001to order. It is 7:3 of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I was also hoping since today is um you know the 24th anniversary of 911, I was hoping that we could just take a moment uh for silence of of silence to you know to remember all of those who perished on that day and and just you know have a somber moment before we we begin. That's okay. Thank you. Wow, I can actually hear crickets. It's impressive. Um, so on that note, um, I would like to start with our first discussion item, which was the 2025 2026 assessment schedule. I hand the mic over to Mr. Mito. Good evening everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to speak
002with you tonight. I'll be providing a brief synopsis of our current 202526 assessment calendar and a summary of the curriculum development work completed over the summer. You'll notice that the assessment calendar remains largely unchanged from last year, reflecting our commitment to consistency and instructional clarity. The structure continues to support meaningful data collection while minimizing over testing. Regarding curriculum with the volume of summer work uh being reduced compared to previous years, this should not be viewed as a shortfall. Rather, it's a positive indicator that our aggressive and strategic efforts over the past few years have positioned us well. We're now entering a phase of stability and refinement where consistency, alignment, and instructional quality are our primary focus. We look forward to answering any questions you have tonight. And since we're starting with the assessment calendar, I
003do want to highlight one new assessment that we have added in grades 6 through 8. And uh Miss Fogle is not with us this evening as she's home with her beautiful uh new baby boy. Um, we have added the inner orbit assessments. They're now fully being implemented at the beginning, middle, and end of each year in the middle school except at the end of 8th grade because we have the NGSS assessment that the students will take. We did uh message this to the board last year and that we had done a soft opening uh of the inner orbit assessments and now we are fully committed to it. And what was the purpose behind that? The purpose behind that was we didn't have a benchmark assessment in middle school science and we felt it was really
004important to be able to uh track student progress through middle school uh that we put that in place. Um so that's where we're at with the only new addition to the assessment calendar. Just a reminder of the change we made last year. We did shift our benchmarks. We eliminated benchmark A in the fall and replaced it with benchmark C formally the end of year from the year prior. Um benchmark B remains in January and the end ofear benchmark was eliminated because we get the SBA results so early now again trying to eliminate testing redundancies. uh we weren't gaining any additional data that would be actionable by giving kids two tests virtually backtoback at the end of the year. So um with that I'm happy to take any questions again. What what are the main takeaways
005of our assessment calendar that you should um celebrate? That this district prioritizes instructional time over excessive testing. That datadriven instruction is central with assessments designed to inform teaching, not just to measure outcomes. That we have equity and access. Uh and that is emphasized through our universal screeners and differentiated tools. And that the calendar is comprehensive. and that all of the folks behind me are available at any time to answer any questions that you have about content specific assessments. That's the 202526 assessment update. >> Does anybody have any questions on the assessment calendar? Much like last week, Ber Oh, that was subtle. Come on, Mike. >> Thanks, sir. Um, as always, I appreciated the video and it feels like it's nice that we're doing both of these um with this with the summer update because it
006seemed like there were similar themes um in both around um you know, the the things that we have in place and the other areas where we're where we're growing growing the program. you and I had a um a brief conversation a couple weeks ago. So I I thought we could we could we could you could touch base on that talking about an ongoing conversation we've had over the last few years at the board level like it seems like we have a lot of benchmarks and screeners and things in earlier grades and then when we move up into the secondary level as you know one of the concerns that I've had for a while is that um the fear that kids slip through the cracks like that we're not we're not um um catching um not
007necessarily our our classified side students. We we know where our special education students are, but maybe our students who were below grade level or below benchmark in reading or whatnot. We we know where they are in the in the middle school tests and then they get the high school and then it's the PSAT. Um so I don't know if you how much you want to share about what we talked about or where we go in the conversation is there. >> Yeah, I actually don't want to steal Miss Barry's thunder. She's done a lot of work behind the scenes with with the staff at the high school in the area of reading. So, I'm going to ask Bridget if she uh would like to come to the table and share some of the uh information. >>
008Um you said you know where you are with the middle school. Will we know where we are with incoming nth grade? Because on the first day that teachers are back for the full day and we're in department, every teacher that's going to have an under three students looks at in link and um looks at the the students in their class, their SBA scores, their link scores. They get a really cool profile from those scores. They can see everything, their grades, the scores all the way back through our school system. So the kids in their classes, they know where they are at that point. And from there we practice. We start with benchmarks. We have a lot of formative assessments. And then in October we have the first PSAT. So we do get a bead on
009them. those kids who aren't necessarily um qualified or or in special ed or classified if they are if they've already come through with somewhat low reading scores they are going to tend to be in the reading classes that in English classes and social classes that are smaller already teachers will work closely with them and be quite aware of their skills. Um [Music] so so so help us understand then so then then what so after the that first PSAT uh what what happens next? So teachers will look at the scores of the SA PSAT in October in addition to the scores they've had below. They'll in their PLC's they're going to look at the scores and see how did you do? Who were the low kids? what are we going to do? All of their um
010their own goals for the year are based on raising those scores. So our department benchmarks are aligned with the PSAT and so their their goals are aligned with raising those. So they're going to think about for the next formative assessment, what are they going to do? They see what happens to those scores. So if a student really is not um thriving with that kind of attention, then we might recommend a reading class and have the reading um the specialists work with the student. >> We have do we have do we are is that in those reading classes is that where we would use more more discrete tools? >> Absolutely. they have a whole paniply of um assessments that they use. >> So, so my and it sounds great. This is this is not meant to
011be interrogation. Obviously, we're talking back and forth. So I the concern that I think I raised this time last year um um and the conversation was around if we felt that the the tools that we have at our disposal are are discreet enough is um I think comparison to math where because of whatnot we have very discreet tools where we know exactly where they are different indicators. Obviously on the PSAT you're not going to get like a a Lexile number Lexile of course isn't any everything anyway. Um and I so I guess the question do we feel then at the high school um that we have um enough robust tools now in place that we're we're catching kids where they are and making sure that everybody's getting to grade level. Right. So like this year
012we had I think the last year's eighth grade class when they went the last the eighth grade scores I think 77% which is up 77% were on on were profession on the on the state tests which is awesome that of course means there 22% that's not we don't have 22% of the nth graders classified. Um so do we have um so the question obviously is are we as um doing it do we think now at this point that we're where we we have just discrete enough tools to to catch all the kids where we are I guess >> and it is interesting we are this year for the first time the reading teachers are going to use to see ex there are kids in their class who aren't in special ed and who we don't
013there may be something more so we are going to use to see if if that'll add to our battery of um assessments. >> Well, that's 77%. Oh, I excel in reading. >> Mhm. >> If anybody else has questions in regards to assessments, they can, you know, raise their hands. But if you have others continue, you're not we're monopolizing. You're asking valid, you know, questions. Thank you, Bridget. >> Thank you. >> No, I don't have any questions. I know I'm >> That's wonderful. >> That's okay. I have some I have some for curriculum institute. Don't you worry. Okay. Okay. Sophie, then Kathleen, >> I'm just curious if you could talk about how many like or I guess yeah, roughly how many instructional minutes we regain by cutting out these additional assessments over this like days or
014you know when you talk about removing them because I think that that's to me is what's appealing about it, right? Is you get more instructional time. >> Yeah. I I off the top of my head, I couldn't tell you how many minutes, but when we eliminate uh benchmark C, you know, kids can sit uh for that for multiple periods. Um it it's not so much about gaining the instructional minutes back because it's at the end of the year as much as it is about not getting really reliable data. The kids are fatigued. You know, they come right out of the SBA and have to go right into that benchmark. So, uh, for us in listening to the teachers and you know, it's really important that we keep our ear to the ground. Um, a couple
015of things when we pull out assessments is one, does it give us information that's actionable? And two, is it necessary? And in both cases, the benchmark C wasn't um wasn't giving us actionable data. we we felt the kids, you know, were weren't necessarily giving us their best efforts and the SBA results were coming back so quickly that the teachers were honed in on and the administrators were honed in on looking at the, you know, item analysis through that test. Um, so in terms of instructional minutes, yeah, we we gained a little bit of time back. Um but we've also over the course of the past few years have kind of paired back assessments um with the understanding that you know if you're spending time testing then obviously you're not spending time teaching um but but
016it's not o I wouldn't say it's overly significant amounts of instructional time we've gained back >> and say sticking with that theory so you have been reducing the assessment schedule, which is great because I think that was sort of the um the push by the board and parents in general. Do you feel as a result it does seem like we're getting better and better results. So there there must be some sort of correlation which is great to hear. Um have you looked at what since we're kind of at the top and I think I'm going to keep talking about that we're like number five, right? in the and I have to say to me we're really number one because we have a much different composition of students than those other four towns that were ahead
017of us. Um so do you look at what those towns are doing just out of curiosity are they testing more or less just to look at where we stand and if that I don't know if that's good or bad. I'm just wondering. >> Yeah, I don't really spend a lot of time looking at what other districts do. I feel very committed to the plan that we've developed over the course of the last few years. I feel very strongly about um the curriculum management plan that we've developed um the professional development we've been providing to teachers, the instructional choices that we've made in terms of the curriculum content that we've provided to teachers. Um I've been focused more inward than looking at what others are doing and and I think our results are showing that other
018people are starting to take notice of and and calling us about the things that we're doing. So, um, I'm not really modeling I haven't modeled our approach after anyone else's. I've I've >> It's good data people are calling us. I wonder if it's because we're testing less or it would just be interesting. >> Yeah. I I mean, that's certainly one of the variables, but but to me, you know, and we will certainly talk about this more next month. Um, when when you ask yourself what are the attributes to the to the success? Um, to me it goes back to the strong blueprint for learning that we developed five years ago. Um, and our commitment to I mean we've turned the K8 curriculum upside down. And after next year, we've we've really gone through every content
019area and have revitalized it in a way that makes sense, at least in my opinion, makes sense. Um we've provided teachers with um the materials they need to be successful and to uh meaningfully engage with all of the students in their classrooms. Um our academic coordinators have gone out and provided meaningful professional development. They uh they model lessons for for teachers. They provide coaching opportunities. Um to me it's it's it's the recipe that that I feel has has brought us to this level of success that again we'll talk about next month. Um assessment certainly pay you know plays a part in that. Um but when you give the right assessments and you use the assessments um in the right ways um to drive future instructional decisions then then I think you you overall will see
020you know the success that we're seeing. Um, I'm really, you know, this is a hard conversation for me to have with you tonight because I really want to kind of fast forward and get right to the achievement report. Um, but we will we'll be back in a few weeks with with really a lot of exciting data uh to share with you. And um, I'll simply say this. I've asked you for several years to have patience that I knew that the that the blueprint that we developed was going to yield the success. But much like when you plant a seed in the soil, except if you're in first grade, when you plant it in a plastic cup and you can see what's going on underneath, um you have to trust the process. um things were happening
021underneath the soil over the last few years and we saw threads of success that we knew were going to bloom and this year we're really you know this past school year the assessment results we can really see that the roots are taking hold and we are flourishing and and I you know I hope there's a lot of teachers who will tune in next month because all of the credit goes to our teachers and to the people sitting behind me >> that's actually sorry that's actually the one thing I was going to say is like you know you guys are planting the seeds but behind you I don't want call them fertilizer, but like we've sprinkled them with love and and attention so that those plants have grown. So I either way I' I've been very
022excited about that. I can't wait for the data. Yeah. >> Okay. >> I don't think I mean the data is public so I don't know if we necessarily have to bury the lead here and keep everybody in suspense 100%. I mean the um we I mean >> I should say I'm excited for us to have the discussion about data. How's that? >> Absolutely. But for anybody watching at home, I mean the the headline I see is that we have exceeded in, you know, in in elementary and middle school, we are basically have exceeded or met all of our pre-COVID benchmarks. We we have regained all the learning loss from pre-COVID which is remarkable because the headline in the newspap just the other week is how the state has not >> I was going to say
