Good morning, everyone.

I'd like to morning.

Emerging Youth Achievement Advisory Council.

It is approximately 9.06 a.m.

on Thursday, May 14th.

I am the chair, Joseph Edis.

Uh I'm joined at the table by Alderman, Vice Chair, Russell Stamper the second.

Uh Amber Danius.

Uh Marcus, uh Marcus Hogans.

Who's on the board?

Okay.

Uh Brad Cooper.

Dr.

Kupa's on the board.

Uh Dr.

Lucy Hardness is excused.

Dr.

Anthony Cruz is present.

And Steve Mahan and myself, and uh we have John Ortiz as our staff assistant.

And uh we'll go right into the agenda with the review and approval of previous meeting minutes.

Did I say you?

No, and and Brian Litsky.

Isn't that where's he on my list here?

Oh, he's at the top, my bad.

Alright, you're here.

Okay.

Um, a 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 uh the previous minute uh meeting minutes.

Hearing no objections, 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 uh we had to pump you to this meeting, so we'll appreciate your patience.

No problem, no problem.

Morning, everybody.

Good morning.

Thank you for uh allowing me to present about uh North Division High School and Washington High Schools Career and Tech Ed programs.

I was asked originally to talk about uh the trades at the schools.

Okay, just have to give this some time.

I'll be patient like yes.

Thank you, thank you.

But uh North Division is the only school that actually has uh traditional trades.

They have a construction program, but I will talk to you about the career 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 uh scale and scope of career in tech ed across the district to give you some some context.

So as you can see, we have just under 3200 uh career in tech ed 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 uh freshmen and sophomores that take career tech ed courses, but this is kind of our barometer that we use.

The we look at the juniors and seniors, it's more persistence, right?

There they've made it to junior and senior year, and those are the numbers that we use uh when we're looking at our goals with the DPI.

So we look at those concentrator uh metrics and happy to say that we've met all of our goals that we have with the DPI.

So we're doing a we're proud of what we're doing in career 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 um 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.

Okay, so everything from agriculture to automotive to construction, manufacturing, information technology, business marketing, all the different pathways you could you can imagine.

We probably have it.

So we have offer a lot of different opportunities for students to do dual enrollment, uh, mostly with METC uh 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've started the internship program back in 2017.

We've risen every year quite uh quite a lot, um, and we should surpass that 834 number that you see um this year.

We're already well on our way to uh surpassing that, so the uh with the exception of the COVID year where everybody was at home, we've increased those numbers.

Um, and then uh and by the way, those 834, those are um there's more students in 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 in the school in the district signs, we give students credit for their the um time that they're working on that goes towards graduation.

So that's what that is.

And then the bottom two numbers, probably the ones I'm most proud of, is the four-year graduation rate for our kids that are uh career in tech ed concentrators, and actually, we just got an update last week from the DPI and that number is up to 91.3% for your graduation rate, so much higher than the you know students who are not participating in current tech ed.

And then the 90% 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 you know, like 0.15% this year, but uh a little over 90% of our students have a positive follow-up outcome.

So now looking at uh North Division and Washington High School specifically, I was asked about the enrollment and the trends.

You can see North Division about 280 students in Washington just under 380.

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 is poor and going down at the end of the year.

So look back in April, and um, you know, 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 uh 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.

Um certainly since last year, they have had some leadership changes there.

I think they're in a good spot now with their uh current principal doing a good job.

Um, 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 it's um declined, but it's held steady these last four years.

Okay.

Then these are the pathways that are offered.

So um 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 uh culinary arts program.

Mr.

Chair, yes, I'll see that.

Yeah, so Mr.

Chair as well.

Uh I I was it's in the culinary schools, it's still being run by Barlados.

It's run by uh the instructor is Sandra Knight Edwards, is that what you mean?

Who's no?

I've killed them a couple times when it first started and with Barlados was the training.

Pull Bartolotta sure.

Yeah.

No, that the Barnaladas are out of it.

Um Joe Bartelotta died several years ago, and Jennifer Bartalotta, who's our main contact back when uh Dr.

Driver was the superintendent, got out of the culinary business.

Okay.

We did our own consulting thing, and we don't have that particular partnership any longer.

Okay.

Um but you still got the program.

Still have the program, yes.

We're running strong and uh try to talk a little bit more about that later.

But these are the uh just give you an idea of the different courses that are offered um here at North Division in the uh in the different pathways.

As far as the curriculum goes, the construction uh 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 uh good curriculum there.

NAF is the curriculum for the most part for um the rest of it.

Uh NAF is a national organization that provides support and resources for doing career academies well.

So they they um 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 uh code.org.

And then at Washington High School here are the courses.

Um again, NAF providing uh most of those courses, uh, other than again exploring computer science with code.org and then uh the hospitality and tourism program.

We use a combination of uh 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 uh during um, you know, they can do it from home, they could 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 uh several offerings.

Um, the most prominent in the culinary is the serve safe food handler.

We had 31 out of 38 students who earn that certificate at Washington this year, which was a good uh we were happy with that percentage.

And then the food managers exam.

There's very low um enrollment in the advanced culinary, um, but uh four students took it, two passed, and we're waiting on the other two to see um, you know, whether they pass that.

And then uh Washington High School in their IT has a Google uh career certificate uh through Coursera and 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 um both schools have the NAFTAC certification, which is uh again not a typical certification, but one that NAF um sponsors.

It requires a student to uh pass at least four courses within their pathway, participate in a number of work-based learning experiences, and do at least an 80-plus hour internship.

And we recognize them next week on the 20th.

We have 192 students who will get that around the district, about a dozen between uh uh North and Washington who got it last year.

I don't have the numbers for this year yet, but it's 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 in tech ed, but we're gonna do uh OSHA and the construction pathway, and then the certified nurse assistant program at uh North Division.

There's a lab there, and um, we're gonna be offering those certifications.

A little bit about the uh partnerships.

You can see the partners there.

Washington high school has an advisory board.

These uh partners are all on that advisory board, they meet monthly to support the teachers and students.

The one I would um highlight is the Marcus Hotels, they have been a really strong partner of Washington for at least 15 years that I know of and possibly longer.

They provide internships to students, they provide uh students with uh 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 um of those highlight the Milwaukee Area Health Education Center, been a great partner for a long time.

Uh full transparency.

I do contract with them now.

They they lost some grant money as a lot of organizations did this year, but the value we're getting for that is is tremendous.

