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you all right good evening everyone and welcome to the 2020 California State seal by literacy awards night my name is J Marsh aunt and I'm the assistant superintendent of Chico Unified School District on behalf of Kelly Staley the superintendent and the Board of Education from Chico Unified School District we would like to thank you for all your hard work and effort that you have put in with your child and the student has put in with their classes at this time I would like to thank the parents for being outstanding parents for what they have done to get your children through through all the recommendations to get to the seal and the student for all their hard work over these four years at this time I'm going to pass it over to the director of assessments Tim Karras and to go over what has gotten here today welcome everybody happy that you can join us this evening and these extraordinary circumstances we're here to honor our Chico Unified seniors who are receiving the state's seal of biliteracy for the 2000 class of 2020 the seal is a gold seal affixed on their diplomas students will also receive a certificate and a medallion tonight we're honoring students in three languages Spanish Japanese and French and before we get much further I just want to thank the parents out there again for all their support throughout the years a lot of the students receiving the Cielo by literacy tonight were English learners coming into kindergarten and came into kindergarten needing to learn English and they've kept their their native their original language and became proficient in English which is quite an achievement many of the students being honored tonight began in kindergarten in the two-way immersion program where they were learning Spanish their first years of schooling and they've kept up with that and I'm glad to see that as a former principal at Rosedale the two-way immersion school in town I know how hard those first few years are and I know how much work it takes on the parent and to help with homework that's in a language that they're not familiar with it's an extra amount of stress on kids especially at the elementary grades when they are learning a language that's both fruits students learning English and for kids learning Spanish kids come home tired so tonight as we honored these kids this is part of a larger movement in California to focus on true college and career readiness beyond just English and language arts scores and the state has made tremendous efforts to honor the work of parents teachers and students becoming college and career ready recently the state seal was first implemented in 2012 California was the first state since then 36 other states have implemented their own seal by literacy program patterned after us two years ago the last year that data is available for 55,000 students in California earn the state seal and that's 55,000 students out of over 400,000 graduates in the state the goal of the California Department of Education is that by 2040 the year 2040 three-quarters of the kids in California will graduate meeting the requirements for the state's ela by literacy endorsements for the seal include the California School Boards Association Association of California school administrators California Federation of Teachers the California Teachers Association and both the Los Angeles and Silicon Valley chambers of commerce so this award is held in high regard by the education world in California and by the business world in California so before we get to the awards let's talk about what the seal is and what by literacy is so by literacy is the ability to read and write proficient proficiently in two languages by literate person has the knowledge and skill to read and write in one home language and in the second language I would like to add speaking to that as well as these students need to demonstrate proficiency in reading writing and speaking in both languages in establishing this state seal the health the state of California clearly is prioritizing the value of bilingual citizens the purposes of the seal include to encourage students to study languages to certify their level of BI literacy and to provide employers with a method of identifying people with language and by literacy skills also to provide universities with the method to recognize and give academic credits credit to applicants seeking admission to prepare students with 21st century skills to promote foreign language instruction in public schools and to strengthen intergroup relationships within the state and affirm the value of diversity the mission of Chico unified school district speaks of ensuring all students achieve high levels of academic and personal success contribute to their community and confidently complete compete in a changing global society the students receiving the state seal of by literacy will be more ready to compete in this global global marketplace a 2013 study by UCL UCLA found that in every every industry studied bilingual bilingualism was a desirable trait over two-thirds of employers stated that they would hire a bilingual candidate over a monolingual candidate all else being equal and I would say Chico unified as an example that right here in town so the requirements of to a to get the state syllabi literacy are quite strict it it's not a small accomplishment first students must pass our English language arts classes in high school with a 2.0 or above and must attain a level 3 which a standard met on the smarter balanced their 11th grade year they show proficiency in languages in addition to English by passing an AP exam passing an SAT subject area test or completing a four year course of study with a with a 3.0 in a world language I'm gonna introduce the principal of Pleasant Valley High School Damon Whittaker thank you Tim good evening welcome thank you for joining us tonight my name is Damon Whittaker I am the principal of Pleasant Valley High School I too would like to say thank you to all the parents out there for your support of your students throughout the years we share in the disappointment tonight that we couldn't be here in person to recognize these students for these amazing accomplishments however we feel like it is important that we do celebrate them with an awards ceremony we celebrate them for their amazing accomplishment over the past four years and all that they have done congratulations to all the students tonight who will be receiving these awards we want to make sure that you are truly recognized for your outstanding commitment and passion and everything you've done and all your hard work at this time I would like to recognize Chico High School who is also here with us tonight and introduce to you the principal from Chico high school Doug Williams Thank You Damon hello Bonjour and I'd like to say first all that I wish everybody could be here this does not diminish this award because we're doing this virtually I also would like to say that I think it says a lot about the Chino Unified School District and the state of California and your willingness to join kind of a global arena because this is I believe the one ceremony that we do that is a combination of Pleasant Valley High School and she go high school and so I want to say congratulations to both the PV students and parents and staff and also that Chico high families students and staff and I think this shows that once you leave high school you carry with you those traits that you you earned at your particular high school but we all know that we're moving forward to join a citizenry and a global economic world and I think it's great that both schools honor you this evening by having a joint ceremony and that's that's something that is is reflective of the impact of this accomplishment that you've achieved what's gonna take place this evening is in the honor of sharing this award ceremony we're gonna have teachers from Chico high school that will be reading names of Chico high school students and they represent our world language department and then we will be go alternating with teachers from PV reading PV students names which will represent their world language department and so the next section of that will begin right now why what again I want to say thank you it's a pleasure for me to be here I'm honored and I'm going to introduce our first teacher Senor Bustamante Spanish teacher at Chico high school Thank You mr.
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Pritchard here yes hello I'm here hello and let's go with this tanner yes let the record reflect that we have everybody but Mr stink belt who is out currently we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order and start with the Pledge of Allegiance I'll start that I pledge allegiance to the flag crazy on your end is on mine always fun to hear that all right we'll go ahead and start with the approval of the djinn form I'll go ahead and motion to approve the agenda form consistent with the governing board policies and temporary suspend any policy with which this judge ever made that being consistent second-gen Tanner give me a badge and Leonard seconds by Jen Tanner and we'll go ahead and vote dawn it's still waiting for your vote I can get the better screen here thank you for that all right we're gonna go ahead and move on to c1 superintendent update turn it over to dr. Kelly Thank You president Leonard members of the board and members of cabinet there's some exciting things going on and I sit right now hard to believe now that school is over this has been a short week but a busy week we are kicking off our summer camps at the growing minds preschool and at three other elementary schools obviously with all of the safety precautions in place and enrollments are are coming in for those those camps the board was notified yesterday and today that Dysart was featured on two news stations with our plans for fall school and just to reiterate basically what was said is the advisor has two options one to attend school in the classroom and the other is to receive instruction through the Dicer eye school online which is available for students K through 12th grade there's going to be a parent information Facebook live meeting coming up and invite all of our community to watch our social media and our district websites for the times and dates specifically for that information meaning and that's all I have to report huh I think mr.
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Donovan you charge them double digit Tyler he doesn't know really and thank you very much mr. Donovan you're welcome sir you deserve it you've put a lot in your parents have put a lot in it we appreciate him now did you say you go northwestern last next year yeah Wow they lived in Evanston for a long time no it will really and it's a great academic place but wish you the best thank you very much okay okay we have dr. LeBlanc ah Frank LeBlanc oh the Westside middle school I'm gonna recognize first Dylan Hannah see Dylan is uh is a 8th grade student at Westside missile Academy a mallet I'll never forget when she was in sixth grade she walked into the main office and she informed us that she was gonna be President the United States one day so much as she is the president of our student council and she's the vice president of our National Junior Honor Society holding those leadership roles she's made the school a very friendly and bright place to be she's also a dancer or would have been a dancer in our school musical Beauty and the Beast and she's participated in our other musicals as well she's really one of the most hard-working students and always willing to volunteer to help out others all this has a great smile as well as she's been on several of my evening shows that I've done for the students in my school so congratulate Dylan and I thank her I saw her parents as well Heather Michael are out there as well so darling congratulations okay and then second I'd like to recognize Christian for Nia he's a great learner as well and he's always willing to offer his helping hand also part of the National Junior Honor Society and you know honors the whole GPA of all times as well he's done multiple volunteer events with our school as well helping the Alzheimer's walk with West on these wrapped holiday gifts for the damage from all and of course he participates in our program we do with no Ridge reading to the k3 students up there dr.
