001even good evening good evening again this is Ronald I'm Ronald mcfat and I have the humble pleasure of serving um as the chair of the Baltimore City Board of school Commissioners and we' welcome you all to the October 22nd public meeting of the board of school Commissioners if you have not done so please mute your phone anyone who does not mute their phone or silence their phone U may be unmuted by the call moderator or removed from the meeting additionally if you are not a board member and I believe that we are all present with the exception of one um please turn your video off or if you're not the CEO and their staff I will now read a roll call of the board to identify who is on the call please identify yourself first
002before speaking for the record Vice chair Roberts Vice shair Roberts present thank you commissioner Ames messenger Ames messenger present thank you commissioner Coy commissioner Coy present thank you commissioner Esposito commissioner espito present thank you commissioner kinat Bay kinat Bay presid thank you commissioner Muhammad commissioner Parker commissioner Parker present thank you commissioner Dr reading linger reading linger present thank you commissioner Rooks commissioner Rooks present commissioner Sally commissioner Sally present thank you commissioner Slater Harrington commissioner Slater Harrington present I'm also present that is 11 present with one absent is there a motion to reopen the meeting don't move Robert thank you Vice chair is there second second kenat Bay thank you Commission kinat Bay any on Readiness hearing none all in favor Vice chair yes commissioner Ames messenger yes commissioner Coy yes commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinat
003Bay yes commissioner Parker yes commissioner Dr Ring linger yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Sally yes commissioner sler Harrington yes I'm also in favor that motion passes unanimously with the members who are present please join me in standing as we receive the Carver Vocational Technical High School's Junior Reserve officer training Corps for the presentation of colors on start CU that St Sergeant Brian car Vocational Technical High School JTC blue kns Battalion request permission to post color sir thank you sir order arm reth March I States [Music] guard post C cut e please take your seats thank you we had Cadet command sergeant major Michael mlan I don't think that's who was with us um but listed here we have Cadet second Lieutenant Trayvon Williams um Cadet cat let's just give them because I think let's just
004give them very nice job um do we have a moment of silence this evening who's reading Our Moment of Silence we do and I have it thank you commissioner Ames messenger I would like to take the time to recognize the passing of City Schools Employees these individuals were committed to supporting our students through their work the greater City Schools Community will fondly remember these employees tonight we send our deepest condolences to the employees families and friends it is with deep regret that we inform you of the passing of Deborah A nolles Miss nolles started her career with City schools on September 18th 2001 where she served the staff and students for 23 years most recently at Patterson high school as a par professional Miss nolles unfortunately departed on September 20th 2024 and will be missed
005by her family friends and City Schools it is with deep regret that we for me with the passing of Stacy Hills Miss Hill started her career at city schools on October 10th 2022 and she served as the staff and students for one year and 10 months as a special transportation department as a supervisor for transportation Miss Hill unfortunately departed on September 23rd 2024 and will be missed by her family friends and City Schools it is with deep regret that we inform you of the passing of Larry Connor Mr Connor started his career with City schools on March 17th 2018 where he served the staff and students for six years and six months in the 21st century buildings office as a supervisor school projects Mr Connor unfortunately departed on October 5th 2024 and will be missed
006by his family friends and City Schools please join us in a moment of silence thank you is there a motion to approve the prior Open Session summaries don't move Robert Vice chair is there second second Ames messenger thank you commissioner Ames messenger any un Readiness all in favor Vice shair yeah commissioner Ames messenger yes yes thank you commissioner Coy yes commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner Parker yes commissioner Dr Ring linger yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Sally yes commissioner state of Harrington yes I'm also in favor that motion passes unanimously with the members who are present is there a motion to approve the closed session summaries I'll move Robert thank you Vice chair is there second second kinat Bay thank you commissioner kinat Bay any unreadiness Vice chair Roberts commissioner Ames messenger yes
007commissioner Coy yes commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinata Bay yes commissioner Parker yes commissioner Dr reading linger yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Sally yes Comm s Harrington yes I'm also in favor that motion passes unanimously with the members who are present organizing that I have a few comments everyone um first to our students um to the folks in the room when is the last day of the quarter for marking period one in by Friday grades in by Friday it is October 29th it's October 29th and so that day is coming soon close um so young people those of you who are listening certainly commissioner Rooks as you take this back to your peers make sure that you are doing your absolute best um so that you can demonstrate the Brilliance that we know exists in each
008and every one of you but the last day of quarter 1 is October 29th that is next Tuesday the annual review of schools is approaching so during this time the board evaluates School academic and operational performance gauges leadership and staff performance and discusses strategic plans for continuous Improvement to prepare for the annual School review the board has H has held several briefings already this month to gather information for the task ahead stay tuned for ways that you can get involved in the board's work by listening in on this year's annual review recommendations and sharing your feedback it's very critical in this process to help the board make datadriven decisions speaking of the board's work the board is hitting the road and coming to a school near you offsite for a public board meeting last year
009the board held its first ever off-site meeting on April 23rd thanks to Commissioners who were in this room that made that recommendation at reach partnership school in East Baltimore and it was a wonderful experience seeing our students and families in their community in such an intimate space I mean it was a big Auditorium but it was still an intimate space this year we hope to host multiple off-site meetings um some will include committee meetings in addition to public board meetings it is important to the board um that we are engaging in that way so join us to learn about various topics such as curriculum updates budget allocations staff advancement and more event details about the off-site meetings are forthcoming lastly this month several Commissioners attended the 2024 annual mail and Association of boards of educ
010ation conference two weeks ago um in Annapolis during the three-day conference Commissioners attended workshops and breakout sessions that address concerns on school based mental health the blueprint for Maryland's future and more are there any Commissioners that want to lift up any of their experiences from the May conference I'll put some on the spot commissioner Dr Ring linger thank you for that chair um uh you know it may is always a great opportunity um to be able to engage with districts from around the state and uh see how they're grappling with some of the common issues that all of us face so even though contexts are very very different across the state it's a great opportunity to be able to uh engage with folks about how they are thinking about various uh elements of implementation of
011the blueprint for Mar Maryland's future and um what recommendations might go back um to to the state and to other parties for how we can ensure that we are implementing all of those pieces uh and implementing them well so it was a great great opportunity and um I will pass it to any other colleagues who also attended commissioner am minger uh building on what reading linger said uh specifically looking around the work of community schools and attendance which has been such a huge push for this current for staff here at city schools and that have really been leading that work Statewide for a long time but looking at how we can continue to dive deep and support staff in those efforts and then um thinking about how that does map onto blueprint work and how
012that work will be funded and prioritized moving forward so we've done great work congratulations all uh thank you for your hard effort commissioner K Bay yes um May is a very interesting perspective on not only the state um not only how the the commonalities we have with the perceptions of each individual District how we look at each other there's a lot of communication that goes on there and there's a lot of uh looking into a future a future that a lot of people find in common something that they're trying to piece together whether it was AI whether it was um looking at how the blueprint is going roll out whether it was looking at how we communicate one District to the other May was a fantastic opportunity to collaborate to understand differentiate and also to
013innovate because a lot of that was going on at May and um we walked away with uh um quite a Kudo right and I'll pass it on to commissioner Val I don't have very much more to add other than um you know I I think one of the other opportunities for us as a board is to represent Baltimore City really well in that and it's an opportunity for us to tell our story as well as for us to get feedback and insights um um from our colleagues that similar commissioner rning law shared is that have different implementation challenges but um we did get a lot of from other boards um and other folks who are in attendance in terms of the amount of progress that we've made um highlighting the kindergarten Readiness assessment scores um
014our work on the 21st century building program as well as on a number of other kind of fronts so um that work is thanks in part to all of our really good City Schools staff who are leading the charge um who have um done just tremendous work to push the district forward so thank you and thanks uh to everybody for the partnership chair I'll lift up one more thing now that I've had a little bit of think time um one of the uh one of the places in which Baltimore city was lifted up as exemplary was um in our Net Zero schools I actually had the opportunity to go visit hird Academy on was that just this week on on yesterday um and and visit with uh with principal papis um and uh you know
015h bird is the Envy of uh folks all around the state it's a net zero school um you know for folks who've been their solar panels all across the top and I think it's a model for the future um and it's one that City Schools should be very very proud of but there was a lengthy discussion about how school districts can leverage um a IRA funds inflation reduction act funds for the next decade for the foreseeable future to be able to put more of those types of projects online and so I think we should be very proud of the work that's already happened and we should take advantage of the opportunity that are out there to continue to make that kind of progress thank you very much Commissioners and as the board moves um commissioner
016Coy just one thing that I'll add uh which is to lift up and say thank you to Vice chair Roberts for her service on the May board and to recognize that commissioner Sally is now serving on the May board uh representing Baltimore in that capacity so uh just thank you to both of you for for helping lead that work and lift up Baltimore city's Ro it is vital that Baltimore um city has a voice on that board um on the m board and so yes we look forward to what you're going to um advocate for on our behalf commissioner Sally and the information that you bring back especially as the board is moving forward in actualizing and doing work to actualize strategic goals and priorities the board participating in professional learning and development with colleagues
017and abroad is very um critical work that we do um to be stewards um of the system so thank you all for lifting that up I'd like to acknowledge I think I have the acknowledgement for now so we do have some gifts and donations but I don't um have that specific language here um and so is there a motion to approve the pep and quasi judicial matters am messenger so moved thank you commissioner Ames messenger is there second second esposo thank you commissioner Esposito any un Readiness hearing none all in favor Vice chair Roberts yes thank you commissioner Ames messenger yes commissioner Coy yes commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner Parker yes Dr reading linger yes commissioner Sally yes commissioner seder Harrington yes I'm also in favor that motion passes unanimously with the
018members who are present I will now turn it over to Dr Santa lisus for her CEO comments great thank you chair and I'm going to invite Chief Emily neelsen for this evening's pep agenda thank you Dr sisas good evening board Commissioners if you are on tonight's pep please feel free to rise or turn on your camera so that we can acknowledge you from the office of the chief academic officer a reassignment recommended that la ly Sutton currently interim executive director academics be appointed executive director special education and student Support Services effective October 23rd 2024 and from the office of the chief operations officer and appointment recommended that jusa brown Hughes currently director Transportation be appointed senior director transportation effective October 23rd 2024 congratulations to those on tonight's pep great thank you Chief neelson um I
