001We'll call this meeting to order. Would you please uh stand and for the flag >> salute of the United States of America? Want to thank everybody for being here tonight. Uh, do we have any translation needs? See, we got some more coming in. Okay. Do we have any need for translation tonight? >> Okay. Seeing none, we will continue on. We need a approval of the agenda. >> I'll motion to approve the agenda. >> Got a first. Have we got a second? >> I'll second it. >> Got a second. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? So carries. Next one is recognition. Yes. All right. I'm Will von Brock and this is Jenny Hokinson. We're from McFarland and we're excited to be able to recognize one of our employees today. Um, as we work at McFarland,
002our focus is on having a a nurturing environment um that's safe and and helps create learning environments. Um, and there's an individual that is able to do this and support us in this and um, really focus on the safety of our students and the well-being of our students without ever losing sight of the ability to build relationships and um, really nurture our kids and and be there for them at all all times. And that person um, that we want to recognize tonight is Joey V Royale. So even right now he's here he's here thinking he's supporting his wife but but we're here uh to to recognize him. So >> appreciate it. >> I never I never uh I I just wanted to find an excuse to buy Joey flowers. So looking for >> going to
003a funeral. >> All right. I think you got to come up and take pictures. Where? >> Right up here. Right. At the board. At >> the board. Oh, wonderful. Breathe in. Breathe in. I get those flowers in the water. So, yeah. Uh, >> now we'll go on to student representative reports. So last week on Saturday we went against Reon Red Hawks and we won the football game. It's very exciting. So moves us on to this week we're playing on Saturday um SE home. Um which I'm pretty sure last year we lost to them. Hopefully this year we're going to get them good. And that makes us number eight on state football. um so far I think right um also leadership students and CT leadership students at OS are going to go to a field trip
004called involve this Thursday and it's going to um teach us like how to involve the student body and how to be a leader and learn leadership skills this Thursday and another thing is that winter sports for OS start November 17th. And that's it. >> Okay. Any questions for them? Okay. Now, we'll go on to board member discussion. We got a legislative report, Aaron. >> Yes, we do have a legislative report today. What? >> And I'm I'm going to ask Amy to come up and help with this one. Um, so as I told you a few weeks ago, they WASDA has all the districts um kind of go through a list of possible legislative priorities and submit the ones that are the um highest priority for each district. And then they take that information and they
005compile it all into what was legislative priorities will be for this year for this upcoming legislative um session. Kind of the things they're going to focus on in their in their legislative efforts with um with the lawmakers. And so just this last week, they announced what they had consolidated everything into. And so Amy and I are going to talk a little bit about what these are and how it affects our district. I'm going to pull it up on mine as well so I can see it better. So this one on the left, fulfilling our legal and moral obligations, um is the big one. Basically what all what a lot of our um legislative efforts come down to is the state is legally required to adequately fund K12 education and the state says oh we are
006doing that and then we say no you're not and we just go back and forth about that. So a lot of this has to do with that keeping the K12 education funding at a current inflation adjusted levels reinvesting any declining enrollments amounts enrollment amounts equitably into the K12 system and then increase funding for MSOC which is material supplies and operating costs. That's something we talked about last year too. That was big on their agenda last year as well. And additionally complete the job of fully funding special education. That was also a big part of the platform last year. So both of those are carryovers from last year. they didn't get everything, you know, didn't get everything they wanted as much as they wanted. So, those are still big priorities around the state. And then, um,
007Amy, would you talk about this next one with the lap funding and the prototypical school funding model? >> Sorry, I was prepared for the other three bullets. Sorry. This this one's a little bit more interesting because I don't know which direction they're going. Maybe increasing the lap funding per student. Um, and then the prototypical. So they're saying, you know, that's when they say you can have this number of principles for this number of students per school. So hopefully they're thinking, you know, uh one principal is not enough for uh elementary school of 500. Maybe you need two. So that kind of thing is hoping that it catches on and they start increasing the prototypical funding formula. The one I was getting ready to um was what caught my attention was the very first bullet where
008it said reinvest any declining enrollment um amounts equitably. So to me it's like for this school year um we're probably like 30 FTs below what I budgeted. So that equals about $375,000. And then you times that by 280 school districts. Like if they're going to fund that school at the beginning of the year and then the enrollment declines, where does that money go? That's hoping that they reinvest it into our school districts cuz it's not just um the funding. It also affects how much we get for our food service, transportation, and all that. So it all adds up. So hopefully they figure that part out, too. And then this part on the right, um, flexibility for school districts, pause on new policies and provide flexibility on existing ones so schools can focus on core academic