We actually have a person in North Division eight to 10 hours a week helping uh teachers and students, and um, probably the biggest contribution they made was getting uh helping to get their HOSA chapter up and running.

That is uh we call those career and technical student organizations, they're organizations led by students, gives them leadership opportunities and gives them a chance to participate in competitive events against uh students from around the region in the state.

And um, they had four students who actually attended the state uh competition this year and did well, so uh Milwaukee AIC is 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 that's one of the opportunities there at North Division.

Uh here's some shared partners.

Um Boys and Girls Club.

Uh runs the uh community learning center at both of the schools and Marquette University has been a great partner.

They actually provide professional development in uh computer science for both of the schools, and then they're uh currently consulting on the Fab Lab upgrade that um that Washington High School is is doing right now, so they've been a good partner.

And then here uh some opportunities and challenges again.

That advisory board at North Division again with the leadership changes.

There's been just been other priorities they've had, but again, I think the uh the new leader who just started uh second semester, that'll be a priority after we get this expansion uh moving and go uh finished over at North Division.

Uh, and then kind of leveraging the partners better at Washington.

They have that advisory board, but maybe haven't um leveraged the partners as well as they could, and then growth in some of these things that I mentioned, um, getting just more students doing internships and youth apprenticeships, more students uh earning the dual enrollment, uh more kids getting those credentials, and then you know uh increased participation in HOSA that I mentioned and there's another career and technical student organization at both schools called Skills USA and that is a uh the um another uh area where they could they could earn some um or have more students participating and then in terms of challenges I mean enrollment and attendance I think are the are the two biggest right um need more students and we need more students attending and then um I would say instructional staffing and fiscal constraints the both of the principals mentioned that they go hand in hand you know if we get more students we have more you know more dollars to operate with um but I would say this on staffing we were lucky enough to hire um some international teachers at both schools three years ago and they are some of the most dedicated committed smart uh instructors in career tech ed that we have they're fantastic so I'm they're in good shape at Washington and North with their career and tech ed teachers they're doing a good job you say international that you recruited them from from their ones from Jamaica several are from Africa all over yeah thank you yeah and then the last slide is just some an idea of what's happening at North Division so we've been working with MATC for several months now the board uh uh approved 2.4 million dollars 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 uh these first four bullets will be taught by MATC instructors for college credit but we'll have uh an uh 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 in the past we're uh redoing the the classroom uh lab and we'll have uh two courses in the fall for three credits total and two courses in the spring for three credits co total and then we already have the plans for the second year so the students will be able to be well on their way to getting a dental assistant uh certificate and then uh 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 um and then uh the possibilities for 26 27 automotive uh we aren't able to um 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 uh that's my presentation happy to answer any questions you have yeah I have a couple um you mentioned the concentration of the trades in those schools and maybe you can help clear up any um people think Bradley Tech is the construction trade school tech school it's got the infrastructure there I I've walked through it I've seen welding and carpentry is it an add-on is it also is it and and for instance I toward Bayview baby you I met um Jennifer there uh Barlotta who was doing some training with young people there so is does baby do culinary also or yes um yeah I was only asked about the Washington and North specifically but yes Bay View happy to talk about all the programs if you want Bradley Tech to start has a construction program two teachers doing uh construction there they also have welding program and manufacturing pathway we have an MATC instructor teaching a couple of courses in um manufacturing one and specifically in CNC we have another halftime instructor who's there uh halftime at bradley tech halftime at Obama doing some certifications uh related to manufacturing um we also have an IT program at Bradley Tech, so it's mostly um design, graphic design uh uh media.

Um so yeah, so bradley tech still has the uh traditional trades manufacturing construction.

Bay View um has culinary as you mentioned, they have a hospitality and tourism pathway, three three different courses in uh culinary.

Um just got a food truck through a grant, and and that's going to be part of the their their senior program where they're gonna have students kind of running a business there.

It was an intuit grant, so they're gonna do the financials as well as the the culinary piece of it.

Um they also have a business program there with some computer science.

Um so I was just I I don't want to think that these were the only schools that are oh no, sixteen schools with with different pathways we have, yeah, yeah.

And then um when I think about North Division, um I think uh some of the MPS schools it was there ever any consideration of um I guess opening them up more to the community, especially after hours.

I know that that's been talked about about north, like and I and I talk about it about tech.

From what I understand, but there's a super majority of kids that have bust in to tech for school, 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 open the school up.

But you know, you we gotta get the community inside, we're gonna get families inside to see the opportunities, see what's available at tech to be able to to expose these programs and opportunities right in the neighborhood.

So I always wonder about the schools opening up.

Yeah.

I'm happy to tell the new principal about that.

Uh Alex Cuck's house is the new principal as of like January at Bradley Tech.

Um, bring those comments back to him um from you.

Uh I would and let me and I would suggest um recently in a conversation about uh opportunities after city events for young people, there was a talk about lock-ins, right?

That that we we want to you know, if the an event ends at 10 o'clock, we're gonna 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 energy would just be really positive.

So we need the 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 during the building.

Yeah, good.

I'll I'll take that back as well to both North and Tech.

Can you uh tell me what exactly a community lock or a lock in is?

I'm not familiar with that.

Well, community members, especially folks in the space that are working, whether they're doing community violence interruption or just working with young people and outreach, the lock-in is here's an opportunity to come at a time and you're locked in the building from maybe ten at night to light in the morning.

It's almost like a sleepover, but they do programming, uh resources available not only for the young people but their families.

And to expand that to opportunities that schools may provide.

In the trades and technology and hospitality would be, you know, if they're there, have them cook something, right?

Yeah, that'd be great.

I'll I'll I'll bring that up to both principals.

I mean, you know, just I say that out loud, just but I think it's it's a great opportunity.

Yeah.

Um just to uh answer your question about the um after school with MATC, for example.

Um 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 them for MATC to come in and do a welding course in the evening.

We do that um at Obama.

We've done that and their H VAC program.

We've had some classes there and so we're always willing to do that.

And um if and if MATC ever needs uh additional space capacity, we can we can certainly work on that.

Sherry do have a question.

Um just thinking about numbers wide, like you said, thirty two hundred juniors and seniors participate in CTE, what's the denominator and then what is the ATS go?

Yeah, good question.

So that's about a third of all the juniors and seniors in the high school.

So our c concentrators are about a third of those students, so roughly ninety five hundred or so or t uh close to ten thousand uh juniors and seniors.

