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I am a Air Force veteran of eight years I worked in Health Service management I've been a surgical technologist since 2014. we have a blended family three children ages ranging from 22 down to six thank you thank you good evening and again thank you everybody for coming my name is Greg Dana I moved to Avon in 1998. I have three kids one is graduated from Avon schools I have a senior in high school and our little guy is in sixth grade at East I work for the NCAA in academics I work in all the academic support programs we do at the NCAA helping our colleges across the country graduate their student athletes I'm a CPA I have a master's degree in education I'm a current vice president of the Avon school board and I'm running to continue to positively support our teachers and staff as they work with our kids thank you so what we'll do now is continue to the questions and I will go to Jennifer first and the question we are posing are what are your reasons for running for the school board I am running for the school board because I'm a concerned parent like I said I have two children enrolled in the Avon Community Schools so I have a very personal investment in the community over the past year many have felt that they have not been heard fully by our school board as far as going to meetings I believe that parents are the best decision makers when it comes to their children and their education Avon's proficiency rates continue to drop and this is not due to covid proficiency rates were dropping even before covet happened and that is affecting everyone in the community Avon is nowhere in line for one of the top performing districts in the state of Indiana we need a positive change we need new eyes and new experiences on this board to make a change I could sit and complain and do nothing however I decided to stand up and fight for my children and other children in the community thank you Sarah um I am running because I believe that students academic success needs and safety should be the drivers behind everything this school board does as an involved parent and a former former classroom teacher like I said I do offer that unique experience and perspective compared to the other candidates up here today I'm aware there's confusion and negativity in the community some of which is misinformation about our schools and the legal authority of the school board but I want to help improve that communication I'm not naive I know that there are legitimate concerns that cannot be ignored and that is why I'm running we deserve a level-headed school board member who has a positive attitude who's capable of asking questions I'm not a pushed over and I'm not shy about elevating concerns to the next level when it's appropriate capable of civil discourse and if I need to mend fences and apologize later as I've said over and over again my mic is still on it sounds sorry it sounds like it was cutting out we need a responsible oversight of our school corporation that means the students the staff and the school facilities I am a new option for the school board who's well informed well prepared motivated to advocate for all students staff and parents with civility I am independent of political and personal agendas and as a board member I intend to continue that way I'm an independent thinker and I will operate on factual data listening to all sides and then you have to consider consider the legal boundaries as well especially before voting as a on a board of five so my goal is to be a part of an effective school board that strives for consensus by listening to all viewpoints seeking a fair inclusive solution to benefit all students thank you Shauna uh I got involved with coming to school board meetings when I noticed to put it bluntly uh the abuse of power by the current school board that was being asserted over the rights of the parents my daughter had just entered kindergarten and even though I didn't have a child enrolled in Avon schools I still felt compelled to show up and advocate for and support the students and parents of this community because I value children and I value their education education is the future children are the future I strongly believe that we need to reverse the current course of radicalization and get back to a classical curriculum that involves parents and provides them with the seat at the table I believe that teachers should teach academics and parents should teach morals and values if we can just get back to the basics of teaching and leave the political and social engineering agendas out of it I think we will find that much of the issues and the decline in proficiency scores would correct themselves thank you thank you Greg thank you Trilby I'm running for Avon School Board because I've seen the great educational experiences my kids have Avon schools and I want that to continue I value our class sizes our small class sizes I value our excellent teachers I value our focus on data to drive educational and policy decisions and I want all of that to continue we do have a learning loss due to covid and I want that to be our number one priority so I want to again positively support our teachers and staff as we look at the data figure out solutions to bring these kids back up to where they need to be and again being a CPA and a fiscal conservator I want to be in the room when we make decisions on how to handle our growth our community is growing and we are growing fast and we have to we have to manage that and I believe I'm the best person to be in that room when we make sure how to make when we figure out how to do that in a fiscally responsible day way without raising taxes I am a parent I want to continue being the parent representative on the school board I do take great pride in the listening that we've done to all voices as we tried to solve these last couple very difficult years and I want to make sure that when we make decisions we are just focusing on the kids and what's in the best interest of the kids thank you Anita well as you know I'm a current Avon School Board member slash officer and I am so very proud of the work that we have done over the last four years we have had many successes yet there is much more to do my knowledge and learning over the last four years has made me even more passionate about making Avon Community Schools the best District in the state of Indiana I believe in the team that I have been working with over the last four years and we have model collaboration and our plans to increase student learning and achievement while also making sure our students are in a safe learning environment thank you Nia we'll go to the next question with Sarah and I will make a comment that you know we are here to listen to the school candidates and we don't mind Hoots and hollers but we want to make sure that we get to hear everybody all right Sarah and the rest describe your past and current School Community involvement all right my school and Community involvement started when I was an Avon teacher as I mentioned I was here for over 11 years teaching at three of our elementary schools so you can imagine all the change that I saw I loved the relationships that I built with my students and their families and when I resigned to move to the private sector I remained involved with a awesome Grassroots group of community members called Oriole Advocates as we sit here tonight with their hosting this I have spent years for advocating for our school district and I've also testified twice downtown at the state house in front of our lawmakers to try and appeal for fair funding for our school as a parent of four Avon students I am in the schools regularly to volunteer and work with my children's teachers and and the staff I love the ability to see firsthand the hard work that the students teachers and staff are doing day to day when I say staff I want to make sure that I include everyone I mean custodians front office staff technology staff bus drivers my family loves Miss Kathy and Miss Diane they are all a critical they all play a critical role in all of our children's education I have attended Community meetings many of you have seen me many of you have talked to me I speak to our leaders about our schools the need to work together and I have attended school board meetings for years long before I decided to run and since filing to run I've made it a goal to be at all the meetings so I can learn about the current challenges and Jump Right In if I'm elected to which I said I will say put me in coach one of the most enjoyable parts of our school board meetings the that I really like is the celebrate our Orioles portion I care deeply about our school community and I want to be a part of that I'm proud of my local endorsements because they are intimately familiar with this community and our school district and that includes the former Avon school superintendent Dr Maggie horneman the current 19-year or maybe it was 18 I heard her say School Board member and former president of the Indiana school boards associate Association Kim Woodward current Township Trustee Don Hodson thank you and the Avon Federation of teachers thank you Shauna up until this point uh my involvement has been fairly minimal as I mentioned previously I do not have a child currently enrolled in the Avon schools but I would like to see that change not all families meet the requirement to receive School vouchers um and it's quite a heavy financial burden for families to carry to have to pay tuition to a private school uh in addition to providing tax dollars to fund a public school that they don't feel is a current adequate environment for their child to thrive intellectually so uh but with that being said I have many friends who are closely aligned and involved with the school in the community and I'm very well and informed of what's going on uh but I think there's a much greater level of fiscal and curriculum transparency that needs to be more easily accessible so that parents in the community know and understand exactly what's going on me and Jennifer would like to propose a similar idea to have a curriculum committee that's comprised of parent-teacher volunteers who want to review the curriculum together so you we welcome that we we want you to be involved and informed in your child's education uh I think that the only way this will work successfully is that parents be included and have an active role in what their children are learning thank you Greg thank you Shelby um I'll do the community in school in two separate house so my school involvement started in Avon 20 years ago when my children were born I started attending school board meetings I went to the superintendent at the time and said you know how can I get involved and I was placed on some committees so I ended up serving on the broad-based planning committee for about 10 years I've served on many other committees throughout the years such as teacher of the year committees or when we were hiring principals sometimes they would ask for parents to come and serve on those committees so I've been very active in supporting the schools all the way through since the early 2000s I worked on both referenda which I'm very very proud of so we attempted to get a referendum in 2011 we were unsuccessful we learned an awful lot from that and the school district experienced a lot of pain after we had to make those cuts and I was again very active in supporting and working towards the 2018 referendum which was successful I'm currently the vice president of the Avon School Board in the community I've been coaching youth soccer in this community for 25 years thank you Anita I have had both the honor and the privilege of being an incumbent um serving as Avon Community School Board as a member and officer for the last four years the work is not complete or finished yet we have had many successes that we could not have done without listening talking collaborating and coming to a consensus thank you for allowing me to grow and learn with you we have done very well but we can continue to grow with even more successes for our students teachers parents staff and extended families thank you thank you Jen yes um I have served in the past the community as being a nursery worker in the local church and also serving special needs children in the church I served as a chaperone when we did field trips I've brought in products when teachers asked and I've also served at like Field Days I serve my community every day by the work that I do you might you have to have a caring and patience to work with patients that are chronically ill and hospice patients also I am very involved in my children's education and very involved with their teachers every parent should be able to be involved in every aspect of their child's education they should feel comfortable reaching out to their teachers and teachers should feel comfortable reaching out to parents when there is an issue or concern we need to bring back parent teacher conferences we need the collaboration and transparency if we are going to make any positive changes I am willing to stand up and be involved in every aspect of the Avon Community I have attended scoreboard meetings in the past and I know what I need to learn and I'm willing to step up and learn that um I am endorsed by some people in the community um the reason I am Doris is not because my views line up with all their views it's basically because I stand up for parents I'm willing to put parents first and students first I will advocate for parents I will be transparent with you and I want you to be involved with me so we can bring back this community to where it needs to be thank you next question we're going to go start with Shauna and I'm gonna it's gonna like a two-fold so uh you would please describe if you're already an incumbent uh the very roles that you see at this as a school board member but if you're a candidate the types of service obligations you expect as a school board mentor um so this well the school board is responsible for the curriculum finances policy making uh hiring and firing of the superintendent But ultimately being held accountable to parents and students and the stakeholders of this community our students are the reason our schools exist the first role of education is to support students and students are best supported through partnering with parents I think school board should make sure to protect rigorous and robust academics and remove the political agendas embedded into every corner of the curriculum which does nothing but hinder that ability I would like to see the school board members be more accessible and accountable to the community I would like to see a board who respect and honor a parent's desire to send their child to school knowing they will be educated and prepared for College and Career Readiness of the parents that I've spoken to are fed up with their children being indoctrinated with culture Marxism and hypersexualized and groomed with ideologies that manipulate and confuse them into believing that they can't trust the reality of their own bodies when they can't even read write or do math at grade level so School Board should be aligned with Community Values and together should set the community standard for academic Excellence ensure that that standard is adhered too thank you Greg well School Board service is about as Kim said it's a little bit more simple it's about helping the administration serve our kids so the Administration has to make the policies in terms of you know how we're going to administer education to our kids and school board's job is to support them we need to keep the kids first we need to support the teachers and we need to add value to the community by listening to the community the Cornerstone of all of that obviously is keeping the kids first making sure we're making kid-first decisions we've talked a little bit and I've heard some of the candidates up here talk about listening the community and I wholly agree with that we experienced that during covid I see people in this room who are on both sides of that issue with me um and all of us because we all had lots of different opinions on how we should manage that as a community but what I'm very very proud of as we is that we got together and listened and talked and we had lots of little focus groups and people came to us and we spent a lot of time listening to all the different perspectives again we all didn't agree with where we all landed on that but that's the perfect example about how this community was more respectful and was more collaborative managing throughout some of the other communities in in Indiana in this country and I'm very very proud of the fact that we were able to work through that collaboratively I do want to talk about one thing that some of the candidates up here have talked about and that is the school board setting curriculum school boards don't set curriculum um you know again that we are a public school and it's Our obligation to teach the state standards so the state sets the standards that our teachers teach and honestly because we've all talked about how we don't believe any of these kids are really where we want them to be I think it's one that's one thing we all agree on we have I've had some learning loss due to covid our teachers are very very busy teaching the state standards to bring these kids back up to where the state expects them to be and the the goal of the school board members to support our teachers in doing that thank you Anita I'll live in Avon I shop in Avon and my all of my grandchildren have attended Avon schools I have been a member of the Avon school system and I am proud of what the board has been able to accomplish we have worked together as a team to guarantee our teachers and students have the best we can offer them thank you Jennifer the school board is supposed to represent the community and also is a policy making entity they must have a collabor relationship with staff in the community they need to consider the values of the community by listening to them being transparent with them and respecting their roles as parents and taxpayers the school board should see that resources are being used appropriately and monitoring progress to make Corrections mid course if needed the School Board needs to be transparent in all of its roles we need to shift to a focus on academic excellence I know the school board can't actually do the curriculum but we can work on picking a curriculum based on the laws based on what has to be taught we need to be open to parents I need school board meetings open to parents comments letting them say what they want to say and being let them be heard and hoping to make decisions based with the parents in mind thank you Sarah so um I read somewhere that school boards are accountable for everything but manage nothing and I've come to find out through you know this journey this campaign journey and my decision to run that basically as a few of people up here and Mrs Woodward already explained that the school board is um designed as the governing body for Avon schools and it must follow the laws of the state and the board policies that are already established and the daily decision-making operational things those are the responsibility of the superintendent and the administrators and the only thing I'll add about the main areas that like I said many people have already said is the other piece of we act as Liaisons to the community when I was considering running I decided to attend a class first word candidates that was put on by Indiana School Board Association also known as isba and I'll reference that later so this was a class where I was able to increase my knowledge about the role of school boards the legal boundaries and I also learned about the code of ethics of a school board member and I want to share those with with you I'm sorry just I'm going to read them because I want to make sure I don't mess them up it requires school board members to think always in terms of Children First conduct all School business transactions openly represent the entire School community at all times and refuse to play politics in any either traditional partisan or in a petty sense and I'm committed to following those and I'd like to challenge the candidates up here to see if they would commit