001I apologize, sir. Call this 5:00 meeting to order and we're here to discuss and review the school accountability letter grades and project-based learning presentation. All right. So, I believe it was a week ago that this new model got approved. But we are already being held accountable to it. So, this year, the 2025-2026 school year will be our baseline year for this new model. We've been told about the fact that it's coming in for a while, but it just now got officially put in. So, it's kind of surprising that we're we're being held to it already. Yeah. Did you realize you don't have to stand up? I get it. Tommy didn't have a worse suit. Well, that too, but You can sit. Got this all good. >> [laughter] >> It's easier if you're if I'm moving
002around. You can see that. So, the old model, if you remember, used to be almost completely predicated on your test scores. You know, whatever your ILEARN score said, that was what your your your grade was or it might have been for the upper grades or graduation rate. We're held to that. This is completely different. So, why the change and what does it mean? The change is because it didn't reflect student growth. Um it didn't have anything that was applicable to real world skills and career readiness. Okay? So, I think when you took when you think about those three things, that's good. Like this model is an improvement because it does take other things into account. >> [clears throat] >> So, the old A-F, standardized test scores, graduation rates, focus on proficiency. It almost didn't get
003passed because the uh Todd Rokita almost declined. Said, "No, I'm not going to pass this because he felt like we needed more testing included in the letter grade." I'm glad they didn't do that because the main component is still testing, but it adds additional factors that can help improve your score. Uh and those things are career career skills, work-based learning. Um there's a whole slew of them. We'll see here in just a minute. So, the new accountability model is academic mastery, which would be your test scores, or growth, [clears throat] which we still haven't been told exactly how they're going to determine a kid's growth from for a full year. We assume they're going to take it from these checkpoints that they have to take four times a year. Or is it three? There's three
004checkpoints. >> Three checkpoints. And so, using those you get a beginning of the year end of the year. I assume that's what they're going to use to determine that, but they haven't said exactly how that's going to work. Um because a kid's We know from here that a kid may come in three grade levels behind. We still get them up a grade level, but they can't pass the test. So, in the past you would get automatically dinged for that. Now you can actually get some points for showing growth. So, that is in my mind that's kind of a huge thing. If they pull that data directly. They're going to take it out of the individual student model or some other way they do Yes. Ev- That's I'll show you in a minute, but that's exactly
005how they calculate all of this. See, what are the Sorry, what what are the things that growth? What what What is within the growth? In other words, if their test scores So, if applicable, then how do you determine growth? What is growth? What what's in the So, that would say at the beginning of the year we take a test and it shows that I am reading at a first grade level. At the end of the year, I'm reading at a second grade and three month level. So, I've increased a year by half pass I got it. I got you. So, now I can the credit for at least 70% of it. Um work ethic, they call it work ethic, but what that means is your kid can earn points for being here 94% of the
006time. So, that they miss 10 days, they'll be blown out. And they do not get those points. Uh there's communication and collaboration and civic and financial literacy. How do you measure engagement? Being here? Well, that's just part of being here. They use these words. I'm not sure on some of these how they are going to engage that on this other than just using straight statistics like attendance. That's how you would do engagement. What's our average How do I ask this question? What's our average student attendance? 50%. How much? 50% of our kids have reached 94% attendance. Which is terrible. That is terrible. It is terrible. Yeah, it is. So, we're not getting any help. But based on what you just told us, it's better better than our teachers. All right. So, uh >> [clears throat]
007>> That's a fine line to walk, Mr. Um You're not supposed to say that. I'm sorry. That's okay. All right. So, um we are going to receive an A to F grade. That's what we used to do, right? When we used to I think in 2019-2020, you were an A school at the high school. Um that's where I was involved, [clears throat] so I remember that. So, you still have your test performance, attendance, diploma completion. Which now you only really get solid points if you get a seal. We'll show you that in a minute. The old days of of getting diplomas, that's great. You get a diploma, but it doesn't really mean anything as far as our letter grades go. We have to get kids with seals. What is the percentage? Oh, seals? Well, I
008was in school 95 to 100% was an A. 90 to 95. Now, then it was 80 90 to 100. You're It's actually going to start off fairly low for this first baseline year. And it will increase every year that the state average is beyond it. I'll show you that here in just a minute. Um Okay, so here's what the characteristics are and what they mean. So, your academic mastery is reading, math, science, and social studies. Those are your ILEARNs. And it can also be the SAT, but that's factored differently. I'll talk about that later. Career and post-secondary readiness, credentials and experiences, that's the diploma seals. That's if you're ready to go to college, you're ready to go to the military, or you're ready to go to the workforce. You can earn a seal or a
009seal plus. And the school can actually receive money for those who get seal pluses, so we want that. And we get more points per child for everyone who gets a seal. Um communication Oh, go ahead. I have a question about that. Do Do the student have to choose whether they're going to go to college or the military early on in high school? Like, how do Okay, so this is a point that we brought up. How far down the road can a kid get and say, "You know what? Man, I was on this employment path, but now I want to go to to college. I want to get an employment seal." How far can along do they have to Now I can't go to or now I've got to do extra work to get there. So,
010we're going to start off everybody that you are going to have to get the employment seal. And then we're going to build from there if the kids want to go to college or they want to go to the military. For purposes of um the grading system, does the seals Do the seals carry different weight on as far as points or credit for us? Yep. So, a college seal would be worth more than a work seal. I understand. Any honor seal counts as identical. Because they're different criteria. So, it it the >> [clears throat] >> seal that you're going to get if you're going to college is going to be more academically driven. Right, you're going to have to take higher level courses. But, if you want to get the honors plus seal for employment, you
011have to get 650 hours of work-based learning. You don't have to get 650 if you're in the other one. So, they've just changed a little bit of how you get those. So, uh plus seal for employment is not easy to when you got to have that many hours. Honors trades are very obvious. So, it would be the uh the employment seal? The employment one? Seal. Uh work ethic, that's your regular attendance. Again, you see the engagement when I write it's just your attendance, 94%. And then the civic, financial, and digital literacy, those are all taken care of through required courses that every student has to take and pass. And I can share this with you guys when we're we're done. So, to calculate your points, there's a chart. And it starts off with academic mastery.
