001Um this is a um ad hoc committee meeting of the uh curriculum committee. Um I'd like to um call it to order. Um do I have a a second? And so all we are uh three people on the committee. So two of us do make a quorum. Um I'm standing up here in grandeur because I want to recognize that we do have um guests. I want to let uh the the guests as well as the um uh the other guests um you know that will be presenting today know what the meeting is about and kind of how it's going to go. So we asked for the uh curriculum team at the administrative level level to brief us on a number of different things which we've provided them ahead of time and mostly which we've left
002them to decide to to tell us. As you all know this is a a new committee, an ad hoc committee. Um and so right now we're in the we're in the learning stages. Um we've gotten a lot of um information and questions from uh the public. I suspect um some of the public that's here and we very much appreciate that. I wanted you to let you know that this is um not an open meeting as it relates to questions and answers from the public. So this will just be a a viewing from your point of view. um that's how the meeting was arranged and the fact that we had so much interest in it and we're going to have the video um up and available for everyone to see uh it would make it that
003much more confusing as well. But I did want to uh start um by having you folks introduce yourself. Um Mark Demingo, chief officer of curriculum and leadership for the branch public schools. Mike Reed, I'm the math coordinator K through8. Sarah Oel, assistant chief officer of curriculum and leadership and >> Valadino KLA coordinator Jeff Beck science and media. >> With that said, >> and I'd like to recognize that we have two principles with us. We have Kathleen Ramirez from North Miami School and Dr. Dan Rous High School. >> Wonderful. And so with that said, I'd like to kick off the meeting uh with the agenda and that agenda is to hear from the administrative curriculum committee. Um and uh the floor is yours. >> Well, thank you. Good morning everyone. It's a pleasure to be with
004you today as we discuss a topic that is central both to our schools and our homes. I'm Mark Deco alongside our academic curriculum team. We're here to share our partnering for balance presentation. Our goal today is to show you how we are navigating the digital age in tension. We aren't just looking at screen time. We're looking at how to protect the essential human connections and traditional [clears throat] learning methods that make our district strong while still preparing our student for a digital future. If we could switch to the next slide or >> share the laptop. >> Okay. Our philosophy isn't about anti-10. It's about intentional balance. We view technology as a tool to enhance teaching and spark creativity, not to replace the foundational elements of learning. Especially for our young learners, play, discourse, and face-to-face
005interactions are the most vital components of their development. We have a dual responsibility as a team. We must prepare students for an increasingly digital world, but we also must protect screenfree time to ensure their cognitive and social development remain intact. Next slide, please. So to understand where we are going with our partnering for balance initiative, we first have to look back at the traditional model, the one many of us in this room likely experienced ourselves. On this slide, you'll see a scale. On one side, we have the classic symbols of 20th century education. The chalkboard, the physical desk, the stack of paperbound books. This represents a world where information was centralized and tactile. On the other side of the scale, we see the introduction of early digital tools. The overhead projector, the desktop computer. For
006a long time, the scale was heavily weighted towards analog. Digital tools were seen as an add-on. The goal of today's presentation isn't to argue that one side is better than an other. Instead, it's to show how we are evolving to again find a sensible balance for our students and teachers. Our challenge in a digital world isn't choosing between tools and tradition, but blending them wisely. Following the shift, we saw in 2020 out of necessity a reliance on digital tools and it accelerated rapidly. Notice the scale now. It's tipped heavily toward the digital side. This represents the period where technology became the primary delivery system for instruction, often at the expense of traditional methods. While this period taught us a lot about the power of digital access, it also highlighted the potential for oversaturation. It set
007the stage for the rebalancing work that we must do now. Now that we've looked at where we started in the digital surge that followed, we arrive at our current objective, creating that balance. This isn't a static point, but a constant intentional calibration. It's not about 50/50. It's about choosing the right tool for the specific learning goals that we set for our students. And to go more in depth about what that looks like into our classrooms, we're going to go into our core curricular areas. And the first area we're going to discuss is English language arts. I'm turn it over to Miss Aladine. Hi >> everyone. Um so we start we thought we would start kind of looking at what does ELA look like um in all of our K8 classrooms. Uh we have a robust
008curriculum which we've talked about at different curriculum meetings. Um and the purpose of this is to kind of show you ELA takes up a pretty huge chunk of every kid's day. So, we thought we would walk you through the various um grade level bands and kind of show you a glimpse into the classroom. What are they doing? What does it look like? Describe a little bit of the modalities of instruction and let's start. So, one of the things that we do in kindergarten and first grade is to teach them awareness, which um is routines with students where we're hearing and manipulating sounds um with a multiensory approach um and letter sound visuals. This is primarily done whole group with the teacher down to basics, no screens. Kids are um orally and unison working on a
009very specific skill skill for a very short amount of time. It's best K in one 10 minutes of their day. Then we move into our phonics block in kindergarten through third grade. Um we use as you know Wilson foundations which by nature is a multi-transerative approach to learning um phonics and spelling and handwriting. Um it incorporates visual audio and kesthetic techniques. Um on the board you can see our some pictures from our KN1 classrooms. You can see we're using physical drill cards. We're using screens to show um big visuals, but um kids are not interacting with screens. There we have um our kids as teachers using their sound cards. We have kids working in physical um pencil and paper notebooks, magnetic letter tile boards for manipulation. Um, if you go to the next screen, you'll
010see in K1, we also use tile words and magnetic uh um, whiteboards as well, but you see that um, illustrated in those third grade pictures right there. So, by nature foundations is a very handson multiensory approach, which is why it's so um, effective with our students. Um, and you can see that um, there is no student screen time during that time of our day. um a 45m minute block. So foundations is about a 30 minute block. Great reading K through five is about a 45 minute block. Um during this time we have kids with physical books in hand whether it's in whole class teacher readaloud, independent reading time, partner work, um partner reading, independent reading time. We do have access um in our curriculum to um audio books um and ebooks for different modalities for
011different learning styles as well. Um and so that's K5. Uh reading the reading block um depending on what grade and in middle school we have about 42 minute blocks. Um some have double blocks, some have pattern and a half. Um but you get the idea. We have um our students are reading physical books, novels, they're reading short stories, they're reading poems, they're reading non-fiction articles. Um they're participating um in a variety of modalities to show their thinking about texts whether in systematic seminar or presentation of research skills or it's um genic notations with paper and pencil um or whole class novel discussions as you can see in the bottom lower right. We are we a lot of my budget goes towards physical books. Uh so I'm in ordering season right now. So um it's it's
012um a lot. So here you can see some of our K2 libraries. Just a small glimpse. We've really in the last couple years if you've heard any of our board presentations, we've made a really um big investment in decodable texts um that aligns with foundations in our classroom. So you can see some of that. They could see some partner reading in action with our geodess. Same thing here. Um I know parents ask all the time like are my kids reading physical books? Are they do are they do they have a good variety? and see as I go in classrooms, I kind of I take proud I take proud pictures of the effort and the time that our teachers spend in curating and um organizing uh books and asking me when they need more or asking