So the thirty-one eighty seven is uh that number you saw is the juniors and seniors who are concentrators, and that's out of nine thousand plus total juniors and seniors.

Was that no?

That's it.

And then what's the um what's the carrot on the stake 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 encourages them to join.

Yeah, great question.

So the idea is we're preparing them for college and career.

So when they start, most of the students will start um sophomore year.

Some might take a survey course freshman year.

The carrot is they'll um the career and tech ed instructors within their classes are always embedding um the 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 um a 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 to 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 are in 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 w whatever the certificate is so you know I would say um and then those CTSOs the student organizations there's uh it's invaluable to students who participate and really engage with it they can get those leadership experiences and they can um you know just be with other students from other districts and around the state and and compete against them.

Um I I would say for all those reasons just preparing them to make a better decision once they graduate.

Mr Chair Ms Bay I just a quick one.

Um I'm curious what goes into the the decision making around like what schools um are chosen for CG I think you said there was fourteen um and I just did a quick Google search.

It says there's like 39 schools in in MPS I was just curious.

Yeah about well about 27 six or seven high schools um some are charters um but maybe up 37 but what goes into it so there's 16 high schools with career in tech ed we're actually working on expanding we hope to have King join the uh party in 27 28 just had a meeting with them last week and green tree will be added next year.

So I'll be up to 17 next year.

But a lot of it is um you know um the tradition or or our past you know uh history if you will um it's very difficult to get a a typical trades program up and running without the dollars for example difficult to just say we're gonna start a construction lab.

It it takes a lot of money to do that or an auto lab or a welding lab.

Um but a lot of it is who the s uh teachers who the uh 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 uh other schools and I can tell you that um I work a lot with the academic superintendent um Dr.

Bruggeman uh uh and and Mr Shapiro Aaron Shapiro there's two of them one of the things that they're really emphasizing is trying to expand CT not only at the high school level but at the middle school level so I think we're gonna get a lot of support for expanding I mean I would love it to be in in all of our high schools but it does cost money and um you know so slowly but surely I think we'll continue expanding.

Is um so do you work with MPS charter school?

I think when I worked at Green Tree it was an MPS charter school because I don't know if that anything has changed.

Yeah we do work with the charter schools will support them um yeah so uh we I would say the ones that are um non instrumentality charter charter by UW Monkey for example might have like less um uh connection with them okay just curious yes sir we did uh apparently don't have instructors for automotive annual correct um look at that have you looked at Adam to possibly be w we haven't yet but I we will uh we don't have the job posted yet I know that's that sounds like that's coming to get that job posted.

But yeah, look at Adam as well as um the Wisconsin Auto and Truck Dealers Association have a contact there and try to see if we can't get um somebody but if you have some connections, I'll take them.

But we we do know that they're working with suburban schools.

So maybe there's a asked to have a president and MPS.

Mm-hmm.

They definitely are working with the suburban schools, but I went to Hartford and I thought they were there.

Noted.

I'll uh I'll certainly make that connection.

I'll understand.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation.

I appreciated that.

It's good to see what's being offered in the schools.

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 programs are they available to continue throughout the summer?

Um typically not, uh, continued throughout the summer.

There are a few um career and tech ed courses that are offered in summer school.

Um they've looked at doing it in construction, for example, at north, but the instructor there who's great, uh works he he he does his own side gig during the summer and he's not available to teach summer school.

Um but we do have some IT offerings in uh career and tech ed and uh some personal finance that we offer.

So is this budgeted within the principal school's budget or does MPS budget for this?

And and offer it to I thought it was sixty, so sixteen sixty, yeah, six to the sixteen different schools.

It's mostly supported with uh school funds, but there is a uh it's called the Carl Perkins grant, it's a federal grant.

We get about two point one five million dollars, and that is allocated to the school so they have some money to support it.

The schools that have mu uh programs that cost a little bit more like an automotive or a construction, 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, um 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 school board budget.

Well, each principal has their own budget, right?

Each principal has their own budget, right?

From the school board, and they use yes, those funds to support most of the I guess how much would it cost to continue throughout the summer?

I I guess I don't have that answer for you.

Um it's mainly finding the teachers to do it, uh as well.

Um because again they are specialized instructors, so if uh 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 a 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 uh 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 a graduation.

So it's not um so they do count towards graduation, but of course the students still need their their math, science, social studies, English, that sort of thing.

Okay, so they're selecting these.

They're selecting, yes.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Alright, great.

Thank you.

Um welcome.

So how can we help?

This is this is awesome.

Yeah, how would you like us to help?

Promotion with attendance.

I think um I'm specifically at Washington and North, but really around the district.

I mean, the lever leveraging those partnerships I think is uh a big opportunity, right?

And so um having the partners, the 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.

Um they are uh doing things we do a lot of work readiness in our from our office, so um we're working with students on you know, soft skills, transferable skills.

We do mock interviews, we do uh resume reviews and having partners to do that to help out with mock interviewing.

That's the big thing with our students is um getting them ready.

We don't we we don't really place students, they have to interview and get that job.

Okay, and so getting them ready for that so they don't lose out to students from other districts, right?

Basic soft skills, yes.

Okay.

And uh kind of along the line along the same lines as Marcus.

The that ninety percent that you mentioned of graduates is and positive follow-up.

You're talking about jobs.

They get jobs or college.

Anything uh so it it could be employment, but it could also be if they're in college, if they're in any post secondary, employment, yeah, any of those.

A lot of them are doing both.

But if they're just in college or they're just employed, that's considered positive by the DPI.

Sure.

And me.

Me too.

Thank you very much.

And welcome.

Any other questions?

Thank you so much for sure.

Oh, so do you know who all of them is of those two great schools?

You can't test that.

Excellent, man.

I like to support as much as you can and promote that as much as you can, but also excellent.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

We'll be in touch.

Um, no, we have a presentation communication from MPS Coin program.

Welcome.

Good morning.

And thank you too for uh your patience and coming back and so you guys were supposed to be here last time, so uh introduce yourselves for the record and the floor is yours.

How are you doing?

Uh good morning, counselor.

Um members of the council.

My name is Jaquina 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, uh, mayor of the so our office is responsible for three programs in the district.

Uh we have our historically underutilized business program, that's where we look to engage small diverse minority businesses.

We also have um 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 uh 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 uh contract requirements into uh the district's procurements that are fifty thousand dollars or above.

