001thank you everybody we um very happy to provide an update um after the discussion we had few weeks ago about uh getting kind of the big picture on what do we do when students are struggling as readers so that's a very comprehensive topic and we've got a number of experts here in the room tonight to lead us through that so I'll turn it over to Mr pry and he can get his team introduced and started thanks Dr talking about very important topic supporting struggling and uh although that um we're going to address struggling readers really addresses all readers who will struggle if they haven't already and so um it is an important topic in with me tonight that will share pieces of this is the director of instr C Mand Hall our Ela coordinator in
002elementary Shannon Brooks and our director of special education State Dr Stacy curtain and so I'll start off by just sharing a few pieces paining a picture and overview if you will and telling a little bit of the story behind this um so one it's important to know this is this fits into our entire multi-tier system reports um when we address struggling readers or all readers with that we have to look at where we begin with a tier one all the way through our tier three and students that struggle and then how do we address that we're going to explain this in a twofold manner not only from the student perspective of how they will struggle so you may hear things uh how reader struggle maybe impacts through phological awareness a working memory uh but things
003from their environment things in um um the curriculum or instruction you'll you'll hear impacts that really have a big significant play out in the classroom across our district so not only that Journey as a student but you'll hear the Journey of a teacher you can't separate it's two train tracks right with a train running on it you can't separate and more completely derails and so you'll hear from a teacher perspective as well as a student perspective and those Journeys and where intersects what I shared earlier a strong mtss system of support and so how we how we manage this in a district we try to control our risks and those causes of reading difficulties as as we know I um so we address them through our strategic plan uh and that it says every ensure
004every student has access and opportunity to meet and exceed their growth expectations in reading so that was a very important outcome to draw our attention to because um there's not many on there on the Strategic plan that speaks directly to it and so that's what we'll address tonight um how we manage those risks well we first have the screen we assess we teach uh with our great teaching staff they here about them um how we intervene um how we try to engage and then find how students learn and then that Loop goes back and we hope to do that again and again not only in a small scale in a classroom with short Cycles but in a large system like we are um with nearly 14,000 students and thousands of Educators how we put that
005system into place year and year out on a on a macro look or a macro feedback loop of what I just described is screen assess intervene teach learn again okay and so with that I'll leave off and talk about the journey thank you well thank you much for being here with us tonight we're hoping we can help answer some questions and I'll help give you a chance to ask more questions if you have any of those so um as Mr Frey mentioned we are first going to take us through a journey of a teacher and then we will talk about that how that a student in LCS um so we have been working very very hard in our district to shift a lot in a big systematic change shifting from where literacy used to be
006a few years ago to where we know it needs to be and making sure that we are providing structured literacy and support for our students in LCS St um so as we look at that we're going to talk about the training opportunities that we provide for staff and then really looking at how do we look at the student look at that information and provide individualized support for students our district thanks with the opportunities we provide for all MERS there are multiple opportunities for all to be trained in ly effort uh first with our state directives we do have asynchronous courses that are provided for all staff members on structured literacy what does do is they dive into what is structured literacy and science of reading kind an overview of that and then some coures dive
007deeper um how do you identify a student that is and then what do you do with that information and how do you apply that instruction to support those students so the first handout we have is this one here and then really just highlights those coures that we have available um they include the overall competency or understanding that each course matches and then also the roles of the Educators that have to participate in each course is required we also have provided extensive training in language Essentials for teachers reading iners and we also have training to support our tier one programs that we use so tonight we would specifically be focusing on foundations Integrity because they focus on early literacy chological awareness and prodct and I want to back letter a really big celebration with this um
008as we do into the numbers we realize we have hundreds of teachers and Educators trained in letters throughout our district letters has really been a a driving force of change in our reading and writing instruction not just in our district but across the state across the country and so we're really excited that we have that teachers something you have to realize is letters uh is a training that is taken outside of contract hours and depending on the course you take it can take to a year to complete it so it really shows the value that our educat have with what letter provide for our students and the commitment that they have to support our early leaders so I also want to highlight the number of special education teachers and professionals that have been trained and
009the positive impact that students on is this online course that they Tak or is this an actual structure there's a structure part of it that they complete in a classroom with a certified trainer and then there are components that they can complete at home on their own and we're very fortunate and I'll address a little bit later but we do have eight S trainers lers trainers in our own District so we're actually able to provide that training and support through our own resources which is pretty amazing um one of the benefits of being a larger District that we have that opportunity and we'll continue to provide that as a as a option for people to sign up for and we are also looking at how we can provide more support for administrator so they're on
010the same page and understand all of this information is welome we looking at letter for administrator okay that's way all right so just in addition to the training that all teachers have access to we do provide some additional supports and resources for our reading interventionists our reading interventionists are assigned to schools based on on the data So based on the fast bridge scening data we look to see how many students when P3 qualified for additional reading support and then based on that we allocate staff into schools every school has at least a half time read interventionist so in every single Elementary School in our district there is at least a halftime person and like I said that that FTE funding is based on the actual need of students so every year that does adjust a
011little we just did the adjustments for next year some people luckily reduced their I numbers and they were able to bring kids out of that lower um quintile of students and so their supports went down and some students there or some schools their supports went up for next year um have come is that where they there like morning in building and another building every other day yeah typically it is a like a morning afternoon split just because they are providing a lot of intervention for students so that consistency piece so yeah um so our reading interventionists do receive additional training we have a few that are currently in the process of finishing training that were new to us this year but last year we were able to train every single reading interventionist in Wilson Reading
012system which is a very intensive um intervention that we can provide for students um so there is somebody in every building we did also offer that training last year to several special education teachers and we were able to train some of our secondary readings teachers as well so so we have been able to provide that additional support as well um obviously that resource is used when students qualify for it Based on data so it's not just a an indol answer as the one and only but it is available as one of the resources that we can provide for students students So based on the screening results we do additional diagnostic testing so if the screener the screener is given to all students and then using those results then depending on where they fall from that
013screener we would give additional diagnostic assessments and we'll go a little bit more into that when we talk about the student so if you have more questions please feel free to jump in at that if student is AP because reading is Wilson what use are there other programs that are available foring readers who are it depends depends on what their reading could be a program yes the um I don't exactly know what is being utilized in our special education department at this so to do there okay um so right now we do have trained um resources trained additional staff to help provide that that support which is nice um as we know we're all learning and continuing to grow all of the time and so we're continually making changes we're contining looking systemwide to see
014how we can imp and really systematically be able to address things so we're excited next year we actually are adding a structured literacy specialist to our staff um this person is really going to be working closely with special education so Stacy and I have been collaborating around this position um how do we provide that support So as we're looking at students on an IEP if they're not yes but we can make sure that the teachers are receiving the support they need to make sure that they're identifying and addressing the right um skill deficits that students have in addition to that next year we've always had instructional coaches for elementary we have six of them um the last two years we've had them strategically assigned to buildings where they are really just at that home school
015base next year we really thought about how we can redesign that structure so that those those staff members that are highly trained can be deployed throughout the district so next year um we have placed those strategically there are two in each Triad they still have a home school that they're assigned to so they still are are working with a school that has been identified as is having some additional need for support for various reasons um and they'll spend that the idea is they'll spend about half of their time supporting those teachers through PLC work through lesson planning looking at data um making sure that we are really digging into seeing where students need support but then they can also be requested to be deployed without within that Triad so we're getting them trained up in
016Eureka squ as well I know this isn't about math but they will be able to provide support with that math implementation and then really getting into that work with teachers so their primary role is really supporting the teachers um not working directly with students so that we can start really spreading um the wealth and knowledge and making sure that we have more experts than just a few that's gonna take all of us coming together and become experts on thisor um and then the last thing I mentioned briefly earlier is that we we do have certified letter streamers in our district and so we have eight people right now that are actually certified to teach that so not only are they a great resource within their own buildings but they are running courses for us as
