4-24-23 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Wow. Are we recording? Thank you very much um for your patience, folks. It's about 6:05. We are just making sure that all our technology was in in place in that this is actually the second time that the board has been meeting in this space um since before CO. So, I'm excited about that. So today is se um April 24th um and once again it's 6:05 and um I am starting the Grten Board of Education regular um meeting. Um our first order of business is for the pledge of allegiance and I am willing if um Clint if you would be willing to lead us in the pledge and the flag is behind me. Ready to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible,

002with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, >> Superintendent Austin. I believe that we do not have any recognition or participation of visitors and delegations today. You are correct. All right. At this point, um the board would be willing to um this is our comments from citizen section and this is the portion of the agenda where the board welcomes comments from citizens. Each presentation should be limited to 5 minutes or less and citizens should if possible submit written comments. Presentation should be related to matters pertinent to Graten. Board members will only ask questions in order to clarify the speaker's presentation and cannot respond during the comments or citizen portion of the board meeting. Citizens should be u make their presentation from the podium which we actually have a podium this time and state their

003names and addresses um for the record. The people who are in the audience are um our staff. Are there is there anyone online? And Miss Joan, do you know if there's anyone online? >> There is no one. >> Um I'm interested in speaking. >> Okay. Thank you, Porsha. Go ahead. >> Uh thank you. Uh Porsche Bordalon, 24 Jefferson Drive. Um for full disclosure, I'm a Rotten Town counselor. Um, I just wanted to reach out. I know I spoke at the last meeting. Um, I did receive the email from Mrs. Watson regarding um the cost or the as far as the uh AED machines in the high school. Um, but I did not receive anything saying that there would be a plan to actually implement them. So, that was my first question and I will follow

004follow this up with an email. Um, the other thing is is I did reach out to the uh principal at Fitch, Mr. Brown who was very helpful and I had just reached out as a courtesy um I had reached out several years ago and I noticed on the report cards from middle school and through high school over the last several years um there's no indication that a student has made honoral no recognition sometimes there's something in the newspaper but on the actual transcript itself for the high school level there's nothing saying what quarters even that you've made honor role and I looked at some other schools um report cards. I looked at Ledger Middle School and other different things to see. And I think it's really important that we um you know, as an alliance

005district, um one of our areas that we were deficient, you know, is it's very important that we recognize the students when they achieve a level of recognition like honor role or high honor role. I know as a Fitch High School graduate of 98, um they used to recognize us, call us down, and there would be sometimes a coffee and donut session or sometimes pizza. Um and they would recognize the students on that time. Sometimes parents were invited to come. It could be as simple or as elegant as you choose. Um, I do think that not all students are National Honor Society and I do think that Graten could um look to u make sure that the middle school and high school level honors and high honor role students are recognized. If nothing else on the

006transcript or printable report card, it should state the quarters. Under the high school report card, I looked at the it has a section called other that's completely blank and it would be a great opportunity in that section to write the quarters. looking at my son for example a junior year we were looking uh you know looking at planning for the future and it would also uh make the transcript look a little bit more powerful by having um the indication of students you know making or achieving one of the reasons that this is important is because not all students take IB or a uh AP classes but they may achieve honor or high honor role at their level and so again it's just something that Mr. Brown said he would look into. I wanted to present

007it also to the board as a parents concern. Um I've spoke with other parents as well and it when you look at the report kind of just doesn't have any weight. It doesn't say anything. It just says GPA weighted GPA. Um and then I asked someone else I said well what does it mean you know if it doesn't say anything? And I guess other states and other areas have different criteria for making honor rule. So Grten's criteria, it should state somewhere on there that they met the criteria. So just a recommendation, hope that the board would consider this or maybe move this along and get it updated as soon as possible for the sake of the students. And I also think it makes a powerful statement on their resume, which their transcript is like a

008resume when they're selling themselves to different colleges. Um, and again, Mr. Brown was very helpful. I did go through him and pass that on to him first, but I I did want to uh bring it forward here. Thank you, >> councelor Bordine. Thank you very much for your comments. I will make sure that um Superintendent Austin and the director of facilities gets back to you about the machine placement and the implementation of those or you know if if they what is the plan. Um and I'm sorry I I did not close the loop on that. So I'll take um responsibility for that. Um, and um, I think your point about understanding what's on the transcripts or not and honoring people makes a lot of sense and that um, I'm going to ask that Superintendent Austin

009and her staff also look into in into that and um, see what we can do. So, thank you very much for um, adding stuff to um, yeah, adding stuff to her list um, but actually bringing to the attention to the board um, this really kind of important thing. I would like to recognize um >> Do you know me, >> Miss Porter? Yes. >> Okay. Um I want to uh say thank you to Porsche Bordalon for bringing this out because I do remember when I started teaching at Fitch back in 2000 that that was something that I thought was really um a community builder that um after every quarter there was donuts or pizza. And it was I and I actually was a had a lot of fun going and even though kids just popped in,

010it was a really good community builder. So I think it's very important that we recognize not only our kids who are in those upper echelons but every kid who is achieved and you know it it gives them something to work for. I think it's a great idea. It's a good incentive. So I just wanted to I was wanted to >> you know add my two cents. >> Thank you. Thank you for adding your two cents. >> Um Mrs. Watson. >> Yes. Can I recognize Dean Antipest first? >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> I agree with you, Porsche. I've seen my kids uh transcripts. Uh I've got two in college now, and I don't know what difference it makes, but I was a little um I don't know what word to use, miffed, maybe too soft,

011to see that there was no it wasn't a full expression of what was in there, uh of what they'd accomplished, you know, while they were at high school. Uh so, I don't know why. I kind of hope that our unofficial copy was a little blanker than the ones that went to schools, but I don't know. Uh, and it was what it was. Um, there may be a reason for this and I I don't know what it is. >> Thank you, councelor Bordine. >> Uh, thank you. I just wanted to add I just Well, thank you for the comments from the two people who spoke. Um Um and I just want to um thank you for that. I appreciate, you know, those comments. I have looked at an official transcript as well and it is null

012and void on that as well. Um, I did look into this several years ago at the middle school level and it just went away. Also, I just think it is important as it was stated to recognize uh students at every level. Um and you know I looked at surrounding towns and you know we were all Facebook parents and uh social media parents and people were posting in different districts about oh my son daughter made honor role and they had a you know little paper certificate and there was a ceremony and some type of recognition at school and I do think it makes other students uh look to uh ways to achieve levels you know that may be gradual um and um I I think it'd be helpful. Thank you. >> No, thank you so much.

013I'm gonna recognize Katie. >> Um, as the only high school current high school student in here, I can just tell you donuts are a great incentive for everyone my age. >> So, >> pizza, too. >> I I'm not quite sure that it's just two high schoolers because I think donuts are a great >> donuts are an incentive for everyone. Yeah, I I'm this >> I was just wondering are we due for a a revision or a look at the um excuse me the uh report card or I thought we I thought we were up for a revision to look at that and >> and now um >> are the trim My question is about the transcripts are transcripts generated by the state of how they're supposed to look is or is it indicative for each

014district to have its own transcript? I'm I'm going to add this to our um because I think it I think it used to be on the template um our yearly template and I'm going to make sure that it gets back on because I think on a yearly basis we should be looking at those um questions though. I think um uh Councilwoman um Bordon was talking more about like also the recognition like there's the making sure that it has recognition on the transcripts but some way of saying yay. And it sounds to me that the high school um uh one of the uh principles are are made aware of that. So I'm going to make sure that it gets on there. I see you taking notes as well on that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >>

015I'm just hoping hoping middle school is also recognized. >> Yeah. Agree. >> No, I think I think it's across the board. I only said high school, but I think it's across the board. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. I will add being an international balarat middle years program 6 through 10 there is a necessity to look at the report cards to make sure we're including that information. So it is very timely that you bring this up. >> Cool. >> Thank you. >> Cool. All right. Is there any other comments from uh the community? Hearing none. I'm going to move us on to Miss Katie, who has what, six more weeks. Not that I'm counting, but yes. >> Um, hi, I'm Kate Sashi. I'm a senior at Fitch High School. I just have a few

016things to uh present. Most exciting, at least I think, is um Fitch senior Nazier Matthews was just named um wrestler of the year by the New London Day. Um so that's a pretty great honor for him. Um, and then I was shared with this today that the seventh and ninth grade students will be attending a presentation about the indigenous uh, MSI tribe and they'll be learning about their history, customs, and challenges living in Kenya and Tanzania. Um, I believe that's coming up next week. >> No, it's Wednesday. >> Oh, it's this >> this Wednesday. >> She knows better than I. Look at you. Um, I also wanted to share that the drama club performance of Little Shop of Horrors is on May 12th and 13th at 7 p.m. in the Fitch Auditorium. Um, I know

017a lot of my friends are really looking forward to being a part um of that performance, whether they be, you know, on the stage or helping behind the scenes. They're all really excited. Um, junior and senior prom are also coming up. Junior prom is on May 6th and that's at the Porton Star in New London. And, uh, senior prom is June 2nd, and that's going to be at the Mystic Marriott. Um the senior trip is also to Seaside Beach Club and that's on June 6th. And the senior class is also having a Chipotle fundraiser on May 1st um where a third of the sales are going to go to our class. So help us pay off prom. But yeah, that's all I've got. So thank you Katie. Thank you very much. And um just to

018I'm assum I believe that Zoe is not here because she is participating in a softball >> game. Softball and Isaiah's baseball. And I was going to say and I know that Isaiah is at a baseball. So, um, but thank you very much for coming. I really appreciate that. >> Can I add to please >> report what's the young man's name? Um, Mr. Matthews. >> Nazir. I I learned today because I was up at the high school today that he also was was successful complete um competing on the national stage. >> That's true. We sent him to nationals. So, I mean, this is really something for a wrestler from this small little neck of the woods because the primary wrestling community, not that I know that much, um, is out of Ohio and Pennsylvania and he

019held his head high and he represented Connecticut. He represented Grten very well. >> Phenomenal. >> So, it was absolutely phenomenal. >> So, Nazir Matthews, congratulations. >> Yeah, for sure. That's really cool. That's really cool. Rita, welcome home. I'm glad that you um had a safe travel. I I see that you have just joined us. Thank you. Um um >> hi. Sorry. >> That's fine. I'm glad that you're here. Um we have a huge chunk of data that we that Susan is going to be presenting to us. Um we have a pretty short part after that. And my question to the board is, would you like us just to table for a second the Susan's data stuff, get through the rest of the reports so that the remainder of the time could be in conversation with

020um with um with the data. How does the board feel? >> I like that. >> Excellent idea. >> I'm sorry. >> Excellent idea. >> Okay. I just need to have a motion on the floor. >> So moved. >> Second. Okay. So, um, the motion is on the floor, Joan, to, um, to move to, uh, cover everything else on the agenda. Now that we've gotten through the community portion, I wanted to make sure that got, um, handled. Um, it was, uh, first by Matthew. Um, and it was second by Andrea. Is there further discussion? >> So, we're just doing A, right? I mean, what we're doing for rearranging at the end. >> A is at the end. >> Thank you for clarification. Sure. >> No, I think we could do the rest. >> Yeah, let's get