023we've been leading the state and we talked a little bit briefly last week that all of the investments that we made and we were lucky to have some of that extra funding when we were talking about budget to be able to invest in this area and invest in the individuals you see here in professional development because it really is um creating something extra special like we're we're seeing growth And it's I can't wait. That's why I said I can't wait to discuss the the data when we get it. >> Yeah. And and the theme really is >> you guys from the state >> and it starts with tonight and talking a little bit about the the assessment calendar. When I when I use those words, you know, consistency and stability, um they're really really important
024words in in education because too often we constantly change the curriculum that we ask teachers to teach. And if you don't give them the opportunity to really uh engage with quality content, learn it, reflect on it, refine it, teach it again the next year and the next year and collaborate. Um they never really become masters of that content or that delivery. And um we shoot ourselves in the foot when we do that. So, if you take your time and you develop a blueprint for success and you invest in the right curriculum materials and you professionally develop teachers in a thoughtful way, um, and you stay true to that course and you minimize distractions, um, you will see success and that's what we're starting to see. >> Also, the consistency across the district, you know, both
025vertically and horizontally. I think providing our educators with, you know, prevetted material so they don't have to spend time hunting that down and instead they can focus more specifically on the student, I think has been, you know, fantastic, uh, you know, for for all parties involved, too. So big thank you >> and you deserve a great deal of thanks because you you've trusted us and you've allowed us to continue our work and you've invested in that work and and by doing so you will see the the results of that. So thank you for your commitment to our work. >> Does anybody else have questions on the assessment calendar? >> No. No curriculum institute. First, before before we do that, I wanted to welcome our newest uh team member here also, right? You >> sure? Miss
026Leah Stillman, our K12 arts coordinator. >> Welcome to the district, Leah. We uh we look forward to to hearing more, you know, about everything that you're doing for the arts. >> I did think we would put her a little bit just a little bit maybe on the hot seat tonight and and ask her to talk about the the summer work that she did not participate in at all. >> But what the heck, we might as well, you know, get her up here and talk a little bit about that. I just wanted to give her a big welcome. >> Thank you, Miss Thank you, Miss Hersh. Um, I'm going to give you a one minute summary. So, the 2025 Summer Curriculum Institute report outlines Greenwich Public Schools K12 curriculum development efforts aimed at improving instruction uh
027improving instructional quality, access, and student outcomes. Over the summer, educators collaborated across departments to revise pacing guides, align content with updated standards, and integrate innovative practices like AI and differentiated instruction. Um, I have a list of highlights that I think we should talk about, but again, I think perhaps you might have all uh taken the time to read the reports and listen to the videos. So, there might be certain things that you're interested in hearing more about from either our um KA coordinators or our program administrators at the high school level. Uh, so we can do this in any order that you would like if there's something in particular or if I I I feel really bad. I'm sure Miss Stillman is like, "Oh my goodness, you're going to call on me." Why don't we
028just have Miss Leah come up right now and she can talk to you about our new modern band course. Was that all right? >> Well, I was going to say I was going to let you decide the order with which you would like to do it since you have all of these, you know, fantastic individuals behind you. >> Sometimes it's best to just get it over with. So, >> yeah, we're ripping that band-aid off. >> No expectation. I don't have to find >> I don't know what day this is for you on the job, but I I think we're we're not too far into it. So, >> week three, but >> week three. Yeah. And I can use that mic. You don't have to touch the button. >> I don't touch the button. Okay. >>
029So, as you know, with the turnover and coordinator uh role this year, we did put a pause on the summer curriculum work um or the district put a pause. I um stepped into the role officially on August 18th. So, um and uh and thank you for having me. I'm enjoying the the challenge thus far. myself getting out to buildings and just seeing what's going on and really just kind of seeing how how things work and uh year one for me is um is to take it all in. Um and then and then we'll take a look at where we should grow and what looks, you know, with with my wonderful teachers that I've been super impressed with um their buy into their programs. I will say that. So, you don't find that in every district.
030So, it's been pretty amazing to to watch what's going on already even in week two and a halfish. So, but the one thing that was developed was this modern band course at the high school which um I'm happy to say I want to say there was about 40 40 students that um are making up this course that will run in the morning and there'll be one that runs after school also. And in order to be um enrolled in this course, they have to already have taken what's required and I'm learning the lingo in Greenwich, this full-time sixb block music class during the day in order to be able to take advantage of this course. Um which is a quarter credit and it's also an honors course. So it gives them honors credit in addition. Um
031and there's uh seven focus uh focuses of areas of focus and development from instrument techniques and fundamentals, harmony understanding, form and song structure. They'll be working on improvisation, equipment and sound reinforcement, songwriting, and uh performing an ensembler. What does that all mean? Basically, um, from what I heard this morning, they've created six bands within those with Yeah, really neat. So, each band consists of vocalist, guitar, bass, drums, um, and, uh, some auxiliary. And in the process, not only are they going to learn how to uh, arrange and perform the music, but they have to actually learn how to set it all up, too. So they're really diving into the electronic piece and this is actually I have a little bit of a background in this also um in developing some of this stuff. So this
032is a little bit this is my language too. So um so they will when they put a performance on which they'll put four of them on throughout the year and they're going to kind of piggy back on some of those performances that the high school are already doing and uh they'll perform at different events and some of the groups will perform at different times. Um, when they do that, they also have to learn how to set up their equipment. So, they have to learn how to get their their sound check and and everything in check and right correct before they actually perform, which is a whole different uh skill set. So, when we're talking about building careers for the future in the music world, one of the big careers right now is audio engineering and
033um the the sound side of the music world. So this not only prepares them as what's cool about this is they get that piece but they also have to have the musical aptitude to be able to perform. So um so in addition to using the instruments and and kind of doing with this whole process uh we've bought into they did a big survey and decided which software program that they were going to use and um I believe it's I think it's music first that they're using which I am familiar with. Yeah, it's music first which is a cloud-based software. Most of the softwares now that are used similar to Google where it's a platform online. They sign in on any device, right? And they can so they could go home and work on their arranging
034at home if they wanted to with their login. Um but the nice thing about music first is it gives it gives the teachers assessment tools that they can use with it also. So it has the assessment piece and the and the studentf facing piece and um and that kind of goes handinhand with the performance and all the things that go with it. So that's >> sounds a little longer than I expected. >> I was going to say sounds like it meets exactly what we always talk about, you know, the mission of our schools is ensuring our students are prepared for, you know, future outside of Greenwich Public Schools and giving them those tools to succeed if this is the career path they choose is fantastic. So thank you for sharing that with us. Absolutely. Any
035question? >> Yeah. No, it it sounds it sounds awesome and I'm I'm not putting you on the hot seat. The >> You can It's okay. >> Um but one thing that >> I'm learning quickly. >> I had no idea what that was what you meant by modern band. You say modern band, I think Gustaf Holtz. So I >> That was a band kid joke. >> That was an impressive reference. Um, the one thing I thought from the video though is um it sounds like it's a new course. Did we >> Did we vote for it? >> Did we did? I couldn't remember. >> Yeah. >> Okay, so we did vote for it. >> Okay, great. Awesome. >> So, you're on yourself. >> Good job. >> We had a lot of stuff on our agendas all
036through last year. It's hard to remember every >> meeting. [Laughter] >> All right, I have a soft question. Are we going to do a battle of the bands or something like that? >> I mean, I can't uh answer that question completely, but that would be a neat concept to put together. So, Well, I think you're I think you're going to find >> I was say I think you're going to find our students from kindergarten onward are exceptionally talented in so many different ways in the arts and that we focus on that just as much, you know, as as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Arts is such a huge part of, you know, I think our curriculum for our students. So, we're we're excited to have you here to help. >> Thank you. It's one of the
037things that drew me to Greenwich for sure >> was your investment in the art. >> Where did you come? I'm sorry. Where did you come from again? I forgot. >> Uh recently. >> Yeah. >> Uh I was in Madison before this for five years as their curriculum coordinator. >> Well, welcome. >> Thank you. >> Um >> does anybody else have questions for Lita? No. >> You are released from free from the hot seat. >> Well done. Um, so I don't know if you want to bring people up and and go through by subject or you just want us to ask questions. They they don't want to come up. >> Here's here's why I'm torn. I know they don't want to come up, but they know what I know, which is you don't let them leave
038because you feel bad that they all come out and you feel like everybody should at least get one question. >> Yeah. Let that go. You don't >> point of order. Mike, >> point of order. Are you all back next month? Yes. >> Okay. So, we should take that into consideration as well. >> Yeah. So, if I said so why don't we wait till next month and like to if you guys wanted, you know, to come up to say something specifically, we could just shoot some specific questions if that work. >> Yeah. Again, I think >> I think we should make everyone come up and do Come on. They make all the students get to the front of the class. We have to make each one of them say something. I was hoping a modern dance,
039but that's okay. >> All right. We'll just go right down the row. I in in full disclosure, I did email them earlier and said there's a very good chance you're all going to get called. Have two or three bullets ready so we can go through it quickly. So, let's see if they all followed my direction. >> You want to pass go right down the row. >> I got my bullets. >> Okay. >> Um, >> do you want Miss Shaw to come up at the same time? Then we can knock the whole department out. >> You can sit on the other side of Mr. D. >> My goal is to keep Mr. Mayo from coming to the microphone because we never know what he's going to say. >> He's not allowed to participate in this agenda.
040>> Um so this summer K12 in world language. Um we had a few different projects that we worked on. Um at the K5 level, we worked on revising our grade three and grade five curriculum. As you know, we revised the entire curriculum to meet the new revised guidelines of minutes. And so our teachers really we did a survey at the end of the year to see what worked, what didn't work, what needed more time so that we could adjust to make sure that the students are getting the best experience. That was a wonderful um endeavor and we came up with some really good outcomes. For the middle school, we adopted a new textbook. Thank you to the board. Um, as Margaret told you last spring, there were still, um, I think cassette tapes, she said,
041in the old text. So, our teachers got to revise the curriculum for sixth and seventh grade. And then it will be rolled out into uh, 8th grade the following year. And at the high school, we're using this same resource to help with the alignment between 612. And so, our high school teachers met to work on Spanish 1, 2, and three to integrate the new text there. Um and the other textbook which you um approved prior to my beginning um is in its fourth year starting now. So it's really gone up to the high school. So our high school teachers um spent some time integrating those new um textbook features into the curriculum. Do you want to talk about Native? >> Sure. So native Spanish is a little bit difficult uh to find a textbook that
042works for them. So for the past few years, we've been auditing the curricula and then also looking at options for resources uh using really authentic materials but not necessarily text. We are however now looking at other states who have uh rich native programs like ours, states like Texas, California to see what options we have for tax for our native Spanish students that would be useful. What we have found thus far are textbooks that tend to work for college level students. And so we're really searching for something that's appropriate for the high school level. So we'll be working on that this year. >> And just one other thing about the native language arts, we we revised our sixth grade curriculum this year and I'm really excited about that because we really took what has been done
043in ELA with revising that curriculum to really align with the native language arts. So, our native language students, many of who are English language learners, are now getting the same content and concepts in their L1 as they are in their um English class or ESL class. So, that was a really exciting uh project. >> I'm going to predict what Miss Coven's going to ask. So, let's see how good I am. Uh Mr. Mr. Shanker, can you talk a little bit about the impact of the reduction in instructional minutes in in the flesh program at the elementary level and what you what you came to find after like living through that reduction this past year? >> So, we've lived through one year of it. Um, we have revised especially with the new report card focusing on
044the skills that we have the time to focus on, which is listening and um speaking. Any questions for >> um two questions. Is the theory still on like foreign language that it's supposed to be not like the way we learned where it was like you had to be perfect that it's still supposed to be more conversational and therefore are the texts lending themselves to being like more forgiving basically like how I would learn English as a toddler is kind of how you're supposed to learn French now or is that still the theory that we're employing? >> That doesn't have to be perfect. It sounds >> correct. We we're we're looking at skills and we're looking at comprehension. And so if a student says something that is not grammatically correct, but it is comprehensible, that's the
045goal. Um do we still want to help the student understand what the errors are? Yes. But the goal is communication. And I think if anybody's been to another country um and you've tried to communicate, as long as they understand, you can get what you need. Um and then every year cl uh kids will get better and they will practice those skills. And um our AP scores which we'll talk about next week uh or in a couple weeks really show that the growth of our students is is quite phenomenal. >> You know I can't help myself. Okay. So we have 188 students taking our AP courses and we're language and 182 of those students scored three which earns them the seal of biliteracy. So, our students are proficient in the languages that they take at Greenwich.
