001Okay. You got it. Very good. We're good. We're good. I have a question. The time is now 7:07. Uh I would like to call this meeting to order. Lynea, can you please call the roll? I'm on it. Per Johnson. Here. Osterholm. Here. Scroll office absent for Here. For Rose. Here. Kim. Here. Carney's absent meeting called to order. Okay. Um good evening. Can I get a motion to go with the open session? Wait, we're waiting. I know. No, I know. Just just joking. Um good evening, everybody. Uh public com- public comment public participation is a vital part of our organization's success. During our board business meeting, community members are invited to speak during the public comment period. The board welcomes participation, but generally does not respond to a public comment. To those who wish to speak
002are required to sign in a public comment sheet prior to the start of the meeting. When your name is called, please step up to the podium and state your name for the record. Public comments are limited to 3 minutes. If you are still speaking when we reach 3 minutes, please finish your thought and conclude. If multiple individuals wish to address the board on the same subject subject, the group is encouraged to appoint a spokesperson. If there are more than 30 minutes of public comment on the same subject, the board president reserves the right to shorten the time for each person to address the board during public comment to conserve time and give the maximum number of people an opportunity to speak. All speakers are asked to conduct themselves with respect and civility towards others. Thank
003you. First person is Patricia Rodriguez. Okay. All right. Um good evening. Um I'm speaking as a member of the OPTA. I'm one of the many teachers that was affected by the reconfiguration of the middle schools. I'm currently at Brooks and I was told that I'm going to be now teaching at Julian math and science and currently I'm teaching design at Brooks. I'm concerned that requiring teachers to teach multiple sub or subjects will negatively impact student learning. I've taught math and science before at a CPS school. It really does mean that one subject is going to kind of take the back burner. Usually that's going to be science and social studies if we're teaching them two subjects. They're going to receive less attention and they're going to have They're going to be harder to make engaging
004because we're going to be Teachers are going to be struggling to come up with like creative ideas to keep the kids engaged. Um Excuse me. I even asked if it was possible to teach a single subject across multiple grades. So like teaching math between 7th and 8th grade so you can just focus on one subject, but I was told that does not align with the middle school focus on collaboration. However, asking teachers to teach two subjects actually increases the need for collaboration across multiple multiple teams and classroom areas which seems counterproductive. I would also like to speak about the design program. My class right now ranges from 7 to 26 students. It was not thought out properly in the beginning of the year. Last year when I had my classes it was about 20 students
005in each class. Keeping design classes under 24 is essential to non-traditional classroom setting. In design we're not only teaching design process, we're building foundational technology skills. Many students are learning for the first time how to use a mouse, organize your Google Drive, take screenshots, and working in CAD programs like Onshape. We also use potentially dangerous equipment including high-powered laser cutters, solder tools, 3D printers. Um Smaller classes are critical so I can provide individual guidance and ensure student safety. When students struggle with coding, circuitry, or machinery they require direct support. These are not skills that they can easily troubleshoot on their own. Teaching them how to troubleshoot and every single problem they have is not going to be the same problem. So, they have to know how to apply their troubleshooting skills to the next problem.
006The program is not replaceable. We maintain and manage and maintain thousands of dollars worth of equipment. We have three 8-3 printers, we have three Glowforge machines, we have I have a flight simulator, and classroom set of drones, and I am the one as well as the other teacher at Brooks. There's only two design teachers that fixes the printers, fixes the Glowforge machines. We're the ones that send the orders, contact the vendors for quotes, and when the orders come in, we're the ones that organize everything. The other design teacher is retiring next year at Brooks. Meaning that they're So, they're closing one I think design position at Brooks, and then he's going to retire, and it's just like there. It's thousands and thousands of dollars of equipment in those rooms, and it's just kind of like
007it'll be a sit sitting bricks if no one else uses it or knows how to use them or how to fix them. I'm ready. It's good. Okay. Can I just one 30 seconds? Okay. So, as I said before, I had drones, I researched, I got a flight simulator, and I'm afraid that without like a knowledgeable teacher, I think my main concern is that the um this program and that robotics is just going to go away. And as a member of even Oak Park and having my own daughter here, she's at Hatch. Like I was looking forward to these classes, and I just don't see design making it until she gets to 6th and 7th and 8th grade. Yeah. Oh, one more time. Okay. And then we are also like we're teaching them other college career
008like ideas. Like some people like my whole purpose of like the drones and the flight simulators was they can go into aviation. Like it's something new and exciting that they don't think of. That is all. Thank you for your time. Next up is Lauren Johnson. Hello again. My name is Lauren Johnson, mom to two boys up at Lincoln. I was here a couple of weeks ago to speak about screen time in our school district and I'm back for a little more. We now have over 1,100 signatures on our change.org petition, which depending on how you crunch the numbers, represents a not insignificant portion of our 6,000 student population if you assume that many of the people who signed have more than one child in the district. I'm excited to share that Michael Arenson >> [clears
009throat] >> has been very collaborative with Screen Sense Oak Park and we are excited to work together for positive changes for our district students. Principals of two elementary schools have already made some wonderful building-level changes. So, tonight I'd like to speak about friction. And I don't know if this is like a healthcare principle or an engineering principle, but it's about when you make a choice easy and when you make a choice hard. And research shows that we like to do the easy choice. We like to do what requires less friction. We're more likely to make good decision when those options are more frictionless compared to the the other option. So, it's for this reason that Screen Sense Oak Park would really like District 97 to switch to an opt-in device policy. The default should be
010that all one-to-one devices stay at school on evenings and weekends unless families opt-in to having them sent home. These devices create unnecessary friction with regard to normal play and learning of childhood. There's more friction to walk across the room to pick up a book, to pick up a pencil and paper than there is to pick up the iPad sitting on your desk. There's more friction to look up a word in a dictionary or to struggle and master proper spelling and grammar rather than using the easy iPad autocorrect features. An interesting example of friction at my boy's school is that students are not allowed to stay and play on the playground after school because we have been told they need to take their bags home so their iPads don't get stolen. To me, that creates a
011really unnecessary bit of friction between our school children and play time. So, I'd like the district to consider the role that these one-to-one devices play in creating far too much friction between our students and real-world learning opportunities from the classroom to the playground. What choices are we making easy? What choices are we making hard? With my remaining time, I'd like to share a representative sample of some of the people who have signed up on the screen sense of Park West website. We've gotten dozens and dozens of thank yous and comments and I've been emailing the board and I've been, you know, asking about this for years. I've been wondering the same thing. So, I just wanted to share four brief comments and then I also have something I would love to hand out if you
012guys would like my visual aids. Uh number one, I'm a teacher and parent in the district. No child needs or benefits or learns anything from a personal device. They're highly addictive and giving a first-grader access to YouTube is completely inappropriate and insane. Books, books, books. Across the country, schools and parents are taking away the devices. Everyday the New York Times comes out with an article about the harms screens are doing. Yes, yes, yes. Please let me know how I can support you. I'm happy to speak publicly as a parent and teacher in the district. Um another comment from a new parent. Oh, I'm done. I'm going to forgo, but there are several comments on people who have either left the district and would reconsider returning or people who are considering leaving the district as a
013result of this. And as a last thing, I would love to share um a student tech bill of rights that gives a lot of wonderful things to think about with regards to intentional use of technology in our schools. Thank you. Thank you. Hillary Spencer. Thank you. My name is Hillary Spencer and I'd like to um build on what Lauren shared before, too. I'm a parent at the Hatch. I'm a first-grader. My professional background is as a pediatrician and in public health and I'm here today to register my concerns about screen use and digital access in the 97. My request is specifically to limit or make optional having school provided devices at home. Specifically, I would like to have the school iPad stay at school. There's an amazing evidence based on the ill effects of screen
014time and digital access in children's in the pediatric literature and public health literature. Because of that, I have tried to be mindful about my son's use of screens. He didn't have access to screens in our home until he was just shy of 2 years old, as recommended by the AAP. Since then, we have tried to limit screen time to 1 hour a day as recommended by the AAP, especially on school days. Not all screens are equal in their effect and my son primarily has access to TV that we usually watch together rather than handheld devices such as tablets and phones. Handheld devices are in general more addictive, more solitary, and likely more problematic than larger screens such as TV. I've seen this firsthand from my son. When I previously let him use a tablet for
015something like PBS games or even the same shows that he would watch on TV, it was harder to take it away and his behavior was more dysregulated. Now, we reserve tablets for special limited occasions like plane travel or a phone for distraction in the doctor's office. The school tablet coming home creates an incursion of an unwanted device in our home. We put it away, but it's an extra step to take and it found requires holding the boundary around screen use. It creates friction. Uh for that reason, I would prefer my home to remain free from school provided devices. I can't speak to every age, but this is what I would prefer for my current first grader and I foresee for at least the next few years preferring this. There are enrichment activities my retired special
016ed teacher mom and I prefer to do those with my son on paper. I have asked about having the device running at school as it did in kindergarten and I was told there's not capacity to charge it at school, so it has to come home. There are other considerations about the use of devices within school during school time, and it's my understanding that there isn't sufficient evidence to support their use. So, while my concerns here are about having the device in my home, I would also hope there is due reconsideration given to whether a student assigned device is available. Thank you for hearing my concerns today. Thank you. Carrie Lucas. Evening. My name is Carrie Lucas. I'm a parent of two elementary students at Mann in grades kindergarten and fourth. And my oldest daughter is
017a freshman at Oak Park and River Forest now, having gone to Irving for the multi-age program and is and then at Julian. So, I would like to share tonight also about screen screen use in our schools. What I'd like to share tonight is an anecdote from my son, who's now a fourth grader, from 2 years ago when he was in second grade. In second grade, a lot of instructional time as well as free choice time was spent on individual iPads in his classroom. Toward the end of the year, right around early May, his teacher, a veteran teacher of nearly 25 years, sent an email home to parents letting us know that she had told the class to leave their iPad at home the remainder of the week, a Wednesday through a Friday. They were going
018to go without them for a few days. My son was not happy about this. I remember he specifically complained, "Mom, it's going to be the worst 3 days. I cannot believe my teacher's doing this." I didn't say anything to him other than, "Well, I'm curious what kind of experience you'll have. I never had an iPad when I was in school. I'm curious like what it would be like for you." And I intentionally didn't offer any other of my opinions or thoughts. And on that Friday evening, I asked how he thought those 3 days had been without iPads in his class. His eyes got really big. I remember it very clearly. And he was like incredulous. He said, "Mom, I can't believe it. It was so much better. We learned so much better." And I said,
019"Tell me more." Because I was genuinely curious about what he thought. And the specific reasons that he cited were that his classroom was much quieter because they were using paper and pencils. There was nothing else to do other than their work during independent work time. Normally, he told me, the class would get pretty loud when it was independent work time on their iPads because everyone would go on other websites. They would start chitchatting with their table partner about the websites they go on. The volume levels would get high. The teacher would have to walk around the class and constantly tell the kids to get back to the right website to do the actual work they were supposed to be doing. Two years later, there's no shortage of research and data that supports reducing and even
020eliminating our dependence on screens in schools, especially in the primary grades, but even some would argue all the way up through high school. Multiple countries around the world, including at least the one that I most recently aware of, Sweden, are eliminating heavy screen use and and individual individual devices in schools in favor of hands-on learning and activities in the physical world. Kids learn better without devices. And as a district, we need to reduce our dependence on screens and individual individual devices and better support and equip our teachers to do what they do best, to teach each and every one of the kids in their classrooms, not manage device use. Thank you. Alexis Blum. Hi, I don't have a paper. Hi, everybody. Um I came to also talk about screens in schools as a D97 parent