013their building principal when when we need to refresh some books. But here are some visuals of our 35 libraries. And not to be outdone by our middle school um professionals uh where that is just a big uh emphasis and responsibility that they feel that they have um for our students and this is all in addition to our media centers that um have a wide variety of text. So they have access to all of these books in their classrooms. Writing is about a 45minute block in our K5 classrooms as well. um our mo our primary modality in K um in the K the primary grades K2 K3 is really um promoting a lot of handwriting to reinforce the skills handwriting skills that they are um being taught in patients letter formation and cursive and third grade
014um as they move up into the upper grades they typing and keyboarding um and as you can see even in most in most classrooms most projects students have an have an option of what modality is best works for them. Um so you can see some of that on the screen as well. Um, same thing in our middle school primarily. Um, all of the writing process has multimodalities, right? Like we're drafting in our notebooks, we're we're getting ideas and facts from our research in our notebooks and then most of our final drafts um done on on the computer. And so you can see um the eighth grade pictures of them sharing um there's a picture celebration that's at central um or end of unit celebration where they got all the classes together to to to what
015you can see a working session in that seventh grade classroom there. So we talked a little bit about um some alternative um options that we have for students um [clears throat] for different modalities. Epic being one of them. We do have the unlimited version which allows us to um allows us to access it at school. It also allows access at home. Um it kind of um gives equal access to all of our students to have books over the summer when you go on vacation. Um that book if you didn't get a chance to go to the library and and you don't have a physical book at home option for students. We also use it within our curriculum to curate really specific text sets around either the non-fiction topic that we're studying or particular resource in
016science or social studies um that there's very nuance and specific books there that we can um gather and pair with our physical copies in the book. So um this this um tool also has readaloud options for students that might need that. Um and it is um a great addition um as for our curricular resources. Um Glexia you may may have heard about it. It is our um adopted researchbased blended learning tool. So students go on um they kind of the the program with its all of its um technology it kind of puts them figures out where they are right um in their development of reading. It's not a grade based program or um puts you in a static place. It covers our five pillars of reading. Um and it gives instruction with corrective feedback from
017the program. It also gives student data on a backend for our teachers. The program will alert them if a student is having trouble in a specific skill and needs um instruction. This allows us to meet our students on a skill level right where they are. um and allows them to um accelerate or it allows us to help remediate them in addition to other interventions that we do in the classroom and or through our MTSS process. Um and our main digital tool in middle school, which is new this year based upon a lot of discussion at board meetings about how do we know where our students are skill-wise at the middle school level? How do we know who's struggling? By the time we get to middle school, if a student is struggling in reading, it's really
018hard to pinpoint why. Um, and so this tool helps us to really get a handle on which area of of reading or writing that a student is struggling with. So, will give us a diagnostic in the area of reading strategies, vocabulary, writing strategies, and grammar and mechanics. It allows teachers to continue to teach um the skills that they would that's in their curriculum, but it also allows them to have the data to support when do I need to maybe remediate a whole class on a certain skill or standard and go back or how do I know if a specific student or students are struggling in an area and how do I know if I have students that are really accelerated more than I might have known otherwise and how do I get them to the
019next point in their learning development. So this is a tool that we use ancillary to our um curriculum to enhance um our knowledge of student skills moving forward. And that wraps it up for the LA. We'll hand it over to Mike to talk through math. >> Okay. So mathematics um this first slide when you're looking at it, the purpose of it is for you to see um how our students learn math. And so what it's illustrating is a balanced approach to math education by distinguishing between the content students need to know and versus the mental habits that they need to have. And so the commitment core guides um uh foundational topics like geometry, algebraic thinking and others as you see up there. And um it also injects into the mathematical standards of practice which is
020um basically fostering critical thinking skills. So you can see some of the words I have up there like perseverance or precision. And so this dual framework um supports our partnering for balance initiative ensuring students develop a well-rounded mathematical skill set mindset. So our um big ideas math is our core math program. And here you see what a typical elementary class would look like or most of the students time is spent in the consumable workbook at the elementary level. Um this collection of photos just showcases students actively engaged in the program through various learning formats including teacher led small groups, collaborative floor floor work and independent study. Um the district funds consumable workbooks for every student K through 5. U here is math at a glance. Um, and this slide is comparing instructional frameworks K through
0215 and 6 through 8, highlighting shift from, you know, a 60-minute block in elementary school to 42-minute block in the middle school. Uh, elementary students um typically um uh the classes are utilizing um math station rotation format um which divides their hour into four 15 minute segments. Um so meeting with the teacher, desk work, um technology and hands-on activities. Um in contrast to the middle school grades which follow a little bit more of a traditional model um that prioritizes whole group instruction flanked by brief periods of homework review and independent practice. So here you see an example of what a teacher might display in the elementary um level um organizing their stations or math station rotations and centers. Um students are provided basically clear visual road maps displaying what they're going to be doing and
022specific activities. Sometimes a teacher will have a countdown timer so that they can independently migrate from one station to the next. Um and this organized structure ensures that students stay on task and understand their responsibilities during the differentiated learning blocks. Just want to point out the differences between these two um images here. So on the left you see four rotations. So this teacher is cycling students through every 15 minutes and they're essentially most likely teaching, you know, four mini lessons to four different groups of kids. whereas the one on the right, that teacher has decided to do a whole group mini lesson for 15 minutes and then they have three 15 minute blocks where they're cycling the kids through. So, um, usually broken down into 15-inute segments, but, um, you know, nuanced depending on how
023the teacher likes to address the the, uh, students they have in the class. So, um, is one of our digital curricular tools that provides personalized skill recommendations u based on students performance and key strands. So um this combination allows for us to make datadriven um decisions um while we track students progress, identify specific areas for growth through a diagnostic. Um and while it's primarily a digital resource, we do have the ability to accommodate paper and pencil options um with aligned workbooks. Uh this collection of photos here is highlighting students activities uh actively starting applying mathematical concepts through interactive note packets, small group collaboration um and integrating tactile manipulatives which has been a very big push for us over the last few years and visual workbooks. Um the curriculum fosters a pretty dynamic environment where students
024can explore and solidify their understanding of complex topics both in a tactile way and in a visual way. Um, one of our other, uh, really big pushes over the last few years is, um, uh, building thinking classrooms. So, here's an example of classrooms that have taken, um, a big ideas math lesson and turned into a thinking classroom experience. So, you'll see these students here. Um, what you can't see is they've been randomly grouped. um but they're completing their work on a nonvertical permanent surface which um has um very positive psychological effects when kids are grappling with difficult problem solving. So, uh another big push, it sounds like I sound like a broken record. Big push, big push, big push. Um has been fact fluency. Um so one of the things that I've heard often um
