Special Meeting: Board Retreat on Priorities and the Superintendent's Goals | August 25, 2020

001good evening everybody Welcome to our board retreat on priorities and our superintendent goals we this is a long- awaited retreat but necessary for us to work together to plan for our students and our families this year um but come up with some realistic goals as a board um so welcome everybody I'd also like to say a quick thank you to Ricardo commissioner Ricardo Adams for giving up this time uh this was normally a scheduled cigr meeting um and he gave this time up so that we could have this Retreat before September so thank you very much Ricardo for doing that for us um today we are going to be going through a few activities and I'd like to personally welcome um Sher Johnson from the Monroe County School boards Association she is here to leave

002lead us through um our board priority development and then we're also going to be hearing today from Dr Meyers um on just an update on her Mission Vision core beliefs and her superintendent goals for our district so without further Ado we're going to get this thing started I would like to introduce first Dr Meers small to talk a little bit more about our update on strategic planning great thank you commissioner Malloy and good evening to President White vice president Elliott all of our commissioners cabinet members and then all those who are watching this evening um I am very excited to have the opportunity Unity to talk um first a little bit about the areas of focus as I've hit the ground running and and been in the district for a little over three months then

003I want to speak to the strategic planning process that we just recently concluded and a very diverse group of internal and external stakeholders came together and it was extremely synergist synergistic excuse me so they're I'm excited to present our Collective work and then I want to talk to you a little bit about how potentially um that some goals of mine that is aligned with that work um we could move forward 20221 school year so let me just start with the areas of focus so as I've been just studying Rochester City School District talking with many individuals both internal stakehold olders external stakeholders predominantly on Zoom but I have been able to get out just a little bit um in covid-19 um reviewing our both qualitative and quantitative data the following um eight areas of focus

004I just want to briefly touch upon with the the Board of Education and others so we certainly need to have a focus and an emphasis on academics that's the core of what we do and that's who we are as a as an organization as a school district and so under my leadership the goal is to really move that acade academic needle in the positive direction um we know that there are areas of concern relative to um low performance and proficiency on on three through eight testing uh particularly on Ela and math um we while our graduation rate has been continually um increasing we want to continue that trajectory of having our student more of our students graduate conversely we want to have very few students dropping out from the Rochester City School District and I

005know that um in particular vice president Elliott has really said that you know our it's really important for us to fortify our academics so we're not losing students to Charter Schools or to private and parochial schools so that all gets folded into fortifying the academics uh budget and finances we spoke at length um recently about making sure that we s uh solidify our finances that we we um are fiscally sound that we employ um fiscal fiscally sound practices and so I'm working with each of you and with our independent monitor with carene the cabinet and others to make sure that we uh continue to uh be fiscally responsible and monitor the finances branding is really important um a school district is um chosen by a family when they are moving into a they choose a

006community based on the school district we know that and so um whereas we have so many good things that are going on people don't always know about them and at times we know that when we talk about the Rochester City School District or we say that we how we're specifically connected that sometimes that it's not always positive so I just uh having the opportunity to attend every single commencement ceremony and to hear anecdotally from not only um our principles but teachers and parents and students just commentary about not only our Scholars and some of their success stories of how they made it to that day to hear Pomp and Circumstance but just the passion and the dedication of our staff and just our amazingly Rich community so we've we need to do a better job

007to make sure that we are articulating that and sharing good news and good stories with our own School Community but also getting that word out to um the external community of Rochester Monroe County and Beyond um certainly covid-19 Team Planning has been our the area Focus for me and my team every single superintendent is is figuring out how to reopen most safely and to do it in ways that are meaningful in their school communities so that that that's the overarching focus um trauma informed practices I've spoken quite a bit about this and we know that our district at least in Monroe county is unique in the following ways we certainly know that that our Stu some of our Scholars have experienced trauma in their lives whether it's family trauma neighbor you know their Community trauma

008or just personal trauma that they've experienced so they have that but unfortunately because of covid-19 the last day that our students were physically in schools was March 13th mid-march and so they have the trauma and we've all been experiencing the trauma of covid-19 right of the isolation the separation not being able to congregate with our uh our friends and and our extended family so that that has been difficult but then our students and I think this is where we differ from at least in a more concentrated way from our Monroe County um Partners in school districts is that they have the trauma of racism they have the trauma they they saw how things played out relative to the murder of George George Floyd they just recently we just found out out the other day that

009another um situation happened uh with a black man being shot you know so that trauma weighs very heavily on our Scholars Minds so we have to really continue to be focused on trauma informed practices and making sure that we are supporting our students and giving them the uh really literally and figuratively wrapping our arms uh individually and collectively around them um a continued focus on implicit bias anti-racism in and inclusion you know we have such a rich diversity of young people in our district and so making sure that we're able to connect with them and to them meaningfully understanding their experiences not feeling sorry or having fewer or less expectations but really making sure that we're embracing the rich diversity that makes up the Rochester City School District uh special education continue to place an

010emphasis on making sure that we have that Continuum of services for our students that we're uh providing all opportunities and really making sure that LR or the least restrictive environment is fully maximized for our students with disabilities and and making sure that they feel included and welcomed and embraced in our school district and then finally our multi- lingual Learners our bilingual Learners we have um some of our schools have bilingual classrooms and making sure that we are connecting to that population expanding um not only uh information on the website but materials that we send out that are uh created in in the language that our students and their families predominantly speak so there's lots of work and and things that we need to have happen and to have a huge huge area of focus um

011that make up that area of focus so that really started these eight areas were the uh Genesis for our conversations relative to strategic planning because how do we bundle that all up and I know that previously we've had strategic planning um in the district um and so um I wanted to have an opportunity to have if you go to the next slide please um have an opportunity for us to um have multi- uh stakeholders come together and you know they they weren't necessarily The Usual Suspects so we had uh parents we had um staff we had uh PA professionals we had all teachers Etc come together and over multiple meetings and we did this all in a virtual online environment um it and it was so C eristic it was very very powerful but we

012wanted to based on those areas of focus that I identified we wanted to come up with this living document and I think that's the key thing strategic plans often get completed um districts pay lots of money to have them done or they have people come together and then they just sit on the Shelf after all that great work that has gone into it so our goal was really to create this living document that really articulates our story it articulates our focus and what we hope um and I won't even say hope what we will achieve in the short and long-term future and then that journey and that path that it takes to get there so you know a strategic plan talks about you know why our district exists or the mission it also focuses on

013uh aspirational aspects so your vision what are School Community collectively believes to be so so that's our core beliefs and our Focus over the next three years so how are we going to improve um certain either areas or subgroups of students in our school community so that's our performance targets and then how will we accomplish this like how what will be our guiding post to get there and that's our priorities so let's dig into that first page um and again this is still draft form this will come before you officially on Thursday for approval um and so I know and I I T I've mentioned this that um the board worked incredibly hard um previously to to create a mission and a vision so I want to honor that work and recognize that you all

014spent um in an in uh a lots of dedicated time to create that but but as we were as we were developing the Strategic plan we took a look back to see if we could make a friendly Amendment and um certainly um I believe a couple of weeks ago we sent what the what your what our original Miss Vision was and what and this is kind of the new one that we're submitting for consideration so I just want to be clear that the mission and vision still are in its in the iteration and some of the pieces were shifted into the core beliefs which you'll see so the mission so why we exist is to Foster students individual talents and abilities in a nurturing environment of equity and that was really key now some of

015that language was previously in a in a vision so I just want to uh point that out and then our vision so what's our aspiration if everything goes right and well in our school's Community what does that look like we ensure that all students have e Equitable access access to a high quality education and we graduate that's future each student as a productive member of society so that's that was powerful so I just wanted to point that out and then I just have to say the process that um was used to get to the core beliefs was really powerful so we started there was what 26 or 27 of us we started by saying what we thought our core beliefs were then we congregated in groups of like four or five and then we coalesced