021and as a D97 teacher because I think that gives me a unique perspective all around. Um I'm an art teacher at Julian. Both I have two children at Whittier right now. Um I've been fighting this iPad battle and the cell phones and the middle school battle for years and I don't know why. I just don't understand. I have never seen any research or data anywhere that says these things are good for learning. You can look up [clears throat] every day there's a new article in the New York Times, literally every day saying how bad these things are for little kids. Um, I think they're not good for adults, either. There is a teen mental health crisis and all these people are like, "Why? I don't understand." Um, when you're they're not supposed to be staring
022at a screen all day. Um, I'm an art educator. Everything I believe in is about hands-on learning. It's about creating classroom community. Um, my eighth graders, we had 3 minutes left left of class today. I had boys pulling out their We were cleaning up. It was time to go. They're pulling out their Chromebooks to play games for the last 3 minutes of class. And I of course say, "Put that away. We're part of a community." They do not have fully developed frontal lobes. They are not able to say, "Oh, I'm only going to use this for the school website." Or, "Oh, I'm only going to go on this for 10 minutes." It is addictive. I watch it happen. I'm fighting cell phones all day at my job. I am fighting Chromebooks at my job. And
023when I go home, I have to battle my kids with a device I never would have bought them. Um, we are an art, library, museum kind of family. Um, and I I don't know why I'm doing this all day. It makes no sense. How much do I have? Is that it? About 15 seconds. Okay. Um so, why does a 6-year-old need a personal device with YouTube? That's that's my ending. Thank you. Thank you. And last, uh Amanda Brackett. Hi. I um I have a kindergartner, Urban. And like a lot of parents in the park, we moved here in part because the school system was so good. And while we've overall been happy, the amount of screen time my my 5-year-old gets in school has been incredibly disappointing. He's a kid who's been drawn to music
024since he was born. He loves music. He gets excited about music class not because of what he's learning about music, but cuz he gets to watch YouTube. He doesn't watch YouTube at home. And just today I said, "Hey, what did you do today in music class?" He said, "We watched videos." I said, "The whole time?" Yeah, "The whole time." he said they watched videos. A couple weeks ago he came home and told me in Spanish class they watched a video of someone reading a book to them in Spanish. Why Why Why are videos being used instead of human contact when there's so much research that shows human contact is where kids thrive. Human contact is where adults thrive, also. And then I feel like these screens are are are interrupting so much learning our kids
025could be doing. Uh I understand the irony that I'm using my phone for notes right now. >> [laughter] >> But just the same. Um you know, it's almost every parent I talked to says says the same thing. Like, "Oh, this is terrible. I We have screen limits at home, but then this device comes home and we have no ability to put screen limits on it." Like, there's no ability to get into the settings and change when it can be turned off, when anything can be done. Um I I highly encourage everybody to watch Dr. Sherry Turkle's remarks to Congress. He has done a lot of research on this subject and says, "Quote, since the late 1800s, every generation has outperformed their parents until Generation Z. Generation Z is the first generation to underperform us on
026every cognitive measure we have." He goes on to give evidence that that is directly related to screens in schools, and when technology is introduced into the classroom, cognition goes down. And our kids are underperforming now our generation. We didn't have screens in schools. When And this is worldwide. He's done research worldwide in many, many countries. In every single one of these countries, when technology is introduced, cognition, understanding, test results, all of it declines. I think our kids deserve deserve more, and I think we can do better in this district. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amy Board My name is Becky Board, and I teach language arts at Julian Middle School, and I'm a member of the OPTA. I am also a District 97 parent. I'm here to express serious concern about the proposed staffing
027and schedule changes for the middle school next year. While families have been told these changes will not significantly affect student experiences, that cannot be true. The reality is straightforward. Next year's middle school enrollment is not declining. Each grade will have more than 300 students. What is changing is the number of teachers available to serve those students. Middle school parents need to understand what this means. Their children's class sizes will be bigger. Period. This is a mathematical consequence of having the same number of students and fewer teachers. Core teachers, those teaching language arts, science, math, history, currently work with approximately 100 students daily. Even after this year's schedule changes increases increased instructional time and raised some planning and grading demands, the workload remained manageable because the total number of students and planning time was relatively consistent.
028Already half of my core classes and my wing class are at the maximum 29 students, significantly higher than in previous years I taught here. Under the proposed plan, core teachers could see their total student load increase by as much as 45%. From 100 students to 145 students. At the same time, teachers are required to take on a fifth class uh section, eliminating valuable planning time. This planning time is not extra. It's essential to prepare lessons, grade, provide meaningful feedback, communicate with parents, collaborate with colleagues, attend IEP and 504 meetings, address academic and behavior concerns, cover classes um due to the ongoing sub uh shortage. You cannot increase a teacher's student load by 45%, remove planning time, and expect the same educational outcomes. I work with some of the most dedicated teachers, but the strongest educators
029cannot maintain the same level of effectiveness with those conditions. The board must recognize that. These changes will directly impact students. Larger class sizes limit teacher ability to build relationships, provide timely feedback, communicate with families. It also will increase increase classroom disruption. Additionally, several teachers, including myself, will now be required to teach across multiple core subject areas due to the staffing reductions. While these teachers may be dual certified, Middle school instruction is intentionally departmentalized so teachers can develop deep expertise and collaborate deeply with subject areas. Asking teachers to teach an entirely new subject area without more planning time further undermines that model. We need a little bit of a reality check. There are not enough minutes in the day to teach more students, more classes, new subject areas, um and to do that at the same
030level and to not have it have an impact on outcomes. Thank you. I see the officials. We're going to keep going. And Stephanie Seward is running us out. Go. Okay. Hello board. Uh my name is Stephanie Seward. I'm speaking as a member of the Oak Park Teachers' Association and their co-president, supporting my members and finishing Becky's statement. Finally, this proposal ignores the broader reality facing schools everywhere, teacher retention. Schools are already struggling with significant teacher shortages, burnout, and turnover. Our middle schools have already experienced high teacher turnover. Reducing staff while increasing demands will only accelerate that problem, making it harder to retain strong educators and maintain the stable, supportive learning environment our students deserve. I urge the board to reconsider this plan. Given that middle school enrollment is not declining, this restructuring should be delayed.
031Families deserve honest, transparent communication about what these changes actually mean for teachers, students, and the overall quality of education in Oak Park because despite what has been suggested publicly, these changes absolutely will affect students. Thank you. Thank you. And that concludes our public comment. Um we're going to move along to uh 6.1, the informational vote area update. Um K-5 math curriculum adoption recommendation. Yes, we would like to call Dr. Towanda Lawrence and team and we also have visitors and guest special guest that will be joining that represents the committee, the math committee. >> [snorts] >> Starting with Mr. Lawrence, Also, it's starting with me. >> [laughter] >> I'm sitting here looking at you like Dr. Lawrence, I haven't started. No, but we're excited to bring forth a proposal to the board from our the work
032of core instruction, Dr. Lawrence and team. We'll have everyone introduce themselves, but really coming tonight to really talk about the proposal for our math curriculum and we're extremely excited. This was a lot of work, a lot of time that was committed by every single person up here in collaboration with their schools. And so, we're really excited to kind of present this proposal to everyone. And I'm going turn things over to the team. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Robinson. Um and so, we are happy to be here today. As you can see, we have a full house um representing this work. So, we're very very excited to welcome district level administrators. Um we also have two school administrators from our pilot schools this year, um our curriculum coordinators, instructional coaches, and we also have classroom teachers
033here. So, we're very excited to present our work to all of you. >> [snorts] >> Um we're going to begin with our agenda. Um we'll start, of course, with our why of this work. Um we'll talk a little bit about our resource review and pilot um process, and then we will shift into our recommendation for adoption, and then we will end with the projected budget and next steps. As always, we like to start with a quote. So, if you can take a look at this. So, as we continue to encourage our students to discover the joy of mathematics through problem solving, this is what we want students to walk away with. Um continuing with our why, you all have seen this slide before. Um everything we do is grounded in our board policy, our board
034equity policy. Um a lot of our work this year has been focused on Jo Boaler's um work in terms of um creating a journey where we have a path to equity in the area of math. And so, just a few things I like to highlight here is we want to make sure that our girls and students of color um have that additional encouragement to learn math. We also want to offer all students high-level math content. Um it's important that we work to sort of change those ideas about math, um and that all students can if achieve math. Um so, these are just some of the areas of our focus this year. Um, and all of this translates into our framework for teaching, um, which has been our guide for instruction. Our work has also been
035grounded in best practices. Um, so there are two tasks, um, that we focused on this year as it relates to our approach to math, as well as our professional learning that we have provided teachers in grades K-5. Um, we're also excited for, um, the Illinois State Board of Education to soon their comprehensive numeracy plan. Um, there was also a literacy plan that we focused on when we were rolling out, um, our new ELA resource. And so, our team has participated in feedback sessions to the state as it relates to this plan, and it will be released in the fall. So, we're very excited about that as well. So, now I'm going to turn it over to Jen Burgess. >> So, um, in August of 2025, we began by forming, um, a math committee with a
036diverse group of stakeholders. Um, together we developed a shared math mission statement. Um, and this grounded our work and kept us aligned throughout the entire process. Um, and it served as our guide for all decisions during the pilot, um, and evaluation. Um, so I don't know, Christie, if you could read the statement aloud here for >> Absolutely, yeah. Our mission is to inspire and empower all K-5 learners to develop a strong foundation of mathematical knowledge by fostering number sense, engaging in hands-on learning experiences, and cultivating a growth mindset. Through research and standards-based practices and a commitment to data-driven instruction, students are equipped with the skills, confidence, flexibility, and creativity to apply their learning in meaningful ways. In the classroom, students experience the rigor and joy of discovering math with critical thinking and problem-solving approaches that
037honor the unique strengths of every learner. >> [snorts] >> From here, we're going to take a closer look at um how this process has unfolded for the past few years. So, this slide may look familiar um as we've shared it with you all before. Um together today, we're going to focus on the right side, the pilot portion um as we completed the left resource review portion of the plan last year. Um this year, our work focused on implementing the pilot with a clear timeline and scope and sequence. Um we also used multiple evaluation tools throughout the process, and all of this helped us to determine the best resource for District 97 staff and students. So, now that brings us to our recommendation for adoption. That is why we're all here. Um but before we talk
038about our recommendation, I just like to give a sincere thank you um to our K-5 math curriculum committee as well as our two pilot schools, Home and Longfellow. [clears throat] Um all of these teachers and school administrators really helped support all of this work this year by piloting two resources in addition to rolling out year one of a new ELA curriculum. So, this is huge work, and we just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you. Um and so, we've got our math curriculum committee members listed here, and we also want to send special shout-outs to our school administrators at Home and Longfellow as well as the instructional coaches. So, thank you. So, throughout the resource review process, nine different resources were reviewed, and that was narrowed down to two. Um and this was
039the timeline for our pilot this year. Uh the first program was Amplify Desmos Math, which was piloted from about mid-November through January. Uh the second program was Bridges in Mathematics, which was piloted throughout February and March. Throughout the pilot process, multiple sources of data were collected including surveys that were sent out to staff and students and families for both programs. We also collected data from unit assessments, pre and post assessments for each of the programs. We used a variety of evaluation tools from EdReports to the ISBE curriculum evaluation tools to the curriculum matters analysis tool tools as well. And we also rated each resource along with seven consistent criteria that you will see here and each resource was rated on a scale of one to five. And as all that data was collected and about
040Oh, sorry. Not me yet. Wait, you were supposed to We're going to turn it over to Anna. Sure. So, the team recently got together to review lots and lots of data. It's a couple dozen slides. We did not put that all here for you on these slides to save your sanity a bit. But this table represents sort of some high-level summative points of data that we looked at before the team took a vote. And so you see there is some results from teacher surveys where they're waiting seven criteria and then responding to survey questions about those criteria on each of the resources and then we're summing those numbers up. So, the difference between 95 and 119 is not actually very meaningful. Just know that 119 means it's a it's a higher score among our teachers.
