vision describes what the district hopes to achieve or be in the future usually it's short and in aspirational and then the mission articulates what's unique about who the district is what the district does and who the district serves so starting with core values um of course these are the um core values direct the behavior and decision-making of an organization's employees this is the draft that we have um from the last board work session student centered Excellence diversity equity and inclusion relationships and safety so we shared um this draft list with the steering committee and focus group so far and here is some of their feedback um and some of these are changes some of these are just comments uh what they said about Excellence they just said we want to make sure that applies
008applies to everyone not just students so staff as well um some people said instead of Dei maybe put belonging instead um that word create just creates a sense of community so we actually heard belonging come up a few times um yeah another person said this term feels a little over utilized and feels like it's lost as meaning so their suggestion was maybe accountability to equity would be stronger um someone El another group said uh the term de I feel safe we want a stronger term maybe something like anti-racism and then we had another group share uh that we should add belonging to the end making it deib uh so diversity Equity inclusion and belonging um next student centered I actually moved it to the top one the core values weren't in order but the PE
009the community Shar that they feel like they should be in order or that they are even if they're not so they just said we wanted student centered at the top of the list list instead of relationships they suggested maybe we call it Partnerships and they just want to make sure the community feels like they're part of whatever that is Rel relationships they want to know that the community is involved um there was a lot of discussion about safety um they said safety feels like a coded term that could represent bias um someone else said safety should include restorative practices so not just physical safety but also talking about um you know emotional safety and psychological safety um people said it looks different for everyone so maybe Community Care should be the value another person said
010safety feels harsh are we talking about safe places to support student learning or are we talking about weapons or or just that kind of physical safety um so they said maybe the term should be toned down uh someone else said again make sure we include emotional safety in in whatever we choose here and then as a teacher uh we know that students can't learn if they don't feel safe we have to focus on emotional and psychological safety not just physical safety so you're seeing some themes and then the last overall bit of feedback um most people said they're fine with the words they just want to see how we Define them and that's the next step of the process um people just said overall we want to make sure the values are for everybody and
011that we feel like they're for staff and they're for students and therefore for the entire district and one other person said maybe compassion uh is another thing we could consider adding as a core value so this was all the feedback that we got from the steering committee and the focus groups that we've done so far based on your thoughts from the previous session and the feedback we just heard are there any changes that you'd like to make to the list of proposed core values so let me just open it up um to anyone one that wants to initially respond commissioner Malloy thank you um thank you so much for presenting and for this work um I loved the suggestion of moving student centered to the top of the list um I would go a step
012further and change that to student outcome centered that's just uh what I'm feeling but otherwise looks great great and just so you know it was lower when we showed it to them so I I just actually moved it to the top any other comments so far uh commissioner um Simmons yeah um I like the student centered and um and I I get what you're saying about the student outcome centered but I like student centered because beyond the outcomes like we want them to produce outcomes but there's so much more to that whole child um so Student Center kind of encompasses that for me um Excellence I'll leave that there because I had something for that but um I'll leave it at Excellence diversity Equity inclusion and belonging I do like the addition of belonging um
013because I do agree Dei is for me over utilized and tokenized at this point it's said really nicely in a lot of rooms but it's never really executed well in a lot of spaces um and then safety I like the um spelling out of safety a little bit that emotional psychological and physical safety being explicit about that is important I think you thank you Commission Simmons um commissioner Griffin yes thank you president IIA um if if you will I don't see um in the information you're you're stating relationships can you give a little bit more on the relationships aspect of as far as a core value what are you trying to say in in reference to relationships so this was one of the words that the board um came up with so would anyone from
014the board like to chime in does anyone remember who does uh who put it up there and I I don't know who put it up there I the one thing I do recognize is that collectively and somebody correct me if I'm wrong but collectively we we talked about the importance of uh relationships are the center piece of of children feeling as if they belong in school all of those things are based on the relationship you have with the teacher the ability to go to that trusted adult to have those relationships in the building are the Cornerstone for a foundation of academic learning but you you have have another point so could we possibly I'm Sor couldn't we possibly am on I'm sorry couldn't we possibly use put relationship with student centered could we possibly put
015it as one of the sub heading under super student I'm sorry student centered or do you feel that it really needs to be by itself I mean because are we talking about the same thing student centered relationship is it one of the same or is it different I I believe that from the original discussion it was about relationships with students but the reason it was just said relationships I believe the board said we also want to build strong relationships with families we want to build strong relationships with the community we want to build strong Rel relationships with our staff and so I think that's why it was actually kept a little broader so as mainly you're saying like the Dynamics of relationship like you would say family Dynamics the relationships is the D dynamics of
016the relationship in reference to other Stu the students relationship with other students teachers what have you is that what you're saying I think it's more that we want to make sure the district um is helping families feel really welcome and building a strong relationship that um they're listening to the voices of teachers and helping teachers feel comfortable that they're they're building strong Partnerships with the community so I do think it's kind of about building Partnerships so I'm going to allow Dr Palo to expound on it so I just um rora as we build through these draft core values right it wouldn't The Next Step be for us to kind of put some definitions and words behind this to have some more meaning so that that people understood what exactly we mean by relationships what we
017mean by Excellence what we mean by student centered yes that is the next process after this meeting I'm just hoping to find figure out like which five are we moving forward with we will work with the steering committee and the cabinet to write the definitions of what these mean for our CSD and we'll bring those definitions back to you so some of that will be explained when we when we um talk together and decide how to write the definitions so we'll bring some more information I just want to know are these the words that we should write them for or do we want to make any changes so let me just um I guess I'm a little surprised and maybe we talked about this before but now that particularly what we got safety and it
018may come under safety but emotional health is what I'm also looking as a core value um let me just have Dr Palo to respond to that so before you do that can I talk relative to relationships or no no no let him respond to what I'm asking first please so um I do think from the feedback and some some of our conversations here that we have to maybe look at that safety term right safety we feel and from all of our sessions as a somewhat coded term at times and what does it actually mean so if we could change that language I think we need to have that discussion here to take if it's not safety what is it that we would be looking to capture there and it may be a part of that
019commissioner um uh Patterson you wanted to uh talk about something aside from that yeah let's go back to uh relationships um relationships versus Partnerships you know relationships and you really explained it earlier you know the different types of relationships ship we can have a partnership with someone but is it a true relationship if we're talking relationships that's very very personal so I don't think that my thought is that um we shouldn't consider calling it Partnerships maybe include Partnerships in there but the relationship that word is key you know to everything that we're doing here we should be doing and moving forward to in the district thank you and I'll make sure that when we work when we draft the definition that we hone in on that if if we move forward with that word thank
020you commissioner Patterson vice president LeBron thank you president Elliot um I also just want to just point out like some of the feedback that we're actually talking about looks like the steering committee also gave similar feedback in terms of defining each of these categories a little bit more um and so that they're not so Broad and I see safety came up a lot of what that looks like because we all have different versions of What safety looks like not only to us but to our own families and students um personally I know you're asking for feedback I would be good with these draft core values being the five that the steering committee and the group moves forward with as long as they're better defined and I do like the feedback from the steering committee it's
021the same feedback I would give to further understand safety looks like and then I for me personally I just want to point out because I operate a people centered organization um that is built first primarily on relationships and first and foremost you can't accomplish any outcomes without having good strong relationships as first so I I value that it's student centered I would actually ask that relationships be number one cuz none of that happens with without good relationships relationships with the staff relationships with the students with the families the relationships we have with our Community Partners um because I know over the years lots of Community Partners have lots to say about their Partnerships really and the relationship that they have with the district um that's all that's and I would just also add to what
022the vice president has said about if if we can communicate that point to our community uh and if they can buy in with that term with us I think that going to help us to do this work even more effectively with this with this because if uh if the community sees that we're placing relationships as number one and we've not been good with that as a district um but that that's a part of the Strategic plan now the Strategic framework I I think that that's going to reson uh and then if we do it we've also got to be able to we got to do it and we've got to make sure that we're promoting this that it is relationships and that's one of that's that's top with us that we develop these relationships so
023um commissioner Simmons yes ma'am thank you um pres vice president um LeBron said something that stood out to me um so I agree with fleshing all these out with the definitions that's going to be awesome but also making sure that as we talk about focusing on families and students and community that we also are very um explicit about our relationships with staff our safety with staff what that you know what that we're inclusive of of everyone connected to this District so it's not a a subpar conversation thank you commissioner Simmons commissioner Griffin yes I just wanna I'm sorry I'm going to get better with this guys but I just wanted to just um just say something I was just trying to look up things as I as we were talking about relationships cuz I do
024think it's an important word I just want to make have a better definition of what we were looking at as far as relationships but when I put in Dynamics in in a relationship it comes up with trust compromise conflict resolution and respect so I don't know if that's helpful to us but if we say Dynamics in a relationship when we say dynamics of a relationship we Al also include those words of trust comp romise conflict resolution and respect just to give it a little bit more insight into the word of relationship and the Dynamics of a word of the word relationship so that's any help if that's helpful to the group commissioner Griffin thank you commissioner Patterson yes um just to clarify you know one point at the beginning you spoke relative to District goals
