DPSCD School Board - Regular Meeting - October 8, 2024

1:44PM Oct 9, 2024

Speakers:

Keywords:

roll call

public comment

chair remarks

health hubs

literacy improvement

finance report

superintendent's report

attendance recognition

M-STEP scores

teacher retention

Proposition S

public comment

administrative termination

meeting minutes

Bobby, Bobby, thank you. Bobby, good evening. The time is now, 530 we want to go ahead and get started. Thank you for those who made their way to the board meeting this evening. Today is Tuesday, October the eighth, and we are thanking principal Perry and his entire administrative team for hosting us this evening, we will go ahead and call the meeting to order. Can we have a roll call please? Angelique Peterson,

Mayberry, I'm present. Misha Stallworth, Sonia Mays, Dr Iris Taylor, Sherry gay, Daniel go. Latrice McClendon present, Bishop, Dr colletta Vaughn present, Madam Chair, you

may begin Thank you. Meeting norms, we respect the right of all persons who participate in this public meeting of the board and kindly request that everyone engages in behavior that supports the same in the event that anyone engages in behavior that is not in support of the good, we request that you refrain from that behavior. During our moment of silence today, we have one too many people. Thank you. I know my screen still says waiting for others to join is the screen live for those who are joining for bereavement tonight, we have noon hour aid at Burton International, nawana Bailey. We have teacher at Davidson Elementary School, Michael Fletcher, we have teacher at Drew Transition Center, Akia green. We have retired principal of Finney and Henry Ford Jerry green junior, and we have retired principal of the school for the deaf and program super supervisor for the deaf and hard of hearing. Diane Shepherd, we did have, I'm not mistaken, photos of several. We want to make sure all they're on the screen. Okay, so during our moment of silence, if we could remember the families of nawana Bailey, Michael Fletcher, Akia green, Diane Shepherd and Jerry green Jr,

thank you. We'll now move into our anthems so we have the Crusaders of Martin Luther King, Jr, Senior High School Color Guard, and we have our Star Spangled Banner and Lift Every Voice and Sing by soloist, Caden Holton of Mason Academy and a member of the Detroit youth choir. So if we could stand and receive those students, please, you.

Oh say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we held at the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars

we watched were so Gareth streaming air. Bursting through the night that our flag was still there. Oh say, does that star spangled

banner yet wave In the land of the

sing telephone heaven rings Ring with the harmonies of liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high at the listening skies. Let every sound loud as the roll. See. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us Facing the rising sign of our new Day begun. Let us march on till victory is won.

Let's give another round of applause to miss Caden Holt of Mason Academy. We say every month we're so glad that our students are back joining us, but we say every month that it's not easy to stand before a group of people and perform. But I don't know if she was nervous or not, but it didn't seem like it very talented. Thank you. We yet. We are yet to have a quorum, so we will move to the next item. Public Comment. Registration has closed. The time is 537, public comment registration has closed. We'll now move into the next item on the agenda, the chair remarks. So a couple of remarks tonight, one, as we continue to fight for public education and adequate funding, several of us have been in spaces, meetings and platforms, and had the opportunity to tell our stories I like to lift up tonight, CMA history teacher, Mr. Rodney fresh, who had the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC and speak during the congressional hearing on the negative impact of project 25 on public education, and this was done from a teacher's perspective. So Mr. Fresh has sent his link, and we will make sure that access is available. He made us proud, dpscd, Health hubs. Yeah, let's give it up for Mr. Fresh. I also wanted to lift up the health hub so we know that the health hubs are active and open and working. We have health hubs at several of our schools, including central Durfee, Denby, East English Village at Finney, Martin Luther King, Mumford, Osborne, southeastern and Western so these health hubs provide services to students and families of the district at no charge. So we want to make sure that everybody is taking advantage of the support and the resources available at these health hubs. We do have reports to say that nearly 1000s have begun to use these services, but some of the services that are available include primary medical care, mental health services, oral health services, screenings, preventative maintenance and fillings, vision, meaning screenings and free eyeglasses. Basic Needs, all of the health hubs have a full food and. Resource distribution center with shelf stable food items and basic needs. You can also get utility support and housing support. So please make sure you are taking advantage. If you are a stakeholder, make sure you are taking advantage of the Health Hub services. I also want to Jess and Dr Vitti may speak more about this, but I think it's important, as we talk about the challenges of the district, it's also important to celebrate wins, no matter how small they are. So the curriculum associates group released a report. It provides, I ready report to districts throughout the country, including us. And it was noted that dpscd outperformed over 85% of large urban school districts and literacy improvement. So our communications team will be heavily promoting the good news, but to all of those who are working with our young people, whether you are in a literacy program, whether you are at home helping or if you are in the school buildings helping. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This recognition goes for you. So that will conclude the chair remarks at this time, there are some announcements that we will acknowledge at the end. We do recognize member may so we can go back now that we have a quorum, to item number three on the agenda, which is approval of the agenda. So the chair will entertain a motion support? Is there? Is there support? So the motion on the floor is to approve the agenda as presented. It's been properly moved and supported by Dr Vaughn and member McClendon. Any discussion, if not all those in favor of the motion on the floor, signify by saying, aye, any opposed motion carried. Item number four, approval of meeting minutes. 4.01 through 4.05 regular board meeting minutes from September 10, 2024 regular board meeting minutes from the closed session from September 10, 2024 academic committee meeting minutes from September 23 2024 finance committee meeting minutes from September 27 2024 and the policy ad hoc committee meeting minutes from October 1, 2024 is there a desire To tie bar items 4.01 through 4.05 so moved Is there support? It's been properly moved by Dr Vaughn, properly supported by member McClendon to tiebar items, 4.01 through 4.05 any discussion, if not all those in favor of the motion on the floor, signify by saying, aye, any opposed motion carried the chair will now entertain a motion for the tie bar of items 4.01 through 4.05

so moved?

Is there support? It's been properly moved by Dr Vaughn, properly supported by member McClendon, for the tie bar of items 4.01 through 4.05 is there any discussion? If not, all those in favor of the motion on the floor signify by saying, aye, any opposed motion carries. Thank you. We will now turn it over to our CFO, Mr. Vidito, to go over the Finance Report.

Good evening, board members and community, good evening. This evening, we will be presenting the financials through the month of August. We can see here, we received collections on the 13 and 18 Mills, approximately $35 million on our capital debt. Millage, the 13 Mills, another $31 million on our operating mill. Millage, the 18 mills. This is primarily from the summer collections. This was expected. I can let you know that the balances that we collected is enough, so that we will not have to do any borrowing on our capital debt, millage, which we'll be paying this month in October. So we will not need to do any borrowing for the capital mills. Moving forward, looking at our expenditures through the month of August, local revenue is slightly behind forecast. This is primarily just due to the timing of the enhancement millage. We still expect to receive that, but we'll expect to receive those funds later on during the year from Wayne resa. Additionally, the state, our funding for the mipsers came in initially lower. We do expect corrections as a state budget and FTE are finalized. We typically get those in November, so we expect those to catch up at that point. On the expenditure side, we are slightly higher for the month. This was due to the expanded Balmer summer program that was larger than it was larger than expected when we built the budget back in April of 2024, regarding available funds, the district has available funds to make all payments. We had approximately 23 weeks of available funds. As you know, there was no state aid payment in the month of September. We'll get the first state a payment of this year in October of. October 21 we are on track again to receive that and continue to make all salary and discretionary payments for the month. That concludes my report.

Thank you, Mr. Perdido. I know there were some very robust conversations at the finance report, but I will open it up to the floor of the board to find out if there are any questions or comments for the CFO. Remember, McClinton. Go ahead,

I just have a question around the expenditures that are forecasted higher than expected for bomber the summer program. Could you explain why and what we're doing to make up for that?