016that information coated it and then we came together so it really started individual then small group than the entire group but you can see that the most even though they're not prioritized this first one really should be first because it's the core uh no pun intended of everything that we do but students are our first priority and they drive every single decision that that we make and the group resoundingly was like yes yes yes yes yes that's it and then you can see the rest that each student has recognizable and untapped potential that we strive to discover and fulfill number three we Embrace diversity and commit to the eradication of racism and all forms of discrimination and oppression four we provide students families and staff with Equitable access to resources for learning next we respect

017and honor the Dignity of all individuals further educating the whole CH whole child requires high quality learning that is safe loving and rigorous our work is centered in respect trust integrity and accountability education is a partnership of families the school and the community and finally we make each fiscal and resource allocation decision equitably transparently in the best interest of our students and so that's that first cover page that we're asking for you to consider but again just think about those eight um areas of focus and just see how that um that through line is from that first page to the next I won't read all the rest of the uh I won't read all of the priorities but how do we get there how are we going to make sure that our areas of focus

018happen and you can see we group them under engage lift up collect collaborate in lead and so you can see that again that first one is the provision of high quality learning experiences the ensuring that we have an inclusive caring and safe environment and I will tell you right here that um priority you hear over and over and over again from the voices of our Scholars they very clearly articulate that and I have to make sure that the our commissioners our President and Vice President know that um we did have two very active student participants on the strategic planning team they had you know they weren't uh shy at all they had equal voice and oftentimes they did the reporting out for that for their group we wanted to make sure that student voice was

019really key in this process but over and over again we've heard the importance of that inclusive caring and safe environment that we're going to build bu strong community and that we're going to Foster Dynamic leadership because we know that that's the key to a school district being successful is certainly the having that high quality teacher but having that leadership so I'm just going to go over just one page of what the performance targets uh Trends and targets look like um and you can again see how this correlates back to those eight priorities so um graduation um and we did a fouryear so right now you can see where the different subgroups sit so our black latinx all of our students students with disabilities and elll and what our goal is to get to um so

020conversely you can see the dropout rate and where we currently um sit and where we are our Target and where we're headed um so those are pretty clear I just want to make sure when people see C seec r or CQ that is college career and Civic Readiness if you could make that just a little bit bigger if that's possible CIA please and thank you is that better for folks I know it's small maybe just even blow the bottom ones up since we've seen it if you can make that just a little bigger great okay so this is making sure that students participate in in a a rigorous uh one or one or more rigorous um courses or experiences so it could be an advanced placement course we were talking about that previously or an

021international baloria cloth course the the Seal of biliteracy um or taking the the what is it the skills USA test so it's making sure or a CTE experience Career and Technical education so our goal is to drive that number up to make sure more of our students are um are are participating in those rigorous activities along college readiness career Readiness and Civic Readiness so that's something that we really need to focus on and we felt was important and you can see how it's delineated um along the lines of race um elll and students with disabilities so you can see the gap for students with disabilities is pretty wide in that particular area and then this is another area as far as the percent of grade nine cohort on track to graduate by year end and

022this is our our first measurement is making sure that they earn a minimum of five credits by the end of their their freshman year so that first freshman year and so you can see um where we are currently and where we are aspiring um where we are aspiring to um to go and what our Target is so we have 16 of these performance targets that we are looking at so we're looking at 3 through eight um testing uh performance or proficiency rather on Ela and math we are looking at um the number of schools that move from either being receivership CSI TSI to schools in good uh uh standing so again we use a lot of AC acronyms targeted support or comprehensive support to or receivership and we want to move those schools to schools

023in good standing and that has to deal with everything from uh performance on Regents exams and three or three through eight testing attendance Etc so um we also had uh have a a Target on schools who are using restorative practices and we have a Continuum so we want to move schools from one level to the next to eventually being a fully restorative school so we we're we're looking really at the gamut of how do we make sure that each student that crosses the threshold every day um into the Rochester City School District right now they're doing that online or they'll start on the 14th remotely but each student has all of these supports wrapped around them and we put strategies in place to make sure that they do actualize those targets and that we can

024move it in a positive direction so um if you go to the next one and so just we wanted to include this for you to see that the targets that we have and we oh I forgot to mention absenteeism um so the uh every student succeeds act or Essa and then the individuals with Disability Act they have certain requirements so there are certain targets that are articulated through those uh measures so our targets um certainly exceed what the state has for the Rochester City School District so I think it's just important to know that we just didn't uh aim for what we minimally needed to achieve but that we were going above um and beyond that if you'd go to the next so how does this translate into um into the goals and performance objectives

025for me as the superintendent here in Rochester and this is just a sample to show because I know previously there's been about uh six goals or so so we could um if we wanted to look at student achievement we could have a goal there accountability we could have a goal there parent and Community engagement healthy Youth Development safety and discipline um so and um so we could look at goals and putting one underneath each and let me just be clear even though there may be if we choose to go this route even though there may be one we those all of those areas that are identified the performance targets we're going to have action groups that will be working and led by an individual who is most closely related to that uh particular goal so

026like for example with absenteeism we'll have um certainly the Chiefs working on that we'll have accountability working on that we'll have Innovation working on that we'll have principles working on that so um we'll make sure that we have folks identified in those subgroups that can move that work forward and this just isn't happening at the district once we um once you approve our strategic plan then school to has to figure out how that applies to them and how they will move that forward and again our chief of schools will be working with the principls at the elementary the middle and the secondary level to make sure that they are um in turn having this again be a living document so the goal um President White is to when we're with the um excellence and student

027achievement committee this obviously will guide a lot of the work as far as updating um the board the Commissioners around what is happening um and we want to make sure again that this is alive and and is very robust um but um the other thing that I just wanted to put out there because we are currently remote did we want to think you know I've also been thinking about how I make sure these goals also um can be fluid in a being remote at least for now and we don't know you know if an executive order comes down or something changes um but we know for example three through eight testing did not happen it students were not tested in the uh during 2020 that could indeed happen again both for three through eight and

028or regent exams so we just want to be cognizant of to have some goals there that just don't go by the wayside because they're not measured so we just I I just want us to think about that um collectively as a superintendent and and Board of Education group so that's just an example of something that we can do I'll work with um Dr Morris uh Deputy superintendent Morris we can figure out once we um identify the goals then we can figure out how we will measure them and how uh we'll determine if I've achieved them or not last slide for me on this presentation is just to outline some next steps so we certainly need to have a discussion and alignment of what you all are thinking and what I am uh would like to

029do and I know Sherry's going to help us move through that um certainly another next step is the approval of the Strategic plan on the 27th on Tuesday and um let me just let me just pause there we on the last day of strategic planning at the end um there was a debrief session and just an opportunity to talk through how did it go what were the you know Joys or and what were the you know were there any pain or pressure points and I have to tell you that everyone said this was such an inclusive process that they felt valued through the process that they felt so included and so we um the folks that are on that plan have committed to meeting we're going to take September off so we can get everything

030settled for remote but October November December and January we're going to meet every month for four months to see how the plan is going to see what how is it working and to get feedback and um perspective from the different groups but folks were just so committed and they were like we are so glad that we did this so I want to thank the the board for supporting us being able to move in this direction to create an A A A revamp or a new strategic plan um we will develop those action planning committees that will address absenteeism that will address 3 through eight testing that will look at graduation rate that will look at restorative practices except ET and then we'll work to finalize the superintendent goals and and I guess the last one

031that's not on there but the most important one is that we'll just move forward and we'll just make this happen um I feel very good about this process um I'm very pleased at the work that was done and again um what individuals participants said is that everyone had an equal vote and it wasn't that the superintendent or a central office administrator outranked a parent or a teacher that everyone had equal voice so I feel very very proud about the full document that will be coming forward to you all for your review and they are anxiously awaiting for your final approval on it uh and they feel good very good about the body of work so that is my presentation in a nutshell I don't know if there are any questions I see I see some

