001body today is May the 27th 2021 um it is a beautiful day outside today and I know my colleague I hope my colleagues have had a chance to enjoy it I've not seen them in an in-person meeting in quite a while so I don't know I don't you know usually we get to see each other in the parking lot and chitchat but that hasn't happened for gosh man a year remember that guys how we could we would pull up into the parking lot and then we would talk before or after the meeting even if the meeting went long we haven't done that in a long Leslie I don't even think you've ever had that experience um so so uh I know uh your staff and and the board staff are working diligently on when that
002day happens I know Tom and other folks are trying to figure that out so someday as Diana Ross would say we'll be together isn't that what she said Bill and about that hopefully we'll do it one time before I leave the board one time before before I leave that's right that's right so um again today is uh uh May 27th 2021 and time is now 6:32 so we're going to go ahead and start our meeting as as is often the case in these meetings we uh begin this uh with a on a somber note um usually we we we begin with an act of reverence and again you it's typically uh tragically unfortunately that note that act of reverences Us's on a very um disappointing sad uh note and that uh reminds us that this
003nation still hasn't figured out and perhaps I don't know may never figure out how to deal with this gun violence we we constantly plead and March and pray lay memorials to people who have passed away and we've been doing that for many years and every morning or evening we uh wake up or go home and we see the headlines now it's San Jose I think uh my understanding is nine people uh have passed away as a result of some senseless violence uh but the reality is um and my colleagues have reminded me of this uh many times the reality is gun violence is all around us we just happen to see these sad and tragic headlines when multiple people die but you know in in the urban communities uh and and in Suburban communities people
004are dying from gun violence every day uh I heard that last year alone deaths were related to guns was up up 25% that's not even including the mass shootings so my colleagues and I uh hope you all join us in this moment of silence um not so much contemplating what has happened and what continues to happen but more importantly turning our energy to what should happen to stop this senseless violence um because what we're what's happening in this nation and what we're doing and I would include myself in that's a marching and pontificating is not working we have to be prayerful and deliberative about identifying those things that actually work and then uh those things that haven't been given an opportunity to work um and and pray that some folks will have some wisdom to
005implement those things as well well in the meantime uh join my colleagues and I in a moment of silence for those folks who have to endure the suffering of those things that we haven't figured out just yet thank you um as we as we figure out these burdens and our blessings we do that underneath the American flag and uh I would ask that if you are so inclined to join my colleagues and I in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance uh if you're not inclined that's beautiful too because that's what America is about you can stand or sit down or do whatever makes you feel good that's the beautiful thing about this country and that's what we educate our children in the district so I'm going to turn my laptop to the flag that I have
006in my office and again if you'd like join me and my colleagues uh in the reciting of the Pledge of I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all us tonight we know that on a beautiful day like today so things you could be doing but you've decided to watch your government in operation and and we appreciate that um notice of upcoming at board events uh oh before I do that I have to get a motion to have is it Francine mscott are you g to be the clerk tonight yes I am I need a motion to approve Miss Scott as a temporary clerk for tonight's board clerk for tonight's meeting I'll move
007it thank you commissioner Clark thank you commissioner Adams all those in favor of appointing Miss Scott uh as temporary clerk to the board of education for tonight indicate by saying I I I I sounds like that's unanimous uh Miss Scott you are once again our clerk we appreciate your service tonight okay uh do you have any upcoming uh board events that you'd like to describe for the board yes we do yes we do I think rahima is gonna be sharing great okay we have a full month and we're going to start with the um our standing meetings June 1st at 5 3 we have the policy and governance Committee of the whole and then on June 8th we have uh student leadership Congress recognition that's that's happening at 5:30 at the beginning of the special
008meeting and then we're going to have um ASA cow and then on June 15th we're going to have Finance commit of the whole and then on June 17th at 5:30 we're going to have a uh PD session on board docs Pro Plus we are up we're are launching um board do Pro Plus um hopefully with a soft launch July and then on June 22nd at 4 o'clock we're going to have a retiree recognition and the 2021 educator of the year aard which is going to start at 4th and then we're going to have our cigr HR and Medicaid compliance at 5:30 so that's a full day um and then on June 24th we're going to have our school athlete recognition at 4 o'clock and then our business meeting at 6:30 wow that is a full
009uh month of activities for the month of June uh and uh on behalf of the board I want to thank our staff uh for putting together this occasional notice a couple few months ago you all may recall um we asked our staff to do this uh on the regular so that people could see what was coming um and plan accordingly and and uh uh Kaa Miss Scott rahima have put together this on occasion so that the community can see what's ahead for this board and this District so we appreciate that work um Francine uh next item on the agenda is acceptance of minutes I am told uh Miss Scott that there are no minutes to be approved is that right we have no minutes to approve wow okay all right I have to rely on
010that I'm I'm surprised I don't I don't know that that's ever happened H is not here okay all right well we know she's watching I'm sure she's on vacation watching I right right I it um next item of the agenda speakers list I am also told Miss Scott that there are no speakers and no written submissions no speakers no written submission is this you or is this the fact that K is not here what's going on here I'm gonna I'm gonna take credit for that okay all right all right you take credit for the good news all right so um the the nor normal thing that we have at this particular point is we have people speak out on various issues and and it's usually very uh very informative uh sometimes we agree some times
011we disagree ree we don't ever speak we just listen and we've learned a lot from these comments sometimes parents will come on and complain and have our Guardians and loved ones will come on and complain about something that's going on with a child we make sure that uh the superintendent makes sure that staff respond to those concerns no concerns tonight and and no statements from citizens uh we know there are concerns always are with this district and we uh the Board of Education want this moment in our agenda is to be preserved for you all so that you can um articulate those concerns um Miss Scott how would a person do that if they had a concern or or even a compliment for the disc how would they how would they contact you okay they
012can reach out to the Board of Education by calling 262 8525 and they can reach out via email at the board of education at rcsdk12.org by noon the day of the meeting that's pretty simple and straightforward um on occasion uh we have people who aren't able to get through um and we try when we can if they say they weren't able to get through to accommodate them doesn't happen much if if if at all because uh Miss Scott and her team um and the and Miss Wade uh are very diligent about taking those calls and making sure people get a place but if you want to speak again call 26285 25 or email uh the Board of Education staff at Board of education at rcsdk K k12.org again that has to be by noon of
013the day of the meeting all right uh we're all set there next item on our agenda is advisory Council reports I know there were written reports as I had a chance to review them are there people here let's start with the bilingual counsel is there someone here to actually deliver that report yes I am oh good evening good evening everyone um good evening bu es I'm here to represent Mna Gonzalez the president of the bilingual education Council thank you for this opportunity to share some of the council activities we are bilingual parents community- based organizations and Educators representing and advocating for the equal education rights to equality bilingual education for our students in the district the council continues to actively advocate for equity and bilingual education and supporting the needs of our students and families
014during the pandemic and virtual learning period in April due to covid restrictions the bilingual education council meeting was hosted via a virtual um Zoom meeting and on April 1st Mna Gonzalez invited Deputy Janelle Morris to discuss the reconfiguration zones with parent Representatives unfortunately this presentation was provided with little time to really engage parents and for them to complete the survey in April by the April 7th deadline um but the bilingual education Council was able to to schedule another meeting during a regularly held meeting and invited um other our Rochester City School District administrators to walk the parents through that process we provided our feedback to superintendent Melody Martinez Davis and she answered the questions from the parents and as a followup we were able to um be able to provide um um some feedback to
015the administration so that was good the council also met with Colleen Pierce and deputy superintendent Melody Martinez to answer questions from parents as a followup to a special Finance meeting that was scheduled for April 28th to discuss discuss the draft budget um specifically changes additions and impact to English um language Learners the BC in addition to this report submitted letter highlighting concerns and recommendations for the consideration of the Boe when they were approving the budget and how those resources should be added and allocated to the bilingual schools millions of dollars in AIDS are coming into the district from the federal and state government and the BC is um looking forward to see how the district plans to utilize this funds to address the learning loss for bilingual students and what the Strategic plan will be
016for a Latino achievement alignment in addition the becc joins the children agenda in supporting the newest revisions to the code of conduct and making sure that a students return back to school the suspensions do not become a common practice the BC EX itive cabinet has began coordinating our elections and we will begin the process of updating our bylaws once the new officers are in place we've participated in the interviews for the selection of the permanent principal at moroe and we look forward to further parent engagement in the remaining of the selection process several schools continue to not have their BC representative as required by bylaw so it's important that we encourage each Bilingual School to have two BC representatives to help advocate for the needs of parents par and students in the school um parents
017continue to be overwhelmed by technology but looking forward to having their children back in the classroom so that will support them help that will help and support them manage their day-to-day we continue to be deeply concerned over their learning loss and failing grades and the challenges that teachers are experiencing um but do look forward to having our children back in person comeing September this concludes the report for the bilingual Council muchas gracias thank you very much for delivering that report uh we appreciate that and we appreciate uh as a board your uh insistence and persistence in making this District uh better um I believe uh we also have a plaque report is that right I know there was a written one report is there someone here to deliver it yes I think Rebecca heatherington no
018actually um this is Kenyan oh Kenyan you're able to make it okay okay go ahead hi everybody Kenyan bin acting president of plaque um jump into this here um at plaque we've been continuing our quest to talk to all of the people in leadership in the school district and the board of education on May 12th plaque leadership had a meeting with superintendent Myer small and what will hopefully be the beginning of a regular discourse a few days later we met with Dr Black the district's Chief academic officer that meeting was about summer school or summer programming um as some people are calling it we now know what the approach to Summer programming will be parents aren't thrilled about the number of seats but we at least know the plan but one subject I want to
019highlight is addressing the social and psychological impact of the last year on our kids can that be addressed is it even in the capabilities for a school district District I don't know the answer to that I'll give a quick example without going into the details I'll share that a loved one of mine who was a student in the RS rcsd had a mental health emergency that required hospitalization recently this was directly related to the isolation of the last year and her ensuing depression um the May plaque meeting was yesterday evening with breakout rooms hosted by the directors of mathematics Miss Paco reading in ela with Dr Fahy and the director of Early Childhood Miss Thomas a fourth room focused on rcsd finance with Eman scandin of the children's agenda and another focused on Board of
020Ed parent representatives and future plaque leadership anyone interested in being a part of plaque leadership can email us at PAC rcsd k12.org you're eligible if you've been to or watched one of our meetings they're all available on the plaque website you must also be a parent of an rcsd student not an employee of the district and verify that you've read the bylaws plaque leadership meetings will be the first Monday of each month beginning June 7th we will continue to have General membership meetings with the next one being on June 16th The Continuous expectation as we move forward from parents is that it is time to make rcsd a district of choice in a meeting last week a parent said quote rcsd is a district that happens to us unquote and that is stuck with us
021because there is so much truth to that while we see most districts in the county returning to full time in person instruction especially for the youngest students in rcsd that's not the case and we knew it was going to be that way but it doesn't make it any easier when we watch our children and their colleagues struggle whether it's mentally emotionally or academically we have plaque members whose children have spent up to a third of their lives in quarantine and their entire educational careers up to this point we need to know what the plan is for recovery and how parents will be at the workshop level of these discussions and this work thank again for your time um and we as parents look forward to the progress we'll make together for all the district's children
022that's it for me thank you Mr bins I I do uh like the phrase um or I'm concerned about the phrase that the district just happens to us and that I would very much appreciate the time where all of our citizens who have children that go here that it is the District of choice um so we can only pray and continue to sweat and work hard that that happens and and and as you say in your comments it has to happen through workshopping and getting parents involved at the very ground level because they're the ones that going to make the choice or want to have the choice so so thank you again on behalf of the board for your continued work and your leadership in this area um the next item on the agenda is
023the student leadership Congress report is Miss Simmons in the room yes I am hello hello okay hello again hello again um hello everyone my name is Ania Simmons I am the President of the student leadership Congress and this is the student leadership congress's latest meeting latest report for the meeting on May 23rd 2021 on our agenda we had introductions we talked about future meetings the superintendent form a presentation from the Chief Financial Officer and president announcements at this meeting we had representatives from school of the arts school of world of inquiry um East lower school Leadership Academy and Northeast College High School in attendance we encourage all principes to reach out to their student leaders within their school community and bring this opportunity to them to open up this meeting I started by asking students
024their availability going into the summer and upcoming school year in order to plan more meetings for SLC students explained that school days were overcrowded with other meetings family time and sports weekends seem to be the better option going into upcoming SLC meetings the superintendent form during the meeting superintendent Myer Smalls gave us updates that she had been working on in the district the superintendent idea for a day off has been approved on June 18th as the district's observance day for the national holiday of juneth the district has also renamed the Formerly Known day as Columbus Day to indigenous peoples and Columbus Day moving forward with the district-wide improvements there will be more of a focus on academics graduation rates and proficiency levels more teaching resources and money will be focused on academic improvements across the
025district the superintendent has worked with the children's agenda and other youth service organizations in the city to create a survey analyzing violence levels in students household she also explained that she would like student feedback about the racial equity and transgender guidelines across the district what they look and feel like after her updates are implemented lastly she talk to us more about the new sources of money that the district is receiving she reminded us that the foundation Aid and American Rescue fund are temporary sources of money and encouraged us to attend the S to attend the session around student feedback for financial allocation on June 2nd Miss carlen Pierce the Chief Financial Officer presented the congress with facts about the current Financial standing of the district in her presentation she explained the greatest areas of concern
026for the district along with the financial allocation to address those concerns however more of Mrs Pierce time was spent asking the Congress how we can Revitalize the district for current for students currently enrolled and to bring families back students commented on how investing in more extracurricular programs such as JV and Varsity Sports and creating clubs would be a big factor in re-enrollment and increase interest students also expressed how they wanted a greater partnership with local organizations and universities not only for net level academics such as dual enrollment and advanced placement courses but also to help students understand if net level education is the next step they would like to take lastly students explain that if School curriculum should be more focus on life skills and preparing them and to be engaged citizens during this meeting
027I expanded upon my idea of of creating a candidate form for the upcoming election and pacing the seats on the school board this form would allow students to see the running candidates of this year in a question and answer format and the Congress was receptive recently I was on a panel hosted by Common Ground Health about the role in learning specifically in the Rochester City School District the panel was from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday the 25th students across the district came to share their experiences and wishes for improving play and learning following the panel there will be two more events with the panel from community members and parents if you are interested please reach out to commissioner LeBron who I worked with and Jen beadman from Common Ground Health earlier today I along
028with other student leaders met with with Dr James bashai A friend of Martin Luther King Jr on behalf of President White's invitation the event was hosted by the University of Rochester and was an enlight in conversation I hope to have more again during the meeting Miss rahima told the Congress she would like to recognize the commitment of SLC members she's requesting all SLC members send in a picture to Tony Jordan by Friday President White at this time I have no comment on the following resolutions on behalf of the students thank you all right Miss Simmons I know I've said it before but I'm gonna say it again and again and again man all those Awards you're getting if any anybody that know why you know why by watching youe and we've had let me tell
029you something we've had some good uh Representatives on the board of education but Willa all you guys just sort of not yet and I'm not trying to slight any of it's just that you've set the bar so high it just in so many ways it's so impressive and and we really appreciate that and you make us all look good not only because you are doing your thing and presenting what your other students are saying and how they're leading but also just in terms of uh how you make the board look you're you're part of this board and when you present like that it makes us all look good so I I really and I'm not I'm not saying this and I'm looking at my colleagues and they're all shaking their heads nodding uh because they
