001that's why at Kroger we shorten the time each other does anybody having sunglasses I do you want to use it I mean they just regulars I just want to see what it looks like it doesn't look any different good evening everyone I called the order of the May 8th business meeting of the Cincinnati board of education we welcome everyone and request everyone in the audience to silence your cell phones and electronic devices Ms Wagner would you please call the roll is Bolton president Mr Craig here Ms Jones here Dr Moffat Mr moraski Mrs Weinberg here president Lindy here uh members of the public who wish to speak may do so by clicking the chat button now if you are online the chat feature will be open for your requests for five minutes please submit your
002name your affiliation your school Community your topic and your contact information if you would like a direct response to any questions you might have I'm going to move very quickly through just a couple of opening notes so that we can get to celebrating some young people this evening I wanted to say first Happy Teacher Appreciation Week everybody here and express my gratitude for our teachers in Cincinnati public schools we're going to hear more I think during our announcements about this green ribbon I'm wearing for mental health awareness month some more on that coming soon um and I'll very briefly just touch on our three-month board priorities um we uh decided on these back in early 2023 and are making every effort to align our time with the areas where the board most wants to see
003progress happen during this time period um there has been a lot of movement on almost all of these over the last couple of weeks and each of these are important to different ones of us for different reasons um I would direct my colleagues to board docs with an updated timeline from the alma group on strategic planning that will include I think a visit uh here at our May 22nd board meeting with some Community meetings happening that same week in a follow-up board meeting on June 14th um it may be that the one-on-ones have not been all scheduled yet they should be scheduled very soon and we can talk about that more later on so um I think with that um I would just like to say um uh we'll turn it over for our presentation
004on um valedictorians and salutatorians good evening uh the board members could come to their spots up front so we can be prepared to present salutatorians and and our valedictorians okay greetings to the board chair and superintendent Aiken is proud to present the student achievement leaders from Aiken High School Leonard Dangerfield who is our valedictorian who will attend Miami University this fall to pursue a degree in marketing and business Janaya chin is our salutatorian who will also attend Miami University and double major in special education and biology at Aiken High School we are so proud what's that oh okay they're just going through a little too fast okay that's not your fault okay okay Shania Chen who is our salutatorian you will be going to Miami and majoring special education and biology both of these students
005are Miami teach students who received the Miami Cincinnati Scholars scholarship so the board chair and superintendent we're proud to present the student achievement leader from Clark Montessori High School Samuel Harris is our valedictorian who will attend the University of Cincinnati this fall pursue a degree and secondary education we have three salutatorians our first salutatorian is Anthony bresnahan she will attend a University of Cincinnati and major in psychology Xander hurrying who is graduating to the workforce with an electrician apprenticeship and Elena Branson who will attend the University Ohio State University and major in engineering at Clark Montessori we're so proud that each of these students achievements good evening the board chair and superintendent we are proud to present the student achievement leader from gamble Montessori High School Kevin Pringle is our valedictorian who will attend Kent
006State University this fall to pursue a degree in fashion design we have three salutorians I'll wait till this is done all right so we have we have three salutatorians latriano white who will attend Howard University and nursing major Chandler Burks who will attend Central State University as an undecided in their major and muhammadu nadias who will attend Northern Kentucky University and major in computer science at Gamma Montessori High School we are so proud of each of these students foreign thank you so much we'll be doing data at the end we're just hoping the students will be able to show up on time Dr Williams is unable to be here tonight so I'm going to present to the board and chair and superintendent we are proud to present the student achievement leader from Hughes stem High
007School Anaya Brown is our valedictorian who will attend Ohio State University this fall to pursue a degree in nursing next up for Hughes is Tamiya Leonard is our salutatorian who will attend the University of Louisville and major in nursing give a round of applause for our huge stem High School awardees good evening to the board chair and superintendent right we are proud to present student achievement leader from lighthouse are valedictorian Jamie Colton is unable to be here but we'd like to still honor him because of the journey he has taken [Applause] Donnell Arnold Jr is our salutatorian is undecided not only is Donald known for his his academic success he is known for his swag [Applause] good evening my name is Mike Allison proud principal at Euler school thank you to our representatives from the
008board and other dignitaries in attendance we're here to honor our leaders from Euler School mahogany Wooten is our valedictorian who will attend the University of Cincinnati majoring in exploratory studies Sadie Smith is our salutatorian who will attend the University of Cincinnati and major in nursing she was also our Marion Spencer scholar at Euler School hello to the board chair and superintendent I am proud to present the student achievement leader at Riverview East Academy our valedictorian William hyderma is not here tonight he is undecided are saluted are salutatorian is Takaya pouncy [Applause] she will be attending the University of Cincinnati for business she is also a basketball star and an all-around great human and we're very proud of her all of our students achievements good evening to the board chair and the superintendent we are proud
009at SCPA to honor our student achievement leaders who are absent this evening but we want to recognize them in their absence Michaela white is our valedictorian she is [Applause] he has committed to attend Pace University in Maine Ruby colic is our salutatorian and she has committed to the University of Pittsburgh for journalism to the board and superintendent we are proud to present the student achievement leader from stroder high school Jenny Glasgow is our valedictorian who will attend the University of San Diego and double major in chemistry and criminal justice all right amyla Hall is our salutatorian who will attend Eastern Michigan University and major in I.T business management at Florida high school we are so proud of each of these students and their achievements thank you to the board chair and superintendent we are proud
010to present the student achievement leaders from Spencer Center for gifted and exceptional students Young Park is our Marion Spencer graduate Award winner and summa laude recipient he will attend the University of Michigan and he will be pursuing a degree in data Sciences Mal news Knutson is our summa laude recipient and he will also attend the University of Michigan and major in aerospace engineering with a minor in judaic studies [Applause] Spencer Center at Spencer Center we are so proud of each of these students achievements congratulations [Applause] to the board chair and superintendent Wright we bring you greetings from Walnut Hills High School and we are so proud to present our student achievement leader Mr Lewis key who is our distinguished scholar we need to that's my man right there Lewis will attend Columbia University this fall
011with the majors undecided bark like Sunny diggy is our is our laude scholar award recipient Sunny will attend the University of Washington at Seattle and we would like to say that we are so proud of each of these students achievement we're looking forward to them doing great things good evening to the board chair and superintendent we are proud to present the student achievement leader from Western Hills University High School Emily jopp is our valedictorian who will attend a University of Dayton this fall to pursue a degree in civil engineering Joseph Ponce Flores is our salutatorian who will attend Skidmore college and he has a major that's undecided at this time foreign Hills High School we are so proud of these students achievement and we look forward to all of the things that they will be
012able to share with us in the mere future good evening to the board chair and superintendent Wright Withrow University High School is proud to present the student achievement leader from Withrow University High School Jalen caprono green is our valedictorian who will attend the University of Cincinnati this fall to pursue a degree in information technology Jalen is also one of our Marion Spencer Scholars Withrow University High School is also very proud to present the student achievement leader yabrina prisca assume who is our salutatorian and who will attend Ohio State University and will major in biology pre-med let's go at Withrow University High School we are so very proud of each of our students receiving these achievements and we're expecting excellence and greatness from them today and Beyond thank you to the board chair and superintendent we
013are proud to recognize our student achievement leader from data High School party fall is absent today however we do want to recognize her as our valedictorian who will attend the University I'm sorry the Ohio State University or University of Pittsburgh this fall Hannah Hall is our salutatorian here today she made it [Applause] Hannah will be attending the Mount St Joseph University and major in medical Sciences all right we are so proud of these students achievements thank you principal badgett is not able to be here tonight so to the oh he's in the house good evening everyone to the board chair and superintendent I am proud to be here to announce to present our students of achievement this evening from Robert a Taft information technology high school we have Anton Williams he's our Val who will
014be attending Morehouse university just fall he will be for he will be pursuing a degree in Business Administration all right next we have Miss Keisha Callaway our Sal and she will be attending the University of Cincinnati for pre-med yep to the board chair and superintendent and principal Workman who I don't believe is in the crowd and gonna surprise me we are proud to present the student achievement leader from Woodward Career Technical High School High School Kaylee Madison Brown is our valedictorian who will attend University of Cincinnati this fall in their exploratory studies program and our final student Elijah Ferguson is the salutatorian who will attend the University of Cincinnati and major in architecture at this time let's give a round of applause for all of our student Achievers thank you okay thank you everyone how
015about one last round of applause for our young people this evening and for their teachers and for their principals and their parents and everyone who helped them get here um we're going to move in a moment here to our superintendent's update I just wanted to spend a quick second on some of the things related to those board priorities that I didn't want to put in front of the the guests we had this evening um I just wanted to mention two things one is that the these matter to people for different reasons um on things like transportation for some of us up here this is an issue because of the cost it drives in our district for others the impact that that our bus transportation has had on families and community members and teachers uh the
016updating our bylaws is important I think to some folks because it's the best way of improving how we operate as a board and how we work with the administration including the length and design of our meetings our strategic planning process is important again to different people for different reasons uh from how we'll reach the goals and guard rails we adopted in December to how we engage community members and our staff on key questions about the district's future so on all of these I just wanted to thank my colleagues for the movement we've been seeing in recent weeks and look forward to their completion um I might ask um and we'll transition to the superintendent's report in just one moment um but the priorities technically had an expiration date of May 1st on all of them
017I feel like we're very much in progress and doing important work for which there is a timeline to finish these by the end of either May or June it just depends on on which priority and where the work is if there isn't objection to board mem from board members I might suggest that we carry these over throughout May and through June until we finish them at which point after the school year is over over the summer we can meet again as a board and decide what our next set of priorities would be rather than trying to set new ones right now because I feel like we're just in in motion on all of these is there any objection to us continuing with these until we finish them great um so with that we'll turn it
018over to item D which is the superintendent's update thank you president Lindy um this is relatively brief um but you know one of the most rewarding times as a high school principal is graduation and I can equally say one of the most rewarding times as a district leader as a superintendent is also graduation so one more time let's give it up for a round of applause for our students our valedictorians and our graduates I did want to provide an update to the board because there has been a lot of information since the story uh hit the media last week I believe it was Thursday or Friday about students that were graduating from Withrow and essentially the story shared that there were a number of students that would not be able to graduate because they owed
019student fees um I believe initially the um the support for the article was a foundation that has been supportive of Withrow has worked with students at Withrow in the past and some of the other schools in the area that were having some challenges paying their student fees I think most of us know that across most school districts across high schools across colleges and universities there are fees that students incur during the time that they are in school and one of our policies is around fees and so students can incur these fees until it's time for graduation before graduation before they actually receive their diploma or their transcripts students are expected to pay those fees there are built-in structures already for students that are experiencing hardships whether that is housing and security whether that is students
020that are on free reduced lunch or there are other other challenges that families are having and there's a lot of discretion at the school level and and the treasurer may be able to share more here but there's a lot of discretion at the school level on being able to excuse fees from students not to impact their ability to receive their diploma or get their transcript when needed as we followed up with each of our schools including Withrow so of course there's the goal and the desire to get the students to pay the fees but our schools were able to affirm for us on Friday our high school principals that we don't have any schools where students are not allowed to participate in the ceremony of graduation because they owe fees so if they have met
021graduation requirements and and fees are all that is left then those students are able to participate in the ceremony of graduation and we all know that graduation is the ceremony of graduation is really not just about the student but it's about the student it's about the family it's about the village that has helped the child get across the stage so I definitely do want to recognize our High School principles for making certain that this is not an actuality that's happening in our schools by the same token it is expected that students are paying the fees before they receive their transcripts or their their um their diplomas so there have been several organizations that have reached out I know the NAACP reached out to our one of our board board members the mayor's office reached out
022to me as well we have asked schools to identify students that still have a hardship after and once they get to the end of the time for them to pay their fees and that is something that we would be able to to share with those that would like to offer additional support if this is something that is not waived at the school level so I did want to provide that update because I know that there has been a lot of community concern just with the way that the article was written but following up with the principle and having discussion with him yes there is encouragement for the students to pay their fees but in the time that the principal has been the Principal at the school based on what he shared with me there has
023not been a student that has not been able to participate in the graduation ceremony because they actually owe fees so I did want to provide that update to the board and to the public thank you superintendent um if there is nothing else in superintendent's updates I believe we are now at the item on the meeting agenda for hearing of the public each speaker will have two minutes and will direct all comments to the presiding officer before I go any further I did not actually receive any slips tonight in hard copy do we have anybody online going once going twice we have completed our hearing of the public this evening everybody and we're on the item F on committee reports Uh Wood uh former vice president Jones please uh present the student achievement and District instructional
024performance Committee of the whole from April 19th thank you Mr President and call me Carolyn Craig by the way okay inside joke of those um okay so I am I would like to present for board approval the minutes of the student achievement District instructional performance Committee of the whole meeting held on April 19th we basically have four major updates all very informative the first one being English language learner update wherein the superintendent provided some data that identified um Trends in the student population for ell students um and also gave us account per school so um that that was good information and and there is some you know if you want the detail on it please feel free to check the website for the minutes um I think that uh she did offer uh her thoughts
025about the supports that are needed through the during the year including um uh building based supports for ell students targeted English support Universal supports in all schools and then newcomer um life students and limited interrupted formal education supports um our next update was on Pre-K um uh the superintendent gave us a trend line data on trend line of where we uh for the progress that we made in early uh childhood development enrollment um this year she also reports that um the district is working on uh the Early Childhood curriculum Council um which was an it is an important asset to the growth of the program and her presentation included information about the five-star requirements the proposal for additional support clarification of things like nap time and moving forward on our timeline um the third item
