001[Music] a [Music] n [Music] a [Music] I [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] he oh [Applause] [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] w [Music] they e [Music] AP let we how's the leg okay how are you sir I'm good I'm good oh it won't this won't happen the actual subject of this the people's foke tonight probably won't happen for another 3 4 hours because we're taking speakers first they like 90 90 something speakers oh so you know better than I do y so yeah 2 minutes each the speakers uh it's right there number four it won't happen till after speakers after these reports uh these this stuff these two five and six will go quick but the speakers is going to take yes yep yep and and uh I just told our clerk we'll do
002that at the top of the resolution discussion but that's 3 hours away so sure you guys have more news out there to cover okay I saw anchor Anor yeah yeah yeah yeah y all right you ready all right you ready I said you ready okay all right all right good evening everybody oops I guess she's not ready and will does have to give her report because they have to vote and accept these oh okay all right and taana yep I'm going to I'm going to take Tatiana Tatiana's going to follow you cuz I don't want her to sticking around here until after all the speakers right actually you probably wouldn't mind if well she go first okay all right thanks all right good evening everybody uh today is December the 19th 2019 is approximately 535
003540 um I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight there are since we have such a large crowd it's important that um you all understand that there are some rules that we have to ensure that our meetings uh run successfully and smoothly I apologize if I offend anybody by articulating what these rules are but some of you are new and may not be familiar with how we operate so it's important that I share uh these rules the first one relates to your safety there are uh codes Fire Marshal codes that we have for our community and uh no one up here dict dictates what those rules are um they allow us to have a certain number of people in a facility such as this and we have staff members that are monitoring that and
004that's unfortunately why some people are stuck downstairs and why there may even be some people who are not able to come into the building we're doing our best to accommodate everybody there are as you all know or may know there are screens downstairs for them to observe and hear what is going on but but that is the reason why these two crowds have been separated additionally for your safety is important that you know that there are exit signs right above to my right those are the exit signs that you should uh exit out of to ensure your safety in the event that there is an emergency uh the uh elevators will not be operable so you'll have to go down the stairs that is a safe way we ask that you do that uh calmly
005and coolly to ensure that uh your safe uh exit out of this building additionally we have some rules uh uh for the operation of these kind of meetings some of you who have attended these meetings know that they can be run by and large we have successful peace Peaceable uh assemblies where people come in here speak their mind and then uh uh sit down and maybe listen to other folks on occasion though more often than I would like uh there are some people that you know for lack of a better phrase get out of order and that is uh problematic for us because what it does is it prevents us from listening to what speakers have to say and most importantly it prevents people who want to have an opportunity to speak from speaking because
006they're sometimes people speak way too long sometimes people speak out of turn and this is a democratic process so that everybody has the opportunity to be heard and listened to so I'm going to uh uh describe some of the rules and I know this doesn't apply to most people in here but in the event that there's someone who is inclined to be disruptive or disrespectful of other people's time I'm going to share some of the rules that the board of education has promulgated developed listed so that these types of meetings run effectively as Democratic uh uh uh speaking opportunities the first rule is it's about prohibited conduct uh no person can singularly or in concert with others obstruct or disrupt the particular proceedings where they're at whether those are teaching research or at a school
007board meeting another one is no one can willfully cause phys physical injury to any other person or threaten to do the same and again I know most people in here 99% of folks in here wouldn't even imagine doing that but I I feel compelled to tell you that phys no person in this building can physically restrain or detain another person it's pretty obvious no person can willfully damage or destroy property of the district no person can remain in this building if they're directed by Personnel to leave no person can refuse to leave the building or facility after being directed to do so by an authorized individual is exactly what the rule says and I'm all the way I've skipped quite a few as you can see so I'm down to 14 it says no one
008can be insubordinate or use abusive language sadly that does happen here so I would remind you that would be a cause for being removed from this building no person can willfully incite others to commit any of the acts that I've just described and then um the the most important R is going to affect most of you all is there's a two-minute time limit and I know many people are used to a three-minute time limit but we have 94 speakers and that's a good thing that's that's a good thing that is a good thing but it only becomes an effective uh display of democracy if everybody listens to everybody so if you applaud for a long period of time if you talk in between somebody speaking you're interrupting the Democratic process and essentially being disrespect respectful
009to the people that will follow you because for every person who speaks trust me there's another 10 20 30 40 that want to speak so that we we would ask that when you hear that buzzer ring the clerk will uh she got a little device over there she'll press the button and then within two minutes like an egg timer it will ring and it will keep on ringing until you uh sit down if your remarks are so long that you've put something in writing we will take our clerk will take your written document make copies of it so the clerk can distribute it to every member of the Board of Education and of course all of us are reachable by phone and many of us have been contacted about your concerns regarding the business that
010is before the court before the um uh that is that this is my second job the business that is before the board today so we appreciate your compliance and support for those rules because you're supporting the Democratic process now um the other thing that we like to do to set the tone is to uh do the pledge of elite and also uh to have a moment of silence we all think that this is a difficult situation and it is indeed a difficult serious situation but we all I'm sure can contemplate and think about things that are going on outside this building where people are confronted with personal and and and uh challenges that challenge their family's lives illness death uh some expected some not so I would ask before we do the pledge of allegiance
011that you all share with the Board of Education a brief moment of silence where we can put into perspective the struggles that we're having this building and also the struggles that people are having outside this building thank you uh very much now uh I need a young person to help the board uh do the Pledge of Allegiance have any young oh I see look at that young man so yeah right there right there yeah yeah yeah yeah you you you you yeah come on let's give him a round of applause her a round of applause my eyes aren't so good come on let's give her let's give her a round of applause all right we got two actually coming up come on up now go to that microphone over there now we got our flag
012over here and everybody's following your direction and uh whenever you want to begin we'll follow you please stand salute and begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God inable Liberty justice for all could you tell us your names Kamari and Kaya and and your name Kaya and where you guys go to school number 53 33 let's give them and 33 a round of applause thank you ladies we appreciate your your uh willingness to do that for us um the next item on the agenda is we need to accept uh the minutes of I'm going uh the minutes of October the 22nd the special meeting minutes of November uh I'm sorry the special meeting minutes of October 22nd and
013the business meeting from minutes from November the 7th 2019 is there a motion so moved and moved by commissioner Pow seconded by thank you commissioner Bron seconded by commissioner LeBron all those in favor of approving those minutes say yay any opposition all right those minutes have been approved um before we get into the really serious business of uh the board uh there's some uh comments that the board wishes to make to one of our colleagues uh as I believe this will be uh perhaps her last meeting maybe not but we're getting pretty close um Reverend Davis so commissioner Davis has been with us um since January of 200 uh actually I see there's a typle January 2018 is that right oh just oh yeah January 2019 through December 2019 and um her service has been
014one of and this these are just my comments a real intense focus on disparities in how we educate our children and how we treat our staff and our community she has like uh no other uh really focused our attention on trying to make sure that we address the issue of R and equity and by the way this isn't a problem that is unique to this District uh but certainly uh our children and our staff members are a unique position to suffer the consequences of that kind of disparity and that kind of uninformed hatred and bigotry and I know that uh she may feel like she's walking away not having completed the task but there are many great people that have come before you uh probably would say the same thing but I can say to
015you my observation has been you have keep an ey our arms and our eyes on the plow and it in my experience has been it didn't make any difference what the issue was whether it was Staffing uh discipline of students you were there always relating it putting the lens on discrimination and bigotry and the need to make sure that our staff and our students and our community understood that that is the primary issue in most institutions in this nation and certainly in this District so on half of the Rochester City School District I wanted to present to you a plaque which says in grateful appreciation the Rochester Board of Education hereby recognizes Judith Davis for her leadership stewardship and valuable contributions to the Rochester city school district for having served as a board member from
016the years of January 2019 and December 2019 [Applause] um again to President White to vice president Elliot and Commissioners uh superintendent Dade and to the community um this work wasn't done alone uh the focus on addressing the over representation of African-Americans and other persons of color in suspensions in identification um for special education and in the case that we're looking at now even the disproportionality in the percentages of Educators um who will um be leaving the district possibly um this is the focus that I did not alone um address but many in the community who helped to um who asked me to run and help me to be elected um have continued to work with me through this year and I have to give um my props to the Coalition the take it down planning
017committee um the movement for anti-rac and Ministry in action and the Faith Community Alliance if any of you are here could you stand and just wave your [Applause] hands um again I thinkk um good job commission great job thank you I I thank the um the board um for supporting me in January when I proposed to uh Institution aliz the racial Equity advocacy leadership uh team and so that team will continue with the district and it will continue to address and to focus on um how to address racism in our system in our district in the areas of Human Resources um using professional development um to to provide anti-racist education to all personnel and to also to address our relationships to build relationships um in a way that is beneficial to our children of color
018so again I thank you for everything and I want to leave um I can't remember the whole story but I'm just going to leave it for the children um there's a story of an eagle and probably people know it already but this is to the children they're listening an eagle who was a small babe and accidentally fell into a chicken yard and so the Babe had not seen an eagle The Babe only saw chickens and thought that he or she was a chicken and so that eagle went to chicken schools that eagle went to um chicken meetings all that eagle saw was chickens but one day that eagle looked in the sky and saw an adult Eagle saw someone that they look like and they said wait a second I'm not a chicken well what
019I've been taught in my school about myself I'm not a chicken I didn't learn about eagles I'm an eagle and so when this Eagle saw the adult saw this Mentor saw this person who could look down from the sky and see a dime in the high grass when this Eagle saw that it's possible to even fly the potential they had to leave the ground and soar and see all they could see and the vision that they could have and they could bring to the world Children of the district you are the eagle please look for the mentors who are adult Eagles and listen to them and hear them because you are learning about chickens but you're Eagles find those mentors who will speak to you who will love on you and who will let you
020fly let you see the way that you see and not be afraid to acknowledge that you're an eagle and you're not a chicken thank you vice president Elliott um thank you Mr President um I just want to uh convey my um great pleasure in working with um commissioner Davis um I um was thrilled uh that there was another person on this board Bo who put the African-American experience first uh because I do believe if the African-American experience is put first everybody benefits and history shows that if you begin to marginalize and say all of us black folks get marginalized and it is only and others benefit by the African-American agenda being placed first and uh you did that you helped us to see that even the more I think the only regret that I would
021have is and this is not uncommon in in the centuries that we've been uh as a people that we haven't worked very well together but somehow we don't seem to be able to understand that we all are diverse even though our skin color says we're different that we're the same we have not seemed to know how to work together as a people and people have taken advantage of that because we haven't seem to be able to work together as a people once we begin to work together the people we wouldn't have others to come in and to be able to disbalance the part we should be able to understand that we come from different perspectives but those perspectives should benefit the group not tear us apart and for too long I Go Back 40 years
022with the fight organization too long we've allowed the differences to stop us and people to come in and to subvert us to keep us from educating black and brown children so I want to just um um connect with you and thank you for your work I appreciate it I appreciate the work that everybody is doing but if we can and this is the year of of return and this is the year of 20 getting into 2020 the year 2019 where 400 years of slavery have gone and you're going to be seeing things differently God has already prophesied that right that's already been prophesied that's why you see all the killings happening because they know too what's about to happen and so if we can work together and I'm hoping that we are going to be
023able to work together the kind of stuff that we're seeing is going on where people are saying they love our children we don't they don't that will stop thank you for all your work commissioner all right all right um with my with my colleagues Indulgence I'm going to let uh our student rep uh issue her report because I'm concerned that by the time we got around to it after all the speakers have spoken uh it might be Way Beyond her time to get her work done in school if you want to stay around for the whole time well certainly you can but if you'd like to to give your report right now that would be great good good evening everybody good evening over the last two weeks many School staff families and students protested the
024district's proposed layoffs and displacement of teachers and staff students as individuals and groups have shown their disagreement with the the this these proposals and ways such as the student let walkouts and the group of students going to Albany on Tuesday I participated in the protest by speaking to the board and calling for their pay to be cut while I hold the board in the highest regard the intent of the letter was to emphasize that all parties need to be willing to give up something for our students future and student leadership Congress we asked the students how they felt about these last two weeks some of the most common words we heard were worried confused and frustrated students are worried about their Futures and the future of their teachers they are confused on how all this
025began in the first place and they are frustrated with the decisions that are being made we know cuts are going to be made but after all is said and done we need better management of finances we demand a sust sustainable solution for the future my sister is 6 years old and I don't want her facing the same problems we are facing today I don't her I don't want her to have to stand in the cat to fight for her teachers jobs I want her to have a sustainable education we look forward to working with the board and other members in our community to find Sustainable Solutions we look forward to creating an opportunity to sit down with the with board members the superintendent and District leaders to discuss future decisions being made about our school
026finances thank you and now uh thank you and now superintendent Dade is going to issue his report good evening uh so just wanted to provide uh two pieces of of updates one on our uh uh fiscal crisis and then two uh our next steps with our parent advisory uh committee uh so back on October 8th I outlined uh our initial thoughts on our budget of deficit of 30 million uh and was uh tasked by the board to develop a plan to address our fiscal uh crisis uh that balloon to $65 uh million today um and that plan is before the board uh now uh to be voted on uh that said where we started uh with the specifics of of the plan that I proposed uh began back on November 12th uh with 287 uh
027potential staff reductions across uh for uh bargaining units uh very pleased to report that due to lots of collaboration particularly with our colleagues in net I'm looking at uh things like our grant uh funds to relieve some of our a funds and and um securing positions back into uh schools uh that number has been reduced from uh 287 on November 12th uh to to 155 today uh of that uh teacher reductions went from 168 potential reductions on November 12th to 109 uh today so even today we were uh doing everything that we could upon our final review with our niys colleagues uh and letters were sent out uh to uh Rectify some of those um those cuts so uh just wanted to uh State um I'm I'm uh not looking forward to uh what we
028have to do um in the coming uh hours uh but uh I was tasked uh with uh addressing our fiscal crisis uh as your new superintendent and that's uh what I've done uh to date uh the other piece of of business that uh I have to um report on is we haven't had a functioning uh parent advisory Council uh I think that has met any of our expectations in the district since uh last February I believe uh so um I was tasked by the board with uh coming up with some solutions to move us uh forward uh as you know and as indicated in our goals for this year uh the participation of uh parents is obviously critical uh for our District's success um as you also know there have been issues concerning the functioning
029of the organization designed to ensure that the voice of our parents is heard at the highest levels of the district uh to examine and recommend how best to revitalize our parent advisory Council I assembled a working group consisting of my chief of staff the district clerk in her capacity as the board Special Assistant the director of community and parent involvement in our general counsel given some of the legal uh issues involved i' I've asked Mr Kristoff to come and give us a progress report good evening evening to begin with uh let me ask you to refer to an outline which I believe has been distributed on the Des uh hopefully it will assist you in following along uh with my remarks by way of background uh the membership uh of the uh parent advisory Council
030as it was previously constituted uh has been dwindling uh to for lack of a better term uh it has shrunken in size and when they were last meeting formally uh it was reported that they were down to seven folks uh and of those s five were not qualified under the council's bylaws even to serve in the capacity as being a member of the council uh the other problem uh with the low number uh is really a problem of representation the bylaws that were approved all the way back in 2010 uh called for membership of this Council to consist of representatives from the school communities uh PTO folks PT uh school-based planning team nominees folks who are nominated by principls uh and that obviously uh was not taking place and and represented you know a second
031problem with respect to the membership uh Again by way of back ground there were also by again by way of background problems with the organization's bylaws even as they were constituted um the the bylaws were essentially adequate uh but in in some ways uh really uh incomplete uh and impractical uh for example uh the the bylaws while they apply to parents uh do not apply to people who are in Parental relationship to Children uh disqualify uh grandparents for example and other caregivers uh from participating uh in the activities of the group uh I I think from discussions that I have heard among the board members uh over the uh past months that's that's a deficiency that concerns the board uh and and secondly uh impractical by uh manner of of a a a number that
032I I really and and our committee was not able to really figure out the derivation of the the members ship of the council under the current bylaws is limited to 23 people why if if if our 53 some operating sites are supposed to be represented we're limited to 23 people really don't know and and as I said we haven't been able to figure it out but we certainly think it's problematic if in fact we want to have a parent advisory Council that's representative of the community um so with that by way of background uh we have some recommendations that we're going to ask the board uh to consider uh the first is to convene a representative assembly of the parents uh to to try and get some of that Grassroots parents voice back involved uh
033in in this uh effort uh to have a better line of communication uh between uh the board and the community of parents now to that end we've already started some work uh there has been a very active recruitment drive that has been uh coordinated by our director of parent engagement uh and and I'm happy to report tonight that we have some 48 parents thus far uh who have uh indicated interest uh in coming together as an assembly to see how we can address this problem and and I'm saying to date because uh we're very hopeful uh that that number will increase um we've set a tentative meeting date in that regard uh for January 13th um and and it's it's really at that point because if we wait much longer uh we'll lose initiative uh
034and and lose the opportunity for Parental uh participation at least during the second semester of the school year as far as an agenda uh for this meeting of assembly of parents uh we we'd like to start with an orientation so that folks you know have an idea of what we're asking them to become involved in you know what the responsibilities are what the duties are uh you know and and of course uh recognizing that this is volunteer work uh but that we're here to support that group in any way that we can so that's the first piece an orientation piece and then we would suggest uh that uh we begin a discussion of the bylaws uh you know how should this organization be structured how how do people become a member of it uh how
035do people select their leadership all of the things that go into a good set of bylaws just as the board of course has its own um and and um finally we'd like to at the end of just those two events schedule a follow-up meeting so that people have the opportunity to digest the information that's been presented uh and then at the follow-up meeting uh we want to really get down to the business of adopting bylaws uh electing officers uh doing the sorts of things that will make this organization we hope the vibrant organization that the district wants and deserves um another issue uh that that we would like to bring to the board's attention again is one I think that the the board is aware of but I want to focus on on it here
036um we have other parent organizations uh that are functioning uh in the district one of which the bilingual Council has already been recognized by the board but we have two others uh that were brought to our attention uh during our review of this problem uh the first one is a special education uh parents advisory Council CPAC uh that's a vibrant organization that's up and functioning and and contributing but has to date anyways not been recognized by the board and and one of our recommendations is that the board consider formally recognizing uh CAC as an organization uh another one uh that uh uh we were even less aware of but again is vibrant and functioning is that there's a multilingual parent advisory Council uh and and they too are are up and running uh and uh
037have participated sufficiently at least to convince us uh that they Merit consideration by the board to be recognized as as a formal parent organization um and and while we want to recognize those organizations I recognize this is a report about p uh and what do we do about it the two things are not mutually exclusive I would suggest I think it's important for these organization that represent specific groups of children you know to have Independence and and be able to pursue the issues that are important to their children but on the other hand if they're going to remain in touch with the large group of parents and a large group of parents stay in touch with them uh we believe that there should be some provision in the pack bylaws uh for these parent groups
038not only to be recognized but to have some part in the governance of PEC so that's another recommendation that we have uh that we not only recognize these groups but we give them a seat at the pack table if you will and and of course if you're going to recognize a group one thing that the board has done customarily is of course review their bylaws uh and we think that these groups if they are going to be recognized need to have bylaws uh and those bylaws need to be approved by the board just as the pack bylaws are required to be approved by the board now there's more to this recognition business than just a pat on the back if you will and an attaboy for you know being of service to Children uh this