025so we haven't finalized those yet you know so I just want to clarify that for the public but uh you know when it comes to safety um I having 27 years in law enforcement don't believe that it should ever be toned down especially in today's day and age so you might want to take that back to the committee that sure you know I don't I don't think the the public would want us to tone that down they want us to speak directly to it and what we're going to do to make our classrooms conducive to learning and safe um so when you also mentioned physical psychological and emotional safety yes they all tie in so I do agree with that okay and um you spoke relative to it applying to the student students and staff
026but I also think what you put together here should apply also to uh the administration into this board because as we talk about you know one Rochester one rcsd we're all included in that so it should apply to us also great thank you thank you commissioner Patterson Dr Palo so so I just want to be clear the core values are permeated throughout the organization right this is what we believe is is instrumental to us no matter where who a family walks in the door right this is of the expectations across the organization um these core values I know you had mentioned going back to the committee for feedback the committee has provided this board and I and as one of feedback right what we have to do is finalize if these are the terms where
027we have their feedback now we have to say this is what we're going with and this is what we're going to move forward with I just want before we dive into definitions because then we're going to clear Define these come back to what we mean with a lot of the terms that I've already heard Partnerships relationships all those would be defined I just want to make sure that these are what we're going to communicate to the community as what is going to permeate this organization okay so just clarify this for me Dr so when I mentioned about social emotional where is that going to be so that you know in my world that would fall under safety but I do think we've heard some feedback that safety has definite diff different definitions to different people
028right and is you know what is it that we just want to be clear on that we're saying when we say safety so there's no misinterpretation of what we mean as a core value thank you Dr puso commissioner Mallo thank you um and thanks for the clarification Dr PLO and I'm comfortable with all of these and moving forward with that and similar to what vice president LeBron said just as long as we have those clearly or clear definitions for the community but I'm very comfortable with these thank you all right thank you okay great it's phase one so we have our words we will as next steps work with the steering committee and cabinet to draft some definitions using the ideas that we heard from you all today and next time we see you we'll
029bring back those definitions for you to take a look at okay now we're going to move on to Vision the vision describes what the district hopes to achieve or be in the future and these are typically really short that people remember and they are very aspirational the more detailed stuff goes in the mission for what we're doing to achieve the vision um I do want to just REM bring back this slide just so you can really quickly remember these are vision statements from some very popular companies um we see that they're very short and aspirational so we've got you know making the best possible ice cream in the nicest possible way to make people happy I'll just I just wanted to make sure that you've seen these again as we think about um wish draft
030to move forward with for vision so I also wanted to share with you um just some sample vision statements from other districts how they approached it just so you can kind of see just some different ideas um for moresville graded School District they said creating a better Community by empowering every individual to grow Thrive and succeed Maplewood Richmond Heights said inspiring and preparing students to be leaders Scholars Stu stewards and citizens who will thrive in a diverse and changing World Chapel Hill carboro said our schools exist to provide experiences that Empower Inspire and engage Durham Public School said in igniting Limitless potential Austin said we are Austin's home for inclusive learning high expectations for all children High outcomes for every student and La unified uh will be a progressive global leader in education providing a
031dynamic and inspiring learning experience where all students graduate ready for Success so I just wanted to get you in the mind kind of this is where we're going with um for the inspirational so these this is these are the drafts that were created based on your feedback from the last session that we showed to the steering committee and so we're going to sh share their feedback on this um we shared we will create a highquality educational experience that nurtures liberated thinkers instills social and emotional balance and ensures on-time graduation the second thing part we showed them we will provide a highquality education that Fosters liberated thinkers and cultivates socially and emotionally balanced high school graduates so here's the feedback that we got um on the those drafts um in the beginning they just had some
032word smithing you know some words that they liked better so they like create better than provide they like cultivate over instill um they liked or we prefer balanced high school graduates over the ontime graduation and we we made some drafts using this feedback so we're going to show you that in a minute um someone said the tone of number one seems warmer than number two someone else said number one didn't feel very inspiring TW we heard a lot of comments about what does social and emotional balance mean and they just they weren't sure with that term and so they felt like families might not know what that meant either um another group was struggling with the word instill the overall piece of feedback that we heard over and over that's why I highlighted it is
033that it should focus Beyond high school and they just want to make sure we're talking about getting students ready for college or careers and just becoming contributing members of society and being prepared for their life life After High School you know they want the students to go on to do great things and so they want to make sure it feels like something that's reaching Beyond High School um one group uh said they preferred to say we create instead of we will create they like the term liberated thinkers uh another group but another group said they felt like it had a negative connotation so we heard kind of different things on that uh one group yeah state of Liberation reminds them of Oppression the word nurtures might suggest deficit thinking and instead of we will create
034or we will provide say we create or we and we provide so we took some of those ideas and tried to shorten them and incorporate them into some other versions for you to talk about and we can you know if we don't like these even go simpler and get your ideas but option one we create a high-quality educational experience that nurtures liberated thinkers cultivates social and emotional balance and prepares students to thrive in a diverse and changing World option two we create a highquality education that Fosters liberated thinkers and cultivates uh socially and emotionally balanced high school graduates who are prepared for success in their Futures option three we provide an excellent education that helps students think freely balance their emot motions and be prepared for college career or Civic engagement and option four we
035offer an excellent education to create well-rounded open-minded graduates who are prepared to thrive in life and participate in in Civic engagement we also um just got these we shared these with you before but these were just some other ideas that steering committee members came up with um activating dreams and unlocking potential creating healthy Joy ful spaces meaning schools and programs for individual students so that they are prepared for Life ensuring all students have a high quality education reach their Highest Potential and become contributing citizens or participate meaningfully in um society and graduating students who are prepared for life through Equitable access to high quality education and student centered support so these are just some of the other ideas that the steering committee had um we don't have to go with any of them but we
036want to just get those back on your mind so I'd love for us to now talk about based on the things that you've heard what changes do we want to make or do we want to narrow it down and is there one that you like a little bit better and what changes will we make to make it stronger um so I'll put these drafts back up um just for you to look at and I can go back and forth to any of the other slides so let me let me just start off because cuz I think this really let me just be I think most of this stuff is boring right and what just came up to me is in terms of a vision statements that RCS students will impact the world all right but
037now if I had to make a choice I do like four better than uh the other ones but um I just like something that's vibrant thriving you can catch it you know it's exciting you know so that's that's just where I am right now so I'll open it up I will say the steering committee was was thinking that too and they said simpler is better um so maybe we can kind of simplify and short Dro speak first I just want I think the last time we went through this we started talking vision and got into mission right and we lost Vision because a lot of this ended up coming from Mission discussion so um I'm open to really creating something that is memorable right you know something that's different if we wanted to have that
038you know this was just what we did with the feedback that was provided from our last board session uh commissioner Griffin yes I'm sorry for the Outburst on President Elliott um because you were just spot on about what you were saying but I also feel that it's too wordy um too wordy and it's not catchy um some words that I don't see one word that I think should maybe be in there that's not in there is empowering um our youth um or our children however you would want to incorporate that but I think empowering and diversity is a good word we these there's so many key words that we can use but one I think is very much one word in particular is empowering because I think once we Empower our youth by giving them
039the tools that they need they will be successful so I think that this is just way too wordy for for a vision statement so I totally agree with President Elliot all right uh commissioner Simmons yeah that's that's definitely what the chuckles were up here we we were laughing when we were looking at the examples and recognize how far down the rabbit hole we went I think we were trying to figure out board goals Mission Vision and solving world hunger all in one um that didn't work out well so um you know I like on the slide what is it there's a slide I think it's slide 23 where it says activating dreams and unlocking potential I do think like that's what a vision statement is just something that's really simple but you know words mean
040something and when you talk about activating dreams it reminds me of like Dr batina Love Dare To Dream right activating dreams because when you activate the ability to dream in a child they become unlimited their potential becomes unlimited so when you activate that dream that's powerful and I think it's about the energy we put behind that and unlocking that potential is how you get to that baby at that classroom that instructional core that's where the potential be tends to tends to grow and those dreams begin to manifest so I like that one and I'm open to other thoughts around it but that's simple and it's powerful to me I'll just say it was student who came up with that [Laughter] idea all right commissioner Santiago uh I'll say personally uh my my support goes towards
041uh exactly what commissioner Simmons said I'll be real beforehand I was going to say you know we should tweak it but after she just explained it the way she just explained I'm like yeah that's it uh that's it but I think if if there's a uh possibility of of adding uh you know educational purpose to it uh at the same time without losing the the the bam that it has um that that would be something that would be great to see great thank you commissioner Santiago vice president LeBron yeah I just want to also support commissioner um Simmons um for activating dreams and unlocking potential and from my perspective I just want to explain right I work during the day with opioid addicted homeless individuals and we do a lot everything from Moon care all
