001Ready? Let me get my script. pull my script. >> I'd always do. Uh >> getting better at that. >> Seeing a quorum of voting members, I call to order the April 20th, 2026 Cincinnati School Board meeting. Uh Superintendent Murphy, please introduce our wonderful students who will be leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance. >> So today, leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance are students from College Hill Academy where Mr. Brandon Kingman serves as their principal. Please stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Absolutely outstanding. It's the center of the universe. >> We know who board member Bolton's favorite uh school of duty pledges. Um, Treasure Augustine, please call the attendance role.
002Good evening. Miss Arburster >> here. >> Miss Bolton >> present. >> Mr. Crosset >> here. >> Mr. Lindy >> here. >> Miss Matt >> here. >> Vice President Moffett >> here. >> And President Craig >> here. All righty. Vice President Moffet, please explain the virtual hearing of the public process. >> Sure. Will. Members of the public who are online and wish to speak during our hearing of the public this evening may do so by clicking the chat button now. The fe the chat feature will be open for your request for 5 minutes. If you would like a direct response to your questions, please make sure to share your name, your affiliation to the district, your school community, your topic, and your contact information. >> All righty. Uh, I need a motion and a second to
003approve the uh, April 20 business meeting agenda. >> So move. >> Second. >> Miss Arburster. >> Yes. >> Miss Bolton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Crosset. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lindy. >> Yes. >> Miss M. >> Yes. >> Vice President Moffett. >> Yes. >> President Craig. >> Yes. >> All righty. and go to my script here. Make sure I'm on task. Uh, do any board members have any acknowledgements or announcements today? >> Uh, board member. >> Just really quickly, I um finished my tour of 60 school buildings today. So, I wanted to give a big shout out one to Miss Phyllis Davis, our board admin, for helping me coordinate 60 school visits, which was no easy task. Um she's amazing. Uh I did it in three months time and that um I just want to say
004thank you to every single building that accommodated my visit and greeted me so warmly and it was amazing to be able to see all those buildings um in that short period of time and get to know the district in that way. So thank you to all that greeted me. >> Any other board members? I will give a just a general kudos to uh our district. Um this week, this past week was a very trying week and I know that we have some folks in throughout our district who did an excellent job uh making sure that our students are safe and able to continue their educational pursuits and so just want to give a kudos to all those who maintained the great quality of safety so our students can also maintain their excellence in academic pursuits.
005Um Mr. Lindy, >> thank you. Uh, President Craig, I wanted to just thank Principal West and the entire team at Hayes Porter. Uh, had a great visit to their school on Friday. I got to see the wonderful work that they are doing with their tutors both in reading and in math. Uh, I saw just a wonderful culture uh that was both fun and focused uh and some really great teaching. So, I'm grateful for the visit and thank you for the hard work for everybody who was at Hayes Porter. >> And Vice President Buffett. So, I just don't I think we were getting ready to clap, but we didn't clap for the staff and for our district. Um, this past week has been trying, but we want to make sure that we let everyone know that
006we see you, we acknowledge you, and we thank you for all that you do. So, I think we were getting ready to clap. >> All right, Super Murphy, Treasure Gusen, uh, do you have any announcements andor retirements to present to us today? I have a few retirements and two announcements. So, retiring in our civil service department, Miss Tracy Kirsy is a senior support specialist at the Bramble Nature Campus. Miss Donathan Ogle is a family services assistant in our early childhood department. And then we have Mr. Joseph Osai Bar, a senior accounting technician at James N. Gamble Montasauri High School. and James Thomas, a security assistant too at Virtual High School. As for my kudos, um I have one slide, but one slide I don't, but I definitely want to take a moment to acknowledge all
007of the students and the hard work of the staff contributing to the art show this year. So, that happened, the actual show was last Thursday. Um, great crowd, great participation, proud of all of the artists and the staff who made that happen. And then on my slide, uh, Rob, I want to give congratulations to these schools who have earned the momentum award from the state of Ohio. And congratulations goes to Carson College Hill, Sailor Park, Silverton, South Aenddale, Clark, Montasauri, and Western Hills High School. The momentum award is granted to schools who have improved their performance index by three or more points from the 23 24 report card to the 2425 report card and receive a progress rating of four or more stars. So, congratulations to those schools. And then all righty, I will now
008turn it over to uh Vice President Muffet. >> We are now at the item on our agenda for hearing of the public. Rob, do we have any speak? We have no speakers online. Oh wow. Okay. So now we have I have one speaker and this speaker will have two well this speaker normally has two minutes but this is President Sers and so um she does not per her contract have a time limit. But in the event there's no really no reason to read the rest of this because President Sers understands and is coming on down for her section of hearing of the public. But normally you have two minutes and if you do have any items to distribute, you send them to our board secretary and she will get them to us. President Sers, I
009can't believe I'm the only speaker this evening with so much going on. Um, I would like to, um, as you know, with the budget that we are working on to move into the 2627 school year, um, I've been spending a lot of time analyzing the budget. Um, even though there's been limited information based on the April 6 board docs, the budget book, and the April 17th finance committee agenda, the for the 27 school year budget, it's best understood as a constraintdriven allocation exercise. This is not going to be a growth budget. As much as we want to talk about growth, this is going to be a difficult time. But this budget structure significantly limits true board discretion and shifts real decision making to um many of the questions that we have are how is high
010priority defined. We haven't really been given that kind of information. Um I think that um some of the areas that are in high priority didn't seem to us and the other union leaders that they were high priority. How will staffing be distributed across schools and whether it will be central office versus school-based and will we be ready for that type of rebalance. The bottom line is to preserve current operations um there there needs to be um communication and to manage this um there's going to be pressure on staffing distribution and this is going to be a difficult process. um the the policy decisions that were being embedded in um classification, what counts as priority and who determined what that priority is. It appears that there will be a reduced transparency and accountability over major spending
011categories and there is a potential misalignment between board intent and administrative execution. We have many concerns on what is going to be the the real focus of the district besides just the strategic plan. I know that everybody wants the um the miracle strategic plan but it's going to be difficult when we are in um such a deficit and um I've heard people say that um you can do more with less and that's actually not accurate. Um we want to make sure that um with the implication of the staffing that it's um that we are cutting not programs but we are just making um um the district is preparing for differentiated impact across schools to and to staffing and not programs because that is a primary adjustment level. um expected outcomes. We're hoping that there is
012a redistribution rather than uniform cuts across the board with employees. At many times when we were looking through that um budget that was um on the link, it said that there was going to be additional contracting out of services because of cuts to full-time employees, which that is not the way you operate. The first thing we should be doing is making sure that we are keeping in place as many people within our operations and not from the outside. Many of the contracts that I saw in that thing in the um budget did not even have local contracts. They were outsider contracts. Um some are um close to a million dollars with no return on investment. So I think we have to distinguish contractual obligation versus discretionary spending. Um the primary contractual obligation should be driven
013by um state ratios but trying to spend student out to address student outcomes is a bit unreliable. There are decades of research through pay for performance initiatives going back for the last um 20 years that verify that student scores are too unpredictable from year to year that those should not be the indicators of how we are making um all of our decisions. Um we expect increased um scrutiny of consultants and contracted services and district-wide initiatives that don't have a clear return on investment. We also want to make sure that any programs that are coming into this district that they are fully vetted and there will be um a presentation on AI later. We are already finding out that when we the allin um AI um program for attendance that was brought in by the last
014superintendent that company is now bankrupt and all of that student data was sold. We know that there is a lawsuit against um I Ready because information has been sold to other vendors. And so I have real concerns and I've had real concerns and at the time when allin came here I questioned where is the student data going to go and that I was told that there would never be any individual student data put out there. um the movement we we do need to talk about what is coming from the state and make sure that people are not upset with CPS or whatever district their students and families go to. This budget problem was created by the state and there is no other means to there's no one else that we can um point the finger
015at except the state. Um on Wednesday we're going to have a town hall and in that we will you all have been invited to that. There will be way more information about the fair school funding guarantee status and where we are with the um increase of vouchers. Um as a board, I hope you all saw Clayton's oped in yesterday's enquire. We have been following the board's discussion concerning new revenue through a levy or another means. It is the board's responsibility that the district has the financial means in order to operate. That's your number one um responsibility as a fiduciary um on this board. So, I hope that everybody is really thinking twice and they're not going to um be adamantly against. Um we are hoping that um the core um teaching positions will likely be
016protected but we need to continue to support building level flexibility because with 65 different schools we cannot have a cookie cutter approach of how we are moving forward with our district. So I think the first cuts that we make should be to um vendor and consultant contracts and um and not increases of contracts over reduction in force. Um there are state laws not just contractual laws that address that. So what I really where we really have to be careful is we do um uneven school impact. We want redistribution. Um, if we do that without guard rails, we can widen disparities in some schools. So, sometimes people think that, oh, this is an easy cut, but they don't really think about the unintended consequences. We're concerned that um some of this is going some of these
017cuts are going to erode trust with staff, families, and community. And without trust it's difficult to um fully move forward. And so I hope that the board has a plan of how they are going to move forward and um do this in a transparent manner. So contractual obligations are non-negotiable. Compliance and legal requirements need to be followed and all of the unions need to have a seat at the table before any staffing cuts are decided. At this point, none of the unions have really heard um what any of those cuts are. But if we are anticipating and we need to anticipate um some type of new revenue come fall, the public needs clear communication of why it's necessary. Um, I have been talking to people about it and they're saying and this is what I'm
018hearing from the public. Um, we just I just had a big property tax increase to my property and I'm like, "Yeah, I did too. My property taxes have tripled in the last 10 years, but CPS has not received additional revenue through the any of the levies. Leveies do not grow with inflation." And that is what the public does not understand. The public believes that with every time there's a property um tax increase that we're getting the money, which we are not. And so until the public really understands that, they don't have a clear view of that. And I hope on um Wednesday that becomes apparent. And so we do have to think about what are we preserving and communicate that clearly and what is at risk without new revenue. So April 6th and April 17th
019materials indicate that CPS is entering a period where financial constraints are no longer absorbable without visible operation and to the impact. The board's role in this cycle is not simply to approve allocations, but to clarify priorities, enforce transparency, protect classrooms, services, and outcomes, and prevent a long-term structural imbalance. This is a um pivotal budget on how we are going to be moving forward in the future. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. sending it back over to you, President Craig. >> All righty. Um, Superintendent Murphy, please introduce our first presentation for the evening. >> I am excited to ask for uh help with bringing on Belleather and Rice. They are our leaders on this uh strategic plan work that we've been doing. They're joining us today virtually. Rob, are they available? I'm sorry the Melweather
020Akisha >> Enrico Rice. Good evening. Aisha, go ahead and test your mic for us. >> Good evening. >> All right. >> And then if the other individual would raise their hand so I can find them in the group of attendees. >> I do not know that um individuals from Redcon are joining us um this evening. Okay, >> fantastic. >> Go ahead, my friend. >> Okay, thank you so much. Um, good evening, uh, President Craig, members of the board, Superintendent Murphy, um, and members of the viewing audience. Uh, my name is Aisha Craraven Howell. I am the project lead um, for the team that is supporting and facilitating the strategic planning process in the district. Um and I am excited to uh come before you this evening and share progress um since we were last together
021um in March. Um on the next slide you'll see just a reminder of our timeline. I think it's always helpful just to anchor in where we are in the process. Um you can see we are squarely in phase one where we are focusing on assessing the current state of the district. um understanding its strengths, its opportunities um and to the extent that they exist um the risks um and also understanding um the broader context in which you are operating including both locally in Cincinnati and more broadly um in the state. Um the next time I come to you will be miday uh where we uh anticipate having completed um the phase one assessment and we'll be able to share kind of a more complete assessment of the district's strengths and opportunities and risks as well
022as to be able to talk with you about some of the implications of those findings. Um this evening I am sharing with you just emerging insights uh for some of our early conversations. On the next slide, you will begin to see um who we have engaged so far. Um our partners here uh Rice Education Consulting or Redcon um have been engaging the community through a number of listening sessions. You can see that to date those have included uh principles, school resource coordinators, uh a number of program um specific facilitators as well as students from a handful of schools. um and importantly leaders from uh parent organizations and district-wide local school decision-making committees. Um we have continued work um to do in our communitywide stakeholder engagement um with more upcoming listening sessions um as well as
023a survey that was uh launched last week that was targeted for local school decision-making committee members, community partners, CPS staff. Um and so we look forward to um getting the results uh from those surveys as part of our phase one assessment. We have also had the opportunity to engage in one-on-one interviews um with a number of stakeholders including the board. Um and so many thanks to each of you for uh making time for those conversations. Um, our partners, Redcon, have also engaged in one-on-one uh conversations uh with a number of elected leaders as well as leaders from partner organizations. In addition to these interviews and listening sessions, we have also kicked off with um the strategic planning steering committee. Um, so that steering committee is comprised of Superintendent Murphy, um, and the most senior leaders
024in the district, uh, across this group. Um, they represent all of the district's work, um, and really collectively have a lens, um, on everything that CPS, um, is engaged in today. Um, we had our kickoff with them a couple of weeks ago, engaged them in small groupoup interviews. um they have shared a lot of data and documents with us that are specific to the bodies of work that each of them lead um and we look forward to continued engagement with them including follow-up one-on-one interviews. We are also in the process of kicking off a community uh stakeholder advisory committee. Um this committee will uh be comprised of um cross- sector leaders um across Cincinnati with broad citywide perspectives um that will help inform the strategic plan but also pressure test some of our findings uh
025and priorities. Um we are reaching out uh to potential members of that committee this week uh and look forward to engaging them in one-on-one interviews um as well as two working sessions in June and July. Um what you're looking at now is Belleather's school quality framework. Uh and this framework really anchors uh both our phase one assessment and the subsequent recommendations uh for the work that um the district will prioritize. You will see that it's organized across nine different dimensions. Um and so as we are listening to stakeholders as we assess are assessing data and documents we are looking for how the district is performing across vision and program. Uh and so that includes uh organizational purpose inclusive of things like mission and vision uh and the student success profile but also the academic program
026and student culture. Moving to the right of this framework, we also look at a number of domains um that we consider program enablers. So what are the things that need to be in place to support the district's core business of teaching and learning? Um and that includes the district's approach to recruiting, retaining and developing talent. Uh recruiting, retaining and developing leaders and then also how you are engaging external stakeholders including families and partners. Then finally to the far right, the last three domains are kind of in this bucket of school infrastructure uh and district infrastructure. So looking at things like governance at the school level as well as districtwide. Um also very importantly looking at operations and finance and budgeting. Um so this framework is really what is anchoring our assessments across each of those
027domains and then the components beneath them um really is representative of the areas in which we are probing. Um over the next few minutes I'm going to share with you just at a very high level some emerging insights aligned to those three groups vision and program program enablers and school infrastructure. um related to vision and program. On the next slide, um some of what we have heard in our early uh conversations is real appreciation for the variety and range of programming and learning environments um that are offered in the district. Uh almost universally um as we've spoken with folks um they have highlighted this um as a real asset uh and core strength of the district. Um even with that, we have heard from folks an opportunity to provide greater clarity around how each of
028these programs um and different learning environments ultimately are linked with the district's overall approach um to instruction uh and to teaching and learning. Um we've also heard um lots of energy around strengthening pathways um as we think about our students who are graduating um and what they are going on to in the world of uh post-secary education um but also career pathways uh particularly as we know the post-secary and workforce landscapes um are shifting and uh there are myriad uh different approaches and pathways that students can take and so we've heard lots of energy around strengthening the ways um districts is bu are building awareness as well as um the skills and the capacity for students to opt into and be successful in uh post-secondary pathways. Um, finally here we have heard a lot about
029um the district's efforts to uh strengthen and make more consistent um the learning experiences of students in classrooms and in schools. We've also heard um an acknowledgment that there is more work uh to do and so this is certainly an area that we will continue to probe um to better understand what work has been done uh and what work continues to need to be done uh the same or differently going forward as we look now at program enablers. Um we have heard lots of positive things about adults in the system both at central office and importantly at the school level. Um and the shared commitment to improving student outcomes. Where we have heard an opportunity for improvement is a shared understanding of how the district will improve student outcomes. Uh what are the shared approaches?