030would say the exact same thing and it can't be said enough you just you really do your family and this community and this board and this District very proud we're very proud of you and people let me just say people talk about the district and students they they they cite antidotal evidence that students go to certain schools and they're not College ready well look at look at Miss Simmons come on now right yeah there are students at do gudo schools and aren't ready and we have to work on that but and Miss Simmons will probably be the first to say she is one of many people that are very talented and very committed and I just I I just I really can't say enough on behalf of the board just good good work very good
031work we're very proud of thank you for attending the event at U ofar today and apparently uh I'm told Miss Simmons is doing a lot of different things and she came from one from one event to another and and we we I appreciate you coming out to see uh Dr bash he he he appreciated your presence and we feel very blessed had you there can I can I say something real quick yes sir this is Kenyan again I think Ania should go at the end of these um at the end of these um speeches we were having a talk that following Ania is not fun she should get she should get the last position the last word yeah you you know you might be you might be right about that for all of us may
032maybe we should put it at the very beginning of our meeting so everybody can see how how tightly we run this operation so any other uh board members I I I tried as best to speak for the um my colleagues but uh if you want to chime in that's fine if not uh you can just miss miss Simmons you you know I do speak for all of my colleagues and how do I know that cuz I'm just looking at them smiling and and they're very pleased like any uh person would be by a colleague doing really well and you've done really well so oh I see commissioner Adams yes commissioner Adams I'm not sure if you're muted commissioner Adams I just would like to say on top of that I got an opportunity to meet
033annah last week and um I'd like to say when she was um putting it on my daughter on the tennis court and uh she's got a good tennis game too I just thought thought i' put that out there all right all right all right well um we appreciate that commissioner Adams that that she is a a talented young uh leader and also awesome on the tennis court Miss Simmons we we again we really appreciate what you do uh whether it's in the in the classroom or the on the tennis court so thank you very much we're very very proud of you um all right next item on the agenda is uh bo reports let's begin with the audit committee commissioner Clark thank you President White and I would just like to add to the fact
034that I thoroughly enjoyed uh her report also and I want to thank you and Kenyan for putting all the pressure on me now so I guess that's what happens when when you have the quickest meeting but uh I I'll take that pressure and but I agree 100% with what was said I just want to indicate that the audit committee did meet on Tuesday May 25th 2021 and we met as a committee of the whole at that meeting uh our auditor general reviewed our 2020 single audit results and this is for the fisal year end June 30th 2020 and at that meeting she we also reviewed the uh the Auditors results for our special education program and our Child Nutrition grants and basically it was determined that we met all the maintenance of effort requirements and
035uh that our financial statements are uh represent fairly the financial position of the Rochester City School District we received an unmodified POS uh opinion which is the highest opinion that you can get which means that uh you know that less audit test will be need needed for this year so um as I indicated there was no uh no award Federal award findings or question cost in our uh year in a the fiscal year ended June 30th uh 20120 and the board did formally accept the single audit report so we have officially closed the books on uh 2020 and we closed them in in great fashion the auditor general also discussed the um the M MOA us that were brought up in the state monitors report and and basically she went through those and also thoroughly
036reviewed the 11 recommendations along as as well as management responses to those recommendations and management action plan and also the uh once uh once the report was thoroughly reviewed uh this report was formally accepted by the board also and and finally the our auditor general did a a quick overview of the current work that's being performed in in her office and what I'd like to do is indicate that our next schedule um meeting will be uh October 26 2021 but you know just to indicate that uh you know freed Ma and our outside Auditors really did give us a an outstanding report and that's you know that goes to Anessa that goes to carlen and the great work go particularly it goes to our superintendent Dr Meers Smalls also and the great work they did
037and bringing 2020 in with no question costs with that I'll turn the gavel back over to you President White thank you chairperson Clark um again while you're giving out thanks and appreciation we appreciate your service um your your background and experience in this area really adds tremendous value to that work and makes it easier for some of us who have no experience in that area to understand so we appreciate your work and as you said uh there's a lot of thanks to go around um if you having thanked other folks I just want to focus if you all will indulge me on our staff person and this Henry reeler who's been at this for quite some time and I know already bill you appreciate her experience and her background there's a lot of good people
038as you indicated working on this but uh on behalf of the board let me also just add a little exclamation point to our own staff person Anissa Henry wheeler who's been working at this yes for for quite some time and I don't know if Anissa if you're listening or watching um I know you have great responsibilities at work and at home so you might not be watching right now on beh of the Board of Education as one of our very talented and committed staff people we say thank you all right uh equity and student achievement uh committee vice president Elliott uh thank you uh Mr President the uh Esa committee met uh as the committee of the whole on May 11th uh we discussed uh a presentation from um the uh associate director of student
039attendance uh Betsy Hofer uh focusing on um tier three interventions um the meeting included an update on two action items from the uh state uh monitor academic plan um special education manual and supervisor users manual and the finalization of the IEPs uh Desiree Richmond acting chief of special education led the discussion and responded to questions from the Commissioners uh Miss Richmond led her team in a collaborative presentation on the special education Continuum highlighting the autism spectrum disorder program and project search and employment uh program program this was um a program that I was not familiar with that um is just very exciting because this is a program where we're actually some of our students are actually um employed uh those who are in um our special education programs and I was not familiar with this
040program but it really is a great highlight of our school district and I just want to give a shout out to the director of that program and those students who are in those various employment um program programs um it was just a great uh and I was really excited about the program um the the meeting concluded with a joint presentation from Deputy superintendent of teaching and learning Dr Janelle Morris and the school Chiefs on the Zone reconfiguration uh the presentation provided recommendations for further consideration uh and the next step is uh the completion of a feasibility study and that concludes the report the next Esa committee meeting is June 8th at 5:30 p.m. thank you Mr President thank you vice president Elliott um next item on the agenda is our finance and resource allocation committee
041report uh to be provided by commissioner LeBron commissioner LeBron good evening um I'm gonna give some dates in my report as well today um the finance committee convened on Tuesday May 18th as committee I'm sorry I can't hear you something's going on with your mic you can't hear me yeah it's kind of w yeah something going on with your mic maybe you can hear it but it's faint it's kind of faint can you hear me now just not that great but why don't you go ahead um but there's something going on but it you can hear you but it's a little bit faint but go ahead um hold on I'm trying to mess with it can you hear me now you can but it's just not very loud but I think we can manage okay
042all right so I apologize I don't know what's going on and I'm trying to mess with it so the finance committee convened on Tuesday May 18th as committee of the whole via Zoom video conferencing the finance committee's discussions during the meeting focused on a variety of topics and several discussions were enter rained superintendent Dr Myers uh Leslie Smalls presented information on the American Rescue funds um ARF for short and discussed the requirements her Focus public hearing dates and information on rcsd website for the record I do want to list those dates again because they were not listed with the Board of Education um events that are coming up so the public will have an opportunity to sign up and speak to the board on AR ARF funds on Tuesday June 1st um at the governance
043policy Committee of the whole that is Tuesday June 1st students will have the opportunity on Wednesday June 2nd from 1 to 3 pm. and parents and communities will have um the next available date is going to be Thursday June 10th from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. as there was a public hearing yes yesterday um the 2122 budget calendar final updates included the city council's joint hearing and City Council vote as the final steps and for the budget those dates are Wednesday June 9th at 3:30 p.m. that is the joint budget hearing with city council and then Wednesday June 9th at 5:30 pm that is the joint Board of Education and city council public hearing on Tuesday June 15th at 7:30 p.m. city council is expected to vote on rcsd budget and that will conclude the
044budget all budget related matters regarding the 2122 Budget on J uh the June 2021 Financial resolutions review were not conducted and a reminder to the administration that executive summaries are expected as additional supporting documents for Resolutions CFO Pierce led the committee through the April 2021 Finance report the Charter School enrollment data and the quar Le students activity report the finance committee recommends the approval of the districts un audited April 2021 financial report and the cour Le Student Activities report can I get a motion for those to now motion exed all those in favor I I thank you the next finance committee meeting is June 15 2021 that concludes my report thank you thank you commissioner lebrown just so that you know it it did get better uh uh shortly after you started speaking again so
045whatever you did it worked I started [Laughter] yelling all right next item uh on the agenda is a governance committee report commissioner Malloy thank you good evening uh very quickly I just like to once again um just speak from the heart here to annah Simmons our uh student representative to the board um and a very special thank you to her for helping to introduce my seventh grader today to Dr Bai at the ufr she was a little shy and afraid to go up to meet him and she uh took the lead and showed those leadership Stills so I really appreciate it thank you Ania all right the governance committee met as a committee of the whole on Tuesday May 4th 2021 a topics discussed during that meeting included um the May Let's see we had
046a featured presentation rather on the restructuring of board committees Commissioners were presented with four proposals um our acting General councel Steve Carling conducted a straw poll uh to see which option Commissioners felt more com most comfortable with Commissioners would like to continue meeting as a as Committees of the whole with a reduced meeting schedule and this is going to be accomplished by um making policy or esda monthly meetings um audit HR cigr and governance will then meet quarterly um we've been meeting on a monthly basis so far um ahead of the policy committee um finance will be discussed in the monthly business meetings and meet bonly for lengthier discussions then due to time considerations the board meeting poll presentation that had originally been on the agenda it was actually moved to our next governance meeting
047on June 1st um per the state monitor plan the board is going to now include racial bias training in the onboarding process and provide the training to our current Commissioners as well we are continuing to research various programs and are hoping to compile a list of various providers for presentation on our June 1st governance meeting we are continuing our board Retreats with Dr um Malik Muhammad to continue our work on interpersonal relations and Trust through restorative principles um our meeting meeting also featured an update on the return to in-person board meetings um acting Council Carling shared the most recent information regarding allowances for virtual board meetings during the pandemic and some poent uh potential considerations if the board were to resume in-person meetings there's some desire to return to in-person meetings and our Safety and
048Security provided insight into the logistics of doing so and while guidance from the state encourages schools to Zoom in-person learning adults are strongly encouraged to continue meeting virtually the social distancing guidelines for adults remains at six feet with a mass mandate and the current executive order allows for in-person meetings through our next business meeting the conversation is still ongoing and we will continue to monitor these executive orders finally our acting Council uh provided insight into the role and responsibilities of the vice president currently the position is limited to filling in when the president is a is unavailable um areas where responsibilities um have been proposed to be expanded um include signing Authority when the president is unavailable or board staff oversight so changes to the duties would be via board bylaw amendments and would require
049five votes or a super majority our next governance committee meeting is next Tuesday June 1st 2021 at 5:30 p.m. and that can concludes the uh that concludes my report thank you thank you commissioner Malloy um it was good to see you this afternoon and um I know that was your daughter but I happen to notice the same thing that what Miss Simmons did and it's the intangible aspect of of powerful leadership that encourages other people to be leaders and if you all were there and you saw what um Amy and I saw it was a very powerful moment and your daughter did go up there and did and did talk to him but you're I want also just call attention to van thank you so much for helping to facilitate that with the University of
050Rochester um and I I just also want to say thank you because you invited students from Brighton to attend as well and we had student participants and I think any opportunity that we have uh for those types of interactions between our our various communities are just very valuable so I thank you and no no no things are necessary I as my colleagues know I invited um my colleagues that had children uh uh and um encouraged uh folks to um participate at the urar but it was a good event and and again one of the reasons why it was a good event was because um you got to see in the instance of Miss Simmons uh leaders being encouraging other people to be leaders so thank you for attending um uh next item on the agenda
051is a polic committee report thank you uh the uh policy committee met as a committee of the whole on Tuesday May 4th the first thing on our agenda was an update from the subcommittee uh the uh subcommittee is currently uh working on um the schools portion which is the 4,000 block of our policy manual um we um had we've forwarded uh the first batch those to uh the parent leadership advisory Council and the student Leadership Council and a cabinet for their input and uh the remaining um special ed policies uh are are currently in that stage of being reviewed by cabinet and are coming back to the June policy Committee of the whole the next thing we talked about was the uh nisba policy updates uh our general councel who is also leaz onto policy
052committee uh recommended an expedited um um amendment to our current um online learning policy and a recommendation will come to the committee in its June meeting uh Mr Carling also uh proposed changes for the drug-free workplace which is policy 9320 the proposed changes will bring the policy into alignment with the new New York State legislation on marijuana um finally the um committee received a presentation on all of the special education uh policies that have to date worked their way through the subcommittee which we are calling part one and part two the committee uh the policy Committee of the whole um had an opportunity to review those um forwarded them to the board for um um with its approval and had they have since had their first and second readings I want to thank um Chief
053Council for special education Yolanda assama Wade I want to thank our H staff liaison rahima win and the associate director of H special ed compliance Jean Nero they they they've done a terrific job and they've set the standard for all future um processing of policy amendments um we will be voting on the special ed part one and part two uh amendments they are in our resolution packet uh we've already had opportunity to discuss so um unless a question arises it'll just go straight to vote tonight our next policy committee meeting will be Tuesday June 1st at 5:30 pm and that concludes my report thank you thank you commissioner p uh my report will be very brief um like you all I wear multiple hats uh every one of my colleagues performs a lot of different
054functions out in the community uh some um in in the school setting and some not but we all are significant players and in fact that's one of the reasons why uh when I have made recently decisions about absences I I tend to lean uh on the side of calling it a legitimate absence because we are we add value by what we do and if um if an unexcused absence is made because a person's at work um that's interfering with the person's ability to get what they can get from their job and bring it to the district and not to mention there's intangible things that happen in those meetings so I I I mention that because because uh I missed the the um recognition Ceremony this uh afternoon about 4:00 and I missed it because like
055you all I was wearing another hat uh and in in my profession as a lawyer and had been very blessed and fortunate to have met Martin Luther King's classmate and lifelong friend uh commissioner Malloy Malloy referred to that earlier on today uh so um I mentioned that um as a segue into the conversation about absences we've had a couple conversations about that as of late I just referenced one of my my point of view on the absence related to work but I'm bringing this up now to say that uh within the next day I will be generating an email that describes more fully what my view is in a very generic way so people have some sense of understanding of what might I might decide if for whatever reason they can't contact me it will
056describe the my general expectation in terms of contacting me um and again you all know this isn't my rule this isn't our bylaws right and it gives the board president that responsibility so I will articulate that very clearly in a very simple email so that people can know what to expect I uh also before finalizing that email my intention is with the superintendent's permission and I'm doing this real time now I'd like to speak to Chris our human uh HR person about what standards apply for people being at work or not being at work for employees generally at the district just so that you know maybe there's some consistency uh so superintendent uh Leslie do you have any problems with me speaking to Chris directly about that just so that I can get some context
057no thank you very much um so I will do that and then the other thing that I'm going to ask is commissioner Malloy uh I this this email is just for the purpose of you all being having some sense and I it's not going to be a major issue but people should know what the what the P what the perspective is in advance but um I will only be president for another six months and there this this is going to be an ongoing issue as it would be because most people who are elect to the board do have other jobs and they do get sick and they do have family members that get sick there should be some consideration from the board level as a committee what the rule should be even though the bylaw
058say the board president makes the call and then the board affirms that I think there should be some consideration at the committee level about this whole issue so I'm going to draft this email after speaking to Chris um and then in the meantime I would ask commissioner Malloy if she could put this on her agenda and deliberate over the issue so that maybe we can figure out as a board what might be the best approach or or what you might recommend to me as a president or the next president does that make sense to you commissioner Malloy fantastic very clear thank you uh and no one has any objection to that look at my screen uh for those who don't know the governance committee does deal with the internal operations of the board so that
059uh referral made some sense all right uh next item on the agenda is our superintendent reports we're going to begin with superintendent Leslie Meer small before she gives her a report um you you perhaps were too busy um to to pay attention to what happened the other night but the board did recognize your wonderful achievement uh superintendent uh having received a circle of Excellence award I think it's a woman of Excellence award 2021 we are very proud of you um your your record of service obviously goes uh dates exists long before your work on this board for the for this district for the last year and we're we're we're very pleased that other people recognize your ongoing efforts to not only serve as a role model for women people of color but just public servants