012If you pass, you get so many points. So, it might be that you start off with 65 or 75 points because I passed ILEARN. Then I can add additional knowledge, skills, and experiences to add points to get up to 100. And that's how you build child a like a whole child rather than just a test score. Here's what one looks at. So, they're going to be K through 3, 4 through 8, 9 10, and 11 12. And they all have different criteria. So, you'll see on the left-hand side the academic mastery. If the child passes ILEARN, they're automatically going to start at 75 points. Okay, so right a 75 I think is the bottom beam. So that child is doing well. Then if they also pass I-Read in that year, if I'll just tell you
013this, if they pass I-Learn which is much harder, they're going to pass I-Read. Um they would go up to 95. And then if they would have an attendance rate of 94%, they would get those extra five and they would go to 100. But if they're approaching, they only get 65. And then they pass I-Read, they get that, and so on. But if they do not pass, they start with zero. And then if they pass I-Read, they're 65. So their highest score they can get if they don't pass is a 75. If they do all the other things correctly. So you can see in the past we would have gotten zero for this child because they didn't pass I-Learn. But now we're getting some points because they did do some other things. That makes sense? So
014Steve, if if if they don't get to that certain number we're not going to we're not passing them on for Not in third grade. Okay. And that It's this one. Okay. And if they don't pass I-Read, they can't get this last bit of points. It's dependent on that one. Do you have a number of kids that we held back in this last episode that was it last year or the year before when we It was last year. There weren't very many because the good cause exemption put some of the special ed kids through. And um so I think there were just a handful of kids. And so we're hoping the same this year. So if they don't pass I-Learn, they cannot get credit for attendance. Is that what you were saying? If they do not
015pass I-Read. I-Read, sorry. Yeah. Pass so pass I-Read and meet an additional success indicator. At this grade level they're not getting work based learning or anything like that. So the only indicator for them is going to be attendance, um which is that 94% All right, so that's K-3. Then we have 4 through 8. And this is the exact same thing. Um it's a little bit different because each grade level has a little bit different things that they can pick up. So, I learn starts us off just like normal with your 90, 45, and 0 in this case. Then additionally, they could get attendance. Uh they could pass uh social studies. I learn what's social studies at fifth grade? And then science sixth grade? So, they could add additional points there. They um What's that? It's
016four. Okay. Then a seventh grader or an eighth grader could potentially take a high school course. If they would pass a high school course, which we are hoping that our kids will get three of, those go on to these extra categories as well. So, we want them to take PE in eighth grade. That would be points. We want them to take computer science for high school credits. There's points. So, we have the potential, even if we have a kid who's just approaching, to get up to 80 if they can even pull two of those off. Then you add your attendance. So, How are you going to find time for these kids to take high school classes? Oh, believe me. Uh Heather, Brandon, and I have met a lot, and those two worked out we reduced
017the number of periods we have in a day because we were sharing teachers, and we've got to move kids around, but um they've done it. They figured this out that I think we can get three credits for high school in those schools. Really? That's the goal. That's good leadership at that level. Yeah, they they killed it. They did. Um and they worked together really well on this. Is that three credits per year and three credits It's just the course credit. To to complete the computer science course, the PE credit they would get in high school. You only have to have one now. They've changed that. You don't have to have two PE credits anymore. You don't have to have two health. They moved those back a little bit. So, again, this is really convoluted and
018crazy, but it does offer some potential for us to get some points we wouldn't have otherwise got. And you get a PE credit for participating in a sport? >> Is that true? Yeah, the middle school allows them to get high school credits. Um I don't think that's the case. They have to be in the class for a semester because I think they get the credit because it's IHSAA. Like it's a sanctioned sport. So, our plan is to put them all through it. We're sharing uh like Allen Murphy is, you know, going down and he's doing middle school now and helping out. So, we're sharing people. Uh it's been a lot of juggling, moving courses around, trying to find out what our needs and I think we got it all figured out. So, 9th and 10th
019grade, you'll [clears throat] notice that 9th grade does not have a factor of mastery. Um it can be, but the main measure is being on track in 9th grade, having 10 plus credits in 9th grade. Because they know if you fall off, it's not likely that you're going to pass. So, they really want the focus to be um that you're on track. Some kids take I learn bio in 9th grade. We do, but others don't. Others take it later. So, they didn't want to make it as an indicator for 9th grade to have that bio and not everybody does that. But, if a kid is on track, starts off with 75, then they pass I learn bio, they're right there. Then they go over again, you got attendance. So, as you start building these things
020on, uh Um, says advanced CT. So, if they take um an advanced course, um it could be at the career center. It could be um one of Alfonzo's courses in uh entrepreneurship business. Those courses count. So, again, lots of opportunities. Um, you just don't want to start off off track because if you don't start off with those credits, look how I mean, it takes forever to even get to 65. So, those kids are not going to be doing well. Steven Arwood. >> [clears throat] >> Jermaine of teachers and I see the board hiring some more. I've always said Heather has the has my father toughest job as far as I'm concerned. But I my whole thing is the seventh and particularly the eighth grade if those if their math and reading skills and their behavioral
