001good afternoon or actually good evening uh DPS folks and community to our be present uh virtual town uh Hall uh here in March 21st and right now we have a good group of approximately 21 people so we're really looking forward to uh your your questions we're going to have a brief introduction and provide a few updates from the superintendent and then we'll get to some of your questions if you can type in the in the moderator chat or in the Q a chat if you have questions and then uh we'll bring those to the superintendent when we're ready um at this time I'm going to turn it over to superintendent Rife foreign good afternoon to everyone and thank you so much for being here with us tonight um as we go through our information for
002our be present session that is virtual I think this is our second virtual session this year so we're looking forward to engaging with you for uh the next hour or so next slide so if you CPS snapshots um for those that have heard any of our presentations previously or even looked at our state of the school's information you know that Ohio is the second uh we are Ohio's second largest school district this is the first year that we are number two in the state we serve 65 schools and over 6 200 employees we have 36 000 students grades pre-k through uh 12th grade we are the largest K-12 provider of special education in Southwest Ohio 84 of our students identify as students that receive free and reduced lunch we currently have over 15 000 students
003that we transport through our bus services uh 12 000 of those are CPS students and the other almost 3 000 are non-cps students Charter private and parochial schools and we call those our non-publics currently we have 9 200 students that are transported by Metro uh here in the city as well next slide so as we got started the opportunity uh really was to make sure that we were starting this journey by listening and learning by engaging with the community engaging with staff getting follow-up information and then beginning to chart the course forward from that was born of the initiative that's really become a coin phrase in the community and that is the present um we wanted to use this as a call to action where we're asking that we are present across the board we
004know that our staff is already present our families are our present as well whether that's at home whether they are volunteering at school but we know that they're ready to support our community is present by partnering with us in anything that we're doing in terms of Engagement and more importantly our students are present and so really making sure that we are moving through that process and making sure that we are present in that process so from that was also born our focus on getting back to the basics and there is not anything that is more basic than the ABC's academics behavior and culture and then thinking about that as we think about academics what do we see in the instructional shifts what are we seeing in classrooms what we call pedagogy what are we seeing
005in classrooms and in classroom instruction and what do we see in student engagement and then the biz behavior of focusing on PBIS which is positive behavior instructional supports restorative practices as well as social emotional learning and last but not least culture culture of learning a culture of respect a culture of Celebration and a culture of support so if you updates uh that are on the on the screen and and then from there we will begin to open up and um take some questions about kind of where we are and where we're looking to go next um so the first is our March Madness we're in the middle of March Madness we do a different CPS move event um each month and so this month is the focus on shooting and dribbling from our CPS moves
006so that's been really exciting for our students uh to get involved in on the 25th we have our CPS basketball showcase that's coming uh as an update to us and then our the um competition is open for the 2023 Congressional Art competition um and for grades 9 through 12 and the uh it's open now and the due date is April the 1st so we are encouraging our students to participate in that as well summer Scholars this year is for students select students in grades two and three and second and third grade and then for our fourth through 12th grade students as well um the application uh deadline has been updated to April the 10th we I think April the 3rd is on the slide but we have updated to April the 10th we're excited about
007a new partnership with Central State University they will be here at Woodward High School on April the 6th doing on the spot scholarship for our seniors so we're encouraging everyone to come out and support Central State University which is the closest HBCU to us as they will be coming out to celebrate and to recognize our students while they're also giving scholarships our next we have been doing uh sessions with our um Treasurer as well as two of our board members our finance chair and an additional board member around a finance Town Hall so the next Finance town hall is on April the 13th and those have been calling this ask Jen our our treasurer's name is Jennifer Wagner and so that has been very successful as something that really has allowed a lot of questions
008to be raised and to be answered we do maintain those online as well so you are able to go back and to look at the information that's shared uh from each of those sessions all right so what are the different things that you can do to be present so a couple of initiatives this year that we're really excited about we have tutors that have already started in support of our read to lead program reach of the initiative and it's be a read to lead tutor if you use your phone to look at the QR code you can sign up to be a tutor and that's really what you feel comfortable with so we're really looking for those to partner with us in the community that are doing reading um at it for the our earlier
