DPSCD REGULAR BOARD MEETING

Detroit Public Schools Community District

Education

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024
5:30 p.m. — 8:00 p.m. EDT

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View the meeting online: https://www.detroitk12.org/boardmeeting

Agendas and more can be found at DPSCD BoardDocs: https://www.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Board.nsf/Public

Check the source website for additional information

Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Detroit - MI Documenters Team

Live reporting by Amy Senese

Superintendent Vitti highlighted improvements in daily attendance and in M-STEP scores. He explained the school district is in favor of Proposal S because the increase in business taxes will support their budget. Board members appointed Katerli Bounds to the Library Commission.

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese

👋Detroit! Tonight at 5:30, I'll be live-tweeting the Detroit Public Schools Community District board meeting for @DetDocumenters #DETdocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @media_outlier @metrotimes @michigan_public @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit

01:19 PM Oct 8, 2024 CDT

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 2/50

You can attend tonight's 5:30 meeting virtually or in person at the King High School Auditorium at 3200 E. Lafayette. Follow this link for details on joining the virtual meeting link and making public comment. 👉 detroitk12.org/boardmeeting

detroitk12.org/boardmeeting

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The meeting will also be live-streamed on youtube at this link

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The agenda for tonight's meeting is pictured here and can be found at this link: go.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Boa…

go.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Boa…

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 5/50

Here are the current DPSCD board members.

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According to @chalkbeatDET, 22 people are on the November ballot running for 3 seats on the board. Check out Chalk Beat's voter guide for more info on the candidates: chalkbeat.org/detroit/2024/0…

chalkbeat.org/detroit/2024/0…

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 7/50

That's all for now, see you tonight at 5:30! For more #DetDocumenters coverage, read the latest newsletter: outliermedia.org/newsletter/nav…

outliermedia.org/newsletter/nav…

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 8/50

Meeting minutes have been approved from past meetings.

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 9/50

Now a finance report Jeremy Vidito, Chief Financial Officer go.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Boa…

go.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Boa…

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 10/50

Now onto the Superintendent's Report go.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Boa…

go.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Boa…

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 11/50

First, the Recognition of District Core Values. They recognized a staff member, I missed her name.

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 12/50

Tonight's focus is attendance. All the principals of the top 10 schools have improved their attendance came up on the stage--I only caught 5 from the elementary group Burns Elementry Noble Elementary Middle Ann Arbor Trail Greenfield Union Nicholas Elementary Middle

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Here are the high schools being recognized for attendance

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I'm at the meeting in person, I'm not sure why the zoom screen they are sharing is stuck on rules for virtual public comment when the screen in the meeting is the Blueprint 2023 Metrics. I tried clicking on the link in the board docs agenda link, but it brought up a skype link.

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The Superintendent is going over M-Step and PSAT 8 results. Overall thoughts are this is an important, but not their absolute goals

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There has been a decline in SAT proficiency. They have changed the SATs this year. It’s an adaptive test, the first year they’ve moved from pencil tests to electronic.

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historical performance on ELA State Assessments

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Comparison data They are narrowing the gap between the district and the state

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Recovery from the pandemic

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What is leading to Student Achievement Improvement and Next Steps to Acceleration

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The headline from the Superintendent is that DPSCD continues to show improvement. Now questions from the board.

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Dr. Iris Taylor has a question about student attendance, and a hopefully community level effort… I’m having trouble hearing her questions Second question I didn’t catch

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Partial answer: They know what’s working for attendance in the successful schools, they need other schools to implement these strategies.

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It’s time for the district as a whole to have conversations about the issues outside of school that lead to poor attendance. There is a need for resources. Post election, come January the Superintendent would like to launch a task force around attendance.

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Proficiency Rate Comparisons

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Superintendent Vitti said what will help at the high school level is improving instruction and continuing their current progress.

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Now a question of the PSAT, the pre SAT. Students take this in middle school. They prepare students for the PSAT and SAT through their curriculum. Instructors are infusing SAT like questions in their high school courses.

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Q: Are they still working with partners that work with students on the SAT? A: Yes, depending on the school, the funding is there

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Q: About students whose primary goal is to learn English. Here the focus is on learning English, unless they are advanced enough to study the SAT

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🚨Public comment starts now.

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In-person comments first: #1 Has a concern about funding. Would also love to have election day off, feels like people should have the time off for a presidential election. He also spoke to teacher burnout and concerns over policy presented in "Project 2025".

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#2 Marcus Walton, special ed teacher. Concerned about absentee ballots. Said that people need to make sure to flip the ballots, there are important local votes not to be missed. Spoke about retaining teachers, you can't just do quick walk throughs or drive-bys.

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#3 Wishing good luck to those running in the school board election. #4. Juan Patino, president of OSAS (the Detroit Organization of School Administrators and Supervisors) They have concerns about positions they are looking to fill.

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They want to make sure the children are getting all the resources they need. He said OSAS is not feeling the love from the school board.

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#5 Asking if there are really 22 people really running for the Board. Had other concerns about washing machines and other resources getting to schools.

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Answer: It's up to the candidates to decide whether they attend candidate forums or events. The current board has no control over whether or not they show up.

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There was also a question about the reading program at Barton Elementary School.

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Superintendent Vitti is now addressing concerns about walkthroughs. It's not meant to be a gotcha, but a way of looking at what's going well with instruction and what needs to improve.

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There are hundreds more Let's Read volunteers; they are training them, and they get paid.

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 40/50

Superintendent Vitti addressed the upcoming Proposal S Mileage vote on the Nov. 2024 ballot. Here's more information on it from the DPSCD website: detroitk12.org/millage

detroitk12.org/millage

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 41/50

Sherry Gay-Dagnogo is saying that more social media could be done around Proposal S to educate voters.

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Update on Let's Read hiring: 849 people applied, 275 completed the next step to sign up, 266 signed up for training, 130 have been trained.

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These two motions have been carried.

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They are now discussing item 12--the Detroit Public Library Commission Selection. They are discussing a few candidates but it sounds like they made a decision. A board member is asking by what criteria they choose the candidate. Russ Belant is one of the candidates.

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The committee has already decided on the candidate, but board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo is asking to delay the vote. They are quickly reading the questions asked of the candidates.

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The candidate chosen by the committee is Katerly Bounds. Not sure if I have the spelling correct. They voted for Bounds, who was in the audience and briefly stood up.

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 47/50

Announcements: Parent-teacher conferences are coming up this week and next. Report cards are coming two days before the election. A high school student just won a chess competition. Meeting adjourned at 7:17 PM.

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 48/50

connecting the thread here https://x.com/amysenese/status/1843791854279766386

https://x.com/amysenese/status/1843791854279766386

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 49/50

As this was my first time covering the DPSCD Regular Board Meeting--if you believe anything in the coverage today is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@outliermedia.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line

amy k senese 🍉 @amysenese 50/50

This concludes my coverage of the DPSCD Regular Board Meeting for Oct 8th, 2024. For more coverage, visit Documenters.org

Documenters.org

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By Noah Kincade 1 week ago

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Agency Information

Detroit Public Schools Community District

www.detroitk12.org

(313) 240-4377

See Documenters reporting

Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) is Michigan’s largest public education system. It is governed by a locally-elected, seven-member board. The District’s mission is to provide every student with a beneficial and rightful educational experience, preparing students to be career and college ready, and qualified to compete in the global market. The District has 106 schools and educates 50,000 children.