001Yeah. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. >> Wonder >> here. Vene here. Stephus >> here. >> Gardine >> here. Campel >> here. Dehan >> here. >> And Hibboard >> here. >> All right. Please note as a courtesy to members of the audience in the board of education, please silence your cell phone. Public will only be able to speak during public comment if signed up. Do we have any? All set. Very good. >> Um, item number one on the agenda, the approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion? >> Support. We do have one. >> Okay. Motion. >> We did with Bob. >> Bob and Joe was in support. >> Yep. >>
002Those in favor? >> Yes. >> Opposed? Item number two, the school report for Cummings Elementary. >> Sure. So, very excited to have uh Cummings Elementary with a presentation tonight. Mr. Boser, as you can see, is here. and we'll turn things over to him. >> Uh good evening. Uh thank you for having me. My name is Alen Basker. I have the privilege of serving as the principal at Cummings Elementary. And I have uh the parents here with me. Uh Jess who went to Cummings. I'm learning this today actually. Uh and and Mia who's at kindergarten with us. And we're going to talk about a little bit of a program that we not a little bit, we're going to talk about a program that we started this year. Um, and the concept behind it was that we
003really didn't have that connection with our community. We have a tremendous community at Cummings, like just tremendous. Um, but it stopped at helping out at events. It stopped at helping at parties. And so, we really wanted to design something that was going to help us with instructional practices. Um, and so selfishly, I I looked at um our neighborhood schools. They do a program called watchd dogs which is a program determined right around getting dads in a building because um males typically are the principal the custodian and gym teacher um and Cummings has that exact same setup. So um although that is something that we want to strive for we said we first need to build the bridge of bringing parents back in a meaningful way. Um and so even as my second year, the first
004year, if a parent came to me and said, "Hey, I really want to help volunteer um without extensive training, without um a commitment, time commitment, it would have been a real challenge to kind of piece something together." And it wouldn't have been as meaningful as we really wanted to. And so our hope this our intention this year was to not only establish this program, but have it be part of a a win what I need program. And so we have uh established a very consistent intervention system that's going to help all of our students learn. Um and then in addition to that partnering with parents to how that all fits together. So sweet. Um so that is how uh this was kind of established. So I I along with our our building leadership team reached
005out to the Granville Educational Foundation and said, "Hey, I I think this is a really good idea. I'm going to need a little funds to help us out with it. Um however, it's really just structural building." Um and so we reached out to them. They were incredibly grateful, honored the grant, um has celebrated it. So, it's been on, it's not Twitter anymore. X, is that what it is? Um, it's it's been recognized in that platform a couple different times through their program. Um, and we've experienced a lot of success, which I'll talk about in a second. Um, but let me quick describe what it how we kind of built it. And then Jess and Mia, if you guys want to talk just kind of explain your experience, and then I'm going to recap and talk
006about a little bit about data because that's the part that kind of drives me, right? Um, so we reach out to all of our families. Um, and this would be a welcoming to moms, to dads, to grandmas, grandpas, friends of the family. Um, as long as you pass a background check and love kids, you're welcome to join us, right? Um, and so our hope and our our sales pitch to this was that we wanted to build students to have a positive role model. Um, however, in my own experience, I got to see my kid in the school setting. Um, I didn't learn I I didn't know that he could listen until I saw him at school and I saw him listen to a teacher. I thought, okay, write this down. Um, so it's it's a
007nice opportunity to kind of see your kids, how they all engage. Um, and so our ultimate goal at the very bottom there is to positively impact academic performance, build their self-esteem, and, uh, their social behavior. So, um, we have had, I think I'm going to cover this in about a little bit, but we've had about 23 parents volunteer thus far, halfway through the year. Um, it does slow down quite a bit in January, February, um, but that's okay. We're we're building this as we go. Um, so what the day looks like as just a quick overall, um, is parents will come in and they'll get a schedule that looks like this. Um, they'll sign in. Some parents tell their kids they're going to be there and so the kids tell me about it every day
008and we're all excited. Some it's a surprise. Um, and that look of excitement is Christmas morning for a lot of us. Um, and so parents will come in, they'll check in with their kids in the the office, we'll take a cute picture of them, they'll get their visitor badge, they'll get a schedule. Um, and then they start their day in their students classroom. um till about 8:50 and that's when our interventions cycle starts. And so that during that time the parents will rotate with our interventionists um assuming we're doing interventions at that time and they are working with students who are not receiving that direct instruction of interventions. Um so we have a cut score of a 40 percentile and below. We make sure those kiddos have this specific intervention. I didn't want to mess