046>> I think that's a good one to That's a walk away moment. >> Mic drop. >> I think we're back. Let's drop this mic. Okay. >> Thanks. >> Good evening everyone. Um I Bonnie is online and she did a little we did a little bit of a collab this summer. Um I will first we'll talk about 35 together and then I'll move to 68. So as you know in the curriculum management plan we're moving into this year and implementing new writing units in grades three through five. So, uh, teachers got some training before the summer started and then we had some curriculum summer work, um, in order to take the feedback from teachers and really provide all of the extras that they were looking for to make it even easier to implement this year. So,
047we got together a group of um, third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers. Um, we had two teachers on each grade level. We had a literacy specialist on that committee as well. And then we had three um ala teachers from um three through five uh across a lot of different schools and we came together to work on a few different things. So uh one of the biggest undertakings was thinking about some of the new grammar resources that are integrated into our new writing units to make grammar even more authentic um in application. So we looked at the resources that were there. Teachers really liked them, but they also really liked the sadly our grammar workshop program. Um, and so the teams worked together to see what what lessons in each of those resources would be um
048would be great for us to teach. And what we did is realigned the scope and sequence of that in order to make sure that the grammar concepts that we're teaching align with the genres of writing that we're writing so that it is more authentic and the application um is is easier and more seamless. So we worked on piecing guides for that. We worked on picking out the most um important lessons that we we we thought were there. Um we also created uh instructional slide decks to support the instruction of that. So teachers don't have to spend all their time uh recreating the wheel and prepping for it. They can teach they can spend more on the planning and the instructional execution. Um along with that we looked at um more intensely at our new research
049units. Some are similar um as in the older units and some have really um changed and became more dynamic and um more crosscurricular. So there's a lot more knowledge building that is integrated within these writing and reading units. So we created some studentf facing um the teachers created studentf facing uh research padlets um that allow us to really dig into some really interesting concepts. We worked with um Tara Fogle and her science team to make sure that we are researching some of those um topics that we're learning about in science. Um and so we created some teacher uh some some student facing things as well. And then we um just took some we we have some also some um we created some district level graphic organizers to support students that might need a little bit
050more scaffolding. Um, so those are all and then we updated all the the forward facing documents and and the pacing guides. Um, and I'll let Vonnie talk a little bit about um how we how we integrated ALP into that as well. So what we did was we took what was going on in the classroom and then to better address the unique needs of our ALP level students, we developed compacted um grade level materials to allow with flexibility for further um adjustment. Um, we had we did slides, prompts, progressions, checklists, everything that that a classroom teacher needs in order to help their children be successful within the ALP classroom. Um, and the reading units as as we were looking at it were not completely revised. However, we did have we did do some realigning in order
051to strengthen the writing components of that. >> Thank you, Bon. And then moving on to 68. Um, in trying to continue to strengthen our homeschool connection, we created um our teachers created uh home letters that go home. So, I don't know if anyone has middle schoolers um but home letters um that are going home at the beginning of each reading and writing unit um that give um an overview of the unit um give some tips and tricks of like what are some questions you can ask your middle schooler. Um every time I talk to middle school parents, they're like, "We don't know what's going on." And I'm like, well, what should we ask them? What should we ask them about? So, we're giving you some some guiding leads there so that you can probe a
052little bit into what they're learning about um and and make some conversation at home. Um and then we also in created some um some tips for some strands. So, one of the things we're also doing this year is um all of our ELA teachers were um trained in the EXL program. We saw a lot of the success that has come out of using ESL at the math level in the last couple years. So, we will be using Exel a little bit more intentional this year throughout 6 through 8 so that we can get more diagnostic information more often. Um, and we had some schools that delve into it a little bit more last year and we've seen a lot of nice results there. So, we're really looking forward to seeing how that pans out this
053year. So, >> good luck. Any qu >> any questions for >> well sort of but for well I know this is for everybody because it was mentioned in a lot of the different subject areas but since Kim is standing here we'll start there but um I just love that there was so much focus on forward- facing documents this year and I was specifically going to highlight the letters home because that's something I remember uh being PTA president uh sitting there talking to principal do at the time saying why don't we have our teachers just combine all their so we don't have to have them like start from scratch every time. So, I'm thrilled that you guys are doing that. It's such a great way to enhance the homeschool connection, support our parents, to support our
054students and so forth. Like such a huge huge piece for us to to help our students um you know, even further. Um, and I was going to say I also love because we talked about this I think last year and I wanted to highlight that you revised you said you revised the ELA materials. You added sports unit. You were talking about bringing in more materials that were you know instructional resources that support things like music and and you know true crime etc. Like you're speaking their language and it's such a way to engage our students. I think it like if it makes it more relevant to them they become more engaged. So thank you for doing that. I think that's really something to to celebrate. What? >> Oh, okay. Um, and also talking that you
055you you know I think maybe it was Bridget did at the high school you were talking about well I know you're not up here but um updating the speaking public speaking curriculum such an important skill especially in this day and age. So thank you so much for doing that because I know we have a lot of students who are a little shy when it has to be you know speaking in public. Um there's plenty of adults It's an essential skill lot and our capstone is presentation. So that matters to us that students are competent speakers and and good listeners, but there are some students who just need that more and that course is great for them. >> Yeah. I so I I wanted to give you kudos and point that out because it's not something
056that you see at many high schools in the country. So, you know, I think it's it's really something that we offer our students. really gives them that extra little um but I just one question I did have was under ELA I assume it's at the high school you noted that you guys were looking working on a new course proposal that you're not going to have that to you don't have to give us a heads up necessarily whatever um I I I have a feeling I'll end up on a some sort of textbook committee yet again but um I was more looking are you looking to add a high level course general level you know something that's more optional I just was curious course may run at both levels. Um, I think it's going to have
057widespread appeal, which has is a concern as well since if we offer that and students take it, there are other courses they may not take. And if students don't take a medieval, they may never read those texts in in their lives and with a class and study. And so, we're very conscious of what we offer. But we are looking for a very engaging course for students um for one semester. And we thought this is the course that would have readings in sports, true crime, music, natural science. There's such powerful writing in in the world in those areas. And we thought if we can use those as models and have kids write um simulations and notice what's working and that would be a a great course. We started it last summer. We ran into some oh
058what topics. We really refined it this summer and we're going to keep working on it in the school year so we can put it forward. >> Oh, thank you. I I for one I'm very excited to hear all about that when it comes forward. Sounds like a something that will, you know, be fun and new and as I said, if we're engaging for our students. Um, >> so that was for ELA. That was the questions I have. Mike definitely looks like he's got something. >> Not if it takes the not if it takes the place of trust, >> right? >> You're talking to someone who took a course specifically written in like in old English. I had to speak in old English. Write in old English. Grenle is still one of my favorite books. like
059but so trust me I got to see an original page of the Canterbury Tales and I almost like I was like you know like seeing a celebrity. It was very exciting. >> Anything else for our K12 ELA department? >> Oh, I do want to say something else. >> Sure. >> While I'm up here while you're here. um you know that we've been working on our grammar um units because we wanted something that was um cross the grade and sequential and um it's important we don't grammar isn't just the fussy grammar or prescriptive grammar but you can't talk about writing and work with a student on writing if they don't have the terms and the understanding. You can't say more active verbs will improve your writing if they don't know what a verb is which you
060could find or um this clause would be more powerful in the beginning and they don't understand what a clause is. So the again it's not fussy grammar. It's essentials of grammar that what we were finding is a 10th grade teacher could note that a student while it's on our program hadn't mastered it. And so we said we need pre and post. So we created a pre-est for all nth graders. Doesn't matter what level they will take this grammar pretest. They may have taken it. There is a post test which will be some accountability for the students and the teachers. We all accept that. And then we will have a 10th grade version and an 11th grade version. So we really want to make sure that we are responsible for the students mastery of that. >>
061I can bring in my CD of Schoolhouse Rock if you want to play them in >> scary bear hairy bear. >> Um and I I think I read it somewhere in here, but what where are we again on AI? we're somehow incorporating that like how to use that properly in our writing. How are we addressing that? Again, >> Luc is going to say more about AI, but we we're working on fundamental skills. If students are able to um assess sources critically, that's very important to us. Whether it's an AI source or a source across the world. So, that's our essential focus. But we also understand that not every student has a writing tutor and AI may be a helpful probe. I don't want AI to give students answers. Students have to think. They have to
062think critically and use their brain to think and wrestle out of poem. When they do the SAT, AI is not going to give them the answers. So, they have to be able to wrestle with literature and and writing. but where it can help asking questions that a tutor might that a teacher might. Um whether it's about a piece of writing or something else, we're going to find the ways to um help students find that. >> Okay. >> Anyone? Anyone? All right. Sign out. Rotate. >> Okay. um when he's not acting as principal of Central Middle School or monitoring the build of his new building. Uh he also is our 68 social studies uh liaison. Uh so Tom, do you want to talk a little bit about the collaborative work you did with our library of
063media specialists this summer? >> Uh yes. I also want to point out I didn't realize these bullet points were going to be so long, so mine are much shorter. Um so uh through conversations between and among the social studies teachers and the media specialists both at um the it was really the media LFS I guess the high school and and middle school um there was a conversation about research skills and consistency with instructing around research skills and aligning them. So uh Miss Hersh earlier pointed out the work toward vertical and horizontal alignment. Um and this was a great example of that. So we had um one member of the sixth grade, one member of the seventh and one member of the eighth grade. uh social studies uh teams um from the various buildings working with
064our media specialist to ensure that we are using common tools and common language uh for research specific skills uh that feed directly into what the common language and common expectations are at Greenwich High School. So where we're looking at that vertical uh build through all students getting it in various social studies units so that it won't be missed, it'll be consistent. Um and then also this idea that um when the kids get to the high school, the one high school, um they will have a familiar foundation that all the teachers can build from there. So um it was very specific work. Uh it was very valuable work and it's now all embedded in our uh curricular documents for the teachers as to where they're teaching certain skills and if there's an opportunity where the media
065specialists can also support that work. So a lot of collaboration. I think Tom touched on something that's really important that I want to kind of highlight. Um years ago when I started we kind of were separate. We had the K8 folks and then we had the 912 folks and they were kind of working separately. Over the last couple of years the vertical uh integration and the collaboration between our administrators by level has increased exponentially and um uh you you see that in the in the work that's being created thoughtfully based on those conversations. So, we're listening very carefully to what our our high school counterparts are telling us are areas of weakness or relative weaknesses. Um, and we go back into our middle school model and we look at, well, how do we shore that
