Steering & Rules Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone. Welcome to the steering and rules committee. I am Alderman Jose Perez. I am chair of the committee. I am will be joined virtually soon by Alderman Dmitryevich. With us today is Alderman Baumann. Alderman Stamper will be joining us shortly. Alderman Alderman Alderman person Jo Casa Samaripa. Alderman Scott Spiker will be joining us shortly and we have with us Alderman DeAndre Jackson. It is approximately 09:05 on 03/14/2025 and I wanna jump into our first item.

Number one, file 241014 communication from the Charter School Review Committee transmitting the findings of their annual report for 2324. I wanna welcome mister Ingram. The floor is yours and I believe you have some introductions to make and doctor Baylor will be doing the presentation. Yes. Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Mister chair and members of the steering and rules committee. My name is Kevin Ingram and I am the chair of the charter school review committee. And on that committee consists of doctor Pointe Pointer Mace, professor at Alverno College, Katrina Harwell Young, deputy director of Milwaukee succeeds, Zidnav Bilizaki, education consultant and former educator at Escrowda Verte, doctor Sherry Brookshire, and Bill Christenson from the city comptroller's office. And the people that do the policy and monitoring on behalf of the Charter School Review Committee is Gail Peek from the Institute for the Transformation of Learning. And with me to my left, doctor Baylor from the Research and Charter School Monitor from Evidence Change.

We have several schools that in your portfolio that consist of that we are monitoring, Milwaukee Math and Science Academy, Duralens Hines Academy, Escorta Verte, Downtown Montessori, Central City Charter School, Milwaukee Academy of Science, and currently, Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy. And then our next slide. And here's where doctor Bidder will take over for the presentation. And after the presentation, we're opening up for questions because we've asked the schools to be here to address any questions that you may have.

Thank you. Hello. My role here today is to share the performance data from the twenty twenty three, twenty four school year. I would like to request that you hold your questions until the end of the data presentation. At that point, I will share the mic with the school leaders if there are specific questions. Mhmm. And then the chair will come back for final remarks and to make recommendations for annual monitoring. So, with that said, I'd like to start with the Forward Exam data. The English Language Arts Forward Exam, which you see right in front of you. Last year, there was a request to compare test scores with similar NPS schools.

As you see, the data points in the blue are the city charter schools. The orange data points are similar NPS schools within the same zip code as city charter schools on the chart there. The last three schools are Montessori schools. As you can see, the city charter schools outperformed the comparable schools in their zip code. In regard to math, same setup with the data here.

Again, in math, the city charter schools outperformed the MPS schools in their zip code with exception of the Montessori school where there were 49.1% of students who met expectations. Standardized tests provide only a narrow measure of academic success. They fail to reflect attributes that are vital for long term success such as creativity, critical thinking, leadership, and perseverance. They also do not reflect factors that impact test scores within a high need population such as social economic status, food insecurity, and family stability. While standardized test assessments like FORWARD provide a snapshot of performance at a single point in the school year, it allows us to also compare that performance across schools and across districts and across the state.

Growth based assessments, however, are also aligned with the state standard and focus on how much a student has improved over time. In this case, we have schools who measure growth from fall to spring. These tests emphasize progress, encourage a growth mindset, reduce stress and fear of failure because they focus on learning rather than a specific score. They also help teachers personalize learning by prompting intervention strategies and varied instructional practices. When we view the growth measures, we see when students were tested in the fall and then again in the spring, they demonstrated growth between a 4878% of students met growth targets in English language arts and math across all city charter schools.

This indicates that schools are implementing instructional practices and interventions that support student growth. School leaders recognize that additional efforts and targeted strategies are necessary for continuous improvement to meet more the needs of more students. In regard to the pre ACT exam, which again is a standardized exam, when compared to other high schools within the same zip zip code, we see that the city charter schools again do outperform those schools. And again, we see with the growth exams, again, measuring growth from fall to spring. We see that 34 to 67.6% of students demonstrated progress across all schools.