025since I started in my role um over the last 5 years has been kids don't know their fast kids don't have their facts down. So we decided to make a big push towards making sure kids know their facts. So um you see the GPS um SBA achievement data show significant growth across grades 3 through 5 um from 2021 to 2025 and um our mastery levels are reaching you know all-time highs of 85% at some points. Um, and this jump from 24 to 25, um, is most likely directly linked to our focus on fact fluency. Our goal was to secure, um, core math facts to allow students to tackle higher level problem solving. If you can't multiply the numbers, then it how can you, um, tackle a multi-step word problem, right? And so, um, this has
026allowed our students to be able to tackle these more complex problems with ease. And so we do still have students using visual flashcards um um but um our commitment has been to build strong fact fluency um and that's led to our top tier results. Thought it was important to include um this example of SBA questions that students see in grades 3 through 5. So why are we so concerned with fact fluency? Um so you can see um um in this collection of SBA questions it demonstrates the progression of multiplication division skills from three to um five and at all levels there's a heavy emphasis on knowing multiplication facts with grades three grade three students being required to know all their facts from memory and grade five students being required to know the standard algorithm for
027multiplication. So those two grades are really the heaviest hit multiplication facts. So our steady rise in SBA achievement scores um is anchored really by our big ideas program. Um um and in 2024 we introduced reflex um districtwide after a trial period with in certain classrooms in 2023. And so reflex has helped us move beyond isolated fact memorization and focus on relationship within fact families. Example of a fact family 3 + 5 is 8. 5 is 3 is 8. 8 - 5 is 3. 8 - 3 is 5. So knowing that family um is super helpful. And so this program drives success by constantly adapting to the individual student needs ensuring that every child is staying in their sort of optimal learning zone um to build true authenticity. So um this personalized fact family based approach
028has empowered our students to reach record high mastery levels in grades three and five. And I really want you to pay attention to grades three and five in the orange because those were our biggest jumps and those are the heavy fat grades. So um the thing that was different was um a focus on fat fluency. Um and um we also have a within um the explore learning platform we also have a um frack which um both reflex and fracks are adapted platforms that we use to build fluency with math facts and fractions and um you can see here the types of reports that they provide like the family pyramid um fat family pyramid the one in the upper left corner. So that one there is showing that that kiddo has most of their facts nailed
029down, but the ones that are in the lighter color, they still don't have. So they're going to focus more on those particular facts. Tends to be our favorite fact. 67 6* 7 um is the one that tends to pop up the most. The kids love it. Um and so you can see it provides um reporting there at the bottom. You can see the fact family jump. that student went from 14 facts to 161 facts over the course of the year from um this snapshot was taken in March. Um and so these tools ensure that students develop and secure um a foundation necessary for advanced mathematics later on in their career. So now that you see the value we place on our intentional digital tools, it's important to understand what level of use we're seeing across
030grade levels, content areas, and building. We ran the usage data for our required digital tools, Lexia and Nixl. And we have daily minute averages listed here. As you can see, students spend less than 10 minutes per day on each tool across grades K. Of course, these numbers reflect averages. So, some students may complete all of their recommended Lexia minutes for the week in one or two days and spend no time using that platform the rest of the week. So, next I'll move into science, which as you know is now overseen by our uh new coordinator, Dr. Jeff Bethley. Uh since Jeff is new to the crew, I'm going to go ahead and present on the science life. We had a little more of a historical background there. So, starting with setting the scene for what
031science looks like for our elementary students. Science is 30 minutes daily in the instructional block that flows back and forth with social studies. Students have between three or four units per year, including a science notebook launch, which every student uses as their compilation of information over time. We like to help students understand how scientists think, [snorts] what they do, and what they know in the three dimensions of science and teaching learning. We'll start with what scientists do. We model, we investigate, we collect data, and we describe our findings. All examples displayed here from our K5 classrooms. We get into the field and we learn from experts in their own fields. Our recent priority has been assuring that all students in K5 schools get to learn about Greenwich from our community partners here in town. Showcased
032here are the assured experiences in grade 1 to the Bruce Museum, grade two to the Ottabon Center, and grade three to the botanical center. Much of our curriculum in K8 is project based. Here you see fifth graders engineering neighborhoods from using renewable resources and eighth graders saving eggs from the classic egg drop challenge. Later on, they use these skills to create asteroid deflection devices. And when scale, time, or materials make it difficult to explore hands-on, we sometimes will utilize simulations to support learning. Our platform is called Gizmos, and it is a simulation mirror system that mirrors assessment questions presented on the NGSS test in grades 5 and 8. The functionality of these simulations allow us to test our in-class lab data, evaluate potential shifts to new variables, or check our own growth rates on plant
033simulations like you see in the bottom left hand side here. It's important to know that this does not replace in-class investigation. It does not prevent us from exploring like hands-on and it does not stop students from gathering their own data in class across KP. I know Miss Paladino noted our robust classroom libraries, but that doesn't just live in the fiction setting. We enhance non-fiction text across grades K through 5, purchasing over 50 books per classroom, all aligned with MGSS content. When we need leveled readings or additional supports to accommodate student needs, we also have a compendium of curated digital texts with video and readaloud passages to support our teachers and students. Here's an example of three different types of supports covering the same content. One is a read aloud, one is a video, and one
034is presented above grade level with expanded details. Above all, we're looking to enhance the student experience in classrooms while they explore the natural world and make sense of phenomena. Look at these third graders exploring force and motion and invisible forces in their notebooks, on their playground, and using materials in their hallway. Moving up, here you see middle school students studying Earth, life, and physical science, even utilizing the Granite Public Schools planetarium. It's a dark photo, but that's intended in the top right hand side. As students increase in their sophistication with science understanding, we utilize technology to collect data in the field and in our classrooms and bring it back to our labs for analysis and application. Here you can see students in grades 6 through 12 collecting and studying water samples, measuring forces on a
035racetrack, and all of their data is collected live on their Chromebooks. Again, this is never replacing experiential learning only adding to student understanding and analysis of their data. I also cover social studies. So we'll dig into that last core content area. In social studies students again 30 minutes per day back and forth units with science and K5 model following the same 42minut schedule at the 68 level as all the other grades do. In social studies, we we support students as future historians, political scientists, economists, and geographers. Our social studies lessons embrace the skills and contact knowledge that students need to understand the world around them. Our primary resource for social studies curriculum in the K5 classroom is my world interactive by status. There are physical teacher books, a digital teacher facing platform, and consumable student
036workbooks in K5. I have some examples here today for you to peruse. It also comes with physical maps and activity packs for students. While all teachers can utilize the presentation materials on the digital platform, K2 students do not have any access to the digital source of social studies. 35 students can access the text online when they need, but all student work and assessment is done using paper and pencil in their consumable workbooks. Similar to science, social studies includes projects for learning, practicing skills, and communicating finding to their classmates. Here you see students researching historical biographies in an interdisciplinary unit and presenting their research on US regions. As we move out of the content specifics, we spend time looking at district averages and general guidelines for daily screen use. It's important to recognize that not one