066up? And we have those same conversations with, you know, our our middle school administrators when we're looking at how are we sending our fifth graders off to the middle school setting. So, I feel like over the last couple of years, we've really done a much better job of having a real K12 cohesive model where all of our uh you know, our academic people are are talking to each other and having thoughtful conversations about um what needs we are seeing at the at the various levels and how best to address them early, much like an early intervention process. So that you know um the annual issues that people or teachers expect to see, they're not they're not seeing anymore. And Mike can certainly give you some examples of that in in math because Mike likes to
067use the term pipeline. Our math pipeline is incredibly strong. And I think that's very true of what we're seeing now um across our content areas, K12. And so I think that's a nice transition. If anyone does anyone have any questions for Tom? Okay. to our math department. So maybe uh Mike and Andrew, >> you have your bullets ready? >> Well, um I didn't do any curricular work this summer at my level, so I don't have any bullets. Um, but I'm here to answer any questions you might have, uh, at the K8 level, but there was some high school work that was done. >> Yeah. So, uh, last year was the first year that we implemented the new resources in our pre-calculus and calculus courses. So, we audited all the work that was done last year
068with our students. Uh, needed to make some refinement for uh, this coming school year. So, we spent some time doing that as well as uh last year was the first year that we did pre-AP uh in our algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2. Um so, there were some changes made by the college board as far as AP classroom for those courses. Uh so, we did some of that work there uh in order to get ready for this coming school year. >> And I think Mike, I think you have to talk a little bit about our zero block success. >> Yeah. Um it's funny. I was just on the phone the other night with one of our teachers and he was saying to me he's just blown away by the just the the quality of the
069of the abilities and the students that are coming into these classes now. Um and um each year it's a little dynamic. It's not always three levels. This year it's just two whereas last year it was three levels. It's kind of just depending on the kids coming up. But um we have Bonnie tracking these kids from kindergarten so we know when it's going to happen. And um but anyway, he just remarked that um a couple years ago when he taught the course um it was the kids were wonderful, but this year he's like, "Wow, it's just I can tell the strength that's coming in from below." And so um that was a nice compliment that we got. But um yeah, our our zero block continues to be such a wonderful thing that we offer that nobody
070else offers um around us. And um I uh spend a a fair majority of my time talking to parents about various things. And um you know, one of the things that comes up often with new families is you know, we're we're coming here because of what you provide and what you offer. Um specifically my conversations around mathematics, but um so you know, super proud of of you know, just again how we're integrating our eighth graders into the high school level. um sort of just sort seamlessly. They go there, they're not afraid. They walk in, they they do great things and and the teachers that are teaching those courses are are excited by it. So, um I'm looking forward to the to the next coming years cuz we'll be back up to maybe three sections again
071next year and and um you know, we'll see how it goes. But um Mark knows I'm like super excited for the achievement report. I cannot wait for it um um to you know publicly share with everybody how well we're doing not just in math but everything. So um I'm trying to temper my enthusiasm for um saying too much now but um I look forward to that and like Dr. Marky Maranti Anthony said um that data is public so anybody can go on and check it out and be blown away by it. No, >> sorry, Laura. >> So, a lot of us have seen the data on the state website. Can you just give us a little something? I mean, I know if anybody little something's woop >> Let me uh let me just simply say
072you're going to you're going to see and hear terms like um highest ever. Um and I'll just leave I'm just going to leave it at that. >> Yep. high growth, high performance. Um, a little teaser, um, two of our key grade levels, fifth and eighth, are super high performing. Um, our fifth grade is in the top five in the state. Um, and, um, we're really happy about that because those transition grades tended to be a little bit of a dip. You remember that roller coaster I always talk about? And, and then they get to the high school and they end up soaring. So, it's some of it's developmental, but we've kind of flattened that out a little bit. So, I'm I'm super excited to talk a little bit more about that. And then the growth
073um you know, the reason why our DPI is so high in the state, which is what you're referring to before about being ranked fifth is because of growth. And so, our focus on that, I think, is what is setting us apart. I think it might be what we're doing a little bit differently. Um even though everybody's probably starting to focus on it now. So Mike will give us a a um tutorial on DPI next month. Don't worry. >> The grow growth I'm like you I have a question but you you go first cuz I No, no, no. I I want to see what you're going to ask. >> Before she asked that question, I think Mike said something that's really important. I don't want to underell the value of his statement. when your fifth graders
074who are leaving elementary school and your eighth graders that are leaving middle school are scoring at the highest levels that we've ever seen. Um that's incredibly important to take note of because again education is a journey but we have milestones. We want kids at the end of their elementary experience to be achieving at their highest levels. The same thing at the middle school level. And so when we present this data to you, I want you to think about that it's it's where the kids are ending and where we're sending them to and at what levels. And so the kids are really responding well to again the content and the and the instruction that they're being exposed to. And I I can't say enough good things about what our teachers are doing in their classrooms. Question.
075I've asked it before, just as our zero block gets larger and larger, do we feel like we're going to start to get to actually running one of the classes that the zero block kids would otherwise metriculate into? Are we there yet? Do we have the numbers yet or no? >> We're not quite there, but >> we're getting there. That pipeline is very strong, the quote, Mr. Reed. So, uh, it's just a matter of time. Yes, you did take my question because I was saying when we were looking at the higher level math course to add and we decided to wait. I was going to ask how close you thought we were going to be for, you know, adding those higher level math courses, but yeah. Well, >> anything else for our our math department? >>
076Okay. >> Hey, kudos to them. >> Thank you. >> Um, Mr. Hoy representing our science department tonight. Although I have a sneaky suspicion Miss Fogle's tuning in. >> I sure hope so for >> we miss you, Miss Fogle. >> You want me to start or do you want Miss Hogle to start? >> No, no, she's not presenting tonight. And do not hop on that screen. You stay with your baby. >> Go ahead. >> She She's listed as an attendee though. We won't we won't, >> you know, elevate her so she can't >> We were uh we were quite busy at the high school level. Um, we had a lot of updates with our AP courses and um, in the previous years we've been really working on ensuring that we were uh, incorporating more hands-on experiences
077and labs in our AP courses. Um, and again in a couple weeks you'll you'll hear some great results from that. And so we had to do a lot of updating on our uh public facing documents and our in inward facing documents to ensure those are all um live and make sure that they're available for any teacher who might have to go in and teach those courses. Um so our teachers spent a couple days um each doing doing that. And then uh we had a couple bigger projects with uh biology uh working on really differentiating our our online level biology course and ensuring that we're all of our lessons are designed in the lens of UDL and um are giving students different avenues within the lessons to to really make it accessible. And so um you
078know we were we were focusing on could we build graphic organizers for students? Could we do sentence starters? could we what are the different things that they may need in order to be successful in this course? And so, um, we had a we had a team of four teachers who did a fantastic job, uh, going through almost every single one of our lessons and and building out, uh, these scaffolds and, um, and, uh, they gave different options of ways that, uh, for choice for students. And, um, and then we, we finished off with our practical chemistry course. um looking at how can we how can we make our labs uh more consistent. And so we focus on creating a lab book for um all of the the teachers to use. Um and uh and then
079also during this school year, we're going to be working on creating kind of answer keys for um our SPE department and that we'll be able to distribute and so if they need support outside of the class, if we're if they're not a chemistry teacher isn't accessible, they have those resources to support the students outside the classroom. >> No, no questions for science. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. >> I was going to say I I did note the uh the note that you were saying you were creating the answer guides for special education. So I know we we'll get to that discussion I'm sure when we get to Dr. Jones's goal. So thank you for helping to support that. It's part of our strategic plan as well. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we have one
080more person here from tonight. So we had a variety of projects um in 9 to2 social studies. A couple of highlights include uh updating the sophomore research paper which is an assured experience in 10th grade for American history. We increased the durability of the paper as well as incorporated areas where teachers are going to uh show students how they can use AI responsibly to support the research process but also reinforce um when they should not use AI because the critical thinking should be their own in developing the research paper. Um there's also a new field engagement component to the paper which I'm really excited about where students um essentially uh have to incorporate an interview or visiting a museum or an event a historic site that something that is tied to their topic and the
081topic um is going to connect to a modern-day issue that is that is new as well. Uh we also have uh an assured experience for our honors electives. Uh you may already be aware that our social studies electives are heterogeneous in that um students are combined um in each section either taking it for honors credit or they're not taking it for honors credit. They're not separate sections. Um the students that are there for honors credit there are specific projects that they have to complete and um one of the projects is a lengthy research paper um you know teachers were finding that um kids were attempted to use AI and were handing papers in completed by AI. So we have we've changed that research paper to now be an in-class essay. um they are still doing
082research and there are a couple of checkpoints where they're going to bring in their research and do some writing in class related to that research and then there's um the f there's the day of the final paper where they will come in uh with their research and some notes um and quotes and and handw write their essay in class. Um the second project has also been um changed to include essentially um oral elements. Um so um for instance leading a debate for the class or um teaching a lesson um organizing a discussion um things that uh would be tough to obviously use AI to complete for you. Um, any questions? >> Did I was I don't know if you had one or no I mean up to you. >> I don't know if you have
083an answer to this um or not. Um, you know, we adopted the AI policy. um this is really for everybody but you know it's brought up. So we adopted the AI policy last last spring and we knew that it was even though we adopted it we knew it was going to be a first draft. We knew that AI is changing so rapidly um just as you you're described here that we were going to something with revision and I read and we read all over the summer like the return of the blue book across college campuses right and people doing exactly what >> you're saying because the only way really to >> um support students sometimes in making academic honest choices is really just to sit them right now at this day and age is to
084which is sad um to sit fill out a blue book, you know, in class. So, I guess all that said, there is um you or anyone else think we need to be thinking about regards the AI um at this point based on the work this summer the um as far as board policy or you didn't you didn't run into any hiccups or challenges or anything towards that? >> No, not not right now. No. And also at the high school as you we're we're using school AI. So it'll be interesting to see how we can incorporate that more. Um so we are all learning as we as we go >> from our AI from uh from AI. Yeah. Um, so first off, uh, I before we we even start talking about AI, um, I think we
085should give a special thanks to the Grunch Alliance, um, for our high school for funding, uh, the AI in our school. Um, they, uh, they were very gracious and, uh, so we were able to get, uh, school AI and we're looking at one other AI platform currently to to use, and so teachers have been receiving professional learning on that. But um school AI does have a lot of um kind of mechanisms to ensure that students aren't just getting the answers from things, right? We don't want that. We want kids to be doing things in an ethical way and we can set up prompts and things like that. So, um students don't have access and it creates more of a a conversation versus, hey, here's the answer to those things. Um and I've done plenty of
086plenty of testing to try to break the uh the AI and it does a pretty good job. Um, are are there times where um like if you don't write really specific prompts, you can after like five to 10 times if you keep just asking over and over and over again, it might do that. But, um, if you're really specific with the prompts, it's it's very good. Um, and the and it has a nice back and forth conversation. And so, um, as we continue to go throughout the year, um, and look at different strategies we can use in the classroom to support students in their learning through these platforms, again, I think it's going to be really beneficial for the students that they can have kind of a partner when, you know, if there's a lot