019am very pleased um that at the most recent um Council of great City Schools annual fall conference that I was able to attend with um many members of the city school staff as well as um commissioner Sally who I want to thank for also being there um we were all proud um to hear that Baltimore city schools was selected to receive the 2025 Richard M Robinson literacy Champion award for literacy excellence and significant progress in Reading achievement this yes you can give a shout out this award um comes with um and it's in partnership with Scholastic Corporation and as part of the award a school to be selected will receive a library makeover to include more yes than 6,000 high quality books and every student enrolled will receive a summer book pack of 10 titles
020to own and take home courtesy of Council of great City schools and the Scholastic Corporation this award really does recognize our students steady sustained growth in our assessment results in ela which is what is reviewed and especially in the Middle grades where our students increases in ela assessments have outperformed growth in the Statewide results um since 2016 I just want to congratulate the entire city schools team principals teachers a particular shout out to Chief Joan jabowski and every member of the literacy team as well as Chief Place Jose and the schools office that have really dug in deeply on this and most importantly to every student in Baltimore City Public Schools who has taken the charge around Reading seriously so congratulations to all of us of Baltimore city um in addition you should know that
021the Council of great City Schools just released the 2024 key performance indicators for academics which identified other noteworthy areas of improvement for Baltimore City this is an index that compares our performance to those of our colleagues and all of the other um close to 80 member school districts that are Urban school districts across the country our district Baltimore city was in the top five in advanced placement course participation and in the top 10 for improvement in the completion of Algebra 1 by the end of 9th grade as well as the four-year cohort graduation rate schools also placed in the top five for district for improvement in G graduation rates for our students with disabilities and multilingual Learners and in the top 10 districts for economically disadvantaged students these are concrete indicators of continued Improvement which
022are especially meaningful because these results are among our national Urban peer districts congratulations Baltimore City Public School uh next I am excited um to announce and this is in collaboration and verification with our very own Chief uh Jones uh which is important to State since she is our Keeper of the data um we're proud to announce that in school year 2023 2024 our mcap Ela and math student growth percentile scores affectionately known as SPG were recently released and the overall results for City Schools were very positive the SGP if you remember measures the amount of student growth from one year to the next on mcap relative to academically similar peers so students who started in the same place regardless of where they are in the state and then measuring where they end so it really
023is an Apples to Apples comparison and overall our results were encouraging and demonstrate continued progress at the district level city school students outperformed their peers in growth Statewide in ela for grades six and seven and in math for grade seven in fact from the perspective of significant Improvement our students greatest increase in median SGP was seen in both math 7 and five I would now like to call on Chief Teresa Jones to briefly discuss our result results in more detail Chief Jones thank you so much Dr santalis say good evening board Commissioners and members of the public assembled my name is Teresa Jones and I serve the district as the chief achievement and accountability officer uh before I dive in I would also just like to recognize that our very own Dr Sonia santal lisis
024was also recognized at the Council of great City Schools as a finalist among Urban School superintendence and so I just want to name that in addition to the other accolades that were acknowledged at the Council of City f as we take a look at the Maryland comprehensive Assessment program affectionally known as the mcap as Dr sisis described uh we do have some highlights that we like to share publicly that indicate that the district is still consistently showing Improvement in multiple areas particularly within our English language arts and Mathematics performance next slide please so this is just to give an illustration to the explanation that Dr santalis has just provided um again as we think about measurement of student growth one of the measures that we've been using in the state of Maryland is what we
025call the student growth percentile it is a measure uh that does compare student performance across the state to their peers so if you look on the right side you'll see an example here that shows essentially how that student growth percentile is calculated so what we do is we take a look at a students test score in one year in this example in grade three and then we see how does that student compare to their peers when they're fourth graders so what you see there represented on the right is sort of that student growth percentile scale that gives you a sense around how students might compare to one another also right beneath that there is also a table that characterizes that level of comparison so you'll see the scale from 1 to 100 that basically indicates
026whether or not the level of growth that is demonstrated falls into one five categories from very low to very high um to also give more of an explanation around how this is calculated um again when we think of the interpretation the number signifies the level of improvement relative to a percentage of peer students so if I say that there's a student gr percentile number of 60 that essentially means that a student improved more than 60% of similar students based on their test score performance in the prior school year again because we do have to take a look at consecutive years of performance we only have student growth percentiles for students in grades 4 through eight and in addition to that we also note that student growth percentiles are currently used within the state's accountability system
027as one of the key measures that uh actually leads to the scores on the Maryland report card and it essentially is worth uh roughly 25% of that star rating so of that 100 points that would be available 25 of them are comprised equally of a split between math and Ela as 12.5 percentage Points each next slide please so again as we think a take a look at how our scor is compared uh we do take a look at the median value of student gr percentile to give us a sense around how City Schools is compared uh to other districts across the state and the state at large again because this is a comparison versus the state 50 essentially would be the median SGP value for the state so any number that you see here is
028greater than 50 essentially means that Baltimore city has outperformed the state and so what you see noted here on this table is number one the fact that you see a number of green arrows in that second to the right column that indicates that we have an increased SGP or maintained our SGP and nine out of the test 10 codes for each of the grades that were tested in English language arts and Mathematics we also note uh that as Dr Santa Lisa shared we actually see that our median SGP was higher than the state in three key areas English language arts for grades six and seven and math for grade seven and you'll see there that those figures uh range from 54 to 55 so that's looking at the 23 24 figures um noted in that
029column and then you can also see how that compares to where we were in the prior year so again we've consistently seen in English language arts for grade six and seven that we are outperforming the state and we've also shown a three or 4 percentage Point increase versus the prior year next slide please we also wanted to share just a few of the highlights um we took a look at the student group performance um so we break these out into two categories so essentially our elementary as well as our middle so for English language arts and grades fora five we actually saw one of the highest rates of improvement among our Asian students and their SGP was at 70 so if you refer back to that scale that was on that prior slide that would
030put that in the high category when it comes to SGP performance in addition to that our English Language Arts Middle grades has continued to stand out as a high point highlight regardless of which measure we're looking at so as we've looked at proficiency over time the Improvement since Park was first introduced as well as what we're seeing now with the SGP and in this case we see that there was a percentage Point increase of three points across the all student group The economically disadvantaged group as well as for our black and African-American students and that ranges from a 51 SGP to 53 when when it comes to math uh we also see that for the Elementary grades we see an improvement once again not only for our Asian students but we also see improvements among
031our multilingual Learners as well as our Hispanic and Latino students again looking at the range those are Point increases that range from three points up to nine points as you see listed here and furthermore when it comes to Middle grades for mathematics we also saw a seveno increase for our Hispanic and the Latin n students so that is a 52 SGP so again this does not cover for every single group um but it is a really strong indicator that we are continuing to see movement again keep in mind that these are numbers that compare their performance to their peers across the entire state of Maryland so with that um I'd like to just again thank you all for your time this evening just to be able to share a few of those highlights um as
032it relates to the Maryland report card as it stands we're anticipating those results to be released in December so at that time we'll be able to bring forth an update around how our schools are performing and how we're doing as a district relative to the state's accountability system and again the student growth percentiles will be one of the multiple measures that are included to determine those report card ratings so thank you for your time this evening and at this time I'll turn it back to you Dr Santa lisis great thank you again I just want to point out that this is growth it is not the end destination um we have lots of work left to do um but this data on multip mle counts both from a national perspective a state perspective and a
033local perspective does point to the steady and sustainable progress um towards our ultimate goal so I want to again thank City Schools team City Schools um for all of the work that we know people are doing uh throughout the district I also want to uh shout out our prek teachers I have been over the and I see Crystal uh executive director Francis right there I have been in and out ofe rooms um during my visits this month and hearing really positive feedback about our new curriculum materials from our prek teachers do have some requests which I'll share with executive director Francis um about ongoing professional support for some folks who had some great suggestions but overall um just that has been a focus of my school visits and really great feedback from our teachers um
034and then finally chair um as everyone may recall H our board meeting on August 27th was interrupted uh by an incident with a potentially disruptive Group which was averted by the quick action and professionalism of a team of school police officers under the direction of school police chief Jeffrey shorter I would now like to call Jeffrey shorter Chief shorter excuse me Chief Jeffrey shorter uh forward to present certificates of recognition to those officers as I call each of their names are we ready CH oh okay they're coming now I see you good to see it there we go yes as I call your name you would come forth get your certificate of look at them there we go so first is Sergeant Ronnie McCain who also coordinated the security detail for the Maryland Supreme Court
035oral arguments at Frederick Douglas High School on October 2nd thank you uh next here stay right here next we have Sergeant Nathan Warren oh he's on a call okay that's good he's working all right Miss Loretta next we have officer Loretta mcfadin awesome congratulations next we have officer ke on Parker next officer Brandon Howard next we have officer Enis braaton then we have Officer Dana marabel congratulations officer Demetrius Charles oh oh sorry he's on the call sorry everybody's on call glad we working officer Marcus R and uh officer Harper is also on a call yeah people are working and I also want to note um that officer Harper is also being recognized for his Swift action in response to a potentially um dangerous uh threatening incident at reach partnership school on May 6 uh the
036most important piece is we want you all to know that you have our thanks to all of these officers and to every member of the school police team for everything that you do every day to keep our schools and our districts safe thank you we appreciate you allely absolutely all right we're going to do a photo shoot e e e and chair that concludes my remarks for this evening thank you Dr s Lisas and thank you to our City Schools Police um and to all of our city schools Community listening to the remarks of the CEO tonight um it takes a village to do this work for our young people so thank all of you every city school staff member parents students stakeholder business partner everyone that works to lift this work for our students
