Community Relations - Social Development Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. I'd like to bring Good morning.

I'd like bring in for

Emerging Youth Achievement Advisory Council. It is approximately 09:06AM on Thursday, May 14. I am the chair, Jose Perez. I'm joined at the table by Alderman Vice Chair Russell Stanford the second Mhmm. Amber Daniels, Marcus, Marcus Hogans. Who's on the board? Brad Cooper. Doctor Cooper's on the board. Doctor Lucy Harkness is excused. Doctor Anthony Cruz is present.

And Steve Mahan and myself. And we have Joanna Ortiz as our staff assistant. And, we'll go right into the agenda with the review and approval of previous meeting minutes. Did I say you? No. No. And and Brian Litsky. He's not where's he on my list here? You're at. Oh, he's at the top. My bad. Alright. You're here. Okay. Wanna review and approval of previous meeting minutes. Any questions, concerns? Everyone's had an opportunity to look them over. Yes. Alderman Stanford moves approval of the of the previous minute meeting minutes. Hearing no objection, so ordered.

Now we'll have a communication presentation by MPS Career and Technical Education presentation. And I want to just thank you. Last time we ran out of time and so we had to bump you to this meeting. Appreciate your patience. No problem. No problem.

Good morning, everybody. Good morning.

Thank you for allowing me to present about North Division High School and Washington High School's Career and Tech Ed programs. I was asked originally to talk about the trades at the schools. I think I just have to give this some time. I'll be patient like he asked. Thank you.

But North Division is the only school that actually has traditional trades. They have a construction program, but I will talk to you about the career and tech ed pathways that both of the schools have. As we wait, I'd just like to take a minute to kind of go over the scale and scope of Career and TechEd across the district to give you some context. So as you can see, we have just under 3,200 Career and TechEd concentrators. Those are students that are juniors and seniors that have passed at least two courses within a given career pathway.

We have certainly more freshmen and sophomores that take career tech ed courses. But this is kind of our barometer that we use. We look at the juniors and seniors. It's more persistence, right? They've made it to junior and senior year. And those are the numbers that we use when we're looking at our goals with the DPI. So we look at those concentrator metrics. And happy to say that we've met all of our goals that we have with the DPI. So, we're doing we're proud of what we're doing in Career and Tech Ed. You can see we're in 16 different high schools.

We have 11 unique pathways and among those 11 pathways, for example, there's health science at six different high schools. They look a little different at each high school. So quite frankly, it's 11 different areas, but a lot of different pathways. So everything from agriculture to automotive to construction, manufacturing, information technology, business marketing, all the different pathways you can imagine we probably have it. So we offer a lot of different opportunities for students to do dual enrollment, mostly with MATC as well as industry recognized credentials.

And we have a very robust work based learning program. So we do internships and youth apprenticeships for students. We started the internship program back in 2017. We've risen every year quite a lot, and we should surpass that eight thirty four number that you see, this year. We're already well on our way to surpassing that.

So with the exception of the COVID year when everybody was at home, increased those numbers. And then and by the way, those eight thirty four, those are there's more students than that working in the district as you'll probably hear in the next presentation. But those are students that we work with and they sign our we have an agreement that the employer and the school and the district signs. We give students credit for their time that they are working that goes towards graduation. So that's what that is.

And then the bottom two numbers, probably the ones I am most proud of is the four year graduation rate for our kids that are career and tech ed concentrators. And actually, we just got an update last week from the DPI and that number is up to ninety one point three percent for your graduation rate. So much higher than the students who are not participating in Career and TechEd. And then the ninety percent graduates with a positive follow-up, we're actually doing that right now about a year after students graduate. We call all of them and we find out what they're doing.

And so if they're working or if they're in post secondary or advanced training or if they're in the military or the Peace Corps, that's considered a positive outcome. And we maintain that. We actually went up by like zero point one five percent this year, but a little over ninety percent of our students have a positive follow-up outcome. So now looking at North Division and Washington High School specifically, I was asked about the enrollment and the trends. You can see North Division about two eighty students in Washington just under three eighty.

I put the attendance up there because I was asked about challenges and opportunities and certainly that's a big challenge that the attendance rate is poor and going down at the end of the year. So look back in April and North Division was under 50%, Washington was just over 50%. So that's a year long number. So that's a big challenge. And then in terms of the trends, you can see Washington High School has held pretty steady over the last four years.

North Division was holding kind of steady and is on the decline now certainly since last year. They have had some leadership changes there. I think they're in a good spot now with their current principal doing a good job. But and I can say as far as Washington, not too long before that, there were 700 students. So if you went back eight to ten years, it's declined but it's held steady these last four years.

Then these are the pathways that are offered. So at North Division, you have construction, health science and information technology. And then at Washington High School, hospitality and tourism and information technology. And the Hospitality and Tourism, you see students there in culinary arts. That's kind of the emphasis is the culinary arts program. Mr. Chair? Yes. Mr. Stapler?

Yes. Mr. Chair as well. At Washington, the culinary school is still being run by Bartolatas?

It's run by the instructor, Sandra Knight Edwards. Is that what you mean? Who's

No. I've come a couple of times. Okay. When it first started and Bartolotta's was the trainer.

Oh, Bartolotta's shirt. Yeah. No, that the Bartolotta's are out of it. Joe Bartolotta died several years ago and Jennifer Bartolotta who is our main contact back when Doctor Driver was the superintendent got out of the culinary business and did her own consulting thing. And we don't have that particular partnership any longer.

But you still got the program?

Still have the program. Yes. We're running strong and probably talk a little bit more about that later. But these are the just give you an idea of the different courses that are offered here at North Division in the different pathways. As far as the curriculum goes, the construction curriculum is from the Carpenters International Training Fund. So it's what the Carpenters recommended. We went out and talked with them. And so that's a good curriculum there. NAF is the curriculum for the most part for the rest of it. NAF is a national organization that provides support and resources for doing career academy as well.

So, they they have some curriculum that's industry and post secondary vetted. So, they have good curriculum. The only one that's different is the exploring computer science. We use a program called code.org. And then at Washington High School, here are the courses. Again, NAF providing most of those courses other than again exploring computer science with code.org. And then the hospitality and tourism program, we use a combination of ProStart, which is kind of the gold standard of high school culinary arts, as well as a program called KP Compass, which we started during COVID because students can do that during they can do it from home. They can do it online. And so teachers like that. So we kept it.

So we have a combination of those two. And then in terms of the industry credentials, we have several offerings. The most prominent in the culinary is the serve safe food handler. We had thirty one out of 38 students who earned that certificate at Washington this year, which was a good we were happy with that percentage. And then the food managers exam is very low enrollment in the advanced culinary.

But four students took it, two passed and we're waiting on the other two to see whether they passed that. And then Washington High School in their IT has a Google career certificate through Coursera in those different areas you see, cybersecurity, UX design, computer support. It's a little different than typical certificates where we would take an assessment and earn it. This is over the course of a couple of years where students complete modules and they just started it this year and have students making their way, but we don't have actually have students who've earned it yet. Then there are eight students at North doing the CPR AED, five students at North doing the CompTIA Tech plus which is a new certification.

The Department of Workforce Development has approved it on their Act 59 list, which I'm happy to talk about. But it's a certificate where if students earn it, we can actually earn dollars back from the DWD after they graduate. And then both schools have the NAF Track certification, which is again not a typical certification, but one that NAF sponsors. It requires a student to pass at least four courses within their pathway, participate in a number of work based learning experiences and do at least an eighty plus hour internship. And we recognize them next week on the twentieth.

We have 192 students who will get that around the district, about a dozen between North and Washington who got it last year. I don't have the numbers for this year yet, but it's probably a little bit better than that, that 12. And then next year, I'll talk about what's happening at North next year. We're expanding Career and TechEd, but we're going to do OSHA in the construction pathway. And then the certified nurse assistant program at North Division. There's a lab there and we're going be offering those certifications. A little bit about the partnerships. You can see the partners there. Washington High School has an advisory board. These partners are all on that advisory board.

They meet monthly to support the teachers and students. The one I would highlight is the Marcus Hotels. They have been a really strong partner of Washington for at least fifteen years that I know of and possibly longer. They provide internships to students. They provide students with field trips out to their hotels for an extended period to learn about the different careers in the hospitality industry. And then at North Division, you can see those partners. I would of those highlight the Milwaukee Area Health Education Center. Been a great partner for a long time. Full transparency, I do contract with them now. They lost some grant money as a lot of organizations did this year.