032hands up so yes I think we do have some questions um thank you so much superintendent for that presentation and I just want to extend a thank you to you and to your team for the hard work um that you had to do really quickly um this together so was ambitious that we're dealing with um I thank you for this so thank you and we'll support in any way we can so the first hand that I saw was from commissioner LeBron uh followed by commissioner Elliot okay thank you he um just a couple of questions uh Dr Meers um one on the Strategic plan y um I did read it over the weekend because it came in the Friday newsletter we can get familiar with it yes I was just wondering in terms of the

033details um I know that this is a draft form but I'm curious as to how this will actually be implemented and so I guess for me when I think of a strategic plan um I would like to see the goal and then the steps that will be taken throughout the district to actually reach the goal for for the Strategic plan um and then then that brings me to the last two slides that you presented with the goals um so let me just say when I first did on the board and I have to give a little bit of this piece of it because okay we had a different superintendent and there were different goals that were set for that individual and one of I guess my own personal pet peeves around any goals that are

034set yeah is how they are measured in a conative way and so when I read something like accelerate the academic performance of all students for me personally that doesn't quantify anything academically for a student so I would much prefer that that go read accelerate the academic performance of all students by increasing their math and reading Levels by three or five% and I I say smaller numbers because I do recognize that it takes a lot of work to move that needle in those areas and I know more people more people would probably want me to say something like 50% but I want to be realistic about a goal as well so I know that this is a draft are you looking for us to to work with you on these or for the board to approve

035these on Thursday for the goals for your goals and for the Strategic plan I guess as well so th this is just a sample and I'm sorry this wasn't clear commissioner LeBron so thank you for that question that's the the each one that's the general topic but then I would fill in and say increase three through eight Ela or the you so this is just kind of the broad categories because we we need to have that conversation so I'm not looking to have the the final approval of goals yet because we need to go back and forth but I wanted to give the general categories to make sure you were good with that and then I can fill in after that okay yes no I wouldn't be that big in the past the previous superintendent

036had goals kind of very much so and then you know I had an issue with how the goals were written for previous superintendent how they were not in a measurable way but we were expected to measure them and um in super eval give the superintendent an evaluation based on these goals that anybody can write these and say yeah I accomplished this because I said so and there no actual measurement um to show evidence of it okay and I guess the same with the Strategic plan I know that it's a draft in a living document yes will there be more actual details as to how we're going to implement the Strategic plan throughout the district right so once this Frame is approved then that's when the magic of Dr Morris takes over and she's going to

037create much more detail and put the bones and everything in the this is the bones she'll put this well I won't get graphic but she'll she'll make it much more robust and really will fill it out yes and that that's her wheelhouse so okay got it and then you'll represent the details of the house okay all right thank you you're welcome thank you commissioner LeBron and thank you Dr Myer small next we have um commissioner Elliot um thank you Dr um Myers small for um this present I just have a couple of questions one is it seems to me that with regard to absenteeism that the whole online learning may be an opportunity for some of our students um some of our students are not able to come into the classroom because of you know

038having to take care of small children having to take care you know their siblings or some kind of um involvement that they have to do around their house and so um this this may be an opportunity as I said for us to look at how do we engage those students who can't be into the U classroom so I'm looking forward that if there may be some um ideas around how do we capture those students who would normally be out of school um because of some real life issues that they may be experiencing how can we use this online learning um to capture that um I so I'd be interested in the future to having some kind of your thoughts around how we how we do that to help to reduce the absentee rate could I

039just give a response to that because that's really fascinating when I was working for the State education department I went to visit a School a high school and the principal had done an analysis of um some of our students that really had very poor uh attendance and but she noticed that they had done were doing incredibly well in their courses and she said well wait a minute let me see what's going on and these indeed were students who were taking care of younger siblings or their own children or child or children or had jobs but they were working at 6 7 8 9 10 o'clock at night and so we you know I want to Circle back and see what were they what what were some of the things that we were doing because those

040kids I know that it's perseverance and stiu liveness but there was something there that was compelling those students and so we need to capitalize on that but that she had some this principal had students that were just knocking it out of the park and doing so well with their online learning and one of the things that I was trying to work on and I want to Circle back with our interim commissioner and the folks at the state Ed department is if we have students who are engaging for you know and and taking those classes why can't that count as attendance when we have regular brick and mortar attendance there's no reason why that shouldn't be able to count and I had pitched that to then Chancellor Rosa and uh some of the Regents and there

041was some there was traction with that they were interested because I think it's I think it's appropriate for us to get credit for those students they're just not going from 7 to 3 but they are engaging from six six or seven o'clock on for multiple hours so I am very interested in pursuing that and figuring out how we make that work but yeah some of our students do do really well with the online uh credit recovery and it it's it's the mode that they are very comfortable with and very successful with yeah also this just comes up to Independent Learning uh I don't know if we do a lot I don't think we do a lot of that in our district but you know where courses are designed by our students in cooperation with uh

042with some faculty and how how do you uh that just seems to me another uh opportunity for us to um to be um Forward Thinking if you will about our the way in which we graduate our students and teach our students so that's one point and secondly um about suspensions how does the plan uh address um suspension uh rates Dr oh there's a performance Target there for that but I think it'll be interesting we won't at least for the first 10 weeks we shouldn't have any yeah right right that's right um but there is a measure for suspension okay what's the goal what what is that can you tell give me just one second I can pull it up the goal is hold on um [Music] currently we have uh the goal is students with

043uh disabilities are at 9.5 5% so uh black students 8.7 all 6.9 Latino 5.3 so our goal is to go down to our Target is four per. okay and then just the last question we we did a lot of work uh at at Harvard around the public education leadership program is any of that language and I know that um Carmine was a part of that is any of that language which a part of the um the Strategic plan that the group developed I I I can double check with Carmine because Carmine was one of the participants so I'll have to um Cy if you don't mind or M Soul if you'll get it down I'll I'll double check to see but he was there and was an active participant yeah we did a lot of

044great work there so you know I don't want us always Reinventing the wheel sure I understand thank you thank you thank you thank you so much commissioner Elliot for your question and thank you for your answers uh Dr Meyers are there any other questions for Dr Myers at this time regarding the strategic planning document okay it looks like this is going to be a living document that we're GNA be filling a lot of information in uh over the coming months um I know we're going to be dealing with most likely different data sets right uh as we gather data on our students from the remote setting from when we finally come out back at to back to school um in person so I know I'm interested to see how we reconcile those different sets of

045data all right well thank you so much Dr Myers and I think that moves us on to our next um part of our our Retreat today which is just the development of the board priorities and we're going to start by doing a brainstorm and to help lead us through it is um Sher Johnson from the Monroe County School boards Association we had the pleasure of having her last year although uh commissioner Adams and and I were not yet on the board officially but we were able to sit in on some of those meetings and we we certainly enjoyed your presentation so thank you for joining us again um and for helping to guide us through this this process oh it's my pleasure and thanks for having me tonight um to facilitate this portion for your

046board retreat even though we can't meet in person it's all wonderful to see all of you and you know I apologize to to President White I don't have chocolate candy that I have made personally to give to all of you this evening because we didn't meet in person but down the road I'm hoping we can and this also keeps my record of working with you intact so I've been able to meet with you at least once a year ever since I became executive director and it was about this time last year that we did meet for the retreat as commissioner Malloy has said and so I really want to thank all of you for taking the time to do this tonight and I guess I need to to thank commissioner Adams for giving up time

047so that you um put in this particular block of time to do these um these priorities you know you yes Sherry I'm very disappointed I'm sorry I have to tell you I thought about trying to figure out how to get candy to you I really did but I owe double next time we need Wonka Vision Wonka vision you have to explain that the Willy Wonka Willy Wonka okay so anyway so have a candy bar on me some you know sometime but I know all of you've heard me say multiple times that I believe passionately in your self-care is both a a member of a seven member team and an eight member team including your superintendent and that leadership matters right and I've always said that so you know I give you a lot of credit

