001Go ahead and let's get going. Let's say the uh pledge. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. [clears throat] One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um John Brotherton >> here Johnson Mendoza >> here petra >> here Robin B >> here. Okay, first thing on the agenda any kind of anybody needs agenda or correction? I get a motion motion approve agenda correction items as >> sorry I didn't hear him seconded. Thank you. I'm sorry we're >> you're fine. >> It is hard to hear you >> and I was you know making all right. Um John Brotherton. >> Hi >> Diana Mendoza. Hi Robin Vaughn. I >> Deborah Sweat >> I >> Okay, public comments. >> First one up is Mr. Ray
002the statement here. Uh members of the public are welcome to speak during the public comment section of the meeting only. Comments are limited to five minutes per speaker. Board members will not respond comments or questions during this time, but they may follow up with speakers following meeting. Uh speakers are asked to please conduct themselves with respect and civility towards other. You ready? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So um I I've been coming here since September and I'm bringing things to towards your to your attention, but for some reason I don't get answers from or any kind of feedback from the board. >> Why? I'd like to hear something. And um I'm also learning that these are supposedly for business meetings. Well, I think you should have something where the I think you should have a chat
003session where the public can come and hear your responses to our questions because otherwise it's like it's like we're not getting anywhere. It's going in one ear and out the other. And I don't like that. Um I want to hear your thoughts. I want to hear what you're doing to address the the issues. And um I'm I'm hearing that there may be cuts due to fundings being cut where you your your financials. I suggest getting rid of some of the admin positions and not teachers and their assistants because they're more important than an admin. Um I am also saying um I am also wanting um about the superintendent's evaluation. I don't understand why you're using what is given to you by the superintendent. And don't you see a problem with that? I do. Um you
004should have some kind of other format um form of information that gauges his performance because so far the grades no one's learning anything since two I brought to your attention 2011 to 2015 they have dropped drastically. Um, and it hasn't gone anywhere. It's flat, meaning that no one is learning anything. I want to know what it is. I want to hear from the board what you're doing to rectify the the the situation because we should be for our children. Like I said before, if you're not for the children, you should not be on the board. We are here for the children. We need to do what's we need to get them encourage, you know, engage them into learning, wanting to learn. Okay. So, I'm wanting to hear from you. I hear nothing. That's what I've
005got to say. >> I the time down. Yeah. So, let me go ahead and do attendance again. Tom Brotherson here, Johnson. Katie Johnston here. Diana Mendoza >> here. >> Ky Penn here. >> Robin Bond >> here. Um the next up for public comment is Alexander Riviera. Um this is a recording of a student at one of our schools and it's going to be played by Sha Bennett. >> Hi. So we are I am playing a recording on behalf of one of our kiddos. He was extremely nervous. So this was a happy meeting but this would give you guys how he's feeling. So you know our mission uh I want to play it. My name is JW. Some of the positive things of JW are things like the after school clothes. After school clothes are pretty
006good and after school club. That's another pretty good looking after school clothes. in JW. I really enjoy having meetings with Dr. stone and other kids in GSA and I find it very fun that you can have that as I feel like um GSA is a safe space for me and other kids probably I've seen at JW Rider includes people saying squers and then try and report that. Um, usually nothing is done about that and I feel like it doesn't get handled to the degree of how much it should be handled. I feel like bullying JW uh gets relatively like push to the side. It's not very important unless it gets physical and in that case both students no matter what happened are put in trouble. This has affected my mental health by making it to
007where I've had mental breakdowns because I did not want to go to school, not trusting the instructors that are not preventing behavior and making it to where I generally do not want to be. I would not feel safe attempting to attack me. I'm not able to defend myself. feeling [clears throat] uh this feeling of like being kind of unsafe in the building has led me to not really concentrate as much in subjects where I need a way that you can make it to where it's easier to focus on school instead of you know the slurs happening um making it to where the kids who are saying swords and threats actually learn that that's not something that you're allowed to do. I think the students need to understand why those things can really impact everything about
008the way that like they may not say they may [clears throat] feel like unimportant. I feel like this is affecting my grades, my mental health, and maybe even other people's mental health. This issue that needs to be addressed because it has hurting our school. Thank you to the board for hearing the comments to the administration board. I hope you will hear us speak. I don't think I say we need your help to the students at JW. I hope that we can become a good community even if the administration does that. >> Thank you for that. [clears throat] >> And Miss Bennett, you're going to email that audio to Hannah. email that I can go right in. >> And so then I can make sure the board can get it if they missed some of it.