042types of stuff but for me when people walk through the door I have a real simple message that hope lives here no matter what condition and state you walk in through and if I don't leave that impression on the individuals I'm serving I know that they're not going to be able to take take the next step and the next step and the next step so for me it really starts with just re reiving people hope and their Humanity back right so we have a shower we make sure that they're clean if they have any wounds we have medical come in and do the wound care but it really none of that is possible without them believing that they feel hopeful when they walk through my doors and so to what commissioner Simmons was saying the
043power of words we even have that sign it's on our love dignity and respect is how we give people hope back um um so yeah I love it I activating dreams and unlocking so nobody likes my student impact St well they don't like empowering you got commiss come on commissioner Santiago oh yeah commissioner Malloy I I want to agree with all of the sentiments that have been expressed already I love activating dreams unlocking potential that that's that's fire right there um about fire I'm using my kids terms sorry they're saying fire for everything these days dinner was fire tonight Mom yeah um I'll take it um I also would like the idea maybe like empowering and inspiring in some way if we could incorporate those terms Inspire empowering and inspiring every student I know that
044sounds kind of like vanilla or Bland compared to the other one but yeah activating dreams and unlocking potential that's Powerful Love It commissioner Griffin you have anything no I I think that um in it's funny that you said a child wrote it because I was my when I was um thinking about the vision and mission statements I was going to ask you I had even wrote it down um why don't we get suggestions from the you know from the students to see what they thought so that was one of the things I thought should come from them because when you believe in your if you write it you believe it you embrace it so I thought that would that would be ideal for them to be the one wants to do the vision and mission
045statements so I also agree I would love to have empowering in there but because of because a student wrote it I'd accept it you know because I think getting it from another student students tend to gravitate and embrace when another student does something so um I'm good with it if we don't need to add if you don't want to add the empowering or inspiring but I think it's it's it's an excellent phrase for a vision statement all right thank you commissioner you're welcome commissioner Pon you want to weigh in on this conversation yes um great conversation um unbelievable ideas uh by my colleagues that have come up and I too um that activating dreams and unlocking potential like when that was just stated by my colleague it kind of opened up my mind and thoughts
046to U we being a majority minority Community not to say that um we should think any less of um you know Caucasians or any other race or religion um in the district but incorporating all their ideas so when we talk about that quote and other quotes it came to me like I think our community would relate to um minority leaders quotes that we could also implant in here um and um somehow I put quotes in relationships but but maybe what I was trying to say or think of at that point in time is that um and let me just go back to a statement that I I wrote um a few minutes ago um our school vision and Mission must not be generic but specific to our cultural identity and uniqueness so I think that
047really says it all you know if we're able to um speak to the students or we're able to pull up some of our own um minority leaders quotes and quotes of others you know incorporate them into this I think would have more meaning you know to the General Public thank you commissioner Patterson um all right so um I think there's a directive uh superintendent Palo about making it exciting and although you're not using my term I just I you got to start it and I do want I do want to I want to thank the board for that for that direction because it is as you looked at the other ones right how do you how does that motivate St I want a kid to come into the classroom and say I want to do
048this and I want someone to be like you're going to be able to do this and you know and that's that's what I think the vision is and this is this is great so thank you I think we have Mission next and uh well that's a little bit more of the granular stuff that we'll get into yes not as exciting okay we're gonna try to make it excited well we ended on a good note loved the discussion um and love the direction we're moving in now with vision um next we're going to move on to Mission so the mission is is the more granular one it is articulating what kind of who we are what we're doing and who we're serving in order to meet the vision for the district so um wanted to share
049again some samples from other districts just so you can kind of see how other districts approach it at Jackson Public Schools we develop Scholars through world-class learning experiences to attain an exceptional knowledge base critical and relevant skill sets and the necessary dispositions for great success uh Maplewood Richmond Heights is an inclusive School District where students staff families and community members are seen heard and valued for their unique backgrounds cultures talents and beliefs we support educate encourage and nurture one another to reach our full potential in order to create a better Community Durham Public Schools said Durham Embraces educates and empowers every student to innovate serve and Lead Austin said we prepare every student with the Knowledge and Skills to thrive in college career and life and La unified um said embracing our diversity to educate
050LA's youth ensure academic achievement and Empower tomorrow's leaders we are La unified so I just wanted to show you just some examples of how other districts approach this um these were the drafts that we had based on your feedback from the last meeting we embrace our diverse community and commit to providing educational programs that prepare all to graduate with a deep sense of empathy a passion for equity and a strong commitment to accountability in option two as stewards of Rochester's youth we commit to creating a culture of academic Excellence for all a community of empathy equity and accountability that encourages the development of empowered students who are prepared to succeed beyond graduation so we took these two drafts to the steering committee and the focus groups and here's what we heard um overall a lot
051of people liked option two but just felt it was too long somebody said change empathy to compassion um maybe change uh that we like empathy equity and accountability maybe leave out just that um as stewards of Rochester's youth part to make that one shorter um commit put take out we commit and just put we create uh some of the people said there seems to be a little bit of dissonance between the vision and Mission and that's where some of the things we showed you before I think now we're back on track with vision but they felt like some of that should be in the mission and so um they just said we we probably need to clarify these um the mission should include something about not only how we're preparing students but maybe how we're
052addressing challenges as well again they PE people said this feels like some of it felt like a vision statement uh we should include something about individual and Collective responsibility into our mission and include that we're preparing students for college career and Civic engagement okay so we came up with a couple drafts um one's of your using your ideas and one that Tred to make it a little simpler we embrace our diverse community and commit to providing educational programs that prepare all students to graduate with a deep sense of compassion passion for equity and strong commitment to accountability option two we create a culture of academic Excellence for all and a community of empathy equity and accountability that empowers students who are prepared to succeed beyond graduation and option three we are a diverse community that
053prepares all students to graduate with a deep sense of empathy a passion for equity and the knowledge and skills needed for success in their Futures so just want to have you react and just any thoughts any directions that we're leaning um just open it up for discussion commissioner Santiago yeah I I was looking at the the sampled uh District mission statements um and when you see uh the LA the LA uh Unified School District uh where it says embracing our diversity to educate LA's youth ensure academic achievement and Empower tomorrow's leader leaders we are La unified I think that brings a lot of Pride you know to to that District um and even when reading a lot of these uh these other proposals you know you don't get that same feeling and you know when
054you read that like you you felt the pride uh of of the district and and even with some of the other options I didn't really see much of that if there's a way that like we can find a way you know I know that that uh the last one was supposed to be the the cool one but I think that we could still find pride and still find a ump in in our mission statement as we see you know the LA School District uh do uh so so that's something that that I would recommend thank you commissioner Santiago commissioner Malloy yeah I just want to agree um wholeheartedly with commissioner Santiago um what about we are one Rochester or just I say we are rcsd strong got one RC we are rcsd strong or we
055are one rcsd something you know that's been the move We Are One rcsd whatever it is but I think that that wherever we can find that Pride for our district whether it's one rcsd rcsd strong RC and D whatever it is you know uh I think that we can find the pride in it uh you know is really where where uh where we find pride in our district Al together Citywide in our students and in our teachers um commissioner Simmons okay all right did did you finish commissioner Malloy all right any any any other comment commissioner Griffin you don't have to say anything if you don't want you could come you want me to come back to I can go to commissioner uh Patterson and you can come back yeah you'll be happy to do
056that commissioner Patterson yes I'm a True Believer if it isn't broken don't fix it so I like our new slogan that we have here and I agree with my other colleagues just leave it the same and maybe add it but I love option number two okay yeah and and let me just uh before I go to uh commissioner Griffin if she has anything and you don't have to have anything right now but uh let me just I do agree with commissioner pis I do like the option two um and so perhaps if RSC uh one uh RS rcsd is attached to that in some way um but yeah even you know we've got this excitement around the vision I think we can also to commissioner Santiago's Point can also have that kind of excitement uh
057with the mission that we're doing I think option two is a great uh option for us to consider and some kind of way to again to commissioner Santiago's point you know um RSC rcsd one rcsd so all right maybe add that to the end after something like that however it would fit right yeah how it would fit yeah I'm not exactly sure so we we could take option two working the feedback that we just heard and and add that to to that right at least that gives us option to to to come through if that's where the board is is feeling most comfortable so how many people are interested in option two is that yeah uh commissioner Griffin what if and I'm just I'm just fidl in with this you because it's the wordiness that
058you were saying what if it's one our CSD um oh Lord I just missed just went blank one rcsd commits to creating and um in instead of they wanted to take out the stewards they they were saying it was a little bit too wordy right and I kind of agree but if we can take out take it out and put one rcsd commits to creating a culture of academic Excellence wait minute what it was one RC right one rcsd reinvest or reinvest or invests and is committed to creating something like that instead of the as as stewards of Rochester's youth maybe so yeah so I just want the the the the three that you're looking at now we abbreviated based on the longer ones to shorten them up right because they thought they were too
059wordy what I'm hearing now what I want to see is language here if everyone could feels comfortable with two we can work then I could work through with some samples that include that right so that we could word smth it together yep yep just a wording yeah I agree that number two commissioner Malai thanks and I also like um option two need to word Smith at a bit I like the focus being on academic Excellence I do think option three is pretty good too but ultimately option two for me was better because of the academic Excellence piece um but it is a bit wordy yeah commission sanago uh yeah and I agree with option two also if if we can you know like you said word Wordsmith and add some pride to them all right