017people desire you know desire and show interest in that we will not run the courses unless they have at least 10 people in them um so this year we did cut back a little as you saw we have quite a few people who have already gone through that training and because of the additional commitment outside of school and I think some like difficult if you have kids and other things going on because it is quite a time commitment but it really does provide that foundation in what is structured literacy how does it all work what is that brain doing during all this and so so it is it is a good um training to have buildings they have building um most of them AR reading I think all of them at this point yeah so
018the yeah um I was just curious under that structured literacy specialist sounds great excited about it someone that's focused you know in addition to what you guys all the good work you're already doing um you have there as a bullet parent Guardian training support opportunities that's something we heard when parents came to our meeting and weeks ago that um they could use resources too so could you just touch on that a little bit yeah yeah absolutely so um the person that we have hired for this position is actually kyly trained in Wilson and is able to teach Wilson um and so so we've done some dabbling in this through parent advisory committee and a couple last year we did a thing um I don't if you remember Katie Dell and I put on kind of
019a quick little parent training in the spring last year um so it would be continuing with different supports like that where where people can sign up to come in the other thing we have done since last time we were here this fall as we had talked about resources onto our Ela website we did get that launched and that is there as well so we understand sometimes it's difficult to come to a 6m training when you've got n million other things going on so we are trying to build up our resources and support online as well it's sound like if you have a student that you're probably gonna make the time to come yeah and I I think to just off that top of my head is that something that family take advantage of too yeah
020I think I mean when we've advertised I don't see any reason why not usually it advertises through Facebook and um I think we send out some my messages but absolutely anyone would be welcome to attend that so our goal would be to continue and it's trying to figure out the right times and how to get people access and the right way so any suggestions around that we're happy to to take as well I think next year if we can try to do at least some type of quarterly training or something like that that would be ideal or maybe offer a morning one a night or something more people can attend we didn't have a huge turn out last year but sometimes it's just getting the momentum and and getting it going so yeah I think
021just having the conversations too so good um so if I'm reading this correctly the mandatory classes are they the only mandatory classes so these this would be just meeting that expectation so what would did is we actually took letters and we worked to make sure that the basic foundational principles of letters are embedded in this training that everyone will receive so that the people who are able to dedicate 60 hours to doing that are you know the the big understanding um so this really will cover quite a bit of that but yes we're always offering more options for trainings um the other thing that we're really intentionally doing is making sure as we have academic Council where we're training principles that we're ensuring that the principles as our instruction have the right resources and tools
022to go out and continue to support their staff is there something that we could do to allow for letters to be M A there are smaller districts around we have looked at this a few times we've had many conversations about it um so we're looking at about 1,500 people that are mandatory to be trained um and so the the amount of hours it would take if we paid hourly some districts siphons upon completion it's just Amplified by quite a bit when we're looking at it from from our perspective so um the the financial side of that makes that a little more challenging in our district to to okay and so we have some control over what's in here yes we create we created the department well they give us the like here the ired pieces
023and we didn't and they have some online resources as well that we share with people where they have like um recorded cances or recorded kind of presentations that anyone can go in and access we felt like for this purpose we wanted very structured to ensure that those two pieces of letters were included in the training so we maybe went a little beyond what was just the required kind of basic we could have checked it off pretty easily so then when you said that it walks them through a assessment identification and then process it's our process not just a generic yes so they know exactly what to do should the child be identified and who they're talking to and how that's working yes and the way we designed it as well one thing that um we
024noticed in completing letters is it doesn't give you a lot of time for application and so the way that these courses are designed it actually will say now stop and talk to your team about the lesson like pick a lesson you're teaching next week we want you to go through it and apply that to the Le so it actually takes some of the new learning into how do we apply this make change um which we were pretty excited about because one of the things you know sometimes you sit in a train you get like this big philosophical like oversight but as far as the day a day how do we go in and implement or change or do what we need I guess Beyond itself the when am I when am I talking to the
025parents when am I discussing with the principal when am I about this Inc I don't know like the process around all of it when we hear from parents I feel like that's where the breakdown is more than anything is that nobody knows where we're at proc okay um so there are some things that we definitely have very clear expectations with like the individualized reading plan is is one of the pieces where and we'll get into that a little bit more there's also um at the end which we'll get into we created kind of a one page how do we address struggling readers in lcsd1 that will go through like if he's following these percentiles what are the types of support So this might this might help with some of that um and once again it
026doesn't necessarily have all of the pieces you know there's so many layers to all of this but it does give an outline of that and really quickly the state requirements only in three year cycle so we're in our first threee cycle so these courses are just for that first three years as we continue on and teachers we're going to continue to develop those places that take us deeper in the application process can you tell us the numbers of who's there what is the percentage of our elementary especially teachers who are in letter um they University Credit I would have the same question about Wilson because we kept hearing that Wilson is the one that people think is works better so you said there's quite a few there's over 200 now are those mostly um do
027you know what percentage are train in that yet Wilson um I would say Wilson has probably a little less train because that all of our reading interventionist and Wilson um just to help clarify a little in Stacey I don't know you want to jump in on this but it's a very very highly intensive intervention so it requires about 45 minutes a day and typically you want it to be one to maybe three students in it so it is a very very intensive type of intervention to be able to provide so when we're thinking about hundreds of students or thousands of students um it is making sure that not only you have to have the right student in it that actually is needing that specific intervention but um so it is it is a great intervention
028if you are one of the students that we can get you the percentiles of those teachers that we currently have these are all trained teachers over the past several years that we've and and principles for that matter too that we' trained but we'll get you the percentage where we're at compar to maybe the percentage of students or is there a way I mean I you have to identify them I know but I'm just curious like yeah where we numbers are many students they the WIS we really should stay away from writing specific methodologies and just because it it allow for flexibility if that methodology doesn't work we need to switch strategies switch methodologies programs we and and that would require Amendment Mee so we try but we have about 30% of our students on an
029I who have identifi with a specific learning disability and most of those are so a large percentage of our students that's 30% of our special education students not 30% studions that they might need that same intent intervention have minutes a day and most all of those kiddos need that oftion um generally speaking many of them I'm sorry have a question about how how they're identified it is it I mean isn't it I just don't know so I'm gonna ask a really dumb question but if you have a student that you suspect might be dyslexic for instance about a medical diagnosis am I right about that it's not a medic evaluation the ability to give a the the second half of this is going to talk about what if you're a student who starts to struggle
030so I think a lot of your questions might get um either teed up or answered as we go so um are you guys ready to jump that might help so this is where we as you want to mention as hand we did put in just so you kind of the role of the reading interventionist and the role of the instructional coaches we don't need to work through this now but just for your reference in the feure so you can see what their primary responsibilties there in our district and then um this is really the one that as we're talking through the different levels of students maybe a nice little reference guide for you in the future so um as we're looking at this we will really be looking at how are we addressing struggling readers
031how do we make sure we're identified and making sure that we're getting great interventions in place for district so Shannon's going to jump in with a little bit of disclaimer around tier one because it's so so important this enti process we dive into the Journey of a student it's only going to begin one for every students no matter what their reading difficulties are we're going to start with that instruction um all students across the district are going to have that consistency of high quality instruction that's really based on essential standards that they need before they move to the next grade level that's highlighted in our guaranteed pable c um in the past we have had that consistency and materials they use like all six graders would read these books the C District but now we
032truly do have that consistency of these are the skills and standard students must know at that grade level so just as we continue through this journey of looking at different types of students understand tier one is at the heart of of all of it and they going to all receive them so talking about screening something else that all students receive three times per year all k6 students um are given a state approved Universal screener which is f brid they do take it in both reading and math so I want you to think of a screener as like your regular Health checkup at your doctor's office you know they're going to uh give you screeners by checking your blood pressure to detect if you have any health issues so this screener really does evaluate student reading
033skills and it provides some insight into their literacy so once students are identified as struggling with reading there are additional assessments given to determine the cause of that difficulty just like your doctor with you give you additional test to determine what's wrong so this includes whether there are struggles specifically with phonological awareness phonics ly vocabulary comprehension or likely a combination of these things so all students receive this that F testing that in the school there some train schol so as we from our scer the students are initially kind of given a here where fall in the big scheme of things so the first students we want to talk about are the 0 to 15th per fail these are our students that per the state have are required to have additional supports so this is where