009>> All right. Um that's our only public comment for this afternoon. So we are going to move on to the board superintendent comments. Is anybody ready to start? >> Is it his mute? Um, I have three things and I wanted to highlight. So, African-American History Month is coming approaching quickly. We had our first planning committee meeting earlier today. Uh, the district-wide event is set for the evening of Friday, February 27th at JW Ader. All of the schools will host events during the school day on February 9th, which is NABID. That's stands for National African-American Hair Involvement Day. Um, and I would say those events are open to all families. Uh, more details about the program and other events are coming soon. Um, I was excited we had a date set. So, um, and we also
010had several representatives from the Randol Family Advocacy Coalition. So, thank you for coming. Um and uh they might not have meant to but uh Miss Bennett and Miss Young are co-chairing. You're welcome. All right. Um and we also had staff from every staff. Um okay, budgeting. Um so as I mentioned last month, there uh is kind of a we are projecting a budget deficit for FY27. Um and I wanted to update everyone on where we are in that process of determining how to reconcile that projected budget shortfall. Um currently administration is reviewing enrollment staffing and programs and looking to identify areas where staffing and or program reductions can happen without significantly and negatively impacting teaching and learning. Some of our staffing reductions will happen due to resignation uh with others through the more formal reduction
011in force process called RIFF RAF. Uh and we will attempt to reduce staff turnover as much as possible by reassigning staff to open physicians for which they are qualified. Uh the process for reduction in force is different for different employee groups and any of our staffing reductions will follow relevant law and collective bargaining agreements. Next month I anticipate that uh administration will be providing a report with administrative recommendations for cost reductions. Uh [clears throat] that I need to clarify because I had some questions from some staff. That does not mean there is a list of people who are losing their jobs. That's not how the budget reduction process works. Um, and as I said, we will have to go through any positions that are reduced. We've have to go through uh formal process with those.
012Um, the last thing is an update on administrative hiring. This evening, the board will is asked to approve revised job descriptions for the prek program administrator and student services director. uh the administrators overseeing these programs are retiring this year. So once uh assuming those get approved tonight, we will move forward with posting those positions. Also, the principal position at Easton has been posted and uh Tom, director of HR, will take the lead on that and working with the school on filling that position. Um, that is all I have for superintendent comments unless anyone have any questions. Okay, nothing else. Moving on to number five, action items, consent agenda items. We get a motion or is there anything we need to talk about from the consent agenda? point out one thing. I don't think she mentioned
013it to any of my planning emails with the board, but the policy on asthma undesated asthma inhalers. It's was on there last month. It was on there earlier this month. We decided we're pulling it at least through the summer, but there's just a lot of detailed work that needs to be put in place and some staff training really before we can roll that out. So, that's not there, but that's why it's disappear box. Um, I have one question. Can you update us on where we are with the U? >> That's not there. >> That's not it. >> All right. Anybody want to give you a motion on? >> I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda items. Excuse me. Excuse me. Personnel report is submitted with stipulation that each individual required to comply with
014all requirements for new hires as indicated in Illinois statutes and RCS board policy and procedures application will be repaid by the financial manager under board policy. >> I'll second John Brotherton Ian Barnes Sweat Johnston. Hi Diana Mendoza. Hi >> [clears throat] >> Now we're moving on. Discussion of possible approval. >> Am I? >> Yeah, we're on to the presentation. We didn't remove anything. >> Sorry, been a long day. Um, okay. Sessions and presentations. The kindergarten updates >> would the staff that's here to help tonight and I come up and we want to have one table be east long they're not here one table will be north view one table be pleasant acres and bring up some chairs bring I didn't have enough out specifically ask me about this >> now I know why >> it's
015happening >> prettier >> all right so I'm we have not rehearsed this so I'm gonna present some data and some information. Um they've it's been shared with this group, but then uh they're really here for you all as board members to ask questions and uh hear from them. So before we do that in loud and clear voices, do you want to introduce yourselves from this end of >> Harmon associate principal in Pleasant Makers? >> Samantha Sebastic, principal at Pleasmakers. Can you be louder? >> Samantha Sebastic, the principal at Fled Makers. Carrie Hansen, kindergarten teacher at Fmakers. Domen, instructional coach at Northview. Jackie Huntley, assistant principal at Northview. Kelly Mahoney, principal at Northview. >> All right. So before I get into the presentation, I I want to share that I was uh at a meeting uh
016of regional superintendent today and uh a lot of a lot of the superintendents shared increasing challenges that they are having with uh the early childhood students. So whether it's pre-K or kindergarten, um one school was talking about needing to do a transitional first grade program potentially. So the challenges that we're going to be kind of talking about I don't believe are unique to Randol um and we're seeing that this in a lot of uh school communities at this point. So let's go through it and um there's a few changes board members if you preview the presentation but all nothing significant. So I want to first compare our enrollment um enrollment this year and last year. This is what it would look last year. At this time we had 187 kids. This year we have 179.
