Special Meeting: Equity in Student Achievement Committee of the Whole | January 12, 2020

001good evening everybody uh on behalf of the Board of Education uh my name is Van white and I'm here to greet you we hope that uh your evening and your week has been going well that it's been filled with blessings and not so many burdens we also are extremely glad that you've decided to join us in light of the fact you probably have a lot of other things on your plate uh and we have a lot on our plate tonight and we we really appreciate it when board when members of the community tune in not when there's a crisis at the 131 West Broad Street or at one of their schools but can proactively engage with the district and its representatives and its employees when we're just generally carrying out the business of uh educating

002children that's really the best time to see us and to perhaps build confidence that uh we are indeed trying to to be better stewards of your children's education so that having been said I'm calling this meeting to order and then the next thing that's on our agenda unless there's some objection from one of my colleagues is to hear what members of the community have to say for those of you who aren't familiar with our process here is nearly every meeting we set aside a time for the members of the Board of Education to hear what people have to say after these uh I think we have four speakers today speak you'll hear some instructions and guidance from our our clerk with respect how you too might be able to voice your opinions and concerns or

003ideas to the board of education so without further Ado Madam clerk I understand we have four speakers we do have four speakers tonight that is correct thank you why don't you go ahead and introduce them and we'll start to hear what they have to say wonderful so our first Speaker tonight is Mr John wahan he is a Community member and is addressing the board regarding the topic of racism Mr wahan are you there yes I'm here wonderful you have three minutes to address the board all righty good evening board members and thank you for being here tonight uh my name is John wheelan and this is my seventh year working at a CBO as a prek teacher and I'm here tonight to share an anecdote uh from a zoom lesson this last week so every

004year we read the book Good Night Gorilla with our students and the main characters in this book are a zookeeper and a gorilla pictured on the front without a doubt every year I have students who identify the Zookeeper as a police officer and the animal cages uh they identify as jail cells so we always talk about this a little bit we talk about you know the role of a police officer we talk about a zoo who's been to the zoo we talk about the role of the The Zookeeper and the conversation kind of wraps up the zookeeper's job is to keep the animals safe and those are the animals houses so this year we had the same conversation and then we went on to engage in many different lessons and activ AC the third time

005that we visited the text I wanted students to summarize what had happened in the story uh two students shared details about what had happened and my third student toshare says I think this time when we read that book the police gonna shoot that black man I think this time when we read it that police gonna shoot that black man so folks I've been having a really hard time with this one right not just because my student knows about the reality of police murdering black people uh but what's been especially hard for me is the way that she said it she said it so matter of fact you know she said it in the same tone the same way you say he's wearing green you know she said it casually and honestly that police is going

006to shoot the black man so this notion at the age of four is so ingrained in her that even though we had completed two lessons talking about this book she's so preoccupied with the idea of a police officer shooting a black man uh we know that we live in a society with systemic racism problems that need to be addressed uh schools are part of that society and therefore this problem needs to be addressed within the schools Educators need to know how to support our students in times like these this summer when I noticed that there is no professional development around the topic of racism I wrote to the head of the department Robin Hooper responded that there wasn't enough money in the budget for anti-racism professional development and when the head of a department tells

007me that uh what I notice with the statement is that we have a budget that prioritized something else many other things over the safety and protection of the lives of our students for years I've received resistance from leadership in the rcsd when I've been trying to explore this work with our students uh for background on that check out the comments I submitted to the August 11th meeting uh but I cannot accept an answer there's not enough money in the budget to do this work because to me that reflects a department that doesn't care about our black and brown students or a department that doesn't have the critical thinking skills to adjust the budget to do this work if the rcsd Early Childhood department is actively failing our students when our teachers are not being given

008the tools and skills to engage in conversations like this to help our students process and heal through trauma to help our my my apologies your time is up for addressing the the board but please do if you can um if you have additional comments please submit them in writing allers get them I just need the board to help uh put pressure on the district to engage in this work uh because it's unacceptable to say we don't have money for this type of work I know that the district is in a crazy financial crisis right now but this work to protect our students is needed thank you folks thank you sir so our second speaker is Miss lean Dupri a staff uh addressing the board regarding inperson teaching and safety protocols Miss uh Dupri are you

009with us yes I am wonderful you have three minutes thank you I was torn tonight because I wanted to present so many accounts from other colleagues and from parents that are concerned with our plan to return in person um so I am going to present to you um information from a grandparent in the district today and I will present one from a another educator in the future if I run out of time I am a grandparent who has four grandchildren attending Rochester City School District I've been monitoring and following their education for years to make sure they receive their best education possible the concern I have now in the Rochester city school district for students special education or otherwise attending in-person classes while this pandemic is going we are still uncertain when it will end

010and how many more will contract it it is not only at the time this time putting the students at risk but also the educators are these school buildings equipped with the proper ventilation system and filters to ensure continuous air flow throughout the school are the classroom set up in a manner that will ensure that each student is properly distanced from other students and the educators are protected as well I chose not to send my grandchildren back to school and to continue remote learning because there is no guarantee of safety by in-person learning they are just starting to include Educators as those eligible to receive the covid-19 vaccine children are not eligible yet for the vaccine so I cannot fathom the urgency of returning these precious children special education at that into a classroom that might

011do them more harm than good consider your staff as well they have family and loved ones too and want to go home too each day not having to worry about if they may have contracted something that can harm their families or themselves I'm going to say one more thing and then I will close I contracted covid-19 in mid November of 2020 I thought I was doing everything right by the book since learning about this virus frequent handwashing social dist in staying away from large crowds not touching my face sanitizing everything Etc but I still caught it and after battling with what I thought was a flu or a bad cold I was hospitalized for days with tons of medicine given to me and placed down oxygen only by the grace of God I'm here alive

012to tell you no one should go through what I did it is worse than the flu T times worse I'm just getting over the side effects of it you won't take this into consideration unless it HS home or in a way that someone you really love couches it or trusting parent sends a child to school and becomes sick and blames the school my sister is a nurse in DC months ago caught Co and has some memory loss from that that stopped her from properly performing her job I'm Co free now but I have to wait three months to get the shot it's available to me then I appreciate your time to listen to what I had to say and that was Miss June price who's a grand mother of our in our district thank you

013Miss dpri thanks sorry my baby is fussing so I'll say thank you for making time to share your information with us though we do appreciate it and I know that you have additional please be sure to send that over as well all right so we also have Miss Kristen French who is now entering the room and she's a staff member address the board regarding reopening realities during a pandemic Miss French Miss French yes I am here sorry I had lots going on all right you have three minutes thank you last week there was a speaker who gave specific feedback regarding the first day of in-person learning during this pandemic the speaker shared concerns relevant to not only the safety of their school but unfortunately was true for several others instead of this board conveying a

014joint message of gratitude for the willingness to be transparent the speaker's message was taken personally and a high level of defensiveness was observed the only current explanation is there's a strong eagerness to create a false sense of security to the public regarding the execution of the reopening plan when asked for more participation at tonight's meeting there was a great hesitancy after witnessing last night last week's reaction when giving the invitation to submit Anonymous comments to be read tonight many were received and I'll share some of them right now whatever the plan is it needs to be carefully thought of details checked and clearly communicated to parents students and staff this has not been the case there are improper ventilation systems and the solution is to open Windows yet we do not all have Windows in

015our classrooms and it's winter and there's unrealistic expectations to teach both virtual and in person with no Guidance the answer the answers as to what the procedure when students do not wear there's no answers to when students do not wear masks I'm extremely frustrated and worried about the safety of our students and teachers cases continue to rise in our County State and Nation at alarming rates why are we putting everybody at risk all of the custodians are out at my school already during the first week with covid along with other staff and a student I am scared to enter the building each morning I'm also sad because our remote learning was going well and my students were making good progress being back I noticed instant regression I could actually provide more individualized immediate attention when

016on the computer compared to being constantly six feet away with a mask and a face shield if it is deems safe to send the students and teachers back into the building then it should be safe for you to hold in-person meetings and not over Zoom anymore you're hypocritical also it was unfair that Spud has to go in four days a week without any compensation yet jened has only to report for two we should be getting Hazard pay when a student presented with covid symptoms our school did not have any tests to give I talked to other staff in some other schools and they didn't have any tests either this explains why no one in my school has been randomly tested at all did the district stop when they discovered 20% of the rapid tests given

017in the first three days were positive I am extremely disheartened by the decision to move forward with the reopening of phase two when it seems our teachers and students are already in unsafe situations for phase one there were seven of 34 positive covid tested administered by the district during the first week how is this an acceptable positive positivity rate other districts test results are published in the news as a source of reassurance about the safety of schools do parents know that they're sending their children to schools with such high numbers of covid there is a huge disconnect to what is actually going on and what is being reported publicly how can this be resolved thank you Miss French we do appreciate your comments tonight our final speaker is Katherine rubles I hope I'm pronouncing your

018name right um she's a staff member who is addressing the board regarding hybrid learning uh for the district are you there Katherine yes I'm here wonderful you do have three minutes okay thank you hello my name is is Katherine rolz and I am an educator at School of the Arts if the district moves forward with its current plan I will be expected to return to in-person learning during phase three I am extremely concerned about the way that the Rochester city school district has gone about planning and informing teachers staff students and families with regards to hybrid learning not only are they beginning hybrid learning during the highest peak of covid-19 in our community so far but it does not seem that they have taken into consideration the input from teachers 81% of whom indicated that

019they did did not feel safe returning to in-person instruction and families 70% of whom have elected to keep their students in remote learning and whose education will be negatively impacted by the hybrid transition one area in which communication from the district has been lacking the most is in regards to training for staff returning to in-person instruction the government continues to tell us that schools are safe places for students to be I first believe that this is only true while Community spread is low and that therefore even in the safest conditions returning to in-person instruction while the numbers in our area are as high as they are is forcing teachers students and families to take on a huge physical risk however even when Community spread is low schools are only safe if they are made to

020be safe and this means that staff needs to be fully trained in all safety protocols the district is currently calling a halfday remote training that teachers received in September to be their training for returning to hybrid learning as Educators we know that people do not learn best when they are panicked and anxious nor do they learn best without enforcement of the information at the time of this training not only were Educators stressed and focused on how they were going to begin remote learning the next week the information from this session has never been reinforced or returned to many state guidelines have changed since this training and the training was missing many specifics regarding how guidelines should be followed some of the items missing from this training include how to use the specific cleaning products provided

021and many staff arrived to their buildings this week to find cleaning products with no instructions or specifications to determine which type of cleaning product they had received how to ensure students are distancing while getting on and off the bus or in the hallways in other common areas what specific protocols to follow if a student displays symptoms in school how students and staff will be tested for covid what the responsibilities are of the staff to ensure that students are following all health and safety guidelines including consequences for not following guidelines what the specific Protocols are if a student does not or will not wear a mask what protocol should be followed in shared bathrooms sanitizing Etc it is irresponsible and dangerous of the district not to provide further updated training to Educators and staff returning in

022person now is not the time to expect teachers to figure it out in the moment our health and our students Health are at stake lives are at stake the district must pause inperson hybrid learning at least until staff have been fully trained in all health and safety aspects of their job if not also until Community spread in our area has decreased schools are only safe if they are made to be safe thank you I was muted sorry about that thank you for addressing us tonight Katherine we do appreciate your comments uh President White that does conclude our speakers list for this evening I do understand that superintendent Myers small has a comment um as well regarding the the speakers or regarding the update that she was going to give no a different um comment I

023I think oh okay um go ahead uh Leslie you going to make a comment sure thank you um it's it's a little out of sync given everything that's going on with public comment but um if you'd like I can reserve it towards the end of the meeting President Wyatt it's it's a recognition of a a recent change in leadership at the State education department so I can wait all right why don't we just uh give the the comments a little opportunity to marinate and make sure that your comment about uh uh this individual will get the appropriate opportunity to be heard so I appreciate you being willing to sort of put it off just a little bit um I I did want to say on behalf of the board and superintendent uh that we appreciate

024the sacrifices and I don't know if that's an accurate word the tough balancing act that people sometimes have to perform when uh taking their precious time to make public comment we observe at least one speaker uh doing that very difficult physically and figuratively and literally that balancing eff of parenting and also trying to Aid the board and the superintendent in their mission and we really do anybody who's been a parent or an auntie who's held a baby uh or stepmom or grand Grandma grandfather or a loved one trying to manage a conversation while holding a baby is is is not an easy thing and and I want you to know and anybody who's done it and has as uh and the the speaker that did it tonight the board appreciates that because we we all

025have been in that place before and uh I I think she apologize and there there's not a board member or superintendent that would require an apology we really appreciate people who make the sacrifices that they do to speak up tonight um I just want to remind folks that we don't respond and for those who are not familiar with that usually in a conversation you think someone's going to say something in response we don't because we as I said we want the comments to marinate and and to just listen and rather than to respond sometimes that leads to arguments and sometimes it doesn't but we just Reserve this opportunity for people to speak um even though we don't respond we don't want you to think we don't value your comments there was a number of things

026today that were said that were extremely important I know the superintendent our staff they take very good notes and and uh board members sometimes ask questions about things I know I'm going to be sending a text to our clerk about two questions that I I have based on something that somebody uh based on something that two people said tonight um so again I know my colleagues uh take those same kind of notes and submit those same kind of questions so I just want to emphasize again on behalf of the board that just because we don't respond um it's not that we don't care or we don't value your comments we do um and then the other thing I want to say before we move on with the meeting is I sent you all this to

027my colleagues I sent you all an email indicating my unavailability uh at the end of this meeting uh a commitment that I cannot alter and uh so per our bylaws vice president Elliott will close out the meeting and we'll hand the G over to whoever she needs to to uh get us to the Finish Line tonight so all right uh next item on the agenda is you superintendent Myers I think you were going to give us an update on open you reopening absolutely thank you President White and certainly good evening to vice president Elliott our board Commissioners our uh administrators board staff and others who are watching tonight good evening it's good to to see everyone and thank you for your time I have been visiting schools throughout the district and certainly in phase one

028and have been incredibly energized by the positive feedback I have received from administrators and staff parents and caregivers and most importantly our students whose Smiles will certainly brighten any W's day and I wanted to just give special thanks to Aqua brothers and for their generous donation of smile masks for our students I also just want to thank all of our staff principles assistant principles uh teachers OT PT school counselors custodial staff clerical ssos uh Tas par professionals and if I missed anybody everyone who has been involved with the phase one and providing in-person hybrid instruction and support to our students food service thank you for all that you've done to enable us to be able to open uh the impact is certainly not has not gone gone unnoticed um tonight President White vice president Elliot