039recognition also carries with it the ability of us to apply title funds to support the efforts of these parent groups uh and so if they have approved bylaws and they are recognized by the board of course that justifies then our ability to use Title One funds to support their activities so that that's the primary reason why our group recommends that uh we take that course now there are some issues uh and and if you're following along in in the outline I'm right at the top of page two now um there are some issues that I would suggest that the board should be discussing uh and before uh we have this First Assembly of parents get together uh the first one is is does the board wish to issue any guidance uh to this assembly in
040terms of what this organization should look like for example uh there there are a number of ways you can structure an organization you can have an assembly that directly uh elects officers uh those officers perhaps either form or or select a few of their number to form an executive committee to do the day-to-day business of the organization uh and and that executive committee would essentially lay on with the board on behalf of the entire assembly another way to do it uh similar to the way the board uh is actually structured is that the assembly would elect essentially a board of directors the board of directors then would elect its officers and those officers could elect an executive committee and so forth uh we don't know in which direction the board would like to go but
041in as much as the board has been involved with the bylaws of of the pack as it existed back or they existed back in 2010 uh we think it best uh that we get some guidance from the board uh in terms of exactly you know what this organization should look like secondly in that same connection and these two issues are connected um we're curious as to whether the board would like to issue some guidance with respect to what the bylaws of this organization should look like and and there are a number of options we could take the 2010 bylaws for example you know Mark up the areas where we think they're deficient suggest to the organization that they ought to work on robus those 2010 bylaws or we could start with a clean slate you
042know and give them a template you know that we like uh and and and of course in both instances uh if the organization is really going to be representative organization that template's going to be subject to change you know by the organization but our idea though is to give the organization a jump start you know to so that you know they don't spend the next six months just trying to figure out what their bylaws ought to look like because there are a lot of very good models out there uh that exist within this district and and we believe you know that with a a little guidance in that direction it'll save a lot of time uh not only for the organization in terms of the kind of the birthing pains that any organization goes through
043but also put them in a better position to Liaison with the board uh much much earlier uh than they otherwise would so those are the two things that we would ask um and uh the and and and in terms of of when we would perhaps like the board to give us an answer in this regard the board has a meeting on the 7th of January which conveniently Falls before the 13th you know at which time the the assembly is going to get together so we hope that between now and then you know the board will be able to consider these questions uh and uh give us some guidance that we can in in turn pass along uh to uh hopefully be a a new and a vibrant organization so with that I'll turn it back
044to the superintendent thank you uh Mr Kristoff uh that was uh a great overview of uh our progress uh thus far that's what we wanted to do uh for the board tonight not to really engage in um discussion uh but to provide an update on uh where we've been thus far uh this will be an agenda item on our January 7th uh meeting uh so in the words of commissioner Shepard I'm taking mental note of uh making sure that we stay focused on uh this was an update and we'll have some time uh between now and the 7 to really uh dig deeper in some of uh your questions questions pleas so you're you're asking me to save my questions to the seventh or the call you out directly okay because I had a whole
045bunch of questions but I'll wait what is that a committee of the whole meeting on the 7th or a business meeting what is that commit of the whole which committee is it it's policy is it policy and how policy get another meeting before HR got another meeting and I I don't get one every month all right all right all right okay all right so um consistent with what the superintendent has asked please submit your questions or responses to those questions on page two to uh should they be sent to you Carl or to you both both okay they can send them all right sounds good all right um I know we do not have a parent advisory Council report today uh I wasn't sure had you connected with our representative from bilingual okay all right
046so there's there's no bilingual councel report although I know they regularly provide such reports uh the next item on the agenda are board reports uh earlier on an email was sent to All colleagues asking them to consider submitting I'm sorry Speak oh oh no I I figured we could go through this pretty quickly because it's all written except Finance all right so um there's no presence report there's no HR committee report no audit report well there is a HR well they're written written the whole idea was uh to have this stuff written so that we wouldn't have to have oral presentations however same with policy however uh Finance does have to give a brief report um could you do that for us commissioner p uh thank you um it is in writing it is before
047you but we have some action items that must be taken care of uh today uh first we have the first quarter Student Activity funds report uh I move that the board approved this document I'm sorry I was talking to that's all right motion to approve the Student Activity funds report all right there's been a motion to approve the Student Activities report is there a second I'll second that all those in favor say I I any opposition nay for me it's a no for me uh so that is four Y and two Nays uh that passes okay anything else commissioner po yes we have um three sets of monthly Financial reports which we went through uh they are they build one on the other so uh what we have is the uh September October and November
048question Finance Financial reports and looking at what's in front of us I see two November and October I don't see something with the subject line of September but we did review September October and November um and I would uh at this time like to make a motion that the board approve all three is there a mo there a motion is there a second second second um any opposition or discussion regarding these two particular reports no um all those in favor of approving those two Reports say I I uh no for me any opposition no for me there's three reports I have two NOS do I have three NOS yeah all right so those do not pass I'm sorry but I don't know that we've ever had this happen and I don't know what we are
049to do about a rejection of reports that are factually correct well but but but here's the thing um there is an opportunity for each board member to uh talk to the administration about the concerns regarding those reports I assume those NOS are based on some observation or concern none that were raised in the finance committee I I understand that but that doesn't mean they can't have an opportunity to do it uh at the next finance committee meeting or between now and whenever so Terry yes commissioner LeBron on to that because I did raise my own concerns when we were having finance and didn't vote for them to move up anyway um so I I don't understand why there is a statement that there were no concerns raised I shared my concerns already about it so
050I'm going to stick with my original no vote on them and and I don't um I don't see any reason why uh they could not have a response to those and they these reports couldn't come back to us uh at the next meeting we certainly have to have these reports approved the question is um when is that going to happen uh two Commissioners at least three Commissioners have identified their concerns uh I know commissioner LeBron has said she's previously articulated her concerns commissioner Shepard commissioner Davis uh of course they will communicate whatever concerns they have between now and our next meeting so these minutes so that these reports can be approved I even had indicated that I wanted to see something a little different I realized the administration did not have the time to make
051those changes and and in our discussion if I might interject the conversation about formatting the cover memo was a prospective about changing that going forward I haven't heard yes I recall that there was a no vote but I haven't heard a single articulation of what factual information is incorrect In These Financial reports that would justify a no vote well here's a reality they uh that is our colleagues have the right to express concern um and they have an opportunity at the next finance committee meeting and or in between now and that finance committee meeting to express those concerns to the superintendent we just need to make sure uh these reports are brought up at our next available meeting and uh again the three Commissioners have indicated they have some concerns about it it it s
052it sounds to me like you didn't hear those concerns but uh superintendent D is on notice that there are some concerns I assume between the three of or four of them they will have some conversations about it and get those concerns addressed sure uh is this a question that I can ask to Legal what the question becomes what happens if the board does not approve those reports is that something that you can answer for for us or somebody from Finance I no probably question in terms of theal effect thank you so for now um we will not have these reports approved they have not been approved uh can have an executive session to have uh Council answer your question but I I'm I'm pretty confident that while these documents are extremely important that the delay
053of uh a week or two um will not be that significant so and again uh I'd ask the superintendent staff to speak to the three Commissioners and make sure whever concerns they have are addressed and that uh we connect with Council about what the effect is of any delay vice president La another question is does it prohibit the district from conducting business or um um expenditures in any way all right thank you okay all right so we were able to uh dispense with our reports and now we will move on to arguably the most important part of our agenda today which is speakers uh I sorry you can applaud that all right so again let me remind you there's a two-minute limit and to the extent you go beyond that you are not uh affecting
054the business of the board but you're affecting the rights of others to exercise their right to free speech uh it has been limited to 2 minutes because we have 92 speakers um and that puts us at about 3 hours and there is other board business that has to take place after we listen to speakers the board uh determined by a prior res resolution that we would hear hear all speakers first our general practice is to um only take an hour's worth of speakers bless you because that's in our bylaws but the board addressed this earlier knowing the importance of hearing from you all we agreed to uh amend our bylaws allowing for every speaker speaker to be heard uh prior to the continuation of the rest of our business so having said that what I'm
055going to do is I'm going to read names as best as I can I apologize UPF front I'm not that and I have colleagues occasionally that will whisper or tell me the correct pronunciation I apologize for those that I mispronounced the name name I would ask you take the podium to my left uh adjust the the the microphone Andor we have a little step there for our young folks uh I'm going to call two or three names at a time so that people don't have to uh get through the crowd I'd ask that you stand to the speakers left so let's begin Ray casano and djik [Applause] Rosa right there and again as you approach supportting please make sure that you uh repeat your name or give the correct pronunciation of your name so that
056we have it for the record oh okay thank you Ray uh hello everyone as you know my name is Ray I'm a student at Leadership Academy I'm here to address the problem not just any problem major problem my teachers the programs that I'm a part of are getting cut I have been through a lot and my teachers are one of the are one of the few things that have been there for me and through thick and thin as a student I've been through a lot of challenges and they've been right there for me so as a student of the district your future I would like like you to hear me please help us get through this so none of our teachers get caught cuz I know sooner than later it's going to affect everyone you're
057what if your kids were going to get a if your kids are affected how would they feel how would they react that after Christmas break maybe their favorite teacher are gone the bond that they had it's done how are they going to react so how would they feel as a student of your District as a person of your future please I'm I'm asking you get our teachers back because everyone out there we're not going to stop until we win thank you Miss Rosa will be followed by Simone Hardaway Simone Hardaway after Miss Rosa hello hello uh want me to repeat my name yes please uh De janique Rosa you and jayen Rosado um okay they say we have a voice but it feels like we can never use it and the one time we try
058to advocate for ourselves we're not being heard why are staff losing their jobs over loss of money staff have home and family too staff have a home and family too our staff is our second is like our second parents when we have no one to go to or no corner to turn we have them staff and the education we receive is the most constant thing in our lives and you're just going to take that away from us oh because of money what is going on what is going to happen to our staff how are they going to provide for their families without any income why can't you get money from somewhere else you can afford all this new technology but in all reality we don't care about that we care about our staff and education
059not some smart [Applause] boards did Fairport need a new gym worth $50 million more than we need our staff more than we need our educations our staff repaires us for our future to help us become lawyers firefighters doctors police officers teachers and more why does Rochester City School District always have to get broken down we want to build those future Scholars if the school can't trust with our money or our staff how can we trust them with us we have voices and we want them to be heard Simone H will be found by tal Beck Cohen hello everybody hello um staff and School Board um my name is Simone Hardaway I'm a senior um at School of the Arts you might be wondering why I stand here today to speak to you when I was
060in second grade I had a teacher named Mrs poino it's because I understand how vital a student in teacher and and teacher connection is I have Arts teachers every day who teach me something I love unfortunately not every student in the district has an arts program that can motivate them to come to school every day they do have teachers the reason many kids come to school is their teachers where they can get support where they lack it at home I want to tell a story let me start out by saying that I have a I'm in a single parent household with a mother that does her best to take care of us when I was in second grade we didn't have much money at all but ever since September of 2008 Mrs poo has been
061there for my family I can recall the countless times where she brought us clothes and extra household items when we had very little to none my mother had brain surgery and so she couldn't work so she had no idea what to do on her free time the next school year she went back to be a unteer with Mrs poo after I was her student and she went to be a volunteer for 8 years she worked with kids in classes from 24 students to eventually special education children with 12 students in classes where she was led to do the same as Miss fago to make personal connections with the students that made differences in their lives we will be out at Wegman's or store and we see people that I don't really know necessarily or instantly
062but they recognize my mother Miss Hardway oh my God it's so good to see you or even sometimes Miss Hardway thank you for all you've done and tell Miss poo that we appreciate her and to this day there are good friends even after they are good friends even after Mrs poo retired I can say without a teacher like her I don't know where me or my family would be it's connections like these with teachers who care that matter I can't imagine what our lives would be like without us please don't take away our teachers that care for us thank you W Miss Beck with Cohen will be followed by chardonay Robinson my name is tally Beck with Cohen and I an 11th grader and one of the student organizers from School of the Arts right
063now about four months into their first year of school hundreds of kids are learning what it means to be a student students of all ages are learning to love their teachers they are learning that their teachers can be trusted that their schools are going to put them first that their education is a priority to the adults who run our district they are building relationships with their teachers that make them feel loved and cared for and want to learn but breaking up their school community's midyear taking their teachers away from them will shatter this feeling of warmth and safety that teachers have worked so hard to create you have heard multiple examples of the devastation cutting teachers midyear will cause increased class sizes reduction of necessary Services the breaking of invaluable bonds between teachers and students
064and the chaos that the logistics of such a transition will cause are just a few but superintendent and board what perhaps you do not understand is that these midyear layoffs send us the students a direct message whether you mean it or Not by taking away our teachers you are telling us that our needs are not being put first amen and we hear you this message will reach even the smallest kindergarteners and will instill in them a fear and distrust of the educational system superintendent and board we hear you and we know you know we hear you because my generation knows how to fight back we have seen time and time again that in times of crisis it is the students that take a stand in mere days some in mere hours multiple students at multiple
065schools have organized walkouts there have been an enormous movement of letter writing and Outreach to our suburb to the Suburban neighbors this Monday our schools came together and hundreds of students marched across the city to central office demonstrating the power we have when we're United but school board and superintendent you have seen what the students parents and community members of rcsd are capable of imagine what we could do if you stood with us imagine the fight we could bring Albany to lobby for the funding our students deserve imagine the message you would send our youngest students if you fought alongside us please show your students that you are willing to fight for them and I promise we will stand behind you every step of the way thank you Shard Robinson will be fired by Morgan
066doy hello my name is Morgan gy I am a I'm a sixth grader at anary Douglas Academy school number 12 and I just would like to start off by saying this is not the students or teachers fault this is your fault you spent money and you overused money that you did not have and now it's affecting everyone around us these teacher layoffs are not helping us they are affecting our education and our learning during the school day no one is focused anymore everyone was worried that this is going to happen to that teacher this might happen to my teacher what that's that is our that is affecting our education and that is your fault a teacher should not be measured on the amount of years that they've worked they should be measured on their ability
067and skill I know a teacher at my school is getting laid off and she's worked there for 12 years that is not fair and that is not okay you made your own decisions and now we are the ones being punished for those decisions you overspent the money and we are being punished for it [Applause] one of my teachers is getting laid off and she has worked so hard at her job to help us learn and now you because of your budget she's getting taken away and the fourth grade classes are getting merged so those little kids won't have their same teacher the rest of the year that teacher is moving up to our class and our class doesn't know that teacher we you are breaking the bonds of students and teachers around the district and
068you are not being and you are not it doesn't feel like you're caring for us you say that our needs go before you but they don't not in this situation how do you plan on telling little kids second graders kindergarteners even that their teacher won't be back how do you how do you feel about telling those little kids that their teacher will be gone do you even know how this is affecting the students and the parents no you don't because you're the Board of Education not a student a or a parent or even a teacher thank you to be Follow by Abram [Applause] Ellis I'm Shard Robinson from school at our walls hi I am 6578 That's What You Know Me by you give us numbers so we can be verified wrong so we can
069be identified as an africanamerican or a Hispanic but personally I prefer to be called a afro Latina sh shed name which is a female you know but that shows how much our numbers tell us how much they tell you but the rcsd teachers principles and staff members know us more than y'all know us them numbers show yah the ones that you know laying being laid off the ones who we call second parents or second lovers or you know the ones who told us how to be activists show me what's right show y'all what's right you know the ones who make lawyers and doctors and teachers and maybe the United States of America president Amari Woods Amari Woods will be filed by Abram Ellis and Bailey wearing hi my name is Abe Ellis and I'm a
070second grader at school 12 you may recognize my school be a boy named trayon R who was a student there still not ringing a bell well let me explain it to you almost 2 years ago a 14-year-old boy with special needs was dropped off at school 12 by an rcsd bus and wandered past the school and all the staff outside he walked a couple miles toward downtown where he IM immediately jumped into the genesy river and died the the the day and his wait the day and his the day and his family was never alerted to his absence his death left a mom without her son and a school without a beloved member his death and impact on my school the community will never be um forgotten since then school 12 students and teachers have
071worked at Rebuilding Together and supporting each other to become a stronger and safer school we have an amazing and caring new principal who has helped reassure reassure us that we are in a supportive well staffed and guarded place we are making a new name for ourselves and will prove um how can how C how can this District it how can this district and good how can this District district in good conscience decide to fire teachers who protect us against devasting outcomes due to current Staffing and great and greet us at arrival and dismissal they can support our social needs and um academic needs as well as each other they help us have the best um the best chance at our future or even a future at all our teachers are another home for us and
072by pulling them away mid year you are ignoring basic compa compassion and safe you are putting us all at risk I can ask that you at least hold off firing my teachers until the summer with the help of my school and my friends when making your vote please don't forget me please don't forget school 12 and never forget trayon save our teachers save us wearing will be followed by Jada Rosario and again please just state your name when you get to the mic okay my name is Bailey wearing and my teacher helped me get into this the school of year Arts I'm very sad to find out that she she won't be teaching she was one of one of the best teachers I had and now other kids won't be able to have to have
073her as a teacher she has done a lot of great things for me and she's the reason why I am here I am today I'm making good grades in my first year of seventh grade and she was happy to know that I was my grace reminded me of her reminded her yes reminded her of why she is an awesome teacher I would be glad if she was able to teach again I know there's other teachings teachers teachers teachers like me like her like her Bailey like her okay like like her like the one I had like the one I had and makes me sad to know that they might not be able to teach to teach to teach please bring our teachers back thank you J Rosario will be followed by Valerie Zan Vorhees good
074evening my name is BBY vanor I have here n Harper Gloria Hill and Josiah Hill my daughter's very just strong take her teacher I am a parent with three children in rcsc one goes to edits and tech one goes to leadership and N Goes to School number 34 my daughter has lost one teacher Miss Silvers and N has lost two teachers Miss melino and Miss Donovan the great teachers back there I am a very active parent in the district I see how these teachers make a difference in these kids' life on December 19th the Monday after these teachers got these awful letters telling them they they will be ripped out of these children's lives these teachers had to come in and tell their babies they will no longer be there when they come back from
075Christmas Vacation it was so heartbreaking watching these kids break down because of something that they had no control over over but now they have to suffer this is so unfair the children should not have to suffer NE neither should these teachers most of these teachers are second moms and second dads to most of these kids some of these kids look forward to coming to school to be with their teachers the board knew about this deficit in the summer why wasn't anything done then why wait for the middle of the school year to break the teachers away from their babies when they are comfortable and they confide and trust in these teachers just to rip them away these Cuts need to start from the top one last thing put a face to these five teachers that
076got laid off at 34 School Miss Molino Miss hook Miss presler Miss bur and Miss Donovan this has to stop these kids need the best education they deserve just think the students and teachers will not be able to fully enjoy their vacation because the students will be worried about having new teacher that's where the anxiety kicks in the teachers are worried about the students thinking how are they going to cope with these new teachers I hope n and the rest of these kids can get through this these teachers and these students deserve the best the students deserve a good education and great teachers chop from the top Rosario M Burg anded [Applause] Muhammed understand you get girl my name is Jada I am a third grade student at R humidity I would like you to
077know that I'm very disappointed that my teachers in my school are being laid off my entire school is affected by these layouts my teachers are very nice and very awesome they help me face my fears and help make me comfortable in school they meet they made me a better reader writer and better at math they push me even when I want to give up and because of that I get really good grades and score high in my test we need to change what is happening in our schools our teachers should not be laid off because they have came to school sad but still willing to teach us that shows they care more about us than themselves please help us by voting no this hurts a lot we need to save our teachers we need to