034the individualized reading plan is required it's not optional it is something that would be put in place so as we were looking at these students what we would say is like okay we had an initial result come in we need to give some additional diagnostic screeners so we have our reading interventionists we have special education staff we have a lot of people available that can jump in a lot of times our Title One staff are also highly trained in these areas where they're going to give additional assessments until they start to really drill down and figure out what are those specific skill deficits or where are those areas where we need to provide additional support um the for students that are K through three they are required to be put on an IRP so an
035individualized reading plan that is something that is tracked through Infinite Campus um it is the parents are involved in that and should absolutely be notified at this point where they are notify that you know your student has had some has shown some signs of struggling and reading here where they are at um and here is kind of what we're looking at moving forward and are very much a part of that if they're fourth through sixth graders they still are required to be monitored as well we're hoping that the numbers in fourth through sixth grade start to decrease as we have consistent tier one instruction and we also have foundations in integrity and just some different supports in place for our younger students um but they these students are put on plans um very intensive intervention
036very strategic intervention and it's monitored it quickly weekly sometimes every other week but heavily monitored for GRS to ensure that we're starting to see things improve and start to come out of that um percentile so the trusty Smith's question so those are some of the diagnostic tests that a student you see that was a your question slide before so beyond the screen or those will and if we can't get answers here that's when we start to go to St and say hey we still can't quite piece this together do you guys have any additional assessing and we can work together even if that student is not on an i we can still work as a team to to look at how we can support okay so this back to my process question at this point
037when you say parents are notified I think what I hear a lot is parents are notified that they're doing this IR but they don't know where that goes if you know at what point do you determine if it works what point do you determine it's not works what should I expect if it doesn't work where does it go how do when do I get to an i and what does that look like I think that seems to be a lot of the confusion for is that follow now what like do I know it's working if it's working great but if it doesn't work then what and what do I need to do at that point so I'm I I don't know for sure I'm hearing I still don't think that's and I do think you
038know there are some different schools have economy and building intervention then we're checking for support that type of thing um the expectation especially for this level of of support that's needed would be that it is an ongoing communication between the teacher and and the parent and so I think we can definitely on our end work on you know what are some of those even if we give a range of like every two Che in forward not just where we absolutely but managing expectations for future I and of what are we doing to Y absolutely I'm G to celebrate again real quick um we do have some of our rip data from this school year and what you can see on the left side is the fall percentage students p in our district in each grade
039level K through three in the full and then what our spring percentages are and so what this data shows us is there are 206 students that graduated from an IRP this school year that doesn't mean you won't continue to monitor them because go to the to the 15 percentile still going to need that intervention support but it's just showing that we have and if you lined up 206 students it' be adorable first of all but it would take a lot of space right that's a lot of kids that are just that much closer to Proficiency in in Reading in our district so it really is a big celebration for our members notifi when they go and often times they would go off of thatp probably still into the bit process so they're still that monitoring
040so be on ANP you have to be the bottom 15% I know lot of teachers 20% is completely to continue to Mon and so to go see a reading interventionist you would have to be 15% below or not necessarily um we definitely want them that would be their primary you know goal is to work with those students but often times they're working with a variety of students that that fall Within the same need or making groups so if you think about you know a group of students is in for 30 to 45 minutes per day they usually get about seven groups a day seven or eight and so pulling from either different grade levels or however that looks a little different in schools but um but you could easily be in the 40th pertile and
041still be being seen by aist thank you then to follow as's um with involvement of the parents when a child goes on an IRP and you notify the parents are the parents been at all educated on what things they should be doing at home to be helping I that would be hard to answer globally typically in the meetings that I set in as a principal that would absolutely be part of that conversation um often times what we're finding because of when our conferences are typically that first conversation is happening at conferences just because we get our screening data in the timing of that just happens to fall pretty nicely so it's usually a face to- face conversation oftentimes it'll be pulling into an actual bit meeting where you have a little team of people that
042are working to problem solve so that's where there is a little variance between schools but yes ideally that would be absolutely happen so oh I just a few questions about irps before we go on to talking about the so I I could do the math take me how many kids in this past year did we start and many startus how many finished I love the 206 I mean it looks like we're between a fourth and a fifth of all K through third graders who fall in that Z to 15% which is a lot but what is that number can I jump in on this um a good rough number is about a th000 per grade right so 20% would be 200 in kindergarten down to 140 in kindergarten keep in mind we don't like to
043see anybody struggling but a percentile is saying you just line up 100 Kids someone's always going to be at the end of the line and so when we see about 15% of our kids in the 15th percentile below that would be about what you would expect to see correct that would be a Criterion reference test where you say how many were above or below a bar Stile is to say you line up your kids from best reader to worst and who's in that bottom percent percentile it is B then that's where we would go back to saying it's there are kids getting help in a very fluid way it's not the hard cut off at just the 15th percentile but keep in mind no matter how well we perform or how poorly perform there will
044always be 15% of our kids in the bottom 15th percentile it's definitionally right you line them up even if they're all do better someone's always going to be at the back of the line and so what's good though when you see this is at the start we had about 20% of our kids in the 15th percentile and below and so the spring it's uh so second grade still a little high oh first grade is even a bit higher but we actually are beating the national kind of norms when only 14% of our kids are in the bottom 15 centile on these National so how like if there's always 15% in the bottom 15% you get people because it's because it's how our kids do on a test that's normed nationally so if our group of
045kids start moving further as a group than what the national Norms are for a kid in that group that's how yes statistically you would think about that many because we're a large sample size but it would be no different than if we all took a test and if the lowest grade was an 80% we all did pretty well somebody still it worse than everyone else even though worse was better than you might expect typically with reading intervention is kind of go up four students students and then in where you know the higher per are going to a title teacher we would also try to keep that around four six and then is there a standardized program we used to the district for that read intervention time like K3 there are multiple programs that intervention using
046and it really depends again on what that group of students struggling on collectively so they'll group them based on the audience kids work work so we actually have quite a few different stud and have some sort we used to try the one siiz fits all like we went through you know font P like just some different things and what we find is students aren't growing well we're not needing what they need and so we're really trying to make sure that we're using the actual information about that student and really individualizing what is going to help them grow what are the appropriate gos that type of thing so using that I mean individual information great does that affect the with that reading is that standard through the district if you get reading you so it's it's
047recommended it's at least 30 minutes so in each School we recommend that there's a 30 minute intervention block that is provided um we do our best to make that even longer because we know that this is an important time where they're getting that individualized needs met and so um sometimes scheduling is a little easier than others when we're trying to flood and make sure we have a lot of support and sometimes that's a little more challenging but there it should at least be 30 minutes a day in each school with the kids need the interent during that invention time so typically you're doing a flooding model so our all kids are getting their needs met in some way shape and form so some of it is very very intensive intervention sometimes like when I was
048principal at go we would have a par actually go in with the students who are at grade level and they're doing further development of skills and standards or filling in more of like skill gaps like standards that type of thing um and then we also are trying to enrich our students that need that advancement as well so so usually all the kids at that time are kind of deployed all over the place and um but in some way shape or form are getting their own eats met during that time is not necessary Mee intervention could it be something else too like ma yeah we typically try to make sure everyone's getting reading at least um this last year we tried to make sure that intervention was also a block in school day yes team can
049I call an audible real quick rather than talking about kids who are getting closer to being average readers could we talk about those who are not responding in the IRP disability so we're skipping two slides of those who are getting closer to being average readers and we're going back towards those who are nonresponsive on the IRP you all right if we do that in the interest of time we just want to make sure we don't Bas students good instruction tier one instruction tier two maybe we need more individualized more intensive intervention still not working um what what I've implemented um since I've been here in the you know a parent might it might have been up to a parent to say something's not right with my child they can't read I would like a special
050referral and the people without parents in the in the room would talk about that and say Yes or and so what we are doing differently is we are mandating a pre- referral te meeting so the parents or or somebody within the school has concerns like what you know the interventions that we have been doing a disability we get together at the pre-referral team look at the data we know student decision special education evaluation or not um sometimes or not some of the reasons why we would say no is maybe they're have been any intervention maybe a parent has an outside diagnosis school sceners you know be able to get intervention one of the key questions that we have to answer um when we look at eligibility for special education and have we tried interventions and
