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Additionally, um part of this standard is around budget and finance and uh highlighting all of the ways that we engaged with the public. Uh PTO's school committee uh attended city council. Um they also attend um PTO meetings and school councils at the building level to get feedback. We highlighted it in the parent updates so that we could have that engagement with stakeholders about what they valued in a school budget. We have been very strategic and um implementing high-quality instructional materials across the board in numerous content areas. Um this is just a highlight of some of the products that we continue to invest in so that our students have what they deserve. We continue to look for grant opportunities always to expand the student experience and assist with offsetting budget costs. And this was just the grant sheet from FY25. We are very excited as uh Assistant Superintendent Sullivan uh recognized tonight that uh the press release that just came out on May 7th is we are one of those 20 new high schools that will have the expanded innovation career pathway.
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Additionally, um part of this standard is around budget and finance and uh highlighting all of the ways that we engaged with the public. Uh PTO's school committee uh attended city council. Um they also attend um PTO meetings and school councils at the building level to get feedback. We highlighted it in the parent updates so that we could have that engagement with stakeholders about what they valued in a school budget. We have been very strategic and um implementing high-quality instructional materials across the board in numerous content areas. Um this is just a highlight of some of the products that we continue to invest in so that our students have what they deserve. We continue to look for grant opportunities always to expand the student experience and assist with offsetting budget costs. And this was just the grant sheet from FY25. We are very excited as uh Assistant Superintendent Sullivan uh recognized tonight that uh the press release that just came out on May 7th is we are one of those 20 new high schools that will have the expanded innovation career pathway.
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We've got the okay, there's the new federal mandate, but we don't have a federal department of education anymore and we want states to control the education except for the one thing we've said now except for well maybe we they're trying to figure it out. Everybody's trying to figure it out and each group is trying to act but it's just it's it's government. It's this group has to then recognize where this group is and this group and till it happens you know I think we have to you know see where everything is you and I can tell you from on a on a different note I remember being in a particular school system where there was talk about legis changes in legislation to graduation requirements and we wanted to be the first ones at it and we made the rules about adding in extra credits to make sure we met that graduation requirement which then never ended up coming to be because they didn't pass it.
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Math again is almost at we I think it's 120 something and 8th grade the other in the high7s exceptional growth and this is again eight weeks they still had eight more weeks of learning when we look at our proficiency we have seen incredible proficiency so this is like the big stuff growth again eight weeks before ESPA so that was in math we've seen some great gains and our projected proficiency on ESPA this is super exciting is again 8 weeks before ESPA they are showing almost double digit gains in proficiency in math. When we look at our reading, excellent gains, I'm super stoked about the eighth grade because we're going to send kids to high school with more than half of them proficient in reading, which I know is [Applause] Yes. Our teachers have been busting their butts to get this going. And if you This is just projected proficiency.
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It would take a really long time to go through item by item. It is attached obviously to the agenda. any staff member, community member, anybody who has any questions about it or any comments. Um, I'm happy to have those conversations with them, schedule meetings, um, so forth. But there it is.
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It's a human one. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Busters. Our next speaker is Natasha [Applause] Gillespie. Hello, I'm Natasha Gillespie. I'm a speech pathologist in the district. Um, I just wanted to touch on our case load. Um, the current SLP case load cap from 45 years ago is 55. Um the 11 district speech language pathologists are asking for a case load that is considered to be manageable in the year 2025. Word has it it would take Feressa hiring an additional five SLPs in order to have a manageable case load which means that we the 11 SLPs that are currently in the district are doing the work of 16. Thank you. Thank you Miss Lisby. Our next speaker is Kate Waters. [Applause] Hi everyone. Um, thank you for um, hearing me today. Uh, my name is Kate Waters. I'm one of the occupational therapists with the district.
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Um and so that goes back to the history of it. So um members from both Pleasant Valley High School and Chico High School and John Shepard was the principal at the time was also very instrumental in um developing this research team and the research team u from both schools collaborated and they looked at different innovative schedules. They even took trips to visiting schools um to look at their schedules to find out again what works best. um through this process um they determined um that an innovative schedule was necessary and they based it off of 14 dilemmas and the 14 dilemmas are linked there. I'm not going to go through all the dilemmas, but a couple of the dilemmas that were um pretty important were um EL special education students during a sixth period day were really having a difficult time fitting in electives in their schedule because of the in intervention classes that they were required to take to support them.