009needs. Basically, schools get a lot of stuff handed down from the state. You know, you need to do this. We're going to mandate this. And most of the time, they don't even, you know, provide money for those mandates. So this is just trying to get them to hold off on some of those unfunded mandates and um you know not give us these you know handed on from handed down from them that we have to do that really takes away time and effort from the academic needs that we focus on. And then I'm actually not familiar with this one the small district modernization grant program. Um >> so we currently don't have anything for that. Um I don't know what they consider small districts. I think it's less than 2,000 FTE. So I don't think that
010one really applies to us, but hopefully >> we can get it somewhere else. >> So yeah, um those are the things that was outlined for their legislative priorities this upcoming session. Are there any questions from the board about that or or anything else Amy that you wanted to add or anything? >> Um the only thing the other two about the MSOC um where they were saying $100 per student or $100,000 whichever is greater. So, we would get the 100,000 cuz ours it would be 430,000 maybe if it went per student. And then um also I might as well add the special education. We haven't in the past used any local levy money to um fund special education, but with the rising costs of salaries and everything else, there could be a possibility that beginning with
011this school year, we might have to. So this would be a big help. >> So the board is definitely going to hear more about this at the upcoming WAZA conference. I'm sure that they'll be talking about this a lot and what they're trying to accomplish. So that's our update for legislative report. >> Thank you, Amy. >> Hey, we'll go on to the required approvals. So, do I have a motion for the required approvals? >> All motion to approve the required approvals. >> I'll second. >> Got a first and second. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? So carries. Accounts payable warrants two. Do I have a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve accounts payable warrants too. >> I'll second. >> First and second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? So carries superintendentformational
012items. Tia Good evening. So, I'm here to show you guys a little bit of a preview of the new OSD website. It's been definitely a work in progress. So, a little bit of background. Uh we have always used Blackboard for our website but Blackboard was bought out by Final Site and uh Blackboard the interface of Blackboard is going to go away completely in December. So we've been working um on trying to get our new website up and running. It's definitely still a preview right now. Um we're hoping to launch it um by the end of this week. Um we have I we have some hours contracted hours with uh the final site virtual web masters and they're working on some items on our website that should be done by Wednesday. Um by then I am
013hoping to send you all a link so that way you could kind of on your own look through the website give us feedback and then of course um be sending that link to all of the adins so that they can review it as well. Um and then once again it's just going to be a little bit of a work in progress throughout the school year. So something different about our website, we came into a consensus that we are not going to be using separate domains for all of our schools. Um, so currently right now every single one of our schools has a has a different website, but that has kind of resulted in us um, you know, it's very challenging for us to be able to keep all of them updated at all times. Um,
014so we're going to try out something different. We're going to have all of the school websites under the district homepage. Um, but we did keep all of the domains in the event that the admin decide, hey, you know what, we we really do want to have our own website outside from the um OSD website. From some of the communication conferences that I've been to, a lot of the school districts that have about the same size of population, student population as us, they are they have gone this route where they have everything under the district website just because it's a lot more easier to keep updated and just make sure that nothing goes, you know, outdated, right? Um, if you go to our website right now, we have some information from CO still on there. So,
015we want to make sure that everything is always updated. I've even um started something where I have been putting um calendar reminders on my own personal calendar of things that are going to be getting outdated. For example, one of the one of them is we're getting a new um school board member. Um so as of January 1st, we need to update the website. We need to put the new information, right? So um that's going to be kind of my task is always making sure that everything that is no longer needed on the website comes off immediately as it should. One of the really cool features about this new website is um this kind of like little preview right here. Um in the event that we have an emergency or we have a school closure, we
016can always have like this popup uh pop up immediately as soon as somebody gets on our website. Right now, we're going to keep it as, hey, welcome to our website. Give us a little bit of um you know, patience as we continue updating our website. So, that kind of is the little pop-up that we're going to be having there for now. But again, like I said, it's going to be used for any um any big news that need to be on there for people to know as soon as they get on our website. Some of the main tabs in our last website is of course, you know, the school menus, the stu the parent and student portal, which is Skyward, bus routes, uh reporting a threat, final forms, and online payments. So, we're going to
017leave those at the forefront. Um the other thing that you'll notice is that we are using all of the language of our strategic plan. So, believe, achieve, belong, empower, and dreams for all. So, everything that you'll see on the homepage is related to our strategic plan. As you come down, we're going to be able to explore our schools. So, each one is going to go to one of our schools. Um, and we are actually going to be adding some images right here of each school so that people can know exactly what school it is. Especially for those who are exploring our website, um, you know, who are new to the community or might be moving to Oll and want to know a little bit more about our schools. We definitely want to have a visual.
