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Okay. Should we take a roll call then?

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Yep. All right. Mayor Siddiqui, present member. De Paula Santos.

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Present.

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Vice chair. Doobie.

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Present.

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Thank you.

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All right.

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All right. Um, thank you so much for everybody for joining us today. It looks like it's just an intimate group, which is fantastic. And if we have other folks joining us that, um. That is also great. I think we might have some community partners joining at some point in this next 90 minutes. And we've also, um, crafted an agenda that has public comment coming after the presentation. In the event that we have community members joining us who want to give public comment. Um, and, Angie, I don't know if you'd had a chance to share the agenda with the leadership team, but I could also just briefly share my screen and do that as well.

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No, I did not. I'm sorry.

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Sure. All right.

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Um, why don't I go ahead and share and then folks can let me know if you can see it. Um, so our objectives here today are to define the focus of the subcommittee through, um, the rest of the school year and then, um, also to discuss, obviously, the issue of chronic absenteeism at CRLS and within CPS as one of the guiding frameworks for this, um, subcommittee, really looking at school climate and culture and thinking about belonging at our schools and narrowing in on chronic absenteeism in the high school, and then hoping to use that as a frame to look at what's happening in our upper schools and elementary schools as well. So I added an optional pre read that folks can take a look at later on their own time. Really? Um, a review of the research. Um, but the intro to that I thought was a really helpful framing. It runs through sort of the definition, as does the presentation, but also some of the causes. Um, so.

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We some agreements for this group, which, um, as the mayor and I were meeting with um, Leslie the other day, we really all talked about how we'd like this to be a working group so that we're sharing ideas, thinking through things together and collaborating. So our agreements here are speak and listen from the heart, share the air progressive stack. So centering those for the furthest from powers. Um and.

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Gonna add.

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Member Hudson is.

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Joining us.

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We have a couple of other members. So I'm just going to pause to admit them okay.

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For folks who are just joining us welcome. We are just reviewing the agreements for this subcommittee, which I just framed us as sort of a working group. So, um, we talked about sharing the error progressive stack, leaning into discomfort, expecting and accepting non-disclosure, particularly for an issue like chronic absenteeism. Um, and approaching this work with a growth mindset. We know that this is not an easy problem to solve. There are multiple factors and that as a group, we can make progress over time. Um, welcome. Um, member Hudson. I see other folks here, so we are chiming in at just the right time for our check in, and I think it would be great if we could go around the zoom, introduce ourselves. And then this is the prompt. Think of a student. If you're an educator, think of a student you've had who was excited to come to school. What made that possible? Or um, what's one thing that made it possible or exciting for you to go to school when you were a student? So I'm gonna pop this in the chat, stop sharing my screen so I can see everybody and.

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Angie, is it possible to enable the chat?

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No.

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No. All right. I'll share my screen again. Um, if people need a visual aid for the prompt, it's. If you were an educator, what's one thing? Um, think of a student you've had who is excited to come to school. What made that possible? Or what was one thing that made it possible or exciting for you to go to school when you were a student, and then just introducing yourself, saying who you are and what you do here. And if there's anyone who'd like to go first.

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I'm happy to go first. Thank you. My name is Alan Gately. I'm the principal here at CRLS. Uh, and the prompt you shared with us, uh, remember, do reminds me of some years ago. I was at the ninth grade campus when the building was under renovation here. And I had a young, young person who was all about drumming. Now we're lucky to have a drumming program here amongst, you know, a variety of opportunities. Um, but it was having that conversation with him and his father around, like, I'm thrilled you found something in life that brings you joy and glad a piece of that joy is here in the community. And can we, you know, leverage that piece to say to to really fully enjoy the drumming and be fully participate. We need you to engage and the rest of school to the best of your ability. And I think we we got to a common understanding, which I was thankful for. Of as much as he didn't really enjoy the rest of it, but he at least was willing to to give it give it a better shot and and come in and drumming was the hook for this one young person.

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Thank you.

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I can go next. Um. Hello everyone. My name is Melissa Bolden. I'm the new director of Family and Community Engagement. And, um, this question makes me think about a young person that, um, at face value, didn't want to come to school. Um, just because and kind of looking at the root causes and getting their basic needs met, really got them able to have the space to think about joy and connection to school. Can I pass it on to anyone who's next? Who's Ty?

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Hi. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Ty Bility. I'm the co founder and co-president of My Brother's Keeper Cambridge and an alum of Cambridge Latin. Um, we are currently running programming and our program is really, um, uh, working with young adults 18 to, to 30. This particular cohort and all of our cohorts, the way that we design our experiences, our young people, uh, rushing to the door, um, because they met with love and then met with someone who adults who are genuinely interested in them and what's going on with them and meet them with energy that that lights them up. Um, so at every checkpoint in our space, you have adults who are greeting them at the door who are genuinely interested in what's going on with them, learn their story, learn what they're into, learn what their daily routines are, and can engage them in meaningful ways. Um, and then outside of the programming where, um, we're tasked with with teaching them about how to move and shake in the real world. Um, just pouring everything that we have into them and supporting them in any way that we possibly can. Um, through a genuine lens. Um, brings joy to all of them. And so. Into us too. I can't. I can't tell you how thrilled I'm always to be working with young people. So I'll land there and I'll pass it to. Uh, we should just pass it. Right? We'll pass it to Leslie.

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Thank you. Ty. Um, good afternoon, everyone. When I start this, my name is Leslie Jimenez. I am the CPS director of equity. Um, and a lot of memories came to mind, but one in particular that really stood out was I actually began my education as a high school science teacher. Um, and because our school lacked funds, um, I used to do a lot of what's called kitchen science. So, for example, when I was the anatomy and physiology teacher, I used to bring in a cooked chicken and we would dissect it that, you know, and so I remember at one point in time, um, I told his name was head. And I was like, come on, come on, go to class. Of course, miss. He's like, I want to see what new science project we're gonna do today. Um, so just, you know, and it was actually really exciting and you could can hear me and see me right how excited I am. Because that's the excitement that like him and you know, all the other kids like really brought. And so I just wanted to bring that into this room. Um, and I'm going to pass it on to Jen.

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Thank you. Leslie. Hi, I'm Jennifer. Omigosh, I'm the director of data assessment and accountability. Thanks for having all of us today. Um, I was never an educator, really, myself. I taught for a very short amount of time, so I'll reflect on my own experience of being a student in school. And I think for me, it was seeing my friends. I think that was always really motivating for me to go to school and make those social connections. Um, so pretty short and sweet. Nothing inspiring like my colleagues. But anyway, thanks for having us. Having me today. Um, mayor Siddiqui.

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Yeah. Thank you. Um, I'll have to say that, you know, I think middle school is really tough. And just because it's such a hard, awkward phase. And my teachers, my educators at the Longfellow School, there's one Mister Hutch, and he just let us, like, read whatever we wanted. And we'd do these fun book reports. And, you know, you could do be really weird. And like, I had this whole obsession with toilets. It was so bizarre. But I could be myself like that, you know? And, you know, I really appreciated that. No one really cared that I was obsessed with toilets and I could come to school and just be myself so that educators for me, they and, you know, saying, you know, you're cool. You're you're, you know, that's a little weird, but like, we support you. So I loved coming to school for that reason.