021skills are on track, Brenda should be smoking a cigar when he's freed up in the high school office, right? Do we have an alignment where we have some of our best teachers Yeah, we pretty much now have all licensed teachers. We She just hired a couple to replace emergency. You know, as title one school, we we put every emergency out there and hire a licensed teacher if we can. And so, she's just added two licensed teachers. So, I think in the corporation, we may be only have one unlicensed teacher now. So, that is good. So, she is putting the right people in the right place. Good. So, and we need some of these kids to keep coming up with these better English skills uh [clears throat] that they're showing right now, too. So, that's good.
022This is seventh grade. Okay, before I I talk about this one, you can [clears throat] get as a 10th grader, using this formula, you can get a credit for being back on track. So, let's say that you've got seven credits as a freshman and you're on not on track. Well, let's say you go to summer school and you bust it and you get some and then that next year you get your 10 plus credits, you get credited for the school does for you being back on track. So, I I kind of like that skill in there because then a kid doesn't have to feel like they've got nowhere to go. Uh the 11th and 12th grade, if you notice, it's mainly based on the honors plus and the honors seal and employment seal. Look at
023all the points you get if you just get that seal. You're all the way across a 100. You don't have to worry about any other success factors. So, I'm not sure what any of these ones feel second. All you have to do there is get the uh attendance one. You can pass the SAT. You can get credentials of value, um dual credit courses, pass the ACT. There's all these different ways that you can continue getting those points. If you get a diploma but no seal, then you start at 50, you can only go to an 85. That's where they ding us for having a kid You've done everything they need to do but it doesn't give us a a seal. How many we have graduate from Ivy Tech? I'm not sure. Uh You mean we
024don't have any of graduates from Ivy Tech. They just get some credits. We had uh six kids that are getting the Indiana University ones. Is that what you're talking about? The ICC? No, I just seen Ivy Tech graduate. There was a lot of kids from around here. I didn't know if we had kids in that program or not. Oh. Somebody got certificates. I don't know what the certificates were. They went to that one. They went to that Friday when you guys were gone. I don't know how many were there. I don't know how many were there. Yeah, four. Three girls, three girls and a boy. Yeah, I just found out that Tiffany day we got six that are the IU where they get over 30 credits. We got a lot of scholarships. We got that
025banner in the gym. That one's pretty awesome. That's good. Good. Um the 11th and 12th grade is a weird one. So, this score is only 80% of the score. The other 20% is 10% graduation rate over Ah, I have to look at the number again. If your school is over a certain percent, you get the full amount and then it's a percentage on down from 10 to 0. And then the other one is the SAT. If 60% of your kids pass the SAT, you get 10 points. If they don't, then you have to do this formula where you divide it out and figure out what your score is out of 10. Pass the SAT? And that's why I said it's so convoluted. >> What does pass the SAT mean? Means you have to get their
026marker, their certain level to get Get pretty close to that. Get There's a number for it, it lists one for that. Is that 60% of the ones that take it? Everybody has to take it, it's required by the state. Really? So, the way it works >> How many does the school require? Um, some don't require it, but the state had to have a measure. This is the grading scale. And like I said, 85 is where we're starting. Oh my goodness. Because this is the baseline here. So, if a certain number, 25% of the school is getting 85, which is going to happen, it's going to go up 2.5 points. Next year it'll be 87.5. Then that's going to happen the next year, it'll be 90 in 2 years. So, just be careful, guys. This is
027not a course grading scale. No, that's what I just realized when I when I said that school grading scale. I don't know about scholar missing it. >> [laughter] >> That's right. Yeah, it'll be at 90. It'll be the one on the right in 2 years, I'm pretty sure. Um, but the way they do it is they take every kid individually. So, every kid gets a score. You just add all those up, divide it by the total number of kids, and then that's what your school score is for that group. And like I said, in the high school they do that, and that's 80% of your score, and then you add those other 10% and 10%. So, I like it, I don't like it, but we're going to see how it goes. The good news is
028we can create some spreadsheets and start keeping track, so we'll have a good idea of what it's going to be. Who's going to do that? We just have to create them and then we can populate it afterwards. It's I don't know if you've seen You can't get a loan enough. [laughter] So, Tiffany has a uh spreadsheet that she uses right now where she tracks all of that stuff and it's insane how wide it is. She's just going to have to change it um to put the indicators in there and and track those more so than just It's a lot of work. It's going to be ridiculous. The one that's going to be the hard work is if every kid has to get work-based learning, she's to track all those hours. It would be more of
029a show to stay relevant. >> [laughter] >> That's what I was thinking. >> I'll let you follow that. I'm not opposed to it. Do you think this is more of an advantage for us than non-advantage? It's a lot of work. So, we know um those test scores aren't going to come up immediately. It's going to take a little while. We're going to have to have those kids matriculate from eighth grade on up and start seeing some increases. But, we know that right now we got to focus on those students. We got to get those kids in the right places to get those points. Heather knows in her building she needs to get those three credits, right? And we got to hammer attendance and work-based learning. We got to get kids in places where they can
030earn those hours so that we can add those. So, at least that gives us some place to start where we know we can build points for the kids. Hopefully, help the school give the parents I don't understand any of this. No, we haven't put anything out yet cuz it just got approved last week. Well, they The seals I'm just telling you we've seen this so many times and I'm not even sure that we completely understand where all this comes from. I looked at the GPS dashboard today. It is so off. Uh it it's not accurate. So, if they're pulling from that, I don't know what it's going to look like if nothing is accurate. So, they don't have that. On the work-based stuff, is that a paying job or can it be a volunteer? Both.
