001[laughter] says we're live. >> Says we're live. All right. Greetings everyone. We'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. Happy December. If you can hold those two words next to each other and feel that they belong or if it feels a little inongruous. Um let's establish that we have a quorum. Please beginning with a roll call vote. Joe >> here. >> Corby >> here. John >> I here. >> Meredith >> here. >> Christopher >> here. Juan Carlos >> I'm also here. I am also here. We have a quorum. Uh Corby, has this meeting with properly notice? >> Yes, it has. >> Thank you. To help ensure that we're centering our boardwork around our shared values and serving our students. We begin each of our board meetings by reading our district's equity framework and the
002Ho Chunk land acknowledgement, which can be found at the top of your agenda. Uh Joe, would you please read those for us this evening? >> Love to. The VASD educational equity statement reads, "In the Verona Area School District, our mission is that each student will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve their personal goals, thrive in a diverse global society, and lead a healthy, self-fulfilling life. To meet this mission, the Verona Area School District will ensure that every individual has access to the educational, social, and emotional support they need to feel valued and affirmed in their unique identities and experiences. We acknowledge that inequities and power dynamics exist in our system such that some individuals on the basis of their identities face barriers to accessing the opportunities they need to experience success. In acknowledgement
003as such, the Verona Area School District is committed to disrupting these systems of inequity. And the Ho Chunk land acknowledgement reads, "There are currently 12 tribal nations who call Wisconsin home with the Ho Chunk Nation being the primary group living around Madison. No matter where you are in the state, you are on the ancestral land of a tribal nation. As we begin our meeting, we honor the land upon which we stand. >> Thanks, Joe. Uh board members, inviting you to take a look at the rest of tonight's agenda. There are any questions or amendments, please feel free to share. Otherwise, I accept a motion to approve the agenda as printed. >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you. On Carlos, is there a second? >> Second. >> Oh, did I get that backwards? I didn't I
004didn't look up. I was going by. Motion by Christopher, second by Juan Carlos. All those in favor of approving tonight's agenda signify with I. >> I. Any opposed? All right, moving on then to the superintendent's agenda. >> Thank you and happy December everyone. Uh we have a three main OB uh items for the agenda which will begin with the athletics update. Um as we have bring Coach Steiner up to the uh table to begin begin the follow update. I want to do something just because I told him I was gonna get him back for this. And we have a person that celebrates his birthdays like no other coming up very soon. And [laughter] so in acknowledgement of our great deputy superintendent and his desire to be celebrated at every occasion publicly [laughter] for birthdays, let's
005give a warm welcome and happy birthday tomorrow to Mr. Chis. >> Happy birthday. [applause] >> [laughter] >> I like this ball bouncing. [laughter] >> Thanks for that. >> The payback is done. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. No competition going on whatsoever. >> Great. >> Now it's [laughter] >> So with that, I would like to turn it over uh to our great athletic director, Coach Steiner, uh to go over the fall report. Welcome to the stage. >> Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me again. Welcome back. >> First of three for the 25 26 school year hopefully. Um excited to be here, excited to share the wonderful things that happened this fall and some bigger, you know, district or departmentwide things that are happening. Um just to consistency sake, kind of following
006the summer guidelines. So we had 538 student athletes participate in fall sports, which is usually our highest of the three. We'll dip down here in winter just because the limited sports spots in our winter sports and then spring it ramps back up. Happy to announce that we had a 3.44 quarter 1 GPA for all of 538 student athletes combined. So that's always great to see. Um we call them student athletes for a reason and I'm glad that our student athletes are doing their part. Um especially as we continue to move forward it seems like more and more kids are missing school for sports and they're taking care of it and class is very important to them. So, we're excited to see that. We have uh 230 letter winners. So, that's the first time someone wins
007a letter. So, that's usually, you know, your junior class is a lot of times your first letter winner. Sometimes you get some sophomores and freshmen in there. Um and then 120 of those were first- timers. So, that number is fairly consistent by the CC. So, that's great to see that we're continuing to have new people come in. And then one of my favorite numbers to look at is uh 94 was the number of letter winners in a second or third sport. In the day and age we're in, there's a lot of sports specialization, but we still have a number of student athletes that are making the choice to participate in a variety of athlet athletics here at Broner High School. So, I always like to see that number. Uh, some individual accomplishments and we'll also
008have some bigger highlights within the slides tonight. Um, we have 56 allconerence honores in the big eight conference, two big eight coaches of the year. Um, all area old region that's kind of still rolling out. We'll see a lot of the media ones start coming out here in December as we're kind of in this um warmup for winter sports. So far we have two three all state a state runner up and we also have state champion in the individual events. So those were great achievements and I was glad that I could be there for a lot of those. So starting off with our boys cross country program. Um coach Matt Cooper was back for a second season. He filled in fully now for the retired coach Marks. Um and it was a really cool ceremony.