029and board Commissioners we are updating you and the public on phase three of our reopening plan we've come before you a few times to update you on our progress and so phase three includes our students who are in grades s through 12 who are not in those specialized programs that are in Phase One originally the district had proposed that all 712 students would remain virtual with the option of learning pods for the remainder of the school year H however after careful consideration and review of multiple plans we have decided that starting as early as Monday February 22 2021 students in grade 7 through 12 who have chosen to return to hybrid and imperson learning will do so two days per week and the specifics will be further outlined by Dr Morris and Dr Black the

030other three days will be delivered virtually using synchronous and asynchronous Independent Learning our primary Mission as we all know is educating students we must prioritize them and they do need to be back in school and that has been reiterated by our medical professionals we are however taking every single possible precaution for the adults who work with our children and we are monitoring this and will continue to be responsive to the safety and health of all those involved with reopening I now want to introduce Dr Janelle Morris who is our Deputy superintendent of teaching and learning and Dr Kathy black our chief academic officer who will provide details on the not only academic plan for reopening but a few other details as it relates to reopening thank you I turn it over to Dr Morris and

031to Dr Black thank you super um my colleague Dr Black and I will go through a few slides which we hope will provide some information for the board and the public regarding the reopening as described by the superintendent so um the first thing we wanted to discuss is phase two phase two is um going to be implemented beginning the week of February 8th so as of Monday February 8th all students in prek to six including our bilingual and special education program students who have not um re-entered in phase one would be um welcome back to the building in the hybrid model that I will describe now so these students all students in any model whether it's remote or if it's hybrid will receive 4 days of direct instruction that's delivered asynchronously or synchronously Wednesday will

032still be primarily preserved as a asynchronous or Independent Learning day um our students who are hybrid will attend their classes in person and remote students will join in using Zoom for a part of the school day um we will talk about schedules and what that looks like shortly um then also we will have two days that are fully remote for all students whether they are participating in the hybrid model or their remaining remote so that um the week will reflect as in the chart below which shows uh two days in P person for hybrid students and five days remote for remote but um the hybrid students would join their remote colleagues uh remotely on Thursdays and Fridays so you'll see Monday and Tuesday are primarily dedicated to pre6 students and remote will be um uh

033following along so to speak with that next slide please so as I mentioned we wanted to discuss some of the scheduling that comes along with this model so for example um for prek students who will be attending ing in the hybrid model on Monday and Tuesday their remote schedule is presented as follows so they would receive the same minutes of instruction in the remote model as hybrid students are currently receiving and you will see that they will have 15 minutes for their synchronous morning message or their greeting 15 minutes dedicated for a synchronous small group Ela instruction as well as 15 minutes for a Synn small group math instruction the synchronous large group will be presented for music and movement and then uh 30 minutes uh will be uh dedicated towards work time such as

034plan du review a facilitated play so the hybrid students will attend in person from either times of 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. or 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and on Thursday and Friday as Des cribed all students will follow the schedule remotely next slide please so for kindergarten and third through third students um once again Monday and Tuesday will be the days that they um are in the building and 15 minutes will be dedicated for them to have a synchronous morning meeting followed by 60 Minutes of synchronous Ela and 60 Minutes of synchronous math and then 30 minutes synchronous or asynchronous special um whatever the special is for the day and then 30 minut synchronous asynchronous science and social studies and the rest of the day will include some asynchronous work and this is our

035um synchronous um uh amount that is being made sure that we are having that synchronous U minutes are the same amount of delivered across the system to either remote or hybrid students and and those hybrid students once again will um attend from either 7:30 a.m. to 2: p.m. or 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. depending on the building and once again they will be Thursday and Friday remotely and then the next slide is describing what this looks like for our middle school students so grades four to six Monday and Tuesday 15 minute synchronous morning meeting followed by a 60 Minute block of ela and math they will also have a 30 minute special that will either be synchronous or asynchronous depending on what it is and then there will be 40 minutes asynchronous or synchronous for

036Science and 40 minutes synchronous or asynchronous for social studies um once again this is designed in a way to ensure that remote students are receiving the same minutes of instruction as the hybrid students that um are in person and they will have have the same um schedule for either coming in at 7:30 or 9: and leaving at 2: or 3:30 depending on the school and they will all follow the T Thursday through Friday schedule so I'm going to transition to the phase three um piece we're going to have my colleague do Kathleen back who is our um Chief academic officer she's going to describe for the group um what we're doing in phase three um so greetings I bring you updates around phase three so coming from the feedback that we received from multiple stakeholders

037including our state monitor um some collaboration with the New York State education department and our community members we are pleased to share that we are um opening up phase three which will allow our students in grades 7 through 12 who elected the hybrid option to attend school in person on Thursdays and Fridays you'll notice that the dates that we have here for that to begin are Monday the 22nd of February and Thursday the 25th of February that inclination is that we have some seventh and eighth grade students that may begin on Monday and Tuesday but the bulk of our seventh and 7 through 12 students will go on Thursdays and Fridays and as Dr Morris mentioned our remote students will join classes and attend in person um with their uh hybrid peers um next slide

038so just to put a visual to our phase three reopening you'll notice that on Thursdays and Fridays it again allows for our in-person 7th through 12th grade students to attend while their remote peers will be on Thursday and Friday you'll also notice that Monday Tuesday and Wednesday the bulk of our 7th through 12th grade students will be remote working from home um as an upgrade or an addition we will still have Provisions for schools to provide learning pods to small groups of students um so we will still have an ability for those schools to bring in students who have additional uh align needs to provide targeted supports next slide um and so we just want to highlight for you all the focus areas around health safety and Facilities that we've covered in preparation for both

039phase two and for phase three so we've gone back and reiterated our expectations around masks and face covering we are having our facilities um staff set up our classrooms and spaces to maintain all the appropriate social distancing recommendations you'll see a increase in handwashing and hand sanitizing opportunities across schools and we we are really thinking and speaking and sharing around our cleaning and disinfecting opportunities um making sure that hight touch areas are cleaned a number of times with plans for deep disinfecting on um Wednesdays and Fridays um in terms of covid testing we know that when we open and bring students back in we have an expectation to do testing across our schools and so in order to continue having students come in for the hybrid iners option we need to test a percentage of

040students um and staff every month our New York State requirement has us um making sure that we do this and if we do not do that we would have to close our schools and students would have to return to a fully remote option and students and staff will be notified in advance of their random covid-19 testing if required next slide um around professional development so I just want to highlight that we've already provided a lot of professional development equipment and guidance around our safety and health measures including Provisions around arrival social distancing classroom setup building signage mask wear building disinfection supplies and PPE and on-site testing and while not lifted here I want to just lift up the fact that we are also robustly planning to provide professional development for our teachers around synchronous and

041simultaneous instruction um communication went out today um to just update teachers that will be providing that professional development both on the 13th the 20th and the 27th um to make sure that teachers feel equipped and prepared to deliver instruction in phase two and phase three simultaneous to our students next slide and so um I just alluded to the first bullet in terms of professional development to support our simultaneous instruction again we roll out tomorrow Janu uh what is it January 13th um will there be a live stream for all teachers and then our plans for the 20th and the 27th include content specific professional development so that teachers get a double dose and then sometimes a triple dose of support so that when they receive students in phase two and or phase three they have

042been supported and we intend to through February and March continue to provide additional professional development opportunities for teachers um just as an highlight as we are bringing phase two back on Monday Tuesdays and phase three back on Thursday Fridays it's allowed us to really think about how we maximize our resources and that we're able to provide yellow bus transportation for all of our students we are thinking about how to support our food service workers having a full week of work and we are really maximizing our training and preparedness around Safety and Security finally just as a highlight because I want to make sure that academics is Center and we name that all of our students will be referring back to their Bell schedules um that they were experiencing prior to co shutdown so we're really

043excited to welcome them back um to our phase two and our phase three and I think that is our last slid so Dr Morris and I are um open to receive any comments or questions thank you thank you [Music] there any questions it was like awkward pause the end no questions it looks like there are no we have questions oh okay Elliot go ahead thank you Mr President um just a question around teachers now the teacher teachers who are returning are those the teachers who chose to return to in-person learning or were they required to return wait say ask that question one more time vice president ell teachers who are choose the teachers who are doing in-person learning are those teach did they choose to return to the classroom so the way that it it

044works in our district is that um you were expected to return if you had one or more students that were participating in the inperson hybrid learning however um we did have a process where you um could apply for a medical accommodation and that was run through um Dr Miller's office in in human capital initiatives and so we do have some teachers um in phase one so they are remote that's why you heard um concern uh from some caregivers that my child is not guaranteed myth weighed as their teacher but any te un every teacher is in unless they have a medical their medical accommodation was approved or if they've requested leave so those are the two ways that uh our staff and not just teachers but any staff member in Rochester would um uh not

045be uh working in person okay thank you so how many students in total are we expecting to return in person for which phase um just tell me for each phase okay um give me just can you I I will Circle back I don't have that paper right in front of me okay I will grab that all right um and then um you know with all of the you know hybrid learning and and um this whole new um you know um dynamic uh tell tell us about academic performance at this point how are the students performing academically I will defer that to Dr Morris Andor Dr Black so the the um feedback that we've received from our schools has been that the students have adapted very well to the virtual and the remote learning uh we

046have given um our nwaa assess as well to make sure that we are determining where our students are and trying to Pace uh their performance against that um all we have right now are quarter grades to show how they're doing so coupled with the feedback that we've received from the schools and the teachers and the students um we have heard from them that they have adapted well to the ones who are participating to in remote uh learning um and and that's what they're doing in that regard um as I said let me just let me just jump in here does that mean they're performing well it does not well we don't have other than the nwaa assessment all we have is that as a measure of performance we don't have any other um were were

047they were the students given report cards well I mean as I said we have quarter grades okay first quarter grades and in terms of we have the quarter grades we have that information we have that data we also have an assessment which is the nwaa which was delivered districtwide yeah so how do they do on their report cards so I would have to get that information for everyone um to share uh General performance on that but as I said we have two measures that we've been able to collect since this began in September which is one assessment and we have the quarter grades as well so we can get information about their actual performance okay yeah that that's something that we we would like to um um have in the Forefront of us at least

048me as chair of the esa committee so you know that's something I'll probably ask at every Esa committee and probably you know uh under the superintendent's report um under every committee we need we need to stay on top of that you know and if there are some adjustments that we need to make you know um you know let's do that let's do that super sooner rather than later thank you that's it Mr president vice president Elliot I just wanted to Circle back with your numbers question okay so um prek through sixth grade that total number uh that chose hybrid inperson model is about 4,400 students and then 712 that number is just under 3,000 so 29 2900 meaning meaning what now that they are they're in the hybrid model I'm sorry right 7 through 12

049about 2900 students prek through 6 4,400 students and that's rounded okay which means that the others are either in person or um it means they're remote are remote okay all right thank you you're welcome thank you vice president ell commissioner Malloy good evening thank you um I just have three three quick questions I hope um regarding Fe phase two the instruction during phase two and also during phase three can someone just tell me if this um is reflective of an increase in screen time for our remote students um I think people have expressed concerns about increases in screen time um is there going to be an increase with the scheduling changes so that's the first question so from the academic team we are looking at the amount of screen time that students are getting we

050don't anticipate that there will be an increase in screen time based on how instruction is being delivered I think that from a combination of whole group small group and individual intervention we are able to monitor the screen time what is really exciting about the model that we're proposing is that we are equalizing the amount of instructional minutes that all students are getting across um prek through 12 but we'll make sure to go back and look at the screen time allocated to make sure it's not a huge increase if at all any okay thank thank you I appreciate that yeah I think I was just mostly concerned about breaks being built into the schedule um for those students um and then the next question I had was regarding just the covid-19 testing um there have been

051lots of things on social media platforms Etc about numbers that were you know that were numbers published online showing you know High positivity rates for rcsd ETC and I guess I'm trying to get to the bottom I I didn't realize that we were testing any of our students are have we tested our students and what's going on there I just want to know what I'm looking at online if it's accurate or not um where these things are coming from um have we tested our students at all yet ask Mike to outline that process for you commissioner Malloy yes hi good evening commissioner we are actually testing in two different uh areas we are testing staff members um out of the Wilson uh former Swan Center at Wilson Foundation uh those tests are offered uh during

052the week for any staff member to uh to come and uh and take part in and then we also are o required to test uh students and staff at a 10% ratio every two weeks um so that uh I couldn't verify the the online numbers that you're looking at but if you forward to me I can give you some more clarity in regards to that um but that's that's ongoing as we speak so this would be this is day five of phase one and uh so that will be wrapping up that first round of testing at the end of this week students have to consent in order to be tested um and the staff is required to test and so how many have we how many students and teachers have we tested so far um

053as if the see me I'm not I'm not exactly sure but I certainly can find that out and we can get that number to the board tomorrow morning okay thank you actually I think what we could do is we could have it by the end of this week so you'd have the first uh two we picture of the 10% for each building if that works for you okay perfect thank you very much very well just a final question I have is a general question um I thought I heard that you said 2900 students will be coming back during phase three for inperson instruction I was trying to catch the numbers that's correct okay um and so are they spread out how many different buildings are we reopening so are all of our buildings opening yes

054okay so I think my concern then is what are the financial implications of opening up all of our buildings and um how much is this going to cost us overall so that we're going to bring forward at the um at the finance committee meeting thank you are you all set commissioner I am thank you thank you commissioner LeBron yes thank you lots of questions um so I would try to write them down as you guys were presenting because I printed the slides earlier um so I do want to acknowledge and recognize that we kind of changed the plan from the original survey that went out to parents and I want to see if there's a way to resurvey parents with updated information I do feel that it is unfair for families who thought that they

055were going to have two op you know the two options with the information that we had at the time and I want to acknowledge that we did the survey with the information that we had I get that but because we have change and we officially not open in phase two or three at this point if there is a way to survey parents so I'm going to go through the questions and then if you need me to go back to them I will um can we just answer them one at a time that way we'll get them ahead um so the um Dr Morris and uh Miss Martinez Davis as well as the Chiefs have been working on a process for families because there have been some changes as you indicated and are completely aware of

056that um so they are working on how to accept if people want to um indicate that now they want to choose um the hybrid POS uh hybrid uh for either phase two or phase three the issue is that we've got to make sure that we because transportation is the major complication here as far as scheduling we've got to figure out and make sure that the folks who said they wanted to come are still going to come because some of those numbers certainly have changed in phase one so they are reviewing that and we can update you with what that process is um but to complete I don't I'm not sure if they're going to completely resurvey or if it's going to be held at each school to figure out how to determine waiting list to

057make sure we can try and accommodate as many families who now want to choose uh hybrid impers as possible okay I'll make sure to document that we Circle back to this so I can get an update on um in phase two I was kind of confused about the instruction for prek um just like 15 minutes in small group Ela I listen um many I know you have a new team lesie so for folks who don't know I do have um experience not only teaching but also working with kids for a number of years and a variety of programs I don't know any four yearolds and three year olds that I'm going to get to sit situated and settled and teach them a Ela or a math lesson in 15 minutes I personally do not think