to follow the isba code of ethics as well there's no place for a narrow view to influence the way in which I vote and as a board member I plan to listen and learn all the data data the information and the legal boundaries before I form an opinion and then vote thank you next question goes to Greg what would your top three priorities be for local programs and or resources in the Avon Community School District and if the budget were tight what's the first thing you might see as expendable that one wasn't in our prompts uh no it wasn't foreign so we we've been talking about again as we've been answering these questions we've been talking about what are the the big three issues or what are the issues and and to me we have three that that do jump out to the top the first is the learning loss we've talked about our kids have have fallen behind um you know there is no question that those two years of covid were no good for example and I know many of you have the same experience I have a son who has quarantined six times in one semester um he learned almost nothing and he spent the entire next semester trying to catch up that was not a good year for him um and we have thousands of those kids so our number one priority is addressing that learning loss and helping our teachers and staff um you know use the data they have and I'm very proud of my focus on data and my focus on making sure our Administration brings the data forward to the school board to make sure we can identify where those issues are with those kids so all the way down to the individual child level and then give those kids the support they need to get back to where they need to be second mental health issues have obviously grown very much with all of these children throughout covid mental health needs for these kids have skyrocketed and we're seeing rates of mental health issues in young people that we've never seen before in this in this country so kids with mental health issues need support from their families their communities and in their schools and so we have to figure out how our counselors and social workers can identify the kids with the most need and give them the support they need so they can be ready to learn when they get to class and then the third one is the teacher shortage the teacher shorted is real it is here we are very fortunate in Avon that we haven't experienced it the way other school districts have had but it is coming and we absolutely have to figure out how to attract and retain the best teachers that includes increased continue to increase teacher pay but that also includes about the culture that we support for those teachers the support they get from their community and their their um as staff and their Administration and their school board and so I think again we need a very positive School Board that's supporting and attracting and trying to retain the best teachers I'm done you lucked out you lucked out all right Monita yeah and I would also uh say that one is the uh due to Virtual learning Nationwide most of the children are behind so working on that as well as retaining uh and recruiting the best of the best of the teachers we want our teachers Educators to feel that they are valued and that um so they'll be happy in the classroom and uh the children will benefit from it so that that would be the two things and also about the funding coming from the state federal and local dollars and how that's used you get a certain amount per child unless it's virtual learning and then it's decreased a little bit so and some of the things that we can spend that money on is Staffing Transportation maintenance service food and general supplies thank you Jennifer the top three to focus on the first is academics uh bring in those proficiency rates back up when covet hit I had a daughter in kindergarten and we are struggling with reading sounding Out words and I have a son in fifth grade and there are words he can't even spell that I'm kind of shocked that in fifth grade he should know how to spell these words so we need to bring these academics back up to par when we're sitting in 40 proficiency rates and math and English I don't know to you guys but to me that's very unacceptable um also I think we need to look at special needs programs we need to bring parents together to discuss programs that help these special need kids to excel as other kids in the community going to back to teachers teachers to retain and we need to let them teach teach get back to the academics instead of assuming all these other roles that they have to take on I think I know a lot of teachers that have left I have friends who husbands and wives and stuff were teachers in Avon they've left due to the fact that they have so much on their plate they just want to get back to teaching academics um also another issue I've had Parents reach out to me is about the high ability how they've gotten rid of the high ability programs I would like to come together with parents and staff and discuss this and how we can bring this High ability programs back into the schools thank you I believe the largest percentage of school funding I'm going to say that it's anything that's related to classroom instruction so that's going to go straight to an impact class sizes support staff classroom materials and then teacher salaries as I you know in my own experience of being a teacher the most powerful impact on student achievement is in that classroom with a teacher um I'm a big believer in a well-rounded curriculum and that needs to not only include stem but music and art options as well there's also a secondary need to that for other staff or excuse me student needs like getting school kids to school with busing and Technology needs as we look around here in this room and I commend the district for their Improvement on those class sizes The increased teacher compensation and those additional supports as our student population has grown but to maintain this our school district needs and the community needs to continue to work with lawmakers advocacy groups like The Advocates Town Council County Council and any entity that can impact our community's growth in the school funding you did ask about what's Expendable that's a real hard one I'm going to go with something like maybe Landscaping because I feel like that's safe but nothing that impacts our classroom thank you Shawna um I yeah I'm gonna excuse me go the route with the high ability program I know a lot of parents that's been an issue for um and and as well as the special parents with special needs children uh I think that all children need to have the tools to uh get the education that they need to be successful um and that we're we're ensuring that all children's needs are being met and also uh the proficiency scores what what are we doing to bridge that Gap to ensure that uh major education loss that was uh lost during covid I think that needs to be a really big focus is to getting those children back to where they need to be thank you I'm gonna go out on a limb here and I'm gonna say as an oriole Advocate we have gone to the legislatures that the the representatives the Senators and we have been fortunate that they have given more money to the public school systems but things may change uh we might get a smaller piece of the pie so part of the Expendable question might be unrelated to the property taxes which is for the buildings and the buses and the computers if the legislators were had to decrease our per student funding which goes to the payment of teachers and the infrastructure for the children I'm going to start back with you Greg because it's still the same question what is it that try to dodge that the first time you're going to let me um no I think it's really important I think it's a very very important question um I don't believe anything we're doing is expendable um I really don't think as we think through where we have teachers where we have you know we can't say we're going to cut teachers we can't say we're going to cut counselors we can't say we're going to cut buses there's you know we can't we're going to do less bus maintenance or we're going to run fewer routes and so it really we lived this during the first when we lost the first referendum and it was just stretch it was stretch everything it was get creative it was figure out how to do things like if you remember when I first moved to Avon um we stopped at every house on the bus routes um any of you have been around for a while I see some of my if I remember that we don't do that anymore and I personally think we could actually stop a little bit less so Transportation folks so you can do some things like that you have to go into your class sizes and say we're at 24 can we do 26.
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this is the approval so I think everybody has that opportunity to read and review it do I have a motion to accept that policy have a motion by Travis during the second second by Earl any discussion sure um we talked about this the last couple meetings this um basically take staff communication it doesn't remove the chain of command does is we don't feel that chain of command the next level anybody no it doesn't remove it for some reason if you don't feel comfortable any additional discussion okay all those in favor six seven so now under new business programs we have a stem Grant approval yes so we applied for a competitive Grant from the idoe for stem integration and we were happily notified that we received it for seventy five thousand dollars so asking for approval for that tonight this grant will allow us to continue professional development and even more exciting fun stem supplies for our classroom so when teachers want to do a project would be able to give them the materials they need so asking for approval to accept the stem integration grade case do we have a motion to accept this approval of the have a motion by path or have a second by Susan any discussion all those in favor 6-0 now we go down under support staff yeah some recommendations recommending Jerry but she is physical time to a part-time stem parapro position Heather Combs will be at the high school this is fed paraprofessional Martin Johnson will be a Jennings County Middle School 8th grade basketball volunteer coach D Jones is going to move from the head coach or sorry from the co-head Coach position to a coast co-assistant swimming and Diving Coach position Jeff Jones is moving from a co-head coach to a co-assistant swimming and Diving coach John Paul Ross is being recommended as the Jennings County Middle School lifeguard Kayla Spicer is a Jennings County middle school nurse in a classroom Avery Townsend is a Jennings County Middle School custodian and Morgan Webster moving from the Jennings County High School assistant coach to the Head swimming and Diving coach asking for approvals foreign those recommendations I have a measure my Travis do we have a second by Pat any discussion follow those in favor six oh down under finances we have some donations yes Scipio United Methodist Church 100 to the Scipio elementary breakfast slash lunch for students in need Hayden United Methodist Church 500 to the middle Christian Club McDonald's 22 or 2022 Matt Grant 500 to the High School culinary arts Steve and Mary Combs fifty dollars to the Hope food program and Grand Creek Baptist Church 7 570 to the boat program do we have a motion to accept those donations have a motion by Pearl do we have a second second by Chelsea any discussion all those in favor think so and then we're down to other one item this evening asking for approval to rescind the resignation by sethia okay do I have a motion I have a motion by Chelsea do I have a second by Travis any discussion Seth welcome home all those in favor think so that was it then um hearing no other items on the agenda then I'll entertain a motion to adjourn I have a motion by Earl do I have a second a second by Pat there's no discussion so all those in favor except meeting adjourned thank you foreign
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Eva guile and the fans are erupting the hockey team over there is celebrating the field hockey team it's just awesome both Kyle sisters with one goal on the game Ava and Grace my apologies two schools scored Now by Grace guile Ava Gile did not have that one pass across to Hollard down low to Kyle I mean it's just spectacular to hear the fans the chanting from the crowd over there the hockey team really celebrating this all but probable victory at this point for East Longmeadow s with the ball now some good Fort checking here from the Spartans but Blue Devils will end up coming out of their own offensive zone for really some of the few times they've done it and the ball will go out of bounds yeah just a tough pass there snuck along the sidelines if she could have just kept that one a little bit more in play they would have had a little bit of an offensive opportunity inbound here from Howard Howard down the sideline again it'll roll out that's our second time tonight yeah it just didn't seem like she got it into play at all from the beginning it looked like one of those soccer throw-ins that just never makes it in bounds inbound here from the Blue Devils all bouncing around kicked out Blue Devils end up with it great stop there by number 14.
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it's one year of data so I can't compare that to the prior year to goals that had been set another for example is progress against affordable housing targets so in Council in 2015 set of goal of I think it was creating 2 800 new affordable housing units um there's no place to go to to see what the status is on that I also looked for diversion rate on statistics you can't find those you know these things are really just fundamental to Citizens interactions with city government and um when I said when I say a smart goal I think everybody knows the acronym you know it's it's a goal that is specific that is measurable that is attainable that is relevant and that it is time-bound um so you know some of the things that I've talked about um and by the way road condition is another one the city city road uh condition is has an objective measure it's called a paiser rating there are goals that have been set multiple times for achieving certain levels of uh Road quality you cannot find anywhere on the city's website any kind of trending of are we making progress against that goal um or what the goals are and and things like that so I just think these these things are are fundamental and you know whether Council then uh sits together with the attorney's office and with the city administrator and changes out some of the terminology to me that's not really important the specific due dates aren't all that important I think it's important that it's we we communicate that this is important to us as commissioners as residents at council members that this kind of data is really important to us that we want to be able to see outcomes and we want to see progress against those outcomes and if we're not making progress then maybe it's a number of different things where the city administrator can go back and say I don't have enough resources maybe City comes back the council and says I have an unrealistic goals that are being set and when frankly when progress is being made that as someone else mentioned earlier that it can really be celebrated so those are just some thoughts that I had as relevant to some of the um comments that were made up until now so thank you Kathy Griswold um yeah I just want to say that a lot of work has been done and there's positive movement and recognition that this is needed uh I'm aware of projects that were started by two former city administrators um and it's not that they didn't have the knowledge and staff support the there wasn't the political will to implement this and so I think it's very important moving forward that we have the support from our elected leaders and I was talking to my replacement on city council and he had already had discussion with some of the new incoming council members about the need for data so I think that's really a positive and um so we're really building on the work that's already been done uh we heard from Brian steglitz tonight he's he thinks that way he's done some of that work already but we haven't had sort of the systems to uh to publicize it and the ability to to put it out there on a dashboard the way it should should be um so I would like to have this resolution passed tonight while at the same time if there are Commissioners who have concerns I would be willing to work with them and with with John mursky between now and the next council meeting which isn't until Thursday the 10th and offer a resolution at the meeting but I I just think we really need to move forward right now it's it's critically needed there's it's it's almost like we're we're moving in silos within the city of Ann Arbor and as a result we're not as effective and we don't recognize the Excellence of some of our staff members because we don't have this information out there oh yeah I see Steve stand up um yeah um I agree and I really appreciate the comments that commissioner Morrison Advanced um but I think um I think that that's not um to me that does not uh present a problem with um with accepting it as it is because I I've seen the same variety of definitions and different contexts but it's just important to put those three items in there somewhere that there's policy objectives that are clear and well expressed um they're budgeted through smart goals and that the kpis are are agreed on so you know they're they're not all the same thing of course but um they're all things that need to be thought of as pieces of the implementation of a real Performance Management program and um and I think it we have talked about this for many times um you know for for years actually on this sort of thing has been a matter of conversation among Council and the commission and the city staff so I think just leaving the dates as they are is not is not it's fine because um I agree that of course the implementation will all depend on what budget is provided by Canada approved by Council so I'm very happy to just uh pass this as it is to vote on it yes as is and um and um and see how it progresses through the true authorities which is our elected representatives on Council and the city staff but I think this is an important thing that needs to be um an important activity within the city government over the next year and that the dates of achievement really depend on things that are out of our control um I would also remind people that um I'm sure there are certainly quite a few foia requests that are made regularly to obtain this information and when the city's thinking about its budget they should think about the amount of time that are spent by staff on a fulfilling foia requests you know they should all they should think of that as a potential Time Saver and I'm not talking about emails between city council you know I'm talking about foia requests for this kind of information so Steve there are two more people with questions that you know sorry to sort of um into late time here um um councilman verdish yeah I really really appreciate the work that has gone into this and I think it's very much in the spirit of uh support for what residents expect from a democratic and and transparent government and so I think that it's very much worth talking about um it is a great idea the feedback that I've gotten from the city administrator is that it just can't be a priority right now and so um I'm I I think it I think that we probably want to make sure that we have he also indicated that in terms of a channel for bringing forward some this kind of a proposal it's great to get the residents feedback through the environmental commission and the energy commission uh and all of that but um yeah I think as as uh commissioner Calvert mentioned creating the infrastructure for this kind of thing um and budgeting for it is is that's quite a big deal and I think that we would need to have a staff champion before um I think it'd be appropriate for Council to pass a resolution because a resolution is really saying we are making this a priority for you and I think that it's really important to consider where the thing I mean