So, thank you. Um she's also one of our teachers that we lean on the most heavily when it comes to Orton Gillingham or OG instruction and um just recently opened her classroom since I've been back from maternity leave to other teacher teams that could observe her work in action. Um they left talking about their biggest takeaways, what they learned, what they wanted to implement in their own classrooms, and that kind of leader, the kind that's just quiet but confident. Um just very student centered, it just shows and it makes such a lasting impact on our on our whole building. Beyond her classroom, Tammy supports our school in other ways. Um as the wife of our transportation director, she's always behind the scenes as well in that way. And people never see that. Um but we do and we want you to know that as well.
Some are asking for things. I don't think there's a lot of big asks, but we're now calling them. We're running numbers of class sizes. >> That's the question. >> Yes. >> I don't know if this pertains or doesn't pertain. I don't think it's going to make the number move as much as I want to think it is. Do for the people who are retiring. Do we have any people retiring? And is their budget line drop down or is it staying the same? >> I would say just a little depend on if they're retiring, we could assume they're maybe at one of the top steps. >> Yeah. I'm just making sure that if we do have people retiring or leaving district to our top tier people, we are like >> bring allocating them back down when we're rehiring to a realistic level. >> You hire inexperienced want to hire the most experienced know that's available for Jeff.
Uh body composition, it's just indicative muscle growth. So, we're going to measure lean mass with a non-invasive, relatively inexpensive way to measure that. Most body composition, if you want top of the line, it's like 15 grand for a machine. >> So, which that gives you a whole lot of stuff, but the um method that I chose to use is still worthwhile. It still gives you good information. Um, and I've begun the conversation with our athletic trainer here. she is going to assist with that. So, there is a medical provider that knows what she's doing. She has the same education background that I do and more experience in it. And then for muscular endurance, we don't have to buy anything. We don't have to do anything because we have a weight room that is fit for this. This is what it was meant to do. So, we're going to use what we have available.
Um, but speed was varied among all the students. Um, so when considering how fluency impacts comprehension and the lack of emphasis on measuring fluency in the Amplify curriculum, we chose to supplement with um, UFly decodable reading passages. So this week I started everyone on a first grade decodable passage and then we go on to week two. So on the left it shows the same thing. My cold read from Monday and that red line is 40 words per minute. We kind of set that goal for all the students. So you'll see I have quite a few that are under that, quite under that, and then some that are way above it. And then the graph on the right shows my retest from Friday. And it'll show like for instance, student one was only halfway to 40 on Monday, but then skyrocketed all the way above 100 after a week of practicing that same passage all week at school and at home.
We're very grateful. Tammy's very creative. Um, she handles discipline with consistency and with care. Um, and again, I can say that because I know firsthand. And I can assure you if anyone needed strong classroom management, um, it might be the principal's kid, you know. So, Tammy is a ray of sunshine on on another note. Um, just literally for everyone, she takes everything in stride, pushes her students forward. She has very high expectations. Um, and she prepares our kids exceptionally well for kindergarten. So, we are very lucky to have you and thank you for all that you do. So, very deserved of our bulldog of the month. Thank you. ABSOLUTELY. OKAY. >> OKAY. OKAY, so for January, our lifeline was empathy. So all of our teachers um take the time and they pick out a kiddo in their classroom that they feel like has shown this lifeline throughout the year.
He's the $75,000 place for any retire. So again that looking at the high net about 20 grand savings if you will on that placeholder with what it is that retire and that that's the gift. So in a perfect world yes >> I just didn't know if we were bringing them back down to like >> No. So then I'll address that though. So somebody retires at let's say $80,000. Why do we put 75 in there? Because if I put 52 and I'm looking for a physics teacher and there's one applicant in the entire Western Mass space them >> and they're they have a doctorate free mask. We're going to pay $80,000 for that, right? Then in different subjects, it does sometimes you have a little more play with some of those subjects, whether they might be some of your elementary teachers, sometimes in the past it had been at secondary level English and history teachers were a little more abundant.
And same thing with muscular strength. We're using our resources. for making everything the best that we have available. And if you have more questions on that, I can talk for days about muscular endurance, muscular strength if anybody has questions. So my research goals, these are just additional goals, but I want to determine if our current program meets what we intended it to do. Are we getting growth? Do we need to do more? What changes can we make? And then I want to provide a platform to demonstrate that Brown County Athletics, we're making success. Like, look at us. We can hopefully bring in more athletes. Like, this is what we're doing over summer. It's proven to be successful. If community members want to get involved more of like, well, we can help sponsor this, we can help, you know, purchase more equipment. Just trying to get more of a community back into athletics.