But the value we're getting for that is tremendous. We actually have a person in North Division eight to ten hours a week, helping teachers and students and probably the biggest contribution they made was getting helping to get their host of chapter up and running. That is we call those career and technical student organizations. They're organization led by students, gives them leadership opportunities and gives them a chance to participate in competitive events against students from around the region and the state. And they had four students who actually attended the state competition this year and did well.

So Milwaukee EHAK has been a great partner. One thing North does not have, I guess I'll mention later too, is that they don't have an advisory board yet and that's one of the opportunities there at North Division. Here are some shared partners. Boys and Girls Club runs the community learning center at both of the schools. And Marquette University has been a great partner.

They actually provide professional development in computer science for both of the schools. And then they're currently consulting on the Fab Lab upgrade that Washington High School is doing right now. So they've been a good partner. And then here are some opportunities and challenges. Again, that advisory board at North Division, again, with the leadership changes, there's just been other priorities they've had. But again, I think the new leader who just started second semester, that will be a priority after we get this expansion moving and finished over at North Division. And then kind of leveraging the partners better at Washington. They have that advisory board, but maybe haven't leveraged the partners as well as

they could.

And then growth in some of these things that I mentioned, getting just more students doing internships and youth apprenticeships, more students earning the dual enrollment, more kids getting those credentials and then increased participation in HOSA that I mentioned and there's another career and technical student organization at both schools called SkillsUSA. And that is another area where they could earn some or have more students participating. And then in terms of challenges, I mean, and attendance, think are the two biggest, right? Need more students and we need more students attending. And then I would say instructional staffing and fiscal constraints, both of the principals mentioned that.

They go hand in hand. If we get more students, we have more dollars to operate with. But I would say this on staffing, we were lucky enough to hire some international teachers at both schools three years ago and they are some of the most dedicated, committed, smart instructors in Career and TechEd that we have. They are fantastic. So, they are in good shape at Washington and North with their Career and TechEd teachers. They are doing a good job. These international that you recruited them from? From their ones from Jamaica, several are from Africa, all over. Thank you. Yes.

And then last slide is just an idea of what's happening at North Division. So we've been working with MATC for several months now. The board approved $2,400,000 at North Division to bring back some of the career and tech ed programs that they had and look at expanding into new places. So all of these courses, these first four bullets will be taught by MATC instructors for college credit. But we will have that certified nurse assistant course with up to 12 students in the fall and then another one in spring.

The dental assistant program, they had a dental program in the past. We are redoing the classroom lab and we will have two courses in the fall for three credits total and two courses in the spring for three credits total. And then we already have the plans for the second year. So students will be able to be well on their way to getting that dental assistant certificate. And then information technology, adding a couple of IT courses, one in fall, one in spring for three credits each in college and then a couple of new welding courses as well.

And then the possibilities for 26, 27, automotive, we aren't able to have an MATC instructor for that. We're trying to hire our own, If we can and facilities team can get the auto lab up and running before fall, then that's our goal is to have automotive back at North. And then the architectural design, we're working with UW Milwaukee on that. In all likelihood, probably won't be able to do it next year, but looking at '27, '28 to start that architecture program. And that's my presentation. Happy to answer any questions you have.

Yes, have a couple. You mentioned the concentration of the trades in those schools and maybe you can help clear up any people think Bradley Tech is the construction trade school, tech school. It has got the infrastructure there. I have walked through it. I have seen welding and carpentry. Is it an add on? Is it also? Is it and for instance, I have toured Bayview. Bayview, I met Jennifer there, Bartolotta, who was doing some training with young people there. So, Bayview do culinary also or?

Yes. Yeah, I I was only asked about the Washington and North specifically but yes, Bayview, happy to talk about all the programs if you want. Bradley Tech to start has a construction program, two teachers doing construction there. They also have welding program, a manufacturing pathway. We have an MATC instructor teaching a couple of courses in manufacturing, one in specifically in CNC.

We have another halftime instructor who's there halftime at Bradley Tech, halftime at Obama, doing some certifications related to manufacturing. We also have an IT program at Bradley Tech. So it's mostly design, graphic design, media. So yes, so Bradley Tech still has the traditional trades manufacturing construction. Bayview has culinary, as you mentioned, they have a hospitality and tourism pathway, three different courses in culinary.

Just got a food truck through a grant and that's going to be part of their senior program where they're going to have students kind of running a business there. It was an Intuit grant. So they're going to do the financials as well as the culinary piece of it. They also have a business program there with some computer science.

So Okay. I was just I don't want to think that these were the only schools that

Oh, no, 16 schools with different pathways we have.

And then when I think about North Division, I think about some of the MPS schools, was there ever any consideration of, I guess, opening them up more to the community, especially after hours? I know that that has been talked about about north like and I and I talk about it about tech. From what I understand, there's a super majority of kids that are bused in to tech for school. Yes. And the rest of the community, they always said, we want more people from the community or students from the community attending tech.

And I've always said, open the school up. But we've got to get the community inside. We're going get families inside to see the opportunities, see what's available at tech to be able to expose these programs and opportunities right in the neighborhood. So I always wonder about the schools opening up.

Yes. I am happy to tell the new principal about that. Alex Kuxhaus is the new principal as of like January at Bradley Tech. Bring those comments back to him from you. And

I would suggest recently in a conversation about opportunities after city events for young people, There was talk about lock ins, right, that we want to for an event ends at 10:00, we want create an opportunity for a lock in for young people. I mentioned North Division not only because it's in the neighborhood, but if those programs, someone is there to talk about those opportunities there during a lock in, take advantage of it. I just think this this synergy would just be really positive. So

So I get

Coordinate some of that with our community partners who are wanting to

keep our young people busy at peak times after events and how do we make the most of it when they are in the building. Yes, good. I will take that back as well to both North and Tech. Can you tell me what exactly a community lock or a lock in is? I am not familiar with that.

Well, members especially folks in this space that are working whether they are doing community violence interruption or just working with young people and outreach, the lock in is here is an opportunity to come at a time and you are locked in the building from maybe ten at night to eight in the morning. It's almost like a sleepover, but they do programming, resources available not only for the young people but their families and to expand that to opportunities that schools may provide In the trades, in technology, in hospitality would be, you know, if they're there, have them cook something, right? Yeah.

Yeah. It'll be great.

I'll I'll

I'll bring

that up

to both principals.

I mean, you know, just I I say that out loud.

Just but.

Right. Think

it's it's a great opportunity.

Yeah. Just to answer your question about the after school with MATC for example. We have had that where we've opened up like the welding lab and do a you know, right of entry, you know, for for that for MATC to come in and do a welding course in the evening. We do that at Obama. We've done that in their HVAC program. We've had some classes there and so we're always willing to do that and if and if MATC ever needs additional space capacity, we can certainly work on that.

Sure, I do have a question. Just thinking about numbers wise, I know you said 3,200 juniors and seniors participate in CTE. What's the denominator? And then what is the NPS goal?

Yeah, good question. So that's about a third of all the juniors and seniors in the high school. So our concentrators are about a third of those students. So roughly 9,500 or so or close to 10,000 juniors and seniors. So the 3,187 is that number you saw is the juniors and seniors who are concentrators and that's out of 9,000 plus total juniors and seniors. Was that

Yeah. No, that's it. And then what's the what's the carrot on the stick for like for students going into these like what are they what's the benefit that they're supposed to get out of it? Access to career paths and like what encourage them to join?

Yeah, great question. So, the ideas we're preparing them for college and career. So, when they start most of the students will start sophomore year. Some might take a survey course freshman year. The carrot is they'll the Career and TechEd instructors within their classes are always embedding the career connectedness.

So they're talking when they're teaching the class, it's here's the types of careers that you could be involved in. So it's their exposure to understand what types of careers they could get into as well as those other things they shared a good chance to get an internship or youth apprenticeship, a good chance to earn some dual enrollment. We have a number of different classes with MATC where our own teachers are teaching classes for dual enrollment. So, if they want continue on in that pathway, they can go to MATC and they might already have six or nine credits and then those industry recognized credentials that students earn. That's something they can put in their back pocket.

If they want to go to work right after high school, they have that industry validation that they're not just saying they know how to do something. Here's the proof. I have a certificate that says I'm proficient in whatever the certificate is. So I would say and then those CTSOs, the student organizations, there's it's invaluable to students who participate and really engage with it. They can get those leadership experiences and they can just be with other students from other districts and around the state and compete against them. I would say for all those reasons, just preparing them to make a better decision once they graduate.

