001the budget. The other thing I would like to say, as I said in my private meeting with the commissioners, um, and I am been very thrilled to, um, be along with Dr. Santis and her leadership. Um, I appreciate her. I've never had a concern that she did not meet with me right on it. Whatever it was, she always took time to listen to me. And now that it's a time to change as um those have considered this need to be changed, I need to be um I would like to be in forefront and a part of that person who's p because of special education. They need to know about our students and how and what they need. So that's it. And I thank you again, Dr. Cities. I appreciate you. Thank you, Miss Mill. appreciate
002the I don't normally talk during public statement, but I just want you to know um that I have considered it a privilege to work with somebody who worked so tirelessly and so productively on behalf of other people's children and long after your child aged out of this system even though we get to see him all the time. And let me tell you, he is still my best dance partner. The BTU piece. I just want you to know, I have enjoyed your push, but I have enjoyed your partnership. And I have just been so inspired by the way that you advocate for all children. Yes, ma'am. And you don't just come out to create fireworks. You come out to get stuff done. So, thank you for the privilege of working with Thank you, Miss Phillips. Um,
003I'd also like to welcome from the Associated Student Congress for Baltimore City, U. Benjamin Grimmaldi, who has been here before before the board, um, and has been just a wonderful member of ASBC and has helped me to understand more about the opportunities for young people. So, welcome, welcome, welcome. Hello everyone. My name is Benjamin Grimmaldi. I am an eighth grader at Thomas Johnson Middle School, an ad hoc member of ACVC and co-chair of the ASCBC elections committee. This evening, I'd like to share some updates on ASBC's involvement in student advocacy and engagement of students across Baltimore City. Before getting started though, I would like to thank the school board for this opportunity to speak tonight. It's a pleasure to be here. Applications for the ASCBC elections were completed last month and the process has continued
004since. Candidates have submitted their materials and have been informed of the campaign regulations. I am excited to share that we have had a record number of applicants this year. Four students applied for the offices of vice president and student commissioner and therefore ASCBC hosted a nominating convention for the first time in compliance with the election protocols developed jointly by ASDC and the board at our spring general assembly on April 9th. students, student delegates from 35 schools selected three of the four candidates for student commissioner and ASBC vice president who will appear on the ballot this May. In addition to voting in the nominating convention, students at our general assembly engaged with campaigning candidates and participated in studentled workshops to learn about how they can support student engagement in the May general elections. I'd like to
005thank the members of city schools leadership, the board, and members of the Baltimore City delegation who attended to support ASBC. Special thanks to go to Corey McCrae who was our guest speaker. In addition to voting in the nominating convention or following the general assembly, ASCBC's elections committee has finalized the ballot for the ASCBC elections. There are three candidates each running for the office of vice president and student commissioner as well as ASBC president. There are two running for the office of middle school executive and there's one candidate running for the office of secretary, one for treasurer and one as diversity committee chair. We are looking forward to a great campaigning season which kicks off May 5th. All 6th through 12th grade students will have an opportunity to vote between May 19th and May 22nd. ASCDC
006has also reviewed the district budget proposal from the April 8th board meeting. We were pleased to see that 20% of the school support budget is allocated to transportation and that a significant amount of money is allocated to math and reading resources. These investments reflect the priorities ASCBC has heard from students at the general assembly and the youth budget forum. We hope to co-f facilitate. We also believe the increased investment in mental health programs is important as it reflects feedback from students during our full general issues assembly where students ranked mental health support access as their number one issue. students second highest priority from our full issues assembly was school safety and we noted that 4% of the school support budget is allocated to school police we believe that school police are one part of a
007comprehensive school safety plan and we hope that in the final budget book city schools will articulate how investments in mental health, restorative practices, school police, and other measures that will contribute to students need for safe and supportive schools. ASBC has also been closely following developments with federal funding and the blueprint. We sent Representative Tsunapapolis no less than 10 times this legislative season and offered written and oral testimony on numerous bills. ASCBC members are currently planning to participate in a march on May 1st in solidarity with SOMO student organizers at Baltimore City College to oppose cuts to federal funding and current mass deportations. While we are relieved that Baltimore City Schools has dodged cuts to concentration of poverty grants, we know that we are in a tight situation financially and politically. We hope that the board
008and city schools leadership will see ASBC as a partner in advocating for the educational resources, opportunities, and security Baltimore students deserve. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you so much, Benjamin. I really appreciate that. There was just a number of things that you touched upon. So, one, um, with the ASBC general election, we'll have some more updates from our student commissioner later this evening, Commissioner Rooks. And so, we're very honored and thankful for both Commissioner Rook's participation this past year on our board, um, and his valuable perspectives in leading us, um, as well as all of ASBC. Secondarily, I want to thank you so much for comments on the budget. um that's really important for how we use these resources to s serve young people and what the needs are and hearing a
009little bit more about the issues priority and then also hearing a little bit more about just the students perspective on like you know our kind of global state that's happening out there right now um and helping us to shape where we go next. So thank you thank you thank you thank you. Um our next public comment is from the Baltimore Teachers Union um our member Jocelyn Providence and city school teacher. So I turn it over to Jocelyn. Uh, she joining us virtually or in person. This will be a video tonight. Good evening. My name is Jocelyn Providence and I'm a teacher uh in Baltimore City Public Schools and I will be speaking tonight on behalf of the Baltimore Teachers Union. Um, and tonight I want to talk about the topics of end of quarter grading
010window, advocacy for financial investment in the blueprint for Maryland's future, updates on the CEO search, and reflections on the harm of funding cuts. Um, so I recently gave public comment about this, but I wanted to remind the board about the importance of adjusting the end of quarter grading window for next school year so that teachers have at least one, preferably two days where there are no longer accepting work prior to the end of the quarter so that teachers are able to fulfill our professional responsibility of updating and submitting grades by the end of the quarter deadline. Now, school funding. The Maryland House and Senate just finished up their session and verbally expressed their commitment to the blueprint for Maryland's future. However, solely a verbal commitment while rolling back the implementation timeline does not set our
011students up for success. BTU knows that this board understands how important the blueprint for Maryland's future is for our students. For decades in Maryland, wealthy corporations have manipulated the rules to avoid paying taxes, placing the financial burden for our schools on the rest of us. Maryland gives away millions in business tax breaks despite overwhelming evidence that they do not do nothing to boost our economy. And who ends up paying our students and our families? BTU hopes that this board will abandon its apolitical stance of the need for statewide tax reform. Maryland's upside and unfair system prevents progress. We need this board to commit to work with us to advocate for fair funding of the blueprint, which means that there needs to be advocacy around raising the revenue across the state. We invite this board to
012work with BTU to advocate to our elected officials to close corporate loopholes and raise taxes on millionaires. We believe this type of advocacy is needed from the board. The blueprint will never fulfill its promise and will be a broken promise from leaders that increases distrust with our community if this is not done. BTU is willing to do the important work with the board to achieve fair funding, but the board needs to actually advocate for this. Now more than ever, our students need strong advocates. So, please step up. At the very beginning of the search for the new CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, BTU informed the board on the importance of having public and consistent updates on the process and steps being taken in the search for the new CEO. Where can these public and
013consistent updates be found so that the community is aware? The last update shown on the Baltimore City website after me searching um is from January 7th. That is almost four months ago, which I do not think demonstrates consistent updates. We are all deeply invested in this search process and want to ensure that the new CEO prioritizes effective leaders capable of effective communication. This district's core functions of supporting and maintaining workers is in crisis. Departments like human capital and labor relations cannot meet core functions. BTU has repeatedly documented and informed this board and district leadership of lack of communication, lack of adherence to deadlines, and inability to meet basic functions of human capital department for key functions like staffing, payroll compensation, tuition reimbursement, and educator lure to name a few. Finally, we all know that the
014funding cuts that were inappropriately and disrespectfully done to our district budget has directly impacted schools, specifically funding for extracurriculars and tuing. I wanted to share some of my personal observations of the harm that is occurring because of this. Um, so students are being directly impacted by these funding cuts. extracurriculars that play a huge role in keeping students engaged, learning, and building stronger relationships with themselves and their classmates and school community. Um, and also vital supports like direct one-on-one tutoring has ended. At a school at our at our school, additional tutoring support um has played a huge role in the math supports and math learning for our students. um and is much needed to close some of the mathematical gaps that experience that we experience in our classroom learning every day. Because this person um was
015not a classroom teacher, students were able to receive tutoring throughout the day which was very impactful um and was very direct support that classroom teachers were unable to be doing while giving instruction. It is also that our students are the people who are the most impacted by these harsh and disrespectful funding cuts. This is also why I want to reiterate the importance of our collective advocacy for the blueprint that involves statewide tax reform. Budgets reflect our morals and if we aren't willing to invest in our youth, our future, then why are we what are we even doing? Thank you for your time. Thank you so much, Jocelyn. I believe that takes us to the end of public comment. We didn't receive any signups this evening at all, but we do. Is that correct, Dr. Duckets?
016Okay. No general public comment this evening. Oh, do we have Miss Deary? Well, let me invite Miss Deer up. So, we do have one recognized group um that has not been recognized. So, I want to make sure Miss Deer has an opportunity to join and provide public comment this evening. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you. But I did put in my um I guess I have to go back to the old way of doing it. It's all right. We got you got me. Okay, we got you. So, I'm just glad I didn't have to follow Miss Phillips or this young man who just walked up was he's phenomenal. So, thank you so much for the opportunity. Good morning. Um Good morning. Good evening everyone. You see, it's been a long long day. So PTA
017was asked to provide feedback on the FY26 proposed operating budget. After review, the consensus is it's great to see where the funds come from and how they are allocated to the different programs, but the question is what happens after the distribution. How will the money be used? For example, under academics, foundational math and literacy lists high quality instructional materials. For math, it's more than $750,000 to expand the high quality math curriculum. If students are still not performing as well as expected in math, are the instructional materials for the students or for the teachers to improve on the method of instructing. Another example under academics well-rounded education includes money allocated to student learning plans and health education. Student learning plans already exist. So what specifically will be done? What part does health play in a well-rounded
018education? Another question under wholeness, climate, and culture. The budget calls for 58 school-based wholeness specialists. Is there a job description for this position and do they exist? Now it also lists mentoring and adult relationships. Who is being mentored and by whom? We do applaud the district's efforts to give our students the opportunity to lead their peers, gain exposure to other like-minded students in different jurisdictions, and how to advocate. We realize the figures may change due to pending cuts, but the question remains the same. Specifically, how will the money be used to ensure the success of all students? We want to thank everyone who contributed to making the budget a success this year. So, thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate it very much. Before I close public comment, do we have any other recognized
019groups that are joining us this evening? We have Say that one more time. Were no. Okay. So, so specifically if this is about charters this evening, is this about a charter application? Okay. So, we are not taking any specific comments tonight on the charters. There is a there's a presentation that will be made this evening. Let me just make sure I have that. So, um we have sessions that will specifically focus on that and that's coming up and we'll lay that out in the presentation tonight just so that you know. uh but we want to make sure that we create equal opportunity and equal access for all groups to provide comment on that. And so in tonight's presentation when the staff goes through that they'll lay out when is the appropriate time for the comment
020that's related to charter application. So just want to make sure everybody's clear on that. Thank you guys. Um the board does appreciate all the public comment that we get. It's really important. Um, but we do want to make sure for any of these these particular things that we know are really important to our vitality of our entire community that we do get those in the appropriate time that we windows and seasons. So, based on public comment, um, are there any additional items board members would like to pull from the consent agenda? Only two items tonight. Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the remaining consent agenda? So moved. Espazito. Thank you, Commissioner Espazito. Is there a second? Second. Brooks. Thank you, Commissioner Brooks. All in favor? Vice Chair Parker? Yes. Commissioner Ames Messenger. Thank
021you, Commissioner Koy. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Espazito. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Kinyatta Bay. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Muhammad. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Reading Lawinger. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Rooks. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Simmons. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Slater Harrington. Yes. Thank you. And I'm in favor. This motion passes. Like to thank my board colleagues for that and the public comment that we received this evening. I'd like to turn over to Dr. Santis for CEO comments. Great. Thank you, Chair Sally. Um, and before I get started with my comments this evening, I'm going to invite uh Chief Emily Nielsen for this evening's PEP agenda. Thank you, Dr. Santelis. Good evening, commissioners. If you are here for uh to be recognized for tonight's PEP or if you're joining us virtually, if you can stand up or turn
022on your camera to be recognized when I read your name from the office of the chief communications engagement enrollment officer and appointment recommended that Michelle Boying, currently staff specialist communications, be appointed special assistant communications and community engagement effective May 5th, 2025. from the office of the chief of schools. Appointments recommended that Cole Bishop, currently assistant principal at Patterson High School, be appointed principal resident at Forest Park High School effective July 1st, 2025. recommended that Alana Burton, currently assistant principal at Leathwalk Elementary, be appointed principal resident at Cross Country Elementary Middle, effective July 1, 2025. Recommended that Chenica Peterin, currently assistant principal at William Packet Elementary, be appointed principal resident at Northwood Elementary July 1, 2025. Recommended that Shakia Shepard, currently assistant principal at the historic Cherry Hill Elementary Middle, be appointed principal resident at Marivia
023Park Elementary Middle, effective July 1, 2025. Recommended that Theodore Spain, currently assistant principal at Joseph C. Brisco Academy, be appointed principal resident at the Reach Partnership School. Effective July 1. recommended that Larry Strickland, currently assistant principal at Walter B. Carter Elementary Middle, be appointed principal resident at the historic Samuel College Taylor Elementary, effective July 1, 2025. Recommended that Caroline Weiss, currently coordinator social studies, be appointed assistant principal at the Achievement Academy effective June 2nd, 2025. and a reassignment recommended that Flora Haxton, currently assistant principal at Creative City Public Charter, be appointed assistant principal at Tiki Hill Elementary Middle effective July 1st, 2025. Congratulations to everyone on tonight's PEP agenda. Thank you, Chief Nielsen. Um, and I would like to get started this evening um, in congratulating this year's semi- finalists for teacher of the year
024in Baltimore City Public Schools. Um, we received more than 400 nominations this year. And I'm proud to recognize our 10 semi finalists. They are Adrien uh, Canal, a preK teacher at Goven's Elementary School. Tonet Campbell, English and African-American studies teacher at the Academy for College and Career Exploration, ACE. Uh, Caitlyn Fink, gifted and advanced learning teacher from pre kindergarten to grade two at Hollird Academy. Uh, Febis Limiac, pre kindergarten teacher at Hamen Elementary Middle School. Uh, uh, oops, my glasses. Jebanslu, mathematics and special education teacher at the Academy for College and Career Exploration. Franca Muller Paz, international balorate Spanish teacher at Baltimore City College. Sheridian Pratt, math and science teacher at the historic Cherry Hill Elementary Middle School. Megan Smith, kindergarten teacher at Maryanne Winterling Elementary School at Bentaloo. La uh Leia Abbridge Theurge, sorry.
