001good evening everyone welcome to the HR committee I'd like to call the meeting to order we don't have any speakers tonight so I guess the first order of business is just to review and accept the minutes from the January 24th 2023 HR Cal meeting can I get a motion can I get a second second okay motion by commissioner Adams seconded by President um Elliott sorry I had to think there for just a second sorry um all in favor I any Nays okay moving on to our first order of business tonight we have a staffing and recruitment update I'm going to go right ahead and hand things over to Chief Miller who will be leading us through this uh discussion tonight thank you thank you commissioner members of the board superintendent paluso this evening we are
002kicking off the HR Committee of the whole with some new energy and some new branding with our new slides but we also are adding a component to our meetings moving forward where we will Spotlight staff in the district because what we want to do is better personalize who our staff are what they do by unique roles and to really just uplift the people that are working in the Rochester City School District and so this evening we are going to recognize one of our teaching assistants and to get us started we actually have a video that we're going to play to kind of personalize who he is and and Mr Noel cologne is one of our teaching assistants at Abraham Lincoln School number 22 and it will cue the video hello my name is Noel cologne
003teacher's assistant and Abraham Lincoln School 22. I'm here at 22 school I helped and supported me my living room three grade levels this evening um leadership skills life skills it helps them give them strategies and things and so forth in all areas the opportunity to establish relationships families and students at the end of the day you know it will make any school successful is having that relationship between Holy Spirit and so when you're part of that and you're part of that chemistry that that formula of success and you know it motivates and what motivates me to come to school is to see those kids see the reasons for weight problems is this unusual bedtime ice hat you may not know this we'll we'll save those tips and tricks for another time uh Mr Mr cologne
004is someone with three decades of experience uh someone who's very invested in our community is a role model for his colleagues and for our our students someone who has a significant impact and influence at his school and in our community and here to speak about his impact and his influence and about the work that he does is his principal Dr Clinton Bell good evening thank you for having me I just want to say a few words about Cologne there's a lot of words I can say about him but uh I'm gonna say a few uh for one thing uh cologne is definitely passionate committed to the work uh I think and you you correct me if I'm wrong cologne I think I called you up a couple of Saturdays uh mornings and actually if you
005can do some home visits with me and he said hey nope no problem Dr Bell where you want to go and uh made the home visits uh just connecting with families just doing that extra uh work to support uh our students and our families uh beginning of the year we know we struggled uh with the covet and the teachers being out and Mr cologne just said you know what if I need to be able to make sure that our kids have consistency in the classroom Mr Bell please give me the opportunity to leave the classroom in instruction we did that with the help of instructional coaches he led when we didn't have the uh teacher available he led that instructional component of the classroom Mr cologne goes out and takes initiative he's bold and courageous
006you know so he's he's probably sent a bunch of you guys up here to Commissioners emails and uh inviting you to his annual safety patrol uh uh celebration uh so I believe he sent uh email to one of the football players what was the name so Demar Hamlin is going to be coming to school 22 to celebrate uh the students and also we're about to celebrate him he already bought the whole school t-shirts uh just in honor of us so I like his courage I like his initiative uh the you know his connection to the community and just the work that he does with students every day very compassionate and very committed to the work Mr cologne thank you ladies and gentlemen thank you to the board Madam president it's good to see you as
007always Mr superintendent members of the board as I can see um what we do at 22 school I am a product of the Rochester City School District I went to Elementary 28 and Franklin I graduated in 1984. and so I since the age of 15 I started working with kids and I started at Baden Street and Madam president you were the ones that gave us a workshop get to know your camper and so using those tools that I remember and remembering this that's what I that's what I've been doing and I've been working a lot with the district for 30 years and you know I I love it I I love working with kids the kids really react we have a very close-knit staff and we have a very good good good relationship with our
008parents and like I said in the video the the success of any school is to be able to establish a relationship with our parents and and you know it's funny because now I'm I'm getting my fir the first class that was through 22 school now I'm getting their children and they're telling you Mr cologne here's my kid you know what to do you know and so for so you know it's very rewarding and so and for me to be here in front of you it's very humbling because I know there are others in our district that do the thing day in day out they're passionate they're dedicated they go beyond the Call of Duty they call they go beyond you know whatever is the um what they say you know these are my restrictions or
009or My description of my job that you know sometimes you know we have to go above and beyond to get that family you know engaged with our schools and so forth so you know for me I'm very in like Mr Bell said you know I also run the safety patrol program which I invited Madam president and Mr superintendent and and vice president LeBron who's not here I don't see her but anyway it's it's a wonderful It's a Wonderful uh experience uh for both the students uh the staff and and the families to see leaders of their board present and so forth so it's very impacting and you know highlighting you know I got in contact with Demar Hamlin and I was telling him you know how how that you know how I would like for