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Williams I would like to congratulate the following Chico High students Raymond Brayden barber high school and I'm happy to announce the names for Pleasant Valley Corey Allen Tomas Tomas Barbour Paxman sarahi Bautista Ramos will Bearden Jelena bel aleb bracamontes Jordan Bennett ELISA car hi blue Josh go Dona Meghan Brandel Yash Khurana our new foe Camarena Yahaira Cruz Gonzalez pass mean darish Hannah Clark Alexia Gallegos hey Manuel Gallegos Martinez Daniel Crawford Mariela Calvin Moreno Christina crumb Alejandro Garrido Jeannette Dylan drew Kirsch Ryan der DB Goodman Gabriela Carly Justin Henderson Sean Harrington Sandra Cassie Hernandez Garrett hawk Riley Ireland Carson Howell Stella James Jeremy and so Guevara Khan Kayden Jansen Lila Klein Kenzie Jones Magdalena Maki Martinez Emily Kozak Jackson Mickelson grace Crowell Peyton Miller Jacob Cramer Jose Mujica Paulino Jacob Lew Melissa Naranjo Israel Martinez a lon Nava Alexa Miramontes John Paul JP quinones Oh Susanna Morales Viviana BV Quintana Reagan moss Andrew Schneider good evening my name is your authority Tirico Sydney Mountjoy ISA Bella Bella Schneider Joyce Marie Elena's Soto Albert nay Josh story Elena rabinal Rabinovich Samrat tapa lakin race Salvador Vargas Trujillo [Music] Diego will cheese sauce or neo Tristan Bruce pursues Cepeda Ramirez Erica CMAs whenas noches yo soy la profe a Vargas and I am excited to read the following names Mohamed mo Mario I'll Jabari Joshua Simmons Ethan Brown Kieran sing mahom Desai Kaitlyn Stuart Kaitlyn Catalina Fishburne Madison Sims Ali Fritz Mason the Olivia : Vivian Neutron Sophia Sophie hump you Fay wins love Jake Harrison Roger Wilson Oh Briana Aubree Hernandez Isabella woody Morgan Hirschberg Jacob Abarca Zephyr Paulson race Ferris Taran kill each e Angela Gao Tyler caliche Taylor Sheffield Leslie Ghana Castaneda Eliana le Sheridan Maggie Smith Garrett green Macey Spearman Olivia Villasenor Edgar Hernandez Alexander Alex Wilkinson anastasiya Sawyer Isabel Osorio Kai cook Riley Freeman Nichols anchez Hayden Hinkle Thalia Krueger Melissa Scarpelli Ali Lance Lucinda law Alana grinds Ian Lopez Asia Patel Brandon Henman Mason Temagami Jake towner cabal low Josephine Walker and Gavin Wilson Rosa Vere Andy shin hwal suave just zoom at em pay pay and I'll be announcing the candidates for French at Chico high first we have Nadia desert Victoria Jacobson Arielle re Kepler Selena Stockwell Adelaide sands Allie Whitfield and for Pleasant Valley High School for the outstanding World Language Awards for Spanish in French we would like to recognize Gerrit aka Fernando green as the outstanding world language student for French and for Chico high school I was I'm excited to announce that Victoria Jacobson has won be outstanding world language students and in addition to being an excellent student in class and all that that entails Victoria went above and beyond integrating French into her personal life she always spoke French with me in the halls outside of class and listened to French music and watched French films and would then share her discoveries with myself in the rest of the class truly enriching the course for everyone and I'd like to add for Garrett green our French outstanding world language teacher Garrett green also earned the bye literacy seal in Spanish he he actually took Spanish for four years and French for four years so we're making up a board called the trilingual SE seal for him for taking four years of both languages both French and Spanish and he's the outstanding student for French for PV and we are really pleased to announce also that Garrett Hawke as our outstanding world language student in Spanish Garrett studied Spanish for five years he started in eighth grade and is currently finishing up his fifth year in AP Spanish an excellent communicator and and he excels both in speaking and in writing but he has also this great sense of humor and he so appreciates learning the culture along with the language I know he intends on continuing his Spanish studies in college and we couldn't be prouder of his accomplishments so we'd like to congratulate both the Garrett's Diego and Fernando on their outstanding or language student awards and Chico High would like to recognize Mahon Desai as this year's outstanding Spanish student Muhammad someone who exemplifies the characteristics of a distinguished language learner not only does she shine academically but for the past four years she's come to class everyday with a huge smile on her face ready to practice Spanish which is her third language she's dedicated to using Spanish every chance she gets with her peers with her teachers she isn't afraid to take risks and make mistakes and she's motivated to communicate so it's with great enthusiasm that we recognize you mahom for your achievements you just felicidades thank you thank you everybody at home for joining us and congratulations to all the students out there all the graduates receiving the seal job well done many many years of hard work and best wishes to you wherever you are going next year before we go I want to thank both PV and Chico High's world language teaching staffs for working with these kids for four years and they're not up there but I also want to thank the junior high teachers and even the two-way immersion teachers our Rosedale and Chico junior for working with those kids as they come up and all of our teachers for working with our English learners coming into our schools learning English so thank you to our staff I want to thank J Marshawn for being here and the two principals Damon Whittaker and Doug Williams for taking the time tonight to to congratulate our winners I hope everybody has a nice night awards the certificates and medallions will be handed out at the site so you'll hear from your school about where and when to get those congratulations everybody have a great night [Applause]
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Leonard is muted sorry I'll go ahead and continue to talk to myself until somebody calls me now thank you for the update let's go ahead and move over to c2 governing board updates now that I'm off from you and let's go ahead and start with miss Densmore do you have any updates for us no updates thank you Thank You Don let's go ahead and go with miss Pritchard any updates from you no not tonight thanks awesome appreciate it and miss tanner nothing tonight Thanks and I don't have anything either so it looks like we're moving right along appreciate you guys all right let's go ahead and move on we're going to move to d1 and that is the motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented and then I think we gonna make a motion here it looks like we've got a little bit of an update so I'm gonna make a motion to approve the consent agenda items is presented with the exception of a 22 and authorized the assistant superintendent of business services to sign the agreement and any affiliated documents so I think we have an agreement Luisa do we know what that agreement is yeah it's a donation agreement between Dysart Unified School District and one our homes and the agenda item says to authorize the executive director of business services and we know that that position has changed to the assistance to point intended these new services so we just needed to make that correction gotcha that makes sense thank you for that update so I'll make that motion do I get a second second gen Tanner Thank You Jen motion made by J Leonard seconded by Jen Tanner let's go ahead and vote on that motion passes thanks everyone all right let's go ahead and move on and we are going to move down to all right we've got a few things here we're going to move down to information items f1 information on school continuous improvement plan dr.
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Seuss day Christians also pull across athlete and we want to congratulate him as well and I saw Christian there with his parents Richard and Christine what they like to say off you worse or just say hello so Dylan you wanna say anything and Christian we ready to go next we have ducted Zuleta at Rogers Park Middle School two students recognized was not able to make it but I do see that my second student read into aa no first he's an eighth grade student at Rogers Park he works hard at being a leader in our school community but showing kindness and supporting other students he's received many words at Rogers Park most importantly our pride award for helping others he's learned to realize that asking for help when trying to understand a difficult concept is a lifelong skill he tries to reinforce this with his peers at home he's taking karate for many years persevere when things become he is a great role model for other students at Radford our second student is kamila Dominguez kamila really epitomizes the superintendent's award criteria service academic promise of me she has been an honor student at revenues Park for the past three years she has consistently worked in service to others in academic matters from the peer tutoring and support as well as in a community manager matter through her active role as a student ambassador and a member of our Latinos of action class you know Latinos in action class she and her classmates tutor elementary students and our new arrival students her leadership skills of health charts would seem student director and this year's musical theater production of raging here and in addition she was voted by her peers to be the vice president for when he's in action class I was lucky enough the great pleasure of spending the day with her and her mom at great weight wake me in college back in December when Camilla and I sat on the panel still seated by M Henderson author of beyond the Big South discussing family in the intimate connection she did an amazing job representing her stuff her family and our schools Milla never backs down from a challenge nor hesitates to jump in and help teachers administrators and peers I have no doubt that she'll be one of the students advance talking about believers thank you thank you YUM I definitely want to say thank you for the opportunity and the encouragement you've done an amazing job so I definitely appreciate everything so thank you thank you congratulations thank you yeah terrific and we have our internet star coming up that's dr.