009um when we announced that the course was aimed after him and we had probably 2,000 people giving him a round of applause at the 49th annual Roma invite. So this upcoming year is number 50. So who knows what we'll have. Uh team had a good year. They won the big eight conference for the first time in the history of BAHS. Um so we've been in the Big E conference now for about 17 years. So that was really cool for them. Proud accomplishment. Coach Cooper is staff and obviously the student athletes, they swept all three levels. [clears throat] So, varsc too. Uh, special highlight to Aaron Yarro who was our all state finisher. He finished sixth at state. He was also the big eight conference champ for the boys race. And then coach Cooper was one
010of our two big eight coaches of the year in his first season as the only head coach. He uh the boys really bought into the plan and they really showed and you know he's very much given credit to the kids which is always great to see. On to our girls. We uh had a new coach but a She also is our head girls track coach, but our girls cross country coach retired from teaching, so they had to be away for 75 days, so that led to some, you know, fill-ins and whatever. Coach Nelson was able to come back in um later in the year as an assistant. Uh they had a good season once again. They got second in conference. They were hoping for a run at state and just fell one place short. Um,
011we did have another all state finisher, Izzy DiCaper, who for his second consecutive year as a sophomore was the both the Big A champ and first team all state. Um, so it's great to see as he continue to thrive in the girls cross country race. Our girls golf team, uh, led by Ryan Ley, they were competitive. Um, they kind of knew what they had. They had, you know, a small team, but they they played well together and they the girls really got along. I was able to go out to uh their photo day where this photo was at and just kind of see how they interact and golfing a lot of individual time but seeing how they mend together and kind of lift each other up was great to see. I give a lot of
012credit to coach Wei and Coach Burgerer for the work they do. Um if you follow along coach we did have to step down. He is the head pro at University Ridge. So it's kind of like that's a lot of time. So his daughter was a senior so he is stepping away but he hopes to still help out. So, we are in the market for a girls golf coach if you know anyone. Boys soccer, we were a our coach Perkins stepped down. He is a principal over at Charter School in Madison. So, it was tough for him to balance. So, we were able to hire coach Bang who is one of the five teacher and health teachers here at DHS. Um, and he was his first year on the program and they were competitive and that's
013exactly what we want. Um, it can be tough, especially as a first-time head coach in a school our size. And I thought Coach Bang did a great job trying to develop a culture that represents who BASD is and who BHS is. I give him a lot of credit for that. Our girls tennis program made it back to state for the team for the first time in a few years. Um, they were super excited about that. We also had McKenna Thorson who was the D1 runner up for the second year. She lost in a very tough tie break um in the in the [clears throat] third set at state and it it was tough you know emotionally was really tough to watch but seeing her compete so well was awesome. Uh the person who won as
014a backto-back winner same person she played last year so it it was crazy cuz last year I think she lost [clears throat] two sets of 63 63 and this year she won a set on her push tie break. So she she's coming back and then she won uh big eight conference play singles again as a junior and she's also one of our STEM Academy Mass College. So I'm glad that we're still able to have those students that take those options outside of the high school, maybe your your whole classic high school education, still participate, represent their high school. >> The football program, they had a first year where they didn't have a guy playing at Tennessee on their team in a while. So, um, they had they they had some identifying to do early on
015and [clears throat] the boys fought hard and they developed and we were able to get to the level two, which is the same as last year. Um, coach Riley lost his first big eight conference game of his career, unfortunately, and he didn't die, so that's, [laughter] you know, at one point we're getting a little worried if they, you know, tie together, but they don't. Uh, but I'm always really proud of Coach Riley and his staff and what they can do with such a diverse group of students and and try to meet the needs of all of our students. And they consistently are one of the biggest programs we run with about 140 kids from 9th through 12 this year. Coach Kramer was the assistant coach of the year. He is also a Hall of Fame
016inductee this year. So, [clears throat] Coach Kramer's been part of the Broner School District now for about 25 years. Um he was brought in in coach Richardson's second year as his defensive coordinator. Um he took one season away when coach Richardson retired to kind of you know figure out what does he want to do and he came back as a volunteer and he's our associate head coach. He helps mentor a lot of coaches around the state. And I think the impact he's made is more than just you know here at Verona. really statewide and and welldeserved honor for him and excited to have him be entered into the Wisconsin Football Coaches Hall of Fame come April. Our girls volleyball team made it up to the Rush Center in Green Bay. Dr. Clary, Mr. Cox, and
017myself made the trip up. Um, and a good group of students. Um, it's great to see especially for a school day, the number of students that we we brought a fan bus, but also got themselves up there and supported the girls. They tied with the the BA uh Big A conference co- champions there and then really proud of just how that team came together after losing a lot of talent from the year before. Macy Stremlo was a Wisconsin volleyball coaches association honorable mention all state um as a sophomore. So she's someone that we're hoping to continue you know representing. Obviously the Strello Shuts family has a lot of deep roots here at Verona. So, um, we're excited for Macy to be honored in this way and excited to see her grow the next couple of
018years. The girls swim and dive team, uh, we're competitive again. Um, the the Big Eight Conference is our sectional for swimming. We counted there's, I believe, 13 events in a swim and dive meet. Um, 11 or 12 of them were in our pool for sections. So, it's a very competitive area for us to get out of. And then we go on to the state level and we also see great performances. So our girls are competing against the best and they perform and a lot of credit coach worker and his staff for what they can do. And the girls just these fall sports are tough because they come in in August and so they give up a lot of time the summer. You might see them out on the bike trail. They do a triathlon each
019season to just kind of diversify their skill sets and they do a really good job of it. And like I mentioned earlier, Anukica Curran did win the 100yard breaststroke. Um, for my knowledge, this is our first state champion since about 2018 in swim. So, it's great to see. We've had a lot of people get close, but seeing her put it together and it was a really cool race and uh is welld deserved honor for her and she's excited to go swim at the Badgers next year. So, she's not going far from that. >> Two other programs that we we consider in the athletics realm um that I just wanted to highlight for their great work they did. The first one's the dance team. So, this is our spirit dance team. Um they they compete in
