Um, good evening board members, exe executive cabinet and attendees. My name is Jill Rodriguez and I'm the GC president for Granite Hills High School and I am excited to give you this month and last month's update on Cougar Pride. Despite February being the shortest month, it somehow seemed to have the most activities from field trips to CTE competitions, pep rallies to dances, and practices to CIF championships. And there was no shortage of things going on for our Cougars. In the weeks leading up to spring break are just as busy, which I see as a school's way of reminding us that we earned that break. Last month, our avid sophomores headed down to CSUSB and University of Redlands for college tours where they found out how paying for parking is really annoying. Granite Hills High School hosted a curriculum visited visit from Rims AVID on Wednesday, February 18th, and received valuable feedback as we continue on our path to become an AVID demonstration school.
Anybody else will get a >> Yes. >> So everybody's going to get >> everybody gets assigned a number. Yes. >> How many numbers are going to be? So March 12th when the lottery is going to take place, how many numbers are going to be? >> Every student who's in that lottery will receive a number between 1,00 and 9,000 numbers that were given to individual people. How many are going to be drawn? >> 500 students will be accepted. >> 500 >> that's not answering the question and that's where the confusion is. So, >> so listen to me. >> Lottery, right? >> I buy a lottery ticket. >> Million people buy a lottery ticket. So, there's a million number >> million numbers in the lottery ticket. >> Yeah. >> When the drawing is full, how many tickets do they how many people how many numbers are? >> Five.
So why continue support matters? This is really important because sustained curriculum development and classroom support ensures all students regardless of school have access to strong science instruction. Continued support allows this work to grow, remain consistent across the school district, and expand opportunities for students. So, Steph and I like to receive feedback from our teachers from the workshops we run. So, we send surveys to them often on reflection of those workshops. And we have a few uh teacher testimonials up on the board here. Wanted to uh read just a couple we have engaging in the experiments was helpful allowing participants to understand the process and anticipate potential student difficulties. So a big part of our workshop is having teachers experience the new activities with a student h and go through that productive struggle of figuring out what that activity has them figuring out. And so that's what they're referring to here.
I really know I was. He also said the worst thing they can say is no. And in here in Lexington band, you can never fail and you can always try and excel. Mr. Brian really told me to perform and be proud of my capabilities and I want future Lexington students to learn and feel the same impact Mr. Buran had on me. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. The next speaker is Amelia Wang. >> Oh, >> you can lower them. Yeah. >> Good evening, members of the board. I'm a seventh grade student at Lexington Junior High School. I'm also a beginning trumpet player and student of Mr. Barrier. I'm here to persuade you to extend Mr. Beran's contract and perhaps make him a permanent staff. This year, I have had the privilege of having Mr. Beran as my band teacher. My parents pushed me to sign up for band.
And we welcomed our incoming 9th graders to AVID with our AVID forum, Neon Monsters, Inc. event on Wednesday, February 25th. Students got to play games, meet our AVID students and staff, and fill out their applications to join AVID next year. It was a lot of fun, and there was a huge success. Our CTE programs are not only not only competed in Skills USA regional competitions, but showed in our local MDCP competitions as well. Last month, 12 of our medical students com competed in a local high desert medical competition and took first place in the team division. Our CTE student representatives from both Apple Valley High School and Granite Hills High School presented to the Greater High Desert Chamber of Com of commerce highlighting all of our amazing career technical paths leaving business owners and community leaders very impressed. And we even had four students from our skater pathway selected for a paid internship this summer with our industry partner General Auto Automix.
>> And then somebody is going to say, "Oh, I got a number." Or not. >> Yes. >> How many numbers? How many? >> I don't know how else to answer the question. I don't know if there's anybody else who could >> I don't think I can articulate it. >> So, one second. Will you yield to >> So, basically what what is being described is like kids will get a number like let's say my number is >> 6,000, right? >> They're going to look at 1,000 as the lowest number and then 9 9,99. They will pull the top uh 500 from the lowest to highest. So let's say your number is >> 1 to 500. >> Yeah. Let's say your number is a thousand. Then you're most likely to go. >> That's the confusion in in this lottery system. Wow. >> Yeah. That's the confusion with this lottery system is the lowest number you get, the more chance you have.