010him to be there because he's an inspiration and so one of the things that we want to do in that day is to making him a honorary captain of our safety patrol program because you know he's a miracle walking and so and so he he acknowledges that so I just want I don't want to talk too much because you know I know there's other businesses to be taken care of but I want to let you know that I am proud to be a Rochester City School District employee and I am proud to have you know relationship with certain members of the board and and I'm hoping uh you know that we can continue uh I did tell Mr about that in two years I want to retire but [Music] Madam president got me and said
011so you know I just want to give back uh you know my thing is about giving back uh it's not that I want to walk away from the students I want to give back in other ways and so forth and and be be continue to be an impact not only to our families but to our community and so forth so thank you very much for this distinction that you've made for me I'm very humble like I said there's a lot of us out there doing that so uh I want to congratulate the uh Mr Miller for for having that initiative of highlight you know staff member it's good to know that and it's good to know that the fact that you know me and the media don't have a good relationship I'm gonna be very
012honest with you because I think media does a lot of negativity for our schools for our city and so you know if I ever become a mayor which I don't know if that's going to happen but the one thing I would do I would line up with my general manager my of my stations and say yeah I need to promote us positive if we want student growth if we want our kids our enrollment to increase and we need to do it and media has to do that so that's another conversation but thank you very much uh one thing one thing about having passion and uh it's you you can't stop talking about the work and that's Mr cologne so if you come by school 22 and if you don't have enough time you're going to
013be in trouble because he's going to we know he got warmed up when he put his arm down on the that's okay but but also the about the position of ta are you just a ta well I am I am a TA by title but I do a lot of things because in a school you have to know how to wear different hats at different times and so we in our school culture that's what we do we we're Tas we work with our kids in the self-contained setting but we also if we need to support our lunch we do that if we need to support other areas in the school we do that because that at the end of the day we're all on the same team you know I always say that to Mr
014Beau we're all in the same team no matter where we at we're on the same team and so we need to you know be available and flexible to whatever the needs of the school because at the end of the day it's about the children and that's why we're honor and Mr cologne today uh it's it's more than just that title of being a TA he's an educator he's educating students and families and he's committed to doing the work so I want to thank you again Mr cologne for everything you do thank you and then not to interrupt your presentation Chief Miller but I want to give the Commissioners an opportunity just to thank Mr cologne and if you forgive me I'll just quickly start and then pass past the Baton Mr clone thank you you
015are exactly what is so positive about this District that people tend to take for granted and what you were seeing about the media you are it and I thank you for everything that you do I don't know if people really understand that developing those critical relationships with our students that is what education is all about and you're doing it every single day you're not just just a TA I heard that there's never just a TA the critical role that Tas play in our district can't ever be taken for granted and you go above and beyond and I have heard such wonderful things about you I look forward to seeing you in action at your school one day um you are providing a foundation for our students and our families and and I thank you so
016much I'm going to go ahead and um we'll start with commissioner Adams go ahead I personally would like to develop a relationship with you um and get an advice from you because Mr Hamlin all right his shirt is the number three on it yeah and that's the shirt so if you come by Sir we got you thank you commissioner Adams um we'll go ahead and I'll just keep continuing down the row uh commissioner Simmons I'll go ahead and take it and let president Elliott has a final six she's got that real strong relationship with you and I just wanted to acknowledge something you expressed um when you talked about the home school relationship and that is the nucleus of success and I mean you need to tag that and we need to do something with
017that because that is so importantly the truth um oftentimes we recognize the Tas and para professionals and so on are just not valued or we're not I won't say you're not valued but we don't demonstrate it well and so I love the fact that we are starting something where we're spotlighting and I would love to see us continue to have actionable appreciation not just in word and deed and we don't want trophies but to actually show them through our what we do our outcomes maybe our salaries things of that nature to show them that we truly understand the work that they put in each and every day and I appreciate you Mr cologne thank you so much thank you commissioner Simmons um so do we want to just go down to commissioner Powell and just
018a profound thank you when I hear that you're willing to do home visits that's that's such a critically important task that a lot of our teachers are unwilling or afraid to do in particular I know that um some households in our community don't won't come to the door unless they see a face they recognize so you know in recognizing you from the school 22 Community generationally that's um that's a foot in the door like that that um can only yield positive results and for that my sincere thanks thank you commissioner Powell I know that commissioner Patterson is on the zoom commissioner Patterson did you want to comment he's not okay pardon me okay no problem um thank you I also wanted to just mention that vice president LeBron had a conflict this evening and that's