009with that. The part that I didn't want to mess with is I know kids who I feel confident don't need interventions, but I'm not positive they're going to be immediately successful in their classroom experience. So, if I were to be able to offer them a one-on-one opportunity to read together, to work on decoding, um things that don't require a lot of training, but enough to to keep us practicing the right skills, um that is going to be our success criteria that we'll measure in a little bit. Um, and so we run through a day, fourth grade, third grade, second grade, first grade, kindergarten, and then we invite our families to um to stick around for lunch and recess. Um, some have taken us up on it, some have looked outside and said, "How cold is
010it?" and then made their decision. Um, completely up to them. Um, but the hope is we've had some families stick around till 1:15. Um, and we've had some leave right after their first opportunity to leave was. Um, and then the other piece, the crucial piece for me was the exit survey. Um, and so I try to connect with every family that comes in our building. I do connect with every single family that comes in our building. Um but in addition to that was to make sure that we are getting better, right? We are designing, we've designed something I think is really good. Um but there is obviously feedback that makes us get better. Um and so I have some of those survey things, but that is something that we're constantly looking at. Um couple things
011as we just said, hey, let's just start this. Um things that we learned um as we were developing this last year, but also as we went through this year. Um so much of our our lives are focused on our cell phones that we really have asked parents to be present to be where your feet are and not on your phone. Um we also have some students who have some strong emotional um strong big feelings and big emotions and big behaviors and um and that's it's it's okay, right? Um and so we we have the systems to support them and so if that situation were to rise, we gave them guidance on how to handle that. And we also have MERT and BERT, which is the medical and behavioral needs of our building. Um although we
012can't give a full training on that, we just basically asked to to remove yourself if that situation were to arise. And the part that was probably most challenging was to convey was the confidentiality. Um it's really nice to be able to come in and say, "Oh, Jimmy," and and want to talk about them at the dinner table. Um however, Jimmy might not have had a good day that day and it's not fair to talk about Jimmy at home kind of a thing. So, um we've tried to articulate that. I've not heard any concerns about that yet. Um which means we've conveyed the right message. However, that is something that we're going to continue to look at. Um, and then obviously with the district support, we've had background checks being able to provide it to make
013sure, um, as a dad, I would feel really bad if something like that were to pass through. So, I love that. Um, and so before Jess and Mia talk, um, we also had another family planning on joining us. So, I apologize. They were not able to make it. I got a text. They weren't in school this morning, and so I thought, well, maybe they just couldn't wake up today. I get it. I didn't want to get up either. Um, but they are all fighting the flu, so >> um, so they stayed home. So, no pressure. >> Um, you get the bonus. >> Um, but if you could just kind of describe your experience, um, what it was like, what it felt like, um, any positives or any reflections you had. >> Um, so with this,
014I actually got this email. Um, saw it and I am I'm a working mom, so full-time working mom. I have Tuesdays off as my Monday off, and I would love to just be in the school. Wanted to get involved. Saw the email. Like, this would be a perfect fit. I love this. I actually going into it wasn't sure as to am I just with her all day like how is that gonna go because she's my buddy. Um anyway, so when I walked in it was kind of nice to just have like some time with her and it's like all right I got to I got to go to other people. Um and that was actually kind of once I got like my first round. I think I was with the fourth graders >> um right
015there. Yeah, once I was with the fourth graders, that was my first round that I went to. And it was just kind of >> me. >> Yes. Yes. Just just minute. And um >> funny >> the thing that kind of like hit me the most was that as I moved through those classes um I loved being like with the certain kids, but what really I guess what really hit me the most was that there was a lot of them that I worked with that like you said a lot of us just have the cell phone usage that like we don't think about, right? A lot of us as parents have to work these days. It's not like when my parents were young and I was home with my mom. Um they're not getting like one-on-one
016time and I'm super super passionate about that. Um so there was a lot of kids that I I reported back I think you were gone that day, but I reported back to Amanda and I'm like, "Hey, what are we doing with this kid? Like how do we feel about him? Like does he have a mom and a dad? Like where is he at? What can we help him with?" Um, and that just is kind of like near and dear to my heart. Um, we are actually, I guess, back in that we're actually not Granville students. We're from the Coopersville area. Um, I went to Cummings and that is why we wanted her there. And just this program alone is just kind of seeing all the kids and how it all operates. I won't sign up
017for many more of these days. I already asked him that. I'm like, if it's already booked, I'll just do another one. It's fine. Um, yeah. And I just think it's a really cool program to have. I don't know. Do the other schools do it or is it just ours? >> Yeah. So, if you need anyone to campaign for the other schools, I will do it >> cuz I just it's it's awesome. Um and she really enjoyed it. Lunch is a little bit wild. Like that's pretty insane. You're >> lunchroom workers like don't get enough credit. Like that's wild. Um but yeah, just seeing seeing and being with the kids. Um, the day that I signed up and worked with or worked as a bulldog scholar was actually just a couple days before the Christmas party.