078help them just like they help me my sister is in preschool she cried because her teacher Miss Holland is leaving teachers like miss Oz and Miss Holland came here from other states just to to teach us they need a chance this is my plea to help kids like me who need our teachers like Miss osma stcker Mr M H and many others in my school who came to work with smiles on their face not knowing what they're going to what they're going to do after before all this soundness hit my school was happy my school was a happy School our happy school is going to turn into a very sad school if you say if you vote Yes I hope you will let my teacher say and other teachers say please vote no in my
079school We rise by lifting others this is my this is my way of lifting them my teacher stand for us so it's my turn to take a stand for them thank you I'm sooud so proud of ab like many of the students who've read today they are excellent readers let's give them a round of applause thank next is jazari McGee Burgess fou by Muhammad Muhammad and then Christian Z hen and again I apologize for mispronouncing names how about wishes Campbell jiah Collins oh they're just uh just state your name my name is Muhammad and um as the future uh go ahead as a future mayor um there is a problem in this city and I have to deal with all of them and includes the rcsd see F she's going to I don't know if
080she's passing them around but if she does or when you read it right see we start off I have a somewhat of a theory right my theory is that the the Rd slowly started thinking about their image more than the kids why do I think they may be asking well since we don't have that much time all the questions going to be rhetorical so ask questions later right so so we start off with the revenue summary right in the pie chart it shows that we have all the revenue exactly 931 million right and on this it if you do the math I'm not that good at math because you know rcsd kids are not that good at math at all so my bad right so um if you do the math correctly you get 101%
081correct meaning that it makes sense because the budget we already had in the beginning plus the budget that we got now right so now when we look at the expenditure summary we have the same amount but there's something we can see something that did not exist in the first one the contingency the contingency took $1.1 million now we're just going to question where did this this money go right now this report right so this report shows that how much when we started in 2017 we didn't we didn't have contingency funds at all right everything was fine and dandy or so we thought and then next year they start asking for contingencies of $350,000 right that's nothing it's under the table nobody sees that all right and then the next year they go higher just slightly
082higher 5,000 all right 500,000 nothing big right and now that they ask for 1 million it's a problem see it should have been a problem in 2019 right but now the question is how do we get this far right this should this should be a problem we we're deducting teachers whatever right you know the last time this happened was the economic downfall in 2008 all right and now they had the plan was to deduct teachers as now but now we have way more jobs and everything right see now the question is if econom the economy isn't the problem then who is right we're not going to play the blame game though right right so now if she would hand she's still not handing out it doesn't matter right so the policy and when ver viros
083whatever what is his name Virgo Vargas yes when when he was here uh we had in the beginning of the debt we started off with 61.1 million right there was a gap right and then we slowly started to fix this this Gap with you know by allocating resources more efficiently right you would think this is great and then it is great because you know this this is was their standard until 2017 2018 which is before could you could you finish up oh yeah I can finish up all right thanks so my theory is that no my theory is that uh they stopped caring about them when they started uh realizing that you know cuz East graduates were getting it was getting really good right so they thought you know if East is doing good you
084know everybody else is doing good right cuz you know but that's not that's not how it works that's not how works at all so then they started using more money on their image because they thought the students were already good but see the students are my city you know as a future mayor these people make up my city so if you guys mess them up then how you guys what am I going to do right so your problems are becoming my problems and I don't need that so let's fix that please think all right wish C CS uh do you want me to do this or like stand on the St which comfortable you understand I'll just do this okay okay so my name is is Harley's one but my first name is Christian so
085yeah um I am to many of you in the over there I am a student to some of you a peer and a sis and a brother um my teacher Miss G was recently laid off and that affects all of our class because she runs the pepper alleys she runs the school store so that doesn't just affect our class it affects the school and because of these teachers intervention teachers have to replace them so I'm also losing Miss Coniglio and also that's about it because I've said this before to my classmates when I was doing the talking to my school and I'll say it again and what this saves our district money but at what cost our education the jobs of teachers thank you this is Campbell will be PR by Josiah Collins and then
086Samantha Conroy hello my name is wish Campbell I am currently a fifth grader at school number 4 please do not take our teachers they are nice and have helped me grow into the person I am today I will not I would not be here without them I used to be angry a lot but now this year these teachers have helped me learn to control my emotions this year I am happy excited for school and ready to learn I love my school I love my classmates and most importantly I love my teachers when I heard the news I was crying my heart out I am heartbroken please do not take these teachers from me thank [Applause] yous will be by Samantha Conroy and dear Barber my name is Josiah Collins I'm a fifth grader at Anam
087Murray Douglas Academy school number 12 dear School Board Please Don't Force us to let go of our teachers who are so much like our family I don't think that this specific idea is fair to a lot of people did you even take the time to consider all the children who will suffer behind this decision the last few days have been so chaotic and stressful for me and so many of my classmates not only are we scared about losing our teacher but our hearts are also broken that their own kids will feel sad especially so close to Christmas I don't think that is fair that any teacher has Sol their job but especially my teacher Miss Dixon next to Mrs Yuri my kindergarten teacher and Mrs Morrison my first grade teacher Mrs Dixon is one of
088my favorite and best teachers I've ever had she is funny understanding helpful kind caring cute pretty nice likes to dance helps us very entertaining smart playful likes to sing math songs funny and someone I feel safe talking to when my mom's not room as a young africanamerican boy I haven't had the luxury of walking into classrooms and seeing teachers who look like me ever since third grade I have prayed that I would get Miss Dixon as a teacher two years later my prayers have been answered I watched House Hunters so much with my mom I thought I would grow up and become an architect just so I could build my mom the house of her dreams but after what but after watching Mrs Dixon and how she cares so much for us I decided that
089I want to grow up and be a teacher someday I feel like her Helper because she lets me help her great papers she even gives me the leftover papers from our lesson plans each day so I could go home and practice with my little brother and sister I don't want her to go to another school and set up her stuff all over again and I definitely don't want to have a stranger come into our classroom and have to learn that person right in the middle of our school year I don't want our relationship to be cut short and I don't want my inspiration to be taken away so if you care at all about how I feel please don't do this to us but if you had to do it please wait until the end
090of June sincerely Josiah colins fifth grade good well San be F by dear Barber good job Time magazine's person of the year Greta thunberg is a young person who has continually fought and pleaded for the people in power to change their stance on an issue thunberg wants people to give more awareness to global warming because it affects our generation and will continue to affect generations to come many students much like thunberg have started doing the same thing we are passionate about our education and the education of generations to come we have tried to make it clear that cutting teachers affects all of our education especially younger kids who can't yet read off a script at a board meeting board members are elected by representative democracy as I'm sure you know tonight you all have a
091very important decision to make if you make the right choice the choice that everyone in this room is urging you to make everyone in the city is urging you to make all the people here will probably reelect you all the up and coming Junior and seniors who will be 18 and two years two years they will remember this decision and likely vote you back into office on the other hand if you make the decision that does not reflect the people you represent you are even more likely to be represented remembered come next election I will be 18 when the next Schoolboard election comes and I can guarantee you that your vote from me and many of my friends and classmates will heavily depend on tonight's decision your vote tonight determines my vote for 2021 your
092vote determines my [Applause] vote welcome back good to see you again hi my name is dear Barber and I go to um I go to school 23 and I came here tonight so I can talk about the vat and I and if you guys go with with your decision of getting rid of the teachers then you're making the wrong choice for 2020 I guarantee you I guarantee you that and if you keep and if you guys get elected for the next if you guys get elected next year that's good for you but if you just keep but if you don't do keep doing this then you're probably not going to be elected [Applause] again and thank you and if you you keep getting rid of these teachers then what are you going to think what
093going to happen to the the kids and the classrooms they're go there if there's bad kids in them classrooms they're just going to get worse and then Graves start dropping and you guys want start wondering why graves are dropping you'll be able to find the reason why and you're doing that you're just doing that because of budget cuts you should just cut your budget cut just cut your budget Anthony Miller Anthony Miller will be by Des D lyia PR Anthony Anthony Miller Anthony Miller desie Garrick and Lydia Perez how about takari Cooper ladies and gentlemen we need to hear our speaker hi good evening my name is Desiree Garrick and I'm a student at East High School we have expressed our opinions to the board and to the various media Outlets we have pointed fingers
094in multiple directions in regards to this devastating crisis that we are being faced with one thing we have not considered is why we are in this mess why we are in it and not other Suburban districts we are in this because our budget is not voted on by the residents of this District we may have been made aware of the budget what the budget covered but we never really had a chance to decide ourselves the city council doesn't even vote to approve the budget we constantly want to place the blame on the district although they may play a major role in this we never thought to evaluate what parts we have had in this mess we the residents of Rochester are very ignorant we say that the people we say that we are aware of
095the racial climate here in the city but in reality we are abvious to the blatant deao segregation we are subjected to right here in Rochester why is it that the general makeup of the failing Rochester city school district is a majority minority and the seemingly successful Suburban districts are made up of majority white students why are their districts succeeding academically and athletically and ours isn't making any consider considerable Headway why is it that all of the cities that are considered to be the poorest in the nation are the most segregated cities I'm talking about the fact that many of our white co-workers or friends would endar their students to a city school and although they might not voice this public publicly they don't want us in their schools either unfortunately our educational system was was
096set up to Target us economically we cannot allocate funds the same way Suburban schools do that is mainly because we do not fund our schools through property taxes there's a solution that would result in a gigantic step towards this discontinuation of City's City's deao SE segregation what if we create a countywide school system we all have the resources yet they are Miss manag the most important issue we would have to figure out is the logistics of transportation that way we can ensure that districts like Fairport aren't getting funding for athletic facilities while other districts are struggling to keep their staff employed thank you I'm Lydia Perez and I'm here because several honest hardworking teachers have been laid off because of the budgets and money that we still don't know how you guys spend it I
097would like and I I would like at least an explanation on how the money was spent and as a better result for this perhaps we could do this better by laying off cutting our teachers till the end of the year creating creating a fundraiser Gathering money and at the end of the year evaluating the amount of money we have to the amount of money we owe if we still don't have enough money a couple of a couple of the people may still have to be cut but it will affect the majority of the people if we don't cut the teachers at this moment think about it and think of this too every single one of the students here are going to be future voters they'll be there if you ever decide to vote for go
098for anything more important or if you decide to go for this again they'll be there while you're here and they'll be watching your votes today affect the votes of the upcoming years they affect the votes of parents teachers students and administrators they affect those votes cuz if you decide that this the plan laid out is a proper way to do it a couple of other people are probably not going to [Music] agree that's all I have to say oh um according to my list that completes our our students we're going to continue on with our parents but can we all give our young people a round of applause for the tremendous tremendous job we are all very very very very proud of you you've done a a well a great job and I know that
099your parents and the entire Community is very proud of you again let's give our young people a round of applause great job okay Takara Cooper will be F by Trisha Armstrong good afternoon everyone or good evening I should say I would like to thank everyone who has decided to be here today first I would like to introduce myself as toara Cooper I am the product of the city school district as well as a a School of the Arts alumni 2007 and it saddens me to see how far the district has got in regards to caring for children and the staff although I was able to graduate with my degrees it was not easy I believe if it was not for the teachers whom I have who I have engaged with and mentored me in the
100past I wouldn't be standing here today A few of those teachers I would like to shout out fourth grade teacher Mr Peasley he taught math third grade teacher Miss Abner she was a tough one but she she got us all in shape literally um Mr bini School of the Arts Mr T School of the Arts I'm a band major play the flu those are the few teachers that mentored me and influenced me I stand here before you all and attempt to keep teachers in the schools as if as I have have three children I have a set of twins who are three who are four excuse me I have a six-year-old and they all go to school 33 School 33 is not doing well and from what I've seen those are the um the reports
101are that most of the teachers or at least 28 of them that I know of will be laid off from that school if teachers are not there to be Hands-On in the classrooms how will the students Thrive if teachers are not there to to give encouragement to students who are struggling with disability or other issues how will they succeed at life I understand that cuts have to be made to close the Rochester City School District um Gap or budget however this is very extreme I had the chance to review minutes all the way back from as far back as when I attended James Madison School of Excellence I don't know if anyone remember that when I was in Middle School between the years of 2001 2003 I mean it it was really challenging I mean
102I'm going to I'm going to be honest all the kids there they weren't you know well behaved and all that stuff but that's that's that's another uh another part but even back then um I literally remember sharing one Spanish book in class and mind you I believe the the building was built in '98 I went there in 2001 I don't understand why we were sharing books one book in the Spanish class I don't know but um besides that specifically um in the board meeting um that took place February 14 2002 I seen cuts that were made from teachers to and also I seen salaries of some admin administrative staff and other staff that were much greater than the teacher salary of $24 an hour at the time this was back in 2001 no 2002 sorry
103although this was in the past I did not understand why a contract substitute physical education teacher had the salary of $7,695 some of these people may no longer be with the district or salaries may have changed my point is the Rochester city school district has a history of cutting teachers jobs but not but not evaluating the salaries of other staff I believe that people who are on the financial committee and I believe Miss commissioner Powell and others should review this in detail in detail Miss Cooper could you finish up please I will I'll finish up real quick thank you very much I'm very glad that the city school district committee specifically is trying to implement a more culturally diverse staff looking into implementing programs and also um other learning strategies for children however there are
104still things that need to have a clear process and solution that will not have or leave students and staff and parents to the financial neglect what I believe is what I need what I believe needs to be done moving forward is more active monitoring on where these funds are going possibly a whole revamping of the financial committee if this has not happened yet maybe there would be a monthly audit of an actual log of what every dollar every penny was what being spent and also you using funds that are not um being used for parent engagement because not all parents go to those things it was even difficult for me to make it to this meeting M Cooper I I need you we got 70s something speakers behind Okay I'm going to close it up
105thank you thank you I would like to thank everybody for your time and please consider our thoughts thank you Trisha Armstrong will be followed by Carla [Applause] Morales good evening everyone good evening board I am Trisha Armstrong Levine I'm a proud parent of a student at school 8 but to get him at school 8 I had to go through school 8 Once School 15 School 8 again a tour around school 3 just to say no you're going to keep him where he is because his teacher cares because my son has a history before I got custody of him two years ago of past trauma and abuse not at my hands when you take a student with trauma away from someone who's a consistent adult in their world it wrecks everything and that includes teachers and
106at December fifth meeting that was mentioned a lot so I even drew a beautiful picture that I'll make sure to give to the board expressing what trauma does like our RSD students already have trauma they're already in survival mindset before they walk into your school doors you have to engage a learning brand that they can't even get into but when you have consistent teachers you are giving them you're allowing them to be open to new information okay with making mistakes they're comfortable with inexactness they can see the big picture where they're going to go trade school college whatever it may be they're eager to learn they trust their teachers they form healthy bonds there's a calm there's an inner peace graduation rates go up your testing scores go up guess what that's an improvement for
107this District but you remove them cuz let me tell you my son's already done this midyear Thing Once in this district and it was hell hyperfocus on threats doesn't like inexactness they're ining in black and white they just want to get it over with when you take these teachers away from these kids you are telling them they are worthless you are telling them they are unimportant you are telling them that your money problems are bigger than their success and your graduation rates and your testing scores go down and I am done Morales to be F by VMA Morales Becca cranmer again please state your name and be mindful the two the time limit is 2 minutes my name is Rebecca cranmer I am an rcsd parent as well as a teacher um Philip Davis a
108parent in rcsd could not make the meeting tonight so I am sharing this on his behalf Mr Davis writes much has been said about the school to prison pipeline In This Very Room I once attended a packed presentation on putting an end to the school to prison pipeline the proposed mid-year Cuts in teachers and staff will have devastating emotional and academic effect on the children of rockchester the proposed Cuts will scar children if you are numb to the effect of these cuts it might be best you don't work with children the scars on the children will be academic and emotional your budget action if enacted will lead to an increased dropout rate and a declining graduation rate the very things the board says it cares about the as far as these Cuts will leave will
109hobble our children limiting their future ability to become productive citizens with valuable economic choices what I am suggesting is this these Cuts will add more Plumbing to the school to prison Pipeline and anyone who votes for them are supports them is another one of the plumbers none of us have a crystal ball to look into the future but most in this room would agree that on a future day some child scarred by these Cuts along with dozens of other oppressive of actions in Monroe County will stand in a courtroom before a judge in charged guilty of a crime prior to sentencing the judge may ask the child is there anything you want to say to the court and the child will have every right to say your honor you should know that there were accomplice
110to my crime among the accomplice and co-conspirators to my crime were members of the Rochester school board their names can be found in the minutes of the December 19 2019 meeting of the rockchester City School Board your honor the Commissioners abrupt cuts to classroom budgets put a dagger in my well-being the child will continue if I can go back in time I would not tell the school board that the judge of all history is not looking at the board's ability to balance budgets the judge of history is looking at their hearts to see what they will do at least my prayer is to the board members see their shared Humanity with the children recognize how especially vulnerable and fragile these children are I call on this board to reject in entirety the proposal for mjar
111cuts Mr Davis thanks you for your time Chantel Mosley will be followed by lenda [Applause] tant hello my name is Shantel and I am a parent of Angela who goes to Roberto clementa School number eight her teacher is Ariel mcdal is on the list to be cut due to the budget crisis if approved it is very heartbreaking because like most of these teachers getting cut she is an amazing teacher I've only known her for short months but she has been a great influence on my daughter and really helped her to have a voice and be heard I can tell that she cares about her job and my daughter because she always takes the time out to text me not only issues and concerns but also good things and Kudos about my daughter and the issues
112and concerns we both work together to improve on it Miss McDow has stated to me she's very excited and looking forward to my daughter's growth as a student and Community member please don't cut our teachers our CSD children already get the short end of the stick due to single parent households poverty and less opportunities that are than that are available for them then Suburban schools it just isn't fair these teachers are here to help us raise our children and help them discover the opportunities and possibilities they can have in life they are not to fault for the budget crisis please don't cut our teachers my teacher means the world to me she understands me and takes extra time to help me when I am struggling please don't cut our [Applause] teachers we followed by Bridget
113stub and Susie gineres good evening Commissioners good evening superintendent Dade good evening mobilized Rochester Community it is good to see you my name is Susie cettas I'm a parent of a child at school 12 in first grade and two younger children future RS rcsd students um since becoming fully aware of the destructive decision to propose teacher and staff cuts and December I have shown up with community members in this room and those far beyond its walls um we know there are people here and well beyond here um to take intentional purposeful action we have spoken we have marched we have chanted and and we have heard the voices individually and collectively Rise um we have understood from the gecko that teachers are not numbers they are not a tally mark and they are not a
114dollar sign humans human relationships are the heart of Education you board members and superintendent Dade have heard reasons of the heart and reasons of the Mind opposing this atrocious action we have spoken we have shown up to promote healthy and safe learning environments for all our CSD students we have rep prioritized this crisis over our family dinners over family holiday traditions and I ask you how have you bent over backwards to creatively and committedly and collaboratively research and act on incremental savings because that's how savings add up incrementally so that this type of severe action does not have to be taken um I believe every suggestion that has been shared in this room by students parents teachers and community members deserves to be acknowledged deserves to be researched and deserves to have the painstaking careful
115work done to see if it can save one teacher's job one staff job at a time and I implore you to delay this vote until those all all of the savings that can be found are found in every uh item that superintendent dat shared on November 12th look at every contract look at every consultant look at what teachers truly need and do step back from purchasing a million dooll Ela curriculum for K through 5 kids need their teachers they don't need new curriculum thank you for listening please make the right decision on behalf of our children Mary Callahan will be followed by Eric Hines and Amanda Adams hello my name is Mary Callahan my son is a second grader at school 58 I'm a chair of the citizen action education committee and also a teacher