060okay last question president commissioner Simmons of course um should it be academic Excellence because that is something I love or should it be academic achievement those they words Smith it you I I think Excellence is a term that we've we've really are trying to commit to right so we could we could talk that through but if the board has a preference right Excellence is permeating itself throughout right so I'd like to make sure that that's something that is as inclusive as well all right all right all Hearts clear y'all gonna make me fall in love with y'all before it's over with thank you okay great we have a direction on Mission I'm excited um so we'll work on number two put the Pizzaz in there to help people feel not that I don't already love
061you Al let me just put that on the table okay next thing I wanted to show you as we pivot into the conversation to start to talk about District overall priorities and the things that the community really feels like we should work on improving over the next five years um I'll explain go into detail but let me show you the results of the survey um so we did an overall survey that had hang on just a second 9 988 responses and this this is how we can see it's sort of broken up into groups um orange there those are the Rochester City School District employees um green are the people who are employees plus parents purple are community members blue are students and red are the parents and Guardians um these are kind of the
062numbers by level or percentages by level so you can see we we had representation from prek elementary school secondary schools alternative schools and central office people who filled out this survey these are the overall number of oops overall number of responses um we had 985 people take the survey in English three in Spanish 580 were employees 50 were employees and parents were Guardians uh 230 were parents and Guardians 102 students 26 community members and I'm going to frame what they said on the survey with this this Slide the overall structure of a strategic plan is to come up with just the overall big picture buckets that the district should work on improving over the next five years and then underneath that's where the district has goals and I know you all are setting the academic
063goals the big overriding ones for the district but in order to meet those our departments need to work on some things and so that's kind of where this this is going we've asked their opinion on just the overall buckets of work of on of things that they want to make sure the district works on improving over the next five years oh and just so you know usually what those priorities end up being are things that represent the main functions of a district so there's usually a priority definitely around there's always won around academics which is the one that you all have been working on the goals for um but a lot of times districts also have some goals around the human resources and making sure they're um attract you supporting and retaining teachers uh social
064emotional learning a lot of districts work on improving that over the next five years operations and finance usually comes up a lot families and Community engagement comes up a lot too so those are just some examples that we shared I want to show you what other districts have and then we'll we'll show you what the community said so just some examples in Jackson their priority areas were strong start early learning Innovative teaching and learning which academics talented and empowered teams for HR joyful learning environments for culture and culture of accountability and Excellence Boston's priority areas where eliminate opportunity and achievement gaps accelerate learning amplify all voices expand opportunity cultivate Trust and activate Partnerships Alexandria said they want to work on system systemic alignment instructional Excellence student accessibility and support strategic resource allocation and family and
065Community engagement so we just want to show you some examples of how districts kind of pick their buckets of work so this is really small but what you can see is we gave the community teachers students everyone a big list of all the things that the district could possibly work on and have them pick the five things that they think are most important for our district to improve and over on the I know you can't see all that but we just want to show you like people rank different ones over on the right these are the ranking order that we got on the survey um so the most important things to prioritize the community said mental health and social emotional Wellness positive School culture and climate reading by third grade High School Readiness graduation and
066post-graduate success and educational equity for all students um but other ones that were close employee Recruitment and Retention academic interventions accelerating learning student learning due to covid-19 and early childhood education so we just wanted to share with you some feedback of of the ideas that your community had on things that they think the district can can really work on improving over the next five years so we had the steering committee look at that list they look looked at District data and they came up with some draft possible priority areas um and we wanted to get your feedback on those to see if we move forward um with setting you know identifying some actions in those pieces in in those different areas we know that you are setting the academic ones and that's what you've been
067working on in terms of um the goals but we want to just find out what are the other areas that we need to get better at in order for this District to meet those academic goals so here's what um the steering committee came up with inclusive healthy enjoyful environments instructional Excellence preparing students for Life recruit grow and retain staff strengthened School family and Community engagement and operational and fiscal Excellence so we wanted to get your thoughts um do you like these priorities um are there considerations for improvement obviously instruct academic Excellence th that's obviously the main thing that we are working on but these are kind of the other pieces that they that they wanted included so I just want to open this up for your feedback commissioner uh Santiago yeah uh I want to
068start off just by saying that that the mental health and the social emotional Wellness should have been at the top of the list saying that you know that that's was the top ranking you know voted in in the the statistics um as we see and truly the the the top five that was ranked you know through this survey is really the top five that should have been chosen you know if you look at this off of representation um but but our district definitely does have to do better when it comes to our Mental Health Services and our social emotional Wellness um restorative practices um and deescalation uh programs and and and tactics um so if this is something that that the community is saying uh something that obviously needs to be uh done better on
069on our in our district uh then I believe that should really be at the top of the list just as it was voted at the top of the list yeah and what I will say the steering committee thought about that and what they tried to do sometimes is combine two um into one title that would have like a focus on both but we but we have to focus on on the students you know who who are who are saying that they need help um and I think that this is something that that can't be mixed with other things we have young people committing suicide uh we have young people who are dealing with depression this this is true stuff you know I I've dealt uh with it alone in my own experience of graduating I've
070dealt with two friends who've committed suicide alone since graduating from high school so this is something that we we must we must focus on this is not something that we can mix with other things this something that's important for our young people I mean our students are crying for so I I don't think that this is something that's okay to be mixed I think that this needs to be focused on in our district for sure okay Dr Palo so I do want to say in the district priorities that is the first one if you look at the district priorities inclusive health health healthy and joyful environment right if that's not the language that you would like in terms of those but that is the the first priority that's there as well as the other the
071other ones right you know so um if that we need to word Smith some of the language we could do that but don't think that that was loud and clear through everyone's voice and one of the first things we put in terms of inclusive healthy and joyful environments yeah they explicitly said that's what we want in there and then the culture too the needs to be positive but we want to make sure we have the right supports for students and maybe we just change the title to make it more explicit that we're meaning the the social emotional yeah because because it become it can become Broad and we're not focusing on on the issues at hand uh so I think that that just being straightforward with this with the the language is important you know
072with these with these uh priorities yeah or maybe we can break them back into two um to represent their feelings commissioner Patterson yes um so I also agree with that um but for number two uh you had let's see on screen number 44 I think mental health correction a positive School climate and culture as number two and so as we know um you know it's very difficult for kids to learn anything if we haven't created a safe environment for them so I like that uh being number two and number three um how about reading and comprehension by third grade which I think is goes hand inand with one another what's your thoughts on that so this this what I this is what the committee had provided right and we could we could give the feedback
073but what I want to say is these are what the um what the the families the community said was was important right now we have to kind of put those into priorities that's why that last slide not to go to um here we're trying to incorporate those in our priorities what comes from these priorities are action plans that achieve this right you know so in our action plan for AC instructional Excellence preparing students for life you mentioned third grade that may be one of the board goals that gets appr like from the samples that we've done in there will be strategic action plans for implementation with that along with kpis of interim benchmarks that go in there as well so these are our Global District priorities where there becomes implementation plans and action items underneath
074each of those so I just want to clarify because I'm not clear absolutely you know so I'm sorry but um don't keep asking um so again uh reading and comprehension for me is very very important that that be next to one another so it's it's very clear uh you know to the public and our our administrative staff and things like that so are you saying that um just the word comprehension would preclude you from uh you know making this part of what are we in the mission no so this is these are district priorities District priorities so so it would instructional Excellence is our district priority right you we've already talked about some board goals that that fit under instructional Excellence um that will fall into here but we have let's just say from what
075we've talked about 9th grade credits right we've talked about our math we talked about some in ela there also are going to be some other work around instructional Excellence that are going to support that and there's going to be other departments that need to do some things on goals as well that may all be included in this plan so instructional Excellence is that big priority from under there are going to be goals kpis action plans all to meet those so I what we don't want to get with the priorities is so specific we want these to be larger and then in there will be the goals that will come under there so if you take a look at that slide 46 that slide 46 kind of gives that outline of of what it would look
076like okay I can go with that all right thank you commissioner griend yes sorry yes um about the mental health and social emotional Wellness yes that is a big area of concern across the board Nationwide but I do believe that a lot of our mental health and social emotional Wellness those issues come from the family Dynamics and not and there's a lot of lot of issues with our children because of the family Dynamics and because of the literacy so I think that that com that compounds the mental health and the social emotional Wellness with the lack of fundamental skills that the kids have in the district I think that once we incorporate and build up a lot of these a lot of concerns as far as the family Dynamics and um the we will see
077a decrease in the mental and social illnesses that that the children are having right now in the district that is just that's just for me personally I think more the more we Empower our youth the then the better um the less mental illness we will have I think a lot of kids are struggling with the literacy part you know with not being able to read that becomes a mental Challenge and I think personally in my life I exper experienced it with my children because they shy away they don't want to they don't want to do their work because because they don't know how to read so it becomes a mental thing and then you know if you it further breaks down then that's when the kids go into the social emotional the me all of