051has se instruction in reading our M so we want to make sure that we tried that intervention practice um and so we we'll have the the referral the pre-referral meeting between determin if we move forward anation or not if we move forward with anation the way it should will we probably have not been doing that super well but we should be doing compen evaluation in all areas of disability um our evaluation for students with reading suspected reading disabilities been we are really going to be up with spech key to evalua disil disabilities um but we should be conducting a comprehensive evaluation there are um and not just limited to I know dyslexia is but we have to look at all potential may but it may not and so that comprehensive should you know rule in
052or rule out the disabilities um you know I address put one instruction to make sure our tier one is pretty solid for kids that we are actually teaching the the skills as know that there is there's a lot of myth out there and probably misinformation about what parents have been told during evaluations here in lcsd1 special evaluations we don't test Foria we do right it falls under our specific learning disability are reading skills it's chapter seven rules and rs it dyslexia is of special education and rehabilitative services has shared guidance things are not bed from considering dyslexia category of disability um reading fluency reading comprehension we have to make sure that we are addressing those areas in our evaluations and might be other so spech language reading is a a language based things are hard
053wired for language they are not hard wired to read and so sometimes language can cause reading difficulties we have developmental language disorder other health and Par but reading requires a whole bunch of different skills at one time one go is working memory and attention and being able to hold the the sound in language to apply those sounds to letters or letter combinations into quote a word um sometimes attention of how reading works in the brain trumatic brain injuries disorders anything that's going on the bra could be difficulty for C reading difficulties I think it's important to know that there is one agreed upon method or process for identifying dyslexia or leing disabilities so there are key area that we want to evaluate in but there's not agreement on what we should evaluate so comprehens evu
054be a given what you just said that's very um so you said earlier when I asked about this testing for dyslexia um you said that we have the ability to do that and then in your explanation just now Foria we test for and you kind of described all the different possibilities and you said that the the state law doesn't prohibit us from that's is am I got that right so far so may have misspoke but we certainly couldn't Ander a specific learning disability area basic readings skill or comfortable withies call so my question as a mom and you know you hear the hearts mom and you guys too I I know you do because you have children you don't want too much time to pass you want your kids and so seems like it could
055take a while to figure this out how long does it take and how on the ball are we or are we moving toward being on we we need to move more towards being on the ball there is this again another myth out there in our evaluation teams that we shouldn't we shouldn't identif disability there are markers inol students risk can't RS can't doation difficulties letters and so it's we should not we should not have to wait until reach the and they we can [Music] evaluate and we talked a little bit about that reading specialist position we have to be able to help our parents under understand the process and understand and and notice when they are maybe are being told something teams there's just a lot there's just been a lot of information about um
056when we should evaluate students foring disabilities how we should evaluate them so maybe maybe as a suggestion when you put in your materials on the website you can indicate that we start to do that they start to do three times a year screen load out but really struggling maybe more we should we should have a robust from the moment and I think some flowchart documents that a parent could see where are we in the process and what might come next and maybe some questions to ask back to the team I think we can start putting well that together and and some of the indicators you know things that might their children might have but not have but you know on an IRP the possibility is they need these interventions and they come off of but
057they may actually have a disability and so what are the different pieces of that within that process does that make sense like I wouldn't had any idea what task well I also think one of the places that the those myths are coming from um may be that as a special education teacher instructor whatever you know interventionalist um they y'all are taught to not necessar label somebody immediately as one thing and so you're using specific you're losing this basic Rique skills abnormality and in your mind you think okay well they could be dyslexic and the P the parent is not hearing that and so you know just maybe kind of clarifying that that you know falls into this because is one of these things that we are not Laing it as that but we are doing
058interventions to put the same thing without actually putting a label on it maybe that help parents um thinking that so if I to come to go teacher my son any any re timek keeper here I'm not doing a great job Mr chair I know more to talk about for tonight that will be the end okay e e e we had our earlier meeting go a little bit longer with a lot of very good questions from the board members but I think we're ready to go at this point Y Okay so call this meeting of the L County School District m one Board of Trustees order and she'll stand to for the Pledge of Allegiance we do have our um fifth grade class from Rosman Elementary is going to be doing Pledge of Allegiance you can
059either listen to them or you can join them okay evidently we were wrong on the thing here said the r but that was AR Elementary I've beened okay so do we have adjustments to the agenda Mr chair there are no adjustments to the agenda this evening Mr chair I move to adopt the agenda I second okay there a motion to adopt the agenda in a second all those in favor say I I those oppose no motion pass okay so first thing up is the classroom recognition for pledge hopefully you have that correct yes we have the right certificate so Mary GL would come on up G to get for relying on what's here hello my name is Mary quas I'm the community relations director here at lar County School District number one and I am
060here uh to recognize um our Pledge of Allegiance uh classroom and that would be um ARP Elementary and I don't know if we Ste we have Steven Lloyd and yeah I'll have you come on up um and we'll I'll also bring up Dan buan with Western Vista Federal Credit Union and he has something for our teacher and this is uh best thern she's our awesome boost teacher for the that group of kids and uh work done so great job great job want to say anything um sure I um got the excellent opportunity to teach the bo kindergarten class and it was I've been teaching for 18 years and I've never seen an entire group of kids grow um the way they've done it is an amazing thing that we are doing to help these kids
061be ready for kindergarten and um I've learned a lot and they've done so well and I'm just so blessed and thankful that I got to have that opportunity so um they're really sweet and a wonderful group of kids so I'm excited to do it again next year so let them know they did a wonderful job so look like they're a little shy to start with is here this is all log out and back in do you have computer problems tonight for me all right so next we're going to be doing East High School um for track champions here to acknowledge uh first off celebrate tiia Morris outstanding track athlete her mom Ashley her little brother Auggie and her grandparents they're a fixture at all track meets they're great supporters theah had an amazing season she
062set the alltime Wyoming track and field records for not only long jump but the 100 and the 200 meters she long jump 20 82 in which is fourth in the all of high school in the nation which is pretty incredible she's going to be jumping at the University of Wyoming next year and honestly her jump at state would have placed her top six in Mount West so her 100 meter 1168 uh which is really fast 200 met 2348 she's just set the bar really high the girls outdoor track team run her up thanks to Tia she was a big big part of that she anchored the 4x1 and they were .02 seconds away from winning it and setting a state record so uh phenomenal one side note she has 15 individual state champions probably one
063of the most decorated track athletes at East High School easily 21 All State that's incredible it's really hard to even win one but 15 that's impressive so Morris congratulations I know you mentioned your parents but they stayed up for some Applause thank you sorry okay that takes care of all of our work for tonight so next up is the items for visitors and the basic rules are states your first and last name keep your comments two to three minutes so other have a chance to voice their comments we have a time up there so you can watch right in front of you keep your comments General nature not directed at a specific individual or individuals and suitable in language and content with K12 grade students and please do not give any derogatory remarks about any
064group of people or any individual people add additional information or perspective and try not to be redundant on what's already been said okay so we do have a few people our first one is gen Solas greetings Jen solise good evening always nice to be here with you uh I just came here this evening to um express my um gratitude and uh my lack of surprise that my husband and I are amongst the 77% of high school age parents and the 67% of Junior High School age parents who chose full access for their students for our library materials um and I'm here to once again ask you and urge you to please reconsider this other policy as it would be um infringing on my rights as a parent to um allow my children to trust our
065school librarians who I again want to say are the most professional and wonderful Librarians you could possibly imagine uh I trust them to to do a good job curating age appropriate materials for all three of my children um and they've done so the entire time we've been a part of this District I'd like them to be able to continue to do that job um as they see fit uh this policy would ban books um for my children because those books would not be allowed to enter our library that is a ban um I also know that some people would like to disagree that the current policy that was changed in December is a ban I contend that it is I know some people disagree and that's fine there's plenty of room for disagreement in the
066world uh I think it's a ban because I think that many parents are choosing limited access or no access or restricted access based on based on misinformation um based on out of context excerpts of books uh don't tell the whole picture of of of a book um and I think that's a real tragedy for our students so anyway um thank you again for all you do and for the opportunity to speak again thanks so much thank you our next person is Susan scar good evening chairman Boran board members and Dr Newton I'm Suzanne Scar and I wish to speak about the procurement policy you are currently considering for adoption as a librarian I feel our students will miss out on so many valuable and award-winning books because many worthy books wouldn't meet the very narrow
