CMSD Board of Education Work Session - May 12, 2026

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Good evening. This work session of the Board of Education of the Cleveland Municipal School District will come to order. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the roll? Ms. Al-Khoud? Here. Mr. Phillips? Here. Mr. Briggs? >> Here. Ms. Jones? >> Here. Pastor Jones? Ms. Lebron? Here. Ms. Peak? Here. Dr. Sridhar? Here. Ms. Wolchaw? Here. There are eight members present. Thank you. I ask everyone who wishes to rise and participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right, tonight is a special evening as many of you know. This evening we're pleased to welcome the class of 2026 valedictorians and salutatorians and

002their families and we're very excited to celebrate with all of you this evening. Um before I turn it over, well, I guess we'll wait till they're back in here. Um but um Dr. Florence will be congratulating them and recognizing each of them and I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Florence. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to all of our family and friends who are here with us tonight. Board members, I'm going to ask that you stand and as each valedictorian and salutatorian come through, they are going to shake your hand and then process down the middle of the aisle back out of the building. Okay, so you just stand and stay where you are and they are going Or you can come to the front. Either way, Dr. Sridhar. >> [laughter] >> That's short

003arms, I understand. All right, from Bard High School, we have valedictorian Cameron Perkins. >> [applause] >> And not with us tonight is salutatorian Esaul Ali. >> [applause] >> From Campus International High School, valedictorian Alina Cox is not with us this evening. We do have salutatorian Micah Schwab. >> [applause] >> From Cleveland Early College, we have valedictorian Morgan Rosario. >> [applause] >> And salutatorian Samantha Swarna. >> [applause] >> From Cleveland High School for Digital Arts, we have valedictorian Gabriel Beard. >> [applause] >> And salutatorian Eugene Miller is not with us this evening. >> [applause] >> From Cleveland Remote High School, Ariana Bogal, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Chanel Sanders, salutatorian. Neither of them are with us this evening. From Cleveland School of Architecture and Design, valedictorian Taji Coleman is not with us. >> [applause] >> Amaya

004Lipscomb is salutatorian. From Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, Tasneema Sheikh, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> Owen Pennington, salutatorian. >> [applause] >> From Cleveland School of the Arts, Zapoura Peterson, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> Shayla Henriquez is salutatorian and is not with us this evening. >> [applause] >> From Collinwood High School, Marseth Coleman, valedictorian. He is not with us. And Aryon Edderson is salutatorian. >> [applause] >> Aryon is with us tonight. From Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School, Makai Campbell, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Noah Bazile, salutatorian. >> [applause] >> From From EastTech High School, Jayden Copley is our valedictorian. >> [applause] >> Aryon Robinson is salutatorian and they are not with us this evening. From Facing History New Tech High School, Angel Torres Lugo is valedictorian. He is not with us this evening. >> [applause] >>

005And Deborah Uwingu Imani is salutatorian. >> [applause] >> Garrett Morgan High School of Engineering and Innovation, Rain Kelly is valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Michael Perkins is salutatorian. >> [applause] >> From Garrett Morgan School of Leadership and Innovation, Iris Hernandez is valedictorian. >> [applause] >> Lisbeth De Jesus is salutatorian. >> [applause] >> From Ginn Academy, Devonte Bonner valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Sincere Johnson salutatorian. Neither of them are with us this evening. From Glenville High School, Alex Izarra is valedictorian. They are not with us. And Amari Rouse is salutatorian. >> [applause] >> From John Adams College and Career Academy, Aleah Aleah Reshae Miller is valedictorian. >> [applause and cheering] >> Anaya Terrell salutatorian. >> [applause] >> From John F. Kennedy High School, Jazlyn Bowman is valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Ramira Dross is salutatorian. >>

006[applause] >> From John Marshall School of Civic and Business Leadership, Susanna Neota is valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Reem Alzen is salutatorian. And they are not with us this evening. >> [applause] >> From John Marshall School of Engineering, Delicia Basnet is valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Deepika Magar is salutatorian. >> [applause] >> From John Marshall School of Information Technology, Quinn Tran is valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Kirk Neil Williams is salutatorian. >> [applause] >> From Lincoln West School of Global Studies, Reniel De Jesus is valedictorian. >> [applause] >> It's not [cheering] his His mom is accepting on his behalf. >> [applause] >> And Gabriel Rivera is salutatorian. >> [applause] >> Lincoln West School of Science and Health, Tyler Cowart is valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Omar Moussa, salutatorian. >> [applause] >> From Max Hayes High

007School, Anna Contreras valedictorian. >> [applause] >> Heidi Mateo, salutatorian. >> [applause] [applause] >> From MC Squared High School, Eliana Gorman, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> Anthony Morrow, salutatorian. >> [applause] [cheering] >> From Natividad Pigan International Newcomers Academy, Genira Romero, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> Nadine Shabayek, salutatorian. >> [applause] [applause] >> From New Tech West High School, Rouge Adhikari, valedictorian. >> [applause and cheering] >> Christian Harris, salutatorian. >> [cheering] [applause] >> From Roads College and Career Academy, Carrie Hunter, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> Kari Hunter, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> Ayanna Clark, salutatorian. >> [applause] >> Roads School of Environmental Studies, Omar Zagari, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> And Kendra Hess, salutatorian. >> [applause] >> Finally, from the School of One, we have Jude Klatt, valedictorian. >> [applause] >> He is not here. And Isabella Atkins, salutatorian. >> [cheering] [applause] >>

008All right, board members, if you will go back and have a seat, they're going to stand behind you for the picture, if that's okay. The valedictorians are coming in first. All right, just a couple of things as the students come in, the soon-to-be graduates. Thank you to everybody for coming in to celebrate with us. I want to give a big shout-out to all the family members who have been on this journey with our students to get to where they are today. Let's give them a hand. >> [applause] >> Thank you for supporting these incredible students. Thank you for the gift of these students. Thank you for choosing CMSD. Thank you to our educators who have had, you know, whether you're in the room or not, you've had a big part in these students standing up

009here today. >> [applause] >> I'd like to recognize that Cleveland State University President Laura Bloomberg is here. Dr. Bloomberg, would you mind standing? Thank you [applause] for joining us. I know we have some of your future students in here. And then finally to the vals and sals, you know, I always say this at this time of year. I know that everybody in this room is so incredibly proud of you and you've worked really hard to make us all proud and now I hope that you will officially turn the page and work really hard to make yourself proud from here on out and I know you have already, but you'll have so much more to be proud of. So, congratulations val and sals. >> [applause] >> Before we get to the picture, I want to share

010some statistics about our valedictorians and salutatorians. I echo everything that Chair Allocca has shared in terms of how incredibly proud we are of each of them. It is very hard work to get to the point of being a valedictorian or salutatorian of your of your class and I know that they've worked so hard. We've shared we've given them gifts and the previous ceremony, but I want to share some of the statistics about this year's valedictorians and salutatorians and look forward to celebrating all of our scholars as I'll be attending all the graduations this year. >> [snorts] >> So, two students will be entering into trade apprenticeships programs right afterwards. We have two students who will be attending historically black colleges and universities. I think I saw two students that I have Howard University up there.

011The number one HBCU in the country. We have nine students who will be enrolling at Cleveland State University and 10 students who will be attending the Ohio State University. >> [applause] >> We have one student who has earned the nationally competitive full ride Jones C. Edwards scholarship. That is very competitive to get. >> [applause] >> Another prestigious and competitive scholarship is the Gates Merit Scholarship. We have six Gates Merit Scholars or Governors I I should say Governors Merit Scholars. We do have a Gates Scholar as well, but not in the as part of our vals and sals. And these students are going to universities across the Midwest, the East, all over the country. Um, we have students that are attending Ivy Leagues that we're very proud of in this group. 43 43 students are eligible

012for CS colleges. Nine students will be attending up nine of our private partner um CS partnerships, and 33 will be attending public colleges here in the state of Ohio. And all together, they have earned, as I shared earlier, $5.2 million worth of scholarships. >> [applause] >> So, give them a round of applause. Before uh we do the picture, just two groups that I wanted to uh uh thank. First, uh they don't get here on their own. They get here with all the educators in the room. So, I know we have teachers in the room, teachers who may be watching, teachers all across the system, and school leaders. Let's give them a round of applause cuz without them, they would not be here. >> [applause] >> And most important, the village that is here tonight, the

013parents, uh the guardians, the aunts, the uncles, um the the nights you cried, the nights you said get up there and do your homework, uh the nights you pushed to just keep uh you know, making sure that they were getting where they needed to go. Um your sacrifice uh is on display tonight. And so, I just want you, as you're celebrating not only tonight but in this graduation season, to know how incredibly proud we are of each of you, and thank you for your support and partnership along the way. >> [applause] >> Are we doing two at a time? We're going to do one more picture of Victoria and >> Guys. Guys. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right, one more picture for the members. Can Can you see? Yes, sit down a little. Go that

014way. What's What's What's up? There you go. >> [crying] [applause] >> That concludes our valedictorian and salutatorian ceremony. Parents, you are more than welcome to take your sweet angels and head on home if you would like to. >> Nice and same here. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you. Take care. That's the kind of thing my dad would do. All right. Now we'll move on to the slight only slightly less exciting part of the meeting. Um this evening's consent agenda includes the minutes of the last board meeting and six legal resolutions. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda consisting of agenda items 3.02 through 4.06 as set forth in the board meeting agenda. So move. Second. [clears throat] Thank you. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the roll on this motion? Ms.