041And then you see teachers preferred Bridges. 83% preferred that over Amplify Desmos where 18% preferred that. And then when we surveyed our families, our students first, you see almost a 50/50 but slight preference for Amplify Desmos. And then among our parents, our families, we asked them to rate each resource on a scale of one to 10. Both had a median score of six, so kind of right there in the middle. So then we asked the committee to take a vote and go through that process. These are the results of that process of looking at the data, voting, deciding, debating sort of the the the merits and the concerns and resolving some of those some of those questions and issues that came up in the conversation. Now looking at all of that data, the math committee
042reached a consensus to recommend Bridges in Mathematics from the Math Learning Center for adoption. We're very excited to recommend this program with its deep focus on conceptual understanding in mathematics. The components of Bridges include problems and investigations, workplaces, and number corner, and these blend direct instruction with investigation and exploration. And at the heart of Bridges is a focus on visual and tactile learning, which is shown through the extensive use of models to help students transition from concrete to abstract understanding of math concepts. Okay, so we're going to share a few videos from our math pilot classrooms. This first video features two kindergarten classrooms highlighting the number corner as well as workplaces. I think that's the second one. Can you lead everybody in counting our days of school? Who's leading that? Go ahead, Kaylin. You can
043decide if you want to count over here or over here. Your choice. Why why is this a dot? Somebody started and didn't finish. Go ahead. What are we doing? Which one are you going to use to count today? The chains or the dots? Um the dots. I think they're easier. You think it's easier? If you agree with Caleb and you think the dots are easier, give me two. I don't like that the chains move. I think they are harder, too. Okay, that's good now. Pay attention to the weather, but this month it's just up to the spinner. So, Caleb's spinning. Give us a spinneroo. That's the toad, and that's the frog. Frogs and toads are similar animals. But, one mostly lives in water and the other mostly lives on land. I know what what they
044are. It is What are we doing with them? Wait. Let's collect them. Ready? So, you spin spun us a frog, so we're going to put our frog in here, and just like last month, now Caleb, you can have a seat. Just like last month, we're making addition statements out of them. So, I want on your fingers for you to put one hand showing the green frogs, and one hand showing the brown toads. Ready? I see you counting with eyes, and then start to show with your fingers. We're just looking at this line. Oh, I know. Yeah, otherwise we wouldn't have enough fingers. Just this line, Sophia. Cuz otherwise you won't have enough fingers. Okay? And can you say it as a number sentence, putting the frogs first? I already did. Three frogs and two toads
045makes Five. So, we can write three plus two is five. Yeah, we did spin them, and we can add our one more. Yeah, you And what do I do? I'm going to count your toads. >> our calendar. So, we left off on a cube, a real shape cube. Okay? So, we had a square and then a cube. What's the next shape in our pattern? Circle. Circle. And remember, we're looking at real objects right now. We had a cracker and a present. What could be a real object that's a circle? Last time it was a clock. What else could it be, Ronan? A basketball is a sphere, remember? A basketball is 3D shape. That's a good guess, but we want a flat shape. Wyatt? A pizza. A pizza could be. Uh-oh, like Uh-oh, like the letter
046O? Could be. Yeah. Um pepperoni. Pepperoni? Like the Yeah, like what they had on top of our pizza last time. Yeah. Red. Red. And then, grab that red marker and fill in our 10 frame. There's only two more days of kindergarten left. >> [laughter] >> No, we have like a month left. >> [laughter] >> All right, help me count by 10s. Are you ready? Yeah. 10 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 70 80, 90, 100 Go on. 110, 120, 130, 131 40, 150. Now we switch to ones. What's one more than 150? >> 151. 151. Very Okay. Um, now this video is of a third grade classroom. They are doing a unit where they're combining mathematical and engineering concepts to build bridges. Actual bridges. Can you play it? Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay. Sorry about
047that. All right. Um, do you want to just share what was in the video? Yeah, it was one of our third grade teachers. Um, they had been working on different structures to uh, create stability in bridges. So, they were um, uh, doing in terms of river embankments and how to um, uh, diminish the compression that was happening in the center of the bridge by putting abutments on the sides. So, they were combining math with engineering. Sorry. I Sorry about that. I didn't put the settings correctly. Okay. So, now that you have heard from or you've seen uh, videos from the classroom, we'd love for you to hear from some of our math pilot teachers um, and as well as our um, other people that have helped support those teachers um, here today. So, the question
048we'd like each of our um, panel members to discuss is can you share how your overall experience using bridges in mathematics influence your perspective on math instruction and its impact on student learning and engagement? So, um, I guess whoever wants to start, you know, feel free. I can start. Okay. My name is Tory. I'm the assistant principal at Longfellow. Um, but before I'm an assistant principal, I'm an instructional leader. So, Bridges has been something that I was familiar with even in my classroom days. So, I was at Oak Park at Irving as a first grade teacher and that's when I had my first introduction to Bridges. So, I wrote down cuz I don't want to ramble. Okay. So, this is what I said. As a classroom teacher and first grade team leader at Irving School,
049I implemented Bridges during a math intervention block that I designed for our students. That experience allowed me to see how the curriculum supports foundational skill building, especially when students need additional time and targeted instruction to develop number sense and problem-solving strategies. Now, with my administrator head on, I've had the opportunity to observe Bridges as a core general education resource across classroom. I watch it unfold at the level that has given me a broader view of its impact on whole instruction, not just small instruction. Um and I think what stands out the most to me is the thing the deeper level of thinking that I've seen kiddos do. It moves from beyond um just going through the rigmarole of how to solve a problem, and they begin to talk about it. They have what we call
050constructive arguments about someone's way of solving a problem versus another, and then they agree to disagree or they say, "I see how you say that. We can do it that way." So, just having the those math talks and bringing math to life, um students are excited for the math block after I mean, can you after recess? That's when everybody's done with the day. But, when you hear them, "We got math!" Like, that's I like and I love Eureka math, but I I did not hear that with Eureka. So, I am just excited that kiddos are talking about math instruction in the hallway, on the playground. Um they're implementing some of the games that they use um in their classrooms outside during recess time. I also love that three our my three through five teams, they
051love how it gives that that push. Like, kids feel challenged. They feel as though there's more for me to learn. And of course, we have those ones who need a little more push to something else, and we have our um enrichment specialist for that. But, this curriculum meets everybody where they are where they are, I think. And I like I said, I've seen it in the small group where I know it's used it was it has components that are specifically for tier three, but to see it being used as a gen ed tool just has like it it like lights up the the classroom when it's it's time for math instruction. It's beyond paper and pencil, it's they're moving around, they're sharing ideas, they are debating, they are sharing how this applies outside of the
052school walls, and it just brings math to life. And I know for me as a child growing up, I did not like math. And so to see students love it, um it just inspires me to continue to dive into the curriculum with them and continue to see all the different peaks and spaces um where they can go um successfully using the curriculum. I'm so glad she went first because I just realized like I grabbed my book and I left my paper with my notes You got your backpack, it's okay. Yeah. You got it, exactly. So, I'm Tamara Phillips, I am the principal at Holmes. Um go Hawks. Um but I'm glad you went first, Tory, and I will um echo all of her sentiments. I she can just add a couple things um just in
053my observation of students actually working in it. Um think that Bridges provided a lot more hands-on activities for kids to be able to do a lot more manipulatives. I think that um it lent itself towards a productive discourse for students to have um in questioning their own thinking, but not only that, their their classmates. Um it also number corner is phenomenal. We were just talking um about how especially in kindergarten to see them engaged in number corner whole group and to [clears throat] break off and apply those concepts and those skills in smaller groups, yeah. So, I am glad that this is the the curriculum that the committee has um recommended for yeah, recommended. Thank you, Abby. I can jump in. So, I'm Hannah DeGroat, I teach kindergarten at Longfellow, and yeah, my kids are
054loving Bridges. They love the number corner, and as a teacher, I appreciate that because it's discussion-based, I can reach kids at many levels at the same time. The patterns, the calendar presents them with a challenge every month of figuring out what is the hidden pattern. And so, they cannot wait for a new month to start, which is something that you just don't get with every form of teaching math. That they're like, "Wait, but are we going to do Number Corner click?" Seriously, it's that level of anticipation. Um and your kids were noticing patterns on a deeper level who are engaged because they can see those patterns, whereas the goal might just be to talk about shapes, and that can be the goal to meet every kid where they're at. Um and because Number Corner spirals,
055it's separate from the other curriculum. It's not going the same skills at the same time. So, it lets you hit concepts multiple times in the same year, which provides kids with more exposure at different times in different ways. And so, I see kids picking up on something that may not be the core part of the unit, but is part of Number Corner, and then it gives them yet another exposure. So, that's been really key. I also, as a kindergarten teacher, really appreciate that it's so developmentally appropriate. Not every curriculum actually gives kindergartners something that's truly different than just smaller versions of fifth graders. And so, to be able to take the games and give them to the students and have them be able to do it actually independently on a one or two exposures means
056that we can actually use it with fidelity because the kids are [clears throat] successful with it and they're having fun with it and they're learning from it, and it's not just management time. So, it's been a really um impactful curriculum. The second we switched from one pilot to the other, like I felt the change in the room. So, I know you have to share the story of the sub with Number Corner. Oh, yeah. So, I specifically left notes saying, "Do not do Number Corner without me." Because we had just started doing the Bridges pilot, and I was like, "Don't touch it. It has too many pieces. You can't do it." And I came back and I look at number corner and I said to the kids, "You You did number corner." And they all just
057pointed to one kid and went, "Yep, she led it." That's the level of ownership and excitement they they have taken over. It's It's amazing. It's cool. I can go. Hi, everybody. My name is Jennifer, fourth grade Spanish immersion at Lincoln. And um if I may say a little bit about myself, this is my first year here and um piloting this program along with Desmos and then doing Amplify I was all over the place, but I do want to say that um something that I noticed with Bridges, couple of highlights was definitely the student engagement. A lot more conversation and the rigor allowed me to kind of look at the questioning within the math talks of the curriculum and the topic, the content, modified as I needed it. And it being in Spanish, I was able
058to kind of like look at it and my manuals are also in English and Spanish, so I was able to kind of help the students along the way and improve in both vocabulary and fluency in both languages. So, they did have that available and I thought that was really a helpful for me and for the student as they were learning the language. I can also appreciate um the challenges that I have. To be honest with you, when I thought about it, I said I kind of wish we started with the Bridges first than the other one because this had an abundance of things uh between like they were talking about the number corner, that student book, that games. I kind of wish we had more time to kind of really delve into it. Um but
059while we were doing it, being in fourth grade and doing it in Spanish, the children um really took to it. They took ownership of it. I was more of the facilitator. They were challenged to use more of the critical thinking skills and that's what I do appreciate about this program. Um I think one of the goals that I have in the next year, you know, they're waiting that we are able to work on the time because I feel like there's so much in there that I want to do all of it with them. And right now, because we kind of dove into it in the middle of the year, I was challenged by the time. So, I'm hoping that the new year brings us more time and we can you know, really like bring it
060out to the kiddos, but definitely student engagement was there. Conversations were great and they definitely took accountability for the work that they were doing. And amount and by the way, no iPads at all. >> [applause and cheering] >> All three books were there, between the home connections, the big book and if we got the big book, by the way, this is a big book. And their student the number corner, we were busy. No iPads and we didn't miss it and we were fine. So, I'm a little more traditional in that sense, so just thought I'd throw that out there for my parents out there. >> [laughter] >> And since I have to do it in Español, you know, I have to make sure that I'm working in, you know, both languages, so I tend to
061not go tech in there a lot. That's me. Nice to meet you, Yvette. Yeah, I can jump in next, too. I have notes written down, so if I'm looking down. My name is Kristy Carlson. I teach second grade at Holmes, which is a pilot school and I was also part of the math curriculum committee for the past two years, so I feel really privileged to kind of be full circle here with you. This is my ninth year teaching and I've used several different curricula and Bridges has truly stood out to me because of the way it facilitates meaningful discussion with students. A few quick stories, as a teacher I hope for students to make real world connections between what they're learning in math and then their own lives, as well. And this happened countless of
062times with Bridges in kind of crazy ways. One of my students wanted to make friendship bracelets for every student in the class and And just coincided with a whole week of word problems of seed bead bracelets bundling groups of 10. And it happened with a variety of interests as well. So, super cool to see that. Um there was also opportunity for differentiation um and choice integrated throughout Bridges, which was very cool to see instead of teachers coming up with the choice for students. It's given to us. It's already in the curriculum. Um during a geometry unit, students made quilt pieces for Black History Month. So, that prompted discussion about um the different colors and the symbolism behind that, but it was also very accessible for different students as well. So, some students were looking at