So we look at all of the individual uh businesses that we work with as business partners, and we ask that if you're gonna be a business partner that you support our students.

Um and so with that being said, um we have our student engagement program.

We can work it closer.

Oh, okay.

It wasn't my time.

Okay, I'm sorry.

No, no worries.

I'll just maneuver.

No, it's okay, I'm trying to my uh my slides are little out of sequence anyway, and that's my fault.

So our student our student employment program is open to freshmen uh through one year post-graduation.

Um and what we do is we assign these participation, we call them participation requirements.

So we assign anywhere from 100 to 1,500 hours on the district procurements again that are 50k and above.

Um our program serves about 300 students a year.

We're a very small program that was um originally uh that originally came out of the neighborhood schools initiative, so we can serve about 300 students.

Um all of our students are internships um are paid.

Um they are paid the city of Milwaukee's living wage rate.

Um last year, uh last fiscal year, we served 212 students, and there's three tracks in which um an organization can meet student employment.

The first track um is the students can uh they can be placed within the the organizations um within their office or within the organization.

We want to make sure they're getting a real world work experience.

Um the second way in which um they are placed is through community-based organizations.

So we work with uh reflow, we work with um all hands boat works, arts at large, H2O, Lead to Change, all those organizations take on those students and uh provide internships for them, and then the third way in which we support the students is through our um student internship sponsorship program.

Um, and basically that's where contractor or vendor will say that they want us to place the student.

So what we do is we'll we'll onboard the student as a temporary co-op student.

Um again, then the uh 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 um uh named, or we will place them internally within MPS uh department.

So we work closely with career and tech education, um, so we sponsor youth internships.

Uh our uh finance department has students, uh technology will take on students.

Um the superintendent uh is gonna most likely take on the student this year.

Um we have created what we call intern work-based learning opportunities um inside of schools.

So we have uh Vincent Urban Agricultural Interns that we sponsor, uh Building Hover Assistants at Reagan, we have administrative assistants at uh Hamilton, Project Stay, and North Division.

We've work closely with our school to work uh program as well, so they'll place students and then in the current school year we have 19 students in different um elementary and middle schools, and they're serving as youth apprentices for um education interns.

So they have a track to be on a track to be on a track to be teachers.

Um typically our assignments we will assign between 48,000 and 50,000 student employment hours per year.

And the second piece of our student engagement program is our career education program.

Um again, we do ask, you know, if you're gonna do business with the district that you uh help us develop our next readiness with readily and available workforce.

So um as a contractual requirement, uh contractors and vendors can serve as mock interviewers, they can participate in career education days, um, any career uh exploration activities that are available.

Anytime that someone in the district uh internal department is looking for some type of volunteer, um, then they will contact us because we they know that those our contractors have uh those contractual agreements and they'll serve as uh volunteer support to students.

So we just participated in uh the junior and senior job fare and we'll we participate in the spelling B.

So anything that uh 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 uh information on our uh student employment program.

I'm gonna pass it over to Claudia so that she can talk about our coin program.

Um so student engagement is again for 14-year-olds or freshmen due one year post-graduation.

They're eligible to to stay in our program until the December 31st after they graduate.

Um coin is for 18 years and older, so she'll talk about our point program.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jacquelina.

So our coin program, it is backed up by my 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 projects.

We were adopted back adopted into policy back in 2003, so we have been around for quite some time for this coin program, okay.

It does help to meet the district's uh they have a set annual target of 25% on the annual workforce hours to be performed by the coin certified individuals for the certification individuals.

Um you can see here on the screen, okay.

So we have just last year alone, total workforce hours performed were 24,962 hours of those hours, 9,225 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.

Uh 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.

Ms.

Kercia, did that include those hours for 25?

Did that include the letter basement work that was done on all schools?

No.

No, it did not.

So what happens is every contract or project that comes over that's over 50k comes over to our office, and we'll uh 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 uh assign participation.

It was in like it was an emergency purchase for us.

So typically when there's an emergency purchase for the district, um that supersedes uh our requirements because they want to make sure that we get whatever we need from the vendor contractor and get it done immediately.

So, no, we were not able to uh actually place the 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 12 years, and I I know for a fact they have coin workers, but we're not monitoring it as an actual uh one of our contracts that we monitor.

Which 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, I'm a job.

Thank you very much.

And GCP they do have.

Yes.

We're trying to be in the school.

With that being said, for the coin eligibility for our program, so the individual must be 18 years of age or older during the timeless certification.

It must be a city of Milwaukee uh resident, must post a valid Wisconsin driver's license or on the track of receiving one, must have a high school diploma or GD, or also on the proven path of receiving one.

Um they must make the income legibility requirements, or they can work less than uh 1,200 hours in the preceding 12 months.

For the in for the certifications, individuals can receive the certification either with mindful staffing or um 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 uh do monitor those hours and verify that the individual is working on MPS MPS construction contracts only.

Okay, so it's not gonna be on just any of our contracts that we have, and it's design architect, all those are specialties and special trades.

So the individual may 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 uh 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 uh assigned to our general construction projects, and so on average we get about 74 to 75 general construction projects annually where we all assign coin.

So our office uh and I forgot to mention this, I'm gonna be completely transparent.

I'm a little nervous talking in front of y'all, but I don't know, because I don't this is the work we do every day, so I apologize about that.

So we smile more or we no no no no, not at all.

Um again, I'm a person that's very transparent.

So our office, we see about 200 to 250 contracts, so it's a very small nugget of the contracts that are with the district, but um again, it's only the ones that are uh 50k and above, and so coin about 75, I'd say for the construction.

We had a huge uptick when we had some SR dollars in our fiscal years 23 and 2022, 23 and 24.

So we had 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.

Um, and so we utilized and um we leveraged uh our participation requirements to uh you know support our students.

So um in the year, I didn't put it on this slide and I should have um for Esther, like for instance in fiscal year 23, um we were able to pay our students almost a million dollars because we were able to assign up to six thousand hours um of paid internships uh on those those types of contracts.

So um it's a decline is declining now because of course you know we've run out of those dollars, but um our office still seeks to make sure that we are supporting our students day in and day out.

Um, 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 two hundred and twelve.

This year at the current moment, we have fifty-five students um that we're supporting in our program, and already have 90 students signed up for the summer.

Um our student engagement program and our coin program is year-round.

Um during the school year, the students work 15 to 20 hours.