060in general and and we are very proud of you because of that but uh you you have a report to deliver and I I just want to repeat that and your presence on behalf of the board thank you President White I appreciate that and thank you to the rest of our board medy Soul actually if you will pull the PowerPoint back Dr Nelms has um a guest with him tonight and so I will uh have Dr Nelms go first so we can accommodate the guest and then I'll I'll follow I'll take up the rear makes sense thanks thank you Dr my Smalling again congratulations on your uh accomplish one many one of many she's racking them up and she's putting the work in and people are finally acknowledging it so so thank you uh well
061deserved as the PowerPoint gets pulled up I just want to re reiterate a couple things that happened uh today um the years of service ceremony was incredible thank you Dr Chris Miller for putting it together with your team um I want to Echo the sentiments of and words of our Ricardo Adams uh Marlene blocker who was honored for 30 years please don't retire stick around we can't clone you so uh just just uh continue to do this work and also an Nia Simmons mentioned Rock the change uh for those um unfamiliar with that particular program it's a yearly convening of high school students uh two districts typically partner um to create an experience where students discuss diversity Equity inclusion and also issues around anti-racism and this year um East High School and Hilton High School
062collaborated to put on a six-hour v virtual experience which was incredibly engaging there were tons of it folks from the district helping on the back end of it um and volunteer teachers on the Hilton side the same thing um Stephanie Bliss one of our counselors worked to gather uh a number of rcsd students in different locations across the uh the district it was it was just incredible over 300 kids participated I think over 20 districts rcsd was well well well represented um the dialogue and discussion was was um it really model how adult should to teach kids in the classroom they were facilitating conversations without showing their own bias and it was incredible to see both uh both schools put that on it was delayed last year because of covid and his kids just stuck
063with it and he made it a complete virtual experience and um it was especially um uh meaningful to me because my daughter was one of the leaders from Hilton and I had my kids at East on the other end so I kind of saw both of my Worlds Collide over over those six hours and I was a proud papa for my East family and and my da as well uh this presentation is really I'm going to focus on community I think as we heard in some of the recent discussions and Mayo debates and we are hearing nationally about the importance of Community Schools it was a timely um opportunity for us to kind of highlight what's happening at East but more importantly this was planned well before those debates because we believe that Community Schools
064work it provides not only an academic um structured environment for students and their families but it also allows Community Resources to come into um the district and supporting those families especially those who live and play near the school setting next slide and so I want to just uh share a slide that I've shared in the past around our community schools focus at East uh we continue to look at the importance of expanded learning opportunities you'll see some of the um connections to some of the federal funding what they're asking us to do also this slide you know we showed probably three years ago and it just makes sense um that it's our intent and our effort and our responsibility to educate and support the whole child we also have a u focused effort around social
065services and the importance of making sure that students are both physically and mentally prepared um for school but also prepared to deal with things that happen outside of school um as they try to navigate a complex world and uh commissioner uh White spoke about some of those things at the beginning um of our board meeting that kids and families are dealing with a lot and schools can play a a critical and vital role in helping them build resiliency and and to navigate A system that sometimes put obstacles um in their way we also have an important uh we understand the importance of nutrition we know that that's some one of the uh one of the key strategies that uh superintendent Myer small has talked about in terms of looking at um food distribution and the
066quality of food and also working with organizations like the food link to provide meals for families and services around the clock I thought the district did an incredible job providing meals during covid was one of the bright spots that I I think was often missed in the media it took a great effort from food service and we understand that students who are hungry it's really difficult to to concentrate and focus and especially when you're worried about your loved ones being hungry it's hard to focus on oneself um and then the last but certain not least we're looking at Community Schools and providing pipelines Beyond High School what happens between um the senior year in high school when kids enter into to Young adulthood isn't critical our students prepared um for College and Career I heard
067um commissioner vice vice president Elliot talked about that earlier today that we have to have kids 100% of our kids be College and Career and civically ready to engage um within our communities and then what is our role as a school to make sure that we can help identify Community agencies that provide critical pipelines of success for our students so we think about community at East we think about Community within the geographic area which kind of defines a neighborhood school um but also again Community School meaning what other resources are available and I want to talk a little bit about Warner school of education at the University of Rochester next slide Warner has a new Dean um Dean Sarah P and a new president um president mangles dorf s mangles dorf and I will tell
068you that both of these individuals are committed to expanding how the University of Rochester positions itself in the community as a resource um and as opposed to positioning themselves as the source um of information we want to make sure that we authentically partner in res respect the contributions and thoughts of our community and to redesign how the school of education um uses its research in ways that adds value to all schools um in Rochester how they um leverage their research and and and learning to support um the pre-service teachers and pre-service administrators who are being trained at the University so that people leave um understanding the understanding the value that our community brings the value that our community has as opposed to training individuals um um with a deficit mindset that they have to come
069in and be the single heroic figure that's not what we want to be we don't need saviors in our schools we need allies and co-conspirators who are going to help challenge policy uh practice and beliefs around the best ways to educate our youth next slide we do so by looking at um and putting kids at the center and so what we've done at at at Warner is is focus on the vi guaranteed and viable curriculum you've heard me talk about that at nauseum also the importance of of empowering teachers and teacher leaders to teach for understanding um you know is a thing that we often say in education that you can you can assess um for learning meaning that it's an iterative and recursive process or you can assess of learning and that's kind of
070stagnant and it's what kids know in that moment we are trying to build a process where we're constantly looking at how to improve our practice and as we better understand our youth providing adequate academic support you know I think our data suggest and has proven that with the right support kids will will flourish and then also and the most important part of this is making sure that kids are healthy and safe internally and externally and providing the adequate social emotional support and you'll see all the different factions and factors that go around that in light purple and then the structure um which is uh Illustrated in a box here is is kind of this autonomy within it's bounded autonomy how you move within that makes a ton of sense but that box provides a structure
071that guarantees every classroom grade six through 12 are adhering to these principles by putting student learning at the middle next slide we also want to make sure that and this is very critical to me the East was not seen as a research lab or Lab Rats where we had to go in and study kids we actually intentionally did not do much research in the first couple years because we wanted to um establish relationships with our community first to see what needed to be researched and so you see East in the middle you see Q's or uh University of Rochester's work um being the filter between them and how we share the information out to our audiences this board knows that I have never shared uh information about our kids that make them seem as if
072the problem is there we only talk about the systemic issues that they were faced to endure and so this uh our intent and our purpose of communicating the success around across all audiences is not only um good for our East families but it's also good for our entire uh School Community within Rochester and Monroe County The Narrative has to change that our kids are are receiving less and deserving less they have to understand that our kids are are performing at tremendous rates we we saw our student leader today be a living example of that I mean annaya is is is one of million one of thousand kids with an rcsd who are going to do incredible things and no stories need to be told and we're trying to make sure that that that communication is
073being shared across various networks of support next slide and to do so we want to make sure that not everyone wants to read long research articles and so the university has been um creating a set of V video series um and I've shared these in the past with uh with the the board I'll continue to share these uh works as well but this is kind of the howto so how do you create restorative practice within school and create cultures that accept that all the way down to the community schooling model and these are very bite-sized videos somewhere between four and seven or eight minutes where people can uh can look deeply about um the What the how and then those possible next steps and this is a value ad from the University I can tell
074you that before the eppl the university may not have been able to answer these questions but through through the partnership with this school board and the New York State education department and our community we continue to see the the value of bringing our community to the university and also the university being authentic uh authentically engaged and authentic Partners within the community as a whole next slide and going go through this quickly you'll see a a variety of ways in which um research has taken place again in those buckets of academic social emotional learning Health family community engagement and all the structural um uh the the instructional designs intentionally structured designs um for Success around how we formulate the school the length of day our master schedule Etc then the last slide on This research piece
075I just wanted to touch on was around our committee we wanted to make sure that any and everybody did not or does not have access to our students next slide Francine and there was a committee that was thoughtfully chosen that includes um uh feedback from rcsd folks as well we have to to make sure that anything that's touching or or supporting or talking about kids goes through a a very um strenuous process what was really important to us is that we do not want people in our schools around our kids and around our families who are not authentically um uh working towards being co-conspirators in this work and working to be more than just um uh allies you want people to actually put up something that they're willing to lose and and to be thoughtful
076and and how they approach we have a really robust research committee team that approves any type of research and has the right to reject the research or to stop the research if we feel like in any way that it's intended to uh be disparaging towards our school community and so that's one way in which we Engage The University of Rochester more meaningfully around this Community Schools model we also want to make sure that we engage our family and our kids and our community as well and so if you go to the next Slide the way we're doing it this year um our original date was June 18th we uh we we moved that because of um the uh the change in in calendar this uh this year and thank you for that Dr Meer for
077being proactive in in protecting you know and celebrating the contributions of our of of of our of our culture is that we're going to make sure that we have a a day of Celebration um with our families and with our students of course socially distance some virtual um we had some um contributions from Wegman and some community members as well to really get our kids in lower school because they have been disengaged throughout uh covid in terms of physically being around one another um to have those individuals to be able to come together with our staff and to celebrate juneth not as a as opportunity to have fun but there will be historical lessons leading up to that and so that afternoon the boards more than welcome to stop by um we will be celebrating
078juneth and leaning into what that truly what that truly means sorry about that what that truly means for uh for our school community and the last Community Based initiative that I'm extremely excited about um I'm going to let my my two guests um uh Take the Lead here you guys can unmute yourselves and put your cameras on is a um is a new mural that we are looking to to have installed um somewhere on the East Campus we're looking for the right wall we're now in the process of talking to the Historic Society I didn't know that East was a Historic Society building um but I would love to have Erica Bryant um come in introduce her team and talk about this proposed project that we have and and just to for the board to
079remember two years ago we had the eyes project we selected individuals throughout um the community and also nationally and internationally to celebrate and highlight their contributions um to our great culture we have 10 more panels going up over the next year and because of the exposure for this project we were contacted by a national uh artist same individual who did the John Lewis mural downtown who wanted to continue the work and to celebrate a a pivotal moment in 1965 that took place at East High School involving those uh uh pictured um to to the left of the screen and I'm going to let Eric talk about who those folks are why this image was selected and how the community is trying to come together um to make this dream a reality and this will be
080a community-based initiative no funds paid for by the district this is the community coming together um to bring a critical piece of our history our R's history um to our students throughout Monroe County and to the city of Rochester Erica thank you thank you so much for allowing me to address the board and the superintendent and for all of your important work I am part of a team that's working on bringing um worldclass piece of artwork to East High School this would be a mural to honor Constance Mitchell the first African-American elected to Monroe countywide office and um civil rights leader Reverend Franklin Florence and Malcolm X who spoke at East High School um when he was making a visit to Rochester in 1965 and at that visit this uh the photograph that you see
081was taken and the mural would be based on this Photograph um and it would be painted by Rochester City School District graduate and world-renowned artist Ephraim GB and Sergio Ramirez and they were behind the Magnificent John Lewis mural I am speaking which you've probably seen on State Street um so can I have the next slide please the mural um we we're looking at different walls and different options based on what would be approved but the mural would be proposed for the external or the exterior fly wall of the East Auditorium and that's facing the front of the building it's about four stories tall and um it would be the spot where where Malcolm X gave his speech in 1965 and if freem is also here so um would you like to talk about the project
082and what you your vision is for it yeah sure um first off it's an honor to to be here and be able to speak and uh address the board so thanks for the invitation um yeah so uh after the John John Lewis mural um which was the third installation in the IM series uh the first being in Chicago Illinois um I'm speaking oh not I'm speaking it was I'm a man the second one being in Louisville Kentucky uh being I am singing and then the third one being I am speaking so um we started these Works um all this was motivated um from our from our home company not doing enough uh in the wake of you know the the unrest and the unfail treatment you know of African-American people and so um so we
083all do hand painting advertising out of Brooklyn New York um and I started in LA and they tried their best and they they put up a wall and we just weren't satisfied um it just didn't it didn't move us and so we were you know spreading into action to kind of make our own statement and um make our own movement so um this is this is uh what has become of it and I'm super um honored and uh to be able to come back home to Rochester after so many years and to be able to contribute and um for this one to for this mural honoring Malcolm X and Connie Mitchell um to be considered on East High School um so yeah in the coming months keep an eye out for it and um I'll
084give the mic back to Erica thank you Erica and and listen again these are these are local individuals bringing um a national uh perspective uh back to Rochester and again there's three individuals in that photo Minister Florence Malcolm X um was also um was was Mr F still left to Malcolm X someone who's played a critical role in this community also and all three figures will be featured in this re I just wanted to clarify that that point also again this is a community initiative we were contacted about it based on some work that we done within the community and um you know and and there was no cost to the district financially you know I reached out to University Rochester who said they will help support um part of this funding as well but
085there are many individuals in the community who've already responded um this this quiet you know little secret got out into the the media and an article was written about it and uh I saw when I was walking through wman down newspaper and there it was and it's just so much excitement that people are getting ahead of it but we wanted to make sure that the board understood what the intent of this project was and that we are you know continuing to focus and work with Community to build incredible resources um for our youth and our families um and that concludes that this part of the presentation I want to thank you both for joining us tonight and uh say uh have a great one unless there's questions from the board I'll let Erica and you
086from I'm looking to see if there are any questions superintendent Nelms I I do see commissioner pow has rais your hand thank you it's a pleasure to meet you eim um not too often we get to meet an artist who's had installations across the country but um I'm actually excited to see Erica again it's kind of she's kind of a VIP from our her our past when she was a uh the schools reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle and it's it's good to see you doing so well too Erica thank you for being at our meeting thank you for having us um I don't see any other hands being raised E from as I said to you in an earlier meeting um and as commissioner poell just said we are very proud you know earlier
087today we were talking about an one of our students right now miss Simmons um yeah and we see the good work that you're doing and I said to you in a private meeting and uh Dr Nelms said it today we are so fortunate very blessed to have talent come home to Rochester and and and uh Talent that's been recognized and you don't have to you could probably paint murals any other place in this country and and you've chosen to to do it here and and uh again I I people may say well why is he saying this I'm gonna be clear what I'm saying this people want to talk about all these children that yeah are having a difficult time that's why all of us join the board because there are challenges in this District
088but what people don't talk about it's a shame they don't talk about is all the talented committed uh beautiful citizens that are making contributions to their communities like yourself and so um it is it is very fortunate you'll be able to use that Talent uh and people will be able to see that on our building and oh oh how wonderful that I did not know this that that picture was taken at East High School my God and it's going to be painted by a student from uh the Roch City School District again when folks talk talk about all those children and they are out there that are struggling in this District please do not forget all and and many of us on this board have children who are very successful uh that graduated from this
089District or or are graduating from this District but eim you are a wonderful example of of what this district has a potential and obviously there's family and and neighbors that and and God that that got you to where you're at but but yeah we'll take credit for you efim so thank you for coming back home on behalf of the board we really appreciate you for what you're doing I appreciate those words thank you they're they're well deserved have a good night and we we will see you soon I also want to thank um Mike Schmidt and the legal team who gave us some guidance up front about what not to do or how to possibly make this come to fruition and uh Mike was out at the building Schmidt was out at the building uh