Because with our Amplify curriculum, um, we're doing reading every day, but it's always echo reading or coral reading. It's never individual reading one- on-one with me. Um, so sometimes I you just don't know how well they're actually doing. And then week three, as we progress, you can see not only did we get better at making the charts. Thank you, Miss Alexander. But each student's progress is being independently reviewed weekly, and there are opportunities to clear up misunderstandings in the skill throughout the week with practice. Students are also reading at different levels um this week with some students who were consistently meeting winter benchmarks for first grade words per minute being asked to now read second grade decodables. So after those first two weeks, if they were reading well enough in those two weeks, I bumped them up to a second grade decodable where I thought that they would do well.
And then we take time to um make sure that we recognize them for that. And I think empathy again is something that it's it's hard to to teach in kids especially nowadays. And so it's definitely something to be rewarded. So, in early learning, Abby Shipley, Alex Bolero, Reese Ashlock, and Jeffreyku. If any of you guys are here, come on up. Is there anybody behind you, Cheyenne? Okay. Um, in kindergarten, Brighton Doolittle, Miley Lucas, Evelyn Simmons, and Kora Coder. In first grade, Kinley Rule, Maddie Whiteitman, Malachi Lucas, and Clark Pitman. That's for your parents card. Don't let them not put it on there. Okay. In second grade, Hazley Davis, Corbin McCoy, Dalton Kriswell, and Mason Frell. In third grade, Sarah Sweet, Leah Selenus, Abigail Smith, and Serenity Gascal. In fourth grade, Cynthia Mlan, Paisley Parish, Dylan Blackburn, and Amos Lee. Sweet girl. You're welcome. In fifth grade, Maisie Galvin, Charlotte Rothenberger, and M Patel.
um they're all starting to get less abundant now, but um but they are a little more abundant than a chemistry teacher or a physics teacher or a calculus. >> Well, I said I didn't think it would be like a drastic decrease, but I just want to make sure. >> Just a little. >> I mean, $5,000 is $5,000. Still is $5,000. >> It's a couple buses. >> Yep. So, do we have any ideas on where we could find savings to compromise with the town and not get the 7.2 2% we need but try to keep as many of our people as possible because I know that we've been running on a lean budget for years and years. So >> there there are things like >> next uh there are some vacancies that we have carried over. Uh and the question now becomes similar to those that were here and those that watched uh after the redistricting was pulled off.
And then obviously it's giving me relevant experience in the research process because I will more than likely end up doing some sort of research in graduate school. And then that leads us to the next steps. I've completed all of the required uh safety training, privacy training, confidiality training from the university side so that our research will be confidential and protected. Um, we're just waiting to complete the other paperwork and order and receive the equipment that I outlined to purchase. And from the high school side of things, we're notifying school board, we're getting your approval. The superintendent mentioned that we should do this, so we're here. Um, superintendent has to sign off on something. And then in the spring, we'll be meeting with the uh coaches that are involved in the athletic de development program to better understand, okay, what can they help with? What's our setup going to be?
And then if I can get to page four. And then we go on to week four. Um to further individualize this intervention, the students who are continually struggling to reach the 40 words per minute using first grade decodables began using the kindergarten level. Um so 10 students were below the benchmark at week four, which just two weeks ago 15 were below benchmark. So just in that month span I already had that big of a change. Those five students that are now above benchmark. The students were not only growing in their confidence but have really taken ownership of their reading skills and are excited to see how the charts change by the end of the week. So this chart is exactly what I would show to my students. Um I show them so all of them know it's not about who's got the highest bar. It's about, hey, are we all hitting that red line?
Congratulations. And in sixth grade, Grayson Johnson, Gracie Hoyen, and Emma Sato. >> Congratulations. Thank you. >> Congratulations, parents. Thank you guys so much for bringing them out tonight. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. students and parents, thank you for joining us tonight. Certainly, you're welcome to stay for the board meeting, but if you would like to leave, you're certainly welcome to do so now at this time. But thank you. And then I'll stick to your driver cuz they're all aluminum. somebody like during during our like shares either of my wife like >> Yeah, it'll go in the fridge. Yeah, >> it still wouldn't stick to the fridge, but they change that. >> All right, next up is uh public comment. Uh we have Carrie Kirkall signed up to uh comment on the school calendar. I just have a quick comment. Um, I heard that you guys were talking about when you're going to hold graduation for next year and we heard that it was going to be the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.
you know, the administrators went back and looked at how it is that we were doing things that resulted in some vacant positions no longer needed and so we're able to get back into the level of amount that we received from the city. That exercise is going through again now. So, there are there are vacant positions we have that we carry over. It's just a matter now with the program director whether or not those are needed and or we'll look at our enrollment numbers. So what's here you know different grades vary as you you've seen as I I might have mentioned I believe at times we generally run two grades each school or two class two classes of per grade of teachers and in many of those cases that works out fine. There are a few anomalies where you probably have just just over enough for one teacher in some places where you're having a second hired.