015Alcott? Yes. Mr. Phillips? Yes. Mr. Briggs? Yes. Ms. Jones? >> Yes. Ms. Lebrun? Yes. Ms. Peak? Yes. Dr. Sridhar? Yes. Mrs. Welchau? Yes. The motion passes with eight votes. Thank you. The motion passes, the minutes are approved, and the resolutions are adopted. The board will consider the next two resolutions separately. The chair will now entertain a motion to adopt resolutions five point resolutions 5.01 authorizing the chief executive officer to execute a memorandum of understanding with the Cleveland Teachers Union regarding an enhanced building substitute layoff mitigation agreement. Is there a motion to adopt >> I I move it. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Morgan, could we have an explanation of this resolution? Yes, I have a short presentation also for this. Before I go into it, I want to extend huge gratitude to our CTU president,

016uh Mr. Earl Savage, and the entire leadership team for working, you know, collaboratively pushing us during this time to reach what we believe is a an agreement that we have to mitigate where we are with the layoffs. I I want to be very clear that um this no way uh takes away, you know, some of the pain that I know that members have who have been impacted. In no way takes uh you know, it's it's not you know, CTU's saying that they actually uh agree with the the fact that we needed to do layoffs, but this is our agreement of coming together to say what can we do to ensure that members who are impacted that we do something to support those members to the extent that we can, and then also what we can

017do to support the district. And so, I do want to share some of the details of this. There was a joint statement that went out. Of course, this is pending board approval tonight, um where if the board does vote on this, I will be then directed to sign. We do have the the signature already from Cleveland Teachers Union. So, this is a MOU for enhanced building subs for 26-27. And so, what this includes, it's for 60 licensed teachers that received layoff notices at the about the second week or yeah, the second week of April. And they would serve as enhanced building substitutes for the 26-27 school year. Enhanced building substitutes will be assigned to the same building each day. They they will help to fill sub vacancies that come up in the building. And if

018there are no subs that are needed or any um staff that are absent, there other ways they can provide coverage including you know you know assignment that's even longer term or some other duties if they are not um assigned to a classroom on that day. Those 60 who accept the enhanced building substitute position will remain in that position until they are recalled to a teaching assignment. And this will be for the entire 26-27 school year. In terms of finding out that assignment, that will be determined by the district by August 3rd. Now, the offers to the 60 teachers is largely based on seniority within the high school and pre-K-8 categories. And those offers will go out this week where teachers can start to accept those assignment. In cases where teacher does not accept an offer,

019the talent department will continue contacting teacher on the layoff list based on that order of the layoff list. Enhanced building subs will will maintain their recall order. So, there's a certain order in based on the contract in which teachers have to be recalled back. These enhanced building subs would would maintain that even if they go into this, they would not lose that. Enhanced building subs will uh their regular benefits and and pay throughout the year. I will also say this is a part that even before we announced uh layoffs, this was even something I was talking to leadership uh uh prior to Mr. Savage coming in. This is what we wanted to do even before we could announce uh had to announce layoffs. I wanted a way that we could bring some teachers back at

020the pay and benefits that could be at, and I'm glad that through working through some different things we're able to do that. Maybe for not the number we initially thought we were going to be able to, but I'm glad we're able to do it uh for some. Now, through July 10th, uh the the vacated enhanced building subs can be backfilled. Um uh after July 10th, that number would stay stagnant, and anyone who is either recalled or um resigned at that point, uh it's not like we would backfill to the 60, but from now up through July 10th, uh the the 60 is the number, and we'll continue to backfill that even if people uh either get recalled or their resignations. Um in addition to creating job security uh for the impacted educators who are a

021part of this plan, there are some other benefits to the system as well. Uh this creates a pool of uh impacted classroom teachers, they're fully licensed teachers, uh teachers that have already worked in our system, know our kids, um know what's taking place in the system. That provides us a pool of teachers, uh and uh they can support us to have a really strong start to the school year. Um this also allows us you know, as we we will not know what the enrollment is in all of our buildings until the very first day of school. That's typically how it is, and even in the first weeks of school, and this allows us to provide um uh it provides the district with a pool of teachers that uh we can use to help support our

022buildings and schools with a a strong start to the year, and also with the transition of building brighter futures. And note that our historical uh attrition rates, if we go based on those historical attrition rates, we believe that by fall 2027, the entire the next school year, that most if not all of these enhanced building subs will be recalled by that time. But, we'll we'll see what takes place. This also provides that that cushion and job security for those that are not. The other thing I'll say that this is only for the 26-27 school year. This MOU does end at the end of the 26-27 school year. It does not carry into the 27-28 school year. Any other questions? Right. Any discussion from board members? Mr. Briggs? Yes, thank you. Thank you, Chair Al-Quad, and

023and thank you, Dr. Morgan, and to you and Mr. Savage for reaching this compromise. Would you explain how this is going to be funded? I think I understand it, but maybe for the audience. Great question. So, one of the things we were talking about, and this is where even where we're talking about with the previous administration, for the previous leadership for the Cleveland Teachers Union, when we found out, as we mentioned before, it was part of our plan for five Cs to remain in the building. You may remember that from our Building Brighter Futures presentation we had in December. We said five Cs will remain. We found out from the contract that before any teacher could lay off, we had to lay off our five Cs. Um that that created uh it created some some

024room in the budget in terms of where you know that that pool of teachers that we would be utilizing. And so, for this year, we will use those dollars. We've also used some of those dollars to actually not lay off some of our teachers. So, as I mentioned before, we reduced the number down significantly. That was something that was really important to our previous CTU president to bring the number down as much as possible. So, before we had uh announced, we had brought the number down. We added some positions back into the system and we'll be able to use these dollars for this year. Um but the reason why it doesn't carry over year over year is uh as you know, any savings that we free up that that goes over year over year. So,

025this is the cost we would only use for 1 year and not in perpetuity. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. And I'd echo what Mr. Briggs said. Um appreciate the the union leadership team for working so hard to figure out some level of mitigation strategy. Like you said, it doesn't help everybody and and I've said before that, you know, we didn't join the school board to lay people off. So, very glad to see that we can mitigate to some extent. And I know that I appreciate the question from Mr. Briggs about the dollars. Um you know, I'll just add that uh former state Board of Education member Mural Johnson really had a really strong explanation today at the City Club around, you know, the way our finances has evolved as well. Um as well as some of

026the Signal articles that have come out recently with an overview of that. So, I've appreciated that that um information has been out in the public and um you know, I know that it's not an easy job to try to figure out, you know, the the people, right? And the people who are working with our students and having to um you know, keep some of them on but let some of them go. So, thank you for that. All right. Uh seeing no further discussion, Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the roll on this motion? Ms. Ellicott? Yes. Mr. Billups? Yes. Mr. Briggs? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Ms. Lebron? Yes. Ms. Peak? Yes. Dr. Sridhar? Yes. Ms. Welchau? Yes. Motion passes with eight votes. Thank you. The resolution is adopted. The chair will now entertain a motion

027to adopt resolution 5.02 authorizing the chief executive officer to execute a memorandum of understanding with the Cleveland Teachers Union regarding makeup time and packing and amending the 2025-2026 school calendar consistent with the terms of the MOU. So moved. Second. Thank you. Dr. Morgan, could we have an explanation explanation of this resolution? Yes, this one I do not have slides for but wanted to again want to thank the the leadership of the Cleveland Teachers Union for the question pushing questions that they have from their membership as well as our team. I know that there was a team of people working really hard even up until today to to get in in you know the terms of this agreement and so really appreciate that appreciate Mr. Roman on on my team JR Tomkinson and so many others

028that have provided this and everyone on the executive leadership team for working with the Cleveland Teachers Union. What this agreement does is we know that there were some schools we we had a very rough winter this year and we almost used up all of our calamity days. They go by minutes and hours so we we track those. We have a timekeeper in the district that tracks our our minutes. The majority of our schools didn't have a full day left probably about 0.7 or 0.8 of a day left but we have some schools every time when there's no power in the the the building and you know without going on a on a rant know if Chief Thompson is here but on days when our power goes out but I do see Dr. Florence cuz we

029know when we get these messages. When the day that when days when our power goes out sometimes we get an alert [clears throat] from Cleveland Public Power that says estimated time maybe 2:00 p.m. And what do you do at that point? You know, sometimes you could say you know, do we wait it out? Which I remember when I was a school leader not in this system. I remember being in a dark high school where my kids could not uh classrooms and we had to stay. Um but a lot of times we do uh count that as a calamity day. And when we do that, on top of days when we had the winter that we had this year, there are some schools that do not have any more um time and days. And so, we

030have this uh reaches an agreement for those schools that do not have those extra uh days or minutes uh to uh I I believe starting May 13th for some of them to add uh 10 minutes to their school day uh at the top of the day to get to that point so they would fulfill that requirement. There were a couple of schools that actually needed to add an entire day. And so, for those uh few schools, uh they're listed in the MOU, uh they would uh the students' last day of school would be on the 29th, which for most uh the everyone else, that is a teacher professional development day, and most students end on the 28th. So, for those uh schools, they would end on the 29th, and um teachers would have that that

031that day on June 1st. What this also does is it allows our teachers um on that day, the professional development days are not going to be directed by the school uh or school leadership, uh and it provides the space for uh teachers to uh pack. Uh particularly uh in our schools, we have 27 buildings. We have 29 schools that will be closing this year, but 27 buildings where their building will not be in existence uh whether it is a leased space or it is uh one of our 18 buildings that we own that will not be around. Uh for those teachers in those schools uh needing the time to pack up not only their their belongings, but also um just any curriculum materials that they have. Uh that that day is provided as well as