031It can be all of it. Either? What they're saying is, let's say a kid works at McDonald's. We can't just count that as work-based learning. The manager of McDonald's would have to sign something with with us and say that they're going to teach that kid to do schedules, to maybe run payroll, and learn those skills that are beyond flipping a burger. But, that's a big ask of the community. Everybody that where our kid is going to have to step up and do that. If we send a kid to Christo's, they're going to have to carry a liability insurance. And what if we put them with a person who has been in jail five times? They need background checks. I mean, there's a lot of questions that we have. We're going to try to place some
032kids here at school. Maybe have somebody work in the cafeteria, learn how to serve food. Um somebody work in the athletic office, learn to schedule games. Maybe somebody in guidance. So, we got to use the people we have here to also help uh get those kids their hours. And then I We're going to try to find an app. There's one called in Blaze that will help with The kid has it. Typically, they would have it and it would help track their hours as she is working. How do you think they would especially do that? Yeah. And every You got to remember, too, every school in the county is doing the same thing. A lot of kids going out to get work-based learning. I did the math on that. At 4 years for 650 hours, they
033would have to average for every week of the school year, while you were saying half of the 650 hours, that only means they would have to do 4.5 hours a week. For every week of their high school you know, of their academic time in the high school. Like so, you'd have to know from the first week of your freshman year to the last week of your senior year. 4.5 If they want to do anything else, they would pretty much have to work a lot in the summer. Can you count the summer hours they use? Yeah, you can. Yeah. That's what I mean. Well, yeah. Yeah, they have to. They have to. They have to. Do we still Do we still have the idea with the chariot? Yes, but we're backing out a little bit because
034we did not get funding for that. We're supposed to get CTE funding and they did not give it to us for chariot. So, we're going to probably go back to Big Rapids. Oh, man. So, it ended up costing us to send kids there and we got no reimbursement. That sucks. Wow. Yeah, we're Now, there's one kid that's still in it with the let him finish. Brian Puller Rug out, he's already been there over a year and he's been very successful in it. So, we're going to let him finish, but we're not going to send any more kids to the thing. Well, I just wondered if there was any other businesses that we could talk with that could give us, you know, maybe take two or three kids at a time I know I'm going to
035do a small year at the hospital. We had kids from here to go there and shadow over there. That's CTE of last count, but for Wesley. I don't know if it does because only if it's an actual course that they get credit for. Right. They actually go to businesses and be trained in fire. Maybe they maybe they count their training hours. Yeah. If there's a way that I mean, maybe it's double dipping, but it's still training hours, right? >> Exactly. Most people are juniors and sophomores. No, you're right. That's why I said if we could be really good about finding places in the school Yeah. If you really look at it, two years of work. Yeah. Because the public will hire a freshman and sophomore. Right. Especially if there's anything we can do like that.
036That's great. Thanks. Did you guys have any other questions? And I'll share that slideshow Of course the counselor What makes learning fun? Right. And then they're spending all this time Unless somebody wanted to work with Maddie. Learning tape, things like that. Somebody wanted to go into athletic training. I would be I'd love to do that, you know. What about somebody who wanted to put together a coach for practice policy? Something like that that can So they're really good. Yeah. What is that? Anything that's an applicable skill to the working world should count. Right. Freshmen and sophomores could do those kind of jobs internally. Yeah. Until they're old enough to get So today I finished [clears throat] working with our person on the grant that we're going to be getting. Which is a $300,000 grant. Exactly.