Mr. Chair. I had just a quick one. I'm curious what goes into the decision making around like what schools are chosen for CGI. I think you said there was 14 and I just did a quick Google search. It says there is like 39 schools in MPS. So I was just curious.

Yes, about well, about 26 or seven high schools, some are charters, maybe 37. But what goes into it? So there's 16 high schools with Career and Ticket. We're actually working on expanding. We hope to have King join the party in 2728. Just had a meeting with him last week. And GreenTree will be added next year. So, we'll be up to 17 next year but a lot of it is a tradition or or or past history if you will. It's very difficult to get a typical trades program up and running without the dollars. For example, difficult to just say we are going to start a construction lab.

It takes a lot of money to do that or an auto lab or a welding lab. But a lot of it is who the teachers who the schools have in place with their with their staff. This typically specialized licenses to teach the courses. So, we're always looking to expand into other schools And I can tell you that I work a lot with the academic superintendent, Doctor. Brueggemann and Mr.

Shapiro, Aaron Shapiro, there is two of them. One of the things that they are really emphasizing is trying to expand CTE not only at the high school level but at the middle school level. So, think we're going to get a lot of support for expanding. I I would love it to be in in all of our high schools but it does cost money and so slowly but surely, I think we'll continue expanding.

Is so do you work with MPS Charter School? I think when I worked at GreenTree, it was an MPS Charter School because I don't know if anything has changed.

Yeah, we do work with the charter schools. We'll support them. Yeah. So, I would say the ones that are non instrumentality chartered by UW Milwaukee, for example, might have like less connection

Sure. With

Okay. Just curious.

Sir.

Correct.

Have you looked at Adam to possibly being?

We we haven't yet but I we will. We don't have the job posted yet. I know that's it sounds like that's coming to get that job posted but yeah, look at Adam as well as Wisconsin Auto and Truck Dealers Association. I have a contact there and try to see if we can't get somebody but if you have some connections, I'll take em. But we we do

know that they're working with suburban schools. So, maybe there's a ask to have a presence in MPS. They definitely are working with the suburban schools. Went to Hartford and I saw they were there.

Noted. I'll certainly make that connection.

Mr. Chairman. Mr. Steppard. Yeah, thank you for the presentation. Appreciated that. It's good to see what's being offered in the schools because a lot of people don't know that this is coming back how it used to be. Now, does this continue throughout the summer? These program, are they available to continue throughout the summer?

Typically not, continued throughout the summer. There are a few Career and TechEd courses that are offered in summer school. They looked at doing it in construction, for example, at North, but the instructor there who's great works. He does his own side gig during the summer and he's not available to teach summer school. But we do have some IT offerings in Career and TechEd and some personal finance that we offer.

So was this budgeted within the principal schools budget or does NPS budget for this and and offer it to I thought it was six. 14 or 16. 16. Yeah. Six to the 16 different schools.

It's mostly supported with school funds. But there is a it's called the Carl Perkins grant. It's a federal grant. We get about $2,150,000 and that is allocated to the schools. So they have some money to support it. The schools that have programs that cost a little bit more like an automotive or a construction. You get a little bump for that but they have dollars to support their programs. They can't pay for teachers but they can pay for paraprofessionals. They can pay for all the other stuff, supplies, equipment, field trips, travel to professional development, pay for teachers to work some extra hours for those clubs and things like that. So, they do get support there but it's mostly the the the school board budget.

Well, principal has their own budget, right? Each principal has their own budget, right, from the school board and they use, yes, those funds. They use those funds.

Okay. I guess how much would it cost to continue throughout the summer?

I guess I don't have that answer All for right. It's mainly finding the teachers to do it as well because, again, they are specialized instructors. So if we do summer school in July and so they would need to have that whole July off, no vacations or anything and we haven't, we've always done summer school but it's always been just a few classes. Yeah.

Teachers, they don't, they take a break from getting paid

in the summer, don't they? Or some, a lot of them have other jobs.

Okay. Okay. So, these courses, are they part of the curriculum or they have to take em like

an elective? They're all part of the curriculum. They're they're all electives but they go towards the graduation. So, it's not so they do count towards graduation but of course, the students still need their their math, science, social studies, English, that that sort of thing.

Okay, so they're selecting these.

They're selecting. Yes. Absolutely. Yep.

Alright. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. So, how can we help? This is this is awesome. Yeah. How would you like those to help?

Promotion with attendance? I think I'm specifically at Washington North but really around the district. I mean, the lever leveraging those partnerships, I think is a big opportunity, right? And so, having the partners, the great partners that we do have are involved not just from an advisory level, but they get involved in the classroom when students have projects, for example, and they're helping students out with those projects, helping the teachers out. They are doing things.

We do a lot of work readiness in our from our office. So, we're working with students on, you know, soft skills, transferable skills. We do mock interviews. We do resume reviews and having partners to do that to help out with mock interviewing. That's the big thing with our students is getting them ready. We don't really place students. They have to interview and get that job. And so getting them ready for that so they don't lose out to students from other districts. Sure. For example.

So, like basic soft skills. Yes. Okay. And kind of along the line, along the same lines as Marcus. That that 90% that you mentioned of graduates is in positive follow-up. You're talking about jobs? They get jobs or college?

Any so it it could be employment but it could also be if they're in college, if they're in any post secondary. Anything positive. Yeah. Yeah. Any of those. A lot of them are doing both But if they are just in college or they are just employed, that is considered positive by the DPI and Sure.

Me too. Thank you very much. You are welcome.

Any other questions?

Thank you so much. Sure. So, do you know who the Autumn is of those two great schools?

You? Yes, sir. That's the best. Excellent,

man. I like to support as much as you can and promote that as much as you can. Those are excellent. Thank you. Alright.

Thanks, sir.

Thank you. We'll be in touch. Now, we have presentation communication from MPS coin program.

You know, man. Welcome. Good morning.

Good morning.

Alright. Alright.

And thank you too for your patience and coming back and.

And so. Of course.

You guys were supposed to be here last time. Introduce yourselves for the record and the floor is yours.

Good morning, council.

Good

morning. Members of the council, my name is Shaquina Cohen and I'm the manager of the contract compliance services department with Milwaukee Public Schools and I have my colleague here with me. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for inviting us back.

My name is Claudia Garcia. So

today, we are

You're a mayor of the town. Thank you. Mhmm. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you.

So our office is responsible for three programs in the district. We have our Historically Underutilized Business Program. That's where we look to engage small, diverse minority businesses. We also have our Student Engagement Program, which is twofold, and our communities in need program, which is our workforce preference program for the district. So today, we'll, focus on, of course, student employment, career education, and the communities in need initiative or program that we oversee.

So our program is unique because what we do is we integrate contract requirements into the district's procurements that are $50,000 or above. So we look at all of the individual businesses that we work with as business partners, and we ask that if you're going to be a business partner that you support our students. And so with that being said, we have our student engagement program. No. It's okay.

My my slides are a little out of sequence anyway, and that's my fault. So our student our student employment program is open to freshmen through one year post graduation. And what we do is we assign these participation we call them participation requirements. So we assign anywhere from one hundred to fifteen hundred hours on the district's procurements, again, that are 50 k and above. Our program serves about 300 students a year.

We're a very small program that was originally that originally came out of the neighborhood schools initiative. So we can serve about 300 students. All of our students are internships are paid. They are paid the City Of Milwaukee's living wage rate. Last year, last fiscal year, we served 212 students, and there's three tracks in which an organization can meet student employment.

The first track, is the students can, they can be placed within the organizations, within their office or within the organization. We wanna make sure they're getting a real world work experience. The second way in which they are placed is through community based organizations. So we work with, Reflow. We work with, All Hands Boat Works, Arc at Large, h two o, Lead to Change.

All those organizations take on those students and provide internships for them. And then the third way in which we support the students is through our student internship sponsorship program. And, basically, that's where a contractor or vendor will say that they want us to place the students. So what we do is we'll we'll onboard the student as a temporary co op student. Again, the the, contractor or vendor is responsible for paying the student wages, and then we place the students internally.

So we'll either place them at any of those organizations that I named or we will place them internally within NPS department. So we work closely with career and tech education. So we sponsor youth internships. Our finance department has students. Technology will take on students.