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And then, um, did Allen go principal? Okay, I my zoom kind of locked me out at first, so I'm not sure who's next.

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Maybe. Tony.

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Tony.

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Um, how you guys doing? It's a lot of background back here. Um, I'm kind of going back to my days as a educator, and, you know, I'm working in New York City. I think I really was kind of asking young people the why? Why didn't you show up? And, you know, and I remember having a conversation one time walking up to the train with a particular young person, and I was like, the next day he came and he was like, you know, really excited about having a conversation, not just to why you show up, but why he was in school and why, you know, and why he was really interested in at that particular time. Um, aerospace engineering. So, uh, that really kind of, uh, set something in me like, just wanted to kind of ask the basic question of why.

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Nothing revolutionary, but I thought that was pretty cool that we just forget to sometimes ask why. Uh, I will pass to Louisa. Did you go?

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No, I haven't yet. Thank you. Um, yeah, I appreciated people. Oh, sorry. I'm Louise. I'm Louisa, a member of Palo Santo. I'm on the school committee. Uh, and I work with, uh, students in special education. Um, my, uh, example that I'm thinking of is, uh, you know, making sure that what we're doing in school applies to people's lived experience. I'm thinking of one student in particular who, you know, was pretty anxious. Not uncommon. Um, like, would ask to go to the bathroom a lot or go to the nurse. Uh, and was, uh, when I first got there was described to me as nonverbal, but then once I spent more time with him and got to know him a little better, um, I realized he's from, uh, a Portuguese speaking country like me. So I tried connecting with him in Portuguese, and, uh, he started actually feeling a lot more comfortable and, uh, uh, sharing more about his interests. I learned that he, like, would watch soccer at home. And I learned about the different, like, music that he would listen to at home. So I think that that, uh, really helped, uh, him to feel more comfortable in school. Um, so I think, uh, definitely, like Ty was saying, connecting on that personal level, but also I think, um, making, you know, the school, the content that we're learning in school, uh, applicable to a people experience at home, I think makes a big difference. Um, I'll pass it to Melissa.

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I, um, I just went a little while ago, but I can pass it for you to look.

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Luke, I think you joined after our prompt. We're introducing ourselves. We're sharing, um, our connection with the district, and then we're also sharing about, um, if we've been educators, a student we've had who's excited to come to school and what made that possible, or speaking about one thing that made it possible or exciting for you to go to school. Um.

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And.

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Luke, if you want to unmute and share, you're welcome to or if you'd like to pass it.

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And then I see we have someone else with us. And you're coming up as Samsung SM. I'm not sure if you can hear us, but if you'd like to share, we welcome that.

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Okay.

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We can come back to you. I see two hands raised, but I think we can. We can. Unless someone's ready to share.

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Okay, on G, I see your hand is raised.

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Yeah, I want to share too, because I have students now. Hi, everybody. Um, I'm Anjali. Anjali. I'm the confidential secretary to the Office of School Committee. But I am doing student facing work as I am the Black Student Union co advisor along with Miss Davis, Ali Davis. She's a special education teacher. Um, I think I've seen some some of my students, um, being very excited to come to school. Um, and even, you know, attending the black Student union after school. Um, an example is like, um, a lot of the times, like, I'm in the hallway, I always remember my students names. Uh, I have about five Jaden's. Uh, so, um, I'm navigating that pretty well. Um, but also just, like, kind of remembering, like, you know, making letting them know they're important, um, you know, remembering their names and also encouraging them, you know, and also, I'm always like, you know, telling my students, you know, like, I'm proud of you, hear me? Um, giving them, you know, um, props for, like, doing projects or coming like, um, recently, they all ran up to me, like, you know, last week, and they were like, oh, Miss Chai, we all want, we want. We all went to Black Student Union and we all went to Black Student Union, um, after school. So they were kind of like really excited that, you know, they participated in came to the to the last, um, desk, which is like a discussion that we usually have at the Black Student Union, but that's my example.

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Thank you.

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Luke or whoever Samsung is, if you'd like to share. We'd be happy to have you or I can share. And then if you feel like you'd like to participate later, that's also okay.

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Okay.

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And I see we have someone else joining us. Um, we're just sharing a prompt either about a student we had who was excited to come to school and what made that possible, or a time that we were excited to go to school and, um, something that made that possible for us. So I can share, um, like Mary Siddiqui middle school was a very challenging time for me, and I'm part of a big family, and it was difficult, um, to get everybody. Um.

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Hold on.

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I'm seeing a screen sharing. Um, Anjali. But I'm not sure if others are seeing that.

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Okay.

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Um, and I had a wonderful eighth grade homeroom teacher who, despite the fact that I was late every single day, was super welcoming. Um, helped me transition in, in the morning, and I knew that even if I was having a tough morning at home or if I was coming to school late, she would help me.

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I have a question.

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Yeah.

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Why? Why? You were moving for the other meet? My other meeting?

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I'm not sure. This is the only meeting that we've had that we've hosted this afternoon.

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Okay.

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Okay, so I think we're going to move on to the next part of our agenda, which is, um, the presentation from the district on reducing chronic absenteeism and CPS. And I believe Leslie is going to take us through that, and we may be hearing from other folks as well. Again, the context for this conversation is thinking about chronic absenteeism as, um, as part of the framework through which we look at school culture and climate and talking about especially over the last school year, some of the efforts that have been made at the high school specifically, but also acknowledging that this is not a new issue and that previous school committees, previous administrations, previous school leaders have also been thinking, um, and moving towards greater attendance, thinking about the social issues as that are a part of chronic absenteeism. So, Leslie, I'll kick it over to you. And I believe you have screen sharing, but if not Anjali, maybe we can make sure that she does.

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Thank you, vice Chair Dubey. Um, really appreciate the framing. Especially because when we got together as a team and we're creating this PowerPoint deck we really created with the lens and the idea of mind. Write that this is meant to be a working group. So what you're going to hear is us present, as you had mentioned, in alignment with today's agenda.

