Academics, Innovation, Evaluation, and Technology Committee - Regular Meeting

call the committee membership uh dr dorothy bendros mendigal is committee chair she is unable to make it and so as the vice chair i will be running committee we have as members uh mr robert alonso alternate members mr daniel espino and miss luisa santos and then as our ex-officio members uh madam chair and vice chair rojas and calucci Our first order of today's business is to approve the committee meeting minutes of August 5th, 2026. Are there any board members? Thank you. Can I get a second?

Second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. All right. Our next order of business, we do not have any C items, so to bring the G items to the floor. A second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, it's just us three, so first, a second, and I. All right, our first G item is G4, Mr. Harvey.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. G4 presents for initial reading, Amendments to School Board Policy 0173, District Strategic Plan. This is being proposed pursuant to item H5 at the June 2026 meeting, Strategic Plan Alignment and Review Process, proffered by Board Member Santos. IT DIRECTED THE SUPERINTENDENT TO ESTABLISH A STRATEGIC PLAN ALIGNMENT REVIEW PROCESS TO ENSURE APPLICABLE DISTRICT INITIATIVES, BUDGET PRIORITIES, CAPITAL PROJECTS AND POLICY PROPOSALS ARE EVALUATED FOR ALIGNMENT WITH THE DECISION MATRIX FOR NEW INITIATIVES AND PROGRAMS INCLUDED IN THE BOARD ADOPTED STRATEGIC PLAN. OF COURSE, WHAT WILL BE EXCLUDED FROM THAT ARE INITIATIVE EXPENDITURES, PROJECTS, PROGRAMS, AND ACTIONS, WHICH ARE MANDATED BY FEDERAL OR STATE LAW. AND OF COURSE, IT DIRECTED RULE MAKING, AND THIS ITEM IS TO FOLLOW UP FROM THAT REQUIREMENT. IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS, I'LL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER THEM. THANK YOU.

MADAM CHAIR, YOU HAVE A QUESTION? YES, MA'AM. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Thank you, Mr. General Counsel, sir, as always, for an extremely comprehensive report back to us. Thank you to Board Member Santos for her initial proffering of the item. And I'd like to start off by saying that fully support our strategic plan and believe that it truly does provide the actual framework for establishing priorities and guiding our district's work. However, as our new superintendent is now taking the reins, I believe that he should take the opportunity also to conduct a thorough and thoughtful review of the plan, and whenever appropriate, if necessary, recommend additional changes if he deems that there are some areas that he would like for us to revisit. The policy that we currently have, this is a living document, so it's continuously changing, right? The policy has a very clear pathway for the superintendent to make recommendations, to make amendments if deemed necessary, and to provide whatever additional input as the leader of our school district sees them. And this can either be done quarterly, we talked about that in the past, or on a semi-annual basis as well. So since we're continuously evolving in our school district and the challenges that we're facing today may not necessarily be the challenges that we're gonna face tomorrow. The current plan was developed when we had different set of challenges. So not everything that needs to be addressed by the district is reflected actually in the existing strategic plan that we have currently right now. So if the plan, again, is truly intended to guide our decisions, our priorities, the allocation of our resources, it has to remain a living document. That equates to, again, being evaluated regularly. And that is giving the opportunity, again, to the new person at the helm, our new superintendent who was not part of our initial meetings when we came up with the strategic plan. to have his input as well. So again, and also, not every single decision that we make is going to have to deal with a strategic plan. There are plenty that are not in any way, shape, or form connected to that. So a lot has to be revisited in that arena by our new superintendent. And so again, Mr. General Counsel, I thank you for the comprehensive report that you did submit. And I only have, I guess, my question for you, Mr. Harvey, as it relates to the following language. which I will quote, states, strategic plan alignment decision matrix application. The superintendent, shall evaluate applicable district initiatives, budget priorities, capital projects, and policy proposals against the Board adopted decision matrix for new initiatives and programs to classify items as strategic priorities or secondary priorities, initiatives, expenditures, or actions required to comply with applicable federal, state, or local laws, regulations, court orders, or those necessary to address immediate health, safety, or operational emergencies shall be exempt from such review. Routine operations shall proceed directly through standard administrative channels and be classified as business as usual activities with the operational impact." I'm not exactly 100% sure that I understand, you know, what this part really means. So I just want to make sure that the language is very clear so that everybody understands exactly what is meant for that for us to interpret. So if you could, Mr. General Counsel, in layman's terms, basically you know let us know or recommend you know I would recommend if not if you're not ready to address it now to include some language that will address this or to make this clearer for again all of the stakeholders I think it would be very beneficial again I totally support our strategic plan and and I feel that we all were very involved in the process and that was wonderful but again the leader now at the helm was not and should be provided the same opportunities.

Through the Chair, definitely I will be doing an in-depth dive into the strategic plan, and we will be collaborating across departments to make sure that we've got the most thorough plan possible. And you are correct. I mean, it is a living document, just like education should be. It should be a living document as things continue to move and progress. We are moving and progressing along with it. So thank you for bringing that up, Madam Chair, and we will be doing exactly that.

Thank you very much. Through the Chair, Mr. General Counsel, would it be possible if you could possibly make a little bit clearer that portion of the language, especially since every decision we make does not go through? The strategic plan process.

Sure, through the chair. So this district is, I think, one of the few districts in the state that has adopted a policy for strategic planning. And it's a policy that I think is one of the best practice policies that the district has adopted. With regard to those strategic priorities, following the adoption of the current strategic plan, I think it was recognized that there are some initiatives and some requirements that are mandated by state law or federal law or court order. And so those obviously wouldn't necessarily tie to the strategic plan. So that's why that language is there, just to specifically exempt those from the strategic planning priorities. With regard to routine operational, Those are items that the superintendent naturally within his authority as superintendent to manage the district. He has just day-to-day operations. Those issues don't necessarily attach to the strategic plan. So the idea was to make sure that certain items that typically would not be attached to the strategic plan would not necessarily be referenced. And there was no need to make that linkage. I hope that helps answer, but we can clarify that if there's some ambiguity with regard to that.

Thank you. I appreciate that through the chair.

Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Board Member Santos?

Thank you so much. And Board Member, Board Chair Rojas, you definitely hit on something that I wanted to make sure we gave our superintendent the chance to to do is to explain, you know, good governance from a board creates a north star and some guard rails and then allows the CEO to be able to manage the district. And so I appreciate Mr. Harvey clarifying that there are carve outs in the policy very clearly stated for health, safety, laws at any level that we have to follow. Those are obviously not going to be run through any kind of matrix. Key word here is board adopted matrix. The board created this matrix. The board adopted this matrix for the superintendent to have, again, those kind of guardrails, North Star kind of like guidance as he runs the district. The policy clearly also outlines BAUs, business as usual metrics, which is where all of the other things that we're not going to explicitly state. Our strategic plan would be volumes if we tried to include everything that the superintendent and the team do every single day, but certainly there's a space for that in the business as usual. Mr. Harvey, you also referenced the strategic plan policy. The way that the living document operationally gets that chance to be reviewed, and we get to have that back and forth with the superintendent for whatever suggestions he may have, or requests, or things that we need to change and update, as the chair said, our challenges evolve over time we have a quarterly review of our strategic plan that's exactly the time where we get to do that from from every side board members and superintendent we get to say you know i know in the past the superintendent has brought updated objectives updated priorities because of exactly what you said madam chair things change and we need to be able to be flexible and adopt them I think one thing that I found really helpful in our current strategic plan is that instead of listing very rigid objectives or things that are gonna get done, really when you look at the objectives, they give the superintendent the flexibility to say, hey, what are the top five operational things we wanna fix to improve the family experience. And he gets to choose what those are in a conversation with the board, of course. But our strategic plan currently is not very rigid in that, which I certainly appreciated when we adopted it, knowing that we were gonna have a new superintendent coming in. So really, I just wanted the superintendent to have another chance to explain how you see yourself operationalizing this policy, because the board did adopt a matrix for those outlined decisions, and it will be helpful so that everyone knows what's definitely not on the table, what's not possible, and what should be prioritized.