037So we'll find out in August. And then that would Next year would be a $100,000 Yeah. A lot of that would go to the personal office and then we figure out our plan and then the following year 2020. That's You got to put resources in place to help uh identify kids interventions So How do you count that? So we have um students that want to go into teaching, or they could they could we would allow them to say go in the you know classroom and observe the teacher and make notes and do things. We would give them a credit of hours for that. Um if we can figure out how to do that. We What we'd probably do is come up with um something a little more concrete for them to fill out to share
038if you want you have to learn what they have to learn from that teacher what and show that they learned it. Um to make it more like a course I think Oh this thing and then they get those hours or they want to be an administrator follow Mr. Gleason around for whatever the period we send them to that. Or they want to learn about farming and we send them down here to Bow or uh Yep. It's just all kind of things that Everything's on the table. Yeah, as long as they're learning about life skills and things that they want to be interested in that's what we're here to do. >> out with D B and learn about electricity. Yes, absolutely. We can do a lot of things. It would take a lot of planning. The
039two would be if we know this is coming cuz the yeah the thing everybody in Hal Tom is trying to get 150 hours how's that going to happen? It would Yeah, I think we could do a big thing with the summer too, okay? There's bail hay season there's silage season you know all these things with farmers that want help or just calling what they could learn and be you could get massive summer hours and if the school counts all it takes is signing off on it. Yeah, I mean you got to hear two of them die. I guarantee I can get kids over there if they want to go in and just observe or learn or maybe Yeah, that's what we're going to observe. So the only thing we run into say if say you
040work at McDonald's, right? That doesn't count as your work based learning you have to do something above the normal. So like if they showed you how to schedule or how to do the payroll inside extra skill is what they'll have to do. Well, I don't understand I mean you still learn I mean you're still serving No, I know. But it's the focus is on career not job. Well, they shouldn't have took away the wood shop the metal shop, the engine repairs. We're putting you back over there with electricity, so you need to speak up, buddy. Well, what about the upper class doing tutoring in the You guys need to stop talking. I like that. >> [laughter] >> I totally agree with that. Yeah, um Like I said, what we'll have to do is put together
041a list of things that we believe fit the criteria. We'll have to check on some of that. Some are obvious, but others may be not. And um we might have to step >> have somebody to approve will approve those or The the DOE even. Oh, really? Every school's going to have to do this. I'm here they are. Just to review criteria. All right, anything else, guys? We're good? No more questions? All right, we're adjourning this meeting and we will reconvene in about 20 minutes. Oh, no. No, hold on. I don't think that's right. We got our kids over here. Oh, I thought they were here for the other meeting. I'm sorry. College meeting back order. Thank you, I'm sorry, guys. >> [laughter] >> So, we have a group here. So, as you guys know, we
042do a lot with project-based learning this year about really getting in there, getting in front of it and part of the project-based learning is bringing the community in. Well, this collective group for personal finance has come in and said, "Well, we want something, Mr. Gleason. We heard you say it before and this kind of [cough and clears throat] whole presentation they want to give as part of their, you know, getting out in the community, learning how this works, interact." So, they asked, um originally it was going to be just myself and Mr. Deshawn, who's like, "You, we have an opportunity platform. We always encourage our students to have that voice." So, they have a presentation. Um I'm only going to record them just so they can show their classmates because usually their classmates would be
043seeing it, but they're not here. So, I'm going to kind of let them see if I shared it with you in your email. It would be easier. So, come on up here. I told them to dress nice, so look at that. That was You look good. Yeah, they did. They followed your directions. So, they'll kind of run through it all on their own here and they're kind of ready to You get it up, Mr. Shawn away. Do they trust me with the picture? Yes. I'm sorry. >> [laughter] >> They're the most precious. It's a little bit of doubt. So, kids, always great job to I know you can introduce yourselves, too, but it's always What do you do at Taylor? What do you do? So, they can kind of start with the faces or seeing
044how that first group is. I mean, you can spread it in practice and change real quick, right? And you can tell me yourself a soccer player. No, he's a basketball. Cicero, a soccer, right? Yeah. All right. So, I'm going to let them Do you want me to introduce myself? My name's Ava Phillips. I'm a 10th grader here at Taylor High School. My name's Sophia Dalton and I'm also a 10th grader. My name's Savannah Mercer. I'm a 9th grader. Uh my name's Jacob Rooney. I'm also a 9th grader. Um we ask for all questions to be held until the end so we can get through the presentation as quick Improving school attendance Why are school attendance rates declining? After the pandemic in 2020, attendance rates have drastically declined while chronic absences have increased by 15%. School
045is not really viewed as a priority by most parents. Just letting their kids skip school because they feel they don't want to be there. And the main reason a lot of kids don't want to go to school is bullying. Most kids getting bullied don't want to go to school, putting them in such a mental strain, making them want to stay home. Uh my school attendance is defined. Parents who are not very often are frequently school absences can add to academic trouble. Chronic absences are 19 18 days or more. Warning signs are 10 through 17 days, and satisfactory are 9 days or more. Many children miss 10% of school. That's almost a month per school year. Students who attend school regularly are more likely to graduate and find a job. Attendance rates. Fail High School has