Students also took the ACT plus writing. In regard to the ACT test, the state wide average for African American students was a 15.2. We understand that ACT scores are meant to predict that that if a student meets these benchmarks, they have a seventy five percent chance of obtaining a c or higher as a first year college student. However, colleges recognize the numerous challenges encountered by first generation students and there it is not uncommon for universities and colleges to have many resources in place to support first generation students. Not to mention, once they get to college, a lot of the issues that they encounter are no longer present, such as the food insecurity and the insecurity regarding a living situation.

And often times, students, once they get to college, they really focus on improving their their academic achievement. The DPI four year cohort graduation rate. The graduation rates of the charter high schools are higher than the schools within their zip code. In their zip code and high and higher than the statewide rate of socially disadvantaged students, with the exception of one school which represents, which is the one that's labeled as c three, the cyber the Central City Cyber School. Their their data does represent a high school expansion year which was impacted their their enrollment of their freshman class during the twenty nineteen twenty twenty COVID affected academic year.

However, when we view the data of the graduation class that started the school year as seniors, we see that nearly all students completed all requirements and were eligible graduation. Of those students who graduated, students accumulated over $5,000,000 in scholarships. So, that goes back to the conversation before in regard to how schools, universities, and colleges have resources in place to support first generation students. In regard to the scorecard, the charter school review committee members appointed by the mayor and city council council members developed the scorecard to measure school performance. Schools are expected to score 60 or higher to remain in good standing and we see all schools have met that requirement.

You can find the breakdown of each school scorecard in the appendix of this presentation. The school climate and culture survey. The school climate and culture survey generated data that proved to be highly actionable for the school leaders this year. The survey posed questions aligned with the five essential school improvement indicators listed climate above. Schools are expected to score a positive sentiment score of 60 or higher to demonstrate a solid foundation for continuous growth and improvement efforts.

And, as you can see by the scores on the survey, all schools exceeded that expectation of 60 or higher. In regard to insights from the survey, the survey revealed that that there were many positive aspects such as there's a strong sense of community among the parents and student populations across all schools. Teacher and staff report established supportive and an overall collaborative environment. School communities overall describe the leadership as effective. The high school students consistently reported extensive exposure to college and trade programs.

The survey also highlighted challenges for the schools to enhance factors that will contribute to a more supportive environment. Some reoccurring themes were the need for more facility maintenance, more communication on academic progress, students reported dissatisfaction with school lunches, students and teachers reported concerns of student behavior, and parents and students reported issues related to transportation services. This data informed and guided summer planning and implementation of several critical improvements for the twenty twenty four, twenty five school year, such as comprehensive upgrades were made to facilities, such as one school purchased a new HVAC system to balance heat and cooling, enhanced school way the the schools also one school also enhanced their entryway and reception area to create a more welcoming space. Schools also adopted and updated effective school wide parental communication protocols in order for parents to learn not just of when students are misbehaving, but also understanding their academic progress and how to work together as a team to improve. Schools also several schools also selected new lunch providers offering higher quality meals.

One high school has implemented a culinary arts program which includes supporting the daily lunch of the students. Schools are implementing social emotional learning programs to teach skills such as self regulation and responsible decision making to equip students with tools to better manage their emotions. One high school has established a vital partnership with Milwaukee County Transit System to ensure safe, reliable and convenient transportation via a specific school route for their high school students. Additionally, schools utilize the data to inform their staff changes, recruitment efforts, and professional development training for their teachers and staff. I'm sure many of these things came up in the survey and were of concern, and schools have taken those concerns very seriously.

They were also concerned and wanted to improve their environment based on this rich data from the surveys. All schools are also working with educational partners, program providers, and community partners to offer additional activities, workshops, and learning opportunities that support the curriculum and provide extracurricular experiences for students. Those can also be reviewed in the appendix of this presentation. At this point, I'd like for any questions that you may have for specific schools. They are here present, willing to answer your questions.