So the Ballmer expanded summer grant is fully reimbursable, so we will receive the money for that program. When we built the budget in april 2025 we weren't sure how many students would participate, and so we just assumed a lower amount, but we did see serve a little over 6500 students in the program. It was the largest program we've done. And again, Balmer will reimburse us, so expenditures will high, but we will get the additional revenue from the Baltimore foundation, so it'll be offset.

Any more questions for the CFO, Mr. Perdido, thank you for each month making sure that we have the balances for the 13 and 18 meals for DPS as well. I know that eliminates that question every month on what the balance is, so in terms of how the taxes are being paid right now for the city of Detroit. Do you see us on task, on on target, and if so, what do those payoff dates look like now? Have they moved up from previously mentioned dates?

So for let's talk about them separately. So we first have the operating millage, the 18 mills that is repaying the legacy debt under DPS that was originally scheduled for 2027 as we've discussed, that will be repaid in about March or April 2025 so that is two years ahead of schedule. The capital debt the 13 mills that right now is fluctuating based on the interest rates. As you know, we have to borrow from the state every year from the slur fund. It initially had been as as late as 2049 again, as we had the interest rates during covid, that dropped down to 2042 we are anticipating, potentially an early repayment, but is really variable on what happens with the interest rates. So if the interest rates go back and drop lower, it could be as early as potentially 2038 2039 but again, if interest rates remain higher, then it would just extend out.

Thank you. Any more questions or comments for the CFO? If not, thank you, Mr. Perdido. You can file the report for auditing purposes, and we will now move into the Superintendent's report. Dr Vitti, we are recognitions this evening. Yes,

thank you, Madam Chair, we have two sets of recognitions this evening. I'm going to start with the central office recognition. Most recently, the Council of Great City Schools conducted an annual review of school districts throughout the country, focusing, obviously on large urban school districts. Each year they do this, and in this most recent review, they highlighted the district's work with maximizing federal grant dollars. So many of you may recall that in years past, there was quite a bit of unspent federal funding that came into the district, and one by creating a strategic plan and aligning that to our budget and creating better systems and processes to making sure that funding is spent at the central office level in individual schools, we were recently highlighted as being one of the most efficient districts in the country with spending down federal funding. And so with that, this evening, I want to recognize the budget team and its leaders, specifically ms Halliburton, so please come up to be recognized. And I don't know if any of the members of your team are here, but just want to recognize your leadership and your team's leadership in doing this. I know people often wonder what we do in central office, but this is one of those functions, and I just want to highlight your work and your team's work this evening. Thank you for being in the shadows. And you know, I think often when we don't hear anything, it means good things, but when we do get this kind of positive national news, I want to recognize You and our team as well. So thank you.

Applause.

So our second set of recognitions build off of last month's recognition, which we're highlighting schools based on last year's performance that were the top performers or most improved. So tonight's focus area is attendance. So I'm going to recognize firstly, k8 schools that had the highest average daily attendance based on last year's data, and then we're going to recognize schools with the five most improved in average daily attendance from two years ago to last year, and then recognize those schools that are the lowest percentage of students that were chronically absent, and then those schools that were most improved in chronic chronic absenteeism, meaning reducing that rate. So we're going to do k8 and we're going to have all the principals at the K level come up, and then we'll recognize them with a collective photo with myself and the board, and then we'll do high school. So we'll do k8 right now. So these are the top five schools with the highest average daily attendance from 93% to 91% so the highest average daily attendance last year went to Edmonton, Monteiro, principal Johnson. Number two was Bates Academy, principal Bailey flicks was our third. That was flicks was led by principal Hogan, but principal Hall, our new principal, should be here to recognize the work there. In fourth place was Chrysler Elementary. And in fifth place, we have clipper elementary with principal Escamilla.

So top five most improved in average la attendance. Most Improved was Burns Elementary with principal Clayton. Second most improved noble elementary that was led by principal Norwood, who retired, but principal Hall should be here. Ann Arbor trail. Third, most improved average daily attendance. Principal Massey, a greenfield union, number four, principal hunt, new principal at Greenfield union, not a new principal the district. And then Nichols Elementary was number five, most improved. That's principal Hayward. And then want to recognize the cage that had the lowest chronic absenteeism in the district. Number one, Edmondson, Montessori, principal Johnson, she's already up there. Number two, Bates, Bates Elementary, Bates Academy, principal Bailey. And then we have flicks in third. That was principal again, Hogan, now, principal Hall. We have Chrysler Elementary, number four, principal Hall. And then fourth, we have clipper, principal Escamilla again, and she's already up there five most improved, not chronically absent students. We have Burns Elementary reduced chronic absenteeism by 33 percentage points. Principal Clayton number two in our portrayal with principal Massey. Number three, Fisher Academy. So this is Fisher lower and Fisher upper, both led by principal green. Number four, Greenfield union, principal hunt. And lastly, and surely not last, but number five in the district, with reducing chronic absenteem is noble Elementary, led by principal Norwood last year and this year principal Hall, who is the assistant principal there last year I

it All right now we have high schools Yeah, the principal, the K principals can be seated. We have high schools now. The school with the highest average daily attendance was cash Tech with principal Phillips, number two, Renaissance High School, Principal strawder, the school at Mary Grove, number three, principal Williams, number four, dia Detroit, International Academy for young women, Principal montelon. And number five, Academy of the Americas, principal brown. So the top five most improved in average daily attendance. Number one is principal Davis from Davis aerospace. East. Number two, Northwestern High School Principal Rogers. Number three, most improved Pershing High School Principal chipton. Number four, School of Marygrove, principal Williams and number five, Martin Luther King High School Principal, Perry. So the top five schools at the lowest or lowest percentage of students that were chronically absent. Number one, Renaissance high school principal, strawder. Number two, Cass tech principal, Phillips. Number three, the virtual school principal Lake. Number four, the score Mary Grove, principal Williams again. And number five, highest or lowest number or percentage of chronically absent students. Detroit International Academy for young women, Principal montelony. And then the last group is the five, most improved reduction in chronic absenteeism, the score at the most at the high school level, the most dramatic improvement in chronic absenteeism, reducing it by 24 percentage points. Davis aerospace, with principal Davis number two, reducing chronic absenteeism by eight percentage points. Pershing High School and principal Tipton number three school Mary Grove reduced it by seven percentage points, principal Williams. Number four, Northwestern High School Principal Rogers, and then number five, Central High School Principal Rob Harris. You.

Oh, congratulations.