048for taking the work that you have done um over this time so I have been on probably over 100 Zoom or webinar meetings or go-to meetings since March it feels like there's been a thousand but most of those I've been a participant and not a facilitator so you're G to bear with me tonight as I work through this but Cia has agreed to help me out in a big way um and so I do I did this by PowerPoint but I'm leaving it as a file and I may have to because I want to be able to make this interactive so that you can actually physically work on it so there may be a time when I'm going to have to switch over and share so that you can we can type actually on here

049but just as an overview I want to give you a sense of what is um been our time our five years together knowing as commissioner Malloy has said that when I started with you you had different members on your team you had different superintendent but through those five years I've worked with you some of you have remained during that entire time and some of you have come on during um different iterations of those meetings and so I thought I would give you a short trip down give you a sense of what you have done to improve your team self-government governance and alignment with District goals and priorities because I felt that it was important um then we'll go through this um quickly I just want to have a quick input from all of you about

050your standards of of conduct that I know that you have approved your code of ethics and your board bylaws significant documents that you have worked on over this time and while I was able to work with pieces of you on that you you carry the ball on that afterwards and then get into the board priorities brainstorm and try to also stay on time with you so if we can start with the former priorities and goals that you have worked on and I'm not going to read this you have it but I wanted you to have the list because again there are people on this um on this zoom and in this meeting at this Retreat that haven't really seen this collectively and there are board members uh that haven't seen it as well so when

051I first worked with you uh way back five years ago you were looking at your Comm committee structure and what were your meetings of the whole and and as um Dr Mar small said you've got a superintendent evaluation tool you've also got your own you looked at board lays on roles but you also worked on not as a goal but as a priority to continue working together as a cohesive team um and then you can see as we work down here some of the other things that you have um that you have worked on and now it's not a comprehensive list and I don't mean it to be but that is where if I pulled up all of the board retreat information that I had based on working with you over these five years this

052is kind of um a comprehensive list of what I have around what you've worked on so if we go to the next slide recently you've done you've done your um equity and educational Excellence policy uh in March of 2018 you can see I've been on your website I've looked at your policies um your board bylaws in August of 2019 your school safety health and safety programs your code of ethics and your standards of conduct and at this point I I would ask do you want to comment on any of those specifically or do you just want to move forward I I think I understand that your standards of conduct may be up for a review am I right you're right um Sherry they they'll be voted on in Thursday's business meeting um they're going to

053be voting on also changes to the bylaws as well okay hey Sherry yeah I wanted to say that your work with us on I think it was the standards of conduct you remember we were doing that exercise and yeah took us a while to get to um some consensus but we were able to and um we actively use those uh standards uh and in fact as a followup to that we uh conduct pretty regularly a board survey at the end of our meetings and a number of the questions that we ask relate to the standards of conduct so I want to thank you um I'm sure my colleagues joined me in that thanks for uh you getting us through that initial phase of that project because that was very challenging but we got through it

054with some consensus and we now use those to sort of keep an eye on ourselves collectively in terms of how we relate to each other so thank you for that work well well thank you and and really this is all your work I am happy to facilitate however I can to get you um to that place and I I really congratulate all of you if you look at those standards of conduct and you compare them to other standards of conduct across our districts that our Board of Education use you're just very comprehensive so you you really um took the time and the effort to do it right and do it well so um congratulations back to all of you and and I think that's what I want to say these are really comprehensive pieces of

055work and so they're really important documents and I want to make sure that you don't lose the momentum around that so that's just my little um you know cheer cheerleader type of thing to to continue in that direction because it's a very positive direction to be going in so I have worked with a number of board of educations this spring and this summer um in the middle of our covid-19 environment and um this is probably my fifth or sixth one that I've done and I just wanted to give you a sense of what other districts have been uh other boards of Education I'm sorry other board priorities um that they have actually been working on and they're not in any particular order you will you will see that there's a whole bunch of ones that

056Dr my small has actually mentioned around District goals I do want to tell you that communication across the board in this particular environment communication from board to each other to the um central Office Team and the superintendent to the community has been a priority for almost every single one of our working with um because of the current environment it's always a top priority but this year it's just been really highlighted and um on policy and code of conduct changes some board of education members have decided to do some actual policy work around the new requirements under the plans um and assurances that the State education department and that the Department of Health has is requiring of you um as and as well as code of conduct changes but not everyone has many believe that their

057code of conducts are just fine and they cover all of that so those are a couple pieces I got to sit on um region Wade Norwood put me on a digital divide right in the middle of all of this when we were trying to figure out what was this going to mean this entire remote learning in an emergency situation and many of our district boards have picked up on that as well as they also found out no matter where they sit there are students and families in their communities that don't have access and equity and then of course racial equity and diversity that is going to be um a big goal for many boards it certainly is um um stuff that mcba is going to be aligning themselves with social and emotional learning um I

058didn't put trauma informed but that's on there and then School culture finances and transportation so those are just some of the ones that they worked on and I'm only giving that to you so that you have things going on in your head I know you probably have some of your own but just sort of um as a reminder and then I am you'll see where it says purposely left blank so this is now your turn and what um K is going to do is I'm going to write them on my sheet so that I have them for you but she's going to write them down and we're going to try to capture in real time this time um for me with will be a challenge so I want to thank I want to thank K

059so much for helping me out here um to make sure that we capture all this and get this back out to you and what I want you to try to come up with are some key priorities that you have on your mind to consider as board priorities this is a brainstorm we're not worried about the words right now we're not worried about the titles it could be a one word or a sentence um that you think as a board you need to prioritize you just saw Dr Meyer's small presentation on what the Strategic plan is going to be dealing with what the um as her potential priorities and goals are going to look like so where do you sit with all of this and I'm going to be quiet so um Sher would you like

060us to just uh kind of shout things out would you prefer that we raise hands or can people just talk simultaneously oops you're muted sorry I I it's hard to see all of you on a screen oh there we go so I think that if um you know if you want to lead that and then sort of help your commissioner fellow Commissioners um develop that and I like I said I'm going to sit quietly and write and then I will take you through the next step okay um I don't see any hands off to the side but I'll quickly just say I know just to throw an idea out there I know one of my primary focus points is just academic Improvement um AC districtwide oops oh and I see commissioner Adams so one of

061my primary focuses right now is um on finances I think as a board um we need to figure out a way to advocate for some more finances I don't believe we legitimately can um function on this 20 % cut that um we're facing so I I just think I don't have an answer but I know we need to um we need to get some more money and um that's what I know so finances is a big priority for me right now thank you commissioner is there anyone else who wants to throw something out there on the brainstorm I don't see any other hands I think we can probably just speak up commissioner Malloy can you hear me yeah yeah y okay yeah um I I just want to piggy back on what Ricardo said um

062and I don't know that anybody has the capacity to to to to do it but um in addition to becoming good uh fiduciary agents as part of being a good fiduciary agents we have to figure out where we're going to raise revenue because I I just I said this this afternoon at meeting I just can't see how we're gonna just cut cut cut and not cut our children at the knees in terms of their ability to be successful I just and I don't know I don't have the answer for it but I just know that just cutting having an agenda of cutting is not going to work for our kids so it's just a goal I [Music] don't thank you President White um if I could just add another one I know just kind of

063along those lines because certainly the finances will probably be our number one issue and goal for the year but I think part of that includes really looking carefully as a district about where we want to go maybe looking at our manage the manag choice policy or looking to restructure in a way where we can find some cost savings but also restructure in a manner that works best for students academically and I want to support that uh commissioner Malloy um certainly there has been a number of years um Sherry spent having discussions around the managed Choice policy and and previously commissioner um oh my God Hallmark had led a group in this community to have conversations around this the findings were presented to the board the board spent a number of months having conversations with consultants

