001I've turned the recording on just so everybody knows. >> And we do have two public Count me in. That's That's game. [Music] Thank you. >> He can call you I'm sure they'll have, you know, >> stand [Music] to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. John >> here. >> Johnson >> here. >> Katie Johnson >> here. >> Diane here. >> Nikki here. >> Sweat here. Robin >> here. Okay. First thing a question is there to approve the agenda. >> I second it. >> Io Johnson. >> Hi Johnston. >> Hi John. >> Yep. I will. So, first thing on is public comment. Um, and we know who's first. >> Are you Are you want to speak together or you want to both speak separately?
002>> No. Separate. >> Separate. Okay. I'm going to read the statement. Members of the public are welcome to speak during the public comments section of the meeting only. Comments are limited to five minutes per speaker. Board members will not respond to comments or questions during this time, but they may follow up with speakers following the meeting. If the total time for public comments reaches 30 minutes, which it will not this evening, uh the board may suspend further comments until later in the meeting. Speakers are asked to please conduct themselves with respect and civility towards others. Thank you. >> I'm not sure. just come up to the table. >> I need to sit down or what? It's up to you. >> Well, uh, since the school started, I'm really having a little trouble with the sister
003schools where you splitting up kindergarten and second first kindergarten, first and second graders that are having to walk so far. Well, it just so happens I live, you know, four houses away from this school. I got a second year old, my grandson that only by grace of God, we live on the right side of the railroad tracks where he's getting bus. But the bus now the bus stop you're having to go all the way down there to James and then the bus like when they drop him off the bus drives on down here to Sun View where if they open the doors up it is a bus stop right there at that stop sign it is a actual bus stop. If they got to stop at the stop sign they open the door he'd have
004less than 100 yards to walk. Now he's walking almost three blocks and the traffic down there. I don't know if you've been down there, but if there's so many cars, the neighbors are already hollering. They can't get in their driveways. So, I was hoping the poor might be able to address that. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Hammond, did you leave your contact information so we can follow up? >> All right. Thank you. >> An email. You can follow up. Thank you. >> First of all, I don't have any children in school, but I know a 12th grader and a sixth grader that are struggling to read. My question is, I'm I'm still doing research, but I looked up on the scores Matt and reading took a nose dive from 80 70 to 80% in 2011
005between 2011 2013 in 2015 they're not increasing they're going steadily going round down my question is we have people administration what are they doing for $195,000 where a teacher who the medium salary is $660, which is only $990 monthly before the tax deductions. I looked at the curriculum. There is phonics. That's good. But why are these kids having problems reading? I heard the the slogan before, no kid left behind. No, we're not leaving behind. We're pushing them through. We're making them dumb. We're keeping them dumb. They are not going to be prepared to go out and get a job. I I don't have any kids normally right now in school, but if I did, I'd be concerned. I can understand why some people are educating them at home because they're getting an education. I taught
006my kids when and yes parents have a responsibility but we society today has made it where um we got divorced parents there they're working two or three jobs community as a whole needs to work and help these kids so our community because they're going to be our they're going to be our future without them we're going to have socialism we're going to have failure, they're going to they're not going to be able to do anything. Crime is going to go up deeper than it is. We And I'm sorry, we've taken guard out of school and look at the conditions of the school. We have PE kids coming in here shooting other kids, adults. I want to see a change because I someone has to care for kids. I'm going to try and work with this
007one and help try and help him tell Reed, but we have to be I don't know what is the the purpose of the school board. What is the purpose of these people that are getting 195,000? There's one in the high school. I'm going to ask about that one. No, it's in it's in the um district 137. $220,000 >> for what? Who? But our teachers are are are these teach are all the teachers I'm not trying to be negative but are these teachers qualified because can you keep a a qualified teacher at such a minimal wage but yet the administrators the conditions of a school it it bothers me. It worries me. I am so glad I don't have a child in school right now. I am so glad. And I'm going to do some more
008research because I want to be prepared. said, "I'm just letting you know now." And we got to do something though. We got to do something for these kids. They are our future. They are our future. When you're old and in the nursing home, your kids are your kids or their grandkids are going to be making decisions that are based that's going to affect your lives. Okay. So, that's all I have to say right now. >> Did you leave your comment out there? >> I No, I didn't. But I Yeah, I did. I did. I did. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Sorry. >> One more that's not quite a public comment, but I'm gonna introduce uh I usually do this at this point. Brian here, you come up. Um and um Brian is our
009director of facilities, facilities director. You can sit. He's coming to us from the military and I'm learning that to be direct. All right. Um, so, uh, normally we would introduce, uh, our new administrative hires at the time we hired them, but he was active duty in the Air Force at the time. So, um, I'm going to read this very nice bio on Bryant. Um, I am excited to introduce our new facilities director, Bryant Deer. Bryant grew up right here in Ranul, attending Broad Meadow, North View, and JWA before graduating from RTHs in 2014. Everyone's getting his age right now, right? Uh he then attended Parkland College while working at Burtoners as a clothing salesman and serving as outreach coordinator for the Prairie Lands Council Boy Scout office. In 2017, Bryant joined the US Air Force
010after graduating from basic training in January 2018. He completed technical training as an aircraft structural mechanic. >> Okay, good. He was first stationed at Seabore Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. This is the most interesting bio I've ever gotten to read. So that's why I'm reading uh Air Force Base in North Carolina working on F-15 E Strike Eagle fighter jets where he gained a strong foundation in mechanics and production. In late 2021, Bryant transferred to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to help establish the base's first ever aircraft structural and maintenance section. there. He trained six new airmen from the ground up, forming a highly effective team. His leadership and technical expertise contributed to major accomplishments, including returning a crashed B2 stealth bomber to service in 22, resolving a critical defect that had grounded
011the fleet and leading recovery operations for stranded aircraft. He also served on the commander inspection team and the inspector general's office um and was part of the successful completion of operation midnight hammer. That was pretty recent, right? That was the real recent one that I ran. Right. Am I right? While stationed at Whiteman, Brian earned his bachelor's degree in engineering technology with a focus on management. He is now pursuing a master's degree in industrial management. Uh Bryant brings with him not only technical expertise but also valuable leadership experience in building strong discipline teams and exceeding expectations under pressure. At home he and his wife Olivia are raising three children. Charles four Harrison two and a newborn Lucy. So he's busy. >> All right. They've all been in the office too. So, uh, we are grateful
012to welcome Bryant and his family to the RCS 137 family, and I am confident that his knowledge, skills, and commitment will help us ensure that our district facilities are the best they can be. Uh, and I will say that it's been we've only had two weeks or three weeks at this point. Two weeks. Yeah. So, so far he's perfect. So, things are going really well and he's he's a good partner. So, uh, I'm introducing Bryant Deer, our new facilities director. And I think you met all of Thank you, Brian. And take your job. Do you want to say anything? You don't have to. >> I appreciate the reception that I've got in the district. Really nice. Like it's a really nice spot to return to after being gone for so long. So, thank you. >>
013Does anyone have any questions for him? >> Thank you. And you don't have to stay for the rest of the day. Okay. All right. [Music] >> We'll do that. >> Do we need to say the whole thing? >> Just the part that's on the screen. Motion to close session. >> Make a motion to move close session regarding the appointment. >> Sorry. >> Employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees. Hi >> Johnson. >> Hi Robin Von. >> Hi Dian Mendoza. >> Katie Johnson. >> Hi. >> And uh for the public, we're going to move to a different room and go into close session. Um when the board finishes close session, they will um They'll do a motion to end close session and reconvene open session before we return. So, you won't see that when
