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It's just not in policy 5100. But right, so Mrs. um Potter brought this up, which was a great idea a few months ago about u making sure that those individuals working in the lunchroom had CPR and Heimlick maneuver training. And so, um, the team got to work. And so, um, building administrators, office staff, PE teachers, coaches, social workers, um, psychologists, um, teachers, ECE staff, as well as lunchroom supervisors will be receiving that training. Um, I just explained that um, to kind of keep it organized, the um, as Mrs. Potter mentioned all of the required staff development and 5100 is related to some type of code or Illinois law. Um and since this is not I think put placing it in the administrative manual and it would be basically 5100 AP. Um but and then it would exist there because that's the procedural we list like how much it cost which ones they should do.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
I mean, when there was ESSER funding, our last ESSER grant was $4 million. Um, but you know, so I've been working on grants here for about five years. And and I think that um being successful in um grant applications, what it's really all about is a team that executes, a team that can make it happen. That is what funders are looking for. And so that we have a fiscal office that can keep track of those funds down to the penny and that's what funders want to see. We have a team that can make funding comes in and we use it. We use it as we say we're going to do it. And so that's why over the last five years we brought in at least 20 million. I'd say a lot of money at least we I think it's a lot of money. Um, but it's an issue of of GLTS is very well respected.
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18% in 23-24 and 17% in 2024 2025 arriving this year at 80% on the post test. Our interim measure our current measure rather was to get to 77%. So we fell just short of this current measure. Therefore um although we are close we did not meet current measure 1.1. So, as I mentioned before, interim measure 1.2 focuses on our fifth grade learners and reducing minimal proficiency from 86% in May of 24 to 79% by May of 25. Once again, the numbers uh at each school of students in fifth grade, uh the numbers of students at each grade level in math, we're looking at 348 students overall. And here I'm pleased to announce that we actually did not only meet but exceed our um interim measure for this goal. So, um, just to cut right to the chase, it's it's nice to be able to see that number there.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
So is that just through the work of the teachers then? Teachers, counselors, uh administrators, we have an AP committee uh across the we have a district committee. Every school has a a sitebased committee. Uh it's just an opportunity for kids and uh the kids are do amaz they are just amazing in the sense that once they uh get there uh they do really well. There's two teachers at Highland that teach AP Lit that are in all the years I've been around the best I've ever seen. And to see those kids in action is absolutely amazing. But I'm going to run over so I got to the uh I'm really cautious of. So anyway, every campus has to write a continuous improvement plan every year. uh this next impact check which starts next Tuesday uh they'll reflect and review their their goals and their action steps and their new uh their first draft of their uh new continuous improvement plan we do June 18th.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
So this long list of metrics that does not mean not all of those should be looked at and should be reviewed on a regular basis. They should they absolutely should be collected, reviewed and analyzed because if there are hot spots of things that are coming up as big challenges or big successes, those should be understood. But what does evidence tell us are the things that we should prioritize that by growing those everything else comes along with it. for enhancing teaching and learning strategies, the percent of students meeting their growth targets is one of the best measures that brings along everything else because if everyone is growing and growth targets in MAP to be really clear are um set based on where a student is starting. So a student who's starting further behind their growth target is more because they have to cover more content to get closer to grade level.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
We can do that there versus putting all of that in policy. So, I just wanted to update you guys. Hey, breaking news. We are training on that. It's just it's just not a state requirement and um that's why we're not seeing but thank you for um doing that and getting that in place. And then um I just kind of wanted to go over then policy 6270 which is guidance and counseling program. I had um there was an optional language that we could add. Oh, yourself. Item 5.7 is D26 policy manual review section six. Oh, yeah. Sorry. We skipped one. We that one you just were not Oh, we're not going over all of them because what I they just they've included this is these are questions that I was asking admin not necessarily that I was bringing towards for the board. I think that third one was 5120 and that's we just had that on there because we wanted to see show the board that that would be the policy we would be adding the nepotism piece to.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