030What are the shared priorities? um and how can all adults in the system move in a in a coordinated and aligned way. Um that is the type of um guidance and alignment that a strategic plan is intended to provide. Um and so we see this feedback as an opportunity uh and one that you have um you know very thoughtfully invested in a comprehensive process to address. Um, we also heard a lot about the community partnerships that you have, uh, this the just the breadth of those, but also opportunities to, um, further engage and in more strategic ways a number of those partners. Um, one of the benefits of a strategic plan and its associated priorities is that there is clarity around the work um, that the district will do. there are there's clarity around the
031outcomes that you seek to achieve and it creates an opportunity to align uh partnerships um to the places that need support around achieving uh those goals in alignment with those priorities. Um as we look to um the last set of domains around school infrastructure um very consistently uh the financial pressures and shifts came up as a risk um as something that the community more broadly wants to understand um the the depth and impact of but also how decisions are made uh to mitigate financial risks. Um several stakeholders noted opportunities to further align resources with district priorities uh and student needs um and want to make sure that there's lots of transparency in understanding um how decisions and tradeoffs are being made um and to make sure that financial decisions do prioritize um allocating resources where
032students need it to the most. Um we also heard an acknowledgment that you know though the district's um wide range of programs and learning environments is a strength. There was also acknowledgment that it adds to the complexity um of the things that the districts needs to support um and that that can create a risk um as is related to finances particularly in a time um when resources are declining and not growing. Um these are just um you know kind of some of the themes that are that are surfacing early. We will continue to probe on these but also look to see um if there are um additional themes or if we begin to hear things um that offer kind of um the counterpoint to some of the things that we have heard so far. Um
033we have more uh stakeholder engagement to do uh including uh conducting school site visits. We will uh be in the district um in a couple of weeks on May 6th and 7th. Uh and we are excited to uh visit a number of schools uh to be able to observe instruction and have conversations with students uh and teachers and school leaders. Um our communitywide stakeholder engagement um will continue including listening sessions and the analysis of the survey uh that I referenced earlier. Um and we are also kicking off our financial modeling uh work stream uh with Mr. Gustin. Um we have some time set aside with him this week. Um and we will also uh speak with members of the audit committee during their meeting next week. Um between now and when um I am next
034with you on May 18th, we will begin to um based on the input from stakeholders as well as our assessment of the district's data and documents um begin to do some early shaping around a go forward vision uh and set of impact goals um as well as a set of priorities um to address the findings of the phase one assessment. um at at the May touch point with the board um that set of priorities will be relatively broad and we will spend um our phase 2 time really narrowing um to the three to five highest leverage uh priorities uh that the district will pursue um over the next several years. Um I welcome any questions um that you have about what I have shared this evening. >> All righty. Thank you uh Aisha for your
035uh sharing of that information and so I'll open it up to board members for any questions or comments. This might be a first here. Uh board member Lindy. Uh thanks President Craig and thank you so much for the presentation. Um, would it be possible to go back to the timeline slide that just shows the overall arc of the engagement? >> Sure. >> Thank you so much. This slide is really, really, really helpful. Um, for the superintendent and for the treasurer is the um, we've talked about this before. I just wanted to make sure I was aligning everything in my head the right way. the date when our board has to vote on a levy on the ballot for the fall. What is that date? Is it June? Close. I think the second vote, so you
036have to do two votes. The second vote which authorizes to be put on the ballot would be has to be before August 5th. I believe we have a meeting on the 3. So really that first week in August, >> that is so much better than I thought it was. I'm so glad I asked. I thought it was in June. Is it not June? >> You have to do your first You have to do your first vote to get the um county auditor to certify the millillage and those sort of things. So that has to be done a couple weeks ahead of time. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's great. I think um I'm glad we're doing this. Uh I think it's really important. Uh I've said versions of this before, but I just wanted to say it
037again because I also think it's important. Um multiple things are true about our district right now. Uh the financial pressures are real. Costs have increased. Revenue has gone down uh as a function of state policy. uh that's impossible for any organization to sustain over the long run. Uh we have real facility needs in this district. There are there are reasons why our district needs new money. Um there are other things that are also true. Our third grade reading results last year went down. Our mid-year formative results on algebra 1 did not look good. I think the gap based on income in sixth grade reading looks like it's getting worse rather than getting better. our enrollment is down. It's not as down as some other districts, but it is going down. And so there these two
038things are true. I think there are real reasons why it makes sense for us to ask for levy. And there are real reasons why if I were a taxpayer, I would ask real questions about wanting to give CPS more money. And I think the key to navigating that is a good strategy and a good plan. Uh and so I just think it is critical that we uh and I'm so sorry. All my comments are directed towards the administration and my colleagues, not you all. I'm not sure if you can see that on the screen or not. Uh I really appreciate the work you're doing. Um but I think it's it's just critical that we that we uh if we're asking voters for more money, it has to be for a really clear reason and we
039have to have an argument for why that will lead to results that are different. Uh and I'll just say that is critical to my vote in supporting any new money levy. Uh, I think this path on this slide shows us a way to get there. Uh, and I hope we can get there, but we just have to have an argument for how the increased revenue is going to lead to results for children that are different. Uh, I think we can do that. Um, this is going to be a really important couple of months and I appreciate Bellweather. I appreciate Rice. I appreciate the work that we're doing. Um, and stay tuned. Thank you. other board members. Um I'll just add a couple thoughts here. Uh one, I appreciate uh Kisha coming to the meeting today
040um to prevent to provide this uh update. One of the things I think is is really helpful and maybe we can do a little bit more clarity around this is I know that there was at least an initial plan or idea of having some type of like QR code for a survey or some way for parents who may not be able to attend activities and so if there's a way to if we haven't already share that uh more vividly within either our social media or uh more publicly at events and activities. I know that Rice has been at several um activities, so I would love to see just a little bit more uh of that presence and how we communicate out um connected to it. Uh and so I don't know if that's been created
041or if it's been shared or >> uh a couple of Saturdays ago, Rice was out at the event at the Evston Recreation Center. I think Dr. Moffett was there, some others, and they were using a QR code to get feedback from families and community members. But I can ask to share that a little more broadly. >> Yeah, I would I mean I would ask for them to share it within our with our marketing communications folks so that we can at least assist in the efforts that they're doing to reach out and touch some of our communities and some of our parents and families. Um, the other thing that I would say, and this is where I think it's going to be kind of a uh, and maybe this is a question more for Aisha than
042it is really for us, but as you're developing your thoughts around the um, strategic plan that you're working with us to develop, there are some things that are undecided at this point or some things that are unclear that we would be able to provide at some point before the completion of the strategic plan. But I guess I'm wondering how might some of those variables affect how much information you're able to kind of build into a strategic plan or or or what your expectations are around that. Uh because I get to see a place where we might have two different lanes of where we would be heading down from a strategic plan uh thought process. Um, one being one where we may have a different more uh authoritative or a different more aggressive plan for this
043year financially and and with our budget and others where we might have some things that we may have to make changes on going forward through a strategic plan that would be a longer term uh process. And so I just was curious as to how you envision um those things factoring into what the work you all are doing. >> Yeah, it's a great question. Um certainly we want to leave you with the most comprehensive strategic plan possible but we also want it to be one um where there is flexibility for you. I think anytime in a multi-year strategic plan we want to set the outcomes that you want to um achieve and frame the strategy and the priorities that you will use to achieve them. and annual planning against that strategic plan is really important um
044so that you can make decisions and tradeoffs um as your context changes. Part of what we will do um in the financial modeling uh that we will do with Mr. Augustine um is to create scenarios around a steadystate budget, an increase budget, a declining budget um so that you can have a view of um what the pace and scale of implementation would look like and how it would need to change um based on uh different financial scenarios. >> Awesome. Awesome. And then one other question from me and then I'll certainly open back up to other board members. Um, part of that strategy as far as uh a strategic plan would also need to include how we connect up with our outside um partners and how we utilize uh our foundation to allow for and invest
045in different methods to get our community more engaged in the district. Um, and so there's a myriad of ways that that would have to be strategically aligned for various reasons. But is that something that's part of what would be implemented through or part of what would be brought to us as the strategic plan goes forward? >> We would certainly have recommendations on that. I think um one of um the things that is really an asset in terms of the strategic planning process um is having that community advisory committee um which is representative of um community organizations of funders of um business leaders in the community. Uh and so they will from their lens and their perspective of the seats that they sit in um will help to inform the strategic plan. Um and so you
046know that you will um ultimately have a plan that is reflective of the voice um of the very stakeholders that you want to engage in partnership um to help you to execute the plan and bring the goals and outcomes to fruition. >> Uh Cardboard Member Bolton, >> thank you very much. I appreciate it. Uh just a couple of questions. Thanks for your uh presentation. I think it's great. Uh I'm understanding things a lot better uh because of it. Um could you help me understand a little bit more about your role regarding finances? Is your role to look at our current finances or is the role based upon uh the superintendent's uh uh evaluation and and other things to um help us plot out how much the strategic plan will cost us. >> Our role is
047primarily a forward-looking one as it relates to finances. And so we do want to help model um the cost of the strategic plan um and how that might fluctuate given different uh decisions about pace of and scale of implementation. Um understanding that um you know fi go forward financials um are unknown at this time. Um but the process also uh lends itself to um looking at the current budget and some of the priorities um that you might be considering. So to the extent that any of the feedback um that we are collecting the assessment that we are doing uh supports and informs your current budget uh deliberations um we are happy to support Superintendent Murphy uh and Mr. Gustin in that work. So, do you think it's uh possible or necessary or would be valuable
048for you all to have any kind of a role in the uh um fiscal year 27 budget? I I know that the chair is interested in expediting as best as he can uh the budget, but do you see yourself having a role in the uh uh FY27 budget? >> I think you all are fairly far along in that process compared to where we are in um the strategic planning process. Um, I am happy to have a further conversation with Superintendent Murphy and others um if there are particular places um that you think we can add value. Um I am open to and happy to have the conversations about what that could look like. >> That's that's great. That's very helpful to me. I appreciate it. Uh and and really we're really talking about the first
049year of the strategic plan is going to be fiscal year 27. uh and then the next couple of years of course after that I can see where uh the strategic plan begins to be um a huge part of the budget but it's hard to imagine how much it can be a part of our 27 budget and of course all of that impacts as member Lindy uh has suggested all of that's going to impact on whether or not there's even additional revenue available for the strategic plan or even for FY28 or 29. 9 or or 30 as we also get ready to pay off so to speak in 3031 the facilities master plan. So this is helpful. I I I was I started to be concerned that somehow we would um and don't take this incorrectly
050that we might be uh a little hesitant with some of the budget plans if indeed it's it's seen as part of the whole strategic plan. But this is helping this is helping me figure out how we're going to uh try to make that the date of getting the the budget passed at an unusually early time for us. So, thank you very much. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Yes. Uh, Vice President Buffett. >> Well, thank you for this presentation. I I think um it has been most helpful to learn that you have engaged a variety of people. uh keep going with that because I'm I'm all for you engaging some additional city council members. I see the mayor on there and that's that's been great as far as I'm concerned. We need all perspectives. Additionally, I want
051to share that I received the link via email and I have sent that out to approximately 50 people who did not were not able to find it on our website or were not invited to give that their feedback for that link. So, I'm going to invite my colleagues to do the same. uh if we could get the link sent to us, Superintendent Murphy, via email, we could maybe go through our contact lists and then uh invite people to share their perspectives so that the net is thrown exceptionally wide and we'll include voices that you may or may not be able to capture simply through um depending upon uh viewing a website. I do have um I guess a question and concern. I I was in just in listening to my colleagues, I do value this
052information and I want it to influence some of the decisions that we have to make moving forward. I don't want it to just be an exercise in uh a check mark item to say that we did this and then we can move on. But I think to board member Bolton's point around the timing and it influencing future budgets. I do look at some of the comments from community members in that um there's strong community partnerships that they've noted um on p on slide six. There's an interest in strengthening pathways that prepare students for a range of post-secary options. um that that's pretty significant to me as well. Uh opportunities to ensure more consistent highquality student experiences is again on slide six and very significant from your data that you've collected so far. This is what
053the the the respondents have shared that they're wanting with regard to an interest. Has there been any feedback around their determination of expansion quality? Um has have they shared anything more in depthly around uh current programming interests and things of that nature? >> Um yes, I'm sure I'm sure they have and I it's um you know quite wide ranging um just kind of based on uh you know the school that may that they may have um experience with. Part of our process is um you know as we are hearing um input from stakeholders um you know we see that as important input and one of a number of inputs. So we will also be validating um you know kind of these perceptions with qu with quantitative data. Um so looking at um indicators of success
054for students in existing career and technical education. uh programs for example uh to the extent that it's available kind of understanding um where students are going and how they are fairing when they um when they graduate from CPS schools. Um and so we very much value stakeholder input and we want to make sure we're um we're pairing it um with the quantitative data to balance the perspectives as well. >> Okay. Thank you. And I'm I'm pro I'm sure that this it's hard to give that type of data in a presentation, but I do appreciate the work that you are doing. I I do align a little with my colleague um board member Lindy in that I think we definitely have a fiscal responsibility, but the community is very interested in diverse programming, innovative programming, and
055some things that maybe we haven't seen yet to match the needs of our students. So, I'm looking forward to your information. definitely pleased that you're engaging a wide variety of people and um thank you so much. >> Thank you >> board member Matt. >> Yes, thank you for the presentation. Just really quick question. Um so as we're looking at the timeline that you presented, which I think is really great. Um and you've identified um and the strategy development really leaning into those three to five key strategic priorities. Um I'm curious to know in doing this work how do we or what is the plan to ensure that there's still systemic work that is occurring because we recognize that while these are you know three or five um priorities that we value how do we ensure
056that these are all working together right so that there's the financial lens there is the programmatic lens the academic lens so I'm really concerned about making sure that it's uh systems work that's happening versus these are just isolated things that uh we are prioritizing. So how do you uh envision uh this all coming together to work as a systems approach? >> Yes. Um I really appreciate that question. Um it's something that uh we certainly really value. Um and it really comes out in the planning for implementation. Um and so um you know as we are narrowing to those three to five priorities um once we are clear on what they are we want to begin recruiting um a broader set of leaders both central office and school-based um who will really be the folks who
057drive that work uh to inform the implementation planning. And in that planning we will be really looking at um those points of um interconnectedness where there needs to be alignment um who the stakeholders are that need to be communicated with who needs to provide input who will make decisions align with the initiatives um that sit beneath each of the priorities. Um we will also in um the plan for implementation support um a performance management plan. Um so how will you um measure report out on um and assess kind of the extent to which the district is implementing uh the plan that it created. Um and so some of those interim measures will be around execution not just around outcomes. Thank you for that. That is really helpful information. >> All right. Um I think that
058is all the questions we have for you. Kept it light for you today. Um appreciate you and all the hard work. I will add one other thing is that we are as we talked at our last uh business meeting, we are approaching our bsentennial and so I would imagine anything that is also part of the strategic plan will also be stuff that we will be driving um some of the efforts around our bsentennial. So I think it will be great once we have something put together to be able to start the process of rolling out to our 200 years and then our next 200 years. So uh thank you for uh presenting today. >> Thank you. It was my pleasure. Thank you all. >> Um, superintendent, before we go to the next presentation, I understand
059it was someone who wanted to uh come and speak who had not turned in their form and so um we can have them come down for just a really quick twominut hearing of the public. Um, first come down. Yep. Okay. And then all we ask that you just come and introduce yourself and then uh right up here at the podium and we'll let you get a moment there at the microphone center. Yeah. >> How y'all doing? My name is Carlos Davis. Um I have three children, Cincinnati public schools. My main um concern is to and from the bus stops, the transportation, especially in um the Western Hills area. It's a lot of bus stops that um that's hidden and sometimes it be dark and going to and from the bus stops. I just wanted to
060say like um is there any way we can get like a a guard or a a parent, a teacher that's um done with class like a gym teacher or something arts and crafts or something like that just to address the uh to and from the bus stop areas. >> All right. Thank you for that. And I'm sure the superintendent and her team will uh connect with you there. All righty. Um so superintendent uh our next presentation for the evening. >> Absolutely. So we are going to next present to you our update on information technology uh including a piece around what we are doing with artificial intelligence. Uh so we have our CIO Mr. Jeremy Galaghue and joined by Miss Deb Frriky who just presented in uh Columbus a few weeks ago to Ohio 8. >>
061All right. I appreciate the opportunity tonight to be able to bring some technology updates to the board. Have a few exciting things um and some important things whether they're good or bad. Sometimes they're important either way, right? All right. So, I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity real quick just to introduce the ITMAT department. It's a little confusing because we are a very broad department and when we usually think of IT, we think of just the technology. Um but we really are three departments, right? We are partly the ITM department, the accountability or the EMIS department and then our testing and testing and assessment department. But across the way uh across the three departments, we actually have five functional teams that really cover the amount of work that we are putting in
062across the applications infrastructure, the device management team, our technology support vertical, the performance accountability and testing, our learning technologies team, and then a number of one-off type stuff. So, I really throw this up kind of as a leadin to some of the things we're going to talk about a little bit later towards the end of the presentation, but this is a great static picture of of like who does what, right? Because that question comes up all the time. So, we'll talk a little bit more about that later. Uh, also want to take the opportunity to recap our device model that we're currently using. I think it's always important to remember what it looks like today, where we're going. So, a couple I won't go through and read the whole thing, but the two biggest call
063outs I would make are the pre preschool uh and kindergarten classrooms. Those are not like cardboard boxes. They're actual storage charging boxes, right? Similar to carts, just not as mobile. Uh the other call out is from the 7th through 12th grade. The 9th through 12th grade are strictly onetoone devices assigned directly to students that go to take-home. the seventh and eighth. With the introduction of our middle school model, we over this course of this current year, we've allowed to have some options in terms of whether they want to do the one to one take-home or one to one in carts. I will say over the course of the year, we only have one now that is still on the full take-home model and wants to stay there long term. The others have switched to a
064cart-based model as it works better for their school. The second part is just a quick recap on our lease our lease schedules. Um, I can't believe it's been 10 years since we started leasing devices. It's blows my mind. So, we've went up and down kind of how we've done those cycles, but currently our target is a four-year life cycle for any device that we lease. One of the important callouts of that is the lease includes our break fix warranties um and protection for accidental damages, let's say. Um, if you recall during the FY or the fiscal year 24 and fiscal year 25, we extended our four-year devices those two years to become five-year devices. So, we extended their life by one by their life cycle by one year, which saved us roughly $3 million across
065our entire lease portfolio. in last year, fiscal year 26. Well, last year we made the decision for this year, right, that we elected to take a one-time lease payment deferment. So, we were able to defer lease costs of around $10.6 million that will be returning to this year's budget or next year's budget. And then finally, it's important to note that any model changes, this may be the most important thing. Any model changes we make to reduce the current number of devices we have takes 2 years to actualize savings from. So if we were decide today we were going to take our 9 to2 schools and convert them to a cartbased model with maybe some different options for take-home feedback from schools. just saying uh that it would take us really two years to be able
066to downsize the pool of devices and the payments that we are entire we're obligated to make to actually see a reduction in those costs. It's always important to keep in mind. So now on to something very recent that we just finished was and I think it's very important so I'll slow down just a little bit. Is that okay? Is our second annual focus satisfaction survey. Uh we got some great news from this and some things that we need to work on. Right. The primary thing that we look for in the survey are two questions. One is rating the importance of focus by families in terms of the importance to the education of their student. For staff it's rating the importance to the function of your job. So if you look at the table provided looking
067at the family the first two columns you can see that it stayed fairly stable that we're about at an 18 82% split. So that's favor 18% for slightly rating it as slightly important or less with 82% rating it as moderately important or higher. That stayed consistent for staff. We see also a consistent number where it's went from 5.1% and 95% positive to 3.5 with a little gain to 96.5. Really about as high of outcomes as we would like to see in both those categories. Never accepting, you know, just to stay the same. will always target better, but those are exceptionally high. On satisfaction, we see a little different story. It doesn't stay the same. It goes positive for families. This is where we had our big swing. In last year, our satisfaction rating was split
06843 between slightly satisfied or less and 57% mod moderately satisfied or higher. We saw a 14.9% swing this year in family satisfaction driving the slightly satisfied or less down to 28 where our moderately satisfied or higher up to 71 on staff. Uh we saw basically where it stayed the same maybe even a slight decrease from last year to this year. So, we dug into that, seeing that year-over-year outcome being basically the same to look at why and called out really important. There was one group that was significantly different in terms of satisfaction than most of the other staff groups. That was our intervention specialist. A lot of the feedback from them on what were their challenges was around IEPs and doing the processes surrounding that within focus. But this calls out kind of an important
069distinction when we talk about focus. It's a platform. There are modules that when we went through the process of of adopting focus two year, three years ago, recall we talked about it replacing five different platforms at the time as a platform. Focus has modules. The module that services IEPs is the student services module, the SSS module. That is an independent part of focus. That is something that can be evaluated individually not at the entire platform level. So with this feedback we wanted to honor and and look at what did it look like first if we remove that particular group. What does the other satisfaction level say for other staff and we can see a pretty good swing in this case of around seven points where we went to 33 well 34 and 66 in satisfaction.