090many days um trying to help us think about the structural design again I had no idea that East was part of Historic Society and making sure that whatever we do does not destroy the Integrity of the building but adds value and so I thank him he and his team as well as a legal team for helping us think through um how to best navigate um something this large and this complex especially when it's something that doesn't cost the um the the district dollars but things we should plan for in terms of Maintenance and things like that in the future and those things were covered and also the University of Rochester for being a willing uh sponsor for part of the project not the entire thing because again it's a community a project but I I
091ask them that you know to to be meaningful and and to give a contribution also so that is uh my presentation uh thank you all and thank you Dr Myers small for letting me go first I really appreciate it and for honoring their time Dr Nelms before you go just piggyback uh on your thought and I said this about two hours ago while I was at the ovar you actually helped facilitate that meeting they are a an incredible partner to this community the uar and they they contribute in so many ways you gave an example of this great piece of art that we hope and pray will go up on the wall of East High School but they contribute in so many ways so I just want to and and of course what they've been
092willing to do with the EPO over at East I just want to uh recognize that again they they're an incredible Community partner U Back in the day there was Eastman Kodak but now uh the the organization the corporate organization that sustains Rochester in so many ways is uh the University of Rochester so uh you're you work at that organization and your other hat and when you put on your other hat please thank them for uh the board of education for all the work they do in the EPO and other projects like the one you described tonight and said in the most humble way U ofar has produced Dr Nelms Dr Meer small and commissioner Malloy so there you go and our saying Melora is ever better okay all right all right the floor is yours
093uh Dr Myers thank you good evening President White vice president Elliot our board Commissioners to our staff and those listening on YouTube and Facebook I am pleased to spend just a few moments going over a few May updates um so the Board of Education and others are informed about some of the things going on the first thing that I'd like to talk about certainly is graduation and um that is important to I know the Board of Education that is important to me and um I just want to tell you where we are currently you'll see we have two sets of um graphs on the left um depicts the predictors of the August graduation rate and that's looking at 16 or more credits high school credits that have been earned and um earning uh passing three
094or more Regents exams so you can see the green bar on both the left and uh right represent the 2015 cohort that's how we uh gather our information and Report our data but that means the 20 the 2015 cohort reflects the class of 2019 so you'll see back in uh 2019 what was projected was 66.4 based on those predictors and I'll go into those in a little more depth on the next slide and the actual August graduation rate for 2019 was 63% last year our 2016 cohort which reflects the class of 2020 what was predicted was 65.7 and we actually landed at 68.2% this year the purple for the cohort of 2017 which reflects the class of 2021 were predicted to be at 6 6 7.6% um but again we are pushing and working with
095Scholars and our principles and and the staff at our respective schools and programs are really pushing to ensure that we minimally make the uh strategic plan Target or Benchmark of 71% graduation rate so let's delve a little bit deeper so we have a little over 1,800 students Scholars in the 2017 cohort and you can see that it's broken down where a little over 1,200 of our students do have that 16 plus so that does reflect the uh projected rate of 67.6 we have 206 students in the yellow um which means they've earned between 11 and 15.5 credits and then we have 379 2017 cohort members that that have earned between 0 and 10.5 credits so the green or the 16 Plus Credit certainly reflects those students that are right on track we don't anticipate any
096issues or concerns and they and either um in in June or August will uh walk the stage and hear Pomp and Circumstance our push certainly is in the area of green or yellow rather in red and so we're working to lift those 206 Scholars or 11.4% that are in the yellow and so we've shared a few months ago I believe back in February we talked to you about um learning pods and Credit Recovery both online and inperson um extra supports that are provided individualized supports so that's really our Focus but we cannot certainly forget about the 379 scholars in the cohort 2017 that has a lot more credit accumulation and uh passing of Regents exams so what uh what are the uh definitions as far as uh academic standards those students on track to graduate
097have earned 16 credits or more as defined by our ASAP or academic standards and assessment policy promotional guidelines that's outlined in board policy and then those Scholars have have a passing score or of three or more exams in either comprehensive including comprehensive English global history geography US history and government mathematics science and then cedos and CTE passing exam score contributes to that as well so we are very thankful to our principles our teachers our support staff including counselors we're thankful to parents and even are those uh Scholars who are peer tutors who are really trying to make sure that as we rise that tide academically in the Rochester City School District that we uh are on track to minimally meet the 71% so we're we're pushing and there are lots of individual and Collective efforts
098to ensure that our Scholars walk across the stage let's just shift quickly to um School opening and as our superintendent Melody Martinez Davis reminds us often this is not reopening because we we began that process in January and then again in February to reopen so this is Shifting towards what is school going to look like when we open in uh more brick and mortar attendance so we have had a working group led by um Deputy superintendance Martinez Davis who's been meeting for since March to develop the plan for the next school year there the group reconvened with additional members from different um stakeholder groups within the district to provide support guidance and to make sure uh we have oversight relative to movement towards having more of our Scholars or most of our Scholars rather come
099back um we have different work groups that are providing feedback before finalizing plans and this is really to have this group to have some fast decision making and just not simply listening to or reporting from the different areas we do have representatives from the executive cabinet and cabinet principles teachers health and safety department school counselors registar Communications custodial staff and teaching assistants so again we have multiple multiple stakeholders who are participating what is frustrating is that um Governor Cuomo while he made comments that encouraged for us to come back and says he expect it we still have not received specific guidance relative to what does that mean because right now we're operating under a framework of three feet for um Elementary and six feet minimal distancing for secondary but you still have um expectations as
100far as art and music and being in the cafeteria so it really is helpful for us to know sooner rather than later what those expectations and guidelines are so we can be very purposeful and communicate that information both internally to all of our staff as well as externally to parents and the community just today Deputy superintendent Martinez Davis and our executive director of school efficiencies Terry Orton met with superintendent from AC across the county to uh further solidify and Advocate on behalf of the entire County for what our needs are we do encourage certainly board Commissioners our staff in the Rochester City School District and our external community members too reach out to Governor Cuomo reach out to the Department of Health um and um they have an email for school reopening to clearly ask
101ask and and plead for Clear guidelines sooner rather than later let's talk about student Voice next we know that some of our scholars in some instances continue to learn in a remote environment and so we regularly every other year participate in the um youth risk behavior survey that's administered by the county we wanted to do something that um C captured uh some data to see where our Scholars were it's a very simple survey where we ask about what do you think who supports you and then we talk a little bit about um some of the adverse childhood experiences or Aces then there's some demographic information that uh indicates like grade gender Etc and then we do have a line that says if a if a scholar wants us to follow up with them that they
102can indicate their name and contact information either phone number or an email we will be uh starting this survey on on June 1st and it will run through June 15 again it is a voluntary survey but it's our hope that our Scholars will complete it and give us some feedback about where they are and how they feel it's our hope that we can use this information in part to give us additional feedback about how we might spend the additional dollars that the Rochester city school district has been given so more information to come and we um will are very excited to share the results and it's our hope that we will have a significant um participation rate in this we are partnering with rock the future on this and we look forward to providing you
103an update soon I'm also pleased to share with you that we continue to make positive movement relative to vaccinations so we updated that we had vaccinations available in the district for our staff and now we are able to on uh Wednesday June 2nd at the Franklin Jefferson campuses to offer vaccination opportunities for our Scholars um it is walk in you do not need a an appointment we are very very grateful to Walgreens because they have done Yan's work with the Rochester City School District and has been very committed to Pro making the opportunities available for Staff first and now that it's opened up to our Scholars so the uh fiser covid-19 uh vaccine will be available for our Scholars 12 and up and um the Johnson and Johnson will be for anyone 18 or older
104Walgreens has partnered specifically and we we are very grateful for Aaron grman and Stacy who have worked very diligently on this project because we're working towards having vaccination clinics at every single school so that that opportunity is available and accessible for all Scholars it's really Partnerships like this board of education board Commissioners that helps us to continue to ensure that our community is protected from covid-19 and we are very grateful certainly for this partnership additionally we received um a petition was presented to myself um where over 100 community members are requesting that we formally rename School number three which is Nathaniel Rochester Middle School former School number three as the board Commissioners are aware policy 750 states that when we receive a petition of a hundred or more that we will hold a community Forum
105to discuss the proposal for a new name and that the um that the board in concert with the superintendent will solicit names from the public once this the hearing has occurred as the superintendent I will formally move between one and three names for consideration to the board and then it moves to a vote for uh the name change and my hope is that we can have the hearing in June present the information to the board for their consideration and deliberation and then the board will vote on the new name in July the reason why this timeline is so important is because it gives us time then to change over signage and that then uh then to do the appropriate um name changes on letterhead etc for the start of the school year um and then
106it will also allow us to have a renaming ceremony and then uh move forward with the start of the new school year with um a new school name so that that's my update there we have two Scholars that I'd like to acknowledge tonight we have a young uh the young women of Distinction which actually is the um the high school version of the award that I was honored with the other night so um Miss Carr is a student at school 58 and she's receiving a $2500 scholarship and um this was a very very competitive process and so we certainly congratulate our scholar from school 58 and we've provided information to the board where they can uh receive more information on our scholar annaya has received shout out after shout out after shout out tonight so
107I know Commissioners you are not surprised to hear this but I would like to add to the Kudos and the congratulations annaya our student representative she's been accepted into the inaugural class and you have to you can't say Harvard you have to say it and I'm from Boston that's where I grew up havit um undergraduate international relations Scholars Program she's going to participate in lectures and workshops and engage in highly uh intellectual roundt discussions with leading foreign policy uh professionals annaya has been accepted into the Council on International Education exchange where we where she will also study diplomacy in Lipson Portugal this Summer She again will learn about diplomacy and her original goal because you know anai is such a slacker was to apply for The Language and Cultural immersion program in Taiwan and she
108was later accepted into the program in China how however both of these programs were cancelled because of covid-19 and after receiving a generous merit scholarship to cover more than the cost and much consideration about the limiting programming offerings annaya decided to study world government in Portugal so we need to give it up to annaya for just being an incredible ambassador for her school as well as the Rochester City School District I'll then shift to our Golden Apple award winner and we have had so many this school year in the Rochester City School District um so we'd like to congratulate Michelle from Wilson Foundation she's a fourth grade teacher um and she was honored with a Golden Apple award she was nominated by a student and her name is and she said that Miss Domina has
109helped her to read and she is so nice and teaches me everything that she can please join me again in congratulating Michelle for this welld deserved honor Rochester City School District does Rock President White and we're going to continue to uplift these positive messages that will contribute to the narrative around great things are happening in rcsd let's talk about graduation um I am a very busy superintendent this time of year as I have multiple commencement ceremonies to participate in and I don't complain because I love to participate and to see and hear about all the amazing accomplishments so you can see uh and board Commissioners please take note and I know Francine and Callo will be working with you to get you signed up for your respective schools so if you will let me know
110um if there's more than one ceremony when you're going I will will try and coordinate so we can attend together if that's feasible um I would uh certainly uh love to do that with with each of you but additionally in addition to ceremonies we have some great end of Year celebrations and again student voice was acknowledged so at School of the Arts they're going to spend a day at the amusement park at Franklin upper they're going to have student awards with a barbecue uh s uh dinner or lunch School Without Walls they're going to have a day at seab Breeze and a catered lunch at cobs Hill and the Rochester International Academy has a senior event planned at Charlotte you can see additional graduation ceremonies and we have everything from a carnival at Edison to
111a senior celebration at Leadership Academy a party on the Monro football field and um chief of schools uh Laurel and and I are going to go bowling with our Northeast um Scholars and then certainly you can see Rochester Early College Wilson comment commencement world of inquiry and East High School I will note East is the only ceremony I unfortunately will not be able to get to unless the board would like to excuse me from our last uh Board of Education meeting but certainly we want to congratulate all of our Scholars and we are just so thrilled to end on a strong positive note uh with with not only graduation but moving up ceremonies with uh our kindergarteners and our eighth graders um this has been certainly a challenging year but I am so proud of
112the resiliency of our Scholars of our families and our staff so with that President White that does conclude my report and I'll open it for questions I see quite a few questions I'll begin with commissioner pow then commissioner LeBron and then commissioner Malloy thank you um first I W to um uplift you uh Madam superintendent for uh persevering through the the challenges of reopening schools after covid and an opening school coming up with an opening plan for the fall I know that you've received a lot of criticism uh it's one of those damned if you do damned if you don't situations but every time I turn on the radio and I hear that the entire Western New York is has the highest covid rates in the state I I re I recognize um how hard
113it is for you to thread that needle and um just you know just keep on keeping on um the other thing I wanted to say is um about the uh School number three they reached out to me uh how asked me how to go about doing it and I pointed them to that policy people might ask well you know Nathaniel Rochester school what's wrong with that I mean it's it's our City's namesake but as the the uh School Community pointed out to me Nathaniel Rochester was a slave owner and so it's difficult for them to um to um walk the walk of culturally respon cultural responsiveness when their school is named after a a slave owner so uh I I uplift that and um in hopes that the entire board will be really receptive to
114um this initiative it is driven by the school from the school so um whatever names they they might have proposed whether they went through a contest or whatever um um who knows what this the name will end up being at this stage but um I want to applaud them for um recognizing that that this could be an impediment um to their to their the building of their school Community thank you commissioner pow commissioner LeBron yeah actually I did want to talk about the name change um so first and foremost I support I think there are actually multiple schools within the district that need to have their name change I'm actually going to request that this board consider um waving that policy so that we can move forward on this and the reason I'm saying that
115is because that petition that was presented as flawed there are people from out of state who signed it and I get it you know things get circulated and people want to support especially if it was circulated on social media um and I just want to go back to when school number 12 went through the renaming and the hell that this board and this District put those individuals through to get that name change and how long it took because they didn't do it by our policy so I don't want to set um presidents that um we accept petitions that don't match the policy but then that we've also tied up previous individuals when we were trying to change the the name of school 12 to Anna Douglas anamarie Douglas and and how long that took um
116so I do want the board to consider to wave that policy for this particular um situation and consider it for other schools as we go through the names and making sure that that our names are culturally relevant to our students that we're serving this is a Hot Topic issue across many school districts um and I don't want a policy to tie us up or the the fact that we have to get a 100 community members from the school because that's the other thing the policy actually says 100 members of the community from the school and I went through the petition names and half of those individuals are not tied to the school or make no indication but then there are also a number of individuals who are not part of Rochester Community at all so
117I would even make the argument okay for the Rochester Community but when you live in New Jersey or Massachusetts like you're not here um so that's all I want to say in regards to to that piece and I just want us to go about it the right way and understand that we should not be ping ponging communities um because I do suspect that this issue will come up again again for some of our other schools and I wholeheartedly support it but I want to set presidents correctly for the rest of our community who have issues with some of the other names that are upheld in the district thank you uh commissioner Malloy thank you just to piggyback on uh commissioner Powell um and the comments made by uh commissioner LeBron um just as a history
118teacher I I often tell my students that you know the messages that we send our community by what we choose to Value um it it's really a reflection or mir's personal beliefs and I think we need to think really long and hard about what our school's names and the messages that we're sending to our students about whom we honor and I just want to quote a really famous person Brian Stevenson who is the founder of the Equal justice initiative and the author of just Mercy he said I I do think that we need to increase the shame quoten in America and I don't think that shame is a bad thing I think it actually moves you and pushes you to think differently about things and I don't think that we've expressed our Shame about slavery