Through the chair, thank you, Ms. Santos. I can tell you that under policy 0173, briefing every cabinet member on the decision of the matrix and on their responsibility to cross-check applicable initiatives, budgets, capital projects, policy proposals through an alignment review process before bringing them to the board is extremely important. That's first and foremost. And I expect each cabinet member to communicate this same information to their department leaders because what starts at the top should trickle down to the bottom, and that's extremely important. That same expectation will flow down to the school level because the impact is at the school, just as it is at our level, where principals and their ESACs need to understand how their school improvement plans connect to and must reflect the district's strategic plan priorities. Everyone should be on that same page. Additionally, staff across the district will receive clear, written guidance on how to distinguish a strategic priority, a secondary priority, a business as usual activity, and what is exempt from review as listed in the policy, whether it's initiatives, expenditures, or actions required to comply with applicable federal, state, or local laws, regulations, court orders, or others necessary to address immediate health, safety, or operational emergencies, as you have indicated, as Harvey has indicated as well. And we will develop a simple one-page checklist that will be required for any initiative or proposal going through the alignment review process. That's just to get started. I mean, that at least gives us a north star. And as things develop, as we're looking at that strategic plan, it's going to be incredibly important that we keep this board informed, whether it's quarterly or whether it's, you know, semi-annually. You know, those are things that we will discuss, and we will put those on your calendars as well so we can review one-on-one and we can have those conversations.

Thank you so much through the chair for that thorough response. I can tell you, you're really thinking about how you're going to really align the whole district, right? So we're all rowing in the same direction and I really appreciate that. The last thing I'll say, and this is just for us board members, on our items we have to put a link to strategic plan, and I know that the team was working on updating how we should do that since we were still going off of the previous strategic plan. So I look forward to the guidance for what we should do starting next month on our items when we bring them forward. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Board Member Santos. Any other comments or questions on G4? Okay. Our next order of business will be a motion to move the G item to the board meeting.

Move it. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Okay, thank you. Our next order of business will be to move the H items to the floor. Could I have a motion? Move it. Second. Thank you. Our first H item is H2 from Madam Chair.

Yes, thank you so much. Madam Chair, H2 is a Florida Department of Education middle school middle grades assessment results. Miami-Dade County Public Schools action plan for improving student achievement and academic outcomes. Throughout my tenure on the board, I have proffered numerous board items that are related to academics, which is the reason why we're all here. The main reason, after safety and security, then we have to address the issue of academic excellence. from the meeting of December 7, 2017, regarding a district campaign to encourage reading throughout the county. I've also had one on the academic success of our students in first, second, and third grade. which that one went back to 2019. After COVID occurred, there were a lot of issues academically. And at that point, I wanted to address the student regression and the learning loss that took place in pre-K, K, first and second grade, because by the time those kids got to third grade, we were experiencing tremendous difficulty. and endorsing Reading Across America Day and many others. But I realized that I have not focused enough, and I can go on about others that I did, but it wasn't enough to really look at the area of middle school. A critically important period, the middle school years. for a plethora of different reasons. And academically, it is a crucial time in the lives of those kids so that by the time that they go to high school, those children are prepared and have the foundational skills that are necessary so that they can succeed academically at that level. So I wanted to take a deeper dive in that arena. And although I have always remained very focused on one issue, and that one for me is that students who are not achieving proficiency in reading or math are those kids that we really have to hyper focus on. Because we are an A district and that's fabulous and we celebrate that, but we need to keep our eye on the ball because we still have students that are not where they should be. So, again, looking at our district, school district standardized assessments and accomplishing a lot of the goals that we had, realizing that we still have a lot of work to do in the overall performance of all of our students. A significant number of our children continue to demonstrate that they are not proficient in reading, nor are they proficient in math, and this is a result of the standardized assessments. So it's not even simply just a statistic. It represents students who are not achieving the academic success at the grade level that they are in that we need to look at. The charts on the item that I included should really give you a picture of the percentages of children that are in levels one and two, which really concerns me. It's truly a problem, I think, when we see that in English language arts, in grade 6, 32% are in levels 1 and 2. In grade 7, 33%. And in grade 8, 36%. When we look at the math, in grade 6, we have 34% are in level 1 and 2. And in grade seven, 43%. And in grade eight, 35%. And the charts for science I did not include, but science and civics are also quite challenging. So I think the goal of our district should be not just to simply outperform the state and other districts. That's great, and that's something that we celebrate, but our focus, again, hyper-focus has to be on what are we going to do for these students that have not acquired the necessary skills necessary to succeed. And to succeed in high school has to be evident in middle schools as well. And again, I proffered so many items and I never really focused on the middle schools until recently when I went to visit a school and I realized this group is one that, you know, we look at the ones in the primary grades, which are so important to us, and then we look at the high school students and we kind of forget about the ones in the middle. And so... We need to look at the gaps, the achievement gaps.

What are we going to do there?

And I know we have, you know, the former superintendent and the new superintendent all are focused on all children. I know that. But we really need to take a really deep dive when it comes to this arena. Resources have to be looked at so that those that are in these categories get the additional assistance that they need so that we can help to get them to the levels of success that they need to reach. so that again, we can truly give them the world as our motto says. So this is my colleagues, just something that really hits me hard because I'm an educator at heart. This has been my whole life in every different arena that I've ever served in. It's always about the kids. And we have some that are just not where they should be. And until we achieve that, and I think my colleagues on the board, all of us feel the same way. and you've got three educators sitting here right now, it has to be a priority. We need to do better. In the middle schools, we need to do better.

So that's my item, colleagues. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I thank you for bringing that forward. As you said, we tend to focus on the third grade and making sure they learn to read in kindergarten, and then we look at making sure they're able to succeed as they move on, but we need to make sure we don't lose track, and not just in middle school, but at all grade levels. When we have 30, 40% not proficient, then yes, we can praise our A rating, but the ideal is to have all children be proficient. So thank you for your item. Co-sponsorships?

No, I had some comments.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Vice Chair. I should have known it's an academic item. You're going to have some comments. How did you know that, Madam Chair? I want to thank...

The three Ms, you know, three Ms. Right, that's right. Thank you, Madam Chair, for bringing this item forward. Anytime that it's something like dealing with academics, it's very important because that's the mission of Miami-Dade County Public Schools is to educate and make sure we have well-educated students. I have a couple of questions for staff. Especially with the science because we're looking at grade eight science, it's 50% at level one and two. Through the chair, are we still doing, and forgive me because I've been out of the classroom a little bit too long now, four years. Are we still doing the benchmark assessments that we used to do quarterly? And what are we doing with that data to assess and target instruction? Through the chair.

Through the chair. So yes, we still do topic assessments and benchmark assessments. I'm glad that you brought this question because with the ELA and the math, the state provides the three progress monitoring windows, but with science and social studies, they do not. So the district does supplement with assessments to assist the schools and the district in tracking the progress monitoring of the students because grade eight the sciences the social studies they're only tested at the end of the year so the state doesn't provide those but we do and we monitor and that's that's part of the the work that we do in schools excuse me um is at the teacher level with the assistant principal department chair principal the regents do it eto district staff with the tier one schools as well is that the ongoing progress monitoring the data tracking the data chats with the students the teachers, the parents. Parent notification, we've really enhanced that in the last few years. With the lower grades, it's a requirement, statutory requirement to inform parents, but we also do the same with the older students sending notifications home to parents and trying to involve parents more and more in these data chats. It's a little bit more challenging with the older students to get that parent participation, but We've been really trying to focus on that. I know a lot of schools do things like they do virtual data chats with parents, and the teachers will do virtual meetings trying to get that information. We send a read-at-home plan, math-at-home plan, and different resources that we send to the families as well. But the short answer is that, yes, we do have district-created assessments to assist in progress monitoring in the subjects that we don't have from the state.