009grades or those that feel more comfortable doing more strategic tutoring that starts at about third grade and so if you have the expertise or you're willing just to sign up to come in and reach our students please make certain that you um reach that you complete the QR code and along the same lines not only do we have read to lead but we also have be a math tutor specifically we're focused right now on algebra one um focusing with our students that most of our students that are in algebra one right now are ninth graders for the most part but if you have a particular skill set in that area and you are willing to do tutoring with our students please feel free to sign up and we will contact you because we do need
010our students to really get the support in algebra one foreign of the month we launched our key recruiting needs and the areas that we're looking for our Focus we wanted to make sure that we really capitalize and share that as CPS grows Cincinnati grows so not only are we recruiting teachers or staff members for DPS we're recruiting them for Cincinnati So currently we have some key recruiting needs so if there are any of you that are on the call right now or on the line on the um presentation right now and you know those that are interested in teaching or have a background in teaching as well we are looking for bilingual and multilingual teachers we are looking for male teachers to support our education educators of color our math student positions English language arts
011Montessori is an area special education physical education and of course of course support staff positions paraprofessionals custodians uh crossing guards even though Crossing dollars are hired by the city it is something that's really important to the work that we're doing with our students and bus drivers so bus drivers are hired by our contractors but the contractors are instrumental in making sure that our students are getting to school and we know we've had several issues as many of you have likely followed we've had several issues with Transportation this year so we do want to make sure that we are sharing that with everyone so that everyone can share with everyone else if you have more questions about the careers or the availability PPS Dash k12.org backslash career so at this time it's about 6 14 and
012we generally open up at this point for about 30 minutes or so of questions um if you will drop your questions in the chat um and our I think um our Communications person is going to moderate those questions is that right Mr Sherwood that's correct yep I'll be able to provide the questions to you okay so so our first question comes from uh Shannon Ryan um and again I think this is a little bit of extension of some of the stuff we've seen at the recent board but that the question was if there was perceived hate towards Walnut sure I know where you're gonna go but also talking about targeting you know why is it targeted the most in recent perception that it's getting great so thank you for posing that question I have recently
013actually since probably Sunday I've gotten several responses or emails from Walnut and from the Walnut team I am staying here for the first time um that I am planning after spring break to have a meeting with the Walnut Community because I it is important that we recognize and that we know collectively you know as an educational leader it is important that all of our students are receiving the services that they need and the services that are available to them um I love all of our schools and and I could not be more proud that Walnut Hills is in our community that not only is it the the best in Ohio but it's one of the best in the country and so recognizing that and working with that and responding to that I think is really
014important and I'm talking historically so it's not just about what's happening right now there's been great work that's happened in CPS with Walnut but Walnut has just a a a history of excellence and so that's really important that we recognize I think one of the questions that has been raised and um you know sometimes things get started and you're not quite sure where they come from so you want to try to address those areas um one of the things that was raised last night is really more about kind of some changes in the way of the some of the work that we're doing not as much specific to the school so for example um the the board made a request in the cow meeting that the presentation was done on was actually in in February
015so since my transition there has been conversation it actually started I think I got my first correspondence on it in June of last school year and that correspondence actually came to me and the board and it was really around the interest exam on the criteria for students to get into Walnut and specifically what it looked like in terms of ethnicity and so over the course of the last Almost year it's come up pretty often um and at the board level and so the board made some requests of me and the team um one of the things that they requested is that we do a review of the data and share that data with them and that's what we did so that was on the cow meeting a committee of the whole and and it's now
016student achievement Committee of the whole but that was on the committee of the whole meeting that was in February that's important because if we're looking at any changes or any recommended changes that would have to really come from the board so at this point there are no changes that have been been recommended to interest requirements into Walnut or to exit requirements into Walnut this has really been a conversation that has occurred with the board but it occurred in public so I would encourage all of the families that have that are on the line right now or families that have reached out I would encourage you to go online and look at that presentation because it will give a little more information about what was provided to the board at that time I think the second
017opens to a larger conversation so several that are on the call now may have been a part of our board meeting last night or you what were watching us on um on the on the um from watching virtually and during that board meeting we did a presentation to talk about where we're going next and in preparation for the Esser cliff and there are several positions that are funded currently out of um Esser that we are no longer recommending that are funded out of Essa Walnut has four of those positions at their school I think the most unique thing about the positions at Walnut is the positions have one title so in our school district they're called School Community coordinators and that's how they're assigned that's the the group that they're in in terms of how