014we come out. But, um, thank you. We're gonna >> You don't have to, but there's some refreshments over there. So sleep. >> Okay. Don't be offended for you I read this. Hey, >> I just glad you're here, >> Mr. [Music] Whenever you're ready. >> Okay. >> No, we already did. >> We already Motion on the consent >> agenda. I can motion each individual required to comply with all requirements requires indicated in all sections. >> And I'd like to remove an item from the cons. Um, do you want it as a separate vote? The motion's already been made. >> Yes. Um, 5F. >> Which one is that? >> The approval of the superintendent evaluation tool. >> Okay. >> All right. So, Diane Mendoza DeWin. Hi Johnson. >> Hi. Um, let's talk about the superintendent. We're on
015to discussion and approval of items that were removed from the consent agenda. >> Okay. The reason I me this little back um asked for this to be removed. Uh I actually attended a webinar this afternoon uh regarding evaluation of the superintendent and I was quite impressed by the uh by the presentation uh it only uh or the webinar. only lasted a half hour, but since this is already in process, I'm new to the board. What I'd like to see happen is a committee be established to redo the U superintendent evaluation. They have a super eval program through um the Illinois Association of School Boards and it's all online. It's interactive. All the board members fill that out. Um it can also include administrative leadership staff. They can give input as well. We can customize it
016based on our needs. There is a slight cost and they keep it low to make it affordable. And as based on the size of the uh district and the information we want to encompass, it can run from uh3 to $5,000. Um there is a um goal setting where we can do benchmarks where there's a self assessment, data markers and evaluation and an overall performance uh review. As far as that, I did uh a lot of the comments uh for the people that attended, they are not and they weren't all new board members. Some were, but they are not pleased with the evaluation tools currently being used in their district and they said that they would like to look at something different and new and revise it. So, it's not something to vote on. Uh I'm
017just asking that we look here in the very near future to get something established so we can possibly look at the feasibility and uh of the current superintendent evaluation. Um Aaron Wilcox is the person referenced e Wilcox at super eval.com. she uh is available and what she does is she comes to districts a 20-minute presentation of the super eval um program and she can work with the district to customize it and it's a lot easier than um doing paper forms. It calculates everything. It also will put the responsibility either on the board president or the secretary whoever's designated to make all aspects. You will be queued. When board member um Brotherton completes his part of it, you'll be cued and when everyone else u completes their portion, you'll get a notification and then it can
018be sent electronically to all the board members. So, everybody receives a final copy of what the evaluation is of etc. the full scope all the comments u etc that are made by board members even by the superintendent their input or if we include administrators we can get their input as well if that's what we choose to do so I was really impressed and uh if we can u digit you know use an electronic uh evaluation I think that would be super something we need to look into or could >> I have a couple comments on that if that's okay. >> I know what you're talking about. When the first year I was on the board, I went to conference and I sat in on in the superintendent tool presentation at the conference. Um, and I
019thought the same thing. >> Um, but I had not participated in the evaluation process at that time. And then as I participated in the process, I understand that I I understood that we do all of those tasks in the process. >> Um that that specific tool does. >> Um and we don't have to pay added expense for it, which in the next year or so, it's really for us, I think, to save as much funding as we can. Um because we don't know what the federal government's going to do. Um we don't know, you know, if we can rely on our grant funding to come through. Um I think being conservative with our funds right now for me is um is an important thing. And I would just say maybe um we table this until
020next year after you sat through one evaluation and you see how the process goes and then maybe pick it up and see how if we like it at that and that's why I said um in my statement unless it wasn't clear not implement it now but explore it just look at it and maybe plan to I'm not saying use it in place of this and I haven't been on this side of the evaluation process. Um, but I've attended the board meetings. I've known people on the board. Um, so I had a peripheral view of it. And all I'm saying is right now, think about it. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying do it. Think about it. And let's look at what else is out there. I've also uh Googled and printed out um superintendent
021evaluations from Florida. Um a friend um I have a friend who's principal at uh Baltimore. They sent their superintendent evaluation and I have two relatives who are teachers in Atlanta and I have them send their evaluation and it's they're quite different. They're more comprehensive and I'm just saying super eval could be a tool but we maybe need to look at and modify the current one that we have for next year not this year next year. >> Yes ma'am. >> Um what is it because you said maybe that you were privy to the super evaluation tool that we use because you knew right? No. Because I knew people I also foyed it. >> Oh, okay. >> I for >> Okay. Um and I knew that. >> What is it about the tool that we have now?
022>> I don't like >> or are or are you saying you just want us to explore options and you would like for us to sit and listen to the presentation? >> Uh that too. But also as I emailed Robin, I don't see specific data markers. I don't see and that's one and I put this information in the chat and they read it and they discussed it a little bit um at the webinar today. There are no short-term, midterm, long-term goal markers. Uh there are no intervals of where you um there appear to be where you meet with the superintendent and uh discuss benchmarks. Has this been accomplished? Has that been accomplished? Is does That's why I say it's more comprehensive this uh eval and like uh the other people um commented and I was shaking
023my head. I was like this is more of you're evaluating the superintendent based on his assessment of his own duties, not your assessment. And how do you measure his assessment if there's no benchmarks? If there's no short-term, long-term goals, no measuring tools, no metrics to determined. >> You're saying that's what your opinion is on what is happening right now? >> Well, that could be what's happening. And that's been kind of the sentiment um for the past several years. And it's not just this administration even before uh that um the community and u some folks know or don't know I was on the other side. I was the advocate community advocate speaking and we did not that the evaluation was sufficient. It wasn't detailed enough to make and wonder how the board was able to make
024a full recommendation if you so I'm just saying down the uh down the road after this because this is coming up uh in December, January. >> Um so I'm not saying switch it now. Open be open to looking at something different and and not stick with what's it saying it's the end all be all. Let's explore what else or what could be done different down the road. >> So then really but maybe I'm not doing right. This could have stayed in the agenda items because you're saying you don't you're not trying to change anything. >> I'm not trying to change anything. This was >> what I wanted to discuss >> discuss it. >> Yes ma'am. >> Discussion about it. That's all. >> So do we need to go back and add it in >> or
025do we have to keep it separate? >> No. >> I think we have to do it separate now because we already made the motion to separate it. So now we have to do a separate. >> Okay. >> Right. I do got a question on the reason I have a question it has to where we got high schools. >> It probably is. >> I was just wondering if >> it's not signed yet. Okay. >> But also, Mr. Johnson, the board already approved it. >> Okay. >> So, no, but before I sign it, I'll make sure it's the right copy. >> They sent them out to both districts, I'm sure, at the same time. >> Okay. I didn't know if we would kind of take backward. And just one more uh item on that. Um the signatures
026on the contract. Am I looking at the right one? It says Sam Smith, >> not Sam Hall. >> Which one are you looking at on the village? Are we still on? >> That's where I I'll be honest. I'm confused. Is that the one with the resource officer contract? >> One of those documents has Sam >> um if you could just come from the village, I think. >> This came from the village. We We did not. >> Yeah. Well, okay. Well, that's fine. It needs to be corrected, I think, before anybody puts a signature on it. >> It does say >> the older and the new We didn't make sure that I mean that did come from the village. So make sure that it has the correct name on it before you sign it. >> Okay.