063the quilt that they had made, pulling out different shapes, while others were looking at angles and different types of lines. So, really met students where they were at without iPads as well. Um yeah, and as I talked to several teachers as part of the math curriculum committee, um a common theme was loving Number Corner because it was so engaging. There were games, activities, um and like you said, the kids were talking about it every recess. I would come in, kids would actually lead it as well, stand around the calendar, um and it was really cool to see how student-led the whole curricula could be with student choice integrated throughout. So, yeah, I can see a lot of benefit with using Bridges, and I'm excited to use it next year. Okay, who next? Uh Juan Carlos
064de la kindergarten Spanish immersion. Um I won't repeat uh any of the well, the comments, but I did um uh mostly excited about the fact that I was able to see that uh the data at the end. I was not excited about Bridges. I In fact, I I was like, "Yeah, okay, I have to do it." So, I was not excited at all, but I was really happy to see the the final results, the data. Um I'm particularly as a person of color, I'm particularly interested in the results of students of color and girls because we understand from the data that a fourth grade girl engages to engage. One of the things that I was able to see is that the level of engagement of girls and students of color uh followed by their scores
065at the end. So, for me, because we live in this credential society and we're all measured by this weird standardized stick. Uh It was It's important because if we don't have those numbers where I don't know what it that means, but uh for me the most exciting part is that students of color, girls, and everyone was able to equally participate. I think in the district we use the term equity and inclusion in every turn. Uh but rarely do I have an opportunity as a person of student of color to see it in action. And this was one of the times where I can generally say that um I was able to see and see it not just in action, but as a final result cuz we can all put on a show and engage students
066and blah blah blah. But getting that in the data is not always that easy. So, for me that was that's the powerful piece. Thank you. I [clears throat] can go next. Uh my name is Taylor Bowman. I'm a secondary teacher at Hatch. Um and really just like everyone has said here, like the impact that Bridges made in just a short amount of time that we piloted was so profound. Um I thought that the kids were super engaged unlike I've seen when teaching Eureka or even when we did Amplify. Um I think that in Bridges a big nod is that they can have so much fun with it. It meets students where they are and it does all of that without no technology at all. Like it's all paper pencil. It's all um hands-on. There's a
067lot of manipulatives, especially in second grade. Um and the kids enjoy it. They look forward to doing it. They are making connections with each other. There's a lot of collabor- uh collaboration, a lot of discussion. Um and that at um I didn't have a lot of time where I was the one just teaching. They were learning, they were teaching each other. They were learning and sharing what they were experiencing. Um overall, so I'm definitely glad that we are hopefully working I guess no choice, I'm next. >> [laughter] >> Uh my name's Sheila Gallegos. I'm the instructional coach at Longfellow. So, specifically for my role, I've been able to see it across all grade levels. So, seeing how it kind of builds on top of each other. Um and as we kind of go into next
068year, if we go through with it, see how it's going to be implemented. You're able to see how as one year finishes, especially in Number Corner going into the next year, a lot of those skills that you've already done the previous year are recycled and you're continually getting that uh those skills hit for previous grade levels, but integrating it in new ways. Um so, that's a really cool piece. Um another thing that I was able to notice is engagement, obviously in K2, but also in 3-5, especially with Number Corner. Um a lot of teachers were nervous about doing Number Corner, bringing calendar in, cuz a lot of um the intermediate grades aren't necessarily doing that before. But as they started it, they realized a lot of students were having fun. They were taking ownership. Um
069I was in a classroom where the students were leading it themselves. So, they are really participating in the math, engaging, and talking with each other, which is a great thing that teachers like to see and the students are enjoying as well. All right. We do have one more coach in the back. Linda, wave your hand, Linda. Is there anything you'd like to share Yeah, that we can >> [laughter] >> Sorry, I came in late. I was at Irving for my son's first play. Sorry. I'm here. Um I'm the coach at Catch, and I was on the math curriculum committee. Um I'm a math person. That's That's my favorite thing, and I am so thrilled um about Bridges. I think it's going to be really great for our district. Everything everyone said, but I think the
070other thing I also um help lead MTSSA um at our school, and it really hits like every area of the diamond. Um it has a really great intervention [clears throat] piece um to help kids who are struggling that goes along with the curriculum, but then it also has um concept quests for kids who are already working above grade level. And it's not like just um here's the next grade level stuff or um boring worksheets. You really have to think to do well on these. Um it's really engaging. Um I you know, was giving my son some of them at home and like, "Hey, try this for me. Like, how what do you think?" And he really liked it. He said it'd be better if it was on the iPad, and I said, "Well, I >>
071[laughter] >> like it better because it's not." And he's like, "Because it has this map on it, and it's really grainy." He's like, "If I could just click there and zoom in on it." You know, like he really wants that piece. But besides that, he rated it [clears throat] four and a half stars. Um but it really makes the kids think, and there it just thinks about every single component of a student's math education, and I think we're going to be able to meet all of our kids' needs with it. So, I'm really pleased with this selection. And one more thing I just want to say. I just think after hearing Taylor talk, I feel like for COVID we obviously had to make a whole new way of learning, which included slides and all the
072things. And I feel like [cough] this curriculum [clears throat] brings us back to the basics. Kind of like you said, you're a throwback. I'm a throwback, too. So, it brings us back to the basics of learning without, you know, I mean the most visual you have is the anchor charts. That's what I grew up on, anchor charts. So, it just brings us back to the the tried and true. It brings us back to where, you know, our origin and how, you know, most effective teaching is. Thank you all so much. Okay, for the sake of time, we're going to fly through these final slides. >> Yeah, so these are just some examples of the responses that we got from the student surveys. So, just wanted to highlight the lesson components. You can see that some
073of the teachers talked about the concept quest, number corner, the workplaces, which is the games, and then they really highlighted that some of their favorite things were all those hands-on, the manipulatives, the cubes, the boards, all of those kinds of things. And then these are some of the comments from the family survey, really emphasizing the hands-on nature of the program, enthusiasm for math just being increased, enjoyment of just doing math today. All right, and so this brings us to the end of our presentation where we ask for the money. So, >> [laughter] >> this is the projected budget and our next steps. So, this is it. So, on the left side, you'll see that we are outlining all of the student and teacher resources that will come with Bridges, as well as the cost of
074the teacher and student resources. You'll also see that the teacher resources are a one-time purchase. We purchased it once, and that's it. The student resources, there are consumable. I believe they mentioned the three workbooks. So, those are the books that will be on a one-year subscription, and we would have to renew those every year. At the bottom on the side, you'll see that the professional learning that comes year one with Math Learning Center is all complimentary. So, we won't have to pay for that next year, which is great. Um Um another cost savings to the district is underneath that, which is a subscription non-renewal, which is Zearn. We've had Zearn in the district for quite some time. Um as a math committee, um we voted that it isn't necessary moving into a new year with
075Bridges. So, we will not renew that subscription going into next year. Um and on the right side, um you'll see that there are a lot of organizational supplies. So, one thing that we found in our pilot year is that um there are a lot of resources that come with Bridges. And it's really important that teachers have the tools that they need in order to organize them appropriately in their classrooms. So, we've outlined um various supplies that would be needed for the organization of this. And um our grand total is $532,558.27. Um down to the 27 cents. So, um that is our ask of the board. And so, um our if this is approved, our next steps in our timeline consist of this. From May until July, we'll be working on our plan for next year.
076How do we adopt this resource? What is the professional learning that's mapped out for the year? Um in addition to that, it's important that we make sure that within our daily schedule, there's enough time um to incorporate this resource along with um the new resource that we've adopted for ELA. working through that now. Um and then of course, we would work through purchasing the teacher and student resources. Going into May through August, um we want to make sure that our scope and sequence is updated and we're covering all the standards. Um we'll provide our initial professional learning in August. Um actually, we'll provide a session in July for teachers who are interested in learning about it sooner. And then we'll follow up um during one of our August Institute days. Um during the school year
077from October to June, we'll continue that ongoing professional learning and coaches and coaching sessions, and then we will also provide an opportunity for our families to come out and learn about the resource. We know it's important for them to know how to support their students at home, so we will do that as well. And finally, April through June, we will start thinking about the next school year. What does year two look like in terms of our professional learning and coaching support? How might we modify the scope and sequence? And then, how is this resource having an impact on our student learning? So, we would like to take a look at that as well. All right. So, that concludes our presentation. We're just going to open it up for the board for questions. So, thank you.
078I just want to say I'm so excited to see you guys pick this one cuz just from like the minor research behind the scenes, I did feel like this was integrative and manipulative. It was back to foundational skills and like interacting with math. Um the only wonder was actually for those that piloted it, um how long did it take you to feel confident in teaching Bridges so that way we kind of know maybe for the teachers listening, you know, what does that look like? Honestly, I'm looking forward to doing it from the beginning because I do feel like um the organization that wrote it clearly thinks like a teacher. When you follow like when you dive into the way the binders are presented, they have a logic to them, right? They have tables, and once
079you get used to the tables, the tables will tell you what is from the kit materials, and it's labeled as exactly the same thing that's on the little baggies. So, it's important not to lose the little things that are in the baggies. But like once you get that logic, that part didn't take more than a couple of weeks. But I do think that being able to start from the beginning of the year would make it much more clear where it's going and having the background knowledge. It's always hard jumping in in the middle because you realize you're saying things to the kids that they don't have the background knowledge for. Right, so I don't know that I can say, "Oh, yeah, I felt super comfortable with that." But pretty quickly you can get the layout
080of the binders and then it feels like it's walking you through things. I'll just say at the end of the pilot, you guys were given the option. I sent the email and said, "You all your team has to agree. You can do what you want, but what are you going to do?" Everybody said Bridges. Like they had the option to go back to here or go do this. Everybody said Bridges. So I think I can give you guys some kudos for being a good pilot. I'm confident. Got that confidence. If I may add on to that, it does feel overwhelming. I have to be honest, when we received all of the manipulatives and then the booklets and the binders, we had to put all that stuff together and we're like, "Oh my goodness, we have
081to go from here to here and get these kids where they're at and make sure that we are following all these guidelines, you know, standards and all that." So it was overwhelming. Um but I do have to agree that once I had those binders together, I spent some time and I read through it, it does it flows once you get So I want to say yeah, I agree, maybe a few weeks or so. So that's what when I was making my comments about the question that we had, um we would need a good training and just really time to kind of delve in there and um read about the you know, look into the binders and the booklets of what the kids are going to get and just kind of organize ourselves so we can
082get ready. Cuz I think I agree, that's why I had mentioned it. I wish we would have started this one first instead of the other one to kind of, you know, have a few more months in the number corner. But that's was my take when I first got it and mind you, my mind is two languages, so I was like, "Oh my god, okay, let's do this." So overwhelming was my word. Um and overstimulated, but once I got the hang of it, I was like, "Okay, let's do this." And I think that was >> [laughter] >> Yeah, that that consensus across the board. >> Yeah. Um as a building leader, I think that teachers were really overwhelmed having the stuff The the ELA curriculum, making that shift and then especially piloting because you start with
083one curriculum and then you have to shift and quick move into the other one. So, I think it'll um be really helpful to see them starting it off at ground zero and just building it from there um at the beginning of the year. But again, having a lot of them that time um and space to be able to do that. >> And to add on to that, the organizational materials are huge. I was looking at those Michael's drawers last night thinking like, "Ooh, $60 on my wish list. Like, that's awesome." But it is like there's so many materials that if it becomes overwhelming when you don't have a place to put each thing and really start your system from the first day. So, that was a really big ask from teachers during our meeting was
084for that. And then the time to to look into it as well. I just have one follow-up to that only because um this goes to just my experience. So, I did get to work with Dr. Lawrence and your team when you guys were putting together all the [cough] the reading materials at the start of the year. And so, one thing that I was wondering is in terms of timing, will this company be able to deliver if we approve now, you know, and and then could we is there an opportunity to support your team to also put those kits together in advance or do you feel like that's something that had to be done for the reading or ELA materials because it was late? So, we will always accept help when it comes to organizing materials.