116in Greece my comments are mainly for superintendent Dade I can't say any more about the detriment of these Cuts than has already been said this is the same tragic narrative if you truly want to change it the whole system needs to be reimagined a system we all know is deeply rooted in racism and the withholding of opportunity if you truly want to change it do something radical and be the one who listens and responds authentically to your constituents I still want to know what you're going to do to reform central office I don't hear any action plan for that I still want to know why we allow the Board of Regents to come at us and no one calls them out on their hypocrisy on not sending that same letter to Cuomo what do they
117think is going to happen when money that has been determined necessary is denied for several years don't let them bully us don't let them keep telling us they don't have it when the truth is that Cuomo just doesn't prioritize education fight harder fight like our kids are fighting fight fight with them as they've asked you to I still want to know what you're this a logistical nightmare I still haven't heard how you're going to deploy restorative or trauma informed teams to address the challenges our students will face that we've heard tonight I still haven't heard what you're going to do for students who are losing their staff supports and resources that increase in staff came from adding restorative coaches speech learning programs and other necessary supports here we are celebrating the gains made in graduation
118rates and decreased suspensions and now you're going to eliminate the very programs and staff that are making that happen additionally we white teachers we love our students but we still need and and this why we need training and culturally responsive teaching anti-racism and restorative mindset these things are Necessities not luxuries once again kids in our district have to sacrifice they're going to pay for this what are you going to do for them right now and tomorrow and the next day and the day after that board members for them please vote no on these classroom Cuts thank you Eric hin will we PR by Amanda Adams and Ivy cologne that would be Eric Hines Amanda Adams and then Ivy cologne I'm not there could you state your name hi my name is Amanda Adams I want
119to First apologize for going over my time last on Tuesday tonight I'll make sure I stick to my time my heart is broken tonight because my daughter's teacher had to tell her second graders that she will not be back after break how do I explain her to her this mess how do I tell her a stranger will be her teacher on January 6th I am not sure if any of you have Tau taught but the logistics of removing teachers midyear has a host of issues and trickle down effect who's going to finish the report cards and all the other things they do besides teaching who is going to help them pack up their years of materials they have acquired how are the displaced teachers going to have time or resources to start a whole new
120class how are the laid-off teachers going to have time to close their classrooms when their last day is before a two-e break lastly if teachers and students are not in the Forefront of this decision and are not concerned with the people affected or the trickle down effect how can I keep my students in this District how do I back my decision to send them to the city when they don't have our back imagine if it was your son or daughter who has who was losing their teacher or Sur Services imagine you and your spouse are laid off right before Christmas students need their teachers thank you Ivy cologne will be part by Abigail m [Applause] griffer good evening commissioner superintendent Dade my name is Ivy cologne I'm an rcsd graduate parent to a child who
121attends school 53 monory Academy to say that our education system is in crisis would be an understatement I had to explain to my four-year-old daughter that her teacher wouldn't be back after the holiday I had to literally break my 4-year-old's heart because we have let a school board and District dictate mediocre standards and mismanagement of our budget for me and the folks that are in this room that is unacceptable I want everyone to remember this moment because it will not go away the Ripple effects of these layoffs will be felt for years to come when our primary children struggle to reach their benchmarks in ela and math when our high school students when their graduation rates stagger because their Foundation was stripped away I want everyone to remember this moment for many of us standing
122in this room it feels like we are being treated like pawns on a chessboard But please understand if we are strategic as a community we will call Checkmate the same people that we have voted to put in these positions are the same people we can vote out as a community as a community we are done with empty promises and lies we have made national news not for the good reasons we are in solidarity with with the teachers union in Chicago and our Democratic nominee Birnie Sanders stands with us today I implore you to be on the right side of history when the history books are written do you want to be the villain or the hero in this story give our children our teachers and our district the chance that it needs not only to
123just survive but to flourish in ways that we know we can tonight is the night weite rewrite the stories that have been told about our district for years I ask you I beg of you the world is watching you please vote no Abigail McHugh griffer will be fired by Melissa 'im Melissa oain I stand with over 100 signatures from my son's preschool alone the Rochester early childhood education center where my son and daughter's teacher did a GoFundMe to get gloves and snow pants for those kids so they could be outside and be active and play on her own my daughter now attends monor I was blessed that she was allowed to be there if these were your children their schools their teachers and their tears during the holidays how would you handle their G grief
124I want you to understand the true cost of these decisions the ripple effect that will continue to affect these children's lives into their adulthood affecting their future their potential their future parents taxpayers and employable adults the early intervention programs classroom sizes affect their grades their concentration The Bullying Dropout rates graduation rates and attendance this is the beginning cutting off funding for our children is like cutting off our own feet someday these little people will be adults and they will be congressmen and Congress women and they will be our teachers and our doctors and our caretakers and the Very people that dictate and decide our futures we must educate them to the best of our abilities and invest in our future and in their Futures I'd like to read something from a parent from another District
125I'm voting no on the Fairport School capital budget plan on Tuesday I cannot and good conscious vote to have the state cover 77% of costs for optional items like athletic fields and fancier cafeteria tables when the largest District in our County continues to struggle I read heartbreaking posts of dedicated teachers in the rcsd who have just learned weeks before Christmas they'll be laid off with hundreds of kids returning to school in their classrooms to face yet another in a long line of traumas in this middle of the Year destruction of their class room family we must reduce the racial inequality refusing to ask the state for money while our comfortably white schools get more I wish I could say more Joshua enck followed by Johanna Slater Joshua Enoch followed by Johanna Joanna Slater and then
126leay KY all right how about Gypsy Escobar or Dennis D claudo please uh state your name when you approach the podium good evening board good evening my name is Joanna Slater I'm a mother uh for two children at school number 12 on December the 10th 2019 I sat in this room and I watch innocent little children walk up to this microphone and beg you not to take their teacher away from them I watch parents plead with you not to disrupt their child's school year and teachers try and appeel to your compassionate nature to at least wait until the end of the school year and while most of the other board members sat forward and leaned in looking in the direction of the person who was speaking even if their minds are already made up about
127how they're planning to vote they at least appear to show a good faith by seeming concerned but you commissioner Elliott did not pretend to put up a front ensuring that absolutely no one would mistake you as someone who actually cares and oddly enough I respect it I'm all for people being comfortable in their own skin not feeling the need to succumb to peer pressure or people bondage however it wasn't until this past Sunday that I realized I knew you I don't know you personally but from a distance you appear to be just another fellow worshipper sincere in your praise with hands raised in adoration to the one who embodied mercy and compassion and who commissioned us to do only one thing so that the world would know that we are his disciples and that is
128to demonstrate love to one another so when I reflect to that tragic tragic Tuesday where I observe you from a distance I couldn't help but wonder who is this ice queen she sits there all Pious as though she is annoyed by all the tears and pleading of the little children and it was at that Eureka moment that I pictured you playing the world's smallest violin because it sadly dawned to me that the same lady who sat on the City School Board was the the very same lady who sat in my place of worship Sunday after Sunday from one believer to another I have no authority to pass judge judgment on you after all I don't know what's in your heart no more than I know the particulars behind this District being 50 million in debt
129but what I do know is that whatever a woman think it in her heart so is she and I further know that you knew prior to September the 4th the first day students walked into their classrooms and started developing nurturing relationships with their teachers but that's but it's not too late there's still time to make midcourse correction first start by changing your demeanor from one sister to another in Christ that is abstain from the appearance of evil create a new narrative for your legacy don't be known as the churchgoing Ice Queen who wouldn't stand up for the innocent children she was elected to serve secondly seek a coalition with these parents your constituents hold us accountable as we do you I for one have not been present for all the school meetings like many parents
130I'm busy I believe that as long as my kids were making good grades yes sir I hear you I communicated regularly with their teachers on Class Dojo showed up to their school functions and volunteered when asked by the PTA I was good in my mind there was no need for me to attend board meetings and I definitely have better things to to to do than listen to you talk about a budget but shame on me I ask that you redeem yourself by standing with us let's agree on a on compromise and sacrifice I earnestly implore you to think very carefully because when it's time for reelection we will remember who stood with us and who did not I will reiterate that I am not here to B pass judgment on you commissioner Elliott I just
131thought you should know what it looks like from a distance I sincerely hope that I'm wrong I sincerely hope you prove all of us wrong car Le KY to be fed by Gypsy Escobar Le KY will be F by Gypsy Escobar good evening good evening my name is Gypsy Escobar um a partent of a kindergarten in school 12 um I'm also I have a doctorate in criminology and criminal justice and I've done lot of research on the school to prison P pipeline as somebody mentioned before um superintendent Dade um I appreciate the fact that you were given a hot mess um I appreciate the fact of what you informed us earlier today that um you know it could have been a lot worse could have been 287 instead of 20 155 but the the one
132thing I will beg you all to think about today um is the preventive effect that each one of those people that will be laid off if you vote Yes today has on a child right one every S I can guarantee based on the research that every single one of those people are the one thing that stands between a child and dropping out from school becoming you know in uh uh substance uh addicted to substances um having suicidal thoughts um having encounters with the Juvenile Justice System ending up in the foster care system and ending up in um in the criminal justice system the jails and the prisons so consider that as you consider your legacy as you consider your vote today the legacy is is that that's the Legacy you're leaving behind now I would
133like to address last Tuesday um a gentleman um uh address the crowd and ask where have you been and he's absolutely right what have we been where have the parents and Community being um we have been complacent and I would like to say that we been complacent in my case because we thought that our elected officials and the people who are paid the money to make this decisions and and make these policies knew what they were doing but we're here today and we're here to work with you not against you um take advantage of this opportunity what I will beg of all of you is to and I know that at least two of you have thought about this um because of uh the the news reports postp own the vote until the end of
134January give time to the legislative to reconvene give time to assembly man Bronson to followed through with his idea of requir requesting emergency funds give us time use us to Lobby Albany just reconsider postpone the vote until the end of January thank you Dennis deio to be proud by am Amy Malloy hello my name is Dennis declo I am uh relatively new uh resident of of Rochester moved here recently and my son just joined uh the r rcsd in kindergarten uh where I'm from originally I came from from a whole I went through a string of cities but where I came from originally was uh South Jersey uh we lived in the suburbs I grew up in the suburbs of Camden New Jersey uh my family going back to who 1890 lived in Camden they
135got off the boat from Europe from France from from Italy and they they moved to Camden and they spent years putting down roots in that City and then in in the 60s and 70s there was a series of small at the time decisions that were made by a number of people and the city started to the infrastructure of it started to deteriorate and people started to move away every one of my family members who grew up there who my my grandfather built a house with his own hands in Camden they all moved away I grew up with Camden was this dark shadow that was hanging over us as this as a as a as a impoverished a crime ridden city and it didn't need to be like that and Rochester does not need to be
136like that we are we're we're on the verge of uh of a recuperation I want to be a part of that ceration I want my family to be a part of that recuperation I want uh and not just because uh not just for the city but for us this is this is a really great place to raise a kid and this is and I don't want to have to move away to to some place like Brighton I want to stay here and uh okay I'll just leave us with one last thing you're going to make a decision tonight for a short-term problem and the and the results are going to be widespread for years to come you don't need to make that decision tonight thank you very much thank you Amy Malloy will be followed
137by Cory honey Honeyman Honeyman hi there you all know me maybe you don't my name is Amy Malloy I have four kids in the school district in grades 2 4 6 and 10 I'm also a teacher and I stand with teachers there isn't a person in this District not affected by midyear cuts and I recognize the anguish that all of you feel in having to make that decision tonight I don't yet have a vote superintendent Dade I'm so sorry that you've been put in this untenable position the Rochester schools are in a crisis largely due to underfunding for years by the state and an Ever growing population of students dealing with extreme poverty and homelessness special needs trauma and more the current budget crisis occurred because good people decided to overspend to cover the needs
138of our students it may have been a politically unwise decision but the goal was to support our children where the state politically or sorry where the state had been dropping the ball I along with thousands of parents and Community leaders urged the state to spare our students by providing them with the emergency funds needed to function midyear cuts hurt students in a variety of ways I am particularly concerned about our teaching assistance and par professionals who will be losing their jobs these are some of our lowest paid employees many make barely above minimum wage many of whom have lived in the city and the community or they live in the city and communities where they work and the majority of whom are black and latinx and this would be a devastating loss to them and
139to our communities if they are out of work in the middle of the school year and that is before we mentioned the devastating impact it would have on our students especially because these par professionals and teaching assistant do any and everything needed to keep our classrooms functioning properly is there anything that we can do as a board or governing body to help this particular group a crisis is often used to unfairly malign unions and the overlooked and underpaid workers but I urge everyone to stick together and not fall into that trap we need to lock our arms in unity as a board and to demand that New York State properly fund our schools we have a tendency to blame victims of poverty for our structural ills but the truth is the state is not poor
140even with their projected $6 billion deficit the lack of funding for schools in the poorest city in the state is simply a question of morals and priorities and we must do better and when I'm on the board we will do better we will all work together but we have to do this for our children thank you cyman and Jessica Fleming are you Cory yes I am yep go go ahead yeah hi my name is Cory Honeyman I'm a parent here in the district I have two kids at school 16 um first off I'm really thankful for you guys and just giving us the opportunity to speak I know it it it takes a lot of time and there's a lot of respect I think for for each of you because of the positions that you
141hold um I've also been a pastor in the community here for about 11 years and and um you know obviously like many people deeply troubled by the decisions that are put before you tonight but I want to remind you about something that um I know you already know but maybe just need to be reminded of is that you don't have to vote Yes to this this there's been a lot of planning for months that have gone into this and you've laid out the timetable it's still weird to me that pink slips were handed out two weeks before the actual vote was approved um that's strange to me but there's a lot of planning that has gone into place and um I just want you to know you don't have to go ahead with that like
142I as a leader from a leader to leader I understand that that there's something called the bell curve of change and and and if you just ride through I mean there's early adopters to any kind of when you're leading through change there's early adopters there's people that will catch on board right away and then there's a whole host of people that are just not on board people that will rise up and say NOP that's not a good idea you just got to ride through that you got to I've been there I've done that I've LED from that place before and I've said you just got to I told my team before I'm like you just got to ride through this bear through the conflict and then we'll get to the other end of it and
143push it forward that works if you have conviction inside and you know that it's the right decision to make but if you have part of you where you're like you know what this doesn't feel right this doesn't feel right that the community is saying what my gut inside is saying it doesn't feel right then then then don't go forward with it we're asking you as a community to have conviction we put you in this position to have conviction so lead from conviction and vote this down is what we're asking there's there's a verse in the Bible in the Book of James that says he who knows the good that he ought to do and doesn't do it sins so I'm asking you to not do this thank you Jessica Fleming will be proud by Tracy
144fettis [Applause] good evening um Jessica Fleming is my name you've seen me a lot in the last two weeks my mistake that it took me that long and that isn't that's going to change now um superintendent Dade you've made it clear that the heartbreaking stories don't impact your decision-making the school is a corporation the kids are a commodity and labor is your biggest expense first as the community members and parents we would like to see the evidence of the cuts of the six figure salaries at central office we haven't been able to find those cuts anywhere second you are cutting your greatest resource and furthering the devalue of your product enrollment is down that's the problem right enrollment this plan to cut teachers midy year that has now gotten national press how will this impact
145enrollment next year the following year the year after that these kids need to be invested in so their graduation weights continue to go up so that the community doesn't keep pulling their kids out of the district and sending them to subpar charter schools with a revolving door of Educators Charters that don't have to follow IEPs provide transportation and can expel students at any time pretty soon it could be only students with IEPs kids whose families can't get them into a charter for their hierarchy of needs just not allowing them energy and resources how much will it cost per student then board members we have been playing close attention some of you work tirelessly on behalf of these students and it's clear and we thank you Miss Elliott you text on your phone during meetings you
146won't give us the community or even the children even the most basic common courtesy Miss Powell you were on the finance committee when Janie left Rochester with missing money and a glowing letter of recommendation from the board in 2002 Mr White you stood in clear solidarity with the students walking out in 2010 protesting Duffy's proposal proposed moral morial control where is that solid solidarity now with these students vote no or we are demanding your resignation we will be petitioning the New York State a board of education for your removal for negligence if you don't vote with the community on behalf of these kids Tracy fedison to be filed by Tasha Mitchell Tracy fedison to be filed by by Tasha Mitchell good evening and welcome superintendent Dave I once again am advocating for Manu Academy as
147it stands you have cut our program the cuts have taken away our trained coaches and our trained monory teachers by the way we're the only school that has trained monory teachers the cuts are a tragedy we woke up feeling great when we got the news our heart sank the more we learned the more it hurt not only did we lose those trained teachers we can't train teachers that are going to come into our program we're dead in the water students like my grandson and my granddaughters I've got six at that school will walk into school with strangers he has not seen a stranger in his class in three years he's 5 years old his learning has stopped as of today as you know a new teacher coming in will need about six weeks to do
148and train routines and procedures by then it's February break they'll go on break they'll come back they'll have one week week before March that is when he will begin his education again my family has been in this program since Inception 19 years we believe in the mon monory way I've got kids that prove it I have fought through every budget cut when you asked us to have certif teachers we survived that when you asked us when we asked for training dollars and you said no we solved that problem by getting monory coaches making sure that every teacher no matter where they came from could get training and now we don't have any of that we're dead if you don't restore our program then we're asking that you give us what everybody who goes through death
149gets insurance policies all 360 of our kids need a guarantee to go to school of choice if you can't do that then restore our coaches and restore our trained teachers that's all we're asking for we need our program ma'am what's your name Tracy P okay thank you hi my name is Tracy fedison I have two interracial children that attend 45 school I want to ask you have you ever heard of the butterfly effect because that's what's happening here one little swish of a wing can change all of these children's Futures I lost my daughter 2 and A2 years ago and I have three of her beautiful girls that I am now in custody of they have attended 45 School throughout their careers and they have excelled I can't think of one person or one teacher
150in that school whether they were their personal teacher or not that hasn't supported me and my girls through everything that they've been through and they've been through a lot I'm not a big eloquent speaker but I know that that is their second family and I don't have a lot of family and they're so important to them they need those teachers and they will be devastated one teacher in particular Stacy um excuse me Heather Beers she's up for 10 year in like 2 weeks and they let her go she's one of the best teachers that I've ever seen in my life and that's not to take anything away from any of the other teachers they're wonderful every single one of them at that school they've worked very hard to bring that school up from the bottom
151and they don't deserve this where did the money go as the public we have a right to know that's all I have to say do not take our teachers away from our kids they need them especially in the situations that a lot of us in the inner city are in I know this is a lot of weight on your heart um superintend David and I'm sorry that you also have to go through this at this holiday time but please please hear our cries you know and may God bless everyone here tonight thank you thank you can you state your name are you Miss Mitchell Alexa Alexa were you was your name earlier on in the no I was up next okay um I'll let you go ahead but the thought was my thought was to
152take a break at this particular point when we when hold on but that's okay you can stay there cuz we're getting ready to transition into community members but since you're up there go ahead but after uh you miss wearing we'll take a break and let folks go home if they need to he got a lot of parents with children here and maybe some folks outside that like or downstairs that want to come in here so go go ahead Miss okay thank you sure good evening everyone first first of all I would like to say that it's an honor to be here to address this current situation let me make this as clear as possible children need their teachers teachers are the ones who lay the blueprint for children to succeed in life I grew up
153in the city of Rochester and I myself has attended the Rochester City school districts I can honestly say that I had the best and most memorable exp experiences growing up in the Rochester City School District part of that reason was because I had my teachers after graduating Wilson Magnet High School I got into to two great colleges and one of them I even know I was even going to get into St St John Fisher and a University at Brockport without the help and support from the Rochester City School teachers I wouldn't have made it to where I am today teachers are the ones who advocate for the for the child's success how can our amazing teachers do do this if they're not aren't present in their in their lives how can they do this if