027So are we five tool? >> Can we get a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> I sorry. She's winging it. >> I'm winging it now, so it takes me a minute. Sorry. >> All right, John. Hi. Johnson. >> Hi, >> Katie Johnson. >> Hi, Diana Mendoza. >> Hi, Mickey. >> Hi, >> Devin. >> Hi. >> Okay. the presentation of the instructional advisory committee annual summary for the board. >> Do you want to are you gonna bring everybody up? >> Um, so Jamie Rantry, director of curriculum instruction and do you want to introduce your team? >> Okay, so let me pull it up here. >> There you go. Um, first off, good evening. >> Appreciate the opportunity ground, director of construction. I would like to intro also introduce what I call my external
028hard drives because my memory was out. I don't have any more left. So, they carry a lot of the information. They carry a lot of important information that my my my hard drive no longer can can process. So this is Diana. She is our instructional our program coordinator. This is Michelle Frey Fry. Sorry, Michelle Fry. Uh she's our bilingual director. So you guys I'm excited about um our team this year. I'm excited about the work that we're going to get into and I'll talk a little bit about that here soon. Um, so today going to talk a little about the instructional advisory committee which was new to me and you have to bear with me. I'm also I'm super excited and I'm super nervous. So um I'm trying to >> nervous myself. It's a bit
029nervous. No, it's a bit nervous. >> I want I want I want all right. So the purpose um you know we have um basically a body of folks that um you know help support and advise the district leadership. Um you know it's a uh we provide sort of structured advice on curriculum design instructional practices and assessment strategies um to ensure that they support the district improvement plan. Um our work is about creating alignment between classrooms instruction uh district initiatives and uh long-term goals. Um and also ensures that decisions are grounded in data research and voices of educators and families which is something. So this is our sort of mission statement that we had. All right. objectives. Um there are um sort of several key responsibilities that we're responsible for. Um one of you know one
030of many is identifying and recommending areas of study, reviewing instructional programs and formally evaluating curriculum pilots. Um we ensure adoption processes are implemented fidelity and make recommendations to the board. And uh another role is sort of communication answer questions raised by staff um by community and sharing updates to keep all stakeholders informed. Ultimately the objective is to maximize learning. >> That's my AI drawing. >> All right. Structure I'll click this. I almost fell out of my chair. All right. All right. Um, okay. So, membership includes representation from uh several buildings. All the buildings have representation. Uh, and it also includes grade level representation, special education, bilingual um administrators uh to help sort of facilitate the meeting and everyone comes, they bring reports from their schools and they take the reporting back to their schools. Often
031times there's subcommittees that might be developed based on an instructional focus or content area, an adoption or an initiative such as maybe report card update or uh standards based. Um so and this really that that structure uh makes sure that we have representation you know from a range of perspectives, experiences and levels of expertise. We meet about two three times a year um and sub teams work between sub. All right. Yes. Okay. So, now we're do a little time here. All right. And I just want to provide this context and I do want to say this uh it's very important. Um I want to recognize uh Jan Ferris for all the work that she's done because as I was learning this and sort of processing these notes um it became that I already knew but
032it became even more um how brilliant she was in terms of trying to create this pathway for this district, for the students, for these teachers, for these families. Um and so that I just want to give her credit um for the work that she's done. And by no means is uh my goal is to evolve and enhance and continue, right? So she's done a lot of incredible work, especially during some very difficult times. All right. So um through 1819, a lot of these are based Also, um there's some of the notes that were taken during meetings. So, I just kind of compiled them and summarized just kind of the highlights of what happened, helped us understand kind of how we got here and for those who may new to some of the information all week.
033Um hopefully this either rings a bell, you know, things that you guys were part of or maybe give some understanding to kind of how we got where we're at. So, in 1819, um the some of the highlights were the uh standards based grading review process and lay the foundation for a better assessment alignment. Um they also worked to we also worked to align the curriculum with the adopted ELA program at that time. Um and then they also completed we also completed a needs assessment for social studies resources to determine gaps and priorities. Um and uh this kind of set the stage as the foundation of the pilot materials in 1920. We also know in 189 right things changed again another test to the work that was done. All right 1920 okay um again sort of
034a district-wide curriculum needs review across departments um mainly the major subject areas ELA math science social studies um there was world language arts and technology as well um essentially They wanted to we wanted to do a check in before the next round of pilots and adoptions. Um this included sort of gathering structured feedback from teachers uh to guide the adoption. Um the also prepared adoption recommendations for stakeholders and presented them for um my focus shifted back to social studies in uh 2122. The district implemented u what was known or is known as C3 college career and civic life uh as a framework for social studies. Uh they align curriculum instruction to national standards uh and strengthening inquiry based civic. Um they we evaluated existing curriculum uh for areas of improvement and conducted a thorough review
035ensuring alignment across K8 grade levels. And this was important year for ensuring consistency and equity across the schools as well. All right. 2223 we initiate discussions around a broader curriculum alignment and introduced the framework of college standards um which you know essential learning outcomes guide teach priorities. In addition, the committee completed a full evaluation of social studies resources again laying the groundwork for subsequent finance and 224 was about piloting new programs. We launched the magnetic reading pilot. Um the district launched a pilot of magnetic reading to basically strengthen literacy instruction that's happening and also provide teaching resources for comprehension vocabulary development. Um this was also in preparation for the shift from balance literacy to science approach now. Um social studies introduced a pilot to test instructional resources. Um and we launched a pilot of social
036of studies weekly um providing teachers with Illinois line resources to support based instruction for right um that was also the year that we began benchmark those are some of the great practices this was obviously supported by literacy all right last year Um this was my first year on the on the committee. Um and there we were there were a lot of adoptions that were in the process. Not a lot, there were a few adoptions within the process. We just um we're in our first year full implementation of magnetic reading. Um but a lot of the focus for the year um that we spent time on was really when we introduced uh the MTSS academic um and behavioral teams which um drove a lot of the work outside it but came through that um but it
037was in alignment to support the district improvement plan which were two goals one was goals one right all right um let's see uh so the academic team focused on interventions and tried to establish a process for evaluating interventions and then the behavioral team develop district and schoolwide management And that was by DeAndre great work. Um uh and so together these efforts sort of allowed us to integrate academic and regular interventions to a all right. So I got to say this too. Um I am I it's been a long time since I've been this excited about a job and the work that's happening. Um, and again, this is building off of a foundation that was set strong um before I was here. And this is all a testament to the work that uh everyone has done,
038right? From Dr. Woods to uh Allison to Tom Jen to Chris as well as uh principles to teachers like coming here, we were just talking about this earlier, has been such an an incredible start to a new beginning for me. because we have amazing amazing students. We have incredible teachers. We have phenomenal leaders. Um and my take disagree is that the problems that exist right now for us exists everywhere. Number one, which doesn't make it okay. I think for years we said, hey, this is happening to everybody, right? Not here, but a lot of places. So it's not just us. It's okay, right? Everybody's house is on fire. So we'll burn together. But I think in a way I think I'm excited because we have a lot of components in place to really change that
039and to shift. Um, and I'll talk a little bit about that. But I don't think it's I don't think where we're at is is the people that are here. There's no one here that is solely responsible for why, you know, we're in a situation where we're not getting outcomes from our students. Um, and having looked through the stuff that resources and coming from other districts. Um it's like we are at such a crucial time and we are ahead of the game in a way and I think we can be um we can set the stage for a lot of other districts in terms of how this so I'm extremely excited and hopeful. Um it's we got a lot of work ahead of us but um some of the work on the IC we're going to
040work on is really trying to secure the adoption process. I think previously we've had a process but it's kind of become staggered and a little disjointed over the years because um we got so much asset funding, we got so much title funding all those years. We purchased a lot of resources and you know did a lot of professional development which set the stage right now for us actually now work you know um one of the other things I'm really excited about is updating the current report cards um to most importantly make them more meaningful for our um and more useful for our teachers. I think uh the intent of what what's been created and again this is not a rant tool thing this is across the board. Um, the intent of it is is is
041understood, but I don't think it really does a service to our families in terms of having them understand what really is going on with their students. There are some folks like, can we just go back to A's and B's and we moved away from that because it didn't really provide parents with any information either. So, I think an opportunity for us to sit down and review our report cards with that lens of this is really for our balance, right? We have our own information data to make decisions on um and have being a parent and educator I I can see the value from both sides but looking at a parent sometimes things that we're sharing with them it's not user friend they can't really understand it so it's not mean they can't help they can't