The superintendent is gonna most likely take on a student this year. We have created what we call internal work based learning opportunities inside of schools. So we have Vincent Urban Agricultural interns that we sponsor, building helper assistance at Reagan. We have administrative assistants at Hamilton, Project Stay, and North Division. We've worked closely with our school to work program as well, so they'll place students.

And then in the current fiscal year, we have 19 students in different elementary and middle schools, and they're serving as youth apprentices for education interns. So they have a track to be on a track to be or or on a track to be teachers. Typically, our assignments, we will assign between 48,050 student employment hours per year. And the second piece of our student engagement program is our career education program. Again, we do ask, you know, if you're gonna do business with the district that you, help us develop our next readily available workforce.

So, as a contractual requirement, contractors and vendors can serve as mock interviewers. They can participate in career education days. Any career exploration activities that are available, anytime that someone in the district, internal department is looking for some type of volunteer, then they will contact us because we they know that those our contractors have, those contractual agreements, and they'll serve as volunteer support to students. So we just participated in, the junior and senior job fair, and we'll we participate in the spelling bee. So anything that, will help develop and support our students, our contractors and vendors are willing they have a contractual requirement, but they're most likely willing to serve our students.

So that is our information on our student employment program. I'm gonna pass it over to Claudia so that she can talk about our COIN program. So student engagement is, again, for 14 year olds or freshmen through one year post graduation. They're eligible to to stay in our program until the December 31 after they graduate. COIN is for 18 years and older, so she'll talk about our COIN program. Thank you. Thank you, Jacinna.

So our core program, it is backed up by Milwaukee Public School. It is our workforce preference program. We are targeting the employment of the City Of Milwaukee residents 18 and older on the district's general construction project. We were adopted back adopted into policy back in 2003, so we have been around for quite some time with this coin program. Okay?

It does help to meet the district's have a set annual target of 25% on the annual workforce hours to be performed by the COIN certified individuals. For the certification individuals, so if you can see here on the screen, okay, so we have for just last year alone, total workforce hours performed were 24,962. Of those hours, nine thousand two hundred twenty five hours were coin certified. For the percentage amount for the annual is 25% that the MPS district would like us to meet. We met 36%.

So we're above the average, which is great, when it comes to our MPS students because we're helping them create a pathway towards the trade industry, which is pretty hard to meet currently as you can see. Next slide, please.

Miss Garcia, did did did that include those hours for twenty five? Did that include the light abatement work that was done on all the schools?

No. No. It did not. So what happens is every contract or project that comes over that's over 50 k comes over to our office and we'll, we go through a whole analysis. We call it a project goal setting and that's where we determine if there's coin availability or not.

The way in which things came about with the lead, we weren't able to, assign participation. It was in, like it was an emergency purchase for us. So, typically, when there's an emergency purchase for the district, that supersedes our requirements because they wanna make sure that we get whatever we need from the vendor or contractor and get it done immediately. So, no, we were not able to actually place a requirement. There very well could be because JCP is one of the organizations that we've worked with year on top of year, year after year. I've been with the district twelve years and I I know for a fact they have coin workers but we're not monitoring it as an actual one of our contracts that we monitor.

But you also exceeded the local diverse business participation goals on that project. Yes. So, if you want to tap yourself on the back for that phenomenal job.

Thank you

very much.

And JCP, they do have. Yes. Yes.

With that being said, for the coined eligibility for our program, so the individual must be 18 years of age or older during the time of the certification. It must be a City Of Milwaukee resident, must post a valid Wisconsin driver's license or on the track of receiving one, must have a high school diploma or GED, are also on the proven path of receiving one. They must meet the income eligibility requirements, or they can work less than twelve hundred hours in the preceding twelve months. For the certifications, individuals can receive the certification either with mindful staffing or WRTP big steps. Those two certifying agencies, this is at no cost to the individual.

Okay? So we work closely with those two certifying agencies to help the individual get certified. The certification is for three years with the possibility to be extended for two additional years. When the individual is coin certified, we do monitor those hours and verify that the individual is working on NPS, NPS construction contracts only. Okay?

So it's not gonna be on just any of our contracts that we have. I mean, design, architect, all those are specialties and special trades. So the individual might not qualify to be on those particular contracts. However, anything that has to do with construction contracts, we will assign a participation and then we will monitor those hours. The vendors are required to report those on our database that we monitor monthly. Workforce audits are sent out. We monitor those audits. We verify the information, and we follow-up and keep track of that. Okay?

COIN is only assigned to our general construction projects. And so on average, we get about 74 to 75 new general construction projects annually where we all assign points. So our office, and I forgot to mention this. I'm gonna be completely transparent. I'm a little nervous talking in front of y'all but Why? I I shouldn't because I this is the work we do every day. So, I apologize about that.

Should we smile

more? I mean No. No. No.

No. No.

Not at all. Again, I'm I'm a person that's very transparent. So, our office, we see about 200 to 250 contracts.

So Mhmm.

It's a very small nugget of the contracts that are with the district. But, again, it's only the ones that are 50 k and above. And so coin about 75, I'd say. For the construction? We had a huge uptick when we had some Esser dollars in our fiscal years '23 and '22, '23, and '24. So we had a a huge amount of contracts. So at that time, I think Esther alone had 300. So we were in total monitoring about 400 to 500 contracts. And so we utilized and, we leveraged, our participation requirements to, you know, support our students. So in the year I didn't put it on this slide, and I should have.

For Esther, like, for instance, in fiscal year twenty three, we were able to pay our students almost a million dollars because we were able to assign up to six thousand hours of paid internships on those those types of contracts. So it's a decline. It's declining now because, of course, you know, we've run out of those dollars, but our office still seeks to make sure that we are supporting our students day in and day out. As mentioned before, our office is small, so we're not as big as CTE, but we can support up to 300 students. Last year was 212.

This year, at the current moment, we have 55 students that we're supporting in our program and already have 90 students signed up for the summer. Our student engagement program and our coin program is year round. During the school year, the students work fifteen to twenty hours. And we want to make sure that their schedule comes first. So we want to make sure we're flexible. And then once they get out of school in June, then they can work up to forty hours during the summer. That's great.

Did you have anything else? No, the only thing is that our goal is for the corn program is to provide individuals with a pathway towards sustainable careers into the trades, which I feel is very important. We're very passionate about that, because we do see the decline. And we definitely wanna bring this to the forefront, we wanna make you guys aware that as MPS employees, we're working really hard for our MPS students and our residents of the city of Milwaukee to get in the trades to provide them with that pathway and make it easier for them. So the certification, like I said, is at no cost to either the agency or to the individual who's applying for the certification. We work closely with our contractors to help them to see if we have NPS students or individuals who meet the qualifications to be COIN certified.

So any of the students that go through the youth apprenticeship program, the construction track, they are considered an exception. So COIN being 18 or over and meeting certain criteria, if there's an NPS student that is interested in becoming in going into the skilled trades, we will pay we'll give them a COIN certification.

Excellent. Excellent.

Let's draw we have.

So got it.

So, Mr. Bracken, why don't you

go ahead, please.

Yeah, on the students that are participating in this in this coin program, which schools which schools are they?

So, okay, I just wanna make a correction because it's two programs. Right? We have student engagement and then we have coin.

So. Right.

Right. Yeah. So, we recruit students from any school. So, our program, you know, is again smaller than CTE. We can serve about 300 students. What we do is we're office of four women right now. So, we have our assistant who goes into the schools. Whoever will welcome us and she'll do a small job readiness etiquette training one to two hours and then she recruits from there but we'll also go to the job fairs And then if any if the schools have any special preference or about us coming in and talking about our program, then we'll go in and talk about it, have the students fill out applications, and then that's how we recruit our students.

Okay. So no special relation with, like, tech or Bayview?

We sit in on the career champion meetings that we have monthly, and so that's kinda how we build the rapport with the different individuals because we're not we're at central office.

Okay.

So are not in the schools every day. So we lean into those partners, to help us recruit students into our program and let us know what they need.

Okay. Thank

you. Well, I just wanna take a moment to, if it's okay, common council president Please. To commend you on the work that you guys do. So, I mean, you shouldn't be nervous as all that. So, as a local, just real quick, as a local business owner that does work all over the country, all over the nation, the platform that you guys have, first of all, Philippe, full transparency, unbundling of the project so that smaller businesses can have visibility of what their, you know, what their procurement opportunities are but last but not least, in particular to this conversation, the student engagement piece, I thought was phenomenal.