064and then the board voted to keep the same manage Choice policy with Fidelity which meant nothing so we literally spent all this time doing nothing um other than having conversations so I would love for us to move forward and really look at restructuring the managed Choice policy in a way that is more financially um fiscally responsible I should say to the district and but also responsible to our families and in the neighborhoods that they live in um for me I'm also going to say finances but also finances and how we've how we manage finances as a district and our expenditures and our policies and procedures around it um and I just don't think we are doing a great job around that and until for me until we fix our procedures and our policies and how

065things occur internally for finances in the district I don't believe that no matter how many Cuts we make we're going to continue to Hemorrhage until we fix those systems internally thank you commissioner Leon thank you I see uh commissioner Pal's hand um so with the invocation of the managed Choice policy uh my stream of Consciousness takes me to conversation about Equity um some would say that uh you know a there's nothing like a crisis to accomplish what you want uh sometimes what you want is kind of an exploitation however of the people in the greatest uh need um and so we cannot forget that uh some of our poorest performing schools have been in uh the neighborhoods that need high- performing schools the most so um whenever we have a conversation about managed choice we

066have to be very clear of that we're not abandoning uh our commitment to equity thank you commissioner pow let's see I see uh President White just to piggy back on what commissioner pow said um the history of this whole movement away from manag choice to um neighborhood schools is Complicated by the fact that many of our troubled neighborhoods economically challenged neighborhoods have schools that are challenged as well so to get rid of managed Choice relegates many people to neighborhoods that don't have their fair share of effective schools that's not fair that's not right so I I do want to revisit that conversation about having neighborhood schools because I think if all other things are equal neighborhood schools are good but if if a particular neighborhood has a disproportionate share of ineffective schools it would not

067be fair so I I want to make sure that when we have this conversation about uh looking at managed choice that we understand that uh it not be done until we have our Fair they our neighborhoods all have their fair share of effective schools the other thing I I don't know how specific this is but of course and it could be included in any one of these like academic Improvement but you you know I don't to say increasing graduation rates Ela scores maass scores uh how we move and effectively resource our special needs students our bilingual students uh those are areas which we have suffered and those goals I would think have to be specifically laid out for improvements I think uh commissioner LeBron said earlier on we got to make sure that uh by

068the superintendent by which he is judged the performance indicators are very specific with respect to where she's supposed to be by X date it't it won't be enough to just say oh you know what um let's improve our performances uh our our performance indicators in the area of ela scores and mass scores it's got to be 5% Terry by the way had those kind of projections and so did ban Barbara I don't think did Barbara did not but Terry had them in then just left in the middle of the right right right all right I don't see any other hands would anyone like to add other items to our brainstorm so oh go ahead commissioner Adams so I definitely would like us to uh chat to use parents as consultants um this is what I

069came on here for uh the advocate for parents um input they're the professionals a lot of them know a lot more than we give them credit for um and I've been I've been learning a lot I've been learning a lot sitting on this board but I've been learning a lot from the parents listening to their input and I just think that we need to develop a Avenue um where we use them as the Consultants man it'll probably be would be cheaper you're not going to pay them like you pay we pay U these people from out of town so I I just would like to see us being able to um utilize um our community a little more um um that's what I that's what I would like to see us do thank you commissioner

070feed back on that I would say just improved Community engagement rethinking our our community engagement and as commissioner Adam said yeah start with the parents um this may be a bit pie in the sky but um it's a brainstorm it's a brainstorming increasing the percentage decreasing the number of students who disenroll in this District if we can't measure our success by the number of we should be measuring our success in part by the number of families that decide this is the district they want to stay in so we ought to be saying to Leslie Les listen one of your performance indicators going to be how many students are enrolled in the district and we should see that number go up you know we can be very modest because she doesn't control it all but I

071think you know one of the measures of successes or one of the measures of our failure has been people are leaving this District they use that when they talk about this District all the time so we ought to inverse that reverse that on them and start talking about oh you know what we had a 2% increase it's possible it's I mean I know people say it's pie in the sky but I think I think it's possible we get enough good schools going we could do it thank you so could you could you write looping down for me okay could I said could you write looping down oh yes so that might fall under academic Frozen perhaps yeah I think you're freezing yeah all right I can hear you but I I'd like to have my

072name added to that too I think from the standpoint of building relationship uh with families to teachers um that that there's a lot of value to be had in exploring uh loop concept oops thank you commissioner pal okay actually one last thing if I could add just under academic as well um you know we need to make sure that whatever policies we come up with as a district that we are helping to decrease our absentee absenteeism um I I view that as one of the major faults in our district and and any policy on this list has a it corresponds and correlates to uh the inability of our our kids to improve academically you know if they can improve if they're not there commissioner Malloy I see commissioner Shepard raising her hand oh I didn't

073see that commissioner Shepard sorry about that um yeah so when I was on our conference I met a superintendent in a district in Texas um and he told me that they introduced um a policy in their District where every single student had to engage activity whether that was um participating in a sport doing an art doing um music instruments um and so I think that that would be a good way um to add to the brainstorm about student engagement um and I think that it would also assist with some of the other areas that are on here as well um if students are engaged in things that they like to do we might be able to you know work on absenteeism and all those other things with academics thank you commissioner Shephard uh President White

074is that an old hand no that's that's a new end but real quickly um under Equity access to or increase in the number of students who take AP courses thanks so can I just add one since this is just like a wish list um I would love to see the district have um a more strategic and aligned Community Partnerships where we're not paying um and I say we we're not paying because a lot of our non-for-profits are getting funding from their own funding sources to service the same families that live in the city that go to the district and often times we're paying them to provide a service that they're already getting paid to do on their own in the community and there has to be a way to strategically align ourselves so that we

075can provide all the services that they need because the school district alone can't do it sorry you guys my my work cell is ringing should be off at this point um so with that said um just aligning how we provide these resources and services so if there's a way to provide Case Management Services for Families outside of the district in a way that is a collaborative effort with the district and the organizations that provide those Services um I know that systems integration that is their arching overall goal and I serve on those committees on in that platform as well but I I think there's things that we could do now certainly to better align ourselves um even with the county with with the Department of Human Services and the number of families that do access

076the resources available through them thank you commissioner LeBron all right Sherry also oh Amy oh I'm sorry were you oh you raised your hand I'm sorry about that um commissioner Po and I did hear Ricardo's voice so I think he wanted to add something too but um so I want to honor what you had said about an academic goal of of reducing absenteeism but I'm also cognizant of what the superintendent just said about students that do extremely well in an online learning environment so I think to support what you said and what the superintendent said together um I think we need to push for a new definition of attendance absenteeism and uh and think that should be working in in League with uh Consortium schools like you know the school school Without Walls type schools

077to um also uh try to um redefine academic success through portfolio measurements rather than tests you know simply standardized tests thank you commissioner pal uh commissioner Adams yes so um I I think there needs to be more a comprehensive thing when you talk about absenteeism um for instance two years ago I took my kids on a two- week educational tour during school to the Lynch Museum New Orleans at land and everything um and but that trip hurt my school and and it helped really took my my school over the edge into um receivership um there was another parent at my school child broke his leg got hit by a car got hit by a car and was out two or three weeks it don't matter the way it's designed now you're still the school is

078still penalized so so we need a a a a better comprehensive plan about what's really absenteeism um because the way they doing it right now just lumping everything together there's no exceptions we we got to fight back against that thank you commissioner Adams yeah I'm sure your your daughters learned more in that two- week trip than they did in any history classroom right so we have to start looking at things in innovative ways so I concur completely all right do we have any other hands I can't see any on [Music] here not see any either so this is an amazingly comprehensive list that we need now to put Priority buckets um what we want to remember is if we think about the smart goal acronym is we want them specific we want a measurable achievable