018they're staffed however at the school they're called something different um so they're called a library assistant they're called um I think a college director so those positions don't exist right now and so it's important that we have review for those positions and for how we are able to try to do alignment with them and then begin to talk about funding for them um so I think that that's a greater conversation not just the conversation specific to um the changes that we're making but it's those changes are being made at the board level because it's bringing positions all over the district into alignment so the school Community coordinator if you listen to the the conversation last night or if you've heard our our recent board meetings because we talked about those positions for a period of
019time you heard that that was some discussion that we've had around the recommendation was last year when I transitioned to the district that those positions were going to be delimited or surplused or removed um that was one of the first decisions that was brought to me last year um and as I share and as I share very publicly that at that time I did not feel that there had been enough notice for the staff members that were in those positions to give them time to prepare so instead we instead we provided notice last year last June actually as I think when the notice was provided and then from there we are we're at the point now where we were looking to move forward with Surplus in those positions um the board did give support for
020that and so for specifics around Walnut it's really looking at trying to bring those positions in alignment with the positions that the district actually has or whether or not we need to create positions there so we've had some conversation with principal Chambers um we are he is meeting with our team to really try to right size the positions and bring them in alignment with positions that are offered in the district which also means that it may be a difference in in pay depending on where the position lands and then we have to look at next steps around funding so there is there is um if there is a feeling that I do not have love for Walnut I love all of our schools I as a as a parent I am a parent I have
021two daughters and my daughter's graduated um from a school very similar to Walnut um and so I know the um acceleration opportunities um my my the school that my daughters graduated from when you look at them nationally uh they rank um in alignment with Walnut in some areas a little bit higher than Walnut in some areas they are not quite there with Walnut they run neck and neck with the number of of of um National Merit Scholars that they have so really understand what that relationship is like and that all of our students deserve to know that we do support the work that they're doing so if that's the feeling that I don't love Walnut I don't know where that started that is not the case and we'll continue to work so that we clarify
022some of the one misconceptions and number two just misinformation that may be out there already okay thanks uh superintendent all right one of the things and I definitely want to let the audience know that I'm going to make sure that I ask everybody's question but I want to make sure everybody has an opportunity at least ask one and then I'll go back to those who have asked multiple questions be a little bit of equity here in the questions the next one is what are the current plans to implement restorative practice great question so we have this year we did an RFP and that's a process that we have to use when it's the expectation that we are going to to have a major contract that's supporting an area or body of work I am a
023strong believer in restorative practices for everyone for restorative practices for students restorative practices for staff members and really making certain that we're also engaging the community around restorative practices so that has been an area that we have completed the process in terms of the RFP and we're in the process of selecting the vendor that will offer um the training for that for our staff members and over the next two years we really begin to go really really deeply in terms of restorative practices I think there's a lot of information that's out about restorative practices but it's important for us to align that conversation so that we're having one set of dialogue around the district and the the practices that are truly restorative I think the second part of that is we are in the process
024of our our discipline team or discipline committee is in the process of review for the revisions for the student code of conduct which also um is one that we want to make sure is restorative I think one um misconception is that restoration May lack of discipline and that's not it at all restoration means that you're looking for ways to move forward that you're determining how you're going to identify the harm what caused the harm but more importantly how you're repairing the harm so all of us should have an opportunity to go through restoration even when sometimes there's harm that happens and you don't realize that it happens so keeping ourselves flexible and open enough to make sure that we're doing that all right this next question comes from Annie she says um as a parent
025of Montessori kids I'm concerned at the lack of support of Montessori classrooms are you and your staff Montessori accredited and is he being considered to remove Community Paris is it even being considered to remove in Montessori classroom so I think that the so let me ask you your first question first um very familiar and have had involvement in Montessori now for almost the last 20 years I've had an opportunity in my last experience to actually set up a wall-to-wall Montessori program so we had Montessori programs but we did not have Montessori programs that went up through the eighth grade at that time so we didn't focus on high school Montessori the focus was just um in the K-8 and Pre-K Aid environment so the answer to that is yes I've had quite a bit of