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A focus on three different things. One, we're going to provide a quick overview of chronic absenteeism, specifically how we're defining it here at CPS. We're also going to share, as you mentioned, just overall data from this year with a specific focus on CRLS. So you also are going to hear from other members of the team, including our director of Data Gen Amazon, and also a Principal Gateway client. And then lastly, we're going to end off with identifying next steps. And here with us today is also Melissa Bolden, whom is our new director of Family Community Engagement. To also be able to answer some questions around, you know, what are we going to do as a community, right, to ensure that chronic absenteeism is not just, you know, seen as an issue, but really seen as an opportunity to partner together more practically with their families. So what is chronic absenteeism? It's technically defined as the percentage of students who are absent 10% or more of their total number of days in school. But what does that actually mean? So in practical terms, we are obligated or entitled, um, specifically for our students to enroll them for 180 days. So if you think about 10% of 180 days, that's 18 days. So they miss 18 or more school days, they're technically considered chronically absenteeism. Now, overall, that may seem like a lot of like a really high number. Like, how is anyone going to miss 18 days? But if you kind of look at it from the number of months, you know, that we are in school, that's 9 to 10 months, you could easily achieve that if you just missed two school days every month. Right? So that could easily be here and there. So oftentimes people are like 018 days. Nobody reaches that. But unfortunately it actually is a number that is quite easily reached. Um, and one of the reasons why for us as a district, it's important that we ensure that we are continuously looking at the chronically absenteeism data is because it's part of our state accountability system. So that is kind of like the technical piece. But for us, really what we care about is our students here with us, right? Because we know that the more that they are in the classroom learning, right, the more that we'll be able to prepare them not only to be a successful student, but ultimately to be a successful citizen citizen. What, they graduate from our schools. Now we're here today because we know that addressing chronic absenteeism is something we must do. But before that, I thought it was really important to kind of talk a little bit about what the research says. So research actually shows overall a link to less favorable academic outcomes. And at each and every single step of the way. So we see students who are chronically absent, unfortunately have lower rates of being able to read by their grade level. Um, also at the middle school level, they're less likely to feel like they belong and or be successful at the academic setting. They're less likely to graduate from high school and therefore drop out. And they're also less likely to enroll and therefore even complete college. The fortunate part about this is that this can actually be mitigated or even reversed. So let's just say, for example, if I'm chronically absent right this semester, but maybe for next semester, right through the help and support of like my teachers and also, you know, the school leaders, right. And the family liaisons, we can actually mitigate or even address some of that. And because of that decrease in absence, we actually see an increase in the academic performance, not just in test scores or percentage points, but just in proficiency rates overall. In addition to that, we also see improved social emotional skills. So students feel like they belong. They feel like they're part of the school community. And then I think this is really important to me. We also see an overall decrease in the opportunity gaps. Um, oftentimes we see really high gaps for some of our specific demographic groups. So for example, for a low income population or students who define of excuse me, students who define themselves as students of color. We actually see a decrease in the opportunity gap. So addressing chronic absenteeism is something that we as a district take really seriously.

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Excuse me. Leslie. Mhm. Um, do you mind clicking? Um, I don't know. Uh oh. I think someone's controlling the screen. Share and the full slideshow. That'd be great. Whoever's controlling the screen.

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I just jumped.

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In because I saw that. Leslie, I didn't want to interrupt. Leslie, I can give it back to you, Leslie, if that's easier. If you want me to click through the slides as you're reading, I'm also happy to do that.

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Um, whichever is best, because, um. Yeah, I'm not sure how I, uh, lost control of the screen. Share. Um, so whatever works best.

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Okay, I'll give it, um, I'm gonna give it back to you.

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And so I'll try one more time.

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Okay, great.

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And apologies. Um.

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Okay. Okay. Perfect.

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And so with that overview, I'm going to go ahead and pass it on to Jen. Imogen, who's going to talk a little bit more about the data overall for our district.

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Thank you so much. Advanced slide please.

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Thank you.

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Um, so we are going to be looking at some longitudinal data at the district level coming out of Covid, as many people know. Um, there was a lot of, um, kind of concern about the increase that we saw both nationally and here around chronic absenteeism rates. So coming out of Covid, the state started publishing, um, official chronic absenteeism and daily attendance rate on its website every March 1st. So this is reflective of March 1st data, which is our kind of closest proxy to now, um, we'll get end of year data. It won't be published until September. Um, when we look at the trend over time over the last five years, we see a nice decrease in the most recent year of if we round up five percentage points, which is a pretty considerable one year decline. So I think that's suggestive of, you know, kind of some of our efforts leading to some improvements for our students. Next slide please. Thank you. I think what's what's really important when we look at our data, obviously we're always just aggregating our data to really understand how all student groups are, um, you know, kind of experiencing school with us. Um, and what we see is we look at this five year trend, um, all student groups across CPS. Again, this is district level data saw a decline in chronic absenteeism as of March 1st of this year. Um, we still see some higher rates when we look at the differences between student groups that we remain focused on, such as our Hispanic Latino students are low income students or students with disabilities. Um, and so I think as we continue to develop strategies, we have to really make sure that they are in line with what the data is telling us, in terms of who is more chronically absent than than other student groups. Next slide please.

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Thank you. Um, this is a slide that shows our school level changes. And it's ordered from kind of the smallest degree of change to the greatest degree of change between March of last year and March of this year. Um, and what's really encouraging is what is that? We saw improvements pretty much across the board for almost all of our schools. Um, and you can see what's most pronounced are the schools to the right. So the Tobin and the high school, we're here to, um, Alan will speak more about that in a, in a bit. What led to those, you know, those declines? Um, but you can really see that there's some notable decreases across the board when we look to the right of that chart. And then we saw a group of schools that mostly stayed the same, and there was really only one school that we saw a decline. And we know that the Martin Luther King School, um, absorbed the the kind of long Longfellow. And I will note that they still have the Martin Luther King still has the lowest chronic absenteeism rate across the district. If we look at the data for elementary schools. Next slide please. Um, so this is data I pulled actually as of this morning to look at our grade level chronic absenteeism rates. So when we look at our grade level, this is a typical kind of you curve that we see where we see chronic absenteeism rates highest among our kindergartners and our youngest students and then highest among our oldest students, our high schoolers. And this is a pattern we see consistently year after year. And it is consistent with national patterns. Next slide please. Um, to the point that Doctor Jimenez made at the outset about the linkages between chronic absenteeism and outcomes. I thought it was really important sometimes where, you know, the research I'm is around chronic absenteeism really talks a lot about, you know, kind of the ultimate outcomes around not completing high school, um, and whatnot. But I think it's really important to think about how this data is situated for our youngest students. So when we we I pulled this data very recently when we look at our M-class literacy screener, which is in K to two, to kind of measure how students are doing on literacy. We see that our students who are chronically absent are are not meeting benchmark at the rates of their of their non chronically absent peers. And moreover, they're not meeting kind of end of year growth targets at the same rates as well. So you know that's suggestive of kind of like a compounding factor that only builds up over time as we think about later academic outcomes for our students. So I think it's really important as we think about strategies, to think about building strategies at the very beginning, particularly since we have, you know, universal pre-K and keep in our buildings, how can we begin that work from the very, very start? Next slide please. Um, so we recently actually on Tuesday night, I was with some of you at school Committee, and we were reviewing reviewing our most recent school culture student survey data. And when we look, we are able to look at data across a number of ways. And one way, excuse me, in which we're able to look at it is how does the data vary by students who are chronically absent. And when we run the data. And just to kind of bring everyone up to speed, there are four main categories or topic areas that students are asked questions about in the survey. Valuing of school, which is how students perceive the role of school in their lives. School rigorous expectations, which is how students perceive the rigor with which teachers kind of place on them in day to day schooling, school culture, just how kind of they exist in the school, what what it feels like to be in the school, what that climate and culture feels like. And then school belonging, which is really kind of how they fit in within the context of the school, how they feel a sense of belonging or not. And when we look at the data for our students across grades six through 12, we see that across all four topic areas, students who are chronically absent have less favorable response responses compared to their peers in all four categories. So that's really important to note. When I looked at the data for our younger students in grades 3 to 5, the area that stood out as being less favorable compared to their peers is the valuing of school. So across the board, for both our younger students and for our older students, we see that sense of how the students are perceiving themselves in the context of school as being less favorable. Next slide please. We're going to shift now to talk specifically about the high school. Um, and we're really encouraged to see some of the trends that we're seeing there. So when we look at again, this is March 1st to March 1st data for the last five years. You can see that the data at the high school has been trending, had been trending pretty kind of consistently around 30% up until the most recent year. We were really encouraged when the official data was posted recently, where we saw a seven percentage point decline in the rate of chronic absenteeism at the high school, which is pretty considerable. And I think it's suggestive of some real efforts that are leading to some positive outcomes for students that Principal Gately will talk about in a moment. Next slide please. This is a lot to take in. So basically what we wanted to do was look at weekly attendance over the last three years just to get a sense of what this year looked like compared to prior year, the two prior years. This year is the blue line at the bottom, and you can see those are weekly rates of chronic absenteeism. And what we are seeing that for every single week of the year, we were trending below the last the last two prior years. So I think we can feel pretty confident that we will end the year well below, you know, prior years and in ways that really matter for our students. So anyway, and we hope to continue that work going into next year. Next slide please. And as I mentioned when we look at the district level data, obviously what's critically important is, you know, kind of really understanding whether all students, student groups saw, you know, um, declines in chronic absenteeism. And here we can see that all groups did except for our Asian students. In that case, we can see that student chronic absenteeism for our Asian students went up by three percentage points. But there are some pretty considerable declines in other areas. And for those of you on school committee, if you remember, we ended the the year last year with a, um, with a figure. I think that was upsetting to all of us, where we saw that 50% of our students with disabilities were chronically absent at the high school. So that's something we've been really paying attention to. And while the rate is high, we are it is encouraging to see a decline in that particular area. Next slide please. And I'll turn it over to Principal Gately. Cohon. Thank you so much.