070So working with our department of student services who is kind of our collaborative partner on designing and administrating the student services module. Uh there is going to be a significant upgrade slash release coming this summer for that module. We're going to evaluate that get feedback engage some of our stakeholders for feedback and see if we think that the upgrades and the changes are going to lead to a better path. And if not, then next year will likely be a case where we are going to engage in another evaluation to see if there may be a product that may be more useful and more in line with what we're expecting and looking for for our staff. And few in past conversations, both the board meeting and potentially at the committee of the whole, uh we talked
071about adding something new to our focus survey this year, which included the school selection feedback process or feedback on that process. We added multiple questions. The first being, did you participate or attempt to participate in the school selection process? If so, how easy was it to participate in a rating of 1 to 10? And then what did you find to be most challenging? So maybe surprising, maybe not. To some, we saw it was a pretty even distribution across the 1 to 10, but it does favor slightly to the more difficult side, the one to five. enough so that we obviously are really wanting to hone in on what are those feedbacks of what did you find most difficult. As we look through all of the results, we can see that relatively a small number actually
072said that it was related to interfacing with the product itself. The remaining how embarrassing. The remaining uh responses really focus around the communication um information gaps problems in understanding or or following who was supposed to do what when they were supposed to do it and some of those categories. So really across all of the stakeholders in this from an internal perspective both IT uh centralized enrollments and customer care market communication we've taken a look at all of this feedback along with what the board is and have implemented several action steps already with more to come. Right. So right off the bat we started looking at targeting to expand the school selection process to two windows instead of just one. not by itself a big thing, but what it allows us to do is move from
073our traditional announcementbased communication where it's like, hey, the school selection process is open. Go apply to where we can have the first window primarily announcement based. But the second window then allows us to say, okay, hey, you missed the first window. You specifically need to go do the school selection process. Here are the schools you need to go select from and why. So we can move from announcement to proactive which also allows schools to be much more engaged in that process because we can provide feedback to them of who did the first round, who hasn't done the second for them to target and work with us on getting them to complete the process and help get answers and and things for the families. And finally, the customer care centralized enrollment team created a pretty extensive
074guide uh in terms now that can be provided for staff that gives a much better answers consistency consistently in terms of who's responsible for what what are the answers to the common questions that families could send in so that we have consistent answers for them. And between all of that, we're really hoping that that'll help us turn around, you know, some of that feedback that we've been seeing. One major system upgrade that we did this year I want to call out this is a kudos both to the team and let everybody know. Hopefully you haven't actually heard about this. That's usually our goal with these is that if nobody hears about it, nobody complains about that means we're doing a fantastic job. But we did migrate our phone system which has been here for the
075better part of 15 years. It's been upgraded over the time but it's largely meaningfully been the same. It was a great system with a lot of flexibility built on on premise and over that time we needed the flexibility that a lot of other carriers and service providers could not give us. But more recently, cloud-based solutions through simplification of some of our needs and improvement in some of theirs have been able to now meet what we're looking for. So, we're making that migration to a new system. We currently have 49 sites already completed. We only have 11 left to go, including central office and Iowa Street. So, those will be some you may hear about. Um, but the biggest part of this is that that new model is a service. So, we pay for features being
076used, not just our entitlement to use them if we want to, only inuse products, which in total will save us approximately $1 million per year going forward. One of the big questions is like, wait, we're in a financial issue. How are we replacing phones? That's how. All right. So, the last thing, probably the most important everybody wants to hear about is is innovative spaces. So, I would like to bring up Deb Fricky. Um, superintendent gave a great introduction. Her and her team recently spoke to the Urban 8 around the artificial intelligent um things happening at CPS to much applom and and gratitude and thought she might be a great person to be able to talk some about that for you guys today. >> Awesome. Thank you, Jeremy. I appreciate it. I could very well talk
077your ear off for about the next hour, but I promise I will not. Um, I am very excited to be here today to talk about where we are with artificial intelligence in Cincinnati public schools and very grateful to you because you helped us hit our very first milestone which was the adoption of a board policy. This was able to give us a very clear and distinctive foundation and helped set expectations for all of our stakeholders, staff and students included. So having this policy in place really helped build the groundwork and the framework that allowed us to move forward with confidence as we developed our next steps. Beyond just developing a board policy, we also updated our district's acceptable use policy. So we wanted to ensure that AI was included in how our students operate and
078behave with technology as a whole. So we did update our AI policy to include that language there. Beyond that, the next question is logically what do we have approved within our school district? We do have a variety of applications that have gone through our ATI approval process. And during this process, we are very intentionable intentional around checking our vendors privacy policies to ensure that they meet FURPA, COPA, and Senate Bill 29 um security policies that we have in place. Once we had that base foundation, we had our guidance, we had our expectations, we had our tools, what's next? So, we focused on conducting a needs assessment last spring. And to no surprise, we had a wide variety of stakeholders who were at different comfort levels with artificial intelligence, but everyone indicated that they were interested
079in learning more. So that was really important for us in terms of how do we level set across our district? How do we make sure that there is a shared foundation around what AI is, how it can help us, and how we're preparing students for that future. Now, when we did that needs assessment, we did find that there were some gaps and roadblocks that we needed to be aware of, and we made sure that we didn't necessarily see them as obstacles, but maybe just some design constraints as we worked forward. So in addition to needing to level set everyone's understanding, we are also working with how do we compete with other PD priorities within the district when we're talking about MTSS, PBIS, and things of that sort. How do we deal with limited funding? How
080do we work within our staff's already overcapacity workload? And beyond that, how are we ensuring that equity and access is in place so the experiences from student to student, classroom to classroom, school to school are similar across our district. And the first way in which we did that is we created an AI intro for staff course. This was not designed just for educators but for all staff as well as we know that AI is impacting all of our stakeholders throughout the district. And in here, we were really intentional to talk through what is AI, how do we ensure that you're keeping the human in the decision- making, how can it change the way you work, what tools are approved, what is our district policy, how do you build a good prompt, so on and so
081forth. It wasn't about making anyone an expert of AI, but just making sure there was that shared foundation across the district to help us move forward. Now, in addition to putting together curriculum for our teachers in that introduction course, we also identified lessons for our students in as well in grades 5 through 12. We didn't create anything from scratch. We actually utilized already curated and created materials from um nationally approved vendors, people like Common Sense, Google, and things of the sort. and we identified lessons to go in along with our already established digital citizenship uh curriculum so that there was exposure to all of our students regardless of where they were within the district. Beyond that, we did not want to overlook our families in our communities. So, we have engaged in a number of
082ways uh to ensure that they know what is happening. We wanted to be transparent. We wanted them to understand what AI is and how it shows up in our spaces. We did not recreate the wheel in terms of communication, but we looked for ways in which we could um embed within things that are already happening within our district, school-based events, some of our 22nd century conferences, LSDMC meetings, and then we've been to the superintendent's point as well to the Ohio 8 meeting recently. So, not just meeting with our families, but also meeting with the larger community as a whole. One of the things we're really excited about with community engagement as well is we have an opportunity, it's still being finalized, to potentially partner with the University of Cincinnati and the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative
083for an AI Academy over the summer taking place this year and next year. So, we're excited about that. One of the more innovative things that we're doing with artificial intelligent is the development of CPS quick connect. So you'll be seeing this come out in your email here shortly. We're doing the finalization on it. And shout out to board member Crosset and Treasurer Gustin who also serve on the innovation council alongside me. We looked at a very real problem within our district and that's how do you get information? Right. Staff members are often frustrated. They don't know where to go, especially if you're new, right? If you're a new staff member, who do I contact for help with math curriculum? Who do I go to if I need employee assistance? How do I get a field
084trip for a bus for a field trip, right? So, this tool has been developed with specific materials that we've put into it for our district, and it pulls directly from those materials. We've um collaborated with various teams across the district. So you can go in, ask a question, and get an answer immediately and move on. One of the other things we've been really excited about this year is the opportunity to collaborate with CTF with our EIP AI subcommittee. So, we have representatives of both CFT uh union leaders and teachers along with district leaders, principles, curriculum, and IT professionals at the table. Making sure that the decisions we're making are driven by experience within the classroom with education in mind. One of the first things that we've done, you'll notice these do say draft, is we
085are looking at two key questions moving forward. What do our students need to know to be successful in an AI powered world? And how do we ensure our educators are there to prepare them for that future? So for our students, we're looking at do they know what AI is and how to use it? Do they know how to use it ethically? Are they still retaining those critical thinking skills? When we look at our teachers, it's okay. How do I build in those opportunities within my lessons on a day-to-day basis? How do I use AI to support my work? How do I make sure that I'm leaving and keeping the human at the front of all of that decision-making? And that takes us to what the future is. We truly do believe that AI is a
086support tool, not a replacement for teaching, learning, and critical thinking. Thank you, >> Jeremy. >> Questions? >> Okay. Um, so we'll open it up. Again, I think this is a great topic as we have been very innovative in in being a leader in the subject matter discussion. Um, I know one of the first questions I got at the beginning of this year was, "How did we pass a policy when no one else around us could?" And that's just because we were ahead of the game. So, um, any questions, comments from board members? Oh, member Cross, >> I think you might want to clarify that the quick connect also is is a is a giant database of of of um all the staff members too to find a person, not just answer a question. Correct. >>
087Yes, that that is absolutely right. So, a lot of times it's I don't know who this person is. Who do I contact? Um, great example would be, okay, I'm working on a project and we're going to host it at Woodward and I don't know who the building engineer is and I need their contact information. I can say who's the building engineer at Woodward and it'll pull it up for me. >> Awesome. other board members board member map and then >> uh yes so my question is around um as you're talking about an AI powered world for the student use um are we internally um providing that support um to help the students understand like the ethical uh responsibilities around the use of AI or are we partnering with uh a a company to help provide
088that information. Um, and the reason why I asked that is because I was recently provided information about um the news literacy project. And I don't know if you're familiar with that, but it's really a free resource to help our students navigate that digital age, you know, um, experience and helping them to understand the difference between misinformation, um, how to apply that critical thinking. uh you know still as we're navigating this technology space. And so with you speaking about that, I was just wondering if we're working with a partner to help provide that support or if that's something that we're doing in house and if there's potentially room for us to be able to um uh partner with the organization that is doing this work um and have that uh curriculum already in place. >> Gotcha.
089Yes, absolutely. So, we are doing the majority of the organization of those materials in house. Um, we do have pockets of teachers out in school buildings who are developing their own resources. I've seen some really great things happening out in schools along with conversations around the impact of what you're putting into AI tools as a chatbot and things of that sort. We do have identified lessons through partners and I say that as in their free open-source materials through common sense education, Google, Raspberry Pi, and code.org that are available, but we're always looking to evaluate and make sure that we're putting the best resources in front of our students. So, if you have something, um, I always say share because we'd love to be able to provide as much as possible to our teachers so that
090they have the ability to select lessons that fit best for their particular content area or um, skill development that they're looking for within their classroom. >> Absolutely. I will definitely share that information with you and I don't know if I need to connect the curriculum team on it as well, but definitely will share that information. >> I appreciate it. Thank you, >> Board Member Bolton. Thank you very much and good to see you. >> Good to see you. >> Uh yeah. Um I have uh this is AI and then do we also ask Jeremy any questions or Okay. Okay. Uh on the AI for Debbie if we could. Um I appreciate first of all policy committee having gotten us ready as you and a good shout out that you did to them for this. I
091think the other piece that's of interest to me is that us getting ready to receive what is about to happen >> because I know our community is very very concerned and also anybody that's currently employed is very concerned. Um so I'm interested in knowing uh the partnership that we have with UC or that is it a summer academy that would be great to participate in. And then when you went to uh the grade eight so to speak, uh I understand that Columbus at least has been doing something. Did did they share out anything that they're working on or did any of the other uh Urban 8 uh share or what kinds of questions did they ask? Yeah. So, there's been a series of meetings throughout the year with the Ohio 8 focused on AI and
092Columbus was the first presenter of the year and they were setting the stage for what AI is and the importance of it within education. At that point when they shared this fall, this previous fall, they did not have a board policy adopted yet. they were engaged in some professional development around it. Um but they were still they were still in kind of that infancy implementation stage. And I don't I'm sorry I don't mean that in a negative way but of course um >> when we presented in Yeah, it was March, wasn't it? Wow. During spring break, time flies, I'm telling you. Um it was amazing to see how people reacted to the work that we were doing in our district. Very few had policies already adopted. They were in the process um knowing that the
093deadline with the Ohio Department of Education is coming up this summer. But they were very grateful to hear what we were doing with our intro to AI staff course. So we shared that with them so that they could experience it um and see what might work well for them. In addition to that, they were very interested in learning more about CPS quick connect and how they might be able to build a resource. But the questions they had most was around professional development and training. And I think the topic that's on everyone's mind is addressing misuse of AI. And so that was a hot topic for them as well. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Um Jeremy, I this is a kind of an interesting question to me and I think board members have
094have heard this around and read about it as well and I was interested to hear how you said that some of the schools are moving away from onetoone and more of the cart piece. I mean this is you you all work in a fastchanging uh environment and I appreciate your flexibility. Uh There's a real movement not only to get our kids outside and greener so to speak, but there's a real movement to begin to reduce screen time. How is that among you professionals and experts? How is that dialogue happening with you internally? Uh and of course I eventually we want to know if it impacts us financially or instructionally but it is a huge dialogue. How are you all approaching what that may mean for both staff and for students? >> So, a lot of
095those conversations are still in their very early stages. Sure. I mean, it is definitely a trend that's coming and starting to be much more widely accepted in terms of the truth of the matter is is that you know the screen time has both positives and negatives too much heavily leaning on the negative side. >> So, those conversations really haven't devolved down to like an academic or instructional impact. But from an operational standpoint, I think we're crossing into the line where we're seeing like the na the natural usage of devices that we send home necessarily or the take home for those students decreases considerably um from what we would like to see for you know just the return on investment. the other side from the school-based lens. The devices when they come to school that have
096been gone or have been done have been taken home. Um they don't come in necessarily prepared for instruction and academic use that day or for testing if that may be the case. Um and where when they have those devices at the school, they are much more in a controlled environment to be ready for every class and every need for instruction so that you can maximize minimize the screen time for the biggest effect as opposed to having to wait extended periods of time and sharing devices and things like that for students that necessarily don't have a prepared device each day. So not immediately but down the road changes perhaps evolving to a certain extent from where we were um and and proud to be uh one to one and what have you as a big urban
097district. So just be interested if we can kind of keep that dialogue going. I think that would be helpful. Thank you. >> Other board members. Um, well, I'll give a couple of Oh, board member Lindy. >> Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you and ask a couple quick questions. I think this work is really important. Um, grateful for all the efforts that you all are doing. I love the training and the training different constituencies and the credentiing. I think that's great. Um, I was I wanted to share I think a growing concern about um just total screen exposure for students. Um, I'm I'm very uh excited about ways this can be helpful for the school system and also somewhat skeptical of of um or I guess concerned about ways it can be uh uh
098difficult or challenging with students but I'm I'm also still learning a lot and all the technology is changing so quickly that I'm trying to keep an open mind. Um, I think I was just interested in from the the ways you all are using it internal to CPS, not so much training staff, setting parameters, educating people in the policy, but actually using AI in the work of CPS. Have you seen it be helpful in areas? If so, which areas? Could you talk about that just a little bit more? Yeah, I mean I think from an operational standpoint, especially, you know, from leadership and many departments, we're seeing a lot of use to be able to minimize the amount of repet repetitive task and timing in things as simple as um presentation tonight. Most of the slides
099that were provided, right, were created on a baseline of here's the content, create the framework, and then there are options to beautify or increase the executive level appropriateness or those kind of things. And it really cuts down on the amount of time invested in those kind of activities. We also have a pretty extensive, you know, right now we limit it to deag disagregated anonymous data and try to make sure we have all the controls in place, but we also do do you do use it for a pretty extensive level of data analysis on things that can be anonymized, you know, and frankly a lot of our budget work and those kind of tasks where it's, you know, preparing spreadsheets to compare X Y and Z that you can provide like that's where we see a
100lot of that level of use. Do you have any instructional examples? >> Um, so we've seen a lot of instructional instructional uses differ um across the school districts. I've seen it used a lot in terms of visualization, uh, creating graphics, creating videos, things of that sort. Um, using it to provide feedback in different areas and whatnot. There was a great video that one school put together of students who were imagining themselves as their future in their future career. And so they they created a little mini video of all the different students and what they wanted to be when they grew up. And they they were able to see it in a different way by having that visualization in front of them. Um, beyond that, back to staff uses as well. We recently trained all of
101our EMIS staff um at a recent training on how to build their own notebook LM, which is what we use to build our CPS quick connect. So, we have school-based staff who are now creating many versions of that that are specific to their school building uh with their different policies and procedures that their staff need to know. So, they're looking to optimize um and become more efficient as well in those spaces. >> That's great. Thank you so much, >> Vice President Moffett. >> So, thank you. Well, this is like a a a tough one for me because I understand here and have lived experience with this the limiting screen time piece. My grandkids get on my nerves that they can come and pick up my phone and tell me where I need to go immediately
102and they're five. So, I understand that concern. I also have am user of AI so I love it to make things easier in some where whether it's taking a video and making clips of it in 5 minutes versus me doing it for hours. My question though is um we are talking about I'm glad let me say this I'm glad that we have a policy I think that's just the CPS way we are trends setters but we also talked about and we'll talk about later um like the database policy and retention of information which concerns me because while it is easier for us on on a lot of levels internally to have things uh be used quickly. Um, have you all thought about the future? Um, and in your lane, you're going to I'm saying it
103very very very lay terms, but you all know what I'm talking about as far as just um retrieval of information, outdated information, um, security of information like like it's it's something that's super convenient has potential risks too that I'm wondering, have you all thought about that as a concern? Let me get my all my questions out because that's a good one. I see you nodding, Jeremy. I I know I got you on that one. Um the other piece is I think um part of my angst is that we remain as an educational institution as a district that needs to educate. So are we educating parents? Are we educating parents on the usage of AI so that they hear it from our voice? And what I mean by that is are we creating like very quick
104little snippet videos to to train parents on maybe best practices for AI or even um hey you know there's data that say screen time should be limited when your kids go home do these sorts of things that we could broadcast on YouTube that we could broadcast on our um web page but that it's coming from us and it's actually you all as the experts giving giving some best practices to parents and families and the community around potential um usage in a good way and in a bad way. And I'm thinking more um I have this thought because that's kind of how we started the Just as Jensen and now the money is with Mike and that it was that department creating the information to share with the community in your voice the way that people
105need to hear it. So those I know there's a lot of questions but educating to the community even our staff. um and then um potential database because we we're talking about that policy um now so do we need to think about some things looking forward >> okay so I'm going to speak to the parent facing training first so we did in that list of family and community events there were some that were specifically parent training um and parent informational sessions as well beyond that we work very closely with Londa in our um community engagement uh sorry I don't remember her exact title but we have thank you um we actually have a Canvas course that all of our parents are autoenrolled in >> and within that we've actually taken our AI intro for staff course
106and tweaked it to be an AI intro for parents and so that material is available within the parent course as well. So that's available to anyone who wants it. We are always looking for opportunities to continue that learning. So we meet with her um on a regular basis to identify what opportunities might be coming up. >> Um I will say we as always limited opportunities andor resources andor staffing. So doing as much as we can with what we have. >> Gotcha. >> You want to speak to the database? So the short answer is extensively we have both talked and and um considered the security implications and how we want to go forward with that and all of the the multiple parts tied to it. You know education is a very gray area when it comes
107to security um around data specifically. >> So we have policies in place along with the AI policy. We have our IT procedures that are based on each of those policies that dictate what you should and shouldn't do but they are primarily what you should and shouldn't do and there are less things that we can necessarily directly control without limiting flexibility. So within the instructional environment it is you know very important that teachers have some ability for flexibility um and you know scaffolding and um individualization of instruction and those kind of things. So it's very difficult to identify every tool and every practice that where that data can be placed into that are outside of district control and managing all of those together. So that is a constant conversation and debate on how do we manage
108to both control that and maintain the flexibility necessary for good instruction. >> And I would imagine since we are trends setters we're kind of out here by ourselves in this water a little bit as well. And the only other thing is uh you can always create a Canva course for board members on the AI too. So >> thank you. >> All righty. I will uh give our last little couple notes here and then allow you all to return to your seats there. But um so really just three things. First with regards to um satisfaction sur the satisfaction survey. I think one thing that is worth noting and I think you did note it in your presentation Jeremy um is the fact that a large part of the family dissatisfaction had to deal with their access
109to information about the system or their access to information about how to navigate the system. So the system itself operated functionally the way for many families not all but for of the 57 I think it was in that survey the the the key part that drove a lot of people's opinions on it was around their ability to get information about how they were using it and when to use it right um and I think some of the clarity that you talked about with regards to our enrollment process which is a high example of a lot of the confusion I hear from folks with regards to focus is okay so I don't understand when my child is entered in for the right year is is when I input my child do I need to fill this
110part out next? Those type of things I think are will be helpful breaking the process up to stages giving more clarity and information to folks um is is really helpful. So I'm pr I'm happy to hear that. I am one of those I mean I'm probably the only board member um at the time who I just have always had a question mark since COVID since returning from COVID about the effectiveness of having one to one devices and I say this because I think we have never seen a high usage rate of one to one devices no matter what grade right and I know we had a lot of conrnation about removing it from the younger grades but to be truthful and honest we've never seen 75% 80% usage um after school or beyond in school
111of any device at any grade level. And so what I I recognize the need for some students to have access to a onetoone device, but for a large part of the students, my fear and we talk about all the time each year is the number of students who take a device home and that device comes back not the way that it left the school building that day. And then therefore we're, you know, it's one of the things we'll be talking about with the budget line here also is the amount of support we need to provide it for folks who have a device that no longer is functioning the way it's supposed to andor a device that needs to be replaced. And if that's happening at all, you know, 65 different school buildings, that is a
112large task, right? And I think that's part of the the benefit of having a more narrowly focused onetoone device process or policy. I recognize to your point there that doing such thing will still require a multi-year um opportunity to get to that point. But I I think that is something we should as a board start to think about and really review because I do think that uh in addition to students who either this becomes the functional device of everybody in the household. So whether or not it's being used in a manner in which we want it to be used is another question mark also in that of it uses reach. But I I think there's a open space to have that discussion about how do we transition to there? And then the last point I
113will make um is really going back to the AI part of it. And I think one of the things that I think people forget and and and I was I was happy to hear board member Lindy ask this question about the operational use of AI. In a lot of ways, what AI allows us to do sometimes in operation is to predict and review information that used to take us three and four weeks to go through all the little data points and now it's two or three minutes, right? And it's not to say that it takes away a job per se. It's to say that it makes someone able to do their job more efficiently and effectively to produce more information. And in a lot of ways, we will have to be able to be more
114nimble in our ability to respond to things. So, we'll be able to need to travel through these wide spectrums of information quickly to be able to assess where our maybe particular target points or pinpoints of concern might exist. And so, the more we're able to add that to our operational practices, the more we're able to really think of ways in which we will look at we've got a thousand kids who have done X, Y, and Z. how much effective how effective has this been in a quicker fashion will allow us to be able to make more intelligent decisions about what to do as we go forward. And so I I'm I'm always a fan of the recogniz recognization that technology is just a tool and whether you use it good or whether you use it
115in a bad way is really up to how the user decides to do so. And I think we we're doing a good job of trying to be very good with how we use technology and we can always be better. Um I see board Balden had her mic open for a quick moment >> real quick. I I I feel strongly about what you said and I and I have a similar feeling and everybody here knows I'm the least computer literate and cloudappy u person uh here at the seven table here. But I I do think a point to your point, one of the big pressures that we've had over at least the years I've been on the board very frankly is the gap of opportunity and access to computers. Uh and phones made that less significant.
