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As we all know, there are many other factors that do encompass at risk students. But for the presentation and to be able to give our audience and yourselves a target, this is what we're going to have tonight. So first one academic performance that includes poor grades, missing assignments or uh lack of effort in school. We go on to attendance what we call frequent absences, tardies um or longer than that. Uh social emotional behavior, disruptive behavior, emotional um and behavioral problems that can hinder a student's progress. Um I do want to say that uh COVID did bring that about a lot of uh students with social emotional behavior. Disconnection uh lack of interest in academics or feelings uh of disconnection from school can definitely negatively affect student engagement. We have health concerns, financial concerns and then uh not attaining high school diploma. Um and uh uh that is a critical factor that places students at a higher risk.
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We hope that everything that we have been doing to teach you has made an impact on you and that when you leave us and you go out in the real world, you'll do the right thing. I have hope for each of your journey journeys forward and I'm proud of you. I think it's worthy to recognize some of your achievements. So, let us begin with that healthy reflection of what hard work your hard work has achieved leading to tonight's ceremony. You have done well at DCC academically. You have accomplished so much in your K12 journey. Your hard work in the classroom has given you all very many paths to choose from as you go forward. You are prepared for your next steps. Students, if you completed the international balora diploma program, please stand to be recognized. [Applause] This required you to take at least six IB classes, including three higher level courses, completing the extended essay in tremendous detail with great research into an intriguing topic of your own choice based on your own passions.
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And to every teacher out there that let us submit something just a little late, just know you're the real ones. We learned loyalty from classmates who became friends. The kind who show up, stay late, and never let you face things alone. That's the real education. And that's what I'll carry with me to my future years. Now that we're here standing at the end of one chapter, I realize how many small things we took for granted. Like the morning drives where we lingered in the car with our friends, putting off the walk inside the school. The hallway detours we took just to casually see someone. The glittery signs we made or received during ho season. and the stress laughing while the stress laughing while racing back from lunch, praying we wouldn't get another lunch detention. And of course, Miss Beerman yelling at us in the morning to get hype despite us still waking up.
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And so I was able to see the chicken coupe area and all of the chickens. Um they had a garden. Um one of the things that I most impressed upon me was the artwork where there's this whole wall um that the students can put their dreams on and see them. Um and it's just a really neat campus, a really neat program. Um Dr. Goulsby is amazing. Um I think the world of her and I just I was very impressed um by that tour that I had. Um, I also was able to attend the senior night for Combmes track and field. Um, it was it was a lot of fun. They also had chickens. They did a anything but a baton relay and they had a live laying hinn that they relayed with. So, that was that was a lot of fun. There was even um we heard about him earlier.
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It makes me feel more confident and my answers are more accurate. So our next steps, we'll continue to refine our teaching practice and differentiate instruction for all scholars. We'll be use utilizing building thinking classrooms in conjunction with Keagan cooperative learning structures to increase intentional engagement. designing tasks that re require our scholars to think and not just follow procedures. Our preschool through 2 grade special area and special education teachers will begin the building thinking classrooms book study in the fall. In August, our teachers will engage in Kagan engagement support focusing on refining building thinking classrooms through Kagan structures. Additionally, we'll receive Kagan one-on-one coaching in October to just enhance the alignment of intentional teaching practice to the rigor of the standards. And we'll also continue our work with Michael Roberts with our PLTS to keep it intentional. What questions might you have? Uh, no questions. One, just relieved that we didn't have to do the because I was getting nervous and was going to take the fifth.
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One is out of district placements um where we are sending school uh you know school age children to other other schools that are specialty schools um that we can't service those kids here in Ashlin and that there's a cost associated with that. Um the other part is the increase in transportation costs. And so you know that is part of it and you know Joe alluded to the to the financial policy that we have with um with the school committee with the schools um where there is a 7030% split on any revenue that comes in. 70% goes to the schools 30% goes to the municipal side. The problem is is like that 30% on the municipal side is a it's a big umbrella. It's a really big umbrella. So the schools are really kind of packaged in a very concrete way. You have certain amount of teachers, you have a certain amount of curriculum, you have certain amount of students and it's you get a certain amount of um funding from the state and chapter 70 money um which kind of goes which goes towards the education and you know the revenue on the revenue side goes towards the schools.