Okay, through the chair. And I remember that's done starting in the elementary levels. Through the chair, yes. Through the chair, that's correct? Yes ma'am. Okay. Through the chair, follow up. The next question I have would be, This data, is it the raw data that includes all student populations, or does it extrapolate different groups? Special education students, ESOL students, through the chair.

Through the chair. So this is all curriculum groups that test on the FAST. This is everyone.

OK, through the chair. Do we have those? I would like to look at them by subgroup through the chair. Do we have that? Can you get that to us? I think that would be helpful in helping us get a better picture because when you see 50%, it's troubling in science. It's very troubling. So for me, as an educator, I want to look at the subgroups and see exactly where those areas are and what those percentages are according to subgroup that's not excusing we still have to make our students achieve that is critical but the strategy in which we help them achieve will vary according to their learning needs and academic language is acquired at a much more at a slower rate, especially for second language learners, which we have a huge amount of. So that's something for us to keep in mind and to implement strategies that are going to help our second language learners acquire the academic language. Academic language is difficult for people that are native speakers. So my question through the chair is what strategies are being used, what resources are being used for the academic language? Because it's wonderful to say we're using hands-on, we're doing experiments, that's wonderful. But if you don't have the academic language and the content to understand when you do that experiment, there is no context through the chair.

Through the chair. And you're absolutely right. And thank you for, again, the opportunity. You always give me the question that I'm hoping for so I can give the answer. But yes, we do. We have definitely we have subgroup data we've transmitted before. But when we do this follow up, we will break it down even more specifically by each of the subject areas. And that is absolutely a very important point. to look at because some of this is due to language, some of them could be due to learning difficulties and other things, and some of it is not, just to be transparent. Some of it is we need to do better, we need to provide better, but we do have different different resources, scaffolded resources. Work that we started doing in the primary grades a few years ago, also under the guidance of the board, was we started some in math and ELA, we have guided materials for the teachers and for the students for vocabulary. So that that specific content vocabulary, and it has like little flash cards and different things, starting with K through two, because as we've discussed many times here at the Deus and with us, is that we have to start as early as possible because we can't wait until the year that the content is actually assessed to then try to do this. So we do provide a scaffolded resources. We have different PowerPoints. Our materials that we adopt when we do our textbook adoptions in the core areas, the committees always select the books that have the most robust materials that they can translate. They have glossaries in the back. Like if you pick up a regular math book, it has a glossary in English and in Spanish. So we're always careful to make those selections. But that's definitely something that as we write the follow-up, we will address also. There's so much in these charts, but like the numbers of students, like in the math, you see that in seventh and eighth grade, the percentage is one thing, but the number is much lower because in seventh and eighth grade math, we accelerate students into algebra and geometry. So this is definitely an item that we really have to dig into and provide a lot of feedback because it's percentage and hard numbers, it's demographics, like you said, there's a lot here.

And one last thing, and I'll just say, you know, given that I did a lot of work with second language learners and science, I worked with the University of Miami on that in the classroom, there are a lot of strategies that can be used to really help. And going through that inquiry method, and I know I brought an item on that a while back, and I brought items on science labs in schools, all of that, but again, I'll just state for the record, if we don't, if we just write a follow-up and we don't follow through, it's not about follow-up, it's follow through, we have to be more diligent in that. We have to make sure, because as I said before, We can't make excuses, we can't. We have to look at the subgroups, we have to assess, we have to see what works best, what strategies, because every child can learn, every child can learn. So that is what we have to target, we have to target our instruction, we have to help those students, and we have to do a deep dive into And I want to thank Madam Chair for bringing this item forward. And it's a national issue, especially in the middle school. I've looked at data across the nation. Middle school, for whatever reason, developmentally, and maybe Board Member Blanco can help us. There's a lot going on in those adolescent bodies. But there is a dip. in the reading, in the math, and it's not something that's just unique to Miami-Dade County, but we have other challenges that we have to embrace, welcome, and address head on. So on that, thank you for your allowing me to speak and giving me the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you for your answers, Ms. Diaz.

Madam Chair, you had some more to follow. Yes, thank you. Yes, and thank you, Vice Chair Colucci, for those comments because absolutely true, the implementation portion is critically important. Like you said, it's not just a follow-up, but the follow-up to the follow-up by implementing what we get. And so that's very, very crucial. And all the other comments that have been made. Again, two amazing educators that are sitting next to me here. who have been in the classroom, even, you know, I've been out a much longer time than either one of them put together have been, but I still do remember those days vividly. And one thing that I do want to ask, our ESOL population, once those children are out of ESOL, they're supposed to be monitored for two years. I would like to know the results of those children that have exited the ESOL program who count, all right? Who are counting because before we had the exemption if you had not been in this country for at least a year, your scores did not count. So I would like to know how are those students? How are we monitoring those students? Who's maintaining accountability for what's happening? Because we have an extremely large ESOL population in this county. So that's something that I would definitely also like to see, just like the subgroups that were alluded to, include that in there as well, because that is so important. important to us right now, okay? Thank you. Through the chair, you'd like to make some comments?

Yes, we can certainly pull that data. Those students are monitored as part of the post-program review for two years, but we We don't have the data pulled that way, but we can as an additional type of subgroup. We can do that.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you.

And I know I was going to jump to co-sponsorships, but I have to chime in because some of the comments that were being made. It's so important when you look at that language acquisition because, and this is my school psychologist days. Usually within two years, a student can become proficient, but that academic knowledge actually takes about seven years. And that's for at least an average student. And when you think about that, when you have a child coming in in third or fourth grade, they're actually hitting that academic knowledge as they're ready to leave us. So it's absolutely something that we can't just say, well, it takes seven years. What can we do to try to speed up that time in which it takes them? And when it comes to those ESOL students and monitoring them, the other issue that I know is often faced in the schools is a student may not pass out of ESOL, not because the second language is coming in as an interference, but they may have some learning issues, right? And so always just trying to stay on top of those students and identify all the potential things that could be... impacting their learning is always important. So are we okay now to move on to co-sponsorships? Okay, can I get a motion? All in favor? Aye. Thank you. All right, the next item is my item, item H7. Yeah.

I'm sorry.

Oh, sorry, a motion to move the board members, Madam Chair's item to the meeting on September 9th.

A first and a second? Yes. As amended, yes.