116But having taught in the suburbs for 36 years, I know where those kids can start and what access and what tools they have. And even within our own district, there's a wide range of what people have or don't have. So, I think that has been a lot of our mentality. And now that we've kind of gotten through an awful lot of that, I I see where we can start to to back up and and withdraw a bit, but it it really was an opportunity gap that many of our young people and families had. So, thank you for all your work you've been doing. >> Yeah. All right. Thank you all. Superintendent Murphy, our next presentation of the evening, and it's a familiar person. >> Standing by, we have Missia House. Uh we uh will need
117to do two readings of adjustments and recommendations um to the positive school culture code of conduct for the 2026 2027 school year. So, tonight is the first of that. >> Thank you. Explain that so well. So this will just be our first read and recommendations and this comes from uh the discipline committee which is comprised of teachers staff. We've had participation this year from ASME and from CFT leadership. And so um we've also had principles and members of the PSC department. Um just staff all around CPS that are really passionate about um this work. And it's not just about disciplining kids or finding ways to discipline them, but to give us all support and guidance on how we address behavior and do it in a consistent and equitable manner. And so um what you will
118see on this document, so recommendation um recommended changes from our current code of conduct for next year. Um there were not a lot of changes that were recommended by the committee. Um many of the changes are to create a better alignment uh regarding the language and process around MTSS um because that is what we are implementing. That is what we are going so we're trying to guide staff into that process and what they should do. There were um inclusive language that we want to include and also language consistency throughout the document in the code of conduct. So just kind of wanted to give a high level of that. So what we'll have in this document is just the page number of the current code of conduct what the original text is the suggested recommended text
119and kind of why. So for page four the first uh recommendation is it's a small change but it was a big implication on including um shall include in the following administer administrator teacher school psychologist counselor social workers ALC facilitator office staff intervention specialists early childhood staff and when appropriate students parents and community members. The importance of this change is it is in better alignment with what we have in other documents of who should be involved in the PBIS committee in the MT. So we wanted to be inclusive of that because the language in the code of conduct did not mirror that. So that is why we wanted to be inclusive of all of those people who should be engaged or have the opportunity especially when appropriate. Okay. Um for the next recommended uh change was
120on page 13. Um it discusses restorative practices as strategies that strengthen relationships and repair harm. Um but it kind of left off with that. And so we wanted to provide examples of what that could look like so that administrators, teachers, whoever is reading this can see how this flows within our support systems for how we address discipline. Restorative practice and giving a consequence do not have to be separate things. They can be the same thing. The way that you give the discipline should always be in a restorative manner. And so we wanted to include those examples, but those examples also align with our MTSS guidance and tiered layers of support. Um, for page 10, uh, this is a an improvement for more inclusive language. Uh, the language is about during the process of emergency removal,
121um, if the caregiver is not available than, uh, other adult family members. We just wanted to change that to emergency contacts because sometimes the next person might not be another family member. So we wanted to be clear on that language and make it more inclusive. Um so the next uh recommendation is also on page 10. Uh this is about the process. It was um we wanted to provide more clarity around this process regarding the school re-entry meeting that when a student is provided um or when they are given an emergency removal, there is documentation that is provided that is consistent throughout the district. But we wanted the process to be consistent and that there is a re-entry meeting that should occur every time a student is placed on emergency removal and it needs to happen
122whenever the student is assigned to come back and at least the administrator and the student should be involved. And we wanted to give context to the importance of this. That is to help repair harm, rebuild relationships to the community and create a support plan and reduce future misconduct. We know that sometimes, not all the times are family members, caregivers able to participate in these meetings as much as we want them to, but we do not want that to be a precursor to keep a child out from school until a parent can meet. So, we wanted to be clear that this meeting should occur, but it should not keep a student out of school until our calendars align. But we want to make sure that this process, this part of the process is clear that it,
123um, that it happens every time an emergency removal occurs. Um, on the next recommended change on page 11, um, it stated students kindergarten through third grade. We wanted to change that to preschool uh just because this code of conduct applies to us all. And so we we caught that typo. As much as we thought we caught everything last year, there's always room for improvement. Um 13, the next recommended um there was language around referring to the intervention team. This is around that process of we need to really refer you to the MTSS guidance and where does the guidance that aligns with PBIS and MTSS because it gives specific and it gives um strategies of support or next steps depending on the occurrence. And so we wanted to make sure that that was um replace it
124with that recommended language of the intervention team. just using intervention team could be confusing to school teams. And um the next uh recommendation page 12, same thing with the using of the term corrective plan. I think if you ask school teams what corrective plans are, they would not have a clue. So we wanted to make it really clear that if a pattern of category 1 offenses persist, school teams should review the district PBIS and MTSS guidance. as they review their data, they should be seeing these kids and occurrences and what they should be doing next to help support them. Um, for the following, they're kind of in chunks of uh similar pages, and we wanted to make sure that the wording is very consistent. So, page 13, 16, 17, and 21. We wanted to make
125sure that the phrasing around selections from the menus above will be made by school officials officials in a least restrictive manner and progressive manner in alignment with the school's PBIS um supports plan. And we wanted to make sure that the verbiage was just consistent and in alignment on pages 13, 16, 17, and 21. And um very similar to 17 and 21 with making uh consistency around that language under the corrective strategies for category 2 and three. Um we wanted to make sure that we cleared up that regardless of whatever consequence should be given every our response should be in a restorative manner. And so we know that there was a lot of conversation a lot a lot of conversation on restorative practices the implementation how to support and that lets us know as a committee
126that we are having a greater understanding of restorative practice. We are now in the application of what does that mean? What does that look like in the classroom? What does that look like for staff? So we have really talked about professional development opportunities and moving forward for how to support teams. And so the last recommendation for um pages 14 and 18 just wanted to provide some language clarity that administrators can assign students to ALC and or promise center as an alternative to suspension or pending an expulsion hearing. >> All righty. Um thank you for for presenting this again. Each year we're required to review and make any changes and it requires two uh two readings prior to board approval. So uh this is our first reading. Are there any questions from board members? Uh board
127member on Brewster. >> I just have a quick question. So for clarity sake, we do we have this PB PBIS/MTSS a lot >> and I I'm a little bit afraid that that's confusing for people moving forward like are we turn transitioning to MTSS and can we just clearly do that? Um because then on page four when you're talking about 13 16 17 and 21 you have the language of just PBIS in there and it doesn't mention MT. So, I just want to make sure that we're consistent on the language we're using and if we're transitioning, I think rather than having them both in there, just like stating clearly at the beginning of the document like we will be transitioning and then using MTSS moving forward >> other than just having them both. >> Absolutely. I
128think that's a great call. I think when we first started this process of just going through not all schools had been trained in MTSS and so we were trying to make it apply to all who might not but I believe at this point we have had all training for all schools. So I think as I can definitely bring that back to the committee that recommendation I think that we're okay um with the agreement of the superintendent that we can make that change definitely because that will bring um more clarity um and less confusion. Absolutely. >> All righty. other board members. Board member Bolton, >> thank you very much for the presentation. I I'm not sure how to phrase or or or frame some of this, but as you go back for another kind of review,
129just something I'm I'm hearing from school and communities um and and teenagers um some greater reference or reliance or focus on uh both anti-semitism and also other sorts of expression or actions regarding ethnic prejudice because these things are being said in our schools now more so than they used to be and I'm sure it's the overall climate but uh I'm sure that it's a it's obviously an infraction but I think we need to address it perhaps even if we're talking in terms of examples >> okay >> uh that might be there another thing that I'm I'm also hearing is that some of our kids who are uh immigrant kids or refugee kids. Uh, one of the things that other kids say is something about unfortunately we're gonna we're going to get ice on you or
130hey, there's ice out there. That kind of terror. Uh, I just I don't know how you work that in, but I think to make this a little bit more contemporary and and real as to the kinds of things that um unc uncaring and and unsympathetic kids might say to their to their classmates or others. um you know like uh oh I guess your family's not going to pick you up today because >> Mhm. >> Uh there's an So I if we could somehow address some of those concerns so that people have a real example that that is unacceptable. >> Yes, I think we can definitely add in examples especially uh your reference to ICE. It really goes to the um the category around intimidation and harassment. >> Exactly. It calls out it calls out that
131language. But I think giving examples and also providing um it has been there has been discussions around students calling one another inappropriate names whether uh today or this hour it is a friendly banter back and forth in the next hour >> it is not. And so how to really um address that regardless of the situation is inappropriate communication and language whether or not you say it in a friendly manner or not but really give schools examples. I think so we can address it consistently I think will be helpful. >> That'd be very good because some several Jewish families have mentioned this to me. And also now that we have such a large Islamic population in our in our in our our school community, I just think maybe we can kind of update that. That would
132be great just as examples or however you see fit. >> Uh board member map. >> So thank you uh Dr. house for uh you and your team um making these specific call outs. I do think that it helps provide more clarity um and use that restorative language, right? And as we talked about in our last meeting, really trying to make sure that there are um there's a preventative approach in place. And I think that helping um our students, our families, as well as our educators understand that tiered process of navigating through um the different infractions or consequences. again from a restorative lens. So I thank you just for really um specifying and bringing more clarity to the language um and also really highlighting that the MTSS process is not just for the instructional and academic
133experience but also for the behavioral component as well. And so um I really think this these are really great callouts. Um the question that I do have is around the re-entry. And so recognizing that in the event that a parent is not able to attend, right, we do want to make sure like you talked about the student um and the administrator in the building is at least able to have those conversations. I remember doing those myself as well. Will the will there be a followup though in the event that the parent or guardian is unable to attend that re-entry meeting? Will there be the expectation from the principal or the administrator that's facilitating that re-entry process to connect with the parents to say this is what occurred and this is the plan moving forward. Best
134practice is that we can um provide that recommendation for school teams. Um because um there's one thing to say uh give the guidance, but what is as as far as practice and implementation and really following up is not only key and critical to the parent or guardian or caregiver, but also for the supportive school team so that they're aware of the agreements. Yes. because even the teachers might not be aware of what agreements have been taken place between the administrator and the student. So, everybody needs to be a part of that, but just due to scheduling and >> everything else, it's hard to get everyone at the table, but that um communication should go out to the entire team. >> So, I think just adding some language, right, to just specify um what the followup
135will look like um after the re-entry could be really helpful. Other board members, vice president. Oh, board member Lindy. >> You know, really I just wanted to say thank you for all the careful uh line by line work to make this as consistent and clear and helpful as possible. Uh support personally everything you're suggesting. Um to member Bolton's point uh earlier uh and this is in the in the current handbook. I would just draw everyone's um attention back to the hate speech policy that the uh policy committee passed a few years ago. I know it's something just that that is a policy that we put in place in CPS. I think it is a good policy. Uh it's referenced in the current handbook um and I think could be an easy way to um show
136that our uh actions are in line with our values. Uh and we just draw everyone's attention back to the hate speech policy. Thanks. >> Thank you. Vice President Buffett. >> So I someone just texted me and said it's that that the equity policy addresses common language. So we do have it covered as well. So that's great. I think the more we can repeat it the better that it is. I have a question though on like section I don't know what page this is. It's just like number 10 with around re-entry. So as many opportunities as we can to put families back at the table. I think we should invite them particularly around re-entry. Um this the particular section it says it says a school re-entry meeting should be held on the day the student returns
137to school. I'm wondering would it also be possible to have the family be in that meeting as well. A lot of times um it's just been my experience that we we put families and parents and caregivers in one space but we don't allow them the opportunity to be in all of those spaces. So that to me would be um really beneficial. I have a question. I was listening but I want to see do we have anywhere where it says that the code of conduct extends to the students until they get home because we have behaviors that are happening after school and there is inconsistency around enforcing those. So if if behaviors happen on a bus, some people feel like, well, we're responsible for you while you're on the bus until you get home. Others don't
138don't have that same interpretation. So I am looking for some consistency around what is our obligation and where is the code of conduct applicable because if I don't know and if administration and teachers don't know, then kids don't know. And so it is unfair for us to hold them accountable for something on an inconsistent basis and we are not clear. So is it addressed in here that the code of conduct if they misbehave at a bus stop or if they misbehave and knock over a garbage can, if they cuss someone out walking home? Um some sometimes the code of conduct I'm I'm told applies and sometimes it doesn't. So if it's if it's here and I don't know I vaguely remember there was we needed to get clear on where our our obligation starts because
139some parents thought that there you know as soon as we put them on the bus there our responsibility so I think maybe there's a larger conversation here but I'm wondering >> is it anywhere in here currently >> so the answer is yes whether or not it's clear or we can make it opportunity to make it more clear. So for example on page um there is on page seven it talks about bus expectations it says the code of conduct applies on yellow buses or vans or metro buses that bring students to and take them home and transport them to school related activities. Um so there are um questions around uh where does our scope end especially because there are a lot of things that occur via social media >> or cell phones that kind of instigates
140situations and where do we say that causes a school disruption as opposed to that happened outside of the scope of school school. So I think I um can work with our general counsel and the committee around how we make that continuously clear. I think it is mentioned where we know that if schools are at I know Dan is probably happy about that. Um >> if it is a school sanctioned event regarding like field trips because just because you're not on a campus doesn't mean that the code of conduct doesn't apply. Um, so we need to really make that clear so that students understand if you are on the bus at a bus stop like we are responsible for you. If you are at school, if you are on a field trip, we are responsible for
141you. And so um I think that's an opportunity to just make it more clear and stand out and we can call that out um definitely in the code of conduct right at the very beginning. >> Thank you. It still sounds very ambiguous to me based off of what you read because after hours at five o'clock I I don't know that I think I'm responsible for you as a district versus at a at a field trip during the school day is different to me. So I do think we need to make it a little bit I think there was a policy. I'm just not exactly sure where. The last thing I want to say is I am cautiously awaiting your um definition about the interpretation of harmful speech and because to me what one person there's
142a cultural imbalance here because some people may think words are inappropriate and charge you with an infraction and you don't think that those things or you know so I I I I would caution us to not allow for personal interpretations of um that cause harmful infractions that can potentially cause harmful infractions based off of our inference of what that means. So when you said that that just kind of made me pause a little bit. I don't want people inferring, well I think you meant it in a negative because I think that that's a bad thing to say. That should not be left up to uh interpretation. So that's the only other thing I want to say. And then I'm I'm curious about the policy around what our >> where our boundaries >> transportation um obligation
143what our where the code of conduct is applicable and where it's not particularly since we have students who are writing with the public now. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Um so I will be very quick uh because I want to give you a chance to go back to your seat and relax. Um so >> you know we we we often talk about folks working uh working injured and so let you get some time to rest here. Um so to to just really quick three things as Dan walks back in the room after the question's been asked of him. Uh um one is I do I do think we should get to board member's earlier point about consistency. I think that may be just worthwhile to revisit because we actually do
144define PBIS in the beginning of the current um code of conduct and I don't know if if we're if we're in theory going to move away from from all of there. I think we may want to just reexamine that part also. to make sure it's consistent in that definition. Um th this part is a little bit for me a little bit more my second point is really a little bit more around the distribution and the holding of the pol of the code of conduct and I and I say that because I think we at some point have to be able to we just came from the conversation around technology and I think there's ways for us to make it more accessible on a regular basis and I don't know if we have thought about that
145aspect of it as well because in a lot of ways we give it to parents give access to it at a certain period of time, but we we revisit it on a regular point of conversation throughout the school year anytime something bad happens, right? Because in theory, your code of conduct is where you use when someone's violated your the code of conduct. And in a lot of ways, we don't use it as an instructional tool as to ways that you can have, you know, wonderful conflict without it being a code of conduct violation or ways to work within processes. And so I just I think there's a space in the world of of that idea of a training that we would do throughout the year or or training with parents or whatever that might clue
146them into help prevent violations of the code of conduct. And I and I think that's a more preventative thought process at times. Um I offer that in a lot of ways because if we see somebody who has a small infraction, we we generally are trying to address it. And one of the restorative justice models talks about that idea of educating to prevent the escalation. And that's a really huge part of the world of restorative justice is we're trying to prevent the future uh escalation of an issue whether it's between two people or even just one person's conduct. Um so I I would love to to see how we explore more of that into how we're doing some of the restorative justice. The third thing and along the lines of restorative justice, I'm really happy to
147hear you talk about this and I I I lived in a world when we were when I first ran where folks talked about restorative justice as a uh replacement for discipline. The idea that restorative justice meant instead of us doing any kind of corrective action, we just only going to do this one part here. And I think we have always as a district held a a held it in the right stance, right? the idea that restorative justice is part of the full package of how we do corrective action, that corrective action is not that corrective action includes restorative practices. Um, and so I think the fact that we call that out and and the fact that we utilize that throughout our definition really accentuates that point even more so. And I love the fact that
148we do so and and I think that's something that as a district if there's ever something again I'm encouraging all you all to go out and do these presentations around other to other districts around the world to tell them how great we are but I think that is one of the models that is part of the conversation that from talking with some of the districts uh across the country that really is a struggle with restorative practices is very difficult to do in a space where you're also having to acknowledge responsibility and discipline. Um and and I would love to see you all give opportunity to do some presentations around what's been the effective tools that we've utilized as a as a district to do so. And also, you know, again, I don't know what the
149other major districts in our state have been doing, but I think it's worthwhile to also talk about how we are working those efforts to bring down the number of folks who are growing that that those actions up, right? because I think that's the the very difficult challenge that I've heard from a lot of our a lot of large school districts right now, especially large urban school districts, that it's basically you get on one once you get into the code of conduct process, you basically escalate up the code of conduct process and it's it's causing a number of issues across the country right now specifically. And so that whether that's something we culturally have come up with or something that we're doing within those practices, it sounds like we have a little bit better hold on
150it in some ways than some of the other districts, some of the larger districts across the country. >> And we're still learning. The whole um restorative practice in a school setting is newer as well as the implementation of MTSS. So if you have a process and a system to be able to address behavior, academics, and attendance at a tiered uh way that's supportive of not just the student but also the staff members and the teachers that have to support those students, it's very very helpful and thank you so much for the idea. I think we can definitely um use this information and use our code of conduct as a teaching tool. Um even for students um we can um engage them um in the process. We know our months that are heavy um and where
151we have a lot of infractions and we know which are our top infractions. And so really having those conversations and clarity around those definitions is going to be helpful. And so um thank you so much for the idea. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Um just as a reminder, we will have uh the code kind of come back up for review scheduled now for our uh May 4th meeting. But again, if there are more changes or more discussion needed before then, please feel free to uh let us know and we'll always extend it to the 18th or or to another board meeting. But uh for right now, it's scheduled to come back up for our May 4th meeting. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. All righty. Uh, our next presentation, it's going to be a fun one. Um, so,
152Superintendent Murphy and Treasure Augustine. >> Yeah, there's a group of us. We're going to tag team this one today. The treasurer, myself, our CIO, and our uh, internal audit chief, Lauren Havos, is joining us for this one, too. All right, I think I get to start. So, um, and thank you, uh, CFT president sellers. You kind of alluded to this the start, but, uh, Rob, if we go to the first slide, this is something I'm going to continue to harp on as we go through the process is how did we get here? Um and and it's really a couple of factors, but if you remember from when we started the budget process several months ago, you know, we're looking at a expense target that's around $7 million less than our current year. And how do
153we get there? And part of it twofold really. First part is property tax reform. So, the property tax reform bills that were passed um earlier this year will take CPS off the 20 mil floor, which virtually eliminates revenue increases from any future property tax reappraisals. Um, couple that with the failure of the state to update the base cost in the fair school funding formula. Um, and we've skewed the formula to the fact where CPS will not see additional revenue there either. In fact, we will move over time, actually starting in the next couple years, into what's called a guarantee district, which means the amount of revenue we get from the state is based on a guarantee that is based on revenue from fiscal year 2020. So that's so just to to comprehend in fiscal year
15428, we'll be getting the same state revenue we got in 2020. Um, and don't have to really mention this, but costs continue to rise. I think the latest inflation target for is about 2.7%. So we're getting less revenue and we're dealing with all of the increased cost. So just to set the stage as to as to how the budget conversation is going to go and and why these are going to be difficult difficult years in the future. Jeremy. >> So, I think we received quite a bit of feedback from the last presentation to now. And a lot of what we want to provide tonight hopefully will provide a lot more context and a more complete picture as to some of those items of feedback that we receive. The first one being um maybe a terminology
155challenge. So when we originally termed this and looking at how we were going to tear across multiple steps to develop this process, right, we were looking for ease of reference and potentially high priority by nature assigns a value cost or a value association with a tier that wasn't necessarily entirely intended. It was really the true definition of how we were working when we were building these budgets and and the various layers that goes into it for was was much deeper. It wasn't as simple as a one-word explanation that we were trying to distill it to. Really, the definition we used with central office was this this particular tiers. What tonight I'm going to primarily refer to it as the items that are now ready for recommendation of funding because that's what it is. those, you
156know, it's the long version, but it does have a lot less con connotation than any other choice we could make, right? Um, but with central office, we really derived it from the staff and services needed to move us from legal compliance items into a minimum level of operations and functionality. Uh, and it does not in any means represent a complete budget for our current level of operations. it is still just a part of that building towards where we need to go for schools that would include the staffing now that complete that complies with the federal and state laws as well as meeting our collective bargaining agreements. So that's more of a a level set as to what this tier these items mean necessarily beyond just high priority. Now, with that, there's a little bit more
157context, I think, that we can look at um to provide a better picture of the whole and how these items tonight that are being discussed fit into the whole picture of the budget. And that starts with going back, we haven't talked about this, I think, since early when we started the budget process. So, it's worth going back to the beginning and looking at we really started with a zerobased budget. We started at zero dollars. In fact, the entire process, the tools, everything were customuilt that didn't give us like here's your previous budget that you can copy and paste over to the next one. Like it started truly at a blank page and required justification, evaluation of every item to go into it. But through that, you can see we really have three buckets from a
158budgetary standpoint that everything kind of falls into and that's how we have worked through the process. We have the central office which really comprises the central office expenses and budget units not just necessarily the central office staffing or budgets uh by department. It's also the centrally funded school positions and then the school budgets which include both school staffing and school non-personnel budgets. that total ask when we we presented to uh the budget builders, right, that we wanted to build a zerobased budget that was to meet the superintendent and board goals that we currently have, acknowledging the report card metrics that are important that we've been talking about over the past year, as well as just a minimalist assumption for the strategic plan. And what I mean by that is really there are five basic pillars
159that construct any educational strategic plan across the state, the nation, the world really. And those are going to have to do with academic achievement, student well-being or overall um experience, student experience, as well as some combination of operations and staff efficiencies. Like we may not know what the action items are. We're obviously working through that and the the priorities can change. Community feedback is critical in defining where we operate within those. But those are the bedrock for most educational entities. But that total to meet those goals, that total ask of a budget was 688 million. So that without respect to what our target was, that is just what the budget that was created to meet our goals would be. Now, our target is the 6279 627,900,000 based on the revisions from the projection or the
160um five-year forecast, right? Which means that total ask is about $60 million higher than what our target would be. And this is where we get into that gray area of are we building to a number or are we cutting back to a number? Because we built to a number, but when the number exceeds the target, you start having to work a little bit the other direction and it gets kind of gray, right? For comparison, you can see the FY26 budget from last year divided into those same three buckets. Um, one couple of important things to call out. The FY26 budget includes a $22.4 million adjustment negative in contingencies. So that 634 really is the equivalent of 656.4 math in my head uh equivalency. So the the difference is not quite as big as it seems.