026which was huge was the Montessori curriculum adoption which by the way the board formally approved the adoption of a the Fidelity model of Montessori education it was well received by the audience as most of the people in the audience were represented Montessori schools um the superintendent also provided us with a timeline for achieving uh full implementation of that um with the new Montessori curriculum it we will be able to align Montessori practices and materials with State and District standards and we uh want to ensure that students attending Montessori schools uh will get that vigorous instruction that's expected of that model so uh given that uh there were a number of and I won't go into all of the the full-blown discussions but I would encourage you to read some of the other considerations that were
027offered at that time and then finally we received the transportation update uh as you know this has been an ongoing topic for the district and uh we had a very robust conversation about the model um that the board of the scenario being model um where it it where we will uh Implement and this involves us making some changes in our start time so that we can accommodate bus routes um and there was there's been and continues to be a great deal of discussion about that and the board actually offered um the discussion actually presented around around 26 very key bullet points for consideration including things like whether or not we should change walking distance so I won't go into all 26 of those bullets but it was a very um uh robust conversation and I
028think that uh just so we know what what direction we're going in I believe the board did approve the board did approve the scenario B which was the change in start times so um I believe that concludes my report and I offered this for board approval thank you very much board member Jones Is there any questions on the report from this committee hearing none we'll move to thank you very much um we do not have our uh policy and committee excuse me policy and Equity committee chair here this evening uh is there another member of that committee either Ms Bolton or Mrs Weinberg who'd want to present those reports I think we can also just everybody had received it and if people have questions we can invite questions but is there anything anybody would like
029to voice over do you have concerns with it going up for adoption tonight without Mr moraski we should wait for adoption any objection Ms Weinberg no that would be fine okay so then we will I think return to the policy well superintendent any reason why we need this to go through this evening that I don't know of any okay so we'll um uh if Phyllis I could ask for help just carrying this over to the next business meeting uh and we'll hear from Dr moffatt chair of the ad hoc attendance boundaries committee okay so we um the the minutes are up on the on board docs for anyone to take a look at what we discussed in depth I'm going to go through a cursor review and I do encourage all board members to check
030out the maps that Jeremy has been able to provide regarding our walking distance and um our walking boundaries our neighborhood boundaries and our School boundaries those are there as well we had a very good discussion with the community involved regarding um two really big questions uh Pleasant Ridge Montessori and Silverton I had some Community concerns that were able to be at least identified a little the discussion is on the table Jeremy gave us a great brief cursory presentation around um magnet schools and um Silverton and so just again not reading the entire seven page report but just kind of highlighting one big ask of both of those communities and everyone in attendance is that more engagement be done with between Administration and the schools regard and their lstmcs regarding the programming at that school and
031so if you do look at the notes there's almost a full page of community questions and comments and discussions we were able to get some clarity from and some historical perspective from um or remember Bolton regarding when a school is not considered a magnet any longer that historically what has happened in the district is that the enrollment doesn't go down but it needs to be monitored and that was a very big concern for Silverton and so we were able to get some clarification on that um we did and we do want to thank the Silverton Community Council offered that they have they consistently support their school and they have gifted them a hundred thousand dollars over a multi-year period in support of Silverton the community and the students and um we were able to get
032a little bit of background about that and it was um it was a very moving moving meeting we do have three action items that came out of that and it this is again on page four of the minutes um one thing is that we're going to as a committee work on a formalized report regarding the work that we've done over the past few uh months feels like years but months and some recommendations if any that we can kind of come to consensus around and then some action steps moving forward but three major action items that we um in addition to those we are going to inform the administration that engagement is a concern at the at PRM and Silverton and um work with Administration to help engage those communities more the committee will inform the
033policy chair moraski former moraski about reviewing policies that came up regarding lsdmc's engagement in Magnet School selection and then um some of that work that they brought up does kind of pertain to policy and then the last big request was that the committee will ask the administration to review the process for magnet school designation and specifically for Silverton as they do still have concerns we are going to be talking about at our next meeting May the 10th which is a special meeting because of the concerns that did come out we are meeting on May the 10th which is this week and then May the 25th which is our regular monthly meeting at both times at four o'clock but we are going to talk about Transportation requested data instructional models for the middle years that's like
034a six seven eight or seven eight nine but specifically the junior high um safety school zones development of our initial report and then again here's some Community concerns so I do submit these as written encourage the board members and the community to read them in their entirety um and I submit them as written thank you very much Dr Matthew do we have any questions for the ad hoc attendance boundaries committee hearing none is there a motion to adopt both of the reports we heard this evening don't move thank you Ms Jones is there a second thank you Dr Moffett we've had our discussion uh would you call the vote or all in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed committee reports are adopted we'll move next to item G and here are one presentation
035this evening which is about equity much I'm really excited to share just where we are in terms of next steps with Equity we know that our board has been a forerunner in anti-racism and policies that connect to the equity so we want to give an update for where we are currently so there is no expectation that you are to read the Little Pages there but that just references the policies that go along with the information that we are looking at tonight so of course our policies paint the path towards the future uh we have we started with our working definition of Dei which was developed October 26 of 2015 and this provides working definitions for our district for diversity Equity inclusion and excellence in education and then moving forward excellence and educa equity and excellence
036in education policy 2255 was revised March 15th of 2018 and this lays out a pathway to pursue a culture of equally and requires an annual Equity plan so that was in 2018 and then in 2020 and in 2020 anti-racism policy 2256 a part of that was to create processes that identify any form of racism work to counter its effects and work to eliminate racist practices and policies from the district so all of these policies are policies that are supporting equity anti-racism and inclusion so Highlights today just kind of going back from after the definitions kind of looking at what was happening as for the equity policy we want to highlight steps that we've taken so far towards implementation so we have the policy that was done in 2017-18 and then in 2020 2021 um the
037the anti-racism policy was completed during that time and also there was the release of the African-American literature course that was added in terms of curriculum and then last school year uh there was the anti-racism policy was incorporated into safe schools training so that all of our our staff members were getting training on the anti-racism policy so they had awareness of what the policy was there were also more opportunities created for students to see themselves in other cultures affirmed in their learning so for example black music of America Ela SEL and social justice standards were updated in terms of alignment and so this year we last year we also had a manager of Dei and one of the things that that person worked on was an audit that was done with Hamilton County ESC um based
038on our chief Murphy after receiving that back it was clear that there needed to be a lot more work that was done in terms of the audit so at that time the district did not choose to move forward with the information that was in the audit so that's how we get to 2223 so this year we've begun an in-depth We Begin in-depth Equity reviews with the instructional program Audits and you've seen those and the link is also in this presentation we did designate the chief of staff's role as the district's Dei officer as well as launch Target Recruitment and pipeline development for teachers and leaders of color so that is a work in progress It's continuing to be the case we are beginning to see more and more information that is rolling out in terms
039of this area and also conducted instructional reviews at schools of highest need to target support and coaching and so we're winding down on those instructional reviews at this time but the presentation and the information that's coming from that does allow us to see across the board the snapshot of where we are currently in the district delaying the infrastructure for full implementation and Improvement and so this is a process that really we're looking at over the next six to 12 months so that we'll be focusing on strengthening and creating the foundation needed to bring the policy policies fully to life throughout the district so while we've had the policies I think collectively we will we would say that we're seeing glimmers of where the policy could be in effect or could have impact but we do
040want to make certain that their strategy that goes with that and there's also Clarity for what's being done in each of the spaces so between June and September we want to make sure that we have a comprehensive comprehensive analysis of access and outcomes across a range of equity factors including those listed in the policy also making certain that there is extensive quantitative analysis paired with qualitative synthesis so not just what we're doing numerically in those areas but what kind of quality information and feedback are we getting in those spaces to make certain that we're able to use that as a part of the plan moving forward and looking to seek a third party and that really has um expertise in the area so that as we're aligning we're aligning collected with with both the the
041policy and the expectations for how we move forward in the space for for equity and then from August to October I'm looking at the index so a tool used to to demonstrate differences in need across schools looking at the guiding of resources we know that we we have started with the equity work around resources and resource allocation but continue to ensure this so that we make sure that the work that we're doing is closer to what needs to be done in terms of budgeting and Equity alignment and take into account student factors School factors and Community factors that may have implications as we're talking about budget allocations as well as other resource allocations uh for example personnel and lastly from a ton of overlap but between September and December as well really move into codifying
042the plan for next steps around Equity so the strategies and actions needed to achieve Equity across our district as defined through our policy including specific expectations from the policies and align it with the district strategic plan and also the process for continuous review and Improvement continually review and update for Maximum Impact and Alignment one of the things that we also thought would really be important in this space because the board was really Forward Thinking and creating a policy in this area also making certain that we have a task force that will advise and guide the work and giving board members a opportunity to provide recommendations for community members that would be those that would be the best individuals to help assist in this area so that as we're going through the auditing we're going through
043the index and we're getting to the planning we're doing that with a lens from the board around those that would be the best task to help us in this area so our next steps in terms of priorities for our upcoming school year I'm just kind of listing out the the two to three months secure board appointments and that's recommendations I say appointments that sound so formal or recommendations as we launch the equity task force uh look at the rrsp for our comprehensive Equity audit and then secure any board approvals if it becomes necessary for an audit contract there are some places that do provide auditing in the area of equity and we want to do some exploration there so that we see what's available so if that's with the fee we want to be prepared
044to do that and then three to six months after that level setting the language of equity and anti-racism in the district building on the existing board definitions so lifting those from the page moving them into action as we look at the work that we're doing in the district continuing to socialize our beginning to socialize our findings from the equity audit throughout our community and that's within our school community and our larger community as we align around our understanding and our expectation as a school organization of equity and support the lsdmc chairs to begin to implement their responsibilities related to the anti-racism policy so in the anti-racism policy as the board likely knows before the good of the public there is an expectation that the lsdmcs will work around anti-racism and identifying areas of anti-racism that
045they could focus on in the school building there has been some feedback for from lsdmcs about how what is the best way to do that and what is a way to do that so that it is aligned with other expectations so really beginning to give more support in that area and adjust and provide supports for campuses based on instruction reviews for areas of growth and as we again think about resources of of budget and resources of personnel and in the six to nine months further modify the equity index which would be implemented to help guide our budgetary and resource allocations into our 24-25 school year and again develop finalize and begin implementation of our overall Equity plan so that just gives us some brief updates around Equity again moving from policy into practice as we
046look at next steps for equity thank you very much superintendent are there questions or discussion points from board members Ms Bolton yeah thank you um I don't know in the essence to just celebrated your anniversary I don't know if I've said this uh first of all congratulations but I don't know I know I've not said this uh in public meeting um I'm a little disappointed here first time I've seen a report um during your superintendency that made me want some more and I think it's probably personal frustration more than anything because we've been at this as a board as you point out since 2017-2017 and and would suggest that uh with the exception of the wonderful programmatic audit that you and your folks did your team did that's been really a part of our efforts
047in ad hoc to really assess each of the schools it it seems like we're we're still kind of stymied uh and running in place on equity and I know I know it's a and I think we've done uh made some movement on the anti-racism uh piece and I and I feel strongly about that but the the equity piece I don't know if we I'm sure we have to study it more but I really tired of studying it and tired of talking about it and we we know that you've been leading the charge on this Equity piece and I don't see that here um and my my interest is that some of the stuff that's come up in the budget discussion has really been about Equity whether it's concentrating on the expenditure per school that has
048come up or whether it's How We Do Title One a lot of that budget stuff has actually garnered a lot more conversation on Equity as well it should with the you know figuring out how to distribute the resources in an equitable way I think two um for this I think the emphasis on the equity is how it impacts especially with our lack of um support from Columbus who people have to understand are not helping the children of Greater Cincinnati at all um that we we are doing things that the state actually probably doesn't want us to do it then very much a part of our Equity plan an equity policy and we we might be out of filter with a lot of those folks in Columbus because we're talking about equity for all of our
049children and our teenagers and our families and our schools so I'd like to see a little bit more of that overall picture because you've also been doing an awful lot for any number of our of our kids so I think I'd like to see a fuller report uh and maybe a little less let's talk about it or examine it although we have to do that but I I really think that you may not have captured everything that you've been doing or we've done and I know this is an aggressive enough um for what we need to do I I think the last thing I'll say if I can just take one more second here Mr President um I I I'm happy about inventories I'm happy about audits I don't know that I feel that strongly
050right now about a task force because I think that task force ultimately leads a delay and maybe I'm wrong about that but I I just think we've we've studied and studied and we're in a place in our budget and in place in our policy in a place in your leadership that we could be going much further faster and which we usually don't have to ask you to do um but uh I I just I think Lewis could we lead the state on this and we're among the best in the country and we can do better than this but I know you want to too thank you Ms Bolton other board members comments or questions Ms Jones yes I I hear what and I agree um I kind of got lost in really trying to understand