019why she is not here I'm sure she'll be reaching out personally to you president Elliott if I can get through this without crying um I was sitting here and um I was just going through mail and stuff and then I looked up and I saw who's being honored and um you know we go back a long way you know we've been doing this work a long time being in the trenches you know when we were on Zimbrick you know when Baden Street had a relationship with school 22 at the time and and you were always everywhere uh trying to meet the needs of the people in our community and you're not new to it you're true to it and I know it and I just appreciate all of what you do for our students and
020all of what you do for our families you are the epitome of the kind of employee that we need in the Rochester City School District If people really want to know if any employee really wants to know what does it take in order to be successful in this District make a look to you these are um uh this is the word you know it's not the work of the president not the work of the superintendent this is the work and the fact that um you know whatever job needs to be done you're willing to do it yes that says a lot because a lot of people in this District that's not the case they'll throw up the Union contract in a minute uh but to have because it doesn't take a Union contract it takes
021people who are willing to do this difficult work for our children and then to know that you care and that they know that you care and so I am I'm just uh I don't have words you know you got you know my heart you already know and I appreciate all of what you do and thank you so very much from 30 years and I don't know if you're talking about retiring in two years you know you ain't gonna be able to sit home so we will continue to we want to continue to have you in this district for a very long time because our children and families need the kind of caring that you provide and and it is appreciated and on behalf of the superintendent and myself in the board we really do appreciate
022all of what you're doing thank you so much looking forward to seeing you on June 21st yes yes I'm gonna miss church that night thank you thank you very much so we're going to welcome the board and the Commissioners to come forward to pose for a photo and uh to honor uh Mr cologne with a certificate and it says presented by the Board of Education and the superintendent of schools in recognition of your service to students families and Rochester Community as a teaching assistant at Abraham Lincoln School number 22 given this 21st day of March 2023. [Applause] yep foreign so back to our regularly scheduled program here and certainly as we honor Mr cologne we know that um we know that our staff our teaching assistants he is but one of many teaching assistants in
023the district and we certainly appreciate our staff and the wise words that were shared this evening about the impact and influence of Mr cologne so as we continue with our agenda this evening um we want to provide an update on staff vacancies and some of our Recruitment and Retention efforts I'm super excited and proud to welcome and introduce some other members of my team this evening who will be presenting and sharing some highlights of who they are and the work that they do so that we can better personalize the work that is ongoing in terms of our vacancies are represented on this slide we as the year has continued on we have seen some turnover you'll recall in January I did a much more extensive reporting on retention historically and also all of our turnover
024data relative to resignations and and retirements and so what you see here is that we we have had an uptick we expect significant movement with clerical and custodial in the next few weeks we have dozens and dozens of candidates that are in various phases of process and so that is good news with some changes relative to some of our Civil Service hiring and the lists that have been produced from the county that is helping us to ensure that we are hiring some some individuals as you look at this slide you'll see a breakdown of our teaching vacancies by content area what I want to call out and draw your attention to though is that over the last several weeks we have um we have we have paused some hiring on teachers on special assignment and
025so you'll notice that 23.6 of our vacancies and the teaching ranks are teachers on special assignment it's critically important that our classroom positions are filled first and so rather than taking a teacher out of the classroom and putting them in a special assignment we have been pausing in the process to ensure that we're filling classrooms first and foremost slide just to provide a follow-up to our January meeting where we provide extensive data on turnover this slide indicates the staff resignations only since the first day of school and you can see how they have been flow through various times across the year and certainly in more recent months numbers have been relatively low certainly this is something that we will continue to monitor but also speaks to the needs that we have relative to recruitment hiring
026and support of our staff just to provide a couple of very quick updates our Rock Urban teaching fellows program was established this past August and we had a a big roll out with the superintendent and with Nazareth College and the University of Rochester in September we saw three of our fellows begin in each of those programs and you can see their content areas there we expect and anticipate with ongoing recruitment efforts by Nazareth and the University of Rochester that those numbers will increase for our second cohort we needed to get these off the ground and now we will look to build each cohort up to 20 people relative to that we're also expanding this August our Rock Urban teaching fellows program to include NYU steinhardt School of Education New York University which will be located