154there's a possibility of classrooms being crowded is that is there is that a possibility each child has educational needs and each child deserves equal equal access to educ ation how can teachers fulfill each child's needs in crowded classrooms if this becomes the solution I strongly believe that this issue will have an effect on teachers teachers ability to teach and a a possible link to to Children's inability to learn I have two little sisters that are attending the Rochester City school districts I want them to be able to have good educational experiences due to having their teachers I want every child to have these experiences so they too can pass the same Legacy if they decide to be advocates for their own families who attended the Rochester C school districts one my little sisters got into
155the high school she always wanted to go to not only she not only she wanted to but believe she could get into why did she believe she could so much because of her teacher Miss Parker due to miss Parker's dedication motivation and effective teaching skills my little sister got accepted to a school she and Miss Parker believe she could get into my little sister's teacher set the blueprint for her for on her for her on her Pathway to success children need their teachers this is a call for just Justice not only for my own little sisters but for all of our children in this community let their voices be heard I would like to give a special thanks to her teacher and her support for all the rest of the children who had her Miss
156Parker thank you to all the parents that support our kids to all the parents that support our kids not just tonight but throughout the year uh on behalf of the Board of Education I want to say thank you let's give our parents a round of applause um we're going to take a brief recess for about 5 minutes and then we'll reconvene and pick up with our community speakers thank you about 5 minutes e I don't know um and then I'm ready to go okay okay [Music] p hi m [Music] he don't e e s didn't [Music] for know get e should [Music] very e e you e e e e e e [Music] e know Mak C G ladies gentl we're going to resume our our our presentation of speakers ladies and gentlemen is this
157thing working hello I don't think it's working hey Communications hello hello are these mics working hello hello testing testing hello good evening good evening hello well I'll just use my classroom voice voice um we as it turns out we have two additional student speakers um I'm not sure how they got missed but um I want to make sure we get them in uh Sarah Adams and marel Rosario I saw Sarah Adams here hey I know some of y'all probably recognize me um from or from organ from organizing can y' hear is it is it on I think it is y from organizing the protest and stuff and I know I spoke last week and I'm going to try not to be repetitive but I mean all there really is to say is please keep our
158teachers our teachers go hard for us and we're going to do the same for them as I've been saying and I'm going keep saying that um today at East we had a silent protest um and we put tape over our mouths to show that we're in solidarity with the teachers um about 2 days ago uh the sixth graders all the sixth grad graders were informed that three of their teachers had been cut one of which teaches two classes both science and math so that takes a huge toll on them when I was walking around after lunch when they were told everywhere I looked there was somebody crying it was devastating literally so when I found out my sister was crying I went over to go check on her and stuff and I was like we
159need to take this emotion and do something with it so I went into the sixth grade class I checked in with my fourth period teacher I went into the sixth grade class and we started um making posters we had them writing speeches um they have beds they're like younger so it was hard for them to come but a lot of them wrote speeches Unfortunately they couldn't be read but a lot of them wrote speeches and put a motion and I just want y'all to know that that's one of that's some some of the effects you're having there literally on Wednesday everybody was crying I didn't look anywhere and there wasn't a face crying that's how ter that's how devastating this is is like you're cutting our teachers in the middle of the year you're cutting
160our teachers in the middle of the Year listen to that how much sense does that make I like I don't even know what to say thank y'all this song check check okay hi my name is Mario Rosario I go to East High School and I would love to talk about the the the board laying off teachers throughout the rcsd I am very disappointed to hear that there has been no progress in your decisions but honestly I am hurt and other children and students are hurt we have personal bonds with our teachers some bonds kids have never had with anybody before we trust and rely on these teachers and yall say talk to your teacher or a trusted adult but why build that trust and bond just for them to be laid off at East we
161have teaching and learning programs but why have that to find out will get laid off in the future imagine how this will affect students and less fortunate communities so many teachers get in Cut how do you expect children to get the proper education they deserve our future generation won't be able to have the knowledge they need because of your irresponsible decisions a shame the school system is faing us and all we here is stay in school going to school and having a proper education is important to our future and with our teachers what can we do without our teachers I am hanging on to the hope I have left so please don't let me down and don't let us down please don't lay off our teachers thank you my name is Maya Adams and I'm
162a student at East lower school I recently found out that three of my teachers were being cut which affects four of my classes and changes my life completely most of the cut are being made in elementary school and taking these teachers away is taking these children a passion for learning away at a young age once it's gone it will take a long time repair if even possible today is my birthday and I should be out celebrating not spending the day trying to make sure that my teachers don't get taken away this is not only affecting the teachers it is affecting the students by doing this you are snatching children's dream away Dreams Away at such a young age these teachers Believe in Us they prepare us for challenges we will have to in the future
163such as this one please do not take out please do not take our teachers away in the middle of the Year during Christmas time and with a two weeks notice thank you all right we're going to return to our uh list of community speakers uh Brian Warner thank you Mr Warner for waiting I know you were um there right before the break I appreciate your patience and then Howard Eagle good evening my name is Brian Warner I am a graduate from class 2016 from Douglas um unfortunately with the all the layoffs and everything that have to be proposed tonight um there's not really much that I could say except that we have to listen to what our teachers say and one of the teachers who I'm now going to quote uh superintendent Dade right all
164right this one is actually directed right at you uh you say you could reduced the number of layoffs that district teachers are willing to make concessions you've been visiting schools how can you not see that concessions have been made we've made concessions through the years that we funded our art and music and science programs through Grant and donations when the district told us to figure it out we made concessions each time we brought tissues soap and paper towels out of our own paychecks because the district wouldn't we make concessions when we brought in buckets from home to catch the water and plaster as the ceiling literally collapsed around us I was a junior when that happened I spent the rest of that year literally emptying buckets because the district want to take two weeks to
165come in and fix up the ceiling all right we had to take care of that by hand students got so used to the situation that they got into the Habit emptying buckets for us we have quietly done these things for years because quite frankly if we don't who will someone has to take care of our kids and while the rcsd teachers will never be rich we are aware of the privilege compared to to the population we serve when a superintendent who makes four times what the average teacher and eight times what the average pair of professional makes ask those who are on the front line to make concessions without saying what benefits or pay he is willing to concede himself it sounds remarkably Tona when school board members whose Depends for part-time service are higher
166than a full pair professional salary agree with him but don't volunteer to pay pay cuts I'm to see how we got here the teachers and parent professionals did not cause this crisis is if anything we have minimized it we are whether you'd like to admit it or not the glue that has held this District together continuing to ask us to do more with less increasing class size while cutting benefits while the superintendent and board refused to make any concessions of their own is absurd end quote and this is coming from me now I remember actually being senior year going to school every day and holding a job spending $300 plus dollars a month to make sure that my teachers in my school had the supplies they needed because the district wouldn't help I'm done talking
167about this lay off those teachers you're going to cause a crisis that's actually worse on your budget those suspensions that you've got marked up right there those are going to Skyrocket through the roof because the teacher support is not going to be there your graduation rate is going to drop off good night Mr ego will be by a Rachel Longwell Rachel Longwell good evening uh this might surprise some people but I'm a spiritual person and I believe in crisis situations like this God often intervenes I think I just had a spiritual experience downstairs I I had to go down to the first floor for a minute person walked up to me she was in the Overflow room she said Mr Eagle you don't remember me do you somebody I haven't seen since I think 2003
168or 4 whenever I worked at James M School of Excellence the old James Madison School of Excellence and I said I never forget rarely do I forget the face of a student but I can't remember your name you know I've always been bad with names she said Miss Parker Miss Sean Parker I started writing her first name down m i c h e o n because I remember the name she said oh you remember she said I'm one of those teachers that's going to get laid off I can't get upstairs I saw your name on the list will you deliver these letters to the board for me these are from my students me and Miss Jones are teachers at school 39 black women who are going to be laid off so she asked me to
169deliver these to the board and of course that's related to what I came to talk about um first I should say that I'm speaking as a local state federal um taxpayer also as a member of the taken down planning committee Faith Community Alliance movement for anti-racist Ministry and Action Coalition and as a member of the right Chester City School District racial Equity um advocacy leadership team note I didn't say I'm speaking for that latter group I'm just speaking as one of the members of that group and uh I want to say to um the community to White parents and Educators in particular it's good to see you all it's good to see all of you but I'm going to keep asking where have you been and where will you be when this episode episod of
170the crisis is over this is not new you know that we've had been in crisis for decades so hopefully you're going to stick around help deal with some of the problems that's two minutes already um I'm basically going to say the same thing I said Tuesday evening which is you know if some teachers have to go and it looks like some are going to have to go uh the largest percentage will be Black and Hispanic uh teachers the very ones that we claim we value and we know the research backs their importance for our students and so for but we keep sending them back out the door so since you're going to Albany since um I'm assuming District officials Union officials parents grandparents students you all going to albony while you're there why don't you
171raise with those same legislators who you going to beg for money why don't you raise with them it's time to address the racist lifeo laws last in first out while you're in albony now I have actually I'm going to give this to you for you to make a copy of with for each board member got one for the superintendent I got an eight page speech because if Dr oransky and I don't know if Miss wein Gardner is here I know Mr palato is here from the state union if they pull their Antics and they go over to uh what is it 2 minutes 2 minutes I'm going to be back up here talking about some more what's in my you can give it to our clerk thank you Mr Eagle Rachel Rachel Longwell Rachel Longwell
172will be filed by Reverend Matthew nikoloff and he will be filed by conjure Gable good evening my name is Rachel I came here as a concerned rcsd teachers's wife and extended family member to school number 19 though I personally grew up in a suburban school district I am a daughter to a John Marshall alumni as well as a niece and friend to many others through my husband's career at number school number 19 I have been able to visit multiple times in a ton Gatherings that have been held in order to meet the students the parents and the teachers that have become a part of our extended family tonight I come here with questions concerns and heartfelt support for this District though I know my questions won't be answered at this moment and sorry I urge
173you to truly think about them as I know there are other stakeholders in the city thinking the same thing but before I continue I want to formally apologize to superintendent Dade and super Miss assistant superintendent Miss quick though I do have frustrations towards you as well you both took on this mess have to make the hard suggestions and take the heat when you had nothing to do with this cuz this was something that these were decisions prior to you guys coming here to get us to this point it takes some special people to be able to handle all this and I do tip my hat to you again still have frustrations but I'll tip you my hat I know that as of September 18th this deficit was made public but I do Marvel at the
174fact that this deficit was not truly known about prior Dade you said in a previous meeting there was was a known deficit July 1st and if this was knowledge why would any hiring continue until the process was followed shouldn't the district have a team that slows decisions down and looks at the those numbers to ensure we are not impacting our students to me that's giving false hope to those hired and allows the students to build bonds that will eventually hurt our students and staff when broken in my job I do work with budgets which include reports and numbers I'm always being told know my numbers where we are year today over under Etc while I Know A District is completely different from my job I don't understand how you the board of Educators who are
175supposed to hold the responsibility of approving the budget and vote on the budget Etc let it get this out of control are you as a board and District not knowing your numbers your budgets and so on realizing that you are now hurting students families admins Paras teachers and so many other jobs you were voted in with a trust to take care of these these students in this school district in it we have schools in receivership due to test scores and I don't get how any of these midyear cuts are going to help get them out chaos is just beginning these teachers are the stability our kids need the support they require and amazing teachers that provide the education students need to succeed in life Elliot you emailed the media saying we don't know how this
176truly will affect the kids regardless of the response from them and the teachers how can you say that when these kids aren't keeping quiet and are showing you that they will voice their hurt and anger and they are walking out of class for the past 1 and 1/2 weeks to show you you realize this is just the beginning to ignore that is to show them that the adults who are holding so much of their future aren't willing to listen though I could go on I'm not going to but I do have one last thing to say there is a great deal of research around one caring adult you take that one caring adult for many of our children are you as a board ready to take on that role of that one caring adult are
177you ready to take on the responsibilities of these teachers peras and more you are removing from these students lives if not who will help our students through the trauma they experience and educate them so they are able to succeed what is your plan you are in the position of power use it well make the necessary changes to help the kids Futures and make them feel secure vote no Reverend Matthew nikoloff will be followed by conj [Applause] Gable good evening my name is Reverend Matthew Martin nikoloff of the South wedge mission tonight I'm also representing rock act you have a letter that we've sent to you from over 55 local religious leaders representing thousands of people of faith and lack of faith but who are banded together to tell you that we empathize as people in
178religious communities we know what it's like to have to make hard choices around cutting staff and changing times and we also want to emphasize that it's not if you have to make these changes but how and when I also come as the spouse of a teacher a proud spouse of someone who works her butt off every single day to take care of traumatized kids her partner teacher is is being cut over at school 58 this cut does not just affect those 100 plus classrooms it affects hundreds of classrooms because of the Ripple effects the displacements the reassignments it's catastrophic it's dangerous and it's unjust but I also want to use the rest of my time as a preacher to remind you that next week is Christmas and at the center of the Christmas story is
179a young non-white pregnant child who chose to say yes to the impossible who chose to fear not in the face of something that seemed uh impossible when she went to Bethlehem many inkeeper said there's no room we can't possibly account for this there's no space but one said I can get a little dirty I can get messy I have a I have a stable here I can make room for this impossible child the ruler of that area said I don't have room for this impossible child let's kill all the children you have a choice to decide how you're going to respond to this impossible situation will you say yes and fear not will you make space instead of rushing to a decision to see what might come up if you dare to stand up to
180the powers who are asking for you to make a decision that will harm children are you willing in faith and in Courage instead of cowardice and fear to stand up to those who are holding swords over your heads and say we will be the shield that defend the people we represent rather than being the sword that represents the people who will harm our children you have a choice today to stand with Mary whose prayer in her prophetic message was that the mighty shall be cast down and the lowly shall be lifted up that's the hammer you should fear and that is also the opportunity you have to say fear not to stand with the lowly Help cast down the mighty open up space so that new possibilities might emerge by your courage and we will
181stand with you when you do thank you Mr Gable will be fed by Alexi Bullock good evening uh my name is Conger Gable I'm here to advocate for summer learning for the children of Rochester Mr Perez spoke to you on Tuesday about this topic um high quality summer Learning Works we ask the school board to continue this important program for rcsd students and their families I have here and I'll give to you a one-page summ of Summer leap outcome metrics for review summer leap students kindergarten Readiness increased from 50% ready to 70% ready in 6 weeks this past summer elementary and middle school students gained one to two months in reading and math skills nationally and locally students with no summer learning lose 2 to three months of these skills each summer so the differential
182is 3 to 5 months gain in 6 weeks during the summer students return year after year 6 to sevene return rate at Horizons at Harley which has now been operating for 25 years students who have gone through the program graduate from high school on time at a great that's greater than 95% all of these students started in that program behind in reading and math skills the rcsd summer leap partnership now 10 years in place changes the life trajectory of these students we ask you to continue this critically important work it will soon be summer again and students and families will be greatly impacted by the loss of these summer learning opportunities thank you Alexi bulock to be found by Andrew poat my name is Dr Alexi Bullock and I'm a resident physician and pediatrician here
183in Rochester I do not have any children of my own but I care deeply about the kids of this city I've spent the last four years of my life training to take care of kids and adults both in the hospital and in the clinic and when I see children in clinic my goal is to do all I can to make sure they are healthy and help them Thrive long term I am very concerned that the proposed Staffing Cuts will have a significant impact on not only the education of our students but also on their overall health and well-being it is well known in the healthcare field that a person's socioeconomic status is clearly linked to their health and that a lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher mortality education is the most basic component of
184an individual socioeconomic status since it shapes future job opportunities and earning potential these proposals for mid-year teacher cuts will negatively affect the quality of our students education by disrupting their school year and overburdening the remaining teachers my concern is a the attrition is that the students will feel these effects not only this year but potentially well into their adult lives we owe the children of this community the opportunity to succeed to learn and to grow into the leaders we want them to be and we sacrifice this opportunity when we sacrifice their education I understand that this crisis was caused by overspending overspending and over under budgeting and some of these mistakes were inherited by the incurrent the current superintendent and board and I did not come here tonight to point fingers I'm here instead to
185urge you to please find another way to close the Gap we cannot allow the students of this city to bear the cost of the budget deficit I would not be here advocating for the health and futures of the children of the city without the education I received and we owe our children the same opportunity thank you for your time Andrew poat and again I apologize if I'm mispronouncing names hi my name is Andy Pat I'm the president of New York State United teachers I guess that's a good thing I want to say you should be proud of the folks that have spoken tonight the children students incredible the advocacy that they have done superintendent Commissioners you have a heavy burden but laying off teachers and power Professionals in the middle of a school year is
186just a disaster there are 700 school districts in in the state no one else nowhere else in this state is this even being contemplated I believe that our folks are watching around the state folks are watching around the country this would be I believe a National Disgrace I went to school in the Bronx I taught in the Bronx I speak with commission uh Chancellor Rose all the time I know you're from the Bronx Commission LeBron she speaks about you all the time this is a crisis that can be averted Foundation Aid it's very clear that if you had gotten the foundation Aid that you deserve the city of Rochester that you would actually have a surplus right now and not be in this position so if the state of New York would come through with
187the money that they should be giving to each and every city and town in this state we wouldn't be facing this because this crisis this crisis can grow it's growing here and it can go to other cities and other towns throughout this state please I implore you do not make these cuts the children the schools they will be hurt it will take many many years to get over these midyear cuts it is not the way to do it there are better ways please do not make these cuts thank you Chelsea Pike Chelsea Pike will be followed by Veronica white Chelsea Pike will be followed by Veronica Pike Kevin McCabe will be filed by Brandon white Kevin McCabe will be filed by Brandon White I should tell you that there is a written statement submitted by
188R Randy wiin uh my understanding is she got caught and uh New York City her flight couldn't get her here on time but there I think my colleagues have a written statement for her she was number 56 on the list so now we have Veronica white Kevin McCabe and Brandon white sir could you state your name uh yeah I'm uh Kevin mcabe um so I'm not here strictly about the teacher cuts although it seems like the answer there is pretty obvious uh don't cut the teachers um I don't know you can cut wherever you want just don't cut the teachers that's kind of the point of all this um no my concern I'm not a parent or a teacher anything uh my concern is just as a taxpayer how did this budget crisis happen I
189dug into the uh the recent budgets and what I found was that for instance substitute teach the the line on that The Substitute Teacher expense was let's see one year the actual expense was1 million then it was 12.8 then it was 14.8 million then it was 16.5 million and uh so you get an idea how much it's going to cost every year all right and then all of a sudden you guys are saying it's going to cost what was it 7.8 million and 9.4 million if something costs you know 12 13 14 million and then you say it's only going to cost seven so you can get your budget through like that's why we're under investigation by the SEC so okay so like how did that happen do we need additional like do we need
190additional breakdowns or something for going over these because I the budget was 650 pages so I know that's a bear so like do we need to provide different views or something for these budgets to be approved like I'm not trying to be condescending I'm just trying to think how we can help like uh how can we keep this from happening into the future CU that was over the course of four like four years um I think cumulatively it all right so cumulatively it was underreported just that one line item by 15.7 million over four years that's $15 million right there that we should have been budgeting for but we weren't so that we could get these things passed like as a taxpayer that's that's literally the only reason I'm here I have again I have
191no connection to the school district but you guys are I don't know you're doing some shady things with our money so not not you in particular but just somewhere in this organization something's happening with our money that is is upsetting so sorry that's all I have thank you Veronica white Brandon White and then he will be filed by Asa Adams good evening board and superintendent as a few of you know I'm a former Middle School Ela teacher for the Rochester City School District it has been an amazing thing realizing as many of you have how much the policies habits practices and structures in rcsd are anti-progress anti- commmunity and anti- cohesion as people who have Pro progress and pro community beliefs you enter this space hoping to change it and I have seen this environment
192do everything it can to change you all me and expand our imperfections for the service of this dysfunction one dysfunctional pattern this system attempts to make alive through the people in it is the process of making less powerful people pay for the consequence of the actions of those who are more powerful you have been tempted to do this yet again by laying off teachers who had nothing to do with this oversight this situation is a financial Rock and Hard Place which makes it easier to make the wrong decision easier but still wrong and in service not against a legacy of dysfunction Miss Teresa lkin is one of the people you have selected for your layoffs while Douglas as a campus has never been perfect that school would have been burned down to the ground if