037size fits all students in our district. We want to be transparent about our approach and understand that screen time is flexible in order to meet diverse learning needs. The screen time for some of our students may look different. Sometimes it's increased and sometimes reduced depending on their specific needs. For instance, some students with individualized education plans may require assistive technology or specific digital tools. Similarly, our English language learners may benefit from translation software or audio support. and you'll see variations in students receiving tiered instruction. One other notion is some advanced learning program activities may require more time on screens in extended research or less time in screens when it comes to Socratic seminars and conversation. Ultimately, the takeaway here is that while we for sensible balance across the board, our primary focus is always on
038providing specific and customized supports to help each individual student thrive. I'm going to get a little techy on you now and dig into some of our safety. Obviously, setting up our students for safety is a top priority. And whenever students are using districts issue devices and logging on to our school Wi-Fi networks, we have robust safety measures. This includes strict filtering protocols, secure cloud environments designed to protect their data and shield them from inappropriate content. Deeper questions can always be answered by our district's chief technology officer. For now, I'll show you what the system looks like for iPads in K2. We have cloud-based filters in our district level as well as device-based proxy by law and these slides will be made available as well as [clears throat] >> you'll notice a similar graphic for our
039Chromebooks in 38. The only difference here being it's a picture of a Chromebook instead of backup. And when we move to 912, our student devices are filtered and supported while they're in school on our Wi-Fi. There's unrestricted access outside of school life. Moving on to how we measure students progress and the specific digital assessments we use across grades K through 5. While we're deeply committed to balancing screen time and prioritizing hands-on learning, these digital assessments are essential tools. They give us precise, actionable data to support every student's individual learning and growth. You can see them broken down by grade level. We utilize a combination of diagnostic benchmark and statemandated digital. For diagnostic tools, we're looking at the LL diagnostic for MAP. Our programming based assessments in grade two include those that are part of the
040ALP screening process, the KOAP and the NWBA. And then we incorporate our district benchmarks given twice a year in grades three through five. You'll also see support practice of the Smarter Balance and NGSS assessment blocks called IABS standing for interim assessment blocks. And then the final test given each spring in grades three, four, and five in ELA and math. And in fifth grade, that is the only grade level to take the science assessment. By utilizing these specific platforms, our teachers receive immediate feedback, allowing them to personalize instruction and support all students. Shifting our focus to the middle middle school level, this slide details our assessment strategy for grades 6 through 8. As our students grow, their academic needs become more complex and our digital assessment tools evolve alongside of them to ensure we're accurately tracking
041their readiness for high school. Notice that all of the middle school grades, we expand our use of the ISL diagnostic to cover ELA and math and we utilize some specific unit assessments on linkit for ELA. We also incorporate the inner orbit benchmarking assessment in science. It happens three times a year in sixth and seventh and just twice a year in eth since they take that culminated NGSS at the end of their eighth grade year. Just like in elementary school, we administer the district-wide GPS benchmarks twice a year and all of our students get a chance practicing IABS to prepare them to the summit of assessments in the spring, the SBA math and the NGSS 3. But beyond where we are today, we want to share our action plan and where we will go from here.
042Ensuring healthy screen habits is an ongoing process and here we outline our commitments moving forward across three main areas. Starting first with communication. We know this requires an ongoing dialogue with our families, our board, and the broader community. So, we'll continue to field questions and support understanding. We're also actively refreshing our digital toolbox pages on the district website so you have clear specific direct descriptions of how these digital tools are used within each specific curriculum area. Next, internal auditing. We are taking a really close look at non-instructional times throughout the day, specifically arrival, dismissal, and recess. Our goal is to protect these times as essential opportunities for students to socialize, decompress, connect with one another. This begins in first determining where and when there are opportunities to go better. That includes considering teacher and student
043perspectives. And finally, instructional support. Finding the right balance is not a one anddone. It's an active continual process. We are committed to supporting our teachers in making evidence-based decisions about when to use technology versus when to power down. And just as importantly, we are working directly with students to help them build lifelong habits they need to make good choices and self monitor their own digital consumption. >> So I think if I was to sum up everything that we just discussed for the last 40 minutes, um in a digital world, our challenge is not choosing between tools and tradition, but blending them wisely to support student learning. And you know, this is this is a topic that I know everyone has very strong individual opinions on. Um I certainly have those as a father um as
044the chief officer of curriculum. Um and u we have work to do. There's no question about that. You know, COVID forced us into a situation where we became very reliant on digital tools, but we also recognized their vast potential for accelerating learning. Um, which is one of the caveats to being a highly successful uh district. Uh, but you don't want an oversaturation to be where we live long term. And so, uh, our commitment, as you saw in slide 58, is to go back and look at opportunities where we can pull back on, sorry, I'm talking to all of you because it's such an odd thing. I thought most exactly right. We represent them and we're grateful enough to have them in the room. So >> yeah, >> the bottom line is I think there are
045uh some very easy opportunities for us to pull back on on digital tools in our classrooms and and Tara just mentioned, you know, recess should be a time of play and I know there are times as a former principal where kids can't go outside. That doesn't mean that when they have to have indoor recess that they have to be on a device. I think that's an easy one for us. At arrival and dismissal, a lot of times teachers will think, well, you know, school doesn't officially start yet and there's three kids that were absent and I want to try to catch them up on what they missed, so I'm going to let them use their devices. And teachers will sometimes use it as a management technique, but we can do we can do better and
046and we can think differently about how we can provide other opportunities before the official start of the school day. So, these are conversations that the team will have and we will meet with our principles and we will talk about again what it looks like on a day-to-day basis in schools because also the the one of the voices that's missing from this conversation that's an incredibly important one are our teachers. And so, um I try to always be mindful of the fact that we don't want to do something to them, we want to do something with them. And so the efforts that we're going to propose are going to be in partnership with our educators because they're the ones that really have to follow through on these things. And it's really important that you know we
047have conversations with our building administrators. And it's great to have FA and Dan here today because um although we go out in buildings quite frequently, we have a lot of buildings and our building administrators, we rely on them heavily to be in classrooms and to provide us with feedback and to support us in supporting the teachers. based on the things that they're seeing. So when you when you talk about on slide 58 the internal audit that's going to fall squarely on the shoulders of our building administrators to go into classrooms and to provide us with feedback. uh because I would imagine much like anything else there are classrooms where there's probably not enough technology and then there's classrooms where there's an oversaturation of technology and then you have many classrooms where the teacher has really
048found a sweet spot where it's appropriate digital tool use for the learning targets that they're trying to hit with students and and where we see those extremes. we need to provide professional learning for teachers and opportunities for them to grow in their profession to shift away from those extremes. So I think uh critically important to know that we're trying to blend um you know and it's it's an ongoing process and so I'm glad that we started the conversation today and we're happy that I guess I'll shift back to you all now happy to answer the questions that you have on our presentation. So, first I want to thank you for this thoughtful focus on balance and human connectivity. Um, in the spirit of supporting that goal, I do have some questions about potential risks so