027here in Rochester we are bringing NYU to Rochester which has a different credential in a different audience that it has the potential to attract and so we are in a recruitment effort right now for students at NYU who will be joining us through our Rock Urban teaching fellows program for next year we're also expanding across the three College Programs to include tessell an inclusive early childhood education because those are two areas where we have hiring needs and certification needs as well we've been working to revitalize our partnership with Suny Brockport to ensure that we have a New York state bilingual certificate program that is connected with our district to ensure that we can build tomorrow's bilingual teachers today and helping candidates who are interested in becoming bilingual teachers to go through this program and to
028get financial assistance through our teachers of Tomorrow Grant which is provided by the state education department and so really rebranding recharging and helping staff like Perez and teaching assistants to know what programs are available to them in our community to help them to become teachers another program that we launched this month is with Roberts Wesleyan University and we're partnering with them specifically for the parent in ta the teacher pipeline this will begin in commence in August 2023 it's a rapid certificate Nation program that a candidate can earn their certification in 21 months and they receive a 25 percent tuition discount by being part of that cohort and the coursework is taught by individuals who are highly effective teachers and leaders in our district who know the needs the unique needs of the Rochester City School
029District and can support in that teacher preparation for our future teachers last I do want to provide an update on our uncertified teachers those that we hired under a teacher certification action plan are tcaps at the beginning of the year you'll recall we we've hired 454 teachers for this school year between the start of the year and some of the turnover 165 of them we took a risk on relative to hiring them without full certification with the intent that we would support them we'd hook them we'd bring them into the school district and we would work with them to ensure that they obtain their certification and that they would stay a teacher in the Rochester City School District and so what this slide delineates is the status of each of those individuals where they are
030and nearly two-thirds over two-thirds of them will be fully certified soon some of them already fully certified so with that I mentioned that I'm very proud of the team the through the board support we've added resources to the office of human capital to ensure this work that I've highlighted in the work that these team members are going to highlight can be done if we're going to be aggressive in our Recruitment and Retention efforts we have to have some support to do that and to do that we have hired a new director of recruitment selection and retention and a recruitment team and so I'm going to welcome them up and they're going to be speaking with you this evening thank you Dr Miller we are not related or brother and sister as you may think thank
031you superintendent members of the board Madam president staff and leadership team my name is Emirate Miller our new director of recruitment retention and selection I plan to give an overview of the newest addition to the office of human capital our three recruiters who join our recruitment team their work and what you can expect from us okay I have to do this right you don't see yeah there we go sorry okay given the teacher shortage Across America and the worker shortage overall stemming from covid and the pandemic the office of human human capital has added three new recruiters to attract qualified and certified teachers and the most effective and diverse staff in all areas our goals to onboard candidates quickly understanding that working teachers from other districts must give 30 days notice to their employer before
032starting with us during the school year competitive salaries as negotiated are starting salaries and year-to-year raises are built to attract and retain talent and finally rework our methods and customer service practices to best serve serve each and every PR every principle student and their needs as schools are not the same okay please meet our new recruiters starting with Ricky Frazier Ricky is a former volunteer coordinator with the district he covers 17 schools and programs under chief White he's a graduate of the Rochester City School District he went to Madison and Roberts Wesleyan he's a graduate of Roberts Wesleyan Ricky focuses on community job fairs and Outreach Tanya Dickerson who will present next covers 19 schools and programs under Chief morian she's also a graduate of the city school district and a graduate of the University
033of Michigan and holds a master's from a die Tanya also focuses on college recruitment in her recruiter role marvik Aguero is a former homeschool assistant with the district he covers 16 schools and programs under Chief Matthew he is a graduate of durable University of Puerto Rico and focuses on bilingual job fairs and titles he recently returned from a series of recruitment events in Puerto Rico and tomorrow he heads to Miami to continue with this recruitment campaign this is a new team and this year we've built new processes to provide improved service to our schools and to meet the needs of our children who rely on the support of District employees every single day School staff from teachers to ssos security Food Service clerical paraprofessionals teaching assistants Transportation Administration and more they support students your children
034our children those who will someday become leaders and parents and working themselves the recruitment team is always on the go they're at job fairs such as rock the block and Rochester work events we're recruiting at Mercantile on Maine Public Market at central office and at school buildings as I mentioned we were just in Puerto Rico recruiting bilingual teachers Margaret Aguero flies to Miami to do the same tomorrow Ricky Frazier is traveling with with the science department to Atlanta to recruit science teachers this week and to come planning to network with hbcus online and in person same with our downstate CUNY schools this fall we plan to recruit at rcsd sporting events and major school-based performances our unions understand the work of their units inside and out we have partnered and continue to partner with our