there's this is important and there are so many important things and we I think do need to take some guidance and feedback from staff in the city administrator as to where this fits in the larger constellation of priorities that they have and so um I'm I'm not you know I I'm supportive of utterly the principles that inform this but I'm trying to be realistic about uh the resources and budgeting and um you know and just the months we've seen OSI go through interviewing different people who might be able to sustain a dashboard for them it is a pretty involved process I see another question or a hand up um from commissioner Graham um I'm [Music] very much in favor of proceeding down this line but and without commenting I further on that uh the environmental commission is really advisory to the council we recommend things to the council and yet the resolved Clauses here sort of see us directing the administrator and stepping I would say a bit out of our bounds I realize we have a couple of council members here and maybe they're um they have the sense of the rest of the council and we're okay doing that but uh I'm a little uncomfortable um resolve the city administrative State accounts of will review based on the advice Etc I'm we um the began telling what to do we can only suggest and advice John moski I just have a basic question and that is this has been where the city administrator since March um we discussed this uh a month ago there were several email exchanges with him um I haven't had any other proposed language changes or date changes from anyone um as I indicated before um this this will not set City policy as you know as commissioner Graham implies this goes from us to council and is then we'll be revised as council member Griswold said between council members and the city administrator will probably be modified again when it comes actually to a discussion in front of council I think it's really important that this move forward so that it is considered in the budgeting process so it is considered among other priorities and so that there are resources and there is a discussion about this um in in the broader context otherwise if this doesn't get acted on now um it will move out another year and I'd like to remind everyone what I said in the last meeting the last meeting I asked the city administrator in an email um when when to bring this back up and he said to bring it back up this is in May in April he said to bring it up in September and I brought it forward in October meeting and since then uh we are where we are so what what I would ask is that we move forward on this with the recognition that this will be revised and hopefully we can get to a point where everyone recognizes that this is fundamental to uh any organization and how it operates but but particularly one that serves residents and taxpayers and provide services to all of us so that we have some idea of are we actually meeting the key the key objectives policy objectives um that that we've all set together through our Collective Democratic processes thanks John anyone else sorry John I I this is the first time I've seen the resolution or even heard about it so forgive me for not being up to speed um nor am I objecting to going to going ahead with resolutions I just the wording is a little forward to me as it as I see it for the first time foreign any other comments would we like to move to a vote or consider a vote would someone like to call the question yeah okay okay Steve Brown we'll call the question and so I don't think we have a motion on the floor yet okay foreign like to move to approve I moved to consider having a vote on this resolution okay is there a second okay all right so all in favor of passing this resolution for transparency in the city um raise your hand or say I and okay all right all right would you all keep your hands up account nine um are there any Nays nay two Nays all right any abstentions thanks Steve I think that was everyone who was a voting number here um so I declare this to be passed uh with nine Eyes Two Nays and ask that um councilmember Griswold um who agreed to join us in in supporting it uh take it to the city council for next approach and um actually I should ask John mursky do you need anything additional from the environmental Commission in order to take it to the energy commission if you so choose no okay and I just want to entertain any amendments before it goes before city council uh and so feel free to reach out to me or or I'm sure uh Lisa would also be willing to talk to to people about their concerns because thank you all for this discussion I think it raised some issues that that I see is very important too and but I do feel that it will be a good thing for us um so that um leaves us at 9 20 with um a good good meeting I think with everyone and I appreciate it um Steve I want to ask your um recommendations on the remainder of the meeting with um reports out and um items for next agenda Etc do you want to take over at this point um yeah I'm willing to take yeah I will take the tour back okay thank you all right thanks for your thanks for doing this and I'll try to get my computer working better next time with the internet well so um so the next item on the agenda are reports from committees other commissions Council and chair um so um let's try to be brief um let's start with um with pollinators okay back to me um I've been working with the A2 pollinator Network including um commissioner Gruber and we are moving forward with sort of an informal uh program to leave the leaves in the fall which is a voluntary approach suggesting people not move their leaves into the formal compost City compost but leave them in their yards at least their yards um and so with the intent to preserve protection habitat for pollinators and [Music] um to have them there for next year um we will be preparing and we've been working with Sean with um for which I really appreciate it um to prepare some materials more formally for next year to address how we'll approach the seasonal changes so um stay tuned um and watch for our next newsletter we'll have more okay thank you Rita how about um natural features um I've been inactive forgive me this has been a year in business that I don't want to relive please forgive me back in the horse saddle uh coming up shortly okay Chris thanks yeah it's good to see you back um so let's see how about um from Solid Waste we've already had a presentation um is there anything that um um the John commissioner calart or nope you heard everything okay now I believe we have all right thank you um so let's see in the water quality um we have not met we have not met during the past month so we'll have a report next month on water quality work group um other Commissioners let's start with planning uh I think I'm doing the report because we can't hear Shannon so um the the we're working on um eliminating parking minimums didn't we do that already though I thought maybe I'm just yeah I thought we did that um we set maximum parking maximum with tc1 and we'll be looking at Citywide parking maximums this year as well but that's complicated so we don't know how that's going to go um we are moving on to uh We've okay Council will be voting on the extension of the amending the map of tc1 or amending the city zoning map to extend tc1 to Stadium um and then we'll be moving on to the other two areas from there um we're very excited that proposed UDC changes around solar energy system flexibility and electrification will be discussed at Planning Commission on November 15th others have suggested that we pursue simultaneously um putting those requirements in the building code but it is the opinion of um our planning staff that that would not withstand a legal challenge while we have a better chance of doing that in the UDC um and we I guess the question has been raised about using um using connect connection fees in a way to incentivize sustainable development and I don't think that that has I don't think we've seen interest in that from the public services but I think that that's an area to open a conversation with them because there is one of those places where if you can get interdepartmental cooperation that you know maybe that opens up I don't know um Shannon what am I missing I know there's well oh I should be saying that the master plan is coming our way and it's going to be a huge amount of work for planning and so we expect that to take quite a bit of time Steve I need your cues because I don't have the list of the next group I think I'm probably up with energy thanks John so just briefly uh the 2021 Greenhouse uh community-wide Greenhouse uh gas inventory has now been completed it was presented in the last meeting it's posted under the energy Commission on legistar just very briefly um emissions were up last year over 2021 which is or over 2020 I should say which is to be expected because of the covet's impact in 2020 uh they were still below 2019 levels although last year we still had some covet impacts so it's really hard to compare year-to-year differences there were some drops which were significant um related to electricity U of M has uh moved to some renewable um Supply and that had a discernible impact there's also drops in a variety of um in reductions in various building areas which sort of also is probably related to uh the pandemic um and then um finally transportation is also down which is also related to the pandemic so I encourage you to look at that because it's really important it'll be really interesting to see the inventory for 2022 and to compare that to 2019 because we're more or less in a normal year this year with the University running in the hospital and everything else and the last time we had that was in 2019.
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and again that's out of a total possible 78. and you might look at different indicators so like if I look at indicator 8 which has just two indicators and again it's just a timeline compliance you'll see all the schools are compliant with that and exceeding so they have the total maximum points of six but a more complex one like element number one for example you're always looking to enhance your your programs your initiatives things that you're doing so there's more factors where some of those are actually twos and threes but I am happy to report that in each of the areas all schools either met or exceeded in every area so we didn't have any school where we're saying nope we didn't meet those requirements or that we just met them partially um so then what do we do with that information so we once we actually have all those self-assessments we look at that in terms of the district level because again we're always looking at what we can do to enhance our programs from year to year um so we look at District kind of Trends in analysis we talk to anti-bullying Specialists so I have meetings with them where we talk about you know again those Trends and patterns that you talked about at the school now let's talk across the district do we see an increase across Middle School what what do we think those are related to you know are we seeing more things happen in the cafeteria as opposed in the classroom so we'll talk about the different Trends and things that are happening and then things we can focus on both as a district and a school um and that also principles are a part of that we then develop and share recommendations and then we turn key those recommendations so I would turn key them to principles and to anti-bullying Specialists and then they then are in charge of coordinating and turning them at the building level to their school safety teams so in terms of what are the recommendations for this year so one is we have a theme that we started this summer courage counts that started with our summer reading books and we have charged each of the schools to kind of integrate that theme so it's not something we just started for September but to look for opportunities throughout the year for how we can make courage count kind of comes along come to life in the schools both district and school level and really where we connected that to um anti-bullying would be the idea of being an upstander or a bystander and that that takes assertion to do that the second one is connected to social emotional competencies so the idea of emphasizing those for us we use cares cooperation assertion assertion actually switches to advocacy in Middle School um the idea of actually having responsibility empathy self-control in October so we did this during the week of respect at elementary we have character matter units that we implemented last year for the first time and then we revised and enhance those over the summer and so each school did particular lessons related to diversity appreciating differences what is bullying Behavior what's the difference between tattling and Reporting so things like that so that was implemented during the week of respect at elementary schools and then we were also in doing an initiative at Middle School where we started last year kind of laying the foundation for that but this year we actually started with the first actual activities to become a new place for hate school so we will be going through the process of becoming designated this year as a new place for hate and that has different elements and pieces that each of our schools at middle schools will be doing the other thing that we have in terms of a recommendation is to consider a spring survey option so last year as part of the foundation for a new place for hate at middle school we did a student survey and then we also did a staff survey so we kind of haven't done a parent survey the last couple years again with a pandemic and covet and everything going on something that we might look to do in the spring we kind of rotate that on a cycle and then the last thing is it relates to school safety or climate team we want them to really look at a couple of the areas the annual recommendations that they make for their team as it relates to school climate Improvement Wellness or sustainability any professional development that either they can attend or provide and then also that they're actually assessing the hip program's approaches or initiatives that the team decided to do at the school level so did they actually work or is there something we need to do different for the next year and that is the end of the first presentation [Applause] and you're going to listen to me again I'm sorry you did uh Robin's gonna come up so Robin Collins is our well so many things but she also has the pleasure of being the district testing coordinator um so annually we get the pleasure of actually presenting we would call the state of the schools and Justin Smith our superintendent will be joining us for a part of the presentation but Rob and I'll get started so basically each year we're always looking back at the previous year and giving some highlights and some different things from that we are required as a school district each year to report out on State Testing results but again that's a moment in time assessment so we like to actually provide more and to help get kind of a broader brushstroke of the things that we do and that assessment and programs and what we're looking at in terms of focus areas um so what we'll talk about and I'm sorry ahead of time this one's longer uh but we will try to summarize some parts and certainly if anyone has questions or you want to take a closer look at it or study it and then contact me I'm always happy to talk about it in more detail so whether that's a phone call and email you're welcome to do that but I will promise to try and keep the presentation moving but it's a much longer one so we're going to start by talking a little bit about assessment perspective so again it's not a moment in time assessment but what we're looking at is a district esea performance report so this is tied to federal dollars that we get each year so we report out on on those areas um District assessment results again this isn't something that's required but we like to provide to help with that snapshot standardized testing results again were required to report on just the state test but we actually include an aptitude assessment in here as well so again we're not just looking at achievement we're looking at aptitude and then we're trying to get a full picture and then most importantly in my opinion is really what we do in terms of data review process analysis and what we're doing in terms of then turnkeying that at the school level and again in the classroom level okay so uh in terms of perspectives so these are all the different things that we are doing or looking at uh while your kids are in school so district-wide assessments and we're looking in two areas growth as well as achievement because again we're always going to have students who are below level so they might start below grade level but that's okay what's most important they might not finish on grade level but they should have made growth throughout this course of the school year so we're always looking for growth first and absolutely achievement as well so some of the examples are that are Benchmark proficiencies we have those in language arts we also have some benchmarks in other areas but that's the one we're going to highlight tonight is language arts and then we also have in the area math a mid-year and end of year assessment and we'll kind of show you some results as it relates to end of year in terms of standardizes test that again is State assessments as well as an aptitude assessment so we'll highlight those and then again I think most importantly is the day-to-day assessment that's happening in the classroom so your teachers they are constantly looking to assess kids in terms of you know they might use rubrics or checklists or portfolios or anecdotal records quizzes tests but all of those different assessments that they're doing really help to give a full picture of where students start and where they're ending we also look at teacher observation feedback we look at report card grades and then obviously parent observations and feedback as well the next part in terms of esea so we receive federal dollars it relates to Title One uh title one we use for at-risk literacy achievement so a couple just kind of highlights from that we have look at reading recovery we have different staff and this is for first graders so 104 first graders were serviced last year in our six elementary schools 56 of those students made what we would call Accelerated progress and I'll talk a little bit more about that on the next slide but the national average for the reading recovery program is 36.3 so you can see that we were well above that the other piece that we do is we use literacy lessons so that is a similar program to read and Recovery which is for first graders but literacy lessons is actually for second through fourth um so we use that all the way up through fifth grade in terms of targeting second through fourth and then any students who still might need a little bit more will get that extension into fifth grade title two and four focuses on professional development and Technology so some of the indicators there we use those dollars to actually help us in all eight of our schools have math coaches Tech coaches Elementary responsive classroom facilitators and PLC facilitators so these are people at the school level who are turnkeying who are meeting with us at the district level who are talking about different professional development needs and then offering things in the schools we had about a hundred participants this doesn't encount like in-service days or department meetings or any of that that's always a different number these are 100 participants that came to workshops whether they were in the summer after school um different times at The District level that they came to those sessions to get some additional PD those would be in the areas of literacy math responsive classroom Tech and then we have a miscellaneous area is one and of those workshops 100 percent received the highest ratings we give a survey for that of saying that it was valuable four or a five and then the last area is title III so that is focused on English language Learners or ESL students so the number of students that qualify for ESL were 44.