We do what we say we're going to do and so that's why we're successful. We just wanted to congratulate Susan because she had the after dark uh graduation ceremony last week. So, um, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend that. How many graduates did you have? We had 56. 56. Um, it was great. So, you know, the students were there and their families. representatives from all the sending um districts and it was great to see the excitement and just you can see the connection with the students who are graduating and the the CTE teachers. It was it was pretty amazing. So, right and that's a it's a great thing that our school can offer the afterdark program again because we're as Sean was talking about expanding access to the community. You know, we all know that there's such a waiting list for ninth graders to come into school.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um, in our analysis, we found that the May this this month's rate of fifth grade students scoring minimally proficient was, uh, 72%. It was a little bit higher than the prior year. Um the percent of fifth graders scoring minimally proficient decreased 32% between IBM2 and the post test during the 2223 school year, 26% in 2324 and 25% this year. So once again we did meet interim measure 1.2. So with more on the inputs that led to this work in math, I will turn it over to Dr. Pombo and Mrs. Twist. Um, we've talked about many of these inputs before. So, these are our review, but there are some new inputs that we did this quarter. And so, 85% of our teachers enrolled in math Kraton professional learning completed six hours of professional development and building conceptual understanding. And they also conducted a SWAT analysis of theraton's math instruction as of April 16, 2025.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
We give feedback on every single one. Uh I get after them if they try to cut, copy, and paste on me because that going to happen. they're they're going to uh really have to articulate specifically what they're going to do uh in terms of addressing the gaps. Tableau get back to that question. We're now able to look specifically at where the gaps are. I has done exactly what it was supposed to do in in their diagnostics and identifying the gaps. uh the C ways in uh my perspectives has done the same thing and now we know specifically where kids are struggling and then adjust instruction instruction accordingly. Data is is absolutely worthless if we don't take action on it. And that's been the the biggest change since I've been here is we actually we take action on our data and then we hold people accountable to that.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
a student who's starting at the 99th percentile, their growth target is going to be uh a shorter amount because there is a ceiling for achievement. But if we can get more students meeting their growth targets, then achievement's going to be raised. Um the percent of our students who are on track by the time they get to high school will be raised. Um we'll have, you know, more opportunities for students kind of all these other things will come along with it. Now, there's a challenge with using growth targets in MAP. And that challenge is that MAP is only third through 8th grade. So, that only gives us our finger on the pulse for how we're doing in elementary and middle schools. So, we had to add um a high school metric and um we aligned on the ACT because that is an indicator of post-secary readiness which is really aligned to your mission and your vision and strategy.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Ah, okay. Yep. So that's section five, I think. Yeah, I already said it. So now go ahead to section six. Okay. Um I we are will not be covering the all of the policies listed here in section six. I just want to look at um have the board look at 6270 and that's the guidance and counseling program. Um, and we don't, the district doesn't necessarily employ guidance counselors. That's more of a high school thing. Um, so I felt like um I had asked, well, what about [Music] adding social workers and psychologists? And Dr. White agreed. So, um I guess I'm going to make the recommendation or for your consideration um that the first sentence of 6270 um read as follows. The school district provides a guidance and counseling program for students which includes school social workers and psychologists. Period. Is this a press? Yes, this is in our board policy manual.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Well, what can we do to make technical education available for more students? Well, the after dark program does it. That's for 11th and 12th graders to come from our sending schools and they're here from 3 to 5:30. So, that that's one way and it was a fun graduation. It's very nice. Susan oversees that program. She the director of the after dark program. So it's another big hat that she wears day in there which is no easy development is a big deal which no it's no easy task and you're talking about seven seven technical programs with you know kids from our all of our sending high schools and they come with all kinds of skills and knowledge and drives and motivation some not so much motivation but you would be amazed when you see the kids how engaged they are how much they love and I have the super I remember calling superintendent last week uh for a meeting to figure out other ways to expand access to vocational education.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
And what that is is if you look on the right hand side, there are sticky notes. And so we had all of our third through 8th grade math teachers in a training this past quarter and we had them work in different groups and identify strengths of our math program and math instruction weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And I have um our coordinator for math, Miss Twist, right here just to give a quick summary of those what our um third through 8th grade teachers um put on these charts. Thank you. Good evening. It was so exciting to get to spend a couple of hours with those teachers. Um, in April, we had them work in our elementary groups and then also middle school groups to first determine what their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats were and then they moved to the chart paper and were able to read everyone's and then it was their job to group them, to categorize them.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
