You have the you have your your big classroom where you're doing all the the stuff from the EI. IE I should write this down. make my teacher used to make me write things down a hundred times maybe. But anyway, you um you have that classroom, then you give a test over the material that was covered in the IE classroom. All right? And the red bars didn't do so well. Okay. So, they go into small group instruction, which takes which is a different classroom. You just told me that, which is which is [Music] good. Okay. So, we're taking those kids out of that collaborative learning and we're putting them into regular old humdinger group learning. Does that make am I am I if I'm not right, please please please don't stop me. Okay. Well, you're going to get me caught in the catch 22 there. So, um I there are a lot of reasons to attribute growth like that.
Is this required by state law? If I missed it, sorry. Survey is But um yeah, the per our policy, we vote on it. So it'll go through it went through curriculum initially and then we'll vote on it. But this is an opportunity for you to review it. Um and then we'll come back to a board meeting to vote on it to adopt the the question set. Okay. So let me just clarify the question. Are we required to basically adopt what the state gave us? No. Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you. It's just it's guidance um and we felt like that it was pretty uh neutral uh and provided good questions, good good feedback for us. So, uh, this doesn't have to be adopted as written, but, um, we know that it's it can be a sensitive issue for people, and we felt like this was a good balance of providing us good information and, um, being sensitive to to people's comfort.
Do you all have any questions or anything for us? I think we probably have questions. Uh Tony, would you a quick one? Thank you. Thank you so much for being here tonight and the overview program. I know there's probably a lot more information you wanted to share, but I think this is awesome. Uh kids that age on ability to collaborate together, trial and error, and you know, be free to do that and learn from that. That's awesome. Um my my question is kind of funny. Uh did the kids get a chance to name their robots? Were they able to do that? Yeah, they that's great. They can. So um the robots did come with a number but some of them were so excited and you can go in and change their name so that so what happens when you have to upload the program because it's all interconnected all these numbers would flash up.
You have kids that are seen and not heard that when you get them in a small group atmosphere, their level of accountability with their teacher is intensified so that they can then display the learning that they had in the whole group task. So, so there's some accountability measures that like I've got you now. And you know, when you're oneon-one with a student, they can't hide and they can't, you know, some of them fake it till they make it. And that's why all of our principles out here talk a lot about equity of voice in these table groups because if you have a dominant person and one takes over to the group and the rest shut down, you're going to get varied results. So you really have to really work this thing from a lot of angles. So does the teacher in the small group continue to use I'm looking at these guys because they keep me in line.
Thank you. Any other questions, Adam? Um, Marlene, I just wanted to commend you and your staff as a proponent of open rebellion against right to read uh since the beginning. Uh I I just wanted to thank you for you and your staff for defending our program which is uh uh proven to be effective and to have you show the uh state department of ed and whomever else is there judging you and your staff and our program uh to show them how how good it is and and why we need to keep it. Um so and I think you've had the defendant for this. Is this the third time now? Yeah. So, uh, thank you for, uh, uh, sticking to your guns and, uh, keep fighting the fight because maybe it's over, maybe it's not. So, keep up the good work. Thank you. Quick question. Um, I I I echo what uh, Adam just said.
So then the students started naming them and then they would look for Robbie or whatever. There was a ton. Yes. Some some of them put name tags Oh on their robot. Awesome. Yeah, they were very possessive. Thanks, Mark. How many robots did you have? How many students per robot? We had 137, I believe, for the district. So, we would only run uh two schools at a time. And uh because there's only two of us and over 600 students and we had no more than two or three students per robot team. So, uh it was never more than a group of three. Mr. White, thank you so much for doing this. My daughter's in fifth grade and science isn't exactly a thing, but I know that you did enjoy it. So, thank you. Um, this is not intended as a trick question, but I did see something up there that I it piqued my interest.
I wouldn't necessarily. So the IE in the task develops their idea of conceptual understanding that they apply out of context. The teacher digs down deep in intervention time and does proced procedural skillbased teaching that then she can look at that kid and identify a misconception or even go back and get a fourth grade skill that was missed because now you've got them in your grasp and you can start to identify. That's exactly where you want them. Skill gaps. Yeah. To fill those. But I wouldn't throw one out to say, "Oh, this is making the most growth." Because I think you have to have like a three-part arsenal to this to really make a difference. Okay. And and I think speaking of misconceptions, so please understand we still do direct instruction. There still has to be direct instruction for whatever it is that's brand new. It's not like we've thrown out direct instruction and all we're doing is the is the group the teaming.