058that that's realistic so I'm just very concerned about how that schedule is actually going to look in a room full of four yearolds or a combination of four yearolds online and then in person um so I just I was kind of confused about that but I do want to talk about just the instruction pieces because they all kind of tie in for me I am I am not a fan of trying to have teachers teach students both in person and online at the same time I actually don't think it's realistic and I feel very strongly and I'm and I think I feel very strongly as a mom more than anything that it is a real disadvantage for not only my student but other students who are in person trying to get that attention from their

059teacher who also then has to split their time with a student who's learning remotely and as someone who has been in the remote learning end of it at the as a parent since March of last year you know um it's a struggle it's a struggle for the Educators to get all the kids online to get them we can't even get adults like situated in Zoom meetings half of the time people are muted all the time like that was like the phase of last year you're muted we still go through those challenges we go through technology challenges of having to try to log on we have experienced that as an entire District where everything was down and nobody could log on not even Educators or students for you know hours on end until things were repaired

060but I just strongly feel like it is an unrealistic expectation to think that a teacher is going to manage 20 25 30 students um both in person and online at the same time and in addition to that you know I recognize that other districts are doing it but we are always saying not only as Administration and as a board we don't like when we're compared to other districts because we are different from other districts we have you know a different population of students we have thousands upon thousands we're the largest District of Monroe County I don't like when we're compared to Charter Schools who one school has their own board three to 400 600 students a thousand students we have over 25 plus thousand students you know that learn in our buildings under public education

061and then we're responsible for the um transportation and special education for charter schools and transportation for private schools so it's a much larger operation so I'm very concerned about this model and how that actually is realistically going to work out um and I just want to understand like if there's actual data I want to see data data with a school district my size that shows that a teacher can teach hybrid and inperson at the same time I don't want I don't want to see Brighton's um numbers I want to see a large school district our size um that is having that model and teaching students successfully in a hybrid in-person learning model through a pandemic um the other concern I I just also need Clarity around is the 7:30 A.M to 2 PM 9:00 am

062to 3:30 p.m. schedule so the way I read this as a parent of a fourth grader um I opted to transport my child because that's the privilege that I have I didn't have it with my oldest two that went through the district but for me that means I have to wake up my kid at 6:00 am on Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday Thursday and Friday I'm waking them up at 8 for class at 9: can I get clarity around that piece because I do think that's going to also kind of create some just just a disorient a disorientation for my own child um let alone parents who also have to work and if they're trying to manage like going to work what that child care is going to look like for them so

063can I get clarity on that piece too I'm gonna ask that from either uh Dr Morris or Dr Black Dr Black do you mind speaking to the schedule please so when phase two and phase three reopen students are reverting back to their bell schedule so irrespective of whether they're hybrid or remote all students will follow the same schedule for the five days from their school's Bill schedule so your baby won't have to get up um on two days to be driven to school and on the other days to stay home whatever time she gets up she'll get up the same time every day and you just have to make accommodations for her to begin her day of instruction at the same time all five days okay so she'll be learning at 7:30 on Thursdays and

064Fridays remotely yes thank you for that clarification and then on phrase three um there was a parent that sent an email about the lunch being reduced for their child to 20 minutes because of this the changes and potential for the 7th through 12th graders um and how their child is going to be home and our kids are used to I know my daughter gets a whole hour she has like her own thing bled every day for that hour but um I am concerned about like what 20 minute lunch will look like for individuals who since last March have been having at least an hour or more um I do want to talk about the health and safety and the testing and I wholeheartedly support a way that we figure out to have testing actually at

065schools um testing Still Remains a big issue and Dr Myers I want to acknowledge that you did put formally in writing to our County Executive to expand testing sites and I appreciate that you did that um you know but it's still continues to be a an area that we are lacking right now in testing sites for community members um but Sophia's grandmother for those who don't know is a bus monitor um she's someone she's not my blood but she's like blood to me we love Sophia's grandmother in this house and she's over you know she's in the age where she's she has a compromised health she's over 64 years old um and so she called me and said I got a phone call I think I have to come back you know she was very

066afraid very nervous but she loves being a bus monitor she loves working with our students she was like I'm going to do it but there was some concerns because she asked about whether we're requiring staff who are coming back bus monitors and bus staff if they were going to be tested and they told her like you got to get tested on your own time and that she called me about that and she was upset um so I actually advised her to speak to her medical professional um for some documentation because I thought that was a little bit ridiculous but you know makes me nervous that that's the message we're sending to staff because what if staff don't want to get tested and may be displaying symptoms um so I'm concerned around that and I want

067to push that we do have testing clear and available for our staff and our students um but also that there's an expectation that we are we are also supporting them in that process say um and I see the mask and face coverings in your presentation and I want to thank you for that as well because that's something I brought up last week but I do um I would like some clarity on what the consequences are for staff who are not compliant and I know that we want to think that all adults are going to be compliant they're not um and I worked at an agency all last year not only where I had to do home visits and I had some wonderful colleagues but I had colleagues that had to be constantly reminded that they

068were not wearing their mask appropriately that they were Conjuring in spaces where we had said nobody was going to conjure and I I just need to understand all of those things that I just mentioned as much as possible so we will um I've got a couple things commissioner LeBron you want us we'll put on the log about to show the data of a large District teaching um in person remote s multaneously and successfully I just want to say that I want to see successfully academically successfully okay and then consequences for staff and staff and students who are not compliant with maske wearing and then the the testing piece yes okay got it you all set commissioner LeBron yes I am thank you commissioner Clark yes I had one quick question and it was regarding staff

069that are returning to the buildings now those that are high risk you know because of medical conditions or whatever though the medical accommodations that they ask for th those are automatically granted correct if they can prove that they're highrisk individuals um I'm gonna there's a process I'm gonna ask Dr Miller to come on screen and to just outline that briefly for you thanks um good evening commissioner yes there is a process um we started a process back in October where anyone who thought that they needed to um request an accommodation either for child care or as a medical accommodation that they could submit uh a request form our benefits team would then follow up with that individual to engage in the interactive process to understand um what their needs were and how we might be

070able to accommodate those needs um if it was a medical uh related concern then we would have uh a request for medical documentation that would substantiate uh their needs um and then there would be some engagement all done confidentially with a very limited staff and our medical director um the district medical director would then provide some feedback and then we would engage with uh the employee and the employee supervisor um in this case we might be talking about a teacher and there would be an effort to see if uh the request could be accommodated so certainly not every individual was requesting a leave um in some cases individuals were just requesting um Advanced uh PPE um or or other other needs that they might have um and so we were working through that process with

071individuals and um that all takes a little bit of time depending on when information is is brought back um we um are working through phase two right now with individuals and cases are under review and we've also started working on phase three um although I would anticipate that after today's announcement we might hear from some new people that we haven't yet heard from because they now know um the intended plan thanks you all set commissioner Clark take that mut um all right uh any other questions for the superintendent based on her uh reopening report um Leslie I I did want to make an observation um and uh it is just that you don't you don't need to respond you can if you'd like but you know I was really uh one of the reasons why

072I was extremely hopeful about your superintendency is that I thought uh you would have the opportunity I'd hope you'd have the opportunity to really focus on improving our Ela and mass SC those are key performance measures for us and my fear is not for want of trying on your staff's part that this whole Co thing has got us sort of distracted in in an important way how do we provide instruction in this age of covid with distance learning and hybrids and so forth uh so so I hope you appreciate my concern it's not a reflection I know the very hard work that your staff is doing but I I was really excited about your coming to this district and the staff that you brought in the leaders that you brought in because I thought okay

073we've really had a a singular focus on graduation rates over the years uh and there's some steady Improvement in that area but we've not really focused on for a variety of reasons um Ela and mass course and I thought there was this opportunity do you have my concern do you share my fear that I don't want to say that people are just treading water but do you have um uh you share my concern that rather than swimming to Shore or rowing to shore we're just sort of Treading Water because we have to deal with all these Co things and again you please keep your answers short I I I realize it's more of a global question but I did want to share with you and my colleagues that I was really looking forward to this

074year in particular because I thought with your focus and your expertise and the staff that you brought in we begin to see as a result of putting sort of racehorse blinders focusing exclusively on Ela M scores and getting a curriculum together and so forth you feel we we we we won't be able to have that kind of focus so certainly a lot of our time and attention mine and many of the folks that you see on the screen as well as others have had to focus on reopening and being in the midst of a global pandemic but the Board of Education unanimously approved a three-year strategic plan we have task forces that have moved forward one of them specifically focuses on three through eight math and Ela as well as graduation and I just received

075an up an update from Dr Morris and Dr Black that those task forces are very vibrant and they're digging in and leaning into that um so whereas a lot of our Focus has been on that the work is still moving forward and um we will be giving updates um through certainly um permission with vice president Elliot in Esa but other places around that work and we'll be focusing on some of that um in in up in uh upcoming or uh presentations and meetings so yes the pandemic has taken a lot of our time and attention and I think frankly President White and others um My Hope Is that we can not have so much as of a focus on planning the reopening we need to um I'm getting long-winded so I'm going to say focus

076on pandemic we're moving forward we have task forces that are that are focusing on three through eight math Ela and graduation and we'll be able to give you some updates to that regard thank you very much that was reassuring and and uh again we we all know the tremendous amount of work that had to go into doing the um unusual uh and you guys have done an admirable job at that but again I I I appreciate the fact that you are telling us that you've not lost focus on those important key performance areas because people are going to you know there's going to be and and I understand this no excuses people want to see Improvement and um and it's good to know that your team is not lost focus and we we applaud you

077for your steadiness in that area because I know it cannot be easy all right um let me just check my partic you're muted Vice President ellot we may have lost we may have lost President White can you hear me yeah I just to this is what I was saying earlier you guys like ain't no way a no way this is exactly what I'm talking about I just want to put that out there I just wanted to make a small comment to to president White's um reflection or concern that you know this is also an opportunity to for us to return and identify those leading indicators and those lagging indicators that we um highlight and agree to and share and use to help us um Monitor and measure how well the district is doing academically and

078so I just want to bring that back up to the Forefront that I think that's an important piece to highlight and make sure that we adhere to that will help make sure that those items that he mentioned are always at the Forefront thank you Dr jell I seem to have lost my video um so vice president Elliott actually I'm getting short of time anyway vice president Elliott you wanna it's your meeting anyways we're gonna call to order the meeting of Esa uh and uh vice president ellot you have the gavel all right thank you Mr President um thank you good evening this is the um excellent equity and student achievement um committee um we have a number of items on our agenda uh we're going to uh look at the minutes and then we're going

079to have a presentation or talk about um student attendance uh we're going to Spotlight one of our schools mon High School um the upper level of uh mon high school and we're going to have a presentation on um special education uh we're going to do a u presentation on uh data and uh account accountability services and we're going to have a presentation on Community Schools so we do have a uh an aggressive or ambitious um committee meeting of this evening and I'd like to welcome um do we have Miss King miss kingkale our parent rep uh with us uh to invite her um to our committee meeting so our first uh order of business is to uh I a motion for the approval of the Esna um um equity and student achievement uh minutes from

080November 10th uh can I get a motion motion thank you Amy second second from commissioner LeBron and I just want to there there's a there's a couple of things that I wanted to reference um and this uh question is to you commissioner LeBron on page two of the minutes um you wanted um some information regarding um uh attendance and and finances and revenue how all that um connects did you get that answered did you it was supposed to be in the in the question log yeah I did get that answered from staff there was um it was a little bit more comprehensive I just wanted to understand the connection but they did answer that in the question log can to answer it in the minutes no they did not answered in the minutes but I

081wanted I'm just going back and and uh trying to make sure that we're connected so um Madam superintendent can we have carlen or someone respond to that publicly to that um question that she had and I'm reading the um and this could be uh Miss haer but um she asked about attendance commissioner LeBron asked about the impact of attendance will have on our fin finances and revenues so if um if you don't mind commissioner Myra small if carlen could answer that question um publicly okay Caren I would prefer if I could defer that um so I can get all the facts together for you um commissioner Elliott um obviously there are considerations with regard to attendance um certain number of hours do need to be met um in order to um qualify for the state

082so I would want to do a little bit more research and get all of that to you um in a formal document all right so but wasn't that in the question laog I did not receive that um I can pull it up if well you guys can continue meeting commissioner Elliot I'll pull it up but what I will say is that I do think I will support this being addressed publicly because we as board members get to ask questions and administration does answer but then we are the only ones that that see those documents and and received them and I thank you for bringing that back up and I will be more than also happy to have klen do a presentation to the board at the next Finance meeting to discuss the correlation um so

083it was a very simple answer yes but if you want more details she can do that during Finance as a presentation but I'll pull up while you guys are meeting now the question log where that was answered and send it I'll email it to you and then if you want to read the response publicly you can thank you and then um in in the minutes we talked about the African and African-American AP course um just want to find out where we are uh Dr Meers small on that just a quick you know 15 second um you know response to that and and I think what we'd like I'd like to have is that we have that on the agenda for Esna on you know every other month that we find out how that's coming along

084uh vice president Elliot college board has received multiple letters not only locally but uh at the state level as well as nationally and so we continue to Pepper them with the need for this and so we're just waiting for them to uh give us a response they have convened um some groups and I know commissioner Malloy might even be aware given that her background is social studies um but there's been multiple Outreach and so there's lots of advocacy that's moving forward for that to become a reality but as you know um the creation of uh any type of ADV advanced placement course does take time because it has to be vetted at both the um uh uh secondary level as well as the higher ed level but we continue to advocate so thank you asking

085this is something the board is probably going to continue to um ask about um commissioner Clark did you have a question okay no I did not thanks okay all right um so can I get um so all in favor of the um approval of the November 10th uh equity and student achievement work session minutes all in favor hi any oppos thank you uh so the next item on the agenda is the um student attendance and that'll be presented by um associate director Elizabeth hoofer hello everyone good evening commissioner and superintendent um I'm here this evening to give you an update about the status of attendance in the Rochester city school district rahema is going to advance the slides for me and rahima we can go on to slide two please so our mission this year

086is the importance of contact connectivity relationships and participation and this is especially important in light of what we're going through with covid um we're working very hard with all schools and school attendance teams to make sure that students are connecting with us that are um participating in class and that we're continuing to build relationships with families so that uh we can reduce loss learning time in school because we know that decreased uh attendance is going to impact academics in a negative way so that really has been our Focus this year go ahead rahima so I broke down the attendance much like I did last year I wanted to let you know how students are doing uh as of January 5th uh with average daily attendance so this is by grade level and you can see

087that we have some spikes at seventh and eighth grade and um if you can go go on to the next slide rahee thank you this slide will show you a comparison of those grade levels in November and in December so the darker blue is November last year the light blue is November this year the darker purple is December this year and the light purple is December this year so you can see that um there's some Trends going on here that in grades uh kindergarten through six it looks like students attended average J attendance was higher last year and in um grades 7 through 12 actually student attendance is higher this year and it thums this up more clearly um Rim in the next slide so to really get an idea and I was cautioned not