042support so that's one of the other goals we're going to take on um and then also right now we're currently um in the process of implementing a new It's an updated instructional literacy framework and this year we're implementing it. So my goal is next year our goal next year is to do this uh same thing with the map um build it this year so we can try to implement it next year. So that's sort of the future. Um the uh framework is really designed to provide vision for reading um writing and instruction across all the grade levels. Um you know I think our main goal is the same way that we our intent was the way that we restructured the schools. Um the reason that this instructional framework was developed is to support that so
043that there's more collaboration amongst and between teachers. Um, it also allows for um our teachers and our staff to work with students where they're at, which I think has been a real challenge for a lot of our teachers um because of what our students um have missed and this is no fault of anyone. It's just the way the system instruction set up. So, our hope is to change that the instructional framework um and uh Yeah, that's going um and so I think the implementation this this instructional framework and the shifting of schools has been a huge shift and change for our teachers and I empathize with them wholeheartedly but they have been incredible right in terms of um taking this on and I know they're going to need support from you all from us to
044ensure that they have the time and the space to learn how to do this really well. Um, which is also another reason why we want to shift the adoption process because it takes five to six years to really figure out an adoption is right for our students. So, all right. So, new is really about um implementation of literacy framework. We're also working on aligning to multi-tered systems of support which is the way that we meet students needs. Um and then also uh leadership development and lastly I think one of the most important things uh increased opportunity for teachers to collaborate and >> so our lovely lady behind So, what um will our plan do to help our students that are struggling? >> I'm going to try to answer this and please feel free to jump
045in. Um so, one of the things that we have looked at is our um phonics instruction like the students actually learning the code um and how we're addressing that is because this is really about equity and I about we have we have students that come from very different backgrounds and this conversation right and the idea is these students are coming with their own cultural val that the schools are really built on white middle class values and that's not a bad thing it's just that is the standard right and so when you're Everyone has to arrive at that or else something's wrong with you. Um, it creates a dynamic. It's very challenging for our students, challenging for our families, and challenging for our teachers. So, a lot of what we're addressing is looking at this through
046language comprehension and word recognition. I come from a background where my dialect, not now, when I'm not around you, is very different than it is here. Right. And I think what's been messaged intentionally and unintentionally is that there's something wrong with you if you don't understand or speak. And what I love about Rant is we have, you know, working class white families, working class black families, working class Latino families, and all of them come with their own language, their own dialect. And learning white middle class language is a challenge for them because it's different. But we're telling them there's something wrong with you to a certain extent. Not intentionally, but subliminally that there's something wrong with you because you don't speak this way because this is the right way versus this is just different. Um
047I work with psychologist um speak to talk about she's frame it's difference not and trying to shift our teachers to understanding that about our students um and themselves I think is going to help with this because we have to work with the students where they're at and they bring a ton ton ton of intelligence and skills uh to the classroom. So the way we block out the schedule now is our teachers focus time to really really hone in on language development for these students which ties in everything we're doing with our bilingual programs. It values um the dialects that come from white workingass families workingass families workingass families. values that brings that into the learning environment so that they can make connections to this. So that's the theoretical sort of vision of this the structural
048vision. I don't know if you want to add anything to it. >> Um I'll just add that like the piece he's that he covered the language piece. The other piece that he hasn't talked about is the word recognition piece and that's what all of us know as is phonics. um regardless of where a child comes to us in Randol wherever they are reading at they will receive instruction at that level. So rather than being instructed at their grade level if that is not the skill that they need they will be instructed at the level that they are ready to learn next. Um because through brain science we've learned in the last 30 years that phonics and the way that brains develop the ability to read is very sequential and very systematic. Um and so we
049cannot jump ahead and just hope that they catch up by being exposed to um material that is further along in what we call the scope and sequence of skills. um they have to truly master every skill along the way in order to become proficient at the end. >> So they have to learn B right before you see and so I think that's a key thing that we have been missing because I think the the understanding was before was like you know retention is bad so you don't want to hold kids back but this isn't about grad this is literally about a set of skills that you have to have and children cannot decode. School in any subject in any area and life is going to be extremely challenging for them. And this is not because
050these kids have disabilities or because they have language barriers. It's because we have not figured out yet how to make connection. I think that's going to be part and that's really an integrity lens that we have through this. Um but it's also about building teacher capacity. So they how to do that because I was a fifth grade teacher. So when I got kids that didn't know how to read, I didn't know how to teach them how to read because I, you know, I was teaching them hopefully to read to learn not to learn. And so I think that focus for us and that's how going to make some difference because I think that's what she was speaking to is when you get a it's a middle school, right? And they can't do. Thank you for
051pointing that out that um that our students are trying to meet an expectation as you mentioned. Um I didn't personally see that until um we had the discussion of our um English second language learners and we had a large group came in and they were explaining to us how schools work in um Hispanic cultures and how are always in the schools constantly and there's just a big different cultural shift about it than there is in white working class or white middle class schools. >> Um so I really appreciate you know explaining that. >> I have one more question and then >> um what is your metrics for me success? >> Great question. >> Um so we're going to use a few things. I mean we have builtin benchmark assessments that we use that we purchased
052um within our already curriculum which is high rating. So they're we're going to measure students ability to grow along that continuum and see how they're progressing. That's one of the measurements um bridge but >> yeah so there are three main care like categories for assessments. Um there's the benchmark assessment and every child takes that and the purpose of that assessment is to give the educators an insight into how that child is progressing toward grade level normed AC national norms across the um curriculum. Um and so they take that three times a year. The other test that they take three times a year is a screener and we use fast bridge for that. And the purpose of that assessment is simply to just raise a flag like Hey, there might be a problem here. You need
053to dig a little further. And when that flag gets raised, then the educators will do what is called a phonics diagnostic. And they that test is truly to pinpoint what skills they have and what skills they're ready to learn next. Um and so all three of those tests are given three times a year. Um the metrics that we're using this year is we are looking for one full year's worth of growth from every single child regardless of where they start. We are looking for one full year from where they come to us. >> And and I think that is sort of to counter this lens of we were trying to intervene our way out of everything. We're trying to do all this accelerated learning. But when you have such a large population students that are
054not at benchmark, again, not their fault, not the teachers fault by no This is no fault to anyone. This is just the way the system instructions been. They've been pushed through. And so our goal is to say, can we develop a system instruction that ensures every student makes one years grow? So let's say, right, we got students that are coming from preK that never had any social interaction outside students, right? They're coming in not as far along as students who have had that opportunity. So for them to be at the same space at the end of kindergarten, they may learn how to socialize that and be exposed to something. But if if we can make sure that they get to the end of, you know, start of kindergarten, first grade and first grade, second grade,
055third grade, middle school will only have students that are a year maybe a year and a half apart for at least 80% of our students. Like that is the lens that we have right now. We have they have to make the years. That's what we have to figure out. We're going to put things in place to measure and see if our system instruction is working. It's not a measurement of teachers, not a measurement of curriculum or students yet. Right now measure what does the system need? We need to change our need to change the structure. So those measurements will play out and then we'll compare right each benchmark to last and then look at so each child based on their own individual. Okay, the thing about that is, okay, they're going to get older. They're
056going to be going up a grade more than likely. >> What if they don't succeed? What if they don't learn? We What are we doing to make sure they learn? >> Yeah, it's a great question. I think our job is to ensure that we are making that happen. It should. If the system's working, the system is working. 80% of the kids will make it. It just I mean that's just that's just how how it always has progressed. The problem we're going to struggle with is okay so what do we do about the 10% and the 5% that don't right 15 and 5% that don't but the students will progress. We will not allow students to continue to move on. We can't code like we have to get them through that code and some of the