017It's not significantly different. That's a normal fluctuation. Uh what is I think interesting this year is uh we enrollment hasn't really increased since the first day of school where last year we had an increase of 15 students. Um on the second bullet point, um one thing to point out is at this point we have 179 kids kindergarten, but we've actually had 189 students total because we have students who move in uh and stay for certain amount of time and then leave. Uh that number will probably double by the end of the year. Um, and that doesn't count kids who have already moved out and back in already because we also have those. Those kids aren't captured in that number. How many do you suppose you've had of those? Not too many this year. >> Two.
018We've had four. >> Yeah. So, there's three kids there that have moved out and back in. So, um, that was easy. >> Okay. [laughter] All right. So, then I'm going to show you staffing and enrollment info for this year. Um, and this is uh what I'm trying to show you here is this was the uh staffing for the start of the year and through the first semester. Um, and the way to look at this is and as you probably remember from last year, we do split how we count and look at sections. It's a monolingual meaning the classes taught in English or bilingual meaning the classes taught in English and Spanish. So, North View to start the year had five, that's how to read this, five sections of kindergarten with 84 students for an average
019of 16.8 students in their kindergarten classes. Uh, the class size maximum is 20. Um, we've been very fortunate that we are at that point. Uh, Northview has no uh bilingual students because they are all in the program. Um, Northview has one kindergartener who's in the cross categorical program. So, that student gets put into their total down here. Um, at Pleasant Acres, you can see the monolingual classes are at there's three sections, an average of 17. Bilingual is three sections, an average of 14.3. Um and then uh what >> this is the number we should see. I I know I talked about this with the board last year, but um bilingual classes by law should be at least n only 90% the size of the monolingual classes. So they should be a couple students smaller. Um
020so there we are. And last year we would have had two sections and they would have been at 21 and 22 is where they would have been last year. So we did add a section. Okay. So overall 11 sections 179 students 16.3. Um at this point we have added a sixth section at Northview. So you that brought them from 16.8 per class to 14. And then you can see overall down here the average went from 16.3 to 14.9. and our um should still be good on that ratio monolingual bilingual ratio. Okay. So now I'm going to talk about distance. So one is I want to establish the where we are with class sizes. How many staff are in the classrooms with how many students? Um I think an important thing to note also back a
021step is that uh at the start of the year we did not have a TA assigned in every classroom. Um and at this point in the year we've due. So each of the well one has not started yet. >> Correct. So we've got 11 of the 12 classrooms right now. TAS we've allocated for all 12 and that higher came through today. So that person will be starting your state. So there's actually two adults in each classroom at least. Um and then that's not including special ed service providers. Okay. So, one of the things we looked at and this I'm using the metric of out of school suspensions because um all out of school suspensions are tracked the same way. Okay? And out of school suspensions um tend to not be very subjective in terms of
022decision making for the administrator. Um and as I'll say show you, most of these are for physical aggression. Um and uh I would say most of them are also physical aggression involving adults um in the classrooms. So last year as of December 31st, so the first semester last year we had a total of nine out of school suspensions among our kindergarters. Same time period this year we had 39. Last year we had five students who had um one like five kindergarters with an out of school suspension. This year so far we've had 15. So 15 out of 180. Okay. So that's an indicator that there is a problem. That's the main reason I'm showing units. Um breaking down who the students are. Uh two of the 15 students are no longer enrolled in the district.