Congratulations. You have

everyone's want to see

congratulations to all of our principals. Obviously, the we our principals, lead this work, but they do with a team, you know, a team of administrators, support staff, teachers, students and parents and the greater community. So I know we're recognizing the principles as the leaders of these buildings, but this also is a recognition of everyone linked to these schools. And so one of our commitments this year is not only to do more recognizing, but it's also to do more learning through the best practices of these individual schools. And obviously, what's exciting about this is we have a good mixture of exam schools, application schools and neighborhood schools that are showing improvement, and that's exactly what we need to see as a district, as we continue to prove across the board. So thank you everyone for coming tonight, I'll conclude my presentation by reviewing the metrics, as I do every month, and then giving a quick update on most recent M step scores that I had an opportunity to review at the academic committee meeting. So currently, our enrollment, as of count, we have an opportunity to capture 49,272 FTE. If we're able to capture all of that FTE, that would be about a 1000 student increase in enrollment. And so the key is students attending. So that's our maximum FTE right now we've captured about 97% of that FTE at 48,077 so we have between now and October 16 for all students that have not attended before, or, I should say, after count to come for a four day school, and then up to November 1 for those that have excused absences between that time. So as I've been reporting, enrollment is trending upwards. We just got to make sure the students attend to be paid by the state for that increase, average daily attendance right now is trending at about 84% that's about three percentage points higher than last year. Right now, about 47 students are trending toward being chronically absent. That would be lower than we were last year, but obviously it's early. Right now, 98% of student teachers have had excellent or moderate attendance. No additional updates related to that slide. I. I won't go over the academic data today, because I have a separate presentation about the release of M step scores and how we did there. So I'll wait until next month to review the academic data, because there is no really updates for this year. Our students basically finish their baseline testing, and we should have those data points in the next month or so, and I'll go through that with the academic committee first before going to the full board. When we look at our other measurements right now, we have about 36 teacher vacancies, 44 support staff vacancies. We have three assistant principal vacancies. We have no we're fully staffed with counselors and social workers. We only have 10 academic interventionists vacancies, and that's not those funded out of the literacy lawsuit, funded, funded positions. We have about 200 literacy lawsuit additional AIS this year throughout the district. So we're excited to see the results it's going to come to that, especially in the lower grades. We only have two security guard vacancies, seven pre K para vacancies, 13 ese para vacancies, while employing about 400 district wide, we have 40 cafeteria vacancies and 20 contracted custodian vacancies right now, when you look at invoices past due, paycheck errors and average length of time for request or RFPs, we're down as compared to where we ended last year. So that's a good point to be down in those measurements, I want to spend the rest of my time with reviewing last year's M step results. Again, I was able to do that through the academic committee in more detail, but again, based on last year's results, we showed another round of improvement across the board. In fact, 80% of schools throughout the district showed improvement in at and above grade level performance in both reading and math this year. So the improvement we're seeing is systemic. It's not just isolated to exam schools or application schools, but it's all schools in order to see district wide improvement, or 80% of schools improving right now, when you look at M step results, third through eighth grade, including the PSAT, we're at 16% which last year we were at 14.6 the 16% is the highest we've been in the M step, DPS, dpscd history. So not only did we improve, but we continue to be at the highest level that we've been at in math, we also improve from 9% to 11% if we round. That's the highest that we've ever been in dpscd, and it's higher than we were before the pandemic. So this means both now in literacy and math, we've exceeded pre pandemic levels, and all aggregate learning loss has been eliminated. It doesn't mean that individual children may not be experiencing learning loss, but when you aggregate, aggregate, all of our children in one bucket, if you will, statistically, we do not have learning loss, which is, we are one of the few large urban school districts in the country that can say that just if you remember the board chair's remarks when you look at two year ago results and this year's results, we're still performing in from an improvement perspective, better than 80% of large urban school districts throughout the country and Social Studies at and above grade level performance improved as well. We're also at the highest level we've been at through the M Step Testing and then science, we improved to 12% which is also the highest we've ever been at as a district. So the celebration here is improvement. It's not celebration of arrival. I think what we're obviously committed to as a district to show improvement, but we're not going to be where we should be overnight. It's about incremental improvement, and improvement that exceeds the state, exceeds large urban school districts, which shows that we're narrowing the gap between us and the state and comparable districts. And I'll talk more about that in some upcoming slides, when we look at the SAT, we expected declines in the SAT because the test changed. I'll go over that in more detail. We saw a slight dip in English language arts, if you will, on the SAT, also in mathematics, Social Studies at the 11th grade level showed improvement, and science was flat the decline that we expected in the s, A, T is based on the test again changing, and I say again, because I think one of the most frustrating thing about standardized tests is when they change. Because when they change, they have immediate, usually negative impact on results, so you then can't see improvement or. Lack of improvement based on what's happening in the classroom. The SATs changes year in that historically, it's been a paper pencil test. It moved to a computer based test, but it's also an adaptive test. So for example, based on whether you answer a question wrong or right, the next question will get harder or easier, and theoretically, it's designed to narrow in on what students really know and not gain any benefit from guessing. There is a mathematical benefit to that, but it does have a negative impact on students. It is clear that the nation dropped on SAT performance, and so did large urban school districts, we are trying to get more national data to better understand this. I will say I'm concerned not necessarily about the decline. I'm concerned about what this means for students as we move forward, and whether this is the right test to really know what students do or don't know. But I'm going to refrain from giving more comments until I see more data in how other large urban school districts did,

specifically, I know generally, but want more data in that area. This is just another way to look at the M step data from a line graph perspective, you can see the trend is upwards as we named our metrics. To do this, you can also, once again, see that we're at the highest level that we've ever been at. Look at eighth grade English language arts. We're much higher than than we were based on the PSAT, and then the SAT again, showed decline, and I talked about that already, but that decline still has us higher than we've ever been at for dpscd since sat testing for 11th graders. In math, you can see again, we've now exceeded where we were before the pandemic. And in PSAT math, this came up at the academic committee meeting, we've been flat. We're currently analyzing the curriculum that we're using in eighth grade math, because we it is aligned to the standards, but there's questions about whether it's best aligned to the PSAT. So there is some analysis that we're going to do this year to possibly modify maybe what we're using in eighth grade math, especially with our higher performing students. SAT math there that you see on the far right is 11th grade, and I've spoken about that already. I think this is the comparison data. This is just looking at last year. You can see in grades three to eight in ELA, we improve 1.4 percentage points. That's higher than the city charters improved and double what the state improved at so this is us narrowing the gap between us and the state. In math, you can see improved 1.5 higher than city charters and then the state. That's all districts, obviously, including rural and suburban districts, only improved point one. So again, we're narrowing the gap between the district and the state. And social studies, we improve 2.4 percentage points, whereas city charters only improved point nine. So we doubled their improvement. And also the state only showed 1.6 in science, we improved 3.8 the city charters improved slightly better than we did, but we also nearly doubled where or did double the improvement that the state saw in science in 11th grade. These are drops, as I said in the s, A, T, our drop was less significant than the states. And then in social studies, we showed more improvement than city charters and more improvement than the state. And then in 11th grade science, we were flat, but we dropped point one. That was less than what city charters dropped in the state. And then just looking at pre pandemic recovery, I think this is the most one of the most relevant stories is that we are recovering from the pandemic faster than large urban school districts and the state of Michigan. Here you can just see this is from since the pandemic, our improvement. You can see we've improved 1.5 in ELA, city charters have declined almost two points from the pandemic. The state almost 3% we have so slight improvement. In math, city charters have declined almost two percentage points. The state four percentage points. Social Studies, you can see we've improved 1.5 city charters only point seven, and the state is equal to us. And improvement in social studies since the pandemic in grade 11 in ELA This is on the S, A, T, you look at before pandemic to now we've improved almost four percentage points. City charters, less than one. The state has declined four percentage points in math. Um, slight decline. City charters decline 4% state 10% in math and then in social studies, we've improved point 1.5 city charters only one. State seven and so, as I also continue to say, when we talk about just the the challenges of public education, we should stop having just a dpscd conversation. We have a state challenge with public education, yet dpscd is showing improvement, and more improvement than even the state. These are just proficiency comparisons, and this is something we've talked a lot about at the academic committee meeting, but when you disaggregate our data, the top line, for example, when you see dpscd, that's all kids, all schools, and those numbers are compared to city charters and the state. What's interesting, though, when you disaggregate dpscd, exam and application schools, so these are schools that don't have neighborhood zones, and so these are students that are actively choosing the school they want to go to, very similar to city charters. City charters don't have neighborhood zones. They don't have to take children in their neighborhood. We do when you look at our neighborhood schools, and so we are as a district, narrowing the gap the previous slide show that. But what these slides also show is, when you isolate those active chooser parents and students, our active choosers are outperforming city charter active choosers. And although the gap between the district and city charters are narrowing, and in some areas, even when you just look at district wide data, we're outperforming city charters at the same time. And what I mean by that is, look at dpscd Social Studies, we're at 6.6 city charters at 6.3 but when you isolate dpscd students at exam and application schools, we're outperforming city charters, and that's more of an apples to apples comparison. And then you can obviously see grade 11 ELA, math, social studies and science as well. In some of those areas, dpscd, all dpscd Kids, English language learners, special needs, neighborhood schools, we're outperforming city charters, for example, in social studies and science, that's all kids, and then dramatically outperforming them when you just isolate it to examine application schools. So you know our metrics over the next couple of years is either exceeding city charter average all schools, or the county average or the state average, and our data shows we're narrowing those gaps and improving overall. Just as a conclusion, what's leading to the improvement is being nearly fully staffed for the last couple of years. You can't talk about a high quality education if you don't have a certified teacher in the classroom. And so we, you know, are down to only 30 teacher vacancies, vastly different than large other large urban school districts throughout the country that are still dealing with hundreds, even 200 teacher vacancies across their systems. Our our curriculum at grade level is working. Our intervention process is improving. We have much better communication and alignment between central office functions and school functions, our principal capacity is certainly being built and improved over the past couple of years. So the next steps to accelerate the improvement one continue to improve student achievement. Last year's data shows what previous years showed, and even more so that if students miss 18 or fewer days, they're three to five times more likely to be at and above grade level in reading and math and to be college ready. On the SAT I'll say it again. If you miss 18 or fewer days in dpscd, you're three to five times more likely to be at and above grade level and to be college ready. So what we're doing in classrooms is working. We just need better attendance to see that acceleration and the scaling of that, we made some changes this year to allow assistant superintendents to be more in schools, more in classrooms, looking at instruction, thinking about climate and culture and improving that. We have a separate team that's working on just complaints and issues. So our assistant sups are spending more time who are supervising principals in classrooms and schools not chasing, you know, the latest crisis at a school, we need to continue to improve the assistant principal pool, to build a stronger bench of future principals, as those retire and those are promoted this year with literacy lawsuit money, it's about expanding the intervention process for one on one small group work, especially in literacy, and then lastly, continuing to improve instruction and intervention with our special needs students and English language learners, and we are putting more funding into that, through literacy Lawsuit Funding, through the newcomer program, and hiring more academic interventionists for English language learners so the. The headline again is dpscd continues to show improvement narrows the gap with the state this This improvement is district wide, with 80% of schools experiencing it, but our challenge is accelerating that and scaling it for even greater improvement, which comes with improved student achievement and continuing to build the capacity of our teams. That concludes my presentation, Madam Chair, open to any questions that you or the board have. Thank