018Um, so when I went back to the Christmas party, I was like, "Hey, so and so. Hey, so they're like, "How do you know me?" And I'm like, "I only worked with you two days ago." But then I had others where they were like, "Hey, Mrs. Spirit." So just kind of having another familiar face and knowing some of their faces. Like if she comes home and talks about so and so, it's like, "All right, yep, like that's a good kid." her, yep, we need to make sure we're really nice to this kid and um all of that. So, yeah, it's a super good program. It's cool. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And she didn't want to talk, but she enjoyed me being there. >> Um here's a picture of some of our
019Bulldog scholars that we've had. Um we have a bulletin board in our hallway that we're kind of used as a live uh yearbook program and so as things happen, we just post them throughout the year. Um, and so it's kind of nice to to be able to see your face on on the wall or on the screen, right? >> Um, so the feedback that we've gotten thus far um on the program is that we've had an eight 4.83 out of five stars. Um, we we've had to be flexible. We've had to learn from different things um initially we talked about having them be with their kids all day long like you mentioned and and although that was a real consideration um we really wanted to impact more, right? That ripple would be bigger. Um and
020so we're really excited. Um there's some feedback that we've gotten that um that it, you know, teachers didn't have as didn't have the resources available right away or little things like that that that I was not upset about. I want to grow from and and learn from. Um but I love that when the parents say like pull out experiences, being able to boost self-esteem like that's what our parents are observing happening, which is awesome. Um so we also have um in addition to this program, we also have two two volunteers who have been coming from the beginning of the school year. Um, one is a Grand Valley kiddo. Uh, not kiddo, she's going to be a grown woman soon. Um, and and a grandma of one of our kiddos. Um, and uh, I've been tracking
021their NWA data just out of behind the scenes. Um, and there we had an anticipated growth of 59 points for those eight students and they had 145, which is 245%. So, um, I am I want to be clear, I am not taking any of the credit from this. I'm not even giving the credit to those two wonderful ladies. Like, this is a team effort. Um it's just fun when the pieces come all together and we celebrate the successes. >> Um but in addition to this, I hear that Mr. Merkel might Dr. Merkel might be talking about some data in a little bit. So I won't go too much detailer here. >> A little teaser. Yep. >> Um so this is our growth. Um this measures whether our students are making the growth that we want
022them to make. Um and this is this is our schoolwide K4. Um typically when you're in that 41st to 60th percentile is kind of like that. Um it's okay. Um, green and blue are wonderful. Um, and so we'd love to have it be all be blue. Um, but we re realize that learning doesn't happen linearly like we want it to. Um, and so but we have to celebrate that being that 68th percentile, that growth median conditional growth index percentile is pretty something to be celebrated. And then in addition to that, um, our fall fall, if you took all of our, um, achievement marks, we would have scored 60 percentile 68 sec 62nd percentile, sorry. And, um, Mr. Mr. Glaram who works in the curriculum office often says that changing behavior is easier than changing reading
023scores. Right. Um I don't know if I quoted him correctly so don't call me out for that. Um but to see a seven point jump in reading um is a true testament to what our teachers are doing to what this program is doing. Um all the different pieces are fitting together along with win time right. I mean we have a lot of things. So um so overall we've we've really celebrated a lot of successes thus far this year. Um we have a lot of work to do. We're not done yet. But um I have to commend Jess for being here. Thank you. Um but also all the all the families that we have in our building to volunteer to give up a to give up a morning to spend time with kids is not easy.