023Uh they were six of the the uh 38 total instance. I have 39 up there and 38 down there. It's 38. So that should be 38 right here. Um five of the 15 students have only had one out of school suspension incident. Um and then the challenging part is we have eight current students who have had more than one out of school suspension and they they add up to 27 total in 27 out of school suspension incidents. The range on length of suspensions for kindergarteners, I would say it's uh averages about one day. Uh most of our kindergarters uh are going to be they might be getting sent home at the beginning of the day and that counts as a suspension day. Then they would go to care uh so that they're not out of
024school. But uh so that's why I say the average is about one day. Um and 34 of the 38 incidents were for physical aggression. The other ones were categories. Um I can think of two. One is uh leaving the building and it was more than just leaving the building, but that's how it's categorized. Um another one uh was just really just being extremely disruptive to the point where we couldn't keep the student in the class any longer. Um so what has the district done so far this year to to try to address the issues? Um other than trying to support the best we can our wonderful staff there in the buildings um we've increased GenEd TA staffing from 8 to 12 um and actually we've added a 13th that uh was just posted yesterday so
025there will be a 13th and that's just for Jenna staff um we've increased classroom teacher staffing from 11 to 12 we have had I believe two students in long-term care placements uh at care. There's if there's more, you'll tell me, but I can only think of two long-term care placements this year. Um in December, the board's aware that we um put an intensive plan in place at Northview to provide more support uh at Northview, and that's also where we ended up adding the additional flash section. Um and currently we're operating care at North View. Um, and part of that is just to allow the care staff to be there to support in kindergarten and also the long-term care placements that we have for care. Oh, I do have it on here. We're adding an additional
026TA at Pleasant Acres for the remainder of the year. Um, and then there is a kindergarten committee that's been established to look at programmatic changes. And I say that's more of us looking at longer term issues. you know, how do we start the school year? Um, how do we transition kids in there? I'm talking too much and I hope we want to let you guys talk. Sorry. Um, another data point I wanted to share. This slide is more complicated than the next one, but another way to look at frequency of discipline data is the number of incidents per day. Um, so this is just my math. So for instance in August we had three obstacle suspensions in kindergarten and there were 10 school days. So the rate is.3 suspensions per day. So that's all I'm
027doing here. But if you compare that to um September we had 17 suspensions 20 per day. So almost triple the rate that we had in August. Now I would say it's typical that August is low. So one a one month spike that spike did alarm me at the time I will say um but you would typically see low in August. So uh what we want to show is that um it shows on the graph pretty well. So this is each month during the year. As you can see it was high in September. It came back down in October, back up in November and then down in November. And we've had one out of school suspension so far in January. Um but the good thing is is the trend line is pointing down. I am not
028saying that to try and pull wool over your eyes that everything is perfect. Um but we are putting things in place uh at the building level to try and uh support those classrooms. So that's all my talk. They don't have anything prepared. Do you have stuff prepared? >> No, we don't have >> it's just the >> Oh, it's the agenda. >> Okay. So I wanted you to be here and I was asked board president [clears throat] asked for me to ask here so the board could ask questions >> questions about what is their typical day start like do kids like automatically when they come in the morning do they like already like wanting to attack wanting to argue or does it progress during the day I guess or is there something that really spikes Mexico.
029>> Depends on the kit. >> Some sometimes they come in regulated, sometimes they come in disregulated. We get a lot of like go to bed last night. Um I'm tired. I got to somebody on the daycare bus here, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I left my lunch. >> I mean it. But there are things that happen during the day too or >> sometimes it's stamina like they held it together for the morning and then their their patience whatever it may be maybe has run out their willingness to participate in activities that maybe are less preferred for them. >> What's that mean? doing activities less preferred for five year olds. >> So, >> it's not bad. >> Yes. >> Like they don't need to go to their >> preferred center or do something that they want to
030do like right away. There are a lot of things they have to learn in kindergarten in order to be ready for grade. So, while we do have a play-based curriculum, there is still academic time and some students don't um engage that. And I would I would agree because it's it's different for every child and there is a big difference between the prek curriculum and the kindergarten curriculum. So what we've done with kindergarten is we have kind of taken a part of the prek curriculum which is what we call play-based which they learn through play and then we have more of a traditional kindergarten where there's more of a instructional time where they're working in whole group all class and small group. And so some students have a hard time tr transitioning to being on the
031carpet listening to the teacher doing small group and more of a instructional time. They want to go back to that play based time that is a little bit more fun for them. Um and so they don't want to stop doing that time to go back to more of a structured learning time. Um, I would say another thing that they have difficulty with, I've been seeing more as the years have gone by is sharing. A lot of our kids are having a hard time sharing because that's um been a little harder for them to learn how to do. So during our learning center time, so um we most of the kindergarten teachers have a certain number of kids who can go to a certain learning center. if they don't get the learning center of their choice,