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And to be able to have that as the foundational development of my son's transition into, you know, his, you know, overall educational experience, it's just spectacular. And I cannot speak more highly of my experience and my family's experience with, uh, Pitway. Um, you know, my husband and I talk about one of our foundational core values in being community. So being able to really dis develop that and establish that has been such a valuable experience as my son begins his educational career here in Ashland. Still have one more year with us and still one more. Thank God. Sounds like Pete's got his work cut out for him.
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We've been working on unity messaging, making our schools a place where students want to come and learn. And we've been doing a lot more parent and family outreach at the building base level as well. You'll see this is just documentation of when those attendance meetings happen. We have them at different times so that if necessary, Stephen or myself can attend, a nurse leader attends. We also uh had our director of behavioral services attending, too. And we did see some positive improvement and although it's incremental um I thought it was good to highlight the December data that I had shown you from the formative assessment is in blue and the data I pulled as of April is in yellow and you can see we are inching towards progress. Um we still do have a long way to go and want to make sure that we continue this focus in the future.
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We've been working on unity messaging, making our schools a place where students want to come and learn. And we've been doing a lot more parent and family outreach at the building base level as well. You'll see this is just documentation of when those attendance meetings happen. We have them at different times so that if necessary, Stephen or myself can attend, a nurse leader attends. We also uh had our director of behavioral services attending too. And we did see some positive improvement and although it's incremental um I thought it was good to highlight the December data that I had shown you from the formative assessment is in blue and the data I pulled as of April is in yellow and you can see we are inching towards progress. Um we still do have a long way to go and want to make sure that we continue this focus in the future.
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Well, you know, you got to be careful too because we do the make there's at least one grant that goes directly to the feds without the state in between. So the the issue of of losing grant funding uh can be affected by this. Is that a climate grant? There's there's climate money from the that I'm talking about the diversity, equity, inclusion things, but this policy wouldn't necessarily it's not I don't think that that's the only place it is is that somebody stuck those last three words in at the end. So that whole policy was truly statuto with the state. Now you it's through Cab Cab was charged with writing it and this this collaborative consortium I forget what they call it uh was uh um in charge of approving it but there was like you know 30 or 40 people and all these organizations involved in it executive problem is we have too there's too many changes to be able to navigate them and we you can't change all of our things until everything sort of gets washed out.
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And so we teach kids, we see you, we see your your love, your energy, and when we're doing independent work, what's our expectation? So we're trying to we're building that bridge so that they are able to be successful. And everything is driven by data whether it's quantitative or qualitative. So taking a look at some of these things that we've been doing, this is how it's been turning out for us. We did I already spring assessment diagnostic rather a little earlier this year because we wanted to have eight weeks between there and ESPA because we use the data to drive instruction. It was our full court press and so as you can see reading we met the median growth was over 100%. That means half of the students scored more than 100% of their targeted growth and half of them didn't but 110 like that's really high.
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Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good. Yep. All right. And do we have a motion? Well, we already did our motion. Shall we approve it then? I I I Okay. Item eight, information items. A is the academic achievement report. Mr. Towns will share this. Yeah. So, several meetings ago, um the directive from the board was to create a five-year plan for academics. And so, I got busy on that and I started to work on that and I have a draft of year 1. I thought that it would be a better use of everyone's time if I just stuck to year one. And we had conversations about that because that would drive year two, year three, year four and so on. So I have before you and I shared with you um year one of what has been developed thus far. Um, I've shared it with um, leadership in the district and we've had conversations about it and so it's before you and hopefully you had some time to look through that.
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The stability of our office staff is vital for maintaining the identity and sense of belonging at Ruskin. These are not just employees. They are the backbone of our school. Miss Melanie, Miss Kimberly, they are the first faces our children see when they walk in. the calming voices on the phone, the helping hands when something goes wrong. For our students especially, consistency matters. They thrive when they feel safe, seen, and supported. Our current office staff provide the s the sense of security every single day. They know our 372 students by name. They support our teachers, our families, and they keep everything running. not just efficiently but with heart. I urge you, please recognize the emotional toll the unknown is already taking on our school. Let's not compound it by removing the very people who provide our students with comfort and continuity. Keeping our office staff in place is not just logistic is not just a logistical decision.