046an attendance rate of 53% and about 350 students. Our attendance rate is significantly lower than the average of 82%. Herron High School in Indianapolis has an attendance rate of 95.3 and has about 940 students, as well as the highest as well as the highest rates in Indiana. This school applies the uniform policies. Mental health in schools. Mental health in schools is a huge problem. School, homework, extracurriculars, sleep, repeat. That's what it can be for some of these students, says Noel Leonard, a senior research scientist. This, on top of being bullied for something as simple as clothes, can cause stress levels to drastically increase. How can we improve school attendance? Foster a welcoming environment and create a positive school where where students feel valued and welcomed. How can we do this? School uniforms. Pros for school
047uniforms. Business and community. Rather than creating division between children by allowing them to wear what they would like, we build sense of community and quality with school uniforms. Safety. In the event of a school intruder, it would be a lot easier to identify them, for they would be the only one not wearing a uniform. Student concern. We have asked around, and most people say that they will lose their self-expression. How can we counteract this? We will have free Fridays where you will not have to wear the uniform and also have different options for uniforms during summer months. Uh facts about school uniforms. They can reduce school spirit and reduce bullying. Uh we used a university uh Houston suggested that this might be a good thing as school uniform could positively impact students' grades and even
048their attendance. Their findings show rising attendance, academics, and even behavior in middle school and high school students. Um once a school adopted uniforms, it had been noted that the biggest improvement was among female students. Our policy. Uniforms will be worn Monday through Thursday. Free Friday meaning you will not have to wear the uniform if you don't want to. Spirit days and weeks, if you participate, you don't have to wear the uniform. Requirements for our uniforms so far are skirts and shorts must be fingertip length. Shoes must be black and closed-toe. And outerwear, which includes hoodies, sweatshirts, stuff like that, must have the Taylor logo on it as well as the collar showing so we know you have the school uniform on underneath it. Uh for our community partners that we talked to, they would help.
049We had talked to Mr. Ellison, Mr. Moon, and Solidarity Community Federal Credit Union. So this is a full cost breakdown. This is the cost for all students in the high school to get two of everything. So in total, for ties it would be $1,125. Polos would be $2,880. Skirts would be $1,680. Um same for pants, $1,680. Shorts would be $1,488. Long sleeve shirts would be $2,880. And for vests, $5,812.50. But this isn't about getting a quote or adding any discounts that you get when you order in bulk from them. So this is just a visual representation of what we kind of think the uniform could look like. It can vary in styles and colors like we said previously, but for the shirt and pants it'd be 1975. For the shirt and skirt it'd be 1975
050as well and then for the vest and long sleeve it'd be 3475. Also, if a girl wanted to wear pants with the vest option they could do that. Um same thing here for the boys uniforms. So, for the pants and shirt it's 1975. For the shorts and skirt it's 1875 and then with the vest it's 3475. Also, boys and girls can wear the shorts. I know a lot of some girls don't want to wear skirts they prefer short shorts so they can wear those. How do we get the money back? School uniforms for the whole school would not be cheap. So, how can we get the money back? Here are our ideas. We can make you could charge us. Make it a mandatory fee if you would like to attend Taylor you would have to
051pay the uniform fee. Fundraising. We can get support by fundraising. People in our community do like to help. Average back to school shopping. The average price spent on back to school clothes for one kid averages around $400. Our average uniform price for one uniform set is $25. Needed back to school supplies. Kids will come to school and they'll they won't have pencils or pens or anything that they need but they'll have a nice school outfit or the most trendy shoes. Parents will be able to spend that money that they would not be spending on outfits to get the needed back to school supplies. In 30 days we would have the uniform picked out and have the uniforms ordered. In 60 days we will have the uniform roll out. In 90 days school attendance rates at
052Taylor will go up. Bullying rates at Taylor will go down. and kids will feel they have a sense of community. Does anybody have any questions? Yeah. Have you talked to other students? We have. Majority are a little apprehensive about it. They don't really know how they feel about it. Um when we bring up like the free Fridays, they definitely feel like, "Okay, like I can see that." Or you know, like, "Oh, like during spirit week, if you participate in spirit week, like we did pink out for the shiner. If you wear pink, you don't have to wear the uniform." Also, like the different colors. I know that Mr. Moon has brought up before how we could see the school to have every grade have a different color of tie. I mean, I definitely feel like
053there are ways to get more people on board. Um but we have talked to some kids and it's just kind of a mix depending on the uh Have you talked to any parents? Not yet, no. Cuz we tried we really looked into this seriously about 12 years ago. We got a lot of pushback. Awesome. So, I'm just curious. I mean, I love getting the personal style. It's great. I got So, girls, especially you said it affects you more. You guys told me a story about someone makes a comment about this or that. And what ends up what ends up happening then to that outfit? >> thrown away. Will you kind of tell the story, Sophia? Will you kind of tell the story? Oh, well, like you spend like a bunch of money, a bunch of
054time picking out stuff that you personally like. And then you go to school and someone's like, "Oh, that's really cute." And then you just put it in your closet. You never wear it out and and it's just a waste, really. How do the boys feel about wearing ties? I mean, we've actually had more pushback from the girls about wearing ties than have the boys. Um but all all that we've asked are kind of like, "Oh, I think get beat up after school, or something like that." The girls are definitely more not into the idea than the boys. The boys seem to like it, too. What kind of repercussions would there be with somebody showing up without a uniform? So, we've been thinking about this. Obviously, it would be really up to like Mr. Grayson and