037thank you very very much I will now review the consent agenda or colleagues let me know if you'd like an item removed and please State your question I am removing item 9.01 CEO contract 9.06 CEO contract as that um the student commissioner cannot vote on that item 9.01 gifts and donations item 9.02 gifts and donation item 9.03 policy FFA naming of VP School item 9.04 policy jfbb students and state supervised care this is the second reader item 9.05 eneral orders body warn cameras this is the second reader item 12.01 classroom materials item 12.02 Ed scale I'd like to pull 12.02 for a vote thank you item 15.01 chilar Corporation item 15.02% three Nicholls Contracting Incorporated item 15.04 janitorial services item 15.05 brightly software Incorporated item the timer or is this in person Sherry Brown Sherry
038Brown with us no it's an Inplay um video thank you Patricia e good evening Dr Sant Lisa school board members and all attendees I would like to begin my comment by asking you who am I my name is of no concern right now because you won't remember it or the jobs that I do all you see is a psrp speaking before you who am I as psrp we come to work daily with a plan with a list of tasks to complete before our work span we start our mornings with greetings and small pleasantries checking voicemails and emails sent by supervisors staff and sometimes families we multitask day in and day out each and every day people asking for assistance with one thing or another additional task they pile on top of others with no extra
039pay having no sex many see it as okay that this is our reality each and every day we come to work never knowing what the day may bring yet we remain smiling and professional while waiting for that final school bell to ring who am I when the staff is running late or not coming in at all you run to me to document their time only to hear staff complain and wh but they want to be paid for what they've earned but they no call no show or no leave equals no pay so who's the blame me or you when you see your check on payday who am I dedicated to my student as we accomplish their goals we do it together one onone an IEP in a folder doesn't show a child's true potential or
040the light in their future that they may be when others doubted them together we got it done we see the greatness in our students and we know that they can achieve our students are our precious gems and together we believe who am I what are we doing today they asked as they enter a room asked to cover the class with no lesson plans books or nothing left on the T teacher deaths perhaps the students will clue me in on what they're learning so together we'll figure it out I guess who am I coming in coming to me with I miss the bus I didn't hear the call and it was announced so now what am I supposed to do I can't tell them to figure it out can't tell them to bounce parents will be
041angry and come to school ready to pounce so we make calls we have someone we make calls to have someone come to take them home asking for assistance from Transportation the district says we'll try but we're left to resolve it on our own who am I no who are we we are secretaries office assistants registrars business managers instructional and non-instructional Par professionals bus AIDS staff Associates School coordinators payroll food and nutrition Specialists this is just a few of who we are and what psrp do so many job titles and responsibilities as the U continues to fight with North Avenue we need a living wage and so much more yet the district tells us no and turns a blind eye we deserve a living wage so stop with the excuses stop stalling tell us why what
042are you waiting for I know you're listening to me you really don't see me but I see you five C's to be Z compensate employees correct flaws and oversight in the system commend those who are dedicated to educating and encouraging students communicate with members and be open into receiving constructive criticism towards making a change as for who I am my name is Miss Brown on external assignment with BTU those that know me call me Sherry I am a BCS employee a secretary a psrp all I'm asking for is respect Fair wages and equality and Equity equality too thank you thank you we're now going to move into um public comment from Carl Perry the president of the public school administrators and supervisor Association is Mr Perry with us I'm virtual good evening good evening you
043know last time I was there in person last time I was there in person we had some challenges so I'm virtual greetings chair mcfaden Vice chair Roberts honorable board members and Dr Santa lisis I hope your first quarter is progressing smoothly this time of year is rather busy stressful and extremely extremely tiring with the multitude of items on the plates of Administrators with very similar timelines School leaders are anxiously counting days until breaks holidays and even professional development opportunities provide our members with a brief relief from all that's taking place even with these anticipated breaks we still must Pace ourselves and I encourage our members to do so if you need a break take a break if you don't feel well take a break take a break when needed I understand there's been a rise
044in out incidents in the community and across the state keep in mind there's a significant rise in behavioral incidents and violence in around schools adjustments have been made in the past but still more needs to be done you just heard Miss Miss Brown say when parents pounce if a child is not picked up that's real including the behavioral incidents is arising threats towards our members from students and parents alike something needs to be done you may recall that I indicated last year we are seeking legislation that would make threats and assaults against School administrators and other staff as a crime not only is pizaza seeking this but the American Federation of school administrators is seeking this nationally we begun to Lobby State lawmakers to support this legislation to make this a crime I'm asking City
045Schools to also support this initiative and use your legislative powers and connections to also seek to have threats and assaults against administrators and other school staff become a a crime as the district has a multitude of different work work and learning platforms I'm requesting that the database be created to track these types of incidents I firmly believe that they are being underreported out of fear this database should include Anon Anonymous reports and not not only those incidents which may lead to suspensions this will then give us realistic data and information for the district to have very soon we're going to be gathering information from our members through our pizzazza climate survey as we know this information is confidential and gathers accurate accurate data teacher administrative training is traditionally focused on instructional and management strategies along
046with curricular information during our recent pizzazza annual conference we plan for a session on conflict resolution at the rate things are going in the future we may need to offer a sessional self-defense people go to work to educate children not to be disrespected not to be threatened not to be attacked or assaulted as we work to comp continue to improve city schools we'd like to suggest Financial incentives to recruit and retain the best staff at CSI schools we already know we have 248 amazing School leaders at these 91 schools we need to incentivized working at these schools in a more similar fashion that was done in the early 2000s with something was called the CEO District this is where teachers were given an incentive to come and work in the lowest performing schools these schools
047represent more than 40,000 children and they deserve the very best as noted by our CEO our schools are making progress and this is led by amazing amazing administrators before I conclude I'd like to ask all IEDs to have more understanding with school school leaders there are many requests and though I understand that you may be under pressure yourselves there's no pressure like leading a school in Baltimore City I ask that you and City Schools do people right not just now but to make amends for past instances where people were mistreated or even discrimin ated against finally I encourage City Schools to emphasize the importance of voting to students not just high school students who can vote but to our little children as well just imagine if they had the opportunity to say Mom Dad Grandma
048can I go vote with you I want to be in there I want to see how to vote as well they learn this now so they can continue when their time comes when they're older thank you for your time have a good night and please be safe thank you Mr Perry we now have Jason Green representing the parent and Community Advisory Board Mr Green are you with us yes I am can you hear me yes good evening good evening commissioner um chair and good evening to the Board of Commissioners good evening to all attendant on behalf of a 14 member pcab we are glad be able to present tonight uh our comments will be brief so in July to August 2024 we successfully conducted 13 interviews to fill three positions one CEO area based parent
049Network board vacancy and one CEO of parent Community groups board vacancy in addition to this during the month of July disability rights Maryland and PTA appointed new members to fill bacing positions and all the listed below I will listen to you shortly Chris Patterson one of our former alterist accepted a position as a pcab board member uh each new interview member and their position affiliation and Contin members are as follows Dr Charlene Stewart CEO areab based Network replacing Larry Simmons who tered out TR Philip Davis CEO areab based Network replacing Rachel Duncan who turned up and Miss Charlene favon CEO of parent Community groups replacing Nicole hum who resigns new PTA appointed members were Blanca tapasco replacing Smith who termed out and new disability rights Maryland appointed members Deon suland replacing Kira Davis gri who
050turned out and Cory RPO replacing Maria a Pena GTO resigned um the executive board and continuing members are myself the chair CEO Title One chte Anderson Vice chair ACLU Marvin price Jr secretary disability rights Maryland and Malik Parker Tre Treasurer ACLU some of our new member recruitment in August July and August we successfully conducted another 13 interviews to fulfill three positions um and believe that was it so we are completely filled with 14 new members um and we are ready to serve the families and communities in Baltimore city thank you for your time thank you thank you Jason for that I will now turn it over to Dr jins the board executive for um our additional public comment thank you chair for those coming to provide public comment the board recognizes the importance of receiving
051public comment on matters of educational interest each speaker shall be granted three minutes official time will be kept at the end of three minutes please conclude your remarks as a reminder no speaker may use the opportunity to error employee grievances or make complaints on behalf of specific students speakers must stay on the topic for which they signed up to speak and may not verbally or personally attack a school system employee or board member should speakers stray from this guidance they'll receive a verbal warning um and immediately must redirect their comments um thank you for your interest in participation in City Schools education we'll now move to our first public comment this is from Amilia ball secondary virtual learning school um commenting live fortunately Amelia you will have three minutes thank you good evening my name
052is Amilia ball and I am an 11th grader at the secondary virtual learning school I'll be reading the rationale for while our school should be named the Baltimore revolutionary Virtual Academy for virtual education Baltimore has always been a city characterized by determination and resilience a place where Generations have confronted adversities and emerg stronger through courage and Innovation it is a city that knows how to fight for its future and embrace change all while preserving the strength and spirit of its people that is why Brave Baltimore revolutionary Academy for virtual education is not just a name it's a promise a promise to honor our City's Legacy of perseverance and to ignite the same revolutionary Spirit of progress in the hearts of our students we are daring to reimagine what education can be to create a space
053where every student can rise lead and shape their own destiny because in Baltimore bravery is not merely an action it is a way of life and together we will continue to push boundaries Blaze new trails and show the world what it truly means to be brave thank thank you for your time thank you Amilia our next public comment is from jonte Mitchie uh topic will be how important the emerging of the schools and the new name means to the community for the virtual learning academy uh commenting live virtually or virtually commenting uh you will have three minutes thanks good evening board members teachers staff families and fellow students my name is jont Mickey and I'm a proud seventh grader at what is currently known as the secondary virtual learning school and soon to be our
054newly named School Brave Baltimore revolutionary Academy for virtual education let me tell you this year has been something special when our schools came together it was more than just merging schools or picking a new name it was about building something fresh something that 100% represents us and what's special is that we got to be a part of the process that's huge there were surveys meetings and moments where we got to throw out ideas and dream big I mean how often do students really get to help shape their school's identity and it wasn't just about picking colors or a logo it was about figuring out who we want to be what we stand for and how we'll show the world exactly what makes us brave for me being brave is about standing up for others and