087of kids in the classroom and they need a little bit of feedback. If a teacher's using it and they're uploading a rubric, they can get, you know, some feedback based off the rubric and like here are some strengths, here's some weaknesses, but not giving them the answers. Um, and I think that's really important. We don't want AI to do the work for them. We want the uh the cognitive load to still be on the students and this is just another support that we can use to help personalize their learning and give you know and and really make sure that the teachers are able to engage with the students more and free that up. >> Yeah. So that was I was going to ask the same thing as I was going to say is as you
088all go through this year and it like because in all of the you know different areas you guys were talking about incorporating more AI and teaching students to use it responsibly. I was going to say we had the policy and just if you find it doesn't work for you like please reach out to us so that we can you know >> sure >> really figure out how how to make it work best for our students and for our staff. >> I think the policy right now is pretty flexible. So it's uh it's really nice and I think some of the guidelines that were set up right really allow for that flexibility and but we also set up guidelines like we want to be able to see everything the kids are doing right so on those
089platforms when the kids are t typing into the platform whatever they're doing the teacher has access to that every single conversation that they're having they can turn the conversations off they can turn you know they can turn them on um if a kid's not on topic it will shut off um for for the student it will flag the student it will be like you know this students off topic, they're asking random questions. Um, and it sends it they'll send it will send emails to the teacher. >> Um, so it's very um, you know, it does a good job um, with flagging all those things. And >> again, we we want students to be using this in the right way. Um, and you know, again, we we've we've started seeing more and more studies on how
090um, students becoming dependent on it. And we we certainly don't want that. We want them to know how to use this properly and to help support them, not do it for them. We're Yeah, we're working on forming a committee at the high school to really um push this out um and and focus on professional learning throughout the school year. Um and so we'll be uh we got our a bunch of people who want to be part of that and so we're going to be uh starting our meeting soon. Oh, so I I was just going to say the question that I had had was you noted like this isn't for AI, but did you have an AI question? >> I did. >> Okay. So, I'll No, no, do do AI first and that's what we're
091talking about. >> But it's it's actually a blue book question kind of which is just um instead of returning to blue books, do we have the ability with the Chromebooks to lock them down so you can like write an essay and you do? Okay. >> I'm not saying we do. We don't. >> Oh, we don't. Okay. because I was thinking I mean some I feel sympathy for the teachers who are grading blue books partly because my father's professor and I those blue books for 50 years so you know having something typed out um is easier to read I think but you know do if we had the ability to lock the Chromebook so that they're writing an essay in class I feel like that might be really helpful so I can I can speak a
092little to that um Google forms uh you have a teacher has the ability to turn that into a quiz which will lock it down. However, there's no unfortunately the the box um is very small. There's no way to actually type an essay into the Google form. So, I I've been researching possible lockdown browsers. Um it would be wonderful one day if we were we were able to uh obtain one because then it would be really useful especially for midterm and final exams. Yeah. Yes. For >> Yes. AP classroom can be locked down. >> Did you have a question on? Yeah. >> Then yeah. So just a quick question. who um is responsible for communicating that to the students since AI could potentially be used in across the different subject areas as to what the expectations
093of the use of AI are, right? Like does it fall to the teacher? Does it fall to the department head? does it fall to the school overall to communicate and how how do we do that for the students? Um and then two, how is it communicated to the parents? Like we have our policy obviously I don't know how many parents go through and read all of our policies. Um, but how would the expectations of how AI should be used or how we see AI being used, how is that being communicated to the parents, like where does that responsibility fall? Like what department or >> Yeah, thank you for the question. We're communicating out to the parents um relatively soon about the the platforms um they're going to be in use um within our um AI
094policy or reg like regulation that we have or at the school um it's the discussion is right now currently with the teachers how AI is used in the classroom. So um you know and and so the assignments we we when we were talking about this it's you know the the teachers say you you know you can use it here and they have to when they want to use the AI they have to create the space for the students and they turn it on and off. So it's really regulated by the teacher when the students can use it and the students basically sign in with there's no they don't sign in um it's signed in with a code. So they they go in and that's the space that they can use and then it gets shut
095off. Is it added to like for the high school is it added to the the course requirements and and expectations that the students have to read at the start of the school year and sign like use of it you know >> the acade acade uh the academic integrity policy that we use that we have an AI component of that >> right >> it does specifically say that they should not be using AI unless um the teacher has explicitly allowed it. Kathleen. >> And how about the teachers? Can they use AI in any way or prompts or grading or anything like that? >> Um, and can they run an essay through a rubric and sort of say, "Yeah, this >> policy." >> They cannot >> they can >> Oh, um I But I I don't think
096anybody's uh not that I know of anybody's doing that, but um I'm not sure. I don't know how to answer that question. Right. Okay. I think there are teachers who have experimented with it but um are not actually using it in practice. >> Okay. >> I mean the you you can upload rubrics into AI and it will give it will give students feedback. Um but we we do also find that you know a lot of the feedback should be coming from the teachers um you know and making it more personal. The whole goal of this would be to kind of free up teachers and get them to make more connections with the students and be able to interact with them more in the classroom as they're being as students are able to leverage some of
097these tools. But again, we don't it's not to just do all the work, >> right? >> Teacher could also leverage it in the same way in a positive way, right? >> Sure. Yeah. We haven't explored we haven't explored those paths right now. Yeah. >> The the IT department has um has installed on my computer um an AI agent to use and and Mr. Reed has one on his and they've asked us to kind of put it through its paces, look at it through an instructional lens, advise them on which ones might be practical and and and appropriate for teachers for them to have in their, you know, digital toolbox. So, we're in that exploratory phase now. It's very exciting. >> Well, thank you for that. I I have a non AI question. So, I just
098if anybody else has AI, I want to No, no, no. Okay. Um I was just going to say in the presentation and and the report we got Thank you Sean. Um you noted that this summer the you know the RAID 6 through8 social studies work group collaborated with the uh district's library media learning facilitator um and others to do you know to work on uh the media curriculum uh >> well the research project >> research project um basically you're talking about skills that were you know introduced and strategically timed library you know library media center lessons to be embedded within um I I just wanted to, you know, understand how achievable you think this is. It's like the new co-taught work that you're discussing in there. Um, as unfortunately, you know, we had to reduce
099uh library media staff um due to budget reductions this past year. So, obviously there's less, you know, individuals there to support. I just want to make sure, you know, the work sounds incredible and giving, you know, those opportunities for co co-eing and whatnot, but I just want to make sure it's it's feasible with the staffing that we have at the moment. >> Yes. I I I think the the quick answer is that's that was known as we went into rolling it out to the rest of the department. So when the conversation was had with how this is going to look in action, a lot of it was happening in the classroom with the teacher and it was more um additional planning that may happen where a teacher has a non-instructional period. They're going to the
100media center. They're partnering with the media specialist themselves while they're there also kind of multitasking um and then bringing that back to the classroom there. um there are opportunities um in the day where the media specialists still can push into classes or classes can be brought up. So that will happen and um while it may not have looked exactly as we thought perhaps originally um it was rolled out in a way that we do feel is achievable and and all the kids are going to get what they need. >> Um at some point during the year I would love to you know I know we talk about pilot programs obviously that's not what this is but I'd love to hear how that's going. I mean, especially as we're going to be talking about budget, like
101if it's something that's really incredibly supportive to our students and we need more, you know, to bring those staff back, I'd love to be able to have that discussion. I know that was a hot topic for us this year. >> Anyway, just just my 10 cents. Okay. Anyone else? Anyone? >> We can set you free. >> Thank you so much. Have a good evening. >> But I'm expecting the interpretive dance the next time. He looks forward to coming back in October. >> Thank you guys for all the hard work over the summer and everything. We really >> didn't talk. Just kidding. >> Ralph, [Laughter] >> thanks guys. >> Bye. >> Yeah. >> Um and once once we have a you know the exit and everybody has a moment here I know then we will uh
102turn to Dr. Jones and our uh enrollment update, which I know we're all very excited for. >> No. So, for the enrollment update, as you know, in September, I don't like to put it on the web or give it to you because everybody gets all excited. Our official enrollment is October 1. So, that's when we'll actually have the official numbers, but people just like to know this time of the year. So, I this is very quick. Um, so right now we are at 8,339 students. So that was 8,339. Our projection was 8,465, which is a difference of 126 students. So our projection was 98.5% accurate, which is really good. Um, we don't see huge swings. High school difference of 15 students, you know, in a high school our size, that's not much. um one student
103difference at Central, two student difference at Eastern. Uh Western does have 28 less students. So I don't know if that's because the projection model over several years had the U magnet built in and we have not been magneting students because we needed their numbers to come down a little bit. So that's probably reflected there. Um, most of the elementary schools have, you know, five students or 10 student different like North Street is up five students. OG is down six students, but they're all pretty much there there's no huge changes. And usually when we get into um budget, you know, it's where people want to just look at that 126, close the school and it's like it doesn't work that way because when you only have 10 students and it's spread over six grades or, you
104know, it's all over. Um probably the biggest um change we had this year, if you just look at the elementary number, it's down about 82. Um, but our preschool is already I think I mentioned this at the last meeting like it's it's a it's going just over 85% full right now and we are had already added a new class for September and then we had to add the January class in September. So that was two. So, we haven't we had an unanticipated um we had parents who chose to stay with prek um and that were right in that age. Legally, they can do that because they were um their birthdays were after that that magic date. So, that's where we are on enrollment right now and it's pretty much where we were projected to be.
105No big surprises um anywhere. Sophie just wondering do you think the state at some point is going to say that this is the real deadline instead of having this you know the parents get to choose. >> I don't think I don't think the state will they they had put out some stuff literally in the last like five days where they might have an extra session and they had something on there about the waiverss and a couple things like that. But what I have done is um communicated to the principles and we did it at the end of last year that we will have a hard date in Greenwich of September 30th um instead of like that. It used to be December September is a little bit early almost if you look across the country country
106September 30th or October 1st is the magic date usually. So that's what we're just going to use as our cuto off because it's very difficult when you don't really have that. Um, and you know, it's the waiver process was really just I think a way to try to appease people the first year or two to get through it. Um, but that's where we've set the date because it was the principles were asking for that. So that's the way what we'll do at the end of this year. >> Anybody have any specific questions? Mike looks like he's going. Yep. Anyone? Anyone? Laura? Yep. Um just a question which doesn't need to be answered now but maybe when we get the written report is how many um students were seeking a spot or how many families were
107seeking a spot in prek and um how many we had to turn away because of you know we can't take everybody. >> Yeah. We always have over 200 that want um that put their name in for prek and we go through the lottery. Then what happens is once school starts or like this year when we have to add the class, there was no more weight list because everybody if they didn't get in through the lottery early, they go and they enroll in another prek. So, you know, they're all in pre-k somewhere, but our list always has a wait list for sure on the typical peers. anyone? No. I'm sure we'll have a lot of questions when we get the uh final report in October. Um so with that, we can move on to superintendent goals.