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Kellis Thank You president Leonard members of the board and members of cabinet this evening administration will we'll be presenting an overview of the school continuous improvement plans and the reports that were that were given and if we could bring up the slide presentation for this item while that's coming up I'll just share that give a little bit of history for the continuous improvement plans and this was something that was started as far as the presentations to the superintendent about 11 or 12 years ago and it started out as a the meeting with the school principal and the superintendent in the superintendent's office that was expanded and has had different variations over the years looking at what was last year we continued the same format this year and we are pleased to be able to receive these reports from each school and now from every department which those reports are coming in during the month of June the CIP that means continuous improvement plan that's what CIP refers to and the there's going to go on to the first slide while it's still coming up the continuous improvement plans are not required by statute unless a school is a title one school and then there are some requirements for annual continuous improvement planning the continuous improvement is just that it is what it implies is that schools are continuously reviewing their data their performance and making adjustments and then putting those adjustments into a plan for each year so why do we have C IPS well because we want all of our schools even though they might be a might not be a title one school we want all of the schools to engage in this continuous improvement process the process is starting with planning each summer the schools review their their data from the previous year and then put all the data into an action plan they execute those plans throughout the year and then at the end of the year they report their successes and frustrations perhaps to the superintendent so that process repeats itself every year there's planning there's executing the plan and then there's recording on the plan and then a reflection on what worked and what did not work the CIP reports that are presented to the superintendent are not just for accountability but they also provide schools the opportunity to to celebrate the good things that they were able to accomplish and then to have a conversation about how things went but also what they learned and what they will be doing differently the next year so the planning ahead and the next steps moving forward as we go through the CIP process each school takes about 30 to 45 minutes with the superintendent often the schools include their entire leadership team that includes teachers and administrators and coaches and Pt learning specialists and they are able to really provide a comprehensive overview of how school year went and a report on on their goals with CIPS the CIPS are intended to follow a specific template the report template is intended to follow the board goals primarily that they focus on goal a which is academics and then move to gold B and C which involves culture and student safety and then every school uses the same template and the the templates make sure that there's consistency from school to school and as we look at the the templates or the the presentations that were given this year the data that was presented by each of these focuses on the same data that has been presented to the governing board in previous meetings the previous board meetings and the benchmark for example benchmark scores AZ merit scores we are looking at high school credits how many high school credits students earned and again the the governing board has received reports on each of these data points just a few board meetings ago in fact Shelley si presented the the information from our benchmark and AZ merit scores and there's a discussion by the board and with administration about how our schools addressing their deficiencies and their their Co efficient C's that allows the schools to continue down this continuous improvement process so Jane we fridge our director of research and accountability is going to take it from here and just give a brief overview of a summary of what the the schools reported on we're not going to spend a lot of time on the data for the benchmarks of ADEs Ameri because that was just presented a couple board memes ago but we want the board to see and to really get a sense on the depth of the presentations and the information that the schools share and then we will review some of the challenges and celebrations and next steps for each school so Jane I'll let you take it from here thank you you might need to just advance yourself three slides thank you very much president Leonard board members dr.
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Thomas that broads you middle school she with us how are you I'm real fortunate I think my guys are here Alex so you hear just one mutant say your ear because I hate talking if you're not here Alex yeah of course you're here thank you so much for showing up like somebody I have two students that are just extraordinary students I mean they're just excuse me Alex al-'ardi first of all she's a model student embodies the characteristics of diligence persistence kindness she excels excels like academically and she stands out I was a leader in the classroom as well as extracurricular activities this is evident because she was elected co-president at the National Junior Honor Society she participates in our unified sports program also she would have been the narrator of into the woods we missed it by three days but you know it is she got something she can carry with her also alex is kind she's assuming she's collaborative and I love the fact he has such a quiet confidence about herself I just think people really come in its very relaxed around her she have such passion for anything but I love the fact that she has a passion for global climate change alex is probably the only kid I know who will send you an email and asking permission and she can stage a walkout and that's exactly what she did she sent me an email and she planned it so it was during the lunch break and I figured out she was really trying to determine you know get her point across and that if kids would leave lunch to support a cause like that then she knew that she had been and what she did is she had almost all the eighth graders when I on the walk out and then she did a presentation and our team is always on um on climate change so she just possessed his determination to do things currently she's interested in being a special ed teacher so miss Thompson please keep that in mind so I would like to present Alex Alex you want to see something real quick yeah I'm very honored thank you for all of your support I've had like the best teachers and the best overall experience that brought you so thank you for supporting me you are so gratulations thank you and the next is a young man not many principals get to say they had somebody from kindergarten all the way up now activating from broad view as an 8th grader Matthew just has a love for learning he demonstrates his passion by his approach and execution of its edification I was in a class observing Matthew one day and he just happened to know all the branches of the government and knew who was in every branch and I remember one little girl turned around and looked at her I do know that and his response was I'm an informed and I'm an informed kid and I thought that was a perfect response he's a high honor student it's just now that it's just what he does when doing ever since he's good at bribe you he's constantly challenges himself academically to be the best version himself every trimester he seeks just volunteering volunteering opportunities in the community he not only helps but he also takes it on leadership roles he is a member of the National Junior Honor Society at broad view and he leads by example each and every day and he's very important he's got very supportive parents just like elect a liqu s' and we all know Bridget Girish used with supports our dam break public schools from this family museum ful is his dad who's a wonderful police officer and always helped us out at Pembroke so I just wanted to just take time just to acknowledge him you will see them again I guarantee you so Matthew want to say something you didn't fall asleep on me did you Matt I [Laughter] can't hear you Matthew thank you so much for everything you've done incredible pieces that years and I'm just Thank You congratulations Matthew yeah mom and dad as long as we're doing some recognitions here dr.