079relevant and time bound the recommendation is three to five goals um and obviously you want these aligned to the to the district goals as they are developed um but they are your goals so you get to choose so if I look at if we could go to the next slide priority buckets and and then again I need all of your input on this because if you don't like what I'm saying we need to put down what you really want under this and remember that these are board priorities right how is it that the board is going to develop these goals measure them monitor them and then determine whether or not you have been able to reach them um in the in the ways that board of education members work with the support of the district

080so I heard finances and as as one of your your priorities and in many different ways how do we advocate for more dollars how do we get Revenue what are the things that we can do as a board to figure out where we can reallocate our current uh dollars in order to more effectively help families and help students um in in the current challenges that we have um under academ mic Improvement you had a lot of things uh again you're really concerned about um absenteeism which directly infects academic achievement about graduation rates and how are you going to um manage I'm looking at my notes here to make sure that I didn't um miss anything on their academics um you're talking about some different things that you might be able to do with regards to

081looping um and how are you going to decrease the number of students that leave your District you know how is it how do you want to become that District of choice right you want to be the district that takes and um has students come because all of your schools are are uh the kinds of schools that parents and want to raise their families in those particular neighborhoods um Community engagement was another big one for all of you right you want to be able to reach more directly out to families to parents to get their input you all have leison roles to schools at one point when we work together you worked you looked at those leison roles is that something that you might to do do you need to have more Community forums or ways

082that you can engage the community more directly so and again we will develop words and things around these I'm just trying to make sure I'm capturing title or if you want to change those titles in a in a different way Equity was another big for um because you were looking at the possibility of looking at your managed Choice policy and seeing if that can develop into a more fiscally responsible but also keeping in mind that you want kids to be able to go to a neighborhood school if you were to switch this in where families have good schools to work from I didn't bring it up but I will bring it up now one of I believe some of the the issues when we had that discussion was around Transportation correct yes and so I

083just want to make sure that that is that is part of that conversation if if you work on that again as a goal as to um who who in those areas has uh reliable transportation and what families would be comfortable with their child were to walk to school um the other piece of that I I don't know where you are would be interesting to have more of a comprehensive uh conversation around Community Schools you know where are you with those um one of the conversations I'm going to be have when you talk about uh decreasing the number of students who leave I will be having a conversation this week with Regent Norwood around um data on charter schools and as um uh commissioner LeBron said systems integration looks at how well Community Schools are able

084to become that front door and wrap their arms around an entire family for a multiple number of services you know but it requires it requires resources right and resources is a huge huge issue for all of you um as you look at finances I think finances might be finances SL resources in terms of doing that um absenteeism again related to academic Improvement I don't know if you want to keep that separate or if you want to keep enrollment separate um with regards to as a a separate goal or if you want to add something else in there um to do that that's sort of what I wrote down because again as policy makers what you want to be looking at would we have or that we could put in place like the work that you've

085done the past few years to create um The Avenues right you're the policy makers and then your superintendent Dr Myers small will be putting those into place as they align with the Strategic plan and the district uh goals As you move forward so I'm going to be quiet a second and did I miss something I know we talked about Independent Learning you know one of the things that you will be monitoring under academic Improvement is what is how are those that are in a remote learning environment attending do they have equity and access are they engaging are they attending are they able to succeed and if not how are you doing dealing with that how is this Mo emotional social and emotional um check-ins going are you making sure that kids have those kinds of

086supports as well as and then when you get back to in classroom Hybrid models how how does that so you guys are going to be monitoring twofold things uh versus having all kids in school thank you Sherry I don't see any hands so if we could go back to the priority buckets I just want to see if now again you don't need to have five three to five you have you have given much in the pieces of these buckets so you've added a lot to finance your role as a board of education member is for advocacy there's a lot of advocacy that we will be doing on your behalf and um yeah um president um white white oh my goodness sorry van um President White just received a letter that I sent to um Bob

087Duffy um with regards to the need to make sure that our states are also our state is also using every resource to their availability and to push for that along with our advocacy to at to at the federal level right this is this is twofold we need everybody engaged in helping our education um go in the positive direction and what has happened during this emergency is you've had to use funds differently and that has created even more of a financial stress on all of all of our school districts and so if we believe public education is is critical which I believe passionately to our economy to our defense and to our democracy our very democracy we need to make sure that we're advocating constantly around this and so I see Hands raised and I will

088shush so I the first hand I saw was uh commissioner poell H followed by commissioner Elliot uh president Elliot vice president Elliot I'm so sorry excuse me um I can support uh the enrollment being a SE Standalone priority bucket if um if we add enrollment slash student engagement which would take in the conversation about attendance um you know um yeah I like that idea uh commissioner pal I wonder would student engagement maybe fall under academic Improvement like well I I don't I don't no that that's why I would have thought enrollment would be part and parcel of an academic Improvement bucket um but there are aspects of of enrollment that you know kind of like Community engagement the better we reach each individual student and the more um um buy in we get from the

089students the higher enrollment will be and the better academic performance will be so it's either put them get either put enrollment together with academic Improvement or expand the definition of enrollment to include student engagement is my thinking okay thank you I have a question if that's okay go ahead yes um Sherry I'm so I'm looking at the the the priorities and um the priority buckets as well as the suggestions I'm wondering um given the fact that the superintendent will be primarily in charge of a lot of these are there any priorities that the board is missing in terms of looking at um goals for themselves that they can they can of course achieve for themselves because of course they will be um checking in with the superintendent to make sure that things like enrollment and

090student engagement and academic Improvement and Community engagement happen but on the board board can do um in in its own functioning that will be would be good goals um to achieve like I like the advocacy um priority because that does put things in the hands of the board and can be tracked um that way so I'm just trying to figure out if there's space for that in this kind of discussion one of the things that I would suggest is s for instance if you're looking at finances have you looked at your financial policies yet have you done a policy review of your financial section are there things that you can do in there and I believe also if you're looking at the manage Choice POS you know the manage Choice policy that would certainly be

091the work of the board with the superintendent to move forward so those are just some of the suggestions under those again I absolutely agree with you CIA this is what is the board's support what can they do as a board to support the larger District goals along with the the work of the superintendent in the district to move everyone for forward in the same place right so you're right the titles look very much the same but I think the work we we need to find defined a little differently so vice president Elliot I'm Sor yeah that's what I was going to uh to talk about and I think that's probably why I didn't participate in the brainstorming session only because I was trying to think of it from the lens of policy um and I

092couldn't get there and so um all of what we're trying to priori TI because we're not the managers we're not the administration how do we um advocate for these on a policy level um on a intergovernmental relationship level you know are these the things that we can advocate for so I was I I wasn't able to participate in that conversation because I was trying to think how do we really uh how do we do our role and not the district's role in those things that were being brainstormed and of course that was only a brainstorming session so those things were coming out question becomes now you know what what do we need to do from that policy level um the governance level um that we have been elected to do and not to do the

093work of the district absolutely great great point and you said it extraordinarily eloquently that is exactly your roles and responsibilities um and um working together as a team is um incredibly important all moving in the same direction and so the work has to be around if these are the priority buckets we really have to think of from the lens of what do we need to do on a policy level you know what kind of advocacy around finances or you know what kind of policies that we need to put in PR place in the district to make sure that you know there are checks and balances and and and academic approvement what do we really mean by that from a policy perspective so um Community engage and we do have some of those policies in place

094now but if we're talking about these are the priorities that we um are are interested in I think we have to go back to those areas of policy and look at if there needs to be some improvements if you will for these so absolutely commissioner LeBron I think her hands up yeah I just wanted to say um just to kind of piggyback off some of the stuff vice president Elliot's mentioning around policy for me when I think about finances and the policies we currently have in place those policies no longer serve this District in the same way than when they were potentially first created or have just been passed on therefore when I look at finances and I think policy I look at the stuff we talked about like a week ago that we need