085I think we were all surprised by the CKLA materials and how many boxes came. Um so, yes, we would submit the order right away um and most likely we will start receiving the shipment late July, early August. So, um we will certainly have a plan in terms of how we're going to organize and distribute, but we will also also lean on our schools to be able to assist as well. So, and CKLA invites. CKLA was shifting to a new updated version and so that delayed the materials, which we wouldn't have in this case. >> And Bridges is clearly labeled. Box one, box two. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But they do need to be organized once they're all but We accept help. >> Yes, we always do. >>
086[laughter] >> May I ask if you did you have I I do, thank you. Um I have two questions both related to confidence. So, the first is will there be time for the teachers who piloted this to share things such as we'll have a lot of little manipulatives and here's how we organize them and just also lessons learned over the course. And the second piece is um I was really excited to hear the that the look at students of color and at um female students or female presenting students because one of the big things that happens is confidence drop in fourth and fifth grade and we we know this. So, I was curious given that so much of this was, you know, students were leading this, students were jumping in, students were talking together in
087groups, how much you saw was facilitated specifically and intentionally by Bridges and how much of that was teacher add-on and were you seeing that engagement kind of overcome some of those students who might be starting to get quieter and and and lose that confidence. So, your first part of the question I think we'll be able to answer and then we'll turn it over to any teacher who'd like to answer the second part. So, in terms of um providing teachers time to talk about this, um our math curriculum committee, they are the champions for this work and what's great is that we had representation across the district. So, there are teachers um at pretty much each school who's got who went through the process and will be able to champion it and support it at each
088school. Um and there'll be opportunities during professional learning throughout the year for that engagement to happen as well. So, yes, we'll be intentional about that. >> have something. The instructional coaches, we have two here um today, but we also had a lot of, uh, membership on the math committee, uh, as well as, uh, usually with anything that comes through core instruction, teaching and learning, it goes through the coaches very shortly. First, I think if I don't [clears throat] want to say first, principals and APs, but They do get very involved. We value their expertise. Yes, we do. We do. We value their expertise, exactly. So, uh, they definitely are on the cuz they're on the front lines. So, they are also ready to be, uh, champions for this resource and feel very confident in it.
089Yeah, we, uh, most of the schools, like I said, uh, every school, almost every school had representation and, uh, those teachers are, you know, telling their colleagues, like starting to like, here's the bulletin board you need and this is how I've organized it and we're all talking about it in BLT and starting to prepare people for like, you know, if this is approved and we adopt it, like what what you'll need. Uh, and our coaching PLC, like we have a day reserved. One of the big things that came out when we were selecting this committee was just that teacher prep time and how time consuming it is. So, one of the things that we're doing in May, we have like a whole day blocked off and we're getting print shop orders sent off for like
090the first few units and then we'll continue to do that work. So, every teacher isn't individually figuring out what needs to be printed, what needs to be laminated. We're going to like try to, you know, organize all of that work for teachers. So, we've got some systems things in place to do all of that because we know teachers need time to just be like reading the manuals and figuring that out. I appreciate that. Yeah. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of all of that. Yeah, we, you know, we know that one of the most important things is like the roll out and that teachers feel supported and know that they can do it. Because it it, you know, when they get all those boxes delivered, it can be like, oh my gosh, what, you know, and they're
091thinking about their new students and meeting them and writing name tags and all of those things. So, we want to make sure we're doing as much of the work behind the scenes as we can. Thank you. The second part of your question >> Yeah, was that student comfortable? >> Comfortable, yes. I mean, I can see a little bit about it. I think I like I had mentioned in the um my response, um I am very used to having small group and talking out with students and having those math talks. So, a lot of the things I helped them understand is you know, how do you solve word problems? Talking it out. Do you agree, disagree? Using those um sentence starters to help them in Spanish and also [cough] in English. Uh with this one, um
092it kind of helped me just take even for further steps back and just really just be that facilitator. I do, of course, background my vocabulary, you know, what's the objective? This is what we're going to do. But, at that point, um and I let them have it. I mean, I noticed I have a lot more people having great [cough] conversations, especially my girls. I have fourth graders. And I see the esteem their self-esteem growing. And I do see it in them in this one um with some of the activities and games. So, I felt more >> [clears throat] >> The more I saw that, I was just the one, "Okay, this is what we're doing today." And I put it up. Have at it. And they'll go get the things. They held us accountable. And
093it made me more proud and more comfortable to say, "Okay, then we can move on." And and I like the fact that once I got to know my kiddos and I had a really good relationship with them, I don't want to say high and low, but I want to say the ones that needed a little bit more help, then those were hanging out with the ones that knew what they had to do. You know what I'm saying? And I was able to group them in that way. And it just it just flowed a lot nicer. And I did see that a whole lot more in this program, you know, without using a lot of, you know, media or internet. I just focused on the book, manual, manipulatives, and let's let's do it. And it was
094okay to be loud. It was okay to be loud and get messy. And you know, I just felt like you know, comfortable for me. So, felt nice. Thank you. Venus. Oh, wait. I think there was one more answer. Sorry. right. Yeah, I I'm excited about your question because rarely does anyone ask that. Um I think we know from Joe Bowler's research that uh there's no such thing as a math person, right? So, I think uh that a lot of what I saw uh was more of shifting the mindset than than a a whole new way of teaching math. So, for me that mindset is intentional by the publisher. Um I was I'm particularly interested in that myself, like how do you address Everyone talks about, "Oh, this addresses students of color and how?" But nobody
095can really tell you why. I think it it just my experience, I think that it's all about mindset. So, it uh it seemed to me specifically in kindergarten, it allowed students to to shift from um trying to find the correct answer to being able to think about it. So, that mind shift, at least in kindergarten, is where you kind of began to change um the trajectory of your the story of who you tell yourself you are about math. So, I think it's it's intentionally there by the publisher. I don't know, maybe I just saw it that way, but I think it's there both from the teacher and the Thank you both. Um your wealth of enthusiasm about um this math curriculum is is really refreshing. I remember I'm glad to see it. My kids went
096through math with Eureka Math, and I did not like it. Mostly because I felt like I couldn't help them because they were learning math differently than I had learned math, and they kept telling me I was doing it wrong. So, [clears throat] having said that, perhaps the beginning of the year, even mid-year next school year is not the time, but is there a plan to invite parents in so that they can see what this curriculum is because they are going to help their kids at home. Um and just to have that exposure and understanding and excitement about getting back to some of those basics. I think um preschool, my kids went to Montessori. And one of the things that I've always said is two things Maria Montessori got right is how to teaching kids how
097to write and teaching kids math. And having manipulatives and that practical practice, I guess, of math is really really great. And I And the parents can do that at home. You can, you know, use anything to help your kids um count and and you can make up manipulatives at home to a certain degree. Um so I'd be excited to see those sort of math parent nights. Yes, absolutely. It will happen. Yes. I can't speak to the older grades, maybe somebody else can, but I've been really intrigued by the homework. Each week for the whole week, there's one page in kindergarten that's the home connection. And it kind of summarizes that whole week of learning except instead of saying practice these questions, it says, "Here's a connection in the world and here's a connection through art."
098And it gives families something to do with their kid rather than saying, "Answer these questions with your kid." Um and so I don't know if anybody else could speak to the older grades, but I think that that also gives families an in to discuss math and probably if you start with a kid in kindergarten and work through it, it should pull families along as opposed to just being thrown into something completely. I mean, as of in the fourth grade, I did notice some of the word problems did have like, you know, real-life connections and they used examples of what they're familiar with and what they could relate to. So, I thought that was pretty helpful um with some of the games. So, it does have some of that. Like I said, it kind of really
099it was really overwhelming at first, but um I did see most of that in the word problems that they were working on. And they were like I said, they were in Spanish, so a lot of it was us working through it and understanding the vocabulary and things of that nature, but um I think they did good. I saw it I saw some of that and I think it helped them. We had really good conversations, you know? So, that's that. >> [clears throat] >> Um my second, I think it's more of a comment than a question. Well, it's a question, but there's some comment in there. I'm thinking I'm trying. I'm thinking about the bridges from elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school. And one of the things that I've heard from elementary
100all three groups of teachers is the through line. And making sure that kids have those foundational pieces so that they can that math builds upon itself. And having those foundational pieces so they can go to the next level. I say all that to to to suggest, I guess, that maybe the fourth and fifth grade instructional coaches, teachers, well, I mean, you're not a grade instructional coach. I can piggyback off you cuz my question's actually connected to that. Cuz I was actually curious if there were any middle school teachers. Yes. >> [clears throat] [gasps] [laughter] >> So, I'm never going to get my question out. So, what I want to know is what I suggest is having a conversation with the middle school teachers to make sure that in that fourth grade year and in that
101fifth grade year, those kids are ready and set for middle school. That's it. Can I just add something? I'm sorry, before >> [laughter] >> No, cuz I think this is going to be an answer to your question. So, last year, as Jennifer mentioned, was our resource review year. And what was great about that year is that we invited the math department chairs to join the committee for that year. They were part of all of the vendor presentations. They understood all of the resources we were reviewing and actually put their stamp of approval >> on the resources that we piloted. So, that was part of the process last year. And we certainly want to continue that partnership with middle school. Thank you. That's great. >> Sorry. I I used to teach middle school math. And so,
102I they're using Connected Mathematics program, CMP. And we used to use that a long time ago, but it's a problem-based program. And Bridges is also a problem-based program. So, it's going to set them up so much better instead of all of a sudden sixth grade like, "Now we need you to think." Right? Um so much of Eureka is leading the the kids through things. And um Bridges is going to help address some of that. And even um we had a second and a fourth grade teacher at our school pilot it. And when I was in the fourth grade classroom, um like during the number corner, they were having to like write equations and all sorts of things. And I taught fourth grade math for for a long time. And we never got that deep into
103those things. So, we like it like it really pushes the bar. Like I think through this program the kids are very much going to be ready for middle school. Thank you. Did I answer your question or did you Yeah, the only other um follow-up I had to that was uh I was just cu- I don't I'm not familiar enough with what we use for acceleration like in the end of fifth grade to the sixth grade. So, I was kind of curious um if folks looked at that as a component for this as well. But I don't I'm not I'm familiar enough with what we use for acceleration. So, for fifth grade acceleration, well, in terms [clears throat] of the um access to algebra program that happens in fifth grade for students who are interested, um
104we utilize CMP3. And so, that is because, you know, they would be skipping that unit or that year of instruction. So it's important that they're exposed to that before progressing into the middle school. So that's what's utilized. Yeah, and it would continue to be a transition. But yeah, I I think everybody else has questions and that. So thank you. But I really appreciate everyone's insight and you guys giving us your time. Thank you. Thank you. Could I just flag related to that? You will need to review the tests. That's it. That's I'm just flagging a question. It's just review the process for acceleration. Yes, [laughter] sorry. That's it. Yes, that's it. No no response needed. I'm just flagging. For the record, it's I know. I know. But the tests will have to change based on