018So, we'll be adding some pictures on there. Then, we're going to be adding some latest news topics right here. These I'm not sure what I did but before coming over here, but um this was actually populated to today's date of tomorrow having Veterans Day. So, definitely going to get that updated. Um, the other thing that when I was speaking to the virtual web master uh final site, we currently have a calendar built in our website, but what we're going to be doing is um they're going to update our platform. So that way it links to a Google calendar instead because then we just update the Google calendar, it automatically updates our website. We don't need to be going and updating, you know, lots of different calendars everywhere. And I think that that's going to be
019a really great feature especially for our schools because they'll be able, you know, the principles will be able to update their calendar for each of their schools and it will automatically update on the website. So that's a really great feature. Um so some of the um quick links that we talked about that were really important for some of our families is one the students tab. the students tab. Right now on our current website, we have a page where it has all of the links that our students need. They use their Google Classroom, they use their Google calendar, um, and then there's just other, you know, math is cool and lots of really cool links that they have. So, we're going to be adding all of those here under students, families. is we're going to be
020adding all of the families tabs such as like student registration, um student handbooks, anything that is really important to our stu to our families. And then athletics is something really big for our um for our community as well. Right now it currently links to our athletics page um or website, but I know that Carlos has had um a conversation with me about possibly, you know, going away for with this website and putting everything on our current website. Um, so we'll definitely look at that in the future and possibly have everything go onto our website and he'll also have the ability to create a calendar with a Google calendar and just be updating it with all of our um, sporting events. Then again, calendar very important, something that all of our families always want to be
021looking at. The biggest difference is the formatting. Um, I feel like all of the formatting on this new website is very clean in comparison to our old website. Um, and I've also been trying to be very consistent in the way that I present um, all of the information on the website as far as titles, um, you know, the same font, colors, everything. So that way it's just nice, you know, nice and appealing to our community and to anybody who wants to or is considering moving to the Oello school district as well. Um, under schoolboard, you'll see that we also added something where it's really nice where it's just a drop down and it shows everybody's information, a quick email um, link for everybody so that people can um, quickly go to our board members and
022be able to get in contact with them, and then of course some resources uh, for the school board. It goes directly to the meeting agendas, the live streams, the recordings, the boundaries. Um, I just wanted to make sure that everything was going to be easily accessible to anybody who goes to our website. Um, again, superintendent um page, everything is once again very um clean and neat. When you go to the department's programs um right now, I'm not sure what's happening, but um there is going to be an image right here. So, that's an image. Um, but it's really nice that anybody can go in and just look at our departments. And then, for example, we'll click on finance and business. And then again, everything is pretty um the same, right? Like everything is just nice,
023clean, same formatting. Um, we have a contact page on every department page so that way um everybody knows who they need to speak to in each department. we have their contact information and then I have had a request of adding um images for each of our employees um in each department which is something that we're going to work on and add on there. Um, but we've been doing that for every department just so that way, you know, people know who they need to speak to, right? Uh, I'll go to early childhood. Again, some information about early childhood. Lots of easy information. And then you can kind of see, you know, if you want information on transitional kindergarten or, you know, 3 to five special education programs. Um, once again, easy to the eye and easy
024easy accessible information. Um, but once again, this is just a little bit of a preview. We're hoping to have it finalized by the end of this week. Um, I will go ahead and send you guys all the link. You guys can look at it a little bit more in detail. Please provide me feedback if you guys think that there needs to be something different. Um, and then we'll go from there. But yeah, work in progress. >> It looks great. Thank you so much for all the work you've been doing. Any questions or comments? I like it. It looks like it's going to be really easy to maneuver around a lot better. Thank you. With that, we'll go to the scrutiny uh report. Okay. Is that better? Yes. So, uh, good evening and thank you for
025the opportunity for us to share the work that's happening at Scutney. I think, uh, most everybody knows me. I'm Denise Maritch. I'm the principal at Scutney, but I'm going to give everybody else, um, on my team an opportunity to introduce themselves before we begin. Hi everybody. Thanks for having us. I am Jesse King, the new assistant principal at Scutney. I'm Tamar Lumston. I'm the instructional coach at Scutney. And I'm Brendan Holst. I'm a fourth grade teacher at Sconeyi. >> Okay. So, um we were excited to host the school board and uh at Scutney on last Monday. And um for those of you who weren't there, well, you missed a really good treat. But don't worry, we're going to catch you up. Uh so this year's focus at ScootN is on PLC's, foundational reading, and alignment.