021through the steps. >> Just a is being >> moved to the end to the end. Okay. Just wanted to clarify. >> Okay. So, um is there any further discussion? Thank you. >> Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion on the floor, which is to move a to uh agenda number a to the end, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. Motion has carried. So, Ken, because I know that you just love talking about your reports and stuff, you are up next, sir. >> Great. So, I'm going to share uh attachment number five. >> You can read it. >> Okay, everything worked. Uh so, attachment number five is our object code summary updated through um April 19th. Uh this report shows that um >> uh shows that uh we are anticipating a projected

022uh unexpended um balance of Oh, I lost I lost it on my screen. >> I have 34,736. >> $34,736. Thank you so much. Um the primary drivers here are underbudget variances in special education and salaries as it has been uh throughout the year uh offset by increased or uh overbudget variances um with energy with fuel and uh the addition of the additional uh two school buses. Uh so that that's what brings us to that balance >> and I would say that our principles have been super efficient monitoring their expenses and we'll be meeting with them in the next couple weeks individually to really see what is necessary as we end out the year. >> Correct. >> So we'll continue with that efficiency >> 34,000. >> It's it's a very tight uh tight window there. We're

023>> hoping to make it. >> we will make it. Any other questions about the object summary? >> Where were we last year this time? If you have that. >> I do not have that. Um >> Okay. I'm sure I have >> But it was more than this. >> It was It was more than this. Um we were in a different a little bit different situation last year, but >> yeah, >> but we typically don't have a lot of funds left over. We typically have tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands. >> Yeah. Right. >> Yeah. But it's the end of April, >> right? Still have >> I'm sure if I pulled out my my stack from last year, I could probably track it from this figure to the next one to the to the end

024of the year to, you know, to June 30th and see if I were to map the trend onto this. >> Where would we be? Just out of curiosity. But thanks. >> If hearing no other comments about the object code summary, let's go to our insurance. >> All right. I can share that one as well. There it is. All right. This is health insurance uh claims uh through the month of February. Uh you'll notice February was at 127.8% of uh of anticipated. Uh so this trend where it's kind of uh below the anticipated for the first part of the year and then over uh the anticipated for the remainder part of the year is is what's expected. Uh we have a a high deductible health plan and so uh throughout the the beginning part of the

025year the deductibles are being used up and then as you get towards the end of the plan year it's uh more of more of it gets covered uh through through the um through this uh through the reserve. So, um, year to date we're at 87.5%. This does compare with I do have last year's for that one at 91.4%. So, we're a little bit better actually than we were uh at the same point uh last year. >> Okay. And um so the next report that we would get would would cover the March, April, do you think? Yeah, it usually takes them uh a good um uh 20 25 to 28 days to get the report. So I would I'm expecting the March report this week. >> Okay. >> Um and so usually we we're we're kind

026of like a month behind. >> Okay. Um and so the trend of the 127% is not is is a trend that we are we normally would >> it's not alarming. Um, last year was different. Well, the past few years have been different just because uh the the state of things have been different, but I think this is the trend we should expect to see. >> Okay. Any other questions about the insurance? >> Yeah. Liz, you say you're not worried. Should we be worried? >> No. No. Okay. So, we have What I'm asking, I think, is you know, I know we've looked at and to balance the budget or to bring the budget down. We've won, we've gone into our reserve. So, are we in our reserve? How have we used our reserve at all for

027this? >> We we anticipated uh this happening. This anticipated number is what we anticipate to to happen. And so, as long as we stay in this in this trend, not not go uh much more over it. Uh we should be we we're in we're in good shape >> to not use that >> to to be exactly where we anticipated to be >> to use just what we have put aside >> to use. Okay. >> Not to to dig into the reserve. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All righty. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Kilpatrick. Have you been a little bit busy lately? >> Beg you pardon? >> Have you been busy lately? Uh >> oh. >> That's not a way of getting out of talking to us. >> Thank you. >> Uh

028good evening. Um I I just have a couple of things that I want to report on tonight. I guess the first thing is if you'll indulge me for just a second, I'd like to uh express my gratitude to uh the transportation coordinators um uh Jenny Aino and Vanessa Simon who on Friday when we were alerted that there was a problem on the bridge went into called me in and we had a meeting immediately and during that meeting uh Vanessa um we knew that some buses were going to be very late and that one particular bus was going going to have to go across the bridge and or to New London to pick up kids uh after they dropped off our elementary kids, which would have meant that it would been an hours late. Um and

029Vanessa volunteered to go down and get the extra bus at the bus garage in the middle of the afternoon. She traveled up through Norwich back down, got there a couple hours after school and then drove all those kids home from RMMS. Um, and I think the last kid was dropped off at about 6:39 on Friday night and uh, Vanessa got home probably about an hour and a half, two hours after that. So, um, I just want to express thanks to them for for their hard work and along with our bus drivers, uh, STA, uh, the administration and the bus drivers especially. Um, I I didn't hear any panic on the radio. Uh, bus drivers were more than willing to do whatever they had to do. go wherever they had to go. We had to reroute

030bus drivers and uh they were very helpful and calming of the kids and uh and it went very well uh considering even though everybody was late getting home. So, uh, with those thanks, I'll move on, if I may, um, to, um, the, uh, second item that was, um, unexpected, and that was that we had a, uh, concern at Mystic River Magnet School on Monday when, um, some, uh, connectors in the ceiling failed. Um, they're called Hilty connectors. They failed and part of the ceiling sagged down. uh the administration moved the kids out of the out of the cafeteria and back to their classrooms uh in an orderly fashion. And we were very fortunate that uh the very next day uh the contractor, both the contractor and OMG uh sent their representative Tim Chan back down

031and started on Tuesday morning removing parts of the ceiling so they could get up there, find out what happened uh and uh started putting it all back together. fire marshall came. Uh the building official came, they gave authoriz or the building official agreed with the fix that OMG came up with. Uh and by Friday morning, I had the authorization from both the fire marshall and uh the uh building official to allow the kids to go back into the cafeteria. So on Friday, uh when I got that word, it was I think it was just before lunchtime. Uh we spent that uh couple hours uh cleaning up the cafeteria so that uh this morning all of the students were able to go back into the cafeteria and use the cafeteria. So um very fortunate that we

032had good contractors on the on the job. OMG was very responsive and we're pretty thankful for that too. Um the manufacturer uh Hilty uh is uh sending a rep down. Uh I did take the uh part that failed uh to our finance and facilities committee meeting the other night. I showed it to Dean and and Jay and those that were at the meeting. Um they are going to be looking at that and determining exactly why that failed. Um whether it was I guess six of those actually failed. So uh the reason for that we're not sure of um but they're going to be looking into that. In the meantime, uh, we scheduled an, uh, an inspection of Thes River Magnus School, which has the same ceiling and some of the same connectors. They're on there

033a little bit differently. Uh, we did look at it last week. Uh, felt fairly secure in that, but we do have uh, another inspection tomorrow morning to look at that ceiling in more detail. Uh, and and we'll go from there uh, starting tomorrow morning. So if with that if there are any questions I'd be happy to answer >> any questions. >> All right hearing none. Let's move on. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um so we're now at our comm our comm Wow. Committee >> busy for people to say but not me. Um we're now at our committee reports. Um policy. We're pardon we were working on the promotion and retention and um we're going to be looking at exa examining grading. I'm sorry not my voice is like this. However, and we were had

034we had the um library policy scheduled to come to for a first reading but the state has sent us some um material to look at it. We want to do that before we bring it. >> Thank you. Curriculum. Yeah, we met. I don't even remember now, but we we've met was it last week? Um but we we looked at we were um asked to look at the possibility of adding another portion of project lead the way and it would be an independent um project that's like a capstone and we are getting the information from the school about the outline of this. um we're looking at it is this required to be a a separate course that needs to be you know um piloted or is it an extension of another course of the same course

035of the project leads way. So, we're we're just starting to look at it, but we need to move on it because they need to get this um we have students who are eligible for this in their senior year and we don't want to give those students um you know not provide for them what they need to be to have for a successful senior year. So, um Dr. Piaza have I don't remember seeing anything coming from um Mr. Keller. Did Did we send it? Did you send it? >> I thought I sent it that afternoon, but I can resend it. >> Please do because I don't remember receiving it. Did you receive it, Andrea? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, it's me. It's my fault. >> We'll double check and let >> Okay. Thank you. >> But

036as we I think we identified there, it was it was a problem, but it was a good problem. >> Yeah, it's a great problem. For the first time we have students who are eligible to do that because they've completed all the other parts of the program. >> Yeah. Cool. That's great. So it is a positive. Just trying to make sure we maintain what our process is and that it is respected. Thank you. Finance and facilities. Jay. >> Yes. Good evening. Um we met on April 18th. Uh we discussed the um 2023 2024 salary and wages for non union personnel. Uh we discussed the um meal program uh with Ernie and he also uh discussed the um uh summer meal program where those would be held. Um, and I just want to say thank you to

037Sam and his crew for um, uh, turning around that situation at uh, uh, Mystic River uh, very quickly. I know Sam was there the next morning at 6:00 a.m. with contractors to make sure that that cafeteria was back in service. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you, Jay. Communications I'm pleased to say that uh we may have finished our work on the communication plan. It is in final draft and we made a motion to accept it subject to getting the final proposals in written form and out to the uh committee members for vote and hopefully we can have it to you by the next cow. I'd like to particularly thank Rebecca and Phil uh without whom we would have uh be looking at finishing it months from now. >> Moving on. Um so uh

038negotiations uh there are members of the board of education who are starting um the negotiation process with our the union that represents our pair of professionals and I know that um this coming Thursday is a um is a meeting for the for the board um and then I think that we start our um our uh work together um in the following week. So, just to let the board know about that. Rita, do you have um information from learn? >> Well, from uh from learn basically we talked about the budget and passed the budget for next year, the approved budget. I think it's about $55 million. And we also passed quite a few I think 12 policies. So, that's that's basically what went on at the meeting. >> Thank you. >> Wow. Um >> I know

039>> it's a lot. Um so the town uh the town council the RTM board of ed um and Miss Joan I just want to make sure that we get the the graten city on there as well for the leazison. Um our meeting I believe is going to be the beginning of June. June 2nd kind of rings a bell in my head. Um but that's just a bell. Um we have uh our next AGSA leazison meeting is in May. I can't remember the date, but that's coming up and that will wrap up our um our year together um for the 2022 2023 school year. Grten scholarships. >> Yeah. Um the um meeting for this month had been cancelled. However, next month we will be going into um assigning award or awarding the different scholarship amounts to

040the students who have who have submitted their applications. They the essays and all the applications are in the process of being read right now and evaluated. >> Cool. Athletic fields. Jay, is there any new information? >> Uh no. Uh we are still not meeting uh while they uh hash out the uh former Clawchester property >> trails. >> There was no meeting last month. The library. >> The library u since co before covid the three libraries in the town have met together for an annual uh get together and coordination effort and that is going to happen this year sometime in the autumn and there is some consideration there. There will hopefully be either at that meeting or at a separate meeting the opportunity for our librarian media specialists to interact with some of the librarians at