026Montessori training and um um while I don't know that I would necessarily consider myself a montessorian I am definitely aware and very involved and have been involved for a period of time around Montessori and the Montessori principles and I think that their principles really of of differentiation when you think about the way that you're organizing classrooms or making certain students have Choice how they are monitoring the work they're doing as you're looking at Independence so all those things that go along with with the Montessori way in terms of this year and I think that question is specific to high schools um and we shared this last night as well on the presentation that was done during the board meeting um but the recommendation this year in terms of going through the budgeting process that came
027in from the team was that Montessori Montessori Paras for the at the high school level were not a part of the allocation model they were not included in the formula and so therefore in doing the the follow-up and the work with that those positions were cut at that time this is all very new as of last night because the information was not has not been shared with the schools yet because it was important to make sure um that we had the support of the board and that we knew the alignment that the board was taking because there's been a lot of questions around just the vacancies preparers and how we're filling those vacancies so in asking questions it was determined that that we really had Paris in our Montessori High Schools since the Inception of
028Montessori in our district and so we want to make sure that moving forward the team continues to make them a part of the formula and we're understanding from our finance team they've never been a part of the formula but it looks like someone continued to add them to the school so this they actually should be there there are six at each school and those positions will remain at those schools but you're getting that information before the schools have as I just shared okay next question comes from Holly Fritz and you may not have the the answer because it might have been well before your time but why was the tuition requirement done away with for out of District kids if schools are struggling for instance Walnut Hills High School this is the first question that
029I've ever gotten about tuition for our public school programs the only question around tuition that that's ever been discussed with me and that was a part of our finance uh committee and it may have been a part of policy as well but it was around summer school and summer Scholars and so students that were attending summer school at one point had to pay for summer school but outside of that no other commission um or no other pay or or tuition actually has been shared with me so I'd have to do a little bit of research around that because that's not something that I know about yeah okay I've made a note we'll we'll do some research too to help support that uh this comes from Joe have there been talks about school routes for Metro
030as it currently takes my kids one and a half two hours to get to school in the mornings which is an issue for the grade level of the child but um it's just talking about school routes for Metro so maybe a little clarification for Metro between yellow bus and Metro I think that's really important um that we do the contact for Metro directly because one of the examples that we received on that earlier was um it was determined that the that there was a better um there was a different stop that the family could actually take and a different bus so I don't know if that's a part of the issue or if the issue is truly the the Metro Route is just very different so I would say definitely um you can send us
031an email on it and we'll we will definitely forward that to Metro so that they can follow up with you um there were some students in our feedback sessions that we deal with students around Transportation which we shared that last night they also talked about some of the routes taking longer on Metro so we wanted to dig in a little bit around that but we do need to start with Metro on that because they do set up their routes all right this is a question from uh Marquita Pizarro it says I believe there's a systematic Trend in minorities transferring out of Kilgore does the board help with making an audit observation of data to conclude if this is true the board question but um it provides some light to it yeah so one of the
032questions that came up last night and I know that we don't respond to public comment for the most part when they come up but there was a question last night that was very similar to this that was about an equity audit and so I will share that that is really one of the next areas that we're moving into the board has been very forward with putting into place anti-racism policies um as well as Equity policy however there has not been the the next steps in terms of implementation around those and to to to Really hyphen what it is that you're saying is that it is important that we start with audits so we have um the our chief of staff who has quite a bit of experience in working with Equity that's a body of
033work that he is overseeing we have we're looking at a proposal right now for for really how we're doing that equity work and beginning to do the audits across the district because that's where it starts um having LED this work previously around and and starting with an audit it is more than just going to one individual school it's really looking collectively at all of the schools so the question is very relevant um when there is an issue that is one that is of concern we do follow up with that with that question um or with the issue um we we have them contact and and direct to generally our chief of schools for the for the K-8 schools and our chief of high school transformation for the high schools how many times if it's if
034there's actually a claim we work with our general counsel who actually oversees that process for us as well and most recently if the board meeting last night I'm not sure I don't think that it was one that we um that the board did movement on in terms of voting but it was one that was on the agenda for review it was on the policy uh committee last Friday but it was around a Title IX policy as well so we're very um engaged in terms of what that work looks like and I I do think um in in the short term we'll begin to see more work around really how we're beginning to do more around equity and the analysis of equity in the district one of the things I just uh told Rob and I