088to use the word comparison but that was what you asked us up to to provide to you to see what the attendance was this year compared to last year and because it really is very different last year was was completely in person we stopped recording attendance when we uh went home on March 13th and we kept track of Engagement this year we are keeping track of attendance right from day one but it's been for the most part remote um if you take a look at it though case six average daily attendance for last year around this time was 86.5 and right now it's at 82 our high older children secondary 7 through 12 are doing slightly better this year as compared to last year um my my gut feeling is that has to do with

089how well students are able to navigate remotely independently and um be super supervised to attend go ahead rahima so the next couple slides will show you how on January 5th individual schools were um performing for average daily attendance and um some of our High Flyers are the same High Flyers we've had over the last couple of years such as school 23 and 52 and 53 um but they're very similar within for most cases 80 to to 90% can you go to the next slide please these are our prek and K8 elementary schools um and they are very similar as well our next group is our schools that have just seventh and8th grade so we have East lower Franklin lower Monroe lower Nath maniel Community School in Northwest some of these schools are new this year

090such as Franklin Monroe lower and the configuration for Nathaniel Rochester so it's hard to compare anything for last year we don't have last year's data but this is how they're doing this year go ahead and then we have some schools that have multiple School configurations such as School of the Arts and Leadership Academy that are 72 schools and and we have school 58 world of inquiry which is uh K through 12 so our secondary schools are listed on this slide and you can see that some schools such as um Rochester early college and school without walls are are performing very well go ahead and our program schools on this slide is uh does have the Rochester early childhood education center on it this was uh not disaggregated last time when I presented this so I

091wanted to make sure this was here this time and you can see that our program schools um are how they're performing as well go ahead so if you look at this you can see that we have some schools that um are doing much better in November and December than last year I did send you two additional documents one was a chart that had a list of all the schools month-by-month comparison and I pulled out those ones for you that show um which ones had improvements over last year uh for both November and December and then some that just showed Improvement in December so there are schools that are um really working hard and you can see that in their average daily attendance percentages and that concludes my report thank you um I see Amy you

092have a commissioner U Mallo you have a question yeah I'm just wondering uh just in looking at that chart that you presented the side by-side comparisons of all of the schools um and I I we've noticed drops from September to December just kind of across the board um small small drops but drops nonetheless and I guess I obviously we can't answer this tonight but it's something that it's information I would like shared at some point um I am wondering at at some of the schools where we're seeing the highest attendance rates um interested in learning more about some of the best practices yes that are taking place there that hopefully then can be disseminated or or shared yeah across um I'm very very excited to answer that question great um yes because because uh one

093of the Wonder one of the wonderful things about uh zooming is that you get to zoom to attendance meetings all day long so I zoom all over the place and um I've been able to look at the structures of attendance meetings and really see some best practices so tomorrow afternoon I have a couple of elementary schools who are sharing their best practices with other attendance teams um one of the interesting things I've been trying to do is to build capacity for the attendance teams um across the district so that they're consistent and we address all the levels of attendance tier one which is everyone in the school tier two which are students who are starting to show some chronic absenteeism difficulties and may have a minor obstacle that can be resolved quickly and tier three

094uh students who have severe chronic absenteeism and they need some um equally uh important uh resources to resolve the the obstacles so um tomorrow afternoon we have some schools that are going to share that with other staff members and that is going to be videotaped so I hope I can share it and also um share the fact that um one of the things School 8 did was shared uh they built capacity in their whole building around the importance of attendance and what everyone can do to support that and so I'm hoping to build capacity um not only for the attendance teams but for the attendance teams to then build capacity throughout the district to look at those interventions that are effective and um and it's it's very exciting so thank you for asking about that

095okay thank you so much any other questions commissioner Malloy all right commissioner LeBron yeah um so I just want to say Cynthia I just looked through the minutes and it's not on the log for November or December and this is our first meeting for January 2020 so I am going to work with carlen we're meeting for a pre-financial meeting this week and I'll make sure that we have a detailed uh presentation on how attendance impacts us financially and then also show where that number is because I think it's I think what I received was a yes it does type of answer um but I think it would be beneficial for the full board and the community to understand what the impact is but I do also want to say that this is a timely presentation

096because just today I was having some conversations around what what Outreach efforts internally the district is doing for students who are not participating um that are from MLL backgrounds um and I know that there are a number of organizations outside of the district who have kind of taken some of this work um as their charge throughout the pandemic and you know have reached out not only to myself I'm sure to the Commissioners as things come up um even neighborhood association so I've gotten emails from people who are part of their neighborhood associations to say I have a family they don't have an a WiFi they don't have a laptop and they don't speak English how do we support them getting these things um and shout out to Glenn let me just give Glenn some shout

097outs because he has been wonderful about addressing those things as they've come up making sure families have those supplies as we know about it but I am interested in understanding what our internal um targeted uh processes in place right now to reach out and identify with our MLL students who are not actively participating um with virtual learning for whatever reason that is part of what happens at the attendance meetings is trying trying to identify what is the obstacle uh for example today um at school 5 we addressed this concern and made sure that with the parent meeting that's coming up that there'll be an interpreter so that we can make sure um mom mom thinks the child's coming to school every day and and we have data to show that that's not happening but we're

098going to be able to uh use an interpreter to help address that so um my team and I attend all of the meetings and um share what the resources are across the district and in the community so that we can make sure people are linked to them right away thank you uh Dr jallow you have your hand up yes oh I'm sorry commissioner LeBron yeah I just wantan to I'm sorry Dr jallo just a quick follow up on that because I hear interpreter but I'm also just thinking about families who are not participating where the parent themselves are not participating so beyond Spanish and I'm not saying that you The Interpreter was going to speak Spanish but our families who are who speak Swahili right or Somalian and you know I know those are harder

099languages to access both translators and materials translated um but I just curious if there is an actual Collective effort from internally the district and I know that this work doesn't just fall in your office and I want to acknowledge that my expectation is that all schools are taking accountability for all of their students um but just trying to understand those families the parents who not only do they not know their child may not be attending but really don't even know how to communicate themselves uh with this process right so the communications department has um resources for us for families that speak other languages that we can access um but one of the other things we do is um talk to to families who speak English because sometimes there's misconceptions I had a grandmother tell me

100today that she she opted out instead September that's why her child wasn't attending and I had to explain it wasn't an opt out um survey she was answering it was a modality and um had to explain you know what we would need to do to re-engage her her son her grandson so um you know it is uh it's widespread the kind of reasons that we hear and um you know by building relationships with families and building trust we can get to some of the the problems that are occurring are you done commissioner LeBron I'm done for now all right thank you do Dr Jello thank uh Miss Hofer thank you for the presentation I was wondering if you have any plans of doing a similar presentation about chronic absenteeism and then I also asked if

101you could help people understand how you know this district has some of the highest chronic absenteeism rates in the state across the country but still has attendance rates in the 80s and 90s and how the two can coincide right be accurate right so chronic absenteeism is when a child misses 10% of school or more and when we look at the rate for schools we look to see how many students have missed 10% of school or more some kids um can be missing 63 days and they count as one chronically absent child we have other children who come to school almost every day and so they add to that base of of high average daily attendance and low chronic absenteeism but the studies I've looked at from uh attendance works.org we're not going to move the

102needle on chronic on a on average daily attendance until we get chronic absenteeism taken care of because we need to have less students who are chronically absent in order to improve average daily attendance so right now what schools are doing at their attendance meetings they're looking for students who have between seven and 14 days absent and trying to resolve what those um challenges were so far this year to make sure that we have fewer days moving forward so they don't become chronically absent at the same time they're trying to uh put supports in place for students who have severe chronically absence so we can turn it around and improve attendance for next year as well as uh work on providing a positive culture for everybody so that school is the place people want to come

103to any additional questions Dr jallow sorry I just think that you know you do you if you do a presentation on attendance you should do a presentation on chronic absenteeism because it's really quite a serious situation in this District yes and I think it's something that the board should be made you know aware of on a semi-regular basis thank you Dr jals I agree and um I'm I'm looking forward to doing that for you um before I ask my questions um does that complete your question question Dr jall any more questions Dr Jello sorry I'm muted no thank you I'm fine thank you all right um our parent rep um Miss Clint scale do you have any questions is our parent rep there she's here in the room um commissioner excuse me vice president Elliot

104but her sound is I'm here I'm here I don't have any questions I I I kind of agree with Dr I would like to know what percentage of these students are 7 to 14 days at you know at this point yeah and I also want to know what is the parent uh liaison or the the people that run the parent program what are they doing far it's reaching out to these parents and you know y'all do have parent reps at every school so are you as the attendant utilizing them to kind of help Reach Out out to these ones that are between that seven to 14 days yeah the Apparently ason attend the attendance meetings and they usually take on a case load of students to try to re-engage they also have a wealth of

105information about what kind of challenges um people are having and they also have a lot of resources at their fingertips to try to um resolve those challenges so are you getting any turnover from the efforts that you'reall putting are you getting how many kids have y'all actually re-engaged I would like to know too I know you don't know that right off hand but right yeah follow yeah sometimes it's a case by case uh situation I'd like to say like the woman I spoke to today uh you know learning about that this is not an opt out situation that we are expecting your child to be in school either remotely or um or in person um hopefully that's going to change it for him and um the other thing that we were trying to do is

106get that that message of the importance of good attendance out to the community so there's a lot of different prongs um that we are using to try to improve attendance across the district okay thank you all right thank you Miss kingkale so I have a I have a couple of questions uh with regard to and I'm looking at the sheets that you sent out um Betsy and I'm looking at the um year-over-year monthly Ada comparison by school here's what I would like for you to present next month if you can I'm looking at um Franklin upper and I'm looking at and let me just ask this through you um commissioner I mean um superintendent Maya Smalls um didn't mean to disrespect you um so for Franklin upper and Northeast College Prep uh and also with

107the Northstar program um I'd like to see a strategy of what we're going to put in place to increase those um that attendance is that something we can do for next month I will speak to them this week and we will put something in place I will also get a um a summary of the efforts they've already put in place absolutely and I I think probably the best thing to do would be to give you a breakdown of the attendance at those different levels reach of those schools as well Northstar is a very small program so if they have 60 students and um 20 or 30 of them are have met their chronic absenteeism level their rate is going to be much higher so I'll delve into that a little bit more so I can

108give you a better understanding yeah because we we need to understand you know what's if if this is Franklin upper meaning that these students are on the trajectory to graduate uh at at some point so um something's going on with my uh computer so so I I'd like to see Franklin upper um you know and we've got some other successful schools with attendance um if we need to you know engage them what are we doing what's the strategy to get these kids um online hybrid or um or in hybrid so I need a we need a plan for that we need to plan for Northeast for next month and then I'd like to be able to do that on a monthly basis of all the schools that seem to have some attendance challenges okay okay

109great and then even even if they could come on and I'll I'll defer to the superintendent even if they can be invited to talk to us about their strategy I'd like to have that to be a part of this meeting is that possible Dr Myers phone um yes vice president Elliot one of the things I'm glad you're bringing this up one of the things that we're really really trying to focus on is that is capitalize on best practices and you know and President White I know has brought that up before that there are certain schools that just do certain things well and we have each school that has that one or more things certainly that they do well and so we're trying to figure out how to create that bank I was having that conversation

110with Dr jallow how do we create that so it is and and uh Med Soul as well how do we replic at that across the district you know there are certain schools um and I could rattle off a few of them that all of us know that people want their children to attend in the Rochester City School District we have to shift the Paradigm that we are certainly not taking away the away from the uniqueness of each one of our 56 programs in schools but that there are certain just um minimal expectations right or characteristics that we have that the lesie Meyers School of of dance right that we have that those characteristics apply across the way and so we've got to figure out how to bottle that secret sauce and make it you know

111available across the district so that's something that I am actively working on like I said I had a good great conversations with Dr Jello and um our chief of communications mediso and so that's something that I definitely want to come back back and talk to the board preferably through Esa but it could be through another venue that is critical because we do we know that we have certain schools that we can say yep that school is doing well academically attendance culture and climate Etc so I appreciate you bringing that to the Forefront so the other question I have has to do with ninth grade attendance somehow they go into eth grade they're doing well in attendance but when they get to the ninth grade they're not doing well what I'd also like to see um

112presented to this committee uh Dr Mayers small is what strategy are we using to increase those attendance scores because that ninth grade is where they uh uh uh decrease in attendance but then they go up so one of the things that um I was talking about earlier today with our staff has to do around I know when one of the previous superintendant under a former pre um one of the previous U Deputy superintendant under a former um uh superintendent talked about the fact that if a ninth grader can get one credit and it was something else that they would be on trajectory to graduate that the chances of them graduating increases and one of the things I said today is that you know we have this information but our families don't have this information so

113how do we communicate to our families that if they did this in the nth grade right if if we know the if we know if we've got the data as professionals we need to be communicated that information to our families and to our communities so that they can help us in this process of ensuring that they're uh on time um to graduate so how do we get that information out there that there is a there is a strategy that can be used when they're in the ninth grade to get them on track how how do we communicate that Prof professional information ex exactly and I I think you can remember when you were in school there were certain times during your school career that you absolutely loved coming to school and other times that you

114didn't right and so it's that the French call it the junqua right that piece that school was engaging and whether you were an athlete or you played the bass clarinet like Dr wasn't it Dr Black you play the bass clarinet right instr but there are things or you had just that teacher or that staff member and so we do have to communicate that attendance matters to students and to families did I lose you oh okay I froze for a second we have to communicate that so yeah we're on the same page there so we need to Circle back with that but but I want it to be specific of what I'm saying now Dr Myers small okay that that kind of data that data we need to communicate to the I need to be talking

115with the people on the street that if if a ninth grade student is able to pass one region okay and U something else I can't remember right now that if they have that kind of information their chances of succeeding increase so even though we may not be offering all of the different kinds of activities which we should but if they have that kind of information I really believe that we make them a significant partner in their children's education agreed but they need that kind of data that we as professionals have okay all right commissioner LeBron you have a question yeah I just want to comment to what you're saying commissioner Elliot because when Naisha and Gina were you know from 9th through 12th grade in this District I had no idea what they needed to

116graduate where they were at if they were on track they would come home and tell me like oh I met with my counselor and let me just say um Miss burls was their counselor she was here a few weeks ago accepting an award for North FE she was amazing um and I felt very comfortable being able to as a parent reach out to her but for me personally remembering I was an adult student in college knowing that I had an academic advisor that would sit down with me every single semester and show me where I was at what courses I still needed while I was trying to juggle a lot of things um how beneficial That was cuz I would not have been able to try to navigate on my own that system while I'm