041in the town to see whether you know what other additional opportunities for collaboration there may be. We typically always meet with the town library, city library at the end of spring so that we can plan for summer because the town offers summer programming as we do. So that's a good time. So I'll let everybody know when that meeting takes place. >> Would you let me? >> Absolutely. Thank you very much. >> Permanent school building committee. So I believe Dean, you may not know this, but you are actually have been assigned to that, but um I don't think you knew that. >> Well, no, I did not. >> Yeah. Okay. So, um >> wouldn't be the first time. >> It's a lot I don't know. >> Report just because you don't know. >> That's right. We

042can make >> I can report that I haven't met. >> Okay. All right. Um and then the state council will be meeting on May 21st on Thursday. A Thursday. Okay. All right. So, next one. >> Yes. >> All right. So the next item is our consent agenda which is all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. Points of clarification will be allowed. Um and I will take a motion for that. >> So moved. >> Can I take a uh can I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Liz, I just want to clarify that I've been given permission now that the um Grten Public Schools received a donation of it's almost 200 spiral bound college ruled notebooks and they were donated generously from the Yukon

043Avery Point bookstore, Barnes & Noble. Tristine um Brian is the manager and I just wanted to say shout out that says thank you very much. I delivered those today to the high school. There were 21 boxes of spiralbound notebooks. >> Thank you very much. >> Principal Keller was very excited and we'll be able to roll that out in the beginning start of the school year so that students won't have to go and buy them. They'll be given them. So that was great. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any other discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor of the consent agenda, please say I. >> I. I >> I >> oppose abstain. That motion has carried >> for new business. Um Matthew, would you read the motion, please, for number one? >> Thank you. I

044move that we recognize May 2nd, 2023 as National Teacher Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to all of our teachers. >> Second. >> That's been seconded. Any discussion >> here? >> Can I I just want to ask to put in my my two cents in here and thank the teachers who dealt with that crisis at the middle. I mean at the elementary school, Mystic River uh Mystic River Magnet School uh with the ceiling falling and stuff and how they they jumped in and they just really roasted the challenge and I just wanted to say thank you. We appreciate it. They do what they do. Good job. >> Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> I >> abstain.

045That motion has carried. Dean, would you please read the motion for number two? >> Yes. Uh, I move to recognize May 10th, 2023 as National School Nurse Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to the nurses. >> Can I have a second? >> Second. >> I I have Liz for a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor um of the motion to recognize May 10th as National School Nurse Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to the nurses. All in favor, please say I. >> I oppose. >> Abstain. That motion has carried. Um so we're going on to information and proposal um for which are the non-action items. Um, Rita, do you have emails or other communications? >> Yes.

046Um, I we I receive like probably other board members. Um, quite a few um communications about the reading program and it is something that I have um hoped that we get to really discuss in full um in the very near future. I know you you kind of backed it up a little bit. is not going to be really at this meeting, but one in the future, but I'd like a time when the parents can also come and speak to us about their concerns. That's it. >> Thank you, Beth. uh the same emails that Rita received most likely and uh concerned about the basketball program at the high school which I will call Susan about and talk to her privately about that >> that you're going to or you did be I'm sorry >> no I'm

047going to I think Susan was away so I gave a couple of days to >> Okay thank you >> but I will I will I will be calling. I just appreciate that. >> Yeah. Thank you, Beth. >> William, >> uh nothing new to share. >> Thank you, Matthew. >> Nothing additional, >> Dean. >> Um yes. Uh independent of the emails, which we probably all got. Um, regarding the reading program, uh, I had it on my on my notes because of the the data, because of the last meeting to ask that at some point we have a I don't know whether a dedicated meeting or at least a dedicated portion of of a meeting to talking about the reading program specifically, not just the resolves, but also the reading program >> which will be on May

0488th is our next committee of the whole meeting and it has been dedicated to the um K through three reading program. >> Thank you. >> You got it. >> Kim, >> yes, >> Kim from from out here in the ether. Um could is it possible to have some information from the state of Connecticut about why they chose their six um reading programs that they'd like the towns to adopt in the state of Connecticut? Is there um is there anybody in the state that could come and talk to the board about that? So, so Reed, I don't know if people can talk. I did get your email and I has I have um talked that over with Susan and I plan to reach out to someone to see to tell them that we are gonna be

049>> going to be having that conversation um and whether they could either join us by Zoom or give us information about why those six programs. But yeah, >> right, even if they, you know, present something in writing to us, I'm just very curious about why they selected them. Um, thank you. >> Nope. Absolutely. Um, Andrea. >> Yes, that's you. >> I have two things. I think I said before that I heard from um a student that I had 47 years ago and she's um she helps people in writing their memoirs. And I went through my old records and I I found a paper that she wrote in eighth grade and I sent it to her and I asked her if she had something that she could send to me and um she sent me this

050book that she edited and part of part of it is her own writing. It's just a wonderful gift. I'm sure Liz and everybody else here whoever taught would realize what a gift this is to receive from a student that you had. Her name is Allison Degrroot and she lives in Massachusetts now. And the second thing that I have, what a gift that is. The second thing that I have is I wanted to remind everybody that Martin Luther King application time is now. It's online. I'm um employ imploring our um guidance counselors to reach out to all students who are eligible. and I'm imploring them to all of the students who are eligible to to apply. >> Okay, I'll send that reminder personally. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Liz. Nothing new to add. >> So,

051I um I don't have anything new in terms of the emails, but I Oh, Jay, I'm sorry. Thank you, Liz. Uh, yes. I believe I received the same emails as everyone else >> and I apologize. Jay, >> I I got um right and so uh the one thing that I do want to Bev, do you have a question? >> Yes, I do. Um, I wasn't on the board when you did away with the cursive writing, but I heard somebody came to the board meeting and they were talking about um, why we did away with cursive writing. Maybe Susan, you could on your board notes one week, maybe you can send me a little blurb why we eliminated cursive writing from our curriculum, especially since the kids still have that sign. I mean, the signature part

052applications didn't go away. So I just was, you know, because a lot of people in the community, they are talking about, you know, the elimination of Kirsty writing and why we did that. >> Thank you. >> So you see that as just as a report out versus um having an agenda topic, >> whatever way you want to do it. Fine with me. We can start with the board. No, >> she'll start with the board note. And if we want more, we can make more. That's not how I meant to say it, but I think you know what I mean. Rita, >> yes. Um, I thought that we didn't teach it any longer, but now we reinstated it last year and that they were doing cursive again in the schools. That's not the case. >> So,

053that is not on our agenda and so Susan will report out to that. >> Okay. I would like, you know, more so just in board notes. >> Okay. >> To talk about it at a meeting. Thank you. >> Okay. Absolutely. >> Um I do need um to uh and I I think I I've sent everyone a um specifically this morning an email that tomorrow the um education committee for the RTM um is at 6:00 having a meeting. Um it is actually meeting with the board um about our budget that is that is um going to be coming to them really soon once the town council has um approved the budget the whole budget. Um and also there's a list of many other things that come on that. Um we were made aware of it today.

054Um but it is tomorrow at six o'clock. I know that Susan and her staff um have made some adjustments and they're going to be there. Um, but I would um hope that many of us um could at least go by Zoom um to be um supportive and to answer any of their questions um about our budget and also the other things. And so um if for those of us who want to attend in person, it is at thrive thrive 555 um and or um a Zoom meeting. and I am going to try to um join at 7 o'clock um after my my work. Um >> question. >> Yeah. >> Um we made a presentation before the town council about possibly adding some items uh that have not gotten to their budget. Um are we going

055to do that again with the RTM asking them if they would add back in some things uh etc. >> They added it to their agenda. So all those CIP from fields to bleachers, all of that is listed. I'll make sure I'll resend that to make sure you all receive that agenda. >> Um there's all the meetings for May that are on that are on um I have an agenda item for the cur um the cursive writing. Um, and we're going to need to add the communication um plan um to the agenda as well. Is that true, Matthew? >> Pardon? >> Um to add the communication plan to >> God willing on the quick note rise. >> All right. Um I would uh I actually have an item for communication. Um, I uh am wondering if

056there if we could have some discussion with Rebecca Bayas around how do we get the good news um of of the Gotten School District um out to the realators um and to other businesses because um oftent times uh they're not talking um they don't know a lot about our district and the good things that we're doing here. So, it's hard to sell the district um to the families and I'm just wondering if that's a way of outreach. And so I kind of wanted to see what the communication um committee thought about that. Um um Rita, I see that your hand is raised. >> Yes. Um and I'm really happier you mentioned that, Kim, because the real estate agents have listing our schools that are closed as sending schools from different areas of town. >> So

057that that's a good thing to reach out to them. Um the other thing that um I was going to oh gosh ask you about Oh yes. When is the special meeting to recognize our teachers? You said we were going to re we were going to have two meetings in May >> that. Yes. And so thank you. Thank you for talking about that. Um it is going to be our second committee of the whole meeting and it is um it is actually on there it says Grant Middle School Cafe is that what and that is our committee of the meeting and that is um solely dedicated to recognizing um the teachers and um the people who um get recognized at that meeting. >> Great. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Any other agenda items? not retirees. >>

058All right, we your your hand is still up. Do you have more? >> Oh, no. Sorry. >> Nope, that's fine. All right. Um, so here we are. Um, I now will bring us back to um under uh under number six um number A, which is the superintendent and the assistant superintendent. And I'm glad that our our new data person is back. Thank you for coming back. Um and so Susan, I am now going to turn the meeting over this portion of the meeting to you. >> Okay. So, um I wanted to start out by thanking Dr. Piaza and Lauren Cassini. They've worked side by side as we've plowed through state data and we've worked with um our alliance district support person from the Connecticut State Department of Education. They actually have a very vital website

059that has charts and graphs. It's very interesting. If you start playing around, I'll give you the link. So, if you want to really check out um how how Graten's data looks compared to other places and over the years. Um one of the um things that we know to be true is that the data that I'm going to be talking about tonight mostly is from 2122. And it actually takes a full calendar year to go through all that data. So, we start our children take the assessments in the spring. They're just getting ready to do the ESBACK assessments at both the middle school and the elementary schools three through five and then 6 through 8. They also take an NGSS science assessment in grades three five 8 and then 11. SAT is our state assessment for

060high school for ELA and mathematics. And there was an SAT day that has already taken place and a makeup day. And really one of the big accomplishments that we always strive for is participation rate. Really looking at 95 to 100% participation rate is what we want because we want all kids to be able to take these assessments so that we have the information. The information is kind of a once a year sumitive assessment in all of these things. So it's really important that we compare yeartoear. We look at cohorting. So, children that have been with us over time and see how they're doing. And we're going to go into the data that we've received a little deeper tonight. One of the pieces of information that I sent everybody was the district profile and performance report.

