Sort of. >> Yeah. I think that's what we're running into now, you know, where kids will be like, "Oh, well, I didn't I didn't know." And um and then that becomes like a conversation and like a kind of a redo, you know, once they understand like, "Okay, so the point of this was to test, can you brainstorm?" So if you outsource the brainstorming, I don't know if you could brainstorm. So like, let's try it again. You know, I think eventually just like using Spark Notes, you know, or or copying and pasting from something online, eventually the kids will get it. But right now, we're in this weird >> Yeah. >> exciting but like murky place. >> Got it. >> Yeah. We kind of saw this as the coming out party tonight for this for this for these guidelines that um after tonight we can kind of share them more widely.
>> Is it for all schools or just the high school? >> That I believe is it is just for the high school. I'll double check on that because I do know >> dumpster. >> No, landscaping. >> Landscaping. >> I can I can wrap up the dumpster. The uh regular company we use does not do composting. Cassella is one of the only big ones that does it. There is a local group that would do it in town as well too, but it's about 30 or 40% higher cost >> for that. >> That settles that. Mhm. >> So, so my question has to do with landscaping. Um, where, who, and how do we decide that? Because I'm the one who saw, and this was way before you, but $6,000 a month for a landscaper in town just to do the high school. So, I guess >> it's now $2,991.
We have also encouraged teachers to reduce screen time in the classroom um and pri- prioritizing on hands-on interactive experiences that support healthy development. Um in the Advantage Preschool program, we continue our journey to create environments that focus on the whole child. Our approach is research-based to support inclusive practices. We know that children learn learn best through active, hands-on play, exploration, and interacting with peers to develop interpersonal skills. We are always intentionally designing opportunities for collaboration, knowing that peer learning strengthens both social and academic growth. And I'm going to turn it over to Eric and Alana now. >> Over the past few years, Building Blocks has been revamping its core principles and curriculum. We've added Learning Without Tears, Foundations, and concepts from i-Ready. We've also redesigned our literacy instruction and created a standardized literature library to be used across all Building Blocks programs. This year, we've also adjusted our staffing patterns to help create a more robust professional development program.
>> They're sort of in draft form here. Um, but to be able to share them with students and say, uh, the quick use guidelines, the the two stoplight posters, um, I'm not sure if you have that available that we could show. >> Um, not this computer. >> Uh, but there's a there we we can send it out via email, but there's a a stoplight document that we created while we were there that would be like student use. um like that could go in Google Classroom and the student would say, "Oh, here's like examples of of exactly what they're they're telling me I should, can't, or can't use use it for." >> That's great. >> You'll go ahead. These are more observational. First one's kind of comical, I think. What did First of all, Great job. What did Jeb and I say when you loaded it back in and evaluated it?
It's my understanding that >> that that is spread out correct year round. It's you know spread out year round and that they do the high school and this has been in place I believe >> for quite a while maybe since the high school was built. So >> well that's what I'm thinking. >> Yes. So the thing that to keep the I'll use the word nice grounds >> going right the good fields that um playing soccer field hockey etc. track out there that are nice. So they've done that and they also use this other company Snow I believe snow and suns >> for just before the school year starts to go around and do a a quick hit at the schools of cutting bushes uh some weed whacking weeding weed whacking in between the cracks and curbs and all that kind of stuff being great things.
As our K-12 teachers utilize Wednesdays for their PLCs, our Building Blocks teams meet every Tuesday for professional development. As this slide shows, the first semester was set to establish the essential foundations by hosting live professional development courses with several amazing guest speakers. Some of the highlights include Kira Hawkins, a GPS SLP, Kelly Jarrett, our GPS behavioral coach, Michelle Went, a K Prep teacher, Katie Metcalf, a GPS OT, and awesome coaches from Quality First First Things First. The second semester kicked off our teaching and learning collaboratives. We combined the Building Blocks programs into three regional cohorts. Each cohort consists of the threes programs, fours programs, and our combination classes. Since literacy is our main focus this year, we created smart goals for each cohort to work on. Programs take turns hosting the cohort members at their home sites. This provides a small, intimate setting for our Building Blocks staff, as well as allowing them to show off their classrooms and share ideas on their classroom designs.
I'm assuming you guys did, if not just for laughs. What did they say about the presentation, the proposal, or what did it say? >> They love us. >> Yeah, >> this is an excellent >> Yeah, I'm sure. >> Keep up the good work. >> I hope to tell it to be >> No, but jumping on what Jeff said, I I really agree. Like, you know, we're talking about mastery of curriculum and different topics, but AI will be one of those pieces of curriculum. And I think um we probably have to be uncomfortable a little bit and understand that there will be a segment of students that that will be their future and and if we're not um allowing them outside of maybe certain guard rails um we're maybe doing a little disservice to them. Um my other one is how far ahead are the students to the to this to the policy or to the proposal?