055doing what's right even when it's not easy lifting each other up because every student here belongs stepping out of your comfort zones and trying new things even if it feels scary making a difference in the world starting right here in our new school and Community this new spirit is already alive in us in the way we support each other push through challenges and celebrate every win big or small having a name like Brave is about who we are every day our teachers staff and families have been with us every step of the way cheering us on and making sure we feel connected to this process knowing that my ideas and all of our ideas matter gave me a sense of Pride and belonging that's stronger than ever this year isn't just the start of a
056new name it's the start of a new chapter for all of us Brave isn't just a school it's a movement it's a place where students like me get to learn grow and shape the future I can't wait to see what comes next because I know we're going to make our school something truly special thank you so much for giving me the chance to share tonight together we are bold we are creative We Stand United and most importantly we are brave thank you jonte uh next comment is from Kim Knox and this will be an email to be read good evening bcpss Board of Commissioners I'm feeling brave today do you oftentimes it feels like this school was set up to fail over the past couple months you have received the unscripted perspective of a virtual
057learning parent a learning you of a shift in values that threatens the integrity and well-being of the SVS Brave School Community despite attacks against my character and other efforts to to demonize me including reducing my public comments to a personal grievance I continue to bravely speak out for my scholar and other community members that fear that fear retaliation recent news reports and Community meetings the term meeting used Loosely not only rebuffs the narrative that I am a lone voice holding on to the past it cuts through the misdirection tonight's theme is putting up appearances as school leadership continues the spectacle of performative Engagement during the forthcoming VP naming presentation don't be fool just like the retaliation the stakeholder suppression is real I got receipts not sentiments while you have school leadership Representatives before you today
058I urge you to be brave request the recording of the school's priority engagement budget meeting held on October 15th ask leadership about yesterday's news report on the latest grade changing Scandal that involves current School leaders get insights on leadership's decision to limit and control parent and student representatives for PTO sgaa and sfcc the scale of the matters brought to your attention demands restoration efforts at the community level though voiced by one it is insisted upon by many continued in action is sabotage let's all meet and review the facts as a school full School Community to reimagine and replot this trajectory do you intend to be brave that is it okay next public comment is Nicole Austin commenting live virtually topic secondary virtual learning school naming we'll have three minutes thank you good evening Dr Santa
059Lisas esteemed board members staff students families and members of the public my name is Nicole Boston and I'm a proud staff member at the illustrious in Hidden Gem currently known as the secondary virtual learning school it is an honor to be here today to recognize and celebrate the vibrant and evolving Spirit of our school community and soon to be named Baltimore revolutionary Academy of virtual education Brave this naming is a testament to our shared commitment to educational excellence and the collective Journey we are undertaking to redefine our identity in alignment with our values and aspirations to name our school Brave is a defining moment this name is more than a title it is a reflection of the voices ideas and aspirations of our students staff families and the broader Community together together we voted for
060this name together we have envisioned a school culture that embodies courage resilience and unity creating an inclusive environment where every individual should feel valued and empowered to succeed under the Visionary leadership of Dr Charlene Wilby we have cultivated a deeply positive School culture that Champions respect collaboration and shared success over the past three years I have witnessed firsthand Dr wilby's unwavering dedication to our students treating each one as if they could be her own child her Relentless pursuit of Excellence ensures that our staff consistently strives to enrich the educational experiences of our students while strengthening the bonds within our community Dr will be's initiatives Focus not only on academic achievement but on empowering each student to feel a sense of belonging that transcends the virtual classroom her Innovative approach to education encourages students to take
061ownership of their own learning while nurturing their personal growth as individuals and Future Leaders as we look to the Future the name Brave signals a unifying and transforming a force for our school Community Brave embodies the courage resilience and determination we aim to instill in our students preparing them to navigate the ever evolving landscape of virtual education and with confidence and purpose Brave is not just an acronym it's a philosophy it will inspire our students to embrace their individuality advocate for themselves and their peers and Foster a spirit of collaboration and Innovation this ethos will guide us as we continue to build a culture of Excellence where every student is encouraged to pursue their passions and reach their fullest potential I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Wilby AP Johnson and AP
062picket for their exceptional leadership and dedication to nurturing such a positive and supportive School culture with the adoption of the name Brave we are ready to embark on a new chapter one defined by Unity strength and an unwavering commitment to shaping the future of virtual education thank you for your time your support and your continued belief in our mission to inspire and Empower students thank you thank you Nicole our next public common is Journey Jeff this will be a video played secondary virtual learning school naming is the topic members of the board Administration staff guests and students my name is Journey Jeff and I'm a fifth grader at the secondary virtuall learning school I am super excited to speak with you today about our new school's name the Baltimore revolutionary Academy for virtual education known
063as Brave and what Brave means to me when both virtual programs combined and became one school it was a chance to build something new students such as myself were asked to share ideas through surveys and conversations with our class and with our peers and teachers the name Brave was then chosen for a new school to me Brave means to be courageous and unafraid to face any challenges no matter how scary they may be brave also means to stand up for what's right I cannot wait for everyone to see how Brave our new school is going to be I'm also excited about our schools having our own identity thank you for this opportunity to speak to you all about our new school Brave and what it means to me thank you and have a great day
064thank you oh thank you our next public comment is Victoria Coffer this will also be a video topic is name change for slvs to Brave as an Nea teacher who been with the virtual learning program then slvs and soon to be brave since the very beginning I've had the privilege of witnessing the remarkable growth and resilience of our students our staff and our community the spirit of this school has always been one of determination creativity and perseverance as we transition into becoming Brave Baltimore revolutionary Academy for virtual education I believe this name perfectly captures the courage and boldness that our students embody every day Brave isn't just a name it's a reflection of how we adapt and innovate and face challenges head on just like the city we're proud to represent it's the next chapter
065in our journey and I couldn't be more excited for the future thank you thank you our next public comment is from Stephanie satran agenda topic gratitude to office of equity commenting live in person and you'll have three minutes good evening Dr sisis Commissioners teachers staff students and community members my name is Stephanie saffron I'm here this evening as a former teacher the proud parent of a city school's 10th grader and talson University's coordinator for the Wallace funded partnership with City Schools Morgan State University and msde to help build an equity centered leadership pipeline for City Schools tonight I would like to publicly voice my gratitude and support for City Schools unwavering commitment to equity work during these contentious times City Schools Equity policies and programs Center humanity and Justice and they provide clear guidance for
066teachers and leaders pursuing a vision of more Equitable schooling and a more just future I would also like to voice my respect admiration and gratitude for the team that leads that work Dr Tracy Durant the Specialists and the principal coaches my colleagues and I are honored to work with Dr Durant and her team we benefit from their knowledge their expertise and their commitment and the Baltimore City Educators who are students in our graduate leadership programs benefit from their knowledge expertise and commitment as well we all know that diversity equity and inclusion work is under attack in our country in our state and now even in our city personally and professionally I believe there is no more important set of values to Center and there is no more important Vision to prioritize thank you Dr Durant
067and team thank you Dr santalis and thank you Commissioners for holding fast to this vision and to these values thank you our next public comment will be from Levi Bradford body warn camera policy will be the topic commenting live in person you will have three minutes just hold it hey shate it my name's Levi Bradford I'm an attorney at the public Justice Center downtown here um and I'm a member of the coalition to reform school discipline I spend my days primarily representing uh children and low-income families who are being unlawfully suspended or expelled I'm here to talk about the proposed policy on body warn cameras um by City Schools Police first off I'd like to thank youall for putting on putting in a lot of care and attention in this policy um I work in
068every District in Maryland and I am consistently impressed by the fact that Baltimore City suspends far fewer kids than other districts um however I have a plea for you about this policy and that is to narrow the policy from what it is now um the critical word today is narrow and this policy must be tailored narrowly so that it serves to hold officers accountable while not infringing on students constitutional right to privacy my biggest concern is how footage will be used in discipline there's a lot to be said about surveillance surveillance of kids and how it's the wrong answer to increased violence in schools even though I from the data that I'm seeing whether there is increased violence is uh I'm not seeing that in the data but in my my previous career I was
069a public defender and I can tell you from evidence and experience that pretty much 99% of the time body cam footage is used for prosecution and Punishment not for officer accountability um the school of prison pipeline is not a is not primarily an issue of wrongful accusations that can be cleared up with body cam footage it's uh the school to prison pipeline is a matter of many unseen factors piling on top of a child causing disconnection and conflict body cams Focus entirely on the moment an offense occurs they miss the context or buildup that leads to incidents a child having a meltdown doesn't look sweet and nice on camera to an uninvolved observer and in particular students with disabilities may come across very poorly if all that we see is the moment of meltdown I
070believe that we that what we'll see is more disciplinary hearings that consist merely of showing a video to the superintendent or the design those images can be powerful and they can unfairly outweigh any explanation a family has for why an incident occurred or what led up to it I'd suggest that body warn footage only be used in suspension proceeds if there's a dispute of fact or at the request of the student being disciplined in terms of what officers should record the policy is very broad far too broad in my opinion the proposed policy says officers should record all contacts regardless of purpose It also says that officers should record when they determine that doing so would be beneficial to the public interest when in doubt record and I say no this is not the default
071position that we should have we should be working towards lesser surveillance of our kids body warn cameras should body warn cameras should only be used for law enforcement purposes and I I'd ask that policy be changed to say so surveillance policies can sound good like they're going to make our school safer but the way it operates is an as as an intimidation Factor against children even if that's not the intention body cams uh must not be used as uh surveillance or as a tactic of institutional aggression against children they should be used as tools for officer accountability again I want to thank you for the work that you've done on this so far and please do not allow us to become just another form of surveillance on our kids thank you thank you our last
072public comment is from Deborah elridge topic is naming the secondary virtual learning school and she'll be commenting live virtually good evening Dr Santa lisis and the esteemed School Board Commissioners for Baltimore City my name is Deborah Eldridge I would like to take this opportunity to let you know how proud I am to be a parent at the secondary virtual learning school soon to be brave the transition from two programs to one school has been smooth and these first 42 days remarkable to watch Scholars log on on and be engaged from 7:30 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. is outstanding as an active stakeholder I commend Dr Wilby staff faculty Scholars parents and Community stakeholders as we all navigated through this new process of naming our school committees surveys and votes have led us to this moment a