078that it just compounds the issue so yes mental illness is a big issue of concern in in in our city but it also comes from the lack of um the family with the family Dynamics not being where they are and we're not knowing exactly what's happening at home along with the reading skills and we also have to look at the the fact that there's a lot of things that are absent in the school systems like when you say sportsmanship things are these things that kids are lacking that is also um making them choose other ways of survival and then those other ways of survival also impact their social and their emotional and their mental state of mind so we we have to look at the broad spectrum when we're saying the mental health and social
079emotional Wellness that's just my thoughts though right thank you commissioner Griffin uh commissioner Malloy yeah thank you um looking at the draft priorities I I agree with these I'm happy with these except uh just to commissioner Santiago's Point um obviously I think Mental Health social emotional needs to be up at the top which evidently it is I'd be really help um comfortable with these if we could provide as you said the like a clear explanation right next to them that's visible on whatever goes out to the public so that they have a clear clear idea of what that entails thank you commissioner Malloy commissioner Simmons um I too agree I I'm looking at the mental health and social emotional the positive school and climate and culture based on that graph that you showed reading by
080third grade and when we talk about reading once we get all the definitions fleshed out it will show that reading is um comprehensively decoding vocabulary all of those things inclusive of reading and so it'll be important that we flesh that out but as far as the strategy map I love the way that that the strategy map is laid out and so once this is completed I would love to see all of this populated in that same type of um layout apparently that's what you're planning to do um and so again when I when I look at this particular graph based on community priorities they really align with a lot of the the board goals that we came up with so as long as this language shows that direct alignment and is you know very clear
081um I like it I like it and I can't wait to see the the kpis and how we spell it out from there because it's one thing to say it it's another thing to do it so I would just sort of um add that um I think one of the uh what I've noticed in this that it is the survey responses is employee heavy um and um when you look at you know students or communities um particularly in communi a little light and um I I think that's the uh probably the uh the primary issue that I have with it that is that it is employee uh heavy as opposed to being Community or parent heavy um so I would just want to point that out and as we move into this work even more
082that we um while you know of course our employees are important um but we're doing this work for our community and for our families and I would have liked to have seen more surveys uh from um uh our families and our community vice president LeBron yeah I just want to also point out though that we do actually have a number of Staff who are also parents in the city and in this District but we don't our own systems do not sometimes allow for staff to identify first as a parent but they we we our systems do not allow them to identify as a parent before they identify as an employee and I do and and that has happened right we don't even in the plaque bylaws at some point we don't allow them to hold
083we didn't allow them to hold leadership positions because they were an employee so I I just want to point out and I hear what you're saying but I also think at the end of the day we're doing this for the community but it's our staff that actually have to buy into this to roll it out because they are the direct service providers in front of those students every day and I do think in the past this district has sort of had a more focus on what the community is calling for versus the actual rollout implementation of the Educators and the staff that have to do the direct service so I say all that to say while I agree with you that obviously we need more parent Guardians to be identified and even students because of
084102 out of thousands of kids that we have I do think there would have been a different way to do this surveys are hard and Community this community is surveyed out there's a thing in in this work called surveyed fatigue and I highly believe that this community and especially this District people are surveyed fatigued from rcsd I want to uplift that um but I will say I do think there's still opportunities I know you guys help focus groups maybe something where you're also tabling at some of our events that are happening at schools CU I want to some school events this you know in December and schools were packed and I was like we just missed an opportunity to table like we this down central office should be at all of the school events um
085so that we're tabling for whatever whatever is going on this month that we need that engagement or just engaging to say we're part of central office or the office app parent engagement versus them only showing up for special events or events that central office is coordinated that's the type of partnership I would like to see cuz those for me were all missed opportunities to engage families not centered around trying to get them to come to do a survey but we're there and because we're there at their event they can take a survey if they choose we also need to start incentivizing because people are a survey fatigue but that's just my two sent I yeah no I appreciate all of that right we do have multiple focus groups going on we will be at a
086plaque event on Thursday Gathering feedback for this and we also had scheduled some time with the children's agenda very important parents to get their they're getting their their group of parents together so that they come tomorrow so that they provide their voice so um we're actively trying to get to parents because we know that putting a zoom link out telling them to come sometimes you know life happens and it it's not the right on their list of our top list of things so we're going to go to them with uh plaque as well as the children's agenda very important parent group all right Mr Patterson you have something yes um I think that we have to do um and I say we have to do a much better job on a PR campaign for CTE
087Career and Technical education and skills I'm looking here on the chart it indicates uh only 14.4% um there and you know that's much too low you know for a society that's really um morphing you know into um great jobs and benefits for for our students so somehow you know we do have to um get these surveys to our students to see exactly you know what they want but at the same time we have to do a better job maybe a PR campaign relative to the jobs multiple jobs that are out there well-paying jobs would benefit for some reason you know it's not getting to our our students that these jobs out there are out there and that the number of jobs um what type jobs they are you know maybe bringing in another Workforce you
088know so they can uh see them um you know and uh you know listen to them directly um but we I just think we have to do a better job in that area thank you thank you commissioner p medicine commissioner Griffin thank you president Elliot um Dr Palo you referenced um speaking with the parents and the children's agenda my only concern would be what about the parents we're not we're not able to connect with how how are we connecting with those parents because those are the ones that we need to reach we need to reach and those are the ones that are are concerned because we have a lot of young parents and those young parents um are working and working a lot of hours a lot of them and they're not home how are
089we reaching them those are the ones that we that are lost right now that we need to bring back into the district and and and let them be a part of so I what is so yeah so there are other there are other zooms and other parent focus groups that we're holding I'm just saying if we're not getting um parents to attend those we're also going to go to some families as well right you know so um there are multiple zooms we will do whatever we can if we have to add other focus groups We'll add other focus groups just to make sure that our parents have the opportunity to um to provide voice if they so choose in this right okay last question statistically how many parents are you reaching out to how many
090in number based how were you as all of them right we're putting it on our social media we're putting it in our and every newsletter every communication that goes out right so it's it's been it's been put on all of our social media sites so that anyone that sees it wants it through our newsletters through our Communications rooc calls all that for parents to kind of know that they have this option if they so choose what what is are you getting a a great response what is your feedback so our first parent focus group I think is coming up um so we I don't know yet in terms of how many people are going to log into the zoom at that time so after that I could Prov provide some more information about how many
091families and how many parents we actually hit through our Zoom through our plaque and through our very invested parents I think I may have said that wrong the last time but a a very invested parents through our communication with the children's agenda as well and into one just one last thing into uh vice president LeBron's Point um going when we go to the games why not bring information to these games and to other events so that would be lucrative in handing out the information there as well um if we know people are going to the events we can have that information in hand ahead of time um that is something that should be done consistently because that is something that would be get a better response because it's in hand you know we don't always
092we don't always they don't always read um um their the u mail they don't always you know they put it to the side so we have to use all avenues and I think a sporting event or of that sort would be great perfect thank you thank you all right okay well um thank you so much appreciate that we've got kind of your blessing on moving forward with some um some goals under these areas and we look forward to seeing the ones that you set for academics so um next steps I do want to share with you we are meeting with the steering committee next week um on January 18th and what we're going to do with them is we are going to go ahead and work on the definitions for the core values to bring
093back to you we are going to work on um selecting words for the portrait of a graduate to share with you and we are gathering feedback in the focus groups right now so we're sharing that feedback with the steering committee to have them generate some ideas to give to you and what we're going to do next is take those priority areas and work on setting some goals and strategies sort of filling out the chart um you all have the academic section but we want to make sure there are other departments that are are represented there are setting some goals around the things that we heard from parents were you know parents and Community as important and so making sure we've got mental you know mental health and wellness included in there making sure there's a
094goal somewhere around you know reading by third grade well that's you all but so anyway we're going to flush out the um the chart and bring you more details and meet next time um and so we look forward to sharing the work of the steering committee and cabinet um next time we see you let me just uh um have it to end with the state monitor to see if the state monitor has any uh reaction any words to say I think I think that has been a great uh process a lot of feedback from the stakeholders uh I appreciate the discussion that the board is having this evening because it shows that you're working together to improve student achievement in the district and to move the district in One Direction and again that is to
095increase increase student achievement Student Center so it's great thank you thank you very much name thank thank you Laura a aora thank you uh so this meeting ends and so General C I need to get a motion in in order to uh close the meeting so is there a motion to adjourn this meeting moved by commissioner uh vice president LeBron seconded by uh Commission Malloy all those in favor I any oppos so we'll take a 5 minute break or so and then come back for the community interg government Relations Committee thank you have a good night thank you hello everybody and welcome to the January 9th 2024 uh community and intergovernmental Relations Committee uh of the whole uh we we are here today to to have some conversation about our legislative agenda that we will
096be presenting at our legislative breakfast uh in March uh we are Beyond excited for that uh we just had an amazing session of in our special meeting I believe that we're going to have a good productive session uh as we look at our our legislative agenda um I want to start off by approving the the meeting minutes from November 7th 2023 can I get a motion so moved second moved by President Elliott second by vice president LeBron uh and that is passed uh so I oh can we get a vote I'm sorry look I'm learning I'm learning can we get a vote got you don't worry about we got you thank you they still do the same thing to me so uh can we get a vote to accept in favor I I uh so