057things we put in place when our teachers have the capacity and the ability to make sure that they teach the kids the code. A lot of our teachers didn't even know what the Not a lot of our teachers, some of our teachers, especially when you look at intermediate teachers like myself, have students in third grade, fourth grade, and they didn't I did not know anything about that sequence um in terms of teaching a student how to read. If I had known that, I thought, oh, okay, now I know what to do. And as we're learning more about the science of reading, I think our teachers are starting to understand that as well. And so, I think that's how we're going to show you we get the kids to go, then you're not going to you're
058not going to have There are some like very intentional systems put in place this year um with progress monitoring to make sure that students were not waiting until those bigger benchmark times to see like oh this child is not making the progress that we anticipated. >> Um if a child if a teacher is noticing that a child is not progressing the way that their peers are um progress monitoring is initiated and so then they are monitored weekly to make sure that they are making those progress and there are like week cycles that every child is going to go through to make sure that we're getting the supports put in place for that child to be learning. >> So that's like a bi-weekly assessment. Say, "Hey, okay." >> Oh, you're doing it bi-weekly. You're not doing
059it like every three >> for students who are struggling. Yes. >> Okay. So, you're you're you're monitoring that. Now, how long have we been doing this? This isn't the first year, right? >> This is the first year. >> So, this is the first year. So we don't have nothing to measure it off of as of yet. >> Oh, but I will bring you updates. I promise you that I would love to come back and I think you know this was focused much more on the IA, but I would love to come back and share with you more about um our structural framework, but I want to also implement it so we can share with you how it's going. Um and we're still getting feedback from our teachers, our principles. This is new. It's not the
060stuff that we're doing is not new. the half, right? I think that's a huge huge opponent for our teachers. I think that's when I talk to them, they they're whether it's their words or their actions or their behaviors, they're like, we just don't know what to do to help the students. And some of that comes because of the the lack of um understanding cultural relevance that's involved for all of our students. This isn't just a black thing or Latino. This is also working class rural students, white students who are also I don't understand why why these words are in this order or what this sound is at the end of this word because I don't hear it at home. Right? Sharon before that, you know, we grew up and it's like you don't hear. I
061don't I don't hear at home. You hear in you know run in and that's not just a black thing. That is right everybody. But when you have never heard that sound and you're supposed to look at it and see it and speak it, it doesn't make sense. So you are struggling and I think that's the hard part. We're talking about cultural relevance, not ability. These students are being put into special education or they're getting put into an intervention block, but it has nothing to do with their has to do with the structure and the way we're teaching them and what we're missing. So that's part of it >> and all I wanted to mention was uh thank you for pointing out the systemic issues >> um with instruction and how our kids are learning. Also,
062what I'm hearing from parents and community members, they're uh concerned a little bit about AI and the use of it in instruction and getting the teachers more involved in interacting with the teaching instead of sitting behind a desk >> and the kids sitting in front of a computer. >> And so I know I ready my grandkids, you remember, you know it from St. M.U. They've been doing I Ready for like three, four years and I don't think they're doing it eighth grade now. >> Okay. And so I'm a little bit familiar with that, but can you address how you're going to interact the um them with the computers if it's going to be more teacher involvement one-on-one etc. So some of it is also part of the shift and I'll let Dian speak more she's
063way more of an expert but some of it is shifting from balance literacy approach to the science of reading the balance approach you have a lot of students in centers >> and they are engaging in activities independent right um and so only six students are at the table that the reading group um and so you will see teachers sitting in one space or kids are out there sometimes by default manage the other 18 kids in the classroom. Said, "Hey, why don't you get on your Chromebook and you can work on this program, this, you know, reading program and this writing program." Um, and so they did that was an adaptation that was in need based on the system instruction. Um, I won't say a whole lot, but I'm going to let you say you'll this
064is where I tap into my external arts. So we have moved away from that structure um in the way that instead of one teacher planning for six groups of students and teaching them at their at a small table um we are now grouping students across the grade level by need um so that the teacher can do a a teacher le instruction for a longer period of time because the students all need the same thing. It's not a level. It's just it's like on a continum. I think people get so confused like, "Oh, you're putting all the low kids here and the high." No, no. When you're talking about that, >> just the word recognition piece, >> the phonics >> to be able to decode, you have to learn this to learn this, to learn this,
065to learn this. So, if I'm a group um that, and I'll give you an example, in a third grade classroom or even a second grade classroom, you can have students that are need to learn letter sounds. >> Yep. All the way to reading at high school level, right? They just you have that. And so I have pockets of those. So I have to meet those students needs. The way the structure was designed before was I would meet with each group separately. Well, we know the important kids are the not they're all important, but we always focus on students who needed right to learn how to decode. And so the students were reading at grade level like hey you go read a book you know you work with this student so and and then there were
066students they didn't get to meet with because you were prioritizing in a short amount of time and I don't think our families or our community understands the structure of how kids were learning it wasn't that we were doing something bad was the best way we thought to provide small group instruction but what we realized is that these kids when it comes to word recognition they have to have these things so if we group them and let's say I'm going to work with kids that need, you know, beginning blends and Dian's going to work with kids that need >> Diagrams. Thank you. Right. Right. But now because across the first grade, I have a classroom of students that probably are here and I have a classroom students that are probably here, but if I'm the teacher
067in one classroom and I have all all those kids, how am I going to meet all of their needs in that short amount of time? So, this is not tracking kids. This is about especially when it comes to work recognition. They have to have these skills. So we are going to provide that which is why the structure is perfect because now they don't just have two teachers. They have four, five, six. And as we get better at it, it'll be nicer because we'll have bilingual teachers working with monolingual teachers learning strategies about how to meet the needs of because all of our students to a certain extent are learning to become bilingual, bicultural because they're all learning like And we don't want to be article I just read 80% of third graders in a school
068district in Alabama failed reading. They could not progress. >> 80% 5,000 students and we don't want that in our district. >> If this is something you're interested in, I highly recommend listening to the podcast Sold the Story. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> It's called Sold the Story and there's I don't know they keep coming out with new um of it. But it is well worth your time to understand where we've been and what we know now about the brain science of behind how a human acquires a skill of reading. >> And all of this is going to be data driven. So we will look at data and we will decide and say hey this is where they're at. This is what they need. Um and and you know this is not guesswork anymore. This is
069just hey and it's not putting it off on one teacher. This is going to be a collaborative process with all the teachers saying here are the students we have you who who wants these kids who wants these kids who want these things and the teachers will take it because they know exactly now I have the curriculum and the resources and the focus for the group of students in front of me. Whereas before I had curriculum that was the second grade but I had kids that needed a lot more and kids that needed a lot. Okay. >> Will this new way of teaching and learning um help discover kids that have issues? >> I mean, it's no different. I mean, yes, absolutely. Because the data again is going to show, and this kind of gets to
070Mr. Moto's point, is that when the kids not progressing like they if they're showing us that they can't make a year's growth, then we start to intervene intermediate. If you're not starting to make that growth, we're monitoring you bi-weekly. We need to change something. >> Go ahead. >> Um, my daughter, um, she's dyslexic, but she we had to tell her teacher and they were like, "No, I don't think she has great grades and this is where she is at." >> Okay. >> But she is. >> So, I was just wondering if this type of thing >> would help identify >> that type of thing or maybe not because they're learning >> test. >> Yes, it will >> for dyslexia >> at a certain grade. >> I don't think so. >> Yes, we have screeners in
071kindergarten. >> Yeah, we do screen for dyslexia. >> Yes. >> For symptoms of dyslexia. And that is like a recent mandate. I think as of like two years ago, I think Illinois came out with that. >> Wasn't I think it was like two years ago Illinois put out a like all school districts have to have a dyslexia screener in K1. >> Okay. >> Um and it's like symptoms of dyslexia. So it could it could just raise a flag that they have not had um like adequate prerequisite skills like you know driving and blending and all that. But it could also indicate that there is more of an issue there. >> Okay. >> They're not taking on learning. >> Yeah. In the same way. Yeah. >> All right. >> I'm sure there might be more questions.