026And this is across K6. We've chosen these three priorities to build cohesion throughout our schools and to be intentional and systematic in improving student outcomes. Uh PLC is focused on alignment in reading. So in K2 that is foundational reading and in 36 it is target work. Uh we also um are aligning in writing and we have our datadriven instruction. So foundational reading um at scutney is a non-negotiable priority. The data clearly shows that we need to strengthen our foundational reading instruction. So in K2, it's really building a strong core instruction and in third grade through sixth grade, it becomes targeted intervention. Our datadriven system helps ensure that every decision that we make supports the best next move for student growth. So let's take a look at our PLC's. um through our PLC work during the
027year, it really begins and ends with uh professional development. So as the students are coming in, teachers are getting their classroom set up. We really focus on professional development and it has really been on that reading component of uh foundational reading and our um our target work and our um standards for reading and also our writing. So all of our PLC time is dedicated to that. Um then um after our first interim assessments, we shift that a little bit. And so in our 90minute PLC work, we take the first 30 minutes and we continue our professional development and our alignment. But then the other hour is really given to our um data meetings. And so data meetings are at the heart of how we respond to student learning. And over the last four years, we
028have built this cohesive, very intentional, systematic process that uses data to guide our instruction. So this journey includes two key components. So the first key component is the interim data meeting and then we move to weekly data meetings. So let's talk about our interim data meeting which is the big data meeting. So after we've had 6 to 8 weeks of instruction uh we get together as a team in a room. So it's the grade team with the administrative team and we really go through and we look at the entire assessment and then we choose just a slice of that to focus on. Uh the team selects a priority standard and they unpack what students need to know and be able to do to master that standard. Then they develop this retach plan and it lasts
029about a week or two at this targeted standard. Um they also design a mini assessment like a exit ticket. It might be four uh two to four questions that really focuses on the impact of that teaching and learning during that time. And uh this is really the the results of this assessment really drives the weekly data meetings for ongoing refinement. We alternate uh data meetings between math and ELA because in an hour it's really hard to get through both subjects. So they build out so that they have these ongoing um meetings. This process allows teachers to deeply understand the standards, identify the learning gaps and respond with targeted reteing. Okay. So let's talk about the weekly data meetings. This is really responsive teaching and action. Teacher teams review the mini assessment, the results from that
030and they identify what current student need is. They use the data to determine what the next best instructional move is going to be. Then they adjust or they recreate uh a retach plan based on the student performance. They continue this cycle until until students demonstrate proficiency in that standard. Then they move on to the next standard until all the standards that have been taught are at proficiency. The weekly data meetings sustain momentum by keeping instruction responsive and adaptive, ensuring that no student is left behind as the teams monitor the growth and adjust in real time. So another part of our focus is the found foundational reading uh component. And our journey began into this portion which a lot of people just call phonics about three years ago during a debrief following a series of actual
031math meetings. And so most people don't associate phonics with math. But as we had uh we were about a year and a half into our journey with the data meeting process. And while we're sitting in math meetings, a lot of teams are uh choosing standards that are based on story problems. And when we would analyze student work, it came down to, well, if students could read this, they'd probably be able to do the math. And we kept hearing that over and over and over again for about a year and a half. And so a trend had surfaced. And so with that trend information, it kind of led us to our first deep dive into, well, what do we do when students can't read? Because what we were doing wasn't working, obviously. And so, um, we
032we dug into the research. Um, my most beloved book of all in my office is this Wy Blevens, A Fresh Look at Phonics. It dives deep into the science of reading. And we um started digging in and we found a few components that we were missing. Uh number one, uh the the best predictor of success for kids to be successful decoders is that they have a systematic phonics uh program that teaches them all the sound patterns. Well, we had programs that taught sound patterns, but we were only getting halfway through the programs before the kid would go kids would go on to the next school year. So, that was a huge hole that we identified. Another thing that we identified, and I don't have my readers on, so I have to move this just a
033little. No, no, it's okay. Um, I have to move it a little bit further away, is that um let's see. Oh, there's skills work and there's application work. And so our program had a ton of skills work and very little application work. Another piece that we found that was missing was that you need to review the skills for four to six weeks to ensure that kids have a chance to to master those skills. And that was another component that our system was missing. So I think we can bump to the next one. We created this graphic to kind of summarize all of that learning that we had done. And it it keeps us on track. It keeps us focused on what's important. Every piece of this graphic, um the blending, the word awareness, the high
034frequency words, the dictation, the reading and connected text, and the writing and response to text, those are all components of a successful phonics program. And the the most important piece of it is it should be 50% or less in the skills work, which if you've gone through a phonics program, that's the part where you practice word lists and you do the sound pattern over and over again. But those skills practices are not living in a connected text where the big bang for your buck is is diving into that um application piece and that has to be 51% or more of your program. And so um reading in a connected text the sound patterns that you're trying to learn and then responding to that text in writing which is encoding. So we completely adjusted everything that
035we had been doing um to make it fit what we had learned about phonics. And then let's see. So we uh 2022 represents kind of our baseline. This was before we had learned anything about uh what a successful phonics program would look like. If you walked into our classrooms in 2022, um you would have seen teachers teaching a very small amount of phonics in their core classes and they were teaching that out of the wonders curriculum. And then during walk to read, students were going all over the place to different EAs and they were in small groups and we had placed them where we thought they needed to be. And the EAS were teaching a different phonics com uh program that was on a different scope and sequence. So they might be learning the short
