We have had professional development and added curriculum such as Spalding. We were planning using the district curriculum, meeting in professional learning teams, and collaborating and looking at data. in short, doing all the right things. But we still weren't seeing the results that we were working so hard to achieve. We decided to focus on kindergarten. We know that kindergarten is critical for setting students up for success. It's our best first chance to get them ready. Our teachers know this and they were seeking answers for why some kids just weren't getting it. As a professional learning team, we looked deeper into the data that we were collecting from FastBridge and Spalding. The admin team did some Spalding coaching and some informal walkthroughs. From this collection of information, we decided to target specific skills. We trained the kindergarten paris on how to work on these skills in small groups as well as how to assess their students.
All right. So it looks like the other team has brought out Cloud, who is a very popular character in this game, actually. >> And and Cloud would be from what game? >> Cloud is from Final Fantasy 7, which I'm pretty sure released on the PlayStation. Cloud has this ability called his limit. So when he presses down and the B button, he charges up his limit ability, which when it's activateated, you can see the bar at the bottom. When that's fully activated, it gives an access to a really powerful special move. There are a lot of special moves he could choose from. That one be that projectile being one of them. So it is in Claude's best interest to keep the distance and keep that limit gauge up. >> Now Jordan, I also noticed that he is at 119%. That's a lot more than 100%. >> That is definitely a lot more.
We we kind of adapted this off of the Ron Clark model. This program, each student when they become kindergarteners, they're inducted into a house. They're in that house throughout the their time at Anderson. Our staff members also are inducted into a house. We have house shirts. We do monthly um house family initi or family meetings or we do whole school um convocations or assemblies. So we we're bringing 450 students um into the gym all lined up in their houses wearing their house colors. We do games, teamwork building. Um, it really gives the students a sense of belonging and a part of something within the school and then they each can hold themselves accountable. We we have a an app that we can deliver points to and in our uh cafeteria we have a Prometheian board that has our leaderboard, our active leaderboard. So, anytime someone receives a house point, their name will pop up on the screen.
So I I think it's critically important that we that we have a framework so when I come back uh in May and June with a real concrete plan uh that you at least have um the concept behind what we're thinking here. I think it's critically important to to to go back in time. And I spent a lot of time culling through um town reports, uh school committee minutes, uh minutes from the uh select board, uh and the Ashenfields management group um you know to to figure out how did we get here and and how are we uh going to then make this transition. I think it's critically important that we we know this. So, in 2011, um, as we were going through the process of creating, uh, and getting the turf fields built at the high school, um, as part of the CPC projects, uh, there was a group called the Ashlin Fields Management Group that was created at the town level.
Kaden Vansk will be campaigning and running for the regional board secretary position. Keycl Club. During the month of April, Key Club will focus on community service and picking up litter. There are some planned events to clean up downtown and the bike path on April 11th and Key Club students will be cleaning up around the ghs campus and parts of Shadic Park. The club plans to schedule another trip to AAL as part of the United Ways Read Learn Succeed program. Athletics spring sports started on March 27th with a 16 to1 win for softball against South Hadley. Boys and girls tennis started on April 1st and 2nd and they had their first meet on April 7th. Please come out and support our student athletes. Go Green Wave. French Club. Several GHS students, staff, and family members depart soon for a 10-day adventure in France during April break.
There are some planned events to clean up downtown and the bike path on April 11th and Key Club students will be cleaning up around the ghs campus and parts of Shadic Park. The club plans to schedule another trip to AAL as part of the United Ways Readle Learn Succeed program. Athletics spring sports started on March 27th with a 16 to1 win for softball against South Hadley. Boys and girls tennis started on April 1st and 2nd and they had their first meet on April 7th. Please come out and support our student athletes. Go Green Wave. French Club. Several GHS students, staff, and family members depart soon for a 10-day adventure in France during April break. Key spots visited will be Paris, Strasburg, Djon, Leon, and I'm going to try um Anexie. Mark your calendars for the Thursday, Mar May 7th, spring coffee house talent show from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THAT WAS EXCELLENT. THANK YOU SO MUCH. OKAY. Moving on to Brookfield Library presentation. Good evening, ladies. Hello. Um I'm very sorry. I don't have um a PowerPoint with me. Um but I will be brief. Um so, the BEF also very generously granted us some money as well to pursue a um project I've been working on for a really long time called the Adulting 101 workshop series. And um I will pass around some of my pamphlets. This is a series geared towards uh older teens and young adults and also adults young at heart. Um so, we take all ages. Um and it is intended to teach life skills uh that you may not have learned in school. Um so, we are trying to provide some supplemental education in that way. Um we've already successfully run about five different um classes.