061We used to call it a strategic school profile. And I can remember even being a principal and writing the narrative. Now I'm a superintendent and write the narrative. So, um, but it really ties into some of the data we've already seen. um you know we look at the enrollment data. I know that um we did a deep dive um last week with the chronic absenteeism. We also report to the board. I just sent out a report today as a matter of fact on expulsion and suspension. So we we make sure the board is very cognitive cognizant of you know the students that are you know being expelled and what are those reasons. Um we we look at the educators, the number of educators that we have. Um the attendance for both students and staff as

062you did the other night. Um we look at college and career readiness. And I have to tell you that college and career readiness is really all about students and taking career pathway courses, taking IB courses, AP um Yukon credits. And one of the biggest jobs we have as a district is to make sure that we have the right coding from the state in power school. So our kids are getting credit and we're getting credit for their good hard work. We've actually doubled some of our numbers in these higher level courses as you know from last year to this year and our career pathways are growing especially with the careers program being launched from IB. We have Ajit from the state coming down to talk to us with the military folks about getting credit for students

063who join the military. They have not really figured out how to account for those students. Um it's different than College Board where we can see what colleges kids are going to and if they're staying in. So I look forward to that conversation. We'll let the board know when he does come to town to talk about how we can really with the Navy. the Navy will be there with us too. It will be part of our military superintendence um meeting that um I know Dr. Aman attends and our principles attend. So really being re very careful about making sure that things are coded properly so that we get credit. The same thing holds true with arts access for instance because we do offer a lot of arts classes. I just want to make sure that they've

064been coded properly so that we are getting um those numbers calculated accurately. We look at students with disabilities. We look at high needs and non- high need students and all students. So high needs represent students that are l English language learners. They also represent um socioeconomics, low socioeconomics, free and reduced lunch students with disabilities. And so they're kind of all put together as called high needs. And then we look at how do they do compared to all of our students. And that's what we've you've often heard of as a a learning gap. How big is that gap between those students with specific needs and then all of our students. They they also dig deep in this particular report on how much we're spending per pupil. And we've talked about that at the board level. um

065what we're spending on special education um and then you know they go into what are some of the academic features that we have those assessments that I just plotted out for you and what is the district performance index which is looking at kind of um singularly the performance of students in those grades 3 through 8 and also 11 physical education is really important I mean this this report I just have to tell the board because when I first came to Graten in 2014, I was so impressed with your yard stick. Graten had a yard stick that really measured more measured academic success but measured beyond academics. The board was always interested in what were the kids doing after school? What sports were they playing? What clubs did they go to? We actually I can remember

066trying to figure out how to calculate it especially when we had enrichment programming at the elementary and we were affording that. So um they were looking at attendance back then and um I think our board of education was a little ahead of their time and when the state decided to look more deeply at all these other areas I was thrilled because I said this is going to give us information that can really help support our students and families. So, um, physical fitness, we have seen, um, a dip in performance and actual participation. I I'm going to turn this section over because I know Lauren Cassini and Dr. Piaza have talked to the health PE folks to really help them to understand some of the changes coming down the pike and then help also with the

067um calculating the data and making sure that all kids who can perform and participate will be participating. So if you wanted to add something about that meeting that you've just recently had that would be really helpful. >> So I'm sorry. So, the state has changed its requirements um for reporting purposes on the fitness assessment. So, in the past they looked at like groups of students, schools um and now this year >> Excuse me, Kim. Can she talk closer to the microphone, please? >> Sorry. Can you hear me now? >> You're going to have to really You're going to have to project your voice. You got great information. We just want to make sure we're hearing it. >> I'll be honest. No one has ever told me that I'm too quiet. So this is this is

068something um so really the state has I'll repeat what I had said the state has changed its uh policies for reporting on fitness. So instead of looking at groups of students um gender uh schools they're looking at individual students and they're tracking individual student progress now. Um and with that comes difference in some codings. We're including students now that weren't necessarily included in the past. Uh, which will really play into our participation rate. So, if you look at where it says I don't know if you're on this page yet, >> you may not be. It's okay. When we get to it, I'll show you, but they're they're looking at two pieces for fitness. The participation, how many of our students are are actually taking the assessment, and then how are they performing on the assessment?

069So which page the page that's projected on the screen right now is page six in your program there >> just so you can have a reference >> it's a separate sheet it's actually a separate um wow it is a separate sheet >> attachment sheet >> it's attachment as well >> but I think what you're talking about is probably page four which is the physical fitness test is that correct correct on our district um profile which is not up on the screen. >> Yep. Well, it's part of both pages. So, really, it just comes down to it's it's another indicator in how we're measured as a district um of how we're preparing our students for success in life. And it's based on, like I said, those two pieces. So, we're going to see some some shifts.

070Ideally, students who may not have participated in the assessment in the past um will now be participating with assessments that fit their their needs. >> So, especially for special education students that there are modifications like we do in classrooms, we modify the work so that they can be successful. The same is true in physical fitness. And um if a student has been injured, for instance, they might have a doctor's note and they can't participate. But because the length of time that you can do this assessment is throughout the year, should they recover and will hopefully recover that we can certainly then assess. So I think it's really putting into place more opportunities for our students to show their performance. So, another thing that we're always very curious about is how are our students prepared for

071college and career readiness and what happens to them once they've graduated. So, we do collect that data. We've also talked about doing something like a survey for our students. We talked about that today, as a matter of fact, at the central office level to really collect data from our students about how well they were prepared. A lot of districts I've been in have had, especially during homecoming when kids come back, an opportunity for students to come to the high school and meet with other students and meet with us to get how are things going. And I think that is something that I would really love to see happen more um precisely like really to make a commitment towards that so we can find out from the students themselves how well they are prepared. Um and

072then you know we look at both 11th and 12th graders and one of the things we've se noted is that 11th grade um we see kids really working hard and then 12th grade they they might not be taking as many courses. So we've talked about that in policy and graduation um you know requirements. But I think really another thing um Dr. Piaza and I have talked about is meeting with some 11th graders. Like we've done the coffee chats to open up the doors to have some of our high school students come in and just talk to us about the things that they've taken in 11th grade and what they're hoping to accomplish in 12th. Um so those are you know that gives you kind of a real plethora of all the different things that are

073being measured at the state level and information that comes back to us because it's while it's sumitative and it tells us where we are at a moment in time or a year in time. It's also formative. It tells us something that will help us to identify a problem and you can't solve a problem before you've identified it. So, this is really a way, you know, um, some of it is good news and some of it is not so good news. I'll be very honest with you. Um, we look at this very cautiously. We look at this as if what can we do better all the time. So, I just want the board to realize that. Um, and then if you want to read the wonderful outstanding narrative, it talks about our graten 2020 plan and

074beyond and all that has been accomplished in the past few years, especially last year. um you know and but they give you limited space so I can't be too wordy and then um I'm bringing you to attention to um this particular page which is page six but this is the annotated version which came out as um an an attachment for you. Yeah. So I will um turn it over to Dr. Piaza and to um you know Lauren Cassini. But one of the things when you look at this, you look at the top section which is the ELA performance index which we have we started going over with the board probably back early fall and then there's the growth model which we're going to explain a little more carefully tonight. And so the top half really

075shows you the academic data and then into the um English language proficiency for the English language learners and then some of those other data points that we've just I've spoken of that are more universal that are more like the um yard stick. So, well, I do have two board members online that want to ask questions and so I'm going to recognize those two and um you can kind of say, well, I plan to explain that and then whatever, but so I'm going to recognize um Rita and then Bev. >> Thank you. Um Susan, a couple of years ago with Dr. Um I had brought back um I told him about a program a software that I thought you were going to purchase about postsecary how to track you know graduate children that have graduated or

076students and where what are they doing and are they in college are they in the military I thought we purchased that maybe maybe we didn't but there is software that is out there that you could buy and um easily track these students students if they, you know, just would reply to whatever was sent to them. >> I have Dr. Kennedy here, so I'm looking at him and I think we'll investigate that. >> Yeah, I think it's that would make it easier to do. >> Yep. Thank you. Thank you. >> You're welcome, >> Beth. Thank you. My my question is real quick. What does Susan says preparation for CCR? What does CC on mean? I can't find that. >> College career. >> College and career readiness. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And that that's not only

077college, Beverly. I want to really make sure that the community understands that we're really looking for kids to find those career pathways as well. And and sometimes that means that they might need college right after they graduate and sometimes it doesn't. So, we're really trying to be more open-minded about what that really looks like. >> And I think just to piggyback on what you were saying >> on what you were saying um in terms of the post-secary entrance which is again one of those indicators. I believe that's also on the table for discussion with Azite when he comes in terms of our military population and how that that is their career yet we may not necessarily be getting credit for that. So that is again another agenda item for them. >> Right. >> Thank you.

078>> Do you want me to just Okay. >> So if you're looking at this document, what this there was you were just given a ton of information in a small packet, a lot of data uh to go through. And really what we tried to do here was just make some of that information digestible and pull out the key pieces, the things you probably need to be able to focus on the best. And and we'll really kind of sum up what the work we're doing today. So, when you think about the accountability results, this is really how we're measured by the state and how our students are performing, how we're doing with teaching them and them learning. Um, and the accountability report has different components. It's it's based on a score that we're given. Okay? And

079each indicator, so there's 12 different indicators that we look at and you can see those are listed. So, our ELA math, so our academic performance, our academic growth, like Susan had mentioned, um chronic absenteeism, our uh language learners, how we're doing with graduation rates, things like that. All of those are part of that those are considered the index indicators for coming up with that score. >> Okay. Before you go any further, could we just make sure that um that the board plus anyone that's um listening or watching us know what high needs the difference that when we get into those topics to to identify what the high needs would be like what's the definition of that? >> Yeah, thank you friends. >> No problem. Um so based on those indicators, yes, they are broken up

080into different groups and they're actually um the weights can change a little bit um how we're scored. So when we talk about high need students, what they're really talking about are students that may um be identified as needing free or reduced lunch, students with disabilities, students um who are learning uh English as a second language or third language in some cases. Th those students make up this what we would consider high needs population. Okay. Um, and so it is broken down by all of our students in Grten and then also a close look at that because the whole point of this accountability report started with this achievement gap that has been really prevalent in Connecticut. We have probably one of the largest gaps in Connecticut. Um, so to look at that information, that's why it

081was broken apart. Um, so what I want to do is just kind of walk you through if you'll look at where it says index and rate. Okay, that is the score that is used to determine our achievement. Okay, in each of these different indicators. So our achievement in ELA, how we perform, our achievement and how they are growing in ELA. Okay, those are all different indicators. And the state has set a target. So in the column right next to it, you see target. That's what the state using different formulas for each piece according to how things need to be measured. That's the target that is created by the state. Okay? And so that index is really how close did we get to that target. That's really what that comes down to. And so when we

082look at the performance index as an example, it's looking at all of the performance um all of the summitive assessments that we've done. what is our um how did how did our students do our overall achievement >> and that's our third graders through our eighth graders and our 11th graders. Mhm. >> So, the 11th graders taking the SAT in English language arts and our, you know, elementary and middle school children taking um the S back, smarter balanced. >> And so you can see in the in the column where it says points earned, that's what we as Graten a Graten district have earned out of a total of where you see your max points. And then the next piece which is really important where it says percentage of points earned. So if you look just as

083an example for ELA performance index okay all students our index was 66.1 okay out of a possible 75 we earned 44 points out of 50 and that's where that percentage comes from. And then >> 88% >> at >> the 88.1%. And so then what happens is they add up all of our percentage points on this bigger scale, metric scale, and they find the average of those uh they find a percentage, I'm sorry, of those possible points for all of the indicators. And that's how they come to our t uh our accountability number >> which is 70.4 >> which is circled in yellow. >> Yep. It's circled in yellow at the bottom and our target is 85. So you're going to hear me mention different targets. Um but overall when we're looking at our district as