035gave him the uh the link to the uh to last night's board meeting so we can share that YouTube link for those who couldn't attend last night you know there's a good discussion that might support some of the you know further you know support some of the questions they have and I also asked him to post the cow session that was in February that provided a little bit more about the the Walnut questions at the board at every question or the information so I think those are two good links for for folks on on this call that you might want to listen to thank you the next question comes from Elise F uh what can you share regarding summer plans to offer student advancement opportunities for students who are interested in maybe not in need
036of credit recovery what suggestions right so at this point in terms of overall District ultimately we're looking to do acceleration during the summer um this year we're focusing primarily on um recovery there has been a proposal or request that's been done that's just really a historical request for work that's happened at Walnut that we are honoring uh in terms of what that looks like for that population and so we'll continue to do that this year and then moving forward we have and and I'm thinking about the policies that came through last night so I think last night promotion retention was voted on by the board and then the next policy that was going to be reviewed last night um is Extended Learning opportunities which is where um where any of our summer learning opportunities would
037come up and acceleration is a part of that policy so if you look at the the committee meeting for policy from Friday you're able to look at the language that's being proposed to the board for that policy whether the language that the policy committee is proposing to the board for that policy okay next question here um going back down so like I said I told everybody at the beginning we're trying to be Equitable and ask those you know ask the question first so um what are athletes and marching bands uh expected to do if no activities or campuses or camps at campuses so I'm not sure if this is in terms of one specific school but what are athletes are marching bands expected to do this summer yeah so I the the first time I
038saw that that kind of surprised me a bit so one of the things that we are doing with principals on Thursday we have our monthly principles meeting on Thursday we're clarifying the process for them because there has not been a change to Student Activities during the summer um the change or the update has been that there does need to be building utilization that's been put in so that we actually know that individuals are in the building so um you know summer is you know being a a um a person that was very active during the summer at school and as a principal and principal leader that's a time that you have students that are at school that are doing additional activities um for whether it's Athletics whether it's summer band um whether it's soccer camp
039you know those are times that that happens during the school during the summer so it's just important that the process is clear I don't know where that misinformation came from but I'm glad that it was raised so that it does become something that we can clarify it was raised in the email that I received um from the the first from some of the Walnut families um starting on Sunday and that's where I was alerted because I did not know that that information was out there so thank you for sharing okay our next question here is and and again this is bringing a little bit of clarity maybe around the uh the relationship between CPD and CPS but it says what are you planning to do to combat SRO rules just to make sure provide Clarity
040and what their support level is and how an arrest might possibly occur at a school yeah so sros are assigned to schools in Cincinnati from CPD they're employees of CPD and they support really all the schools in the city not just the schools that are ncps sros become involved when there is an issue with breaking of the law so sros are not responsible for code of conduct violations or code of conduct issues they only have involvement when it becomes something that is egregious enough that it does break the law and it becomes their responsibility to determine if arrest if an arrest is going to occur I will share that our sros have been trained these are individuals that want to work in school buildings and so they have they have to apply to become an
041SRO they're not just placed at sros so they have to say I want to be a school resource officer um they are you know parents they're graduates of the district they have a huge commitment to our students many of them are also working with our students even during the summer in summer activities as well and so if there is an opportunity to de-escalate a situation so that it doesn't just go to arrest the sros do that as well so I in terms of the involvement uh you know we continue to work with the sros to to have interaction with them but they are they are providing support to the school and that support is coming from CPD okay um got a couple questions from from a parent and I think some of the questions are
042getting a little bit student record specific just want to remind everybody in the audience we're we're not here to answer a very specific student record information from the questions are getting into that Arena well definitely take your contact information and we'll definitely give it to the person or whether it's the board or the superintendent's office to respond accordingly just you might not be asking these questions I just want to make the audience understand if it's student record related very specific those are things that we cannot share with the public it's it's federal law so the audience um so the next question is well it's kind of a little bit more of a confirmation back on are you able to confirm that you are saying pairs in the high school months remain to be a part