Thank you. Yes, thank you. All right. Item H7 is my item, school board endorsement of the month of October 2026 as college application month in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. That's an item that I started and initiated. Extremely proud to bring back every year. It's so important for our students to apply as early as possible, not only to give them the best chance at admission, the best chance at scholarships, but to know early on. And critically important, this, and part of why when I brought this forward is because of the landscape of college applications has become, admissions has become so much more difficult for many students. We're fortunate enough to live in a wonderful state with wonderful universities. two of which are ranked in the top 20 public universities in the country, which means there's a high demand. And now because of that, two of those schools have now moved to an ED decision. So even more important for our students to get ahead of the game and make sure that if those are their top priority schools that they are able to apply by that early decision deadline. Any questions or comments? Or we can go straight to co-sponsorships. Motion? Second? All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Our next... Oh, yes. Thank you. Moving ahead of myself. All right. Can I get a motion to move the item as amended to the meeting? Second? Yes. Thank you. All in favor, aye. Next item on the floor is item H10. This is Dr. Bendross-Mindengal's item. She has provided me some talking points. So October is recognized as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, providing an important opportunity to increase awareness, promote education about risk factors and symptoms, encourage recommended screenings, and support individuals and families affected by breast cancer. Breast cancer remains one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers among women in the United States and can also affect men. While significant progress has been made in detection, treatment, and survivorship, continued awareness, early detection, access to care, and research remains essential to reducing the impact of this disease on our communities. Miami-Dade County Public Schools has an important role in promoting health awareness and ensuring that our employees have access to information that can encourage prevention and early detection. And Dr. Bendross-Mendigo, this is an item that she has brought forth for many, many years. So this item seeks to endorse October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And we thank her for continuously bringing this forward. Yes, board member Gather.

I'm happy to, in the absence of my dear sister, I'm happy to bring this and urge the board to go along with this. My wife happens to be a survivor herself just past five years. This is a very important thing we do, so I would certainly strongly urge everyone to please endorse this important item.

Move it. Yes. Can I get a second on co-sponsorships? Second. All in favor? Aye. Motion to move as amended to the board meeting? Move it. Second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Our next item on the floor is H13 from Member Santos. The floor is yours.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Item H13 continues our quest as a board to ensure oversight and public transparency. especially as we roll out our new student information system. We all know it is a critical tool. It's the foundation for so many workflows in the district, and we're very excited for this, let's call it upgrade to the 21st century with focus. Following the board's approval of $10 million of an ESSER investment in 2021, we outline in the item all the steps that the basically now coming to a place where district-wide implementation will be possible for next school year, which is fantastic. And so we really appreciate the work that's already been done by school leadership and performance and information technology services, including all of the technical development, testing of enrollment platforms with the school site registrars, securing data sharing agreements, ongoing sandbox texting etc testing and um and so we we're very excited essentially and this item seeks to uh ask for an update to ensure that that rollout is smooth it i think the last time the district embarked on something this large was the sap rollout i've heard lots of stories about it um and so this will be such a great opportunity for us to get it right to do it well and to bring our district into the 21st century. I'm happy to answer any questions that my colleagues may have.

Board Member Alonso, you have some questions.

Thank you so much, Board Member Santos, for bringing this item. You might have been reading my mind, because this is something that's been on my mind now for some time. The district's been talking about modernizing their student information system for close to 20 years. And we know that it's critically important that we stay up with times and really that we have access to information. I mean, it's so difficult to see a lot of our administrators have to go through old school charts and calculations where a lot of these modern systems can really help with time savings. So I really welcome seeing this update. My understanding though, I know 27-28 is the rollout, but we were already supposed to be implementing in certain areas and there was certain phasing that comes into there. In this board request that you're asking, are you asking also for an update on where we're at today and the success of those implementations through the chair?

Thank you for that question. Through the chair, currently the item does ask for providing an anticipated end date for full deployment, but I am happy to amend it slightly so that we do get that update because so much work has been done And I'll let Mr. Fernandez speak on it, but I know that at some point the phase rollout ended up being not the best course for us, and so that's how we landed at full rollout. I'll let him speak on it since he's the expert through the chair.

Good morning, or afternoon, through the chair. Go ahead. Correct. The original plan was to phase it and bring things online independently, but once we started that process, we realized that Focus is such an integrated system that it made no sense. And then trying to keep Focus and DCIS in sync while we were doing this was going to create a lot more issues. So we reached out to a few school districts that use Focus, and we realized, you know what, we need to reset and bring the system online as one complete system. So the plan is when we bring focus online next summer, there will be no more DSIS. So DSIS will cease to exist and everything will flow through focus.

Thank you for that answer. And Board Member Alonso, this does ask for that comprehensive update, including all that phasing and testing by the November 10th committee. I'm open to hearing suggestions if you think it should be earlier or different, but that's what I currently brought forward. Yes, of course.

No, thank you. I mean, receiving that information would be sufficient. I think it's important, especially in knowing the risks that come with a full system change over the summer in such a large district like ours and so many dependent systems, right? We want to make sure that teaching and learning continues in all of our buildings and that we can adequately report back to the state, right, those required reporting items, which I know are One of the biggest, you know, I'm sure you're losing a lot of sleep at night, George. I'd say hair, but we don't suffer from that anymore. But I think it's a great item to bring forward. And as long as we have that update on where we're at now and what type of testing, I think it's good. So I look forward to supporting this and co-sponsoring at the appropriate time.

Okay, Board Member Alonso, just to bring your full circle back to our strategic plan, one of our objectives is improving employee facing systems and reducing staff processing time. I think this is going to be one of the fastest way to get us there, so I appreciate all the effort being put in. Yes, lots of risk. Whatever we can do to help, it's a huge undertaking and we're excited to see it be a reality.

Mr. Colucci.

Thank you, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Board Member Santos. I totally concur that we need to update and get with the, with more, you know, more efficient. Just, I caution because I've been in there in the classroom when we start rolling out new software and new programs that sometimes, you know, good intentions have unintended consequences, so we really have got to be sure that this is ready to roll smoothly because I've been there when we've changed over to, now I can't even remember the name, when we changed over to the ESC to do the EPs and education plans. It was WISE at one point and CELIFI and it just creates a lot of user issues. So we have to be prepared and I would state also that we need to think of having you know, speed dial hotlines where people can speak to not an AI person, but a human being and can get answers quickly because this has the potential of, you know, causing a lot of delays in schools. I just wanted to put that out there through the chair. Go ahead.

So through the chair, yes, we agree that this is a big change. We are planning to roll it out Over the summer, before the start of the school year, and let some of the schools get their hands on the system, play with it, kind of give us some feedback behind the scenes. Change communication and post-co-life support are paramount to being successful. So we are getting in front of the communication with the schools, with the principals. At the last EDUCAST, we shared with the principal the timeline, when training is going to start to bring them in. And then we are going to have a help support that will consist of individuals that someone can reach out to on a phone and talk to to ensure that whatever questions they have get answered.

And one last thing through the chair, because I've been there, done that. When you are in the classroom, you cannot be on hold for a long period of time. Teachers don't have time to be, you know, so... office staff it has to be and I'm very confident that this will get done properly but we just have to be aware of all of those things that could possibly potentially cause problems so that we get ahead of it so thank you thank you madam chair for the opportunity of course and I was going to echo those same statements when when you do something so large scale all at once without a phasing in it's it's it's almost impossible to not have hiccups along the way you know they almost are expected so having that support

Not just individuals you can call, but like you said, not waiting and getting answered are critically important. So, Mr. Superintendent, I know you wanted to make some comments.

Through the chair, yes, this is a great item. It's really important that we are in tune with the technology that is out there today. It's about working smarter, not harder. It's about using the technology in our favor. across this district, not just for the schools, but even here. So that is going to be one of the strong initiatives on my team to make sure, and Mr. Fernandez and I have had a lot of conversations around that, the innovation of technology in the classroom, but also the innovation of technology as an organization. It's got to be on the forefront of everything that we do. We're already behind the eight ball. We've got to move even faster now, and we will, and we'll work together on that.

Thank you, Mr. Superintendent.

Madam Chair? Yes, thank you. And I concur with everything that has been said. Board Member Santos, thank you as well for your item. But as long as we remember that technology, AI, and everything else is just a tool. It is a tool because that is where you have to draw the line, and that's where you have to be very, very careful that nothing replaces that teacher, and we're using technology as a tool, but it should not be the only dependency that students have. They have to be able to critically think and function in a society where they just cannot depend on everything, just on technology. So as long as that message is crystal clear everywhere we go, we'll be successful. But that is a must, in my opinion.