049that we can be sure we're see, you know, we're seeing the full picture. Um, and uh, you may get back to me on something, so don't feel like you have to write it up. And specifically on this one, I'm wondering um what specific guidelines or research are we using to determine um the the appropriate limits, you know, best practice? Is there um how does our practice compare to those recommendations? So, is there something is there a go-to? Are you guys using different data models? What's what's the where the guidelines come from? So I think I I want to lean into the two digital tools that are our core digital tools. So Mike, maybe you want to talk a little bit about our EXL usage and and Kim talk a little bit about Lexia because when
050we when we think about where is our high leverage points, it's really within those two particular platforms. >> But I think what I'm talking about is >> um >> because you want to know exposure, correct? Yeah. what are you using in in the background you know um this isn't a vacuum um to indicate for you what is too much ISL or what is what is not enough. So those would be the the programs and I'm wondering where the um where the data is coming from that would cause you to um want to subscribe more to this and less to that. Where's the research coming from that would then trigger and that could very well be you know that you were all very engaged in your professions and reading multiple books and and doing different seminars
051and ga so I I don't know that's why I thought that maybe that might be something you need to come back to me on but if you you know >> yeah I I think it's a it's a it's a you're asking a broad question but I'd like to answer it specifically about each tool so I think it'd probably be better if we gave it to you in writing. Okay, certainly. Did you want to go ahead with each tool? Uh, >> well, I think Lexi is a great example, Kim, of of talking about how it it monitors and adjusts the read the reading portion of that. I don't know if I want to put a slide up >> and the research that they do nationally. Yeah, these these programs are used across the country and the
052national data that they get and they watch and they do white papers and the there's a lot of research behind that helps guide the minutes. If you do, you know, four minutes a week, you're not going to see success. If you do x amount of minutes, that's the threshold. And they have that information. That's part of the vetting process when you're when you're going to get a new platform. >> And if I'm not mistaken, all of the private schools in Greenwich also use both Lexia and I Exel in their classrooms. >> They to do what we do. So follow us. >> Yeah. tomorrow. >> Um, again, I think you know where I'm getting that right. So, I understand that Lexia does and Il does provide us with with data that gives us best practice on
053how to use the interface, but you know, there's a um there's some sense to uh gather information outside of the the the the source itself. So, um that's that's where I'll go, but we'll address it. you'll you'll send me some some follow up on that. Um did you >> question up to you? We can go one back and forth. >> All right, we'll go. I have a quick question. >> maybe I think it's pretty quick. Um so I was talking to two representatives from parent groups um actually two private schools in Grunge and one in particular I thought it was interesting. um they because of and not a technological list let me just start with that but because of the Google login right that students have and students use because they use Google place based
054platform parents receive every single week a lore on their children's usage of the on their school issued books and that includes information of how much time and I know that one of the things we've heard is well kids don't log off so then you see like 600 minutes on kid doesn't log off when we see 600 minutes on ex well then we know a kid didn't log off of right so we're not going to use that as a good data point I see it as a teaching point hey didn't log off that's part of your responsibility as a digital learner and so I'm wondering if through the Google login and usage because there are schools that provide parents I'm thinking more in elementary might be more beneficial though I'd be open to hearing about this
055advent school. Also, um if we might be able to look into some sort of weekly report from Google, so hopefully not too much what you guys would have to do, um that parents could receive on and and um I'm happy to get you a sample of we can talk about this more in which school and all that, but it's a weekly email on websites visited, times used on different websites and apps. um might be more specific to Chromebooks than it is to iPads, but again, I can um gather some more information, but I'm not sure if that's something we could do. And if the parents would want that or you guys want to have that. >> Well, I'd love to see the example. Uh give us an opportunity to look at it or reflect on
056it. Usage reports can be very helpful. We certainly um as a matter of fact, we had a two-hour meeting yesterday with the superintendent where we went tool by tool to determine whether or not it was something that we would want to continue to use moving forward because believe it or not, we're already starting to build the budget for next year. And one of the things that we always talk about is our usage, right? So, Jen Laauo in our our research department is the person that we go to to find out about our our usage information. So, fortunately, she's not here today, but it would be helpful to have a sample and then we would talk to her about u what type of lift that would be if we wanted to go down that road. And
057again, Dr. >> It is. It seems to be a lot. It could be it would be pressing a button. I don't know. >> Yeah. There's a difference though in accessing Google and accessing like Lexi or Excel. Totally different. So I I I would be surprised if they have a report that actually is doing the Google piece and doing like Lexia. Now if it's a small one of the small private schools where you only have like >> you know 50 kids on a grade level that may be a little different where manually can go in and make that happen. We have too many kids to do that. Um we do it periodically throughout the year but we're looking at it on a district level which is what we were kind of doing yesterday. And don't teachers
058receive weekly reports from my >> Yeah, they have they receive like a dashboard so they can so okay that might be another >> well that'sing the minutes teachers teachers use the dashboard but not only for like minutes or but really they're looking more >> like what can I use how can I use that to inform my instruction >> but it is available if there were if a concern or a question they might be able to, you know, talk to teach. >> Yeah, I will tell you whether it was at home or whether it was at straight school. We do have some kids that go home and want to do more or parents want them to do more. So those minutes can look skewed in in kids that are extra zealous to practice. >> Exactly. Um
059[clears throat] just on the tail of that I was always um heard few times that the difficulty of monitoring because they could maybe they don't sign out. I don't think there would be a tool that would focus on keystrokes, mouse movements. Um, you know, the the the screen timeout, you know, um, I just wonder going forward, I I don't know, but there would be something that we could utilize um, related to that, we have a better understanding of the actual time because I keep hearing that one of the reasons why we can't really figure out the time is because they don't log off, but they're not they're not keystroke. They're not mouth movement. if the screen itself, which has usually is a shorter um uh uh blackout, you know, it it it blacks out. I
060have to move my mouse once in a while to tell it. No, I'm still taking notes on the tail of that. My my next question, I was curious if we were monitoring whether increased digital use is affecting students ability uh to sustain attention um and engage in deep reading and if so, what what indicators or data are we using? Um because that seems to be the you know the the attention thing even as a as a parent like I see I think every generation might see that parents didn't think I paid attention either but um [laughter] >> I want you know it shaped them and we're blaming a lot of that on uh the you know these iPhones and the clicking and the this and we don't want the the school environment to um exasperate
061something that we already have we have a problem with. Um but really you know are we are we look are we monitoring uh increased digital use as it relates to sustaining attention. So I think the short answer is no. We're not monitoring that in-house. But is there research out there right now, a considerable amount of re research out there right now that suggests that? Absolutely. And I think that's one of the reasons why we need to be mindful of the fact that in situations where we may have a a teacher who is and I'll keep coming back to that term oversaturation, but it's an appropriate term where they're using digital tools too much. um it is our responsibility to work with that teacher to to pull them back to a more traditional uh instructional model.