Um, and we want to make sure that their their schedule is 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 40 hours um during the summer.

Okay.

Can you ask anything else?

No, the other thing is our our our goal is um for the coin 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, uh, because we do see the decline.

And we definitely want to bring this to the forefront and we want to 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 in with that pathway and make it easier for them.

So the certification is 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 um to see if we have MPS 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, um, they are considered an exception.

So coin being 18 or over and and meeting certain criteria.

Um if there's an MPS student that is interested in becoming uh in going into the skill trades, we will uh pay we'll uh give them a point certification.

Excellent.

Yes.

Excellent.

Okay, and that's all we have if you have a question.

So uh what's the point?

Yes, please.

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

So, okay, I just want to make a correction because it's two programs, right?

We have student engagement and then we have coins.

So student engagement so um we recruit students from any school.

So um 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, uh one to two hours, and then she recruits from there, but we'll also go to the job fairs, um, and then if any of if the schools have any special preference or uh 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 relationship with like tech or baby.

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

Okay.

Um, so we're not in the schools every day.

So we lean into those partners, uh to help us recruit students into our program and let us know what they need.

Okay.

Thank you.

Well, I just want to take a moment to uh if it's okay uh common council presidents to commend you on the work that you guys do.

So I mean you shouldn't be uh nervous as all that.

So as a local just real quick as local business owner that does work all over the country, all over the nation, the platform that you guys have, first of all, fully full transparency, unbundling of the project so that smaller businesses can have visibility of what they're you know, what the procurement opportunities are.

But last but not least, um in particular to this conversation, the student engagement piece I thought was phenomenal.

Um if you're a vendor, if you're doing work with MPS to have those um 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 because I think that's a it's a crucial piece.

Um and it's not a criteria 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 uh 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.

But shout out to you because you still provided uh uh supported our program 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.

Um and you said how can we I to to me it's it and I guess uh maybe it's uh uh divergent or or 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 again again, I'm I'm saying that you know, 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 the and student engagement is really unique and I think uh and I think you should actually be proud of it.

I think you guys should market it more and I think there are a lot of things that other municipalities and organizations here locally can learn from the work you do.

So I think it's a matter of getting the word out I think even internally within the district um a lot of internal departments didn't know what we were able to do so we 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 um 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 um with the pay internships um or if you want to participate in any of the the uh opportunities within the district the events if I can get any of the events that support the student uh 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 we used to be we have team the media yeah we used to be a yeah like we we were bigger because so we're working on getting back out to the community and you know just getting the word out about our programming but I'll reach back out to you okay I want to mention though because 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 that 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 provide it with the inf you provide us with the completed form saying you're gonna meet it let me help you to provide you 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 um 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 for 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'll provide you with hey let's be 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 h we also have how certification list that we can provide to you if you provide us with XY and Z information.

So we're saying please don't be scared to work with us work with MPS.

Yes the requirements you do have to meet they are a requirement you will if you don't you know you don't have to find out but you don't have to meet them.

We're not goals.

These are not goals that you just get to look at and say oh I think I might use them but and push it out the door.

Thank you.

No I I appreciate you saying that so the the way you explain it I find it interesting because the same they know what they're doing and they know what they need to do.

I think without your the support and kind of the infrastructure you provide.

They won't get to the finish line.

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 that.

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 ex a high um requirement to meet the coin certification, even during COVID, we got a lot of pushback like she's been there twelve uh twelve years.

I've been there almost eight years.

I've been doing the role for quite some time and I've heard all the excuses.

I know what RP is and full transfer transparency.

We do have is you know, we have our issues and challenges with coin.

Um 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 and they're afforded the opportunities to work on the general construction projects, and then they have the opportunity to go to WRTP or to Michael Staffing Solutions and uh sign up to be uh to go into one of the trades.

What we're working towards doing, um and any of your insight would be helpful is we would like to create a pathway for juniors and seniors into the trades.

Um as Eric uh had mentioned before, there's challenges with getting individuals to actually teach our students.

Um and so that's where we fall short.

So our dollars that we have are specific to um internships.

So that's what we have to spend that money for.

We don't have money for instructors.

Um and so that's where we find challenges for that bridging that pathway between student employment.

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 um let's say you 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 actually a a kind of a kind of a uh preference point process for construction companies who show up, uh participate in coin, work well with you guys, hit all the numbers, and then they come back for another contract.

But are they in a certain category for for doing the 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 s uh super coin status.

So if like you said, an individual comes in, they work with us on multiple projects year after year.

They keep that individual, then yes, so for every hour of coin that uh individual works, um 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 that's only when they retain them within the company.

That is correct.

But i if if they work really well with you guys 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.

Um, we have not, but that is something we can look into because whatever we can do to be employed and they there's an opportunity and they work well, sometimes they can't control the workforce retaining them.

But they should get credit every time they participate if they're meeting coin, work well with coin.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Yeah, we'll definitely look into that.

Sure.

Oh, I'm sorry, Amber, go ahead if you want to.

Uh I think I heard you mentioned RPP, so the city has um the residential governance program, small businesses, small business, what's S B E what's the small business interpretation?

You got it.

So my my feel like our RPD S B D program is complimentary to um coin, or do you feel like that's more challenging because people are competing for our workforce?

Um it can be both.

So I know in the beginning when our coin program was established back like she said back in 03, um, it was mirroring the RPP program, but um our criteria because you have to work on a general construction project, like some of our criteria is a little bit more um strictly, yeah, more strict.

Um I've we're at a time now I feel like it it can't be complimentary.

Like a lot of people are working like that meet the criteria for corner RPP, which is a positive, but then at the same time it poses challenges for the programming.

So um it 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 you guys are because they have to meet the requirement and they the individual does have to be certified and then they have to provide me with that information, right?

It's not a just a hearsay, it's not just like oh, this individual, you know, they live in the city of Milwaukee.

So they think about our program.

I'm not saying anything, don't put words in my mouth.

I'm just saying that because we see how they feel about ours versus your they know they gotta they have to go.

Oh, we can say, No, no, we're no they do say the same thing.

They they do we get the same, we get the same thing.

It's just um push back and I I do the same.

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 say, Well, I I can't have no one or no one qualified.

Provide me with an email, who did you contact, what date?

Who did you speak with?

How many times what what do they say to your you know what your questions were?

'Cause what did you ask them?

'Cause sometimes they just come back and say they didn't pick up.

Milwaukee, City of Milwaukee R V P program.