108Um, oh, I was just going to say I I I don't think you necessarily I mean it's it's you know short quick. I don't necessarily feel like we need to like go through line by line. So I don't know if people just want to start by asking questions if that might be the best. Was that what you >> Yeah. So I took the same approach this year that I did last year because you had given me the feedback to get it shorter and more concise. If you remember the year like year before last it was like a couple pages and everybody thought it was just too much. So I kept it very simple again. Um the three basic goals um when I say three basic goals they're still different because it's work that's happening this
109year obviously and some of the things that you heard you know mentioning tonight like making sure that our writing units and and everything is implemented. Um in the middle section that goal two is um the organizational approach for fidelity of implementation. Last year that was just special education. Now it's um EL and intervention programs and um so we're still working on our PCG, you know, plan action plan. So updating that. Um Stacy actually just met with SEAK and and talked about that a little bit the other day. We also have our new program, Positive Pathways. Um so that's been implemented. excited about that program. Hybrid learning is new and you're going to hear a lot about that. Um we really launched it in summer school and phenomenal success. Very very excited about that. Um our
110house administrator uh Christina Shaw is leading on that at the high school and I think it's really going to provide an option for students that some of some students want to graduate early, you know, and they they want to take an extra class. Some students are sitting in algebra and if they are failing in October or November, I guarantee you they're going to be failing in December because they're not all of a sudden going to get caught up if they were weren't able to stay up with the class. And it allows us to actually without, you know, changing their block. They can go if it's second block and then go into high C and actually start over. And so they can test out to the knowledge that they did get. Maybe the first four weeks
111went great and then they hit a really difficult area. So, it's a highly qualified teacher. They have content online. And what happened this summer um with us in summer school and again that one I think is on our next meeting or the one after, but um phenomenal success this summer with the way we approach summer school. And so, and I've done this in well, this will be I guess the fourth district and so I've seen it work and it's something I've wanted us to really implement at the high school. We weren't quite ready for it. Um, so we'll talk more about what it looks like. Um, but that's why that's on here because that's a a big strategy for us. What was happening at the high schools, we really have a wellness center which is
112more therapeutic. You have Windows, which you have to leave the high school. You don't get to access electives. And you may have a student who really just needed one class really where they need a different option or a start over or they need a little bit longer to get through the content instead of being so tied to the semester. Maybe they need a semester and a half to finish um a course that is incredibly difficult for them which they can do on a rolling basis because Connecticut is mastery based. We are not tied to seat time. And I they actually are the high school staff I think are really understanding that now that we have more flexibility in Connecticut than a lot of other states. It's very they're progressive in that way. Um so we're
113taking advantage of that this year. So that's it's we're starting very slow. Um but it's going to be exciting to watch that. Um the English language academy solution again Christina leads uh on some of that area and then we'll get Jeffrey looped in as well. But we're having students who will come say from South America that come into the high school and what we would like to do is be able to think about and these are students who don't speak English at all. Um putting them in intensive English so it's only focused on English for like nine weeks instead of trying to have an EL class but then they're also going to a science classroom where they really are not engaging in the content. they don't have the confidence. And probably the best model I've
114I've seen where this worked beautifully was Arlington, Virginia. And so, um, I I've seen again this program and I and Christine and I've had a big discussion about being able to help that grow at the high school because it it is a bigger issue for us where we're getting more students that come that don't that have don't speak English. Um, so we're very focused, you'll notice, on secondary. We've been focused and you heard that tonight on K8 really intensively and we're now very focused on on the high school and um really trying to tighten up a lot of the work that they're doing um in these areas and they've got a really good MTSS process in all their houses as well. Um and then the last one of course is um what we talked about
115last year. It's on onboarding the new board of education members is going to be again half of our board will be new in November. I think it's half right. Um, so, um, doing that orientation, some of you guys remember that, but we'll actually have a group and being able to make sure that, you know, we give them the basics of FOI and going through all of that. Um, the legal briefings, hopefully we can return to being able to do those this year after November. Um, and then also trying to make sure those those board members, especially the new ones that want to get out to the schools, um, that we're giving them that flexibility and helping them get that set up so that they can go out during the day to actually see what instruction
116looks like. So, those are the three kind of buckets. Well, you answered both my questions because I was going to ask about high and the English language academy. So, I'm excited to learn more about that. I just wanted to point out for your first goal when you say like and we're going to be doing all this stuff in order to right so strategic med metric targets are demonstrating progress and survey results remain positive should say continue to because you know our met strategic metric targets are demonstrating progress already so you should be continuing to don't don't take don't you I want to like give you kudos for the fact that you know this is something that you've already done so much you know towards movement. That That was my only thought. And the same thing
117with the survey results. We're continuing to see positive um responses in most areas. So, I just I wanted to give you that kudo. That was my only thought. >> Thank you. >> Mike looked like she's got a thought. No, >> I didn't know Sophie had her hand up. Sorry. Just just I don't know if this how this fits in with your goals, but there is something that you spent a lot of time on, which is capital projects. And I just am curious. I don't know where this would fit in there, but you know, it's something that you're working hard on that the board is working hard on. And I feel like one of the things that I feel like we should be doing as a district is trying to, you know, continue to sort of
118have a r develop a rational plan about how to maintain our physical infrastructure of our schools. Um, so I just it's partly like not necessarily that it's a goal, but it's something that you spend a lot of time on. And I think it's a goal for the board to try to, you know, be very deliberate um about what we're doing and and also future focused, right? >> Yeah. You know, we had I had capital on on here a couple years ago and I think we took it off. >> Yeah. >> But I think it's because the document was so long. like it's like we kept putting stuff on there, but I could probably put it in that last bucket because I do now I have to say having um you know Ben and and Dan
119now as a team I don't do half as much as what I did you know three years ago um same way when Blaze came on too they really took on a lot of the capital that I used to have to do and which has been wonderful but um I have to stay really engaged from the instructional side it takes all of us so >> I feel like maybe the goal is like continuing to develop a team that can execute on a really thoughtful plan around our capital projects, right? Because I do I think Ben is great. I think Dan's doing a great job. I mean, there is a good team there, but it's like continuing to focus on that because it's, you know, it's it takes a lot of time and it costs a lot
120of money, right? So, we want to do it well. Yeah, I was going to say I do know that I I've gotten positive feedback from having them as liaison and that they're accessible, available, like knowledgeable and very helpful when working with other um you know, elected officials in town and so forth to to get all that information to them. It's the speed with which we return our question, you know, answers to them has been been great. And I think we have a system too where I usually kick off feasibility and get all of that started and so and they come to those meetings but when then once we get out of feasibility it goes to building committee that's where like Dan Watson has to really dial in because you start getting into not just that
121you need HBAC but what kind um and so that's I think we work really well together as a team. >> Yeah. I mean, I think one of the really positive things is that, you know, we've been trying to have like a transfer of knowledge from one project to the next of being like, okay, what are the lessons learned from Old Grenage School? What are the lessons learned from Central Middle School? What are the lessons learned from doing the fields at Western Middle School? You know, so that it's like when we when we do similar projects that hopefully we can save some time and money, you know, because of what we've learned. >> Well, and that does help me. Actually, I can I think I what one thing I could add in here is that I
122have the draft building committee document and I was working on it literally like well two weeks ago before the bus thing started. It was making progress and it stopped for a few weeks. But um we'll we're trying to make sure that's ready to go when we get ready to do the next building committee which is Riverside. >> Yeah. Well, that >> Mike, did you you had your >> Yeah, I would think too. What? We have four building committees. When Riverside will be the fourth building committee, right? It was a time not too long ago, right? Four. Yeah. It was a time not too long ago in this town where you we would have one building committee one time. We might have a fifth, you know, depending on how the pool conversation goes. You know, five
123five at one time. Um I'm So I know this is a draft. Um, so this the first read you're going to come back. So I'm wondering on um the things to think about here language wise. Um I I hear I hear you Karen about um the continue to make progress that maybe from um from a strategic plan perspective I can't help but feel that that um the the phrase in order to continue to make gains in student achievement could be a little tighter. I mean, we do have metrics um in the plan in the strategic plan that we're trying to shoot for. You know, we're making a lot of strong, as we know, we're making a lot of strong progress to that. So, I I can't help but wonder if that could be cut could
124be a little a little less fuzzy. >> So, it's really that last which is measured by district annual data because it really comes back to the achievement report. I mean that that's it's the results that we get as a school district without listing every all those different metrics on here if that makes sense. That's what that's intended to do. >> And if Cody was here, Cody couldn't make it tonight, but if Cody was here, I know he wanted to bring up um something to think about. Um especially now that um uh you have a couple years in the contract. Um thinking about the idea of a 360 review. I know that's one of the things that Cody Cody Cody really likes. We see a lot in the private sector. This idea of getting feedback from
125different different aspects of the organization. Um just something to wonder about as we think about our goals this year because I know you get feedback from us, but if there are other areas around the goals and things where um feedback from other aspects of the organization can be helpful. Yeah, I don't feel like I'm lacking in feedback in Greenwich. And and again, I think, you know, Greenwich is very different as a school district in many ways. And I'm not supportive of it. Quite frankly, if you want me to go out and and work with the team and get the work done that we heard tonight, I mean, it's difficult to actually change a system. And so, it's not that we don't get feedback, but I'm very careful about the feedback that that I get. And
126you know, one of the phrases I used to think about when I was a principal is, you know, a masterpiece was never painted by a committee. And um, you know, it's it's important because it may not be the voices of the mass that are actually doing what's right. And so I I take every grain. We look at all of our survey results. I look at our parent survey results. We already survey our teachers. We survey I mean, we survey everybody. And that's a reflection of our entire team and I think I'm part of that because I think if I was not doing what I needed to do and teachers didn't have resources, you wouldn't see the results even at the building levels that we do like from our teachers. Our teacher results are still some
127of the highest in the country for support for our surveys. Now you can look and see points like our high school is a challenge on our teacher survey and that's a reflection of all of us bec but you know it's also a reflection of budget and many other things. I mean you know when you reduce staff and you go what we went through last year I mean it's tough. So, I'm not supportive of it. And that's just being very transparent and honest. And I do I do really respect when I when we have our executive session and I hear from the board because you're out in the community and and you're all very honest and tell me what you hear and you know and that's what I really value. >> Yeah. >> I was also
128going to add why I think it works in the private sector. We are far from the private sector here. And um one of the things I always say in private equity is for example is of all our interests are aligned which is basically we all want to make money. Um and from the CEO to the investors to the people that are running the shop but in public education your constituents are many from really the students should be first. Um and then parents, community members, teachers, administrators and all their incentives are not aligned. And so I think that makes it a little bit more difficult as a result. Anyone? Anyone? Anything else? Jen, >> I have a question. Not regarding feedback, but just regarding um the the goals and and overall kind of the areas that
129are being highlighted here. And I'm wondering where um the school counseling program fits into this and you know especially at the secondary level or at the high school. Um I know that we focus a lot on you know the academics. Uh, and I'm wondering where it fits in for the support staff or the support team with the counseling programs and such and how we can um, put that on there as a highlight because they're integral, I feel integral into helping to support the classroom teachers, this the the school overall, but most importantly the kids so that they can be high achieving. So >> yeah, I think that's one thing that makes it hard for me to condense this document because I tend to work on a hundred things at a time and we will get
130them accomplished and I've said that for seven years. we we get done what I say we're going to do and you know and as an example and I can build it into here you know we took the director the head of counseling coordinator for counseling and we absolve that you know got did away with that position put in a new position that is based on student wellness and support and that is bringing our whole mental health team together this year and that's enormous work um and you know rewrote a job description for counseling um this year to make it more in line with national standards Um for the first time all of our mental health, our social workers, our psychologists, our counselors all came together, you know, back for our back to school um to
131be talking about the work that they do and train together on things like threat assessments. Um and we probably need to have Jessica as she gets into her role. She's actually on tonight um later in the year about her role and the work that she's doing because she's really doing some wonderful things already for us. Um, and they have um like a it it it's not like a grid, but you can really see what do the counselors do, you know, what do the social workers do, you know, what do the psychologists do? It's kind of like a vin diagram, I guess. And in the middle is what are the things that we all should be responsible for. And that's really helping. I think that's going to be very helpful for us. um instead of operating
132in silos, which is what some of you I think you know that had conversations even last year about could we do something in this area to be even more effective. Um so I definitely can add it on here as a goal because it is. Yeah. Hey, any anyone else? Um, okay. Then I guess we can move on to the next topic, which is the school year calendar. I know it's a first read. Uh, admittedly, I did not dig in as deep as I usually do, but I guess is it DeWali that the state just added as a as a holiday? So, we have no Okay. I just was going to ask if that was reflected here. Um so the calendar was actually hard this year. Um and it just it has to do with um
133like when the Easter you know break falls it just um the other thing that we were seeing is that taking feedback again from our teachers and our parents which we always do and we were doing our conferences for um middle school in the spring. They had asked to try them in the fall. Um, so you'll notice on here that that has been moved um to the fall and they're all really excited about that. Um, after we put this draft together, you know, we met uh with the principles to be able to look at it. curriculum team really did a lot of work on this because we also have um we're noticing this year another pressure is that we have two or three I think it's three early releases on here and the early releases normally