Because we have 30 40 athletes at a time, 60 sometimes. We just have to coordinate things. Thank you for this opportunity. question. When do you have to have um official approval from >> March at the latest is when my professor would like to get everything signed off and completed on the university side. So then so if March 2nd is the next uh board meeting and if the board would approve moving forward with that March we could get everything to you. Is that still in that time? >> What sports are you thinking about? >> It's for all of the athletes that are welcome to come to the athletic development program. So, tennis, softball, I mean, it's everybody other than I don't think we have any cross country runners like long distance runners there just because they have their own workout and they're dealing with a lot of like They're more of a cardiovascular like aerobic athlete as opposed to like basketball, soccer, volleyball.
And so we all cheer each other on when we finally hit that red line if we didn't on Monday. So yeah, on Friday they're like, "Can we see the graph?" They're all excited for that. Um, and then week five, you can see um I mean, I'm going back to student one because it's right on the end and easy to see, but the cold read on Monday was right at benchmark. I had asked her if she wanted to practice even though she had hit the benchmark and she's like, "Yeah, I do. I want to I want to get way above that red line and then she skyrocketed." So, and you can see also on the retest Friday that almost all of my students made it to benchmark. Um, so they're really taking pride in taking these home and practicing them. Um, I've even given them to some of the title teachers for student students to practice um that may not get the practice at home and it's made a big difference.
And the parents, the senior parents that I have talked to would prefer not to have it on Memorial Day weekend because there's so many sporting events already going on for sectionals of baseball. There's softball, track probably. And we've moved it away from Memorial Day weekend in the past couple years, I believe it's been. And if we would move it away, I think it'd be better for um rescheduling in case we do have the baseball or softball sectionals or whatever it is that we don't have to move graduation so that the kids can actually participate in graduation, not have to choose between, you know, softball, baseball, and graduation. I mean, we're a small school, so I think if we could just maybe do a little bit of forward thinking, maybe it wouldn't be um bad. like last year having to move multiple times to try to get a date that worked for everybody.
We've talked about it's not going to end up having happening now. I know that in terms of any type of restructuring, not even redistricting, but restructuring of grades. For example, if you we're running two second grades in each school. source there are six second grade teachers. The numbers would probably truly dictate if you house them all in one building. And I say that for that this is future thinking down the road you could probably minimally have five maybe you could even get them into four depending on where you thought the comfortable classroom size was. Right? Um but because they're spaced in that sense you don't have that efficiency and it's not a perfect world right because then people would have to be busted. You wouldn't have neighborhood schools etc. There's all pros and cons to all that trade. But we are looking at all of that.
Those are your power athletes. So getting them in the weight room, that's the big thing of like getting them faster, stronger, more ready for the playing field. >> Are you a partner or have you started that partnership with our strength and conditioning program that we're also trying to get up and running for the first summer. Um, now that we have Mr. Bruner in that position, >> not yet. >> We're waiting for this side to get situated first, but then we will continue with him. >> But Mr. Burner is aware of this. He's seen a copy of what her proposal is and he and I had a conversation the other night about spring breaks if we get it in. She can come in and talk to Coach Bell and Coach at the same time. Do you use slow cadence in exercises or not? Do you know what I'm talking about?
And then week six, this repeated reading intervention has instilled confidence in my students and has helped me identify areas of need for each individual student by allowing me to hear each of them read. something that the whole group reading instruction that has taken away from me with the demands and structure of the Amplify curriculum. Um, like I said, we do a lot of echo reading, oral reading all together and not any one-on-one reading like this. So, this has been super nice to help individual students with their reading, decoding, and just being a more fluent reader. Um, yeah. So I think that's all of my stuff. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. >> What's exciting for me as the building principal is, you know, MTSS has often thought of talking about individual students, but through those conversations, a first grade team identified an issue with a curriculum that we have and noticed that there was a problem in how we're instructing our kids when it comes to fluency and words per minute.