051uh the task force situation and especially because it says each board member recommends a person and I think uh we we have sort of laid the foundation over time around all this stuff and I'm not I'm not opposed to a task force but I think we're limiting ourselves to what the capabilities are in educating ourselves if we're going to do a full Equity audit um what does that mean not knowing what that means not knowing how the task force will be involved in helping us that or helping even to guide the work so I'd be curious to know a little more about that and uh why perhaps it's limited to um seven people from the community so thank you Ms Jones I will go Dr Moffitt followed by was that Mrs Weinberg so I um
052I think I think it's a good foundation but I know that as a person who does Dei work it could be far more aggressive than this and so um I I wasn't confused about the equity tax task force as far as the need for it but I am concerned about how it looks um particularly when we have lstmc chairs like as a board we received a letter from several chairs back in November asking about the anti-racism committee and wanting to fulfill that charge that is that has been to to have that be in August and October is an almost another year of delay that Idols don't think is necessary I think what the the lsdmc chairs have been asking for and and I have this letter and I think it was I definitely think it
053was just you but they were waiting for the um director of equity to be hired which we now have that and you know we got a little extra bang for our book but they had specific concerns around how to implement um the work of the policy into their schools so they don't some of this has already been done and I when I thought of the task force I thought it really really needs to be utilization of the resources that are already existing you have lsdmc chairs that first of all you have lstmcs that make up community members and parents and teachers that can be your task force you have lsdmc chairs that are asking for how to implement this anti-racism policy I don't think we need to recreate the wheel at all I think we
054don't need to necessarily do um a third party audit I'm kind of concerned about spending more money when we already have data on what some of our concerns are so I I think that we need training that is inclusive I would love to see training that's inclusive of teachers and the chairs because that's what they're asking for that is exactly what they're asking for and they're not getting that and so um I also wanted to see where what I wanted to see was a work plan of activities that directly aligned with the policy and the district goals around achievement and enrollment um I think that this is great but we I would like to see where are the inequities in our in our school buildings academically that that's I want that type of stuff I
055used to do cultural audits for a few schools and they are wanting cultural audits of their building to find out what work needs to be done within their buildings but if we ask them if we involve those lsdmcs those ptas those admins they will tell us what the problem has been historically and be able to give some guidance on I think developing a work plan that aligns with the policies that you've stated and it's high to our district goals which also would align with our goals and our guard rails and so um you know for me it just needed to have more meat that was relevant to what our district has done and where we want to go with regard to those policies rather than to bring in additional people to come in and tell
056us um what that is I would love to see more involvement with our community members our lsdmcs and our parents I just didn't see that but I do think it's a great start I just I'm looking for an action plan thank you Dr Moffett Mrs Weinberg yeah I was just going to end in terms of the only thing that um I would say in terms of the task force I actually like that idea I just think that we would need to utilize more people in the community our staff our parents and things like that so that would just be my one thing that I didn't notice after reading through with this is concern for making sure that the task force would be inclusive to all thank you Mrs Weinberg Mr Craig uh so I want
057to I want to kind of add a couple thoughts onto it and I think it's actually tying a little bit into what board member board member Bolton talked about earlier which is that I think one of the struggles that we've had as a district is we don't know what we have as a district right and so we did a programming audit we didn't know what programs were at what schools so we do uh you know our career you know our careertech is on it we don't know what careertext being offered and what's programming a nice type of deal and so I think there's two levels of equity that we look at when we do discussion of equity and one is are we providing Equitable Services and programming and then are we getting are we giving
058Equitable benefits to our students right so are is every student receiving an opportunity that's somewhat Equitable and then are we providing programming in a way that makes it uh able to be provided or it will be reached by more folks and so one of the concerns that you know on a recent conversation we had with some public parents was about that idea about the services and quality of programming in the schools where they were limited to because of having to stay within a certain boundary area right and these type of things so I think that's we've done a lot of that Parts into board member Bolton's Point that's a lot more than maybe what's listed here um and it is a lot about what builds our budget I think the question then becomes based on
059that information what do we do provide greater equity in what we provide in order to ensure that more students have an equitable opportunity or education um because I think that is the other struggle and other difficulties that there's other things that factor into Equity like the environment that you grow up in like the community in the neighborhood that you're in um we know for a fact that your ZIP code matters more to your educational outcomes than almost any other Factor that's it's a given fact and so I think that's some of the struggles that we're going to deal with as a district long term is that we're going to have schools in certain areas that unfortunately you know even things about walkability of a neighborhood the neighborhood's very walkable and everybody's able to walk around
060it's not as big a deal if you're in an area where you're on a you know you're next to a high-speed Road or you're next to a difficult traffic area that's an equity issue even though we may not always classify it and think about it as an equity issue so I do think there's a lot in what you provided to us that I'm looking forward to seeing what's the next steps in that um I do want to make sure that we also talk about when we think about task force is that there are a lot of folks who bring ideas to the table and bring history to the table and I think that's all important but also that we need to make sure that we are framing the conversation around solutions that can be done
061as opposed to just what have we always done or what what doesn't work um I think that's my concern sometimes with task forces is we spend more time talking about the what we didn't do right the last time then what we need to do right the next time and so I think giving task force a a uh kind of an action to go with right it's a an expectation to provide some support and understanding as to do these Solutions work well these Solutions have been a benefit are they of value is a good thing for task force to do asking a task force just to meet and talk about equity in our district is not probably going to get you a whole lot of things you can take away from it and so I think
062that's the true concern is is there are launching points from which the task force would provide that assistance and guidance and so I again I think all of this I'm I'm struck to hear a few folks talk about we need to go move faster um so but I love that effect that we are committing ourselves to doing something no not many other districts in the state are doing not many other districts in the country are doing and to be quite honest we are doing something that requires all of us to be really examining what all of us can do to build more Equity whether that's teacher students staff whoever um into that process foreign I'll share a couple thoughts and then if other folks have a second item just let me know and then we'll
063turn it back over the superintendent um I think um you know one of the topics that's come up is is how you know how quickly are we moving forward on some of these things uh and from my perspective I just want us to move as quickly on this as we can do it well uh and if that means that we can start tomorrow I think we should start tomorrow if that means there's a really important more studying and work we need to do because if we don't we're not going to do the work well you know I I would certainly support that but to move as quickly and as urgently on this as we can do it well um another topic that's come up is this question of third party help whether that's an audit
064or I saw the footnote about Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in there uh I happen to think getting help from folks who know more about things than we do and had success elsewhere as healthy and good for us and for children um this is just share my perspective on that and then you know longer term I was just pulling up the goals and guard rails that we approved back in December um and and we have so many good Tools in this District I love our Equity policy I proudly voted to support our anti-racism policy our commitment to diversity the equity and inclusion is also apparent in the goals and guard rails we have and I'll give you just three examples one of our goals is about closing the Gap in Reading performance in sixth grade
065based on race that's a that's a big deal in my opinion I'm so proud that we want to focus on that and move that forward another goal we set has to do with narrowing the Gap in post-secondary outcomes that we see um based on race in CPS I'm so proud that that's something we're going to focus on and try to move forward um even in the guard rails we talk about shrinking discipline disparities that we see based on race and so you know for my part I hope that we can spend more and more of our time as a board looking at whether we're actually getting movement on student outcomes on those on those really really important figures for kids and families and for the city um but I do think that that moving as
066quickly as we can move forward well on our commitment to anti-racism are things that are really important um maybe superintendent give you a chance to share and then if board members have other thoughts too we can get a second round sure I do appreciate all of the feedback um that was provided about the updates and I would like to start by saying that this is just a form of updates um Rob if you'll go back to the slot with the dates on it uh one of the things that was really important if we'll stop right here so if we notice just the progression of information some of the things that are discussed right now are things that we've actually put into place this year um it was mid last week before anyone shared that there
067had been an equity audit that had been performed by an organization that the district decided that they were not comfortable with the information because it didn't have enough depth and so therefore it was not used for next steps when we think about an equity plan uh there has not been an equity plan that has been provided yet that we've actually had a codified plan that has been utilized as called for in the in in the in the actual policy so maybe that was something that we put in place maybe it was a part of a plan that was somewhere but in terms of looking at how that was moved from this is the policy to implementation that's not something that we've been able to actually determine discuss and codify so in thinking about um you
068know having LED this work before there are different levels of equity as we're thinking about it and of course we're thinking about Equity that's happening at the school level Equity that's happening in budgeting that's Equity that's happening and resourcing but there's also operational Equity what's happening in something for example like magnet schools and how students are being assigned to magnet schools or who has access to what program so thinking about this work very very deeply is where it comes from with the thought around auditing and why auditing is important starting last May and picking up at that point we really begin to ask questions around what had already been done in this space because the board had done such robust policy work around this actual thing right and so what's been done there and so
069there have been work that have been done around the beginnings of thinking about budgeting and how we're trying to get to equity in terms of budgeting and so this year we were able to look at really taking that to another level but trying to get to something that becomes like what you're referencing board member Bolton more specific more concrete around next steps that will that's what we're looking for in terms of the task force piece you know I um this conversation all together has been fascinating and helpful for me and as you said earlier and I think I heard a few people uh reference the same you know going fast has not ever been a challenge for me in terms of what we're looking at in terms of what's going what's happening next but trying
070to also receive feedback in the space and knowing how important this is this was one of the areas that I thought and working with the team that it would be important because the board had more background for the community in terms of who would be responsible in terms of doing what and who may be great voices to get to it to the table not just to um maybe it's better to call it a working group not just to get to the table and talk about what has been done or what hasn't been done but really in a broader sense how we're looking at equity in our school district but also how we're looking at Equity that might be able to benefit the work that we're doing across the community so open either way in terms
071of that but I do here and I and I am I'm pleased to hear that that information that we've provided previous to now around all the other areas has led the expectation of around this space this was just an opportunity to try to give an update to where we are and where we're looking to go next in terms of the lsdmcs and the requests around work and protocols for the anti-racism next steps you know having done Dei work I know those that have done that work before like I have would definitely support that it is also important to have some kind of consistency in protocols that you're using so that you're also able to do the appropriate training making certain that there is a level of comfort because across the board that is not always
072the case so we'll take the information in terms of feedback you know we have reviewed the once we received it in mid last week we reviewed the audit that was done before the reason that I reference we reference children's here is because there is an opportunity for us to do some partner work with them as they've done with the district in the past but I don't think it's something that has to take a complete year um because we have a lot of information already but we do want to make certain that when we come out with an overall implementation plan it is something that we're able to move uh into we're able to Monitor and we're able to see it in our action so I do appreciate all of the feedback and in terms of
073the updates these are just highlights um but we'll make sure that we provide the necessary information as we move forward thank you very very much superintendent are there any other last comments or questions from board members Ms Bolton yeah thank you for the response uh real quickly just a initial having looked at the draft report regarding the Strategic plan and the goals and guard rails and the working groups probably if in that draft there's an even more emphasis placed on sort of the equity piece because it's there uh and I think that would be helpful and as we get ready to do the uh vision mission and and forecasting there's an another opportunity where we could you know kind of rededicate ourselves and get more specific and what have you so I think those are
074two opportunities just in the next 30 days or so where we can kind of recommit regarding equity thank you Miss Bolton the interrupt no just just thank you for that and and I would concur that it's a it's in much of what we're doing but really trying to come back and do a codified plan for it that we're able to work through I think is something that we could add to what we're looking at with the Strategic plan thank you other uh comments or questions okay we'll move on to item H which is the superintendent of schools uh do we have any retirements this evening we have two retirees as if this evening excuse me first up is our certificated staff which would be Pamela J Rowling a teacher from Robert a Taft information technology
075high school and then last we have our civil service Joy Laurel uh paraprofessional from College Hill fundamental Academy we just want to thank them for their years of service we want to thank them for their commitment to this district and to the students and we want to wish them well thank you very much is there a motion to adopt the recommendations of the superintendent this evening so moved thank you vice president Craig is there a second thank you thank you Mrs Weinberg any discussion on the recommendations Dr Muffin recommendation three um there's for staff professional development I'm trying to pull this up um so under um recommendation three there's a the recommendation three is for using Sr funding for professional development is that for is that from Esser two or three I think you're asking
076about the treasures report oh I'm sorry I might be on the wrong one hold on one second I think it's on the last page okay I think it's page like 17 or 18 in the PDF number two is already spent out the money we have left is us or three is that what you're asking yes that's what I'm asking for so this is um for sr3 money for professional development right I wanted to clarify that thank you for clarification so this is actually um this was funding that we had set aside for professional development that is coming up at this part at this time a part of that was from ether but they're also title one dollars that are available as well so it's really more about the um the the types of professional development
077that's being done not necessarily the specific fund for it and what was the what was the dollar amount for that one was that tied to the treasurer's report of that that professional development actually this this is actually having the professional development itself covered um when we did the initial recommendations for Esser we included that in those requests for Esser we just haven't used it at this point so this is a combination in the treasures report there's the professional development providers and then the additional funds this is giving us the opportunity to pay our staff for actually attending the professional development okay so this isn't really a new ask no it's not a new okay okay and I just wanted to know and you said it's a combination of two and three It's a combination right