134we use that for higher level like just professional development but it's also kind of they we try to strategically put them when it's I want to say it's kind of a morale booster because it is at a time when usually they're getting a little fatigue and you kind of can have an release for teachers to come together. But you'll notice this year, like if you look in October 20th, it's called teacher collaboration, like collab. And so that we're going to use those next year. We're going to try it for like teams to come together um for you could have grade level teams, they can have co-eing teams. One of the reasons that we need to move in that direction, which will be beneficial anyway, is that we have I think it's five different ending times
135now um because of our start time changes. So, when we went to start trying to plan for this school year, it's been pretty tricky. Um so, we're you know, we've had to kind of do some unusual things, but uh it's a good calendar. the spring break um sorry March break falls a week earlier than it did before but again that's lining up you know with Good Friday um so I mean we it seems like it's a it's a really good calendar and again we had the curriculum team look at it because I was concerned about okay I want to make sure April and May are very solid those are SBA and big I mean AP testing and we don't want lots of breaks during those months um where you don't have full weeks to really
136focus on instruction. Um, so we've been very strategic about where things are placed. So, I'll take questions, but there's a whole team of people that worked on it. Oh, I Oh, okay. I was just going to ask quickly, does I know we talked about this at infinite item last year about starting on a Thursday and Friday before like how did do you know what our um um you know, attendance was so that we could see like because it seemed we're doing that again this coming year. Yeah, we seem to be fine. It does not I think because in the high school so many of our high schoolers are already back for you know athletics and activities and and the thing is because it's two days you know you're really bumping into June and that's where
137like right now this calendar if we had our five snow days we're getting out June 22nd. So now then you're bumping back to June 24 which is this is my own personal opinion wasted two days in June of instruction. So, we really struggled to to try to find time in our calendar. And the big difference with our calendar is we take a full week in February. You know, there are only a few districts in all of Fairfield County that still do that. And our community likes it. So, it's kind of like I think we have to remind the community, yes, we start on the Thursday, Friday, and you don't get the long break right at the beginning of the year, the four days, but you get a full week in February. And so, it's kind
138of it's a trade-off. Um, you could start earlier in August, but again, I think we'd have a revolt if we tried to start the week of August like 17th. I just don't I don't think our families or our staff Right. Well, yeah. Oklahoma starts early. Um, and we also August 17th, you know, if you backed it even up to that week, the administrators would be backing up to the week before because we do our leadership. We have two days of full leadership. We do orientations uh for our new staff. you know, they have two days. So, I I think it's and we talked about it and we even talked about do we just not have three days of professional learning at the beginning of the year? Do we shorten it? Um, but again, what we
139keep hearing is that the teachers wanted that time to get their rooms ready and so we we just added that I I think this is the third or fourth calendar where we've had that. So in order to give them that time which we commit to we have to do professional learning back to school obviously meetings of required things but we also give them 10 hours to set up their room in those days which that's a lot compared to most districts. >> I just know we get questions consistently every year about that. So I figured I'd address it. Mike. >> Well, because you're saying 22 is an early release and holiday recess starts on the 24th. >> Good catch. >> Eagle Eye and Mike. >> And that was a big debate, too, like you know, when
140do you go on holiday recess and and you know, when do you do the early release? And yeah, you could go all the way up until the 23rd, but I think our absenteeism when we all talked about it, it's like we who would we have in school and it was just concerning >> to clarify the um the day the early release dates before Thanksgiving holiday break those are not just >> right correct and then help me because I confused here. Help me understand how the work >> Dr. Anthony, if you could push the button, we can't hear you at home. Thank you. >> I apologize. I was saying very wise things to the people at home. Um, help me understand the five days um for um this how the snow days work. I always forget.
141I I get confused every year. >> Yeah, it confused me for the first five years. I've got it now. Um so on the 22nd, that would be our last day if we have five snow days. If we only have four snow days, then we're getting out on the 21st. If we have three snow days, it would be the 18th. So, it just keeps backing down. So, like this year, we really didn't have snow. So, we graduated somewhere around what was it? 17th. >> Yeah. >> Which was great. And people love it when it's earlier. Puts pressure on me on snow days to not call them, but you know. >> So, the so the 22nd is 180 school days if we lose five days for snow. >> Yes. And then we have two days that are
142the last day for staff. So we have what we've traditionally done and again it's not ideal but the 23rd has been professional development just because we'd rather it be professional development than an instructional day and our teachers have to build in 187 days. And then on the 24th which is the teacher last day that's a full day for pack up packing up the room. >> Sophie did you have a question? I did just um in November on the 17th, that early release day. I I guess I'm always looking at the calendar and trying to find the nice long stretches where there isn't a disruption in the calendar and we already have the third off for electioning day and then we have one full week and then we have the short day and then we have
143Thanksgiving. And I'm just curious like is there any way that we could not have an early release on the 17th? I just, you know, I'm being vague, but kind of, you know, I just feel like I've experienced it as a parent with the students where it's like once you get out of your rhythm, it's really hard. And, you know, I think we've tried really hard and I like this calendar overall for how nice and consistent it is. And then there's just there's that and then I know with a bunch of the early releases in March and I know that's only for elementary, but it does feel like suddenly everyone is off their rhythm and their schedule and and it can be challenging and I think especially for parents who are trying to figure out their
144child care. Um >> yeah, I mean we could certainly that would just that would give us one in October and one in March. um you know it so we can certainly take that one off if we feel like you know it's too disruptive. I mean and that is one thing that was again if you look at I love April and May you know the instructional time there is just solid. >> Yeah. No that's I love seeing that. Yeah. Yeah. I would just see if the teachers feel they need they're going to need that day for collab. That's the only concern. Um, so a couple things. I'm glad we're not start even though we're starting on a Friday, which nobody likes. At least it's not Labor Day weekend, >> which is I hear it every year
145we've done it and nobody likes it. But this time it's it's it's okay. Um, but our April break starts in March. How did that occur? >> It because it's lined up with the Good Friday and Easter has to do with the calendar. Oh, so Oh, Good Friday is in March. >> Yes. Yeah. >> April. >> Oh, wow. Okay. That's unexpected. I've >> Yeah. Ideally, we would love for it to have been in April, but it was just we would have had to have Good Friday off and then come back and and it made the month not as solid also um for instruction. And I just have to say one thing when they were all presenting tonight, I really think one thing that's making a big difference is the instructional minutes. And if you remember, I
146mean, we kind of had to fight through this a little bit, but we used to pull kids out of math and reading until last year. The amount of like in instructional minutes a lot of our children in like K5 gained by not losing part of their reading and their math, when you add that up over a year, it really does make a difference. Um, and I think having these sort of like full weeks, you know, like you look at October this year is great, too. Oh, I was just going to add one thing jumping. I I know we didn't have like this year we had the discussion too because it was over a weekend, but I would suggest putting RoshaShana on here because it's sund it starts at sundown on the 11th. We would it's
147not that you necessarily are missing school per se but just on the off you know so that that people understand that they can't do after school practices etc on that day because it starts at sundown just a comment. Yeah, our staff because they have the um religious holiday memo that that they go over at the beginning of the year and it's all part um but we could there's room on this calendar to put it there. So sometimes we'd fill up all the space. >> Kathleen and then Mike, >> I was just going to note going back to August, you're right. Um it works for many to start on the Friday. However, I didn't always hear complaints and I always remind people it's because um you're kind enough to otherwise the teachers would have to come
148back the earlier week and so the driver for this and the inconvenience that some people feel I like to remind them is because you're actually kindly u making sure that the teachers don't have to come back the prior week. So just think it's worth noting. Thank you. the push back on Sophie's point on the November. I hear you about the I hear you about the the challenge of parents and whatnot. On the other hand, um we don't have the professional development time or the meeting days that other districts have. We know from the contract. So, so it's there's pluses and minuses both ways. And that's the um I could see that that that's that very valuable time that we don't otherwise have um to be able to have some sustained professional development time with the
149the district. So, that's that's the that's all back to. >> Yeah. Just to add on to that, I was going to say we just sat and listened to them talk about like the summer institute and so much of that was about collaboration and working together at all the different grade levels and all that other stuff. how successful it's been. That's why I was saying I would find out from the teachers if that's if they, you know, what their thoughts are because it's really about providing support for our educators. I can get feedback on that. I think it's probably more of an impact on the parents. I think if it's kind of one of those calendar questions if we surveyed, parents would say no and teachers would say yes probably almost exclusively. Anybody else have a
150question? I know this is our first read, so we may find something when we go home and look at it again or next one. Jen, >> when we were talking about April and May and and how that's two really good blocks of solid um solid instructional time as when it correlates with the assessments that we just went over, the assessment schedule um will be have you know this will allow at least at the the first marking period as I'm just going through you feel that this allows for enough time for that solid preparation for those the assessments that are given um inclusive of professional development and and everything. I mean, I know it looks very similar to years past that we've seen the calendar and there's a lot of, you know, holidays and things that
151we need to account for. Um, but just in pointing that out with a really solid block in April and May, uh, and I definitely don't want to take away any vacation days from anybody, but I just want to make sure that, um, it's correlated. So, if you could talk to us like a little bit >> when we get into May, that's really we're we're in the middle of testing. I mean, the first week is always AP testing. Second week is makeup. Um, and that's our our SBA, NGSS, all of that's happening. So, what it does is in April, it doesn't break up that instructional time for kids where, you know, it's I I love I love the way that April looks. Yeah. Um, I'm gonna have to go back and review like really old calendars,
152but I was going to because it almost always happens over break, but I was going to say like Passover isn't a holiday we usually give off. Correct. I mean, it's almost always I I don't ever remember a calendar where it wasn't over spring break, uh, you know, April break, but this year that, you know, the 26 27, it's really early and Passover is late that year actually. So, we had this discussion I want to say maybe two years ago because it it landed on our calendar and I think by accident like we it had never been on there before. I'd have to go pull it and have a look at it. But, um, and we actually I asked that question too um because Linda usually works on these every year and been doing them for
153so long and and we've never had that. So I'll just like pose that as a question for just to the moment because we don't know anyone anyone no okay well thank you we are on to our last topic of the evening um the uh potential to revise the waiting for AP courses uh the policy um so again this one is really an outgrowth of discussions the board started having at the end of last year. Um it went along with the consistency regulation that we've done and just all the different discussions and then at the retreat it seemed like there was a lot of interest in this. Um and you know for a couple of reasons I think actually let me hand these are just a few comps from around us that um yeah um because
154I know some of you were wondering you know do other people do this or not other districts and it really it's I mean it's different every every district is unique and everybody does what they think is best for their kids. Um, and for us, we've even had the conversation, if you remember, about, you know, encouraging students to take AP exams for a number of reasons because they are rigorous. It does benefit kids in their college credit. Um, and not that our honors are not, our honors are very rigorous as well. Um, but it also even when you get into things like rankings, which seem to matter to this community, um, we don't get credit for honors in rankings, but we do for AP. So there are just some very different reasons. But again, you can
155see New Kanan um if they uh AP credit only if the exam is taken. So that's what they do. Westport again has an honors uh waiting of 4.67 college level which is like your you know your AP is 5.0. Uh Darianne you can see where they do honors and AP at five um 5.0. Fairfield does AP at five and then honors at 4.67. Um, so it's kind of the same thing. It's just what what what what I was proposing um from from listening to the board was instead of lowering honors, we were keeping honors and you got a 0.25 bump for taking AP. So it's kind of a little bit different than Fairfield. Uh Trumbull 4.07 4.087 if it has a lab to it like a biology lab. I guess it's because it's an extra
156instructional minutes and they probably grade their labs separate perhaps from their classes. Um, and then we are say I assume ours is a that's a typo. Here it says 50. >> It was 40 and honors, >> right? But here we have it. Was it 40, not 50? >> What's that? >> Yeah, it's the plus one. >> Sorry then I was misre misunderstanding how this was written. So the reason I put the policy on here and again this didn't go to the policy committee. That's why I emailed emailed um to let you let some of you know that I was going to put it on so you could see whi which policy it is and it's really just a matter of that category one changing if the board chooses to go in this direction uh the
1571.25 um and the 4.25 for AP. >> So for for all for AP because you'll see all AP courses where you see that yellow it starts out with all AP courses. That's the AP section. I mean obviously this is a discussion that the board would need to have but I what are what were your thoughts like would this be retroactive for the students it No saying like if there's a junior or a senior I'm just asking and also if this is something we decided to approve for this year I think we shouldn't be adding it that same year because students maybe would have made a different choice between AP >> yeah I know Ralph is um has very strong viewpoint on this and it would start and it would start I mean we talked about
158it it's like would you start in the middle of the year or but really when you think about the right thing to do they know what the program of studies is when they enroll in high school and if you had a 025 bump they may have made different choices so it would be next year's freshman coming in is when it would actually start and we would be getting in this in the program of studies and that's why it's important to talk about it now because they're developing program of studies they they have to do that early in the year >> Laura so I guess I'm just curious why we are we would want to do that. Um and I'm interested to hear Ralph's feedback on the notion. Some some schools, you know, are when I
159tell them, you know, uh, oh, we have a 1.0 I know bump for AP honors. They're like intrigued by this notion, but not everybody does it the same way. But why another 0.25? I I think it goes back to again um a reason a lot of districts do it is because it is considered generally to be more rigorous. I mean, if you take the A and that's why when we were talking about at the retreat, okay, if you take the exam, you got the 0.25. But I think overwhelmingly you seemed as a board to say if you take the AP class. So that's why when I was putting this in yellow, I didn't put that back in there again based on your feedback. But I think it's because of the rigor of an AP class.