062Um but inhouse no I mean we don't have you know I wish we did have on call statisticians that we could send in and when people ask questions like that we could gather that research but it's widely available uh because it is an emerging I don't even want to call it an emerging problem. I think it's it's existed for quite some time now, but people are certainly paying very close attention to screen usage and and and how it is directly impacting the people's ability to attend, >> right? And so I think that's why social media is is such a detriment to our our teenagers because I read a statistic recently where I think if you it's 23 seconds or 28 seconds is their kind of maximum um attention span and that's why those little videos
063only last so long and spiral to the next one. Yeah, I'm not a social media expert, but I I know when we talk about digital use and how we're monitoring in schools, we also have to talk about with our partners at home. You know, there's a considerable concern about what students are doing once they leave school as well. Um, you know, we just all came back from April break and, you know, I try to pay attention to what I see in schools and what I see outside of schools. And at the airport, I noticed that every single kid had a had a tablet. Not one kid, I looked. Not one kid was reading a book. Not one parent was reading a book to their kids. Not only were the kids on devices, but the parents
064were on devices. And it's it's a real issue. Yesterday, I went to Starbucks to get a cup of coffee and I watched a lady walking her dog with her headphones on, step right out into traffic with her head down on her phone. Never looked left, never looked right. And I was in a complete panic and I said, "Well, either she completely trusts that that the drivers and credits are going to stop for her or whatever she was looking at on her phone had her so entranced that that's a real problem. It's an eyeopening issue that we all have to pay attention to." And to whatever extent at school we are feeding into the problem, we have to pay attention to that and we have to own that on our end too. But this kind of
065goes into those but the um you mentioned saturation and teacher do we have any concrete rails as such as recommendations for the maximum I mean do the teachers have an idea hey you shouldn't be K2 this should be the maximum just guard rails you know overall so that the teachers that might be over might might come to realize that themselves or something. So again, I think I want to lean into our our two core tools that we're using. Again, Mike, if you want to talk a little bit about EXL and what what we provide in terms of recommendations to teachers, I I think that's where our starting point is, but I think to better answer your question, you know, we have a very robust digital toolbox and we do provide teachers and we rely on
066teachers to use their professional discretion to utilize those tools when it's appropriate to meet the learning targets that they've set for students. And that doesn't mean in a class of 20 that at any given time all 20 students need to be on a device or a particular app. It could mean that the teacher has through data analysis determine that a small group needs to be on a particular digital tool for that time period. So, um, there's a lot that lends itself to teacher discretion, which would make me think when we talk about our internal audit that it would be really important for our building administrators to gather [clears throat] that data on where they think there are teachers who need professional learning to pull back on and where there are teachers who may need um,
067inservice training on providing support pushing into to find kind of that middle ground. So, we don't I I wouldn't say to Dr. Jones is a fourth grade teacher. 30 minutes is the maximum amount of time that kids are on a device in the day. And I know for many parents that might be what you're looking for, but I don't know if that's a realistic thing, a realistic ask for us uh to pursue. Would you say to them, you know, based on the fact that you pulled up 30 minutes, would you say to them, uh, guys, if you your if the these kids are in second grade and are on devices for two and a half hours, you need to give one of us a call. Like, yeah. Okay. So, that's what I mean by guard
068rail. Those are the things that before the car crashes into a tree. It's gonna hit the guard. It's still gonna be an accident. Yeah. Um, but like, >> holy cow, >> why didn't you know, >> and I think that's why Kim uh >> had the schedule >> had this schedule up to people that we have a comprehensive literacy block and within that block there are exposure points with digital tools, but they're very limited. And so if a teacher is following the prescribed block, utilizing the tools as we've recommended, then it shouldn't, you know, hit the gardener. Got it. Okay. So if it's the nuances that are that are handling the the the um 10,000 ft view of this, um you mentioned something else about, you know, the airport and right the parents around and things
069and stuff like that. And a lot of the parents, and believe it or not, as old as I am, I still have, you know, kids. So uh it started a little later but um I got involved with technology during a time when all of this um research about the uh the the the attention and that wasn't out yet. So I was comfortable with that and you know um having an educator as a wife um and being involved in board vet has has widened my eyes to it. But given the fact that we know that there are parents that like myself that prior to this or that maybe don't have educators in their house aren't as aware. Do we what I'm saying is we already have significant recreational screen time at home and do we send
070guidelines you know home like you know we tell parents that over the summer gee it would be great if the kids could read this this many books or something like that gee it would be great if if you know u we could limit the screen time to this while at least they're doing their education. I don't know. I just wanted to to um align on on on that point that you brought um to my head here that that that there's so much recreational stuff at home and that there's a gap of people that that that were it was just common for for some of them and and I will make the uh the children's um capacity um and that's a board event member, I sometimes find myself having to fight against the parents. We used
071to make decisions sometimes saying we recognize that that there's some parents that are screaming yelling for this, but we don't think it's it's, you know, it's the best thing for the Greenwich public schools and for uh learning. So, the the opposite of that may be true as well. >> I I mean, it would be an interesting debate. And I'd be curious to see where some people land on it. And you you could say that tomorrow we're going to pull all of these smartboards off the wall and install chalk boards and, you know, >> go go go way back. Pull the devices away from the kids. If they still have exposure to devices when they leave school, I wonder how much we are actually helping the the bigger problem. Do you know what I'm saying? Because
072the exposure is still there. and then knowing what we know about how effective certain digital tools can be when used appropriately for the right amount of time are we doing the right thing for kids so I don't think you can again that's why I thought the scale was really an appropriate visual for this presentation today is we have to find that balance and you know co threw us out of balance for sure but without the digital platform there wouldn't have been instruction to the extent that we were able to provide it to students and So, uh, it served a purpose. Um, and we learned a lot from that time, but some people got too comfortable using those tools for sure. >> And it doesn't escape me that, you know, a lot of the things that,
073um, we've come up with as a board and caucuses as we speak to one another um, that's that the solutions often involve. I said, "Do you you think there technology out there that can track the the keystrokes and the solution? The technology is inevit in inevitably technology." Um well, when we designed this presentation and and and Terry did a nice job, uh Mike Ting is our our our technology expert for the district. Uh we knew that this would probably lead lead to a part two presentation for parents where Mr. Ting comes in with his department, the from the IT side, because I think they can answer some at a better level the technical aspects of what we can track, what type of information we can call. And so I I think this is again part
074one of I don't know how many parts this this will will end up being but um there's a lot of layers to this and so um that would probably be the logical next conversation we have with the IT department. >> Um I I think I forgot to say thankful so first of all his presentation was amazing. It was really helpful um and I really appreciate thank you also for the um printouts to to refer back to. That was great and I know it will be available. Um, I love the idea of getting feedback from teachers and administrators. Um, I'm wondering, and I use the word like survey very lightly, but sort of like, and I'm open to other ideas, but I'm thinking maybe some sort of a survey where we could put together, you know,