193it wasn't for her consistent work with Douglas's young ladies this professional currency this relationship currency is what you will lose and have lost in many schools by black and white insensitively rigid prioritization of finances over service and if you think the finances are costly I'm sure you are aware of the forces that are private Municipal and otherwise that will use this tough situation and a bad decision to further agendas to dilute the power of a democratically LED School Board I'm sure you are aware of the professional disillusionment of the rcsd public school system that will come from this your best and budding will leave the political cost for your current and future voters this won't be forgotten and all these things are super costly to superintendent Dade welcome to the teror Dome brother I'll tell
194you that you may feel that is financially irresponsible to not cut blamef free student service midyear during the holidays but it will be ethically and spiritually IR responsible Mr White please conclude this bro is an early test of whether you're the kind of superintendent we need or the kind of kind a toxic system needs to maintain itself thank you Asa Adams will be filed by Misha [Applause] Washington I should say good night to everybody we got this far into it but hello everyone my name is Asa Adams I've seen this action before in the 50s and the 60s definitely at East High School when they shut it down and to the children that created this thing I'm very proud of you everybody stand up and give these babies a hand you too everyone stand up
195cuz they fighting for all of us and that include [Applause] me now to business at hand ladies and gentlemen of this board there's two people on that board I really feel sorry for and the rest of y'all hell no if I was God right now I guarantee you you know your seat and it won't be pretty cuz too many of y'all been lied and betrayed the community especially with the double standards okay I'm on this side then come back oh I'm here so you the jury what do you find them guilty or innocent so a lot of y'all will not have y'all jobs in the coming few years enjoy this pleasure but superintendent I'm here to help you to try to solve this what do you need from me and the community that go to
196Albany to do and trust me say it loud so we can hear it on the news do not we I don't trust this board anymore I really don't my great granddaughter at 45 lost two teachers van and she's hurt she wanted to be here to raise her hell but I don't want her to learn that and see being a former Black Panther Party member I would let her do it and I'm getting angry about this but I'm doing it in a nice way so Commissioners I love you but God bless you Sister Davis I really felt sorry that you got into this mess superintendent day as I say what can we the community that's right do for you that's right let us know through that news organization and I will be behind you 100,000% as
197I did when I was walking the streets in Atlanta during the Civil Rights Movement and being a Panem member damn they're dying you have my life and my blood Maisha Washington will be fed by Jamie Lis hi my name is Veronica white I love saying that um the reason why I'm here also because of the teachers and the kids and everything um no one has really ever given us a Pacific number of how many millions and zillions of dollars have been spent we know what you did with the money you took it and you did other things with the money which you shouldn't have done I know Tom Gano he gives all kind of money to Strong Memorial okay if Strong Memorial took his money and built a holiday in you best believe somebody would
198be going to jail for over spending misusing those funds that were needed in other places that's where I think we got caught at we thought that we could take a school move a school into another school while we build a whole another school did anybody ever think then that there will be millions and millions of dollars and how dare you come here pointing your finger at anyone up here because no one is perfect that's why we're here because where have all of y'all been all this time when we're here and yes my black sisters and brothers will be get cut before you guys will get cut but I'll leave you with this one thought I have a seven-year-old grandson and he says Grandma he says I'm upset I said you upset about what he says
199because my teacher is losing her job and we've been helping her pack books in the classroom to help her pack her stuff up he's tells me he says well I went in my piggy bank not the one where I got all the money at but my other bank and I gave her some money and I told her she don't have to pay me back because he knows soon that she will not have a job so all I am saying to you and all of you board members please when you're in when you're in control of money you cannot just be writing things down and putting things there and everything yes there should be people at the top that needs to be cut because that's better than cutting out our students and our teachers thank you
200Misha Washington will be followed by Jamie Lis and Brett Crandle good evening I'm Jamie Lis and I'm from school number 19 um I actually have had so many thoughts about what I wanted to say going through but we've had 60 some speakers in front of me and I think everything I wanted to say has been said um I'm tired I need to go home I have a dog that wants to go out I want a pack for my trip to go see my kids for Christmas and I've spent the week putting gifts gift baskets together for families I have spent the week working on a Martin Luther King writing contest that needs to be in the mail tomorrow I have spent the week doing long division yes long division is difficult and I have been
201doing all those things with the best heart and wanting to make a difference in the lives of my children my children not my personal children my children at school and tomorrow I have to go in and prepare to tell them we have not yet told them that we could be losing a team member and a part of our family and it is hurtful to have to do that because I have had this kid this group of kids with the same team from last year and because of the decisions that were made by people in this building they had a teacher taken away from them last year also now it was rightly so but it was mistakes that's two in two years taken from my kids and that is trauma to those kids and it hurts
202so I need you to understand that it's not just a one-time thing it's not just this that we're all here and our greatest resource is sitting in front of you and we have got the attention now and what we need to do is not vote to cut teachers but harness this energy harness it now because this isn't going to be solved right here in this room tonight because when you're telling us that we make these cuts and we still have more things to happen down the road we need to harness it and we need to go to New York and we need to say pay up and pay the money you owe us thank [Applause] you GRE crle will be fed by lyanna Dupri good evening I'm going to do my best to hear my
203voice is a little shot today I'm not feeling too well but I'm going to do my best so I come to you today as a school counselor at from East High School I do grade six and I do grade eight and as Maya and Marielle and um Sarah have said it's been a rough couple weeks at East High because there's been a lot of unanswered questions and and stuff that students don't really know they don't understand yet they want to do something and they want to use their voice to be able to try to make some change for the best and on Tuesday um we made the decision to tell our sixth grade students what teachers they were going to be losing before it was just a big a big guessing game kids started to
204figure it out though they're pretty smart so we had them all they consulted me as the counselor I'm also on the grief resource work because this work that we had to do on Tuesday was a lot like telling someone that people have died and so the students took it in a grief and loss mode we had to tell them that their social studies teacher was gone we had to tell them their science teacher was gone we had to tell them their math teacher was gone we had to tell them that their literacy teacher was gone this is the sample student schedule of sixth grade student at East High a lot of them are in bed right now so they couldn't be here so I said I would be an advocate for them tonight because they
205didn't have the voice a lot of them told me every single there's so many times when there's all these adults that leave my life outside of school in school and then we're going to do this to them in the middle of the school year but when you look at these teachers these aren't just teachers these are people that do extracurricular things like organized a bunch of different religious experts to come in and do a forum yesterday even when she knew she was laid off we have the kba basketball coach someone who has the second cafeteria in his room and then someone who also organized and is a cheerleading coach and The Lion King why do these things always happen to our students in rcsd two solutions we have a new school board coming in in
206January two knew just like Dade inherited this mess do not make these two new school board members inherit this disastrous decision tonight let them Advocate Let them fight that's why I voted for both of you guys because I knew that you would fight and you would go to the state and I can't wait for this to be voted no and you guys to go and get more money from the state and save these jobs please vote no please Leanne Leanne Dupri leand depri to be F by Michelle mccortney and I would remind you could take the mike over there okay I have a choice to do what I want to do I'm all right okay I'm listening and but you don't have any control of my style I am I'm listening so don't try to
207judge my style I'm not judging you don't judge my style are we clear no obviously this is my style you don't understand commissioner Elliot commissioner Elliot thank you miss dpri miss dpri miss dpri has the floor Miss dpri it's ironic to me how long it took me to understand how this board in superintendent Dade could hear these hard felt and heartbreaking stories and still say that we must continue with the cuts in displacement to staff it became clear to me with support outside of the education system this is a business decision in Corporate America layoffs and cuts when profits are not there are anticipated and expected I want to make it clear schools should be run for the outcome not the income our value as an education system is in recognizing in inherent value of
208each student as they are not in the profits they potentially generate our schools are segregated we do not have Equitable funding from the state due to the historic and systematic lack of value for our children in Rochester we don't have the resources we need I currently see this board and our superintendent as privateers downgrading Services provided due to the bottom line most businesses fail we don't have that luxury in the Rochester City School District our students need us now there is no do over in their education experience for them these decisions have not been Democratic you have not bound yourself to the shareholders the families constituents communities you serve educational professionals including teachers you are failing our schools and Community I implore you again to recognize our children come first thank you Michelle mccortney will
209be followed by Diane Welch I know if I should use that box or not all right I'll try it without it all right hi Michelle mccortney from school number eight uh this has been uh some of the worst uh 10 days in my 20-year career uh but out of the ashes there's been a phoenix or two that has risen first of all our students from preschool to high school our students have used their skills called upon their passions faced their fears and spoken from their hearts in days where impulsivity violence and insults permeate politics our students have collaborated with each other to protest peacefully and powerfully they have summoned their teacher voices and guess what what we hear you guys secondly our community our community has come together in an unprecedented manner teachers staff family
210neighboring districts Buffalo Syracuse they're here tonight I go to Wegman's in this shirt and every time there's random people hey we got you we're behind you people are indicating support for us we could not have asked for more community members we thank you the irony is that in the period before an impending disaster one of Mr dade's pillars has been accomplished we've become one family you guys join us why don't you join us we're one family we want you in it we are the Rochester City School District we are the Rochester City School District we stand with our students with our teachers and for our future what a teachable moment we're on the brink of we talked about the power of student voice and parent voice we got it we got it unanimously how can
211you guys think that it's a good idea to ignore that we need you guys this is an opportunity for Redemption mistakes have been made of course they have but join us now be a part of our district either take responsibility for your roles in the crisis or take responsibility for saving the teachers and students you may never get a chance like this again prove to our students and family and community members that they and their voice matter we may never get a chance like this again we need you guys Diane Welsh Diane Welch should be followed by Angie [Applause] Rivera I think I might be out of order so sorry I'm Diane Welch um I'm a teacher at 12 school and I was displaced start we we have um we have security staff they've been
212instructed if people are disruptive they'll do the job so MIT Miss Miss Welch Miss wel CLK reset the clock well yeah absolutely Miss Welch go ahead thank you um again my name's uh Diane Welch I've um been a teacher in the district for about 12 years it was a second career for me I came from an advertising background and I wanted to work with children really my whole life and I chose to work in the Rochester City School District um I student taught here I was hired here and it's been my passion last Monday I found uh last FR or two weeks ago on Friday I found out I was displaced and on Monday school 12 told our students um as a school each teacher who was displaced or laid off told their students um
213I teach fifth grade and it was was really an emotional morning we went through a lot of boxes of tissues a lot of questions my students immediately after we had this circle asked me to write letters to um superintendent Dade and to the Board of Education the letters they wrote were raw they were from their heart no one edited them no one sat and said oh correct this felling it was just an amazing moment in my career um for my first part of my career I got displaced almost every year and I finally thought here I am I'm I'm back home at 12 where I started and then this happened so I'm just asking you to please take into consideration um and vote no and keep us at least until June and then so that
214we can keep our our students um just in the palm of our hand and this is Gavin and I was ready to leave after that break because I have four kids at home and they're texting me saying mom get home and Gavin and his mom walked in and so he wanted to be here for me to show his support and I wanted to be able to speak and he just has something quick to say we cut we cut paper not to teaches Angie Rivera will be followed by Brian bendlin good evening good evening um I I I just want to say before I do my little spill um Mr Dade you reported in your report about the teachers laid off but you did forget to talk about the par profession par professionals laid off so
215again we cannot forget that there's teachers but there also par professional uh support staff in our district it is heartbreaking to see the the Rochester City School District in such chaos it is disappointing to us when the school board and the superintendent are not listening to what the parents students the community and Educators have to say and this is things that we say we've been saying and you hear to tonight you need to C from the top do not come from the classroom at mid year advocate for State funding restructure central office you are forgetting that the students are Hing now and will be heard when they come back back in January they are worried upset and not in the right set of mind for learning how test scores students performance and graduation rate is
216going to be at the end of this year who are you going to be blaming the parents the teachers the par professionals who do not let the students pay for your mistakes the stud students and the parents deserve better please both no for the cut in the classroom thank you thank you Bri benlin be fed by Christine [Applause] Williams she will be proud by Kristen French good evening my name is Brianna benlin as a teacher who may not return to their classroom after tomorrow I thought and I prayed long and hard about what I wanted to say in my two minutes so I could come up here and I could point fingers it's not going to get us anywhere I could bring cards and letters written by my students begging me not to leave but
217some Commissioners have made it very clear that's not going to change their mind so I pose a challenge if you do choose to pass these go to the schools that you so-called represent look the students in the eyes hold a crying student who is begging you to stay who's begging to help the district with their ice cream money if you've seen the pain that my students my fourth grade students have gone through in the last two weeks of not knowing just because I leave for 20 minutes if I'm that's my that's the end I also have a few questions one if this is a if I recall the district started an initiative called Victorious Minds Academy that first standard is to maintain unity and Harmony how is this maintaining unity and Harmony two the district
218also worked extensively with Dr joy degu in her study and her research of post-traumatic slave syndrome and talking about vacant esteem when students feel hopelessness how do we how can we then continue to oppress our students and continue to leave them feeling hopeless three and talking to my friend who works in Corporate America says this happens in business all the time when did our children become a business lastly superintendent Dade when you came into the district you gave us a challenge you wanted to change the narrative my question how is this going to how is this how is laying off teachers changing the narrative creating more trauma for students for families I hope that we can truly change the narrative thank you Williams will be followed by Christen Christine Williams will be followed by Christen
219French I'm Christine Williams from 45 school um rock one is changing the narrative Rock two is laser like focus on learning and teaching Rock three is unsurpassed collaboration we will work together as one Rochester Family Mr Dade when you joined us in July you inspired me I've been in the district for 20 years and I needed that boost your rocks and your vision was filled me with positivity and rejuvenated me as a teacher um you're the superintendent I've been waiting for welcome and thank you um those three rocks that you established you established these when you first started with us when you first came to R and um you said that they were the core of the direction that our district was going to go into um rock one changing the narrative you guys the
220board you have it in your hands right now let's change the narrative we could go from sadness and grief to something really really awesome if you vote these these if you vote no um back to laser like focus on teaching and learning that is the key but you can't do it without the teachers um three my favorite unsurpassed collaboration we will work together is one big Rochester family family family family that's what got me um we need to function like a family we need to go through this hard time leaning on each other like we have being there for each other like we have we are special in the Rochester City School District we love it here we are one big unit of parents and students and administrators and teachers unlike any other District any
221other district and together we can achieve more we are a big rochest family on Friday December 6th I'm sure that not one of our laid-off staff members went home and said to a family member our family is currently going through a fiscal crisis we need to lay you off right no one went home and said that and they don't families don't work that way instead families cut costs they sacrifice they ask for help they sacrifice substance and not people and patiently give it time families don't lay off family members I know none of you guys want these Cuts I know you don't um so please vote no just please vote no give us more time we can do this Kristen French will be F by Adam mcer Ross mcer Ross sorry sorry about that hello
222Mr dayen Commissioners I'm Kristen French tonight the seven of you will make a pivotal decision about the fate of our District in our community you have the opportunity to create your legacy as a servant of public education essential question number one what will your legacy be will you be known throughout the city as a commissioner that like our superintendent you focused on dollar signs and not the needs of our students and attempted to ignore the harmful and criminal behaviors of past rcsd leaders by having our students and staff carry the weight of their mistakes or will you be the commissioner that demonstrates outstanding care for our youth by creating a detailed plan that incorporates fiscal responsibility and student achievement and condemns such extreme disruption and Trauma choose your legacy essential question number two how did
223this board vote on this proposal Commissioners reviewed over proposal put forth by Mr Dade on November 12th recommending the abrupt laying off of and displacement of hundreds of Staff members this presentation took 40 minutes to share and about an hour later the board voted in agreement to this proposal and they all occurred prior to this group reviewing the September October November 2019 Financial reports because that occurred on December 10th meeting this group agreed to this vague Proposal with no attached plan to how this would be rolled out or how the adverse impacts it would have in the rch RCs students and staff in addition this proposal was not brought forth to the financial committee for review and action before being brought to the full board which was against board policy number 6630 superintendent Dade I
224would like to see you have long longevity in this District as our leader if you continue to support this proposal you're not demonstrating atifi unified perspective with the rcsd family and how you support student achievement and if you reject this proposal if you all reject this proposal you're choosing not to Cave into the state and city political pressures and instead of honoring your your commitment to the rcsd student students and family if the Buffalo Bills could pull off in a way if the Buffalo Bills can pull off an away win away win Prime Time win and the corrupt US president can be impeached all in one week then I know rcsd Board of Educators I know you can help our community end up winners too thank you Adam mcer Ross and then he will be
225filed by Anthony White good evening again my name is Adam McIntyre Ross uh I'm a teacher at I'm an art teacher at East lower school I teach Sixth and eighth grade art um last time I spoke here I discussed a little bit about what the ace score is it's adverse childhood experiences and I had to do a little bit of looking up to find the information um 58 kids at our school in the lower School uh score four or higher that means that there's signif ific amount of trauma in their lives and it's probably going to affect them either physically and or mentally right their physical and mental health are going to be affected by these things right so on top of that this is already pre-existing and about a quarter of the kids in
226Monroe County also score four or higher which is really shocking and heartbreaking so keeping that in mind on Tuesday I had to look into the eyes look up into the faces of my entire sixth grade class as we told them they are losing their teachers for Math and Science and literacy these teachers who have been there with them since the beginning of the year who have cared about them and cared about their Futures and I watched all of this trauma that we know about unfold right in front of me all this pain all these kids who I was comforting who I was helping hug and letting them cry on me because of something they couldn't control and something I can't protect them from my kids on top of that I've done other looking up I've
227looked up some of the some of the past board meetings and some of the past comments made by the board and Miss Elliot's grotesque email to me aside from two weeks ago I've seen board members present and past call teachers greedy or lazy or racist or uncaring and I've been cautioned I've been told you know you should tone it down you want to come across as like some angry white guy but you know what I'm angry I'm pissed I'm furious because you guys are hurting my kids and I can't stop it it's not fair it's not right so now at very least what you need to do is do what I did start looking stuff up look up better ways to do this look up ways you can avoid cutting teachers look up into the
228faces of the community and the kids who you are hurting with this decision it's already happening even if you cut nobody the trauma has already happened and it's going to get worse so that's that's what I'm saying to you look up thank you Anthony White Anthony White will be followed by Stephanie Decker and then Candice Ruben Anthony White Stephanie Decker and then Candice rubben all right Miss Decker good evening my name is Stephanie Decker and I a teacher at rise Community School 106 at rise we have a motto and that motto is We rise by lifting others in the past couple of weeks our district has faced very difficult challenges the blame for these challenges has sparked some very strong negative feelings for this I feel a great amount of sadness to those of you
229that are taking the blame I want to say I'm sorry sorry I'm sorry that instead of coming together right now we are divided right now it doesn't matter who is to blame the truth will come out eventually I'm amazed to see I've been amazed to see the faces the staff parents students and supporters looking out and seeing everyone fighting for students is inspiring and also intimidating it is amazing to see what the community has done in Just 2 weeks had we known what to do earlier I believe that we could have accomplished so much more as an ignorant businesswoman even I know that without money a company can't go on this is where I understand your plan I understand that without funds a business can't produce their products and goods there's a big difference however
230with our business we are in the business of producing successful human beings we are responsible for the future of Rochester for this fact alone we can't fail them we need to come together so that our future is secure so I'm asking you the board our superintendent and central office what can we do to help would you please let us help you with this challenge I'm asking you to vote no today and to inform us on what we need to do to help you make a difference isn't that what a community does your community wants to help you with this problem so let us rise to this challenge coming out of today I want my students to understand this one thing and that is that it is not my choice to leave them I'm here tonight