025Uh middle school social studies teacher at Fall Staff Elementary Middle School and Laquinia Winder, kindergarten teacher at Cecil Elementary School. One of these highly talented educators will succeed, Catlock Jones, and compete for the title of Maryland Teacher of the Year. Now, these 10 semi- finalists are in good company because in the past 10 years, five city schools teachers of the year have gone on to become the Maryland Teacher of the Year. And that's more than any other district in the state. And four more City Schools Teachers of the Year were also finalists for Maryland Teacher of the Year. So, congratulations to our semi finalists and special thanks to all city schools teachers for everything you do for our schools and students every day. And now on to some more sobering news. as our board chair
026Sally uh referenced earlier um I will give more details um about uh a cyber breach that occurred and as many of you are aware um earlier today we announced uh that the district had suffered a data breach in February uh bad actors broke into our computer network we immediately notified law enforcement ment conducted an initial investigation and secured our operational systems. Following a thorough investigation with the guidance of law enforcement and external cyber security experts, we confirmed that certain documents may have been compromised which contained information belonging to some current, former, and prospective employees as well as to volunteers and contractors. Um this also impacted files uh that were related uh to less than 1.5% of all of our students which is approximately um a thousand students out of our total population of about 75,000.
027Uh since then we have been investigating with the help of external cyber security experts um to determine who was impacted and what data was compromised. Now, these are the actions that we are taking um to help impacted individuals uh based on the work that's occurred um over the last 8 weeks. Uh starting today, we are sending notification letters to impacted individuals by US mail. We will also post a general message on our website, note it on social media, and notify staff. It is important that you read and keep your individual notice. And even the CEO, since I'm one of the ones impacted, is going to have to make sure that this letter does not go on the piano um under a pile um with stacks of magazines like often happens with my mail. This is
028one. It's going to be important for all of us to make sure um that we keep and because it's going to provide more details um on what was included as well as the steps to protect yourself. Uh we are going to be providing impacted individuals with complimentary access to credit monitoring services such as identity theft protection and monitoring of dark web and address changes to help mitigate any potential for harm. We are also establishing a call center to answer questions and help impacted individuals enroll in mitigation services. Since this incident, we have implemented a series of additional cyber security enhancements, including installing endpoint detection and response software and resetting all users passwords. We take this matter incredibly seriously. We will continue to assess our procedures already in place as well as the results of the
029forensic audit for ways to defend against evolving cyber security threats. Uh city schools does not exist in a vacuum. Uh there are many government um agencies that have been targets uh for this kind of bad actor. Um so we again exist in that space but we are committed uh to making sure that we support our team members, our employees, um students and anyone else um who was impacted. And then finally, because I do want to end on a positive note, I know that it's hard um again and I along with many of you um are part of the impacted. So I know that it's difficult um to really process uh what that might mean. But I would like to end chair my comments for this evening on a positive note. if we could queue up
030a couple of the pictures if possible from my visit this morning um to uh to reach um high school. It was a fabulous visit and it was a reminder of why we do the work. Um under the leadership um of Dr. Gresham. Um I will tell you that um thank you. Um that this was a wonderful opportunity to meet the teachers, the staff, the mentors, the folks on the ground every day who are contributing to the increases that we are seeing in reaches data. There is always a a story behind the numbers. Um I had a chance to um even eat at the Reach Cafe. I met with um both Miss Fazio and Miss Herd. Um two leaders who are responsible for a lot of the gains there. You see right there, Major Hall um
031got a chance to really see the work they are doing uh behind a lot of the gains that we are seeing in their data. uh Miss Herd and I commiserated um because she is the teacher of AP Seminar and I am the mother of a city school student who is in AP Seminar. So I felt uh much better after that conversation um about again some of the challenges that young people um can face in there. But as she uh assured me, our young people are up to the task. They can stretch. They can do this. and you can see it throughout the school. I want to give a shout out um to Principal Gresham who I know will be honored later um is it next month? Thank you. May 29th um at the heart of
032the schools awards and I got a chance to really see today um why school leaders are the heart of the schools. Um, Reach is a tangibly um different place and um it was just a great way to start uh my day after break right here in the Reach Cafe. Um these are young people in our life skills program. Um and Dr. Gresham had the foresight when the school was being built when he knew he was getting a new building. Oh, I guess it's done. Just kidding. Just kidding. I got that wrong. I got that wrong. Chair U. It's all right, Commissioner Ames. messenger. Um, but what was wonderful is Dr. Gisham um in their old building really wanted to give life skill students the opportunity for real world experience particularly in food preparation and other
033things. And so when the school was being designed, he worked with architects to make sure that there was actually a cafe space in the new building. So I had a chance um to go today. the young people. Um I was not supposed to be eating bacon today. Um but because they had what I hear are some of the best BLTs um in city schools. Um I got to have one complimentary. Dr. Gisham covered my uh cost. Um and it was in fact one of the best BLT sandwiches I've had. But I I had a chance to talk to the teachers and the team and they talked about how all of our young people um deserve these real world opportunities. So, I just wanted to take in the middle of what I know is sobering news
034just to take a pause and let us know uh that the work that we are doing in city schools matters for young people um every day and it is the work of the educators, school leaders, um staff members at schools and those in central who support them um that really are making the difference. So, um, thanks to the reach community for the wonderful tour and warm welcome and I will turn it back to you, Chair Sally. Awesome. Thank you so much. Um, this brings us to, um, a meteor portion of our evening uh, this evening uh, that I know a lot of folks are waiting to talk a little bit about. So, I'd like to welcome up Angela Alvarez from the office of new initiatives um, around new charter and other school application as anformational
035update. And um as the office new initiative gets set up this evening, I just want to make sure our public is aware. So what you'll see in tonight's presentation will lay out um what our timeline is as well as who has expressed interest to date um in this process. And so we're hoping that this information provides more clarity um on the process um and more information to come. Okay, thank you for your patience. Sorry about that. I'm Angela Alvarez. I'm the senior executive director for the Office of New Initiatives. Good evening, um, board of school commissioners. And good e good evening. I'm Kendra Banks and I'm the manager in the office of new initiatives. Okay. This evening we will be presenting the new applicants for charter schools and operators and uh the work that we
036are working on aligns with the board priorities five six and seven uh where we provide equal access to district services resources and facilities to ensure that success of students staff and surround uh in the surrounding community. Uh, priority six, schools will increase the number of educational programming of all types and levels throughout the city while ensuring that all schools, including charters, guarantee a high quality educational experience. And then lastly, priority seven, uh, where we continuously work toward equity at all levels by implementing policies, practices, and procedures that create a welcoming and inclusive academic and professional environment. The charter school policy standards of course align with the Baltimore City School Board commissioners uh where they actively where you all actively seek and support the development of public charter schools that provide highquality learning opportunities to the
037students of Baltimore City. Uh we expect higher levels of individual school accountability in exchange for the autonomy and flexibility and expect public schools, public charter schools to use the autonomy and flexibility afforded to them as a means of developing instructional and operational strategies that accelerate improvement in student achievement and school excellence. So our process and overview uh include the following dates. In January the 21st and the 29th included technical assistance that was offered to organizations that uh wanted to or want to submit an application and applicants are advised to attend the session at least a year before planning to apply. February 3rd, the letter of intent was due. March 6, applications were due by 12:00 noon and uh the applications that were submitted on that date are being considered for the school year of 2627.