095to have policies created so that we don't allow large sums of money to be moved between one budget item line to another another without the board's approval and also understanding as to why that is occurring or why that needs to occur and what happened there um because when I look at a written budget I do expect that there's some amendments along the way because something unexpectedly may have come up but in reality we should not be moving large sums of line item money from one budget item to another um and and have that be the normal year to year there's just no way that that's a normal way to have a budget in any organization let alone a school district so if we budget you know 15 million for substitute teachers there's no reason that

096we move money out of the substitute teachers line to put it into another bucket that we should have adequately budgeted for um so I think of policies in that regard when I think of policies with finances I think of Consultants because it is one of my biggest gripes in this district is the level and the amount of of Consultants that we hire without actual any performance indicators or no understanding of how they're going to either help our students help the district or what the outcomes have approved orally all of these people and I can't tell you that some of these contracts when I first came on the board and I saw some of these consultant contracts I'm like anybody could do this contract anybody can pick up this contract and say yep I met the

097the language in the contract um because it was so loosely written so when I think about policies and and changes in regards to finance and academics those are just some examples right there and um along with that obviously you are going to have as you move through this and you have um people at the district level that can help you walk through these and and to provide some expertise around moving those forward in an in the most appropriate way um who are looking at your budget and analyzing it strategically on how to move forward and those will I'm sure come as recommendations from your superintendent um I I want to just make sure and again these are great great points that there's nothing on the list that you as a board as a member seven

098member board you know obviously this is work you're going to be doing with your superintendent that you would want to work on amongst yourself so I know last year you did your standards of conduct and you worked through those you looked at your code of conduct is there anything along those lines that you would want to as a team to add to this list and I'm not trying to give you more because obviously you have more than you need right this minute um but we can probably combine some of those and narrow those down a little bit um I just wanted to pull that out there just to make sure that in terms of your own self care is there anything that you would add so would board professional development perhaps fall yes under that

099yes so yeah if we could add that to that other list y we could put that in the other the list ahead can you repeat that point um for me commissioner Malloy I'm sorry the board's own professional development Sherry yes sir um I know everybody would not agree to this but you use a phrase like uh was it mental health but something like that our health as a body self what did you call it self-care self-care um aside from the professional development is all very important and I do think that it is a value that we sort of take time occasionally once twice a year to do something completely social even if it's dinner or whatever I don't think because here's a reality whether we always like each other sometimes we don't like each other

100during meetings we're stuck with each other at least for the time we're so I think it's critical that we try to set aside some time to do something that doesn't necessarily relate to board business whether it's a Christmas party uh you know a dinner going to go-kart golf putt putt golf something uh because in this work when you're with folks um it's always better I think if you can appreciate there's another side to them other than what you do when you're doing board stuff which always is contentious and difficult and challenging so I think we should I think we should prioritize some kind of activity once twice a year I know commissioner vice president Elliot uh one time was promoting um you know dinners we did that once or twice but that's sort of falling

101off by the wayside I think we should try try to do that you got a new superintendent she's got a new team even if it's not just to build a sense of teamwork amongst ourselves just to get to know these new people and and I don't want to put your new superintendent on the spot but she is amazing at that I'm just gonna she is all right so I'm gonna put that down I'm gonna put PD yeah what did you say Ricardo can Adam sorry yeah so in reference to reply to Van uh before Co my technique for that was um I was giving everybody hugs but I won't be doing that so I even got a hug and I really appreciate it and and superintendent my small you were gonna speak no I'm I'm

102all set thank you oh okay I just just in case you wanted to refute what I said okay so you have a lot down we have a lot to work on and I want to move us along in in respect for all of your time this evening so if we could move to the rankings and you'll see all of your names at the top in in order after president white and vice president Elliott and I think if we put these down we have a little more than we have space for so if we do like we did if we bucketed them if we put finances first and again these include a lot of pieces around what policy and finances in in monitoring as you do um you know you are in charge of the fiscal

103environment academic Improvement is going to include more things than that says Community engagement is a big priority for you um equity which could fit into some of those other pieces Equity is financial Equity it's academic Equity uh professional development and team building and then absenteeism we didn't um put separately I've obviously I didn't count on a a number of of extra boxes um but I will keep that on my list oh she's gonna add a add a a row wow you guys are you are awesome thank you um and absenteeism and again some of those fit into obviously absenteeism is related to academic Improvement uh you are talking about absenteeism in um student engagement in student engagement yes but you're also talking about making sure that Rochester city school district is a school of choice

104so you also want to talk about making sure that students stay that they want to come to your school district and that they want to stay in your school district so I'm going to give you um just a minute or so um I know not all of you have these but I want you to to think about these because this is a lot and a lot to deal with and I kind of want you to rank them and I don't want to put you on the spot right away I want you to think about these for um just a minute so um I will be quiet uh and let you to figure out what you would rank these in in right now we have six so one through six do I have seven one two

105one two three four five I think if you turn that we can we understand that priority preferences uh what all of these buckets stand for we did leave off uh board profession board development it's right there professional development team building oh okay sorry I missed that no not a problem I still think we're missing something though uh what what oh okay are only six thank you oh it's enrollment and student engagement not ente ISM okay got it okay if you when you finish if you just raise your hand then I'll know that you are that you're complete we'll just keep an eye on each other that way okay oh cool all right excellent so we're going to go in order starting with President White and um CIA if you could J as they do it

106if that's possible it you should yeah so Sherry so what am I supposed to tell me what if you were to prioritize these so if we have to narrow these down like we can't keep all now again it's up to you you all want six of them to work on this year um which is quite a hefty load what how would you prioritize those what order would those be in if you had narrow it well I'd start with academic okay so that's go to finance okay number three would be enrollment uh what is it enrollment student Eng Roman student engagement number four would be professional development five would be Equity six would be Community engagement I I think I'm missing one what's the seventh no you got it say six yep that's it okay vice

107president Elliott I would concur with you Sherry that this seems to be ambitious uh which says to me that the um policy committee is going to have a lot of work um to do um so I just want all of us to keep that in mind um when we talk about these things um but having said that um I would rank um finances is one academic Improvement is two um absenteeism as three um Community engagement as um um no let me back up um I'm sorry after after academic Improvement my next one is equity so that should be three three um absenteeism should be four Community engagement five professional development six I'm I'm up yes commissioner and um I only have four that's I just do it my way uh this is who I am

108um my number one is finance my number two is academic my number three three is community engagement and my number four is equity okay thank you commissioner LeBron Ricardo you m funny I love you my number one is finances my second one is equity my third is student engagement my fourth is community engagement my fifth is academic Improvement and my sixth is team building and I just want to say I I I'm not interested in having dinner with folks I just want to focus on the work and I think if as a team we could just focus on the work regardless of whether our personalities mesh or don't mesh then we'll be okay if we all focus in on the work that needs to be done all right thank you commissioner Malloy okay so number

109one uh finances uh number two Equity uh number three academic Improvement or achievement uh number four enrollment yep and the student engagement uh number five Community engagement and number six um the team building um professional development I mean I think they're two separate items professional development and team building so that was a tricky one for me yeah and we and we can include it um we can include the professional development if that's where it all falls out we can put professional development in any of those categories right so if you want professional development around um student engagement or Community engagement or academic Improvement those are all opportunities where you just get to learn more uh engage more in those particular activities and team building um doesn't necessarily have to be um there are lots of

110activities that we could do together that aren't um you know your typical team building things but Al but but also help um teams work better together so um next is commissioner Powell okay well I had a framework by which I approached this and that framework basically said everything the every decision we make has to start from the so all the financial decisions all of the academic Improvement issues have to start from an equity framework so I'm making that number one um and there's no one else responsible for um carrying the community's voice but the an elected board so I made Community engagement my number two that you know all of the rest of our work has to be done through those lenses um finances was my number three because we're gonna do it it's gonna