If you're a vendor, if you're doing work with MPS to have those to have those requirements of internship and I'm just wondering, you know, how you guys can do that more with other organizations, the city of it. So, I think that's a it's a crucial piece and it's not encouraging. I mean, you guys require it but I I but the way that you guys did it, it made so much sense as a vendor that did work with you guys throughout the throughout the pandemic and I would have leaned into it more but obviously, you know, we did during the pandemic, we didn't want a bunch of students, you know, running around

our house.

Alpha, shout out to you.

You still provided supported our program. Absolutely. And the dollars that you provided, we were able to place those students internally. So, thank you for being a strong advocate for our program and a supporter. And you said how can we

To to me, it's and I guess that maybe it's a a divergent or or a parallel conversation to what we're doing here. But but to me, how can we, you know, I would say emulate what you guys are doing. And and again, I'm I'm saying that, you know, be, you know, fully agnostic across the, you know, across the state and across the country. I mean, what how the way you guys approach procurement and and student engagement is really unique and I think and I think you should actually be proud of it. I think you guys should market it more and I and I think there are a lot of things that other municipalities and organizations here locally can learn from the work you do. So,

think it's a matter of getting the word out. I think eve even internally within the district. A lot of internal departments didn't know what we were able to do. So we've reported out to the board just recently. We hadn't reported out for a while. And we reported out, like, five four to five years worth of data. And so we just we like I said, we're a small office, so we look for, you know, organizations to support us. If you'd like to be an alternative placement site, let us know because students can serve as, you know, support at your organization with the paid internships. Or if you want to participate in any of the the opportunities within the district, the events. Yeah, I can get any of the events that support the student.

We're always willing to come in and do presentations to individual organizations and like make the connections but again, with us being so small, we're we're we're not able to be out in the community like we used

to be. We used to be. We used to be a big team. We used be a team. Yeah.

We used to be a yeah.

So we we weren't bigger before.

So we're working on getting back out into the community and, you know, just getting the word out about our programming.

But I'll I'll reach back out

to you.

Okay. Wanna mention, it is a requirement and we work closely with the awardee contractors, we honestly do tell them this is a requirement. You do have to meet it. We will work with you closely. We set up meetings either aside on teams. However, we will walk them through the process. Like, this is what we're expecting you to do. This is how you can meet it. We provide them with solutions to how to complete it. And I think that helps them a lot because a lot of them come in blindly and they're like, I don't get this. I don't understand. What are you trying to say? This is on the contract. I'm like, yes. This is on the contract.

You signed it. You provided with the you provided us with the completed forms and you're gonna meet it. Let me help you to provide the different options of how you can meet it. Instead of saying, oh, this is the requirement. You figure it out on your own and close the door on them, I think because we work so closely with them, we provide them solutions.

We provide them events. We provide them actual, we even send them out resumes if they have to hire a student or if they need to get a coin individual, I provide them the contact information for our two certifying agencies. I said please reach out, cc me on the email. I will open up the door for you so you can verify or to look into individuals to see if they have coin individuals ready for you to work on the projects, what type of trades you're looking for. So I think that helps a lot when it comes to meeting the requirements for us and why our numbers could be successful. If we did not have that kind of open communication and just said you figure it out on your own, yes, they're not gonna meet it. They're gonna say, you know what? Find me or do whatever you need to do. I don't know what you want from me. I can't meet it.

But because we don't provide that kind of service. We provide the the service of, hey, I understand that you may not understand what you signed yourself up to because you saw the dollar signs. Let's be honest, and you said I want this contract. I will provide you with the solution. I will provide you with, hey, let's meet it this way or did you were you aware that we host career education events where you can meet your career education hours? Were you aware that we have a list of individuals, students who can meet your hours? Were you aware that we we also have health certification list that we can provide to you if you provide us with x, y, and z information? So we're saying, please don't be scared to work with us. Work with NPS. Yes.

The requirements you do have to meet. They are a requirement. You will, if you don't, you know, you don't want to find out but you do have to meet them. Right. We're not goals. These are not goals that you just get to look at and say, oh, I think I might need them but I push it out the door.

Thank you.

I I appreciate you saying that. So The the way you explain it, I find it interesting because Mhmm. The same they know what they're doing and they know what they need to do. Think without your the support and kind of the infrastructure you provide, they won't get to the finish line. Correct. And they have a problem when we expect them to do with the same kind of accommodating to the workforce. Correct. They have a problem with but you hold their hand to make sure that they get to the finish line.

I work very closely with a lot of my prime vendors who are awarded contracts with a high, requirement to meet the coin certification. Even during COVID, we got a lot of pushback like Sabrina said. She's been there twelve twelve years. I've been there almost eight years. I've doing the role for quite some time and I've heard all the excuses. Yeah. I know what RPE is.

And full transparency. We do have is, you know, we have our issues and challenges with coin. Most of the individuals that come into our coin program are entry level. You know, they've they haven't been in construction before and so they come in as a laborer but the the whole foundation of our program is that they come in, get the certification, they're afforded the opportunities to work on the general construction projects and then they have the opportunity to go to WRTP or to Mindful Staffing Solutions and sign up to be to go into one of the trades.

Right. Yeah.

What we're working towards doing and any of your insight would be helpful is we would like to create a pathway for juniors and seniors into the trades. As Eric had mentioned before, there's challenges with getting individuals to actually teach our students And so that's where we fall short. So our dollars that we have are specific to internships. So that's what we have to spend that money for. We don't have money for instructors. And so that's where we find challenges for that bridging that pathway between student and We were gonna

ask how we could help, so that I'm glad you mentioned that. I have a procedural question in the sense of, let's say, a contractor comes in. Let's say they they really knock it out the park with coin. Every time they they have another contract, do they start from scratch, or is there an actually a a kind of a kind of a preference point process for construction companies who show up, participate in coin, work well with you guys, hit all the numbers and then they come back for another contract. Are they in a certain category for

for doing it?

Coin is per project, but so yes and no to your question. So for student engagement and coin, we have what we call super student status or, super coin status. So if, like you said, an individual comes in, they work with us on multiple projects year after year. If they keep that individual, then yes. So for every hour of coin that a individual works or organization provides, we'll give them point two five credit so that as long as they keep that individual, we will give them that status so that they, you know, can continue moving up in their career and then also recognize But that's only when

they retain them within the company?

That is correct.

But if they work really well with you guys and and and the trades, I mean, sometimes they just don't have work. They have to lay people off. Yeah. Then there's a path with another company picking them up. We

have not, but that is something we can look into because whatever we can

do to give more creative

and they there's there's an an opportunity opportunity and and they they work well, sometimes they can't control the workforce retaining them. Absolutely. But they should get credit every time they participate if they're meeting coin, work well with coin.

Absolutely. Thank you.

You feel like our RPPSBE program is complementary to COIN, or do you feel like that's more challenging because people are competing for workforce?

It can be both. So I know in the beginning when our coin program was established back like she said back in o three, it was mirroring the RPP program, but our criteria because you have to work on a general construction project, like some of our criteria is a little bit more This is stricter. Stricter. Yeah. Yeah. More strict. I we're at a time now I feel like it it can't be complementary. Like, a lot of people are working, like, that meet the criteria for corner RPP, which is a positive. Mhmm. But then at the same time, it poses challenges for the programming. So

Correct. So we do hear back from vendors for awardee contractors who say, well, you know what? The city of Milwaukee's program is this way. Why do you guys are because they have to meet the requirement, and then the individual does have to be certified and then they have to provide me with that information. Right? It's not just a hearsay. It's not just like, oh, this individual, you know, they live in a

situation where That's what they think about our program.

I'm not saying anything. Don't put words in my mouth. I'm just saying that

Michelle, the difference though,

see how they feel about ours versus yours. They know they gotta

They have

to. Good job.

Oh, look

at that. We

can get

away with it. No. No worries. No. They do say the same thing. They they do call very well. We get the same thing. It's just push back. And I I do come

back and say, well, you know what? These are the certified agencies. I can work closely with you, provide and I ask for a paper trail for everything. So if you come to me and you said, well, I I can't have no one or no one qualifies. Provide me with an email. Who did you contact? What date? Who did you speak with? How many times? What what did they say to your you know, what your questions were? Because what did you ask them? Because sometimes they just come back and said they didn't pick a phone. I do have a

Please apply for our pro at Milwaukee city of Milwaukee, RPP program.

Question for you. For RPP, so our coin for all of our requirements are backed by financial sanctions. So if it's if it organization does not meet student employment, they are sanctioned $100 per hour. If they don't meet career education, they're sanctioned $250 per hour. If they don't meet coin, they're sanctioned $30 per hour. So it gives them more of an incentive to get it done.