161But now that we've established more of a terms of what the items are and what they represent as well as where the starting point was, we can provide a context around the bigger picture. Right? We have the require the recommended legal requirements that have already been approved by the board with 142.7 million. The tonight the items that are up for consideration and discussion tonight um again returned the items ready for recommendation for funding tonight are the 70.6 6 in central office, the 23.8 of centrally funded school positions, and 306 million in school budgets. So, when looking at those three buckets, that's how those amounts break down. In total, that would be combined of all of those, again, if the board were to accept um any or all of those items for consideration tonight would be
162543.1 million. That's where we derived the what we have left to spin from the target is the 84.8. What that doesn't show and maybe what was missing from the whole context was that the total ask of the 688 by category means even after those items there's $55 million in central office, 40.7 in the centrally funded school positions bucket and 50 million in the school budgets bucket. there are still for future consideration of recommendation which equals 145.7 million that needs to fit into the 84.8. So hopefully that gives us a little more context around the how it fits into the whole picture. I know that was something that was of interest. So this goes back to what we saw last week. Um again broken down the way you saw it last week includes the budget book.
163Um, you also have the budget book for the legally required items. And really the intent behind that hopefully provides both the executive narrative, the narratives on a budget base level as well as a breakdown all the way to the item level and categorical levels so that we could try to, you know, satisfy the variety of options and needs for the variety of board members would like to see it presented so they can dig into it to the level they would like to. So you have both of those budget books. What's been added is the school-based staffing by group and school location link here that was requested which gives a further breakdown of the schoolbased staff state, federal, and CBA compliance categorically. And then there's also a link that's not in this but is also on
164board docs that breaks it down to the individual school level and position level. This is just a summary again of what those positions on a higher level would look like. But that detail are are available at the other links. So then the natural question is is understanding what the items really represent in the context of the whole picture. That 145.7 million that is still there for future consideration. I believe the question would have to be what is in that 145 145.7 that is still for the future consideration? What comprises it? So looking at that across again the three buckets essentially in central office you can see how that breaks down the the there's a variety of amounts through equipment supplies and other but the biggest one two categories are the services which are primarily not
165exclusively but primarily almost all of them those are service contracts. the contracts. The second biggest bucket is staffing. In the centrally funded school positions bucket, what that leaves for future consideration is around $64.5 million comprised of roughly 752 positions spread across that sampling list of the categories of positions. And finally in the last category of the school budgets, you have the non-personnel budget and samples of what is included in the 6.8 there as well as the nonCPA nonCBA positions that are based on school practice CPA CPS practice as opposed to negotiated through the CBA for 26.2 and the 171 positions and the associated positions there. So we provide this hopefully in an effort to provide more clarity around what is in each of the pieces that are to be talked about, what's being talked about,
166and what is still to be talked about. which hope and intentionally reframes potentially what we saw last week when we're looking at the graph or the the um visualization of the layers as they've been added all the way up to what comes next which is looking at that 145 the 84 available and determining how we divide that into the appropriate pathways we've been discussing again just a slightly different look and then finally the links related to the items presented previously and the questions that were submitted by the board that have been shared with all and all of them have been answered. So next we'll be looking at evaluating the pathways and where we go with those. >> Thank you Jeremy. So in evaluating the pathways just to start with a reminder on the next slide
167to everyone of what we have previously discussed as the three and the default pathway added as well is whether or not we're talking about decentralizing how much is happening at central office that can go back into the school houses. whether we're looking at pre-COVID levels for staffing with our budget or whether we are doing more work to leverage our partnerships which has been a theme throughout um today as well. Again, if we make no further changes, that is the default pathway. And so on the next few slides, you'll see uh for each of the pathways what we consider the benefits, some of the risk, and some of the effects on our academic outcomes. So, for example, if we hone in on the decentralized operations, this would keep schools fully staffed as of what we know
168today and you have that information and it keeps as much of the district personnel and dollars close to the kids as possible and we wouldn't see reductions at the schoolhouse level. But there are some risks that we can come up with and you may be able to think of others. um a major risk around the reduction of central office really being able to have the level of support needed and necessary to support schools. Are are there going to be any task that the schools simply cannot pick up that they traditionally have relied on central office personnel? And if it goes to a model where there could be 66 schools doing a process in a variety of different ways, there could be some lack of consistency there. And then uh the treasurer will tell me that
169there could be some financial risk and some compliance risk and slower operations. And then you see the effect on the academic outcomes there. Um moving more direct access should provide quicker assessment and reactions to emergent needs that we will have. You heard earlier the conversation around MTSS and the district and the state moving away from PBIS. um and positive school culture. More individualized attention is possibility. Uh that should provide more educational supportive services and make us more efficient by uh we looked at spending some of the time uh at a central office role and the other part of the time uh played out in a schoolhouse. So on the next slide you'll see pathway two. Oh I'm sorry. Yep. Pathway two precoid level staffing and programming. you'll see the same a listing of some benefits
170and we talked in budget and finance for example last Friday about the benefits of using KPIs and the KPI process you've seen a little bit more broadly um to understand and make sure that we're getting the return on investment that we need if we were to go back to those types of levels of staffing and programming. We talked about the risks. Um an over reliance on the efficiency can result in a loss of effectiveness for example and we want to do as much as we can to avoid that effect on academic outcomes. The greater accountability would be necessary um to drive the performance levels that we want to have and there are some possible ways to do that and to look at what we're currently doing in a different way. And then you see some
171variations. We have talked um multiple times about blending pathways one, two, and actually you'll see a little bit later um pathway three as well. On the next slide, we look at pathway three, leveraging our partners and investing in talent. Um we want to really make sure that uh we have partners who can deliver on the services that our kids need in order to be successful and provide those services in a way that is uh acceptable uh and beyond to us. There are certain risks that come with that in terms of not having Cincinnati public school employees. Is that the road we want to go down uh more? For example, we've had that with resource coordination. We've had that with nursing services in the past and we've made changes over the last couple of years in
172both of those areas. The effect on academic outcomes. Uh there is the possibility of having programming that's more tailored to the specific needs of the schools. Uh there is we always always have partners who want to work with us, who want to assist us and get closer to um our students in terms of helping them with their outcomes. Um, and then higher proficiency in educators should align with the high academic achievement that we expect for our young people. Jeremy is going to talk about uh the way we're approaching building the budget. >> So, inevitably in the coming weeks, there's going to be a conversation not just around what are the future considerations for recommendations, but there will be a list of course that is not recommended for funding at this time. And we want to
173not focus exclusively on that idea in that area, but be able to provide a positive look at this is what our schools will have. These are the services that we are going to provide. This is how we're going to do it. So, this is an effort to build a profile through a budget lens for our schools as we work through the pathways in this process to provide an insight into what that school will have going forward both from a staffing standpoint, from the services standpoint, and also provide insight just into the school as a whole. There's a lot of conversations that always are opining, you know, how does that impact the academics, how does that impact the student population from a demographic standpoint. So hopefully as we move forward providing the next budget book, those
174pathways, this will be a portion of that that'll help you be able to have insight into what our offerings look like. This is just a couple of samples as you can notice in the watermark. These are the the one is for a K8 at a at AWL. The other is a high school example, but both of these are examples built on current staffing, current what they are at, and not reflective of what the final proposals may be. But we wanted to provide insight into what it's going to look like as we provide the next layer to go along with the next budget book. >> Good evening. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all tonight as we continue this conversation and I wanted to share where internal audit fits into the mix. So internal
175audit of course is independent and objective and so in that sense we would not be in a position to make a choice or a specific recommendation around a budget uh pathway or specific decision. However, it's just the opposite benefit we have then through that objectivity. We are able to partner with the board and our management to say what are the risks and considerations we should have as we explore possible pathways. So I appreciate the opportunity to provide that lens as a third party and advise both again the board and our management team as we dig deeper at this stage. It truly means looking at things from a financial compliance and operational risk perspective and considering what types of solutions and controls might be able to be engineered to fill potential gaps that we have in
176our budget as we look ahead. And then further as we analyze this risk that inevitably will emerge, how do we design audit projects that are targeted to ensure the outcomes that we intend to see are in fact occurring? So, I wanted to share all of that and with the invitation of the superintendent and treasurer this evening, uh our partnership as we look into fiscal 27 and these uh difficult decisions we have ahead, how we'll be prepared to ensure consistency. So, thank you. >> And then finally, just to kind of lay on the plane, um we took took the up and down graphic and flipped it on its side to put it to put it into a timeline. So you can see the the kind of dark blue line there at the bottom is kind of
177the we are here graph. Um you know we have we've we've went through legal compliance. We have a list of items at this point that already recommend for funding and then we have the pathways. The the idea is based on feedback receive that probably the pathways would would combine or merge into into one or two pathways and and then one pathway would would be the overall winner that would be the one that would be the basis of the final the finishing of the budget. >> All righty. Um I will open the floor for discussion to board members. Board member Bolton. >> Thank you. And again, I think this is as I've been here a long time as we all know. Um this is as complete and as specific and as well thought out as I
178can recall uh in a budget process and I appreciate it. I also know we're on an accelerated effort to not only make sure we don't have an extended budget, but to actually try to approve it long before the deadline in part because of the strategic plan. Um, I have a couple of questions if I could, Mr. Chair, and I need some clarification for the school-based staff, state and federal compliance, which is that 93 million uh in the early uh uh file. We've seen these numbers uh before too. The schoolbased staff CBA compliance which is the 235 in those two numbers are service contracts included. >> Th those numbers are completely staffed. There's no contracts, supplies or other items. >> Okay. So this these numbers uh 93 and the 235 are specifically uh staffing positions. >>
179Yes, these are employee salaries and benefits >> at the schools. >> Yes, at the schools, >> not at central office. >> The these are all located at the schools. >> And I appreciate that you kind of housed them and that helped me a lot. I'm I'm still stunned that in almost every one of our schools, our teachers make up less than half or less than half of the personnel compliment at every school building. That is something that's very very different than the suburbs. Extremely different. And it's our clientele. It's our CBAs with any number of our unions. But very frankly that that's always been a stunning thing for me uh for 15 years uh when we started to see school budgets. So that still worries me a great deal. But um this is just staffing
180four schools and to your recommendation these two large numbers uh are what actually required. There's not a lot of debate about this. this is what you guys have assessed we have to have or we're required to have not what we have to have but what we're required to have. >> Yeah, I'll let the superintendent weigh in as well. But um >> yeah, looking at and there is available on board docs and I think in the packets there is a list of both staff by title and total numbers as well as staff by school. Uh, and you can see I think kind of on the next slide there, Rob, if if you're going along like the state, the federal compliance of sign language interpreters. It's kind of hard to say we wouldn't do that. Um, the
181state compliance again are things like principles, um, intervention specialists, one-on-one pair professionals and LPNs that are required by a student's IEP. Again, legal council Hoyen can tell you, you know, how how that works. And then the CBA compliance is is classroom teachers to to meet the um agreed upon staffing ratios um including you know the PAMS which aren't PAMS anymore. There's a lot more there's a lot more letters to it now >> includes includes technology. >> I remember when it was just PAM >> yes there's a lot more of it. Um as well as you know clerical support staff are built into the C5 collective bar agreement. building engineers are part of the local 20 collective bargaining agreement >> and the administration's willing or ready to well you're ready to recommend a lot of these
182not just these two categories. Are you all ready to recommend all of these numbers tonight for approval? Yes, absolutely. Um we do believe that the second and third schoolbased staff uh that is state and federal compliance as well as the CBA compliance we um have pretty much already committed to uh especially having completed um going through the CBA this past um fall and winter. Um and so yes, we're we would be ready to ask for your support on all of those. and then either to the treasurer or the superintendent if I might that then if we were to do those two uh that that does not mean that everybody that everyone may want or every position at every school that everyone has hoped for or feels they need is actually on that list necessarily. I
183mean there's there are staffing issues still at schools to be determined. >> Absolutely. >> Yes. But these are the ones that are okay. Uh right now for me I I would be willing to to uh deal with these two long big numbers because I'm not yet ready for some of this other stuff especially vendor contracts and and u some of the other kinds of u opportunities we might have. But thanks for the clarification on those two. If we did those two and we're it's like 329 something. Um how much how far do we still have to go to get to the the budget total number? >> If if we if just the uh schoolbased staff were approved tonight that would leave us I think about 155 million away from the target. >> Okay. Thank you.
184that that's a comfort level that I have right now because I'm not comfortable yet on the vendor contracts. I'm not comfortable in a number of the items besides that whether it's resource coordination or you know social workers or whatever but this at least this is the required thing. Well, thank you so much that helps me. >> Other board members >> go board member. Y'all don't all have to rush at once. Uh, Roberts, >> I think everyone's just waiting on someone else. Um, this is so amazing. You took the feedback we gave you last time and really came back with an incredibly thoughtful result. So, thank you. You heard us. I appreciate it. Um I'm struggling a little bit because I am fighting myself on it and that I see the benefit in decentralizing but also
185fear so much the inequity that that could lead to. So, um I think this blending concept is is where I will likely encourage us to land um so that we can have a little bit more um school-based decisionm while also having oversight to ensure equity. Um because you guys pointed it out in here and I think it's right to say that uh resources might not get to the places they need to if we don't have some of that. Um, so that's really where I see myself to to board member Bolton's point. I feel very comfortable voting with the schoolbased staff to recommendations today as well. Um, makes complete sense. Let's um get that done and over with so we can move to other things. Um, yeah, those are my thoughts for right now. Just I
186I think it makes sense. I think the blended idea, the corridor model makes a lot of sense to me. I think there's a lot of value in utilizing that tool that we've built in for ourselves. Um, I've even talked to some schools like the middle schools about making sure that we do a better job of, you know, coordinating amongst the middle schools to talk to families in those corridors and say like here's the plethora of options. So, I think the more we can build camaraderie amount among the corridors, the better. Um, yeah, that those are my thoughts for now. >> All righty. Other board members? Board member Lindy. >> Thank you, President Craig. Uh, I want to start similar to my colleagues to offer some uh appreciation and gratitude on what's put together here. um
187and President Craig I in in particular I think um it's my sixth budget process maybe my seventh budget process uh they're almost always really hard uh that's been particularly true the last three or four years uh and I appreciate the clarity of the process to the board to the administration to the public here's the date by which we need to have a finished budget here's the number of board meetings we have between now and then here's a clear chunking of the work. Uh here's advanced notice of what the vote is going to be. Um here's a chance to ask lots of questions before there's a vote on anything. Here are responses to those questions in time in advance when we can make a vote and march our way towards a budget deadline. Um I do
188think this has been the clearest and best process that I can remember and I want to do my part as a board member uh to support a clear process and and and vote where we need to to make hard decisions. So, I I really appreciate all of that. I also think that our ability this year to deliver to the public and to the staff a clear budget on time is part of what will help build our credibility for future requests to the public for public money. So, the harder that is for us now, I think the less trustworthy we look with future dollars. So, I think doing this year's budget on time and doing it well and following a process is important. Uh, and I want to do my part there. Um, I think I
189just had a couple questions um on slides 15 and 16. Uh, if we can go back to those. Um, so I appreciate the third column and I I think this is a response to some of the questions I was asking before that that my ability to evaluate any of these pathways turns on the impact that it would have on student outcomes. Um, so I appreciate that. I was hoping the superintendent could just say a little bit more about each of the bullets for each of those pathways. I wanted to make sure I totally understood what was different across each one. >> Yes sir. So decentralization kind of uh looks at what we have in central office, the services that we have in central office and can those services be done at the schoolhouse level. But
190it is really important for us to look at what conflicts, what risk could come if we do that very thing. And again remember this is in isolation and without considering the other possibilities and initially this even started before we uh had the thoughts um from the board about u things like the corridor model or having a blending. So it would be really painful uh the level of reduction that it would take just focusing on central office. We would almost be wiping out uh central office. It would be really challenging. And so what we've done is talked about what would that look like if every department was uniform in what it had to be able to deliver that services and the oversight. some would be a little bit more manageable than others, especially if you're a
191single person doing the role as it is um right now. So there is some concern about lack of consistency across departments, but then what impact would that have on the schoolhouse without having the same level of um support that we have right now? Um so for example u this last year we talked about not having the pony system and so the bullet point at the end of the risk slower operation processing and so what came up was we thought we could do the system um maybe twice a week but then there was worry and concern that it would take away efficiencies in terms of student records and other things. And so we learned from that piece that that might be a consideration we want to take in into consideration, I'm sorry, um with this process.