073new chapter the Baltimore revolutionary Academy for virtual education we are blazing a path for what the future of Education can be not only here in the city of Baltimore or even the state of Maryland but across the country We are brave for stepping out of the box of conventional education and showing our Scholars can and will Thrive when we meet them where they are we are brave hear us Roar as we soore and kick indoors We are brave watch us as we break glass ceilings and exceed expectations we are bra Brave thank you that was our last public comment thank you very much um to all of our uh community members and stakeholders for engaging with us this evening I'm going to now turn it over to our esteemed um student commissioner colleague Dylan Rooks
074for his comments this evening commissioner Rooks good afternoon ladies and gentlemen thank you for tonight's remarks I would like to bring to the table the creative Justice Arts contest hosted by the state's attorney external Affairs division this contest is open to students 9th through 12th grade judges will evaluate the entry based on their creativity originality Rance relevance to the creative Justice theme and overall quality the entries can utilize any art medium the student wishes but but they must be submitted in jpeg or PNG format not exceeding 5 MB States Attorney Bates will display the contest winners artwork on the ninth floor of the office of the state's attorney located in the truest B Building at 120 East Baltimore Street for more information please visit www.st attorney.org also this weekend Saturday 26 at 12: pm at
075Morgan State University is Baltimore City College homecoming game where we have beaten the other school I don't know how many times I don't know how many times we have beaten that school TW oh it's 12 okay 12 soon to be 13 soon to be 13 I encourage everyone to to come out and support both teams on this history making game thank you know what stuff like that becomes like fighting words like I like and I normally protect every child but commissioner Rooks when it comes to that not here thank um but thank you commissioner Rooks we uh the policy committee met on October 15th is their committee report yes UMO yes so we discussed policy jjic and J or JJ i- ra academic eligibility and Inter scalac and intras scalac Athletics uh the policy discussion
076was framed around student participation in school sports and the Commissioners did raise questions about attendance behavioral standards and probation eligibility and we also had a pretty thorough discussion about waivers for spe for special circumstances uh for compliance reports we went over ebbb uh incident reporting ehb data records and retention program GCO employee evaluations oiga field trips I kcb volunteers KDA access to public records uh and key points of the discussion were participation and eligibility standards and um incident reporting employee evaluations and public access to information our next um policy committee meeting will be November 14th it'll be virtual from 4 to 5:30 thank you commissioner was there um any discussion around technology cell phone was that in this past meeting in not in this past meeting um because that will be coming up I just
077wanted to make sure think something that was right reference but thank you for that report um the safety and wholeness committee met on October 17 and commissioner s of Harrington um facilitated that meeting good evening everyone um I'll be delivering the report for safety and holness the committee met on October 17th with Commissioners Coy and Rooks in attendance in addition to myself the committee received presentations um or compliance reports on students in state supervised care and on students experiencing homelessness the committee had a pretty rigorous conversation around uh or questioning around academic and behavioral outcomes case loads and um services and interventions um the committee also received a report on continuous Improvement one of my favorite things to talk about really a demonstration of um that our district is a learning organization and um really
078the committee was really excited about the initiatives um that will be discussed that were discussed and are looking forward to another presentation in teaching and learning where we'll focus on um math and literacy a notable highlight of the meeting was a presentation by youth resources who collaborated with City School staff on school police accountability we had some great um dialogue with uh young people and were really excited about their engagement and they were very complimentary of uh City School staff and support in their uh um accountability Endeavors the next safety and holess meeting will be November 21st at 4M join us and give public comment thank you commissioner St Harrington any questions for our committee chairs thank you um is there a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of item 9.06 and
07912.02 no move K thank you commissioner kinat Bay is there a second Ames messenger second thank you commissioner Ames messenger any unreadiness all in favor V sh Roberts yes commissioner Ames messenger yes commissioner Coy yes commissioner espito yes commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner Parker yes Dr reading linger yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Sally yes commissioner state of Harrington yes I'm also in favor that motion passes unanimously with the members who are present is there a motion to approve item 12.02 Ed scale Fabrics thank you Vice chair is there second second Esposito thank you commissioner Esposito any un Readiness all in favor Vice chair Roberts yes commissioner Ames messenger yes commissioner Coy yes commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner Parker yes Dr reading linger yes yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Sally yes commissioner sler
080Harrington yes and I'm in favor were were you abstaining or this I'm so sorry I I need to um amend that vote I need to abstain from that for 12.0 thank you so commissioner Sally is abstaining from that vote let the record reflect that so that motion passes with 10 in favor one exstension and one absence is there a motion to approve item 9.06 no moved reading linger thank you Dr reading linger is there a second second esposo thank you commissioner Esposito any un Readiness all in favor Vice chair Roberts no commissioner Ames messenger yes commissioner Coy yes commissioner Esposito yes commissioner kinat Bay yes commissioner Parker yes Dr reading linger yes commissioner Rooks yes commissioner Rooks cannot that I don't know why I did that commissioner Sally yes commissioner Slater Harrington no and I'm
081uh not in favor that motion passes with seven in favor three opposed and one absent that moot motion passes board tonight just voted to amend the current CEO's contract that was set to end on June 30th 2025 and to extend the contract to June 30th 2026 this extension um will allow board members additional time to ensure that there is an open and transparent process to select the next CEO for the school system for Baltimore city schools the board will be working with the national search firm who will help the board develop a clear timeline um along with the community and community outreach to our stakeholders as we all collaborate to determine the qualities for the next CEO and the future of City Schools the board thanks the current CEO for moving the school district in
082a direction that will allow the next CEO to further enhance and accelerate the achievement and the outcomes for our students we look forward to continuing work with Dr Santa lisis over the next um year and a half and working with the community to continue to move our students forward thank you all we're moving now thank you thank you thank you we're moving now into item 10.01 it is a compliance report for policy Ada equity and update this is a presentation good evening Dr Durant I know that you have a fantastic team that you're going to highlight and lift up tonight and they are loaded on the front row in the for and so we are happy um to hear the work that you all have been doing Durant thank you so much commissioner mcfaden all
083right uh just by way of of clarification for um the board and members of the public tonight's presentation includes both the compliance report which will be the first portion as well as our annual update to the board so good evening again Dr s say chair mcfat and vice chair Roberts Commissioners and members of the public I am Tracy Durant ior executive director in the office of equity I am joined as commissioner mcfaden has noted and flanked by members of the equity team who I will introduce during tonight's presentation so we want to align with our um note the alignment to our strategic uh board priorities section five which is the compliance portion of policy Ada requires reporting on the annual Equity priorities the engagement by the equity advisory committee and implementation want to ground everyone
084in what we believe Equity SE success depend on which is Educators uh personal connection how we as a system Embrace necessary change and what we do every day in our professional practice here are our policy standards outlined in Ada in the first phase of our work we focused heavily on a level set across the district as outlined in standards A and D and now have shifted to standards B and C where we are working closely with schools and offices as they lead our environmental change theory activities include professional development Consulting and strategic planning in phase two of our work uh we focused our alignment across the district to include intensive support to increase outcomes at the school level district-based Equity considerations annual Equity action planning and expanded professional development in terms of touch points there
085were over 150 professional development 1,300 consultations and over 800 strategic planning sessions phase two of this work in is expansion of the training coaching and strategic planning identified in the areas on the screen our introduction to racial Equity seminar which is our foundational uh two-day seminar known as Ires is a prerequisite for engagement with the office at the school level as well as central office last year there were over 500 total participants this year we rolled out introduction to racial Equity seminar 2.0 which is a one-day engagement in the spring where 87 colleagues participated this year there will be six offerings open to staff members who have been granted permission by their supervisors to attend on the screen you'll see a list of the professional development offered by the team last year while I won't
086read them all I would like to highlight the par educator Symposium that was held during Equity week 2024 at The Forum Caterers it was the first of its kind there were over 100 Paras in attendance we did not allow anyone but Paris to participate they were able to par uh engage in a keynote as well as hear from Chanel green who's the manager of Staffing Partnerships Who provided information and support available for the par of teach program our University Partners Morgan and talson were on site to assist par Educators with transcript review and enrollment in teacher Pathways one par walked up to me and said she had been in the district for 19 years and could not remember any kind of development that was geared just towards par Educators she came with transcript in hand
087and made a decision to enroll so that she could become a teacher in City Schools consultation and strategic planning again on the screen are examples of the ways that the team engaged last year in service to both schools and offices one of the goals of our work has been that new or revised policies would align to policy Ada and last year during our update for the first time we presented examples of those policy alignments and we are doing so again for this year our outgoing Equity advisory committee with were already recognized at a former board meeting and we have now seated a new group of equity advisory committee members who had their first Retreat all day on Saturday here are ways that the equity advisory committee have reviewed policies and provided feedback um before those
088policies came to policy committee and the full board for vote last year that concludes the compliance portion of the report before I move on to the update are any questions okay I'm going to keep rolling all right so now I am very excited to share the work of this is what I really wanted to do of this dyamic team um as I go through the presentation if in a in a world with more time they would each be reporting on their own work but since I have the pleasure of doing so I'm just going to ask that they stand so you know who they are let me first start by acknowledging the director in our office chwe D moanda who um T my way has the distinction of being the first full-time person I was
089allowed to hire in November of 2019 and helps to provide strategic direction for the office so let's start with bore me and James burkeman our program manager so our B more me initiative which began under Dr Sansa Lisa's leadership the generous support of the Gates Foundation is currently aligned to the blueprint pillars of literacy wholeness and Leadership and are working to align those with portrait of a graduate I have to take a moment to thank Chief debrowski and executive director Alisa for and the social studies team for all of the ways that the teams work together to ensure that the be more me curriculum which includes the support provided through our writing Fellowship and our pilot Fellowship we took an opportunity this year to um take some survey data from students we disaggregated that day