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Hello again everyone. Uh, myself and my leadership team at the high school here. We put a lot of credit on for our improvement this year on this year's data on the implementation of the no credit policy. The no credit policy essentially told students and families that if you went over the threshold of allowable absences, um, that we would still share your grade with you, but that we were going to withhold the the credits earned in that class. Uh, and the subsequent slides will say a little bit more about that. Um, I've been here for 26 years, and I believe going back to your era, uh, Madam Mayor, we my first days here, we were a attendance violation failure school. So if you had too many absences, we gave you an f. Uh, and in more recent days, we deducted ten points off a grade. Uh, but in all those years, I was looking around and seeing our neighboring many of our neighboring districts using no credit, uh, as a viable policy. So I was thankful that we were able to talk to neighboring schools. Adopted this year, implemented, and Again see a lot of the the progress that we we saw on the slides that Jen was sharing, um, with with the implementation of that new policy, we really wanted to double down on making sure we were taking attendance accurately, that we were in touch with students and families on a frequent basis, and putting in additional systems to make sure that both families and and our own inside team were aware as the attendance data was evolving. Uh, and especially here near the end of the the school year, or doubling down on emails to students and families, uh, working with teachers as, as teammates in this effort as well. Um, they've been super important in terms of bringing to our attention over these last couple of years where our numbers were really sliding backwards to say we need to do something, and they wanted to partner in the work. So it's it's worked as well as it has, not because of any one individual, but because this has been a team effort at the high school and really everyone saying the same. The same message. And we also had a nice small pilot group that we called Vista Seca, and that was a young Men of Color group that we were really focusing on, on belonging with. And we're thankful to to have that start with them, and we'll certainly look forward to expand experiences like that. Next slide please.

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Here you can see a snapshot of our handbook. So you can see how what all the rules and regs were for how a student might earn a no credit. You know the number of absences necessary and a semester long class or a semester long class that meets every other day, or a full year class, or a full year class that meets every other day. I won't get too deep into all the all the numeracy of it. Um, but that's straight from our handbook in terms of explaining to to students and families. I'll go to the next slide.

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Here, in terms of our implementation, again, when a student earned an NC, they they kept their grade, whatever they earned with a teacher. But in on the transcript it said NC for short for for no credit, which was explained in our school profile as a student receiving that for having too many absences. Um, and we allowed students, if they say NC to class, say it was an English class in the first semester, we would welcome them to, um,

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advance on in the curriculum. They still will need the four Englishes to graduate, but we wouldn't make them necessarily repeat a class that they had a passing score and received an NC in. If they did get an NC and an earned honors course that earned honors was removed if they had earned honors otherwise. And seniors if they NC. This thankfully did not happen. No one did not cross the stage this year due to an NC, but that was explained to the senior class this year that that was a possibility. And for our sub separate groups who have a much harder time to make up a class if they were to fail or NC, we use an alternative method with them in building, um, success plans, individual success plans for our for our sub separate students. Next slide please.

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We also had an appeal board. I served on it along with our registrar, our assistant principal and our Director of Guidance. So any student who is near, uh, nearing an NC or had tripped over the line of a no credit was welcome to fill out a form. It was a Google form, and every student was encouraged to tell the narrative of their story in terms of like why they reflect on how many absences they had accumulated. And tell us, tell the appeal committee why they felt like the committee should consider the extenuating circumstances that may have led to their excessive absences. We invited them to attach doctor's notes, or any other kind of evidence of reasons why attendance had had gone so far awry, and the team was able to read through those narratives, examine the evidence given, and we did grant a number of appeals that even though technically the student had had run over the line, we felt like given the evidence and or the narratives shared, that we were confident to to overturn and NC in those cases. And next slide. And so things that we're looking for in the, you know, 2.0 version, we're looking at rearranging our Falcon block experience in general. But it's certainly we want to have more touch points. Our Falcon block meets weekly. We've had Wind Block Weekly as well this year. We want to get a smaller touch point throughout the week that we've had in in recent past. Going back, uh, four years ago. So that would give us more opportunities to to be messaging via LC teams, whether that's teams of students, guidance counselors, social workers reminding students of the importance of attendance and having the opportunity to have daily check ins that way. Um, we will continue to make, uh, success plans, set goals. Uh, those are things also that were attached in appeals when when a student had a improvement plan to say, you know, I know I missed ten days and quarter three, but I, my dean and I agreed I'm going to go no more than three days this fourth quarter. And they were able to set that goal, deliver on that goal, and then attach the success plan to their appeal and show that they had made that improvement, which was certainly valued by the appeal committee, and great evidence that the student had taken it seriously and made the individual improvement. We have a group of staff that are examining some of their intervention spaces, a tier two reentry space, potentially. Um, we are reaching out to the MBTA to look at specific buses that are problematic for us. We do know that period. One is the is the most often no accredited class here at Sierra LST this year. Um, we're going to be reaching out to our upcoming ninth graders. We're going to use our bridge to see SLS, which is our experience in August and of August, where we first meet our, uh, incoming ninth grade class to really make sure messaging on attendance is strong in that session and just continue to norm and reinforce expectations with our staff. Next slide. This goes back to Jen, I believe Okay.

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Thank you. I just have one slide here. Um, so I think one thing that has been a strength of our work is that we really have an abundance of data, and this is just a snapshot of an email that goes out weekly to every school and district administrator in which, um, aggregate data is linked. So there is there's a lot of data. Um, but you can see year to date daily attendance by school, you can see year to date chronic absenteeism by school. And then there are tabs that go back, I think 6 or 7 years. You can kind of like eyeball back how that trend is looking compared to prior years. In addition, there's a dashboard that can be explored to look at, um, you know, student demographic trends, that is, you know, real time based on the data that we have internally. And then there's also student level data that is obviously available to the school leaders that shows kind of the ongoing, you know, kind of chronic absenteeism and days membership and whatnot. Um, and all that data is updated daily. But the, you know, the email is sent out just as a reminder to administrators just to kind of be, you know, kind of check that data. Um, but there are really strong practices across the board for utilizing that data. But that's just a quick example, and I think I'm handing it back over to Doctor Jimenez.