192So slower operations and maybe not even having the operation exist anymore. Um so more direct access should provide quicker assessment and reaction to emergent needs. just speaks to being able to see where the gaps are, what our problems or concerns are, and where we might have to pivot throughout this process. More individualized attention should make providing educational support services more efficient. We don't want to lose the efficiency. We want to make sure that we continue to prioritize academic outcomes and whatever adjustments we may have to make. So while it may be really hard and challenging to think about and it is how we do business now, there's going to not be a way under this model to continue to do the work as we've done them this current year and prior years. >> If I
193can respond to that, then I did want to look at the 16 kind of same questions about that last column. If we can just stay on 15 for a second. Um, and maybe it's not 16, it's whatever the pathway to version of this is. Uh I I I think the risks make sense to me on this slide. I don't know that I buy the right column on the positives because this is basically saying we push out from the central office a series of things the central office does onto the schools, but we're not giving the schools any more capacity to do those things. So we're essentially diluting the bandwidth of the people who are already there and asking them to do a lot more. I understand that that's one way to solve the budget problem.
194It just seems like I don't think that gets us more direct access. I think that gets us less. >> Well, I think if you had the specifics, which is hard to do at this point in the process um because then you're talking about um more directly what will happen to who's at central office right now. So some of the conversation is all right um we have some people who are in central office full-time 1.0 but do they have the expertise and the ability to spend some of that time anyway in the field strengthening what's offered in the field? Um someone brought up the last time instead of all of the services going maybe there's still some leveling of being able to maintain here at central office. Does that help? Thanks, Mike. >> Can I >>
195Yeah, >> I I would say just as just for example to to kind of go on that point, I would say, you know, through your through your travels in the district, you've met plenty of employees who would tell you that central office slows them down, you know, and prevents them from do doing things that need to be done. I mean, that's a that's a common criticism we all get at central office. And so and and so part of this decentralized thing is, okay, pull that thread. you know what what does it look like if if people have more are more empowered at the school level you know to change things that they see right in front of their face without having to come back to central office as much I mean there is obviously there's
196a risk of inconsistency but there's also the potential benefit of innovations that we that we're not seeing >> right those just sound like two different things like like I hear you saying treasurer Look, there are plenty of people who would like to be able to move more quickly at the school site without being tied up by central office. And superintendent, I hear you saying maybe instead of quite as many people in the central office, we have fewer and they split their time between being in the central office and being in the schools. Those are both, I think, interesting. They just seem different. And it could be that we we don't know enough yet. >> Um, and I don't want to take up too much time. Um could could we just for in maybe one or
197two minutes max I' I'd just get a voice over of the far right column on this slide. >> So on the far right column on this slide about the precoid levels it's really given us an opportunity to take a look on at what kinds of things are really working for us and impactful for us doesn't necessarily mean if it were added in 2023 that it's going away. It could be long before that. It's just a particular level of staffing and programming. We've tried to add more um based on what people are saying they need or they want to see. For example, I I don't it's hard to give an example. Um but there may have been something we added last year or three years ago. We're not getting the bang for the buck for that.
198So, for example, this is an old one. At one point we added uh APS of culture. Not sure what we got from APS of culture and we don't have APS of culture anymore. So I'm I'm hesitant on giving a current example because I don't want anyone to feel like I'm saying this could be a problem for you. >> That's that's great. And I I want to be thoughtful about the hour and other people's comments, too. My very last question is um for the superintendent, what's your recommendation for which of these pathways would have the best outcome on the students? >> A blended a blended model of all of them. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. >> Uh Vice President Buffett. >> Okay. So, um I'll try to be brief, although that's not necessarily been my my pattern.
199Um I'm ready to vote on what I'm ready to vote on what we have are contractually obligated to do, which is the CBAs at the schools and I I think um not the state and federal. Absolutely. If we are contractually obligated, I think we we we better follow the follow the law. So, those I'm ready to vote on. What I thought with regard to the pathways, what I thought we were going to be getting was kind of a proposal, kind of a thought like some ideation from you two around a mixture of the pathways. I thought we had kind of said, hey, there's one through three, but then come up with something different. And I feel like we are shuffling around the same pieces on the board and not creating anything new. And I I
200really really really want to hear something different from administration around how can we if we have to do everything the same way that we've been doing it, there's a deficit. We all know that. The report was depressing, but it was true. So this is an opportunity to reinvent what learning looks like as best we can, maybe at a cost that's more efficient. And so I just hear the same things, cuts, cuts, cuts. And I'm not saying that those are not justified on some level regarding efficiency. But what I'm not hearing is we could redistribute this this way and make this department more robust or we could um we've done a needs assessment on um at the school level on centralization centralizing this and this is what's needed from the schools for the from central to
201the schools. So this is what we know we need to have. Like I don't I don't feel as if there's the due diligence around justifying any of these. It's just moving shuffling things around to get to a to an end. And I have invited multiple times for creativity for innovation because our kid we can't we can't go back to pre-COVID. It's just not realistic. And quite frankly, those students aren't in our seats any longer. We have students who are completely different than precoid. Um, as far as academics, as far as staffing, our staff is different. Everybody's been impacted. So, to go back to pre-COVID seems as if it just doesn't it's just it's a checkbox. But to create something different, what does that look like? And I feel like there's just too many questions that
202are unanswered as far as what what does a needs assessment say? Have you all done that? Have you all actually talked about redistributing roles, role redistribution, role restructuring, redistributing, remaking departments instead of trying to just cut this? And and I know I've asked who's going to do that work, what does it look like? And um I we just don't have that. So I think my problem with phase pathway one is we've witnessed with enrollment that there's inconsistencies and getting the information to the school level and having that information be maintained with um consistent fidelity. So some schools heard one thing, some schools heard another thing. Some parents heard they can go and do this at the school level but then they weren't being they were told that they couldn't do that. So I am cautious
203about decentralizing if it doesn't come within with fidelity from the central out then the information is going to be not consistent and that's where you get inequity because it's not people hear different things different ways and I think um that that's my concern is that I don't feel that there's a dedicated I haven't heard one maybe I've missed it a dedicated ated plan on let's come up with a pathway that is maybe different. It works. It fulfills all of our legal obligations. It fulfills all the CDAs and it's going to save us some money. I just hear we're trying to do the same old thing differently. We're going to cut. We're going to cut. It's 170 some jobs. And that's depressing. What is new that we can come up with? And I I just I
204really I thought we were going to get a pathway four or pathway five that said, "Hey, this is this is what we're thinking about." I do really want a needs assessment so that I can understand what you all see and what you're thinking. But as far as voting uh on what we absolutely have to do, I guess that's I would consider all of that high prior priority and we need to vote on that. But um I'm really struggling with seeing the vision that um I'm asking for around doing something different because we have different kids and we are in different times. I just don't I just don't see that and I'm I'm kind of begging that we do and I think the strategic plan engagement is far along enough that there is some feedback that
205you all can come up with to come and and generate some different ideas. So that would be my ask multiple times now is that we get some information about doing some things differently. And what does that look like from a budget standpoint? >> All righty. Um board member Matt. >> Uh yes. So I won't I will do my best not to restate the things that's already been said, but I think it's great that there is alignment um amongst the board in terms of what we're um looking for. I do appreciate the organization right that has been provided around the the budget budget conversation. Um so as I've shared before and shared in our budget finance meeting, I am in favor of the the two as I've heard my colleagues say around the state and federal
206compliance as well as the CBA compliance. Uh my question pertaining to that does that staffing only consist of the um um the information that or the positions that were listed? I know that within the CBA there are other um opportunities right for um different assignments such as maybe um a testing coordinator. That's not this is only pertaining to those positions that were listed for the state and CBA compliance. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Um, so my my other my other thoughts are again I do want to also ensure that there's intersectionality with how we're having the budget conversation. So not just focusing on what our to target goal is, excuse me, but how it will help to uh yield those outcomes. Right? So, as we're looking at um the budget, recognizing where we're trying to get
207to, but also how does this impact the work and do we have the capacity to maintain that operational efficiency because that is something that uh is very important. And so I think board member Moffett talked about a needs assessment, but I also I think is I think it's helpful for us to look at those um maybe positions or those departments that are yielding results. I know that the schools have the one plans. Are we looking at those one plans to see if we're getting the um outcomes that we're desiring, how it works towards our um district plans uh or different district goals. So, I think that is something that could be helpful as we're considering um the budget conversation as well. And then lastly, I'm interested to know um and this is for um our
208chief auditor. Um I'm really interested in those internal controls. So, I know that you have a very objective lens in this, but if you could speak towards um what that support would look like for us, right? because a lot of this work will have to, you know, include that discussion. Um, yes, we're recognizing that from a financial lens, this is where we need to be. We're recognizing from a compliance lens, but how do we make sure that we're incorporating those internal, excuse me, internal controls um, in the discussion? >> I'd be happy to answer the second portion about internal audit. I think the key as we've started to brainstorm is how is internal audit going to be different this year because I think quite frankly we're all going to need to be different this year
209and how um we can partner and really we've talked from just a financial perspective to start as an example. How do we target our testing and our risk analysis around the most critical areas? So just to give an example, if we historically have been focused on process improvement or operational efficiencies, perhaps this year we have a bit more of a take to say we're going to analyze large data sets and we're going to identify outliers and communicate those in real time. So that way if we have a mistake perhaps on a payment or payroll or payment to a vendor, for example, we're catching that in real time and we're able to make those corrections. So I think that's where we have to get creative in leveraging internal audit objectively but then also um to provide
210real-time feedback. But I think at a macro what's most helpful at this point is looking at our organization and understanding that regardless of the route that we will take there will be tradeoffs and how do we most uh proactively evaluate those risks and provide a approach that protects the district as best as possible. financially, operationally, compliance, and ultimately preserving the best outcomes for our students. >> Thank you. That's helpful because I think for me um as we're moving out of the compliancebased um discussion and we're looking at the uh centrally managed budgets, as we're looking at the vendor contracts um and the different pathways, I am going to be looking for those informed um kind of conversations, right? Like what is driving this? not just so we're getting to a target number, but how this
211is going to work um together as a collective unit um and what informed information we have to support right or provide rationale around these decisions. And then just lastly, Superintendent Murphy and uh Treasurer Augustine, are we uh considering or have we considered the conversation around looking at those one plan goals that each school has and um and how that drives the budget conversation. So we have not specifically looked at one plans. However, we have considered and talked about taring of the schools to understand their needs and that information really is derived from their goals and their results or their outcomes which is embedded in the strategic plan. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All righty. Um, do you have anything with me? Yeah, I just had a uh a question around um the
212Well, first of all, I am prepared to vote on the u the two levels of compliance. I I think that makes a lot of sense and I really appreciate the detail that was provided about by school and by the FTEEs and the teachers and all those things. That's a lot of great detail and I I understand that it's based on most likely enrollment. So, it's not even based on current, but it's it's forward looking on where on how many students we might have in in the schools. I do think that um one thing that maybe could help with uh help our our board when we come back to look at the the the 154,000 that's still out there is um have some sort of a I like the idea of a blended you trying to
213use some of the blended pathways, especially one and two. I have some concern about leaning too heavily on our partnerships because um they are there's there's a lot less guarantee with with what they can deliver. I also think that uh we've done uh I think our assistant superintendent has done some surveys of our partners and it and uh some of there's some of that partnership uh work probably needs to be strengthened no matter what we do. But we're grateful for our partners. They're amazing and we have like over 200 strategic partners. It's just absolutely amazing. So, I wouldn't lean on that um pathway as much. I think one thing that we you could do with the blended partners or blended pathways of one and two is to really use the um acade academic outcome potential
214as a guidepost on how best to al maybe make a proposal or a range of proposals on how how to um how you might best want that money to be spent. Um so those are just my thoughts and and um but uh yes thank you for everything you've provided so far. Appreciate it and the presentation. Thank you. >> All righty. Uh, I'll give my thoughts. Um, and then if there's anyone else who has quick comments before we move on to the next presentation and then we'll come back after the next presentation to do a vote. Um, just because it's way it's on the agenda. Um, and also to give uh vice president a chance to get back to her seat. Um, but um, I want to say again thank everyone who's participating in this process
215and in bringing this information to us. I I want to acknowledge that we have the high priority we have documentation on board docs that includes the budget items uh questions and answers. So the questions that the board member submitted to the treasurer and superintendent to be answered the summary of what the schoolbased staffing looks like for each of the schools. We have a document on that actually just covers them by categories. So you can actually see what those different categories were under each of those things each of those topics and then as well a list of the vendor services. This is a lot of information that's been provided that is there to to guide a lot of the discussion and understanding and and I appreciate that level of information provided. I think you know the
216consensus seems to be that the uh school-based uh collective bargaining agreement as well as the federal and state compliance seems to be what would be getting approval today from the board which is again huge step forward. So not I don't want to I don't want to say that that that we we are not making progress because we are and I think that's what's important. I will say I'm also hearing a a pretty well consensus around this idea of a hybrid of of whether it's one, two, one, two, and three of the pathways might be the one that would get some driving support with more thorough kind of uh background to it and more information around it. So, I mean, I I almost feel like it's without leading too far into what I am hearing from
217board members. Um, I think it'd be worthwhile just to see kind of more of an exploration of that at a future board meeting to really give us a more direct pathway for you all to to lean on and to do the real work. Um, yeah, I caught that after after I said it. Uh but what I will say also and I think this is one of the things that no matter which pathway we were to head down and and what direction we head down, I do think there's a culture change that needs to happen in the district. And that culture change is really about two things. One of them is what board member Lindy was asking questions about, which is that we have to be looking at what gets us to the to the goal
218we set for academic results. And at the end of the day, if it does not get us there, then we have to hold not just the people but the system accountable to say that this is not achieving what we set out for it to achieve and we have to address that. That is a large difference in how generally educational institutions work. Whether it's higher ed or K through 12 or pre-K through 12, there's this world of we started something, we cannot leave it until it falls apart or until we change leadership. And in a lot of ways, we have to be more nimble than that going forward if we're going to be able to effectively use the dollars that we're being limited to, whether we get a new levy, whether we don't. Right? Right. And
219so I think there's a there's a conversation that also has to come from us as a board, but also has to come through the discussions we're going to have around those pathways of how we're going to change the culture that drives results. Because I do think even if you add more direct access to, for instance, if you had more direct access to enrollment at the school building, one of the problems we saw was each building had a different standard of of doing enrollment. And so some schools kids got in really quickly. It was really easy. In some schools, kids were hoping that somebody would answer their call one day. And like that level of accountability has to absolutely change no matter what pathway we go down. And I and so I do think that whatever
220conversation we have I I think that to maybe board member Matt's point of having the larger systemic conversation point we have to be able to talk about how whatever change we decide to do both builds this big map of not got to stop doing this favor builds these big courses that say every part of this fills this goal fills this opportunity for us to reach the goal and that if we do these things in concert both providing these services in different way leading some services back towards the school so they have more direct access to students but also leading some accountability on top of those models so that we keep some centralized methodology to it that these things will then inevitably lead to better academic results for these reasons and that's the part that I
221do think if we get by giving you a more def defined pathway to use or to utilize when that blended model we could get a better answer for how that would work. I think when we give you like five models to do, it's really hard to say which of these five will achieve this without diving too far into them because the more substantive depth you dive into it, the more time it takes. So I I mean I look forward to the opportunity to have you all maybe dive into that blended model in a more focused way to be able to give us a better idea but also be able to give us a better idea of what's needed at central office because I do think there is a culture that we are also still to
222the uh chief auditor's earlier point about maybe reforming some of the things we do. we shouldn't also lose some of the areas within central office that we were really needing to do oversight on that we were really needing to improve and and change the culture of that we've been needing to do for a while but um so I I look forward to that opportunity to maybe with a more focused approach that we can be able to get some of those results and information in for the next meeting. Um, the one one last thing I I would say about wherever path we go down, I I think we also have to acknowledge that there are going to be things that we don't do and there are going to be people who will not be in the
223district next year that are in the district this year. And I and I know that's hard to hear sometimes and it's harsh to hear sometimes, but I think we didn't do this enough in some of the other conversations we had when we made substantial changes to the district is that some people will be hurt by the decisions we make. And that is a hard and tough and rough situation to deal with, but it just means something we need to acknowledge. um that the for the betterment of the district, for the things that will make our students learn more and achieve more, there will be some changes that do not bring everybody on along the way. And in some cases, those are positions or those are those are folks who people like people absolutely like. And
224so, we're going to hear it from that that person who tells us, I need you to keep that one other here. I need you to keep that one other that person. And we as a board have to be willing to willing to acknowledge and and hear the pain and and say that yes, we understand, but also be able to provide that that shield at times for the hard districts that for the hard decisions that'll be made by the district so that we recognize and appreciate why people might be hurting, why people might be uh feel a certain way about a certain person, but also to say that we need to do what is best for the whole district even though somebody may be feeling that pain and that difficulty and I and I appreciate that
225because we we we were in in a hard position at times to do that because we get a lot of the community feedback. But I want us to be able to stand together on some of those things. So that's why I'm I'm excited about the opportunity to be able to have a 70 vote on as much of this budget as we can because I think if we have a 70 vote on as much of it as we can and we get to that point we get a 70 vote at the end that allows us to stand in solidarity to be that shield for those members of the district who are going to be doing the hard work to keep our kids learning. So, I'm I'm excited about this opportunity, but I want us also to
226stay on uh target over the next couple weeks because we again have four meetings before our budget has to be passed. And so, um it's not a lot of time, but there's a lot of space for us to get that work done. Uh, board member RER, >> I just want to say something really quickly because you um you saying that um made me want to ask a favor from the administration and because what he said is so correct and that none of these decisions are personal and we want to keep everyone in this district because we know everyone cares and we I can't even tell you it's it's incredibly difficult. But what would be really helpful from you guys as we have to make these decisions is as much data and information about the outcomes
227like they both have said like how is this going to directly impact the outcomes for our students because for the seven of us here that's what we were elected to do. And so if we can make a good conscious decision about student outcomes, we can ensure that none of these decisions are based on personal decisions, right? We can say we were informed that this is going to be the best for student outcomes. And we can do that with a good conscience. So, I'm asking for you guys as you're preparing this, as much information as you can give us on how you predict this to impact students, the the more informed and the more clear we can be with our directives. >> Um, so I'm actually going to go back on what I said earlier. We
228are going to vote on this uh before we go to the next presentation because vice president Moffett is back and so uh they can see it's on the screen. Um but before do I just want to also reiterate one other thing and that is that I think the other part to this conversation is that there are still efforts to do things like enrollment increasements and these other things that are the things around the edges that will have to be a part of it. So I do think there's a space to have that conversation. Again, I think some of the same things like some of the services that we talked about earlier with Jeremy about how do those things fit into whatever the model looks like as to be efficiencies within the system. So that type
229of stuff that we can sit there and say, man, we really need to revisit this because we're going to have less people to do this work. So, we really can't have onetoone devices if we're going to have to repair every device if someone breaks. Or if we're going to be providing services to our multilingual learners, we're really going to need to be able to target some more services on one side of the city versus less services on another. Like that type of thing within whatever is proposed will make it easier for us also to gather how you're going to get to those numbers. Uh, board member Lindy and then board member Bolton. I'm going to make a motion that we accept the administration's recommended uh funding for tonight. That includes the centrally managed budgets, the
230school-based staff for state and federal compliance, and the school-based staff for CBA compliance. >> All right. >> I will I will second, but I would also like to think in terms of an uh amending it slightly. >> Okay. And I think it's the the motion as it stands is great. I would just make an an addition saying that recognizing that the budget 27 process is not yet complete. So many school and central office positions, vendor contracts, and many major operations are yet to be determined. >> That's fine. Okay. Uh Treasure Augustine, do you have that uh friendly amendment added? Yeah, if someone could read the whole thing again, that'd be great. >> Uh, >> yeah, I think it starts with the motion is that the board adopt the recommended funding tonight that includes centrally managed
231budgets, school-based staff for state and federal compliance, and school-based staff for CBA compliance. I'm just reading that off of slide seven. And then member Balden has something that will come after a comma. >> Yes. While recognizing that the budget 27 process is not yet complete, so many school and central office positions, vendor contracts, and many major operations are yet to be determined. >> Okay. Uh J guessing you have that. You need one more. >> All right. So motion by Mr. Lindy, second by Miss Bolton. >> Uh so open up for discussion. I see uh board member map. >> Um yes. So I appreciate the caveat that was added by member Bolton. Um, but I just I believe that I got the consensus for the most part was that we were okay with the state and
232federal compliance and the CBA compliance because of the very reason that there was a lot that still needed to be determined under the centrally managed budget. So, I'm in support of those two call outs for state and federal and CBA compliance, but I'm not yet in support of the centing centrally managed budgets. Um, so that was my that was my understanding just kind of getting um the consensus of what I've heard from the the board >> um comment. I I don't think centrally managed budgets is part of the >> that was I I motioned that we adopt the full recommendation from the administration. >> Oh, you're right. Thanks for catching that. I didn't even hear that. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry. I second it then. >> So now we need to vote on
233that. Well, so >> um we could or there's no second. So if nobody else wants to second that, then >> I mean she can always remove her second. Um >> I I'll remove the second. I just heard the first two. My bad. >> Okay. Um >> well, let me get myself a little bit clearer then. Obviously, are you suggesting everything that's been presented tonight is what you're uh recommending? >> Correct. here >> and that's >> I'm making the assumption that's still the recommendation of the administration. If they have changed the recommendation, I'll withdraw my motion. I'm motioning that we adopt the recommendation of the administration. >> So, uh hearing the motion um now there is or hearing the re motion the uh recommendations from the administration. Uh is there a second to that motion? Okay.