090D looked at teacher surveys student empathy interviews and what you will notice is that there has definitely been an increase in the number of teachers who have taught um as part of the program and who were in the teaching fellowship you'll see in terms of curriculum there's increased teacher and principal data from 23 to 24 and you can see those teacher um survey responses as well as what we learn from empathy interviews and coaching um the scores that that we are looking and we are diving deep into the data thanks to our partners in achievement and accountability are showing us promising results from our B more me initiative in terms of Youth engagement one of the things that we are most proud of and I know James is most proud of in terms of be
091more me is our student design team um we get out of their way and we let students lead as a matter of fact during uh earlier this afternoon as a part of our Maryland cultural proficiency conference our student design team were panelists and moderators and the overwhelming response was um we don't really need to listen to anybody else students have a perfect way of telling us what they want us to know um last year we engaged 217 students through our borei uh speaker series they were in-person events we went back to in person which I'm very glad that we were able to do um those events were held at both Cen State University lexon and market and we now have borei clubs where we partner with three schools um the borei youth engagement also includes
092our student conference our third student conference last year was We Are the past present and future you will see the increase over the years of the number of students who participated so in that first year there were 120 students and last year there were 230 uh 21 schools participated and there were 13 workshops one of the things that is important to note about the workshops is that they are all vetted by students um the theme is all set by students and the students do um all of the work uh so we want to make sure Dr sisis that you know we heard you when you said you wanted more school diversity and you wanted an increase in students and so we are gradually moving uh the needle in that way um our student conference you'll
093see the response rate for surveys the number of students who said they would recommend this event to a friend and they feel um encouraged to be leaders in their Community the student conference has been held at Morgan State University we are already confirmed again for this upcoming year so we're going to share um a small clip let's hope it works out the way it should great good morning everybody I want to welcome you all to our third annual borei conference I'm extremely grateful that you all can make it here with me and my friends today I promise we have a lot of fun sessions in store for you all [Music] our theme this year is we are the past present and future we chose this theme because we wanted students to understand that their actions
094affect themselves and the world around them I would like to ask our student design team to explain why this theme is important to them when I was younger I wanted to change so many things that I never had the platform to do so I had the plan not the platform so the conference thing to me is allow me to dig my hands in the future before it gets here and mold it to best fit Who I Am the theme past present and future means to me reflecting on how their actions in the past affected their present and their future it kind of means to me the S known as umuntu what basically means I am because we are and that's essentially the whole goal of this Summit is to you know teach the youth that
095because of the actions that people did in the past that have presented different opportunities for us for the future or the present so the event today it's our B more me student conference it's a great opportunity for our young people to really experience Joy have fun exercise their voice and learn some new skills it's our end of year celebration so after a year of testing and just grinding out some school work want students to have fun enjoy some music some great food and really some fellowship with community members I think that spaces like these will forever be important cuz they give students opportunity to express themselves spaces that they never really got the opportunity to express themselves before my workshop was about fashion so we learned about the different fashion styles from the late 1900s
096to early 2000s and we got to create a picture of something like fashion wise and it want put on a little fashion show allowing kids the space through ART to speak about themselves and their feelings and what they're going through is definitely important because art is a way of Po in a way of therapy and so giving that to kids and teaching them at a young age is really [Music] great uh oh hold on all right I might have to stop sharing and come back out so I'm GNA keep going U so next we will talk about our educator pipelines and induction work um educator pipelines and induction team go ahead and F nope I'm Gonna Keep Going technology is great when it works I'm so while I'm doing this I will note that on
097the slide when it comes up you will see um that Samuel rather's name um now appears as a senior principal coach he was formerly the director of the equity center pipeline initiative and so he has transitioned to a new role um but I wanted to honor the fact that the work that I am reporting on is a reflection of when Sam um before Sam was on the team but also acknowledging that he's there so the educator pipelines and induction um Team supports early career leaders who are in years one two and three of their roles as assistant principles and principles additionally they support those who are aspiring to be school leaders through the emerging leaders and Residency program last year the team served 98 assistant principles 53 principles and nine aspiring principles so here is
098a breakdown of those uh numbers by cohort um for each of the the years and for early career principles we did um we were supporting year four and five through support of our transformational principal mentor we actually gave them an opportunity to get mentoring certification so that they could continue to assist year four and five the team felt strongly that um having uh four and fiveyear principles um they weren't quite ready to let them go so we put into place um some additional ways to provide them support aspiring principles we had uh four in the emerging leaders program through support of the new leaders um organization and Resident principles there were five we made a number of enhancements to the pipeline which included supporting interim principles as they sought principal placement uh permanent placement in
099response to feedback from our IEDs the team hosted a resident principal meet and greet to give IEDs an opportunity to learn more about each resident partnering with our colleagues in human capital we were able to increase the visibility accessibility and streamlining of the screening processes for Resident applicants as well well as conduct pipeline review visits with eligible principal candidates in support of decision making by IEDs Chief toay our chief of schools and our CEO Dr s cisus some of the supports that the team offered last year uh you can see examples of them on the screen our early career leaders indicate that they value the support of their coaches they found the talent development Tuesday professional development content very beneficial and experien growth in one or more areas of the leadership framework one of the
100things that we are very proud of is there has been an increased interest in leading in City Schools there's a significant increase in interested aspiring leaders we moving C moving from 29 in school year 23 to 130 who expressed interest in 2024 um I heard some clapping um additionally additionally in uh school year 24 because of the investment of two additional coaches we were able to better support the increased number of early career leaders which led to a greater ability for the team to provide coaching and extended support to our assistant principles and aspiring leaders so Dr sis say thank you for that investment uh the leadership framework our work is grounded in our leadership framework and so here's the self-re reported growth of our resident principles on the leadership framework and all five of
101our residents are now sitting principles so we definitely want to thank um our Mentor principles our IEDs congratulations to our new um principles their coaches are very proud of them um as a result of the city schools focus on Pipeline development you'll see ways in which we have transform this entire process we've had an opportunity to partner again a cross functional approach to include the school's office the academics office um the community um I'm sorry Communications engagement and enrollment to make sure that we are aligned in our support models for our leaders and effective July 1st we launched drum roll please I Le which is the city schools Residency program intensive leadership education and development so we wanted to just give you a brief snapshot of this journey to Ali it was not something that
102happened overnight it was a very deliberate intentional um and strategic approach thanks to the wace foundation Grant and the landscape analysis that we conducted where quite frankly our leaders recommended that it was time that we we launch our own internal program so that we would have the kind of leaders that will be with City schools and helping us to change outcomes and so this timeline just shows the um origin of the educator pipelines and induction team their move to the office of equity and how we have engaged to bring forth our lead in this year an example of some of the modules that the team um has develop includes of course a Baltimore Focus that's another piece of feedback we got from our leaders that we needed to make sure that any new leader in
103our organization had a Baltimore context they had a historical frame um and they were coming in with equity center leader values and dispositions and of course align to our P cell uh standards um here are some quotes from our um Equity centered um I'm sorry our early career leaders I won't read those to you but just um I think what you'll get as you read them for yourself is a sense that the support that they get from their coaches and from the educator pipelines and induction team has been an invaluable resource for the work that we are asking them to do um the equity center principal initiative or the pipeline initiative which is um part of the work that we have been able to do based on the Wallace um Foundation grant that we receive
104again you'll notice that Sam rather is still listed um here he was the director and um earlier this year the board approved the appointment of Mak Tucker who is now sitting in the director role amazing so as a result this work is um I'm sorry as a reminder this work is a fiveyear $8.2 million grant that we were awarded by the wace foundation the first two years of the grant were guaranteed year three four and five only come after successful completion of work plan deliverables um we are in year four and have already been awarded year five funding um so I'd like to thank of course the wace foundation um our um the vice president Dr Floyd Cooper our program officer Jessica Cur our consultant Andy Cole and Sharon dandes and Shantel Jackson at the
105fund um so we're going to start here with um another brief video leadership exists in every demographic group leadership exists in um every zip code leadership potential exists everywhere and so how do we now model as adults what we want to also be true for our children and that's what this work is and that work is also reflected in all of the partners that are here in all of the people that have come alongside us to say we understand Baltimore City Public Schools touches every element of life and vitality for our city leadership okay um so the ECPI success last year would not have been possible without partnership um with our colleagues in the Departments that you see reflected here um it can't be overstated how important it is for there to be alignment and
106cross functional collaboration to drive sustainable system change um this slide and the one that follows our example of that progress last year we hosted an aspiring leaders event with a diverse panel of leaders and included an overview of programming and the application process to become a leader in City Schools this fall we hosted our second aspiring leaders Fair there were over 90 participants and attendance at Baltimore poly Technic Institute and the team is already planning our spring um aspiring leaders event um again on the screen you'll see a list of the professional development offered by the team last year primarily for principles but included some assistant principles Equity fellows IED School managers and central office staff um as I wrap this portion I want to thank the members of our district partnership team which include
107colleagues from the equity office Schools human capital and family engagement as well as the Maryland State Department of Education Morgan State University you heard from one of our partners earlier from talson University who work work side by side with us to achieve the goals we are collectively working towards our school support team one of whom has been excused she's teaching tonight so our school support team focuses on supporting the development of equity fellows who are classroom teachers that serve as the liaison between the specialist and the school equity action team co-convened the school Equity action team and offering in school professional development which now includes in school offerings of our introduction to racial Equity seminar schools are designated as priority schools when a core team representing the principal a principal's designate and an equity fellow