067definition of this new policy book ordering for librarians would be a nightmare and could lead to forced silent censorship if a book regardless of overall Merit even comes close to the new policy definition Library Lian wouldn't be allowed to order it and if a librarian ordered an an appropriate book using selection tools and professionalism might that librarian later be ridiculed or B or bullied for ordering it I believe our professional staff just want to be left alone to continue doing the excellent job they have always done and not be drugged through the mud over books in The Collection they are professionals and should be treated as such especially by their voice this new policy would provide limited access for all future District book purchases the policy change you adopted in December allows families to choose
068access so why are you now taking Choice away from families policy keep keeping books from our libraries would be a violation of parental rights and let's be clear these are not books judged under federal or state laws as pornographic or obene I've heard some in this community say that students can just buy the books but many of our students don't have to the means to just purchase books and shineing is big enough that not all students can easily get to the public library our school library collection should represent all students interests and students should be able to check out books that they can not only find themselves in but represent the society that they live in the new policy would be so detrimental to the education of our students kids learn to think critically when
069they can Broach new topics and ideas and have discussions not offering excellent books can negatively impact student learning as you know 77% of those who commented on the last Library policy change were not supportive of that policy yet most of you voted over those you represent to adopt an unneeded unpopular policy people who want to ban books never admit that's their goal because I know book Banning is unpopular book Banning also goes against the values of freedom and liberty that we all claim to protect and cherish nonetheless this new policy does ban Books thank you thank you all right next up is Patricia McCoy I was in an accident yesterday there with me good evening superintendent Dr Newton chairman bowan and members of the board my name is Patricia McCoy and I thank you for
070taking time to correct the error found in the original information that went out regarding the procurement policy thank you for clarifying that people should not need to resubmit their responses unless they need to change the response I thank you for your clarification to me specifically when I reached out and inquired about how information is being shared with the community I'm still disappointed that only certain people in certain groups with within our community were first given information and that the rest of the community was not while I absolutely agree that the trust between the community of taxpayers the parents within our district the teachers the board and the administration must be repaired and rebuilt I do not agree that providing information to only certain groups and not everyone within the community is how we get there
071it takes us to steps backwards in trying to rebuild that trust in those relationship you have people within the community using social media to constantly attack this board its members its work and anyone who tries to speak to you if they are not on their side there should not be any sides it should not be Us Versus Them it should be about the best education for our children period that's it yes I stand here every meeting and demand better for our students and our teachers the curriculum now compared to even just a few years ago when each of my other children graduated and how things are being taught is rapidly deteriorating this is not the teacher's fault and I am not saying that it is this is actually a state district and administration failure our
072children do not need iPads in in the classroom for every assignment every day they need structured interaction leadership rules and consequences they don't read book they don't need books that hold no educational value there is no educational value in having a book detailing how to what it should feel like how it should look when performing specific acts we have people in our community who are praising high low books in our library but to most of the community they are crutch to children who don't need one I have no problem with you trying to measure where a student is at in subjects with District assessments but it should be twice a year once per semester and if you're going to hold it against the students for their overall grade it should be 5 to 10% at
073the most not 30% it should not be the highest counted portion of the classroom grade we have teachers lacking supplies and support we have specialed students without properly certified Specialists we have students in our high schools who cannot read at grade level and our answer is to give them high low books instead of giving them proper support help and encouragement that will help them improve we need to pass the procurement policy so that we can get back to working on improving education for our children I thank you again for your clarification and the additional 45-day comment period for the public voice their support for the new procurement policy thank you and we don't no really respond to that I did want to clarify one thing that you said there and that is um board hasn't
074decided yet whether we're going to um still consider the original responses or not that's a discussion we'll have later on after Miss Polly tells us uh does her report later on so we will have that discussion and we'll make a decision as a board all right next up would be George Powers good evening you can hold that hand if you I'm George powers and I want to address the recent announcement about the comment period being extended since I'm the one who wrote the May 21 email to you and to your Council that triggered this change in plans I want to first of all commend you for making that decision it was the right thing to do however I Rise now in protest because I'm afraid that your effort is only going to gloss over the
075original error by simply extending the primary period without actually addressing a fundamental procedural problem the problem is that when you put those amendments out for comment in April you did so based on a decision made by this board that was a decision that was made after it had been properly noticed and after the board had held a public hearing that was a decision that was a subject of public discussion here in this room by this board and a vote that was then taken that decision set the terms of the comment period now we're told that the comment period has been extended public announcements have been made to that effect by whose authority the board set the terms of the notice and while I believe the board May amend those terms I'm not aware of any
076action that this board has taken to do so and so I respectfully submit to you that the superintendent does not have the authority to change the terms of the comment per nor does Miss Paulie it is only the board that can do that and the only way you can do that is to put this on your agenda and to have another vote and it is not on the agenda here tonight for the board to us consider that and therefore I would ask that you table this whole process until the next board meeting when you can put it on the agenda and there can be a public determination and a public vote as to how to proceed now I would also take this time to just also point out to you that although a public announcement
077has been made that the comment period has been extended when I went on the web this afternoon to look at the documents that are up on the website it's still the same document the same document that had the fundamental problem which has caused this whole problem brought us all here tonight so I think the thing to do table this come back here at your next meeting on June 24th and if you want to fix it then do it the right way otherwise you're setting yourself up for litigation thanks thank you U next up is Tim Moser board members I came in last time with my little Constitution talking about Constitution tonight I want to talk about the state of our country and if you look at what's happening in the different areas of the country
078and the different turmoil to me it's probably because damn I don't want to interrupt you too much but does this have to do with an agenda item yes it has you're going to get that okay thanan policies um rather than having books that don't have anything to deal with education maybe we should have some books to deal with the Holocaust maybe there should be classes on that maybe there should be classes on the thousand years that or thousands of years that the Middle East has been fighting amongst themselves um all these other things going on this month is a special month the procurement books are kind of right along with that pride month um there are plenty of people who have gone [Music] through without having to have books in their libraries that have been
079very very uh successful Elton John Raymond Burr um Melissa e the the list can go on and on they didn't have to have these books in their libraries to figure out what they were I guess we're not supposed to have this conversation because somebody is saying well we it wasn't done correctly and you know at at some point we have to start reading the audience and this audience in Wyoming is red and they don't want this kind of stuff they want they want regular family values they don't want what's going on in New York they don't want what's going on in all these other areas which to me part of it is because we're not allowed to be a motion I think that's a mistake too we should be using the motion logically thank you
080is there anybody else here who would like to speak on the agenda item anybody online please raise your hand if you're online would like to speak on an agenda item Mr chairman there is a okay so we'll call into the first public comment section it will be a second one later on there is there is a okay go ahead can you hear me can can you hear me now we can let's start with your first and last name can you hear me yes give us your last name then go ahead I'm sorry um my name is Carol matiah um I emailed Carrie Drake for permission to read from a Wyoming tribute Eagle article of his at tonight's board meeting unfortunately he did not see my email to say it was okay until it was too
081late to sign up but fortunately Tim Bolan lets us comment if there's time so here goes people who want to ban books never admit their goal because they know it's unpopular it also hypocritically goes against the values of of freedom and liberty they publicly claim to cherish and protect they often hide their true intent by calling for something that sounds more responsible reasonable giving parents more control over what books their children read but it's turned out to be a slippery slope in Cheyenne one opponents of policy change in lcsd1 last year warned could lead to full-fledged book Banning Cheyenne's public school system is on the verge of passing the strictest policy in Wyoming against buying books with any passages that meet the vague standard of sexually explicit content these are not books judged under federal
082or state law say pornographic or obscene which are illegal in school library collections in Cheyenne the local chapters of moms for Liberty a Florida based extremist group demanded the school board change the opt out policy that allowed parents and Guardians to select certain books their children were not allowed to access in school libraries it would be replaced by a four-tiered system no access to sexually explicit materials parent limited access to such content open access to all materials or no access to the library at all despite widespread opposition 77% of 1500 public comments were against the new policy the board passed it in December Cheyenne attorney George Powers filed a public record request that showed 29 of the first 33 books challenged under the policy were made by one person the moms for Liberty Treasurer the
083idea of this policy resulted from a ground swell of Community Support is laughable in April moms for Liberty pressed for another change to the district's Library purchasing policy Junior and high school libraries would be encouraged not to buy sexually explicit books this is a book ban challenged books will simply not be bought thank you thank you anybody else online Mr chairman there are no other hands raised okay so the next part of the agenda is board Communications and reports and by the way we do have our seventh trustee online with us uh trusty Humphrey is at home taking care of her newborn and listening in anybody on the board have a report yeah go ahead we'll start this in this time I have a just a couple um I I believe that most of my