119and want us to talk about what it means to honor someone who did something dishonorable and so end quote that was from Brian Stevenson um long story short this is long overdue we need to go about a creating a process U there are other schools as commissioner LeBron said that need to be looked at of School 46 for instance um and I I fully support this move thank you vice president Elliott vice president ellot yeah thank you Mr President um Dr Mar small I want to go back to your graduation projections and and uh that particular um um group that is uh between was it 10.5 or and and zero and 10.5 oh the one that in the middle was it 206 students that we have that could potentially um from that group um we
120can get some more students across the the Finish Line what historically what has been that data how many students from that group in the past I don't know if you all have gotten that data but um how many students from past years um that we were able to get across the the Finish Line to graduation because you're projecting is it a 71% graduation rate for August we're project see right now 68.2 that's with the 16 plus but we have another 11 115% or something that are between that 11 and 15.5 so we could do a look back vice president Elliot because all I can tell you overall what happened but I can't tell you off the cuff right now what was the number what the history has been percentage of the of that yellow number
121right but I can get that okay and to Dr Nims what what's your graduation projection thanks for that question uh uh commissioner Elliott I I presented last month I actually you weren't on because you you were I said this is for you because you asked a question in the board law um I was off when you said something y yeah yeah um that's right we were um our previous year I think was 78% and and we I said we're gonna be somewhere between uh 73 and 82 that's the range and the best range I can give that point is because we have a number of kids who um we had to get through for um the last quarter and quite frankly it'll probably be lower our first year dipping uh it's just it's something that's
122we saying nationally as well there were kids who struggled during covid and um again it was no it's no reflection of how hard teachers worked or some kids struggled getting through to the end and we're seeing that across the county and across the country so uh we're hoping that we at least get back to where we were and those kids can re-engage and maybe graduate within January of the next year um but there are a number of kids who are on track you know leaving their junior year who really struggle for a number of reasons um and so uh hopefully we'll have a better number in a week or two but for some kids they definitely are going to need um summer to get through August um and then if not then looking at January
123of next school year because the kids can also take some of the exams in January or take up those courses they may need so so there will be some in the community and I think this would be more to you Dr Mar more in the community who would say that the numbers that we are projecting are not good numbers that there are some way that we are um embellishing those numbers how how would we how should we respond to that um that that we're just graduated that they don't pass uh exams and how can we respond I'm sure I I can respond uh to that but but what would be the the official response that we we should have uh for that kind of comment or question well there are a few things and that's
124a really great question vice president Elliott we as I um when I met with you a few the board a few months ago we showed where we have evidence of interventions that are happening right so we know that by scholar Name by scholar name so that's one you know when they're making phone calls when they're setting up setting up tutoring or other types of intervention to ensure that Scholars are making up the work that may be uh behind or lower than passing I think the other thing that we have to uh be mindful of certainly is that there are some exemptions so you can't um you you're not making that up those are exemptions that have been given to us by the state because we're in covid-19 so that that's another situation but I feel
125very confident with each one of our principles of a secondary school that they have a very transparent process to show what they are doing and what the interventions specifically look like we've been we've been working um really diligently on this since uh February to make sure that this is happening and I think the other piece that is important is that next year when we go in and take a look the uh Excel spreadsheet or what we're how we're capturing this information will be identical for each of our secondary schools because that is something we discovered while it's similar not all are identical and we need that process to be uniform and consistent so not only can we look at it school by school as I know all of you are interested to know especially as
126as you're the liaison but we can take it by Network or we can take it by the entire school and we don't have to spend a ton of time trying to to do this translation so that that that's um that's a that's a next step for us that our Chiefs of schools have been working on all right so so how do we go back to that those exemptions what are we anticipating in terms of the number of exemptions because that could be um a criticism that this district has that people from the outside may have about our district that we've uh We've uh given a number of of exemptions and what would be some of the reasons that we're giving these exemptions that's another great question vice president Elliott and it is a a concern
127and when we met with um commissioner uh Rosa and um some of her team in the p12 that is a concern for Rochester and why that happens is because you have certain exams that happen during certain times you know so the comprehensive English exam typically is administered the junior year so if you fail that in June of your uh junior year you have August of at the end of your junior year you have January that starts your senior year and then you have June if you're trying to graduate in June so you have those opportunities um to pass but if you don't and in some in that's when the exemption comes into play we have to do a better job of getting students to pass or earn that 65 or higher on the Regents exam
128so that is something that we um have looked at and they gave us um very direct feedback that we have to be particularly mindful of that with our students who are bilingual and our students with disabilities so that's been a focus and an emphasis under Dr Morris and Dr Black in the office of teaching and learning but it it what happens is you again you have the chem exam again typically administered your junior year living environment could be freshman or sophomore year depending on where you take it and where it is in the lineup Global uh uh US history in government is your junior year if you get behind and if it if you don't pass it after the year that it's administered then that starts to become problematic and I can remember being a
129former high school counselor working at Wilson I'd have students that I was like okay you got back then you have to do Global two you have to do sequential one r you've got to do you know biology so that's something that is um a pain point for us and that we're working on it's definitely an area of growth okay um thanks commissioner LeBron yeah I'm just um well first of all Dr Myers thank you for saying that you're working on figuring out how to um organize that data so that we can have conversations about school to school graduation rates where students are at yes um I'm going to request Dr um Nelms that you also uh present the actual raw number so Dr Meers just presented roughly a little over 1,200 that to meet that
13068% I'm curious to know what that number looks like for East um because I think that's going to be just as important for us to all know and this communi when we're talking about high school to high school and their graduation rates how many actual students we're talking about um so that's personally I like the raw data I like to know the actual number um I do know statistics can be a little bit confusing to people when you say 79% we're talking about 70 students versus 68% we're talking about over a thousand students um so I definitely want that information the other piece I do want to bring up and I'm glad that we're talking about graduation is the regions exams so I did get um two emails um over the course of the last
131couple of days um around parents who are expressing their own frustration with the district not providing opportunities for students who are learning remote only to take the Region's exams or be very clear on how they can come in to take the Regent and that suburban school districts um sent home letters to parents that said if you are remote and your child wants to come in and take the exam you have to submit this form back to the school and they're making accommodations for their students to come in even if they're remote to take the regions but that we are not offering that and um I had not heard of this issue prior to the emails and it came from two separate families who submitted two different letters one from the gree school district one from
132the Henrietta School District um and I did reply to them that I would look into it and I figured since we're all here now the board should hear about this issue but also the community should hear and our parents should hear what the solution is to that um I know that it's not something I would have thought of because honestly if it was my kid and my kid didn't want to take an exam right now and they can pass it all taking the exam I'm going to support my kid in that but there are parents who do want their kids to have access to at least have the option of taking the Regents and working with their child to take the Regent so um can you speak to what the district plan is for remote
133parents and students who want their child to take the regions and if we're going to offer the same and when will that be communicated to families I'm gonna ask Dr Morris to take that one for me commissioner LeBron okay good evening commissioner LeBron and good evening Commissioners um thank you for the question we have a letter that will be going out imminently from the district it is finalized as of today because of the complex of Co we had to take a little bit of time to try and find out our transportation plan for the region for June but we are not um going to be prohibiting any student regardless of modality of uh learning so our students who are in person and our students in remote learning situations will all have access to the Region's
134examinations we are not able to prohibit any of students from participating in the Region's examinations nor would we want to uh we have scheduled a um Transportation Route and path for all of our students for English language arts for living living environment um for algebra and also for earth science we have um transportation Arrangements that will be sent out via this memo and that will be going out imminently I don't want to read each one of the pieces out just because it will be issued from um the the district but we do have this memo it was finalized today as I said it was a little complicated because of covid to come up with a um sound Transportation plan for all of our students regardless of modality but we do indeed have a transportation plan
135for all of our students and we want all of our students who are eligible and want to take the region exam to do so in our buildings thank you I'll send them a response and say that they can expect a letter and just um as a reminder um I guess because it's the Memorial Day weekend and there is no mail on Monday um that's going to delay individuals mail like when will parents actually get this versus when region starts for exams like what's that time period so our first examination is on June 17th um we have um a plan to get these Letters Out imminently so we are going to make sure that this gets out as soon as possible I don't want to say it's going to go out tomorrow and whatnot I need
136to get it to the superintendent so we can get on her letterhead get her initial as I said the letter itself was finalized today so I can just promise that it is going out shortly um the letter is completed and um we will get it out so that um it is in advance uh received by students well in advance of the first exam which is on June 17th the other thing that we'll do is we'll have medis soul get it to um Francine so Commissioners if you do have individual requests you can also be a condo it that way and we'll make sure we get it out there so it's not just we're not solely relying on snail mail yes thank you I actually would prefer that just because you know with the holiday coming
137up yes um and just potential delays and mails and and right I just don't want somebody to get it and it's like the 11th and now parents have to also figure out perhaps a different route for their child like they should know in my opinion at least 30 days in advance because we knew when the regions were in that we knew this was coming but but you know hopefully we can um not be in this position again next year but we may be because of co co still here so um I appreciate the response I will reply back to those families and let them know to anticipate some proper communication from the district shortly on that issue thank you sure you're welcome don't see any other comments I I did want to share my comments
138on a couple of issues uh superintendent Meer small I just want to be clear and and you you have I think accurately reported there is a process for renaming a school and it's a very detailed process and I think you've accurately uh described it today I don't think that we need to retweet that I think that process has worked uh now mention has been made of number 12 school it wasn't a defect in the process David Dr David Anderson collecting and you all know Dr David Anderson he he and his team collected those signatures no one complained that those signatures were not correct the complaint that he had was directed towards me and my predecessor and other leaders of the district that it took too long for it to get to the point where we
139were considering names it wasn't a defect in the process it was their impatience and rightly so with not moving fast enough to rename that school they took the bull by the horns collected the signatures no one ever contested that these were signatures from the community the school Community doesn't have to be from it's not the actually the bylaw doesn't say has to be from people in the school but the school Community which many people perceived to be outline neighbors but certainly not people who live in New Jersey and so forth but um it was never claimed that that process did not work it was the complaint was it took too long to rename the school it finally happened as a result of principally Dr Anderson and him organizing the community vice president Elliott was involved
140had heard the concerns about this the desire to change the name of the school I had commissioner Evans at the time had heard it but Dr Anderson's complaint was it just didn't move fast enough now quite to the contrary you are moving this with all deliberate speed right so that that's that's not the concern it has been suggested today that some people on that and I I haven't looked at this uh the petition you you've you've received it uh someone gave it to you someone from the community gave it to you um commissioner pow has said she's gotten calls saying that people people in the community want that school renamed sounds like most board members do but there's it's been suggested that there aren't a 100 signatures that are from the community that's a legitimate
141concern if that's true if that's true um that's anag no I um Carmine um reminded me that we um readministered um the survey so it was from the community and it was run by acting Council um Carling so if you don't mind just jumping in because I I don't want to yeah I'm happy to provide a little bit of perspective um we received they actually came in when uh Carl was still here in in late November and and there was a petition that had a hundred names on of it but it was just it was the first petition that you that you saw and it had names from New Jersey and um you know Maryland and and even Buffalo and I and after I looked at it I said that's that's we we can't you
142can't count to 100 with those names on it so I sent it back to the principal and I and and and the school Chief and I just said we need a 100 names from people from Rochester and um they they then submitted they resubmitted that same one but then they submitted a new sheet with a lot more so when I counted them up I think people with Rochester addresses um was up in the 130 or more range and so when you put the two sheets together um you know from my perspective at least it looked like it met the the minimum standard for the policy um because it does not to be people from the school but people from the it says the community which I deem to be Rochester I I think that's a
143a fair reading of that um certainly not anybody from outside of even even Monroe County itself might not be the right Community to look at but these were Rochester addresses that that were on the the S without actually checking where everybody lives specifically down to you know down to a pin on a a map but we were there was enough cushion there that I I felt like we were within range of the policy so now commissioner LeBron I wasn't finished making my point but I I see you were raising your hand so I I'll um I assume it's on this point so go ahead it is thank you uh President White I do appreciate you giving me the time I know you're not done I'm pulling up what was sent to the entire board and
144there are 36 names from Rochester and one petition the second petition that was sent to us to make the case for it has names from out of state we were all sent that petition um and I looked at it and counted it over I also just want to clarify our board policy does say School community so if if if that does not mean the individuals from that school to help drive that then we should look at removing School community and maybe just saying from the community of Rochester to be very clear that it could be anybody who resides in the city of Rochester and identifies as a community member I'm okay with that I just want to be consistent about that piece and yes I remember when Dr Anderson was complaining about the process and
145you're right President White he himself helped spearhead this piece of like reaching out to folks and collecting those signatures and that is frustrating I I don't think we should have that process but you know that's another conversation for another time um again I'm going based on what superintendent staff sent the entire board today like I I got the email prior to the board meeting and looked it over and was like oh this is a little weird why would we have a petition with a bunch of folks who live out of state and then the second petition doesn't even reach a 100 for the folks who have Rochester addresses so that make it make sense to me I guess that's what I want to know so will commissioner LeBron and President White we'll make sure that
146you have all of the signatures that the ones that Steve referenc it referenced excuse me so I apologize if there were was confusion okay all right thank you for providing that clarification because it is key I was going to suggest as as I was before commissioner LeBron um added some additional commentary that um let's get it clarified uh if there is some confusion but I at at at this particular point if if you feel like the numbers uh meet that threshold uh and they've been vetted to some extent I I get Mr carling's remarks that you know nobody's going to go and investigate exactly where these people live uh like they might on a political petition but um if there's been sufficient vetting um then then personally me as a board member I I would
147be good with that ultimately is the policy is very detailed it does indicate that it comes back to the board and if the board felt at any particular time that for any reason that the names proposed names weren't right or that they didn't want to rename the school because maybe the number of petitions wasn't right uh we could reject that ultimately it's a decision of the board but um I respect and appreciate your time frame uh superintendent to try to move this along because again let me repeat Dr Anderson's complaint was not that the process was defective he wanted it to move faster and by the way as as I had said and as M LeBron confirmed he he went out and GA those signatures personally I think that's the way it should be done
148I do think that people in the community however you define that Community should be the ones I don't think it should be board members going out and collecting signatures and that's what Dr Anderson did his credit and sounds to me like based on what Mr Carling and what the superintendent says sounds like that's what um has been done in this case but make sure the numbers are right uh I don't personally I don't think this is a situation where we need to revise at least that element of the process because it's it's very clear um but but know this superintendent if for whatever reason you know this if it's not right the names the three names that come before us or the process or the numbers the board could could reject that so I I
149I did want to share that and it's but I but again I appreciate you executing the policy as it is written and uh we'll see where it goes from there uh commissioner pow I I will get back to you but I let me just finish making these points because I want to end on a positive note a very positive note um superintendent as you were reading the last part of your report there weren't enough emojis for me to press there was the hand clapping the heart sign uh the the the the celebration horn thingy um you you are on point when you talk about the good things that are happening in this District I think you said Rochester or rcsd rocks uh it is important that we share with people those very real things things