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Kellis cabinet good evening as previously indicated this is a compliation of the individual schools CIP presentations I know that you all received a folder so if you have any questions regarding individual schools you have the ability to access that data goal a the academic part of the CIP is provided by the research department to all schools and then they add and complete remember the remainder of the items in the template next slide please Denise next slide we have essential data for every goal area these include the item stated above next slide please again as dr. Keller said a lot of this data you have seen but they are involved in each of the CIPS for the school this is the benchmark data for and the Arizona Merit data for ela we were on course last year we were actually three percent off of our actual scores when we did the comparison freedom in Asante again are on the right side of the screen they would not have received a label this year so we you utilize different comprehensive benchmarks for them next slide please the same data for math is presented and I know you have reviewed this previously we had a indicator that was about an 8% from the actual score and I know that we had discussed how we were dealing with that in a that in a slide down the road we will cover that data also next slide please this chart this chart shows how Dysart is doing in relation to the statewide data in ela we are approximately 4 percent above the state average as we are in math of course we're not happy with that average and we continue to work on those goals next slide please these are half credits we give 0.5 per semester so the 19 20 credits are for first semester only on this presentation when we completed this presentation and shared it with you we didn't have access yet to this second semester and the numbers are now in for 1819 we had a total half credits of 387 for 1920 we had 408 half credits for first semester and 376 half credits for second semester giving us a total half credits for the year of 784 so again previous year 387 this current year we did 784 half credits for eighth graders next slide please so you've seen this benchmark data previously but again all of this is share shared with each school all for their CIP I wanted to remind you that the algebra test was significantly different this year 60% of it geometry 40% of it algebra in the geometry test so we had some changes that we were addressing this year when as we address these benchmarks and some of that content had not been given prior to the benchmark being given next slide please so this year the benchmark for juniors looked very different as the target had changed we administered an AC t like benchmark so this is a new situation for students as we've never really made them take timed tests the AC T is really designed for students not to finish it so the approach is very different than a Z Merit test we we are going to incorporate a CT prep next year in our 11th grade classes obviously this year we struggled with the closing we are still waiting on the date from the rescheduled a CT for the state we are going to have a rescheduled date so we will be testing those juniors early next year and it's important just to remind you this is a percent correct and not an actual a CT score this is an aligned a CT test and it is a benchmark it is not the actual a CT next slide please so we have our Arizona merit comparison data for high schools we know that previously you had had questions in regards to the math we knew that we were 7 percent lower in math as we have assembled an algebra task force we have an ongoing pilot starting with Valley Vista and Willow Canyon this next school year we're optimistic that after the pilots and curriculum adoption next year we're going to have a positive impact again we are pulling teachers for additional PD from grades 6 through 10 to teach standards where the benchmarks indicated support is needed additionally teachers in the sixth through eighth grade will collaborate in backwards by design to Monday's a month during early release next slide please Jenny if I could just jump in real quick and add an exclamation point to one of the data points here and that is the high school credits that are being earned by our eighth graders these are actual high school credits that go on their high school transcripts and count towards their the total graduation credits so it's very exciting to see almost doubled well over 800 semester credits were earned by our eighth graders and that's just extraordinary effort by our teachers and the eighth grade by the leadership for math most of them are algebra credits but they do get into some of the other topics and as we mentioned before all the other data points are things that each school now takes that data and this next slide is going to explain what they do with it and how they adapt it to their CIP plans as they look ahead for next year so thank you Jane go ahead thank you so this is a little longer explanation because I wanted to make sure identified everything for you this is a compliation of themes the qualitative data from each of the schools CIP common in both high school and k-8 were West Ed do a PLC West ed is a research and development company that works with education to promote excellence achieve equity and improve learning for students and educators we started administrative training with West ed this past school year Dysart does internal data sweeps to ensure the training received is being transferred to instruction for our students the Dok or depth of knowledge refers to the level of understanding required to answer a question or perform an activity this concept is most often applied to the thinking that students do during activities assessment and other standard driven evaluations it is a it is a tiered approach and we always want our students working at a higher level of death depth of knowledge lastly the PLC or professional learning community is a group of educators that means regularly shares expertise and works collab to improve teaching skills and students academic performances we utilize PLC's at all grade levels in all content areas in this district and is an extraordinary tool when improving instructions for students common measures of success are the walkthroughs with WestEd the Dok the data tracking and the PLC's next slide please this is your culture and leadership goal B we have listed the essential data that we utilize there next slide please again this is a compilation of the qualitative data gathered from all of the school CIPS included our few items that are not at all schools but important to the concept of their culture these would be PBIS and the leader in me we currently have three K eights with a leader in me and one high school an alternative program in several K eights utilizing the PBIS program that is the positive behavior prevention and supports measures of successes are their community numbers social media hits and their survey results you will be receiving the survey results and the other information in another presentation during your June meaning next slide please there are many areas of safety that we look at Internet safety social media safety discipline data at our schools and of course the perception of our safety from all stakeholders is an important part of our processes next slide please each school is required to do safety audits safety drills and tabletop scenarios each year the discipline matrix is reviewed updated and board approved each employee of the district is required to do guisard essentials trainings each quarter the measures of success are included in our reduction of discipline numbers each employee completing the essentials trainings those include blood-borne pathogens bullying harassment intimidation student data privacy practices social networking cyber security and also our IT department working on the firewalls and keeping our disk safe from outside attacks next slide please this slide includes data that a majority of schools listed that would be their ongoing focus for the next school year all stated their continued work on D okay PLC and their focus on subpopulations is essential to continued growth parent involvement in strengthening instruction remains high at all levels finally all schools have set a goal to increase their school benchmark AZ merit scores and in doing so moving their school label forward I could go back one to your challenges you know listening to the school presentations one of the themes that also came out very consistently was the frustration that they amazingly refreshed her that they did not get to take the AZ merit test this year as the board is aware the governor closed the schools and as a result as a consequence of that we were not able to do any of the state testing for this school year a lot of work had been done throughout the year to improve the performance over last year and now they don't have that that data point and we'll have to wait until next year but there was a lot of excitement for the test to come so that they could demonstrate their new proficiency levels and there was a lot of frustration when it was cancelled for the year yes thank you next slide please so many of the continued focuses are also noted as areas of celebration for all of these schools Dok teacher retention numbers are high and will be shared in the June presentation the addition of social workers and teaching and learning specialists were a significant celebration for schools so many of them celebrated many of the same things and as dr.
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LeBlanc oh did you just get an award about I know everybody would like to hear about the magazine would you like to announce that sure we've actually had some other some good news at Westside our we had three students in the state literary magazine receive publication state literary magazine and that's really exciting and then recently also we had a group of students qualify for the Nationals for National History Day and we had two of our students qualify for the Nationals for The Invention Convention so all those events and publications are virtual this year unfortunately the kids are not able to travel to the locations very proud of accomplishment of the students that are strong I just received it but all that's the other principle is anything you'd like to announce this opportunity anything in particular no okay all right well yes can I just say something very quickly just while I have the principals on I just want to say thank you to the secondary principals all the principals really for how hard they work but dr.
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Keller said they were all very disappointed that they didn't get to test this year so next slide please again all of the individual school CIPS have been shared with you in a main folder and you have access to each individual school there I can stand for any questions at this time or obviously dr.
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Lebon can in particular was a real real help to me during the distance learning shift and I know I've sent a few emails but I just want to thank him publicly for his efforts and his support with helping to organize super-users and adding to the philosophical understanding of some of the things that you've incorporated into our program so I just want to say publicly thank you dr. before your hump it up thank you okay all right that's it thank you thank you participation sandy yep we have one as of right now one public participation from Dana O'Rourke the DHS PTO president she says good evening the Danbury high PTO would like to promote our light up the city blue and orange program we would like to see the city of Danbury in blue and orange from June 5th to June 12th to celebrate our class of 2020 we are asking all Danbury residents and businesses to show us their blue and orange it can be lights signs balloons streamers or anything else that you're welcome and that is it for a public participation tonight thank you okay real quick class and read that disclaimer okay okay due to the unique nature of the kovat 19 crisis and the limitations of technology members of the public who are Danbury residents are invited to send brief comments and questions via email in advance to DPS underscore public comment underscore b OE at Danbury k12 dot C T us we're gonna move forward okay I'll make the motion the Board of Education approves the items on the consent calendar exhibit 20 - 55 through exhibit 20 - 58 as recommended second of course it's Joseph Britain I reach little Eskimo hi Kate caneta I Gladys Cooper I Joe DaSilva all right Catherine Hodgson hi Richie Ginelli I Cathy Molinaro al Russa Amy Spoleto I I know the leaders is Aaron here deli I guess not she's doctors ladies you doctors ladies so on here you would you like to take this opportunity okay okay let me get my heroes back on it make sure I'm on there's some other things that are going on I'm in fact I will tell you then and I mentioned to you that I'm hoping that's fine that we have some regional approach to reentry things are evolving every day the rumors are going all over the place because we're hearing things about who's coming back next year and how many youngsters can be on of us and how many days will they be back who's kind of mantis is learning what are you providing for these are all things that are that we're dealing with and I will tell you it's quite perplexing for us and challenging and you know the issues are simply don't know what we're doing we have not explicit information so with that we still have to do some preparatory work so you know we have a group that we that that's meeting we've encouraged a regional group and they've met and I've asked Kevin to give a presentation they went through a few scenarios as possibilities I think they're coming around and focusing on the known Danone being what has been put out to us regarding social distancing and if we would have summer school what that model might look like and kind of overlay dad as a possibility but I will say with all candor to all of you we have no direction we are hoping for direction my sense is as we may find something out on Friday all that Kevin speak to that but we just can't sit and wait Courtney's had set aside money in a budget as you will see in order to purchase things he may need or provide transportation depending on what we get but we do have the workings of some guidelines let me say that that would be applicable to a plan if ending all we get from the state of which I hope we get very soon with that Kevin I'll turn it over to you is that put some on line yes yes and so miss Cooper we I know we still have students and families probably still on line I didn't know I know usually don't afford maybe we let them know they can leave if they wake up just didn't want them hanging out all night if it was unnecessary so I just wanted to provided a visual for the board in the community about re-entry recovery plans and update as you heard as you heard dr.