you. I'll open it up to the board any questions or comments for the superintendent based on his report. Ending it on a high note with the M step report that we've been waiting for. Go ahead. Member mace,

I think everyone else reviewed this in academic committee. So I just had just a few thoughts that I wanted to share. Thank you, Dr Beatty, for taking us through that. Every year I sit through this and I'm conflicted because I absolutely want to celebrate and lift up the progress that is being made, but also being honest and truthful that you know, as far as absolute proficient proficiency levels, we still have quite a ways to go but, but thank you for your leadership and thank you for the consistency that you've shown in continuing to align curriculum, school level, resources, central office, function and parental involvement toward achieving these improvements. So I just want to just say that very directly, thank you. I had two questions that I wanted to follow up on. The I'm always struck by how big of a gap there is between what's happening in terms of proficiency at our exam and application schools, and what's happening when you step back and look at at district wide, I see your list of what's next to keep improving and to keep the reform work going. I still have a big question mark around improved student attendance. I am not yet convinced that this is a problem that the district can solve on its own, and so I am very curious where you see the next two to three years of hopefully community level effort at at truly lowering chronic absenteeism, because we, I recently sat on a a group, a focus group that Miss Buckman hosted with students. And these students were talking through the myriad reasons that are things that are happening in their lives that impact their ability to show up at school on a day to day basis. And I was really struck by how wide and vast, some of some how wide and vast, the issues that our students are dealing with in terms of just making it to school every day and again, just seems like it's outside of our resource. So if you could react to that, and then the second question that I have is looking at your last slide of comparisons, it actually doesn't look like literacy is our biggest opportunity in terms of improvement, like if I look at where, particularly our exam schools, and I think you use the phrase the suit the parents who were selecting schools that those, especially in high school, those numbers are approaching the state averages. And so if you could maybe speak a little bit to you know why that is seeming to be so much stronger than maybe some of our behind the scenes narrative about where we need to focus our literacy resources.

Thank you. So obviously this year, you know, we recognize certain principles in schools today that showed improvement in average daily attendance, chronic absenteeism. I do think this year is about trying to match our stronger principles with I wouldn't call struggling, but where there's still work that needs to be done, so we're doing more of that, and I think that's a way to replicate some of the best practices that are happening. I also think that this year is a year similar to what we've done in academics, which is, we know what is working at certain schools to improve attendance, and we need more schools to implement, you know, we used we've in previous board meetings, and internally, we use this phrase, run the plays the playbook. Then there is a playbook that works at certain schools, neighborhood schools, and we need to see that implemented with greater fidelity at individual schools. And so our monitoring and our focus has largely been on the academic side, what's happening in classroom, what's happening with the intervention model. I think this year in particular, we're emphasizing more this works. We have to see evidence that you're implementing. It with fidelity. So I think that's going to lead to improvement in student achievement and attendance. But to your point, I do agree that now that we're showing improvement academically and we've we're implementing normal systems and processes, I would say that it is time for the district to have a broader conversation about the issues outside of school that's leading to chronic absenteeism. And so, you know, I know you and I have talked about this, and lightly I have with the board in general, but I think it is time to think about a task force in partnership with the city and other agencies and organizations throughout the city and even statewide, to say, how are we working better together to make sure that one there's awareness about the impact of attendance on student achievement. What's the accountability for parents around this and so and how do we better align resources that are available throughout the state and the city to get that to parents. You know, obviously the health hubs are, are working. I mean, as the Board Chair mentioned, we have 1000s of parents that are accessing the resources at the Health hubs, which just speaks to the extent of concentration of poverty in the city. But we're just, we're just barely, barely, you know, hitting the surface as far as the depth of need with resources that has an impact on health, on mental health, which impacts families and students going to school. So I would say, post election, when things settle at the federal level, legislature and even with the school board, I would say, you know, come January, I'd like to have a conversation about more a task force that's led by the district with different organizations throughout the city, even philanthropic support, to go deeper around and have a broader conversation and alignment work around attendance, because I completely agree we can't do it by ourselves. But now that thing, we've turned a quarter of the pandemic. It's now time to do that. To your other question, I know you would agree, literacy still needs work. You know, we haven't arrived. You know, the honestly, the social studies and science data doesn't include all grade levels, so it's isolated. And so, you know, when we talk about, what do kids really know when it comes to social studies and science or these data points only speak to two grade levels, so it's isolated. I don't think it's as comprehensive as, for example, the literacy data. And I think that can be misleading in a positive and a negative way when you review those data points. So I think we've got to be careful. At the same time, you alluded to it, and I'm just going to name it clearly here. You can see in some areas, and you said this, we're we're exceeding the even estate average when you, when you isolate some of these data points, or even isolate our exam and application school so you know, this shows we are doing the right thing. I'm saying that repeatedly, but I don't think people really understand that and know that, and I know one of the major feedback from the academic committee was and even individual board members, when are we going to start talking more publicly about this? Because we're not spreading the Good News enough, and that's something that I'm working with Miss Wilson on, where we are going to expand the marketing, expand the buys, to add on social media and the rest to tell our story a bit more, because we got to start telling our story more about the improvement that we've seen in the district.

Well, thank you again. Thank you to your staff, and I also want to thank my fellow board members. This has been a team exercise and getting to this point over the last seven years, almost eight years. So So just want to acknowledge everyone and congratulate you.

Thank you. We have any more Go ahead. Madam

Chair, Doctor vidy, when we were in the academic meeting, the question was raised in terms of our special need children, the population, and you shared with us how they are tested and how the the if they could go back to the last slide, how those numbers do not necessarily reflect that population. Could you just kind of explain to the rest of us some of the things that you shared with us?