Question for you for RPP.

So our coin for all of our requirements are backed by financial sanctions.

So if a s if an uh organization does not meet student employment, they're sanctioned a hundred dollars per hour.

If they don't meet career education, they're sanctioned two hundred and fifty dollars per hour.

If they don't meet coin, they're sanctioned thirty dollars per hour.

Um so it gives them more of an incentive to get it done.

How much money do you collect so far?

Not that much.

Not that much.

Not that much.

But they can comply.

I think because we also are our dedicated set of women over here in this office and we really thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh comment to the committee.

Uh Vice Chair Stanford asked the question of uh 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 and 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.

Yeah, 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 Mr.

Trace is right and he literally talked about he wish he would have known about these things as a fourth grade or fifth grader, you know, and those so as you look to help, those are some of the things that you're out of the community and I you know, definitely commend the queen and team.

We've been knowing each other a long time.

They do excellent work um to get our young people involved in the trades and even smaller things to work with our boys and girls clubs over the summers 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.

Absolutely.

Yeah, you can uh you can start talking about as you're just out and about talking about what what's out there to offer what's out there, right?

A lot of people just don't know, unfortunately.

So I have one last question.

Does the city have um like pay internships for high school students?

'Cause we'd be more than happy to um sponsor those students.

We can pay their wages um up to forty hours a week, um, if you were willing to become a you know, a site that would take on students.

You would be fully involved in the process if you want to interview them, you want their resume, whatever.

But we can pay for specifically in any field like any opportunity.

As long as they're MPS high school students or one of our uh contractor schools.

And up and up and how many students is that?

How many do you have?

Yeah, how many yeah, do you need two students?

You need two students.

All year round.

Oh yeah, we can talk about that hard.

We do have a lot of success stories to guys.

We've been around for quite some time.

We had one guy remember the training program.

Uh oh yeah, he became a project manager.

He became a project student that go on and utilize our program to you know, for their career for a sustainable career.

So yeah, I I can email you and uh Alderman Stanford my information.

And we could connect.

Before you step away, do you assess what career interests they have as a student?

Yes, yes, but 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 ideal.

Yeah, the 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.

All right, no, thank you.

We really appreciate it.

That's a great information.

Hi.

Uh yeah, we're you're next.

We have an uh update from Project Kindred.

Hello.

Please identify yourself for the record and the floor is yours.

I am Yah Ingo, uh, executive director at Project Kindred.

Um and I'm here to talk about uh the July event that was mentioned uh the last time I was here, um, in hopes that you all uh join us.

It will be a two part, um so from yep.

Um so from July 7th uh through the 10th.

Our young people will be at Marquette University um identifying a root cause that they want to solve for.

Um and um we're bringing in a a bunch of partners to help them understand what is a symptom, what is a problem, um, and then what's what's the actual cause of all of that.

Um right now they've been um kind of focusing on health disparities, so we have a feeling that's the route that they're gonna go.

Um, but it's totally youth-led, it's totally up to them what they what they choose to work on.

Um so um and what we're asking for from the group is um for you guys to come in uh at Marquette and help them identify, help them ask the questions they need to ask um and help them explore um those issues, and then on July 16th, they will come in uh talk with those departments that connect with the issue that they have identified, um kind of in a fun scavenger hunty way.

Um but um and then um you know their questions answered, um, asked and answered.

Um hopefully we can get um some city leaders uh to work with the the smaller groups to help them you ask the right questions, that kind of thing.

Um and then uh do lunch with you all, um, and then have them present um at your next EYAAC meeting that day.

Um so it isn't a tour.

They will be moving around how they need to move around.

Um, we'll identify the groups um and what departments that they need to be talking to so they can work on that part of the project that they that they're going to be focusing on um as a smaller group as it connects to the larger um project.

Um, but it's 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.

Um so they will be uh naming issues that they care about.

Um, like I said, they've really honed in on um health disparities.

They're actually throwing a an event on July 13th.

Um they're calling it the summer, uh Milwaukee summer MKE love kickback.

Um, but they wanna they're putting together, it's their time out.

I like that.

Um, but they're they're putting together um health and wellness wellness kits for uh to hand out to young people so they have um products to use over the summer, and then um it'll identify like where free clinics are and where wellness and and um tips and tricks to to stay healthy over the summer.

Um they're bringing in um some nutritionists and then they're trying to get the mobile clinic to come to do um uh 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.

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

Um yeah.

So can I just ask a question for Fun Claire.

So so if we break it up into groups of five, they're gonna make their way into city hall that day.

So we need as many departments and city leaders and official to what understand the purpose of why they're there that day.

Um 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, city infrastructure.

Okay.

Yes, but also um present or offer ideas that they may want the city do or improve.

They will they will be presenting.

So yes.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Well you did it before I think yeah I have a quick question or Mr Chair.

Yes.

Um 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 pr uh participate okay um the internal process of here are the big ticket issue items and then their scavenger how do we based on that and connect in with the the relevant departments.

Okay, PW.

And because there is such a short turnaround between uh the tenth and the sixteenth um 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 um what they with how they can support.

I'm already communicated by mine so that's right.

Absolutely groups of five and then so are they chaperone?

So we have a need for chaperones.

Yes there is a need for chaperones.

Um we're hoping to get a city official somebody would have a good one that can chaperone.

There's one of those we do 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 well yes or any city city official we need to get yeah so how many you got twenty.

So many young people how many young people are coming?

Twenty young people.

I like to get one let me get a young vibrant young brother.

Okay.

You get five of them.

Yeah, young vibrant brothers so uh we're hoping that you come to the actual um summit either the ninth or the tenth um whatever days uh you do you all do come um we're thinking of making it more of a community day so every you guys can invite your um constituents and we want all the people there um to support these young people and then um on the the 16th um making sure that you know the meeting you are where the the young people are gonna come and you know say what they've learned good or bad um and you know be able to ask them questions and comments and concerns that you may have for what what they've identified um from their um time at the summit and then their time with the city um departments.

Any questions, comments, concerns?

I know it's very brief overview.

I think I mean I I just think for anyone who um just needs a brief reminder update.

I mean this is part of a bigger project with young people around civic engagement, right?

Like this is this is part of their process and their path to think about things that are important to them and how to solve them and 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.

Um yes um and eventually we wanted to get to like their helping write policies that's going to vote.

