001as we kick off our meeting this evening we'd like to take a moment just to acknowledge and we'll talk a little bit more about women's History Month um later today and some uh of our Crossroads intersections our Scholars our namesakes of schools um as well as the many many contributions of of women across our community so I want to thank you all for joining us um I'd like to uh actually want to remind folks who are online if you haven't done so please mute your phone anyone who do does not mute their phone may be muted by the call moderator or removed from the call so additionally if you're not a board member of the CEO and her staff we ask that you please turn off your video for uh tonight unless called upon I'll
002Now read a roll call of the board uh to identify who is on the call please identify yourself first before speaking for the record and I'll go through the roll call for each vote this evening uh Vice chair Parker absent this evening commissioner Ames messenger Ames messenger present good evening thank you commissioner messenger commissioner koi is absent I believe um commissioner Esposito commissioner Esposito present thank you commissioner kinat Bay thank you commissioner Muhammad might be joining us commissioner reading linger reading linger present thank you commissioner Rooks commissioner Rooks present thank you commissioner Slater Harrington commissioner Slater Harrington present thank you and I am also present was there a motion to reopen the meeting so moved atpo thank you commissioner esposo is there a second thank you all in favor commissioner am messenger yes commissioner Esposito
003yes commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner reading linger yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Slater Harrington yes thank you and I'm also in favor this motion passes Our Moment of Silence this evening will be read by commissioner kinat Bay I would like to take the time to recognize the passing of city school students each of these individuals were a part of our school community ities they will be remembered fondly by the greater City Schools Community tonight we send our deepest condolences to their friends and families Frederick Douglas High School number 450 doit Tre Hickman dantree Hickman was a ninth grader at Frederick Douglas High School he was well liked as a Young Man Who Loved to play sports and was interested in biology and history dond Trey will be greatly missed by his family school community and
004friends at the William S Bear School number 301 winter Nicholls winter Nicholls joined bear during the 2017 to 2018 school year at the age age of three from the very beginning she brightened out days with her infectious smile her laughter and Giggles always up for a challenge she enjoyed engaging with both her classmates and the adults around her however she also had a unique way of expressing her disapproval her loving look when ever interacting with anyone winter worked very hard during all her therapy sessions and was a joy looked forward to in her return but sadly we lost her on February 5th at the age of 10 we are grateful that we had the privilege of knowing her vibrant personality and the love she shared with all of us over the past seven years will
005the William S Bear School number 301 Zariah mcgow Zariah mcgow also joined a bear during the 2017 2018 school year at the age of three she was a quiet student who always took time to observe her surroundings if you were fortunate enough to receive one of her Smiles or smirks it was a truly special moment it was a reminder of how beautiful life could be she worked hard on her IP objectives and always attempted to look at the choices presented to her let us take the time of Silence to remember these students thank you thank you so much commissioner kinat Bay I'd like to take the moment to welcome our five Cadets from Polytechnic Institute to lead us through this next portion welcome e I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
006America order CL good Jo me extending a round of applause like to thank Diana Richie um who's our left rifle Cadet Arvin gur Ramos are holding a flag Cadet Leia rose on the Maryland flag Cadet Evan Maddox on the right flag and Cadet Luis banoa who is our commander this evening um very important to have these celebrations and opportunities to see our young people National jrc app a motion to approve the prior Open Session summaries so moved asito thank you commissioner SPO is there a second second Rooks thank you commissioner Rooks all in favor commissioner Ames messenger Ames messenger yes thank you commissioner Esposito yes thank you commissioner kenat Bay kenat Bay yes thank you commissioner I see if commissioner Muhammad joined us no commissioner re linger yes thank you commissioner Rooks yes thank you
007commissioner sler Harington yes and I'm also in favor this motion passes is there a motion to approve the closed session summaries so moved kyat Bay thank you is there a second second as Pito thank you all in favor uh commissioner messenger yes thank you commissioner Esposito yes thank you commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner linger yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Slater Harrington yes thank you and I am also in favor this motion passes so once again I'd like to welcome everybody to our March 11th board meeting um for women's History Month it's a time where we reflect on the women who Inspire us with their courage their wisdom and their compassion throughout history women have been the driving force behind progress change and Innovation their strengths and achievement improv many facets of Our Lives to kick
008up the celebration of women's History Month the district created a web page entirely devoted to the women whose names and Legacies intertwin with the cultures of our schools uh visit the city school's website to learn more about the historical women such as Alice G Pender hus who this facility is named after Mary Rodman Katherine Johnson and more um we expect more amazing roll outs um for women's history the mons coming want to turn it over for the second part of my board chair comments this evening to um commissioner laer to take us through an update on um our CEO search thank you chair and good evening everyone good evening everyone didn't know if I was by myself over here good to see you all um I would like to take the opportunity just to update
009the public on uh our CEO search process and uh as everyone knows we have committed to an open um and transparent process and to bringing the public uh along the way for all steps of the process um if we could uh queue up the slides thank you go to the next slide please I am working on it right now I thought it was showing give me one more second problem um and I will go ahead and get started without the slides uh and you can just sort of C it up as we move along um but as uh folks know there are three I'll do a little bit of a recap and then I will give you uh a quick update um as far as the recap is concerned you know there are three guiding
010principles that we are uh holding true to throughout this process um the first is clear communication and transparency so as soon as we have information that we are able to share about the search uh that we can share publicly we commit to sharing it with the public the second is stakeholder input we want to make sure that as we are conducting the search we hear loud and clear what the members of our community want out of our next CEO uh and so we will engage in a series of uh Community engagement focused um events where we can hear from various stakeholders in uh in the Baltimore Community about what we want out of our next CEO um and then finally we commit to a thoughtful transition uh and we've already started this by starting the
011process early as we know uh this transition won't occur until next June from next June to next July so we've got ample time to be able to do uh just that see the slides are queued up thank you very much uh Tenisha we can go to the next slide there are three main phases of the search process um the first uh has to do with profile development that's where we'll be um developing the profile of the next CEO who the right person is to lead the school system into its next era uh and of course that will be highly dependent on the input that we get from the community the second phase will be uh candidate Recruitment and obviously we'll be working with uh you know with with a reputable National partner to help us
012Source the best candidates that we possibly can it will be search we ask the public to make sure that all mics are muted just so that we don't have any interference thank you all right um so we're going to conduct a national uh search the the candidate recruitment will uh will Encompass um the entire country uh and finally the Final Phase will be interviews and selection and so there will be a very thoughtful process laid out for interviewing candidates uh and finally landing on um the next CEO of Baltimore city schools which will happen uh in July of 2026 so more than a year from now um to come back to the process so the first phase of the process of developing a profile is the selection of a national search firm um and we
013this board committed to engaging a national search firm and helping us conduct this process uh many months ago uh and we are upholding that commitment uh and the updates tonight have to do with that um if you could go to the next slide please so the first thing thing that we've done as a board um is we have retained a Communications firm to make sure that our communication throughout this process is clear it's transparent and it happens at regular occasions um you can go to the next slide please Tenisha uh the second thing we did was um release an RFP uh so that um proposals could be submitted from firms from across the country uh firms that meet the minimum bar of having LED these types of searches before uh and uh um are committed
014represent themselves as committed Partners to city schools in this process um and where we are now is we're in the process of taking the month of March to review the proposals that have been submitted it's a very thorough process uh there's vetting that happens uh at the schools level and then the committee uh is going to take the time to read every single proposal uh ask questions of the proposals that have been submitted um to those firms and uh uh and interview them as necessary to finally decide on uh one firm to work with City Schools to lead this National search U that decision is going to happen sometime in the month of April and then depending on when that decision happens either in April or in May um the full board will vote on
015a contract with the firm that has been selected and then uh that will really kick off the rest of the process uh in Earnest which is going to be uh starting in the late spring of this year and go through the various phases that I indicated earlier um that is the extent of the update I do if you could go to the next the last slide Tanisha um I do want to remind folks that we have a dedicated email address um for folks who have questions questions or comments or have any feedback about the process uh input into the next CEO um any parts of this process we've got a dedicated email that email is CEO search as soon as uh April thank you very much chair thank you so much um and I appreciate