Yeah, so the slide that's up right now does include all students, okay and so, and that that's not only for dpscd, but dpscd exam and applicant schools and even city charters in the state data. So that's including most English language learners and most special needs, I say most. Um, because some special needs students, when they're evaluated, they're evaluated with IQs that are lower than what you would say would be average. And those students are not on a normal high school diploma track or pathway. So they take what's called the alternative assessment. So they do take assessments, but they're they're not the traditional M step there. They use access points to say, you know, the state is measuring your understanding of the standard in eighth grade, but the way you access that is different than, let's say a non can't really say special, needs students that take the M step. So just students that are on there are students that are on a regular high school diploma, and then those that are on alternative diploma, if you will, very few, but there are some like that, and those students are largely in our ese centers. And so there are more self contained classrooms, so they are exposed to grade level content, but grade level content that is an alternative to what our mainstream, traditional students are on that and and so eventually that alternative assessment data is included in statewide numbers, but not really reflected here, because it's a different assessment.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. But

if, for example, if you're if your special needs defined by a learning disability and LD, you're represented in this data, even some of our students with autism, depending on most of those students are on a regular diploma, so their data is reflected in this data point.

Thank you. Dr Vitti.

Member, McClendon, yeah.

Dr Vitti, I know we've been talking about high school reform. Could you talk to us a little bit about how these numbers are informing your plan for the high school reform work,

yeah, I mean, I think when I when I think about the high school redesign work, I would say, certainly, I think offering richer classes, having students More on college campuses, will improve their overall academic improvement, defined by standardized tests. I think there's an indirect positive impact on that, but I honestly, I would say the high school redesign is more about improving student attendance. It's improving relevancy to why they need, why they're coming to school, why they're interested, and I think it leads to higher graduation rate numbers. It leads to more students going to college, more students being prepared to go to college. I would say these numbers here are reflective more of how we improve instruction in high school, in reading, in our English language arts classes, our math classes, our science and social studies. That's not necessarily defined in the high school redesign plan that work we're doing now. And so I'm just answering the question strategically honest, I would say that reform work will help this, but what's really going to help this is continuing what we're doing, which is improving instruction at the high school level, teaching of the standards, teaching the curriculum with more fidelity and differentiating among students at the high school level.

Dr B, I have a question around s a t, so I know you said over the years, it's been changing. So what support do we have in the school system now, around s a t, and do you know anything about any trends with colleges? I know there was a period during covid where they were not sat, was not the deciding factor on entry into college, but I know those in the world of education talk about this. So can you just talk to us a little bit more about that? Because I think that's where we've seen the most concern on the front end of your presentation. Yeah.

So the state requires students to take the PSAT, which is like the pre sat right in eighth grade, ninth, 10th, and then they take what would be the regular, sat the official, sat in 11th grade, and the state pays for that. The benefit of that is you have a college ready score that helps you apply to colleges that require the S A T also, most universities also still require the S A T for scholarships, for achievement based scholarship. Not all, but many still do. And so the way we prepare students for the SAT is one, just through our curriculum, because our curriculum is now at grade level, the standards are all about. Scaffolding instruction to being college ready. So whether you're in pre K, you're in eighth grade, or you're in 11th grade, the curriculum is about being at that grade level, which is also about being college ready. And so just through our curriculum, we're preparing students to be college ready as defined through the SAT. Now, despite that, the SAT is still a test, so students get familiarity with the test through Khan Academy, which we use throughout the district, where that's more of like a online based, computer based tutorial on the SAT so they'll take SAT like questions. They'll work through math and English language arts problems that have them get used to that. We also modified the curriculum where English language arts and math teachers are infusing sat like questions in the instruction, so they see that during instruction at the high school level. This also leads to the question about eighth grade and how do we do that more in eighth grade math in particular, just to start familiarizing students more at the eighth grade level, for eighth grade math, our English Language Arts scores and eighth grade math are fairly good. It's just math. I think we have to be more intentional about that, and again, reviewing the curriculum, so that's how we're preparing students for the PSAT SAP. Thank

you. So do we still have partners who are offering the additional assistance? I know there was a time when students were able to get some additional assistance on Saturdays or even after school. That's one question. And then the final question is, how does this look for our students who are English language learners? Like, what type of additional support if oftentimes language may be the barrier? Yeah, so

individual schools, through either general fund discretionary or title one discretionary, we'll have partners that work with students after school on the SAT or teachers can be hired after school for more sat work or on Saturdays. Now, most of their work is about, course, recovery, but the extent of that is declined because we've improved with students catching up in credits. But that's that, that funding is there for them to do after school, and individual schools will have partners or their own teachers. Run that your other question

about English language

learners, yeah. So for a lot of our high school students, you know, the primary goal is learning English, and then that that's that's tested through what's called the WIDA, and that's a state assessment on just English language acquisition. And so with that said, now with literacy Lawsuit Funding, we are adding academic interventionists to schools, but again, their their main goal is to help students with the grade level content and with English, not necessarily the S, A, T. Now, some students may be more advanced and are doing that. But I would say, especially for newly arrived students, it's acquiring the language is the primary goal.

Any more questions or comments for the superintendent before we move to the next agenda item, if not the chair, entertain a motion to accept the Superintendent's report. Motion to accept Is there support? Support? It's been properly moved by member Mays properly supported by Dr Vaughn to accept the Superintendent's report. Any discussion not all those in favor of accepting the Superintendent's report, as the motion on the floor signify by saying, aye, any opposed motion carried. Thank you. We'll now move into public comment. Members of the public are welcome to address the board during public comment. Individuals wishing to address the board must register in person or raise their hand online prior to the chair announcing the close of public comment. Registration for those in person, the Chair will call the names of individuals to address the board in the order receive, please remain seated until your name is called. For those who are joining us virtually, virtual public comment will be facilitated through zoom webinar, the link and phone number for which you can for which can be accessed at Detroit, K twelve.org, backslash board meetings. Individuals wishing to address the Board may do so by choosing one of the two options through your computer. You can select the Raise Your Hand option on the screen, or through your telephone, you can press star nine, and that raises your hand on the telephone, the Chair will select individuals in the order received. You will remain muted until it's your time to speak. All comments will be limited to three minutes, and the superintendent will reply to questions or concerns raised today that do not violate ethical, legal standards, confidentiality, privacy of others, or require additional information to respond. If you would like a direct response to your question and or concern, please forward an email to the secretary of the board Vanya Moore at Vanya dot Moore at Detroit, K twelve.org i.

So we do have two mics. So if we could have Mr. Rodney fresh and Marcus Walton to one mic, and Lisa culpa and Juan Patino to the other mic. Please. You.

Go ahead, Mr. Fresh,

good evening. So I do want to start off by saying thank you to you and Dr Vitti for actually coming to CMA, we welcome you to come back to continue to see the outstanding progress that our students are making. I had a couple students actually were trying to catch you in Dr V just to talk about some of the offspring scenes that are going on at CMA. And we hope to see you know, in the future, our promise is fulfilled with the athletic facility. And thing I do have a concern. I wish the district will be a little bit more vocal about the Millis renewals coming up for the district and Wayne resa, I went on the district website, didn't say anything, and I know both of those are critical funding for the district. Also would love to have election day off. This is a very important election. I know we're supposed to have. I guess rise up. I don't know if it's a way for it to be virtual, for us to be off, but I do feel like, since it is presidential election, that it's important that we have the time off, and I think it would help a teacher burnout, have a question about the 3% that's coming back from the district, from the retired, retire refund. How is the district going to process getting the teachers that qualify that their their money back. Last thing I know the district has to say in partial but like you mentioned, I was in DC and spoke on Project 2025 there is one presidential candidate that has said he wants to eliminate the Department of Education, get rid of Title One and title two funding, which are critical components when it comes to our budget. I don't know how we would survive as a district without those funding. So I know normally the district tries to stay out of it, but I think this is a part, important part where we should take a stand, and once again, I do. Thank you for visiting CMA.