078because this was this is giving us the opportunity to pay staff for the professional development and the treasures report we have the completed rfps that we've done for this um for the different trainings that we're looking to offer staff but here I'm I'm requesting for us to be able to pay staff voluntarily that attend the training uh during the summer for these particular areas so it just needs to reflect title and S or grand dollars in here that right it's title and answer yes we can update it actually we need we just need to update it um really saying using available funds because it depends um there are sometimes leadership development that we can use with a different type of title funds so we'll make the update so that it says with available funding okay
079and I think there's a there's a motion from Mr Craig and a proposed amendment from Dr moffatt that read instead of Esser available Grant funds available funding available funding yes is that a friendly Amendment vice president Craig that's a very friendly Amendment and title and the title I mean add title not the title but title with it title funding we just added available funding because I think that would be inclusive any other uh discussion on the superintendent's recommendations Ms Wagner would you call the vote on the amended superintendent's recommendations please Miss Bolton aye Mr Craig yes Miss Jones yes Dr Mafia yes Mrs Weinberg yes president Lindsay yes uh thank you very much do we have a motion to adopt the um super that do we have a motion to adopt the treasurer's revised Treasures
080report this evening may I request a revision before or do I need to wait until I will get it on that and then we'll do the same same process was there a motion to adopt the revised Treasures thank you Ms Bolton is there a second thank you Ms Jones now under discussion women sounds like we might have a proposed amendment I do I have a correction first that's on page 19 item J they picked up the wrong vendor name it should read American sound and electronics and not streets can you just say that one more time treasure yes page 19 item J the vendor name should read American sound and electronics okay Ms Bolton is that a friendly Amendment yes very friendly very friendly treasure excellent uh superintendent was there an additional Amendment there is
081one more um I would like to just hold one of the contracts that's recommended here for leading Educators for professional development I want to hold that just from for a bit more uh review before bringing it back to the board is that also a friendly Amendment Ms poulton it's a very friendly she's a friendly superintendent we have we have two friendly amendments so the the revised Treasures report is on the floor as amended any other discussion on the amended Treasures report Ms Bolton yeah just a clarification from the um thank you the superintendent uh for that revision and thanks for the explanation uh treasure um uh the uh Roman numeral eight I believe if I remember my College Hill uh Elementary teaching um where we're talking in terms of the restorative practices uh or what's
082the right word uh International did we vote on that already previously correct yes yeah so the bid document this is a correction to what you already approved they just used the wrong calendar year instead of 23 they put 22. so they're correcting that and for the leading Educators we've voted only for the beginning of that contract that's not been voted on in its entirety yet correct based on the information that's in there it says there was a very small thirty thousand dollar contract to do something I'm not sure what but the recommendation to Amendment to the larger amount has been pulled from the top floor okay so we're not voting on that because of the movement of the the superintendent and um and we can I have no other issues Treasures thank you very much
083Miss Bolton any other discussion or questions on the amended treasurer's report Dr moffatt I have a question about the wording on the end of those contracts it was before it was about the one that's been pulled but it's also in this one under item eight Roman numeral eight with that great education um the wording that says after the initial term DPS reserves the right to renew and agreement from this RFP at the board's discretion for one additional year is that standard language and would that be at the amount that is listed so they would get another million dollars rounding it up in this particular I wouldn't say it's standard but we use it um often enough when we when we negotiate a multi-year contract and we leave ourselves a window of opportunity to extend that
084if things are going verbally well and we don't want to change out vendors you know in the third or fourth year so it's what's not standard is allowable and we use it on occasion um and I think it um correctly if I'm wrong legal counsel Mr Wing um at the end of that renewal um to extend it for one more year the value of that can be renegotiated it doesn't automatically rolled over the same amount okay so I do remember and again you know I'm getting I'm getting a little gray here so we had a discussion some time ago and I don't remember if it was in finance or if it was um in our financial Town Halls about removing automatic renewal of contracts because of this very thing getting into being found contractually to
085a specific dollar amount I'm concerned and I guess that's what made me the 2.6 million dollar one was really what highlighted me but we're removing that one but this particular one any one contract that we have that wording in there that we are we are um renewing it has the potential to automatically be new it because it's not automatic okay it says that the board's discretion that what we would do was come back to the board and say this is how this contract is performing we would like to extend it for one more year okay thank you for that clarification again my question is still a little relevant and live on the floor because I think my question would be what what type of assessment would there be that we as a board could say
086okay well you know hey or even just the administration can say hey they didn't do this or they did do this or because it that that wording just is concerning to me that that there is an inference that that's um that we're talking about large dollar amounts and that that they're just automatically coming back like is there a what's the process for this I'm also concerned a question I have a question about the RFP process who's reviewing that um and particularly because the other one that we're pulling had the 36 thousand dollar a award and then it showed at the end of the treasures report the list of vendors and they were one of many that put the RFP in but they weren't they won the award and then they weren't the lowest and they
087weren't the highest so like what's that process so um let me answer the first question first so you know we stood up a new operation the treasurer's office with a contract administrator and we went through 884 contracts and looked at all and tried to identify what the performance was on all of them that was things that were already in place as new contracts come before the board starting with the new fiscal year in the treasures report you will see we're gonna um you know authorize a treasure to contract with vendor XYZ for this purpose and these are the measures that we're going to hold them accountable to and so then as it as our annual process will go through and identify did they meet those measures it's all very public very transparent and we'll go
088through it through finance committee like like we did but we're still in startup mode so we had to go back to the old contracts first to set a new process in place it was the question the answer to number one number two did you want to add anything to them okay um I don't know if um rco would like to speak to this since it's in his shop but my experience with the with rfps is they're managed by the purchasing department a team is formed to determine what the scope of work that wants to be bid out and when that scope of work is defined they Define how they're going to score responses so they predetermine what the measures are going to be and what the weightings are sometimes the way the highest weighting is
089priced sometimes it's experience and sometimes it's other factors local um but that team determines what that Matrix decision Matrix is going to look like the score card when the when the answers come in or the proposals come in that team goes and they look at every single one and they score it individually out of this vendor come according to these pre-identified measures it becomes a mathematical calculation um not rfps you don't have to take the lowest bid correct because it might not be the best thing for the districts right um and so there should be plenty of documentation of how they arrived at the vendor they arrived to and I'll also add in terms of that so as in terms of for example one that we were talking about tonight leading Educators which is a
090vendor that provides um standards training for ELA and Math teachers so as a part of that RFP team it's inclusive of not just central office staff but it's inclusive for principals inclusive of of representatives from from CFT populations of teachers that are included as well so it goes through several different iterations uh generally it starts with a review of the information based on what the scope of work would be for the RFP and then from there it looks at based on what we've asked for as a district what is the scoring for that each individual score each each person's scores individually and then after that they come together have discussion around what it is that we need if there is the need for the vendor to come in and do a presentation they do it
091with that same body and so um from that process then a recommendation is given so it is a it is a pretty robust process because we do have to be able to share with the vendor if there are any questions about why the vendor did not get the bid we do have to be able to share with them why one vendor got the got the bid over a different vendor welcome any other questions or discussion on the treasurer's reports this is a follow-up to what uh Dr Moffett mentioned and nobody will be surprised when I say this um you'll recall that I've been concerned about how we maintained or not we even you or even this Administration maintained the Iowa test with extending it with then the board never saw that fourth year of extension
092uh I think we even checked to make sure so I I do worry about something where we do in language say that we have that opportunity and I just want to make sure that in full transparency not happened in your Administration but in previous administration uh it happened where it we had a fourth year of something and us not necessarily agreeing or doing that but I think that's important if there's process to protect us from that happening it'd be great and I do thank you Boardman revolton um I'm president if it's okay to share I do want to add a just reiterate what our Treasurer shared that adding the language that's added gives us the opportunity to bring it back before the board but it's not an absolute there's really not a contract that doesn't
093have a provision in it for us to cancel that contract with appropriate notice um even if there is a fee that goes along with it and we've had some situations where that's happened on the nominal end but there's not one that that that we cannot as a district really get out of that contract so in terms of adding this in this information in there is no expectation for dollar amount even when we're thinking about these vendors that we're talking about right now there are there is a training plan that is um that we're that is put in place or for a process a period of time that will allow us to get our staff members trained and then after that you're really only looking at training new staff members um you know until there is
094a change that there's a need to train everyone again it so there is no absolute I just want to reiterate that there is not an absolute there isn't an absolute for dollar amount um and it is important that we do share that at the end of the time um we do not have to have to re-engage in contract it does just give us an opportunity to do that thanks superintendent thank you Ms Bolton any other last questions on our superintendent on our Treasures amended report for this evening Ms Wagner would you call the vote please Mrs Bolton for the revised I Mr Craig yes Miss Jones yes Dr Moffat Mrs Weinberg yes president Lindy yes thank you very much uh we are now entering uh the next item on our agenda which I believe is
095board matters uh we have five of these this evening first from Member Jones on student outcomes monitoring thank you Mr President um I think this probably won't take longer um are my board colleagues we all went through the self-evaluation process at the last board meeting and one of the things that I think we learned from that or just we didn't discover we knew that on one of the categories on the monitoring and accountability piece that basically we've not been able to uh do anything to move forward in that area and and and that is normal um so I what I did in thinking about um the student um the Cal work plan is I asked uh to have a phone conversation with uh Cindy about that process and I did that because the way the
096work plan uh is worded now and I was going to present it to the policy committee to insert it into the policy Committee of edits um but there are some things about the work plan that we probably need to change to modify it's it's not what I call it's not a lot of stuff it's it's in and Cindy and I talked about it and um one of the things she said to me which I totally agree with is our Cal agenda must absolutely focus on the goals and guardrails and so there are a couple of things in there where there's questions I mean there's you know there's question about does this belong here what do we do with it if it doesn't belong here and and what have you so I didn't get a chance
097to make those edits for your to look at it tonight um but what I was hoping to do um is to go ahead and make those edits and incorporate them in the bylaws review and then folks can see it in that context and we can have full we can have a discussion about it at that time um unless people have questions tonight about it but it really is the the aim is to really um focus the work plan on achieving working toward achieving the goals in the guard rails so I wanted to inform the board about that if you have any questions outstanding questions right now I'm happy to try to address those but that's where we are I'd also like the superintendent I didn't know because we had a conversation I don't know if
098you wanted to weigh in on that okay thank you member Jones any I have one comment question but other board members would like to go first Dr Moffett so I I do agree with one thing that you shared board member Jones Craig I don't know what you calling you today um but um I think that the cow should absolutely Encompass the goals and guardrails but we also deal with things that are outside of the goals and Gardens and so what I feel and again this is you know strictly my opinion we are in the in the Council of great City schools has been very very successful in helping to Usher this and we are honing in on a certain number of things and I think that that's great but we are also responsible for other
099things and when we're getting further and further away from what the original work plan of this student achievement looked like which included updates to lobbying which included updates to health and safety items which included updates to maybe some facilities or things like that I completely appreciate the work of the um the Council of Race City schools and I think that they definitely add value but I also think that we need to make certain that we are honoring our commitment to be respect responsible to be aware of other areas that we are responsible to what has happened and and it's very disappointing to me is that we are utilizing the the cow the cow the committee of the whole for other things other than student achievement and so what happens is we get behind on awareness
100of issues particularly safety particularly you know that we've had quite a few emails on the safety of our schools those are things that we are responsible for and that we don't have time to talk about I believe that we should have time within our meetings to do some um interim progress monitoring monitoring um I think that that comes with the territory of their governance training to have we should be talking about the superintendent's interim guardrails and um things of that nature that should be the time where we are succinctly talking about goals and guardrails but we also have other areas that we need to be dealing with and so I would love to see um that Cal agenda incorporate the other areas of responsibility and be inclusive more into mortality if thank you Dr moffatt
101um I want to hear if there are other board members have not gone yet I want to bring in other voices I promise I'll give you a chance to respond um yeah Ms Jones I promise we'll come back if I have I have to wait I won't remember I know but I do I want to just check because anybody who's not gone yet I want to share yes representative I may be able to add of clarity um thinking about what what remember Moffett just shared um so as we looked at the work plan for this year um and that was that we that was just brought to the board I want to say a few meet a board meetings ago um it was inclusive of a review of and and monitoring the goals and guard
102rails but also those other areas that the board thought important to student overall student achievement as a part of that calendar uh part of the topics that we would cover and so um one of the things that we've done that we plan to share at the next Cal meeting is now that we've done that and it's been approved at the at the board level we can share at least a tentative plan for which board meetings we plan to cover those things in that are also support they're supportive of the goals and guard rails but they're also supportive of some of those other topics that board member Moffat is referencing so I I don't know that it's um an either or I think that it's a heavier focus on the both and where it's the the
103the consistent monitoring of the goals and guard rails but also those other topics that are a part of the work plan are included in that monitoring and presentation plan as well so if that wasn't if I didn't clarify that part in the response I I'm sorry that I admitted that thank you superintendent thank you okay so um I hear what the superintendent is saying and what I will say is and and I'm you know it's going to be at the will of the board how we do this the way that the superintendent defined it is what we did we did that and we took everybody's feedback and Incorporated I think um and and when I spoke with Cindy I mean certainly they uh I won't say they have a totally different perspective about us but
104they do I mean they they they are saying to us that if you are truly going to do service to the student achievement piece and the outcomes that this is uh we should be directing our full focus on the goals and guard Wells exclusively now what I will say is and I let me add this that the their in their work with us around how we monitor and and do that uh she said they anticipate that it might start in the fall so we got some time in there so I want to say a couple of things one is when we agreed to change the work plan we said and I can remember conversations about this we said that it will not look like the old student achievement committee we said that secondly when I