231so that they know that I did everything I could to continue to be with them please help me do this I know I am not the only one that feels that way please let us come together as rcsd family and Rise by lifting others thank you uh Candace Rubin will be filed by Christopher Smith and Elizabeth S servos uh hello again and Candace ruin um and I have a request but I wanted to preface that by an anecdote which works very well with Brianna's story uh although we didn't coordinate um on the effect that this has uh is the mic working okay okay on the effect that some of this has had on our students uh the day after the pink slips I um first thing in the morning for first thing in my day
232I work with a small group in resource so their special education students work with them in math and uh the first girl that I uh picked up from her room uh started crying and she wouldn't stop hugging me and she was upset that she she heard her teacher was going to be fired um the other students that I worked with uh were equally upset uh the one the one the uh one who was crying lives with her grandmother so she's obviously had a lot of trauma in her life she's on the Spectrum um the uh so I tried to explain that the teachers aren't fired uh they'll just get jobs elsewhere and uh explain kind of what being laid off meant and the other student who's another student who's in foster care um and actually
233today just said that what he really wants for Christmas is to be with his parents um told me he said well you know what that sounds the teachers being laid off that sounds like being evicted so this is a kind of trauma that the kids have already been through and we're you know putting on another layer uh so um basically what I wanted to ask for was um we're not the only District going through this and there is a precedent for bailouts Yankers was bailed out in 2015 uh other school districts in our area get funding that sometimes I don't even really need Fairport just uh had funding for the astr turf and I know it was Capital expense I know it's a different kind of funding stream um but an AstroTurf isn't even healthy
234uh so um but I would charge each of you I would implore you to really look where New York is a wealthy State we're in a wealthy country we need to get Foundation Aid we're getting national attention there would should be grant funding that's available as a result of some of the attention that we're getting um we need to we're we're kind of in the Vanguard we need to do something about the uh the funding the foundation Aid formula that is especially killing districts like ours High poverty districts we are number third number three behind Flint in Gary Indiana uh thank you thank you Christopher Smith will be filed by Elizabeth [Applause] servos good evening my name is Christopher Smith I'm honored to say that I work at rise community school and as well also
235in the Rochester City School District I want to remind everyone that we are all affected by this potential reduction and is going to take all of our Collective wisdom to find long-term Solutions not just a small panel one of the schools that would most be affected by these is my current building rise Community School rise was started one year ago a school with a vision of community collaboration rigorous instruction and innovation simultane ously occurring all in unison and boy has that happened in the last year we are destined for success and after year one we were off to a solid start with 48% of our fourth graders making 1.5 years of growth in ela imagine over half of the grade made this progress while we were trying to furnish the building in September this gain
236and academic progress as a result of the Pod structure which gives teachers the opportunity to close gaps while students have the ability to be introduced to grade level appropriate content a reduction in staff would eliminate this structure I'm confident that the members of the school board are aware of what happened to our building just two years ago in 2017 a mass Exodus of teachers that resulted in students returning in the fall to a whole new faculty key words here fall not the winner our students persevered just like City school students always do when presented a chance these students have more resilience than the majority of adults I know but I can't help but wonder what is their Breaking Point all they need is a chance for the systems that are in place including a unified
237curriculum to work combined with consistent Role Models facilitating their learning this sounds reasonable yet we fail to provide it I have a couple things I'd like to urge the board to do just to help us go on great leaders should Inspire us as leaders of the district move us in a way that brings us together not divides us superintendent Dade I commend you for your speech in the beginning of the year it inspired us and our building and I feel that we're going in the right direction let's return to that desire that inspires us to carry the banner as we move our district forward the second tip listen District leaders listen to all stakeholders parents Educators administrators and students within the district to come up with long-term Sustainable Solutions before making decisions which affect us
238all Mr Smith please wrap up yes sir take a restorative approach where we all contribute to a solution rather than a collective few thank you for your time and platform to voice some of my concerns to bring light why I believe you should vote NOK Elizabeth [Music] servos Elizabeth servos will be followed by Michelle hild how about as asalo [Music] aoro no how about Patricia yerim I'm all right that'll work hi I'm Michelle hild um I'm going to give a I don't know if this perspective has already come up but I'm one of the 180 or if that number has changed that's displaced in the district I am the math coach only for one more day um and I was going to come up here and say a lot of numbers and a lot of
239percentages because math is my thing the top five jobs in Rochester are all math related um us who are intervention teachers who are the people who support the teachers we are the ones who are going to be taking over these poor souls classrooms come January 6 and I'm actually here with one of the teachers that I may or may not know if I am in her room or not it's so confusing all of it is just so confusing and like I said I had a whole bunch of numbers but I'm going to quote a song that maybe you've never heard of I uh do yoga and this is by Gregory Allan isaca his song is the stable song now I've been crazy couldn't you tell I threw stones at the stars but the whole Sky
240fell now I'm covered up in straw Belly Up on the table while I drank and sang and I passed in the stable that Tall Grass Grows high and brown well I dragged you straight in the muddy ground and you sent me back to where I roam while I cursed and cried but now I know now I know I have never been a teacher who prayed for a snow day I love my job those people who know me and some of them are here in this room know that that's the teacher that I am I am so disappointed and I've also been in this District almost 20 years so she's here too one of the teachers right there so let's put a face on it she's over there one of the ones that I may be
241taking her room do you know the amount of preparation it takes to take over a classroom and I'm not saying that I can't do it cuz I'm a strong teacher but it's Christmas we didn't think we were going to have to take over these people's jobs and I don't want to because I don't hold a candle to her thank you Kathy [Applause] H Erica Lang gy followed by Corin mondorf and she will be fought by Ashley Williams I don't know if Erica is here no here oh then you're before me doesn't doesn't make any difference whoever wants to go um good evening and thank you to the board and the superintendent for allowing me to speak tonight my name is Erica Lang and I teach at Young mothers and interim Health Academy on heart Street
242let me Begin by stating that what so many of my many of my colleagues and I have been thinking why have so few if any central office employees been laid off superintendent Dade said he wants to make Cuts quote as far away from the classroom as possible unquote he has done the opposite what's going on central office officials sit in their cubicles and do what all day I can tell you what teachers do they directly instruct children listen to them care for them write lesson plans and often have to manage students who are disrespectful F please bring sanity to this District in the form of who does the real work all day to working with children cut the culture and pyramid of topheavy Administrators who make more money than teachers and who I would like
243to know do exactly what on another note I have taught in this district for 27 years and am dumbfounded as to why the district would force out the best administrator I have ever worked with Mr Tony Robinson who's been laid off from Young mothers in interim Health as well as the Home Hospital Hospital Teachers Program these are programs where Mr Robinson has given 110% to the students and teachers his background as a police officer counselor and administrator have made him highly qualified to manage the heart Street building which not only includes ymi but also links to Northstar it's beyond my comprehension as to why the district would not continue to employ the most highly qualified candidate to oversee this building who made this decision and why the staff and students at my program are shocked
244and upset that a principal who is so loved and competent has been removed in such an unth thoughty and Speedy manner manner thank you for your time oops wait minute this just good evening superintendent Dade commiss students parents staff and teachers my name is Karin mundorf and I've been teaching in the city for 14 years my husband Eric has been teaching here for 11 years and he is a proud City School District graduate the teacher in me aches to appeal to your emotional side to try and make you all see what these midor cuts are doing to our students families staff and teachers but I know better I've watched watched every single board meeting for the past two weeks and I know that trying to solicit empathy and compassion from you all is a losing
245battle so I'm going to give you some numbers numbers that I hope will make you see that this District needs our teachers all of our teachers 64 million $64 million is the projected shortfall on the current year that your negligence allowed to happen 30 million $30 million that's the amount this board overspent last year's budget $88,500 8,500 of our students will lose at least one teacher due to these midyear layoffs 55 55% perc of the cuts are coming from teachers while 4% four is coming from inside these four walls four 42 42 schools of our 49 42 of 49 will lose at least one teacher due to these midyear layoffs 24% that's the increase in elll and students with disabilities that we've had in this District between 2012 and 2017 that number doesn't include an
246additional nearly 600 students arriving from Puerto Rico last school year so hear me even though you keep talking about our enrollment going down our neediest stud student population is increasing zero zero students zero parents zero staff and zero teachers cause this fiscal mismanagement The Narrative of this debacle shifted within the last summize your remarks please conclude your remarks it has been said that these midyear Cuts now rest solely on the teachers shoulders and what we are willing to concede no one in this room besides you you all believes that it was said at Monday's board meeting that even with concessions layoffs aren't off the table Commissioners it's time for you to stand up take responsibility for your past inaction and negligence and work with this community to solve this in a way that keeps these
247Cuts as far away from the classroom as possible Ashley Williams will be filed by Shelley Rosenberg and Amy reneer that's Ashley Williams Shelley Rosenberg and Amy reneer again I would uh remind you all there is a two-minute time period thank you Miss Williams good evening good evening greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals Dorothy Height hello my name is Ashley y Williams and I am an in school suspension teaching assistant and Union representative at Nathaniel Rochester Community school the title teaching assistant or par professional does not do justice for the work that my colleagues and I compete on a daily basis as teaching assistants we substitute when our buildings are short mediate students when there's conflict push into
248classrooms to provide extra support and also offer the love and attention that some students may be lacking at home many times we are the bridge or glue that bonds a teacher and students together when students are assigned to my ISS room they enter into a calming restorative environment whatever took place outside of the room has been wiped clean when the student leaves the relationship that has been broken can be restored the cuts that are being made throughout this District are disturbing the bond that we have created with our students this decision is putting our children through trauma some of our students feel the world is against them the situation proves it proves that it is why should they suffer what adequate future will they have if they are not educated appropriately the school to prison
249pipeline is real we are drawing our children closer to it with overpopulated classrooms a lack of certified teachers failed systems increased suspension rates and most significantly our current problem the misuse of funds that could have been generated back into the classroom I understand that there is a bigger picture that we need to focus on but however I want you to all realize that real lives will be affected not numbers I'm asking that you re-evaluate the cuts for the budget do it from the top administrators clerical staff per professionals teachers support staff Civil Service custodians and most of all all students we all are important thank you Shelly Rosenberg will be followed by Amy reri hi uh my name is Shelley Rosenberg and I am a very proud assle teacher in our Sanctuary City of Rochester
250to immigrants and refugees and um I want to start first with a quick little anecdote about a couple of my Refugee students um from Somalia grew up in a Kenyan refugee camp their parents fled Somalia um do not read do not write illiterate and uh life is difficult for them here but they made it and um my girls I I've been with these two girls at two different schools in the district I've seen them flourish um come from from not being in school they are scy students with interrupted formal education came as teenagers and had never written or read anything before and made huge gains first and second grade reading levels which um is a huge accomplishment for somebody learning that starting at 13 and um now at at school I started seeing their attendance
251and um they're in usle class every day but why are they missing half of their other classes and I start chatting with them and they do not feel safe they skip their classes in the basement because it is too unsafe for them to go and I don't mean to knock my school um or my Administration or my schoool security officers I think everyone is working so hard with a really difficult situation um but I am very scared for my students who clearly need ssos and Pa professionals that they are missing their education their parents fled their country they were born in a refugee camp did not go to school and now they're here and they are missing their education cuz they are scared cuz there's there's not enough Personnel to get them to their class
252safely because of fights because of just so much and I'm I'm sorry but I'm going to go a little over we are losing them to a charter school at the end of this break these girls who want to do so well they're leaving and we are one family and we need to all sacrifice and I was someone who in the survey said yes I was a teacher in the RTA am willing to make concessions and sacrifice under the condition that everybody district office administrators you all make that sacrifice and I implore you Board of Education to make the sacrifice of giving up your $30,000 salary of being on the board and taking a stiens like Buffalo or Syracuse does if you take it like Buffalo we could save a$1 16,5 27 think of how many
253peras and school security offic we could keep if you take a larger stien like Syracuse we would still save $142,300 salary given to you all right Mr Rosenberg please sum up your remarks yes so please if you are going to vote Yes on this I fully expect to see your $30,000 donated to those who are being laid off for their full-time position thank you thank you Amy reri will be followed by Laura Clancy Amy reneer will be followed by Laura Clancy hello my name is Amy reneer been wither sorry about that my name is Amy reneer I've been in the district for 30 years in the last two weeks have been the hardest I've ever seen we hello thank you the last two weeks have been the hardest spending time in the school on the
254day the teachers found out that they were laid off I've never seen anything like that then in the last two weeks I think we've spoken to almost every teacher that's been laid off either on the phone by email dropping in at our layoff session coming in at the recruitment sessions from the other Suburbans as they're hiring on the spot hearing their stories and then getting their their emails and copies of emails that they've sent to all of you and mostly not getting any responses today 50 people got recalled that's a start but they're not even probably going back to the classrooms that they left so that's yet another disruption we'd like to get that down to zero I can't repeat anything that anybody's already said the students the parents the community members they they've said
255it all tonight you need to vote no and you need to vote no for our community thank you Nora Clancy will be followed by Kelly LAN hi can you hear me okay um good evening I'm my name is Laura Clancy I'm an English teacher at East High School UMO and two weeks ago I received a letter that I would be losing my job there are no words to really Express the overwhelming sadness and really despair that I have felt these past two weeks and I have experienced loss and sadness in my life I've changed jobs I've lost loved ones and yet this felt so very different this touched me deep in my core and I've spent a lot of time over the past two weeks reflecting in trying to figure out why so prior to
256the school year I spent the past six years teaching English at Brighton High School I loved my job there but something just didn't feel quite right to me um as an example two years ago I was chosen for a program to study and research the impact of flexible 21st Century Furniture in our classroom I along with 10 other teachers at Brighton were chosen to participate in the first year pilot program we were each given $10,000 to spend on soft chairs and rolling tables for a total of $100,000 that first year I share this example not because I believe that Brighton did something wrong but because Brighton High School is exactly 3 miles down the road from East High School and 2.6 miles from Monroe High School and less than 5 miles from most of the
257city schools so while dozens if not hundreds of teachers were losing their jobs they were getting upgrades on new football turf and chairs that rolled I left Brighton because eventually the inequity in our city became more than I could stand and I wanted to teach in the city where I truly thought as cliche as it sounds that I could make a difference and what I found is that I could make a difference but what I really found is that kids are kids deep down they want good teachers they want to be heard they want to be seen and they want to be treated with respect but most of all they want to be treated fairly and our students are are so smart and they know that deep down inside that this is not fair and
258they ask me questions like why us and why our schools and why are teachers and I don't have a good answer because I know that it's it isn't just the way it is because it's not happening everywhere and it's not happening 3 miles down the road so you the school board did not create this problem but you are contributing to it we all know that this is a systemic cycle of poverty and racism and years of inadequate state aid and segreg segregated schools and we are simply experiencing another side effect of that but at some point we have to do the right thing because it's just the right thing to do and we are failing our kids and it breaks my heart I'm almost done they are smart and they are funny and they are
259empathetic and anxious and they are confused and they are motivated and they are inspiring and they have made my life so much better just by knowing them and I am so lucky that I got to be their teacher but they didn't cause this we are the adults and it is our job to protect them and we are failing them and I am asking that we try to do better because we have to do better for our kids thank you will'll be followed by Lindsay Clifford and Ria Hardaway again I I'm I'm saying this with greater frequency with the adults than I did with the students please remember there's a twom minute time limit thank you I'm just waiting for my kid and then we can start my timer all right so I am here as
260a teacher with my two lovely assistants but I'm also here as an RTA member and an acting member of the badass Teachers Association I'm actually not here to talk directly to the board but I'm here to show you all what this community is capable of so I need your help I need everybody in the audience to stand up with me we are almost done and we got to liveen up this room everybody stand up with me and get ready to be in the aisle because if you think these cuts are bad for our schools I want you to take one big step forward to stand up here with me take one big step if you think these cuts are bad come on people if you think the board should vote with their moral and ethical
261obligation and not with their wallets I want you to step up and join me up here if you are ready to keep coming keep protesting keep standing up for my kids with me I want you to take another step forward and come up here with me and I want everybody to get on up here that is able and for my last remaining minute I want us to stand here and I want us to look forward because I want the people who vote in 10 or 15 minutes to look at me as a teacher with my two girls and I want them to look at all the people who have stood here today because this is what power looks like and this is not going away so I am asking you to wait out my time
262ladies and gentlemen and just stand with me and my kids thank you ladies and gentlemen you may sit back down know Lindsay Clifford will be followed by rakia Hardaway and David B all right thank you to Kelly Lan for already having me up here go ahead okay please um my name is Lindsay Clifford I am a special education education teacher at school 58 uh and I speaking on behalf of my students dear board members my name is Renea Joseph Aaliyah Jordan my name is Aman I am an 11th grader a 12th grader a student at World of inquiry school I am writing because I want to express my concerns over the proposed Cuts our class stands to lose our TA we are losing our teacher I am a little scared I am sad I don't
263know how to feel I am uncomfortable I am scared she is leaving us in the middle of the year I don't understand I want it to stop she helps me with my work she makes me laugh I I trust her she is the only she is one of the only people that knows me I don't want to start over she knows my history I have developed a bond she breaks things down she is the first person I go to I come to school to tell her what I did over the weekend she supports me she is a great and wonderful she is my second mom I want to stay connected because she is my family if you cut the people we have developed relationships with then what is the point of school please leave my
264teacher here please do not take my teacher she is leaving us please stop taking our teachers these are the words of five students at World of inquiry school who have been and will continue to be affected by your decisions I do not believe this proposal has been well thought out I do not believe there is no other way to fix what we the teachers did not break I do not believe there was ever a plan to keep this as far away from the classroom as possible I do not believe that we will overcome these challenges and emerge as an even stronger rcsd family because I no longer believe we have a leader here at central office that puts our students and their Education First I do however believe that we have the teachers it takes
265the most loving and supportive community and a very very amazing group of parents who have been in the front line in the fight for their children's education so to all the teachers who should be home with their families because we know we already spend too many hours at work to all the students who should be home enjoying the few hours they get a day to themselves to all the community members who have given up their time and energy because they believe in our school and this district and to the parents who have put in Endless hours taken off work to march with their children and who are here tonight as they put their other responsibilities aside I see you and I appreciate you keep F in the good fight rakia Hardaway will be followed by
266David berin and Patricia [Applause] Greco good evening superintendent Dade and commissioners of the board my name is Ria Hardway and I teach at Edison career and technology high school I stand before you as a proud second generation graduate of the Rochester City School District my mother graduated from Madison High School and I graduated from School of the Arts or soda I also have the privilege of being a second generation practitioner of Education in the Rochester City School District as both of my parents are retired teachers I had to come and speak this evening because I cannot stand silently by and watch as students are being affected by the changes that are to come I have to ask how how when and why how did the budget get so out of control that we are here
267now when will we know the actual deficit amount and where it came from why are our kids being punished for this mismanagement how did we get to a place that 5% cuts across the board was Equitable when did we start confusing equality with Equity why does the salary of 22 administrators equal the salary of teachers how will you explain this loss to our students in prek all the way through high school when will you publicly address our students and hear their stories why are we the school staff left to explain all of the changes that are happening in our buildings how did two departments at central office give themselves a raise using leftover funds from their Department Department budgets when will this be addressed and why are these departments not being reprimanded how did the
268district and the media decide that teachers must make concessions when did teachers spend inconsequentially beyond their budget when will the board and others make concessions how do we still manage to mistreat our students in the city when will we absorb that they warrant all of the money and attention that they deserve and why do we continuously abuse funding meant for the education of our black and brown students finally I leave you with this quote by James Baldwin to think about for these are all of our children we will all profit by or pay for whatever they become thank you David berin will be followed by Patricia Gecko and then Paul conro [Applause] I'm David berin I've been a Rochester City School District teacher for almost 20 years uh I've seen more superintendant come and go