Thank you, Mr. Fresh again, great job. In your interview, we will now have Marcus Walton,

good afternoon. My name is Marcus Walton, and I'm a special ed teacher at Jerry o white. I work with students that severely, mostly impaired first I just wonder, like, this is like a public service reminder your abs deep ballots should have been mailed out by now, and I know I'm preaching to the choir. When you fill up the first side, people do the automatic turn your ballot over, because that's what affects us. Locally, we know there's spots available now for school board members. I just want to appreciate and send a special thank you to miss Sergey Diego voice being a listening ear on the school board. That's appreciated. Get the word out to our parents and individuals at our schools, elects absentee ballots have started do it now, and that's also too. As it relates to Detroit Public Schools, there's an important issue for special ed teachers, and that's the issue of retention. A lot of times, the stats that I see on the screen don't really live up with the realities that I experienced as a teacher in the classroom at jury or white, there are, like, seven vacancies for parapros. Two things are related. One, I realized that asked me, as of now, still doesn't have a contract. That's important. How can you attract and retain individuals who are working with the most challenging students, if there's not, if they don't have a contract, there's no way to attract them to the district. Second, with the issue of retention, we're just six weeks in. A lot of teachers already feel as though the evaluation process teach. Are evaluated, has been weaponized. What I mean by that, instead of having these walkthroughs that end up being like drive bys where you're not really like encouraging teachers about where they need help with how to be, encouraged principals to say, what can I do to help that should be the attitude and mindset we need to really revamp if we want to retain teachers with Detroit public schools, we know this is a state problem. We're not going to do it by using the same old methods. Teachers want to feel good. I think the quotes prime if you feel good, you look good, you look good, you do good. Teachers need to have that same mentality about when they're working with the most challenging students, and right now that doesn't exist when you have these walkthroughs or drive bys on teachers, you catch them doing wrong instead of catching them doing good. As teachers, we know students are more likely to do good when they're encouraged, when they're supported in a challenging environment. That's how I cut down some of the retention that exists in the ESC department. Otherwise it's going to be the same old, same old coming in one door and out the other, and our students are going to suffer. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Walton. Lisa culpa, yes.

Hi. I'm Lisa culpa, currently teaching pre K at their goal. Don't shy away when I say this. I stayed after the toxicity and wanted to thank the board for changing the culture and climate of our campus. I also want to thank the district for opening expansion classrooms of pre K at their goal, bringing a much needed service back to the community. I wanted to share with anyone in the city that might be listening in or here today that their goal still has openings for a pre K classroom. You can go, call the school, go online to Detroit K twelve.org/pre, K, or see me if you're here at the meeting. I wanted to thank you for allowing me to speak tonight, and good and I wish good luck to anybody that's running for election to this prestigious organization. Thanks.

Thank you, Miss culpa. We have Juan Patino, and then mother Moore, you can go after Him and stay on this side. Thank you. Good Good

evening. My name is Juan Patino. I am the current president for OSAS bargaining unit. We did reach out to the board, and I want to thank Dr Vitti for his speedy response to our email. We are looking forward to completing our negotiation process soon. I did want to address you guys publicly, because my just like you are voted into your office, I'm voted into mine, and I want to make sure that we are representing our membership and our staff. So we also have a lot of concerns in regards to retention and attraction for the positions that we currently hold. I know that when you get your reports during these meetings, it's in regards to classroom vacancies and whatnot. We are central office and school based staff, so our central office vacancies tend to add responsibilities to people that are still here, as opposed to always filling those positions quickly and sometimes qualified candidates are hard to come by, but the the work is still getting done. As our teaching our non teaching staff, our central office and school based supervisors are definitely a part of team get it done. We want to make sure that the kids are having every every resource and every opportunity to win. We are just as dedicated to the children of the city of Detroit as the teachers are in the classroom, and we just wanted to speak to that and remind the board that we are a valuable part of this conversation, and there are times throughout the school year where we feel less than valued, and that has been a major sticking point for a lot of the members in in OSAS, not feeling the, I guess, not feeling the love from from the board. So just putting that out there like again, I do appreciate the quick response from Doctor vidy, and look forward to completing our negotiations in a speedy manner. Thank you.

Thank you, President Patino, and our last public commenter in person is mother Moore,

okay, I just have a few questions to ask. We're kind of confused. I'm talking about, keep the vote no, take over. Aren't there really 22 people running for the board position? Because only at the forums, and there's one going on right now, and our people are there. Where are the people, the 22 people that signed up to run for the board? And is this kind of a way of trying to make sure that everybody's confused. We call them, we send them letters to our forum the other day, and it's approximately seven to 11 people actually running. So does anybody have an answer to that? It. Where are the people that suppose that's on the list assigned to run? Anybody? Okay, I You can't answer me.

We'll answer you soon as you finish. Mother Moore,

okay, now, Barton, we don't have to tie up to the, you know, the machines or anything. When is that going to happen? We'll get our where are we getting our machines? In Barton school.

What? I'm sorry, what machines,

washing machines and dryers. Okay? And let me see, there's one more question I had asked, Okay, are there really over 600 people signed up for the reading program? That's what we were told. And when, when will it start? Cuz we're all ready to go, and everybody hadn't been trained, and all these people keep signing up, and we don't have enough money for over 600 people. A lot of teachers have been signed up. I just need some answers. Okay? Thank you. Thank

you, Mother Moore, we have one more public comment or before we respond. So Ms Drake, I will turn it over to you for the one public commenter online, please.

Mad. Madam Chair, at this time that caller is no longer online. Okay,

thank you. Dr Vitti, I can start, I guess, with with mother Moore, with regards to the people who signed up. So the people who signed up to run for school board, it is their own mother, Moore, it is their own absolute prerogative to attend a forum, a meeting that's completely on them. This current board and the district has no control over who shows up or who doesn't show up. And I'm speaking from experience. When I ran you show up to as much I would think you would show up to as much as you should show up so people could hear from you. So the 22 who are running, I they are approached, I would assume, by the organizations with the open invitation to not only come, but to come and speak. So I know I've been to a couple just in the audience, looking and observing, because I'm curious about who whose desire to sit in these spaces as well. But we have not no control over those who signed up. If you reached out to them and they did not respond, then I guess that's the answer in terms of how they wanted to participate in that, unless they had a conflict or something. So I didn't want to address that part, because I know Dr Vitti you can address about the reading program in Barton, and then I know there were a couple More questions that came up as well.

Okay, thank you. So if you signed up, you should show up,

as always. Remind me if I missed something, the state approved the refund for the pensions hired before 2012 we haven't received information from or asked yet about how that's going to be processed. So when we do, we'll be sure to share that with our teachers, and just let me address the issue of walkthrough so I've done this at other board meetings as a response to public comment. Walkthroughs are a way to get an understanding of what's happening at that school, in the individual classrooms, it's far from and I got you, it's really more about walking through those classrooms, seeing what's working and what's not. But it's not an evaluation. The evaluation happens through the principal or the assistant principal walkthroughs led by the district, is really about calibrating what good instruction looks like in the different subject areas and grade levels, and it's about building the capacity, and specifically the eye of the principal or assistant principal, or both, to be able to communicate with teachers about what's working well with instruction and what needs To improve. It also is a way to better move our resources. So mainly district coaches to schools to help teachers improve instruction based on what they're seeing in the classroom or what they're seeing with the student achievement data at baseline, mainly mid year, but central office staff do not evaluate teachers. They evaluate principals, and so we are trying to help principals be better communicators about what is and isn't working in the classroom with instruction, any district that doesn't walk in classrooms isn't focused on what matters. Most which is instruction. You can't improve instruction if you're not talking about instruction. Can't talk about instruction if you're not in the classroom, seeing and looking and talking and observing instruction. And you know, it's also about recognizing the great teachers that are in the district. So those walkthroughs also are allow us to see the phenomenal math third grade teacher at a school so that we can use her instruction to model in other schools and have other teachers go through that classroom to see what's happening in a positive way at that school. All of our non DFT unions are still in the process of negotiating with us on the details. I'd say most are closer than farther away on an agreement, and so always remember, it's a two way process. It's not just a district, it's also the union and union leadership to follow up and to compromise and to give counter proposals. So it's always it's not always it's not always a district and it's not always a union. I would say it depends on the situation. But please actively communicate with your union leaders about the status of negotiation and clarity around proposals, not just what the union wants, but what is the district offered. How far are we and where are the compromises that need to be made for clarity, and I'll do probably a report on this next month, as of today, and based on the summer data, we have the lowest percentage of teachers separating from the district in the district's history this year, so our numbers are actually lower than they were in the pandemic, and no one moved from school to school, district to district during the pandemic. So I really I credit that, I think, more than anything else, to our overall improvement. But I think in negotiating the teacher contract before the school year started was a game changer with retention, and the strong improvement that we've made in salaries has led us to be one of the more competitive districts in Metro Detroit. Just want to name that, and we still need work to do with climate and culture, but that is certainly a sign of progress in the area of retention. I'll follow up directly with mother Moore by email about Barton's washer and dryer dryer in the timeline for that at a high level, I know that we've had hundreds of more volunteers for let's read. Because obviously we're paying those individuals. We are training them because we had to shift the materials that we're using in order to use the money for that purpose. But I'll also give mother more an update on email about the exact number of volunteers and when we start implementing, which I think we were going to start implementing by the end of October, if I remember correctly, but I'll copy the board on that response as