016that so um as commissioner R long shared um this work that is transpiring um is very much so takes the full effort of our entire board and so we want to make sure that the public is aware as we move through these various stages um with information and so while it seems like just a little information is being shared at this point um we uh recognize the full um uh expertise of our board as well as City School staff who are supporting us through this process and so we'll be back with other updates um regarding um the search I also want to take a moment to acknowledge um Tina hi card who is sitting in as acting Chief of Staff this evening we appreciate that uh she's standing in uh for the next couple of
017board meetings um and we'll be in this role in her capacity it's actually much more in Dr will house but I thought uh we do appreciate the opportunity to engage with uh Chief High cupboard um serving the board and serving the greater Baltimore city schools community so thank you yeah so for gifts and donation the board um acknowledges a monetary donation um books related Services I'm sorry books related resources book collections and skyberry licenses valued at 36273 from Reading us fundamental and that concludes our gifts and donations as evening so we want to thank um our community for those donations that are important for our Scholars and schools is there a motion to approve the appeals and hearings so move despo thank you is there a second second can Bay I'll take commissioner Kenyata Bay
018all in favor commissioner Ames messenger Ames messenger yes thank you commissioner espacito yes thank you commissioner kinata Bay yes thank you commissioner reading linger yes thank you commissioner Slayer Harrington yes thank you and I am also in favor this motion passes I'll now review the consent agenda board colleagues please let me know if you'd like an item removed and please State your question for staff uh 6.01 gifts and donations I am going to pull item 6.02 for a question from staff and my uh my question specifically for staff is to provide an update to the public and to the board on the reach field plans and the allocation associated with that item 6.03 FY 25 quarter 2 budget amendments we are going to pull that item specifically for vote this evening as well item 6.04
019Hamet Hill policy FKA waiver request item 6.05 school year 25 and school year 26 District calendar uh I do have a question about that are we voting on this year and next year's calendar yeah those two calendars will go together this evening so um we can provide if you want some more clarity from board staff we can provide that this evening but the full Board calendar will be made available once we approve that this evening okay thanks um commissioner kyat did you have a question okay yeah so just for clarity for our entire public so following the vote tonight this will be specifically um for changes related to the motion that the board approved and prior board meeting uh related to school year 2526 and school year 26 27's Calendar um item 12.01 uh Baltimore
020Symphony Orchestra excuse me chair yes real quick question we are voting on the calendar in two parts is what you're saying no U the calendar so it'll pass on consent this evening okay so it'll be if it's not pulled specifically so those two calendars are being looped together tonight based upon the motion that was was approved by the board in the prior meeting okay yeah thank you very much no no problem want to make sure it's very clear for all of our stakeholders I appreciate the questions um so that calendar will be released um following this evening thank you 12.01 is going to be the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Incorporated item 14.01 is United data Technologies all right hearing nothing else other than the two that I pulled yes I'm sorry I would also like to
021to pull the um the item you pulled I didn't quite hear your question yeah so just for an update from uh staff on the particulars of where we St with a reach partnership and um the associated budget that's allocated the fun okay great thank you um so we'll take public comment and if there are additional items that board colleagues would like pulled this evening based upon p uh public comment we'll come back to that so I'd like to turn it over to our student colleagues at asbc I believe Taylor filing um is going to uh tailing friling Taylor is going to present on behalf of asbc so I don't know if this is video or in person this evening welcome either one is fine hello oh okay good Mo good evening everyone my name is
022Taylor Fring Taylor I am the sophomore class president at Western High School as well as ASC BC's lgbtq diversity Le aison today I will provide you with updates about the work asbc has been doing to develop student leaders and Advocate on behalf of city school students um okay just last week asbc hosted its winter General Assembly students from 42 elementary middle and high schools participated in student-led workshops 30 different student facilitators LED 13 workshops on topics like communication advocacy writing responsibility use of artificial intelligence and more thank you to the members of the board who attended and to board chair Sally for providing opening remarks as I speak students from 24 of asbc member schools are getting settled in at the Maryland Associated student Congress convention in Ocean City these students will deepen their skills
023through workshops vote for their state level student representatives and make connections with student leaders across the state of Maryland ASC BC's diversity committee has also continued its Works towards Equity within the high school choice process we recognize that the policy of school choice and our structure of entrance criteria schools creates a system of educational advantages and disadvantages for students in City Schools as a small practical step towards empowering students to navigate the system ASC BC's diversity commit committee coordinated a high school choice panel with sixth and seventh grade students at Franklin Square on February 19th a group of high schoolers representing five different high schools spoke with students about the range of great High School offerings they can choose from and what they need to do to prepare I will close by lifting up some
024of the actions ascb asbc has taken to Advocate on behalf of all city school students asbc executive board members have been in Annapolis to attend and speak at rallies in support of blueprint for Maryland's future and better MTA service for City residents on February 19th three of our executive board memb members gave testimony during a during a joint Joint Committee hearing in opposition to Senate Bill 429 and House Bill 504 a bill in Maryland's General Assembly that threatens the blueprint from Maryland's future and the financial resources that are critical for students in Baltimore City and across the state of Maryland they spoke about the progress City schools have made under the blueprint and the way they see this in their classrooms and schools each day and they encourage legislators to not to not turn back
025this process 35 members of ASC BC's General Assembly traveled to Annapolis again for our legislative advocacy day this was a day of advocacy and education students got the opportunity to have a Q&A session with Senator Corey McCrae listing in on a budgeting and Taxation Joint Committee hearing and observe the Senate and House Chambers members of ASC BC's executive board will be returning to Annapolis to Rally in support of the blueprint again on March 17th we urge other students parents and community members listening tonight to join us in the final push to protect the blueprint students in Baltimore and across the state of Maryland deserve a high quality fully funded education that can equi us to become not just the leaders of today but the leaders of tomorrow and the days after that thank you for
026your time and consideration thank you so much Taylor and we'll be talking U commissioner Rooks is going to be leading a little bit more in-depth discussion on uh the general assembly later this evening so thank you thank you thank you it's my honor and pleasure to be there um I'm going to turn it over to uh Baltimore teachers and our colleagues who are joining us welcome welcome good evening board Commissioners Dr Santa's and the rest of the uh Baltimore City Public School Community I'm Diamond T brown BTU president I want to start off by talking a little about some of the anxiety that staff here in Baltimore City Public Schools has because of so many uncertainties that they're hearing communicated in state government and federal government regarding funding many staff have anxieties around reductions in
027force uh steth are anxious about cuts and I think that uh we can decrease it decrease step's anxiety by sending consistent and frequent communication about uh BC PSS say reassurances that we do not foresee a reduction in force here in City Schools additionally uh principles some principles have been communicating to staff that they may have to cut positions and the rationale sometimes is uh because of the successful raises that BTU negotiated and uncertainties uh we would we do not want our successful negotiations to be weaponized and so having principes and and administrators uh talk about staff Cuts uh in a correct and exact way would decrease anxiety especially having principles differentiate between the difference in staff being reassigned and staff losing their position here with City Schools Al together uh being clear about that would
028also decrease some anxiety I want to give a shout out to the director of Labor Relations Jerome Jones who's going to be coming to a BTU BR meeting to express to our building reps uh that we do not foresee a reduction in force here in Baltimore City Public Schools actually we are trying to do a better and better job of retaining staff I also want to thank you all for giving us an update on the CEO search and uh it would be great if you all in your next Public Presentation talk a little about uh the CEO search dashboard or whatever you're going to use to keep the public updated um on demand um it would be great to hear what that dashboard includes when it will launch where the public can find the dashboard
029and how often the dashboard will be updated and what type of information we can find on the dashboard we do appreciate the email address where we can send concerns in the interim but having a space where we can go to to get information on a regular basis would be even more helpful additionally I want to highlight some concerns around FMLA sensitivity and compassion um unfortunately some members have reported that they feel like when they have to deal with a hardship an injury a chronic illness they are not getting the support and compassion they deserve after spending and given so many years here in City Schools uh and they do understand that when are going to be absent it can create a burden on their co-workers as well as the school community and they feel really