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Kellis thank you for taking the time to listen to this this evening so if I will take any questions in the board thank you for that great presentation I appreciate your your time in your insight we have any comments for the board I have a couple comments and I've just a couple questions thank you for the presentation and um thank you as well for just putting it all together I I was one that really enjoyed having the individual schools come to the board meetings just so the community can can hear what's going on in their particular schools so I appreciate having the snapshot so people can at least get a little bit of a recap and understand what's going on so thank you for presenting um definitely just wanted to just say how wonderful it is to see the high school scores in ela and those huge huge gains specifically in 9th and 10th grade up 15 and up 22 that's just to me you know la is so important it's kind of a pet peeve of mine making sure that our students are proficient and making great gains and to say they've made great gains as an understatement so the good work there for sure thank you dr. we fridge for explaining I was looking at that negative 9 there under geometry for a 10th grade thank you for explaining the reasoning for how that happened just a quick follow-up question to that though is remind me why is it though that we weren't able to present that content to students before testing it's really about scope and sequence and to be honest with you dr.
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Tsao mentioned we are current waiting for feedback and some formal guidance from the state and I just kind of wanted to walk the board in the community through kind of kind of the flow of information as we understand it so one going from left to right the the State Education Department receives information from our area near West around the state and so Sal has appointed me to represent Danbury with Ed advance with it advance there are a number of different representatives from the respective districts and in those meetings we are making recommendations and and reviewing you know multiple considerations for um how a reopening can look that information and if you go all the way to the right that information is brought to is eventually brought to the Commissioner of Education and he shares that information with the governor's statewide reopen task force and so and so we're hoping and expecting some official guidance as early as this Friday and my understanding is the commissioner's office as impressed upon the governor's office that it's necessary to have this information for our planning efforts and as you guys are probably aware you know a lot of our expertise and capacity will be leaving soon for summer vacation you know elementary principals teachers department heads etc and so for our planning efforts it's it's critical that we that we're aware that we're clear on what our guidelines are for the fall so I just want to bring everyone's attention to the middle we've had two kind of formal reentering recovery meetings and honestly we have focused on kind of the mitigation strategies or protocols that are going to be necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of our students and staff so everything from what you know what are the day-to-day operations look like in a classroom are we cleaning in between periods what common spaces be wiped down regularly what does this mean for when kids get off the bus so all of the questions that are coming up in a community where all kids wear PPE equipment will staff be required to wear it so we're reviewing all that information and and it's informing purchases for the district and how we're going and to make sure that you know our staff has the proper supplies to protect themselves and protect the greater greater school district like when Excel opened up as he opened up earlier we're anticipating some guidance from the state this week we feel like this information is critical to our planning efforts and once we have some updates will certainly be sharing that with the community and the board when it's available so that we we did hear Kevin that Friday may be a time yes okay so anyone at the state in a bad place and put Friday but yes isn't 213 they will change every week urgent but the regional meeting do you have another one scheduled regionally yes so we have a regional meeting we had one on Tuesday and another one on Friday at the Tuesday meeting and Friday meeting we reviewed five or six different scenarios of how schools can look when they reopen in terms of instructionally but the business would look like how many days kids would come to school what grades would actually come to school and you know what the costs associated what that might look like and see if it's reasonable I it's in that work I mean going from left to right in that diagram that PDF that I had up for you that will inform that information will be brought to the directors they were coordinate all of that information bring it to the deputy commissioners and the Deputy Commissioner will share that with the Commission of Commissioner of Education and if the governor is going to refine his guidance in any way it will probably come from it I don't know any questions would be a good time chorus if I'm sorry I just I guess I just want to express some concern over this I mean is looking over the operating budget which we're gonna be getting to for April and I know we're running at a deficit on transportation even though we haven't been bussing the kids because of that enrollment we had and year and if the restrictions that they're they're talking about you know or the guidelines that they're talking about for how many kids are supposed to be on transportation occur I am concerned that that's gonna really [ __ ] our operations even if we were to hypothetically do this in sessions which I'm I'm just throwing that out there I think it's gonna it's going to be a real problem so I'm just wondering if any of that's been communicated to the mayor's office loudly and often okay as recent as this morning Kate I talked to the mayor who I guess you know I guess this advisory group they call down to the mayor's then one that they need to make a decision either way we're going to do a or B or C and then when that decision is made you may have just heard what Kevin said one thing that they are doing they're attaching a cost to all of these plans you know most of the budgets around us have been reduced and we're all wondering the same thing how how can we possibly you know move into that that culture with the budget that we have we do have some money I think in our case if almost so it I think it's somewhat of acidity at one point three million dollars it's part of the covert money but that something could be encumbered for many different things so I we've asked for if you do this what can we expect what kind of money you know can we expect the reimbursement so my guess is if I were betting I would say that you'll probably see something different at the elementary than the secondary but transportation will be part of it also have social distancing as part of it where classrooms will have to be divided with Kate is another expense terms of who's gonna be with that you know who's teaming with what Kate sound and Kim to make these things happen so as buses it's cleaning it's all of them so we've communicated that Kevin's on that committee and he asked but that's as far as we've gotten and just one one additional question for you both thanks dr.
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acai and her team have been working wholeheartedly on the scope and sequence of that and trying to fit it all in - it's a matter of time to answer you very honestly trying to fit all the content in and it was a taking that geometry test and splitting it like they did that is a a huge content change so it's it's just we have to we're always working very hard to keep up with the changes and the state doesn't always give you a lot of time on those changes so we just we have to be very and again dr. Sian her team is very diligent Matt so the benchmarks have been realigned the testing schedule has been recalculated they've done everything to make sure that we're very well prepared for that geometry test and unfortunately we didn't get to take it this year too to give you those results so what sounds perfect thank you for for making those changes with the alignment - and to dr.