You know, I I I I know the the time and effort the team's taken, so thank you. Um car out of curiosity, what is the the approved program list up to now in terms of count because there's a they have compilations of programs. So it's it's a spiderweb when you look at it, but I know we're in double digits. I didn't Yeah, it's pretty broad. Anyway, thank you. I just have two questions. Um, one is, um, were were you already set to kind of cover certain topics within the survey as far as in engagement, rigor, or just what are the buckets that we're looking at to kind of now populate those questions into or is that something still in the work? Yeah, I'm sorry. You're talking about the climate survey, safe schools, climate threw off with rigor. I wasn't sure. Okay, I'm not going to rebel like these two.
You said that you direct the kids to reliable media. I find media to be totally unreliable now. Oh, well media, not like the TV or anything like that. We just had articles that we put together. Gotcha. That talked specifically just to the pros and cons of the sustainable or unsustainable practice that they were learning about. Yeah. So, it was very filtered. Um, it was for their grade level. Um, and some of the words that we had to discover together so that they could connect, understanding, and comprehend what they were reading. A challenge that we had in designing this was it was for fourth and fifth graders. So finding information that was at their reading level, we had to adjust. So if we found an article that had the information, we worked with teachers in order to use tools they recommended in order to bring that to their reading level.
That's not the case. It's just that the direct instruction is not teacher is not it's a lesser time. So it is teacher teach students do I'm simpl I'm oversimplifying but there has to still be direct instruction of foundational skills and then the small group and the individual go back to direct instruction for the most part that's two of that's two of those two of those legs on the stool as Julie was talking about. So it's not like our new model of instruction has thrown out our old model of instruction. They're now paired with heavier weight on students doing the work. Okay. So for those of you here on the board who have been teachers and Fred at some point I know you taught people things. So you've been a teacher too, right? Speaking. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I had kids. So absolutely. and and and we all can you know those of us who've taught can go okay I remember when it was a whole lot of me talking at kids or students whatever age they were okay but that didn't mean that they were learning didn't mean that I should stop doing my talking because I still needed to introduce new things to them but this idea is what the part that Julie's emphasizing then is having kids take that what they've just learned and do something with it as opposed to just memorize it and regurgitate it on a test or whatever.
Yes. um we were hoping to administer it after April break and our next board meeting is April 10th, right? But in the development of the survey, what are the various topics that we'll be covering via some of these questions? So, some of the questions could be in the category of engagement or um the category of rigor. I I don't know specifically what we're trying to target here for each. So, what I didn't share with what I didn't share with you is the safe school climate standards. Yes. So, all of these questions hit across all of those standards. I think that our safe school climate plan really does an excellent job of addressing environment, but um I'm looking forward to changing the way we produce that plan and the and and certainly we'll still post it, but um it it needs a refresh. Okay. Because I was just curious like if there's questions tailored to a sense of belonging.
We also found some great videos that talked about like um nutrients. It went into a little bit about like conservation. Um, we found one that was like a 60 minute blip that I'm sorry, 60-second blip that really broke down sustainable and unsustainable uh practices. again thinking globally and how agriculture is impacting all of us and how important like this idea of wow like agriculture exists and everything that we use comes from agriculture what does that mean for us thank you Mr. Grippo. Thank you. Uh wonderful program. So happy that we uh came together to support it last year. Um so I have uh two questions. So uh firstly you mentioned you had 12 sessions with the students. So is that 12 sessions per grade per school per subject or is that 12 sessions in total for robotics and agriculture? question. Second question after that. So every child saw us 12 times.
Um that they're using processing skills. So, first of all, please understand that it's not either or. It's a combination. Um and then the other thing, um uh and and I appreciate what you're saying, uh Melinda, about when they do the rigor walks that it appears to be qualitative, but they have very specific behaviors that they're looking for. Did we see it? Did we not see it? And that's quantitative. That's quantitative. Is it there or is it not there? Or is it there and or partially there? So, is it is it like adding up numbers and getting a sum? No. But it's not completely, oh, I think because that's one reason that they do the um uh they do the calibrating walks to make sure as much as possible that whoever goes into the room to do the rigor walk is looking for exactly the same things in the same way.