097uh we are going to have our legislative breakfast uh which is scheduled for March 2nd 2024 at the memorial Art Gallery uh there will be a meet and greet at 9:30 a.m. with the breakfast following uh from 10:00 a.m. to noon uh the theme has been changed to invest in tomorrow uh that's a beautiful uh theme to to to Really uh be pushing on with our legislative agenda uh let's keep this in mind as as we continue to create it um and as we previously announced the keyot speaker will be assembly member Dean minks um and at this time the primary focus uh of today's meeting um is to look at the the status of the 2023 agenda um and then to also uh prepare and develop our 2024 uh legislative priorities uh that we
098will be presenting at the that we will be presenting at the legislative breakfast uh so today we have uh chief of communications uh uh Chief uh Lopez to give us some uh some updates on the 2023 uh legislative uh agenda and where we are today good evening Commissioners thank you commissioner Santiago I'd like to do a review of last year's legislative priorities I am going to keep this portion brief there are a number of items included in this uh legislative presentation that will be moved on for our 2024 legislative priorities so last year we went to the state talking about Foundation Aid and making sure that we maintain the commitment to a foundation a phas in that has occurred as we move into 2024 we will continue with this priority because the state has not
099updated the foundation Aid formula since 2007 so that doesn't account for any cost of living uh increases any inflation increases that we need and thereby the foundation Aid formula is old the second priority that we were discussing last year was the American rescue plan dollars we were requesting that an extension be provided for the final uh expenditures of the AR dollars that did not go through however we as a district are on track with our expenditures for art another priority that is Tops on our list is limiting the charter school expansion here uh in the district last year we had almost 25% of the student population that should be coming to the district attending a charter school and we will continue this priority in 2024 we're also looking at pre kindergarten in our priority last
100year we were looking at increasing the per pupil funding allocation this year we are shifting in our prek uh priorities to focus on special education and receiving appropriate funding for our um special education and prek students next we have our social emotional and Health Services and we asked the state to reinstate a $1.2 million allocation they did so at a one-time basis so we are requesting that this priority be transitioned over to 2024 and we're looking for This 1.2 million doll allocation to be permanently included in the budget so last year this was one of our priorities we did receive a one-time allocation however that did not move forward in this year's budget we continue to ask for additional funding for our English language Learners we are looking for a designated categorical program and the
101expansion of weighing elll pupils under Foundation Aid and this year in particular because we have been receiving Asylum Seekers by which we have not received any funding we are looking to continue this particular priority in 2024 with the addition that funds for the Asylum Seekers also be included uh professional development and looking for targeted funding for critical professional development was in our priorities last year this is something that we've been advocating to the state for a number of years we have determined that based on where the priorities are right now now this is not one that is going to move forward in our priorities t-shir teacher shortages continue to burden the district we are looking for the state to implement recommendations to address te teacher shortages and looking at some of the specific um certification
102processes simplifying some of these applications and looking at Civil Service reforms this recommendation will be condensed a little bit but it will stay as part of the 2024 priorities Transportation continues to be a major priority for our district specifically as we are looking at reducing the 1.5 mile limit where we are allowed reimbursement for transportation we do have that waiver for certain parts of the city however we are looking for the state to provide that unilaterally among our district so that we're able to transport all of our students via School Bus additionally this year we're going to be requesting that funding be allocated for the transportation of our prek students we are finding an inequity in students prek students who are not transported and have siblings in schools where they are transported and unfortunately there
103are times where the prek child will not make it to school because of lack of Transportation ation so that is a significant issue that we are looking to have addressed and finally we will continue as we did last year the positive School climate um to focus on uh Solutions not suspensions there was a bill that passed one of the houses last year we are looking for that bill to be reintroduced to have both houses approve it so that we are looking at um protecting our students and making sure that we are dealing with them in an equitable manner uh specific to our code of conduct so those are the priorities from 2023 you also have a document within board docs that has the 2024 legislative priorities as I indicated Foundation Aid Charter School Ells are
104included this year we've also included a priority on legal costs and judgments um right now there is no funding to assist the district with plaintiff oriented legislation that cost the district millions of dollars and can be exacerbated if some of these cases go to court um if there are any questions on that General Council Neil is here and he can provide some additional uh information we discussed prek um special education and the costs the district right now pays for special education prek out of General funds and we are looking for the state to provide additional funding specifically for special education prek uh we will continue the positive School climate support Solutions not suspensions bills and looking at that social emotional and Health Services $1.2 million additionally this year we have added two technology resolutions one
105of them that looks at providing adequate funding for for student and staff devices right now we are receiving uh $24.20 per pupil for hardware and $14.98 for pupil for software um the allocation um would allow 12 120th of the student population to have new technology so we are looking for the state to increase funding specifically for student staff hardware and software and then the other technology priority is looking at cyber attacks and the impact that they are having on our districts we're advocating for the state to introduce dedicated funding sources specifically earmarked for cyber security and data privacy this is an issue that you have all spoken with um Chief Information officer uh Glenn vanderwater and so if there's any additional information on those I am happy to provide them for you so 42 2024
106we have a number of priorities that were last year's priorities moving forward and we have a few that are new uh I will open it up for any questions that you may have uh do we have any questions from the board uh president Elliott yeah um I didn't I was trying to listen to the Governor State of the State today but um it got cut off on me so what was some of her um proposals around education and can we align whatever she has uh is is proposing with our uh legislative agenda so I was unable to view that I do have the transcript from it and I I'll tell you that that it was you know kind of that curriculum base that we were speaking about the other day of changing the curriculum as
107far as reading uh into I believe it's called phonic Back to Basics is what she's calling and so what governor hok is hoping to see can I speak I'm sorry I'm just I kind of jumped right in sorry about that um Back to Basics and it is focused on the decodable phonics and and the science of reading wanting to see training for educators around that and also having our curriculum aligned and um I've been speaking with state senators assemblymen um there's a lot that is going on Beyond around this in Rochester right now and so that is you know definitely my passion and um something I would like to see us align with as far as literacy uh do we have any other questions or comments uh vice president Elliott uh vice president LeBron my
108apologies that's okay that's okay um yeah I actually was going to discuss that the governor's uh program is going to come with funding for training and staff PD because the goal is to retrain teachers on teaching phonic and back to phonic so there is going to be funding for rcsd for that specifically because the formula used is going to focus on high districts in the state of New York we're one of them funding is coming I want to talk about two big pieces though so today the governor also approved the 1115 waiver finally and uh that comes with a lot of money too I would just say I do think some of these things could align with Medicaid dollars and I want to point out that we have our own Medicaid person in house and
109he has come here multiple times to present we need to Loop him in um because he is the direct person working with Medicaid and the state of Medicaid and our most knowledgeable staff inhouse around that process and the waiver and we would be foolish not to utilize him as the expert in house so I just want to put that out there because the amount of money that we're talking about is insane um so fingerlakes is going to be putting together a um session for agencies to sort of come in um understand what was approved what categories how people can apply and I definitely know that rcsd will also be eligible to tap in and apply for the 1115 waiver um 100% support the prek funding but I have to also add that we have not
110increased cbo's prek reimbursement rate in a since we've implemented it districtwide I don't know um but it has not increased and since 2020 in Co and the current recession they as nonprofits also are feeling the squeeze of the current um recession um and as we move forward there was a number of increased costs that they also had to eat out of pocket in order to continue their CBO based preas and so this year I know we'll be advocating if this were to come through regardless if this comes through or not I definitely want to figure out a different formula internally for cbos because even if we gave them a 3% increase um the reality is inflation was 177% and they were already behind from two decades ago of reimbursement rates for prek students um and
111so I would be a Miss if I did not you know advocate for that in your advocacy for prek um including special education but any prek CBO needs to have a rate increase so thank you uh before I go back to president Elliot do we have any any comments from anybody who hasn't said anything yet just real quick I was going to say um yeah so I love the me the mental health that she's leaning into that's a lot of money I don't know if it's a lot of money for the literacy like1 million for that I don't know what that's going to accomplish it's saying 20,000 teachers but so I would love to see more like we really need to lean in on that that's like a nice Band-Aid um but it's not it's
112not the cigar that we need um so that that the mental health and I'm sorry filled with youth isms and all that I can't even talk um but I lost my train of thought the the commissioner Simmons if I may last year there was a set aside of $10 million per District as part of the foundation Aid uh allocation and so one of the things that we've been advocating for is that we do not have a mandated set aside so the 10 million that you're referring to from the state I am waiting to see what the budget release looks like because I'm wondering if they're going to have another mandated set aside for foundation a dollars yes that yes thank you for that and then are we were you also vice president Leon talking about
113the um the the school-based health clinics as well when you were talking okay I just want to clarify yes the 11:15 waiver that is one area that it would cover you know costs right even right now but I also think pre- special education could go under the waiver just so everyone's clear because he's a reimbursement and reimbursable services for through Medicaid and this is why I said we need our own we have our an internal Medicaid expert who has been a part of the 11:15 waiver conversations super knowledgeable and I know that this is a whole other world but this other world is directly tied to the families we serve the services that they need and we need to figure out how to make that connection um and this is what Congressman melli has been