072>> Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Andre >> 10 minutes. Deandre and I are going to do this in 10 minutes. >> Timer's on. >> Now I'm talking. Jamie is doing really well. >> Okay. Um, so this is DeAndre Henderson. He is the director of alternative programs, also one of Champagne County's latest 40 under 40 honories. I was told by the news that I could announce that tonight. So congratulations. >> And it's for his work here, ladies and not for something else. All right. So, uh, what we're going to do real quick is, uh, review the 2425 aggregated discipline data. Uh, Yandre is going to talk about the work that he did with the MTSS behavior team, uh, last year and then what, uh, the district is working on uh, primarily under Champ's direction. So,
073I get to do the graphs and charts. All right. So, looking at the data, overall exclusionary discipline data has increased. Um, total discipline referrals decreased over one year, but they've been flat over two years. Uh, one of our concerns that stands out is that our black students continue to disproportionately be represented in exclusionary discipline. However, um, we are seeing that decrease. Um, so to give you some, believe me, I'm not going through all the data that we have. Um, but this is one of the metrics to look is your exclusionary discipline and really looking at out of school suspensions because out of school suspension offenses tend to be things that are more objective, right? A fight is more likely to result in out of school suspension. So, uh you want to see if uh you're
074reducing the number of out suspensions. The other issue with exclusionary discipline is uh kids miss school and they miss learning. So you always we always have a goal of reducing out of school suspension. So the good news is um is that last year we reduced from the prior year where we were at 455 incidents that resulted in suspension um and last year it was down to 276 um total discipline referrals. So 2324 was a banner year for writing referrals, but we are back down to where we were about two years ago. By banner year, I mean good. Um, one of the things I always want to explain to I explain to parents, teachers, board members is a discipline referral is documentation of a behavior concern. And the standard that is applied is if the student
075has to be removed from class for their behavior, there should be a discipline referral entered. Um or if the student I said has to be removed from or if the student leaves class without permission, that would be the other one where we're going to document with a discipline referral. It does not mean that last year we gave 4340 discipline consequences. Okay. Um that it is a method of And the reason I'm only going back to 2223 is prior to 2223 we were not entering anything other than we were not entering all discipline referrals into Skyward. So we didn't have a standard system of tracking discipline across the district. So that we started doing uh all the schools in 22 23. Um suspension incidents by race. So uh the troubling thing I mentioned earlier is still
076that uh black students are disproportionately suspended from school. The positive though is that the overall reduction in suspensions is actually uh a greater reduction a greater reduction rate happening among our black students. Um so last year we had um of the gosh what's the total number? it was 200 something. But our black students are still much more likely to be suspended um than uh non-white students, excuse me, than non-white students. But as the overall number of suspensions decreases, we also want to see that the um the rate within the African-American or black populations also decreases. So that's actually decreasing at a higher rate uh than our other uh student groups. Oh, there's that was the next chart. So as you can see, as an example, um the the percentage of suspensions that go to white
077students has actually increased over the last three years. That's not a goal, by the way. Um but you one group has to go up in order for another group to go down and when you're talking about percentages. So it's the combination of the reduction in this percentage line for African-American students and the prior slide which is there's actually just less suspensions. Um so what that means overall less kids whether they're white or black are are missing school because of the behavioral. Um so suspensions by type. Um I don't I'm not at all trying to paint a picture that our students behave every day. That is not true. Uh we have an ongoing job of working with kids who um are good kids but make bad choices. Um and so what you have to look at
078is each of these is a teaching moment, right? When we have one of these disciplinary pearls, but the same five things have really been there. And I actually they go back further. Uh but it is I think a positive to see that 23 24 25 uh the physical aggression and biting which are the number one reasons for students to be suspended from school. We did also see a big reduction in those. Um the bottom three disruption and physical verbal aggression is a category all disruption which is the third category that tends to be the most subjective category um because one person's ability to tolerate something as different from others. But uh if that was our number one reason for suspensions, I would be more concerned about that. Um so that might be it. Now also
079we have to talk about the when we talk about intervening for reading. Um it's the same thing when we talk about behavior and uh we have to teach students skills. So I think this is an important slide especially when we talk about all this. So, um, referrals. So, we're taking all of the referrals. That's just a documented behavior of our students last year that were enrolled. 1,025 had none. So, we got to remember that. So, that's the that's twothirds of our kids. There were no one. Um, and then there's 655 that had at least one. But then of those, it kind of grows. So altogether 72% of our students had zero or one disl I put that in the category of kids make bad choices. Um I had to tell myself that at least but
080one of the things that we have is you also see on the range of students who get referrals most kids got one but we had a kid who got 84 right um and so that that also then starts to skew the data and I put it into ciles just to give you a visual um in that so we took the students who had at least one referral. Okay. And there what this is showing here is cortilele four which is um where did I put that 9.7% of our students made up 73.3% of all the disciplinary girls. So it might have been a better visual to do a pyramid but um it's it's almost like increasing levels of intensity of support that we're going to need to have for those students. student had 84. You can
081I can also tell you that student had multiple suspensions. Um even though most students don't get suspended. Uh most students that get suspended get suspended only once. Um but we then do have some students um 3.1% of our students have more than one out of school suspension. Good news is we have not had an exculsion from the district in two years. And part of that is the work that Andre does. And I took 10 minutes just on the data. I'm sorry. All right. So, we're not talking about today. We're talking about the district improvement plan and the NTSS behavior committee. So, the MTSS behavior committee started this school year and it ran all school year as part of kind of us trying to work on the specific goals that Scott had set in the plan.
082So, we sent emails out to all staff and there were everybody in the was able to join this committee to work on behavior um to work on the behavior management plan for these schools. Um we had you know fluctuated attendance from probably 10 to 25 at a certain time. Um we had makeup school psychologist, social workers, teachers, administrators. Um I think we had a TA that was kind of in and out. So we tried to let get representation from everyone to work on this committee fors. So the reasoning was know started some work and surveying the staff to see exactly what it is that their concerns were, what the needs were we had at the district. And one of the big things came out with is consistency and behavior management. And we know that consistency
083and behavior management has to start inside the classroom um so that we can get consistency and the consequences that come out of that behavior management. So one of the big things that I get to see working in my capacity at rise but also more more so is that I get to see every single school building that gets suspended and sent to me. Um, so I can kind of see who is suspending kids, what they're they're coming repeatedly, what schools are coming from the classroom and then talk to the kids and I get to get, you know, feel for what the kids are saying are going on in their classrooms. Um, and so some of those inconsistencies within classroom where you're seeing kids getting suspended a lot or kids getting sent out a lot. and classroom
084management is a big issue that we have that we have to solve to be able to then respond effectively as administrators. So we started off the work with disagregating the data. Um we reviewed all the classroom management plans by school. Um so we took every single school of junior high and every single elementary school. We said bring in your classroom management plans that you already have. We looked at them. found the big ideas in each of those and we kind of disagregated the data to find common commonalities between the schools so that we could come up with some consistencies in the classroom. Um then we reviewed the school management plans um and then after we kind of found the consistency we found the format which kind of took a little bit of each of the
085plans that was already in place and put them together so that we could have consistent format. So starting this school year each school has a consistent format in each of their classrooms for classroom management plans and that was done through this committee um by the end of the year. So what a classroom management plan looks like is it's broken down into areas where we talk about what you know the routines and procedures will be for um each of their teachers. Now that does not school has the exact same routines and procedures. That does not mean each classroom has the exact same routines and procedures. What that does mean is they all have routines and procedures and they are written down and this is what it looks like for each and every classroom so that we
086can hold ourselves accountable but also it's more sort of reflection tool for the teachers so that they're able to see you know this is what I'm going to do am I doing it checking check so this isn't new for most of our teachers they had to do classroom management plans the new thing is the consistent um structure in which the classroom management Um, then we're working on developing a fidelity check. We actually% done with that. I just have to put it into a format that's usable because when we did it over the summer, we have like 70 questions on fidelity check and that's not usable for an admin to walk in and see, do you have? So, we're working through that, but the fidelity checks will take place this year where admin will be able
087to do walkroughs in classrooms to check to make sure that parts of the classroom management plan are being place proactively instead of reactively. A lot of times the question comes after the fact. You know, we're having these issues with this kid all the time and now we're having the conversations about why are you doing this? Are you doing this? Are you doing this? Now, we can check that beforehand and uh before it gets to the pro to the point to where you know the teacher set up the student or student set up with the teacher, we can talk about those classroom management processes that they're going through ahead. And that's what the fidelity check will do. Um key components are uh we're definitely using evidence based strategy. Uh this district has focused has spent money