035unions as it takes a village to support a new hire recently we hosted a bilingual job fair at school number nine bentan wrap they helped to talk to candidates we thank them for their continued commitment to the Staffing and hiring of qualified candidates here at the Rochester City School District we are looking forward to September we're building relationships with college Career Centers presenting to students and departments attending campus job fairs facilitating info sessions and meeting with student teachers our Communications Department has created some beautiful job fair materials for us with pictures of District employees and we've ordered and received new swag for candidates to take with them as a Keepsake to remind them of our interactions we we've also introduced QR codes and all of the signage that you may see at job fairs or
036around schools again Communications helps with our branding we are devising new ways to utilize social media and to invite candidates to attend events and apply to postings we're planning to continue utilizing all methods of Outreach to attract candidates through the end of the year and some are leading into the 2023-24 school year including news media Print Media Radio social media now I'd like to hand this presentation off to Tanya Dickinson Tanya Dickerson who is a recruiter on the recruitment team while I lower the mic I am short so good evening members of the board superintendent paluso rcsd staff and community members as mentioned my name is Tanya Dickerson and I'm the newest recruiter on the team in the office of human capital as mentioned earlier I am a proud product of the Rochester City School
037District having graduated from number 23 Monroe Middle and School of the Arts back in 1997. so today I will just be showing you giving you an overview of what my network looks like talking about college recruitment and where we hope to Target engagement and different campus recruitment campus recruitment platforms that we tend to utilize so as you can see I am over Network 3 schools under Chief Rhonda morian some of the schools that I have are number 10 Dr Walter Cooper School of the Arts Oasis and Mary McLeod Bethune number 45 School in total I have around 20 different schools departments and programs that I support so college recruitment where we want to Target so we hope to build different relationships with different colleges and universities across the company first we have 19 local colleges
038and universities in the Finger Lakes Region that we hope to tap into this along with the Buffalo area and the central New York area so obviously we all know about SUNY Geneseo Buff State UB Fredonia Etc we also hope to build on past and new relationships that we want to develop so those being historically black colleges and universities in the past when Marie Snipes was here and Dr Shirley green were here they went and visited Morgan State Bowie State and Delaware state so we hope to re-establish those relationships we also hope to look at Hispanic serving institutions and as previously mentioned marvik my colleague visited a university in Puerto Rico not too long ago we also want to Target programs that address our areas of needs so Tennessee State they have a program that specifically
039focus on focuses on Elementary Ed along with math and science Fayetteville State and Delaware State also have teaching programs where they focus on black male teachers trying to get those individuals into the district and then of course Suny Brockport with their health and physical education program Nazareth with their tussle and special education program U of R and more we hope to build these relationships and colleges by talking with department heads engaging with Career Centers going directly into the classrooms in front of students conducting table event tabling events and information sessions we want to make sure that we're establishing quality relationships with these schools in order to create future pipelines where we just have individuals coming in so how do we hope to do this well we hope to do engagement through in-person visits and virtual
040events right now in-person events are back up and running we know that those are some of the most positive and some of the most beneficial events that being said when surveyed 55 of college students said that they want hybrid so a combination of in-person and virtual events virtual events help us to reduce cost as we know we can't travel to every college and university but we can hold virtual events to Target those different communities they help us extend our reach and they increase productivity that we have thank you so how would we do that so as you can see handshake Simplicity career Eco purple briefcase and zoom are just some of the different platforms that are being used by colleges and universities handshake is probably the most popular with the majority of colleges and universities
041using it what you can do on those platforms is you can post jobs you can have informational sessions you can actually do in-person and virtual career fairs on them as well so it's a really great way to meet students where they're at not just in person and that is my part of the presentation Dr Miller do you want us to pause maybe for any questions or do you want us to wait until the end if you want to ask questions now okay fantastic um thank you so much to you both for your presentation and I am really excited to see this rebranding and recruitment in our district and I'm feeling really positive for the first time in in a long time I'm going to go ahead and I have a couple questions just related to
042Dr Miller some of the information that you presented one of the questions was that um I really appreciated that you presented the information or data around our toas because it looks a little deceptive when you see those numbers and I think that you know we're utilizing the certified teachers that we have and pulling them out of those positions um when needed and I know that's not always ideal for teachers to have to do that but when we have 26 or toas that can be put into the classroom that really does help to alleviate some of the strain that we're feeling however I can't emphasize enough that having toas in those positions is so critical for for our district moving forward and when we think about what those teachers on assignment are actually doing they're the