084a whole, all the indicators, we are shooting for 85. That's our target number. >> Okay? >> And that is statewide. Every single district in the state of Connecticut is going for the 75 for each one of the the the academic and a total of 85 that is everyone's target. >> Yep. >> Okay. And so just accomp and this is this is a lot of information and we spend all day every day looking through this and making sense of it and talking it out and and trying to prioritize you know how to tackle some of the things that we see in here that we need to improve upon. Um so we h this is a constant conversation. So for someone who may be looking at it for the first time or looks at it you know

085every once every few months it's it can be overwhelming. So we we just want to pull back and we want to look at two specific pieces right now and that's the performance index or our academic performance and our academic growth. >> I also like to look at what the state average is because I I'm we're always compared comparing ourselves to what the state mean is. So for instance, if you look at ELA performance index for all students, Graten is at a 66.1 and the state is 64.2. So we've done a little better than the state. So um is that good enough? No. We're always looking to improve and to to make, you know, do even better than that. So um but I think it is important to have some kind of benchmarking to say so

086what does that really mean? So, not only compared to the state but also our DUIR and also we've done this brought this information to the board about local neighborhood neighboring towns. >> Kim, I was wondering if there's any more questions on this particular page or we can jump right into the PowerPoint. >> I'm Liz. Yes. Now, I I don't know if this is the place to ask this question, and if it's not, that's fine. But as I was going through here, I'm looking at where it says at the very bottom, >> right above accountability index, you see the thing that says arts access. >> I'm wondering why it's 57.9. I don't understand that number because quite frankly every elementary school student, every middle school student has the opportunity or they give in their their curriculum

087their they have music, art, whatever. And at the high school they have certain requirements for their graduation. So I'm wondering why that number is so low. >> So look right next to it to the 60%. That's the target. So that's what the state is saying is our target. So we're not too far from that target. >> Yeah. But that doesn't that's not my question. I don't care about the target. I'm caring about my kids. And I want to know why that is not a higher number. If we have an arts program that is so robust, what is that? What's not being um reported? Can I ask >> you? I >> I wanted to ask the superintendent, >> can you please also get into the microphone? I get into it, but >> Okay. I wanted to

088ask superintendent Austin. It's my understanding that though art may be and all of the electives may be offered at the middle level, you don't have to take them all. So it may >> or at the high school, >> I'm sorry. >> Or at the high school they're offered, >> but at the middle school. And and that's my question is when did they happen? Well, actually, this is not the time for that, but that might be >> that might account for what you're talking about. >> I'm just kind of wondering, you know, why why seems to me it's under reportported. That's all. >> I'll look a little bit deeper into how that number is calculated. >> I appreciate it. >> Maybe even before the end of this meeting, but um we'll get you that answer. >>

089Thank you. >> So, the arts access, do you want me to answer? Absolutely. >> Um so, the arts access is um determined by again for each one of these there's specific criteria. I can't hear her. >> She's got it. She be I don't know if you could see the smile that's on her face is that she's like when she realizes she's talking and and people are not hearing her. So, she's working on it. So, again, each indicator um has a specific criteria for how it's scored. And in terms of art access, it's the percentage of students in grades 9 through 12 specifically participating in at least one dance, theater, music, visual arts, media arts course in the school year. So in each school year, that's >> okay, >> that makes more sense. >> The indicator.

090So now to follow I'm sorry to follow up with that though please keep in mind that we have been working with a consultant on um our programs of study um scheduling to make sure that things are accurately coded the way they should be so that specific courses are coded if it's could fall into more than one place it's falling into the right place so it does count for okay >> what it needs to so ideally you know that will be 100% accurate and So that our numbers may look a little different. >> So I just want to clarify. Are you saying the arts access is only the high school? >> So that's not so this I guess then my question is this profile is not just the 3 through 8 and the 11. No >>

091when it comes to >> right. Yeah. There's certain things. >> So it certain things like even the college and career readiness and the four-year graduation those all pertain to the high school. The high school has the heaviest lift on lift on this accountability index. >> I have to say >> the three through eight and 11 is specific to the academic performance. >> Okay. Maybe that needs to be indicated on this. >> Chronic absenteeism is for everybody though. >> You know, so there are some things that are K through 12. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Are you okay with us moving on to that? >> Anybody have any other questions? >> No. Matthew has a question. And if this is not the right time to do it, just tell me and I'll I'll circle around later.

092But I was looking on page two at the educators by race and ethnicity. And my reason was that uh in the spring of uh data was provided to us for the 2019 uh progress on diverse staff diversity. Um the numbers that are here are arrayed differently than what was done on this chart. I don't you're obviously not going to see the numbers on it, young lady, but uh this is kind of way that chart was given to us. I can show it to you later. So what I would like to ask is uh if we could get updates on the figures that we have. I understand this is a state report, but could we come up with uh coding the state figures for and 2021 and 202122 in the same format so that we can

093do some analysis of the rates of our progress and I'll show you the data forms later. >> Thank you. >> What was that specifically related to? I I apologize. this uh it it it district level inschool admin PK 5 6 to 8 9 to 12 American Indian Asian-American African-American Hispanic etc. And we broke that out and I think it's great document and I for consistency sake if we can array this state data in the same format then we'll have three years worth of data we can look at and see what our progress is like. >> Perfect. We also have a district profile and performance report for each school year even prior. But I think looking at this information, we could probably even do some, you know, look at this current year, but have it arranged

094that way just to see forward thinking. Yeah, >> thank you. Absolutely. >> We also have um on our template I think actually in June or July um where every year we're going to have a conversation around our our hiring um and also our diversity and this might be a really good add-on to kind of take a look at the flow of of that. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. Um Rita >> um yes my cons my question was about product absenteeism um and for our high need students it says we didn't receive any points at all and I was curious why >> um I mean even our all our students chronic is low but for for the high needs it just as a point is a zero. So I was just curious >> I need to

095go back and look at that I think because we had a significant spike but I do need to go back and look at that before can I add that to the notes that I sent out because I don't want to give you an answer that's not accurate. >> Right. Thank you. >> This is a lot to digest. I appreciate your patience and >> No, this is great. This has been a long time since we've been able to do this. So, um, but Dean, do you have a question? >> Yeah, before we move on to the state assessment results, I did also have a few observations. >> Sure. >> Uh, regarding the, um, the profile. Um, when I first joined the board, I think it was fall of 21, but you know, mist of time. Um,

096I think it was a combination of either data that I was provided and data that I found myself on the SD website. I think the how it's arranged on their website's a little different now. Um, but I notice a few things here. Uh, they're in no particular order, so forgive me. I'm >> What page are you on, Dean? >> I'm starting on page one. >> Okay. So under district information it has for example the enrollment figure is the top left of the page the enrollment figure per pupil expenditures and then total expenditures. If my math is correct if you multiply the 411 the 4113 by the 18,000 you are 7 million short of the 82. Now, I'm not a fan except as a like an armchair exercise of taking the total board of ed budget

097anywhere and dividing it by the number of students and then saying that's the per pupil expenditure because there's a sort of a fixed base in that figure that has no relationship to your enrollment. So, it's a little unfair due to the unless you're a huge district, uh, which we are not in comparison with say New Haven or New York City or Boston. Um, it it starts to skew things a little bit, but I am curious how how did you know to exclude or how does the state know wherever the number comes from to exclude about 7.5 million from the 82 million to then do the division to get the per pupil? What's the criterion for doing that? Because if you left if you did just left it as 82 million and divided by the number

098of students, you'd get something that's just shy of $20,000 per student as an expenditure. And is this whatever the methodology is, is this used across the board for all school districts in the state, so we can do an apples to apples when people say, well, this is how much they spend, this is how much they spend. Is it in fact the same, you know, adjusted on the same basis? And if you don't know now, that's that's fine. Can do you do you know how the formula is? >> I do not. >> Okay. So maybe we can get that. >> This is on page one under enrollment. Are you looking? >> It's under district information. Oh, I see. Yeah, the upper upper left hand side. >> Um the other thing that I noticed and this is

099a perennially touchy subject. Um I'll start with this. Under chronic absenteeism and suspension/expulsion um no rates given for female. >> Yeah. And I know the asterisk means data suppressed to safeguard student confidentiality. The guy numbers are there, but the female numbers are not. And I bring this up because what struck me in 2021 was when I compared the same figures, boys to girls, if I may use that terminology. Um, in Grten, and I don't remember what year it was, so it was the fall of 20 2021. It must have been at least a year old at that point. It may have been the 2019 to 20. So at least up until March and then everything shut up 2020 then everything shut down. But the number that popped out the ratio that popped out was that

100the the boys were disciplined and by disciplined I mean the suspension and expulsions that reported to the state. Otherwise the SD wouldn't have that that data. But the the discipline rate for the boys was 2.4 times the discipline rate of the girls. Shocker. But that you know applying the the modern methodology of there's a gap and there can be only one explanation one would have to to conclude. Also before I go any further um I see male female non-binary but then female non-binary or asterisks. We've got black or African-American Hispanic or Latino of any race. White in other categories we have all of the other state defined uh races. So, I do not see where the Asians come in on this one or the American Indians or the elutes or the Hawaiians or anybody else

101that we have. Um, I know we have a fair number of Asians of all different parts of Asia. >> I don't see them in here unless I'm I'm just not seeing it. So, that's I find that interesting. >> Well, you can see it. you you see the the discrepancy when you look above at the enrollment and how it's communicated >> well >> by breaking out and then it's not done the same way >> right so I don't know I I don't know how they're fairing um since we are curious about black versus Hispanic versus white we don't seem to be curious at least in this table with how those three groups are fairing against everybody else u so you know I'm the Other thing that I'm thinking about is when you look at and then

102we don't have a breakdown by uh under educators by gender. We have it by ethnicity. Now we can you would consider how the school system and we're not alone. Education education has traditionally been and I mean tradition by small t you know regularly been in the past and presently it tends to be a female dominated uh sort of a system. Lots of I mean most of my elementary school teachers and I don't know what the ratio was in high school were women. The administrators as few as they were in those days were probably mostly guys but uh I bet if you did a headcount in our district look at the administrators look at the faculty look at other staff I think you'd find it's very femaleheavy. Now on the one hand what's the difference? On

103the other hand, when you consider that in Connecticut, one out of three homes with kids are mother only. That's one out of three. For some groups, it's a lot higher than that. Uh, one could argue that we have a very high discipline problem with the males. It it's not reflected here. Uh, but that the boys don't have any role models at home and don't have any role models in school. I want to know what we're going to do to address the what I think is the gender imbalance in our faculty K or preK through 12. So just throwing that in for the mix. Uh what else did I want to say? Yeah. So I don't see all the information that you know one might be curious about because clearly some comparisons are made and there's

104data but it isn't complete. So we're being asked to be curious but not too curious. you want to make a suggestion, I'll get it to a sheet when it comes down. Are there things that you feel are missing that you want to know about that maybe is not on this report, but it's it's certainly things that we could investigate? >> Well, yeah. I mean we're I mean there's there's data and from the data we are supposed to draw certain conclusions but we don't have all of the data >> and I want to make sure if we draw certain conclusions we draw as accurate conclusions as we can draw. >> So I guess if you have actually if anyone has questions about this and want um the superintendent to >> to um talk directly to that