234Hearing none. Is there another motion that would be like to be brought to the floor? Go ahead. You want to Okay, I will um just for clarification, the schoolbased staff state and federal compliance and the schoolbased staff CBA compliance are contractual obligations, right? and legal >> and legal obligations. >> Now the centrally managed budget are those contractually and legal obligations. >> There may be some in there but there's much it's much broader than that. >> Okay. So I make a motion that we accept the recommendation for school-based staff state and federal compliance and schoolbased staff CBA compliance. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Jeff >> M can have it. >> Okay. Uh so you have the >> motion from the vice president, the second from board member map. >> I'd like to
235make a friendly amendment. >> Sure. Discussion board member >> B. >> May I? Okay. Again, recognizing >> Okay. >> Except recognizing the whole >> Yeah. the same thing. >> You're going to hand me that piece of paper, right? Yes. Thank you, ma'am. >> I I just think I think it's important. I don't want people in the hinterland and everywhere to think that what we just voted on means that all school positions >> have been adopted or accepted or all whatever. I think we have to make those exceptions or people will be confused within a week. >> Is that friendly amendment accepted by the motioner? >> Yes. >> Okay. Any other discussion? Seeing none, Treasure August call. >> Miss Arberster, >> yes. >> Miss Bolton, >> yes. >> Mr. Crosset, >> yes. >> Mr. Lindy, >>
236yep. >> Miss Matt, >> yes. >> Vice President Moffett, >> yes. >> President Gray, >> yes. All right, so the motion has passed. Excellent job, everybody. Um, moving to our final pres. Oh, yeah. Sorry, Treasure Gus. Can I just quick quick quick clarification as we go back and try to and work through the budget stuff. Um there >> so so the 70 million from centrally managed that was not approved means there is a 155.4 remaining. So, I'm going to go on a limb and say that the that the board would expect that the proposal or proposals that come back next would be fully inclusive of that 155 million and would show some blending of the pathways. >> I believe that is uh yes, I believe that is yes. So, so again to clarify for next
237meeting May 4th, we'll bring that exact presentation there. We will still not vote until May 18th just to give people time to understand, dissect, listen to, make any recommendations and go from there. But the hope and the goal would be at that May 18th meeting we will have passed it and then June it will be just to pass the full budget as it's all detailed out and all the nice prettiness. Um, and then we might be done in the early in June. Look at that y'all. Uh but we might the goal is to still give time for up to two readings of the full budget in June. >> Yes, Warner Cross. >> Yeah, I I just um I think in in uh support of uh board member Lindy's motion that didn't get a second. I
238do think that I do think though that the 70 million that the that the administration is recommending I think uh I'm hoping that the that that that that won't that recommendation won't get lost and the justification for that can be more fully presented at at our next meeting. Uh I want to be able to support the administration and where they think what what needs to get done. So, um, for what it's worth, I don't I don't even though you're talking about looking at the whole 154 million remaining, don't necessarily lose what you proposed for for tonight in the justification of that. Does that make sense? >> Yes. >> Okay. And then very briefly, Miss uh, board member Bolton. >> Yeah. I think that the 70 was the thing that was actually presented to us first
239in the greatest specificity. U, so that would be good to review that. I think too to listening to what everyone has said this evening, you have an idea as to what is expected from y'all in the presentation or in the justification as to what people are looking whether it's something different, something innovative, something uh explaining justification regarding academics or what have you. So I I I think you have enough guidance as to what we will be looking for. Thanks. >> All righty. Um, thank you all for that part of the presentation. Uh, Superintendent Murphy, let's our last presentation, which is again my favorite new part of our presentation section is our our communities. So, speaking of enrollment, earlier today, uh, we have been doing some work and had some conversation around retention and recruitment. Uh,
240I think we told you previously that our general counsel sent out a records request uh to all of the charter schools in our area. Uh, some responded, some were unable to respond, but we do have a plan that uh, Miss Sheily Green is going to walk you through in terms of trying to uh, recruit students back to our school district. >> Thank you, Superintendent Murphy, Treasure August, Board. Um, thank you for the opportunity to come before you this evening and talk about our charter school recruitment strategy. Um, I'm asking for your feedback and perspective on how we move forward in winning back our students and families to Cincinnati public schools. Specifically, I would like your feedback on the direction of this work, how boldly we should position CPS in this space, and whether this should
241evolve beyond a targeted effort into a district-wide strategy. And then next slide. Thank you. Um, looks like my slides may be out of order, but that's okay. Um, if you could navigate to the reality and gap version, Rob, if there's one in there. Nope. Okay, it's been removed. Um, what I did have before you was information that Chief Galahghue presented with regards to our enrollment numbers. So, there was a previous um, Saturday board retreat meeting in which um, Chief Galahghue presented um, data regarding CPS enrollment. What stood out to me from that meeting um was actually board member Map's reflection that that was the first time she had heard heard it plainly acknowledged that enrollment um at Cincinnat schools is declining. Um that was a critical moment in this conversation and continues to be because
242this particular redirect campaign is not simply a communications effort. It is a district-wide issue and it requires all hands on deck. Um so we've as we've seen in enrollment um and now we as excuse me as we've seen our enrollment decline we know that families are making choices. The question is whether or not whether or not this is happening. The question is what is our response? Um over the past 12 months one challenge I have observed that connects directly to this work is this. Families do not experience CPS consistently. And when experience is inconsistent, perception fills the gap. Um, I say that not just as a staff member, but as a CPS parent. I know our difference. Personally, I've experienced what it means when a school team sees their child, respects your voice as a
243parent, and works in true partnership for student success. This is the kind of difference that keeps families at CPS and this is the kind of difference families stay for. So our approach Rob this is going to be Yes. Thank you. Um to better understand this challenge we've taken a targeted approach. Um, senior leadership first identified eight schools um, as informed by the data Chief Galahghue presented. Then, as Superintendent Murphy already mentioned, general counsel pursued public records request of which I believe we received responses of about two to three with the actual direct contact information, others we were not provided with the information. And then with the um support of our executive communications coordinator, Miss Sheila Hess, I began direct engagement that included to date um I visited over about half of our schools, but actually
244conducting formal building tours in about 23 schools. Um and that distinction matters because this work has not been based on assumptions. It has been grounded in listening, observation, and relationship building. We can move on to the next slide. Um, what I've learned is that CPS offers more. Our difference, as it was presented to me from the mouths of some of our principles, is quality instruction, our culture, community partnerships, stability, proven track record of success, and I'm sure that we could all list more. While we know CPS offers more, I want to acknowledge the two big realities our families are responding to. One is transportation and two is perceived behavior. I want to specifically again recognize principal tutor from Evston Academy as well as principal sni Smith from Carson School um whose direct experience within charter
245schools has helped to inform this understanding. As a CPS alum, staff member, and parent, I understand these concerns, but I also again know our differences, and our responsibility is to ensure families understand it as well. Here's the opportunity. If you could move on to the next slide, Rob. Thank you. Um, this began as a redirect strategy for eight schools. I think the opportunity that this has revealed that it's much bigger and that it's a district-wide opportunity. So, my challenge is that we look beyond the eight schools, that we move toward a unified approach to enrollment, engagement, and family experience. Um, knowing that CPS offers more, our families not only must hear it, but they must experience it. And as I've also shared with the superintendent, it takes the same amount of bandwidth to market and
246focus on eight schools as it would all of the schools in our district. What's next? If we can move on to the next slide. Um we also have to equip our schools. So to support this work, our office is introducing branding office hours for our principles. This will help support school messaging, visual identity, partner engagement, and consistent communication tools. Um, the reality is that if we want our families to understand CPS, our schools have to be equipped to tell their story and to do it confidently. As a final call to action, I will ask that our community um engage in our engagement survey and continue to pro provide their feedback to us on what they would like to see. I'll take this time to answer questions or receive any feedback. >> All righty. Uh, board
247member Arburster. >> I'll just say yes to all of this. I informed the superintendent after the last meeting that I think we should be out in the community talking to people over and over about how amazing the programs are within our school schools. Um yes, just we have so many opportunities for growth, so many opportunities to improve. We talk about that a lot. We don't talk about the successes that we have enough. And um we have so many unique successes within each and every building. We have different ways of learning. We have language immersion. We have alpacas at one of our schools, right? like we have amazing things happening and people just aren't hearing it. Whether or not we're saying it, I don't know, but they're not hearing it. So, we've got to change the
248way we're speaking to them to get through. And so, yes. >> Thank you. >> Other board members, board member Bolton, >> thank you very much. And I I know when we've done this before, we've been very successful. I mean, even if it's something as simple as postcards to families that we have identified, have chosen or uh charters and to get them back. I know we've done that before. I would uh suggest uh two things that have appeared on Facebook recently. Uh one is uh from Finnytown schools where they have uh done a narrative if you will a message a storyline uh of moving from being their uh their alumni group and foundation group kind of merging together. It's a narrative about Finytown schools. And so I think we obviously need that kind of narrative. I'm
249sure that'll be part of our strategic plan, part of our uh bicesentennial or whatever. The other one I just saw today from Reading Schools and the whole point of the video is to talk about why they they have open enrollment now. Everybody's fighting for people to fill the seats. And with their open enrollment, their strategy has been basically most particularly uh career tech, why they should choose why people should choose reading. And so I would uh I would encourage you to look at those two items as well because I think this district could on both a how our what our foundation may be and what our narrative what our history is sort of or whatever at messaging as well as something we've not sold at all which is what career tech opportunities we do have.
250So if you'll uh kind of look at those two things I think that'd be a great couple of uh ideas for uh the comm folks. All righty. Uh, board member Crosset. Yeah, >> thank you for the presentation. I think it's good that uh, as a school district, we recognize that we are in a competitive environment for for enrollment. We have competition from charter schools and from vouchers. And so, it's important for us to operate uh, with comp understanding that we have competition. I think uh one a couple things that I felt like might be uh missing from what you have looked at so far that might be enhance this uh one thing is uh perhaps you've done it but I think competitive intelligence is important so in other words who are the charter schools and
251and what are their weaknesses because that could also be part of uh what what we communicate or to show the difference you talked about the differences. Uh, I think another thing that might be helpful is, um, I think some of our individual schools within our district have a very different reputation than the district as a whole. And so if we have schools that maybe have a a local reputation in their neighborhood, that could isn't uh accurate, that maybe that's something to emphasize. So, it's not necessarily just a district-wide improve u scope, but maybe emphasizing specific schools that maybe need a little more help with their particular reputation. Uh the last thing is a lot of folks that are in favor of charter schools is that it provides choice. And I think we we have to
252remember that CPS and provides a lots of choice and that uh and maybe more choices and more options than what what the charter schools are offering. So that's a narrative that I hear a lot and that we we certainly um um have lots of choices. So, thank you. >> All righty. Uh, I see board member M and then Vice President Moffett. >> Um, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for calling out the realities as to why um, families are deciding among other options whether that is charter, whether that is private. Um my thoughts around this is I think it to um board member Bolton's point, it is very important to make sure that we are highlighting our narrative and the offerings that we have. I'm not in favor of disparaging another school. Um I
253don't think that that adds a good lens to who we are and what we do. So that would be my recommendation. And I think focusing on our strengths, focusing on the um various opportunities that we offer, the different success stories that we have um and also I think to your point recognizing right our areas of growth um is really helpful because again is leading with that level of transparency and this is how we are you know um growing and strengthening um who we are as a district. I do like that you um are not keeping it at a macro level, right? And just making this a campaign for the district, but you are actually going into the schools and talking to the principles, helping them with their pitch, right? Helping them with their recruitment efforts.