024I think I could find a few other things I'd rather do on a day off. Um and to to have them give that time up to us is tremendous. So, >> so thank you for listening and thank you from GEF for >> I would I would just like to add when we moved into this district. We came from Indiana around Southbend area and there were actually schools that wouldn't allow parents in at all and when we came here there were parents pulling kids out to read. There were parents pulling out kids to do math just just the like the routine stuff that was already set up by the teachers and um there was just like you said this this idea of community and and the phone issue is huge right and it's just really awesome
025to see you guys making a concerted effort to get parents back into the building because what happened with CO is we just lost so much momentum with parent involvement right so we knew things were happening on the student side, but like then how do we get people to know it's safe to come back in? And where do we put after we've been so independent, where do we put um parents? And this is a super cool program that seems to kind of hold our hand back into it. And I am so excited to see parents back involved and with every child, too. >> Yeah, it it it's really great to have another safe adult. So >> So thank you so much. Yeah. formalizing this. I know my mom um >> she just passed summer, but she
026would love to go to Cummings and she would help me mad and sharing Clagmmers and whether it was just be someone. Yeah. And it just and and they, you know, >> both those teachers had, you know, us as kids, but also then, you know, my kids and and and so they knew my mom, right? And so she would come in and it was a great it was a great way for her. She was just a great year to be able to listen to kids read and the kids were comfortable in it. And so I encourage, right, I know how you do it, but I look at this time of year, December, January, February. I look at my dad now, right? He's an outdoor person. He is indoors and he's just bouncing off the walls. So
027these are great opportunities for people, I think, for grandparents, especially if we can get him find a way to get him involved. I mean, that was one of the things I was going to encourage him to do is I know schools are always looking for help. >> Just go there and listen. You don't have to do anything. Just listen to people read their writing. Listen to people read a book out loud. That's awesome. >> Go stand outside at recess. >> It really is. Yeah, that's so easy to like as an adult, especially in elementary. Like there were a few I got the math assignment where it's like, hey, these kids say their math homework and I was like, can I do it? You should be able to. So, like there are some things like that
028where I'm like, geez, I don't know how you write that out. But you also figure it out. And again, like a lot of it is, yeah, there's those kids that didn't do their homework and they need help with that and they're just stinkers. But there was another kid too that stuck out that we were reading and there was another student that kept coming out like sneaking out of his class whatever he was doing and I was like hey so and so like you supposed to be out here no well this kid I could just sense that there was like something going on cuz he was like he keeps coming out here and come to find out like that kid kind of like was a problem for this kid and I was like does he kind
029of pick on you? So, it's kind of I don't know being able to be eyes and ears for that, too. Where it's like if we didn't have that situation, who who knows, right? He would maybe go home and be like, I really want to go to school tomorrow or or something like that. So, >> I don't know. >> We we don't we don't understand how much goes on in a classroom or a group of kids, right? All the dynamics there. I mean, our teachers are fabulous and they know so much and they know so we don't know everything, right? And that's just that extra set of eyes, years. Can you remind me how are your >> with your teachers? Are they what are some of the feedback that you're hearing from the teachers like specific
030>> this is so helpful because I I just know it was so helpful to teachers too because we would do copies or we would you know. >> Yeah. Um so I when I introduced this last year I I think they thought this dude's crazy, you know, lost it, right? Um because I don't think that there was that buy in. Um and it's taken a little bit of a finding the right rhythm. um where it's not more work on teachers, right? Because that's everyone wants to avoid that. Again, less is more, right? We just had that in our newsletter this week. Um and so there was a little bit of a push back that way, but once we started feeling the success and and I'm a data person, so when I put data up and say,
031"Prove me wrong. Tell me this is not working along with what you're doing at, you know, how is this partnering together?" Um the buying has been much more successful. And and like everything, you have some who >> don't like things, don't like change. I get it. And some who are um Mr. rubbing off. Let's go. You know, I'm so excited to bring as many parents as you could possibly get, right? Wonderful. Um, and then I think also, you mentioned the copies, too, is that we want to we want to find the opportunity for parents who or families who want to help but just aren't willing to meet with kids or to do those kind of things. So, we have an opportunity for them to do that, too. New math curriculum resources I have to be
032inventoried and um assigned and stuff like that. That has also been approached, too. >> Huge. So if your dad wants to volunteer, we always do mentoring or helping your kids read, like I kid you not, male figures are great. >> Absolutely. >> Great. I I'm wondering and this is I was really excited when I got this email. I'll I'll do my day some point in January or February. I have to get permission from Finn. Um, but I'm wondering about how can you take this because I do know there are parents who like might want to re volunteer on a regular basis doing kind of more like instructional, you know, like do you have any ideas for how you could take this and then kind of harness that energy so that you could have some parents