How much money have you collected so far?

I think because we also are dedicated set of women over here in this office, and we really

don't play. They don't play.

Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. But thank

you, But

that was great.

Mister Perez, quick question or not a question, comment to the committee. Vice chair Stanford asked the question of Eric before he left. What could you do? I mean, one of the things we're looking at is getting our younger people to think about career tech ed, not just high school. When they're in high school, we're talking middle school, a little below that.

So as you talk with your families, talk about what MPS has to offer when they're going to high school before they get into high school. We had a young man here maybe two months ago who spoke with mister Traces Wright, and he literally talked about he wished he would have known about these things as a fourth grader, fifth grader, you know. And, also, as you look to help, those are some of the things as you're out in the community. And I, you know, definitely commend Yeah. The Queen and team. We've been knowing each other a long time. They do excellent work to get our young people involved in the trades and even smaller things to work with our boys and girls clubs over the summer and things like that. So it's not the big grandiosis things. It's some of those small things that make the biggest difference that they're doing.

Mhmm. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Career days with the middle schools. Right?

Yeah. You can you can start talking about as you're just out and about. Yeah. Talking about what what's out there to what's out there. Right? A lot of people just don't know, unfortunately. So.

I have one last question. Does the city have like pay internships for high school students? Because we'd be more than happy to sponsor those students. We can pay their wages Mhmm. Up to forty hours a week. If you were willing to become a, you know, a site that would take on students, you would be fully involved in the process. You wanna interview them, you want their resume, whatever, but we can pay for

And specifically in any field? Like, any opportunity? Mhmm.

As long as they're in MPS

high school or one

of our contracted schools.

And how and how and

how many students is that?

How many do you have?

How many Yeah. Do you need two students? You need three students?

All year round. Because we we we were just told we had a gap for that here in the city.

So Oh.

Yeah. We can do that. Should talk

about that.

Alright. We do have a lot of success stories to you guys. We've been around for quite some time. We had one guy remember the training program?

Oh, yeah. He became a project manager. He became became a project a manager. Manager. Became a

Before you step away, do you assess what career interest they have manager. As a

student? Yes. Yes.

I was just thinking as a health department, we always look for students to come in and do small projects and so that would be an idea.

We have a form that you.

Yes. Have an intake. Yep. Intake form and they'll let us know. Oh, we're interested in technology. So we'll send all those students to technology. We're not always able to place them exactly where they want to be. But, yes, we are interested in getting them as close to get their footing to what they want to, you know, get into for a career as possible.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright. No. Thank you. We really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Hi.

Yeah. We're you're next. We have an, update from Project Kindred. Please identify yourself for the record and the floor is yours.

I

am Yah Ingle, executive director at Project Kindred. And I'm here to talk about, the July event that was mentioned, the last time I was here, in hopes that you all, join us. It will be a two part. So from So from July 7 through the tenth, our young people will be at Marquette University identifying a root cause that they want to solve for. And we're bringing in a bunch of partners to help them understand what is a symptom, what is a problem, and then what's the actual cause of all of that.

Right now they've been, kind of focusing on health disparities. So we have a feeling that's the route that they're going to go, but it's totally youth led. It's totally up to them what they choose to work on. So, and what we're asking for from the group is, for you guys to come in, at Marquette and help them identify, help them ask questions they need to ask, and help them explore, those issues. And then on July 16, they will come in, talk with those departments that connect with the issue that they have identified, kind of in a fun scavenger hunty way kind

of thing. Yeah. Yeah.

But, and then, get all their questions answered, asked and answered. Hopefully, we can get, some city leaders, to work with the the smaller groups to help them, you know, ask the right questions, that kind of thing. And then do lunch with you all, and then have them present, at your next EYAAC meeting that day. So it isn't a tour. They will be moving around how they need to move around.

We'll identify the groups, and what departments that they need to be talking to so they can work on that part of the project that they're going to be focusing on, as a smaller group as it connects to the larger, project. But it really is to help them understand how the city is either working on the problem already or has tried it in the past, what worked, what didn't work, that kind of thing.

Maybe listen to no ideas?

Listening to absolutely, number one. So they will be, naming issues that they care about. Like I said, they've really honed in on, health disparities. They're actually throwing an event on July 13. They're calling it the summer, Milwaukee Summer MKE Love Kickback.

But they're they're putting together health and wellness wellness kits for to hand out to young people so they have products to use over the summer and then it'll identify like where free clinics are and where wellness and and, tips and tricks to to stay healthy over the summer. They're bringing in, some nutritionists, and then they're trying to get the mobile clinic to come to do, the the physicals that you need to to play sports. They want to be able to offer those free to the kids as or to the young people of Milwaukee as

well. Okay.

But, yeah, so building stronger questions, being able to ask the right questions. Like I said, we want them to move, in smaller groups. We have about, 20 young people joining us for this, summit, and, so we're thinking maybe, like, groups of five or something like that.

Can I just ask a question, sir, for Claire? So we break it up into groups of five. They're going to make their way into City Hall that day. So we need as many departments and city leaders and official to, one, understand the purpose of why they're there that day. They will be exercising all their skills in the building to connect with folks. And then we should we all need to just be listening and figuring out how we work with them and figure out how they can see a path on solving their issue Exactly. Through city departments, city hall Yep. City infrastructure.

You got it.

Okay.

Yes. But also present or offer ideas that they may want to see the city

do or improve.

They will they will be presenting. Yes. That was your yes. Yep. Mhmm. Well, you did this before. Yeah. I have a

quick question or mister chair. Yes. So are they excuse me. I think we'll have a better it sounds like we'll have a better idea of what departments will need after they participate. Okay.

The internal process of here are the big ticket issue items and then their scavenger hunt will be based on that and connect them with the the relevant departments.

Mhmm. Okay. We could

BPW. Got you.

And because there is such a short turnaround between the tenth and the sixteenth, We have asked that all departments let us know how they can support something like this, who the contact person would be so we can as soon as we know on the tenth what we're looking for, we can reach out to the specific departments and know what what they with how they can support.

Chaperones?

Yes. There is a need for chaperones. We're hoping to get a city official, if somebody would have asked

really want?

That can

I'm a chaperoning one. Just one

of those. Well, I mean,

how many do we get? We get we get four. So I'm gonna I'm gonna walk around with one.

So they're they're walking around individually with all the people?

Well Yes, sir. Any city

Any city official. Anybody

would have asked. Okay.

Yeah. Like We need to get signed.

Yeah. So how many you got? Yeah. Like to get one. Let me get a young, vibrant young brother.

Oh, I got you. Okay.

A young, vibrant brother.

You get five of

them. Yeah.

You got five young young vibrant brothers?

Oh, that's

that's I'm missing some young fibers. Yeah. You know,

we gotta mix it up. We can't no. Yes. So we're hoping that you come to the actual summit either the ninth or the tenth. Whatever days you do you all do come, we're thinking of making it more of a community day so every you guys can invite your constituents, and we want all the people there, to support these young people.

And then, on the the sixteenth, making sure that, you know, the meeting, you are aware that the young people are gonna come and, you know, say what they've learned, good or bad. Mhmm. And, you know, be able to ask them questions and comments and concerns that you may may have for what what they've identified, from their, time at the summit and then their time with the city, departments. Any questions, comments, concerns? I know it's a very brief overview. I mean,

I just think for anyone who just needs a brief reminder update, I mean, is part of a bigger project with young people around civic engagement, right? Like this is part of their process and their path to think about things that are important to them and how to solve them and this is an opportunity to connect with city government to do that. But this is part of a larger ongoing opportunity for civic engagement for our young people.

Yes. Yep. Yes. And eventually, we wanted to get to, like, they're helping write policies that's going to vote. And that that's actually one of the main focuses, at the Root Cause Summit is how how do you actually create the change and actually make it law or make it policy or whatever the the the case may be.

We don't just want them to and it it could end up that way, as it is youth led. But we don't want them to just, like, let's create a day of peace or something like that. Right? Like, we want them to it to actually be how this cannot not only can I solve problems, but this can be a a viable pathway for me, that you we're actually connecting you with real decision makers, leaders in the community, to make differences, hoping that, you know, they not only choose this path but understand, like, it's up to you to support your community and, you know, be civically engaged in many different ways? There and it it looks differently for everybody.

So they can see themselves as health department officials and advocates and Yes. Planners and electeds and everything else. Exactly.