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you can't go back to 28 29 30. we can't have 40 in a middle school biology classes which we had before um but you have to look at all the little things where you're doing valuable work which I do believe we're already thin enough where everything we're doing is valuable and just stretch it out a little bit more to get through the rough times thank you Anita and I don't think there's too much more we can do we can tweak it just a little bit but I think the best thing that we can do is to recruit and retain the best of the best for teachers we want to make sure that our Educators in our classrooms are committed to Quality instructions who are happy about coming into the classroom on a daily basis thank you Jennifer I'm not sure if there's much more we can do but the biggest thing I think is we have to have a budget and work with it I mean you have to cut corners and you got to make it work if that involves meeting after meeting to figure it out that's what we'll have to do I mean we have to work within a budget everybody wants to be happy but you know there's got to be a medium so I say Come Together work within a budget and you can figure it out thank you Sarah I think I answered mine okay Shawna um I think without having access to a line item budget and what percent of dollars go where I wouldn't even be able to speculate on that but uh if I were able to look at it then I might have a better idea and answer for you so I'm sorry thank you all right we're going to come back to Anita for the next question retention and recruitment of quality teachers what other ideas do you have about it I think I just answered that one on the last question but I will I will repeat it that it's important that we seek out and recruit The Best of the Best we want them to feel valued so they can uh give the students the best that Avon has to offer they deserve that thank you Jennifer I touched on this a while back um about the retention and recruitment equality teachers and staff I think the answer is very simple we need to get back to the basics of Education Reading Writing and math like I said I know a couple teachers that have left the Avon Community just to the fact of all they have to do that's on their plate they just want to teach they love to teach and that's all they want to do um ah I just it's a big thing when they have they're so overwhelmed with other roles they have to assume they have to teach but they also have to take care of every other issue that comes up um so I think they're and also show them appreciation I mean when there's you know we can bring them like Christmas presents they have teacher appreciation so just let them know they're appreciated is another big thing to are sending them you know little emails letting them know hey thank you for taking the time to show your concern for my kids so I think just showing them appreciation and just letting them get back to what they love to do thank you Sarah well this is a passionate topic of mine because as you've heard me say multiple times I have classroom experience but um that's one of the things that would be a priority of me because I understand and I will fight to ensure that Avon attracts and retains highly highly qualified teachers and obviously yes they need to feel supported competitively compensated and respected I would like to look at ways that our district could gain efficiencies so that we can competitively Pay Teachers we've made great strides but we need to continue that as well as staff this isn't just isolated to teachers because ultimately that's what's going to impact students receiving the best education and opportunities um you know students and parents need teachers who are competent compassionate passionate about their jobs and respected as individuals and teachers in the community need school board members who believe in them and support public schools and the teachers I was had to I was talking too much during my intro and I had to cut myself off but I was endorsed by the Avon Federation of teachers and that's very humbling a vote for me is a vote to support those teachers as I was their candidate of choice and I won't let them down if elected I do want to dig in more and find out why highly effective teachers are leaving Avon regarding staff I would like to do a third party climate audit where all staff has a one-to-one setting and the results from that would be actionable items that our district can work on there are two other things that I have been on my mind there's a movement called grow your own teacher where we can look at high school students that they can have a graduation pathway that they can study teaching and then come back to our district which would be awesome and then there's also the state has a Next Generation who's who's your educator scholarship that's a mouthful it's a great program but it needs to be expanded so I plan to advocate for an increase in participants at last count there were 200 scholarships that were offered for the entire state so I think we can you're good thanks first we have to make sure we're offering and maintaining competitive salaries if you don't maintain competitive salaries then you will not retain quality teachers additionally I know teachers struggle with needing extra help in the form of teacher aids and support staff and they do need that relief I also think this presents an excellent opportunity for parent volunteers who have the ability to volunteer to get back in the classroom and be engaged with their child's education that again that's something that I encourage and welcome uh last year I believe we had a or I've understood that we had a record or near record Exodus of teachers leaving acsc then I and I would like to know why I know um teachers just they just want to be able to teach they don't want all of the chaos that's been attached in from what I understand these classrooms have become chaotic so um well-educated kids they have a direct impact on the economic strength and success of a community and ultimately a country so how do we expect children to learn and thrive in a disruptive and disorderly environment so one thing that I would like to offer is a truly Anonymous survey to hear from teachers who have left in the last two years or so to see if there's anything reasonably doable that we can do to get them back as well as how many may be planning to leave and the reason why and if there's any steps we could take to keep those teachers when you put students and parents first in essence you put teachers first because education is about students and parents support teachers when they support the education their children are receiving I believe teachers want to partner with parents and parents with teachers thank you Greg well we're all referencing it the teacher shortage is real the stress and extra work of teaching through the pandemic caused many teachers to retire and dissuaded many new graduates from entering the profession that is absolutely just a fact but current environments and legislation also pay a role teachers want to teach they don't want to be micromanaged by A legislature that has no idea what's going on in their classrooms they don't want to be vilified by members of the public who have no idea what's going on in their classrooms they they need compensation increases we are an all now in a bidding war for teachers I'll give you one example teachers didn't used to be able to jump from District to juristic and retain their seniority now they can and that's a really big deal so again we have to pay attention to that and we have to respond to that and then finally teachers pay attention to the culture of their school district teachers know which schools have supporting Administration supporting parents supportive parents supportive communities and supportive school boards so I'm running to keep Avon supportive and I'm running to key being the strong voice of positivity for our teachers on our school board thank you all right next question Jennifer yes what are in your opinion the most pressing issues concerning the Avon Community School Corporation I keep coming back to academics um like I said our children are behind we need to focus on academics once again when children are in school the focus should be on academics I believe if there's other social emotional issues that rise that needs to be addressed first with the parent and the child parents should be aware of everything that is going on in their child's education parents need to have a voice in their child's curriculum parents teachers and administrators once again need to collaborate on an appropriate curriculum we need a lot of parents this is going to be a touch issue but a lot of people have sent me questions about covid what's your stance on masks and vaccines this is a personal choice I will never vote to mandate these and I ask every one of you to research all these candidates up here and see where their stance is on that thank you Sarah many moved to our school district because of the reputation we have and while there's a lot of great things that are happening in our schools we do have challenges and some of the specific issues that are on my mind are handling the growth of student enrollment while being good stewards of tax dollars the teacher shortage which we've we've covered that enough academic performance and then safety and mental health of students as we've said the teacher shortage is a nationwide issue I believe Avon was spared for this school year luckily but I do wonder about the quality and quantity of candidates as in the coming years the school board absolutely does need to keep a watchful eye on academics they are dealing with effects of the pandemic and directives from the state so while standardized tests are one indicator of student achievement they are not necessarily what's best for all students and I could speak to this because I have kids with special needs so you know we need to look at all the data not one graph okay there are outside factors like Indiana changing its India their academic standards it moved from ISTEP to iLearn and that is a big impact on a school corporation because they have to then pivot to take local school time and implement it that's a lot of resources and then you think of the impact on the teachers so such changes like that all those evaluation tools we cannot look at one graph alone so you have to look at the totality of everything multiple academic tracks need to be given provided to match students plans for the future so that we have productive well-rounded citizens coming out in our community students learn best when they know that they are safe and supported our students today are dealing with so many things that most of us never had to deal with they are coming to school with trauma mental illness heavy burdens for a child to carry how could we expect them to learn when all that is on their mind now I'm not saying it's the school's sole job but they can't be a catch-all we have to work together as a community to address that thank you Shauna first and foremost as we went over many times proficiency levels are a major issue um I did have a visual aid but it's not going to work for me to show you so I'll just kind of talk you through it and yes I agree that one graph does not depict the entire view or give the entire answer but just to throw some numbers out at you 57 percent of students in acsc grades three through eight do not meet the minimum proficiency state standard in 2011 we were sitting between 84 and 90 percent uh then in 2014 there was a massive drop from 2014 to 2018 there we were slightly maintaining with minor drops and increases along the way but fast forward to 2018 through 2021 there was another astronomical nosedive so you can't tell me that it's just a result of covid and quarantines because I just gave you the data trends for the past 10 years uh additionally there have been the political issues that are being inserted into the curriculum are one of the major driving forces behind parents extreme opposition uh as I mentioned before teachers should teach academics and parents should teach morals and values so uh teaching an opinion or an assessment of a particular race sexual or political issue does not belong to the school that's a conversation to be had at home with parents ultimately as a parent you have a constitutional right to direct the upbringing education of your child in the manner you see fit and that right does not end at the threshold of the schoolhouse door thank you Greg I talked a little bit about this when you talked about the priorities we talked about the learning loss that the kids have experienced we talked about the mental health issue we talked about the teacher shortage but I want to address a little bit about what Shawna just shared with us about our 10-year numbers there is absolutely no question that losing that referendum in 2011 killed us and our numbers went very very south and that was due to what I was talking about with 40 kids in a in a middle school biology class which is just insane you know and I had a second grader in a class with 30 kids and you can't teach 30 kids in a second grade um what's been fantastic is since we've been able to implement the dollars from the 2018 referendum when you get to about 2019 when we get to class sizes back under under wraps and we get the teachers back the teacher level of teachers up back to where we want it we've started to see growth and we're moving back towards where we were but it is absolutely true we are not back to where we're in 2010 and we are still building back from when we had no money for those seven years um so it's just really really important that we also talk about where we are compared to the other districts when we talk about covid learning loss and how far our kids have fallen during covert and how we've built that back um we're not where we need to be but we are absolutely doing much better than our neighboring districts and I'm very very proud of that thank you Anita yes and I would say that um where am I at I would say that student learning and achievement as well as student safety when they're in our learning environment I personally moved to Avon in 2003 because I was raising grandchildren and I moved there because of the history of the scoop and I was going to assure that their individual needs were being met because most of them were special education and I have not been disappointed yet in what Avon had to offer to my family thank you thank you so now we're running out of time candidates and I'm going to give you each one minute and I'm going to combine the last three questions so if we would each answer you know make sure we're out here as soon as we can when views are different from yours how would you prepare to honor those various backgrounds and families in that Avon Community in your decision making process who goes first is it Sarah great because I have a loaded okay well I'm gonna get cut off and that's fine but um because really you know I have a lot of numbers that I could throw out and I I do want to because it does represent Avon we have over 11 of our students that are English language Learners in 2001 we had just over nine percent of our students on free and reduced lunch now that number is roughly 33 um from 2001 to present day our black African-American population has grown from 0.6 to over 17 percent and there are over 15 percent of students with disabilities so um you know to answer that question I think I'm kind of skirting around it but I do I feel like that's important because all of that is different backgrounds we are a public school we welcome all we educate all thank you Shauna uh I'm just gonna uh it's kind of all grouped throughout so I would have to read the entire thing to answer all of these questions um so I'm just going to read until I get cut off and then pick back up when I get the opportunity to have my turn again so I I think diversity is wonderful I think embracing different cultures is valuable not only as a community but as a nation entirely but it feels to me that the diversity of thought is not embraced Equity the way it's being presented and defined today in our culture our society and our schools is primarily promoted is promoted in the idea rooted in critical race Theory and that is defined as a quality of outcome which is the very Foundation of socialism inclusion is actually very exclusive conservatives or Christians for example are completely lambasted or anyone else that opposes a radical agenda being inserted into our school so I don't see how that's inclusive when you're if what you're seeking is compassion understanding about different cultures and Lifestyles and what you seek is called Unity uh CRT was designed to divide and demonize a certain race of people which creates tension confusion and division thank you Jonah Greg um all the numbers Sarah shared um you save me some time yeah we we have an extremely diverse community in this can is continuing to become more diverse and it is the role of our schools it is our public responsibility to take everybody who comes to us and educate them all that is our legal responsibility it is extremely important that we have school board members that celebrate and embrace that diversity second it is moral and ethical right thing to do to build a school Community where all of these kids feel safe welcome supported and celebrated so I'm committed to advocating for all of Avon's children and continuing to make sure our schools are welcome open safe places for all of our kids I do want to make one point about critical race Theory since it was brought up it doesn't exist in Avon and our teachers don't have time eat even if we had teachers who wanted to teach it they don't have time they're teaching the Indiana standards and they're doing all the other things we've been talking about trying to get thank you Greg Anita okay it is important that we understand the needs of our students families and teachers understanding data and consensus is very important for the school board members and the central office staff when we have a clear picture of the students who are sitting in our classroom we can understand how better to serve their educational needs and I hope no educator is spending time on CRT material they will not be tested on since we are so far behind due to the virtual learning the time will be better spent on things that they will be tested um thank you Anita Jennifer I believe that we should celebrate diversity treat every child the same there should be no division based on differences um according to sources the social emotional learning took a shift to transformative social emotional learning in 2020 a lot of sources says this calls for students to critically examine the root causes of inequality um critical race theory is not required to be taught in our schools but social emotional learning is no I believe that no child needs to feel that they oppressed our oppressed um my daughter came home with the paper they did last year um and it was led by the teacher about a black individual in 1914 and it asks what conclusion can you draw about why the American Veterans Administration did not want her mention the ABA did not want her invention because she was black I don't understand why the focus couldn't be on what she did positive for the community why does that have to be on that I think we need to get back to thank you well I'll say our time has run out it's about five after actually and on behalf of the Avon Oriole Advocates we want to thank you all for coming first off the candidates I sure do appreciate you coming and giving us your wisdom and also absolutely I think the the people for coming to come and listen because it's very important to be an informed voter in our district thank you very much thank you no problem thank you for thank you for coming nice to meet you keep my time all right thank you together hey nice to finally meet you hey thank you thank you thank you for coming [Music] it doesn't exist I'll see you at nine around thank you thank you so much thank you thank you yeah thank you I appreciate it