105this. So yeah. And this was to your point overwhelming. >> [laughter] >> But I would So I don't want to belabor, but I just wanted to thank you for your comments. Um it's very rare that I meet a teacher that I'm like, I really wish my kid had that teacher. And so thank you for your very thoughtful and honest observations about how we throw around equity and inclusion and all those words. Um and so I would like to see because on slide seven you guys talk about girls and and uh students of color, but to not have any data um that would have been nice to see like the data even if it was qualitative um to say this is what we heard from some of those girls being a girl of color. Um that
106uh I didn't I didn't enjoy math. Um I'm fortunate that my twins actually have a phenomenal teacher at Brooks. I don't know if you know Mr. House. Um and my son had him and he's great and they their confidence has grown so much, but I think that's one of the unspoken things. Um and so the way that you talked about it and the way you described it so like I could tell the passion in you. Um and so I really appreciate that. Thank you. And thank all of you because I know this is not probably where you want to be at 8:30 on a Tuesday. So thank you all for coming out and uh sharing this really insightful uh presentation with us. Can I give a shout out really quickly to Dr. Lawrence and Kristen
107and Jennifer Thank you. They like kept my team in the loop. They sent out their math pilot updates and all of the materials and where they should be and all the things. So, kudos to you all your team for just taking the school across the finish line. Thank you. We appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you. All right, sustainability on-site solar contract. They're not cooperating. Yeah, yeah, it's falling here. Sorry. >> [laughter] >> We're all good. All right. We're following suit. We will we will >> [applause] >> roll it out All right, so appreciate the opportunity to come and give an update on solar bid and process and I'll introduce Aaron Raftry. You got it. Yep. And let him kind of go through and provide an update and answer some questions at the
108end. Yeah. All right. Okay, change this and I'll Um Okay. Okay, hi everyone. I'll I'll be brief and if you have questions we can spend time on that. Otherwise, the presentation itself will be brief. Um just have a short uh a short uh summary of the uh the bid process. Sorry. I lost it. There we go. There we So, we uh re-released the RFP back in February. At our recommendation, there's four schools included on the uh the the RFP that was released. At our recommendation, we listed the two larger schools as the base scope of work, and then listed the two smaller schools as add-or-options. The reason for that is we were afraid the two smaller schools may drag down the return on investment of the overall project, as well as limit some of the
109potential respondents. So, we released it that way. We were very happy with the uh turnout for the uh solicitation. We had 13 firms uh attend the pre-proposal meeting. We received five high-quality proposals. Importantly, this is not a request for bids where you're you're required to go with a low bid. This is a request for proposals where price is certainly one of the important uh criteria, but so is the technical capabilities of the firm, the overall qualifications, and and experience. The uh we put together a pretty comprehensive scoring evaluation matrix document, we call it. This is just kind of a the summary of the results. You see the five firms that submitted the proposals. The two middle columns show the rank and the uh score of the firms. The top-ranked proposer is a firm named General
110Energy. They scored quite a bit higher than any of the other firms. With that said, we did bring in the three top-ranked proposers for interviews uh in conjunction with the uh district administration, as well as district architect and district engineer, as well, participated in the interviews. Um is that it's Pricing was just Pricing was just one of the scoring criteria, it wasn't the main, but obviously this is taxpayer dollars, pricing is very important. So, we did include the pricing results here, as well. The main point here is the uh in in the solar industry is pretty standard to look at dollars per watt as a way to kind of standardize across proposals. So that's the column I suggest looking at for the pricing results. See General Energy was at $2.09 per watt. The next lowest
111ranked uh excuse me, the next lowest price was $2.64 per watt. So General Energy had some pretty pretty aggressive pricing. Um some of the more aggressive pricing we've seen in in our recent RFPs uh for other districts as well. We included this is a sample pro forma showing the project's uh economics. I know it's super small so you probably can't even see that but uh yeah, I don't know. Generally speaking um the idea here is to show kind of how the various incentives financial incentives will be uh flowing to the district. There's a a one-time rebate from ComEd that'll pay out the first year of the project's put in place. There's a one-time federal uh incentive that'll pay out say within 12 months or so when the project's put in place depending on when the
112project is installed. That pays out in the following uh year's tax season which is why that just some uh >> [snorts] >> uncertainty in the exact payment of of of when that comes in after the project's installed. And then there's some state incentives that pay out over a 7-year primarily over a 7-year time horizon with the final payment at year 15. So slower to pay in the state incentives. Overall project economics uh you're looking at a bottom four-year payback or so um when you factor in maintenance costs we estimated about four and a half year payback. So it's a very in our experience for solar projects four and a half year simple payback is pretty uh pretty attractive. Usually we're at six years or so uh at least. So our overall recommendations um like I
113said we interviewed the top three ranked proposers. We are recommending recommending General Energy Corporation uh for both the base scope of work as well as the adder options. So, General Energy has agreed to hold the $2.09 per watt even for the two smaller schools. Um which is which which is not very common. So, we're very happy with that with that result. Overall system size is a little under 900 kW, a little under uh 1,000 MW hours per year. Total project cost is a bit under 1.83 million. The project will qualify for a 50% federal incentive. That's a couple There's a couple extra bonus uh amounts in there including the project's been designed by General Energy to at the district's uh request The project's been designed by General Energy to uh include domestic content which allows
114it to qualify for some additional federal incentives if you factor in that 50% number. And like I said earlier, the overall simple payback is is about 4 and 1/2 years or so which we're we're very very happy [clears throat] with. A couple of things I would add. Um so, that number um they will do a structural analysis. They'll get on the site. They'll do all of that. And that was another question that we had. And if the size changes, what does that look like for the dollar per watt? And they continue will retain that same price and afford that. And as Aaron said too, from those adder sites, some of the other vendors, they did not retain that $2.09. It was in some some places almost more than double the cost for the smaller sites
115uh with that. So, again, there a lot of things that as they go through there, uh we do expect the the size to go down, so the costs to go down for the total uh which also then the incentives and and what you get back on that pro forma will also go down a little bit uh in line with that. It has been reviewed. I don't know if Patrick I know we talked before, the contract's been reviewed by Aaron and their team and then also our district attorneys. So, that is at that final stage. We've gone back and forth with General Energy. And had good feedback on that. So, that contract that is shared and also included in the future communication is a final state to move forward with what we expect to do or
116look to do on we'll set March May 12th. And also built into the master facility plan these dollars. When are when will they be Break ground. Break Not break ground. That's what I meant. When is this slated? Yeah, so all four of these, so three of them were slated to happen after this summer's roof work. Yeah, then once we brought Julianne into this year, they will all we'll start doing the timeline of that as soon as the roofs are done. We can start working through what can happen when nobody's in the buildings or students are in there and then what can happen after that. We'll work to do go through that. Also engage with Baker Tilly cuz all the incentives and that stuff. So, we've already had a conversation with them. They're getting a proposal
117to us of what that would look like to help with the tax work. And deadlines for that we really we have to have some stuff done. We've talked about before about July 4th of this year. But if we have well, as long as we have all of that done, we get 4 years to do the project, which again we don't expect to take that long. If we wouldn't meet that deadline, we'd have to have it done by the end of 2027, so December 31st. But again, we expect the project because we're bumping the the roofs to Julianne, we're asking the board to approve that tonight. To be able to be done by then anyways, but regardless of the incentives. So. Can you do this even in inclement weather? Meaning like the roof, the panel installation,
118are are you are you limited by We got to make sure that we do this in Before winter, is that what you mean? Yeah, the the warmer months or Yeah, the the rooftop solar or even ground mount solar for that matter, uh for that matter, it has to be three-season work. Um so, yeah, there will there will be there there will be a little bit on the front end there's some pre-approvals required from ComEd that can take some time. So, I think I think it'll be a little uh you know, it might be a little bit of a stretch to try and get it in before the winter, but but um but that's certainly, you know, as all parties are aligned to try and get it done as quickly as possible. Yeah. >> I just
119thought it might affect your timelines, that's what I was saying. Yeah, and I think again, we'll go into we we're expecting it to be the end of summer to be able to go into next year to be able to have it done. So, and then we'll just see what the weather is like and what winter brings this year. >> Like you wouldn't have to stop in December because of the weather and then pick it back up in like There may be some things I guess they might be doing prior to it then see what the weather goes and then they do. I I again, we would be able to pull a projected timeline of what they're looking at once we get Okay. all this stuff done. Approval and that get these setups and all of
120that stuff going. Cuz there's a piece of that to get to that July 4th, there's a they have to procure some of the equipment and have 10% of that paid and all of that done prior to the project. Yep. So. There are certain things that have to be done by this July 4th. Okay. Nancy? Uh just [clears throat] a comment to be aware when you're putting this in that it would be nice to gather information to share with students um and families but especially students as part of science um because this is an important initiative from a science perspective as well and and um anyway, yeah, just wanted to throw that out. And they they'll have like a display that we can follow all the metrics and data and be able to feed that out
121to them to public and do all of that type of stuff too. So, those are all things that were kind of part of proposals and some of those presentations. So. Yep. Thank you. Any questions, Becky? Thank you. I have no questions on my end and we'll be actually voting on this on the 12th. Nice. Yes. All right. Thank you guys. Thank you for having me. I'll read the motion for the consent agenda. >> I move that the Board of Education of Park Elementary School District 97 approve the consent agenda as presented. Stark. >> [laughter] >> Yes. Mr. Johnson. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Mr. Strobel. Yes. All right. Action item 8.1. We're going to tune in some of the Michael Show. Um master facilities authorization summer 2027 and 2028 planning. Um I'll just look at this.
122Oh, we have a motion, but um she >> So, this is presented the last I mean, I'm going to say the last two last two, but previously before that uh again, two meetings ago we talked really specifically about what are the recommendations. Recommendation C and some of these added things again, the elevator and uh um the solar is being a [snorts] piece of that. So, all of that's what goes into this over the next 10 years. And as we talked then on the financial side, there's no decision point that's needed to be made on a financial piece to say are we going to do the 10-year and the 15-year of of D7 or how that looks. And also looking at the first 5 years. And that's our real big focus. We wouldn't have to do
123additional dollars for that D7 until year six and I believe it was year seven or eight um for that. So, like if things change uh whether financial situation with the district or whatever, then that would change how much is needed for for D7. And even those projects as we get closer to that same 5 years. So, the ask in the the conversation for today would be to move for essentially the master facility plan, the 10-year plan, and dollars up to that $92 million. Is that what this was the option that was recommended by by FAC, and then the funding options will be where we'd come back and decide by that February date that they talked about of how it would be of the 10- or the 15-year any of those. That's not a decision point.
