We know that in order to do that, we have to provide really rich um instructional strategies and we have been focused a lot on responsive classroom like you've already heard tonight from our ML, uh but we really begin with those grade level standards and then we meet our kids where they are, just in time, uh not just in case with scaffolds when needed. We have been dedicated through our professional development um on providing our teachers and equipping them with the the tools that they need to be truly responsive teachers uh in our social studies classrooms. That's your turn. Uh so, our compass when we think about instruction and curriculum in the area of social studies is most definitely the C3 framework, uh which I know most of you are familiar with uh from 2013, uh which establishes the inquiry arc uh that has informed our state standards originally produced back in 2015 and then revised in late 2023.
>> So, I was just doing some quick math. So, 4,800 kids. They're >> Don't hurt yourself. >> I don't do math in public without a calculator. Okay. Yeah. So 350ish kid. I mean that's huge >> and growing. >> I mean 7% may sound like a small number but >> in the aggregate. That's a big number. >> That's amazing. >> It'll be about 380 next fall. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, Troy doesn't like me doing math in public, but it scares me. >> Sorry. I didn't mean to get distracted, but that's amazing. >> And they're still getting 97%. >> I know. That's what blew me away >> at 100%. >> Yeah. >> Question. Question. >> You ready? >> Okay. >> Dr. Frost. >> Uh, it's your fault. >> I'm not a doctor, but it sounds good. You are now last night. >> It's actually Eric is going to appreciate this and no one else will even everyone's going to look at me strange.
So, it's been a little bit of a while. I know we we've mentioned this a little bit over the months. Uh, but it was back in September uh when we displayed this. Uh this is the fifth avenue fifth avenue widening project that the city's going to do between Bwood and Forest uh which is scheduled to be done this this summer. So one of the things that they asked for was to give them um basically a a plat of dedication to give them the the land uh to do the the addition. So, uh, the work will actually increase Forest Avenue, uh, with the width of Forest Avenue by a little over eight feet and will create 28 parking spaces, um, along the street, which, uh, I don't know, I'm not a traffic engineer, I don't know exactly what the end result of that would be. Uh, but I think we're pretty confident and optimistic it will make it at least somewhat better because I know there's a lot of congestion um, around there.
Right. Because in their projections are also the variables of and they they have a 4% in there right now of the with the um that solar revenue uh building. Um, and when they look at the long-term projections of, you know, how much that's going to save in in kilowatts and all of those different things, those are all factor. >> Those are all being. >> So, that's the that's the part of when you see the um energy savings performance contract. The performance part is if they're not performing as they say they're going to, we actually get they cut us a check. So, um, they've been doing this for a long time, right? So, uh, they're they're not going to give us, uh, calculations that don't match, right? Or they've screwed up. Uh, so they they're smart. They're they're looking at So, um, that that is going to be accurate unless there's something >> that they make a mistake, but that's why we're also having, excuse me, uh, Balman Consulting looking at those figures as well to to be able to verify.
And Mrs. Adams is so excited to have some help as her case load has grown and grown over the years. So, welcome, Elise. Thank you. Yeah. Well, welcome. Yeah, so, appreciate family's leadership with our speech language pathology. She's a speech language pathologist. But, working with especially a lot of our younger kiddos, right? In their development of just speech and and learning and and reading and and And those things that go in Sometimes you get involved in even swallowing, correct? Oh, yes. >> Yeah, so all kinds of things, but so at that as we talk about just student needs, you know, those have just increased over the years. And so welcome. It's certainly I know Tenley is very excited to have some help meeting those kiddos needs and making sure we're doing the best we can. And then you know, I ultimately you know, helps helps these guys in the older grades, right?
Um and it also dovetails nicely with the BTC instructional approach. So, um when we think instruction and curriculum in social studies is grounded in that C3 framework. Um and I thought it would be good to walk through kind of like a a quick overview of the four dimensions uh from the inquiry arc. Uh first is the development of questions, right? To to stage an inquiry. And that can happen in a variety of ways. Um sometimes those inquiries will be student generated, sometimes they'll be teacher uh generated, and sometimes they'll be student generated with teacher support. So, any of those pathways to creating a question which will guide a mini unit or a unit um or even a lesson for the day, um those could follow that pattern. Um from there, um we engage students in um thinking like historians, geographers, political scientists, and economists. Um in stage three, students are evaluating source materials, um organizing evidence, starting to formulate their own ideas, um and then moving towards dimension four in which they um communicate those conclusions and take informed action.