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they're finally sneaking into the offensive zone really some of the only offense they've had all game some Stellar just keeping basically keeping the ball in there are on offensive zone the whole time yeah I mean you'd like to try to give credit to the defense but really the you know it's the old uh the old saying sometimes your offense is your best defense and it's true a little bit of attack here from the Blue Devils blown down once again it'll be blue Devil's ball foreign let's see if the Blue Devils can do something here oh a big great stop right there by number 16 Grace Howard [Music] play Paul played off the potty I don't know if that was a correct call there but taken by Gosling good chip across over to guile here comes the one touch down the line she's running it down here number 28 another Center ball it's an opportunity coming here and good block down oh just gets out some real good offense from the Spartans here yeah there's really just been a lot of opportunity right there in front of the net that goalie's gonna be having nightmares tonight you can be seeing a lot of red and white in her dreams macaroni with the ball now over to Denault denal with a play up top to Howard to knock down the right field now in front pass across oh to guile looking for a third of the game just misses yeah almost a great one-timer good opportunity there good effort just didn't quite execute it she's been amazing all night pass in front tonight with a good shot in front stopped by the Blue Devils defense play off the foot that's blown down again by the officials we're going to get the equivalent of a corner kick here the infamous Corner alert chance coming from Nissan Meadow student section now really just getting rowdy right now there's feet stopping see athletic director McGee down there keeping the fans under control late at night rowdy crowd Thursday night beautiful here it comes opportunity good touch good pass another one back guy was still looking for the third over third of the game blowing down again by the officials lots of opportunities still be being taken away from these Spartans would have the ball now good move to get around the defender [Music] pass across just gets by Howard number 17 with the ball now moving in quick some good back checking From Grace Howard that's just I punched out by macarini it will be blue Devil's ball on the sideline looks like there was a little penalty of some sort down there in the offensive zone it looks like the Blue Devils are really going to get an opportunity here for you know one of the few that they've had the entire game we'll see if they can put this one in the back of the net corner now back up top good chance for good shot here [Music] so many just white and red bodies in front just not even letting the ball get to the goaltender the Gotham hasn't seen a shadow game oh here we go here pass up to guile just a little Outsider stick good pack good attempt there by why he's just a little bit too far on the outside Kyle couldn't get her stick on it out of bounds play here for NoHo good defense Plus Eva Kyle but does end up coming off her being a whoops ball jumps over Weiss's stick back to her again and this is it she's going to use her speed sends it down it will be spawn's ball back up to Weiss Weiss in front blocked that one's gotta hurt it was like a little pinball there it looked like it hit two people ends up out of bounds off of somebody in Blue's leg it'll be another corner for the Spartans I haven't seen a goal yet off of a corner I've seen a bunch of opportunities it seems like most of islamental goals have come from passes from the outside to the middle and then a flurry of activity in the middle let's see if they can get one in here on one of these Corners twice up to guile guile just underplays it back down to guile good pass in front consider twice Weiss just misses it punched out still kept in by the Spartans Weiss in front now blowing down with a playoff the body [Music] yeah telling there just jumped up her stick at her on the body and unfortunately free slim metal the ref actually saw it once again pass intercepted by Howard spawns ball now Howard over to Weiss back down to guile off of a blue Devil's Defender it will be Spartan's ball for Weiss with the ball up top to macarini Macarena with a good slap in in front good pass from Weiss just had it right there she almost had it just a little light well it looks like we might get a corner here we're all for all the fans listening to Hellcat and wondering when the next game is going to be after Eastlawn middle pulls this one out barring some type of uh barring some type of Miracle it looks like Monday we're gonna have the finals at five o'clock neutral Turf probably over at minnetonk somewhere oh what a great play there it's just kept down it's in [Applause] so much activity in front of the net not sure who put that one in yet we're gonna wait for the official to give us a little bit of uh information on that but what a great play I think it was goal scorer but number 18 Ashley beak with the First with her first of the game what a day for East Longmeadow really pouring it on here in the second half I'd say what do you think that coach give a good halftime speech you've got any experience with that coach I do in fact you do yes no and how do you have experience with the with the field hockey coach does he coached the hockey team too yes he is number one my uncle and my hockey coach so what are his half time or his let's call it you know in between periods in a hockey game what are his what are like his motivational speeches like I'm sure probably most of his field hockey speeches must much different from the hockey speeches but they're most most of the time inspirational for the hockey team not so much yeah I mean one wonders right because we were talking about it earlier down there in the stands whether or not you know there are some coaches that they reinforce with positivity and some kids or student athletes will get inspired they need to be told you know here's what you got to do get out there and do it each coach has a different tactic probably for each different sport like you said definitely so it's probably good for coaches to do a bunch of different sports deal with a bunch of different athletes whatever works I mean yeah I mean whatever whatever he's doing it clearly is clearly working this year for the field hockey team they've been having a great season looks like they're in line to make it to the finals of finals of Western Mass for probably the first time and in quite some time yeah I mean an absolutely Stellar season almost finishing off undefeated ended up taking one bad loss in the year still a close game though I mean there's really nothing that can't I would have been the cap on top of this perfect season but it's still an amazing season that probably won't be repeated for another few years [Music] oh phone down I can [Music] just over a minute left in this game as the Spartans will most likely pull us one out and they're not supposed to say it's not over until it's over but this game is practically over oh yeah and fear for field hockey's terms they kind of lock this thing up a little while ago really at this point we're just waiting to see whether another goal is going to get scored and watch the uh watch all the players run out the field attack the goalie and really just get ready for Monday yeah [Music] ball roll out of pounds just under a minute now to go on this game you know we got to give Northampton a little credit here also a very solid season for Northampton no shame in losing East Longmeadow one of the best teams in western Mass they fought hard the whole game they just didn't you know Islam Meadow was just too good tonight for them foreign seconds left in the game six nothing Spartans ball roll out bounds nope stays in Gosling oh and I have to say it's been a pleasure commentating with you up here tonight you did a great job I've listened to you before on lcat always wonderful to listen to Great Insight good commentary nice you to do it support the support the girls field hockey team thank you thank you and I wish you the best of luck in the hockey season yep you thank you six nothing Spartans a great win against the Northampton Blue Devils as they're headed on to the western Mass finals [Music] thank you everybody goodbye
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um the other thing that I think is important is uh the commission together with OSI has been working on implementing benchmarking and disclosure um for essentially all building sectors um One Step was taken a couple of months ago when Council implemented an ordinance for the commercial sector where there has to be disclosure and benchmarking the energy commission voted on the next leg of that which is for single-family residences that at the time a property is to be marketed a home energy audit would be uh conducted according to a doe process is called a home energy score and uh that would have to be divulged our um in the MLS listing so that the buyer just like when they buy a car they know the miles per gallon they also know something about the energy performance of the building so a resolution in support of that passed and that's now with Council to act on the last leg of the three-legged stool will be a green rental housing program requiring certain levels of Energy Efficiency improvements in order to get a certificate of rental or occupancy or whatever the right term is um so we're basically halfway through the second or three quarters of the ways through the second leg and it's looks to be like it'll be early next year that will get the green rental housing program um out of OSI and pass by the commission those are the two main actions that we act to that thanks and by the way this month some of you may have been asked uh DTE is offering my green power um to residents of Ann Arbor at the same rate so renewable energy 100 renewable energy for the same price as what you're getting your current uh electricity and they're making a presentation on that and hopefully also there's a new program Where They are promoting green gas natural gas and so we want to have them prevent prevent excuse me present both of those so that we better understand exactly what the offerings are and what their limitations are so that'll be in the November meeting thanks Steve you're muted sorry thank you John um so um sir parks and advisory commission uh yeah yes uh we just met this last week on the um every five years the parks and recreate uh the parks department puts together a prose plan parks recreation and Open Spaces strategic plan um they have put one together this year um they've just completed a draft of it and it's going to be open for public comments starting in November and I think it'll be open for several weeks um so if you have opinions about it um it's a it's kind of a long document but um it should be available soon and I hope you all have the opportunity to look at it and then one item that they brought to the parks brought to our attention um is that there's going to be some uh work done in Fuller Park they're going to be um two two things are happening there um Fuller Park is adjacent to the hello the University of Michigan's helipad and um uh they have been notified by the FAA I believe um that there's some trees that are that uh pose danger to the helipad so um there are some trees that are going to be removed near it um but the University of Michigan has worked out an agreement with the parks department to compensate them for those trees and the university will be performing the work and then the other thing is at the bridge the Maiden Lane bridge is going to be um rebuilt I believe uh there's gonna be significant work done on it and um once again Fuller Park is right is the bridge goes through Fuller Park and um the park will be used for some staging and there will be a little bit of disruption as a result of that and that's all I have right thank you man um so let's see I think that's uh commissions uh Council any extra Council reports from either Lisa or Kathy um I just want to say that much of our work is becoming newsworthy in that channel 7 ran two segments regarding the Gelman plume and yesterday WWJ 950 in Detroit had a segment on our deer management program in Ann Arbor so that's all I know about but it's for some reason Ann Arbor uh seems to be of interest to the Detroit media market and uh so far they've they've all been accurate and informative you know segments I shall try to keep my mouth shut sorry I muted myself so anything um anything to add Lisa that you'd like to add um okay I don't hear Lisa so um let's move on to the chair or the chair sorry I was shaking my head but you can't see and I forgot that yeah oh okay so and um so the next item here is the chairs report and I have nothing to report I will I will report things in December that are remaining on December uh first so um the next item on our agenda is a report from staff sure yes thank you um I will just briefly go over a little bit of what um we have done at OSI recently uh the 10 000 trees initiative has now distributed over 3 500 trees following our latest giveaway event uh our a20 ambassadors program is starting up with our fourth cohort uh next week they will be getting their training um we are the Community Action Network was awarded five hundred thousand dollars to support uh decarbonization work in the Bryant neighborhood uh our energy options analysis is underway uh for the seu and traditional municipalization um and other particular strategies for um full uh renewable energy uh youth here in Ann Arbor uh and then also uh two weeks ago we had a local Food Fest at the Harvest Market in uh conjunction with Argus Farm stop um to separate uh local food and we hope to make that an annual event uh and then those are the updates that I have right now hey great thank you so much Sean so um next item on the agenda are items for the next agenda so are there any items people would uh like to see us discuss or uh bring a put on the agenda for December let's see I can't see who's got their hand up I guess it's Sean stand up Sean you have your hand up uh yes uh so next meeting is our last meeting of this year so I've been asked uh to uh have us discuss uh the meeting calendar for 2023 at our next meeting okay okay do you want to do that um as new business or as part of your staff well yeah let's do it as new business sounds good thank you okay um John mursky has his hand up Steve yeah okay oh John you have the floor yeah real quickly I was wondering if we're planning and I got the impression from email that we were um another session related to Solid Waste will work at what is the current diversion rate um what is how we doing against the budget what is the status of these um Solid Waste Reserve fund what are the uses of the solid race Reserve funds some of these um bigger questions um Beyond uh some of the actions that the the team is working on what are some of the outcomes in other words yeah I was thinking maybe more for January that's what I thought okay you know you know given you know given all the end of the year activities and um and I should note that I have two two notes for things for future meetings myself and one is the uh having Keith Sanders here to talk about the wastewater treatment plant and um you know and uh emissions you know from us you know from untreated sewage from a wastewater treatment plant then another one is um you know and then also the solid waste fund uh which would be in January which I would project for January so I'm only thinking about December uh so I've just heard from Sean on that so um Steve didn't we in years past use December as sort of a planning meeting or you know kind of a discussion for like setting priorities for ourselves um so that's not a real specific kind of thing to say but we certainly could encourage our membership to identify issues that we would discuss and set priorities maybe they could dovetail with the calendar yeah no thank you Rita that's a great suggestion so we'll have that as an agenda there's a year-end review and some goals for next year okay um um any other suggestions for December oh I don't hear or see anything so uh how about the next scheduled meeting is going to be December 1st the first Thursday of Jan of December which as usual will be our combined um you know November and December meeting given the holiday season so um and uh so this uh the next item on the agenda is the second public comment period so this is another opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes so please call 1-888-788-0099 and enter meeting ID number 925 eight two one five eight seven zero five so this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and video feed City staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star nine on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning beginning of your comments and be patient there can be a 30 second delay before a connection is established so let's see Sean do you do we have anybody online yet we do not have anyone on the line okay okay so let's wait another 30 seconds um and the next item is adjournment uh let's see okay is there anybody on the line now there is not okay well this ends the second period of public commentary for this meeting and so I declare this meeting adjourned at 9 40 PM thanks for your patience everybody thank you good night everyone good night
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we had 42 in our actual program we had two that are parent refusals but they still have to actually be assessed in that program the number of students who completed what we call the access for L's was 39. two took an alternate assessment the students meeting proficiency on that access for elves um or the wit is another way or a model that we can use to exit students 52 percent of students tested in Access for the first time and 63 percent of students took the test in previous year increased their proficiency level it's a good thing okay so just one more snapshot of title one which I talked about reading recovery it's kind of just to see it at a glance so the chart shows you again there were 104 kids that were serviced 74 made either accelerated or progressed 56 percent was that accelerated progress 18 was made progress 8.7 were recommended for additional services and then 16.3 had what we would say an incomplete program so they might have moved out they might have been classified something like that we also are reading recovery site so we districts will pay us to come and get trained so we had 19 teachers from outside districts participate in our professional development generating 46 000 for the district uh just a little tiny bit of information at the bottom so student uh text level in the fall is a five and the minimum tax level expectation of spring is a 16.
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but if we look at actually the reading recovery student in the fall it was a one and then where they were in terms of the spring is a 20. so you can see that that growth there and then I think this is my last slide before before I turn it over but we also wanted to highlight so in the summer and we have been able with Esser funds the last two years to increase our summer offerings but this is kind of a quick snapshot of the programs that we ran to support students with different services this past summer so our caps program was for incoming kindergarten students literacy support was for great any students who were exiting kindergarten to grades one through three Mass support did the same there was 84 there Learning Academy in the summer that was grades four through eight metamorphosis is incoming fifth and sixth grader uh sixth and seventh graders to Middle School tier three is any identified tier three student that's our gifted and talented program we also did extended school year which we are required to do that program for preschool and K-8 and then we had some different levels of tutoring whether it was for title one uh reading Specialists ESL or extended school year so technically by the state the only program we're required to have is the extended school year but you can see we had a variety of offerings for our kids and if you add all those up it's around 800 students that were served this summer so we're proud of that hello everyone I'm just going to briefly go over some of these slides as well so this what you're looking at here is our Benchmark assessment this is a Francis and panel assessment that we give to all our first through fifth grade students it gives a reading level for teachers but more importantly it targets what the strengths and needs are for each child so the teachers can use that data to form groups to inform their instruction and to make sure that they're making progress that's our Benchmark assessment for language arts we have a similar assessment at uh in math that is taken with all our students at the end of your math assessment this is a typical results that we see where the vast majority of our students are meeting with the Benchmark proficiency there was a dip in the fourth grade but that was related to a testing change and our eighth grade does not include our highest or most highest achieving students that take the High School courses this is a summary of our kogat which is a cognitive ability test we give this assessment to all our third fifth and seventh graders it is an aptitude test so being as such it the individual scores don't vary greatly from year to year so that's why we don't give it every year as a district we fall in the average range where if you look at the little St 9 chart at the bottom we typically fall in the fifth sixth day nine so we are as a whole average but we do train our teachers to Dig Down Deeper into those cogat results to get what an individual profile would be for each student so how to best Target each child we use this as comparative data along with other assessments that we use for tier three for inrs for child study for just a variety of ways to ensure that we are meeting all our students needs and then I'm going to pass it off to Dr Smith thanks Ms Collins so Mr Gulick and Ms Collins do such a fantastic job with this presentation each year and so I and they I'm taking up a bit of time it's a long presentation I limited myself to not too many slides but I did want to um include a piece that is particular and unique to this year because we've actually gone three years without any NJ SLA data so the last it's almost like a story that's missing pages right so the last page we saw in that story was spring of 2019 yeah you can see with the key down below that's the light blue and the uh the light yellow okay the the district data compared to the uh the state data we I wish we wish we could have included data on here for comparison that would be uh in addition to our district and state but we don't yet it hasn't yet been made public what other districts data are so you know once that happens we can look at what the average is for K-8 districts what you know the averages for districts locally right now this is the only point of comparison we have so uh the the out the Border outline so when you look at um oh oh perfect perfect perfect excellent okay so um when you see the the Border there right so and it's that's a will you see green that means that our change from 2019 to 2022 was more positive than the state's change where you see yellow which just appears right here that that is where our change was exactly equal to the state's change and where you see red is where our change was more negative than the state's change okay and what we're looking at here is the percent of students meeting or exceeding expectations which you'll hear those words a lot as we go through the presentation but basically that's a level four or a level five on the njsla before individual student report which means that they basically um you know that's that's what we're shooting for is is either level four or level five and there's five levels total so more green than red but some red and it is um very appropriate that one of our disc one of our three District goals for the next three years is in fact to refine our Ela instruction towards improving student achievement so we would a goal be to increase the green this next slide another way to look at the same data only this time instead of looking at the percentage meeting you're exceeding we're looking at the average score change so our average score change across all students all tests was -8 New Jersey's average score change across all students all tests was minus nine the and the greens and the reds are consistent with what we saw in the last slide moving on to math we see more green less red reflective of the fact that math was one of our district goals from 2019 to 2022.