020the fall. um they dance mainly at football games and then they do various things like hometown day parade stuff like that. Um represent our dance community that we're trying to continue to build. And then also our cheerleading team. So um if you follow the job postings for the cheerleading, we we've had a lot of turnover the last few years and coach Martin reached out to me last year. She's one of our EAs over at Stone and Prairie and she's like, I got deep roots in this but I want to know why. And so her and I had a great conversation. She's like, "I got a five plus year plan I'd like to put into place." So, she's been great for the program with just one giving our students who may not usually participate in athletics
021have a spot to go and represent DHS. And as you can see by the team, it's a very diverse team and students that um are always looking for a way to share what they love to do. And yelling is always fun, right? So, this next we're getting into the department updates now. So the one I want to start with is uh I brought to you all last year. It's our student athlete initiated leadership group which aligns with the WA [clears throat] salt student athlete leadership team. Um where I decided to vary a little bit is I wanted this to be very much student centered. So I am there as someone that you know questions them get some thoughts but at the end of the day I want them to create this and be something that
022they So this first group we have they're now seniors. They started with me as juniors. um they helped devel develop this mission and vision of what they wanted this group to be and this is something that will be the cornerstone of this group going forward. Um just like in our district you're always able to build on it and grow on it but this is who when we add our juniors in here in early uh 2026 this is what they have to know that we're about. Um from that we decided to go a committee route and from that committee route uh they found these four and like I said they developed these and without really knowing these really tied into our strategic plan and how and I don't think I could probably ask those kids if
023they know what our strategic plan is and they laugh at me but they naturally did this. So they developed four committees that they really want to focus on in sale. First one is leadership development which matches highly with our student agency. Culture creators is that creating a value and belonging. A volunteer project committee which would tie in with our community collaboration and then a mental health committee which ties in with our wellness and mental health. And I I cannot give enough credit to these student athletes. I I didn't put these committees in front of them, give them choices. They brainstormed, they listed, they voted, and these are the four that they chose. So, I give a lot of credit to our sale team as they continue to uh challenge be to be a better leader,
024but also challenge each other and we're excited. We got four of them going to Stevens Point for a WI state student athlete uh on the 10th. So, we're excited for that as well. And I'm excited to see where this goes. And hopefully come the end of winter, we'll have uh about 50 faces that we can share with you of a group photo of everyone once we get the juniors and seniors in there together. We also started our adaptive sports league. So if you follow us on social media at all Marcy did a great job did a great job of getting this out there. So adaptive sports league is a way to give our high school students that ability to represent their school in a competitive athletics that aligns with Special Olympics but is more centralized
025on the school itself. So these students are in the high school. Special Olympics can be, you know, all the way up until you're an adult as long as you want to do it. So this is kind of that opportunity to represent. We partnered with Montour and this was in Mr. Zimba's time just to make sure that both schools would have enough student athletes and we decided last year we were going to try to roll it out but with my transition that was kind of difficult and then this we planned last spring and we're able to start this fall. Um so we were able to have a adaptive sports league soccer team and then we're getting ready for a liple ball team in the spring. Um, we have three DH students in this photo. Uh, Allison,
026Janice, and Harper were the ones that did the whole season. There were a couple more that tried it, and we hope to continue to grow, get them letters, get them a part of the BHS community and athletics. And it's really a fun thing to watch. It's an hour of just kids being kids and watching them can be really fun. One of the other things that I brought to you all last year, I just kind of want to give an update on is our surveys we do. So last year when I was at my athletic director's convention, we had a uh I was walking through the vendors and I saw this and I was I I was trying to think of how can I get student voice, how can I get caregiver voice to make sure
027that things are aligning with what I vision and what Dr. Clarity's vision is for this district and our athletic department. So grit leadership is what we use. It's a company based out of Michigan. He is an athletic director out there and he kind of developed this and it kind of breaks it into three categories. So expectations, rational warmth and then comments. So with expectations and what I really liked about this is it'll ask the same questions from two different perspectives. So then it gives us this rating of this is your student average. This is what your coach said. And that allows us to see if a coach says they're a 10, but the kids say they're a two. That's a point of conversation that I have with them at their end of season meeting and
028that allows us to try to figure out why are they saying this, have that conversation, build a plan to make sure that we're meeting our students where they're at and getting their input. The rational that's more of like, you know, a personality trait, I guess you could say, how do they perceive the actions I'm putting out towards you. Um, and that's obviously one that, you know, it can be hit or miss with kids. It really can. It can depend a lot of their mindset when they're taking the survey. Um, and then the summary is obviously a little more open-ended questions. And what I like about it is there's positive, there's kind of a point of improvement, but then there's also, coach, this is what you taught me this year. And what I like about it
029doesn't take the individual comments, it uses AI to generate summaries. So that way we're not bombarding coaches with, you know, 900 points to sit through and check these are the most common ones they saw. >> And this similar thing happens with the parent side as well. Um, it was really important to me the student athlete side first. So this year, um, instead of just emailing it to them, we know how high schoolers can be with checking their email, I pulled them in during an A+. I gave him 10, 15 minutes. I kind of gave my spiel on why I need this and why your voice matters and how you can impact things. And then I give them time to complete it on their own. Not force [clears throat] kids. Um, I want them to do
030this, but it has to mean something to them. And if I force them, I'm just going to get answers for the sake of answers. I rather have seven good answers than 15 forced answers. Um, so we're seeing a lot of good things with that. Year one was last year, so I got good baseline data. We had some good conversations off of it. And I hope to see growth, not with our coaches as we move forward with this. Other updates, we changed our registration system again because one time wasn't enough during my time here. Um, our school was bought out by Arbiter, so now we became an Arbiter school. Um, and that includes our scheduling site now, too. So, there's a lot of changes on the techn technology side. I'm thankful that I have some understanding
031of technology. I wouldn't say I'm a tech expert, but I'm also not my dad. So, I I'm very thankful that uh we're also working towards uh getting rosters for all of our clubs and activities. Um, I brought that data to you last year about our participation numbers and the percentage of studenting. We're at 49%. I'm really curious to see how many of our student athletes are participating in something outside of their curriculum. So whether that's a club that meets every other week for 30 minutes or it's something like our FFA which is doing countless volunteer hours, I want to be able to bring that to say, hey, this is what our staff is doing because it's not so much me. I'm not out there doing all these activities. It's our teachers. It's our staff that