105went back I took everybody's feedback and I went back and I looked at all the other work plans there's a great deal of overlap in terms of some of the areas of responsibility there's a great deal of overlap across all the other committees and no I I agree with Dr Moffett we do have to make sure that those get addressed it doesn't have to get addressed in two committees or three committees it has to be addressed so we have to find where that Medium is for that um there's also the superintendent spoke to the calendar and that is one of the things that Cindy said that um and she said we would work with the superintendent around developing a calendar of a specific dates and topics and all that and I'll use the example I
106think Dr Martha used the example of safety well it it could be appropriate that a safety report come to this committee but the res that but the overall work plan in terms of being sort of quote responsible for the safety area lies with the health and safety committee and it's in their work plan and so I think what I'm asking is um you know we as a board have to make a decision whether we're going to be whether we're going to um um uh have this be uh of a Fidelity piece of fidelity factor in making sure that we do what we agreed to do with the council gray City Schools or whether we're going to do it some other way and like I said whatever the will of the board is that's what it
107is but um it is going to involve some change it's going to involve some change in thinking or whatever but what you will see in the edits is not are not major shifts there there might be one or two things that I I'm pretty sure people will uh notice and comment on but but they're not any major shifts in what's in there now so um I'll make sure that that gets in the edits for um people's review thank you Ms Jones I know Mr Craig has a comment I have a quick one we'll get everybody else I just wanted to kind of also highlight you know one of the things that we talked about when we were doing student achievement is the fact that so much of some stuff that was in student achievement overlapped
108and was getting covered by other parts and then part maybe it was also because nobody was doing it so folks had to pick up the ball and do it um but I think as we also think about this from that our bylaws perspective you know each of each of the Committees were asked to also and I know uh board member Bolton it races about some of the other stuff with their strategic plan as well but each of our committees are really supposed to be looking at what we are doing and what is our ultimate goal and what our responsibilities are on the committee to ensure that there's things are represented and dealt with um and I think this is you know again a great example of putting it into our bylaws what the Committees are
109focused to do um because some things absolutely will touch on multiple different areas and they'll have different connections but ultimately maybe that focal point is within a difference the the greater topic is within agree is within a different committee but these specifics of something might fall within a committee thing so for instance there's some Finance policies that originate out of uh Budget Finance and growth that then move to finance to ultimately be authored written put into place um that doesn't mean that every financing thing every policy that deals with money ever will come to budget and Finance in the same way it's there are specific things like that and so I think that's a good way to separate out some of those things within the bylaws and within the committee structures to make sure that
110we're not having three committees asking about the same stuff and basically you know kind of winding using a time that can be used towards everything thank you Mr Craig um Ms Bolden yes I I actually can see the wisdom of of really concentrating on the goals in guard rails in student achievement rather than us doing it in a number of committees I think that would because we're all there together and that they're all basically instructional I mean Top Flight goals and and guard rails but whatever was previously part of student achievement well as I think everybody's saying has to be absorbed elsewhere if it still is a valid priority and I think we can do that uh and I think it might be better but I think a concentrated effort on the goals in guardrails
111since we have actual alignment there and we've made a number of year commitment to it I I would prefer it be there than rather us divvy It Out Among different committees different parts of it I think it would makes it makes sense but that's about it for great City schools and me though I can't be too happy with them all the time I understand you have a teacher Ms Weinberg I do you want to get a word in I'm happy to go but you're good um so we can move on here in a second I just wanted to share for my part from a process perspective I think where member Jones started is the right place for us to end all of this will be decided through the process of looking at the bylaw revisions
112so no decision tonight this is a great discussion but we have a decision process we will play that process out and whatever decision is made over the course of that Bilo review that'll create the clarity I think for us and for the administration I'm glad that process is moving um I think for my part when I'm looking at proposed bylaw changes or committee scope I I want to us I want to challenge myself and challenge all of us to move Less on inputs and outputs and more on outcomes I think this is one of the themes that came from the self-evaluation from before and I do I do believe that the more things we try to do and the more things we try to monitor the more we dilute our time and the more we
113dilute the administration's time uh and so this is just me speaking for myself but when I look at our bylaws and the proposed changes and the proposed committee Scopes I'd like to challenge myself um to do less and focus more uh so that we get more lift on the things that truly matter I think that's harder uh it's easy to try and do everything in my perspective and to to maybe not make as much progress there um and so I'm going to be challenging myself to try to focus more uh and maybe even do less so we have a process and we'll talk more about that as we go um we'll move on to the second board matters item which is from Dr Moffitt on mayor meeting with elected officials from the board yeah I
114think this was um one of four but this one stayed on there um there was in the I was just reading the I made this request because I was reading about in the weekly update to the board members that there was going to be an upcoming year maybe a meeting with the mayor and so I thought that that was open for for members to attend if they wanted to that obviously caused quite a bit of confusion and we needed to have a discussion here so that was what um I think your response president Lindy was that that was just going to be a meeting with yourself and the superintendent and I just wanted clarification thanks board member of it I think I wanted to be able to ask to some folks who've been on the
115board longer than I have about I was this is not something I have a strong opinion about I'd just like there to be a clear process um my understanding was that if the superintendent's going to meet with um the mayor's office good to invite the board president to join so that that person can share an update with the rest of the board about what was discussed in that meeting that's what I had been trying to do so far there have been cases where I've been unable to attend I expended that invitations at vice president Craig um I'm very open to whatever policy or procedure we want to have as a board I just wanted it to be a clear one um so it is can I ask member Jones or remember Bolton like is there
116you were looking at me I'm looking for some some historical perspective I I think the historical perspective that I can offer is that we begin it this it I think the infant is of establishing sort of a standard of operation between us and and city hall or city council came when we were trying to uh deal with the tax abatement situation and at that time we established uh well it it actually began even farther farther back than that historically because we we had a collaboration a collaborative where it uh we had uh board the board and met with uh City Council on a quarterly basis and we had a shared agenda which is what Dr Moffett um leads us on now but the but with the tax abatement process when that came about and we
117began to do some planning and things around that we we established a sort of a standard protocol for how we would work through that and it sort of carried through other situations and that protocol was that when we're conducting business business with the city that we were conducted at the appropriate levels that being born to council and uh Administration to Administration um now it helped it was very helpful that we had this uh quarterly meeting because then it became everybody being involved in at the table everybody Administration uh council members and board on a shared agenda and that's what we have in place now so that's the historical context of it now what I will say is that there is nothing in our bylaws or rules there's no standard of practice that precludes any one
118of us for meeting with a council member if they want to meet with us I don't think anything precludes us from doing that and I know we we have we all have I believe um but the issue is um uh it we know that for board members and this would hold true for the superintendent I would think as well is that when we're conducting business that there are not decisions that are being made um that aren't first addressed at the board level and so um that's what I would say that I said anybody can meet with them you know if somebody were to call me and say can I have a meeting with you I would go um that's relationship building but um that that's the historical context that I can offer Miss Bolton may
119be able to offer something additional but additionally uh first of all it makes sense for us as we have that networking or whatever relationships with other elected officials on an individual basis about particular things that makes complete sense of as we do it'd be great to more formalize those Mutual meetings again I think that would be helpful but historically I can recall and this would have been my first year on the board which is 16 years ago um I was here and I I think uh Davis was in the room too and Mrs Blackwell who was superintendent walked across the hall and said were you available on a particular and it was a date and the time and I said well yes ma'am if you need me to be well uh we the mayor wants
120to meet about Chase School and the community issues regarding the building of Chase school because it's built on kind of an aquifer is a problem um and I said oh yeah I'll be happy to do this well if I'm meeting with the mayor or the the mayor is involved it has to be a board member so it's a it's a the board to board or board to council or mayor it's the elected official thing I used to call it the Eileen Cooper Reed rule uh and which it is uh but it even predates uh uh Cooper reads so the city manager and the uh superintendent meet on business and or the equivalent and what have you and when there's the elected official there has to be somebody whether it's the president or another member of
121council another member of the board or what have you and who it is thanks Ms Bolton I'm not sure if we're answering the actual question that you were raising well the historical context is definitely relevant that let me just uh put the context into why this was relevant I am really not concerned about who meets as far as a board member it doesn't matter to me but the information sharing is what I think is missing and so if it's you or if it's you or whomever on the board side I think that that's that that's important but what I was always what I was taught and when I asked other board members that currently sit on the board and that have been previously on the board when there is a meeting the information should be
122shared it shouldn't be it should be typed up like hey this is what happened it shouldn't have to wait we shouldn't have to guess we shouldn't have other board members didn't have to ask you or whomever went hey what happened at that meeting so that's the issue for me is that the information is kind of stopping and um that's more relevant I was always tired it was elected to elect it um and I've made the request multiple times for information sharing that's not happening so that's really this issue answer that directly for a second what I have tried to do is anytime I've met with the mayor and the superintendent is provide an update to everybody in our next public meeting I've done that every time I've met with the mayor and with the superintendent
123is that sufficient for people would people like something different I hear your request for something written Dr moffatt my hope is that an in-person update would be sufficient and also be I think more in keeping with with keeping things open and public but I'll do whatever a majority of folks are asking for I I believe that's the practice also when we go to conferences the next public meeting we should be reporting back whatever it is we were within reason please uh and relevant so that would make sense that that's would be the same kind of timing unless there's something terribly uh present about it I would agree as well just making sure that we're reporting back in a timely and whether it's written whether it's um at a public meeting but I think just making
124sure that we're getting that information because I do agree that with that has been a concern it's gotten a little bit better but just making sure that we're staying consistent with that yeah I've I've only had two uh and I've shared updates on both um but I'm happy to do whatever the board would like Ms Jones or Mr Craig do you have a perspective on what kind of updates you all would like no I mean I think the one maybe the one point of clarity I think is also helps in some of the discussion is that there are times where meetings are requested of us in which folks are not able to attend so I mean I think maybe that actual clarification that while it was requested at that point based on the because also
125part of the problem is the timing in which some of these things are requested or if you request a meeting the day before or a few days before it makes it very difficult for folks to readjust their schedules um to be able to do so and so I think that's also maybe just the clarification as to when there's a meeting requested that we were not able to enter that's been rescheduled or that type of thing at the next public meeting is maybe another add-on to information just for clarification for for me um because I don't know if this is from the last meeting that occurred um based based on board member Craig's Point um as a follow-up to the issues that were occurring at Woodward the mayor was asked to visit Woodward before he visited
126the school out of respect he contacted me to share to find if it was okay for him to go to the school and of course I said yes it was okay and he said after that we will follow up with the information that was provided for him while he was at the school he met with a group of students at the school as he told me that he would um the following day or so I went to the school and I met with a group of students as well so we both had two separate meetings with the group of students for for from woodwork after that the mayor's office reached out to me and to two of the board members and asked about a meeting um initially you know if the mayor's office calls and
127asked to meet we do try I try to accommodate that um and there are several conversations that happen as a part of that um so in this at this point one of the things that he offered to our students at Woodward was that after he had a conversation with me that we would look to jointly come back to the school and share with the students so in terms of the meeting conversation the the conversation that we had as the superintendent I shared that information with the board I recognize that this question is not really about me as much as it is for the board but I think at least I want to make sure that the context that I'm thinking about right now is the context that we're discussing because this was a meeting that
128was requested of us there was not necessarily a whole lot of clarity around around what we were going to discuss but the mayor and I have had meetings together before the city manager was a part of the meeting as well as well as some of my staff went to the meeting also and so we decided that we would jointly go back to Woodward and just re-engage with the same students so that we could help them understand this is what these are the city's responsibilities these are the school district's responsibilities these are the things that we're looking at right now in the community to give some feedback to the students so I think that that might be some of this particular Clarity but in terms of that meeting that day the two board members that were
129invited to attend I think it was board member Lindy or president Lindy and also board member Weinberg who is the chair of health and safety because it was around safety concerns and at the notice that we received neither of them were able to receive to attend but there there wasn't there wasn't a um you know there wasn't a reason for us not to continue with the conversation around what needs to be next steps for the students so if that adds any Clarity or if I need any Clarity it would be if the board could provide that to me as well um because that's really been the nature of the meetings and that's the only meetings that we've had um at this point since the last time this conversation was services just again for clarity this
130came from August 24th and it was from the meeting with the mayor that happened on Friday in Europe August 24th I'm sorry April and it there is Woodward High School mentioned but it also turned into public safety collaboration school-based Health Centers and nursing the Public Safety Academy and the the statement was the city asked if we could take responsibility for hiring the crossing guards they are citing capacity and the ability to give the best service in this area that's when I said well hey can I be part of that conversation as well and that's where the the whole email thing went with no that that's really not um that's that's not that's that's the president's responsibility so I was asking out of a response to the topics were broader than Woodward from your report and
131asking if they if there will be inclusion of other board members I would like to be able to be in that conversation and so again in it wasn't just about Woodward it was let's talk about the process because I think that it could have been if other if the two board members that were requested couldn't be there the invitation could have been open to others and that's what I was asking for so that's where this went left because it seems like when I make these requests they go to the right or left but that was how this came about like we need to talk about this as a full board when um when other board members are making that request so so just to add for that um the meeting that the mayor's office requested