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Sal I appreciate that [Music] in terms of and I know that this is the conversation whether or not there's gonna even be school in the fall if this becomes a situation that's financially not feasible for us to execute does that mean that we're gonna be looking at whether or not we're going to be putting kids physically back in these buildings or does it mean we would be looking at spending money upfront to you know try to meet all the guidelines and get kids in the physical school building in the fall do you have a sense of that yet did you need to clarify that for me please I guess what I'm wondering is if if the guidelines come down and these decisions are made perhaps by the state about what we have to do in order to maintain a safe environment for the kids and that's not a financially feasible thing for us to do for whatever reasons I'm wondering if that means you know we would look at at doing additional remote learning in the fall or if we would push to have you know in in person learning until we don't have the budget to operate anymore well let me come back around to your first question when we spoke to the mayor two weeks ago that was on the table if in fact they come back to us and we cannot handle it almost what happens do is in August that we're going to go back and answer something there isn't any way that the board is going to be responsible now the answer I don't know okay is that if the if the come if the boy if the State Board makes a decision like you will that's one thing if they say you would have the option to do it now that's a different thing so I don't know if he'll permit a hundred and sixty nine towns to make their own decision so that that that's exactly where let us know if you're going to give us guidelines or mandates and then if they gave us that that we can intellect intelligently answer that question you know you'll have a cadre of youngsters who whose parents already have indicated on a survey question whether or not they wouldn't feel comfortable in sending their youngsters what do we do at that lunch and then you have similar you have staff that has our challenge yeah you know what do we do with that step so we can't answer it until someone says this is the direction we need to go that's why we need something so badly so that's the best I can do with that that's that's great thank you yeah in my I suspect from Kevin and cell both of your comments that we don't know the answer yet because we don't have any answers we don't have any guidance it is there anything you need us to do or other than scream at all of the powers-that-be state local in everywhere else we can find them that we need more money is there anything you need us to do or not yet I think if anybody has up to talk to our delegations who they've always on the same page with us we've never heard for them to say look you know have the folks please give a decision to us because we've got a plan the best night I think that would be helpful yeah I think that's under I think that's understood by the delegation I'm not sure that that's the governor's office and I don't know what the time schedule is there but I'll certainly happy to pass it on as much as I can't do that that would be that is the deal right there thank you for doing that if you do just a quick question I know we're planning for the unknown their plan are their contingency plans in place for after we reopen and let's say we have two reclose well let me just go to your second party if we close we will go back to March eleven which is distance learning that would and we would do that better I mean just okay but it's we don't know how to get there if that in fact does happen because that's been the conversation I know some people talking about should we start earlier there's a wave and if that wave comes and you have to close you know it's all the big if but you know if God forbid something happens and we do return and we have to then go back to the distance learning that would be our option there was their only option Rachel some some of our protocols that we've that we've landed on we feel like you will position us better moving forward so if there is an outbreak of some sort in the community the contact tracing protocols we feel like we'll be able to nail it down and we you know we may not have a choice but to close all schools but we feel like the contact tracing will give us the ability to just close out some schools if it's if we feel like it's contained so those that some of the work that's happening now okay I'm glad to hear that there is a combination of the other piece just to add is that we're also starting to engage in the feedback from the school level administration on like what went well with distance learning what maybe could we build and improve upon so we're already looking to put those plans in place so that we can do distance learning you know better than where we left off at the end of the year which is another important component just so we're ready to roll it out if needed absolutely thank you and if I could just add to that a little bit I think one of the that we had a you know probably at least a couple dozen if we had a had a couple do-overs in March what would they be if we had just two or three more days what would we do with the kids differently to prepare them and so we have been making a list of those things in terms of training kids and how to use some of the programs you know with adult help and show them how to navigate some things where you know once they got home they were frustrated or they just couldn't quite do it the parents weren't quite sure so there definitely is a list of do-overs and we'll be concentrating on a few of those right when they come back if we come back to so you know if something should happen and they pull the plug on us attending in person that we would have a front-loaded a few of those pieces in before we let the students go back you know back home we also talked a little bit about briefly today we had a conversation around summer school and we talked about you know maybe finding a way to send kids home with with blocks for modeling a composition notebook things like that the kids just didn't have at home and I'm you know we're wondering now if it's if it's feasible maybe to create little individualized learning packs for kids if they go home with they take every day back and forth just you know some modest things but definitely tools so if they're in class they're using their own we don't sanitize them but when they go home if they shouldn't come back they have some learning materials in their bag that can support our curriculum so there's a few things we're tossing around now and you know we're looking some of those that out in anticipation of you know having to shift in either direction yes ooh me have in elementary school a specific class give it a twenty it's I'm assuming there's a distance requirement let's assume that there's six feet yes it would seem to me that generally speaking the classroom would encompass perhaps two clatters because you can't maintain that distance among classrooms and then who would teach those two classrooms plus the element of parents who don't want to send their kids to that class don't want to keep them home teaches them how do you break out teaching three parts where you had one teaching only teaching the entire twenty kids now you got three separate areas who was teaching no words setting up model classrooms I'm to go and to set them up to see how exactly if what six using that use the current protocol six feet of ours what are we talking about my assumption is the same as yours probably to classrooms if that is the case and we will have a team teaching situation that team would may be complete have to work with our union obviously that team would probably made up of a certified teacher along with the instructional a paraprofessional that will be deploying the plans to the to the to the let's say the two sections of kids that the teacher is planning for that would be the kids that are in school the youngsters that would be home would not be part of the classroom that that particular class even if you split it somehow it wouldn't be half at home and half at school because that would be certainly problematic these are some of what we've done which we've kind of played out some of these scenarios but as someone that think was Kate asked me about the transportation if you think about doubling your staff you have approximately a thousand thousand teachers I'm gonna take a shot at this and maybe 750 or so maybe classroom teachers so you're gonna need you know all of them assign someone to work with them so it'll be in a whole hands-on approach but they will not be all certified but we got to work with the union come around so in conclusion in answer to my question my summation would be this is the stupidest thing that's ever designed your thought oh did you through all these hoops her all these enormous cost taken away from education as opposed to continue with the development of the sophistication that you've done with the online learning for a number of months until this thing gets into hang I mean it sounds to me that there's nobody that's in control and it's it's ludicrous absolutely ludicrous I don't know how you're gonna measure any kind of student performance it's mind-boggling absolutely mind-boggling and I don't know who you talk to or who talked to whether it's the governor or your Commissioner then these people shouldn't be an educator I mean it's absolutely stupid you put it aside like you said close to a million dollars you're taken away against out of Education dollars stupidity absolutely stupidity and what happens with public what happens in public opinion let's say a good part parents don't want to send their kids to school what do you do then then you print your plans are more complicated because you've got as you said the distance the physical distance that you're creating with Jalbert plus the other fact of having to dedicate the kids at home it's mind-boggling just mind-boggling preaching to the choir doesn't man all right I mean it there's no getting excited because nothing's handed you might as well wait till something handed down to him saying it like we just don't know who to I think utility I know as I said about 15 minutes ago I can't wait we have to have some of these scenarios the bus company is waiting I mean here's an example if they split us how do you do it if you have an elementary kid and you have a middle school kid and they're on different days so that we do this by alpha we can't do it by sector of 10 there's so many things we got to talk through that we need to apply on what what it is that they want to see you know it's my concern is I've seen I've worked with Courtney and I've seen these budget numbers we every year we begged for money we go one step forward and two step back when we're putting we're putting aside a million dollars for nonsense that's taken away from our education budget 1 million dollars but taken away from occasional and and that's only and a guesstimate it could be substantially more and we don't know who's gonna pay for it if the state has that much more money to waste on stuff like this I mean something's wrong it's finish it it's anything else it's fair to say that no matter what we do we're gonna be wrong because if we don't go back to school in the fall parents are gonna scream that they have to go to work and there's no daycare and then if we send the school kids to school there's gonna be risk and if the split session there's going to be risk and parents who were stuck because there's no insufficient take care yeah and if we don't do that there's gonna be people who are uncomfortable about sending their kids to school there's no right answer especially we're right now into the fact that we don't know the guidance I mean if school had reopened this spring I wasn't sending my kids I would like to err on the side of safety I guess out you're absolutely correct you're correct and and I agree with that wholeheartedly and whatever we do we need to do the safest thing and I am happy to tell Sal and Kevin I'm happy to tell you what everybody else that I will back up whatever the safest decision you guys believe is the safest decision I am going to support and as a parent you guys have done a great job on distance learning so far it hasn't always been smooth but you built a plane while flying a plane and I am amazed by how well it's working especially this how badly it could have gone but no matter what we do there's there's no right answer and there's no wrong answer it's we're gonna be right no wrong or is a wrong answer Joe I love those wrong answers for sure but no matter what we do we're gonna be solid he's not gonna be we're not gonna be real course someone's not going to be happy we can't make everybody happy that's for sure so we air on the same kid children kid get the Tonopah CS fever the bus driver leaves them at the bus stop and says goodbye so what do you do with those I mean for the educators and I don't know whether this is Kara or Kevin or sell any one of you pedagogically speaking is it different I have to assume that it's better for elementary school kids to be there more and it's easier to have high school the middle school kids a B or you know alternate days or something I'm like crazy on it we've talked about it sure you know the youngest kids struggle the most so your kindergarten first and second grade and particularly because they didn't have a lot of Technol we didn't our k5 level was not flooded with technology prior to this so they weren't facile with some of the tools and navigation you know some kids are naturally at home things like that but by and large we had greater saturation level at the secondary level so kids kids just knew how to do certain things and it was much easier transition and many of our teachers at the secondary level we're using Google