160And when you take that AP test, when you talk about really being prepared for college, number one, it's a test that we don't control. And that's one thing about AP tests. You can't teach to a test that you don't know what's going to be on it. When you're talking about honors and you've got four or five honors teachers, again, that's why we're talking about consistency regulation, you do know what's going to be on the test. AP has a level of rigor that you have to really look at the standards, look at the syllabus. Um, and for the students just to sit through, you know, I are they four hours? You probably know Mike better. I could It's been a while. I mean, it's a long time. And they're very controlled. I mean, when I was
161an AP coordinator, it made me so nervous because, you know, the desks cover a certain width. I mean, it's they're very strict. Um, and so it's just a different level. Oh, me too. And that's back when things like used to be paper like, oh my gosh, you're afraid you're going to lose a booklet or something. Um, but that coupled with if we if we really if do rankings matter to this board through several years, we've talked about it and you know, Joe was always a proponent of we need to be number one, but we hurt ourselves by not allowing all of our great students that take these honors classes if they were taking AP, we actually would be better as far as that goes. And, you know, does it make a difference in people that
162want to move to Greenwich? Do they look at those rankings? You know, >> Sophie, I just um going back to that idea of whether or not we want the students to take the AP or whether we want to incentivize them. Um how many students do you have any sense take AP classes and then don't take the exam? >> I would I would want to get that data point. What I can tell you at the at the achievement u when they do that um because I did a presentation for at leadership for our team and we have more students taking APs and we have more exams and our results are better and you'll see that at the achievement report. So Adette tells me most of our students are are taking the exam and you always have
163a few that it's just no value to them because they're going to go to college and it like they're going into an engineering program where they're not going to count um the AP credit um because they have a certain level that they want everybody to take. So it really it you know you get some of that but not a lot. >> And seniors sometimes don't take them because there's no like they already know what college they go to so they know they're not going to you know get used it. No, I mean I can imagine there are some people that don't take them, but I would also think I mean after your freshman, sophomore, junior year, you're taking it, right? Because that's going to hopefully you're going to do well and it'll help you get
164into college. So, it would I would imagine be a small group of seniors that I don't know. I'm just curious about it because I would like to incentivize people to take the exam, but for all the reasons that we t discussed at the last meeting, but I also don't feel like wedded to the idea of of making that be the credential for getting the additional >> well if there you're incentivized to take it because then you don't have to take the final. >> That's an incentive. >> Well, yeah, that's true, too. I mean, ju just just to put that out there. So, that is an incentive. >> This is the regulation. >> I was just That's why I'm saying it's a that's a big bonus. Um, and I was just going to answer for Laura
165when you were talking about the difference between honors and AP and stuff. Besides the fact that it the speed with which it moves so quickly, but I mean even if you just look here, you can see the difference. Homework is 60 minutes per class, you know, per the night it meets for AP and you know, 45. So there's a complete there's a there's a very big difference and there's a lot of kids that will I mean I know we had this discussion before will take an honor as opposed to an AP because they're weighted the exact same and they know that they can get an A and they don't you know in in an honor it'll be better for their GPA as opposed to giving themselves a challenge in an AP course. >> Oh, we
166have done the calculus on that in our house having two GHS grads. Um, and you know, to Cody's point last week, it's the it's a it's an amazing way to get college credit for a much lower cost than what you would pay uh if you were a tuition paying student. So, I mean, it's a it's a great incentive. I was just curious about feeling about it. Kathleen >> Tony, were you still considering adding um classes that are beyond AP? >> Yeah, and we could add that in here if the if the policy committee wants to update this and absolutely the classes that are not AP because they're a higher level than AP. >> Yes. >> Um two quick questions. um down at the bottom where it says um with the cross out um the GPA
167is calculated for all for all what um see the second line there GPA is calculated for all and then it says weighted on a scale so um I'm assuming yeah something's cut off but I'm assuming that means all courses or >> yeah I think the intent there was GPA is calculated for all subjects with AP and honors course weighted on a scale of and then it has AP and then it has honors. So it was just trying to differentiate that between the two. >> Okay. >> I probably should have not struck the word subjects I think. Yeah. >> And then do these categories exist um I should know this policy. Do these categories exist anywhere else? Like is there anywhere else where these categories exist where like the the the sense in policy like an
168AP class has to have 60 minutes of homework and honors has 45 minutes. They um is worry sometimes about putting things in policy inadvertently. >> Yeah. I mean I I don't know that anybody really pays attention to it to be honest. I mean believe it or not our board policy people don't read them all the time. I mean So I don't I don't think a teacher says I'm going to give you 60 minutes of homework every night. You know, I I think there it's based on their syllabus and what they really need students to do. So if you were going to policy committee was going to take that this up. I mean you could just say you know appropriate level to >> well you say like you can expect to have >> up to or
169whatever it may because but it all but you also we also know when it comes to homework that some kids it'll take 10 minutes and some kids it'll take two hours for the exact same assignment. It's just, you know, how it goes. Yeah. >> One more thing. Sorry. >> While doing this, I think that you have to re-evaluate 113 and 113A because those continue to be weighted at the same and they either need to become the same class or one needs to be weighted more than the other. >> Wait. So, it's the um like ALP English basically for ninth grade which was piloted like a long time ago because it was this concept that you needed a more rigorous uh course um when you came into the high school and there used to be a
170whole um like uh gatekeeper around getting into the class. You had to take all these tests to get into the class and so therefore they were not weighted differently because it was like it wasn't fair, right? if you got into the class and it's the only class that you couldn't override your placement. However, that has now gone away and anybody who wants to metriculated into it just like if you wanted if you were recommended for, you know, AB calculus but you want to take BC calculus, you could. Um, so same concept and it's like the one holdover that and then you could even argue that they end up having the same metriculation into AP anyway sophomore year. So the question is is do you even need these to be different classes? But we revisit this
171every couple years and we've never done anything and I think I'm going to make it my mission before I leave the board to either say that no they are the same and therefore >> you want to add that as a part of the discussion for this. >> Yeah. or wait one. I mean, it's one of the >> I mean, I I I think it's I mean, I know I remember the same argument when it when they first put this, the only way that they would agree to add 113A back in the day, you know, Dr. Winters and others like was that it wasn't weighted. That was the only way they agreed to add it to the school. But I think it's high time now that it, you know, to have re revisit that discussion >>
172and then maybe because of the the gatekeeping mentality that used to be strong where they probably thought it wasn't fair if you weren't going to allow their child to take the class. >> But then anybody can take it. >> Now anyone could just like any other course of the high school which is right, right? Like you have your own you'll be recommended for a class but you know if you and your parents feel differently then have at it. Right? So that concept now applies to all classes including 113 and 113A. So it feels like it should be treated in the same manner. >> Right. So can we we won't add it to the actual policy but can we have it as part of can we add it as a discussion when we are making the
173>> when this comes back to us >> be interesting to like basically what you're saying is either we have freshman English or we have freshman English and then we have honors freshman English and then it would make sense although no because honors is well I guess honors is yeah so you would get weighted as an honors class and is it an honors class right I mean that >> well that's why they called it a because it was advanced it wasn't honors ers in that way. >> No, I don't I don't Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know if there's if this curriculum is sufficiently different, >> right? And and the rigor is sufficiently different to Warren being getting I mean I haven't looked at it. So I think but I think it's worth it to look
174at it for doing all of this, right? Is it really an honors course? >> H happy to add it to a a future agenda for discussion. Can can I just ask is this something that maybe before we put it on the next agenda which sounds like we maybe the policy committee could do a quick meeting on this because I think that would be helpful and I I could also perhaps that policy committee we could have ask Ralph to come and because he had some teachers that actually were really interested in this topic last year and he said it was like a I don't know if it was a committee but it wasn't a formal committee but they were they were in favor of looking at this. >> Right. >> Okay. Okay. Well, I guess that
175means it's now on your plate to set up a meeting with us. Just send a text. I'm sure we'll find a date. >> The habit of late of putting more things on big policy committee. I have I've noticed a trend this month, >> but well, you know, they're good topics. It's good to vet them. You know, I don't disagree. Um, does anybody else have any questions, comments, thoughts on this policy uh discussion? If not, I think there's a motion to be made by someone. I know Laura loves to make this motion, but I I feel like, you know, we have at least Kathleen who's not running and you don't want to run. Okay, >> Laura, >> I would like to make a a motion to adjourn. >> Sophie is seconded. All in favor? Thank you.
176I look forward to seeing you guys at our next meeting and looking forward to meeting with the policy committee soon. And uh thank you all for your time.