132was about safety at Woodward once we got there these were other things to discuss and that's why I brought them back to the board so in going into that conversation these are all things that are very relevant to the work that we have to do administratively and moving forward that's why I shared them with the board to bring them back to the board there were no decisions that were made as a part of it but I will ask the next time there's a conversation that the mayor does ask me to be a part of we have we have planned to meet more regularly because there are a lot of things that across the the mayor and the city manager they're working on together um you know each of the meetings as I share the city
133manager has been a part of the meeting as well so it's not just the mayor it's been the city manager also but I will ask moving forward what those topics are so that we do make sure that we have some some uh board member representation as a part of those meetings I appreciate that I think Dr Martha this idea sounds like it makes a lot of sense to me like if if one person can't be there to continue to extend that to other board members I think it sounds pretty reasonable um yes as a final sort of add to this and again I'm going to re repeat what I said before there's nothing that precludes any one of us from meeting with city council member the mayor or anybody and I do agree that uh
134we can bring the information back especially if it calls for us to make decisions on behalf of the board um I think it would be helpful and I know Dr Moffitt has been trying to get this meeting together we haven't been able to get a date but if we can get that on the books on a regular basis that's going to help a lot I think in the continuity and the flow of this dialogue and uh so I I'm just encouraging us to look and I know you've tried and the dates just didn't seem to jail but I think that would help a lot and I'm not going to be able to talk in a few minutes thank you Ms Jones Mr Craig last word uh and I think also part of this is going
135to be about making sure that we are able to get those I think to your point of getting those regularly scheduled will also allow us to regularly coordinate a little bit better because I think part of the problem happens is that when the meeting is scheduled on like a Tuesday for a Thursday or Tuesday for a Friday you're now trying to rush around to find out okay so who can flip everything around make their schedule work and I think that if we're having those regular conversations if we're having regular communication that will allow us to better coordinate some of those things going forward as well well I think what I'm hearing is that it's not just the two it's not just the president and the vice president it can be open to anybody and I
136think that's what I want the administration here is that it really doesn't have to stop with just two board members they can go to extend to any board member that was what my request was I I don't think the administration was trying to limit it to us too I think this was this was to Mr Craig's point we had about I don't know 36 hours or something on this I said I couldn't make it ask Brandon he said he couldn't make it and then the meeting happened um but I think I think I think your points well I think um okay so moving on to item three this is from Ms Bolton on board communication to the public and Dallas dances yes um again recalling previous years um the board has normally when it's been
137met whether it's meeting a loan you know among ourselves or whether it's with the administration or not with the administration we have normally over these years had available to us uh public affairs rather than be left to our own devices and been typing uh whatever we're trying to say to come up with a statement so my my request is that for the superintendent to make sure if at all possible that at available to the board were making statements or getting our message out or what have you having the ability to to use the professionals the wonderful professionals that we have uh and that person or whichever person that would be be assigned to us as I can recall whether um you know it was Lauren or whether it was Janet or whatever whether they were
138in the room or whether they were in the hallway uh it really helps us get our messaging out as well and I I think it's not uh you know in Conflict but of course the superintendent would have to direct you know the person for that the other item I want to mention and um is that no decent self-respecting principle or superintendent necessarily likes to have lsdmcs uh report certain things I can remember distinctly with Mrs Ronan if a principal and the lsdmc would come with a school issue to the board a superintendent response would be to the principal can't you control your own school so I understand the bureaucracy I understand the pathology but I do think that in an increasingly we have and maybe it's the work we've done for a few years now
139to kind of re-establish lsdmcs and reinvigorate this this very proud tradition I think we need to maybe in the bylaws and with the understanding of the administration as well we probably have to work out a I don't want to say a formal but at least in a kind of approved way that lsdmcs could reach out to the board and not feel as though they're going to get their principal or anybody in trouble or that they have something to share with us we don't want to disrupt the hierarchy uh administratively but indeed that is a community group within each School represents both the people that work there and also the people that send their kids there or community members so just if we can figure out a way to make that happen with nobody necessarily thinking
140they're gonna get in trouble or that we don't have that information because we buy into the idea that about staff and we've worked I think on that but I think the lsdmc piece would would help the board understand what's going on and I think it would invigorate the lsdmcs too so just something to think about whether that's in the bylaws or or whatever I think this is a good a good um topic Ms Bolton because I think we have a great process running that will create an upcoming opportunity to engage on exactly this issue uh because I think if particularly if there's a suggestion for what should be in our bylaws around lsdmcs uh just a friendly reminder that folks should be sending to chair moraski any feedback they have on the suggested bylaw changes
141by the 15th of May which is one week from today um that way they can discuss this and you're on this committee this is a great place and every other suggestion board member suggestion from board members on the 19th and then people have comments you know we should air them but I think this will also ultimately be recommended through that process and then we'll get a recommendation from our policy committee on that one all right send records number four uh board and board members interests and priorities for FY 24 budget also from Ms Bolton this one will be short as well uh as we are closing in uh and to mid-may the finance chair I would just like to remind board members that uh decision time is happening uh and that means uh things that
142may not be pleasant to decide or hard to decide or easy to decide and uh that's going to happen uh and it would be it would behoove every board member who come to grips with what priorities they have as a member representing the community and what they feel most strongly about but whatever that may be to know what those priorities are as an elected representative as well as do as much work and study as possible we are I think trying very hard as I understand it to to make that uh end of June deadline I don't I have to in the town months ago I still don't think it's going to happen because we don't know if this board can say no yet which is an issue you know an issue but at any rate
143um please be thinking hard about what you really are ready to die on the hill about and what you know probably would be best for the district but hard to do so just come prepared for those meetings that will be occurring thank you miss both of me Mr Craig just wanted to remind everybody also the the uh in in in connection also with but remember Bolton was saying is that this is also the time in which the district is really going through both the uh requests from the schools as well as the requests from central office and so that challenge is uniquely more difficult when we think about the real challenges that may happen on a daily basis within our district and and going into the next year those things that are really important and
144so I know we are all getting emails and whatnot of things that are new ideas for us to do in the midst of us already having new ideas and other matters that are being reviewed and so it is very important to foreign's point that we also are thinking about that in the context of finite set of dollars that have to be used in an equitable way thank you Mr Craig any other uh discussion on this board matters item is Bolton just for for clarification I I I think this is what you were saying but I just wanted to check um we're in early may we have less than two months until that end of June deadline they're going to be hard decisions coming up on budget and that people should come to board meetings ready
145with what their priorities are and why so that we can have discussions together and figure out will of the board on financial priorities that's exactly it and be very respectful of of each other's views and values and know what the administration is trying to do and the Administration has to be respectful of what we're trying to do so this is just punch time thank you for the summary thank you Ms Bolton uh any other items on uh number whatever number we're on here team number four um preintendent or treasure anything you want to get in on number four nope okay on number five um this is carried over from last time um I think thank you so so much uh to our Board office Pat and Phyllis for putting together this draft set of dates
146um as I understand it you know some of the urgency on getting these dates together now even though we're talking about um January 24 and Beyond um is that we want these would be these will be printed in materials that will go out much much sooner than that um so are there um um I I think I might actually ask to start with the uh superintendent and Treasurer when you reviewed this proposal did it raise any concerns or any flags on your end it didn't for me thank you superintendent and treasure Wagner no sir yeah the only thing the only thing that I will ask that we do and we can talk about it uh tomorrow in terms of dates uh but there was the ask earlier to go back to having at least a
147meeting in a school um at least once a quarter and if we can go ahead and select what those dates would be now and add it to the published dates that way it gets out to the public early on and they can plan for it because I do think that that's been one of the challenges trying to get it done in either May or June right yeah is Miss Jones I I would suggest to the superintendent that you just go ahead and I work with the schools to see what works if if it's a regular meeting date we have to meet anyway so whatever is things easy I think rather than trying to get dates from us get I think will be much easier if you just pick one you know the trust me with
148that thank you I'm in schools right I'll just say the one thing I always look through on on these calendars and this is just uh you know personal perspective is our the do we conflict with the Jewish holidays in the fall and we don't which is lovely so thank you they're even marked as religious holidays on here so thank you very much um anything else in item five before we keep going Ms Bolton just just because they're this is an election year uh that we're in right now that they're uh likelihood of a new board so as we start to plan the following year um I don't know how this has to be uh do we need more hopefully not or be more F think in a stronger way about our Retreats or work sessions
149or changing some meetings to work sessions instead of board meetings I I fully support that and think it's a very smart I don't know that we can fully anticipate at this point exactly what and when it wants but I think to be open to that is a great idea that's fair we used to do that yep Mr Craig uh just wanted to highlight though also November 4th because this board member Bolton reminded me that that's an election year is the day before election day um I don't know that that's a problem necessarily for our purposes or whatever but I also recognize that that also may be a weird day um of you know just craziness in general so it's not something I think we have to change right now but I think it's just something
150we should probably be aware of and noting as we come closer that's also presidential election day as well so we don't we have no idea what exactly what the world may look like um well looking at those recent polls we can all just be a little concerned okay I'm moving this forward uh so I think we're good on this for five for now thank you very much um we had a number of uh we had a good discussion our last board meeting about the difference between board matters and inquiries and updates we had a number of requests that were questions for the administration we do have time for any of those now that any board member would like to the uh ask Administration on anything so I went I'm sorry since it's been applicable to
151me I kind of just jumped in I apologize let's can we get can I get some different differentiation on what the difference is between boar matters and inquiries and updates because I tried to look in the bylaws wasn't clear I'm going by people's recollection of How It's been used and I appreciate that but I get frustrated as a board member when I put things on the agenda and they get taken off I think um it it is somewhat disrespectful to me as a board member because I feel like it should be there um and it shouldn't be filtered but I don't know exactly where it needs to be so I'd like to before I completely get a rate I'd like to get some clarification on what is the difference um between board matters and inquiries
152and updates and then what would be the process or put it for a board member putting things on the agenda I've gone through I think we have an unvoted on process of classifying it the time limit whether it fits in the goals and go you know where does it fit and align it is it for we didn't vote on that that was just something that I think we've all um kind of given way to to accommodate um you president Lindy and I'm fine to do that but I want to understand what the process is of putting things on the agenda and then um with the expectation is if we could just level set with that I'd be appreciative thanks Dr Robert and I'll invite um member Jones here in a second because I think I
153learned a lot of this from her too but the the distinction of the last meeting was very helpful for me uh was that an inquiry or update is a question for the administration a board matter or questions between amongst the board is that accurate uh pretty much I I do I want to add that in inquiries and updates you can inquire from a board member or anybody it's a it's a simple question so to speak if you're inquiring about some matter or uh uh you can direct that to the appropriate person at that time updates of course are uh anything like this Bolton referenced um like if we go to a conference or something we might want to update on what the status of that was or we're involved in something and we want to
154update on people on what's going on board matters was created to really prioritize those discussions which could potentially require an ultimate decision and and a good example of a board matter item is um Mr moroski is very good at using board matters this way when there's a policy question that comes up they usually the policy committee he usually works it through they put it in the minutes but they bring it to board matters just to get feedback and input and have some level of discussion with uh the board before they go back to the committee to finalize it so the distinction is in my mind and and you know uh nothing stays the same but the distinction in my mind is board matters takes more of a higher priority because it involves discussion among within
155the group and inquiries and updates are very specific directed to a specific issue to a specific person for a response I think I I appreciate that remember Jones I think this just speaks to me to the importance of this bylaw review that we're doing to hopefully get some additional Clarity because I'll say that even in what you shared here I heard some different things and I may have misheard it last time too um but I think you know I think um there's lots of good intentions from lots of sides and also some fluidity to how we've used some of these categories in the past and I think I think it's reasonable to ask that we get some definitions in our bylaws and then hold each other to them I think Dr Moffitt is correct it's
156not very clear in the bylaws and I think that's the place to address it is in the bylaws uh one from Miss Bolton but then I want to get to that questions we have to make sure we I asked Force further discussion and clarification regarding the school Community coordinator position and I asked for it under board matters now based on your definition items that could potentially require a decision I wanted Clarity on that because there still was a little bit of ambiguity for me I'm still confused so I'm kind of confused as to why that was taken off when I asked that I asked for legislative updates those are things to me that the Board needs to deliberate so Dr malva this was this was my decision in putting the agenda together and I was
157using the distinction As I understood it from our last meeting which is different from what we just talked about a moment ago so that then this is what I had emailed like anything and it was not just for you for any board member but anything that could be answered with anything that was a question focused on the administration I would encourage people to bring up under inquiries and updates anything that was a question for discussion amongst the board I put in board matters so that was that was I'm happy to adjust that thinking uh this was my effort to carry forward what I understood from our last discussion as award and I think even just the you know different interpretations that are clear tonight speak again to the importance of getting this defined with some
158process and I want to make sure you get the content of your question answered too well I I kind of don't because I still am confused on if a request is made how does that get taken off or you know if a request is made to be put on the agenda by a board member can I ask hold on let me let me finish my question okay the request is made what is going to be the process of putting that request on because the board member asks I don't want to put our Administration in between I mean in our admins in the middle of discerning that I responded and then I believe that this is you know we have this whole deliberation piece of deliberating on email and I just don't I don't like it