classroom anyways - - so they're compare familiar so and then you know grades four and five not not as bad but when you get down to the little ones you know it you know submitting work and trying you know trying to explain how to click on something and find something with a kindergarten I love a second grader yeah so it becomes very challenging and so again if we had some time with them before this happened and we had these devices in their hands and they were used to using them and logging on one of the greatest barriers with getting kids on in the beginning was just great you gave me a laptop I have an email address I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next Oh energy so those are some of the challenges and again if that's part of the do-over we if we got our young young ones in but to your other question though along the lines we do a lot of small group instruction at the elementary level because you know the differentiation needs and developmental needs vary and so doing that in person with young young kids is important so you know in this environment our youngest learners we would you know definitely love to have them in person if we could our ESL and our special education students course yeah thank you we would like that but children haven't even reached the age of reason how do we get them to play by the rules while in school of course I think to Kara's point just to highlight there are some special populations such as special education that even though they may be I played students we're going to have to think about a little bit differently um likewise you have ESL students with different levels of language proficiency that need more support so there's certainly you know Elementary versus secondary there are some common themes there as far as what's good all kids but there are certainly special populations that are gonna have to be thought about as we unroll this lamb thank you very much when we figure out what it is they ask then we can start you know shakin and bakin I guess is the best I can say thank you thank you action item a some motion that the Board of Education accept the April 20 2008 results analysis in accordance with exhibit 20 - 59 second any questions Courtney can I just ask you a quick question because I was I was looking and I mentioned before I was looking at the transportation budget and that's that's a little bit more than we were expecting to spend when we got that appropriation for the emergency appropriation from the city where the transportation costs factored into that in the transportation that exceeded the credit we got for the closure yeah so so you can see that there's a gap in the transportation budget this year and I can just say typically what we had been doing in the past was when we had an experiencing insurance that was better than expected we used that to cover some backs okay so and we had we had added additional busing after that ad you know the enrollment ad that we got was the one point six seven five I think about 300 300 k was used to offset the transportation cost but when we talk through next year's budget you'll see we did shift the money to account for what we expect next year and we're also getting a credit from sta for what we negotiated for during the closer towards next year's budget you know which which when we go through it in the Finance Committee tomorrow I'll point out you know it does build a challenge for us the following year so you have to look at it from a multi-year pickle okay thank you any other question seeing none could you do the roll call for tonight Joe Britain i retook Zaleski kate caneta i Gladys Cooper aye jotta silver all right Catherine Hodgson hi rich Ginelli hi Kathy my attorney hi al Russo L your muted I think that's an I wait okay yeah Amy's ballina I all in favor motion so Carrie Thank You Rachel could you do our action item be sure I move that the board of education except for second reading and adoption policy six one 14.8 emergencies and preparedness as accepted by the policy committee I will second that second meant by K any questions to my knowledge we didn't receive any feedback I know scare abound on Oh Zandra so I haven't received anything seeing none all in favor - motion roll call Joe Britain I reach out sir Leslie I Kate caneta I Gladys Cooper okay Joe de Silva is not there right now Catherine Houston hi Richie Ginelli hi Kathleen arrow I purchase al Russo I a miss ballina i I guess we're gonna mark Joe's an abstention perhaps because he is not there okay okay emotion so Kerry thank you action item see on the commotion that the Board of Education except for second reading and adoption policy to one 31.1 appointment of a designee for superintendent as amended and accepted by the policy committee motion made by cake again secondly by regional any questions again I haven't received any feedback on this just so you know I know Kara has not indicated to me that we received a feedback yes okay Joe Britain i rachel cholesky keep caneta i Gladys Cooper hi Joe de Silva all right Catherine Hodgson hi Richie Ginelli hi Cathy Molinaro owlusa I Ami's Polina aye motion carries unanimously the motion has been care okay so continue report thank you thank you let me start Danny you're still here dance oh yeah there he is then thank you dan you have a I know the knee ask reporters comments it kind of goes back and forth so drift but there were some staining recommendations I just thought perhaps you might give him a thumbnail sketch over that blue find clues you ask stuff I will start by saying that Danbury high school did receive its full accreditation yeah we have not received the full report yet the summary does state that we have been accredited once again ongoing accreditation which is a real positive thing for us so for the next ten years we are in a credited high school and that's a you know that's a lot to do with the leadership at this level all the way down through administration to our teachers who work with our students every day and our students would do a good job the knee ask committee was impressed with Danbury high school one because of its size and how it was run and how well it went but just the atmosphere that was in it and some of the I'll give you a brief update on some of the stuff that we were commended for a lot of it had to do with rubrics and personalization of instruction our small group which Kara had mentioned our small group instructions at the high school are formative assessments that we use the communication and the safe and positive school climate that they found Danbury high school to have you know and I wish I could they loved our open enrollment flex our health services the coordinated efforts that we had the dedication of our custodial staff you know our new shiny building in the back and the black box on the side they were impressed by all that stuff you know so with a lot of great things that are happening at Danbury high school that we control up there are going well and the committee saw that and a three-day visit it gave us great commendations for things like that the Commission did express concerns for several or I shouldn't say two different categories of one of which they ended up putting us up on warning and warning is is is not a good thing there's different levels to Annie asked report and warning is one of the lower ones that means if we don't fix this we have to write a special report by February 2021 and if we don't fix some of these things that they sent us then our credit a ssin can be in jeopardy so the big ones that they said that we off the top are you know staffing levels materials technology equipment supplies facilities they do not support the full implementation of 21st century curriculum overcrowded hallways inadequate uneven heating and ventilation plumbing and bathroom issues 88 compliance and elevated risk furnitures and fixtures insufficient science labs inadequate space for deliveries and student privacy and deliver services for students and health services outdated corrosive toxic chemicals insufficient technology and support for that technology excessive class sizes and teacher student loans in an adequate number of licensed school counselors insufficient funding for operational supplies so for the standard on curriculum community resources we were put on warning so what has to be fixed by that time is that you know class size and the student loans must be reduced certified licensed counselors an adequate number the sight and plant support delivery of high-quality instruction overcrowding inadequate heating as I said repair two pipes and see building bathrooms that are fully functional and things like that so while we're doing a lot of great things up at dam your high school there's a certain level of frustration that comes from me as the principal because a lot of those things in the warning I just mentioned I do not control so I'm gonna look to you as the board Sal dr.
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psy and her team as well mr. Leonard miss Pritchard if I could also add to that one of the challenges that schools across the Arizona have is when the target moves we definitely want to make sure students are prepared to take the test we're not teaching to the test that we want them to be prepared to be successful for what's on the test the last several years has just been a roller coaster of trying to target what exactly the the state is asking the students to know and be able to do on the state assessments and looking forward we anticipate that's going to change again so every time the the target moves we have to monitor and adjust our scope and sequence to make sure that the students are getting all the content in before the test happens to make sure and that test happens as you know not at the end of the year but about a month and a half before the end of the year and so we want to make sure that all the lessons are taught so they're prepared a month and a half before the school year ends right we definitely can't expect our students to do well if they don't have the content prior to the test so I I understand loading content and appreciate all the accommodations that have been made to help get that better aligned for for next year for sure so thank you for that um the only other just to kind of get a better understanding I mean obviously I'm looking at the k-8 a couple a couple of just little drops with the ELA piece but I'm looking more at the benchmarks for k-8 math and I was hoping I just get a little more understanding regarding some of the drastic drops that I'm seeing with several of our schools some even as much as 25% I know our curriculum hasn't changed the state standards haven't changed so help me understand what has occurred that would cause such a such a drop in our scores for some of our students well I will tell you that we struggled obviously we have a testing system that we use and I'm going to answer you pretty pretty honestly we with our benchmark 3 we looked at that and we actually went back to ATI and we asked them to realign I asked them to give me all the analytics for it because I'm a we requested that they recheck all their analytics recheck their alignment we had a team working on some of those questions and they weren't happy with them and what happens is when they switched questions out we have to be very careful where we get into our depth of knowledge because we always want to keep our questions at a 2 level and preferably at a 3 level because the majority of state testing is done between the level 2 and level 3 so it's really the depth of the question that is being answered and I'm sorry I'm trying to answer this as specifically as I can for you so we want to make we went back and we made sure with our testing system that there were no longer any do K 1 questions because their value is worth much less than a Dok two or three question and what happens is the test becomes watered and we don't do as well on it because and I know this doesn't make a whole lot of sense but the test is watered so we're it's not worth as much in we're not scoring as well because it's weighted does that make sense um probably as best as it can for someone who doesn't understand all the mechanics of how the waiting and the testing work I appreciate you trying to explain it somewhat but let let me ask you this then so if your to make sure I understand you correctly are you feeling than these scores aren't a true reflection of the growth that's happened in these schools where really all these students are at or above where they need to be and this is because I know we always say that testing isn't the be-all end-all it's just at one snapshot in a moment of time but knowing kind of a couple of the comments you've made about this particular test and the Dok and everything are you feeling like looking at some of these schools that have significantly dropped that those students have shown proficiency in other areas where they're exactly where they need to be or at least they haven't fallen I'm going to ant you know I hesitate to give you my opinion Madame Pritchard but I'm going to answer it like this I believe that we do probably have schools that need to do a lot more work but I think we all of us need to do a lot more work because we're always striving and achieving to do better I believe that we struggled a little bit with the analytics on benchmark three therefore we have big drops because the tests had some Dok one questions on it and they weren't valued as highly could some of our schools have dropped absolutely could some of them not have drop have dropped as much absolutely that's data that I can't tell you and I and I can't promise you all I can tell you is that we've reflected on that test we took it back we ran through the analytics on it again we have the company redo it and we're really sticking to higher-level dok2 and three questions and we're going to get a better much better read on this okay thank you for explaining that um dr.