114talking about and Wade Norwood with systems integration this is it this was the push to fund these things so that a school district can figure out how to partner and figure out hey we are eligible for reimbursement over here not just through education dollars so uh superintendent beluso I would love to have you at the meeting as well I will make sure you get that info but I will I definitely want our internal expert there as well we'll have a side conversation president Elliot thank you um chairman um Santiago uh in reference to Charter Schools uh I'm told that Buffalo has a moratorium on uh charter schools and I'm wondering if we should consider um introducing a moratorium on charter schools in the Rochester area so um you know that's something you know for further
115discussion I think but I think that we should look at uh if that's if Buffalo has done it um then I think that that's and I know that there's been there's been opportunities for that so uh this this is something that we can have further conversation on you know in the next meeting possibly putting this in a presentation uh do we have any other comments any other questions uh if not uh has everybody had a chance to look at the 2024 uh legislative priorities uh commissioner Malloy I just wanted to piggyback on what uh president Elliot said because I've been calling for a charter school moratorium for a few years now um and I would love for us to look into that and so yeah that's up for discussion um I can't say that I
116really understand um some of the set asdes and so I'll need to be educated on those set asdes under Foundation Aid um but to also piggyback on what vice president LeBron was saying about setting aside um I think this is what she was saying setting aside funds for professional development for uh literacy um what about setting aside funds for uh smaller classroom sizes that you know grades K through two um that's how kids learn to read when they're not in a classroom with 25 other kids um but if we have smaller class sizes that can be funded somehow through the state uh superintendent Palo so just to answer the set aside question when the governor puts out the budget last year and she increased Foundation Aid made Foundation Aid fully whole um there was a
117set aside for learning loss or reading whatever it may be and what from our lens as superintendents when you provide the foundation Aid there really shouldn't be any set asides that should come through the budget process so if you're giving the money to fully fund us through Foundation Aid there really shouldn't be any set asides to that so um sometimes they provide funding but then say you can only use it for this and you know as a and it may be right to use it for that but it's more a philosophy in terms of the budget is the funds that you give us and then we'll build the budget don't don't put um barriers on how we could how we could use those funds okay thank so so my question is is is this something
118that we are thinking to add to the agenda as far as uh with the with the new uh curriculum that's being required are we requesting more funding or are we saying that that funding is not enough or I know commissioner Simmons you had you know I I certainly um want to see the the literacy piece I'm I'm talking driving hours and reading and just learning like I think well after I'm off the school board I'll be leaning into literacy that's how I feel about it and um his so yes yeah we need that on the agenda to answer your question okay and and if we can kind of look at into into what's already been promised by the governor and and kind of in the next meeting have that conversation on on what what are
119we going to advocate for on our end uh is there any other uh comments uh commissioner Patterson yes um as uh commissioner Malloy indicated uh I want to second that I think we should have some conversation around smaller class sizes um I really think we should think about that it's very difficult for you know a teacher to be able to give 110% you know to 30 you know kids in a classroom but if we can think or have some discussion surrounding especially now that we have the you know the the uh the buildings before we give them away or they're sold to the city or whatever it is um I think we should have a discussion um as a uh board relative to you know class size and lowering it thank you so I um
120I just superintendent Palo thank you so I just want to we we have contractual class sizes that we that we go so we don't have class Siz of 30 so I don't want um that but I do want to say that when we went through with an Mo MOA for um teachers we also did cap the class sizes to be um as well in that MOA at a smaller amount in an agreement that I had made with with the Union so we did cap it as as best we can I know that there's a desire potentially for lower class sizes I do want to say that the governor um started this presentation by saying we're financially going to be in a tough place right this isn't going to be an easy budget so I don't
121know what she's going to be promising in terms of these funds what we have to be careful of is unfunded mandates right in a lot of places and I think from literacy she's also invested in some money for colleges to make sure that they're in including uh literacy instruction with their um teacher certification programs right and then as a district by 2025 and I just kind of you know the document's 180 pages I kind of did a little bit of a search today it's that we have to certify that we're providing um phonics level instruction in our schools and that we're training our staff so we have to there's a certification that we're going to have to do with 2025 but a lot of this will probably fall on the districts to make sure that
122they're doing a super can uh let me uh so I'm GNA come down the line uh we'll start with uh commissioner Griffin uh commissioner Malloy then commissioner Simmons okay thank you commissioner Santiago um couple of couple of questions because people were speaking in reference to smaller class sizes um we we do have a teacher shortage so I I agree that we should have smaller class sizes but also where we going to get the teachers from and another question is are we going to look into getting more uh more teachers that are are black and brown more Latino more diverse in our in our in our um in our school system if we are looking for smaller class sizes I would definitely want to look at that as well that is one thing and then um
123also with the with the technology you were saying that the more equipment is needed upto-date equipment would that would that be like the um the like Google class or whatever the the actual pads that the kids take home because I think me personally I I would rather we get away from all of the laptop type of things for the kids especially at a young age because I don't think that they really use them like they should and I don't think that it's feasible for a learning tool so is that what you're referring to um hello you respond yes are you referring to the are you referring to the the laptops and things for the students what do you referring to when you're referring to the technology aspect I am referring to laptops I personally think
124that we it's a lot of loss with the laptops with the students I think that sometimes we are we waste a lot of money when refers to the technology with students we need to probably put a cap on that and make sure that it's given to a level where they have responsibility so that that is a little bit of a concern with me and at what level are we giving these at um I don't believe that at at certain levels that kids should have that Google Classroom I think that is shin away and taken away from what a teacher should be able to do and that is teach so that is just that's my thoughts on that uh absolutely do we have any response from superintendent Palo nope I I would just say that when
125we're talking about technology if you look at this legislative priority it's also talking about um you know cost of risk with cyber security right some of those additional things that we're faced with we've seen districts that have been taken hostage literally right you know and so they just some worry about that and now that I think you know insurances are more reluctant to provide companies are more reluctant to provide insurance coverage for those types of situations right we need to make sure that if there are things that it doesn't bankrupt The District in essence you know to pay for for us to get what is deserved when things are taken from yeah I wasn't talking about that that aspect just on the aspect of the technology that the systems given to the children and they're
126not being responsible and they say they lost them and really we're giving them back to them again and again and I think that we find that that that there really is a loss with us not with them got it yep thank you financially uh commissioner Malloy just to get back to the teacher and staff shortage legislative priority um so I'm GNA always advocate for smaller classroom sizes uh but more specifically uh reading teachers uh at the lower grade levels so it's not just about creating smaller classroom sizes but actually and not just providing profession development not every teacher can teach literacy um I'm a social studies teacher just getting an extra certification doesn't make me a reading teacher um and so that investment or focus in that investment on actual reading teachers at the lower
127grade levels is something that we should advocate for in my opinion so thank you and I I also you know question on on uh on both ends are are these positions that's already open do we already have read reading teachers for like first second and third grade uh I don't whoever wants the answer what um what I want to refocus us on right are these are legislative priorities where we want and so this is so this that's funding right you know what we're talking about is how we use our budget right and how we use our that's that's a budget when we get into Budget prior budget conversations what we want to focus on now is where do we want to make sure that when we're advocating to our delegation when we're advocating to um
128the commissioner when we're advocating what is it that we want to make sure that we want to be clear in our funding right um not Governor hok is calling for this increased focus on literacy State she's asking for more literacy yes absolutely con and it could be to make sure if we want to look at a legislative priority to make sure that that doesn't become an unfunded mandate right that should be an area that we could kind of you could look at from a legislative priority I think everyone needs to spend some time kind of digesting what she said today as well to see exactly what it is that she intends to fund and we won't really get a sense of that until our January budget comes out as well right you know so um
129but I just want to keep us here that it may be just that like that it's not an unfunded mandate with with um reading with the reading initiative uh commissioner Simmons uh thank you um this is good conversation and you know and I I agree I love the idea of small class sizes and I'm going to try to stick with the priori ities we're the legislative priorities I do want to comment on the reading teachers because we know that um reading teachers alone will not solve systemic reading issues in a district so um I know that's not where the conversation is going but I just want to kind of put that out there um so if we did go down that road eventually during budget season if we start talking about that hopefully we are
130talking about um using systems level um interventions and things of that nature nature back to the legislative priorities um did did you get a sense superintendent um that Governor hok mentioned something about L's and students with special needs in the literacy piece as well I felt like I heard something like that or read something like that but um because I I want to see that as well I don't actually I don't recall reading that but like I said I did a it came out like I got it in my hands around 130 I did a quick read to it today right I think we saw reading we saw mental health right we saw Medicaid and reimbursements um we saw um housing in there as well beyond you know so those are some of the things
131the big bu the big buckets that I saw um brief reading I don't remember if I saw anything specific to special education students and else thank you we have remarks from our state monor thank you commissioner Santiago uh in the message today I did not hear the governor talk about special education or E students uh there was the discussion about the 10 million dollars for the science and reading but that is for NP that is going to go to continue to provide professional development for teachers I mean 20,000 teachers when you look at New York City only there are more teachers than that so uh there's not enough money there so uh the district need to continue to be proactive and to take this uh a priorities at the state level to talk to your
132delegation because it was not included again we have to wait to see what comes in her uh budget presentation but it was not included in there today there was a lot a lot of money included for swimming in New York State like $60 million but nothing about other areas yeah that's what I was saying million is and I kind of also want to kind of make remarks on on also even after we create these legislative agendas also following through with it with our advocacy and I know that we have associations uh that that we are subscribed to uh but I think that that on our end we can also advocate for things that matter to us uh as a district because nobody can represent us like us uh because because our student matter our students