108have all attended IRS you will note here the increase in priority schools from 40 in school year 22 to 92 last year which was only made possible by The District's investment in additional positions and the diligence of the specialist both individually and collaboratively the number of schools who had highly engaged seats also increased from 11 to 28 in just one year a highly engaged seat is a seat that meets six to eight times with their Specialists those schools are also among those that experience sustainability or increase in star ratings with none of those schools experiencing a decrease in star ratings completed Equity action plans again you will see the increase in the number of schools that completed Equity action plans and the equity action plan is directly align to the school performance plan our Equity
109action planning cycle you'll see that the priority schools ended at different points in the equity action plan there's a range in schools from those who didn't start the cycle to those who achieve their success criteria and some of everything in between some of the seats are still learning foundational Concepts some form later in the year and some were based on their IR res prerequisite um or who were unengaged as part of the major support offered by The Specialist is the quarterly Equity Fellowship which this year we have aligned to our systemic PD days and they focus on standard D of policy Ada and The Guiding questions for the applic of an equity lens here are some examples of what our fellows have to say about their engagement with the specialist and so last year we
110hosted Equity week the team I think they forgiven me um it is all hands on deck for all four days last year we actually added a district office day which didn't make the flyer it was something I think I woke up in the middle of the night and our central office specialist again thank you for that investment Daniel berson who I think have been on the team for two weeks we decided to have a district office day because Kylie said we really want to understand who's on the team and what it is that you do we hosted it in this room and there were over 400 district office staff who came by to get their passport stamped and have lunch with us so some save the dates um our Equity Fellowship our Maryland cultural proficiency
111conference we have just concluded day one of that conference day two is tomorrow um we are hosting our second annual par educator Symposium and all of the equity um Week events so I invite you to um save the date uh for those um as I close and before I take questions I would would like to take this opportunity to thank the board for your continued investment in the work for your support for showing up at our events for coming to IR res it absolutely makes a difference when you all are present um to my cabinet colleagues for their support collaboration and willingness to stretch who we are in our respective roles and as a senior leadership team and our c CEO for her vision leadership and for trusting me and the team to My Equity
112team who are among the most brilliant individuals I have ever had the pleasure of working with earlier today I had the honor of receiving the Dr Warren C hayon Equity leadership award for the Maryland cultural proficiency conference thank you wasn't expecting that leader and earlier this year I was also um named the um Equity leader of the Year by the Council of great City Schools we we saw those photos phot from today yeah okay um and um what what I want to say and in addition again to um I remember sitting at this not this table but a table similar in 2019 when the board unanimously adopted the equity policy and I did not um in that that moment I could not have envisioned what we have been able to accomplish together and I also
113want to say um and I think Chief Jones mentioned this earlier um last week the members of us who were able to attend the council were there um representing City Schools many um of our colleagues did phenomenal presentations during the council and also as you all have heard Dr sisis Who was a finalist for the green Garner award which is the top honor that the council Awards to a superintendent she was one of five and Country in the country and you know our winner but um one of the things that happened as a part of um the ceremony was uh a pling of a video that we submitted to the council for Dr sisis and so as I close we would like to share that video with you all Dr sisis is a Visionary it
114takes courageous leadership uh to do this work every indicator of a organization moving in the right direction changing outcomes for our children and our families in Baltimore City Public Schools and it is no question in my mind that that is because Dr Sonia sisis is at the hel we are proud that under her leadership we did a lot of positive things that are a reflection of decades and Decades of underinvestment in our in our schools uh our buildings our infrastructure and other things and the relatively flexible um federal dollars that Dr Santa Lisa's managed to uh the penny uh was applied really well and we're proud of that Dr sisis allows her team to lead with confidence and with purpose ensuring that all of decisions are made with students at the focus she has been
115very clear that the work we do uh with our young people to ensure that they are readers and writers and thinkers uh remains at the center of our decision making we've invested in literacy coaches reading fellows opport unities to ensure that our teachers know the best research around how children learn to read has always been a top priority Dr Santa lisis asked that I form the office of communications engagement and enrollment so we could laser like focus on how we can connect families to the academic success of their children listening to families students staff principles district office that we understand how they're realizing the work how they're ING with their families at schools and using that data to then Implement change across the district I know that Dr s and city schools have been working
116around the clock to support the collaboration between my office and City Schools shows that collaboration and shared responsibility is not just the best way it's the only way to improve outcome for our young people the student cabinet was like a very important opportunity for me it was like the first time I feel like like as a student that was kind of at like underrepresented School in the district that I kind of had a voice as the former principal of the year of the state of Maryland I just felt really empowered Dr santalis was just like a beacon of light for me her leadership and the way she spoke has always inspired me and that is what really set my trajectory off as a school principal as a proud parent of a student in Baltimore City
117Public Schools throughout the years I've seen extreme efforts that she's put forward to fight for student advocacy see our policies ensuring that we have an equitable space for our students those are the things from the outside end that really matter and shape and mold what happens to our students longevity really matters continuity matters and having a leader of the level of Excellence of Dr Santa Lisa lead the organization and provide predictability and integrity and a standard of Excellence it's incalculable how valuable that is to Baltimore City the biggest privilege is to say that I able to lead alongside a team of leader [Music] I pray you're not getting out that easy because we want to talk a little bit more about you to thank you so um we all are here um all the C
118members who who are uh here we're all supporting you not everybody could be here at this moment but um we just wanted to thank you for your leadership um and how much it's meant to us um one thing that hasn't been said yet is that Dr sisa is now the longest serving CEO in City Schools since 1946 so since uh 78 years ago she's been the longest serving CEO and that kind of continuity really makes a difference and has allowed us to make really important um improvements in the district um Dr sisa says deep and trusted relationships with teachers with principls with parents with community members with elected offical offals with central office staff and over the past several months I've regularly heard from members of all those communities about their concerns about Dr Santa
119Lisa's contract and the importance of of having her stay um so they'll all be happy to hear that this passed tonight um she's one there's a lot of accomplish accomplishments that come with continuity and one of them is the development of a strong leadership team you see the leadership team here you see Dr Durance leadership team that um that we all um rightly applauded you see leaderships at all level of the organization ation that are here in large part because of Dr Santa Lisa um you also see um you talked about the number of leaders who who want people who want to become leaders now there's also an increase in the number of people who want to remain leaders so the principal retention rate for um during Dr Santa Lisa's uh tenure has increased from
12086% to 95% during her tenure um there's also been just notable and consistent and steady academic gains during her tenure um but particular highlights I'm going to um sh shout out are during your 10-year Middle School Ela results um have increased by 106% versus a 24% increase Statewide kindergarten Readiness performance on Dibbles end of year performance this year increased by 30% uh versus percentage points versus the national 15 points uh meanwhile students who attended one of our prek or juty centers outperformed the state on the kindergarten ready Readiness assessment we've also built Partnerships with a range of partners with The Gates Foundation With The Wallace foundation with Under Armour with heart of America the Ravens Kaboom that has resulted in over $75 million in contributions to city schools during during Dr sandal Lisa's tenure during
121her tenure we also increased rigor and and equity and access to Excellence for for our young people with every Baltimore city school as a gift and advanc learning site since 20221 every Traditional High School with the exception of viant because it's a specific program every other Traditional High School offers a AP courses and in uh during her time um the black the number of black and African students who sat for AP exams increased 27 percentage points while the same statistic for Hispanic and Latin Latino students has increased by 40 percentage points I've been fortunate to be here since day one of your leadership I've been fortunate to be here for the whole ride and I've um learned from your leadership style um I've learned the way I've loved the way watching the way you lead
122with integ integrity and lead from your values I've been inspired by you I've had the pleasure of fighting on behalf of City Schools alongside you this whole time and mostly have laughed with you a lot of the time too um and so I just want to thank you for the opportunity that you've given to me and to all of us um to be part of your leadership team and how proud We Are to be part of your leadership team thank you goodbye there are questions so um I do want to say that this last piece was was not part of um the prep that I received for this presentation as I was moving along um but it it is um it is much appreciated I have said continually and we continue to say that the
123movement we have made um is not enough enough um we know that it's not enough I was in for two and a half hours with a school leader this morning this morning very hard to improve and work we just want to make sure we hear you clearly thank you chair um who is working very hard um to improve the reading of her first and second graders and we actually got to look through student work together and we got to walk um through every classroom in that early grade and that is why I do this work it is not for adults it is not for making people feel comfortable I don't do it perfectly I am not a a perfect human being my faith teaches me there are no perfect human beings but I lead always
124knowing that unless I have people with me then all I am doing is a talking head and the fact that every single data point every single Accolade every single school that is serving students better is because of the people who lead from their seat that leader today is was struggling but she sat there and she was vulnerable and she walked and she took my feedback because she knows and I know I cannot lead every school in this District the cafeteria workers the food and nutrition workers who make sure that every young person in line or who might not get in line I can't do that every day the bus drivers who when other people call out they come in I cannot drive every bus in this District this is about a team I am proud
125to lead here this is about you all and I mean it when I say this has been one of if not the highlight of my career and it is a privilege to serve Baltimore City to serve this city I don't want to be in mon County although I respect that superintendent I don't want to be in Anna Rundle County even though I love Dr Bedell like a brother I don't want to be in any other District but here I love this city I believe in the potential of these young people I love every single time that I get to shout them out and I want you to know this is generational work and even having an additional year it will not all get done done this has got to be passed on and I do
126want to thank all of the leadership whether it's board leadership whether it's City leadership Mayor Scott who walks his talk in supporting kids everybody who does what they do so that our young people can sit in these seats whenever we are gone that is why we do this work and we've got more to do which is why today I wasn't carrying around the Council of great City Schools aard it was home it was on my shelf and I was sitting rolling up my sleeves looking at kids foundations books because that's what you all do you make me proud to lead here our ancestors are proud the people who died and went before us are proud and at the same time they are proud they are saying celebrate and then get back to work and that's