032are volunteering their time um and putting in countless hours to give these opportunities to kids and that's important for me to bring in. So that's something we're working on trying to iron out the kinks of how to find that because um there's a lot of kids that you'll be surprised are in like 14 things. So it's not trying to sort the data in a meaningful way that it's not just numbers, it's about the story. Um and the last one was kind of my idea of I wasn't getting enough people to work events for me. So you put athletic gear behind you. I get a lot of questions, hey, can I get a shirt? Hey, can I get this? So, we made uh we we have a deal with BSN for our apparel. And part of
033that is I get uh rebate dollars. So, I not buying it, but I use that rebate to uh purchase things like t-shirts. If you work one event, you automatically get a t-shirt for me. Now, five you get a hat, 10's a long, a sleeve, you know, 25 all the way up to a parket this year. We have four year rotation to just try to I I I I always tell staff seeing a student in a setting that you don't see them in is really cool and that's why I want you to work games and you have skills. We have a lot of stu you know staff here that they play basketball. You know how to run a school board. So trying to get them outside that comfort zone and say yes you're giving them four
034hours of your Tuesday night. You're going to get paid a little bit but you're also going to get a sweet shirt out of it. >> [laughter] >> more wild here. So that that was another exciting thing that I wanted to share with you all. Um ongoing upcoming um one of the big things that we see now in the area both from a student recognition side but also curriculum side is video boards. So you see these big massive video boards all over the uh the conference in Dane County. Um M or just got one this past year. MMSSE just had an upgrade on there too. Um, so that's I'm in the process of exploring that what that might look like here and also trying to take into account that we are lucky to have such great
035facilities that it may require more than one and what is the timeline to make sure that all of our student athletes have the ability to um be represented on there and also what other creative ways can we use this for? Additionally, with that there is a curriculum piece where we can start pairing up with our high school courses to create and edit and run those. Um, so just trying to get all of those ducks in the line. Additionally, uh, we're looking at adding boys volleyball. So, I don't know how many com comments you get on this, but it's probably the most asked question I get is when are we adding boys volleyball? Um, it's a growing sport. And by exploring, I want to say I'm going to talk to stakeholders. I'm going to talk to
036the coaches of fall sports that will be impacted by this. I'm going to talk to our girls volleyball program that will be impacted by this. I'm going to talk to our students that are interested. I'm going to talk to the parents in the community to [clears throat] see what they're and see there really is a want for this and a desire for this because there is budget implications with this. Obviously, sports aren't free. So, just trying to make sure we understand the give and take of it and and trying to see if it if the is ready for it. And I this is when we talk about making those students that are tend to not be represented on our athletics. We see a lot of that with our Asian-American students and they have a big
037love for volleyball. So hopefully this is another avenue to uh help them explore and represent Ron Air School District. And then like I mentioned earlier, just getting those participation numbers in our activities. Any questions, comments, things you want to know more of? I just talked a lot. So I want to make sure I give space for you all to ask any questions you may have for me. >> I have a question. >> Yes. On your first slide, the jump in participation in the fall went from 471 to 538. Did we add a team somewhere or if not like what do you big jump? >> The I think the biggest thing is our cheer team. >> Oh, okay. >> Our cheer team had I believe 36 and that was up from about 1520 last year. >>
038Uh but it was a lot of marginal. [cough and clears throat] I saw a lot of two three here, two two4 there. Uh we did not add a true team in any sport that I can think of. >> Oh, great. Well, that that means a positive sign across the board. >> Absolutely. >> I love when you come in and present. It's just so fun to see, you know, all of the things that are going on. And if this is the hook that keeps, you know, kids excited and engaged, then that's a huge thing. And to see the, you know, average GPA, that's another such a cool piece [laughter] of information. These are kids that are really working hard in a lot of areas. So, I just appreciate that you bring their recognition, you know, in
039front of us. So, >> glad to be able to do. >> Thank you for all that you do. I [clears throat] really, really excited. Thank you. You know, I say this probably every time. I'm very thankful to be in this position and I still tell people to this day, you know, especially these high schoolers. I said, I was in your shoes 12, 13 years ago. Like, if you would have told me I'd be the athletic director at the high school, I'd say you're nuts, you know. But, um, I'm excited to have this opportunity. You know, my goal is to just like the rest of kids, try to get 1% better every day. Try to push yourself a little bit harder and try to get outside your comfort zone. So, >> were you were you low
040down bragging how young you are? [laughter] >> I would never. I've been I've been told I look like I'm 40 plus my whole life. So, [laughter] >> I love that the survey >> the survey information. I think that's just so fantastic. That's just a great [clears throat] and I like how you use it, too. It's not like a a punitive, it's the side, [laughter] you know, areas for growth. It's really fantastic. >> Yeah. >> And I think it allows sometimes the the demonstration effect. Hey coaches, if you're not surveying, like look at what I can collect from just 10 minutes from your kids and your parents. Like you can do this on your own. As much as I love doing it, I don't need to do it. This all just elevates so many things about
041um just the whole child approach to all of this. I mean the leadership development, [clears throat] the student agency that it's not just about how do we show up for big 10 big eight sorry leaning into my you say how old you are. I'm like, "Yeah, that's when I was uh Big A tournaments is not just about the winning on the field, on the court that there's just a whole leadership development, everything that's coming with this that I just greatly appreciate because it really elevates the whole mission of the district, even in how you're um holding coaches to high standards, right? We talk about everyone who serves students in this district. You're all living the mission of our district every day, regardless of your role, and that includes coaches as well." Um, so just so
042appreciative of just the holistic approach you're taking and even with that you elevating the desire to collect data about other clubs and activities that it's not just about the key big sports that we know and understand that get a lot of attention, but it's all the ways that students are being supported by all of our teachers and staff and anything beyond the academic bell hours. There's so many things and I appreciate being able to know more about that as well as you collect data. >> Happy to do. >> Thank you. >> I like data. >> Great. Yeah. >> I I just wanted to say it was something I said to Joe before you got started with the presentation. You know, you're doing something right or well when you start to get hate from other districts