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another way if you want to look at this slide is in it because you can dice up the data in so many different ways right but we can look at it longitudinally so you think about like you know third grade or fourth grade where were they three years later when you know in 2019 so you see here like grade four 2019 then and you know obviously in 2020 to grade five 2021 they're grade six 20 22 they're grade seven and then that's their bar right there and there are so many variables when it comes to looking especially like this is this data is very macro you know you can drill down very granularly and as we'll be explained later in the presentation we do that with our teachers and our administrators they get lots of granular data to look at and that's part of our in-servicing and our professional work throughout the year what we're looking at here is really at the the 30 000 foot level um and then on this slide you can see instead of the percentage meaning exceeding it's back to looking at the the score and here you know our kids against all all tests all students dropped three points the state dropped nine so yes our students dropped yes there was slippage as we've heard about throughout the country due to covid but here any test etsd for math at least uh the slippage was a third of what the state uh went through the um and then just this slide so algebra one didn't want to neglect including that but I didn't include it in the other slides because the if you look at the percentage of kids that met or exceeded it's much higher than what we saw on this prior slide and to have included it would have made the uh it would have visually made the The Columns uh not very legible uh in a presentation so it got its own slide a couple things to note about this so we have kids who take Algebra 1 and geometry if students are taking algebra any two njsla tested courses at the same time for example if they're taking algebra one in Geometry they only take algebra one they don't they're not um they're not taking both of those NJ SLA tests we don't have any geometry NJ SLA results because all our kids in Geometry are also in algebra and they're taking the algebra and again really high we somehow still manage to get better um from 98 to 99 and here average scores and uh yeah so we look forward to getting more data when it gets released so we can make you know see how um things unfolded in other districts uh in consideration if we were at you know and and see if how much of a difference it made all of the things that we did um in terms of navigating covid using the full day using the live stream all the professional development that we kept doing and we anticipate that that will be a pot it will show positively when we get to do that comparison and onto yeah okay um these next slides are just a different way to look at the njsla data so this is as Dr Smith said these this is an assessment this is the state actual assessment it starts in grade three and is taken all the way up through eighth grade typically it's given in the spring but as we said this is the first year that we've taken it since 2019.
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so what this chart shows you is basically a snapshot of each of the grades on the left and then it takes you through the different percentage levels so there are five of those with the first one being you're not meeting you're partially meeting at level two you're approaching at level three you're meeting at level four you're exceeding at level five so again the idea of what makes Proficiency in terms of what the state is identifying is levels four and five so what we did in these further columns is then as a district here are our percentages at each of those grades and on the right here's the percent in terms of the state and we always want to be above the state in terms of the percentage where our kids are at proficiency and you will see that in the area of language arts in all areas with the exception of grade eight right here we did see a dip here and actually it's the first dip we've seen in eighth grade in many years but in the other areas you see that we are above and again while we saw a dip we didn't see it as significant as a dip as we did across the state um as it relates to math same type of chart so you will see the grades on the left and if we follow those all the way across these are the numbers that show us proficiency levels so you will see here New Jersey so we were significantly higher than the state in several grade levels so third grade be an example of that but we were actually above the state level at every single grade and again grade we don't really look at in terms of the comparative data for math for grade 8 and Algebra 1 because again for Algebra 1 we're taking our highest achieving students out of grade eight and we're giving them the algebra 1 assessment so it kind of skews the data to actually compare state to actually District in that case because across the state it's all kids taking algebra so the other thing that the state asks us to do is to actually pull out what they call subgroups and do some analysis across subgroups so we pick our largest subgroups that we have here in the district um and then we kind of just break that out just again for perspective for one other data point to look at but I will say the most important thing in my opinion is again the idea of looking where kids are absolutely but making sure that yes where the proficiencies are great but these kids who are approaching who are these kids that are approaching and actually identifying them at the school level and seeing what kind of services are they doing kids who are actually at this level one and two actually identifying it again looking at the students who are at those levels and making sure that they have the services and supports that they need one of the challenging things about this state assessment is it doesn't matter whether you're on grade level or not so I could be a fifth grader but I could be reading at a third grade level and I still have to take the fifth grade assessment so again it's one point of data but what's most important as we look at the students who actually got at that zero or one or two range and looking at what are the services are they getting are they getting all the service that they should be is there additional things that we can do so we do that for all of our subgroups so the ones that we broke out here we just have again that state number at the top just for comparative purposes then the district percentages and again so in this example this is third grade language arts we were above the state average but then we broke up and we looked at just general education students so obviously we were you know again more well above that special education was obviously a smaller number but again one of the inherent things about special education is I'm taking a grade level assessment on on language arts on a grade level that I might not be at doesn't mean that all special education students aren't on grade level but there are some who are not but they still have to take the assessment on grade level they can't take the assessment for the grade level that they're actually reading at in this case um so that number is obviously lower another group that we look at is economically disadvantaged and so we see lower numbers there but again what's most important are are those kids making growth through the year and are they getting the supports that they need and then the last one is ell so we have a smaller ESL population if that number Falls below 20 we're actually not allowed to report it so that's why you see the stars there because if it's less than 20 we're not allowed to show what that is um and then each of these just goes through so I promise I go line by line for each of these slides but again this is posted on our website it's posted on board docs if anyone would like to look at a particular grade level in more detail you're welcome to do that and we're happy to answer questions so this takes you through fourth grade same thing language arts and then I'm just going to quickly go through these same for fifth same for six same for seventh and same for eighth for language arts and then I'll show you just one example for math so same kind of layout for math so if we start at third grade same thing you'll see state you'll see District you'll see general education you'll see special education you'll see economically disadvantaged and again the ESL is too low to report and then we take that again through every grade level six seven eight and again we're not looking comparatively at just our grade eight because again we pull out our high achieving students for algebra so that can skew the data all right the last thing as it relates to New Jersey student learning assessment for English language arts and math is we also are required to report on what they call accountability indicators each year but we don't have them yet for this year so they're actually pretty old so I told the board members on my board curriculum committee I apologize ahead of time but this is the most recent data that we have so basically what we look at or what the state looks at is your English language arts proficiency level your math proficiency level more importantly they actually have growth levels that they've identified where they're using two years of comparative data so you'll get a growth number for ELA and math we also they also look at your progress towards English language proficiency so that would be with our ESL students and then they also have been tracking chronic absenteeism so the data goes back to 2016-17 so we saw pretty steady with an increase in 1819 there was no State Assessments in 1920 that was the spring where covid really hit so there's no data there the state got waivers so that they there was no one who had to fit into those categories and then 2021 same thing there was no njsla data that year the only thing that there was is they did publish chronic absenteeism again um and then we did have actually scores for any students who were in person that year they took the assessment and they released the scores for those but they didn't publish it as an accountability indicator because if you were a remote only student you didn't take the assessment so again they said the data is kind of flawed there so that's why you see those dashes meaning there was no reportable data but it does give you kind of just a trend over the year and then once we get the 2122 data which should be probably around January we'll update that okay okay will you be my changer all right so basically what what Danny just said about this language arts and math for NJ SLA the same thing's going to be repeated for science uh the only difference is only Fifth and eighth grade students take science and it's assessing the science practices and the domains of physical life and Earth Science um a shift to the next one so that's the the the difference though for science versus language arts to math is the proficiency levels are different so for science there's only four levels of proficiency there's Below near below is one nearest to proficient is three and advanced is four so that's a slight difference the NJ SLA science is a relatively new assessment in 18 it was a pilot year it changed from NJ ASK to njsla science and then 19 we took the assessment again but then didn't take it for until we took it last spring so it's still a relatively new assessment that we have so this is our fifth grade data but again it shows you those different levels of proficiency and then the next slide is the same thing for eighth grade data again you'll see the comparison of our district to the state level and in this case we're looking for levels three and four which is proficient and advanced all right this next slide is in regard to dlm for all of our students in grades three through eight as we've had said Ad nauseam that they have to take NJ SLA in grades three through eight for language arts math and in in science for fifth and in eighth grade if for our most significantly cognitively impaired students they still need to take assessments but if they reach the criteria for an alternate assessment they will take dlm and they will take dlm for language arts for Math and for science for those specific grade levels and there's criteria that they need to reach but it doesn't have to be all-encompassing so they might take njsla for language arts dlm for math um there we go and our last assessment data this is our start strong assessment that we just took in the fall it assesses our students from their standards from last year so our third through eighth graders take NJ SLA so our fourth through eighth graders took start strong because they're being assessed on last year standards and it's really it was created in response to the pandemic and it's not summative it's really just to give you a heads up as to what might be some needs that our students would have based on language arts and math for all grades and grades six for Science fifth grade takes njsla so sixth grade takes start strong the levels of proficiency do differ for this than they do for NJ SLA we'll see that they're they are broken down into three different spans if you pop up to the next one which is strong support may be needed some support may be needed or less support may be needed and that's um for all for language arts and for math and then here it is for across all grade levels what's important to note is that for our Language Arts students start strong is a multiple it's a electronic assessment so they're taking it online it is a multiple choice it's Tech enhanced there is no writing component to it so they don't get a writing grade this is specifically for reading information or Reading literature so it is something that we need to take into account when we're looking at the the scores but what is actually a positive about this assessment is that it is based on released items so our teachers have been trained on how to drill down into the assessment itself so that they can see exactly what the students um answered they can see the test questions they can see how the child answered they can see if the child answered and it really does help to inform instruction to be able to see if those kids need strong support in a particular area some support are less support and that same thing plays out for our math in our start strong okay and and science like I said we take njsla for fifth grade so this is the the science results for sixth grade so our our sixth graders took it and last year's eighth graders would take it in high school okay you made it to the last part we swear okay you said uh this to me is actually one of the most important slides uh these last couple because talking through again what do we do with all this information um so the idea that we're starting every year with our own assessments and we're establishing what we call fall Baseline data so that would be the Benchmark assessment that's something that Robin had talked about earlier so we take that in the fall we take that in the spring and we're looking for growth in the area of reading across the year DSi is a developmental spelling inventory we take that in the fall we take that in the spring and again we're looking at for growth throughout the course of the year we take a math Readiness assessment that's connected to our Envision program so we have a Readiness and when kids come in we have a mid-year we have an end of the year again we're looking at our kids actually able to do the things that we're teaching them throughout the course and then obviously start strong as Robin talked about again that was one additional measure because that's a state requirement that we did that last year and actually this year as well so from all that data we start getting State Assessments in the summer that continued into September we pull everything together and we're looking across District level data first so the curriculum team superintendent we have meetings where we're looking we talked to special education department we have meetings where we start looking at what are district Trends and things that are happening across the district then we set up building level data review and Analysis meeting so we kind of have a traveling Road show where we go to every single school we meet with every single principal or administrative team at middle schools we have kind of guiding questions that we send ahead of time with their data for their school it has kind of District Trends in there it talks about a district range and we say okay when we come here are the things we're going to talk about like what are what's surprising from the data what are things that actually weren't surprising that you were expecting to see what are things that stood out to you and we also again what I talked about with those subgroups we Target and look at here are kids who didn't do well on a district assessment here are kids who didn't well on a state assessment and they should be named at the principal knows and when we go down that list they can be like yep the student moved the student went here the student's getting the support the students here and if there's anybody who's not someone that they know about then that's their task is to make sure that they have those supports that they need and again sometimes it might be a deeper dive because maybe on a state assessment they did poorly but when we looked at aptitude and we look at classroom performance it's different so again that really is there are important meetings we did those at the beginning of October this year right before our in-service day and then we as a curriculum Department we make a in-service day was on October the 10th I want to say so we do training that day and we meet with every single grade level and we have some PD that we do connected to whatever we see as patterns or places we want to focus on but we also train them on the data so like Robin said that might be looking at the kogat and looking at individual profiles that we might be looking at in grades four to eight that start strong data and how do I drill down to see how do my actual kids in my class right now do were the questions they had trouble with were the questions they did well with so that allows teachers to actually delve into particular data and actually make some decisions and some actual you know information about their kids their class currently we then the next day is our first delayed opening so then we have that is for PLC teamwork it kind of initiates or kicks that off so they left hopefully that in-service day with like four or five kind of areas that they saw or that we talked about as a district at that grade level they then take that back to their team in the morning and any time that they use to actually look at some of that individual data and they come up with a collaborative goal by grade level of a place that this particular group of students might need to work on supporting content and math and what exactly will that look like so that would be an increased focus on Geometry measurement things like that how is that going to be meaningful so that kids actually do better in those areas than they did the previous year and then that helps us then in terms of actual the goal setting so they make goals in terms of their individual PDP which is their professional development plan they do that either as grade levels or departments and then we as a building so we have skip committees and on those skip committees we look at all those collaborative goals that they created on the in-service day or on that delayed opening day and we see what are the patterns or Trends there and they make they have a school PDP professional development plan so they have a school PDP and then you will be shocked to know that we take all that and that we have a district pdb or professional development plan so again we try to connect everything and make sure that the messages that we're sending and the message is that kids are seeing or teachers are seeing are connected so again it's kind of targeted and focused in different areas and then we design our professional development and our curriculum writing any kind of planning or implementation connected to what those are okay so here are the areas um in terms of what is our Focus areas for this year so some of these are a continuation and some of these are new so when we talk to teachers or when we have department or in-service days these are some of the things that we're focusing on as it relates to all content areas or related arts areas that whole idea of differentiating and making sure that we're doing that with fidelity emphasizing the social emotional competencies because again we've seen such a hit with that in these last several years um focusing on teacher clarity so that's the idea of actually having learning intentions and success criteria so kids know what it is they need to do to be successful and then giving them specific goal-oriented feedback in order to transfer that knowledge um accelerating or looking for opportunities to accelerate student learning by using self-informative assessment opportunities intentionally selecting technology tools so obviously a lot of technology has been used over these last several years with a pandemic but we're not just using technology for the sake of using it but being intentional about the tools we're using so they're going to enhance learning uh integrating authentic opportunities for students to justify and defend responses and critiquing the reasoning of others is a broad goal for everyone specific to some of the