Through the chair. With great power comes great responsibility. And we've got to make sure that we're responsible and that students also understand you know, that technology is a tool. And there's a lot of research out there today that clearly tells us that if we immerse ourselves only in technology, students lose a lot of ability to be resilient, to use their cognitive abilities, et cetera, et cetera. So we've got to make sure that that is at the forefront of everything that we do when we're making these decisions moving forward as well.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes. Vice Chair Colucci. Thank you. We did not plan this, but there's a quote that I wrote down from an article that I was reading, and it was about technology. And it just kind of, it really resonates with what you just said. And the whole article was about technology and students. And a professor, I can't remember his name, he said, students need a place designed for other aims, such as conversation instead of consumption, and collaboration instead of personalization. That isn't resisting the future, it's preparing children to be fully human in it. So I really think that that's something, it's finding that balance, correct? It's finding that balance where we use technology, but technology doesn't use us. So I just wanted to, I had that written down because I thought it was just so fascinating and such a good point. Thank you, Madam Chair. Absolutely a balance. All right. Thank you.

So co-sponsorships for item H-14. Can I get a motion and a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Motion to move as amended to the board meeting? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Our next item on the floor is item H14. That is also from Dr. Dorothy Bandras-Mendengal. She has left me some talking points. This is a good cause item, I believe, in response to an issue at one of her schools. Our children deserve another choice. When a child is angry, embarrassed, disrespected, bullied, threatened, or challenged by another child, too often that child believes there are only two options, to fight, or to back down, but there's another choice, which is to get help. As adults, we have a responsibility to make sure our children know that choice exists and our children need the tools, the people, and the support to make them. She's proffering this item because violence in our schools has consequences that go far beyond the moment of an incident. A fight can become an injury, an argument can become a weapon, a social media post can become a confrontation in a hallway. And one impulsive decision can change the trajectory of a young person's life forever. Conflict resolution is a life skill. But our world has changed. The speed at which conflicts develop has changed. This initiative does not replace school security. It does not replace our police officers. It does not replace threat assessment. And it does not replace discipline. It does not replace consequences either. and it certainly does not replace our emergency response when a student presents an immediate danger. Instead, it adds another layer, prevention. Conflict doesn't stop at the schoolhouse door. It can begin online, it can begin in a neighborhood, it can begin between two families, and it can arrive at school the next morning. So this must be a partnership between the district, our schools, our students, our parents, and our communities. When I saw the social media posts, I saw what was coming out because of the recordings, and that's something that I brought up a while back with students knowing it's that bystander effect that you tend to watch. You don't tend to intervene. You don't tend to go and get help. And now we've reached an era where the first thing students do is take out their phones and record. And it's definitely a battle and it's gonna be a hard one to fight. It's become part of our society and part of what people do that before getting help, they record. And then it gets posted and then everybody sees what it is. So I think it's an extremely timely item from her where it's that prevention piece, right? And recognizing. And most times I've been in schools, I'm still in schools when there are times that there's, you know, something sparks and there's a fight. But there's a lot of times where people know that there have been some issues, that there have been some back and forth, that there have been some comments made earlier in the day. And getting in front of that, having those relationships with students, that's something I've always talked about too. Students need to know, they need to have one adult in that building that they genuinely know cares for them that they can go to before something escalates. And I believe that's at the heart of her item, is how do we get to preventing the fights? Not what to do in response, but how we get to that prevention mode. I know she's not here to take any questions. I don't know if any of my colleagues would like to make some comments. Board Member Geller.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And again, on behalf of my absent dear sister, Dr. Bendros-Mendigo, I'm happy to also advance this. Violence prevention, just the words speak for themselves. We have to not just address it, we have to prevent it from happening whenever possible. That's what the goal of this is. And this particular program is designed for that. And as we used to say in my day, we should give peace a chance. I've always believed that and still do. so i urge you colleagues this is a different way and a different solution and that's what we need we need everybody to just lower the temperature so i urge you to support advancing this to the board thank you manager thank you madam chair you have some comments yes thank you very much um

Yes, and I know she's not here, but I think that this is an extremely timely item, very, very necessary at this point in time for addressing schools in general, children in general, due to the fact that we're living in a society, as you alluded to, Madam Chair, where people don't want to get involved. All they want to do is videotape, put it on social media, and again, exacerbate the situations where in previous years people would get involved and would try to remediate situations from escalating to levels that could end up in someone losing their life. And so there's nothing more important than the safety and the well-being of all those that we serve, right? And especially protecting our children. And so I thank Dr. Bendos-Menegos for bringing the item up. I do have a question. I recall years ago, we used to have a conflict resolution team that would go out to schools. Do we still have any teams, conflict resolution, to teach people how to, and they taught also staffs on how to deal with conflicts. This was many years ago. I see a lot of, faces that are perplexed, if you may. But we did have those teams many years ago. Do we still have that?

Through the chairs. So we have, not in the same way that you recall, but yes, we have our different teams that go out. We, through the Office of Mental Health and Student Services, we provide professional development for our counselors, for schools. We have a lot of initiatives that do Little pieces of what is described here, but if there's something that we've learned in the world of mental health and providing services to students is that you really kind of have to have a wide menu because every strategy doesn't work everywhere. So we have, you know, the item, for example, talks about supervised spaces. Some of our schools have mindfulness sanctuaries where the mental health coordinators and the counselors can go in there with students that need to take a break, they need to deescalate, but all of our schools do not have that. And so there are definitely many elements that are described here that we do provide, but we certainly need to explore more. And some of the things that are described here would be very useful to add to the menu that we currently have of services. So the team that you described, back to that question, is not in itself anymore, but different teams from Office of Mental Health and Student Services do provide the same types of trainings and the same types of support to schools. It's just not under that name anymore.

So two questions through the chair. Do those teams provide support to all of our schools or they only go when there's a crisis at a school? Question number one. Number two, The HIP program is a very positive program. Students are helping students. Many times students don't feel comfortable speaking to an adult, right? They feel more comfortable. I go every year to their event and I participate with them on an annual basis. What they're doing is amazing, really tremendous work. Do we have HIP in all of our schools now or still just a limited number of schools? What is the status on that as well?

It's through the chair. So I don't have the exact count, Ms. Rojas, but it's only in high schools. And I would wager to say it's almost all of them. I can get you the exact number because there has to be a faculty member that wants to be the sponsor. There has to be student interest. At the end of the day, it's an activity like any other. But we do have them in almost all of our high schools. So the first answer is the crisis team responds for crisis. That's different. But the professional development and the support from that office is available to all schools. And we do train. We train in conflict resolution. We train in problem solving. The elementary counselors have lessons in Cloud 9 specifically for them through the Navigate 360, the five-hour resiliency requirement of the state. We do a lot of things there. with problem solving, teaching empathy, teaching conflict resolution, the effects of social media, negative effects. So we have those lessons built in, but again, more would be more helpful, absolutely. But we do, I mean, I want to just share with the board that we do have a lot of these things in place and we do support our students through their counselors, parents as well. We have the mindfulness champions, you know, all of the things. Well, we'll probably hear a little bit of it in a few minutes in Ms. Stewart's follow-up. But the way that, and I know that Board Member Vandross-Menegal isn't present, but the way she describes this is something that would be still beneficial in addition to the things that we have.

Thank you. So through the chair, Jess, you said almost all high schools. What are we doing for the ones that are not quite there yet? Because this would be beneficial for everyone, right? Through the chair, that response was about HIP.