105would be great. So is this format here where you plug in numbers or is this so you you basically you you report the numbers that they're asking you to report? >> They actually take the numbers right from P school and you know they really take them or have them they sometimes have the numbers before we have the numbers. So whether it's the state assessments um you know we really get our numbers through the state on that. >> Yeah. I'll tell you something else. when I was given the data again when I joined and I don't remember what grades it was but it had to do with math proficiency and language proficiency and it ranked the races it also did the same thing and I got to pull that paper out it did the same thing

106with discipline it ranked them high to low and uh white Hispanic black is what you saw I don't remember whether many American Indians fell you know fell in Asian was put at the bottom So, it was all numerically ordered till you got to the Asians because if you hadn't ordered it numerically, the Asians would be at the top >> as far as like as far as as far as uh math and math proficiency and language proficiency, they were easily 10 points ahead of the the white students. >> And again, this I'm just going by the state's classification because I personally detest the classification. Um, you know, I grew up, we probably all did, with the world is comprised of four different colors and then a mix of the four colors. It's absurd. But I understand

107why the state does that and we have to go along with the state. >> No, any more questions about this? >> Yeah. No, I know you want to corral me. That's fine. I I understand you've got a job to do. But no questions about this one. If you want it detailed where I think data is missing, I'll I'll be glad to provide >> I would love to see that. Okay, Dean. So, please do share that. Could I could I ask that as you get the data that I had asked for earlier that we could get some gender basis too on faculty? >> Yes, absolutely. >> Thank you. >> That's always a curious question for me because I do agree with you. I feel that in education it's more of an 80% female dominated group especially

108in elementary but as you go through um administrative and especially at the superintendency it's only 20% female. So there's a big discrepancy about who's in the role teaching and then in administration and then you know I always like to see a nicer balance of things >> but just to speak to um the ethnicity looking at specific performance academic performance by ethnicity that that is on page four. It is not rankordered but just gives you a sense of how we are performing by ethnicity, by high needs versus low needs, by language learners. I don't know if that's what you were looking for. >> Well, I mean, as I said, some information is provided by all the groups you traditionally see that the state breaks out, but that isn't consistent. For example, under chronic absenteeism and suspension

109expulsion. I had once seen the data on this. It is not in this table. It's basically the the three big ones. I will ask that question because I'm curious about that as well. >> Yep. Thank you, Jean. >> And and not by gender either. It's done >> and I know that there's a huge differential. Again, shocker. >> Yep. >> And that gender for um suspensions and expulsions. Why there's no data available for the females? It's they suppress it if it's anything lower than 5%. So less than 5% they suppress it. That's according to the state site. That's I just want to I'm just trying to give you what I can. >> That's a curious practice, but thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Um S um Susan, before you um leave that area second.

110>> Okay. >> This is I just wanted to comment. Southeastern Connecticut, they have we have a high proportion of female superintendent in our area. When you think of Stonington and Groten and London and Clinton, it it's there it's it's wonderful I think >> and I would say in just in the past several years too that has happened. So it is good to see we definitely are better than the average >> right >> as bal as far as balancing. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you Rita. >> All right. So, if we want to move on, I'd like for you, we're going to work from um this document next. Um but I'd like for you to go to page three because I think it probably would make more sense >> because start with three. >> Start with

111three. And the only reason I'm asking you to do that is because this we we started with that accountability index looking at all those indicators and what our score is, right? As um as a district. What you're looking at here on the left side is that historical accountability index of the state. So how the state fares and then on the right is graten. So just for comparison purposes again just having that balcony view right where do we lay in in relationship to the state? Um, and if you look again, we're we're always right right within a few percentage points of or a few points of the state >> plus or minus. We did have a bump up in um if you see um beyond the state but then um I think you can see the

112decline and I'm not making an excuse about CO but it did happen. So, there was that decline that happened across the state. What I'd like to start seeing, what I think we'd all like to start seeing is progress again and see these um accountability indexes moving forward and see our students making better progress with their, you know, index, their their actual score and then their growth over time. So, that's what I think everybody is looking for, >> right? and the next few slides because the slide right before this we've already had that conversation. Um so I'll just remind you as we go on. So if you turn to the next slide the performance index again. So, this is looking specifically at our English language arts performance, overall performance as a district um based on grades

1133 through eight and then 11 um for both English language arts and math. All right, it's an overall performance. It's not a percentage. It's based on um an average of points. And our target for our performance index is 75. So, our whole accountability index target is 85. Just for performance, where do we um where are our students in terms of of where how they're performing? That target is 75. And just for your reference, that's indicators 1A through F on that that initial page we just looked at. Okay? The annotated page. And so, you've actually looked at this information back in the beginning of the year. um broken down by in all a variety of ways. So I just wanted to kind of reenter you to the the work and um give you again another balcony

114view of this. So this is in relationships this is our English language arts how we performed in comparison to the other school districts in our DUI which means um as a reminder we're talking about school DUIs. We're talking specifically about schools that are are like us in terms of socioeconomic status. Okay. So, when we look at our DUR in terms of language arts performance, we are leading the pack. I have to say though, um Vernon is a great colleague and competitor. Um I actually know their superintendent. We've talked about taking walkthroughs in each other's district. Um so, it's we're kind of neck andneck and you'll see that back and forthness. So, um I I would say that networking with colleagues, you know, in our dur and our neighbors with our neighbors is really an an

115essential ingredient to making progress. >> And so again, that index was 66.1 for English language arts. >> Is that grade specific? >> Nope. That's overall >> grade three through eight and then 11. uh your pre your predecessor explained if I understood him correctly that we were not to confuse the index with uh grade level competency that >> you need to bring your microphone closer. >> Thank you very much Mark. Um, I'll repeat myself. Um, if I understood your predecessor, the index was not to be confounded with the grade level competency. Um, but it had been of concern to me when I asked him if he could give a ballpark figure of what our score I think it was 70 when I spoke to him. I'm not sure. He he said, if I remember correctly, that

116we have about 70% of the kids reading at a grade level. If I'm mistaken, please correct me, Susan. I'm not trying to mislead anybody. >> I I think he was trying to explain that these were not percentages. And I understood that, but I I asked him if he could just give a ballpark figure of how we were to understand them in terms of competency compared to what minimum minimum standards or or is that the right word? >> Grade level to grade level standards. >> Yeah, grade level standards. >> Uh I understand this is a systemic situation around the country that Graten is doing better than most districts. And the last thing I want to be construed as saying is that we're saying our teachers aren't doing their job. They clearly are. And yet I'm concerned

117if in fact we have 15 or 20 or 25% of kids who are in their latter high school years who are reading below grade level. That's of concern for me in terms of their careers and future. So I just don't know how to understand this in terms of grade level. If this is not the time, if this is not the time to address that, uh, please let's make a time. >> So, we're going to be showcasing some all different kinds of data points that we use. Um, we use universal screeners three times a year that really get to that the heart of that matter. So, we're going to be showcasing at least a a a dipstick for our early education, our primary kids, but we also have that with something called Lexia Power Up, which

118is ELA for the upper grades, middle school and high school. So, those are all data points that we can share and that'll give you, I think, a better understanding of so what does that mean for Grten? How many students are at or above grade level, close to grade level, or below grade level? That's how we look at it almost like as a four tiered layer cake >> and and the a complimentary question to this is do these figures include 504 and IEP students if they do that would explain a good portion of why the grade level overall is low but it's never been clear to me as to whether they >> always about all of our students they all participate I mean there might be certain IEPs that have kids participate in some measures and

119not others, you know. Um, but mostly they all participate even if it's with an alternative assessment through the state that becomes more like a survey. So the teacher works with the child individually but all kids really we want to know about them all. >> Yeah. I I hope we can have at some point a robust discussion. Yep. and uh at a later time I'll read. I the question then would be when can when when could we have those data when would the data points about the that layered cake as you can see I'm >> right so we can look at the um the actual monthtomonth and and find out right now we've already done like a beginning of the year middle year and then we're getting ready to do a spring assessment after ESPback so

120at the very end of the year so we should have the three pieces for ELA for instance with Lexia power up for the upper grades and with the fondest and panel and dibbles for the lower grades. >> We could I could certainly get the information um like a percentage of our third grade population that's at benchmark or above, meaning they're at their grade level, they're meeting their grade level standards or they're exceeding versus who is not. That information I is easily I can get that for you if you give me a few days just because tomorrow's crazy. I'm happy to send that your way. >> Well, we need to have an agenda item. Sorry, I just need to take a quick um phone call, but um I think we need to have a agenda item

121before we see that so that we can have better discussion. >> Okay, Jean, >> thank you. It just occurred to me uh when you were talking about how this is an aggregate figure. It's the high needs versus everybody. It's it's everybody in the same mix. And of course, there's a tendency to compare these figures with the state. How are we doing versus the state? how are we doing versus others? It it strikes me that these are probably not adjusted figures. In other words, to compare us with other districts, us with the state average, you're presuming that all districts and the state have identical mixes of high needs and not high needs. Because if it's not the same number, if there's any significant difference between our district, we have a lower than average, much lower than

122average percentage or much higher average. Um, >> then we would have to make an adjustment. So, we fairly compare ourselves the way you would do a a property appraisal. >> Who's got another an extra half bath kind of thing? You just up or down. >> That's a good analogy. >> But I don't know um whether this is obviously that that requires more work uh to do that. I can maybe do a rough back of the envelope calculation based on the figures that I have of what percentage we have and kind of play around. But um do do you know whether we're comparing bars versus bars, numbers versus numbers, but inside those numbers, they're different mixes, significantly different mixes. >> So that's why we use the district reference group because these districts like the alliances, we

123are one of the last of the alliances. So we do top we are top performer in the alliance but the DUR results are really other districts very similar to Grten not exactly though I mean they still have differentials like our special ed population is close to 20%. in our district. Right? So if we looked across, you know, at these others, that would be really an interesting study to see how all these other features that we're examining impact the other districts >> because I think when we're talking about educating clearly the high needs kids, especially kids that have that require special programs, we're not simply talking about uh soioeconomics, but kids who already come to school uh you know with with with issues that have to be dealt with uh like that cognitive issues, for example,

124that's not to go back to tracking kids differently, but that that's that's, you know, we should be we should be comparing um the the nonspecial needs, if you will, to the non-special needs. How are we doing there? Because and then we can look at how are our special need kids doing aso, you know, versus the other special how are we doing in with other districts in that area. >> Um, >> so that is actually a category, Dean, >> is it >> of non high needs. So there are high needs, there are non- high needs, there is everybody. So they do disagregate that data >> in in in that way as well for us to take a look at. >> Thank you. >> So again the next slide is the same concept only for math. So

125how we are performing in relationship to the districts that are most like us and again as Susan had mentioned our biggest competitor Vernon the one we're most like I should say >> is just above us um less than 1% above us >> um for math >> and again that's specific to performance >> and Again, that's with the state set goal of 75. Um, so I think, you know, to echo what Susan was saying earlier, you know, we balance the fact that, you know, we're happy to see where we lie in comparison to the DUR with the knowledge that we have a lot of work to do to improve >> and to get to that 75. >> Dean, you said it also, you know, we acknowledge all the work that our teachers have done and I