124The biggest piece now, moving to this allows us to start the design conversation for 27, summer 27, which is May and June. But it will ultimately be up to 92 million. Yeah, over the 10 years is the projected plan up to And we'll come again and it's going to be annually, like just what we would do with this summer, like here's what happened, here's what we spent, here's where we're at, and here's any types of changes, but at least the plan and for us to continue moving forward. Um I move. All right. I move that the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 Board of Education approve the 10-year master facilities plans for projects in the amount up to $92 million as presented on March 24th and April 14th, 2026. That will also include annual reviews
125and updates to the board. Second. Perez? Yes. Kim? Yes. Orr? Yes. O'Donnell? Yes. Hurtado? Yes. Sperling? Absent. Carney, absent. Motion passes. 8.2 Julian Middle School roof bid. I can straight the motion and ask about the questions. Does anyone have any questions? I move that the board I move that the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 Board of Education approve Knickerbocker Roofing and Paving Company Incorporated for the Julian Roofing project in the amount of $1,269,000 as presented on April 14th, 2026 and included in the master facilities plan and work. Second. Perez? Yes. Carney? absent. Sperlak's absent. Kim? Yes. Urgo-Johnson? Yes. Moore? Yes. Rostker? Yes. Motion passes. Are there questions about Responsive Classroom? I do have one quick question on 8.3 contracts exceeding $25,000 for those watching. Uh Responsive Classroom professional development, will this be an annual
126expense? No. Okay. Um and how long does this contract The contract is for 2026-2027, but what have I remember we were talking about there'll be teachers who teach the teachers It's for the initial training. Okay. Okay. Uh well, I think you answered >> Title I funding? Some of it is being covered by Title II. Oh, II. Um that was all my questions. Anyone else have any questions? Okay. Uh Well, you're right, Commissioner. I I move that the Oak Oak Park Elementary School District 97 Board of Education approve the professional services contract with Responsive Classroom in the amount of $54,500 for the 2026-2027 school year. Second. Urgo-Johnson? Yes. Moore? Yes. For Rex? Yes. Kim? Yes. Rostker? Yes. Sperlak's absent. Carney absent. Motion passes. 8.4 2026 annual audit Baker Tilly engagement. I move that the move that
127the Board of Education of Oak Park Well, I'll ask people for questions or comments. Sorry. I assume people We usually don't. I motion that the Board of Education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 approve the engagement letter with Baker Tilly US LLP of Oak Park, Illinois for the FY 2026 annual financial audit and single audit. Second. Moore? Yes. Urgo-Johnson? Yes. Kim? Yes. Sperlak is absent. Carney is absent, Yes. Washburn? Yes. Washburn? 9.1, uh school year 2017 teacher leader roles. Yes, we are um I would like to call up Natasha and Louise. And we also represent the other half of the committee. Gabby, she's not here, and Kelly Good, which were our OPTA members um as part of the committee. And so part of the committee, as I just said, we had Natasha, Louise, and
128myself representing the admin team. And then we also had Kelly and Gabby um that represents the OPT leadership team really coming together to evaluate and review our current teacher leadership roles, and then come together to make recommendations for um SY27 teacher leadership roles. And that brings us to tonight to make our recommendation for SY27 teacher leadership roles. As well, as Patrick was mentioning, like there's a lot there's specific things that we do as a as a committee. We uh review the we the role descriptions and the duties. And we had an opportunity to engage with each other, you know, uh uh uh uh uh uh tailoring up. Uh we really assess what kind of impact we're expecting from these positions. We had an opportunity to also review the application process that goes with that for
129teachers to apply for these roles. And really establish a uh how we suppose we we monitor this work and really the impact that it has and we set up guidelines and timelines with that and then we got also opportunity to not only see for the upcoming year but also see what the year or long-term processes on these on these on these roles. So it's a lot of really collaboration and really opportunities to come together and figure that figure out things in a collaborative way. So a couple of years ago or actually right right after I started we talked about the more intentional about identifying what the impact of these roles were and so we identified that we were going to do have visible work products and so basically the the teachers would identify things that
130they had done that they felt like had an impact or demonstrated their collaboration with their colleagues and so um we did implement that. Those are collected every trimester from all of the teacher leadership roles and those are submitted to their supervisors and then the supervisors review and we go through that process. Additionally this year we we created a survey with OPTA and we worked on trying to get feedback from the staff about how their staff felt how we felt the staff was responding in those roles. Did they feel like they were having an impact and what that might have looked at looked like. So they identified that core they felt like they were having a big impact in core instruction, with our focal cohort students, adult practices, SEL and then other supports that are needed
131across the district. So based upon the survey results we identified some positives as well as some areas to improve upon and so the areas that we found these are just some snippets of different comments that were submitted as part of the survey and so staff were feeling like they're having a direct impact on students. They're also feeling like they have more voice and they're more involved and feel like they can better support initiatives of the district. And then these leadership These are leadership opportunities. These give them time the ability to facilitate meetings, to collaborate with their staff, and do problem-solving with their colleagues. Some areas of improvement were identified as needing more clarity in the roles. So in some situations, a particular role might a job description might have these are your duties as part
132of that job, but then you may have you may have a leadership role where you're facilitating a meeting where you may actually have been involved in that. So just identifying what are the differences between your actual role in the district versus what your position in the district is in regard to what your day-to-day duties are. Um we also talked about creating more consistency across the buildings. So different people, you know, will say we have one um role across each of the buildings. Are they being used in the same way? Do they have the same duties and responsibilities? Um we're finding that there are some differences in how those roles are being utilized across the district. And then um also strategic alignment of some of the roles. So um based on any changes, do we need
133to update? Did we need to um reduce or increase roles? So those types of things to make sure that we're in alignment with district initiatives and policies. So bear in mind like uh the staff and teacher leadership proposals that we're bringing forward to you in collaboration with our PTA leadership is that in the elementary school building leadership teams, there are no changes. We're going to continue with status quo of the roles. Uh so there's no change on the teacher leadership leadership roles nor the PTA positions and the stipends. So this is they will be consistent to what we have as of now. Regarding about middle school, uh we >> to the real quick? Just to add something on to the elementary schools. It goes back to what Natasha just kind of said, our areas of
134growth. And so, what we spent a lot of time doing was throughout the committee was going through each of the teacher leadership roles and kind of talking about what is the role of the stipend teacher versus the role of like an instructional [clears throat] coach that serves as a MTSS lead, or the role of a student support specialist that serves on the culture and climate team. And so, what is the actual role and what language do we need to clear up with those job descriptions? And then, how as a district are we creating the structures for like how meetings should be ran, what are the topics of those meetings, so that we're making sure that the alignment across all of the schools, their role looks the same at each building. And so, that was a
135huge big discussion around like now we have these roles, how are they looking at how are they being implemented at each building, and what are the structures we're creating to do so. So, sorry, Louis. >> That's okay. Don't worry about it. So, for the middle school, uh in the fifth grade, uh we'll continue with the same roles that we have. But, as you can see, it's going to be a different amount of roles. We're doing some shifting. We still have the same number, but I use we are uh shifting some of the work in others uh spaces where it makes more sense. We have more balance of support for the for each of the sites on the work that needs to happen. So, we are staying in the same uh amount of uh stipend uh
136for as this year. And this is uh where we are right now. With that, we're looking about how the leaders are really engaging and leading in all the teachers in this work. >> [clears throat and cough] >> So, that's where you see some the intentionality behind about where they're needed as we are adjusting things along the way. Yes, so we also have some district teacher leadership roles. So, those district teacher teacher leadership roles are listed. You will see that we have two additional roles and staff that we're recommending for those roles. And so, one is the sustainability champion and that aligns with our sustainability policy and ensuring that we have a representative from each school that's participating in that work. And then this year we shifted away from This is our last year right now
137of having a full-time teacher mentor in those spaces. One, we are not moving to hire outside staff, but we also have to make sure that for the few people that are hired this year as well as people finishing the second year program have some support. And so, these three teacher leadership roles in that space would actually be going back to a previous model that we had where we had teacher leadership that actually worked with the mentors in each building. And so, then they will work with the mentors in each building and then they'll still facilitate the monthly meetings for new staff. We had a lot of success this year with some additional national board teachers stepping up and participating in the teacher mentor space. And so, again more in regard to the teacher leadership the
138district space, we still have the professional learning committee. This has an asterisk because this is technically similar to Ed Council where it is a separate clause in the contract. And so, it's been listed here, but we wanted to make sure that we're clear that that's what makes that particular um committee separate. Um and then we also have B top. And so we're continuing that work and um look forward to sharing more. As we look at the overall summary prepared comparing SY26 teacher leadership roles to SY27 teacher leadership roles um last year or this current year we're currently at 19. Next year we with the two additional roles that Natasha just got done talking about this is sustainability champions and teacher mentors that would take us up to 21. Um the number of teachers serving in
139those um stipend and roles we're going from 196 to 209 and that includes the 10 and the three. And then also the stipend and amount will be increasing by 24,000 from last year. This is our projected timeline. So basically we bring it here, have our conversations, and then the goal would be to bring it back for action at the next board meeting, and then they would actually be released to the staff the day after that. And so the requests um that we would bring forward to the board on May 12 would be um proposing or I'm sorry approving the SY26 SY27 proposed teacher leadership roles at the cost of 663,000. And that is it. Any questions? Ms. Clark-Johnson says she had to wait so long with them. Um I know she's on the line. I
140yeah they asked a couple questions in that Google Doc um about the different positions. I don't think I have any further questions from what I asked. Ms. No question. That's it. Uh just a comment that it would be nice to as you mentioned, the national awards, to have a presentation on that for the next year as well, or at least an update on how that's going. Yes, that's kind of related work. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it went really well. Dr. Perez. I did see um, the purpose and I I felt confident in in that. I think historically there were folks that were always in those same positions and it was kind of an expectation that they would get those positions. So, I feel like positive about us moving towards this idea that anyone could be a
141competitive candidate for the position, not just because you've been in the district for X number of years. >> Yes. So, that is hopefully something that, you know, uh, folks are are able to see through this process. The only other wonder I had was about evaluations. So, similar to other positions, you know, what is the evaluation for someone that is in this position and if that's too much for for that type of role, because it's stipend, [clears throat] it's not their full-time job. I can imagine that that'd be hard to evaluate in just a a few meetings that they participate in. Obviously, there's a lot of behind the scenes. Right. Um, so that's part of the visible work products and so I will say that um, not only do are we reviewing the visible work products
142and even the survey data that's been submitted, but um, if we check attendance, we also follow up. Um, and so we have had people in these roles that were selected, they applied, they select they were selected, but have not received the stipend because they didn't complete the either the visible work products or they haven't been in attendance. Um, and uh, and then the actual evaluation of the role is really a that's what we're trying to get clarity on is what's working, what's not working, and what needs to be improved. And so from there, that's when we really start digging into the description and you know, so we some of the types of changes that Patrick was alluding to was the idea that one of the duties and responsibilities of a particular role, it was saying
143that they were going to lead that work. But actually, they're supporting that work. And so, just how do we make sure that we're actually properly communicating what the expectations of the role are. And when it comes down to a lot of our building leaders, um principals are actually part of those professional learning community meetings at the grade level in which it is almost like they're there to kind of see how this individual is facilitating the meeting. How are they being an active member in the building leadership team? And we're asking questions around just the kind of you said. Is this a good time to pick someone new or tap someone on the shoulder that might be a better lead for this grade level lead or this person that's leading benchmark meetings? Is that the right
144person based on what you are observing in these meetings? So, actually having those conversations with principals around how are you monitoring and evaluating these individuals? And do we need to identify someone else for those positions? Each of your roles have like an approver, [snorts] like somebody who's overseeing and it's a kind of look for that. Look for that. Yeah, and I hope is like for example, MTSS leads if you notice get more money and I do feel like they were the catch-all for all things PD within the building. >> Yes. I can see why they get paid more, but I also feel like that that could be really stressful comparative to some of the other positions. Yeah. And then we also went through the the job saying like it says lead. Well, are they the
145correct person to be leading? Is this the role of the principal or assistant principal? And they're supporting this work because the teacher leadership roles are support to some of the leadership initiatives that are taking place. And so, that kind of helps with that role clarity because that was a lot of the feedback that we were getting is like it feels like a lot Yeah. including my teaching position. So, it's kind of like how are we supporting that role clarity with the leadership team and everyone. And then the last one was the celebration of the champion folks. Like so, I was understanding and maybe this is just for clarification that those sustainability champions were in efforts or trying to replicate some of the successful sustainability programs that were happening like at five where they have like
146a school like lunch opportunity for kids that come and they need to supervision. So, now we're hopefully going to do a trainer of trainers model for that, do you think with the sustainability committee? I see Michael over there in case. Yeah, I don't know Michael if you want to Yeah, so some of it's that but it's also to take like what's going on in the district to like make sure we're pushing out our goals and direction and that is put it is that to create sustainability in the building and what's on where it's not just So, like it comes up in the middle of the building but how do we find that option? We're all over the place. And to be able to tie back to our policy and so, this stuff is the sustainable