032um using the the 50 minutes uh throughout the rest of the year. Um that adds about 100 minutes. That's what allows us to do. And so, it's just uh us providing more time for uh teachers to uh pack, and then also adjusting the calendar. That's what this MOU does. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. I see no lights on, so we'll move on to the vote. Mr. Stockdale, please call the roll on this motion. Yes. Phillips. Yes. Mr. Briggs. >> Yes. Ms. Jones. >> Yes. Mrs. Lebron. Yes. Ms. Peak. Yes. Dr. Shridhar. Yes. Mrs. Walchaw. Yes. Motion passes with eight votes. Thank you. The resolution is adopted. This evening's board meeting agenda also includes an additional 13 resolutions in the areas of Board of Education, Finance, Operations, Academics, and Excellence and Culture, which the board will vote

033on as part of its consent agenda at our May 19th board business meeting. The board will now hold its monthly monitoring of goals and guardrails. Dr. Morgan. Thank you, Chair Ellicott. This was a presentation we were supposed to do in April, but I appreciated not only the discussion we were having, rich discussion we had from public comment on the April 28th meeting, but also having the opportunity to discuss some of the staffing implications. I appreciated the opportunity to share that information with the board cuz we were not able to do that April 14th. And then also appreciate the discussion that the board had on our community partner schools. And so, with that, I know was the at the discretion of Chair Ellicott and the rest of the board to do this monitoring session today. And

034then we will do on the 19th guardrail one, safety, which is all of the CEO matters four, guardrail four. And so, today we're looking at college readiness 3.3. And just reminding you what this goal is. And so, this goal that the board is charged me with and the the district with is to ensure that the percent of four-year the percent of the four-year graduation cohort who meet at least one college ready indicator in ACT, SAT readiness, honors diploma, AP, IB, college ready, or 12 plus college credit. through the college credit plus program will increase from 8.2% in August 2024. That's what it was 2 years ago to 25% by August 2030. We've talked about this before, even though this is there's a lot of work that we have to do to get to the 25%.

035This is still not where we want to be. And we have a long way to go, but the through the measures that the board has charged us with to look at building the systems to grow this over time. I am happy to report some of the data in terms of where we are and how we've grown from the beginning of the year. Now, the specific CEO measure that we look at is increasing the percent of third-year high school students that are on track to either earn 12 college credits or pass the AP IB exams at the end of their fourth year will increase from the baseline last year of 6.4 to 7.2%. So, just some background on this. As you guys know, the new measure at the state is the CCWMR measure, the college career

036workforce and military readiness measure. This was the measure that when added on the report card, actually had an impact on our overall three-star rating because we know that we earned one star in this based on some of the measures we have here that we though we have been getting many of our students to go to college, many of them are not going to college without needing to take remediation free courses. Many of them are also going to college or not persisting through college. And so, we are appreciative of this measure. It's also measuring our career pathways as well. So, readiness of a graduating class is estimated by calculating the numbers of students who engage in one or more of these experiences. And individual students are considered college-ready by showing readiness in at least one of

037the indicators. And when we did this presentation last year, you may remember the board meeting where Dr. Florence had the the they were almost like cards that we were doing and we were looking where students were met matched at. There are 11 indicators by the state that they could be college and career ready or according to this measure. And that's what we're pushing to get more of our students moving it from I think it was 36% for the class of 2024 and we want to grow that. We already know the measure we're going to have for the class of 2025 because it is a lagging indicator. We always get measured on the report card coming up from the previous class. Um today's board goal presentation is only going to focus on college readiness. We've shared

038this before. It's not that we are only focused on college, but if we don't have the bar of having a rigorous curriculum and ensuring that our students are ready, they will not be ready for either college or career. We're not setting them up for success. And so we really want to be holding ourselves to that. And you can see what the the two indicators and how they were aligned. We're going to share some more data on that. We're also going to talk about how building brighter futures and the goals we have around building brighter futures is a strategy that helps support the work we're doing to the end of this measure. Advanced placement and international baccalaureate are two programs that we have. Right now we have only one IB wall-to-wall high school. It'll be that

039IB program will be on the John Hay campus next year. But you're going to hear about the strategy we have to go advanced placement across all of our high schools next year. We do not have advanced placement in all of our high schools now, but that's one of the goals we have through building brighter futures and we're on track to hit that. And then also the students who are doing 12 or more college credits. This can either take place through college credit plus program whether they're going to Tri-C to do that or doing it in their school. Which one of the things we've been holding ourselves accountable to is to ensure that there are college credit programs in school because not all students have the opportunity and accessibility to go off campus to take those

040college credit courses. And then state career technical course offered through dual enrollment. That's another pathway that students can earn college credit. It's one of the growing numbers that a lot of students are starting to get college credit. When we talk about remediation free scores, so when students are considered college ready, these are the scores they must achieve. You can see on the ACT, you know, 18 in English is a remediation free score, 22 in reading, 22 in math. These aren't that high of scores, you know, it's achievable, but you would be surprised in terms of how our students are actually achieving achieving at that level. And so we're wanting to make sure that our our instruction matches students being able to be successful in this area. The same thing with the SAT, the 480 for

041both English and reading and the 530 for math. And then the honors diploma students can demonstrate readiness on this measure by earning one of the six honors diplomas and you can see them listed here. And those are offerings we have throughout the system as well. Let's see where we are on this measure. So right now we are on track to meet our goal. This is actually the the final presentation we have for the year. So actually this is one that we've met and surpassed. Our goal was to be at 7.2. Right now 10.3% of third year high school students are predicted to earn 12 or more college credits, pass three pass an AP exam with a three or higher or pass an IB with an exam with a three or higher. So we are on

042track and currently exceeding our end of year goal by 3.1 percentage points. This is the highest percentage our students have had predicted by college credit college readiness benchmarks over the the past several years. >> [snorts] >> And so the strategies we're going to be talking about in a moment not only through building brighter futures, but the strategies that we're holding ourselves to to ensure that the academics are matching, it matters. And I know that the work we do when we present these presentations may not always um appear like it's much or we we talk about the walk-throughs and the different work that we're doing, but it's really important that we are transforming our instruction, that we are offering more of [snorts] the the programs because when we see that students are um growing in this

043measure, it means we're um expanding opportunity, and when they're achieving at higher levels, that means that they're actually able to achieve at those higher measures. Um I will note that 76% of all third-year uh this third-year cohort is not currently enrolled in AP or IB uh college credits, and that's consistent with where we've been before. And so, when we talk about access uh and what we're doing through Building Brighter Futures, this is the work we want to change. That means a majority of our third-year students do not have access or are not accessing uh the these measures. And so, even with this amount of growth that we have, we still have the majority of students that don't have access. Um so, our overall uh changes are driven primarily by advanced placement readiness and the college

044credit plus. Um college credit plus has been an area that we have been able to control uh this year under the current conditions um and the work that we're building through Building Brighter Futures will enable us to grow. Um advanced placement courses, so we're actually down um two points from the amount of students that are enrolled in AP courses this year, but we know this year nothing changed in terms of the expansion of AP courses. There were some high schools cuz I know Dr. Florence's team had already been talking to school leaders about um how they were preparing students for advanced placement and how um school leaders were offering more courses. And there were some high schools that made those adjustments at the beginning of this year, but we know that the plan of Building

045Brighter Futures did not um we didn't adjust the access to advanced placement in year, but next year we will. 100% of our high schools will have that, and we'll talk about that in a moment. But where we have seen growth is in college credit plus and the students that are um accessing that and using that through the High Tech Academy and going over to a Tri-C. That has grown. We're up by 3% amount of the amount of students that are accessing that. And the percentage of students who have earned one or more college credit as of the middle of this year is up by five percentage points. So, this is the work that we've been holding ourselves to. Some of the instructional work we've been doing, we've talked about ensuring that the advanced placement classroom

046platform is something that our teachers know about and is that they're utilizing in our classrooms and we have seen teachers utilizing those resources and getting training on that. We have seen you know, teachers utilizing the data from the college readiness walk-through tool. So, when we do our instructional walk-throughs, there's one aligned to some of the college readiness indicators. And those those are things when we see the the shifts and the growth that we've been taking place. We have seen a lot of teachers using that [snorts] and also a lot of teachers implementing the strategies in the classroom. So, that's been something that's been successful. And then also providing the professional development aligned to the instructional practice both for advanced placement and CCP access. You know, we've talked about a strategy of increasing the amount of

047students enrolled in college credit plus. That was something that we did have in our control this year given that we didn't have the structures in place to advance access through building brighter futures. Next year we will be offering more. So, it's not only just going to be the amount of students that are enrolled in CCP but also just the amount of courses that will be across the board. We're working with replacing honors courses with pre-AP offerings in science, social studies, and the arts. You know, one of the things actually this is just from this morning. We heard one school that says we're not offering any honors courses in science. Well, all of our science and social studies and the arts courses at the high school are going to be pre-AP advanced placement. And so, that's

048one One the things I know that Dr. Florence and um uh Ms. Carlson's team have been working to ensure that that's what we're going to do through uh through in our high schools uh with the pre-AP strategy. Um and we talked about the school mergers through Building Brighter Futures provides that opportunity for there to be uh more courses and college uh credit courses across all of our campuses. Some things that are working uh we know that through Building Brighter Futures we're going to increase where we are in terms of college credit offerings from 78% to 100% next year. Um 100% of our high schools um use AP potential data in conjunction with historical AP passage rates to select AP courses for next year cuz we just don't want to offer AP courses, we want our

049students to be successful in them and we'll talk a little bit about that in a moment. Uh 91% of the classrooms observed um for both AP and CCP teachers are implementing uh the shared principle of clo- uh close observation and analysis and 73% of the teachers are uh doing the higher order uh questions during the third quarter. Um and so those are some things that we're seeing through the walk-through um and some of the best practices we're seeing show up in our classrooms. Uh 35% uh there's a 35% increase in the enrollment at High Tech Academy and so that's one of the things that I said was in our locus of control this year when we weren't able to offer it in schools, we were able to get students uh over to High Tech Academy.