Um why do we do it? because uh if you didn't, you'd have overgrown bushes and weeds and you wouldn't have a good grass at the high school because uh we're unable to keep it up. We not even mean schools, but we don't do the we do not maintain our grounds. We the schools, the city side maintains the grounds. >> Do we put it out to bid? How does that Okay, so >> that's what I'm trying to find is the last time that Laura Phelps >> when she was here >> because that's my concern that there's >> I know that it doesn't meet the minimum requirement to put it out to bid via >> there's a lot of landscapers in town um and I'm just concerned that we're using one that is very expensive. I just know the last time that we were going to go out and do this, uh, we were told we couldn't and they were taking it over.
Now, I'll leave it over to Alana to tell you about the TLCs. >> So, I'm going to dive a little deeper into the Teaching and Learning Collaboratives, or the TLCs as we like to call them. Our TLC program implements data-driven early literacy instruction um that aligns with our district continuous improvement plan and our Arizona early learning standards. Kicking off our TLCs, we established a smart goal that integrated Foundations, Learning Without Tears, and Letters Early Childhood. Our goal was students would be able to name 18 uppercase letters and 12 corresponding sounds. Our TLC used a structured data document to monitor progress, identify trends, guide collaborative conversations, and select high-yield instructional strategies. This resulted in instructional decisions that were intentional and data-driven to support our students' growth. This slide gives you a snapshot of our baseline data from January. As you can see, at the initial data collection, only 57% of our students were proficient or highly proficient in naming at least 18 uppercase letters and 12 corresponding sounds.
Um because again, not to keep quoting Jeff, but he just happened to beat me on the raised hand. Like I I I agree. Like it's awesome. You got to start somewhere. And please, I'm not taking anything away from that. >> Um how do you plan on keeping up because that's a full-time job basically. >> Yeah. So the the the lifelong learner piece, right? Um I'm presenting at a conference uh next Monday and next Wednesday, two different AI conferences. Uh but I'm also going to attend them. >> Yeah. >> Right. um the the contacts that we have with DESIE um with the office of edtech. Um the relationship we have uh with Google for education um and and Gemini in particular. Um the looking at what students are doing online in looking at our content filter and seeing times where they hit the the firewall and times where they get through um and then kind of guiding our our decision- making process on that.
They being the city taking over the bid. >> When I was at MASC for the >> starting the course, they said that it wasn't a high enough dollar amount to put it out to bid to require >> Yep. So if it's not high enough, does that mean you can shop around? >> You can you can do Yeah, it's you know there's the thresholds are now for schools like between zero and 10 is best practices. 10 to 100 is solicitation of three quotes. Anything over 100 is formal bid or RFP. Um and even then uh again I'm repeating myself when we were we tried to do it our own and we were told we couldn't >> by the city and Laura Phelps as the procurement officer did the bid for it. >> Okay. >> So I guess the question is is this something that we want to ask the city about?
But, this next slide shows that with data-driven early literacy instruction, we have accelerated our Building Blocks student growth in foundational literacy skills, uh positioning these learners for long-term success as they transition to kindergarten. So, this graph shows that student proficiency or mastery of our TLC increased from 57% to over 72% in just one quarter, reflecting strong gains in letter recognition and letter sound knowledge. The most impressive part was that we had a 68.6% growth in the mastery of these skills. So, that was students exceeding what our expectation was. Why is this all important? According to the research of the National Early Literacy Panel and the National Reading Panel, phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge are the two biggest predictors of reading success for students. Next, I'm going to highlight some of the great work we've been doing in our various preschool programs. This year, we strengthened instructional quality across our Building Blocks N K Prep by refining curriculum, expanding resources, and building systems that ensure preschool students are fully prepared for kindergarten.
>> Yeah. Great. And I think we have a whole bunch of teachers like not just people that were at the conference who were like very interested >> like Anita Lahi is super interested >> um and has created a tool that essentially when her kids come to extra help it can like while they're waiting for her it can sort of be her in terms of asking them questions so they're not just sitting and waiting for her attention. So I think that again I think we're lucky that we have um administrators that are willing and brain and guidance to to push us a little bit and I think for the people who are a little bit like or like a little bit worried about the environmental impact I think we'll just be the pioneers like when I was telling people about you know having the students teach a lesson plan that's something that lots of classes do and so I was sort of like softballing it at lunch you know like sort of talking about it talking about how it's all the same lesson and so I think I hope that I can keep finding my people and then people who are a little nervous um will be like oh okay I can try that you know like try that little thing it doesn't have to like take over um I think that will be really important that we keep sort of encouraging each other to try new things >> thank you guys >> I think students are still also kind of spread out in their use and what they want to do I will say it's some my conversation with students we have a lot of very conscientious students or maybe it's because they're talking to the assistant superintendent and I'm asking them like would you ever use this to solve a math problem in like algebra 2 and they're like we would never do that like that would be they would learn if we did that and I honestly believe that that's how they felt and that we do have a lot of students that just wouldn't conceive it >> and then we have some that would quickly go to it.