032they have a hard time accepting that um or they if another student takes a block that they want, that will be a trigger. We're still working on using our words. A lot of the time physical aggression is the first response. >> Uh what was the OSS breakdown by building? Uh I would say by building I did not share that but um if it's the reason we went into Northview was it was significantly higher in North. >> Yeah I would say ours probably had large number. >> My other question I don't know if this even comes into play but like some of these kids were they in the prek program or other prek programs or they were just they were just coming off. So, oh gosh, I will say we a great deal of our students
033did come from our prek program, but then we had several students that had never been in any any type of preschool >> or daycare setting. So, they had never been I met with a parent on Tuesday after school and she said, you know, he had never been around the other children. um doesn't have any siblings um only had been with mom and dad and we've seen a lot of that too. So they had never had any other opportunity to be around any other children to to know how to interact with any other kids to learn how to share um to have those types of interactions. And so he's really struggling with that right now. And that's more often than not our students. >> Do you feel like you have adequate resources now to address the
034issues or is there stuff that's lacking that you need from you know additional resources? >> I think now that we have the additional classroom and additional TA support since we've come back from Christmas break things are going very well. um we've seen a dramatic decrease in um the physical behaviors that we've had because we've been able to appropriately separate some personalities um and behaviors that we had in the classroom. So, it's been able we've been able to have some smaller class sizes and to separate some students that um just simply were not getting along. Um, and with the additional adults in the classroom, we're they're able to respond more quickly and deescalate students um, quicker than they were able to before and to be able to provide more independent support with the students. So, I
035think right now we're doing very well. >> Is that how you feel at PA? Do you guys feel like you guys are getting us support? Do you guys need that? >> I mean, staffing now, yes. Has been since we've added the general education TA to each classroom has been super helpful. >> Some days it [laughter] feels like it's not enough when you have >> even two adults in the room. I know the class numbers are great, like the class sizes are great, but when you're in there, there are a lot of needs. And so, we do still get even with the two adults in the room. Yes. um we expect us and um social workers and instructional coaches are also efficient in the bank and so it still requires a lot of additional adult support
036to help regulate and resolve conflict. >> So so yes we have a lot of resources and I feel supported in that way >> but we are still very hard. Yes, we would never turn down more [laughter] question. Yeah, I have staff who's out sick, >> you know. So, we have a teacher who >> we're on leave or leave for something a TA that is out. And so, we are, you know, living by carousel. >> Yes. So, we appreciate our substitutes, but it's hard for kids when they they really thrive on having a strong connection with their teacher and with their teaching assistants. So when are gone, it's really hard to spell back. I still feel like it does it does require for Jackie and myself to dedicate a lot of time in kindergarten. Um, but
037we've also we added an additional special using our our social work staff and our BCBA to uh put in an an SEAL curriculum. Um, and so I find doing it that special with a social emotional learning time has been beneficial. Um, but this this group of kindergarteners h has required a lot of additional step. We've also added our social workers pushing in once a week to do a seal because so many that can't social work everybody at the same time. So, so and since it was a lot of um disregulation type behavior too, we thought that whole class instruction from the social worker would be more helpful. Har. >> So, I'm going to set it up with this. So, I spent four weeks only four weeks this year in kindergarten and it is physically exhausting
038especially on the days when I was in a classroom day. So, it is it for the adults it's physically exhausting. >> Yes, it is. >> Um, you've been doing it. How long have you been teaching? Kindergarten >> or school kindergarten? >> 14 15 years or so. So from your perspective [clears throat] I can teacher tell the board what you're seeing. >> How have things maybe changed? >> Oh things are definitely changing. We are having some kids come in with a lot more needs than we have in previous years and it seems to grow each year. Um I think we've had the opportunity to read the anxious generation. It kind of hits the nail on the head what we're seeing in our classrooms. Um if you haven't read it, I highly recommend you read it. Um
039there's a lot of mom guilt in there too, but um our kids are just coming in with some social emotional um things they need support with. Um they're coming in with regulation and not knowing how to to talk or as problem solve as they used to. So we really work hard on that in the classroom right now. How to handle, you know, how do you handle big feeling? Okay, I'm going to teach you how to handle a big feeling. um things such as even simple things as coloring with a crayon for some of our kids has become something we now have to work with because they do a lot with tablets and screens and that thing the fine motor just isn't there. So those are some of the big things we're seeing come in. Um
040they still love to read books sitting on the laps. They need to you know show you what they've made. Um, and that that remains the same. >> But just the social emotional skills throughout the years just seems to be >> So why do you let them misbehave? >> Oh, I wish I had >> I'm setting you up a magic wand there. >> Yeah, I get this question a lot like we let kids behave badly. Um, I mean, what what happened? you have say two kids at the same time refusing to do what >> they're supposed to do. >> So [laughter] I mean no I mean I think don't look at schools think you can just say stop it and go back and work. So but what what really [clears throat] >> I mean we do