111no finances not academic Improvement c um because um I mean we're gonna be doing that work month in and month out whether whether we want to or not it's a question of whether the financial decisions are done through the framework that we want and our policy directed or whether they're simply reacting to the administration um um I don't want to Short Change academic Improvement but that's getting my number four and um student engagement is five professional development six again not because I want to Short change it but and it's going to happen uh some board members are going to need more individual professional development because they're new to the board versus others uh but um we could all use and and I and I actually agree with commissioner LeBron on this that that our team

112building will happen through the process of working the issues um you know it it's inevitable that we figure out how to work together that that's just inevitable the question is how long it takes us to get there thank you thank you and then um commissioner Shephard one is finance two is academic Improvement three for um enrollment and student engagement four is for Community engagement five for equity and six for professional development okay so that was an excellent um exercise and um I agree with vice president um that this is that this is going to be a large charge um I believe all of you are up to the task because I've worked with you on um over time and I know that you take big chunks and you are able to digest them and dedicate

113yourself to the work if I'm looking at and feel free to disagree with me if I are looking at these Finance is obviously your number one as as commissioner pal said it will be your primary focus it's everybody's primary focus because right now there is there is no other focus without the resources you got you just simply can't do all of the things that you need to do on have of kids academic Improvement and Equity I have as the next and then I have then it gets a little professional development goes to the uh bottom of the pile only be and I you know this is two of boards across the county you all want to take care of everybody else and you put yourselves last but again we should be able to put some

114of that professional development and some of that team building into into some of these other pieces of work because as you start looking at policy as you start looking about how to monitor your strategic plan as you work with this um the superintendent you're going to find areas where you're going to want more information and and and so professional development will happen more naturally in terms of community engagement and student enrollment engagement per um perhaps we could look at making a way to combine student and Community engagement and maybe break some of those pieces into different um opportunities moving forward that would give you four or are you happy with the three that you have I just need your feedback can you repeat that yes I I'll try to repeat repeat that it looks like

115finances academic Improvement and Equity are the top three uh professional development we we're going to figure out how to in um embed that in these three currently High um high but there's a community engagement piece in this where the board is interested in accessing parents more regularly um and to get their voice um as as well but also the student engagement enrollment pieces you know where are kids going to school and do we need to look at school choice um within the district do we need to look at school choice what outside the district with regards to Charter Schools that's kind of how I'm seeing that goal and I'm not sure if we want to combine that or or leave it for now and that's what I'm getting feedback on um Sherry can I just

116add in terms of professional development M um under the finance committee we are committing to having professional development and every finance committee meeting moving forward and kie and I are meeting um tomorrow but to discuss the survey findings because we did survey the board to prioritize that professional development so that's that is one way to embed it that way and perhaps we are going to have a new well a reinstated as a committee excellence and student achievement Committee of the whole that could potentially be another committee that also has some professional development around data and academic programming and performances um for the board as a whole too that's perfect and that was great to to know um because you are absolutely right that will that will fit naturally into where you want to go with

117this so I would like to get to the next part of this conversation it is 652 and I want to be cognizant of the time if we were to take your top three to the next slide and put down finances academic Improvement and Equity as it relates to board priorities what would you as a board of education see as potential metrics now I say potential right because these are again we just looking through what these are you still have to decide what the wording is on these goals and I will give you some language around that what the um how you're going to formally approve those in at another meeting and then after you do that you're going to need to make sure that you're monitoring those just like you would be monitoring any other

118District goal and that you evaluate either midy year I would recommend midy year and or the end of the year definitely the end of the year especially since you have a board evaluation tool that you have access to so what I was wondering about as you all talked many of you talked about policies that you would look at professional development that you would work work on um you will have some specific um metrics given to you by the superintendent that will help you know whether or not you were able to capture that and make that goal um at least Trend it in the correct direction even if you don't achieve it I know that in some cases you want actual numbers right in this in the superintendent will be working on that in terms of

119giving you that data pieces but as a board metric what you want to make sure as well is that you're trending in the right direction so that you're moving um in a positive way again I will go back to the work that you've already done you've got great pieces in policy you've got great pieces in your standards of Conduct in your um in your code of conduct and your bylaws those are great pieces of work that put you in a better place as a governance body so when you look at finances I'm going to go back to the words that you put down in the place it's advocating for resources it was looking at raising revenue it was do you look at your policies in a more fiscally responsible way so do you look at

120your financial policies um are there things that or or and I will give you this I will take these on your behalf like I've done before and I will put words in there for you and then you can then react to those wordss you tell me that sounds Sher yeah Sher I I'd vote for that I think that I mean it it actually worked well the last time you did this for us yes and then maybe commissioner Malloy uh could set up a follow-up meeting for us to meet I don't I don't know that you'd have to participate in that but that makes sense to me once I hand them over to you they are all yours um to do as you see fit I just try to get you to this particular point and

121I am happy to do that I have done that um with some of the other boards because when it gets to this point it's it's easier to take everything we have in notes and then apply it versus you're trying to work through virtually this is a lot harder because you can't go happen so I'm more than happy to do that on your behalf if if that's acceptable commissioner Malloy it's perfect thank you we will set up a time to do all that I have one more slide um that I like to share with you before closing out and I just talked about next step so we can skip that one um several years ago I was able to and this was like right in the beginning of my career as your executive director I was

122able to attend a uh presentation called leadership Under Fire and it was it was a riveting presentation and I wrote about it this month in the news scope in my little column that I get in the new scope and I don't know how many of you have read that but you are all leaders Under Fire right now and what Dr mcgau Who I'm giving credit for um did is he talked to us about what kind of leadership skills that got these presidents and these military leaders through crisis um during their time he was a historian for um politics and for military and I can't give you all the short um stories that went behind these as to whether it was President Lincoln or whether or not it was President Bush or all of the different

123um milit leaders and and and political presidents that had to work through these but these are some of the these are some of the tenants that he came away with and I as a team as you were working together these are some of the things I would share with you that this is what leadership is this is how leadership functions and I just want to share those as inspiration you have had a tough year you are walking into a tough year you are stronger together when you work together you have a great team you have a a wonderful superintendent she's developed a incredible cabinet um so I would encourage you to just um remember those as you move forward andless you have any other questions for me I will turn this this uh agenda back

124over thank you so much thank you you know we so appreciate the wisdom that you've provided us with and you continue to provide us with um your thoughtfulness thoughtfulness in all of this is much appreciated as we you know work towards creating not only these priorities but then District goals um and so we do have a lot to follow up on and process and we'll definitely be reaching out and using you as a resource um shortly my pleasure I feel like we've made a lot of progress this evening and that you've provided us much Insight this is a key these are great key starting points that we can work on um and and it's exciting work and I think that we should be proud of of the work that we did together here tonight so

125thank you so much for all of that thank you Dr Meyers for assisting with this there's so much more to do but I'm feeling really positive in our in our next steps so that leads us to the following what what are our next steps I think that I'll be working closely with um with Marisol and with callia um to help uh plan for some future Retreats U as well as with all of the other Commissioners so that we can continue these discussions and then get a plan in place so thank you so much um are there any other final questions this evening are we good I don't see any hands all right any other next steps that you'd like to share uh president white or vice president Elliot no I was just going to say

126we do have to go into executive session tonight discuss a few things oh yeah yes not going to get away with it tonight then I shall graciously leave you to to that and again thank you for having me and I am willing to help out anywhere you need me um and you all take care okay all right so I I hand things over to President White thank you uh commissioner Malloy I need a motion to go into executive session to speak to our uh general counsel and to discuss um contractual issues an employee issue um and also to discuss a Personnel matter I think that should cover it uh vice president La you made that motion I heard you say moved and commissioner Malloy second it all those in favor of going into executive session

127say I I all right uh is Tom here or who's who's who's man who's the person behind the curtain is that you is that you Tom here oh are we in executive session you are now I was waiting for you to just say good night everyone to the public I was just sharing with you a couple weeks before left this Friday is her last day she took another opportunity as AER