030bad about that so additional disparaging comments and remarks about how their absences have a negative impact on the school Community uh creates even more har harm and mental instability I think that it would be helpful if the school board issued a survey or collected feedback in some way from employees that have had to use FMLA file for FMLA or take leave to care for themselves or others so that you can get a better understanding of how bcpss can be more supportive of its employees when they're dealing with their worst moment sometimes lastly I like to address hostile work environments several BTU members are reporting an increase in principal bullying harassment and unwelcoming attitudes unfortunately this creates a divided and hostile work environment it creates a situation where you have a staff that complies with the
031Tyranny because of fear and loss of Grace okay and then you have a staff that's marginalized so I urge you guys to look into some of the schools where you have a high turnover rate uh and thank you for your time and I'll be following up with you guys because I got some more to share bye that was one part of our presentation on U that we just did want to make sure the public is really aware of so there will be um more information publicly available on the city school's website soon um on the search that is more detailed so that is that was my I forgot that so remarks um I'd like to welcome our colleagues from actually from the parent teacher uh I'm glad she moved this table out in here so
032good evening everyone I'm Debbie demy with PTA Council of Baltimore City over the past few weeks I've been contacted by schools wanting to know more about PTA and that's a good thing what's not a good thing is the one comment I get we want to become a PTA but we heard they charge you PTA is a membership driven organization members pay dues to participate in the business of the unit much like the membership fee you pay to join Food Warehouse such as Sam's Club you pay a set fee once a year you can shop without paying paying the fee but you can't get the benefits that come with membership such as the membership price in PTA members decide what their dues should be out of the dues collected $4.25 must be sent to the state
033entity which is Free State PTA free state must send $3.25 to National PTA National PTA invest the money back into local units by providing programs and resources that support family engagement in Student Success they also provide opportunities for Grants and awards for Healthy Lifestyles and arts and education speaking of Grants Renaissance Academy High School PTSA is a local unit taking advantage of what PTA has to offer so please join me in congratulating president Deborah Wallace and principal Woodhouse for receiving the national PTA Grant connect with kindness in the amount of $3,000 each local unit is a 501c3 nonprofit free state will pay the incorporation fee and the unit insurance for the first year PTA is about advocacy on behalf of every child with one voice PTA believes all children have the right to a quality
034public education not all ptas are focused in a school or District some are created to address a specific need populational area I am proud to say we have B begun the preliminary work to create a PTA designed for those families of children with special needs thanks to miss phips my partner in kme she's coming up after me so I've spoken to a number of parents over the past few weeks who felt bullied humiliated and intimidated at their child's school children cry because they do not want to go to school one one of the main principles of the national standards for Family School Partnerships is schools should Welcome All Families it's just customer service City Schools is a business if your business provides lousy service you will lose your customers families and the last thing I'm
035going to say families know your rights and responsibilities thank you very much like to welcome um front SP from to God good evening Dr Sant Lis the Board of Commissioners those in person and those virtual I'm glad to be here this evening I have few announcements okay cat means special education citizen advisory committee just in case you didn't know our meetings are held the second Monday of every month this year April is doing the um spring break so we won't have a meeting we had a meeting last night that was very powerful to get information from disability rights on decision making no longer do you have to have gone the ship and there's a bill that that was advised um October 22 so just to let you know I have that bill number if you
036need it you can call special education now direct you to my number also we had overview over of about the summer learning experience esy included in that it's called extended year service and I want you to know they have got a great program for those who receiving specialized Services all of them not held just in just about the IEP but they have ever program that would um help the student become more helpful to his life circumstances it will help them so please find out about it it will send you a letter sometime in March for you to know about the esy also um our transition fa for special education will be held April the 24th is on the Thursday at shton and harbor if you need more information contact special education Department also Youth Work
037starts July 7th through August 8th 2025 the applications is due April 4th that's just not for children who is receiving comprehensive education children with disabilities can apply and get a job my son worked was there for seven years and he gained a lot of leadership skills and job training he's now volunteering in a library which one of those jobs was about was with the library so he knows has those skills and is able to to work in the library uh one more thing um Maryland Maryland State Department of Education sends out a parent survey every year it runs from February to 14th through the end of May parents it is important that you take you this survey I say this every year and I will continue to say it as long as I'm cheer this
038means a lot to the district to the city to the state and to the federal it lets you know how much and how how well we're serving you and your student the most has been up to 10% but we looking to get at least 25 35% participation in these surveys please please I urge you to please do these parent surveys they be in the mail or you can do the email if you have a problem in May we'll have set up a a way for you to do it while we at the meeting our next meeting like I said will be May 12th is held here at the district on the third floor room 301 and ccat has picked may as our mental health month so that month Dr ER Erica leevy will come and
039we're going to discuss some behavior and emotional challenges rather than disease we we're going to call it a challenge so you come and get some great information how to handle those behavioral issues um also Mr Hast I met him at the bear school he's a behavior specialist he's helped us work through some things for the students at the bear school thank you for listening have a great evening enjoy this weather um so just going to put that plug out there one more time for the survey um so that should be in the mail it should come in the mail got it um and I'm going to defer to my colleag like terms the ampliation that yeah the survey is actually accessible online and so the school communities will be sending it out to their families
040as well I've already received it from my children's school okay um but so it's you will be able to access that you can also go to our website and find the link for the survey as well thank you thank you so much and I'll put the plug out there one more time so May 12th for the next um Seca meeting from 6 pm here in this building on the third floor 301 301 and our final CAC meeting of the year is going to be June 9th I encourage all of our community not just parents with uh students with special needs but our entire Community to thank you thank you so much thank you thank you thank you thank you I believe just want to double check with Dr junkins we do not have any public
041comment General sign up email written this evening that's correct y wow than wow that's a first but I really do encourage our entire Community to to sign up to join to participate to let the board know your comments and thoughts and so we do welcome those so we appreciate it um given that portion is concluded I'm going to turn it over to um actually I'm so sorry we've got the consent agenda to do I was I was ready to turn to you we have some changing uh changes to our agenda this evening so based on public comments or any other additional thoughts from board colleagues are there items that board colleagues would like pull from the consent agenda yes uh I'd like to pull 6.05 the district calendar and I would request a an overview
042of the ways in which uh 2526 and 2627 are similar and dissimilar from staff awesome great let's start with our presentations this evening so let's go to the top or we vote on the consent agenda I'm so sorry pages in here this evening so let's go let's start with 6.02 um for the update from staff on um the reach partnership Cindy and Maria joining us this evening I'll turn over okay um can you hear me okay um thank you uh my name is Mary ax I'm the Deputy Chief Financial Officer for City schools and here I'm to present uh with Cindy Smith the supplemental appropriation for board approval in the amount of 10,667 580 related to the transfer from general fund unassigned fund balance to the capital projects fund for the reach field project uh
043this is a little different from what we normally do so um I just wanted to um you know send greetings to to the board and the Commissioners and thank everyone for an opportunity to talk about this with you a little more detail I also wanted toh pass the CFOs Chris's uh greetings to all the board Commissioners the the city school staff and the CEO and of course our Community Partners you understand that uh everyone is interested in the financial transactions that occur at City Schools especially things of a magnitude of this dollar amount um I I wanted to point out that these uh this particular supplemental appropriation aligns with board priorities three five and seven uh in that they relate to high quality modernized facilities and resources that support the success of the students Educators
044administrators and staff so uh not only are we trying to enhance the high quality and modernized Facilities we also are working towards equity uh to offer the best opportunities to all of our students so uh that is the ultimate purpose of the supplemental Appropriations so I I did want to point out that the the funding source for this particular supplemental appropriation uh differs significantly from most of the supplementals that we do uh at this one we are requesting board approval to transfer 10 .7 million from un general fund unassigned fund balance the unassigned fund balance is is essentially the residual funding in the general fund what some people might call the rainy day fund it's it's uh a u a a source of funding that is available to uh to treat unusual transactions and there