It's already harming my daughter and I'm worried it's harming other students as well. Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right. Thank you. Next we have Becky Knight. I just wanted to know if that's okay. I have a question Nina after me in case I don't get to read my letter. Oh, yeah. She is She is behind you. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. My name is Becky Knight and I'm representing our special ed department here in our district. I'm here tonight because I am deeply concerned about how the proposed budget decisions will impact student safety, staff capacity, and the sustainability of our special education programs. With the loss of our lead psychologist and the psychologist intern and no plan to replace them, we are not just losing vital support. We are losing trained responders for student crises. Additionally, principals are now required to attend all IEP meetings which will make them less available to respond to crises as they arise.
Seems like it's an automatic renewal and you just get people who can do painting or plumbing or whatever. Well, the big the big contract, you know, for fairness and transparency in procurement you want the the businesses to compete for it. So you know, it's on a cycle, you know, several years and then you enter into a new RFP, put a new RFP while the other one's you know, ending. Um but you know, we we never stopped it. We have it. It's an ongoing program. >> So what is the disconnect then because what Jerry is saying is you should have gone out for RFP so there was a lag instead of being continuous because you're going to have all these requests coming in on a continual basis. So, you don't want to have the lag. So, what is done so that you don't have the lag that you constantly have that open share portal for people to come in and say I've got, you know, small repairs to do.
Um I'm just very excited about it. Um so those um are some of the positive impacts um that we've had at Patterson. Um, but I've got to say, um, a huge thank you to Jessica and the IRC because really the units that have been created is what we stood on this year and it has made the transition so easy for our teachers to have everything just there for them and um, they can be creative with it as well.
So, fitting. Our other recipient is Raul. Raul is our lead mechanic, and he has been chosen to receive the Blue Apple Award. Raul has been recognized for his hard work and dedication in his role as lead mechanic. He's come a long way since joining us in combs and continues to demonstrate a strong commitment to excellence. Raul consistently shows initiative and takes pride in ensuring that all equipment remains in compliance and operating safely. His knowledge, reliability, and work ethic make him an essential part of the transportation team to include his willingness to drive routes to ensure students transportation to and from school. Congratulations Raul on this well-deserved recognition. Thank you very much. >> She's gonna make you take your picture. >> And those are our blue apple. >> Are you doing our student of the month as well? Yes, ma'am. >> All right, let's do it.
The students who seem to be stuck were starting to show progress. The extra support and a breakdown of specific skills proved to be the missing piece for these students. This action research helped us realize that we needed to extend this approach into this school year. This year, our PLT has been very focused. We started with extending our team to include not only the kinder teachers, but adding our kinder resource teacher, academic coach, reading interventionist, and myself. Our PLT meetings are guided by our academic coach. During these collaboration meetings, everything revolves around the essential Arizona state standards for kindergarten, which are large largely made up of foundational reading skills. We meet weekly to determine what students will be learning, how we will assess that learning, how we will intervene if students need more support, and how we will enrich those that learned what we expected. We analyze specific agreed upon data, look for trends across the grade level, group students, and learn from each other on what has worked in each classroom or with specific students.
>> So, we're trying to get to 200%. >> No, we're trying we're trying to get them off of the stage, but higher percentages allows you to do that. See, the way damage works in this game is the more damage you do, the more the percentage goes up. And the higher the percentage is, the higher the knock back your character does. Okay? So, you could use basically the same attack, but if your opponent is at a higher percentage, it'll send them farther. So Deacon's main goal is to get them off of the stage like I said. So he's got >> So would a good strategy be to just stay in the middle of the stage and never move like not moving the back pieces when you play checkers? >> Uh not really cuz then your opponent would come and fight you like he would come and hit you, you know?
So, the students can see that so and so is earning points for our house for it's, you know, it could be for helping a student to pick up their papers or holding a door from a staff member or showing, you know, roar expectations on the bus or the playground, anything. All the staff can give it to them and it just gives them something to work towards and a sense of belonging to the team and to the school. Um, and then we also have our TBRI lessons and our coaching cycles that we try to incorporate into these family meetings. And with that, we we really try to do a good job of meeting our students social emotional uh needs where they are. Um, and it just the these initiatives tie together kind of the the purpose of being an Anderson Tiger and what it means to be a part of this family because again our our slogan is eight houses but one family.