038And uh Baltimore City will review and render a decision on each applicant within 120 days of uh receipt of the application in accordance to the procedures adopted by our district. uh March 11th, we completed the technical review which includes reviewing all applications to make sure that the sections are complete and the uh required documentation has been submitted. In April 22nd, which is today, um we're presenting the new applications to the board for infformational purposes. Next slide. Uh the week of May 5th, our final preliminary strengths and weaknesses report will be shared with the applicants. Uh May 15th, our applica uh applicants will have the opportunity to present to the board of school commissioners at a public work session. And this is the opportunity for applicants to make their case uh for approval, take questions from
039the board and address any areas of weakness. And at this time um this is where uh the public can also provide um testimony or any information they want to share through the through the applicant. So for these application processes, um applicants can uh collect feedback that can be in the written form. People can also send letters to the board. Um and so the testimony that night is um organized by each applicant themselves. So they bring up who they want to speak on their behalf. Um and then take questions from the board. Um and so um because these have legal process and legal requirements um we can't have people signing up as part of public comment because that's uneven, unexpected and so it creates um inconsistencies between applicants. Um so that's why um the person who
040signed up for public comment tonight because it was about application was not able to to do that because that's not a lot of the process. Um, and on May 21st, the applicant may submit additional information to the board uh to address any concerns raised during the work session. And June 10th is the big day for the board vote. Who participates in the application review? Well, first we have the charter and operator school advisory board, uh, which includes our internal and external stakeholders. uh and they advise the CEO on issues related to charters and operator led schools and provides advice on the applications to the CEO. Of course, we have our wonderful CEO who determines the official recommendation for the board and the CEO finals recommendation to the board of school commissions is based on a
041comprehensive review of the application input from the advisory board, applicant testimony at the work session and any supplemental information requested and provided during that process. And lastly, we have our great school board. And you will have the final and ultimate deciding authority and makes the final decision based on a review of the applications, extent to which application meets the board's priorities, um applicant's testimony at the work session, any supplemental information provided by the applicant, and the CEO's recommendation. So first we have uh our applicant uh Charm City Garden Montouri CCGMS. The organization is Charm City Garden Montouri School. They are proposing to open a new charter focused in environmental education in the area of West Baltimore. The target grades are 9th through 12th and they'll be serving about 225 students. Their programming will provide a
042nature-based Monturi high school experience that integrates environmental education, uh, rigorous academics and community service as well as student centered learning. Uh it'll be rooted in Montazori philosophy enforced the collective responsibility and environmental stewardship emphasizing problem based learning interary interdisciplinary studies and 21st century skills such as critical thinking collaborative uh and creativity in their academic programming. Second, we have the Dream Academy proposed by Arts for Learning Maryland. Uh they are proposing a conversion of Thomas Jefferson Elementary Middle School number 232 focused in area of arts integration in the Huntington Ridge neighborhood in West Baltimore serving uh grades preK through 8th. Their programming will force an uh equitable, joyful and innovative learning community where arts and artists integration transform teaching and learning. And through co-eing by educators and artists, students will build a strong understanding of both
043academic and arts content. And this approach supports academic achievement, social emotional development, increase engagement, and empower students to pursue their creative and personal goals. The applicant is seeking a school name change and naming the library for Porsche Leavon Stokes Williams. Next slide. Lastly, we have uh a proposal from the Juvenile Afterare Incorporated organization. The school name is to be determined. Uh their focus area is continuing education and vocational training. Uh located in East Baltimore targeting grades 8th through 12th. Their programming supports young people in re-entering the community by providing individualized academic and intervention services that promote educational advancement, addresses the effects of malreatment, and improves cognitive and social behaviors. Uh the mission is to uh seek partnerships and funding to establish an educational facility offering continuing education, vocational training, job readiness programs, and social services
044for young people and emerging adults um and that are transitioning from the juvenile justice system. If they are approved, they would like to seek MSD approval to eventually add boarding as an option to their program. they're applying as a contract school um because it's a specified uh population they're seeking serve and that that's um so this kicks off this meeting just officially kicks off that we're in the process for members of the public of reviewing the applicants. Um folks can read a summary of their um programs online on our our website. Um and um the next meeting on the 15th is when you'll be able to hear and members of the public will be able to hear. is open to members of the public um directly from the applicants and the people they identify to
045speak on their behalf on that night. So, I just want to open this up to my board colleagues for any specific questions around the process, not in the applications itself this evening. So, um if any board colleagues have any questions, Commissioner Koy. Yeah. Can you remind both I guess the board and and the the community when the last time was that we had new charter applications uh coming before the board? It's been a It's been a while. It's been a couple of years. It's been slow, I will say. Like since um 2122, we had some applications come through. So that was a few years ago. Um but prior to CO, we had about three to five applications every year. And so obviously soon after COVID, we didn't we had a couple in 2122. And now
046now this again is uh now we have three. So we feel like we're starting to get back into a record cadence. So, it has been a minute um before we've brought uh uh have applicants and so we're excited about that. Um and again, we start in conversations with people a year before they apply. So, we know we'll have uh a number of applicants for next year u because folks have already begun um doing the pre-work. Excellent. Uh Vice Parker, um please forgive me if I missed it. Were there only three or were these were the three that are going to continue in the process? There's only three. Um the um everyone that applies unless they withdraw themselves will go through the full process per MSD guidelines. Commissioner Reginger. Uh thank you. And then when does
047the board receive the full applications submitted? Yep. So, the board will receive those this week now that we've opened um that process. Uh and from there, you'll get uh uh the preliminary recommendations uh on a similar timeline as the applicants. Um so, we've just begun. Um we haven't that one of the first steps for applicants just for members of public is to do an interview with the advisory board. That has not happened yet. Uh that's actually happening this week. So, we're pretty still pretty early in the process. Commissioner Spacito and then Commissioner Slayer Harrington. Uh I just have a question about the contract school. Um if it's pending MSDE's approval for the boarding piece, like how how is that weighted when going through the process of determining whether or not a recommendation is made? We're
048going to review their proposal as having a normal school day, normal school hours. what they're indicating is they would eventually like to be a boarding school. So, you know, um uh if approved, applicants can request additional waiverss later. We have like multiple cycles um and of the state um in the in the process and most waivers'll look at um for schools that are approved in that p that u initial planning year. Um we'll work through that because the first thing is is the application itself strong enough to go forward and then we work on details that are that uh you know need a different review and and the lens that y'all will be looking at is it from whether or not um like because it's new like is it whether or not they would be
049able to manage it or is it whether or not it could be successful? I'm just and the reason why I'm asking this is if that boarding piece is important to exist in order for the school to have good outcomes and be successful. Um yeah, I guess I'm just kind of processing that. Um they've submitted a proposal um that uh consider they're asking us to consider them using standard hours. our um no no but our reading of the law is like that only MSDE like within the law um our board has authority to approve schools that have hours similar to other public schools we don't operate boarding schools so that we feel like MSDE would have to approve that as a request um so that's a later that would be a later app the first hurdle
050is like do we approve them as a school um and I don't think they would be ready to start off. That's something they want to grow into. That's the eventual thing. So, they're not proposing in year one to be a boarding school to be clear. But, um that's some a goal they have for the future if they're approved that they're being clear with us that that's their ultimate goal. Thank you, chair. Can you give me um some line of sight into what I might expect with the application? Will there be financial documents or um any kind of narrative that would suggest sustainability um for the school given what we just went through with approving portfolio of schools that you know had sustainability issues. I want to make sure that we're collecting that information on the
051front end as I'm sure you are. But if you can give me some line of sight into what will we see with this application. Yeah. So you'll see this the full everything they submit to us. you will see. So you'll see their full application. Um an application has four kind of sections, one around academics, another around culture, another around operations, another around finances. So, within their finances, you'll see like their proposed budget and any if they've identified um additional sources of funding. You'll see whether or not they have um uh letters of commitment for those uh sources of funding or approved grants or things like that for those sources of funding. Uh within the um application, um you'll see their school size. Obviously you'll get once we've done um the um full review meaning we've
052had the interview we've had um they'll have u some opportunity from the interview to submit additional documents. There's some schools that we uh based on the um initial review of the application with the advisor board have some questions about their applications, but you'll get within the um recommend recommendation report that they receive, you'll get where we see questions around like if there's questions around sustainability, additional things where we um have concerns and they'll be able to speak to you directly about any areas of concern when we do the work session together. um parallel to that or um aligned with that is community support. Are letters of support included in that application u that would signify that this will be long-term sustainable and is what community wants. Absolutely. So you will see um the uh evidence
053of support that schools have collected. So that can be letters. Um they've all done it in different ways. It's usually a combination. So you'll see some letters. You'll see petitions of support. Um and they may have it's up to them who they again bring up to speak with you, but some people may have some of those supporters speak with uh speak some of that time or just like today have some presence to give you a sense of that there's support um behind them. Yeah, I I get the impression that there is some community support. Additional questions from our board colleagues this evening. Oh, yes, Commissioner Muhammad. So for the sake of the public as going through uh the uh process a little while ago with charters, can you speak towards the due diligence that your
054office generally takes uh working with the uh CEO to come up with a recommendation that comes to the board? Can you give us some insight into that? And then can you also give us some insight into the um the operator advisory board uh and the work that they do uh that helps to further that uh recommendation that comes to us. So it starts with uh a technical review that our office does. So um so that's like the first leg and we let people know if there's any kind of issue with that. we let you know there's issues with uh the technical review. So that's the first um sort of beginning part. Um there is a full and it's public um rubric for every question. Um and it's it's extensive. It's larger than we just went
055through renewal. So, new school applications are significantly a larger application than um the renewal application um for schools because it's it's about every like what is everything that you're trying to do and who are the people. Um and so there's a a detailed review of that. Um our we have a um internal external stakeholder group called the new and charter um new and operator led schools advisory board. um that is made up of organizations whose role is to provide advice to the CEO on matters related to operator schools. Um and so that includes organizations such as the Y of Central Maryland, Maryland disability rights, Catholic Charities, um the Maryland Alliance of Public Charter School sits on there. We have operators that participate in the process um and a number of other organizations as well as
056staff from city schools. So um academics plays a role, our finance team plays a role, our school's office plays a role in the review of the applications along with our um office. Um and they also play a role in the interview. So the application we're looking at is there good plan here. Is it sound? Um based on what they provided um uh do we think there's the capacity to lift this? Do they have the the the the financial? Um does their budget make sense? so the numbers make sense. Um are they meeting a critical district need? I think that's another kind of key thing. Do we do we need this school? Um the interview lets us know like um a bit if there's questions we had in reading the app um and about like the
057people. Do do the people have the capacity? That's a mixture of looking at they submit their own resumeumés like of the founding board and background about the founding board and we'll ask them questions to get at the capacity of the founding board and understanding who's responsible for writing the application because people can um have people help them with the application who are not going to run the school. Um so those are things that we try to get a understanding of um in um proposing um schools is a serious thing and we're thankful to have people that are interested in serving our students in this way. But we want to make sure that um if we recommend someone that they're going to run a strong school because students don't get those years when people are learning
058back. Um, so it's a thing we take seriously and we are thankful that in Maryland and in Baltimore we've been lucky to have people apply um and move forward who are very serious about students u which is not what you see in other states where the laws are a little different. No, I appreciate that insight as you I'll echo what you said with regards to the seriousness and uh I asked this question for the sake of the public because I want everyone to be aware of the length uh lengths that you take your office takes along with the co and the staff to assure that the operators that come to us are serious about our children. Um this is very important to us. So I want to thank you for your work and this is
059a heavy lift for your operators. So, uh, thank you for your interest and your work that goes into, uh, uh, the application process. Commissioner Cory, can you give some insight into the range, the typical range of recommendation from the CEO, like what we are as a board anticip anticipating hearing and then the typical range of what the board may vote on for a given uh proposed new school. Yeah. So, this is not like um renewal where there's all these terms. the initial term for um a a school that's recommended to go forward is a five-year term, that's the uh initial contract term everybody starts out with. Um and so you're going to get either we recommend that you open this school or we don't and here are the re here's the strengths, here are the
060weaknesses, here's how they meet the board priorities or how they meet district needs. Um so then that's basically what you will um see. um in within the state of Maryland um uh we need to ensure that people have the capacity to ready a facility uh and they have a a reasonable plan for acquiring a facility but they don't have to at the point where you're voting have the facility in hand. Um so there could be a component about ensuring you have your facility right uh uh as an additional kind of approval process but that's the only kind of special kind of caveat if you think uh so so just to recap the recommendation from the CEO will be either uh in favor of the application or against uh and it's for 5 years and the
061board vote is approve approved conditionally upon facilities being secured or not approved. Is that is that just to like really outline it there? Yep, that's correct. Thank you. Additional questions or comments from the board this evening. Want to move into um a subsequent presentation? I actually would like for you to stay and move into the review of operational renew uh renewal process. Um I think this is really also critically important for um our potential and prospective charter applicants to understand um the process that charter schools will go through eventually um and the types of information the board may consider at this juncture of the process. And I want do thank um our entire stakeholder group who's come this evening out in support. This may be helpful for new charter applicants to hear um this information
062that is contained tonight. Very good. That's the key. I agree with that because we definitely within the new school application ask people how are you going to make sure you're successful for renewal? So, I love that you said that. This is an area that we get a lot of questions and comments on. Um, so want to make sure it's really really clear to our stakeholders. And for the record again, I'm Angela Alvarez, the senior executive director of the Office of New Initiatives. And good evening everyone. Terresa Jones, chief achievement and accountability officer for the district. All right. Um this um renewal presentation most care closely aligns to board party six um which is around ensuring that we have high quality educational um opportunities for our students um um for all of our schools and that
063we're increasing in the quality. Um uh so we are um going to present the um uh final process for um schools who will be coming to the board for renewal next year in school year 2526. Um uh prior to bringing this process forward, we every year um do a debriefing process. this is that has been embedded in the process since we um created this process in um 2012 um with our um stakeholders. Uh and so we're always trying to balance making small adjustments um that are necessary or help to improve um u the way that we're looking at schools which are very complex um uh with um m maintaining a level of consistency. Um and I would say the measures themselves have been pretty consistent since that time. There may have been slight changes to
064methodology or we've had changes in state assessments. Um based on this year's debriefing process, we have decided to make um no changes um to this year's process from the prior process that the board just u went through um and to do some further conversations with schools this summer for the following uh year. Um so the renewal process um occurs for schools every 3, five or eight years. It starts in their penultimate year of their contract. Um we have for a long time recognized that schools are complex u places. And so unlike other places in the country that are just starting to do this, we've always had a process that's both qualitative and quantitative and include site visits. And so those three components I think have led us to have a very strong renewal process that
065really gives um and sheds a lot of insight on what's happening school with our schools has helped the board make um I think the right decisions and on in terms of renewing or non-renewing um operators. There are three kind of key components um that we look at that's um outlined in our our board's policy. student achievement and academic success, school climate, um financial management and governance. Um for the schools that are going that are uh beginning the renewal process, there are seven um that are up um for this upcoming year. Um and so some components of them always sort of start even before we do this meeting. Um which are consistent components. That's the site visits um have begun and the five essentials um survey. Um, schools will be getting their uh, data tables in
066the summer. They're turn in their renewal applications on in early September. They'll go through a review with that same body I just shared on the uh, other presentation. Our charter and upper le schools advisory board will review those applications uh, and make recommendations to the CEO uh, in a similar um, fashion. Um, schools will get their preliminary recommendations the week of November 3rd. Uh, and then we're anticipating it'll go to the board on that first meeting um for information kicking off that process in terms of the public. Um, we'll have a work session in December and that the board will vote in um the first meeting in January. Uh, these are the schools that are up for renewal. I'm just going to leave it up for a second just so people can see their names.