tested areas so English language arts what we looked at in terms of the data and then now are talking about is that again that idea of differentiation but instead of like what we would say this first one's talking about is that whole class novels we should see more book clubs so more books being used at different reading levels that are connected around the same theme or genre the second one talks about reading and thinking across multiple texts including electronic texts with opportunities to do that in other subject areas as well and that's connected to our English Language Arts District goal as well the third one talks about developing in students kind of that internal criteria to use strategies so that they can use that not just when they're reading a book but then when it applies to that next book the next one talks about efficient drafting integrating craft so that's actually the creation of writing and tools and techniques that we use as well as structure that's the grammatical side uh using conferencing in both reading and writing to elevate the proficiency of the learner increasing opportunities for high Success reading so those are language arts goal areas as it relates to math implementing Envision so we did start back in 2019 if you looked at those math Trends a little we did we expected to see higher results than we have we actually switched math programs and had a three-year implementation plan throughout a pandemic where we implemented that and we are seeing positive results but the idea of we still have different grades that really are still becoming familiar with the program so the idea that we're doing that with Fidelity in terms of problem-based learning at the beginning visual learning which is direct instruction and then assessing and differentiating and we do our differentiating math through a math workshop model so that's maximizing small group instruction to meet student needs and approved choice the second the third one actually is talking about we usually have a major content that you have to focus on but where we saw um kind of from the data was supporting so that geometry that measurement that time so that's something we added here to really focus on supporting content because the first year the pandemic might not have gotten to the fraction unit that they would typically get to and if you can get to the fraction unit that year and that put you behind for the next year and that puts you behind for the next year so we really focus this summer on opportunities to actually make sure we're doing more in math but also bringing forward some of that content which is supporting that usually comes later in the school year bringing it forward a little earlier um the fourth one is connected to actually what was our previous so board members might be familiar with that our previous math goal because again just because we feel like we were successful with that goal doesn't mean we want to leave it behind so we did a lot over these last three years as it relates to math discourse or talk uh reasoning looking at the the actual standards as they connect to um kind of everyday habits of mind we want kids to have in math so that kind of keeps that at the Forefront and then the last one is related to that idea in grades three through eight where they're taking those State assessments a balance of both paper pencil but also electronic assessments and using the tools for that okay science so some science areas because again as you saw from that science data we certainly saw both across the state and district there were lower percentages there so the idea of really focusing on Surface to deep levels of understanding making those connections between and among the different science disciplines so that's Earth space life and physical science using the science and engineering practices and making connections between science and then its application to real life and then the third one which is what the njsla science does is they use what's called three-dimensional assessments we created those for our units that we have but again pandemic timing really having more of a focus this year on those using those with Fidelity because that's going to give kids practice so that when they get to the assessment in the spring in grades five and eight they should be more familiar with that and then the last area is social studies so the idea of making those social studies practice making them a part of daily instruction engaging students in meaningful opportunities connected to service learning and active citizenship and the idea of incorporating opportunities for a variety of perspectives and that is it so thank you for your patience we appreciate it thank you Miss magulic Miss Collins Dr Smith thank you so much for those presentations and all the hard work you guys put into them now we are going to go to public comment just in case anyone is not aware we have two public comments the first public comment is for what is on there I'm sorry I'm sorry to interrupt I don't mean to do that um are we allowed to ask any follow-up questions sure I'm sorry I didn't um I just had like one one quick question about about state of school Hib in general um I was thinking about this during the presentation you have a third grader who halfway through the year they're they're out of school because of the pandemic then they go in the fourth grade and then they're in remote learning going back and forth back and forth school closes for about a month again and they're back to remote and they're going back in they're trying to learn the computer trying to go back then they have maybe fifth grade it's formative time and even it was no mistake that I chose a kid going into sixth grade because it is it is a major change going from fifth to sixth like I have kids in in in school you know in high school who are sophomores now and they're hitting the pandemic level in their formative Middle School years and trying to see that like that catch up there in terms of that I know in the classroom that could be a struggle on that upper level I just kind of wanted to get the sense sometimes no matter how many scores we put up that stuff kind of gets lost in the crack so I just I was just curious about that point and I appreciate your your candor on that for interrupting no that was a good question I'm so sorry I'm glad you asked me no thank you for stopping me any other questions from the board regarding the presentations okay seeing none we're going to move to public comment just in case anyone is not aware we have two public comments the first public comment is for what is on the agenda and the second public comment which happens later in the evening is for anything you wish to discuss the meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions pertain to a student or Personnel item or negotiations we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes per person it's also crucial please for you to give us your name and address before you speak up and also limit your comments to one time per public comment period is there anyone that wishes to speak on agenda items foreign seeing none we're going to close the portion of the meeting there will be another public comment section at the end at this point we're going to move forward with the approval of minutes I need a motion to approve item 6.1 through 6.3 do I have a motion Miss Noel do I have a second Mr Canton thank you roll call please Mrs capella here uh yeah sorry it's okay Professor Cara yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Knoll abstain on 6.1 and yes to 6.2 lancelotta abstain from 6.1 yes 26.2 and 6.3 Ms Floyd abstained to 6.1 and yes to 6.2 and 3.
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Mr Meegan yes this is Ryan yes motion carries okay at this point we're moving on to item seven superintendent's report and administrative items do I have a motion to approve item 7.1 through 7.5 Mr canthan Mr physicaro thank you and now I'll give the floor to Dr Smith Ryan I'll keep my comments brief this evening we had two presentations and I from a lot of great things said and I just what I really want to um I kind of have one topic only in my comments tonight and it's a difficult one so in the past seven days our etsd community has had both a student and a parent critically injured as pedestrians by Motor Vehicles two separate accidents two different areas of town lots and prayers are with both families now and ahead this is heartbreaking I would just ask all of us for anyone we know please especially as the days are getting shorter and it gets darker earlier and the weather gets worse just drive if we could let's drive slower let's keep our heads up and eyes forward let's do what we can to keep our roads and walkways safe my my update tomorrow for staff and Families will have information and a survey link from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission the DVR PC serves as the regional planning Agency for the Greater Philadelphia area providing guidance and assistance to build a sustainable and livable region this organization is currently seeking input from all all Marlton residents one of only a few towns in the county in order to specifically create a safer pedestrian and bicycle Network they use the information from this survey to develop recommendations and to work together with our County to improve safety so the info and the link will be in my update tomorrow and I would just encourage all of us to take a moment to complete the survey and add your voice to this mission of making our town safer and that ends my comments thank you Mrs Ryan thank you Dr Smith any questions or comments to the superintendent's report okay seeing none roll call please Mr Ashanti Mrs Capello yes Mr physical yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Noel yes Mr Lancelot yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries thank you moving on to item eight curriculum and instruction I need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.5 do I have a motion Mr physicaro Ms Capello any questions or comments to curriculum and instruction okay roll call please Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr cathan yes Mrs Knoll yes Mr Lancelot yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries thank you moving to item nine finance and operations I need a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.21 do I have a motion Miss Noel Mr canthan any questions or comments pertaining to finance and operations Miss Noel Dennis you can confirm but the the school security grant that is the one that we discussed at finance and is that for the township correct from the township the big check yeah so the township gave us uh eleven thousand eight hundred dollars I just wanted to them that um you know respect that we are accepting that Grant this evening so thank you and that puts us well along the way to further secure our schools any other questions regarding finance and operations okay roll call please Mr Ashanti Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Katherine yes Mrs Knoll yes Mr lancelotta yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries moving to item 10 Personnel I need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.9 do I have a motion Ms Capello second Miss Noel any questions or comments pertaining to personnel Mr physicaro I just want to uh say my congratulations and just heartfelt love to miss romanelli and the reason why I say this I mean outside of the obvious reasons I I was here I was the first seventh grade class in 1993 and I I feel that you have been a part of this for such a long time and your your stamp of of your passion and everything that represents you as a person uh is all over the school and represents thousands of kids who walked through here and as being a student here and now you know being a board member here my kids go in here I am so utterly proud that they got to be in and I got to be in a school in which you were a part of and helped lead into a into a wonderful institution I will miss you but I'm telling you I I wish you all the best and you absolutely 100 deserve this so all of my my best wishes I will vote Yes in regret but you deserve everything that uh yet incoming retirement so [Applause] any other questions or comments regarding Personnel I can't speak as eloquently as Mr physical but I will say that I'm happy and sad at the same time for your retirement I'm excited for you to start the new chapter but you will be sorely missed don't be a stranger go ahead emphatic ditto to miss Ryan's comments and Mr pizzicaro's comments as a as a parent as a former parent whose kids walk these Halls to a superintendent who walks the halls with you I uh I will miss walking with you in these halls but I will be walk as many as anyone who has worked with you or been influenced by you you will always be walking with us in our minds because we will be remembering not just the words you've said but the way that you look at things and how you approach because it's always with the smartest of hearts about kids best of luck Mrs romanelli any questions or comments for personnel more no okay roll call please Mr Cincy Mrs Capello yes Mr visicaro yes Mr Captain yes Mrs yes Mr lancelotta yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries moving to item 11 policy I need a motion to approve items 11.1 and 11.2 do I have a motion Mr physicara second Miss Capello thank you any questions or comments pertaining to person I mean to um sorry not personal policy okay seeing none roll call please Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Captain yes Mrs Knoll yes Mr lancelotta yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes Mission carries thank you moving into committee reports does any committee chair have to report a report they wish to share I will speak for curriculum and Miss Everhart who is unfortunately not here but she just wanted to give kudos to um the entire curriculum department for the hard work they did on the presentations and everything um anybody asked Mr lanceleta for community outreach there's a few things for this month first from the Marlton rec council that coaches are still needed for winter sports Deck Hockey and basketball the sports utility program also needs coaches and buddies of all ages basketball clinic clinics for ages four to eight for all of you aspiring NBA stars and for any information about volunteering go to www.marltonrecouncil.org I know it's already been spoken about but I wanted to touch on the uh the 11 800 check that the Town Council has granted granted to the school district um it was almost twelve thousand dollars and the money will be used to install and upgrade our SEC our new security camera systems in the schools throughout the district um you know our students are safer uh because of this upgrade and we appreciate the Town Council we have a solid relationship with them they support and they've navigated us through our last few years of state budget cuts and they've been wonderful to us as far as the Eastern Education Foundation we met on October 19th and the Eastern Education Foundation is planning their next Community fundraiser event the annual Double Down event will be held on February 10th from 7 to 10 at the mansion in Voorhees last year was fantastic I think we raised they raised like over forty thousand dollars for the school district there's going to be food and drinks music you know giveaways it was at the Mansion last year yes there's Raffles prizes and and the best thing about it is that you know the proceeds go to the school district um it's just it's a wonderful event tickets are 125 dollars and they're also looking for sponsors so if a business a local business would like to sponsor there's anywhere from 500 sponsors to 7 500 sponsors so if you are interested please contact Scott zielinski he's a fantastic guy um you know at Scott at Z homesrealestate.com or at the eveshameducationfoundation.org thank you thank you Mr lancelotta I'll just um comment on our PTO PTO meeting that we held every single member of the PTA and PTO thank you for all your hard work and it's really great to see back to school events happening I know they were hard at work with in October getting chunk or treats and there'll be Halloween parties and it's really nice to see things getting back in the swing of things I would like to send the thanks to the Evesham Education Foundation for sponsoring our back to school movie night it was very successful pay attention to the Evesham Township Schools district staffing needs every we need everything and also I would like to comment that um sorry just left my request for a second um some of the reopening highlights back to school um back to school nights everything like that went smoothly so the PTO is and PTA presidents we have a lot of new new leadership this year which is great to see but everything went smoothly and it was very well attended so thank you to all the volunteers as always in the district anything to add Dr Smith because you were there no okay I would just say and it reminds me of Mr physacaro's question from earlier like the power of having in person back to school nights and and having the Halls filled with families families interacting with teachers it's incalculable because that enhanced communication and connection directly helps kids you know um and so I just to your question from earlier it's those types of things that get us back anyone else wish to comment on committee items or other or and just okay um now we're going to move into Old business we don't have any old business but we do have some items under new business I need to make a motion to uphold the superintendent level three grievance decision can I have a motion to approve Mr canthan seconded by Miss Capello any questions or comments regarding that if not Mr Ashanti roll call please Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Noel yes Mr lancelotta I'm staying Mrs Lee excuse me Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries okay and the next thing I need to discuss under new business is a motion to approve the settlement agreement for the student out of District placement which will require a parent signature in the future I need a motion to approve that also Mr physicaro seconded by Miss Noel any questions or comments okay Mr Washington D roll call please Mrs Capello yes Mrs Cairo yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Knoll yes Mr lancelotta yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes Mission carries thank you now we're going to move into open public comment the meeting will meeting will be open to the public referencing however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes per person and also this section is meant for one comment for per person is there anyone that wishes to make a public comment come on up and step to the microphone thank you name and address please and Jenks uh 39 Carlton Avenue um thank you for the presentation tonight it's good to see that the district is involved with uh of analyzing data um you know research and science are are important for anybody to understand and uh for you know you we we would move forward in in the progress of education however I'd also like to remind you that uh you know there's other issues other than just reading and whatever else uh part of this school district and that um that brings us to one of the things that I'm particularly interested in which is the science of uh a an item that you know we're all struggling with quite frankly and that is um you know this motion or this movement towards um you know sex sexual education at a very early age and uh uh I presented to you before the um the data and I think we should know what the data is and I think you know I think you do know what the data is and the data does show that adolescents you know do suffer um a a you know from uh uh when they have gender dysphoria um the the the suicide rate is is enormous it's ten times uh the normal suicide rate uh and it's and it's and it's suffering and and when parents um you know the one thing that you know parents uh do have uh trouble with it and sleeping at night is safety and health and all I ask is that um you recognize that the science whether it be NIH or whether it be the academy the American Academy of pediatric medicine or many of the research studies that are done at the universities that show that transgender transgender adolescents have a 10 times maybe as high as a 40 percent attempted suicide rate and all I simply ask is that you adopt the part part of your curriculum that would simply say that um you know for the part of the curriculum would be to examine and evaluate how gender dysphoria and transgender lifestyle often results in a deadly decision I know it's a difficult topic but it's something that um you know you can um you know ensure just like you would just like you would ensure that no teacher would ever you would expect no teacher to ever suggest you know a student you know and get involved with you know uh illegal drugs or anything else this is a deadly decision by adolescents thank you is there anyone else that wishes to speak during public comment okay seeing none I'm going to close that portion of the meeting [Music] at this time I'm going to ask for a motion to go into a second executive session whereas in njsa 10-4-12 allows for a public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas the Board of Education of Evesham Township has deemed it necessary to go into a closed session to discuss certain matters which are Exempted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the board will reconvene following the end of closed session at approximately 10 15.