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May it be said of you that you continued to pursue growth as lifelong learners. Additionally, class of 2025, I want to take a moment of tell you how impressed I am by you and what you've done outside the classroom and your activities and athletics. And you've continued our culture of excellence here at Discovery Canyon campus, making our school so spectacular. Our coaches and sponsors are incredibly proud and have enjoyed coaching you in each of those events. You've demonstrated so much learning in your pursuit of your own areas of passion and you represented your school well. Artistically, many of you inspired us from the stage and in the performing arts and in the fine arts. You've done this as band and orchestra standouts, making wonderful music with many of you qualifying as individuals for the state ensembles. As choir singers, you have inspired the whole campus community, including tonight.
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So to the class of 2025, when life feels too loud, too fast, or too uncertain, remember this. It is just getting started. Now, I want to thank you for the laughter, the lessons, and the legacy. It's been real. It's been unforgettable. And most importantly, it's only beginning. Thank you. And now I'd like to please welcome Nuance as they will be singing Don't Forget About Me by Keith Forsy and Steve Schiff. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Done. Dancing. You know it. Baby d [Music] everything. They pull us apart. like your heart, baby. Don't you forget about [Music] me. Don't Don't you forget about [Music] me. Will you stand above me? Rain falls falling down [Music] down. Rain keeps falling. Rain keeps falling down down down. I say la. [Music] When you call my will you call my [Music] Thank you for that beautiful performance there. Hello everyone.
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We have an amazing school district. We have an amazing teachers, amazing students. Um I was so proud of Combmes. Um the my favorite though was the um Harmon Elementary. I think you had kids that went there. And so to see that the the children at Harmon get together and they do a fundraiser and then they give those funds as a scholarship to kids that are now at Combmes High School that had originally attended Harmon. And so you kind of get to see that full circle and it was very impress impressive, very touching. Um so that's that's all I have, but it was great. All right. My daughter was a recipient of one of those uh scholarships. Not yet last year obviously, but four years ago. Um so, okay, we're gonna um move on to our public comments and we have a short video. So, we want to This is a time for the public to comment.
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Well, everything that we do at our school is as a team. So unpacking the standards begins as like a fifth grade team and then within that there's our math team. Um we teach in diads, which means that I'm only teaching math. So, I really get to focus on diving into those standards, identifying the skills within them, the key vocabulary and language that those students need, and then I'm able to like present it in a way that's more accessible for the students so that they're not just seeing 5 NF. A.1, they don't know what that means. They're but they're going to understand, okay, this is fractions. We know to find common denominators. So just identifying those skills, the language, the rigor, but then also the prerequisite skills that the students learned in fourth, third, second, first grade, and also like the conversations that they have at home with their families about um fractions because those come up a lot in real life.
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And most of our firefighters all of our firefighters are also um EMTs. So, it's not about fires, it's about people having heart attacks and people needing um needing people to uh help them in s certain situations. So, you know, the the the thing about it is it's it's um it's incredibly complex and it's incredibly hard to communicate all the nuances in it. And we as a select board have to that that's our charge. that that is what we need to do is um talk about the value of the services that we provide because the town really does uh rely heavily on the services and and likes the high level of service we provide. So that's going to be a that's going to be a conversation for the future. M madam chair, are we are we able to discuss or Okay, but you don't I'm I'm not Madam Chair tonight.
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So I think like this being the first year it'll kind of see I would I liked the idea of the survey just because you could really see what families were needing. Yeah. Um and you know it was great when Mike came. We did one in the morning we also did one in the evening. So, you know, trying to vary the amount of time. You know, we talked about should we try to live stream some, you know, how can we get that outreach out to everyone whether you can attend in person or not. And then the the takeaway resources, I think it'll probably morph, but you know, I think you came in October, right? We started I think it was October. Yeah, because you guys came at night. Yeah, it was pretty early. Um, and you know, we didn't want to go too high level talking about high school programming, but to give people kind of that just awareness of what your educational career is going to be in town, I think was really nice.