033and they're running, you know, running small groups so they get some training and they really kind of know how to do that. I think that's something that I could see a lot of parents being excited about. >> I I would agree. I think that the our first intention was to open the gate, right? They're welcome. Um I mentioned grandma that we have at this school. She's um she worked at a school years ago, retired and said, "I hate doing the ugly stuff, but I want to do the fun stuff when we work with kids." Um and so she has been doing it every Tuesday. And I don't think without the structure we would have had a very su as successful plan, right? >> And so she's been kind of my guinea pig. I told from
034the beginning I said, "I'm not sure where I was going to go." Um, but it's going to be great. Um, and so she's been kind of the catalyst of how this could work in the future with other folks. We since we've started this, we have um, grandma is her name. She comes every Wednesday. And then we have another parent now who gets up every Tuesday, too, but in a specific classroom. >> Um, and so that one that one's a little different, but um, but I don't think without this opportunity for for them to see the building, they would have said, I can even do this on a Tuesday morning, right? Something like that. So I I do think that we need to fine-tune a few of these things, but then that transition plan would be
035a very significant conversation to have. >> I like it. >> Is there a plan to expand this to the other building garage? >> Well, I think it's like a it's there other uh buildings have some some cool things happening. Not exactly this though, but I think this is like that pebble in the water that spreads cuz these guys meet all the time. They talk about what they're doing. They share it. We have district school improvement and we all share the different things that are happening in every building. So all the other people hear those things. So the ideas do get >> shared and spread out. >> Yeah, it's awesome. >> It's a it's a great program. No doubt about it. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> Yeah. Thanks for coming. Thank you. >> Left one and
036three. >> Thank you for coming. Great job. reading a book. >> All right. >> I know cuz you go in and read it. Central the consent action agenda. >> 3A. The board meeting has workshop and special meeting special. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. I think so. >> Can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> Support. All those in >> favor? Motion passes. Public comment. We have one uh person up for public comment. That is Brandy. Randy, you have five minutes and I will let you know when we're at my phone. >> Yes. Good evening. My name is Brandy Ritzma and I am a parent in this district. I need the board to understand something very clearly. I was forced to file a FURPA last year requesting simply to be recognized as a parent and to
037attempt to correct inaccurate records. Somehow since then and being included again, my parental role was erased and I have now been functionally erased for over a year. Ask yourselves, what would you do as parents if your name, your voice, and your standing in your children's lives were removed by your own school district? This did not happen without notice. I met with administrators. I spoke with at board meetings. I've called. I've emailed. I've asked respectfully and repeatedly for help and accountability. Instead, I was disregarded before this situation. Currently with the school counselor, cheerleading coaches were allowed to make false police and CPS reports based on assumptions, not evidence of harm. That conduct was never corrected. Obviously, no accountability followed. And now the same pattern has repeated itself. I also need to clarify an important fact. My
038daughter brought recordings into the school that were were created outside of The school has no authority to authenticate, evaluate, rely upon, or retain outside recordings involving a parent simply yelling at their child. There's no context there. Allowing staff to rely on them places the district outside its legal authority and inserts the school into custody matters it has no jurisdiction over while involving a child in evidence gathering against a parent which is inappropriate and harmful when they're being coerced by the other parent. I've also told um administration I have ample proof of that as well that my child is being instructed. There has been no finding of harm, no proof of harm, and no causation of harm. And at this point, continued refusal to act after repeated notice is not accidental. I was told by principal
039Adam Lento today to take it up with CPS. Well, I have repeatedly and gone to court. But because the school refuses to correct its records, meaningful resolution has become impossible. CPS relies on the school information. Courts rely on CPS. When school records remain uncorrected, the harm compounds at this point. When that you continue to refuse to act after repeated notice, it's not accidental. When an institution knows harm is occurring and continues anyway, that harm becomes intentional. This meets the definition of intentional infliction of emotional distress. So I ask you all directly as the board members char uh who are charged with oversight. What say you? Will you allow parents to be erased and harmed without accountability? Or will you be will you direct the administration to comply with FURPA? Correct the record and stop interfering
040with parental rights? Correct the record. follow federal and state law and protect families instead of separating and severing relationships. You have more contact with my children than me, and that is sick when I've done nothing wrong. And I, as a mandated reporter and a public school employee, know the value that it takes to make those reports. And this is sick what's happening. I shouldn't beg for over a year. Thank you. The next board meeting of the Granville Board of Education will be Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 at 7 p.m. at Granville Administration building. We are