041we have we have a lot of refusals especially at the beginning of the year. No and you're like they're ready to negotiate. I'm like, [laughter] you were hoping you could, you know, go play in the tool center or whatever. And so, a lot of it's like, okay, you have choices. You can either do it now or you're going to do it at my preferred time, which could be during your free choice time or something like that. And, you know, we have to kind of stand firm and teach. I'm like, they're like, wait, going to follow through with that? You're like, you're going to learn. It's my job to teach you. And um it's it's hard but >> and then they might refuse and throw things >> and that's that's a chair. I don't know where
042they learn chairs as a trick. [laughter] >> Like I don't know where they chair. >> And then of course I'm setting you up again. You if they're behaving really badly, you can take away recess, right? Why not? >> They need to be outside. They need to run. It's also I think a reg but I mean yes there is that but they need to be outside. They need to be running and playing and having that time. It wants to be if I could wave a magic wand, we to have extra gyms at the elementary schools or indoor recess because the three weeks Jamie and I, some other folks over there, they couldn't go outside for recess. >> Yeah. And we eat lunch in our gym. So, there's a reason why we can't have it recess. I
043want to ask one of all the adults in the room, how many of you were in a half day kindergarten? Raise your hand. >> That very [laughter] >> half day kindergarten. And now 100% of our kids are in a full day dinner. And you can also see that they're when I say the adult, it's exhausting for it's that way for a lot of the kids. And a lot of them are falling asleep in the classroom >> and they stay for after school and on the bus not getting home from the bus until sick. So that's a long day uh just for that because they're Yes. Because we have kids that we actually have to wake up to get off of the bus to come into school in the morning. They are they have very long
044days and so they are falling asleep in the classroom and having to take naps and it makes them very cranky. >> Why didn't we get away? >> That's what I was going to ask. We did have full day, but we had a nap. >> I'm sure. >> A couple years ago at North View, we actually did um we purchased like yoga mats and each kid had their own yoga mat and we had a quiet we do have quiet time built into our our schedule in kindergarten now, but we had a quiet time and they could get out their mat every day and they could take a nap. Part of that was that that wound up kind of not working is some kids actually did like they would conk out and some of them would not
045want to wake back up or you know and we still had instruction time in the afternoon and others would not want to nap and they would want to be up and around the room. And so it made it very difficult because then they wanted to run around the room and there's kids napping on the floor and then some kids wouldn't want to wake up and um [clears throat] you know we let the ones that wanted to take a nap take a nap. And so um now we kind of those teachers then decided well we'll just we just want to have quiet time. And so if some kids do choose to kind of use that quiet time to take a quiet nap, but we built in um a quiet time after lunch that they can use
046that time to kind of have a calm time. Um some of the kids that are that she's not to are kind of wound up and so it's got a little mix of of that. >> I'd say also as part of the shift had to do with the increasing expectation that all kids in kindergarten are going to learn to read. >> So, yeah, the state standards and expectations are very high for kindergarteners. And so, the thing is is that if they are escalated, it's very hard for a student to learn. So, you know, think about it. If you're anxious or you have trauma or you're upset and escalated, it's very hard. I mean, research shows it's hard to learn at that moment. So, right now, we're experiencing a lot of kids coming in with all of
047these things going on. And so, we, you know, we have to get them in a calm state and deescalated before we can get academic, you know, get them academically solid. And so, we've got a lot of things to get to first. So it's a balance. >> So like when a kid is escalating and he's using physical aggression like I believe like a parent is called [clears throat] do the kid continue to act like that another parent or >> oh sometimes >> it depends. Yeah. It it depends. Like we we've had students that it does not change their behavior and some that they will turn right around. >> Some might escalate. >> We've had that happen to that point before. >> So you mentioned all the you know everything that the district is doing to help
048you guys from when school started to now. Do you guys feel like a little bit of relief or do you guys feel like you're still in the same place when you started back? >> We're definitely not in the same place. I feel like we're in a much better place now after Christmas break. Um we at Northview we have what we call a bark room which is a room that we can if if students are escalated we can take them to our bark room. We have like a protocol that we go through with them um to help them deescalate. We have a couple safe places. We process through them what happened, how are you feeling, what can we do differently next time. They're able to stay there for as long, you know, as they need to
049until we could get them to a place to we can go and reenter back into the classroom. Since we have been back from Christmas break, um I think we've had I think when I emailed Dr. Woods the other day, we had only had [clears throat] six times that we've had to go there. Before Christmas break, there would probably be at least six times a day we were having students go to the art room. So that to me is a huge decrease in the amount of times and that's just for kindergarten. Um so I'm pleased on the amount of progress that we've seen. Um so it it's definitely a positive we're going in a positive direction. >> Yeah. Your faces look different. coming back after winter break has been um tricky for us for whatever reason.