126think the teachers acknowledge too that there's still, you know, a lot of work to be done. Also, our schools get an actual target number. So, we do have Northeast Academy for one has met their target in certain areas. So, you do see across the district um you know that the schools perform in a different way as well. This is all an average of all the kids, you know, that are tested in all of our schools. But it can break down and that site site, I know a few of you would like to get on and I'll I'll give you the link, but it's really incredible how it breaks it apart and you can see a lot more detail. >> I'm going to recognize Rita. >> Rita, you're being recognized. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, I

127was curious about um, did we we didn't go over the Connecticut schools of distinction for high growth, did we? Charles Barnum in Northeast. >> Not yet, but we're ready to. >> Oh, you're going. They're coming up soon. >> You skipped it. >> No, we didn't want to skip that. >> That's a great lead in. Thank you, Rita. >> Thank you. And I did I was curious about the 75 and how it does say that is not a percentage point, it's a target. And it would be interesting to see how many um districts in the state are above or at 75 if is it just the um you know the Greenages and the Westport or are there many other towns that are also at 75 and above? >> And you bring up a good point. It's

128not only as a district, but there are schools in different communities that are performing at different rates as well. >> Yes. And I do have to say that I've done a lot of research in this area. Rick Colenberg was a doctor who came to us back when we were um building the one middle school and his work is all around socioeconomics and balancing socioeconomics in schools and how I read >> if that's done carefully that is really a win-win for all kids. So um >> thank you. >> All right. So then now we're shifting not to a number target but to a percent target. Just if you feel like you're getting a handle on things, they throw us another curveball. So academic growth is a little bit different in the sense that we're looking at

129specific students and how they're how they're progressing over time. Okay. So these specific targets are focused on grades four through eight for ESPback because you need more than one data point um in a specific assessment to create to create a growth target and to see how much you you can grow in that um time frame. Okay. The p the target is always 100%. Ideally all of our students would make their growth target every year. So our target is 100%. Um, and the district academic growth is calculated by finding the average percentage of growth target achieved. And so I'm going to try my best to help you understand that. Maybe give you a little um a little visual to help with that because I know some of this can be I have to remind myself, right?

130Like I have to literally say what it is in my own head and I look at this all the time. Um so in terms of high growth, we had two schools that um were recognized as schools um of distinction for high growth. And the first one was Charles Barnum um which showed high growth of all students in math and of our high need students. So they had significant growth in both all students and highne students for math. And in order to become a school of distinction, you have to be within the top 10% of uh the schools in the state in terms of the amount of growth you've made. So it's it's quite an accomplishment to have two schools up there. Northeast Academy um their high growth was in terms of ELA, so English language

131arts, and it was for all students. So that's that's quite an accomplishment. So, as we go into this, I know you um you've heard about the percentage of the target achieved. I just wanted to give you like a mental picture to try to help kind of sort it all out. And this is really what I do in my own head, like I've said, but there are two things that we look at um and the state looks at. One is the growth rate. So, every child in third grade takes the SBACK math. Okay? and then they take it again in fourth grade. So, how they perform in third grade, there are scale scores. So, they're given a score. Uh it could be one uh 2,432 as an example. It's a scale score. And based on that

132number, where they fall, and that's where that proficiency you were asking about comes in. So, there's four different levels of performance. And so based on where they're performing and what that scale score is, they're given a a target of what they're expected to grow by the following year. Okay? And so that growth rate is how many of our third grade our fourth grade students met the target they were given based on how they performed in third grade. So as an example and this is just just as an example to give you like a visual four students to make their growth target they met that number two did not that's 50% is our growth rate okay what's included in the accountability index is this second part on the right hand side which is the percentage of

133target achieved and so when you think of that think about the two students who met met their target and the two students who did not, how did they fare in relationship? Because to just look if they if they met their growth target isn't enough because we could have some kids that are one point away from making it. Doesn't matter. You're not going to see that. >> We could have some kids that made it only by one point point by the skin of their teeth. You're not going to see that here either. So the the percentage of the target achieved gives us a better idea as to how we are moving kids forward. Okay. >> And while the target is 100%. >> Yeah. >> There are kids who can go go over that and get 110%.

134>> Just to make it a little more complicated. >> So as an example, if a third grader scores has a scale score of X, they're expected to make 30 points growth. the following year they could make 37 points. So that's over a 100%. Right? And so it's calculated that way. And so what they do at the state level is they take all the students and h their percentage of their growth target met. Was it over 100%? Was it under? And then they average those together. And that's where our number comes from for growth on that page six you were looking at. And for those two students who didn't make it, you know, you see one that might have made 65%, not 100% or 75%, you might even have someone make 99%. That's that one point

135below, >> right? >> So they're looking at every single child and the number of points and the percentage of growth. And then you might show them the average because I think it's a simple average but taking these four sample students that we've identified and you know one with the 110 one with 100% one with 65 and 75 and then adding it together divide by four which would give you the 87.5% average. Of course we have more than four students but this is just trying to keep it as simple as possible with smiley faces. Why are they all smiling? >> I know. I thought about that. Why did Why didn't they get it? You know, >> you should look a little more concerned. >> And so, just to give you again a better understanding of how

136we were performing in Grten, we have historical academic academic growth data for all students and we have the historical data for high need students. And this is all in ELA. >> This is all over. Yeah, this is all English language arts. And again, just as a reference, um the state level for um all students where we were performing at 63%, the state was performing at 60.4 meaning we were about two and a two and a half% a little bit more than that over the state average. Okay. And we were also above the um state for high needs. >> High needs was 56.2. >> Yeah. >> So we were over 3% higher than the state average. So for our high needs kiddos. >> So whether it's growth or whether it's you know that date one data

137point, we really look to see those bars growing >> right >> over time. Yeah. And so the next slide again just going back we looked at it in terms of performance index. This is in terms of growth where we're um coming out in in relationship to other like schools. So other schools in the DUR G with our 63%. >> Have have they set a three or five year target for what they're liking where they hope schools will be? So we have um what's called the ESSA milestones and so BA it's actually a 13y year plan um and so it's and the idea is based on a a cohort right it takes a cohort 13 13 years with kindergarten to get out of it but it adjusts every year. So where where we fall that number

138might adjust but the goal is always to get to that same place at the end of the 13 years. >> And again those ESSA she said ESSA which stands for the uh every student succeeds act. >> Okay. And >> we presented I'm sorry I didn't mean to cut you off but we we presented those in the past if you remember with the dotted lines. >> Um so we still have those that we can share later. Is that 75? Is that the figure that they were looking for? >> That was the target for the for the performance. >> Performance. Y. >> Yep. D. >> Yeah. Again, going back to this table, the the the historical aspects. >> Mhm. >> The prior page. This is us. This is Grten. >> Yes. >> Over these year periods. Of

139course, there's a gap. Uh I understand that. Um but this is an example of there's all students and high needs. there's no non- high needs table maybe because it's crowd things on the page but again this this sort of presumes that in any you know as you go from year to year to year to compare that uh our mix of high needs and non- high needs is substantially the same. No no no variation that would really throw anything off. So if you were to compare year to year to year, it's a fair comparison. But that's that's a presumption. I don't know whether it's a rebuttable, but it is a rebuttable presumption if I had other numbers, but I have no way to rebut it. >> When they are looking for the um gap, they are

140looking at all of the students versus the high needs. >> Yes. >> In the gap to show the gap. So the closer we are with our high need students and all students, the better it is to not have that big a gap, right? >> But you could also look at high needs versus non- high needs too to see where that variation is as well. >> Well, that would have to be that would be a bigger gap and it would be more alarming, concerning, whatever whatever you know, however you want to phrase it. Um, I don't know whether the goal ultimately is for high need students to perform at the same level as non- high need students. It really all depends on how you define, you know, which subsegment of the high needs you're you're talking

141about. But, um, there will always be this gap here. Um, I think maybe we we're not showing the non- high needs because we're afraid to look at that difference and what that might say or what people might take away from that. But I have seen it that way as well. Not high needs. >> We could certainly tease that out. >> But to be clear, um just because a child happens to be classified as a high needs doesn't mean they I mean there are certainly high need students that are outperforming >> some of our non- high need students too. Yeah, these these are gross aggregate categorizations where we think there are factors present that might affect their ability to perform in school. >> You got that right. Yeah. >> So I have a hypothesis that high

142high need I'm I have the hypothesis that high needs is the wrong metric to be looking at because it uh I think perhaps a better metric would be if we said those students who are IEP and 504 who have individualized plans and individualized targets. Certainly, we do everything with all students together, but we disagregate those students and include highne students who are not IEP and not 504 as a part of a general population to see what kind of progress they're making in the noniep 504. That may not make sense to you. I'd love your feedback. >> We actually look at that. That's really important data that we look at um and we monitor it probably ever so carefully um in special education because every special education student meets at least once a year with the

143team, sometimes more than that, sometimes multiple times to look at their data across even more than state data. they have more um ways to track data and chart data and they keep it really on a platform and they're they're actually evaluated based on what the IEP is looking for and their their targeted specific goals for each individual child. That's why it's called an IEP, an individual evaluation plan. So it is something really important that we do on a regular basis for our special needs students and our 504s. >> What would that look like? Would you like to see what that disagregated out? >> Well, if you if one accepts the hypothesis that just because somebody gets a free and reduced lunch uh meals does not necessarily an indicator of academic competence. you know that that's

144not an indicator of academic competence and we know that there are socioeconomic factors that play in this. We just can't disagregate that. >> But if we looked at those disagregated and put aside 504 and IEP, not to forget about them, but just to put them aside for this particular analysis, and then looked at all the other students together, how would they be performing? both in terms of growth and academic performance because the ones who are IEP and 504 are getting the individual attention they need, God willing. And how are we how are we addressing whatever shortfalls we might have amongst those who do not have those particular disabilities? >> That would be interesting to look at. I think I saw you write down a note. So, let's see what happens. Thank you, Matthew. Did we

145did we look at this? I think we looked at this, right? The academic growth again by Durk. And then here is same information um but specific to math. So, our math growth [Applause] and really I mean in terms of math growth um really doing phenomenal in terms of like in the grand scheme of things how we're how we're growing in relationship to how the rest of the state is growing in comparison. >> What was that state number for all students? >> So for all students um in 2122 the state average was 65.2. to so we're like over 5% above the state average >> and our high needs is really something to celebrate >> and our and our uh students who are grouped with high needs um the state average was 59.1% >> and um Graten

146was 9% above that 68.1%. So something those those are big gains and especially as we're they're taking on this new curriculum. I mean, there's a lot of other pieces that you really need to be thinking about in the professional development that's been happening around it. Some really big gains. >> Liz, thank you. I just want to make a quick comment that this, you know, we've been concerned about the l what's happened as a result of COVID and that loss of of movement for students to, you know, their that they had declined. And I think this shows that we're starting to rebound. And I think that's really encouraging that we need to, you know, celebrate that because, yeah, there's always room for improvement. But this demonstrates that we are coming back. Yep. >> And I think