036A pattern in core class, but they might be learning a VCE pattern in walk to read and there they weren't getting any repetition and they weren't getting that spiral review that they needed. So that baseline is 2022. So that's also the year in the spring where we said what do we do when kids can't read and we started talking about it a little bit and thinking about what are we going to do next. Um in 2023 we uh had selected the uh research that we wanted to dig into. our leadership team started studying about phonics and by the spring of 2023 we started digging into that with our staff and we started a book study and we started learning more about phonics and in 2024 we started full implementation so we were ready by the
037beginning of the school year we were committed we had scoped out we are going to finish the entire program kids will get every single sound pattern we are going to guarantee that and you can see a huge huge jump between our 2024 and our um 2025 results. And what this data represents is first graders leaving and coming into second grade. So for each year, it is the second graders score when they enter the school year. So we're really proud of that 2025 score because that's at the end of summer after they've been playing for three months and they haven't sat in a single phonics lesson for three months. So that's I think pretty impressive. Okay. So, based on what Tamara shared, I'm going to get you into that phonics piece a little bit more so
038you can understand really the what's happening in classrooms. Um, and this is going to really relate to that slide from two slides ago, our systematic phonics instruction. So, we've taken steps to really ensure highquality consistent instruction in phonics across our early grades as well as implementing the support that we need for our upper grades for students with those really specific phonics needs. Um, first we've mapped out, you can see this is an example of our scope and sequence and for our phonics instruction and we want to ensure with this that every student is systematically taught um all of the necessary phonics skills. So going back to what Tamar said, we need to get through all of all of the skills for our students. um and those skills are what are going to support them in
039building that foundation that they need to be able to be successful in reading and in writing. So to support the work we um it's been the work of our instructional teams, our teachers, our instructional coach, the leaders and our paras. And everybody's really deeply involved in that building that skills work. And how that plays out in the classroom is that all those people provide uh support sorry uh targeted support during lessons and they reinforce the concept that students are working on and build the confidence of those students around those skills. So this is an example of just a little glance at what some of that skills work is so you can be familiar with that. So here we have just three examples of some of the work that we built out and implemented and this
040is due to the dedication in providing a viable curriculum for our staff. And so you can see here as you look at this now I got to take off my cheaters. Um you can see that each one really works on a specific skill but it also reviews previous skills as tomorrow was speaking to. So an example here are we have our roll and rights at the top left, our word letters and our word sorts. And just for a little understanding of that, so our roll and rights really look at in that game format which we know engages kids more. They roll the dice, they have to read the word, and then they have to write the word. So they're really practicing that skill. for the word ladders. Um, this is the teacher version. So, the
041middle words would actually not be there and the teacher would give the clue at the very bottom and students then have to take the clue to determine what word is next. And this really allows students to begin to manipulate sounds and sound patterns. So, like you can see on that bottom change the s to a I can't see it. B. And so students have to or that Yeah. So students have to hear that sound. Actually a C, not a S. And so students have to hear that sound to build their how they manipulate words and then they have to be able to write that word. And as you can see, it also helps build that vocabulary that students need as well. So and then that final one is word sorts and that helps students see
042patterns in words around a specific skill. So like for example that skill is can they determine what is a one syllable, two syllable and three syllable word. And what these do is give students repeated practice with specific phonics skills while also spiraling that instruction so that previously learned skills are continually reinforced. And that backs up what we're learning is they need that four to six weeks of that spiraled instruction instruction on previously learned skills. And going back to that slide with that systematic phonics instruction that was the skills work which was that less than 50% this is now that application piece which is more than 50%. So this shows how students are applying the skills work to their reading and their writing. So we saw in the previous slide some of the skills work was
043around trigraphs. So now this shows okay they have reading around the trigraphs. So, they're implementing the skills and applying those skills to the reading. Um, we've got dictation where they're having to hear it and write it and just really um having that time to really practice and apply that skill. So, they're using the skill work um to ensure that phonics instruction is not isolated, but is integrated into meaningful literacy experiences. And all of these efforts that we've put into creating this viable curriculum is just showing that our dedication to helping support our teachers as well as our students in our comprehensive curriculum. Um, and we want to prior prioritize both skill mastery and application to prepare all students for long-term success in reading and writing. >> Can I can you go back one? I just
044want to add that um in our deep dive into understanding uh the research what's best um these are the skill works that they say will help students. I want you to know that these aren't pre-made um curriculum pieces. This is all done by um either teachers. Tamar has been really instrumental in creating these. uh Jesse when she came on board like the sorts she's been doing it. So this is very labor intensive to make sure that we have a viable curriculum. Um so I just want when we show this I just want you to understand that we have made these in response to understanding what kids need. So, as we continue to have refined the system, K2 now has an entire year under their belt where they have perfected how to use um all of