050So [snorts] some things that are starting to work uh teacher training on the AP Classroom platform um it increased from 52% to 87%. We shared that statistic the last time we presented um uh 3.1 and 3.2. Um some things that are starting to work is implement uh the district implementing a unified district strategy to identify AP courses to offer um and then also thinking about the pre-advanced placement. Um we are also uh implementing a district strategy starting to work to ensure that we are uh scaffolding the success in advanced placement. Now things that are not working. We talked about AP Classroom was uh the use this year was optional uh and it wasn't something that not everyone was using across the board. Um other things that were not working um there is a uh a

051unit exam that's that comes along with the AP Classroom. So, we had 370 378 out of 797 students who took the exam. So, that's still not a high percentage. And of the 378 who took the exam, only 47% scored with a C or higher. So, that's work we have to do uh because those exams are rigorous and so we if our students are not able to pass it one if they're not taking it, that's work we have to do to ensure that there are um there pathways for students to take it. Um but if they're not successful on it, that's work we have to do to really ensure that um we're preparing our students adequately for it. And 28% of the classrooms observed are implementing the evidence-based writing. We talked even though we are seeing

052the higher-order thinking and some of the other principles of uh that Advanced Placement Classroom walk-through form, we are not seeing the evidence-based writing in the high school space. Um now, these are courses that uh our schools can offer uh without district approval and these are also the courses that uh our students have the most success across the the board. Um and so the historically, these are some of the the classes that have had success. So, these are not the only Advanced Placement offerings we're offering in the system. There are more. Uh but these are the ones that uh our our our team has been working with our high schools to ensure that there are offerings. Uh and I know I have seen uh you know, just through the work that Dr. Florence has been doing

053and the things she's been sharing in our in our check-in, how our schools are growing in their Advanced Placement offerings for next year. Um and as you can see, if it is a star, that is listed as a uh a uh priority course, a district priority course. So, next steps um central office staff will attend the pre-AP training. Uh we've been working with the College Board to really think about this transition from honors to pre-AP. We've talked about that as a strategy. Um and one of the things that's helpful with the pre-AP, I know I've shared this before, but there may be uh a question as to why pre-AP and not honors. Um honors doesn't necessarily have a uh prescribed curriculum that's aligned to the rigor. Um pre-AP does. We know that advanced placement has

054standards. Advanced placement there there's uh you know, mapping the College Board does to that curriculum. By us adopting pre-AP, it allows us to expose students uh a lot earlier to this work and also prepare them for uh advanced placement in the uh coming years. Um and so we want to provide that differentiated PD for both advanced placement and pre-AP uh to new and existing teachers over the summer uh and during the school year uh to ensure uh you know, the alignment of the AP standards that I was talking about. Uh explaining the number of CMSD teachers that are used uh as instruct uh college credit plus instructors with the support of local higher higher education partners. Um so we want to offer dual enrollment in our schools. Um a lot of times teachers have to

055have a master's degree in the content area. Most teachers have a master's degree. Um our data show when we actually did our audit that uh the majority of our teachers are I believe it is a majority of our teachers actually do have an advanced degree, but most do not and this is consistent across most districts do not have a a master's degree in their content area. Um meaning uh there there a lot teachers that may get a master's in curriculum and instruction or a master's in in administration, not necessarily a master's in math or a master's in um science. Um and so those are some different things we want to work with our education partners to see how we can offer more dual enrollment in class or figure out how we can get the professors

056uh to our to our schools. Um thinking about the the requirement of the the the AP unit practice exams um and seeing how more of our students can take that and also increase the the rigor um and the passage rates for our students. We find the college readiness walk-through tool and provide targeted supports to both pre to AP and pre-AP teachers and also that cohort feedback. We've talked about the teacher cohorts that have been taking place this year and then I know that's work that we want to do and also get to a point where teachers can be doing the training and doing the training the trainer model. Also identify the number of students that completed college credit plus credits and the corresponding strategy that connects to scheduling. So just making sure that the schedule

057allows for that. Schedules are controlled at the school level. So when we get questions about why is my school not offering this? Schedules are controlled at the school level but it does take intentional planning and that's one of the things we've been working with our school leaders on because it does take intentional planning and you have to have the space for it and you have to have a plan for how you're going to offer these courses. Replace honors we talked about this with pre-AP at both in science, social studies and in the arts in 9th and 10th grade years to prepare students and that's going to be taking place starting next year. >> [snorts] >> Support the continued offering of accelerated math we talked about this in 7th grade. They're going to be 260 students

058that are eligible across 12 schools to take that 7th grade math and then for algebra one we're excited that at this moment and it could increase it we'll have 326 scholars that are eligible to take algebra one next year in 18 of our schools. That's 40% of our elementary schools. That's all. Thank you Dr. Morgan. Dr. Shwedar. Thank you Dr. Morgan for that presentation. I have two questions. One one is more a clarification if you could go back to the slide with the line chart the that one. So so if I am I I want to understand I want to make sure I understand this correctly. So you're saying that 76% of the third year cohort is not currently enrolled in any AP, IB, or college credit offerings. That means that 24% are that 10.3%

059that you're showing is is over the entire class. That means that in in reality, um almost 40% of all the students that are that are enrolled in those courses are doing well. Is that Is that a good way to read that? Yeah, and um that that's how we read it, Dr. Meeks. Is there anything else you would add to that? Yeah, um but yeah, So so that I I just want to call attention to that to that statistic, right? So it's not the 10% The 10% number is over the entire class. But the when students are presented opportunities 40 to 45% of those students are succeeding. So So this I'm just reinforcing your point about why it is important that all students need to be presented with the opportunities and access to the opportunities because

060a lot more of those 76% of students who are not currently enrolled in those in those classes may in fact be academically capable of of succeeding, but they don't have access to those materials. Yes. Yeah, and I I would say, you know, we shared this statistical before when looking at our math um of students when they take Algebra 1 in eighth grade, I believe it was in the '80s of percentage of students who were successful in showing mastery on that. And so when we expose our students and prepare them and get them ready for the the higher level uh courses, um it is providing access opportunity and they're they're succeeding. And so that's, you know, a continued charge to us to continue to make sure we increase accessibility. So I want to connect this back

061to our our goal, which is the the goal number three, which is 25% [clears throat] of our students will graduate from high school college ready. Um and and and that that So So when you put this in context and you say that 45 40 to 45% of the students who do have access to these high-quality courses and and what the courses that count as college readiness indicators, if when they are succeeding, when we are able to broaden access to all of our scholars, that 25% number, which seems like a really large jump from 8 to 25, seems a whole lot more achievable. That That's the point I'm trying to make here. Um okay, and then I have a another strategy question. Um If you go back a couple of slides previous, actually, you know, you

062talked about this later on as well about, you know, I'm talking specifically about college credit college credit plus. Um and and you touched on this towards the end of your presentation about um teacher preparation in order to be able to teach college credit plus classes. So, again, um the the state changed the law on that as well this year. They actually made it more accessible for school districts to be offering CCP classes. Um It's um the the requirement is Yes, of course, if a if a teacher has a master's degree in the field, then they can, of course, teach um college credit plus classes. But the the require the the law actually that changed in 2025 uh made it more accessible. What they What a teacher should have is um is is a master's degree

063in some field, nine credit hours of coursework at the graduate level in the field that they are teaching a college credit plus class, and a plan to to earn nine more credit hours of graduate coursework in the same field. So, if a teacher needs to teach a math class, they're teaching, you know, they have they have to have nine credits of math graduate coursework plus a plan to get nine more hours. That I I know that the district has been working on plans. Can you say a little bit about what how you are strategically thinking about ensuring that every high school has a reasonable number of teachers who are provided opportunities for such preparation and and how you will make me because you the the the the the the strategy that you're talking about saying

064that every school will have CCP classes in the school is only possible if you have teachers who are appropriately credentialed and prepared. So can you speak a little bit to that strategy, please? Yeah, we have had well we continue to have partnerships. I know we have a partnership with Cleveland State currently where teachers can either get become licensed just in general. But these are some of the things we want to continue to explore with some of our university partners to figure out ways that we can get teachers to get more of the training. There was a question that was coming up this year around math and teachers getting trained in math maybe getting certified in math. Those are some question some some strategies that we've been getting have started to have conversations with in terms

065of Cleveland State University. And Maria, do you have anything else to add to that? Good evening. It's not on. I should say Ms. Carlson. There we go. Maria's fine. So we have been working on this. We actually have an MOU now with the Cleveland Teachers Union about how we are able to identify teachers and get them into a partnership that we have with CSU. So the partnership that we have with Cleveland State is starting with English and social studies teachers. So we recruited teachers through sending information out through principals and surveying teachers for interest. We gave them all of the information. They're actually the summer session is starting in May. Um we do have teachers enrolled. I do not know how many teachers for ELA and social studies yet. I'm working with CSU because there's

066some data sharing um that we have to process through. But we do have teachers enrolled. Um they're starting their classes. We knew about the 9 credit hours. And so the the the deal is that they will start those classes now and then in the fall they will start teaching their CCP courses. And those teachers know that they need to continue the course work for themselves in the fall and the spring to complete their 9 hours. Thank you. Miss Jones. Thank you, Chair Alcott. The question I have um Dr. Morgan, since you were mentioning that we're going to be reducing the number of honors classes, is that primarily because with AP and other classes there's more standards um that we can utilize or are we looking to eliminate honors altogether? Um I believe for those subject