If there are no such questions, I will bring back Yep. If there aren't questions, then the chair will make recommendations for annual monitoring.

I have a question. If you go back to the slide where it does the pre ACT for ninth and tenth.

Is it 11? Next one.

Yes. That one right there. So I I see that the schools on the right are are low and what correlation does that have to then the slide two down where it says the eleventh grade ACT average score and it's so much higher with the same schools that did seems like they did low at nine and tenth with the

So, I'll start here. Remember in the beginning, I mentioned the schools that are orange are the schools that are in the same zip code, but they are not the city charter schools. So, these are the comparison schools within the zip code. So, your question in regard to those three on the end, those are not city charter schools. What was your the second part of that question?

Well, I well, I just I'm just saying that they're pretty low here. Correct? Yes. And then when you go to the eleventh grade ACT average score, seems like it's high. So, is it that they're getting something right by the time they're in eleventh grade?

Absolutely. I think there's a there's continuous growth in and remember that these scores, the pre ACT and all of the the growth assessments, They're giving the instructional leaders information and data so that they can know how to support learning. And so, would hope that these scores go up each year. Once schools see where their kids are, they're able to hone in on those skills to help further develop their academic achievement.

And then, I'm not sure if maybe you can I'm not a 100% sure, but maybe you can help me remember the previous presentations, the comparison between the city charters was with many schools in the system. A lot of them now, it seems like it's been paired down to zip codes.

Well, since I've been in this role, this is my third year doing pre presenting for you all. We did not have the MPS schools associated with this particular presentation. There was a request from one of the older people to do a a comparison specifically within zip code. And so, I continued that this year.

Okay. Alright. So that's I would have been clear that's the reason it changed, the presentation.

Yes. There was a request. Yes. And

then with all the talk in the news about the schools being shut down and the the risk of of lead poisoning, what could you tell us a little bit about the building maintenance and how you're being proactive about taking those steps to ensure that the students are safe?

I think that's a question specific for the school leaders. If you have a. Sure. Go ahead.

I'm assuming it's just part of the the the charter school review committee kind of overall expectation for any school.

Yeah. Hello. My name is Gail Pei. I'm the policy analyst for the city charters. Every year, the health department comes in and they do lead testing at each of the schools. This has been a practice, I want to say for about five to six years. It was a request made and a policy change made by one of the alders maybe five or six years ago. And, as a result of that, that happens every year and the health department handles that.

Okay. And I'm assuming then, depending on the results of so is it just based on the results of any child being poisoned or is there a proactive approach on the facility themselves to be?

Yeah. They they provide

risk assessment done on each building?

Yeah. And then, if there are areas particularly in the water, is the the water based lead? So, what they do is they would say, okay, this janitor's closet has a risk so then the schools are asked to put a sign on there or something or deny access for that. But, it's based on the lead and water testing.

Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions by

Mister chair.

Alderman Samarib So Alderman Samaribah.

So just on just to piggyback off the president's question then, our seven city charter schools have a clean bill of health as it relates to lead? Yes.

Particularly in the the lead and water. The health department does the lead and water testing.

But what about the paint?

So there has not been anything in maybe the schools can answer that for themselves, but that has not been anything that has happened yet.

Anyone have a plan they wanna come up and talk about or how they're doing it? Sure. Come on up and Kia's test. You have to come to the table and introduce yourself for the record.

Okay. She said

the hell department. Don't know.

Right. But only on the

So maybe I'll just maybe I'll just ask this question just of the Charter School Review Committee. I mean, you go through the rigor more of all the requirements, testing, results and it is the building maintenance left up to each school individually?