Yes. And again, I don't have that list with me. But for example, a very small school may not have a HIP club. It is a club. It's extracurricular. So I don't want to say a specific school because if I say it, I might be wrong. But a small school, maybe one of our boutiques or our magnets, they may just not have enough students that are doing that because they're doing other clubs. But that doesn't mean that we don't have services and availability of other mindfulness clubs, the mindfulness champions, all kinds of other mental health supports and student services supports. So HIP is one of them. I do believe all our comprehensive high schools have, but I cannot say with certainty that every single one, but it would be like saying, does every school have ROTC? No, most of them do, but not everyone.

Thank you. So when you can, just give me a list. I don't know my colleagues want a list for theirs. I definitely would like a list of the ones that do have it.

I have received an update. So last year there were 56 high schools that had it, and we're encouraging them all, and this year we're trying to make sure. So 56 is almost all I think there are 60 or 61 high schools including all models so this year we're working to ensure that every single one that could possibly have that has student interest and a sponsor and everything has them present so we hope to be at that number right around 56 thank you very much thank you madam I know both dr. Lewis and and superintendent Villalobos have some comments but I'd like to just say a couple of things because you might be able you might have a response to to what I'm going to bring up

I think while it's not specific in the item, I think it's geared more in thinking about this plan for high schools. But I'm going to venture to say that not only middle school, but even at the elementary level, there needs to be some kind of very concerted effort in dealing with these things. Because when you have these issues popping up in high school, And the conflict resolution and knowing how to deal with that, that starts at a very young age. I'm going to bring up, it's kind of like a little phenomenon that has taken over social media as much as we say not to stay away from it. But if you haven't looked up Oreo Gate, it's very entertaining to look it up. But it's basically a school chat. And it's gone viral and we don't know if it's real or not. But anyway, the point is that A mother is asking a group of parents not to send Oreos for lunch because she doesn't allow her daughter to have Oreos, right? But it's become a statement of, we need to teach our children that the world can't adjust to each individual child. They need to learn how to develop those skills to adjust to things that happen that may not go their way or may not be the way that they are, right? We can't jump in and rescue them. And that's part of what I think has been happening to, this is my psychology soapbox, right? But that's part of what's been happening, I think, to our youth is they have lost the ability to cope, to be resilient, to accept failure, to accept failure, circumstance that isn't what they want and learning how to overcome it. And as a parent, I know we want to sweep in and we want to fix things for our children, but it's become a point where now these children don't know how to do something for themselves. They don't know how to resolve a conflict. They don't know how to go somewhere and talk to them because mom dad or somebody has kind of come in and it's not to blame mom and dad and there's lots of you know good reasons for why even as a parent i'll talk about it right we do those things but kids need to learn how to fall and get up and they need to learn how to how to do that so If we just focus something and come up with a plan for high school students, by then it's too late. They've already learned some of those bad habits. They've already learned some of that inability. When we talk about anxiety being so high with our adolescents, a lot of it is because they haven't learned how to cope with these things at a younger age. So as we come up with a plan, and address some of the things that Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mendigo has been bringing up, it needs to be something that starts at those early stages to start building those skills, and hence why we could use a lot more counselors around our schools. So anyway, I throw that out. I know both of you had some comments to make, but in case you wanted to be able to mention something on those comments, I chose to speak first. But whichever one of you would like to go first and speak.

Through the chair and the listening public, just as we are focused, hyper-focused on academics, we also have to be hyper-focused on making sure that all of the other aspects of a child that is eventually going to go out into the real world is something that we target. And I know that we have the values matters. We do conflict resolution through student services. We have an array of different avenues at the school sites that I know our counselors, our mental health, our administrators use on a daily basis. we've got to make sure that we are definitely more deliberate about that process. And I know when we look at the portrait of a graduate, we talk about critical thinking and problem solving. We talk about effective communication, hopefully beyond the texting and that people, the students know how to communicate with one another face to face and resolve issues and that they're empathetic to others as well. I think sometimes it's very easy when you're behind the screen digitally to not have the empathy that they should naturally have. So we have to put more of those processes and learning skills in play. And then, of course, you talked about the resiliency and the self-management. That's a critical component. But just to say that those things are already in our portrait of a graduate, which is fantastic. We just need to continue to follow suit and making sure that those individuals that are on the front lines, as I like to call them, our teachers, our administrators, and student services personnel, that they too are equipped with the strategies necessary to help these children. Because at the end of the day, like I said, whether they're elementary students and we can target them earlier, or they're students that have come from other countries or other states or other places that are in our schools, that they receive that help and those strategies as quickly as possible. So when they graduate, they are contributing to our society and our community in a positive way as well, and that they don't get lost or fall through the cracks, so to speak. So I think that that whole child experience is extremely important. So I just wanted to add to that.

Thank you. Dr. Luis, I know you had some comments.

Through the chair. My comments, let me just start off by simply saying that I totally agree with just about everything that's being said. As I look at the item, there's an opening line that says that students encounter conflict every day, and I think we can all agree to that. But to me, we're going to come into conflict, but because we are in conflict doesn't necessarily mean that it has to get violent. And from what I've seen as of late, social media can be a good thing, but it also could be a bad thing because when it's something that's negative, and unfortunately, the recent incident was negative, you know, it gets highlighted, and unfortunately, people form an opinion about that particular school. In my humble opinion, you know, we've, over the past couple of years, we've done a tremendous job as far as just being or having a proactive approach to discipline. As we all can agree, we made some revisions to the Code of Student Conduct. instead of highlighting on punishment, we actually highlighted, or highlighting rather, appropriate behavior that we would like to see displayed. To me, it has to be a total different mind shift from our students. They need to understand that their actions, the consequences that comes along with it, not only those in conflict, but more importantly, those bystanders that are recording, to me, it does more damage than good. And so I see the item, and yes, I'm like you, It shouldn't just be about high school. It should be about all of our students because guess what? It doesn't matter the age, you know, people do have disagreement and we will definitely address the item and we will definitely make sure from a you know school side standpoint they're also being equipped with all the necessary tools and training to be able to implement that within the school and hopefully we can bring about some positive behavior but I'm quick to say that unfortunately I saw the new cycle and it was like over and over and over and over again and it definitely doesn't make us look good so thank you for your comments on that as well all right thank you

I know she's not here, but I think we've got some consensus to ask for co-sponsorships. Moving. Can I get a motion, a second? All in favor? Aye. Okay, motion to move the item as amended. All in favor? Aye. Okay. I think we've exhausted the H items. The next item on the agenda would be new business from board members. Any new business, Madam Chair? Yes.

Thank you very much. Through the chair, I want to know what the status is. I've addressed this in the past. In reference to students that have been tested, whether it's for ESE, gifted programs, or being put in other programs within that arena, we have a lot of children that have been tested. they're waiting to be placed and that is a big concern schools generate funding once those children are placed into the programs because they get the additional funding and we have for a fact schools that have children ready to be placed and especially during the summer have not were not placed at that time, and we have some that are still pending placement. So I'd like to find out what is the process that is being followed, who is monitoring the manner in which the length of time that it's taking to place some of these students, and if there's a reason why, what are we gonna do to remediate that? Because they're ready, most importantly, not even for the funding, the fact that those children are ready to receive special services, and they're not receiving them because they simply have not been placed into the programs through the chair, if you could respond to that.

Through the chair, so yes, we were testing and placing throughout the summer. The school that you asked about previously, we did place quite a large number there between the end of July and the beginning of August. The Department of ESE does monitor that. There is a timeline that we have to adhere to, and it's just ongoing. So we do have our own staff psychologist, and we also have contracted psychologists that are completing evaluations and placing students ongoing. So there's, I mean, a particular school... that you would like me to look into, I can, but in general, that is a process, it's year-round.