067areas in science, social studies, and the arts, there will be no honors for those uh areas. They will all be pre-AP. Is that correct, Dr. Florence? So next year we offered our schools the opportunity to make the tran- to start the transition. Um so we are we are still learning pre-AP pre-AP our team is as well. And so some schools have selected to go ahead and start that transition next year and switch from honors to pre-AP. And so for those specific classes, science, social studies, and fine arts, next year they'll be pre-AP for those schools who selected. Eventually we're going to get to all schools making that transition and also with ELA and math as well. Thank you, Dr. Florence, for your response. And it's not all science and social studies. Pre-AP has very specific

068courses. So it's biology, chemistry, world history, and geography. If a school wants to offer an honors course in a different course in science and social studies, then they can do that. Then I'll miss Jones. Thank you. Mr. Billups. Thank you, Chair Ellicott. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. I just got a couple quick questions. So, the first question kind of for me goes to the the number of students not taking the AP exam. And I'm still not fully fully understanding. But I guess my question would be um can we um can we reach our goals with with this particular goal if students are not taking that test and and what what would be the strategies to help teach to help fully understand that students really need to take this test. So, first I believe you're talking about

069this data point. Is that correct, Mr. Billups? The one that under not working and the yep. So, these are for students who are enrolled in advanced placement. There is the almost like a a unit exam that comes along with the AP classroom that's aligned to the standards. That if we're utilizing it and this year was optional. So, there were some classrooms that were using it and taking it. And so, we we have identified this area we do want to to focus in on because if it's already aligned to the standards, it we don't have any other benchmark for advanced placement like we do for NWEA for the other high schools or I-ready at the K8 level. This can be a pathway to see which students are ready or or not. And I believe that that

070that C score is becomes like a cut for us to say like if students are getting a C, they are on track to at least earn a three on the advanced placement exam. So, of the students that are taking the advanced placement, we do want them to take this exam, and we do want to help them to get a C or higher. And so, it is a strategy, and I think you've hit the nail on the head that if we're not tracking this or this is not something we're able to monitor and measure, we won't know that all the efforts of the work that we're doing or even for the classroom teacher. And our classroom teachers are working really hard, and sometimes you're you're working really hard in the classroom and doing the work and

071you're like, "Oh, do my students get it?" This becomes a benchmark in a way to actually find out if students are on track or not. So, it is a strategy and one we want to grow, but it's not all the students. These are all the students enrolled in advanced placement courses. Thank Thank you, Dr. Morgan. And then I got one other question. Not really so much a question, but Dr. Morgan, can you kind of speak to you know just Can Can you kind of just share how a rigorous education experience for our students will lend them the opportunity to graduate from our school district prepared to go and do whatever it is that they want to do, whether it it may be a skilled trade, it may be the military, it may be college, but

072having that rigorous education, you know, within CMSD would would afford them whatever it is that they want to do. Yeah. No, great great question. And I'll I'll speak anecdotally even just not only from my own experience, but just what I know I hear from our scholars. I know several of you up here also work with our scholars in preparing them for college. Many of our kids, they may get into college, but they're they're not ready. And they will tell us. They will tell us, "I wasn't I was not ready. I was not prepared." You know, we celebrated our valedictorians and salutatorians tonight. I'm so excited. Even just seeing the slides and seeing the disparities between either GPAs or scholar uh scholarships. That's pointing to the system we have of inequities even within our own system.

073Uh and thinking about how students are ready. I know even from my own experience and I um uh in eighth grade I was a valedictorian. We had We had 500 kids in my eighth grade class. It wasn't a small class. We had 500 kids in my eighth grade class, but I was valedictorian in my eighth grade class. I graduated five uh and from my high school class. Um you know, doing well from what I thought and got to college and realized I did not understand how to study. Um there were just different ways that my my um my colleagues were prepared. And so, that's even just thinking about college, but when we're thinking about career readiness, um if people say just focus on getting kids jobs, the majority of our students graduate and don't go

074to college uh and they still are not working in jobs or jobs that are setting them up to be successful or setting them up to be productive citizens. The work we're doing to prepare them to not only access uh post-secondary opportunities, but also to navigate life, once again, I say this all the time, it's a matter of life or death for our kids or other opportunities that they're going to have out there. And so, this work is really serious and it's the the work we must do. Now, I know uh not everything is measured by a test. You know, um and there there issues with tests. We could talk about test bias and does it does it really do all the test uh reflect the intellect and beauty of our our of our beautiful black

075and brown kids? Um no. Or the experience of our students living in poverty? No. Um but it is a measure. And if we are not holding ourselves to that, uh we are letting down the very scholars that we're here to serve. And so, it it is really important. Uh and I'm grateful that this board um even with a lot of discussion that we're have you guys were having on um whether college readiness will be the focus, I'm glad that we do have uh this to look into. Thank you, Cheryl. All right. Uh thank you, Mr. Billups. You know, I have a comment on that front as well. Um something I was struck by when I first joined the board was the district's AP passage rate and um how inadequate, in my view, it was. So,

076I'm glad to see this work and um as you brought up, it's not just about, you know, a test measure. It's about students having the opportunity to build a skill in testing as well, right? And in a certain kind of testing and the study skills that go along with testing and being able to do well on an area that, you know, you're intelligent, but you need to be able to demonstrate it. And um when our students go off to college and they haven't had the opportunity to build those skills, it impacts their intellectual confidence, right? So, when they're competing with kids who are able to demonstrate that readiness, it, you know, on an emotional level, on an intellectual level, it harms them, right? Where they feel um that they may not belong if they're in

077college or in the area that they've gone on to, right? And so, um it's incredibly important that we offer our students that opportunity and that we do it in a meaningful way where uh they can demonstrate success. So, thank you for that. I did have a couple of questions um on specifically, you can stay on that slide. And maybe I missed it, but the piece on 28% of observed teachers implementing evidence-based writing, I think that's incredibly important for college success specifically. Um I know that to be true. What exactly are we doing to address that one? So, writing overall is an area of growth for us um from K through 12. And so, our ELA team has specifically added as a part of their goals for next year a specific focus on evidence-based writing. And

078so we will be providing PD for teachers and for leaders around the specific area and then using our walk-through tool to go in and monitor and see what is happening and provide coaching and support for teachers. So it is an area of focus for us. We see it on our OST scores as well. We see it K through 12th grade that we are not writing enough and we're not doing enough evidence-based writing and also not giving kids enough feedback on their writing. And so that is a big focus for us as we as we move into next year. Our ELA goals are specifically focused around writing and improving writing in classrooms and wanting to see more kids just actually writing evidence-based responses. Okay, thank you. I'm glad to hear that. And then Dr. Morgan, you

079talked a little bit about We talked a lot about AP but a little bit about IB and I did want to take this opportunity to ask you to share an update cuz we've been hearing a lot lately from students, right, that they are quite concerned about their IB offerings and you know, what the IB program is going to look like. Can you share a status update with the board on planning for the IB transition from campus over to John Hayne, what that's going to look like? Yeah, most definitely and then if there's anything that our our team wants to add on it. So of course we're in the process now, of course with merging our schools to figure out the the scheduling. And on our John Hayne campus that will be the only campus to

080offer IB now. Of course we would love it as we continue to move on to see maybe that's a program that it can be offered across the board. But I know that through the scheduling and also through staffing that that's been intentional work to ensure that we can offer those offerings for not only for the students who are currently getting that IB program but also identifying students who could take IB that are on the John Hayne campus. And Mr. Dean, if there's more that you want to add in terms of the work you've been doing with the with that campus in particular to support. Yep, absolutely. So we've been working with the John Hayne campus to make sure that the teachers who have shown a a of interest in teaching those IB classes have the

081appropriate trainings, and which has started last week, and that they have the trainings that have that will happen over the summer. So, we are doing a lot of work to make sure that we have the DP program and the MYP program available for next school year. I I will also name there are teachers that were currently on the John Hay campus that even when we were doing building brighter futures, they said that they would be eligible to teach I IB and we're we're we're really excited about it. I know Rev who is at Cleveland School of Science and Medicine is one of those teachers. Then I believe I don't know they're offering the IB Latin. He's already started training. I know he was really excited about it. And I met another teacher that was So,

082I know that as there has been shifts now that we're doing the necessary transfer process. I do think that's a campus where some of the students have mentioned about their teachers not particularly going over there not because they've actually lost their jobs. They will still be in the system, but they're not through the necessary transfer process not going over there specifically. We have been intentional to figure out where the identifying teachers over at John Hay and even the teachers that are coming over from Campus International to keep the continuity of the program growing. This will be a bridge year because this is a year where students who are coming over particularly those that are juniors who be seniors will probably have more options to finish out their program than a student who have never taken

083any of the IB courses. So, they those the availability will be there, but as we grow over time, we will see our full pathways of students being able to choose IB and grow from that 9 to 12 on the entire campus as well as some of the other areas the the science and health and medicine um the programs that are coming over from architecture and design as well as the early college model. Doug, I just wanted to add to that we we recently had a parent night with students that are transitioning to John Hay just to let them know what our plan is for teacher training and to assure them that we will have the program fully up and functional going into next school year. All right, thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Ms.