well. Thank you. And can you include that training schedule as well, just to make sure, I know we wouldn't put people in front of our young people without the training. So I want to make sure that that's lifted up and then proposal s,

as far as promoting it. So we one, you will see more promotion of of Proposition s through the media, radio, TV ambassadors, going to different meetings. Our plan was to celebrate in the in the month before the election, where people's focus is the highest about the proposal. So some of that has already started. And then tonight, also the board and through the committee already reviewed a contract to do that. Some of that work is already happening, but it really accelerates in the next month.

Thank you. And to Mr. Fresh's point about absentee ballots, or maybe it was Mr. Walton, absentee ballots are already going out, so I will just encourage people to seek information before they vote, so don't make assumptions. Seek information, factual information before you vote, so that you make an informed decision. Is there anything else before we move into the next item on the agenda, which happens to

be Madam Chair, yes. Could you just give us a at a high level prop, s, Proposition, s, s, is that what it is? I saw a small video, but I'm not real sure that the public is up to date, or even me as up to date on what that really is and how it will impact the board.

Can you? Yeah, sure. So every every every district is required to tax at 18 Mills because the property values in the city have increased, which is positive, that has led the tax rate to be lower than 18 mills to generate the same amount. And so in order to I can. Continue taxing 18 mills. The voters have to approve in the majority to restore taxation at 18 mills. If we don't do that over the next decade, it will be at least 10 million or more dollars that we'll lose in revenue that's important, and most immediately, because it pays off our legacy debt, but down the road, it'll impact day to day operation of the district. Right now the dollars coming in is through the tobacco settlement, so there is no immediate impact, but in the next couple years, it'll be a dramatic impact. And as a reminder, that's a tax on businesses, not homeowners, that live in their homes. And so that's the other I would say need is that there is a concern about, you know, whether businesses in the city are paying their fair share. And so this is a way to tax at the maximum allowable rate that the state allows. I also think this is important, because it's going to be very hard in the next couple of years to talk about equal and equitable funding if we're not maximizing local taxation, because it'll be an easy contradiction from those, let's say, in Lansing, or those that are even opposed to doing anything equal for our children, if they say, Well, why are you asking us for more dollars if you're not even maximizing your taxation locally,

okay? Thank you.

Thank you. There's nothing else we will move to item number. Sorry. Thank you, member. Go

ahead. Thank you. So two things I heard you speak to getting the numbers for mother Moore's the how many people have actually applied and making sure that there is training and efficacy. I agree, and I know she mentioned this at another at another forum. I'm hoping that we're not seeing these, these huge numbers that will end up exhausting the revenue that is available and not properly utilizing them. Just I can't stress that enough, I know that we have taken the steps that are necessary to have more academic interventions as well and just making sure that they don't end up filling spots for teachers who don't may not show up during the winter or whatever. Let's making sure that they're doing and they're serving in the capacity in which we design for them too, and that they are all getting the necessary training to do so our staff member from CMA raised some very great comments. I mean, really great comments and and things that we know that need to be done, but they have not been at the forefront of some of our conversation. And I'd like to see more of that, especially as we move into, I believe, having a new marketing firm or someone come on board. I think we have missed an opportunity to make sure that all board members in some capacity, if it's nothing but a social media video. We've made videos about graduation and other things, but we do have to articulate what this is in Doctor Viti you led with one of the most important elements of Prop s at the end. But I think we should reverse the conversation about this, that it is a business tax, so that people understand, because prop s in 2010 was a whole different story. And so I have people who have reached out to me with trepidation about revisiting prop s, and it's not the same prop S, which is why, I don't even know why it's prop s, but that's a whole nother story. So let's make sure that we get the right information out even the use of social media, I don't know if our social media team is still active in making sure that we get information out, maybe some type of design that basically highlights that we need to make sure that businesses pay their fair share, especially as residents are looking at this as possibly another layer of taxation for them, and it's not so. Thank you.

The marketing piece, yeah, I

did, and I have a couple follow up that that I don't have to wait for email. So the barn washer and dryer will be done by the end of December, and we and we are definitely monitoring the AI model more than we have before. We're definitely coding students that are receiving the AI intervention with greater fidelity, because we want to clear data at the end of the year to show the impact and return on investment. There is ongoing challenge at times between. Using AIS just for interventions and not subbing and not being in cafeterias covering so we are going to try to give schools more dollars to allow teachers to eat with kids, for example, in the lunch. So that doesn't happen, and we just got to continue to promote better teacher attendance so AIs are not pulled, and they shouldn't be pulled, frankly, but we do know there's certain days where too many people are out and not enough adults in the building to cover, but that those are all things that we're emphasizing, along with the let's read. So with let's read, they will be trained, and we do have staff monitoring attendance and the quality of implementation on that as well.

Thank you. And I know Dr Beatty,

and I'll share with the board that, yeah, I'll share with the I. I gave the board an outline of of what we plan on doing, but once we create the products, flyers, radio ads, billboards, etc, that will give that to the board as well, so you can share it and see it and know where it is.

And I just want to just add to even in Dr Vaughn, this may be, but the faith base, I know I saw the commercial in my church on Sunday, so I know that they're starting to get it out, because absentee ballots are out. But to member gates at nogos Point, I think there's something we all could possibly do, whether it's on our own social media pages, but making sure that the district has that in all their social media platforms as well. So thank you for lifting that up. Okay, let's read numbers. Avoid another email. Mother, more. No email needed. More or less, reads numbers for you. So 849

individuals submitted their application for let's read 849 submitted an application. 275 completed the next step in the process to sign up. 266 signed up for training, and then 130 actually had been trained and are ready to tutor. So I'll repeat 849 said they were interested. 275 actually filled out the application. 266 signed up to go to training, and then 130 have actually been trained and ready to go. So

there's a two part process. Just because you submitted an application doesn't mean that you will get in front of young people, right? Because there's a next step and then there's mandatory training, correct? Okay, thank you. If there's nothing else, we'll move to item number 11, administrative termination. So 11.01 we have 11 individuals. I know the board had an opportunity to review 11 individuals on the list who is for job abandonment or failure to return to work. So they went through the process of not returning to work. So is there a motion the chair will entertain a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation for action item 11.01, so moved? Is there support? Support? It's been properly moved by member gay diagonal, properly supported by Dr Vaughn. Any discussion all those in favor of the motion on the floor? Signify by saying, aye, any opposed motion carried? Thank you. Item, 11.02, termination for cause. So they are two individuals on that list as well. Information has been submitted and shared with the board. Questions have been asked and answers have been provided. Is there any discussion? If not, the Chair will entertain a motion for item 11.02, support has been properly moved by member McClendon, properly supported by member Mays to support the superintendent's recommendation for item 11.02 any discussion on the motion on the floor, if not all those in favor, signify by saying, aye, any opposed motion carried. Thank you. We will now go to item 12.01 so we had there was a vacancy on the Library Commission based on individual who was appointed to the position who resigned because they relocated to another state. So we went through the process for 30 days. We posted and accepted resumes and inquiries around filling that position. There is a committee in place, so we I will turn it over to the chair of that committee, Dr Vaughn, to give us a committee report before the recommendation. Thank

you, Madam Chair. On October the third to the board, we conducted the interviews of one candidate, and then this, excuse me, the second. Candidate, and we do have a recommendation from the committee for this commission, and our recommendation is cattarelli bounds, better known as Cat and that is the unanimous decision of the committee. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any discussions, any questions for the committee member gay dagno, go ahead. Thank

you, Madam Chair. Board member Vaughn, if you could give me a little bit more feedback on the elements of what may you guys select Catalina Cat Cat cateria Cat, kateria Cat versus Ruslan.