055Mr. Moon, stuff like that. But, I feel like it'd probably be like, "Oh, if you don't wear the uniform, have to go to ISR for the day, or have a parent bring you a uniform for you." And then, like if it continues to happen, I mean, that's that. And do you think two uniforms would be sufficient first? Longer day, thinking of that. Five days a week. Um Oh. If a few guys don't want to get them. I mean, I don't really know. I mean I mean, just each uniform at each uniform set costs 15 to Like 25 to 35 dollars. For a day. So, a day's uniform costs So, even if you got four, $100. Correct. You said average spending on back to school clothes is $400, right? So, you're only asked to spend $100
056if you get one for every day of the week. Yeah. That's a real question. Then you wash them on the weekend, and you're good for the next week, or something, right? And on Friday, you won't have to wear anything. Right. Yeah. Why Why are you set on wearing a tie? Um I just think that it'll look nice. I feel like um You know, you can wear one like that. Uniforms, like we are trying to really push that, like, okay, like the uniforms aren't going to be When we make uniforms, I think they're going to be ugly. I mean, like, let's just face it. You have to pay to buy them in order to wear them. Well, it's going to be ugly. But, also, like, a The fact we're in uniform is to make everybody look
057the same. So, we're trying to keep that in mind, but also trying to let kids be like, "Okay, well, do you want a skirt, or pants, or shorts, or you want to wear a long sleeve, or short sleeve?" But, I just definitely think there still needs to be an aspect of like the same. I like the I the whole idea, but I do not like the idea of the tie. Okay. Uh for me, kind of with my background, I think it's a safety issue. Okay. Uh you know, should two high school boys get in a fight and they grab the tie, you know, I just if it came down to a vote, I'd say no on the tie. And then just a follow-up when um the compliance aspect, if if it's the standard that's set
058and they know the standard is the standard, uh when we implemented the middle and high school with the pajama policy, we heard everything. Um my kid's not coming here, my kid's not Nobody left. Everybody stayed and they all complied. Um and I think this is and we've talked a lot with this group, you know, this has been them planning for a long time. It's just that we're always trying to see what sets you apart. Oh, okay, they're doing this. Why is that? You know, every school battles these same things. The bullying, the attendance, all of this. >> [clears throat] >> They all may not report it the same as we do, but we know it happens everywhere. This is just one thing to feel alike when they go out. Um some kids only have one
059Taylor shirt and they wear it 5 days a week cuz that's all they have. They like that aspect. I even joked with them about doing a buyback program where I don't like it when you wear other things from other schools. Like I'm proud of where we are. So, I said, "You bring me a certain other school, I'll give you a Taylor shirt back." Just to not have it out there, but um Yeah, so it's the compliance part, but I think a lot of it is we've talked to is if they know it's student-led, student-driven, more students get behind that than all it takes people that don't know how we are feeling. You know, it was really interesting to hear them all share stories about even if a friend group makes a comment about clothes that
060they wear, they never touch that again, no matter what they do. So, it's pretty interesting to hear them, but Mr. They showed us statistics that 50 We have 53% of our 340 students. So on average day we only have 100 Yeah, that's the 53% is 53% of the kids achieve 94%. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's how they do the attendance rate. Which is a little wonky. The other thing I want to say guys is I what I'm really impressed with the with the presentation and I'm even more impressed because of your ages. Thank you. I mean that is impressive. Um and but what I can see is four young people that are probably in the top 10% of the class that are here every day. I appreciate the shaking of heads. What I'm what I'm
061getting at is I I would say before it would come back to us I would like to see you maybe have a discussion with some more of your peer groups and maybe even maybe even if you could get get some parent input. Of From all From From all different I mean I don't know how to say this. Yeah. Anyway, with some parents. And I think we need to discuss that a little more just see and the reason I say that is is we're we're struggling. And if this would go awry you know, and we lose more kids or we have conflicts with kids just coming here and saying I'm not going to start creating more problems. I think we want to make We want to make sure we're going to be reassured that this is
062a sure fire plan. This is outstanding idea. It really is. All the years I coached, when we traveled, we looked alike. Uh I I think our travel team should all do that and I I think this is awesome if we could pull it off. And that's kind of where they got some of it is they want to feel connected. They want to feel together, especially you know, everything with mental health nowadays that we're hearing more about. They just want to feel connected. They want to feel like, "Hey, I'm from Taylor. This is what sets us apart. We expect ourselves to be career ready, to be job ready, to be workforce ready." Um >> [clears throat] >> Did you guys have the opportunity to talk to some kids from another school who wear uniforms, maybe even
063see when that transition took place for them? What what happened? I mean, is there any way to They tried to set that up. They tried to set that up. They tried to reach out to Huron High School and ask what's going on. Do they wear uniforms? Yeah, and they have the one of the highest attendance rates in the state. Is that a public or private school? Private. Private. Private. Well, that's a magnet school, I think. It's the Academy, right? It's the Academy, right? I do have a suggestion. Take your uniforms and change to a white to a red Okay. because the white will get very dirty quickly. And in elementary school, because we went through this, uh our kids went to St. John, and they had to wear uniforms. At the end of the year,