The cycle um the process that you were describing in the second point with the cycle of learning and reflection was very much like one of the books that Mur has read. Do you remember the intentional practice? and >> um which was very interesting. Um and that that is a skill that applies in everything you do. So teaching that skill I was very impressed by the different um things that you're focusing on and I could do it. One thing I did notice I thought was very interesting each of you started teaching elsewhere for 4 to eight years. Is that typical in our in our fine arts or in in band or and how did that is that unusual school? >> I'll let John >> I mean it's always changing our hiring practices and things like this. But I think in each of these cases um each of you came in as an associate director and then have worked up to a full-time position um in this amazing team situation.
So, uh, that was something that we talked about back in September. So, so I'm sorry. >> Can I ask? Yeah, go ahead. So, I'm assuming that that means they will then be in charge of all repairs. Plowing, >> anything that >> Yeah, I'm Oh, I'm getting into Absolutely. >> Stealing his thunder. >> Stealing my thunder. No. >> Well, I know this my stuff's very engaging. I understand. Um, so this also I believe was shared uh which showed really what the the city wanted to do which was to get dedicate some of the land that goes not only along Fifth Avenue but also forest in Long Parkway. Um, so this has the benefit of because we technically own the land up to the middle of the street. >> So by giving that to the city I think is probably a really good move having them own the land under the street and the Parkway.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> It's a lot of moving parts. This is why we wanted to get it to, you know, we've been trickling it in throughout the year, but we're getting to like decision time, right? So, it's uh this is the big final overview tonight that pulls all those pieces together. Uh we'll get some of our results in the next couple of weeks. We'll have another couple of board meetings, but as Travis said, uh depending on the timelines and how everything comes together, we'll come back for board approval either in May or June. We need to hit those deadlines though so that we're eligible for all of the maximum rebates. >> If the if the board approves this in May or even in in June, right? But preferably in May, that gives us some lead time to start getting things ordered and go through.
As we catch them up and and hopefully push them push them past and push them forward, too. So so it's certainly exciting to have you here. So welcome. So thanks for coming. And that's all I have I think tonight. Items from board members? Uh staff survey will close on Wednesday. So they're going to send out a final reminder Wednesday morning. Got 76 responses. Um timeline for that is uh it'll take them two to three weeks uh to create the report and then get those back to us. We'll review those, get access to the administrative team to review those as well to create a um kind of feedback loop and and action items. Anyone else have anything? Nope. Motion to adjourn. I move to adjourn. I got two seconds. Moved by Amy, seconded by Katie to adjourn the meeting. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.
Um I thought it might be good to give you an example from today to kind of ground yourself in, which we did at the district presentation a few weeks back. Um so, obviously a major issue in in the country today is um the conflict in Iran, right? So, um if you were to have a mini unit um on this topic, it might be rooted in a question something along the lines of um how can the United States resolve the conflict in Iran to best serve American interests and promote global security, right? That would be a question um that could be researched, um approached from a lot of different perspectives, and ultimately challenge students to develop their own thinking on it. Um from there you would move to dimension two. Um there might be activities in which students are working with historical concepts. They're they're um learning about um the 1953 coup.
So, how was how was that coming from other schools generally and then coming into the Stevenson PLC? What was that like for you guys? How different? I'm just curious. >> Well, between all of us, our total number of other schools we've taught at is quite high. Yeah. >> Um probably around 15 between the three of us and different ways that you can be a music teacher. Um and it really informs what we do. I think all of us in different ways. I spent time teaching in rural schools. Uh Mark spent some time in urban schools and suburban schools, Ben in mostly suburban schools. And um each of those schools of course regardless of where they are is a totally different community, totally different kids. >> Um and totally different expectations, but it's all ultimately they're all kids and they're they're all just there to learn whether they know that or not on any given day or any given moment.