147that's needs to be demonstrated. We need to to make sure that comes out. >> Yep. >> 1,000% agree. And so the next slide um again is the math in in relationship to um like schools in our DUR and the state was 65.2. >> Mhm. >> Any questions on this information? >> I know that um and I appreciate um the staff being willing to kind of go back and forth on conversations. I just think it's a it's a richer conversation. >> It's a lot of information. >> It is. >> Can I make an ancillary comment that uh >> I greatly personally greatly appreciate this. I think I'm speaking for the board. Um but next January we need to go over this all again to reoriented all the new people. >> And I try to do it

148in steps like we really have been receiving information back from the state almost as soon as the kids are taking the test. It's usually embargoed, so we have to get like the AOK to showcase it, but we really tend to be able to show you the first glance of it in September and then bring it back to you. So, I think you see bits and pieces over time. So, this is one of my favorite times though is to showcase when we get the report and we're able to really do a deeper dive and go through it because then we're getting ready for a whole new testing cycle, you know, to compare it to. So >> I I just have one more comment that I have to tell you from the beginning of the year I

149couldn't be more proud of our teachers and our staff because they have been really concerned about the effects of CO not only academically but socially emotionally and some of the way kids are regulating. So but I have I have to tell you that they have come to their principles they've come to me and to Dr. Phil and they've said we're seeing gaps that we haven't seen before and we've identified them and we want to do something about it. So whether it's through some extra professional development, whether it's through examining the data more closely and coming up with really ways to differentiate their instruction, like one size doesn't fit all. And I've got these students that really seem to be missing whether it's a science topic, a math topic, a ELA, and they want to meet

150their needs no matter where the kids are. I And I've seen that from my kindergarten teachers, my preschool teachers, my fourth, fifth grade teachers, my middle school teachers, and my high school teachers. Science in the high school level just had that conversation. And but they want to be able to meet the kids needs and fill those gaps. So that's really where when you hit the the rubber hits the road is with our boots on the ground and our teachers. So they are the ones who decide who really get all of the the accolades when it comes to that that hard work and and the students hard work in doing a little overtime work to make sure that they're filling their gaps. So thank you for that. But I just wanted to do that shout out

151for our teachers. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. And it shows. Look at the look at the data. It shows. >> So, we have just a little bit more. We're going to kind of switch gears. Um, we've been focusing on those upper grades. Um, and we pulled together some of the primary grade reading data. Um, as a kickoff point to start the conversation as we move into May 8th and the curriculum and uh the changes that are have been implemented and just our our progress. And can I just say this is one of the areas where we're shifting the balance. We're looking at universal screeners that have been um accepted by the state and we've always use something called a dibbles which is dynamic indicators of basic early literacy. But we we've done it in

152a way where when we do a running record with this child where they the teacher sits and listens to the child read and indicates what errors they're making and what needs to happen. They learn a lot from that. in helping them with their instruction. Um we've used something called a fontis and panel um basic assessment. Um but we're really looking at these other assessments as universal screeners as well. So dibbles is one and we've just started with all kids this year. Um we also are piloting um a program called AMRA which is another one that the state is recommending um which is very interesting and we're getting results from that and we're working with our teachers listening to what our teachers are happy about concerned about um because they will help us to make the

153decision about what's going to work best. So I just wanted to put that out there that this is one of the shifting of the balance really making sure that our phonics and phenemic awareness are being taught and all of the areas that are predictors of you know possible students at risk. Um and so Dibbles as Susan had mentioned um is one of the screeners that has been in the district has primarily been used with students who are receiving interventions um to also to monitor students who have individualized plans. Um but this year was the first year they began to use it whole school as a screen or whole grade level as a screener. So all students um they they started it in mid year. Um so we have one set of data points for K

1541 and two in terms of you know progress. We can't look at progress just yet. They will shortly be administering this again. Um and so at some point towards the summer we'll have more information to look at how what the gains were. Okay. So, just to kind of run you through these, these are all like the foundational skills for reading, which start with letter name fluency. Um, phmic segmentation, so like being able to hear like hear the sounds in words and break them apart. Nonsense word fluency, so looking at a word that really isn't a word. Um, being able to read it as though it was. That's really what we're talking about when we're talking about nonsense words. Um and so when you look at grade two does not for all students as a screener

155they don't do letter name fluency um or the phmic segmentation it's just K and one who do those and so if you look on the left you have three different colors for letter name fluency um four for phmic segment and what those colors represent is where they're at in terms of benchmark. Okay. So, the red is what we would consider in need of intensive support. Um, so we need some good interventions there. The yellow is what we would refer to as those cus cusp kids, like they're almost there, but not quite. And then your green and blue is we're at or above where you should be at this point in the year at this grade level. So on the left you have the actual numbers the count of students who are at each of those

156different levels. On the right you have the percentage and the percentage is given of students that are about where they need to be or just below. And then you have what's in red that intensive group. Again, those are the kids we're kiddos we're really going to focus on um intensive interventions for. And during instruction, which we'll tell you more about in May, um that means that a lot of the 90inut time that kids are learning to read, there is um there could be some small mini lessons that are whole group, but there's a lot of work that's done in a a small group of maybe two or three or individually. And so a lot of that time is used for instruction in multiple levels. So your classroom teacher might be doing some of the instruction

157is doing probably most of the instruction. But then you have interventionists and tutors and specialists who also will give kids additional instruction. So the more at risk, the more needs, the more instruction that those children will be receiving. And so again, you can just compare from from um left to right the student count versus the percentage of who are our kids that are honor close versus who are the kiddos that we really are targeting in terms of these foundational skills. Is there does anyone have questions about this? I don't want to just read off each grade level. >> I think you also see the improvement from K to one to two. >> Yeah. that you you know that it takes time that a child might not necessarily pick all of these skills up in kindergarten.

158You know, it really takes years >> for some and and sometimes we're even doing this kind of work in grades three, four, and five, two. So, um and then on the next slide is um the oral reading fluency. So reading out loud to a teacher and the teacher coding um what the child is reading and that that really was that was not administered um at that point in the year to KM1 because they were working on those previous skills we just looked at. So this is specific to grade two and again this colors still represent the same. So, our red is our intensive group um where the yellow is what we would consider those cusp kids and then the green and the blue is above at or above grade level. And you'll see in terms

159of reading fluency um it it's a significant smaller percentage of students who are in that intensive range. And that NA though is specific to this particular assessment, >> right? >> There are other assessments that we do oral reading fluency that we're able to look at in a different way, >> right? And so I believe um some of those changes will come during that reading night in terms of those changes to oral reading fluency at the primary at the K level, right? >> First grade. And then the last slide is really the fontus and panel at K1 and two. Um and so the fontus pan and panel is specific to like the reading, how we understand what we're reading. Um and those are there are benchmarks. So dependent on the time of year. Every grade one

160student is the the benchmark changes. So at winter it's one letter, at spring it's another letter. So it might start with E and then by the end of the year they need to be at G as an example. So what you're seeing here is kindergarten we don't administer the FMP until midyear um which is why you don't have a fall score because they're not reading yet and fontis and panel is really specific to reading um like oral reading. >> But there's another shift that I've heard from my kindergarten teachers. I'm really paying attention to them and we have purchased a number of decodable texts for these levels K1 and two in a decodable text. They really can't look at the picture to determine meaning. They're really looking at sound and and letters and, you know,

161cracking the code. So the teachers have said really the FNP probably isn't the best type of device to use in kindergarten using decodable text and doing a running record on decodable text using you know the dibbles or this aira will give them better information. So we are going to be making shifts and you'll learn more about that. Um, but our teachers and our specialists and even our consultants around the science of reading are helping us determine what's going to be the best tool that we can use to determine our students needs in reading. >> Are there does anyone have questions? >> De I'm going to yield for this. No, I just was wondering about the 80% on the Fontis and Penel. Is it only go to that's the highest of the scale is 80%. >>

162No, it would go it No, it would go all the way up to 100%. >> Okay. So, okay. So um it fair to fair to assume that if we're using Foundus panel as assessment that we're using Fus and Panel >> to teach in other words the that that method the whole language if you will or that's part of >> it's really not whole language it's a balanced literacy approach but the fontis and panel assessment gives us a level of the reading. So we can either use something called lexiles or we can use these fnps. It tells us what level the child is reading independently and what is instructional. So those are very important if you're differentiating your instruction to make sure that students are reading at their independent level if they're reading by themselves or

163at an instructional level as the teacher is teaching them. >> Right? >> And these numbers are equivalent to grade level. >> Yes. Benchmark >> percentage of reading at grade level. >> Right. And really it's by the time we look at the spring data that you really are determining if they're making the benchmark at the end of the year. >> I think there is some controversy as to and some questions to whether whole language and balanced literacy are two sides of the same coin or another way to put put balanced literacy is another way to say effectively whole language. There are lots and lots of debates. It's not a monolithic topic, but we'll get into it, I guess, when we talk about rating. >> Right. >> Any other questions? So this is so the the hope

164was um or the plan um was is that we would um be given a base of understanding about what the data says about our report card um but also about our reading program. Um I know this is only for K through 12 but the K through three reading program which is um which we have um been um thinking a lot about. So the May 8th we are going to be talking about um our uh the reading program and my understanding from uh superintendent Austin is that we will be having um different different people um through the district um both teachers and um support personnel um for the K through uh three reading program. But we wanted to have some data so that people could um have some understanding about where it comes from. Um, I

165we might have questions that we want to make sure get asked or answered. And I think um I think it just kind of makes sense to have it go through Joyce because people are going to be just, you know, not like giving it to in in the next couple weeks and maybe she could then uh coate those and to make sure that you get them. So, if we have got questions that are specific to the reading program K through three, let's u make sure that it goes to um Joyce um and so that Joyce will then um put them all together and make sure that Susan and her staff have that. That just makes more sense to me than smattering them to you. Rita, I see that you have a question. >> Yes. Um I

166was just curious. Do these um the dibbles the chart students who are reading above grade level? >> Yes, it it shows in those layers that it's below grade level, near grade level, on grade level, and above grade level in >> So the blue is the one that >> the blue would be the line that would be above grade level. >> Yes. The >> fanatics. Okay. So, I think just in the future when we get data to have a legend of what those different levels are that would have been that would have been helpful. I um I don't I'm not intelligent enough just to understand what the colors are outside of being pretty >> and it'd be nice to know how much above grade level is it just a little or is it a lot? of

167and how do we, you know, take help those students that are reading way above grade level? What are we doing for them? >> So, that's a good point. >> And that's a great question that maybe we can have um have Susan and the staff talk about that. >> So, that's great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? I I'm to Susan's point earlier about how hard the staff work um and teachers and staff around the district to make our students um the best that they can be. I I just commend um but I'm also um honored and uh jazzed about the questions that this board had for the staff um tonight and to understand the data and to look at data. It's it's cumbersome. It's weighty. Um but but um the questions and

168the thoughtful the thoughtful direction um that this board takes um for the district is uh pretty phenomenal. Um and I say thank you um for for that. >> Motion to >> I have a motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor please say I. I. I. >> Oppose. Stain. Goodbye folks.