043about your program and I love it [laughter] whenever I have on a Verona, you know, t-shirt or whatever and other districts. Oh, we play you this weekend. >> The next week they lost. [laughter] It's it's fun to to have that notoriety statewide for the program. So, >> thank you. >> Yeah. All the credit to the coaches and the advisors. They they're the ones doing the hard work. I just am the lucky one that gets to sit up here and tell you all what they're doing. >> No, thank you once again. Like I said, >> I'll hopefully be back March, April, I don't know, whatever. >> Chad text me and says, "Hey, >> this day." You get the email from Lori saying, "No, it's a short week next week, so I need a back [laughter] earlier
044than you think." >> Yeah, that's what we do in athletics. We adjust. But thank you all. I'm leaving. >> Thanks. Good to see you. Thank you. >> Moving through the superintendence report. Looks like we have a state report card update. [clears throat] >> Okay. >> Welcome, Amy. >> Well, welcome. Good to see you all. It's not my birthday tomorrow. I don't need to tell you how many years it's been since I've been in high school, [laughter] but we will talk a little bit about the state report card tonight. Um, we want to keep this pretty high level recognizing that the state report card is 11 pages, but all of those different data metrics are actually cons contained within our results policies. So, you just heard about language arts at our last meeting. Math will come
045soon in January. Absenteeism will come with attendance later on um as well. So today we we'll keep it pretty high level but certainly if you have questions definitely [clears throat] feel free to ask. So our state report card is put out by the department of public [clears throat] construction each year. The state report card provides an overall district score. You can see the categories on the screen there and what the scale looks like. Overall as a district we were in the exceeds expectations um bandwidth with an overall score of 76.6 six and DPI [clears throat] calculates that score by reading four different priority areas that you can see up there. Um the first is achievement. This is only achievement in language arts and math as measured by the state assessments. So this is only inclusive
046of students in grades 3 through 11 taking the forward, the preac and the ACT um exam. They actually also use two years worth of data. So it's 23 24 data and 2425 data that you will see within the achievement band. Um the growth metric there is measuring um how students are performing compared to their peers. So so their rate of improvement right and what is they use some complicated value ad calculations to determine what has been the value ad of their school district experience. So the achievement is really about proficiency. What band did students score in? Growth is about the rate of improvement for students again in those two subject areas. Target group outcomes is slightly different than how we think about focus groups in our district. They essentially take the students who are scoring
047in this the lowest 25th percentile in our district and track their outcomes regardless of specific focus groups as we disagregate [clears throat] our data. And then the last is on track for graduation and that looks at three or four really specific metrics. um absenteeism on track for graduate or graduation rate and then third grade language arts and eighth grade math. Um the waiting of the categories growth and achievement are the only ones that shift in their weight and that is based on percent of students who are identified as economically disadvantaged. So if you have like they have a little calculator online. I played around with the calculator. If you're at about 35% of students that are economically disadvantaged, then your your pie chart is equal and each of those is is 25%. We're at about
04825% of our students that are economically disadvantaged. So our achievement is weighted higher than our growth, right? But that is weighted. So different school districts that metric may be different in terms of how they achievement versus how they weight growth. So those are the four categories that go into the overall score and report. we as a district exceed expectations. All of our schools fall in meets expectations, exceeds expectations or significantly exceeds expectations. So excited that our individual school report cards also are meeting those [clears throat] those expectations. >> And Amy, I know you shared this in the communications that went to families or the site communications that like an overall score of 76.6 is not a C. It's not a percentage. I know that gets reiterated, but it's really a complex thing when we have
049this kind of visceral reaction to seeing numbers like that. >> Um, so I don't know if you want to add any more to that, but just that reminder that it's not transferable with like a letter grade. >> Correct. Instead of opening things on 100 point scale, automatically we have that grading scale in our head and that's immediately what we see. really um DPI has tried to communicate over and over that they they've also tried to shift to the stars a little bit where there's four stars for exceeds expectations um five stars for significantly exceeds to help think about what this looks like across um across the state and in providing an overall score. So definitely not a C. We're excited to be in exceeding expectations as a district compared to um the other 420 districts
050in the state. Yeah, if I [clears throat] thanks for asking that question because it does get uh confusing as it's just in the nature of the of our educational experience to try to bring it out of a percentage of of 100. But I think that's also why it's important and we value the board uh having very solid results policy because you can see the evidence from our internal data matching our our external forward scores as well. So we have two mechanisms and also just being very transparent that the number itself like the phys the 70 number you can't compare to the year before um as yeah because that those numbers don't aren't always made from the same same metrics. So, we're very cautious about not trying to even do that comparative piece and talk about
051what are our our internal uh growth metrics that we can really show clear data on especially at our middle schools where we saw significant growth and both on our internal metrics as well as what what you saw unfold. But the final overall district score, you know, I we want to be very transparent and honest with our community that we're not going even though that number went up, it's not a celebration of that. It's a celebration of us having the actual growth from year to year to year that we that we are that we are that we are celebrating >> kind of reiterates just the interesting nature of what this tells us what it's used for right it's not very informative to the classroom level most certainly because it's so delayed um I appreciate you elevating
052what we're trying to do as a board is to get more tangible in the- moment reflective data that really elevates what we want to know and understand about our own student achievement and the fact that it reflects you know things that we think are happening is really helpful. It's just always so interesting to me to just understand externally how important is this weighing that against what we're doing every single day in the classroom, what our teachers are doing, the growth that we're seeing and that we're talking about at this table and you know PLC's all of that work. So it's just it's an interesting juosition of it feels very serious yet in a way it doesn't really truly inform practice the way that maybe some of the other things that we're doing do. Yeah, I