067um this thing. Okay. Um so this is just showing um the overall measures that we look at in the academic section um of renewal. Um we have not so chief uh chief tun going to talk about it but we have not had a trend measure in some time um we are um still doing some conversations with schools so we're going to wait the reason why we haven't had trend just so we're clear for everyone is just because we started a new state assessment and you need a certain number of years to be able to look at that um kind of change um and so that that's the reason why but that's always been a part of the process but it is time dependent on um assessments. Uh and so you can see um there are
068a number of uh measures in in renewal. In fact, I want to say there are 18 total uh measures in the renewal process. Um but I'm going to turn it over to Chief Jones who's going to actually walk through what each of these things mean. Great. Okay. So, good evening again everyone. Um so the first set of measures that we're going to discuss um are actually comprised of results from the state assessments. So the first one is what we refer to as our absolute measure and the absolute performance measure is intended to be able to get a sense of the school's most recent year of performance on the state assessment. Uh one of the things that we have noted is that because there was a change in the state assessment, we had to take a
069look at the characteristics of the underlying data to determine which approach to using that data would be most meaningful. For purposes of this process based on the characteristics of the data, we've been using the average performance level as one of the ways to understand school level perform performance. So what you'll see noted here is that the way we're using it um actually gets translated into one of the four ratings from not effective to highly effective. But because we tend to see a correlation between poverty and absolute performance, we've actually adopted a methodology whereby we take a look at poverty groupings of schools to be able to determine whether or not a school is more or less, you know, serving its students, you know, equal or better um than schools with similar um levels of poverty.
070So that is one of the key ways that we have modified this particular measure. As Angela described earlier, the way we're looking to approach it for school year 2526 is exactly the same as what we've been doing for the last year. Next slide. The second measure, um, and this is the one that Angela mentioned that we would not be using in school year 2526 is the trend performance measure. So, we won't spend a ton of time tonight referring to like the different ways we've been looking at it. What I will note though is because we do now have multiple years of the data, uh we do want to be able to consider thoughtful ways of bringing that measure back. The intent behind having a trend measure is it gives you sort of a sense of
071how that school is doing over a period of time which of course gives us a little bit of a different view than just looking at the one year which we just discussed with the absolute performance measure. The third is around growth. Um and we all know that student growth is really important. Um, and so one of the ways that we've taken a look at this is to be able to use the student growth percentiles which give us a sense around how students are performing relative to their peers. And we're fortunate here in Maryland that we actually have this data based on state level performance. So it is a really robust way for us to take a look at how students are performing and how they're growing from one year to the next. Uh because it
072does require two consecutive years of data. It is a measure that is used for our elementary and middle schools. It's not used for our high schools. Um, and one of the things that you'll see noted here is essentially how we translate uh that performance um into one of the four different rating categories. And so what you'll see here is it is broken down by taking a look at the percentile of performance relative to the group of schools uh based on their grade bands. The other thing that I'll note before we leave this is that one of the things that we've also afforded schools an option for um is to be able to use an alternative assessment um such as the NWA map assessment for example um in lie of MCAP because we have the ability
073to actually take a look at peer level data performance because of the national uh data sets that are available through NWA. Um so schools again have that as an option um and they notify us of that later in the process. U next is the fidelity of charter. Oh no, this is still you. Sorry, this was you. That was me. Okay. Fidelity um charter application overall. This is a qualitative measure. Um and so it looks at the school's application. It has a number of questions. And so we're looking at um evidence the school provides in that application. Um and we're considering, you know, are you actually delivering on the mission and vision that you um indicated you would um to the board? Um, are you using data to drive student performance? Um, is the curriculum kind
074of furthering that mission um and student achievement at the same time? Are you creating a positive environment for students and families within the school? Uh, are using effective um um strategies to address challenges that arise in student performance, enrollment, student attendance, dropout rates, attrition, and or choice. uh and do you have a clear and comprehensive plan around um professional learning connected to that moving student achievement? Um the other um uh measure that is qualitative that's in this section is the effective programming for all racial and ethnic groups. um for schools that have a certain um percentage of population of diversity. We're looking to make sure that schools are providing um high quality programming across each student group, that it understands its data for each student group. Uh and that they're using a myriad of instructional
075approaches aligned to best practice and research to improve outcomes for um student achievement groups. And that includes ensuring you have um uh high quality uh curriculum materials that students are having access to to rigorous courses and rigorous instruction within their courses. Um that um students um the experiences of the school promote um students sense of themselves and their ability to accomplish um uh to have accomplishments and success within school. and that the school has um evidence-based practices uh to reduce gaps where they appear um and that the median SGP of the lowest proficiency student group um is outperforming the district median SGP as well as how it compares um to that of other students within uh the school. The next area is around college and career readiness. And this is actually comprised of sort of
076three subcomponents. Participation, success, and college enrollment. Um, you'll see the details noted here, but what I'll call out is that this was designed to align to how MSDE looks at college and career readiness. Uh, one of the things that we do when we take a look at participation is we do focus on diploma track 12th graders um who have taken SAT, a ACT, AP or IB exams so on and so forth. The key thing to note here is that we are giving students credit if it's any one of those. So it does become an opportunity for schools to capture as many students as possible um depending on which offerings um they make available. Similarly for the success measure um you'll see that represents the majority of the weight within this particular category. So you'll see
077some standards listed there around what that threshold of success includes. And then when it comes to college enrollment we have access to a data set that gives us an understanding around student enrollment in a post-secary institution within 16 months of high school graduation. So it's kind of intended to be sort of a post-secary measure of sorts um to help us understand college enrollment. And so this is another one of the key components of our process. Next slide, please. Also, when it comes to success, uh we take a look at graduation rate. Uh so, one of the things we often talk about is the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate. Again, here we focus on the diploma track students. So, that is really what we um do sort of as a slight modification to what you'll see
078as the state's reported graduation rate. Um and so the idea here is that we are taking a look at data over three years. So it gives us a sense around what that average rate is and then we've established cut points uh based on that graduation rate. So you'll see that ranging from if they're less than 71% being rated as not effective to if they have a rate of 90% or better, they're rated highly effective. The next area that we're going to talk a bit about is the five essentials survey. Um you hear us often refer to this survey because of its strong research basis. Uh what it tells us is it gives us an understanding around how well schools are prepared to actually uh demonstrate school improvement in a variety of of success measures. Um
079this has been proven out through research over decades now. Um it has been a key contributor to our understanding around levels of readiness of our schools. So for this particular survey, it is administered to our students as well as our instructional staff. We are then able to look at the data across the five essentials. The research does indeed show that for schools that are rated strong on at least three of the five essentials, they are considered to be 10 times more likely to show substantial gains when it comes to school improvement. So, it is one of the key reasons that we've included in our process. You'll just see an example on the right around how the data is depicted. It gives us that range uh from very weak up to being very strong and then
080we factor that into uh the ratings that are assigned for the survey. So next up, uh we're going to talk a bit about school climate. Um so as as Angela pointed out earlier, we recognize the complexity of schools. Um, and so one of the ways that we factor that in is by taking a look at a number of various climate measures that also contribute to our understanding around the school's uh ability to serve our students. So what you'll see here is we're going to walk through a variety of measures. Uh, first I want to just make note uh we do have an STR, the school effect. It is a sitebased review that gives us an understanding around talented people, vision and engagement, highly effective instruction. One of the things that we're going to talk about,
081and this will I'll turn to Angela for, is we're going to do a little bit of a pilot this year to understand if there's ways that we can actually use that site visit to get a better understanding around how well schools are supporting the needs of students with disabilities. Um, however, it is a process that factors in classrooms observations, focus groups, interviews, document review. Um, and so that process has already started uh for this current year. Um, and then that data gets used in a variety of ways. We also look at survey data, cohort retention, the other measures that you'll see here that we'll walk through one at a time. So when it comes to the school effects review, I sort of outlined this earlier in terms of the domains. The key thing that I'll
082just highlight once again here is it is a two and a half day site visit. Um so we have um the support of school works who has who has uh really strong performance and knowledge in this area. um that is actually helping us conduct these these uh site visits and then that data is then used to review performance in these various areas using our renewal rubric. Next slide. The family survey um if you'll recall on the prior slide there was a reference to family satisfaction. Uh one of the ways that we get at that is by looking at family survey data. We also get a sense of that through cohort retention. So the idea being that we want to understand if students are still uh being retained at a school still going to that same
083school two years after they originally entered based on the normally normal entry grade for that particular school. Um what we do there is then we average that over the course of five years or as many years as possible and then we assign it a rating based on their percentile in comparison to uh their other grade bands. Similarly for the family survey, we also take a look at up to five years of data. One of the key differences here though is that we do have specific cut points that we use that determine which of the four ratings is assigned uh based on the family survey results. Just one slight uh correction, you just misspoke a little bit for um cohort retention. We're comparing them to other uh schools based on green band, right? Yeah. Yes. Okay.