Um and that that's actually one of the main focuses uh 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 um we don't just want them to and it it could end up that way um as it is youth led um but we don't want them to just like let's create a day of peace or something like that, right?

Like um we want them to it to actually be how this can not only can I solve problems but this can be a a viable pathway for me.

Um that you we're actually connecting you with real decision makers, leaders in the community um 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 and and it it looks differently um for everybody.

So they can see themselves as health department officials and advocates and planners and electeds and everything else.

And and we have um we piloted the program this year um with about 20 young in um individuals.

It's and um they're loving it.

We went to Madison and talked to some state representatives at the Capitol for the day and they went ham about sex ed I was like oh no.

Should it be in school or not at school?

It should be at school.

Yeah.

Um one of our um young ladies um can you say that is that still okay to say um um w uh 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's 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 but so um 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.

But I used to teach after this.

What I was going to do now they teach sexual education.

My offspring goes to a Catholic school I used to do with the I think we'll not it's not they're still teaching that I will be talking about this is a more one by the other buttons.

So this specifically um they're eighth graders there's one eighth grader but the most of them are nine through twelfth grade for for this specifically we work with third through twelfth grade um with the the new program model um we're focusing on our major cohorts meeting during the summer um and then they'll do their um 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 um hoping that they build relationships with all these people and then they decide what project that they're gonna work on um throughout the summer.

It's totally up to them um to figure out how this project um is is going to be executed or what even the project is um 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 um a major part of our program is I don't want to 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, like 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 um is better than me making up a whole new curriculum.

In regards to the kickoff that um the kick the big kickback how I I 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 uh to make sure we you know, I mean, it's the opportunity.

Um we have we did put it on the young people, um, and so they've all put it out to their schools uh communities.

We we service all of Milwaukee County.

Um so they they come from um I think right now I think we have 12 different schools in our program.

Um so um they're the ones making the marketing, they're the ones that are making the flyers and and um doing the social media posts around it.

Um but any support that we can get to make sure um we get people there um is is important.

We also want to offer free food, we want to offer um we're asking organizations that have summer openings still to come and tables so they can sign up young people on the spot.

Um and then all we're we're doing this at the Kazi Sat I'm saykazi, because I've never been able to pronounce the right.

Um, uh right.

Steve gets it.

Um, but we're we're doing it at the Kazi Center.

So all of those organizations that are housed um in the Kazi Center are running activities as well.

Um, so yeah, so we we want everybody there.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Or yeah, okay.

Do you guys have a preference?

Do you have all those answers?

Do we do we answer all those?

Yeah, um except the what day specific, do you guys prefer the ninth or the tenth to come to Marquette?

Um Thursday, Friday.

For me, Thursday works better.

Okay.

And then are you all okay with it being a community day where we get all the people there?

Yeah.

I think we're working with your org already around some things like what to add to the health kits and things like that.

I mean, okay.

Thank you, Joe.

Appreciate you.

Thanks.

Lead that discussion.

Good morning, I've been Christy Pivot Consulting.

Um we do have Dr.

Gabe Velez from Marquette, one of the co-chairs for the data um uh research committee, so I will let him give uh update on that committee.

Hi Ryan.

Uh sorry, my camera is getting going, but uh good morning.

I'm uh Gabe's um, been uh a couple times there in person to to share about some of it and then jumped in virtually.

Um, to be here with you all this morning.

It was also great to hear from some of the folks earlier, um, 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 and spaces and dual enrollment and in CTE as well.

Um in terms of the work that we're doing as a data committee, um, I wanted to share particularly around our outreach and data collection from youth serving organizations that have received pre-development uh block grants.

So we've had conversations with uh 11 of these organizations.

There's still um a number who have not responded, but eleven is uh is a pretty good and it's a pretty wide range of the ones that we've actually talked to.

Um I'd be happy to just share um follow-up in terms of resharing sort of the questions we've been asking.

We 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 follow that up with a bit of an interview to delve into some of those themes a bit deeper as well.

Um, in terms of some of what we're hearing from them, I'd say the overall kind of like takeaway is that you know they're all collecting data in some ways around what they do, um, but a lot of it is underfunded, um, under resourced in terms of the capacity they have um 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 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, uh, number of youth served.

So we report that, right?

Um, 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.

Um, and in that space, what I would also sort of highlight there is that there's very little that is um longitudinal, um, 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.

Um so that was one area that was kind of key.

Um, the other two areas I would highlight in terms of their what they would like to maybe be able to sort of um 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 was 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, um, and I think that that's pertinent to some of the conversations that I know this community is having because the for instance, something like violence prevention, right?

It's not just about connecting in folks, uh young people into academics or into job placement, like that can matter, and 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 um peacefully or productively.

Um, the other part that they highlighted was they don't really know how to measure or to evaluate complex skills, and so their things that might come up are things like leadership, um, identity, creativity.

Um, so leadership I think is uh it's an interesting one.

You know, it's a a word that matters and or framework that matters, but they just don't have a sense of like how do we actually track this.

Um, all of this kind of to me, um, one other sort of point in the highlighting there would be that they rarely actually engage young people or the or sort of community broadly in designing any evaluation or interpreting the data they collect.

So again, it's 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 um integration of them into this uh research and evaluation that's going on.

What I would highlight is that there was a lot of interest um across these groups first in some kind of shared system or maybe city supported data platform of some sort.

So there's interest in in something that is sort of across organizations that they're connecting into or buying into.

Um 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's something we see as valuable.

Um, they also I mean, you know, this makes sense given what I was saying earlier, but that providing sort of training or technical assistance would be really valuable for these organizations.

Um, so this sense of you know, how do we measure these sorts of things?

What is the framework and structure and that's you know, part of what our um 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.

Um, and then the last part um 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 uh 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 um, you know, it might not be easy.

Uh, 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 um that I know is part of this committee that like the beta philanthropies 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, I think they would value or benefit from some kind of alignment um 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 um when it comes time to show our impact and also um also report back that what we're doing is kind of good.

Questions.

Uh so next we we have convened as a education and workforce development committee two times now.

Okay, and our co-chairs are here.

I can speak to it or or if either one of you want to say something.

Okay, okay.

Good morning, good morning.

Um, yeah, so we've met a couple times now.

Uh first meeting was really good uh 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 uh big concern to the committee in the sense of like if we do this work, how do we measure it?

You know, how is it being measured across all these different um organizations and the work they're doing?

Um our last meeting, uh we we had, I'm sorry, Dr.