Uh, and they were responsible for uh, setting policy on the use of the fields. They were they were responsible for renting the fields uh hiring vendors um to to mow the fields to take care of the fields um and and that was made up of five volunteers and at that time the school committee appointed two members to that group. Now they were responsible for coming back to the school committee when there was going to be any adjustments to school property like so our property um they would have to come before us but all decisions were being made at this group level if you will that was designed at the town level. Um, fast forward to 2014. Um, the Ashen Fields Management Group um says to the town, "This is getting too big for us. It's it's it's it's a heavy lift for volunteers. Five volunteers within the community.
Key spots visited will be Paris, Strasburg, Djon, Leon, and I'm going to try um Annexy. Mark your calendars for the Thursday, Mar May 7th, spring coffee house talent show from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the ghs auditorium. Admission is $5 for students and $10 for adults, which does include light refreshments. Library club. On Tuesday, April 7th, library club hosted the annual poetry slam and writing showcase in the ghs library. AV Club. Join us for the 2026 GHS and GM GMS Film Fest on Friday, April 17th from 5:30 to 8:30 in the GHS auditorium. There will be good food and good films. Submissions accepted through April 10th. Hope to see you there. And finally, we have Students of Color Club, and they are hosting a dodgeball tournament on Friday, April 10th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Pre-register by scanning the QR code found on the posted flyers, or you can contact Nate Wood as well.
in the ghs auditorium. Admission is $5 for students and $10 for adults, which does include light refreshments. Library club. On Tuesday, April 7th, library club hosted the annual poetry slam and writing showcase in the ghs library. AV Club. Join us for the 2026 GHS and GM GMS Film Fest on Friday, April 17th from 5:30 to 8:30 in the GHS auditorium. There will be good food and good films. Submissions accepted through April 10th. Hope to see you there. And finally, we have Students of Color Club, and they are hosting a dodgeball tournament on Friday, April 10th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Pre-register by scanning the QR code found on the posted flyers, or you can contact Nate Wood as well. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. Any comments, questions, clarifications? >> Great. Thank you. I look forward to attending some of the events that you outlined.
We've done healthy habits, stress-free tax tips, sewing basics for busy people, intro to clothing repair, visible mending, and the art of container gardening. So, um as you can see, we have a lot more coming up. Um we're trying to cover things from budgeting to organization to cooking skills to basic car maintenance just um general things that someone may not have gotten the chance to learn, but um they're very eager to learn. And um we're really excited about this and trying to continue to promote it. Our last program, we got 26 attendees, which was excellent, but we're trying to get even more. Um tomorrow, we have our job interview skills program. Uh that's actually just tomorrow night. Um and uh yeah, we'll be continuing several more throughout uh the the month of April all the way into July. Um and so, that's something we're really excited about that we've been working on.
For example, at OES next year, our principal will start the year already needing to attend over 100 IEP meetings. This is a conservative estimate that does not include part twos, threes, initials, and 504 meetings. When a crisis occurs and they do daily, IEP meetings will be interrupted, rescheduled, and instructional time will be lost and cost will and cost will increase due to the need to utilize even higher numbers of substitutes. This does not only affect special education. We have many students across campus who require crisis intervention including those not on IEPs. When both the psychologist and the principal are not available, there is no current clear system in place for these students. This will place an increased and unsustainable burden on both general education and special education staff. In my classroom, I serve students with significant emotional and behavioral needs including students who become physically aggressive and or self-harm.
Yeah, there's no there's no lag. Um it's just the technical document. It's in place the program. It's just that that you updated RFP um for all of them cuz some have, but not all of them have been put out yet for competition. But while that's happening, you know, we have the existing um contracts still in place and working. So, you're doing it before the contract lapses to to be able to have no gap >> There's not going to be a gap in in the job contracting um opportunity. Yeah. How many extensions have you had? Uh jeez, I know one had three extensions. Um I I don't have it all in my head, yeah. >> why he's saying he's extended instead of going out in a timely basis. That's why we have this because this next extension ends in 2027, and we want to make sure that you guys are out there before you have to do another extension.