084Sorry, I thought I said that. Okay. Go ahead. Did was there a question? Yes. Yes. Well, it's not the whole time. It's it's based on the So each school for the most part has sort of what would be the typical entry grade. So if you're a middle grade serving school, sixth grade, for example, would often be that that typical grade. So then we' be saying like, well, how many of those that started in sixth grade are still there two years later as eighth graders? So it gives us a sense like you said of are they sustaining the enrollment for those students, but it's not technically like are they all sticking with you for for the entire period. A little more nuanced than that, but perfect. And thank you Angela. I did want to make sure
085that that was clear. So for that first uh measure for court retention, we do make the note in terms of the comparisons versus gradeband. One of the things that we tried to do throughout this process is where it's helpful for us is to actually have a relevant peer group for comparison because again we recognize that sometimes the conditions of Baltimore may be different than what we might experience if we just did everything based on a national or a state comparison. So we are very thoughtful about which measures use which specific approach for court retention. That is one that we are are specific to our grade bands within Baltimore City. Absolutely. All right. And then our next couple measures here, um, also within the climate area, take a look at chronic absence and suspensions. One of
086the things that I will note that's really important to consider here is that of course we do have quantitative data that supports an understanding of this, but these are intended to be qualitative measures for this process. So both for chronic absence as well as for suspensions, we're taking a look at not just the data itself, but we're also looking at how the school's application speaks to their level of awareness of their data, the strategies that they're using, if they are able to have good success in those areas, like understanding what that means, and then if they're having challenges, to what extent do they really understand the root causes of those challenges, and are they implementing the strategies that are demonstrating a level of improvement? So those are the key ways that we take a look
087at these two measures and you'll see the specific descriptions for each of them of the two uh noted there on the slide. Um next is uh how we look at our effective programming for students with disabilities within the um school climate section. Um again here we're look this is a um a mixed measure. Um so we're looking at um data um evidence the school provides in this application evidence we know have they had any complaints have they had any um concerns um and then we're also looking at um the disagregated data for this student population. So uh what their um assessment results look like what does their attendance look like? What does suspensions look like for this um student group? um as well as the evidence of what the school's practices are. Uh it also
088includes a um school compliance review um that uh staff that support um our uh uh students with disabilities um from the district office uh performs for those schools in accordance to uh MSDE guidelines. And basically we're trying to see um again is a school aware of its data and its responsibilities. Are they um um showing a high level of um programming for those students? Are they growing um student performance over time? Uh and then they are they um showing that they have appropriate processes, interventions and strategies to support the student population within their school. And when there are shortcomings, are they responsive? Are they addressing it? What's their plan around it? Um so those are the sorts of things that we generally look at in this measure. um what we are going to pilot, what
089we're in the process of piloting this year is adding um to um the STR um a new um domain, the service and support of students with disabilities with the two key actions. We're looking at how general educators and special educators collaborate um to collect and review risk indicator data um for those students as well as how the school monitors its progress uh and creates plans um to support um students and to ensure uh implementation of um targeted supports for the students with disabilities. Um we're piloting it this year. uh so which means the results from this pilot will not be uh included in the renewal process for 2526. In fact, we've asked schoolworks to not give us the report until after the renewal process has concluded so that we're not being biased by knowing what
090the report says. So, so it'll be blind for us and the schools, but they'll go through the process. It will be collected. A report will be written um for this at the same time as the the other measures, but it won't be released to us nor schools until um late January after the board has voted. Um and um we will be having schools, one of the things school works does at the conclusion of the site visit, they do a survey about the experience of the process. So we're going to ask those questions while it's fresh. Um and then um from that take the findings of the report and how schools experience that to um consider for the uh 26 27 process. Um and so um if we move forward um using it assuming the pilot
091goes well and it was helpful it would make this um domain would be considered part of this measure. So it have three components basically. Um this compliance visit which is looking at like are you following the the law kind of things um the evidence in the application and then this more qualitative review of like instructional practices how teachers are collaborating that would come from the STR. Um and so again we will be blind to that for this upcoming renewal. Um but we'll look to discuss it more in the debriefing and that um for uh potential for 26 27. Uh and then the last section is financial management and governance. Uh and so this is where we really look at um how a school in terms of state fiscal sustainability. um as well as uh are
092they you know implementing um and following uh key federal, state and district requirements. Um and um there's a component of the STR that's considered here which is looking at leadership. Um so you know the first review is conducted by our finance office and it's a review of those audits um and making sure there's not any kind of fiscal concerns that come up from that and may prompt us asking more questions of schools based on that fiscal review. Um the strategic leadership governance comes from the SCR. examining how the school leadership creates defines effective learning um for um within a school. That includes like how do they support staff, how do they evaluate staff uh in particularly staff at leadership positions like the principal uh and that executive director or president whatever the role is of
093the person uh who manages the uh for the organization. Um then operator capacity uh is reviewed by my office and so we're looking at have they consistently demonstrated meeting their obligations. Uh has there been any concerns particularly on issues that create risk for the district or put students at risk in some way? Um so are they um we look at um have they've gotten any notices from us. So, one of the things my office uh and other departments can do is issue notices if a school's not compliant in areas um that could be a concern. So, for example, if you were doing illegal suspensions, that would be an issue for us. You would get a notice about that because students are not getting due process. Um if you were doing something like that, that could
094come up. Are you managing your grants? So, we work with the grants office. Like, you know, these are uh grants that come from the federal government and states. Are you complying with that? Are you spending your grant? uh are students being able to access it? Have you created any issues that would put a scat at risk in terms of an audit from a grant perspective? Um and have there been any kind of other uh issues? Um and so that is everything. And yeah, there's 19 measures in here. We had proposed during the debriefing a change to like about five of those. We um heard very strongly from schools that they didn't want any big change this year. Uh so we're delaying that and that'll give us an opportunity to do some more followup with them
095on the areas we began a conversation around um this summer for the 26 27 process I think will put us on a cadence where we're a year ahead of um changes uh which I think is a is a good thing. So invite any of our board colleagues who have questions this evening go commissioner readinger and commissioner koy messenger. Sure. Uh first, uh thank you for the presentation and uh you ended where I was going to pick up which is you got feedback the last go round and and you listened to it and you implemented it. So um I know that's much appreciated by uh folks who I think um were at least in my case I was applauding the innovation and the desire for change but wanted to um you know not necessarily do it
096immediately u because it might it might feel rushed for folks on the other end but but I want to pick it up there and I'm curious one thing I really like about what you did with the um inclusion uh special education in the STER are in the pilot is that you are actually collecting the data. You're not including as part of the process, but you're going to look at it afterward. And I guess I'm curious, you know, you pro proposed some really interesting things, interesting changes like performance over time, changes to the cohort graduation rate. I think it would be really instructive for the board to understand how those changes might hit if you're going to propose them for next year if there was something similar. So, are you thinking about perhaps providing us with
097that the data that we would have gotten had those changes gone into effect maybe after the review so that we can a better understand them? Some of them were a little bit complicated, but b so we could see well, you know, this might have changed an outcome for a particular school or not. Is is any of that in the works? So, I'll start and then Teres will take over. Um uh I think it's important this year and normally we do it. I don't know why we didn't do it this year. The importance of examples I think is really important. We do we are looking at we try to look at it in a blind way like we don't want to we want to make changes that are helping us understand schools in a better way.
098Um and so not be influenced by what that means for specific schools. Uh and so um so um so we'll often maybe look at like a traditional schools, right? Um because we want to make sure the measure is appropriate and is helping us understand what we're trying to understand about schools. Um and so um I think you know so that like is the key thing. So we don't say to schools, well like you know you look better in this like I don't think we should be making a decision based on that. we should be making a decision based on what's helping us to have a better understanding of schools. I will say though even with that what we're proposing we think is helpful to schools because it's legitimate to be it helps us understand work
099that's really complex and um how um making sure that we're considering all the factors like grad is a good example that there's a lot of complexity and how to improve that over time and right now how we look at it we don't give you any credit for improving and so you can have a school that increased by 10 points. That's a huge improve to move a grant rate by 10 points is not something you do overnight. There is a lot that went into that. Right now we if your average is below that number does it matter that you improve that much and like I think those things should matter but we need to do some more engagement with schools to help to help them understand. Yeah. So I would just build on that in two
100ways. So one, we're trying to do this in a way that like we have the analysis that helps us understand sort of like what does this mean for like a representative school, but we're also trying to be mindful of like the sensitivities around the different contexts for different schools. So even using Angela's example around graduation rate, yes, for a large school to have that kind of an increase, that's pretty significant. But if you have a small number of students, it could be misleading just to look at that increase because it could be just a function of the class because it was a smaller number of students. So sometimes the measures don't fully account for some of those nuances. And so that's part of what we're attempting to do is to make sure as we do
101the analysis, we're factoring that in, we want to be able to bring the information and the learning from that forward in a way that doesn't create confusion or compromise the integrity of the process. So that that is one of the things we do want to be careful about because we don't want to be in a situation where it creates a possibility that anyone could think they can cherrypick which scenario works better for them and everybody gets the benefit of take the one that works you know that's better for you that really doesn't always serve us well and so I think to your point commissioner we want to be able to bring forward some learning so that the board has the benefit of as much net analysis as possible but do it in a way that
102allows us to really think about what does it mean for the portfolio of schools if if you will, versus specific schools, if that makes sense. It does. And and you know, a way to do that, it it might not it doesn't even need to be of the, you know, schools that are going through renewal, but giving us a sense for if we apply this graduation rate. This is the percentage of schools that would be considered effective versus under the old metric for our whole portfolio. But we just I just want a sense for what it might what the impact might be before we decide we should adopt this or not. And the other thing I would say is because you heard from charters that they wanted a bit of a heads up maybe in a
103more official capacity saying these are the things we are considering for next year right so that they do have a heads up so so if you do decide to go forward with changes next year it doesn't feel uh out of the blue or or feel rushed fair points yeah and I think the delay here actually puts us on that timeline it was something that was not possible it's possible because we also didn't make changes last year and so it put us in a different cadence around the renewal that allows for space which was something we didn't kind of have the luxury of before. Um and so you know um uh so you know we've tried to be very small around it and some of these just to be very transparent are not new changes that
104we propose like we've talked with schools around grad rate. I think one of the things that is challenging and I think we have to think about in terms of how we do the debriefing is that our um operator schools are mostly K8s K5s. So it is it impacts a much smaller group of schools and so when you're talking to them as a body that might not ma it's not mattering as much to um that as a large group as it is impact. So I think we're losing some of the voice of our secondary school. So that's one of the things we have to think about. But the beauty of um delaying the changes and saying, you know what, actually we don't have to make these changes um and we can do some more feedback with
105schools, it gives us that that that space that you're talking about. And again, just wanted to again applaud the the the communication, the listening to feedback. I think it will it's well received. I have one more small thing just because it's something else that I've heard and I want to dig into it a little bit uh just to understand it better. So, on the timeline, applications are due September 4th, 2025. Um, I've heard, and some of this is out of your control, um, but MSDE gets data back late in the summer sometimes and sometimes pushes that deadline. Is that deadline in our policy? Is it because we got to get the process kicked off? I mean, do you have the ability to push that back if data comes in late? And lastly, I guess from
106my understanding, how important is it if I'm submitting a renewal application for me to have all of that data to really or or is it one of those things where I can actually get most of the application done and it's not I'm trying to weigh and understand what I've heard about this deadline to understand how critical it actually is that that there's some space between getting the data and getting the application in. the timeline is sort of tight because we're also trying to make sure you have decisions before the choice process and there are a number of steps that we have to do once we have the data between getting the data and you being able to vote there's a number of things that have to happen in between um but I will say like
107we have pushed that date that's sort of the ideal but like if if the data comes back late we've um um sometimes just push like we did that last year. We had to push the deadline a little bit. Um depending on how late um um we sometimes have um added like an addendum, an ability for schools to submit uh a response to that data once they got it to be able to include it so we have the bulk of the application. Like schools know what their performance is. Um uh so they have access to all the things that we're looking at in renewal. It just may not look the same as in renewal which you know is partly why like with growth we consider moving some of these data points we move to absolute instead
108of like for um for absolute way of looking at it. Um sorry I'm trying to think about I'm trying to channel you like how to say this in a public friendly way. Um meaning like um a lot of our data points are comparative and so how you compare you might not know as much until you see it in a in a data table. Um but you are able to for a measure like grad rate where it's like you know is it 70%, is it 80%, like the measures rated on that you know you you know that before we even give you a data table you you you got like you had your data already. Um and so there are a number of measures that are like that but there are some where you know having
109comparison it's helpful schools actually get the data is embargled before we're able to release the data table so they also like these are these are public data so you they could do their own comparisons but there is some difference in how we look at it versus how other people look at it I'm not going to say yeah I mean I guess the only thing I would add is that we do try to stagger the release so that we can get them as much data as possible as soon as we So to your point, when we talk about later releases, it's typically because of the state assessment. So to, you know, to Angela's point, they may have access to the embargo data. It doesn't present it exactly the same way that we would present it to
110them. Soon as we get it and we're able to pull it together, we can provide that to them as an addendum. Depending on how, you know, their application has been written, we can also give them another opportunity to then speak to that specific set of data and what that contributes to an understanding around how they're performing. Again, we want all of it to be available as soon as possible, but um right now we have no reason to believe that we won't be able to do it. Um but again, I don't want to speak for the state. Um but that is what we're trying to do. We did get it earlier this year than last year last year. And so we hope we get it like you know the other assessment if we were in at
111the point where we started getting the data in August. So we should all pray on that uh so that we uh we have that as a you know it's a computerized test which theoretically you know get the data sooner u and so hopefully um but but we're respon we're trying to be responsive to that to schools. I think the other thing I want to say about that too is like in terms of how we're rating it. It doesn't matter when you get it. The rating is the rating on that. It's it is based on what that score says. There's nothing you can do that's going to change the score. What we want to make sure is in the fidelity to charter where we're looking at the overall application and what you're doing you can able
112to speak to that but you should already know what you're doing even before you see that data you should have a sense based on past years where your data you know there's not much more really to say because the data because of the data release if that what I'm saying makes sense. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Uh one question and two comments. Uh question is around conditions seeing the list of of schools that are coming up. Um you know there's a number that have conditions from before and my question is how are you anticipating presenting those conditions for those that had approvals with them? Uh I certainly would love to see a onetoone comparison of here was the condition and here's the degree to which they met it which I guess there's some space in
113the in sort of the commentary about the recommendation but it doesn't seem as prominent perhaps or as uh built into to how it's presented to the board for like a onetoone comparison. So just curious how you're thinking about conditions for the for schools generally but but having participated in the uh in the renewals of a number of these schools three years ago or coming up on three years ago uh I'm curious to to see how you're thinking about that. I think we did try to do that to be helpful and we can um follow up with um Dr. Jenkins to see if the way if there's a different way you want to see that presented than how we did um in the prior renewal. So we tried to make sure we like especially if the
114conditions are around data points. This is what it was when they got renewed. This is what it's been since. Um but if there's different ways that would be more helpful, we should we can um follow up offline to figure out how to do that. Great. No, that sounds great. And then my two comments, one is noting that there are only seven schools, which I say only seven, it's still a lot, but this this year we obviously had what 18. Um, I just would encourage from the very beginning of the school year perhaps uh opportunities to visit the schools for commissioners and just to like start that process as early as as we can um to to get as many opportunities for us out visiting them uh throughout the the start to to the renewal process.