043as part of the budget but I think maybe some clarity on the budget process where we currently are and when the clarity might be a little bit more forthcoming between you and the board okay sure so I think when you share the link uh from the meeting last night and you may want to share the presentation as well and it is difficult if it's if it's not a conversation that you've been involved in along the way it is difficult to pick up from where we were last night and have the conversation from that point so I do understand that there will there may be questions after looking at the presentation so on um the third slide of the CFT concerns that were raised one of them was about the Paras at the Montessori high schools
044and those are being reinstated um that was given support by the board last night the schools as I shared you're hearing this information first because the schools will not get the updated information until Thursday as we are working through the processes so the the Montessori pairs there's six at each of the schools and all six of them are being reinstated so yes I am confirming that I just said that so Mark I think you have I know that you are recording so I think that you have that information as well yeah um this one is about mental health support in the school this this person says what are the district's current plans to address the fact that uh the number of mental health support staff is maybe below the recommended quantities for a district of
045this size so maybe at least get a little Clarity on our our current mental health supports at the school and um and possibly where we want to go in the future we'll go from there right so I think that that one from a place of just Clarity there the the district is addressing mental health in a couple of different places so first we have our school-based mental health clinics that are at the school and most of the work that's done in the school-based health clinics I think I said mental health clinics I'm sorry the school-based health clinics most of the work that's done in our school-based health clinics is around physical health but if there is a need there is an opportunity to engage in terms of that process then we have a social worker
046at least one social worker in all of our schools and that's been an improvement this work started several years ago we started with about 15 social workers and from that time we've gone wrong from 15 social workers to the number that we have now we are recommending even more as we move into this school year as well and so social workers are also a line of defense when it comes to mental health and mental health support and that's at the tier one and tier two level and in some instances the depending on the social worker and the the kind of experience that the social worker has they do have an opportunity to do tier three experiences as well so that that means whether they're doing a whole group activity whether they're doing a small group
047activity with students or whether they're doing some individual one-on-one time collectively our district has gone to a uh a collaborative approach where we work with an organization that mind piece that has taken Mental Health Providers from around the city brought them together in a in a conglomerate and those Mental Health Providers are assigned to the schools in our district the initial vision for that from the district when that was when the Outsourcing was done in terms of mental health the initial response from the district was that there would be a mental health provider on staff at each school and I think with some of the challenges just in Staffing and there being such a high need for mental health support right now that that's been a challenge at some of the schools so for those
048School tools they they are able to do the referrals at the school but they did have to go to the facility to actually get the mental health support so it definitely is an area that we're focused on our school counselors are also focus on social emotional learning um we are looking to to continue that into next year um to make sure that that also becomes a part of the work that we're doing around restoration um really that whole PBIS plan and that all that is all inclusive where you're talking about restoration social emotional learning character development and all of those things in one um we just had a question that said I saw I saw the addition uh the difference between the two final CEOs I didn't understand your question I'm sorry it says I
049saw the addition of CEO to your title or recognize that you would CEO part of your title and wanted to understand what the difference is between a CEO and a superintendent it's the same so the CEO the superintendent superintendent is the chief executive officer for the school district okay so that's why so that's why I said superintendent and CEO versus and or yeah totally get it so uh the next question is a little bit more follow-up but it said thank you for it's nice to hear summer opportunities and walnut will option when you say that population interests will be allowed to take classes at Walnut are you simply allowing these options for students in the Walnut population so I mean I think it might be additional Clarity that is needed there or future Clarity that
050might be forthcoming yeah so what I said was that this actually was was brought up to me by Walnut um by the the principal at Walnut um and he shared the process that they've used for select courses that they have at Walnut for students to be able to take those courses and the question was around whether or not students would still be able to do that and he's given us those courses and the number of students that he's expecting or anticipating for those courses so right now it has been specific to the students that are at Walnut in those specific courses um but we as we move into next year we are looking to expand opportunities for students to do Extended Learning acceleration as well thank you this next one's a little bit more about