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now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10-4-12 the superintendent's contract and other items of interest that are exempt from the public do I have a motion Mr canthan seconded by Mr lanzalotta any questions of the word all right roll call please Mr richardsy um before I take the roll call is there an intent to take action after the closed session there is a possibility that action will be taking place after the second executive session yes thank you Mrs Capello yes Mr Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Noel yes this really is allowed yes Mrs Lee yes Mr Megan yes Mrs Ryan yes motion carries thank you we'll see you all at approximately 10 15.
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at that time action may be taken and we will reconvene as soon as possible foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign um foreign blue hmm foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign I would like to resume this meeting of the Evesham Township Board of Education I need a motion from the board to send the amended contract the amended superintendent contract to the county superintendent for review can I have a motion Mr canthan Mr lanzalotta any questions from the board okay roll call please Mr Ashanti Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes yes Mr canthan yes Mrs Noel no Mr lancelotta yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan yes motion carries thank you any closing remarks from the board I just have one make sure you vote and at this point ask for a motion to adjourn motion by Miss Capello second if I'm Mrs Knoll all those in favor aye have a good night everyone thank you
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foreign weeks these boys play for one week in their mind and that's week ten and we've got week 10 match up here Eagles and Red Devils Alex lemmer and Jared Germain coming to you in the aces wild pregame show from Aces Wild video game and parlor in Columbia head on up there the Queen of Hearts every Thursday night 7 30 is the drawing currently 3 400 that benefits the Columbia quarterback Club along with their other drawings and Jared welcome into week 10 football yeah after that long bus ride I didn't think I was gonna make it for this uh for the pregame but I mean anytime you can make it to a week um it's gonna be pretty special so a good atmosphere coming in tonight so boys should be ready for tonight beautiful complex here we're at the 50 yard line right here in front of us when this audio only broadcast we cannot bring you a video just because it being on the road so Audio Only but this complex here we were just talking to their athletic director great job great setup out here and they still have some important things that they're wanting to do in the future yeah you said they want to make a little gymnasium over there and then they want to put another um grandstand on the opposite side of the field he said this is kind of small smaller than what they wanted but up here I mean we got our own soda we got our own pizza I mean we're set up so Murfreesboro taking care of us tonight and that's what we are going to have to do with them Eagles are coming into this game uh after a pretty good regular season if you told me that we would have gone six and three at the beginning of the year I think I would have understood it but I think I would have had some questions and Jared we talk a little bit about the uh the week nine game that we had last week against Jerseyville Eagles lose it 19-0 get shot out I mean and it's tough because we came off that 385 yard performance out of Dom vaguely and last week only 96 yards rushing 56 passing only 152 yards on that offensive side of the football what are the Eagles gonna have to turn around tonight um I know Murfreesboro is going to have a lot of athletes like last week that number 11 Chase with her he had 33 carries for 245 yards so if we can stop the run and force them in like like we've been saying all year I get to stop on first down and just force them into those second and long and third and Longs that that's going to be the biggest thing tonight you look at last week in that first drive of the game game it was a pretty good drive had some things going for us and then all sudden just kind of petered out there in the drive and then we couldn't really get much of anything going after that you look vaguely only nine for 20 passing for 56 yards one interception just really nothing going for the Eagles we were trying to run right run left and nowhere to run yeah and it was senior night uh there was a lot going on if you win that game you most likely get a home game and you're hosting a week 10 so it was kind of a heartbreaker but we're still in the playoffs and that's all you can really ask for you look at the defensive side of the ball you already mentioned it a little bit Withrow had himself won great game we knew that he was going to be tough 356 yards for the Panthers who improved to four and five on the year and I say improved because the week before they shut out Civic Memorial 42-nothing and then they come and they put up 19 nothing against us so they finished the year 61 to nothing in their last two games but uh 356 yards on the night 282 rushing 74 in the air somebody that we mentioned all the time but we don't really ever talk about them we just talk about all the tackles that Logan Hicks makes but the sophomore he gets the job done yeah and he stepped up ever since Brandon Jackson uh got injured Midway through the season had to miss a couple games um really started playing well we had to play some at Center and then we had him at middle linebacker as well and he's been getting almost eight nine tackles every game so now having Brandon Jackson back um we can move Don vaguely back to safety a little more and if we want we can go three linebackers and bring vaguely up as a linebacker as well so um coach Germaine's definitely gonna toy around with that tonight I would I would imagine Hicks leading the way last week 13 tackles Mason Schnabel nine Dom nine Zach Wetzel eight Joe Kish with seven tackles and then the one sec from Brendan White and you look at the year the stats on the defensive side of the ball leading the way is Hicks tackles 70 tackles on the year and a very very quiet kid with those 70 tackles yeah and we don't talk about the line enough too because that line has to set up those linebackers to get those tackles uh Tom canning Steins had a great year um I know Antonis had a great year until he was injured schnabel's been in the backfield all year Carter Hicks as well just opening up Lanes so those linebackers can float the ball and get as many uh hats as you can so we talk about the season that the Eagles had we'll just recap it real quick the nine week regular season let's go with uh started off lost against Mascoutah and that was at mascot a game that we knew was in a world of hurt we knew that mosquito was going to be playing well come back week two win it nine nothing to Forfeit against Alton Marquette Roxanna the late victory that we had 28-27 then the Freeburg 24-nothing game and I think right there was a pretty big point in the season whenever you get to that four and one Mark and then you shut out Freeburg is pretty big as well yeah was that Roxanna game was that the one when Dom had that punt returned late in the game minute and 28 left yeah that was that was pretty awesome and then having Freeburg anytime you play have Freeburg on your schedule you're always looking to beat them um then we went to Wood River and that was probably the ugliest game we saw all year round I'd say I'd say even uglier than last week um we couldn't get anything going and part of that was they didn't have school that day and we didn't have school today so we'll see uh if that has anything to do with it well the Eagles end up in my book we're conference Champs the Cahokia conference says one tie all tie we tied Breeze but that victory in week eight 28-27 overbreeze with the stop two-point conversion with about three minutes to go that put Columbia at 4-1 in the conference Breeze was also four in one so if if we go head to head and Colombia is going to be on top of that Wood River three and two Roxanna three and two Salem one and four and Freeburg Owen five so like we said at the start of the broadcast doesn't matter what you did the last nine weeks week 10 your goal you got to go 1-0 yeah nah I believe if we win win this game I'm not looking ahead but if we win this game I think we would host in week 11 so um that gives the guys a little bit extra motivation um to play one more home game in front of their home fans now did you get to host a playoff game whenever you were in school uh yes junior year we hosted Greenville in the first game and then that's when we had Canton at home again and don't want to talk about that game well we don't have to talk about that well it's pretty simple when we regroup and come back to the aces wild pregame show week 10 begins and with that the road to Champaign begins Colombia's been there one time back in 2007 and they're your quest to get back there starts tonight when we come back we will bring in another voice up here in the booth tonight with us so stick with us and we'll be back with the aces wild pregame show after this welcome back ladies and gentlemen into the aces wild pregame show we are joined now with Sam Horner Sam coming back from the zoo for the week 10 matchup and Sam you had your fair share of games in the postseason when you were in the CHS uniform I did I was uh fortunate enough to be a part of a couple teams that had a little bit of success um and had the ability to host a playoff game at home on my senior year so uh these kids are coming out tonight it's week 10 playoff football can't ask for really much of a better atmosphere if you ask me so and it's a great night you know you look at you get that feel of a Saturday game typically when you talk playoffs but tonight we'd elected to go Friday um let's talk a little bit though when the last time you play on a Friday night though it's that road to Champaign and it is that champagne game let's go back to the 2007.
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is very brilliant thank you so Spartan senior night we would like to welcome the friends and families that have come out tonight to show your support you see I've worked hard this season he'll be greatly missed we would like to start by introducing our elhs senior cheerleaders our first day of cheerleaders are basic maturing for 11 years to play the softball and has been dancing for many years after graduation you'll be going to college to study business Nicole brother Dominic and grandmother Teresa bellacava foreign Harris is our next senior [Applause] is a captain who back spots and bases she has been cheering for nine years which is not cheering she's playing tennis for the elhs tennis team after graduation she'll be going to college to study to become an occupational therapist on the field tonight with her is Mom Pearson dad Jason and sister Emily mandolin Harris our next senior is Jolene koshy [Applause] Jolene is a spotter and has been cheering for one year after graduation she'll be going to college to study business Jolene is also bilingual she should be joined on the field tonight by her mom Jesse Jolene [Music] Helena O'Connor his name is just got a cheerleader for six years [Music] University as an education major after graduation on the field tonight with Larry Sharon her mom Patrick her dad her sister Cassidy and grandparents Maureen and Walt Molina O'Connor [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I don't know the next senior is Angelina Grigio flyer and a back spot was the cheering for 12 years after graduation you'll be majoring in Masters of Science and physicians assistant studies Angelina has had spring AIDS throughout High School on the field tonight is Lila her mom and her brothers Dominic and Antonio Angelina Grigio [Applause] foreign Olivia Sweeney [Applause] is a base in a back spotter live as we cheering for 10 years and attended her first cheerleading camp in the first grade which is not in the football field or gym you can find her on the tennis courts playing for the elhs tennis team after graduation they will be going to college to study in the medical field joining her on the field tonight is mom Christine and Dad Russell Olivia Sweeney [Applause] [Music] yeah let's give a big round of applause for all of our Spartan cheerleaders and for all their support and hard work this season thank you ladies [Applause] at this time you'd also take a minute to recognize the Amherst High School seniors number one Jensen Taylor number five Richard Darren number nine William Platt number 15 Alexander sawicki number 33 Kevin Bartell number 42 Ari Vogel number 55 Ellis Bradley number 61 Andrew Cruz number 75 Max Burnett your number 77 zahid Muhammad the number 81 Ryan [Applause] our 2022 Spartan football team is led by our amazing coaches our head coach Mike moracino Lee Coach Pat Morrissey coaching each car coach Tim Hogan we're so proud of our team this year you know some of this comes from the amazing coaching staff behind them so thank you coaches for all your hard work to start our senior night is our first senior and varsity Captain Dave alsop number 77.
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we talked a little bit you uh you say you remember you're a little bit on the young side but uh talk about those guys who played in that game and what you know about them and still keep in touch with them oh man uh I think I was like five years old in 2007 when we went but it was definitely an experience I'll never forget um a lot of those guys played their butt off that season to get where they were um and champagne's a great atmosphere to play at I just remember it being uh it couldn't have been more than about five degrees there at the time I think I had about three layers on um but yeah a lot of those guys still show support to the Eagles this day I'll I'll get texts and my dad will get texts um going into like today and even every week throughout the season from those guys who are still checking in on the Eagles to show their support but make sure you send us a text comment on the broadcast whether it be Facebook on YouTube or just send Jared myself Sam a text let us know where you're listening from we always know that we got Grandma Harris coming to us from Fort Myers I don't think she misses too many games so Jared we talked the ihsa playoffs Columbia they have five teams on their schedule that made the playoffs and you look at um we'll just start as a whole ihsa 256 teams make the playoffs there's eight classes of 32 one through 6A gets separated North and South they go 1 through 16 seeds in the north one through 16 in the South seven and eight a typically all those schools are up North so they just go one through 32 up there you look at the teams whenever coach Jermaine we were watching the pregame or the pre-game Pick'em show I guess you would call it we were looking at the five and four teams all five and four teams made it this year one of which was five and three and there's also a four and five team in there wow with 56 playoff points and they were not a conference winner so they just made it wow because they're going I bet they gotta drive about eight hours yeah I wish I would uh could remember what the name of that school was but I can't off the top of my head so we'll break it down to the 4A playoffs which is where the Eagles and the Red Devils of Murfreesboro will be in goes from anywhere from 854.5 students to 562 students Chicago Noble is the highest with that 854.5 and Chicago Urban Prep Brownsville County or Co-op rather is the lowest at 562.
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