And we have we piloted the program this year with about 20 young individuals. It's and, they're loving it. We went to Madison and talked to some state representatives at the capital for the day, and they went ham about sex like, oh, no.

I did. I did. Did.

Were like,

this piece

should be law.

Should it

be in school or not at school?

It should be at school. Yeah.

Yeah. One of our young ladies can you say that? Is that still okay to say? Went in about how she had to take a college course. She's a dual enrolled, and she had to take a college course to learn about her body. And she was, you know, she was highly upset about that. And it was like, why why why is this I should know how to clean myself from when I start cleaning myself. So they they're very aware that they're not getting all the information, knowledge, and education that they they need to be great humans.

Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Well But they used to teach abstinence when I was growing up. Now they teach sex education.

Offspring goes to So this specifically, eighth graders, there's one eighth grader, but most of them are ninth through twelfth grade for this specifically. We work with third through twelfth grade. With the new program model, we're focusing on our major cohorts being during the summer. And then they'll do their projects over the school year. So during the summer, we're taking them to all the places.

We're meeting all the people. We're putting them in all the rooms, hoping that they build relationships with all these people, and then they decide what project that they're gonna work on, throughout the summer. It's totally up to them to figure out how this project is is gonna be executed or what even the project is. But then we just do milestone check ins or if they, you know, request an intro to somebody, we do that type of stuff. But it's it's up to them to meet them.

It's up to them to actually do the actual execution. And, a major part of our program is I don't wanna make up new work. There is so much great work already happening in Milwaukee. So we utilize partners to bring them in to talk about all the great stuff that they do. And and then we just make sure that we get we can put them in front because, you know, as somebody said, they just don't know what's out here. So if we make sure they know what's already out here and what they can support, is better than me making up a whole new

curriculum. Alright. In in regards to the kickoff that big

commit the

the big kickback, How are I'm just gonna ask you. You you guys is everyone confident about getting enough young people from there, the the outreach that's being done that to make sure we you know,

everyone knows the opportunity. We have we we did put it on the young people, and so they've all put it out to their schools, communities. We we service all of Milwaukee County. So they come from right now, I think we have 12 different schools in our program. So they're the ones making the marketing.

They're the ones that are making the flyers and and, doing the social media posts around it. But any support that we can get to make sure, we get people there, is is important. We also wanna offer free food. We wanna offer, we're asking organizations that have summer openings still to come and table so they can sign up young people on the spot. And then all over we're doing this at the I'm a say because I've never been able to pronounce the word.

Okay. The right? Steve gets it. But we're we're doing it at the CASI Center. So all of those organizations that are housed in the CASI Center are running activities as well. So yeah. So we we want everybody there.

Excellent. Okay. Any other questions? Okay.

Do you guys have a preference?

Do you have all those answers? Do we answer all those?

Yeah. Except the what day specific do you guys prefer the ninth or the tenth to come to Marquette?

For me, Thursday works better. Thursday? What does her

And then are you all okay with it being a community day where we get all the people there? I think we're working with your org already around some things like what to add to the health kits and things like that.

Maybe Cassandra maybe.

I may be. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you, Gail. Appreciate you.

Thanks.

Next, Bevan, can you join us for some committee updates? Lead that discussion?

Good morning. Bevan Christie, Pivot Consulting. We do have Doctor. Dave Velez from Marquette, one of the co chairs for the Data and Research committee. So I will let him give an update on that committee.

Hi, everyone. Sorry, think my camera is getting going, but, good morning. I'm, Gay Falez. Been a couple of times there in person to share about some of it and then jumped in virtually. It's nice to be here with you all this morning.

It was also great to hear from some of the folks earlier, and I appreciate all the questions. It's really been interesting and exciting to hear about some of that work, particularly as some of my research in space is in dual enrollment and CTE as well. In terms of the work that we're doing as a data committee, I wanted to share particularly around our outreach and data collection from youth serving organizations that have received community development block grants. So we've had conversations with, 11 of these organizations. There's still, a number who have not responded, but 11 is a pretty good and is a pretty wide range of the ones that we've actually talked to.

I'd be happy to share, follow-up in terms of re sharing sort of the questions we've been asking. We did a first survey to collect some data from them about how they collect data and how they evaluate the work that they do. And then we followed that up with a bit of an interview to delve into some of those themes a bit deeper as well. In terms of some of what we're hearing from them, I'd say the overall kind of like takeaway is that they're all collecting data in some ways around what they do, but a lot of it is underfunded, under resourced in terms of the capacity they have to have folks engaged in it. And then also that there tends to be a disconnect between what they're actually measuring and what they want to measure.

And there, a lot of what they actually measure is driven mainly by funding requests. So given that they don't really feel like they have the capacity or maybe the knowledge or tools to get into things a bit deeper, they kind of go for, you know, our funding is asking us to report number of people in the door, number of youth served. So we report that, right? But we're not necessarily going deeper to be like what are the questions or the type of impact that we're feeling like we have. And in that space, what I would also sort of highlight there is that there's very little that is longitudinal.

And they talk about that. So these organizations realize that what they would like to be doing is making a real long term impact on the lives of these young people. But they don't have the capacity or the know how to track that impact and measurement. Right? It's very easy to track number of folks who come in the door. It's easy to get that back to a reporter. It's very hard to say that two years from now, five years from now, ten years from now, this is what these young people's lives look like. So that was one area that was kind of key. The other two areas I would highlight in terms of what they would like to maybe be able to sort of study is a very academic word, but sort of evaluate in terms of the impact they're having. One is on questions around social emotional development.

I think there's a recognition for a lot of them that the work that they're doing touches on this area and the need for that. Right? So, and I think that that's pertinent to some of the conversations that I know this community is having because, for instance, something like violence prevention, right, it's not just about connecting in folks, young people into academics or into job placement. Like, that can matter, there's good research. But also it's about social emotional development, right, for how you handle conflict, how you handle emotions, right, so that when these things happen or even in your community when you see things happen, right, you have the skills to navigate that, peacefully or productively.

The other part that they highlighted was they don't really know how to measure or to evaluate complex skills. And so there are things that might come up with things like leadership, identity, creativity. So leadership I think is an interesting one. You know, it's word that matters and a framework that matters, but they just don't have a sense of like how do we actually track this. All of this kind of to me, one other sort of point in the highlighting there would be that they rarely actually engage young people, or the sort of community broadly in designing any evaluation or interpreting the data they collect.

So again, it's often just like the folks who are working in conversation with the funders. And so the young people themselves or the broader community, there isn't a lot of, integration of them into this, research and evaluation that's going on. What I would highlight is that there was a lot of interest across these groups first in some kind of shared system or maybe Citi supported data platform of some sort. So there's interest in something that is sort of across organizations they're connecting into or buying into. They did raise maybe concerns around anonymity and data privacy so that would have to be navigated.

But there was the sense of, like, if we do something together, it's gonna be effective for us in our work, but also that that that's something we see as valuable. They also, I mean, you know, this makes sense given what I was saying earlier, that providing sort of training or technical assistance would be really valuable for these organizations. So this sense of, you know, how do we measure these sorts of things, what is the framework and structure. And that's part of what our committee is looking to do as part of our phase two is like what can we develop to provide support. And there was really that desire amongst these organizations to have something like that.

And then the last part that I would say is that they're also interested in sort of maybe from the funder side, this is more complicated, but in alignment or a sort of maybe a consolidation of the types of things that are being asked. Because when you are doing data and evaluation on your programming and it's dependent on who's funding you, right, if you get three or four different grants that you're cobbling together for the work, you might get three or four different asks, right? And they might be very different in terms of like reporting impact. And so I think, you know, it might not be easy, and certainly, you know, these funders are coming from the private, they're coming from the public, they're coming from individual foundations and things. So it's it's complicated to align that.

But it does make me think of some of the work, that I know is pertinent to this committee that, like, the beta philanthropist is doing with trying to take something like a hope framework and say, okay, this is what we're gonna ask all of our grantees to use. And so what we're hearing from the organizations is I think they would value or benefit from some kind of alignment, in the sense of a very clear, like, this is what we're being asked to report. This is somehow being promoted across different types of funders, And it allows us to evaluate our work and understand it but also to have a really clear sense of what's going to be asked, when it comes time to show our impact and also report back that what we're doing is effective.

Questions?