088on conscious discipline responsive classroom. So we didn't want to get rid of that. So in this plan it uses conscious discipline and responsive classroom language. We are all of our new teachers are trained in uh restored or responsive classroom right now. Conscious discipline u is still we have a lot of teachers in district who are trained in that. So um our has both of those components in it so that we didn't go away from what teachers already knew, what teachers were already good at and what teachers what was working for teachers. We also use components of restorative practices. We do believe restorative practices helped to repair harm and helps um for our students to be able to really reflect like Scott was saying on those teachable moments that every behavior is a teachable moment. That's
089what we believe at Rise. I know that's what a lot of our um elementary and middle schools believe that this is the perfect And the best way to do that is to resto um these are the areas that we talk about in there. Daily routines and procedures, rituals and traditions, classroom agreements, scholar accountability, proactive management consequences, family communication, and fidelity checks. One thing I want to talk about is consequences. Um consequences does not necessarily mean um negative punitive consequences, right? Every behavior has a consequence whether positive or negative. So we made that in our We talk about positive consequences. What are we doing when students are doing the right thing? What are we doing when students are following the expectations? Are we giving them positive praise, positive rewards for that behavior as well as focusing
090on the behavior that is unexpected? So, the consequences can go both ways. Um, looking ahead, trying to go faster. >> Continuing for 2425. Um, so we are culture climate. So this be did that 25 26. So now we're going to move into the behavioral interventions implementation. So this is like the tier two. So what I just talked about with class management plan is tier one. So now we're looking at tier two. What do we do for those kids that are still struggling after those tier one interventions have been put in place and we've exhausted those. So when we talk about tier two, we talk about, you know, what resources do we have at the school level for that 10% of students that are getting those um multiple referrals, right? That the the tier one interventions
091are not working for. Now, one thing I can say of working in MTSS and working in districts is tier 2 behavioral interventions are not great right now. Um there's not a lot there's there's very limited um options out there for tier 2 behavioral intervention. Um and so what we want to do is find the ones that are the best suited for us um the best have the most effectiveness so that we can implement those fidelity. So that's what a lot of the work of our committee will be doing this year. Um, you know, we have a forward certified behavioral an analyst who will be a very integrations are we choosing to use universally across the school when kids are not meeting those tier one expectations. Um, and then the universal social emotional screener. We already
092have a universal social emotional screener. It's called My savers um we are going to be looking at that. Um my savers has its drawbacks. Um we work with the University of Illinois, the department of psychology and I'm working with someone specifically who works in trauma informed emotional or social emotional screeners. Um and we kind of analyze it and the questions that are going on um in in there and what we're asking kids and how much does it really give us and is it really being is the data we're getting from this screener actually helpful. Um, and if you guys are interested, I can walk you through sometime what that screener looks like. It's I think 11 questions. It's very short. It kind of gives you your red flags based on how you answer on a
093liker type scale from zero to four, zero to five. Um and so and the questions are sometimes kind of wording kind of. Um so we're going to be looking at that screener to see if there is a better option that will give us some more information, some more data to be able to drive those interventions for those tier 2. [Applause] I will say there's a lot to do and so far we've only had four days of school, but things are going very well except I'm not making a joke, but we're having some struggles again with kindergarten and we're putting some resources there. But um but yeah, I think overall things are items. >> Oh boy. >> Uh the only one I wanted to highlight was Oh gosh. So hopefully you got a chance to see
094that handle with care. That's a program we're going to do with Springfield Police Department that they brought to us um after we expressed some concerns to them about kind of not knowing what's going on. So uh in the coming weeks the uh Tasha Salver the social worker is going to be visiting our schools and explaining the program to teachers so that we can get information from RPD about situations our students may have been involved in but also being confidential about that. Um that's the main idea on that one. Um the district committees and meetings if you are the one hand um and I'm going off the first one um because I thought really hard I actually wrote a lot of stuff down on that. What's the confidential part of it and who's actually getting information
095and it's kind of going back to sort of what we talked about earlier. Um, police is automatically going to give someone at the city school this information only that a child was involved in a police contact. We don't know if it was a um, so the idea what we're trying to capture is we've always really been informed if a kid is involved directly in committing a crime. >> Okay. But this is about Let's say um there was a domestic violence situation in a child's home and the child uh is then documented in that police report. That's what's going to happen. >> Okay? >> And then all we're going to get from the police literally is Moto Johnson handled with care. That's all the police are going to tell us. Okay? And then we know that
096something happened and we just to be aware that maybe this child needs some additional support. There was a situation that happened yesterday, >> last night with a few of the high school kids. >> The high school kids went into the high school this morning and all three kids was blasted out by two administrators about the situation that happened with the with the Ramp Police Department. Not only did the um It was non-conidential. It was in front of other kids and by time the uh middle of the day lunch hour majority then half the school already knew what was going on. So where's the confidentiality and where's the legality of protecting these kids for whatever reason they have some type of contact with the police department. So, and I don't know what happened in B High
097School. >> Well, I'm saying what are we going to do to make sure that don't happen here, >> right? >> I'll deal with that part. >> So, we we're um the conversations that I've had with um I know she tries more official title, but I just call her Pasha um as well as her supervisor Christina is that we do if they have concerns about our ability to handle the confidential information, they will stop the program. So if we the the way it's structured is it's the classroom teacher that has the student the building principal or assistant principal one of them school social worker and the school nurse those are the four people that would be informed >> right >> um and they're not supposed to be informed in details but if our staff that's why
098also Tasha steal talked to our staff like when you hear this this is how you're supposed to respond which is really don't do You just need to be aware. Um, yeah, I think that if we if for some reason we had a problem with our staff maintaining that confidentiality, um, they would they would they would continue to do it. >> Yeah. Reading reading it and going through it last day and a half um, and getting input from, you know, other people on on that's able to read it. I understand what you're trying to do and I didn't and before last night I actually didn't see nothing wrong with >> but um I didn't know because I know if I had kids that went to city school you're talking about kids you're know you're talking about
099minors you know um kids are going to do things that's going to put themselves in bad situation sort of like you said earlier >> and this is more about us trying be more informed that this child's been exposed to some kind of problem. >> Okay. Not that child has committed a crime. >> Yeah. And that's and that's why when I was read through that I you actually stated that situation to where it was more geared towards protecting it. the law now anyway the police don't share much >> anyway with us because the law is pretty restrictive on well that's what I thought you know and I talked to a few people it today because I [Music] said what the high school did was completely wrong and if it was done you know it was done
100but I just didn't want to happen third grade or fourth gradition, Nobody will have any information, right? >> I mean, we'll get the old fashioned fine. So, >> but my question is, um, if I'm not mistaken, Tasha Salt, whatever her name is, and Deputy Chief Reef Stack, they formed that four grand tool program with the police department. We have student resource officers in the schools. What is their role and how can they be used as a conduit for this program and is it outlined in their duties, job duties? Because I did not see it in the contract. >> The procedure on handle with care is that it's actually officer craft that will be the one contacting the school. >> Okay. Because I was say they are police officers. So um it will be through him.
101And I don't think that was clear. I didn't see anything mentioned about the student resource officer being involved. >> That might not always be that officer, but the intent of the police is that Caleb's at work that he's the one doing it. >> Okay. Okay. And just and you clarified that one of the questions when I first read it, not your not seeing your PowerPoint, the email. I was was curious if it was going to target behaviors, especially negative. If there was some uh adverse type of police report, don't want the kids targeted for behavioral issues uh that might you think might spill over into the school which could cause them to be profiled and or moved over to um RICE because of quote potential behavior issues. So, as long as there's no profiling or
102anything like that going on with this or it will be used as a tool, >> then >> I think it's >> to help us understand why something might be wrong that day. >> Okay. [Music] >> That there's Oh, there was there were two things in there. Darn it. Um, so on my where do I have it written down? >> Sorry. Policy 280. We have to determine before the board can approve it. I remember where I um board policy 280. There is a sentence that is an optional sentence in the board member oath and conduct in the conduct part and the board is asked to consider. Uh should we add the sentence consult the board attorney for guidance when considering any type of disciplinary action or sanction against a board member? My recommendation would be that
103you would do that. >> Is there any reason should we have that sentence or not include that? Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, that's how I'll have it drafted for approval for next time. The other one was on board policy 450 payment procedures. Um, a few years ago, we modified this to allow the superintendent um to pay bills up to $5,000 without court approval under certain circumstances when they the company wouldn't take a pen. That's really the main thing. It doesn't come up much, but I'm recommending that we increase that to 10,000 and that's really just in case. But we also can leave it at 5,000. It's not going to bother. >> Wrong. Didn't we discuss this at one >> contract? That was for >> contracts. But under this, >> this is just to pay