159I feel I feel like if the request is made and it's not appropriate or it's not desired that that's when communication should be pick up the phone and ask for clarification and I don't know if that's happening it has not happened for me I don't know if it's happening for other people so I would like to know what is going to be our process moving forward so that I don't continue to feel disrespected in that man so now go ahead I'm sorry whatever Jones if you want to respond I'll just read another chance one second and gosh I'm just so sorry if that felt disrespectful in any way whatsoever I made my best effort to respond and I was seeing it all of your items are on tonight's we have time now for any question
160you'd like to ask under a quiz or updates uh if people would like to do a different way of defining these sections I'm happy to do that I also think as I understand the current version of the bylaws um it is a charge of the president to understand or to build what goes on each agenda the expectation is that requests from board members get considered within two business meetings so I think it's very important to me that every board member have a chance to ask any question they want to ask and we have that time tonight so that would be taken care of in this very first meeting um but at least as I understand it there is also room to hold that for a business meeting if there's more on the agenda than we're
161trying to cover in a reasonable time period Ms Jones did you want to share yeah I was just going to add I I think that we all come with different sort of a different sort of understanding of the intent of these meetings and I do think that our bylaws I'm glad that we're doing some edits because I think this is where we make those significant changes but in everything and I'm speaking from my own experience and everything that I know have learned since I've been a board member is about governance and how you operate as governance and those processes um everything that I read we talk about is the meeting being you take care of the board's business and and you know people can uh you can Define that people Define that differently however I
162feel very strongly and and uh you know I I was in Benson for four years that's when we brought on board matters but that the president's role is to facilitate and move the facilitate the agenda and move the agenda forward now what that means is he also has to prioritize because we shouldn't be here until 9 30 10 o'clock talking about process stuff that's my opinion we should not be here talking about process stuff for business if there is a question and legitimately so there are going to be questions um I'm not putting any parameters on what that question could be there that's why inquiries and updates was on there to ask a question or or what have you but I do think it is I I do believe that it is the president's responsibility
163to make sure that we move the agenda forward and sometimes that means that he has to he or she has to question some of the agenda items whether or not it is the highest priority for that particular agenda and so having conversations with board members like if something if there's eight or nine or ten the board matters was never intended to have eight or nine or ten um items under it it was really to distinguish where the highest priority discussions were so when things come up I think it's appropriate to ask is this a high priority item is this something that requires a decision tonight or can we put it on another agenda or can we put it under a different category that that's uh you know I think that's something that um our President
164should be able to do um and if it's not written that way in the bylaws um we you know maybe we need to look at how the bylaws are written thank you yeah if I were um new to the district as many people are and I sat through this year of board activity I would be stunned and disappointed that the board has spent this much time um process and self-examination this is a member of the public would say the same thing um and it's and it's everybody's fault uh but this this whole you know self-examination self this self that process this whatever let's expedite the bylaws get them done save some couple of hours where we can argue about it when anybody brings something to it it's not going to be a quick vote get
165this over with the the bylaw thing get that we got our goals and guard rails great let's move on we have two we have to finish the Strategic plan we have to pass a budget we got all this stuff I think everybody's process questions have been correct and frankly I just blame Carolyn uh for board members of board matters and inquiries and updates because it was her way as president to try to address some of this stuff so you know inquiries and updates and board matters I think I think our agenda is I think Ben is trying to I know we all are interested in changing the agenda too because there's ways to organize this meeting so we're doing substantive stuff not not just only the five things that we say are most important and
166everything else will take care of itself which it doesn't but I just think let's get these bylaws done get get strategic plan happening and we can get back to just doing districts and and uh substitute work thank you Ms golden I want to make sure you get a chance to ask any substantive questions I see Mrs Weinberg but I will come back I guess in a second yep yeah um so yes thank you uh board member Moffett for bringing that up because I too was very confused in terms of what actually is born matters and what actually is inquiries and updates and I look forward to um any suggested wording to come to policy because I do agree it needs to be completely clear it needs to be consistent it shouldn't change by the week
167the day the month whoever the person is but I look forward to that and so we're going to get some work done thank you Mrs Weinberg Dr Maupin so I I felt like my questions were relevant I still had a question about the school Community coordinator position and I've sent it via email I'll get a response via email you know I don't even know if it needs to be um relevant now but I'm just gonna push back a little bit on the subjectivity of what you described for member Jones because leaving it up to the board president means that there's a decision based by somebody on whether or not that's important and so the the piece that I think is missing is that the conversation needs to be had when a board member re makes
168a request it's because that's what they need it's not no matter what you think it's not about someone trying to be Petty or someone trying to add things onto the agenda it is because that person or let me speak for myself I would like the information either because the community has asked or because I want Clarity on it I understand these board members these board meetings are long I'm sitting here too but I do think that it's not about the number of questions I keep hearing if you have five questions it wasn't intended for eight things it's about getting Clarity and I think it's about getting Clarity in public I think it's about getting Clarity at our board meeting where we discuss it in public so that was what I was trying to do and
169I was just really trying to get further clarity about the school Community coordinated position because I'm still confused we did ask we we got Clarity but then it was in the board meeting minutes in April and I sent my question to you via email but I still just was confused on I think some so many things are lumped under School Community coordinator title that aren't necessarily they're not uniform there's a career Community coordinator there's a school Community coordinate so when I when I was asked the question about the school Community coordinator positions that we had in the board meeting minutes I think it was for April the 10th but some people are receiving communication that their positions as school Community coordinators are being terminated I was wanting to get a public discussion about that because
170I'm still confused that's why I asked under board matters because I thought it was relevant there that can you can you help me make that make sense so that's my question to the administration is that where it goes to the administration under inquiries and updates now yeah you had shared that that was a question for the administration yeah I think let's let's get in there I want to we spent a lot of time talking about a process to get things answered we can also get those things answered I know Ms Jones has a comment I promise I'll come back so I did not share this via email because it actually has private employee information on it so I brought a hard copy for the board um so if you if we recall the meeting that
171we had that was the very long meeting it was the first meeting that we had in April where we discussed um budget and the specificity around the school Community coordinator one of the challenges in that role and we did go back to the actual recording of the meeting to verify that the information was there it is on the slide that was presented as a part of the budget that's also online online at that time we were only discussing school-based positions we discussed that there were some school Community coordinators and some assistant school Community coordinators that were District level that we would have to address when we got to the district but in terms of the school-based positions what you're referencing right now has been one of the challenges with the role So based on what
172the position is is is is tagged as in Human Resources based on how the position is funded based on how individuals are paid all of those individuals are School Community coordinators so the one specifically that we talked about before was the role that was school Community coordinator by title the other that we talked about was the career the the one that's called the career at the um the Career and Technical position but it's still School Community coordinators so if we look in the roles for how they're paid they're all paid as school Community coordinators the that role was originally and we talked about how that role came about initially it was a resource coordinating role the assistant school Community coordinator between the two of them one of them was resource coordination one of them was
173the athletic director that was in schools so over the course of the years that position has remained and schools have used them in a variety of ways that have no Rhyme or Reason and so one of the reasons that you have some some concern and confusion right now about the positions is because the positions are confused in the field all of those positions are School Community coordinators so what we have done and I gave you the list of where the individuals are what we have done for all of the positions I shared during that meeting as well and we've all also talked about it in subsequent meetings and we talked about it in a meeting where we originally talked about this in January was what our goal is is not to lose staff but to
174try to get those staff members aligned with roles that they are qualified for based on their credentials in some of the positions we have found that they are individuals and and once we know it once we know about it we are charged to do something with it in some of the positions we have found that those positions are they should be in a different org structure or different bargaining unit because of what the position was and some of them what the individuals are actually doing because that's what we had to do we had to go back and find out what is the person actually doing some of those positions should be certificated positions where people actually have a certification to do that and that's not how they've been done so where we are right now
175we've made contact with we actually started contact much earlier with phone contacts attack since the phone contactedness has been through human resources since the phone contact uh there has been additional information that has been sent to them in the in via email with individuals for them to contact one of the challenges or an additional Challenge and we discussed that also is most of the most of the individuals that are in the assistant school Community coordinate a role or a school Community coordinator role the alignment for their qualifications is more readily aligned to positions that are in cfop to positions that might be an absent in other astomy parts of the organization not necessarily certificated so there are a few of them that that are that could be certificated depending on what they were going to
176teach most of them are not so there is a difference in pay in those positions that are School Community coordinators and assistant school Community or really more school Community coordinators and assistants but there is a difference in pay and unfortunately if they don't meet qualifications for the roles and the jobs that we have we don't have another position to put them in so we're hiring but within the minutes direct under the recommendations it we are hiring for school Community coordinators so are we not changing the title for those people that are coming on because to clarify this because we're still hiring for people that it says School Community coordinator right so we we approved as a part the board approved and supported as a part of the budget reorganization and restructuring restructuring three well one
177specific School Community coordinator role for ell support so that's the only role that we're hiring for that's a designated School Community coordinator position so if a person meets those qualifications they could be eligible for that position but that's the only one that we have at the school level okay and then is that for the district level positions but what like what about like programs or I'm thinking of the promise Center as a program but like right so for example the position that we're referencing as the promise Center that person is actually doing what would be equivalent to an operational para so in terms of aligning that particular role that role if that role is supported at the district level as we're looking at next steps that role would be supported as an opera operational pair
178the way that we found that out was by working with the the director at the promise Center and as well as um our our director that's doing oversight for our special populations and when you look at what the individual is doing it is most aligned to her operational pair okay thank you thanks other on this topic of school Community coordinators Ms Bolton yeah I'll do this as quickly as I can where I thought we left this uh understanding that the confused spectrum of this that this has been a position that has been a catch-all which is not a good place to be uh and I I thought we were kind of going through a a position uh audit so to speak or redefinition or evaluation of a position uh and and um that's where I
179thought we were and I I know that we were cutting I knew that my my question now is as we do this this position rediscovery here or redefinition um I'm concerned that the many of the folks that are being cut here are people that are unrepresented and in a district that has six unions as a board member you know who whatever uh I don't like to uh damage the unrepresented folks because they are unrepresented and they are at a disadvantage and we you know we should encourage as much as we can people being in the unions or not being in the union so I I so that's an issue so I'm waiting for that position description and I'm curious about doing something to unrepresented folks I think it's great we're talking about which unions they
180should be in or whatever uh very supportive I'm really concerned about the Career Tech people which we said on uh March 20th or whenever that meeting was too just because they have played such an important role in for in some of our high schools in uh in the graduation piece and the path piece so um I just my thing would have been to ask about where are we in the reader definition of the position and also then this is something I've only heard I can't verify it some of these folks too have uh Associates degrees and um I thought we were trying to encourage that as part of the recruitment I remember that from the Recruitment and and I would hate that some of these folks that have the associate's degree can't be found in
181some of this role or this position can't be absorbed in some way or another so my question is how are we coming on the position description and are these people that we can really or all of these people all the folks that we can live without and also the other thing that you all mentioned properly so that the pay and the position that many people become qualified or experienced and if there's another position that they can move into so there's turnover here so how are we addressing that kind of uh the Z it's a unicorn really within the the the uh HR Powerhouse so to speak so I think most of the list of things that you just shared all are true um so let's start from the first we had full discussion about the
182fact that we were eliminating these positions um that was supported at the board at the board level in terms of the budget for what we were doing at the school level we shared that we would revisit when we opened the district level positions because for example a role like assistant school Community coordinator which is a rep position you can't even if you close a position you know there are there are guidelines that go along with that in terms of seniority and those kinds of things so we've worked in partnership with our Union president in terms of that for the the positions that are still at the district level that were that were looking at what may need to happen in terms of reclassification the second thing that we discussed is that as we were looking
183at some of the specific positions and the conversation that came up um most loudly I should say was at Walnut Hills Walnut Hills has six of these positions um that were School Community coordinator positions so far we have been able to and we shared that we had done that at that time we have been able to um really pinpoint what the roles are actually doing uh for three of the roles we we believe that it that it would be appropriate that it's in another position if those are roles that we're still going to support in terms of programmatic needs but three of the positions based on what we currently see are positions that should be certificated position so we are working in partnership with CFT at this time to review that conversation to review those
184positions we've had a couple of conversations with them already about those positions um and and what the positions could be if they are not what they should be based on what the duties actually are um so that's where we are for that so in terms of those reclassifications the third set of positions that we talked about around reclassification that fell in this same area were the I.T positions the I.T Tech positions that were specific to I.T those are positions that we discussed reclassifying those positions because of the specific work um and the very um the very very specific work that they're doing in that space so making certain that there was update in terms of job description for what those positions were doing the other positions we talked about just as you shared we talked