Through the chair, I know what the process is, but the process is taking too long, and it's not just one school. And so this is why I'm bringing this up, because... Not even the assessment, the testing. A lot of these kids have already been tested. They're just waiting to be placed. And they have not been placed yet. That's the concern that I have. And it's not just, that was one example I gave you. But there are others. And so we just have to do better. We have to do better. And that's the part that... I'm concerned about because these kids really need to be placed school year starting during the summer. We're going to have to revisit that for the upcoming summer. Maybe we need to have teams identified more than what we've had in the past. But we're still having that issue that children are pending placement for longer period than the parents would like to see and that the schools would like to see.

Through the chair, I'm very well aware of what's been happening there and I am taking a deep dive into identifying what it is that's holding them up and how it is that we will be able to help because the longer we take to support students that are in need, the greater time lost for them to receive the academic need or social or physical need that they're required to have. For sure. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Board Member Geller.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to support the Board Chair's item. I do have one other little thing to add on to it. I was contacted by a parent and we had some outreach with staff regarding who qualifies and what kinds of things we do address. And this parent called to my attention that they thought we were not systematically including dyslexia among the things that we addressed as far as student needs. We did some preliminary looking into it, but now that you're in this chair, Mr. Superintendent, if you could ask whoever has custody of that program to look into that and to see about getting back to us because if you've got it, it's a huge problem and If we can do better systematically as opposed to just on a one-off basis in addressing that issue that I know a lot of parents have a lot of issues with, I'd like to see what else we can do to ramp that up. in addition to the point that Board Chair Rojas is raising about getting students placed in general. So thank you and thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Madam Chair, may I respond? Of course.

Yes, thank you so much, Board Member Geller. I did proffer a board item related to dyslexia. HUGE FOR ME. AND THIS OCCURRED SEVERAL YEARS AGO. IT'S BEEN ENHANCED, NO QUESTION, FROM WHERE WE WERE TO WHERE WE ARE AFTER THAT BOARD ITEM WAS PROFFERED. SO IF YOU COULD ELABORATE PLEASE ON THE BOARD ITEM WHICH I PROFFERED RELATED TO STUDENTS THAT HAVE DYSLEXIA. very, very tough for those children, and we were losing families so that their children could go elsewhere to get the services for dyslexia, and we couldn't do that. That's just not right, and so I know that we have done a lot with that, Ms. Diaz, so if you could please elaborate on that for Board Member Geller, because he brings an important point, critically important to a lot of families. You'll see items, but definitely a lot of questions for you, you're ready.

Through the chair. So I think one of the reasons that it might be confusing for parents is that dyslexia in the state of Florida, it's not a standalone label, for lack of a better term. So students are not just labeled dyslexia. You might be SLD, you might have autism spectrum disorder, but there is nothing that just says dyslexia. So sometimes... it feels like those students maybe are not seen. So as a result of indeed Ms. Rojas board item and many other things that we did in our district is every elementary school, every K-8 center has what we call a dyslexpert. And it is a person that is specifically trained, most of them in OG or in Gillingham, for recognizing the characteristics of dyslexia and being able to assist in classroom and strategies with their fellow teachers in implementing these strategies to assist students specifically who show the characteristics or who have been identified as a student having dyslexia. ESC students. In fact, they are often not ESC students. They may have a 504 or just a physician statement. Sometimes they are ESC students. So this is split between the two worlds, the ESC and the gen ed classroom. but we do have in all of our schools, as I said, a dyslexpert. We also have embedded into our instructional materials specific strategies to assist these students. Some of the resources that we utilize, like when students take the I-Ready Inform assessment, it is like a pre-screener, and it indicates students that we should assess with a one-to-one paper-pencil screener, so we also do that. And something very, very new that actually is happening just now, this year, in the last month or two, is that we have identified a dyslexia model school, just one to start, where we found that there were a large number of students with specific learning disabilities, and that we felt that this might be a school where there were a large number of students exhibiting the characteristics of dyslexia. So in partnership with Dr. Judy Cohen and a number of other folks in our community from FIU and private entities, we're going to start there at that particular school. an enhanced professional learning and professional development for the teachers, specifically for that, for dyslexia. And then it's a model that we hope to replicate. Again, we usually start kind of small with one or two schools, and then we want to replicate that throughout the district. Again, I give long-winded answers, and I apologize because I have a lot to say, but every school has resources, 100%. The resources are made available to the teachers. They're embedded in our academic roadmaps, which is the new fancy name for pacing guides, and in our materials. Teachers have them. And there's at least one dyslexpert at every school to help them access those and use them properly. If there is a parent, and if you'd like to tell me later, absolutely, we can reach out to that specific parent and make sure if the student is already an ESC student, then we can add services through their IEP. If they are not, we can do a 504, or we can just ensure that they're getting the support that they need in the classroom. Something else that we talked a lot about in that meeting was second language students, since Ms. Colucci brought it up a few moments ago, who also Sometimes we feel that it's maybe a language issue, but the characteristics of dyslexia can still reveal themselves even, you know, separate. So we're looking at that as well. We're very aware that that could be something that is impacting, you know, like a lot of our students, a fourth of our students are ELL. So we want to look at that as well.

Through the chair. Thank you very much for that very detailed answer. I appreciate that and a lot of good stuff there. And also thank you, board chair. Ross, for bringing the previous item, and I'm going to ask my staff to reach out to yours and get that and look at it. It sounds like we're doing a lot and what we can do, but that we're limited by a shortcoming in the state guidelines as to the classification of this and the idea that in this day and age that's not something that stands on its own when it's so well documented and recognized is a problem that in some measure is certainly beyond your control or yours, Mr. Superintendent. I'm going to ask my staff to follow up with you about the specifics, because it was, in some sense, a specific case. But maybe, Madam Board Chair, we can look to co-sponsor something and ask our legislative affairs group, Mr. Ulivari and company, to look into... Changing the state guideline. I don't know that it requires legislation it may just be something that can be done at the Department of Education level as a as a rule change that we could advocate for but maybe our offices can work together to reach out and find something that we can do to make it easier for our staff to be able to address this directly and And, I mean, again, I was happy with the answer, but it's like we're doing workarounds here because there's a problem that's unaddressed. Maybe also we can see if we can get Board Member Alonso to advance this with the coalition. What's it called again that you had? Florida Consortium. The Consortium. Excuse me. I know it was a. 25 cent word there. So we can address it maybe at that level as well, board member Alonso. It seems to me like if it's just a board rule that it can't be that hard to get them to pay attention to. And if it does require legislation, you know, slip it in with something else and just fix it. So we'll look forward maybe, Madam Board Chair, to seeing what we can work on that together and with everyone's help, we can, you know, give some real help to some of these suffering parents and suffering students. So thank you, Madam Chair.

Of course, yes. All right, any other new business from the board? Okay, seeing none, presentation by staff of New Business. We had a staff follow-up on H3 from June 2026, early childhood education excellence framework update. We got the update. Any board members have any questions? Board Member Santos?

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. And I really want to thank the entire academics and early childhood department for a very thorough and so well done follow up in collaboration with our enterprise team. Really, the quality of the follow up is just great. And I'm really grateful for it. It certainly challenged some of my thinking about how we should move forward here, and that's the best thing when we change our mind because we have comprehensive data to help us do that. For me, and I would love for Ms. Maceda's very quickly to give us the high level update on our quality, because I think one of the biggest outcomes from what this comprehensive report is that we are beyond strong in quality, and we're just really hitting it out of the ballpark. So if you could just give us a quick overview there, and then I have a follow-up question.