254Um, I think that personal touch is so helpful and making sure that as we are doing this marketing campaign, finding those areas that we're able to streamline the efficiencies so that we're not just saying and so that will obviously be a collaborative effort, right? Um, but we're not just saying this is what we're offering, but we are actually able to support that through our actions. >> Thank you. >> All right, Vice President Buffett. >> I like it. I think that um it's it's definitely moving towards my idea of engagement and my idea of marketing in that it is meeting people where they are. You said some pretty powerful things. Uh one of which I wrote down you said when experience is inconsistent perception fills the gap and that is a lot of what the reason
255when I've asked people parents why they've chosen charter. It is their perception. It may not be their reality, but it is their perception and it is their experience. A lot of it, unfortunately, I live right around the corner from one and I see my neighbors send their kids and there's another school CPS school that's very close and they make that choice. So, I've asked and I've I've um inquired about why and um it is their perception. it is their ignorance of what we don't have um and how that doesn't fit their children and so or their grandchildren because one of them is a grandmother and so um I've I've said before and I think board member Armbster brought up this point again today which is so significant when I myself and former board member Wineberg
256visited schools people were amazed at what we offered because they didn't know and it just amazes me how CPS doesn't tell its own story. We would go to the Rosenberg rooftop garden and people are like, "Wow, we have that. That is ridiculous that only that small community knows that." And with regard to agriculture, people don't realize we've got schools and at one point they were sharing a rooster and they they when we told those stories, we would tell we would take videos and we would tell the stories about the schools and post them and we would have up to 450 views because people wanted to see what was going on in CPS. So that is part of the part of the problem. Again, I promise you there's a point. Um I think we also need
257to remember that parents are their customer and it's their experience that is making the decision for their children. So I would uh also add to maybe have school tours via video. Um we we ended up going to all of the schools just much like you for three months. We just visited all 65 at that time schools and just posted it on Facebook and it was like we called it a day in CPS and so what was going on and it generated a lot of attention around what we what we were what the district was doing. I think this would be perfect timing with regard to the strategic plan and a levy potentially to let people know what we are doing and it can possibly live on our YouTube. So, um, sharing a video tour of
258each school, maybe even having that be a challenge that the schools can do to generate that the students. I don't know. But that that's your expertise because you're on the right track, I think. Um, the other thing that I think is missing and we don't do enough of, and I actually had a member of the Evston Community Council stopped me at the Evston event >> and say that they wished we would engage their community councils more because they do exist and they get in some engagement from some schools, but they would like to know what's going on so that they can promote that with their neighbors. So I say that because perhaps that is an area that we could reach out to community councils, have one contact person there and then make that connection and
259ask them to as they go around and pass out information. I just think we need to be more creative with continue to be creative with how with our reach out because we get community councils that engage us when we talk about renaming a building. They're there. They just don't feel that we're engaging them. So, I think that this is great. I love the idea of branding office hours for the schools to work on their messaging. I think it is super important and super significant. I would invite community councils and community presidents to be there, community council presidents to be there as well. Um, I think that having partner engagement tools with branded templates would be very easy for schools and PTO's and parent organizations or even LSDMC's to just pick up something that's already got
260their logo attached to it and just send it out as easy as we can make it for them. I think that would that's that's the best for us. I want us to continue to use our YouTube, to continue to use our Tik Tok and continue to use We're not going away like our April Fools was. I thought that was kind of cute. But anyway, um I think we need to continue to be where students are and parents are and continue to show what we're doing. I think that people ch are choosing charters because they want something different and um we do have that, but they also want more and so um I think it's a great plan. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, I'll give my thoughts really quickly and then I'll let board
261member Bowen go for 30 seconds. Uh because I want us to keep us moving today so we can get out of here in reasonable time. Um the three thoughts I have is just one, I think we've already been using students as part of any effort that we do to recruit for our schools and I think that's been a great way to tell the message of our schools and I think continuing to use students is part of that me getting principles and administrators at the school level to use their students as part of that marketing of the school itself. Best way to tell the story of a school. We tell it a certain way. the kids tell it the true way. Um I think the second point is that opportunities to keep a marketing lens to
262the role of the principal. I I think sometimes we we think of the principles as instructional leaders of a school and quite honestly I I've been referring to the principles as like the dean of a school. And the most important thing a dean does is to make sure you're doing the necessary steps to get students into your school, money into your school, investment into your school. So like allowing them to do that and putting them at the edge of that and making them the face in a lot of ways of how that happens is a great way to keep them more engaged and more thinking bigger than just what happens on a school day. >> Um the third point I will make uh and really quickly is just that I think there's a lot of
263great tools out there that a lot of the students are already doing to brand their school. And so we see this a lot of times in athletics. We see this in some of the arts and theater stuff. We see it in the clubs and organizations, but we don't see it on the other things that happen at a school. The kid who's really excited about their math teacher, the kid who's really excited about the new social studies class that's being offered or the new uh science class that's being offered, right? Or the the new book that they got a chance to read and talking about that story of the school. And I think the we we sometimes focus on the big stuff which is important and the and the great big things that are important. But
264even just that kid who talks about like man this teacher allowed me we read this we read this book in class and this book just opened my whole world to like a new thought right or we had this person come in and sit down with us and read with us and talk to us and that kind of deal. Sometimes it's just as inspirational and powerful to a parent looking at where their kid needs a culture, not just a school, right? okay, where the kid needs to know that they're going to be supported, not just the school. So, I think that that's another great part of the traditional or great part of that story that we can help principles learn to uh speak out to. Uh board member Bolton, >> ditto to the uh school videos
265and have our young people be the representatives. Let them take uh the community through the schools. They are best representatives and you all have put some really great videos together featuring them. Another part certainly is that we I think at the school site because we are CPS I think people forget that they have to compete for the mark in the marketplace. >> They just assume somebody's going to come. You we have to have that kind of competitive edge as to come come to us. And the other piece very frankly what I usually hear about the charter piece is that the charter people make the families feel more welcome than we do. sometimes >> and that happens at the front. It happens when the kids lunch gets dropped off or something and we can't our front
266offices are the best, but I think there's a welcoming problem. Uh, and maybe this last week is not the best example to use. Uh, but where we're keeping kids safe, uh, so it's not about welcoming, but I that's what I hear that it's a little bit easier to navigate as a family to navigate a charter school than it is to navigate us. not just as a system but as a school. >> All righty. Well, thank you >> uh for the presentation. Um I'm gonna go now to board member Lindy because I know we have a policy that we need to do an update on and I know he has also to take off here in a moment. So um would you have to update us on board policy 5201? >> Thank you so much. Uh
267we've had a couple of great policy committee meetings. Encourage everyone to join us. Um for your consideration today we have uh amended policy 5201 which is labeled truency but it address it addresses both chronic absenteeism and truency. Um and I'll say just a couple quick things about this and then if if um Mr. if if board members have on the committee have anything they want to add and if board members have any detailed questions I might ask for help from council. Um, but this policy has been uh a real commitment from many different members of our staff team. Uh, I think it does two things. It first of all incorporates some important changes in state law. A lot of the chronic absenteeism, uh, what that is, what it means, how it's calculated, that is driven
268by state law. Um, but it also moves away from a fairly punitive and compliance driven policy uh to one that is really designed to help students and families uh and do everything we can to help get kids in school. So, I think this is a good thing. I appreciate the presentation we had in policy. I appreciate the work of the staff. Uh I'm curious if any of my colleagues on the committee have anything that they would like to add either Okay. Um, >> Dr. Moffett's going to talk about the difference between truency and chronic absenteeism. >> No, that that would not be Dr. Moffett. That would be uh Dr. House. And and we don't need to bring her down, but that it talks about the differences. It it just distinguished. We talked about that. So,
269um, never mind. I'll keep myself adjusted next time. >> That's right. Um, and and any other other questions? the the uh from board members would like to answer. >> Well, I'm I'm proud to motion that we adopt this policy. We have a question from Miss Matt. >> Um just quickly, I think I saw um in the policy, well, one, I appreciate again the restorative approach, um this tiered approach, um and I I appreciate that it does um specifically call out the difference between the two. Um I know that we would get a lot of questions around um the difference and so I appreciate that we will have a policy spelling that out. Um we recognize that for many of our students it's not necessarily their fault right if they are chronically absent or if they're
270experiencing truency. Um especially for our younger uh students. So there was a um I guess in tier three it talks about in the event that a student is habitually truent that they could potentially lose like their driving license or something of the sort. Was there something in there that specifically spoke to like what the uh uh the last tier I guess consequence or approach would be for parents? >> That's a great question for the administration. Dr. House, I thought we were done with you today. I knew you were injured. Okay. Okay. So to um answer your question really that and it's really not a last resort um because even um it would be a recommendation for court and for the court proceedings. Um really we have tried to change our language even in our letters
271as it's not a threat. They the court system and I've talked to Judge Bloom. They are not interested and will not arrest parents and put them in jail. >> That is not the approach. the approach is to be supportive because they understand that putting a parent in jail is not going to get the child to school. And so looking at what those gaps are and what those service needs are that families have, they're looking at more of a resource um outlet to provide resources to that family and do the best that they can to hold them accountable. So that is the last resort. I do think legally there is the language that we could um take away or interfere um with a with the students um being able to access their license, but we have
272not moved on that at all. >> Okay. Yeah. So, and I agree with everything that you said. I again I appreciate the work that's being done. Um again, I just noticed that there was that student piece and so that seemed imbalanced to me. Um, and I'm sure that, you know, there obviously is an accountability aspect of this, right? And so that parental piece was missing. So, however you if I I think you either add the parent language or you take out the student language, you know, I just just for that balance sake. Does that make sense? It does make sense as far as uh the accountability piece for the parents and where they come in. Yeah. with that measurement. I do think that the intent was um primarily when we do file um for court,
273it is the parents that are summoned to court and so that is kind of the parent accountability piece. So it might not stand out like the language strong and where that uh comes to be able to just clearly define that. But that is where the parents are held accountable in that piece with getting them involved in that system. But we hope to never get there. We hope that before the AIP process or the students having them come together and talk about an engagement plan is uh better and more supportive. >> Okay. So, just is this the full policy here? Because again, I think there was a piece that talked about the driving privileges. That's what I was that's what I'm speaking to. >> That that is still a part of the revised code and we've
274that's that's been in the board policy for a long time. We kept that in there uh as as an option, but again, that's not something that this district has exercised in terms of revoking or or asking to revoke student driving privileges. >> Okay. All right. Yeah, I'm like just again wanted to ensure, but that was all. >> Okay. Um go ahead. >> No, I was going to make a motion that we adopt it, but is there other >> I think there are a couple other questions real quick. Um and just also clarify what the language changed was from notify to that they would provide the driving privilege section there also. So >> the section on the driving privileges really didn't change. Uh the the law didn't change. >> No no I'm just I'm just saying
275the I don't know that we've ever asked made that a requirement. So I just um additional questions. I know Vice President and then board member Bolton. I just wanted to bring up we talked about on page three and on page seven around notice of truency and chronic absenteeism that it would be it says in writing but we also talked about other modalities of of um discussion. So it was like robocalls, text like you there was it the social workers do a lot of other things and we talked about putting that in there both for truency and um for chronic absenteeism and and explaining what those were like saying yeah in writing parenthesy. So what we added and certainly can adjust this we added a sentence to say this written notification will typically be provided by
276the school social worker assigned to the student school and may also be shared by using any available means of communication. So that that's what we added. >> Okay I just I think I think I was talking about specifics that they utilize because that just seems broad. But it's fine if if they do robocalls, if they do text, it's fine. Whatever is is best. If you think that's sufficient, it's sufficient. >> Do you think that that Dan, do you think that's >> I do? I think it's sufficient. Uh we we you know, there be procedures as well that are a part of this that will >> outline the different ways. Yeah. By any means of communication. >> And that's on page three as well, right? >> That's right. >> Okay. >> That's fine. I I'll say
277too, a good policy I think leaves room for technology to develop so we don't have to rewrite it all the time. I think the way that we're going to get in touch with kids and parents in 18 months is going to be different from the way we do it now. I I love the way this is clear, values aligned, and open enough that administrators can use it in the future. So my recommendation would be that we approve it, but I want to make sure we get other feedback. >> I see one more comment from Mr. Bormer Bolton. >> Just a point of clarification for me. Uh um and and it doesn't impact the policy, but just a comment that was made, parents are still threatened about going not just to court but going to jail.
278I mean my my understanding and that's anecdotal this year. Uh definitely parents have been threatened with court action which is referenced I think but also with with jail. So I are they or are they not? >> So the direct conversation that I had with Judge Bloom is that is not they are changing their processes and procedures and even their conversations with parents. Um, this is a conversation that I've had with uh different states across the country and other states are going to that method because they realize that they're just not it's um not yielding any results. And so there could be that conception that when you are cited for court that it it does have a negative connotation still. >> Yes, it does. >> It still does. Um however the approach that they are trying
279to take is trying to give them resources as opposed to um putting someone in jail or finding them. Now if someone has other pending cases it could compound with other things if they have other things. >> Well if they are transitioning to that they need to probably do it more quickly or we need more professional development to clear up any confusion we have about it. Yeah. >> Really quickly, like 30 seconds. >> Like 30 seconds. I talked to Judge Bloom about that. She said that is a state issue because I I I thought that it had teeth and it does not. So, we can work on it at the state level. >> All righty. Um there are things we can control, there are things we can't. This policy we can. I'm going to move that
280we accept it. >> Second. >> We got a move in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Treasure Gustin. Miss Arburster, >> yes. >> Miss Bolton, >> yes. >> Mr. Crosset, >> yes. >> Mr. Lindic, >> yes. >> Miss Matt, >> yes. >> Vice President Moffett, >> yes. >> President Craig, >> yes. All right. Um, so given the late hour, I'm going to do try and do a couple things really quickly, other board matters, and then I will also open up to the other matters on air. Um, the first one is about the appointment of OSBA positions. There were three positions that um were open still that needed to be filled by board members that we had not filled at the beginning of the year. Um three folks reached out. Um so given that the three
281folks reach out, I felt it was even or it was a really fair thing to do to give each one of them one of the positions at least that they applied for. Um so for the legislative liaison, board member map reached out with regards to that. for the student achievement leaison board member Bolton reached out and then for the OSBA black caucus which actually is a two-year appointment uh vice president Moffett reached out u and so if everyone's okay with those three spots and if all board members are okay with those three spots I feel like that's a fair thing to do to give everyone at least one that they reshot for all board with that excellent um there's another item that was not on on the agenda, but I wanted to bring it to
282the board's attention. I believe you should have received an email about this. Preschool Promise has two positions that are coming up for vote this year. One of which is the the position currently held uh by Ross Why am I forgetting about Ross' last name? >> It was by Carol >> Meyer. Uh one is by Ross Meyer, who's going to stay on, who wants to stay on. So, we will need to do a vote uh at our May 4th meeting for his position. The other position is one that's held by um former board member um Carolyn Jones that is used to be from my understanding used to be the uh families >> forward um position families forward no longer exists and we made a change according to what the board administrators told me that was supposed
283to direct it to the community learning center as the um decision maker on that part. I think what we will have to do and this will be a little bit in the background to uh gather suggestions um for potential people to fill that role and make a vote on the May 4th meeting in order to have enough time to get it in time to them for their May meeting so they could uh make a decision based on those recommendations. Um so I just wanted to bring it to everybody's attention. We will do a little conversation offline to get uh recommendations because I still need to determine how do we how are we getting from the community learning center since that's supposed to be the direction of uh that pos particular position. In the past we'd
284had uh different community partners who selected positions. So like the NAACP would make a recommendation um and so family force was one of those when they're no longer able to make one. So, we really were asking for um community learning centers and so we will do that before our next meeting um and get that all information out to you all as quickly as possible so you have a time to review any recommendations that are made prior to the next meeting. >> Yes. >> Question. Does um Miss Jones not want to continue? >> She does not. >> Oh, okay. And then we had had like um well at one last year like the NAACP had recommended Jennifer Mary was is she on there? >> She is on. >> Okay. So it's a different it's Caroline's position.
285Yes. Okay. >> Yep. There's only the two from what I understand from what they what uh was sent to us that need that need to be uh recommended from us. And so since Ross is asking to stay um he makes it a little easier for us. But the other position is one that uh board member Jo former board member Jones uh filled and has chosen to step away from that role. >> Okay. Um so those are the the two that I have from that. Uh Vice President Moffett I believe you have the next topic on the border matters. >> Yes. I will be very brief. The I can kind of combine the two B and C together. Um, I have been in attend kind of attending these little league football discussions um along with Vice
286Mayor Kernney and President Council President Scotty Johnson. Um, you each have in front of you, this is not official, so it's not on board docs, but the city is proposing a Cincinnati Youth Football Commission. It is 14 pages. It is uh pretty lengthy, but what the organizations are going to do, I'm just going to try to be really brief. There are three leagues and underneath each league there are at least eight to 11 uh organizations and under each organization there are grade level teams. It's a lot. So, um they we've been coming together. We've put them at the table to help them look this over. Um the part B which is building usage. Uh Superintendent Murphy did some deep dive because the this came to us last year to board members at this level because
287they were asking for assistance in managing the cost of using our field. Uh it's it has cost some teams up to $3,000 a a week. And Superintendent Murphy was able to kind of do a deep dive as to what is this? What are we paying for? what what are they paying for? And found that the usage fees are not the largest part are not the the largest part. The largest part of the expenses are in the Cincinnati Police Department, which is um about $400 an hour and it is in um referees, which is not that much, but it's it's really the CPD. So, we put everybody together at the same table. sheriff's office uh may be at the next meeting and this will be the last meeting that that I'm uh and the other electeds
288are going to be involved in. They're going to look this commission over. There are some benefits there's not there's some benefits to them, etc., etc. Look it over. If you have any thoughts or interest, write it down. Uh I think the next meeting is on the the 20th, I think. Um and you're free to come there. It will be here. It will be the last one. and um Superintendent Murphy's team decided to along with athletic director Josh Harden to cut the cost of the fields 50% for them. So it's like 60 bucks an hour instead of that doesn't sound like a lot but it makes it all adds up. So, we now have that um discussion and we're we're they're also going to look at how can we look at our community learning center model
289and allow teams and organizations to use the buildings if they need to in alignment with the policy. The um the last one was mine too which was which was the Great Oaks assignment. I know Superintendent Murphy said that they were still researching that a little bit more in depthly. However, General Counsel Ho did send um some information or directed us to some information um that you all can look at and we can have a different discussion a little bit more in depth once Superintendent Murphy and her team have done a little bit more deep dive. I think maybe the next meeting they'll have a little bit more information or did you >> I believe there is some information on board doc there is information on board docs in addition to the Ohio revised code that
290general counsel shared with everyone. I have I don't know about other people, but I have entertained um or at least heard from the community about why do we not have a partnership with Oaks. So, I wanted to formalize that now and let the administration answer that and then um the community can hear directly. So, that I think additional information may be coming. I don't know if that has fulfilled the assignment or not. So, take a look. >> Okay. Uh board member Coset, do you have a question? just uh I'll get you my feedback on the football, but I think one thing that was obvious to me that seemed pretty glaring, there wasn't any uh I didn't see any information around sports injury and the insurance needs and how how to mitigate risks of the league
291and all that kind. So, just something for everybody to look into. Huh? >> Are you talking about the little leagues? >> Yeah, >> the little leagues all have to have insurance anyway. So, they carry a policy that covers them no matter what field they >> I understand. It just wasn't in the in the commission document. That's all. I will let make sure they add it. >> All right. Um, are there any other board matters inquiries or andor updates andor assignments >> to the to the little league piece? I have great reservations about it and wonder why uh the Cincinnati Recreation Commission and the available city uh sports fields do not take on the responsibility of the little league. uh because uh the reality is there are a hundred playgrounds and sports fields that the city
292owns rather than what we have and I think that's something to think about and yes the greatest cost of all of that uh is uh CPD and they charge us through uh the nose uh for every one of our events. So, I'm not just that that ready to agree that we need to assume that responsibility or that liability. And I will just as a personal privilege say that u this may not have been one of those, but across the street from my alma mater and three blocks from my house, I believe last year, someone was shot and killed at one of these uh me uh gatherings uh because there was uh on the field bedding. So, uh, there needs to be all kinds of things to be considered as part of it if indeed it's
293going to be on CPS grounds or, uh, um, under our liability in any way, shape, or form. >> Well, let me just clarify. Um, >> please do the there's there has been an existing partnership in communication with Cincinnati Recreation and CPS already that I learned has been going on for about 18 months. and um director Harden and um Mr. Johnson with the Rex. >> Um Director Betts is not a fan of tackle football. He's a fan of I think flag football, but that's a personal preference. Regardless, the fields, you know, a regular football field is 100 yards. Many of the recreation fields are not that long. So, they don't have the capacity to have games. There's not that many of them that have a 100 yards that there therefore you turn back to where they
294could play which is at our stadiums which are already regulatory and already meet those standards. um the shooting and the other things that happened, those things have been discussed. But at the end of the day, my position is these are kids that we're trying to accommodate and give them something to do. That's adult behavior that needs to absolutely >> It was adults that killed each other. Yeah. And so part of one another, >> part of what our discussions have been is identifying those teams that are problematic because they know who they are and identifying those teams and those events and games that are problematic and addressing it. And so part of what I've learned is that the city through their conversations over the past 18 months requested that there be a police off police presence
295at the games. Cincinnati Police requested that there be at least one other officer for a total of two which cost which drove the cost up. Then the police department requested that there be wanding at the games which means that they have to have um Cincinnati public schools security and they have they cannot pay for their own um facilities clean up. So they have to pay for and they can't pay for their own security. So they have to pay for our security which we have union contract obligations for salary and they have to pay for facilities which we again have union contracts for. So that is in part why the cost is so high. We could charge them nothing for fields and they're still going to be paying around $1,000 a week because of how because
296of how it is is set up. And so there's been but putting them all together has been beneficial because we've had discussion about how is how are the TAF senators downtown dealing with it and their um relationship with that district that's down there is different than other teams. So putting them all together has been great because there's now understanding that there's inconsistencies. There were inconsistencies in how our billing was happening because our some of the teams were paying the schools directly. some of the teams were going through the system, the FMX system, and then the FMX system coordinator was double billing. And so it we've we've identified some areas of improvement, but at the end of the day, we have to deal with adult behaviors that are impacting little kids ability to have some sort
297of fun. And that's that's the whole gist of it. My position is nothing is free, so they can't use our facilities for free because we have a cost. and they understand that. Um, but they also have to get a a handle on some kind of way monitoring and holding accountable and they have a code of conduct. They they've come up with things that will help with that. But I think the benefit is putting them all in a room, this establishment of the football commission, identifying the adults, the teams, the leagues, understanding that and then holding everybody accountable. My also my also my position was that maybe our foundation collect money and and at the time I didn't know that there were restraints but right now we've got little league teams that are asking different people
298for money. So the Bengals might give three teams $5,000 and then some teams get none. Now mind you some of these teams have 70 to 90% of their population are CPS students. So, I thought maybe um we could explore ways that the foundation could solicit the money and then Josh or Director Harden can disperse the money because I thought that's what the foundation was supposed to be about >> is collecting money and so that's a different discussion but there are there are talks about that I've come to learn have already been happening about having one centralized location to disperse funds to collect funds to help them with the fees etc. So if you do have any thoughts >> so again to expedite our conversation so we can get out of the meeting here in a
299reasonable time um I think it's fair to ask if they if they want to put together a proposal of ideas and things and ways that the district can cooperate and help and assist and I understand that there are already steps that are being taken to assist in the cost. I'm happy to to add that to a future agenda for us to look at ways to support things that might be beneficial to our students. Um I think the that we still have limitations on what we as a district will do in that in that capacity. Um are there any other assignments at this time? Seeing none, um we have a proposed consent agenda. Are there any exceptions? >> Yes, I have exceptions to the treasurer's report per my usual and it will be really brief. uh
300page six, line item two, and then um the attachments for the inkind donations for resource coordinators. >> All righty. Um got both of those. Treasure Gustin. All righty. So, I need a motion and a second. >> Moved. >> Second. >> So, we have a motion from board Robertson, a second from board member Matt. Seeing no uh discussion, uh Treasure Gustin, call the role. >> Miss Arber, >> yes. >> Miss Bolton, >> yes. >> Mr. Cross, >> yes. >> Miss Matt, >> yes. >> Vice President Moffett, >> yes. >> President Craig, >> yes. Um I'm going to offer two quick things. Just a reminder to folks, next board meeting is also our uh valictorians and celebratoran. >> Oh, cool. >> presentation. So, we going to have a great time with those students. Yeah. >> Um yeah,
301we will we will uh hopefully get convince them to be very brief and quick speaking. Uh and then lastly, but surely not least, uh hope everyone uh has a great time and just a reminder on the 22nd there CFT along with the board or along with the districts uh are hosting their public education is under attack. So please feel free to come check it out. >> 5:00. >> All right. Say no further business.