045these different resources. And so now they're at a a level where we've um the teachers and the EAS um came together in the summer during one of our PD days and they actually wrote out scripts of why would you use this strategy? Um what would it sound like if you were the teacher? There's sentence starters, um, guiding questions, the the what you're going to teach, the how you're going to teach it. And what this does is m ensures that there is a high level of instruction. Uh, regardless of who the teacher is in front of the student, it could be the teacher of the classroom. It could be an EA in any part of the building, in any other grade levels, it could be a substitute teacher. So, today I was out doing um some
046walks just to give a little bit of feedback about the system. and I had the opportunity of seeing several substitute teachers teaching the groups effectively and seamlessly. And if if I were a stranger walking through the building, I wouldn't know that that was a substitute teacher because they were using the scripts and the kids the the learning just continued. It did not stop. They weren't doing a substitute activity. Uh they weren't working independently. They were doing the the learning that we were hoping for. Um, so I think that that's a that guarantees that we're going to make sure the kids get the learning that they need every single day. Go ahead and hit the next one. And you can imagine all of these pieces that there's a lot of pieces here. So we're pulling from
047curriculums um that we have in house. The RGR curriculum has three different versions for different grade levels. We've also incorporated a curriculum called UFly for our upper grades. And then we're creating all of these resources. So you can imagine that could be a real um burden to access all of those things. So we created this monster spreadsheet which is just makes my heart sing. And if you look at it, it still is referencing back to that original graphic that we we created to guide us. You're going to see the application is all coded in purple. And in that top little line you see it needs to be more than 50%. So like everywhere that we're creating these resources, we're keeping at the forefront application, application, application, and then skills work and um making sure it's
048visually accessible to everyone. And you can see that some of the links are live. They're blue. If you click on any of those blue links, those are pieces that we've downloaded from the curriculums that uh that we've purchased or that we've created. And if they're not blue, that means th those are our next steps. So, this makes it accessible to teachers. It's a one-stop shop. And it also is a visual. You know, Jesse's like my my right-hand person here. She's just helping me. And all the teachers create all of this stuff. So, if we see something is not blue, that's our next step. Yeah. >> Oh, still me. Oh gosh. Um, now we talked a lot about K2 and our 36 journey really began last spring because we recognize that we have students in 36
049that are struggling to decode to lift those words off of the page and that really denies them access to their core curriculum. And our whole goal is to give them access to what they need to learn. And this is a completely different beast. K2, this is core content. This is what you're supposed to be learning when you're in kinder first and second grade. But in 36 um teachers are not trained how to teach phonics. They don't have access to those materials. This is not a focus that they've ever learned how to do in their teacher training programs. And so we start with this flowchart and this is years of development of conversations. Um so we we've figured out okay the first step for a 36 student is you have to figure out what it is
050they actually need. So the first question we ask, are they fluent and accurate in a continuous text? Yes, they bump over to the left-hand side and now they're they're going to be doing reading comprehension during that walk to time. Um if they don't need reading comprehension, they might be doing writing during that walk to time. If um I mean it goes down, we've gotten as far as like what type of writing do they need help with organization, all of that. So that's if they're reading fluent and accurate. If a kid is not reading fluent or accurate, no. Then you go down and you look at their RGR scores and RGR stands for that really great reading program. They have some diagnostic tests that we give and we actually do an analysis of those. So you
051complete an error analysis and you figure out what are the things that they are missing. You don't want to teach kids phonics concepts that they've already learned. You want to get the the concepts in front of them that they have not learned yet. So there's a lot of strategic planning involved. Um so that's the first step for 36 and then the other step is um helping teachers get the support and the training and the resources in front of them so that they can be successful in teaching these older kids how to access the text. Okay. So we have talked about our PLC's we've uh focused on our foundational reading and so the third focus is alignment. And when we talk about alignment, we really mean consistency across grade levels and content areas so that every
052student experiences a unified approach to learning. So at Scutney, alignment just isn't about the materials. It's also about a shared language, a shared experience or the expectations, and shared practices. Our goal is that students moving from one grade level to the next doesn't encounter an completely new system by moving, but rather there's this continuous the continuation of clear and connected learning experience. So, um we're going to turn now and we're going to look at our writing and our 36 comprehension, which we will call target work. Um a research study was done uh between 50 schools um across the country and they found that the schools that had aligned curriculum achieve double the student growth compared to non-aligned schools. Along with those findings, they also heard from students that described these classes as more worthwhile or
053more meaningful. Teachers also reported higher morale and stronger buyin. This is clear evidence that alignment drives success, sustains engagement, and strengthens our staff. And we're putting this in action at Scootney with a graph a common graphic organizer for writing across all grades. On the left, you can see the one that we're using for our 36 teachers. On the right is the adapted version for our K2 teachers. Um that right one was designed during a summer PD um by our hardworking K2 teachers with the goal of keeping the same structure but also making it more accessible for accessible for those younger uh learners. Um, I went and spoke with one of our new second grade teachers at Scutney and she was saying that this organizer is helping her u make writing more achievable for her students
054and it's also exciting insight into what students will need to master in the years ahead. Um, she just really wanted to emphasize that it was cool to see where we're headed. She's always worked with second grader students and so to talk to me as a fourth grader like hey I need this kind of a ability level and she tried to make it so that even second grade can can do something so that it made it easier for me as we move forward. This isn't just a strategy it's the foundation for a lasting academic growth and shared success. By connecting these tools we're building deeper knowledge, improving writing efficiency and creating a seamless progression from kinder through sixth grade. Another powerful way that we're aligning instruction is through our target work. Each target bundles related common