043ones who are able to pull kids aside and do that targeted intervention and that's when we really start to see uh you know those twos becoming threes and and some of that targeted intervention that we that we need and so I hope that we're continuing to recruit for those positions although I understand the need right now one question I had was that wasn't quite clear was how do we ensure that we don't lose the people who are we are allowing to get certified or that we're helping to get certified what are the requirements in terms of how long they commit to the district because we don't want to lose this investment to to the suburbs right so how do we ensure that they stay sure so first for the programs that have financial assistance connected
044to them relative to tuition there is a commitment to stay in the district of and provide three years of service so there's a hook there right there's an exchange of an incentive for the individuals on the teacher certification action plan there is there's no hook but our care our support and our involvement with them all of those relationships has an impact in trying to retain individuals we provide them mentoring support and it's our hope that they will stay with the Rochester City School District many of them have been with the Rochester city school district for for several years as teaching assistants or as paraprofessionals and so we're helping them to get across the Finish Line to finish their certification awesome thank you so much I'm going to open it up to our other Commissioners um
045is there anyone who'd like to comment yeah no commissioner Simmons go ahead actually I wanted to ask you a question you said three years um being the commitment why not for like a full cohort year what was what made that um distinction for you yeah so it's it's it's a fine line right because they're they're reaches a point where if you have two strenuous a commitment people begin to um reconsider whether that's a commitment that they want to make and so without having to pay uh some of that investment back the research around this or the practice that other school districts have found is that The Sweet Spot that's a sweet spot so something digestible awesome thank you for that Clarity on slide 10 you talked about Pathways to teaching and kind of gave an
046overview of the criteria around what you're looking for when you identify Pairs and Tas that you'd love to recruit into the teaching profession and help them receive certification um wondering outside of them self-selecting or applying for this opportunity are there targeted um recruitment efforts that are are happening where there may be a school has identified the strong candidate and the candidate may not recognize you know what I mean and the principal May lift them and say hey take a look at this person and then there's Outreach is that happening yeah so we're doing a number of things to to Target one is informing all encouraging colleagues to recommend and support and all and asking for recommendations we could we could look deeper at that to ensure that we get more folks in that but that
047kind of Target of Outreach is something we've explored there's probably a couple more strategies that we could try around that absolutely and just on two more things I was just thinking I'm on to Miss Miller and Miss Dickerson's um first of all I know you got some hitters on your team now so I'm excited and waiting to see what's going to happen because I'm very familiar with both individuals and their work so um yay um I'm excited to see the efforts around the HBCU recruitments and it just brought back you know I thought about Jackie Dobson in those years where we where there was a culture here in Rochester to go on those college tours and I even remember being on uh being able to chaperone on one of those tours when I was an
048advocate and then schwanda Evans used to coordinate those with Hillside work scholarship where we bust down like 40 kids to DC and North Carolina a t and all of those um those pieces and kids would not come back the same because their Vision had expanded so I'm so excited to see what we will do and hopefully we will be able to rebuild that culture and brother I forgot your last name I I didn't say I'm a practice forgive me but I see I saw you in uh Puerto Rico doing your thing so um kudos to you and Mr Frazier enjoy that safe trip to Atlanta as we recruit bring them bring them here we need them um and my last uh piece I think I lost it oh recruitment around CTE so we're targeting classroom
049teachers and things of that nature but I know um uh Mr Sheldon Cox mentioned that he we need CTE teachers tell me about that please I met with Sheldon Cox today um we're planning a job fair around CTE for May or June on a Saturday we'd like to encourage those who are teaching in other districts to consider teaching with us High needs areas our technology also we're developing cosmetology we are looking for construction and all around CTE so we are planning a robust campaign with social media and Outreach perfect timing beautiful thank you just want to touch back on your statement about hbcus commissioner Simmons so one of the things that we're also talking about is starting in HBCU faculty affinity group here um also having that information going through front lines so individuals when
050they are applying can select that they attended an HBU Or Hispanic serving Institute also hoping that that hpcu affinity group can help us to go out and recruit teachers but also if they're in front of students talking about their experience at an HBCU and talking about the teaching experience as well to encourage you to get into the field of Education yes beautiful thank you very much thank you commissioner Simmons and thank you so much Miss Miller and Miss Dickerson thank you for the work that you do continue to do I think this is is there are there any other questions before we move on well this is the perfect segue Ms Dickerson was talking about Affinity groups and I believe that that's what we are talking about next yes next on the agenda here I'm