117trying to raise kids while I'm working two jobs um so for me I wholeheartedly would support our us figuring out a way to have that type of academic advisement and I just want to remind the board that commissioner Shephard did put um a policy in place before she left that was one of the things that required students to have that level of information from their guidiance counselors and that we would fund them as well because that's the other issue um that we make sure we have them and that they're you know trained and supported so we do have a policy on the books around that so if we can pull that policy back up commissioner Elliott and possibly review it at the next Esa um to tie it back into this but I wholeheartedly agree

118and I think it has to be an every year conversation with students and parents about what where their student is at academically um if they are on track if they're not on track what we can do to support them to get on track um and not wait till like 12th grade to give them that assessment so that that's something um commissioner LeBron and vice president Elliott that we can definitely Circle back um Deputy Martinez Davis uh over the break presented me with the plan that takes a look at a lot of what you're talking about and we actually have a breakdown with every one of our secondary schools of how the counselors interact so we can certainly update that report is already done so um um Deputy Martinez Davis if you'll just make a note

119we can even start by certainly sharing that information through the Friday letter so our commissioners can see uh what we're doing um and we can attach that and send that out in a couple days so will you also be developing some kind of um um program or strategy to get the information out like even in newsletters that's the next step you know you know what I'm saying we got to get the information out some kind of way we got to get into the hands of our families um Dr jallow yeah I wanted to say one of the things that I think Administration is working I hope Administration is working on and is in the plan is the development of an instructional course catalog this is what you use across most districts to empower students and

120their families to look at the courses and the trajectory that they should follow if they want to graduate high school want to pursue vocation a career Military College it starts with a course catalog that represents 7 through 13 what you need to take how you take online courses AP courses college credit courses concurrent courses should you take Algebra 2 or or or or calculus should you take AP or you it's all outlined in that course catalog the number of credits you need when you need to take them the sequence of courses this is missing in this district and that's what's needed that will Empower inter folks internally and externally to this to this organization and I I just also want to uh point out from your SL one of your slides Bessie that it seemed

121as if from last year over this year for our high school students there seemed to have been a slight increase of attendance and so one one of the if if I saw that correctly so one of one of the um one of the concerns I've always had is is that you know we're expecting our high school students to be in the building when there may be some um other responsibilities that they may be having and so you know if we can help them in terms of if they've got to work um you know that kind of thing because I know when you when um uh I talked with Glen Jeter over at McDonald's for example on on Upper Falls Boulevard you know he his his employees some of them who are students in our district

122have to work but they can't work you know because of I think it's law or something but anyway that's just an example of the um responsibilities that our high school students have and I think it's important for us to understand why they're not in school in addition to the fact that we may not be providing them the kinds of offerings that we should be providing them to prepare them for Global economy but we need to get we need to get that data we need to find out what's going on there um so that you know we can continue the trajectory from when they were in elementary school and then going on into uh into high school so I'd be interested in looking at that data um as well yeah it's Slide Five rahima um yeah

123I think that there's lots of lessons to be learned from all of this I you know uh it used to be a attendance was a very uh black and white it's it's it's very different now introducing PA sync but it may be something that um is is going to help our students uh attend better and possibly do better academically so I think that's one of the things that we need to look at moving forward as an option okay any other questions uh around uh student attendance thank you Bessie appreciate time have a good evening jell did you have your hand up okay good night good night a lot of work we got to do thank you so the next um agenda item is uh the school Spotlight Monro High School who do we have here

124for Monro Sandra good evening everyone I heard something that I don't like I'm getting ready to get On Bended Knees I'm getting ready to gravel so but I'll talk to you about that later I'm G to gravel all right thank you welcome um we are excited to uh have your presentation for uh Monroe very excited about that and um we want to welcome you let me say Happy New Year to you and uh thank you for the great work I tell you um great work and I heard something I heard something after the fact so um I'm going to be coming and trying to gravel but um uh welcome again and um tell us about Monroe High School thank you one of my favorite subjects so good evening everyone good evening Commissioners on our superintendent

125our school Chiefs family and friends that are watching uh today I am very happy to present to you the Monroe High School journey and so if we move along to the next slide we want to start with with our vision we would be the Jewel of the city as ambassadors of diversity the Monroe Family is on a mission to learn work and contribute to our community I remember still remember very clear when we gathered together a group of teachers parents students and administrators we gathered together and drafted that vision and I'm very happy to say that at five years ago uh we we had um a dream and a dream that we work very hard and now we're beginning to see the results but this work has not been done um because of me this

126is work has been done for the because the great team that I have moving along I want to um introduce to you or present once again this wonderful team uh starting a mighty I have Anthony biani one of the assistant principal Mr Jason Muhammad another assistant principal Mr Rodriguez Anthony Rodriguez assistant principal for the bilingual program uh Miss Rivera Community School director Mr Whitman our athletic director for the campus and my your Serving Leader on the school principal for the past five years James Monroe High School Journey when this journey started well I'm happy to say that I've been at Monro High School more than over 12 years in different capacity but uh five years ago I started as a principal and the journey has been quite a journey so I want to move on

127to the the most important part in this journey and that is is our Monroe graduation data and 2016 James Monroe um upper High School forly known as the J James Monroe High School has made Dem manable Improvement every single year but what we are extremely proud of is that significant growth in our graduation rate we have uh students the most students graduates receiving the SEO by literacy designation but we could see that it was not easy we started uh in 2016 at the 45.7 and then very proudly said that last year our cohort 2016 we achieved a 80.6 graduation and we also could see there was growth sometimes was a very minimal growth which still growth and we celebrated every year that growth but a total of this past four years I could tell you

128we have over 34.9 growth in graduation um and there's something that we are very very proud not only during this graduation um we also have the honor to lead in the SEO by literacy destination we started in the 2018 uh 18 graduation year with five students that we prepare for the clo by literacy and then moving along on to 19 the following years and then last year in spite of the covid and the pandemic we were able to remotely still work with those students and mentors and families and still has 16 students reaching the Seal of by literacy designation this was a group um an effort uh led by um our assistant principal Mr Rodriguez and counselors um that work very closely together and making sure we will not lose our students in the midst

129of the uh what was happening around us but we might said wow everything was beautiful and great well I could also say there was some bumps on the road and what kept us Focus uh was that Vision what kept us uh kept us moving was that we will we we had um a goal that we needed to meet and some of the bumps that we found in our way was reduction of Staff resources The Continuous enrollment uh safety transfers to our school and sometimes we were like what is going on but that did not stop us we Contin to challenge and we continue to come back together and plan and to move forward with that Target of graduation one thing that um that help us was during the receivership uh time those targets which given

130to us and every year we first started with 1% 3% 5% or 7% and I remember since I became the principal I never follow those uh percentage I said why 3% why 5% let's do when they were asking for five I was saying we need seven when they said we need a seven I said we need 10 sometimes people would look at me kind of crazy but those high expectations because if we reach we move with the eyes up here we could reach that so those high expectations were always around us in the first uh front of us for our students teachers and administrators and communicating that with the families so moving on what does that starting year look like one of the things we concent centrated was improving School culture our school has um

131changed um leadership and then um we wanted to make sure the school culture was um was improved and enriched we know we know that if the people around them that they're happy they could project and give the best of them to our students plus we wanted the students to come to that school environment so we started working on around the philosophy One Vision one school one family one community and knowing that divided we will not go anywhere so we started working very closely together with every governance uh bodies with the uh RTA with the uh the parents with the students and said if we are one family what could make us that so we started assessing needs of students staff and leaders leadership team we establish a accountability process and procedures and I will say

132that I will repeat that over every single year because what's then that when we wrot those process and procedures we adere to each one of them and then it says how could we reach that 7% that 10% and we started doing stops in every two weeks we were not going to wait until my period report and then find out 50% of the students are failing let's do that process every two weeks we started with administrators and then we started expanding that then defining high expectations for the students students need to know we are in receivership school what does that mean what are the goals and what part do they take in that are reaching those goals so we communicating High expect ations with everyone with our community with our parents with our students it was

133in every single meeting meeting we posted them around and we also celebrated even the small growth we created a master schedule with more choices we want our students to have choices um and to see what other um opportunities they had we added teachers on assignment but with focus in those areas that we need additional help like math like science um we established systems and incentive for prevention when one thing we I quickly notice we are very quick very fast and taken away but we would never really stop and say let's offer things and then let's prevent things and incentive became part of our routines we started looking around and say what other things our students would like and the only way to find that out was increasing students voice we needed to have the students

134tell us if you were to design uh the best school what that school will look like and they started say we need a pet rally we need the celebration we need the uh an assembly we need to we would like to have a dance and all of that is possible always keeping in mind that the academic has to go with that and identifying resources Resources with our Community Resources within and tapping into those resources so that first year 20 uh 2016 it's was a year of creating that Foundation um the following years the 17 18 and 19 I call it the refining years we still moving from what we we still working on what we are doing the first year because consistency is important we couldn't be jumping from one philosophy to another Philosophy for

135one program to another program that consistency is necessary but we started focusing more knowing that the school culture was in better um better shape we started say let's what how does the framework our instructional framework looks like we started adopting best practices then we started talking about student growth versus Mastery skills what does that look like what does that a that B that c that D that F that really looks like if you um if the student is in front of you and the attendance is good why are you telling me the kid is failing so those accountability conversations started happening we need to know because as a student if you're in front of a certified teacher and coming to school every day we need to have some growth so we started saying what is

136the difference between students growth what is demonstrating understanding and what is really mastering the skills so that convers was there all the time through professional development with uh the administrators and the teachers with the students and student owning their uh teaching and that we learned that through standard-based grading philosophy that was the key for our success uh that philosophy states that students own their learning and then every stud student has plenty opportunities of trying again and um giving them an F what does that really means giving them an a what does that really means is giving that immediate feedback saying this is what you have done well and this is what you need to continue to do well and exceed and also this you have done okay but you still need to improve that and

137changing our language to again this is your strength you still need to work on that and we were very um fortunate to use the receivership um money and resources and we were trained um with marsano Institute and we learned about the standard-based grading the philosophy and even though not the entire um program has been um follow but we have adopted the philosophy and that was approved by school base as well and then we have began to see the change of the conversations between students and teachers and even parents um because it's it makes the parents feel better uh when they say my my student my child is learning this or is listening that they're demonstrating on understanding versus they get an f and that's the end of that then we started uh working with datawise

138protocol using datawise protocols in and looking at students work uh bringing teachers together and talking about uh the work that they doing uh assessments aligned to that in data wise protocol also um leading our every single meetings in our school including the leadership meetings um we also have increased teacher leaders when I first started in the school uh we have probably five or six teachers that were um in leadership positions then I'm very happy to say now that we have over 25 teacher leaders that have come forward and share the expertise and their resources in different areas and we are learning and sharing those resources within um we started talking uh way back three years ago about Target small groupings at this time they call it learning Parts but looking and studying of what we

139are doing but actually we were already implementing that basically we look at every single two weeks so we look at um the results of their how the students were doing in class and then let's say we're not going to going to wait until you get them uh report card what are we going to do so we had teachers teachers on assignment who did pull out with very small groups and then help them catch up with the work helping helping understand so they could Master the skill bring them back to the general group and then they would be uh successful and the report cards begin to change and again like I mentioned accountability conversations but at this time kind at all levels um transparency students imp imput in school events and procedures and one key uh

140point also was that we divided our uh leadership team in teachers in cohort um cohort teams we had a group of leaders counsellors and teachers that concentrated in the um 2016 cohort the 2015 cohort because there are some things that we could use all the way across but each cohort is different there was one particular cohort that when we first started um needed a lot of love and attention and in that group was the overage on the credit this was a group of student that at that time we had over 65 students that overage on the credit so we establish a group of um staff that work with them in emotional support was provided academic uh support and Leadership and that attention and I'm happy to say that we were able um two years and

141that's when the graduation rate started increasing we were able to integrate them um and help them graduate because each cor like I said they have a very like different set of needs and strengths as well also in 2018 we became a community school and even though our school location is not in the Heart of the City uh 95% of our students come from um they're transported to us and this opportunity as a community school uh we were able to had more Community Partners and we were able to uh wrap around the model which was promoting high quality teaching and learning inclusive leadership positive behavioral practices family and Community Partnerships and also wrap around support and Community Support Services so again for a very um we started with very uh few Community Partners and then I'm

142happy to say in the next slide we could say all the community agencies that have joined the school the educating the child the whole holistic child it will take more than just teachers we need everyone to be able to take care of the social emotional the academic the physical uh needs of our students so we are very happy to say that during this um years we also have Community um site coordinators that are strong in instruction and also in leadership so we are very happy um that we have that opportunity one particular uh partner that I want to highlight in here is our dear family of IO because IO has been with Monroe High School before doing and I know would continue to be part of Monro high school so as you see those are

143Community Partners that take place um and help us support the school so quickly at a glance some some of the uh level ones indicators um we have I'm very very happy to say that the target assigned for the school for the 2021 uh is a 62% of graduation we overseed that um that Target by obtaining uh last year the 80.6 um we also have um targets that we are previously met even before the the covid and the pandemic um so we were very happy to see that this out of those um level ones indicators four of them were pre uh met and when no exceptions um and five of them were met with the support of the um covid ex assumptions the next one we is even a bigger and beautiful color for uh slide

144in which we have more uh green meanings those are targets that we also have already met or projected to meet as well a little summary of those uh indicators um is that um we have 10 indicators that are level one four of those uh indicators have been met six not met yet um each one of those level one points um would earn us earned points uh 40 uh 40 points we also have level two indicators um we have six of them and six of those indicators have been met the minimum that I received receivership School uh needs to Mead is a 67 uh 67 points and the way the school the uh the path that the school is on we are projecting to reach a 90 90 points of those uh targets so that is

145something that we are very happy so again doing this we feeling really happy great 80.6 uh graduation rate and then here we are open the school uh in remote learning and we know that that has been a challenge for all of us so I wanted to share with you some of the things that we are are focusing on so we could continue the growth and that is the focus on instruction that has to be a front line and we cannot lose that with that we have created weekly learning Focus um in which as an administrators we meet we review the practices that we the instructional framework that I mentioned that we have not changed uh for the past four year that we've been consistent we have trained the staff that we have model and provided

146professional development so we have used those um practices and we have break them down into weekly learning focus and one that we consistently talk about is the cognitive engagement what does that look like now that we are not in person when teachers are sometimes talking in front of a black screen um and and what are the techniques and strategies and for no reason please um I don't want to come across the here that we have found the magic one when it comes to that but we are consistently having that conversation um how can we improve this and how could we consistently engage the students in spite of everything that is happening around them because we has to be conscious of that we are adults and we get distracted with what's happening in in our community

147in small community when community and large what make us think our students are not going through that so how can we then that's the part that we continue to uh prioritize the social emotional learning providing opportunities um with mentors in our school uh people that the students themselves have identified as a significant person what person that they could trust to help them deal with those emotions and providing with the um strategies and how to do with anxiety how to do with the changes of um of uh learning format because consistently they said we want to come back to school we want to be in school we also uh designed a professional development plan um that we revise every um every three months or before that we ask the teachers to say is this working but