064as kids grew, cuz they grow so quickly, we had a share plan. You would go and you would take your stuff your kids that grew, and the next grade coming up, you pick those up. And so, the uniforms actually went down in cost because they were worn by two different kids by the time it was up. And they have to pass on the white shoes. You're not passing the white ones. No. It's hard to get like photos of like uniforms like that. So, we just Whatever we're talking about, yeah, we definitely like That was one of our concerns was like, "All right, what color did you pick?" Um we just think that like that type of style like the skirts like you know, longer, um like the polos. Um there's so many different types of
065uniforms. There's really hard for us to find uniforms that didn't look very childish, um because not a lot of high schools actually do uniforms. That aren't like very private. Um There was a lot of dresses, and I was like, "Hm, like I don't think that that would really go over well. I definitely think that it was a big priority for us to have like options for kids so that they'll feel comfortable because the last thing you want to do is make someone feel uncomfortable like while they're at school. Um Very good. Very good. Very well put together, I think. I am extremely impressed. Two sophomores and two freshmen. Yep. And they're not people that really run in the same circle either. So, they were here in the class and they got paired up in a
066project and they had to come together and you know, they are they were all on the same side. Even some of their group members that couldn't be here, they were on the opposite side of this, but they could see both sides of it. Um like I said, anytime kids do this, it's going to be Whenever you're the first to do something, there's always going to be the eyes on it. So, as Miss Nesbitt was saying, when you're the first to do something, you got to make sure you are prepared every step because of one misstep, everyone's going to not look at the 100 things you did right, but the one thing you did wrong. So, Very very well put. It was hard to watch the change so we tried it. You know, when we went
067to implement this, there's going to be a lot of pushback. Yes. So, you got to be prepared. But I'm all for it. I'm all for it. No, right. Mr. Grayson mentioned the no good jabbers. We had pushback when we restricted cell phones. Absolutely. >> We had It was always here. Every time you put any kind of restrictions on to try to make the environment more conducive to learning. It doesn't mean it's a bad idea. Right. You're going to get pushback anytime you try to make a change. Yeah, I I love the idea. I told you that at the beginning. I just It's a fantastic idea. I wish we would have done it 12 years ago. 16 years ago. All right. >> Oh, 16 years ago. I don't know but Dennis and I were here then.
068I just remember that it didn't take with this much to get out and the pushback came in. So, that's kind of why we tabled it then. Well, I think that's a great but you understand his of safety aspect. >> Yes, 100% yeah. Cuz even though we haven't had any fights here, it doesn't mean we would never not you know you never say no but And you don't have to have a fight to have a nice school right? You can assist and unify. Yeah, just call them up. But it's true. Bolo's. There you go. Good job. Thanks guys. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Hey, you got to be back you got to come back and fill us in on what you find out. Yeah, so hey they are going to they will expect uh it's
069our next year what's more research done like what have you talked to have you held your head there if they've challenged you now to continue on with it so Take some surveys. Take some surveys of parents. Take some surveys of your of all the students you know. And see what kind of feedback you get. Yeah, I mean I can I can figure out how I react to that how I what adjustments need to be made to it. And in your surveys don't just say answer with yes or no. No because Yeah, open ended question. And even put what's here's our price point what you think as a family is a good price point for a family of two or three. Would you have a max count in the school you know what I mean there's
070all they even know but when they said about uh Saudi Arabian Federal Credit Union they said oh can we put our little logo on all your sleeves and we'll help with half the cost you know what I mean like people wouldn't want to get out there you know and NIL deals just got passed so uh you know what I You guys talked about like like buying something like they said signs but if you guys don't like the signs So if you guys want to do some surveys that go out to the community to the parents you just run it past us we'll work with you on those and then we will be the ones to send them out. So it doesn't put you guys in an awkward situation. And guys you guys remember it again
071I'm so impressed cuz your age but you obviously are the future leaders of General High As we try to change the culture, that's something that we're definitely starting changing the culture. But we just want to make sure that we got our ducks in a row, so to speak. And they knew this was not a This is happening. This is They just wanted to get their ideas and just see in the next several years is that their legacy they're going to leave behind. That way they look at it, you know, we did this. But look, you have five board members and you get five no's. So, there's always a chance. Will there be a way we could get copies of the presentation? I see if he has he can share them. That way if she has
072somebody hears about it that's and we'd we'd be able to share that information. And don't be afraid to keep innovating. You guys come up with stuff, don't be afraid to share it, bring it to us. We will go about This is impressive. Next week, you know we do all this stuff with Ford's design, we'll be able to gladly send us a couple uniform mock-ups and just have it on hand. So. Yeah, next time you come in Where are you going to watch? Okay. I'm serious. And four and in four different styles. Okay. You know what I mean? >> Yes. It's a good one. You guys want to That's it. Thank you so much. THANK YOU FOR >> [applause] >> COME ON GUYS. I FORGOT HE WAS GOING TO FRIDAY GUYS. WHAT? IS there like double
073It's perfect and the video I