Yes. Within the community. Absolutely. That's all. There absolutely are. And and that certainly does get to environment and it and it also gets to feeling safe. Thank you. Awesome. And any other committee? Uh no. Okay. So the next committee Thank you, Miss Lo, Miss I'm calling in. Um next committee is finance. Um so Dr. Harrian So you have you have in your packets um overview of our spending for the thus far for the year and as reflected in the summary uh through the end of February our approved budget for 202425 fiscal year is uh 89,542,609 and we have expended and encumbered 79 9,969 013 um during the eight months of the fiscal year thus far uh which includes our incumbrances for our largest accounts which are namely payroll and transportation and um I am going to turn this report over to Mr. Masiana um and he will also move into the medical benefits claims.
So we saw four robotics and then 12 times for aggra science. So in total it was 24 sessions across each teacher within the district. 12 and 12. That's great. So that's that's a decent amount of time for like a special it's like an extension of the normal science curriculum, right? It's like an and they were all over town on any given day and robots but yeah that that's really great that's quite a bit of time um cong congratulations for executing that to all of you um and then secondly um what are the definitions that you use for sustainable and unsustainable agriculture and then anyone choose unsustainable agriculture as as far as their u I guess you know sustainable was more about the conservation of the land and having healthy soil so that you could have um healthy plants that then produced lots of product, right?
Okay. So, um, they all know this because they've been, uh, uh, swimming in it for a year and a half and, um, uh, and kind of take it for granted, but it's one of the things that occurred to me that that might not have clicked, um, with you all. So, nice job, Julie. Thank you. I look forward to seeing your other data. Yes. I think we can uh, all get to see that, right, Cass? When you get it, we can get it. She will. You'll get it. You'll all get it. Okay. Who's next? Who's next? The other Julie. Other Julie. Oh, the other Julie. What school is she? She's creek. Okay. Martha, I want to show you what you junior high school. No, she was middle school. Your process of what we do for the river walk. Okay. So, this is the tool and we have the rubrics.
Thank you. Thank you Dr. Harrian. Good evening all. The finance report is is very brief this month. I'll just say that we are looking very solid. The uh non-payroll expenditures um we're allowing up to 70%. And the principles and department heads have been advised of that earlier this month. We are going to begin the prep for summer purchases and projects next next month which we do every year. We're going to start narrowing down the salary projections as we get through April and May. So, um obviously we get ready for the year end close. This year it's on June 30th. It's a Monday. I have no concerns about being able to do a balanced budget by year end. So that's the um brief update on the finance report. Jumping to medical benefits and then come back with questions if there are any. The the report that we have in the package is our medical benefits update through February 28th.
No one that in any of my classes chose unsustainable. Um, and I felt like given the pros and cons, you could probably lean to something unsustainable. But because they had watched this short video clip and because we I mean we talk about this global impact like not we don't really go a lot into like land degradation or you know loss of habitat land fragmentation. It was more like we need agriculture to survive, right? And here are some really good practices that a farmer can use and which one given the choice would you want to see in your community? I know in my classes I had a not a lot but a couple of teams who chose the unsustainable practice but the pro the activity that we had them do was for looking for facts pros and cons about both and then comparing with another team.
You can hide it or open it. I have them open. As Julie was saying, the different numbers you were hearing. So, we have 1 through 15 that we go and look for when we're in a classroom. And it shows you to be what it means to be like this one. It's a no, partial, or a yes. So, you'd want to kind of go through and see what that looks like. So, that might give you a better idea of what we're actually looking at the rubrics. And then a scale for like agree disagreeing, strongly disagree. It's a fourpoint scale. So it's really hard for us. Sometimes disagree is not a bad thing because it's still two. It's a two. So it's like a 50% that we're seeing it. So it's it's hard because we're like it's disagreeing. Well, it's on a fourpoint scale and they keep telling us well at least you're at disagree.
Uh as expected because we're in the new plan year and employees have to meet their deductible before the expenses start getting charged to the district's claims. Uh claims for February were $942,900. The expected claims every month is $1.18 million. So we're well below that. That increased our reserve balance by 205,491 this month. If you look at the report, you'll see that for four months in a row, our reserve balance has actually been increasing. Some of that is because claims have dropped this month, but also because we've gotten stop-loss reimbursements and prescription rebates as well. So, as we close the month of February, the reserve balance is now back over 2 million. That's about 1.71 months claims. The only thing that I will add to this is we received notice from Sigma this month and it's not reflected in this report yet because the payment has been has not been made.