084fellow board members would agree that um we have the privilege um of helping with the graduation ceremonies um a couple weeks anyway what what an honor and a privilege to be up there to celebrate those kids as they are launching from long and really impressive careers in our district um and just going on to all kinds of big things in the adult world and um so I just wanted to give a shout out to our District staff who worked um incredibly hard and from facilities and all the arrangements with cfd to Logistics with the kids and just getting everything organize the diploma covers on the stage and the chairs set in the right place the chairs labeled and I I just I can't even imagine the countless hours that go into that but I just
085wanted to say thank you to our District staff um for all of that but even more for for what you've done to to help launch those students from our district just in May of this year it really um was just pretty incredible that's my my favorite thing about being on the board is getting to celebrate those kids as they are finishing their time up in our district um the other thing I wanted to report on was the R Mill board um we had a meeting was it just last week two weeks ago um sorry it was May 21st so I guess that's about two weeks ago um but we met and try to meet quarterly um during that meeting we voted to pay some invoices on different projects that we had approved um and including
086reimbursing the city um for work that they that we've contributed to for the cheyen Junior League um the storage facility there for the ball players um but beyond that we had um sort of an exciting meeting because we had asked for submissions for new projects um this spring and we were able to review those projects and voted and approved some really cool things for um this district and so I just wanted to I I'm not sure I I believe this is all encompassing for what we ended up approving but um some of the highlights were shot shot clocks for all three of the bigger high schools and then the three junior high schools um new bleachers for Central High School New Turf for South um a new score new scoreboard for Johnson and then work
087that will be done on the gym floor here at story JY so all of that money to go to those projects and help fund those or to fund them um comes from the rec Mill that the district do part of create well I guess we don't collect it we get it right am I saying that right J um but we we get that many and then we are able to vote and and choose projects that benefit both the students in this community and and Community as a whole for recreational things so anyway that was really an exciting meeting and um some really cool things coming um for this District as a result of that so thank you to the staff also for helping get all that organized and for those that turn in submissions thank
088you is that it okay going this way going across no I don't have anything different no okay so I would just like to thank Darlene Davis for all the hard work she did the day of graduation the day before getting our robes ready making sure we had food and drink and all of that she and getting us there on time for the East High graduation but also in after doing four High School graduations I had the privilege of going to a elementary school for their first ever dual language graduation and it was so cute to see those kindergarteners up there they after they got their kindergarten diplomas they sang a song in Spanish and then they did the macara in Spanish which was very cute we have some very animated and energetic kindergarteners let me
089tell you and then they did a song in English and it was just a fun afternoon and I had I had some time and talked to Mr Williams the principal there about that dual language program and the success with that and I said so how many students did we did we lose and he said none every student in their family wants to continue and do it in first grade plus they had a parent reach out and ask if they could join in first grade which is the cut off and so I'm just so impressed with that program then we also have that program at Hobbs Elementary School too just to get a shout out to them also but it really was a wonderful time out there and I'm so pleased with that program thank you
090trusty you have something no thank how about trusty Humphrey anything from you no I just wantan to what I just want to apologize for not making it to graduation but I appreciate everyone's understanding that sorry if you hear him grunting um but just appreciate that understanding of me getting to be home with my babe and um I look forward to being at the next meeting in person okay we look forward to that um um several people mention graduations and we had forgot to mention the frontier days provides us with a facility they started that in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic when looked like kids were not going to have graduation and they've continued since then they're very gracious they provide the little carts to get the handicap people where they need to be
091they provide people to help with the parking and the street and although we have a little problem with that this year we're we're working on getting some of those things ironed off next year because you always can improve whatever goes on but for those kids to be able to get a chance to walk across FR three day stage great um some other things I um I'm the board representative of the transportation committee and I won't do a report here because I sent the report to all of you and that's something we'll be voting on next meeting or possibly the meeting in July um because we have to approve anything that's a special accommodation because our our bus can only go on County and City maintained State maintained roads and in some cases there are HOAs
092that say we would like kids be picked up in there and so as a board we're allowed to approve those things we're also allowed to approve special circumstances for um hazardous things that are in the way of some of our students getting to school and so one of the things I want to mention is that we are going to be adding two bus stops um to help the students that are going to bags Elementary that live across Persian okay so there's a Trader Park area little neighborhood there there'll be two bus stops in there so those kids if they want to can ride a bus and we not don't have to use the crosswalk in addition the city's putting up one of those Hawk cross stop things where they have the big three flashing lights
093there that are going to make it a little bit easier for um drivers to see that there's somebody in the crosswalk but they can actually ride a bus rather than having to do that so that was a something that um we heard for the public that they wanted something there and that's an act we'll be taking uh very soon um also I want to let everyone know that this Thursday it's the culminating session for the navigating lar one and that's when we talk about the school board and its role in the school and I'll be making a presentation there but all of you are welcome to come and add to my presentation if you'd like it's at noon I think it's from noon to 1M in room2 so you're welcome anything else yes Mr chair
094thank you for your report I was just curious was there any further discussion about adding a hawk or um I light near McCormack Junior High yes that also is in the city plans and those are both supposed to be done this summer just like the uh traffic light is supposed to be finished for a new school Cy Ridge um before school starts and I noticed they're not starting on the traffic light at this point but they are reconstructing the approach to that intersection so I assume they have to do that before they can do the lighting so that you can have proper turn Lanes there make it a little wider probably for proper turnl so forth so that makes it a real pain my daughter lives in that neighborhood so couple of times I've forgotten
095it had to go way around to get there but it'll be great to get that finished and in place so any other questions on the transportation committee okay so um I had told you earlier that we were going to discuss during this time about whether we're going to do the um keep the responses or not but I think it' probably be better to wait till after Miss poly gives us a report about what we're doing on that and so we'll go right into superintend reports thank you chairman Bolan at this time I'd like to turn um comments over to miss PA to provide an update on our 45-day review of procurement policy thank you Dr Newton Mr chair members of the board um as you all are aware and I think most of the the
096members of the public are aware now the the um procurement policy went out for a 45-day review period um following your board meeting on the 8th of April um that period has expired um and we were made aware toward the end of that period that um there was an error in the documents that were posted so um you'll recall that there are three documents that got posted one was a um document that only contained the procurement language so the language that was being added to um existing policy the other two documents were um the um you know existing language of chapter 7 um section 21 so that new language that was added and related to Li policy in general I made an error on that posting and I had I um added that language to
097a previous version uh the version that was prior to what the board ultimately adopted in your December meeting so we received comments um the notice said that we were going to be looking at the procurement um language and how books were being procured or Library materials are procured at both the the elementary and secondary levels um that is with the procurement policy the new additional language um does um but the concern was there might have been some confusion if someone wasn't aware of the the the December um amendments to the existing Library policy so we can correct that um and in order to you know I think again like your notice provided that you were going to amend the procurement and add language to the the policy related to procurement the amendment itself added language
098related to the procurement um it's just that piece that you know was anyone con confused by what was posted and um so the effect of the amendment might have led some to believe that it was different than what the int what the actual um effect of that amendment was specifically that related to the um nomination of books um and identification of books as cont um and Library materials as materials that contain sexually explicit material um prior to your December meeting we had originally proposed them the language included um some additional um kind of exceptions or carve outs to sexually exp um materials that contain sexually explicit content um and what you um amended at at that meeting and what you ultimately adopted was just those books or materials that are part of District approved curriculum
099or those that are historical um so that's a kind of convoluted hopefully not too too convoluted explanation of the error and where we sit now so the Wyoming administrative procedures act which is what you have to comply with when you're when you're putting out your rules and rs um requires an at least a 45-day public comment period prior to your ultimate adoption of those rules if you I think you know your notice I don't believe was defective I don't believe that they I think that the amendment complied with the notice and so I think we can move forward with an extension of that 45-day public comment period again you you're meeting um you're substantially you know in compliance with that statute and the requirements that you have to be um you that you have to