150that are happening and I I'm so appreciative of you doing that and taking the time to add that to your report um you know whether it's Miss Simmons or the other young woman of Excellence whether it is uh the artists that Dr Nelms has connected with these are great stories um and these are stories that we don't hear and as I said earlier on each of us um I know vice president La I'm just picking on her because I see her her there right now she has great stories about her niece who you know worked hard eventually got herself graduated I have great stories about my own children I know commissioner pow has graduates of this District we have got some good and and I have neighbors Miss Simon's accomplishment is wonderful she's going to
151Harvard and it givs me chills to hear that but I I know four kids rer City School District graduates that went to Harvard this sure some go to MCC some go to Rock board I went to Sunni at all people go all over but this is not unusual for this district and people I go back to uh uh our parent reps thing it's got to be a school of choice but people won't make choices towards a district if they don't know the truth about the choices there are some bad things that happened in the district but as Miss Simmons and others tonight uh evidence there's some really good things happening and so I wanted to say to you again and I can't say it enough thank you for making a PO portion of your report
152dedicated to the very real and good things that are happening to this District because you want to change the brand of this District you want to uh uh have address commissioner Elliot's point which is well they gotta decide why they don't want the charter schools we got to give them a reason to but by you articulating what is happening with some of our students you're giving people a choice a information to make what I say and what you say would be the right choice in selecting the district so uh thank you very much for doing that I I don't know that you can even do that enough commissioner pow thank you for for uh acknowledging my hand um I I don't want folks that are listening into this call to to have the wrong impression
153about what our uh uh policy on naming schools says or doesn't say um and I think too much has been made of the the issue of the hundred signatures I mean if if a signature is coming from someone in Boston or Buffalo it's probably some somebody related to a student and or or or staff member at the school because you know this this didn't get out into you know didn't go viral on some website or something but the the key here is that the petition is just a trigger if we go to the paragraphs above that it says the school may be named or renamed by the board of education for various reasons including but not limited to the foll following and the petition was just one of four triggers so I don't want people
154to think that that the technicality of of the petition is is the most important ingredient here um the fact that is that School Community uh made a goodfaith effort and the the ball is then in the superintendent and the board's court now you know this policy came into being because a superintendent simply renamed schools without uh without any without so much as asking the Board of Education it was the it was the Douglas campus the Northeast and northwestms the that you know signs just just suddenly showed up on the buildings and the board was had to ask questions about you know what was this all about so this policy came about in reaction uh to um to actions where the board felt that it had been um bypassed and marginalized in a in its process
155so I'm glad it's here but you know we should recognize that these are uh you know in the case of the petitions that's just a trigger and we should treat it as a good faith um um exercise that they that they attempted to do uh what was called upon um what the policy calls us upon them to do that's all thanks thank you commissioner P commissioner LeBron yeah um I actually just want to thank commissioner Powell for that explanation because again there are a number of schools that need to have their name change and if we're going to explain it in this way that it's just one trigger then I know lots of folks I will be reaching out to to start the process to change the names for all of the schools that need
156to be changed so we might as well have start that process now over the summer and start talking about all of the schools that need to have their name change so that they're not representing slave owners and racist names just want to put that out there thank you thank you commissioner LeBron all right next item on the agenda is the consideration of resolutions uh we are going to unless there's some objection and I don't think there would be uh we're going to begin with resolution 796 I need a motion to discuss resolution 796 it's a resolution related to acceptance of some gifts to the district is there second thank you uh commissioner Malloy commissioner Malloy you want to introduce that resolution since it's a gift resolution sure my pleasure thank you um just want to
157extend a thank you to a thermofisher scientific and Nalgene Outdoor Products along with rock the future they are donating 2500 Nalgene water bottles um with a logo RTF logo and District logos printed on each of the bottles and this gift is going to provide individual portable containers of hand sanitizer as well as those individual water bottles to ensure sanitation and hydration while public water fountains are not available and this is valued at over1 18,000 um we are incredibly uh grateful to uh thermofisher scientific and Nene as well as rock the future on behalf of the board thank you so much all right thank you very much commissioner Malloy is there any other questions or comments regarding resolution 796 which commissioner meroy just described don't see any questions or comments let's go ahead and vote all
158those in favor of resolution 796 indate by saying I I I any opposition of course not uh thanks again Comm mooy for thanking uh was it Thermo worth repeating again could you say one more time you're muted no it's uh thermofisher scientific and nalene outdoor outdoor products thank you very much Nene bottles are made right here in Rochester oh awesome all right next item on the agenda our resolution 797 through 810 I'm going to take them as a block unless there's some objection um can I get a motion to discuss resolution 797 through 810 so moved thank you commission second from commissioner pow um any questions or comments regarding resolution 797 and 810 I'm looking at the participant screen I don't see any questions so we'll go ahead and vote please make sure your cameras
159are turned on all those in favor resolution 797 to 810 indicate by saying I I I accept nay on 808 for me and 807 please please thank you commissioner LeBron is there any um Madam clerk did you get that uh those objections I have a no oh thank you yes you have a no vice president Elliott yeah for 797 through 806 it would appear though uh notwithstanding those NOS that those resolutions have passed thank you uh colleagues let's next move on to resolution um let's see8 12 through 819 now let me say first let's do resolution 812 it's a granting of tenure resolution now is there any going to Executive session on this particular uh resolution and the reason why I asked that for those watching is that if there are questions regarding a Personnel
160matter that need to go uh to be answered um they generally have to be answered in a confidential and executive session I don't see anybody making that request so let's uh go ahead and then and put that resolution on the floor did did I ask for a resolution a motion for President White yes ma'am in the past we've we've looked at or I've asked about uh with regard to tenue the demographics you know how many of those African Americans how many of those are people of color uh in in that uh in in that buttch of uh what we're considering I don't know if this that's a question of going to Executive session or uh if uh they can just respond to my um inquiry in an email or on on the board log because
161that's a question that I'm gonna always want to know when we're doing tenure how many of those tenures are people of color I don't know deput superintendent Meer small or Mr Carling um is is that a question that can or needs to be answered this is the one resolution for 812 superintendent or Mr Carly um excuse me going to ask if Steve would respond yeah I if if she would like to place that on a for example on the board log then the question can be answered in in retrospect I think that's the best I can offer at this point that's fine okay all right any other questions or comments regarding resolution there being no further questions let's go ahead and take a vote all those in favor of resolution 812 indicate by saying I
162I I'm and I'm gonna repeat the reasons and Al I do appreciate that um we did get a chart at least um it's still not enough information for me um so I'm voting no but it's nothing personal to the individuals who are up for 10 here I actually know some of these names and they're actually really great individuals so just want to put that out there um commissioner LeBron um and I know you probably would do this anyways but please make sure that you share with the um um the administration how you think the list could be better presented to make sure that all your questions or concerns are answered um sure they can accommodate your your your needs yeah I just want to clarify that I have addressed this every every time comes up
163like I'm still waiting um and again we just had a different process and I know that Co impacted that process um but we should be looking at data and there were folks there who whose scores were not that great but they're still being recommended for tenure I would want to have conversations about that and in the past we would have the chiefs in executive session present those type of cases and also just give us more more data than just that little chart I mean I appreciate that we got the chart we hadn't even been getting that up until a while ago so we'll continue to to work on it but I think it just needs to go back to the same process that we had preo well let me just say I think um the
164the chief of human capital Did indicate that we have been receiving that that information but as I said the last meeting as I indicated by my remarks today before I even called out for a motion does anybody need to go to Executive session you can you can have that conversation that you want to have right well not right now but later on this evening we do not have to vote on these things you can if you want to ask questions about particular candidates that are up for tenure or up for uh resignation Force resignation you can do that tonight the the process that we had before where where we had conversations with them it's always been available still is it's just that nobody has asked for you you can if you wanted to say I
165want to talk about I have questions about the data that I was given we can do that tonight absolutely we with nothing has ever and that's why I brought that up before I took the resolutions President White every board meeting where we're voting on ten years since the pandemic has began I I am repeating the same request like all the time like I don't know how much more I can repeat it to get it through people's heads including my colleagues yeah y'all voting on on it that's on y y was Voting without data that's good for you I'm not doing it now we're getting some data it was literally a screenshot from a computer that was added as an attachment let me just say that but I I'll take the minimum okay there's an effort
166being made there but there's there should be an entire process for the board to understand who they're tenuring why they're being recommended Beyond just that little graph and also why people have varying scores right year to year we used to be presented with situations like hey this person was going through this situation it was documented we worked with them and this is why they didn't receive like a higher you know ranking that year and then this is what we did to provide de uh uh professional development to this individual we feel confident we have them on on track to none of that is being discussed I don't need to go into executive session tonight I need the administration to share openly the same process that we had preco with all of those things and figure
167out a way to do it over this Zoom environment I'm otherwise I will continue to vote no on ten years that's just me but I don't want to keep repeating this same exact conversation I can pull up every board meeting where we voted on 10 years and I have been detailed and I have shared that those details over and over and over and over again and I and I think what the administration I know what the administration said at the last meeting that you brought this up was that they have been providing this information it's been different because covid changed some of the measurements that the state had to evaluate their employees now that's one topic how does Administration presents the information relating to employees you have asked for more detailed information you are absolutely
168entitled to get it but that's one issue the other issue that you bring up is you want the opportunity to discuss these people in the context of whatever evaluation system is and because you don't have the opportunity to discuss it you don't want to vote on it all I'm saying to you commissioner LeBron is if you want let me finish if you want to talk about a candidate and that's why this evening I said before the resolutions even took place I said if any does anybody need to go in executive session there is nothing absolutely nothing presenting you or anybody else in this Zoom room from saying I want let's not vote on that resolution right now at the end of the meeting I need to go on Executive session and have that conversation we've
169not had it as of late because no board member has requested it with limited information or less information whatever it is you want to talk about a candidate you don't have to just vote no you could go into executive session and ask questions about a particular candidate and if if you if you feel like they haven't given you enough information you could say okay I've I've given you this opportunity to give me the additional information they can bring in a chief literally Leslie could say I need the chief here who's recommending this principle to have that conversation we've had those conversations multiple times we can my point not just to you commissioner Bron it's to every board member if you want to have those conversations uh we can and the other point is if you
170want to have more detailed information um and and and you mentioned that at the last meeting in advance in a metrics you can uh you can and you should we should have the administration that's why I said 10 minutes ago please make sure that you have a conversation with them about how you improve the quality of information in advance of uh that discussion I see uh uh uh Dr jallow has raised her hand yeah I just wanted to say that this issue does continue to come up um a few times um at least during my time um here with you uh I do think you need more information um I do think you need information prior to the meeting um so that one can read and understand um I don't know that you have to
171always go into executive session unless you get the information and you find it there's something that you're confused about or you need more information about but um it's such a significant um decision on part of board um I can't imagine you making it with less information I would imagine you would need more information so I was thinking that perhaps one of the Committees can address you know how can you organize what exact information will be made available to the board um that is satisfactory to all board members in terms of making these decisions around tenure for individuals that work for this District and maybe if you have an agreement around that because there seems to be disagreement I around the information you're receiving um before making these decisions well let me let me be clear
172there is one person maybe two because you've just said it that has concerns about the information I you know you're an equal member of the board and so is commissioner LeBron if you have concern I don't think we have to have a committee meeting about it I think there has or or any assign into a committee I think what we have to do is what I said 10 minutes ago which is commissioner LeBron if you have before this conversation began I never I didn't delegitimize her concerns I said if you have concerns about the information that you're still getting please talk to them and I would say that to you Dr jallo as well because it would appear that uh five board members seem to be satisfied with that information you may have very good
173reason to believe that it's not satisfactory commissioner LeBron has articulated even after our last meeting that she has concerns no one is delegitimizing those what I suggested 10 minutes ago is that you talk to the administration it won't do any good to do it now but talk to the administration about what else would you would want to see on that list that's how this gets resolved because five board members seem to be saying yeah at least by their silence they seem to be okay with it now now again that that you you all you two may have some additional ideas about what needs to be on there just discuss them with the administration so the next time we come back here we don't have this we don't have to have this conversation that's all I'm
174saying I see Dr Meyers small has a comment and then commissioner LeBron thank you uh President White what I what I what I'd like to do is let me Circle back with Dr Miller um and talk through what I think might be amenable to work us up to the night when you earn teners tenure so you're not getting the information the night of that you have ample time to have a basic set of information I I want to just work it through before I say this is what we're going to do and I think it will be uh a friendly Amendment or a happy medium that will give you the information that you're looking for so that you make can make an informed decision so if you'll just give me that I'll meet I have
175a one-on-one with Dr Miller next week sometime we'll talk it through and then probably the best thing to do is to go through you vice president Elliott as you're over HR talk that through and then we can move it move it forward into board officers Etc uh commissioner LeBron yes I just want to clarify that I have been bringing this up every month where we have 10 years on our resolutions every single month it's not just last month Dr jallow has brought it up multiple times multiple meetings not just last month or just tonight like she just pulled it out of the air to agree suddenly and then in addition to that I don't have questions to go into executive session with limited information that's just me you know if other folks think differently process
176things differently good for you I want all of the information I don't even think I would even know if I'm asking appropriate questions with limited information so no I don't want to go into executive session I don't need to be reminded that we have the option of going I know how executive session works I know that I have a right to pull any resolution that I want to talk about it's an individual or a contractor personally and more in depth in an executive session than to the public and last and finally this is me talking to the administration every single month voting no on these resolutions reminding the public and the individuals on these resolutions that it is not personal to them because I don't want individuals on these resolutions to take it personal it's
177not personal to them this is personal to the administration and the board and how we are communicating and making really critical important decisions like tenure I know that in the past tenure is rubber stamped every single month we need to stop that practice so I'm not going to contribute to that and this is me communicating with the administration every single month on record around this issue and with that I'm done thank and thank you Dr Meers for figuring out a an approach to take and I hope that you and um vice president Elliot can present something at the next CSA meeting potentially to the board thank you vice president Elliott yes thank you this um when we're talking about uh this whole process of tenue it's a very important uh process that the Board needs
178to engage in this is you know one of the this is one of the uh more important issues because once they're granted 10 they're here and they're here as long as they want to be here unless they do something egregious and they are here with Union protection and so I think that it's very important for the board to engage in the process that we had uh under um uh uh Harry I can't think it was last name now under Harry because we got all of the information with regard to if we needed to look at Personnel files I mean we just had all the information so that we can make a well-informed intelligent decision and so I don't think that this is h a process that we can just cast off um frankly for me
179you know to know that we have got you know who are the who receiveing tenure uh uh that whole thing around people of color is important to me because we've got to start to diversify um our district and going to continue to ask that question because it's so very important that we ensure that our teachers of color and people of color are also uh eligible for tenure as well so it's a very important um uh subject and the process is very important for the board to engage in thank you thank you vice president commissioner Clark yes thank you President White when I reviewed the uh the list of individuals for tenure one of the things that I looked at was the last resolve in the resolution that indicates that the board you know has Express