050Um >> it's been I'm sure we looked at where we're at. No, it's not just kindergarten by that. It's just based off of >> kindergarten. So holistically, it's it's hard because when kindergarten needs support, we may not always be able to It's some place else. So, >> it's just been hard. >> I'm sure if we like were able to zoom out or look back in many areas and the students individually many like many things yes have have gotten better and we've seen a lot of growth and students and staff and lots of learning has happened uh just in the moment when we're in the midst with inconsistent or short staffing and students struggling to right now say, "Oh, we've made so much progress. coming back from winter break. I was like, "Oh, >> it doesn't
051feel like that at the moment." But yes, I'm sure if we looked back on where we were in August and looked at the growth that we've seen in students and classrooms, it is there. >> Yeah. >> Talk a little bit about short staffing. It's been mentioned a couple times. >> Um that >> um well, that kind of looks like um we're short to TAS now, right? Well, we have one that we're going to hire for and then there's one who's out >> because of a um >> medical procedure. We had a teacher out for a medical procedure. >> I meant like part of it is staff being out >> and then yes on the data. I mean it there there is high rate of illnesses going around right now. So lots of absences for people
052being sick themselves or their spouses or child. >> Um so us in the classrooms. Yeah, that's that's really what it looks like. >> We have had a couple of openings as well. We have some vacancies that have been posted and have been filled except for the new one that was just added. >> Yes. >> Um but they haven't started yet. So trying to get back until >> is care still at North. >> Yes. >> We did have a long-term care student who uh came back to PleasR with a care staff one member to help transition. Is that the plan for care to remain North or >> will care will the official answer is care will remain at Northview as long as we need it to >> but is there ever any >> I feel like
053there's >> no I feel like like right now there's been a care over at PA this week >> that's what she's saying >> um >> yeah and another one today went over no not we switched a couple around >> yeah and Dr. Woods and I have kind of talked about here some thoughts that we have. >> It does not need to be there forever, right? That's >> um >> I guess I was just trying to get at are we equalizing our resources so that everybody feels like there's Yeah, we've we've tal we've talked >> uh Hannah is our subsecary. Hannah, how many unfilled TA positions did we have in the district yesterday? I know the answer you don't remember was 11. I think it was I was going to say I think yesterday was was
05411 maybe unfilled. Today was >> seven or seven maybe. >> I think it was seven. >> But it there's been a drastic. >> So our staffing is based on assuming everyone is at one >> and when everyone is there it is it's so helpful every you know when you have people there who have been trained who know their role and have with the kids. >> Um and I again don't blame anybody for taking time off when they don't feel well or have something they need to do that family first. >> Yes. I believe all of that. Um, and I love our subs, but it's just different when you don't have the person who has been in there and trying to stop. >> Unlike the rest of the world in schools, we have to remember that
055with rare exceptions, we can't just turn off, right? Like, uh, the kids are going to be there and we have to have someone in the room with those kids one way or the other. We don't get to put a sign out front that says, you know, we're >> we don't have anyone to [laughter] >> and at care this week it has just been Miss Fondia who's been at care. Um so it's just been one staff member in the program and um I've been Miss Johnson's been going over to help >> and Mr. Thompson. We are I've been communicating with um we've had some support from other people available because students were absent that that person were playing sports or something like that. They've been sending us they started to send us people this weeks about
056this. I want to say it takes a village sometimes. It's hard. It just seems like you guys have worked together things. But I also want to say this thank you. It's not easy. It's not easy taking care of, you know, day in day out. I can only thank you for what you do every day, putting a smile on your faces and coming into work. It's very appreciated from the heart. Thank you. I remember those days because I work in stages [laughter] and I always say this I I you know to I say to people like they're like heroes you know they send you to the wheel be one day to the people >> and I think I can have one already but it's just thank you and it's not easy to come up here and
057talk in front of us. It takes a lot after everything, you know, your longer day or something. >> Just appreciate coming along. >> And if you ever need to talk, you can send me any. >> Well, there's an opportunity for you, too. by that time participate in being opportunity on Friday. >> I will not miss sometimes. [laughter] >> I will plan to do it. I look at my schedule. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I like to change gears a little bit and ask how are the first second graders part do you feel that more them phrasing this right away not accusing many how's that I guess I want to report card first or second >> I think our first pretty well >> yeah I think they're doing pretty well I we have some teachers that like
058when we make suggestions about things that that help them out, you know, that there's a behavior. It's not very many behavior problems in first grade. Uh there's just a few kids and they're trying to get those kids some mentors so that they get some support to um social. >> It just feels more typical in first and second grade. like they're few um but they're minimable and we can >> find reasonable supports. So much so in fact that our first and second grade teachers are also reaching out to kindergarten teachers to ask how they could support. So they have a little buddy systems happening now >> which is awesome. Our first grade is very quiet. Um they're always very quiet. Second grade we probably have a couple students that are requiring additional supports but um it's
059>> Yeah. Yeah, it's it's very minimal. It's pretty quiet second grade, too. So, >> are they as quiet as Jack? Do you ever think? >> I don't know anybody as quiet as Jackie. >> Oh, you haven't seen us. >> Yeah, I'm like I don't Well, maybe Rihanna, but you know, >> no, they're they're doing this. >> It's almost like they understand. Oh, you guys need to keep [laughter] and I know right now I'm not that but and I also know it doesn't count for everyone because we have students who just don't have any social interaction outside of and are not in the prek program but is there anything that we can do curriculum wise or anything with prek that would be of help as they get into kindergarten? Are there any like prek reps on
060that kindergarten committee? Like I'm just trying to like think of ways we can try to make it better because we do have a little bit more time. >> We do have and um actually Sammy and I touched base today because we have a kindergarten committee that is compromised or compromised but [laughter] >> not compromised. Um it's made up of prek and kindergarten teachers and also um social workers and the prek administration. And so we talked today and we're going to get that committee back together at the beginning of February because like uh Dr. Woods mentioned one of the uh goals that we're tasked with is to be proactive about those prek students coming in in kindergarten and how we can be proactive about the first few weeks of kindergarten. Um also I talked to Mrs.