Yes. But at the same time, when the city health department comes in and goes over everything, they recommend if there's any issues. And if there's no issues cited, then we continue on to our regular process. You know, so at this point in time, we haven't had any issues with water or lead, but we did go through that process a couple years ago where the city came in, identified each area that was of a concern and what we had to do to address those concerns. And so, to our knowledge at this point in time, we've addressed all the concerns of the city health department.

Well, I want to be clear because from what I understand, the health department isn't responsible for inspecting buildings for lead. They have enough work to do and how they get involved is that they react to a child that's been poisoned and then follow the source of the poisoning. And then, when it's the school, in my opinion, it's a little too late and the school should be proactive to make sure that it's wiped down properly or that they have safe filtered water to use for the students versus waiting for the health department to say, hey, we have a child poisoned in your school. What's going on? So that's why I'm asking what the proactive approach is per school.

Colleen McQuaid with Downtown Montessori Academy. We, every year, we do the lead and water testing and our building specifically went through renovations. And so, when those renovations were done, all the paint was upgraded, things were encapsulated, and every year, the to to eliminate the lead risk. And then every year the asbestos inspection comes out and they also check for any paint that might be chipping or cause a risk. But we make sure that the paint is looked at every year during the summer.

Yeah. I was I I mean, I'm thinking to myself that is if the school's not utilized during the summer, would think that's soon as the kids are out you you figure out let's let's do an assessment, let's check, they're not in school, you can take your time. We've had issues with either cleaning or abatement being rushed, having to extend it. I I think it's even use more resources that way because you don't get it right the first time. So I I wanna make sure that we're taking advantage of the summertime and that we're being proactive about the lead abatement and even as you said asbestos because we can't wait for a child to get poisoned to to bring it to anyone's attention.

It's unacceptable. So

Mister chair.

I have a follow-up.

Yes. Mister chair.

Can we hear I mean, I wanna hear that from every school. I appreciate downtown Montessori speaking, but in particular, I wanna hear from Escuella Verde in my district. I think we should hopefully hear the similar statements from all all seven of our chart city chartered schools.

Anthony McHenry, CEO, Milwaukee Academy of Science. So, I I want to start with what Gail said. It is a requirement from this body to do the lead testing annually.

Water testing, not dust pipes.

Yes. Right. So, I I just want to repeat that and I appreciate that. We're in a very similar situation where we've gone through recent renovations, multiple of them. And so, we've done that in particular during those renovations, but we do have a summer program where each year we go through our building, do all of the repainting, the chipping, and all those type of things, and we're fortunate to have a partner that supports us with that every summer.

And then, I'm just gonna ask then, just to be thorough, it's someone who comes through as a lead risk assessor to give you a clean bill of health moving forward then? You've passed everything.

Yes. We've passed it. Okay. It's again, it's not a policy, it's just something that we we choose to do.

And then,

this is all the schools or you're talking about your I'm

gonna speak for for our school.

And, tell me your school again. Sorry.

Milwaukee Academy of Science.

Thank you.

Do you do you publish your maintenance checklists so that parents can see or the public can see when you've evaluated the buildings, who's done the evaluation, and what the results were?

Not No. I don't think so. Would you

be willing to do that?

Absolutely.

Thank you. Would other schools be willing to publish their maintenance logs so that parents know what needed to be done, what was done, and what was delayed for the next year? Lots of head nods. Thank you mister chair.

Sure. And forgot to mention, let the record reflect that Alderman Dimitri, which has been on since the presentation started. I just didn't wanna interrupt you, she's on the board listening.

To his point Yes, if you like the charter school review committee to make that as part of our process each year, We can

I think I think that would be up for the review committee to evaluate if that's if that's a priority? It sounds like it should be.

Thank you. Hi. You wanna introduce yourself for the record?