115uh you know and beyond not not just visiting other schools then but but just noting that and then my my last comment um is on the discussions about changing the process. Uh I won't speak for other members of the board but I can imagine others would share the sentiment that I have which is I would love to be participating in some of those processes engaging more directly in that. I do think this is a this is a matter of governance in the process of how we are and it's it's a heavy responsibility that that the board does have in this process. So while there's a lot of other things that I would say are more managerial in nature and are not um uh sort of as as board involved perhaps or make sense to not
116be as as board involved. This is one that I would just elevate uh as an area for board uh engagement throughout the process. um especially as you are engaging with the broader set of stakeholders in this. Our um our methodology for getting feedback from the board on the changes has been to bring it to teaching and learning to to not be a presentation but to ask actually ask just like we did for each of the stakeholder groups what uh the board thinks about the changes which we you know we give like options A B C what do you think kinds of things. Um um and so I'm curious if that is it more so working with Dr. Jun so more members of the board come to that meeting or um if there's other ways that
117you're interested in participating in that process. Yeah, I can lift this up. This is um an area that the board has considerable interest in and so we may want to put our heads together as we approach the summer and into next school year thinking about how do we spend a little bit more time on this topic and getting a robust set of feedback not only from the board but also from our broader stakeholder community. So I just wanted to interject there because there's just been a lot of conversation around the opportunity to really shape and refine this and how does that you know mesh with our governance responsibilities. Thank you. That connects nicely I guess in that how do we have conversations about the vision and goal and hopes for charters and how they fit
118in with the rest of our portfolio. And I guess thinking a little bit about that when we are talking um for the service and support for students with disabilities and looking at the piloted element um and I guess just looking at how that new um item will be then compared with schools in the rest of the portfolio when you're looking at that level of kind of document tracking um and kind of outcomes like that is a great and brilliant thing and looking at how you can replicate that looking at what are the outcomes there and I guess looking that it will there be a similar parallel process kind of what is already in existence within our traditional schools and kind of what would be moving forward there not that our IEP chairs need any more
119work than they already have to be very clear but yes that wasn't a question right that was I guess I was there if the answer is no that's something that we should be talking about and thinking about that's fine too but I guess the question like are there addition like existing mechanisms that would par like what we're asking charters to do. Is there a similar mechanism that we are exa ex ask asking our traditional schools to also do because that gives us a point of comparison that we can compare the charter to the traditional schools andor also how are we replicating those practices and if we are seeing really brilliant creative practices coming out of that documentation in charters are we also asking that of our traditional schools and some of that is we're ask
120I understand we're asking of more of our charters that comes with some of the independence and funding But from a replication of best practices, how what does that look like? Yeah, I can go first. So, I think it's it's an interesting question partly because like at this point, we don't really know like what the pilot is going to teach us, right? So, I think we want to be open to like let's see what it tells us like maybe that does foster opportunity for sharing from what we're doing in this space that can be used in other spaces. I want to be careful about sort of making this assumption. is like, well, we just take it and we're going to replicate the process for the other schools because as it currently stands in terms of doing
121this type of an STR, this is not something that we're doing districtwide. So, it is specific to our renewal process at this point in time. That doesn't mean that we haven't historically like taken advantage of our lessons learned to be able to share and learn broadly, but I think there's a lot of, you know, let's see what comes of this. Um, but I think the intent around it for sure is like let's make sure that we're clear around what the bar is like what is the district's expectations around this and do we have evidence that the charters are actually meeting those expectations. So that's really how the SCR has been designed. It's really about having a framework that sets the standard and we're measuring to what extent does this data collection help us understand their
122ability to meet that standard if that makes sense. And we use frameworks for a lot of things that that and so it's a really important consideration because that's the way this process was designed to make sure that we were doing that. So even when we talk about making comparisons it's within this whole philosophy that says there's a standard but we want to contextualize how that standard is being met by looking within district. Yeah. And one thing I'll say about like the MSTE compliance review that kind of review happens across school types. So it's not um just chart orders, but we trigger it to happen at a particular point in time as an additional lens. Uh and then we consider if they've had other site visits that have come up organically through that process. Um and
123there's a lot of alignment to how we like look at the work of teachers, how we look at the work of principles with the school works review and like the five essentials. there's a lot of alignment in those different processes. So, um, so there's there, but it's not a onetoone as Chief Johns was sharing. Sorry about that. I want to thank Angela and I would thank um, Chief Jones for their presentation this evening and the work of um, our entire district. shows just the cross collaboration that does occur from multiple offices inside of the district to really support um our entire portfolio. Um so thank you both um this evening. Thank you. And I just want to quickly acknowledge um uh Tiffany Young on my staff um Chris Swan um Lea Boberine Aaron S and
124Britney Thompson who do a lot of the work the heavy lifting work. we get to look pretty while they're doing the heavy lifting. So, I just want to Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, we are going to take a three to five minute break because we have two more items that we do need to cover. Um, we're going to shift gears. We're going to talk a little bit about behavioral interventions policy JKA when we come back and we'll also hear from our student commissioner and wrap up for the evening. So, we'll reconvene in about 3 to five minutes just for a brief stretch break. Thank you. So, I'd like to grab our crew so we could get started, wrap up, finish up for the evening, list our few All right, we we are moving
125forward um to policy JKA. This is item 9.03 on the agenda for the evening. I'm sorry, 9.02 um behavioral intervention student discipline. Um so this policy come on up team. um did come through the policy committee and so I want to thank um um our chair of policy commissioner Espazito for um steering this through um the types of comments and questions that came from our um our board colleagues were really robust. Um, I want to remind the board that the readout along with any public comments are shared um, broadly with the entire board um, so that folks are aware of the kinds of conversations that were happening inside of the committee prior to this arriving um, here at the board for first reader. I'll turn it over to the team to lead us through. I'm
126have you go green? Yeah, there we go. Good evening everyone. Good evening. We are here this evening. My name is Lori Hines. I'm the director of student conduct and attendance and I'm joined by my colleague Michandra Worthy Lide. She has a new last name. Um from the office of special education. And so tonight we will be bringing you proposed updates to board policy JKA which is the behavioral interventions and student discipline policy. Um, it is not. Are they going to have purch Oh, here we go. It's coming up. There we go. There we go. Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you. And so this policy um aligns with uh priorities board priorities four and seven. Um priority four being that which are all of our stakeholders engage to help students um in student success in school. and
127priority seven where we work toward equity by implementing policies, practices, and procedures to help us have welcoming and inclusive academic as well as professional environments. And so JKA the policy is accompanied by five regulations JK R through JK R. There are proposed revisions to four of the five regulations um JK A through JK RD and you can see which one of those are there. Um these revisions are being proposed because there have been recent changes to Komar and we want to align our board policy with the changes to Komar. We also want to clarify what the uh process is for inschool suspensions. In our current policy, we have a very clear process for appeals um for short-term suspensions, long-term suspensions, extended suspensions, and so there is no clear process for inschool suspensions. And so we
128wanted to add that process um in the policy as well. And then lastly, we wanted to clarify how we respond when we are notified um of a reportable offense. And so those are our proposed changes. And so at this time I'm going to turn it over to Miss Shandra for the light. It's Hi, but it's okay. Hi. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Good. Good evening everyone. I will be providing updates on restraints and exclusion. Um, all schools are now required to have a school-based behavior response team, which is uh composed of two to four staff members, and they receive annual crisis intervention training. Uh, it they should have at least one administrator on the team, and it does not have to be the principal. It can be anyone that uh holds an administrative license in the
129school. Um, it should also include uh full-time city schools employees and no temporary employees. This year we have increased the frequency of the training sessions to allow schools more opportunities to be compliant. It's offered on most Tuesdays and Thursdays. Last year was only offered on Thursdays. So we're trying to accommodate the need um of the busy life of the school. Um the first 30 minutes of every training we cover the Komar changes to restraints and how to report. Um we also have staff members to sign off indicating that they are aware of the uh policy and how to report. We have uh transitioned to an online uh reporting system and that includes um all of the incidents and um details of the restraints along with witness statements and a signature page. And this is reported
130to MSDE annually and we check that weekly to make sure that we are not exceeding um the number of restraints that are allowed before additional reporting is required. Next slide please. We are also um proposing some revisions to be in alignment with KMAR to the following definitions or terms. uh section 504 plan, behavioral intervention plan, which is also referred to as a BIP, mechanical restraint, physical restraint, and serious bodily injury. And if you'd like to see further explanations of those uh terms, it's in the appendix. Next slide. We're proposing some uh revisions to exclusion, but sometimes people get exclusion and seclusion confused. So I just want to clarify for you seclusion is not allowed in city schools and exclusion is allowed and that's when a student is removed from their educational setting for a short
131period of time. The time period should not exceed 30 minutes and during that time period they are not receiving instruction or special education services. We are now, excuse me, adding language where staff must provide an opportunity for students to um return to a regular I mean to the regular uh classroom setting with strategies um where they have been um coached on how to self-regulate their own behavior. A lot of schools uh use the castle framework. It's a free framework and it teaches students uh how to become more self-aware, how to manage uh their emotions and their behaviors. um relationship skills and responsible decisionmaking. Um the staff members that are in the spaces where students are excluded uh they should act in um consistent um with consistent strategies for evidence-based traumainformed uh crisis intervention strategies. City
132Schools offers verbal deescalation strategy I mean training on Saturdays for all city school me uh staff members and we encourage school leaders to have all of their staff members to attend those trainings and they are offered two Saturdays a month. Next slide please. We do have new guidelines on um what is included with uh physical restraint. The previous language only referenced students with IEPs and BIPS. We are now including students with uh section 504 plans. We're also updating the deadlines for reporting restraints uh to parents and MSTE. Parents now must be notified within 24 hours of the restraint. Uh our city schools best policy um practice during our training sessions. We tell schools to inform parents immediately and the mode of communication to families are um indicated on the electronic reporting form when they report
133the restraint. Schools have four business days after the 10th incident of restraint to provide notice to the office of special education and then we have four days to notify MSDE uh of the excessive restraints that are occur occurring with a particular student. We also have 10 business days after the notice of the 10th restraint to provide recommendations to MSDE and to the schools. We've also um updated language about when the physical restraint should be removed. Previously, it referenced uh only um a 30 minute maximum time period for restraints. We now have added that the restraint should be discontinued when the student no longer possesses possesses a threat of imminent or serious physical harm. We are also um clarifying how to prevent restraints from happening uh in the future. We also inform schools that restraint should
134be used as a last resort. Um but the training that they go through through um crisis intervention training uh there's a module that um teaches them how to um deescalate and reflect to prevent the restraints from happening in the future. Next slide please. Now I'm going to turn it over to Lori. Thank you. Um so just a bit of an overview about recent or fairly recent updates to city schools practices. So in school year 2223 we did very intense stakeholder um sessions um with our stakeholders various stakeholders and we have stakeholder sessions every year. As a matter of fact, we are in the the midst of our stakeholder um feedback sessions now. But that year in particular, we had a lot of feedback and because of that feedback, we made several changes to our code
135of conduct. The code of conduct, the changes were implemented in school year 2324. And that summer of 23 in August at our operations institute, there was mandatory um training for our administrators and how to implement these changes within the code of conduct. So another proposed revision is around reportable offenses. And so this revision, it just clarifies and it explains how we respond when we're notified of a reportable offense. Um there has been a very extensive process that has been put in place in collaboration with different offices. So the office of um legal um the school's office, school police, um we all have come together and there was a as I stated an extensive process that has been designed. um when we receive a reportable offense. And so the first thing that happens is the student