061Diddier today about some of the transition of our students and our staff coming in and doing observations. So that's part of our protocol that we do as well. So we start those observations in January and February. So we're already starting those things um and doing that and we have some transition meetings that we always schedule each each spring too. So we've already started the process of of having those conversations and we'll schedule our next meeting here within a few weeks. >> I I know we don't know building off your question. I know we don't know where the each individual student is going to go next year, right? because they could move, they could be needs somewhere else. Um, but is it beneficial or do we do this I guess to have them like to where
062the buildings for they do that? >> Yeah, we have um Miss Bedsar's and she schedules a night where parents can come. So, like she'll schedule with Sammy and I an open house night at Northview and PA and then she comes over and the parents get to meet us and they get to meet the kindergarten teachers and they tour each building and the kindergarten classrooms. >> Well, and of course half the prek kids this year going to Pleasant Acres next year. So, they're >> they've already been over. They did their architectural visit at our building. So, they've got to see it already. This is the I'll say the quietest year I can remember from prek. >> Um I I'm going to assume it's all because of the great work that everyone there is doing is not
063just because they have this beautiful new facilities, >> but I do think facility makes a difference. Uh but it's been really quite >> but education works like that too. I mean you have some grade levels that just have different uh feels than others like just as elected and I think it's important to remember that this current group of kindergarten were born during co so their early experience is probably different than some other student's call for a victory lost You don't have to stay. >> No more voting. >> [laughter] >> Well, thank you everybody for the Thanks for coming. And uh I wouldn't I will add I know we're done with that topic, but spend a little time in our K2 buildings. Um and I know our staff appreciate you being seen when they can. So
064information items, there's not very many. >> Thank you all. Thank you. >> Thanks, ladies. >> Thank you. >> Um, are the there were two contracts in there. Um, the employee assistance program with Carl is one that the retain and retention committee we put in place last year, I think, right, Tom? the EAP, the additional EAP, um, and that is to provide, uh, support services for our employees kind of on call. That's one of the ways our employees can access outside mental health services would probably be the biggest one. And counseling is um, you wanted to ask me a question. >> I did. Um, I just wanted to know about the contract for Jon. Sure. Um, for the grant writing, when was the grant writing, the grant application submitted, and do we have an estimated how
065to apply? >> So, the it was turned in the day it was due. I don't remember what day that was. >> I think it was like the 14th or something. Um and uh we uh Jenny attended a webinar yesterday with the 21st century grant people whoever that is at the state level and they are in their review and they we we plan to notify grant by end of month. That's the short answer, but we were told yesterday. >> Also, to clarify, you mentioned to me um recently that at a city meeting it was stated that um one of the local churches was partnering with us on that project. Is that true? >> Uh different. >> Different. >> Okay. So, um one of Exceed Church, which is over by Fleth and Acres, they have an after
066school grant. Um, and we've had some conversations with them about how it could work together for them to expand that grant, but I don't it's not a 21st century grant. It would be a separate one. Um, and my understanding is those funds have not been released. So, that's called a they call it RFP. >> RFP. >> The RFP has not been released yet, but um, yeah, he's he's running an actual program for about a dozen kids right now and looking to expand. And I shared that there's going to be a need in the community for sure next year for more seats for kids because we're not going to be able to hopefully we get the 21st century grant, but there's still going to be demand for seats after school programs. >> Questions close. We are
067ready to close session. Does anybody want to make a motion? >> Go ahead and make it this time. >> Motion to move to close session regarding appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees. >> Robin Bond. >> Hi. >> John Brothers. Hi >> Deborah Sput. >> Hi >> Johnson. >> Hi >> Johnston. >> Hi >> Dian Mendes. >> Hi. >> I for the public I'll be turning off recording and I won't turn it back on. There's no action after close session.