075I think what I'm hearing is that through the internal audit, we're looking at potentially maybe some guard rails, maybe some assessment of the tools that we're using, just usage in general, and looking at all these things. What I would love is that if all of us together with the curriculum committee, Dr. Jones, all of you guys, all of you guys principles and looking at you um can put together a short list of questions, 10 questions, nothing. I do not looking to take teachers times. they can also give us some feedback of where they would like us to go with this where they would like to see some guard whales where they find technology to either be a support or a hindrance because I don't have a good sense always from them in areas where they're
076struggling with either what we're asking them to do or what sorry we're not supporting them with um so that would be something um I don't know if we're allowed to help with that but I'm volunteering our services so >> we do we survey our teachers >> with that >> on on different aspects all the time. Matter of fact, while I was sitting here, that's what just popped up on my screen. And this is uh surveying all of the high school staff about the cell phone usage because in the high school, as you know, we didn't go bell to bell like other districts. And so I couldn't help but open it up like a percentage. And you know, and 60% of our high school teachers want the phones off and away bell to bell. So, it's
077interesting at the high school, which the parents are the ones we heard more from that they did not they want kids to have access to their um phones at lunchtime and passing time. The teachers are saying put them away. So, anyway, it's just interesting. Maybe that needs to be a whole another meeting. >> Well, I had that was actually one of my questions, but that's probably not curriculum related. Um, >> do you guys have thoughts? You guys talked [clears throat] a little bit about the internal audit. Um, Paul used the word guard rails. Um, one of the things I only have little kids. Um, I only have little kids. Um, but my thought is that tech the impacts of technology are significantly worse the younger the students. That's not to say that we don't want
078to consider the issues that we have in middle school and high school. They're just different. They're just different. And so if we were going to talk about guardrails particularly at the elementary school um because I think it might be a tad easier and again a different topic with curriculum is there anything that you guys have sort of at the forefront of your mind of places where you might um cut down eliminate restructure um off copy your head sorry and that can be I'll get back to you question also >> yeah I mean I don't know if anybody on the team has anything that they want to share here. I I I tried to that's a weighty question and I want to be thoughtful in my response because I would imagine there are going to be
079a lot of teachers that want to listen in on this and you know what I say affects what they do >> of course >> and so I don't want to make anybody unnecessarily nervous or uncomfortable about what we might re-evaluate. >> Okay. >> Um >> but I don't disagree with you. Miss Fogle as a new mom was just actually schooling me on the latest research. Right, Miss Fogle? >> [laughter] >> And it's so it you will not get an argument out of me that we need to pay attention to this topic. I'm not someone who's going to try to come up here and defend um an overuse of digital tools and tools. Um on the contrary, I'm I lean more the other way. So again, I just want to be really clear that we want
080to be thoughtful about the tools we use. We want them to be effective in improving student outcomes. We want them to be uh available to teachers so that as the clinicians, right, they know when to use it and for what purpose, but we don't want it used when it doesn't serve the purpose that we've intended it for. So again, I go back to the soft targets of there's no reason that we need to use devices at recess, >> right? >> And I think that's such an easy example >> and there may be others that I'm not thinking [snorts] of. It's been a few years since I've been a principal, but you know, it it requires conversation with our people out in the buildings because again, I don't like to do things to people. I'd rather
081do things with them. And so, this is a you know, this is a partnership internally with our administrators, externally with the board and our and our parents. Um, and and we'll make strides. It's just a matter of, you know, how quickly we act on certain things that um are key to change and then be more thoughtful on the things that, you know, we got to we got to examine the impact if you take something away. >> Did you want to add? >> I do just want to chime in because I think I can speak on behalf of the core curriculum area team and saying anything that's included in our curriculum right now is included with intentionality and purpose. So as far as where are we feeling about what tools are in there, >> they've been
082weighed against other metrics and determined that these are the best tools to get to the goals that we have for our students. >> And it's important to know that what um the more recent community conversation has helped us to understand is looking across content areas, not living in our silos and just doing what's best for our students within our content areas at an individual area of their day, but looking at their entire day from arrival to dismissal. and then negotiating. I find it really important for a kindergartener to be on Lexia for 10 minutes to do this. Is it equally as important for them to also be on something in math or maybe that's where the give and the take and the push and the pull is. It's a internal conversation about what do we
083prioritize across the students entire day. So there is nothing embedded in a curriculum document provided from a coordinator that has not been thought about with deep intentionality. I think that's the most important that five minutes or [laughter] you have a lot to say. >> Do you have another question? >> Sure. >> Go ahead. maybe somewhat invested more of a statement, but I'm wonderful, you know, are we our guidance counselors, are we seeing any um uh for those of you that have been doing this for 35 years plus? Are we seeing more students with anxiety, more students feeling isolation? um are there are there um guidance counselors focused on that? Are there tools that are provided to them to to look out for that? Um I think that is a question, not a statement. And I'm
084glad you asked it though because something told me that I thought we should have someone from our department to sit in. >> You want to come I don't know chair. >> Come on. introduce yourself. >> My name is Dr. Moy. >> Oh, thank you. >> I'm part of the behavior support team and I'm so happy to hear the concerns and the questions. By the way, great questions. I was going through my mind and questions on, you know, anxiety, attention because there's a lot of research back there about um the use of technology balancing things out. And of course we live in a digital era where we have to prepare students for the future but balancing what's good for their mental health as well. And um one of the things I wanted to share uh is
085that even our team has been called multiple times this year and I'm looking at M Ramirez here because I've recently been at North Miami where we had conversation active practic conversations with parents about um the impact of technology screen time on attention on mental health. So uh throughout the year we've been meeting with parents and having those discussions. We look at the research. I I heard you ask the question of research. We look at the American Psychological Association as well as the American Pediatric Association. There's ample data um that looks at total amount of screen time per age. How much is enough? How much is too much? Um and and you know the conversations are grade level specific. Um so you know to answer the question we see kids post pandemic more disregulated. So I
086think because we are in school all the time and observing and working with our teachers, the feedback we get from teachers is that kids do experience a level of stress but also this regulation like needing to move to get up to be interacting um to be um you know just actively more involved rather than um just sitting down or having the traditional approach from going from one activity in the other activity. Um, so we've tried to cleverly look at the time and how the teachers can incorporate breaks like mindfulness breaks, deb breathing, right? Getting like that one minute and a half of just disconnecting and letting your brain reset. Um we looked at research, we did our own little research by doing observations and looking at student engagement um and how small breaks throughout the
087day can help improve their academic participation, their focus and just intentionality in learning. So I do think anxiety has raised nationwide and internationally right post pandemic. We have many reasons of why that happened. Um of course there's connection with screen time. Um but to u Mr. Dono's point, there's a lot of conversation about what happens after they get home, right? The screen time that's involved after they get home. Um but I think we have to just find clever ways of incorporating more of that connection interaction, human connection, right? We we want them to feel that they belong. That's one of our strategic goals that they want. We want them to feel connected to schools. Um our counselors are asking questions about that like do you have a trusted adult? Do you have friends you interact