053appreciate that. And and just remembering the limited scope, right? We have kindergarters through second [clears throat] graders whose data is not at all reflected in here and we know how important early literacy is too. Um so recognizing that this is another source of data and another way to look at it, but it isn't it isn't completely comprehensive of the important work that we're doing in the student experience. You just heard a magnificent presentation from Mr. Siner about all of those ways that we're helping students to feel they belong and that's not necessarily captured right what this looks like um along the lines of some of the lagging data when we were here last year presenting about our report card we named that chronic absenteeism was an area of growth for us so I wanted to
054circle back this year and show some of the work that we've been doing to try to um you know mitigate for that and so we've had an attendance campaign be here be great actually an award-winning attendance campaign our our communications department won um an award and was recognized for that. So, we really tried to push attendance. We've also built some common practices for attendance across schools in the past year with specific attendance letters sent after certain absences, meetings, and some family outreach. We also have involved some of our central office staff and going out to schools to support families understand the barriers and connect them with community resources. our school social workers. I know you heard about um homelessness last time from one of our school social workers, but but our social workers meet during
055our role like Mondays like today and their entire focus has been on attendance for the last year and trying to think about what are our practices around attendance. Their SPO their student um performance um objective is actually centered on attendance as well. So, it's been a major focus for us over the past year. Also, just trying to better understand what are the barriers to attendance for our families and how can we um help to mitigate those. So, the attendance data that you see within the report card is lagging data and it's a multi-year calculation. So, the attendance data that's reflected on 2425 report card is actually from 23 24 and then it's multiple years prior to that. So, it's like a rolling average. So, while we've been doing all of these things, we didn't expect
056to see that change in the report card instantly. What we do know is at the end of the 24 or 23 24 school year and we ended with 17.7% of students um named as chronically absent, at the end of 2425, we ended up with 16.8. So, almost a full percent reduction. That again isn't yet reflected here, but we hope to continue that trend. And if we do so, that will eventually the report card eventually will catch up. but really important work that we're doing along the way. And then to highlight just an area of growth for us this year, as Dr. Clarity mentioned, just like when we talked about R21 last last meeting, many of the norms for many of our assessments have changed over the last several years. And within the last year, DPI
057has actually changed how they calculate the report card. So they have come out and said and they provided this document that you see on the screen that essentially tells us what aspects of the report card are comparable from year to year. Where should we be comparing and where should we not be comparing so to Dr. Clarity's point overall score you see up there on the top or 76.6 it says it's actually not comparable to 2324. And so we tried to lean into the yeses on this document to think through what does that data tell us and where can we feel confident in our impact and how that's reflected in the scores that you see um within our report card this year. So one of the areas that that blue highlight is the growth priority area.
058[clears throat] So the ways in which we're having we're comparing students growth and their rate of growth and rate of improvement to other students across the state. That is an area that DPI says yes that is comparable to previous years. And so we've spent some time leaning into what does that what do those growth scores show us? And that's really what you see the VASD growth. So from 2324 to 2425 we saw plus 3.8 points in terms of our overall growth score. Um but middle schools really were a standout here. Some of our middle schools saw increases up to 24.6 six points in terms [clears throat] of their growth from year to year. So really exciting to know that we're able to move our students and their rate of improvement is really accelerating um in
059the right direction. When we look across our middle schools, we know they each have their own unique context, but we started to think through what are some of the themes that we can capture in terms of the leadership moves that have contributed to the the growth that we're seeing. And so some of those include our core curricular resources. So we implemented status last year. So we had a a core language arts curriculum um and we're we're really intent on providing the professional development, the pacing, the support through role like the PLC's to do that well and do that with fidelity. Even um core knowledge one of our middle school charters right they had a core curricular resources they implemented new math curriculum last year. We also determined that middle schools move to longer core instructional
060blocks which we spoke about during our last results policy just having the longer core instruction and followed by a time for some targeted skills support really at what do we know about students level of performance and how can we continue to accelerate their growth um is a practice that our our middle schools have leaned into in slightly different ways but are still hearing student need with really intentional instruction during that that time. And then just overall data review systems. So understanding three data points with star or year is not enough to tell us how our students are doing and to guide our instructional moves each day. But having really robust data review systems that use progress monitoring data and unit assessment data um can help us to be more targeted and intentional in how we
061support students and ultimately we're seeing student growth um accelerate as a result. So excited to highlight our growth just as a district knowing that is something that DPI does tell us. Yes, you can compare this from 232 24 to 2425. And then also just want to shout out our middle schools and the the amazing growth that we're seeing there and the leadership moves that we know have contributed to to that along the way. And then finally, our next steps. Just overall, our next steps feel a little redundant, but they're pretty much the exact same next steps that we wrote in the annual academic report. We know we need to continue to grow our continuum of services. So getting clearer on what is the data telling us a student needs and how are we matching that
062with the support. We know there still continues to be disproportionality in our outcomes just as we saw within our results policies. So continuing to lean into that within our PLC's um and our data review systems will be really important. And then we're seeing it's not showing up on the report card yet, but we are seeing some promise from our attendance [clears throat] campaign. So certainly want to continue the focus on attendance and making sure that students um can be here and be here and be great as the as this look goes. So overall that's how we're thinking about our report card and that's kind of what we wanted to lift up today. Just reiterating that we go deep into each of these metrics through our results policies um as we go. But open to any
063other questions that you may have. I'm curious how much communication or feedback the admin team gets once the report card comes out. I know as a board member I haven't heard anything and I typically have not since I've been on the board but just you know right this is out there. I think there are people throughout the state some folks that pay a lot of attention to these. I don't mean to ask that with a fured brow but I guess I'm just curious >> what you all hear [clears throat and cough] if anything once this kind of gets released. And I appreciate all the work that even the site leaders are doing to have families really understand the report cards. So, I think the question was buried in a lot of words. My husband says