148more than anything when we do those weekly learning Focus walk we wanted to have evidence that if we train you in this those are the strategies that you're using and how are you using them so we are in that alignment between the classroom the administrators the instructional cabinet those conversation and if we still don't see them then that's a professional development that we need to repeat and if we repeat and we still don't see it then we need to have a conversation you know what is happening so it's that assessment and that feedback and that change that it's not a blueprint that is written and put in a book shell it is something that is consistently visited and discussed um we I'm very proud to say that 90% of that professional development it is done

149facilitated by our teachers on assignment teachers leaders in our school that have taken that lead and said I have learned how to do Emoji classrooms I want to share with the school uh Community we also have learned that teachers learn very well from other teachers um and that has been uh great we also have reached out to all Community like boses um bosses too to continue to help us with the um English language Learners and the special ed um students with disability and programming but again 90% of that professional development is being facilitated um by our own staff we also created a teaching and learning page in which um everything is right there for the um for the teachers to find instead instead of having things in different ways we created a page that every

150professional development that is has taken place in the school they just go to that link and everything is there the PowerPoint the resources professional literature um any readings or any information aligned with the district we connect that so we help even the teachers they also need our support so they don't have to go to different 20 different places but find one central place where to find that um I would say the key um to be continue to grow is that we need to keep our priorities straight and that is students first um that must be the centered of any decisions that we make and then finding that balance that balance that would keep us you know focused and finding those re resources that support that not only our students need but our staff need and

151also our family and our leaders the um the leadership team as well in one key word that I will say is willingness sometimes you could provide the balance the support the resources but we need to go a little bit are you willing to do this and I have to say that Monroe um mon R High School have a very willing kind heart staff willing to roll their sleeves and do the work so we can move to the next one so what are we what we said um is it over have you done everything that needed to be done I would say no our journey continues so what is next um so we are very happy happy to say that um our next slide please that we are in the preparation to share um our a

152program that we would like um we would be implementing next school year um and it's very interesting that as we were zooming into this meeting I heard uh commissioner Elliot that you were asking about the attendance and getting the kids engaged all of that and it really took us um my team and I back to the conversation we had a couple of years ago and I remembered in in that brainstorm session and saying defining our school and asking our students uh what did you want to see in our school I remember Mr Jason Mohamed said to me well Mrs Blackman I don't think no student would wake up in the morning say oh I cannot wait to go to school and go to that Algebra 2 class where they probably will wake up in the

153morning and be happy to come um for a sport for a an event and then once they're here then it's our job to make sure they have everything they they need to to the academic part and then is that with that in mind that we we tap one of the things we wanted to do was to tap to the resources we already have for example the SEO by literacy well the SEO by literacy um we have the largest number of English language Learners right so what for many schools being having a large number of English language Learners they will say oh this is not good we don't want them this is not good for our accountability we started thinking okay this is our population what is the strength what are they bringing and they bring

154a lot to the table you know the cultureal pride the strength languages and then we started cultivating programs and system to help them be successful in what they already brought to the table so the same idea and philosophy we want to present the smart program the sports Majors Athletics and region stack we have one of the most and probably I would be happy to say the most beautiful building in the city why not tap into that with that athletic uh Department in facility we have the the volleyball team is is one of the best volleyball team that we also have in the in the district and our students are engaged and they are part of sports so why not utilize that and also knowing that the research in even our city school data states that

155in the period of four years student who play sports have hired attendance and GPA and lower suspension rate so looking at that data and looking at the resources we have we want to create this unique Pathway to graduation in which our students could achieve the New York State Region's diploma and meet the NCAA academic guidelines we want our students to see them themselves more than just being a player in the field they could become if they want to you know be Youth Sports Coordinator event coordinator athletic director our facette teachers you know maybe in our next um uh health and Sport um director in the district but giving them opportunities intership professional certification and licensing so that's why we are right now in the planning for this program that will be rolled out in next

156school year and basically we're not asking no money no extra money for that because it's resources we already have but again it's looking and tapping into our own resources so just to wrap up um about the the school because we could have excellent programs and great events and good student great professional development but we do have to go back to graduation rate and I just want to let you know that we are in the track to oversee our graduation rate so what we did the 80.6 I always said we can't go back it has to be higher So currently we have an enrollment of students um in order to meet the target given to us by the state we only need 89 and I said that's the target the state is giving us but our

157Target is that the minimum we will graduate would be 135 and the minimum we will present to this um to our chief superintendent into this board will be a graduation rate of 82% that's the minimum and that beautiful graduation um celebration that we had in our building I summarize it all that our student were cross 80 at least at 82% is projected they are on track for graduation so I started our meeting by reading the vision that says we will be the Jewel of the city but I think after all of this you will agree with me that I think we are already The Jewel of the city and we we are very proud but I could say also this is not the work of one person this is the team effort this wonderful leadership

158team many that are still with me and others that have move on to other buildings and not longer with us I want to take this opportunity to say thank you thank you to our students to our parents who trust us and and to our teachers that uh don't give up and and continue to try and have that willingness and thank you for the uh district for trusting us for this beautiful uh Ministry is serving our students thank you who Sandra that was uh I tell you that's that's uh I have no words it was comprehensive uh one of the best that I've heard I it it it just speaks to how we should be teaching our kids and and you Sandra with your team Jason and Anthony and others listen I um I just don't

159have the words and I thank you so so very much I'm G to open it up we have a couple of uh Commissioners that have some questions um but I'm just really excited I do have a question but I'm just going to uh Relish in what I've heard um great story and I'm going to start off with commissioner Malloy who has a question commissioner Malloy thank you vice president Elliot um first and foremost Miss Blackman I just want to commend you for the hard work and the success that you've had at Monroe it really is the Jewel of the city um I am just so in awe of of what I've seen here tonight and and so I thank you for that um and and congratulations to your team and the entire staff and to

160your students and that's this this is news that we should this is positive news we should be very proud of um really intrigued by the smart program that sounds wonderful um and I I guess I have a question but it's probably not something that can be answered right now it's more something for the question log perhaps later I guess I'm just wondering um the breakdown of your diplomas um like the number of local diplomas versus our regions diplomas in our Advanced designation Regents diploma so at some point I would be interested to see that uh for Monroe High School so thank you absolutely thank you commissioner Malloy commissioner LeBron also add your Biol literacy um dual diploma there um because there's some good data there from Monroe so please make sure that's added in there

161so that we can highlight that work that you guys have done um first and foremost I want to thank you all for being here tonight and presenting this to the community and I know that there was a lot of information a lot of numbers um that are difficult to sometimes follow along but what I want to say my comments are to my own um experience and coming out to Monro multiple times and seeing firsthand you know through experience the um level of commitment from Sandra you and your team Mr muhamed Mr Rodriguez Miss Rivera and your entire staff like there was never a time where I've ever entered Monroe and did not witness um the dedication from every staff person and witnessing it through the relationships that you all have with the students and the

162level of respect that families and students have for you um I went to your talent show as well last year so there's some very talented individuals at Monroe um but it's very engaging for the students too right so that they can see themselves in real life um situations and so I just want to thank you and your entire team and staff for your dedication and hard work and really committing to uplifting and supporting all of the students that walk through your doors and the families and meeting them where they're at and also never shaming them right for not being where they think they should be but really supporting them and getting them where they need to be with love and dedication and ensuring that they feel that love above anything and all else that they

163know that they are surrounded by adults and Educators an Administration that loves them um so I just want to thank you all for that and I also to Dr Meyers and to the administration and to my fellow colleagues want to emphasize that this is a model that can be replicated throughout our district um and it should we should be exploring how do we replicate this model throughout the district and what supports our schools need so that this model can be um rep at and clearly to you know adapt it to the needs of each school so again thank you all for your dedication and hard work and definitely the Jewel of the city of my eyes thank you commissioner Adams yeah I um because I know what I know I couldn't let this opportunity go

164by without um taking my hat off to you you know your team is done telling you down in The Boondocks they talk about y'all y'all did a fabulous have done a fabulous job and so I just just wanted to um say kudos to you thank you thank you commissioner Adams um um sh Sandra I would ask you one question I think there was some questions about um the the the increase from 60.7% to 80.6% can you explain that jump because that seems to be a really um uh ambitious jump what what' you do in order to get from 60% to 80% the consistency it was our third year doing the S accountability meetings the same cohort of Team working the same language the same everyone was repeating the same thing also the we were able

165to reduce our overage and under credit um we were able having those accountability uh conversations we no longer waiting until having that Gap increase but that Gap began to decrease and then having the kids at grade level then offering opportunities would definitely was a big uh eyeopener and then when we were able to see wow um we were able to retain the students that was another thing um the the students that entered in ninth grade we be we retain them with us and I remembered in in the message that Dr Myers gave to that graduation uh class was that she was able to say that 76% of those students remain with us and that's the key they came out the ninth grade and did not want to leave and there was time that was said

166if you were if you're not in class your SE will be taken and literally will be taken because the enrollment placement was waiting to fill that space and students and families knew um families do not want to leave once they come to M they don't want to leave they want to stay so I would say theil the consistency the accountability conversation of prevention not waiting for the students to fail but also retaining the uh the students be able to to stay with us that was the key subject if they're in front of us and they stay with us we would guarantee we guarantee the parents we graduate them and if you lose and and don't stay with us your C would be taken and you would not have it so they knew that I I

167I definitely believe those are three big factors that help us thank you commissioner Clark you have a question yes first I want to to congratulate you on outstanding performance and I was very pleased to hear you speak of community involvement reaching out to the community and using those resources to assist you it's one of the things that I have been pushing for years that there are communitybased organizations that can provide assistance but I guess my question to you is how do you go about uh recruiting the various Community Based or organizations do you research to see the services that they're office offering and how they fit into your uh your plan and how is it and it seems like it's worked for you pretty great well from the beginning I there is always been at

168uh um at Monro high school so that um definitely with uh money or without money mundro always has been there so my Kos on to my M and to my their family and thank you for that Center for Youth also being there one uh Mr clar one thing that we began to um to notice it was that once we received the receivership money and people in the community knew oh there is money then everybody started knocking on the door then everybody want to be part of Mong high school and then saw the building oh my goodness then but then I began the screening process okay what did you bring to benefit our students and you need to show me data as well these are the targets that we have this is the attendance that we

169need this is what we need then I will say then we I began to say what do you have to offer screen that and then say let me see if you are able to give me the outcomes our students and family needs then we could keep you right now um those Community Partners and I have Miss R I'm here too to to help me find this but I believe only two of those Community Partners right now I've been um M us that they receive payment everybody else remains in kind or somehow so they came in again and do not want to leave and they're engaged with our students and they're always asking what else can we do um for the school um one of the things I'm very happy to say that there have been

170times that we call a meeting and within two hours they all come in they all show up um at one moment our school was impacted by some shootings in the community and and some our families were uh students were affected and we made phone calls they Interfaith uh family community members quickly said present and also we want to have community partners that represent our community um so I not only want to celebrate IO but I also want to say that the mask um our brothers s The Mask were always been always been there at Monroe um and they have come in through speeches assemblies they have walked the hallways there was one time they standing with beautifully Hansen with their black and white suits in our student thought the FBI were in the school and

171I said yes they are to make sure you are in class so we have embraced community that represent also our students uh so that has been the key as well and they believe and trust us too so I want to say thank you to the Masco Rochester for the the brothers and sister for coming in into our school and not be afraid of our students that's another key A lot of people come in and they you take them to the cafeteria and they if they could run they could run but not them so that's also being a key uh Mr Clark well great thank you and as I indicated just an outstanding presentation thank you thank you commissioner Clark um Miss cling scale do you have any questions for uh the Monro team okay um

172well I I don't have the words really uh to thank you all uh for the presentation it was in depth it was uh comprehensive it's the kind of um uh presentation I believe that can be instructional um and so um I'm hoping that people uh listen to it and and and to really understand what you all did over at Monroe in order to make it uh as successful as it is now and I thank you so very much for for coming you your team thank you so very much you're welcome okay uh the next uh item on the agenda is the transition planning graduation for special education good evening everyone um happy to be here and that was a fabulous presentation I'm going to follow it up um with a short presentation um as these

173will be little these will occur every month so for this month since I heard that Monroe was uh planning on presenting their wonderful data and their uh progress towards graduation I thought I'd focus on a little piece of student with disabilities and transition plan and how important that is and how it h it is elevating our students with disabilities and their graduation rate as well next slide please okay thank you so what is transition planning it's a part of the IEP and it is a part a process that is mandated and it aligns courses of study that are meaningful to for students with post-secondary plans there is explicit teaching of skills and knowledge to prepare our students for adulthood and it connects our children to adult agencies for a smooth transition as they leave us

174they leaves the walls of of our high schools um and each year um at the individualized education program IEP meeting we ensure that we're taking a look at goals uh after graduation we we take a look at student strengths and interests and we take a look at promoting self- advocacy and independent living skills as well as services that can help move the students forward uh towards their desired goals um it's more it's it's for many of our students it's how can we prepare them for life when they leave us um and it takes a variety of forms next slide please so some of the things that we have started we have now a transition team um it includes our uh director a director Amy Tata who's been leading that and our associate directors of special

175education and transition Specialists um we too are have a laser like focus on taking a look at transcripts and reviewing the path ways and tracking uh for each student with a disability um catching them before they fail similar to what Monroe is saying you know taking a look at we don't want to wait for the report card right we want to make sure we're uh putting in strategies and Credit Recovery prior to that uh grade coming out on a report card we have professional development um for transition planning and graduation Pathways for our staff we have compliance checks we have uh IPS that are pulled we take a look at transition planning and we make sure that they rise to the level of New York State's indicator 13 which is a self-review process to ensure

176that each plan uh has each IEP has a transition plan we provide guidance uh for implementation and documentation of our career develop velopment and occupational studies credential and work-based learning which have helped tremendously uh our students with disabilities and it's very important that we make connections for postsecondary agencies like access VR we have a wonderful uh program called project search which is uh real life partnership um in in working in real life situations um it's it's a wonderful program so we definitely what what are some of those things that we do we collaborate with our CPAC members we complete and monitor student exit summaries every student requires an exit summary and an employability profile um we take a look at post-secondary education Career Training employment Adult Services of course independent living and really important uh

177pieces as Monroe talked about those community participations and connections recreational activities neighborhood living and leisure activities go next so here are some of the graduation pathway options um you can see that the career development and occupational studies credential is starred and the reason why is that that has been a tremendous lift for our students it's its work experience and it counts and it's CTE coursework and it counts and replaces one of uh the social studies regions that normally um students would need to take so that has really helped in uh bringing great success to our students next slide please and the last thing is I want to share with you is our graduation rate for students with this ability is also heading in the right direction um and you can see that in 201819 this