051our partnership and some of the vendors that we work with and this was in relation to social emotional learning or presentations they're asking if there's an opportunity for observations or audits to be on these Partners uh by third-party companies and and who would who would manage that process they decide to do so it's not necessarily something that we have looked at at this point in terms of a third party we are doing a lot of work around just specific auditing um and looking at how we are balancing the return on investment from the deliverables that replaces a part of the contract and so that is a new process for the district that's not something the district has really focused on much before so it's a new a new learning for us I think that as
052we continue to move forward and we're looking at where we are with our Partnerships and doing the analysis we'll continue to share that information with the board and if you feel that there's a need to have someone outside of the district to do that I think that that's something that we would definitely discuss with the board um the next question is how will mental health support Staffing be impacted by proposed budget cuts I think we're certainly still in that window of making some decisions but or at least working with the board so I don't I'm not quite sure if we can even answer that question at this point in time but maybe at least understand how the process goes to evaluating all of our mental health supports in our schools right so I think the
053mental health supports is very broad so I'll just use that based on the two examples that I just gave and one would be social workers and the other is the mental health providers that are in schools that are partnered through mind peace um right now the recommendation is that we are increasing social workers across the district we are increasing school counselors across the district I did not mention them in the last group we're increasing school counselors across the district and we anticipate that we'll be maintaining Mental Health Services the goal is to make sure that we're able to get back to the mental health expectations and the goals that were set up by the district to start with around having the providers that are assigned at the school site so students can actually get services
054at the school we've been doing rapid fire today so I'm trying to go through them to make sure I apologize because I'm scrolling through to make sure that I've asked all the questions at uh I think one question was that doing an about an above there I can't even talk right now and Ombudsman do we have an official Ombudsman for the district yeah I'm sorry okay no go ahead it's just that it isn't clear who the contact person is yeah so we don't have an official Ombudsman for the district what we do have is a parent Care Center um that you're able to call into and give initial concerns and then those are routed to the individuals that are responsible for doing the follow-up as we think through General issues that happen at a school
055site uh usually as I share it just a moment ago usually those ultimately are addressed through the directors of school leadership at the school and those are the the principal supervisors if you will that would be one way to describe them and then ultimately the chief of schools for our K-8 schools and the chief of high school transformation for our high schools and I say K-8 schools some of the schools are K-8 some are not but the chief of schools uh primarily works with us all of our schools that are elementary schools and then our high schools is the chief of high school transformation got it the next question is why do you think there is a lack of students of color taking uh college credit plus classes is this something that you will be
056pushing for next year yeah so I think that it's it and and I'm trying to think about um most recently when we had this discussion in our uh in a board at a recent board conversation uh usually I can have them top of mind but recently we discussed this because this is a priority for the board as well I want to make certain that we are doing several things with our students of color um minority students are black students specifically as well and one of them is an increase of students in acceleration coursework we want to make sure that we are um closing the achievement gaps that currently exist with the students and we want to see a decline in the discipline so if you go to our board approved goals and guard rails you
057will see those things as a part of that um so it is something that is of concern I think that it though it is a it's a larger it's a greater conversation than just the conversation around the CCP courses because we also want to make sure that as we think of Continuum we have a Continuum of courses leading up to those college credit plus programs where our students have been able to take accelerated coursework so they're prepared to go into one of the college credit programs before they graduate from high school I also have a lot of interest if you watch our committee meetings around ad hoc or ad hoc meetings we did back in it may have been November October or November at the ad hoc committee meeting we shared our initial program audit
058where we went through each school and did audits for the programs that are identified for the school and what we see in actuality happening in the school and then recommendations as we're looking to move forward so we did that in an ad hoc and also in a committee meeting as a regular business meeting as well and the opportunity to offer a true early college program is something that we're very interested it as an option for the students and as I see early college and in my experiences with Early College really for about the last 20 years has been that students are able to get an AAA or an as degree when they graduate so I think the district has done a great job of making sure that there is a focus and an increase on
059college credit plus programs within our schools and teachers that are credentialed to do those classes there's been an increase in the number of students and the goal has been to get the students at least 12 semester hours 12 credit hours so that they're ready for that first semester they're able to go through the first semester as a college student and so this is really taking it to the next level so our colleges and universities in the area have really shown interest in that so we're hopeful that we'll be able to work in alignment with the board and share something soon around next steps around there and uh I I'm not sure if we had some late comers come on late but there was a number number of uh folks interested in Walnut and as we