045for un for transaction that were unforeseen at the time that we did the budget and closed the books so uh Cindy will speak at at some length about why how this is unusual and why we we are seeking your approval to do this so uh I did want to also point out that uh yeah we we also do this because uh getting board approval of the supplemental appro Appropriations affects the final budget in our audited financial statements so as part of our annual audit every year our external Auditors Clifton Larson Allen uh will uh review the board approved original adopted budget and then they will go through the quarterly budget amendments as we bring them to the board and the supplementals are part of the quarterly budget amendments each year because uh of the way
046it affects our category uh balances and uh the comar Reg ulations require that City schools and any other Lea may not expend more in a given MSD category then they have appropriated so that's what we're doing here we're asking permission to move Appropriations okay so that's the first part of a supplemental is basically an accounting mechanism uh and then of course we go into the programmatic questions so uh Cindy Smith will talk about that I do want to know that we are asking for a supplemental appropriation of approximately 10.7 million gross however contribution net will be lowered uh approximately $5 million because we will get funding from other sources and uh Cindy Smith will talk about that as well okay I'm Cindy Smith I'm the executive director for facil planning sign and construction so for
047many years the reach program has been using the old facility buiild that went with Lake lifted building so reach was is in the new Lake Clifton park building that was built through the 21st century buildings program that building actually we we maximized our site like property we're actually building now on bcrp property so we didn't at the time have the ability to build the field we also didn't have the funding to build the field it wasn't our property and it wasn't we didn't have enough money in that school project to build a field for them so we've been using across the street across ST Low Drive um using what is actually on down Morgan's property because Morgan has now purchased the Lake Clifton building but they've been using that field that old field and crossing
048the street for many years now using that while we've been trying to get this in line we actually now have a very unique partnership with both the mar Maryland stadium Authority and Baltimore City Reen parks of which all both of those entities are putting in money also to this to create this like three again three party partnership to build this new stadium for reach um it's going to be a regulation football field that is Turf so we're we're trying to convert all of our football fields to Turf so it'll be a turf field it will be a eight Lane competition track with all of the apperences for um appropriate track and field events um competition track um it will have Stadium lighting infrastructure so we will have all of the wiring under the fields so
049that when we can finally hopefully go back and put in stadium lighting it we'll have all of that wiring already underneath there um standard scoreboard bleachers for 1500 attendees and there will be a pre-fabricated Press Box as part of those bleachers um there will not be and I know the community very strongly wants locker rooms and restrooms as part of this project there is just not enough money in a 10.7 million bid um for this unfortunately at this time it is a very wet site we are on a we're budding right up to storm water manage or storm um wet LS to U certified wetlands so we have to um do a lot of storm water management underneath the field to actually make it a field um so there's a lot of groundw work that
050is actually going into building this field that you will not unfortunately see but is there to make it playable for the next many many years um doing this will of course then mean that the reach program and students do not have to cross ST Low drive and use that field anymore then you know uh Morgan will be able to do what they need to do and demolish that building and build what they need to build uh we did receive two bids the bids were very close um but that does you know kind of prove that that price and we also did go out to a um a third outside entity just kind of because we were a little surprised by the how high it came in also it was over our budget um so we
051did go out to an outside entity who does Fields basically as their business to make sure that it was in line and when they looked at the site they agreed that we were well in line with this so um we have this agreement so wck and Parks will be reimbursing us for a portion of the funding MSA will be reimbursing us for of the funding and our outlay total will be about $5 million on our side when it's all said and done fastic um can you give the committee just a sense of the timeline the entire one thing I was about to add and I forgot to say that yes so with this award right now our contractor is ready to go we are trying to have the field playable by the first week of
052September um we have asked the teams to consider moving the first several games off your way so we have a little bit of flexibility there but that is our our aim and the contractor has said that they believe that they can make that that is of course assuming that our weather cooperates with us and we don't have like the rainiest summer that we've ever had in history but that you know that we will be playable by um you around the first week of September and can you also help to remind um all my board colleagues as well as the entire committee the importance of having Sports Recreation facilities and how that adds to the educational attainment of our young people absolutely so many of our many of our young athletes many of our young scholars
053have obtain the abilities to go to college through their athletic programs and it provides that extracurricular support and you know just it's just such a um it's no we should be done I'm putting that stuff away thank you remind our our public to make sure that their their mics are muted this evening thank you re reach has a very robust Athletic program um very uh very committed Community towards those athletic programs as well as very committed athletic directors and sports you know team coaches towards making their athletic program be the best that it can be um so you know this is a very much needed and has been a significant hardship for them to be Crossing ST Low over you know to that other field and that field is not in great shape but of
054course we hadn't wanted to invest a lot of money in that either since it's not our property number one and number two we knew we were doing this so you know this is this is something that has been a long fought battle to obtain um as much needed by our students any other questions by my board colleagues yes sir I listen to the numbers that this can accommodate um tell me something are are is it going to be utilized for more than just reach I mean and the reason why I'm saying because sounds like you're also looking at a communitybased field too where other events can take place oh absolutely this being in conjunction with wck and Parks this is a recken park site we have a full use agreement in place regarding our hours
055versus their hours our use of the site versus their use of the site maintenance of it by you know split between the two entities entirely it it is it will be a full community uh use um site when it is done I think that's important for the public to to know that you know this is the combination that you're building the other thing that the public may be question of and you did bring it up it is the site you know we're right there on Marsh okay um and which was one of the problems we had with uh actually Lake Clifton was you know it's a lake so I wanted to know have we um have we mitigated that problem in this plan our design incorporates everything that's needed for that storm water management to
056make sure that that that site stays the way it needs to to be playable you know so that it it is Flowing the water away like it is supposed to not retaining it on that site um that is a good chunk of the the money that is in this is doing all that site work for this project thank you additional questions hearing none uh this item will be placed back onto the cassan agenda so thank you so much thank you thank you I'd like to move on to 6.05 I'd like to welcome feed Kowski and Simon beerbom to present on school life school year 2526 and school year 2627 District calendar I'm going to turn it over to commissioner linger for his specific question and it's actually it's actually Deputy um Dao Dr sln welcome
057welcome welcome thanes all right well good evening um and thank you for the opportunity to share the differences between the two calendars that we've prepared um before Simon goes into the nuts and bolts of the two calendars I'll just share that um we pretty much follow the same Cadence for school year 25 26 and 26 27 and what we heard throughout the feedback cycle was basically um that folks want to know right now and if we can do it ahead of time that would be even better because families want to plan and teachers want to be able to plan and so that is why we have proposed the two calendars and Simon will share more about what we have planned for it good evening everyone um so the calendars as our Dr SW B said
058are remarkably s similar we started we started from our same priorities um in order to create the calendars and so they look very similar to each other the length of the breaks for winter break and spring break are the same uh we have the same number of Wellness days including uh Wellness days on yum kipur and on EOL fiter planned uh the Cadence of the professional learning days are the same with four before the school year starts and then five of them on the first Monday of various months and one for the btu Quest day as well and we have continued to plan for early release days at the end of each quarter plus one early release day for parent teacher conferences so all of those things that are in our 2526 recommendation continue to
059be in our 2627 recommendation um there are really only two key differences um one of them is that um spring break is going to start with Easter weekend instead of end with Easter weekend um this only matters because uh we wanted to make sure that quarter three ended right before spring break and so that's why we flipped which week it happened uh we'll still have off um on Good Friday as mandated by comar and we the other change is that the first we will actually start the school year with two full weeks of school before Labor Day typically we have one full week of school before Labor Day this will have two full weeks of school and the reason for that is just because the in 2627 Labor Day is about as late as it