084Lebron. You know, um thank you, Chair. Uh to Mr. Billups and and Chair Elakkad's points about, you know, the confidence around testing, I also want to echo what um Dr. Morgan shared at the last uh state of the schools addresses that um during this time of transition for us, it's really important that community partners step up and and help. And I think about all of the ACCESS organizations, we're very lucky to be in Northeast Ohio where we have so many ACCESS organizations, but really, you know, connecting our students to a lot of these um organizations like Esperanza College Now and things like that that can help them build these skill sets even outside of the classroom or to supplement the learning inside the classroom. So, I just want to echo that. All right. Thank you,

085Dr. Morgan. Under old business, we do have two resolutions that the board voted to table at our April 28th board business meeting. The chair will now entertain a motion to take from the table resolution 12.01 adopting agreements with nonprofit community schools established under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3314, whereby the Cleveland Municipal School District and community schools endorse each others programs. So moved. Second. Thank you. Um Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the roll on this motion to take resolution 12.01 off of the table allowing the board to resume its discussion of the resolution. Ms. Elakkad? Yes. Mr. Billups? >> Yes. Mr. Briggs? >> Yes. Ms. Jones? >> Yes. Ms. Lebron? Yes. Ms. Peek? Yes. Dr. Sridhar? Yes. Ms. Wulchau? Yes. Motion passes with eight votes. Thank you. Um Dr. Morgan, is there anything you wanted

086to to add in the introduction of those that resolution before we move on to any discussion? Yeah, I was grateful for the discussion that was taking place. I know that there was there were questions that were asked last meeting we did were able to provide that to all of the board members in writing and really appreciative of the discussion. I think it's really important when we think about our partners to ensure that there is the accountability and also in a time when we are there's there's so much transition within the district um uh that we we take into account that time. So, I know that there were questions and things that the board was considering and full you know full support of the questions and the thoughts. I don't know if there's anything else that

087Mr. Reed would add or if there there questions that come up but I don't believe so but I'm happy to answer if there's any questions that were not addressed either in the meeting or in the follow-up that we sent. Okay. Um I did want to make you know a follow-up comment to clarify for folks and I think we discussed it a little bit but not much at the last meeting just around the community schools or the partnering community schools and how our levy dollars are shared with them to a smaller proportion than we receive right but that that was a part of the Cleveland plan legislation back in 2012 where we created that opportunity or rather the Cleveland plan legislation created the opportunity for community schools to participate in some of the levy dollars with

088the intention of having the district or rather the city having different kinds of options but also the district having a role in some of the oversight and partnership with some of those schools as well. Um Mr. Billups I see that you have your light on. Thank Thank you Chairwoman LaMarca. I I do just have a few um hopefully quick questions. Um my first question um and I I don't mean to be unfair in asking this question, but is there any data or knowledge based on the number of students that transition between um the charters these schools in the resolution and the traditional CMSD schools? Do you Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes. Um, I so that there's data that's reported for um all of the district and charter schools in terms of mobility that

089is showing you like kids moving coming and going. I don't have in front of me the specific information on those partners. Um there was part of the partnership review process though along lines of what you're saying where we actually did Again, it doesn't account just for CMSD students because some schools do enroll students from around the county um and around the state. Um, but there were questions in there around their school level mobility and then also subgroups. So that was something we did review. Um, but in terms of just like back and forth between the district buildings and these, I don't have that easily accessible right now. Understood. And I I asked that and um in in part to understand some of the other questions that I have around um on article four number four

090um when it comes to I mean I'm sorry. Uh what is it? Um I lost my spot. >> Mr. Phillips, which document are you looking at? Uh it is on the exhibit A. Um it's it's on the exhibits for the um in 12.01. Okay. Yeah. Do you know which Okay. Yeah. Article four. Article four of which exhibit A, B, C, D? Um I'm sorry. Yeah, right here. Yep, there we are. Um And it kind of my point goes to Um number four, the reporting the students' expulsions and suspensions. My concern is how do we keep the accountability um with these particular schools as far as um how are they um going the extra steps or what what type of rigor they are taking to educate students who um who might have some challenges and and

091how do we hold them accountable um still to the same standards to to educate every student. So, I think at this point in time what we've done is what what was in the application but prior to 2018 and then in 2018 when the criteria were updated. So, there really isn't beyond the fact that the report card includes subgroup performance, which includes students with uh disabilities. That's the primary subgroup that you're going to see in schools uh in Cleveland. Um beyond that like gap-closing metric and then how that rolls up, there really isn't anything special on the accountability side that we have. And again, that's based on what we have currently in place for the board criteria. So, if there were um if there was an interest in in tweaking that in the future, then it

092would you know, the board would have to review the criteria and make a change on that. Um there there are pieces around this in terms of those subgroups um and making sure that they're being served and making sure they're not being pushed out around what you're saying, but there isn't beyond the report card anything that says how well do you do with different subgroups. Thank you. And and my my concern is partly that um these spaces are inclusive for young people who live throughout Cleveland um to make sure that you know, we're educating every every kid that lives in the city of Cleveland appropriately. So my my other question is on section four just down a little bit from where we are. I think it's on page three towards the bottom. But it's around demographic

093information. And I'm just trying to ensure that that information would be made available to ensure that every student widely across the city are being afforded the opportunity particularly our English language learning students, but any student across the board. So would that demographic information be made available? Abs- I mean absolutely. I can share you so what we look at for the schools when they do their applications is publicly available data from the state report card. And then we put it all together by region of the city and then ask them to answer certain questions in the application which are in the agreement in terms of how they're serving those different groups of students. But yes, I can definitely share with you what we what we looked at for that. Basically each school gets a report that

094says here's your region, here's your population for the different groups that you have at your school, here's how that compares to the other schools in your area and then you have to and how and then you have to respond to to that information with certain questions that are referenced in the agreement. Thank you. Mr. Edo I I appreciate that question because I think I've asked about it almost every time we've reviewed a charter agreement around the discipline data and the impacted you know, special groups or racial groups. So are we are we not getting that data from our charter partners? So we have not collected it like every single year from the sponsored for the partner schools. It's really a question of we can collect it if we want. So, there's sometimes like when we

095have reviewed them or when there's been an extra amount of interest in it where we have collected it, but it's not been something that we review every year. I will say that whenever we have reviewed it, we have not had concerns around subgroups. And I guess I would say part of it frankly, the reason is that most of the schools are not racially diverse, for example, right? Um they they are not economically diverse. So, you're typically looking at special education population um and what those suspension rates are, and that is part of this recent review we did as well. Um making sure that you're not um pushing out kids that you don't want to be there. And do we compare that data against our data, our discipline data? Um >> Given that our stats aren't

096the same. >> It's not something that is like part of the formal process or something we've done explicitly, um but we could do it. And you know, we have folks now that for the past few years at the district have done a lot of work around suspension and around subgroups, and that is a priority. When you're looking at the district level, you do get a different picture um than when you were if you were just to look at one building, um which is what we would do with uh um partner charters, where there really isn't much to look at most of the time in terms of the different groups. Yeah, I mean, I think that at you know, everybody in this room and many others know that we've made sweeping changes at the district level

097over especially the last year. And um it's important that the board take a similar eye to our other efforts and our other partnerships. Um and so, I appreciate all the questions from the board on that front. Um I have another question cuz we thought about healthy enrollment numbers for our schools as we thought about merging schools so that we could ensure that we had an an enrollment number in each of our schools or almost all of our schools now where students would have the opportunities that we want them to have. Have we ever looked at how the enrollment numbers for charters? Not not uh directly. Um so, what we have looked at for the schools that we sponsor or authorize, we have a much closer eye on those. Um and we have the ability to

098take actions if they're not at a not where they need to be, but it really is around short- and longer-term financial viability, which is really directly tied to enrollment. So, um for the sponsored schools, we could require certain things. Um we could not renew a school if we weren't comfortable that it was going to be financially viable. The last thing you ever want to happen is to have a school not make it through the school year. Um fortunately, that doesn't really happen much. It's never happened with any of our schools. Um but, on um the partners, it's really not part of it. We do collect and review the budgets. And so, I think there would be a question, you know, if we were to receive an application, prospective application, where we were concerned about the

099financial viability of that school, about whether it really made sense to invest uh resources in that school if we didn't think it was going to be around. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um you know, Dr. Morgan made an a an interesting and astute comment today at the City Club Forum, which I keep referencing, but it is publicly available on their website, uh where, you know, at the the number of school-age kids that we actually have >> [clears throat] >> here in Cleveland versus the number of schools. So, I think it's important to look at. Any other discussion? Mr. Oh, I'm sorry, Ms. Lebron. I keep missing you cuz you're right next to me. It's okay. Um thank you, Chair. I have a question around what is the timeline for us to um approve the

100new partnerships? Is Is there a deadline? When it comes to finances, we do when it like this, we really stick things around the fiscal year, right? So, um I think we could, you know, ideally this would be decided by the end of June. If we If the board wasn't comfortable with that, I would have to look into whether it'd be appropriate to do it after that. There usually is, I believe it's in August, there's a resolution where the board is saying, you know, here's the list of schools that we have partnered with and and we're approving getting them getting distributions. But, it's sort of a formality that aligns with the partnership agreement. So, if you were to do it past June, I would have to look into that. And make sure that would be feasible.