Through the chair.

Go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity. We are very excited about the accountability of our early childhood programs. As you know, about four years ago we began with a class assessment, and that is a two-hour assessment from the state through the ELC. And we have improved every year in our class mean score. and this has been from a 5.11 all the way to a 5.59 which is significant. It is also reflective of the program designation scores which started last year where we had 88% or 87% rather of our schools either at excellent or at above expectations and that is equivalent to what would be an A or B, right? And now it's at 93%. And that is a combination of the class scores as well as the fast start early literacy, which is showing the proficiency and learning gains of these students. And what has really knocked it out of the ballpark for us is to see the kindergarten readiness from three years ago at 69% to 80%. We don't rest on success, so I'm of course looking at that 20% and making sure that we have 100% of our students making kindergarten readiness.

Excellent.

Follow up.

Thank you so much. This is just something that we should all be yelling in every room we're in. It is so impressive. And really, when we talk about third grade proficiency, I know the whole board always says it starts earlier. Everyone has talked about this. And so it's so great that we see the data. When a student comes to us in their early learning years, they are going to be ready for kindergarten. They are going to succeed and be on track Of course, the challenge, which is also very thoroughly outlined in your follow up, is that we also have the largest empty seats, let's say, that we've ever had, the largest number of empty seats. Of course, we all know changing birth rates, changing immigration patterns, et cetera, et cetera, are affecting us. But we did see in your report an increase in families going to private providers. We are outperforming those private providers by a lot. So now the next phase becomes how do we ensure that families know that so that they are making the best choice to set up their child for success? And maybe what other factors are they looking at? And I know for a fact one of the ones we've discussed at length is hours of service. For so many families, our hours in early learning are the biggest limitation. They know we're the best, they know their student will be set up for success if they come to us, but they can't make it work logistically with work or with grandma watching the child, et cetera, et cetera. And so we have a really strong opportunity to figure out how to solve that gap so that every single one of those high quality seeds are filled. Because now, thanks to your reporting, there's no question that we are providing the absolute best product. So thank you for that. I look forward to our continued conversation. I'm so glad we all have another wonderful talking point to go share with the community and look forward to closing that gap on those empty seats so that every child in our community can have a great start. Vice Chair Colucci, you have some comments?

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I will be brief because it's been long. Kudos. Great, great work. Great work. And I love your attitude of 100%. That's the one that we all need to adopt and have. And I know our superintendent has that same philosophy. So we're all on that same page, 100%. Everybody has to be ready. So great job. Keep up the great work. Thank you.

Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. And of course, I ditto that. But in addition, the foundational skills, they start with the early years. Simple as that. As we said before, and many board items have been proffered by third grade, too late, too late. So it's critically important in that arena. But it's also as important if we want to have our enrollment go up. let's get these early childhood programs, especially into schools that right now are having difficulty with their numbers, let's get those pre-K programs in those schools because I guarantee you that the parents are gonna maintain their children. Once they put them there, they're going to stay with us. The majority of them will definitely stay with us. So that's something that I keep on going, you know, in my mind, we're having all these issues, but yet we have, there are a lot of providers out there that are not ours that we can try to bring in, open up those programs in those schools. And I think it's going to make a truly significant difference as we move forward. So, Mr. Superintendent, I hope that that's something that you really take another deep dive. I don't know how many dives you're taking within just two committees now.

I know there's a lot of eagerness on that side. I've been holding them off. I know they have some comments. I'm going to throw this out there because maybe it'll be part of what you're saying. I was wondering, even though I don't think it was part necessarily of the staff follow-up, but just wondering how our Pre-K-3 Sprouts program is taking off. So I open the floor now. I know, Mr. Superintendent, you've been waiting to chime in. And if you have any information on that or... Yeah, so...

Thank you, Madam Chair, as well, for the comments that have been made. I, too, wanted to congratulate Ms. Macias for the work that she has been doing because it really starts in the early years of a child's life to get as many words in their vocabulary as possible so then they can be successful in the comprehension process as well for their reading and their writing and ultimately their literacy, right? So I'm very proud of the work there. And in the Sprouts, I mean, we're really moving that along. I've had the opportunity to work with Mesa Macias when I was a South Region Superintendent and working on those. But to your point, the private providers and the ability to bring private providers into our schools, and to then make sure that through those private providers, those children that are coming to them are going to remain at our schools knowing that we have the best product and that we will get them at that 100%. So that is an opportunity that we will continue to capitalize on, that we will strategize around on, because I think that that's the way to do it. So we have started that. And I know through the Enterprise Assessment Development Committee, we've done that. Verena Cabrera has spearheaded a lot of that work as well. So we're very happy with that. I'll pass it on to Ms. Macias if she wants to add anything about the Sprouts program as well.

Through the chair, I actually have a happy report because we have an increase in enrollment by 400. I know it's not in the report because it's this year, but we're very happy to report that, whether it's through the expansion of our programs or attracting more of our families, but we're very excited about that increase in enrollment. And I have to say, I'm so proud of our Pre-K 3 Sprouts program. We were able to Fully execute in the 10 schools that we had planned and we are very excited I have visited already half of those I intend to to visit the the next half Within the next couple of weeks and I know my staff has already been in there, you know every single day So we're very excited

And I know, I'm not gonna have you give numbers now, and you may not have them, but I would love to have a follow-up. There's one in my school, just to know, like, did it reach capacity? You know, how we're doing in that would be great. Okay, any other comments or questions on the staff follow-up? Okay, our next staff follow-up was from April 2026, age six, comprehensive analysis of student mental health data. I know that that was your board item. Do you have any comments or questions?

Through the chair, I will reserve them for one-on-one, unless any of my colleagues have one, because I know that in the interest of time.

I did not think that an agenda item with no C items would go as long as it has. Neither. So I know we're all hungry. Yes. Board Member Santos, did you have some comments? Thank you.

I'll be brief. Thank you, Board Member Colucci, for always bringing this annually. It helps us really compare year to year how we're doing. So I really appreciate that. um i did have a quick question on the threat assessment uh sort of data collection i know the state has a specific uh you know tool that we have to use to submit uh i'll just put on the record we can talk later but uh to ensure that we talked about focus earlier ensuring that we are from the ground now thinking about how those connect what we need to build and focus so that instead of adding additional sort of systems and and places that it's streamlined into focus as much as possible, if that's a possibility. And then I wanted to congratulate you. We saw the big jump in parent participation on page 16 of 23. And we were very curious, like, how'd you do it? What worked well? How did you manage to triple parent participation?

through the chair, good afternoon, everyone. This evaluation, this report is like an evaluation of our department, right? So in looking at the parent presentations, what was happening previously, they weren't as intentional as we made them this past year. Because in some of those presentations, we had no parents showing up and conducting presentations kind of in isolation. So we matched it up to what schools were doing. So we know if they had events happening at their school, that was a session to really take the opportunity to share mental health resources and information with parents. It's not exactly the hot topic that they want to attend a presentation for, but we saw a high number of parents that we were able to reach out and really impact by partnering up with the school and taking advantage of presenting to parents while they're there for other events.

Thank you so much. Makes a lot of sense to streamline.

Absolutely.

And one last thing. I know that this is a tremendous undertaking every year, but I just think it's important that we have that data and for you yourselves to assess, because it's such a big component nowadays. with all of the challenges our students face. So thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. We all received the ETO update from Dr. Tri-Diggs. Any questions? Thank you for that comprehensive update. Looks like we're okay. Just really quick as a moment of personal privilege, I brought forth an item on childhood cancer awareness, and I want to thank all of those that are wearing gold in support. So thank you for that. If you're not, it's okay. You have the whole month to wear gold.