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And as a team mentioned, um, and I hope it's clear that addressing chronic absenteeism is a key priority for our district. We owe it to our students and our families. Um, and one of the things, however, that it is important to note is that it is a work in progress. Right? This is an area of focus for us. However, there's still a lot of work to do. So we're going to see in this slide is a couple of the steps that we are taking proactively, um, to ensure that we are mitigating and addressing chronic absenteeism. Um, one of the ways that we are doing that is by engaging in professional learning. So we think that in order for us to better support our students, we need to also be well-versed not only in the research out there. Right. But what are some of the best practices? Um, myself, Jen, Imogen, as well as Principal Gillen have attended the institute that is led by Doctor Kerr. And this summer, um, Miss Melissa Bolden as a director, family engagement. And also Tami Strauss, who will be the incoming assistant superintendent secondary are scheduled to attend. And so that will be an opportunity again for us to have, um, not only some of the same common language right around this, but we will also be able to learn and think about what are some of the other best practices that other schools and other school districts are engaging on, right, that we can implement here at CPS as a team? As Jen mentioned, we're swimming in data, so we have been doing a lot of data data analysis. However, our goal is to go deeper into the data analysis. A lot of the schools already do this really well when they're digging into their school level data by students and identifying what are some of the root causes and barriers, and now it's an opportunity for us to pick it up and think about it at a district level. Right. What are some of the district wide slash systemic right systems support that we can embed to make sure, again, that we are mitigating as many barriers as possible. And, you know, with that data, it's also important for us to define specifically what are the goals we're trying to reach. Right. What is our specific theory of action at the district level and or for specific schools? And then what is the robust system of support that we're going to use to do that? Um, it was interesting to kind of share, you know, Alan, you know, shared specifically at the beginning that, you know, he observed other schools and other districts engaging no credit policy. So our goal is also to highlight and implement effective best practices, not only happening in other districts. Right. But there are also many success stories happening already in some of our schools. So how do we uplift, again, those best practices so that they're happening consistently across the system. So really celebrating and building on those success stories. And then the other part, right. That is really sort of like our big, you know, magic wand. Our goal is to create some expectations and guidelines, definitely based on research and data that will help serve as specifically for us as an anchor, right. When we say our goal is to address chronic absenteeism, right. What is it that we really want? And what does that really sound like? Look and feel like at the student and at the caregiver level. And for us, um, we're thinking that it is focused on strengthening family engagement. And communication is also about using a lot of those early warning systems. Right. So not waiting until a student, you know, is um, has unfortunately, right, um, reached that 18 day mark. But really, how do we ensure that, you know, from day one, um, we're proactively following up with the in the family. It's also important, as Jen mentioned earlier, to focus on early grade levels because unfortunately, what we see is that, um, these habits can start off at the pre-K kindergarten level, and then they just get compounded after that. So we want to make sure again, that we are supporting our students and families as early as possible, as best as possible, and as robust as possible. And lastly, um, building on our current multi-tiered system of support to really think about how are we supporting students and families holistically, right. So not just from the academic lens. Right. But then also perhaps maybe that includes, um, connecting them right, with our family liaisons who have access to some of the different community resources. Um, again, to ensure that we are supporting the students and families as a whole person, right? As a whole team, um, and really ensuring, most importantly, as you could see from the header below, that we're engaging in culture responsive and equity center student family engagement through all of this. Um, so with that in mind, I'm going to conclude our presentation, and we'd love to open it up for any questions that you might have. And I do want to note that I am a proactive note taker. So you're going to see me actively take down notes as you are asking your questions, as well as the rest of the team. Thank you.

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Thank you so much to all of you for that. Presentation is incredibly comprehensive and really detailed and helpful. I really appreciate that. Um, and I know we had we have had two people join us, um, since the meeting. So just to refresh on where we are in the agenda, the district presentation just happened and now we're going to open it up for questions, wonderings. Um, and as well as public comment. Angie, I don't know if we have folks who've previously previously signed up for public comment, but if there are community members who've joined the call who would like to comment or ask a question, now is a good time to do that.

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No one signed up for public comment.

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Okay.

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I'll jump in. I have a billion questions, but I won't. I won't ask them all. Um, I submit to you, Mr. Gahan, and definitely not a mayor. I my years before your time. And so the the the bar of excellence was a bit different in my day. Um, and I'm sure in yours as well, when it came to expectations around showing up. Um, and I have a lot of things that I'm wondering about, and I know that we have 17 school buildings, and it's kind of tough to receive. And I just want to just start with the high school. It's tough to receive students from many different middle schools who have different protocols and philosophies around attendance. And so I'm wondering, at the district level, are we are we entertaining, having, uh, a system wide from elementary through middle to high school attendance, policy practices and protocols implemented so that families and students aren't figuring out school by school what the requirements are. But as they're moving through their education, they understand the expectations of them being in school and what it means to be chronically absent, what the outcomes are when you're at chronically absent. I'll be sharing that information with students and families directly so they understand, like, hey, this is what happens. But my bigger question is, given the state of education, because we work where we work with many Latin students and now, given the context of our organization, are working with, um, high school seniors or young people who've graduated from Latin, um, and I just, I wonder, given the conversation today, the data that's been shared for a period of time, this isn't the first time it's happened in cities. We've we've come on every Tuesday night call, um, whenever they happen. And I'm, I'm curious to understand.

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When we are moving students through our system who are demonstrating that they are not performing at grade level.

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Are we doing this or is this happening because we think it's beneficial for the student, or we're afraid of the parents? And I'm asking this strong question because I work with a lot of young students who leave friends online who are not prepared academically, they're not prepared socially, they're not prepared to perform at the next level of higher ed, or even know what the first steps would be to even enter into the workforce in a meaningful way. And I wonder.

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Are we appeasing parents? Or are we focused on student academic rigor and achievement?

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And it might not be a question that we can answer today, but just wanting to plant the seed. I know that for our organization, working with our young people, we set the bar high and they do their best to reach reach for it. And we're not lowering the bar. And so if I got an F on a paper, it was an F on the paper. And if I had to make it up, I got half credit. There was no way for me to get a full A. And where did we move away from that and why did we move away from that?

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I'm happy to offer some insights from my perspective. I appreciate the question. Um, to me, I think you've put your finger on on a bit of a pulse issue here in terms of culture. I, I do feel, uh, I think our, our median grade is somewhere around an A minus. You know, you talk about grade inflation. I think that's what you were just kind of touching on momentarily ago. Um, there is this aversion to a C or a D or an F, and I'm not saying like we should be looking for those. And at the same time, uh, I think we do need some recalibration around, uh, what is an A or, you know, in some ways, uh, I have a son in seventh grade in the district. He goes to Darby Vassal and some of the. I'm not saying like MCAS or I already are.