Um, obviously we get along really well with the city and the leadership they have over there is really topnotch. Um, but this is really a long-term decision. You don't know who's going to be sitting in your chairs or who's going to be working at the city, you know, years and decades from now. Um, so I think that's a good thing to protect us um in the future. And this is the actual u platinum um roadway dedication. Took a little while to get this. This was actually commissioned by us, Alan Arrust over at STR Architects. I had this put together by Allen out of Grace Lake, which is pretty reputable survey company. Um, and this was reviewed by the city engineers. It was reviewed by STR and it was also reviewed by Aris attorney to see that there weren't any any problems with it. So, looking for the board to approve that tonight.
Um the solar work won't be complete completed this summer. Uh it might go into the fall and we've talked about second shift. We've talked about lots of different options that are tied to that because the the majority of that work would be all of the the roofs that can handle and are age uh good on age. We would get solar on, right? It's the ones that we have to do the roof replacements and then as soon as the roof replacement is done, they would get going on the other work. But the other work, the other energy conservation stuff would uh occur this summer. So, if that gets approved, it's gonna be extremely busy around here between that and our health life safety projects and our fieldhouse floor replacements in both buildings. So, we are we've already started working on coordinating right timing and and the who and the where uh because we also have summer school right at at North that uh is going to be going on.
Uh they're learning about the 1979 revolution. Um they may be um reviewing George W. Bush's speech in which he identified Iran as part of the axis of evil. Um they may be learning about the 2015 and uh nuclear deals um or 2015 nuclear deal, 2018 pulling out of that nuclear deal. Um so, they they work with uh concepts, historical concepts, and they approach them from various uh you know, perspectives. Um could be you could be uh working with uh some economics, right? So, you could be talking about obviously oil prices, the Strait of Hormuz, um global markets, which are so much you know, so interconnected at the you know, more than ever. Um maybe it could be um a a a mini lesson that's focused on civics and um what is the appropriate presidential military power? Um when is the War Powers Act relevant? Um and so, students would delve into these topics as they're building their understanding um and moving towards being able to communicate a conclusion about the overarching question.
Like they're all just kids. >> So I that's something that really stood out to me when I started here. um was how the environment was dramatically different, but the kids were still kids and they still in many ways had the same needs from us. >> I also want to add that like when in urban schools where I taught in Chicago public schools or or the rural schools, you're it's less likely, not impossible, but less likely that you're going to have a ruined kid kid who comes in and can already play really well. And I think that was the the thing that inspired me to ask myself the question like what is the purpose of us teaching music to these students if it's not a pre-professional craft if if we're not trying to train them to go win a band job or an orchestra job or whatever like what is the thing that we want them to take away from their experience in learning music.
And I know the city's actually going to probably start work um going to get ran on this. >> So, Can I just >> So we have owned up to half of the road. Who owned the other half of the road? >> Uh well I that would be either the people who are the property owners or perhaps it could be the city. Okay. >> So I think uh being a school district uh the rules how they they segregate this out or divide it out or plotted out years ago might look a little different than it do for homeowners. So I I to be honest I can't really answer that question. >> And is that for all of our streets around our schools or is this different? >> Well, it probably varies if this has been done before. I don't know if 20 years ago they did some work and they did a plan of dedication >> depend on the age of the school.
So, we're working on uh all of those uh moving pieces in anticipation of this coming to fruition. >> I have one last question. So, the audits which I assume are mostly external, but they probably require our staff to be involved. Is that do we have that expertise? Like do we is that a burden on our staff to participate in the audits or >> it's gathering the information like uh providing our bills uh provided where they can pull it from the meters they can pull um all of that information. Uh it's just finding the information and providing it to >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's been it's been a lift on our staff, right? >> No, I think an auditing of my company is a big deal too. >> Yeah. To Yeah. to say the least, like just to get here of of having again providing our our previous bills.
Um obviously this is rooted and analysis of source material um and um organizing evidence, and ultimately communicating those conclusions. Um and as I spoke about earlier, it really does kind of dovetail nicely with BTC when we think about students collaboratively working through problem solving. Um when we think about students making their thinking visible, um and when we think about students having productive struggle, right? Um when they're working with a weighty uh question like this, um there's going to be growth throughout the unit as they move towards the end. So, um so, that kind of covers um the the spirit of inquiry and and how it kind of where it originated and how it's still very reflective of um recent initiatives in the district in the last 2 years when we think about our instructional approaches. So, this will look familiar. Everything we do is again grounded in complex thinking and social emotional learning.