There was a rubric that was set forth that was graded based on the questions that was asked from the committee and based on the rubric, and we can get that copy to you. Ms bounds had more numbers in terms of the rubric. The rubric was set by the committee. The questions were chosen by the committee, and each candidates were asked the same questions, so there was not any learning curve or curve in the questioning, but it was the rubric that made the decision itself, and she was the one that had the highest score.

Did the resume you sent the information to the board correct

the resume has been sent out. And the committee consisted of our vice president, Misha Stallworth and our treasurer, Dr Iris Taylor, and myself as the chair. And we interviewed both candidates. However, the rubric made the decision,

I don't mean to be a dead horse, but if you could give me a little bit more on what the rubric was measuring. I'm all for rubrics, but I mean, I just would like to know, I mean, and maybe I'm, I'm perhaps biased, and maybe I should have served on the committee, but I do know that Russ Belan has extensive knowledge and background and understanding the nuances that's impacting our library's funding construct and so on. And so I don't, it's not in the neither of the resumes are in the actual board docs, so I don't have anything to pull from. I think they're in our emails, so I apologize for not having that, but I just would like to know what it was actually measuring,

if it's possible that we could send you out the questionnaires. I think

we can take. If we can table the vote, I'd be happy to see the questionnaires tonight later, but we're voting tonight.

The Commission, the committee, has already made a decision we wouldn't revoked,

but okay, because we need to understand how the how.

So, so, so for, for clearing on process. So, what was sent earlier today, if I'm not mistaken, was the the resume, in addition to, is this what was sent today? Okay, was sent for review. Do you have the rubrics?

Do I have no no, I'm sorry. I'm asking,

and if it was sent today, I apologize. My mother had a fall and broke three to four ribs yesterday, so between me navigating life, work, my mother, my stepfather. I did not get the email today. I saw it, but I have not had a chance to review it.

I think, I think the questions might be even more helpful than the rubric itself. So if you could miss Miss Vanya, if you miss more, if you could find the actual questions and pops possibly shoot it out, because the rubric alone, without hearing or seeing the questions, would not necessarily give her the context, because the rubric only judges the actual questions that were asked. I think there were nine, nine or 10 questions. So if you could send her a copy of the actual questions, I.

Let's see if I have them in my email. I Madam Chair, that is the recommendation of the committee.

Thank you. Do we have any additional questions for

going to read the questions out,

I will

question number one, describe how you would make your Library Commission become a team with effective leadership and quality recommendations for the success of the commission. Question number two, what is your vision for the commission within the next 10 years? Question number three, name a success for the commission over the last five to six years that you have enhanced, that may have enhanced the commission. Question number four, what is the relationship between the Board of Education and the Library Commission? Question number five, please tell us an innovative activity that you would like to create for the public schools, including one title and the goal make sure it has objectives, staffing, implementation, steps, location or sites, funding needed and indicators of success and outcome.

Any additional questions or comments? If not, that you're entertaining

motion, okay, I'm always trying to be respectful of the work that the committee's put into their respective charges, so I I will make the motion to approve their recommendation.

So there's a motion on the floor, is there support? Support? It's been properly moved by member Mays properly supported by member McClendon to accept the committee's recommendation for Library Commission. Is there any additional questions, if not, all those in favor accepting the committee's report? Signify by saying, Aye. Any opposed. I'm sorry, the candidate is catterly bounds, catterly bound. Ms, cat bounds, yes, catterly bounds. And so I know that there's a Library Commission meeting on Tuesday. I know that they have been a month and a half without with that vacancy, so it is affecting the work the business in terms of votes. So we want to be responsive in the fact that we should have done this last month, honestly, but we're doing it this month, and so we're just trying to Madam Chair. I

believe Miss bounds may be present tonight. I'm not sure, yes. Oh, so

So Miss bounds is here. Miss bounds, can you please stand so we can recognize you? Yes, thank you as the new library Commissioner for Detroit Public Schools library.

Yes.

Thank you. We'll now move into item number 13. Item 13 is the consent agenda. So these items came through committees. We have 13.01 through 13 point 10. So one motion for consent agenda does encompass all consent agenda items. So

moved support.

It's been properly moved by Dr Vaughn, properly supported by member Mays to accept the consent agenda items, all those in favor signify by saying, aye, any opposed motion carried. Thank you. Item, 14.01 14.02 and 14.03 our policies, their first reads tonight, so there is no need for a vote. If there is, I know you have had an opportunity to dive into those policies. So for process, we review these have gone through the policy committee first, then it comes to the full board, and then it goes back to policy based on any additions or any questions or any changes that we have as a full board that may arise from this table today or throughout before the next policy committee meets, so you can reach out to any policy committee member if you have any questions or comments as it relates to 14.01 which is amendment to policy. 2266 non discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities. 14.02 adoption of policy 22. Point 64. Non discrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or or activities. And 14.03 amendment to policy 016, 7.3 public participation at board and committee meetings. We'll now move to item number 15. Which encompasses any announcements? Do we have any announcements? I have just a few announcements. One, first quarter progress reports were given out on June, I'm sorry, on October, 3 and fourth, so check your students progress. Number two, exam high school application window opened on October the seventh and will close on november 17. You know, there is a priority for students who are currently in our district, and then we extend to charter schools. So please make sure, if you know of any young people that are looking to get into the exam schools, the application window opened on the seventh yesterday, and will close on november 17. Parent teacher conference is tomorrow, October the ninth for high schools and next Wednesday, October 16 for grades K through eight. So please make sure that you go and meet and greet your teachers and talk about your students' progress thus far. Report cards will be distributed on Monday, November the fourth. So two days before election, we receive port card. Our young people receive report cards. Election Day is Tuesday, November 6, or is it? Yeah and and that is also a district Professional Development Day, which means no school for students. Lastly, Martin Luther King student, Jenny Genevieve Burks won the 2024 women's chess state champion this past Saturday, she won as the best female scholastic and adult player in the state. So our high school student beat the adult students, I'm sorry, the adults in the championship. And also fifth grader Windsor Polk from Bates, won the championship as well. So dpscd walked away with two championship titles for chess. Lastly, upcoming meetings. Faith Based meeting is Monday, October 14 at 1pm parent listening session is october 22 at 5:30pm Finance Committee is Friday, October 25 at 9am academic committee meeting is Monday October 28 at 11am and the next board meeting will be on Tuesday, November 12, at 5:30pm back here at King, if there are no more announcements that your I'm sorry, Doctor Beatty, have something

I just want to clarify and proposal s, it's 10 million a year that we would lose without that passage. So I said 10 million, but want to clarify, that's 10 million a year,

10 million a year. So ten million a year we will lose if that proposal does not pass, if there's nothing else that you're entertaining, a motion to adjourn. So moved. So moved without objection. Thank you so much. Everyone. Have a great evening

when they.