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The best parts of his education. But I appreciate as an educator when I receive those reports, and there's portions that say this is where he's at with algebraic thinking, this is where he's at with numeracy. This is where he's at with probability and statistics. And when I get that kind of detailed, this is what he can do. This is what he's struggling on. This is what you should focus on. That feels so much better to me as a parent than the A's and the bees and the ones and the twos and the three. Like what? What does that mean? Are you. Are you patting me on the back? Are you patting him on the back? What what can he actually do? And I think that's a hard shift for us both. His, you know, as an educator, as a parent, and in the current culture and climate we live in where everyone's trying to push for that, that top score or, you know, having the feathers in their cap. Um, and I feel like I come from a different generation. I think that like, like you're describing of just let's, let's try to be honest with ourselves. About what? I don't want the doctor to tell me that I'm not overweight. Like, I need I need the doctor to tell me that if I'm going to lose the pounds, like that's, that's going to be what's healthiest for me. And, you know, I got to get my blood pressure down or, you know, honesty is the best policy. And I think there's there's been this crisis of like, but I need an A and like, well, do you or do you need to know what you need to know? And I think that's been, that's a, that's a work and a shift for us here.

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Yeah I appreciate that question. And I appreciate that response too. And I think one of the things that I'm wondering about, um, is if we sort of have a general sense of, you know, is our, our students who are chronically absent, what percentage of them is it school refusal, what percentage is it sort of like truancy. Like I'm in the building, but I'm not in class or I'm coming and going. And what percentage is it sort of like barrier driven absences where there's something else going on? Um, and I think if we think about breaking it down that way, the strategies for each of those groups will be a little bit different. But the one thing that will remain the same is that when students are in the building, they feel excited, inspired, challenged to be there, and also that someone knows if they're not there, um, and cares about that. So I think like if we start from there for all three of those groups, we can think about the strategies around that. And then Ty also really appreciate where you're going with like what does alignment look like across the district. So grateful, Melissa, to have you on board really thinking about family engagement. And um, I can't remember who on the call mentioned it today, but really thinking about our earliest opportunities for parent and family engagement in Seep and in kindergarten to really start to create that Relationship, but also that culture where families are engaged and, um, understand what the expectations are so they can help reinforce that at home with their students. Um, so I did have the that is a question like, do we have a sense of school refusal, barrier driven absence, truancy? Um.

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Roughly, yeah. No, absolutely. I think the NC appeal process was very helpful in terms of like reading those narratives for every student, uh, and getting a sense there are and obviously, you know, a student who's who's grappling with depression or anxiety and NC role wasn't necessarily going to help them. I mean, the part that helped them was, was if they hadn't already naming to their support team, this is where I'm at. And then we can wrap around ideally that those conversations are having happening well in advance of an NC appeal form. Um, but that's that's our continued work to wrap around those students who need those additional supports, whether it's via our social work team, our school counselors, even our deans, reaching out to families, partnering with families to make sure that we're connecting with resources outside or inside as they need to get the supports to get them stabilized and plugged in in the best way possible. I mean, you can see it was in the slide deck. Our our toughest customers are our seniors. And I firmly believe I've said this, I think in school committee before, I'm a proud Northeastern University graduate. I have no shame in saying I did co-op, and I would love to see us scale up more of our experiential learning, because I think that's where students can say, hey, I this this is the pathway I see going forward for me, and I want to do this. We had a young lady this year for the senior internship program once wanted to be an EMT. She rode ambulances in the afternoons and was responding to real crisis situations, and that was empowering to her and good for our city and a great learning experience for a young person. Now, that wouldn't be something that the other 499 seniors would have chosen, but she had the opportunity through that vehicle to choose what she was interested in. And if we could do that on a greater scale, I think we would have so much more. Like you just described joy and purpose and feeling like it's transitioning from what high school has been for three years and what post-secondary might be.

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And then I hope it's okay to add, but, um, you know, one of the things that I think it's important to highlight that, um, you know, we do have, uh, Principal Gately go on here to kind of present what is happening here. Les, but in my conversations with school leaders across the different grade levels, um, so both elementary, upper school, they also have very similar systems where they are. And even as Jen mentioned, that weekly email, when they received that school year can actually go in there and look at their specific students. And a lot of the students are really excuse me, a lot of the schools are really working as teams right around chronic absenteeism. So this can include educators, paraprofessionals and liaisons counselors. You know, it really is sort of like a team that comes together to kind of think about, like if, you know, let's just say I'm one of the students, right? If my issue is school refusal, right, we're really thinking about, okay, how can we make sure that Leslie wants to be in the classroom, that, you know, Leslie feels like they belong and are welcomed, you know, in the classroom and also throughout, um, um, other areas in the school. And so I think really that personalized support is really key. Um, and so I think for us specifically as a district. Right. So thinking about that next level up, um, how do we ensure that we are supporting schools, um, so that they're able to do that work? So what are some of the best practices and or what are some of the those success stories that we can actually highlight or let's just say, for example, like Jen is at a principal at one school and Melissa is a principal another school. Maybe they're having a very similar situation. Of course, every student is unique and every family is unique, but maybe something that Jen has tried out at their school that was success was something that maybe Melissa, you know, would love to hear and learn more about. Because right now they tried A, B and C and it's not working right. So really our goal is to think about how do we uplift some of these amazing practices, right, that are already happening in certain schools? And how do we ensure that, um, people across the city, to me, that educators across different schools are able to have that conversation? And I think back to Ty's question, you know, around having, um, a set of district wide expectations and guidelines, right, on how to better support and mitigate some of these issues.

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Thank you.

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You're bringing up another I have another question, which is, you know, we have, um, an amazing team on this call. And we have assistant superintendent of secondary. Joining us this summer and she'll be an important part of this group. But at the district level, sort of obviously this is a complex and overlapping issue that requires a lot of input from from folks. But who like, could I point to a person and say, like, are this chronic absenteeism lives with this person, this person is the owner of this? Like, would that be you, Leslie? Is it you, Melissa? Um, how are you all thinking about that as a district at the at the district leadership level?

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I can start with answering that question, but I think that's a work in progress. We're recruiting members. The people here are definitely a part of it, but I think this is definitely going to be, um, um, sort of one of those all hands on deck approach because it is such a key priority, as you could see, even from our chronic absenteeism data that Jen presented earlier on. I think one of the key things we want to ensure is that we're not leaving anyone out. I think the funky part about is that we are, you know, starting summer soon. And so some of, for example, like educators, right, who we would definitely want to ensure that we gain the input from, you know, there on summer vacation. But we definitely are going to try to come together as a team, um, especially after today's school, um, after today's subcommittee meeting, to really kind of ensure that the work doesn't pause during the summer. Right. But that, again, we use it as an opportunity to ideally, um, really jumpstart this work. Um, so I think the people that you see on the screen definitely are part of it. As you mentioned, assistant Superintendent of Secondary, who will be joining us, Michelle Madera, who's a current. Right, um, assistant superintendent, but then also the incoming person. So definitely are key people. But we also want to ensure that, you know, we have representatives across the different levels. So not only school leaders or district leaders, excuse me, school leaders, but also educators who can help and ensure that we're thinking about this in a robust way. And of course, our partners. So work in progress.