269than I ever thought I would in the career um and superintendent D came and um shared with us his vision I've heard it many times I've repeated heard it repeated from um many sources Rock one changing the narrative celebrating great stories all right Rock two laser like focus on teaching and learning all right that's a challenging and Noble goal Rock 3 unsurpassed collaboration we will work together as one Rochester Family so I heard these this vision and um well I like I like to focus on Rock 3 unsurpassed collaboration we will work together as one Rochester Family and from there I want to look at a uh an article on the Rochester City School District website um dating back to July 1st when super intendent D told administrators I'm I'm reading directly from the article
270here uh superintendent Dade uh told administrators he has just one request on his first day he said in the years ahead let's operate as a real family and don't do it because I asked do it for the 27,000 plus students that we have to the honor and privilege to serve uh each and every day we have to model what it means to be a real family our kids are looking at us if they see us pointing fingers and treating each other with less than respect how do we expect them to act in the classroom in the hallways and beyond all I ask is that we Model A group of people who genuinely love trust care about and look out for each other there is no need to look out for each other until there's a
271crisis Dr Dade when the budget crisis came you had the awesome opportunity to demonstrate exactly what you meant you had the opportunity to model genuine love trust care and looking out for one another in the face of a crisis I'm confused by the decision to lay off 140 members of her family and is this your model on how to genuinely love trust and care about and look for out for one another it's not my intention to point fingers but I know these decisions are difficult but what are you modeling to us with this plan do you want to undermine the language of family that you laid out so well or do you want to re-evaluate who are your family members Mr berin please conclude your remarks we'll got one more sentence um you are modeling
272for us your understanding of family and I want to love trust care about and look out for one another but will I be able to do that after I see what you model to me Patricia to be followed by Paul Conway Patricia Greco to be followed by Paul Conroy and then Lisa Osman Kowski the Montgomery Bus Boycott began on December 5th 1965 the people organized and St invested in a system that didn't treat them fairly our students must divest in a system that's not treating them [Applause] fairly people are put in positions look at the Optics to play py and to be holding the bag when the house is on fire this is not by accident just like Obama was put into the presidency in a times of real crisis and had to put out
273a fire that that he didn't inherit I don't want to be in your position but this is all by Design All By Design the public education system is the last Democratic stronghold we have in this country and it's being systemically dismantled on purpose and we do not win by pointing fingers at each other and fighting each other if we're fighting each other we're not fighting our enemy it's up for us to do some serious soul searching for those of us who got laid off in the pink slips if teaching is really your calling let's hold free schools let's find every public space that doesn't say we're loing there and educate children on our terms our way but it takes us to do that if we really say we're in the business of educating if not
274we're all here because our paychecks have been cut I was displaced from rcsd many years ago pregnant 7 months pregnant this sister does not care about the individual but it will care about all of us if we move and strike at the same time every time so on the sixth when the break is over teachers may not be able to strike but can our students and I'm not just saying strike one day and be in the streets acting crazy but being organized and being mindful of what you're doing and what Legacy you are carrying on we are our ancestors wildest dreams and I'm not [Applause] Patricia all right we're almost we're almost there um my name is Paul conro proud rcsd grad from 52 School Douglas middle school and East High School I've taught at
275East for 19 years I have four kids in the district I've noticed one thing and I this is added to my remarks no one has objected unless the last speaker is objecting to any of the other proposed Cuts maybe we aren't cutting deeply enough in those other pots there is no controversy in the Public's mind we've cut too deeply in the elementary teacher pot and we don't know what the other pot cuts the other pots cut impact is which headline are you going to vote for our CSD school board and superintendent deliver first presents of the Season Christmas came early to rcsd students this year on the day before winter break the school board and superintendent agreed to postpone the vote to cut teachers and support staff in the middle of marking Period 2 much
276to the Delight of more than than 3,000 elementary kids students will not have to come to school on January 6th and meet a new classroom teacher a budget gap of between 30 million and 60 million remains but over the break work will be done to cut other budget items and there's a mobilized group that will solicit funds from the city and New York state the city which hasn't raised its budget contribution in over 30 years it remains 110 million give or take and our budget has more than tripled our CSD or here's the other budget headline you're going to vote for our CSD elementary students bear the brunt of budget crisis that's the headline in a school district in a midyear budget crisis and where too many students failed to meet standards the school board
277voted to cut Chief among other things Elementary School reading teachers teacher cuts from a $930 million budget amount to nearly $6 million in salary and benefits $6 million is 0.6% of the total budget so yes 6 million is a lot of money I don't have that it's not in my wallet but it's 6% of the budget and I have not heard anybody speak against any of the other proposed cuts the cuts are deemed necessary to close a budget Gap that is reported to be between 30 and 60 million please postpone the vote cut deeper in other pots so so that the public at least one other group says you're cutting too much for my budget it's not I cut why are we cutting Elementary School reading teachers even one in this District why are we
278cutting one I I want to work I love Excel talk to my kids at school I'm like Mr conros the Excel guy I love pouring through numbers I love Point through data we've got to cut 6% somewhere else is Lisa o zimit Osman Kowski Osman Kowski thank you what's that good evening good evening is a tricky last name I give you that thank you very much my name is Lisa owski and I'm I am a teacher at rise Community School number 106 now I understand that your hands are tied in various different ways however tonight I kindly ask you to consider what's in our students best interest first as you make your choice tonight please ask yourselves how is my vote going to impact the social emotional state of our students and their families as
279they would be uprooted from their school's family community now I want you to notice I use the term School family for a reason teaching isn't just simply a job teachers don't just walk in each day and teach academics students don't just come to school to do work this job isn't your typical 9 to-5 type deal where ones go home at the end of the day and you leave work at work instead those within these buildings become United as a family rise Community is my family when I signed on for our district I was under the the clear impression that our Focus was centered on the students first and that we would collectively do what was best for them by all means my understanding was that our District's overarching goal was to get the right people
280in the right places and that we would advocate for our children to help them build up close educational gifts and Foster their love for learning I thought we were here to build upon amazing things that these children are already able to do and to make delivery of instruction engaging and cult relevant to help our students continue to grow you may remember seeing me up here earlier as one of my third graders took a stand and she advocated as she stated she felt it was time that students took a stand for their teachers and their educational system we're supposed to be the united front here for them as an educational system who unconditionally does whatever it takes to advocate for these children and tonight you have a choice you get to keep all these School family
281unit together or you get to carry the burden of tonight's potential Fallout you would be the cause of another trauma as we are forced to abandon them not by choice educators are supposed to support their children no matter what issues are taking place and we teach our children to be resilient Learners and we need our educational leaders to be resilient alongside us as well so if our Collective priorities don't lie with the kids in mind first who's Will make the choice that shows our students that they are valued we are not merely Pawns in a game of chess tonight's choice will affect these children who are our future leaders please conclude please choose them rise for them rise up rise up thank you for your [Applause] time I believe that I believe that concludes the
282remarks for uh by our parents our students and the community we're going to take another five minute break and then uh I've moved up this particular resolution on the agenda so that you can see hear our discussion and perhaps uh see our vote so about five minutes thank you for [Music] right [Music] I was today [Applause] [Music] I can't take [Music] she I [Music] my [Music] than [Music] s [Applause] [Music] what spre [Music] okay you're like 19 it's [Music] sir oh right now yeah yeah yeah I'm going to do this now and and uh I think there's going to be a vote and um I think it's huh e MO my name is I'm good all right thank you so very much I know okay I'll give you a copy my parents were all like
283okay okay okay hi I'm a smil face I'm okay thank you I appreciate it I know what's funny is I was here month ago at the last time don't know like listening style I know like when I in service I don't and normally what I like to do what I've said in terms of my style I really to make me Focus I really like closing my eyes so if I would closed my eyes they would have thought something you know I give them all the time don't feel bad because no I was going to say they [Music] I put it right here [Applause] hey hey just no hey hey [Applause] he [Applause] [Music] [Applause] L for glass start the boat [Music] spe for for hi e for just 5:42 now's that oh yeah we'll do
284it like we do any other resolution y just yeah just 542 and we'll come back cuz cuz this is [Applause] 543 ladies and gentlemen we we have some we have to some business we have to attend to Let's uh refocus okay okay the resolution [Music] pass excuse me we're going to we listen to almost three hours worth of of remarks by citizens and I'm sure you all want to now uh see how the board will deliberate over uh this particular resolution that brought you and many others here today so I'd like to be able to move on this part of the agenda um I need a motion to discuss resolution 542 so move been moved by uh vice president Elliott seconded by commissioner LeBron any questions or comments regarding resolution 542 uh why don't we
285just start down there and we'll just keep on going back and forth as much as necessary commissioner Shephard yes I know we've been here all night so I'll be very brief um first I just want to address the parents and the Guardians of students that came out and spoke to us over the last month um whether you read our 500 plus page documents and know all the intricacies of the education system or you don't you know how you feel and you know what you want for your students and so your voice matters just the same and so I appreciate you guys coming out and giving your input and I do want to say to superintendent Dave um I wanted to emphasize this point that I know you put forth a plan that the majority of
286the board told you to to put forth um and that no matter how the votes go tonight I appreciate your leadership through this tough time because we have even tougher times ahead of us just in regards to whatever lobbying efforts we have and whatever we need to do at the end of this school year for next school year so I do appreciate that um and I just want to address this students that I've went to the rallies I I've I've heard your voice um one of the most profound things that I heard from our students where some of our older students were talking about what these Cuts will do to younger students and that is so profound to me coming from young people who are looking at the future and were willing to give up
287things themselves as high school students so that our elementary school students can keep their teachers in the classroom and I just want to say thank you for that part another profound thing that I heard you say it's not just that you want to keep teachers but that you want to keep your favorite teachers you want to keep the teachers that you've built relationships with and during the day I am a social worker so I understand how important relationships are in kids' lives because kids should only have to worry about being kids and adults should take care of adult matters I normally normally vote no on terminations um and it's really simple for me to make my decision tonight because after hearing the voices of our kids and really understanding what it is that you were
288asking for I went back and I did my job and I asked that we talk to the state in regards to things that have nothing to do with money and so if we had to make these Cuts because we have to be fiscally responsible I wanted to make sure that we are making Cuts based on who should be in front of our kids and I know that may make some staff mad I know I get painted as anti-union all of the time but I just want to say I just wholeheartedly do not believe that people are obligated to these positions and I also know that we don't have an endless amount of money and so when I talk about salary caps I'm talking about trying to save as many people so in the long run
289we don't have a little bit of people making a lot of money I support this board and the decisions that they are going to make tonight and I understand that that there's two sides of this coin we're talking about finances and pulling ourselves out of this and we're talking about what students need to get through this school year and school years Beyond and so for me tonight because of what the students said I just want you to know that I heard you and I validate your experiences um I validate your input when we ask the state for leeway in regards to things that had nothing to do with finances they came back and said no and people who know me as a person and know me as a leader they know that I don't believe
290in dead and so for me I am going to vote no tonight and it's simply because of the students and the voices that you have put so I just want to uplift you so I don't know if I don't know if my mic's up is it on okay so a couple of things um for me I have a little bit of a different perspective um last year when I came to first and foremost I'm a parent in this District so yes I've been listening I've been hearing I've gone to schools I've I've go to my liaison schools I've talked to parents I've talked to students I've taken time out of my day during the week to go and have those conversations um but I am a parent and I have had to have difficult conversations
291with an 8-year-old about the cuts that are happening in her school and that will directly impact her and that are directly impacting the teachers that she loves the most so even though some of her favorite teachers are not getting cut the teachers in her school are and they are a very close family at school 15 and it is impactful to the entire school um but when I came on to the board last year and went through my first budget cycle I knew immediately that there were some issues with our spending and our budget and I had to make the decision at that point to essentially whistleblow because I was serving on a board that would not hear my voice in that in that process and I Whistle blw I wrote a letter I went to
292city council um essentially had meetings with them asked them not to pass the budget learned that city council also has to vote for the budget but it's a symbolic vote at best and so I got a lot of flack I was in the middle of running I didn't get all the endorsements that I had received previously um I was kind of labeled however I was going to be labeled and so I've had to make difficult decisions and stand through them but one thing I can say that is that I know these numbers I know our budget and I know that we will not make pay if these Cuts do not go through tonight and I don't know how many teachers that are in this room that are going to work past February and March for
293free and I I wholeheartedly understand that you guys have families but we still have to pay the rest of our employees who are here and and in addition to that we still have our initial understanding of 34.5 million but let me just tell you I spoke with the state auditors last night as I was leaving the district that number is going to be higher that number is not public yet my understanding was that the auditor was going to meet with our president and that he would then report to the full board and make it public what that exact deficit is but I'm here to tell you and I just want this on the record and I have to tell you guys I know it's going to be difficult I have been crying about this all
294day I went live early this morning um trying to be as transparent as possible again we still have a large deficit to fill we will not meet payroll we do not have the cash this is not a structural deficit so please understand that this is not an easy decision for me um again that I have a a child in this District that I will be having a grandchild in this District you guys can boo me I I have I have to tell you guys you guys can boo me I've been booed before I was booed last year for my letter let let me just throw that out there um and I there has not been one board meeting since last year and you guys can go back on the record I fought about the raises
295that people got unethically I talked about how kids have deficits in this school how we were um adding positions that we had no business adding to this budget so there has not been one board meeting where I have not fought some of my colleagues right here on this day is about the finances and the budget and so tonight I will be voting yes I did publish that on my personal Facebook page and made it public so anybody can go back and watch it um but I just want folks to understand and I want this to be on record that our deficit is larger and if we don't make these Cuts now we will not meet payroll my other thing to state is that I will be committed to ensure that additional cuts are not being
296impacted at schools I will commit to cutting in central office I will commit to removing and cutting the sro's budget and I know that everyone in this room won't agree with that um but but um why not someone said why not now if you watch my Facebook live some of the positions in central office require a 90day notice and we need to free up a cash flow now I know people may not understand how that works however we will in January we will need to make additional cuts we are going to continue to face this cash flow issue and being able to make payroll until we are out of this deficit and the state has not committed and it's unfortunate that they have not committed but please do not mistake that I have not been
297advocating directly with the governor's office playing with the governor's office playing with our state legislators and I will say this too David Gant needs to be unelected in this upcoming year he is he has not supported our he has not supported the school district students so I'm going to be voting yes and I'm done you go ahead man that's it no no listen listen that's okay I'll take it I had to take it last year too when I said we were going to go bankrupt and they allowed the superintendent and I will say this Barbara Dean Williams needs to be criminally prosecuted because she's the reason why we are all in this situation so it's a yes for before ladies and gentlemen before we take any additional remarks from any commissioner let me remind you
298for the last three hours we did our duty we did what we were supposed to do we did what you expected us to do which was to listen to you I would imagine you all want to hear from us and I expect we expect we expect our children to reciprocate in listening to people just hear us out after we're finished you you will continue to have the opportunity speak but right now right now the board of education is responding to the proposal I appreciate and expect the courtesy and respect that we gave to you all commissioner Hallmark you have to make sure you turn off your mute button yeah can you hear me yep we can okay good so first of all I want to say thank you to everyone for coming out and speaking
299so eloquently um we are really between a rock and a hard place we need our teachers and our supports and in fact we even need more than what we have currently um in order for us to accomplish the goals that we have for ourselves however we simply don't have the money to pay for it you know I heard wait till the end of the year well every day that we delay adds to our deficit if we aren't financially responsible now you think it's bad now just wait until the delayed problem gets compounded next year a delay will actually impact the viability of the district itself so and I'll just say this too I find it extremely ironic that only a few short months ago when a deficit was was discovered by our Auditors the public
300was calling us irresponsible for an unbalanced budget so it is our responsibility to balance the budget um I've heard people say find more money and make other Cuts well Albany has not stepped up our ta has not offered any solutions or concessions and there are no more Cuts there are no more cuts to be found it is magical thinking to say go out and find some more cuts it it it just is um I also I I've I've heard the message loud and clear that as an elected official it is our duty to balance the budget and we have policy and budget oversight and that means being responsible with our resources that we've been given now throughout my term um I've been to Albany every year to lobby for money for more money because that
301is the source of the problem we have not been given the money we've been due and that is a major issue and I'm really glad to hear that people are stepping up and speaking out and saying how can we help how can we help because we do need your help clearly a few Commissioners going to Albany asked lobbying for money has not moved Albany so we need your help and I hope that what I've heard over these last few business meetings uh will come true in the future because we need the entire Community to be stepping out and asking for that money that is due to us so and I also let's I'll say another thing finally I think it's it's really it's right to support our superintendent who we directed to analyze and propose
302the best solution to this emergency he's done so and I feel it's unconscious to throw him under the bus uh when he's done exactly what we asked him to do so it's with sadness I'm heartbroken about this but also with a sense of Duty to our taxpayers as well to the city of Rochester about the viability of our district that I'm going to be supporting supporting the cuts vice president Elliot yes commissioner Davis I too want to thank everyone that has come out that has come to share and to share with us the grief to share with us the pain that these cuts um are bringing into our Rochester Family this train started years ago unfortunately our Revenue was here and our expenditures was up here decisions were made fiscal decisions were made by the
303board to go and take cash to make up for the difference and at this point over the last three to four years we've taken cash out and there's nothing left there's no cash left we're negative on top of that we thought when we took the cash and we brought our expenditures and our Revenue Vue and the way that we bridged the Gap is we took money out of the bank to make up to have the whole budget what we didn't know was under budgeting was taking place so even when we took the money out of the bank and we thought that we had a balanced budget we never did it was still like this because there was under budgeting that was taking place that again like you all I would like to know how in
304the world all that happened it is my fiduciary respons responsibility to not have our expenses over our Revenue you did lift up some very important things today the way that you have organized the way you have come together in one voice you uplifted some systemic problems last in first out is a systemic problem the fiscal inequity for our districts is a systemic problem I hope that you do not disperse I hope to join you to fight in Albany for the money that we need to have but at the same time we also have to address a seniority system that produces in equity with our new teachers a lot of you spoke about how your new teachers who have brought Innovation um patients Etc that they're the they're the first ones to go I've uplifted the
305disor proportionate impact on teachers of color these are systemic changes that together we can work to fight so that when it comes time in June when we're in the same place because we still have this difference between expenditures and revenue if we work now together to address the systemic problems that are helping to maintain this um problem Maybe by June together we can make a difference we can do something systemically to address this issue while the same time we're calling Albany to provide us with extra funds so I'm going to have to say yes to the cuts um for myself and again I hope that we don't disperse but we do address the systemic issues at the heart of many of these um problems and I I really would like at some point for you
306to ask the district to share with you what seniority means what the seniority process is because I believe I've heard superintendent Dave uplift that he did start away from the classroom but when seniority process comes in persons from get to come into those positions and they can bump people from various um places in the classroom so I really like to see persons come to understand how does the seniority system actually work and then you can see places where you can amend it so that we can help to save our teachers our parents Etc the next time around ladies ladies and gentlemen we listen to 90 94 speak 94 speakers at least hear everyone out hear everyone out I will offer my comments at this particular time first of all first of all I want to
307thank the citizens including parents students and family members for coming out tonight a considerable effort has been made by the administration to come up with a plan that could explain and [Applause] ensure that our students are properly educated this was a difficult challenge for our community I am convinced however I am convinced however that more needs to be done and since people don't want to hear everyone since people don't want to hear everyone's comments I will say simply I believe that we ought to be spending the next week two weeks three weeks trying to figure out a resolution but since people are already shaking their heads no and leaving resources on the table and giving up and walking away right now you won't even hear me say say my vote is no my vote is
308no commissioner po commissioner pow commissioner [Applause] po I need a motion to go into executive session then moved by commissioner LeBron seconded by vice president Elliot all in favor say I I [Music]