101And the new school, the new partnerships, are they in neighborhoods that currently don't have an existing Um, so, none of them So, I think the one on the west There really aren't many of the partners on the west side. One of these, the Constellation Priortus one is, but then the other one, Broadway, is more Slavic Village and that one is not that far from from some other partners. Thank you, Mr. Rado. Mr. Billups. Thank you, Chair Alcott. Um, I I would like to raise a motion at this time, if I may, to remove the two new schools from this resolution at this time. Okay, so you're asking for you're making a motion to amend resolution 12.01 to remove uh Constellation Priortus Community Elementary and Broadway Academy, which are the new proposed partners, while keeping the

102renewed partners for the time being. That's correct. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Bertslav, are we doing everything right? Okay. Thank you. So far, that's good. All right. Can we go go and vote on So, we have to vote on amending it and then we vote on the amended. Yes, if you adopt the amendment, the next step would be to approve the resolution as amended. As amended. Okay. Uh which is us approving the Like we're we're saying yes or no to the school partner the partners we already have, right? So, first you're saying yes or no to Mr. Billups' proposal to or his motion to amend the resolution and then next we will vote on the content of the amended resolution which is only with the the renewed partnership. And yeah. Right. Okay. Mr.

103Stockdale, will you take roll call roll on amending the resolution as Mr. Billups has laid out. Did we have a second? Yeah, second. Thank you. Okay. Ms. Al-Qudwa Yes. Mr. Billups Yes. Mr. Briggs Yes. Ms. Jones Yes. Ms. Lebron Yes. Ms. Peak Yes. Dr. Shridhar Yes. Ms. Welchau Yes. Motion passes with eight votes. Thank you. Um and then is there a motion? Mr. Birthleft, we still need a motion. You now need You now need a motion If If I may, just a um to capture the amendment, um we would be removing from the resolution the the eighth and ninth whereas clauses reference to schools the two new schools, constellation school, community elementary and Broadway Academy. And we would be in the first resolved clause we would change the reference to from exhibits A through B

104to exhibit C. C through C. And that would be an accomplishment. One. And now that's the the the next item of business if this board would be to entertain a motion to approve the resolution as amended. Great. Thank you. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve the resolution as amended. So moved. Second. Thank you. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the roll? Ms. Alcock? Yes. Mr. Billups? Yes. Mr. Briggs? Yes. Ms. Jones? >> Yes. Mrs. Lebron? >> Yes. Mrs. Peak? Yes. Dr. Sridhar? Yes. Mrs. Walchao? Yes. Motion passed with eight votes. Thank you. Resolution 12.01 as amended passes and Mr. Rado, thank you for the information on the timeline. We will return to the matter of the proposed new partners in the future. The chair will now entertain a motion to take from

105the table resolution 12.02 amending and restating the sponsorship contracts of three community schools sponsored by the Cleveland Municipal School District. So moved. Second. All right. And we of course discussed this resolution at our last board's business meeting as well. Is there additional discussion on 12.02? Seeing no further discussion, Miss Mr. Stockdale, would you please call the roll to take this motion from the table. Ms. Alcock? Yes. Mr. Billups? Yes. Mr. Briggs? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Mrs. Lebron? Yes. Mrs. Peak? Yes. Dr. Sridhar? Yes. Mrs. Walchao? Yes. Motion passed with eight votes. Thank you. The chair will now entertain a motion to adopt resolution 12.02. So moved. Second. Thank you. Mr. Stockdale, will you please call the roll? Ms. Alcock? Yes. Mr. Billups? Yes. Mr. Briggs? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Mrs. LeBron? Yes. Mrs. Peak? Yes.

106Dr. Sridhar? Yes. Mrs. Welchau? Yes. Motion passes with eight votes. Thank you. The resolution is adopted. Is there any new business? All right. Um on behalf of the board, I'd like to wish Ms. Peak and Mr. Briggs happy birthdays. I know we we mentioned [applause] Ms. Peak last time as well. He had a double birthday wish. The next regular board meeting will be a board business meeting on Tuesday, May 19th. Note that that's a week earlier than our typical monthly schedule due to Memorial Day on May 25th. And this is at 6:30 p.m. May 19th at Garrett Morgan High School. The chair will now entertain a motion that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of considering the appointment and employment of public employees and officials, preparing for negotiations of public employees concerning

107the terms and conditions of concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment, and conferring with attorneys concerning disputes involving the Board of Education that are the subject of pending or imminent court action. So moved. Second. Thank you. Mr. Stockdale, please call the roll. Ms. Alacourt? Yes. Mr. Phillips? Yes. Mr. Briggs? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Mrs. LeBron? Yes. Mrs. uh Peak? Yes. Dr. Sridhar? Yes. Mrs. Welchau? Yes. Motion passes with eight votes. Thank you. The board will now move into executive session. Following executive session, the board will return to this room without conducting any further business. >> Mhm. >> When I say food is, you say medicine. FOOD IS? MEDICINE. [cheering] >> [screaming] >> GIVE IT UP. YAY! SO, WHAT WE HAVE GOING ON HERE TODAY IS a meet the farmer event. Um,

108so we have this year partnered with four Cleveland growers um that grow the vegetables that are on the salad bars that are in our and some of our schools and the students can meet the farmer. Today we have farmer Sarah and farmer Jamel and they get to meet the farmer that grows their food. They can ask them questions. We have trading cards um and the students get to try the produce items that they that the farmers grow and it just encourages them to try something new, to eat fresh vegetables and um they can meet the farmer and then they get to vote on if they like the produce item or not and they get on stickers and we have um what if they write on the board of what they like about the product. This

109is one of the youngest demographics that we can have an influence on and when you're talking about school lunches, this is food that they're going to be eating daily uh for more for the majority of the year, right? And so to be able to introduce local foods on a daily basis the students within the Cleveland area is just evolutionary. We're talking about the benefits of fresh foods and also the difference between local fresh foods and those you might get say at a grocery store that might have been shipped from all over the country or world to get to your plate. Often picked months and months earlier and don't have the same level of nutrition or flavor. So, giving them that experience of eating something that was grown locally and why that's so important and why

110it's so important to grow your own food. It was kind of sour. It was sour and that's It's first time ever trying that, but it had a pretty color. One of our students, they did something special for someone in the community. And so, we get all these people here to celebrate and to recognize what Allison did for someone in her community. That morning [music] while boarding the school bus, you noticed the small child wandering alone on the street wearing only [music] a t-shirt. Recognizing the danger the child was in, you immediately alerted the bus driver and took action to help. I want to give you a first [applause] district commander's coin. Uh it's got a a one on the front for uh the [music] first district and the seal of the Cleveland Division of Police

111on the back. And I saw the girl walk out and the bus driver was about to hit her. And so, what did you say to the bus driver? I was like, "Stop." And then he tell me, "Who is that?" I was like, "Your niece?" I was like, "No, that's not my niece." And then so, then I went off the bus to go grab her. It shows a a great deal of awareness and maturity for her age. Most kids, like [music] you say, they're on the bus, they're talking, they're on their phone, you know, and the fact that she noticed, she paid attention, you know, to what was going on at that particular [music] time, it's just, you know, amazing. I I think it's very important because, [music] you know, we're a community. We work together.

112We help each other. And that's how we get [music] things done in >> She's already doing that. Children can teach us a lot and I think she did. Be aware. Look around. Help people when you see them in need. I don't really care about the gifts because it was just the point to save somebody, anybody that need help. Hi, I'm Dariel Snipes with CMSD Communications. Today, I am so excited. I am hanging out with two of the Senate League girls flag football teams, John Hay and Rhodes. This sport is gaining popularity. Right now, CMSD has seven teams. I'm so excited to learn more about flag football. Let's go. Joining me now is head coach of the John Hay ladies flag football team, coach Venetta Cryder. Welcome. >> Thank you. So, I know this is an

113exciting sport. It's a growing sport. I It just got sanctioned by the Ohio High School Athletic Association. That's exciting news. So, now your girls can go for state championships. But, you know, some of us were brand new to flag football. Tell me, what is the difference between flag football and just basic football? The difference for flag football and basic football for our girls is that we actually get to compete this year. Um outside of only using flags and not being able to contact each other, and we have to wear mouthpieces. Okay, but just just talk about the growing popularity of this girls sport. And how exciting is it, especially here in CMSD and the Senate League? Yes, right now it means that girls flag football is now recognized by OSHA. So, now we get more

114opportunities to get school fundings. Um So, luckily we're a Division 1 school, so we had about 40 girls that come and try out. So, this year we're expecting even more. I mean, what do you think about that? That more girls want to play football. I'm excited. I'm excited to teach them and for them to want to be competitive and lead and be outside of their comfort zone. What The fact that it's, you know, when people think about football, they think about it as a male-dominated sport. The fact that flag football, especially girls flag football, is taking off, it gives young ladies an opportunity to play a what once was known as a male-dominated sport. Can you just talk about that opportunity for them? Yes, and it gives the girls a platform to compete and lead.