100meet before prior to you ultimately adopting the policy so that's where we sit um I think that that the chair would like to visit um and get kind of an idea of where people people are the trustees are on um what you do with the comments that have been submitted up to this point um and I'm happy to address any questions or concerns that you have on that front I have one question and that is um Mr P indicated that we needed to put this out for a vote again is it your opinion that we do not have to do a vote on extending it Mr chair I don't believe that you you need to formally vote again again the notice and the intent of the the changes to the policy the policy that you're
101putting out for the 45 days is the same um as what you voted on on excuse me April 8th if you were going to make some changes to that then I think it would be appropriate to do a separate vote and notice but I think that you're still within line to um continue that public comment period at this at this this point if you want I you know Mr Powers um raises a good point and I think that you could put it out for an additional 45 day period following your June 20 24th thank you um meeting um but I don't know that I agree that it's necessary at this point to do that and do you have an opinions if we do and extend right now without voting on it that we should should
102or should not include the comments that have already been made Mr chair I think that when you look at the point of the public comment period right it's to gather um opinions and input from the community on what the board is proposing it's not a public vote um or um you know vote up or vote down by the public it's you're you gather the input um opinions arguments about whether or not you should adopt the public comment or excuse me the the policy is drafted and you use those public comments to improve um potentially your your proposed policy but again it's not a vote up or down it's not you're not counting numbers of people in support or against um so I don't think it's necessary to throw those public comments out um and again
103because the the language is is identical you're not changing anything um you're just extending that amount of time that you're letting people um provide those their opinions and arguments and support or or against the policy I don't think it's necessary to throw those out so if we were going to revote again would that probably would make it a little more CLE that we wouldn't want to consider the other ones right but with it just being extension as we're contemplating now probably your opinion is we should incl okay so now we're going to go down here we'll start over here for anybody who wants to make a comment um I'd like to make a comment as um as much as I don't always agree with um Mr Powers I um I appreciate your Insight and I
104appreciate you bringing that to our attention um I I think we need to um as we move through this process obviously it is it is something that our community cares very deeply about um I'd like to make every attempt to um move forward with things above board um so I would be in favor I I'm guessing that means pushing off even more but waiting until next meeting to vote to put it out for 45 day comment since it's we didn't add it to the agenda tonight um that said if we are going to start a completely new 45-day comment period and um comments that were submitted were submitted uh with the wrong policy you posted I would um and I appreciate your your input m p but I would like to start over with that
105public comment period and um I mean I I understand it's not a public vote it's just public input perhaps that doesn't change but if we are truly going to start over with a new 45 day period Then I think we need to start over with a new 45 day comment period um thank you Mr chair I I guess I have a question that I'm still not sure about um it was also brought to our attention this evening that what is posted still is the old version of the policy and not what we adopted in December um of course the procurement piece is just what we're discussing right now I understand that but is is the updated version available to the public right now um Mr chair truste Clon I just confirmed and and it has
106not been updated with the updated correct language of December 3rd but that can be done even as we said here okay I think that my opinion is that that needs to be updated um right away uh if we do not move forward with a delayed vote another vote um that would need to be updated this evening I think um but I will go with the will of the board next um as much as I don't really want to drag this out I I don't disagree with trusty Smith and Mr Powers um I think it's cleaner if we do it that way however I um don't really understand the point of throwing out the initial set of comments I think the more we push out the more we continue to ask people because they are commenting
107on the correct pment policy um the other is a reference point I read through all of the draft the ones that we have received so far the majority of them appear to reference the correct policy um if we give people the opportunity to recomment and they say actually now that I've looked at it I need to change it because of that other they have the opportunity to do that I guess I just don't understand what we gain by throwing out comments so I'm I'm uh for delaying and making sure we're noticing it correctly um I don't understand the point of throwing out comments than I would be for starting over completely com you're talking about getting rid of the comments too y okay just start over completely um I I don't have a strong opinion
108about whether we delay sending it out for the 45 day review or not um I don't necessarily think there's a reason that we need to given the fact that I doubt the vast majority of people who uh commented even reread that Library policy again um to notice the error um I absolutely think we should not throw out the comments that have already been made I think that would be disrespectful for both the people who are for the policy and people who are against the policy you know they took the time to comment and the changes that we're going to be making on the on the extended uh review period are very minimal and I from all the ones I've read have nothing to do with the comments that were made um uh regarding the procurement
109policy so I think it would be disrespectful to all of the people who took the time energy and effort to make those comments if we throw them out and did I catch at the beginning did you say you wanted to put it out for wait till the next meeting put it out for V again I don't feel strongly either way I don't think that the change is significant enough that it makes a big difference either way to me trusty Humphrey yeah I agree oh sorry um I agree that I don't think it necessarily I mean I'm totally fine putting it out to vote on the next board meeting as far as the comments go um I think that with I mean reading the ones that I did like trusty Hinkle said I don't think that
110there's going to be that much change and if those that then with the new documentation coming out if they want to revise their comment that they've already submitted um I think we give people the opportunity to do that but I don't think that we need to completely throw them out um again just out of respect for people that have already submitted I mean I know that if if I were one that have submitted a very thorough comment itd kind of be annoying to have to do it again but I to have the opportunity to revise if I wanted to is that an option yes yeah you can you should be able to resubmit okay yeah so I I'm I'm kind of indifferent with with this whatever the board would like to do I guess maybe
111I should ask our Council what would be the if we keep the old ones would they have to stick with that or could they put in it's just advice right um Mr chair right so I think that um if someone had previously submitted a comment and then decides to change their comment you know we don't limit um the number of times you can come comment on a public on a policy change and so if someone originally submitted and said yes I'm I'm for this policy and then reads it again and change their mind I you know even within the initial 45-day period you would still be allowed to do that so I don't see why you would you wouldn't be able to change um your comment during the the second or extended 45 day review
112is I think what I'm hearing did you I just wanted to clarify so they can access their first comment and revise it and resubmit it no um Mr chair truste Smith um thank you because that's a good that's a good point of clarification no so you you submit your public comment and you know if you if it's via email to U Miss Gil or through the Microsoft form once you've submitted it's submitted but you can always um submit it again we don't track um you know IP addresses or limit the number of times an individual submits a public comment and we do have um you know historically we've had individuals who have commented more than once um as they thought of additional argument to offer um either for or against any given policy does that
113clarify okay one of in listening I thought I heard more people say they wanted to keep the comments than they wanted to um get rid of the comments so I think we'll probably stay with keeping the comments we already have but I think I heard of some sentiment a lot of people said that go with what or whatever but the people that were positively wanted to to put it out for a vote again at the next meeting so I think we'll put it out for a vote again at the next meeting we can also discuss again at that point what over as we're putting out whether we're going to um keep the comments or whether we're going to start over new as part of the the actual motion so is thank you trusty bowan Miss
114paully I just have a question if we keep the comments I'm just concerned about the legalities of that because we're opening up a new 45 day period we're going to be V voting again and I just want to make sure that at the end of The Next Period that we aren't going to be faced with individuals threatening to challenge us legally um thank you Mr chair uh trustee ederton so again I think you look at the purpose of the public comment period right it's it's not an up or down vote it's together information um you're not changing the language um it you know I think my advice would be different if you um you know go to the next meeting and say um we're going to revise this policy in this way and then I
115think yes then you're not commenting on the same policy and I think then you would throw those out um but there's not a there's not a difference contemplated and again it's it's the statute requires you to fully consider the comments that are submitted it doesn't say that you can't consider you know additional um information that you get along the way um you know you can read articles you can um do further research on your own of you know all kinds of things that might influence how you end up voting on on on any given policy um the statute just requires that the comments that are submitted are are are carefully considered um as part of your deliberation um before you vote does that answer thank you okay so the motion that's going to come next
116week will be very similar with our same language and hopefully correct language in all the aspects of it and uh and then I think we as part of that motion I think we should say that we're going to um keep the comments we already made and then if there discussion somebody wants to um make it a motion to change that it can happen I think that works Mr chair yes Mr chair if we're done discussing that question um a related issue it just I'm in here and it occurs to me I've I've read you know some different news articles or we heard one tonight and uh some of the same language that was in that one was was printed in another uh Source in the last week but I it occurs to me that the
117The public's pretty confused about the facts I know we have differences of opinion but I I wonder um I'd like to see our district put out some factual things like what's going on that we've already passed the four option policy um and that what the policy draft proposed draft is out on procurement because there's some confusion there and there's some other things that they're just getting mixep and so without opinion I do think it's time for our district to put out a Q&A or whatever it might be to clarify some of these details uh Mr chair truste class and I think we can certainly do that and just um make it clear what piece of the policy and and I think part of that is because it's all new language and so um when only