055core standards into one clear focus. We start by reading the full standard and then breaking it into very easy studentfriendly definitions of what they need to know. So there's kind of a little left there that is always looked at and referred to as well as things they need to show us to show that they have mastery and that's on the right there. This is always relooked into so that we're always adjusting it and focusing on it to see if we need to add anything, need to take away anything, to reword anything. And that's really good for uh all teachers from new to veteran so that we can always look at that and seeing if we're truly teaching what's necessary. Um as a PLC we collaboratively wrote many teaching scripts. So that's there on the right
056for every target. These are goal for our new teachers, substitutes or even veterans that just need a quick refresher. We also revisit these scripts um throughout the year making them sharper and more effective with each cycle that we're going through them. Um I talked with a a substitute that's in our building a lot and always working through um different grade levels and she was saying that this year especially she saw a a major tick up in the sub plans and the abilities and we kind of already heard to that of these subs are expected to um teach to a higher level and these scripts are really making it easier for our teachers to um expect that of them. This has uh resulted in increased communication and cohesion across grades. One fourth grade teacher shared, "This
057is the most we've ever partnered with our third grade um partners to align the language in our lessons. That shared verbiage accelerates learning, especially for our English language learners and ensures every student hears consistent, precise instruction from year to year and from grade to grade. This target system isn't just organization, it's instructional equity in action. Another alignment tool we're using is the SEI chart. It's a proven organizer for tackling complex comprehension questions. It's simple yet powerful. The S stands for the subject. We're kind of looking for that subject of the question. What what are we talking about or who are we talking about? The E is the evidence from the text. What have we learned and what are we looking for? So that we can compile it in a very easy place so that our
058kids can reference it. It's really teaching them to take notes. And the most important aspects is it's a lot of information that they're trying to take in all at once to tackle the singular question. We're just trying to get them to focus. In that I, it stands for inference. Usually in this case, at least in this example, it's our answers. and we're trying to align what inference can we make based on the evidence that we were given. This framework has been in use for a few years at SCUNI, but vertical alignment has supercharged its impact. I spoke with a sixth grade teacher who said, "This year, students grasp the procedures faster than ever, and I've been able to push their depth of knowledge further than I thought possible." That's what alignment does. It eliminates redundancy,
059unifies language and practices, and frees us to move beyond the procedures and into true critical thinking. At Sconey, we're not just checking boxes. We're closing gaps, building teacher morale, ensuring equity, and preparing every student to thrive as thoughtful, capable contributors to our community. This is alignment with purpose. So, thinking about PLC's foundational reading and alignment, our journey is one of building systems that are cohesive, focused, and intentional. This work is not easy and it takes time. Through the data-driven and responsive approach, we know that success doesn't happen by chance. It happens by design. Each layer of our work connects one to the next, ensuring that every student at Scutney is supported through systematic and purposeful teaching. So now the best part, what questions or comments do you have? >> This live visit was really great.
060We were happy to be there. Thank you for having us. Um, one of the main things that I picked up while I was there was just the same things that you said that um, all these things that you're doing is um, shows your dedication to student learning that you're not doing what's easiest or what's most convenient, but what is actually going to help the students and I really felt that there. We got to talk to like kind of the three levels of leadership, your admin team, your staff leadership, and even some student leaders. And all of them talked about, you know, we're doing this to identify what the students need and then to to work on that. Um the student that we spoke to from the leadership was saying how he's just out there giving
061out stickers and trying to make sure that his classmates have a good day and uh yeah it was really great and um you know thank you for all the work you do. I feel bad that some that so many parents just drop off their kids and then pick them up and have no idea all the work that goes on behind the scenes. So thank you for that. >> At any point you can bring some by. We'll be happy to share our story. I want to apologize. I was out of town and I wasn't able to uh make the site visit. Um but watching your guys's I I appreciate all the work that you guys put into this. But through your presentation, I never once heard anything about math. If I was to be a parent
062and sit here and never know like I wasn't um able to make it to the presentation, I wouldn't think that that was even part of the curriculum that was taught there. Not that you guys haven't put a lot of work into what you guys are doing now, but nothing was mentioned about math or anything else. At at some point, I feel like how much more can we hammer these kids with reading and writing? I get that that's the biggest part of it, but we don't focus on anything else. Or at least it wasn't shared with us today. Not that you guys don't do it obviously, but I just it would have been nice to have shared something more than just reading and writing. >> Yes. And I appreciate uh that comment. That has been um
063a topic of conversation around our teachers that we haven't had a deep dive or focus. And so um but what is really interesting is our math scores have not suffered from the focus on reading. A lot of the um our kids come in pretty strong with the computation. But where we get tripped up is really understanding the um application part. So when the kids get a real world problem or then it it's harder for them to uh decipher what is being asked of them. So really focusing in on our reading has actually upped our scores in math. So we um have not done the big alignment with math yet but that is next to come. But this part is so critical that this is what we're focusing on. But it's not only had an effect