136and their family, they come to a safety um risk meeting. And so at that meeting, it's determined whether that student poses what they did um outside of the district poses a safety risk to students in in city schools. Um and there is a safety plan that is developed. After that, there needs to be a determination to see if that child poses an imminent threat of serious harm at their particular school. And if so, then they would receive a new placement. And then there are some additional requirements if the student is arrested for rape or sexual um offense. But in all of that, um it's important to know that there is an appeal process and that appeal process takes place um if the the parent or the student wishes um for both the safety plan and
137the um if they pose a imminent threat and they are assigned to a different school. And so all of this language is aligned um with Komar. administrators were trained again at the operations institute at the beginning of this school year around the um plan and then again once the school year started because the the plan was really flushed out and so they received a more intense training um once the school year began around the reportable offense process. So in JK RB, which is our student suspension and expulsion regulation, um JK ARB that accompanies JKA, we added language, as I stated before, to clarify that in school suspension, um appeals process. We also put a process in where parent or guardians can appeal um to if they are not in agreement with the inschool suspension then
138they can make an appeal to the chief of school's office within 10 days and then the principal supervisor um which we call the write a written response to the appeal um within 5 days of receiving the appeal. And then lastly, if the parent or guardian is still not in agreement with the IED's decision, then they can follow board policy BLA and they can um they can appeal to the board with that process. And then lastly, if administrators, because for extended suspensions and long-term suspensions, administrators must call into the office of student conduct and attendance to receive approval for those types of suspensions. And so if they are not in agreement with our offic's decision, then they can escalate it um to the chief of schools office. And so there's a process that has been added
139into the the policy to document that appeal process. We have had extensive stakeholder engagement and feedback around these proposed revisions. Um this is just a timeline of some of the um engagements we've had. We've gone and we've presented um both in person and virtually um with several groups. We just had a um a virtual meeting with the public justice center um the office of the public defender disability rights Maryland. It was a whole um group of our stakeholders and they um we had a discussion virtually but then they also provided us written feedback and then um the other stakeholders um groups that you see we have presented at some of their meetings as well. And then this is just a summary um that you can look um at your own time of responses to feedback
140that we have received. So as I stated um some of the groups submitted written feedback to us and so we always want to respond to the feedback that we receive and we take um we take that feedback very seriously. Um before I came to this office, it was more of a compliance thing around, you know, feedback. And so they would say, "Okay, um I know three principles." And so they would reach out to the three principles and say, "Okay, what do you think about the the code of conduct or this policy?" And they would, you know, give them their their opinion and it was like a check. Okay, we got it from the stakeholders and can you ask three of your teachers to give us some feedback, right? And so when I came, I really
141wanted organic feedback and so I opened up the process. So we collaborated with BTU and so we had a forum where I went to BTU and all teachers, all teachers were invited. So we want everyone's feedback, not just a select um few feedbacks. And so we have a total of six stakeholder feedback sessions. Um since the pandemic, we have done um them virtually. And so we have conducted five of them. And our final um feedback session will be held on this Thursday and that one is for administrators. That will be our final feedback session for the code of conduct this coming Thursday. And that is just more of the um responses to the feedback we received. And then lastly um our timeline on February the 18th we presented to the policy committee um of the
142board. Tonight we are presenting first reader and then as we continue because we are continuing to receive feedback around this policy and so June the 10th we will be back for second reader. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate the work that you've done on that. Before I open up to our board colleagues, I just want to defer to our policy chair with anything that she'd like to lift up this evening. Yeah, I just uh wanted to say like I appreciate that you all reached out to all those groups and incorporated their feedback. I think that's really important so that you know they don't have to try to get us to move in a different direction like after the fact. Um and also you said that you're in the midst of like um getting
143feedback right now too. So as you collect all that like would you be able to like let us know like if if there was an improvement from like past changes that you all made um that resulted in like different feedback? Sure. Or like more positive feedback. Okay, I'll go. Um, I had a question about the restraints. Um, using disclaimer, I'm a special needs mom. Um, so I have a um question about it with students who may exhibit behavior that maybe they may need restraints. Um, do have we like kind of reached out to parents directly around changes or to even let parents know that there's a possibility if their child exhibits a certain behavior in school that they may be restrained. Have we done that level of work? No. But every time a restraint is
144proposed to be on a student's um IEP, the parent is invited to the meeting and they can agree or disagree with the uh decision that's made and they can file an appeal. But the city schools does reserve the right to um also get approval to uh continue with the restraint if it's deemed necessary for the student as the only resort that we can use um to keep the child and other students safe during the school day. But the parent is invited um to give their input on whether or not the restraint should be used. But I want to highlight that we always use restraints as a last resort. We try many other strategies before um resorting to a restraint. And are those the only students that so let's say it's like a fighter or something.
145Is it ever a situation where like school police might have to restrain a student if they're really really um you know like I don't know the at this point in the day I'm lost for the um the proper term but like if students are fighting and they feel like they have to like you know pull them back is that ever a situation with just um typically development um students. So um to intervene in a fight that's allowed but a temporary uh holder just to hold them right that's not considered something that we need to report. Um but school police in restraints are the respons primary responsibility of the school and the school team and school police intervenes if needed if something escalates to a criminal situation. Thank you. You're welcome. Commissioner Rooks. Thank you. Um
146I'm not sure if vice share had already asked this question but is there like I wouldn't even say for only special needs um I would say for all students technically um some students do have anger issues or other issues that they might be occurring on that day. So other than restraints, I know the restraints is the last resort, but is there a strategy that you all are going to parents and asking them, oh, what should we do when this when your child is um having a bad day or what should we plan for just just for future references just in case? So many schools um engage in social and emotional um strategies to support students who may need additional um behavioral uh interventions. Um all schools are supposed to be engaging in positive behavioral interventions.
147Um we in the office of special education monitor um referral data. So we we monitor also days of removed. So if we notice that there's a pattern of a student being overly suspended or overly referred, we reach out to the school and we meet with the IEP chair and if it's um a general education student, we collaborate with the um special education um school success leaison, there's a new uh term for it, but also the other people that are supporting the school uh for general ed students. We also collaborate with the wholeness office who will go in and provide additional strategies around how to support the student but it's the students receive um support based on an individual need uh whether they are a student with disabilities or a general education student. I hope that
148answered your question. Yeah, I did. Thank you ancestor. Uh hi. Uh two questions I think. First of all, I wanted to thank you for your um just persistent engagement with people. I got to sit on a couple of these sessions and I appreciated it. Um I think also just looking with the work around restraint and seclusion, the state and also the district has done a really good job about thinking about how are we succinctly communicating with parents realizing that it is a very structured, very legal process that is not necessarily very accessible. And so I guess in that light looking at the lessons learned in terms of the suspension process um kind of what's what's been taken what steps have been taken to look to improve communication with families not just on how to appeal
149but also communicating like what is the process, what is the expectations, what are your options for additional services because ultimately the goal is that we have kids in school learning um in an environment like you're saying Dylan that is like that works for everyone. And so I guess looking at just what are the mechanisms that have been of how we're using to connect with parents and communities and students to um walk them through um challenging periods for everyone involved. Um I used to be um a school leader and so as a school leader I would have sessions where we monthly where we would invite um parents up and and I'm speaking from my own personal experience because I still know that schools engage in a very similar process where um they invite parents up and
150we were a school that focused on social and emotional learning. So we u made sure that we got parents input on anything that we were going to pilot at the school. um we didn't have a whole lot of funding. That's why I referred to the free uh resource that many city schools use, which is the castle framework. And we would um provide learning opportunities um that focused on one of the components, one of the five components on a monthly basis where we practice what our climate should look like. So I can only I can speak for myself as a former school leader. Um I went from a school that um in my early years we suspended students but in my later years suspension was not an option because we utilize the student wholeness room. We
151utilize peace corner uh peace calming corners um and we just trained our students how to self-regulate their own behaviors with it a perfect environment. We still had some disagreements but there were minimal fights and we were a restorative environment. So the wholeness office does uh provide um many strategies for school leaders including uh restorative practice training um where they're teaching schools how to minimize um behavioral incidents for students. Thank you. I I guess and maybe this is less of a question and more of a comment to kind of follow up on later is but thinking about like how are we actually using the documentation and communication plat's a form letter for lots of this like there's a documentation burner but like how are we using the tools of communication that are being sent home around
152suspension to be able to engage families and students so that it doesn't become a reoccurring trend. So there are um forms that we have for Baltimore City that are Comar says that we have to have like proper documentation, right? So it's very important first and foremost that we give students their due process, right? And then after they are given their due process, part of that due process is giving them the paperwork to take home. And so there is a a student letter and it explains, you know, all of their rights to them. and the administrator has to review this with the student and they have to sign it before you know leaving for their suspension. There is also a parent letter. So there's a parent conference that happens at the school level. Um and the
153parent gets the that documentation as well. And then if it is an extended or a well not not long-term but an extended suspension, the family has to come here to district office to the office of student conduct and attendance. and there is a um a hearing that is held and so we have worked very hard in our office to have that process be um a very restorative process. All of our team members have been trained in um restorative practices and that was one of the office's goals right was to be um very restorative and not have this be a punitive. So oftent times, you know, children are coming in and they're it's like it's a bad thing, but we turn it around and it's like a a good thing for a fresh start um for
154them. And so that documentation is, you know, sent home with them and everything is documented. We also have a um database in infinite Infinite Campus is our database, but there is a behavioral module within um Infinite Campus that everything has to be documented step by step. So what date and what time was the parent conference held? When was a phone call made home, you know, to the the the parent? Um and every step of the suspension process is um is documented um there. And then just for further documentation um again there is an approval process from our office. Um so actually Komar only requires that prior approvals um be given for extended suspensions which are suspensions over 10 days. So 11 to 44 or expulsions which are 45 or more days. However um our our
155policy JKA has gone a step further and the reason that we did that was so that it would be more equity um amongst the suspensions for long-term. So for 4 to 10, schools also must get approval for that um suspension because there was just too much inequity. Like school A this was happening and they would get four days and then school B the same thing was happening and that student would get 10 days. And so to try to even you know the um gram and to kind of give a norm then that's why we have the approval of the long-term suspension as well. Yes, he was. What's that? Okay, two quick questions. Thank you. Um, one on the in school suspensions, if a student has already been sus, if a student has served their three-day
156in school suspension and then the appeal comes down and it's overturned, what happens? I mean, they've already served it. So, what happens in that case? Yep. So they have already served it and so it is rescended and so it is like kind of wiped clean um from their record. So we take the suspension marking away and we change it to an excuse absence and then that suspension if it's rescended is taken off of their disciplinary record. But there's it's not on their record. I mean, they've already served the time out of school, so we can't have like we can't mark them present, but we do um mark it as an excused absence and then we remove it from the record. Yeah. I mean, I was more thinking about the three days of I mean, yes,