>> Oh yeah. I think I think my concern is that the city mows the softball field, the city mows the football field, the city lines the football field, the city also mows the baseball field. Um, and then yet we put out to bid just the field hockey and track area, >> but the city just does basic grass. They don't touch the bushes. They don't do the small stuff at each school. >> They weed whack. They weed whack. They're out there with weed whackers. They have a tree crew that comes in and takes trees down. Do I see them out there shaping bushes? Definitely not. >> So, I guess my question is, >> who maintains the bushes in front of city hall? >> That's a good question. I don't know the answer. >> Yes. So I I guess my question for what how we go from here is who would be the one to talk to the city to reopen that discussion and learn more?
We have refined and expanded the Building Blocks curriculum to include a scope and sequence for our 3-year-olds. These changes were based on teacher feedback and grounded in educational best practices. The Building Blocks program also implemented the gross motor calendar created by the GPS Motor Department in collaboration with our Advantage Preschool team. Its purpose is to provide motor development activities that meet our early learning standards. We also secured a um funding grant through Gilbert Friends of the Library and DonorsChoose, which was able to provide 15 of our 20 Building Blocks classrooms with full sets of high quality curriculum aligned literature. A plan is in place to fully equip all sites by next year. Lastly, we are finalizing a K prep scope and sequence, as well as a standards-based universal preschool progress report with plans to implement both in the 26-27 school year. Thank you for your time, and I'm going to turn it over to our wonderful behavior coach, Kelly Jarrett.
So I think there is still a wide range of students >> and I can just add in too I have you know a sample size of two officially at home but I drive a lot of other samples around town um and I so I hear about these things and I think um what AI has done is it's reinforced all of the work we've done with educators around the portrait of a graduate skills and really focusing on skills versus content which goes to Jeff's point is really about the skills to adapt versus learning a certain tool because that tool is not going to be there tomorrow. Um, it also I think has pushed our educators to continue to take risks. So, thank you for doing that. And I just lost my last point. Oh, which is, you know, the whole idea around challenge success of busy work.
Is that the kind of thing that we should direct the administration to get answers for from us versus bring back to the full committee? >> Sure. >> So ask admin sound good? >> Okay. So Andy, are you going to be the one who looks into that for us? Well, I'm imagining, you know, both Roland and or I. I mean, I don't know. I don't think they have a chief procurement officer over there yet. So, I think that would be Mr. Necow who's handling that. So, either Roland or I can reach out to him. >> Okay. So, um when do we want to have that answered for? >> Well, it t the season. I mean, so I I guess are we just going with what we had? We have something in place, I'm assuming. >> Correct. >> Well, I think we're thinking next, you know, next round of contracts.
Oh, wrong way. There we go. Okay, so you've heard extensive, exciting things that are happening in our preschool programs. In addition, we have ARC, and you're probably curious what ARC is, and I will tell you about that in the next slide. But also preschool parent series, uh we're actually help hosting one uh tomorrow evening on transition to kindergarten, and focusing on social-emotional. We also have uh the Pave the Path of Kinder, which we are in uh motion for this week. Uh we have our gross motor uh carts and outdoor classroom spaces that are engaging and getting that kinesthetic movement. And finally, uh expansion of quality first. So, ARC, three letter acronym. What it stands for is that collaborative coaching dedicated by Alana, Robin, and myself. I love being the K in ARC. It symbolizes a synergy that focuses on uh bridging um between our Advantage and other tuition-based preschool programs with a true reflection of early intervention success.
And I will hear the kids say, "If you give me busy work for homework, I'm going to use AI. Sorry, but if you give me something creative that you really want my voice, then I'm going to I'll give you that." >> Okay. >> Yeah. I think um as a recurring topic, this is a good to the point of governance, probably one to like add as a recurring topic. Um, I agree with Jeff's point, especially juniors and seniors. I mean, in the workforce, it's like expected that you're using these tools to be as productive as you can. So, definitely for that older cohort. My question was actually flipped more for the educator side, like where you've seen it as a co-pilot to drive productivity so that time can be reinvested back in the face-to-face one-on-one um time just as a like a metric or a data point.
>> Well, I'm not I'm concerned about the cost, but I'm also concerned about all schools getting the same pretty look that the high school gets. I know the $66 million high school, but keep in mind that look is only in the back back end. >> No, it's all around >> picking up trash around >> to fill you in the building. So, we think we're going to ask the administration to check in with the city to see uh what the process is here, how they determine bids or if we can go it alone. Just get us fresh information. >> Yeah. So, I just talked to facilities director Budro who just mentioned that we're at the end of a bid cycle here. So, we would have to be doing something this soon for next year, but that generally you have not had a lot of people apply for this because they're doing all three things.