Bellas was there, spoke as well about data, but we 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 uh to focus on a pilot program that we can put into place uh using and leveraging uh current resources and seeing how we can augment that program.

One of them, uh actually Eric was here today talking about the work that's being done at MPS around CTE uh through dual enrollment.

Um, and but he also mentioned that like at uh North Division they don't have a advisory board.

So how can we connect we we're doing I think a really good job of connecting our students to these educational opportunities uh through dual enrollment, getting them trained, right?

But then the 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 uh corpor uh companies and how do we get more in of industry to connect with let's say for example MPS, particularly maybe we'll pick one school in particular.

Not that it was North Division, it's North Division in particular, and run a model, a a pilot to see how we can bring in the corporations to actually provide jobs for those students who graduate from these schools so all the students are not gonna go right into the world of work when they graduate from high school.

Many of them will, and having that ability to go right in to actual job in that in that uh trade would be um I think amazing.

Uh right now it happens, but it doesn't happen um intentionally.

Uh I think uh creating more alignment with industry uh 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 28th.

Is there I think sorry, is our next is 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 uh 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.

Yeah, and and we ha employee Milwaukee has some funding um that that they have said that they would help.

So they we have June Kale who's on um that committee as well who presented here uh a couple month a month or so ago.

Um the other thing in terms of like policy that have come up um is not local policy but state policy.

So um the fact that the state we're like I think 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.

Um and then I don't know, Dr.

Cruz, if you want to speak to kind of the full time employee in the dual enrollment piece because I feel like we heard today how the instructors is a real barrier um and having tried to get instructors myself and work with MATC I did not know um what Dr.

Cruz is about to share with us.

So so we have like MATC and all the technical colleges throughout the state offer dual enrollment opportunities and we have dual enrollment uh both that we offer on campus on our campuses and then dual enrollment that we provide like at an MPS on location.

Um the the uh 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 uh we do not get credit from the state uh for our enrollment when it comes to these courses that are taught at the high schools uh 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 um if the students take those courses on our campuses we do get that credit uh from the state so there's that and also the the the issue of just state funding in general for dual enrollment and for CTE at at the high school level uh 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 um but it 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 those credentials that can either serve them going into 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?

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 we're continuing to make this known and uh throughout the state and and with our with the legislature uh as they continue to look at this issue.

I mean there was some legislation that didn't pass uh recently about uh creating a uh like a committee or 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 um not only talking to council members but working with um 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 uh our lobbying efforts as a city as a whole that'd be very curious.

I'm wondering uh you know just to just to put it out there how can we get these the advisory you know the the suggestions like for an advisory committee for North Division or even our subcommittees that kind of spice it up a little bit we have lots of boards got lots of heavy hitters on them.

They run into walls and bureaucracy at all our institutions.

How can we get innovative about breaking some of that down.

Um so I sit on like a NAF board for Audubon just recently I started doing that.

Um and 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 and I think yes we could definitely support because I they need connections to outside people to start bringing them in and buying in and and I think there's needs to be a little bit more structure um I think South Division said they have one as well.

I don't know how many schools actually have that NAF it's about eleven or twelve.

I said that's a chair for a NAF committee for Marshall High School and kind of what you said is the teachers involved and 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 want to 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 employee Milwaukee who's gonna have somebody there, but what else can we do to help we build up that advisory board?

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

Right, exactly.

So the community.

Yeah.

Yeah.

After hours, I think when when people can participate.

Right.

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

Okay, I yeah, I wanna spice some of that up.

So any questions about any of the committees or updates?

Uh thank you.

Dr.

Cruz.

Oh, you're welcome back.

Um, hearing none, uh, can we look at the meeting calendar discussion?

I I want to make sure that that uh we have some of these dates out there and that we're gonna 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.

Uh so yeah, we did speak about that a couple months ago.

Um, there's Mr.

Crumb.

How are you doing, sir?

Hello?

Uh, there's Clifton Crum.

Uh uh, what am I?

Let's see administration director for President Red.

So this is this.

Cool am I today?

No, uh this item was specifically for the 7-16, July 16th date.

So currently it starts at nine o'clock.

Um, and the discussion we had earlier um was about um youth conducting uh a scavenger hunt at City Hall on that date um in the morning, then they would conclude with the EAC meeting in the afternoon, you know, discussing their results.

So uh we would need to change the the time from a a morning meeting till afternoon.

So that's the purpose of this item.

Yeah.

So we start at noon in Montreal about three o'clock.

And that's to accommodate that the schedule with the schedule.

Okay.

Uh the July sixteenth date.

Okay.

A noon start time versus uh nine o'clock.

So we'll update the calendar.

Okay.

Okay.

Any any issues let us know.

Uh is the schedule for the day set or you just you still develop with the day.

We're just changing the time.

The yeah, the we'll have lunch with the youth so they'll do the scavenger hunt in the morning.

Then we'll have uh noon we'll have lunch for them.

We'll all uh the the entire meeting will be in room three oh three.

Okay.

So then we'll have lunch.

Um the members that are able to attend the on the ninth to talk about discussions or reconvene with the person they were working with.

Okay, have additional discussion, and then we'll have the EAC meeting at one o'clock and talked about what they've learned, you know, what you've learned.

Excellent.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

There's no committee on that day.

What is the committee that we can it's that day.

Yeah, the committee meeting will be focused around their findings.

And it'll be at in the afternoon stuff.

We don't want to watch uh yeah.

Council meeting.

Yeah.

Oh that there were yeah, it's not that day.

Um let's see.

Oh, sorry.

Yeah.

Yeah, we already had what's that?

Uh it's a council week, so there's nothing on that day.

Okay.

Yeah, we try to schedule that's the week before.

Oh, the Tuesday before.

Oh, okay.

Any other any anything else we should know for that day?

Um, no, just um the item was just to make sure that members could attend in the afternoon versus the morning.

It's a one o'clock start time because we're having lunch.

No, start time.

Yes.

For the meeting.

We're gonna notice the meeting at uh noon, but it'll start at one o'clock.

The actual formal when you take the galvin it becomes official at the one o'clock.

That way people can interact with the young people at new.

Have lunch.

Okay.

Alright.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Well, uh, moving on.

Any announcements?

Any announcements at all?

Any at all?

No announcements.

Okay.

Alright.

Um our next meeting is uh June twenty fifth.

Look forward to getting an update on some of the subcommittees and uh with there being no further business, this meeting is adjourned.