060can happen and so if we were to only have one week of school before it pushes uh the whole school year back uh a full week which means we wouldn't be ending the school year in 26 27 until well into June Poss possibly going into past um juneth even so um it was easier to sort of start at approximately the same calendar date in August uh even though it'll be two weeks before Labor date those are really the only differences between the two calendars thank you and and thank you so much for your hard work on this I know you know the board board members had their opinions on the calendar and we appreciate you working working with the board to that end I also want to applaud you on uh doing two calendars at
061once that that makes sense uh for my perspective from a technical standpoint I know we have to submit the calendar to Ms for approval do they allow us to do two years at once or will we need to submit next year's calendar next year what's up we're submitting we'll we'll submit we'll submit next year's calendar next year but we have pretty strong confidence that they will approve I mean I I guess the question for me is how should families once we release these two calendars should we take these calendars is pretty much set or should we wait for further word uh to be able to to plan I think we can give um updates throughout the process but I'm fairly confident that when we submit it you know every spring that once the board approves
062that the state will um agree all right thank you very much yes any addal questions Mr yes um while I uh applaud the uh effort to put two years together uh I still did not see a settling of of community um expression that said that I mean we could I mean I like your changes for 20 for the upcoming calendar but looking forward to put two calendars together I think there are still adjustments that may be in the works for the ne the following year so um I do not know whether or not it is a wise thing to do two years like that without you know allowing that Latitude because there is a still a push in there and I just wanted to express that I can take that so given um your concern
063I just want to make sure that that we're all clear what your concern is this evening so your concern is that you feel that there was not enough public comment or I heard two things that were lifted so not enough public comment related to the the development of the calendars um I what I'm understanding and from what I've heard and from what I've listened to there is still some adjustment that may be in the following year in the calendar so by by proposing and setting say we agree with two years on this calendar it doesn't allow for any latitude in adjustments for the what was it 26 27 calendar 26 27 yeah calendar and I think there may be some adjustment moving moving forward on that so hearing that um you have a couple options
064like for this evening so how would you like to proceed based upon your concerns I would like to proceed with the acceptance of the 20 the the the as the changes that you made in the current calendar um and then um allow the 26 27 calendar to be um you know have uh kept on hold until a later date until we can table that and my understanding too is that the system can always amend the 2627 calendar if they correct me if I'm wrong so my understanding is that if there is a need to ensure that there's refinements additional public comment even if we approve the two calendars this evening the system I'm sorry Dr Santa lisis and her staff can come back to the board with a recommendation of amendment and refinements to that
065calendar am I correct in my understanding yes in the same way that the board directed us this year to change the calendar the board will always have that right to direct staff to change the calendar through the vote so there's nothing binding about this in the same way that the recommendation this year was not binding it is ultimately the board's vote on the calendar and the board's right to amend and I am see receiving affirmation from legal thank you so thank you so with that we can put the calendar if that suffice to that suffices okay so we'll place the calendar back on consent for vote this evening so thank you any other questions or comments or concerns from board colleagues make sure online I don't see any thank you so much Simon thank you
066so much Dr s and buck I appreciate your time this evening like to pull item 6.03 this item was pulled for a vote this year here this is for the FY 25 quarter 2 budget amendments is there a motion to approve item 6.03 so moveed thank you commissioner R linger is there a second second Esposito thank you commissioner Esposito all in favor commissioner Ames messenger Ames messenger yes thank you commissioner Esposito yes thank you commissioner kinat yes thank you commissioner I just want to check if commissioner Muhammad joined us no okay commissioner ring linger yes thank you commissioner Rooks yes thank you commissioner Slater Harrington absent I give her just a second she may not be here that's fine um and I in favor this motion passes is there a motion to approve the remaining
067consent agenda I'm sorry thank you we'll record your vote we'll have uh board executive record your vote in the affirmative thank you is there a motion to approve the remaining consent agenda this evening so moved kinata Bay thank you is there a second second Esposito thank you commissioner Esposito all in favor commissioner am messenger am messenger yes thank you commissioner espito yes thank you commissioner kinata Bay yes thank you commissioner reading linger yes thank you commissioner Rooks yes thank you commissioner Slater hington yes thank you and I am also in favor of this motion passes now I'd like to turn it over to Dr sisa's for CEO comments thank you thank you chair um first I I do want to say a big shout out I know Taylor had to go I want to thank
068commissioner Rooks for um flagging uh you know flagging her down for this but I I do want to give um a shout out to Taylor I know we will hear from commissioner Rooks um later um during comments but I do just want to say that the level of advocacy of professionalism the preparation of our young people um is making Baltimore City proud um Taylor's presentation this evening just the um accuracy the alignment um has just grown exponentially I my three daughters will tell you I tend to be an old school teacher so I don't like raggedy and I will tell you that the level of professionalism of preparation um their presence in Annapolis um has just increased um 100 to 200 fold um they are without a doubt um representing us well and I will
069tell you this room I said to the chair this room um was packed with luggage and young people all over did not look this neat and tidy um today when I walked back in the office um at about 11:45 and this room was packed out with young people ready to go to their convention ready to present they Baltimore city um will be doing a lot of things that commissioner Rooks will let us know but I just want you to know the pride um that I continue to feel in the way that our young people are not only pushing in the classroom but pushing in their community and their state so I know you are going home to get homework done and that's where you should be going um but I just want to shout out
070um just all of asbc um Haley til we continue to um just thank you for your leadership as well but just a job well done continually so I did need I wanted to say that this this evening um and now I would like to continue the evening by recognizing um another accomplishment by one of our school police officers um in December officer Brandon Howard was awarded the distinction of Baltimore city school police officer of the year by the Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW Baltimore County Branch the award cited officer Howard's attention to detail this is true motivation absolutely and unselfish mentoring of others regardless of rank it is my pleasure to call upon school police uh chief Jeffrey shter to present officer Howard you can come on up officer Howard with a certificate recognizing his
071achievement with our congratulations and our thanks for his service to our schools and students and so for those of you who do not know officer Howard was my security detail for a number of years which is why he gets a special little hug and I will tell you one thing that I enjoy in addition to everything that was cited is Officer Howard is an absolutely diligent and attentive uh father um he makes sure that she reads from the time we would ride together he would also he would always ask me tips about how to support her learning um he is was very proud to tell me passing in the hallway that she is in advanced in all of her classes and her reading and math level and I just um I admire people whose work
072life and home life um are aligned and you are an amazing dad and we are so proud to have you as part of Baltimore City Schools Police and tonight we also have the opportunity to recognize um our district leaders who have made great strides in leading their schools and teams while demonstrating a commitment to our students families and communities these individuals are part of the pizzazza pathway and they demonstrate what it means to lead with purpose um normally um president Perry from pizaza would join me he's unable to be here tonight um who knows it could be because he has a brand new gorgeous um grandbaby um and I know he gets drafted at the last minute to babysit um but at this time I would like to invite our chief human capital officer Emily
073neelsen to join me in presenting certificates to this year's recognized leaders starting with our transformational principes and chief neilson's going to I'm gonna um announce folks and if you don't mind being right here that way I can shake hands and announce that would be awesome thank you ma'am so our first transformational principal is Mark banavani from Curtis Bay Elementary metal and he's not here tonight all right well um next who I believe I saw wearing some sort of Tiara Crown is Tanya Green from Waverly Elementary Middle School next we have Betty Adams from the historic Samuel CID Taylor Elementary there she is congratulations good to see congratulations our next TR our next transformational principal is Bernard qua from goven elementary next is lella Stanfield from cross country elementary middle and next we have Alicia Manning
074from Cecil Elementary School and I'd like to welcome and congratulate Stephanie Novak from Hollow Bird Elementary medal and our next transformational principal is Darren brine from Baltimore design school and do we have Brandon Pinkney in the house from Roland Park Elementary Middle where is he okay is he there is he online you can show us your picture if you're there principal Pinkney oh okay next we have Emily hunter from Arlington Elementary midle congratulations and then we have Shel Barnes from Edgewood Elementary and our final transformational principle for the evening is Olia Hardy from William peka Elementary don't know if she's online oh okay lacrosse practice for your son takes precedent I understand I understand not hating her next I want to recognize this here's distinguished principes starting with Tena lipsum from Wildwood Elementary Middle our