104a bill. >> Bill. >> Yeah. >> Would the same principle cost? >> So, I'll put it up to 10,000. Again, I there's only a few times a year whatever comes up and I don't know that we've gone over by right that was it on the board policy so I'll reflect that on the committees please uh for sake of time email or text me or Robin if you would like to be on whichever committee we don't have to have board members on all these committees um but I know it's come up and board always has the option of being what do I call a board member had a nice title member leazison >> and I did not see a committee for NAPED or black history black heritage month um >> so that's a that's a staff
105committee right now and they are I can find out well one the person who's been leading it for the last few years no longer works for us so >> oh how was that >> that was Thompson >> oh yeah that's right >> so I've got to find out who's going to be in charge and I can let the board know to Okay. Um, that was it. Our information. >> Okay. New business. Anybody got new business? >> It's not really new business, but it's kind of new business. I wanted to bring up um a lot of issues, but I'm going try to bring it down to like one or two. one um the school crossing and I don't I'm not saying this is a district problem but it creates a problem when nobody knows where they
106can't um they need to be repainted there's I went through this whole scenario with with community this afternoon this morning. Um, North was one big one about the traffic that that they have um during drop off pick up. And um the problem is we got cars that are parked along that back end, that north side of the entrance where the buses go in. And cars are now sticking out so far waiting in line that we got people that can't go around. even if they're just going to Clark Street, you know, they got figure out a different way, different route, and those same people are just much hurry to get their kids from one school to another. Um, so I one of the things they they asked me if we can get to the village and
107see if we can't put a no parking sign during this time, you know, basically during the time of drop off and the pick up just from the uh north from the north side of that entrance where we go in the buses go and some dayare people go I said I don't see how that be a problem mostly it could be done I know that big branch I mean that thing was not only an dangerous and it blocked not only the road but it blocked the sidewalk people But I seen when I was there and at the time I was there wasn't officed. in the schools. Um, and the other part that they were worried about, they said when you had the crosswalk person walking uh the kids east and west, there's nobody walking north and
108south and some kids are slipping slipping through or going through and they're getting in between these cars and trying to run between these cars while cars are trying to pass. wanted me to bring that up so we be aware of that. And also the kids that slip through while that you know that guard the teacher whoever's doing the crossing is busy when the buses turn around in that loop. Kids are still walking. Sometimes buses are looking watched where kids got hit. So I told her that bring that to our attention on the east side of that road which like I said this is all the when they're coming out those people don't stop at all across the we not on that east side but at least on that west Why? And I know we don't
109we can't pick and choose where they sit, but ranch police used to sit there. We don't have we don't see police >> where >> on kids in school. >> Yeah, I see them every morning. >> I don't know. >> I have go through there to go to my son's school. So, yeah, they're all there. >> Yeah. >> Right where the the crosswalk is right here. Right. >> Okay. I can believe it. I don't know. >> And after school, they're parked >> back right there. >> She she told me that there's no police at all. >> I see that. >> And I just told her that I would mention it. And then the very last thing, and then again, this is nothing that I think the school district has any any say. So those cars when
110they're going parking or lining up, they're blocking off people trying to get in and out. And same thing, this mother said, "How can I go get my kids when I can't even get out of my own driveway?" So those are just a few things today. There's a few different things, but I can bring that We need a delegate for our Chicago school boarding job. >> I can't let you know that >> he's volunteering. >> He's recruiting. >> Yes. It's very interesting that you learn a lot. You get to vote on stuff >> for us. Everybody put that on. [Music] >> Yeah. I just have something for superintendent. >> No, I don't. >> Um I wanted to know if we could post Mr. slides to our website. >> I'll put them in >> just so that
111the public can see them. Um, and then >> and I'll put mine >> I have um just to let our eighth grade kids um and parents know if your kids thinking about college um the state streamlined the application process for um safe state safe public universities. It's all on one portal now and it's really easy to go in put your information in. So, um, if your kids thinking about college after high school, check that out. >> I think I accident >> and then the other thing is um, just so we can streamline the process of these meetings, if you guys know of something beforehand that you have I think Scott sent out an email um that you want to talk extra time about or um um you know just bring it to our attention so
112we can plan for that ahead of time so we already have it pulled out and then they can talk about >> and what do you mean by that? I don't how you lost >> like if there's something in the consent agenda or um >> you have something else that you want to pull out and discuss pull out of the consent. >> Yeah. Or something like that. >> Let us know if you can business. It was It wasn't any new business. >> Well, you're going to have an opportunity to discuss all of this next month. >> That's right. And I've got my list going >> uh for Mr. And maybe I should send that to him ahead of time, >> but I have one comment I just want to um clarify. Last board meeting, and I'll
113make this quick, I emphasized and was talking about non-discrimination, and that has to do with the racism free school law that took effect August 1 of last year. Uh school districts have until the uh 31st of July of 26 to have all of their staff trained in racism free schools. I did do some polling uh with other districts. I called uh even the high school and was told that yes, they're aware of it and they already have sent email to their staff and they will be trained by mid um September. Um, this also addresses and this is all uh this will all be collected by the state the data on reports of racism, harassment, retaliation, bullying, all of that. Uh they are looking at this and making it serious and taking it serious because the
114level of bullying and discrimination in our schools that are being reported and um so this training Dr. Woods and I talked about it. Uh he received it mid July, late July and they're looking at a timeline and Mr. Roundtree uh as the non-discrimination officer, compliance officer for the district. >> There you go. >> Okay. Um will be involved in implementing the training with the staff and hopefully it will be done um definitely by the deadline if not sooner. It's been assigned to all staff and >> it it has been >> By October 31st. Okay, that's your deadline. I think the high school was September 16th, I was told. So, okay. And um I have put information I've got it prepared. I just haven't posted it um on Facebook so parents are aware um because that's
115been one of the concerns and I've been involved with a couple of parents and it's been a history of uh discriminatory discriminatory practices and allegations and uh for years even when I was in high school we had conflicts uh we had issues uh and the dynamics have changed I believe I talked to Mr. Before it was just black and white students fighting and having um racial u now we've got blacks, Latinos, Hispanics and whites and there's conflicts and we just need to get a better handle of it and have a safe environment and inclusive environment in our schools in these walls. And it's led by us. We've got to set the tone. That's all I have to say. >> Anybody else? >> I do. >> Okay. Superintendent wider of this. I was concerned about how
116schools been shoot all the new steps we had added all the new saw. Credit goes to his and his staff and faculty. I went around Tuesday and talked to people and Besides what you mentioned the kindergarten I vious people didn't tell me what they think and I was very very things better that's reflection of talking to I was a starters experienc I I went around some schools. I have two schools that I did not go to the first day of school and you look very engaged. I love the t-shirts of all the schools and I want one. Just kidding. I did get one. No, if you gave me one, but anyhow, um I did see some of those kindergartens having some meltdowns upset. Um but the teachers were handling it very good. >> Yeah. So,
117yeah, there's a couple things that I'll talk to you about, but not today. Anyhow, a very good job. >> Well, Amy's ready to tour of the building pretty soon. Um, >> but we're not sorry. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> The uh I did want to share this more public. I think I shared most of this with you all online or in email. But today's enrollment, we were at 1660. Um 30 kids have not started yet, but are registered, meaning they're just they registered very recently and are waiting to be assigned a teacher. So those are our pending kids, but they're in the Um and then within that 1660 there's also 12 unaccounted for students. Um meaning they were registered for this last year and we have not yet had any contact with them this year.
118So the number will Monday the number will go down by 12 because on day six we will drop the unaccounted students. Um busing is going surprisingly well this year. Uh that does not mean everything is perfect by any means. The biggest issues we're having is every uh every delay that happens at elementary starts to trickle into the junior high because then next and so we're having some pretty late buses right now with the junior high but I think we rather have buses with that little ones. Um staffing, we're in a really good place with staffing compared to some years. So I put those numbers in there. Uh we have one teaching position still posted that we uh are trying to actively fill. Um and then there are 11 of our vacancies are non-certified and there's
119there's usually a fluctuation in that group because they will come and go sometimes during the year. We have six full-time subs filling positions. Um it's five. Not sure why I said six. Um and those uh are again positions that if we were able to find a qualified teacher we would hire and put qualified teacher into that. Um want to make sure everybody knows Broad Meadows after school program. We are planning it's been announced and information's been shared with the Broad parents uh that on the same days that Explorers is operating at the other through schools. There will be programming at the youth center will provide transportation to the youth center. Um, we're working out the details. I'm hoping um I'm planning that we will allocate some of our title four grant funding this year to
120uh help pay for services for the kids in that program. Other schools are all covered by 21st century grant. Um, and we want to make sure we're offering some programming for broad. Um, reminder next month we were to start the meeting at 5:30 just just for fun. We won't do anything ahead of time at 5 so we're not going to push our luck. Um we really need to if at all possible be done with the meeting by six and so that we can go into close session with uh and do the training with Dr. Perry Hill and uh one weird part though is we have to hold the budget hearing at six o' so wherever we are in the meeting we will pause and do the question. >> Okay, >> that's it.