060said at the beginning um to make sure Rob posts the Powell meeting as well as the YouTube meeting from last night's board um thing that there was you know as far as lowering the scores that that wasn't that wasn't that was not occurring uh the question about scheduling funding so again I really want to make sure folks have those links Rob um because I think that they can hear both the superintendent and the board have the exchange uh about some of the concerns that might still be continuing either on social media but lowering of scores is not occurring so you know these were these are questions that were requested by our board and um and provided just the information just to reiterate to present it to let them know what these things have not happened
061yeah I also I also think it's important that we know where this be present session is um is is where where families that are coming on now are able to view it because some of the questions that they may have may be um maybe I've answered earlier as a part of this session but it gives them the opportunity to hear it from me directly if they so choose Rob I think you were going to join in real quick there and I apologize I was yes no that's okay if if they're looking for what we've posted if they click on the uh event chat um they'll find the links there um and this will also be on YouTube as soon as we're finished with this as well uh on our CPS YouTube page so you'll be
062able to immediately get access to this video again if you come in late thank you thank you thank you okay more time for about okay let me go take a peek here um one was about is there is there any kind of support for the Iowa test at the elementary level so that is a great question um and that's a question that's come up a few different times I think we're exploring with our testing team you know Iowa is a test that we actually get from another organization um and we'll explore with our testing team what may be the options that might be best in terms of practice um some we have had some individuals that have contacted the company directly but we do want to be able to offer that and make that available
063to our elementary school family so that's something that I don't have an answer for right now but I do believe that before it's time for our students to take the assessment in the fall that we will have at least some level of entry level um practice activities that students can do around the Iowa Aaron had a question about um when they if they submitting a bullying or harassing uh form and who can they follow up with that they haven't heard from anybody um recently or you know that's yeah except when you've submitted a bullying harassment claim but I haven't heard anything what are the next steps of parent shifting great question so the and and and and and my assumption for that um Mr Sherwood would be that that was done on the bully button
064I would believe so but I can also ask the parent if they want to direct message us their contact information right because for for information that goes in um to any of the information that's on the bully button it goes to our team immediately and usually there is there is the expectation that there is the follow-up within uh 24 hours from that and that would be of course 24 school hours but we do have our team members that often work at all times um to try to make sure that those follow-ups are happening so um this is the second one today that I have heard about that someone emailed me earlier about that I don't know if this is the same or not but in terms of follow-up you could start with our with our
065parent care our customer care um in terms of seeing what's next the school is the location as well and if you want to email me directly you can feel free to do that and we will share it with our positive School culture team because they're the ones that do the initial follow-up when it's through the bully button this was more of a statement just said yes really appreciate you taking the time to connect with parents and hear our concerns I'm glad our high schoolers at Clark will continue with the same level of support thank you very much um one more question one more statement um real quick for the last parent um before I do this last question um I do think it's important if that question is being asked that means that there is
066that information is not on our website so let's make sure that we have um that we follow up with the team so that we have who to contact on the website because that's a great question and like I said now this is the second time that I've gotten that question today so we do want to make sure um that that we is for facing for how our families can get a response got it we'll definitely follow up I appreciate that thank you um I think that's pretty much it um one thing we had Clarity uh they wanted to make sure that they understood that the summer Scholars application is is by April 3rd somebody asked if it was April 10th um or they heard April 10th I want to declare it was April 3rd yeah
067well actually I actually remember we extended it to the 10th well that's my apologies and I'll make sure that everything is updated yes April 10th right so now that you said that make sure that it's on all of our sites because I know that's what we're gonna do right now okay well I believe that's all the questions that we have today awesome thank you so much thank you all for taking the time to join in with us today and for being present in this session thank you for your questions um you know a part of this gives me the opportunity and gives you the opportunity to answer questions very very directly um there is a a survey that you can take at the end of this session so we would ask that you take just
068a couple of minutes uh to take the survey because we do use the survey to help frame the work that we're doing and what we're looking at doing next so again thank you so much and thank you for entrusting your child or your children to us um I am CPS you are CPS we are CPS so have a nice afternoon