075next Distinguished Principal is Ben Mosley from Glen Mount Elementary [Music] Middle there you [Laughter] go wonderful congratulations and our final Distinguished Principal is Miguel cantes Del Toro from Patterson Park Public Charter School great um leaders from across the district office have also made valuable contributions um by prioritizing the well-being of our students and so this year's distinguished District administrator is maani Maui um School Success liaison special education all right sounds like she had to left so I would um like to just congratulate all of the honores this year we thank you for your work for your service on behalf of Baltimore City students and our families congratulations everyone can I chime in right quick yes just with a special thank you to all of our principles um as I look across this audience here there's
076a number of principles here who have been so welcoming to the entire board to the entire Community to let us know about the secret sauce inside of your schools many of which I've been to and so I'm very thankful to have seen a sliver of the really hard work that you and all the teachers inside of those buildings do to make sure each and every one of our Scholars have an exceptional educational experience so thank you thank you thank you thank you share and then finally I want to just take a moment to send a big shout out to Chief Tommy Jones and his entire team in the office of Information Technology um I will just say that protecting our information and systems from Relentless attacks by Bad actors is a 24hour 7day a week
077job and the oi team has responded to this challenge particularly over the last few weeks with a level of professionalism and commitment that really is deserving of the highest praise so I just want to say thank you on behalf of everyone at city schools and share that concludes my comments for this evening I'll turn back to you thank you thank you thank you I appreciate it um I'm actually G to pass the mic down one more spot to commissioner Rooks to lead us through um his both committee reports and a little bit more on asbc um and his leadership thank you chair so students it is that time of year to vote for your next student commissioner and asbc officer uh the elections will take place May 19th through the 22nd all 6th through 12th
078graders are encouraged to vote you can find more information on the city schools website or the asc's website website which I will give the link to Communications to share out students can apply for the student commissioner and asbc officer roles until March 20th March 20th is when the applications Clos we do have an upcoming meeting mandatory meeting uh that will be held this month I believe I will get back to you on that um from the general from the wi eneral assembly we had 42 schools ATT 10 which means 370 students and their advi advisors attended we had 13 different workshops led by students uh commissioner Ames messenger commissioner Coy commissioner aspo and board chair Sally had attend this General Assembly unfortunately I could not um the next general assembly is April 9 which includes
079a nominating convention for the student commissioner and the asbc officer the asbc will be attend attendance uh March 17th on a rally in Annapolis for the blueprint to protect education funding unfortunately I will not be there due to SATs unfortunately um but I would like to pass it to commissioner espo for her comments on the winter General Assembly awesome thank you uh so I got to attend a disability awareness and inclusion training that was led by Niara from youth as resources and basically what they did is they did an exercise with all the students in the room to give them an idea of what it's like to try to do an exercise with disabilities to understand the barriers to students participation um and then on the flip side of that once they did the exercise
080they did an exercise with accommodation so that they could see how those little changes and modifications were able to support all the students in the room and I think that they were really able to do an exercise that helped them build empathy and a better understanding and a better definition of like what disability is so it was really great to just sit there observe and be able to give them feedback and uh yeah it was great I really enjoyed it thank you commissioner esposo I would now switch it to Cher Sally to give his comments on the winner General Assembly so I had a really fun opportunity to sit in on a session led by Devon on um email etiquette and so Devon took students through an exercise of how to really prepare a conversation
081a professional conversation through a number of scenarios on grading absences and you name it and so um observing that it was kind of cool in terms of like having a student coach peers at different age levels in terms of um how to put together an appropriate email to make sure it sounds right um how to proofread and at the same time the wait time like knowing that you may not get an immediate response from your teacher but recognizing you'll get one and what to do once you get that response and how to uh prepare for additional conversations from them so um I thought it was kind of cool I thought it was really well done so kudos to Devon thank you chair um I did find the list of workshops we have attitude how good
082grace shape your future time management email adequate advocacy writing empowering your SGA Communications and miscommunication smart goals planning for the future building connections connection building and kindness kindness bullying prevention strategies thank you chair that now concludes my student commissioner remarks thank you so much commissioner Rooks and and um as mentioned in the top of the presentation today sorry top of the board meeting today um more information on the upcoming elections will be made available through subsequent board meetings and so stay tuned on that commissioner Muhammad is not here this evening um and the report coming after out of safety and wholeness on our last lisening session want to defer to our next board meeting where we'll have more information and theme shared from that do you want to turn it over to commissioner Slater Harrington
083for an update on the teaching and learning committee um she's I'm going to join us in just a second so um just a reminder safety and wholeness is going to meet on March 18th coming up on Thursday from 4: to 5:30 um Dr duins we have a mic disabled situation on our virtual yeah she can't unmute um our operations committee is going to meet on Tuesday March 18th U from 10:30 to 12:15 did I mention policy and we have did we have a policy update from last month oh do you have any updates you want to share we are going to skip um teaching and learning just because of the mic situation this evening but we'll um catch up at our subsequent board meeting on that we can catch up on policy next time too
084do a double header we'll do a double header coming up next time so no problem at all we do have two um information presentations this evening I want to move to so for item 9.01 this is policy FFA gusta fell aage naming renaming a school facility District Gallery name and proposal intro and discussion so I'd like to welcome um our senior executive director of new schools initiatives Angela Alvarez I always get the office name completely wrong off new initiatives very back together I we do that um good evening um uh chair Sally and um the rest of the board Commissioners I'm Angela Alvarez I'm the senior executive director of The Office of new initiatives um we're bringing two naming proposals one is a a brand new thing that we're doing that we're excited about um
085that'll be in the second half of the presentation um these uh naming um proposals aligned to board priorities five and seven um five is about providing equal access and being seen as about access um and so naming um for folks who represent the values of our students and represent our students um helps with that being seen and that's fing a part of access um and it's also important part of equity uh which is board priority 7 with that I'm going to turn it over um to uh my manager team of uh Kendra Banks and Lindsay Anderson good evening everybody um board policy FFA on naming or renaming States uh in the purpose statement that the expectation that our school programs and Facilities uh the name should honor the culture experiences and Humanities of our communities
086and that student voices should be empowered in the process and so this purpose really grounds our work when we bring about a naming or renaming uh process um the policy requires that a naming committee is established that um the school Community is engaged including opportunities to suggest name ideas and to vote on name the final name considerations before the name is brought back to the board for a vote uh the naming policy also requires certain core questions um including whether the name honors the experience culture and Humanity of students and whether the person has an established record of service the first request we're going to bring to you tonight for information is from Augusta fell Savage Institute for visual arts um this request is a part of uh bringing together blueford Drew jemson STEM Academy
087and Augusta fell Savage um who combined together in Fall of 2024 it represents um creating a shared identity for both School communities that reflects both School communities and um a way to honor the legacy of all of the individuals that both schools are named after um as a part of that transition process um just some highlights we've seen the enrollment at Augusta fell Savage increased as they welcomed 62% of the rising 9th through 12th graders from blueford Dre emson uh at the beginning of this year um they've increased their course offerings including AP offerings and new Arts offerings that attempt to kind of bridge the art and stem focus of both schools they've also leveraged Partners to be able to provide stem experiences um over the summer a select group of students got to attend
088a stem program at Princeton um we have brought over Partners from Blue frer gemes that were important an important part of the culture at that school and we continue to make facilities improvements including most recently the school is um receiving a renovated renovations to their Art Gallery spaces as a part of the Maggie Macintosh Art Center Grant um so the naming request that we're bringing for information tonight is um uh the school is considering naming SP spaces in their building after Charles Drew guyan blueford and may jemson to maintain the legacy of these individuals and uh blueford Drew Json STEM Academy they're currently in the process of determining which n which spaces they would like to recommend for these uh that these names are are these spaces are named after austa fell Savage was a
089sculptor A teacher and a community art program director who Rose to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance guyan blueford is an African-American engineer and was the first African-American in space um Charles Drew was an African-American surgeon and a medical researcher who developed ways to process and store blood and blood banks and may jemson is an uh engineer a physician and a former NASA astronaut and was the first African-American woman to travel in space so um our naming timeline this month the school is establishing a naming committee um they are um engaging with the sgaa um and also we'll be having a naming Forum later this month um at the end of March and into April we will be engaging the broader School community in the process and then at the end of April the school Community