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We we all know that, you know, a student that graduates with a CUSD diploma has a better chance in uh their future than one that does not. So, just want to provide that. And with that, I am going to invite um Erica, please come on up. And Damon, of course. Okay. So, um, thank you for, uh, allowing us to present this, um, to you tonight. Um, little bit of the history of the block schedule. U,, I will say that, um, Gail Olsen was a member of the Pleasant Valley High School staff, uh, during this time period, and she was very instrumental in, uh, the pursuit of the block schedule. Um, both from, um, administration standpoint, but also from, um, the CUTA standpoint. um she was uh very collaborative with us through this whole process including the research team and um doing findings about what works best, what uh innovative schedule might be important for a school uh like Pleasant Valley as well as Chico.
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Congrats on completing the most rigorous challenge we have to offer. Thank you. If you completed our IB career related path or program, please stand to be recognized. Through this pathway, you dove into your passions in either business, teacher, cadet, biomedical sciences, and engineer or engineering where you not only completed the challenging pathway, but also took at least two rigorous IB courses. Wrote a reflective project around an ethical dilemma related to your pathway, examining all sides and taking on the tough challenge of defending all sides. Congrats on chasing your passions with rigor and inquiry. Good job. And finally, all of our dcc graduates have taken at least one IB course and have worked hard to challenge their thinking to become globally minded students whose inquiry who use inquiry to solve problems. Your hard work has spoken volumes. But remember, your journey for learning does not end here.
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All those little things, they were everything. And now they're becoming our last. But here's the truth. Graduation isn't the end of the book. It's just the end of the prologue. There are still so many pages left to write, so many mistakes still to make, so many places to go, people to meet, and versions of ourselves that we haven't even imagined of yet. Because if high school taught us anything, it's that we are stronger than we know, braver than we feel, and more capable than we ever imagined. We've made it through the challenges and the best parts together. And now the world is wide open. So take it all in. Hold tight to the memories that got you here, and then go. Be bold, be curious, be kind, and never forget where you came from. Because no matter where we go next, we'll always be an eagle.
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He had the record uh for the 400 and he did it in a Batman pajama onesie I think it was with a cape and everything. So it was a it was a really fun track meet. Very impressed by the track program um the administration, the school facilities, everything. It was a great event. I also attended um a couple of awards. One of them was the CTE awards and to see I knew about a lot of the programs but to really be there and see the awards that are handed out, how many students are in the program, the types of accomplishments that they've had, um the hands-on realworld learning that goes on, um the career readiness and absolutely impressive. Um I will sing the praises of the CTE program at Combmes um forever. It's it's incredible. And then the following night, I think it was the following night, it was that same week, um the senior night awards and to see all of the local businesses and organizations that showed up for the community and the many, many students and the many awards that they got.
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Um, but there were a couple words that you said that really stood out to me and one was the cultural relevance. I remember in school having to figure out when the train left here to get there. All of that I couldn't relate to that and that made it hard to solve. But hearing things like cultural relevance, being able to connect it to their community, um I think obviously has made a real difference. And so, um I would definitely say kudos, um to you as instructors and the students as well. You really seem to enjoy that. Um so that that was wonderful. Thank you for that. [Music] Um again, unpacking the application. So maybe I do have a question. Can you share a little bit about what that process looks like? Who's doing the unpacking? And then how do you then translate that into changes in the program?
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Um, on the municipal side, this covers like a big swath of everything else, which basically is our public safety, our services at the community center, our library, our town hall staff, our our um health department, our um all of our elder services. Like, it's it's a it's a big umbrella. So when we talk about what we can cut, there's really nowhere to trim easily and without the community seeing a real reduction in services. So you know, Joe had talked about, you know, we need to figure out what the community wants. And we have to do as a select board a better job of really communicating what those services are, what it would mean to cut. So if we were to cut say on the public safety side and we needed to cut say two firefighters that might be a difference of how many firefighters can go out on a call when there's an emergency.
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Any questions for Jess or us on community engagement? I I have one question, one comment. Um so on the community engagement is so awesome. I would just offer to maybe include the youth sports. um leaders and I plug that because my husband is AYS president so we can connect but lacrosse and T-ball like they all four-year-old programs they're starting at four right and they do it in the spring so I'm sure they would all love to recruit early for community engagement and then on the parent coffees like did you find the order of the presentations good in terms of like what you'd want to know first as a parent coming in or would you switch that or keep them or vary them I'm just curious curious like as a parent as a parent I I love the parent coffees. I think she Sarah's done an excellent job of really structuring really what the foundational needs are for families and I really like how she diversified it amongst the staff members that were presenting as well.
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