180you know reserved the power to uh abolish any of these positions if they no longer become viable so I mean I I don't look at it as a permanent appointment for forever because we we as a board do have the power to to abolish positions when they if they're no longer you know viable for the organization I do understand the concerns on on both sides of the issue but uh I mean Tenya is I don't view it as being absolute as the way the way it used to be I mean I could be wrong so please correct me if I am did we lose our president I don't see his picture up here did did Van get dropped off I see there he is oh okay greator about that maybe said I missed the last
181part I missed the last part of what you're saying but I think everybody else probably were you finished yes I was and basically my last statement was I I don't view Tenya as being as permanent as it used to be you know given the fact that we do reserve the right to abolish positions for example if we're right siiz in the district I I know it's somewhat permanent for the individual as long you know if the individual is tenured in the position is needed but I view it as less of a burden than it used to be thank you um I'm trying to see if I don't oh yes uh vice president Elliott and then commissioner LeBron um I I I would just say to uh commissioner Clark's statement uh generally once a person receives
182tenure it's very difficult to try to remove that that that that status uh and so you know it's been um at least my um um it's been um my wisdom to really begin to look at it in the Forefront than to to do it in the in the in the in the in the back because it cost too much money uh for us to try to um get rid of somebody it's just so difficult but if we can and to do it and and it's better um the the probability that as we look at these tenue uh considerations that we have the questions and that we do it at that point then have to get go in the back end of it and having to get rid of somebody I still think it's very difficult
183to get rid of somebody as opposed to having the board to overlook those tenure uh considerations and us making asking some questions in the beginning okay uh commissioner LeBron and then commissioner Adams yeah I I agree with vice president Elliot um it is much better prudent of our time to be diligent about who we're granting tenure to and reviewing you know the the charts and files and the information up front the other piece is that um Dr commissioner Clark our our issue too is like the way that our the contract that we have the way the system works you know abolishing a position even if we're right sizing is it's they they go on the preferred eligibility list so if we start to rehire we have to pull from that list as well well um
184so again we can't just because we have a line in there about abolishment that may not happen for years and years and years and we could be G granting tenure to someone who's going to be in front of our students who could potentially be harmful and all and I'm not saying that that's the case with these resolutions that I voted no on so I want to be clear again this not personal to these individuals this is more about us as a board doing our due diligence um and the power that we hold around granting these 10 years um but there's also a statute in the law that says these individuals will get it anyway depending on certain um ratings that they have so I just want to put that out there too I just want
185to be diligent about it and we used to get a lot more information and have a different process to understand all of the individuals that were coming before the board and I don't care if it's 10,000 people I want to look at all of it because these are my babies in this district and my children and grandchildren in this district and I want to make sure that the individuals that we're saying yep we're going to give them tenure that way if we do have layoffs and they go on that preferred eligibility list and we have to rehire that we're and we're rehiring from that list you know first in last out there's so many things that apply to you know and commissioner Elliott's right the other piece and I'll end with this is that we
186as a district don't do our due diligence when issues arise and have the proper documentation so even though they're entitled to a due process and we have to then prove right that there's a history there we don't have the documentation that's a whole other issue for another time but we know that we lack that within this District that's why we end up not in these great positions so I'm done with that commission commissioner Adams so for me we got some professionals here that I do trust their opinion and their judgment I do do that and that's why I just go with what they some with with with what they say but I'm not going I can't go along with as far as us talking about um we have the authority to do this and authority
187to do that we're not being honest here people even do egregious stuff and we can't get rid of them people go are it's it's really it's really out of hand that situation is and then when we do eliminate that position their seniority and they was them not to be gone gone it' be the good person get get evicted so um we just need to change some things in the system um like I say I I just don't agree with that part you you have you no idea um some things that have gone on in this district and people have gone nowhere they're still there solid like a um and another reason I had my hand up um there was a lot of talk somebody's mic was open um I wish somebody could could cut that
188off did was I the only one hearing it okay I'm done all right um let we'll move on from this issue but I I do want to repeat what a number of people have said on different sides of this that no one rubber stamps as is we if you pull the records from our last meeting we had this as commissioner LeBron has said we had this conversation before I specifically remember saying to people without without anybody objecting or disagreeing doesn't sound like anybody's I gave a lot of credit I said to Harry Kennedy there was a time years ago before some of you were on this board where prior boards were rubber stamping not going into much doing doing much due diligence on these tenure decisions and under Henry Harry Kennedy's leadership and with the
189board support we would have long night I mentioned this look at pull the transcripts from that last meeting we had long meetings where is commissioner LeBron and vice president Elliott and other people have said I know other people in the room could say we spent extensive hours looking at people's tenure decisions I brought that up at the last meeting and I specifically remember uh the chief of human capital reflecting on the limitations and we don't need to go through them now the limitations of of of covid life after covid from his perspective and how that somewhat limited now he can make that presentation again and it was detailed I suggest I 20 minutes ago I suggest we not do that that commissioner LeBron or whoever speak to the superintendent which is what where we ended
190up someone speak to the superintendent about the deficiencies that they see I would assume the conversation is going to be similar to what we had at the last business meeting where the human capital initiative uh leader will say well the this is how I ended up doing it I understand what you did but in the life postco this is what I had to do however it works out I'm sure it will work out so that it should work out it must work out so that every board member has the information that they need I just don't want people to get the impression that we are or were rubber stamping we were very detailed in our assessment of these candidates for many many many many years covid changed all that and our Chief human capital officer
191just a month ago described for us why things were different and all I'm saying and let's let's wrap this conversation up is that if it's still not sufficient as he described a month ago let's figure out a way so that it gets sufficient we don't need to have a committee we don't need to just talk to people and say Hey listen I have these concerns about this information not being here I understand commissioner Ron you don't you don't prefer not to go into a meeting without having having all the information my point is and and I'm glad the superintendent said what I said 20 minutes ago figure it out come up with a plan that can be tweak we don't need to vote on it come up what needs to be on that description of
192how we are looking at tenur people make sure that it gets to board members in advance of the meeting so that way they can communicate to me or to others hey we're going to need to have an executive session because I've looked at all this data which is a good filter now and I determined I got to talk about this person some more that's what we used to do and we have to do it now or in the future the doors always open that's why I began the section by saying does anybody need an executive session I hear commissioner LeBron saying I need more detail let's just not make let's make sure that we don't get to the next meeting and we're having this same conversation and the chief human capital officer is saying well
193this is why I can and I cannot do it let's get the parameters set so that the next meeting these candidates are filtered through this and we are are able to determine in advance whether whether we need an executive session or not and if we don't we go on and vote all right I'm hoping when I click on the participant list I'm going to see oh I do see a hand raised Dr J yeah I want to also suggest that we um include best practices around this issue from other districts we're not the only ones uh you're not the only District providing tenure to to individuals that work in your organization so perhaps we can learn about best practices from other districts um but clear there's some dissatisfaction about the current process and that might
194um help inform um the absolutely and and I know uh superintendent Myers small you will do this but respectfully and I and I'm not sest you haven't done this already but I'm just trying to bring this issue so it doesn't return again please make sure this is Thoroughly this issue and these concerns are thoroughly understood so that we don't have these These are important conversation but we've spent about 20 30 40 minutes talking about something that commissioner BR is right we talked about before the point is we should be talking more in between the meetings so to make sure this doesn't happen again so I trust given your excellent leadership that uh whether you're going to be looking at Best Practices talking to board members who have some dissatisfaction with this process including those issues
195raised by vice president Elliot uh and and by commissioner Adams and by commissioner LeBron make sure and the idea proposed by Dr jallo please make sure that all those issues are comprehensively Incorporated in the next Set uh the next time we have to look at tenure thank you very much to everybody for your contribution to that conversation and I know our next conversation will be much more efficient and effective because of our conversation today all right so Madam clerk you gotta tell me whether we did we vote on 819 before we had that conversation or no we hadn't I because quite frankly I don't remember I know we did vote on it you all voted yes I voted no okay on the 10 years yep yeah yeah so we voted on it uh so all
196right so let's move on I need a motion to discuss resolution 822 to 827 motion we vote on 89 19 we voted on 82 812 was tenure oh 812 was tenure you're you're right oh okay all right thank you commissioner Clark that's why I was asking the clerk did we vote on 819 did we vote on 819 that is not the tenur one though Van Well I'm asking I'm asking this one this one that 819 is the point non tenure bearing Grant funded position we did I didn't take a vote on that we stay we were on Grant tenard and that's that's 812 right 8 commiss commissioner LeBron I I it's very important that you let me speak to the clerk she's keeping the records so we voted on keep it moving this is the
197part of the thing you go on and Y you can go ahead and make the correction LeBron B you can keep it moving you so annoying just keep let me let let let me do that by you can do that right now by calling a motion you can do that that's literally how you can move forward you don't need to go back and forth with me because I'm going to go back and forth with you you don't need to go back and forth with me I will go back and forth with you you can just literally make for 819 or make say anything commissioner LeBron if you don't make the motion that's it just go straight to the motion commissioner LeBron to thetion you don't need to address me no more you're not chair of
198the meeting you can't I'm asking you to go to the motion and then you can end this you can be you can be the adult right now I don't want to be the adult go ahead and end it LeBron not call the motion for 819 keep it moving will you not van sa a ho stay out of this for real you not his savior stop it point of order please there point of order Tell Van to go to 819 keep it moving point of order 819 go ahead keep it moving point of order please no you're not you're not his savior Willow Mr of order please savior you're not his savior this is this is the frustrating part you don't you need to mind your business you don't need to jump into this all he
199needs to do is call the motion for 819 he could end it now and I'll be quiet point of order please nope no point of order point of order no nope go ahead keep it moving Mr President point of you don't you don't get to mute me van but you can go ahead go ahead I'm waiting for the president to acknowledge me point of order please he's not commissioner po I'm going to let commissioner LeBron run her course because when I try to mute her she unmutes herself we all knew that this is what I was going to do you clearly out of order I'm going to continue to wait for you to stop talking just call the motion we keep it moving telling wait for you to stop talking and to wait for you
200to stop telling people what to do that's not your role in this meeting so I'm going to stop talking and you can go ahead and call the motion if you start to try to um banter me I'm going to go back and forth with you it's that simple I'm very clear I'm communicating very clearly that you can like not address me and just call the motion and we can keep it moving that's it I'm G be quiet go ahead I'm gonna be quiet you don't need to respond back to me comply with you want to keep going back and forth with me we could be here all night van we could be here all night no we won't no weon then I will be quiet and you can call the motion you don't need to
201address me again that's it it's real simple it's a very simple solution you're not being quiet you keep on talking I'm muting myself go ahead all right she's quiet uh Madam clerk my understanding is we've passed resolution 812 I next need a motion to advance for discussion resolution 819 is there a motion so moved it's been moved by commissioner Malloy is there a second commissioner Clark has seconded any questions or conversations regarding resolutions 819 let me look at my participant list I do see commissioner pow raising her hand commissioner pal yeah I just need the clerk to clarify the 812 was the 10year resolution and we did vote on that yes yes and that was 61 89 is the resolution on non-tenured that's correct non tenure bearing Grant funded position and we have a motion
202on the floor now we do we do in a second okay I I just I needed what you needed uh President White Clarity on where we were and that's what I originally asked and I was given the wrong information even though I asked the cl to tell me what we were at thankfully wasn't given the wrong information had the wrong number and thank you commissioner Clark thankfully commissioner Clark clarified it I my question was directed to the clerk and then no one else and now we have Clarity we have a motion and a second on resolution 819 I'm looking at the participant list I don't see anybody raising their hand so we'll go ahead and vote on resolution 819 all those in favor of resolution 19 indicate by raising by by saying I I I
203any oppos any opposition seems that the eyes have it Madam clerk next Madam clerk I I'm going to ask for a motion relating to resolutions 822 to 827 is there a motion motion I heard the Comm Malo and I heard somebody else's Voice who was the second I'm sorry president white but you have to be on screen uh I well the problem is I'm looking at oh I'm sorry somehow thank you very much mol appreciate that I thought I was on screen sorry about that um actually I have to be on screen for a vote but in any event um I had a I had a motion for 822 to 827 I didn't get a second can I didn't hear a second can I get a second I can thank you commissioner Adams any questions
204or comments regarding resolutions 822 to 827 I'm looking at participant list I don't see any all right so I'll go off the participant list so let's go ahead and take a vote all those in favor of resolutions 822 to 827 make sure your video camera is on and indicate by saying I I I any opposition uh seems like the eyes have it Madam clerk let's next move on to resolution 829 uh is there a motion motion thank you commissioner Malloy is there a second I think I heard commissioner Powell gave the second uh any questions or comments regarding resolution 829 I'm gonna switch to my participant screen I had to switch to my cell phone by the way off of my laptop something happened with the connection there I don't see any questions being asked
205regarding resolution 829 so we'll go ahead and take a vote please make sure that your camera is on and uh you articulate what your vote is all those in favor of res resolution 829 indicate by saying I I I any opposition seems that the eyes have it Madam clerk let's go on to resolutions 831 to 832 is there a motion motion commiss M I heard a second from commissioner po any questions or comments regarding resolutions 831 to 8:32 let me go to my what's called screen I don't see any questions no comments so let's goad and vote all those in favor of resolutions 831 to 832 indicate by saying I I any opposition I don't hear any opposition so I assume that the eyes have it uh Madam clerk let's let's move on to resolutions
206836 to 838 I'm bundling those resolutions those are for educational facilities uh can I get a motion motion thank you commissioner mooy there second second thank you commissioner Clark any questions or comments regarding resolutions 836 to 838 uh Mr President yeah I just want to know uh with regard to 838 and that property being turned over back to the city I we know that the city owns those uh properties we do we have are are first of all are they prepared to receive them are they aware that we're going to be turning them back um over um and um do we have any idea what they're going to be doing with those properties Mike do you mind answering please and thank you yes good evening everyone uh the uh the city is aware that we
207are returning it's actually one school building and then there's one transportable uh building I'm not exactly sure what their next steps are in terms of the of the properties themselves but they are aware that they will be receiving receiving them on July 1st all right thank you okay I have my hand up [Music] so sorry I was on mute commissioner Bron I see you have raised your hand go ahead yeah um so one Mike the resolution say School number 22 um number 25 the old school number 22 building on zimri Street which I thought was already a charter school um 25 number 30 it says program closure number 36 and number 54 because it was relocated um into a lease facility so I just had a I want this some clarification if we're giving a
208building back and then leasing a space somewhere else and then the other piece on here is that there is a board hereby waves requirements of article 1- six to the policy um with respect to the effort mentioned closures so if you can clarify what that sentence means in that resolution and then also what the parentheses lease facility if you can clarify that as well yes absolutely in terms of working with um uh our our legal office and our and our and our board clerk we want to make sure we reference the previous resolution that this building had been uh referenced in which was in 2013 I believe so that that that language around the other buildings that you had mentioned was from a previous resolution and those buildings have all been been addressed so you're
209right uh the former 22 building which is now a charter school is not part of the building that's being returned the only one being returned is number 25 the other ones have already been addressed in that previous resolution um your second question I'm sorry I so so even with a previous does this thises so I was not here in 2013 2014 yes so did we move a school from and gave back a building to the city to then move that school into a lease facility that we're paying rent for Flower City school was in a lease space over um it was over near Marshall High School we moved that that that school was relocated from that space to um and merged if my recollection is correct merged with number 30 school which is which was
210on Oda Street so 54 and 30 merged into one building I'm hope my recollection I'm think you're pretty close on that no no I I think you're right it says that LE space then we removed ourselves from the lease space that 54 was in um and it just because these buildings have been referenced in other resolutions and working with uh uh Jerry and and C Jerry Rose excuse me and K which just what we thought important kind of to tie all the resolutions together in terms of the policy you would reference that we we had um in a previous finance committee we had discussed um uh with uh with Steve Carling in regards because this was not actually a school and and that policy more ties to a closing of a school building this is