What's next? So next, we have convened as a Education and Workforce Development Committee two times now. And our co chairs are here. I can speak to it or if either one of you want to say something. Good

morning. Yes, so we've met a couple of times now. First meeting was really good to know one another and but it was a lot of great conversation about data. I know there's a data committee, but again, that was a very big concern to the committee in the sense of like if we do this work, how do we measure it, how is it being measured across all these different organizations and the work they're doing. Our last meeting, had sorry, Doctor.

Bellas was there, spoke as well about data. But we kind of got narrowed it down a little bit as to what the purpose of our committee is going to be. And one thing that we I think we came to a conclusion was, to focus on a pilot program that we can put into place using and leveraging current resources and seeing how we can augment that program. One of them, actually Eric was here today talking about the work that's being done at MPS around CTE through dual enrollment. And but he also mentioned that like at North Division, they don't have an advisory board.

So how can we connect we're doing, I think, a really good job of connecting our students to these educational opportunities through dual enrollment, getting them trained, right? But then the other part of our committee is workforce. How do we get them into the workforce and create those connections? And how do you get them into the workforce is how do we get more companies and how do we get more of industry to connect with, let's say, for example, MPS, particularly maybe we'll pick one school in particular. I don't know it was North Division.

It was North Division.

Was North Division, particular, and run a model, a pilot to see how we can bring in these corporations to actually provide jobs for those students who graduate from these schools. So all the students are not going to go right into the world of work when they graduate from high school. Many of them will. And having that ability to go right into actual job in that trade would be, I think, amazing. Right now, it happens, but it doesn't happen, intentionally.

I think creating more alignment with industry, will be, I think, paramount in this situation. So I think that, that's one of the things that we'd like to talk about the next time. I think we're meeting on the twenty eighth our next meeting and try to continue to put this together and quickly shape something because I think we can leverage already the infrastructure and the momentum that MPS has, especially at North Division, and then augment that with better relationships with and more intentional relationships with industry to provide jobs for those students who graduate who want to go into the world of work as soon as they graduate from high school. Excellent.

Yes. And we Employment Milwaukee has some funding, that they have said that they would help. So they we have Julie Kyle who's on, that committee as well who presented here, a couple a month or so ago. The other thing in terms of, like, policy that have come up, is not local policy, but state policy. So, the fact that the state were like, was it one in three states or one in five states or five states that doesn't fund career and technical ed at the state level?

And then I don't know, Doctor. Cruz, if you want to speak to kind of the full time employee and the dual enrollment piece because I feel like we heard today how the instructors is a real barrier. And having tried to get

both that we offer on campus, on our campuses and then dual enrollment that we provide like at an MPS on location. The interesting thing is that as a college, when we offer, let's say, even if it's our own instructors offering those courses at the high schools, we do not get credit from the state for our enrollment when it comes to these courses that are taught at the high schools. So that means that from a funding standpoint, even from our own funding standpoint, we're not getting the funding that we'd like to get. If the students take those courses on our campuses, we do get that credit from the state. So there's that and also the issue of just state funding in general for dual enrollment and for CTE at the high school level is not there.

So that's something as a technical college system, we are working and advocating to see if that can change over time. Obviously, it's a funding issue, but it is an important one because we know it's a bipartisan issue in the sense that we are educating individuals in high school, getting those credentials that can either serve them going into work or that they can transfer those credits to the college or university of their choice when they graduate from high school. So it's a great opportunity, right? It continues to be a great opportunity. I think the main issue is about the funding.

And that is a state issue, policy issue that needs to be looked at. And we like I said, we're continuing to make this known and throughout the state and with our with the legislature as they continue to look at this issue. Mean there was some legislation that didn't pass recently about creating like a committee or a council that was going to look at dual enrollment statewide. But it's still something that we have to focus on. I think that if we want to really make this something where all students are going to benefit and we don't have to worry about necessarily if MPS can fund it or parents can fund it, but something that the state can fund and give and really broaden the opportunity for individuals that really want to take advantage of dual enrollment.

I appreciate that. Our Legislative Affairs division will be spending the summer not only talking to council members but working with other departments and shaping kind of our legislative packet for the session in November. And I think that that could be front and center on our lobbying efforts as a city as a whole. I'd be very curious. I'm wondering, just to put it out there, how can we get these the advisory the suggestions like for an advisory committee for North Division or even our subcommittees that kind of spice it up a little bit.

Have lots of boards, got lots of heavy hitters on them. They run-in the walls and bureaucracy at all our institutions. How can we get innovative about breaking some of that down?

So I sit on like a NAF board for Audubon. Just recently, I started doing that. I think, again, part of the problem is is that you really have teachers that in addition to their regular job that are trying to get that up and going. I think, yes, we could definitely support because they need connections to outside people to start bringing them in and buying in. I think there just needs to be a little bit more structure. I think South Division said they have one as well. I don't know how many schools actually have that NAF.

It's about 11 or 12. 11. I said as a chair for NAF committee for Marshall High School and kind of what you said is the teachers, they involve them. They don't get paid extra for the additional things that they do. The funding is very hard to get to support some of the activities they wanna do too. So it's a struggle internally.

Yeah. So I I think, you know, looking at the individual schools, like, if we're looking at North Division and we're gonna pilot, and so then what else does that look like? Not just, okay, well, we'll work with Employ Milwaukee who's gonna have somebody there, but what else can we do to help maybe build up that advisory board?

Which is part of the reason the suggestion about opening the school up.

Right. Exactly.

To the community. Yeah. After hours, I mean, when people can participate.

Right. I think the one only other thing I'd like to add is that as we talk about having the business community part of this, that MMAC has agreed to join this committee as well. So they will be joining us this month moving forward.

Okay. Yeah. I want to spice some of that up. Okay. All right. Any questions about any of the committees or updates? Thank you, Doctor.

Cruz. You're welcome.

Thank you. Hearing none, can we look at the meeting calendar discussion? I want to make sure that we have some of these dates out there and that we are going to continue to meet monthly. We suggested we would do every other month with the subcommittees. Just want to stay on course with some of that.

Oh, so yeah, we did speak about that a couple

of months ago. Well, this is Mr. Krum. How are doing, sir?

Hello. Mr. Krum.

What am I? Policy Administration Director for President Spreyes. This is who am I today? No, this item was specifically for the sevensixteen, July 16 date. So currently, it starts at 09:00. And the discussion we had earlier was about youth conducting a scavenger hunt at City Hall on that date in the morning, then they would conclude with the EAC meeting in the afternoon discussing their results. So we would need to change the time from a morning meeting till afternoon. So that's the purpose of this item. So it started noon and runs about 03:00.

And that's to accommodate the schedule of the schedule? I'm sorry, day?

July 16. The July 16 date. A noon start time versus 09:00. So we will update the calendar.

Okay. Any issues, let us know.

Is the schedule for the day set or you just you still developing it?

We're just changing the time. The yeah. The we'll have lunch with the youth. They'll do the scavenger

hunt Okay.

In the morning. Then we'll have noon, we'll have lunch for them. We'll Uh-huh. All the entire meeting will be in Room 303.

Okay.

So then we'll have lunch. The members that are able to attend the on the ninth to talk about discussions or reconvene with the person that we're working with. Okay. Have additional discussion and then we'll have the EAC meeting at 01:00 and talk about what they've learned, you know,

what you've learned. Excellent. Yep. Okay. Alright. There's no committee on that day. When when is the when is the committee that week?

It it's that day. That I got? Yeah. The committee meeting will be focused around their findings.

And it'll be at in the afternoon? Still the afternoon.

You're talking about what? Yeah. He's emerging. I was talking about council meeting.

No. Oh, that there yeah. It's not that date. Yeah. Already had ours. What'd you say?

There's a council week, so there's nothing on that day. Okay.

And the council meeting is the Tuesday before?

Yeah. Yeah. We try to schedule just the week before.

Oh, the Tuesday before. Okay. Okay. Any other any anything else we should know for that day?

No. No. Just the item was just to make sure that members could attend in the afternoon versus the morning.

That's a 01:00 start time because we're having lunch. Noon It's a noon start

time Yes. For the meeting. We're gonna notice the meeting at noon, but it will start at 01:00. The actual formal, when you take the Galvin, it becomes official would be 01:00.

That way people can interact with the young people at noon. Have lunch. Okay.

All

right. Excellent. Thank you. You're welcome. Moving on, any announcements? Any announcements at all? Any at all? No announcements. Okay. All right. Our next meeting is June 25. Look forward to getting an update on some of the subcommittees. And with there being no further business, this meeting is adjourned.