178is when our transition team began it was formed and they started to focus on uh graduation rates for our students and what could we do to make a difference and how can we strengthen that area of the IEP um so we have gone from and I'm sorry I thought the numbers were on here but um for 16117 it was 34% for eight there's a misprint there um 178 18 um it was 36% for 1819 is 42% and we're anticipating uh release of information that 1920 will be at 47% and I think that's all I have for you it's a quick synopsis of just what we do for transition planning for our students with disabilities to work towards um a higher rate of graduation thank you um Desiree commissioner Malloy you have a question just very

179quickly and you have to forgive me Desiree I'm a little sleepy this evening um my question is does this data reflect um students just with IEPs or does it also include our 504 plan students that's only students with IEPs okay thank you that's my thought thank you any other questions vice president Elliott just a comment um because special education really is an area of focus for us in the Rochester City School District we just wanted to ensure that each time that we have an Esa meeting that we do come to the board and the public to let them know a different uh uh aspect of special educ education and how we are planning it so I know that the board the all of the Commissioners understand that but I just wanted to make sure that

180um those who are watching and tuning in either live or later that they understand that this will be a regular part of our repertoire moving forward so that the board is in the loop and the community and Public's in the loop yeah we we certainly um um would apprec would appreciate that because that's as you said is very important to us and uh you know we want to make sure that all of our students are doing well regardless of um you know the personal um position personal disability so um and everybody can do it well so thank you very much thank you uh the next um item on the agenda is the data and accountability sources and Dr Mars will make that presentation you're muted Dr Morris thank you I I wanted to ask um

181if we wanted to um make a friendly suggestion If U Community Schools wanted to go first so that um Kelly Briggs could do her presentation and then I'll review the websites is that okay vice president Elliot that's okay okay thank you greetings everyone hello my name is Kelly braks and I'm the director of Community Schools and I'm excited to present to you what we got going on in Community Schools all right and I have the honor in community schools of working with 20 awesome Community School site coordinators who were out in the community trying to help our students and parents who want to above and beyond to do what it takes to help our students receive not only the best education but also focusing on the whole child to give them the best of everything

182that we can do in the Rochester City School District and it all starts here with our district strategic plan our community school department and everything that we do is in alignment with our strategic plan which is the roadway and the pathway for success for our wonderful students and here our strategic plan with its objectives and it its objectives and priorities everything that we do again is fully aligned all of our services with this plan and I just want to go over our agenda for today for this presentation we will talk about our community school pillars highlight some of the things that we're doing in the department who are we in a student spotlight so if I have to talk about a definition of a community school a community school is both a place and a

183set of Partnerships between the school and other Community Resources it's integrated focus on academics Health and Social Services Youth and Community Development and Community engagement it leads to improve student learning stronger families and healthier communities now our community schools are bed B in four pillars now there are several Community Schools across the country a lot of people say Community School model or strategy all of our community schools the work that's determined is based on that community based on that District but there are some things that they all have in common and it's these four pillars pillar number one integrated student supports this is where we take a whole child approach by coordinating supporting programs to address all the out of school learning barriers for our students and their families as wrap around Services mental and

184physical health services and supports to help our chent our students succeed then we have pillar number two expanded and enrich learning time and opportunities now that's enrichment activities that emphasize that 21st Century Learning and I also want to add that we also focus on that enrichment aspect where a lot of our schools during the school day we have tutoring Services set up we even have our partners that come in and offer professional learning for our students and for our parents we're really really trying to focus on not only just the student but bringing in our parents into all areas of learning so that they can learn along with our students and then there's pillar number three that's active family and Community engagement again we're partnering with our parents and Community to develop and promote a

185vision for for our students success and then we have our collaborative leadership and practices and I call that the glue that holds it all together that's where our parents our students teachers principles assistant principles site coordinators and Community Partners they build a culture of professional learning that Collective trust in a shared responsibility and some of our buildings we have all of these different entities working together which we like to call stakeholders they're part of our community engagement teams our social emotional learning teams and our attendance [Music] teams and so I'd like to highlight some of our 2021 things that we're doing in Community Schools Department I know I have a short amount of time so I can't show you everything so I will focus on a couple things I like to first talk about our

186community schools professional learning series that we do have going on right now I'm just going to go to my next screen to that just a minute okay just wait for my screen to pull up all right just want to make sure that everyone can see that screen there okay so during our professional learning series we are focusing on asset-based Community Development one of the things that I've one of the many things that parents and stud students have told me is the importance of schools understanding not only about their neighborhoods but actually coming in their neighborhoods investing in that time spending getting to know who they are where they are from and learning about the assets and their communities a lot of times the things that we see on TV we see all the deficits but

187we want to look at the assets so what that does that entails building a relationship with our students families and community members so one of the projects that we have here we're pil lighting this Community Schools professional learning series 101 and we're starting at Community School number 16 that's John Walton Spencer myself the Community Schools director and the site coordinators will work together to offer professional learning at each of their schools so again this is one of the projects that the teachers are working on they have to pick a student from their classroom we just wanted them to put the first name the grade level and I took the address off today but their neighborhood and what they had to do was to research that neighborhood when we looked on different maps that were created

188there was a lot of negative language deficit view language so what we want to do and one of the things that we always say in the city school district we want to change that narud so here the teachers had to go in find out and really look for the Assets in that neighborhood so we want us to look to look at the associations the institutions the individ idual and this is something that required asking around asking students asking parents asking different organizations in that particular Community about who are the people with different giftings and talents they also had to look at the local economy and physical spaces and this is example of another teacher who looked at the 19th Ward and again we want them to get the addresses and the phone numbers because our

189next step is to connect with these organizations ations and to bring them into the school to see how we can work together how they can come to the school and how we can go there all right and I also want to talk about another initiative that we're doing we have our site coordinators so thing that I've put in place and they have really taken off with this we wanted to see where is everybody focused and their work at so we have this site coordinators evidence collecting document we also wanted to make sure that we align this with our community school pillars so every couple weeks each coordinator goes into this document and they update it to show what they are working on so if you see right here this particular coordinator she's working on sustaining

190the caring and clothing closet at her particular school so what they do is they just write a brief description of what they're working on and they just select the pillars that it's aligned with and what we do is when I meet with the coordinators we have meetings once a month and we also have one toone meetings we look at this as a time to highlight our work but also to share with each other with each other what we're doing to help our students and families this has been very beneficial because some coordinators will see for example we had a coordinator who um set up something with partners with Amazon and the other coordinators wanted to find out about it so she offered like a little PD to the coordinators to tell them about what she

191was doing so that's why this document helps us because we look at each other's practice and we learn from each other but I also get to look at it to highlight what each coordinator is doing and so this is a document that is a continuous document that will follow the coordinators throughout their coordinating careers I also like to look at one more thing we're also working on scaling up our community engagement teams as we talk about collaborative leadership and practices we understand the importance of our community engagement teams what we want to do is scale them up and what I mean by that is looking at our data here I have an example of Edison career technology high school's um document we call it the community school indicator Deep dive document so we use this

192for our schools that are in receivership and we use it for our schools that have set plans but what we did here we looked at their attent attendance and what interventions they're doing what's already in place then we want to see how is this aligning with tenant six and pillar number three which is active family and Community engagement then we want to look at what is the school currently doing in the building and then what other supports do they have in place from our agencies but now with the community engagement team we go to the last two columns where the team looks at this and they analyze that and they come up with different other different Innovative things that we can do to help with this particular school's chronic absenteeism problem so this is something

193that we're going to be doing we just started with two model schools I always like to Pilot in one or two schools see how it works and then spread it out to the other schools so this one here is an example from Edison career technology high school and this is another one from Leadership Academy for young men here at this school we know it's the all boy school so we want to bring in people like my brother's keeper and Anthony Jordan and Carlos Cotto to actually work with our young men so we were looking at what kind of things can we do for them so here they talked about let's bring in some young men who've graduated from rcsd in college to Mentor our young males so these are the types of things that we

194want to have on our C so that's why I always talk to our team and the coordinators we're looking at who's at the table we want to make sure if there's a resource that we need if there's an organization anything else we're saying when we go on home visits or attendance visits our parents need something let's connect to organization that can help us with that and this happens by constantly looking at our data on a daily basis weekly basis monthly basis whatever we need to do to bring the best for our students and our parents and again we've had three Community Food Distribution events we had two in November and we had one in December and I tell you it was rewarding for all of us because we were able to serve the community and

195we were able to hear from the community site coordinators came and they picked up baskets for families who didn't have transportation and they delivered them we had different people in the community coming up saying thank you when are you going to do this again we had a father who was in tears he was looking for food he had seven kids single father and he didn't know where he was going to find food from he drove up and reloaded his car with baskets he showed us the need we partner with food link they call us every time they have extras my coordinators or myself they go and they get it because we want to do whatever it takes to help our families we also have a site coordinators Network we Our Community School site coordinators and

196myself this is our professional learning time we learn from each other but we also invite Partners in for example we had a meeting last month with the r centers and we're looking at especially when we go back we're doing our remote learning but when we go back to simultaneous learning and other learning experiences when we go back full-time how can we use the our C siners to help us a lot of our families don't have transportation to get to our schools but they do live by our centers and a lot of times they have relationships with the people at the centers so we want to start to partner with not only our our centers but our churches we have those fabulous faith-based Partnerships and aot lot of our churches will open doors to have meetings

197we want to start to really get this community and really including the community for that engagement piece not just involvement but engagement and Community Schools is also an equity strategy for all of the services and different things that we provide for our students we're able to remove a lot of those barriers I was able to get this this awesome awesome document here from a community schools workshop on PR and engagement with the equity focus and it has definitions for diversity belonging inclusion and Equity but when you look at the bottom of it when it talks about diversity you've been asked to the party when it talks about belonging you feel comfortable and welcome going to the party when we look at inclusion you've been asked to help plan the party but the part here that

198I love is the equity piece it redefines what the party entails and who has the power to play and the party and that's exactly what Community Schools is all about that Equity making sure that we're redefining who and what the party entails and that's bring in our students our families our staff our partners the community principles everybody together to work to make the best education and life that we can for our students and here we have an awesome student here yell Carlos Torres I wanted to put his picture up he participated and has been volunteering at all of our food distribution events he's a recent rcsd alumni graduate he graduated from Moro High School I did tape him but the video was kind of blurry so what I did was I wrote down what yab

199now said we were so impressed that day because this young man had such great leadership qualities and he told us that he learned that from the My Brother's Keeper being a but he also told us that he was so excited about graduating from AO high school and he also said to me he said Miss Briggs a lot of people always say negative things about the Rochester City School District but I want you to know that I'm a success story I'm in college and I'm doing something with my life so I want people to stop dogging out the city school district and that's Mr yabel Kyros Torrance so I'd like to say thank you for allowing me to present before you thank you to all of the Commissioners thank you to Dr Meer small thank you

200to Dr Morris Dan Hurley our Chiefs Mike Schmidt um K Wade um rahima um wi and just to everyone that has helped us in the community schools Department it takes a village it takes a village it takes a village we are going to keep on tracking on we're going to keep on helping and servicing our students our families and our community thank you so much thank you Kelly we really appreciate your presentation uh I see a few hands up I'm going to uh go with uh well commission superintendent you have your hand up um you have a question sure uh first and foremost Kelly thank you that was wonderful I appreciate this this evening is a little bit longer than we expected but your enthusiasm and your passion for Community Schools so is it is

201so apparent and so I want to thank you for your leadership and the way that you implement the program with Fidelity to ensure that our students and their families and our staff have the supports that they need to move forward so I have to start by saying that first and foremost the second thing I believe when you went into your examples I I believe the first one did you was that called asset mapping did I get that right yes so what I what I'm gonna ask you to do um and we can followup later is I need for you to connect with Elizabeth Reyes our executive director for social emotional learning but she's also over Equity diversity and inclusion because that work that we that you are doing very much correlates and ties into the

202work of the racial racial Equity plan that she is moving forward and I think it's a good way to really show boots on the ground how this work is impacting staff by staff and classroom by classroom so I want want to figure out how to make sure that this work and some of these artifacts or examples are connected back to her work because it is really tangible and it is very pertinent so if you would make a note to do that I would appreciate it and I want to say thank you for also mapping your work very tangibly and coherently back to the Strategic plan because that's really the goal the Strategic plan is the foundation and the framework it should be for everything that we do we do and you did that very uh

203clear and uh well so well done thank you thank you vice president Elliott thank you madam superintendent commissioner Malloy you have a question thank you vice president um more comment I just wanted to piggyback on on what Dr Meer small had said um my question was just if we could get a copy as board commissioners of the asset mapping um documents that you had shared with us I I know as an educator I'm really thrilled at what I saw and would love to utilize that you know with my own own students um so just really great work I I can't speak highly enough of of community schools and the work that you're doing so thank you um this is just so critical for for our community so I thank you very much for your work

204thank you also like to add I'm sorry I just add that with that asset map so the teachers the social workers and the Paras on us in that Workshop this was example for them but the goal is to teach our students how to asset map their own neighborhoods and the students educate us and teach us about the neighborhoods we' even like to have a project where we get the students and the parents you know because we want to learn but we want them to have the skills to be Advocates and to be able to talk about their own communities let me just also interject here Kelly they're over at school Without Walls um they were doing some of that asset mapping a few years ago so there may be the the the current principal now

205May know have the contact person that person graduated but there was a a um an organization he was working with school Without Walls who's working with the city they were doing some asset mapping um over there so you may want to reach out to them as well this has been a few years ago but they still may have uh contacts over there uh commissioner LeBron thank you um first F first let me just say um Kelly I do appreciate your energy and your enthusiasm for this work um as well um and just for full disclosure I got the opportunity to meet with Kelly because as many of you know I've transitioned into a new role and um a lot of the work that Kelly does is with multiple partners and so there was a lot

206of crossover of Partners and tables and I was like I need to meet this Kelly person for myself and she's just as amazing as everyone described um and when she was talking to me about Community Schools um I really wanted her to come and do this presentation so I don't know how she got on the agenda today but I thank you commissioner Elliot for her being here with this presentation because I was going to formally request it because I do think that the work that she and her team are doing um was just amazing and we should be um all of us as Commissioners know what's happening but this community as well because it's often work that's not um getting the headlines and frequently known and it I just didn't want it to go unnoticed

207that there is a lot of hard work happening in our community schools um I want to just comment to some of the best practices that Kelly does with her team and that I really appreciate um the data collecting document I have used that in the I use that now but I call those work plans and so that at any given moment at any given time and I've said this before staff if they're doing the work besides teachers and Educators because they're teaching and that's the work in itself um but other staff in our district who hold titles that we may just not fully comprehend what they're doing daytoday this is a way to show the work that they're doing um at any given time from any commissioner that ask or any administrator that ask um