051going to welcome up um director Michael Allen who's working on his Doctorate and one of the the great benefits of working on your doctorate with um with the university is that you're required to do an internship and so Mr Allen reached out to do an internship with me and what a great opportunity to work with someone who who really is committed and taking the idea of affinity groups and bringing them to the Rochester City School District and so Michael has been working on this for several months and as part of this he's going to present to you tonight and we're really excited uh for the work that he has done and the research that he has done in the plan that he has helped to develop that we will be implementing so with that Mr
052Allen good evening everyone can you hear me I guess I'll bend down foreign again trying to get to the slide okay all right again thank you everyone good evening um as Dr Miller mentioned I'm doing this as part of my doctorate program I'm currently enrolled in St John Fisher so it's been a pleasure working with Dr Miller and his team so far and as he stated this work has started started back in September October and I originally came to him and we had a conversation about different initiatives that the district was working on this being one of them and so I jumped right in and volunteered to work with them on this particular initiative so Affinity groups uh generally are defined as a group of people linked by a common interest or purpose more specifically
053Affinity groups are organized based on social identity shared characteristics or Life Experiences they are also safe spaces for historically marginalized groups to come together for social emotional connection and peer support they are voluntary they are employee-led and they are non-exclusionary which means that anyone has the right to join any affinity group they are not unions which means they do not represent employees regarding the terms and conditions of employment they are not clubs so no sports or Hobbies and most importantly they are not in conflict with District priorities or expectations this next slide you'll see a list of different organizations that currently have Affinity groups some national and some local uh one of them actually being the Syracuse City School District which I believe has had Affinity groups for four years now if I'm not mistaken
054the next slide shows a few examples of affinity groups within these particular organizations and as you can see by the names the names kind of make it clear what each of the groups or who each of the groups represent we identify four different goals for the Affinity groups number one make connections to those who with similar lived experiences Mutual concerns and common purpose number two build a sense of camaraderie and a system of support through fellowship and networking number three provide rcsd leadership with ideas and recommendations for changes in practices procedures and policies that negatively impact diversity and inclusion efforts and number four support rcsd efforts to recruit develop support and retain the most effective and diverse staff now those first two goals are more short term and we expect for those to be obviously
055non-negotiables but we expect every group to have those particular goals in mind to start the last two goals we would expect to occur maybe gradually over time but ultimately these are the four four goals that we expect out of all the groups the next slide identifies several Board of Education policies that align with this particular initiative most notably the last two which speaks specifically to recruitment hiring and residence there's also strategic plan alignment one of our core beliefs is to embrace diversity and commit to the eradication of racism and all forms of discrimination and oppression and one of our priorities is to ensure an inclusive caring and safe learning environment there are several benefits attached to Affinity groups as well I'm not going to read them verbatim but sharing knowledge and fellowship with others increasing
056job satisfaction diversity and inclusion it actually enhances the rcsd published image which makes us look good which in turn helps our recruitment efforts as well now I'd be remissified and also include some of the challenges that come with affinity groups so starting with uh the first one there which is uh discrimination and segregation concerns this is why Affinity groups are non-exclusionary number two or the second bullet there uh potential to strengthen inequality so if not implemented effectively they can actually have the opposite effect um social media and misinformation and meeting oversight this speaks directly to the district priorities and expectations and then lastly resistance uh or confusion regarding the purpose and participation guidelines so what we have done to address some of these potential challenges we first started with weekly meetings to just strategize kind
057of a plan of action to roll out that was then The Next Step was to do extensive research on Affinity groups in the history how they all started and how to get them started third was conversation and dialogue with those who have experience or started Affinity groups themselves to have discusses about Lessons Learned and best practice with starting Affinity groups uh next was a draft handbook that was put together which included guidelines and expectations for starting Affinity groups and included also roles and responsibilities of those affiliated with affinity groups as well that particular draft was revised two to three times and this was based on feedback initially from individuals or representatives from each of the unions and then we also share this particular document with the Union leadership and we're currently waiting on some feedback
058from them so this is still in draft mode but our expectation is to have a final draft hopefully by the end of this month and that leads us to our plan over the next few months in terms of implementation and I'm going to apologize I'm at the point where I need some readers and I got to try to adjust my eyes and I can't see all the way up there so I'm but the month of April um includes creating an application I'm sorry create an application and supporting documents depending on the supporting documents they would obviously attach to that application um the month of May um includes the recruitment and Outreach to the facilitators so those facilitators would be individuals who actually serve as the leaders if you will of the of the Affinity groups