064I'm good at that. >> Yes. Yeah. I think we we strive to be transparent with families and so Marcy does a great job of helping our school leaders identify some highlights that they want to share [clears throat] from the report card and then how this connects with our continuous improvement plans already in play and the work that's already happening as well as the commitment to continue um to continue this moving forward. I think this year was especially complicated just knowing that there are some categories you can compare and some categories that you can't compare based on the shift in norms. That makes it a little difficult and nuance to try to communicate to parents what does it actually mean? Um because there are other areas that we did see some growth and we would like
065to be able to attribute that to some of the leadership moves but given the guidance here are being um cautious about doing so and trying to work within the parameters that are given. So I I guess to answer your question also using a lot of words >> [laughter] >> um I don't know that we've heard a lot um from families specifically about the DPI report card or gotten much feedback in general about that. >> Yeah, if I could add on the there is a expectation of excellence and so I think if there were a categorical category dip >> we would hear that that piece of it. Um, I do, you know, I'm trying to think how to say this without being moody. I'll just be moody. Um, I I do I don't think it's ethical
066when the scores are [clears throat] compared to last year's scores as a marketing tool when in fact in fact they are not comparable. And so I struggle I struggle [clears throat] when that occurs. I understand that the competitiveness of public education has grown exponentially in the in the last but I think you should be honest and transparent about what your data really is. >> And yes while our category has stayed uh very very high we are inter both the metrics that you can show for growth have shown growth and our internal metrics show growth. But when you kind of do a headline of we went up this many points on the on the four exam, that's just not an accurate >> that's just not an accurate assessment of what what really really took place. So,
067>> um I don't know that any of that answered your question because [clears throat] we I we just don't get a lot of back, but we I we do so much forward facing information that's accurate about what really happened on our report card. We don't get a lot of push back the other way, >> which is I mean kind of an answer, right? I mean, that's exactly I think what I'm hoping is that families feel like there's an understanding to a degree of something that's really complex and again somewhat awkwardly arbitrarily attempting to measure the success of our district. So, yeah, I'm appreciative that things can just kind of be out in the ether with a level of understanding and not a lot of push back or Yeah. >> But but expectations are high and
068they should >> Sure. Sure. So, it's kind of a validation and then I can move on kind of a thing. For me on the board on a board level the exceeds expectation. I can't wait to go to WSBY just to echo that we have exceeded expectation. [laughter] So it seems like bragging rights for for Wise is what I saw right away for this. [clears throat] >> Well, thank you for the added time. Again, thank you to communications team, site leaders. Again, I as a parent being able to read some of this, too. It's just super detailed and appreciate the elevation that each site leader was giving to sharing this out to families. >> Thanks for your presence. >> Thank you. [laughter] [clears throat] >> And then one more piece from Dr. Clarity about our school
069community connections. >> Yes. So in all transparency school community connections as a title will be this was a um this was presented last year as part of of some work for OE9 but we didn't like the title so we just the concept stay the same but the title was was switched I brought Marcy here just as uh when it was presented through OE9 this was a discussion u of the uh partnership with our community uh from uh district administration as well as uh really desired to have our board of education uh side by side with us as we approach businesses and an opportunity to learn more about some of the in-depth work of the of the Ronary School District as well as create a space where business leaders not only have their own understanding but
070can talk to customers or clients that are thinking about coming into the Roninary school district about some some of the things that are happening here. That's why as we think about the opportunity for administration and the board to be side by side on this, we're very excited for what this may look like. But so, but we feel like we just got into a space to kind of get the ball rolling on it. So, we brought Marcy here to talk about next steps. [clears throat] >> Excellent. >> Sounds good. And like Dr. Clarity said when we have good news to share like what Amy just shared with all of us, we are really um wanting to have a formal mechanism to do that and sort of bring more people into the fold in alignment with our
071uh strategic framework priority area of community collaboration. And um one of our ongoing focuses has been exploring meaningful ways um to get there, right? And how do we how do we reach people and engage people who are in our community who perhaps don't have children in the district yet? Or are the proud parents or grandparents um of former students and are still supporting our district in many ways, including financially every year when they get their tax bill. And we want them to um be able to connect with us and communicate with us. And we're looking for another realm. You've probably heard the term survey 10 times already tonight. Um, which I love surveys. They're very valuable. But again, how do we get that two-way communication going where we're actually sitting face to face with people
072and and having a chance to talk with them? And as Dr. Clary said, we've kind of bounced around a few um names for this work. And I I know the board has been talking about this in in leadership meetings and and other conversations as well. But uh we've landed on school community connections for now in an effort to be welcoming and inclusive and um we are we're ready to get rolling on this. So what we have decided to do for this year is um focus on realtors as our first audience and um looking forward to inviting them into this space in January and having a conversation with them about um what school finance and mill rate looks like. Happy birthday Chad. That'll be another presentation. [laughter] And we would like to have some um support
073materials for realtors for them to share with um families that are considering or and or individuals considering moving to the area. And then just a question and answer session for them really with that that overarching goal to um bring people into our schools, help them see our schools in action, get an idea of how how all of this works day in and day out. And um like I said, focusing on realtors, you know, they're often a person's first impression of our area when they're looking to to move here. Um so we really want them to be connected to our schools. And then looking further ahead, uh potentially do a four session cohort in the 2627 school year and then be able to broaden the audience, think about as Dr. Clary said, business leaders, service organizations,
074retirees so that we can um be turnurning folks into our schools and hearing from them. And um with that, it's a just a brief um update and I'm happy to pause here and hear what stands out to you or if you have any questions um especially in relation to our results, our operational um expectations. So that invite is open to us. >> Absolutely. >> Wonderful. >> Are are you honing in on specific like I also know someone who's a realtor. Can I invite you know? Okay. So just how broad sweeping this potential invite could be. Yes. >> As we begin this work. >> Yeah. We worked with the chamber um to get an understanding of >> the businesses that we have in this area and then decided to kind of narrow it down to realtors.