147task force type of case all of those types of things to ensure that See all those types of outcome. Implementing recycling program versus like the sports and the yeah. Yep. So, we're working Um just highlighting um some of the feedback we've gotten before about presentations is just like some of the acronyms and the industry speak. Um and so, just if we could like BLT, PBIS, I'm not a educator so, I don't know what a lot of those things mean. I've heard them a few times but I think for folks that are watching it would be really helpful to like kind of spell that out. Um the other thing I was just going to add was I like on oh my crap. Uh I don't know what slide this is. Oh, slide six where we're talking
148about how we monitor and teacher leadership roles in our impact. I I I like that you list all these things out, but it would be really helpful I think for for me as we for myself and if the board disagrees totally fine. But I think like examples of how this is helped and and you know, we get curriculum we get like a lot of testimony about how this has impacted our work and you get to kind of really get a feel for what they're doing and what they're saying. Um The last time we heard about B-TOP it was shortly after it was introduced. We haven't heard anything since. So it's been at least a year if not more than we heard anything that B-TOP is doing. And then how do we know as a board
149like this is not a small drop in the bucket. We're approving a lot of really big dollars in an economy that is so uncertain. And so being that we're always like our federal dollars going to be taken away from us. Is this money going to be taken away from us? That we have to really get focused on those dollars and be able to explain or justify our vote to taxpayers about why we're approving more than half a million dollars. So to just and this is not a criticism, but this is just like a you know, in the future when we're talking about these kind of things like I would love to see and it doesn't have to be like a long video. It doesn't have to be 50 people up here talking about their experiences,
150but just something maybe that we get that's like this is how it has improved me as a first year teacher to have this mentor or this is how being a part of this experience has really helped me. Just that qualitative quantitative data that I think the board has consistently asked for will be super helpful. So that when we're in the supermarket and someone comes up and why did you do that and you're spending all this money we can say these are the impacts and this is how it is improving the student experience. And so we want to bring everything back to the student but just with this I can't I can't tell. >> So I would definitely just kind of say our intent this year was to actually before bringing this was to actually have
151a presentation which we actually invite some of our teacher leadership role teachers actually come in and kind of talk about how their work is impacting logic models impacting that doing exactly what you just said. That was our intent for this year. But our intent like we didn't get a chance to do that but my goal will be next year before this is even presented to actually have another presentation which we're able to kind of bring in some of those individuals and put actions with the titles and how they're interacting with one another with students with adult practices and the school improvement logic model process so that you can actually hear from them those testimonies. And maybe just a few and um And then we won't bring everybody. We'll bring a small sample. And maybe we
152could do we could kind of return to committee of the whole where there's no action but we could kind of get like a update a comprehensive update of a couple of things because I feel like we're we're like yes yes yes and we we trust you guys as the experts to do this but again we want to be we want to be fiscally responsible and so I think just those two things like having an example and then again some of the acronyms and stuff cuz I was like PBIS I'm thinking of PBIS I'm thinking about PBS and I'm like okay what's the the danger so Yeah. No I appreciate that and I think that even as between this meeting and next meeting we can also share some of that survey data with you so that
153then you can actually see the comments from the teachers and where we drew some of these from and so that may actually be helpful as well. Um, I know that you know, our structure has been a little bit different this year where we would normally have high we had highlights of what's been happening in schools and things like that and so um, we did have a V-top um, presentation that we prepared um, like just what was the activity from each school or what was the club from each school or what did they how did they engage students and families and staff? Um, but I we didn't do it completely here because we haven't done the normal school um, updates like we had been in the past. So we can definitely like when we're talking about
154the national board like we'd love to have a conversation about how great it went and what what updates we're looking at for next year so we can continue that good work. Thank you, Jen. >> have one other comment for future planning. Is that okay? Um, it was um, just like the differences in the um, support that's available for middle school like there's a logic model and department leads versus at the elementary school there's a there's a MTSS culture and climate team. So I just wanted to know not right now. I'm going to follow up but just a curiosity uh, about the differences between those different types of support teams based on the grade level. Thank you. Uh, I'm next conversation is food services contract renewal. Michael is the star of the day. Um, two different
155things to you for this. The next two are kind of tied together. Uh one the lunch the student registration fees are all part of the memo. Nothing's changing. Work with Crystal on that. Those general instructional fees are all of that sort of thing. So, the main thing about tonight is just the the IGA with the high school and what that looks like. So. Um All right. So, I will go through this, kind of pull the highlights and everything, and then I have some questions. So, uh worked a lot with Carla and two others who care and Lauren work with us as more green consultants. They've been working with us a lot on the the food waste and case and sustainability task force. So, uh great partners and continue to be those partners as we go
156into the buildings and implement some of these action steps. >> [snorts] >> So, go through a little bit of the work, the IGA details, and some of the actions within that food waste. And I will say with waste and energy, you're kind of hearing like certain things kind of separated, but we'll be pulling all of that stuff together with the sustainability task force. So, here's kind of an overarching with the policy. Here are some what we're looking at and what our actions over the next few years will be. Uh this aligns with our transitional goals and our resources, so you can connect with that. Um And to center in with what we shared a little about a year ago, this is that uh group A and the food waste gardens that we're focused on, um
157and that mirrors with the case framework and the sustainability task force and subgroups that come with that. Um and as I go through this and what we talk about in [laughter] the end is like we're working with to look at the food and the options for our students. So, we don't have some of those like composting waste, like right? We want them to eat the food and to have that. So, that's the end goal of this and how we're collaborating with high school and collaborating with the different partners to to do that. So, um but in the meantime, uh do include all those other things, too. So, the things that we've been doing this year already, um and I know Amanda, thank you uh for the communication that went out to the community um and
158with Cara and Lauren about designing and putting that together. So, we're doing school audits, reviewing and updating sorting stations. We went to all the buildings, looked at that, what's working, what's not working, and we'll be going out to five of the buildings over the next 2 weeks to kind of revamp what that looks like. We sent out some resources to our principals. We're going to go with that and kind of just putting that new uh process that we learned from other buildings. Um it includes the um implementation of the reusable silverware. So, that will be something that we'll also be doing within the buildings. Uh again, that was a partnership with the plastic-free restaurants uh that we're able to get a large portion of those, uh but that wasn't to cover everything. So, we're purchasing
159some of that stuff on our own. Share tables, uh collaboration with the high school again, collaboration with our lunch trays and other groups within the the bite team to again just gather feedback and and look through how can we continue to do that. And then, the bottom of the sustainability champion and what that looks like. I think it will be What's next? So, some of that's continuing. I don't need to read through all of this, but pulling a couple different things out. Finding ways to to get that ongoing feedback from students. So, we talked with the high school about how do we gather that um and design a survey, something that's easy and quick for kids to whether it's like once a week or periodically throughout the year to look at the entrees, the sides,
160and really be able to get some good feedback from them that they can do quickly. Um so, we're working through what does that look like and how do we design that? Some new menu items uh listed in uh in the board memo. Uh so, some entrees based on some pilots or taste testings or things that they would do like entree of the month. We now saw those numbers, pulled the ones that are probably like getting higher reviews or higher like take I guess when they sign up for lunch that day and then getting rid of ones that are not having that higher uh registration for lunch. Um looking at some equipment to also look at how can we the transporting from the high school to here and keeping it instead of steam tables and it's
161like again the texture the taste or any of those things. We're looking at those things based on that. Uh what else is new in here? Uh and then we'll be continuing to look at metrics and things that we could be doing around this and that comes with some of the composting and GHG emissions around this and then that feedback in general. So those are some things again you guys have this and keep through that. Uh the biggest piece is looking at the cost difference. So we look at the first slide is before I get to that. Uh key information this came up last meeting when we talked about the qual like the quantity of the food and we're it's the national school lunch program so under eighth grade it's all by calorie intake. So we're
162limited on that quantity by that. So that's that reason of like how do we make sure that uptake of like what they're eating and that they're eating that full lunch. Um and also some of that idea of that share table and there's options that are there there's additional food that they can go and grab off the table if it's um if they're still hungry in that situation. Um new entree uh side items for the middle school and then as I'll talk about the cost increased in food and labor costs. So those are things that we've got as part of the proposal for the high school. As those costs are rising that's that's where we're seeing the majority of that increase. Um one other piece to to pull is the last one there is the Northern
163Illinois Independent Purchasing co-op so we can purchase our milk through that co-op. They do different bidding things for supplies and ordering. So, if I ask to join it again, it's a small cost, but it allows us to be able to do all that. They handle the bidding parts and make it sure that we're all in line with all of that stuff. So, that would be part of a recommendation we'd be seeking if we're going to. It does require the board to sign off on that. All right. Last two sides real quick. So, the cost for all that we would pay to OPRP are as listed here. So, breakfast is is staying um same cost as there. That's why I didn't put the other thing or the parentheses. Elementary cost is going up from $2.25 to
164$2.70. And then the middle school goes from $2.55 to $3.20. Part of the middle school doing that is because the additionals like additional sides that they have for the middle school versus elementary. All right. The next slide is then the cost to district nice of families. And part of that as you'll see in there there's a little little cost there. Difference and that's going to those supplies, not milk cuz they pay separately for milk but like trays or other types of supplies or or condiments or anything that goes to one of the lunch program. And that's why it's that difference in cost. I mean as you can see with the elementary, it's $0.45 which is exactly what the high school had. And then for the middle school, it's that $0.45, but then the sides were
165those are $0.20 difference. And because we're piloting doing those things, our recommendation was to to do the $0.10 for the milk and that we under district we would be taking $0.10 of that cost that would be going through to gather that feedback and see what that looks like. So. Um I think that's it. Questions? Uh Becky, let's start over one question and then go around. Sure. Um I'm looking forward to the student feedback survey. So, I don't have any questions. Yep. I just wanted to reiterate that, so you. Yep. So, you were just talking about that price increase between what we're paying and what we're charging. Covering extra supplies, does that include, for example, implementing the silverware, like if we'll need dishwashers at some space and steam tables, or is that something >> Yeah, so
166we had to buy some silverware, so some of that silverware went to that. And as we go through this and have the table, like there are times they throw it away, right? So, you're going to have to There will be times that it has to be replaced. [clears throat] We just have to stay and have that conversation before we communicate that out. But there are our supplies like that, or and as we if we explore looking at other dishwashers and and what that looks like. So, that's that's perfect. >> That could be. Cool. Thank you. Wait, this It works. Um my question is we're talking about sustainability. Um I'm a My kiddo was the one who talked about the portions. And so, I've encouraged them to bring their lunch, but it's not really um there's
167it's it's not really an an avenue for kids who bring a bring their lunch, like to keep it hot or to keep it cold. So, are there any discussions about ways to make that easier for kids who bring their lunch? Like is Cuz I think that's part of sustainability. If you have we're buying less and throwing it away, if you know that there are kids who could bring their lunch, like either like a something. Uh I don't know if it's like a bigger refrigerator or microwave or something like that that will encourage kids to bring their lunch. I don't have an answer right >> I know the space is not it's not massive in these places for additional fridges, and and every space is different. I mean, some have a little bit more space. You
168have a Lincoln, a Longfellow with renovated, they have some bigger kitchens than you do at a Mann. It's They don't actually have pretty small. So, I think it's something to consider of like what does that look like for either hot or cold. Um that's is question to get the idea that they're eating it, that they're having quality lunches, and how do we do that to prepare that? Or after lunch, do they have energy and are better than the classrooms? So, question, but I don't have an answer right now. No, no, I was just wondering any way to make it more conducive, but thank you for that. Uh, so that's a suggestion though, Sherry, is that actually like, you know, just something that comes up in terms of affordability, since you saw like the difference in
169cost if you don't qualify for free and reduced? Obviously, you're paying a bigger, you know, bill each day. So, um, you know, what you what you buy, you know, for making sandwiches for the week versus like the cost like that's a loaf of bread, 350 high, you know, versus like So, I I'm not suggesting that all of that will be invested in microwaves. I don't know about refrigerators cuz they have them, but they're used for storing food. But that is something that I have not looked at as well. I think in conversation. Just shove all the hot food in a thermos. I was thinking about in the wintertime like let them put the food outside. But no, I just did the quick math. Hm? Set the food outside? When it's cold outside, yeah. Well, I
170was just doing They don't just pack ice packs? I was I was just doing quick math and for what they pay for for my family for twins is $38.50 per week, and then how much of that are they eating? And so, I'm going to go home and be like, you're bringing your lunch. Um, but no, thank you for that. Um, Well, I was saying it's a one-year renewal. I know that they have desired to have it prolonged or extended, and we've had the And that's that plan to go into these conversations of what does that look like and what is that next step? So, that's getting feedback early to say, okay, what is this What options do we have if we were to go 50 cents or a dollar or what What are the things
171that are outside? But again, they've been great to work with and really collaborative and I appreciate partnership with high schools is good with just as long as it's conducive to both and producing what we're looking to do and provide to our kids and meeting those needs. So. Are there any Does this, you know, conversation also include like the preparation of those menus? I would say they are very confusing.