208and I really appreciate that because often time when we get into the the um the ground of this work um and just moving moving moving and we don't take time to at least document the work that we're doing even if it's just for ourselves to look back and look at the impact that an individual has made in a school in a family in this community over the course of time um that's really hard to backtrack and I know because I'm always I used still am at times someone who's always on the go and it's really hard for me to like sit down and write and document what I've done so I appreciate the best practice of a work plan and the data collecting and the evidence space aspect of the work that you do and

209how you lead your team and then lastly I just want to say and I've said this before and Leslie has heard me mention this multiple times I 100% as a commissioner and as a parent and as someone actively involved in my community would love to see our entire District convert to Neighborhood Community Schools and that would even out this notion that one neighborhood would be better than another if all of our schools had all of the supports that they need so that our students and our families are getting those supports while they're in school but connected to the resources in the community right after school um and so I know right now that the um parent choice policy is not up for discussion but I just want to put that out there that we continue

210to have these conversations but that we eventually move forward as a board to change the models of our school and how School selection happens for our community members thank you thank you commissioner LeBron I'm going to ask our parent rep if she has any questions Miss clink scale maybe she left Callie can you check to see if she's still with us she's I have a couple of questions you're there miss cling scale she's still here in the room okay um couple questions that I have um how many Community Schools do we have we have 20 how many 20 we have we have 22 Community Schools [Music] um and and so what what are we trying to um accomplish in our community schools what what what's the bottom line of providing this kind of support uh

211for our um students and families what are we hopefully trying to um to um to achieve well the community school strategy you know is also educational Improvement strategy you know we got this way from schools you know being originally in receivership we had a lot of schools that started in receivership that are now out of receivership that are currently in receivership they're all working on a set of practices I was just in a receivership meeting today they're all working together and looking at other schools that were in receivership and looking at those best practices to get out of receivership but the awesome thing about it is that when they get out they're still Community Schools okay thank you and just one last question that I have before I uh turn it over to commissioner Powell

212um I just would recommend with regard to um to leadership academy uh that Charter uh that um shalot neighborhood association if there can be a bridge to try to work there's there's over the years been conflict over there uh the uler on to that school so if we could um help to bridge that I I know that the president of their neighborhood association was at one point working with the leadership academy but you know the the neighborhood has not been as warm and welcoming of our students and so we need to and and our students are just being students they're just being teenagers so we need to help to to mitigate that relationship Bridget better um so uh Dr Myers small if if I'm director it to you if we can have our community uh

213site coordinator to work on that that would be very I think that would be a a huge win uh if we if at the end of the day uh the N the shalot neighborhood association are really really supporting um our students at Leadership Academy thank you Paul can I say something commissioner quickly about that who's that can I say something quickly yes please so our site coordin leadership actually um attends the um Charlotte Association of meetings on a by-weekly basis and they are um active in the school they actually offer to help with their attendance chronic absenteeism they want to um be part of that so they're actually building an excellent relationship with that particular Association and that's one of the things that all of our schools are doing is really tapping into those neighborhood

214associations and majority of them do attend the communication at um Team meetings okay thank you so much I'm glad to hear that um commissioner pow thank you um so to knet a couple of ideas together that I heard um we have 20 out of rounded rounding 60 schools that are Community Schools and as I perceive it that really is the vision for this District although probably not stated in so many words um we have a policy on our books called uh the small school units policy that that used to be the uh the vision for how we did student uh um School Improvement and and um student achievement Improvement and it really never took off um it was negotiated it was part of a an RTA negoti negotiation I think and I'm not sure if

215we could just drop the policy without talking to the unions first but um what I'm getting at is before we can start talking about how we do placement differently we we have to actually improve all schools so that parents want to go to them yeah and Community Schools being the vision of how we get there how we make each School a desirable location for parents and students perhaps we could perhaps the superintendent would be interested in charting a path on how we could get to uh all of our schools being Community Schools um so that so that then the groundwork is laid to make changes to our placement process I mean it it doesn't make sense to change our to eliminate parents choices if we haven't given them good schools to choose from right if

216we don't improve the quality of the schools they have to choose from within our system they will go outside the system they will choose Charter Schools they will choose parochial schools or they'll move out of the city so it seems to me that this is the structure by which we lay the foundation for um for future changes which other board members have already spoken about just some food for thought thank you commissioner po Dr jallow yes uh good evening uh Miss bricks how do we measure how does the district measure the success of the 20 Community Schools what are the metrics and what data do we have to show um how successful each of these models are um how they're operating or against the four um principles where's the data to show that these 20

217schools are successful and how many of the 20 schools are CSI Schools are they all CSI no um we have 11 receivership schools and we have and I wrote that down just so I can make sure I have it correctly we have 11 receivership schools and we have six TSI schools we have one six yeah six TSI schools one CSI school and we have two good standing schools and so what we do is especially with the receivership the TSI CSI schools I have the opportunity being part of the office of full Innovation to work with those TSI schools as well and so we constantly look at their data and receivership schools and we have meetings weekly meetings or C meetings look at their data to see where they're growing and areas that they need to

218improve in and so we look at the data 247 but if you like for me to put something together I can do that and provide that for you I think I think I think that's a good idea because to say that you just have Community Schools is not enough at this point you have 20 Schools they're all Community Schools show us the metrics and show us how they're doing as an Aggregate and how they're doing as individual schools so that we can see how successful they are I'm sure they're all a different variant levels of success uh so to just lump them all together I think is an injustice to those that are doing better so let's see the data you know when when people are making these presentations let's see the data that shows

219how well these schools are performing either academically or through the social emotional or Through The Chronic absenteeism or whatever it is that brought them to the place where they adopted this model yeah I think that's important because um to for chairperson um LeBron for the finance committee you know we need to understand uh if if this investment in Community Schools is actually um you know uh yielding a benefit to us so um that may be something from the finance committee commissioner LeBron that we take a look at as well so um commissioner Adams yeah I I've been um looking at Community Schools and neighborhood schools issue on that for a long time and the what what gives me um valid ation that something is working is when you have a community school and more people

220from that Community are signing up to go to that school um when I'm where I live at there's a school one block away I absolutely did not go to that school did not let my kids go there um but today I could let my kids go to number 16 but in that in itself from the parents from the family from the community um utilizing school um is proof that it's working because we are quick to go somewhere else in a school in a district that's got so much transportation we ain't going we ain't going nowhere unless it's it's it's it's got it going on and so for me um when you have more um people from the neighborhood signing up their kids at prek Garden whatever that's that's the tell all for me thank you

221commissioner Adams uh commissioner LeBron yeah I'll take up your charge that you just asked for us to do that in finance to look at that um I want to add to like this the the argument of um improving all schools we haven't done it so now we're back to in my opinion back to square one where we still have schools that amilies don't like but then also if I have the choice of picking a community school versus a school that doesn't have those supports and I'm the same parent that I was when I had Naisha and Gina back in the day I most likely hands down would have selected a community school to get those additional supports for me and my family um I do want to just highlight Dr Jello and to vice president

222Elliott that there are often data points that are not NE necessarily collected or viewed from The District's perspective on Community Schools um and so I think I can actually start figuring out and Kelly I'll reach out to you as well but looking at how our health systems and our cbos and our partners um collect that data because there are organizations that do collect that data for their own work especially in the healthcare field but we ends up not um collaborating and I guess bringing that data together to make a bigger picture for the um argument for Community Schools so I I wholeheartedly support that we collect data internally externally and then get a full picture of the impact of Community Schools both in the neighborhoods in the community for families um so maybe that's something

223Kelly in the future we can work on cross- collaborating with our other tables um for data collection so thank you all right thank you uh commissioner LeBron any other questions for Community Schools thank you Kelly appreciate it nice to meet you and the last agenda item uh that we have uh at least for the esa is uh the presentation on data and accountability sources and that's Dr moris hi everyone so my presentation of uh we the websites are going to be super quick because you all have the links to the websites so I'll at least bring you to the landing page for each one of the websites give you a brief explanation and I'm more than happy to explain any of these um at another time because we are way over our a lotted time

224tonight so I want to make sure that you all know about these two places and um if you have questions let me know so I'm just going to share my screen really quickly so we are um happy to share two um websites that have some information on data and information about our strategic plan process and the progress I know that's one of the things we've discussed tonight so wanted to very very quickly show you where to access the New York state public data site and the parent dashboard there and also um show you all our Rochester strategic plan website where you can see where we are storing and Reporting on the process of our strategic plan and how we're progressing uh to meet those objectives so the first one I want to show you very

225quickly um a a location for is for New York state public data site and a parent dashboard um the parent dashboard is a new piece of the New York State data site and it has a lot of different information that is right um collated on this website to help uh make a little bit more sense of different things that are related to student achievement at the district at the schools um you can get County information Etc and it has a lot of different um overview of vocabulary um so you don't have to spend a lot of time trying to understand which each one of these terms mean they have links right there that are easy for you to interface and so here is um let me head on not sure if you can get it

226but the um hold on the New York State um dashboard is right here so the parent dashboard when you go in here you can just simply type in the district or the school that you would like to learn more about and it will bring up any information that you need and it will bring you up a list of schools across the state you can also look at it by District um what you can also do when you get to that page is you'll see that there are so many different resources that are available and you'll be able to um look at um areas where it provides overview of counts of students and other data points and as data are released by the New York State education department they will be released through this portal and

227publicly available for everyone so this is just something I wanted to make sure that everyone knew how to get here and the public um piece that's related to parents is to help that be a little bit more easy to understand um through going through that interface because a lot of the different pieces are broken out and defined so with that in mind I'm now going to go back to our presentation and I'm going to go to the second piece which is related to the Rochester strategic plan and so as an aspect of our strategic plan one of the indicators that we said we would deliver is a website that would have our information about what the Strategic plan is what we're doing within the Strategic plan and some of our goals and objectives in the

228data that goes along with it so I'm going to show you our new strategic plan website so um just very quickly this strategic plan um website will show um information and background about the Strategic plan it gives an overview there's a opportunity for you to download and view the Strategic plan there are different contents that we have provided in this website which include the mission and the vision and the core beliefs of the district um the work that is her happening in the Strategic plan and the task forces what the task Force's responsibility and some once we get their outcomes and start to get the deliverables that will be included here as well as and lastly we also have our objectives and our priorities that have been identified in the Strategic plan and we also

229have data that is linked here um that identify our targets by District priority so I'm not going to link or click through all of these things today because I know we're very short on time but I at least wanted to let you all know that this site is up and live and available for you all to take a look at and um would love um any questions that you may have please um feel free to send them in the log and we'll be more than happy to share any information that you may need and I will stop sharing thank you any questions thank you um Dr Morris any questions um Madam superintendent sure just a really quick comment so remember when President White earlier asked about our focus on 3 through eight testing and and

230our emphasis this is the area that uh the board the public can go to to track our progress progress excuse me to see where it is so our work is very transparent and uh very comprehensive as we continue to move forward so this is the area that you can just do a quick check but if there's additional information that you seek or that you need we can certainly get that for you but just to make the to connect the dots thank you um one question though where does the academic plan is there a link for the academic plan in here is can they sort of uh be side by side or how how are we infusing the academic plan in in the Strategic plan um by academic plan are you referring to the independent Dr

231J's plan so that is on the Rochester um website um on the city school district website it's under if you look for Dr jallow there's a page with the financial plan and it has the academic plan as well on there and there's all of the artifacts that have been published through Dr dall's work on that page okay all right okay one of the the um um questions that that um we're going to be um looking at going forward is um the notion of round leading and lagging indicators so if there are areas that are lagging in or there and some of that we discussed tonight with the attendance records and so you know we want to make sure that we know where we are why we aren't where we're supposed to be so in future

232meetings we're going to be you know asking um your team Dr Meers small to you know give us some you know resp response to why we are where we are as we're doing with the attendance records as um as an example so um I want to thank everybody Dr Myers small I have see a hand up is that a new hand No it should be lowered thank you okay all right um any other questions or comments from um Commissioners around Esna I know that this was a long meeting I found it very good though it was very um a very very good um um the information that we was presented was very good so I want to thank all of the presenters I tell you I feel um uh more believe it or not even

233after 20 years more informed tonight than I've been in the past so um really want to thank every uh presenter uh particularly you know uh Sandra Chevrolet um Blackman uh from Manel High School what an amazing um efforts that they've done over at M high school and um I would offer ask for motion to adjourn the esa meeting motion second second and um that concludes the executive uh the esa committee meeting but now we have to go into executive session so can I get a motion to go into executive session I'll move nope just one thing before we do remember okay sorry I asked uh vice president Elliot uh President White to be moved to the end I just wanted to acknowledge formally that we have a new Chancellor and that is Dr Lester Young

234Jr he is the first African-American Chancellor uh to be in that role in the New York State education department he um he's from down state and um Dr or Chancellor young actually um held the same position or a similar position that I did in the State education department so he was an assistant commissioner an associate commissioner he also um was a superintendent down state and um he just has an extremely prolific career um as vice president Elliott asked me his father was a famous jazz musician he played the saxophone and so he has just kind of a rich Heritage but um Chancellor young is the reg he was then a regent was the one who created My Brother's Keeper of which Rochester City School District um participates in and we have a very active uh

235group here in Rochester but we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge certainly this historic accomplishment but to acknowledge our newly uh appointed unanimously Chancellor young and we are thrilled to work with him in this capacity he is very supportive and knowledgeable about Rochester City School District so we work we look forward to working with them in this new capacity congratulations on behalf of the district to Chancellor Lester Young thank you madam superintendent so can I get that motion to go into executive session motion can I get a second second all in favor I think we have to say why we're going into executive session regard vice president I I think you want to go in to discuss uh matters leading to the employment of a particular person so the we will go into

236executive session regarding matters of a particular person so all in favor I thank you uh we will come out of executive session not sure exactly when hopefully it will be quick um but if you don't if you cannot stay around thank you for joining us we really do appreciate you being here we know it was a pretty in-depth meeting tonight but hopefully um you got um some information around our academic uh Pursuits in this District thank you so thank you all um we are back and we are left with having to do our survey so we will do the survey and after the survey we will um offer a um motion to adjourn our meeting oh uh we probably need to there was no new business um so all right so it's all done we

237are still waiting on a couple folks okay I'm waiting on the bills to do that thing this weekend you know what I love it commissioner Adams is ride or die right I love it there a lot of there a lot of them in this community right yes lot of them right here in my household sadly long time coming I'm rooting for him I hope so my my son uh reminded my husband that if the bills made it to the Super Bowl they were gonna get tickets and I'm like yeah when was that bargain made 10 years ago like not getting tickets to a covid spreading event I'm sorry well thank you all for joining us if you're still out there with us uh we think it was a pretty good meeting we hope you uh

238feel the same way and so I'm going to ask one of my colleagues to um offer a motion to adjourn motion can I get a second commissioner pow did all right all in favor I all right thank you good night everybody good night night nice