127what we're going to do so thank you all like I said this a little I had no idea I was like why are all these people coming out but I thank you I'm still sitting in case there are questions for me CH can I be recognized Dr reading la andair um Dr Durant this is not a question for you I wanted to just comment briefly uh Dr s say I wanted to note that um in June of 2026 it will Mark 10 years of your tenure um and I wanted all of us to recognize and think about the fact that nationally this is not common right there are not many urban districts where you have a leader who's given 10 years and few people know what kind of uh energy and vitality and dedication and
128sacrifice that it requires to give 10 years uh in this type of position so I want to congratulate you and thank you to your service thank you for your service and the last thing that I wanted to say was um to Echo what the chair said which I really appreciate his comments which is over the last weeks and months uh many of us on the board have been hearing from the community that what folks really want is to make sure that there's continuity that we have time for a thoughtful process and I think in addition to keeping a great leader here for an additional year um what I'm most excited about is that we will have time to do a deliberate National search for the next leader of City Schools so um just wanted to
129congratulate you again uh thank you chair for your leadership and I'm excited for this next phase someone have something oh yeah I do have a question um I just I think about if we were back at that slide 28 where it looked at the the original coldo size Dr Durant and how that has we have less folks in the current corts um two questions I'm curious to know are we tracking those folks so the cohort remain does the cohort remain and kind of we monitor we track them along the their leadership Journey that's one question right so you're talking about the um like the early the early career cohort or the principal cooh or either one yes right so what happens is they stay with us for the three years so they move from one
130to two to three and what I will tell you that the team what we are um what we are wrestling with and we are surfacing um right now in discussion with Dr sisis is that threeyear enough um you know what we learned with the last four and five years those were the principles who really took leadership during the pandemic and so their ability to actually step into the principal ship looked very different than people who were not in um in those uh pandemic years so the first second and third year we are still tracking them and we track what happens after them so we after that period of the 3 years we know if they leave the district um in some cases we know where they go um we know if they go into district
131office position so we are tracking to see what happens um with them our goal of course is to keep them in the seat to aspiring building leaders District leaders um because we do know that they're like those teachers teacher leaders let a lot of the work that happens in our school um they don't necessarily want Vitality that they provide to SCH so can you a little bit of that because I know has been having these discussions for quite some time developing strong pipeline making sure that we're developing in our home so that I you know leading and doing the work so can you lift a little bit of that up so on the teacher leader side uh to be completely transparent the work that is done in the academics um office under Chief dabrowski's lead
132leadership a lot of that work that is now with sitting with um Deputy Chiefs switon buck and Kaa um Kaa dennisa um the work that they are doing is around that teacher leader P strengthening our leaders related to that and connecting to the wireless work and the ability to leverage These funds has been our work and development on our leader tracking system so we are building that um as a way to be able to look at teacher leaders um teachers who aspire to leadership and to your point sh mcf who may not necessarily see themselves in the principal role immediately or or if ever the same is true about our assistant principles one of the things that the landscape analysis also revealed to us is what assistant principles were saying is once someone knows that
133I am not interested in being a principal my kind of support and development stops and so what we wanted to do was also build away with our human capital Partners to make sure that we are not just dropping people off if they say they're they're not interested in the principal ship because we also understand how critical assistant principles are in buildings and how much work they lead and so they also need development so working with the chief of schools and our IEDs we are supporting assistant principles the emerging leaders program is another way that teacher leaders can still continue to develop capacity so that they can lead from whatever their seats are more broader in the organization we are working closely with human capital around how we develop other opportunities to grow leadership across the
134organization even if it's not the assistant principal principal role asking type of resources and support that you will need to inform as we're planning budg and people are going to think I set this question up I haven't because our word for this year is sustainability um it is one of the things and I have been teeing up with Dr sisis and with cabinet for at least two years now it is the very point that you made um we have been able to do some tremendous work with our ability to leverage not just the wirless funds but also Casey and Gates and um to be honest so much of the work that we are doing the programming aspects the district has committed with the approval of the board in in terms of salaries for all of
135the position on the team the programming dollars are philanthropic and so as we are preparing for budget requests that we we have been teeing this up already and so now we're at a place where we're going to have to if we want to continue this level of programming this level of Excellence that we have brought forward to the organization we're going to have to put our money where our mouth is and the question of what can the board do like approved my budget request no I'm joking not really not really not really joking J but part of it part of it is going to be how we leverage um other philanthropic dollars if that's necessary where we pull from we have some really creative people you heard you know Chief dhy talk about it I
136will also say you know um you know in in achievement and accountability office you know Dr Hoffman is a master of numbers so when we try to figure out like how can we get something done um but I um it it is the thing that is keeping me up right now it is about what happens not in year four four and five of The Wallace Grant but in years six seven and eight as our Consultants always reminds us so we're going to have to be really thoughtful in um the approach to our funding and also making sure that people understand what we are doing I think that we are like a best kept secret um that is the city schools and we are doing some really tremendous work we are um we are leaders in
137the work that we are doing with our equity center principal development work with our school Equity action teams and so our ability to have the board especially be ambassadors of that work and flank us and and quite frankly understand what we do and that's why I open with when you all show up when you all come when you all really understand what it is we do then you can be part of how we are getting the extra support we are going to need to continue to sustain our work definitely um put on the May 22nd the B1 student conference we definitely want to be there um this year but I think that's also a good push to the board because it's bothan right it's not just us prioritizing because I think we are prioritizing the
138work but we also know that we are in a system that is rooted in generational inequities in our schools and we are underfunded and people don't like when we say things like that um but when we have been historically disenfranchised for Generations right our buildings we still have the oldest portfolio in the state that's exactly right that is shameful for our kids right and so we need to yes prioritize what we're budgeting for but also our philanthropic partners and so I appreciate you lifting that because we do it in the absence of that it's got to be both and and so to board members as we're leveraging our um Partnerships um and just the advocacy that she's mentioned and it's important that we continue to push that and we push them for more right to
139help sustain what we're able to balance here thank you Dr Durant thank you I have a question um I know the interest in teaching for high school students has fallen is and you all have a lot of great engagement with B more me is there any way to kind of combine be more me and the teacher pipeline to replicate uh like almost like a CTE program for students who may be interested or need exposure to teaching sounds good I what I will tell you as a followup is I'm happy to talk with um you know Chief debrowski ch toce um I think there's there are a lot of opportunities um I won't go in into much detail but I I will tell you that I think Dr sisis and I were having this conversation at
140Council I think that um one we we've got to make the profession be more attractive to folks and so part of that is actually about how people feel in the profession currently like if I got to if I see you all stressed and downtrod and be why would I want to do that job right so I think part of this is how we care for and hold um the people that are currently in those roles to be models the other thing is I think more opportunities for young people to explore different careers will will change things for them um I you know won't share all of her story but my own daughter who is a first grade teacher at barlay El M medal this year um who who if someone would have sold her five
141years ago she'd be in a classroom she would have called them outright a t a t a Storyteller she had no interest no desire and it was actually during covid when we couldn't go anywhere and she was providing support I'm going to call it Chief High CT's daughter we were Sheltering in place and had to be on meetings all day and chief H H's daughter needed to be in class and so my daughter went and she was two tutoring her and she was getting her in class and she was helping her to read and that's when she found her love for Education she went in per and now she's in this first grade classroom never a part of anything in her mind and what she said to me two weeks ago she said I think
142it's actually insane that you all think 17 year old should be make be able to make those decisions when they graduate from high school and she said I found my life's purpose so I think that exposure to those opportunities to be teachers and what that means um is going to make an incredible difference but I think um I'm happy to have fure conversations with colleagues about how we align the work and she taught Phoebe how to read yeah thank you you Commission and I mentioned to Dr s that I think that is work stay in place and a all of it should be based on that like I just encourage thatat y thank you commissioner Slater Harrison you'll be happy to know we're already working on it so we are working to make sure that
143we align our Equity centered values and disposition our ways of being and ways of doing with the port of a graduate and even in terms of how we're doing evaluation as an organization first of all first of all let thank you first of all let me say that um this is a rhetorical question I don't want to hear people an answer because inside uh Dr sis has mentioned something that our ancestors are proud and I saw a remarkable team here and I want each of you to ask yourselves what's the Legacy what personal Legacy do I have this is something I've asked Dr Santa Lisa I'm going like what personal legac because that's what's the driving is that's what the future is that's where you're building for and it doesn't mean that everybody makes it
144through the battle as long as you're building a legacy a future inside yourself you can pass it on think about it internalize it answer it for yourself that's it Dr Durant thank you so much for um your leadership your work um to the work of your team um that you so graciously uh highlight we know that you cannot leave the work without I'm great folks working alongside you and with you um so thank you for this presentation we look forward to the work that you will continue to do and Lead here and your team and city schools and for the sake of our children here in Baltimore city thank you Dr Durant thank you chair want to make sure because we normally do it and I need this added to um uh uh things that
145are printed um we do have someone who has retired um after 46 years and two months of service to city schools and that is Lawrence Barry who started his employment with Baltimore city schools on August 8th 1978 as a driver uh Mr Barry also worked as a lead from February 16th 20 2008 to December 31st 2021 and as a supervisor for grounds from January 1st 2022 until his retirement Lawrence Barry again as I just mentioned served Baltimore City Public Schools for 46 years and two months can we just acknowledge Him and his service with the round of applause the teaching and learning committee will meet on Wednesday November 6 it is the day after a very pivotal day in our country and hopefully we will all be engaged um on that day um at 3:30
146p.m. it will be a virtual meeting the exact session of the board the next one will be uh Tuesday November 12th at 3:30 p.m. um followed by a public board meeting that same day at 5:30 the operations committee will meet on Tuesday November 19th 2024 at 10:30 a.m. the policy committee will meet the same day at 4:00 p.m. and the safety and wholeness committee will meet on Thursday November 21st at 4:00 p.m. and these are all virtual meetings is there a motion to adjourn so motion that was commission Brooks is there a second secondo seconded that motion is there any un Readiness no all those in favor of adjourning please indicate by saying I I any oppos hearing now we are adjourned at 8:23 p.m. thank you everyone have a great evening so Commissioners we
147need you to sit tight for a mon