Yes. My name's Laurel Cutright. I'm one of the school leaders at Esqueda Verde. Thank you for having us here. Our school was it's in a former, like, warehouse, and it was retrofitted with entirely new building materials in 2015. So that has kind of eliminated the the risk of lead paint, and then we go through the annual inspection with the water and with asbestos as well, so that we do annual walk throughs, and that information is shared with parents as well. We also are a nationally recognized green school, so we have a lot of We have solar panels and many other environmental features to our school that we're really proud of.

Now, you're bragging.

Yep.

Thank you. That's good.

Any other school wanna talk a little bit about their maintenance, building maintenance?

Good morning. My name is Lois Fletcher. I'm the principal at Darlin Hines Academy. We have annual maintenance for our buildings over the summer, safety checks including paint, and as already stated, the water is also checked. We do not have a report at this time, but we are willing to do a report on our maintenance for our families.

Thank you. Thank you.

Mister chair. Alderman Stamper. Yeah. The facility reports sound adequate. So when you say there's challenges with the facility and maintenance, which challenges are you referring to?

So, the surveys from the parents and students and the entire community, you know, students had comments about, you know, the bathroom was not clean all the time and things like that. And so, we did recognize that that was reoccurring comment from students which prompted schools to up their the cleaning of the facility during the day, for example, to make sure that bathrooms are kept clean, hallways, stairways are are kept clean as well, including the outskirts of the buildings.

Okay. And then each school has those individual complaints per school, and then as the facility gets cleaned or gets inspected, it's those are taken into consideration.

Yes. Okay.

Thank you, mister chair.

You're welcome. Do have any questions? Alderman Borgales? Thank you, mister chair. Something in the the slide mentioned strong strong leadership was an attribute, but student behavior was a challenge. Can you talk about how you or effective leadership. How Can you talk about what your metric is on what is effective leadership and how student behavior has been impacting that?

So, with the survey, we expected that that in each category, an effective leadership was one of them. Each category we would expect for schools to score at least 60 or higher. And so, regard to how the community felt that the

So, you're serving parents?

Yes. And students and teachers as well.

Alright. You also mentioned and there are a couple concerns from school board directors in the in the file about complaints or concerns for school facilities. Do you measure and track how many complaints the committee receives about schools and how do you address those typically?

So the policy analyst tracks the complaints.

Hi. Good morning. So, Occasionally Can

you identify? Just share your name and

Hi. My name is Gail Pay. So, yeah. Occasionally, parents, you know, have issues discuss or they want to report. And, typically, because my name is, you know, on the website, I'm the the point of contact for that. And, so there is a form that they fill out. Of course, we try to refer them back to the board of directors because, at the end of the day, we want to make sure that they follow their own protocol. Back to school. Yeah. But, I really try to once I get the report, I call the school leaders, share the reports, and and pretty much a 100% of the time, parents are okay with with that process.

And, how many complaints have you received?

On the average, I would say about four or five a year. And, that would be with the total amount of schools.

Alright. Thank you very much. Thank you, mister You're welcome.

Any other questions? Yeah, mister chair. Alderman Stanford.

Yeah. Thank you for this report, you all. Congratulations to those schools who had 100% graduation. Where does reading fall in under those categories with those percentages? Is reading under ELA?

Yes.

Is there a separate percentage for how we're doing in reading?

So, you can find the breakdowns in the individual reports. Okay. I know that oftentimes you all don't want to hear all of these data points during these meetings, so I tried to condense it. But, the specifics in regard to social studies, science and all of those things are in the individual reports.

Who said we don't wanna?

That's that's been my experience.

Oh, yeah?

She's right.

The best indicator of future actions are past actions.

Oh, yeah. Well, if the committee doesn't mind, I like to add reading to the presentation for next year. I think that's most important. So thank you very much. Will do. And now, out of those schools that are graduated a 100%, are they going to college? Are they picking up a trade? And are they are we doing twenty, thirty, forty, fifty students? Like, what kind of numbers are we looking at?