157the record is important, but also thinking about the three days of school they miss, but So, so because it's an in school, I mean, whether it's in school or out of school, they still have to have their classwork and assignments. So, right, they would not be, you know, missing there. Yeah. It's it's not the same as as as sitting in class, but I understand that the constraints. I mean, it's, you know, an appeal can, you got to get the paperwork together. Someone has to hear it. It makes makes a lot of sense. And just like for the record to let you know, students cannot serve more than 5 days of out of school suspension per semester and they cannot serve more than 3 days of inschool suspension per incident. So, let's say, you know, I
158got suspended um in September and that was for like 2 days and then I got another like 3 days. that would be it for that first semester. I could not be and there's no more than 10 days in a total school year that a student can serve in school suspension. Thank you. Um the the other question was on the other end of the spectrum uh as you're getting feedback. I'm curious if you've heard feedback from either students or uh teachers or school leaders who feel like they don't actually have the tools that they need in their toolbox to keep their classrooms orderly so that students can learn or keep their schools places where uh you know the focus is on student learning and if so what is the response to that? Do you think that's
159an implementation thing? Do you think there's something in policy that we need to look at? But I'm curious if you get that feedback. So yes, so my office deals mainly with the compliance of suspensions, but our in the same office are our friends um from climate and culture. And so there are like specialists, we have climate coaches um if we, you know, have that, you know, have that issue. Um there are others that will go out to support schools if they are experiencing challenges with behavior in their school. Commissioner, I'm sorry, please. No, and I did just want to add that I think some context is important and the work that um Lori or I should say director Hines um has done with the um wholeness team around the school climate I think has been
160important particularly coming out of the pandemic and I do just want to put a pin for everyone that a lot of the changes that I think we thoughtfully implemented and adjusted did was because of the extreme behaviors that we had coming out of the pandemic. And I just want to be straightforward about that. I don't think I think Lori has been great in making sure you know along with Chief Sivven that we don't go overboard but I do think when she described the work that we did with school leaders the training there was a response to frankly what schools across the country and across the state were experiencing and frankly parent feedback that we were receiving exponentially that restorative should not mean that victims of violence are tolerated and that came from our parent community
161that was not. So I think one that's an important pin to put in this and then I think the other piece has been the focus work we've done with the wholeness team and frankly the schools team and we've had discussions about this that actually school climate right has to be the starting place and I think the work that that team has done that you just heard referenced is more of that preventative work. So it I will just be forthright that it has been a balancing act. I think staff has done a very good job at wanting to make sure that we are restoring young people, that we are not tossing young people away. But frankly, we were hearing and and I took a lot of those calls from I I had community people coming to
162me on the side and saying, "Look, you you you know, you giving kid a one-day suspension, they're coming out here laughing at you all." And that's what I heard when I was going to barber shops and every place else. And so in the reset, what we thought was important was not to have it just be a punitive response, but to reset based on some of the conditions like group fights, I think is a great and we worked with legal, we worked with school leaders who did not feel like they had a tool in their toolbox to handle seven kids on one, which is different than two kids in a hallway. But with that, I think we're also committed, which is what we're seeing, is this targeted support for school leaders around what does a positive
163school climate look like so that you're not having those incidents so that you can actually frankly have more of the environment that I experienced at REACH or the change, frankly, in Patterson High School over the last two or I mean, I'll just name real schools that had real issues that when the culture and climate were worked on proactively, it left far less room, right, that then people were trying to cover up with suspension. So, we've worked really hard, but I want to be transparent that we were we were balancing and are still balancing and I know, you know, our newest commissioner knows from his time on PEAP, this was a very big issue, right, for a number of our parents for many years who felt as if, you know, restorative meant kids had no consequences
164and my kid could get beaten up or targeted and nothing would happen. So we've tried to be very intentional with balancing both hearing our community. I think the engagement piece, you know, that that Miss Hines um and Ms. I got to get your Is that okay? Hyde and Miss Hyde were describing I think is that balancing act that we've had. But I think it's important for the board to know um that it sounds really nice the way they put it out here, but the amount of work and detailed balancing that they're doing that their colleagues in wholeness are doing and frankly the whole school's office has been doing is a lot of work. It's not just everybody, you know, we just restore and move on. It it's been defining what that means and having to,
165you know, having to build that proactively. So, I just wanted to say that because you two sitting up there makes it sound so like, oh yeah, and we just, you know, D and it's not that. It's not. It's real. And like I said, I had parents stopping me at Trader Joe's. Like, what are you doing? My this or that. And I'm like, look, I was just trying to get, you know, my grocery shopping done, but I'm stopping because it it was in real time that we were feeling it. But I think it's a credit to the team that coming out of that post-pandemic um really frankly challenging time, we have tried to recalibrate and reset and hold both things true while still restoring kids to where they need to be. So to piggyback on Dr.
166S, it is like she said, it's not an eitheror and that's what we really try to emphasize. It's a both and. Um so we are going to implement restorative practices and methods but sometimes you're going to get suspended as well. There is a con we call it a we don't call it a consequence we call it a disciplinary response. So there is going to be a disciplinary response but we are still going to restore. even afterwards. And so we have a whole new position um our safety mediation specialists, right? And so when there is an issue and the school it's escalated beyond the school, then there is a whole position here that the um school the administrators and the families come here and there's a person who can sit down and mediate the issue before
167it can possibly get to a a suspension. And so that has been very helpful as well. I appreciate the both of those responses. The reason I ask is because I think policy policy it's sometimes hard to get the balancing right act right in policy there it's just words on a paper and it tells you what you can and can't do and I think in some cases we have situations where um the policy needs to be a little more restrictive because you have folks making decisions for kids that are not fully upholding their rights that they should be h that they should have and in other cases I think you have situations where uh you know students quite quite frankly aren't getting enough um disciplinary action because uh students don't feel like they're able to to
168sit in a classroom and learn. So, it's a the reason why I ask is because I think you know it's just hard to get right in policy. Um but I appreciate the nuance of the answer. Did you have a followup? Oh, I just I appreciated the context and and the thoughtful work that went into it into just the evolution of the work. I think one of the premises I thought of your question was really around engagement um of teachers and informing this first reader or second reader and BTU is normal a normal part of the cadence right of engagement um and just wanting to confirm that you had talked to parents students as a part of this process or are in the process of doing so. I'd like to wrap it up with Commissioner Kinyatta
169Bay for final Thank you. Um, real quick, um, and this is just an observation from living in a classroom dayto day. Okay. And I know there are tears before it reaches a certain level, even suspension, you know, you have your teacher, then you have your APs, and then you have your principal. Um but sometimes I don't see the delineation between and there are two different categories. There's students that have uh learning disabilities that we give an IEP to that helps them get through hurdles that in their learning process. Then we have the that is a it their reaction is a little bit different because it is trauma uh related in it in in its initiation. Um, is there a clear historical delineation? Because as as I know historically they're groups, you know, that that get
170more of the uh suspensions, more of the restraints, more of you know, how have we equaled made that playing field a little more even? Yeah, because you know I mean holistic uh thought processing is um was was already being initiated in the school system in Baltimore City before the pandemic you know and um it was growing pandemic kind of wiped it out for a second and then it's reinstituted now have we made a healing in that historical inequity in how we administer these um um reactionary um uh actions. Thank you. So, Miss Worthy Hides office and my office, we work very closely together. So, every time there is a suspension that is called into my office and the student um receives special education services or has an IEP um it goes down that same suspension
171goes down to her office. So, what was happening um previously was that like let's say a student was proposed for an extended suspension. So, we have to hold our meeting by the 10th day. So, it would that's already almost you know 10 days. then they would come and then they would find out that oh this wasn't implemented from the IEP or that wasn't implemented and that was the whole reason for the the suspension and so it was like later on cuz the student had already you know been suspended for all of those days. So to alleviate that, we created a position. It's a compliance um discipline person in her office. Before we had one, now we have three. And so as soon as the suspension is called into us, it goes down to her as
172well. And they begin looking at the case. They begin reviewing the IEP, looking at if the student has a BIP or 504. A manifestation meeting by Komar has to be held by the 10th day. But our best practice for Baltimore City Schools because our suspension hearings have has to happen by the 10th day, they have to hold their manifestation meeting by the fifth day. Okay? And so by the time they get to our suspension hearing, sometimes the suspension is rescended because we know that it is a manifestation of their disability and then the office of special ed will work with the school um you know to implement supports um you know for that student because they can't be you know suspended because their IEP was not implemented. So that has really like cut back on
173the the length and the time of students who should not be suspended because they have a disability that was not addressed or their you know their accommodations or their you know a bit was not you know put in place. Um and so that's really cut back on the the time the length of time that students are spending out of school that should not be suspended. And we also receive um a weekly uh student with disability um discipline tracker um where we're able to monitor um referrals. We're able to monitor suspensions. Um the team of three um specialists that Miss Director Hines referred to uh weekly um we receive a compliance report that flags students that have IEPs but also students with 504 plans. So we're able to track the any disciplinary incident for those students.
174Um we send out communication. We monitor in increments of five, eight, and 10 days removed. So before they even get to uh director Hines's office, we are monitoring um the disciplinary incidents for those students and the specialists reach out to the IEP chair uh to provide some additional supports. And if it's a student that has a BIP, um, we dive deeper into the BIP to make sure that it's aligned to the behaviors that the student is dis is displaying. You're welcome. Well, thank the team very much for um thoughtful presentation, the work that you guys have done, and we look forward to seeing you again soon for second reader June. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um just want to make sure our colleagues know um on the board um as well as the public
175um at the request of our student commissioner, we are going to move his comments forward um to our May 13th meeting which will be more aligned with an upcoming event. Um so we're happy to accommodate that. Uh but we'll move you earlier in the agenda uh because I I'm really looking forward to hearing uh more about ASBC general election. Um, we have a couple of upcoming events that I do want to put on everybody's um, radar. So, actually, I want to turn it to Commissioner Ames Messenger for one that's transpiring this week. All right. To all the people mainly who work here, um, we have a reminder coming up that the mayor's office of children and family will be hosting a virtual information session. Uh, we have a seat that will be opening up for
176the school board and we are looking for they are looking for applicants. So, there'll be current commissioners there to ask questions and talk about the work of the board um and how you can be a part. Um it will be Thursday, April 24th from 5:30 to 6:30. Um there's information on the website um or you can email the school uh school board email. Excellent. Thank you. And I just want to turn it to Commissioner Muhammad uh for the safety and wholeness listening tour coming up next week. The board will be holding a listening tour uh targeting safety and wholeness. If this is important to you, which it should be important to us all, we'll be at Patterson High School on the 30th at 5:30. Uh we hope to see everyone there. And if you were
177on the fence about coming out or not, uh we'll be serving dinner. So come on out and have your voice be heard to the entire board and know that this is a session that when your voice is heard, we have to respond in writing. So this is your opportunity to have public comment that that does not have a clock associated to it. So, we will see you at Patterson Park. Uh, excuse me, Patterson High School. I love Patterson Park, too. But we'll see you at Patterson High School on the 30th of this month at 5:30. Thank you so much, Christian Muhammad. And we'll be back here on May 13th. Um, particularly focusing on our budget um vote along with um other important items that will come up that day. Is there a motion to adjourn
178tonight's meeting? Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Second. Uh, all in favor by signaling I. I. Thank you so much. We'll see you guys again soon.