211actually only the we're only dealing with the physical part of the building the school did not close if you recall the school actually moved to a new location so this was not a school closure it's only the returning of the building back to the city that's why that that's why that part of the policy was waved thank you for the clarification yep vice president Elliot so my question is do we need to revise the resolution and I'm thinking about um for for historical purposes is the resolution clear enough so that if people were to go back and and uh review that resolution that um that it is clear that they are not they're not thinking that it was at this time that we voted on those other closures of the building as commissioner LeBron talked
212about school 22 is now a charter school so um does the resolution need to be revised to make it clearer would you like to me take that president or um um superintendent so the resolve is really the key part of this uh vice president Elliott the the the part A Part B and part C of the resolve make it very clear that we only are referring to uh Building 25 in this particular resolution the other ones are just more uh background so it's it I think the I don't think the um uh the the that part of it needs to be revised I think it's I think it's it's it takes us the direction that we need to take it in terms of um removing the building from our inventory returning the building back to
213the city and the date certain of July 1 so did we need that other information in the resolution I I think at this point I think it would be prudent to leave it in I think there are others that have I don't want to speak for for for the the members of the team but there are others whove kind of felt like it was important for these res some some previous resolutions to be linked back to this because building number 25 was mentioned with other school closures and relocations in a previous resolution that it was important to kind of tie that loose end up because the other buildings in that previous resolution referenced um 22 and 36 and so forth all have been have been resolved and closed and and so forth and this was
214the last one from that previous resolution that had not yet been addressed so I think that's the reason why that was pertinent to have in there so I would if it's my recommendation I would leave it as it is yeah I I'll second Mike's Point that we we we kind of crafted this intentionally so sometimes people don't know to look back even further for an old resolution but this if you were to compare this it looks if you looked only back at the 2013 it looks like the building had already been closed this gives historical perspective as to why it's being done now um so I think while it is a little bit lengthy it it's a complex history and it's kind of the best sometimes the only thing we have left after a couple
215years our memories have faded as this piece of paper so um I think that's why we did it that way I I certainly appreciate the confusion given that it it walks through a couple different series but it it just happens to be a rather convoluted history of that building to get to where we are today I I think is the best I can say thank you Mr Carling commissioner Powell well yeah I was thinking in response to uh commissioner Elliott's question that that um if if this list of schools was essentially lifted from the resolution 20121 [Music] 13542 that perhaps uh quotation marks would go around it but then I realized that the year of the closing isn't isn't captured in that resolution so it's not very tidy the bottom line is it is in
216the whereas Clause not the resolved Clause it's intended to be history um convoluted though it may be it it is the history and um it it therefore isn't the real decision point in this resolution so I'm comfortable with it if other people are me look at the participant list don't see any other hands being raised so let's go ahead and uh vote on resolutions 836 to 838 all those in favor of resolutions 836 to 838 indicate by making sure your screen is on and indicating i i i any opposition Adam clerk it seems that the eyes have I believe the last set of resolutions but um uh it's they're designated as others but let's begin first with um 839 Mr Carling before I take a motion um is this the the matter that uh I
217I know we were going to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing uh Personnel matters but um this this settlement is this something that um uh we've discussed previously with the board it relates to Something Happened One the schools I I seem to recall that it is correct an executive session last month we talked about it right so uh now that would mean that if a board member still had some reason to want to discuss this in executive session of course they could uh I just wanted to notify you that before we take a motion on it U but let me look at my participant screen to see if anybody has such an interest it doesn't appear right now so let's go ahead and get a motion I need a motion to discuss
218resolution 839 I think I heard a mix of voices commissioner Clark I think I heard and I think I heard commissioner P I'll take her as a second Madam clerk I assume you recorded that so is there any questions or comments regarding uh resolution 839 and understanding of course this is a legal matter and if you did have such a question it would probably best be answered in executive session there being no questions or comments let's go ahead and take a vote on resolution 839 all those in favor of resolution 839 indicate by saying I I I any opposition seems been a clerk that the eyes have it so let's go on down to resolutions 840 and 84 uh 842 I I put them in a uh I bundled them because they relate to policies
219commissioner pow has already referenced these earlier on their history uh before the board um so let's go ahead and take a motion commissioner P you want to move to Advan I heard commissioner Malloy seconded by commissioner pow I assume since these were your babies yes commissioner po yes okay thank you uh all right the the motion is before the board uh resolutions 840 to 842 any questions or comments regarding those resolutions look at my participant list I don't see any so let's go ahead and take a vote all those in favor resolutions 840 through 842 indicate by uh saying I I I I any opposition seems that the eyes have it all right Madam clerk we're going to go ahead and consider the last four resolutions 843 to 846 is there a motion uh Mr
220President yes I would suggest that you take 843 and four together but because uh bylaws require a super majority that that be St done on a stand alone U 840 84 845 and 84 8:45 I'm sorry 843 and 844 are also policies but because A45 is bylaws it requires a super okay yeah that that makes some sense uh that way it be easier to determine what the vote is because it is a different vote count for that but 846 is a standard vote so uh let's go ahead and take 843 to 844 is there a motion so move moved by commissioner pal or second I think I heard somebody was that commissioner Adams what I'll take yeah I'll take that as commissioner Adams uh any questions or comments regarding resolu 843 to 844 I don't
221see any so um we'll go ahead and take a vote all those in favor resolutions 843 and 844 indicate by saying I I I any opposition seems that the eyes have it Madam clerk so let's go ahead and do 845 which as commissioner pal correctly indicates requires a super majority uh because it's changing of our bylaws so uh can I get a motion commissioner po will you make that motion please thank you and is there a second seconded thank you commissioner Malloy any questions or comments regarding resolution 845 look at the participant list uh I don't see any so let's go ahead and take a vote all those in favor of resolution 845 make sure your camera is on and indicate by saying I I I I any Nays seems that the eyes have it
222um and finally we have resolution 846 relates to the schedule of committee meetings is there a motion motion Commissioner Adam seconded by commissioner Clark any questions or comments regarding resolution 846 don't see any no no I have a question I just couldn't get yes go ahead vice president I I just want to say while I'm gonna vote in favor of it I just think that the HR committee needs to meet more than quarterly um because the HR committee the the uh majority of the budget deals with uh employee issues and salaries and it's a it's you know 70% of our budget um but I understand that we need to reduce the meetings but um somehow we've got to revisit that because I think that um we we do need to have that um um committee
223to meet more than just quarterly it it really um just seems to me that that's just too long in between to not to have an HR committee meeting so um while I understand we need to reduce committees the meetings of those committees um it just seems that the HR committee meeting quarterly is just not sufficient thank you thank you vice president La any other questions or comments regarding resolution 846 oh I'm commissioner pow U yeah in response to commissioner Elliott's comment one of the reasons this is a standalone resolution is And discussing it with uh with uh our administrative liaison Mr Carling we didn't want the the schedule to be etched into the bylaws we wanted to be able to be more flexible and so that any change to the schedule can be done by
224a standalone resolution um so um I think what I'm driving at here is that if we decide collectively that this doesn't work we can uh adjust the the count calendar without changing the bylaws again um but we just have to do it by resolution okay commissioner LeBron yeah I just want to clarify that the resolution stays with the finance agenda reviewed at the monthly business meetings and that's not what's going to happen we will do Finance reports at the monthly business meeting and any Finance updates um and presentation when the finance committee is not meeting so I do want that word removed from the resolution um especially if we're going to vote on it for amending the bylaws because it's not the agenda that we're going to be reviewing my and I anticipate every month
225that we're talking about finances but that at the board business meeting we have time allocated to talk about the finance report that we normally would do in the finance meeting with every other month having a more indepth Finance conversation and other topics especially as the um American Rescue funds start rolling in and we start I I we're going to have to monitor lots of different things so I do want that language to be uh fixed commissioner LeBron I will assume that is a motion uh for an amendment to uh that calendar language yep I that second is there a second to Second there's a second to commissioner LeBron's motion um that is made by vice president ell let's go I'm sorry I'm sorry President White let me just let me just real quickly ask I
226think we need specific wording if you're going to have a friendly Amendment what just just removing the word agenda doesn't make it complete what we could say would be something like would the finance I don't know the finance agenda was meant to to encapsulate what would normally be done at the full finance committee so it was just a it's a mistaken use of a word I think but um you know we could say something like with with the finance with the items on the finance agenda and reports discussed at the monthly but something like that we need specifics just pulling the word agenda out I don't think necessarily does it so I would my recommendation then would be Finance reports because that's what we'll be reviewing at the board business business meeting we won't go
227in depth in finance conversations at board business meetings but we will put them on the finance committee when we meet as committee of the whole the following month does that make sense so it's really just going to be reporting out so so we can say with Finance with Finance reports review at the monthly bit can we make that your Amendment then yes okay all right uh Francy if you can capture that and if we need to work on it in the morning we'll we'll get it right thanks thank you uh Mr Carling um so let's go ahead and I've got a a motion in a second to make that friendly Amendment as just described by uh Mr Carling um are there any questions or comments regarding that Amendment uh commissioner LeBron is that an old
228hand no I guess so any questions or comments regarding that Amendment so let's go ahead and take a vote on that Amendment as described just a few moments all those in favor of that Amendment uh to the financial uh uh references in that uh resolution indicate by saying I I I hi any opposition seems again Madam clerk to the eyes have it so now we'll go back to a resolution 846 as amended and I'll ask my colleagues whether there are any further questions or comments regarding resolution 846 as amended on the participant list I don't see any hands being raised so I assume that we're all set so go and take a vote all those in favor of resolution 846 is amended indicate by saying I I I I so long as our clerk heard
229all the eyes I I didn't I'm relying on you madam clerk for making sure the vote is accurately recorded Madam clerk are you all set yes Miss Scott yes yeah again I'm just you know sometimes I don't maybe I don't hear what you hear and I just want to make sure you've it's sometimes I don't hear members vote but it could be because I just I'm not something's going on but please make sure that everyone registers their vote okay um so that resolution 846 has passed uh we next have on our agenda uh unfinished business from previous meetings and there is none I will always always as I bring up these topics yes um I was getting ready to say I will always look on the participant leas to see if anybody has any concerns
230or raising a hand commissioner pow don't we have a tabled resolution not that I know it is on the um order of business it's uh resolution 790 committed fund balance I sent maybe it's an I have an old agenda it's not on my agenda I board dos today I think but I sent I sent an updated agenda along with the oh okay I I did I'm sorry I didn't get that updated agenda okay so uh uh commissioner Powell since you seem to have alerted me to since you alerted me to this why don't you describe what's on the uh unfinish business what's the table motion okay well this this came up for a discussion the last two months um it it's a motion to uh reallocate $7 million of assigned fund balance to the um
231to the uh committed fund for o uh post-employment benefits um we we taed it last meeting uh was it May May 4th I think um because there was a sense that it was being rushed and the final language um hadn't been distributed in in enough time for everybody to see the language there's nothing new to add to the conversation haven't heard from anybody to suggest to you know suggesting a change of course or asking me to pull the resolution so I would at this time move to lift this from on the table it's been moved is there a second I'll second it um is there any questions or comments regarding this this motion to remove the uh resolution from the table and put it up before the body today let me look at the participant
232I see commissioner Clark raising his hand commissioner Clark yes I know at the when we at the meeting where we table the resolution we indicated that there should be another discussion between commissioner pow the superintendent and CFO to come to some type of resolution and my question is did that meeting happen and was there a meeting of the minds question I I think you might be misremembering it was two meetings ago that we made that commitment um the there was no um there was no explicit request uh or plan to discuss it again um I I certainly was open to uh hearing from anybody who who wanted to um make another change I didn't hear from anybody since May 7th so yeah there's nothing new to add superintendent um do you want to add anything
233to this conversation no we have conversation and as I outlined before um this was something that carlen and I um could live with um weren't you know we could live with it so and we had that conversation with commissioner pal commissioner any other questions or comments regarding this uh tabled now unted resolution I'm looking through my participant list we didn't actually have the vote yeah we did we had a we had a vote to lift it from the table okay all right sorry let me ask the clerk because I I could be wrong yes do we have a vote Yes um we did Comm commissioner pal made the motion and you seconded but I didn't he he a call for vote did we did we vote no you did not vote we haven't voted okay
234I thought we voted on removing it from the T oh that's right okay all right so let's let's have that vote then let's make sure that that we can put this up for a vote all those in favor of lifting this motion uh from the table indicate by saying i i i i n any oppos any opposition for those of you watching all that does is that just gets the lifting it from the table uh just gets it before the the body us the seven of us to to vote on it so all right now that the motion to reallocate $7 million to the committed fund I think that's a pretty decent summary uh of the motion uh has before the body is there any other questions or comments regarding this particular uh resolution I'm
235looking through my participant list yeah president raising their hand my my vote is going to be no because I really am not uh confident about um this whole process not that uh I'm voting know just to uh be um you know just to vote against it I I'm just still not confident about my what I know about this and um you know commissioner Powell did a great job uh I believe in helping me to understand it but I I still don't get it so my vote is gonna be no on this this evening thank you okay all right any other questions or comments all right there being none uh let's go ahead and take a vote does it I'm sorry Comm commissioner pow or Madam clerk what's the resolution number on this uh 790 790
236thank you madam clerk okay so let's goe and take a vote I think you need another Motion in second oh that's right because it's been lifted from the table but it's not properly before the board in terms of vote thank you commissioner PO for being on top this tonight uh that's your motion is there a second second second second by commissioner Clark all right so now it is properly before the body um all those in favor resolution 790 indicate by saying i i i i n those those opposed I heard two already commissioner uh Lebron and commissioner LeBron commissioner LeBron vice president Elliot um commission did you record commissioner Adams vote Yes I did okay uh I I heard four is that correct Madam clerk yeah well actually it's five and two it's uh commissioner
237uh Lebron and vice president Elliott voted against it oh but I asked you about commissioner Adams I thought you said no I heard commissioner Adams did you hear his yes oh and he voted in favor yes okay all right thank you for for being on top of this and I'm not so all right so 54 5-2 that resolution passes thank you you uh commissioner uh PO for your work on that effort which vice president Elliott has already recognized the effort that you put into that we appreciate that um all right uh that would mean we move on to new business if there's no more unfinished business and again thank you commissioner pow for reminding us that we had that tabled uh resolution okay no there is no new business uh there is some stuff that
238we have to take care of in executive session I need in that regard I need a motion to go into executive session for the purposes of discussing matters relating to the employment of particular person second and moved by I think I heard commissioner Clark or commissioner uh vice president Elliott yes moved it I moved it you thank you and vice president and commissioner Clark second so the the uh motion to go into executive session has been properly made let's go ahead and take a vote all those in favor going to Executive session for the purpose of discussing the terms and conditions of particular employee indicate by saying I I I any opposition I didn't think there would be so uh ladies and gentlemen we're gonna go into executive session but to my colleagues uh why
239don't we take a five minute break um thank you do what we have to do for those of you who are interested in I call you all rcsd Gladiators um we're we're likely to go into executive session it is very unlikely that we're going to vote on anything when we come out we are going to do our survey but the matters that are subject to discussion I do not believe they're going to come up for a vote um so we'll come out of executive session we'll just do our survey so there's really no need for you to stick around tonight you can if you want but when we come out of executive session we'll be closing our business very shortly so on behalf of the Board of Education thank you for attending and have a
240safe and uh successful evening and week God bless back here and Open Session as I promised There's No Business to really discuss to discuss in Open session we do have to take our survey we're going to do that right now and if you're still around uh we'll say good night um someone has to redo this for me because I'm listed as a host and I can't we all have to redo then so stop y yep sorry about that Francine just um remove van from being co-host did already she did good okay yep [Music] for okay um tell me when we're all set okay we still have a few more all right folks I'm only asking so that we can uh I know when to ask for that motion turn Okay looks like we're good all
241right who's gonna make that motion let me just say this before we go before the motion is made because I just feel to say this prophetically we will be all right as a district just know that I don't care what we're going through we will be fine as a district we will excel and I'm just saying that prophetically that's going to happen so fear not we're doing this work and we're going to get there I'm just I'm really pleased by the two principles that we are going to be hiring and uh I just see us moving forward in the right direction so that's that's my prophecy so with that I'll say good night to everybody after we vote I'll take that as I'll take that as a motion to adjourn vice president ell is there
242a second second did I hear a second all right commissioner Adams g a second all those in favor of AD joury indicate by saying I I hi any opposition better not be all right good night everybody good night everybody night