185about making contact with each of the individuals which we have done um to follow up with them about what we have available in the district that meets their qualifications and whether or not they're interested in those positions because we are we very much want to keep individuals in the district that are that have been a part of the district that have the ability to be a part of the district you know if individuals have as you said the AAA degree or some that have bachelor's degrees they're also eligible eligible to be long-term Subs as well and so there are some opportunities for them but they would be positioned that they would have to say yes this is what they want to do because in many of the instances the pay is different for them in
186the new position versus what it was in the position they were in as in the in the previous role so all of those different nuances are correct but we did decide and I just want to I just want to make sure that I lift that we did discuss the fact that these positions would be eliminated and that there were only certain ones at the school base that we were looking to keep as a part of our next steps in terms of the Career and Technical the CTE position our discussion there where we landed was um the role of the additional counselor that was at the school we were charged with working in partnership with CFT which we have done to make sure that in that role that additional support for CTE was lifted there just
187as they're supporting the work with overall graduation so because that role had to be a different role because it was funded it couldn't look just like all of the other guidance counselor roles that was work that we did in partnership with CFT and the school counselors to make certain that it was addressed as a part of the job description thank you so it would be assumed then that the Career Tech role or whether you're assuming is going to be absorbed by the additional school counselor I mean graduation right no actually not that was the initial recommendation for the role that we were looking at when it was a graduation specialist but when we went through the process and determined that that was actually CFT work instead the person to do that role will have to
188be a certified guidance counselor right yes those individuals are not certified guidance counselors the Career Tech people are not exactly I'm just saying that that that role whatever that whatever job they were performing is is going to be put to the uh graduation person that is correct which is a school counselor yes that is correct was unclear thank you thank you Ms um Bolden Ms Jones had a comment from before we still an inquiry okay we are and I think Dr Martin may have a couple others she wants to raise but you've had gone before before it just dawned on me I I'm not going to comment um any more on the discussion we just had but it just dawned on me that the policy committee recommendations come before the board on May 22nd and
189I have graduations that night and I absolutely would like to be here we can make sure that the policy committee meets the Friday prior Miss Jones I think it's unlikely that we are able to turn around a committee report and a set of recommendations over the weekend um so I think I think we will absolutely make sure we have everybody here Phyllis just smiled so we got that one um but we will um we will do it as soon as we possibly no problem um now other inquiries or updates before we send folks home Dr Moffitt to be a bookaboo but not really so I have a question is there an operational para position paraprofessional classification there is a para pair that there is actually there are all Paras collectively and our Treasurer might be
190better able to speak to this but when when we were um looking at and during the covet time specifically um there was a position that was added just so that the the staff could clarify what that additional role was and it's just a terminology that's still used so to be more appropriate in terms of the response to your question it would be equivalent to a para versus a school Community coordinator because all parents are under the same umbrella you're accurate so for the people that have are doing the school Community coordinating position with bachelor's degrees and master's degrees the recommendations that they go to a para position not necessarily it depends on whether or not there are other positions that are available in the district that they are certified that they I'm sorry that they're
191qualified for it depends on whether or not they want to teach because most people that have an AAA or a bachelor's are eligible for a long-term sub role role as well it depends on whether or not they want to do full-time teaching depending on what their their actual degree is in so there's some other opportunities for them there may be FIFA positions that that they're that they are eligible for as well so whether that's senior support specialist support specialist so there are other roles that may be available for them but I do believe that one of the ways that we got into the situation that we're in and this is just talking to a lot of individuals talking to the treasurer talking to some of the principals you know um it is that there many
192of the individuals are their credentials um would put them in another location patient it will put them in an afternoon location it will put them in cfop for most of them and this became a way to use a position that was not necessarily a rept position that was a different that was a different pay scale where individuals there were some that worked for the school year worked during the school year there were others that worked year-round there was not a Rhyme or Reason or I guess consistency in terms of the position so it really it's it's difficult for me to say just by just their degree what they would be eligible for that's why staff has reached out there was one other person that reached out about a particular individual that had been a part
193of the district for a long time and my record Another board member that reached out my recommendation is to have them follow up with human resources because they're able to talk to them specifically about what's available based on their qualifications and if that's a position that they are interested in then that's something that we can help facilitate if it's not we don't have a way to change what the qualifications are for a position that they're actually eligible for and the last part of my question is do you know how many of the people in these positions that are terminating are within a year of retirement I'm not certain I know the one that you asked about before was one that we followed up with once you ship that information with us so we were able
194to follow up with that but we can find out we can do the research and find out thank you thank you other inquiries or updates hearing none moving on to assignments are there any assignments this evening hearing none moving on to announcements and Kudos I think Ms Jones would like to share one tonight yes um May is mental health awareness month um National Children's Mental Health Awareness week is May 7th through 13th and National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day is Thursday May the 11th um you will see the board members have green ribbons green ribbon the green ribbon is the official uh color for the National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week and it brings public awareness to the needs of Children and Youth with emotional behavior and mental health challenges and their families Across the
195Nation because green symbolizes growth support Health healing and Hope um the Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board and Hamilton County Suicide Prevention Coalition are partnering this year to promote the life is better with you here Suicide Prevention and media campaign message uh you will see uh on the screen QR codes in English and in Spanish that will provide connect you to local resources um I also put out on the table of a number of green ribbons and and asking people to wear the ribbons this week in recognition of national mental health awareness week and if we have any leftovers I'm going to ask the staff to make sure superintendent if it's okay with you we can put them out at the front desk for people to um take one if that's okay so
196that's my announcement and thank you for supporting in case you don't know I'm a retired mental health professional of 40 plus years so I believe very much in in promoting uh Mental Health Awareness Week thank you member Jones um and thank you for the ribbon for other announcements or kudos Mrs Weinberg all right I have just a couple of Kudos that I would like to kind of talk about and I just want to First say that if anyone who is listening or will watch if you have any announcements that you would like to share you can always feel free to email me I typically get these from individuals in the community or from Reading different things so I wanted to First give a shout out to the Walnut Hills High School theater Department production of
197Macbeth and they were able to attend the 2023 Cincinnati Cappy's award Kayla and at this particular event wanted hills took home nine Awards and it was the most out of any school in the Cappies this year their critique team also won the best critique team award four times in three years in the running so I think that they deserve a big round of applause um up next I just wanted to highlight and give a big kudos to Josh Hardin with the get fit with CPS Athletics uh this took place at Rockdale Elementary and as you can see from the particular pictures here I think it's really a big push on Fitness and also on healthy living as well and then my last Kudos um is again about Walnut Hills High School I just wanted to
198give a huge shout out and a good luck to them for the Junior High girls and boys track team they will be heading to Columbus this weekend to compete in a non-state meet and I just want to wish them all good luck that's it thank you Mrs Weinberg uh other announcements and Kudos Dr moffatt awesome um really great so they had an opportunity to and I told them I was going to shout them out and I didn't know if I was going to get this in there but thank you to Rob for creating my slides I had an opportunity to visit the lighthouse music program we all got an invitation but I couldn't go on the day that they had like an open house but I was able to go over there today and um
199I got the chance to hear from Queen Destiny who gave an awesome rap they create their own rap it's a way to help students learn to ideate but then also it's a stress reliever it's a it's just a way for them to take the things that they are going through and put pen to paper and really Express themselves and so thank you to the staff for giving me a tour I actually emailed remember moraski and said you got to get over here and see what these kids are doing it's right up your alley he might be on the next video that they create so thank you for hosting me today I appreciate that I was able to join the convening for the Green schoolyards in San Francisco I know that board member Bolton and myself
200attend their meetings regularly here in Cincinnati and I was able to join um our chief of academics Miss Butler and councilwoman Mika Owens and um Parks manager Crystal Daniels in San Francisco for three days to learn about the importance of green schoolyards and I wanted to tell you a little bit about what that what the purpose of or what the objectives of that that was in connection with cities connecting children to Nature and it's been around for a very long time but it has definitely heightened since the pandemic and getting kids outside and helping them with social emotional learning also academics we were able to tour a school district in San Francisco that has converted an old school building and they make all of their food for the entire District 70 000 kids in this
201one building they grow all their stuff they've got is just awesome it is awesome so um the purpose of that it was to encourage green schoolyard initiatives sustainability systems change through policy stakeholder engagement and funding strategies among some other objectives but they had other cities I think the city of Atlanta brought their commissioner their school board members um plus some of their District Personnel so that they could work on getting access to an awareness of all of the funding that is available there's so much funding available for this type of programming and this was great so I do have some formalized information but I wanted to show you all a little bit about that too the the another thing that I didn't get a chance to make a slide for but I was able to
202attend the girls to women event which was great and awesome thank you to the uh to Chief Shawna Murphy and the staff that put that together for inviting me I think they invited board member Weinberg she couldn't make it so I filled in and it was fun and then the last thing I wanted to share was I found this yesterday which I thought was really cool I posted it the most winningest African-American jockey for the Derby is DeSean Parker and he is a CPS Western Hills Alum I thought that was so pretty cool that was cool I posted it on everything that I that I had and people have been reposted and I was like look at CPS so we are doing great things out here in this community and I said CPS is proud
203of you that's the one time I spoke for the board DPS is so proud of you Deshawn Parker um in his Twitter handle is at jocks Deshawn and so um make sure that you send him some Kudos from CPS because he is the most winningest African-American jockey in the history so and he's a Western Hills grad thank you that's it that's it uh thank you Dr Moffitt any other announcements or Kudos I know Ms Bolton did Mr Craig have one too so we'll go Miss Bolton and Mr Craig thank you very quickly uh uh where as part of the national leadership effort within the American Federation of teachers and everybody else that cares about this sort of thing uh teachers in Cincinnati public uh address a particular problem do the particular research develop the particular
204kind of solution that would work here and with great specificity and there were a dozen or so teachers and some of them in a team but others serving individually presented I think some extraordinary uh extraordinarily complex resolutions but also some very very simple resolutions to some problems and talking about the year's calendar and what do you do about family engagement talking in terms of restorative practices and what have you uh I was I was very impressed with their enthusiasm and one of them had just recently been notified that they're in the pipeline regarding being an AP so there was that sort of celebratory experience as well but I enjoyed it and it was great to to be back at the uh Gamble uh over there uh Elementary Montessori they were good hosts but uh I
205actually wouldn't uh be a opposed Mr President that perhaps some of those teachers could present some of their uh Solutions and Concepts and what have you it might be a good uh presentation I know that superintendent and the board would enjoy what they have to say thank you very much Ms Bolton Mr Craig uh so three kind of quick ones here um first was uh had the pleasure of attending the inter the CBS International jazz festival again this year um with President Lindy as well as uh former vice president Jones uh but it was a great great experience again I think it's just so tremendous what our students are able to do from a musical standpoint again um Dr Rudnick and the whole crew putting together having these International artists come to work with the
206students and really showcase the talent that we have in the district um so that was tremendously wonderful events um I had the opportunity to well though I didn't get a chance to get to uh the a friend of mine sent me a pictures and video of the whole event at Fairview they had their art show and so they displayed all his artwork throughout the halls of Fairview of all these wonderful things that the students put together it is it was tremendous to see I mean literally the entire walls down the hallway like almost every inch of it was covered with the kids picture and so it's so amazing to see the talents of things that we found the things that our students are doing and to really highlight some of those and when the last
207one I want to do is um you know the board doesn't work without the staff there that support us so one of our staff members recently had her 25th birthday um that's what I'm gonna go with so I just want to say happy birthday to uh Miss Davis [Applause] thank you it's a great year uh thank you Mr Craig uh I'll I'll go swiftly here um two things uh from me one if people may be tracking House Bill eight this week uh there's an opportunity to testify tomorrow for people who are interested I'm not an expert on this bill at all but a group that I like a lot called honesty for Ohio education but I encourage you to follow and sign up for their email list um believes that uh this is a bill
208that is harmful lgbtq plus students uh decreases access to medically accurate sex education and can be a gateway to censorship on a host of issues um so people who are interested in being engaged or offering testimony I just would refer you to the honesty for Ohio edu honesty for Education Ohio website and if you need help finding that please please let me know um lastly I just want to thank everybody for taking the survey I sent a couple Fridays ago and it was about a topic that came up a bunch this evening which is our board meetings too long the right length or too short and if you think they are too long what are ideas you have for what might make them more focused and more efficient I'm not quite ready to share the
209results I'm actually happy to share them with you but they're not done because we need mics and he's been on vacation um but I I just think there's some real urgency on tackling this uh it is almost nine o'clock we had one of the shortest agendas that I can remember us having and we spent a fraction focused on the things that we said were most important and we even reaffirmed were still most important at the beginning of the meeting and so I think there is real Divergence on what we should be spending our meeting time I'm committed to advancing what a majority of us think we should be spending our meeting time on uh whether that's what I personally agree with or not um which is why I asked for input from everyone in that
210survey um one thing I will share is there is Broad consensus that we'd like to see our meetings that's the good news um and I'm gonna try to figure out ways in our upcoming meetings to me to bring some proposals to the group that we can vote on um that way we are improving things I think for us also for our staff I want to acknowledge the folks who are here and could be other places doing other things so thank you um and I'm looking forward to trying to move this forward in the weeks ahead superintendent oh great so I think I think that's it um last call if I missed anything having no other business yes yes all I want to say is to all mothers you we understand that mothers is biology but
211it's a lot more than biology so whether you're a mother a mother of an Angel Baby a godmother a mother Aunt your mother a child in the classroom Mother's Day is on sun on Sunday and we do want to offer you a happy Mother's Day that's all for me thank you thank you very much having no other business before us I declare our meeting adjourned