090will be voting on um the final names and spaces and then we will be bringing it back to the board for a vote in May g i turn it over to Kendra good evening can you hear me okay okay so the second request that we're bringing forth is the district Art Space naming initiative um and this request is uh to seek and honor influential figures in the Arts and education of Baltimore City who have have made a positive impact on Baltimore City's community and the goal is to engage the school Community District or the district Community um including like the district school staff uh uh board members and students and Community stakeholders in the selection of the gallery's name um through a decision-making process the first artist we want to present is Ernest Shaw he's
091a renowned Baltimore based artist and a city schools educator known for his powerful murals and portraits second we have Valerie mayard who was also a city schools educator and she was also a pioneering sculptor print maker and multidisplinary artist James Z Lewis was a pining African-American artist educator and curator from Baltimore who shaped the Arts and education landscape and he also founded the James Z Lewis Museum which is located at Morgan State University uh fourth we have Joyce J Scott born and bred here in Baltimore City and she is an intern nationally acclaimed artist and educator known for her Innovative and phenomenal beat work and mixed media pieces and lastly we have Jack bln Jackie Copeland who was a distinguished Arts administrator curator and an advocate for cultural Equity who made a lasting impact on
092Baltimore's arts and education landscape the voting process timeline opened up on January 15th uh we started with the introduction to District staff in The District staff meeting uh the current timeline is January 15th to March 21st but we will be extending that to April 25th uh so we can allow for more community members to uh share their voice and put in their votes um March 24th was the date that we would be tallying but now will be April 28th and uh we will be presenting the recommendation and it will be finalized so that we can present to the board and May 27th we'll be presenting the name to the board for a vote and once again the voting period is January 15th to April 25th um you'll have an opportunity to review the BIOS uh
093by accessing that link through our inside scoop news uh Communications and also on the website and the deadline is now April 25th where you should cash your vote if you have any questions can reach Angela Lindsay or myself and we look forward to your votes and your feedback thank you just want to say um so just for just remind my board colleagues as well as the public you know when we look at school closure and combination we talk about the importance of bringing together the cultures of our buildings and the contributions that um both of the cultures have um brought together to their school communities and so this is the work that we continue to see move forward and so um I appreciate the the work that both Lindsay um KRA and um our senior
094director Alvarez is doing to really ensure that this is um a part of our Legacy here in city schools and honoring that so we really do appreciate the work thank you means a lot to our people yeah and I just wanted to say one thing we're really excited about naming this Art Gallery space this is the first time this building can participate in a a naming thing as well as a part of community so just want to reiterate what Kendra said of everybody in this room can participate in that vote so please go on the website again we're extending it to make sure we can get more folks participation um so we're super excited about that all right we are going to move on to um item 9.02 this is jjic the academic eligibility for
095inter Scholastic and Inter Scholastic Athletics I believe we have Dr Sonia goodlin we got a whole team tonight got Simon we got got everybody I was gonna say Simon you're doing double duty tonight I'm actually not the one with all the information these are the superstars tonight so good evening um board chair Commissioners Dr Santa Lisas um we're here um in front of you today as you know my name is Sonia Goodwin I'm the executive director for whole child services and supports and I am joined by the directors um we are um we have our academic team right here he's laughing at me because he thinks I'm going to mess up his name Simon beon bomb from academics yes um and we have director um Tiffany bird as well um we thank you for allowing
096us to come before you today in order to go through the first reader um to propose revisions to the academic eligibility for Scholastic um Athletics and I am going to turn it over to Superstars for the presentation are too kind good evening board chair Sally Dr Santa Lisa and Este steem um board members or board we are board committee we are Commissioners I apologize we are really excited this evening to come before you again my name is Tiffany bird we're going to talk about jjic this evening which aligns with District priorities four five six and seven we will definitely be respectful of the requirements placed before us so we actually have entered a lot of this information also into the appendix so hopefully that has been helpful as many people know under arour is a
097value partner of the district I think most notably people see the uniforms and they also see the improvements that are made to building but they also have a significant contribution uh with the student athletic leadership conference and they are definitely involved and interested in the academic achievement of students so they do um have a data analysis that they do every year and one of the things that you will see from the 23 24 data which is consistent with the year prior is that the there's a positive correlation between athletic involvement and also the improved student outcomes in key areas such as the ones presented here attendance grade point average also promotion and retention so as we're talking about these proposed revisions they would actually go into effect in the next school year 2526 so fall
098student athletes will be the first to experience the new requirement the goals in reviewing this policy and updating it we definitely wanted to analyze the demographic data to make sure identify if there were any disparities in our eligibility outcomes additionally we wanted to make sure that there was a balance between the academic demands that were placed on students and also their commitment to Athletics and definitely we wanted to ensure that there could be a criteria that may allow for wider participation in athletics for students in the section of purpose we do have some proposed additions the current section We Believe talks about the fact that it is a privilege to participate in athletics but we believe our commitment is stronger than that so we definitely enhanced this part of the this section to talk about
099the involvement in education-based athletics and put some emphasis on the fact that it definitely shows our commitment to promotion and retention policies as well this is a minor revision but it is one that we believe um makes the policy more clean you will see in our former policy we use the word intras Scholastic um that language has been confused with the word intramural so we simply want to refer to Middle School athletics as Middle School athletics and also update the name of the policy to be academic eligibility for Scholastic Athletics our current policy as it relates to our requirements for students students are required to have a 2.0 GPA they are also required not to have any more than one grade below passing get eligibility decision points those decision points have been outlined for you
100in the appendix however it is typically the marking period preceding the sports season the proposed revisions will allow for one eligibility requirement per grade band here you will see ACC quarterly minimum GPA of a 2.0 will be required for students in grades 10 through 12 and also any repeat nth graders requirement for firsttime nth graders pretty consistent with many of the eligibility policies you will see in the state and other places allow for automatic eligibility for a firsttime ninth grader sometimes coming out of e8th grade they don't have a GPA so they get a a free pass essentially to participate in that fall season and then they would have no more than one grade below passing at our decision points that is consistent with what we use for the students who are participating in our
101district coordinated middle school programs so it is a policy that they would be familiar with if they previously participated the r now for this change with ninth graders it does allow us to streamline the policy reducing some administrative burden it also gives greater access there was some feedback and concern that fall eligibility did not require a GPA requirement but that didn't extend to the winter and also to the spring season we did get feedback and there is one County we're aware of that does not have an academic graduate I mean academic GPA requirement for the entire year for freshman but that was concerning for many of our stakeholders they thought it was too too far um throughout the school year to not have a requirement so you will see we have proposed a transition for
102them but we do have a requirement on academics we believe that this transition will make it more smooth because we understand that it's sometimes difficult transitioning from middle school to high school and it will also give greater access to those freshman students while connecting them hopefully to a caring adult who will be monitoring that progress and providing them support we have collaborated with the AC mic's office so we do um or would like to call out that this policy is in alignment with their work and it focuses of course on getting all nth graders to pass all courses and accumulate credits the the rationale here for eliminating the course failures you will see again it eases that administrative burden it allows us to have one requirement but we also have learned that there is minimal
103impact on the number of students that will be eligible and I think this is a great transition to Mr beon bomb who will take you through the data uh that will show that thank you D thank you director bird um so uh the first slide here for the data is you'll see um academic eligibility across the 20 schools that we manage uh for uh inter Scholastic Athletics um you can see that there's a wide discrepancy um among schools about the percentage of students that are eligible so the green bars represent eligible students uh academically eligible students from from quarter one of last year and you can see that it's not even distributed across all schools but some schools are impacted much more by the exclusion of students for academic eligibility uh you can see here