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So, we're very proud of that and look forward to Greenfield High School having that manufacturing career pathway. We are always trying to be innovative in how we attract people for our district and we advertise on our website. We advertise on schooling. We have put ads in the recorder um schooling links to Indeed. We have you know partnered and collaborated with local communities uh colleges. We've also done mass hire collaborations, always trying to figure out better ways in order to get people to apply for our openings. We have uh really tried to um focus in on uh the leading with dignity and the book study and how that relates to um really making principles and department heads have that driving voice in the climate and culture that they're building. and then working in collaboration with the boots on the ground in their ILTs to transfer that uh mantra down to the building base level.
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So, we're very proud of that and look forward to Greenfield High School having that manufacturing career pathway. We are always trying to be innovative in how we attract people for our district and we advertise on our website. We advertise on schoolspring. We have put ads in the recorder um schooling links to indeed. We have you know partnered and collaborated with local communities uh colleges. We've also done mass hire collaborations. Always trying to figure out better ways in order to get people to apply for our openings. We have uh really tried to um focus in on uh the leading with dignity in the book study and how that relates to um really making principles and department heads have that driving voice in the climate and culture that they're building and then working with collaboration with the boots on the ground in their ILTs to transfer that u mantra down to the building base level.
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And then we were now left with this extra requirement which we weren't going to take away, but it definitely put us in a bind because we acted thinking everyone said this is how it's going to be and then it turned out it wasn't. So I I think the most prudent action for us. There's no rush. We have a little bit of time. Let's first read. We Let's see a little bit more how it plays out. We need to do you know what we're told once once mom and dad agree what the final rule is to agree once mom and dad agree then we'll have to act accordingly but until mom and dad finish their fight with each other we have to just sit back. Well I think that this the push won't come to shove until the the money actually runs out. And if I K you can tell me if I'm remembering this correctly.
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Again, we had eight more weeks of learning to happen. So, I cannot wait to see this, especially when I said our science scores went up almost 10 percentage points. It's highly correlated to the reading. I no doubt we're going to we're going to see these amazing things. Getting on to staff and student celebrations. Almost there. Um, we've had two two I think two or three students publish. They have we have an awesome creative writing course that we've actually had students now get their pieces published, which is amazing. We hosted a regional um history challenge and one of our students is now national history finalist. Um we've been in the news. Uh we had Edtopia come and they did we were part of a a story on cell phone uses. We so we are also on the hill for our awesome PBL we did on the election and um I've been writing about this in the NASSP box because we're amazing.
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Do you guys have any questions, comments? The formatting I am not in love with. I'm going to change that one. It's the meat and the potatoes right now, right? And then once we feel comfortable with that, then I will format it in a much nicer right way, but I wanted to sort of just get the information out there of of what um we're looking at doing in the district. Well, I thought it looked pretty good. It says right there, it's a this draft only includes year one and it's a draft. It's a, you know, first go at it. So, right. I know there'll be more. Yes. And you know, it's going to be a living document, right? Like there's probably going to need to be times where we look at it and and make some changes and adjustments to it as we go on. But I think having a road map and a plan like we've talked about um some expectations and and tied to that and protocols um I don't see that I don't think that anytime you don't anytime you have those types of things in my experience things have gone better.
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I see familiar faces and you've come and visited my classroom before so you'll know what I'm talking about. Um I had watched previous board meetings and I heard that the OT's and uh SLPs wouldn't have to worry about having a space to work next year and that's not necessarily what I'm encountering as you know people are talking about where spaces will be. Um, Majestic Way and Brookree have been amazing, but my Lane View and Toyon are closing and I'm concerned about not having space to work at Northwood for my children with autism. Um, people have brought up maybe trying to work in the fifth space, but that is like three classroom size. Um, for kids who are aloping, that is a lot of running for me and probably not conducive to their best therapeutic environment. Um, it's important to have pull out space for services.
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And so that was one reason. Another reason was um some of our uh advanced placement students in a sixth period day were finding it difficult to add in um really popular electives like student government. They had to make a choice. Do I take my AP course or do I opt to take student uh government class which is a very popular class there. And so they they had a dilemma as well. And so there there was many more dilemmas that are on that link if you want to look at that link. that led to again a collaborative effort between the research team from both schools and ed services at um Chico Unified looking at innovative schedules and what might be best representation for our students. Again, I want to point out that through this whole process with the history students were at the forefront of the thought process, the decision-making uh for the research team and for ed services at the district level.
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