064on their reading and comprehension, it's also had a positive effect on our math scores. Okay. Always I appreciate my visits at Scutney. It carries a special spot with me and saying I really enjoy them. >> Well, thank you for coming. I was going to say I am sorry that I didn't make it. Um I was not allowed to get out of work that day, but um I mean I was a scutty star when I was in elementary, so it's nice to see. Um I just wanted to ask there was a slide on scope and sequence and it was showing the curriculum and the dates and and all that jazz. Um do the classes move together through the curriculum? So each fourth grade class or second grade class is doing the exact same thing in the
065exact same week. until they're moving together or are teachers kind of allowed to say, "Hey, we need an extra week to focus on this specific thing we're working on or kind of what does that structure look like? Sorry, I'm sorry if you explained it during the site visit, but yeah." >> Yeah. No, that's okay. I'm going to ask actually hand this off to Brendan because um he's a fourth grade teacher. He can speak directly to this. >> Um you can look at a scope and sequence almost like a road map that's very generalized. This is how we're going to get through. We break down the the number of instructional days that we're going to take place and what we can go about it. As a fourth grade team or as any team, you're going to
066break down um exactly how long you wanted to spend on each thing. Um if we go back to it, you could even see there's there's a lot of hyperlinks. So, if you go through the grades, you're trying to make it as simplified as possible so that every teacher has um the easiest time. Um you're seeing those hyperlinks in there. That's just resources, information, what our goals are for that week. Of course, um there's always weeks where things kind of get thrown off and there's usually built-in kind of weeks or days where we're saying, "Hey, this is a good time to make this up. This is a good time to make this up." Um we're really just trying to align and so that we can all help each other. And so we had multiple meetings even
067today where we talked about, hey, this is kind of the goal of the week. What can I help? What needs printed? What needs done? Um these are strategies I tried last year, the year before with this kid, this might work for that. And so we're just really getting aligned in those aspects. Um so we have that cohesion. And then as things come up, we're already understanding. It's like, well, this is a built-in day that we can make up here. This is a built-in day we can make up here. But we're always having that urgency of we need to get to here, we need to get to here, we need to get here. So everything's getting filled in. Um, but yes, it is a road map to generally get us to where we need to go
068in the time frame that we have. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> I just Oh, can I add something? Um, I just wanted to add to um that's also the purpose of those weekly retach plans. This is new to me coming into scutney, but that really allows them to look at that weekly data and then to plan. Okay, I'm going to add an extra 5 10 minutes into core instruction to focus on that skill that students needed to help move students along. With that scope and sequence, it guarantees that students will be taught the every skill that they need for that grade moving forward. So, we really try to keep on the schedule to make sure and guarantee that we're not creating our own problems by not teaching kids kids the skills that they need. And
069then, like Jesse said, then the retach plan comes in like we needed a little more time. We didn't have time to stop, but we can go back and retach the skills that students were struggling with. >> Any further questions or comments? Okay. So, I was also a scooting student. Um, I do have a question though for uh 3 to six reading intervention. So, I remember loving doing the dibbles testing cuz I remember I was always like a fast reader. I was like, oh, I was reading super fast, but I would get like so much words and like almost like zero mistakes in them. But I always like I didn't understand why we did it. I know right here it says like for fluency and accuracy but where is the part where we like actually comprehend
070it because I would read it but I would not remember the thing I read. I'm really glad you asked that question. Um I used to be an eighth grade teacher and I'm a little bit ashamed that I said this out loud to my students many times but I would tell them it really doesn't matter how fast you read because I didn't understand uh the importance of it. And then I became an instructional coach at the elementary level and I did a lot of research and there is a a ton of brain researcher research out there that says that if you can read a 100red words per minute then your brain switches from concentrating solely on decoding the words and to be able to then start attending to comprehension because our brains can only do so
071many tasks at one time. So if you're taking your whole brain power just to sound out the words by the time you get to the end of the sentence you don't understand. And so we focused a lot and I know you said I was a fast reader. I could do it so good but I still didn't understand what I read was probably because we had an overemphasis on reading fast as opposed to accurate. And then also digging into what are those comprehension strategies. So, when you went through elementary school, I'm bet you had amazing teachers, but there might have been a a really good focus on just read the words faster and then you're going to magically comprehend. So, we're trying to get kids to be able to decode at a certain rate so their
072brains can switch over into that other piece. And then there's other strategies to use. Like if we have kids that are reading um fluently and accurately, but they're still struggling with comprehension, then we're going to employ some of those other graphic organizers and help them learn how to think more critically about the things they're being asked. Does that answer your question? >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you for having us. Do we have any public comment at this time? That will go up with upcoming events. Uh, WASDA conference 20th through the 22nd in Seattle. Uh, I guess you got everybody that's skull one already. Uh next regular board meeting will be on November 24th and then right after that is Thanksgiving break already. So is there any
073more to add to that calendar? Okay, with that we'll go on to the board self assessment of the meeting. Uh just real quick, I should have mentioned this earlier in board member discussion, but I did want to remind everyone that the uh high school drama club is doing their play this week on Midsummer Night stream performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. So excited to see that. I know they've been working really hard. >> As far as the meeting, one of the ways that we can tell Pete isn't here is that it's too warm in here. >> So if he were here, it would be cooler in this room. >> It's a little warmer than normal. >> Yeah. I really appreciate the scutiny report tonight. Very informational. It's also nice to hear the legislative reports what
074the direction that the state wants >> the staff recognition. Enjoyed that. Thank you. really looking forward to the new website and again thankful for all the work that's been put into that and Dr. Meek and everything that's gone into that. Any more to add to that? Okay, being none this meeting's adjourned.