Uh we also have that most valuable for students was working together as teams as you saw in the video, problem solving together and seeing their successes and proud of that. So, we're really proud of the growth that's happening in elementary schools and middle school and high school. Um, we are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to support both teachers and students. We thank you for your continued commitment in science and education. >> Thank you Stephanie and Stephanie Wilith. I feel like that was an excellent demonstration of how we want science to be. You know, we had a program that had a lot of kids online. We didn't like it. They're now focused on curiosity and discovery, which I think we all believe is what's best for students. So, moving on to our other coaches tonight. Coaches are instrumental to our continuous improvement process in Chester public schools.
It was not my first choice as an elective and I wasn't sure about learning notes or playing on beat. I thought music was boring, but that all changed when Mr. Beran walked into the picture. He is a different kind of teacher and he is nurturing and patient. He makes learning a trumpet something I want to do and not something I have to do. Some teachers treat teaching like a job, but we can tell that Mr. Beran really loves teaching. Mr. Beran is also really good with students. Most teachers would lose control of the room and probably lose their temper as well. But Mr. Brian can gain control over the room with a gentle raise of a hand. There are probably other teachers who know music, but few can teach their skills to students. I surprised myself by saying signing up for advanced band next year, not because my parents made me, but because I wanted to.
That's hallomix. Thank you. This is an exciting opportunity for those students and we're very proud. We're also proud to announce that 39 students had qualified to to attend Skills USA state conference in April. Those students demonstrated not only technical excellence, but also resilience, teamwork, and professionalism throughout competition. A big thank you to those teachers who prepared and supported them. Next week, we host incoming 9th grade students for our campuses to tour their future home. Students will see our CTE and elective programs experiencing a Cougars pep rally, club rush, games, swag, and pick their classes. We cap off the week and head into spring break with our most favorite and special event of the year hosting a AVUSD field day as a special Olympics unified champion school. It is our honor and priv privilege to host this event that brings together 246 students with special needs from our mod/ severe programs ranging from preschool to adult and over 200 Granite Hills High School student volunteers for a day of games sports smiles and lots of pizza.
>> Everything is confusing. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because it's a new system and it's it was the state that put this system in place starting school. So, >> so it is a lottery, but it's not the same as playing. >> Yeah. And it's also not it's not it's not 100% aligned to like a charter school system. It's a little bit different in that sense. >> Right. So, what are you what you're saying is the only the the panels of the students that got from one to 500 those are the one that going to go in the lottery. >> No, not at all. >> Not at all. Every so every >> So confused. >> Let me see if I can explain it. So, we had, let's say we had, >> let's say we had a thousand kids put in an application by February 1st, right? All thousand of those kids are going to be in the lottery and all thousand of those kids are going to we're going to uh get assigned a number.
They are the ones that help teachers understand how what our district objectives look like in the classroom. They support consistency across all schools and they support vertical articulation from kindergarten on. So they are really helping teachers with deeply understanding instructional practices and things change and we try to stay really current with that. And and in part of the work that the coaches do, we're we're conducting professional development and training on those best practices and Our our coaches receive a lot of PD. They are part of a coaching community practice where they come together and they are able to work through problems that they may be having within the classroom and in their roles. They are um often having very frequent meetings with administrators and they get a significant amount of touch points with our office. So all of the coaching that you're hearing about tonight is all coordinated through central office.
Many of my friends are sticking with band next year, too, because of the impact Mr. Buran has had on us. We would hate to lose them. And lastly, Mr. Buran recently announced that he and his wife are expecting their first child. So tonight, I'm asking you to protect Mr. Brian's job and let's change his life like he has changed so many of ours. Thank you. THE NEXT The next speaker is Madison Gamboa.
This year, our community cougar coffee granite ATP class business run by students and teacher, Miss Sabrina, will be brewing coffee and selling treats. We hope to see you there. Um, today students met with the superintendent and school administration and staff for superintendent student advisory council. I was and many important topics were discussed. We're excited to help make Granite Hills High School a greater place to be where students voices are heard and the snacks are always appreciated. We also had our winter formal. The decorations were super cute. Many events coming up. Powderpuff, senior sunset, freshman orientation, and so many more. ASB is really busy and packed with lots of events coming up. So, we hope so. Make sure to be there and stay tuned. We're proud of all of our athletic teams and their accomplishments this season. Girls Water Polo is appreciative of everyone's support to make this season a success and we look forward to bringing back a strong team next year.