133matter to us uh commissioner vice president LeBron thank you I do think under EOL we might want to consider an elll um Asylum Seeker category for education so right now currently dco has the contract there is a local vendor here cbos that has the contract for the resettlement case management for all the Asylum Seekers and the way that it works is New York City is a right to house so they have to house you it's weird cuz I'm from New York yall know I'm from the Bronx there's lots of homeless people in the Bronx but you do have a right to be housed and because of that right to House New York City is funding the the Asylum Seekers who are coming here for the relocation housing food and other expenditures because individuals are not
134eligible for federal benefits but I say that because the county gets that reimbursement for the resettlement here the not not directly so I want to be very clear because I know there's a lot of confusion about all of who's getting money Monro county is not pocketing all this money because all these Asylum Seekers are coming but Monroe County will be responsible once they um their applications are approved and they start their process for any other benefits that they may need once they're eligible after a year and so forth but no one's talked about the educational CA that is attached to that and this is not just El and I want to point out that for some of these families they have literally gone through the most horrific things you could possibly imagine escaping their their
135situation just to seek Asylum and so um and I do think it comes with an additional cost to this community for mental health and support services as well and the difficult piece is the language barrier there are additional costs when you're bilingual and that's why I tell my bilingual people y'all better charge more money if you work in a job don't don't translate for free but I do think that there is an additional CA even Beyond a traditional EOL for an asylum Seekers and we should be advocating to get some funding for that transition because it's a greater hardship I believe as well for them here they're not eligible for food stamps they're not eligible for housing assistance they're not eligible for Medicaid and so in order to get some of these basic needs met
136for individuals it is going to take a strain and um on the resources that are already strained for this community and I hate pending one group struggling with another group struggling and I think we have to just make room for both but we can't make room for both if the state is not funding and looking at this as traditional e students because they're not and so I that's the one piece I would ask the administration to potentially consider expanding the elll piece and singling out Asylum Seekers because for those students there is no District social worker calling the County to do a Snap application that is going to require more work for our staff to figure out where to pull resources for these families that's just the reality unfortunately uh do we have any any
137other comments or uh president Elliott so um Dr paloa under technology the language it says uh we hope to make a shift from relying on Grant type programs and establish a sustainable Revenue model uh to support the one one: one initiative can you talk more about that so we we have to go for and replace computers every four to five years right that's the window in terms of where we are um smart Bond money has been used historically to UTI Iz technology and replacement technology that money is drying up and we won't have access to funds to replace technology so I believe you know for our spans we you know technology and we're going to continuously replace technology to have access to those funds um smart bars Grant has been what's been used historically we
138then fell on some ARP to kind of help with that but those things dry up technology funds will be limited and will become a fund expenses for us to sustain and replace computers so but how will it be sustained what does that model look like Dr well it it won't be it will be out of our a fund budget it'll be out of our general Foundation budget to to do this unless we have something that's sustainable from a technology Grant smart Grant or something to kind of continuously be able to replace computers but you don't have but so what's the what give me an example of what that looks like I mean when when you say sustainable Revenue model I guess I need to understand give as an example of what that model would be
139continuous funds from either the smart Bond expenditure right smart Bond replenishment right we're using smart bonds to replenish technology currently right now so as when that money dries up there is nothing to there is nothing sustainable after that to begin to replace technology at the rapid rate of of our implementation of Technology right so as we need more to replace Chromebooks as we need to replace staff computers as we need to replace these monitors here what is it from a sustainable technology Source could we hit upon versus it not being our foundation and a fund okay so meaning our general funds General funds all right okay I guess the reason why I was kind of thick on that because um you know at some point down the line we may have limited General funds so
140that's that was by so that's having some difficulty so as that Grant goes away and as those funds come away if it's not replaced and there's nothing there sustaining this for time Beyond it it's going to fall on us to encumber to make some decisions around what we actually purchase with technology okay thank you yeah uh and just one other thing um just um and this is just sort of the method I mentioned this to uh the preview team one of the and we had talked about this at the big five uh conference um last year about with regard to transportation and advocating for the point five is that we go to those um um legislators who may be right on the edge or even those that may be adamant opposed but we take our
141case to those because we're already uh we we already have uh advocates for on uh for this in our community and others in the state and so if because this has been on the on uh our list uh for a very long time probably around 2007 or so and so um I think the next step as I talked about it at the uh big the U Big Five conference is that we go to those who've been opposed to it and see if we can help to persuade them to vote is in favor of it thank you commissioner uh any other comments uh Comm commissioner Griffin just a little just want to go over the English reading learning el el excuse me Els I apologize now with the additional funding that that is proposed here you
142saying seeking for the family seeking Asylum and additional funding is required to support them as as much as possible to support additional bilingual teachers translators and support services those bilingual teachers will will they also include the Somalian the Swahili all those different languages as well or just is it just is it just U is it just the Spanish or Latin what are we what are we dealing with when we're saying the additional bilingual teachers because we have a slew of uh Somalian residents here too so I want to make sure that we're covering our bases is that what it's including and we have to is it all including all languages yep I'm just it is it's support supporting every English language learner right you know so what we're asking for is an increase in the
143amount of money provided by the state for every English language learner so when you have when you start to do Foundation Aid formulas right there's formulas for students right a student with disability an English language learner and that so what we're asking for is an additional funding for English language Learners to help support some of the Asylum Seekers some of those diff all those additional costs that we're seeing that's what we're asking for in this legislative priority okay question do you know uh in numbers and figures how many uh uh translators we have for the African language for Swahili and the other seven or nine languages that are currently in in the Rochester area for the people that live in the city of Rochester primarily over in like the 25th district do we know cuz
144there's a there's a lot of people that I know that that have a language barrier here with English Eng and they are from the African descendant and they're having trouble as well so I'm just trying to make sure we're covering all avenues because that's a concern of mine yeah absolutely so we use our we have translators that we have in a budget right to help translate with all all language the five major languages right we also utilize technology where we can um one of the platforms we're using right now for family letters home it's called s'more s'more is translated into oh um how many languages I'm going to look at my communication chief of communications how many languages more translate into over 100 languages are translated uh via s'more which is our family newsletter we
145are also utilizing other technology specifically with our texting when we're texting families if a family has selected a language of choice anytime they receive a communication from us it will come in one of the top four languages which is Arabic Nepali Somali and Spanish we do have swah translators and we do through Ria have a number of translators who will assist us during the time of an emergency to share messaging with families that usually happens through video as well okay you know with that being said we we have a we know we're trying to increase our numbers within the rcsd and there's a lot of kids that are not in school because there is a language barrier and they can't read and to my point of knocking on the door and saying hey can you
146need you need help these are the things that we can make we can do to increase our numbers if we have those translators and those teachers available to those to those group of people that are not able to understand the English language that is why I asked it thank you uh do we have any other uh comments questions uh any ideas aspiration dreams no okay uh I just want to just make a couple a couple comments um through through some of the things that I noticed uh while looking at um the proposed uh legislative priorities I think that's important that when we speak about Solutions on suspensions that we do stick with um and we ensure that we're being very clear that that we are supporting the assembly bill um the assembly and the Senate
147Bill are are two different bills um and we have to make sure that we are on the right side of the fight um and that assembly Bill uh aligns with some of the goals and values that we have um you know as a board and as a district um I also want to to ensure that that we are are focusing on on uh the charter school conversation uh we did speak about it a little bit uh up here but uh you know as we uh go go to sit down with the staff and the team you know just something that that we have to to keep on the top of our mind we are also trying to stay at around 10 priorities uh so I what I believe will happen at the next meeting is
148is I'll come with proposed um and we're going to have to cut it down to 10 um but then also uh let's remember that that you know we we have to look at you know our legislative agenda um and ensure that we are advocating on a personal level also you know as Commissioners for our district uh to to ensure that that we are you know putting accountability and action behind the the agenda that we're creating um and there's many ways to do that and uh and I'll keep you guys updated you know as we have more conversation on that um but if there is no other comment question dreams or aspirations uh can I get a motion to AJ meeting second uh all in favor the meeting is a Jour surve first survey oh you
149guys fill out the survey I hope you guys fill it out well you know so I I do Check Yes with the chair but only this one this is the way I just want to put something thing um out there to the to the public so there was um as we Face technology right um we see a little bit of more some creativity by our stud Jour the meeting already kind of adjourned oh shoot okay D you should you should let me know we all said I I think I don't think anybody I don't think we all said I we didn't say I yet we didn't say I yet open on the floor motion is open yes we didn't say I want so as we approach weather as we approach technology I see that sometimes
150we get a little creative and I've recently saw an email that went out to Monroe High School saying that school is closed tomorrow um so I appreciate people's creative thinking school closures will come from the district it'll be posted on our district website um it will come via communication on uh through the district it will not come from an email just to one school so um I appreciate uh seeing all of the Monroe students at school tomorrow at the start of the day so thank you all in favor say I I the meeting is adjourned