075But yes, we would welcome them definitely any connections you might have. >> So I think especially folks in the area that dabble among municipalities, right? You know, there's I think a handful of realtors that really focus in on the Verona area school district and that is an awesome thing to have. And I think there's people that are really cross dancing around through districts and to have an understanding I think of that work as a realtor if there isn't a context for education and the deeper understanding of finance. Sounds like an interesting place to start because that's sometimes the first people that are potentially connecting to future families that will be a part of our district. >> Yes. >> Yeah, great idea. That's creative. >> Anything we can do to be of support and help too.
076I think that's, you know, as you said, a partnership and all of this, we're happy to do so. >> Yeah. Yeah. We wanted to make sure we got it to uh board table knowing the importance of the partnership here before you see a big social media push or anything like that. We didn't want it to occur backwards. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And so uh just know that you'll now see the push >> uh unless there's any concerns from the board table today about about that moving forward, but we just want to >> do the appropriate tearing of of information out. >> Thank you. Thanks for the loop back. >> That's great. >> All right. Thanks, Marcy. >> Great. Thanks, Marcy. >> All right, moving on in our agenda to public comment. I am not aware
077of any public comments this evening, so we'll move on to any board updates, anyone? >> Slate reminders. Yeah, that's next week. We're in December. Oh, yeah. Okay. Slate reminders. If you are registered for Slate, you have your confirmation. I know I got a confirmation email about sessions registered for making sure again that you've contacted Lori for any transportation login pieces. Excited to attend and do some learning centered around AI. >> AI it's here. >> Uhhuh. It is. [clears throat] All right. Anything else about WASBY? I think we've visited that a handful of times to ensure that we're all set for January knowing we have additional speaking um opportunities by someone at our table. >> Yeah. >> Uhhuh. >> Appreciate it. >> Yes. >> Who's our Are you telling us the >> Yes. >> Yep. >>
078Good. >> Yep. And I did see um did you all get a WASBY email that had the um resolutions shared? I think that was just today that that came through. >> So, please do take a look. That's something that I know when I was delegate that if there's something as you look through the resolutions that are going to be proposed, if you have thoughts to share for Corby to be our voice when those um resolutions get discussed, please feel free to do that. Obviously, we have a couple of weeks, but to maybe keep that on your radar so Corby can, not that you can't speak on our behalf as a collective without insights, but it's kind of interesting for each of us to see >> what's being offered up as resolutions um from districts all
079over the state. >> And let me know if you did not get that email, by the way. All right, I think moving on from there to our board consent agenda. Um you'll notice the board meeting notes and thank you again Christopher there's the summary um from our language arts monitoring report in there as well. So, as you have glanced through those, are there any questions? Okay, hearing none, the board's consent agenda is approved. And then future dates, I want to just highlight also that being December 1st, this is then the date that does start signature collection officially for the two board seats that we will have um up in the spring. We do have incumbents that are intending to stay with us and we'll be running. So, signature collection can officially begin today. If you
080have any questions about accessing the proper forms um whether you are the two at the table here or anyone in the community consider running, you can reach out to me or Lori Jensen. We're happy to help get you in touch with the right forms and pieces of information that are needed to be able to run for the board. >> So, who's up this year? Is it >> Juan Carlos? Carlos >> as an atlarge and John as an >> at large. >> Don't forget we only have one more board meeting in the signature window. So next board meeting bring a signature sheet and we can all sign. >> Yep. Great point. >> And then as noted on the agenda that January 6th then is the candidate deadline to file documents. Um, we typically recommend in terms
081of signatures especially to turn those in prior to the sixth on the off chance that you might fall short of the 100 that are needed um as we peruse and make sure that they're of satisfactory collection and they follow all the rules. Um, so encourage people to turn those in prior to January 6th in case you have to collect a few more. >> Can I mention the the December 6 signing event? >> Um, yeah. I don't know a lot of details other than what I shared with you. So I know there's a local group that's organizing signature collections at Alice Good Coffee. >> Alice Good Coffee Saturday, December 6th at >> from 1 to 2. >> I have to confirm the time. >> Yes. >> And at the next school board meeting. Oh, actually no.
082>> No, >> because it's coming up. It's this Saturday. But just come come into Alice Good. Um >> yeah. >> And there'll be candidates for school board there. other local running. Yeah. >> An opportunity to meet other candidates in the community >> and uh help them through signage as a reminder. Just because you signed somebody sign that piece of paper just it's it's a way of them getting their name on the ballot. You by no means are obligating a vote for that individual. You're just helping get more options out there in the community for all these amazing roles that exist. >> Great reminder. >> Calm on out. Get some caffeine >> and meet some cool people. Thanks for that included. >> Yeah. Thank you for that. And again, that's not being organized by the district
083or anything. It's a broader sweep of just folks running for local races. Um but taking place in Verona. All right. And then regular board meetings listed and of course we have Wasby in January slate next week. Anything I missed in terms of future events or other announcements? Okay. Okay. And then with that, I would accept a motion to adjurnn. So moved. >> Thank you, Meredith. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Corby. All those in favor of adjourning tonight's meeting signify with I. I. I. Any opposed? This meeting has been adjourned. Thanks, everyone.