059uh the month of June includes the interviewing the selection and the training of those facilitators and also identifying identifying Liaisons which would be individuals in HCI that would serve as the Liaisons between the Affinity groups and District leadership and in the month of July the plan is to have membership recruitment during the month of July and finally ending with an official launch in the month of August and hopefully some type of kickoff event with the goal of having three to five will start modest three to five Affinity groups that start in September okay thank you so much for presenting this what an exciting opportunity for our employees and what a wonderful way to create a more positive culture and climate district-wide so I'm really excited to see where this goes and these are this is
060something that's truly actionable right it's not just performative when we talk about diversity equity and inclusion this is more than just performative this is actionable stuff that we're talking about here so really looking forward to seeing more of the work that you've done on this good luck to you at St John Fisher as well I'm assuming you're in your doctoral program yes at this point so best wishes to you thank you for all this work I think this is going to be a great opportunity for our employees and thank you for educating us more on Affinity groups in general I'm going to open it up to my fellow Commissioners I also want to acknowledge that Dr jallow our state monitor as well as Mr Alicia our finance consultant they are on our Zoom as well
061and so I want to open it up to them first do you have any questions or comments via Zoom not at this time thank you thank you Dr jello Mr Alicia no I think it just a quick comment I think think that is a great opportunity uh the Affinity groups brought a lot of people together in Syracuse and it's the opportunity to have teams of people working together so I would like to comment uh Chief Miller for uh pursuing that initiative also fantastic thank you so much all right um commissioner Powell do you have anything no okay commissioner Adams well I do yeah I'm just curious about um the Liaisons and Leadership that you were talking about oh um do you have any idea I mean can you identify those are they going to be
062board members no they wouldn't be that's okay he's our employee line all right but the Liaisons would potentially be members of the NCAA yes all right thank you and I'm so sorry um I Heard Miss Dickerson mention an HBCU affinity group for example as one of them and you mentioned there would be you're looking at a handful by the end of the timeline to have a few can you give some do you have an idea or have you identified what those groups might be or what you're probably I know it could change as time goes on but what are you looking at when you say what they might be in terms of the affinity group so or no because you're going to have more than one affinity group correct so just the different examples of
063the Affinity groups you're looking to bring here specifically to rcsd oh well they will be homegrown so they're going to be up to the actual individuals that got you are the facilitators that we recruit so this is all going to be a homegrown product I love that so it's an organic process and people will develop themselves I love Affinity groups I love participating in them and I'm happy to hear that that's how they'll be established so thank you for that and um maybe Dr Miller is there like a general cost associated with this or what are we thinking uh so not not at least initially um we what what we're looking to do is is have something like you said using your word that organically comes comes to be and we know from other Affinity
064groups that um sometimes what they're doing is is just coming together and advocating and it may be that in their first several months or first year they want to advocate for Budget we've we've I've known of affinity groups that have said we want to make sure that we have representation at the Puerto Rican festival right and so we would like some funding to support us tabling at that event so that's the budget that we would need so organically it's going to come and and other Affinity groups are able to get donations right so there's not necessarily a known budget it's really what our employees rise up and call for need thank you so much I'm going to call you Dr Allen I know you're going through it but I'm gonna call you that now okay
065okay I'll put future on it yeah thank you thank you so much commissioner Simmons and just a thank you to the entire HCI department for all the work that you are doing and what a breath of fresh air um really excited to see where all of this goes and how all this pans out Chief Miller did you have anything else no that concludes us for tonight I do want to acknowledge the staff and educator Effectiveness team who's not here this evening but a lot of their work was really getting off the ground and ensuring the pipelines right the pipelines with our colleges and really helping to develop some of these connections for our staff whether it's the PA paraprofessional ta to teacher pipeline all of these things are things that we need to be doing
066and we're just going gangbusters implementing these initiatives and every little effort that we can make I I oftentimes show that wheel of everything we do has an effect on how we recruit and retain and all of these little things come together to produce great Synergy for the Rochester City School District so we started with honoring Mr cologne and the positive energy of that and and didn't know what kind of impact that alone would have but really thank you for your support this evening and that's it thank you thank you so much Chief Miller well I think that it's all that we have on our agenda for this evening I want to remind Commissioners to please complete the board meeting survey but can I get a motion a second okay um all in favor of ending
067this meeting aye all right have a nice night everyone thank you so much for all the work that you do good night