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Sal as the superintendent and the city to get a lot of these things resolved in a very quick time I don't know how we do that I know what the budget problems what we're gonna do about that but these are things that I don't control I don't control the piping I don't control you know the bathrooms and things like that so they're there's things that we need to fix but overall Danbury high school did get accredited as I they were very impressed with what happened and was going on at Danbury high school so we are credited for the next 10 years they may have any questions I can't Kate I'm just learned we get a copy that list mr.
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Cullis just in the interest of time perhaps you would be willing to meet with me regarding any particular questions I'd have I just on a deeper level from what dr. we Fritz is just reviewed so I can feel a little bit better about some of these scores and understand them better would that be possible absolutely be happy about this picture and then the only other questions I had is for clarification under the challenges section I'm glad that you did address the loss of learning because to be honest with you that's that's something personally I've been wondering about and I know I'm sure in our community they share the same concern because you know I have no fault of our own we you know our instruction was it how we had planned toward the end of the year and I just worry that there's some students that maybe didn't learn as much as they we they would have learned if they were in in class rather than learning on online and how we're going to be able to quickly make up for those gaps so these students don't continue to struggle and continue to be behind next school year God willing we can all go back how we're going to be able to kind of make that up so these kids aren't struggling and teachers aren't spending time that normally and they have their you know brand-new curriculum for next year a new curriculum brand new year content that they need to teach these classes that they could probably easily get behind and if they're feeling like they got to do a lot of makeup and catch up so when you list that on there have you guys can you share a little bit about what's involved in that - how do I shoot that mr.
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Donovan I think that would be really helpful absolutely fell husband thank you we just got it a little while ago did we say that list to all the board members please Dan would do me a favor please send it to Kara yes appreciate that would you please do that okay let's talk about the moving up ceremony and graduation update sure so one we have a number of elementary schools who are requesting to bring some closure to the year in a safe way we are reviewing the the the k5 principals request and reviewing reviewing those requests with the Department of Health this week and then our principals will be able to communicate something to their respective community soon for graduation I know principal Donovan's talked about his school last week and in plans for Danbury High School in addition to I know John Webber had also shared some plans he had we are reviewing region it reaches graduation plan and so that will be part of the review with the k5 moving up ceremonies and then in addition to that we have Terrans on the line to speak to how Adult Ed is planning to move forward with their graduation good evening everyone actually for we normally have our graduation at Western Connecticut at the Performing Arts Center but we were told that facility is not available to us so I reached out to Dan Donovan and we spoke actually earlier today but we're going to do something very similar to what the high schools doing we're going to have a drive-through graduation ceremony at Danbury High School tentatively on the 18th of June so we are working out the details right now like some of myself and Dan earlier today and he said that that should be fine we're going to honor and celebrate our graduates we have nearly 40 a potential graduates at this point and we're going to work that so we can honor them and their accomplishments this year so dan could you please go over the high school I had a nice meeting with chief Ridenhour kara pronti and chief wheedle earlier in the week to solidify our plans and ask parents just mentioned it's somewhat of a drive through we are trying right now and we're hopefully after you know tonight we'll be able to send out at gasify over the instructions and you get a couple of Google map drawings that we're gonna have for people to understand it but essentially the front entrance to de Vries will be closed everyone needs to go to the light and come through East Gate down the parking lot side up through the do not enter and they'll get out at the first stop sign right by the big crosswalk your graduate will get out we have it we're gonna have it roped off and marked off so everyone's six feet apart and stuff like that and when it's the their child's turn to go their car will pull up to where the handicapped ramp is one person will be allowed to get out of the car to take photos but we will also be streaming it live with sterling Miller and taking pictures with dr. Oberon it doesn't normally of me on the stage with the graduate handing them the cover you know if anybody wants to come down they are more than more than invited to come in there because there's no way I'm possibly standing there from 9:00 to 3:00 in the middle of June so if anybody wants to come down and wonder why so after that they take their pictures they leave the stage they walk down to the auditorium entrance actual get the actual diploma and the reason we do that is so we we can't know who's coming up to the podium before they get there but they can hear their name and have that ready for them when they get down to the end then we're gonna have another kind of picture stationed right by that little garden outside and then they're gonna get in the car at the stop sign with their family and they're done we have to get through forty-five students an hour which doesn't seem like it's a lot but you're trying to take nice pictures and you have diplomas and organize and parking and stuff like that you know a minute 15 seconds per student is not a lot so it's going to be hopefully a steady flow there will be if the board gives permission to go ahead and do this there will be a letter going out tomorrow like I said with directions and all of that I was just waiting for tonight to go through and have all that it's gonna be controlled for about 45 people I said per hour starting at 9 o'clock in the morning and at at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on June 10th 11th and 12th you can't control the weather we do have tents that we can use to cover graduates and things like that we believe we have a pretty steady plan with the police have it with our safety advocates and some little volunteers that will be there helping us and a class advisors and a question Dan are you limiting it to a certain number of people per car one car per family are they is everyone wearing masks one car per family you know and no oversized buses or trailers or anything like that because you'll never make the turn you have to go out that do not enter make a pretty sharp left-hand turn so they'll never make it you know if if you have a Honda Accord or you know you're gonna have less people than you do if you have a suburban but not everyone's gonna be able to get out of the car anyway I don't see that happening so that's gonna be a problem for us there everyone will be masking gloves the students are allowed to remove their masks to take pictures standing next to me it'll be a table between me and the Graduate where you know we're not going to be handshaking like that but we will then handing off the diploma case to them and stuff like that was concerns from chiron t proximity of people how many people on stage we are gonna track which graduates do show up on which days at what time so if there is some sort of outbreak or they can trace something back we can say what people were at their high school at this day at this time we're also taking precautions with the custodial staff to make sure that we every after you know midpoint in the day we have a little bit of a break we're going to wipe everything down and then at night again I have a question Dan it's Catherine Hudson are you talking about the area near the black box no right in front of the school by the flagpole so you're talking about coming in from Eastgate Road no instead at the front of the school yep the farthest schools gonna be closed off because what it can do is it allows us we measured it out the other day we're gonna do if anybody's ever been to the ferry it takes you're over to Long Island you know they line you up in rows there's one thing we're not good at at Denver high school especially those kids driving is backing out there we go okay even backing out so we're gonna line you up there's two rows of ferries and if we do that between the blue lot which we call it which is right in front all the way back to the where that little S curve is we can jump we can fit 88 cars we only need 45 per hour so I think we have more than enough room and then they'll send 10 cars at a time around that curve and we'll just keep it flowing okay we'll be out tomorrow I don't want to take over the screen no that's fine so you won't be known who's gonna be graduating I'm sorry I lost it hello cigars yeah glad as we lost you she froze them here there you go here you now there you go we can hear you okay Mike are you going to know who's going to breath way only so you know ABCD coming on the one day CD no you're not doing it that way here we are we are doing yeah a through a through f graduates on the first day okay and then she threw oh great Sunday - and then he graduates on day three we have them broken down within that day - nine to ten slots of nine to ten 10 to 11 11 to 12 to 1 1 to 2 2 to 3 and within the lots of kids are assigned for there's 45 kids purse first lot I have a question Dan so Amy it's too early I asked this question but I'm gonna ask it so how can we help how can happen board members help I can't like I said you're more than welcome to come but again I can't invite everybody to come to everything I don't know if you'd want to but because we're only a lot of certain numbers of people you know they don't want more than you know five people around the staging area any given time so let's say if dr.
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