104what the impact of these proposed changes would be uh on the left side you can see um data from firsttime nth graders the proposed change would um allow the students that fall into that orange uh category there to maintain athletic eligibility uh um at the decision points after the decision points um and so and then on the right side you can see for the non-ir time ninth graders uh that very sliver of a blue bar is the percentage of students that would be impacted after your nth grade year so it has a much bigger impact on nth graders than non- nth graders first and nth graders um and uh serves to increase the eligibility for those students um importantly we saw uh from our data that uh if this change were impacted we would anticipate
105a uh decrease in the discrepancies among demographic groups for athletic eligibility um our data shows that um um athletic eligibility is not evenly distributed across demographic groups we find that female students are more likely to be eligible than male students white students more eligible than African-American Or Hispanic students and non uh ml students are more likely to be eligible than ml students uh the proposed changes here for first time nth graders uh would reduce the gaps um in eligibility um among these groups for among all these groups thank you so much we currently have three alternative Pathways to eligibility which we propose to maintain in the policy we have summer school we have an academic waiver and we also have academic probation an academic waiver um is applied when a student does not meet the
1062.0 standard but they do have a strong academic history so we are we will look at four consecutive quarters and if that is over a 2.0 they can apply for a way and be allowed to participate summer school um we got stakeholder feedback and we recognize that we were proposing to increase because you have a maximum of two courses that can be applied through summer school to your eligibility we wanted to raise it to three and after um going through and getting feedback we understand that the academic office should determine if there are any restrictions and our policy should just be consistent with those changes so the number won't have to move and shift as they make different um transitions with that with our academic probation this is the area that you may see um
107the most significant change being proposed we want to tighten the rules for academic probation to prevent misuse at this time um we do have a probation contract that students are required to sign in order to be on probation probation is offered to students who have not met the academic requirements at that time they can work with the team through a tryy out they are not allowed to travel they are not allowed to be issued a uniform they are not allowed to participate in a contest until they go through a 20 academic day period in which they go go through study support sessions so they can f a part of the team but not fully participate until we re-evaluate their academic process progress and reinstate them um at this time but we do currently allow students
108to use that multiple times and we want to put a restriction on that that students may only use that with permission and applying for a process to use it multiple times and I want to be extremely clear to you today that multiple times with mean multiple times in one school year or multiple Seasons because there could be a student athlete who only participates um in one sport and so if you are coming back for a second season of that then it is important for us to note that that student will have to get um a waiver they will have to have something completed at their school level that shows their counselor it's telling us if they are on track to graduate or where they currently stand their principal is in support and then that information
109will be forwarded to district office where it will be reviewed by Athletics and academics in order to be allowed to use it more than one time we did want to knowe here that we have collaborated with a number of offices just to make sure that we're promoting wellness and addressing any barriers um that there may be to inter Scholastic Athletics and you'll see some of those policies listed here additionally we have added language to talk about what the local school responsibility is we recognize and understand that the students have an accountability piece but we feel the school do also and so for the first time we have outlined here that they should evaluate the effectiveness of the support programs they're offering on an ongoing basis because we too have a responsibility to make sure that
110there is tutoring that there is monitoring um counseling or credit recovery assistance to student athletes additional proposed revisions you will see that we want to make the language consistent um and use instead of using quarter we are proposing to use marking periods and we also want to transfer some language that is solely living in our handbook to this policy which talks about transfer students and how they their academic progress is evaluated and additionally we have a rule that doesn't allow you to participate in the same Sports season for two different schools so we want that language to live here also other revisions that we have are procedures that schools can have a more stringent requirement if approved by the board um on academic waiver process or academic probation we realize some schools feels like they've
111made significant progress with not needing to use academic probation so we want to give them the space to be able to do that with your approval of course and also an explanation of an appeals process for academic um eligibility as it relates to stakeholder engagement and feedback we do understand that this is a tier three policy um so we did have some requirements and if the next slide will show you the stakeholders that we have engaged the groups and also the method that we've used to engage them I consider this part to be on going we welcome the feedback we've met as you see with a number of groups and most much of that feedback has been included in the appendix for you this is our timeline we're here of course today at first reader
112and we anticipate second reader being on April 22nd Not only would I like to take this time to thank you so much for the time that you've given us I would definitely like to thank the offices that have collaborated with us and work so closely we do appreciate their support as well thank you Tiffany I really appreciate the present um and I do want to remind my board colleagues in the public as well that the information the appendex this is a evolution of the board we have more information that really important detail for us to consider as we make our decisions on policies and other it that come before us and so I do encourage you to make sure you read through that if there are questions and comments about that we're also happy to
113service that but I want to turn it over to our policy chair to lift a couple of things um given this policy has gone through that committee thank you chair um so I know we had a really good discussion about waivers and special circumstances um and we also got to witness you all like listening to students who were able to give great feedback and um in the timeline that you all had um I remember we discussed like you all were going to specifically reach out to like most impacted students who had experienced like using um you know waivers or um getting exceptions or working through the process um what was what would you say was the feedback that helped um maybe have been something that you guys didn't consider or uh was helpful in in
114creating the policy I would first say that I consider this and I've always stated that from the beginning a pretty polarizing topic so with all the feedback that we've gathered um regardless of what the stakeholder says we probably have a comment or some feedback that says the exact opposite um I think one of the things that we did hear um that there were a number of circumstances and Reasons Why students may end up on academic probation we had an opportunity to meet with some students at Patterson and they wanted us to consider um that many of those students work um that they have other family responsibilities and so I think although we thought we were very thoughtful about it that they did feel I think that they were heard and also some agreement that being
115able to apply for it and not just closing the door with a hard passive you may only do it one time I think that they did feel that that was I guess a compromise on being able to support them if there was a struggle that they may not have disclosed to anybody or something that we just had not yet considered awesome thank you other questions or comments from board colleagues one I had and I I apologize I didn't answer I'm sorry apologize I didn't ask this during the policy committee um I'm curious you know did you guys engage the higher ed Community as you guys were thinking about the development of this policy to Garner especially you know when we're talking about the the Rel the relationship between academics um and Athletics but recognizing that
116Athletics are really important for our young people who want scholarships I'm just curious you know as you're thinking about rounding out this policy the role of higher ed and shaping what we we may see at this stage we have not we did do a lot of benchmarking but we have not really engaged higher ed I do think we've had conversations however about what the requirements are at the NCAA level for um students who are um I guess qualified for those scholarships and in those conversations we did have extensively with athletic directors we understand that schools have the responsibility it's almost similar to um differentiating instruction in the classroom like we most of our students that are participating do not go on to the next level to play sports that's not a bad thing it is
117simply a national average this is a terminal experience for most students that are participating but we have a responsibility to identify those students who are gifted to make sure that they are academically on track we understand that the standard is higher we know the 2.3 requirement and the support that should be provided we definitely can extend oursel to have those conversations but we have discussed what those requirements are as it relates to the policy that we have in place thank you appreciate it further comments questions I want to thank um both Tiffany Simon and Sonia as well as Dr place toose in the back there for just putting together a really wonderful policy for us to review so thank you all right that takes us to the end of our presentations for this evening um
118just want to invite um the public to the policy committee I believe on March 18th if I didn't mention this before Ops coming up same day March 18th safety and wholeness also March 18th wow um lot going on and then our next board meeting will be March 25th we'll have we'll get started at 5:30 pm here and recognition that it is daylight savings time this I'm sorry I couldn't get everybody out to enjoy that ra hour of sunlight at the at the end I'm looking forward to celebrating more on women's history month later in the month um do we have a motion to adjourn so moved K Bay there second second Esposito all in favor signal by saying yay yay y we are Jour for the evening I'll see everybody soon thank you by