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Absolutely. Um, I would just add a few things that, um, this conversation has really highlighted for me. Um, I think one, the district is family engagement is a district priority. And I think making the connection between what are we doing in family engagement as high impact strategies that impact chronic absenteeism. And so we are currently trying to create that plan, right? That what we do in family engagement, how is that positively impacting absenteeism and and especially chronic absenteeism. But absenteeism in general. Right. All tiers. And and really the message that I'm feeling is that chronic absenteeism is, you know, the kind of worst case scenario that we have a different plan for, but that we're actually approaching absenteeism. And I think, um, you mentioned, you know, having high expectations and not changing that. Um, I think for me, family engagement is holding that high expectations and coordinating high support, right. So that in Cambridge, we have a lot of resources and a lot of people, and what we have to match is keeping that high expectation, but also keeping the high support that's coordinated. And so, for example, if you have a young person, um, and really the family engagement model that I'm excited about is that chronic absenteeism is not the students only. It doesn't belong to the student by themselves. It belongs to the caregiver, it belongs to the school, it belongs to the community. And how do we coordinate those efforts? Um, and really looking at if and I'll give you an example of what I mean by high coordinated support. And so we have a young person that is either tier one, tier two, right. Or any of the tiers, but really looking at absenteeism and they are missing school. How is it that we do have someone that they know is the lead on their on that with them that they are co-leading. So a staff person that they know is part of their plan around absenteeism that as you said, um, you know who to call. We have that point person as well as what is happening without throughout their whole day and who's part of their support system. And so in the past there have been policies, um, in out of school time that if a young person misses school, that after school and that internship knows about that and can support and say, hey, you made it on time to work, what happened during school? Like, we need you to be in both places because that matters and those actually influence you. And so that high coordinated support really looks at how do we create a team around caregivers, families and the student to drive this? And what are we doing in family engagement that are those high levers? One example of that in terms of a high lever, um, Jen and I just met recently about how much families get in terms of data. And this is a data point, right? That, oh, they're moving towards chronic absenteeism or this is where your child is at. Um, how do we create learning opportunities and build leadership capacity with our caregivers so that they can understand the information they're getting, but also advocate for strategies to change that? And so that's an example of a high support, coordinated effort to build leadership skills. Um, and to have that dual capacity that Doctor Mapp talks about in her institute that we will all be going to. And then another additional change, um, that's coming soon is also implementation. So we go to the professional development for a week. Most of the family liaison, five of them are going this year. But at that point most of the family liaisons would have been part of that institute. And then now what I'm really excited is about the implementation plan. So what we learned, what are we going to do with it, and how are we going to report back on those outcomes. And so those are just some examples in terms of family engagement connected to chronic absenteeism.

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Melissa, I love that you're now with the school district. That's fantastic because I will admittedly, you know, I have seven nephews that have been through Cambridge Public Schools to a currently in the Cambridge public school system, but I've only really been paying close attention, like at this level, at this high level since Covid. And I've been hearing that family engagement has been a challenge for the district ever since. And I wonder when we talk about engagement and when we talk about the absenteeism component, whether you're a student or you're a staff member, everything starts with culture. Everyone wants to go into a place of work that feels good. That's inspiring. That has, you know, everyone is working towards similar goals and we have our eyes on the prize and students want to be in environments. They thrive in those kinds of environments. As we go, as the adults, so will the young people. And I wonder when we're talking about absenteeism. And it's great to see that in Latin. It's going it's it's going down. So it's headed in the right direction. But it's this still work to do. Have we been in full context? I love data too, but our district collects so much data. But I'm a person of action. So do we get stuck in analysis paralysis? And do we? Actually we know who our young people are who are currently absent. Do we actually ask the students why they don't want to show up to school? Do we ask parents what is getting in the way? What are the barriers? Um, because emails and surveys are good, but they're low touch. And high touch is picking up that phone, knocking that door, showing up and saying, hey, I care what's going on and how can I be an assistant. And why is that important? And I think I don't need to preach to the choir. We had a lot and grad from last year. She just finished her freshman year, um, in college yesterday. I had to sit down with her because the other night she asked me one of my staff, if at the end of the night, we could start collecting the cans from the seltzer water that we provide, you know, during dinner because she needs money. And then we went on to learn that in 2020, she lost her grandmother. 2021 she lost her father, 2022, she lost her mother. And she's been floating between her other grandmother and her arms. And she's hungry and she's brilliant. And she said to me last night.

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Thai kids need parents. We need adults that pour into us to show us how to do the things that I'm now tasked to do, that I feel like are the responsibility of adult to show a kid. You know, she's having challenges with with, um, fast food. She's having challenges with boarding room and board at school and getting back seven challenges. She's just unsettled. But in speaking with our young people, when we're talking directly to them, when we are locked in to their story, and we're learning about how we can support knowing that we can't be all things to every student. She said being here is the first time I've ever shifted and changed my mindset to know that I can actually move through life. The positivity in my heart. Despite what I'm going through, despite the unsettled trauma that I have in my life, and I just wonder if we're centering low touch because it's easy to crunch numbers that way and tell a narrative to the school committee? Or are we actually behind the scenes having conversations with real students and real families to figure out what's going on so that we can really course correct, um, in meaningful ways that could actually take those numbers and, and just knock it out of the park as far as getting us to a baseline zero where everyone wants to be there. Um, so I know that there's a lot of staff in the district, and I know we spend more money than most. Um, and I don't know, at this present moment how much is allocated of that 290 million to to the high school? Um, but it's a significant amount, and I know that we have enough staff. I'm wondering if we have if we have the will to take a look at our staff, recalibrate and create small teams that can tap into these young, young people who are on this chronic absenteeism list to really go find out what the real story is versus depending on low touch, um, strategies for data point purposes.

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I can speak very briefly to that. It's an excellent point, Ty. And obviously we sit minus, um, principal gateway at the district level. So, you know, the order of magnitude that we look at is is on a much different scale. But there are structures in place at schools, you know, student support teams, um, which are kind of cross kind of departmental, you know, staff members sitting together weekly reviewing data and reaching out to families, talking to students I actually talked to Rindge Ave last week because if you look at the data, they saw a pretty significant shift in chronic absenteeism. So I was curious what they did. And I spent about a half an hour talking to their assistant principal and social workers about the processes they employ. And it really is deeply talking to. And, you know, the the numbers get so much manageable, much more manageable at the school level. You know, it is hard when we talk about it at this district level, you know, hundreds of kids. But, you know, it's it's definitely a manageable number at the school level. And those relationships are so critical. And so, um, kind of held closely. One example they gave me, I'm just looking at my notes because I took notes when we were talking. When I talked to them, you know, they got a student, an alarm clock, um, a student was really struggling to get to school, and that was the barrier. And that, you know, that's a small little example, but that really helped. But they really emphasize the proactive communication. You know, at sixth grade, they really go over this at orientation. Um, you know, they've really been clear with families and students about their policies and protocols. Um, and they said that they reach out to parents by phone. Once their student hits four absences. So they are on the phone talking to the family, connecting with the student. So I think the challenge is, as we sit at the district level, you know, sometimes we lose the kind of the beauty of those stories that are playing out across our schools. But this is work that really is happening across our schools. And I know, you know, that students are known deeply by the staff. So I hope that helps a little bit with your question.