Okay. So, in regard to let's see. I thought I had it in my notes here. Post secondary so we count post secondary readiness as students who are going to college, they may be enrolled in an apprenticeship program, some type of occupational program. So, for Central City Cyber School, ninety percent of their seniors had plans to either do one of those things.

For Escuerla Verde, seventy six percent. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy, a 100% of students had plans for after high school or a 100% of their seniors prepared and accepted into a college university occupational program.

Wonderful. And, do the charter schools share best practices? Like, I know Milwaukee Academy Of Science has a great transportation program. Are you are they sharing that with the other schools to help fulfill those challenges?

That's a question for mister McCary?

I can ask

you that. I mean, it's really for the board to see, like, this works here.

So, yeah.

Won't you apply that or show them here?

Yeah. We've implemented a what I like to call it's a a t where the CEOs and the leaders get together

Okay.

Quarterly, and we talk about that, and we kinda lead discussions. Sometimes, bring in experts, and they're able to really talk through best practices and utilize resources and and share things in that form. Okay.

And, in addition to that, the Wisconsin Resource Charter School Organization for the state of Wisconsin holds monthly meetings of all the cohorts of charter schools around the state, and they ask various charter schools to do presentations. So, they do presentations on what's going well in their particular community and in their particular district. So, they have an opportunity to do that. And then, as a part of it, as a requirement of that, they require that board members and authorizers occasionally attend those meetings. So, I attend those meetings.

Excellent. Thank you, mister chair.

Thank you. Mister chair. Alderman Samaripa.

I just wanted to ask, madam policy analyst, about the you said about the lead and water. Mhmm. That was something that was passed by the council? Yes. And, we asked for you to do annual checks of the lead in the water? Yep. Okay.

And, it And, we replaced

all the laterals, is what we did.

Yeah. Initially, the health department wasn't facilitating that process, and then maybe two years in, they took over for whatever reason. I don't remember the reason. And so, that that's an annual practice.

Mhmm. Okay. I just wonder if it's more it makes sense to add, of course, not just I mean, because we know that our children are more so being poisoned almost exclusively by lead in the paint or the soil. And, not so much the water, but I appreciate the proactiveness that the city, that you, that we all are taking in the water, but we really have cannot forget the lead in the paint in the soil. So perhaps the council should consider legislation to also highlight the fact that these need to be annual checks, not just on lead in the water, but lead in our in our buildings, in our in the paint, in soil, etcetera.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Mister chair. Alderman Stafford.

Yeah. Off that off that subject. I know the process is the health department does the testing for the children. But are the schools notified if they are?

Mhmm. Yeah. They're notified.

Tested with elevated levels of lead? Yep. Okay.

They're notified. I'm notified. We have the files. Okay. The board is is notified every year.

Okay. Alright. Thank you. Hold on, mister Spiker.

Thank you. I guess one thing briefly on the lead question and then another question unrelated to that. So MPS for years didn't have a kid that tested positive that was traced back to the schools. So the mere fact that we don't have it here is not necessarily evidence that there isn't a problem. I heard several of the schools describe that when there's major renovation or something like that, that's an opportunity to revisit, make sure everything's sealed, make sure everything's abated.

But Alderman Zamorepa had asked for all the schools and there were a couple schools that didn't speak to it. So just wanted to give them the opportunity to say if they have some sort of regular procedure, if there's been some sort of, you know, there's been a a moment through the press of awareness. And so I would think it would be an opportunity for the schools to assure their parents and everybody else that somebody is looking at this. It's not just the health department looking for wet lead in the water or the students testing positive for lead poisoning, that there's some something that's being done in each each building. So I wonder if the schools that haven't spoken so far, I think it was Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy and Milwaukee Math and Science Academy could provide those assurances or say what they're doing given that it's not directly within the charter school review committee's ambit.

Good morning. Crystal Bilmeyer from Milwaukee Math and Science Academy. We moved into our current building in 2021. At that time, we had it tested, and then we do it again each each summer just to be sure that we are safe.