Computer's going to give them a number and the number can be anything from 1,000 to 10,000. So now all thou all thousand kids have a number, right? Then we start pulling the number. The lottery start pulling number. They pull number 650 as the very first number, right? So they put on on the spreadsheet 650 is the first one. Then they pull another one and the next one 700 on the second student to get in whoever has the number 700 be the second student and so forth as they get pulled if their number is the lower one. So after they pull all the numbers then they say oh okay this number is 650 700 the next number was 800 the next number was a th00and so the and they draw the tickets and they start putting them on a spreadsheet and then they see what student had that number and that's the student that gets in.
If you think about it, coaches, administrators, uh central office, me, Jeff, Azra, we are looking at student data on a regular basis alongside with coaches and we're also going into classrooms and doing learning walks, sometimes together, sometimes in pairs and we're huddling up after that and we're looking for trends. What are we seeing? grade levels, what are we seeing across schools? So, we kind of get together and we make a plan as to where we're going to send out these coaches. How are we going to target the support to where it's needed most? So, tonight you're going to hear from our um reading and math specialists as well as our math and reading coach for the district. So, I'm going to ask them all to introduce themselves. They're all on the sides there. Perhaps Jess and Christine, you want to start and then we can your phone reading math Highland School.
Good evening board members, parents, and students. I'm a student of Lexington Junior High School band, and I come before you not only as a student, but as someone who speaks deeply from the heart. I will try to support Mr. Bergen to the best of my abilities and tell you a few reasons why we like Mr. Bergen as a band teacher. First of all, I wanted to talk about how Mr. Bergen helped his students musically. He helped his students musically by inspiring them to get more into music and making them enjoy different genres of music. In the beginning of the school year, many students that chose band as an elective probably thought that it would be a fun and easygoing. But now, students take band more seriously because Mr. Bergen challenges us not to settle for the bare minimum, making us want to achieve more and try our best in what we do.
Wrestling had a successful season and sent athletes to the Masters tournament for the first time since 2010, which probably takes a lot of practice, determination, and ice packs. Girls soccer won won their eighth consecutive league title, dominating their competition with only one team scoring a single goal on against us. They made it to the quarterfinal round of CIF playoffs with an exciting game that was decided by penalty kicks and our Lady Cougars fell short 9 to8. Boys soccer continues continues its historic run after winning back-to-back league championships. Our boys soccer team advanced to the CIF championship game for the first time in school history. Parents, students, teachers, staff, me, superintendent, and board and board president all made the journey down to Irvine to watch our team play. And although we didn't win, we were invited to play in the state championship tournament and won our first round first round game Tuesday night and host Santa Ana Valley in the regional se semifinals tonight.
>> Yeah. >> Gets in but not accepted. >> Yeah. They get accept they get accepted. They get accepted. >> I think that's what her confusion was. you know, she wasn't sure if just because they got in a number they would just get in. So, but after all those numbers get pulled out, only 500 numbers are going to get pulled out and those are 500 >> the first 500 get pulled >> they're going to pull they're going to pull as many numbers as there are kids. I understand. But the one the her question is once they pull those numbers, whatever order you got in, right, the supervisor's going to get a number, >> right? >> Then they put in the the the ones that get pulled out, they're going to put 500 of those kids. How those 500 numbers are going to how those numbers going to come out.
>> Hi Jess, math coach for the district. I'm Julie Monty Ram at Norton. >> Kristen Ray Ram at Chapman school >> and Ary Whittenberg districtwide literacy specialist. And now I'm gonna turn it over to Azra, my partner in coaching. And Britney Culver is listed here. She's not here um tonight. She was able to join us earlier. So good evening. So education has evolved. There is current research that demonstrates and unpacks for us what effective teaching and learning looks like and how that impacts student outcomes. Just like all of us here wouldn't want to go to a dentist that's using outdated techniques from 15, 20 years ago, that current research has implications for instruction. We consult that research to make sure that we have consistency across those classrooms and that the strategies that we're using are effective and meet the needs of all learners. Our instructional coaching group is critical in this work.
Another key point I wanted to talk about was the aftermath of of the Steve Graves incident. As you know, Steve Graves was no longer with us due to various reasons. During this time, students felt lost, feeling a mixture of emotions after hearing about it. We had to go through different teachers feeling finally feeling better when Mr. Bergen came along, especially since he made us do a therapy circle talk to to talk about how we felt when the news came out. Finally, I wanted to talk about how this student will affect seventh graders. By letting him go, it will serve as a dis a disruption to learning for all a disruption to learning for all band students, especially those who are learning on who are moving on to eighth grade for the first for the next school year. Not only is it a huge impact on students, but on the parents as well.