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I know it does, and I know I know quite a few of the liaisons and they they're incredible. I know that we have top tier staff who care deeply about our students. Um, but it's a, you know, seventh, you know, we have a lot of 7000 students. That's a lot of young people's futures that we're responsible for. And it's there's no one size fits all. Every kid is different and their needs are different. And the needs these days are way more, um, than than the needs, I would say when I was a young person. Um, given that we learned different, life was different then, um, we were learning life skills. You know, I had the keys to my, my, my house when I was eight, and I was responsible for them. You know, parents would never these days, like, I don't want you to lose it in some random stranger. Pick up the keys as if they're going to check every door locked. You know, just the mindset of parents these days are very different as well. Um, but but no, I know that we have a ton of amazing folks, but Jennifer, I, I as, um, you know, not just an executive, a non-profit organization that's, you know, operating in Cambridge, but just my in my career alone, knowing that at the executive level, sometimes we can be at that 500 zero foot level. And if we're not as executives, if we're not, if we don't have a culture where our administrators are coaching up to us, like, you shouldn't have to go and ask what's going on in that school and what's driving down their numbers. You should already know that. Like that. That's something that we should know as executives. It's our responsibility to know what's going on at every school and what strategies they're employing and deploying to make sure that those numbers are trickling down. You know, things are nuanced and you need updates, but we have to go from that 50,000. We've got to come down. Not enough where you're getting into Mr. Gardner, because he's got to do his job. But enough where there's a level of understanding that when you are talking to your school leaders, those 17 CEOs, I call them, you have an understanding walking into that door, you're not surprised by what they're sharing. You're getting updates on it. And this isn't information that I'm just sharing with you. I've I've shared this information with Superintendent Murphy as well. Um, but it is a mindset and it's a culture thing. And I understand that everyone here, you walked into the district, you inherited a culture that existed and a legacy that existed, but it's our responsibility to shift and change it so that our young people can thrive in the world. Baseline like that's, you know, if everybody is rowing in that direction and they're committed to it, amazing things can happen and amazing things do happen. So I don't want to I don't want to, um, I want to say that I really do have a lot of love and admiration for the adults. I'm on this call. And in the district, throughout the district who who show up every day to do this work. And Mr. Clark, who is my my partner in our work and he's also Cambridge Latin graduate and a professor. We have an extreme love for our city, Our school district and our young people and want to see them thrive. And anything that MBK can do because we're a learning space as well. Um, I would love to be in Rindge and Latin, Mr. Gohan. I would love to have that conversation, because I know that we can make a difference with young people, especially in and around culture and belonging and support. And you guys do amazing work. And it's not easy. It's not easy. But hats off to all of you. But given the nature of this conversation, clearly we have work to do and we want to be part of the solution.

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Thank you so much for that. I think you're leading us beautifully into our final portion of this call. We've got about ten minutes left, and one of the hopes that I have for this group is that we are we are working group, um, we are sharing information we're thinking about next steps. So one of the things I'd like to do in the next nine minutes is think through some next steps. I know that in the in the presentation, there were emerging plans for CRLS for the upcoming school year. Um, and I know that following, um, Tami Strauss coming on board in the summer and, um, after folks go learn with Doctor Karen Mapp, there will probably be some other at least pilots that are happening initiatives that are happening. So I'm looking forward to learning about what those are. Um, and I think it would be helpful, um, you know, to Ty's point, if there is, if it's a point person, if it's a team, there should be some identifiable group. Um, who owns this? Who is in conversation together with the subcommittee, of course, but also across across the district. So I think I'm grateful to all of you for being a part of this call, part one of of many. And if we have some concrete next steps or thoughts to that end, now would be a great time to share them. We can also take something time. Um. And reconvene.

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01:21:32,167 --> 01:22:31,467
Um, I do want to share. Just thank you, everyone, for the questions you brought up. As I shared before, I'm a handy dandy note taker. So I did take, um, you know, um, just a summary of some of the questions that were said, some of the comments, some of like the key takeaways. Um, and so I hope it's okay if we can take a step back as a team. Um, um, and once our team is complete, um, I think it will be an opportunity for us to, especially after the Care Map Institute. Um, because that is just a phenomenal Institution, and I think afterwards we'll be ready to come back together. But I do wonder what will be, um, sort of the and I'm assuming. Right. I think, um, vice chair, you had mentioned that we will formally return right to this working group, um, back in the fall, is that correct? Um, and so that'll give us the summer, right, with some of that, uh, opportunity to again, take a step back, be able to attend the institute and then come back together as a team, um, and solidify a little bit more of the plan.

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I imagine, um, that around, you know, return just going back to school, there will be some initiatives, thoughts and concrete steps, um, that are that are being piloted, communications with families, etc. and definitely want to give this team the time it needs to do that work over the summer. And then we can do a check in sort of around that back to school Mark, and then go from there. How does that how does that sound?

104
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Okay. Sounds great. Great.

105
01:22:58,200 --> 01:23:01,767
Um.

106
01:23:01,767 --> 01:23:07,467
If there are no other comments from folks, then, um. Is there a motion to.

107
01:23:07,467 --> 01:23:43,968
Helen vice chair? Sorry, I did have one question. Um, just reflecting on what Principal Gahan has said about the no credit policy. Um, as far as, like, evaluating that policy itself, like, and thinking through, you know, just thinking through that. Have you and the administration I know it's very new in a way, right, based on what you're saying. But how are you thinking about assessing that policy itself? Like is it are you doing it in five years, two years, three years? Just curious.

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01:23:43,968 --> 01:24:30,868
We try. I mean, we're one of the benefits of having a semester based system. There are a few, uh, year long classes, but we're now coming into our second full iteration of a semester, so we're able to look at and make tweaks from semester to a semester, and we'll continue to do that in the years ahead. Again, I'm thankful that and my 20 year arc of administration here, I know there's been plenty of schools have been doing it for decades, so we can certainly lean on them. I do think like like Ty said it, it has been a a cursory kind of guardrail for us, and it's brought a good number of kids into the fold. And there's more, deeper work to be done to get to the next batch of students that we we owe it to. So.

109
01:24:30,868 --> 01:24:53,067
Okay. Yeah. Thank you. That's all. I just had a that's all my question was. Thanks, Vice Chair. And thank you to the vice chair for organizing this and leading on this meeting. Really appreciate your work. And also the administrative the team work and putting together to the presentation. So thank you.

110
01:24:53,067 --> 01:24:55,367
Thank you. Thank. Thank you for your partnership.

111
01:24:55,367 --> 01:24:57,667
Um, if there's a motion to adjourn.

112
01:24:57,667 --> 01:24:58,868
Can entertain that now.

113
01:24:58,868 --> 01:25:01,067
So moved.

114
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On to do and take a roll.

115
01:25:02,100 --> 01:25:02,601
Call.

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Yes. Mayor Siddiqui. Yes. Member de Paula Santos.

117
01:25:10,000 --> 01:25:11,267
Yes.

118
01:25:11,267 --> 01:25:12,501
Vice chair. Doobie.

119
01:25:12,501 --> 01:25:15,100
Yes.

120
01:25:15,100 --> 01:25:16,467
Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

121
01:25:16,467 --> 01:25:19,667
Thank you so much to everybody. Have a wonderful evening.

122
01:25:19,667 --> 01:25:19,667
Thank you. Thank you.