And when you say tested?

For lead. Water or paint? Paint. Dust? Yes. When we moved

in. Okay.

Sweet. So when we bought that building, we made sure we went through that testing when we moved into the building when it was purchased.

Okay. And you have a pattern of annual reviews? Yes. To the summer. Exam. Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah. I I I think I know I'll be following up on behalf of the rules in writing to figure out the same uniform questions for every school and maybe get some answers to.

Good day. Gestina Howard, school leader at Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy. Just naming that we do also do annual reviews of the water and lead as required. Also, as part of the three year strategic planning process and our facilities planning process, we are looking into other ways to make sure that we're being proactive. Our operations chief operations officer can share more details because she has that down packed on on on her mind, I can just share that with renovations of the 29th Street location where we are at the middle school.

Those renovations continue as well as over the summer. We have already health time and space for renovations and checks at both the middle school and high school location. So, I know that. And, any other questions, we can make sure the chief operations officer shares that with you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. I just real quick, mister chair.

Alder mister Alder Forsyth Samarico?

As you said, you do annual checks of lead and water and lead, but you mean water and the paint? I just wanted

to I can't verify paints and

like if it's specifically what's Oh, it's just water, the annual checks. I know for sure water. Alright. Thank you. Yes.

Any other questions? Alderman Spiker.

I guess happy to continue the lead discussion, but I did wanna ask, and I'm not sure if I was the elder who asked for the comparison with the other aldermanic districts for other zip codes for scores sort of thing I might ask and I'm interested in so I'm glad you did it. But to make sure we're comparing apples to apples, is there any sort of analysis of the schools themselves with respect to their makeup of their students that might account for that difference? So, it might be a selection effect as opposed to a difference in what's going on in the schools. Is my meaning

kind of

I'm not understanding your question?

That's not unusual. So sorry. I ask weird questions, so it's not on you.

A weird way.

In a weird way. But, so you might have two schools in the same zip code and one is scoring higher than another, but the explanation might be that, you know, you have a different makeup of students in that, in the charter school as opposed to the public. And that's, you know, a common refrain we hear is, you know, that you're skimming or whatever the claim is there. So to address that charge, it would be helpful not to just note the absolute differences between the scores and the schools, but whether that difference is accounted for what's going on in the school versus who's in it.

Yeah. We

don't have have that.

Special needs students? Do you have differences with respect to poverty rates?

Do you have differences

I would say that these schools within the same zip code have a similar student population, for sure. So, these schools all have students who are coming from a low social economic background. That's one of the indicators that we kind of said these are comparable schools. They're not only in the same zip code, same neighborhoods, also the majority of the kids are coming from low income homes. But, we do know that many of the charter schools, they have the autonomy to have specific curriculums that are geared towards their student population.

They implement social emotional learning programs. They have many partnerships within the city to support curriculum. And so, we know that those things are happening within the charter schools, not so much knowing what's happening with those schools within the same zip code.

It might be useful next year to see if there's a difference with respect to students with IEPs between these schools as well that might also be part of the explanation. I'm not discounting that the data you're presenting shows what you think it shows, but it would just be helpful to have that data point to to clarify that.

Noted. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? Mister chair? Alderman Samaripa.

I just wanted to make a note. Alderman Stamper reminded me that the Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy is a brand new facility and which I do remember that now.

It's

Thank you Alderman Stamper.

Every school probably has a different building date and use date.

Mhmm. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Mister chair.

Alderman Jackson.

Thank you, mister chair. So as we are now currently tracking the data of safety in schools with our SRO officers and is not on the level of charter schools per se. How do you track the safety of your schools or since the charter schools have a little more freedom is how they deal with their students, do you guys just kick out problem students and keep your numbers clean or how do you track it?

I think that's a question specifically for the school leaders. Is there a school in particular that you would like

to answer?