all of us, everyone, the cabinet, uh, all the way through. We have a district improvement plan which we'll review in June and see where we're at relative to that. So, I've probably taken too much time, but uh, if there any uh, I I I will say this is uh, I have the best job in a district by far. We have the best job. I well having done that you have so many schools but uh as a principal great job I wanted to be in the classroom I wanted to be the instructional leader but school life takes over you know you have you know every single principal will tell you something that you'll go that did not happen it happened if you're a teacher uh you tell stories uh of things that you cannot no one fortunately My wife was a teacher so she gets it.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Now I'm happy to get feed as we show you the goals happy to get feedback on if these are the metrics that matter most to you all but um this is what you know kind of evidence tells us by if we move the needle on these things other the other prioritized metrics will come along with it on foster inclusion and belonging. There's a lot of evidence out there that if we can increase a student's sense of belonging in school that things like discipline referrals um will drop. Uh there's a connection between sense of belonging and participation in extracurriculars. There's a connection between sense of belonging and attendance rates. So there's a lot of evidence out there that sense of belonging is a really good metric if you're going to look at one thing when it comes to fostering inclusion and belonging. looking at a sense of belonging is a really good way of understanding or removing the needle for our students.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Would it be easier just to say mental health professionals? But there's so much more than mental health professionals. All right. Education. I don't know. That's Dr. White. Here's my thought. just I would say social workers and psychologists. I would name them because those are the current positions in the district. But then if you wanted to add in other mental health um staff in the event two years, three years from now the district decided to add counselors or therapists or other positions that may not be named, it would still be inclusive of anyone working around mental health for this policy. But I do agree that they probably should be named currently because those are current. And let's be honest, those positions probably aren't going anywhere because they're also tied to IEPs and other things like that. So those those social worker and psychologists, I would say, would be good to name and then maybe add the mental health or andor other mental health staff in the event the district ever added a different position by a different name.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
We're looking at two other possible type programs which the state has uh said find some other programming. We're looking at funding which in fact the state has put $100 million into this year's budget uh which is going to committee for Frank Mar put in u to help fund new vocational programs. Uh but that after dark program is just one of those programs that allows us to provide access. But we're always looking for more ways because we know how important it is to help kids who don't have a career and want to have that opportunity. So we we look for every way we can make that happen soon. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. All right, Mr. Superintendent. Summer projects going to give us an update. Well, in terms of summer project, we have a few going on that we know of at this point.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
And so they came up with things for strengths for example like coaches and teachers, professional development, curriculum materials, data and resources. Interestingly though, some of our weaknesses were also staff time and curriculum, um, learning gaps and mindset, which was surprising and noted as a weakness because it came up as a weakness from staff mindset being somewhat deficit focused sometimes to also student mindset. How do students feel about math and about themselves and their own math identities? Um, curriculum resources were seen as both a strength and also a weakness depending on who you asked. Um, coaches, teachers, professional development were big strengths all around. Staffing was definitely a threat that came up as something that could be getting in our way next year of meeting our goals as far as some turnover. It was noted by teachers about their colleagues absences and the number of times that they've had split lists or lack of substitute teachers and then also staff turnover from last year.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Uh but uh now I get to talk data and instruction and improvement for kids and opportunities for kids. Uh it's the best position in the we're both kind of really big data geeks too and that really having the time to look at things and to be able to share information with with all of these folks and with our schools I think has really helped help us focus as well. And and just the collaboration is incredible. I just love it. I love being in Gilbert and I I think this is a a really great place to teach, to learn, um, and and to work. So, I appreciate having the opportunity to be in this role. I I did you pretty much answered my question because I think it's important to look at the data but I was going to ask about what the steps are that we take then when we see those gaps or we see students who are struggling that we then work with them to make sure that they get that information, they learn that material.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
And you have uh with Panorama, you have a great tool that uh works with many districts to measure sense of belonging and is normed nationally and uh in the state. So um as we talked about what could be a good power metric for sense of belong or for foster inclusion and belonging, sense of belonging was the number one thing that really came up um as we looked at your data and as we heard from uh district leaders. And then for the last one for operational excellence and resource strategies, this one there was many different things we could use um because it's not as much like if we have this thing then you know facilities is going to increase. But when we really thought about what's important when it comes to operational excellence and resource strategies and a metric that's normed um and indicates kind of financial health of the organization, um we thought about the ISBY financial profile score which is a state norm score that tells how kind of financially healthy the district is.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above