118you know when the new language is underlined and but you're given you know 10 additional pages of policy it it it can confuse the public and so we can definitely clarify what um what you should be commenting on not necessarily the policy as but the existing language thank you anything else we I think I think we're done this one okay okay all right on to the next yeah just a couple of quick updates Lots has obviously happened since the uh we've met in this forum last time as some have mentioned we we had what I thought were were very nice graduations um I I made a comment that when I was a principal I was always really nervous wanting everything to just go perfectly um but I think in this role it was just a
119joy to see so many families and people yelling and and um and celebrating and and even that if that created a little bit more noise than we're used to I think it was uh for good purpose um so we're very pleased with the graduation ceremonies the schools did a fantastic job District folks as well getting uh those put together uh right around 850 graduates um that's a lot of graduates that's bigger than some towns in wyomi um it's important for the board to to note that um graduates actually have till September 15th to finish in order to be considered on time and in fact we've already had one graduate since the day of the ceremony who is now finished so our schools are still hard at work and getting more kids that diploma in their
120hand um I happen to be I know ARP Elementary was um in the same boat but uh I happened to be at alter Vista Elementary um a couple days ago and altav Vista was just announced as a solution tree promising practice school which is a very uh very nice designation that that is not just by interest of the school but they're also has to be some academic gains that they're experiencing and um and when we talked about talk about data here soon you'll see the the very strong gains at Al Vista the reason other than celebrating the work as I said both schools are Ben alista receive that designation but the reason I mentioned it is is I saw a little guy as they were walking into the assembly and he was having a rough
121day and the behavioral interventionist said um this young man doesn't want school to end um school is a good place and for a lot of our kids uh summer is is the best time of year and they're looking forward to it for others of our kids school is a safe place and school is a place where they Thrive and this young man and many others didn't want it to end and so um I think that's important to remember that uh the the role that our schools play so with that said we do have our summer school starting uh June 10th through July 18th and I just got um little bit of information we roughly serve about 800 elementary students in summer school and about 600 secondary students and so that will be coming up just
122around the corner and hopefully that little guy will get to be a part of uh being back in school here just after a few days off uh but I know that our folks will serve lots of our kids well about this time last year we also had some discussion amongst the board in the district about RC wanted to provide a nice little update as well um it looks like our incoming numbers are going to be very strong for next year in all three of our programs the uh Central uh unit is uh well above 100 our East unit is expecting to be well above 100 as well and our South um our South core that was recently formed at as of July 1st we'll be moving from the kind of the initial designation as a
123National Defense Cadet Corp to a army Junior Reserve officer training Corps so in essence as of July 1st the um South core will be no different than the other two and they are expecting um as they're building the program just shy of a hundred but they're not done yet so it appears that we'll have roughly 315 students uh enjoying the benefit of our uh one of our three Ry cores uh JC cores coming up in the fall so 3155 students is is a very sizable number one of the colonels I think it was the colonel from East mentioned that most cities our size really struggle to maintain one or even two uh junior RC programs and we are well on the way to having three very strong programs I'd also mention that it's easy to
124um think about the the great work they do at the times when we see them we see them sometimes uh helping out on the course at the walk run or providing Color Guard duties or cleaning up the schools they they do a lot of community service projects but as I was reaching out to the ROTC units they mentioned things like and I'm just going to throw these out there Marksmanship armed and unarmed drill teams saber teams cyber security um High School knowledge bowls model rocketry teams Fitness teams military model building teams and archery teams so so many great things that our kids in junior Roc can be a part of and that's also a Shameless plug to anybody who knows somebody who could benefit from finding a home is part of our jrtc programs they
125really really do great work so very pleased to provide that update um and then the last one this is a bit anecdotal but I think it's worth sharing I just received some feedback today um we were recently on a call with u districts across the country about our work with artificial intelligence trying to come to grips with what does that mean for our kids our teachers and the presenter who works with districts all across the nation in looking at the guidance documents that our teams have put together for both students and how to use AI responsib and also our teachers how to think about not only using it as um as a tool to help them teach but also as students may be grappling with how to best use it um and again a bit
126anecdotal but this expert in the field estimates that we're ahead of about 95% of all school districts in the country with the kind of forward thinking and guidance that we're providing all of our people in our systems so that we make sure that we're using this tool like all tools as responsibly as possible and so with that Mr chairman that is the end of my reports I just want to as far as the RTC programs um last year I think both south and east had reached out to the junior high to include some students from there and I think mccor is going to do that starting this coming year Central's going to do that Ming to this coming year and the reason I asked for him to do the report today was because we're going
127to be asking to approve an additional staff member for the RC at South help help help reach out to those junior high students so that's part of the reason for the report and it's great news to hear all that it's also fantastic news here we're going to be saving money because as part of a regular program we get more funding for that don't we and for us to be chosen to go to a regular program only one year in existence doesn't number okay go ahead I just um had two questions for Dr Newton um one of them was regarding RC what military branch is the South RC program yes trusty Smith that is an army RC program and as well as Central is Army ROTC and East is Air Force okay I just I love
128I love that report thank you for sharing I have um sons in the military or going to the military and one who went through an RC program at East and um what an incredible opportunity so that's that's wonderful that they're going to an official RC chapter um my other question was just a clarification on the graduation um of those 800 50 graduates you mentioned until September to complete their degree requirements were they able to walk in May or will they receive their diplomas or will they go through a ceremony at a later date yeah trusty Smith that's that's a great question um we only uh confer diplomas on for students who at that moment had completed all requirements and so the other students will be able to be a part of ceremonies the next year
129if they would like um some of them by then are well on their way in life but um it that becomes a very slippery slope when Mr Bolan um accepts the the principal's um attestation that they've completed all of the requirements so none of all of those kids roughly I think it was 849 um who walked who were completed um and of course some completed who chose not to walk but any of the new ones that we get between now and September 15th did not walk and they will be added to the cumulative total once they are completed with all of their requirements thank you and I'm sure there were some of those as every other year that last minute they got added to the roles correctly might have been a couple dropouts that as
130I may say in my own life it weren't for the last minute some things may not get done okay one of the things I inducted to talk about earlier was the board um the upcoming meetings so June 24th is a 6 P p.m. regular board meeting July 15th a very important meeting for us during the year that's a 6 p.m. regular board meeting and a budget hearing and that's when we approve our budget for the year so keeps Mr sarelli back there busy until we're all done with that and then we can start over for the new year so and I believe the recck mill does a board meeting at five o'clock that day too so okay so um now we're going you're done with your yes sir okay so now we're going to move
131on to the consent agenda and all items all items listed with designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion there'll be no separate discussion on these items an item removed from the consent agenda will be considered its normal sequence on the agenda does any board member request to remove a motion from the consent agenda Mr chairman I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda second okay we have a motion of second to approve the consent agenda all those in favor say I I I those opposed no motion best always have to wait for that last okay now I think we're g to move to New bus are you ready Mr chairman I move to approve the contract amendments as presented in
132the attached document for prair Academy Secondary School second okay we have a motion of second to improve the amendments to the contract for poder Academy any further discussion okay all those in favor say I I those oppose no motion do Mr chairman I move to approve the contract amendments as presented in the attached document for podair Academy Elementary school second have a motion a second to approve the amendments to the podair academy um contract and discussion all those in favor say I I I I and those oppos no motion pass I was talking with somebody from public I don't remember who it was the other day and they were very happy with the improvements poder has made to what used to be the park school and I think it had another name for a little
133while but it's just kind of improved the looks of that whole neighborhood so congratulations and with the work they've done over there as far as their building goes and the work with their kids do because I think they probably celebrated graduation recently too because they have graders and those are actually were those considered in our numbers Mr ban in the numbers I gave you there were not but they do come into our district numbers I usually give you the numbers of the students that were instructed by our schools so we actually have 10 more from them yeah great okay I care we don't have any more motions so the next regular board meeting will be held on Monday June 24th 2024 at 6 p.m. the business of the district is done and now is our
134time for our second and have nobody signed up at this point these are the non- agented topics so is there anybody here who would like to speak on any topic or if you're online please raise your hand if you'd like to speak Mr chairman there are no hands raised online and I don't see anybody here coming forward so we on the next part and that is we need a motion Mr chairman I move to go into executive session at this time prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible student long-term suspensions and expulsions Personnel legal advice and litigation I second okay motion second to go into executive session for the list of topics all those in favor say I I I those oppos no Mo we will be in executive session and we will come
135back in