It's a general question because we we are now first dealing with SROs. Well, not first, but we're dealing with SROs again, putting officers in schools. So, now we have to track this data to see how it improves and how it changes, how the officers move around. Mhmm. How do you guys operate that way? But, since the charter schools have more freedom to move around students students and kick out students that they don't actually want there, they have a little more freedom as far as how they deal with students. How do you track that data? Or, do you even have a metric of safety in schools at all? At least something that we could compare to in the future when we try to fight this.

I see mister McHenry

come up with that

Employees to to answer. We do measure the suspension rates. Mhmm. Schools are not just kicking kids out, they're going through a a process just like any other school in regard to behavior issues. And again, I wanna stress that these schools are doing a great job looking at restorative justice programs, social emotional learning programs to really support behavior issues within the school.

Also, teaching the teachers and the staff how to interact and engage and develop relationships with the students and the parents to help the partnership in in regard to behavior issues so that students are coming to school understanding the rules, the expectations, and what things what the consequences are. But, I would like to open the floor for the high school principals to speak to how they address behavioral issues in regard to a lack of that level of security that you're speaking to.

No. No. I'm talking specifically to the board. Do you guys track this data?

Just the suspension rates.

Okay. And, within each individual report, it's listed if the kid left because they moved out of state or they transferred to another school, or kids were if they were expelled.

Okay. And, I'm only mentioning this because this data will help us in the future as we track our own data with NPS, so we can actually fight against this one day. So, your data will be helpful in the future for us to say, nothing changed or it's comparable or, you know. So, thank you.

Are there specific things that you would like for us to track other than reasons for leaving a school and and suspension rates?

I guess I would I don't have that currently, but I guess I would just have to go to safety per se. Okay. And, all the rounds per safety. So, I guess, again in future your data will help us fight this at the state level at some point.

Thank you.

Thank you mister chair. You're welcome. Any other questions? No? Alright.

Okay. Before we move to the next slide, if there's anything specific that you guys like for the charter school review committee to address, just let us know. Either let they all know or contact me and then we'll work with you guys to

Yeah.

Put that together.

I I think I mentioned that I will I'm gonna double back with the health department to get some clarity on everything they've either done or are doing and then maybe make a request to the committee to do an in reach with the schools about current protocols, how often, just to verify all the letters to assessments that are done, when they're done, water and just get a more comprehensive response, give you guys time to pull it together and get it back to the committee.

Yeah. Because recently, we didn't we were performing a partnership with the city violence prevention team here with the city. Mhmm. That was that's that that was taking place for the first time last year to try to come in and assess and see what's going on and and offer any resources that might be available based on their assessment of trying to work with they were pipe one of the pilot, one of the charter schools to see if something if they did the piloting, what can come from that pilot program that could be utilized across the board.

Okay. So so that'd be helpful to follow back up with us on how that assessment went, what recommendations and strategies are implemented since then? Is is it gonna be with all the charter schools? Is it a It's great. Yeah. What what's gonna happen after that with the information that was that was obtained? Okay.

With that being said, the summary of the recommendation is that we're asking the charter school review committee is asking for acceptance of the two thousand twenty three, twenty four charter school reports and accepting of the two charter schools recommendation for a continued annual monitoring.

Okay. Any other questions by committee members?

Mister Alderman Jackson. April 3 will be the shameless plug. April 3 will be the first apprenticeship day at the city of Milwaukee, and invite all the charter schools students that are interested in going to the trades. Although, college is not for everybody, digging a hole is not for everybody either. So, we gotta have a balance. So, April 3 starting at 09:30, apprenticeship day will be here at City Hall.

Nice. Thank you. Way to get that plug in. Yeah. Any other questions by committee members? Okay. Hearing none, thank you so much for the presentation. With that said, Alderman Spiker moves to place item number 1241041 on file. Are there any objections to that motion? Hearing none, so ordered. And there being no further business before this committee, we're adjourned. Thank you so much.