115And we're breaking stereotypes and proving that football isn't just for boys. Anybody can play as long as you got the passion and the skill for it. And joining me now are two players from the girls flag football team at Rhodes. Welcome. Tell me your names and what grade you're in. I'm Malia. I go to Rhodes Academy of Studies, and I'm in 10th grade. My name is Naya. I go to RCCA, and I'm in 10th grade. >> Wonderful. So, just tell me cuz I just I don't know. I'm learning. What is the difference between flag football and football? Well, flag football and um regular football, we already know it's like it's not as much contact, but there's a lot you can't do. Like the quarterback can't run. The ball is smaller. Less people on the field,

116so it gives It's like it's um it's quick. It's quick. It's not like football. Football, you have more time. Flag is quick. And you have like less time. Okay. And then you also have the flags. How hard or easy is it to get another opponent's flag? It depends on how fast the person is moving. Yeah. That's it. >> And what moves they're pulling out. But usually, if you're up like if you're catching up to the person, it's very easy. They're not hard to pull or nothing, so. So, tell me, why did you guys want to join the team? Well, I wanted to join the team because ever since I was like very young, I always played regular football with my brothers. And when I got older, I realized like it was something I always wanted

117to do. In like 2023, I played flag football with boys, but then I got scouted for a girls team, and we went all the way to Nationals in Las Vegas and won a championship ring there. And then, when I came here, there was no flag football team. So, I asked if I could play tackle. But my mom wouldn't let me, and then I found out later on we had a flag football team, and I was like, "Oh, this is my sport, so I'm definitely going to play." Also feel like a sport that was really made for boys that girls never really got the opportunity to play. When I saw it at Rhodes, I feel like a sport that was always class- always classified as like a boy sport, being like girls being able to play,

118I feel like that was really cool. So, I really wanted to take that opportunity to play. And I also coach I knew she really inspired me to play. She was the assistant basketball coach and it really gave me something to do and now it's something I really would do the rest of my years in high school and see where it take me. Right. So, this is the second season for the team. Um just talk about how fun it is and just the team camaraderie that you ladies have. >> It was very fun like in the first year it was some rough patches, but we always got through it. Our coach she's a very great coach cuz she is like more informational about flag football than basketball. So, when she um is out here she put

119her heart on the um field just like we do. Yeah. Coach Anissa really great. She keep us all lifted up like something could go wrong and she was always bringing the joy. It was like our first year was really fun. We went real far and just seeing where it took us it made me excited for the next season to come like what we going to bring to the table. And flag like I didn't expect it to be like I thought it was just going to be something to do. But when we actually started playing I'm like this fun like it's really fun. Now, another difference is that flag football is played in the spring and not in the fall like regular football. Um well, can you just talk about the fact that now it is

120a sanctioned sport and so now you guys can go for a state championship. Just talk about you guys could be the state champs. >> That's very exciting to me cuz like I said I always love football in general. So, for me to have this opportunity to probably ever get scholarships to play in college is just like something I want to achieve. I think that's really good. Like it gives opens up more opportunities for the girls and gives girls something to do because we always as a girl we always like doubted or we don't always get as much opportunities. So, it just opens the door for girls sports. Now, looks it's still even though you guys don't have pads and a helmet it's it's still can be tough. I mean it's still um I mean it's

121still a contact sport. Would you not say? >> you definitely going to fall. Definitely going to actually get bumps. But it's fun. Yes, is really exciting. All right. Well, thank you, ladies. The Board of Education's job is to make sure that the right adult behaviors are in place so that [music] students can learn and grow in school every day. I hope to motivate the [music] scholars in in some form of in capacity really to make sure that they're inspired by the work that we do for them. You know, this is a job of service, fully volunteer role, but the people that are serving on the board, myself included, are doing it out of passion and pure hope of the scholars' futures. And so, I hope that they start to believe in themselves the same way

122that we believe in them. Having been an educator all my life, >> [music] >> I thought I would have a significant role to play in shaping what our young people and young scholars and our future leaders are [music] going to be doing with their education. I believe in paying it forward and I still believe I am paying it forward for myself. I'm a veteran volunteer and so I saw this as an opportunity to give back to the Cleveland community and try to make a difference. I enjoy being engaged with [music] people in my neighborhood, hearing from them, learning what they think about different things, hearing suggestions, hearing thoughts, even the complaints. I enjoy [music] engaging with the students and I think that's my role with the on being on a board member is engaging [music]

123with the community in every way possible. I'm out there every day talking to people, sitting on every community >> [laughter] >> work group that you can think of. What I want to accomplish is that we level up with the opportunities for our children to receive the best education possible, and I want you to be able to discover all the goodness in you because we all have something >> [music] >> that is unique about us. So, we want to give you the opportunity to explore that and [music] make good decisions once you leave the school system. I believe that this district can be a premier district, um and I'd love to be remembered for pushing a standard of excellence. I wanted to give back to the school system that I participated in from kindergarten [music] to

124graduating senior. I'm hoping to make a difference, have a positive impact, and see the test scores and graduation [music] rates increase. I also hope to inspire other CMSD alum to give back to CMSD [music] with their time and support. I'm grateful to interact with so many wonderful people, [music] brilliant individuals who um have the capabilities and skill sets to uh really make our city [music] even greater, and I'm just honored to be a part of uh the plan of the CMSD and the the service of of this community. As a kid myself, I moved around a lot and I went to a lot of different schools, [music] and what I saw first hand is that all children are born equal [music] with the same rights to education, but not all schools are created equal, >>

125[music] >> and some schools have more resources than others, some schools have more of the right practices [music] than others, and I wanted to be a part of making sure that our school system with the right system for our children so they could have the education that they deserve. We all have different skill sets, different experiences, [music] different backgrounds that we all bring to the table when it's time for us to have these discussions. We bring different perspectives [music] and different life experiences. And so, being able to sit at the table with [music] other leaders in our community and people who actually are invested in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District system, um it it it means that we're providing [music] different perspectives. We're looking at it from different lenses and different angles, which is also

126representative of our of our community, right? You know, our students achieving everything that they possibly can, um achieving [music] and and striving towards our goals and guardrails that our board laid out. I think that, you know, producing [music] students that can enter the world in whatever way they choose to and be successful is is really, um the only thing [music] to accomplish from my perspective. Most importantly is increasing student outcomes. So, we have our challenges, but [music] um my board colleagues and I and Dr. Morgan and his incredible staff are heavily focused on that and we're going to do everything in our power to make it happen. My favorite quote is uh "Man in the Arena" actually. It's [music] uh uh by former President Teddy Roosevelt and it's really about not paying attention to the

127critics. It's not the critic who counts. [music] It's not the person on the sidelines. It's the person who's getting dusty in the arena every single day and getting back up >> [music] >> again and again and again even after failure and even if you fail at something, at least you failed by daring greatly. But, the only way to be great is to try. [music] Go >> [cheering] >> Cougars, go! Go Cougars, go! Today, it is the last scrimmage >> [snorts] >> to find out who goes to state. It has been a really great journey. It's different learn about them and like robotics and things. My favorite part about building the robot is all the teamwork it takes. The teamwork, I feel like it brings our team together and I I really like that part. The

128robot has to launch artifacts, which is similar to a ball. So, they're launching it into a pyramid type situation and get those points. And then you have to line your robot in a certain order to get points. It's a lot of challenges in depth [music] in getting points. Our robot It took us a lot of time to really build it. It took a lot of patience. We came across many problems and challenges like our chain kept breaking so we had to find a lot of solutions to that problem. And it was a lot of gracious professionalism used. This is [music] their thing and they really take it seriously and they come out and they try and you just like this morning one of my girls did something in one of the >> [music] >> presentations

129and I started to tear up cuz I was just so proud of them because I've never seen this child do this and she just blossomed right in front of me. Hey CMSD [music] family, I'm Tiffany and we're back with our final episode of On Guard CMSD Safety and Security. Today I'm joined with a few scholars from our Gear Morgan campus and they are here to tell us about how our safety officers create a better learning environment and how the feeling of safety helps scholars to learn better. So in your opinion, how does officers help to create a better learning environment? >> I feel like they make a better learning environment because kids don't have to worry about things outside of school because security already has it like put together and makes sure the kids are

130safe from the campus. Um just to piggyback off what he said a little bit, I agree like you don't have to focus you can focus on learning and learning only. You don't have to focus on anything outside of that. Yeah, the security officers do like help us get to class on time, make sure we aren't getting sidetracked. So they help us like push us to our classes to make sure we're on on track. And why do you think having safety officers is important for the school community? So you kind of talked about a little bit about what they do, but what is the feeling that they give you? Um it's like comfortability like was I feel like it's really important when you're trying like in a learning institute. I feel more like I can get

131like my education [music] without worrying about anything. Yeah, like it it provides a like almost like a safety net of knowing that they're there with us to help us if we are having any issues that occur So, can you let me know what do you appreciate most about our safety officers? I appreciate that you can like they're safety off- officers, but you can also have a conversation with them. Like they're they're here to protect us, but they are also like they have a character. Like they are people, so they like know how to talk to us cuz they were once us at a certain point in time. Yeah, I like to piggyback off of that. Like I appreciate how you can sometimes have a conversation with them if you're ever in need, if you ever

132need to just like talk about a situation you're having at home or issue you're having at school, you could just talk to them and they'll give a reply and try to help you. Yeah, they're really they're really like good. They're they're really like calm and chill. They like to um talk to the students and then try to like encourage them. Yeah, it's cool. A big thank you to our safety and security team and our scholars over here at Gear Morgan High School. Now, let's head over to John F. Kennedy. Now, we're here at John F. Kennedy High School with a few of our scholars here to tell us why safety and security matters for their learning environment. So, first in your opinion, how do safety officers help to create a better learning environment? They make

133the students feel more safe. >> Yeah. Yeah, and they like Yeah, they help they make us feel safe. Help the teachers sometimes, too. And the principals. You feel more comfortable. You ain't got to worry about people coming here doing stuff ain't supposed to be doing, you know? So, to feed off that, what do you appreciate most about your safety officers here? They help a lot. I feel like they all like they make sure we good. They help the principal at my team with the with the kids, and yeah. Yeah, we got a we got a good bond with them, too. And they take they some of them take they job too serious, but that's good because Cuz we need that. We need that Do you think in your opinion feeling secure helps students learn their

134best? Yeah. Yeah. They ain't got to worry about nothing like no danger or nothing like that. You have a safe learning learning environment. I feel like here like the security guys here like if we need them like we could always go talk to them like Yeah like yeah. >> Got to go bond with most of them. You know we knew them for most of the time we've been here so. >> Mhm. >> Yeah.