088with? Do you feel like a sense of belonging to school? Um and we we do look at how can we incorporate more of those social emotional pieces where we teach kids about being aware of what the impact is of screen time. Um being aware of symptoms of anxiety and distress and also having professional learning for our mental health professionals to identify those proactively in conversations with pe uh with teachers and students and uh you know getting into the classroom and helping provide support before we have you know kids fall apart. for my can you tell me again what your title is where you what I I found this the most in you guys are wonderful you've really got my my attention here like we're we're talking about the national pediatric that's what's that's the research
089those are the things that I'm talking about um you get a lot of nerves so I'm just wondering where you fit in and and can be duplicated. So what tell me what it is. >> So I'm a teacher psychologist. This is my third year in Greenwich and I'm part of the behavior support team and part of our team were three psychologists that are really um going into the schools working with our students, our teachers, our parents into promoting mental health and making sure our kids have um all that they need to be successful learners. So, >> it seemed to me like you connected um uh uh good mental health with that that disconnection um and um and that education to, you know, uh identifying the signs that could go along with, you know, having friends
090online as opposed to having real friends and with people. And I think that's the crisis that we find ourselves in. I want to speak to the broader um um digital learning. Uh I want to be mindful that it's it's very helpful, but it has some hazards. But where where you're at is making sure I mean that's the ultimate guard rail, right? Is the is these children feeling this anxiety and and alienated and all of those other things. So emotionally, um you know, those are the kids I I I feel the most for. from a board of ed point of view I have to look broader so maybe that's why it was such a thank you >> thank you and I want to mention the fact that our team like we're very proud of that because
091this was our first year where come up to Wednesday of next week we would have gone to every single classroom K through 12 talking about um you know the the the as aspects of technology so we do it in our bullying prevention lessons with little um like younger grades. We talk about cyber bullying, we talk about relationships, um strategies to interact with one another. But with our high school students and middle school students, we really have a good chunk of that through health lessons. That's where we um got to talk to the kids. We talk about um the impact of screen time. How much is enough? How much is too much? And I think kids are very receptive and they talk to us about their experience and their own the impact that they see uh
092in their personal life and I think that has been very valuable for us because you know not only it allows them to have the firsthand experience with our students but also have them see it as a resource and be open to discussions and get to be having that proactive approach. Are you involved in the curriculum uh team at all when it comes to to to this? Are you do you interact with the curriculum team? >> We we have had uh sessions of planning. Yes, we have done um we had conversations just recently. event with these wonderful coordinators talking about exactly functioning mental health where we can insert some things change some things with um regards to how we approach curriculum where can we incorporate and integrate more things that we address kids as a whole
093not just academically but emotionally you know we have parents share feedback about exact functioning part of it being attention planning organizing all of that so we hear the concern and we take a look at as a whole approach so yes we have done uh sessions of bing. >> One of the things that I see as as a potential barrier for us to achieve, you know, um the perfect balance and the the human connection plus the uh these scores going up and this being, you know, these guys learning is that uh there is so much data out there that these digital tools really can help turbo boost the the learning. I mean, and so as teachers and educators that are looking at looking for these scores, you go, these are these are no-brainers. Um, but on
094the other hand, the research that's out there by very, you know, significant institutions and professionals is telling us a totally different story. Um, I know it's hard to take a step backwards to go two steps forwards in educational environment. We don't want, you know, we're are going to cause the kids that are in the eighth grade and ninth grade now to really be less smart because this is they're going to be in this transition thing and this team here is is tasked with making sure we have the most educated students um possible. Um and that could be in conflict to um the healthiest and um you know uh feeling um nonisolated and things of that nature. So I'm looking for the balance of these two things. Um more specifically the balance of these two research
095sets. and you sound like you're very involved in reading the research sets on on the the harms in um digital tools at the school level. Um, and so I just think that this combination here of of a debate between, hey, this is, you know, really three debates. I mean, you know, we're talking about uh providing textbooks to all of our students and and there's been, you know, you go to the airport and they're not reading books, they're reading tablets and they go home and they put these books out. That's a lot of money that we could potentially be wasting. So, we have a a fiscal responsibility here, too, to use that money in the best possible way. and is that best possible way buying everybody a book so they end up you know leaving it
096and you know maybe it is that that's the connection that they they need if that's the catalyst. So uh sorry I don't have any answers but I do like the the the way this is coming together. >> Can I just add two things too? I think again it's all about balance and that's why this team works so hard and we are in our first year of reorganizing on the mental health side and uh Jessica Mckley is leading that whole team now where we were also just like they talked about being in silos with math and science and literacy and from a screen time perspective now they're trying to coordinate more what does the full day look like we were also that way with mental health we had social workers we had psychologists and we had
097counselors and and in the previous six years that I was here, I'm not sure we even had one meeting where they were all in the same room, same kind of topics and training together. This year, all of that has changed and their professional development around these big issues is much more focused and and again, this is our very first year of reorganizing. So, I I think it's just going to get better and better. Um, and as you know, like even in elementary, we didn't have counselors, social workers at all for for children. you had psychologists if a student qualified for services, but um it was during COVID that we started with using our ARP funding to put a part-time social worker in every elementary um and then we slowly built that into the operating budget
098so we didn't lose them when the money [clears throat] went away. And I think those positions have been so valuable for elementary to work with our kids. >> One before we lose Lisa, I'm so sorry. I call out PTAC over there. Um, we as a district are having an internal audit on the use of technology. I would encourage PTAC PTAs and parents to also have an internal audit at home. It's as I just said yesterday, kids are in school for 6 hours a day you have around. If in a dream world your kids slept 12 hours, that's 6 hours at home. Schools are 50% responsible for the bringing up child, they're responsible for an aspect of it. And I think that, you know, some collaboration with ETA and PTA to also encourage parents to have
099an internal audit at home for what they want and to encourage the goals. We're going to have devices in schools. There are state tests on devices that we need to prepare our kids for. We're going to continue to use a lot of these tools. We will look at this thoughtfully and carefully and parents need to do that, too. You know, I don't think we had a a power stop, but I think that you guys >> I keep going. Yeah, but I don't want to shut you down. If you have more questions, >> I can shut anyone else down if they have more to say, but I want to thank everyone for their time and their thorough present, thorough presentation. Um, taking these questions in the spirit that they're intended. Um, I'm grateful for the focus
100on the on the balance and the human connection. Um, and and hope we can look ahead at both the benefits and the potential. >> Um, motion >> motion to motion to >> motion to shuffle. [laughter] >> Thank you.